June 25, 2021 • 17 mins
This week's Diamond Conversations welcomes 2x World Series Champion, 2x All-Star and 2x Silver Slugger, "HoJo" Howard Johnson. HoJo will be taking part in a virtual autograph signing presented by IB Exclusives and Music City Toys & Collectibles on August 21, 2021 at the BRAND NEW Music City Toys & Collectibles shop in Watertown, TN. In today's interview, "HoJo" discusses the recent "sticky" strip searches taking place as pitchers exit the ballgame, whether or not the pitchers have had this coming and how he would fare against the current crop of Major League arms. He also discusses the 1985 and 1987 New York Mets and which one of those teams could have gone all the way with expanded playoffs in the 1980s.
Visit ibexclusives.com for more on this event and how to submit items to be signed or to get ready for the big night visit https://www.facebook.com/MusicCityToys to make your plans.
Visit ibexclusives.com for more on this event and how to submit items to be signed or to get ready for the big night visit https://www.facebook.com/MusicCityToys to make your plans.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:31):
All right, let's get back inhere on Diamond Conversations, of course,
every single week on the Creative Controlpodcast network. If you didn't know by
now, my name is Ian.Every single week we do sit down to
have a Diamond conversation with somebody fromthe world of baseball. But not many
of the guests that we've had ondid I have a very cool cartoony shirt
(00:51):
of back in the nineteen eighties.So happy, so happy to welcome in
nineteen eighty six World Series champion withthe New York Mets, nineteen eighty four
champion with the Detroit Tigers. Weknow him by one name in the met
world, we know him as Hojoe, but he's the great Howard Johnson joining
me today. Thank you Hojoe forcoming on. Yeah, it's my pleasure,
(01:12):
man, glad to be here.I can't even tell you you know
what shirt I'm talking about right there, like the exaggerated big heads with the
cartoon body. Oh yeah, yeah, oh, they were fantastic. I
mean I had you, I hadViola, I had Strawberry, I had
them all. They were. Theywere quite the collectible back in the day.
(01:37):
But I digress. We're here totalk about a couple of things.
But first, you're going to bejoining myself and the great Chad Flat at
Music City Toys in Watertown, Tennesseefor a virtual autograph signing on August twenty
first. And uh, being thatit's been a little bit different in the
last year or so as it relatesto appearances, what do you think of
(01:59):
a virtual signing? Oh, Joe, this is gonna be kind of fun.
It's gonna be a lot of fun. I don't have any experience with
that, but I think it wouldbe great. People people sense the scene
or you know, where they're theytune and then they get to watch us
do it and kind of interact withthe fans atle That's gonna be fun.
(02:19):
Looking forward to that, it's alot different. You know, it's more
of the Yeah, they send inand they they watch you sign it,
or basically you know, they're they'reordering on demand and it's being signed right
in front of them, you know, literally on the on the television screen
or computer screen. But it's justdifferent because the meet and greet has evolved.
You know, you've signed a millionautographs, but this time it's a
(02:40):
one on one thing where they're sittingon their couch or they're sitting in their
computer chair watching you signed the autograph. A little different this time, yeah,
a little different. You don't achance to get more people, you
know, to tune in to checkit out and kind of see what's going
on. And you know they're interested, you know, in merchandise, whatever,
just talking. You know, it'sall it's all good. So I
(03:01):
think it'll be fun. I'm lookingforward to get and doing that on the
twenty first. Absolutely. Yeah.Now you're down in the in the Tennessee
area. Now, it's uh,it's a new area for me. I
haven't been yet. But how youlike the you know, Tennessee area compared
to you know, playing ball inNew York and all the other places you've
been. Well, I like Tennessee. It's got a it's got a nice
(03:23):
vibe to it. National's got agood, good vibe to it. It's
a younger town, a lot ofthings happening. Um, COVID was you
know a little bit of a pain, but for sure, but it's come
back very fast. People they arevery friendly, very nice. We've been
there about eight years and um,you know, followed followed our first grand
(03:46):
shawl up here so we have mywhole family, my home, my side,
my whole family's up here. Soit's kind of been fun though to
watch your kids grow up and doesn'thave grand you know, the children of
their honor. So we got moregrandches now. And sports town, I
mean, you know, NHL hockey, the Friends are big, Titans are
big. They're playing very well,you know. And in chiple A baseball.
(04:09):
So it's a cool place. Man. There's good. There's a lot
of a lot of things happen thatthe food, the food in the in
town is really good. Um,a lot of a lot of places,
the Guilders that are just one ofthe time, and um, I don't
know, it's it's it's enjoyable.I mean, I'm I'm a forward Florida
guy. I grew up down inFlorida, and so I was up to
(04:30):
me. I like to be downthe heat, in shumidity, I don't
mind it. I like to beatnear the water. But we saw some
lakes up there in Nashville, andit's it's it's good. We got a
little boat to go out on.It's kind of cool. Oh that's awesome.
It's very Uh. I'm glad tohear that especially with the family ties
and that everybody's there very uh,that's a very cool dynamic for you.
(04:50):
And you know, and again forI think a lot of people don't realize,
you know, Nashville, Tennessee.You know, the minor league history
there is, uh is huge,and the people that respond to those teams,
they treat them like their major leagueteams. So it's always one of
those markets that's very kind of uhspecial, just because the fan base is
very it's very kind of um,it's close knit, but they, like
(05:14):
I said, they treat these teamslike their major league franchise even though they
kind of are. Yeah, there'sa there's definitely a sports sisters or baseball's
industry. And I actually played outwas in Double A with the Tigers,
and uh, Nashville is a DoubleA count of the Yankees. So we
actually came to use me back innineteen eighty let's see eighty one, So
(05:38):
that was the last time that onemoving up to here that I was really
in Nashville. But it's one ofthose cities that a lot of people visit
and they all need with really goodexperiences and and uh, we've enjoyed it
a lot of great people up here. Yeah, that's uh, that's really
cool, you know, and especiallyagain the family dynamic is off the charts.
That's wonderful to hear. UM.So you're on vacation this week as
(06:00):
we're talking, so very gracious aboutto give me the time, But have
you been watching the current baseball product? Have you been following the sticky situation
that's been going on throughout the lastcouple of weeks. Yeah, I'm aware
of it. I haven't followed itlike as close as um. Like whenever
incidents pop up or things happen,you know, I make I make a
(06:23):
note of it. You know.My feeling is that you know, pictures
you know that mean, they throwso dang hard as it is, and
they make the ball these it's crazyduds. I mean, why why is
it fair for them to have thatkind of an advantage to have, you
(06:43):
know, that kind of an advantageto make the ball? Um? You
know, we all ask ourselves,you know, and I'm sure you have,
Like, you know, we lookat the velocits nowadays and what guys
throw, and and the dominance thatthese guys can have on hidden at times,
and we asked, like, howdoes this happen. You know,
how how did these guys get tothis point in such a short period.
(07:08):
And it's I mean, it's tome, it's pretty obvious that it's you
know, pictures have had an advantageon the now, which was substance,
but it's it's so widespread that youknow, the thing was now we would
like we give an example here.So we'd be in the dugout on teams
that I be in the big leagueswith and we'd look and see thee So
(07:30):
somebody has something on his juicy orhis tants and his hat and his glove
or something, I don't know,something that took up something. It was
shining the light and you could tellthat was definitely something to be added.
And for most of the time,nobody won the same thing because our own
guys are doing the same thing,right, And so now that cat's kind
(07:50):
of out of the bag. Sowe're gonna find out how deep deep it
goes. And the way I lookat it, you know, I'm all
forward because I don't think Pitcher shouldget that kind of an advantage as it
needs. Yeah, it's interesting andfor you guys, the eighty six team,
I mean, it was very publicizedthat you guys were calling out Mike
Scott for scuffing the ball. Butthis is you know, we're talking about
(08:11):
you know, the old time honoredGaylord Perry. Uh. You know,
antics everybody kind of knew he wasputting something on it. He had his
little routine. But you guys inthe dugout and eighty six we're calling out
Mike Scott for for scuffing the ball. And it's kind of funny. That's
almost like it's been forgotten compared towhat they're doing that with these guys and
basically they strip searching them on themound exactly because you look, I mean
(08:35):
back then, I mean, youthink you'd make the ball do things that
you know, just weren't weren't possiblethat you wouldn't. You know, Baseball
is hard the way I look atit. In baseball is hard enough anyway.
It's all the advantages goes in pitcher, right, And I can say
that with certainty to chere. Youknow, if you get a hit three
times out of ten, you're aHall of Famer, and so you're making
(08:56):
out more than twice at that greatand so the advantage just on its face
is with the with the picture.And so now you add in to shift
and you add in um, youknow, sticky stuff or whatever, uh
to assist those guys. Um,I mean it's it's it's chiltern so far
(09:20):
that way, and so my personalopinion is that it's gone too far.
So something has to give, somethinghas to change. Now, how do
you think I think that? Putthis way, I don't think there's that
many hitters, but they are doingstuff to b to the bats. I
just don't. I don't think there'sthat that's going on widespread, like uh
(09:41):
you know what, maybe two wouldsay, Yeah, I think there's an
ebb and flow is so when theyput the microscope on something. So in
five years they might start saying,oh, the guys are hitting home runs
because they're putting suff in their bats. Now it's the focus on the pictures.
But for you, you know,as a power hitter, you're a
home run hitter, how would youkind of approach today's pitching, you know,
being that they say the strikeout does, and this is the way they
(10:03):
treated the strikeout doesn't have that sameum you know effect that it did.
Everybody's either strike out our home run. How would you kind of fair against
today's pitching. Well, you stillgotta just gotta play the game, you
know. I think the product nowis just to a point where playing the
game is kind of lost and itjust become a straight power game, power
(10:26):
pitching, car hitting, that's it. And I think there's more to it
than that. Um, I justdon't know that. I just don't know.
If it's it's the way to go, it's gonna attract fans, and
that's that's the things that I don'tI don't see that happening because most people
don't really like the way the gameis played. Um, I mean I
(10:48):
don't. I don't. I don'tthink that, you know, it's just
my opinion, I think. Imean, the guys that I know,
they're just they're not fans of it, and so something. You know,
I don't know if baseball just wantsto keep going down that road or not.
But to me, it's always beenabout playing the game of baseball correctly
and trying to figure out ways towin. And you would think by now,
(11:11):
with all the with all the informationthat's out there with your analytics and
you know, changing swings and allthis and that that that you see hitters,
you know, you know, hittingnear four hundred all the time,
right or you you guys hitdn't consistentlyold sisty almost, but's not happening.
And so there there's there's there's adisconnect in there that uh, you know,
(11:33):
the technology, technology doesn't exactly youknow, help help the fan,
right exactly. Yeah, And likeI said, you know, there's been
past years where they put an emphasison, oh the ball is juice or
oh this is going on, butit seems to be the pitching turn here.
But I want to dial it backjust a little bit. I got
(11:54):
to ask you about this. Youknow, I'm not going to go the
route as I would love to doand just talk eighty six, eighty eight
and the good stuff. I wantto talk about eighty five versus eighty seven.
Okay, Now, you come overfrom the Tigers in nineteen eighty four,
late eighty four, almost nineteen eightyfive, and the eighty five team
was unbelievable. The eighty seven teamhad a ton of injuries between those two
years. Where do you think youguys fared better? Do you think it
(12:16):
was the eighty five team or theeighty seven team? Well, the eighty
five team was on such an upswing. Eighty six we had a couple of
pieces of Hita and Toughen, right, But eighty seven, you know,
if all the pieces were there,and when guys go down, it's it's
(12:37):
it's a little bit tough. ButI thought the eighty five team was darned
close. I mean St. Louishad an unbelievable team that year, and
we almost got them. It tookus to the last weekend, but you
know, eliminating, But it wasI see where you can make the comparison.
You know, you could easily sayif the wild card was in existence,
you know, that team goes ona run basically from eighty five ninety
(13:00):
one. Yeah, yeah, wewould have been in it. I mean
it was that's that's good. That'sthe thing about the wild counting. You
have to get to knowledge. Imean you get set the fact that that's
that is uh factors. You know, teams getting in the playoffs. So
maybe wouldn't have been there before,right right exactly? Yeah, And you
(13:22):
know, and obviously in eighty fivewhere you guys fall short, you have
that big series with the Cardinals atthe end, you kind of take on
the Cardinals right early in the inthe beginning part of eighty six, and
your home run is really kind oflike where you guys almost just buried them
and put them behind you. Wasthat Did you realize it was that big
of a moment when you hit thathome run in Saint Louis? I sure
(13:43):
felt like it at the time,because you know, they had eaten us
year before, they had they hadour number pretty much. Uh, you
know, we couldn't crack them,and it just seemed like eighty six.
You know, that's set the tonefor us too. Over the Hope against
sand Louis. You know, Ialways learned that. I learned a one
come. You want to want towin the World Series, you gotta win
(14:05):
your division first, and you gottabe you gotta better division. And at
that time Sand Louis is a benchbox. So we had to figure out
a way to do over that humpfor Carnal Hope. So we did that
in that series, and I thinkI've set some message to them that when
you weren't we weren't going to beintendated by the way to play the game.
(14:26):
It would just speed and you know, just putting a lot of defensive
pressure on you. So we justtook that point of the fact that we
had figured out how to beat thoseguys. It's it's really it's one of
those home runs you can watch onloop over and over. I mean,
it is an absolute bomb off thebat. Did you go up thinking you
were going to hit a home runor what? No, I didn't know
(14:48):
that. I came off the benchand I'm just ready to hit off the
guy. You know. Look,I mean I can talk about that home
run all day long. And Iknow you got a busy schedule. And
again, it's on August twenty firstand water Town, Tennessee. It's the
Howard Johnson Virtual Signing. I'd beexclusives and Music City Toys. We'll pick
this conversation up. O Joe.I know you're a busy man on vacation,
(15:09):
but we will. We will pickthis up. If anybody wants to
follow you, it's at It's atHojoe twenty on Twitter. Is there anything
else you want to say before wesay goodbye today? No, I'm just
looking forward to uh looking up withthe fans at that point. You should
be a good time looking forward gateanswer. Some questions are different things.
Yeah, absolutely again, and we'llpick this up for a part two when
(15:31):
you're back on the mainland and wecan, uh we get we can dive
into that position switch from ninety twothat I appreciate you all right, Thanks
Hojo, I will talk to yousoon, take care, Thank you very
much, Bye bye, and theregoes Hojoe again. I can't I can't
(15:52):
thank him enough for coming on andspending a few minutes during his vacation with
me, a guy who watched himfor so many years as a New York
met loving Hojo and thinking he wassuch a great player. To be able
to work with him when I seehim in Watertown, Tennessee on August twenty
first, and get to talk tohim at least in this first session,
such a thrill. And I thankeverybody for checking it out. And we'll
(16:15):
definitely dial back into Hojo at somepoint and get into some more of those
stories, because obviously we haven't scratchedthe surface yet. But if you want
to join us for the virtual signing, or you want to send in an
item for the signing, head onover to my website. It's ib Exclusives
dot com. Not only will youfind the Howard Johnson signing, you'll find
all the other ones that I havegoing on as well, including David Justice,
(16:38):
Kevin Millar, Kevin Euklis, andIan Anderson of the Atlanta Braves.
All these great signings going on overat IB Exclusives dot com or if you
want to follow me on social media, it's at Chad E and B on
Instagram and Twitter. And again it'sjust it's nothing but a thrill. Anytime
I could talk to an eighty sixmet it's absolutely it's my pleasure to be
(17:00):
able to speak with them, onlyif it is for this a couple of
minutes that we had Hojoe today.So we'll check back next time see what
else we have up our sleeves.So for the great Howard Johnson, this
is your old pal Ian. Wewill catch you on the flip side.
YO. What up? Dis isConan and I host Keeping in one hundred.
My co host Disco Infernal. Unfortunately, well i'd say you're my co
(17:22):
host. Listen every Thursday here onSpreaker. We talk pro wrestling, sports,
movies, music, TV, popculture, and some politics. It's
everything. The rest of the prowrestling podcasts are not tune in to hear
myself the superior one educate and inform. Tune in to hear me very disco
that's very disrespectful. Join us everyThursday on spreaker and keep it one hundred boom
All right, let's get back inhere on Diamond Conversations, of course,
every single week on the Creative Controlpodcast network. If you didn't know by
now, my name is Ian.Every single week we do sit down to
have a Diamond conversation with somebody fromthe world of baseball. But not many
of the guests that we've had ondid I have a very cool cartoony shirt
(00:51):
of back in the nineteen eighties.So happy, so happy to welcome in
nineteen eighty six World Series champion withthe New York Mets, nineteen eighty four
champion with the Detroit Tigers. Weknow him by one name in the met
world, we know him as Hojoe, but he's the great Howard Johnson joining
me today. Thank you Hojoe forcoming on. Yeah, it's my pleasure,
(01:12):
man, glad to be here.I can't even tell you you know
what shirt I'm talking about right there, like the exaggerated big heads with the
cartoon body. Oh yeah, yeah, oh, they were fantastic. I
mean I had you, I hadViola, I had Strawberry, I had
them all. They were. Theywere quite the collectible back in the day.
(01:37):
But I digress. We're here totalk about a couple of things.
But first, you're going to bejoining myself and the great Chad Flat at
Music City Toys in Watertown, Tennesseefor a virtual autograph signing on August twenty
first. And uh, being thatit's been a little bit different in the
last year or so as it relatesto appearances, what do you think of
(01:59):
a virtual signing? Oh, Joe, this is gonna be kind of fun.
It's gonna be a lot of fun. I don't have any experience with
that, but I think it wouldbe great. People people sense the scene
or you know, where they're theytune and then they get to watch us
do it and kind of interact withthe fans atle That's gonna be fun.
(02:19):
Looking forward to that, it's alot different. You know, it's more
of the Yeah, they send inand they they watch you sign it,
or basically you know, they're they'reordering on demand and it's being signed right
in front of them, you know, literally on the on the television screen
or computer screen. But it's justdifferent because the meet and greet has evolved.
You know, you've signed a millionautographs, but this time it's a
(02:40):
one on one thing where they're sittingon their couch or they're sitting in their
computer chair watching you signed the autograph. A little different this time, yeah,
a little different. You don't achance to get more people, you
know, to tune in to checkit out and kind of see what's going
on. And you know they're interested, you know, in merchandise, whatever,
just talking. You know, it'sall it's all good. So I
(03:01):
think it'll be fun. I'm lookingforward to get and doing that on the
twenty first. Absolutely. Yeah.Now you're down in the in the Tennessee
area. Now, it's uh,it's a new area for me. I
haven't been yet. But how youlike the you know, Tennessee area compared
to you know, playing ball inNew York and all the other places you've
been. Well, I like Tennessee. It's got a it's got a nice
(03:23):
vibe to it. National's got agood, good vibe to it. It's
a younger town, a lot ofthings happening. Um, COVID was you
know a little bit of a pain, but for sure, but it's come
back very fast. People they arevery friendly, very nice. We've been
there about eight years and um,you know, followed followed our first grand
(03:46):
shawl up here so we have mywhole family, my home, my side,
my whole family's up here. Soit's kind of been fun though to
watch your kids grow up and doesn'thave grand you know, the children of
their honor. So we got moregrandches now. And sports town, I
mean, you know, NHL hockey, the Friends are big, Titans are
big. They're playing very well,you know. And in chiple A baseball.
(04:09):
So it's a cool place. Man. There's good. There's a lot
of a lot of things happen thatthe food, the food in the in
town is really good. Um,a lot of a lot of places,
the Guilders that are just one ofthe time, and um, I don't
know, it's it's it's enjoyable.I mean, I'm I'm a forward Florida
guy. I grew up down inFlorida, and so I was up to
(04:30):
me. I like to be downthe heat, in shumidity, I don't
mind it. I like to beatnear the water. But we saw some
lakes up there in Nashville, andit's it's it's good. We got a
little boat to go out on.It's kind of cool. Oh that's awesome.
It's very Uh. I'm glad tohear that especially with the family ties
and that everybody's there very uh,that's a very cool dynamic for you.
(04:50):
And you know, and again forI think a lot of people don't realize,
you know, Nashville, Tennessee.You know, the minor league history
there is, uh is huge,and the people that respond to those teams,
they treat them like their major leagueteams. So it's always one of
those markets that's very kind of uhspecial, just because the fan base is
very it's very kind of um,it's close knit, but they, like
(05:14):
I said, they treat these teamslike their major league franchise even though they
kind of are. Yeah, there'sa there's definitely a sports sisters or baseball's
industry. And I actually played outwas in Double A with the Tigers,
and uh, Nashville is a DoubleA count of the Yankees. So we
actually came to use me back innineteen eighty let's see eighty one, So
(05:38):
that was the last time that onemoving up to here that I was really
in Nashville. But it's one ofthose cities that a lot of people visit
and they all need with really goodexperiences and and uh, we've enjoyed it
a lot of great people up here. Yeah, that's uh, that's really
cool, you know, and especiallyagain the family dynamic is off the charts.
That's wonderful to hear. UM.So you're on vacation this week as
(06:00):
we're talking, so very gracious aboutto give me the time, But have
you been watching the current baseball product? Have you been following the sticky situation
that's been going on throughout the lastcouple of weeks. Yeah, I'm aware
of it. I haven't followed itlike as close as um. Like whenever
incidents pop up or things happen,you know, I make I make a
(06:23):
note of it. You know.My feeling is that you know, pictures
you know that mean, they throwso dang hard as it is, and
they make the ball these it's crazyduds. I mean, why why is
it fair for them to have thatkind of an advantage to have, you
(06:43):
know, that kind of an advantageto make the ball? Um? You
know, we all ask ourselves,you know, and I'm sure you have,
Like, you know, we lookat the velocits nowadays and what guys
throw, and and the dominance thatthese guys can have on hidden at times,
and we asked, like, howdoes this happen. You know,
how how did these guys get tothis point in such a short period.
(07:08):
And it's I mean, it's tome, it's pretty obvious that it's you
know, pictures have had an advantageon the now, which was substance,
but it's it's so widespread that youknow, the thing was now we would
like we give an example here.So we'd be in the dugout on teams
that I be in the big leagueswith and we'd look and see thee So
(07:30):
somebody has something on his juicy orhis tants and his hat and his glove
or something, I don't know,something that took up something. It was
shining the light and you could tellthat was definitely something to be added.
And for most of the time,nobody won the same thing because our own
guys are doing the same thing,right, And so now that cat's kind
(07:50):
of out of the bag. Sowe're gonna find out how deep deep it
goes. And the way I lookat it, you know, I'm all
forward because I don't think Pitcher shouldget that kind of an advantage as it
needs. Yeah, it's interesting andfor you guys, the eighty six team,
I mean, it was very publicizedthat you guys were calling out Mike
Scott for scuffing the ball. Butthis is you know, we're talking about
(08:11):
you know, the old time honoredGaylord Perry. Uh. You know,
antics everybody kind of knew he wasputting something on it. He had his
little routine. But you guys inthe dugout and eighty six we're calling out
Mike Scott for for scuffing the ball. And it's kind of funny. That's
almost like it's been forgotten compared towhat they're doing that with these guys and
basically they strip searching them on themound exactly because you look, I mean
(08:35):
back then, I mean, youthink you'd make the ball do things that
you know, just weren't weren't possiblethat you wouldn't. You know, Baseball
is hard the way I look atit. In baseball is hard enough anyway.
It's all the advantages goes in pitcher, right, And I can say
that with certainty to chere. Youknow, if you get a hit three
times out of ten, you're aHall of Famer, and so you're making
(08:56):
out more than twice at that greatand so the advantage just on its face
is with the with the picture.And so now you add in to shift
and you add in um, youknow, sticky stuff or whatever, uh
to assist those guys. Um,I mean it's it's it's chiltern so far
(09:20):
that way, and so my personalopinion is that it's gone too far.
So something has to give, somethinghas to change. Now, how do
you think I think that? Putthis way, I don't think there's that
many hitters, but they are doingstuff to b to the bats. I
just don't. I don't think there'sthat that's going on widespread, like uh
(09:41):
you know what, maybe two wouldsay, Yeah, I think there's an
ebb and flow is so when theyput the microscope on something. So in
five years they might start saying,oh, the guys are hitting home runs
because they're putting suff in their bats. Now it's the focus on the pictures.
But for you, you know,as a power hitter, you're a
home run hitter, how would youkind of approach today's pitching, you know,
being that they say the strikeout does, and this is the way they
(10:03):
treated the strikeout doesn't have that sameum you know effect that it did.
Everybody's either strike out our home run. How would you kind of fair against
today's pitching. Well, you stillgotta just gotta play the game, you
know. I think the product nowis just to a point where playing the
game is kind of lost and itjust become a straight power game, power
(10:26):
pitching, car hitting, that's it. And I think there's more to it
than that. Um, I justdon't know that. I just don't know.
If it's it's the way to go, it's gonna attract fans, and
that's that's the things that I don'tI don't see that happening because most people
don't really like the way the gameis played. Um, I mean I
(10:48):
don't. I don't. I don'tthink that, you know, it's just
my opinion, I think. Imean, the guys that I know,
they're just they're not fans of it, and so something. You know,
I don't know if baseball just wantsto keep going down that road or not.
But to me, it's always beenabout playing the game of baseball correctly
and trying to figure out ways towin. And you would think by now,
(11:11):
with all the with all the informationthat's out there with your analytics and
you know, changing swings and allthis and that that that you see hitters,
you know, you know, hittingnear four hundred all the time,
right or you you guys hitdn't consistentlyold sisty almost, but's not happening.
And so there there's there's there's adisconnect in there that uh, you know,
(11:33):
the technology, technology doesn't exactly youknow, help help the fan,
right exactly. Yeah, And likeI said, you know, there's been
past years where they put an emphasison, oh the ball is juice or
oh this is going on, butit seems to be the pitching turn here.
But I want to dial it backjust a little bit. I got
(11:54):
to ask you about this. Youknow, I'm not going to go the
route as I would love to doand just talk eighty six, eighty eight
and the good stuff. I wantto talk about eighty five versus eighty seven.
Okay, Now, you come overfrom the Tigers in nineteen eighty four,
late eighty four, almost nineteen eightyfive, and the eighty five team
was unbelievable. The eighty seven teamhad a ton of injuries between those two
years. Where do you think youguys fared better? Do you think it
(12:16):
was the eighty five team or theeighty seven team? Well, the eighty
five team was on such an upswing. Eighty six we had a couple of
pieces of Hita and Toughen, right, But eighty seven, you know,
if all the pieces were there,and when guys go down, it's it's
(12:37):
it's a little bit tough. ButI thought the eighty five team was darned
close. I mean St. Louishad an unbelievable team that year, and
we almost got them. It tookus to the last weekend, but you
know, eliminating, But it wasI see where you can make the comparison.
You know, you could easily sayif the wild card was in existence,
you know, that team goes ona run basically from eighty five ninety
(13:00):
one. Yeah, yeah, wewould have been in it. I mean
it was that's that's good. That'sthe thing about the wild counting. You
have to get to knowledge. Imean you get set the fact that that's
that is uh factors. You know, teams getting in the playoffs. So
maybe wouldn't have been there before,right right exactly? Yeah, And you
(13:22):
know, and obviously in eighty fivewhere you guys fall short, you have
that big series with the Cardinals atthe end, you kind of take on
the Cardinals right early in the inthe beginning part of eighty six, and
your home run is really kind oflike where you guys almost just buried them
and put them behind you. Wasthat Did you realize it was that big
of a moment when you hit thathome run in Saint Louis? I sure
(13:43):
felt like it at the time,because you know, they had eaten us
year before, they had they hadour number pretty much. Uh, you
know, we couldn't crack them,and it just seemed like eighty six.
You know, that's set the tonefor us too. Over the Hope against
sand Louis. You know, Ialways learned that. I learned a one
come. You want to want towin the World Series, you gotta win
(14:05):
your division first, and you gottabe you gotta better division. And at
that time Sand Louis is a benchbox. So we had to figure out
a way to do over that humpfor Carnal Hope. So we did that
in that series, and I thinkI've set some message to them that when
you weren't we weren't going to beintendated by the way to play the game.
(14:26):
It would just speed and you know, just putting a lot of defensive
pressure on you. So we justtook that point of the fact that we
had figured out how to beat thoseguys. It's it's really it's one of
those home runs you can watch onloop over and over. I mean,
it is an absolute bomb off thebat. Did you go up thinking you
were going to hit a home runor what? No, I didn't know
(14:48):
that. I came off the benchand I'm just ready to hit off the
guy. You know. Look,I mean I can talk about that home
run all day long. And Iknow you got a busy schedule. And
again, it's on August twenty firstand water Town, Tennessee. It's the
Howard Johnson Virtual Signing. I'd beexclusives and Music City Toys. We'll pick
this conversation up. O Joe.I know you're a busy man on vacation,
(15:09):
but we will. We will pickthis up. If anybody wants to
follow you, it's at It's atHojoe twenty on Twitter. Is there anything
else you want to say before wesay goodbye today? No, I'm just
looking forward to uh looking up withthe fans at that point. You should
be a good time looking forward gateanswer. Some questions are different things.
Yeah, absolutely again, and we'llpick this up for a part two when
(15:31):
you're back on the mainland and wecan, uh we get we can dive
into that position switch from ninety twothat I appreciate you all right, Thanks
Hojo, I will talk to yousoon, take care, Thank you very
much, Bye bye, and theregoes Hojoe again. I can't I can't
(15:52):
thank him enough for coming on andspending a few minutes during his vacation with
me, a guy who watched himfor so many years as a New York
met loving Hojo and thinking he wassuch a great player. To be able
to work with him when I seehim in Watertown, Tennessee on August twenty
first, and get to talk tohim at least in this first session,
such a thrill. And I thankeverybody for checking it out. And we'll
(16:15):
definitely dial back into Hojo at somepoint and get into some more of those
stories, because obviously we haven't scratchedthe surface yet. But if you want
to join us for the virtual signing, or you want to send in an
item for the signing, head onover to my website. It's ib Exclusives
dot com. Not only will youfind the Howard Johnson signing, you'll find
all the other ones that I havegoing on as well, including David Justice,
(16:38):
Kevin Millar, Kevin Euklis, andIan Anderson of the Atlanta Braves.
All these great signings going on overat IB Exclusives dot com or if you
want to follow me on social media, it's at Chad E and B on
Instagram and Twitter. And again it'sjust it's nothing but a thrill. Anytime
I could talk to an eighty sixmet it's absolutely it's my pleasure to be
(17:00):
able to speak with them, onlyif it is for this a couple of
minutes that we had Hojoe today.So we'll check back next time see what
else we have up our sleeves.So for the great Howard Johnson, this
is your old pal Ian. Wewill catch you on the flip side.
YO. What up? Dis isConan and I host Keeping in one hundred.
My co host Disco Infernal. Unfortunately, well i'd say you're my co
(17:22):
host. Listen every Thursday here onSpreaker. We talk pro wrestling, sports,
movies, music, TV, popculture, and some politics. It's
everything. The rest of the prowrestling podcasts are not tune in to hear
myself the superior one educate and inform. Tune in to hear me very disco
that's very disrespectful. Join us everyThursday on spreaker and keep it one hundred boom
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