[MATTY BENIERS] Hi. I'm Matty Beniers.
I made my professional hockey debut
April 12th (2022).
[MATT BRASH] Hi, I’m Matt Brash.
I also made my Major League debut on April 12th (2022).
♪♪
[ANNOUNCER] Matt Brash is making his major league debut today.
♪♪
Swing and a miss!
Filthy stuff
from Matt Brash!
♪♪
(laughter)
Oh, pretty good hitter to keep that in mind.
He makes the former MVP look like he hasn't picked up a bat for a while.
♪♪
[RICK RIZZS] He came up as a starter and we saw this raw ability
to throw a baseball, an incredible slider to go with the fastball.
And I thought, this kid is really something special.
[ANNOUNCER] A one, two, three inning for Brash.
[ANNOUNCER] The Kraken get to it.
Matty Beniers up top...
[NARRATOR] On that same day later in the evening,
the OTHER Matt, Matty Beniers,
made HIS debut
in the National Hockey League.
[ANNOUNCER] THEY SCORE!
♪♪
Fired home by Ryan Donato...
and the first NHL point for Matty Beniers
is an assist.
Watch Beniers.
He looked once, twice,
it’s almost a no look pass.
Oh, that’s a great look at it.
Matty Beniers in his first NHL game...
[JOHN FORSLUND] I was amazed.
In his first game, I saw a presence defensively,
an awareness on the ice, little intangibles that you look for in veteran players
that was already there.
♪♪
[ANNOUNCER] 3-2... swing and a miss
a topsy turvy.
[RICK RIZZS] One of the best hitters in the American League, Jose Ramirez
with the Cleveland Indians
and throws him a slider that pitch made Ramirez look silly.
He had no chance.
♪♪
[MATT BRASH] I've always had the pitch, but
definitely got a little more confidence now in the big leagues and
feel a lot more comfortable.
[RICK RIZZS] That slider is one of the nastiest pitches in all of baseball.
-Is that pitcher remind you of any? -Yeah.
Mr. Snappy with Randy Johnson.
Randy Johnson had one of the
greatest sliders in baseball history as well.
[MATT BRASH] It's pretty awesome to hear that from Rick.
Randy is a little bit taller than me and throws from the opposite side.
But it's really cool to be put in that same category
for sure.
[NARRATOR] While both Matts were working through their first seasons,
on one of his off days,
Beniers went to his first Mariners game.
[MATTY BENIERS] I went to my first game, uh, the other week.
[NARRATOR] Do you know who pitched the game that you went to?
[MATTY BENIERS] I think it may have been Barsh?
Matt BARSH, is that what it is?
-BRASH.
-Brash, yeah...
-So you saw Matt Brash? -Yeah. Yeah.
[NARRATOR] Have you heard of a player named Matty Beniers?
[MATT BRASH] I've heard that name. Yeah.
I think he threw the first pitch here last year or something like that.
[MATTY BENIERS] I heard he was a hockey player too when he was young.
[MATT BRASH] Ask me if I played hockey, I did.
[NARRATOR] You know what
uh, Matt Brash was doing on April 12th?
-No.
-He was making his major league debut.
-Oh, yeah.
[NARRATOR] You made your major league debuts on the same day.
[MATT BRASH] Did we?
[NARRATOR] MB and MB.
-Yeah. -Same day.
-Two players with the same initials. -Hmm.
-Wow.
-Wow, that's pretty cool.
[NARRATOR] What’s cool is both players have already
helped their teams reach the playoffs.
And in Matty’s first full season,
he won the Calder Memorial Trophy,
as the National Hockey League’s
Rookie of the Year.
[MATTY BENIERS] Hockey is hockey , you know
you play your whole life and
you get here and
obviously its a lot tougher
there’s a lot of things to learn, but
att he end of the day, you just gotta play to
your strengths and
you know, keep playing your same game you always have,
you gotta keep having fun.
It's still fun every night...
And I you know, there's always something to push for,
you know, you know, we clinched playoffs now, we were pushing for that.
all year, making playoffs and now you've done that.
And then the next thing is pushing to win the
Stanley Cup
(crowd cheering)
[ANNOUNCER] The 1-2....
he goes!
[MATT BRASH] I’m just happy to be playing ball.
It’s a dream come true to play here.
And Mariners are a great org
and these fans are awesome.
So every day is just a blessing.
[ANNOUNCER] He sees that Brash slider.
[RICK RIZZS] A little nugget there, MB - MB, Matt Brash, Matty Beniers.
♪♪
Two young studs, one for hockey, one for baseball.
[JOHN FORSLUND] As fans, you just relish it because you get a chance to watch it.
You know they're going to be here a long time.
[ANNOUNCER] Beniers...
(crowd cheering)
(baseball bat ping)
[ANNOUNCER] Three pitches, all sliders.
[RICK RIZZS] We're so happy with our MB
And I know the Kraken is very happy with their MB.
[ANNOUNCER] Beniers
Burakovsky... Beniers moves in.
SCORE!
(bull horn)
Hey Hey!
What do you say?
Matty Beniers!
The Kraken!
They do it again, they win it in overtime.
♪♪
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