The MLB Veteran Who Gave Up Millions — For The Sea
The Lead
Wondery
3.9 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2023
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For close to a decade, John Jaso made a name for himself in Major League Baseball. He was behind the plate for the last perfect game thrown in MLB (by Felix Hernandez), and he hit for the first cycle in the history of PNC Park in Pittsburgh. But if you haven’t heard John Jaso’s name in a while — there’s a good reason for that: he's been living life at sea. Today, the story of why Jaso walked away from potentially millions of dollars to live on a boat, and some of his most harrowing adventures along the way.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to the lead ad-free on Amazon Music. |
| 0:04.9 | Download the app today. |
| 0:06.4 | Hey, I'm Cassie DePackle, the host of Wondery's podcast against the odds. |
| 0:12.0 | In our next season, a team of American and Indian climbers are on a top secret cold-war |
| 0:16.4 | mission to place a nuclear-powered spine device atop a deadly Himalayan mountain. |
| 0:21.7 | Listen to against the odds on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:32.2 | If you followed Major League Baseball over the last 10 years or so, you're probably familiar |
| 0:37.1 | with the name John J. So, a veteran of nine seasons in the big leagues who is behind the |
| 0:42.6 | plate for the last perfect game thrown in the majors in 2012. |
| 0:46.1 | He got a 34 years, 119 games, and it's finally happened, a perfect game by a Seattle |
| 0:56.2 | manager. |
| 0:57.2 | Everyone's gone by the king, filling some enders. |
| 1:01.9 | And John J. So, once made some history of his own, swinging the bat at PNC Park in |
| 1:07.4 | Pittsburgh. |
| 1:08.4 | But if you haven't heard the name John J. So in the last few years, that's because |
| 1:25.9 | he's been about as far away from a baseball diamond as you could be. |
| 1:30.1 | John J. So has been living life at sea. |
| 1:34.1 | The score just out here, the sun is up, and it's going to be kind of windy. |
| 1:39.2 | Sometimes we hang a hammock up here. |
| 1:41.3 | Today, reporter David Gardner joins us to look at why J. So walked away from baseball, leaving |
| 1:46.6 | potentially millions of dollars on the table. |
| 1:49.6 | The parallel he found between life on the diamond and life on the ocean, and some of his |
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