Hold My Cutter
Email: Holdmycutter@gmail.com
Hold My Cutter
Authenticity in the Fast Lane of Sports Media with Hannah Mears
What happens when you combine cigars, sports broadcasting, and one of the freshest faces in the industry? In this episode, we have the pleasure of welcoming Hannah Mears, the National League's Rookie of the Year in sports reporting, who shares her whirlwind journey into the world of hockey coverage with the Pittsburgh Penguins. With our producer away, we navigate the hilarities of taking over recording duties and Hannah's surprising expertise with the Latrobe Bazooka cigar. Hannah opens up about the supportive community within sports broadcasting, highlighting the importance of preparation and staying authentic amidst the spontaneity and chaos of live reporting.
We dive into the artistry behind broadcasting perfection and the delicate balance of embracing mistakes to connect genuinely with audiences. From meticulously planned opens to spontaneous, human moments, our conversation uncovers the varied styles of broadcasters and the role past experiences play in shaping dynamic storytelling. Hannah candidly discusses how social media impacts personal branding, offering insights into creating a professional identity while staying true to oneself, even when facing criticism in the digital age. With humor and personal anecdotes, we reveal the resilience needed to thrive in the fast-paced world of sports broadcasting.
Our exploration doesn't stop there; we celebrate the camaraderie and trust essential between on-air talent and producers. Hannah shares her experiences of building respect and relationships within a traditionally male-dominated space, emphasizing patience and persistence. We touch on the nuances of communicating with athletes and the importance of empathy, understanding, and authenticity in sports journalism. Closing on a lighter note, we honor Hannah's vibrant legacy with her podcast "Beers with Mirrors," and indulge in visions of pirate-themed antics on the field. Join us for an episode filled with laughter, gratitude, and a celebratory "Go Bucs!" as we toast to sports broadcasting and the inspiring journey of Hannah Mears.
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greg brown, hand and mirrors mike wicken.
Speaker 3:Okay, get ready welcome back to another. That was hilarious. Welcome back to another edition of hold my cutter. Are we recording?
Speaker 1:we are the reason why he brings that up is because our producer had to go to recital. He's not in it.
Speaker 3:His little daughter is. Leonard. Lee is here behind the scenes.
Speaker 1:He's here in spirit. He taught me how to push the record button. I think I can handle it and if not I'll blame it on Hannah. She's a producer director and everything else.
Speaker 3:I hope you're watching this on. This is Hold my Cutter, of course, as you know. That's why you're either watching on YouTube or tuned in anywhere else, but we're enjoying the LB1, thanks to Hannah Mears, which you said is the Latrobe Bazooka one Latrobe Bazooka aka. Or the Latrobe.
Speaker 1:O'Neal Cruz because he has a bazooka Latrobe. Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 3:Late Trove, it's the late Trove the LB1, named for the codes used at the factory during the creation of the cigar, and right on Rocky Patel's farm in Nicaragua. And Hannah Mears the great Hannah Mears is with us as our guest.
Speaker 2:I don't deserve that yet. No, she's not I.
Speaker 3:By the way go ahead.
Speaker 1:She helped facilitate building the bazooka on the farm, since she has such a vast understanding of farms she grew up on one, so she went down to Nicaragua, got this, built it. It looks like a bazooka. It is a bazooka, yeah all the credit to me.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. It makes all the sense.
Speaker 3:And this is kind of new territory for Hannah. She's enjoying her first stogie.
Speaker 2:I am.
Speaker 3:Look at me, go. I'm proud of myself as well you should be, but Hannah was named right after the season the National League's Rookie of the Year. Sideline reporter Rookie of the Year.
Speaker 2:Congrats Greg Brown's media awards.
Speaker 3:Congrats.
Speaker 2:Hannah, I was the Rookie of the Year.
Speaker 1:Thank you, that's real. It's under the radar.
Speaker 2:They don't release it on social media because they want it to be near and dear. Right near and dear, I'm very honored. Thank you.
Speaker 3:We talked on the previous episode about Hannah kind of how she got her start and the hard work she put into it. We have not touched on all of the Well. In fact, we wanted to ask you about how you kind of got thrust into hosting hockey, right into hosting hockey right. That was sudden.
Speaker 2:Sporadic and sudden, and background in hockey, a fan perspective, I would say.
Speaker 1:Like a casual, like your mom fan, a casual fan.
Speaker 2:No, definitely more of a fan, because I worked for the Penguins so I did video and editing for the Penguins for a few years. That was my first internship while I was in college as well was with the Penguins, so I did video and editing what just happened no, go ahead, I just spilled it.
Speaker 1:I just told the audience, sorry about that you got to be careful with the bazooka yeah careful greg. Not everybody's built to handle a bazooka.
Speaker 3:That's right um it's okay.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I did good point.
Speaker 3:It's good, really really good point, as you were saying hold my cutter.
Speaker 2:Oh hello, drop the mic. Oh hello, drop the mic.
Speaker 2:Yep, there it is yeah, so I worked at the Penguins, things like that, so I was involved in hockey in a way and I loved. I was always a sports fan, so I loved watching the sport. I understood it in a way. But no, to go and like deep dive and analyze and having to know certain things when you host, you know you really have to know how to. Not necessarily I wasn't the analyst, I didn't necessarily have to break down the X's and O's, but you did have. You do have to be intelligent enough to know what's going on, to facilitate a conversation or add something in here and there. So yeah, that was sporadic, but trial by fire, I feel like, is where I thrive, because you can prepare so much for something but you really don't know how to do it and how you're going to be until you do it.
Speaker 1:You're doing it no matter what I was doing it no matter what.
Speaker 2:So I was like yep, go ahead, throw me in, like this is another example, though If you don't say no, you got to say yeah.
Speaker 3:Have you done this before? Can you do this? Yeah. I can do this yeah, I can do it, and I you know, that's true.
Speaker 2:Everybody always tells me like coming into this industry like people that are really successful. They're like we're not doing brain surgery.
Speaker 2:Ah, so true, we're not doing heart surgery Like, yeah, thank goodness, goodness, but yeah, it's like it's not life or death, like it's okay to mess up, it's okay to take the the bumps in the road and that's been the best thing. But that's also when you can be comfortable being yourself. I was like I'm confident that at least I know who I am and that's all I can be. Again, the authenticity thing and be prepared. You can do your research, be over prepared, things like that and I felt like I was.
Speaker 2:And also credit to like Haley Hunter, Dan Potash, everyone behind the scenes who was like sending me things to help me. Haley sent me pages of notes that she had taken before the season to help me and I had done the same thing with her for the pirates and just to help each other be prepared. Right, it's never. That's what I love about sportsnet and our family that has been created there. Nobody's ever intimidated by somebody else or feeling like somebody's going to take my job. I feel like everybody that I work with has is trying to elevate the other person or no jealousy, share a story.
Speaker 2:there's no jealousy, even in spring training when I was sharing stories with you being like hey, this is really cool, I learned this, it's that really cool stuff. It's never envious of somebody telling that story. It's just helping each other, because you're all in pursuit of the same goal, and that's making the best broadcast possible and telling the best stories as possible.
Speaker 1:I thought that way about Steven this year. It was like dude, I got my pitcher back.
Speaker 3:We're sitting there like little kids watching the game. How about Steven Brault?
Speaker 1:I didn't want to bring him up in the first episode because he's not a lady.
Speaker 2:But how good is he? He's incredible.
Speaker 1:He's such a natural he's one of those guys that's good at everything.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you've ever seen him draw. He's one of those annoying people that are just good at everything he can sing he can draw, he can act, he can dance, he can talk sports, he can pitch, he can hit, he can everything. He's doing play-by-play right now in the Fall League.
Speaker 1:He's just good at everything. But he's another guy that doesn't say no, he's doing the Fall League games right now.
Speaker 2:He was supposed to do one.
Speaker 1:He's done like 15.
Speaker 2:I didn't even know that I need to go listen to him, because I thought he was fantastic.
Speaker 1:He's just a dude that just says, yeah, let's do it, I'll do it. We hit it off. But just like everybody else, his personality is mesh and each one. We didn't get to this in the first episode Brownie, I'm going to do it again. The process so on field, is completely different. Haley Hunter did something I haven't seen most do, but it would probably be my knack of how I'd want to do it.
Speaker 1:She doesn't do a rundown. I didn't know a rundown existed until year five. Nobody told me that it was a thing, so I just kind of was like oh, what are we doing today? Memorize it, move forward. But they actually do a piece of paper that tells you what you're going to talk about. She doesn't do a rundown, she does notes and then she takes the lead from the producer. Well, if, if this goes out enough times, you don't believe in that, how did you go about it? Because you didn't do notes on the field, you're super prepared to, and I've seen you go old school but you memorize so much and it's like these light bulbs come off on. How is it just all the work before?
Speaker 2:so it's a lot of preparation, right as prepared, so I do it the same way hayley does in terms of you have the rundown available to you but I don't like to strip things out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Everything that I did up to that point was sort of I was, I was a live person, like everything I did was live. So I kind of had to do that. So you just get used to memorizing things, but you memorize it in a way to where it's like it's not word for word necessarily, it's it's very flowy that way Because you want it to sound conversational.
Speaker 2:If you memorize something, people are going to know you memorized it. But at the same time there are cases and points for that, like for the Big Ten. You know, when I'm doing a morning report and there's nothing new, like I probably have had time to prep and rehearse that a little bit and give my storyline. So it can be different depending on the situation. But in your case, when you're talking about hosting a show, you're listening for your producer's cue in your ear because you don't want to be so like it has to be this, then this, then this, because it's live TV. Things are happening, things are changing and you have to be prepared for that.
Speaker 2:And when I'm on field, yeah, there are some things that I write and read word for word. But there are some things I write out and then I'm like, okay, just so I have, my producer has an idea, or Greg has an idea of what I want to talk about, but it might not come out that way, right, like I'm going to be conversational or it's going to say how I say it and things like that. And that's the best way to do it, because then you're not in your head thinking, oh no, if I mess up this word, my whole script's off. But everything is very be overprepared, know what you're talking about and then you can just naturally have a conversation about it, and I think that's the best way to go about it.
Speaker 1:100 what about the open for you guys like kinger? Does this like philosophy driven?
Speaker 2:maybe the day, yeah, yeah, but he's an english major right.
Speaker 1:How do you guys go about that? What's that process? Because watch it like dan potash gets there. He's there at eight o'clock for a seven o'clock show. That man writes, rewrites, does different things, gets new information. It's different than King or King or Show at 4 o'clock and be like I'm good, let's go.
Speaker 3:It's also different if you're hosting a pre and post-game show Right, but you do an open.
Speaker 3:We do. But so my philosophy has always been for a telecast or a broadcast, I want I know what I like to listening still do to broadcasters, the team. I like feeling like I'm there with them, like I'm on it with their level. It's fun and they all get along and they enjoy it. Because I've heard it the other way too structured, robotic, exactly. And so I think that the tone is set for the in-game play-by-play with the open. I want everybody camera people, technicians, people in the truck I want us joking, I want us having fun. If I mess up at the end of one open, if I messed up something, stumbled over something, they'll say you want to do it again. I'll think sometimes I do, but no, it's okay that it comes out of mistake because it looks like it's human.
Speaker 1:I hate doing it twice, Because, people do it.
Speaker 3:I mean, I know the business People do opens until it is perfect. Well, you know what that does. That takes an extra 15 minutes of work, that drains me, the color analyst and everybody else, and so for me the 90-second open is not meaningless, but it's close, because what matters is when that first pitch is thrown.
Speaker 2:The in-game stuff is what matters you almost let your ego go in the way if you continue to do it over and, over and over.
Speaker 3:And because you want to have a perfect open. So someone watches you and it looks so perfect. Wow, that's great. Well, what good is that? When the first pitch is thrown? Nothing, wow, that's great. Well, what good is that when the first pitch is thrown.
Speaker 1:The first, nothing. Okay, I'll throw out.
Speaker 3:And time, by the way, is taken away. Whatever, it is an extra 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes. So I get frustrated when you have to do it.
Speaker 2:I might not get to eat because you're taking a long time and my second hit is after you. I did not know. Is that true From now on? Actually, sometimes.
Speaker 1:yeah, watch out folks we could get a fight, hold your cutter.
Speaker 3:No, that's why I don't think I heard that. I heard. That's why I don't do another right, because I heard hannah. Hannah needs to eat and she gets so angry. If she doesn't mean she gets so angry, oh, she gets angry, hannah. Yeah, if you only knew how angry so as I've gotten in this injury.
Speaker 1:I I love rob king. I'm interested to see what he says. I mean brawl usually look at each other like what, but like you, always every single open you say something. I'm like that was a good twist. Or like you correct yourself.
Speaker 2:Clever right. It's something that you always have, clever you always give something that I'm like.
Speaker 1:There's no way anybody knows that you have some bullet point that showed that you went just a little bit further than everyone else and you could build off of. I mean, the day you did the thing on the grass I was like my I worked in lawn care and I'm like I'm like stop, stop. They didn't let me do this. But I had a list of weird grasses. They canna, how's the blue cake special? Did they look into that?
Speaker 2:they were like let me don't have time, let me tell you about the Tahoma 31.
Speaker 1:You haven't met me, and I think that's cool, but like as a fan, I look, I mean, obviously I'm part of the show, but I look forward to hearing that. So you say the Open doesn't matter. It does I?
Speaker 3:don't mean, it doesn't matter. I don't want to give you the impression that I don't care about it.
Speaker 2:I do care about it, I want it to be good.
Speaker 3:I just don't want to spend too much time making it, so if a mistake is made and that includes the color analyst, a little stumble, that's okay.
Speaker 3:We get away with that, but I don't want it to be a drastic error. You have to redo and I'm not saying I'm any good at it. But what has helped me and it goes back to hannah in the first episode is I also was an editor producer. I put highlight videos and films together and learned how to write on the fly, and sometimes we don't do it much anymore. Sometimes we used to have to match the open and write a script quickly, so that's helped.
Speaker 2:So the same thing like that you may think it's meaningless years prior but, it's so helpful even now you don't even realize that's a skill that you learned, that you may think it's meaningless years prior, but it's so helpful even now. You don't even realize that's a skill that you learned that you're now applying right there sometimes until you look back on it.
Speaker 2:You're like oh this is the editor in me, or this is the this in me, but I just think I, I truly think it's all about, like authenticity, being yourself and not being afraid to be human, right, because that is so important. I mean, there are times I'm stumbling my first. One of my first times, in the nightly sports call, there was a word, I can't remember exactly what it was. I wish I could remember and it'll come to me eventually, but I couldn't get it out. No matter what, how many times I tried to say it, it was not coming out. And I said words, hannah, oh my gosh. And then, like it's a different, one.
Speaker 2:But what am I supposed to do? It's like, it's like it's live tv. It's happening and I'm not rehearsed and it's not on a teleprompter. It's a word, and I think that's what makes shows fun to watch right and, by the way, live tv for all of us.
Speaker 3:And that has frustrated not not as much anymore, but early in my career I would get frustrated because of the criticism I would receive. This is up in buffalo about on-air stuff and I thought the person that's doing this is at a typewriter, a computer, and is able to read his or her sentence. Hmm, no, delete, delete, delete, retype the right. They've got time to sit there. We're live and they're fixated on one thing, like there's people in our ear saying something, or they're reacting, or when you guys throw it down to me.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I don't even know you're throwing it down to me and I'm over here like wait, they're talking to me.
Speaker 3:What are they?
Speaker 2:talking about hey, what up, guys, I don't have time to look perfect, be perfect, because I'm shoving a hot dog in my face trying to tell the world how amazing the renegade dog is, which is also great, but you're eating, that. You're doing things. You have to be able to be and be willing to be yourself, and those critics are everywhere. Media like Taylor Rooks said something one time that was so good she does a lot of bleacher reports up, she does Thursday night football and prime. She's a really good sports broadcaster and she said social media is great because it's given everyone an opinion, but it's so bad because it's given everyone an opinion and so you have to. And it's something that sticks with me all the time and I think about it over and over again. It's like you're right, like it's. It is good because it's given everyone an opinion, but it's such a weapon.
Speaker 3:So how have you, over the years, handled what your, what is your personality? Been going back to your early days of getting on way back the early days of getting on the air, but but when were you sensitive to criticism and are you still early?
Speaker 2:she grew up in the age of criticism, yeah, so I think I'm not as sensitive to it anymore because I know how to filter it right, like who I should be taking the criticism from and who I shouldn't be taking the criticism from, and I think that's the most important thing you learn.
Speaker 2:But that just comes with maturity. But at first, yeah, you're so worried about what everyone's going to think about you and this is just as a young female growing up with social media in general right like you want to post the perfect picture, you want people to see you a certain way do this, and I learned it like freshman year of college. I remember seeing a ton of girls post pictures and if they didn't get enough likes they'd take them down, or if they didn't get this and it was starting to become really, really toxic and it was literally take it down if it didn't get enough likes
Speaker 2:they would take it down because they'd be embarrassed, they didn't get enough likes, um, and it was, it was really hard to watch that, or they'd edit it so much and there's like a fine line, right, you can edit a picture a little bit. So you're like, yeah, okay, like I look great, but also like people were like morphing things, the filters to a point where it's like you look nothing like that in person and people see that, and it's like a really insecure thing that you start to build. And so it got to a point in college where I watched one of my friends post a picture and she got frustrated and took it down and I thought yeah and I thought I can't do this anymore.
Speaker 2:I can't watch people do this anymore. It's really toxic. And I made my social media primarily just about my work. So then I felt really good about everything that I put out there was for a purpose. Now, yes, I share some personal things in my family and stuff, but for the most part, I, my social media, became my brand. So when you look at my Twitter, my Instagram, anything you know you say, oh, hannah Mears, the sports broadcaster.
Speaker 2:And I started taking that really seriously because people had said one time they're like man, you're like everywhere, like you're doing this, you're doing that, and I took a lot of pride in that because I was making it look like that too, like I wanted people. Someone told me one time on social media, if you want people to like recognize you and do your thing, like put it in their face to where they can't not associate your name with this thing, yep and so that's what it became. To me was like hannah mirrors and sports broadcasting. That that's what I wanted. I wanted people. When they said my name, they knew what I did.
Speaker 1:And you're super consistent.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you. I try to be, but also.
Speaker 1:I slack.
Speaker 2:I could be better. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Everybody can be better, but you're consistent.
Speaker 2:I could be better with it at a lot of it, but I just was people said about it because I was proud of it. It was a good piece of work, it was what the people I work with are proud of, and then you're less susceptible to feeling the harsh personal criticism. Ramifications from the criticism and things and you're like no, whatever You're going to say whatever you want about me, you try to do that. Have you ever heard the quote, either one of you, that you never get criticized people above you like?
Speaker 1:yeah, you don't. You don't like. I'm not because people are secure in themselves. Yeah, like, but also like I think you can learn something from what they're saying, like, what are they trying to say? Because a lot of times they don't articulate it well. Yeah, what is it like? What are they trying to say? And you can look into it a bunch of different ways, but I think they give you a gift. But at the same time, I love asking the question how could I have done it better? If you have the knowledge my friend teach me you also have to have your own filter. You have to know.
Speaker 3:I don't know what you do, hannah, or you Fort, about when you hear either on social media or on the air. You, either on social media or on the air you hear something somebody might say on the air. I've heard I don't know if I told you this story before a few years ago on a post-game radio show. I'm driving home and the host takes a call and says okay, you want to talk about Greg Brown At first. I'm almost stopping the car, you know oh, here we go.
Speaker 3:And he goes. Yeah, I have a criticism of Greg Brown. Oh, here we go Now. As a play-by-play broadcaster, I had heard forever, and still do, that you have to constantly give the score Not on TV, because it's always up there, but certainly on radio. And even not that much on radio, because it's on the display in the car. But for others you try and give the score.
Speaker 1:I mean God forbid you look.
Speaker 2:So a buddy of mine suggested well, you're driving, you're not allowed to look at your phone. Yeah yeah, that doesn't ever happen.
Speaker 3:So a buddy of mine suggested they're an old-time uh radio broadcaster who used an egg timer and this guy that I worked with did the same thing with that for you. So every minute I make sure I give the score. He flips it. So when I'm on radio I have this egg timer I still do. And he says I want to talk about Greg Brown. I got a problem with him. What is it? He goes it's about the out-of-town scores. I'm sorry, it's the in-game scores, the Pirates, I'm thinking in-game scores. What problem would he have? He said he gives the score too much. So the criticism forever has been you don't give the score enough.
Speaker 1:That's what most and now you give it way too much. And now you give it way too much.
Speaker 3:I'm thinking, boy, isn't that the life that we live? That?
Speaker 1:means you listen to the whole game.
Speaker 3:No, no, no. But the point is, you get criticism from all angles, every angle, every angle. Every angle.
Speaker 1:You talk too fast. You're too enthusiastic.
Speaker 2:You guys probably don't see a lot too, and what I get is the looks right.
Speaker 1:I mean girls and females. Well, you did have a different hairstyle every game. Do you know that, Rob?
Speaker 2:King was impressed by it. So I don't know if anybody else was. And I'm sorry if you had to criticize because you prefer my hair curly or straight, bubba, but they can't change every time exactly. Meanwhile, do they know? At home my harshest critic is like I'm like do you know what my grandmother says to me? You could not make me cry like my great. My grandmother's supposed to be my biggest advocate. She's like honey, you really shouldn't straighten your hair on tv like it's not a good look.
Speaker 1:You can't say anything if mama didn't say it. It doesn't matter if mama didn't like I grew up but it also, yeah, bubba.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, we love her. We talk about her on the broadcast a lot. Bubba's the best, but um yeah, and my grandma also. Like I have a bubba and a grandma. My grandma used to grade my essays like reproofing them because she was an english teacher and I thought she would read it like every other grandma and be like this is so good. And she'd be like, well, I mean, this could be better and you could do this. And I was like grandma, that's not what I wanted you to tell me it was really good.
Speaker 1:That just reminds me of a bunch of I just see red when you're talking about English and no, but it was just so funny, like that's how I grew up.
Speaker 2:I'm like do you think you could hurt me?
Speaker 3:My grandma used to tell me my like that's a great.
Speaker 2:Someone calls me and it's like your shirt's hanging too low and this is that. I'm like but did I sound okay? She's like I don't know, I couldn't stop looking at it. I'm like wow, okay, no, everyone's very supportive, but they're also my harshest critic and I'm like you think you can hurt me on social media. My grandmother is saying this to my face fan, but they're my harshest critic.
Speaker 2:They never say anything really bad. They're all very proud of me and they're good. But my dad will also call me and say well, you could have phrased it this way and you could have done this. I'm like thanks, dad.
Speaker 3:Or maybe you should ask, but in some cases it's helpful.
Speaker 2:It's so funny because it does happen, and I'm sure it's happened to all of you where sometimes you just have a word of the day and that word comes out so much and you're so mad because it's like amazing. And that word comes out all the time. This year, hilariously, it was cool and it wasn't because I was saying it. It's because every one of our players it was cool and it wasn't because I was saying it.
Speaker 3:It's because every one of our players, specifically Paul Skeens and Jared Jones and David Bednar, described everything as cool.
Speaker 2:And my mom goes Hannah, can you find a different adjective? She sent me a list of words that you can exchange for the words cool. But I said, Mom, these are direct quotes from people, so I have to say what they said. I can't just be like Paul Skeen said this is extravagant or this is so cool, because he didn't.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's so good.
Speaker 2:This is so amazing. He didn't say that, he said it was cool.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great. That's what I'm using. That is great.
Speaker 2:Because I don't want to misquote somebody. Yes, made me aware of it every time I went to say it. I'm sitting there and I was like my mom's definitely gonna be at home listening to this thing it is so funny to find work then. But it's true, that was one of the words I know, and I thought about it all the time, that came up constantly and my mom, because I mean, okay, most people probably wouldn't know, but she's watching every game and every pregame show, because she, she's being supportive and wants to see me, but that was so that's hilarious.
Speaker 1:Well, good news is, I didn't know you quit using that word you're just translating right, but I'm just translating it yeah
Speaker 2:but I almost next year at spring training, want to be like challenge every single player and be like find a different adjective, because you all say it even my mom knows it and, like jared jones, the first thing it's cool, but paul says it all the time it was cool and I'm like I love you and I think you're amazing and I think everything that you say is so great. But we all need to find a different adjective because I, selfishly, can't keep saying this in every quote Hannah, what a great challenge this is for spring training.
Speaker 3:I think I'm going to do this. How much fun would that be to get guys to start using.
Speaker 1:Do you have another way to describe that, Paul? Just ask him.
Speaker 2:I'm just asking is it cool or is it no? And I love him, I think he's great and I think he always gets such insightful answers because he's cool and they're all followed up and they're all great and david ben are the same way and bednar actually challenged himself, I feel like internally this year, where he was like oh, I got through that without saying like um or oh, that's great.
Speaker 1:It was so fun. I gotta be better and I love it.
Speaker 2:It's so good, but it's just that generation of person too, like jared and Paul I'm saying generations, if they're that much younger, but they are. They did grow up in that social media area where everything's cool and it's great. They're so laid back and relaxed and the moment's not too big. That's why they're good at what they do, because it really is just cool to them. They're so calm. But it was so funny because I was like Mom, you're so right. Every time I write this stuff out, I'm like we really do need to pick a different word, because I noticed it so much.
Speaker 2:So much.
Speaker 3:By the way, I just did that. They didn't hear it, but I did that intentionally when I said that's so cool, go ahead.
Speaker 1:I know you do this a lot and fans out there may share a secret. You throw in little things and I know it's coming and I'm like, oh, he did it and you'll do it a couple different times. Something I did a lot this year with Brawl is I would try to find ways to get weird sayings, weird words and different things into the broadcast or word of the day. Can you get it in? And I had a buddy that challenged me a couple years ago to do it and it's a blast.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's so much fun, it's so much fun. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like I got some things in it Because it's like also an inside joke and it's funny but it's also like it's a challenge right, yeah.
Speaker 3:Like it's cool and nobody will know it outside. No, there's one instance and I don't know if you guys saw this, yeah, yeah man, he really chucked it oh yeah, we did that on the air. We just kept forever it got. So oh yeah, we made it too obvious.
Speaker 1:We did it so far that brawl said I just can't do it anymore like we. We just kept going. He's like yeah, he just, you just tossed it up. Yeah, we just kept going and like I think that's the fun of it. Like if someone catches on, sometimes they, sometimes they don't. Fans dig it.
Speaker 2:Well, the jokes people made the fart jokes about Neil this year. Oh my God, you guys had a blast with that. They did something about me, but it was so good, it was like I'll admit it.
Speaker 3:But nothing, it was just a noise, it took off on social media.
Speaker 1:I'm not trying to deny it, it didn't happen, it was so funny, but you guys see, but that's what makes you good too.
Speaker 2:You didn't really take that to heart.
Speaker 3:You knew it didn't happen, but you guys ran with it the next day. Well, we did it the next day. Yeah, the next day.
Speaker 1:Because it was on social media, so we just went ahead and ran with it. You need it, bud. I heard stomach issues. Press dining may be tough.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, I love that stuff. I think we should do a lot more. Remind me, next year I'll make sure there's a whoopee cushion under Neil his first broadcast.
Speaker 3:Oh, that would be good that would be great.
Speaker 2:What.
Speaker 3:I thought you were going to say was that you would text us. Get on our. I'm not on all your texting, you guys at Sportsnet Pittsburgh have your own. But it would be fun if you or somebody decided to go ahead and throw a word out, challenge us, and that we all try and sneak it in.
Speaker 2:I think that would be great. There's got to be some like random games out there where we can do that.
Speaker 1:Brault and King aren't allowed to play. They use these like really weird long words. I don't like it. Nobody knows what they're saying.
Speaker 2:Rob King would not be fun to play that game with because he'd give some elaborate words and then he'd have the perfect quote for it and his would sound great and everybody else would just be like ugh, Just throwing it out there.
Speaker 3:Just throwing it out there.
Speaker 1:He probably looked it up, for, like he's like, I'm going to find the best one.
Speaker 2:But you know some, some hosts like each have their thing right and rob's was so good where I like honored him in my first hockey broadcast, where I like gave a quote from henry ford because the pain was playing detroit and like I had to tie it in right because that's what rob is so good at his opens like I want.
Speaker 1:I want to take all of his opens for a year and just play him over. I don't think people realize how good he is at it and obviously he probably just doesn't passing now, but he's a history buff.
Speaker 2:But also we have such good like we have producers behind the scenes who really trust their on-air talent, which is so nice too, with like Adam and Freddie and Ty and everybody who has worked within Sports at this year, who it really is a gift to have somebody trust you, because there's sometimes I don't have things written and I'm like, hey, you've just got to trust that I'm going to get in and out at this time, I'm going to say the right things, I'm going to do this.
Speaker 2:I just didn't have time to put it all together and they really bared through with me like my first year and learning a lot of things and doing things on the fly. And I was like I remember the first interview I had, um, like one-on-one on the field. You know, adam's in my ear and and he's trying to give me questions, he's trying to help me, he's trying to make sure I'm okay. And then afterwards we had a conversation and I was like, hey, like you can trust me to ask questions, so great with that, where he's just like very trusting of me or if he needs to tell me something, tell me something. And I think all of our producers I have to give them credit behind the scenes. I think that's such a hard thing to do sometimes when you're like you want the production to be so good you want people to be so perfect, but just trusting people to do their jobs.
Speaker 1:And we have such great people behind the scenes that do that. I hated it at first the ear no. When I showed up, it's like what am I? What am I doing? Oh, okay, I'm on camera and they're like okay, like, but that's such a con.
Speaker 2:There's never a bigger compliment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a gift. How much I've learned from that and like it's incredible also worked.
Speaker 2:I won't say like who, what, when, but I've also had situations in this career field where I was so prepared for something, I was so excited to make it my own and I went in and they gave me a script of everything I had to say, word for word, and everything I had to do, and it was so structured and I'm like well, no wonder nobody watches this. This is so boring, like, like, because you aren't allowing anyone's personality to come true, you're not allowing any organic conversation, this is how we've done it, this is what we do and this is what you're going to do. And I was like why did I just stay up till 2 in the morning preparing for this? Because I didn't even have to do that, and I think that's devaluing the people that you have.
Speaker 2:Like you put people in a position because going to get the, you're not going to people. People know that. Back to the authenticity we talked about. You know well, if you write something out for someone, you're taking everything away, cause, like you know one thing some people will write it and they'll be like I'm just writing it to help you, but like read it how you need to, or like do this.
Speaker 1:Like. One thing to conquer fear is I want to publish some, maybe an ebook because I was told I was an idiot and blah, blah, blah and I have to write like a talk. So that comes out right. No one can write for you guys, like if someone wrote something for you that's not brownie. Could you imagine if rock wrote you a? Sentence or two you'd be like well yin's yeah yeah you can't be rock. Yeah, you just gotta let it be like I won't read anything.
Speaker 2:I'll let anybody write for me and tell me what they want, and then I rip it up. If Rock wrote for me, I'd have questions about how I've spoken my entire life.
Speaker 1:I would just be like hey Rock, come on, let's go, you can take this away. Oh my gosh, I have to make sure.
Speaker 2:I like spit a sunflower seed every so often. Sunflower spit a sunflower seed. Every so often, insert spit sunflower seed and then keep going.
Speaker 3:It's like a rock road, something for me it's funny because early on this past year I'm used to sticking around for the post game interview so my headset's on and over the years I have been watching Sideline reporters are all different personalities and I know during the game things can get chaotic and you might not the general you, you not personally Hannah, but I would be listening and it seemed like the interview would be winding down and I'd say make sure this is asked and Adam would relay that and I did that, I think like your first time and I'm going.
Speaker 2:That's so funny I'm probably like I'm not taking this back.
Speaker 3:No, no, but. But this is the true story. You've asked two or three questions and I'm going make sure she asks. And right then, and there you go, you ask that question. I said she's unbelievable, that that's what did like. You are so prepared, you're're incredible and you're like you watch and you listen. You must. I don't know. I don't know if you listen to us or not, but it seems like you've got everything.
Speaker 2:Thank you. That's so funny. I had no idea you were behind the scenes. No wonder he was trying to give me so many questions. It was just like the first time.
Speaker 3:And then, once you did, I said forget it, she doesn't need any help Two things.
Speaker 1:Very rarely do I text you and say please try to ask this question. I maybe did it once or twice this year and she tried with all her heart. You and Haley both did, because there were some weird things happening and I was like what is going on?
Speaker 2:Right, and there was one specifically. You asked me to ask David Bettinar a question about a specific what was it like? A something about a pitch he threw and it was a certain movement and he knew, with the way I said it, that there was no way it came from me but he answered it.
Speaker 2:He answered it because, like the natures of my questions, like yeah, there are some things that are very baseball and analytical and I do ask and I am prepared, but there are some things that, unless you were a catcher in the sport of baseball and fort Fort is one of those people who sometimes you're like hold on, not dumb that down, but like humanize that for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Well, dumb it down to me, He'll know, what you're saying.
Speaker 2:Just go, yeah, and I'm like wait, people at home have no idea what you're talking about, hold on a second. And so he texted me to ask Bednar a question in the clubhouse and I love to collaborate like that because that sparks really good conversations for me later. And bednar looks at me when the interview is done, he goes. Who asked you to ask that question? I said port, he goes.
Speaker 2:it makes so much more sense because I had to like check my phone too, to be like, am I saying this right and it was just so funny. But also that goes to like the trust in the in the clubhouse too, like these guys don't treat you like you're stupid or anything.
Speaker 2:They just think it's funny because they know, and they know I know how to do my job and they know what I'm talking about. But it was just like I wasn't intimidated to ask that either. It was just so funny because it was like they knew. They're like there's no way unless you were actually my catcher, you would even catch on to what that was.
Speaker 1:I wanted to know so bad it was great. I thought, that was really cool.
Speaker 3:It goes, as you said, the trust factor, and we discussed this. I think, again, another reason, hannah, you're so good at this is that you understand, uh, your role and you don't try to go beyond that. You don't try to be against something you're not, which I? I believe that a play-by-play guy I don't, I don't get caught up in the, uh, the diving deep into the analytics of the game. If a, if bob walk is there, why? Why am I trying to break down a pitcher's pitch? It makes no sense. He's, he's the guy, and I think you're that way too 100%, and you know what?
Speaker 2:That's advice you gave to me early on too, when I came in. You're like, first of all, it's just baseball and credit to you guys. You made me feel so comfortable and fit in right away, because I was so not nervous that I could do the job. I knew I could do the job. I was to like I wanted to enhance the broadcast because I've been listening to you guys for so long and you're so good at what you do, and I was like I don't want to make this something that you know lessens what they're doing because they are so good. I want to enhance what you guys are doing, and so thank you for just letting me be me.
Speaker 2:But like accepting me and trusting me, but there were so many thank you.
Speaker 2:But there were so many times that like, yeah, I went to spring training with Fort at one point and I said, am I ever going to be able to talk about this? Maybe not, because it's not going to be genuine, but I wanted to know a drill that the catchers were doing so bad, because I was so curious, just sort of how baseball worked and like we were doing pop times. Right, that was what that drill was, where they were trying to have a good release point, pop time.
Speaker 1:And it was like how much would go. A little bit more context. She asked the question right when we were around the catching core and I was like this is one drill I love. They're like, oh, that's something we were thinking about doing and they ended up doing the drill. We watched it together.
Speaker 2:Now take it away and so we were doing it and the catchers are behind home and they, you know, they get the ball and they have to throw it to second. You're measuring that time and, like some guys are up on a knee and he was explaining to me like why this guy would be up on a knee, why this guy's in this position, specifically watching a lot of henry davis at that point and before the season was important and that was an area he needed to work on because he had so much power, you were saying, but he'd be able to have a lot more accuracy and quickness within a fist, like he has a bazooka, you called it, and so I'm sitting there and I'm like wow, I see it.
Speaker 2:And then actually Jason DeLay at one point this season had his best release time, right of his career.
Speaker 3:It came together that day.
Speaker 2:Oh, about that, it came together, and so at that point in the season I was able to talk to Jason about it in a way that was hey, you worked on this in spring training.
Speaker 1:Did you see his smile? Yeah, because he cares deeply about being as good as he possibly can. He's squeezing his talent as much as anybody over there, and that meant so much to him.
Speaker 2:And it was so cool to see him have that moment right, because he's a guy who works so hard and he's so kind and I just I root for him. I root for a lot of our guys. They are so kind. But it was so cool to be like I'm so glad I stopped my day, watched that drill, asked questions.
Speaker 2:I wasn't afraid to sound like, hey, I don't know what's going on Because, honestly, most people probably have no idea what this drill means, and even maybe some players on their team have no idea what it means if you've never been a catcher before.
Speaker 2:And so I wasn't afraid. And I think that's a big thing people need to know is like, as females in this industry, you're so afraid to be like seen as uneducated or you don't know sports, but like there are so many things about these sports that unless you actually did play it, you don't really know until you ask. And so you can't be afraid to ask questions. And that was the best thing for me was I'm just so glad I even watched that drill and Fort was so kind to explain it to me and didn't treat me as if I was stupid, didn't treat me as I was less than, but was so educational and so kind, and then I was able to take what we learned and it took maybe four months into the season, but the perfect moment came where I was like now we can talk about it and it's perfectly implemented into this, and we had a whole story around it and it ended up being one of the biggest moments for this guy.
Speaker 1:And what's so cool about you saying that is, when I first got here, they pushed me to do analytics and Pittsburgh wasn't ready. They were not ready and I had to find a balance and I realized I could see things maybe five, six steps ahead, especially when it came to the game, and I was like maybe I could use it this way. I haven't been able to do it a lot on on air, play by play, but you can see trends happening and you know a guy is probably going to either I hate to say it but maybe get hurt or get released or maybe change his entire sequence. You start to see this. You get way ahead of the game. You know it's going to come and if it doesn't, then you have another question to ask. That's the coolest part, because you're right With Bob, me and Bob can get after it when it comes to arguing about baseball, because I can't articulate some of the stuff that I'm trying to explain, but his arguments are always on point.
Speaker 1:It's just like no, this little part right here, it may happen once, and it did this year. It was about the pitcher's clock, which we both call the hitter's clock, and I said at some point it's going to get weird because it's not going to work, because the umpire is going to be like he's not ready but he's not on the mound and somebody's going to trouble. I lived that. I got thrown out of a game, the only game of my life.
Speaker 1:Me and Bob argued in spring training and three other times about that exact role. I said, bob, it's eight seconds. If he's not in the box you can pitch, but if you're not on the mound, you can't tell me I gotta be ready to hit, because that creates tension. It's my career. We argued back and forth, but that's the cool part about who we are. Yep, me and rock will talk about hitting. He'll say the exact same thing that I'm saying. It's just different terminology and I've used some as terminology and I've helped someone and it elevated their career in the major leagues all the way down to 12 years old, because you don't know how someone's going to take it. That's the coolest part. It'll come back at some point and that's one of my favorite things about the playbook.
Speaker 3:Play with you is because, like you'll say something like what it came all the way back yeah it's like full circle that we've talked about time and time again, so it's so cool about this game well, you know, and about this business and hannah, you're you kind of touched on it, but so, so that are heck. You played competitively in sports. Did that help you? You?
Speaker 1:both played sports growing up. Oh my gosh, yeah, how much did that help you 100%.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, I don't know how you do it and why. I mean to a small for me smaller degree, playing at an amateur level. You know you've got that competitiveness. You know what that is on the field. You're there, you experience that at a small level.
Speaker 1:Do you feel like you have a little bit more empathy or a little bit more understanding, Would you say Hannah?
Speaker 2:100%. I would say so because you know how hard somebody worked for that one moment. You know that you put that in yourself and that's so true.
Speaker 1:And maybe that only moment too, which is crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think sports more than anything was just a lot of hard work and rejection and not feeling good enough. And you felt that You've lived it and you know that like, okay, I'm working so hard, yeah, well, so is everybody else, it doesn't mean you're going to succeed. You know what I'm not?
Speaker 2:like you know. So I think it just it's the work ethic, it's the pursuit and it's the reason of like humbling, it's a lot of humbling. You right Like it's humbling yourself. But yeah, when you're working with athletes, you can relate to them in certain things and and know the know what they're going through, being like man.
Speaker 3:I can't imagine that or something, or know when a moment is really a cool moment. So that my question is then you knowing the experience, when he hits a walk-off home run or he, whatever, a pitcher throws a two-hit shutout, that that feeling that they have? From from our standpoint as a broadcaster and for what you do, your moment is when everything comes together. That preparation, you know you have a great broadcast. You touched on that with fort. You said later, a few months later, your moment is when everything comes together. That preparation you know you have a great broadcast.
Speaker 3:You touched on that with Ford.
Speaker 2:You said a few months later it all came together, the stars aligned right. Yeah, there's a moment on the broadcast where you used it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:We talked about it because Jason DeLay ended up having his fastest pop time of his career.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the 183 best exchange time.
Speaker 2:It all came together at work and I was like I texted Ford immediately and I said this is from the drill we were talking about, right, like I fact-checked it and everything, and then I did a whole story on it for pregame the next day.
Speaker 1:And I sent her like the analytical numbers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was like, can you help me break this down? I want to do like, and it was just really cool to see that come to fruition. And there were other moments that happened this year, something with you did it with Henry too.
Speaker 1:I did it with Henry at one point With his personality. His personality, yep, yeah, it was so good.
Speaker 2:Oh, he was great. And then, yeah, that was so funny. Like Henry this year, watching him at certain points was yeah, seeing how many times he gave him a smile was fun too, oh geez.
Speaker 2:I'm going to break your set here, but there was a point too with Nick Gonzalez where he had been working on anticipation, pre-pitch anticipation and I heard I don't remember how the story came to be, but like somebody had said something about it and then I watched that exact moment happen in the game and then the next day it turns into a story. I was talking to DK about it, I was talking to people oh oh, because he was warming up pre-game and we saw him in 90 degree weather. He wasn't even playing that day. Gonzalez was not in the lineup, but he was still out there working on this pre-pitch anticipation. And then the next day gets a moment and it comes straight to fruition.
Speaker 2:It happens the perfect execution. It was like, well, now we have a story because he had worked so hard on this. And then now we have a story and like it was just really, really, really cool to see a lot of that where I had no idea why this person would be doing this on a day they're not playing, because I asked why a lot of the time. So it wasn't just me. Some of this information came, maybe if someone else observed it. And then I took it a step further being like oh, thank you, I'll go ask about it and not being afraid to ask why.
Speaker 3:And I think that's a huge part of this, but how gratifying is it for you as a broadcaster at the end of the day after the game.
Speaker 1:She was out there. Yes, she was out there watching it. Yeah, that's 90 degrees. You're probably wearing a dress today.
Speaker 2:We're in tournament 75 outside yeah right, but she's watching it and that's like what's happening, but it feels, yeah, it feels good. It feels good, but it also it feels good because you're making like you're I don't care that I was the one to do it Like I would have shared that. I've shared plenty of information beforehand with you or Joe and being like, hey, if this fits better for you to say it, say it Like I'm not going to feel bad that you took something, or something but.
Speaker 2:I just feel good that we have that information, because that's the stuff that our listeners don't know. But then Nick Gonzalez was so proud to talk about that right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because that's the evolution of him.
Speaker 2:I like it more so that it gives these players their moment. It gives them their moment, and that's what I like to see, I love to ask a question to somebody and see it that light on their face about it, right, not like a me me me thing. I love that they get to have their moments to be like yeah, you know what, I was out there working on it and Boyd, even as a professional athlete, did it feel good to actually do that Like those little moments, you know.
Speaker 1:You just made a man feel seen after being hurt, doing something that they told him. Defense is never going to be what it should be. He was the second best second baseman in our division. If he, if he qualified, he would have been a gold glove finalist Outside Horner. Is that right?
Speaker 3:Nico Horner.
Speaker 1:yeah, With the Cubs, who's one of the best second basemen in baseball. He's the guy, and he worked his tail off you. Bringing that to life not only gives you credibility, but it also enhances the understanding.
Speaker 3:It reinforces there the work that they put in.
Speaker 1:But for the fans like oh, what's this development they're talking about? It's this much improvement.
Speaker 2:It's that, play it's that play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at that moment it's that stat he got to a ball that he could never have gotten to because he changed his prep step and he changed his anticipation. That made him three times more valuable than he was just two weeks ago. That's how big a jump can happen, because this guy was a negative defender, now he's positive. You hit something that he was so passionate about and good, I'm gonna roll all the way back to spring training. But you guys are there the whole time. You're watching it in real life. Something clicks and you're like, oh, that's different.
Speaker 2:And it would never happen if you didn't watch. And that's the most valuable part. Like some people had asked me, like the benefits of spring training and stuff, I was like I would not have done, I would not have felt as good about the product we put out this year had I not gone to spring training and had conversations with you, had conversations with Ford.
Speaker 1:I flew down on my own Watch things happen. It's invaluable.
Speaker 2:It's so valuable to watch these guys what they're working on, but also get them at a time where they're not overburdened yet by results and other outside sources.
Speaker 1:They're the best shit of their life. I changed my swing. I'm so good right now. And then the first pitch comes and you're like oh gosh, it's still baseball.
Speaker 2:It's not a cage. It's very cool to get to see these people humanized in a way and build those relationships and get them. I remember my first time walking to the clubhouse being so intimidated by Kutch because growing up, which is so funny.
Speaker 1:She was standing outside with Adam and she was like big-eyed More so because you make it.
Speaker 2:You know when people in sports make it seem like don't talk to this person don't do this. And so you automatically assume don't approach Andrew McCutcheon unless you're told to approach Andrew McCutcheon and, like by the nature of what we do, that's not realistic in baseball, at least in the Pirates Clubhouse, because if you want somebody you got to walk up and ask them for something. That's how it works.
Speaker 1:I have a fun game for us this year, unless you set something up before and things like that. I have a fun game for us this year with Kutch. I want to feed you some extra questions He'll probably figure it out at some point but just completely off the wall, consistent questions that we'll figure out to ask him, just to bring out his personality Perfect.
Speaker 2:Not leadership. Not about ask him just to bring out his personality perfect like, not leadership, not about like completely off the wall. Do you know my favorite conversation I had with kutch this year, bringing bringing that back? Well, like I eventually realized he was just a normal human and it was great to talk to him he was like you don't have to be afraid of me.
Speaker 2:I was like you can talk to me, because I was so afraid I thought I had to set up like an appointment, and you were a fan and you grew up here, so that's you know when people are we talked about like meeting your heroes.
Speaker 2:He's one of those people who I met and was like he's exactly who you'd want him to be in more. He's wonderful. He's an even better dad and husband than he is baseball player and, like I, have so much respect and love for him. But one of my favorite times I had with him we're just like talking before a game. I had just finished an interview with him for our thing, and then we're in milwaukee, so we're talking about the Haunted Hotel and he told me ghost stories for an hour.
Speaker 2:I was like I don't have time to sit here, but I can't get away because these are hilarious and they're real and I wish we would have been recording this instead, but he told me ghost stories in Milwaukee and a ghost story in Tampa Bay, and that's who Kutch is. He'll just randomly talk to you about stuff and I wish people saw that more, but stuff and, and you know, and I wish people saw that more, but I mean so many people do know his personality.
Speaker 1:We were talking about archery today, a lot more about it. Yeah, we're talking about archery today, like getting suited up for a bow and everything. Like, yeah, he's a great human, he's into all kinds of weird things, uh-huh. Yeah, it's fun to get that personality to come out of guys, but it's not easy because the light comes on them sure right, whether win, lose or draw. But like, if you just throw a little wrinkle and you pull that personality out, it's the best.
Speaker 2:And we had ongoing jokes, this year too, where he might not have thought it was funny, but I did, where it was just like the little, like oh, kutch, you've been around a while. Like the old things and so I don't know if anyone would see him the scrums and he'd be like there. She goes with the. I had this just like constant jabbing each other going the whole time. That was just so fun. But he's such a fun-loving guy and exactly who you'd want him to be Like. It's so fun that way.
Speaker 3:You did a podcast. Did you do Beers with Mears?
Speaker 2:I did do Beers with Mears for a little bit.
Speaker 3:Was that your doing?
Speaker 2:That was my doing. That was something that, when I started working with Pigs and Parlays- the sports betting company, I had always pigs and parlays pigs.
Speaker 1:Oh, how does that fit? Oh, we're not always on the farm, but um we ate hot dogs and piss.
Speaker 2:Jobs yeah, pigs and parlays. Uh, I had pitched to them that I was doing a podcast, originally called hear them out, with hannah mirrors. That's what I did during covid just to keep myself like fresh, tremendous. I wanted to rebrand it, though, because I wanted some of the feedback I had gotten when I was trying to get jobs was okay, you might be good, but what can you do outside of Penn state? I'm like well, that's a little harsh. My past four years, this is where I've been.
Speaker 1:What else am I supposed to do?
Speaker 2:But I was like okay, fine, I'll show you what else I can do, and I like wanted to rebrand myself a lot and be like I'm not this 21 year old college girl anymore. I can do other things. Yes, I like to have a beer. That's who I am. I like to kick back, relax, and so I'd have people on my podcast and have a drink a beer and have a conversation, exactly, and that's sort of what you guys are doing where you put people in a space where they can be themselves yeah and that was so fun for me.
Speaker 2:I didn't I don't get to continue doing it um, I miss doing, but I just didn't have the time to do it. I was editing it and I was doing all the things, um, and it was with picks and parlays, but it was so fun to get to like rebrand myself and a lot of my friends had seen it and texted me like beers with mirrors, like this is great, because they know me as a girl who, like if I go to a bar I'm getting a beer. Or like kicking it with people in the backyard with a fire.
Speaker 1:I grew up on a farm.
Speaker 2:I grew up in field parties and bonfires and beer, that's great. That's what it is, you know, so yeah, so Beers with Mirrors was really fun. A lot of cool guests came on there. It was so, so, incredible.
Speaker 1:That goes back to like she'll probably think this is really cool. We talked about it before.
Speaker 3:Cool or neat. Cool, I did that on.
Speaker 2:I did that on. I'm going to go back in this episode and listen to how many times I said the word cool.
Speaker 1:now You're going to think this is extraordinary there we go. And cool, but back in the day, after the game, we would decompress.
Speaker 1:So, you wouldn't take that stuff home and we miss it. We talk about it all the time. That's kind of how this started. We do that before we go on air, but that's what I miss. That's what beers with mirrors, I'm sure, turned into is like you get to decompress, and I wish we did more of that for the fans. So, like, whoever it was, whether good, bad or ugly, it's like, hey, we're going to sit down, we're going to just have a round table, because then you actually can go home. We all have this old adage shower it off, it's not real, it's a lie, unless you actually leave it there. Right, that's with live tv, that's with everything else.
Speaker 1:That's why I love this forum, yeah, and I wish you got a lot more of that with these guys, because back in the day brownie this is where I'm leading to what would you do on bus rides? What would you do after games? With not just your guys but the team, the manager and you became so close that, like at three in the morning, if in trouble, you're probably calling somebody that nobody thought you were calling.
Speaker 2:Well, that's what I also appreciated, though, about the bus rides, about those little moments where, sometimes, like a guy like Kutch, would come and just sit across from you and just want to talk to you and talk with you as a friend and you know, and I thought that was really cool eventually when people did start letting their guard down and talk to you as a person and then you felt really included but then also comfortable to be able to like talk to them in certain spaces and ask them things.
Speaker 2:And I will say like my first year with the Pirates was so beautiful and everything I could have wanted it to be more. I couldn't have imagined it in this way because we had a team that was so family. It felt like to me where I walked in the clubhouse and I didn't feel uncomfortable. I walked in the clubhouse and I didn't feel uncomfortable. I walked in the clubhouse and I didn't feel like people were like oh, she's in here, you know they might have made jokes but were so willing to talk to me and support me and they filled out a way about some.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying yeah, and they were just like so kind to me.
Speaker 3:Don't look at me.
Speaker 2:So kind the same way and that makes it feel really good. You know, when you have like teammates around you or you felt part of the team and and that felt really good, but at the same time they just you know they were. It was just fun because they like made jokes about things. And brian reynolds the one day was like come on tree, hit a home run and you're not gonna interview him, but like I had to interview the catcher because paul schemes pitched that day and it was like a really you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I'm like okay, whatever, like blame so and so because so and so didn't come and like, but it was just those funny moments you had with people that you're like, never taking it too much. But then you know they had inside jokes but they always took you seriously and I respected that, because they could have been like an inside joke or not taking me seriously and but anytime I had a question to ask it was like all right, cool, what do you got?
Speaker 1:like go ahead you know, you gain their respect that's and I hope I did. I tried to respect, but you can see it blatant as day as a former, like I know you can too.
Speaker 1:You watch it enough. I've been in many clubhouses where respect is gone. Yeah, and you had it, and that's the biggest thing. It's very hard to do. I say it whether you're in the media, whether you're a new coach. It takes time. You got to earn your keep, and especially with young guys, because they're just getting there, they don't want to say anything wrong, and old guys because they're like, okay, what are you trying to get out of me? And that takes time.
Speaker 2:It does, and there were some players that, yeah, it felt like we had the co-worker relationship, but then toward the end of the season it finally broke that barrier of more of a friendship and this and I was like, oh wow, we finally got here. It took us all year but here we are.
Speaker 1:But it's because a lot of them you do and you pray they come back. You're like, please come back A lot of the veteran players and things like that.
Speaker 2:you do have to earn their trust, because they have been either burned before or they're just very quiet about things or they don't trust that you're not going to. And then, once you really learn and talk to people and you know, I'm just so thankful that the Pirates are like that, where the clubhouse is such a welcoming space, because being like the only female in there sometimes is a really also weird and intimidating thing and like it's very vulnerable and you just you just aren't sure how it's going to go. But nobody ever made me feel like I shouldn't be in there. I'm going to lead you into the next question.
Speaker 1:So she was the alpha dog this year. Mackie. To the next question. So she was the alpha dog this year. Mackie left of asking like really authentic questions and you could tell like well, like somebody, somebody had to be the answer in the room and you were like how cool is that to see, because that's always the question.
Speaker 1:I'm sure, as a female going in, like you're pretty much the only one in that, like media group, that's there every day. You're, you literally are relentless at showing that. Like media group, that's there every day. You're, you literally are relentless at showing up to everything and you sit in the back and you just listen. You don't really ever ask a question, cause you get your own time. How cool is that to see? Because I get to hear it, you know, off air and on air. And I was like man, how is she leading the way at her first year? These old dudes aren't really pushing the envelope. You kept doing it. I think that gained respect in a different way, because that has to be the hardest thing. Because I don't go into Derek Shelton's office very often, I'll say hello, I give him a stogie every now and then, but it's very difficult because they're going through a lot and a lot of people don't know what all they go through.
Speaker 2:It's not easy, especially when you lose or something's going wrong or something's awkward.
Speaker 1:And unfortunately he's not been able to pull that over the top. So every single year he has moments where it's just like this has to be miserable to figure out how to answer, but you still we're relying on you for a second too, you're asking those questions.
Speaker 2:And I feel like I always have to toe a line and you're going through your head like should I ask this? How should I ask this? Should I not ask this?
Speaker 3:I will say I developed a really good relationship with our beat reporters, like our core group of guys who travel with us a lot and it took a little bit to earn their respect.
Speaker 2:I mean, Bev, she's right there with them and and it took a little bit to earn their respect.
Speaker 2:I felt like too like in spring training they weren't sure of me, like it felt like I mean, they were always very welcoming, but it was like, oh, they're not sure if I know what I'm doing yet. And then instantly I feel like it was a really close friendship. But also there would be so many times where I'd be like, hey, guys, like before we go in here, let's c? This has to be asked, this is it. You know? And there are moments like that people might at home, might not realize that, but those conversations are being had, um, and we have to be respectful of the space that we're being welcomed into, right, like that's not our space, that's his space, and like we have to be aware of that. And yeah, are there things that you ask? All of us have asked a question that we've got like slapped on the wrist for something, or it's like that was not right. Um, and you live and you learn, and that's fine.
Speaker 1:But even I mean Rob Keane got slapped on the wrist this year.
Speaker 2:It happens, but I was also not aware that when, when I took the shop, that when I walked in the clubhouse that was something I learned they, they all told me hey, robbie used to ask the first question. So, like, free will to ask the first question, and that just became a thing. But then it also became a thing where I was always taught like, no matter what, so even if I'm somewhere, I was always taught you have to have a question for somebody. Like, don't go into a space, into a media scrum, specifically, and be the one without a question. It looks like you're wasting somebody's time and there is nothing I hate more than being with a group of people who are wanting someone's time and attention after a win or a loss or anything. They have places to be and they're giving you their time and you stand there and wait for people to ask something.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's terrible and that's why you go. You're the aggressor, I mean, you start it off.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of times in baseball where it's like what the heck can I ask after that? But you better have something and we have a great support, like people who do do that. But I remembered freshman year.
Speaker 2:I was interning with Arielle and I. She gave me her recorder and she goes, go get. This was how I started out. Go get quotes from these football players so I can write stories later. Because she was hosting a postgame show and I walked in and Saquon Barkley was sitting there and I just held a recorder there and there were people just asking questions and I didn't think I was allowed to ask anything. So I didn't.
Speaker 2:And he started laughing mid-presser because him and I had been friends. We were classmates. He was one of my first friends I made at Penn State and he found out broadcast was what I wanted to do. He saw a picture of me as a runner on the sports net or the sports center desk at Latrobe and was like I didn't know, like what do you want to do? Like blah, blah. So we had developed a friendship at thisrobe and was like I didn't know, like what do you want to do? Like blah, blah, blah, oh my gosh. So we had developed a friendship at this point and he turns and starts laughing. He sees me with this like recorder in his face and people were like what are you laughing at? He goes nothing, something's funny. And then afterwards he goes I didn't know you were Ariel's intern.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Like weird by the way, like like pointing that recorder mic oh it's so weird, it's uncomfortable, it's uncomfortable, you feel so intrusive and it's so odd and I hate. Will you please just go, paul? Yeah, yeah, exactly to see what happens. He would go, hannah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But just say it again paul, yeah, paul hannah, no, that would be oh too funny.
Speaker 2:But um, but yeah, to that point. Saquon told me after that and it's something that has stuck with me and like he probably wouldn't remember this ever, you know, but it was something that, as a young reporter, meant a lot to me. He goes the next time you're in that space. He goes why didn't you ask a question? I said, well, I'm not really supposed to, and he goes. I'm not answering a single one of them next time until you're the first person to ask a question, so come with a question.
Speaker 3:I love that.
Speaker 2:And I thought that was so cool.
Speaker 3:Wow, but because somebody challenged me, pushed me, believed in me and Saquon has done a lot in my career to help me.
Speaker 2:He was such a good friend, but he was somebody who made me in that same class Mike Poorman's class stay after class. One day Shannon Furman, who's a director and producer at NFL Films, was speaking to our class. He made me stay after class until everyone left. He goes you have to meet this woman. He goes you want to do this. She's somebody you need to meet, and so I was so scared I was a freshman I stayed after class. He had a relationship with her, so he introduced me to her. She then introduced me to Leo McCafferty, who was a producer at the Pittsburgh Penguins, who got me my first internship.
Speaker 2:So it was like really, crazy how all of that happened, but there were just certain people who I look back and I'm like gosh, they challenged me to do that and Saquon was a really small example of so many people who have taught me those things. But I have never not gone into an interview, a media scrum, anything without asking a question, ever because of that one moment where I was like he.
Speaker 2:He was like, why aren't you asking me a question? Like challenged me and I thought that was so cool. And so ever since, even if I feel like I have nothing that day and I mean okay, I say that with loose terms, because in baseball and you have 160 games, there are beat reporters who have stories to write and sometimes I'll just let them ask the questions they need to. There's nothing I'm going to ask. That maybe enhances the conversation at that point.
Speaker 2:Or, like you know, pre game with Shelty, sometimes it's like, okay, I'm going to let them ask what they need to, because they need to yeah and I'm not going to get in the way of that, but I always come with a question well, don't you always ask the first question post game of almost every time, okay? So if I let's say, I interview Kutch on the field and something big happened like his 300th home run, kutch eventually got funny toward the end. It was like, oh, let me guess they're going to make you work double time and come ask me the same thing from the clubhouse.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course.
Speaker 2:Which is funny, because I might be like hey, buddy, here we go again. Do it again, again, but to make sure it wasn't repetitive or I wasn't the one I had the privilege of interviewing them on the field and getting that first reaction. Sometimes I'll go to the beat reporters and say hey, alex, like you're asking the first question today, so that I'm not repetitive and then I let them have that too, and then if there's another follow-up in there, I find I'll ask.
Speaker 2:but yeah, so I do ask the first question, unless there is moments like that where I'm like, hey, go, go ahead, like I got them on field. You guys haven't yet, I'll let you take the turn. So if they see me not asking the first question, typically that's why Shelty postgame.
Speaker 3:You're not always the first.
Speaker 2:Typically, I think, for probably 138 of the 140 games I covered, I was the first. I can't remember when you did.
Speaker 3:There's another fun thing we're going to do next year we're going to do the word of the day and we're going to do the times. Hannah doesn't ask the first question the post game.
Speaker 2:Don't put an over-under, because I'll be in the background and be like you have to ask.
Speaker 3:No, you will not know it. We'll talk amongst ourselves.
Speaker 1:So I get goofy when I don't know what to do. So what do you guys do? I have defaults, right we, when we make a mistake. Man, if I didn't know what to ask, they played terrible. So what did you eat for dinner, like, do you ever want to just go completely off the wall? No, are those different shoelaces?
Speaker 2:Yes, but no Time and place right. Just to break it up, if there's certain games, like at this point in the season there was a tough time with, I won't get specific.
Speaker 2:We had a tough stretch right, and so you just know you have to know, you know yeah, you know the like clubhouse vibe where you're like I'm not about to walk in here and ask them a funny question when no, they just want to get straight to the point. Or if a pitcher right, like you know they didn't have their best game, they get pulled after the fourth inning. They're disappointed things are happening. You're just going to be like hey, like what went wrong out there, what you know, like let him let them tell their story. I'm very big on let somebody tell their story and when to ask a follow-up to it, when to not ask a follow-up to it. And you just have to.
Speaker 1:Really, that's reading the room. Yeah, I love that you have to read the room.
Speaker 2:You have to read the room, especially when there's that many games and you're trying to keep relationships and you're trying to get people not mad at you. It's like hey, you know I have a job to do, I know you have a job to do, let's just get this over with.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, you know it's the worst as a player and we never talk about this, but like we played awful, I hit two homers. You know what I mean and you've got to balance that out. That's when I think like a good joke, because like it's your career and reality of it is, I wish I was a pirate for life, but I wasn't. I played for nine teams, so you're playing also for yourself and I remember Walt Weiss said this in spring training we're playing for a championship until you're playing for yourself.
Speaker 1:Because he literally said this room will never be the same and I was like, wow, that's powerful. And he said I'm speaking from a guy that didn't stay in the same room very long and most of you won't. There's very few that will. And I think about that and I think we lose that sight sometimes, obviously as fans, because we react so hard. It's like man, if we buy in right now, this kid could take off, and a lot of times I feel like we have that power more than most and it's kind of neat and I think we've done a great job. You guys especially kind of pushing it a little bit, whether it's behind the scenes or, you know, on air. It's really cool. It's not normal.
Speaker 2:From other places I've been there's, but there's like also, there's no bigger compliment to, to when you're asking, like just certain things, like post-game questions or walking to a clubhouse, or like when to ask things, when to not ask things, like there is no better compliment as in my opinion, in my position than having someone come up to you and be like, how did you get that person to say that?
Speaker 1:and when I was doing wrestling reporting this year at the big 10 championships is that like your game-winning hit for?
Speaker 2:you? Yeah, absolutely, because you got somebody to be vulnerable, and wrestling's a really hard sport to cover, where people are very like, they're not used to those posts or they're coming off the mat exhausted and they're not used to a post game interview and, like they're exhausted in a way, they were just basically in a fist fight with somebody. Now they have to come answer questions You're going to get raw right there.
Speaker 2:And so I think it was covering the world championship, like U-20 world championships, and I got I was just having a conversation with this kid like social media, like I had my phone up just interviewing him and he's telling me all kinds of things and I'm like great, like he's a good personality. And someone came up to me after and goes how did you get him to talk? I said what do you mean? I just asked a question and they there's a lot of people who don't Like we knew in the beginning of the year Henry Davis was so quiet.
Speaker 2:Like he probably wasn't going to say much, but it would be like, all right, let's see if we can get him to at least smile.
Speaker 1:We let it shizzle away at that guy and he was credit to Henry.
Speaker 2:when he got called back up he was a little bit.
Speaker 1:I met him right after he got drafted in the booth. We interviewed him I'll never forget it and he created a persona, whatever it is. He thought he had to be that military tough-minded and then, when he broke that down, you're playing a kid's game. You can say you're going to war but you're not actually going to die. That consequence does not exist theoretically.
Speaker 2:On the field.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. Like the balance there, I think he was trying to learn because he was trying to be someone he thought he needed to be, and I saw something just like you did. I think we even talked about it. He changed and I'm like this dude may be the guy that we've been wanting, needed and what he deserves with his hard work, because that personality it was never about talent, it was never about ability, it was never about what was happening on the field. It's like when's he going to find his identity? When that I was like what good answers.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you see that.
Speaker 3:When you see that come out. Jack Wilson brought it up about when he pushed back.
Speaker 1:Finally, because they were crushing him and they were cutting up his suits, making him wear stuff. He started hiding his suits. He brought two suits to the field. He pushed back. That's so great. He elevated his game Because you say wait, I don't have to take this.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Why am I doing this? And then he changed and that's not his personality, but that's changed his entire makeup, moving forward and personality, but that's changed his entire makeup moving forward and now he's a leader of men.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is so cool. It's so cool and I think that's one of the most rewarding parts of the job too is when you see people start to be themselves and be vulnerable and like let those walls down and those barriers, and there's nothing more rewarding and I always say that I'm like man, like when I can get somebody to be themselves.
Speaker 2:That is so cool and it's the biggest compliment ever. It's like how did you get him to talk? I was like, well, I just talked to him like a person I don't know like how do you get people to talk? But it's the biggest compliment. It makes you feel so good because it makes you feel like, wow, maybe in that moment that person felt like they could trust me.
Speaker 1:And I've also had the opposite where I'm like how not, I can't do that right, like what they were telling me, like I, I don't know if I could actually do that, so I just did what I thought I could. Right, I just reacted and I think guys for a long time tried to be something that they were told. I mean we saw that right, oh yeah, the hoke. Hey, yeah, like I love military, I think that could have worked in a different time in individuals, not as a group, but like guys came in and I'm like dude, just be. I'm like we were just talking. What you just told me would give you credit. You're making yourself look discredited, yeah, and I don't think they understand that and I pray they do. And I think we have the right group to help them because it's their brand, it's their ability to move forward, because, yeah, I love personality.
Speaker 2:We were talking about Peguero. Yeah, Like seeing him smile, I'm like man.
Speaker 1:It's so infectious and he makes everybody better.
Speaker 2:And you know who I mean. I'm so excited for a lot of things. For the reasons of like you know, you're now invested in this team. They feel like you're family.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited to see what the pirates can do, but I'm so excited for a guy like bubba chandler to see what he can do, and not just as a pitcher, because I love his personality to where he told me when. So I'll never forget one of my highlights of the season because it's one of the things that stands out of my mind is one of the most fun moments was when he got to close the prospects game. He had never closed a game before and I'm back right.
Speaker 2:I'm by the bullpen when he's warming up because that's where, like my station is and he's just standing out there talking like shooting it, you know, and he goes, chugs a Red Bull crushes the can throws it on the ground and goes he's now elevated on my list.
Speaker 1:If he would have pounded it on his head, then top of my list. I love it.
Speaker 2:Psychopath, Crushes a Red Bull in his hand, throws it on the ground and goes let's close this bitch and just walks out there. He did just that. Quote for quote, that's exactly what he said. I said, oh my God, I love this kid. He had never closed a game before and he was so pumped about it he put on the cape he couldn't wait. He put it on. It's like you put the mask on.
Speaker 1:You're like at the end of a superhero movie, when the fight's about to happen and he's like let's go.
Speaker 2:Like Bubba Chazzo's closed, this bitch Walks out on the mound, does exactly that, then looks at me and he goes. I'm in the post-game interview. Personality just came through.
Speaker 1:That's where you pick closers in my mind you pick the guy, that's like he could shiv me. He could maybe strangle me, but he could definitely make sure you're terrified.
Speaker 2:Think about all the personalities growing up Like Jared Jones.
Speaker 1:I want him to start so nobody gets put out of his.
Speaker 2:He has the personality of a closer.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, I put that little guy out there and said go kill, Because he has a killer.
Speaker 2:He has that switch and Bubba Chandler is a lot more calm and laid back, but he has that switch on the mound right. And I just thought that was one of the coolest moments where I was like this kid's going to be good. He's not going to let himself not be good, but he has to be good at this level. He didn't care who was out there, he's like you want me to close? Let's close this bitch.
Speaker 3:It was one of the great post-game interviews. I mean, it was only spring training, but I thought that was wow.
Speaker 1:That was incredible. Well, he made the team because he went all in on who he is. That's why Bubba Chandler will probably make the team, and you know who else?
Speaker 2:was like that too. There's so camp at some point and go back down to the minors that I just love talking to every day, because they weren't afraid anthony solomino, tamar donzo they weren't afraid to be themselves. Right, and solo is one of those people who he's telling me all about. Like you know, the tampa bay thing with tom brady eating the chocolate cake and looking at henry davis being like I'm eating the chocolate cake. Do not eat the chocolate cake, because this is tom brady's, brady's chocolate cake, like I'm eating the chocolate cake Since you brought up those two guys' names.
Speaker 1:I'm going to throw out a little thought of mine. Tamar Johnson, not as fast as Salamito, but both those guys failing this year was the greatest gift. Yeah, yeah, you got to do it, Because Tamar's never really failed he failed on both ends for a while.
Speaker 1:He ends for a while. He, I really believe, understands one affects the other. He's got to separate and he's going back to his roots. He's playing for USA Baseball right now and I think Salamedo got caught up with what was around him and then they set, whenever they made those moves and he stayed. I was like, oh yeah now he's the dude, but you know when you're talking about success.
Speaker 2:They're not afraid to put in the work. They knew where they were at and they knew that they that wasn't the standard that they allowed themselves to be at, and so that's why I'm so excited for these young guys, because there is a fire in them. Right like you, you feel it, yeah you gotta let it go.
Speaker 1:It's like jared jones.
Speaker 2:Even at the end of the season we were asking him and it's one of his final clubhouse interviews he kept saying, when we're saying like, what do you want to do next year, all these things you know, and whatever roundabout way we're asking it, he kept mentioning paul and he's like I don't want to keep bringing up his name, but like I want to be like him I want to do what he did, and it's.
Speaker 2:They're like one firing up the other and they aren't afraid to be like he's better than me, he's this, it's like what he's doing, I want to do that, and like that makes you so excited it's not got these guys in his own way correct. He's not going to mimic everything, but he's like that's the standard we're chasing and it's really cool to see those young guys from the bottom up just really excited to get out there and do that it was really fun to hear.
Speaker 1:Brownie, I don't know how much time we have, but I'm going to kind of throw out something we've joked around about. So I want us to completely enthrall ourselves into the pirate right. Like I call. Aj Burnett was the pirate of our team. I want people to hate coming here. You guys both. I want a cannon, I want a ship. I wanna get weird. I want people to hate when they come in because the lights come off and pirate stuff and it just is a very uncomfortable right.
Speaker 1:What do you get? What do you see? How can the younger fan base really rally behind the growth of winning? Cause? Like winning starts today. You you said that last year and I love it Like you can't prepare. If you're not preparing to win tomorrow, you've got a problem. You can't make everything work when you start winning. So like winning is today, and I always say that with broadcasts. One thing I hate about TV is like what's the challenge, what's the next step, what's my win? And that's what pulls me real hard to coach, to mentor, but I'm not there. What do you see? You're around these guys, you've been in the city. It's something I want to ask every guest, but like you're a different version and a different look.
Speaker 2:And I think it'd be cool to start with you. So for me. I went to Penn State. I saw one of the hardest atmospheres in college sports to play in and it was the whiteout. And you know why? It didn't matter if Penn State was good or bad. The fans showed up for that one thing because they knew they could impact that game. It's like Roman warrior. Unbelievable, I will never, forget. I was on the sidelines and I filmed that. Michigan false start, that's like infamously all over the Internet, that's in a video game.
Speaker 2:This year, and really of that moment where they false started because it was so loud and it's deafening. You're in the press box, the press box shakes because people are shaking and like it is one of the hardest atmospheres for another team to play and they have to learn a silent count because you can't hear when you're interviewing someone on the sidelines. One of my biggest critiques coming out of college was you sound like you're screaming in your interviews. I said have you ever tried to interview someone with 107,000?
Speaker 3:people screaming.
Speaker 2:No, it is not easy. Your person can't hear you.
Speaker 1:I don't want the other team to be able to have an interview I hate going there. We can't get any good content, it's just our content.
Speaker 2:When Kutch tweeted out blackout energy.
Speaker 1:Like that's what I envisioned PNC Park to be. Real quick, real quick Both times. Well, no, jay, we talked about it on the bus in 13. I know, and I pushed, and, pushed, and pushed and then I was like, all right, what do you think? And it was actually a wife of a former player that said, talked about college football, happened in 13. But when Kutch came back, he said it on and I just happened. This is a godsend. I happened to hear you say it on the fan. Wouldn't it be nice? Wouldn't it be nice?
Speaker 2:yeah, wouldn't it be nice on Twitter and I told Kutch and everything else and then it just went viral. But you know, the coolest part about that is it was not easy. It could not have been easy for other teams to come in when Paul was on the mound, but it wasn't big enough for me.
Speaker 1:I hate to say that it wasn't big enough.
Speaker 2:But I'm saying when you're saying a vision, right, that's the vision.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what it is. How can we make this even more uncomfortable?
Speaker 2:Pittsburgh fans by nature are going to be hard to play against because they are ride or die. Teacher are are gonna be hard to play against because they are ride or die. So it's like when you're when you've got paul skeens on the mound the city showed up, they did show up, they did their due diligence. You know when the military day would be hard?
Speaker 1:paul skeens day. Yes, every day he pitches. I would have as many military in. I don't know how you want to do it financially, but they'd be free for me. You show up, you're in the game supporting our military guy. Do you realize what that would be like?
Speaker 2:But also you have to understand this too we're talking about comparisons to football, where there's 17 games, there's 160 baseball games.
Speaker 1:We know that every single one isn't going to be like that. You understand, and there's baseball.
Speaker 2:There's the elements, it's hot.
Speaker 1:It's miserable.
Speaker 2:You've also got baseball games. At like noon You've got baseball games, baseball game.
Speaker 1:So it's weird times. It oftentimes has to be organic friday night at a friday night saturday night that's pittsburgh.
Speaker 2:I would love for pittsburgh to be the hardest weekend night spot to play in yeah all of major league baseball you'd love that absolutely the unbelievable when was there a place you felt and I'm leading into I saw something when I was a player.
Speaker 1:was there a place that you guys go on the road, that you feel like, oh no, like you could see in the eyes of the players? You could just tell like the energy's different.
Speaker 3:Well, the thing about it is it's really, really, this is the apple, the checker of the egg theory, what comes first? So you can try and create that, but Milwaukee has that, yeah, but not when they weren't winning. You know it's so, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Not when they weren't winning, but like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I agree that you have to be prepared to win. We've talked about that, that you need to be prepared for these moments.
Speaker 1:But we lost like 9,000 games there, right.
Speaker 3:Do you?
Speaker 2:know why Milwaukee had that, because it's a flight hangar. I felt like Milwaukee was the type of team that they were never going to be completely out. You could be up 7-0, and you still were kind of holding your breath, because South Carolina's coming up to bat and you're like gosh or like Willie Adamas is up and you're like, oh no, not again.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. They had an identity, they had a grit.
Speaker 2:They had an identity about them. Otherwise, one of the coolest places I thought. That just felt it reminded me of football. Now it's biased because domes sound louder. Houston was really hard for me to hear. Like the broadcast and everything. Houston had a feel to it.
Speaker 1:Houston had a feel.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it was. It had a feel. It was cool. I was like man, these fans are bought in, they feel like they're on top of me, it's biased toward where you're sitting to and where you feel, and things like that. Houston, I think, had an edge, I think, playing the Reds at the end of the season they had an edge For sure. You felt like they were just out there ready to take names. To me they weren't scary. A scary team to play isn't the right way to put it.
Speaker 3:But they were a team that you were like. I don't know if I'd want to be playing you right now if everything's on the line really good they got some young talent and you know what I was gonna say.
Speaker 2:Nelly concert after, and I'm sorry we all stayed to watch it, and so did their fans. And how many fans that they bring in, like the incentives. They were promoting it, but they were also giving fans a reason to be there beyond, and then they like whooped on us a little bit.
Speaker 3:They had an Ellie concert.
Speaker 1:It was like okay, well, we that's how you get younger fans to your point. You bought in Yep. Do you remember? I think it was 12 or 13 when the Dodgers ownership changed Yep? Well, they did this thing. That just floored me. So they have those giant speakers.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 1:And me. So they have those giant speakers. Yeah, and jay-z has a song, it's f with me. Uh, I don't know the exact song, you know I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:You know I got it. It's what it is. You know I got it. Yeah, so we're there in september we're there in september.
Speaker 1:I didn't play the first game, I played the second game and we have all the young guys still 40 man roster and I look down, they turn this on and I think jerry springeringer was there, or Jerry Springer, there was like five or six. Rihanna was there and I look at these guys, their eyes are this big and I was like we have no shot. The speakers, the bass was rattling us, the fans were starting to make humming like noises and it just got more emotional, more emotional. We got crushed because we made so many mistakes and we lost it in the moment before the game yeah you know, like I've been, I've been watching tennessee football some and watching them before the game.
Speaker 1:You can look over the sideline.
Speaker 2:You're like they got no shot well, do you know what's really funny? We were watching the world series this year and they had like performers come out and things like that. I said how cool, like just imagine it, a world series game in pittsburgh would be like, unlike anything you've ever seen, because a fan show up but there'd be such a pittsburgh you versus the city feel to it because there's nothing like the, the, the redneck, blue collar sports fan base. That pittsburgh is like when you show up and the steel right and it's Steelers Ravens game and renegade comes on, it's going to be our first one.
Speaker 1:Something right To me the first one.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like it is. There is nothing like that feeling and I truly believe baseball could be tenfold Like. Even remember. Was it not last year, the year before Bednar came out to close the game? The Pirates are out of roll, the stadium goes black. Renegade comes on, those lights are going and you just feel it and I think the Pirates in the World Series, the PNC Park holding a baseball game, the most beautiful baseball stadium in all of Major League Baseball, and you've got the Pittsburgh grit attached to it. It would be chilling.
Speaker 2:There would be nothing like it For me, with Wiz Khalifa coming out singing black and yellow to start.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. It's over. It's over. Every dude that came out of the bullpen, I would black that stadium out. They'd all have their thing and I'd have them punching tickets.
Speaker 2:And you have, yeah, you have Mitch Keller, paul Skeens, jared Jones. You're like what am I even trying to do?
Speaker 1:Spotlight from a helicopter Now batting Andrew McCutcheon. Sorry Tim. Tabacco, that was really good he comes in and whatever he wanted, and I would just have red everywhere. You are going to lose.
Speaker 2:Even more than that. Imagine this you have the towels, the terrible towels, and things like that, but then you also have what you were talking about with the hockey broadcast. You have Mike Langisms playing throughout the stadium. You have every.
Speaker 1:Pittsburgh, iconic thing happening.
Speaker 2:You just have that feel and it's because we go back to the first thing we talked about the history of Pittsburgh is so rich and the winning culture here. And I think that's when people ask me too oh, you work for the Pirates, oh well, it's off-season. I'm like, yeah, but I love Pittsburgh so much and I love the Pirates For the Pirates. Oh well, tough season. I'm like, yeah, but I love Pittsburgh so much and I love the Pirates and like this is the stuff as a fan, but as a person like I want to be a part of I'm not afraid to like.
Speaker 2:You know, when they always tell you when you're about to commit to like a school or something like that they're like well, you can be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond, and and there's something so much more rewarding about building something than being there when it's already built 100%.
Speaker 1:Who does that sound like?
Speaker 3:100%.
Speaker 1:Greg Brown, the wisdom coming from both ways. Praise to McGuire. I learned from the best.
Speaker 3:The team that felt that way. But you said the Pirates felt they weren't going to win when they walked into Dodgers.
Speaker 1:Stadium, I would say an 11, and 12, and 13. When Hanren came in, we couldn't lose.
Speaker 3:No, there was a team that felt that way when they came to Pittsburgh PNC Park October 1, 2013. The Reds said it. They said we had no chance. That blackout game the wild card game and analytically we probably didn't. The Pirates, you mean against the Dodgers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like Cueto owned us at PNC Park.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like he'd never been bad, yeah, and we got him, got him yeah.
Speaker 2:Got him.
Speaker 1:Anyway, it's.
Speaker 1:But, like think about the difference maker, right? I mean, russ explained it, marlon Bird talked about it all the time, the guys you were just talking about. There's a difference here, and that's all I'm trying to say is like what that takes, but like think about what that would mean. I did a podcast with a baseball nut and I said, yes, what? What do they need to do? I said be creative, like be complete. Everything that everyone else is doing, do what the dodgers are doing, do that, do the opposite, because that's what they're doing and they're winning. They're winning on all facets. And that's that's kind of the thought is like because I feel like we deserve that well, the time is is now as the pirates are they're getting that's.
Speaker 3:That's my my hash t-shirts hashtag no excuses.
Speaker 2:I love that. We love a hashtag 2025 hashtag no excuses, my dad's gonna want one of those shirts he loves it he loves a good quote, you know that's it for his wrestling teams.
Speaker 3:He always has a good quote on the shirt yeah how about if you got the wrestling team to wear that?
Speaker 1:We can, he'll wear them Hashtag, no excuses, we'll get him to wear it, we'll post it and then walk the plank when they lose.
Speaker 3:Well, anyway on behalf of Oakley. I know you've got to get back to Oakley.
Speaker 2:I do my little doggie. I love her.
Speaker 3:Is she a good dog? She's such a good dog.
Speaker 2:She'll be our have anxiety. She's happy when I'm happy. She wants to eat all the time because I'm hungry all the time she's great, they're the greatest gift on the planet.
Speaker 3:You promise to bring her to a pup night. Yes, okay, 100% Okay. She'll be so excited she might give you a hug.
Speaker 2:Oh you're kidding you accept that? Yeah, I'll put her in the booth with you guys and she'll be sitting there when you pull up your dog poster.
Speaker 3:We did that once with Jim Tracy, the former pirate manager.
Speaker 1:He brought his beagle in once for a pup night. So yeah, do that.
Speaker 3:It'll be fun to have Oakley in the booth. She'll love it.
Speaker 2:Let me know when and I'll have Griff on the pre and intimidated.
Speaker 3:Oakley in the booth.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:We're going to take your booty.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there you go, we're pirates and the second greatest podcast she's ever been a part of tonight.
Speaker 1:Hers was put in the beers with mirrors. It's a hall of fame. They retired it.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:It can't be done again, hannah, thank you, thank you guys.
Speaker 3:It's been a blast. They retired it. Yes, that's right. It can't be done again, hannah, thank you, thank you, thank you guys. It's been a blast. She's amazing. Thanks for teaching me how to smoke a cigar. She's amazing. I love it, me and.
Speaker 2:Greg Brown are going to frequent some cigar bars.
Speaker 3:Good job, Hannah Mayers.
Speaker 2:Thank you, go Bucs.
Speaker 3:Ooh, you.
