From Cardinals Opening Day - Al Hrabosky and Scott Terry

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Live from Cardinals Nation Restaurant inside Ballpark Village.

It's Cags and Eggs presented by Budweiser, also sponsored by St. Louis Composti,

Dirtcheap, I3 Broadband, and by Rally House. It's your city, it's your house,

it's Rally House St. Louis. Now, Dave Clever and Kevin Wheeler,

although voice of the Cardinals KMO X.

Welcome to Opening Day on KMO X Glover and Wheeler here with you at Cardinals Nation.

It's going to be hot as hell, but right now it's beautiful.

I mean, if you're on the stream, you're going to see my sweat marks on my ribs, man.

No, we're on the stream. What's up? You look enormous.

That's because I'm really close to the camera.

No, it's because you're enormous, but you do look more enormous.

I look small. That's because you're in the back, Rod. You're like three feet further back.

So we have Auroboski coming up at 12.30. We have Scott Terry coming up at one,

and we, you know, someone walks by us, we'll grab him.

Yeah. A lot of dignitaries around here.

Yeah, we already had a chance to say a little John and Ricky.

We had a chance. I'm bummed that we missed Polo and Benji earlier,

and they were on earlier with Ron Janami.

Got a chance to say a little high and blue. That's nice.

Yeah, we got to meet him.

Yeah, yeah. He was so funny because Kevin met him first,

and he said something to him.

And then I met him, and he looked at me and he goes, same goes for you.

And I was like, this could be good or bad.

I don't know. You sure you want that?

You don't already told me.

I don't know what Kevin said.

So weird. He tried to borrow 20 bucks.

I know.

I mean, it is, you know, it is opening day.

I gave Mahundi and said this is it for the season.

And there's no cash available.

You two use in the stadium anyway, right?

Yeah, what the hells you need 20 bucks?

Maybe that's the cost of getting the contact info.

Don't turn around.

I would charge. What's that?

Tom Ackerman's behind him.

Tom Ackerman.

And he's warning you too.

I love Tom Ackerman. He told me he's going to change when he gets to the

fall park like when he goes because he's going to be in the seats.

You know, he'll be probably, you know,

in mixing mixing with us for a bit,

but now he's going to, he's going to get a

He's in the scene with me today.

I think so.

Better be.

I don't have a ticket, but I got a press credential.

I can go where I need to.

That's a good day to be in the swing.

Yeah.

Really good day.

Oh, you're not kidding, man.

You're not kidding, but you know what, though?

Like this, I think, I don't know if I'm doing the math, right?

But I think this is my 20th opening day.

And we, you know, when you're thinking about

all the variations of opening day, you've had all the rain ones.

We're like, oh, they can't bring the Clydesdales out.

That's such a bummer.

We've had warm ones, but nothing like this, 93.

Well, it's supposed to be the hottest day we've ever had in March ever.

And I think if I'm reading this correctly,

I think the wind's blowing out.

Oh, hey, let's talk about the lineup.

Yeah.

Yeah, so obviously opening day, you know, the Cardinals game is still, you know,

three hours away, but on opening day, they put the line-ups out a little

earlier than they normally do.

And again, it's opening day, but I thought that, you know,

it's cool to see that JJ Weatherhole is going to bat lead off.

Very cool.

And does he stay there all year?

You know, who knows, right?

He means a rookie.

He could have his ups and downs.

You could see him move down the lineup,

but he has the skill set to be up there.

He gets on base.

He's a quality hitter.

He'll set the table for the guys behind him.

You've got Herrera after him.

So you're best hitter batting second, which is, you know,

for a lot of old school fans, a little weird, right?

Yeah.

But for modern baseball, that's normal.

That's where, that's where Aaron Judge hits.

You know, that's where the best guy hits is the two spots.

For a guy that didn't make it out of Corey League,

and the fourth guy is the clean up hitter,

and he's got a short stop.

Oh my god.

Yeah.

How is it different today and why?

So what we understand now, like, again, it's just a matter of being able to

process a lot of information, right?

So computing is what went into it.

And people will be, uh, hate analytics.

But what it will show you is just how results are over time.

Well, you get 30, 40 more played appearances a year.

Every spot you move up the lineup.

Okay.

So if you're batting fourth, you get, let's say you get 500.

Well, if you move up the...

Why didn't it take us that long to figure that out?

I don't know, but, but see, because for a long time,

we just didn't think about why we're doing things.

Okay.

We just, okay, so the old lineup would be speed guy leading off.

It would be a guy that can bump, that can hit and run,

that can move a guy around after that.

And then your best hitter would hit third,

then your next best hitter would hit fourth.

And then after that, depending on your lineup,

you would either go back to contact,

or you would stick with power, just kind of dependent on who you had.

And now what we know is, well, obviously,

you want your best hitters to play the most,

to get the most at bat.

So when they hit first and second,

it's like, that's why Otani bats lead off.

You know, he could easily bend the old school three hole hitter.

So what you'll notice is big hitters,

guy like Herrera, for example,

won't have the RBI total that you would think of,

like, when Albert was doing it.

Yeah.

Because Albert was in a more traditional lineup,

batting third in the way that they set it up.

But you know, Tony Larusa was ahead of his time,

because Tony believed in damage in the two hole.

He was, he was one of the first guys to break away

from the hit and run, bump guy hitting second.

He like Chris Duncan hitting second.

He like Jim Edmunds hitting second.

He like having danger in that second spot.

And then that, because it kind of forces someone

to pitch to that guy when Albert's behind him.

Yeah. So Tony was innovative in those ways.

And, you know, he, he and Dave Duncan

had their own analytics.

And it was just a series of notebooks

and a giant chunk.

I, I saw a TikTok with Albert today.

Oh, yeah.

And they were asking Albert, could you get a hit today?

Oh, yeah, he could.

He said, absolutely not.

And he meant it.

And he said, when, how far back would you have to go?

And he said, my last season said 2022.

Oh, he said, he said, it's just so much harder

than people think.

So he picked up a bat the other day and swung it a little bit.

And he's like, forget it.

Oh, no, he took BP the other day.

And there was video of it on Twitter.

And one of the commenters was like, Albert, he can still do it.

And I was like, that doesn't look like his old stuff.

Because look, and he's obviously saying the same thing, right?

I mean, you're talking about when you stop doing something.

Now, I think he's being humble when he says he couldn't get a hit.

If you gave him 20 at bats, he's going to get one hit, right?

He's going to be, he's going to be somebody

that can find a bite of hit it there.

Somebody that can find a way to drive a ball into the outfield

to do something.

But when you're talking about doing it regularly, no way.

When you're out for as long as he is.

And then when you're out because you shut it down,

not because you hurt or whatever, but you shut it down.

Yeah, it's hard to get it back.

Your body just won't move the same.

That's why guys never come back in baseball.

You ever notice that?

You don't see too many guys.

It's occasional.

Usually it's pitchers.

You don't see too many hitters who retire

and then try to make a comeback.

Because once you lose that, it's over.

I heard Ron's talking on my drive-in about how some people

are a little disappointed that we're not playing the Cubs

or the Reds or Vision Rival.

Tell me about the Marlins.

What do you think about it?

The race, yeah.

The race themselves.

Well, two things.

I think this is a really interesting series for a lot of reasons.

Number one, they're like the Cardinals.

They're at the same basic level.

They have a lot of the same questions.

They're in a really tough division.

They're probably going to finish last in their division,

the race.

And at the end of the year when you look up,

you'll see the Cardinals and Rays will be almost the same record.

So you're getting an opponent that's similar to you early,

which as a fan is entertaining,

because I want to see some good baseball.

But also, Hein Bloom has his roots with the race.

You know, that was where he worked his way up

and then he ended up getting the big job in Boston.

That didn't go the way he wanted it to,

because he got hoes by owners there.

He got hoes.

I don't think he would say it that way,

but I'll say it that way.

He got hoes by the owners in Boston.

And now he's here.

So I mean, you got the side story with Hein Bloom,

having his roots with the race.

You have the angle that the Cardinals

are trying to do some of the things

that the Rays do on a regular,

which is constantly develop new players

and find new ways to be competitive,

where they didn't use to be as creative.

They were much more straightforward.

We have a plan. We're going to do this.

Yeah.

But Tampa's a fun team.

And when you look at this lineup,

you know, they're, I'm sure you saw them in the world baseball class.

You saw him play for the Dominican down in Miami.

Junior Caminero is the kind of guy

the Cardinals are trying to find.

You know, that international signing

that isn't like, you know, over the top,

but he develops into a rock star,

hitting 40 plus home runs as a rookie last year.

You know, so that's what, you know,

there are some similarities there.

And it's a, I mean,

what do you want a chance to have a good opening weekend?

Do you want to face the Dodgers?

Yeah, I don't think you're going to like how that turns out.

That's a good point.

Get going with a little bit of grace is what I'm saying.

I was listening to you in Matt last night

and on my drive home as I always do.

And I thought it was very interesting and very honest.

Your assessment of our rotation.

Yeah, and their ceiling.

Yeah, we don't really have an ace.

No, that's what you're trying to find, right?

And, you know, what we talked a lot about

with Libertor getting the opening day start.

We've gotten some reaction from Cardinals fans.

And I think it's fair reaction.

Like, that's not an opening day starter.

Well, no, it's not unless you're rebuilding.

Unless you're rebuilding team.

If you look around baseball at teams

that are retooling, rebuilding, or they're just young,

that's the kind of guy you're going to see starting today.

Yeah.

And maybe not nearly as high end as him.

I mean, the guy that's pitching for the race

is very good.

His name's Drew Rasmussen, right handed pitcher, 30 years old.

Had a solid year last year, but he's really been heard

a lot over the years.

He's starting opening day for them.

And it's the same kind of thing, right?

Except that Libertor still has ceiling, man.

I don't think we've seen the most that he's going

to be able to be, because last year was his first year

as a major league starter.

And it came after a couple years working on the bullpen.

So what we saw last year, you saw it.

First two months, he was an all-star caliber pitcher.

And then he ran into a bit of a wall

because he hadn't carried that much of workload.

So they kind of backed it off,

and they gave him some extra rest here and there.

And then he finished with a great September.

So I'd like to say that I think he's going to be better

than last year.

I don't know that he's ever going to be an ace,

but he's a guy that has the upside to be more than he's been

so far.

That's why he makes a fun opening day.

Although I tell you this, I'm really dying

to see Dustin May out there in the real game

in Cardinal's uniform, get Big Ginger gone.

I didn't realize.

We need more representation in town.

Yes, you do.

We're carrying the whole thing by yourself.

Oh, that's not true.

I didn't realize that Libertor added so many innings

in one year.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

And look, he had pitched a fair number of innings

in the minor leagues as a starter there.

So he had gotten close to that before,

but it was three years before.

Yeah.

When you ramp that down, it takes time to come back.

So that's an interesting part of the storyline

for the team, too, because you have a lot more depth

with pitchers now.

You don't have old guys that are at the end.

You have guys that are either like Dustin May,

who's been good and trying to get back to that

after having injuries and health problems.

You got Libertor, a guy that's trying to ascend.

You got McGreevy, who has only had the 17 starts,

but he's looked good.

He doesn't have the ace ceiling either,

but you can't have every guy you're developing plan

to be an ace.

You need fourth starters.

So you need guys that can eat innings

and do that inexpensively.

You're on the show with me.

I use the quarter machine analogy.

Yeah, yeah.

And for those of you who don't know,

if you didn't grow around a carnival quarter machine,

has a bunch of quarters that little arm pushes them off

and you're like, oh my gosh, the next ones coming

are gonna make me rich.

That's how I feel about the Cardinal's farm system.

That's exactly that's the right analogy to use.

Like the reason that Heimblum went out

and got so many young players,

is you know they're not all gonna make it.

So where the Cardinals in the past,

in these past few years,

the system hadn't been turning out enough players.

So let's say you're churning out six players

that you think can be major league players

and maybe some of them have the upside

to be all star someday.

Well, only one or two are gonna make it.

Well, if you turn that into 16 players or 20 players,

now three or four make it.

It's like buying more lottery tickets.

That's exactly what it is.

My favorite analogy for it,

is like we all have done trivia nights.

Or if you're here, you can do the 50-50.

If you're doing a 50-50 raffle,

if you have one ticket, you have one chance.

If you have 10 tickets, you have 10 chances, right?

Your percentage is go up.

That's the same idea.

And now you're gonna work to make all of them good,

but you just know through injuries and attrition

and look, some guys are just gonna reach a ceiling

and they can't go anymore.

This is where you are now, especially with pitching.

And they've not had this much pitching

between AA and the majors in my memory.

Give me a couple names from the minors

who you really hope we don't trade away.

I mean, all of them right now.

Liam Doyle would be right at the top of the list.

Because I'm not counting JJ because JJ's here.

He's not a minor league anymore.

Yeah, he's the St. Louis in now.

So obviously, Liam Doyle would be a guy

who wouldn't want to do that with.

Liam's not a big guy, right?

He's big enough.

He's like six, too, I think.

Oh, is he really?

He's big, big.

Like he's big body, not fat, but like big shoulders,

big legs, which is why he throws 100.

Mass equals gas, man.

And I would say, Randall Rodriguez is a guy.

You definitely don't want to trade.

That could be your next superstar hitter.

We'll be 100 Honolies, 19.

But he's doing things at 19.

That 19 year olds typically don't do.

You don't usually hit for power in the Florida state league

as a teenager.

I mean, you can see the cart.

If you looked at it, I think Matt Polly pointed this out.

Maybe with us, but maybe on Redbird Rush Hour Dave.

If you look at the lowest scoring spring training teams

in all of baseball, it's all the four teams

down in Jupiter and Palm Beach.

It's the Cardinals, the Marlins, the Nationals,

and the Astros.

That's not a coincidence.

Those are really hard ball parks to hit in.

The win can be weird.

You're at sea level.

So you've got no elevation to help the ball carry at all.

Well, he went out in that environment and reaped.

That's not easy to do for a teenager who hadn't been

to the states before that.

Yeah.

He had been playing in the Dominican before that.

So he's a guy that's got crazy, crazy upside.

So he would definitely be top of the list.

All right, Kevin and I are taking you all the way to.

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and this is when confidence really matters.

When kids take time to review key concepts

and strengthen their skills before assessments,

it can make all the difference.

IXL helps reinforce what they're learning right now

so they walk into every test feeling prepared,

capable and confident.

IXL is an award-winning online learning platform

that helps kids truly understand what they're learning,

whether they're building math confidence,

strengthening reading and writing skills,

or reviewing science concepts.

Designed for students from pre-K through 12th grade,

IXL delivers personalized interactive practice

that adapts to your child's level and pace.

It's an easy, effective way to support learning

as the school year heads into its final stretch.

Studies show kids who use IXL score higher on tests,

proven in all 50 states.

IXL is used in 96 of the top 100 school districts in the US.

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135 to the pregame and the first pitch 315.

Yes, sir, that'll be- and they're pretty much on the money, man.

And you want to be in your seats.

You know, we wrap up at 1.30 for a reason.

Yeah.

Because everybody's getting in their seats

for the pregame ceremonies.

If you guys come down to pregame opening day,

come into Cardinals Nation,

we're over tucked into the corners, say hello.

Maybe buy me a diet coke.

Hey, you know?

I don't have that idea.

I gave it the high balloon.

Oh, yeah, that's a good point.

That's right, it's a good point.

All right, gonna take a quick break.

You're listening to opening day on KM Alexa.

We'll be right back.

Back guys, I started saying DGS.

It kind of is right now.

Muscle memory.

Dave Glover and Kevin Wheeler coming to you

until 1.30 PM.

Our Boschie just walked into the area.

We'll have him on at the bottom of the hour.

Scott Terry's going to be with this at 1 PM.

But right now, a couple of real celebrities just walked in.

Oh my gosh, Rachel Zimmerman and Andrew Stolls

from the DGS opening day.

Usually you don't get to just talk to people like this.

This is so cool.

I don't think I've ever been on the air

for opening day on KM.

Oh wow.

What is exciting?

Man, the energy down here today.

I just got down here, crazy busy outside.

Everybody is in such a good mood and ready to go.

I mean, I'm just very happy to be here.

Yeah, and I wish you could have seen us.

I rode down the wheels and then we had to walk through

the crowd out there.

Oh my Lord.

Yes, I was your full back.

And yes, I was like curious George following the man in yellow.

And then I lost him.

And my anxiety went crazy and I'm like,

I can't get in without my dad.

That was us walking down here.

I was like, Rachel will take the lead.

I did.

Rachel will clap to be correct.

Yeah.

I'm usually a good guy to follow except I'm really fast.

Like I would.

Yeah.

It was it was packed, man.

I mean, like from front to back, we probably

picked the wrong path.

I think we probably should have gone around.

But hey, you know, well, you're like, what are those?

I'm a bulldozer.

I'm just like make your own path.

That's exactly right.

I'm like in the Arctic smash in the ice just to go through.

So what are you guys excited about?

I mean, I'm excited about this energy.

Like I said, I'm excited for all of the opening ceremony.

As I know, you always really look forward to that game.

And I'm sorry, I hate to say this.

The number one thing I am excited about

is getting a ballpark hot dog today.

Yes.

I cannot wait.

I have been thinking about this for a long, long time.

I'll buy you a stewie's hot dog if you like.

Oh, yeah.

Let's do that.

You guys coach your dog.

Yeah, it cones Kurt.

That's not too far from home plate either.

Perfect.

I like the plane, but wheels is the big fan of the pastrami.

You got to do the pastrami dog.

I've never, I've never, I've like before stewie

took me there.

I never had had pastrami in my life.

Not one time.

And he's like, you got to try it.

And he goes, do it like this.

Do it with some mustard.

Boom, it's better than the regular.

It's better than the regular hot dog.

I'm intrigued.

I'm intrigued.

One time wheels, I took rage and Andrew

and Wiggins to the game.

And we took Rick Shaw's back.

And Andrew and Wiggins sat in one and Rachel and I sat in one.

And the poor guy trying to fettle those two bad asses back

there.

Oh my god.

Rachel and I were like, this is so fun.

We are flying down the market street right now.

This is incredible.

He said we were the handsomeest guys you've ever met.

Was it two years ago that we had the drunken cart driver?

Yes.

And Andrew was sitting on the back.

Yeah.

He was almost on the ground all the time.

And he's like, well, he kept swinging.

And so the car would start tiffing.

And I'm like trying to counterbalance the weight.

This dude's ignoring all the lights.

He's just running every light, running up on the sidewalks.

I just turned your headphones up.

Oh, it's OK.

Funny.

You just like, you just get on a cart.

Yeah.

It's good.

I don't know where you're going.

You're in charge of me now.

Please take care of me.

I'm like Ricky Bobby, man.

I got to go fast.

Yeah, guys, as you want to ride it, we can all go like, yeah.

Do you have candy?

We don't want to walk five blocks.

Are you talking about it?

If you don't have a rickshaw, I guess we will.

So I think it's exceptionally cool today.

Because 20 years from now, we, and everyone here,

will be saying, man, I was at JJ Weather Holds

Berry first game, so I saw his Berry first at bat.

And I think about this from his perspective.

We had Amarisa in the other day.

And she was describing being in the Paralympics

and in the Olympic Stadium in Paris

and how overwhelming that is.

Because you're never in that environment.

And then you walk out.

And there's tens of thousands of people.

And it's this huge arena.

JJ Weather Holds never played it a big league ballpark.

Not in a real game, right?

I mean, minor league stadiums don't look like this.

They're one level.

It's like what you saw at Roger Dean.

So when these guys get here, the whole joke

is when you have an upper deck or a third deck,

it changes how it looks, how it feels.

Having, you know, this will be a sell out today,

you know, 40 something thousand, 45, 50,000 people there.

That's an impact.

And that's not just for a guy like JJ.

That's for some guys that haven't made opening day

before either like Matt Poshard, who's a rule five pick.

There's a bunch of guys that are doing this for the first time.

Yeah, just that energy, right?

Yeah, and I don't think a lot of them are fully prepared,

like for what it's going to feel like.

And it's long, right?

So these guys are out there for a long, well, first of all,

they're outside, you know, they're jumping on those trucks

underneath the stadium and they make the rounds.

But I know that they really appreciate,

and I know the part that we all appreciate

is seeing all the red jackets down there.

They get to go shake hands with the red jackets

and, you know, for them, I bet that's probably

the highlight of the day.

I know I'm a middle-aged radio guy, not a ball player,

but when I threw out that first pitch,

probably scared's not the right word,

intimidated, overwhelmed.

It was just like, and I thought immediately,

it's one thing to be very physically talented.

Yeah, yeah.

But the fact that all these guys can somehow make friends

with being in front of 40,000 people,

that mentality is crazy.

You got to work hard on that, I would assume.

I don't think anybody's born with that, right?

I wouldn't think so.

Yeah, a lot of it, that's the difference

between guys that are here and the guys

that are in the minor leagues.

That's a great point.

Yeah, I mean, they're physically,

you'd see some guys, you'll see guys in college.

Like, a bunch of years ago, I had my 14-year team,

and we were in Nashville when Vanderbilt was hosting a regional,

so we decided to go to a game,

and we're outside waiting to get in,

and the bus for the University of Indiana pulls up,

and their players walk off.

They look like major league players.

Like, these are colleges.

They physically look like major league players,

and our guys were like, oh my God.

Well, the difference between them and these guys

is what you're talking about.

They're just as big, just as strong, throw, just as hard,

but they don't have the rest of it yet.

And if they ever will.

Yeah.

Guys, it's a good day to be in the suite.

Yes, it is.

There you go.

I know.

And look at all these famous people milling about.

We've got you guys, Tom Acker.

I mean, just, I'm looking around the crowd,

just here at KXN eggs, and a little TMOX section,

and it's gonna be a fun day.

Brian, the engineer here.

Brian's here.

Brian, he and I are battling for the loudest person

that audacity knows.

Wanted to only manifest.

We were talking about it the other day,

and we agree that we're there.

We're people's.

I know.

We only really need one of you in this company.

Yeah, that's fair.

Well, we got Pogeski, too, but he's quiet.

Yeah, Matt doesn't count.

Matt's just silent, like, quietly keeping all of this together.

Yeah, we call him the assassin.

Absolutely.

Yeah, he's the assassin.

You know what, once I get, we're gonna take a quick break.

Yep.

Thank you, Rach.

Of course.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, Andrew, thank you.

Our boss, you'll be with us next.

It's Kevin Wheeler, Dave Glover, coming to you

from opening day at KMOX and Cardinals Nation.

Quick break, red back.

David Wheeling Tuesday, March 31st.

It's all access with Cardinals manager Oli Marmel.

Get inside your red birds in the 2026 season

every Tuesday of new on your voice of the Cardinals.

KMOX.

Welcome back, guys.

Dave Glover and Kevin Wheeler from the DGS here

with you at Cardinals Nation.

We're here until 130.

Scott Terry's going to join us at the top of the hour.

Right now, we are honored and privileged

to have our pal, Al Roboski, joining us.

Al, it's always great to see him, my friend.

Thank you.

It's always special opening day.

And I was in charge of the heat.

Well done.

So do you want credit or blame?

Well, I think the right answer was well done.

That's right.

Hey, I'll say this.

It'll make for kind of a normal ball game.

Right?

You don't have any weird, you know, cold or whatever.

You know, ball players prefer heat than to have a cold.

And so this is the earliest we've ever had

opening day.

And it's going to set a record for heat here in St. Louis.

But, you know, when I played, you know, red Chinese

was the manager, Lou Gibby, Ted Simmons.

They were all teammates.

So the only thing we had was Stan,

which is a big deal.

Yeah.

And then we had the Clydesdale's until I loved opening day.

I thought it was so special just because of the Clydesdale's.

And then how it's evolved.

I mean, this is very, very, very special.

And I want fans, I know they're trying to figure out

what's going to go on with this team,

but really opening day is kind of a celebration of the past.

And I think people have, you know,

we've struggled the last three years.

But if you think about it, the last 25 years,

we had the best record in all of,

the third best record in all the baseball

to the anchors and Dodgers.

And so a lot of penance and world champion.

I think the same ranking when it comes to playoff wins also.

Well, that's what it was really good.

You got point system for, you know,

getting the playoffs and then how far you went.

And the Cardinals were third best.

Now, we got a lot of work to do.

But I think this is going to be a fun team to watch

because they're all young.

And they all want to prove themselves.

And they really, it's going to be their team.

And I think always is looking forward to that challenge.

You know, he took over his manager,

the youngest manager in baseball.

And then he has a veteran ball club

with a couple of Hall of Famers on there.

And so, you know, you're kind of treading lightly,

but now they can all really grow together.

It is amazing now when you, you know,

we all have our journeys.

But you came here and, you know,

you're looking up to all these guys

and opening day was so simple back then.

And here you are.

And now you're a big part of it.

It's a very special day for you.

How do you feel it?

Well, I'm so glad that the speech is over.

So now I can do it.

It was good though.

It was good.

Well, but I mean, you know,

nerve-racking.

I really made a lot of speeches

and talked about radio and TV for 40 years

and doing different things.

But that one was really tough on me, you know.

And there was, I finished it at three o'clock

in the morning of the day.

And I had about 30 different, you know, paragraphs here

and here.

And when I was trying to put them in some kind of order,

I was getting bored.

You know, and stuff.

So I mean, I'm bored with that myself.

I mean, I limited as so much of stuff about me

and really it was more of a thank you to the fans.

Thank you for the great teammates I had

that allowed me to, you know, have the success I had.

But, you know, it meant enough a lot to me and my family.

And I'm sure out there today it'll be emotional

for me once again.

So take us behind the scenes that you guys are all together.

All the red jackets you guys are all hanging out.

Well, I mean, it's got to be,

you guys, obviously, you're all around quite a bit,

but it's got to be heck of a reunion feeling.

Well, when you think about it, you know,

I played with Teddy, you know, I played against Aussie.

Everybody else was, I was part of their careers

with the Cardinals as a broadcast.

So, you know, I knew some of them much more than I knew,

you know, I know those guys more than I knew the guys

that today because I don't, you know,

follow this closely, but, you know,

today's players are just tremendous athletes.

And, you know, Yaddy's in the house.

And, you know, so next year,

we're going to see Yaddy and Albert.

So, I mean, I'm going to have a front row seat

just watching that.

And I can remember Yaddy, the first game he played,

he, you know, was in Pittsburgh.

And what I remember, he got a hit or two,

but, you know, somebody tried to run him over at the plate.

Yeah.

He showed, you know, that he's a man.

And that was back when you could, you know,

take out the catcher, you weren't taking him out.

Yeah.

I can remember Albert's very first show run.

It was in Phoenix.

Amando Reinoza tried to knock him down with the pitch before.

And the next one, he took a high-pass phone.

It'll line drive into left field.

But, you know, two exceptional guys,

but you kind of, you look at the future now

and you say, which one of these guys

are going to be future Hall of Famous?

Which one of these guys are going to have a red jacket?

Yeah, I mean, that's really one of the questions

in a transition like this, because the Cardinals

have always had the, I've not, I've been here since 06.

I've never seen a team that didn't have that.

Well, I think they said this is the first time.

And the history, or at least in 100 years,

that it wasn't a All-A-Star that was on the roster.

I mean, they have to be a St. Louis All-Star.

And so you've got a lot of young guys.

They're all in this kind of growing up together.

And we're, you know, we still have the juries out

on several of them.

Sure.

But I was down to spring training three different times.

Watch some of the games, but the impressions that I got,

and I think it's pretty consistent,

is that they're going to have trouble scoring runs.

But the pitching staff is much, much improved, and the depth.

We had no depth last year, because three of the top prospects

end up getting hurt and having Tommy John.

They've got a lot of prospects now.

Got a much more firepower.

And I think from the pitching standpoint, they'll be OK.

They're capable of playing very good defense.

And if you pitch well, have good defense,

you know, you can win those one-run ball games.

But they're going to have to manufacture runs.

Al, speaking to catchers, you brought up Ted Simmons.

He was my guy when I was growing up.

I just loved Ted.

And it always seemed to me, even back then,

that he was painfully underrated.

Oh, definitely.

Whole career.

Absolutely.

Oh, life, not by me.

I grew up in Detroit.

I played on Ted Simmons' field when I was in high school.

OK, we knew he was.

Yeah, Ted, he was from Detroit area.

But Ted was as good a pure hitter in the National League.

And he was a switch hitter.

You look at 1975, he hit 333.

332 right-handed, 333 left-end.

Johnny Bench was the gold standard.

Ted was a better hitter than Johnny Bench.

Johnny was all the gold gloves.

And then the fact that he played on the big red machine,

and we're checking.

And he had power.

But he was surrounded by six other Hall of Famers,

and maybe had seven, you know.

So I mean, I've got the utmost respect for Johnny Bench.

But I've got equally, if not more,

and it is more for Ted Simmons.

Because he was the kind of guy that motivated me.

If I needed to kick in the rear, he knew how to do that.

But he also, you know, he was going to win the ball game

for me with his back.

Yeah, and what's amazing, too, like that's the time,

when you were the catcher, you were the catcher.

You're catching 140, 150 games and maintaining offense,

doing that, especially on the turf.

On the turf.

On the turf.

And I mean, I can remember, you know,

he cut more games than Yachty, because he never got hurt.

You know, I mean, he got wore down,

but he never came out of the lineup.

Yeah.

And there were times where he was going for a batting

championship, and there in September,

and his arms were so tired, balls he could have crushed.

But his arms were tired, and he stayed in that lineup.

And, you know, some people criticized his defense,

but, you know, to me, you know, long overdue

for him getting the Cooperstown.

And it's really kind of interesting,

because the analytics, which really showed up and said,

hey, this is all a famous, but we knew it.

You know, if you're playing with him,

or against him, you knew he was a Cooperstown.

Yeah.

Now, watching you growing up, I just loved you,

and it's so crazy that you're not your friends now.

But you were such a great athlete,

and such a great character.

Does anyone currently, or maybe in the recent past,

who you watch pitch, you go, I get that guy.

Yeah, he's a little bit like me.

Well, you know, some people were trying to,

the number one draft pick last year.

Doyle, Liam Doyle.

Yeah, in college, he had a little of that night as well.

But I saw him in that, in that, you know,

futures game, and I said, I don't want that comparison,

because he didn't get anybody out.

He was all over the place.

But, you know, obviously, that, that probably was really,

a very important part for him is,

it's part of Palmwood Jordan Walker.

You want to see a guy fail in the minor leagues,

and learn how to get out of it.

If you never failed until you get to my major leagues,

some guys don't recover.

And, you know, we're all pulling for Jordan Walker,

but this is going to be a very pivotal year for him.

Yeah, and it's, you know, it's a fascinating thing,

because you know he works, like every guy works,

that's not it.

But there are hurdles you have to get over.

And, you know, for him, swinging at better pitches

is probably the first one.

You know, we can worry about mechanics and all that,

but when you're swinging at pitches that you can't hit,

not gonna work out very well.

If you change, like we saw the other day,

when he got the fastball up, what did he do with it?

Hit them all over the fence.

Well, you know, the one thing that, you know,

one, it was not a very good pick.

No, it was bad.

91 top of the game.

You know, last year, I mean, I had dinner with Jordan

in a group of, last three years in sprintering,

he's one of the groups I'm, you know,

associated with, you know, we've had him come to dinner.

Remarkable young man.

And a guy that's so easy to pull for,

but you can have to start seeing these adjustments.

And you gotta move on if you don't.

And you've got Bayez and, you know,

the last edge is a guy that has shown it, you know,

he's got about 600 bats.

And I think he's got 31 home runs and something like that

over the courts in three or four years.

And, you know, he led the team and home runs

and RBIs in sprintering.

But I also understand, go down and play every day.

You'd probably be in a putune situation here.

Right now, yeah.

And you would have to lose, you know, from me

or you'd use the last option for Shijasi

if you brought him up.

But, you know, Bayez is knocking on the door too.

He's got to play a triple A, but, you know,

it's super impressive.

Very impressive.

You know, another guy, this guy,

that Al Roboski confidence is JJ.

He hasn't, he hasn't taken a swing yet,

but you just, you can feel it.

Well, when you watch him, what do you see?

Well, one thing that, you know,

everybody talks about how he's a baseball rat, you know,

and he's a sponge.

He just wants to learn and wants to get better.

And, you know, he doesn't have the flash,

but he does have the confidence,

but not the cocky attitude.

Yeah.

So it's a very confident and from everybody

you talk to, this kid is going to be legitimate.

But that's also, let me get his feet wet.

Yeah.

For years can be tough, even if you're good, right?

Yeah, and I mean, you can't make him a savior in year one.

So you don't want to put some expectations on.

So big that all of a sudden, he has a great year.

And yet, it's a letdown because people are thinking

he was going to, you know, do something

that's not capable of the outcome.

In that way, is it better, I mean, not better or worse,

but I mean, is it a little easier

for a kid in that situation to not be on a contender

where you're not expected, hey, we need to produce,

you need to produce, you need to produce.

Now it's just, hey, go play, it'll come.

Yeah, yes and no.

I mean, you know, if he's the player that people tell us he is,

you know, he would fit in well with contending team.

And he would, you know, because the other guys

would have the pressure and he could just be himself.

But, you know, that's the one thing these guys,

well, I think two years ago, when Arnato and Goldie

stopped hitting, and then everybody else

was a one, two, three year player,

and they tried to do too much, and it just snowballed on him.

So, you know, you're just asking to stay within himself,

you know, just learn as much as you possibly can.

And the only way you're going to learn

is being in that batter's box and being on that mount.

So they're going to have that opportunity.

And then, you know, you're going to make determination.

There's two or three guys that unfortunately,

we still don't know if they can play at this level.

So, Libby gets to start today.

Love Libby, I'm very excited,

and impressed by his story as Dustin met.

Yeah, I would, you know, let's talk about Libby for a second.

You know, I've always liked the idea of a young player

coming up and being in the bullpen,

because you see what you can be successful at at this level.

You're also a manager, can before you get beat up,

like if you start a rotation, if it's not your day,

you can get him out of there real quick, too.

And so he paid his dues and became a very effective reliever,

and was, you know, getting more and more opportunities.

But then last year, they made the decision,

you know, the last week, really last day or two

to put him in the rotation.

He had a really good first half,

and then he kind of wore down a little bit.

But he made all 31 starts, you know,

so he took the ball every fifth day, which was impressive.

And the fact that he didn't have his, any spilt up,

so you, you know, so you kind of experienced that.

Bob Gibson started in the bullpen, you know,

and it wasn't until Johnny Keen became the manager,

who was a manager that he hadn't trip away.

And Johnny Keen said, you know,

people said, oh, Bob's wild, this not the thing.

And Johnny Keen said, yeah, but he's in my rotation

every fourth day.

And then we know what the great Bob Gibson did with that.

So, and Leahy, you know, kind of follows that same mold.

You know, he's got, he's got seven pictures now, you know,

I don't understand all these things.

All these guys have like five, six, seven pictures now.

They just changed, you know, a little bit.

Change your grip a little, get on top of it.

But, you know, that's the way it is.

But, you know, he built up, he had it,

and I think 85 innings last year,

the most in the national league of rubber reliever.

And so, you know, to make the jump,

he was a starter three years ago in the minor leagues.

So you can't really say, you know,

can you go to 120, 130, so you can expect, you know,

he's going to wear down a little bit at the end of the season.

But, he had a very good spring, and he's promising.

Palante has come up with a change up now.

It's, you know, that's going to really help him

and everything.

But, you know, we heard all the time,

the Cardinals want swing and miss.

Well, when you got contact pictures,

it's hard to be swing and miss.

That's right.

But, Ryan Bloom has done a great job of getting pitching

depth and getting those power arms.

And so, there's a lot of depth in their young players,

and there's a couple of guys knocking on the door,

you know, that are being, you know, ones.

So, I mean, it's just a whole different pitching staff.

And, like I said, a lot of power pitching coming up.

So, we got that depth that we didn't have last year.

Very exciting opening day.

The start of a new regime.

I'll get into the jacket.

Just enjoy the hell out of it, man.

Oh, I am.

No speeches.

Have a great day.

And the most fun is I, but...

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All right, guys.

We'll be back with Scott Terry at the top of the hour.

Kevin Wheeler, Dave Glover from Cardinals Nation.

Happy opening day.

I even go long on when we're at Cardinals Nation.

I mean, come on.

When you have Al, you got to talk, right?

We'll do it.

I'm sure we'll do the same thing with Scott Terry.

But Pjeski's mad at me now.

Whatever.

He's my child.

He'll be all right.

Tell the folks about Palski.

Yeah.

So, you know, it's opening day obviously.

You know, full opening day.

You know, the Yankees one last night on opening night.

But you had the Mets and the Pirates going at it right now.

They're in New York.

It's Freddie Peralta.

So the Mets new big acquisition.

First inning.

He gives up a two run homer.

Okay.

First two batters.

Gives up a hit home run.

First two batters.

And then bottom of the inning in New York.

Palski's does not make it out of the first inning.

That's crazy.

He does not make it out of the first inning on opening day.

He only recorded two outs.

He gave up four hits.

Two walks.

Five earned runs.

Nope.

Didn't give him any home runs.

But he got knocked around.

Pretty damn good.

I think the big hit was like a bases loaded double by Brett Beatty.

But there you go.

Palski's.

That's baseball.

Number one.

Yeah.

That's opening day.

Number two.

And we saw it last night with Logan Webb of the Giants.

Yeah.

He got kind of knocked around.

And I wonder, you know, if anybody's going to be able to do it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He got kind of knocked around.

And I wonder, you know, if anybody's going to ask about that being a part of the WBC.

Both of those guys were significant contributors for the United States team.

I don't think we want to make that leap personally.

But I know that that's going to be, I'll guarantee you right now if I went on Twitter.

That's a question.

Yeah.

I can guarantee you it's a topic.

Yeah.

Because, you know, those two guys are pretty good.

And they both got rocked in their first starts.

That's really something.

Yeah.

It's like I ran my mind around it.

Knocked out in the first inning.

Yeah.

You know, I always watch Paul Skins and I'm like, how does anybody ever hit anything?

Right.

He throws a hundred.

He throws six different pitches and he can throw them all for strikes.

Yeah.

And he's got like this hybrid pitch that's like a splitter and a sinker combined.

He's got a big ol' break and buds.

It's just weird.

It's weird that anybody can hit that.

But, you know, that's why these guys get paid a lot of money too, right?

Totally great.

So, Wheels and I are at Cardinals Nation.

Plenty of time before the game.

So, if you come on down, find us over in the corner and say hello.

We have former Cardinals, Scott Terry coming up at the top of the hour.

He's the best.

Oh my god.

He's the best interview ever.

For my favorite people.

Yeah.

I love Scott.

He's going to spend a lot of time around him at our building, our coaching.

You know, you're tired, but he was like pitching lessons.

He's one of the best instructors I've ever seen.

He's unbelievable.

Well, he'll have a lot to say about this starting lineup.

We're going to take a quick break here.

Thanks, Scott.

Terry joins us.

We are live at Cardinals Nation until 130.

And then we'll turn it over to the Cardinals pregame opening day at 315.

Happy opening day, everybody.

We're here with Kevin Wheeler.

We're here until 130.

Good crowd at Cardinals Nation.

Really good crowd outside.

Everyone's super excited for opening day.

Scott Terry is here with us.

Frint of the show.

My future fantasy camp manager.

Well, you want you as a manager.

You're more of like the overseer.

You can run it.

I'm the guy that coordinated to put the schedule together.

The guys that you want to manage, you would prefer them over me.

Yeah, I was going to.

Yeah.

I tell them where to go and what to do.

And then once they get there, then they get you.

Yeah.

The very first time I met you, he's like, you're going to love Scott.

He's the best.

He can be a little salty.

He's like, just hot.

I have a little bit of a reputation.

A little bit.

Evidently, I earned it.

Evidently.

But no, I mean, we've had Mike Muthini, David Eckstein, Jason Isring.

I name names.

Yeah.

And you would also have an alumni play with you.

That's great.

Last summer when we played it, filled the dreams, which is our next one there in Iowa.

Jason Mott went into the corn seven times.

Geez.

And we told him that's because that was his perfect hitting speed.

That was BP speed.

Yeah.

Yeah, a little slower than the school's own.

Right down the middle.

You don't have to be real selective.

Scott, you're telling us that your very first opening day was as a player.

As a player.

That's crazy.

And it really is.

And I loved it.

And I loved every opening day.

And I've loved every opening day since.

I've only missed one.

And I was on a trip to Australia, that spring, which was great.

So I didn't feel too bad that I missed it.

But yeah, opening day cannot be duplicated.

And this location St. Louis cannot be duplicated.

I was in Cincinnati my first opening day.

And they do it up big too, but not like this.

And they were the first baseball professional baseball team and the first national league team,

the Red Stockings.

And they can't match this.

And you were when you were there, they were still the traditionally first game played every year.

And they were that year.

That was 19.

That was actually my first opening day.

My first opening day here was 88.

But that was 1986.

We had four, we had five rookies make that team.

We had Paul O'Neill, Cal Daniels, Tracy Jones, Kurt Stillwell.

Nope, not Kurt Stillwell, Bob Murphy and myself.

Nice.

It's a good group.

Yeah.

And three years later, that core one of World Series for the Reds.

And I got traded over here, which is fine.

Yeah.

Yeah, because when I got traded here, I went right straight to the World Series.

I didn't have the way.

So I mean, we were talking earlier with Al.

And obviously, you know, guy like JJ Weatherhole doing this for the first time today in the bullpen, Matt Peshard.

So when you're that guy, when you're the new guy, you've never played with an upper deck or a third deck or anything like that.

What is it like being out there?

Me.

I got here really early.

I could have had breakfast earlier than anybody else.

I just wanted to be there for the whole thing.

Take it all in.

I got dressed early.

I went out early, just watched people come in.

I mean, you just you want to sit back and soak it all in.

And of course, the other guys you can see that have been that are veterans to this, but they still value it.

Oh, yeah.

Every day in the big leagues is a value.

Every day you get to come in and put that uniform on.

And that's what these young guys need to appreciate and understand.

You know, JJ Weatherhole should remember this for the rest of his life.

Regardless of what the rest of his career looks like.

This was my first day in the big leagues.

And when it's an opening day, it makes it...

You're back to lead off.

Oh, man, yeah.

So, yeah, I mean, just take it all in.

Understand it. Understand what it is.

Don't be all cool and not your luck.

Get back in your locker, you know, thinking I'm getting mentally prepared.

Hell no.

Get out there and get fired up.

Get out there and see what it's all about.

Because it only happens once you're first.

Yeah.

And it's awesome.

I'm curious, modern day baseball,

and Wheels talks about all the time in Russia.

I listen to he and Matt talk about it.

You hear about the pros.

Oh, he's a pros pro.

He goes about his business.

He knows how to do it.

He's a great example to the younger guys.

My feeling is that in your day,

it was a little less structured.

Maybe a little more fun.

You were responsible.

It's on you, yeah.

You didn't get babysat.

You didn't say, okay, there's a meeting at three.

There's a meeting at three o'clock.

Okay, the pre-game meal is at this time.

Okay, your weight workout is at this time.

Your video time is this time.

Because we didn't have, we didn't eat.

We didn't have a weight roll.

We didn't have a video right?

Right.

We didn't have nothing.

We just came to the ballpark and we got ready.

And it was up to you to know when a whitey.

Beyond time, give 100%.

Two rules.

Yeah.

You knew what time you had to be at the ballpark.

As an example for me as a reliever,

I came in at home was the only time the pictures took BP.

Of course, they don't do that anymore.

So the relievers would hit first.

And then after the relievers would hit,

then we would shag for the remainder.

Your starting picture would hit with the extra men.

So it was always set up differently from a schedule standpoint.

But you were responsible for your own schedule.

You didn't have somebody come up and tap you on your shoulder

and say, here's what you need to do and here's what you're doing.

Hey, meetings in two minutes, yeah.

Exactly.

You just came in.

You took responsibility.

A guy like me,

I would be a professional professional

because I was prepared every day.

And I would do extra above and beyond the preparation.

And I would do a little bit more with the fans.

I would go out early.

And even if they didn't want my autograph,

they would say, hey, could you give me,

could you get Ozzy's autograph learning?

That's okay.

I was going to do it all.

I was going to take it all in.

I was going to be as accessible as I could be.

And I was that away with other players.

And the veterans,

you had to go to them.

They're not going to come over and sit beside you

unless you've done something wrong.

Take the initiative.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you haven't done your job or something

and it affected us in a way,

and I say us as a team,

then they would come sit by you and let you know.

Who did that to you?

Nobody.

Because I didn't get out of line.

Praise God, Dave.

Good man.

I did not get out of line,

but I can tell you,

I went and sat by plenty of people.

I can tell you,

we had a certain outfielder back in the day

that was a number one pick that made a catch like this

and broke his wrist on it,

and caught it like that.

And when he came off the field at the top step

and the top step of the dugout,

we had two veterans said,

if you ever drop that,

don't come back to this dugout.

And that was just making a catch.

Yeah.

We had another veteran that was sitting on the bench the next day

and he was kind of down,

he didn't have a good day the day before,

and Ozzy sat down with him

and he asked him,

he said, well, he said,

well, I did the best I could,

and he said,

we don't need you to do the best you can.

We need you to be successful.

Okay.

Yeah.

So you found out and the tone was set

because you're playing with my money.

Yeah.

All 25 of you are playing with my money.

It's not just Ozzy.

And when your best player is your hardest worker

and sets the example and reference to that,

then that changes everything.

So it's a different lay in the land.

The athletes are different.

Where we came from is not where these guys come from.

That's right.

What these guys here is not what we were told.

We weren't entitled.

We earned it.

And I'm not saying they don't.

Right.

Just different structures to understand.

This is me talking about the day.

Yeah.

And this is not a negative thing towards anybody.

It's just saying, yes, things have changed tremendously.

So I asked that question.

Yeah.

I didn't know what a spin ratio was.

I didn't know what VLO was or exit VLO or any of that.

You probably judged it by how the hitters reacted

to what you're throwing.

I went over and set by Bob Forson and said,

how do you pitch this guy?

I went and set by our hitting instructor, Johnny Lewis,

at that time.

I said, Johnny, if you walked to the plate and I was pitching,

what would you do?

Good questions.

I went around and looked at Aussie after I reached for a ball

and tipped my glove and was a base hit.

And he came up to me and he put the ball in my glove.

And he said, you know, if you'll let that go, I'll get that one.

Okay.

Okay.

You just learned as you went, but you also,

it was nothing but respect from day one.

And the people that didn't respect or came in a little different

than others.

It didn't take long to get them in position to where they needed

to understand this is who we are.

That's what we do.

This is how we do it.

So the cardinal way, I was right in the middle of it.

I wasn't raised with it because I came up in Cincinnati.

Right.

But boy didn't take me long to find out what it was.

Right.

And it wasn't a bad thing and it wasn't a harsh thing.

It was just you understood.

And you played and you watched and you learned.

And you kept your mouth shut most of the time.

And then after a few years, then you got to have a little bit of fun.

You know, so it was great.

So it's got everyone's excited about JJ.

Everyone's curious about Jordan.

Who are you excited about on the pitching staff?

Oh, that's a great question because there's so many names I don't know.

Oh, yeah.

Well, there are a lot of new ones.

There's a lot of guys that I don't know.

Well, that's what I was going to say.

The guy I'm most intrigued by is the guy that has been through hell to get here.

That's right.

Doesn't matter.

And God here wants and had to go back and start all over and almost die.

He did.

I mean, just think about that.

And when you think about the game of baseball and how miniscule it is compared to death.

But this guy, I'm really in.

I want to see.

I want to see what Dustin does.

I'm very interested in him and very intrigued by him.

And then anybody that it's their first year.

Anybody.

I like sponsor.

Good, any?

Because he pitches the way I pitch plus eight to ten mile an hour.

Every day.

Yeah, yeah.

I just area 98.

I left the stain in my shorts throwing 89.

I just want to tell you that that that was.

And I was pushing it up there.

I got to tell you.

You know, there's a reason why these little five ten guys haven't worked so hard to get.

So yeah, I mean, I would.

I always told everybody I'm a better pitcher than Nolan Ryan.

They would look at me and laugh and say, yeah, right.

And I said, anybody can pitch with 96.

You ought to go out there and pitch with my stuff.

But I'm very excited about him.

Yeah.

I think he's got great stuff.

I'm always interested and I don't always understand.

But I'm not trying to create any controversy or nothing.

But pitching is so much different.

Oh, man.

I held the ball.

At the end of the day, Dave, that WNL is going to be beside my name.

And I'm going to get paid accordingly.

And that catcher is making a suggestion.

You know, it's like Bob Gibson told Tim Macarver, why are you out here?

You don't know how to pitch.

Go back behind him like.

Wait for me to say yes.

Yeah.

So I knew and we had game plans.

But it wasn't as everything is just to the.

Oh, it's very scripted out.

Intel and scripted.

And you don't see guys, you know, you don't see anybody.

And all that.

So the one guy in the past that I watched a lot two or three years ago with Dakota Hudson.

Yeah.

I was disappointed for him.

Because I saw him one night throw five pitches and he hadn't thrown his sinker yet.

And his sinker was his best pitch.

Yeah.

And I thought to myself, what are we doing?

And so I've just come to understand that it's not going to make sense to me.

Because things are different.

Yeah.

Don't make it right or wrong.

It's just it's just different.

Very much scripted in a lot of ways.

So when you look at bullpen usage, you know, in the day it would be I have my six thinning guys.

My middles.

I have my seventh inning guy, my eighth inning guy, my ninth inning.

Now it's just slots in the lineup.

Yeah.

So I go, okay, well, the spot here, six, seven and eight.

That's probably you in the sixth inning.

Be ready.

Yeah.

It's like, it's just way more about specific matchups and not about what time of the game or anything like that.

We had a four man bullpen at most five.

I mean, that's so much.

Think about that.

Yeah.

There was one year I had 85 appearances and pitched over 100 innings out of the bullpen.

Which won't happen this year.

Never, never, may not ever happen again.

I mean, lay he was like 80 last year and he was the most.

There you go.

Yeah.

But we had two guys that had a role in our bullpen and that was the setup guy in the close.

Yeah.

The other three or the other two.

All hands on deck.

But your starters were going seven at least.

And we had some good start.

Yeah.

That's the big, that's that's a big change.

And that would, I mean, when you can roll out the guys that we rolled out Danny Cox, John Tudor, Bob Force, Joe McGregn, Greg Matthews.

I mean, whoever brings 1000 innings for five guys.

Yeah.

Jose Dayley.

Whoever it is.

And yeah.

And that's why Atlanta won 13 divisions in a row.

No joke.

So you had a five man rotation that gave them every year.

Yeah.

It gave them at least 1000 if not 1500 innings a year.

Oh, I bet it was, I bet it was 750 alone from Maddox, Glavin and Smoltz.

Yeah.

Not even counting Steve Avery or Kevin Millwood or whoever came in along after that.

Yeah.

My last pitch I threw in September of 90 to 91.

I was in 18 of the last 23 games that we played.

And basically you came to the ballpark.

If you, if you pitch three innings, they're going to say you're off today.

Right.

But not if you have a reputation.

Okay.

Yeah.

Or you good for a hitter.

You good for an inning.

And of course the answer was yes.

Sure.

I didn't say no, which is why I have three shoulder surgery.

Right.

But that's okay.

We're running out of time quickly.

But I've wanted to ask this question of a pro pitcher.

When you hear like five days layman think, hell, if I rest for five days, I can do anything.

What is it about your body if you pitch with two little rest?

Where do you feel it?

Is it an overall?

Is it an arm thing?

It's mostly arm.

The rest of the body you can condition to take a beating.

I'm going down a hill sideways on one leg.

That's right.

That back leg is pushing.

And that front leg is resisting.

And everything else is turning against them.

But they don't hurt.

No.

Because they're conditioned.

The upper body rotation.

It's this guy.

Yeah.

This is a lever.

And it's following along.

And pretty soon it's going to get whipped through with all that other inertia and all that other stuff.

Bringing it through.

And that's what's going to break down.

And that's what needs the time off and the rest.

So glad I asked.

Great answer.

Scott, you're the best.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Thanks for having me on.

Yeah, you guys call me any time.

We'll do it.

All right.

We're going to get you in a fantasy camp.

Oh my god.

And I'm going to have fun with it.

You need to come to me.

I did it once.

I'll go any time, man.

I remember.

I caught every inning.

I remember when you did that.

Yeah.

That's great.

That was in Jupiter.

You're going to get S-talked by Ozzy and Lou got me a couple of times.

Yeah.

You didn't even have to.

Everybody else got me.

Yeah.

Well, people were scared of me.

I don't know why.

I'm very upset.

You're the best.

All right, guys.

Good to see you.

We're coming back.

Happy opening day.

One more segment.

Dave Glover and Kevin Wheeler coming to you live from Cardinals Nation.

Happy opening day.

Welcome back to Cardinals Nation on opening day.

Dave Glover and Kevin Wheeler with you.

This has been one of my favorite broadcasts I've ever done.

No kidding.

Al was great on the day.

He gets his red jacket.

Yeah.

Scott's the absolute best.

And I'm so glad I asked Scott that question about the difference between pro players today

and pro players in his day.

What an amazing information-filled answer he gave us.

Yeah.

I mean, look.

This is why when Matt and I or Matt and Tom and I and Raj, we're all talking ball, Bernie,

we try to make that point because it's maybe not as visibly obvious to fans how much it's changed.

Yeah.

But we all grew up with, you know, Scott Terry.

We all grew up with Ozzy and Whitey and your memory is what you saw there.

And when you look on the field, it's similar.

You're all playing.

You got a short stop, a second basement, a catcher.

Like, it looks the same.

But the whole inside of it's different.

Everything's different.

And, you know, when I played college ball, it was the early 90s.

That was right when it started to change, right?

We started to get, like, it was like, before that, it's like, don't let weights.

Baseball players shouldn't let weights.

They'll tie you up.

You'll make it good.

And in the early 90s, it started to change.

And in a bad way, it went to steroids there for a while.

But the point is that this game has been constantly innovating.

And it's just like the rest of the world, right?

As computing power and technology advance, everything advances.

So, when you're talking to Scott, you know, Scott's one of the best pitching instructors I've ever known.

And he didn't have a lot of the tools that we can now see how the ball's moving.

He didn't know it's been ratio.

It's right.

I mean, you know, that, and that's, it's not because you don't understand.

It had to be more intuitive, which also meant it would be more often wrong,

not by him necessarily, but by teams or their choices and things like that.

And think about the guys in the 30s and the 40s.

Way different than the 80s.

Yeah.

Those guys were probably shown up drunk hang on over, you know,

Babe Ruth's eating a hot dog in the dugout with a beer.

You know, it was a lot more casual even then than it was in the 70s and 80s.

I guarantee you guys that were the old timers in the 70s and 80s.

Looked at it and like these guys are buttoned up, man.

Yeah.

Why are they so serious?

Shane Gillis is a great bit about old baseball.

And he's like starting pitchers, swampy waters, a 47 year old alcoholic.

People say he's the fastest man on earth.

Yeah, it's pretty great, man.

You know, it's a different listening to Scott talk about the difference in picture usage.

You asked that question yesterday about why are there so few 300 hitters.

Yeah.

Well, think about it.

All those guys that saw the Cardinals in 1987 and 1988 when Scott Terry that range he's talking about.

They would have seen Scott, you know, five or six times a piece.

Yeah.

You know, you'd only see four guys in the bullpen and you'd see their five starters.

So you got you got a better feel for everything.

You knew they were more tired because they were working more.

And it took longer to get back to your peak where guys now stay up their peak more.

In part because of how they're managed, right?

We're doing less work, but also because the conditioning is different.

It's more specific to that, you know, Scott talked about that movement, right?

Everything's rotational and your arm bears all that weight.

When you see all these guys doing various exercises and weighted ball things, it's all because of that.

Yeah.

It's to compensate for that and try to train around it so you can reduce the number of injuries.

One minute left in our broadcast, Kevin.

It's all yours.

Give me just your thoughts on the season on opening day here.

Yeah, I think the main thing is enjoy baseball first, right?

The standings are a part of baseball.

They are not what it is to be a fan.

If your fandom is based on the standings, then you're taking your control out of the enjoyment of the thing you like.

Because now it's all about whether you get the win or the loss.

This year needs to be more about enjoying the players.

What you're seeing.

Because look, there's work to do.

This team is going to be better down the road, but it's a different mindset for Cardinals fans.

But get used to, get back to being where it's about the game, less about the result.

And you'll enjoy it more.

And then when the result comes back, you can be back to that way.

Yeah.

But there's no point beating your head against the wall.

This team will be fun, even if it's not going to be a playoff team.

And I think it's exciting that we are all, all of us fans, are in on the ground floor of something.

Yes.

This is brand new.

There is something special about that.

And everyone in St. Louis knows it and experienced it with the blues.

When TJ O'She and David Backus and David Peron and Patrick and all those guys, when the kids were coming up.

And it was like come grow with us.

And people did.

Yeah.

And it made it that much sweeter when they got good.

All right, guys.

We're going to get out of here and turn it over to the pregame.

Have a great opening day.

Go Card.

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