2x World Series champion Scott Spiezio

Scott, it's great to see you.

Uh, when you see that video, does it feel like yesterday for you? Because there's been quite a bit that's happened in your life since 2002.

Uh, Matt, thanks for having me on.

Yeah, I mean, every time I see that video, uh, it, it just makes me feel like I'm, I'm right back in that moment.

It gives me chills seeing it still.

It's what I worked, uh, I worked for my whole life, uh, with my dad in the backyard.

And, and to, to be able to re- relive it with people and, and hear where they were, uh, when I hit that ball is really cool.

I mean, you lay claim to being a folk hero in not just the Orange County, California market, but of course in St. Louis, where you won another World Series ring.

And before we get into your book and, and your journey, which is an amazing story, and Scott's got a book out called The Hardest Comeback, along with a documentary film that we'll talk about later.

Uh, I wanna get back to those early days for you, the baseball stuff.

Um, when you first broke in in '96, and I remember talking about you as a young player, and the biggest note on your career at that point was your daddy, Ed, was a, uh, a darn near an original Padre along the course of his great Major League career.

Yeah.

You and your dad are still the only father-son team to have a World Series ring with the same franchise.

It feels like you were kind of destined to play Major League baseball.

Yeah.

From a, from a young age, my dad told me, "Hey, you're either gonna be a valedictorian or a major leaguer." And, and [laughs] that was an easy choice for me.

[laughs] And so, you know, he retired five days after I was born.

Uh, there was just no money in the game anymore.

And, uh, you know, it was, it was tough for him, but it was...

He was only 30 years old.

It was great for me, um, because he, he basically set up stations for me in my basement.

Um, I'd hit in the basement.

We had two mounds in the backyard.

He'd pitch to me, uh, every day.

And then on the weekends, we'd go hit hard balls at the field and take ground balls, and my mom would be, uh, turning double plays at second base.