Rays closer Pete Fairbanks talks Junior Caminero, Travel schedule fun

00:00:02
Speaker 1: As promised. There he is Pete Fairbanks. Welcome back to the show. Friend of the program. Of course, I understand sir that you are quite the lego connoisseur. For those of us not caught up on this, tell us more.

00:00:16
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, as you can this more of my son right now, I've had to steal his room. My in laws and dad are both in town, so they've taken up most of my house. But I decided, in a bit of shameless pandering for AJ, that we would go set my backdrop as all of my son's half torn down lego sets.

00:00:35
Speaker 3: Before we get into legos, first of all, what is that hat you have on? Because I don't know if you if your son made that for you in kindergarten, er what but what?

00:00:43
Speaker 4: I don't know.

00:00:45
Speaker 2: It's my Western Hydrodynamic Research hat. Found it in Toronto a couple of years ago. They use a little a little bungee cord as the the uh, I don't know what you technically call that. Instead of a snapback, it's an elastic back, but it's still got a hole on it.

00:01:03
Speaker 4: Okay.

00:01:04
Speaker 3: And then my next question is, before we get into the rays, how do you say with the name on your shirt, because I've had arguments with this many people.

00:01:11
Speaker 4: The name on your shirt? How do you say it?

00:01:13
Speaker 2: You say it is Kith?

00:01:15
Speaker 4: Are you sure?

00:01:16
Speaker 2: Well? How do you say it?

00:01:17
Speaker 3: I've been I used to say Kith, and now I've been told it's Kith from numerous people.

00:01:23
Speaker 2: Well, maybe it is. I'm not a New York or so, maybe I got it wrong.

00:01:27
Speaker 4: I don't know.

00:01:31
Speaker 2: Who are your sources.

00:01:33
Speaker 4: My sources are people that are in the fashion world. Alana, No, I'm definitely not.

00:01:39
Speaker 1: I don't even know what that is.

00:01:43
Speaker 4: I don't know because I've heard it said both ways.

00:01:45
Speaker 3: My son calls it Kith, and then I was talking about that I don't know who is somebody along the way and they were like, no, it's actually Kithe and I was like, oh, which one is it?

00:01:54
Speaker 1: Is this a brand?

00:01:56
Speaker 3: I am a very popular brand with teenagers to like college age, like fifteen to thirty year old. It's actually an unbelievable store in New York.

00:02:07
Speaker 2: If you go there, right, they've got a pretty good you got a pretty good store. I don't know. Maybe it's you know, it's a tomato. Maybe it's a tomato tomato type situation and it's oh, I made fun of my mother for saying Missouri. When I say Missouri, you know, maybe it's one of those deals.

00:02:29
Speaker 1: All right, here it goes. The brand name Kith is pronounced kith with a short eye sound like in kit and a hard t h sound like in think or thin.

00:02:37
Speaker 4: There you have it, You have it? Okay, how do you doing?

00:02:44
Speaker 2: I'm great? I want to know if the kithe pronunciation was was created by somebody that wanted to sound way more posh than they actually worked. Was the only thing I probably was on that.

00:02:57
Speaker 4: You know, since everyone's taking shot it's a Ken Rosenthal, we'll just blame him. How's that? We'll just playing.

00:03:06
Speaker 1: Poor guy? Talk about it, Pete Camanaro, a bright spot of your club coming in hot?

00:03:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, homers, lots of homers on every pitch type in just about every location, and he will find a way to uh put it out of the yard. I think he hit a what was it a Porter Hodge heater and then followed that up with a down and away splitter the next day. I mean, the guys, the guy's covering it all. And when you can cover it all and you know, swing it, what doesn't seem like one hundred percent and still hit a ball at one hundred and ten miles an hour. I think he's doing something right.

00:03:46
Speaker 5: Why does the national media not know more about Junior Camanaro because you guys have been you guys were as close as two games out of the wildcard race. In this dude's just hit his forty fourth homer. He's got over one hundred steaks and he young. It's not like he's like a mid to late twenties kind of in the prime. He is not a rookie. But why does the national media not know more about it?

00:04:11
Speaker 2: Well, if I had the hazard to guess, I would say it's because we don't play in a giant media market. And you knows, as the world works, the people that play in the bigger markets are going to get the coverage, right, That's what drives it. And you know we might be at victim to that at times, but you know, I think the people that love and appreciate the game of baseball are all over Junior Cambinara.

00:04:43
Speaker 4: Hey, Pete, how what's it like in Steinberner? Are used to the schedule now?

00:04:47
Speaker 3: Are used to the schedule because you guys played all the home games early and they you've been on the road for the last three months. You do have a home series now against the Jay's, But has it been different for you guys playing most of the second half on the road.

00:05:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the the three week or three not three weeks, felt like three weeks. The sixteen day or whatever it was. Rody was crazy. But we kind of settled back into a fairly normal schedule to where it's, you know, a week at home or ten days at home, ten days on the road, et cetera. You know, so we've kind of settled back into you know, your normal, your normal baseball schedule, and you know, we're hoping that this rumored hold front here is going to stay around for a couple more days.

00:05:30
Speaker 1: Mister fair panks Pepio is returning from body fatigue. I mean I have that every day and I don't pitch. Please explain to me what body fatigue is and how that works its way into a picture's repertoire at this point in the season.

00:05:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think we all have body fatigue, right, I think that there's just a there's just a point where you know, to push it out there and try and throw eighty five to one hundred pit is when you're already you know, run down past your your normal recovery point would be a you know, a detriment to both yourself and you know, being you know, the good teammate that that pep is. I think the the call to you know, skip a start, you know, let the body get back to what it normally is and not have to, you know, worry if each you know pitch was going to cost him, you know, more than it needed to. I think is a very wise choice. You know, we're excited to have him back, I think tomorrow or the next day at full strength. But yeah, it's you get tired. It's a long season. There are a lot of games, and you know, sometimes you don't recover as well as you do other times.

00:06:43
Speaker 5: When you watch across the American League East and you see what Eraaldus Chapman is doing as a closer, not just for this season, but you've spent the majority of your career as a closer, he's almost only been a closer. Do you look at those adjustments and you say, wow, I have so much more in the tank for myself because I've essentially just been in the recent years a closer and got those guys are taking care of a little bit differently.

00:07:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think it speaks to him and his willingness to you know, adapt, right, Like obviously he's still the most elite velocity arm that the game has seen, but you know, to watch him dial it in really with you know, the fastball command and then throwing both the splitter and the slider, throwing two fastballs, et cetera. Yeah, just to watch how he's taking care of himself and you know, been able to adapt and tweak the repertoire as has been I mean amazing. He've been doing it, what for like thirteen years at this point something like that.

00:07:53
Speaker 6: OKAKP, this is your first arena club experience. We're going to open this slab pack together. So first off, we're gonna buy one of those twenty five dollars slab packs and we get to see what is in the pack.

00:08:03
Speaker 2: There.

00:08:03
Speaker 6: It is the Grail, which is the best card in the pack and worth the most. There are some other cards that we're chasing, and you can see the entire lineup so that you know what you're in the running for. There's the Yamamoto signed card. Now let's open up our pack and see how we do we have ourselves a really cool graphic and then a show heyo Tawani fifty to fifty card from last year. What do you want to do? Should we sell it right back to them for sixteen or should.

00:08:33
Speaker 2: We keep it? You should give it to me, I'll keep.

00:08:38
Speaker 6: Good answer, fine, I will give it to you. Since the Blue Jays didn't geto Tani, you can get this fifty to fifty card instead and use the code foul foul to get yourself twenty percent off your first slab pack or card purchase. Yes, you get to keep that card if you want it. They send it to you foul at Arena club dot com slash foul Pete.

00:08:55
Speaker 4: You close out the game on Saturday, all right against the Cubs. It wasn't.

00:08:59
Speaker 3: It wasn't the easiest game you've ever closed out. There was some there was some kookiness in there. But I want to tell you the story. I was sitting in Pat Murphy's office. He had your game on. It was first and third, no outs. I think you had a one run lead, and Pat Murphy just looks up and goes, this son of a gun is gonna blow this game isn't he? And I'm like, nah, have faith in Pete? Okay, Pat, calm down. And then you got out of it and you got to say, how nervous do you get when things start going like that? Do you get nervous? Is your mind start going crazy? Or how do you how do you keep calm?

00:09:30
Speaker 2: I mean, in that instance, I think I kind of sabotaged myself because I got distracted watching us try and pack on an insurance run with the TV sitting there right in the Redley Bolton then finish in my last couple. But yeah, I mean Dansy had it right at bat right, and you know, as you try harder and harder throwing it bat, you know, you kind of can can get outside yourself. But we had a you know, a good visit from Snides was able to execute a few to sew and you know, watch a great rundown get executed by Camion and mister Fortees behind the dish and then I mean shout out to his shin guards that can't seem to stay together, because it gave me, you know, another couple of breaths and then we really started executing after that.

00:10:16
Speaker 5: What are you suggesting that, Nick, Fortes. Wasn't his shin guards didn't stay together or was that all above water?

00:10:25
Speaker 2: Oh? They definitely broke because he is fast. He's very fast. He is also first. Yeah, I mean I haven't seen a catcher hawk down somebody like that. I don't know if ever, but yeah, he was. I met a great three step off the blocks and hawked him down pretty quick.

00:10:47
Speaker 5: You talked about being nervous, or AJ asked you about being nervous. You talked about family being in the house. Right now, Who of your family or friends gets the most nervous when you come in the game, Because when I played, I know the wives of relievers would show up late and if their husband was down, they wouldn't even show up to the game at all. Where the position player wives are like, I gotta keep coming to all these games. Who gets the most nervous of your family or friends when you're in those situations?

00:11:21
Speaker 2: I gotta say my grandmother because she so my grandparents. My dad's parents are retired. They live in Arizona, and my grandpa watches every game that He's probably watched every anthing I've ever thrown at any level, regardless of professional, amateur, etc. But my grandmother will not watch and will wait until it's over, and my grandpa goes and tells her how things went before. She will then go and watch it because she's too nervous, anxious, whatever to actually watch it as it's happening.

00:12:00
Speaker 5: That's cute.

00:12:02
Speaker 1: It was very cute, all right. So you guys have a big series against the Blue Jays, Pete. If you guys win this series, it could make things a little kookier than what they already are. What are you playing for right now? What are you guys pitching for? What are you playing for?

00:12:17
Speaker 2: I'm planning to win today and then win tomorrow, and win the next day and keep on winning, right, I think, you know, and that's been kind of what I've said at any opportunity, right is that we're not you know. I think the times where we have gotten big picture and kind of gotten out of you know, focusing on let's do what our job is today, you know, I think that that lends itself to a view that you know, things can can spiral on you if you're you know, not being where your feet are and really doing your best to control the things that you can. Right, So we're going to do out there and we're going to you know, continue to try and play, you know, the game that we play well, and you know, the chips are going to fall where they do. Things going to happen however they may. But our job is to focus on what we can do to win the game that day, you know, and not get a week ahead or two weeks ahead, et cetera, but to just be where we are and try and go in some ball games.

00:13:16
Speaker 5: I'm going to give you a bigger picture question, because you're right in it now. How much better or worse would it be right now if there was two or three more playoff spots, if two or three more teams would be getting in, how close you guys were, how much would it water it down? Or would you be like, man, that was such? That's what we need because we're because as a player, you're in it and you're giving everything you have every single day, and as a fan, you go, well should this team be in? Should that team be in? How do you feel about it? It's being in the spot right now?

00:13:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, I mean, I don't know. Right there's the positives and negatives to both sides of you know, and even more expanded field versus you know, kind of some of the historical races that you know, you see like the twenty eleven Rays, right with that free team one that went down, you know, even when there was just one wild card spot. So yeah, I mean, I think it's a double edged type of thing of you don't want to incentivize being at you know, five hundred but making the playoffs. But you also, you know, especially in you know, a sport like baseball, which is kind of i'd say similar to I don't know, maybe hockey in terms of how the luck distribution can play out in it where you might see, you know, teams that you wouldn't expect make deep runs that you know, snuck in at eighty four and eighty or eighty five and seventy nine.

00:14:48
Speaker 4: Can you guys be that team? You got some let time left, I want to know before we let you go, can you guys be that team?

00:14:54
Speaker 2: I don't see why not. We've we've had as hot as hots and as cold as colds. So yeah, I mean, I don't see any reason that you know, we don't have the capabilities to roll off nine in a row, obviously do We didn't set ourselves up in a great spot to you know, not have to do that, But like I said, we're gonna try and and went on Monday night and then see where we go from there.

00:15:19
Speaker 4: Have you seen Cashi?

00:15:20
Speaker 5: Have you seen Kevin Cash get pissed during the coldest of colds? Or is he the quintessential same guy every single day?

00:15:31
Speaker 2: Now? Cash is pretty much cash, regardless of you know, being in the midst of a ten game heater or five in a row on the wrong side, it's you're gonna get what you get, and it's there's not a whole lot of deviation in that.

00:15:46
Speaker 5: All.

00:15:46
Speaker 4: Right before we let you go.

00:15:47
Speaker 3: There's a lot of guys in the big leagues that are into legos, Okay, me and myself included. But since we talked about your shirt and we talked about your hat rate this outfit on a one to ten basis, so we're about to show you.

00:16:05
Speaker 2: That. I mean, that's that's pretty good. I wish you had done the wasn't the one where he ends up on like the giant pillar underneath him? I mean, maybe that's the only thing that could have been better out of that. I mean, that's pretty good. Did you have a trackle with you too, or was.

00:16:19
Speaker 3: It just my son had it on his back, he had the piece of the Resistance. That was a long time ago. But yes, and by the way, I made that hat by myself, no out of paper or poster board or whatever it was. I don't know what it was, but it had to be able to be wearable.

00:16:39
Speaker 2: It had to be Maybe maybe that's what's keeping it from being a ten. That's brutal. That's brutal.

00:16:45
Speaker 4: That's brutal. I'm just saying, like, until you get a Halloween costume better than that.

00:16:49
Speaker 3: And then my other rest of my family was also that's the fur only picture I had. But yeah, I thought that was a pretty good Halloween costume they got. I played for the Cardinals because I had a red helmet to put underneath that thing.

00:17:01
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, I mean that's Pretty's better than any of the costumes I've rolled out there, So it's at least at least an eight.

00:17:08
Speaker 4: That was when I had too much time on my hands, Like you don't now some of us work for a living Alana.

00:17:17
Speaker 1: Oh oh, okay, work for four networks. Okay, fine, uh the rest of the season, my friends.

00:17:23
Speaker 4: Good to have you on.

00:17:24
Speaker 1: As always, we appreciate it yep.

00:17:27
Speaker 2: Thanks guys, appreciate it.