Winding Up with Billy Bob Thornton

Can you show me your wind up?

My wind up? Not in this suit. I'll do it if you'll do it. You know what? If I do it in this suit, people say he never threw a ball in his life. You know, it's like it's right here, you know.

I am here with Billy Bob Thorton. So who are you excited to see here tonight? There's so many phenomenal athletes.

Yeah, I mean all these guys impressed me. I I anytime because you know, actors, when we see each other, we don't really cares. We know each other, you know. But you're always seeing some famous athlete you never met. It's it's always exciting and I I saw Kareem Abdul Jabbar. And he's such a legendary guy to people who grew up in LA, you know, from the UCLA days all the way up through his career with the Lakers and he's just such a classy guy and I don't know him. I've never met him. But just to stand next to him for a second was pretty thrilling and maybe, maybe I'll spill a drink on him or something so he'll say hello to me.

Why do actors want to be athletes and athletes want to be actors?

I don't know. I guess because it all falls under one umbrella in some ways. You know what I mean? In other words, entertaining people. Yeah, I think, you know, musicians, uh, sports figures, actors, they all admire each other so much because most actors grew up loving sports, most sports guys grew up loving movies. That's what they wanted to do. They weren't guys who were going to be building engineers or psychiatrists or anything like that. We were all people who didn't really know what we were going to be. We loved to throw a ball and we loved to, I don't know, clown around in school or whatever. So I think we're all kind of the same fiber in some way.

So I know the last time you were in our studio. Prepare for this to get weird, okay? The last time you were in our studio was for Puss and Boots. Billy Bob, Ranch Style Beans. Ranch Style. Oh, that's great. You know what would be fun? Let's go out on a balcony on like the 20th floor and just and see if anybody walks on. We're on the 15th floor here. You're more than welcome to step outside. And we gave you baked beans. That's right.

Did you cook them?

I didn't. But you know what? I still have them.

You have You saved them? Of course. I I'm a big souvenir collector. Like I like to look at something and say, "Oh yeah, that's when we did so and so."

I know you're a big St. Louis Cardinals fan. Do you still go to all the games?

I go to games when I can. I mean, it's hard to go to Dodger Stadium, you know, with my cardinal hat on, you know.

What happens to you when that happens? Because you have so many fans here.

They put me on the big jumbotron with my cardinal hat on and everybody boos me. And it it's funny to me, you know.

Well, you're not used to getting booed, so there you go.

I know, you know, but but it's actually all in good fun. I mean, they they know that I'm a cardinal fan out there. So I was born and bred a cardinal fan. Tony La Russa is a good friend of mine is here tonight. But I'm when I'm not rooting for the cardinals, I root for the Dodgers because they're the home team, you know.

So do you still pitch? Cuz I know you pitched in high school. Are you still good at throwing a ball around?

I I can throw okay. I I can still do all right. I'm not what I used to be, but I can still throw the ball okay.

What's the maximum speed that your pitch can go? Cuz I think mine's like maybe 15 miles an hour.

I don't know. Well, I'll put it this way. I if I were still pitching, I would be more in the Jamie Moyer category. Not in the Chapman for the Reds. I'm not I'm not that guy. But I never was. I was a junk pitcher, so I I relied on tricky stuff and not speed, you know.

Okay, what was your best trick?

I had a really good slider. I had a very good

Can you show me your wind up?

My wind up? Not in this suit. I'll do it if you'll do it. You know what? If I do it in this suit, people say he never threw a ball in his life. You know, it's like good for right here, you know.

Okay, so let's talk food for a second. If you're going to go to Subway sandwich, what's the Billy Bob Thorton sandwich? What's this what do you get on it? And what's it called?

Uh, let's see. Uh, I would get turkey, turkey, pickles, mayonnaise, tomatoes, and avocado.

You were very intent with that.

Yeah, that's what I want.

And what's it called?

It's called the hypoallergenic sandwich because those are all things that I can eat.

I was going to call it the Billy Bob slider cuz that was your pitch.

That's that's way better. That's a sexier title than than the hypoallergenic sandwich.

So, sports, do you play any besides baseball? Do you play? Do you watch whatever when you're kicking back on a Sunday, what are you watching and and do you get out and throw the ball around? What do you what do you like to play?

I kind of watch everything. I mean, even on the Olympics, uh, I I was very, very happy about the women's uh, beach volleyball team. I love Misty May and Carrie Walsh. They're the best. And and also Casey and Ross. I also followed them and the fact that they played each other for the gold, you you can't beat that. The rallies were incredible. Unbelievable. But so I'm really even though I never played volleyball, I I enjoy that so much. I'm not a soccer fan, but I love watching the US Women's team.

But I like that you're rooting for the females. This is good. Women and

You know what? The women have kept us afloat in these Olympics. They really have. Except our two boys uh, won the decathlon. They they won one and two in the decathlon, which is amazing.

Sports expert, Billy Bob Thorton. Thank you for chatting with us. Have a great night.