Speaker 1: Welcome to the No Sports Report, a production of our
Speaker 1: Heart Radio Entree Fork Media. My name is Jensen Carpet
Speaker 1: and I'm a sports fan. How do I know this
Speaker 1: because today I visited one of those fantasy betting sites
Speaker 1: and contemplated betting on Moscow Liga Pro before I even
Speaker 1: knew what it was. It's table tennis, by the way,
Speaker 1: in Russia, and yes, they're actively The proposition is getting
Speaker 1: the most action site wide because the other option is darts. Guys,
Speaker 1: if I end up betting on darts, kidnap me and
Speaker 1: take me to gamblers anonymous, promise me. Okay, thanks. I
Speaker 1: knew I could count on you. But for now I'm
Speaker 1: talking to athletes and sports industry professionals about what they're
Speaker 1: doing in quarantine, helping to figure out if famous competing
Speaker 1: as much as I miss watching it. This is the
Speaker 1: No Sports Report. Adam Mottavino was a New York as
Speaker 1: buying a heat lamp Street Pretzel. Born and raised in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: his grandfather founded a stone and granite company in the
Speaker 1: city that helped build landmarks like the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Speaker 1: the Monument at Babe Ruce's Gravesite, and the base of
Speaker 1: the Statue of Liberty, and not shockingly alongside the story
Speaker 1: passed with the City that Never Sleeps is a die
Speaker 1: hard fandom of the New York Yankees. Sure, when he
Speaker 1: was drafted in two thousand six by the St. Louis Cardinals,
Speaker 1: his major league baseball dream came true. And when he
Speaker 1: was traded to the Colorado Rockies and clock thirty seven
Speaker 1: scoreless appearances and thirty one innings a franchise record, it
Speaker 1: was obvious he was becoming a bona fide bullpen superstar.
Speaker 1: But there was always that real fantasy in the back
Speaker 1: of his mind, the goal of becoming a New York Yankee.
Speaker 1: And in two thousand nineteen, when he became a free agent,
Speaker 1: it all happened, and now he wears pinstripes. The hometown
Speaker 1: boy returned and put together an extremely effective first season,
Speaker 1: but continues to fight through some postseason roadblocks that threw
Speaker 1: him right into the fire storm known as the New
Speaker 1: York sports media. And so while he should be participating
Speaker 1: in another year of achieving his childhood dream, he's now
Speaker 1: stationed at home with his wife and two kids, waiting
Speaker 1: for the call to get back to her. We chat
Speaker 1: about his d I y mentality, hanging out with Garrett
Speaker 1: cold during lockdown, and finding safety from obsessive thoughts. We
Speaker 1: get into this and more with Adam Ottavino, the New
Speaker 1: York Yankees number zero on this No Sports report from
Speaker 1: Adam Atavino to accept Press one. Hey, how's it going? Man?
Speaker 1: Hey going good? Thanks for having me. I know you
Speaker 1: are extremely New York through and through, so I think
Speaker 1: I know this answer, but I have to ask everyone
Speaker 1: where have you been quarantined? And with who? We live
Speaker 1: north of the city, New York City. Um, and just
Speaker 1: been with my wife and my two daughters. And how
Speaker 1: old are your daughters? Four and a half and one
Speaker 1: and a half. That's quite an attack. Yeah, we're in
Speaker 1: the we're in the trenches. But we love each other
Speaker 1: and they're cute, so it's okay. I know if they
Speaker 1: were cute, it would be torturous. What have you done
Speaker 1: for fun to keep them entertained? That an age, it
Speaker 1: has to be watched at all times. What are you
Speaker 1: doing to make the time pass so? Um? For fun?
Speaker 1: You know, we have a yard and chace them around
Speaker 1: out there, put them on swings. Um. We inflated a
Speaker 1: bounce house in the basement. So they can jump around
Speaker 1: down there and I play music rell out, We go
Speaker 1: on family walks, you know, we watch a lot of
Speaker 1: movies and read a lot of books, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: But you know, that's about it. They haven't seen anybody
Speaker 1: in a really long time, just through zoom and things
Speaker 1: of that nature. Yeah, it's like it's a sci fi
Speaker 1: movie at times. At one and a half and four though,
Speaker 1: that is a very repetitive movie age. Are you at
Speaker 1: least getting them to not watch Frozen over and over again? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we moved on from Frozen to a while back. But
Speaker 1: it's true what you say. I mean, um, usually whatever
Speaker 1: they're into it gets played three times a day for
Speaker 1: about a week until it switches. Right. So right now
Speaker 1: we're currently on the mixture of Inside Out, Ugly Dolls
Speaker 1: and my older ones and so this teenage musical zombies movie,
Speaker 1: so we're into that now. Well, there's worse things in
Speaker 1: inside Out. I'm into that. I'd watch that a couple
Speaker 1: of times a day. Yeah, yeah, I mean that's that's
Speaker 1: a good one. There's there's been something ones along the way.
Speaker 1: But we're doing all right right now? Good do you
Speaker 1: have to home school the four year old is there
Speaker 1: is there even a curriculum to follow. So her nursery
Speaker 1: school does zooms money through Friday. Just it's just like
Speaker 1: half an hour though, and then she has some extra
Speaker 1: curriculars that she's able to do the internet as well,
Speaker 1: Like she does her ballet and her chess and guitar.
Speaker 1: But that's it. The little one's got one little learning
Speaker 1: thing that she does once a week for a half hour,
Speaker 1: and other than that, we just kind of read to
Speaker 1: her and try to do you know, colors and letters
Speaker 1: and all that all that good stuff. Well, chess in ballet.
Speaker 1: I was like at that age, I was like picking
Speaker 1: my nose in Little League, Like those were my two hobbies.
Speaker 1: That's a very smart kid. Yeah, we really threw our
Speaker 1: oldest into everything. We had an apartment in the city
Speaker 1: up until recently, and so we were there most of
Speaker 1: the time, um the last year or two, and you know,
Speaker 1: she it was running between a lot of extra cogeler
Speaker 1: she had two ballets a week and that's her favorite,
Speaker 1: and then she was doing guitar, chess also, like extra
Speaker 1: learning class, gymnastics, just a lot of different stuff because
Speaker 1: we wanted to keep her busy and stimulated as much
Speaker 1: as we could. Yeah, true New York Renaissance women. Uh,
Speaker 1: what's been the most surprising part for you? Being with
Speaker 1: your family seven when you've mostly been on the road
Speaker 1: at months on end. But this has been probably a
Speaker 1: new thing for you. You know, it's kind of similar
Speaker 1: to the offseason for me. Uh, we carve out the
Speaker 1: time of the day that I work out and do
Speaker 1: my training and all that. But you know, the big
Speaker 1: difference right now is that we're stationary. So I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say anything it's too surprising. I mean, it's kind of
Speaker 1: what I expected it. But we're doing well. I mean,
Speaker 1: we haven't had too many horrible days. You know, it's leundane,
Speaker 1: but I think for the most part, we're doing well
Speaker 1: and we still like each other's that's good. That's that's ideal. Uh,
Speaker 1: you are no stranger. And this might be one of
Speaker 1: the reasons that you don't feel it's too different is
Speaker 1: that you know that do it yourself mentality that a
Speaker 1: lot of athletes and just nor me's have had to
Speaker 1: adapt during the pandemic. In the past, you rented out
Speaker 1: a storefront in Harlem to get your training in. Can
Speaker 1: you tell people about what this pitching layer that you created.
Speaker 1: In the past, you had your own like bat cave
Speaker 1: for athletics. Can you tell us what that was like? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, in the past, I had trained with a
Speaker 1: group and I was out on Long Island and I
Speaker 1: just became you know, when my throwing partner moved away
Speaker 1: to Tennessee, and um, it just became tough for me
Speaker 1: to really um budget the time well and I feel
Speaker 1: like I was rushing. So you know, we were able
Speaker 1: to get our own space in Harlem and I just
Speaker 1: kind of put everything I needed there and I was
Speaker 1: able to train, you know, morning or evening pretty much
Speaker 1: whenever it made sense that day and kind of get
Speaker 1: away from everybody and rebuild myself on my own and
Speaker 1: just kind of, you know, take a day by day.
Speaker 1: But it was really nice to have that private space
Speaker 1: to kind of do what I needed to do and
Speaker 1: keep my mind in a good place. And it's playing
Speaker 1: off now because all that equipment from that place which
Speaker 1: has gone now I have here. So we've been able
Speaker 1: to do stuff in my basement and and outside. And
Speaker 1: you know, there's some stuff that I thought I would
Speaker 1: never use again because I had had been training at
Speaker 1: Yankee Stadium the soft season, but that's off limits. So
Speaker 1: here I am using that stuff again. So it's kind
Speaker 1: of nice. So what was the size? Was it like
Speaker 1: a Best Buy size or something. The storefront, well, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm imagining like a bodega, and that's that's a crazy
Speaker 1: thing to think. It was eight ft long wide, very
Speaker 1: much where a bodega would go. The previous tenant in
Speaker 1: the space was a nine West shoe store. It was
Speaker 1: right outside a bus stop Subways on the corner. It's
Speaker 1: on a very traffic block. It was on the sink
Speaker 1: list between one and Harlem, still block away from the Apollo,
Speaker 1: so it's exactly what you would expect. Luckily, the ceilings
Speaker 1: were about twelve ft so I could do throwing out
Speaker 1: to the eight feet without any problem. And you know,
Speaker 1: we turfed half of it and I put a net
Speaker 1: dead at the end like a screen so I could
Speaker 1: throw into the screen. And we just kind of figured
Speaker 1: it out as we went along, Like we dealt with
Speaker 1: some lighting issues and some other issues, but overall it
Speaker 1: was it was really awesome. Cameras all set up, that's
Speaker 1: basically what you brought out to your house. Now, so
Speaker 1: what is the current set up at home? So my
Speaker 1: gym's in the basement. I have like all the workout
Speaker 1: equipment there, and then I have all my throwing stuff
Speaker 1: in the garage and I just pull it out and
Speaker 1: throw in my yard. I have a bullpen catcher for
Speaker 1: the Yankees that lives about half hour away, and he
Speaker 1: drives over and we we throw, you know, my yard
Speaker 1: and throw off the mound once a week, and I
Speaker 1: have my cameras and all that set up, and you know,
Speaker 1: we just try to make the most of it, trying
Speaker 1: to stay ready so that when we hopefully figure something
Speaker 1: out and get going here, then my build up won't
Speaker 1: be too long. I can just kind of get right
Speaker 1: into it. And you've involved others. The Yankees made a
Speaker 1: massive offseason move picking up a Scarrett Cole, and you've
Speaker 1: been lucky enough to be able to train with him
Speaker 1: a little during quarantine. How did that come together? I
Speaker 1: saw an Instagram pick that showed him at your place. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we just throw a bullpence together that one day a week,
Speaker 1: So we just try to align our throwing to match
Speaker 1: up for that day every week. And he throws most
Speaker 1: of the time with with our manager because they both
Speaker 1: live up in Greenwich, so they throw together up there
Speaker 1: in Connecticut, and that's about fifteen minutes from here. On
Speaker 1: the day of the Bullpens, we come down. I mean,
Speaker 1: I have the turf mound that I had from my gym,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of the difference maker of why I
Speaker 1: ended up posting everything. But um, yeah, it's been great.
Speaker 1: I mean it almost feels like a game day, bullpen day,
Speaker 1: you know, he comes rolling in and we challenge each other.
Speaker 1: We try to make each other a little better and
Speaker 1: work on our game together, and it's been nice to
Speaker 1: get to know him during this time. Yeah, did you
Speaker 1: know him before or was it just like a sort
Speaker 1: of set update for you guys to work out, never
Speaker 1: meeting and stuff. Well, I knew him a little bit,
Speaker 1: and um, I knew him from like some Players Association
Speaker 1: meetings and uh competing against him and I had we
Speaker 1: had some mutual friends. And then um, this year when
Speaker 1: he signed, you know, I was at stadium during his
Speaker 1: press conference because I was training that day at stadium.
Speaker 1: And right before spring training, he uh moved in in Connecticut,
Speaker 1: so we trained together for about a week at the
Speaker 1: stadium before heading off the Tampa. So really it just
Speaker 1: kind of been in the right place at the right time.
Speaker 1: It gets to know the guy. And and then when
Speaker 1: we got broken up from spring training, we talked and
Speaker 1: I told him, Hayley, like, I have them mount at
Speaker 1: my house, and let's let's utilize that, so you know,
Speaker 1: whenever you're comfortable with we'll figure it out as we go,
Speaker 1: but um, let's not be strangers. And so we've kind
Speaker 1: of kept that up. And also, you know, his wife's
Speaker 1: with him and she's pregnant, and she comes and just
Speaker 1: kind of hangs with my wife and they watch from
Speaker 1: a distance, and I think it's nice just to see
Speaker 1: some other people. Yeah, it does seem We interviewed Zach
Speaker 1: Plisack and he had the same kind of relationship with Clevinger,
Speaker 1: Like it seems like some guys have paired off who
Speaker 1: lived near each other, who can sort of bunk up,
Speaker 1: uh and and get some practice in rather than just
Speaker 1: I think it's throwing against a wall or hitting into
Speaker 1: a net. So that's good. Yeah, And also you know,
Speaker 1: he's really smart, So I mean, ultimately we kind of
Speaker 1: vibe in that way because we're both into the same
Speaker 1: stuff with baseball, and so it's nice to be able
Speaker 1: to kind of feed off of each other and it's
Speaker 1: made for a good time. You know, it's nice to
Speaker 1: get to see one of the best up close like that.
Speaker 1: And Aaron Boone stopped by you said that he practices
Speaker 1: a lot with with Cole. Are you in touch with
Speaker 1: your teammates pretty much straight through this endemic? Yeah, we
Speaker 1: we have group chats going and we had we had
Speaker 1: one zoom with the whole team. You know, like I said,
Speaker 1: I see the bullpen catcher. I seen her and Boone,
Speaker 1: so chat a little bit. And you know I have
Speaker 1: friends obviously that I texted the all time. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we're in touch. You know, most guys did go their
Speaker 1: separate ways. They're still a group in Tampa and we
Speaker 1: get checked in with the training stats almost every day.
Speaker 1: So I feel like we're together as you could be,
Speaker 1: considering we're all a part. Yeah, well, who's the funniest
Speaker 1: in the group chat? Who's the funniest Yankee? I have
Speaker 1: my money on Luke Voit. You know, it depends on
Speaker 1: the type of humor. Like I think, just the biggest
Speaker 1: overall ridiculous characters, Tommy Kinley's and other relievers just insane
Speaker 1: bundle of energy. But you know, Brick Gardner is really funny,
Speaker 1: all right, tells he tells great stories, and so I
Speaker 1: really like to be around him. But we have a
Speaker 1: good group. I mean a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: funny guys. There's not one dude just hitting the memes
Speaker 1: over and over in the group chat. No, I mean
Speaker 1: it's not really. I mean a little bit here and there,
Speaker 1: but overall not really. Let's talk about the pressure of
Speaker 1: being a Yankee. It's certainly different than Colorado because even
Speaker 1: during the coronavirus when I was researching you, the media
Speaker 1: is like wildly concerned about how you're keeping warm, and
Speaker 1: all your teammates, like you get your own articles like
Speaker 1: here's how Adam is keeping fit Like that definitely wasn't
Speaker 1: happening in other markets for you. How do you deal
Speaker 1: with that difference in scrutiny. Well, I think I had
Speaker 1: a good advantage just because I grew up a Yankee fan,
Speaker 1: so I kind of know what that side of it is.
Speaker 1: I was a die hard Yankee fan growing up, and
Speaker 1: I understand that they're watching everything that we do. And basically,
Speaker 1: the thing I always tell my teammates is you just
Speaker 1: have to understand the Yankee fan perspective. Like all they
Speaker 1: really expected and I'll start every position and for and
Speaker 1: for perfection with your performance, so you know, the expectations
Speaker 1: are what they are. But I think a big key
Speaker 1: for me was I matured a lot during my time
Speaker 1: in Comarado and ultimately realized when I came over here
Speaker 1: that I needed to tune it all out and just
Speaker 1: kind of focused on my craft my own way and
Speaker 1: left the chip while what they may. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's an honor to be scrutinized as much
Speaker 1: as we are and wanted to be a Yankee and
Speaker 1: wear the pin stripes. So I just tried to enjoy
Speaker 1: my teenmates and focused on the game that we have
Speaker 1: that night, and I think it worked pretty well for
Speaker 1: me last year. Yeah. I mean, you have quite a
Speaker 1: background and a family tree of people. I mean I
Speaker 1: think it was your grandfather who helped build New York
Speaker 1: City in general. Uh. I wonder what it was like
Speaker 1: for the first time walking into that stadium as an
Speaker 1: actual member of the Yankees. I mean, that must have
Speaker 1: been a real pinch moment. Yeah. The craziest moment for
Speaker 1: me was right after I signed a contract, got called
Speaker 1: in to the stadium for like some head shots and
Speaker 1: some stuff that I had to do there. So I
Speaker 1: went in and when they told me to step for
Speaker 1: the head shot, I needed to wear like the jersey
Speaker 1: of the hat, so they had me put on the
Speaker 1: hat and the jersey for the photograph. So I commented
Speaker 1: right away to the clubhouse manager like that this jersey
Speaker 1: felt heavy to me. I never felt I could kind
Speaker 1: of feel the weight of it, you know, like the
Speaker 1: weight of being a Yankee in that moment, And you know,
Speaker 1: it definitely felt different than any other moment my career
Speaker 1: because I wore a Yankee stuff obviously growing up, but
Speaker 1: it was more like fashion. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: It's like, this is what I'm gonna be wearing for work.
Speaker 1: So that was a moment where I felt that type
Speaker 1: of things for real. And then, you know, I think
Speaker 1: I got a lot of the other feeling out of
Speaker 1: the way during training, getting used to being a Yankee
Speaker 1: and having these teammates and you know that media coverage
Speaker 1: all that, and then by the time I got to
Speaker 1: the actual season, I felt pretty comfortable and so was
Speaker 1: kind of a bonus, I thought, hand with a single
Speaker 1: digit number, Yeah, yeah, that was a whole another thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I didn't know if that was going to
Speaker 1: happen or not. Funny that that ended up going down.
Speaker 1: You had a tremendous below to e r A last season,
Speaker 1: ran into a bit of a snag in the postseason.
Speaker 1: And I know that you've changed up your delivery and
Speaker 1: improved your off speed stuff. You had a very good
Speaker 1: spring before it was shut down. How antsy are you
Speaker 1: to go back out there and prove yourself in a
Speaker 1: new season to these Yankees fans? You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: really thinking about it from that perspective. I just know
Speaker 1: that our team has a really good chance to do
Speaker 1: special things if we can get back on the field.
Speaker 1: We have a really good group coming back. So you know,
Speaker 1: I just want to go out there and do my
Speaker 1: singing and then get another opportunity, you know, in the
Speaker 1: post season. So you've got to get there first. I
Speaker 1: don't want to short chance the process. You gotta work
Speaker 1: really hard to get to that opportunity and then try
Speaker 1: to see the moment. Yeah, and as a middle reliever,
Speaker 1: your workload is always monitored to avoid over usage. Does
Speaker 1: a lighting season with less games does that excite you
Speaker 1: at all? Or does that does that kind of frighten
Speaker 1: you for for what they normally watch you. Innings wise,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really scare me. I trained the throw more
Speaker 1: than they end up having us pitch, and I feel
Speaker 1: like I've been pretty well conditioned the last few years.
Speaker 1: But I do think that if people think that you're
Speaker 1: gonna throw maybe less because of the shorter season, I mean,
Speaker 1: it could be naive because they might use it as Okay,
Speaker 1: there's less games overall, so we can push you a
Speaker 1: little more often. And I think that's totally reasonable considering
Speaker 1: if we do play a half season and each game
Speaker 1: would be double the value. Though, I'm just gonna try
Speaker 1: to go for it. I think one thing. As a
Speaker 1: relief pitcher, especially somebody who pitches towards the back end
Speaker 1: of the game, you kind of take pride in taking
Speaker 1: the ball and always being ready. So I think that's
Speaker 1: the mentality we'll take when we go in with double headers.
Speaker 1: Mess you up with that, I mean, I was trying
Speaker 1: to think about that. No, I mean, you know, I've
Speaker 1: pitched in both ends of a double header a few
Speaker 1: times in my career. It's fine, it's just like then
Speaker 1: you can't pitch the next day, so you know, I
Speaker 1: think luckily for our team, we have so many good
Speaker 1: pitchers and we have some good young ones coming that
Speaker 1: we were able to help each other out and lighten
Speaker 1: each other's loads and get us where we need to
Speaker 1: get to to be fresh for the playoffs. I thought
Speaker 1: they did a nice job with that. Last year with us,
Speaker 1: nobody really got burned out too bad, and so I'm
Speaker 1: sure that would be the same plan unless you know,
Speaker 1: obviously things change and situation is a little more dire
Speaker 1: and then we have to get the foot down. But
Speaker 1: I feel good about our our overall, our overall team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you guys have a stack bullpen. Really only Chapman
Speaker 1: is locked in for a role. All you guys can
Speaker 1: come in in any inning. I think like there seems
Speaker 1: to be a lot of versatility on the staff. Is
Speaker 1: that something that you've noticed and there's something maybe the
Speaker 1: Yankees organizations went out of their way to not have
Speaker 1: this is the setup, this is the this is the
Speaker 1: one pitch guy. This is I mean, is it is
Speaker 1: it on purpose? By committee? In that way, I think
Speaker 1: that the team tried to just get as many elite
Speaker 1: arms as they could, and then I think once they
Speaker 1: were already had a good baseline of that. Then maybe
Speaker 1: there was a little more like, Okay, we're lacking a
Speaker 1: little bit of a special scan one way or another,
Speaker 1: Like I know what I got signed. You know, one
Speaker 1: thing I was communicated to me was that most of
Speaker 1: their pictures in the bullpen were actually better versus left
Speaker 1: handed hitters the right handed hitters. Obviously I'm better versus
Speaker 1: right handed hitters, So that was kind of where I
Speaker 1: was initially thought to fit in and with this group.
Speaker 1: And I think the other thing that's awesome about our
Speaker 1: group of relief pictures is that pretty much everybody on
Speaker 1: our team could be a closer anywhere else most other places,
Speaker 1: but everybody's kind of put that to the side. You know,
Speaker 1: Britain was All Star closer for several years with Baltimore,
Speaker 1: and for him to come and accept a different role,
Speaker 1: that just shows what kind of guy he is and
Speaker 1: what he really values. And that's kind of the way
Speaker 1: I felt. That's great more with the Yankees, Adam Ottavino
Speaker 1: after this. Right now, Feeding America is working tirelessly to
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Speaker 1: low income families continue to have access to food and
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Speaker 1: Now let's get back to Adam. You've been vocal about
Speaker 1: some problems in the past that you've had with racing thoughts.
Speaker 1: Now this clearly spoke to me. I suffer from something
Speaker 1: called obsessive thoughts disorder that I've dealt with, for God,
Speaker 1: since I was twelve years old. I've I've taken medication
Speaker 1: to to really feel somewhat cured about it. I read
Speaker 1: that you use a journal to help calm yourself, and
Speaker 1: that does a lot for you. Much of the world
Speaker 1: is getting to our level right now with everything going on.
Speaker 1: People used to look at us and go, how do
Speaker 1: you have how do you ever reoccurring crazy thoughts and
Speaker 1: now we all have to because we feel like the
Speaker 1: world is ending at times. Has the pandemic spiked these
Speaker 1: thoughts for you at all? No? I actually think overall,
Speaker 1: all of the baseball mental training that I've a mental
Speaker 1: evolution that I've gone through over my careers helped me
Speaker 1: deal with this scenario. I mean, you know, we've become
Speaker 1: really good at paying attention to what's important right now
Speaker 1: and boiling things down and being in the moment and
Speaker 1: really training your brain like about what's what are the
Speaker 1: things that you want to think about, you know, really
Speaker 1: controlling that side of it. And I think that serves
Speaker 1: me well now because if you focus on the stuff
Speaker 1: that does matter in the moment and stuff that you
Speaker 1: can have a piece of the And I think that's
Speaker 1: a little safer of a mental game. And I think
Speaker 1: it's tough right now because there's obviously, you know, a
Speaker 1: big urge for us to get back to normalcy. But
Speaker 1: you know, because I don't control it and I can
Speaker 1: draw back on my training for pitching, I think it
Speaker 1: kind of plays into that. Yeah, it's crazy because you
Speaker 1: say those things and say that you set them to me.
Speaker 1: A couple of years ago, I would have been like, well,
Speaker 1: that's impossible for me. I really truly would have I
Speaker 1: would have been like, he's bssing me. But you know,
Speaker 1: you found journaling, and I'm sure you found some other
Speaker 1: techniques as well, and I found you know, breathing and
Speaker 1: meditation and medication, you know, in my case. But I
Speaker 1: truly when you find your rhythm, it does actually just
Speaker 1: sort of cut a lot of those thoughts out and
Speaker 1: finding that rhythm is extremely difficult. Like did it take
Speaker 1: you a long time to find your coping methods? Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was an evolution and a lot of people held me.
Speaker 1: I talked to a lot of people about what they
Speaker 1: think about while they're performing and at other times, you know,
Speaker 1: how do they control the mental side of the game,
Speaker 1: Because for me, I always felt like I was just
Speaker 1: getting to a point where I would kind of overwhelm myself.
Speaker 1: And that's the worst feeling for me is the feeling
Speaker 1: of being overwhelmed. So for me, just over time, I
Speaker 1: got a little better at understanding that my mental control
Speaker 1: my physical in the game, and like, if I was
Speaker 1: thinking certain thoughts during a game where I performed well,
Speaker 1: I wanted to keep trying that that way. I felt
Speaker 1: like if I had a consistent mental approach, it would
Speaker 1: help my physical approach, you know, become more consistent. So
Speaker 1: it was hard though, I mean, failure played a big role.
Speaker 1: You know. Sometimes you have to be in your lowest
Speaker 1: moments where you really doubt everything to really put the
Speaker 1: ownest on yourself to make a real actionable change. And
Speaker 1: that was kind of the case with me, Like a
Speaker 1: lot of coaches would tell me something, and maybe I
Speaker 1: didn't buy in until I failed so bad that I
Speaker 1: bought myself. And if that makes sense, no, yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: sure it is. It's a it's the mind. The brain
Speaker 1: is a very terrifying, beautiful thing. And that's amazing that
Speaker 1: you were able to sort of grasp it. And I
Speaker 1: feel lucky that I was too. So I hope others
Speaker 1: maybe listen to that and understand there's there's ways around
Speaker 1: that that sort of obsessive thinking. Yeah, and it's still
Speaker 1: an ongoing thing. I think that's another thing. It's like
Speaker 1: I used to be very obsessed with getting to a destination,
Speaker 1: like getting to a place where then I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: to like maintain things anymore, Like things would just things
Speaker 1: would just be and I think once I said that
Speaker 1: that's not real life, Like real life is about creating
Speaker 1: good habits and constantly evolving costly improving on things. I
Speaker 1: think that helped me too, because then I just kind
Speaker 1: of fell in love with the process of things, is
Speaker 1: opposed to always obsessed with getting to some destination. And
Speaker 1: I think that really helps mentally too. Yeah, it's the
Speaker 1: journey more than anything. It's like I had an audition
Speaker 1: this week for something, and in the old days, I
Speaker 1: may have just sat there and thought about it the
Speaker 1: whole time, and instead I said to myself, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna do this because I know I could do well.
Speaker 1: And it happened and I did my best, and I
Speaker 1: think I did really well, and then then you move on.
Speaker 1: It's in baseball. I feel like in sports it's a
Speaker 1: similar thing, which is like, you know what your job is,
Speaker 1: you'll try our hardest. You know you're going to still
Speaker 1: have those human moments of doubt and human moments of obsession,
Speaker 1: but they're different than the ones you can't control. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that helped me when I moved to the bullpen.
Speaker 1: You know, when I was a starting pitcher. In my
Speaker 1: whole life, I was pitching good, I would ride that
Speaker 1: high for the whole week, and I have no problem
Speaker 1: with anxiety for the next game. But I think if
Speaker 1: I pitched poorly, then I kind of obsessed over it
Speaker 1: for four or five days, and then by the time
Speaker 1: I up to the game, I kind of be mentally
Speaker 1: already spent, you know, emotionally spent, And in the bullpen,
Speaker 1: I'm able to kind of just tune out and not
Speaker 1: really lock in until the moment of truth, and then
Speaker 1: basically I just tell myself, like, you know, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do what I can here and do what happens, and
Speaker 1: that way it doesn't put as much pressure on everything,
Speaker 1: and I'm not in a constant state of angst, So
Speaker 1: I think I think that kind of helps too well.
Speaker 1: Speaking of angst, I talked to Justin Turner this week.
Speaker 1: I asked him, You're gonna be the first a L
Speaker 1: player that I get to ask this question to. Do
Speaker 1: you think the break in play is helping the Astros
Speaker 1: or hurting the Astros? Do you think that we are
Speaker 1: giving them some time off and that's going to get
Speaker 1: people's minds off it, or you think you think baseball
Speaker 1: fans don't forget anything I don't think people are going
Speaker 1: to forget it, but I think it's helping them because
Speaker 1: that was the story of spring training up until the virus,
Speaker 1: that was all day, every day. It was already to
Speaker 1: the point where it was exhausting, and I think that
Speaker 1: once the season started they were going to be in
Speaker 1: for a lot of hatred from fans around the country.
Speaker 1: So to me, I think this is helping. Especially when
Speaker 1: they come back. They're definitely not going to be any
Speaker 1: fans and stand so since it helps them. I mean,
Speaker 1: some of them have kind of come out of the
Speaker 1: cave and went back on social media and doing all
Speaker 1: their stuff, and you know, good for them. Power to them.
Speaker 1: They're learning how to have that thick skin, I guess,
Speaker 1: but I think it helps them. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: definitely coming down on them pretty hard before this. Well,
Speaker 1: I love that answer. I want to ask you something
Speaker 1: a little positive and something stupid. I'll give you some
Speaker 1: suggestions for quarantine, but first, is there anything that you
Speaker 1: think we've taken on during this time of the pandemic
Speaker 1: that you you hope we keep when everything clears up,
Speaker 1: something we want in society moving forward. I don't, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know. I'm just not so aware
Speaker 1: of what everybody else is doing all the time. So
Speaker 1: I think I'm sure some good lessons will come out
Speaker 1: of this for the positive. But campin point interesting at
Speaker 1: the moment. Yeah, I mean, I I've listen, I've been
Speaker 1: vocal about we shouldn't be hugging people anyway. I think
Speaker 1: hugging super weird unless your family, I guess. But in baseball,
Speaker 1: we've been reading some of those new rules that they're
Speaker 1: looking at, you know, with the maybe not even high
Speaker 1: iving and obviously no spitting on the field and those things. Like,
Speaker 1: was there anything in that list that you were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: why do we do that? No? I understand all of
Speaker 1: it because, like that's part of the camaraderie, you know,
Speaker 1: the high fiving and sitting next to each other and
Speaker 1: you are like a family and just mixing it up.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the beautiful things about baseball. There's
Speaker 1: the brotherhood there. And I don't know, it's definitely weird
Speaker 1: to not do any of that stuff, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: if we power with each other, yeah, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a different thing. Yeah, I mean I agree with
Speaker 1: it's gonna be very weird. Okay, so here's some suggestions
Speaker 1: for for quarantine. You clearly have a mound with astroitur
Speaker 1: if you don't need my help. But here are some
Speaker 1: things that I wanted to throw out there for you
Speaker 1: and the listeners, things that that maybe you could take
Speaker 1: up during the pandemic. Alright, First, there is a new
Speaker 1: trend on the internet called pancake cereal. Have you heard
Speaker 1: about it? No? Okay, social media hit a bit of
Speaker 1: a meme. It's in the food world, and it's not
Speaker 1: for anyone on a diet, so I don't want Aaron
Speaker 1: Boone getting mad at you. But it's pancake cereal, which
Speaker 1: is literally what it sounds like. People make mini pancakes,
Speaker 1: very small pancakes to all look like each other. Then
Speaker 1: they put them in a large bowl, making it look
Speaker 1: like cereal pieces, so like it looks like cinnamon toast crunch.
Speaker 1: But it's all small, little pancakes. Okay. They add on
Speaker 1: top chocolate, syrup, bananas, whipped cream, even milk. In some
Speaker 1: cases you could put blueberries on it. Lunch midnight stack,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter where adults all bets are off in the quarantine. Wow, yeah,
Speaker 1: not not healthy. I would try it because for me,
Speaker 1: the tough part is keeping my weight on during during
Speaker 1: all right, well, that's a very lucky thing I have.
Speaker 1: I have put on enough weight for you in the season.
Speaker 1: We're used to getting like four or five meals a
Speaker 1: day at the field. So yeah, okay, throw a pancakes
Speaker 1: cereal in the mix. Uh. Secondly, have you heard of
Speaker 1: something that's popped up during quarantine called a bear hunt? Okay,
Speaker 1: it's popping up in cities United States, Iceland, Netherlands, Australia,
Speaker 1: New Zealand. It's inspired by a children's book called We're
Speaker 1: Going on a Bear Hunt. It's by Michael Rosen, and
Speaker 1: this could help with the children. This is an idea.
Speaker 1: Participants are placing teddy bears in their windows for children
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood to spot from you know, walking in
Speaker 1: a you know distance walks or in the street and
Speaker 1: looking into windows like they're in a safari and and
Speaker 1: basically picking off all the bears in the windows. Okay, cute,
Speaker 1: I could see that, But it depends on it depends
Speaker 1: on how close to the window i'd have to get.
Speaker 1: I would hope for it to be pretty distance, because
Speaker 1: I don't I wouldn't want to have my kids be creepy,
Speaker 1: like right up looking at people's houses. That's true. My
Speaker 1: kid is either looking for a bear or become a
Speaker 1: very early peeping tom right exactly, I can't tell. All right. Lastly,
Speaker 1: I know you are a big photography guy. You're very
Speaker 1: into cameras, right, Okay, have you been able to shoot
Speaker 1: anything during quarantine? Not really. I've shot some stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: related to baseball, and I've pulled my drone around a
Speaker 1: little bit, and uh, I really haven't gotten anything. And
Speaker 1: I did see a couple of shots while I was
Speaker 1: driving to go to the grocery store one day that
Speaker 1: I wanted to take, but I didn't have camera with me.
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking my care in the car and hoping
Speaker 1: to do a little better in that way. Well, I
Speaker 1: have an idea. There's no better time to shoot socially
Speaker 1: distant portraits. And I know the first person you can shoot. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm ready. Your former teammate the dust retired CC Sabathia.
Speaker 1: We have seen incredible drastic weight loss over the past
Speaker 1: few months. This dude needs professional shots. He needs to
Speaker 1: show off the glow up. Uh yeah, he's looking good.
Speaker 1: You could get him shirtless tank top, whatever you're comfortable with.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. Anytime anyone's gonna talk about CC,
Speaker 1: they're gonna show these old heavy shots and he needs
Speaker 1: he needs the fit stuff. Yeah, he does. He said
Speaker 1: he was gonna get ripped after baseball. We all didn't
Speaker 1: know if he was serious or not, but it seems
Speaker 1: like he's going for it. I do love the idea
Speaker 1: he decided to get into shape after sports. Great. It's
Speaker 1: a great guy, Adam. Your rule stay healthy and stay
Speaker 1: safe with your family. And I can't wait to watch
Speaker 1: you out on the real field, on the real mound
Speaker 1: soon enough. Thank you so much. The No Sports Report
Speaker 1: is produced and distributed by tree Fort Media. The show
Speaker 1: was executive produced by Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Matthew Coogler,
Speaker 1: and me Jensen Cart. Tom Monahan is our senior audio
Speaker 1: engineer and sound supervisor, with production and editing by Jasper
Speaker 1: Leek additional production help from Tim Shower, June Rosen, and
Speaker 1: Hayley Mandelberg. Our theme music is composed by Spilkis. If
Speaker 1: you've enjoyed what you've heard, please subscribe, rate us and
Speaker 1: review us on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast
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Speaker 1: The No Sports Report is a production of I Heart
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