Chapter 1: Why is Daniel Bard the perfect guest for a Thanksgiving podcast?
The annual, there's not a lot of things that we do on an annual basis, but I am making this clear. Let it be said, let it be done. Every time Thanksgiving rolls around, I am going to track down Daniel Bard because you are the epitome of someone who we should say, this is why we are thankful for you. This is why you are thankful for baseball. there's just a lot of thanks going on.
So, I don't know. That's my intro.
That's my intro. It's a good reminder that I need to be more thankful. So, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
I didn't mean it that way. I just, I meant, I think that With baseball, and baseball is just part of it, I'm thankful to know you, first of all, and for your message and just the person that you are. Earmuffs if you don't want to listen to this, but the fact is that...
Chapter 2: How does baseball inspire gratitude in players and fans?
When I was covering you, I really love talking to people, but I love talking in this world of baseball, talking to interesting people who have a great perspective. And you did that from day one, ever since you were imitating batting stances in Fort Myers in 2009. So, yeah. You remember that. That's good. I think it's documented forever on YouTube. I hope so. I need to find that one.
Batting stance. I forget who you were imitating. It's like, I remember, I vividly remember you, because batting stance guy in one of these, biting off more than I could chew, I flew batting stance guy across the country, Gar Rynas, middle seat,
three-stop Spirit Airlines, put him up in the shadiest motel in Fort Myers so he could come over to the Red Sox complex to imitate batting stances for you guys. Actually, it worked out. That guy's awesome.
I love that guy.
Chapter 3: What life lessons has Daniel Bard learned from baseball?
I think he's still doing it. Oh, of course, yeah. I think I follow him, and yeah, he was just a good person too.
Oh, such a good person. But I remember you – I can't remember if you did it in front of him, but I remember you imitating a batting stance.
So probably a Jeff Bagwell. Yeah, that's kind of my, I think that was my go-to guy. I kind of imitated it growing up. Yeah. When I, back when I was, when I raked as a hitter, um, Yeah, it was a long time ago, man.
It was. Well, anyway, I just wanted to say that may have been the beginning, but certainly it's continued to everything that's good in the world of life in baseball. So that said, as we sit here, I've been throughout this year, since we've done this podcast, it's going on three years, and I
I look at baseball in terms of how it really impacts in so many ways and the way that baseball sort of forms life. I just finished a podcast with Dominic Leon. I was just telling you this. And we were talking about retirement. And we'll get to sort of your life after retirement this year. But I'm always interested in when guys retire, right?
about how they do it, what their feelings is, how you pull the cord and everything else. And he went on for about five minutes talking about how impactful your story was. And then he went on to explain himself, like his own thing, about how he threw a pitch and he knew right then and there that was it. But... It was just like all of it, as he's talking, I'm like, yeah, you know what?
That's just part of it. But really, the whole baseball world, everything about baseball, including retirement, is just so, so impactful on so many facets of life. So I know I'm ranting and raving and rambling. I don't care. But I will just say this, is that for you, if I said to you, Daniel,
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Chapter 4: How does retirement change a player's perspective on the game?
What is the part of your life that baseball's impacted the most? That's a heavy question.
That's a big question. Yeah. It's changed through the years, you know? I mean, I've grown up with baseball. It's been part of my life as long as I can remember. So, you know, I think baseball teaches you a lot of – Lessons as a kid, you know, it's a game of failure. I failed a lot. You know, I was just talking to my dad a couple of days ago because I was talking about my kids and.
they have kind of varied interests. They're not that into baseball. And he was like, you know, you weren't that into baseball at eight, nine years old. He's like, you liked it. But, um, he said, you weren't, you know, diehard. You liked watching baseball, but he goes, I had to kind of, Hey, you want to go hit? No, I'm good. Are you sure?
You know, and then we'd end up going to hit and I'd have a great time. So, um, sorry, I got it. Speaking of kids, it's all good. Shut a door there. Um, But yeah, then you grow up and it becomes your job. I was very lucky to say that. And it continues to teach you lessons. It continues to challenge you in new ways. You never perfect it. It's a daily battle.
Chapter 5: What challenges do players face when preparing for the World Baseball Classic?
And I think that's kind of life. That's parenting. That's being in a marriage. You kind of wake up every day and you go, okay, what do I need to do today to be the best person? fill in the blank that I can be. And it doesn't always go the way you want it.
You know, and sometimes you have days where as a parent or whatever your job is, or a spouse or a pitcher where you're like, man, that was terrible. You know, and it's all, it's, it's going to happen. It happens to everybody. And it's how do you wake up the next day with a fresh mindset, learn from it and be the best that day.
And you just do that hundreds and hundreds and thousands of days in a row. And it's, You end up where you end up. I think baseball is just the more you can just be the best you can each day, the better things are going to go. I think that kind of applies to everything, at least for me.
When you're younger, let's say younger as a major leaguer, and you say, man, I'm not thankful that I'm doing this. We're all young and we lose perspective. What is the moment where maybe you said that and that you realized that ultimately that's one of the things you're the most thankful for? I guess this would be an adversity question, right? This really sucks, this stinks, and everything else.
This is the least thankful I've ever been of anything. And then you're looking back at like, man, I'm glad I did that.
I mean, I think it's just what you said. It's going through that grind where nothing's going right for days and days and days in a row. And you just, you feel like you don't belong there. You feel like you should quit. But then you make a, sometimes it's a conscious decision. It's like, I'm going to stick with this. Or in my case, I'm going to take a break.
You know, there's not one way to do it, but.
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Chapter 6: How does Daniel Bard reflect on his own career and achievements?
you make that decision to stick with something and choose to, uh, to be, to want to be good at that thing. Even when everything's telling you that, that you're not, um, I don't know if that answers the question.
No, it does. I mean, that's it.
I mean, everybody faces it. I think, you know, you get kicked down, you get kicked to the ground multiple times and you got to keep getting up. And, um, Or you don't, you move on to something else and choose to pursue meaning or happiness and something else. You know, it's definitely a metaphor for life in that way.
I mean, you just hit the nail on the head. Like, it is a metaphor. And I guess that's what I'm getting at. And I know that this is big, broad conversation, big, broad, you know, that we've talked about. But I do think that this is a good time to sort of realize that. Because when we're going and we're going and we're going and we're going, whether it's in baseball or life or whatever...
It's holy mackerel. Like, let's look at, for instance, look at the World Series. I mean, those Blue Jays players, they probably think, I'm the least thankful of anything in my life that I went through. That ball stuck in the wall, that, you know, whatever it is.
Right? Yeah. I mean, I was super invested in that series. I didn't really care who won. That's what people always ask me. Who are you pulling for? Who are you pulling for? And I'm just like, I don't really pull for teams at this point. If I have a buddy on a team, I really want him to do well or... you know, a coach that I had or played with or whatever.
I want to see them do well and see their team have some success.
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Chapter 7: What does gratitude mean to Daniel Bard in the context of his career?
But watching that series, I was like, man, both these teams deserve to win. And so, yeah, I mean, it's, I think it's the closest thing I have to relate to what the Blue Jays went through was probably my college world series experience going way back to 2006, where we finished runner up and lost a three, two game to lose the national championship. And it was heartbreaking.
You know, you went home and you're like, God, we were so close to this thing that we worked so hard for. And we may never get, you know, I was leaving college. I was not going to get that chance again. And it stings and it hurts for a long time. And then a few months, few years go by and you look back and you're like, dude, that was such a great experience. Like, yeah, we didn't get the ring.
We didn't, my name's not on the plaque, whatever, but, um, you can't take that experience away. You know, um, the moment is still amazing to, to be able to live that moment.
Yeah. When, you know, when you're going and also it's, you gotta remember, I remember, um, I saw Ernie Clement at the golf tournament in Vegas a couple weeks ago. And I don't think it's something that he necessarily wanted to talk about at 8 o'clock in the morning as he's getting ready to play the most expensive golf course in the world. But so be it. I had two minutes.
And I was honestly curious. I'm like, okay, you go through the sting of it, but then how long does it take to wake up to do exactly what you do? Because think about all the awesome things that lead up to that. Oh my goodness.
Like, I mean, you look back and you're like, Hey, all right, would I take the whole thing away? You know, that, that experience of losing a world series. No, you wouldn't take it away. You know, you'd still, you know, if you can't win it, the next best thing is to lose it, you know, and you get to live it.
Like I never got to play in a world series and that environment, um, just playing what feels like such meaningful games. Um, To share that with your teammates, your coaches, the city, the fan base. Even those Blue Jays guys, even though they didn't win it, it may not be in baseball history like it is when you win it, but it's the home run by Bichette.
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Chapter 8: What Thanksgiving traditions does Daniel Bard share?
Unbelievable. I was watching that. I don't know Bo at all. But to watch him, he's clearly in a lot of pain. he's choosing to play hurt despite, you know, being a few days away from free agency, knowing that that might hurt his stock or make his, you know, make his knee worse or whatever it was and choosing to be out there because he wanted to be a part of it. And he knew he might be able to help.
And then he hits that, you know, would have been the biggest home run in the series if they had won it. I just thought that was such a cool moment. You know, he couldn't run the bases, but didn't need to when he hit the Homer. So yeah,
Moments like that, I love it as a baseball fan, and I appreciate moments when people step into a situation that's really, really hard with so much pressure, and they're able to perform. I know the emotions that probably went into that for him, his trainers, His coaches, the GM who made the decision to put him on the roster even though he's hurt, all those things.
Those are just cool moments where hard decisions, hard things happen, and it kind of works out. They didn't win the game, but that moment was cool to watch.
You said it, man. It's like, all right, you didn't get the engraving on the plaque. I'm paraphrasing, but having that, if you were bouncing the first round, You never get that. No. It's hard for that to see, but that is... Man, it's just... Being there also, Daniel, being in Toronto, having... I remember... This is going to be very cliche and corny, but... I was walking.
I had like a 40-minute walk from my hotel, which was jammed between a college bar and a fraternity house in Toronto. But it was a nice walk. I like walking from Toronto, University of Toronto. And I walked by the schoolyard, and there's like eight kids with two adults, and they're dressed in blue jays. It was a couple hours before the game. And they're just playing baseball.
They're running around playing baseball. And they're clearly playing baseball because of what's going on down the street.
and like that's the impact that it happened like that those kids were doing that having this memorable moment they're all going to go to if i could give them tickets i would have given tickets but i can't we don't have that kind of cachet but it's but they were all going to the parents or one of the adults houses and they're going to watch the game they'll never forget that they'll never forget that absolutely i mean i grew up a braves fan and
they won the one world series, I think in 95 or six or whatever it was. But, you know, I watched 15 years of Braves teams and those guys were my heroes, you know, they didn't win it every year. It's just like, you don't realize how many people you're having an impact on.
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