February 26, 2025 • 36 mins
Welcome to Unbreakable! A mental wealth podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today’s episode, with MLB Spring Training in full swing Jay welcomes in the podcasts first ever baseball player as he rounds the bases with Milwaukee Brewers superstar Christian Yelich. The NL MVP shares amazing stories about his incredible journey to greatness and when he realized he was different. Yelich takes you through a day in the life of a big leaguer and shares what it was like being traded by his childhood hero, Derek Jeter. Plus, Christian’s Unbreakable Moment!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental wealth podcast
build you from the inside out.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Welcome into Unbreakable Mental Wealth Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
With Jay Glazer. I'm Jay Glazer, and it's funny.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I have friends on and people are from every possible
industry you can, but I don't think I've ever had
baseball player on. And why not lead off with the
first baseball player then the guy who's been the MVP
of the league, and that is my guy, Christian Yelich,
the Milwaukee Brews.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
How you know, buddy, I'm good man.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I'm honored to be one of your your few baseball friends.
I know, yeahs a very small group of.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Be a part of it.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I've had a couple, you know what the now think.
I don't know if I've told you this. Adrian bel
Tray I trained. He had a bunch of injuries. He
came in. We realized why he was always injured because
he was always just over exaggerating, you know, bat in
one way and it would he didn't do anything to
train his body the other way, and there was a
language barrier there. But you know, they have this mixed
(01:05):
martial arts training program put we usually with football players
in hockey, we did with him in baseball, and we
made him just start throwing punches and kicks the other
way to build up his body that way. And he
went out that season and after that. I don't think
you've really had injuries after that, and he just crushed it.
And I didn't heal fro him for I don't know,
seven eight years whatever, and I don't know where I
(01:27):
hit a FaceTime from him, just hey man, just really
want to tell you how much it meant to me
you work with me, and thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
But it was really special, dude, for a guy.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
And again there's a language barrier who work, but I
think there is no language barrier when you're you figure
out when you're both trying to get greatness right when
you're talking about the human body and between the years.
But it was really special for me to for him
to remember me seven years later and just having a
call after his inducted saying thank you, that was pretty special.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
That's super cool.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I only met him briefly, like I think, only on
field and stuff like that. I've heard amazing things from
teammates that have been his teammate or just running across
him and obviously hell of a player, you know, that
unbelievable career, and he was one of those guys that
you play against when you're young guy and you know
you're like, oh shit, that's at.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
So again we're so, I'm telling Derek Jeter. I got
a friend who lives around here, one guy who was
really tied with Christi Yelich, and DN know, he's like,
oh place, he's the first guy. Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
When I got Big Orleans, He's the first guy I traded.
And I was like, no, but you would.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I totally forgot because you told me, Yeah, I got
traded by my hero.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I mean yeah, yes, and like it wasn't his fault.
I guess you know that.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
I don't. I don't have anything againsteric or anything.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, he was.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
He was for sure like my favorite player growing up.
Like I love watching him.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I was a little kid when like the Yankees were
winning all those World Series and stuff like that. So
that's I kind of learned baseball through like watching him play,
and he was my favorite player. And it was uh
I only got to play against him like one time.
He was like one or two times in spring training,
never like in the actual regular season. But uh, you know,
at that time, like I kind of I kind of
the Marlins were kind of rebuilding and trading away everybody,
(03:09):
Like I kind of wanted to be traded too, so
I didn't want to have to go through a rebuild
or anything like that after already kind of right, Yeah,
he did he did me a solid and then like
you know, we both you know, at the time, I
thought we got what was best, and you know, that's
just how that's how sports works. That's how sports works
sometimes where you know, trades end up working out or
(03:29):
don't end up working out. But uh, I never had
like anything against him for trading me because I kind
of always wanted to be I wanted to be moved
at that point. Obviously you don't have any control where
it's going.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
But I just think it's an ironic story. Would you
get traded by your childhood?
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Yeah, it's kind of fun the story to tell people.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
It's funny, you know. But obviously, like I haven't seen him.
I haven't seen him since that happened. Actually, really no,
I haven't seen him.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Was he did you a favorite?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah, he did. I thought he did me a favorite
at the time.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I ended up working out, and you know, I'm still
in Bulwackey, so I think they end up being happy
with it too.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
We had a pretty interesting conversation because we're working with
Fox now, and I was like, I always tell these guys, hey,
when you're out there, like I know more about sports
than everybody in the planet except for you. I don't
always like to get traded. I don't know what it's like.
I have a quarterback controversy in my locker room. I
don't know what it's like to my head coach to
get fired, right. So I'm like, I'm always telling guys,
tell me something that'll oppress me that I can't read
in USA today, So to me, while my wife Rosie
(04:25):
and Jeter and where this other restaurant our friend of
Owenn's called Stake forty eight, we're going over this and
straight Hand's great because he tells everybody like listen to Glaze.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
He trains us when we come in here.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
And and because there's no guidebook form when you start broadcasting,
no one teaches you how to do anything. When I
signed with Fox, because that's such a New York accent,
they maybe will work with a broadcast coach because they
didn't want me coming on, like, hey, hey, don't we
got these three guys. If I had to go through it,
and then I if I could turn around and teach
somebody something, it's ingrained me. I have like photographic memory.
(04:57):
So I immediately started teaching it to stray In and Tiki
Harbor and things, and now I still do it with
certain people. And also again that thing was just tell
me something I don't know. So Jeter says, oh, you gotta,
you know, just gotta make the World Series like every
other game.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
I said, dude, everyone says that, but that is what
I mean.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Take me deeper, like, how do you really make the
World Series just another game?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And he says, I said, tell me something I don't know.
He said, all right, well, I actually.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Used to get there before games early and kind of
go mess with the kids there and the fans because
it made me think I was back in the Little league.
I was like, that's pretty cool. There there you go.
That's something that's different. That's how you make it just
another game. How do you make it a big game
just another game?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
I mean I think even I mean, I've never I've
never played it in the World Series, gotten close, gotten
a couple of innings away have All Star games.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
I've gotten a couple of innings. But you know, I
think it's hard to.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Ignore, like you, I think you have to kind of
like acknowledge, like it's a big game. And I think
the more times you do it, the easier it becomes.
You know, I think he was in the World Series.
I don't know a lot of seven eight times. So
like I've kind of learned that with like going to
the like the playoffs and All Star games, and and
(06:16):
the more you do them and the more you know
what you're getting into, you can kind of mentally prepare
yourself for what you're going to experience, Like it's not
a shock anymore. I think the first time you're in
the postseason, the first time you go to an All
Star game, like they are different just because there's so
much more media there, Like there's different things on the field,
Like there's different attention, there's different energy in the stadium,
(06:37):
so you can feel it.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
But I think you kind of ignowledge. For me, like I.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Acknowledge it, like okay, like this is this is pretty cool,
like the big game. Like a lot of people here
the atmosphere is cool, but it's like a privilege to
be there because some people go their entire careers.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
And all that one they never go to They never
go to experience that.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
When you're a kid like dreaming and playing like professional sports,
like you're dreaming about the big moments, the All Star
games or the playoffs or the World series. That's what
you want to be in. At least that's what I
wanted to be is like I wanted to I wanted
to be in these moments. So it's like, all right, this,
appreciate the opportunity. And you know it's gonna sound kind
of weird, but or maybe not. But I think when
(07:14):
you once you fail in those moments, like if you
you get a limit that you lose.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Or like you have a bad game or you do something.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Bad and then like you wake up the next morning
that the world didn't end right, you're like, well, that's that's.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
That's like worst that was like worst case scenario. That's
like the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
That the only reason that you're nervous or that you
have like anxiety about the games because you're thinking about
like all the bad shit. You don't get nervous because
you're like, oh, I'm gonna do great. You know, that
doesn't make you nervous. You're nervous because you're like what
if I don't play good? Or what if what if
this happened? Or what if you lose? And then once
you do that, like yeah, if you do lose or
you don't play good or something really shitty happens, and
(07:50):
then you come out the other side of it, you're like, well, yeah,
that sucked, but like son still rose, I'm all right,
like everything's everything's still going, you know. And then like, oh,
that was what I was That's what I was nervous about,
or like that's what I was kind of worried about
going to this game, and like yeah, it was not
the best time, but like not the end of the world.
And the next time you're in that situation, like you're
(08:12):
not nervous or you remove the Fear's like I've already
I've already come out to the other side of this,
Like what do I have to fear? You know, doesn't matter,
you know, not not that you don't care, because you
do care and you want to do good. But like
I felt like that fear and that anxiety and like
all that is is kind of out the window.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
And that's in a lot of big games, dude.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
And maybe it's like the athlete in me, but like
when you watch like the super Bowl or these NFL
games or whatever playoff game, like someone's gonna win, someone's
gonna lose, and usually like there's a certain player that's
the reason why somebody wont and there's a certain player
why somebody lost, Like somebody makes a player or something
happens where you're the reason your team either won or lost.
(08:49):
And so like one guy's a hero in his city
and the other guy's probably never allowed to go back
there the rest of his life, you know. And like
that's the stakes of those games. Like when you play,
you're like, all right, well I do something good here
and the team wins, and I might have a statue
in this place. And if I do something bad and
the team loses, like I might be in my family
might never be able to come back in the state
ever again. And like that's the stakes that people don't
(09:11):
realize that these guys like play underwent. Yeah, these games
start and like football, there's.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Only seventeen of them where he's yeah, and I've worked
with a lot of these guys.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
And it's funny because as time goes on, the guys
where I found it really struggled years later, especially with
Twitter now and stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
But it gets so loud to them later on in life.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
And I've told guys, I actually prevented guys from a
couple of guys from suicide as a result. And I've
told them, listen, I covered I was there at that game.
I did that game for Fox. I don't remember you
were the one who messed that play up or fumble
that or drop that ball.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I don't remember that. Like, it's big in your mind,
but it's really not big in the world. And you've
got to realize that there's so much.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Other greatness that was there, and you're like, but that
the stress of you know, football and baseball is so
much it's it's strung out.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
A lot more.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Yeah, it's just like any where.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I think it's the most magnified in football, probably because
there's it's a one game and done. Baseball there's like
a series, unless it's that's a game seven. You know,
I've played one game seven before. Yeah, man, Like that's
the stakes for like the athletes in those games. But
you know, like what are you gonna do? Nobody wants
to do Nobody wants to play bad. You know, so
like your teammates, everybody that they're cool, they understand.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Give me when you're because again this whole podcast about
what goes on between arrears when you're sitting about of bucks.
Take me through the conversation that you have do clear
your brand? Do you talk to yourself? Is it constant?
You know, self talk, self praise, making sure you don't
beat up for yourself, noticing things about pictures that like
tell me the conversation that goes on between yours.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
For me, it's just a lot of like focus, like
I kind of know what I want to do before
going up there, and so like the whole thing that's going.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
On in my head during like an at bad that is.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
You know, it's always different depending on a like who
the picture is, be like the situation of like where
runners are like stuff like that, because you get pitched
a little bit different with guys like in sporm position
or not. And then like you have your own like
internal For me, I have my own like own internal
cues while I'm hitting as far as like gear around timing,
like all right, won I need like when do I
need to start?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
When? And that's all that's all.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
By start, I mean like start your swing and that
all happens like on deck or like when you're in
the dugout still.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Like okay, like really this guy click to the plate?
He s to the plate?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Am I going to have to make sure that, like
I'm not surprised here? Like have I faced this guy before?
And then once you're in the box, like I try
to have as little going on in my mind as possible,
Like I just try to simplify, like all right, won
do I need to start with? You know, timing when
you I need to start like my load and I
swing and all that with this guy and then if
I face them before, like you kind of have like that,
(11:52):
you know, internal dialogue with yourself like all right, what
happened before?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
How's he pitched me before?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
When you make a choice to swing, when you see
if that ball is coming to strike zone or blowing outside?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Where is it delivery? Do you see it? Mid it?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Just when you're when you're really going good, you don't
even think about it, like you just go when you're
supposed to go. When when you're going bad is when
you're thinking too much, I would say, and you're like
you're not. You don't trust yourself to like make a
good decision, if that makes sense, Like if you're kind
of trying, if you're guessing, like what pitch it is,
because things and baseball happen so fast, so you don't
have like you don't really have a time to be like, okay, fastball,
(12:31):
cool ball, stright, Like that just happens instinctively, like and
you're like you can just see it and like your
body stops or you see it and you just go
like breaking ball or fastball, and when you're going good,
when you're not going good, like you're in between. You
you can't hit a fastball, you can't hit a breaking
ball because you're just like, well, I don't.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Want to be laid on the fastball, but like he
might throw a breaking ball. I don't know what's going
to happen.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Well, don't chase the breaking but like that's the kind
of that's the kind of shit that starts going in
your head. When guys are in a slump, like all
I'm just like not seeing her. That's when if they
like the little guys on your shoulder talking too much,
when you're in the batter's box and really bad stuff's
about to happen, when you're just like calm and like
there's nothing really going on in your head and you're
like okay, like everything just seems kind of slow and
you're really focused and you feel like you can is
(13:16):
all your thinking. For me, all I'm thinking about is
like my time in cube and like where's the ball?
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Like I don't even look for a pitch. I just
kind of like where's the ball?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Be?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
On time, you could see it though the ball like
things going ninety eight, you're able to track it.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
So half half hiesight and half instincts whether.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah right, yeah, Like when guys are throwing a hunter
like you can you can still see the ball.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
It just it just gets to you really quickly. It
gets there.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
It's noticed see it well ninety like ninety ninety five
and a hundred, like those are all kind of like
noticeable jumps and velocity, right, you know, everything else like
in between those threshold is kind of like the same.
And then once you kind of get to those, you're like, ah,
that's definitely getting you're pretty quick, but you see it
the whole time when you're when you're going to other
(14:00):
times like if you're in between or you're just messed
up up there, and like there's time where you're hitting
so hard and it's so weird that like you could
be locked in and you know, breaking and then one
day you step up, you go into the batting cage,
like get loose before the game and you like look
out at the guy throw on VP and you're like, oh, no,
this feels all wrong, what's going on here?
Speaker 4 (14:20):
And it happens.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
It literally happens just like that or really, but then
it comes back. Like you could be sucking for like
a whole week and then you can just like stand
in the on deck circle one day, like getting ready
to go.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Hit in the middle of the game and be like.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Oh that feels better really, and then you're back yeah,
or it's like a foul ball or a swing or
like something locks you back in. You just have to
keep believing that it's the next one, you know, and
that's experience too, you know, when you go through slumps
is like a young player, for like the first time,
you feel.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Like it's this is the end of the world. Everything's
everything's over.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I'm going back, I'm going back to the minor leagues,
you know, and then once you come out the other
side of it, you're like, oh, okay, yeah, we're back everything,
everything's fine, and and then you kind of usually when
you come out of a slump, you kind of learn
the reason why you were in it, because to get
out of it you kind of have to fix yourself
a little bit, and you learn a lot of lessons
when you're kind of struggling, like, okay, well this is
what happened when I was struggling.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
I got it back doing this, and you kind of.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Use that experience to that experience builds that your career
goes because you never really lose those So like in hitting,
like your problems when you were like twelve years old,
those are going to be your problems if you're thirty
three years old in the major leagues and have played
for ten years, Like your problems are your problems and
hitting with your swing, it's just like what your body does.
So when you learn how to fix them, you learn
(15:35):
how to get yourself back out of like those ruts,
you can fix them quicker. Usually ideally it doesn't always happen.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
It's a great lesson because a lot of people are
willing to base their issues and run away from them
right instead, you're saying, hey, you got to face them,
see what they are.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
And it was a look.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I went to Piland train more die out there, but
I literally went to these monks and these guys are like, hey,
just sit in your pain. I said, I said, my
pain every day. I said, no, you experience your pain.
You need to sit in it and really like heal
yourself and figure it out. It's the same thing you're
really saying of like, you've got to go sit in
whatever's causing this slum, sitting it and not run away
(16:15):
from it so you could so you could heal it.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, I mean you got to put the work in.
You know, it's two different like roalms, but both put
in the work in. You have to like invest in
it to get out of it. You know it's just
not going to happen. But you can't just sit there
and do the same thing you've been doing every single
day and expect something different to happen. You know, you
have to you have to work for it. And you
know that goes in life and sports, like you know,
(16:37):
you get you get out of it what you put
in you know.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
When you're talking about also just you know, being up there,
you got to have half your eyes after instincts. I
did a TV show with Tim Brown, great Hall of
Fame receiver for the Raiders. He said, receivers don't understand,
but one of the first things that goes it's not their.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Legs, it's their eyes.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
And him and Jerry Rice used to do all these
exercises to strengthen their eyes. Would put like a number
on the ball and have the judge machine and the
two catch passes, the NFL out whatever.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Numbers, four sick, whatever's written on there. You guys do
things also to strengthen your eyes.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Or is that because the eyes go before the body
in baseball or versa.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I think the body goes before the eyes.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
But there is like guys do like eyesight training and
stuff like that in baseball. I've dabbled with it a
little bit, but I've never been like the one that's done.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
It the most by any means.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
But we do have it's the it's in the batt cage,
like you see guys doing it all the time with
some of the training staff. But yeah, I think, you know,
I think the more you play and the more experience
you have, like you have the mental aptitude for the game,
like you're you're so much farther ahead with like the
learning curve, and like you know, like sometimes you know
what's going to happen in that bats or sequences and
stuff like that, your body is just not capable of
(17:49):
doing it.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
When you see guys that have played for a long.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Time, they just can't get to the hundred on our
festival anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Ye turn their hoops, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
And then you just start cheating and then you and
then guys start throwing curveball and change ups and all
that stuff, and then it's just a smiral.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
But you know, so far, my rigs holding up decently.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Why did you realize you were different?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I mean, I think there's been like a couple of
different times. I think I think the first time, like
I realized that I was going to be able to
like go to college or play like pro ball was well,
the first time I knew I'd probably going to be
able to play baseball in college was like my freshman
sophomore year of high school. I mean the varsity team.
I was the only freshman that did it that year,
and like we had some pretty good players that were
(18:28):
going to be drafted or a lot of guys that
were going to like D one schools, And even the
league had both. You know, they had some seniors, junior
seniors that were high draft guys or guys that were
going to pretty serious D one colleges.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
And like I was, I was able to hold my own.
You know, I wouldn't say like I did.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I didn't dominate my freshman year, but I didn't look
like I didn't belong on the field, And like I
felt like I was, I was doing pretty good and
you know, kind of kept building and like sophomore junior
of high school, you know, I felt like I was
getting a lot better. Like I just kept getting better.
A lot of my friends in high school that I
grew up with, they played baseball. They're D one baseball players,
(19:06):
you know, they all so we were all pretty good
as kids. You know, nobody was like really head or
shoulders above each other. So we all kind of just
thought we were like all the same, you know, and
we were for a while. You know, going to D
one schools, no little thing, like you got to be
pretty good.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
You gotta be pretty good to do that. But even
when they were going to d one.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Like I don't know, I was just always able to
perform and like naturally hit. Like I think I had
like a natural gift to just be able to hit. Yeah,
and like I obviously had to work. You have to
keep working at it and like improve at it if
you want to keep going. But like naturally, I was
just always able to kind of hit, and like I
could feel things, and like hitting just kind of like
(19:45):
made sense to me.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Nobody in my family.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Played baseball, so like I didn't really have hitting coaches
growing up.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
It was me just kind of feeling it out, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I could feel what it felt like when I felt good,
and I could feel what it felt like when it
felt bad, And like you're always kind of just trying
to fix yourself as a little kid. And I didn't
even realize it at the time, but that helped me
like past my career progress because I would just go
off field. But the thing about that, sometimes, like when
you don't have any like coaches or you never really
did drills and stuff as a kid to like find
(20:14):
your swing when that shit went when that shit goes south,
it's a little bit harder to find it because you
never really had anything that like got you back there.
It was just like wow, I just felt it, you know.
But even out of high school, I thought I was
going to go to college. Actually at a high school,
I was going to University of Miami, And when I
made that decision, I thought I was going to school
at the time.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
When I made that commit in my.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Junior year, I was I was always like I was
pretty good, but I was never like, you're no doubt,
like first round pick, you know, or and that's the
only really that's the only way I was not going
to go to school was if you know, I was
a first round draft dack.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
They gave me first round money to like bypass college.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I was like, I could, you know, I can make
that work and not ill figure out school later.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
But uh, it was never like that for me.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Like I was never an All American and I ever
made the All American team in high school.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Got cut from that, tem Usa got cut from that.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
There's an Area Code Games, which is like I would
I don't know how to describe.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
It, but it's like there's like eight teams.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
From like all over the country and they all play
in Long Beach and it's like the best players in
the country from like all the different regions, you know, Northwest.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
All that stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
So I made that, but I only played part time.
It was actually for the Brewers. That was our team
was the Brewers, which is kind of fun. But so
I played part time at that, you know, but that's fine,
you know. But at the time, I was like, all right,
like all these guys that make Team USA all the America,
those definitely like the first round picks because you got
college guys, high school guys. Everybody's going in the same draft.
(21:39):
So I was fine with going to college.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
At the time. I didn't really I was like, all right,
that's just that's gonna be my path.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
And then there was a there was like a showcase
one day, and so right before the high school baseball
season starts, there's this urban Youth Academy in Compton that's
like the MLB Academy, and there was like a big
like West Coast showcase there and and I had like
the best day I like at one of those things.
Like everything was just like went great, like best best sixty.
(22:07):
I ran, had a really good batting practice when the
game started, played really good in the game, and then
after that it was just like my draft stop kind
of just started.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Climbing and climbing and going one day.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, you know, I think I was probably on people's
radar at that time, but it was kind of just
I'm not the best. I was not the best like
showcase player growing up, because I don't have the best arm,
Like I don't throw the hardest in the outfield. I
never hit the ball the farthest in batting practice. I
never ran the fastest sixty. So I never had like
one tool that you would like watch and you'd be
like wow, like that's that's it, except when the game
(22:40):
played like I could always play, like I could just
get hit, you know, when I could always do the shit.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
I could do the shit that mattered. I could play
the game. But like if you just.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Watched any individual tool, it was like, all right, I
was tall. I was a really I was probably six three,
like one hundred and seventy pounds in high school, one
hundred and seventy.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
I was really skin.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So that day, like I had a great day, great showcase,
like everything went perfect, which you know doesn't really happen.
And then carry that into the high school season, had
a good year, and then I worked out well for
the teams, like in the workouts after the high school season,
and when the draft came, I kind of knew that
I was going to end up being a first rounder.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I didn't know I was going to go to the Marlins.
But what were you?
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Twenty three, twenty ten, Right, pretty good draft class. Actually
a lot of good players in that class.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
That's huge.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
But you get that call, it's got like I actually
wasn't paying attention.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
So I was watching the draft on TV with like
a couple of friends and stuff like that, and it
was the Marlins pick, but I hadn't talk to them
at all, like leading into the draft process, like I
did a home visit with our area scout Tim It
was like really quick some of like some home visits
would be a few hours, some would be like thirty minutes,
and his was like thirty minutes checking in and saying
what's up, and then like that was it. Like I
(23:53):
didn't really do a pre draft workout like some teams
will have like their scouting directors and scouts everybody like
fives out like this private workout, and so I did
those with a few teams, but never them, so like
their pick was on the board, I wasn't even I
wasn't even really paying attention. I wasn't even watching the TV.
Like I heard my name get called before I saw it.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
It was like, yeah, because I just didn't think But they.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Don't before like the NFL and you just blocked on TV.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
At that time.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, I don't know if they didn't, they might now,
but like, oh my god, the draft was.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Even like less of a production then than it is now. Yeah,
there was no phone call or nothing.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
I was Yeah, I don't even remember what I was doing,
but I definitely wasn't watching TV at the time I
heard it.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
That was pretty cool. I stall like a couple of
days of high school left and stuff too. After that.
It was it was kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, when we were going back to high school, college students,
high school students under your millionaire pretty good walk around always.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah, I remember like having like finals and stuff and
they like, I don't care about this at all, you know,
like I'm going to end up signing.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
But the other thing that kind of blew me away
when I was talking to Junior was the lifestyle the
baseball player of you and I them at also, but like, man,
tell people what time you get to the stadium and
you really a star like you Also, you got to
do all your media, like he was saying that he
didn't really eat dinner till one o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
You got long days, dude, Like take us through your
day a night. Games like yeah, like a standard, like
a standard like seven to ten if you're at home.
If you're at home, you can kind of go. You
can go whenever on the road now too that you're
like a veteran guy.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
But if you're a young guy on the road, you
better be on the better be on the first bus.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
But what time is that noon?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
It's probably like one o'clock for seven o'clock game.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Guys will get.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
There around one one thirty at home, you know sometimes too,
depending on like what you got to do or what's
your routine is that day.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
But yeah, you're there.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
You're like there, like one one. I'm one of the
early guys because I like to I like to eat
lunch there. I just like to be there and then
do some stuff in the training room. Got like a
little like like warm up routine like in the weight
room and stuff like that. So and then you go
in the cage like do whatever, like routine you got
in there with hitting coaches like pre BP. Sometimes the
infielders will have like ground balls and do whatever they
(26:14):
got to do for infield defense that day, all before
batting practice even starts. And then you know there's like
we have a team stretch and then batting practice you
come back in. They'll be like hitters meetings. Then some
guys get a little something to eat, and everybody else
kind of goes off and does their own thing to
get ready for the game. Everybody has like their own routine.
Some guys sit in their locker, some guys will play
ping pong, some guys will go in the weight room
(26:35):
and do whatever. Other guys like try to take a nap.
Everybody has their own little thing. But then the game
starts at seven. You're kind of done around ten. You know,
it's like a pretty standard game. And then you get
the media comes in like after the manager talks to them,
which I don't know, that's like a half hour after
the game ends, and then guys will eat, do some
(26:56):
training room stuff if you want to do like some
whatever cold tup things or whatever. Every modality you do
after the game, Like I don't know, Sometimes you're walking
back in the house at midnight, you.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Know, after a game.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
So you're you're putting in eleven twelve hour days and
that's without travel. Sometimes you go to the airport after
that and then you're flying and then you play the
next day too, but.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
As a picture and you're not playing those five day
If you've got add it must be a bear.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, those guys, like I don't know how, I don't
know what they do. Like it's kind of crazy because
like position players and pictures, like you're on the same team,
but like you might not like see each other until
like certain points in the day because everybody's doing their
own thing, Like they have their things, they have their meetings.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
We have, like the position players have our stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Like you might cross paths in the locker room or
like in like the food room or something like that
during the day like after BP or PREBP or something
like that. But sometimes like you don't see each other.
They have their own like lifting routine during like the
week that they're not like the days they're not pitching,
they have like their own like lifting thing, their own
recovery times. Like they live a whole different life, ring
(28:00):
trainings for pictures, but they have like the easiest. They
have the easiest training.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
So the NFL, you know, off of the line, and
they're the weirdos and locker they're their own mute so
they're their own community.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Like they're different. Really, who's the widows of the locker room?
In baseball?
Speaker 4 (28:14):
It's just different. Every every year there's like a different
different group. Like I bet you like that.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
I bet you Pictures would say it's the position players.
Like the position players, says the pictures, you know, But
we actually have we've had like really, the game's gone
so young now that I I think I might be
the oldest guy on the team. Know I could be wrong,
but I'm pretty sure that I might be the oldest
guy that we have now.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
I might even know.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
But you don't play, and if you don't play video games,
you play don't got a lot to connect with.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Yeah, well we got we got some like good group
of young guys that like I'll hang out with and like,
you know, shoot the ship with their give them a
hard time or they like to do it back.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
To me sometimes. But you know, who knows what, call
me old or.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Something, but everyone's pretty cool. We spend so much, We
spend so much time with We spend way more time
with each other and we do our own family. It's
like we're not even it's not close like the time
the time wise, and like once you go back to season,
it's like eight months.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Every single day you're playing baseball. Like you're with these
guys for eight straight months.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
You know, we might have a few off days, but
for the most part, man, you're you're in it. You're
in that grind and you just get used to it.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
I think you getting a good routine and you know,
you start just kind of.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Putting in days, you know, Like I think in like
the middle of April, beginning of May, you get you
get in.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
A roll with the season and you look up and
it's over.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
You know, it feels like it takes forever, but then
you like look back on it in three years long by,
like that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
I got one last question for your brother. This has
been great, man. I appreciate. We're gonna have like, definitely
so much more I want to do with this. We'll
do it again during the season.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Yeah, I ask all my guests.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Give me your unbreakable moment moment that could have broken
you should have and didn't. As a result, you came
to the other side of that tunnel stronger forever.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
For me, I think it's like some of my some
of my injury stuff like pre or post like you know,
MVP year almost did it the next year, but then
broke my kneecap and then you know that sucked to
miss the last few weeks of the year and in
the postseason and just like you know, go over and
having this amazing year to like all right, now I've
got at least six months of rehab in front of me,
(30:14):
you know, and don't get to see like the end
of this, and then ended up having back stuff after
that and just struggled playing a little, like wasn't playing
at the same level. And you know, you come you
sign I signed a big deal right after those years,
and so then you get the heat on you from
from that, which understandably, so like that comes with the territory.
You sign contracts like that and you don't play up
(30:36):
to that level like that sports man. So but I
remember that being like a tough time dealing with the
dealing with like the injuries and like you know, trying
to figure out how to perform at that level again,
and like you definitely spend. You spend a lot of
time sometimes, and I remember that was kind of around
the time me and you crossed paths actually just by chance,
you know, through big wit.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
I think I met you in this Yeah, I met
you in this house.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Yeah, back, but we ended up kind of hitting it off,
and I remember talking to you a lot about like
not even baseball, but just like the mental side of
things and like how to deal with that.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
And it was kind of a time in my life.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Where I was learning how to how to balance injuries
with like not performing who I wanted to, but still
knowing that I could somehow.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
I just needed to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
And then you know, when you're dealing with injuries in
your sport that you kind of fall out of love
with them a little bit because it's just like the frustration.
And then you're like, well, I don't know how I
can you know, I don't know how this is going
to go if I can play, Like, I don't know
if I can still do this at at a high level,
even though like I believe that I could, Like it
starts to creep in your head or like, well I
don't know, maybe not, you know, like you don't really
(31:41):
want to admit it to anybody, but it definitely enters
your head like shit, like yeah, you know, and then
ended up coming out of it. You know, the last
couple of years have been really good, Like I got
hurt again last year, but hopefully like we're on the
other side of that now. We got it cleaned up with,
you know, cleaned up, cleaned up good. But you know,
I think it kind of goes back to what we
were talking about earlier. You learn a lot about yourself
(32:02):
and the times when things aren't going right and if
you're struggling, and like you kind of have to stare
in the face at some point. I think in sports,
like you play long enough in sports man, like everyone's
going to have a moment you have to stare it.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
You have to stare it right back in the eyes
and be like, all right, like this.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Is gonna go one or two ways that we need
to figure it out. Like right now, it's either it's
either going to go they're gonna get back on track,
or it's not going to go so good. And like
if you want to keep going and you don't want
it to be the end, like you need to figure
it out.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
For me, it was just like constantly trying to find
a way to do it at a high level again.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
And I felt like I was a I've been able
to do that like the last two years, and you
can continue to be able to do that until you know,
take the jersey out, which hopefully is not for a
little bit longer, you know, man, But yeah, it was.
It was a tough time for sure. I mean it's
I don't think a lot of people knew how tough
of the time it was, you know. Besides like the
select few, like people that I'm pretty good friends with.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
It's like, man, you let me in, man, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Up.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
I don't remember when we were were we talked about.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I think maybe we were witch house watching a game, which.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
House talking on a game, But we went to dinner
one night too.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I don't know, it might've been at Nobuo or something
like that, but I remembering you're talking, yeah, and then
you were slumping.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
You got hurt, and WIT's like, hey call them, And
I reached out to you and I just started make
sure picking you up, man, because that the roommates in
our head are telling us some bad things that aren't true,
and I wanted to make sure you weren't listening to them,
you know, I wanted you see the truth.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
The truth is exactly who this is, right, not the truth,
It's not the truth.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Those roommates tell us really bad things when when are
when you know the loneliness of an injury, we start
doubting ourselves And there was no reason to start doubting
yourself at that point.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yeah, I told you that you need somebody to tell you,
and that's my job was, you know.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
And you're a great friend man that you really you
didn't have to do any of that stuff, and you're
always checking in.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
That's why what some brothers are for.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
Yeah, we're always checking out on each other. And I
think when you go through those times, like you know,
you don't.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Really talk to a lot of people about it because
you feel like you have to, like, all right, I
have to still like put on a certain front, like
you have to act like everything's fine, like when you're
when you're at the stadium, everything, like you still have
to be like, oh, yeah, everything it's all good, Like yeah, no, no,
I'm fine, like everything everything's good. And then you know,
it's really common baseball where guys, it's such a mental
game that right, there's guys that for sure struggle mentally
(34:22):
by themselves at the you know, everything's fine at the stadium,
but you go home and you know you're chilling by
yourself and in your room and whatever it is midnight
after you know, getting your teeth kicked in for like
this two weeks in a row.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
The thing about baseball is like you have to keep
you just have to keep coming back like that, just
have to battle on that sport is like you might
fail forever, but you have to keep telling yourself like
the next one is the next one, the next one,
the next one.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
But learned a lot and learn that you can come
out the.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Other side of some some tough some tough things and
everything's going to be all right and big time learn
lesson And now that you're on the other side of it,
it's like, all right, Well, that was just kind of
part of the journey and part of the experience, and
that's something that you can use to help somebody else
out one day that's that's going through something similar and
it just doesn't know how to navigate it yet.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
Like I didn't. I didn't really.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
I was kind of just fine by the seat of
my pants and trying to figure it out as we went.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Knowledge is great, man, but so also I always have
to say, you never know what lies around next Tuesday.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
You never know, you never know, you never know.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Get in tomorrow. Just hey, next Tuesday. You want to
what You're one away, You're one day away from this ending.
They're one one meeting way it wait, one chance meeting
with you and I'm just a conversation that changed a
lot for each for the two of us.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
And everything usually gets better even when you think it's
not going to or like you know, like this shit
just keeps getting worse, dude, but eventually it turns the
corner and it starts going. It might you might have
ten miles of shit to still go, but eventually you're
going to hit the bottom and you can come.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
You're going to start going in the other direction, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Man. Appreciate you, man, I love you, dude.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
And I love it too, bro, and appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
And it's always fun talking and hanging dude, and thanks me.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
We're long overdueing this thing, no man, gladly, fine, gotta
do it.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
We'll do it again during the season, definitely.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
Yeah, we have to, man, appreciate it,
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental wealth podcast
build you from the inside out.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Welcome into Unbreakable Mental Wealth Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
With Jay Glazer. I'm Jay Glazer, and it's funny.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I have friends on and people are from every possible
industry you can, but I don't think I've ever had
baseball player on. And why not lead off with the
first baseball player then the guy who's been the MVP
of the league, and that is my guy, Christian Yelich,
the Milwaukee Brews.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
How you know, buddy, I'm good man.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I'm honored to be one of your your few baseball friends.
I know, yeahs a very small group of.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Be a part of it.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I've had a couple, you know what the now think.
I don't know if I've told you this. Adrian bel
Tray I trained. He had a bunch of injuries. He
came in. We realized why he was always injured because
he was always just over exaggerating, you know, bat in
one way and it would he didn't do anything to
train his body the other way, and there was a
language barrier there. But you know, they have this mixed
(01:05):
martial arts training program put we usually with football players
in hockey, we did with him in baseball, and we
made him just start throwing punches and kicks the other
way to build up his body that way. And he
went out that season and after that. I don't think
you've really had injuries after that, and he just crushed it.
And I didn't heal fro him for I don't know,
seven eight years whatever, and I don't know where I
(01:27):
hit a FaceTime from him, just hey man, just really
want to tell you how much it meant to me
you work with me, and thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
But it was really special, dude, for a guy.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
And again there's a language barrier who work, but I
think there is no language barrier when you're you figure
out when you're both trying to get greatness right when
you're talking about the human body and between the years.
But it was really special for me to for him
to remember me seven years later and just having a
call after his inducted saying thank you, that was pretty special.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
That's super cool.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I only met him briefly, like I think, only on
field and stuff like that. I've heard amazing things from
teammates that have been his teammate or just running across
him and obviously hell of a player, you know, that
unbelievable career, and he was one of those guys that
you play against when you're young guy and you know
you're like, oh shit, that's at.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
So again we're so, I'm telling Derek Jeter. I got
a friend who lives around here, one guy who was
really tied with Christi Yelich, and DN know, he's like,
oh place, he's the first guy. Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
When I got Big Orleans, He's the first guy I traded.
And I was like, no, but you would.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I totally forgot because you told me, Yeah, I got
traded by my hero.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I mean yeah, yes, and like it wasn't his fault.
I guess you know that.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
I don't. I don't have anything againsteric or anything.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, he was.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
He was for sure like my favorite player growing up.
Like I love watching him.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I was a little kid when like the Yankees were
winning all those World Series and stuff like that. So
that's I kind of learned baseball through like watching him play,
and he was my favorite player. And it was uh
I only got to play against him like one time.
He was like one or two times in spring training,
never like in the actual regular season. But uh, you know,
at that time, like I kind of I kind of
the Marlins were kind of rebuilding and trading away everybody,
(03:09):
Like I kind of wanted to be traded too, so
I didn't want to have to go through a rebuild
or anything like that after already kind of right, Yeah,
he did he did me a solid and then like
you know, we both you know, at the time, I
thought we got what was best, and you know, that's
just how that's how sports works. That's how sports works
sometimes where you know, trades end up working out or
(03:29):
don't end up working out. But uh, I never had
like anything against him for trading me because I kind
of always wanted to be I wanted to be moved
at that point. Obviously you don't have any control where
it's going.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
But I just think it's an ironic story. Would you
get traded by your childhood?
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Yeah, it's kind of fun the story to tell people.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
It's funny, you know. But obviously, like I haven't seen him.
I haven't seen him since that happened. Actually, really no,
I haven't seen him.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Was he did you a favorite?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah, he did. I thought he did me a favorite
at the time.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I ended up working out, and you know, I'm still
in Bulwackey, so I think they end up being happy
with it too.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
We had a pretty interesting conversation because we're working with
Fox now, and I was like, I always tell these guys, hey,
when you're out there, like I know more about sports
than everybody in the planet except for you. I don't
always like to get traded. I don't know what it's like.
I have a quarterback controversy in my locker room. I
don't know what it's like to my head coach to
get fired, right. So I'm like, I'm always telling guys,
tell me something that'll oppress me that I can't read
in USA today, So to me, while my wife Rosie
(04:25):
and Jeter and where this other restaurant our friend of
Owenn's called Stake forty eight, we're going over this and
straight Hand's great because he tells everybody like listen to Glaze.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
He trains us when we come in here.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
And and because there's no guidebook form when you start broadcasting,
no one teaches you how to do anything. When I
signed with Fox, because that's such a New York accent,
they maybe will work with a broadcast coach because they
didn't want me coming on, like, hey, hey, don't we
got these three guys. If I had to go through it,
and then I if I could turn around and teach
somebody something, it's ingrained me. I have like photographic memory.
(04:57):
So I immediately started teaching it to stray In and Tiki
Harbor and things, and now I still do it with
certain people. And also again that thing was just tell
me something I don't know. So Jeter says, oh, you gotta,
you know, just gotta make the World Series like every
other game.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
I said, dude, everyone says that, but that is what
I mean.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Take me deeper, like, how do you really make the
World Series just another game?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And he says, I said, tell me something I don't know.
He said, all right, well, I actually.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Used to get there before games early and kind of
go mess with the kids there and the fans because
it made me think I was back in the Little league.
I was like, that's pretty cool. There there you go.
That's something that's different. That's how you make it just
another game. How do you make it a big game
just another game?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
I mean I think even I mean, I've never I've
never played it in the World Series, gotten close, gotten
a couple of innings away have All Star games.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
I've gotten a couple of innings. But you know, I
think it's hard to.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Ignore, like you, I think you have to kind of
like acknowledge, like it's a big game. And I think
the more times you do it, the easier it becomes.
You know, I think he was in the World Series.
I don't know a lot of seven eight times. So
like I've kind of learned that with like going to
the like the playoffs and All Star games, and and
(06:16):
the more you do them and the more you know
what you're getting into, you can kind of mentally prepare
yourself for what you're going to experience, Like it's not
a shock anymore. I think the first time you're in
the postseason, the first time you go to an All
Star game, like they are different just because there's so
much more media there, Like there's different things on the field,
Like there's different attention, there's different energy in the stadium,
(06:37):
so you can feel it.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
But I think you kind of ignowledge. For me, like I.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Acknowledge it, like okay, like this is this is pretty cool,
like the big game. Like a lot of people here
the atmosphere is cool, but it's like a privilege to
be there because some people go their entire careers.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
And all that one they never go to They never
go to experience that.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
When you're a kid like dreaming and playing like professional sports,
like you're dreaming about the big moments, the All Star
games or the playoffs or the World series. That's what
you want to be in. At least that's what I
wanted to be is like I wanted to I wanted
to be in these moments. So it's like, all right, this,
appreciate the opportunity. And you know it's gonna sound kind
of weird, but or maybe not. But I think when
(07:14):
you once you fail in those moments, like if you
you get a limit that you lose.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Or like you have a bad game or you do something.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Bad and then like you wake up the next morning
that the world didn't end right, you're like, well, that's that's.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
That's like worst that was like worst case scenario. That's
like the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
That the only reason that you're nervous or that you
have like anxiety about the games because you're thinking about
like all the bad shit. You don't get nervous because
you're like, oh, I'm gonna do great. You know, that
doesn't make you nervous. You're nervous because you're like what
if I don't play good? Or what if what if
this happened? Or what if you lose? And then once
you do that, like yeah, if you do lose or
you don't play good or something really shitty happens, and
(07:50):
then you come out the other side of it, you're like, well, yeah,
that sucked, but like son still rose, I'm all right,
like everything's everything's still going, you know. And then like, oh,
that was what I was That's what I was nervous about,
or like that's what I was kind of worried about
going to this game, and like yeah, it was not
the best time, but like not the end of the world.
And the next time you're in that situation, like you're
(08:12):
not nervous or you remove the Fear's like I've already
I've already come out to the other side of this,
Like what do I have to fear? You know, doesn't matter,
you know, not not that you don't care, because you
do care and you want to do good. But like
I felt like that fear and that anxiety and like
all that is is kind of out the window.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
And that's in a lot of big games, dude.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
And maybe it's like the athlete in me, but like
when you watch like the super Bowl or these NFL
games or whatever playoff game, like someone's gonna win, someone's
gonna lose, and usually like there's a certain player that's
the reason why somebody wont and there's a certain player
why somebody lost, Like somebody makes a player or something
happens where you're the reason your team either won or lost.
(08:49):
And so like one guy's a hero in his city
and the other guy's probably never allowed to go back
there the rest of his life, you know. And like
that's the stakes of those games. Like when you play,
you're like, all right, well I do something good here
and the team wins, and I might have a statue
in this place. And if I do something bad and
the team loses, like I might be in my family
might never be able to come back in the state
ever again. And like that's the stakes that people don't
(09:11):
realize that these guys like play underwent. Yeah, these games
start and like football, there's.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Only seventeen of them where he's yeah, and I've worked
with a lot of these guys.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
And it's funny because as time goes on, the guys
where I found it really struggled years later, especially with
Twitter now and stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
But it gets so loud to them later on in life.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
And I've told guys, I actually prevented guys from a
couple of guys from suicide as a result. And I've
told them, listen, I covered I was there at that game.
I did that game for Fox. I don't remember you
were the one who messed that play up or fumble
that or drop that ball.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I don't remember that. Like, it's big in your mind,
but it's really not big in the world. And you've
got to realize that there's so much.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Other greatness that was there, and you're like, but that
the stress of you know, football and baseball is so
much it's it's strung out.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
A lot more.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Yeah, it's just like any where.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I think it's the most magnified in football, probably because
there's it's a one game and done. Baseball there's like
a series, unless it's that's a game seven. You know,
I've played one game seven before. Yeah, man, Like that's
the stakes for like the athletes in those games. But
you know, like what are you gonna do? Nobody wants
to do Nobody wants to play bad. You know, so
like your teammates, everybody that they're cool, they understand.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Give me when you're because again this whole podcast about
what goes on between arrears when you're sitting about of bucks.
Take me through the conversation that you have do clear
your brand? Do you talk to yourself? Is it constant?
You know, self talk, self praise, making sure you don't
beat up for yourself, noticing things about pictures that like
tell me the conversation that goes on between yours.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
For me, it's just a lot of like focus, like
I kind of know what I want to do before
going up there, and so like the whole thing that's going.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
On in my head during like an at bad that is.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
You know, it's always different depending on a like who
the picture is, be like the situation of like where
runners are like stuff like that, because you get pitched
a little bit different with guys like in sporm position
or not. And then like you have your own like
internal For me, I have my own like own internal
cues while I'm hitting as far as like gear around timing,
like all right, won I need like when do I
need to start?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
When? And that's all that's all.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
By start, I mean like start your swing and that
all happens like on deck or like when you're in
the dugout still.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Like okay, like really this guy click to the plate?
He s to the plate?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Am I going to have to make sure that, like
I'm not surprised here? Like have I faced this guy before?
And then once you're in the box, like I try
to have as little going on in my mind as possible,
Like I just try to simplify, like all right, won
do I need to start with? You know, timing when
you I need to start like my load and I
swing and all that with this guy and then if
I face them before, like you kind of have like that,
(11:52):
you know, internal dialogue with yourself like all right, what
happened before?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
How's he pitched me before?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
When you make a choice to swing, when you see
if that ball is coming to strike zone or blowing outside?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Where is it delivery? Do you see it? Mid it?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Just when you're when you're really going good, you don't
even think about it, like you just go when you're
supposed to go. When when you're going bad is when
you're thinking too much, I would say, and you're like
you're not. You don't trust yourself to like make a
good decision, if that makes sense, Like if you're kind
of trying, if you're guessing, like what pitch it is,
because things and baseball happen so fast, so you don't
have like you don't really have a time to be like, okay, fastball,
(12:31):
cool ball, stright, Like that just happens instinctively, like and
you're like you can just see it and like your
body stops or you see it and you just go
like breaking ball or fastball, and when you're going good,
when you're not going good, like you're in between. You
you can't hit a fastball, you can't hit a breaking
ball because you're just like, well, I don't.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Want to be laid on the fastball, but like he
might throw a breaking ball. I don't know what's going
to happen.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Well, don't chase the breaking but like that's the kind
of that's the kind of shit that starts going in
your head. When guys are in a slump, like all
I'm just like not seeing her. That's when if they
like the little guys on your shoulder talking too much,
when you're in the batter's box and really bad stuff's
about to happen, when you're just like calm and like
there's nothing really going on in your head and you're
like okay, like everything just seems kind of slow and
you're really focused and you feel like you can is
(13:16):
all your thinking. For me, all I'm thinking about is
like my time in cube and like where's the ball?
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Like I don't even look for a pitch. I just
kind of like where's the ball?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Be?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
On time, you could see it though the ball like
things going ninety eight, you're able to track it.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
So half half hiesight and half instincts whether.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah right, yeah, Like when guys are throwing a hunter
like you can you can still see the ball.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
It just it just gets to you really quickly. It
gets there.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
It's noticed see it well ninety like ninety ninety five
and a hundred, like those are all kind of like
noticeable jumps and velocity, right, you know, everything else like
in between those threshold is kind of like the same.
And then once you kind of get to those, you're like, ah,
that's definitely getting you're pretty quick, but you see it
the whole time when you're when you're going to other
(14:00):
times like if you're in between or you're just messed
up up there, and like there's time where you're hitting
so hard and it's so weird that like you could
be locked in and you know, breaking and then one
day you step up, you go into the batting cage,
like get loose before the game and you like look
out at the guy throw on VP and you're like, oh, no,
this feels all wrong, what's going on here?
Speaker 4 (14:20):
And it happens.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
It literally happens just like that or really, but then
it comes back. Like you could be sucking for like
a whole week and then you can just like stand
in the on deck circle one day, like getting ready
to go.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Hit in the middle of the game and be like.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Oh that feels better really, and then you're back yeah,
or it's like a foul ball or a swing or
like something locks you back in. You just have to
keep believing that it's the next one, you know, and
that's experience too, you know, when you go through slumps
is like a young player, for like the first time,
you feel.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Like it's this is the end of the world. Everything's
everything's over.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I'm going back, I'm going back to the minor leagues,
you know, and then once you come out the other
side of it, you're like, oh, okay, yeah, we're back everything,
everything's fine, and and then you kind of usually when
you come out of a slump, you kind of learn
the reason why you were in it, because to get
out of it you kind of have to fix yourself
a little bit, and you learn a lot of lessons
when you're kind of struggling, like, okay, well this is
what happened when I was struggling.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
I got it back doing this, and you kind of.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Use that experience to that experience builds that your career
goes because you never really lose those So like in hitting,
like your problems when you were like twelve years old,
those are going to be your problems if you're thirty
three years old in the major leagues and have played
for ten years, Like your problems are your problems and
hitting with your swing, it's just like what your body does.
So when you learn how to fix them, you learn
(15:35):
how to get yourself back out of like those ruts,
you can fix them quicker. Usually ideally it doesn't always happen.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
It's a great lesson because a lot of people are
willing to base their issues and run away from them
right instead, you're saying, hey, you got to face them,
see what they are.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
And it was a look.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I went to Piland train more die out there, but
I literally went to these monks and these guys are like, hey,
just sit in your pain. I said, I said, my
pain every day. I said, no, you experience your pain.
You need to sit in it and really like heal
yourself and figure it out. It's the same thing you're
really saying of like, you've got to go sit in
whatever's causing this slum, sitting it and not run away
(16:15):
from it so you could so you could heal it.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, I mean you got to put the work in.
You know, it's two different like roalms, but both put
in the work in. You have to like invest in
it to get out of it. You know it's just
not going to happen. But you can't just sit there
and do the same thing you've been doing every single
day and expect something different to happen. You know, you
have to you have to work for it. And you
know that goes in life and sports, like you know,
(16:37):
you get you get out of it what you put
in you know.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
When you're talking about also just you know, being up there,
you got to have half your eyes after instincts. I
did a TV show with Tim Brown, great Hall of
Fame receiver for the Raiders. He said, receivers don't understand,
but one of the first things that goes it's not their.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Legs, it's their eyes.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
And him and Jerry Rice used to do all these
exercises to strengthen their eyes. Would put like a number
on the ball and have the judge machine and the
two catch passes, the NFL out whatever.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Numbers, four sick, whatever's written on there. You guys do
things also to strengthen your eyes.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Or is that because the eyes go before the body
in baseball or versa.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I think the body goes before the eyes.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
But there is like guys do like eyesight training and
stuff like that in baseball. I've dabbled with it a
little bit, but I've never been like the one that's done.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
It the most by any means.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
But we do have it's the it's in the batt cage,
like you see guys doing it all the time with
some of the training staff. But yeah, I think, you know,
I think the more you play and the more experience
you have, like you have the mental aptitude for the game,
like you're you're so much farther ahead with like the
learning curve, and like you know, like sometimes you know
what's going to happen in that bats or sequences and
stuff like that, your body is just not capable of
(17:49):
doing it.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
When you see guys that have played for a long.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Time, they just can't get to the hundred on our
festival anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Ye turn their hoops, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
And then you just start cheating and then you and
then guys start throwing curveball and change ups and all
that stuff, and then it's just a smiral.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
But you know, so far, my rigs holding up decently.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Why did you realize you were different?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I mean, I think there's been like a couple of
different times. I think I think the first time, like
I realized that I was going to be able to
like go to college or play like pro ball was well,
the first time I knew I'd probably going to be
able to play baseball in college was like my freshman
sophomore year of high school. I mean the varsity team.
I was the only freshman that did it that year,
and like we had some pretty good players that were
(18:28):
going to be drafted or a lot of guys that
were going to like D one schools, And even the
league had both. You know, they had some seniors, junior
seniors that were high draft guys or guys that were
going to pretty serious D one colleges.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
And like I was, I was able to hold my own.
You know, I wouldn't say like I did.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I didn't dominate my freshman year, but I didn't look
like I didn't belong on the field, And like I
felt like I was, I was doing pretty good and
you know, kind of kept building and like sophomore junior
of high school, you know, I felt like I was
getting a lot better. Like I just kept getting better.
A lot of my friends in high school that I
grew up with, they played baseball. They're D one baseball players,
(19:06):
you know, they all so we were all pretty good
as kids. You know, nobody was like really head or
shoulders above each other. So we all kind of just
thought we were like all the same, you know, and
we were for a while. You know, going to D
one schools, no little thing, like you got to be
pretty good.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
You gotta be pretty good to do that. But even
when they were going to d one.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Like I don't know, I was just always able to
perform and like naturally hit. Like I think I had
like a natural gift to just be able to hit. Yeah,
and like I obviously had to work. You have to
keep working at it and like improve at it if
you want to keep going. But like naturally, I was
just always able to kind of hit, and like I
could feel things, and like hitting just kind of like
(19:45):
made sense to me.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Nobody in my family.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Played baseball, so like I didn't really have hitting coaches
growing up.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
It was me just kind of feeling it out, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I could feel what it felt like when I felt good,
and I could feel what it felt like when it
felt bad, And like you're always kind of just trying
to fix yourself as a little kid. And I didn't
even realize it at the time, but that helped me
like past my career progress because I would just go
off field. But the thing about that, sometimes, like when
you don't have any like coaches or you never really
did drills and stuff as a kid to like find
(20:14):
your swing when that shit went when that shit goes south,
it's a little bit harder to find it because you
never really had anything that like got you back there.
It was just like wow, I just felt it, you know.
But even out of high school, I thought I was
going to go to college. Actually at a high school,
I was going to University of Miami, And when I
made that decision, I thought I was going to school
at the time.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
When I made that commit in my.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Junior year, I was I was always like I was
pretty good, but I was never like, you're no doubt,
like first round pick, you know, or and that's the
only really that's the only way I was not going
to go to school was if you know, I was
a first round draft dack.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
They gave me first round money to like bypass college.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I was like, I could, you know, I can make
that work and not ill figure out school later.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
But uh, it was never like that for me.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Like I was never an All American and I ever
made the All American team in high school.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Got cut from that, tem Usa got cut from that.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
There's an Area Code Games, which is like I would
I don't know how to describe.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
It, but it's like there's like eight teams.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
From like all over the country and they all play
in Long Beach and it's like the best players in
the country from like all the different regions, you know, Northwest.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
All that stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
So I made that, but I only played part time.
It was actually for the Brewers. That was our team
was the Brewers, which is kind of fun. But so
I played part time at that, you know, but that's fine,
you know. But at the time, I was like, all right,
like all these guys that make Team USA all the America,
those definitely like the first round picks because you got
college guys, high school guys. Everybody's going in the same draft.
(21:39):
So I was fine with going to college.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
At the time. I didn't really I was like, all right,
that's just that's gonna be my path.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
And then there was a there was like a showcase
one day, and so right before the high school baseball
season starts, there's this urban Youth Academy in Compton that's
like the MLB Academy, and there was like a big
like West Coast showcase there and and I had like
the best day I like at one of those things.
Like everything was just like went great, like best best sixty.
(22:07):
I ran, had a really good batting practice when the
game started, played really good in the game, and then
after that it was just like my draft stop kind
of just started.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Climbing and climbing and going one day.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, you know, I think I was probably on people's
radar at that time, but it was kind of just
I'm not the best. I was not the best like
showcase player growing up, because I don't have the best arm,
Like I don't throw the hardest in the outfield. I
never hit the ball the farthest in batting practice. I
never ran the fastest sixty. So I never had like
one tool that you would like watch and you'd be
like wow, like that's that's it, except when the game
(22:40):
played like I could always play, like I could just
get hit, you know, when I could always do the shit.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
I could do the shit that mattered. I could play
the game. But like if you just.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Watched any individual tool, it was like, all right, I
was tall. I was a really I was probably six three,
like one hundred and seventy pounds in high school, one
hundred and seventy.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
I was really skin.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So that day, like I had a great day, great showcase,
like everything went perfect, which you know doesn't really happen.
And then carry that into the high school season, had
a good year, and then I worked out well for
the teams, like in the workouts after the high school season,
and when the draft came, I kind of knew that
I was going to end up being a first rounder.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I didn't know I was going to go to the Marlins.
But what were you?
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Twenty three, twenty ten, Right, pretty good draft class. Actually
a lot of good players in that class.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
That's huge.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
But you get that call, it's got like I actually
wasn't paying attention.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
So I was watching the draft on TV with like
a couple of friends and stuff like that, and it
was the Marlins pick, but I hadn't talk to them
at all, like leading into the draft process, like I
did a home visit with our area scout Tim It
was like really quick some of like some home visits
would be a few hours, some would be like thirty minutes,
and his was like thirty minutes checking in and saying
what's up, and then like that was it. Like I
(23:53):
didn't really do a pre draft workout like some teams
will have like their scouting directors and scouts everybody like
fives out like this private workout, and so I did
those with a few teams, but never them, so like
their pick was on the board, I wasn't even I
wasn't even really paying attention. I wasn't even watching the TV.
Like I heard my name get called before I saw it.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
It was like, yeah, because I just didn't think But they.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Don't before like the NFL and you just blocked on TV.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
At that time.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, I don't know if they didn't, they might now,
but like, oh my god, the draft was.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Even like less of a production then than it is now. Yeah,
there was no phone call or nothing.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
I was Yeah, I don't even remember what I was doing,
but I definitely wasn't watching TV at the time I
heard it.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
That was pretty cool. I stall like a couple of
days of high school left and stuff too. After that.
It was it was kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, when we were going back to high school, college students,
high school students under your millionaire pretty good walk around always.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah, I remember like having like finals and stuff and
they like, I don't care about this at all, you know,
like I'm going to end up signing.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
But the other thing that kind of blew me away
when I was talking to Junior was the lifestyle the
baseball player of you and I them at also, but like, man,
tell people what time you get to the stadium and
you really a star like you Also, you got to
do all your media, like he was saying that he
didn't really eat dinner till one o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
You got long days, dude, Like take us through your
day a night. Games like yeah, like a standard, like
a standard like seven to ten if you're at home.
If you're at home, you can kind of go. You
can go whenever on the road now too that you're
like a veteran guy.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
But if you're a young guy on the road, you
better be on the better be on the first bus.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
But what time is that noon?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
It's probably like one o'clock for seven o'clock game.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Guys will get.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
There around one one thirty at home, you know sometimes too,
depending on like what you got to do or what's
your routine is that day.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
But yeah, you're there.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
You're like there, like one one. I'm one of the
early guys because I like to I like to eat
lunch there. I just like to be there and then
do some stuff in the training room. Got like a
little like like warm up routine like in the weight
room and stuff like that. So and then you go
in the cage like do whatever, like routine you got
in there with hitting coaches like pre BP. Sometimes the
infielders will have like ground balls and do whatever they
(26:14):
got to do for infield defense that day, all before
batting practice even starts. And then you know there's like
we have a team stretch and then batting practice you
come back in. They'll be like hitters meetings. Then some
guys get a little something to eat, and everybody else
kind of goes off and does their own thing to
get ready for the game. Everybody has like their own routine.
Some guys sit in their locker, some guys will play
ping pong, some guys will go in the weight room
(26:35):
and do whatever. Other guys like try to take a nap.
Everybody has their own little thing. But then the game
starts at seven. You're kind of done around ten. You know,
it's like a pretty standard game. And then you get
the media comes in like after the manager talks to them,
which I don't know, that's like a half hour after
the game ends, and then guys will eat, do some
(26:56):
training room stuff if you want to do like some
whatever cold tup things or whatever. Every modality you do
after the game, Like I don't know, Sometimes you're walking
back in the house at midnight, you.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Know, after a game.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
So you're you're putting in eleven twelve hour days and
that's without travel. Sometimes you go to the airport after
that and then you're flying and then you play the
next day too, but.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
As a picture and you're not playing those five day
If you've got add it must be a bear.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, those guys, like I don't know how, I don't
know what they do. Like it's kind of crazy because
like position players and pictures, like you're on the same team,
but like you might not like see each other until
like certain points in the day because everybody's doing their
own thing, Like they have their things, they have their meetings.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
We have, like the position players have our stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Like you might cross paths in the locker room or
like in like the food room or something like that
during the day like after BP or PREBP or something
like that. But sometimes like you don't see each other.
They have their own like lifting routine during like the
week that they're not like the days they're not pitching,
they have like their own like lifting thing, their own
recovery times. Like they live a whole different life, ring
(28:00):
trainings for pictures, but they have like the easiest. They
have the easiest training.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
So the NFL, you know, off of the line, and
they're the weirdos and locker they're their own mute so
they're their own community.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Like they're different. Really, who's the widows of the locker room?
In baseball?
Speaker 4 (28:14):
It's just different. Every every year there's like a different
different group. Like I bet you like that.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
I bet you Pictures would say it's the position players.
Like the position players, says the pictures, you know, But
we actually have we've had like really, the game's gone
so young now that I I think I might be
the oldest guy on the team. Know I could be wrong,
but I'm pretty sure that I might be the oldest
guy that we have now.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
I might even know.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
But you don't play, and if you don't play video games,
you play don't got a lot to connect with.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Yeah, well we got we got some like good group
of young guys that like I'll hang out with and like,
you know, shoot the ship with their give them a
hard time or they like to do it back.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
To me sometimes. But you know, who knows what, call
me old or.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Something, but everyone's pretty cool. We spend so much, We
spend so much time with We spend way more time
with each other and we do our own family. It's
like we're not even it's not close like the time
the time wise, and like once you go back to season,
it's like eight months.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Every single day you're playing baseball. Like you're with these
guys for eight straight months.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
You know, we might have a few off days, but
for the most part, man, you're you're in it. You're
in that grind and you just get used to it.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
I think you getting a good routine and you know,
you start just kind of.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Putting in days, you know, Like I think in like
the middle of April, beginning of May, you get you
get in.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
A roll with the season and you look up and
it's over.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
You know, it feels like it takes forever, but then
you like look back on it in three years long by,
like that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
I got one last question for your brother. This has
been great, man. I appreciate. We're gonna have like, definitely
so much more I want to do with this. We'll
do it again during the season.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Yeah, I ask all my guests.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Give me your unbreakable moment moment that could have broken
you should have and didn't. As a result, you came
to the other side of that tunnel stronger forever.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
For me, I think it's like some of my some
of my injury stuff like pre or post like you know,
MVP year almost did it the next year, but then
broke my kneecap and then you know that sucked to
miss the last few weeks of the year and in
the postseason and just like you know, go over and
having this amazing year to like all right, now I've
got at least six months of rehab in front of me,
(30:14):
you know, and don't get to see like the end
of this, and then ended up having back stuff after
that and just struggled playing a little, like wasn't playing
at the same level. And you know, you come you
sign I signed a big deal right after those years,
and so then you get the heat on you from
from that, which understandably, so like that comes with the territory.
You sign contracts like that and you don't play up
(30:36):
to that level like that sports man. So but I
remember that being like a tough time dealing with the
dealing with like the injuries and like you know, trying
to figure out how to perform at that level again,
and like you definitely spend. You spend a lot of
time sometimes, and I remember that was kind of around
the time me and you crossed paths actually just by chance,
you know, through big wit.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
I think I met you in this Yeah, I met
you in this house.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Yeah, back, but we ended up kind of hitting it off,
and I remember talking to you a lot about like
not even baseball, but just like the mental side of
things and like how to deal with that.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
And it was kind of a time in my life.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Where I was learning how to how to balance injuries
with like not performing who I wanted to, but still
knowing that I could somehow.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
I just needed to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
And then you know, when you're dealing with injuries in
your sport that you kind of fall out of love
with them a little bit because it's just like the frustration.
And then you're like, well, I don't know how I
can you know, I don't know how this is going
to go if I can play, Like, I don't know
if I can still do this at at a high level,
even though like I believe that I could, Like it
starts to creep in your head or like, well I
don't know, maybe not, you know, like you don't really
(31:41):
want to admit it to anybody, but it definitely enters
your head like shit, like yeah, you know, and then
ended up coming out of it. You know, the last
couple of years have been really good, Like I got
hurt again last year, but hopefully like we're on the
other side of that now. We got it cleaned up with,
you know, cleaned up, cleaned up good. But you know,
I think it kind of goes back to what we
were talking about earlier. You learn a lot about yourself
(32:02):
and the times when things aren't going right and if
you're struggling, and like you kind of have to stare
in the face at some point. I think in sports,
like you play long enough in sports man, like everyone's
going to have a moment you have to stare it.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
You have to stare it right back in the eyes
and be like, all right, like this.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Is gonna go one or two ways that we need
to figure it out. Like right now, it's either it's
either going to go they're gonna get back on track,
or it's not going to go so good. And like
if you want to keep going and you don't want
it to be the end, like you need to figure
it out.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
For me, it was just like constantly trying to find
a way to do it at a high level again.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
And I felt like I was a I've been able
to do that like the last two years, and you
can continue to be able to do that until you know,
take the jersey out, which hopefully is not for a
little bit longer, you know, man, But yeah, it was.
It was a tough time for sure. I mean it's
I don't think a lot of people knew how tough
of the time it was, you know. Besides like the
select few, like people that I'm pretty good friends with.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
It's like, man, you let me in, man, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Up.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
I don't remember when we were were we talked about.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I think maybe we were witch house watching a game, which.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
House talking on a game, But we went to dinner
one night too.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I don't know, it might've been at Nobuo or something
like that, but I remembering you're talking, yeah, and then
you were slumping.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
You got hurt, and WIT's like, hey call them, And
I reached out to you and I just started make
sure picking you up, man, because that the roommates in
our head are telling us some bad things that aren't true,
and I wanted to make sure you weren't listening to them,
you know, I wanted you see the truth.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
The truth is exactly who this is, right, not the truth,
It's not the truth.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Those roommates tell us really bad things when when are
when you know the loneliness of an injury, we start
doubting ourselves And there was no reason to start doubting
yourself at that point.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yeah, I told you that you need somebody to tell you,
and that's my job was, you know.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
And you're a great friend man that you really you
didn't have to do any of that stuff, and you're
always checking in.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
That's why what some brothers are for.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
Yeah, we're always checking out on each other. And I
think when you go through those times, like you know,
you don't.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Really talk to a lot of people about it because
you feel like you have to, like, all right, I
have to still like put on a certain front, like
you have to act like everything's fine, like when you're
when you're at the stadium, everything, like you still have
to be like, oh, yeah, everything it's all good, Like yeah, no, no,
I'm fine, like everything everything's good. And then you know,
it's really common baseball where guys, it's such a mental
game that right, there's guys that for sure struggle mentally
(34:22):
by themselves at the you know, everything's fine at the stadium,
but you go home and you know you're chilling by
yourself and in your room and whatever it is midnight
after you know, getting your teeth kicked in for like
this two weeks in a row.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
The thing about baseball is like you have to keep
you just have to keep coming back like that, just
have to battle on that sport is like you might
fail forever, but you have to keep telling yourself like
the next one is the next one, the next one,
the next one.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
But learned a lot and learn that you can come
out the.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Other side of some some tough some tough things and
everything's going to be all right and big time learn
lesson And now that you're on the other side of it,
it's like, all right, Well, that was just kind of
part of the journey and part of the experience, and
that's something that you can use to help somebody else
out one day that's that's going through something similar and
it just doesn't know how to navigate it yet.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
Like I didn't. I didn't really.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
I was kind of just fine by the seat of
my pants and trying to figure it out as we went.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Knowledge is great, man, but so also I always have
to say, you never know what lies around next Tuesday.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
You never know, you never know, you never know.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Get in tomorrow. Just hey, next Tuesday. You want to
what You're one away, You're one day away from this ending.
They're one one meeting way it wait, one chance meeting
with you and I'm just a conversation that changed a
lot for each for the two of us.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
And everything usually gets better even when you think it's
not going to or like you know, like this shit
just keeps getting worse, dude, but eventually it turns the
corner and it starts going. It might you might have
ten miles of shit to still go, but eventually you're
going to hit the bottom and you can come.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
You're going to start going in the other direction, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Man. Appreciate you, man, I love you, dude.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
And I love it too, bro, and appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
And it's always fun talking and hanging dude, and thanks me.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
We're long overdueing this thing, no man, gladly, fine, gotta
do it.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
We'll do it again during the season, definitely.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
Yeah, we have to, man, appreciate it,
Host
Jay Glazer
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