Hooks & Runs · A podcast about baseball, music and culture.

270 - "Second Base? That's My Best Position!" w/ Trenidad Hubbard

·49 min·3 clips

Hubbard says he caught three innings in Dodger Stadium after a team fight left both catchers hurt.

Craig and Rex open with Hubbard's baseball ledger. They start him on the South Side of Chicago, move him through Southern University and a 12th-round Houston selection in 1986, and then let the timeline show its real shape: a player who did not settle into the majors until after a long apprenticeship, with a Rockies debut on July 7, 1994. He corrects the neat version. Instead of one clean rise, he lays out the ninth minor league season, the repeated call-ups, and the seasons with San Diego and Atlanta that kept him in the big leagues longer, while also recalling the Cubs years when making the team seven or eight times was its own win. Exactly. That is a better baseball story than the shorthand suggests, because it gives the listener a feel for how much of a career is built from temporary stays, long bus rides, and the quiet satisfaction of being told you made the club again. The hosts know when to listen. They let the details breathe, and the result is a portrait that treats persistence as a skill rather than a slogan, which is the right lens for a player who was still in the minors until age 39. The numbers matter. Hubbard's 1,864 hits, .302 batting average, and 488 stolen bases are not treated like trivia, but folded into the conversation as the record of a useful, durable career that crossed organizations and eras. Then comes the best game story. The hosts quiz him about the 16 homers he hit and the one that came off John Smoltz, and Hubbard reconstructs the at-bat: the earlier strikeout, Eric Gregg's generous zone, Don Baylor's advice, the next pitch in the same lane, and the swing that sent it out. That part lands. It is the kind of memory that mixes rulebook complaints, pitcher names, and a very specific date, June 9, 1996, into one usable piece of baseball lore. They dig further. Hubbard also talks through the pitcher who could not get him out, including the 5-for-5 line that the hosts only partly pin down before the conversation moves on. There is a business thread too. That side of his life fits the episode's larger approach, which is to treat baseball as work, history, and a network of other interests instead of a single lane. The ending widens. A football detour brings in the Browns, the Saints, Shedeur Sanders, Deion Sanders, and a nod to Barry Bonds, so the last turn feels like two old sports conversations sharing the same table.

As heard by us

A long baseball life, told through career details and player memories.

The episode follows Hubbard's long road through pro baseball, from South Side Chicago and Southern University to a 12th-round Houston pick who kept bouncing between the majors and minors.

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Why you'd press play

You get a 19-season baseball life, with 10 big-league years, hard-earned numbers, and a few detours into music and culture.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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