One day I opened my email to find an unexpected invitation to interview Josh Donaldson.
The video game MLB The Show 16 had just come out and the Toronto Blue Jays star was on the cover, so I was invited to talk to him about it. The interview fell through and was rescheduled a few times before it finally landed on May 17. That seemed like the perfect date…until Rougned Odor punched Jose Bautista in the face less than 48 hours before the interview was supposed to happen.
Surprisingly, our chat wasn’t rescheduled but there was obviously tension. Players from both the Blue Jays and Texas Rangers, Donaldson included, were waiting to be fined or suspended. Not exactly fun.
Finally it’s my turn to talk to Josh.
#Views pic.twitter.com/9l2Z3jhCOC
— Steve Dangle Glynn (@Steve_Dangle) May 17, 2016
Maybe it was because of the brawl or maybe it’s the way he usually is but Donaldson wasn’t the intense, fired-up guy he appears to be on the field. He’s very soft-spoken.
“So obviously we gotta talk about the fight,” I started.
Right away he tenses up a bit.
“Do you think Stipe Miocic really earned that knockout win over Fabricio Werdum? Because a lot of people weren’t expecting it.”
Josh eases up, the PR folks in the background breathe a little sigh of relief, and we talked a bit about the UFC 198 card.
For the record, he actually missed the fights due to a broadcast blackout but Donaldson knows his MMA. He said he saw the undercard and that it was nice to see Miocic come out with the knockout victory because he knows he’s a strong striker.
After breaking the ice — and since I was talking to the reigning AL MVP who hails from Pensacola, Florida — the next topic of conversation obviously had to be the Toronto Maple Leafs’ former ECHL farm team: The Pensacola Ice Pilots.
I was surprised he even knew who they were, so I definitely wasn’t expecting him to say he went to their games, knew the GM, and grew up playing roller hockey.
We also took a look at some funny photoshops of the video game cover (created by the talented Jason Gordon), answered a few questions sent in by Blue Jays fans from as far away as Jerusalem, and I even got Josh to say “Steve, can I see your dog?”
It was a surreal day, to say the least. (And yes, I showed him the Miocic knockout that he missed, too.)
Enough talking about it. See the whole conversation with the one and only Bringer of Rain at the top of this post.