The 6-1-1 Podcast Ep. 3: Zak Brown
44:32 Share

This episode is brought to you by Honda. When you test drive the all-electric Prologue SUV, there's a lot that can impress you about it. There's the generous passenger space, the clean, thoughtful design, and the intuitive technology. But out of everything, what you'll really love most is that it's a Honda. Visit Honda.com slash EV to see offers.

- Well, welcome everybody to another episode of the 611. I am Ryan Howard, along with my main man over here, Young James. - Young James. - Jimmy Rollins. And Jimmy. - Yes. - We got a special one today. This one, this one. Oh, I'm geared up for this one. No pun intended. I'm all geared up for this one, bro. - And rubbing. - I'm all geared up. - And rubbing, smiling. - I love me some cars. So we're in Atlanta, Georgia.

my call up year 2004. So we come down, I come down out of the hotel, getting ready to go to the field. And I see my man, young James and who was it? Michael Tucker. And they were talking to a guy from a Mercedes car dealership. And I forget what kind of CLS it was a CLS just dropped. And I remember walking down, I'm a rookie. I just got called up. So I have two nickels to rub together.

And I'm looking at that and I said, man, that looks nice, bro. Like, how much something like that cost? I think it was what, like 200? It was like 100 grand, 160 grand, something like that. It was souped up. And I was like, man, bro, all I can get is a doorknob or a hubcap. That's about it. And then now...

you know fast forward a few years I can get the entire car okay and you've gotten the entire I've gotten the entire car so we grew but that's where the the the bad part of it all kind of came in so I blame Jimmy and for his obsession with for that obsession for those smaller cars as we get into today's show we've got a great show for y'all today

This one is near and dear to me because I love it. He's a friend. This is great. I love cars as we just talked about. We're going to talk about F1. All right. Love it. Now, today we got the man, the myth, the legend. He is the CEO of Team McLaren. My man, Zach Brown. Zach, welcome to the 611, sir.

Good to be here. Good to be here. Love to talk racing with my baseball boys. Man, I love it. Yes, sir. We appreciate you spending the time to come join us. Can you take us through the beginning of how it all happened for you? We know you played baseball. You're a huge Cardinals fan. You're welcome for 2011. You can thank Ryan and I for that one. We contributed to that, but

Tell us about how it just all started for you, the passion and what's led to the success that you were having today with F1. Yeah, absolutely. I'll rewind to the beginning, originally from Los Angeles.

And I loved baseball. That was always my first passion. But I went to the Long Beach Grand Prix in 1981. I was 10 years old. That was a Formula One race back then. It's an IndyCar race now. And I went. I didn't know anything about the sport, but was just totally fascinated by the speed, the sound. It was amazing. So I started following the sport, but only...

Only as a fan because, you know, you kind of know how to get into baseball or basketball or football. You play Little League, you're good, you keep going forward, you get into high school, etc. Racing, my parents weren't involved in it at all, so I had a first idea. So I never even really had kind of the fantasy of, I want to get into the sport. I just liked it. I watched the Indy 500 Memorial Day weekend.

Kept playing ball, was good at ball, but I wasn't good at high school. And unfortunately, if you want to be on your high school baseball team, you actually have to go to high school. And so that's when the baseball career came. We got to start there. That's where the baseball career came to an end. And at the same time in high school, one of my buddies, his family was into racing.

And he took me back to the Long Beach Grand Prix in 1987, which was an IndyCar race.

and introduced me to Mario Andretti, who's obviously one of the biggest legends in racing. And I said to him, how do you get started in racing? And he said, karting. And there happened to be an ad in the program for this kart racing school. I had been on Wheel of Fortune Teen Week when I was 13 years old, and I had this stash of his and her watches that I won sitting in my drawer. What do you do with a stash of his and her watches? And I went and sold them at a pawn shop.

went and started karting, and then that's how racing started. And I just fell in love with the sport, got totally infatuated with it, and then tried to understand, actually, how do you become a racing driver?

And you have to have sponsorship. I didn't have the family resources to do it, which is kind of someone needs to pay for it. So Wheel of Fortune helped me. Got a little bit of support from my parents. And got started racing. Raced professionally for 10 years. Got to the big leagues, so to speak. And then...

Never kind of made the all-star team, but got really good at doing sponsorships. I had a lot of people the second part of my career going, hey, you should kind of stop driving and just do all this sponsorship stuff. You seem to have some good business acumen, but when you're playing...

You don't want to hear that. That's like a killer to your ego. Someone going, you know, maybe you should try managing and put the bad away. And it's like, well, I'm not ready to put the bad away. 100%. But I was. And so, yeah, so I stopped, built what then became the most successful motorsports agency looking after the corporate sponsors in the sport because it's such a

big money sport with sponsors sold my agency and then uh got an opportunity to either go to formula one the the sanctioning body itself you know the mlb if you'd like or even cooler come join mclaren which was kind of like being player manager and so i joined nine seasons ago uh

Won our first world championship in 26 years last year. And then just got back from Saudi where we won. And we're now first and second in the driver's championship, leading the constructors championship. And absolutely loving it. Outstanding. Outstanding. So what was the hardest part about kind of getting into the driving aspect? What was the biggest learning curve that you had to do when you were going into karting and kind of coming up through...

through the ranks, as we kind of look to compare it to what the minor leagues would be for us. The jungle. You know, as we call it the jungle, we get through those bushes. You know, do you see those other kids? Like we would say, you know, a lot of first-rounders, I always say the first-rounders always get – they get the compass, they get the machete, they get the rope, they get everything to be able to try to make it through. And it sounds like you were saying with the sponsorship, because you got to pay to play with the racing. So –

With that, you know, you might have seen some other kids that might have that. But, like, what was the toughest part for you kind of going through that? It was the money side because I think our sport's a little bit unique, which is –

Kind of has its more downsides, I would say, than upside in that we're so equipment dependent, right? So you guys, you know, you're all playing with the same bat, so to speak, where, you know, our equipment, depending on how much sponsorship you have, you can be good equipment, new cars, old cars. You don't have the same amount of tires. Your team's not as big. And so...

I've seen a lot of drivers that I think could have made the big leagues, but they didn't because they never got the opportunity. And then I've seen some guys make the big leagues that shouldn't have made the big leagues, but they had the resources to get there. So the sports are a little bit less pure, if you'd like, than your stick and ball sports where, you know, if you're a hell of a baseball player, you're going to make it. You don't kind of.

You're not at a deficit because you don't have a good glove or a good bat or a good tennis racket or good ice skates. And so our sport's almost as much business as it is talent. Then once you get to the top, it's the best of the best. But that was the hardest thing for me was trying to find the budget to go racing. And so I'd still like to have myself convinced I could have been good enough, but I never got there.

like the equipment that I saw the guys that were winning every weekend, they were just, and they were just laser focused on the sport. And I remember going to races where I was worried about, you know, did my sponsors get their parking passes? Did the catering show up on time where I know some of the guys I was racing against, it was like engineering meeting, engineering meeting, engineering meeting. And I was worried about parking passes. And I don't think in, in sport, uh,

You can do anything if you're going to be the best of the best, be totally focused on just the sports side. So that was the hardest part for me in kind of the part of our sport that maybe lacks a little bit of the purity that I see in other sports where if you're just talented, you're going to get the chance. Maybe the odd person squeaks in that doesn't have a long career or got missed. But for the most part, I remember.

I remember going in through high school, all the guys that were the best, they just kept carrying on. That was interesting because we were having that discussion when we knew we were going to have you on. And I know there's always an argument. You know, you got Max, who they claim, you know, is the better driver, but

you guys have the better car. So when you're at that level, when everybody's tip top, what's more important at that level that cars are going to be equal? You still want the better car, but the driver has to be able to make that car do what it's designed to do. So is it the car or is it the driver? So I get asked that all the time and it's a great question. The answer is both once you get to the very top, but a great driver can only overcome one.

a car so much. And, you know, Max, who's one of the best ever, won, I think it was seven or eight races at the start of the year. His car became a little less competitive because more cars became more competitive and he didn't win a race for 12, 13 races. Same guy who won, I think it was seven out of the first eight races because his car wasn't up to it. Now, a guy like Max can take a fifth place car and

and make it a third place car, but it's harder to take a fifth place car and make it a first place car. So the first thing you have to have is you have to have the best equipment. But once you get to the margins are so thin, then it does become, you gotta have the best driver in the world. So when I'm building a racing team,

The first thing I want are the two best racing drivers in the world because no matter how good your car is, you got to have the matching drivers because that's what Ferrari has. That's what Red Bull has. That's what Mercedes has. So you ultimately need both, but you can't overcome a bad car. It's just too much of a deficit. And that's what you see. Look at someone like Fernando Alonso, two-time world champion. He is one of the best ever and he's pounded around in 14th place.

And it's not because he's a 14th place driver at all, but that's all that car is capable of. And with his teammate, who's running around in 18th place, that's the difference between Fernando and his teammate. But he can only make up for that deficit so much. Fernando will not win in that car in its current state. And that's also frustrating when you see a talent kind of go to waste, if you'd like, because in our car, Fernando Alonso would be winning races.

Yeah, that's interesting that you say. That settles the debate. Yeah, that does. You know, I mean, because I feel I'm a better driver than Ryan. He just buys more expensive cars. That's all I'm saying. He's just got better equipment. There it is. There's only one way to try to really settle that one.

Try to settle that. We can get out there on the track. I feel like the competition's coming on. You know it don't stop. It never stops. Retirement just means we don't put the uniform on. That doesn't mean we stop competing, as you know. That's right. That's it. But I do have a question, too. It's always an eras type of deal, right? So with the cars today, I want to actually ask about...

With all the new technology, all the cars are obviously faster. The aero is a lot more aggressive than what it used to be, you know, from the cars of the 70s, 80s, 90s. What is the harder car to drive? And how do you think today's drivers would fare today?

in some of those older cars from like the eighties and the seventies, like the center, like centers type cars. Yeah. So I've, I've driven them all, you know, I've, I've driven, uh,

Most recently, the car that we won, I won my first Grand Prix and not me as a driver, but as as the team boss, the 2021 car and I've driven 70s and 80s cars. I think the hardest era were probably the 90s. We had kind of the same amount of power that you have today on a power to weight ratio. The cars were very dangerous.

and very manual. So, you know, today you can't miss a shift to not, you know, it's a semi-automatic gearbox. You click on the, you know, literally with your finger. You don't have to worry about your clutch. You don't use once you get going, it's a hand clutch.

Back in the 90s, you were having to do what's called heel and toe. So you're having to go down through the gearbox. You're having to synchronize the RPMs. If you let the clutch out too early or you don't get the gearbox revs right, you can lock the rear tires. And they were unbelievably fast. So I personally think the 90s era's cars were probably the peak of performance cars.

And the, you know, very, very dangerous racing cars. I think reality is today's racing drivers would do just fine then because, you know, they would have adapted being what they're used to. At the same time, I've seen some of the older drivers from that era hop in today's cars, you know, such as myself. And the amount of information is just mentally horrible.

overwhelming. The drivers have 300 different adjustments they could make on a steering wheel today.

all in different codes. I had a drinks bottle and a radio, and I could adjust what's called the anti-roll bar and the brake bias. I had like five adjustments. You get in this car now and they start talking to you, and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, I'm going 200 miles an hour. What button do I have to hit again? So, you know, I think a great talent would adapt in any scenario, but I think the 90s cars, and when we take our current drivers and we put them in the 90s cars, they're

They love it because they love the rawness of them. So to me, those were the peak, most challenging cars to drive.

- Man, that's like today with baseball. Just the information age. - Right, I know. - All the hitters have all this information that they can do. - iPads and the dugout, take a swing. - For us it was just sometimes it was just, hey, just see ball, hit ball. - Literally. - Just get up there and just be in the moment as like Charlie used to say, our old manager, Charlie Emanuel used to say all the time. - Empty mind. - An empty head means a full bat. - Full bat. - Yeah, yeah. - But on race day, you have the driver and the engineer.

whose car is it really? Like, this is my car. The driver's in there, he's telling them, this is what I feel, this is what I need. They're hitting those buttons.

The engineers give his feedback and, you know, he's seeing what the computers are saying and knows where the numbers are. So it's a team effort because of how much data is coming in. So to kind of put you on pit wall for a second to answer that question. So there's so much data coming in. We have a thousand people in a Formula One team, about 125 go to the track.

60 are back at mission control. Like if you think of NASA, the space shuttle's in the air, but everyone's down there on the computers looking at the data. So,

So the driver's only talking to his chief engineer, but the chief engineer is getting tire data, weather data, power unit data, data back from the driver, competitor data. So he's taking all that information in, strategy, communicating with the driver, trying to understand what the driver wants, what we can see on the data.

What is playing out? And so the conversation becomes between the two of them. And ultimately, the engineer will make the decision with the driver's input. But the engineer's got all this information coming into him. So we have 300 sensors on the race car.

We pull down one and a half terabytes of data a weekend. So I'll stop there because I would say to my guys, what the hell is a one and a half terabyte? Put that in English.

So you got to finish high school to understand that. That is the equivalent of 400 movies or 10 million documents that's coming in that is just an immense amount of data. And so we need to take that data. We also, the drivers, and it blows my mind away that they do this at 200 miles an hour. We speak in code because we're allowed to listen to each other. So if you think about the

The third base coach, we know we're being listened to. So if we say, Lando, how are the tires? That might be a real question. We want a real feedback. Or if we say, hey, Lando, this weekend, anything we say after the word tires is a bogus question. Lando, how are the tires doing?

We want him to give us a bogus answer because we know that Ferrari is listening to us and they're trying to determine our strategy. And if they hear Lando complaining about the tires, they might go, oh, let's do this on a strategy you might pick. But actually, the tires are totally fine. So then we come into our camera and imagery. And this is where the data comes in. We might hear Lewis Hamilton complaining about the tires, but we can then go look at his tires and go, wait a minute.

He's complaining about the tires, but the tires look totally fine to us. Tire gate. So we're doing all these games just like you guys are doing with the coach of all that stuff, and everyone's exactly trying to figure out, but the drivers are having to...

The capacity of their brain, they're going 200 miles an hour. They're on the absolute limit. So kind of think about if you were getting your third base coach sign in the middle of your swing, right? That's what they're having to kind of digest at the same time. So it's fascinating. So ultimately, it's a team effort because a lot of data comes in, but it's only a conversation between the engineer and the driver. My job on pit wall is to observe. I don't have the...

same amount of data coming into me. So I'm more observing how things are going on. I'll have three things that come up to me. Driver safety. If something we see on the car that maybe is putting the driver safety at risk, do we park the car or not?

Our power unit provider, Mercedes, has the ability to tell us we see a problem with the engine, come in, I can override that, but then I have the financial consequences if something happens to the engine. And then the third is driver swap.

Is that something that happens on the track or prior to the race? Sure.

So we'll talk to the drivers Thursday going into each race weekend of kind of here's the developments on the cars. And then after qualifying Sunday morning, we'll sit down and develop a strategy. So this weekend, Lando crashed in qualifying. So he started tense. So we started him on harder compound tires. And then we had Oscar, who was a qualified second on softer compound tires, and

So they're on different strategies. So we we talk about what could happen in that scenario. So in that instance, Lando went what was called long in the race to maximize clean air. But then Oscar, because he'd qualified second, took the lead, was coming up on him and it was destabilizing Oscar. So we asked Lando, let's go ahead and pit now so we don't interrupt Oscar.

oscars race so when we have drivers let drivers by it's usually because they're on a different strategy one pitted out of sequence they're on different tire compounds but you got to have those conversations with the drivers in advance so they understand you know hey they're asking me to let them buy because he's on a different strategy and i'm trying to do what's best for the team interesting

Can you imagine that? I mean, I've been a leadoff hitter, so I know what it's like to take the first pitch. Like, I'm not taking the pitch, bro. I was going to say, do you? Look, I'm not taking the pitch. Hey, look, you guys telling me something. At some point, I figure I'm going to ignore Charlie, hit the first pitch.

It's a 3-0 count. I'm not looking in the dugout, bro. I'm swinging. If it's here, I'm swinging. And I live with the consequences later. So I imagine it has to be that all these beats going on and the driver's like, y'all do what y'all do. I'm right here in the fight. When you get into like a hit and run call,

Is it kind of swing as long as it's close? Yes. I mean, yeah, you're going to swing to make contact. So if it's down... Unless it's just ridiculously bad. If it's down, you're taking a knee to try to get it. If it's whatever, if you chase, you're throwing the bat at the ball. Like you're trying to do whatever you can to try to put the bat on the ball to help protect the runner as much as possible. So yeah, it's cool to see...

how those signs and the dekes and everything from every team where it's like, we know his tires are good. So we know what the strategy is. So every time we get to look in, that's fake news. I'm thinking we really getting the goods. You know, they talking this and that. It's something about the engine. I'm feeling this. You know, I need a little more of that. And that's all. You know what?

I like this. I like it. So, Zach, let me switch this up a little bit. Shout out to all the smart people that came up with this. Oh, that's it. That's it. Oh, yeah. Got to love it. So, Zach, question for you. All right. So, you grew up in California, but you're a massive Cardinals fan. Yeah. Yep.

Weird. How does that take place? And then how many games were you ever able to try to get out to in St. Louis as a kid, like growing up? And who was your favorite player? Yes. I was always the guy. And this kind of comes back to me being a bit of a punk in school who was the anti hometown team guy. Yeah.

Sounds just like Young Sweets, my brother. My brother's the same exact way. So that was kind of my starting point. That was kind of the rebel in me. And then the Cardinals played the Dodgers in a 13-inning game that they won in the early 80s. And Tommy Herr went five for eight. So I was a Tommy Herr fan, switch hitter. I played second base and then fell in love with the Cardinals. And then I love the history of baseball. And the Cardinals have...

I'm a bit of a walking encyclopedia, so I go back to the Rogers Hornsby and the Musial and all that. So I became a Cardinals fan. My youngest son is named McGuire. Spelled it differently. But I'm a big baseball guy and have been my whole life. And, yeah, it's cool. I've been to the Cardinals now. I've been to 26.

stadiums. So I've got a few more to tick the box on, which I'm determined to do. I will do. And I never really got to the Cardinals early on. I've been to a thousand Dodger games and Angels games. And then I'd go to the All-Star game like at San Francisco and then New York because we travel there a bit. But now I've been pretty much been to most of the stadiums other than a few of the newer teams.

Summer's here and Nordstrom has everything you need for your best dress season ever. From beach days and weddings to weekend getaways and your everyday wardrobe. Discover stylish options under $100 from tons of your favorite brands like Mango, Skims, Princess Polly, and Madewell. It's easy too with free shipping and free returns. In-store order pickup and more. Shop today in stores online at nordstrom.com or download the Nordstrom app. Can we talk about what it's like

you're facing pressure to win and you're trying to accomplish something that hasn't been done in a very long time. And I know when we were playing, we heard about the 1980 Phillies over and over and over and they're just getting beat over the brow with it. And it's like, it's not until you accomplish something of your own, the highest feat,

winning the cup that you can literally put that noise to rest. What was that like for Team McLaren to finally get back on top?

It was epic. That's actually the photo there behind me. You know, I've grown up watching you guys and sports teams having that celebratory moment. And we've now had ours. And I can't wait to do it again, but I don't think it'll ever be as good as the first one. And it was epic and the energy. And it was just all natural. There was like...

There wasn't prepared speeches. It was just a team coming together to celebrate. It's been 26 years and it was unbelievable. Up until we won it, the last race was the worst two hours of my life. You know, it was interesting. I think there's two types of successful people in the world.

Those that are motivated by the thrill of victory and those that are motivated by the fear of defeat, I think the thrill of victory is a healthier place, but I'm motivated by the fear of defeat. So I kind of like what's going to go wrong, what's going to go wrong. But I think the drivers, and I bet you guys, if you got up to the plate and had a don't strike out, don't strike out, you'd strike out. Yeah.

And I think that was one of my problems when I was racing. I was always worried about losing as opposed to like, I'm going to win this thing. So I think the great athletes are focused on, man, I'm going to hit this thing out of the park and getting that.

frame of mind and uh so my all my fears came out in that uh in that last race man so that's that's trust in the process because shout out to the mclaren racing the pit crew for sure do they take it personal and like have the want to have like their own little internal competitions with the

other pit crews and say, they can't outdo us. No, we got to do better than that. The competition, it's good competition internally because you don't want to be the guy who's last on with the wheels. That's a healthy competition. Everyone elevates their

their game, right? No, no, no different than you guys on, on the field, the guy in front of you, it's a home run. You want to go out and hit one twice as far or whatever the case may be. And, uh, but then against the competition, you know, everyone in, in, in the sports team wants to be better. Not only the guys at the track, but all the guys and gals here back at the factory, they want to get more sponsors. They want to have more fans. They like, it's a really competitive sport. I love that side of the sport. That's dope. So, uh,

I knew a lot went into it, Ryan. I didn't think it was that big. You said a thousand...

per thousand people on race day. That's crazy. So it's really a team effort. And when you play sports, you understand, like, they see the star. They see the person in front of the camera, but they don't see all the people behind the scenes making that driver or giving that driver the best chances, putting this person in the most premium position to win. And so it's refreshing to know that

there's so much that goes into it because it's analytics. We're a sport that's now driven by analytics and in baseball, I don't really like it so much. A guy still has to throw the ball, still have to hit it, et cetera. But in a racing game, it is 100, 1000% part of it. You have to have, you talked about the driver and the equipment, you have to have this team. So, you know, to all the people that don't get the credit,

I'm glad you have your competitions. It's like the clubhouse guys that get our uniforms ready, keep our shoes fresh, we need the best to make the orders. They make our life easy. So let's make sure we shout out to those guys. That's it. They never- 100% you- And ladies, they never really seen.

Totally. Right. And it's all about I think sport. It's all about preparation, isn't it? Like you kind of win or lose before you take the field. So it's all the people that help get you prepared that make the difference to let these athletes perform at the highest level. So I love that you said it's all about preparation. So with preparation.

Some folks have rituals. Some folks may be superstitious. Right. Which brings us to our banana boat ritual segment. So, Zach, did you have any rituals when you were racing or any superstitions when you were racing? Do you still have any now when you're going when you're going to the races now?

I always get into the car from the same side. I always put my first, my left glove on first. I always get in from the left side of the car. I just been doing that forever. So, but it wasn't kind of a,

I felt jinxed if I did it the other way. It just wasn't natural. So I just did the same thing. No different than your prep when you're coming to the plate or in the field. You don't even think about it. You just kind of do the same thing over and over. But I never had any...

You know, what was it? Wade Boggs has to, you know, eat chicken before the game or something like that. So I didn't have any of that stuff. It was just more a creature, a habit of just always doing the same thing, having kind of a process to prepare to get ready for the race. You didn't do like the Nomar thing?

Tie it with the gloves and spit on them. Get the gas, get the gas. Gas break dip on them. You're right, you're right. You had the Willie Stargell armpit. You had all sorts of players do all sorts of fun stuff. Get that chicken wing. Yeah, exactly. Let's have a little fun. Oh, yeah. You're a baseball guy. You're a car guy. And I want to do a little comparison.

Alright. Current, I guess we use current MLB players. We'll do current. With these drivers. And, you know, we give you driver name and you tell us who this would be in MLB. And if you need some assistance, you know, let us know. We know you're up on game. I might have to go a little vintage on you. I might have to go a little vintage on you too. Okay. Alright, perfect, perfect. So, we're going to start first with Max Verstappen. Who would be him?

I think I've never met the guy.

I think I'd have to say Barry Bonds. Ooh. Ooh. Interesting. Because we know Barry was clutch. He didn't miss. No. It was, I mean. No, Max never misses. Yes. But at least from what I see, Barry had a little bit of an edge to him from what I hear in the clubhouse. So I think Max has a little bit of edge to him. I like that. But was damn good. He definitely has an edge to him. Oh, he has an edge to him. When you see it, yeah, you definitely see that. Look, you want to be in the inner circle. I'm going to tell you that much right now. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Mr. Lewis Hamilton. That may have to be Mookie Betts. I like that.

- I like that. - Smooth. - Yeah. - Sweet with it. - Yeah, okay. - He's got style. - Always looking nice, the style, the fashion. - The big pieces out of his ear like you. - I mean, hey, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do. - You gotta do what you gotta do. I like that. - I like that, that's a great comparison. - I really like that. - He's smooth, he's poised. He always seems like he's very poised behind the wheel. Always seems to be very polite, even when he's yelling at people. - Right, right. - When he's on the radio. - But fiery though, there's a fire. - Yeah, there's a fire, but it's a politeness about it.

It's like the car is trash, mate. But it's good though, you know what I mean? - I hear you. - But it's still nice. It was like, man, he was still nice about it at least. So that's good. - All right, next up is someone near and dear to you, Lando.

Ooh, he's a nice guy. He's a super nice guy. Who's a super, super nice guy? Freddie Freeman's a really nice guy. Yeah, Freddie Freeman. Freddie Freeman is a really good nice guy. And he was pretty clutch. He had a pretty good season last year. Yeah, I could see Freddie. They have that niceness about them.

But there's also a little bit of that killer instinct. 100%. Oh, for sure. Because when I'm watching the races, I talk to my boy about this all the time because he's a big Formula One fan as well. And we talk about drivers that are like good drivers, but like do they have that killer instinct?

And I think that that's what's like when you get into it later on, that's what separate the championship drivers from all the rest. Like an Alonzo is a guy I think has a killer instinct and I think Lando can have that killer instinct. But the next guy that I want to ask about. I like this next guy too. Charles Leclerc.

Ooh, LeClerc. I think I'd go Bryce Harper. Oh, interesting. Okay. That is. Charles has got some emotion in his game, which I love. And that kind of strikes me. I've seen enough of Bryce over the years. It seems like when he gets agitated, he kind of lets you know. Yes. Yes.

Yes, and don't agitate him because that's when he goes off. He's like, it's time to lock in. You're booing me, you're calling me, overrated, you're bringing the noise. I'm going to show you how overrated I am. And he doesn't necessarily like all the ums, does he? Oh, no, not at all. Something this guy has in common, running down the third base, threatening people. I mean, that was one time. One time.

That was one time you let it go. Yeah, that was a tough day. That was a tough day. I think I was like 0 for 4 with like four punch outs. Yeah, it happens. That was a tough one. And we have one more for you. This next guy is up for driver of the year. He also races a McLaren. Oh, yes, Mr. Piastri. We're going to go with Oscar Piastri. I would go because he's pretty quiet. He's very quiet. Just gets on with it.

And I'm glad to see he's having a mega year this year. My boy Goldie, Paul Goldschmidt. Ooh. Very good. It has to be Arizona Goldschmidt. Arizona Goldie? Arizona Goldschmidt. Yeah, because he was a beast, just 100%. And he just gets on with it. Yep. And he's quiet. Yep. Walks quietly, carries a big stick. And he's having a hell of a year. I'm bummed my cards got ripped. He didn't stay with my cards. But pretty cool to put the pin in his car.

I love Piazza. He's another guy that I see that has that killer instinct. It's starting to come out. I would have said like a Paul Skeens because Paul's like what? This is second year in the league, like coming in. But is Paul really – he's not really quiet though. He's in your face. I mean, I remember seeing an interview, you know, asking about, you know, will he have the success up there in the big leagues and the big league hitters. He was like, good luck. Good luck.

That's something that's dear, dear to my heart. You know, I'm going to talk trash. It's up to you to make me shut up. You know, I came up in a family that way. My mom, she was none of that. My dad was doing the work. So I had a little bit of both. I'm put in the work behind the scenes. But up front, I'm talking trash because I understood psychological warfare. If I put the pressure on you, you're so focused on beat me. You're not doing your job. Advantage me.

- True. - Totally. - And Oscar don't have a mustache yet. - Yeah, right. - If Oscar shows up with a mustache, that'll be great. - Rocking the Paul Skeens pirate uniform. - Right, that'd be dope. - Now that would be absolutely sick. - That would be dope. - That would be absolutely sick. - That would be dope. - You're a collector, correct? - Yes, sir. - What are your most precious collectibles?

I got a few that, well, I got a lot of really cool stuff, but I guess the most unique, I mean, put aside kind of jerseys because I've got, and it's all game use stuff. So I've got Williams, Mantle, Mays, Aaron. So, I mean, that stuff's amazing, but probably the most unique.

is I've got Pete Rose's rookie trophy, which I think is pretty cool. When he had his issues, he sold everything. So, I mean, his 1963 Rookie of the Year trophy, I've got. That's crazy. Albert Pujols gave me one of his gold gloves, which was really cool. Those are nice.

Those are nice, and not many of those are out. I've only heard stories about them and seen them. And then I've got Jimmy Foxx's 1932 All-Star Trophy. So those are like unrepeatable. And then probably the most unique is, I don't know if you guys ever remember the Mickey Mantle lewd letter. And if not, you got to Google it. Please inform us.

Oh, man. There's no censorship on this show. This is beyond rated R, so I'll give you the headline. In the early 70s, they were celebrating 50 years of Yankee Stadium. So the general manager wrote to the big Yankees.

saying, can you please fill out this form, which is what's your most memorable moment at Yankee Stadium? And the second was, give as much detail as you can. And all I'll say is, Google. It wouldn't happen today, but Mickey Mantle could pull it off. And it's a bit of a legendary letter. It's called the Mickey Mantle lewd letter. And I bought that for my collection. And it's just kind of, it's all Mickey Mantle. We got to look into that. They set him up to fail. That's crazy. Oh,

- With as much detail, that's wild. - With as much detail, you can only believe that to the imagination. - It's crazy. - So as we get close to wrapping this up, and again, thank you so much for the time. - My pleasure, I enjoyed it. - Can you speak on,

getting more women involved in racing and kind of discuss, you know, kind of how there's having these diverse voices or trying to have more diverse voices in the sport? Absolutely. So I think, uh,

You know, 60 Scholars is a program that we do with our partners. We started it in our 60 year anniversary, which was a couple of years ago, but it was so successful. We've kept it going, which is around STEM, which is obviously very relevant to our sport of young women ages 18 to I believe it was 23 or 24 to give them an opportunity to work with us and our partners to be exposed to the different aspects

of our sport. And, you know, as I mentioned with Netflix, we need more women, more youth in our sport, more diversity. I love diversity. It creates diversity of opinion. I think it creates better output because you're getting more different type of input. And so whether it's, uh,

Women in racing, we have what's called F1 Academy, which is one of those, that race car right there over my shoulder where we've got a racing team. We won at the weekend, our first win in what's called F1 Academy to women engineers into marketing and finance. So we just want to expose women.

more women, more youth, more diversity to this awesome sport we're in so they can see that there's a lot of different opportunities. Of course, the most famous aspect is driving the race car, but we have 1,000 people. We only have two racing drivers, so there's a lot of different jobs that they can apply for. And so it was all about...

continually getting them exposed to how they could play a role in motorsports and specifically with McLaren. That's amazing because I have my youngest daughter, Bree. She loves cars, and I kind of threw her in like Ryan. It was when I had the Lamborghini SVJ. And so she would wake up and ask to go into the garage, and she would just sit in the driver's seat. Yep.

I can see her just imagining driving cars. So to this day, she knows cars up and down. She'll see them. She names them. She gets excited. She wants me to get the Lambo Euro. She's like, well, Dad, at least get the Porsche. I'm like, I like my Hummer. It's a big truck. I've kind of gone to the Dance Dad era. But she's one, as I'm hearing about this program, that comes to mind because she really has a fascination with cars. She loves them. She's always pushing me to push the envelope.

And I'll get back into the fast car era, but I need the space. I have three daughters. They have friends all the time, but I really appreciate that. So, Zach, we really appreciate you joining us, spending this time with Ryan and myself on the 611 podcast, something that my man was almost overly excited about. He's a former McLaren. Do you still have it? I don't have it. He's a former McLaren owner, so...

He's working his way back into it. So we know this is serious. He knows. He knows what I'm waiting for. For that W1 just came out. The P1 successor.

that came out okay and pretty mega trying to look at that so is that you know he's basically he's asking for permission to get you know but then the first five names on the list that's i'm gonna get straight to the chase that's what he's asking you know that's that's what we do cut to the chase but thank you for your time we really appreciate it we appreciate what you've done for the sport we still appreciate your love for baseball although you're a cardinal fan we forgive you you

Yeah, not everyone's perfect. Thank you, brother. Thanks for having me on. Yes, sir.

BetterHelp recently surveyed over 16,000 people and found that while 75% of people believe it's wise to seek support, only 27% of Americans are in therapy, and people stay silent to avoid being judged. BetterHelp has over 10 years of experience matching you with the right therapist. Because we're all better with help. Visit betterhelp.com slash stop the stigma for their first ever state of stigma report. The latest in mental health research.