Josh Donaldson and Russ share INSANE brawl stories... GIDL EP 4

On this week's episode of the GET IT DONE LEAGUE, the boys talk everything from playing with difficult teammates, to MLB brawls, Trevor Bauer and more.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

I saw Russ get tackled by Sam Dyson in Texas from behind, and Russ just so happened to catch his head in a headlock. And then when it was all said and done, when Sam Dyson came back to his eyes were popped out of his head. This isn't the trying league.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

It is the end of May. It is the Get It Done League episode number four. You know the guys by now. It's Josh Donaldson. It's Russell Martin. I'm your host, Arash Madani. Uh, guys, so much happening, so much going on all over the place. But I I just wanted to start with just like as basic a thought as you're gonna get. Because the other day, Bautista and Eddie are back in Toronto. Obviously, it's the 50th anniversary of the franchise. You guys will be back in town. And what always struck me being around the ballpark all those years, and guys would come and go and you know, trade free agency, whatever. But it just always felt like there was this like I don't know. I don't want to sound corny, but it felt like there was a special bond with dudes who spent time in Toronto, who spent time with the Blue Jays, and they'd move on, but like there was always like a fondness or something around it. You guys played elsewhere before you came to Toronto, then you went on and you're still coming back as you know, air quote blue jays. What is it about this thing, this alumni network with the one franchise in Canada with you guys? Because there's so many who kind of feel the same way. JD, why don't we start with you?

SPEAKER_05 1:56

Yeah, I mean, I think when you are like you you kind of touched on it just a second ago, when you're playing for an entire country and you you kind of get the parameters of what comes with that. Um yeah, it's it's pretty cool. And then I think with the Blue Jays, where you have you know a couple teams that won the World Series two years in a row, and you know, everybody knows how hard it is. I don't think you know the Blue Jays haven't done it since. Uh so you know how close. Damn close. They came close. They came close, but last night checked that doesn't count. Uh but um, you know, it's I don't know. I feel like it's just Toronto, I feel like is just one of those cities that people don't appreciate it until you play there.

SPEAKER_06 2:50

Yeah. Well, we got to touch on our squad and who we had in the locker room. Like we had a good crew, you know, we had a bunch of different personalities. Uh you know, we had kind of like Jose and and Incarnacion that kind of brought the Dominican and Latin players kind of together. Um, you know, you had the loudest guy in the locker room and Donaldson who would keep it fun every day. And and you know, you had guys like Tolley and Burley, this is in 15, and you know, Justin Slink and just Jason Grilly. Like we had so much fun on like on the on the plane rides, on the on the buses, you know, to the plane after games in the locker room. And it just and then when you win, it kind of brings everybody together. And and and in 15 was a special year. I feel like we kind of you know, it was a lot of seasons without making the playoffs, and and and then we had that playoff push, and you saw the city come to life and the whole country kind of rally behind us. And you know, I I think winning is like the ultimate. We would have had fun regardless because of the guys that were in the locker room, but when you win with a crew that you have fun with, it makes it that much more special. And I think that's probably you know the key is who you have in the locker room, and plus even with the coaching staff too, like everybody was cool and everybody got along. And um, you know, I'm I'm never gonna forget those times.

SPEAKER_03 4:25

So, so when do you know as a team you might have something? Like in 15, obviously, you know, it became what it became, but it's also the namesake of this show. Like you guys got wiped out by the Astros in Houston. It was a four-game sweep. Josh, you know, famously said it's not the tri league, it's the get it done league. From there, obviously the trade deadline happens and the additions. But what is a ball club? Do you know? Man, there might be something cooking here. What are some of the signs? What what what do you guys remember? Not necessarily from that year, but good teams that you were on that you look around, you're like, all right, this is legit. We got something here to cook with.

SPEAKER_05 5:06

Yeah, I mean, I think first off, you have to be able to, you know, have guys on the mound. It starts there, right? And then second off, you look at your lineup and then you look at because every team, there's gonna have to be at least that one or two guys that step up that people are kind of like hoping that they step up uh to really fill out the entire roster. Um, whether it's a bullpen, whether it's an outfielder like Kevin Pilar when we were in 15, you know, kind of establishing himself, Devin Travis to start that year. Roberto was Azuna, um, you know, then I think 16 maybe was Joe B. You know, so I mean there was just you have to get some contributions from guys that you're not looking at. Uh but to go about the 15, I mean, I think all of us were kind of pounding our head against the wall for the first half of the season because we were scoring so many runs a game, and we were like right around 500 at the time. And whenever for us, whatever we became a legit threat is when we made some acquisitions on the mountain when we got David Price, Latroy Hawkins, Mark Lowe. Um was Grilly 15 or 16.

SPEAKER_03 6:31

It was 15, I believe.

SPEAKER_06 6:34

I don't remember. Honestly, I don't remember.

SPEAKER_05 6:36

But we went 15. So I mean, I think you know, there's we just added a lot of pieces. Now, our starting pitching, like if you looked at like one through three, you know, I remember the big thing was Burley was gonna get let off the roster that year. No, we weren't really happy about that. Um, neither was he, but I mean he just it starts with pitching, I think that's to make the the short answer of it. You know, Marco Estrada, he definitely he came from a bullpen guy to start 15 that transition and pitching one of the biggest games in uh our of our season in the playoffs that year.

SPEAKER_06 7:16

So the way I see it is you want to be a team that at some point, and hopefully trending towards that point, towards the end of the season, you want to feel like every day you go to the ballpark, you're gonna win a game, or feel like you're going to win a game. Like that's that's your goal as a team, is feel like when when you show up to the field, you're like, We're we're winning today. And and when we made those acquisitions, like we were like we were starting to trend, and then we went and got a couple big players, and then we we got to that point where it's like we we can win, we can win today, we're gonna win today. That's the attitude that you want to have. Um, and I feel like we got there. And and all the teams that I was on that made it to the postseason, that's how we felt. And you might not start out that way out the gates, but that really doesn't matter. You want to kind of stay in the fight and then hopefully get to the point where you have that team where everybody kind of shares that collective belief of we're winning today. You know, we're we're that good.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

So is that talked about, fellas, in the clubhouse? Do you do like do as a collective, do you discuss that? Is that something that's just kind of known when dudes look around? How does that how does that all work within the confines of a locker room environment?

SPEAKER_06 8:35

It's just a feel. It's a feel. And all like most of the good teams, all most of the teams that make the playoffs, when they show up at the yard, they feel like they can win a game. Like the the good teams, it's just it's just a feeling that you have. And you don't even really need to talk about it. You just know. You just know that you're you're either winning a game or you're a team that's tough to beat. And that's really you know what you strive for as a team.

SPEAKER_05 9:00

Well, I'll get I'll give you this, Rush. I feel like there's a few different types of ball players out there. I think you have the one ball player that just shows up, doesn't think about anything except catching a ground ball, making a pitch, hitting a baseball. They just show up, but they don't even winning and losing like they hope, like it kind of falls into place.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 9:24

Then you have another, you have other guys that are trying to solve all the world's problems. You have got we should have done this, we gotta bring this guy, we gotta do let's our team looks like this. We're missing this, so you have all that kind of chatter going like, oh, what would we do? Well, I you just came from that team, you guys were really good. What were you guys doing? So, like now you have that back and forth, and then I think there comes a point in time, like what Russ is talking about, once you get into some wars with your team, can you can you close a ball game? Can you finish when you get the lead? Can you come back from behind? Can are do you like Russ said, do you have a chance to win every day? Um, is your manager does he have the ball club? Like, does he have like the wiring going on? And so you have a different couple types of guys that are out there trying to figure it out. And I remember before Alex made the trades in 15, he came up to me. A couple guys he traded, it was like, I can't watch them play anymore. I can't watch them play anymore. I'm not gonna say any names of who he said, but we made acquisitions and you can figure it all out from some some along those lines. And when I saw that, I was like, and then he went and made the moves. I go, okay, Alex means business. Like he's a guy that I want to go to war with because if he feels like he has the chance, he's gonna make the moves. And I know from years prior, I'd love to hear Batista's take on this because Batista was there for a couple years, and I think he felt like they had a chance.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

Oh, he called out management. Yeah, you know, after the deadline saying, wait a minute here, what are we doing? Like we're good enough with a couple of extra pieces, we can make noise. And I wonder how much of that played a role into them saying, Yeah, I think it did because Alex probably had enough, you know.

SPEAKER_05 11:34

He's like, I'm I'm tired of feeling like I have a great offense and then we can't finish stuff out, and uh whether it's defensively pitching, whatever.

SPEAKER_06 11:43

Alex had a special approach, he would ask questions to players what they thought about other players and get that player, you know, information. I'm like, what do you think about it? What do you ask Russ? Yeah, well, what kind of questions? What do you think about this guy? Can this guy help us? What's your take? Right?

SPEAKER_05 12:00

Would he be a fit in the clubhouse?

SPEAKER_06 12:01

Would he be a fit? All that kind of stuff. And I don't I can't remember. I can't there, I've never had another general manager, you know, be that way. He had a special deal. Did he?

SPEAKER_05 12:16

Yeah, Cashman asked me about guys, and hey, I gotta tell you, there were several guys that I've been asked about that I played with, and I'd tell them no. I'd say you don't want him.

SPEAKER_03 12:29

And so what would make you say no, Donaldson?

SPEAKER_05 12:33

You know, just factoring all the elements of like, hey, would they want to play here? Would they want to be here? Did the guys that we have here, does it fit with their style?

SPEAKER_06 12:42

Um did you say did you say no the same way that you said no when a coach asks you to swing down on a ball? Like tell them no?

SPEAKER_05 12:54

Probably. It was kind of like the nah, no, you no, you don't want to do that. But yeah, I mean there was there was guys who I would say no about, but I mean there was also guys I said yes about. I mean, I feel like that was one thing that some of the general managers definitely appreciated about me. It's like I'd tell them what I genuinely thought. And they would take now what I said didn't wasn't the end all be all.

SPEAKER_03 13:21

Um but they knew where I stood. So for two vets like you guys, what what are you looking for? What would you want in a teammate at a deadline? What would you want to add into a mix? Obviously, roster construction is a big part of it, what the holes are, etc. etc. But what you know, Latroy Hawkins, you mentioned him, JD, is a unique dude, a vet who's been through it, who just like he was super chill but commanded respect, and you knew what you were getting. You know, David Price comes in, he's David Price. But what what do you like as teammates, what are you two looking for? What do you want in that mix?

SPEAKER_05 14:02

I want a guy that wants to answer the bell, who wants to win. You know, that's what one thing the Troy would do every after every game, he'd go with his little bucket, put his elbow in there, sit there for 20 minutes, ice his arm, and then the whole time just smiling. You know, he was kind of I don't know if that was his last year or not. I think it was definitely towards the end if it wasn't his last year. But I just remember like I could see in the Troy like every day that every chance he had a to pitch, like he was taking that in and he was appreciating that moment to where when you're younger guys and stuff like that, you're just trying to survive and you're trying to make it. Yeah, you don't get that outlook from like, hey, we gotta perform, and I'm trying to keep my job, that's kind of more or less. But LaTroy was, you know, one of those guys who you know he wanted to answer the bell, and at the end of it, he felt good about it.

SPEAKER_06 14:55

Russ. I mean, whatever whatever weakness you have, or however you can kind of strengthen your team, and often I feel like in the especially in the playoffs, when you have a strong bullpen, I remember facing like the Kansas City bullpen back in the day. Like if they had the lead, good luck, man. And and we could come back with the best of them against any team, but when you have like you know, shutout, just shutout inning guy after shutout inning guy, it's just like you know, you can try as hard as you want. It's like you know, guys are getting they're getting paid a lot of money to get guys out, and and when you have that strong bullpen, it just it makes it that much tougher. And I feel like we solidified our bullpen. Um, you know, we had LaTroy, we had, is it Lowe? Mark Lowe?

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 15:47

He he he was a big addition, yeah. Nasty slider. So like if you can just strengthen, you know, any part of your team. Uh I feel like we never really had a true leadoff guy who went and got Ben Revere, right? A little speed early on, you know, keep the pitchers honest, keep ever, keep the defense on their toes, and then the big the big boppers come in after that. Um, so whatever you can do to kind of strengthen whatever weakness or or lack of you have in your team, you know, you'll take it, right? I mean, I feel like that's kind of like what you what you're trying to do as a team.

SPEAKER_03 16:23

It's gonna be interesting this year because there's no dominant team in the American League. There's nobody running away with the AL right now. Like it just feels, and granted, look, it's the end of May, there's so much runway to go. But, you know, two months is a long time before the trade deadline. But it still feels like if somebody really wants to go for it, there's ample opportunity, man, for for your team to go get better somewhere because it's not like the there's no dominant heavyweight right now. So it just it just seems like a really interesting year, JD, where anybody with some with some moves could make a run here.

SPEAKER_05 17:04

I mean, the team that kind of, if I'm looking at it on paper, if they get back all their guys healthy, I mean the Yankees are gonna be tough, like with the pitching staff with Garrett Cole, Max Fried, um Rodon, the Schlitler guy. I mean, they got they got some horses there, and then if I was a team looking for a trade candidate possibility, I'd be going and um getting um the starting pitcher, he was with the Reds for a little bit. Um he's with the Mariners, Luis Castillo.

SPEAKER_03 17:40

Oh, who doesn't seem happy in Seattle right now?

SPEAKER_05 17:42

He no, I I mean I watched the game last night, and you could see there was a talk, he didn't want to come out of the game. Yeah, they got a seven-nothing lead. The manager's yanking him after the fourth inning, like he wants to get the win, like he's been struggling. You know he wants the win. I don't care, you're a starting pitcher, you want the win. Seven nothing, get get the guy the win. Let him let him go get your fifth inning. And I think from like an outsider perspective, he's about to be the outside man looking in. If I'm a team, why wouldn't you go jump on him? Like he's an elite arm. Like, or I don't know if it is this year, but he has been an elite arm. You know, a change of scenery might be good for him at this point. They have they already they have six starters, including him. I bet you could get him pretty cheap at the moment, right now. Like he's he's a guy that like if I'm the Jays, do you take a peek and see what's going in after him?

SPEAKER_03 18:46

I mean Yeah, take a look under that under that hood. I mean, granted, it was four years ago, but wildcard 2022, Luis Castillo, I think it was in game one, he shoved, man. Like you want you want dudes with playoff experience in October. That's that's a big part of it, right, Russ?

SPEAKER_06 19:03

I agree. I I got a hot take. Yeah. Is will will anybody ever give Trevor Bauer a chance? Minimum salary.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

Is this is this too is this too crazy, or is it Trevor Bauer's heat from the past, or is there something more to it?

SPEAKER_05 19:26

This is Manford. Manford doesn't want him back in the game, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

Is that what it is?

SPEAKER_05 19:31

Yeah, I mean, you know, Bauer was always kind of a thorn in the MLB's side, it feels like. And uh, you know, I understand because I've been a thorn and probably in their butt a little bit too. So he has a chance. He's still throwing, I think he just threw a no-hitter two weeks ago, two or three weeks ago. Was throwing 98. He can't pitch in the big leagues.

SPEAKER_03 19:56

Where is he pitching now? I've lost track of him because he's been here, there, and everywhere. I thought he was in the independent bowl last I looked. He was because I remember him, he was overseas in Mexico or something.

SPEAKER_05 20:08

Was he in the Mexican league? He was, but then the last I saw that now he's in independent bowl.

SPEAKER_04 20:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 20:16

And the guy was like top five Cy Young, like yearly. Anyways.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:23

I wonder who who would you if I mean what team do you think what what team do you think? I mean, I saw something on on the internet. I agree. I saw something where the Phillies had a deal. He Bauer put it out there that him and the Phillies had a deal like a year ago, and then it got axed by MLB.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

Oh, interesting. Interesting. So, you know, I want to word this properly. Like, I wonder what constitutes for players a locker room distraction. Because there's there's so many people from so many walks of life, and they have so like everybody's got their their things. But I wondered with Bauer at this point, is it more because of the charges, the allegations, whatever they were, or is it just because he's putting everything out there that MLB is saying, look, we just we just don't want his mess. What inside a locker room, inside a clubhouse, what what's that what makes a dude a distraction and what's what's cool? Like what's what's the line there?

SPEAKER_05 21:34

I mean, to me, if it's once you get outside of the scope of winning, you know, like okay, if this isn't about us winning, then it can be deemed a distraction. I mean, there, you know, all of us at some point are gonna, you know, I I remember Anthony Rizzo, he had a a talk with the team one time. He's like, Look, I'm just gonna have a two days a year where I'm an asshole. I'm sorry, I'm gonna apologize about it now. I got two days. Give me two days, and then I'll give you the rest of the 160 or whatever it was. That seems fair. That's a good trade. And so it's like when you know like who you're dealing with, then as long as it like so you have like front office things that can trickle down into the clubhouse, right? Like if there's arbitration cases that can become distractions. And so like for me, I would always tell guys like, hey, you want to make more money? Well, play better on the field than an arbitration, they're gonna have to pay you for them for the most part. So if you if we win ball games, then you get the chance to do better, play better, in turn make more money, that's gonna take care of itself. Now, the off-the-field stuff, like I mean, when I was coming up, social media was like a no-no, don't get on social media, that's a distraction. But then, like, you kind of find out, like, okay, in social media, you can kind of control your own narratives, as long as that narrative isn't getting too far out of bounds, right? You know, now it's it's like, but it's there's like there's some gray area for sure.

SPEAKER_06 23:20

I got an example. So I got an example for I guess someone who was a distraction on one team and then went to another team and wasn't. So Manny Ramirez, when he was in Boston, 2008 or 2009, I'm not exactly sure, but I remember he was like holding up like signs, like like trade me. Like he was he he was becoming a distraction for that team because he clearly wasn't happy there. We in LA, I was with LA at the time, we ended up getting Manny. He ends up hitting 400, and he kind of he led us to the postseason. And it was Manny Wood. It was Mannywood. So, like, you know, you can be a distraction on on one team if you're unhappy, and then go somewhere and then thrive. So it's it's same guy, you know, just you know, different cities, you know, different locker rooms.

SPEAKER_05 24:16

Like, is the fit better? That's what we were talking about earlier, like with Alex, and then like, does this guy fit? Does his personality fit in this clubhouse?

SPEAKER_06 24:24

Right. And I feel like it was probably purely uh front office, you know, he was like disgruntled with with the front office and he wasn't happy with them or something, and he kind of he had enough, I guess. And he went somewhere else, and we're like, okay, like this is the guy we're getting right now. Wow, you know, MVP caliber.

SPEAKER_03 24:45

And when somebody comes in, like we hear change of scenery all the time. When somebody comes into a new place, is it a clean slate with them? Or do you kind of think about some of the nonsense you've heard about their previous stop or stops? How does that work?

SPEAKER_06 25:01

I mean, you kind of just like you hear you hear things about a lot of players, and then you you you have them on your team and you're like, oh man, my read was way off. Like I thought, you know, I thought you were a terrible teammate, or or you know, I didn't like you when you're on this team, and then I you get to be teammates with him, and you're like, this guy's awesome. That happens all the time. All the time. And all the time. And sometimes the the people you hate playing against the most end up being, you know, your your favorite kind of teammates. I mean, we put we probably we got two right here with me and Josh. You know, we get that all the time. We get it all the time.

SPEAKER_05 25:38

No doubt. No doubt. I mean, I remember when I went over to New York, um, because me and before I got traded to New York, obviously I had like a me and Cole had the thing before that. Um and then so like as soon as I got traded over there, I was like, well, gonna have to have a conversation with Gary. And so like I said, we said that like the first day I got there, I was like, hey dude, like we need to talk. Like, let's go talk. And so him and I, Booney, we all went into the into the office and we like hashed it out for like an hour. I'm like, I know you probably have some things you want to say to me, which he did. He had a lot to say.

SPEAKER_03 26:21

What do you have to say?

SPEAKER_05 26:24

Uh, I mean, just a lot, just uh it was a lot. I don't know if I want to get into specific details because I don't want to, you know, you don't want to throw him under the bus.

SPEAKER_06 26:35

We we like to be able to. Not throwing him under the bus.

SPEAKER_05 26:37

And then I don't want it to be like a he said, she said. Like, no, I'm not doing it.

SPEAKER_03 26:41

Right.

SPEAKER_05 26:42

But there was a lot that was had to say, and sometimes, you know, for myself at the time, I was like, I'm the new guy coming in here. Sometimes you just gotta bite your tongue and say, okay, okay. All right, we cool, you good? You got it off your chest? All right, dude. You're gonna like me when I'm playing third behind you. Just relax. And then obviously, I you know, I wish I would have hit a little bit better, but defensively I played fine, probably because my legs were so fresh for not getting on base ever. But uh thanks, Russ, for laughing. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 27:21

But often that's needed, right? Like you got to get into a room, get all the FUs off your chest, get it out of your system, and then say, hey, let's go win.

SPEAKER_05 27:30

That's what it's about. Hey, I was brought here to help you win. Now, in turn, hindsight 2020, I didn't really do too much to help them win, but I was brought in to help them win, and I still believe like I was gonna do that. I know that uh in turn he felt that way about it, um, whenever it was all said and done. But yeah, man, I mean, there's just so much. Like now I've seen it the other way too, where the people kind of like don't like they kind of stay away from each other, and then it's just like uh you can always tell that there's like some tension there, and I think for the leaders of the ball club and stuff like that, you try at some point to just be like, get them in the same room, and then everybody walk away.

SPEAKER_03 28:19

And sometimes, sometimes you may not even know where you stand with a teammate, or you may just think, hey, you know, we're we're doing our thing, whatever. I found it was interesting the other day. I'm watching CC Sabbathia on the All the Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes, and and Barnes asked CeCe, you know, who do you want in a fight with you when when that happens? And this was the answer from Sebatia.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

I'm taking one, I'm taking Gardy for sure. Um, I'm taking Jorge Posada to and then Russell Martin. Russell Martin. Russell Martin.

SPEAKER_03 29:02

Russ, when you hear that from your boy, when CeCe says that, man, that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_06 29:11

I most definitely. Um, but I I mean I I would if I was in a fight, I'd like to have CeCe on my side. Oh, I bet you so it's like, okay.

SPEAKER_05 29:22

I mean, he's uh I don't know, dude. Whenever we had that brawl in um whatever we had that brawl in Toronto, no, in Toronto, when Severino smoked, Justin smoke in the back of the calf with 100 after they hit me in the first and we hit Headley. Anyway, Cece was yelling at me. I was like, this is all your fault. This is all your fault. I'm like, my fault? How is this my fault? Your pitcher hit me for like the seventh time in a month. Why why is it my fault now that one of your guys gets hit? It's my fault. No, no, it's your pitcher's fault for hitting me. Now he just got hit. So then we I remember Devin Travis, two-hand superman punch somebody at home plate. I was like, that was like it was like a Super Mario Brother two-handed punch. Bing! I just could hear the coins coming out whenever you hit the dude. What a reference. What a reference. And then me and then me and CeC meet at home plate, and he looks at me and I'm looking at him, and he starts laughing. I'm like, let's go. You've been talking all this shit. If it's my fault, let's find out who it is right now. And he looked at me and just smiled and just walked away. And I'm like, all right, dude, you had your chance. Um you had your chance. So I'm I'm taking Russ. I saw Russ get tackled by Sam Dyson in Texas from behind, and Russ just so happened to catch his head in a headlock. And then when it was all said and done, when Sam Dyson came back out, or when he came back to, his eyes were popped out of his head.

SPEAKER_06 31:15

So what'd you do to him, Russ? He tackled me from behind. It was just that's all I had. He was he was in a compromised position, and I I I, you know, a little jujitsu, you know, a little choke.

SPEAKER_05 31:29

He squeezed this shit out of his head. That's what he's doing.

SPEAKER_06 31:32

I squeezed him a bit hard. I squeezed, I squeezed him hard, but he, I mean, brawls are crazy. Like anything can happen. Like, you can be you can be a great fighter and you know, get sucker punched. It's just that's just the way it is. Like you're you had your head needs to be on a swivel. And um, I mean, those things can get you know pretty dangerous. Luckily, for most of the people, they're trying to diffuse most of the time. You know, the people who aren't emotionally invested in the fight, usually, you know, it's like 80% of the guys are kind of like just making sure nobody gets hurt. Um, but you you always got like a couple guys who are pretty heated.

SPEAKER_05 32:10

I I describe Russ as this he's a nice Canadian boy until he read lines, and then it's like um just get out of the way. Like just when Russ like the flip switches, hey, you got some demons in there, so he's got some demons.

SPEAKER_03 32:38

So this is what I've always wondered. Do you know come into the park sometimes? Forget Texas, but do you know come to the park sometimes? Man, it it might be on tonight. Like, is there is there like a temperature that's there? I remember in 22 being at the drop, you know, the day after Kiermeyer scooped up Alejandro Kirk's uh, you know, the inside his wristband, he had the sheet, he scooped it up. I'm like the next day the Jays were pissed. I'm like, oh man, it's on. Ryan Barucky plunked Kiermeyer and you know, all hell broke loose. You just knew that day something was happening. Have you guys gone to the park knowing something's in the air tonight? Something's something's about to go down tonight. And how if that's the case, what's that what's that mood like?

SPEAKER_06 33:30

That's a good question. I I feel like there's always kind of like we look talk about unwritten rules. If one of your best players gets hit or something, and you feel you can just you can tell when something's on purpose and when somebody kind of just you know, because you you got video, you can tell if somebody's throwing the ball at somebody or if it just kind of comes off the side or something. Um and usually it's that's kind of how it starts. It's like somebody gets thrown at who's who's maybe swinging the bat really well, and they're trying to they're trying to cool them off somehow. And and then I mean that can linger. Like it could be like, you know, I got something against this pitcher, and and then kind of like what happened with us in Texas, that that had to do with with the bat flip. And then it they waited all the way till that's why we got a year.

SPEAKER_05 34:25

Yeah, it was halfway. We just played in Toronto for the series, and then a week later, a week or so later, we went to Texas to play, and they waited to his last at bat, the last game. And so we thought that they could have done something at our place, or if they were gonna do it, it'd been the first at bat in Arlington. Just to like, hey, let's get it over, like get it over and done with. Um, but I mean, we we all thought it was pretty pretty bad that they waited to the last. I so like I don't think we were actually waiting, like we didn't know at that point.

SPEAKER_06 35:00

But the the other side of the story is usually when you're pissed, guys charged them out. You know, Jose didn't do that, he got on first base, and then he kind of slid laid at second base and tried to take Odor's knees out.

SPEAKER_05 35:15

And you know, he could have broke Odor's leg if he wanted to. What Odor did was nasty. Like he if you go look at if you go look at the throw, he tried to hit them in the face with the ball, like he dropped all the way down and tried. And so, like, that's why the ball went that far up the first baseline.

SPEAKER_06 35:32

That's why, to me, Batista stood up and was like, What the hell are you doing? Like that makes sense. I forgot about that part of it.

SPEAKER_05 35:39

Yeah, so he stood up and was like, What? And then, you know, Odor, you know, got a got got a good one off on him, and um, which I still loved how Jose responded to that at the end of the game. Like, he just got smacked and they were asking about it, and they're like, he was like, Well, I guess it takes a little bit bigger guy to knock me completely out. I mean, I was like, that was the only response, and you nailed it. Good job. That was it 100%.

SPEAKER_03 36:06

I saw a sign in the stadium. I think it was something like, I'd rather get punched in May than knocked out in October. I thought that was a pretty good one, too.

SPEAKER_06 36:12

That was the best. That's the best sign I've ever seen. I was so happy when I saw that. It was incredible. I loved it.

SPEAKER_05 36:21

Hey, but hey, to kind of further to tie that all together, yes, guys talk. Right. So, like when if you have a close clubhouse, like guys are talking, you know what's gonna happen like before the game happens. If this situation arises, like shit's going down. Like, be ready. You know what I'm saying? And I when I was in Minnesota, this was kind of you know, we were playing against the White Sox and the Yurminator. I don't know if you remember him. He had like a little nice two months, and they were comparing him to me and like Ted Williams. I'm like, this guy's got two months in the show, compared him to Ted Williams. Anyway, I digress. Uh he hit a homer off of us with a 3-0 on a 3-0 count against the position player the ninth inning down by like 5th, 12 or something, and I was like, who cares? Like, I don't care, but there was a certain crowd of guys that cared that were in that locker room when I was in Minnesota, and so we got to the ballpark, like, oh yeah, we're gonna smoke the urinator today because he had a home rough of position where I was like, whatever. Like, I wasn't on board with it, but the rest of the guys were, so you kind of have to jump on board at that time at that point.

SPEAKER_03 37:45

All right, uh, let's wrap up with this, guys. Uh, the Fan First Network has had crews outside the ballpark uh for this last homestand, and I I just appreciate the passion in the question here for Donaldson. Let's roll it.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

I want to know, Josh Donaldson. One, are you aware of the impact that you had on youth baseball players in Canada in 2015-2016? I saw I saw multiple kids with the Josh Donaldson haircut in youth baseball.

SPEAKER_03 38:20

Like JD, people remember you playing hard, they remember you as an MVP, but the hair do? Like, like dudes are walking around, kids are walking around, they want they want the hair to look like Donaldson.

SPEAKER_05 38:33

I can't say I blame them. It's a pretty good hairstyle. This guy, Russ. This guy, harass.

SPEAKER_06 38:42

That was that was mediocre at best. Mediocre at best haircut.

SPEAKER_05 38:49

Oh my god, are you kidding me? Like the entire major league baseball, like all of a sudden started having mohawks and freaking mullets.

SPEAKER_06 38:57

I I can't say much. I had I had braids for a little while in Toronto. I can't say anything. The worst looking the game for a second there.

SPEAKER_05 39:06

Oh, but I mean, honestly, um when then you know the question was the impact that I had on the youth and and things like that. Uh I wasn't involved in seeing like baseball played in Canada, like in the youth sports and stuff like that, but I definitely heard from people how much baseball was picking up, not just because but because of me, but because of our team. Like we had a lot of success, it brought a lot of energy.

SPEAKER_03 39:37

Oh, it skyrocketed. Youth, like youth participation went through the roof.

SPEAKER_05 39:41

And I definitely did see there are more Mohawks, more mullets in the stadium than normal more than normal than what it was at the beginning of the year. So yeah, I mean, I I I loved it. I loved every bit about it. I I always appreciated the support, and I had fun and you know, I tried to I think the one thing for myself is I kind of went to the beat of my own drum to a lot of things, and it caught on in Toronto, and so it was uh that was always fun for me.

SPEAKER_03 40:21

The good news is that the braids didn't catch on across Toronto.

SPEAKER_05 40:28

The Bronson Arroyo.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

Oh, the Bronson Arroyo.

SPEAKER_06 40:34

Please don't find a video or or Russ, we were all young and dumb once. We were all young and dumb once. Golly, man. Golly. I wish I had better teammates to tell me, like, hey dude, what are you doing? They're just in the corner.

SPEAKER_05 40:50

No, they were scared. They were like, oh, we don't want to piss them off. He might put me in that headlock.

SPEAKER_03 40:54

We saw what he did to Sam Dyson. I don't want that happening to me. On that, that is episode four of the Get It Done League. That's our guy Russ Martin. There's Josh Donaldson. I'm your host, Arash Madani. We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_02 41:11

Get it Done League!