Castellanos, Greene set to debut podcast

DETROIT -- Nicholas Castellanos is just coming into his own as a Tigers star. He wasn't looking to become a multimedia star. But when a member of the Tigers media relations department brought up the idea of a podcast featuring Tigers players one morning in Spring Training -- as an idea to help players connect with fans -- Castellanos perked up.
"Happened to be at the table at the time when we were talking about ideas," Castellanos said. "It wasn't like I was looking for it. It was just kind of a situation that fell into my lap. They asked if I'd be up for it and I said yeah."
Shane Greene wasn't so sure.
"He said we should do a podcast," Greene said, "And I thought to myself, 'I've never even heard of podcasts.'"
The result is the 619 podcast, featuring the Tigers' right fielder and closer. The first episode is set to go online shortly at tigers.com. It's essentially a conversation between two players with quirky personalities discussing their upbringing in baseball, as well as life, with a healthy dose of humor mixed in.
"What's the worst that could possibly happen," Castellanos asks on the first episode.
"The worst thing that could happen is people think that we're idiots," Greene answered.
"But let's be real: Most of the time, if we play bad, they think we're idiots anyway," Castellanos joked.

Castellanos and Greene are two of the more prominent personalities in a young Tigers clubhouse. Both have taken on prominent roles on the field over the past year. Castellanos not only moved from third base to right field, he became a focal point of the revamped Tigers lineup. Greene converted from starter to reliever last year, then became closer for the stretch run.
"We weren't good at our first jobs, and we got switched, and we're doing alright," Castellanos joked.
Much of the first episode deals with introducing listeners to the personalities behind the players, and trying to relate to fans who watch them on the field every day.
"Just Shane and I talking about ourselves, pro ball, childhood, elementary school, amateur baseball, Draft day, life in the Minor Leagues, the team this year, teammates, difference in coaching staff, goal of the podcast," Castellanos said. "It was pretty much just like Shane and I having a conversation, with headphones on."
Expect more along those lines as the podcast continues. Castellanos hopes to bring in guests in future episodes for conversations.
"Our next show will have our mothers as guests, just because we want to give everybody an authentic impression of us, like we're not trying to be something that we're not," Castellanos said. "So I feel like before we can have serious guests, we should have the most serious guests, which would be our parents, to talk about us as kids."
Castellanos and Greene will also be taking suggestions and ideas. They've set up a twitter account @sixoneninepod where fans can interact.