Speaker 1: Hey everybody, and welcome. It's another edition to Dirt from
Speaker 1: the Dugout. Carl Ravitch and Justin muse well, great guest tonight.
Speaker 1: Can't wait to bring Eric hosmerin to discuss the way
Speaker 1: that he came up in this sport, his historic career
Speaker 1: that he had thirteen years playing with the Royals, World
Speaker 1: Series champion, MVP of an All Star game. We'll get
Speaker 1: to all that. Justin, how you been my friend.
Speaker 2: I'm great, buddy.
Speaker 3: Great to be with you tonight, man, and excited for
Speaker 3: this conversation. This will be a really good one.
Speaker 1: He don't forget to get your questions in, and please
Speaker 1: don't forget, man, this is all about the Parent Dugout.
Speaker 1: You can ask your questions this evening and the YouTube
Speaker 1: and on the X chat where of course on x
Speaker 1: on both of our platforms as well. And the important
Speaker 1: part that we want is to grow our membership and
Speaker 1: we've done a great job with that. We appreciate it.
Speaker 1: So thanks for watching and please join the Parent Dugout
Speaker 1: dot com. The content is on the left. It's part
Speaker 1: of what you get here each and every week. It's
Speaker 1: what Justin does with baseball recruiting. Confidential there's a big community.
Speaker 1: You can be a part of. Any questions you have,
Speaker 1: have info at the parent dugout dot com. And for
Speaker 1: those of you who are smart enough to be with us,
Speaker 1: let's say hello to our guests tonight. That is the
Speaker 1: great Eric Hasmer, the Wizard of Hawes is Jonna. Hey, Eric,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for being on with us. We appreciate it.
Speaker 4: What's up, Olas? I don't know if I'm smart enough
Speaker 4: to be on this with you guys. I'm starting to
Speaker 4: question myself after hearing that right.
Speaker 2: Light in that man. I appreciate you, guys.
Speaker 1: Let's get into Let's get into what we do here Hawes,
Speaker 1: and we want you to be able to share your
Speaker 1: journey in baseball, the good, if there was any bad,
Speaker 1: some of the ugly, because we have a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of people out there who are raising kids to play
Speaker 1: baseball and they have a million questions about the best
Speaker 1: way to do it, and it turns out there's not
Speaker 1: one way to do it. So let's go back to
Speaker 1: when you were a little boy. Why in the world
Speaker 1: did you choose baseball? How did you end up in
Speaker 1: that lane?
Speaker 4: Baseball? I mean, that's what you know. Me and my
Speaker 4: buddies in my neighborhood. That's the sport that we just
Speaker 4: gravitated to. You know, we'd always be outside doing something,
Speaker 4: playing basketball, shooting hoops and whatever season it was.
Speaker 2: Baseball was the one that we just enjoyed the most.
Speaker 4: We ended up playing all little league together, and once
Speaker 4: I was like twelve years old, I got on a
Speaker 4: team in South Florida.
Speaker 2: We created a team called the Diamond Kings.
Speaker 4: That was our travel league, and that's really when we
Speaker 4: started to really enjoy We went to Cooperstown, we started
Speaker 4: to travel for tournaments. We started to kind of get
Speaker 4: away from being in like a league for ten to
Speaker 4: twenty games, and we started going around at different tournaments
Speaker 4: every weekend. So it was a team aspect, but then
Speaker 4: that we started kind of getting a little more competitive
Speaker 4: with it, and that's when it really started to get fun.
Speaker 4: The Cooperstown Tournament in Dreams Park, Cooperstown, New York is unbelievable.
Speaker 2: You get to stay in the barracks, you know, in
Speaker 2: the dorms with the coaches.
Speaker 4: So once you get to go on like a road
Speaker 4: trip and travel for a tournament, you're just like, man,
Speaker 4: this is I love every part of this and you
Speaker 4: begining to play teams outside of your county, your state, national,
Speaker 4: and then you start to understand your age group, and
Speaker 4: that's when it starts to get really fun.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, no doubt about that. By the way, I'm
Speaker 1: sure Justin you probably have been there. I'll be honest
Speaker 1: as Justin can ask the next question. I took our
Speaker 1: boys to the Cooperstown Field Dreams and stayed in the
Speaker 1: barracks and as an adult halls, it's a little different
Speaker 1: than it was for the kids, so I can promise
Speaker 1: you that, but it was an elevant experience.
Speaker 4: I don't know, if I'm coaching a team, I'm gonna say, listen,
Speaker 4: I'll be I'll meet you guys at the field.
Speaker 2: Don't worry, someone handle it.
Speaker 1: There you go. That's right.
Speaker 4: But so then from from there it was it was
Speaker 4: really cool because all of our guys from South Florida,
Speaker 4: from that Diamond Kings team, we ended up going like
Speaker 4: four or five of us ended up.
Speaker 2: Going to the same high school.
Speaker 4: And we went to a high school American Heritage, where
Speaker 4: it's kindergarten through twelfth grade. There's a junior varsity, a
Speaker 4: junior high, junior varsity, and varsity team. So we had
Speaker 4: a catcher that was on the varsity team at eighth grade.
Speaker 4: Guys were getting called up, so it was fun, it
Speaker 4: was competitive, and what was really cool about it it
Speaker 4: was once the school season started, that's when we kind
Speaker 4: of it was separate. We had summer ball and then
Speaker 4: once the fall in the high school season started. The
Speaker 4: fall was about conditioning and like team chemistry and team.
Speaker 2: Building, bonding and then.
Speaker 4: You got ready for your season and then obviously winning
Speaker 4: a state championship was it was probably the biggest deal
Speaker 4: for all of us at that age, and summer ball
Speaker 4: was kind of like a second thing. And I know
Speaker 4: it's changed a lot, but that's kind of the routine
Speaker 4: of how it went for us.
Speaker 2: So I felt like from twelve years old to my.
Speaker 4: Senior year of high school there was a good core,
Speaker 4: solid group of players and guys that you know, I
Speaker 4: got to play with from that.
Speaker 2: Age on, which was really cool.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think when we look at the
Speaker 3: landscape now too. Man, I talk about this a lot
Speaker 3: on here on the show, but it you know, it's
Speaker 3: we've moved so much away from playing with others in
Speaker 3: our communities often and for many years, as you know,
Speaker 3: and so a lot of kids, even at nine ten
Speaker 3: years old, are going away from their communities and they're
Speaker 3: going to play travel ball.
Speaker 2: I have no issue with travel ball.
Speaker 3: I think travel ball has a great place in this
Speaker 3: and I know a lot of great people in it.
Speaker 2: But it's very.
Speaker 3: Unique to be within your community and play with the
Speaker 3: same players. I had that luxury as well, play with
Speaker 3: a lot of the same players and they become very
Speaker 3: close and best friends. And it's something I'm really big
Speaker 3: on from a human element of it. Can you just
Speaker 3: share what that meant to you growing up and having
Speaker 3: that around you, with some of your best friends around
Speaker 3: you for years and years and years that you play with.
Speaker 4: Well, you said it right there, justin the human element.
Speaker 4: Human element, like you need to learn how to be
Speaker 4: a teammate, you know, part of being a teammate, especially
Speaker 4: in baseball when the ultimate goal is to make it
Speaker 4: to the world of the major leagues, and that's one
Speaker 4: hundred and sixty two game season, that's twenty days, thirty
Speaker 4: days in spring training, that's another twenty days in the
Speaker 4: postseason if you plan on making it to the postseason.
Speaker 4: So first and foremost, you need to be a good teammate,
Speaker 4: make sure your teammates like you. So that to me,
Speaker 4: that was where our group from twelve to eighteen years old,
Speaker 4: the human element that's for that's when that development.
Speaker 2: Was happening for me.
Speaker 4: We were, you know, always preaching fundamentals our high school coach,
Speaker 4: our twelve year old coach. So when you get to
Speaker 4: the minor leagues and there's players from all over the country,
Speaker 4: you'd be amazed by how many professional baseball players that
Speaker 4: I've signed for millions of dollars don't know the basic
Speaker 4: core fundamentals of just baseball, of being where you need
Speaker 4: to be on the field, and then on the flip
Speaker 4: side of that, on the off the field type of stuff,
Speaker 4: like you need to know how to be a teammate.
Speaker 4: You need to understand, you know, when certain times are
Speaker 4: in need of not like someone you know, talking to
Speaker 4: someone uplifting someone when you know times are going back
Speaker 4: you need that uplifting.
Speaker 2: So I understand kind of where the youth.
Speaker 4: Game has gone and it's gotten really individualized, and the
Speaker 4: last thing you want is for these guys, these kids
Speaker 4: to be going from team to team each weekend, traveling
Speaker 4: and really not get and to know your teammates and
Speaker 4: not you know, being able to develop and have a
Speaker 4: relationship with your teammates, teammates off the field and just develop,
Speaker 4: you know, being a kid, being a person.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds a lot like you had the best
Speaker 1: of both worlds because you took this group that you
Speaker 1: were really tight with and you were able to kind
Speaker 1: of travel with them. But they were kids that you
Speaker 1: met when you were ten and left and twelve thirteen
Speaker 1: years old. A lot of times now that gets splintered off.
Speaker 1: And as I've said to Justin and others on this show,
Speaker 1: and we've had managers on this show, and the Padroyas
Speaker 1: of the world, and Dusty Baker's the stuff that you
Speaker 1: guys benefit from being in a clubhouse, in a locker room,
Speaker 1: in a car with five of your friends. It is
Speaker 1: such an important part of baseball that you if you're
Speaker 1: not playing team sports, you don't get what came first
Speaker 1: for you. Was it the love of the game, the
Speaker 1: love for your buddies, the love of winning. So obviously
Speaker 1: that happened when you grew up with winning state championships,
Speaker 1: which came first.
Speaker 2: So for me, the love for winning.
Speaker 4: And I was able to have that mindset and create
Speaker 4: that mindset because of that group from twelve to eighteen
Speaker 4: years old that I got to kind of really get
Speaker 4: that core of the mindset just established there.
Speaker 2: And then from that point on, I was so.
Speaker 4: Lucky and so fortunate to get drafted by the Royals
Speaker 4: because the Royals, I'm coming into a farm system. Mike
Speaker 4: Mussakis today I got drafted, reached out to me and said, hey,
Speaker 4: you're coming to Instructional League in two weeks.
Speaker 2: You're living with me.
Speaker 4: I already called the Royals and I got already just
Speaker 4: there was the comfort level when I got welcomed by
Speaker 4: the group of young minor league prospects for the Royal
Speaker 4: So I immediately felt that team unity right there, and it
Speaker 4: is so much easier for me. I know, I performed
Speaker 4: better when I'm with groups when with a team aspect
Speaker 4: of it. It doesn't matter if it's in the off
Speaker 4: season working out, if I got four or five guys there,
Speaker 4: I'm going to get a much better workout doing it
Speaker 4: in that team group environment than just kind putting headphones
Speaker 4: on doing it myself. So with the Royals, Dayton Moore,
Speaker 4: the general manager, did such a good job of always
Speaker 4: engraving in our minds that we were going to be
Speaker 4: the group of players that was going to change Kansas City.
Speaker 4: You know, the eighteen nineteen eighty five was the last
Speaker 4: time they won, So it never really felt like it
Speaker 4: was on my shoulders mus Doacas's shoulders. So when I
Speaker 4: think when we all performed with that mindset, of this
Speaker 4: group is going to be the one. So when I
Speaker 4: go through that for eight or oh for twelve and
Speaker 4: I'm experiencing failure, I'm not thinking that the whole organization
Speaker 4: is going to be, you know, falling off a cliff
Speaker 4: because of me. So that mindset, I think, really helped
Speaker 4: take a lot of pressure off me. And then the
Speaker 4: other aspect of that is the guys. You know, we
Speaker 4: go back so far that Moose knows my swing on
Speaker 4: a mechanical level since high school. So fast forward to
Speaker 4: a day and age now where there is information about
Speaker 4: every single pitch that you see in the big leagues.
Speaker 4: You can get overwhelmed. So at some point in time
Speaker 4: you need that voice to just come up to you
Speaker 4: and say.
Speaker 2: Hey, just what was what did I swing?
Speaker 4: Like when I was eighteen, it was like, tell me
Speaker 4: what my natural swing was, and he'll be like, hey,
Speaker 4: just get your hands in the loading position and take
Speaker 4: the ball to left field.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 4: Let's go like you need that simple mindset for a
Speaker 4: refreshment every now and then, So you need that group
Speaker 4: to have players and teammates to tell you what that
Speaker 4: refresh button looks like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's also good man, and Haw's I think when
Speaker 3: you look at it too, it's it's really interesting to
Speaker 3: bring up the Royals, and I think when you look
Speaker 3: at it from Afar and you see kind of what
Speaker 3: you guys built there, you literally are kind of describing
Speaker 3: a keeping.
Speaker 2: A group together, right, A young group.
Speaker 3: That came up, a lot of you that lifted an
Speaker 3: entire organization, right that that hadn't won in years.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: So like, it's it's cool to kind of see that
Speaker 3: from Afar and see what you guys did there.
Speaker 2: Have you had a chance?
Speaker 3: Now, obviously that's a while ago, and you know you
Speaker 3: moved on and played elsewhere, but like, have you had
Speaker 3: a chance to reflect on that time and how special
Speaker 3: that was with the group of guys where you know,
Speaker 3: all of you are shooting for the same goal and
Speaker 3: you're coming up and it's years of effort and work
Speaker 3: to get to that point and win it. Can you
Speaker 3: just take us through what that's like, man? Like, I mean,
Speaker 3: I suppose you could probably talk about this all day,
Speaker 3: but like, I love to hear more about that, man.
Speaker 3: You know, It's one of the things that I just
Speaker 3: really admire about that group is you guys had to
Speaker 3: change an organization and you did, and that is very
Speaker 3: difficult to do. I don't think people away from organizations
Speaker 3: realize how hard that is. Can you take us through
Speaker 3: how special that is to you and what that means
Speaker 3: to you now to be with a lot of the
Speaker 3: same guys through that journey.
Speaker 2: Oh, it was so special, man. We just you know,
Speaker 2: a couple of things.
Speaker 4: We just had our ten year reunion for our championship
Speaker 4: team for twenty fifteen last year, which was unbelievable, incredible
Speaker 4: to be able to spend that weekend with those guys.
Speaker 4: And then Salvador Perez I was just out here in
Speaker 4: Kansas City and the first game of the series they
Speaker 4: honored him for passing George Brett for the all time
Speaker 4: franchise leader and home run.
Speaker 2: So it's like, I Salvador Perez get demoted from.
Speaker 4: Low way back to rookie ball and now he's earning
Speaker 4: a statue outside of the stadium. So to see that
Speaker 4: all the way through is just incredible and you know,
Speaker 4: there's moments where when you have the ability and a
Speaker 4: game of failure to laugh at yourself and not feel insecure.
Speaker 4: I mean, baseball is a sport where when you're in
Speaker 4: the box, you're trying to eliminate all tension. You're trying
Speaker 4: to be smooth and relaxed and eliminate all tension whatsoever.
Speaker 4: I remember a time in Yankee Stadium where Salvador Perez,
Speaker 4: there was a guy that stole second to third and
Speaker 4: he threw the ball and it went to like left field,
Speaker 4: like this ball almost went to the warning track, and
Speaker 4: the guy ended up coming in scoring. So the mound
Speaker 4: visit and need comes and pulls the pitchers a couple
Speaker 4: of innings later or a couple pitches later. So we
Speaker 4: all just kind of are at the mound right there,
Speaker 4: and we're all just kind of like staring at Salvey,
Speaker 4: not saying anything, and he just kind of peeks up
Speaker 4: and just kind of starts laughing, and we're like, what
Speaker 4: was that.
Speaker 2: So the ability for him to just kind of.
Speaker 4: Laugh that off versus wearing that individually, going into you know,
Speaker 4: the mirror at night in your hotel room just being like, man,
Speaker 4: I need to be better this is bad.
Speaker 2: There's so much more refreshing for the mindset. So I
Speaker 2: just kind of.
Speaker 4: Years past now when you watch all the videos, you
Speaker 4: kind of understand the magnitude of what we did, but
Speaker 4: in the moment, so cool because I think we all
Speaker 4: just grew so confident together and we had this trust
Speaker 4: with amongst each other that we didn't really understand what
Speaker 4: we were accomplishing at the time.
Speaker 2: And I think that's itself as well. Oh cool man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think when you're in the middle of it,
Speaker 1: you don't really appreciate the impact that it has on
Speaker 1: other people, let alone yourself. Winning a World Series changes
Speaker 1: your life. Has We got a whole bunch of questions
Speaker 1: here lined up. You when you talk, you open up
Speaker 1: a lot of other doors we got to go down.
Speaker 1: I think for the purpose of our audience, it'd be
Speaker 1: great to hear how Salvador handled the demotion, because that
Speaker 1: happens to kids all the time. But before we do,
Speaker 1: let's get to this question from Dom because I think
Speaker 1: it's a good one that does appeal to our audience
Speaker 1: as well. You're a first round pick out of high school.
Speaker 1: How difficult was the decision to pass on college? What
Speaker 1: conversations with your family ultimately help you make that choice.
Speaker 1: Some of the people that are listening here are going
Speaker 1: to have kids that are going to be faced with
Speaker 1: that same decision. How did you and your family handle it?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 4: So it's a very very hard decision. And you know,
Speaker 4: we took college, believe it or not, very seriously. Like
Speaker 4: I was really pursuing going to college because you know,
Speaker 4: those years in your life eighteen nineteen, twenty years old,
Speaker 4: there's such key years of development, you know, not only
Speaker 4: as a player, but as a person too. So you
Speaker 4: know you have to think there's when you go into
Speaker 4: minor league baseball. This is again I know times have changed.
Speaker 4: I got drafted in two thousand and eight, but when
Speaker 4: you become a professional baseball player, there is a tremendous
Speaker 4: amount of accountability that becomes on the player, and at
Speaker 4: eighteen years old, I don't really know if I was
Speaker 4: ready for that. Like again, thank God for this group
Speaker 4: of players that you know, the mustakas Is and this
Speaker 4: core group of Royals minor league players, because I just
Speaker 4: kind of got inherited into that group and just followed
Speaker 4: along with those guys. But I think the structure that
Speaker 4: college offered at eighteen years old, nineteen years old.
Speaker 2: You know, you're gonna get in there.
Speaker 4: You're gonna have a trainer, You're gonna have a tutor,
Speaker 4: you're gonna have nutritionists.
Speaker 2: You know a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 4: At the minor leagues, you're on your own for So
Speaker 4: that was really really appealing to me. And you know,
Speaker 4: that development, not only as a player, as a person
Speaker 4: was something I really really valued. And then you know,
Speaker 4: it got to the point where you know, it's just
Speaker 4: you got I got drafted at third overall, and you know,
Speaker 4: the financially, the money that the Royals were then offering me,
Speaker 4: It became okay, now can I go and kind of
Speaker 4: this development, the stuff that I'm saying college is offering,
Speaker 4: can I Now I can afford to do this on
Speaker 4: my own in the off season, and I can afford,
Speaker 4: you know, to get a trainer, to get stuff in
Speaker 4: the off season done. So all that stuff became, you know,
Speaker 4: part of the mindset, and ultimately it just became down
Speaker 4: to Date and more. I think dateon More at the
Speaker 4: end of the day, was somebody that I believed in.
Speaker 4: He was the general manager for the Royals, and then
Speaker 4: the more and more I got to meet him and
Speaker 4: his staff. I think not only me but my parents
Speaker 4: believed in them as well as someone who's going to
Speaker 4: develop me on and off the field.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and college is Justin knows better than anybody. College
Speaker 1: today is very different even than when you were considering it,
Speaker 1: and that was like yesterday, but it's very different now
Speaker 1: in the development the kids get there, and Justin knows
Speaker 1: it better than anybody. Is as good, if not better
Speaker 1: than some of the choices that you had, that's for sure.
Speaker 4: I signed with Pat Murphy at Arizona.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to touch on that really quick because
Speaker 3: when Murph took over, Craig accounts as a good friend
Speaker 3: of mine, And when Murph took over, there was a
Speaker 3: lot of talk in the in the Brewers organization where
Speaker 3: the organization was going to go. Craig was obviously so
Speaker 3: successful in what he was doing. One of the things
Speaker 3: I loved about Murph though, is he he kind of
Speaker 3: kept his personality one hundred percent authentic and right, and
Speaker 3: he coaches a little bit like a college coach. There's
Speaker 3: an intensity to it. It's almost like a game by
Speaker 3: game intensity to it. What were you you know, going
Speaker 3: back to your commitment. Just real quick, while we're talking
Speaker 3: about that, what was it that drew you to him?
Speaker 2: In asu?
Speaker 4: His competitiveness. I think he and I just connected right away.
Speaker 2: You Know.
Speaker 4: What I find so impressive now years later about Murph
Speaker 4: is he was successful as a college coach, as a
Speaker 4: minor league coach, and now as a big lead coach.
Speaker 4: And to me, that is incredible because the mindset of
Speaker 4: a player at each of those stages is completely different.
Speaker 4: So the fact that he's able to build relationships with
Speaker 4: you know, each and every personality on the team and
Speaker 4: itself is a skill and I think something I was
Speaker 4: drawn to. And on top of that, Murph, you know,
Speaker 4: he he came and I got to meet him and
Speaker 4: talk to him, and he just felt authentic, He felt real,
Speaker 4: like he felt like the stuff he was telling me
Speaker 4: was genuine. And again, I just for the stuff that
Speaker 4: he was preaching was winning. It was always team stuff.
Speaker 4: So I think I was onto that as well. And
Speaker 4: you know, Murph is Murph is someone that I think
Speaker 4: in a day and age now, in this game, it's
Speaker 4: you know, you still have to have that competitive fire,
Speaker 4: you have to relate to the players. And what I
Speaker 4: found different when I was a veteran player, was the
Speaker 4: rookies that were coming up in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 2: Were a lot different.
Speaker 4: The personality, the way to connect with these players, it
Speaker 4: was a lot different than when I was, you know,
Speaker 4: in the rookie stage or even three four years. So
Speaker 4: what I take for Murphy again years later is it's
Speaker 4: just so impressive how through these generations and these different
Speaker 4: you know, generations of players and the different type of
Speaker 4: mindset these players have had, He's still able to connect
Speaker 4: with each generation as these groups come up, which is
Speaker 4: amazing to me.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, just a quick follow up. So, how is it different?
Speaker 1: How are the younger players different from when you came up?
Speaker 4: So I believe, you know, with in a day and
Speaker 4: age now with all these numbers, I just truly believe
Speaker 4: that it's a language. I think analyst is a language
Speaker 4: that these younger players now speak, and that's how they're
Speaker 4: learning the game, which is not their fault. It's not
Speaker 4: anyone's fault. That's how a day and age where we're in.
Speaker 4: So I used to tell my older coaches, the old
Speaker 4: school guys all the time, I go listen to you
Speaker 4: don't have to live and die by it, But why
Speaker 4: don't you just learn the language Because Jake Croniworth, for me,
Speaker 4: was one of the most influential players in my career
Speaker 4: because when he came to San Diego, he would always
Speaker 4: come in the dugout and grab the iPad and we
Speaker 4: would talk about in at bats and in the major leagues.
Speaker 4: I feel like when you're looking, when you're scouting pitchers,
Speaker 4: you can break down the pitcher and you have to
Speaker 4: separate a right handed hitter and a left handed hitter.
Speaker 4: There's two different ways that they attack those guys. So
Speaker 4: Jacob and I were lefties. I would always talk to them,
Speaker 4: and you know, a guy would have a cutter and
Speaker 4: I would get back to the bat.
Speaker 2: We talk about it, and.
Speaker 4: Jacob will be like, oh man, this horizontal movements get
Speaker 4: me man like, I can't do this. I got to
Speaker 4: get inside of it whatever. And I'm like, Jacob, what
Speaker 4: the heck is horizontal movement?
Speaker 2: Man? Like what are you talking about? It's just like,
Speaker 2: after you learn what the language is, it's just cut.
Speaker 4: So it's like, okay, Like the vertical movement is, Hey,
Speaker 4: this has got some sneak to it.
Speaker 2: Get on top of it. So what you learn is
Speaker 2: it's a different language.
Speaker 4: So if you can speak that language, you're going to
Speaker 4: be able to connect with the player and you're going
Speaker 4: to be able to find that relatability. He's going to
Speaker 4: have relatability with the coach. So that's something that you know,
Speaker 4: I really really took and I appreciate it from Corona
Speaker 4: Worth because it's helped me a lot be able to
Speaker 4: kind of speak this new language of baseball, so to speak.
Speaker 1: Right, but intuitively, you knew the language, you just didn't
Speaker 1: speak it. Now you can speak it.
Speaker 4: You knew it exactly exactly one hundred percent, and and
Speaker 4: you'll be I mean, I'm sure even all the way
Speaker 4: down to the high school level. Now, the player that's
Speaker 4: what they that's what they say. They talk about vertical movement,
Speaker 4: they talk about horizontal that's sweeper over slider. You know,
Speaker 4: that's kind of that's how they learned the game.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think HOSN we kind of look at
Speaker 3: some of like the technology or technological aspects that within baseball. Now,
Speaker 3: you know, there's it seems to be kind of a
Speaker 3: fight amongst two separate groups of like what is best
Speaker 3: for baseball and all of that. I'm one that lives
Speaker 3: on the I think there's room for both and working
Speaker 3: together with both. But you know, we've we've had some
Speaker 3: conversations on this on the show with some other guys.
Speaker 3: You've been there, You've lived it. What are some of
Speaker 3: the things that that it, you know, from a success standpoint,
Speaker 3: that made you so successful in what you were doing?
Speaker 3: Because from the outside, you're a fun loving dude. You're
Speaker 3: a great dude, right Like, people can watch you and
Speaker 3: it can almost come off like it's easy. And obviously
Speaker 3: you were really talented. But what were some of the
Speaker 3: things like in the background that you were doing that
Speaker 3: a lot of people didn't see that led to your success.
Speaker 4: So I when when I became an older player in
Speaker 4: the big leagues, I've I've really mentally became all in on.
Speaker 2: Just trusting the process.
Speaker 4: And if I trust my process and I complete this
Speaker 4: process throughout the day, which is my routine. If I
Speaker 4: work and prepare and do that routine and I stick
Speaker 4: to that and hold myself accountable, I'm not gonna be
Speaker 4: results driven. I'm gonna be process driven. If the results
Speaker 4: don't happen, I'm not going to live and die and
Speaker 4: ride this roller coaster. A big thing that started helping
Speaker 4: me was every time I left to go on deck,
Speaker 4: I started telling the hitting coach, Hey, this is gonna
Speaker 4: be my approach, whether or not it was I'm going
Speaker 4: to swing, you know, early on, look for the fastball away,
Speaker 4: or I'm gonna sit breaking ball here. And when I
Speaker 4: was able to voice that with him, I was able
Speaker 4: to hold myself accountable to my approach, and then I
Speaker 4: wasn't second guessing myself. So if I went up that
Speaker 4: at bat and tell myself, hey, I need to sit
Speaker 4: slider or even just see this ball deeper and go
Speaker 4: left center, and I do all that and just miss
Speaker 4: the ball left center or line out that way, I'm
Speaker 4: good with that. I'm not going to just you know,
Speaker 4: ride the roller coaster of it's zero for one. I
Speaker 4: completed my process and I stuck with it, because if
Speaker 4: I stick with that over the course of six hundred.
Speaker 2: At bats, I trust that I'm going to be successful.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna panic in April stuff doesn't get out,
Speaker 4: or I'm not going to ride this high horse in
Speaker 4: April if it gets out to a good start. So
Speaker 4: that's something mentally, just let my mind be at ease again, baseball,
Speaker 4: you're trying to just be relaxed and you're trying to
Speaker 4: create your trying to make tension disappears. So how do
Speaker 4: you make tension disappear not only physically but mentally.
Speaker 2: So that was something that helped me as well.
Speaker 4: And you know, justin you said something about the analytics,
Speaker 4: and for me, I agree with you because it is
Speaker 4: a blend one hundred percent and the language. It's like,
Speaker 4: if they're presenting you information, why would you not number
Speaker 4: one as a coach or an instructor, why would you
Speaker 4: not learn this information or this language of whatever this
Speaker 4: information is. Because at the end of the day you
Speaker 4: can take some value from it. I truly believe that
Speaker 4: a coach's job now is to learn that information and
Speaker 4: then your job is to then translate that to the player.
Speaker 4: So how do I translate that to the player? So
Speaker 4: for me, if I struggle to get the ball pull
Speaker 4: side in the air, instead of a coach just coming up, hey,
Speaker 4: you need to get the launch angle. Your launch angle
Speaker 4: is a six, it needs to be in nineteen or twenty.
Speaker 4: Instead of just presenting that information to me, the coach
Speaker 4: then should now create a drill that can translate what
Speaker 4: I need to do at the plate. So whether or
Speaker 4: not it's get a slider machine, hammer it back foot
Speaker 4: and tell me, hey, get this ball to the right
Speaker 4: field foulpul. That's to me is a coach translating that
Speaker 4: information to the player because you are now accomplishing what
Speaker 4: I need to do, get the ball in the air.
Speaker 4: But you're doing it in a way of just putting
Speaker 4: a break and ball drill out there instead of telling me,
Speaker 4: hey do this, like here's what the information is saying.
Speaker 4: So you got me thinking when you brought up the
Speaker 4: blend and the analytics, and I think that's kind of
Speaker 4: the battle right there.
Speaker 2: Great point on it's.
Speaker 1: No doubt about it. Yeah, that's a great explanation. And look,
Speaker 1: the frustration having been in the sport for thirty three years,
Speaker 1: the frustration in the beginning Oz and you know this
Speaker 1: was those that were trying to bring analytics into it.
Speaker 1: Couldn't speak the language, as you just said, couldn't speak
Speaker 1: a language that the player could relate to. Organizations now
Speaker 1: literally have middle man as you know, doing that like
Speaker 1: take this incredible information, sift it so that that guy
Speaker 1: can understand it. Is where analytics and the old school.
Speaker 1: I don't want to know all that now blend beautifully
Speaker 1: a lot of good questions here. This is one that's
Speaker 1: going to help a lot of people. Ryan asked it. It
Speaker 1: says you experienced every kind of pressure in the sport,
Speaker 1: top prospect, huge contract with the team out on the
Speaker 1: West Coast. How did you keep the outside expectations from
Speaker 1: the big contract, from the early success, from affecting the
Speaker 1: player that you wanted to be In a sense, how
Speaker 1: do you block out all the noise and whether you're
Speaker 1: twelve years old, twenty two years old, or forty two
Speaker 1: years old.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So my first year, I was fortunate. I was thirteen.
Speaker 4: The World Baseball Classic that was going on, and they
Speaker 4: were training in Arizona and Mark Teschera went down with
Speaker 4: the wrist injury. So they called me in surprise Arizona
Speaker 4: to come fill in for him. So I was on
Speaker 4: that team, and I'll never forget. We were playing the
Speaker 4: Dominican Republic and I was in the dugout with Jimmy
Speaker 4: Rawlins and I'm like, Jimmy Man, like, how are you
Speaker 4: always just so cool, calm and collective? Like you like
Speaker 4: this is the same demeanor you had at the workout
Speaker 4: we just had and there was nobody there, and now
Speaker 4: there's thousands, fifty thousand people here.
Speaker 2: This is the biggest game going on right now.
Speaker 4: And he was just like, man, I've experienced every outcome.
Speaker 4: You hit the home run, you have that feeling, you
Speaker 4: strike out, you have that same feeling, Like you got
Speaker 4: to understand, how can I get my mindset just the
Speaker 4: calms it can possibly be? So how do I get
Speaker 4: rid of that tension? And the way he was doing
Speaker 4: that was, you know, by experiencing the failure and understanding
Speaker 4: what happened during that failure. I was tense, I was
Speaker 4: thinking too much, and then you experienced the success.
Speaker 2: I was clear minded.
Speaker 4: I went up there relaxed, and at the end of
Speaker 4: the day, he just understood that that put him in
Speaker 4: that best possible situation to succeed.
Speaker 2: And certain players are different. He just learned himself.
Speaker 4: Certain guys, you know, they have to play angry, certain
Speaker 4: guys have to play relax. Certain guys perform with a
Speaker 4: better minut baseball. You know, again, it's it's a sport
Speaker 4: where you can't you don't want to be strong, you
Speaker 4: want to be quick. So you have to understand over
Speaker 4: the course of you know, the long season. How in
Speaker 4: these pressure situations, how can I just get myself back
Speaker 4: to that mindset because that's when I know I give
Speaker 4: myself the best ability to perform.
Speaker 2: And I thought that was really cool to hear from Jimmy.
Speaker 1: Really cool. And by the way, surprise Arizona lived up
Speaker 1: to its name to share a hurt surprise. You're on
Speaker 1: the WBC team, would have known that surprised surprise surprise,
Speaker 1: oh man.
Speaker 4: But yeah, and then to the second part of that question, Rabbi,
Speaker 4: you know, there's there's different there's different pressures, and you know,
Speaker 4: I learned a lot in San Diego because I didn't perform,
Speaker 4: you know, the way I wanted to each year out there.
Speaker 4: And you know that's again, looking back on all of it,
Speaker 4: I think it was a different situation for me, and
Speaker 4: reflecting on it, it was something that similar to what
Speaker 4: I brought up earlier to you guys, like I understood
Speaker 4: that when I signed over there, the situation it was different.
Speaker 4: I was going over there as a veteran player. I
Speaker 4: was going over as a leader. So a lot of
Speaker 4: these guys I had never played with, so I was
Speaker 4: trying to, you know, bring them up to the big leagues,
Speaker 4: get them comfortable. So there was certain times where, you know,
Speaker 4: when I went over there, I really felt that I
Speaker 4: did a little too much off the field and like
Speaker 4: focusing on you know, that aspect of it and not
Speaker 4: getting my work.
Speaker 2: In at times. And then you know, I think.
Speaker 4: There's a balance there that you really really have to maintain.
Speaker 4: And when we signed Manny Machado that next year, I
Speaker 4: really really saw that balance that he was able to maintain.
Speaker 4: You know, he was really good at getting guys and
Speaker 4: connecting off the field, believe it or not, because at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, like instead of you know,
Speaker 4: me missing age work to talk to a guy and
Speaker 4: try and get him going and change.
Speaker 2: His mindset, at the end of the day, it was
Speaker 2: like no, no, no. From this time to this.
Speaker 4: Time, I am making sure I'm getting my work in
Speaker 4: and from that other time, I'm more than ready to
Speaker 4: talk to you and do that. So, you know, individually,
Speaker 4: you still have to get yourself ready to go, and
Speaker 4: you still have to you know, take that mindset and
Speaker 4: have that competitiveness. But you know, the team stuff, there's
Speaker 4: a time and place for all of that. So I
Speaker 4: learned a lot from that in San Diego as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, great, yeah, has when you look at the team
Speaker 3: aspect of it. You you brought this up yourself here,
Speaker 3: and you know, you go from an organization that you basically,
Speaker 3: you know, became an adult in, right, I mean, went
Speaker 3: through some really critical years and then you change it over.
Speaker 3: It's obviously a huge change. So I want to I
Speaker 3: want to get to this question here. I think it's
Speaker 3: a super interesting question. I'm shifting down here a little
Speaker 3: bit on it. But Mark ass like, leaving a place
Speaker 3: where you want a World Series is easy when you
Speaker 3: decide to sign with the pod raise what ultimately convinced
Speaker 3: you that that San Diego was the right chapter.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to go to.
Speaker 1: Dicky V would say, one hundred and forty four million,
Speaker 1: that's what.
Speaker 2: Convention Dicky V. Dicky Bee people.
Speaker 4: I'm sure a lot of hardcore baseball fans know this,
Speaker 4: but he would always sit right there in Tampa Bay
Speaker 4: by the on deck, in the visiting by the visiting dugout.
Speaker 2: So I got to meet Dicky V. Man, He's what
Speaker 2: a blessing that guy, that man, Yeah, he really is
Speaker 2: the best.
Speaker 4: So San Diego ultimately it was, you know, I really
Speaker 4: it became two choices.
Speaker 2: It was, you know, San Diego and Kansas City.
Speaker 4: Uh, you know, financially it was it was definitely a big,
Speaker 4: big difference. And you know, I've I've gotten to tell
Speaker 4: people in Kansas story kind of that side of the
Speaker 4: story and all that. So that's really nothing new to anybody.
Speaker 4: But you know, at the end of the day too,
Speaker 4: I was able to go there and I was able
Speaker 4: to see their farm system, and you know, they had Tatis, they.
Speaker 2: Had Marijane, you know, Chris Pattick.
Speaker 4: They had a lot of guys that were really really
Speaker 4: good young players that I truly believed in.
Speaker 2: So I really.
Speaker 4: Enjoyed and embraced the role of being the veteran guy
Speaker 4: for those guys, and I was really gonna enjoy taking
Speaker 4: that on.
Speaker 2: I did enjoy taking that on.
Speaker 4: But I think what I understood and what I learned
Speaker 4: again performance like I'll always just I'll always hold myself
Speaker 4: accountable the performance. I'm not making any excuses, and it
Speaker 4: wasn't where it should have been. But at the end
Speaker 4: of the day, when I reflect on it, that's what
Speaker 4: I learned is you know, when I was going back
Speaker 4: and taking those o for eights and just wearing them
Speaker 4: by myself, and you know, didn't have that ability at
Speaker 4: that Mountain visit to joke with Salvia and those guys.
Speaker 4: And it's not any of my teammate's faults in San Diego,
Speaker 4: because these guys are nineteen or twenty twenty two years
Speaker 4: old trying to get their footing in the big leagues.
Speaker 4: It's just they weren't, you know, at that stage in
Speaker 4: their career yet. So for me, I just felt like
Speaker 4: those performances, I was kind of wearing it individually. And
Speaker 4: then that mindset again, it just didn't create that mindset
Speaker 4: for me to perform the best maybe, and that's kind
Speaker 4: of what I reflected and learned from was like, okay,
Speaker 4: when you know that twelve to eighteen, the minor leagues,
Speaker 4: the big leagues, like these were all these groups that
Speaker 4: I was a part of.
Speaker 2: So then after the first couple of years, you know,
Speaker 2: I really really just.
Speaker 4: Tried with even with the younger guys, with Tatisi Machado,
Speaker 4: and we got to a point where, you know, we
Speaker 4: had that same bond like we had in Kansas City.
Speaker 2: To where we were, you know, than joking we were
Speaker 2: loosing the clubhouse.
Speaker 4: So those first couple of years in that transition, it
Speaker 4: was really tough to wear all those performances individually versus
Speaker 4: with the team.
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Speaker 1: Hi'll spring hawsback in here. Let's get to this question
Speaker 1: from Royce. It's a good one. You were obviously uber talented,
Speaker 1: you made the money, you won World Series. But when
Speaker 1: you look across the diamond or reeve it at your
Speaker 1: own teammates, who were a few players you competed against
Speaker 1: that made you say, this guy's a little different and
Speaker 1: what separated them from everybody else?
Speaker 4: Oh man, So I mean dating to the minor league
Speaker 4: days Mustakis watching him take VP it was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you should see just when you shake Moose's hand, man,
Speaker 4: you feel his wrists and you're like it now, I'm
Speaker 4: mixing pots those up.
Speaker 2: I get it it.
Speaker 4: Is and then you know, you start to see some fastballs.
Speaker 4: I remember when I was a prospect. Neftali Felice was
Speaker 4: the number one prospect with Texas and we shared a
Speaker 4: complex there in Texas there with Surprise with the Rangers,
Speaker 4: and we would play them every instructional league spring training
Speaker 4: and seeing his fastball was the first time I saw
Speaker 4: like a real, real fastball that took off. And then
Speaker 4: fast forward to San Diego, Fernando Tatis was the most
Speaker 4: incredible athlete talent I've ever played with. Seeing what he
Speaker 4: did on a baseball field was incredible. Now doing some broadcasting,
Speaker 4: being able to see Bobby Wood Junior for an extending
Speaker 4: amount of time him and Fernando reminded me a lot
Speaker 4: about each other, just talent wise and their ability. It
Speaker 4: was really cool to see Fernando and Manny Machado play
Speaker 4: next to each other in the big leagues because when
Speaker 4: you talk about athleticism and talent, Fernando tatis by a mile,
Speaker 4: But when you talk about baseball stinks, player consistency like
Speaker 4: Manny Machado, surehanded as they come. You can like the
Speaker 4: routine play, you can do it in his sleep. It
Speaker 4: was really cool to see that dynamic and that difference
Speaker 4: and the player and the talent between those two.
Speaker 1: Great players. Yeah, great players, man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love the questions that obviously. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 2: huge You got to make that routine play.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you and you see it and and the
Speaker 3: thing and the thing is too haws is like the
Speaker 3: different personalities, right, I mean, I think that's what I
Speaker 3: think when you look at the Padres teams that you
Speaker 3: played on there there were different personalities you bring them
Speaker 3: bringing the Machado types and some of that, and there's, uh,
Speaker 3: I'm guessing from your end, there's a there's a time
Speaker 3: that you you're all adjusting to each other too, of
Speaker 3: like bringing all of those personalities together. And I think
Speaker 3: it it just makes me think of the youth player now, right,
Speaker 3: and maybe different people coming in your play, different players
Speaker 3: of different socioeconomic backgrounds and whatever it might be, might
Speaker 3: be very different from you. It's one of my favorite
Speaker 3: things about baseball, man, because once you get on the field,
Speaker 3: you're all just like competing together and you're just trying
Speaker 3: to win. Can you just share that experience though with
Speaker 3: the I mean maybe I'm wrong on this, but the
Speaker 3: Padres seem to have some bigger personalities, some flashier sort
Speaker 3: of personalities. Was that different or was that just from
Speaker 3: Afar seeing the clubhouse?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was different.
Speaker 4: I mean there's the guys off the field were you know,
Speaker 4: we're into their stuff and they're in their own thing.
Speaker 4: And it was so cool man, because we had you know,
Speaker 4: Hasan Kim from Korea, we had players from the Dominican,
Speaker 4: we had players from Cuba, we had American players, i
Speaker 4: mean all different ages too. So that was really cool.
Speaker 4: But the amazing thing about that was, you know, each
Speaker 4: and every one of those guys and including the teammates
Speaker 4: I had in Kansas City. What was so cool about
Speaker 4: it is, you know, when you're playing baseball, you're going
Speaker 4: over these scouting reports and you know, you're trying to
Speaker 4: figure out pictures and you're trying to figure out any
Speaker 4: edge that you can get on a.
Speaker 2: Pitcher, on a team, whatever it is.
Speaker 4: So once we kind of you know, when we establish
Speaker 4: our core group in San Diego with Tatis and Machado
Speaker 4: and those guys, and then we brought in Hassan Kim,
Speaker 4: we brought in different players, we kind of establish our
Speaker 4: own language so to speak, on like game planning and
Speaker 4: how we do things. So you know, if we have,
Speaker 4: for instance, if we have a game plan where, hey,
Speaker 4: we have a picture where this guy we want to
Speaker 4: see him up and we think we hit him, well,
Speaker 4: maybe we're not going to steal bases today. We all
Speaker 4: understand that. Or you know, we have a certain tendency
Speaker 4: or tell that we have on a picture, or we're.
Speaker 2: Explaining how a break involve breaks whatever that.
Speaker 4: Is, and then you always happen that bat or two
Speaker 4: and then Hassan Kim would come up and we would
Speaker 4: just start talking about the pitch, and once you start
Speaker 4: talking about baseball, like it becomes just the same mindset
Speaker 4: and the same language, so to speak. So that was
Speaker 4: really cool to be able to connect with guys in
Speaker 4: that way. And then as you learned with us on Kim,
Speaker 4: like the vulnerability, the vulnerability in himself being able to
Speaker 4: laugh at himself after making a bad swing or a
Speaker 4: bad play, we then connect with him so much more.
Speaker 4: And then you find ourselves laughing with them on the
Speaker 4: bus on the next city heading to the next city,
Speaker 4: and you just learn that's kind of what establishes and
Speaker 4: starts the relationship.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great, that's a great that's a great answer. Hey,
Speaker 1: we got I know, we grew up in Miami, so
Speaker 1: you're a fan of the Canes and the Marlins as well.
Speaker 1: We've got a couple of questions from from a Cane's Cats,
Speaker 1: and one of them maybe you will be able to
Speaker 1: relate to. I don't know, but it says you played
Speaker 1: in an elite squad with some great players, have some
Speaker 1: great coaching. What did you learn from playing with them?
Speaker 1: And do you also have a funny Richie Palmer story.
Speaker 1: Now that's we're getting into the weeds because we don't
Speaker 1: know who Richie Palmer is, dud, Do you know who
Speaker 1: Richie Richie Palmer is.
Speaker 2: I do not know who Richie Palmer is, Okay past
Speaker 2: my time.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure. But we played, Oh, no, elite squad.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, So elite squad is that? I think Tristan
Speaker 4: Cossas I believe played on elite squad down in Miami.
Speaker 4: So I think what they're talking about. And I'm assuming
Speaker 4: Richie Palmer plays on that or coaches on that team.
Speaker 2: I actually played for.
Speaker 4: So my summer situation was when I was sixteen years old,
Speaker 4: I played on a team called the Florida.
Speaker 2: Bombers and the Florida Bombers.
Speaker 4: It was basically all the top players from South Florida
Speaker 4: and those guys, A lot of those guys had the
Speaker 4: opportunity pretty much to go to University of Miami. Like
Speaker 4: that's where University of Miami scouted most of their players.
Speaker 4: So Yonder Alonso played on the team before and then
Speaker 4: he was a senior graduated, so they invited me.
Speaker 2: We went to Farmington, New Mexico.
Speaker 4: We ended up losing in the championship game in Farmington,
Speaker 4: New Mexico, or not championship like the semi finals, and
Speaker 4: long story short, the coaches kind of had a little fallout.
Speaker 4: They separated, so they began two different teams. Was then
Speaker 4: it was like the Bomber the team, and then it
Speaker 4: was like the Prospects or the South Florida whatever. So
Speaker 4: both coaches are kind of calling me wanting to play
Speaker 4: on the team, and I didn't really know who to choose.
Speaker 4: I was loyal to both guys. So then all of
Speaker 4: a sudden, the Midland Redskins came call me, a team
Speaker 4: from Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm sure you guys have heard of them.
Speaker 4: So Barry Larkin, Ken Grifter.
Speaker 2: All played for them.
Speaker 4: And basically the opportunity is you're gonna come out there,
Speaker 4: You're going to live there in the summer, you're gonna
Speaker 4: stay with the host family.
Speaker 2: They give you a rental car.
Speaker 4: They played like eighty games, seventy games, like a crazy schedule,
Speaker 4: so it's like the closest thing to a minor league season.
Speaker 2: And then on top of that, for me, oh I
Speaker 2: was out. I'm like I'm there. I can't wait.
Speaker 4: Then on top of that, the perfect Game National Showcase
Speaker 4: was at the University of Cincinnati that year.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, this is like a one stop shop.
Speaker 2: This is perfect. I'm out so perfect.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I went to that I went to that
Speaker 4: team after and man, that was that team. Man the
Speaker 4: Papa Joe Joe Hayden, he passed away, but he was
Speaker 4: the owner of that team. He owned a Midland insurance
Speaker 4: He was a billionaire. Smoke fourteen cigars a day. He
Speaker 4: would come out there with a towel over his shoulders,
Speaker 4: just smoking a cigar on his bucket.
Speaker 2: But this dude, man, he was. He was the best
Speaker 2: dude ever.
Speaker 4: Hit me so much, not about baseball, but off the
Speaker 4: field as well.
Speaker 2: Super successful, super.
Speaker 4: Humped and h man, he's he's incredible. I have a
Speaker 4: great Farmington, New Mexico story. Can I get into that
Speaker 4: one real quick?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Of course.
Speaker 4: So we go to Farmington, New Mexico. So I play
Speaker 4: for the Midland Redskins. We win the Connie Mac World Series.
Speaker 4: The next year, I get drafted by the Royals and
Speaker 4: I got.
Speaker 2: This was justin.
Speaker 4: This was when there was that two month layover until
Speaker 4: the August fifty deadline. So you have the deadline until
Speaker 4: the sign was August fifteenth, So I play that summer
Speaker 4: in Midland.
Speaker 2: So I go there.
Speaker 4: They're gonna let me dh and maybe even play like outfield.
Speaker 4: But I end up getting to go back and a
Speaker 4: lot of people were not happy with me because they
Speaker 4: don't want me to go risk getting hurt that connected
Speaker 4: my signing.
Speaker 2: Or my negation with the Royals.
Speaker 4: So long story short, I end up going to the Farmington,
Speaker 4: New Mexico. I was playing in the AFLAC All American
Speaker 4: Game that year, so the plan was that the championship
Speaker 4: game in Farmington, New Mexico was on a Saturday. The
Speaker 4: AFFLIC game was on a Sunday, so there was no
Speaker 4: way I'd be able to play the game, find a
Speaker 4: flight the afflete to San Diego.
Speaker 2: The flight, I'm sorry. The games in the morning, so
Speaker 2: I just couldn't make it.
Speaker 4: So that was kind of the understanding with my parents
Speaker 4: at Midland, kind of going into the team.
Speaker 2: So then we get to Farmington. Sure enough, we make
Speaker 2: it to the championship game.
Speaker 4: So I get all fired up and emotional and I'm
Speaker 4: like Papa Joe, I'm not leaving man, I'm staying here.
Speaker 4: I'm not going to the AFFLAT game in here.
Speaker 2: That's it. That's all good.
Speaker 4: So we end up playing the next day. We beat
Speaker 4: the East Cob Yankees. We win it all. We're supposed
Speaker 4: to go to the hotel. We're going to the pool.
Speaker 2: We're gonna hang out, they're gonna barbecue. It's gonna be great.
Speaker 2: So after the game, Brian Hiler.
Speaker 4: Is the coach and he gets He comes up to
Speaker 4: me and he goes, hey, come on, you need to
Speaker 4: come with me.
Speaker 2: So I go, what's going on?
Speaker 4: What's happening? So he goes, just come with me. He
Speaker 4: gets me in a car, takes me to the airport
Speaker 4: in Farmington.
Speaker 1: And go on showing you're going to the a flack Why.
Speaker 2: Do the flag game?
Speaker 4: And it was like the most amazings of my life man,
Speaker 4: And I'm like, hey man, you want to pay attention
Speaker 4: to drive this thing.
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Speaker 1: By the way, just quickly, how did the A Flat
Speaker 1: Game go? Did you make it? And did you did
Speaker 1: you do well?
Speaker 4: I went to the A Flat Game? I think I
Speaker 4: got I got a hit. I went one for three,
Speaker 4: maybe one for two. I got to meet Pat Murphy there.
Speaker 4: He was there, so it was great, man, it was great.
Speaker 1: Great. Just a couple of minutes left haus We're going
Speaker 1: to get to uh we do we do the kitchen sink?
Speaker 1: We kind of throw some random questions at you have
Speaker 1: kind of quick answers here and then we'll get into
Speaker 1: your MVP. So the first question on the kitchen sink,
Speaker 1: you alluded to it. We know you won a World Series.
Speaker 1: You also want a WBC gold medal. I've heard some
Speaker 1: people say the WBC is the greatest thing they ever did.
Speaker 1: How do you compare the gold medal and a World
Speaker 1: Series title?
Speaker 4: Oh man, it's just so different for an American born
Speaker 4: player because the World Series is kind of that was
Speaker 4: my dream as a kid. World Baseball Classic came on
Speaker 4: a little later, but that was special as well.
Speaker 2: Man, Jim Leland was my manager when we won the
Speaker 2: gold medal.
Speaker 4: Being able to celebrate with him, that's I'll never forget
Speaker 4: those memories.
Speaker 3: Yeah, excellent, that's awesome. All right, let's go to the
Speaker 3: next one here. That was it's always tough to put
Speaker 3: put a put an exclamation point on which one there.
Speaker 3: But let's get to something a little less serious on
Speaker 3: that one. But favorite food city? Man, what's you've been
Speaker 3: all over? Give us your favorite food city?
Speaker 2: And why?
Speaker 4: Oh man, Chicago. There are some great restaurants in Chicago.
Speaker 4: And the traveling secretary for the Cubs VJ. He is
Speaker 4: the man and he any restaurant you ever want to
Speaker 4: go to and experience, He's got it.
Speaker 2: So Chicago, what's your favorite food?
Speaker 1: What if Haush had a meal where you're going?
Speaker 4: My Well, favorite type of food is Italian, no question.
Speaker 4: I want to go to an Italian restaurant. I love
Speaker 4: each and every I just went to the saloon in
Speaker 4: South Philly a couple of weeks ago, and that place
Speaker 4: Viille Parmesan on the bone man bone in It was
Speaker 4: so good.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of important information that we need
Speaker 1: and parents need to know. All right, Next question on
Speaker 1: the kitchen sink for the World Series in WBC winner
Speaker 1: hauns Which came first? Your love of baseball or your
Speaker 1: love of broadcasting because you love broadcasting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean obviously baseball, and then that love just
Speaker 4: kind of you understand post baseball career, like playing career.
Speaker 4: My coach used to always say, baseball is not who
Speaker 4: you are, it's what you do.
Speaker 2: And then I ended.
Speaker 4: I retired my baseball career and it went a year
Speaker 4: without kind of being involved in the game, and I'm like,
Speaker 4: it might actually be who I am a little bit,
Speaker 4: you know, But I love the.
Speaker 2: Game so much.
Speaker 4: I just had to find a way to stay involved, man,
Speaker 4: and broadcasting is the ability.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 4: It gives me separation, It gives me ten days at
Speaker 4: home with my family, with my kids. I got three kids,
Speaker 4: all under four, and then it gives me three four
Speaker 4: days on the road where I get to kind of
Speaker 4: lock in on a team, on a pitcher and feel
Speaker 4: that rush again.
Speaker 2: So it's the best.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you were when you were hitting in the backyard.
Speaker 1: You were describing here's Hans deep drive. I mean you
Speaker 1: were doing that when you were a kid, right, Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, I had that Tony Gwynn solo hitter.
Speaker 4: I had those baseball's on the string and I'd pull
Speaker 4: the string back.
Speaker 2: But you better believe before that string was back, it
Speaker 2: was about.
Speaker 4: A thirty second intro about the situation and who's that
Speaker 4: and who's batting right now?
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that.
Speaker 2: Okay, hear those?
Speaker 3: All right, let's go to the last one of the
Speaker 3: kitchens sinking. Then we'll get to your MVP, man and
Speaker 3: get you out of here. But describe Eric Hosmer the.
Speaker 2: Dad Ooh, so that's salty.
Speaker 4: You can see a lot of salt in this beard,
Speaker 4: and that's extremely salty as a dad, that's for sure.
Speaker 4: But you know, there's certain things now that I understand
Speaker 4: a lot more as a dad. You know, a lot
Speaker 4: of fathers when I was a player, A lot of
Speaker 4: parents when I was in Kansas City would come up
Speaker 4: to me all the time to share that, you know,
Speaker 4: I was a role model for their son, for their child,
Speaker 4: or even their daughter. And I you know understanding now,
Speaker 4: having you know, a boy and two girls, what that
Speaker 4: means to have influence on someone's children.
Speaker 2: And you know, my boy, I want him.
Speaker 4: To be such a good dude, so bad that I
Speaker 4: know he's always gonna look at me as dad and
Speaker 4: he's gonna be he's probably not gonna listen to me.
Speaker 4: So now, you know, I realize how fortunate I am
Speaker 4: to be with the Royals, and he's going to be
Speaker 4: watching Kansas City and he'll probably have a liking for
Speaker 4: Bobby Wit Junior and how good of a guy he is.
Speaker 2: These little just.
Speaker 4: You know, character, the guys that you know show that
Speaker 4: kind of accountability and character is the stuff that I
Speaker 4: kind of sense now and I see as a dad.
Speaker 4: And that's the stuff that I just find myself appreciating
Speaker 4: a lot more. And uh yeah, that's kind of the Uh.
Speaker 4: The way that the saltiness comes out now is if
Speaker 4: there's certain guys kind of disrespecting that professionalism or you know.
Speaker 2: That kind of character flaw.
Speaker 4: Situation so different than the young has at twenty one
Speaker 4: in the Power of Life District.
Speaker 1: Here the city, no doubt, no doubt although the Power
Speaker 1: in Life District was a good place for a twenty
Speaker 1: one year old, that's for dang. Sure, all right, has
Speaker 1: last one we have for you? This is a question
Speaker 1: we ask all of our guests. The most valuable person
Speaker 1: in your life as you grew up doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be about baseball. But if you had one MVP, who
Speaker 1: would it be in your life?
Speaker 2: Oh? Man, that's my mom for sure.
Speaker 1: My mom.
Speaker 4: I think you know, your mom is the person that
Speaker 4: knows you and your mom can almost My mom can
Speaker 4: almost sense when something is going on before it even happens.
Speaker 4: And you know, baseball, especially the way that my career
Speaker 4: path took me with baseball, you just mentally, man, you
Speaker 4: become fried sometimes and you just need someone to just
Speaker 4: come up to you and get that refresh, you know.
Speaker 4: And I think Mom for me was the MVP person
Speaker 4: for sure because she had that ability to do that
Speaker 4: refresh just on command, before I even knew I needed
Speaker 4: that refresh button.
Speaker 1: It's the beauty of mom, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Oh Man, no doubt Mom.
Speaker 4: And then I'll tell you what man. Now fast forward,
Speaker 4: every man. I got two little girls, and every man
Speaker 4: needs a little girl.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: They bring out a soft side in you that I
Speaker 2: never knew I had, but I love that I have it.
Speaker 1: Amen to that. Hey haus Man, this you've been great.
Speaker 1: Your stories are exactly what this is all about. We
Speaker 1: know that the information you gave to the fans and
Speaker 1: the members here tonight have been outstanding. So thanks for
Speaker 1: wish you the best of luck in your in your
Speaker 1: career and we'll see at the ballpark soon.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you, Rabbi Ganaway brother, thanks man. Thanks for having
Speaker 2: me too, buddy. Yeah, thanks a lot man.
Speaker 1: Remember everybody joined. Please become a member here. We thank
Speaker 1: Eric Hosmer, who is outstanding. But it is the parent Dugout.
Speaker 1: Join us at the parent dugout dot com. Become a
Speaker 1: member and join in. You get all the content you
Speaker 1: get these types of podcasts. And next week a very
Speaker 1: special guest. We expect to have Alex Cora on special
Speaker 1: time Next week on August tenth at nine to thirty
Speaker 1: Eastern time, eight thirty Central time. And again, all questions
Speaker 1: go to parent dug Out send them to info at
Speaker 1: the parent dugout dot com. Great edition again tonight, justin
Speaker 1: We'll see you next week, buddy, Thanks Ravy