Torii Hunter surprises A’s OF’er Denzel Clarke after ICONIC catch

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Players would text me and I'll be up all night trying to answer those calls.

00:00:04
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's exactly how it would. I had to cut myself off and get myself from the time in the morning to breathe. So it was crazy.

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Speaker 3: A centerfielder Denzel Clark joining us right now. Denzel, great to have you on the show. Thanks for the time. I'm going to get right right to biz here. Denzel. Take me through the catch the other night that goes hyper viral, and I'll add because I always want to recruit more baseball fans, that's the kind of catch that can bring in a fan who doesn't give a crap about baseball and they look at that and they're like, oh, that's going on in baseball. I'll watch the A's tonight.

00:00:42
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it is something I practiced, like I'll take a round a VP by the wall and just like, you know, just work on my distance by the wall scale. Yeah, just trying to like work on my timing and stuff. So I'm just putting all together and again, yeah, first step route, everything came together, went up and grab the ball. It was Yeah, it was honestly one more special catches I've made. I have scaled the wall before I did Toronto. I've done it in college a couple of times. That was probably one of the better ones I've made.

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Speaker 4: At me, all right, tell me what's your best catch you've ever made? If that ain't it, is it the one that made the other day where you almost killed yourself it broke your shoulder like a million places. I mean, if that ain't it, then which one's your best one?

00:01:23
Speaker 2: No? That that is? That is for sure the best one. But I did. I did have one in college to cal State Northridge. It was It's the funniest story because it's honestly a myth at this point. But it's a second game of a doubleheader. It wasn't a stream or getting blown up by twenty games. All the fans have left, all the scouts have left. Is like late in the game, brooks Lee for the Twins hit one and I went kind of similar, went a full extension over the points and droped that one too. But there's no there's nothing about that one, no.

00:01:50
Speaker 5: Campus or anything.

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Speaker 2: So that's the only one that would would have been close. But this one takes the cake for sure.

00:01:56
Speaker 6: Denzel uh So, was that one more like a ninety three catch. I don't know if you saw it, but the one you went over the wall to catch is one in Anaheim that we're talking about. It said on stat cast it was a ninety three percent percent catch probability.

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Speaker 5: What do you I mean, what did you see that? Did you know? I'm sorry?

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Speaker 6: Ninety five percent catch probability. Essentially it was a guaranteed catch, is what stat cast said.

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Speaker 5: Did you see that? And what are your comments on that? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: I heard about that. I mean, like that's a pretty easy play. I don't know, I don't I'm pretty sure they're right. I mean ninety five percent. I think everyone's making that catch, So yeah, I think they're right.

00:02:41
Speaker 7: That's great.

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Speaker 4: That's crazy, that whole thing, ninety five percent. I couldn't have made that catch in my prime of prime, I don't think.

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Speaker 3: I mean, how many center fielders can make a catch like that right now? There ain't a lot, No, not many, not a lot. We could Actually we could come up with one guy in his prime who did make There's a guy who.

00:02:59
Speaker 7: Played with that probably could have made that catch.

00:03:02
Speaker 4: I saw it make some pretty good catchers, and I think one time Denzel did guy.

00:03:07
Speaker 5: Tweeted at you the other day.

00:03:08
Speaker 7: You know who this guy is.

00:03:13
Speaker 5: What's up, Benzell?

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Speaker 2: How we doing?

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Speaker 7: Now? We're doing good?

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Speaker 5: Man.

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Speaker 1: I saw that catch. Man, I'm very impressed. Man, that was very impressive catch. I like how you had a beat on it, you got a great jump off of it, and you look like you had all the confidence in the world.

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Speaker 5: I might have seen one.

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Speaker 1: More like that. It was Gary Matthews and Mike Trout, they made something like that.

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Speaker 7: But man, you rolling your back on the wall was very athletic, very impressive.

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Speaker 2: I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Thank you. I've seen both those catches. Those are really cool.

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Speaker 5: Did you did you sleep that night?

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Speaker 2: I did a little later than I usually would, but I did get some sleep. That's cool.

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Speaker 1: I know you probably got text messages from everybody in baseball family members when I make those catches.

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Speaker 7: Man, my family would text.

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Speaker 1: Me, my my players would text me, and I'll be up all night trying to answer those calls.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's exactly how it would. I had to cut myself off and get myself in time in the morning to breathe. So it was crazy.

00:04:18
Speaker 7: Man. I wanted to jump on and tell you what's up before I let you go. You're gonna get in a crash driving down the street. Bro ho over.

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Speaker 5: I don't want to.

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Speaker 4: I don't want to be responsible for Tory Hunter getting in a crash all right while he's driving.

00:04:31
Speaker 1: Definitely, this is this is probably illegal.

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Speaker 5: Everything you do.

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Speaker 1: Every time I get with you, man, you have me do something illegal.

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Speaker 7: Man, I shouldn't hang with you too much.

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Speaker 5: That's right.

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Speaker 4: But here here's my question. Now, your nickname became spider Man, right for all the catches you made? Do we got a nickname for Denzel for the couple of catches that he's Man, we gotta come up with it with a nickname for him.

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Speaker 7: Elastic Man.

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Speaker 1: That the way the way he climbed up wash stretched and caught that ball. Man, you gotta ask me some rubber in yous.

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Speaker 5: Wow, that sounds bad, elasticity.

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Speaker 3: What do you think that's funny? That's funny, Hey, Tory, last last one before before you jump and get back to the road. When you see a catch like that, now, I mean, what do you think you know? Like when you see the difficulty, there's not many humans on the planet that can catch baseball's like that, so you know you're one of the few that can really comment on how ridiculous and difficult and how much time it takes to like get reps in the league. Right, you need the automatic athleticism that you have. But then on top of that, I mean, it's not like you just woke up and were able to catch Baseball's like that. You played the game for a long time to get there.

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Speaker 7: I just don't think you can teach it.

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Speaker 1: You know, you're talking about Gary Matthews, Mike Trout, and Denzel When they they make these catches, Man, it's hard to replicate. Uh, these guys are such great athletes that they can make something happen like that, And that's why you rarely see it because it's not too many people that can make those catches and be consistent with it. Man, just what he did, just break the break on the ball, the confidence, the close out to close that ball out. Most people give up on that ball. But because his stubbornness and my stubbornness, and Trout and Gary Matthews, when they make those plays, you're just stubborn.

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Speaker 7: You want to keep going.

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Speaker 1: That's why I end up flipping over a wall in Boston because I just can't let that thing go. It's like someone's on the chalkboard and they're scraping the chalkboard with the chalk and putting pressure on It makes that noise.

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Speaker 7: It makes your teeth grinch.

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Speaker 1: So I definitely think that, you know, with Denzel watching him play, That's why I said it was so impressive because the close out he had of stubbornness of not letting you have a hit, that's how That's what makes you great, a great center fielder.

00:07:05
Speaker 7: That's good, Tory Tor. First of all, you only wanted to rob Ortiz.

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Speaker 4: That's why you jumped over the wall because you don't want our former a ball double a teammate to get it hit.

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Speaker 5: But go drive.

00:07:14
Speaker 4: Thank you for joining us. I really appreciate it. But please don't get in the crash at least until after you hang up.

00:07:21
Speaker 5: Man.

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Speaker 1: You know what Aja Every time I'm with you, Man, I'm telling you, Man, my family don't want me to hang with you no more.

00:07:27
Speaker 7: So once a month.

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Speaker 5: Hey, I'll be in Dallas.

00:07:31
Speaker 4: I'll be in Dallas in the second half, So I expect some tender smokehouse delivered to the ballpark.

00:07:36
Speaker 1: Tender smoke smokehouse will be at your door and maybe some golf, So I'll.

00:07:41
Speaker 5: Talk to you.

00:07:43
Speaker 7: Thanks, Tory.

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Speaker 3: Appreciate you all right, Denzel, I'll hope you enjoyed that man figure.

00:07:48
Speaker 4: So that was a special treat for you, especially after he tweeted up. After he feeded at you. He was listen. He was one of He was the.

00:07:55
Speaker 7: Best center fielder that I saw play.

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Speaker 4: The way he did. He did things like that you did. It was it was an every night occurrence. You're watching the game, I'm like, Oh, that ball sit deep to loft. Center Toys got it right, Center Toys got Oh, there's a thirty football torial jump over that wall.

00:08:09
Speaker 7: So that that was the thing.

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Speaker 4: And then when we saw he tweeted at you, I had to reach out to him and he wanted to come on and give you props.

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Speaker 7: So I thought that was pretty cool.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, he's the legend, man. I really appreciate that. It's really cool.

00:08:22
Speaker 5: Who's your guy? Who's the guy? Who's the guy that you watched growing up?

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Speaker 2: Jack and Bradley Jr. My favorite dependsive outfield that I got to watch the growing up. He's one of the kinds.

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Speaker 5: Because of his arm or because I played with it.

00:08:38
Speaker 2: Every everything, man, everything he may see to make a play Baltimore like that. I think one of my favorite play from though. I always remember this because it's the first time. I just thought he got around the ball in right center throwing a third Usually like you take her route and go like you know, like turn your body and run around. He started like batpedaling mid game to get behind this baseball to shooting the third. That was only the coolest thing that seeing. So we tried to emulate that to my game. But he's fun to watch, for sure.

00:09:06
Speaker 7: I could have called him next time.

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Speaker 4: We know, we know next time, next time you make another catch, you will have JBJ on you on with you, Okay, because I played with him too, so we can call him. He's a good dude too. I didn't play with as long as pervatorially, he's a good guy. He could play some outfield too.

00:09:21
Speaker 7: Wow.

00:09:22
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, hey, Denz, I've got one for because obviously the defense is giving you a national name in the sport in five seconds. I mean, you haven't been up for long yet. Are you appreciative of the way that we have metrics for defense? It's funny I'm saying this as we made fun of the catch probability but for me, for a long time, you'd watch someone you'd be like, damn, they're so good, and there was nothing for a long period of time. And it is by no means perfect, but for example, outs above average generally will match up the eye test to players over the course of a season, so you immediately come up to the show and that number in the first few weeks here is huge. Right, you're among the league leaders in five seconds. Are you appreciative of that because it helps for front offices to value players like you where in the past it's eye test and frankly, I think you know it can produce some better defensive players in the league when there's a stat to.

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Speaker 2: Back it up. Absolutely for sure. I think I got my first taste of that this year, my first year in first year and the big leads in it. Hey yeah, first year in triple as, my first year having stack casts and stuff. I feel like even since I got the Triple A and then even to the big leagues now, just like you said, having access to that data, I've been able to make a lot of stage just seeing Okay, my first jump for my first step, my jump could have been better here, this could have been better there, just having access to those things, seeing yeah, where my improvements can be made. I think it's really really cool. And this I think is super gratifying, just being able to see how you stack up against the rest of the players in the league. So I think there is a huge benefit to them. Yeah, to these numbers and everything, and yeah, of course they're not always gonna be perfect, but yeah, it's really cool seeing where uh I g I said, again, we're a stack up against the rest of the league.

00:11:24
Speaker 6: So it's very fun to see You're gonna roam center field for Team Canada and w b C and see how you stack up against the world.

00:11:33
Speaker 2: That'd be that'd be really cool. I'll be I'll be waiting on my phone public. I got to play in the last one, so I loot the forwards to playing the next one.

00:11:40
Speaker 6: Okay, So Ernie, Ernie, WIT's gonna Ernie Whit's gonna give you a call? Larry Walker, those guys, Stubby Clap, who else? Tim Leaper?

00:11:50
Speaker 2: We got we got our crew. We got our crew.

00:11:54
Speaker 5: What does that mean? What does that mean to you? To wear that uniform?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got to wear it for the junior national team played the World Championships played in the WBC in twenty twenty three. It's it's an honor man just playing for your country. There's nothing like it. I remember twenty seventeen U eighteen World Championships. We're the home country playing at thunder Bay. Very cold, but it was it was what was an experience.

00:12:18
Speaker 7: Best member of your family in baseball, best member of your family.

00:12:21
Speaker 2: At baseball, best member of the family in baseball.

00:12:27
Speaker 7: Yeah, Naylors, the Naylor family or you because aren't you the Nailors?

00:12:33
Speaker 5: Yalsolutely?

00:12:35
Speaker 7: So who's got the better who's the best one?

00:12:38
Speaker 2: You?

00:12:38
Speaker 7: Josh bo?

00:12:39
Speaker 2: I mean I think we I think we got to go right now with the one with the only All Star appearance.

00:12:43
Speaker 5: Josh.

00:12:44
Speaker 2: He's doing his thing, he's doing this thing. But I know we're all super talented. We got a lot of love for them. That's my family through and through. So yeah, you.

00:12:54
Speaker 7: Guys, do you guys have a Do you guys have a game?

00:12:56
Speaker 4: I get a family reunion, Like, hey, like, let's let's a pickup game here.

00:13:02
Speaker 2: You know. It's funny when I first got into baseball, so we had like a family like Thanksgiving and we just went in the backyard we just grabbed like a tinfoil, a bunch of tin foil, roll it up into a ball like a broomstick, and we're just playing baseball out in the backyard. After I think after reader either burn off burn off the food, or get us hung before the food. But that's like one of my first memories of getting in some sort of baseball REPSD So that's pretty special. That's wild.

00:13:33
Speaker 3: Now you guys are all I mean Team Canada players togeather too, which is pretty cool. Hey Denzel, this was awesome. Thank you so much for the time for joining us. I know you got the game good luck today in a couple of hours, and I hope you enjoyed it.

00:13:45
Speaker 2: Man, we'll catch you down the road. I appreciate it, think as we're having me on this so