Frank The Tank
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00:00Play ball! Yes the 2025 season opening weekend this week and you know I got a special guest
00:10Chris Bassett formerly of the Mets now with the Blue Jays and we're going to talk about
00:14the 2025 season a little bit of my little bit of his time with the Mets and just get
00:20everyone hyped up and excited for this baseball season. Let's go for a walk.
00:26Frank Walsh, Frank Walsh, it's time for Frank Walsh.
00:36So Chris how have things been going? Good, good. Got some new players pretty excited
00:40about the year upcoming. Got Max, my old teammate from the Mets. Yeah, Max Serger on the Blue
00:46Jays. Yeah, so yeah pretty excited about it. I mean that's trying to get the pitching
00:54rotation together. I say that this year it's a priority I guess. Yeah, of course. Of course
01:00you have Vlad in his walk year. Right. And you're trying to get him, you're trying to
01:06get Pete Alonso too. That didn't quite work out though. Yeah, but I mean as long as Pete's
01:15happy I'm happy. Pete's heart in New York, you know, that's what it is. It is. I think
01:22he could have probably gotten something, and that actually makes me like him more as
01:27a Met fan, is the fact that he wanted to stay with the Mets. Yeah, he definitely, I mean
01:32he definitely did. I know he genuinely does love New York. I know he's a great teammate,
01:39great person. So yeah, that's why it's a little bittersweet that he didn't come, but at the
01:46same time I'm just glad that he's happy. I mean, I remember your one year at the Mets
01:51was overall positive except for September. But, and obviously I put the tweet out that
01:58I miss you in 2023. Right. What was that season like for you, the 2022 season with the Mets?
02:07I loved it. I mean obviously coming over from Oakland you just don't really know, I would
02:13say like the clubhouse, the vibe and all that, but I absolutely loved it every second of
02:18it over there. It's just the Coens as owners were unbelievable for me as a player, for
02:25us as a family, and then obviously Lindor, Nimmo, DeGrom there, Scherzer there. It truly
02:33was a special time for me, and just learning so much about the game, and then just being
02:38surrounded by superstars was awesome. I think that the Mets now have more, the Coens have
02:44really now eradicated those bad feelings, and I love that part of it. Yeah, I mean,
02:51the guy, I mean, I think obviously Mr. Coen obviously gets a lot of headlines, but Mrs.
02:58Coen I think doesn't get enough publicity. She for families is unbelievable, and honestly
03:09luckily for me, the Toronto Blue Jays are very, very similar to that, where they genuinely
03:16care about everyone involved, so it's great to see it.
03:20We're going to see you pretty early this year. Your opening day at Citi Field is going to
03:25be the Toronto Blue Jays. We are playing you in the home opener.
03:28Yeah, it might be a little cold, but yeah, I can't wait. I really can't.
03:36Now, you mentioned the Oakland A's. I think that situation is an absolute travesty, what
03:43happened. The fact that that owner, first off, you can argue whether or not Oakland
03:52can handle major sports anymore, but that owner might be just the worst guy in baseball.
04:00Yeah, it's tough in the aspect that I have so many friends over there, so obviously you
04:09want the best for them, but I mean, I don't really know the economics and all that stuff
04:16behind it, so it's hard for me to say what's right and what's wrong. I just wish the sport
04:21was able to stay in Oakland, but I mean, it's tough. It's tough to see.
04:29And of course, it's going to be good when they get in Vegas. I actually think they're
04:33going to do so well in Sacramento. Sacramento is going to get heavy consideration for an
04:39expansion team.
04:40Yeah, I mean, that's the risk of it all, is if you have success in Sacramento, then all
04:49of a sudden, does Sacramento become a player? So, we'll see.
04:56Now, what are some of your favorite moments in playing baseball in your career? What are
05:02some of your favorite games?
05:04Honestly, for me, more so my favorite games weren't even really the games I was a part
05:11of. It was more so the games I got to watch and truly be a fan, similar to what you do,
05:17because I feel like you miss so much when you're in the moment and you're playing that
05:21it's just like, it's tough to take all the cool things in. So, I mean, I know you guys
05:26got Shawn Minaya. Seeing guys like Shawn Minaya throw a no-hitter, things like that, just
05:33watching my teammates kind of have success and have all their hard work kind of pay off,
05:39I think that's...
05:40Shawn Minaya also looks like a guy that's got good vibes.
05:43Oh yeah.
05:44The way he just like...
05:45That's an understatement. He's a great, great guy. I'm very happy that you guys re-signed
05:50him. I think it was a great sign by you guys.
05:52And, well, this might date the video, but it looks like he's been cleared today. Nothing
06:01on his MRI, so he looks like he should be able to start the season fairly... not miss
06:08that much time.
06:09That's breaking news for me, so I'm glad that you said that. I got to go text him and congratulate
06:15him because I know...
06:16I saw something on Twitter. He's going to resume throwing. Basically, his spring training
06:21is restarting, which is good for the Mets, obviously.
06:27Now, you had Tommy John surgery. What is that like? I mean, it seems like every pitcher
06:33has it now. It's like... it used to be so rare. Now it's... it seems like more than
06:42like half the pitchers get it. At some point in their career.
06:46Obviously injuries are spiking through our league, and there's a lot of contributing
06:49factors to that. But the reality is it kind of... it kind of shaped me of who I am today
06:58in the aspect of... I just kind of learned my body. I understood kind of the mistakes
07:03that I was making. I learned... like a so-called going balls to the wall non-stop wasn't a
07:09good idea. So it helped me, but I mean, I still have... from a player's standpoint,
07:16I still have a lot of worries, animosity, things like that towards the game right now
07:25of kind of how do we protect players and why are things going on.
07:29I don't think baseball does a good job with that. I think this max effort, 99 miles per
07:34hour every... every pitch has been detrimental to baseball, the sport, and the players.
07:43Yeah, there is not a doubt about that. I even saw like an article written I think yesterday
07:51or two days ago about DeGrom and how he wants to dial back his velocity from like averaging
07:5698, 99 to like 96 and just pitch, which I fully agree with. I think the old school thought
08:04process of baseball and the old school style of baseball is still king, even though we're
08:09in a new school of baseball.
08:11They threw so many more pitches back then and they didn't get these injuries. I mean,
08:19Noel Ryan like averaged 150 pitches a game sometimes.
08:24Yeah. I don't know. I don't know what they...
08:30Nobody threw harder than him.
08:32It's crazy to say the least. You look at the numbers, not even pitches, but you look at
08:39the innings that those guys were eating. It is kind of laughable how many innings those
08:46guys were constantly throwing and how good they were able to not just maintain numbers
08:52but maintain careers for years on end.
08:55I mean, I look at videos from like the 86 season, obviously. I was 10 years old when
08:59I met one of the World Series. So I want to see another one, of course, and almost
09:07every game, complete game, quite good and complete game. It was like everyone went to
09:16the seventh inning. Even if they were pitching well, they pitched the seventh inning, seventh
09:20eighth inning. The closer wasn't necessarily the closer. You just came out there.
09:25Yeah? Yeah. The one caveat I will say is I don't think bullpen arms were nearly as good
09:31back then.
09:32Well, no. Back then, the bullpen, you had one or two reliable relievers and they weren't
09:40one inning guys.
09:41Right. Multiple innings guys.
09:43You had Goose Cottage. He could bring them in at 17, he finished the game. He really
09:48was a closer. He finished the game. And the Mets had an 86, Roscoe and McDowell. But yeah,
09:57and then like the middle relief were a bunch of guys, hey, just hanging on.
10:02Yeah. Being a middle relief pitcher back then had to be pretty easy from a standpoint of
10:08how many innings those pitchers pitched.
10:11Yeah. There might be, you won't see them for a week.
10:14Yeah.
10:15I think Sisk, I think he maybe had like one or two innings in the whole season in 86.
10:23But it's a whole different game now.
10:24Yeah.
10:25I mean, look at the batters. Used to be that if you bat at 210, they're about ready to
10:32cut you. Now they don't even like blink twice at that.
10:35Yeah. It's just, it's like the new school of baseball where I think somehow a strikeout's
10:42okay. They'd rather have a strikeout than a ground ball.
10:45And that is the aspect of the game that makes me furious.
10:53I've seen a lot of your videos. I know what makes you pretty mad and bites that shark
10:57thing a couple of times.
10:59So yeah. Sadly, I agree with you on a lot of things. It's just, I'm a very, very old
11:09school thinker when it comes to the game. And it is what it is.
11:13I like hitters that make contact. And that's one, more so than his home runs, is the fact
11:21that Juan Soto makes contact. He's a solid 289 hitter.
11:26Yeah. I would say the only time he really struggled was the one year where I thought
11:34he was with the Nationals and just trying to do way too much for his team to win. Other
11:39than that, when he just lets the game come to him, he's arguably the best hitter in the
11:45game. So yeah, it's definitely not going to be fun facing him, Lindor, those guys.
11:51Okay. Now, do you have any charities that you want to talk about?
11:57I mean, I got my Jays Care that I do here. So every single game that I win, we donate
12:04$10,000 to Jays Care. And Jays Care, it's a nonprofit that will donate money, honestly,
12:15throughout all of Canada. And it's helping kids with families with pretty much everything
12:22under the sun from, honestly, you name it, from food to sports to literally everything
12:29they cover. My Avenue does a little bit more of doing after school programming. But honestly,
12:38all that kind of changes year to year just based on how much money they're able to raise
12:44and then kind of what needs the most help.
12:46Well, and who do the Blue Jays open the season with this year?
12:51I want to say Baltimore. Baltimore at home, I want to say.
12:54Because I know the second week of the season here in Citi Field. I didn't quite look that up.
13:00Are we in Baltimore at home? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Baltimore at home. Yeah.
13:04And I've actually never been to the Rogers Centre, but it looks nice since the renovation.
13:09It's beautiful. If you have a chance to come, I would definitely come.
13:12Well, I'd like to get up here this year for a game up there in Toronto.
13:15Maybe we'll let you throw a first pitch or something.
13:19But that would be great. Yeah. And I've done it five times now.
13:23So what was your favorite one?
13:28The favorite one actually might be Cincinnati, because that was the one where I finally threw a really good pitch.
13:36Okay. And I tried to throw a knuckler.
13:39That might be your first problem. You might need a little bit more oomph on it to get it there.
13:45But I'm always in the dirt. All my pitches are in the dirt, so Javier Baez is the swing at it.
13:51Yeah. I hope he has a great year too, honestly. I want to see all those guys kind of be great.
14:00Well, you know, good luck this season. Thank you.
14:04Hopefully, we'll see the Mets and the Blue Jays in the World Series, and I'll be there for opening weekend in Citi Field.
14:13I don't know if you'll pitch any of those days, but we'll see.
14:17I hope to hear you yelling. From our standpoint, I hope to hear you yelling.
14:21Well, I moved my seat to the dirt-based side this year, so you might hear it.
14:27I appreciate you having me on.
14:29You had a great season in the Mets, and continued success, and good luck this year, and thanks for joining us.
14:35Thank you, guys.
14:36All right.