Latest / Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast / Matt Adams Joins! Big City Talks Hitting, Cards Rebounding, & More

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Matt Adams Joins! Big City Talks Hitting, Cards Rebounding, & More · Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: When the Cardinals are pecking away, you know it's time
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: for another edition of Cardinal Territory. Hello everybody, I'm Jim Hayes,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: joined by Big City. He's been on the podcast before,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: so he knows what we do. First, much of the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: chagrin of our viewers, we sell. So if you like
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Cardinal Territory, maybe it's time to get yourself some merched.
• 0:28
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• 0:33
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• 0:36
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• 0:38
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• 0:39
  Speaker 2: I think we got.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Backpacks, water bottles. All you gotta do is go to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Cardinal Territory shop dot com and get yourself some merch.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Big City, welcome back to you. Nice to see you.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: A lot to talk about, and this show is really
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: pitching heavy pitching intents because we have, you know, a
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: couple of pitchers and holiday fades us a lot, so
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: we don't have necessary some hitter perspective. But now we
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: do because you're here. I want to ask you the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Red Sox just just cut ties with everybody, right, I mean,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: they're off to a tough start, big, big payroll, a
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: lot of salaries, so they get rid of most of
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: their coaching Steff, but most of the hitting guys too.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: And I wanted to ask you, like to me, if
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: you have a team, even if it's loaded with veterans
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: and the team isn't hitting, the sacrificial lamb is always
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the hitting coach. But you're a veteran of you know,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: many major league seasons. When you were a veteran, I'm
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: talking about once you establish yourself, how much did you
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: rely on your hitting coach, especially for guys that kind
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: of know what they have to do. How much did
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: you lean on that?
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: I leaned on him all my hitting coaches really for
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: just their eyes, because whenever I'm going through, whenever I'm
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: up the bat, they may be able to see something
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: that I may not be picking up on on video,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: whether it's you know, the next day after game, we
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: we head into the video room and break things down
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: a little bit. They may they've been doing it a
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: lot longer than I was, So I feel like I
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: trusted their eyes, I trusted.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Their voice on approach.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: I knew what my approach wanted to be, but but
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: they may have seen something different, you know, So I
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: just I really leaned on them. I knew what I
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: wanted to do in the box, I knew what I
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: wanted to do against a guy standing out on the mountain,
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: So I really just leaned on them for another set
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: of eyes.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: When you were younger, did you ever have a hitting
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: coach and the miners that were like, your swing's too big.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: You know you're jumping, your body's in the wrong position.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: We need to renovate your swing. Because I would imagine
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: you get to the to the professional ranks of baseball,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: you're pretty good. Have you ever had a pitching coach
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: try to vent renovate your whole swing?
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: No, I wouldn't say, like reinvent the wheel with the
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: with the entire swing.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: It was small tweaks here and there.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: What I had a problem with was really diving into
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: the ball, cutting my cutting myself off. I'd step across
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: my body a little bit too much. I was always
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: a guy that would step across a little bit, not
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: quite as drastic as what Stanton does per se.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: But if it.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Got to that point where I was almost on the
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: inner part of the white line by home plate, that's
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: whenever I knew, hey, I got I gotta clean some
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: stuff up. So we had some duras where I would
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: lay like a PPC pipe or a ball in front
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: of my front foot, know, just to give me a
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: visual of where I want my front foot when it
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: lay in. So it was small, little tweets here and there,
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: nothing nothing too major, you know that to reinvent the.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Will like with you know the Cardinals right now, Walker
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: hot again. He started like Gangbusters, cooled off a little,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: a little hot again. They kind of worked with him
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: and been working with him for years, trying different things
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: to balance what felt comfortable to him and what they
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: felt his body position needs to be in to unlock
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: what he can do because obviously he's a tremendous athlete.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Same thing with Victor Scott the second, you know, they
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: started by trying to make him a line drive guy.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Now they kind of let him do his thing, just
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Homer last night because as Brent Brown told me, look,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: he's he's got a golf swing, meaning he swings upward,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and they were trying to flatten everything out. Didn't work
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: for him, so he got to balance it out. Do
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: you have a guy who is your guy, like has
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: been with you since you were young, that no matter
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: what your hitting coach in the majors is telling you
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: you're still checking him with your guy.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: I had a guy that I started hitting with back
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: home in PA whenever I was shoot. I think I
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: started going him whenever I was twelve thirteen years old.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: So that was a guy that until I moved to
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: Saint Louis, that was a guy.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Where I bounced everything off of, you know, in the
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: minor leagues.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: My first few years in the big leagues, if I
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: felt off a little bit, I would take what the
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: hitting coaches, what the Cardinals were telling me, and I
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: would kind of run it by him because he knew me,
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: he knew my body, he knew my swing, what worked
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: for me, what didn't work for me, So I would
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: I would bounce the ideas off at him and just
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: kind of like he watched every game, so it like
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: it was a guy that I trusted his input. So
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: whenever I felt off, I would go to him, give
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: him a quick phone call with the text message shoot
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: him some video, he take a.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Look at it.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: So that that was one of the guys that I
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: leaned on heavily. And then once I made the move
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: here to Saint Louis, full time, I worked with a
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: guy out in Chestfield Valley that I really, you know,
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: felt a like he was a big time college coach,
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: really knew hitting inside and now kind of kind of
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: understood the new wave of hitting, but also didn't lose
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: sight of the old school type of hitting as well.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: And I felt like I kind of fell in the
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: middle of both of those patterns. So he really understood
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: my swing as well. So I really had two guys
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: that I leaned on on pretty heavily.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Did you ever feel like you were hitting mixed messages though,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: like kind of caught in between one guy saying try this,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: one guy saying try that, Or was it pretty easy
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: to balance it for you?
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: For me, it was pretty easy to balance it. I
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: didn't feel like I was caught in between. There were
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: some things that really just my body didn't like doing.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: So I would try it out. If it didn't feel right,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: if it did feel comfortable, I would just scrap it,
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: and I would go back to, you know, what I
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: was doing best, and and for me, I was.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: I always had a simple swing.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: It was really small, little like pick up on my
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: front foot, put it down. I had a little rock
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: Ford rock back, which was my timing mechanism, and as
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: long as I was doing that on time, got that
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: front foot down on time, I was able to you know,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: be explosive to the ball. And you know, I was more.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: I feel like all lefties have a kind of a
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: natural uppercut type swing. Uh So I just I trusted that,
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: trusted my timing, and if my feet were right, then
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: then kind of everything else fell into place.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Do you ever do like the drive line type thing is?
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Like you mentioned, there's a new school of thought with
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: hitting and then there's old school. You kind of got
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: to balance that out too. Have you ever tried the
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: drive line though? Was that around when you were doing
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: your thing?
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: It it became like pretty pretty prevalent. Uh the last
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: few years of my career, I never tried it. I
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: kind of respect what those guys are doing over there,
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: but also those guys, like, as a hitting coach, I
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: feel like you've got to have experience. You've got to
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: be able to know what it, what it feels like,
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: what it what it looks like to stand in a
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: box and face you know, professional pitching. A lot of
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: those guys are young, uh, don't get me wrong, Like
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: they're super smart they're super good.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: At what they do.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: But for me, with like with my old school mentality,
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: I wanted somebody that was there and did it. I
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: you know, I had John Maygreve, Mark McGuire like those guys.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: Those guys stood in major league boxes and and faced
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: major league pitching, so like I really trusted and respected
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: their their input. But to your point, Kat, I didn't
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: really try the drive line. I didn't think it was
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: for me, And I may be wrong for saying that,
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: but that's just that's my opinion.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: It's always that battle, old school versus news school. We're
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: gonna take a quick break here. When we come back,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about the Cardinals. They are in Pittsburgh
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: right now. You are watching Cardinal Territory on the Foul
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Territory Network. I love going to comedy shows. Jim Gaffigan
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: is doing some sort of national tour and I'm gonna
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: have to get me some tickets and figure out how
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna do that. And that brings me to a
• 9:28
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• 9:31
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• 9:45
  Speaker 1: What are you gonna use sea geek for? Jim?
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you get to take it to a comedy show
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: a couple times a week with Lanson.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: I don't know why I gotta go to a comedy show.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: But there's a couple of concerts coming to town that
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: I'd like to see Forrest Franks, one of them come
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: to Saint Louis.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Go to sea Geek. You can check there for any
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: concert tickets you want.
• 10:03
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• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Seat Geek. Our guest for this episode of
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Cardinal Territory is Matt Adams, and Matt, I know you're
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: a Pennsylvania guy. You kind of grew up sort of
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: near state College. Cards are in Pittsburgh right now. I
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: can't recall. And I should know this because I covered
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: you for many years. Were you a Pirate's guy or
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: a Phillies guy? What were you?
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll parts guy all the way.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: My hometown state college area, it was fifty Phillies Pirates.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: But I grew up my dad taking me to the
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Pirates games.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: We did Pitts all Pittsburgh sports, hockey, football, baseball, So
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: I grew.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Up routing on the Pirates.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: And then it was it was really cool my first
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: time going to pm C Park and being able to
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: play play the Pirates and have all my family and
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: close friends. And I went to college about fifty minutes
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: north of Pittsburgh, so it was it was a fun
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: time coming back to PMC Park as a player at
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: the Major League Loveland.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: So you had a homecoming like JJ Weatherhold, who's from
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh area, had a homecoming. Can you imagine. So
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: the first first of all, the Cardinals got swept by Seattle,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: three games, all close, young team. You think, all right,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: what's gonna happen here? Which direction? And they come back
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: with two wins in Pittsburgh and one of them Jj
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Weatherhold and had a big home run for him to
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: help them get back in the game in the ninth
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: because they were first of all, the pressure if you're
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: JJ Weatherhold or Matt Adams being back near your hometown
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: for you where you have family, friends and all want
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: you to do something big for them, how much pressure
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: is that because it didn't seem to bother Weather.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, early on, I felt that felt it pretty heavily
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: because I like being from a small, small little town,
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: felt like everybody I had hundreds of people there.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Whether I didn't leave.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: Hundreds of tickets of course, but a lot of people
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: that I knew, a lot of people that followed me
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: growing up.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I felt that pressure early on.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: And I just I think it's a testament to JJ
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: and his character and how he's He seems like he's
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: so far beyond his age right now, the way he's
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: handling the games at the major league level, especially a
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: game back in his hometown in front of this fan,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: family friends. It's just it's fun to see him succeed
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: at the major league level, and you're going to be
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: seeing that for a long time coming.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: There's also the added thing of people hitting you up
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: for tickets, and like I know a lot of young
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: guys will have mom, dad, or family member be the
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: point person for tickets. First off, you don't want to
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: lay out the cash because players have to pay for
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: a certain amount of tickets and that can bankrupt you
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: as a young player. But the pressure of having everyone
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: kind of coming at you when you're just trying to
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: get some hits and stay in the bigs. How difficult
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: is that?
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's difficult, you know. I dealt with that my
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: first year in twenty thirteen. I didn't say no to
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: a lot of people. I have a hard time saying no,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: so my phone was blown up, especially coming back Pittsburgh Philly.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: And then after that twenty thirteen season, I talked sat
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: down with my mom and dad in the offseason before
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: I left for spring training in fourteen, I said, listen, guys,
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: like I don't want to be rude to people, especially
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: family and friends, but I'm leaving you YouTube tickets and
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: my sister tickets and that's it. Everybody else if you
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: want to be the middleman, like, so be it. But
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to respond to those messages because I'm
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to go out there and do my job
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: and do it to.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: The best of my ability.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: So if I'm worrying about who I'm leaving tickets for,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: my mind's not in the right spot. So I put
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: my mom and dad in charge of kind of being
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: the middleman for tickets whenever I came back close to home.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Smart. So the Cardinals start a four game set in
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Pittsburgh with back to back wins. Very impressive to me.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I think the big thing was after getting swept in
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: a lot of close games in St. Louis against Seattle,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: really good team that wasn't playing good baseball early on
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: in the season, how would they respond? And it's like
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: they come right back. It's almost cliche at this point,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: but they do always punch just your early season observations
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: about what this Cardinal team is can be and is
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: what we're seeing now sustainable.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I really love this young team. I think they're
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: they're playing great baseball and they're exciting. I got to give,
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: you know, a lot of credit to Ali having a
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: young group of guys there. He's really got those guys
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: all headed in the right direction of one to win
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: each and every night. And if they, like you said, Kat,
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: if they have a tough loss, they flush it right
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: away and they come back the next day, ready to
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: kick some butt, ready to get back after it. So
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: I'm really thrilled with the way this team's playing. I
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: think they're I think they're exciting. I think any young
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: team can be super exciting for the fan base. But
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: this team, especially when when a lot of people wrote
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: them off before the season even started, I think they're
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: proving a lot of people wrong. And I think I
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: think if the pitching, you know, steps up a notch
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: the off that's kind of keeps going. Uh, you know,
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: playing playing baseball the right way, uh, small ball, taking
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: care of the baseball on defense, moving runners whenever they
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: need to, driving in runs in big time spots. The
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: first game in Pittsburgh a you know, a big example
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: of that. I think this, I think this is sustainable
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: for the foreseeable future for this young team. I just
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: I think it's a fun group, and I think inside
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: that cluboffs, I think they're playing with a lot of confidence,
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: which is which is really cool to see.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're just young guys that are like they're not
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: gonna they're not gonna let things linger if they have
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: a bad loss. But this is a real test. Seventeen
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: games in seventeen days you've been through stretches like that
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: from a player perspective, Look, I know you guys are
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: getting paid a lot of money, but what's that like
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: knowing you're gonna have to grind through this stretch because
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: it's not easy.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: No, it's not easy at all. And especially the teams
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: that they got coming in. Uh you know, you got
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: the you got the Dodgers this weekend, they got the
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: Padres coming up. So in this you know, seventeen game stretch,
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: they're playing some really good baseball teams and uh so
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: it's it's gonna take a lot of a lot of
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: confidence sticking with it. Like I said earlier, like even
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: if it's a tough loss, they're bouncing right back. So
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: you've got to keep that same mindset and just know
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: that day in and day out, it's going to be
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: a grind. It's going to be a fight. But you know,
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: you put that jersey on, go out there and play
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: the game of baseball. It's fun, so that you know,
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: that grind kind of goes out the window as long
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: as you're preparing the right way, and you know everybody
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: in that clubhouse wants to go out there and do it,
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: do it for their brother and beside them. It's it's
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: gonna be These long stretches are fun in a sense.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: It really shows you what you're made of. Uh.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: And and for a young team, this is gonna be
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: a big test.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to tack them, There's no question about it.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: And you know for some of these guys like Jordan Walker, like, hey,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: can we mentioned JJ weather hold very mature for his age.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Pictures that got off to a hot star pitchers adjusted,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: So what do you do? He walked a lot still
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: getting on base. Now he's back to crushing baseballs. Walker
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: hot start cooled off, and now he's gotten hot again.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: That says to me a lot about where Jordan Walker
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: is in terms of stretching this out, because he's having
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: a really good season and becoming the guy that he
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: was in his in his rookie season. What do you
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: see him from Jordan Walker?
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the biggest thing that I'm noticing is
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: just he's playing the game on both sides of the
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: ball with with a ton of confidence. He's believing in
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: himself at the plate, which you know kind of lacked
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: a little bit the last few seasons. But to your point, Kat,
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: he is he's he's Jordan Walker. That that got him here.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: So he's he's a fun guy to watch right now.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: I'm really happy that, you know, even if he has
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: not so great, a bad or a a not so
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: great game at the play, he's being able to, you know,
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: just let that go and be able to turn around
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: the next day and come back with his approach is
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: confidence and be able to just show everybody, hey, like
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: this isn't just a flute thing that I started to
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: season hot, like I'm here to stay and I'm going
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: to prove to everybody that that I am, you know,
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: the top prospect Jordan Walker, that that the fan thought
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: they were.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Getting, wasn't an outfielder, made him an outfielder, worked hard
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: to be an outfielder, and he doesn't look graceful by
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: any stretch, but he's making all the plays. And I'll
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: tell you the most fun thing is he has a
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: cannon for an arm, and I every time there's a
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: base hit or a fly ball with guys on base,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I just want to see him unleash a rocket. How
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: how good is that guy's arm.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: It's it's amazing, And like to your point, like he's
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: not you know, he's not the quickest on his feet,
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: but his routes like in this and this is a
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: big test John Jay. I think what John Jay is
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: doing with those outfielders to get them prepared, their work ethic,
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: the outfield drills that that JJ's doing with them, I
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: think it's huge and and it's paying off, especially for
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: a guy like Jordan Walker. So but yet, anybody there,
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: you know, anytime there's run around second base and in
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: a ball hit the Walker, I'm like, tell Like, in
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: my mind, I'm like, please send.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: This runner home.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: I want to see this this cannon of a throw
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: and and it's they're all on target. It's it's accurate,
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: but it's it's like a freaking ball getting shot out
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: of a cannon to whatever base.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: He's thrown at.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: It's he He's a really really fun player to watch
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: right now.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: You know, this team can run, they play really good defense.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: There's so many things that are fun outside of whether
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: or not they get you know, two or three homers
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: in a game. I think that that's what makes it.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: It makes it makes it exciting. I just had a
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: flashback of the time they put you on the outfield,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: but I didn't mention that we're gonna talk about this.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: But I remember it was like they're hurting for outfielders.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: We're gonna throw big City out there. I don't remember
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: how it went, except I remember there were footprints in
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: the corner in left field. What do you remember about
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: that game?
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: I remember being thrown out there with a week left
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: in spring training and kind of having to learn on
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: the fly.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: And I tell everybody this story.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: We were playing the uh we were playing the Nationals
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: in in UH down in Jupiter and spring training week left,
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: and uh, Jason Worth is out there.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: He came out of the game. I think it's six
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: or seventh inning.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: I go out there to play the last few winnings
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: and left field and he's out there on the morning
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: track running his sprints since he's out of the game,
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: and he sees me coming out the left field. He goes,
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: he goes, hey, big fellow, what are you doing out there?
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: In myn Like I gotta I gotta preface this story
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: by saying, this is this is going into the season
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: where I lost thirty eight pounds, So not not big
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: big now, I'm a little bit slimmer City going out
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: there in the afflue. So I felt a little bit
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: better on my feet. But Jason Worth said, hit big Philip,
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: what are you doing out here? And I said, well,
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: you know, they want me to try to learn to
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: play left field, and he goes, if I can play
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: left field, you can definitely play left field.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: So that was the start of the left field career
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: for myself.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: But then I want to say my first game in
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: left field, I got thrown in there at home. It
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: was the opening opening weekend. I believe Cascotti had a rough,
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: rough game. On the basings. He got hit, he got
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: hit by the pitch, got on first base, he's still
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: second base.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: He got hit in the head with the thrownout from
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: the catcher.
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: And then on a play I think he scored from
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: second and got hit with in either in the neck
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: or the back of the head with another ball, and
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: they threw me out there. And the first ball hit
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: to me, I basically was standing on the warning track,
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: so all I had to do if the ball was
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: over my head, it was a homer. So all I
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: had to do was come in on the ball. Got
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: a line drive hit to me. Felt good with that,
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: and then the next day I got the start. It
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: was a day game and Rizzo hit an absolute scorching
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: line drive where I took three steps in and I
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: was like, oh crap, that ball's over my head. Tried
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: to jump and catch it, which was stupid. It made
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: me look like a fool because it was seventy feet
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: over my head. He ended up getting a triple because
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: the ball.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Made it all the way to the ball.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: So I, you know, early on, I had some uh
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: some learning uh learning pains out there in left field.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: But I, you know, ended up having a rob homer
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: under my belt in the career in left field.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: So I made some made some big strides and had
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: fun doing it.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: But when you first get out there, you know the
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: ball's gonna find The ball was gonna yeah, because that's baseball.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: You're watching Cardinal Territory on the Foul Territory Network.
• 23:50
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• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Hayes with Matt Adams. You know him as a big
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: city Big City now calls the Saint Louis area home.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: So what are you up to? I know you're doing
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: some media, Uh, you're doing some other things. What's going
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: on in big cities world?
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, just really having fun diving into you know, doing
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: some appearances and stuff with the Cardinals Alumni network, like
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: you said, doing some media stuff like the like this podcast.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: Doing uh, some stuff on Matrix Midwest k m O
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: X uh did a spot on the.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Gas House Gang. So just just trying to trying to
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: just keep my mind open.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: Got some cool opportunities potentially coming to coming to light
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: later on this season in the media world.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: So just really having fun. Uh living at home.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: It's kind of different knowing that baseball is going on
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: and I'm I'm you know, at my home, sleeping in
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: my own bed, being around my family a little bit more,
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: which is which is a blessing.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: I'm super grateful for that.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: But really having fun just being back involved with the
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: Cardinals through the Cardinals alumni and then being able to
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: talk talk the game that I love, uh and and
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: you know, talk about this young young squad that that's
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: really fun to watch right now and playing with a
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: lot of confidence.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: So that's what I'm doing.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: Definitely, uh see me around town a little bit more
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: this season, and uh looking forward to to following the
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: Cardinals and talking more about them.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: You know. And I always get a kick out of
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: the guys that didn't like the media, didn't have time
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: for the media when they were players, and then when
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: their career is over as a player, their media guys.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: You were always good. You were always good to deal
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: with as a media guy. I think you're a natural
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: fit as a media guy now because you're always well spoken,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: always fun, you know to talk to. But did you
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: ever think to yourself when you're playing, Yeah, that's something
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: I might want to dabble in when I'm done playing.
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: Absolutely nottch But but no, I had, you know, just
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: like you said, like, I always wanted to, I wanted
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: to be respectful.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: I wanted to, you know, make sure I was.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Given everybody the time the day, get their questions off,
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: and you know, make sure that I answer them to
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: the best of my ability. And I feel like I
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: did a good job of that throughout the course of
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: my career, and I built a lot of good relationships
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: like I have with you cats. So like it like
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: being able to see what you guys went through on
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: a daily basis whenever I was still playing, like I
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: didn't really think I wanted to do it. But but
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: now that I've I've done it, I've you know, got
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: my feet wet a little bit. On the media side,
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: I've found myself really really enjoying one being on camera,
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: and I like, I love being on camera. I love
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: being on TV and I love talking about the game
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: of baseball, especially for you know, my hometown team, the Cardinals,
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: who who you know, drafted me and made my debut
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: with I call this place home.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Uh so yeah, really really having fun doing it.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: And and like you said, I feel like I feel
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: like I'm a natural. I think just because the passion
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: comes out. I love the game of baseball, I love
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: the Cardinals, h so's it's it's just a natural fit
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: for me to do it in and around the Saint
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: Louis area. So yeah, having fun doing it and looking
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: forward to doing it for the foreseeable future.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: And you're a handsome devil too, Okay, you're a handsome
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: fellow on top of being well spoken and also fun
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: to be around city as always. Thanks for giving us
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: some time. We'll do it again real soon, and that's
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: going to do it for this edition of Cardinal Territory.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: We'll do it again in the near future. Hopefully that
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: episode won't suck.