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00:00Major League Baseball veteran. He played for the Giants in 2017 and 2018 and the A's in 2019.
00:07He also won the Willie Mack Award for the Giants in 2017. Nick, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it.
00:15What's up, guys? Yeah, thanks for having me on. It's good to connect.
00:18Absolutely, and Nick comes courtesy of the River Islands Guest Line.
00:22All guests appear on the River Island Guest Lines on 95.7 The Game.
00:27Is it a time for you to discover the islands, River Islands and Lathrop?
00:30Nick, when you were on the Giants and played the A's and when you were on the A's and played the Giants,
00:36was there any
00:38different kind of feeling at all about those games as opposed to the rest of the games you played?
00:45Definitely, and you know, I don't know how far you want to go back, but I was born in Corvallis, Oregon, and for us,
00:53the closest teams to root for were pretty much Bay Area if you didn't want to go up to Seattle, so I grew up a
01:00Walt Weiss,
01:02Carney Lansford, Ricky Henderson fan, a Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell fan.
01:07I love Jerry Rice and Joe Montana and those guys, so I grew up a Bay Area sports fan being from Oregon,
01:15so to be able to play on both sides and kind of come full circle,
01:19that was amazing. It was an incredible rivalry and it's got a great history.
01:25Hey Nick, let me ask you this because as my partner just said, you know what it's like to don an A's jersey and
01:31you know, I'm born and raised here in the Bay Area, grew up in the Coliseum, but when you found this story or
01:37everything that was going on with the A's and the possible move,
01:40but then when you get the finality of it all and they are going to leave Oakland,
01:45can you just share with us some of your thoughts because I'm still bummed out for A's fans and the Bay Area that they are
01:51going to depart.
01:53Me too. I'm right there with you.
01:56Like seeing the clean white jerseys with
01:59Kelly Greens and playing in the Coliseum and knowing that Bo Jackson was
02:05you know, run on that same field and they're gonna play some football there and you walk into the clubhouse and the Raiders locker rooms
02:13up the stairs and you walk out on the field and knowing it's going to be
02:18however many people are going to be there, they're going to be wild.
02:22Yeah, I feel bad for the city.
02:24I wish that it would have worked out better for everybody involved and there could have been a resolution because you know,
02:31the Oakland A's is a marquee cornerstone franchise
02:37for Major League Baseball for all that they've done for the sport and the city.
02:40So I'm right there with you. Nick Hundley joining us on 95.7 The Game.
02:44He played 12 years in the big leagues. He played for both the Giants and the A's.
02:49When you left the Giants in 18 and you played for the Oakland A's in 19,
02:55as a player either on the field, off the field, travel, anything,
02:59what was the biggest difference between playing for the Giants and playing for the A's?
03:05You know, we actually rented the same house.
03:08I didn't have to go across the Bay Bridge.
03:13That was a big one.
03:14You know, going to, playing in San Fran
03:19at what's Oracle now, at AT&T when I was there,
03:24the energy, the atmosphere, the environment.
03:27That's an unbelievable place to play as there is, I think,
03:33playing in San Fran in the National League and then playing in Fenway.
03:37And in Boston are so similar because the fans, the energy,
03:42the atmosphere around the park, you know,
03:45when you're walking in there as a home, as a, as a home player,
03:48and as a visiting player,
03:51you're going to bring it because the fans there are like nowhere else.
03:56And then going across, we had a really good team in 19.
04:01And the A's did a really good job. 18, 19, 20,
04:04had a lot of really good players, Mark Simeon, you know,
04:07Matt Olson, those guys in Chapman.
04:10And knowing that the opposing team probably didn't want to come in
04:15to play at, at the Coliseum,
04:19knowing that the amenities aren't great,
04:22that's not going to be a lot of people. You use that to your advantage. You know,
04:25I think you use both to your advantage. You use the,
04:29the energy at in San Fran and you know how wild it's going to be.
04:33And then, you know,
04:34when you walk into the stadium Oakland and the other teams kind of not really
04:38sure they want to be there and play you.
04:40Especially when you run out of a good team you kind of use that to your
04:43advantage too.
04:44Hey Nick, when it's all said and done and you know,
04:46these two games are over with, if I were to ask you,
04:49what is Bay area baseball going to miss with this rivalry gone?
04:53How would you answer that?
04:55Oh, that's a great question. You know,
04:58I'm not the best historian in the world,
05:01but I know the, the Mark McGuire's, the Canseco's,
05:06the Bonds', the Kevin Mitchell's, the Walt Weiss's,
05:11the types of players that have played each other there. And even going into,
05:15you know, Zito and Mulder and Hudson and Buster and
05:21Craw and, and, and Bum and those guys and Linscombe,
05:25the Bay area has been so blessed and been so fortunate to see
05:30superstar players play in a small area. I mean,
05:34you look across the Bay and some of the best players to ever play the game and a
05:38lot of different sports, which is crazy to say,
05:41and a lot of different sports from, you know,
05:44from Steph Curry and those guys that it is,
05:49it is going to,
05:49it is going to be sad that you can't look across the Bay and say, okay,
05:53we can go over there and we can play.
05:55And that organization is pumping out some of the best players to ever do it.
06:00And we are an organization that have pumped out some of the best
06:04players to ever do it. Yeah. Oh, you missed that for sure.
06:09Nick Hundley joining us on 95.7 The Game,
06:1112 year major league veteran played for both the Giants and the A's.
06:16You're actually a perfect guy to ask this question too,
06:19because there've been a lot of questions about the Giants ballpark, Oracle Park.
06:23So as a, as a player who played in both, you played in both leagues.
06:28So you've played in a ton of stadiums,
06:30but you also played a whole season in San Francisco.
06:34I know righties and lefties can be different,
06:36but how hard is it relative to hit a home run at Oracle
06:41Park as opposed to other parks?
06:44Yeah. You know, I was, I'm not the best,
06:48because I came up with a pod raiser when we played at Petco Park and before
06:53they moved the fences in six different times. And it was,
06:56you had to hit it twice to get it out of Petco. Right.
06:58So going to AT&T, yeah, it's a little colder and you know,
07:02the fog rolls in and you know, you're not really sure what,
07:06what the ball is going to do because the wind swirls.
07:08But you see the ball really well there.
07:12You know that it's going to be a great environment to play.
07:15You know it's going to be a tight game because runs are at a premium.
07:18So you need to, you know, that the fundamentals of the game,
07:21you're going to have to,
07:22you're going to have to really do a good job catching the baseball,
07:24run the bases really well, playing good defense. So to hit,
07:30to hit there, you know, that if you hit a home run, you drive in some runs,
07:34you know, that counts because you know,
07:35you got a chance to win a game based on if you walk up and hit a three on a
07:40homer, you're probably going to win.
07:41So stepping in the box and knowing those things that you're at,
07:44that really counts and every run's at a premium.
07:48It's a special place to play. And I would, like I said, I would put it up,
07:52uh, with any ballpark in, uh, in the country.
07:56Hey Nick, thank you so much for joining us, man. Really appreciate it.
08:00Hey, anytime guys. It's always good to talk, uh, talk about the Bay area and that,
08:04what the, I love it.
08:05All right. We still remember you down here. So thank you very much.
08:09Thanks guys. Yeah. We'll talk to you later.
08:10All right. That's Nick Hundley, all guests on 95.7,
08:13the game appear on the river islands.
08:14Guest line is in a time for you to discover the islands river islands in
08:18Lathrop.