Trevor Bauer On Sex Assault Allegations, MLB Suspension & Return to Baseball | PBD Podcast | Ep 360
Patrick Bet-David and Tom Ellsworth speak with former Major League Baseball pitcher Trevor Bauer.
Trevor Andrew Bauer is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers and in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.
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7:35 - Trevor explains how he's doing since being vindicated of the false sexual assault charges levied against him by Lindsey Hill.
9:07 - Trevor discusses the reaction he received from Japanese fans after joining Nippon Professional Baseball and playing for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.
12:29 - Tevor explains what information has been released regarding Lindsey Hill's false sexual assault allegations after Trevor was suspended from Major League Baseball.
15:26 - Trevor discusses whether he's received interest from any Major League Baseball teams since his suspension following the false allegations of sexual assault made by Lindsey Hill.
21:53 - Trevor explains the back story regarding his relationship with Lindsey Hill and what led to the false sexual assault allegations she made against him.
30:07 - Trevor and Patrick discuss how story lines could help make baseball exciting again.
40:16 - Trevor discusses MLB teams teaching players social media etiquette and how to protect themselves from false allegations.
52:38 - How turning athletes into content creators could help increase revenue for the league and player salaries.
1:24:21 - Why Major League Baseball should give Trevor another chance in the league.
1:35:47 - The lesson coaches and owners could learn from NFL Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson.
1:38:39 - How Major League Baseball can teach redemption to the American public by allowing Trevor back in the league.
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Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Why would you pat on Goliath when we got fed David?
Value payment, giving values contagious.
This world of entrepreneurs, we get no value to hate it.
I be running, homie, look what I become.
I'm the one.
So today's guest is a major league baseball player and a guy I've been following and speaking to for a while.
He was probably one of the most exciting players that entered into the major leagues.
But I want to properly introduce him to you in a way to see how you would feel about this.
So imagine you're in high school and you have a 4.8 GPA.
Okay, let's just assume you got a 4.8 GPA.
And because of your grades, you can go to UCLA early to pitch and to go to school.
You're 17 years old.
You go to UCLA, you do your thing.
You're coming out in the draft.
You can go second.
You ask the Mariners for 20 million.
They say no.
You go to the Diamondbacks for $7.3 million.
You get picked number three.
You come into the major leagues right off the bat.
You're doing your thing.
You're trying to figure yourself out.
You're young.
You're a little bit of a rebel.
You're in the new era social media content creation.
Maybe you're a bit of a troll.
So think about like a younger, you know, Connor McGregor coming into the UFC where Dana White knows how to use him, right?
And what does Connor do?
He draws all these eyeballs, making one of the greatest fights of all time with him and Mayweather, and he's making $100 million.
I believe Mayweather made $300 million.
But there's still some challenges.
And, you know, of course, when you're a little bit trollish and you're a little bit of a rebel, maybe, you know, you're in the playoffs, ALCS, maybe in game one, you're messing around with your, what do you call it, the drone, and you're trying to fix it.
And you're playing for this team called the Indians, and you cut your pinky of your pitching arm, right?
And it's so bad that you're playing a game, game two, of the ALCS.
You can hide your blood on your Navy blue jersey, but you can't on your white pants.
And no matter how much you try to, there's literally videos of the blood dripping to the point where the skipper on the other side had to come in and go to the ump and say, hey, man, you know, we can't have blood.
Look what's going on over there.
So they come, they take him out, and coach is upset.
It's like, what are you doing?
It's a big moment.
Sure, okay.
Then, you know, his frustration throws the pitch to the center of field.
Coach comes out.
What the F are you doing?
I'm so sorry.
Gets taken out.
Gets traded.
Eventually goes to a team.
He has a good season.
And I think he gets number three for number six for Cy Young.
He thought he could have won it.
I think this is Cincinnati.
I don't know where you were at, but you thought you were going to win it.
You were number six.
Then he goes and gets the biggest contract in the history.
By the way, at this time, he's won the Cy Young.
I think he ends up winning the Cy Young with the Dodgers.
He calls it the Mickey Mouse Award because I think it was a short season that we had with COVID, all the stuff that's going on.
But again, I want you to think about this.
All this stuff is going on.
You know, he gets a contract, biggest in the history of major league baseball at the time.
It's a three-year contract for $102 million.
Okay, three years, $102 million.
You get a contract like that in 2020.
He's 33 years old right now, which means 2020, he's late 20s.
29 years old.
You're on top of the world.
You just got a nine-figure check.
Okay.
And of course, you're having some fun.
And by the way, I'll put a little bit of Elon Musk in him as well because one time he said for 69 days straight, he wants to give money to a charity of the fans choosing.
And you know how much money gives to the charity on a daily basis?
$420.69 for 69 days straight.
And on the 69th day, he chose to give $69,420.69 to a charity of his choosing.
So yes, he is a troll.
That's a bit of a musk.
That's a bit of a counter.
But again, if you know how to use a creative talent like this who's a troll and it's upsetting and closes one eye when he's pitching the ball and strikes the guy out is screaming, is on the highlight.
We all follow it, gets millions of views.
We can't wait to see the next time they play.
It's drawing an audience that the MLB doesn't yet have.
It's getting exciting, right?
And then all of a sudden.
So again, at this point, you're on top of the world.
Wherever you go to, they know who you are.
They're talking about you every day on the news.
You're being written about.
You're on the papers.
You can't keep track of all the magazine sports magazines that are writing about you.
Oh, you know you recorded over here.
Oh, you know you were over here.
No, shit.
I can't track it anymore.
You're at this point.
Then all of a sudden, you get a lot of attention.
Of course, a lot of girls are interested in you.
Good looking guy, tall, knows how to play loud, vocal, you know, has strong opinions, is a troll also on Twitter.
He had plans of one point getting to a million followers on Twitter in no time.
I mean, this is the kind of a guy that's competitive, right?
So this girl is attracted to him, a girl named Lindsay Hill.
She comes in, asks him, there's text and all this stuff that we'll talk about.
There's a video.
We'll show some of the text.
And they start hanging out.
And, you know, then a few months later, she comes out and accuses him of sexual assault.
So now keep in mind, you're a major league baseball player.
You're playing for the Dodgers, a city like LA.
Girls are throwing their everything at you, right?
Then he's like, what do you mean?
What are we talking about here?
The MLB jumps to conclusion.
You know how many games they suspend him for?
I want you to think about this.
They suspend him for 324 games.
Ends up being 194 games.
Two years later, Lindsay was lying.
Texts were shown.
Videos were shown.
Calls were shown.
And even the court said, if we had this earlier two years before, this would have never happened.
Nothing would have happened with this person.
You know how much money Lindsay got?
$300,000.
You know, from who?
From an insurance company, not from Trevor Bauer.
The reason why this is very important and why I wanted to have this conversation with Trevor is because there's a lot of other people in sports who have gone through this.
And you just played in Japan, in Japan.
His spin rate and his velocity rate was very comparable to the best season that he had when he was crushing it in Major League Baseball.
So it's not like, well, he can't pitch anymore.
Wow, no, no, he can't throw.
He can't do this anymore.
And it's at a point right now where he could probably play in the big leagues for another seven years.
But one girl cost him a few hundred million dollars and some of his best pitching years of his life.
And fans lost that.
So with that being said, I wanted to properly introduce Trevor before we get into the story.
Trevor, it's great to have you on the podcast.
Yeah, it's great to be here.
I watch you guys all the time.
So happy to be on set and watching on YouTube.
Well, we watched you for a long time.
And, you know, Tom, one day we're having dinner and, you know, his family, they're big Dodger fans.
Tom was a season ticket holder.
I don't know, two decades, three decades.
You sat right next to who's the big interviewer?
Larry King and right behind the pitch.
So he would, he would follow.
And you were the family's favorite pitcher.
That's where you were at.
And then one day he's like, yeah, you know, there was this pitcher named Trevor Brown.
I said, I think Trevor DN'd me.
Trevor DM'd?
Yeah.
And I'm like Instagram.
Oh, shit, we did.
And I'm like, oh, we had this conversation together and it led to a phone call and all this stuff.
So I wanted to have Tom here because Tom's got a different perspective with baseball.
And he is a guy that's, you know, when he comes onto history, what's happened with sports, he knows a lot about it.
So I wanted him to be here as well.
So how are you doing right now?
How are you feeling right now?
I'm good.
Good.
It's been a rough couple years, of course, but I think I've managed to get through it well enough and focused on the future.
That's kind of been the saving grace, just trying to look towards the future and figure out what I can do to make the future better than the past.
So, yeah, doing pretty good right now.
So, what's the level of optimism of, you know, you getting everything squared away with Lindsay, where the market now knows what happened there for you to be able to go back on the mound and start pitching again?
I don't know.
I'm hopeful, of course.
I'm not the most optimistic person in general.
I try to be a little bit more realistic just in everything.
So, I realize that there's a lot of potential issues that a team would have in signing me public relations-wise.
Pitching-wise, I'm still one of the best guys in the world.
I know I can go out there and perform at a top level.
I played in Japan last year.
My set a new all-time velocity record through harder than I ever have in my life.
My average velocity was second highest in my career in any year.
I had a really good year.
I'm developed a new pitch.
My arsenal is better than it ever has been.
So, I have no doubts on the field that I'm able to perform and compete.
I'm just looking for an opportunity.
So, that's kind of where it's at.
I'm hopeful, but not sure.
We'll see how it plays out.
We saw the videos when you were in Japan.
You were welcome.
They loved you.
It seemed like it was like a solid reception.
What was your experience playing in Japan?
Man, Japan was awesome.
I could talk this entire podcast about Japan.
The Baystars organization, so the team I played for there was the Yokohama Baystars, and they were extremely welcoming.
I've actually known a couple people in their front office for a couple years now through going to Japan and trying to make content and help grow baseball in Japan and all that.
But it was great.
They were super welcoming.
The fan base was super welcoming.
For people who haven't seen games in Japan, you can imagine like a European soccer game with the crowd chanting and there's band playing the entire time and flags and all sorts of stuff sold out every single game.
So for the people in the States, if you haven't been to a game over there, it's well worth it if you get the chance.
You know, they care a lot about baseball as a culture.
Everyone loves it.
It's like the number one sport there, which is really cool to be a part of.
Talent is very good.
I think the talent is better than most people give it credit for.
It kind of gets the reputation of being like a less than MLB league, and that was not my experience at all.
I think that's not, you know, that's when you look at the WBC and the results of the five WBCs, Japan's won three of them.
So level of competition is very high.
Different, of course, a lot of cultural differences in how the game's played and what's important, how the coaches interact with players.
There's only 12 teams.
There's 30 in the MLB.
So there's a lot less data.
Also, it's not really controlled by a central operating body.
Each team is kind of individual.
I saw a really interesting graph one time, actually, kind of like revenues in 1970.
NPB in Japan actually generated more revenue than MLB.
And since then, MLB has like skyrocketed and NPB has stayed flat.
And the reason for that is that 12 teams there are competing.
And here, MLB is like a collective.
You know, MLB owns all the rights to the TV.
They can sell it as a package.
So the national TV deals are there.
They can drive ticket prices.
It's one central thing where in Japan, it's 12 teams competing for the fans' attention.
So there's no national TV deals.
They all have their local TV deals.
It's all based, revenue is all based on in-person attendance.
So they actually have to make the fan experience really good.
So ticket prices are down, entertainment's up.
Like the base stars would launch fireworks after every single game.
So it became a thing to like stay after the game and enjoy it.
They'd have like pop stars come in and do concerts after a baseball game to try to drive fan engagement.
So it was really fun.
The people in Japan, like outside of baseball, just the people on the streets are so polite, at least, you know, my experience.
So polite and welcoming.
I had people coming up to me.
I'd walk to the train station, like 20-minute walk.
You know, if I was, if 10 people, if less than 10 people came up and like shook my hand and wanted a picture or wanted to say hi or something, it was a slow day.
But they did it in a very respectful way.
You were Tom Select is where you were.
You got a taste of that on what it was like there.
Yeah, it was cool.
The whole experience was awesome.
Fantastic.
Well, you know, when I was following the story close, and we've reacted to it many times with, you know, what was going on with it with Lindsey Hill.
And we've seen her in interviews.
I think she did a couple interviews where she was called out.
And it's like, ah, shit.
If you feel that way, if you only knew me, if you gave me a chance to get to know me, like, no, we got to know you and we learned a lot about you.
What was revealed from the Lindsey Hill case that originally, the way MLB immediately jumped on, it's like, no, you can't do this.
This is not fair.
You know, down to 324 million, 324 games.
And then boom, now it's 193, whatever the number was, to where it's at today.
What did MLB learn to realize this guy's innocent?
You didn't do any of it.
And then did they reach out, apologize?
Has there been any conversations there about them wanting to speak with you about potentially what your career is going to look like in the future?
Maybe we need you to go through XYZ therapy and meet with this.
Has that conversation taken place?
That conversation hasn't taken place.
I have spoken to the commissioner and the deputy commissioner.
Face to face.
Face to face.
I had a 20-minute conversation with Rob, and basically I wanted to just apologize for the things that I've said about him in the past and just clear the air.
Didn't get the sense that there was any malice or anything like that.
It was a pleasant conversation.
Mostly, I mean, we talked a little bit about the state of baseball and growing it and stuff like that.
So trying to, like, I want to be a positive for the game.
You know, I want to grow it.
Baseball's given me a lot.
Despite the last couple of years, it's like I'm still in a fantastic position in life and time with my family and confidence as a person.
And there's outside of the money and the fame and all that stuff.
There's other like key lessons that I've learned through baseball that I want the next generation to be able to experience.
And so I think a lot of my efforts to be positive for the game have been different than what the game has traditionally been.
And I think it's caused a lot of like a lot of riffs.
But it all comes from a place of like trying to connect with the younger fan base and get people interested in baseball.
And so yeah, I'd love to work with the league.
We talked about that a little bit.
I apologize for the things that I've said and the way that I've gone about things, which, you know, looking back now, I'm 33 now, looking back at some of the things I did when I was 20 and coming up in the league, I'm just very embarrassed about them.
But I think that's a natural thing.
Like you grow.
Hopefully you learn from your mistakes and you do better year after year.
You know, even back to my time when I was at the Diamondbacks when I first signed, like I look back at some of the things I did now, I'm like, wow, I was so immature back then.
But back then, I'm a 20-year-old, just got drafted in the first round.
I think I have everything figured out.
And, you know, I ruined a lot of relationships or at least got off to a bad start in a lot of relationships there that I would like to repair.
So that's kind of the tone of the conversation.
That's what I'm trying to do.
I want to be a positive, really.
And in baseball, is it kind of like does Manfred is like the president of the United States?
You got 50 governors.
The governor's got to decide what they get to do.
And it's left to the states to make the decision.
Is it a similar way where, hey, I'm the commissioner?
You know, if these guys want to hire you, it's on them, but I don't have a problem if they hire you.
Is that the kind of approach?
So the way it works is the owners actually elect the commissioner.
So the commissioner works for the owners, for the collective group.
He's in charge of overseeing the game and making, at the end of the day, making their investment in a baseball team profitable and making it a good investment, growing the league, growing revenues, stuff like that.
So did he say, hey, if the guys want to sign you, great.
But he didn't give an endorsement either.
He didn't give a nod to say, hey, guys, yeah, he's good.
If you guys want to work with him, was there an element of an endorsement where it's...
It's not his...
If a team wants to sign a player, they go sign the player.
It's not really his area.
Have you had any kind of a, have you pitched for anybody?
Have you gone?
Have they taken a look at you?
Has anything no, no one's looked at you yet?
No, I don't think the performance is the factor.
I mean, I pitched in Japan last year.
We just saw Yamamoto sign with the Dodgers.
They scout him in Japan.
They know, each team knows kind of like how they view Japanese or like performance in Japanese league, how it'll translate.
They look at the stuff metrics, the velocity, spin rates, the strikeout numbers, the pitch movements, all that, and they make the decision.
And I don't think anyone out there has any question that I'm still one of the most elite guys out there.
It's a little different than other free agencies because the talent is not the question and the money is not the question.
Like I'm willing to play for the league minimum with incentives.
I just want an opportunity to go out there and pitch to prove that I'm still one of the best guys.
I realize that there's risk in signing me for the other side.
I want it to be a good deal.
I don't want one side to get screwed.
And so I want to pitch for the league minimum with incentives.
So if I pitch like the best guy in the world, then I can earn money like that.
And if I don't, then there's no risk for the team.
So it's really not a question of talent or money.
It's a question of optics, I think.
And that's the battle we're fighting.
What do you think their risk is?
If you're a major, like if we were in a negotiation situation, right?
You have to always put yourself in the other person's shoes to say, okay, this is what they want.
This is what they fear.
What do you think is their concern?
And what can you, as a player, do or agree to in the contract to get them to not worry about that one or two or three things?
Yeah, so I think the first part, identifying the risk is a little bit easier than the solutions.
Identifying risks, you have optics publicly, so fan-based stuff.
I'm perceived to be a certain way.
You sign me.
It's like, oh, well, you don't care about women or you don't value, how do I explain this to my kids?
There's those types of questions with the fan base.
There's internal stuff.
I'm sure there's, you know, these organizations are massive.
So you have a lot of different people that feel a lot of different ways.
So you have risk of internal culture disruption with the front office and the support staff.
I don't think anyone really questions the clubhouse stuff.
I'm fine in the clubhouse.
I have a good reputation behind closed doors in the clubhouse publicly.
It's a little bit different.
So there's those risks.
And then there's sponsors.
Do people drop sponsorships?
There's a financial component to it as well.
I think the upside is there.
You spend league minimum that you have to spend anyway, and you potentially get someone that pitches at a $40 million a year level.
But those are some of the concerns that I've identified.
How I go about solving those, I personally don't think that it's more than a three or four day story when if someone signs me, I think it goes away.
I think I handle it and then it's just about baseball.
I could be very wrong on that.
That's just my personal opinion.
So I don't know how to solve that one.
I'm happy to have any conversations and work with the team in any way, whether it's having conversations with the local media, the national media, if that's something that they want me to, you know, being involved in the community.
I like being involved in the community.
It's something I'm very passionate about anyway, connecting with youth, all those different things.
I'm happy to have those conversations.
Ultimately, like I said earlier, I want it to be a partnership and I want to do well for the team that signs me and I want them to do well for me.
And so both parties are happy.
So I'm willing to address any concern that they have.
I just don't know how to do that ahead of time.
You know, if I go do a bunch of media and address stuff, then it's like, all right, well, now you're in the media a lot with this as, you know, kind of surrounding this topic.
Maybe the team just wants me to not be in the media and play baseball.
I'm fine with that.
Maybe a team wants me to address it, but different teams feel different ways.
So it's hard to have one solution that satisfies the whole of the 30 teams.
Ultimately, I just looking for a, you know, to sit down with someone and like have a conversation and like prove, be given the chance to prove that I can be a positive and that I can grow the fan base.
I can connect with the local community.
I can pitch well on the field.
I can help the players in the clubhouse become better pitchers.
Help the team win, you know, bring playoffs and World Series to the city.
I think there's a lot of positives.
I know I can deliver on those things.
I just need to be given the opportunity.
So do you think with any of these teams, like is there any teams you wouldn't play for or you'd play for anybody that gave you an opportunity today?
No, I'd play for anyone.
I don't have like you mentioned earlier that I'm kind of a troll.
Like I've trolled a lot and it's all trying to drive fan engagement.
I have no problems with any of the teams.
I'd play for the Dodgers again.
I'd play for the Astros.
I'd play.
It doesn't matter to me.
You just want to get back in there and play.
I want to play.
I've spent 30 years of my life developing a skill set that's like top 15 in the world.
I'd like to be able to use it because I love playing.
I love competing and I feel like I have a lot left to give.
And your preparation, the way you would go about preparing it was very different and weird and controversial and nobody understood it.
And even in what which team was it you were playing for that even the pitchers were coming to you to learn from the data on how to improve their games like you were helping other pitchers around you on how to become a better pitcher.
So but but let me do this for some of the audience that doesn't know the whole story.
Okay, they don't know what really happened.
With Lindsay Hill, you made a video.
Okay.
And the video was the whole story with what took place and the texts were out and you kind of negotiated where you could talk about it for the rest of your career because that was obviously very important.
You even sued her.
You came back and sued her.
Can you walk the audience through maybe the process of what happened?
Events.
Here's what happened first.
One day I'm doing this.
We met here.
Here's what took place.
And this happened.
Whatever information you can give on a process for the audience that doesn't know.
And then we can go into some of the other topics.
Yeah, high level.
She reached out to me on Instagram.
We started talking on Instagram.
Eventually, she came over to my house one night.
So she lived in San Diego.
I was in Pasadena.
She drove up to Pasadena, had a nice night together, decided to meet up three weeks later about, she came back, had a great night.
She left, no problems.
And then a couple days later, I'm getting texts about I'm in the hospital and what's going on.
And she started accusing me of things that did not happen.
Eventually, she filed a domestic violence restraining order basically saying she was scared or in danger.
That's a public filing.
So her written version of events went public.
The media picked up on it.
I was put on administrative leave by MLB, not allowed to pitch.
I didn't have any chance at that point to defend myself.
We went to family court, I think, six weeks or so later.
We had four days there where a judge heard her side of the story.
I didn't testify.
There's an open investigation.
So my lawyers advised me not to say anything.
And so the judge heard her side of why she needed a protective order and then denied it, which, for those who don't know, that's like the lowest standard in all of the entire justice system, the lowest standard of proof.
And the judge threw it out and said that she had misled the court, materially misled the court, and that there was no wrongdoing on my part.
Then the I think that was in August.
I could have the month wrong.
It's a long time ago now, but there's an open investigation.
Obviously, the allegations against me were very serious.
And as they were, they should be investigated to the fullest extent.
So as the Pasadena Police Department and I think other, I don't know exactly what all other entities were involved, but as they investigate it, I was still on administrative leave.
So I wasn't able to play for the remainder of the 2021 season.
That lasted into spring training time where I was on administrative leave in 2022.
They eventually decided not to press any charges.
So I was never arrested, never charged with anything.
And then I was, after that, suspended by MOB for originally two years.
So by the time we went through the process of appeal in December, I believe of 2022, the suspension was reduced to 194 games, which is the number of games that I'd missed.
And then I was cleared to play immediately.
I still had one year left on my Dodger contract.
So in January of 2023, they released me from that.
And then I went and played in Japan in 2023.
And now we're here.
So that's like a high-level sequence of events.
Now, texts came out about her.
Rob.
Can you prepare that video?
Maybe the first 90 seconds will be good for the audience to see.
I think this is you actually showing the text.
Just play from the beginning.
Go for it.
Next victim, star pitcher for the Dodgers.
A text Lindsay Hill sent to a friend before she ever even met me.
What should I steal?
She asked another, in reference to visiting my house for the first time.
The answer, take his money.
So how might that work?
I'm going to his house Wednesday, she said.
I already have my hooks in.
You know how I roll.
Then, after the first time we met, net worth is 51 mil, she said.
Bitch, you better secure the bag, was the response.
But how was she going to do that?
Need daddy to choke me out, she said.
Being an absolute whore to try to get in on his 51 million, read another text.
Then, after the second time we met, former Padre's pitcher Jacob Nix told her, you got to get this bag.
I'll give you 50,000, Lindsay replied.
Her AA sponsor asked her at one point, do you feel a tiny bit guilty?
Not really, she replied.
Since then, her legal team has approached me multiple times about coming to a financial settlement.
But as I have done since day one, I refused to pay her even a single cent.
In August of 2021, Lindsay Hill's claims were heard in court, and during those legal proceedings, critical information was deliberately and unlawfully concealed from me and my legal team.
Information like this video, which was taken by Lindsay Hill herself the morning after she claimed she was brutally attacked, emotionally traumatized, and desperate to get away from me.
And now we have the metadata, so there can be no dispute.
It was taken mere minutes before she left my house on the morning of May 16th, 2021, without my knowledge or consent, of course.
In it, you can see her lying in bed next to me while I'm sleeping, smirking at the camera without a care in the world, or any marks on her face.
I think it paints a pretty clear picture of what actually happened the evening of May 15th and why the video was originally concealed from us.
Yeah.
After hearing the evidence available to her, Judge Dana Gold Saltman found that Lindsay Hill had misled the court.
She found her claims to be materially misleading.
She denied her request for a domestic violence restraining order, and she found that no sexual assault or non-consensual conduct took place.
Now, some of you might not know about restraining order hearings.
I know I didn't, but I've since learned that it's extremely rare for a request for a restraining order to be denied because the standard of proof that you need to obtain one is extremely low.
So you can make of that what you will.
The fact is, I was never arrested.
I was never charged with a crime, and I won the only legal proceeding that took place without my side of the story even being heard.
And most importantly, as I've said from day one, I never sexually assaulted Lindsey Hill or anyone else for that matter.
So I sued her, which prompted her to counter-sue me.
Quite frankly, regardless of the outcome in court, I've paid significantly more in legal fees than Lindsey Hill could ever pay me in her entire life.
And I knew that would be the case going in.
But the lawsuit was never about the money for me.
It was the only way for me to obtain critical information to clear my name.
The discovery process in that lawsuit recently concluded, at which point, Lindsey Hill's legal team again came to us with another proposal to resolve the case.
This time, however, they weren't seeking any money from me.
Having received much of the information that had been hidden from us, a small portion, which I've referenced here, I was willing to agree to the terms proposed.
Both parties would drop their respective lawsuits, and neither of us would pay either side any money.
I also retained my right to speak publicly about the case, something I have not been at liberty to do since June of 2021.
So, as of today, both lawsuits have been settled.
Now, over the last two years, I've been forced to defend my integrity and my reputation in a very public setting.
But hopefully, this is the last time I have to do so, as I prefer to just remain focused on doing my job, winning baseball games, and entertaining fans around the world.
So, today, I'm happy to be moving on with my life.
How much did it cost you if you were to put a number to it last however long it's been?
Renewal and contracts, additional things you could do, maybe a World Series win, maybe two.
During that time, you were on a team that had a lot of likes to do a lot of things.
What do you think it cost you?
Are you talking future earnings potential as well?
Give me all of it, yeah.
During that time and future earnings, it's during that time.
It's mid, let's see, mid-eight figures between legal costs, suspension, you know, contract, off-field stuff, endorsements, all that.
Lifetime earnings, probably 350 is conservative.
I was making 42 and a half million a year at that point.
I was 30.
So, if I decline linearly from 30 to 40 and end up at 40, making 20 million, which would be well below, you know, what guys like Scherzer and Verlander are making at 40.
Let's just say I declined linearly, then I would have averaged 31 or 30 million 750 for 10 years.
So, that'd be 300 million plus the, you know, and you were innocent.
So, $350 million to $400 million, and you were innocent.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, you know, the one thing I think about myself is I have two ways I process this, but, you know, I want to kind of see where you take this.
On one end, you know, Dana White knew how to use Connor.
Okay.
Connor Kim and you used to do your arms like this when you would go, and then who's the guy you pitch, which I struck him out, and then he had a home run and he did this to you.
And he went, by the way, that's freaking awesome, right?
That makes me want to watch Sports Center at night.
That's the whole point.
So I'm learning from Connor, like, in order to sell a UFC fight, you have to have a reason for people to want to watch.
So you have to have a storyline going into that match.
That's right.
So there's no storylines in baseball anymore.
It used to be, you know, you have Yankees, Red Sox, and there's this big rivalry.
Then free agency came around and players move around so much that the players don't.
Right.
So there's no storylines in baseball during the regular season.
So you need storylines.
You need people to like antagonize.
You need people to fight back.
So Tatis, I, you know, did something in spring training where I pitched with one eye closed, struck out one of the Padres hitters.
It was fun, made for good social clips, a lot of engagement.
And then he ended up hitting a home run off me and like celebrated with his dugout by putting one hand over his eye.
That's great.
It went viral.
It was everywhere.
Baseball was talked about on live, like on national TV for three days because of it.
Like, I don't care that I'm on the quote-unquote losing end of that.
It's good for baseball.
I'm going to be on the winning end sometimes and losing end.
But you need storylines.
You need social media clips that connect with youth.
Like when Steph Curry hits a three in an all-star game, like it's meaningless game, but it's trending on Twitter and X and everywhere.
It's everywhere.
Mike Trout, one of the best baseball players, not the best baseball player of all time, makes an insane catch, robs a home run.
Like you can't find it on social media.
Like you got to connect with the youth where the youth are.
And that was the whole point of all that.
And so, you know, I don't need to go out of my way, like antagonize people or whatever.
It's an entertainment sport.
Like, I'm trying to entertain people.
It's funny.
I wrote that one word here.
I said the one thing because when you, I put a tweet out the other day about the fact that NFL is destroying, what do you call it, NBA?
And George Carl responded and he was upset at what I said about the NBA because I feel LeBron's destroyed the game, my opinion again.
And specifically with the eyeballs, where the most viewed playoff game of all time, I think, was game six of Utah Jazz against Chicago Bulls, got 38 million views or 36 million views.
And ever since then, we've hit 30, I think, once or twice.
Everything's in the 13s and the 12s and the 14 and the 18 number.
It's dropped, right?
And MLB, as somebody who loves baseball, I'm a die-hard baseball guy.
I grew up just following stats of baseball because baseball offered me more stats than any other sport.
And I like numbers.
I'm a numbers guy, right?
But if I was the MLB, okay, which I'm not, but if I'm a CMO or president or commissioner of MLB, here's what I'd be thinking about.
You know what case study I'd be paying attention to today?
One case study if I'm the MLB.
How much eyeballs and market has Taylor Swift brought to the NFL?
Think about that.
How much?
You know, if I'm a betting man, the record, do you know what the record is for the most people watching the Super Bowl?
I think it's 114.4 million.
Can you type in most viewed Super Bowl of all time?
I want to say it's 114.4 million.
U.S. audience.
U.S. audience.
And I think it's 2015 or 2014.
What year is it?
2015.
There you go.
I got it right.
So 114.4 million 2015 Super Bowl, right, is the most viewed Super Bowl of all time.
I'm willing to bet this Super Bowl could get close to 130.
That's how crazy this Super Bowl I think is going to get, right?
Depending on how they measure it and what it's going to be like.
Of course, a lot of people are going to go to parties, so you're not going to be using multiple devices.
But I think it's going to get to the 120 to 130 mark.
And I think it's going to break the record.
Why?
Because the NFL got a chance to get into a market they were not in before, right?
They brought eyeballs they couldn't bring in before.
So with baseball, you know, what's baseball going to do to get eyeballs that they wouldn't bring in before?
Let's take a few case studies of what players changed a sport, right?
Tiger Woods, what audience did he bring?
Non-whites.
It wasn't just blacks, it's non-whites.
If you were not white, you were following Tiger.
You got to be, are you telling me a black kid is going around beating every yes, freaking underdog?
I'm all in with this guy.
Let's see what he's going to do.
Wow.
Sick, insane.
So golf goes to holder, everybody's wearing tiger shirts, tiger shoes.
And a 10-year younger audience hit media.
I know.
Game changer, right?
Okay.
So you go, what did Connor do to UFC?
Change the game.
Connor did to UFC, right?
Brought all these eyeballs and blew it up.
Yeah, no question about it.
As an entrepreneur of a Fortune 500 company, who brought eyeballs to capitalism?
Elon Musk.
Why?
He's a troll.
He would have fun.
He was different.
He would be selling his Tesla for how much?
$69,000.
Out of all the prices you can sell Tesla for, you mean to tell me you want to sell for $69,000?
Yes.
He would do everything with $420,000 and $69,000.
And he was, again, toying with everybody, right?
So it brought eyeballs.
You need agitation.
You need to agitate the enemy.
That brings a level of me being interested in, well, you know, the other day, did you see who was the one that got punched in the face?
The Toronto guy, Batista, got punched in the face by the second baseman or and then you're like, wait, what?
What's the next time they're playing?
Whether you like it or not, you're following this, right?
Sosa and Maguire did this to baseball in 98.
Save the game.
I think you had an element of that.
And you have an element of it.
When I say had, I mean, that's when we saw it, right?
Where you were making people are like, who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
He wants to be a YouTuber.
He wants to be an influencer, but he's a baseball guy and he's got this stick that he's going like this.
What the hell is wrong with this guy?
He's interesting.
Why is he pitching it from the center field, from the left field to the right field?
The coaches are upset at him.
You're going to throw out your elbow.
That's the fastest way to do this.
Why does he have to have a running star to pitch to capture all of these things you did that was weird?
Do you think there was an element of you being a little too controversial for baseball that people don't know how to handle you?
Yeah, for sure.
I think I have a lot of thoughts on that.
One, I didn't go about it in the perfect way.
I, you know, it's one thing to do like YouTube and be out there social media-wise.
And I antagonize people, obviously, in my organizations too.
I was very bullheaded on like, I know what I'm talking about.
And I was right on a lot of things.
I was also wrong on a lot of things.
And a little bit more humility would have done well behind the scenes.
So I don't want to try to absolve myself of all responsibility here.
But I think that baseball is a very traditional game.
It's got a very old, much older audience than a lot of other sports.
And I think more than any other sport, the fan base wants baseball to stay pure to like baseball and what they grew up with and all that.
And the landscape is changing.
I think that you need to have more entertainment in baseball.
And in order to have entertainment, you have to have those things that are different, that are quirky.
You have to have storylines, friction.
You need those things to get talked about.
And so I'm willing to do that.
I've never much cared if people like or dislike me.
That's a whole other story about my childhood.
But I was willing to play that part and willing to do that.
I viewed it as good for the game.
I think a lot of people viewed it as disruptive.
It caused a lot of attention, which is what it was designed to do, but that is viewed sometimes as a negative.
Like, oh, it's all about you.
Or, you know, you're in the media so much.
Everyone else in the clubhouse is getting asked about you and the things that you do.
And so it's very centered.
I got the impression from a couple of teams over the years that they viewed it as a negative.
All the eyeballs that I would bring to my social channels and to the vlog on YouTube and Twitter profile and stuff.
They viewed it as a negative because it was so much media attention on one player.
It wasn't on the team.
But that's what sells.
People wear LeBron jerseys.
They don't wear generic like Laker jerseys anymore.
It's people are fans of players.
They follow their favorite player where they go.
All of that I'm okay with.
The only thing I have a problem with as an owner, if I was an owner that you were playing for my team and you're messing around with a drone before the ALs, yes, I would lose my mind.
I swear to God, I would be like, what is wrong with this guy?
We're about to win a, we have a shot.
Those are the kind of things, you know, like in the army, you sign a contract, you're in the army.
Guess what?
We're going to go party on the weekend.
All right.
Just don't be stupid.
We're going to go do our thing.
But if you harm your body, that's government property.
What are you doing harming the body?
You're hurting us, right?
So that was the part where the creativity and all of that stuff, fine.
Antagonizing, fine.
Calling out your own team you're playing for.
It's just a code.
You just don't do that.
And you try to do it in the most subtle way possible, like Michael used to do it.
And Michael was very classy when he would call out his own team.
He would say, yeah, these guys have put a great team together.
But the players come here to watch the play, the fans come here to watch the players play, not the GM and the management.
That was his way of saying what he did.
But the injury stuff, you know, that's when it's affecting the team.
Those things are things that bother me more that I would be concerned about than you going out there and doing what you're doing.
You know what I'm saying?
I think that comes with maturity, anyways.
There's a difference between being, you know, this phase.
You're a young 33.
You just turned 33 last week or 10 days, January 18th, I think, right?
13th.
17th.
You just turned.
So it's not like you were 33 and a half going on 34.
You're a fresh 33, right?
Yeah.
So, you know, you still got a run rate.
But going with this theme of marketing, branding, all of that stuff.
Do you think sometimes the first person that does it gets destroyed, ousted, then they come back and say, listen, some of the stuff Trevor was doing is kind of cool.
And you know what?
Maybe if the next guy, we got to be able to handle this next guy in a better way.
Let's make sure we coach him that when a girl DMs you and they want to come over and all this stuff, why don't you take a page out of some of Derek Jeter's playbook where, you know, they got to sign a NDA and have lawyers protecting it because you're officially a target.
Like, did you have that as well when girls were coming over your room or no?
You know what I'm talking about?
Where here's a signed a contract.
It's interesting because like it's today's society, it's almost if you have someone sign an NDA, you're like, oh, well, why would you have them sign an NDA if you're not doing anything?
And if that comes out, then it's just like you're almost guilty before just because you had an NDA.
You got to protect yourself, though.
I've known players, though, that have faced that.
Yeah.
That it got, you know, kept from the public eye, but they had, you know, that's part of the threat.
I was like, oh, you had me sign this NDA.
If this goes public, you're going to be looked at as doing something wrong.
You don't want that.
Pay me some money.
Like, that's very common in athletics.
So even just an NDA, like, what's the penalty for breaking it?
A lot of these girls don't have nearly the money that it costs.
You know, if that goes public, the girl doesn't have the amount of money that would cost the athlete, right?
The athletes are making so much money.
Of course.
So it's like there's no penalty to the unit.
You can't tell me other players in like NBA, they ran through girls, right?
And what happened?
You don't see it.
Like, you see, Michael doesn't have a lot of stuff that came back with that.
And we know Michael had a lot of fun, right?
You got magic.
Are you kidding me?
Like, magic?
He said himself, you know, in one of the interviews, he says, I had, I don't know what the number was.
He said, I had 14 girls at the same time one time.
Okay.
And he said, I ran through a thousand, probably.
And the number he gave, I believe, was a thousand.
Nothing came back.
So maybe that's in the 80s and it's a different era we're talking about, where it's not when the Me Too movement became hot.
But today, if I'm your lawyer, if I'm your manager, you know, we're getting the, you know, the movie that George Clooney did with Katharine Zitter Jones?
You ever seen that movie where they're trying to get a prenuptial and at the end he's like, I love you so much.
Yeah, that's the one.
What is it called?
Rob, you got that up real quickly.
What is it called?
Intolerable cruelty.
Oh, it's done by Brian Grazier.
I just saw him last week at the Polo Lounge.
So intolerable cruelty.
And the whole concept is about what?
The Macy prenup.
That you can't break the Macy prenup.
Listen, you're a guy.
You're young.
What are you going to do?
You're going to go not having sex for 10 years and you play baseball?
Like, is Yankees going to say, hey, you're signing a contract?
But guess what?
For the next 10 years, you can't get together with a girl.
Your temper is probably going to be worse than a locker room.
We need you to have some fun on privately as well, right?
But for me, I would probably go one, protect myself.
If I'm a manager of yours or a lawyer of yours, dude, I'm finding out exactly the right way to write the contract agreement to make sure nothing can happen to you.
Even to the point of, Hi, my name is Trevor.
What's your name?
Jackie.
Jackie, how do we meet?
Such and such.
Who DM'd who?
I DM'd you.
Can you please show proof that you DM'd me?
Boom.
And we're going to have some fun right now.
Yes?
Yes.
You were not forced to be here.
No, I chose to be here.
Can you please papa pa papa pa?
Great.
This goes in a file.
Okay.
And then your lawyer and whatever saves that file.
Today's era, if you don't protect yourself in some creative ways, and by the way, I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not saying that's what I would be doing.
But to me, when you're coming up, was there talks on the inside where the next Trevor Bowers that's going to come up, look, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, have this lawyer do this before you do this, talk to this player that used to be here.
Hey, Johnny, can you coach such and such to make sure he's a good-looking guy?
He's going to go through a lot of this.
What can he do to protect himself against girls that are going to want to use Mewtwo against him?
Talk to my lawyer.
Does that take place behind closed doors or no?
I've not had any of those conversations.
I think it's an important one to have.
I think the social media landscape really blowing up over the last 10 years has created a lot of opportunities for things like this to happen.
And it's probably moved a lot faster than the industry is ready for and able to kind of compensate for.
I think those discussions need to be had.
It's very hard to figure out a solution, though.
There's a lot of ways around things.
Like even if you have all of the text messages, like I have all the text messages, even if you have video, like the morning after and there's no marks on girls.
No, no, they said if they had the video earlier, it wouldn't have gone, right?
They did say that one clip.
If they had it immediately, it wouldn't have gone this far.
So that would have helped.
Yeah.
So I think the, you know, keeping all the documentation is very important.
And, you know, if you can find some way to, I don't know, get consent to video the thing or audio or some record of what actually happened would be important.
That's, you know, it's double-edged sword on that front.
But I agree with you.
You have to have something that's going to protect you.
Unfortunate part is like the actual implementation of it and how you do that.
And then the athletes' willingness to actually do it every single time.
Like it's a lot.
Like there's solutions that need to be discovered there.
When I joined the Army, the first thing my MEP station, then you go to your unit, they said, hey, 15 will get you 20.
That was the biggest line in the Army.
15 will get you 20.
What is 15 will get you 20?
You're 19 years old.
You hook up with someone's 15-year-old daughter.
You're going to get 20 years.
What you're saying, Sarge?
You ID everybody.
You want me to ID a girl?
Yep.
Even if they look 24, you ID them.
So whenever we would go where was point of something happening, you'd have to say, can I see your ID?
Yeah.
You're stupid.
No, can I see your ID?
Are you serious?
Yes.
You want me to see you once you're 23 years old?
Okay, cool.
Let's go.
Versus it was, oh, can't, right?
So even the even military would prep soldiers to set them up for success, not set them up for failure.
I don't know if in orientation, they talk to you about this kind of stuff.
I would assume they do.
I've never had a conversation like that.
You mean to tell me nobody in major leagues, any of the teams you were part of, talked about how to handle girls that come up to you and DM you?
I've never had it.
They may talk to other players.
I've never had it.
You know, that's consistent with things that I've read and heard, that there are more counselors that are in college football right now that talk about click chasers, frat parties, and things like this to be careful with in the age of social media than there are in Major League Baseball.
I've heard that the NBA, which dates back to Sean Kemp, actually has some level of counseling that they do, especially financial counseling, because there's a guy named Truck who took a lot of money from a lot of NBA players, excuse me, and NFL players.
So there's like this financial and other things that are coming in certain sports.
But I've heard that Major League Baseball, hey, you're number seven.
You report to the Oklahoma City Little Ducks in four months.
Congratulations.
Come, and if you're a first-rounder, come to the podium, put on the hat, and now we won't see you for three years until you come up.
There's a lot of conversations that happen around how to handle media in interviews.
Like, we'll go through media training.
And, okay, when they ask this question, how do you deflect?
Here, watch some interviews of football players, basketball players.
Here's some things that they did well.
Here's some things that they did wrong.
Here's how to say words without saying anything at all.
And like, just pass the interview and not make any controversy.
Like, we have a lot of those types of conversations.
But, and we have, you know, Major League Baseball has like the domestic violence trainings that every player goes through every spring training.
And, you know, if a girl's too drunk and can't consent, then that would be sexual assault and like training of that type of thing.
But there's never been a discussion, at least that I've had, on like, okay, you could face this type of situation.
Here's something that you can do as a single guy with millions of dollars, like ahead of meeting up with a girl.
Like, here's best practices on blah, blah, blah, blah.
It's kind of been a hands-off, like your personal life is your personal life.
I mean, but I don't know where I stand on that because like your personal life should be like your thing.
You should have some sort of training, but it's also that I feel like there should be a separation between your job, you come to work, and then like what you are doing on the side.
Of course, there's a separation, but I have to prepare you for success, not for failure.
So if I'm running a team, you know, we're having that conversation very, very early.
And, you know, I'm having it if I'm the skipper.
I'm having it if I'm the captain.
I'm having it if I'm the senior guy on the team.
I'm having it if I'm the GM.
I'm having it as the older brother coming in.
There's got to be like Antoine Walker.
One time in Chicago, we're having a cigar with him.
And Antoine Walker, career earnings.
Can you type up what Antoine Walker's career earnings are?
Just type in Antoine Walker, career earnings.
I think he made $113 million, $114 million, $108 million.
Okay, so he made a good amount of money.
Got nothing.
What happened?
He says one time I was hanging out with Michael, and Michael's playing $100,000 hands or whatever the number was.
He said, I thought I could play $100 million on $100,000 hands.
Shit, I realized I can't play $100,000 hands.
I'm not at Michael's level of money, right?
So what happened to him?
He lost everything.
Who signed him?
Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter signed him.
What did they do with Antoine Walker?
What Morgan?
I think Morgan Stanley signed him.
Can you type in Antoine Walker, Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter?
Morgan Stanley signed them, and him and Morgan Stanley worked together to talk to players that were coming to the league on how to manage their finances, okay?
And what to do with mistakes to make and don't do this and don't do that.
And be careful.
Yeah, right there.
Morgan Stanley, global sports entertainment teams out with former professional athletes, Antoine Walker being one of them.
Bart Scott brings real life lessons of athletes.
So then athletes are like, say, so managers are going to come and do this.
The other day, Matt Reif, the comedian, you know, Matt Reif, the guys that's going viral, he says he got a phone call from Dave Chappelle.
He says, I was about to, he saved me $750,000 because I had a lawyer that I was paying 5% on every deal I was doing.
And Chappelle told me, no, talk to this guy.
He'll do it for $5,000.
Not a big deal.
He said, Chappelle saved me $750,000 just by telling me right there, just by telling me, how long is this clip, Rob?
49 seconds.
Yeah, can you just play?
Dave Chappelle, what's the best piece of advice he's given you?
He saved me three quarters of a million dollars on a lawyer.
They wanted us to go with this 5% lawyer, which would have been three-quarters of a million dollars for a certain deal.
And he was like, no, I've got a guy who'll do it hourly.
Cost me a couple grand.
He saved $700,000.
$1,000.
So, you know, Chappelle's playing the role of a mentor.
I think baseball's got to also be talking to each other and kind of, and maybe they are, and I'm not speculating.
I don't know.
You're telling me they don't do it.
But I think that would be the one thing I would do as an owner because it's a new target.
Diem is a new target.
You're a new target.
They're coming after you.
But I still want to be able to use your antics.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
As long as we create a certain set of criteria to say, I don't care if you create content.
Here's a couple things.
Don't leak secret stuff that we're doing internally because if the skipper can't trust you, then he's not going to share everything that they're doing strategically because you're talking too much.
Don't disrespect management and the team and don't hurt yourself.
As long as you follow those three basic criteria, okay, go, dude, create controversy.
Talk about others and do that kind of stuff.
And maybe even, you know, I don't know if baseball, I think baseball is filled with a lot of conservatives and politically that maybe vote for Trump, but I don't know if many of them are vocal about it.
So there's a baseball probably has more conservatives than any other of the NFL and NBA.
It has more, but they're low-key about it.
They're quiet about it.
Some of them are the biggest superstars, face of the league, but no one knows about it.
They keep it to themselves.
Maybe that's because they don't want to lose the opposition of audience or something like that.
Okay, totally.
I don't have a problem with that, but I understand why they would say that.
But those would be my criteria.
When I'm paying somebody $100 or some million dollars over a three-year period, $40 million a year, I got to protect my investment.
Yeah, no doubt.
You know, it's interesting.
There's, I don't want to use the word hypocrisy, but baseball's been very, very slow.
And they always give themselves the excuse, oh, it's colorful characters, right?
You've probably heard it described as that.
It's like a code word in baseball.
I don't know if the players of your generation remember anything about Bill Veck, the owner of the White Sox, like read any of the history.
Bill Veck had Disco Demolition Light, where everyone brought an album that was disco music to a doubleheader.
And at the break between the double header, they were going to take all these albums and blow them up in center field until the fans got a little ripped because this is a double header and apparently it was warm and beer is flowing and Budweiser in baseball will go back many generations.
And disco demolition light became a disaster as the albums were thrown on the field and the second half of the doubleheader was canceled.
That was not a play.
Promotional event 98 cents to attend the game with a disco record discounted admission for teenagers.
This is July 12, 1979.
See, discounted mission for teenagers.
You were trying to get the kids to come in with their mom and dad.
And so we call Bill Veck, you know, and have you ever seen the pictures of the Chicago White Sox that were in softball shorts?
Like the old light blue.
Guess what?
That was an owner.
And we refer, and what was he trying to do?
He was trying to bring younger people to the ballpark.
Disco demolition.
There they are.
There's Mark.
Is that the bird?
Mark Fidrich?
Looks like him, yeah.
Probably, by the way, somebody who was experimenting as you were with finger position and things like that and trying to do it.
So baseball needs to look back and see that in its heritage, there have been people that have tried to bring more people to the ballpark, try to bring a little controversy.
Now, Disco Demolition Light wasn't supposed to end with a forfeiture and a cancellation of the second game, which made the bullpen happy because they're all coming out.
Oh man, I got to throw again.
Everybody serious here.
And Bill Veck, and he tried to bring so much to it.
And so baseball's had its colorful characters, but they sent tents to hand wave pat and just let them go away as colorful characters.
But they were trying to bring more to the game, bring an excitement to the game.
And I give credit to Reggie Jackson.
There was a film I saw.
Reggie Jackson turns this guy after a game, can you not interrupt me here?
I'm doing an interview and you need to not interrupt me.
Can you just go do that over there?
And it was still rolling and he was here at the camera.
And he said, listen, I got to talk this up.
I'm talking to good Christian families with their other kids coming here.
I'm speaking love over here.
Leave me be.
So he understood what he was trying to do there.
And there was nothing salacious in that particular moment, Reggie Jackson, but he knew that what was his job.
He was Mr. October.
He was a candy bar.
His job was bring more.
And by the way, he was a controversial, like a little bit of a control himself.
He and Billy Martin got into each other's.
I love it, though.
That's baseball.
That's what you want to go to the next game to see what's going on.
But we call it a colorful character and we get back to calming down.
And now we worry about, let's make the base bigger so we can have a tenth of a second more steals.
Let's put a pitch clock so that we can get into an entertainment length.
It's what they're looking at as movies.
We got to stay under two and a half hours.
This has got to be, look at an NBA game, two hours, 15 minutes.
We got to get this into movie length.
We got to get this.
So they're worried about those things.
That's why the pitch clock is here.
That's why only too many mound visits.
That's why the bases are bigger.
And we've done these things to do that.
And I feel like baseball's attacking some of the issues, but they're not like releasing people to be people and to be personalities because it brings people in.
Not in such a way that would offend somebody or somebody saying something awful.
But I think baseball needs to know that in its heritage, there were people that were trying to do it.
And they just let them go away and get back to calm old baseball.
Yeah.
I think the MLB has done a decent job of trying some new initiatives, trying to shorten the game to appeal to more people.
They've tried to bring in some social influencers in different markets.
You mentioned earlier building a bridge to a different market with the Super Bowl and Taylor Swift.
Baseball is trying to do that with some of their content.
I forget what it's called, the MLB Creator Program or something.
I'm probably getting the name wrong.
But they're trying some things, and that's a positive.
I think the biggest thing you can do is create storylines.
You have to have storylines.
People will care about, people will tune in to watch a story.
They'll tune in to watch two guys fight that they really trust and believe hate each other.
It doesn't matter if they actually hate each other or not, but if the audience thinks that they do, they'll tune in to watch.
People will watch a three-hour baseball game if they think Red Sox, Yankees, there might be a brawl.
I really want to see this matchup of the starting pitcher.
And, you know, I want to see Clemens face Piazza in the after the World Series and the bat issue.
And I want to see those things.
I want to see, you know, Rugner Dor and Batista.
When's the next time those two teams are going to play?
What's going to happen?
People will tune in and watch the entire game if there's enough of a storyline there.
So that's what I'm trying to, you know, last time I was playing, that's what I was trying to do is create some micro storylines, like leading into my start.
I only pitch every fifth or sixth day, so I can't do it every single game.
But like leading into my start, what's the storyline going into it?
Is there a rivalry with another team?
Is it a rivalry with their player?
Is it something that I'm going to, you know, can I do this thing during a game?
Like those types of things need to happen more.
And I think that that's one thing that's like really missing is how do you train players to develop those storylines while at the same time avoiding the controversial stuff that's going to be seen as like a negative for the league.
Do they want athletes creating content or no?
Is it a environment where it's like, hey, we do want like, you know, Draymond's right now doing a podcast or, you know, you got a couple players that in the NBA are doing a podcast.
Even Parsons, right, from, what do you call it?
Cowboys.
What's his name?
Michael Parsons.
He's freaking awesome.
By the way, what a great communicator the guy is.
And a sack machine.
He's a great player and a communicator, but not a personality.
But I think he is even a better, like, I don't know if I can say that because he's that good of a player, but he's a ridiculous personality, right?
So what is it doing?
Oh, so you said this, and here's what we're going to do.
You think I'm going to do this?
You want to say something?
Wait till you see what happens when we face each other.
I can't wait for the game.
Yeah.
I can't wait for the game.
I'm like, hell yeah.
Let's see what's going to happen with the game, Ron.
I want to see that matchup.
So I think there's an element that, you know, and by the way, it's a little risky because Draymond could say anything, right?
Because he's a little risky as well.
Like Draymond is a good example to use.
The other day he hit Anthony Davis in the face and he's like, no, I didn't.
He hit him in the face.
It was a, you know, he hit him not intentionally.
He was trying to get the ball, but it still hit Davis in the face.
But there's eyeballs still that's coming with that.
Like for me, if I watch highlights of baseball, you kind of mentioned a few of them, or basketball.
I like to watch a little bit of, you know, Wallace Ron Artez, okay, back in the days, if you know which one I'm talking about, the Detroit, you know, I want to watch, you know, Charles Barkley picking up Shaq.
I want to watch Larry Bird being held back like this by Moses Malone while Julius Irving is going like this.
I want to watch, you know, Shaq against who was the Detroit Pistons player that he hit in the face his rookie season.
I want to see crazy stuff like that.
And you're not like right now at the NBA doesn't play defense.
Everybody's averaging 140 points a game.
No one gives a shit about that kind of a game.
There is no feistiness.
Everybody's friends.
I don't care to watch it.
There is no body that's facing somebody that they have any kind of a, you know, we want to beat those guys.
Even last week with Stephen A., he says the sport is missing the antagonism, the agitation.
That's what made it exciting.
It doesn't have any of that right now.
Matter of fact, they've made it softer and softer and softer and softer.
The smallest thing, you look away, they give you a technical foul.
It's the softest league right now with referees we got in the NBA.
And NFL is having some record-breaking numbers right now.
Some of it could be Taylor Swift.
Some of it is the fact that competition is just really, really good.
And Mahomes is an exciting guy to watch and doing what he's doing.
But to me with the MLB, I wonder if they were to bring a social media strategist, you know, somebody from the industry that knows what, like the CMO from, I don't know, Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, whoever, whichever one of these guys that knows what they're doing, bring them in.
And then say, and then bring a Gartner in or a consulting firm, you know, somebody that knows the data and YouTube and content.
And bring a McKinsey in, bring a BCG in, right?
And say, hey, what do you think about, and you don't even tell the players about it.
What do you think about us doing this?
Is this a good strategy or not?
If we go bring guys like Bauer that are bringing this attention, what markets are we not in that we can bring in?
Spend $4 or $5 million on consulting firms.
And maybe they're already doing this.
Spend $4 or $5 million on consulting firms and bring these CMOs from these big firms to do partnerships with and tell them, hey, if you do this, we'll do this for you.
You can broker a deal for them.
And then they could come back and say, if you did get into this audience, your viewership could go from Rob.
Can you pull up the NFL viewership against all the other teams that I asked you to pull up?
So here's the numbers.
That's NFL to the left killing everybody at 947 number of viewers per year is what we're talking about.
And then you got MLB.
And by the way, NFL plays 17 games.
MLB plays, I think, 162.
NBA is 82.
And then NHL, I think, is also 82.
I don't know exactly how many games NHL plays.
But 16 games is getting that.
What can we do with MLB to take that 329 to 500?
What can we take you to take you to 600?
So watch this now.
Watch this now.
Somebody who's watching this, who's a player, let's just say some players are watching this.
What happens if MLB is at 500 million?
You know what that means if it's at 500 million?
That means contracts go up 25%.
It's a revenue share percentage on total revenue.
That's right.
Revenue up, we all win.
30% contract goes up.
That means if you're making 40 a year, now you mean I'm going to get paid 55 a year.
You saw what Otani got paid, the $2 million over 10 years, and then $68 million the other.
But it's really a 10 over 700 over 10, right?
$70 million a year type of contract he got.
Beautiful.
What if we can take that to 100 million a year?
What if we get the first billion dollar contract?
So, players ought to be excited about others that can bring different unique eyeballs to dude.
And I totally get you got to do it in a way where you don't use your existing audience.
Like, we can't just go bring, you know, half-naked girls and, hey, here's what we're going to do.
But the family people left.
Oh, shit, that didn't work out because the hot dog you want to have with your son.
Yeah, that was a terrible idea.
I also understand that optics.
But I think there's strategy on getting a guy like you that entice a guy like me to be like, what's he going to say today?
What's he going to do today?
I'm curious.
People were following.
Yeah, for sure.
I think the landscape of baseball is a little bit difficult because you travel so much, you play every single day.
So the time when it's best to produce content is when you're the busiest.
In the offseason, people don't care as much about content unless you start backlogging to release in the middle of the season.
So what you have to do is you have to find a way to make those storylines easy for players.
You have to find a way to make the distribution of that, the filming, the creation of it easy for players.
But you have to find a way to make it entertaining at the same time.
And that's the bridge that they're trying to cross right now.
A lot of players in season don't want to do the extra interview.
They don't want to do an hour shoot in the morning because they're sleeping in, trying to recover, trying to get ready for the game.
NBA, you have a lot more time in between games to be able to do that.
You have a practice two or three days in a row than a game.
You have an afternoon to be able to do some stuff.
NFL, you have some time to be able to do stuff.
You've seen, I think, the Chiefs this year.
There's been a lot of off-field stuff.
There's more time.
Baseball is tough because pitchers could do it because you're doing the truth.
Absolutely.
But not the hitters.
That's a good point.
I can see that.
But still, you know.
There's ways to do it.
There's ways to do it.
And if I was able to, like, even look at what Pat McAfee does, right?
He brings the existing players in, and Aaron Rodgers comes in.
Is this guy going to come back and play this season?
And what's going to happen?
Like, oh, my God, what's going to happen?
Is Aaron going to come back for the Jets?
It's going to be the fastest recovery of all time.
There's an element of that that's bringing in, you know, a certain set of eyeballs.
Because what you also don't want to do, I also don't want to change you.
Yeah.
I don't know if that makes sense.
Like, I don't want McAfee to change.
Yeah.
You know, who's the other kicker in football that's got the sick physique?
Weatherford, who is a, he looks like he's a bodybuilder.
Yeah, I've had conversations with him.
You're talking about Greg Zerline.
No, I'm talking about Weatherford.
No, I'm talking to Steve Weatherford.
I said his last name correctly.
Weatherford right there, Steve Weatherford.
Okay.
The guy was a chisel.
If you go to his Instagram account right now, you won't even believe what the guy looks like.
It doesn't make any sense what he looks like.
Yeah, go to his Instagram account.
This is a human specimen who this guy is.
And by the way, when you see him face to face, okay, go on.
Yeah, he's talking about how Weatherford tackled him right there.
That's a human specimen.
This guy was a kicker.
Okay.
Now he's a content creator.
You can stop it right there.
The guy's got a stretching routine that he teaches that's phenomenal.
I don't want to change you.
By the way, I don't care if you're a Republican because if I knew how to use you, that you're a Republican, and then there's something else coming up, then this other guy's a Obama or this, there's a way.
That's a storyline.
Are you kidding me?
But that's what Holby's brought to MMA.
Like he's really leaned into that.
Of course.
And there's tons of eyeballs.
He goes in there and fights someone, and there's resolution to that, right?
But that's just the storyline of it.
You connect with a completely, you connect with like a full half of your demographic, where other guys might connect with the full half of the other, you know, the other half of the course.
So now all of a sudden go, hey, Donald Trump shows up to a game.
What do you mean Donald Trump showed up?
Yeah, he showed up to a game.
And then, okay, so now the other side, then Joe Biden shows up to a game.
And then, well, Barack Obama shows up to a game.
And then Bush shows up to a game.
Now it's like, oh, wow, who's going to show up to the next game?
I think there's an element of that where you can bring an audience that there's a lot of conservative families that love baseball.
I would say the biggest conservative fan base of any sport is probably baseball.
More than NFL and more than NBA.
So how do you tap into that and tap into it in a way where you're not offending and you're allowing, and then the commission has to come out and say, look, I don't mean to say anything that's going to offend anybody.
Republicans love baseball.
Democrats love baseball.
Trump fans love baseball.
Obama fans love baseball.
We have Cubans who come from a communist nation.
Communists love baseball.
Socialists love baseball.
Baseball doesn't care about your politics.
Baseball is the most unique game in the world because it's fun.
It's spiritual.
It's this.
But we welcome whites, blacks.
We're the most diverse sport out of all of them.
I would be selling that.
I would be selling the fact that I, by the way, I think baseball is the most diverse nationality league.
But do you know who talks about that?
I've never heard about that.
I don't hear that being sold.
At any given time in a clubhouse, you might be sitting next to people from six to ten different countries.
Sick, I love it.
Yeah.
Australia, Germany, Japan, Korea, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominican, Brazil.
just keep going down the list there's i mean kenley was from curacao Most people couldn't spell it or point where it was on a map.
Exactly.
Yeah.
I mean, but you'll have all those players sitting next to each other in a clubhouse, getting along, fighting for a World Series, a common goal, coming together, bridging all the different cultures and the communication gaps and everything, finding ways to communicate.
I was with Jose Ramirez in Cleveland, and he's one of my favorite teammates I've ever had.
We couldn't speak very well.
He learned more English as time went along, but we couldn't communicate very well.
But we found ways of like, you know, body language and stuff like that.
And we'd actually like talk to each other in that way all the time.
He's one of my favorite guys.
You have those moments.
I think that's an important thing to show, but people don't get to see those things because there's no documentation of it.
You know, the show hard knocks.
Imagine the New York Yankees have a hard knocks type show that goes all season.
Like, what does that bring?
What kind of fan engagement does that bring to that organization?
Now, you produce it in-house.
You don't show the technical stuff, you know, the scouting, the exact numbers, but you show the players.
What are they coming to the stadium wearing?
What are they doing off the field?
What are those interactions in the clubhouse?
Film it.
Have your PR people, have your media people screen everything, and then cut the players in on the performance of it.
Find a distribution network, a Netflix, put it on YouTube, whatever the distribution strategy is.
Cut the players in on it.
The more that they're involved, the better the show does, the more money they get paid.
And run it at even or a loss as a marketing thing.
You're going to go spend a bunch of marketing on Yankees, whatever the team is every year anyway.
What kind of fan engagement?
I mean, you've been doing the YouTube game for long enough.
You can see the type, the number of views that you generate.
You can see the number of views that guys like Mr. Beast are generating and the enterprise value that that creates.
Mr. Beast advertisement is more lucrative, more valuable than a Super Bowl ad.
And he's putting a video up every single week, like what or every two weeks or whatever it is.
Like what is the value that could be had there by delivering that type of content, something that's so unique that no one else is doing to an audience?
Like I don't know what the numbers would be, but the impact on the game would be astronomical.
If you could see what Aaron Judge was doing week in, week out, preparing for this upcoming game, if you could see the unfiltered conversations, clean, whatever you want to, however you want to structure your brand, that's fine.
But some of the unfiltered conversations in the clubhouse, I had a conversation with Mookie Betts when I was in LA.
I love Mookie.
One of my favorite guys.
Great player, great teammate.
Love him.
We got an argument one day over who would win if the pitchers had to hit and play defense and the position players had to pitch.
Like, who would win?
And we went on, we had everyone in the clubhouse.
We had the manager.
We had everyone that was walking in.
And I had just set my vlog camera up there.
And it was a one angle.
It was, you couldn't see half the people on the screen, but it was one of the most engaging moments of my vlog because people are like, oh, this is what goes on in a clubhouse.
These are the types of conversations that people have in the clubhouse.
Can you imagine being able to see that week in, week out, day in, day out?
What kind of fan engagement and value that would bring?
That'd be incredible.
Where is that?
By the way, it shows up amazingly when you have 13 inning games and you run through.
Right before you came to the Dodgers, Russell Martin pitched a complete half inning.
Yeah.
And he's the catcher, Pat.
We were out of everything.
We're like in the 14th inning, there's nobody left.
There's like two starters left.
We're not going to use them.
We can't get them stretched out because we need them tomorrow and the next day.
And so Russell Martin comes in and pitches a half inning.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
Like, what did Russell Martin think going into that moment?
How did he prepare for it?
It was on Sports Center and it was ahead of Web Gems.
Yeah.
Everybody was like, I love WebGems.
Russell Martin, if you don't know 55, 55 is coming into pitch.
That doesn't happen in LA.
Yeah.
The only time he comes to the mound is when he walks to it on the plate.
Yeah.
Well, there's a storyline there, right?
Like, where's the follow-up to it?
Like, I want to know what he was thinking.
Hey, when you break down this at bat, you catch, you call pitches.
Like, why did you throw this?
Like, there's, there's a lot of things that you can play off that with that would make it very easy for him to produce content.
If the next day he comes in, the team's like, hey, 15 minutes, I need to just walk me through this, cut up some social clips, put it out there.
Like, where is that?
And Adrian Gazelle is pointing at him and going, you?
And you can see him.
He was saying you.
And when he walked up to the place.
I would be so interested in that.
Listen, look what it does for F1.
Drive to Survive blew F1 up.
How many millions of dollars has that single show created for F1 in the American market?
And it doesn't cover the races.
It covers the conflict and the personality.
They hardly show the races.
And then you build superstars.
People didn't know.
And people in the States didn't know who Daniel Ricardo was.
Now they love him.
People didn't know Gunther Steiner.
Now they love him.
Like Gunther Steiner was like one of Haas's biggest stars, bringing in sponsorships, millions of dollars of sponsorships because he was a drive to survive star.
Like, what kind of value does that create for an organization?
You build one superstar.
Like, look at Otani.
Like, the Dodgers just paid $700 million to acquire Otani.
That was not a, oh, he's just worth this.
We'll pay it and we'll take a loss.
That's a calculated decision.
They assessed that number and said, over the lifetime of this contract in the Asian market, in U.S. market, in jersey sales, in media and stuff like that, we're going to make more than this $700 million.
We're going to have our margins.
We're going to be able to, that's a business decision.
So if one player, now, Otani is a freak.
He's a superstar, probably the most talented guy ever to play the game in the history of it.
Like if one guy can bring in over $700 million, what is the value of building a superstar?
Look at what Connor McGregor did.
Look at what Michael Jordan did.
Look at Tom Brady.
Like, what is the value of Tom Brady to the NFL over 20 years?
What is the superstar creating machine?
What's the engine that's going on in MLB?
UFC is like the gold standard of this.
They create new superstars all the time.
Like, if you go back to UFC five years ago, you have like John Jones and you have Conor McGregor.
You have the Diaz brothers.
You have a couple select superstars.
Rhonda.
Rhonda, you have the UFC today is bigger than it has ever been, and those people aren't fighting.
How?
Like, they've created new superstars.
They have a machine.
They have UFC embedded.
They have contender series.
They have Ultimate Fighter.
They have this engine to build superstars and to build valuable assets with their athletes.
Can you do me a favor, Rob?
I wrote one word down, and he said it earlier.
Go on YouTube.
Let's just check this out.
Go on YouTube and type in NFL, okay?
And zoom in a little bit so we can see it as well.
How many subscribers does NFL's YouTube channel have?
Let's write this down.
12 and a half.
Okay.
So NFL is at 12.5.
Go to MLB.
Five-point something, I think.
What is it?
MLB is okay.
4.88.
Okay.
Go to NBA.
NBA is what?
21.3, dominating everybody.
Okay.
Go to NHL at 2 million.
Okay.
Go to UFC.
17.5.
Go to WWE.
99 million.
So if I'm, and by the way, which sport is the fakest out of all the sports, right?
I mean, we all know.
I mean, hopefully we know at this point, you know, WWE is a lot of storyline.
It's a lot of reality television.
Yeah, but guess what?
I mean, there is genius in the entertainment marketing aspect of it, creating controversy.
WWE was all about creating the next fight, the next matchup, the next villain, the next enemy.
Who's the villain in Major League Baseball right now?
Who's the villain?
I was the biggest villain, I think, when I was playing.
By the way, can you tap in greatest villain of Major League Baseball?
Who were the villains in baseball?
Well, it depends on who you're a fan of.
If you're a Yankees fan prior, it was a Red Sox player.
Dude, I think just put like the villain, biggest villains in baseball.
Bryce Harper?
Okay, guess what?
I freaking love watching Bryce Harper.
Who else you got there as a villain?
Bucky Effing Dent became a multi-generational statement.
The Boston Red Sox would, and they would say the whole thing out, Bucky Effing Dent.
He was such the villain because he hit the home run on that, it was a one-game playoff game this season.
And so he became this multi-generational symbol of defeat.
Okay.
He was their villain.
Let's see.
Roger Clements, totally get it.
He's a villain.
A-Rod, yes.
People love to hate him.
Okay.
But guess what?
The guy hit 696 home runs, 98 home runs.
I think he was four short of 700.
He always wanted to come back and do it.
Bonds, absolute villain.
Rocker, you clearly remember him being a villain in the old Braves lineup.
Different reasons.
Different reasons.
Yeah, Sheffield, villain.
I was going to say Joey Bell, Albert Bell, villain.
Can you go, is it Show Moore or that's it?
They got Chase Atley there.
Yeah, you know, to me, I think maybe that's why I would never be a commissioner of Major League Baseball.
Because if I was a commissioner of Major League Baseball, I would be front and center saying, look, I'm a little bit concerned because obviously the tensions are very high with the next game that's coming up.
And this is a competitive sport.
These people have spent 30 years of their life.
You don't know what's going to happen.
It's exactly.
Everybody has to tune in.
And then you even create like the, you know, but, you know, we are fully prepared for it on what's going to happen.
And we've talked to both teams.
We're ready for all of it.
You know, both teams want this championship.
This is going to be a dog fight.
It's probably going to be one that's going to be one of our most viewed.
Like, I'm like, oh, my God, what's going to happen?
And, you know, we understand.
We have talked to, you know, Trevor Bauer about some of his antics, and he is willing to listen to some of us.
But again, Trevor is Trevor.
We don't know what's going to happen when he goes to the mount.
And on the other side, they've been told if Trevor pitches, you know, so we want to bring the tensions down.
We've talked to all the umps, but we're excited about this.
You know, the entire major league baseball is excited about this.
That's what it is.
There's got to be a little bit of that.
And by the way, do kids watch UFC?
Of course they do.
I don't even know who I'm facing in that scenario, and I'm excited for the game.
Yeah, that's what I want.
I want to be like, okay, what the hell is this guy talking about?
And I know in most sports, commissioners' job is not like Dana White's job.
Dana's a different kind of a commissioner.
Dana's a boss, right?
So you can't necessarily, most major league baseball commissioners are unknown.
Yep.
The first time you ever heard the name Manfred is when what happened with Houston Astros.
You're like, wait, what's the commissioner's name?
Manfred is not going to do anything.
They're going to keep there and they're going to go through this.
Are you kidding me?
And then now you know.
In basketball, you always know David Stern because David Stern was kind of like Dana White.
If you look at when NBA really took off, that's when it was.
That started the trajectory.
If you look at Dana White, that's what UFC is the fastest growing sport.
It's blowing up worldwide, too.
Yeah.
Every ethnicity likes it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You have to have tension, storyline.
You have to lean into that and then you have to deliver that content to people where they are.
Now, let me ask this.
Any major superstars from MLB, have they reached out to you?
You don't need to give names, but are you in conversation with major superstars, current and retired?
I've had a lot of conversation, players, coaches, staff, GMs, through this whole time, like privately behind the scenes.
It's been a very, you know, it's been a very supportive thing.
It's really helped me a lot to know that people in the game that I've interacted with, I've been in the clubhouse with, that I've played for, that I've been around, like don't view me the way that the public views me.
And so then the next thing is, because you told me about the Tom Glabbin situation where Tom was like, I don't know if I'd want to play today with all the pressures of what's going on.
You know the comments you're talking about.
Yeah, he was very clear about that.
Yeah.
So are there, who are the most vocal superstars that have defended you publicly?
Mookie, probably.
Mookie?
Yeah.
Okay.
Because when I think about the sport, the sport is filled with a lot of superstars that were redeemed themselves, right?
And they were forgiven.
Okay.
It's filled with it all over the place.
A-Rod is now maybe one of the best.
I actually like to hear A-Rod's analysis.
I think he's a very good teacher.
That transformation in the short of a time span went from being hated by basically everyone in baseball and like three or four years later was calling like playoff games and pretty much universally enjoyed.
Trusted color man.
People are trusting the opinion and in social media.
Well, A-Rod says this and he used to play, so I buy that.
It's like, wow, where's the angst?
Yeah.
He sued the league and then is now representing the league in like quick order.
And the transformation has been incredible.
He knows his stuff, though.
He's a generational talent.
God.
Like the amount of knowledge he has, there's a lot of value there.
I watch A-Rod give an analysis and I'm like, you know, here's what I used to do.
I used to put my glove in the freezer and I used to do this and this is that.
For this many years, this is what I always did.
Why?
Why?
And let me tell you why I would do it.
Because it's kind of weird.
And then I would put it down and I would have this be on top of it.
And then sometimes you got to choke the bad when it is, this, that.
And when I'm facing this person, this is the angle.
Here's what I do.
When him in, by the way, it's always great when it's him, the couple clips with him and Pete Rose.
And think about the two guys that are talking about the, you know, both of them have a lot of controversy.
I think both of them belong in the Hall of Fame, if you ask me.
But again, I'm not a Cooperstown, so it's not my decision to make.
But look at them too, right?
Look at Michael.
Jordan took a break, came back, okay?
David Stern understood because Stern, you know, took care of that guy, and he came back and he brought a whole different lens to the league.
Look at Bonds.
Look at McGuire and Sosa, what those guys did to the league.
Look at John Jones, Paint of White, knowing the background John Jones has.
Are you kidding me?
Lawrence Taylor, okay?
And think about NFL without an LT, right?
Kobe Bryant.
There's so many of these guys that we can talk about because, you know, Deshaun Watson, you know, even he went through some things that he went through.
Ray Lewis, I don't need to get into Ray Lewis' antics and what stories.
If you follow the game, you know what accusations were made of Ray Lewis.
And then he changed himself and he's got a different life.
Mike Tyson is on that list, right?
We've had Mike on multiple times.
Dennis Rodman, you know, imagine the league without a Dennis Rodman.
He was like one of the, oh, you never knew what he was going to do.
He's like, you got to open layup.
He starts, waits, waits for you to come score because he was refusing to score any points that game.
He just wanted to get 28 rebounds and zero points because he wanted to say, I can get 28 rebounds and zero points while he's got a yellow hair.
And in the interview, he's wearing some weird things.
But guess what?
You followed the game.
What was going on?
The biggest factor is the game is about redemption, forgiveness, and realizing everybody sins it in a different way.
If the superstars, like the reason why I asked the question about superstars, I was in a former company and a couple of the guys screwed up and royally they screwed up.
Stupid screw-up, right?
Worse than yours.
Because yours is not, what you did wasn't illegal.
It's a choice that you and the girl made in this time.
But this was actually a screw-up.
But they were good guys.
They just did something very stupid.
They deserve to get punished, but not deserve to get thrown out and losing their license for the rest of their lives.
So I went and I sat down and I said, I talked to the individual first.
We had a one-on-one conversation.
And I said, you know what you did is stupid.
Yes.
You know what you did is selfish.
You know, you could have hurt other people.
Yeah, I know.
Do you fully get that?
I totally get that.
Okay.
I think you're a good guy.
I think what you did is dumb.
And what are you willing to do to improve and change in this area?
Pa, Okay.
All right.
And I feel like you're being real.
I went and I spoke on their behalf behind closed doors to the league that I was a part of.
Insurance is a very regulated industry, financial industry is very regulated.
And these guys got second chances.
What happened afterwards?
They redeemed themselves.
Now, obviously, you have guardrails to make sure they can't do.
Like maybe you're double-checking their policies that submitting that you don't do like the other people and you're double-checking by calling clients and all this stuff.
But guess what?
They ended up becoming great successful citizens, did very well.
Company grew, they grew, everything could happen.
I think, you know, the biggest onus here, I would put on superstars who have been through what you've been through.
For some of these superstars to come out and say, look, guys, at least what I did was wrong and I broke the law.
This guy didn't break the law.
He just did something stupid.
You mean to tell me you weren't a superstar where, isn't there a reporter right now on Monday Night Football that there's videos of him saying what kind of girls he liked back in the days, Collinsworth, whatever his name is?
There's videos circulating of this guy back in the days when he was Chris Collins.
He was at University of Florida.
He came out.
He was at the Cincinnati Bank.
That's the interview all the way at the top.
You just pulled it up right there.
Yeah, yeah.
See, look how young he is.
Yeah, and I like girls that aren't too bright because you can trick them a little bit.
Okay.
He says that in an interview.
You know what he is right now?
He's a grown man right now, probably embarrassed by saying some stupid like this that we've all said.
Some of us weren't famous.
We didn't say it on camera.
We said it off camera.
But the market's forgiving him, and he's one of the best guys on doing Monday Night Football.
I think he does Monday night or he does NFL.
He does one of the two because Monday night is Troy Aikman and the other guy.
Again, I don't know which night he does, but he's very, very good at what he does.
Chris Collinsboro, right?
Ex-Meyer, smart, knows the game.
Yeah.
Said some crazy things when he was a kid, 79, 80, coming out of who doesn't.
Who doesn't?
So all I'm saying is these guys need to make the phone calls.
That's what I'm saying.
They got to make the phone calls.
They got to reach out.
Some of them have.
Okay.
Have they reached out to them?
Not to you, to the league.
Okay.
Got it.
And if that's the case, then at that point, you know, some of the teams and leagues have to make a decision.
Is this like the first year where it's like, hey guys, I'm here.
I'm available.
If you're interested, or have they had a chance to sign you for a few months and nothing's happened yet?
Yeah.
I mean, once the Dodgers released me in early 2023, there was like a month where I was a free agent, could sign with anyone before I signed in Japan.
But that was coming right off of the, you know, the pension and everything.
I still had outstanding lawsuit and whatever.
Now all that stuff's cleared.
So, yeah, this has been the first like kind of free agency after all the all the stuff.
Right now.
Yeah.
Okay.
So it's fresh.
So something could happen.
And is there a set profile of certain teams that would be willing to take more of a risk on a guy like you than others?
I'm not sure.
I would like to think that, well, I know on the field I can help any team.
I think it makes a lot of sense for teams that are looking for starting pitching that are contending.
You can sign me for, you know, basically, you have to pay league minimum to someone to fill the roster spot anyway.
League minimum plus incentives.
You can get someone that could perform at a Cy Young level for, you know, to bolster your team.
I think that makes a lot of sense.
But again, like I'm not, I'm not in the position of an owner of a team.
I've never been in those positions, so I don't know all the things that have to be considered.
But yeah, I think a team like that, a team like the Diamondbacks, let's say, I'm just pulling a team out, but went to the World Series last year, have a good young team, someone like the Orioles, maybe a good young team, need a starting pitcher, need a veteran, need someone that's like been in the playoffs a lot, those types of things.
I think those are teams that would make sense to me.
But again, I'm just looking, I don't care.
I'll play for whatever team.
I just want an opportunity to go play and do what I love to do and prove that I've been able to learn from past mistakes.
I think that's an important message to deliver to the youth, too.
Like everyone's going to mess up, some more publicly than others.
But if you learn from your mistakes, if you take accountability for where you went wrong, then you can be better.
You can be that redemption.
You know what you just remind me of?
You just remind me of something.
You know, when some of the players or owners say things like, I saw an interview you did with a couple of guys three weeks ago.
I don't know who the two guys were, but they did a very good job interviewing you.
They looked like they were twins.
Were they brothers?
Were they related or no?
They're just WFAN?
I don't know which one it was, but they did a very good job interviewing you.
And, you know, the question was, well, the guy says, I have a daughter, so does he.
Is that the same group you're saying?
Yeah, yeah.
I have a daughter.
So does he.
So what do we do?
What do we explain to our daughters?
And what do we explain to this?
And Tom's got daughters, two of them.
I got two daughters.
And I got two boys.
So how dare you talk to somebody like that?
What kind of an example is he for a man?
And da-da-da-da-da.
Okay.
So I don't know if, you know, to the people who are the owners who asked the question about daughters, let's overcome that objection together.
Yesterday we're having lunch with Will Gudera, author of Unreasonable Hospitality, who you have to read this book, but we're having this conversation.
Will's a freaking fantastic guy.
He ran 11 Madison, number one restaurant in the world.
Stud, great operator, sold it.
He no longer owns it, and he no longer makes any decisions with the restaurant.
The menu changes.
I want to make sure I explain that.
He hasn't done that since he sold it, which was a few years ago.
So the new menu is not his new menu.
It's the new person's menu.
I asked the question: what movie have you ever watched back to back?
Okay.
And they're like, what do you mean?
Have you ever watched the same movie back to back?
What do you mean?
You watch it for two hours, it finishes, you watch it again.
Okay.
No, I've never done that.
Okay.
Eric says he watched John Wick back to back, but it's just kind of playing in the background while he's working, right?
I said, the only movie I've watched back to back is Judge.
You ever seen The Judge with Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall?
No.
Dude, highly recommend you go watch it by yourself.
Nobody around.
Just sit there and watch them, even on the flight back, watch the movie.
I guarantee you're going to get emotional.
I guarantee you.
You're going to get emotional.
Because the premise of the movie is that Robert Duvall is the father of Robert Downey Jr.
They're living in a small town.
The father is the judge.
Okay.
And, you know, a kid in school, his son, does something real stupid, his son.
And he puts him in jail, I think.
Something like that where he wasn't forgiving him.
He was very, very tough on his son, Robert Downey Jr., who got into a car accident with his brother that was supposed to go be a major league baseball player, pitcher, gets injured, and he finishes his brother's career.
He was that good of a pitcher, right?
You know, he was going to make it to the next level.
Just the best fight scenes with a father and a son.
And then the judge, Duvall, with another kid who did something stupid, he decides to be lenient with the second guy because he thinks he feels guilty that he put his son in jail.
And to the second guy, what does he do?
He doesn't put him.
He releases him and gives him a little bit more freedom.
That guy ends up going in, killing a couple people and actually committing a crime.
And then eventually later on, the judge does something, gets accused of driving and killing that guy that got out of jail.
Whether it's true or not, you have to watch the movie to see what happens at the end.
And guess who ends up representing the father, the son, Robert Downey Jr.
And they have this best scene, the best fights.
He's like, why couldn't you just love me?
Do you know I finished number one in my class?
Fuck you, dad, but like that.
Like it's awesome, right?
To the people who say I have a daughter and how do I explain this to them, watch this movie because we've all been in one of the situations where we've made a stupid decision or someone in our family's made a stupid decision and we wish somebody would have grace with them.
Whether it's our kid, whether it's us, whether it's our parents, whether it's our siblings, and we know these people are good people and sometimes we just deserve grace, right?
So this whole concept about, well, how do I explain it to my daughter?
You're assuming your daughter's going to walk on water for the rest of her life.
You're assuming you walk on water.
You're assuming your kids walk on water.
None of us do.
At some point, what our kids are going to want to see is the level of grace we're going to have.
And grace doesn't just apply to kids that we have.
Grace applies to people we work with as well.
There's a lot of people that need a second chance in their lives.
And I just feel a guy like you who potentially could end up losing $350 million plus if you never play ever again.
I think the league would miss out on having a guy like you play.
I think the fans would lose.
I think you would lose the opportunity of being a great testimony in the future for other kids that are acting stupid for you to go and give them counsel and give them feedback.
Because someone has to have a big fault like yours to be able to have better testimony.
Because now you have a moral authority to influence younger guys that even they don't have because they've not gone through what you've gone through.
Yours was more public.
So you could come out and be like, listen, guys, here's all I'll tell you.
Watch out for this.
Don't do this.
You're going to want to do this.
Don't fall for this.
They're going to say this.
Don't fall for da-da-da-da-da.
Focus on this, da-da-da.
And it's like, okay, shit, who else is going to be better than this guy?
This guy lost $100 million over three years.
He came back and played.
Yeah, he finished his career, won a World Series, won a Cy Young again, and redeemed himself and one of the greatest stories of all time in the history of sports.
Awesome.
But he's right.
I'm going to listen to him.
That's the part for me where, you know, even who was the coach in NFL that he would always give people second chances and they won three Super Bowls.
And one of them was with Switzerland, but it was really his team.
Who was that?
Jimmy Johnson.
What did Jimmy Johnson get into?
Hall of Fame.
You ever seen Jimmy Johnson get into the Hall of Fame and he's being surprised how he reacts?
I don't know if you saw that video or not.
Have you seen when Jimmy Johnson, they come up to him, they said, you're going into the Hall of Fame?
I don't know if we can play it because YouTube's not going to let us play because somebody else owns it.
So don't show it in the screen.
But they come up to Jimmy Johnson and he has no clue.
It's in the middle of a show and they say, Jimmy, I'm here to tell you, you're inducted.
You could put surprise.
You're inducted to the Hall of Fame.
You should see how he cries.
You should see how he cries.
You should see how he's loved.
I think I've seen that video.
Dude, it's awesome.
Right?
This is it.
It's right here.
Don't play it in the back.
But this is it.
This is the clip.
And they're telling, look at, he's shaking, right?
He's shaking.
Just focus on his body.
Look at him.
He doesn't even, what is he thinking about right there?
All those years, Jerry Jones firing him.
You know, you didn't do it.
You did this.
Look at this.
It's pure celebrating.
It's pure joy.
This man who's in his 60s is officially 14 years old for this 90 seconds.
We all relate to this.
He made mistakes.
He gave players in the NFL second chances.
He gave NFL players that screwed up second chances.
They love him like a father.
Look at Troy Aikman.
They love this man like a father.
Like a father.
I think the MLB has a chance to do that with you.
And I hope they do.
I hope they give you a second chance.
I can't wait to be at that game.
If they give it to you, I can't wait to, you know, talk to you about it that night when it happens.
I'm like, how you feeling, man?
What's the word?
What are you thinking about it?
I think it'll be a great example of a league that can show redemption and a second chance to other kids who have screwed up, who are about to go pick up drugs and cocaine and alcohol because they've given up on life.
I think the MLB can inspire that 14-year-old kid, that 16-year-old kid to say, continue going on.
Larry Bird, his father shot himself because he owed so much money to the community.
He was a gambler and he was an alcoholic and his three brothers.
And Larry gave up on life.
And a guy gave him another chance to say, come back and do something.
He became one of the greatest players of all time.
It's an awesome story.
How many people relate to a guy like that that could be a drug addict, drug dealer, ruin his life because of his father committing suicide?
What a great story Larry Bird is to those people.
I think the MLB has that chance.
And I hope, you know, if they hear this message, I hope they give you that shot because I think it'll make for a great story.
Yeah, I think so too.
I hope so.
Any final thoughts, Tom, before we wrap up?
Yeah, I think America needs to understand exactly what you just said.
I'm only the man I am and the dad I am because I've taken the mistakes I made in life and I've turned that into a body of knowledge called experience.
And I can bring that and bring that to my daughter with authenticity.
And I think authenticity is what America needs.
I think it would turn down some of the tension that we have overall.
But I think that is something that I think all sports fans remember.
And baseball is a symbol of redemption.
I can strike out three times, but they still want me in the bottom of the ninth inning because I'm still capable.
And I think the sport of baseball, just by its nature, is redemption.
And I think we need to remember none of us are perfect and we're the people we are because of what we do with our mistakes.
And it's a symbol of the fabric of America.
And I think you summed it up perfectly.
I think baseball can use Trevor Bauer to make baseball better.
That's a goal of mine.
I've always wanted to make the game better, leave it in a better spot than I found it.
I think I've accomplished a small part of that on the training side, but I've, you know, another, you talk about decade runs.
You know, I have another decade run in me to help in a lot of other ways.
I'd love the opportunity to be able to do that.
Can't wait for that day.
I remember when we got the call when I was in Bermuda and the, you know, a lawyer said, Pat, you're officially a minority under the Yankees.
It was a dream.
I couldn't believe what happened.
And my son was watching.
The only documentary Dylan ever cried in was the documentary of Yogi Berra.
You ever watched it?
I had to go watch it again.
I had to go watch it immediately.
I'm like, what happened to this documentary?
Like, what a freaking story.
You know, even Yogi's a story where they eventually had to make up him and Steinburner not coming back to the game.
But yeah, so if a guy like me can go from where I was at, and some of you don't know my background, who I was, what I did to where I'm at right now, that's why I love baseball.
Baseball is a spiritual game.
It's a very unique game.
Very, very unique game.
And I think baseball's got a big chance here to do something big.
Anyways, Trevor, it's great to finally have this conversation with you.
This was a blast.
I'm looking forward to see what happens there.
I hope the right people see this content and they make the decision for themselves.
But future looks bright, regardless of what happens.
Whether it's this or something else, I'd love to see this be the part.
But I think you're going to do fine for the rest of your life.
But I'd love, selfishly, I'd love to see you have a redemption story and play in the major leagues.
So of course, if you also feel this way, and you got guys in Major League Baseball or people that are influencers, share this with them.
Go to a certain minute and say, watch it from here to here or watch it from here to there.
And if you'd like to see Make in Major Leagues and you're like, I don't know anybody in baseball, just share it with everybody.
Have them watch this story because it's a story of redemption.
A person that was accused for something he didn't do and cost him the love of the game that he couldn't play at the highest level that he wanted to play.
