July 31, 2021 • 32 mins
With an absolute flair for the dramatics and some of the most clutch home runs in the history of baseball, today's guest 1996 World Series hero, Jim Leyritz is the latest guest on Diamond Conversations. Giving us a deep dive into the biggest home runs of his career, Leyritz shares who gave him the mindset to be prepared in the tight spots of a game and how you get yourself ready to play hard, especially in October.
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Episode Transcript
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All right, let's get it goingright here, right now. This is
Diamond Conversations, and you're listening toan all new Diamond Conversations here exclusively on
the Creative Control podcast network. Ifyou didn't know by now, my name
is he In And every single weekwe take the journey across the Diamond,
and this time we're heading behind theplate as we talked to World Series hero
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and a longtime MLB veteran, thegreat mister Jim Laird's joining me today.
Jim, thanks for coming on.Hey, thanks for having here. Appreciate
it. Oh, it's great totalk to you. You know, we
did some work earlier this year onan autograph signing, but it's great to
get to chat with you and talkabout your career, talk about what's going
on in the world of baseball.But what I love about you is you
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always are in the media, andthis time you got a podcast that you're
you're working on. So tell thelisteners and Diamond Conversations what you're doing and
what the podcast is all about.Yeah, I know, I had an
opportunity with a group called Story Mediawho approached me right before opening day and
they said, hey, listen,you know I used to do TV radio.
I used to do all that stufffor Fox, MLB and everything,
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and would you'd be interested in doingany type of a podcasts And I said,
well, you know, I'm sureI would love to you know,
get my name back out there againand do something. And they said,
well, what kind of a podcastdo you want to do? And I
said, well, you know,anybody could do sports. I said,
what I'd like to do is havea podcast where we do a little bit
of you know, talking about thecurrent events and what's going on, but
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my interview is all of my people. The guests that I want to have
on. I want to have onformer athletes, former celebrities, people that
have you know, had a lotof success in their careers but have left
those careers and have gone on todo other things. And mostly I wanted
to keep it where people have eitherstarted charities or foundations, or they've gone
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in like like a Bernie Williams.They went to a baseball player, to
a you know, to a guitarguy and you know, playing all over
the concerts all over the place.So a guy like Daryl Strawberry, who
you know, left the game ofbaseball and went out to become a preacher,
and it's opening up preham clinics allaround the United States. So it
was just an opportunity to highlight someof the good things that athletes and celebrities
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due with their fame after they're doneto help others. And I and it's
been going really well. And it'scalled catching Heat with Jim Layratts and uh
yeah, no, it's been it'sbeen going very well so far. It's
great too when you look at thelists of guys that you've had on and
how you aren't just sticking to likeyou said, to baseball. I mean
you've had Louis louigan Zalez, youhad Strawberry on. You know, you've
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talked to other players like John Starks, and you've had on Rayn Groan,
who's got such a rich history inbaseball and with the Yankees. But I
love that anybody who who translates theirtheir one career into another is fascinating.
And you've done it for so manyyears, like you said, with Fox
and MLB and all the suff you'vedone. But podcasting is different because it's
a little more relaxed, you know, it's more of a one on one
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deal like kind of what we're doingtoday. But have you enjoyed that aspect
of it, of talking one onone with either former friends or other athletes
and guys that you can kind ofshoot the breeze with. Yeah, you
know, I'm extremely excited because youknow, we've been doing the podcast more
remotely from home and because of COVIDand everything else and what's going on,
and it's been really, really good. But you know, we're now starting
to move into studios and I cannotwait till we get to the point where
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we can we can bring people instudio and do these interviews in person because
I just think it just it goesoff so much better. And that,
to me is really the reason whyI wanted to start these podcasts and start
something, because again, I didn'twant it to be just baseball. I
like to cover all sports, youknow. I just had Also, he's
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running into four hundred meter hurdles thisweek, is I just said, Kenny
selmanon and July thirties, he'll berunning in the Olympics. And it's just
one of those things that, likeI said, it's it's great to be
able to do it. I'd liketo get it to a point where I'm
kind of like the Barbara Walters ofthese types of interviews. It's never a
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bad thing, but it's good.See it's different. See me getting a
contact and using that to interview somebody. I have a different approach you as
sometimes a former teammate. I'm sureit's a lot easier to chop it up
with Daryl Strawberry. You know,when you've shared a locker room with him,
you've played against him for all thoseyears, and I'm sure it's a
lot easier to get the stories rollingand to have that you know, that
instant chemistry, the moment you knowthe guests or the friend or whoever sits
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down and starts talking. Yeah,I mean one of the most important things
I do with every one of myinterviews is, like you said, does
go better when you know the person, because it doesn't make it easier.
But at the same time, Itry to go through their history. I
try to go figure out something thatyou know, I just said, I
named Andy Billman, who did allthe Thirties for Thirties Aren't for You and
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does a bunch of documentaries, andI didn't know much about him, but
then you know, I found outhe's he was born raised and he's a
huge Cleveland fan. Well, Iwas born in Cleveland, so that created
a little bit of a conversation.Uh, you know, and so there
are certain things that as an intervieweryou need to do to make sure that
you still engage your guests in someway. And I've been able to be
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able to as much as my lifehas been you know, crazy, you
know, good and bad and gonethrough some difficult times and things like that.
Um, it's it's there's a wayto connect so far I've had with
every person. And that's kind ofwhy I wanted to do these type of
podcasts because those people that are comingon, they can connect with me and
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share more because they're like, Okay, yeah, you've been through this.
You've gone through this, you know, And I think that that does make
it a little bit easier. Itdoes. But you know, you said
you were born in Cleveland area.But you're going to be a New Yorker
for the rest of your life,whether you like it or not. Two
time World Series champion with the Yanks, You're you're you don't have to buy
a dinner anywhere in New York forthe rest of your life. That is
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true. That is very true.Yeah, that's one of the fortunate things,
one of those things that you didyou're growing up as a kid,
going, Okay, I would loveto hit a home run for in the
World Series, to win a gameor tie game, or even change everything,
and I was fortunate to be ableto do that. Yeah, there's
so many things about that home run. And a full disclosure, I'm a
Mets fan. So when you werein camp for the Mets for a brief
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amount of time, I mean wewere kind of hoping some of that magic
did translate to Queens. But Imean, you know what you did in
ninety six. I mean, I'msure you relive it every single day of
your life, and you're gonna doit again on my airwaves. But there's
so much about the clip that Ilove to watch as even a Mets fans,
just as a sports fan. ButI love the ambiance of Fulton County
Stadium. I love the turn Wasit Fulton There was a Turner at that
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point, you know it was Istill believe it was Atlanta Fulton, Okay,
So yeah, it was Fulton County, all right, because in ninety
nine it was Turner. So inyeah, because The interesting thing was Joe
Joe Tory had hit the first homerun in that stadium right at the last
home un That's right, Yeah,that was pretty cool. That's right now,
and it's it's such a great butthe ambience of the whole entire place
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and to see that ball go overthe fence, I'm sure you relive it
every single day, but you know, kind of walk us through what it's
like to have that pinnacle home runin a in a World championship that was,
you know, twelve years in themaking, as we're almost more for
the Yankees to get them back tothat World championship in ninety six. Yeah,
I mean, I think what madeit even more crazy was just to
fact how it led up to thatpoint where we were down six nothing,
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and you know, we were sittingin a dugout. A couple of us
look at each other going, well, thank god, we just get we
didn't get swept. We won gamethree and you know, we lose this
game. We know that we're notgoing to beat these guys because you know
they had small tomatos and get Glavinready. But the bottom line was Joe
Tory had set to us it's weekendwin two games here and get back to
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New York. These guys do notwant to go back to New York and
play in front of our fans,and let's if we can get back there.
And really, when I hit thehome run and that whole moment changed
that you are thinking, and thenof course Wade Bob gets to walk and
Charlie Hayes hits the pop up andwe scored the two runs to go ahead
in the tenth. You know,it was just it was an amazing moment.
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And the one thing people always askme is like, you must have
been floating around the basis. Isaid, well, no, Unfortunately I
wasn't because all I could think aboutwas the year before I hit a huge
home run that you know, wouldhave probably been the biggest in history.
It was a walkoff in Yankee Stadiumin Game two of the playoffs against the
Seattle Mariners, and unfortunately we lovewe lose the next three games, and
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that home run became a footnote andall I could think about was, Okay,
this is a great home run,but it's you know, we haven't
won, and we haven't won theseries. You know, it won't be
that until we do that. Andthen of course we win the game.
Just walking into the locker room afterthat game, it was just one of
those situations where, you know,all the guys were saying, Okay,
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that's it, we're gonna win.We're going back to New York, We're
gonna win this thing. And Ijust remember eighty pettittt tell me thank you,
Jimmy. He said, I appreciateit because I'll sleep a lot better.
I'll sleep a lot better tonight knowingthat I'm not pitching a deciding game,
and this is you know, we'renow tied up two to two,
and uh, you know, andthen of course he goes out and pitch
you such a great game five andthat one nothing game gets smolts and you
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know, I caught that game.So I always tell people I got more
pride in that game, full entiregame, versus one swing that I got
it in the other game. Butyeah, it was just it was just
great. And again, you know, the story that I just told the
other day at Joe Tore's golf outingwas, you know, what did that
ninety six team do for you know, for Yankee Mystery? And I just
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said, you know, it's it'swhat started the dynasty, and the bottom
line was, you know when welost, when Joe lost in ninety seven
with Mariano giving up the home onalimar Uh. George Tiben I walked into
Gee Michael's office and said, firesTory, get rid of Mariano. That's
it. You know this, youknow this is ridiculous. And Gee Michael
told the story and he said yeah, because I looked at Georgie and said,
hey, George, did you forgetabout last year we won the World
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Series? And George said, Okay, I'm gonna give him ninety eight and
that's it. And sure enough,Yankees had that magical season in ninety eight.
And Joe always tells me all thetime, he said, Jimmy,
you know that home run and thatthat ninety sixteen winning that's what saved me
and allowed me to go on andwin all these World Series championships at all
these you know, get out goon that that run with the last team
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of the Dynasties remarkable. I mean, it's absolutely remarkable. And to grow
up in that area and in thatera, it's an unbelievable thing to look
back at how it's been twenty plusyears since it happened. But everything that
you said there, it was alwaysfunny to say, like, you know,
you could take the spring and summeroff, but as long as you're
there in October, you know you'regoing to deliver that big hit. And
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what is it about October that maybebrought the game out of you more?
Like what did you feel it was? Were you more protective at the plate?
Like what was your approach in thoseplayoff games that went all on?
See? Was? It was somethingthat I had learned from a very small
age fourteen years old. I wasin Tommy Brennaman was my best friend growing
up. We were bad boys atthe Red Camp down in Tampa and during
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spring training and we were sitting aroundone day and Pete Rose is there and
I went up to Pete and Isaid, you know, mister Rose,
I said, you know, howare you such a great clutch player?
You know what do you do?And he said, well, Jimmy,
he said, I this is whatI do. All my ad bats right
now in spring training are just asimportant as any other bad during the World
Series. And I said, whatdo you mean? He said, if
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I approached my my at bat eacha bad as it's my last one,
and it's me against the picture,a picture, and that's it and that
anything else going around, whether it'slike he said, but it's the first
day of spring training or it's thefirst game or the last game of the
World Series, if I approached thatat bat as being the most important thing,
no matter when another at bat comes, I'm not going to get caught
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up in the moment because the adbad is the most important thing. And
the fourteen year old kid, Iwas kind of like, okay, But
then then all of a sudden,that mindset, I started thinking about it,
and I'm like, you know whatI want the last shot in the
basketball game. I want to letI want to come up with runners and
scoring position late innings, you know, things like that. And I think
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from a very young age that wasmy mindset. And I think once I
got to the major leagues, youknow, I was not an everyday player.
Uh you know, if I didn'tplay well that day, I didn't
play the next day. And Ithink that's why every at bat that I
took, I took it as youknow, this could this could be the
most important at bat that I haveand again, not getting caught up and
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whether it was spring training, thefirst game of the playoffs or the last
game of the World Series. Inever really thought about the situation around me,
just the at bat itself, andthat made things a lot easier.
And that catching core that you guyshad, too, was just an unbelievable
group of players. You know,I shuddered to find any three catch in
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that time period the Yankees had,Yourself, Girardi, Mike Stanley. I
mean, you guys, it wasjust it was such a great mix of
defense and offense, and your clutchhitting was out of this world. And
that was a great, great,uh description what you just gave us about
Pete Rose. Who better than PeteRose to kind of teach you the right
way to approach it and at batlike that, And it's for something to
carry so long like it did throughoutyour career. Is is phenomenal. Do
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you think that's the best piece ofadvice you ever got in your playing days?
Well? I think you know,of course, my father was probably
my biggest advocate, and uh,you know, he was a guy that
was I always told people he wasacross between what he Hayes and Bobby Knight
and uh, you know anybody thatknows too, those two guys. It's
you know, he was one ofthose people that never never be satisfied.
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You know, he said, neverstop trying to achieve, you know more,
And uh, you know, Ialways tell the story that, you
know, I walked into the YankeeStadium my first time. I'm standing on
the field. I'm looking around.I walking in the locker room, in
my locker rooms next to Don Mattingley, and I remember picking up. Back
then, we didn't have cell phone, so you can't take selfie, You
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couldn't take pictures or anything like that. And I look, you know,
I walk in and I grabbed theclubhouse phone and I called my dad up
and I said, hey, Dad, guess what I said. I just
walked through Monument Park. I juststood on the field and the Yankee Stadium.
You know, I made it.I'm here and and gosh, my
locker is next to Don Mattingwie.You know, how much better can it
get? And he said, son, that's awesome. I'm very proud of
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you. He said, but letme ask you a question, how are
you going to stay there? Well? Whole hole? That's great? Yeah,
yeah, And that was that wasmy father. My father brought me
up that way of saying, hey, let's listen. You know, you
had a great you had a greatday, you went three for four.
What are you doing tomorrow? Youknow, don't don't live on your past,
you know, heroics or whatever else. And uh, yeah, it
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was just that was to me,probably the best advice you ever gave me.
You know, he always told metwo things. Keep the faith,
because he was very religious. Man, Keep the faith, and he said,
just don't order, don't ever besatisfied. That's wonderful. And what
a what a motto too to bea Yankee, to to keep the faith
one that you'll be there, andtoo to never stay satisfied because it was
always a winning culture. But youwere there in a lot of lean years
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which led up to ninety six andthat that just unbelievable championship run. But
those lean years, how much didyou learn from those and staying with the
team, how you did like whatwas the what were some of the you
know, finer points you remember aboutthose kind of early nineties Yankee teams that
might be forgotten to some, buta lot of great players just some lean
years. Well, you know,one thing I before Gene Michael passed God
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rest his soul. Uh. Himand I had a great relationship, even
though we butted heads quite a bitas far as the playing time and everything
else. But the one thing thatI remember getting caught up in nineteen ninety
member George's suspension. And Gene causedme into his office and said, listen,
I have an opportunity to bring upa lot of young players. We're
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not going to go to the freeagent market. We're not going to do
what we've been doing. We're gonnachange things up a little bit. And
if you get off to a goodstart, you can open up the doors
for a lot of guys. AndI was like, you know, sure,
okay, you know I'm gonna goout there and play. And I
did. And you know, DaveLaPoint, Steve Sacks, all those guys,
you know, they when they wereasked about what what what what they
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thought of me when I first cameup, they were just like, this
guy's a gamer. He goes outthere and plays, and you know,
and and Dave la point mentioned hesaid, it's not a surprise at his
idols Pete roll is because that's howhe plays, you know. And that
was a compliment, and uh,you know, and I came up,
and sure enough I got off toa good start. And Kevin Moss comes
up and he you know, he'shitting home runs every other back, uh,
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you know, and slowly we started, you know, Bernie Williams comes
up in ninety one, and eventhough we were losing ninety six ninety four
games, you know, we werethere was something building there, and we
were building from the farm systems andit really turned out, you know,
to be great by nineteen ninety four, ninety five, ninety four obviously the
strike year, the forgotten year,and yeah, and in ninety three,
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you guys finished in second eighty eightwins, which is nothing to shake a
stick at, especially with the juggernautToronto Blue Jays at the time. But
ninety four, you know, everybodypredicts it could have been a Yankees Expos
World Series. But it was ninetyfive that was the turning point for sure,
and you saw the glimpses of everybody. But it was Donnie Baseball's last
year. It was matting Lee's lastyear playing. And the home run he
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hit in the playoffs was another one, you know, the classic Gary Thorne,
you know, hold on to theroof as that ball goes out.
The ninety five team versus the ninetysix team, What do you think that
ninety five team could have done hadthey gotten past the Mariners. Well,
yeah, listen, it's one ofthose things that you know, we we
were built to win, and youknow, we wanted to win it for
Donnie because we knew. Everybody inour clubhouse knew that this was donnie last
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year, just because his back problemwas so bad. But I think,
you know, ninety six, ourpitching staff was probably a little bit stronger.
You know, Andy Pettitt was wasnow confident. You know, he
went him and I became you know, I became his personal catcher at the
end of ninety five, and wewent nine and three together the end of
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the season and going into ninety six. That's just confidence that he had just
carried over. And uh, Ithink that I think we had a little
bit better team in ninety six allaround. But at the same time,
I mean, both those teams arevery, very very similar. There was
no big superstars. I don't thinkany of us led the league in hitting
or home runs or anything like that. We were just a good, solid
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team that played hard and you knowin switching managers. Um, you know
buckshow author I always tell everybody,smartest, best manager I've ever played for
as far as intelligence goals, knew. You know, it was three or
four steps ahead of the other theother manager every single time. But was
not quite a manager of people.And you know that because he was young,
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you know, it was it wassomething new to him. Joe Tory
steps in the ninety six and Joehad been around the block quite a bit
and had his failures and came inthere with the attitude of you know,
you know, I'm going to managethe people. And I got Zimmer next
to me to help me with thebaseball, and that combination I'd have never
seen a better combination of coaches ora manager with his with his bench coach.
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Uh, they were just two piecein the pot. And like I
said, that's what really made adifference between the ninety five and the ninety
sixteen. Joe was able to dealwith the egos, he was able to
deal with the players, put puttingthem in a better position every day to
go out and win U And then, of course, like I said,
he had done Zimmer, he hadWillie Randolph. I mean Joe was so
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smart in hiring the coaches around himto build a team that you know of
coaches that were the players number onerespected, but also knew the you know,
knew the game and knew what youknow, how to how to perform
in tough situations. And that's whyI think, like I said, the
ninety six talent wise was at ninetyfive, but our leadership with Joe there,
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I think it just it just tookus to that next level. What
a mix of veterans and the earlydays of the you know, the core
for the Dynasty. Posada wasn't thereyet, but the other guys were unbelievable.
But this is three consecutive shows ina row where Joe Torrey's managerial prowess
has been on display. Three weeksago was with Randy Johnson talking about the
Braves in the eighties. Last weekit was Bob Tewksbury talking about him with
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the Cardinals in the early nineties.And here you are talking about him with
the Yankees in the mid to latenineties. And it seems like everything clicked
for him all at the same time. Not to say he was ever a
bad manager. Everybody sings his praises, But it was the perfect mix,
like you said, the coaches,the players, the veterans, the rookies,
yourself, guys who have been inthe organization. It was the perfect
storm that got that dynasty emotion.And it's amazing the trajectory of the whole
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entire team and his managerial career.Yeah, no, exactly, and then
that's leaving. Like I said,it's one of those things that you know,
that's why he is where he's atin baseball right now, the number
two persons behind Rob Bamfred is becausehe does know how to deal, how
to manage, and how to lead, and uh, you know, it's
it's it was. It was agreat it was a good combination. And
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like I said, I don't thinkyou're ever going to see that run that
we had of, you know,the four out of five consecutive championships.
I don't see that happening any anytimein the near future. Now, just
to fast forward a little bit andwe'll get to ninety nine a second.
But ninety eight, you're with SanDiego across the way while this battle is
going on, and this ninety eightYankee juggernaut is happening. What's kind of
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going through your mind, does you'resitting across the diamond with San Diego that
year? Yeah, you know,it was one of those things that I
wound up in San Diego after,you know, trying to go to Boston
and play there and didn't have avery good relationship with the pitching coach there.
So I got finally get traded backin San Diego, and yeah,
we get to the we get weget to the trade deadline, and all
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of a sudden, the Houston Astrostrade for Randy Johnson. And even though
we were in first place at thetime, everybody said, oh, that's
it. The Astros are gonna win. You know, they're going to represent
the National League in the in theWorld Series, you know. And sure
enough, when Randy Johnson came over, I think he went nine and oh
or nine and one or something likethat. All the writing on the wall
was they they're gonna win. Butwe just caught fire, and uh,
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you know, we we we playedthe Astros the first round and I end
up putting three home runs and acouple of late game you know, late
game winners, and we just andKevin Brown stepped up and he pitched great
starting Hitchcock Pits great and the Ashby. We just we got in a role
and you know, we beat webeat the Astros, and then we all
of a sudden we went to playthe Praise. We beat them, and
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then we go on to play theYankees in the series, and you know,
Game one. You know, whenyou look back on history and you
always say, well, what couldhave happened if this happened and things like
that, And I still say tothis day, if Tino Martinez is two
two pitches called a strike and nota ball, that I think we end
up winning that game one, andthat that might change everything. Because as
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soon as we lost that game,and as soon as you know, hit
that Grand slam, Our, wholedugout was like, you know what these
guys are, you know, theirtheir destiny, They're they're they're they're they're
destined to win. And then wecome out in Game two and Andy Ashley
gets beat up and I think wejust like that's it. And then of
course Grocius has the series of ofa lifetime and hits the home run off
Trevor, and you know, itwas just one of those things that we
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you know, we get swept infour, but people the same thing.
I go. That season for SanDiego was so magical and the Sands got
so I mean, there was youknow, we played in Qualcom Stadium.
We were selling out sixty five thousanda night. Wow, it was and
you know it was it was justa great place to play. And then
we we end up losing it four, but our fans stayed around. They
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asked us to come back out.So we all came back out in the
field and celebrated with the Sands.And everybody's like, well, what's the
difference between New York and San Diego. I said, New York, you
who's the World Series? You don'tcome out of your house San Diego.
San Diego, you lose the WorldSeries. You lose the World Series.
They want you to come out afterwardsand celebrate with them. But then I
also hope, guess what, theythrow you a parade too. And that's
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something that wouldn't happen in New York. But that's why. And then the
best thing that ever happened to SanDiego was that the fans, the community,
everybody got behind us because of therun we went on and they were
having a hard time getting the votefor the new stadium for Pectico Park,
and Larry Lukino, who was ourpresident then, he was pushing us,
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and all during the season we weredoing special appearances in the community just to
try to get the community to voteyes on the new stadium. And then
that run that we went on,the fans and the community got so much
behind us. They voted in Novemberthey voted yes for the new stadium,
and that ninety eighteen is the reasonwhy there's a new ballpark in San Diego.
That's wonderful, And you were onehundred percent right about the New York
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re actually would be because like Isaid at the beginning, you don't have
to buy a meal after the homerun in ninety six. You wouldn't be
able to even go into a restaurantif you had if you had goted something,
and I mean goat in the oldsense of the word, not the
new sense. Very very funny.That's unbelievable, all right. And then
before we get to the wrap upand say goodbye, you know, I
want to just I want to commendyou for all the stuff that you do.
(25:22):
You're you're a man of many,many many appearances. You're doing a
lot of charitable work. You're doingyour podcast, but I want to just
stick to one last thing about yourcareer, the last home run of the
century. As you hit that,did you realize it was going to be
the last home run? How longuntil somebody pointed out, hey, did
you realize? And the nineteen nineties, this is the last home run sailing
over the fence? Yeah, youknow it's funny. When I got traded
(25:45):
back in July, I just Ihad broke my hand with the Dodgers and
I'm sorry with the Padres and I, you know, I think I broke
it. I want to say,was maybe June twenty first or something like
that, and uh, I was. I was really upset because the Padres
had already told me that they weregoing to trade me to a playoff team,
(26:06):
you know once once we get tothat point in July, and I
was like, you know, man, this I'm not going to you know,
not be able to. Well,I made sure I got myself ready.
I went on a rehab assignment toRancho Cucamonga in Las Vegas for the
Padres minor leagues, just to showpeople that I could swing the bat.
And I get a phone call andKevin Tower. It's you know, Kevin
Towers. And he says, hey, you know, we're gonna trade you
(26:29):
back to the Red Sox. AndI said, what, no, no,
no, I don't want to goback there. He said, now
he goes. You know, well, he goes. If you can find
something better, we'll do it.So I said, just give me twenty
four hours. And so I calledup George Sniben or Secretary Debbie Nicolosi,
who I had a great relationship with, and I said, Debbie, you
need to talk to George. They'retrading me to the Red Tie. I
don't want to go there. Andsure enough, within twenty four hours,
(26:52):
I was traded back to the NewYork Yankees. So I show up and
I'm taking batting practice and I can'thit the ball out of the park.
And back in the day when youknow, ninety six and so, uh,
you know, Darryl Strawberry and Iwe put down these home run derbies
in batting practice, and uh,you know Jeter and nab Block and dude
Lay, it's what's wrong with you? You? Yeah, I go listen,
(27:14):
guys, I'll hit a home runwhen it counts, don't worry.
And sure enough, I come upthe bat in that game for the World
Series, I hit the home runBob costs. You know, it says
the famous line, you can sendthis guy to a resort in the spring
and summer, just bring them backfor October um. And uh, but
as soon as I hit it right, I'm running the basis and I come
(27:34):
into the I got and Jeter's upbearing he goes, you gotta be kidding
me, and I went, nope, I told you. I told you
I hit one, you know whenwhen I counted, and uh, it
was great. But then, youknow, I didn't realize it was the
last home run of the century.And as we're in the clubhouse celebrating and
my ex father in law comes upto me and says, hey, hey,
(27:56):
by the way, Jim, hehe was the country guy, goes,
Jim, you realize that was thelast home run of the century.
And I was like, no,I didn't know that, thanks, you
know, And sure enough there wasthere because the locker room was packed with
people, and there was a guynamed me Jasky that was in there.
I heard my father and I'll saythat, and he looked at me.
He said, Jimmy, we canmarket that I could take it, and
(28:19):
sure enough, three days three dayslater, we were we were on a
helicopter on our way to QVC tosell nineteen hundred and ninety nine balls,
nineteen hundred ninety nine bats, nineninety nine photos of the last one round
of the century. And it wasit was quite an experience. And that's
where we'll we'll close it on Mead'sstellar timing of pointing out when an autograph
(28:44):
opportunity is going to be there.And I can't say anything, Jim,
I got one on my shelf,so I'm not gonna say anything. Very
proudly display it every day without adoubt. So it's so cool. But
again, I appreciate you coming onand doing this with me today. It's
so much fun. And uh please, you know you've got a great website
Jim Layers dot com. It's goteverything going on in your world, and
like I said, including seeing allthe things that you do on a on
(29:07):
a weekly basis you got you're sucha busy guy. But tell the listeners
of Diamond Conversations where they can findeverything else going on in your world,
including social media. Is another preferentiallinks that you want to send us to
to check out your your stuff goingon. Yeah, you can go to
Spotify, Apple and you know anyany type of where you can find a
podcast called Catching Heat with Jim Layers. It's on every Wednesday at Catching Heat
(29:32):
is my Twitter and Instagram, andthen the real jay Larrit is my Instagram
and Twitter, and then, uh, like you said, my website is
Jim Laertz dot com and that's wherepeople can go and you can hire me
for speeches, you can hire mefor calf outings, whatever it might be.
But like you said, most ofit is charity foundation work. It's
(29:53):
something that I've always said that youknow, I was blessed to play this
game of baseball and it gave mea lot. And the most important thing
mister Steinberner taught me was after thegame, after you've done playing, the
most important thing is for you togive back. And I've been doing that,
you know, pretty much my entirelife after baseball. So that's where
you can find it. And likeI said, we support every charity and
(30:15):
foundation that there is. I losta brother in law to als in twenty
ten and that's a big big onefor me, and I lost at Nice
to suicide. So those are twobig foundations and charities that I try to
work with as much as possible.Oh, it's absolutely wonderful. And I
employ everybody to check out the websiteand see all the stuff that Jim has
going on. And if you wantto follow me, it's at Chad E
(30:36):
and B on Instagram and Twitter.My website is IBE Exclusives dot com.
We will catch you next week hereon Diamond Conversation. So for the mister
home run King of October. Andnow I'm not talking about Reggie, I'm
talking about Jim Laritz. This isyour old pally and we will catch you
on the flip side. Hey,it's your old buddy. The chads are
from Eyes up Here with Francine,the tempt Empire and the brand. With
(30:57):
a special announcement about company IB Exclusives. IB Exclusives is a collector based sports
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(31:42):
why you're on ibexclusives dot com.Check out the entire list of upcoming signing,
join our mailing list, and asalways, as i'd like to say,
we will catch you on the flipside. Yo, what up?
Ditches conn and a host keeping inone hundred my co host Disco Infernal.
Unfortunately, well, i'd say you'remy co host. Listen every Thursday here
(32:02):
on Spreaker. We talk pro wrestling, sports, movies, music, TV,
pop culture, and some politics.It's everything. The rest of the
pro wrestling podcasts are not. Tunein to hear myself the superior one to
educate and informed. Tune in tohear me very disco. That's very disrespectful.
Join us every Thursday on Spreaker andkeep it one hundred Boom
All right, let's get it goingright here, right now. This is
Diamond Conversations, and you're listening toan all new Diamond Conversations here exclusively on
the Creative Control podcast network. Ifyou didn't know by now, my name
is he In And every single weekwe take the journey across the Diamond,
and this time we're heading behind theplate as we talked to World Series hero
(00:28):
and a longtime MLB veteran, thegreat mister Jim Laird's joining me today.
Jim, thanks for coming on.Hey, thanks for having here. Appreciate
it. Oh, it's great totalk to you. You know, we
did some work earlier this year onan autograph signing, but it's great to
get to chat with you and talkabout your career, talk about what's going
on in the world of baseball.But what I love about you is you
(00:49):
always are in the media, andthis time you got a podcast that you're
you're working on. So tell thelisteners and Diamond Conversations what you're doing and
what the podcast is all about.Yeah, I know, I had an
opportunity with a group called Story Mediawho approached me right before opening day and
they said, hey, listen,you know I used to do TV radio.
I used to do all that stufffor Fox, MLB and everything,
(01:11):
and would you'd be interested in doingany type of a podcasts And I said,
well, you know, I'm sureI would love to you know,
get my name back out there againand do something. And they said,
well, what kind of a podcastdo you want to do? And I
said, well, you know,anybody could do sports. I said,
what I'd like to do is havea podcast where we do a little bit
of you know, talking about thecurrent events and what's going on, but
(01:34):
my interview is all of my people. The guests that I want to have
on. I want to have onformer athletes, former celebrities, people that
have you know, had a lotof success in their careers but have left
those careers and have gone on todo other things. And mostly I wanted
to keep it where people have eitherstarted charities or foundations, or they've gone
(01:57):
in like like a Bernie Williams.They went to a baseball player, to
a you know, to a guitarguy and you know, playing all over
the concerts all over the place.So a guy like Daryl Strawberry, who
you know, left the game ofbaseball and went out to become a preacher,
and it's opening up preham clinics allaround the United States. So it
was just an opportunity to highlight someof the good things that athletes and celebrities
(02:20):
due with their fame after they're doneto help others. And I and it's
been going really well. And it'scalled catching Heat with Jim Layratts and uh
yeah, no, it's been it'sbeen going very well so far. It's
great too when you look at thelists of guys that you've had on and
how you aren't just sticking to likeyou said, to baseball. I mean
you've had Louis louigan Zalez, youhad Strawberry on. You know, you've
(02:42):
talked to other players like John Starks, and you've had on Rayn Groan,
who's got such a rich history inbaseball and with the Yankees. But I
love that anybody who who translates theirtheir one career into another is fascinating.
And you've done it for so manyyears, like you said, with Fox
and MLB and all the suff you'vedone. But podcasting is different because it's
a little more relaxed, you know, it's more of a one on one
(03:05):
deal like kind of what we're doingtoday. But have you enjoyed that aspect
of it, of talking one onone with either former friends or other athletes
and guys that you can kind ofshoot the breeze with. Yeah, you
know, I'm extremely excited because youknow, we've been doing the podcast more
remotely from home and because of COVIDand everything else and what's going on,
and it's been really, really good. But you know, we're now starting
to move into studios and I cannotwait till we get to the point where
(03:30):
we can we can bring people instudio and do these interviews in person because
I just think it just it goesoff so much better. And that,
to me is really the reason whyI wanted to start these podcasts and start
something, because again, I didn'twant it to be just baseball. I
like to cover all sports, youknow. I just had Also, he's
(03:53):
running into four hundred meter hurdles thisweek, is I just said, Kenny
selmanon and July thirties, he'll berunning in the Olympics. And it's just
one of those things that, likeI said, it's it's great to be
able to do it. I'd liketo get it to a point where I'm
kind of like the Barbara Walters ofthese types of interviews. It's never a
(04:15):
bad thing, but it's good.See it's different. See me getting a
contact and using that to interview somebody. I have a different approach you as
sometimes a former teammate. I'm sureit's a lot easier to chop it up
with Daryl Strawberry. You know,when you've shared a locker room with him,
you've played against him for all thoseyears, and I'm sure it's a
lot easier to get the stories rollingand to have that you know, that
instant chemistry, the moment you knowthe guests or the friend or whoever sits
(04:39):
down and starts talking. Yeah,I mean one of the most important things
I do with every one of myinterviews is, like you said, does
go better when you know the person, because it doesn't make it easier.
But at the same time, Itry to go through their history. I
try to go figure out something thatyou know, I just said, I
named Andy Billman, who did allthe Thirties for Thirties Aren't for You and
(05:00):
does a bunch of documentaries, andI didn't know much about him, but
then you know, I found outhe's he was born raised and he's a
huge Cleveland fan. Well, Iwas born in Cleveland, so that created
a little bit of a conversation.Uh, you know, and so there
are certain things that as an intervieweryou need to do to make sure that
you still engage your guests in someway. And I've been able to be
(05:21):
able to as much as my lifehas been you know, crazy, you
know, good and bad and gonethrough some difficult times and things like that.
Um, it's it's there's a wayto connect so far I've had with
every person. And that's kind ofwhy I wanted to do these type of
podcasts because those people that are comingon, they can connect with me and
(05:43):
share more because they're like, Okay, yeah, you've been through this.
You've gone through this, you know, And I think that that does make
it a little bit easier. Itdoes. But you know, you said
you were born in Cleveland area.But you're going to be a New Yorker
for the rest of your life,whether you like it or not. Two
time World Series champion with the Yanks, You're you're you don't have to buy
a dinner anywhere in New York forthe rest of your life. That is
(06:04):
true. That is very true.Yeah, that's one of the fortunate things,
one of those things that you didyou're growing up as a kid,
going, Okay, I would loveto hit a home run for in the
World Series, to win a gameor tie game, or even change everything,
and I was fortunate to be ableto do that. Yeah, there's
so many things about that home run. And a full disclosure, I'm a
Mets fan. So when you werein camp for the Mets for a brief
(06:27):
amount of time, I mean wewere kind of hoping some of that magic
did translate to Queens. But Imean, you know what you did in
ninety six. I mean, I'msure you relive it every single day of
your life, and you're gonna doit again on my airwaves. But there's
so much about the clip that Ilove to watch as even a Mets fans,
just as a sports fan. ButI love the ambiance of Fulton County
Stadium. I love the turn Wasit Fulton There was a Turner at that
(06:50):
point, you know it was Istill believe it was Atlanta Fulton, Okay,
So yeah, it was Fulton County, all right, because in ninety
nine it was Turner. So inyeah, because The interesting thing was Joe
Joe Tory had hit the first homerun in that stadium right at the last
home un That's right, Yeah,that was pretty cool. That's right now,
and it's it's such a great butthe ambience of the whole entire place
(07:13):
and to see that ball go overthe fence, I'm sure you relive it
every single day, but you know, kind of walk us through what it's
like to have that pinnacle home runin a in a World championship that was,
you know, twelve years in themaking, as we're almost more for
the Yankees to get them back tothat World championship in ninety six. Yeah,
I mean, I think what madeit even more crazy was just to
fact how it led up to thatpoint where we were down six nothing,
(07:36):
and you know, we were sittingin a dugout. A couple of us
look at each other going, well, thank god, we just get we
didn't get swept. We won gamethree and you know, we lose this
game. We know that we're notgoing to beat these guys because you know
they had small tomatos and get Glavinready. But the bottom line was Joe
Tory had set to us it's weekendwin two games here and get back to
(07:58):
New York. These guys do notwant to go back to New York and
play in front of our fans,and let's if we can get back there.
And really, when I hit thehome run and that whole moment changed
that you are thinking, and thenof course Wade Bob gets to walk and
Charlie Hayes hits the pop up andwe scored the two runs to go ahead
in the tenth. You know,it was just it was an amazing moment.
(08:18):
And the one thing people always askme is like, you must have
been floating around the basis. Isaid, well, no, Unfortunately I
wasn't because all I could think aboutwas the year before I hit a huge
home run that you know, wouldhave probably been the biggest in history.
It was a walkoff in Yankee Stadiumin Game two of the playoffs against the
Seattle Mariners, and unfortunately we lovewe lose the next three games, and
(08:39):
that home run became a footnote andall I could think about was, Okay,
this is a great home run,but it's you know, we haven't
won, and we haven't won theseries. You know, it won't be
that until we do that. Andthen of course we win the game.
Just walking into the locker room afterthat game, it was just one of
those situations where, you know,all the guys were saying, Okay,
(09:00):
that's it, we're gonna win.We're going back to New York, We're
gonna win this thing. And Ijust remember eighty pettittt tell me thank you,
Jimmy. He said, I appreciateit because I'll sleep a lot better.
I'll sleep a lot better tonight knowingthat I'm not pitching a deciding game,
and this is you know, we'renow tied up two to two,
and uh, you know, andthen of course he goes out and pitch
you such a great game five andthat one nothing game gets smolts and you
(09:20):
know, I caught that game.So I always tell people I got more
pride in that game, full entiregame, versus one swing that I got
it in the other game. Butyeah, it was just it was just
great. And again, you know, the story that I just told the
other day at Joe Tore's golf outingwas, you know, what did that
ninety six team do for you know, for Yankee Mystery? And I just
(09:41):
said, you know, it's it'swhat started the dynasty, and the bottom
line was, you know when welost, when Joe lost in ninety seven
with Mariano giving up the home onalimar Uh. George Tiben I walked into
Gee Michael's office and said, firesTory, get rid of Mariano. That's
it. You know this, youknow this is ridiculous. And Gee Michael
told the story and he said yeah, because I looked at Georgie and said,
hey, George, did you forgetabout last year we won the World
(10:03):
Series? And George said, Okay, I'm gonna give him ninety eight and
that's it. And sure enough,Yankees had that magical season in ninety eight.
And Joe always tells me all thetime, he said, Jimmy,
you know that home run and thatthat ninety sixteen winning that's what saved me
and allowed me to go on andwin all these World Series championships at all
these you know, get out goon that that run with the last team
(10:26):
of the Dynasties remarkable. I mean, it's absolutely remarkable. And to grow
up in that area and in thatera, it's an unbelievable thing to look
back at how it's been twenty plusyears since it happened. But everything that
you said there, it was alwaysfunny to say, like, you know,
you could take the spring and summeroff, but as long as you're
there in October, you know you'regoing to deliver that big hit. And
(10:48):
what is it about October that maybebrought the game out of you more?
Like what did you feel it was? Were you more protective at the plate?
Like what was your approach in thoseplayoff games that went all on?
See? Was? It was somethingthat I had learned from a very small
age fourteen years old. I wasin Tommy Brennaman was my best friend growing
up. We were bad boys atthe Red Camp down in Tampa and during
(11:11):
spring training and we were sitting aroundone day and Pete Rose is there and
I went up to Pete and Isaid, you know, mister Rose,
I said, you know, howare you such a great clutch player?
You know what do you do?And he said, well, Jimmy,
he said, I this is whatI do. All my ad bats right
now in spring training are just asimportant as any other bad during the World
Series. And I said, whatdo you mean? He said, if
(11:33):
I approached my my at bat eacha bad as it's my last one,
and it's me against the picture,a picture, and that's it and that
anything else going around, whether it'slike he said, but it's the first
day of spring training or it's thefirst game or the last game of the
World Series, if I approached thatat bat as being the most important thing,
no matter when another at bat comes, I'm not going to get caught
(11:56):
up in the moment because the adbad is the most important thing. And
the fourteen year old kid, Iwas kind of like, okay, But
then then all of a sudden,that mindset, I started thinking about it,
and I'm like, you know whatI want the last shot in the
basketball game. I want to letI want to come up with runners and
scoring position late innings, you know, things like that. And I think
(12:16):
from a very young age that wasmy mindset. And I think once I
got to the major leagues, youknow, I was not an everyday player.
Uh you know, if I didn'tplay well that day, I didn't
play the next day. And Ithink that's why every at bat that I
took, I took it as youknow, this could this could be the
most important at bat that I haveand again, not getting caught up and
(12:39):
whether it was spring training, thefirst game of the playoffs or the last
game of the World Series. Inever really thought about the situation around me,
just the at bat itself, andthat made things a lot easier.
And that catching core that you guyshad, too, was just an unbelievable
group of players. You know,I shuddered to find any three catch in
(13:00):
that time period the Yankees had,Yourself, Girardi, Mike Stanley. I
mean, you guys, it wasjust it was such a great mix of
defense and offense, and your clutchhitting was out of this world. And
that was a great, great,uh description what you just gave us about
Pete Rose. Who better than PeteRose to kind of teach you the right
way to approach it and at batlike that, And it's for something to
carry so long like it did throughoutyour career. Is is phenomenal. Do
(13:24):
you think that's the best piece ofadvice you ever got in your playing days?
Well? I think you know,of course, my father was probably
my biggest advocate, and uh,you know, he was a guy that
was I always told people he wasacross between what he Hayes and Bobby Knight
and uh, you know anybody thatknows too, those two guys. It's
you know, he was one ofthose people that never never be satisfied.
(13:46):
You know, he said, neverstop trying to achieve, you know more,
And uh, you know, Ialways tell the story that, you
know, I walked into the YankeeStadium my first time. I'm standing on
the field. I'm looking around.I walking in the locker room, in
my locker rooms next to Don Mattingley, and I remember picking up. Back
then, we didn't have cell phone, so you can't take selfie, You
(14:07):
couldn't take pictures or anything like that. And I look, you know,
I walk in and I grabbed theclubhouse phone and I called my dad up
and I said, hey, Dad, guess what I said. I just
walked through Monument Park. I juststood on the field and the Yankee Stadium.
You know, I made it.I'm here and and gosh, my
locker is next to Don Mattingwie.You know, how much better can it
get? And he said, son, that's awesome. I'm very proud of
(14:28):
you. He said, but letme ask you a question, how are
you going to stay there? Well? Whole hole? That's great? Yeah,
yeah, And that was that wasmy father. My father brought me
up that way of saying, hey, let's listen. You know, you
had a great you had a greatday, you went three for four.
What are you doing tomorrow? Youknow, don't don't live on your past,
you know, heroics or whatever else. And uh, yeah, it
(14:50):
was just that was to me,probably the best advice you ever gave me.
You know, he always told metwo things. Keep the faith,
because he was very religious. Man, Keep the faith, and he said,
just don't order, don't ever besatisfied. That's wonderful. And what
a what a motto too to bea Yankee, to to keep the faith
one that you'll be there, andtoo to never stay satisfied because it was
always a winning culture. But youwere there in a lot of lean years
(15:13):
which led up to ninety six andthat that just unbelievable championship run. But
those lean years, how much didyou learn from those and staying with the
team, how you did like whatwas the what were some of the you
know, finer points you remember aboutthose kind of early nineties Yankee teams that
might be forgotten to some, buta lot of great players just some lean
years. Well, you know,one thing I before Gene Michael passed God
(15:37):
rest his soul. Uh. Himand I had a great relationship, even
though we butted heads quite a bitas far as the playing time and everything
else. But the one thing thatI remember getting caught up in nineteen ninety
member George's suspension. And Gene causedme into his office and said, listen,
I have an opportunity to bring upa lot of young players. We're
(15:58):
not going to go to the freeagent market. We're not going to do
what we've been doing. We're gonnachange things up a little bit. And
if you get off to a goodstart, you can open up the doors
for a lot of guys. AndI was like, you know, sure,
okay, you know I'm gonna goout there and play. And I
did. And you know, DaveLaPoint, Steve Sacks, all those guys,
you know, they when they wereasked about what what what what they
(16:18):
thought of me when I first cameup, they were just like, this
guy's a gamer. He goes outthere and plays, and you know,
and and Dave la point mentioned hesaid, it's not a surprise at his
idols Pete roll is because that's howhe plays, you know. And that
was a compliment, and uh,you know, and I came up,
and sure enough I got off toa good start. And Kevin Moss comes
up and he you know, he'shitting home runs every other back, uh,
(16:40):
you know, and slowly we started, you know, Bernie Williams comes
up in ninety one, and eventhough we were losing ninety six ninety four
games, you know, we werethere was something building there, and we
were building from the farm systems andit really turned out, you know,
to be great by nineteen ninety four, ninety five, ninety four obviously the
strike year, the forgotten year,and yeah, and in ninety three,
(17:03):
you guys finished in second eighty eightwins, which is nothing to shake a
stick at, especially with the juggernautToronto Blue Jays at the time. But
ninety four, you know, everybodypredicts it could have been a Yankees Expos
World Series. But it was ninetyfive that was the turning point for sure,
and you saw the glimpses of everybody. But it was Donnie Baseball's last
year. It was matting Lee's lastyear playing. And the home run he
(17:26):
hit in the playoffs was another one, you know, the classic Gary Thorne,
you know, hold on to theroof as that ball goes out.
The ninety five team versus the ninetysix team, What do you think that
ninety five team could have done hadthey gotten past the Mariners. Well,
yeah, listen, it's one ofthose things that you know, we we
were built to win, and youknow, we wanted to win it for
Donnie because we knew. Everybody inour clubhouse knew that this was donnie last
(17:49):
year, just because his back problemwas so bad. But I think,
you know, ninety six, ourpitching staff was probably a little bit stronger.
You know, Andy Pettitt was wasnow confident. You know, he
went him and I became you know, I became his personal catcher at the
end of ninety five, and wewent nine and three together the end of
(18:10):
the season and going into ninety six. That's just confidence that he had just
carried over. And uh, Ithink that I think we had a little
bit better team in ninety six allaround. But at the same time,
I mean, both those teams arevery, very very similar. There was
no big superstars. I don't thinkany of us led the league in hitting
or home runs or anything like that. We were just a good, solid
(18:33):
team that played hard and you knowin switching managers. Um, you know
buckshow author I always tell everybody,smartest, best manager I've ever played for
as far as intelligence goals, knew. You know, it was three or
four steps ahead of the other theother manager every single time. But was
not quite a manager of people.And you know that because he was young,
(18:57):
you know, it was it wassomething new to him. Joe Tory
steps in the ninety six and Joehad been around the block quite a bit
and had his failures and came inthere with the attitude of you know,
you know, I'm going to managethe people. And I got Zimmer next
to me to help me with thebaseball, and that combination I'd have never
seen a better combination of coaches ora manager with his with his bench coach.
(19:21):
Uh, they were just two piecein the pot. And like I
said, that's what really made adifference between the ninety five and the ninety
sixteen. Joe was able to dealwith the egos, he was able to
deal with the players, put puttingthem in a better position every day to
go out and win U And then, of course, like I said,
he had done Zimmer, he hadWillie Randolph. I mean Joe was so
(19:41):
smart in hiring the coaches around himto build a team that you know of
coaches that were the players number onerespected, but also knew the you know,
knew the game and knew what youknow, how to how to perform
in tough situations. And that's whyI think, like I said, the
ninety six talent wise was at ninetyfive, but our leadership with Joe there,
(20:03):
I think it just it just tookus to that next level. What
a mix of veterans and the earlydays of the you know, the core
for the Dynasty. Posada wasn't thereyet, but the other guys were unbelievable.
But this is three consecutive shows ina row where Joe Torrey's managerial prowess
has been on display. Three weeksago was with Randy Johnson talking about the
Braves in the eighties. Last weekit was Bob Tewksbury talking about him with
(20:26):
the Cardinals in the early nineties.And here you are talking about him with
the Yankees in the mid to latenineties. And it seems like everything clicked
for him all at the same time. Not to say he was ever a
bad manager. Everybody sings his praises, But it was the perfect mix,
like you said, the coaches,the players, the veterans, the rookies,
yourself, guys who have been inthe organization. It was the perfect
storm that got that dynasty emotion.And it's amazing the trajectory of the whole
(20:52):
entire team and his managerial career.Yeah, no, exactly, and then
that's leaving. Like I said,it's one of those things that you know,
that's why he is where he's atin baseball right now, the number
two persons behind Rob Bamfred is becausehe does know how to deal, how
to manage, and how to lead, and uh, you know, it's
it's it was. It was agreat it was a good combination. And
(21:14):
like I said, I don't thinkyou're ever going to see that run that
we had of, you know,the four out of five consecutive championships.
I don't see that happening any anytimein the near future. Now, just
to fast forward a little bit andwe'll get to ninety nine a second.
But ninety eight, you're with SanDiego across the way while this battle is
going on, and this ninety eightYankee juggernaut is happening. What's kind of
(21:37):
going through your mind, does you'resitting across the diamond with San Diego that
year? Yeah, you know,it was one of those things that I
wound up in San Diego after,you know, trying to go to Boston
and play there and didn't have avery good relationship with the pitching coach there.
So I got finally get traded backin San Diego, and yeah,
we get to the we get weget to the trade deadline, and all
(22:00):
of a sudden, the Houston Astrostrade for Randy Johnson. And even though
we were in first place at thetime, everybody said, oh, that's
it. The Astros are gonna win. You know, they're going to represent
the National League in the in theWorld Series, you know. And sure
enough, when Randy Johnson came over, I think he went nine and oh
or nine and one or something likethat. All the writing on the wall
was they they're gonna win. Butwe just caught fire, and uh,
(22:23):
you know, we we we playedthe Astros the first round and I end
up putting three home runs and acouple of late game you know, late
game winners, and we just andKevin Brown stepped up and he pitched great
starting Hitchcock Pits great and the Ashby. We just we got in a role
and you know, we beat webeat the Astros, and then we all
of a sudden we went to playthe Praise. We beat them, and
(22:44):
then we go on to play theYankees in the series, and you know,
Game one. You know, whenyou look back on history and you
always say, well, what couldhave happened if this happened and things like
that, And I still say tothis day, if Tino Martinez is two
two pitches called a strike and nota ball, that I think we end
up winning that game one, andthat that might change everything. Because as
(23:06):
soon as we lost that game,and as soon as you know, hit
that Grand slam, Our, wholedugout was like, you know what these
guys are, you know, theirtheir destiny, They're they're they're they're they're
destined to win. And then wecome out in Game two and Andy Ashley
gets beat up and I think wejust like that's it. And then of
course Grocius has the series of ofa lifetime and hits the home run off
Trevor, and you know, itwas just one of those things that we
(23:29):
you know, we get swept infour, but people the same thing.
I go. That season for SanDiego was so magical and the Sands got
so I mean, there was youknow, we played in Qualcom Stadium.
We were selling out sixty five thousanda night. Wow, it was and
you know it was it was justa great place to play. And then
we we end up losing it four, but our fans stayed around. They
(23:52):
asked us to come back out.So we all came back out in the
field and celebrated with the Sands.And everybody's like, well, what's the
difference between New York and San Diego. I said, New York, you
who's the World Series? You don'tcome out of your house San Diego.
San Diego, you lose the WorldSeries. You lose the World Series.
They want you to come out afterwardsand celebrate with them. But then I
also hope, guess what, theythrow you a parade too. And that's
(24:15):
something that wouldn't happen in New York. But that's why. And then the
best thing that ever happened to SanDiego was that the fans, the community,
everybody got behind us because of therun we went on and they were
having a hard time getting the votefor the new stadium for Pectico Park,
and Larry Lukino, who was ourpresident then, he was pushing us,
(24:36):
and all during the season we weredoing special appearances in the community just to
try to get the community to voteyes on the new stadium. And then
that run that we went on,the fans and the community got so much
behind us. They voted in Novemberthey voted yes for the new stadium,
and that ninety eighteen is the reasonwhy there's a new ballpark in San Diego.
That's wonderful, And you were onehundred percent right about the New York
(24:59):
re actually would be because like Isaid at the beginning, you don't have
to buy a meal after the homerun in ninety six. You wouldn't be
able to even go into a restaurantif you had if you had goted something,
and I mean goat in the oldsense of the word, not the
new sense. Very very funny.That's unbelievable, all right. And then
before we get to the wrap upand say goodbye, you know, I
want to just I want to commendyou for all the stuff that you do.
(25:22):
You're you're a man of many,many many appearances. You're doing a
lot of charitable work. You're doingyour podcast, but I want to just
stick to one last thing about yourcareer, the last home run of the
century. As you hit that,did you realize it was going to be
the last home run? How longuntil somebody pointed out, hey, did
you realize? And the nineteen nineties, this is the last home run sailing
over the fence? Yeah, youknow it's funny. When I got traded
(25:45):
back in July, I just Ihad broke my hand with the Dodgers and
I'm sorry with the Padres and I, you know, I think I broke
it. I want to say,was maybe June twenty first or something like
that, and uh, I was. I was really upset because the Padres
had already told me that they weregoing to trade me to a playoff team,
(26:06):
you know once once we get tothat point in July, and I
was like, you know, man, this I'm not going to you know,
not be able to. Well,I made sure I got myself ready.
I went on a rehab assignment toRancho Cucamonga in Las Vegas for the
Padres minor leagues, just to showpeople that I could swing the bat.
And I get a phone call andKevin Tower. It's you know, Kevin
Towers. And he says, hey, you know, we're gonna trade you
(26:29):
back to the Red Sox. AndI said, what, no, no,
no, I don't want to goback there. He said, now
he goes. You know, well, he goes. If you can find
something better, we'll do it.So I said, just give me twenty
four hours. And so I calledup George Sniben or Secretary Debbie Nicolosi,
who I had a great relationship with, and I said, Debbie, you
need to talk to George. They'retrading me to the Red Tie. I
don't want to go there. Andsure enough, within twenty four hours,
(26:52):
I was traded back to the NewYork Yankees. So I show up and
I'm taking batting practice and I can'thit the ball out of the park.
And back in the day when youknow, ninety six and so, uh,
you know, Darryl Strawberry and Iwe put down these home run derbies
in batting practice, and uh,you know Jeter and nab Block and dude
Lay, it's what's wrong with you? You? Yeah, I go listen,
(27:14):
guys, I'll hit a home runwhen it counts, don't worry.
And sure enough, I come upthe bat in that game for the World
Series, I hit the home runBob costs. You know, it says
the famous line, you can sendthis guy to a resort in the spring
and summer, just bring them backfor October um. And uh, but
as soon as I hit it right, I'm running the basis and I come
(27:34):
into the I got and Jeter's upbearing he goes, you gotta be kidding
me, and I went, nope, I told you. I told you
I hit one, you know whenwhen I counted, and uh, it
was great. But then, youknow, I didn't realize it was the
last home run of the century.And as we're in the clubhouse celebrating and
my ex father in law comes upto me and says, hey, hey,
(27:56):
by the way, Jim, hehe was the country guy, goes,
Jim, you realize that was thelast home run of the century.
And I was like, no,I didn't know that, thanks, you
know, And sure enough there wasthere because the locker room was packed with
people, and there was a guynamed me Jasky that was in there.
I heard my father and I'll saythat, and he looked at me.
He said, Jimmy, we canmarket that I could take it, and
(28:19):
sure enough, three days three dayslater, we were we were on a
helicopter on our way to QVC tosell nineteen hundred and ninety nine balls,
nineteen hundred ninety nine bats, nineninety nine photos of the last one round
of the century. And it wasit was quite an experience. And that's
where we'll we'll close it on Mead'sstellar timing of pointing out when an autograph
(28:44):
opportunity is going to be there.And I can't say anything, Jim,
I got one on my shelf,so I'm not gonna say anything. Very
proudly display it every day without adoubt. So it's so cool. But
again, I appreciate you coming onand doing this with me today. It's
so much fun. And uh please, you know you've got a great website
Jim Layers dot com. It's goteverything going on in your world, and
like I said, including seeing allthe things that you do on a on
(29:07):
a weekly basis you got you're sucha busy guy. But tell the listeners
of Diamond Conversations where they can findeverything else going on in your world,
including social media. Is another preferentiallinks that you want to send us to
to check out your your stuff goingon. Yeah, you can go to
Spotify, Apple and you know anyany type of where you can find a
podcast called Catching Heat with Jim Layers. It's on every Wednesday at Catching Heat
(29:32):
is my Twitter and Instagram, andthen the real jay Larrit is my Instagram
and Twitter, and then, uh, like you said, my website is
Jim Laertz dot com and that's wherepeople can go and you can hire me
for speeches, you can hire mefor calf outings, whatever it might be.
But like you said, most ofit is charity foundation work. It's
(29:53):
something that I've always said that youknow, I was blessed to play this
game of baseball and it gave mea lot. And the most important thing
mister Steinberner taught me was after thegame, after you've done playing, the
most important thing is for you togive back. And I've been doing that,
you know, pretty much my entirelife after baseball. So that's where
you can find it. And likeI said, we support every charity and
(30:15):
foundation that there is. I losta brother in law to als in twenty
ten and that's a big big onefor me, and I lost at Nice
to suicide. So those are twobig foundations and charities that I try to
work with as much as possible.Oh, it's absolutely wonderful. And I
employ everybody to check out the websiteand see all the stuff that Jim has
going on. And if you wantto follow me, it's at Chad E
(30:36):
and B on Instagram and Twitter.My website is IBE Exclusives dot com.
We will catch you next week hereon Diamond Conversation. So for the mister
home run King of October. Andnow I'm not talking about Reggie, I'm
talking about Jim Laritz. This isyour old pally and we will catch you
on the flip side. Hey,it's your old buddy. The chads are
from Eyes up Here with Francine,the tempt Empire and the brand. With
(30:57):
a special announcement about company IB Exclusives. IB Exclusives is a collector based sports
memorabilia company giving buyers the opportunity toget personal items signed through our exclusive private
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(31:19):
get twenty percent off any purchase throughoutthe month of July by using the promo
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enter the promo code CCN twenty andtake twenty percent off anything in the
IB shop, any of the privatesigning and including our brand new sports car
page. It's all available to youat ibexclusive dot com. And don't forget
(31:42):
why you're on ibexclusives dot com.Check out the entire list of upcoming signing,
join our mailing list, and asalways, as i'd like to say,
we will catch you on the flipside. Yo, what up?
Ditches conn and a host keeping inone hundred my co host Disco Infernal.
Unfortunately, well, i'd say you'remy co host. Listen every Thursday here
(32:02):
on Spreaker. We talk pro wrestling, sports, movies, music, TV,
pop culture, and some politics.It's everything. The rest of the
pro wrestling podcasts are not. Tunein to hear myself the superior one to
educate and informed. Tune in tohear me very disco. That's very disrespectful.
Join us every Thursday on Spreaker andkeep it one hundred Boom
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