Iconic Postseason Moments and Fan Energy

The message was like, I'm not ready to go home. We've worked too hard for this. We're not getting sweept. L we need to show up today and we need to win this ball game. There was a lot of emotion. I remember like borderline like tearing up. like I was so pissed I like we were in this position. Like I was like, let's can go. Tired of like, I'm not losing again And Russ, when you hear that Because you can only use so many bullets on things like that. teeammate when you hear that What happens? It's just go time You know There's no other words. you just I just thinking about. all right? not we're yet. We're winning this game This isn't the Tri League. s again, I M thowing You know, this is to get it done like Heay It's the getet it done Lague. We are into the middle of June. another episode with the MVP. There's Josh Donaldson You already know that's Russell, Martin. It's great to have you with us for another week. Fellas, welcome fresh off a trip back to Canada For both of you. Russ, I know you're living in the States now, but I just like that smile comes across your face every time you get a chance to come back home, huh Almost home. Almost stough to beat. The old Beautiful Great North And and like I want to know Josh went along the way. like you get traded? from Oakland to Toronto and like suddenly this becomes kind of like your home you end up meeting your now wife, you've started a family with a Canadian, like Are you kind of half Canadian? a third Canadian? Like where you fit in this whole mix now? I mean my kids are definitely half So I got to be I mean, I feel like I'm adopted to at this point U we were just talking about earlier when I was back home in the south, people started saying, Yeah, you sounding Canadian now Yeah I're my wife all the time and she wants to talk to me way too much. so I still find it wild all these years later. like last year in the postseason Shoot, I even sent you guys a photo when I was out, People are still wearing twenty and fifty five jerseys at the ballpark, like all these years later But's that what's that like for you too I it just shows what our impact was, I think, as far as and how excited people were at that time and Yeah, I was still rem weember in fifteen halfway through the year. We weren't even really selling out. It was kind of you know, there's a lot of empty seats and then once David Price came into town Kulo, all these guys You know, we were selling out fifty thousand every day and we were winning a lot of games and You know, really the city caught fire. And so I think that's where a lot of that stemmed from and then you know, sixteen kind of parled into that and You know, obviously, Russ was going to get A lot of Jersey sales are here, you know, being Oh does Toronto actually like accept? back be like Montreal, I gota I feel like time out, time out.. I was born in the Toronto area, my God. Okay, okay, okay. Well, I mean, I just know everybody I bl you from Montreal. You're always wearing the Montreal hats I guess that's I guess you That's a good way to go though. People want to claim you. So I guess I'll take It is. Yeah The Quebec people want to claim me and you know the Ontario people want to claim me I'll tell you It's a great place to be. Well, the New York Yankees thought they' in a great place guys leving the AL and run differential. there' atop the AL least and then just like that Bam Aaron Judge out the rib. They say it's going to get re imaged in four to six weeks Judge himself is saying, I'm not putting any timeline on it Who knows, right? But here's what I found interesting is it actually stem back to something that happened on the field, april twenty sixth And he didn't go on the IL until June when he just said, I can't swing anymore. He was takaking like two hacks and BP and said, okay, that's enough. I got to save it for the game You guys have been in situations so many times where Like, are you hurt or are you injured And when you're in that limbo JD, how do you deal with something like that Yeah, I remember a situation actually in Toronto. I remember I was taking batting practice and I woke up one day at my wrists, like I was taking baty practices I was taking a couple wrists or swings And my risk was just like on fire It was blowing up and I was I was in there I'm like As an athlete, you just want to know like, am I going to further damage this Because if I'm going to further damage it, then I need to stop Right. It's just kind of like a pain tolerance thinging that I'm going to keep going And I remember I went right I stopped taking battery practice wood and got some imaging done. They said everything looked clean And that I went out there ended up hitting the Homer that game. but The situation with Judge. I saw something about it yesterday. He said he did it on a dive in April. Yeah. and playing with Judge knowing how he takes care of his body and Uh, You know, he has a high pain tolerance Oh So you know this is something that's pretty Serious. I would if he can't swing Um He's not able to play right now. like the guy loves being on the field. He loves playing the game So for him not to be out there is pretty It's pretty telling of how serious this could be U and more importantly, I was on the team where you heard as to And twenty twenty three my last year when he heard us toe in LA And we were doing fine. And then all of a sudden we fell off the planet The judge was out the lineup. So I know a lot of people right now are holding their breath of New York. as I was when we were in Um I was in the locker room with him at that time And everybody the whole non timetable thing too As a teammate, you're kind of like You wish there was a did you know, you wish there was a timetable because you're like all right, let's just hold the fort dove till here But as like a player that's been hurt You don't want there to be a timetable you can't come back from that So that's either more even more concerting to me as' like, Nah, this could be more serious than what they're leading it to be. Yeah, on top of that that without Jon Clos Stanton, there're without Max Freed Russ. You're in that clubhouse, you lose your dude, you don't know when he's coming back What shifts in that locker room? What shifts in that clubhouse? How as a vet do you handle it? How different is it as a young guy who's looking around wondering? What what the hell now that's a big blow MVP the most valuable player on your team in the league and you lose them for a while u It's not a good feeling. But You know, they they've played good baseball till now. So they just They got to go out there and play and do as best as they can, right? There's no There's no time for feeling sorry in baseball Right? You just you got to go out there and try and get it done. It'll it'll be somebody else's opportunity Um But it's a big blow. you know, it's it's tough. they're I don't know. You can't replace a judge So we'll see what happens, but when your best player goes down You know, it's I don't know.re time will tell, but yeah You've had to play you've had to play through a lot of crap through your career. I mean as a catcher, you're just getting nicked up all the time. What's that threshold of I want to play, but I don't want to hurt team I don't want to make things worse. like whereere's that balance that you find in terms of what what works and what just doesn't work in the end So for me personally You know, if I could catch and receive and manage the game And I, you know, I could stay in the lineup. I was in the lineup But as soon as You know, if it's affecting my defense And I can't really do the things I was supposed to do behind the plate and help the team that way then you're actually hurting the team. Um, so sometimes, you know, you got to You know, as an athlete, you kind of you got to know yourself. And if you know you can't go You're just gonna to make things worse, well you're hurting the team even more. So, you know, my in my situation, like I had I had that handy for for for a year or so Um, I can kind of manage that But it got to the point where I couldn't even run down the first baseline. That's when you're like, okay, dude, you got to do something about that. Um for judge, it's You know, if he can't if he can't swing the bat You know, that's that's what he's there for He can't swing the bag, he's not going to play Well and and not to mention, you know, He's in New York and everybody expects him to hit sixty homers every year Right as soon as he stops hitting homers and not I like I saw since the April play He was hitting like to like his OPS was like seven eighty or something like that, which is Below league average. It's not jud It's that judge. Thankfully for him he had some homers early in the year to kind of like mask that a little bit. Um But here's the other impact of it is that judge makes everybody else in the lineup better because now the guy that's hitting in front of Judge is going to get pitch better. They're going to make more pitches to him. Now Judge is getting all base so now the guys behind them are going to get some looks at You know, driving runs in and now you have this huge and let's not forget. he plays center field. he plays right field Lue gverage to above Lag Average defensively in my opinion Um Yeah. So there's a bigger impact than just swinging Now the whole lineup is going to be affected. The good news for the Yankees, if there is any is they kind of got Cole coming back right now who's going to be going into a third or fourth start Rodongs look pretty good to this point. Hopefully Max gets back here pretty soon So they have some starting pitching to kind of Hopefully keep the games low scoring to where they could impact the game in a different way versus just having to rely on judge or fate and Homers all the time Uh the Andd you got Bellinger, you got, you know, jazz seems to kind of be turning the corner a little bit But this is a big blow. and I've been in that locker room when Aaron Judge is not It's not the same thing And how so How so, Juddy Well he's your captain. He's the guy that you know that you're relying on that's going out there, you know given you it from a position player chance. He's giving you a great chance to winight game whether it's by hitting the home or whether it's get D bays, whether it's partaking a great play defensively. just more of that kind of Oh the leadership part of it as well. Yeah know, he's still going to be around. He's still going to be trying to talk to guys But it's just not the same when you're not in the lineup Yeah. and You almost feel like a ghost sometimes, right? When you're just there, but you're not in the mix And then I mean, going down on rehab starts, going back down to the spring training facility. like guys talk about how like depressing and low that becomes. What happens? likeike you get hurt, you're around for a little while and then you got to go kind of get tryry to put Humpty Dumpy back together again. you end up in Dunedin or Tampa or wherever you're going to end up What happens down there when you're dealing with this every single day I mean, To some extent, like you just feel like kind of lost puppy dog at times. that would be like one way I could say it because you're like, oh well, I'm supposed to be here, but now I'm over here and I don't have my boys and supposed to be helping winning games at this point. But the other time it kind of gives you J take a little bit of a break like have kind of When you're there all the time in the clubhouse and everybody's like looking at you like Is he going to come back? tell it every every day you walk in the clubhouse, people look at you like For me, it was like my cats were like, how's he walking? How's he doing R' judge. they're going to be like, hells, you know Is he able to turn and people They're not trying to be like they're trying to be inquisitive and ask I can like How you doing, how you feeling But over time, it's like You'll know when I'm doing good whenever I'm I'm hitting second hitting third in the lineup that day. That's when you know I'm going to be doing good. So Nice word Nice word right there I was I'm impressed It'squite. Thank. Yeah. I didn't know you had that in you. That's nice. It's an all over an education What can I say? I surprise people every day? The guy goes back to Auburn for for a couple days and he comes back with You know. Iew. New Lingo Hey, I got a fun I got a fun fact I never went on a rehab assignment. Come on I I got in a couple of fights You know, the brass was like, no, we can't, you know, we have to go downm like, I'm not going back to the miners. I'm not doing it ight I'm not going back So how does that conversation go, Rus? They're saying one thing you're like, u Its no it's protocol. you have to do it. And I'm like No You know Get somebody on the mound. I'm going to get a couple up bats live BP And and I'll be good to go. Like I'm I'm not, I'm not doing it It happened I love that. Yeah, it happened in Pittsburgh When I got hurt Um I think I had a bad hamy or a bad shoulder or something and you're like, oh, you know we'll send you back down for a couple days, get some at bats, and And I'm like, no, no, you're not So So I I didn't I didn't go back. And then it happened in LA too. And in LA. was tough too. It's not like I, you know, I wasn't really like the guy I was catching every third or fourth day and And they're like, you know, you You know, you need to go down and everybody everybody does it. You know, we can't have one person. I'm like, I'm sorry, man. I've never done it before I was in my fourteenth year You know, I'm just I'm I'm not going back down to the miners. I'm sorry. It was just It was a pride thing. It was probably stupid U for probably a bunch of reasons that I don't know But I add one But year' fourteen, year fourteen at that point, who cares Right? like you're yeah I just, I was like No, I'm not I'm just not doing it And luckily it worked out or else it probably would have been some It wouldn't look good on me Wored out So so you're fourteen Russ, you're there and a young catcher named Will Smith is basically going to be the next one in LA. And part of your role was to kind of be that Mentors, show him the way, etceter. although Will was his own man from the jumob What do you remember there? And what's it like guys being a vet Knowing your role is now to kind of pass the torch to the next one. Especially as a catcher russ. What was What's that experience? What goes into it? And what's it like having that kid kind of look at you being like What am I supposed to do here? Can I ask him this? what you know, how does that dynamic go Well, with Will, it was it was pretty easy. He came in and he was Always just like a solid individual from the get go. You know, he he had poys U You know, you could just tell that He had the confidence in his ability And u And really, you know, they they like to say, you know, you're trying to guide the young kids, which which you are. But some kids kind of just have it and he definitely did from the jump. likeike he looked comfortable Um you know, behind the plate, managing the pitchers and hitting to. he was just polished, you know, from the beginning. And u He just didn't look like he didn't look like a rookie your brain? Did he pick your brain though? I mean, you're Bona fide Super star catcher. I mean, if I had that opportunity to sit there and talk to you, I definitely would have quiet guy and not really want to ask a lot of questions That is how it turned out. He was pretty quiet. I just kind of told him from the beginning. like if you need anything, you let me know And there may have been a few instant instances were somethingomet came up the kid the kids are pro and I mean, the Dodgers do things so well, they're so prepared and how they attack the opposing hitters with game plans and You kind of had your cheat sheet So like you can go right in there and feel pretty comfortable with with how you should approach a lineup and how you need to manage a lineup. You know, it's it's they have their way of doing things Um they do things right over there and I really honestly, I'd like to take some credit, but I didn't didn't really have to do that much Maybe besides tell him like, Hey, man, you're doing a great job and keep it up. you know, it was kind of that easy for me Yeah. Well and I think you see you've seen the Dodgers since they've Will Smith's been there. He's kind of been that stabilizing force for them too, right? L And he's had some great post seasons. And he's he's definitely you would call reliable For us like you know what you're getting when W'smiss in the lineup But the next thing I kind of want to get into try of make this full circle. I think we're going to wrap up is Yankees are kind of down right now with theiriron judges Coronto BlueJays Tampa Bay Boston I mean, is Baltimore in it? maybe? I mean I don't think I don't think Boston's in a JD to be honest with you. I think that's just I don't either Yeah, I have to I think of I don't you know Boston fans think they're in it. Either. They I think it I think they're not I think right I think I think busos is pretty much a dumpster fire right now and I hate to I hate to I hate to say it because Craig Breslo is a former teammate. of both of ours Um and O at least I know he was in spring training with us for the Blue Jays.ight But he I play with him in Oakland Uh But As the Jays, if you're sitting around and you see Superman, Aaron Judge go down. Does that give you a little lift in the locker room, Russ? what do you think I mean, it's I don't know if it does it give a lift It just You know, when you're playing the Yankees, you don't have to face judge You're like, yes You know, like thing, I'm glad he's not in the lineup. You know, I don't have to face this guy. You know what I mean? So Yeah, it just it makes it u You know, there there's a there's a chink in the armor there So it's time to crash. Time to win To me For the Jayss, as Judge goes, it's right around the time they're expecting the return of Cis. They're expecting the return of Szer We'll see what Max can do Bber more than anything else. likeike the c like here we are in, you know, deep into June And it's been this kind of wait at a time where you haven't had Baros This team needs starting pitching. They've just been bubble gumming their way through, you know rotations and openers and Bullpen games They they need some starting pitching here and amidst that Biggest bat in the division gun I could be onto something here Yeah, I mean, I think you mentioned starting pitching there. I was actually playing golf the other day was Matt Moore And he is about to make a try out here pretty soon. he's coming off Tommy Johns surgery I know he's about to start going for some teams so So it' be interesting if u If he does well there if he shows that he's, you know, the map more of old to see if the Blue Jays will jump in on that left handed pitcher starting pitching You know, can't ever have enough of that is what they say at least Well, and the other thing with that is that you're not asking for a full season from this dude Yeah, you know, it's a hired gun for a couple of months and And Russ, you can never have enough Good left handed pitching, can you I mean, he can't have too much pitching in general. R. Right? So That could be a goodset All right, so let's let's get to our fan first question And producer Stew, let's roll it here Just talkking about playing in the regular season for the Toronto Blue Jays Talk about the post season Pling in the je. Glowestone Talk about it, boys I want to hear him It's a great question. Guys, I think you've only played postseason games in Toronto with the roof closed back in the day, right? I don't think the roof was open. backack in that era. I mean place shook. likeike it felt like you're on an earthquake fault line just sitting up in the press box for me. What was it like down on the field You could feel it your soul. You could feel it in your soul. S somebody hit a homeomer or somebody made a big play You could feel the vibration go through your body. It was Unbelievable, unbelievable atmosphere Um The fans came with it In the playoffs, you know, I got to tip my cap to the the Toronto and Canadian fans, man. It was Awesome atmosphere of playing insane Yeah, I had se I had several instances that I can like go back on right now. probablybably. I mean, obviously the first one was Batista, whever he hit the home run. I was on base And as I was going around third base, I was like scanning people's faces in the stadium And couldn't make out their face. Like it was like it looked it was it looked blurry Like everybody's funny experience or something, you know? It's just like the place was vibrating and you couldn't see their face. Every just was shaking, right And and then the second one that I had that I could really think of is I hit a Homer againgst Cleveland And I just kind of given the boys a pep talk Before the game, I think we were down two o or three o or something at the time And I was rounding first and as it hit. I like let out like a scream or yell, like let's go or something like that And when I did that, my whole body, like the energy from my body when I like I did that, it jolted me and it lifted me up off the ground y when that happened, I was like, holy crap, like this is crazy. L the amount of energy that's in this place right now. So what was the pep talk? You guys are down the series to Cleveland It's sixteen You know, it's theLCS. what's what's the pep talk? Yeah, I u, you know, I've geared up and watched, you know some highlights of Rocky four before the like that was my big like Rocky four is one of my favorite movies of all time and You know, Rocky in general. so it's like It's not how hard get hit. It's how hard you get hit and get backed up. And I was like, The message was like, I'm not ready to go home We've worked too hard for this. We're not getting sweept Sure, We're not getting sweat We need to show up today. We need to win this ball game And just there was probably a lot of other stuff that was going into it, but there was a lot of emotion. I remember like borderline like tearing up, likeike I was so pissed and like we were in this position. L I was like, let's go tired of like, I'm not losing again And Russ, when you hear that Because you can only use so many bullets on things like that. teammate when you hear that What happens Go time. It's just go time You know There's no other words. you just We're getting chill. We're just thinking about all rightre we're winning this game That's how you feel I sh. That's say we did A me did Yeah Yeah I wonder just thinking back what the better opportunity was. Was it fifteen? Was it sixteen? Was it the team that was just on this high in fifteen that you know went on this meteoric rise Was it sixteen where you guys were there How about Inarnes Stoness Homer? Thank doinges Well that was that was a that was huge. That was a big one. When he bace for that one too. Ubaldo Hemenez came in the game we' like, all and Edd destroys them we're like, Uh, gaze over, like we We got them. I think the biggest thing ever from that was I remember coming up Thist Strategy I understood from Buck showow Walter because myself or Butista. did not hit Ubaldo Himen as well Our whole team had a hard time except Eddie, I feel like. exxcept to Eddie But as soon as Zack Britain didn't come out of the bull we're like, this game's over, dude. It doesn't matter. If it was anybody but like Britain was their only chance to get out of it I agree And once that happened? Devin let off Travis was a single. I had a single and then Devin went to third that Ed would end up finishing off with with the Homer, which was Yeah, he sat there with was a pld Hey, you you want The thing about Edwward is Edmund's pretty quiet When Edwin said something, everybody shut up Yeah. Like so Edwin always had that respect from everybody and was the same guy every day. Pretty much there might have been one time where I saw it a little bit down Pretty much the same guy every day Everybody loved Edward. So yeah, to bring that moment up, I mean that was a huge moment. There's so many moments coming back the fiftieth anniversary and so many of them are home runs You know Obviously the Carter home run. That's the walk off. You think about Robbie Alamar Off Eckers Lee in the in the CS in ninety two the year before that put the franchise on the map Bautisto with the bad flip. Eddie the walk offff as you mentioned, Ronance bring her. I like to throw one in two against the Yankees It was late in the season. and then we had I mean, RAP Roger Brulet had the call in French Y Rusll, Russell, Russell it was a good one And yeah, he passed away not too long ago. He passed away not too long ago. So I thought I'd just kind of throw that in there R information Russell Russell Russell. Oh here's a gem. Llady here Yeah. Oh man Oh man. Well, feas, this has been great. JD, you had a shout out for Auburn last time. Russ, you shouted out your has last time. I'll leave it up to you guys. Anybody you want to thing you want to kind of point out that's cooking right now in the summertime. I mean, we got Auburn advanced past the regional. They lost game one of the super reggional together win two in a row. They can do it because they won foreign a road to advanced out of the regional Let's go button up because it's time to get to the shit. Let's go. I like that. And on I P're pretty excited for the World Cup coming Les are going to be glued on that thing too So We'll see what happens there. Let's see what is the favorite I'm actually not even sure. I mean, all eyes right now on Canada just with the tournament being at home And uh Pretty neat moment a couple of weeks ago, their final tune up match Max Crippo from Montreal He had just been named the starting goalkeeper for the national team during the national anthem His dad's in the crowd Max is just like an emotional wreck during O Canada Reizing the moment coming up World Cup on home soil. so shouldhould be should be awesome This is the getet it D Leag. Thanks to all of you for making this one of the fastest growing podcasts in all of sports in North America. Like and subscribe, Apple Spotify. and on YouTube There's your MVP There's our Russell, Russell, Russell We will see you next week. Thanks again for joining us