Episode 30: David Wells

On the thirtieth episode of “Great Dane Nation,” Morten is joined by New York Yankees legend and longtime friend David Wells as MLB Opening Day gets underway on Thursday (04:57 – 50:21). But first, he checks in with TommyFreezePops (Tom Carroll), where the guys talk about how foreign the game of baseball can feel to someone who grew up in a country where it was not prevalent (01:17).We then move to our interview with David, where he discusses a wide array of topics: the origins of his nickname “Boomer” (06:03); the whole story behind his perfect game, which he famously pitched with a violent hangover (09:24); why Jorge Posada should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame (17:17); why he feels most connected to the Detroit Tigers in retirement, and why the Toronto Blue Jays are on the opposite end of the spectrum for him (18:32); how Kirk Gibson taught him to embrace the big moments (20:39); why he thinks analytics are embraced too much in today’s game (25:07); why he didn’t care what his pitch count was, and a great story about Sparky Anderson to go along with it (26:54); pitching with 19 different pitchers that were either in the Hall of Fame or have been on the ballot, and which ones he learned the most from (28:03); hilarious Greg Maddux stories (29:38); what he thinks of Gerrit Cole’s massive contract with the Yankees (32:21); why he’s picking the San Diego Padres to win the World Series, and what he thinks of Fernando Tatis Jr.’s mega deal (33:12); why the Los Angeles Dodgers remind him of the 1990s Yankees dynasty teams (35:40); why he thinks the Boston Red Sox have been selling off so many great young players in recent years (37:59); this week’s edition of “The Name Game,” with thoughts on Phil Niekro, Cal Ripken Jr., Deion Sanders, George Steinbrenner, Derek Jeter, Roger Clemens, Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Jose Canseco, Mike Piazza and Trevor Hoffman (39:22); and the story behind the “Perfect 33 Foundation” (46:20).Then, TommyFreezePops is joined by Kevin Rogers for his weekly check-in with the experts from VegasInsider.com (51:10 – 01:00:02). Kevin reviews his bracket’s performance headed into the final weekend of March Madness, and helps us preview the Final Four (52:21). Plus, Kevin tells us what to look out for from a gambling perspective as the 2021 MLB regular season gets underway on Thursday (55:58).Finally, we close things out with Morten’s “Game Winner” – a weekly segment where Morten monologues his biggest takeaway of the week. This week, he talks about his friend David Wells, and how he was able to achieve perfection in an imperfect world (01:00:02).