Miguel Batista: The Poet Who Won a World Series

Welcome to Chatter Up presented by Extra Innings Travel. I am your host Shane Barklay and with me today on the podcast I have Miguel Batista. Miguel is a former Major League pitcher who pitched for 12 Major League Baseball teams. He is from the Dominican Republic and he is one of the all-time most interesting characters in baseball, I must say. Uh he had a long journey. He had some big highs. He had some low lows. Uh he was a key part of the 2001 World Series winning Arizona Diamondbacks. Of course played for a number of other teams, but he made a lot of his marks off the field. uh knowing um he was known as a renaissance man. Uh he was a writer or is a writer I should say. He's written multiple books of different genres. He writes poetry. He's played flute on a Native American album. He has done countless uh community service projects around Latin America and in his various local communities. He currently works for Major League Baseball Players Association. and he also uh has a criminal justice degree in the DR and a law degree in the DR uh as he helps to clean up the situation down there and advocate for players rights uh both on the amateur side and on the Major League side. I've been lucky enough to work with Miguel on a number of occasions uh at the World Baseball Classic and uh we always have hit it off because he loves baseball trivia and uh I have a history in the Dominican Republic. So I appreciate all the Dominican players and uh he's just a fascinating guy. Um tons of experience, tons of stories, tons of knowledge, a true student of the game and I look forward to sharing the magic of Miguel Batista with you. So, let's get into it. All right, Miguel, welcome to Chatter Up. Thank you so much for joining us. Hey, pleasure, Mike. Thank you for having me. Yeah, of course. All right. Well, I want to start uh going back to the early days. Uh you're joining us from Sto. Domingo. Uh so, growing up in the DR, for those who haven't been to the DR, know too much about the Dominican baseball culture, uh what was what did baseball mean to you and your peers growing up? And uh what were your goals early on when you started playing? Well, that's a a a very interesting question. That is something that a lot of us are trying to uh you know, let people on power to understand how important our baseball history. I mean, baseball has been the backbone of our community for so long. And uh our history should be told. You know, baseball got into Dominican at the beginning of the 1900s and has been part our history since then. Uh all the historians believe that, you know, it was brought in by the Cubans, you know, when they were immigrating because of the war and, you know, they brought the sugar canes factory and they brought the culture of baseball. a lot of people believe was by the Marines in 1916. But no, we already have records of uh baseball existing in Dominican Republic before that and after that, you know, it became a part of our people and has been since then. I mean, we were actually emphasizing that in uh in our office in New York that from 1956 to when I made my debut in 1992, I was a player number 155. And from then to now, we expecting this year to have 1,000 Dominicans debut in the big league. That that is incredible. So as you can see uh baseball has been such a great things for us and we need that story to be told. Not only the player that had immigrated to other countries because we we had players first going to Cuba, Puerto Rico to play before, you know, Jackie Robinson uh opened the roads for a lot of people to go play in America. Uh, and we have our own professional league, but baseball is is is more than a match. It's like a religion for the many people. So, what was your when you started playing, did you just play because everyone did it, or did you immediately have the goal to reach the big leagues? And when did you think you had a chance to to sign and and do more than just play at home? Well, at the beginning was, you know, it's like rock and roll. That's what everybody wanted to do. I started at the middle 80s right after uh Pedro Guerrero become our first MVP of the World Series and the first Latino player to have a sense of millions of dollars. That was unheard of for us in 1983. And uh you know he was one of those local guys that we could see we could see some of those guys in the ballpark. They were the reason why a lot of Dominicans wanted to play because they were not just figures on TV. They were guys that used to go to the uh uh neighborhoods and the sugar meal factory baseball field that they have in those times and practice with us. I mean, we used to see guys like Mariano Duncan and Sto. Hain and all those guys used to go to those fields and we watched those guys practicing guys that we could only see on TV. So for us was like you know was like a big thing and everybody wanted to play baseball. That's when baseball actually became like a tsunami here. Everybody wanted to play and after a lot of people find out that they can have a career in baseball. I mean, everything has been incredibly well for us when it comes to baseball. So, you mentioned making your de debut in '92. I thought it was pretty interesting. I didn't realize you had such a long career. I assume that you got called up then you had this long career, but you played one game in '92 with Pittsburgh after select being selected into rule five draft from Montreal and then you didn't come back until 96. So, I'm curious what those few years were like between like did you wonder at any point like am I going to make it back or did you always have the confidence that you were going to make it back to the big leagues and stick? Well, I wanted I wanted to go back. I mean, I had a taste of what the big leagues was and uh that's when I actually got involved in the union and I started to learn about uh sport law because I went from law single I drafted to the big league. was like, "What?" You know, I got to the big leagues. I I didn't even know the manager. I mean, Jeene Leland say hi to me and I like I didn't know who he was. And you know, there I was with Barry Bonds. I was with guys like Doug Dreback that won the Sai Young Lean that won the the gold block glove in second base. Andy Vans like who was the best center fielder in the game at the time and I didn't know who they were. I mean, well, I was playing in Rockford Illinois at that time, but it was a great thing. What happened was when I went back to the expos because uh Pirates were looking for a spot in the playoffs. They actually lost against the Gray that year. Um I went to uh Florida State League. Then I got hurt the next year. I had a surgery and no the year after that I went to DA 93. It was a a great season. And I mean, I wanted to go back to big leagues because I had a taste of what it was and it was a totally different life. I had an outstanding season that year in doubleA. I was second in wins after Brian Taylor who was the first Yankee uh was the first uh Yankee to ever get millions of dollars coming out of high school. He he lead with 12. No, with 13. I I was second with 12. I was with uh Rockford Expo. We actually uh no Harrisburg expert that's sorry we we actually won that year. We beat the Cleveland Indian for the championship and it was the was a great season. And then in 94 I got hurt and I was out of baseball for like seven months. And then in 94 I came back to pitch and and then in 96 is when I came back to the big league with the uh Florida Marlins. So all right. So I'm curious. You just said you you started studying sport law back in those days. Is that right? Is that what you said? Yeah. That's when I got interested because I didn't know such a things exist system. You know, for us, it was just escalating. You know, you do good, you're supposed to be promoting, but I didn't know that baseball was more that we could see between the lines. There was a lot of rules. There was a lot of uh uh business behind it. There was a lot of things that we needed to understand that were part of this business. And and that's what I got interested. You know, I went to my first uh uh union meeting in '92. I was taken there by Jose Lee. He he got a brand new porch that got it from And he passed uh by the hotel said, "I'm going to pick you up. We're going to go somewhere." Like, "Where are we going?" He's like, "Don't worry about it. Just be at the lo." And that's what I did. I got in, you know, I got with him in his car. I got a convertible porch. He took me to my first meeting. And you know I most of the things I didn't understand there was a lot of terminology law phrases that you know uh way way beyond my understanding but by years went by by me going more meetings on more meetings every year I started to understand that you know baseball was an incredible business you know for a lot of people you know they they believe it's just what they see at the field but there's a lot of people involved there's a a lot of decisions to be made. There's a lot of uh people that depends of this business and and I was glad to be part of it for over 20 years. I imagine it's pretty rare for any player who's, you know, rookie or just barely had a cup of coffee in the big leagues to get involved in those sorts of things or or start to educate themselves, especially uh the Latin players who typically don't have as much of a background in education. So, were you aware throughout especially early on of like that you were kind of doing things differently or you had a unique mindset as you approached things off the field or were you just kind of following your passion? I don't know about doing things differently. I was just trying to be me. I was tell people I don't do what other people do. I just do what I think is right. I was interested in all the things that happened in baseball because um you know it was interesting to me because it was a lot of things that we didn't know at the time. Like when I heard the first the first time I heard the word taxes I'm like taxes what are you talking about? We don't pay taxes in my country. Well you do here. They had to explain to me. My agent was probably one of the uh great teachers I have about the American society. You know, he he was an attorney, though he is an attorney still life, thanks God. And and I was an ex uh former he was a former baseball player for San Louis Cardinal. and he uh he taught me a lot about the American culture, about the sport law, you know, how he was was first a criminal lawyer and then I became his first player. He became my first agent. We started together in 92. Uh and we still friends until today. We go hunting every year, two or three times a year. And uh he's still a great teacher to me now that I become a lawyer. He's the guy that I call for all the kind of advices. that um baseball was different for us. I mean, we came sorry from a a a third world country to see that there were more in baseball than hitting and catching a ball, you know, and throwing it over the strike zone. And when that actually hit the mind of a lot of uh Latin players, then we started to look at baseball as a career, not just as a, you know, as a job. We we especially in my case, I was going to college when I signed and I understood that baseball was not a job that, you know, like you go to a factory at punch at 9:00 in the morning and you punch at 5 and you leave. No, you you dedicate your life to it. You can have a career out of it and if you um learn how to maximize your talent, you can have a great living. So, I want to ask about your career, but now I'm more interested in in some of this off-field stuff. Um I know you studied criminal justice recently. Can you just catch us up on like what are your various degrees that you have and how are you applying them today? Well, I actually got a master degree in criminal law uh after I retired from baseball in 2014. I went back to school and after I got my bachelor degree, I went for a master degree in criminal law. And uh now that I work for the union, actually one of their advisors here for a lot of things. Uh as you know, we had worked together in the uh World Baseball Classic and one of the guys that always looking at the rules and and uh in the office here sometimes we get uh calls about things that happen with players and uh I looked at him and said, "Okay, yeah, he does need a legal assistance." So we tell the player, look, you need a lawyer. But sometimes we just don't know this guy just trying to scare you off. He's you know or sometimes we look into other other parts of uh uh players family. They say look this guy has a problem. Let's say uh one of the most simple cases like the guy you know bought a land and he's uh or his father bought a land and he has a problems and the player says look I got a problem with my dad. Can somebody help us out? and we look at the files and go, "Yeah, well, he needs to do this, he needs to do that." We can't actually assist them because he's is against our ruling, but we can tell the guy when he does need our legal advice. So, all right, last question about the off-field stuff for now. Um, I know that you've written books like of different genres. You poetry, you play music. Do you you said earlier you said before like you viewed baseball as as a career more than just playing like do you feel all these other off-field things. Is it that baseball has just been a means to get you to these other bigger objectives or do you kind of relate tie them all back to baseball and and kind of view yourself as a baseball person first? Yeah is a great question. Um you know at the beginning I wasn't in love with baseball. I I was going to college to try to get a license in tourism. But when you get to know baseball, it is overwhelming. I mean, it's not only the beauty of the game is the science behind it, the history behind it. And and I tell you, I will never got to know all the things that I believe I know now because uh baseball was the one that opened me the door. I mean, I got through baseball to meet presidents, to talk to people that I would never have the opportunity to talk to, you know, to uh to go to places and and enjoy cities, you know, while players were going. I don't know where in the morning I you know I got up and go to a museum to see a great exhibition and I uh I remember one time when I played for the Mets I would go into the uh metropolit the museum and one of the officers go what are you doing here and I said what what do you mean what are doing here this is supposed to be a a public museum I didn't know I wasn't allowed he's like no we never see baseball players around here like well you got one and uh you know it is a fun part because sometimes uh fans need to understand that we are human beings like any other you know and there you know like uh one of my teammates Orlando the Hudson used to say that I was a strange cat. I said well I don't know what that means but like I told you I just do what I believe is right for me. All right, I want to um go back to playing career, but specifically to 2001. So, all right, before we get into the heavy stuff because I want to talk about 911 a little bit, but before we go there, um you told me a little known fact. So, you pitched in game seven of that World Series. Of course, that's not a little known fact. Everyone knows that. Um but you also pitched in a championship clinching game in another league that year. Is that right? Can you talk about that? Yeah. Yeah. The Caribbean World Series. You're right. I pitched game number seven in Mexico. I won that game and I pitching game number seven of the World Series, too. I don't until today. I don't know if anybody had ever done that. Well, if you say no one's done it, I believe you because uh you are the trivia master. That's actually the thing that kind of bonded us first. We were in Germany working World Baseball Classic qualifier and this guy's just throwing like nine innings of trivia questions at me. I didn't realize you had a trivia TV show at the time. You got to go to the Saber the Saber Saber Analytics, you know, the annual conference. They have a trivia competition. You got to go in there as a as a guest. Um because you got you got to man, you got some tough ones. Uh no, but well the thing is with with baseball um you know you you are one of those guys that like the history of baseball you know you like to teach people how beautiful this game is and like I told you when I got to know baseball I got fascinated I mean I didn't know there was such a great history behind it what baseball had done for America has done for my country a lot of people don't know that after 1965 when we had the revolution that was the only thing that could find to unify the Dominicans because we had a revolution in ' 65 and they used sports to, you know, get the Dominicans back together to become brothers and the first ever uh sport that they actually had a game was baseball that they play, I think was the air force play against the police officers in the in the Kiskea. they played the first game and that's how Dominicans started to talk to each other again. And if you look into uh the American history, what baseball did for America when uh the world war was going on when women have to take the field to entertain the rest of the the American people, how many of our great um American uh baseball heroes have to go to war? I mean Ted Williams, you know, uh we had great stories that even that were referred to actually admitted it. Uh Virgil that he went to the Marines and baseball was what saved him from going to the uh battlefields because he was a baseball player. They kept, you know, in base most of the time. Warren Spawn, there are so many guys that went to war and you know, uh, people sometimes forget that baseball has an umbrella of privilege, but when patriotism call, uh, we all take our uniform off and we have to go and battle for our country. Well, that's that's a good segue going back to to 911. So, um, this is the 25th anniversary of September 11th terrorist attacks this year. Um, you played in that 2001 World Series against the Yankees. Baseball played a really big role in healing the the country or at least just starting the process of of grieving and healing um, in America. Um, you know, everyone remembers, of course, George Bush throwing out that first pitch and um, what what do you remember about that World Series in the context of 911? Well, first of all, what I remember was a friend of mine calling me saying, "Are you seen what's going on?" Like, "No, what are you talking about? It's 7 o'clock in the morning. I'm sleeping. We just got in town last night. You know, we came from the road trip and they said, "Turn the TV on." And that's when I saw what was going on, I was like in shock. Uh but you know, there's a lot of things that I remember is the pain, the frustration, and uh the anger of a lot of people, how something like that could happen. And then how the spirit of American people went back up, you know, when uh president um to the microphone, he said, "We will not be intimidated. We will not be terrified. We're going to be out there." And I remember me and Danny Batista, we, you know, we in uh New York playing the World Series. I think it was like game three, I think it was. We were in the cage. I was soft tossing to him because he was a plus to play. And here comes the secret service saying that we have to get out of the cage. I'm like, "What? Are you serious?" Like, "Yeah, you guys got to get out of the cage. The president needs that. He's going to warm up." I'm like, I look at daddy. It was like, "Is this guy eating you?" He's like, "No, I guess he's not kidding. We had to leave." So, we left and then we find out. Then I was mad afterwards because I found out that he was there with Daddy Jitter. He couldn't be there with us. I was like, "Come on." I saw pictures of him with Derek Jeter. But it was a great thing, you know, uh uh when President uh took the mound and he throw a perfect strike. This one I got like said, "Okay, let me look into history." And then I find out that the first president that ever throw first pitch from the top of the mound was Ronald Rean in 1988 at the uh Cubs game and but President Bush is the first that ever did it from a normal distance because you know the actually the catch is on top of the plate but no Mr. Bush did it from top of the mound and the guy was right behind the plate where he was supposed to. He threw a perfect strike which he meant a lot to people. I started to look into that. I started looking into uh the Dominican history. How many presidents have thrown first uh first pitch and I found out so many great thing. I actually find out the first uh president that ever threw a pitch in uh in a foreigner country in Dominican Republic back in the 1940s with eager. He invited uh Samosa I think it was that through uh through the first pitch here. You never seen it before uh Jackie Robinson Brocky Maria you never saw that you know the possibility of another president go to a baseball game and thrown a first pitch. No, but it was interesting. You know, we have only one president in our history that never threw first pitch. But um those are part of our history that a lot of people need to know. I mean, when things like that happen, I don't know. It just hit my mind. I said, "Okay, let me let me let me do a little bit of history here because um this is interesting. I I mean everybody that you see, you know, I think uh yeah, there's another thing that I find out the other day about Hillary Clinton. I think she's the only one that first lady that actually threw uh first pitch I think was she was the first one if I'm not mistaken. And a lot of people say it didn't happen until I found a video. She did it I think was in the Cubs game too. So I see because Scott Service was a captain by no mistake when I saw the video. It was interesting. You find a lot of things, you know, when when you digging into baseball history. Yeah, you certainly you dig you dig deep with them. Um I want to talk more about So you said you won the Caribbean Series that year. I'm wearing this Auggilus jersey for you. I got this jersey. I got this in 200 um eight probably uh when I was studying abroad and living in Santiago. So I became an Aguil fan. Aguilo that year. This is a Miguel Tahada jersey is number four on the back. Um so how does how did winning the World Series compare to you? Or I should say it this way. How does winning the Caribbean Series or the Dominican League series uh prior to that? Um for those who don't know, I guess you probably back up. So you there's the Dominican Winter League, Leo or Liga Dominicana, and the winner of that goes on to play the winner of the different uh leagues like Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, etc. So that's the Caribbean series. Then so you guys won the the the Dominican League and the Caribbean Series. So for those who've never experienced Lee or any winter league ball in the Caribbean, like how does winning that title compared to winning the World Series? Well, you know, I only been in one World Series, which was special for a lot of reasons, but the Caribbean World Series is is it's like a mini baseball classic for us. It's a surprise thing, you you know, started with the local pride and then going through a Caribbean pride and uh but going to the Caribbean World Sergas is a different thing too. Those are the most proud people of this country. You know, they're very proud of their team. Those are the first team uh first fans that will fight in their stand for the team. They don't care. But uh that year was was a great thing for me. I had to pitch, you know, against uh Mexico that last game, but winning the World Series because of September 11. And being the first and only professional title until today in the history of Arizona makes it different. They haven't um get another title in football, hockey, uh basketball. You know, they had been in the game seven, the Phoenix Suns, but they had never won. We still the only champions they have. And I didn't know until like three or four days after, you know, we won the World Series. We were waiting for the parade they were doing. And, you know, we had to go to the ballpark. They were giving us the instructions how the whole thing will run the next day and driving back home, you know, trying to get on 51. And I start seeing the fire truck pulling me over. I'm like, what in heaven have I done? I mean, I know you can get pulled over by the police in America, but by this fire truck, what have I done? And when they pulled me over, all the firefighters said, man, he was sorry, bro. They're like, man, you almost gave me a hat. I was I thought that I was breaking the law and you you told me, you know, you telling me to pull over. I'm like, what the heck did I do? and they just wanted an autograph and you know it was a great experience and uh it was a great thing for for Arizona because um besides being the first title we saw so much people involved in that world series I mean we had more people outside that we did inside they had to put like two jumbotrons outside back in those days it was just empty lane we had the the train track used to go right behind the ballpark and they had to put those giants TV so people can watch the game outside. So you saw baseball bring people together in Arizona. You saw be bring people together post 911. Um you've crossed countless board. You know you played in Ottawa, Montreal, obviously in in the DR. Um you've worked or pitched all over the world for baseball. Um, you know, you I know you go to Asia, Europe, etc. Um, is there any particular moment from a global perspective just kind of how you described in Arizona and New York, but global perspective where you really felt like baseball was bringing people together or it could be in a clubhouse like with teammates, you know, like playing with teammates from all over the world. Um, there's something that comes to mind where it's like baseball's bringing people together from different cultures. and the world baseball class by WBC too. Well, I mean the WBC is the biggest prove what um sport can do to uh bring people together. You know, everybody talked about the World Cup. Soccer is a different sport. Baseball is different too. But the energy that baseball bring, you know, people are holding the breath is one pitch, one swing. Nobody wants to go to the bathroom because you might miss the greatest play. the energy, the electricity that you feel in that in baseball. When you look at a sport that can get in 14 days more than 1.2 million people into ballpark in 14 days. in four different in four different um scenario because you know when you look at the work cup they they take the whole country but we only play in four different spots and the madness that you feel the electricity you have to be there you know in soccer until you know the ball is getting close to the to the where the guy is there with a the portero where they going to kick the ball is when the excitement really gets in baseball is a whole it's a whole game where the guy got the ball in his hands and he's going to throw it to the plate. You know, the the feeling of hearing the the catches match scream, you know, with a with a great pitch and the guy being strike out looking how finger standing in the feet, sorry. And when you see know a player chasing and diving for the ball, I don't know. Baseball, you know, baseball is like swimming. You can talk about it as much as you want, but until you get in the water, you will never know. Totally. Yeah. Well said. All right, last question before we get to showand tell. On the theme of baseball as a unifier, um you've played for so many different managers, you know, big leagues, minor leagues. Um one thing unique about a big league clubhouse is all the different backgrounds. Is there one manager that you played for that you think was the best at creating unity in the clubhouse? And you know, who was that and what was his strategy to doing so? Well, there there are a few different types of manager in professional baseball. I mean, I played with a lot of them, but one guy that brings everybody together was uh Jean Tracy. I played with him in double A when we won um against the Yankees. Uh I had great mental coaches. I mean, Tony Larusa had to be the greatest mental guy that I ever known. I mean, I I hated the guy when I didn't play for him, but when I I got to play for him in 2011 when he won the World Series, I read all his books. The guy is incredibly deep into uh I would say factors of the game that a lot of people don't look at. you know, how how can the human part of a of a player can impact the game, how you as a player can uh focus your mind into maximizing your your your physical ability. Don't ever let your physical abilities take over your mental ability. is supposed to be all the way around because you don't going to feel good every day, but your brains are supposed to be there every day. It's one of the things that he talks about how important having a heart to play these game. Another guy, I would say Filipe Aloo was a great guy when it comes to being a great teacher. The things that he saw in the game, uh the way, you know, he used psychology to teach his players. I mean all the players he developed, he had a few uh Hall of Famers play, you know, when you talk about Larry Walker, you know, um Vladimir Guerrero, people like that that were uh incredible athlete and Pedro Martinez, he was one of the few that believed on him and gave him the ball as a starter when he came from the team that didn't believe on him. And uh you know you hear from other D managers too that you always wanted to play for because one of the guys that you always heard he was unbelievable was Dy Baker. Players love him. Uh Bobby Cox they said you're never going to see a manager easier to play for the Bobby C. He says you do your job you never hear from the guy. And there are other guys that, you know, I was interested in because they were great um great teachers. You know, some guys are good running the game, but not many managers can be great teachers. Guys that you can say this guy impacted my career, you know, and Jeene Land who was a legend and I had the opportunity to only play for him for almost a month when I was with the Pittsburgh Pirates was another guy. He was the guy that everybody respected because the man didn't know how to lie. And that's something you can always respect from your manager. He will tell you the truth, you know, regardless of the fact that probably wasn't what you wanted to hear, but he will tell you the truth. And this is, you know, something that uh you appreciate. Guys that were not well known like John Balls who was my manager with the Marlins in 96. another unbelievable guy that had a an unbelievable minor league uh farm director that a lot of people don't know. I mean, he was the one that got Renteria to the big leagues. Uh Luis Castillo, Ivon Hernandez, Antonio, Marcus Dre, you know, all those people were in his uh foreign system. a lot of people from the expose that uh um that was the first organization when I met the guy and you know there were other guys Gary Hughes you know that people probably outside uh the business of baseball might not know who they are but when you ask you know in uh in the part of baseball that uh people might know them you know you'll find out there are great names people that had uh live footprints in the business of baseball. Cool. Yeah, lots of great leaders there. Thanks for sharing that. Um, all right. So, that we're going to wrap it up um with our show and tell. So, what did you bring for us for show and tell? Well, you know, I'm I I'm a very weird guy when it comes to baseball. I don't have many baseball stuff in my house, but this is one of them. The one right behind as you can see there. This is my was here in uh jersey and the last glove I ever used when I was a professional baseball player. And here's the baseball for the 2001 World Series and a picture of me pitching uh with the Arizona Diamondback. It's one of the few things you can find about baseball in my house. Like I only have two things that have the world the word baseball on it. This is one of them. And the other one is uh my when I was uh inducted into the San Pedro Hall of Fame. After that, you don't find nothing else in my house. Everything is about the law. I'm a lawyer. My wife is a lawyer. So, everything is about the law here. Just a bunch of books, huh? Well, that's that's awesome. I You got to send us a picture after. We'll we'll put the picture up. Um, but I didn't realize I was kind of trying to see. I couldn't tell, but I didn't realize it's your actual mitt that's framed up there. So, are those all items that you actually wore in game seven? Yeah, my my um my spikes I can't find them. I don't know what my mom did, but but I have a spikes uh my my pair of cleats that I wear. You know, I used to have kind of like a boxing boots. I was one of the few guys, probably the only guy I know in baseball that used boxing boots as a as a cleat because I I I practiced gymnastics when I was little. So, I had really bad ankles when it comes to to uh building the ball. So, I had these really high tops and Puma made them for me. And uh if you look at pictures, well, right here you can see that. Look how high they go. They're way up there. And um I can't find them. I don't know what my mom did with them. But this glove is special for me. If you can see got like uh nickname there, the poet. There's one glove that I uh I actually What is the nickname? The poet. There the poet. Like like Edgar Alan Poe. Oh, the poet. The poet. Yeah. Kind of funny, but yeah, that was my nickname. I got it there. And uh I won a lot I won a lot of games with that glove. That's awesome. It's pretty old, but you know, I frame it there and hopefully one day my son will know that I actually play. All right. Well, I brought an item, too. Um I always bring an item show and tell you not that many guys. Well, now we have videos and you know internet that people can find a lot of things but back in the day I mean you see people on the street and you will never recognize them because there was no way for you to know who they were and you know somebody could tell hey that guy was a great player like okay who who was he how I can you know uh confront what you're telling me and you couldn't find but now you know at least I said okay let me frame these things maybe one day my son will last asked and my mom and somebody could tell your dad. That's awesome. All right. Well, I'm going to share real quick my item. Um because I always want to share something because I got to show off what I got, too. So, I got this ball. You probably can't see it from there. This is uh the the blur is making it good, but uh Liga Dominicana baseball. I got this I don't know 20 years ago. I've slowly collected signatures of Dominican players. These are probably all your friends on here. I'm trying to I need to add the Hall of Famers still, but I got Carlos Santana, Big Poppy, Robbie Canó, Ubaldo Himenez, Jose Bautista, Nelson Cruz, Felipe Aloo, Moyes Aloo, Miguel Tahada, Johnny Quutoo, Azie Virgil, Vladi Guerrero Senior, and Pooh Holes. I gotta get like Pedro on here and Beltree and you know a couple I'm kind of running out of space but um you got some great players. I know I know these are all your friends. You got to help me out. You got to help me out on this. You got some great players. It's kind of a beat up ball, you know, but it's a cool ball. I know. I know. Yeah. I had to get Aussie on it because he's the number one. He's the No, I tell you, man. I got a I had a a collection of baseball back in the days uh with guys that I respected and I wanted a signature and it's it might be funny to you but the first guy I ever got a signature of was Sandy Kofax. I met him at a Super Bowl party. Oh from the pitching coach that I had here when I played for the Poo that you know the Gigantes now. And I threw a no hitter for the pitching coach who was Pedro's pitching coach in minor league. And he said uh to me, you are the first guy in my career that throws a no hitter for me and I want to do something for you. I used to live in Florida. He says, "When you go back home, give me a call. I want to introduce you to somebody." So he invited me to his house for the Super Bowl party and I met Sandy Kofax. And you know, I asked him sound both of me. I talked to him about baseball for over an hour. Very interesting guy. Wow. You know, you you yeah, you hear so much stuff about the guy, but what I liked about it, he was sarcastically funny. You know, it's one of those hard guys to find that can be really funny and can be sarcastic at the same time. Very cool. That's awesome. Um, all right. Well, I'm gonna wrap it up because you've been super generous with your time. Um, thank you so much, Miguel, for joining us. I I look forward to running into you hopefully in a couple months when I'm down in the DR. Um, good luck with bargaining and all that. I I purposely stayed away from all CBA negotiations. I won't make you take, but I just hope that it goes well and that we get baseball next year. Um, although I will say, yeah, if there's no baseball or it's delayed, then it's actually good for me because then people got to come to Japan or somewhere else to watch baseball. You know, as a matter of fact, a lot of people don't know, there's one of the place I went to Japan, but I had to play for over the 10 days we were there. But there's one of the scenes uh one of the scenes that is on my bucket list. I want to go to the uh Japan Hall of Fame. I mean, I heard is very uh very impacting, you know, all this history that they have there. A lot of people might not know, but the first time that ever Dominican Republic faced Japan in baseball, he was not on the baseball classic, it was back in the 1950s. The Tokyo Giants did a tour around Latin America and they play against the Dominicans for four games. They went to Panama, Puerto Rico, and Dominican Republic and they came here. Uh, I find out in the newspaper the other day. It was interesting. We beat them three to one. But they had a um they had a really good team that came down here. It was we actually have a Japanese community uh close to uh the border to Haiti. So yeah, the baseball Japan and Dominican long story. I had no idea. That's really cool. Um I got You got to send me a picture of that article. I want to I'm I'm curious to learn more about that and maybe, you know, post something about that. Yeah. Yeah, I have a few. I think I have the articles of the full game. Yeah, that'd be great. All right, I'm going to wrap it up. Um so, thank you. Thank you again for joining us. Uh thank you for everyone who's listening. If um those who are listening, please make sure you're subscribing to us on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Um, follow us at Extrainings Travel on all the social media outlets and then check out extrainings.com and sign up for our newsletter to learn about our international baseball tours. Uh, so thank you for listening. Thank you, Miguel, for joining us and I'll see you at the ballpark.