The DHC Podcast

5 Questions: A beer from Mickey Mantle, a Bernie walk-off, and a lifetime of ballpark pilgrimages

• Ed Rivera

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A Yankee fan’s journey turns into a lifelong map of ballparks, national parks, and chance encounters—from caddying for Mickey Mantle to celebrating a Bernie Williams walk-off. We explore how rituals, travel, and minor league magic make the game bigger than rivalries.

• falling for baseball through cards, box scores and family lore
• caddying for Mantle, Ford and a mustard-stained autograph
• learning to love parks beyond the Yankees’ fortunes
• Bernie Williams walk-off memory and rare first-pitch homer
• ballpark rituals: full walkaround, local beer and food, cone-only ice cream
• collecting less merch, finding better stories
• stitching trips: MLB cities, MiLB towns and national parks
• why baseball fits a year-round rhythm and renews hope

Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube. We go live Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m. Eastern for the Dad Hat Chronicle Sports Show.  Interested in Five Questions? Send us a message.


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SPEAKER_00:

I was, you know, I'm I was a scorny little 15-year-old kid and at the ninth hole he wanted to buy me a beer. You know, just on the no no no, he's not a great, you can't do that. You can't do everything you ever heard about him, that's just the way he was. So Okay, let's go.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, all right, and welcome everybody to another episode of the Dinahead Chronicles Podcast. My name is Ed, also known as the Deadhead. We got five questions today for you guys. And today I have a good friend, one who follows the baseball world. As you guys already know, it's a very small world, you know, minor league baseball and uh major league baseball. I have Tom. Tom, thank you so much for joining us in Five Questions. How are you doing today, my friend?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I'm doing well. Thanks. Thanks so much for having me on. I mean, I've been listening to this podcast for a while, and I love the uh answers I've heard so far. And um, you're gonna find some of my answers sound a little familiar because you know, for one, I'm a Yankee fan, and uh I know you already have one Yankee fan on there, and everything Donnie said was a we oh I don't I don't remember that guy. You don't remember that? Okay, yeah, no, maybe I was dreaming about it or something. But yeah, no, but um yeah, I'm a lifelong uh baseball Yankee fan, especially, but a baseball fan. Um and I'm a Yankee fan, so let me let me just start with that. And for a large part of my life from like 1980 to uh the early 1990s, you might know the Yankees weren't really a top team. So that got me, you know, there really wasn't a lot to cheer for in those days. Don Matterley, of course, and some of the other hitters that they had, but um watching Yankee games though, you did get to see a lot of the other ballparks on TV, and you know, like seeing Fenway, seeing that green monster, seeing those uh the the reporting uh areas up on top, those big the big rooms they had on top. It was just like it was such a cool looking stadium, yeah. Uh Wrigley Field, of course. You know, as you're watching other baseball games, you see always wanted to see that. And um Tiger Stadium, the old Tiger Stadium with that overhang, and just you know, the stories about how high you would have to hit the ball for it to you know actually land on the field, but not be a ball, you know. There was always the arguments of how that overhang affected home runs and stuff. But I just had to see that once before a close. So we'll you know we'll get into that, I hope. But yeah, just loved just loved the the differences in the ballparks and was eager to check them out once I got into road trip.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Yeah, that's the whole beauty about baseball, right? Because every dimension, every ballpark is different, their heads are on dimensions and everything. And that's the beauty about them. So, all right. So uh, you know what? Actually, let's just jump right in. Uh uh, Tom. You know, I want to want to get to know a little bit, you know, want to get to know about you, right? The fan. Like, you know, the you're grew, you grew up a Yankee fan. So uh when did you when did you fall in love with the with the game of baseball? Like what was that? Did you have that moment, that pivotal moment, or is it like it's just a combination of moments? What was that for you?

SPEAKER_00:

It it's mostly a lot of mid-70s stuff. Um, a lot of it came from my mom. Uh, my mom was a Yankee fan. She grew up in Manhattan and always talked about how she, as a little girl, could travel by herself up to Yankee Stadium, um, you know, see Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Bearer, and all these other players. And that got me captivated right away. And then in the early 70s, the Yankees, you know, started winning some games in World Series and stuff. So I got into it. But what really got me were baseball cards, that first Christmas or Holy Communion, whatever, where I got that's you know, like a six, you know, box of baseball cards, and just going through them. Uh, loved the pictures on them and loved especially flipping them over and seeing those old school, you know, batting averages and seeing, oh, this guy was playing in the 1950s. You know, you'd occasionally get an old card from like say Frank Robinson or somebody in there, and Hank Garon, I had a couple of them. Yeah, 1974 was my first set, so he had just broken the record, and you know, um, there were a whole bunch of cards given out for him, and you know, I had like three or four of them. I eventually got collected all of those. So baseball cards, especially, and the other thing were box scores, the newspaper box scores. Um, you know, open the newspaper, and you know, after it got passed around the family, I wanted to see, you know, how the team did, how each player up and down the lineup did, how the opposing players did, how the pitches went. Um, I just love that whole aspect of it. And when the Yankees would go on the road, and then you know, maybe if it was in the Midwest and it was uh you know an hour late start, it might make the next day's newspaper, or you'd have to wait for the next day. But when it went out to the West Coast and you know, you had to wait an extra full day, and we didn't have ESPN or you know, sports apps or anything. We had to wait kind of you know for uh box sports to see the details of the game, and you know, it was just all that. I I loved that whole aspect of it. And if I could just mention one more thing that helped me, yeah, go for it, absolutely. Um, so yeah, so 1970, late 1970s, Yankees were doing well, of course. 1980, I got my first real job, um, and that was as a caddy on a uh for a country club on Long Island where a lot of famous uh people played, uh, got chances like so. I got met I met Sean Connery there, uh Jim McKay, but I also met a bunch of the the New York Islanders during their Stanley Club Ranger fan, but I met a lot of the Islander players and I met some of the great Yankees, Whitey Ford, uh Mickey Manle. I caddy for him, and Tommy John was the other one that I wait you caddy for Mickey Manno, yes, sir. If you if you scroll back on my Instagram, you will see a uh scorecard that I had.

SPEAKER_01:

Um that's insanity.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, it was. I was you know, I'm I was a scorny little 15-year-old kid, and at the ninth hole he wanted to buy me a beer, you know, just I'm like, No, no, no, don't he's underraid. You can't do that, you can't do everything you ever heard about him, that's just the way he was. So, yeah, I mean I I was in love that whole time that so I yeah, I mean Yankees gave me that great history, and I was just you know in love with it right from uh that that whole time, and then every year it was like, All right, we'll come back next year, we'll come back next year, but right they said they didn't.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, like yeah, they they just like all of a sudden they just kept going to other things. But that's cool though, like you actually get to have a piece of memorabilia that you know, honestly, not a lot of us will ever come close to, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Like, I mean, you you got too caddy for Mickey Manual, yes, and I got the scorecard that uh Bob Hope and uh Whitey Ford signed together. Mickey Manel. Oh my god, Mickey Mann went to sign it and he was eating a hot dog, and he actually like kind of it kind of slipped and mustard splattered all over the card, so he wiped it off. Um, and he you know, I told him that the card was for my mother, and he's like, Well, just tell your mom this is Mickey Mantle's mustard, and then he just kind of laughed. And I still have it. And if you look at the picture, you could actually see if you you can probably I won't waste your time with it, but you could actually see the little mustard stain this summer. I went on a road trip, I went to Tulsa, and they have a Mickey Mantle day every year, and his sons were there. Sons gotta be in their you know, mid mid to late 70s, I guess. And I got to tell them the story, show them the picture and stuff, and it was just like kind of a nice moment, and yeah, we know he played out, but yeah, it was just kind of nice little connection I had. So both that full circle, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Tom, you're making it very hard for me to hate a lot of Yankee fans, right? Because I'm a Clevelander, right? As you already know, is a is a rival. But like I I tell this to Donnie, you know, who's a mutual friend of ours, right? You know, Donnie, who's on our on a uh That has Chronicle Sports Show every Tuesday, Thursdays at 8 p.m. And uh make sure you guys uh catch it on uh on YouTube and all that. But what the whole point is is the more and more I keep doing these podcasts, and the more and more I get to meet other people across the the US when it comes to baseball, it becomes extremely hard for you to hate or dislike fans of other of other teams, right? Because for the longest time I did not like the tigers. I have a friend of mine who's a tigers fan, right? And it's like we're all just fans. Yeah, at the end of the day, we just bury fanatics.

SPEAKER_00:

You could just enjoy the game so much more once you cross that line.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my god, so much better. I can sit down and watch. Like, I'm literally, you know, right now at the time of this recording, the the Detroit Tigers and the Seattle Mariners are playing, right? So I come in, I got it on the side, and I'm like, I have no animosity towards it. I was like, I'm not gonna say it's like, oh, I don't want to watch it. Yeah, I'm gonna watch it because it's you know, like Derek School is one of the best bitches out there right now. Yeah, I mean, this dude is legit, right? So you want to see how he does.

SPEAKER_00:

And yeah, and and the minor leagues also contribute a lot to that. I'm in the Hudson Valley for the longest time. The Hudson Valley's uh renegades were a Tampa Bay Ray affiliate, right? So here I am 15 minutes from the ballpark, and the Rays, you know, farm team is coming in, you know, coming through there. And what are you gonna do? You're gonna boo them, you know. When no, yeah, you have to cheer for them. But now what happens when the Staten Island Yankees play them? Who do you so you're just kind of clapping for everybody, cheering for you?

SPEAKER_01:

Don't it that's the beauty about minor league baseball, right? That you're able to cheer for that player or that team because they're uh they're in the minor leagues, you know, like they're like for example, the Hudson Valley Randegates, right? Granted, yes, they are a a uh a Yankee farm system now, but like you said before, they weren't. Yeah, it's it's a wild world, right? Like minor league baseball. Oh my god, people need to get into minor league baseball. It's the greatest thing in the world.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, I'm you know, Mets going, I mean, Syracuse going from the uh Washington to the to the Mets. I mean, again, rivalry is like, hey, hey, uh New York Mets, here's our entire farm system.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like it's it's it's wild, like you know, I live down here in Raleigh, right? But like Durham Bulls, right? That's a that's a Tampa Bay um farm system. You go down two hours, two and a half hours down the road, and you got the Charlotte Knights, who is a Chicago White Sox, yeah, multiple, you know, farm system of all places, all you know, all the way down here, right? Like most of their their farm systems is down here. Uh, I don't know why they don't have anything close, but it's pretty cool, right? To see things like that, and you you get to see it's like, you know what? I used to know that player right before they got into the big leagues. That's a cool thing that you can tell, for sure. All right, now question number two, my friend. Alrighty, all right. Give me give me some memories of your favorite sports. Like, I mean, obviously, you just told us about your your you know being a caddy and all that, but give me some memories, you know, you growing up or now as a as a sports fan.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, okay, yeah. So when the Yankees were doing uh well in the late 70s, there I was still kind of like, all right, you have to be asleep by nine or ten o'clock of school tomorrow. So Chris Chambles' famous home run, I was I was sound asleep. All the kids in school were talking about it because they got this. So I I missed that. It wasn't until the like the later teams um when like Jim Lai Rich, you know, hit the comeback home run and uh Bernie Williams when he hit that home run against Boston extra inning shot. I actually was at that game in 1999 playoff. That was like my best in you know infield uh action that I I remember seeing. It was you know that's cool. Again, I had work the next day, so it's you know, eighth inning, ninth inning. Oh, okay, we're going to extras here. 10 o'clock, you know, 10 inning comes in. All right, how many innings can we stay? It's a playoffs. You kind of have to, right? Like I mean, it's playoffs. Let's get it. We gotta get up early. And Bernie comes up and boom, you know, just like game over, let's go home. Yeah, but we got it. He did it here. And I actually met him last year and got and likewise got to tell him that story.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh he's Bernie Williams, man.

SPEAKER_00:

Sitting in a uh you know, local restaurant uh with his wife. I you know, I just finished breakfast. He him and his wife said, I was I usually you know wear a college shirt, you know, like a polo or whatever. This time I was wearing a Yankee polo. He sees he comes in, he's like, Hey, Yankee. So I think before he orders or whatever, I could go over and tell him because there was a social media question that went around. What's similar to this? What's the best memory you member at the at the ballpark? And it's like, oh, it's gotta be Bernie Williams. I posted that, and I'm like, Hey, I just you know use you as a uh answer on a social media question. So I I started, I led up to the question, and then you know, he kind of bowed his head, thanking. And his wife's like, All right, what did you do in 1999? And he's like, Well, I I might have hit a walko-off home run, you know, like all humble and stuff. So it was just a it was just such a cool, you know, fan moment for me. So that was that's cool.

SPEAKER_01:

I yeah, it really was. He's so personable that he gets you get to stay there sit there and talk to him about it, and he's okay with this.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, oh, for sure, for sure. And I you know, and I kind of left you know quickly. I didn't want to like his food if his food was. So that was a favorite for sure. Um, I mean, there's there's a lot, they all kind of blend. An early one that I remember was uh seeing um it was Kevin Moss and Jesse Barfield hitting back-to-back upper deck home run shots, one to left field, one to right field. And just you know, seeing upper deck shots, you don't see that every day. It was really cool to see two of them back to back, and then to find out that was the first time it had ever happened uh at Yankee Stadium, anyway. That you know, you know, pretty wild. Um, when I was doing my stadium chase and I went to a Marlins game, the leadoff hitter, and I forgot who it was, uh shame on me, but hit a home run on the first pitch of the game. That was the only that was the first time it had happened, I think, since 1963. And the person it happened to the Mets, and it was Pete Rose who did it. So it was like kind of it's a really wild, you know, random thing. Yeah. So yeah, it was really cool when you saw it, and you're like, wait, nobody else has got to run. It was just that first pitch home run, right? That was you know, and it's it's one-nothing, one-nothing, one nothing. And so those were those are some highlights for me.

SPEAKER_01:

And the that's pretty cool. Yeah, uh you you you got some good stories, my friend. I gotta say, those are some pretty good ones. Not a lot of people can sit here and tell me, like, oh, yeah, I met, you know, you know, Mickey Mattle, you know, was his caddy, and hanging out with Bernie Williams and stuff like that. That's awesome. I love that. I love that. All right, as you know, uh, I told this to my wife and I tell this to my friends. We're not superstitious, we're just a little stitched, right? In a game of baseball fans, we all are like you know, so for example, if I'm you know, if I'm if I know that you know my team is losing and I'm wearing a jersey, I might go upstairs quietly and change my jersey or change my shirt or my head. I may or may not have done that. I may, may or may, you know, and by now a lot of people know this story. The 2016 World Series, right, where the Cleveland Indians at that point were playing the Chicago Cubs, and then we were scoring runs. But as soon as my wife left the bathroom and came downstairs, we were losing. I'm like, I told her to go back upstairs and stay in the bathroom. No joke, she still tells that story to our rough friends till this day. Uh so with that being said, um, give me some for you, some of your traditional, some of your rituals. Do you have anything like that, you know, right now?

SPEAKER_00:

Um when I go yeah, no, I mean, when I go to a ballpark, I mean, one of the things I have to do is do a walk around. And my favorites are the ones where you can do the complete walk around on the inside if you can go down a little bit left field and right. It's like, all right, that's nice. You have a nice ballpark, but I I want to see it from the out, you know. So that's always a thing. Um, finding the local, you know, uh the local craft beer and also the the you know, whatever their food uh choices. Um, you know, Valerie, we all love Valerie, and she has her food thing, but you know, I remember it was like 2012, um, Yankees in Minnesota and the Yankee beat reporters in the stands. The Minnesota twins had just come out with this new um pork on a stick thing for people to try. And she's standing there holding her you know pork on a stick, and a drunk Yankee fan walks up to her side and like just chomped it or took the right pork. And you know, she's standing there, and you know, you get to see it like she's getting really upset. But that happened to be the year I was going there, so I was like, all right, I gotta try this pork on a stick thing. And ever since I kind of was like, Yeah, all right, whenever I go to see it, I'm gonna try to find out what their you know favorite uh or you know, most popular food item is. So you know, some people want to just get a hot dog. I want to find out what the you know, what the local is. Yeah, the local food is the local beer and and the local uh local food item. And then later in the game, I do want to get an i don't care how cold it's I want to get an ice cream comb.

SPEAKER_01:

You gotta get ice cream out of all park, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Not in a helmet, though. I want a cone. No dipping dot crap. You know, I want the actual ice cream.

SPEAKER_01:

You want the actual cone. Okay, all right. I like it. I dig it. Yeah, I like that. And by the way, uh, really quick, uh, the pressure you just said about Valerie, that is Stadium Food Girl. You guys should follow her on Instagram, should follow her on uh she has her YouTube channel and on TikTok. She does some great things when it comes to food items in minor league baseball. So uh I'm sorry I cut you off.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, no, no, but but yeah, I just assume we all know we all know, but yes, but anybody didn't know.

SPEAKER_01:

And uh, so any other any besides okay, I like that the 360. A lot of people do that, but like you know, they they want us like no no no no. I have to go and I gotta go take a look, you know, go around and do my circle around the ballpark, which I do the same thing. It's like I gotta make sure that I that I look around and you know, scope around what the food items are and things like that. Uh, but no one has really said that about the ice cream, and I I I gotta say, I I like that. Yeah, you don't want the ice cream helmet, you want the soft server, whatever, but it has to be in a cone.

SPEAKER_00:

I appreciate all the people collecting the helmets and stuff. I think some of them look fantastic, and but yeah, it's just not something I want to you know carry with me. You know, I go into a stadium empty-handed and you know, kind of walk out, other than like maybe I have something, um you know kind of the same way I came in.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I like that. No, no, you're right. Absolutely. Not uh you know what I did stop collecting so many things because I have so much stuff in my house. My wife is getting mad at me, so I was like, uh, let's I you're right, honey. I I should stop. So I've slowed down on the you know, now when I go to the ballpark, it's if I haven't been if I don't have a hat, I'll get a hat. Uh or I will get a pin now. That's the only thing.

SPEAKER_00:

I got a pen thing right up here.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh wow, look at that.

SPEAKER_00:

You heard but so few of them are baseball because I they're mostly national parks and ski things and so forth. I've had such lousy luck, you know, finding pins. But yeah, it's hard to do that. Maybe restart that and try and start collecting them again. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But you're right, though, not a lot of places have the uh the the pins nowadays, which is a little disappointing, right? Yeah, yeah, because you want to see that. So all right. Let me ask you this. And in I I the this last two questions, by the way, are the the most that people are you know get a little uh deep in, right? And I and I did that for a reason, right? But in your opinion, you know, how has baseball really uh shaped or or changed your life?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh it has to be the travel. Um I you know, I started out going to some of the uh local ballparks. I mean, uh Yankees and Mets, of course. Um, I was grew up in Queen, so I went to Shea Stadium a lot because it was only like two or three train stops away. The whole thing with going on game was like, could I get off the train before they collected my ticket so I could use a ticket for another time? Right. You know, like it you didn't need to really plan anything. It's like, hey, let's go, you know, and again, you know, it could be Yankee fans, but we would all go, we would have a couple drinks, a couple beers, have fun. Um, so that was always great. It was a good bonding thing with friends, but just starting to travel around the country a little bit more. Um, my first road trip was actually for football. My first stadium trip was to the old Cleveland Brown Stadium.

SPEAKER_01:

No way.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, on my but I was on my way to see the Giants play Indianapolis, and it's a long trip. So I'm like, oh wait, like Cleveland's on the kind of on the way. I can pick that up on the way there. So yeah, yes, the uh Browns get the credit as my first um that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I'm sorry at the same time.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, I won't tell you the who they played and what the score was, but because it's not gonna happen, no, I don't want to know. But that was such an awesome trip, and I also saw um like the Ohio caverns, I forgot where exactly in Ohio there was. It was just again a little deep place to stop and see something that I had never seen before. And then I also went to the Hall of Fame, um, you know, the Canton. Oh, the Canton Hall of Fame, yeah. So I got to do like all those things. I'm like, man, look at that. Four different things. I really wanted to do one thing. I wanted to see the Giants play in Indianapolis, but I had a good made a good road trip out of it. And then like the next year, I'm like, all right, that worked well. I like I said, I knocked off um Boston and Baltimore, but I did a road trip through the Midwest and seeing ballparks and uh football stadiums. And again, same thing, just seeing more and more of the country, seeing different cities that I like Cincinnati. Why would I, you know, like not there's really nothing else that would take me. I love Cincinnati now, but because of a baseball game, I ended up saying, all right, this is a cool place to go. And yeah, anytime I get an excuse to go, I you know, I do it now. And you know, so you get your all your major league teams that gives you what 25. Yeah, some there's a multiple cities, but yeah, you know, 28 cities, I guess, um, that let you, you know, that you maybe never would have seen before, but baseball got me to them. And then you know where I'm going with this minor league baseball, all of a sudden it's like all those other little cities you mentioned, Durham and Charlotte. I mean, I can't, I mean, yeah, I charlotte went to a football game, but there's just so many smaller cities all over the country that I got to visit um because of baseball. And then all the people that I've gotten to meet, all the different people I've gone to games with as a result of you know, so social media quests, um or social just you know, interest in self. Yeah, oh, you're gonna be in town, but you let me know when you go, and we'll go, you know, we'll go to the game together. I mean, it to that to me is how I think it's changed me the most. It just gave me a greater appreciation for things and just an opportunity to see things I might never um would have tried. Am I trying to get to every minorly ballpark? Not exactly, but if it works out, great. But you know, I won't say that I'm I love going to Durham and Charlotte last year, but I also love the three national park sites that you have over there with the uh cow pens and the Kings Mountain. I mean, just really kind of cool to walk around, and together they to me make a great road trip. So um, to me, that's that's what it's done for you. So let me see a lot more of the country than um I might have otherwise. Just you know, beautiful way to stitch together a few hours in a car every day and just see something you know, a little new, a little exciting. Maybe not exciting to everybody, but but for me, you know, it absolutely is.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh no, national parks are cool. I love I love hiking, you know. I actually just did uh five-mile hike the other day on Friday, so I felt great just to get out. And I'm one of those that I don't put headphones on when I go hiking. Yep, I like to just take in nature, right? And then and I've oh so good, so good for the soul.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. So that that same road trip, I actually ended up, it was like a Tuesday, and I hit my next thing wasn't the price. I'm like, all right, what am I gonna do in Kansas City for the next few days? I'm like, oh, screw this, I'm gonna go out to see Mount Rushmore. You know, oh no 500 miles, and I'm like, Yeah, I can do that in a day. And so on the way back, I saw um Badlands National Park. And again, I'm like, I didn't know what a national park really was. I heard of Yosemite and Yellowstone and stuff, but Badlands, it was just an exit off the interstate. So I'm like, all right, it won't take me out of the way. And I'll go like this is really cool. I you know, I really enjoyed it. And so I alternated years of going to national parks and ballparks. Um that year after I went to, I was like, I got to see more national parks, and I went out to Yellowstone. Uh I'm sorry, yes, Yosemite and the Redwood Forest and those trees out in California. And I'm like, all right, well, San Francisco is home this weekend and Oakland's home the next. So, all right, in the week in between, I'm gonna see you know these national parks. I'm like, yeah, this is like life-changing stuff in some cases.

SPEAKER_01:

That's amazing, Tom. Yeah, that's cool. I like that a lot.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so that I mean it's worked out for me a lot. Like I said, some years it's more national parks, some years it's more ballparks, and even football stadiums, also. They you know blended into things, but yeah, it's just you know, finding a few things in the same area and then just you know getting the schedule to work out and just you know doing what you can do.

SPEAKER_01:

So that's cool, you know. And I and I think that a lot of people really should realize that, like, okay, you're gonna go on a trip on a sports trip. Awesome, I love it. Good for you, but make sure that you are also taking in into what you have around you, right? Whether there's a museum, a national park, or whatever it is, because you that's why you know that's that's what defines that area in which you're at, right? So, why not take into all of that?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, you can make a trip to Cleveland and go to you know Cuyahoga National Park during the day, right? Correct, spend three or four, four or five hours in there, and then go to the baseball game doesn't start till seven o'clock. So, you know, what are you gonna correct? It's a great place to spend a few hours in between.

SPEAKER_01:

You get to do a lot of cool things, like the West Side Market that's there in Cleveland by the ballpark, right? Great ballpark, great area to go and look at their food. Oh, it's so good their food. Um, there's this one stand they sell these uh sausages there with sauerkraut and ballpark mustard. Oh, have mercy. Now I'm hungry. It's you know, it's almost nine o'clock at night. We're all talking, and we are we're talking about food here. Exactly. But that but that's what I mean, though, right? Like, I mean, you get to chase that, you get to experience all of those in Calya Hoga National National Park, or go driving about 45 minutes down the road and get yourself to uh the uh the NFL Hall of Fame, right? Which is right there in Canton. And you got like a bunch of little minor league ballparks because then Akron has one. The Akron um the rubber ducks, you got the Lake County Captivist, which is not too far.

SPEAKER_00:

Still need that one. Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Did you get to go while you were in Cleveland? You may not have, but um, did you get to go to where the Cleveland um the the Buckeyes played at? The the Negro Leagues uh team that were there. No, I did not.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01:

So whenever you get back, and they they have spent some money there to you know to revamp that like you all all there is like the ticket booth and one of the walls and some of the stands, right? That's still left, but it is still there, cool right there in Cleveland. So I highly suggest for everybody to when you guys go, definitely go take a look at that. So nice. All right, so obviously we're both baseball fans and we're football fans, but you know, and uh and you grew up a baseball fan. But let me ask you this why baseball? Like that's your that's your fifth question right there.

SPEAKER_00:

So why that's why baseball thing I had a question with that why baseball? I think it's just because you you can get as close to it or you know, you know, just stay away from it a little bit. You know, this the baseball's a long season, right? I mean, I always tell people I'm not like I'm not worried about you know how my team does in April, and I don't get too excited if they get off to a fair start. But agree. You know, if you think of things from like April to October, yeah, that's a long season. If you start thinking about things like spring training and the Arizona Fall League and the December meetings, it's like you have most of the year covered. So yeah, do you have to spend every hour thinking about it? No, but if there's you can certainly, you know, read about it. I'm in I'm a Sabre member, you know, so I I I put I participate in that too. Not not a I'm not I I like the history and stuff. I'm not really super big on the on the numbers. My brother-in-law is, and he's great with it.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm with you there. I'm I'm on the history part, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I mean, I I I can read about that, I get books from them, and you know, so I I it just it's a great way, you know, it's a pastime, it helps you pass the time. And I I I mean, I love it. I mean, football can be very intentional. While the hockey when the playoffs come, there's nothing like playoff hockey or being at a hockey game. Um, I'm a I'm a fair weather uh Knicks fan. When the Knicks are doing great and they've been doing well the last few years, I keep up with them. But baseball is just it's always around you, you know. There's there's always people that want to talk about baseball, there's always people that um, you know, talking about doing something for baseball, you know, when the schedule comes out, you know, it's like the major league schedule is out already. So a lot of the minor leagues want, I'm already you know, planning travel for next year, so it just you know kind of lets you just you know stretch your mind a little bit and yeah, and drink daily.

SPEAKER_01:

Like I've never been here, all right. So yeah, I want to hit this.

SPEAKER_00:

I work at that desk and I have that map behind me, and I'm like, all right, I haven't been to that part of the country in five years or ten years. Let what ballparks are over there that I haven't been to or haven't been to, and that you know, that's how my my brain works, you know, it gets me in trouble sometimes, but um, yeah, no, it just it's just awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean that's no, that that's that's amazing. That's what it is, yeah, you know, because we're all the same, right? Like we all get excited when the schedule comes out, you know. We all get and then obviously, uh, you know, Hurricanes fans here, right? So we're watching some hockey. You are 100% right. Going to a hockey game, it is an experience that people should. That is one of the coolest things that people should do. It's so much fun. Yeah, yep. Oh my god, the the hits are real there, right? You know, like you see it on the TV, but the hits are like when you see it in person, the fights and the goal when they scored a goal and the and the alarm goes off. Oh, so it's such a cool experience, 100%. I agree with you there. Um, but yeah, I love baseball. Like baseball will always be, as you can see behind me, I got a bunch of baseball stuff, right? But baseball will always be my first love. Don't get me wrong, I love me some football. You know, I wish my browns were better, but you know, here I am. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

But uh, yeah, and I gotta say, like I mentioned, I I don't do the football how much, but the hat thing, like you know, you a few of you guys have gotten me you know rethinking that a little bit. Like I don't get a hat for every team I visit, but I do kind of want a hat or something from every trip. So if I go to see two or three ballparks, I might say, All right, what's the one hat that I want, or one which one I want more than the other? So, but yeah, I am up to like you know 50 hats all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's a it gets the it get it it sneaks up on you, don't it?

SPEAKER_00:

It really does. It it does.

SPEAKER_01:

That's amazing, Todd. Thank you so much for that. I you know, I got to know you a little bit more. See, now you're part of that one percent of the Yankee fans that I don't that I don't dislike.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they exactly, right? Yeah, we're not all bad. Some of us are cocky, we like to rest on our laurels a little bit and we do that soon, but

SPEAKER_01:

Um yeah, you know what? It's okay. And it's okay. Enjoy it, right? Like, I mean, good for you guys that you get to uh you get to have listen at the end of the day. A lot of people are jealous at the fact that, like, you know, that the Yankees are who the Yankees are because either there's there's no sometimes no in-between with the Yankees, right? It's either you like them or you love them. It's just how it goes, you know. And if you're a fan of another team, you probably don't like them.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, for sure. And you know, Toronto's won, so you know, it's all right. Yeah, they they they haven't won in what 30, 25 years, 30 years.

SPEAKER_01:

Long time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But Milwaukee, I I would love to see them win. Seattle, like I said, I think we said this before, Seattle also. I would, yeah, I think that's kind of what I'm rooting for if the Yankees don't you know don't have a miracle comeback. Just some you know, somebody new.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, we don't need the Dodgers, but you know, just uh just get somebody in there, somebody new in there, right? That'll be cool to see. Absolutely get to enjoy that because not a lot of people get to enjoy that. I I mean I'm blessed enough to so that to have seen at least the very least see my my my guardians or my Indians at that point, you know, make it to the World Series when a lot of people never never experienced that. Seattle fans have never experienced that. Sure. I wish we would have won. But you know, it is what it is.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

So uh Tom, thank you so much. Where can people find you on on social media, my friend?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, um, I it's mostly Instagram these days. I haven't, you know, like um and blue sky. Um yeah, so Instagram it's uh TomT Take2. You know, it's good it's my second Instagram account, and Blue Sky, it's simply uh T Thresh, first initial and last name, T T H R A S H.

SPEAKER_01:

I love it, I love it. And I'll make sure to put all the information uh on the notes so that way you guys make sure to follow Tom. We do follow each other on Instagram and on uh blue sky as well. And threads, yeah. Yep, and threads. I gotta do a better job with uh with with Blue Sky. I've been concentrating. You gotta, you know, there's too many of them.

SPEAKER_00:

Two of them are just like one, one I'll never know like why something did well on one and not on another.

SPEAKER_01:

It's it's insanity, right? Like you just don't know whether which one will blow up.

SPEAKER_00:

And the ones that blow up, it's like that wasn't even one of my best posts.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. It's so frustrating. So it's so frustrating, Tom. I I get it, man. Uh and make guys before we uh we get off here, make sure you guys are following me on all the socials. I am on Instagram, Twitter, and uh, you know, threads as well, uh, TikTok, and then obviously the YouTube channel. Make sure you guys are following that. Uh, because uh we do put some live shows every Tuesday and Thursdays at 8 p.m. uh eastern time. Uh so the uh the dadhat Chronicle Sports Show, as well as on Mondays. Now we are releasing a new show. Um, well, actually, one in the morning says Carolina Specific. Uh, more to come on that. Uh, we'll be you know, a good friend of mine and I will be talking about Carolina Sports, North Carolina, South Carolina. But at night, at 8:30, we do have uh where we talk about the not the non-major sports, right? The sports that not a lot of people talk about, you know, here in the U.S. So we do talk about some some soccer, right? Uh Bundesliga, we talk about uh Formula One, we talk about FCS football, right? FCS deserves some love, man. There's some cool FCS uh teams out there. So make sure you guys are following that. It's all on YouTube. Uh, and if you are interested in coming on five questions, please send me a message. I'll be more than happy to get you on because obviously that's how we got Tom here on the on the podcast. Again, Tom, thank you so much, my friend.

SPEAKER_00:

And thank you. Uh really nice talking to you. Finally get to you know talk face to face.

SPEAKER_01:

I know, right? Face to face. And uh, we will see you guys on the next one.

SPEAKER_00:

Cheers, bud.

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