Small Talk: Matt Barnes Loves To Read Military and Mystery Stories

In this edition of “Small Talk,” Boston Red Sox pitcher Matt Barnes sits down to answer some big questions from little kids.

Q. What would a robot do on your team?

A. I’m not entirely sure what he would do, I might have to think about that. If I was gonna pick a robot it would definitely be Optimus Prime. He’s a lot better than Megatron in all of the Transformer movies, but I would probably just keeping him around to be buddies, someone to hang out with.

Q. Do you love reading?

A. Absolutely. I don’t read as much as I probably should, but I do enjoy reading. I’ve read a couple books over the last few years, “American Sniper,” the story about Chris Kyle, and “Lone Survivor,” two of my favorite books of all time. So I do enjoy reading.

Q. Do you listen to music like my grandmother?

A. I listen to music. I don’t know if it’s the same kind of music as your grandmother — mine’s on an mp3 player usually. My parents have the old discs too. I do listen to music, I love country music, electronic music, anything that’s good I listen to.

Q. My favorite planet is Saturn and it has a lot of rings. Do you have any rings?

A. I do. I was very fortunate in college — my junior year we won the Big East regular season (title) so I got a championship ring for that. Last year was my first professional ring. I got it with the Pawtucket Red Sox (who) won the International League, so I got a ring for that.

Q. What’s the funniest video on YouTube you’ve ever seen?

A. The funniest video I’ve ever seen on YouTube? I don’t know. The one about the Charlie with the baby biting the finger was pretty funny, I liked that. I haven’t seen it in a while, but that one’s funny. I’m not a big YouTube guy, I don’t go on there a ton and if I do it’s usually to look at cars. But yeah, probably the “Charlie bit my finger” one.

Q. Who sings the best on the team?

A. Oh that’s hands down me. I have the best voice. I’ve been told I’m the song bird of my generation. Honestly, I don’t know really. We don’t really sing a ton. I would imagine that Joe Kelly has a pretty good voice though.

Q. What were you for Halloween?

A. My favorite Halloween costume that I think I’ve ever had was Buddy The Elf about three or four years ago — the yellow tights, the curly hair, the green jacket. That was probably one of my favorite ones that I’ve ever done.

Q. What was your favorite show when you were a kid?

A. I had so many. Saturday morning cartoons were the best. Coming home from school everyday watching cartoons, I used to watch “SpongeBob,” “Rocket Power,” “Power Rangers” when I was real young. My parents tell me but I don’t really remember this but I used to watch “Barney” like it was my job. There was a ton but those are a few of them.

Q. What’s your favorite kind of story?

A. I think my favorite kind of story is either a mystery novel — I used to read a bunch of those– or I kinda like the true story military books about our Navy Seals and things like that. Kinda two totally different genres there, but those are probably my two favorite.

Thumbnail photo via Gregory J. Fisher/USA TODAY Sports Images