Mets starting pitcher Chris Bassitt, who has been key in helping the team withstand injuries to aces Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, takes a timeout for some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: What is an adjective to describe Chris Bassitt on the mound?
A: Unorthodox. … Everything I do, between the amount of pitches that I have, between my delivery that’s funky as can be … my pitching style is not normal.
Q: How or why did that begin?
A: When I was really, really young, as dumb as it is — just face paint. All our friends would have face paint, and I’d have a basketball drawn on my face when I was pitching in games. When I was young, I was always pitching from different arm angles. It was just me and my friends having fun, and I was like, “All right, I’m gonna just throw sidearm today. All right, I’m gonna throw this pitch submarine. All right, I’m gonna do three leg kicks and throw.” Obviously you see guys now in today’s game and they’re doing that to mess with hitters. I was doing it just to be goofy. Even in middle school and high school I was messing with hitters’ timing, and I didn’t really even know what I was doing, I was just goofing around to be honest with you (laugh).
Q: You would paint a basketball?
A: Yeah, I had like the basketball stripes on my face, I had like whiskers sometimes … basically the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball, go out there and just mess around. We were just way more talented than everybody else.
Q: And now?
A: It’s a lot more serious. I’m doing similar stuff, but now I know the purpose and the reason why I’m doing it rather than just doing it. I still have a lot of fun playing this game, this game is still a game to me, it’s not a job.
Q: From your Instagram: “The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back.”
A: I do not like losing. I do not like getting embarrassed. But at the same time, I genuinely believe losing and getting embarrassed are the keys to truly developing into something better than what you were. Without losses, I feel like you kind of become stagnant. There’s beauty in getting your butt kicked sometimes.
Q: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
A: A lot of people will doubt you, and then, all of a sudden, you see the same people that absolutely hated you start cheering for you and wanting autographs. I don’t know anyone specific, but it’s just funny how when you’re going good everyone loves ya, but then when one thing happens, all of a sudden everyone hates ya. In my opinion, you just have to have a genuinely close-knit group, and trust those people.
Q: “It never troubles the wolf how many sheep may be.”
A: You have a lot of people that think they know what they’re talking about, and don’t have your best interests at heart, and yet they have a lot of opinions of what you’re doing. All the people that don’t matter don’t matter.
Q: “A lion never loses sleep over the opinions of sheep.”
A: Same thing. You gotta have a close inner circle and you trust those people whenever they come and tell you something. But unfortunately, there’s a whole lot more people that don’t know you or what you’re going through but have strong opinions of what’s going on.
Q: Was there one incident or one low point that shaped all these sayings?
A: There’s no negative to people that have had this, but I never had the golden road to where I’m at. I wasn’t a first-rounder, I wasn’t a high prospect out of high school and a high prospect out of college. So, in being a low-grade prospect and then being not a top-round pick, you instantly have a lot of people that doubt you rather than think you’re gonna make it. You just ask social media, every first-rounder’s gonna be in the big leagues very soon, and every 20th-round pick has no chance. I would just say it’s just an attitude that I’ve always had since high school, that it doesn’t matter what people think of you, just give me some time and I promise you I’ll prove you wrong of what you think now.
Q: “Happy people don’t have the best of everything, they make the best of everything.”
A: That’s a fact. That’s self-explanatory. I think too many people chase, whether it be money or things, rather than just looking at their life and seeing maybe it’s a small family, or maybe it’s just you and a girlfriend, or you and a wife, and just saying, “Hey my life’s pretty great, and I don’t need a lot more to be really happy.” I think people too many times will chase things that they don’t have, and then not appreciate and love what they do.
Q: “Light up the darkness.”
A: Especially in today’s world, everything is so negative. You can’t turn the TV on anymore, you can’t look at social media anymore — everything is so negative. I’ve always taken responsibility in the fact that I always want to be a guy that, no matter what I do on the baseball field, I always want to be a happy, positive influence. It’s like do you light up the room when you enter it, or do you light up the room when you leave? There’s a lot of people that just suck the energy out of a room. And I just don’t want to be one of those people.
Q: Describe your mound mentality.
A: I’ve learned to not be fearful of anybody, but at the same time respect everybody.
Q: Fear of failure is part of what drives you. Why?
A: I don’t want all those people that talked crap about me and said I’m gonna have a bad year this year … people that said it five years ago … [for] them to be right. I enjoy people saying they were wrong and all that stuff. I know how much I put into this, I know the sacrifices, not only me but my wife and my family make to do this, so I just want to make sure that all those sacrifices that we make do matter. And I feel like if you fail, and you’re doing all this stuff, it’s not worth it.
Q: Why didn’t fear enter the equation when you got hit in the face by a 100 mph Brian Goodwin line drive last August? And you still haven’t watched the replay?
A: I’m not scared of watching the replay and then being like, “Oh crap, that was really bad.” It’s more so just like what’s the point of me watching it? I’ve fallen off a bike before, I’ve fallen off four-wheelers before, I’ve fallen off all these things before. I just think freak things happen. But … I love baseball. And I’m not gonna stop playing baseball because some freak thing happened. So it’s more so just, “All right, it happened, fix me up and let me just keep playing.” Being hit never changed my love for the game.
Q: Was your wife at the game?
A: Yeah, my whole family was at the game, which made it a lot easier, just because I think if she watched it on TV and then wasn’t able to really get a hold of people, it would have been really tough. My mom and dad and my wife were able to meet me in the ambulance and go to the hospital with me. Once I got into the ambulance, they knew that I was OK. Obviously I was messed up, but I wasn’t gonna die, I wasn’t gonna lose my eye or anything like that. … We dodged a major bullet.
Q: When Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer went down, how did you handle it?
A: If Cookie’s [Carlos Carrasco] healthy, good luck. We had Ty [Taijuan Walker], who was an All-Star last year. I think we have a pitching staff that has a lot of top-end arms. And then we have two freaks. I think without those two, we have a really good pitching staff. And then with those two, it’s just unfair.
Q: How do you handle pressure?
A: I’m gonna work my butt off and whatever happens, happens. I can go to bed at night, get my butt kicked, or I can go to bed at night and do really well basically the same, just because I know how hard and how much I tried that day. If it didn’t work out, I’ll figure it out tomorrow why it didn’t work out and I’ll move forward. I try to make everything as simple as possible. I’m trying to not ever go to bed that night and say I lost because I got outworked. That will never happen.
Q: Describe Pete Alonso.
A: Funny, funny guy, A-plus teammate, but he’s got a switch, and I love it. Once he gets on that field, you do not want to see him in the box. He is one bad mama jama, I’ll tell you that.
Q: Does that switch apply to you too?
A: Yeah, I’m definitely happy-go-lucky, joking around even on start days, but then once I walk on the field, I know you’re trying to embarrass me, and I’m not gonna let that happen.
Q: Do you hate hitters?
A: Not like that (chuckle). It’s more so you’re trying to embarrass me and I’m trying to embarrass you, and we’re just gonna see who wins, that’s basically it.
Q: What was it like as an AL All-Star watching Alonso win the Home Run Derby last year?
A: The guys the AL rolled into that Home Run Derby, I was like, “There’s just no way Pete’s winning this. Pete’s not that good to beat [Matt] Olson, he’s not that good to beat [Shohei] Ohtani.” And then I saw him start swinging, and it wasn’t even the Home Run Derby, it was BP getting ready for the Home Run Derby, and I even told Olie, I’m like, “Olson, you are in trouble. That’s a different animal right there.” He has power rolling out of bed.
Q: Buck Showalter?
A: He’s so prepared, he’s obviously been there, done that. He’s seen everything, he’s done everything. But he’s also able to know each personality. I think that is so key of just being able to kind of judge the room based on each individual person. How you talk to each person, does the person need a pat on the back or a kick in the butt? He’s the old-school thinker, but he’s still able to incorporate new-school approaches. It’s a perfect match.
Q: Pitching coach Jeremy Hafner?
A: He just gets it. Obviously he’s a little bit older than us, but overall, he’s our age. He’s got little kids, basically our whole entire starting rotation and a lot of our pitchers have little kids. He gets everything we’re going through on and off the field. And similar to Buck, he just knows each personality, what each personality needs.
Q: Starling Marte?
A: Last year watching him, everyone in the big leagues knew he was stealing a base, but no one had a chance to throw him out. I only got to watch film of Rickey [Henderson], but like actually being there watching Rickey, it had to be like that, where he was gonna steal second, he was gonna steal third, you knew it and you still couldn’t stop it, and that’s what Marte was last year. It was a cheat code. Every single game no matter who’s on the field, Marte is easily one of the most gifted people on the field, if not the most gifted people on the field … 98 percent of the time.
Q: Mark Canha?
A: Pure grinder. On and off the field, he is just working his butt off to be better than you tomorrow, today, just non-stop working at his craft. There’s 30 teams that should have been begging for Canha to be on their team, and luckily we got him.
Q: What is it like pitching on the New York stage?
A: As crazy as it is … I’ll say this: One blessing that I’ve done, I got off social media, so people can’t talk to me and I don’t really know what people are saying about me. But in my opinion, baseball’s baseball. So I think the no social media move has made New York not feel that big. I’m not saying it feels like Oakland, because we have 30,000 fans at every game, basically, but it doesn’t feel as big as what I thought it would be.
Q: If you could pick the brain of any pitcher in MLB history, who would it be?
A: I grew up a huge Indians [now Guardians] fan, so I’d almost have to go with CC [Sabathia].
Q:If you could face any hitter in MLB history, who would it be?
A: Barry Bonds. He’s the greatest hitter of all time. I would want peak Barry Bonds. … I would just love to face him and say, “All right, how does my game match up against you?”
Q: Best single baseball moment?
A: I would say beating the White Sox in the playoffs [2020 AL wild-card series], just because it was full circle just because they traded me.
Q: What was your worst baseball moment?
A: Probably pitching in Toronto when I knew I needed TJ [Tommy John surgery]. I knew something was wrong and I said I think the boat horn was on repeat that game. I gave up a lot of home runs that game (laugh).
Q: Did you worry that your career could end?
A: I know the odds are really good, but anytime you have surgery, things happen, people don’t bounce back from it, so yeah of course.
Q: If you were MLB commissioner, you would …
A: Less divisional games, way more AL versus NL. I think if you want to grow the game, you have to start showcasing the talent broader rather than just constantly having us play the Nationals or the Phillies.
Q: If you were NBA commissioner, you would …
A: I would bring back the physicality to basketball, which would empower big men and make guards’ life a little bit harder, because I feel like the 3-point contests, every game is a tough watch.
Q: If you were NFL commissioner, you would …
A: I would stop fining people for a lot of really stupid things. I think you have hits that are not bad at all and it’s just unfortunate, it’s part of the game, but then all of a sudden you hear someone get fined $10,000 and that is so unfair. I would get rid of all those ridiculous fines for just accidents.
Q: What are your thought on LeBron James as the GOAT?
A: In my opinion, today’s athletes are far better than 20 years ago, 30 years ago. Michael Jordan is just unbelievable, but you compare total athletes from then till now, it ain’t close.
Q: What has it been like being a Browns fan?
A: Heartbreak all the time, but now it’s even worse ’cause you have high expectations. … Now it’s like, losses mean a whole lot more to you than they did in the past.
Q: Describe your father’s tough love.
A: My dad was there for absolutely everything that I did. But he wasn’t a dad that if I had an OK game he was gonna pat me on the back and say like, “Great game, good job.” He just basically was gonna tell me how it was. I genuinely think that kind of molded me somewhat into today to not accept an OK game and think that’s really good. I have extremely high expectations of myself, and it stems from my parenting of not accepting good for great.
Q: Describe fatherhood.
A: It’s been a cakewalk, in my opinion, just because of how great my wife is. I get all the fun stuff so I go home and I get to play with my daughter, put her to bed, but my wife has to do all the hard, hard things. So yeah, my wife’s a blessing.
Q: Landry is 2 ¹/₂?
A: Definitely me when it comes to personality — happy-go-lucky, wild, crazy, loud (laugh) — but she gets her mom’s stubbornness. We’re gonna have to give some really nice gift baskets to all our teachers, I’ll say that, because she’s gonna be a pain (smile). She’s very, very smart, but very, very stubborn, so it’s gonna be a fun, challenging toddlerhood, so to speak.
Q: How did you propose to Jessica?
A: There’s a castle in Napa [Valley, Calif.], so I proposed there.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Step Brothers.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Will Ferrell.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Megan Fox.
Q: Favorite singer?
A: Luke Combs.
Q: Favorite entertainer?
A: Eric Church.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Steak.
Q: From Opening Day, Showalter has raved about the players.
A: Billy [Eppler, GM] and the front office I think have done an unbelievable job of putting together a roster that … we have a ton of hard workers and a ton of good people. Even though we are good on paper, that only means so much. You kind of have to outwork everybody.
Q: What is your message to Mets fans?
A: We have such a close-knit group that we have what it takes to win a championship. The most important thing forever is gonna be team chemistry, and we have it, we just have it. We’re gonna go through a whole bunch of winning streaks, we’re gonna go through losing streaks, but when you have team chemistry, when you have a bond in the clubhouse, it just makes going through crap so much easier.
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