Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Buch podcast. We come to
Speaker 1: you every Wednesday. The World Series starts this week here
Speaker 1: in America, and I figured we would get a baseball
Speaker 1: themed guest. Nolan Arnado, third baseman for the St. Louis Carlinals,
Speaker 1: one of the best players in baseball. I got a chance,
Speaker 1: um to play golf. He uh. He was in town
Speaker 1: down a Jupiter. We played at the Grove with DJ
Speaker 1: and Ricky Fowler a couple of months ago. And UM,
Speaker 1: I mean you talk about a golf junkie. Um, this
Speaker 1: guy lives breeze, eat, sleeps golf and we had a
Speaker 1: great day and and talked about get him on the
Speaker 1: podcast and listen. I always like talking to other athletes
Speaker 1: and and hearing about how they play their sport, Um,
Speaker 1: what it takes to play their sport, because obviously that's
Speaker 1: kind of the world that I live in in golf.
Speaker 1: So UM to get a chance to talk uh to
Speaker 1: Nolan and to hear him talk not only about baseball,
Speaker 1: but um about his passion for playing golf. UM, I
Speaker 1: think it's always cool. And you know, sports, whether it's golf,
Speaker 1: whether it's baseball, whatever sport it is, anytime you can
Speaker 1: talk to an athlete and kind of get their process.
Speaker 1: I think it crosses over into how athletes approach their
Speaker 1: sports UM. And I think you can learn a lot
Speaker 1: from listening to other athletes talk about not only golf,
Speaker 1: but the way they look at their sport. And Uh,
Speaker 1: I think you guys will get a lot out of
Speaker 1: this interview. Before we get to that, I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about our partner for wellness. Listen, you guys hear
Speaker 1: me talk about I'm a huge fan of the coffee
Speaker 1: UM on the road this week and have their energy
Speaker 1: bites with me as well, which UM on the golf course.
Speaker 1: When I'm at a tour event, I really don't have
Speaker 1: a lot of time to eat UM kind of bouncing
Speaker 1: around between multiple players. So these new energy bites UM,
Speaker 1: a little bit of coffee and M gives me a
Speaker 1: little bit of kind of a kick, especially kind of
Speaker 1: that late in the afternoon, you know, to three o'clock, UM,
Speaker 1: breakfast starting to wear off. So UM, go check them out,
Speaker 1: Go check out the coffee, the good stuff. UM. It's
Speaker 1: part of my daily routine when I'm home, and I
Speaker 1: think everybody will really really like it. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get to the interview with Nolan. Alright, my guest today
Speaker 1: Nolan Arnado. I hope I've pronounced that correctly six times,
Speaker 1: our seven time All Star, nine time Golden Glove, one
Speaker 1: of the best third basement in the game, and a huge,
Speaker 1: huge golfer. We met, full disclosure, we met at the grove.
Speaker 1: Um played some golf with DJ UM, So definitely gonna
Speaker 1: talk to you for your love of golf. But um,
Speaker 1: I'm always fascinated Nolan to get an opportunity to talk
Speaker 1: to players from other sports. Um. I think baseball and
Speaker 1: golf have a lot of similarities in the way they're
Speaker 1: kind of specific disciplines, individual kind of positions. Um. Do
Speaker 1: you see a correlation between the sports that you play
Speaker 1: baseball and obviously the sports you'd like to play in
Speaker 1: the off season and for fun golf? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I think both of them take years off your life
Speaker 1: because they're so tough. Huh. But that's how I feel like,
Speaker 1: But no, I'm just taking I'm just joking. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think, Um, there is a lot of big correlation
Speaker 1: to swing the path like, so they're both really tough
Speaker 1: mentally tough, um, and something that you know, I admire
Speaker 1: golfers for you know, being able to move on from shots, right,
Speaker 1: you gotta be able to move on from my bats,
Speaker 1: be able to move on from you know, the games
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So that's something that I really noticed, um,
Speaker 1: and I just have a whole lot of respect for them.
Speaker 1: So obviously, question what's harder hitting a ninety mile an
Speaker 1: hour fastball or standing up on a tight hole where
Speaker 1: you've got water, you've got out of bounds and you've
Speaker 1: got to make a good, good drivers swing. What's harder? Um? Wow,
Speaker 1: baseball is the hardest thing to do. Man. For me,
Speaker 1: so I think that's harder. But I can't hit a
Speaker 1: drive in the fairway, so, um, so that's always tough
Speaker 1: for me. Um. But uh, they're both extremely tough. I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean I get nervous on the drive, on the
Speaker 1: drive when there's people watching or if I do like
Speaker 1: a little pro am, but I get nervous when there's
Speaker 1: money on the line, when you're playing a little golf
Speaker 1: with your boys. Um, probably a little bit more nervous
Speaker 1: when than my hitting, because at least hitting I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm prepared for it. Golf, I think I'm more
Speaker 1: prepared for it than I really am so growing up
Speaker 1: in Newport Beach, California. I mean, to come out of
Speaker 1: a huge Southern California rich baseball history. You've got amazing teams,
Speaker 1: and you know, you grew up a Dodger fan. You've
Speaker 1: got the padres and stuff. But I always think that
Speaker 1: when you look at kids that come out of big, urban,
Speaker 1: dense populated areas from a sports standpoint, to to get
Speaker 1: to the top of that wrong in in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: and Southern California. To make it from that big of
Speaker 1: an area too, the Major League, I mean, that's gotta
Speaker 1: be really, really difficult because there's so many kids playing
Speaker 1: competitive baseball. You know, it's just like golf, you know.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, the you know, the best players,
Speaker 1: they end up they're doing something different, you know. And
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I did something different when I grew up, UM,
Speaker 1: but I think I gradually just got better every year.
Speaker 1: And I think that was what was really important for me,
Speaker 1: you know. You know, I think that, like you said,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of great players from Orange County, UM,
Speaker 1: but I think the best thing I ever did when
Speaker 1: I was a young player was playing with guys older
Speaker 1: than me. Right, you always want to play with people
Speaker 1: better than you or because I feel like they pushed
Speaker 1: you to another level. You know, I always had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to do that. Um, I think I you know,
Speaker 1: I read something where I think it was Rory was
Speaker 1: always playing with you know, guys that are little older
Speaker 1: than him, better than him, and that made him better. Um.
Speaker 1: I think that's a huge thing. And that's kind of
Speaker 1: what I did in baseball, you know, I you know
Speaker 1: it was. It was humbling, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I got I got beat up while I was own it.
Speaker 1: But it taught me a lot about the game and
Speaker 1: taught me that I had to I had to keep
Speaker 1: growing and finding ways to get better. So when did
Speaker 1: you have that? I'm always interested when I talked to
Speaker 1: athletes from other sports. When did you have that kind
Speaker 1: of moment where you thought, Okay, I think I have
Speaker 1: a legit chance to try and do this as a profession.
Speaker 1: Because I mean, obviously, as a golf instructor, I get
Speaker 1: so many young players, um, guys, girls that come in
Speaker 1: with their parents and say, listen, I want you to
Speaker 1: take a look at my Sonnies fourteen fifteen sixteen. He
Speaker 1: wants to try and make a career, wants to try
Speaker 1: and play on the PGA Tour, wants to try and
Speaker 1: be a professional golfer, and and so I think everybody
Speaker 1: kind of thinks that they want to do that. When
Speaker 1: did you have that moment to where you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is this is legit have has a chance to happen. Now,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, probably my senior year high school.
Speaker 1: You know, I I was doing these showcases and playing
Speaker 1: with a lot of great players that were well known
Speaker 1: around you know, the nation. You know, you play showcases
Speaker 1: with players that you know, you see online that are that, hey,
Speaker 1: this guy is supposed to get drafted high, or this
Speaker 1: guy is supposed to getdrafted high. And uh, you know
Speaker 1: what I realized when I was playing with those guys
Speaker 1: that you know, in my heart, you know, at the time,
Speaker 1: they were probably a little more advanced than me, but
Speaker 1: I didn't think that that much better than me. So
Speaker 1: I always felt like, Okay, well, if these guys are
Speaker 1: going to be the elite guys or the first rounders
Speaker 1: and all that, and I feel like I could play
Speaker 1: just as good as them. If not, I'm right there.
Speaker 1: I don't see why I can't be that guy. Also
Speaker 1: and you know, obviously I've had a good senior season
Speaker 1: and I played well when I played good in showcases,
Speaker 1: and there was rumors with me getting drafted, and you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to play pro ball at high school. I
Speaker 1: didn't really want to go to college. I was willing,
Speaker 1: and obviously we used that as leverage rights so you
Speaker 1: can get a better deal on all those things. But
Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to go play pro ball. That
Speaker 1: was what I wanted to do. Um. But I that's
Speaker 1: when I first noticed that, like, okay, I could play
Speaker 1: with these guys. And uh, you know, it's a self
Speaker 1: sense of confidence that I felt like, Okay, these guys
Speaker 1: are the ones that get drafted high I think I
Speaker 1: could do it. I always look at kids when I
Speaker 1: look at them, Nolan, and kind of you know, you
Speaker 1: get the parents do a lot of the talking. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, you ask kids questions. You know, high school
Speaker 1: can say, tell me about your game that mom, the
Speaker 1: dad they answer, And I always said you to the kid, no, no,
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear your dad's answer. I want
Speaker 1: to hear your answer. Um. Growing up, were you a
Speaker 1: were you self motivated? Were you someone that wanted to
Speaker 1: go and practice and play. Or were you the kid
Speaker 1: that the parents were really involved and they said, listen,
Speaker 1: you've got to do this, You've got to practice, you've
Speaker 1: got to do that. What kind of kid were you
Speaker 1: and what were what were the things growing up that
Speaker 1: motivated you as an athlete to continue? Like said, because
Speaker 1: I always say to players, listen, the most important thing
Speaker 1: if you're trying to play at any level in golf
Speaker 1: or in sports is just to get better every year
Speaker 1: if it's one, two, three percent. But as you know,
Speaker 1: you can't have a year where you get five percent
Speaker 1: worse because other people are going to pass you. So
Speaker 1: when you were younger, were you self motivated? Did the
Speaker 1: motivation come did you have mentors? Where did that come
Speaker 1: from that helped you get to the level that you're
Speaker 1: at now? Yeah, you know, I think, you know, I
Speaker 1: was very fortunate that my parents loved the game and
Speaker 1: they you know, I was very fortunate that they would
Speaker 1: you know, my dad would always be willing to go
Speaker 1: throw and hit me ground balls and and work. But
Speaker 1: he never, he never you know, got on me about working.
Speaker 1: I always loved working on the game, you know. I
Speaker 1: always loved taking ground balls, I love hitting I love,
Speaker 1: you know, all those things. Obviously, you need someone to
Speaker 1: help you out also, so I had teammates and buddies
Speaker 1: that was willing to do it. My brothers. I was
Speaker 1: fortunate to have two brothers that were always down to
Speaker 1: go play and work. Um, the thing I needed a
Speaker 1: good pushing for. I needed a good push was like
Speaker 1: in the weight room, making sure I'm getting my body ready.
Speaker 1: You know, always needed a trainer to watch me and
Speaker 1: push me. You know, sometimes I would get little lack
Speaker 1: of daisy bom there because I just want to go
Speaker 1: hit and take ground balls. But there's more than just
Speaker 1: hitting and taking ground balls. You gotta make sure your
Speaker 1: body is ready to go. I know, when you're young,
Speaker 1: you can get away with it, but you know I
Speaker 1: still want to You still gotta get stronger. When you're younger,
Speaker 1: you have a chance to get a lot stronger and
Speaker 1: you know, quick her or what more explosive. But I
Speaker 1: love working on the game. I love hitting off the
Speaker 1: t you know, I think, you know, I think what
Speaker 1: I've noticed when I watched you know, documentaries on Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan's or Tiger Woods or Derek Jeter. You know, these
Speaker 1: guys love the game and they love working on it.
Speaker 1: They never saw it as work, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I think that's something that I feel like I
Speaker 1: always wanted to be like that, just like I love
Speaker 1: working on it. And that's kind of what how I
Speaker 1: how I took it. Were there I know, I know
Speaker 1: in golf you talked to players you know that are
Speaker 1: playing now on on the PJ Tour or European Tour
Speaker 1: wherever they're playing, and I always asked them, listen, who
Speaker 1: were the Were there any studs that you played with
Speaker 1: as a junior that you thought, there's no way this
Speaker 1: kid can't make it? And every single one of the
Speaker 1: players that I know we got there was this kid.
Speaker 1: He was unbelievable, he was this, he was that in
Speaker 1: the other and he and he didn't make it. And
Speaker 1: that's the other thing. NO want to see so many
Speaker 1: junior golfers, athletes that are and I'm sure you've seen this,
Speaker 1: they're better when they're fifth, teen, sixteen than they are
Speaker 1: when they're eighteen, nineteen and twenty. Is there anything you know,
Speaker 1: You've been around the sport, you know, professional sports for
Speaker 1: so long, is there anything that you see that you
Speaker 1: think separates it? Because I see so many kids that
Speaker 1: you know, they're good junior golfers, they go to Division
Speaker 1: one college and then they just they just get whatever
Speaker 1: it is. They get sidetracked. Maybe they don't want to
Speaker 1: work that hard. Maybe the motivation didn't come from them
Speaker 1: and it came from other people. Um. Does that happen?
Speaker 1: Have you seen that happen in baseball as well? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: I think I think that. You know, I remember when
Speaker 1: I was younger. You know, guys would be a little
Speaker 1: bit taller and me stronger, um, and it was intimidating.
Speaker 1: You're like, man, this guy's already strong, he's already throwing
Speaker 1: way harder than I am. But you know, I think
Speaker 1: putting in the work, you have to continue to put
Speaker 1: in the work. Um, and the love the game, you know.
Speaker 1: I think sometimes can people get complacent, they get distracted
Speaker 1: with other things. But if you really love the game,
Speaker 1: you'll find a way. I mean I wouldn't, you know.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. Sometimes it could tear people down, and
Speaker 1: you see guys that are way better than you at
Speaker 1: a young age, but there's so much more time. You know,
Speaker 1: people don't understand that, Hey, there's a lot of time left.
Speaker 1: Like keep pushing, don't worry about it right now, like
Speaker 1: you know, And I think, like you said, you know,
Speaker 1: that's a huge thing. You know. I think guys just
Speaker 1: get caught up in not wanting to put in the
Speaker 1: work and uh and the guys that are younger maybe
Speaker 1: not as fast or as good at the time, they
Speaker 1: end up catching up, you know what I mean. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think that if you are one of
Speaker 1: those kids or juniors when you're playing, that you don't
Speaker 1: maybe have some of the the naturally gifted things like size.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are just some kids when you're younger
Speaker 1: that you're playing, you're just like, this guy's already like
Speaker 1: three or four ft. I mean, he's already he's already
Speaker 1: much taller than I am. He's bigger than I am,
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Um, when I watched the Little
Speaker 1: League World Series, there's always that one kid on the
Speaker 1: team that's like a giant. You've got all these young kids,
Speaker 1: they all look like, you know, eleven, twelve year old,
Speaker 1: and then you've got the kid that's twelve and you're
Speaker 1: like that kids like nineteen. There's no way that kid
Speaker 1: is size, right. Um, So when you were working as
Speaker 1: a kid, how much of your time was devoted to sports.
Speaker 1: How much of your time was devoted to going to school?
Speaker 1: Because I think that's another thing, know, that's so hard
Speaker 1: for young athletes, regardless of the sport. They're trying to
Speaker 1: figure out this balance of they have to go to school,
Speaker 1: they have to practice. And one of the things that
Speaker 1: I see that so many, you know, junior golfers I
Speaker 1: work with, they have no life. They either are playing, practicing,
Speaker 1: or they're going to school. And I'm always telling the
Speaker 1: juniors that I work with golf wise, Hey, listen, I
Speaker 1: know it's gonna sound crazy, and I say this to
Speaker 1: the parents as well. Your kid needs an off day,
Speaker 1: he needs one month, one weekend a month where he
Speaker 1: just doesn't do anything. Did you find that as well,
Speaker 1: that it's easy to get just so burned out that
Speaker 1: when you're growing up, it just it seems like a
Speaker 1: job and you get to nineteen, like, listen, I just
Speaker 1: don't want to do this. Yeah, I think that's a
Speaker 1: huge problem. You know, I know, I know I've heard
Speaker 1: of kids, young kids getting like Tommy John surgery already.
Speaker 1: You know. The one thing I was always like, which
Speaker 1: is insane to me, And you know, I was fortunate
Speaker 1: my dad never let me throw a curveball or a slider.
Speaker 1: He always said, like, if you throw a curveball slider,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be taken out of the game. So I
Speaker 1: always had to throw fastballs or changeups, and I would
Speaker 1: get shelled, you know, because those two pitches can't get
Speaker 1: people out really, you know, and literally because they're you know,
Speaker 1: the differentition on the moss pri hour isn't that much.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm doing, you know, you're throwing,
Speaker 1: and I would get upset because I'm like, I gotta
Speaker 1: throw something else, you know. But I would would let
Speaker 1: me because he's trying to protect me. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think obviously school is really important. You know, you
Speaker 1: gotta take care of your school. You know. My parents
Speaker 1: always said like, hey, make sure you take care of
Speaker 1: school and then you could practice and you know, do
Speaker 1: your stuff. But if you're not doing good in school,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna let you go play. So that was
Speaker 1: kind of like, all right, well, I got I better
Speaker 1: do good in school or because I'm not able to
Speaker 1: play baseball. Um but I see a lot of that too,
Speaker 1: kids getting burned out. You know. I was always fortunate
Speaker 1: because my dad always before school started, UM, August was
Speaker 1: the month where I got off. I would play all
Speaker 1: the way until you know, August, and once August was there,
Speaker 1: I would August would be off like go summer, go
Speaker 1: to the beach with your friends, get away, you know how,
Speaker 1: enjoy your time away. And then when school started in September, UM,
Speaker 1: then it was like all right, back to work and
Speaker 1: get back to school and get on that routine again.
Speaker 1: But um, August was my month off, and I was
Speaker 1: very fortunate for that because I would play all the
Speaker 1: way until August, and I would be like, I'm over it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like I don't want to
Speaker 1: you know, I need to take a little break. So
Speaker 1: August was my month off, and it was awesome because
Speaker 1: when you take time off, you realize how much you
Speaker 1: love the game, because you're like, man, I kind of
Speaker 1: miss playing. I want to get back out there, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And if you don't feel that way,
Speaker 1: you don't feel like you want to get back out there,
Speaker 1: then I don't know if that's a good sign. And
Speaker 1: I also think that for athletes, you need to have
Speaker 1: that that compartmentalized thing to where you say, okay, the
Speaker 1: season is now for the off season. Now I'm gonna
Speaker 1: work my ass off. This is my work. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: play the season out, and then I know that I'm
Speaker 1: going to get a break so I can recharge and
Speaker 1: then come back. Because I've heard so many golfers say,
Speaker 1: you know, listen, I remember one of the guys that
Speaker 1: was the best of that. Back in the day when
Speaker 1: I used to work with Brooks kept Brooks would always
Speaker 1: around after a major, either after the the Masters of
Speaker 1: the U S Open, he would plan like three weeks
Speaker 1: where you say, listen, I'm gonna take three weeks or
Speaker 1: a month off, and he would be like, I'm so
Speaker 1: looking forward to that month off. I'm gonna really bust
Speaker 1: my ass for the next two three weeks, get through
Speaker 1: this two as well as I can, and then really
Speaker 1: get that break. And he always tended to play really
Speaker 1: well when he came back from a pretty extensive break
Speaker 1: because he came back refueled and kind of re energized,
Speaker 1: and like you said, he was like, man, I really
Speaker 1: missed playing. I missed practicing and playing. Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1: I mean, um, even after the season when I'm done
Speaker 1: playing baseball, even now, you know, I always take time
Speaker 1: off go golf serve, go to the beach whatever, take
Speaker 1: away time from the weight room, gym and all that.
Speaker 1: But then they gets to a point where you're like, allright,
Speaker 1: I missed it, I missed the work. I want to
Speaker 1: get back in there. And I think that's usually when
Speaker 1: I find myself in my better spot. You know, there's
Speaker 1: times where I end this season not as good as
Speaker 1: I wanted, or I was kind of frustrated with the
Speaker 1: way I went, so I like, you know, I took
Speaker 1: a like very little time, less time than when I
Speaker 1: usually played well, and then I would work work, working
Speaker 1: it almost kind of like I didn't really love it,
Speaker 1: you know. I was like kind of getting burned, like
Speaker 1: burned out working so much, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And then I go in the season like I'm kind
Speaker 1: of tired, like, you know, not tired, but like I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm not like fully like fresh and locked in like
Speaker 1: I should be. So I think it's really important to
Speaker 1: take time a waste so you could get that edge
Speaker 1: again of like all right, it's time to get after it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So your stand out in
Speaker 1: southern California, um, the Colorado Rockies, UM, when you got
Speaker 1: that kind of call. You you knew that you were
Speaker 1: going to get into a Major League Baseball teams system.
Speaker 1: What was that like and what we're What was the
Speaker 1: thought on the day that had happened for you? Is
Speaker 1: it just you knew what was going to happen? Was
Speaker 1: it relief? Was it excite? Meant? What was it? Well?
Speaker 1: It was it was a little bit of relief, but
Speaker 1: it was excitement, you know, like the journey is going
Speaker 1: to begin. Um. I was just so stoked, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, you put all that work in and to
Speaker 1: finally get that opportunity, it's it's extremely tough and uh
Speaker 1: it was such a big deal. Um but uh, you
Speaker 1: know I uh and scared to right, You're a little scared, like,
Speaker 1: oh man, it's about now, it's about to go down,
Speaker 1: Like now I gotta do something. Now, I really gotta
Speaker 1: do it, you know what I mean. So, um, So
Speaker 1: it was a lot of fun. But you know, I
Speaker 1: whenever I get nervous or scared, I always got back
Speaker 1: to my work, right, the work I put in, So
Speaker 1: that always helped. So let's take a short break and
Speaker 1: we will be back right after this. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get back to the interview. How long did you play
Speaker 1: in the minor leagues before you Yeah, I mean you
Speaker 1: major league major league debut April. So from playing you
Speaker 1: know all in high school too, when you started and
Speaker 1: got to the major leagues. What was that time period?
Speaker 1: How long did you stay in the minors. I was
Speaker 1: in the minor leagues from I got drafted in two
Speaker 1: thousand nine. I went to rookie ball and then I
Speaker 1: got called up in uh two weeks in Triple A.
Speaker 1: So you know, I went to every level rookie ball, low, A, high, double,
Speaker 1: at Triple A. UM, so about four years, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And that's usually what it is for
Speaker 1: high school guys, maybe longer. UM. I mean everyone's different, right, everyone.
Speaker 1: It just matters who developed quicker, who doesn't, you know.
Speaker 1: And but you know, during those times and the miners,
Speaker 1: you know, there's times I played really well and I
Speaker 1: had a lot of there was times I got really
Speaker 1: you know, beat up, you know, mentally physically, you know,
Speaker 1: just really tough. You know. Double A was the biggest
Speaker 1: tester for me, right because they always say the best
Speaker 1: players are in double A, like that's the closest thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they always say double as the closest thing as far
Speaker 1: as like big league talent like this you could tell
Speaker 1: and double a like certain guys are gonna be dudes.
Speaker 1: You know you're like, all this guy's gonna you could
Speaker 1: tell like he's he's on his way. Um. And you
Speaker 1: know that was the first time my face pictures like consistently,
Speaker 1: you know, almost in I was like, Wow, this is
Speaker 1: the next level. Like if this is what the big
Speaker 1: leagues like I got, I got a long ways to go. UM.
Speaker 1: So I think that's what you learn. And but you know,
Speaker 1: I'm very thankful for those times. You know, those things
Speaker 1: pushed me, they made me better. They were tough in
Speaker 1: the moment, but they got me to the level where
Speaker 1: I'm at today. One of the things Nolan, I always
Speaker 1: say to the golfers that I'm lucky enough to work
Speaker 1: with the specially of the juniors. I always say, listen,
Speaker 1: in order to make it to the next level, whatever
Speaker 1: the next level is, you want to go from high
Speaker 1: school and play college golf. You want to go play
Speaker 1: college golf and try and play professional and then you
Speaker 1: want to hopefully one day play on a tour somewhere.
Speaker 1: You have to have a quantifiable visible strength and I
Speaker 1: think a lot of golfers, and I think a lot
Speaker 1: of athletes thinks, you know, I'm just gonna try and
Speaker 1: get good at everything. And like you said, you were
Speaker 1: a great hitter, but you were an unbelievable field or
Speaker 1: great third basement and stuff. Does that strength that you
Speaker 1: have he's that. Do you think that's natural or do
Speaker 1: you think that's something you know, your defensive skills in
Speaker 1: the field as a third basement. Do you think that's
Speaker 1: just something that through hard work, dedication, you just learned
Speaker 1: that and that kind of became your calling card. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I think that. I think it was hard work. You know.
Speaker 1: I when I got drafted, a lot of teams were
Speaker 1: thinking about draft me as a catcher, um because I
Speaker 1: didn't move well. Um. And some teams were thinking about
Speaker 1: moving me back there because I showcase when I was
Speaker 1: in high school. I tried to showcase that I could
Speaker 1: catch and play there because I was just trying to
Speaker 1: get my draft status up and try to get drafted higher,
Speaker 1: you know, doing everything I can to get drafted higher. Um.
Speaker 1: But deep down, I didn't want to play catcher because
Speaker 1: that's a really hard position and I just didn't want
Speaker 1: to do it. I didn't want to do it. I
Speaker 1: wasn't ready for that and UM, but I had to
Speaker 1: really work to get become a better third basement. I
Speaker 1: had a lot of coaching. I went to There's this
Speaker 1: thing called Instructs that after the season into my leagues,
Speaker 1: you go there for like three weeks to get like
Speaker 1: it's like almost like a mini spring training before pen training,
Speaker 1: to get like extra work in. I went to every
Speaker 1: single one while I was in the minors, basically UM
Speaker 1: to like get extra work in UM and UH. I
Speaker 1: think that's what set me different. And I always had
Speaker 1: good hands. I always had a good arm, but my
Speaker 1: feet were terrible. I was a little slow, little overweight,
Speaker 1: like all those little things. I had to really take
Speaker 1: serious in the off season. And because they would, they
Speaker 1: would tell you like, hey, man, if you don't clean
Speaker 1: this up, we've got to find another spot. So it
Speaker 1: was kind of a you know, a little wake up call.
Speaker 1: But it was something that helped change me because I
Speaker 1: was like, man, I'll take this, you know, I'll take
Speaker 1: this challenge, and I feel good about it. I read
Speaker 1: that when you were in the minor leagues, one of
Speaker 1: the things that that helped change you and transform you
Speaker 1: and get you The next level was your footwork, working
Speaker 1: on you know, stuff that probably you know the same
Speaker 1: thing that I always say to two golfers and you know,
Speaker 1: short games stuff, all the stuff that's in glamorous, you know,
Speaker 1: for you as the third base and working on probably
Speaker 1: stuff that feels like you're learning how to walk again.
Speaker 1: But it is so vital to play the position that
Speaker 1: you play. Yeah, for sure, absolutely, I U yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I mean I would go. We would have early groundballs
Speaker 1: at like one o'clock every day in the minors, the
Speaker 1: games at seven, you know what I mean, Like I
Speaker 1: would have to be there early to work on it,
Speaker 1: work on my footwork. The off season was strictly like
Speaker 1: strength training and agility work. Um, I had. I had
Speaker 1: a fine ways to get better. There's no doubt. I
Speaker 1: couldn't just continue to do what I was doing because
Speaker 1: that wasn't gonna work. I had to like change the
Speaker 1: whole thing. And uh, you know, I think a lot
Speaker 1: of them were surprised by that, but it made me
Speaker 1: a better player. And you know, I was fortunate. You know,
Speaker 1: I had, like Troy to Lewitsky, who was the best
Speaker 1: shorts up in the game at the time, and he
Speaker 1: was on the rockies and he would tell me like
Speaker 1: or he would say, you got to take pride to defense.
Speaker 1: You gotta get quicker, like you know you're not you're
Speaker 1: not fast enough for this league, you know what I
Speaker 1: mean basically, And you know I would take you know.
Speaker 1: It didn't hurt my feelings as I was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, he's right, because like when I saw him,
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm nowhere near that, so I better
Speaker 1: start getting my work in. When you say you weren't
Speaker 1: a great hitter, and I'm always fascinated because I think
Speaker 1: as you as you said earlier, the golf swing and
Speaker 1: the baseball swing have a lot of similarities in that
Speaker 1: you're starting from a static position. Okay, obviously baseball you're
Speaker 1: reacting to where the pictures throwing it or the way
Speaker 1: you think they're throwing it. But there is I don't
Speaker 1: think people realize there is a tremendous amount of technique
Speaker 1: that goes into hitting, and in the same way that
Speaker 1: there is a tremendous amount of technique that goes into
Speaker 1: swinging a golf club. How did you get better as
Speaker 1: a hitter and what were the things that when you
Speaker 1: started that you feel like we're keeping you back from
Speaker 1: being a better hitter that you eventually became. When I
Speaker 1: got called up my rookie year, I was getting really
Speaker 1: beat up with the inside pitch, like they were jamming me.
Speaker 1: I wasn't you know, I wasn't able to pull the ball.
Speaker 1: I wasn't able to show them that you can't go
Speaker 1: in there anymore. You can't you can't keep jamming me.
Speaker 1: You can't keep you know, breaking my bat whatever, you know.
Speaker 1: And so that offseason I went home and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I need to learn to pull the ball better, Like
Speaker 1: I need able to get the ball in the air.
Speaker 1: And I play up as a shi where they expect me,
Speaker 1: expect me to drive in runs, hit home runs, and
Speaker 1: I need to start doing a better job of that.
Speaker 1: And what I learned was that, you know, I I
Speaker 1: just got to the off season and I worked on
Speaker 1: staying back they're able to pull the ball in the air,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, working counts having better at bats,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Because when you're young player,
Speaker 1: you just go to swing. You know. I was chasing hits,
Speaker 1: you know, I said, And whenever you're chasing hits, that's
Speaker 1: the worst thing you can do. The best thing you
Speaker 1: can do is make sure the process is right and
Speaker 1: just focus on hating the ball hard and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But I was chasing hits, and when you chase hits,
Speaker 1: it usually doesn't happen. I'm guessing I don't know what
Speaker 1: the resemblance for golf would be, but you know, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like if you're like, I better get a birdie
Speaker 1: here and you don't, it's like depressing, Like I don't know,
Speaker 1: that's like hitting it. I don't get hit here. I'm
Speaker 1: you know, that's a bad way to go up to
Speaker 1: the plate. You know. I gotta go up to the
Speaker 1: plate with a plan, and I had to learn that.
Speaker 1: But I think once I showed that I could pull
Speaker 1: the ball in the air, they kind of change everything
Speaker 1: for me. So when they next year when they were
Speaker 1: throwing me inside, I was able to pull the ball,
Speaker 1: and then they're like, okay, we can't go there or more.
Speaker 1: Now we have to expose something else. It's just a constant,
Speaker 1: it's a constantly of adjustments. Man. I mean, once I
Speaker 1: showed that I could pull the ball, and then they
Speaker 1: go away and then I'm like, I show that hit
Speaker 1: the ball the other way. It's just you're constantly adjusting.
Speaker 1: But I had to really changed like my swing, my approach,
Speaker 1: my mental everything. So um. Obviously with the Rockies, you
Speaker 1: guys had hitting coaches, very similar to the role that
Speaker 1: I have with tour players, where we're like, we're looking
Speaker 1: at the swing, we're looking at the stroke, and they
Speaker 1: can come in and say, hey, listen, I mean, do
Speaker 1: you guys do hitters? I mean, do you guys use
Speaker 1: videos of yourself when you're looking at you know, you're hitting,
Speaker 1: You watch a lot of you know, footage. What are
Speaker 1: you looking at to try and and what is the process,
Speaker 1: like you said, to make yourself a better hitter. It's
Speaker 1: the same process that someone's trying to become a better
Speaker 1: ball striker and golf. So the processes. You have a
Speaker 1: group of people on your team at the Rockies. Now
Speaker 1: you're with St. Louis the Cardinals, you guys have hitting
Speaker 1: coaches and they look at it and say, Okay, I
Speaker 1: think you could do this, I think you could do that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean we've come a long way. I mean when
Speaker 1: I first got hold Up, it was like strictly video,
Speaker 1: you know, from the video from the side, watching the
Speaker 1: mechanics make sure everything's dropping in the right way, all
Speaker 1: those little things. But now we have like track man,
Speaker 1: um hit tracks and all those little things. I know
Speaker 1: golf uses the same thing. But that's been a big
Speaker 1: help for me. You know, when I was younger, and
Speaker 1: when you're younger, you could just hit, hit, hit, you know,
Speaker 1: soon or later. I feel like I was gonna find
Speaker 1: it for feel. But as I've gotten older, you know,
Speaker 1: my body moves differently and I've got to like really
Speaker 1: focus on the video and see where I'm at. Um.
Speaker 1: Track Man's helped me out a lot the last few
Speaker 1: years because I've been I've been really seeing from the side,
Speaker 1: like making sure my bat barrels up, making sure I'm
Speaker 1: getting in my legs, make sure I'm dropping in the
Speaker 1: right way, um. Because and baseball, you know, you want
Speaker 1: to drop in the zone. You want to be in
Speaker 1: the zone a long time, and that was like a
Speaker 1: big key for me, and uh, years of the past,
Speaker 1: like I wasn't doing that, um and I was. That's
Speaker 1: a big focus of mine. But I think that's been huge.
Speaker 1: The track Man has been enormous because you know, I know,
Speaker 1: I remember when I was when we went to the
Speaker 1: Girl that one day DJ was working you know, ball
Speaker 1: speed right like or or swing maybe swing speed, and
Speaker 1: I really paid it. I was like, man, that's crazy,
Speaker 1: because that's something I've been really focused on this offseason.
Speaker 1: Swinging faster, because it's the faster you swing, hit the ball,
Speaker 1: hit the ball harder, more fee, whether the ball goes
Speaker 1: all those little things. And last year I didn't hit
Speaker 1: the ball as hard as I did this year. And
Speaker 1: then you if you see the numbers there, you know
Speaker 1: I've been a way better ball player this year the
Speaker 1: player last year, because I believe swinging faster, hand the
Speaker 1: ball harder, more miles per hour, you know, the chances
Speaker 1: of hits when you're hitting the ball harder or drastic.
Speaker 1: So I just as I've gotten older and that you know,
Speaker 1: you're trying not to get two paralyzed with analytics and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But there's definitely a lot of things
Speaker 1: that have shown me a lot we're we're in this
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, I mean, golf is in the same
Speaker 1: age that you're in now. I think, um analytics, data information,
Speaker 1: it plays such a huge part of professional sports. The
Speaker 1: club that I'm out here in Florida, the Floridian, is
Speaker 1: owned by Jim Crane. I go to a lot of
Speaker 1: games with Jim. He takes me down, you know, when
Speaker 1: we go to the Astros games, he takes me, you know,
Speaker 1: into where the dug. But I was amazing. He took
Speaker 1: me back into this room where there's just computers and
Speaker 1: I said, what does this He goes, this is kind
Speaker 1: of the film room. It's just off of where you know,
Speaker 1: the locker room is just so if a new picture
Speaker 1: comes in, the guys can go in and look at
Speaker 1: We've got video and data and all of that. How
Speaker 1: do you, as a player, Nolan, find that balance between
Speaker 1: how much information you're taking in versus you know, being
Speaker 1: able to still have what is kind of your instincts
Speaker 1: and your your kind of touches and fields based off
Speaker 1: of Because I remember Jim told me a great story once. Um,
Speaker 1: the year they won the World Series. Um, the manager
Speaker 1: a j You know, Jim played competitive baseball. You know,
Speaker 1: I think he was gonna an All American at Southern
Speaker 1: Missouri and he played baseball. And he said to a
Speaker 1: j Listen, we're going to spend more money on analytics
Speaker 1: and anybody in the league. But if you, as the
Speaker 1: baseball guy, believe that this is the right decision to
Speaker 1: make from just a pure instinct baseball and the data
Speaker 1: tells you to do something else. Jim said, I will
Speaker 1: never beat you up if you followed your baseball heart
Speaker 1: versus your information analytics care because the end of the day,
Speaker 1: baseball is what we're playing. We're not playing analytics. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's a great question. I mean, that's that's
Speaker 1: so important because I think it's one of you gotta
Speaker 1: know who you are, you know what you do. You know,
Speaker 1: if you if you're trying to be somebody else because
Speaker 1: the analysts tell you that you need to be the
Speaker 1: certain guy that that's usually when it doesn't turn out
Speaker 1: very good. Know who you are it would be the
Speaker 1: main one. But I think it could paralyze you when
Speaker 1: you know. I think sometimes like we've gotten analytics down
Speaker 1: so much that we know percentages of pitches being thrown,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like the picture we're facing, Like, hey,
Speaker 1: the percentage of this and discount or this and that.
Speaker 1: That's all great and dandy, but that's sometimes like just
Speaker 1: because he does it to him, doesn't mean he's gonna
Speaker 1: do it to you either, right, I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: I remember I faced the picture this year. I won't
Speaker 1: I don't want to say his name, but you know
Speaker 1: he threw change ups two person ended that he's going
Speaker 1: to change up two percent of the time. This year,
Speaker 1: he's been strictly fastball, slider, curveball. I go up there,
Speaker 1: he gets me out on a changeup, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And I went up there thinking, no, I'm
Speaker 1: not eve gonna look for the changeup. It's two percent
Speaker 1: at a time, of course, right, but but he threw
Speaker 1: it to me and he got me out. Next to bat,
Speaker 1: he threw it again. He got me out. So like
Speaker 1: you're like, man, like, I don't want to you know,
Speaker 1: it all depends on who you are. But it's just crazy, like, man,
Speaker 1: the numbers like they say they won't do it. And
Speaker 1: I'm not blaming the numbers, because you've gotta take your chances.
Speaker 1: Like it was pretty drastic, the slider, curveball, fastball, Like
Speaker 1: you gotta realize that that's what he does. But it's
Speaker 1: just so funny, how like it might not turn out
Speaker 1: the way you want. And I think I think it
Speaker 1: paralyzes you when you're so focused on what the numbers say,
Speaker 1: you know, how hard or how the numbers say. You know,
Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day, you do
Speaker 1: have to have to feel you just gotta play the
Speaker 1: game as hard as you can and know who you are.
Speaker 1: But I've been really I've changed the way I've looked
Speaker 1: at things the last few years because of how advanced
Speaker 1: the games are and how advanced these pictures are. And uh,
Speaker 1: I've learned from gold Schmidt, Paul Goldschman. He has really
Speaker 1: helped me a lot with like him and like the
Speaker 1: percentages are, how really high on this? So we have
Speaker 1: to focus on this, and I've been doing it. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, sometimes they approach guys differently. But I've
Speaker 1: really been learned a lot this year with all the
Speaker 1: numbers and analytics and all that, and you know, the
Speaker 1: videos on the pictures and all that. When he throws
Speaker 1: in certain towns, it's been it's been really interesting. Something
Speaker 1: I never really used to rely on, but with how
Speaker 1: good these guys are nowadays, I've been really focused on it.
Speaker 1: When we when we play golf that day, Um, at
Speaker 1: the grove, you're watching DJ and you know, DJ is
Speaker 1: one of you know, watching a driver is one of
Speaker 1: the coolest things that he just stands there and hammers
Speaker 1: driver and he hit one drive and you just kind
Speaker 1: of looked at me and laughed and went, man, that's
Speaker 1: so cool. When you hit a home run, right when
Speaker 1: you're standing up on the plate and you hit rue
Speaker 1: and you catch it, you know, what does that feel?
Speaker 1: I mean, do you feel anything or does it feel
Speaker 1: like it doesn't even touch the bat and it's just gone. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: first off, any homer is the best feeling in the world.
Speaker 1: That's what That's what I think is. Um, it's the
Speaker 1: best only in the world. Um, there's nothing like it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's almost like you didn't really you know,
Speaker 1: you hit the sweet spot. You just feel like it
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like really anything. It doesn't feel like you're
Speaker 1: getting you know, I don't explain it, but yeah, you're
Speaker 1: squaring it up and you can just see the way
Speaker 1: the ball trajects like trajects in the air that it's
Speaker 1: just it's gonna go out good back spin. Um, there's
Speaker 1: no better feeling, you know, hitting a home run. Um,
Speaker 1: I've always said that, and uh um, but you know
Speaker 1: it's hard to back spend the baseball, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: But when you do it, man, I'm saying, there's nothing
Speaker 1: like it, and doing it in big moments of school
Speaker 1: runs and win games. I mean, like I said, there's
Speaker 1: no better feeling in the world. I mean, you've had
Speaker 1: almost three hundred home runs in the Major League, so
Speaker 1: you're pretty good at doing it. Um, we could talk
Speaker 1: about baseball all day. Golf, I know, it's something that's
Speaker 1: you know, you're you're really passionate about. It's a big
Speaker 1: part of your life. Um, how did you get into
Speaker 1: golf and and why did you get into golf? Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I was in a my dad always played golf
Speaker 1: when I was younger, and I always would go mess
Speaker 1: around with him, go play, and uh, you know, in
Speaker 1: double A, I got my first set of clubs because
Speaker 1: a lot of my boys got a lot of I've
Speaker 1: always got clubs, and uh so I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take it serious. You know, I'm gonna buy
Speaker 1: my set clubs. I'm gonna get you know, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go play a lot. I wasn't very good
Speaker 1: for a while, but I love the game of golf,
Speaker 1: and then I slowly just got better. Every year every offseason,
Speaker 1: I would just practice practice. Then I finally joined the
Speaker 1: country club. You know, like as I because when I
Speaker 1: thought I was actually good enough to join a country club,
Speaker 1: that's when I joined the country club. Um, and then
Speaker 1: you know I could be able to go practice, go play. Um.
Speaker 1: But I love the game of golf just for the
Speaker 1: sake of like it's such a competitive sport. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: when baseball season is over, you know, I mean you
Speaker 1: know you you still need that drive, that competitiveness, you know,
Speaker 1: like you almost like it's like addicting in a sense,
Speaker 1: like you gotta go compete. Like I can't just go
Speaker 1: nof season just like I'm not gonna go do nothing,
Speaker 1: Like I need to compete somehow, somehow, a way, you know.
Speaker 1: And golf is that outlet for me. And uh, I
Speaker 1: love doing it with my my all my brothers and
Speaker 1: my cousins. We all play. Hey, so it's a pretty
Speaker 1: cool experience. What is the current handicap right now? I
Speaker 1: got down to a three point to this offseason. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got down hit it really good. Yeah. I didn't
Speaker 1: play good at the Grow, but I was nervous playing
Speaker 1: with Dustin and Ricky and those guys there. I was nervous.
Speaker 1: And I'm not gonna Florida Golf with the wind. I
Speaker 1: usually don't. I'm not very good. I'm not that good
Speaker 1: to play through that stuff. Um, but you know, I
Speaker 1: got down pretty good this offseason. I've been playing a lot.
Speaker 1: I would do lessons. You know, I was really focused
Speaker 1: on my putting. I did a putting lesson, um, because
Speaker 1: I don't like missing putts, and uh, but I love it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I got down to a three one this offseason, and uh,
Speaker 1: probably right now I'm like at four. But you know,
Speaker 1: we'll see where I'm at. Do you remember the first
Speaker 1: time you broke part I've only done it. I broke.
Speaker 1: I broke part one Emerald Dunes in Florida, and I
Speaker 1: played really well, and uh, I shot one under and
Speaker 1: I was I was on fire. I was, oh man,
Speaker 1: it was awesome. But the last hole I needed to
Speaker 1: I needed a part. And because there's a part five
Speaker 1: before the part four, I went in the bunker and
Speaker 1: I went back in the bunker. After a couple of swings,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm about to blow this
Speaker 1: round right now. I was nervous. I was like, no ways,
Speaker 1: this about to happen. And then I got out of
Speaker 1: there with a bogey and then I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm one under. I gotta be able to last whole.
Speaker 1: And I was a little bit off the green. I
Speaker 1: put it within, gimmea range, and I made it and
Speaker 1: it was I was so nervous though, but it was awesome.
Speaker 1: I mean it's amazing. You know, you you've played baseball,
Speaker 1: you you've hit home runs in front of fifty six people.
Speaker 1: You know, that type of noiance and stuff. I'm always
Speaker 1: fascinated that that non golfers better athletes. I mean, you're
Speaker 1: feeling the pressure to break par for the first time.
Speaker 1: What was the feeling like you did you drive home
Speaker 1: and were you just like, man, I've actually done it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean I was so excit. I called my dad
Speaker 1: right away. I was like freaking out, you know, I
Speaker 1: was so pumped up. I called my dad, My dad,
Speaker 1: do you want you want to believe I shot one
Speaker 1: under today? You know? And he was all fired up
Speaker 1: for me. I told all my boys, but I call
Speaker 1: my dad like when I got called up to the
Speaker 1: big leagues, basically like, hey, I'm getting called up, Like
Speaker 1: I shot one under and I called him like, dude,
Speaker 1: I shot one under today and it was pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: And the guys I played with were great. Um, but uh,
Speaker 1: the course is fun too. But yeah, man, I was.
Speaker 1: I was. That made my whole weekend that weekend. I
Speaker 1: don't think anything made me upset after that. Let's take
Speaker 1: a quick break and we are back. You mentioned you
Speaker 1: you you played with d j um rickey. Um. When
Speaker 1: you look at those guys and obviously you're you're coming
Speaker 1: to it from you know, sport that you know you're
Speaker 1: one of the best in the game, and when when
Speaker 1: you look at them, what stands out to you that
Speaker 1: you look at when you watch any of the player
Speaker 1: I'm gonna know you've played with, you probably played in
Speaker 1: pro ams before and stuff like that, But when you
Speaker 1: watch professional golfers as a professional athlete, what is what
Speaker 1: stands out to you that you go, wow, that's that's
Speaker 1: really really cool. Yeah. Well, first, just what I was
Speaker 1: amazed with Dustin. You know, I remember that one part
Speaker 1: five with the wind blowing in. He played like a
Speaker 1: little cut and then you get a three wood through
Speaker 1: the wind right on the green for eagle, Like I
Speaker 1: was just more like, I mean, I'm not I don't
Speaker 1: think I've ever seen anything. I've never seen anything like
Speaker 1: that as far as how big, how long that hole
Speaker 1: was playing, and how he knew like I'm gonna play
Speaker 1: cut over here with the three wood, it's gonna come
Speaker 1: right back on the green. And the ball moved like
Speaker 1: it was hit so far and then it moved a
Speaker 1: lot and it was right on the green. And I
Speaker 1: just amazed. You know. It's just like I know people
Speaker 1: are amazed with as we're playing baseball, but just being
Speaker 1: able to play. Like what I know is with Dustin
Speaker 1: when he was doing he was aiming at like the
Speaker 1: smallest spots where to hit the ball. I know, the
Speaker 1: first hole, he would like, go right to the bunker
Speaker 1: because that's a good look into the hole, and like
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to get in the fairway. He's like no,
Speaker 1: and he's aiming at the smallest area where I can
Speaker 1: get it where the best. And that's I guess that's
Speaker 1: the difference, right, is that they they do they're trying
Speaker 1: to do the little things and get in the best spot.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to make sure I have a decent look,
Speaker 1: you know. And I was just amazed by those little things,
Speaker 1: you know, and the confidence, the chipping, the drives were
Speaker 1: amazing that you can play a cut in a draw. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I play with Fred Couples one time, and
Speaker 1: I've got to know Fred a little bit and he's
Speaker 1: a friend. And uh, he was amazing too. You know
Speaker 1: how smooth and easy he was. He was making cuts
Speaker 1: from nice and from huge, but his swing was unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, this is this is insane. I mean,
Speaker 1: how how easy he's making this look. But you know
Speaker 1: what I love too is that you know, I know
Speaker 1: they're having fun, but you know, you could tell it's
Speaker 1: just like the US baseball players. You don't like taking
Speaker 1: a bad swing. Nobody's happening when it doesn't feel right,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You're like, no, that's not
Speaker 1: what I'm looking for. You know, it's there's there's similarities there.
Speaker 1: You know, if I was hitting batting practice and I
Speaker 1: took a bad swing, I know it's only one swing,
Speaker 1: but I'm still like, I don't like that, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And that's what with them too. They're
Speaker 1: the same way. It's pretty cool. Did you say, um, no,
Speaker 1: one all the strengths of your game right now from
Speaker 1: golf standpoint, and where do you feel like you can
Speaker 1: make some improvements and and and help get you, you know,
Speaker 1: the ideal world. I mean, I'm guessing the goal for
Speaker 1: you would be to be a scratch golfer, right, get
Speaker 1: down to scratch. So yeah, that's you know, you're a three.
Speaker 1: I mean the amount of people that are three handicaps
Speaker 1: that play golf, I mean they're not. You think there's
Speaker 1: a lot of them, They're there's really not. So what
Speaker 1: do you think, um, what are the strengths? What do
Speaker 1: you say, Okay, I know I have a lot of
Speaker 1: confidence in this, and what are the areas for your game?
Speaker 1: Did you feel like, okay, I could get better at this?
Speaker 1: I think driving obviously, driving accuracy. You know, I want
Speaker 1: to learn to play a draw off the drive. I
Speaker 1: used to play a cut, you know, the baseball swing.
Speaker 1: We stay inside, and so I kind of just carry
Speaker 1: that over to golf and it works all right. But
Speaker 1: I would love to play a draw. Um, and all
Speaker 1: the players draw, All the hockey players draw, and all
Speaker 1: the baseball players really hit the cut. All the hockey
Speaker 1: players all draw, like I've I've yet to see one
Speaker 1: hockey player that doesn't draw it because obviously they're staying.
Speaker 1: They have to have their lower body be very very stationary,
Speaker 1: and then it's a lot of arm movement and that
Speaker 1: the swing comes more from around the body as a
Speaker 1: hockey player. So all of the hockey players fight the hook.
Speaker 1: And I mean it's a generalization, but over the years,
Speaker 1: all the hockey players I've ever seen, they all fight
Speaker 1: the hulk, and all the baseball players fight the slice. Yes, exactly. Um,
Speaker 1: that's crazy golf my drives putting obviously, and then shipping.
Speaker 1: You know, I this is this is the first offseason
Speaker 1: I learned to like chip and be able to like
Speaker 1: stop it on the green. Um. Obviously I bladed a
Speaker 1: lot of those, but the times I did it right,
Speaker 1: it was it was really key for me. Um. But
Speaker 1: those are the big things, the driving, the chip, the
Speaker 1: short game. And then I feel like my irons are
Speaker 1: pretty good. You know, I feel like I keep it
Speaker 1: in the fairway. I could, you know, I could hit
Speaker 1: the greens pretty good. But I mean, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, you know, it's it's like anything you
Speaker 1: feel like the game is not good enough. I feel
Speaker 1: like I gotta get it all better. But if I
Speaker 1: could keep my drives in in in the fairway and
Speaker 1: give myself a good look, I feel like I could score,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I feel like whenever I
Speaker 1: have my best rounds, it's usually when i'm driving all
Speaker 1: the best. You mentioned hitting to where you said listen.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes if you're trying to get hits, you're
Speaker 1: not going to get hits right. And I think one
Speaker 1: of the similarities between hitting and and golf is, you know,
Speaker 1: we always say the players, listen, if you can just
Speaker 1: get the bull and play off the team, regardless of
Speaker 1: how far that is, right, but get the ball in
Speaker 1: playoff the team hit more fairways. Obviously your confidence goes
Speaker 1: up in the feel, but the game becomes so much
Speaker 1: easier the more that you can keep the ball and play.
Speaker 1: And I think everybody I always say the players listening
Speaker 1: to if you come to me and say listen, i'm hitting,
Speaker 1: you know, tend to twelve fairways around. I just don't
Speaker 1: hit it far enough. That's a different conversation. So the
Speaker 1: idea being that if you can get the ball and play,
Speaker 1: don't necessarily try and and and go for this. Just say, listen,
Speaker 1: let me get this in play. And I've got an
Speaker 1: iron in my hand from the short grass from pretty
Speaker 1: much normally probably a fairly flatish lie. It makes the
Speaker 1: game and scoring a hell of a lot easier than
Speaker 1: when you're trying to chip out and you're trying to
Speaker 1: go through the trees and all of that. For sure. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I've been through a plenty of trees, that's for sure,
Speaker 1: so I know about that. But yeah, I mean, like
Speaker 1: I said, my best rounds I've ever had in my
Speaker 1: life or usually when I'm in the fairway, have a
Speaker 1: good look at the green and uh, like I said,
Speaker 1: doesn't happen a lot, but when it does, that's usually
Speaker 1: when I play my best. Favorite golf courses that you've
Speaker 1: got the player there any golf courses that you've got
Speaker 1: to play there like that? That's unbelievable. What are some
Speaker 1: courses that are on your bucket list that you would
Speaker 1: like to play? Uh? Best course I ever played? Uh?
Speaker 1: I thought Pebble was one. Um, unbelievable. Spyglass was really fun. Um,
Speaker 1: the Bears Club was great, the girls that the experience
Speaker 1: that the grow is great. Um, Pebbles, Pobby up there. Um.
Speaker 1: The one I want to play is probably Whistling Straights
Speaker 1: to St. Andrew's is I've never been able to. I've
Speaker 1: never played there, but I would love to go play that.
Speaker 1: That looks like an unbelievable time. Did you watch a
Speaker 1: lot of golf on TV? I do? I do. I
Speaker 1: watched a lot of golf. I watched Zalaturus yesterday. That
Speaker 1: was unbelievable finish. I was sweet, But I do. I
Speaker 1: always come home watch golf. Um. It's great because Sunday
Speaker 1: we always have a day game mostly some most Sundays,
Speaker 1: you know, Somendays you play Sunnight Baseball, but most day
Speaker 1: games you play us on Sunday. So I'm always pumped
Speaker 1: up that after the game I can get home and finish.
Speaker 1: Like usually the golf is usually about to finish, you know,
Speaker 1: it's always like the last few holes, so it's always
Speaker 1: kind of close. So I always recorded and I always
Speaker 1: get back home to watch it. That's I mean. I've
Speaker 1: talked to so many people that are non you know,
Speaker 1: not golfers, and they say, oh, man, I take the golf.
Speaker 1: I watched golf on my phone. I watch it all.
Speaker 1: Are you a YouTube golf person? Are you on? Are
Speaker 1: you online trying to figure out look at different things
Speaker 1: or do you kind of have your kind of group
Speaker 1: of coaches that you stick with. Yeah, I know, I
Speaker 1: for sure gone YouTube watch a lot of time. I
Speaker 1: gonna watch a lot of Tiger videos. Phil Us do
Speaker 1: some shipping lessons on there. I would be trying to
Speaker 1: find out about um. Like I said, I got to
Speaker 1: know friend. I got to know DJ a little bit.
Speaker 1: So sometimes I'll send him videos like, hey man, what
Speaker 1: you got for me? This is not good. I don't Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't don't sut him videos. Send m send him
Speaker 1: to me. He ain't gonna know right I should send
Speaker 1: him to you. He's got no clue. Honestly, it's it's
Speaker 1: a amazing how how It's a little bit like you know, baseball.
Speaker 1: I mean, trying to tell someone how you do something
Speaker 1: in baseball, you know, getting into your brain and eventually
Speaker 1: I mean, I remember Michael Jordan. We were talking to
Speaker 1: Michael about something and they're asking if some about some
Speaker 1: play that he did and what he was thinking. He
Speaker 1: was like, I don't even know how I did that.
Speaker 1: I just did it right. I think golfers are pretty
Speaker 1: I mean, there are are a couple of golfers professionals
Speaker 1: I've been around, that are good at kind of telling
Speaker 1: players what to do, But most professional golfers are the
Speaker 1: worst people to ask because they don't know how they
Speaker 1: do it. You know, yess when you say that, because
Speaker 1: whenever people ask me, like man, how did you hit that?
Speaker 1: Or like what what are you thinking about your swing?
Speaker 1: And I'm always like, man, I don't know, you know.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to trust my instincts and trust the
Speaker 1: work I put in. But I usually when I'm at
Speaker 1: my best, when I'm playing well, I really don't even
Speaker 1: know what to say. It's crazy how that works for
Speaker 1: a lot of those sports. I love that. Lastly, in
Speaker 1: twenty two, Nolan, no social media for you? Social media
Speaker 1: free as one of the best players in baseball, Hey,
Speaker 1: athlete in the public domain? Is that a conscious choice
Speaker 1: to not do that? Yeah? It is, you know. I uh,
Speaker 1: I'm not against it in any way. Actually, I think
Speaker 1: it's extremely valuable for a lot of people. UM, just
Speaker 1: not me, I guess, you know. I I like to
Speaker 1: keep things private. I like to um, I just don't
Speaker 1: want to get caught up in certain things that go
Speaker 1: on on there. And I know there's a lot of
Speaker 1: trash talking, certain things and things that people say, and
Speaker 1: I don't need that in my life. I like, I
Speaker 1: like kind of just keeping my life private and not
Speaker 1: getting caught up up in a lot of things like that. Um,
Speaker 1: Like I said, I think it's actually a very valuable tool,
Speaker 1: you know. I think it's really great. But for me,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I've never done it. I just I
Speaker 1: don't know. Man, I really don't have the main great
Speaker 1: explanation other than I just keep things private and I
Speaker 1: don't like to share too much now. I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's refreshing to hear someone that that
Speaker 1: isn't caught up in all of it. Um. Coming into
Speaker 1: the off season, Now, how many days a week you're
Speaker 1: gonna start playing golf? Give it to me. Come on
Speaker 1: at least three to four. Um, at three to four,
Speaker 1: for sure, I'll be out there, um grinding. It's funny
Speaker 1: because after the baseball season, the golf game is not
Speaker 1: quite there. So I'll be on the range for a
Speaker 1: few hours to see if I can get it right
Speaker 1: in a few days. Because my boys want to play
Speaker 1: and there's some money to be one and I want
Speaker 1: to make sure I'm winning it. So in future, don't
Speaker 1: message d J ricky on on your golf swing. Send
Speaker 1: them to me. We'll take care of that. I appreciate that,
Speaker 1: and thank you. I really appreciate you talking to us.
Speaker 1: I think, I mean, listen. I think there's so many
Speaker 1: similarities between golf and baseball, and so anytime I can
Speaker 1: get a chance to talk to someone like yourself about baseball, UM,
Speaker 1: it's fascinating. I could I could talk to you about kidding.
Speaker 1: I mean, I could talk to you about that all day.
Speaker 1: So we'll get together next time you're down to Florida.
Speaker 1: Let's get together and place some golf and uh, enjoy
Speaker 1: the off season. I appreciate it. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: having me. I appreciate it. Thanks. So I want to
Speaker 1: thank Nolan for coming on the pod and UH, listen,
Speaker 1: you guys have heard me say it before. That's part
Speaker 1: of the reason why I did the podcast. Talk to
Speaker 1: people that, UM love golf, and let me tell you
Speaker 1: that guy is a golf junkie. So this week Lives
Speaker 1: finale in Miami, UM, I think, listen, whether you're a fan,
Speaker 1: whether you're not a fan. UM, it's been a pretty
Speaker 1: interesting ride. I think for everybody involved with Live and UM,
Speaker 1: I think if you'd told everybody last year at this
Speaker 1: time that Live would be doing what it's doing, having
Speaker 1: the players at scott Um having the tournaments UM all
Speaker 1: around the world and having the winners it's had, I
Speaker 1: think everybody would be surprised. So should be an interesting
Speaker 1: uh end to the live season and be interesting to
Speaker 1: see what happens a big big break. UM. I think
Speaker 1: lives starts back up again in February, so they get
Speaker 1: an actual offseason. Rory McElroy one UH at Congary went
Speaker 1: back to number one in the world. Um, and just
Speaker 1: what a what a dominant performance by Rory has this
Speaker 1: uncanny ability when he gets kind of near the lead
Speaker 1: to birdie three holes in a row. Okay, made a
Speaker 1: couple of bogies coming in, but um, yeah, just such
Speaker 1: a dominant, dominant performance. It's been a hell of a year.
Speaker 1: I think everything that Rory has been dealing with is
Speaker 1: kind of being the de facto spokesperson for the PGA
Speaker 1: tour UM, but the play the way he has played,
Speaker 1: because honestly, we played DJ played a practice round with
Speaker 1: with Rory UM at the British Open, and I mean
Speaker 1: you could see that, um, you know, kind of being
Speaker 1: this spokesperson for the PGA tour um, you know, everything
Speaker 1: that that Rory has been under pressure wise. You could
Speaker 1: see it. I mean you could see it weighing on him.
Speaker 1: I mean he looked tired. UM. And but I mean
Speaker 1: the guy is just such an amazing golfer and when
Speaker 1: he is in full flow, when he I mean he is,
Speaker 1: he looks like he was born with a driver in
Speaker 1: his hand. And uh, you know, I'm a huge fan.
Speaker 1: I love the way he plays golf and when when
Speaker 1: he's on, um, you know, he's almost he's almost hard
Speaker 1: to beat. UM. There's a few guys like that, and
Speaker 1: he is definitely one of them. But interestingly, UM, you
Speaker 1: know I just mentioned that liv gets almost four months
Speaker 1: off and Rory um talking about, you know, after his
Speaker 1: win that he thinks there should be a longer break
Speaker 1: in the fall for the p G A Tour. I
Speaker 1: know a lot of players have talked about that. Um,
Speaker 1: that's been being talked about by all the big stars
Speaker 1: UM for quite some time. UM, them wanting and needing
Speaker 1: an offseason the live guys get it. And then you've
Speaker 1: got Rory McAuley saying that the PGA Tour guy should
Speaker 1: get it as well. So, UM, pretty interesting times. UM,
Speaker 1: you know, Rory, at the beginning of this year, you
Speaker 1: know it always looks like you know, he's the guy
Speaker 1: to beat, but then you know he misses cuts, isn't winning,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden he just starts banging
Speaker 1: out wins like the Rory of Olds. So it would
Speaker 1: be interesting to see with a pretty lengthy break when
Speaker 1: he comes back and plays, UM back to world number one,
Speaker 1: And UM, you know next year, what do the official
Speaker 1: World Golf rankings UM look like? Are their changes? UM?
Speaker 1: Do the live guys get points? UM? If the live
Speaker 1: guys don't get points and you've got players like camp
Speaker 1: Smith and Dustin Johnson, UM and Brooks kept a winning
Speaker 1: on live, UM, I think they could win anywhere in
Speaker 1: watching the way that they've been playing. UM. And I
Speaker 1: think it would be really interesting, UM what actually happens?
Speaker 1: What three is going to look like for professional golf?
Speaker 1: But UM interesting times and UM I'm excited to see
Speaker 1: UM how of this week's team competition pans out? UM. Listen,
Speaker 1: I'm I worked with three players that play on on
Speaker 1: live and two of them are on the same team
Speaker 1: in Pat Perez and Dustin Johnson. And one of the
Speaker 1: things that I think is being massively, massively UM overlooked,
Speaker 1: and UM a lot of people just don't even come
Speaker 1: close to understanding is UM. The team part of of
Speaker 1: Live is it's very very real. UM. And I'm only
Speaker 1: saying that because I've watched it, I've witnessed it up
Speaker 1: close and UM, really seen it for real and it's UM.
Speaker 1: The guys love it. The guys who are invested in it,
Speaker 1: the guys are UM. They're constantly talking about it, and UM,
Speaker 1: I think it should be an interesting weekend. I want
Speaker 1: to thank everyone for listening. We We've got a bunch
Speaker 1: of great guests, a bunch of past episodes that are fantastic,
Speaker 1: and if you haven't taken a look at some of
Speaker 1: the stuff we've done in the past, go check it out.
Speaker 1: And UM, I think you will get a lot out
Speaker 1: of it, and I think you will enjoy listening to
Speaker 1: some of the guests that we have had. Son of
Speaker 1: a which comes to you every Wednesday. We will see
Speaker 1: you next week.