WEBVTT - Clay speaks with FS1 College Football Analyst Joel Klatt 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:05.720 This says, Wins and Losses with Clay Trevis play talks 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:09.840 with the most entertaining people in sports, entertainment and business. 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:21.360 Now here's Clay Trevis. Welcome in Wins and Losses podcast. Here, 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:23.959 I am your fearless host, Clay Travis. Well, you're gonna 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:26.119 be joined here momentarily by Joel Clatt. I want to 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.080 tell you, guys, I want you to leave me the 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:31.920 best possible five star reviews that you can on the 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:34.839 Wins and Losses podcast. I'll shout out some of the 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.960 best as we continue to have more and more of 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.680 these weekly episodes. We need more reviews. Helps the rating 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.360 helps bump us up in the podcast rankings. I'm told also, 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.280 I want to be entertained by reading these things. Special 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:49.800 bonus if you can make fun of Joel Clatt while 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.880 talking about how awesome I am in that review, will 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.120 continue to share those going forward. Uh and we are 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:58.319 joined today by at Joel Clatt, one of the most 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.200 awful people on the Internet. He is the lead college 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:05.800 football analyst for uh Fox Sports, and he has the 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:10.479 the unfortunate unfortunate, I would say, notoriety for being among 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:12.800 my biggest hitters in all the world, Joel, thanks for 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:16.640 joining us. I'm just a truth teller. So you know, 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:18.880 when you're a massive hypocrite, I just call it out 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:21.319 right on that space, all right. So speaking of being 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:23.640 a massive hypocrite, um, you, of course are one of 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:26.120 the greatest hypocrites in all of the land. But what 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.000 we do, what we do on the Wins and Losses 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:33.120 podcast is, uh, we try to get from how you 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:35.760 got so and I just introduced you as the lead 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:39.240 voice for Fox College Football. You travel around the best 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:41.840 game Fox has in the Big Twelve, the Pack twelve, 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:44.039 and the Big Ten every week and get to call 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:47.039 college football games. But you're a relatively young guy. How 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:49.520 old are you like, as we speak today in twenty nineteen, 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:54.320 thirty seven years old, So you're a young guy to 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:57.040 have the job that you have. So let's go back 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.400 in time. Let's go back in time. Will will eventually 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.400 work our way back up to the nineteen college football 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.440 season that's about to start. But when did the question 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.520 I would like to ask people who become pretty good athletes, 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:10.200 and people may not even realize that you were a 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:12.960 pretty good athlete, is when did you realize for the 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:17.720 first time, Hey, I'm pretty good at playing sports. Um, 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.200 I mean I always love sports, and I would say 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:22.840 as a kid, I was always I would say, you know, 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:26.120 one of the you know, top two or three players 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:29.120 on whatever team I was on, kind of regardless of sport. Now, 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:31.120 my dad was a high school of football coach. I 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.160 was the youngest of four. I was the accident actually play, 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.160 so I was way behind my brothers and sisters. So 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.320 my whole childhood was basically just a big tag along 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:43.920 to their sporting events. And you know, my brother was 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.519 a really good player, um in football, basketball, and baseball, 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:49.880 and I would be the ball boy on the sideline 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:53.200 for my dad's teams, and so I was always around it. 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.400 I always loved competing, whether it was whookeleball in the 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.920 backyard or actually playing on team sports on my own. 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:02.440 But I would say that I I think I knew 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:04.959 from a pretty young age that I was always one 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:07.799 of the better players on whatever team I was on. 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:13.119 But I didn't really know that that I was good 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:15.919 enough to play past high school until I would say 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:19.000 I was a junior in high school. Um, that might 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:22.320 be late, but but for whatever reason, I just always 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.160 thought that that was for other people, you know, that 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:26.200 was for like the greatest players. And then all of 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:30.080 a sudden, specifically baseball, I started playing really well. I 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.560 started hitting a lot of home runs as a junior 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:37.120 in high school and started getting attention from not only colleges, 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.000 but from also Major league teams. And that was the 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.080 first kind of whiff I got of, like, oh man, 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:44.520 I'm gonna be able to play past high school. Where 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:49.080 did you grow up? Denver, Colorado? Just outside it's actually 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.640 a town called our Vada, and our Vada is actually 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:55.880 directly between Boulder and Denver, so I grew up very 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.000 close to the University of Colorado. I grew up a 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.520 huge Denver Bronco fan, and um right during the John 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:05.040 Elway era. You know, I was born in n and 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.760 he got there. So my formative years were watching the Broncos, 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:10.560 you know, go to the Super Bowl and lose it 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:13.840 three times. And I was a couple of Super Bowls. 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:19.160 So uh, certainly sports shaped my entire life growing up, 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.280 and in particular I was able to as a kid 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.280 watch the University of Colorado win a national championship, so 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:28.080 you know, for me, you know, that was kind of life. 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:30.839 Be sure to catch live editions about kicked the coverage 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.760 with Clay Travis week days at six am Eastern three 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:37.200 am Pacific. We're talking to Joel Clapp, Fox College Football 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.960 lead analysts, does a lot of different things for Fox. Uh. 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:41.520 And so you you said your dad was a high 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:45.919 school coach. What did you coach? He was a football coach. 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:50.039 So he he was at that school, Pomona High School 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.520 in our Vauta, Colorado, for over thirty years from the 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:56.160 day it opened, and he was the head coach for 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:58.520 a while. He was a defensive coordinator for a while. 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:02.320 But um, yeah he was. He was always there and 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:04.080 that was always kind of my favorite thing to do 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:05.960 as a kid was go to the high school football 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:07.960 games and be a ball boy on the sideline. Did 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:13.120 you play high school football for your dad? I did, Um, 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:16.160 but he it wasn't you know that that brings up 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.160 I'm sure that everyone listening will have a very specific 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:21.360 picture in their mind of what that means. Right. Oh, 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:26.000 of course this guy was a coach's son. And I 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.480 always pushed back on that a little bit because my 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:31.719 experience was actually very different than what I think people 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:37.000 predict it would have been. For instance, my dad, um 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.120 was kind of a gruff guy a disciplinarian. He was 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.719 a marine um. He he fought in Vietnam. He was 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.040 the first lieutenant in an artillery division in the Vietnam War. 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:51.320 And so you know, he ran our football team accordingly. 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:54.159 You know, we had to have our uniforms washed and pressed, 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.360 and our helmet shined and our shoes shine just in 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.400 order to get on the bus. Um. And we were, 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:02.599 you know, we were a very much a disciplined football team. Well, 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:06.760 he told me, you know, when I was a junior 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.960 that well, first of all, he would took on the 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:12.040 varsity until I was a junior. And then once I 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.240 was a junior, he said, you're not playing quarterback for 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:17.320 me if there's an older kid that can that is willing, 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:20.440 you know, to play quarterback or or can play quarterback. 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:23.760 And so I didn't even get to play the position 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.440 at quarterback until I was a senior for my dad. 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.960 Which if anyone knows anything about recruiting in in high 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.159 school football and college football knows that that's like, that's 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:36.760 like two years too late. So I wasn't recruited basically 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.120 at all, certainly by the big schools around. Uh. But 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:42.480 you know, I was just a late addition to some 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:46.560 Division two recruiting classes and got to take trips to 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:50.479 place like South Dakota State, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado. 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.720 But in large part because I only played, I only 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.720 started ten games as a quarterback for my high school 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:01.200 football team in my career. That's And what kind of 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:03.120 office did you guys run? Did you wing it around 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:04.479 at all? Or was it more of a kind of 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:09.479 a tradition. No, it was not even traditional clay. It 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:11.280 was old school. It was like do you know the 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:14.800 old robust two tight ends, three backs in the backfield. 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:17.120 We would run the option, we would run the ball. 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:20.080 Of the time they had won. My dad had a 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.480 tremendous amount of success. They won I think something like 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.040 twelve straight league titles. You want a state championship in 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:27.119 the eighties. Who was constantly up there in the state 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:31.160 playoffs and and they believed in this very simple system. 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:34.720 And so there I was not very fast, six two 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:39.200 good arms, UM slow kid trying to run the option, 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:42.640 and I could go up for my dad's team. And 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.040 at the end of the year, this is this is 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:47.280 the only time that I feel like he budged, only 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:51.000 because he was my father. Um, we weren't a great team. 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:53.480 We were about a five hundred football team. And at 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.240 the end of the year, he finally, for the first 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:59.360 time in the history of the school, put a quarterback 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:01.840 in shot gun for the last two games. And I 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:04.320 actually sat in the shot gun and we threw the 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:06.560 ball around a little bit my last two games of 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.240 high school. But other than that, I was doing the 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:12.920 robust like you know, reverse out thinking to the full back, 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.520 run the option down the line, and I was not 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.520 very good at it. So do you think that if 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.600 you had been in a pro style offense in in 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:23.920 you know, or it's certainly a spread, but there probably 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.640 weren't a lot of spread offensive attacks, then if you 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:28.960 had had that opportunity to kind of wing the football around, 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:31.960 do you think you would have gone to play college football? 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.960 I don't know. Um, yeah, that people have asked me 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.920 that before, but I I really don't know. My path 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.520 was so unique, lay and there was there were so 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:46.560 many things that had to happen for me to have 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:50.160 the journey that I did. It was it was you know, 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.680 I'm so thankful that it happened the way that it did, 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.040 because as we'll get into and in a moment I'm sure, 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.839 as we're talking about kind of my path, I wasn't 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.760 ready for that opportunity out of high school, you know, 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:02.680 as part of the reason why I failed in my 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:07.120 endeavor right after high school. Um, and so I'm I 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.680 am eternally grateful that I didn't have the opportunity to 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.640 play football right out of out of high school, and 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:15.800 that I had an opportunity to go and be a 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:18.959 professional and different sport, to grow up and learn an 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.480 immense amount of lessons in order to put those into 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:27.800 practice once I came back and actually went to college. So, UM, 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.120 I don't I have no idea I might have had 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:33.280 an opportunity to play, you know, but definitely not at 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:36.000 the University of Colorado. All right, so let's go to 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:38.719 what happens instead. You're gret your your You said, in 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:41.240 a junior year of high school, you start to hit 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:43.520 some home runs, you start to have some good success 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:46.640 in high school baseball. What position are you playing and 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:48.920 when did you start thinking, oh, man, I might get drafted. 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:51.560 You said it was that junior year. What then happens 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:54.679 that you move into your senior year? Okay, so I 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:58.960 was a short stop and you know that was right 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.240 in the kind of the a Ron era where the 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:06.480 shortstop was no longer just the small middle infielder that 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.000 hit for average, but you could be a power player 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.079 and play shortstop. So I would play shortstop. My brother 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:17.280 was playing college baseball at the time, and um, I 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:19.560 started hitting a lot of home runs. Now, granted, this 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:21.960 is in Colorado with thin air, and this is you know, 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.959 with the aluminum bat, and the pitching wasn't great. But 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.440 when I was hitting, you know, a home run every 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:31.200 you know, six or seven at bats in high school. 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:33.400 And so that's when I started to realize, like, my 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:37.240 future is going to be in baseball? How many home 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:38.920 runs did you hit in a season? Then in high 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:44.040 school baseball? So so like, for instance, the summer before 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:48.760 my senior year, I think we played games forty eight 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.120 or fifty games, and I hit twenty six home runs 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:55.160 and I had about I think hundred RBI right in there, 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:59.480 and so so you know, I was I was hitting 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:02.240 the ball really well, I was decent defensively, and I 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:04.360 and then once I got into the spring of my 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:06.559 senior year, that has kind of kept up. I think 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:08.880 we played only eighteen or nineteen games and I hit 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:12.800 ten home runs. So I started getting some looks, and 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:15.280 I started getting a lot of looks from junior colleges. 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:19.040 I started getting some looks from professional scouts and I 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.040 and I thought I was going to have an opportunity 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.280 to play, certainly in college, but maybe, you know, I'd 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.160 get lucky and get drafted. In the meantime played. My 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.880 brother actually graduated from college and signed a free agent 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:33.839 deal with the San Diego Padres. And so he went 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:36.120 to the San Diego Padres and was with their rookie 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:39.040 ball team when I was the summer before my senior 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:41.960 year and he was with the Padres. Well, because of that, 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:48.480 they're scouts started to realize about me. Started you know, hey, 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:51.440 this kid that Jason, my brother, was playing very well 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:53.079 for their rookie ball team. And they were like, oh, 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.640 he's he's got a younger brother who's basically a clone 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.400 of him. And I was a little bit more powerful 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:00.240 than Jason at the time, you know, he was a 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:04.000 little smaller than I was. And so they're scouts specifically 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:08.800 started really watching me a lot. And and because of that, 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:11.240 because I was fortunate to have my brother in a 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:15.160 professional organization, they knew about me. You know that started 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:17.240 to garner a lot of interest. So the Rockies, who 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:19.680 are the local team, and the Padres were very interested. 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:21.719 I believe the Giants were the other team that were 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:24.400 very interested. I worked out at Coors Fields for the 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:27.600 Rockies before the draft and after my senior year. In 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:30.280 that June draft, I was drafted in the eleventh round 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.719 and it was higher than I could have possibly imagined. 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:36.680 I was over the moon. I couldn't believe that I 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:40.439 was taking that high. Um, it was, you know, kind 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:42.760 of a dream come true. And then I had to 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.040 decide whether I was going to go play junior college 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:47.800 baseball or signed with Padres and playing the minor leagues. 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:50.360 And that was a really difficult decision for me, to 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:53.560 be quite honest with you, because, um, I knew that 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:55.760 an education was going to be important. My dad was 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.319 a teacher, my mom was a kindergarten teacher. They always 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:03.240 stressed the importance of an education in and I I 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.280 say to everybody, the decision that I made to sign 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:08.960 with the San Diego Padres out of high school was 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.080 the best worst decision that I ever made in my life. 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:14.320 What kind of signing bonus do you get? Back then, 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:19.560 as an eleventh round pick. So I signed for basically 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:22.640 the equivalent of about a hundred thousand dollars, which seems 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:24.400 like like you might as well have been ten million. 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:26.520 Do you write a hundred thousand dollars to an eighteen 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.920 year old? Is it? Yeah? So you get my dad, 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.959 I mean, my dad never made at that point. This 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:35.920 is nineteen, this is two thousand. It had been a 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.880 teacher's whole life. I think he was making I mean 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:40.280 he was at the end, and I think he was 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:44.720 making like fifty thousand dollars a year, you know. So 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.040 when they said now, part of that it wasn't all 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:51.760 in cash. It was the equivalent of about a hundred grand, 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:55.920 and part of that was designated towards my college education. 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.400 I think it was I want to say it was 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.320 forty grand or thirty five thousand of the hundred was 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:07.680 designated just for college reimbursement. So you get that offer, like, 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.199 and how long does it take you to decide I'm 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:12.000 gonna take the you know, like I'm gonna go try 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:16.160 my luck at major League baseball. The way I remember it, 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.360 it took me a couple of days. You know. My 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:20.880 brother was stressing to me. He had been released in 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:24.320 the meantime, um and and so he was done with 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.000 the Padres, and he was stressing to me to go 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.320 to college. He was like, listen, my oor league baseball 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.480 is not what it's cracked up to be. You know. 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.200 You know, I know that it's more beneficial to go 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.160 in as a high school draft pick rather than a 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.440 college player, just because of the age. But you was 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:41.640 stressing to me not to go. My dad was probably 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:43.960 stressing to me at the time not to to sign, 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:46.480 and I just I couldn't resist way. I mean, as 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:48.480 you can imagine, right, I mean, you dream your whole 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:50.480 life of being a professional athlete, and then all of 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.640 a sudden someone says, here's the opportunity, here's you know, 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.920 a hundred thousand dollars to do it. Um and So, 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:00.920 against the advice of my family, I actually decided to 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.840 sign and signed with the Padres and went down and 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:08.480 played in the rookie Ball in Peoria, Arizona. Uh that summer. 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:11.800 So you said you're gonna go to junior college, Why 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:14.400 not like a bigger college. What was the decision for 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.000 junior college for you? Yeah? For me, it was really easy, 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:21.160 and it's it all had to do with retaining your 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:25.760 draft status and your own rights, because if you signed 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.520 with a four year school and went there, then it's 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:30.600 just like football, you had to be there for three 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.080 years before you can go back into the draft versus 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.480 you know. That's why a lot of great players actually 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:38.960 go to junior college route because they'll get drafted out 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:40.720 of high school. They say, you know what, I can 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:44.000 improve that by a by a few rounds. They don't 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.840 get the bonus that they want. They go to junior college, 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:49.160 then they can be drafted the very next year. So 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:51.960 that was the reason that I decided that junior college 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:53.400 is going to be my route, is because I wanted 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:56.640 to retain my ability to be drafted the very next year. 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.080 All right, so you immediately go to rookie ball. I mean, 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:01.240 so you're eighteen years old. You know, you spent your 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.680 whole life in Colorado, you signed this deal, uh, and 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:06.920 you go on and go to rookie ball. What was 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:12.840 that like? Um? It was the most interesting thing I 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:16.840 can possibly imagine at the time. You know, here I 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:19.520 am from a suburban town in Denver, Colorado, and all 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.040 of a sudden, I walk into a locker room and 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:28.480 there was probably forty five guys, and only thirteen to 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:32.320 fifteen of them spoke English as a native language. You know, 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.480 there were a lot of Dominican players in the Padre 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.720 organization at the time. There were some guys from Panama, 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:42.040 there was I mean, there were some guys from Mexico. 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:46.680 There was Venezuela. There was a good continent gent from Venezuela. 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.360 And and dude, like, I can't even tell you what 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:53.880 a shock to the system that is, you know, to 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:58.320 all of a sudden be thrown into that. Um, I 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:00.400 got a great story, and I think, I think you'll 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:02.520 love this. So this is just like some comedic relief 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:07.200 my very first days down there. First of all, listen, 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:11.600 I was a little nervous for whatever reason. In our 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:16.840 high school, we didn't take showers. It just wasn't a thing, right, 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.639 Like we would go home to shower after baseball games 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.080 or even after football games and football practice. You just 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.639 kept your your pads and your locker and you just 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.119 change and you went home and shower. And so we 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:29.720 didn't do like the big like you know what I 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.679 would call the gang showers. And so that was one 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:35.840 of the things that I like I knew it was coming, 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:39.919 and and candidly, I was you're a little nervous about it, right, 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.639 I means like the first it's like a moment of truth. 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:46.120 And in a young man's why the first time he's 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.040 gonna stroll into a gang shower And one of the 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.679 first times that I ever did it. And and and 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.320 this is in the spring training complex and Peoria or 0:17:55.840 --> 0:18:00.360 Arizona with the padres. I I walk in and I'm 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.240 like all right, like you know, like chest up, shoulders back, 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.159 you know, I'm telling myself all this stuff, like hanging 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:08.280 the towel on the outside, walk in like you own 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:11.720 the joint, like this is it. Here we go. So 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:15.520 birthday suit rocking, got my shower shoes on, I'm ready 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:18.680 to go. So I walk into the shower. And if 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:20.480 you've ever been in one of those types of showers, 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:23.119 it's loud, right because they're there are a bunch of 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:25.360 other guys in there, and if they're talking or shouting 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.080 or laughing or whatever, and all just kind of like 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:33.080 reverberates because it's just like a big like cement block room, 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.000 and so it's loud, it's echoing, the showers are going, 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:39.160 there's like steam coming up you know, so it's it's 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:42.040 like this weird scene where you can't really see what's 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:44.359 going on, but there's a lot going on because you 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:46.919 can hear it. And so I just started showering as 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:49.679 quickly as I can. And and at one point, you know, 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:52.360 I'm like washing off, and I'm and I'm rinsing off. 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.960 At this point, I'm rinsing off, and so the water 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:56.520 is kind of going over my eyes, so my eyes 0:18:56.560 --> 0:19:00.359 are closed at the time, and I just here this 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:08.560 loud laughter coming from across the shower, and I swear 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:11.480 it sounded like the Cookie Monster, right, and and one 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.240 of the Dominicans was just laughing as loud as he 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:17.480 possibly could. And so I quickly kind of like rubbed 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:19.320 my eyes and opened my eyes, and I'm kind of 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.520 like squinting through the steam that's still in the shower. 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:25.959 And he's standing there with his hands on his hips, 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:30.639 turned to his neighbor, the shower neighbor, and his neighbor 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:34.879 is also rinting off, and he's just with his both 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.320 hands on his hips, not holding anything, king on the 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:43.400 guy next to him and laughing hysterically, a big Cookie 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:48.800 Monster laugh. So at this time, like the guy can't 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:50.960 feel it. I can't remember his name, but the guy 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:53.000 can't feel it because he's in a warm shower. So 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:55.240 finally he does the same thing I do, like rinses, 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:57.359 you know, he kind of rubs his eyes and opens 0:19:57.400 --> 0:19:59.800 his eyes and realized that he's getting the golden shower. 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:07.240 Neighbor and Clay all hell break loose in the shower. 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:14.240 They start growing blows in the shower. I mean everything 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:21.359 is swinging around and they're slippery there slipping. Like I said, 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:25.360 things are really swinging around and there swing. Oh bro. 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:29.520 So I immediately just like walked out and grabbed my 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:31.320 tael and went back to my locker. And I can 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:33.440 remember sitting at my locker and I was staring back 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:35.679 into my locker and I was like, oh my god, 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.600 that was the craziest thing I've ever witnessed in my life. 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:41.639 So wait, the guys. That's always one of the great dilemmas. 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.840 I think, do you break up a naked shower fight? 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:46.840 Like the guys, like, do you step in there and 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:48.720 try to like get between them and break the fight up? 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:52.200 How did the fight in do you remember? And to 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:55.679 go to the ground and in short order, so everyone 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:57.480