Chad Pinder Joins The Jason Ross And Doug Christie Show
Jul 30, 2020, 9:08 AM | Updated: 9:09 am
(Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)
Pinder and the guys discussed the shortened MLB season, what it’s like to play without any fans and much more!
This week on the Jason Ross and Doug Christie Show, Oakland Athletics utility-man Chad Pinder joined the show to talk about a variety of topics.
Pinder, 28, is in his fifth season with the A’s, playing all around the field as an outfielder and infielder. Last year, Pinder played in 124 games–77 in the outfield and 47 in the infield.
Last season, Pinder hit 13 home runs and drove in 47 runs for the 97-win Athletics.
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and a lengthy dispute between Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, the 2020 season will be 60 games–the shortest season since 1878.
With no fans, limited travel groups and inactive players having to sit in the stands, Pinder shared how different this season feels for the players.
“I would say it’s totally different from the moment you’re pulling through our gates,” he said. “Getting your temperature checked twice, going through the set of questions, coming to the clubhouse and everyone has masks on. Everything is different, for sure.”
On playing without fans, having fake crowd noise pumped into the stadium and the only spectators being cardboard cutouts, Pinder told the guys that it will take getting used to.
“It definitely is an adjustment, because you’re used to feeding off of energy in big moments in the game. It is very strange, I can’t lie about that. It’s just going to take time to get adjusted to it. There are big moments in the game–for example, on (Matt Olson)’s walk-off the other night, you have the fake crowd noise going and obviously, we’re hooting and hollering. All of the sudden, everything is goes off. Music is gone, crowd noise is gone, it literally just went dead silent. You could hear a pin drop. That energy typically carries over throughout the night with you, but it was just a strange, strange feeling, it was weird.”
Throughout the interview, Pinder shares his thoughts on the new extra-innings rule, the shortened season and much more.
Listen to the entire interview by clicking the ‘play’ button on the audio file located at the top of the post or by going to KHTK.com and clicking on the ‘Podcast’ tab.
