Latest / Chasing Baseball Dreams / Episode #7: Chose the Hardest Path First | Former MLB Player Travis Hafner

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Episode #7: Chose the Hardest Path First | Former MLB Player Travis Hafner · Chasing Baseball Dreams

• Bobby Minor: And welcome to the Chasing Baseball Dreams Podcast. And today, I was gonna say I'm really excited because I always say that, but I am excited to be joined by none other than Travis Hafner. if you're a baseball fan, especially from the Cleveland area, you probably know him as Pronk. We'll talk about that in a minute. We'll talk about the Pronk bars Travis: Yeah. Bobby Minor: and the Pronk beef jerky. But Travis played 12 years in the major leagues, mostly with Cleveland, hit 213 home runs in his career. And I would say at your peak, you had a four-year run where I'd say you're probably one of the most dangerous left-handed hitters in all of baseball. And what's going to be really cool about what we're going to talk about today is like your path to the big leagues definitely wasn't a typical one. You grew up in a small town in North Dakota. Your high school didn't even have a baseball team. And you went the JUCO route, drafted in the 31st round, and eventually, like I said, ended up in the majors. one brief season here with Texas. I was you're you were Now it hasn't happened lately, but it just seemed like forever, man. Like there'd be somebody with the Rangers who hadn't broken out yet. As soon as they trade that player, next thing you know, he's like an all-star. And so that kinda happened with you. But today you're still involved in the game. You have three sons all playing baseball. And so I just want to talk about kind of like like your journey, your path, what you learned from it, where you see the game today, and then just hopefully Anything that baseball parents can learn from it. So Travis, thank you for taking the time. Travis: Yeah, I appreciate you having me on, Bobby. Looking forward to it. Bobby Minor: So all right, let's just jump right into it. Like I said, your high school didn't even have a baseball team in North Dakota. I can't even fathom that. So, like, what did baseball look like for you just growing up and then like in your high school years? Travis: Yeah, I mean we had like twenty four kids in high school. eight in my class. So, you know, like when when we played basketball we combined with three other schools. Football was like four other schools. so you know, it took a lot. So baseball we just played summer ball, like amateur baseball or legion baseball. so like you said, we didn't have high school, so I played basketball and track in high school and then baseball was in the summer and then in the fall I grew up on a farm so I had to do like farm work and harvest and all that stuff. Bobby Minor: Man. So definitely probably doesn't look like the path that your sons are taking right now. Travis: No, my son would not have the f the first idea of what to do on a tractor. Very different, Bobby Minor: Yeah. Travis: yeah. Bobby Minor: Yeah. So are all three of your boys p the do all three of your boys play baseball? Travis: Yep. I have a sixteen year old who's in high school. He'll be he's a junior this year. And then I got a fourteen year old and an eleven year old and and those two play travel. So yeah, all three play baseball. They play a a little bit of basketball, so they're into sports. Bobby Minor: All right. So you mentioned okay, you mentioned basketball, so obviously two sports would be multiple sports. How important do you think it is? 'Cause that's that's a great debate among some of the content that I post and everything. How important is it, do you think, for for players to play multiple sports as long as they possibly can? Travis: Yeah, I think it's great. it helped me out tremendously like with basketball. I think just, you know, getting all that running in, sprinting. I love to like jump and try to dunk basketballs all all day. So I feel like that translated really well to the swing. So I I love playing multiple sports. I think there's a lot of like cross training that goes into it. You develop other skills and you know, really importantly too is you get a break from the game. So, you know. When it was baseball season when summer finally rolled around, like I I was so fired up to play baseball 'cause it had been like nine months since I played. so you know, I I I battle with that now. Like my kids, you can play year round. We try to take, you know, summers off and and winters off. But, you know, once you get to the high school age, you know, summer baseball becomes important. But try to get them at least three to four months off of baseball each year. Let them play other sports, let have fun, let be a kid and like let develop their athleticism. Bobby Minor: No, that's good stuff. So how old were your boys just on average when they started playing travel baseball? Travis: I started them around nine years old and our travel look kind of different because I was well, I coached a couple of them, so it was a very limited schedule, like a few practices, like just kind of hey, let's let's just, you know, get away not necessarily get away from little league, but let's just in addition to little league, like let's just do something where we can get some extra reps, get a taste of what travel ball looks like and then, you know, when they were ten years old, like they were They got into it pretty good then. Bobby Minor: Okay. So mentioning travel ball to you, what's the best thing about travel baseball? What's the worst thing about travel baseball? Travis: well I I think what's good about travel baseball is you're able to go out, you're able to get reps, you're able to play with some good kids, you're able to play at a high level. some of it is like seeing what's out there as well. Like you'll you'll go play some teams and get run rolled and you're like, Wow, there's there's some pretty good players out here. so you get a little bit of taste of the competition and maybe get a feel for what you have to do to improve. I guess like the worst part of travel baseball probably depends on what your own individual experience is. I I I didn't typically do a ton of travel with our with our teams. Like I wasn't like, hey, this weekend we'll be here, this weekend we'll be here. I try to play like mostly local. We'll we'll do a couple like overnight trips, you know, each season maybe, just you know, kind of make it like a little bit of a trip, let the kids hang out at the pool and have fun. But in general I try to do two or three tournaments a month, two practices and give them The ability to do other sports, to you know, to practice on their own and and do things like that. Bobby Minor: Yeah. I know a lot I mean it's definitely different depending on where you live. Like you're in Florida, right? And I'm in Dallas Fort Worth in Texas. And there's enough good baseball here to where you could I mean, you could play high level baseball forever and never you know, never have to travel anywhere. so I know it's definitely different. so let me ask you this. So I mentioned you went the you went the junior college route and I know you went to you were either at a at a Braves workout or something and a and a scout said they liked you but they weren't ready to sign you. So he gave you a list of five JUCOs that you should look at. And out of the five, four of them were willing to c to guarantee you a starting spot. One wasn't willing to offer you a starting spot, and Travis: Yeah. Bobby Minor: that's the one that you took. So like why did you make that decision and what did that decision teach you? Cause I think that's amazing that you chose the one where there was no guarantee. Travis: Well, so it was it was probably tough for me to leave North Dakota to go play 'cause I really like basketball too. And you know, I was kinda like, Well, if baseball doesn't work out, I would like I would like to play basketball. So in order to see if baseball's gonna work out, like I need to go to the toughest place to play. all these coaches at Cali County played professional baseball. They were really good. Like I'm gonna find out in a hurry, if I have a chance to play baseball or not. And, you know, just There was something kinda odd to me that somebody had never seen me play, just, you know, basically the off the advice from a scout, like we're yeah, you'll be our starting first baseman and I like, Man, I don't I don't even really think I'm that good. Like, how can you offer me a starting spot? And Bobby Minor: Right. Travis: at Cali they were like, We're gonna be good with or without you, we'd love to have you and kinda left it at that. And I was like, Man, like if that's gonna be the toughest place to play, they're gonna work me the hardest, they're gonna have the best coaching. And this is like it's either sink or swim, so that's where I wanted to go. Bobby Minor: That's awesome, man. Did your I mean your parents factor in your decision at all? Like they leave it up to you? Travis: they were really they they did not want me to go. They wanted me to stay in North Dakota and play basketball or kinda play just like like with a local NAI school for baseball. And I was pretty adamant that like this is something I wanna do, like I need to find out, this is my dream, so I'm gonna go to this JUCO and see what I can do. Bobby Minor: Yeah. I'd say it worked out pretty well. so do you ever think like you're drafted in the thirty first round, so do you ever think like like the current draft, you got drafted eleven rounds after the current draft ends? Travis: Yeah, it's it's it's changed quite a bit. So I don't think that they still do this, but back in the day they would do like a draft and follow. Bobby Minor: Yeah. Travis: so going into that draft, I thought I was gonna be around thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, something like that. So like like there's no way to like follow along on the draft. You just get a call Yeah, the Rangers are like, we drafted you. And I was what round? They're like, 31st. I'm like, man, that's that's really late. They're like, we'd like you to go back to school for another year. so I ended up doing that, and then it was a whole story, but basically we we won the national championship, so like Bobby Minor: Yeah. Travis: the deadline kept getting pushed back and back. So the scout rode the bus home with us from Grand Junction, Colorado to our college, and every time we stopped, like there would be like some mini negotiation. I'd call my parents and I you know, I didn't really have an agent or anything. so I eventually signed just on this bus ride back home. Bobby Minor: That's that's wild to me. Like you mentioned, like you didn't even have an agent and like today, you know, you hear stories all the time of like fourteen year olds having advisors and and all that. It's it's it's just crazy. So like so when you look at at youth baseball today, specifically travel baseball, what do you think parents put way too much importance on that really doesn't matter as much as they think that it does? Travis: I would say probably like the number of games or rankings, kind of things like that. You know, at at the end of the day this is about development, trying to get better. So, you know, the the game is kind of turned a little more towards metrics, analytics, things like that. So that's something to be aware of. Like, you know, once you start getting in eighth, ninth grade, like, hey, if I need to get faster, it's something I gotta work on. If I need to Hit the ball a little harder, I gotta get into the weight room. You know, find ways to improve your metrics, but at the same time, baseball is about consistency. So, you know, you need your need your reps in and just try to get as consistent as you can and go out there and be competitive. Bobby Minor: Yeah, that's good. You mentioned consistency. You know, so you had an amazing four year stretch during your twelve year career, so a three year stretch from four to six that is just like insane. Do you ever do you ever look at that and think like, man, if if I've only had played my career twenty years later, I mean you'd probably I mean, you'd probably be a hundred million dollar man, you know, I mean, the contract that you would get and it's it's It's mind blowing to me. Like you hit, I mean, hit over 300 each of those years, over a hundred RBIs, thirty well, you had twenty-eight homers, but you know, twenty-eight, thirty-three, and forty-two. But yeah, it would have been it it would have been crazy for you today. But do you look at like at today? And I feel like it is kind of it's kind of swinging back more, like, you know, the data nerds, I'll call them the data nerds, like took over, Travis: Yeah. Bobby Minor: you know, and and you know, you Don't nobody was bunning. It didn't matter, you know, the three true outcomes, you you know, all those things. And now I see it kind of a shift back where like now the teams are bunning again. They're doing things. They're kind of, you know, playing old school baseball. But do you ever look at it and think like, man, guys like aren't even hitting 200 that are starting major league players? Like, is that not crazy to you? Travis: Yeah, i it it's different. you know, i i it it's almost like in a in a way, somebody told hitters like, Hey, you're not you're not the pitching is so good nowadays, you're not gonna get three hits in a row. So, you know, some guys it's like just just try to hit home run, swing for the fences, hope you run into something. But, you know, I I do think there's something to like the very basics of hitting, like get a good pitch, control the strike zone. Like for me that was I was like the biggest thing. And then a lot of this is when you when you get a good pitch. Don't try to do too much. Like, you know, you you you see guys at at all levels, like just trying to hit the ball as hard as they can, chase exit v low, and they fall a lot of pitches off or they swing and miss or they pop up. Like, you know, we talk about consistency and that's just being balanced, have good barrel control. Think line drives up the middle and that kind of gives you the best chance to spray the ball over. Like, you know, what do they say? Home runs are thrown, not necessarily hit. So Have a good approach and then, you know, when a when a mistake does come you're in position to put a good swing on it and hopefully drive it. Bobby Minor: Yeah, that's good stuff. Do you think parents today focus way too much on the mechanics of their son's swing and totally neglect the the mindset and approach side of it? Travis: Yeah, I mean it's it's tough because you don't necessarily know what's going on. So if you listen to a hitting instructor, they can make it sound extremely complicated and you're like, wow, like there's there this is really complicated and you know, there I could never teach this. you know, I I tend to be very simple with mechanics, like at the end of the day, like be on time, have good balance. And like like you said, the approach is a huge part of it, and I think the approach lot of times if your approach is good, your mechanics will fall in line. You know, like sometimes like if it if you know if a kid is just trying to pull everything and somebody sees like, hey, you're pulling your head or you're pulling your front shoulder, they might be focusing on the front shoulder, like, hey, keep your shoulder in, keep your shoulder in. When at the end of the day, like the kid's trying to hit the ball four hundred and fifty feet to the pull side. You know, so I think just like getting good pitches to hit and trying to hit line drives up the middle solves a lot of mechanical issues. Bobby Minor: Yeah, that's good. So w I guess what's the best piece of advice then that you would give to a parent of a twelve year old who's watching his son str watching their son struggle at the plate? Travis: Yeah, a lot of it is is like don't try to do too much. again, like line drives to me is a secret sauce. Get good pitches to hit, try to hit line drives. I was a huge fan of the tea. I try to get my boys to use the tea a lot. They don't love the tea, but I I try to like hey, this is where it's at. Like if you can go out and just try to hit line drives off that back net all day, like your swing's at a really good spot to go out there and compete at a high level. Bobby Minor: Yeah. It's funny you mentioned the T. and actually last night, you know, one of the things that I miss, you know, I was talking to my son who's twenty one and he he leaves tomorrow to go back to school, keep playing. I'm like, dude, you've been playing baseball for fifteen years. Like that's I I just feel so fortunate as a dad. But we were up at the cages last night, ten o'clock at night at his old high school, and that's one of the things that he's doing. He and he's a switch hitter. So he's I mean, taking cuts, you know, from both sides off the T and we wouldn't even move the flips until he hit ten line drives off the back of the net from each side in a row. And so, you know, but I it's boring for a lot of kids. You know, they don't wanna, you know, they don't want to get up there and hit off the T. They wanna at the very least they wanna get out there and hit off a hit track so they can see, you know, see see what Yeah. Travis: See the exit be though, yeah. We we'll we'll try to make a competition out of it. Like, Bobby Minor: Yeah. Travis: you know, see who can hit the most line drives out of ten. you can't take B P until you hit nine out of ten off the you know, something like that to make it Bobby Minor: Yeah. Travis: a competition. and that they seem to enjoy that. Bobby Minor: that that yeah, I think you have to make it fun for sure. So, you know, when when you're watch when you see a player on a on another team or even on one of your, you know, your son's teams, let's say a fourteen, fifteen year old kid who's really, really good, what tells you just by watching him play, what tells you whether he has like a real chance to keep playing, you know, at at at least in at the college level? Travis: Yeah, I mean I think you look at the tools, obviously the tools kind of show a little bit of your upside, like, you know, what does the power look like? What does the hit tool look like? Can he run? Can he play defense? a lot of it is like how well do they manage the strike zone? You know, does does he chase? Does he does he swing at bad pitches? f for me it seems like good hitters are always on time. They're always like waiting for the ball where, you know, kind of just your okay hitters seem like they're trying to catch up and everything seems a little bit rushed. So I like Bobby Minor: Yeah. Travis: those hitters that they control the zone really well and it always seems like they're on time waiting for the ball and you know, I I think that's a a big part of being a good hitter. Bobby Minor: Yeah. I I think even too, like even on the on the defensive side, you know, the guys that can slow the game down, you know, those are the ones that you can just tell, like, man, there's something different. And it's funny, you know, you mentioned consistency, you're mentioning kind of swing and miss. I was talking to a former scout a couple of weeks ago and we're talking about a player who's playing in the in the SEC that didn't get drafted this year and he was draft eligible. And I was really surprised. But you know, he was talking about how now, like how a few years ago swing and miss they didn't care about, but now they're starting to sw they're starting to care again about about swing and miss rate. You know, you might hit a bunch of bombs, but you know, if you're swinging and missing at a bunch of pitches, it's only it's not going to get easier the higher you go. So, you know, that's something that I think is definitely kind of shifting back towards more of a traditional approach. So Travis: Yeah, I mean I I think you look at that a little bit and it's like if they're swinging and missing a lot at this level, when they move up a level, that's only gonna that's only gonna like be magnified. So kind of gotta look at it like what's causing the swing and miss? Is it like something mechanically or approach wise that we feel like we could fix? Or is it just maybe like he doesn't recognize, say spin well? something where like, hey, this is gonna be a concern down the road. So If there is swing and miss, you have to decide is this something that we can fix and help, or is it just kinda gonna get magnified? Bobby Minor: Yeah, that's good. So you have three sons, they all play baseball. How would you handle it if one of your sons came to you and said, Dad, man, I'm done with baseball. I wanna play I just wanna play basketball. I wanna play football. How would you handle it? Travis: Be like, there's the door. No, I'm just kidding. so so that so that's the thing. Like whatever my kids wanna do, like I wanna be there to support I love being on a baseball field, like I love throwing them V P and and working with them. So I I try to make it fun for them. But ultimately, like if if God has a different path for them, if they wanna do something else, then I'm gonna be fully supportive of whatever that is. Like I Bobby Minor: Okay. Yeah I Travis: c I can't I can't want it more than my kids do, you know. So if their passion is something else, like I want to help facilitate that the best I can. Bobby Minor: Dude, you're spot on. And I tell parents that all the time. I I say it probably at least once a week in one of my videos that if you if the parent wants it more and loves it more than than the son the the player, it's not gonna last. Like that's just that's not my opinion. That's just I mean, I guess maybe it is my opinion, but it that's just you see it. Like there's gonna be this you're gonna reach this point to where they're they're done. So you're talking to let's say you're talking to parents of a twelve year old baseball player. He loves baseball. He says it's his dream to play in college someday. What would you tell them that they need to make sure that they get right over the next four to five years? Travis: you know, I I think a lot of it is just kinda trying to develop his work ethic. you know, if if you go to the two practices and you play your games and then that's it, like, you know, it's probably not enough. So like I was trying to d like develop a love for the game and give them tools that they can get better on their own and then, you know, I think they gotta like put in some work at home, like whether that's in in the garage in a net, throwing a throwing a ball against the wall and then, you know, doing things on your own to try to get faster and things like that. But, you know, at twelve U, like you're s you should still probably be playing, you know, a couple of sports. So, you want it to be fun, but like at the same time, whatever whatever you're doing, whatever season it is, I want you to like work hard on that and and be focused and do your best. Bobby Minor: That's good. So okay, we've talked about playing multiple sports. Let's just talk about just in baseball. How important is it for players to play multiple positions? And what age, what age would you say, hey, this is the age where okay, this is probably where you're gonna kind of lock in maybe to a primary position, but like what point do you think that happens? Travis: it depends. Like it's it's kind of crazy. So like when I run practices, we we do coach pitch scrimmages all the time 'cause the kids love but you go from like hitting to outfield to infield. And whatever position you played on the infield the last time, I want you to play a different position. So when these kids like I my my team will be twelve U. My my youngest team will be twelve U this year. When they go to high school, if all they've done is played third base and so and the opening is at second. I don't want kids that'll be like, I never played there. Like we've had kids that were like primary catchers and they go to high school and they need a second baseman and they're like, sure, I played it probably a hundred times in practice. So, you know, even even as you like say you got into Pro Ball, like you're you're trying to make yourself as versatile as possible to get your bat into the lineup. So yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of good to have a primary position that maybe you do focus on, but you still also want versatility because you never know. where you might be asked to play, and then you you you just want to get in the lineup. Bobby Minor: Yeah. That's really good. And I think I there was a time where I think being labeled like a utility guy was not something that maybe you wanted. But now I would say you see a lot of guys that I would almost call like super utilities. Like, you know, they're playing third one game, they're playing first, they're playing left, they're you know, they're DH and they're playing all over. Travis: Yeah. Bobby Minor: And I tell parents all the time too, like if your son if you if you want your son to make make varsity as early as possible, make sure he knows how to play multiple positions. For the very reason that you said, because you know, if he's a freshman at a good baseball school and the coach says, I really like your bat, but I need somebody that can play right field, and your son, well, I've only played I've only played third base. You know what I mean? Like, no, you want to be able to say, I can get out there, man. I can I can track down a fly ball, you know. you want that that Travis: Absolutely. Bobby Minor: versatility is just gonna help you the I the the the the more you play, I think being able to play multiple positions is huge. Travis: Yeah, and if if you're if you're like a short stop, like hey, I only play shortstop and they got a dude there who's a junior and you're not willing to play somewhere else, like you might be sitting for a while. Bobby Minor: Yeah, no, you're I did a video, I don't know, probably a couple months ago where I was talking about like the like the Padres a couple of years ago. They had like seven they had seven players in their lineup that had all played shortstop professionally. And like, you know, the Rangers a couple of years ago opening day, I want to say they had four shortstops in their lineup. I I don't know, Seeger, Brad Miller, maybe Ezekiel Duran. I'm trying to think who the other one was, but they're playing all over. So like, yeah, absolutely. So I asked you, okay, what would the parents of the twelve year old want to get right over the next four to five years? What would you tell them to be careful not to screw up? Travis: Hmm. It's a good question. probably a little bit about what we talked about is like I can't push them to a level maybe that they're not ready to go yet. Like you know, like if I'm a parent and I really want this and, you know, I'm sending them the lessons all the time and he's guest playing on weekends that we're not playing and we're traveling like all over the country and you can tell he's not really that into it. Like Like you might be burned out. Like if if you if they don't get breaks, like you know, like I I think you need your time off. I don't want it to be too intense. I don't want this to be professional baseball at twelve at twelve, thirteen, fourteen years old. Like let be kids, let have fun. And they kinda tell you when they're ready to like, hey, like this is something I wanna do full time, this is gonna be my sport. but they've been a kid up to that point. They've they've played multiple sports, they've You know, they've enjoyed their childhood and now they're kinda ready to like, hey, I I really wanna attack this and you know, I wanna start going to a gym. I wanna start taking a couple of lessons here or there. Like I I'm this is something I really want. Bobby Minor: Yeah, that's good. Well okay, you mentioned the gym and you mentioned lessons. At what age would you say it's really important for a player to be in the gym regularly and then at what age what age do you th okay, okay, at what age do you think a player a parents need to actually spend money on lessons? Travis: Hmm. Those are tough ones. and I'm not an expert on the on the lifting side. I wouldn't do that. I've asked a lot of people this, like, to try to get their opinions as well. you know, it seems like maybe once the kids start getting into high school, like like I I'm not I'm not jumping into like, hey, we're maxing out every set, stuff like that. But like, you know, you can start introducing like push ups, pull ups, body weight stuff, and then kind of like get your form down and then work into weights. But I would say like eighth or ninth grade you can maybe start doing some of that stuff and I think I think the sprinting, the agility stuff, the stretching, like you can start doing that really. Like I mean my my eleven year old started doing some of that stuff this year. So I think all the body weight stuff you can probably start doing pretty early. lessons just kinda that kinda depends a little bit. Like I think there's a lot of good coaches out there in in in travel ball in high school and I would feel very comfortable with with my kids just kinda using them as resources. But, you know, maybe like you're if if you're a parent, you're like, hey, I just I have no idea we don't have any like good resources around. Like you know, maybe when you're thirteen, fourteen years old if you wanted to do a lesson here or there. But like like my theory too, like is if if I give somebody a lesson or if I have a kid over to hit, like I don't want this to be a regular thing. Like I wanna give you some tools And like one or two tips, and I want you to be able to go and kind of just do these things. Like I don't I don't need to hit with you three times a week. I want you to kind of just take these things and run. Bobby Minor: Yeah. I I really appreciate you saying that. Like I I told parents before, I said, think about it. Like if you went to see your doctor and he never he never healed you or cured you and every week he's Hey, come back, see me next week. What are you gonna do? You're gonna think, no, there's something wrong with this. But that's what happens with a lot of hitting instructors. It's almost like to me, and again, I'm with you, there are l I know a lot of great hitting instructors, guys that are worth every penny you could spend, but but but go taking an eight-year-old every week for hitting lessons. is to me I'll is mind boggling. Travis: Yeah, and I I do think there's a little something too where if you have like a good say like travel coach, high school coach, they can work on mechanics, they can work on approach, and then they get to see you in the game. Like sometimes I think, you know, w we might go to like a hitting coach and everything is great in the cage and then they go off to the game and they don't really get to see like what the actual approach is in the game. So a lot of times it's like, you know, the kid is raking in the cage, but Then the instructor doesn't necessarily get to see his at bats, what his approach is, you know, where where he's swinging and missing or, you know, is he pulling off the ball, is he late? And then they can go and make those adjustments. Bobby Minor: Yeah. And that's why I go back always go back to mindset and approach. I just think that's so important because you can teach a kid to have a beautiful swing in the cages and but they can't hit. You know what I mean? It's just because they're not they learn how to swing, but they don't learn how to hit. And those are two completely different things. so okay, so what would you say to the parents out there, you know, that you know, that don't have the experience of a Travis Hafner? Even somebody like with my experience, you know, like I was able to do stuff with my son literally every single day because that's what he wanted. But so what would you say to the parents out there that that just they don't have that background? like what can they do with their kids at home? Especially let's say, you know, for parents players that are eleven and under. Travis: Yeah, I mean I I think there's I think there's a lot of like pretty good like instruction like online. You can find it on YouTube. There's a lot of guys that have some really good stuff on hitting. I think it's I think it's kinda cool to like, hey, get a couple buddies together and like let's just hit and kind of do that community thing. but like yeah, like if if you wanted to go to a lesson here and there just to kind of get some tips and then kind of just work on those things, I think that's fine too. But You know, there's a a lot of good that can happen with just having a tea in your backyard and ultimately like I don't I don't want necessarily kids to get too mechanical too early on where, you know, like it's not their natural swing. Like I want them to be athletic and I want them to kind of do what they're gonna do, like, you know, at least through twelve, thirteen, fourteen. Bobby Minor: Yeah, that's good. I always tell parents like to me too, the the simplest things that you could do, even if you don't have a baseball background, you can go in the backyard, you can play catch with your son. Just play catch. You know, you Travis: Yep. Yep. Bobby Minor: you can roll him grounders, throw little pop ups, whatever, and you could throw a wiffle ball to him, like like, you know, get a blitz ball or wiffle ball, just play wiffle ball in the backyard and like make it fun. But that that can do that can do so much for your son that you probably have no idea. Travis: Absolutely. And then you're spending time together too. And you're also kind of showing like, hey, I'm like I'm with you in the grind a little bit, like I'm out here helping ya. And you know, you brought up wiffle ball, like how many times you see a kid that's like struggling a little bit, hitting, maybe thinking about too much stuff up there, and then you see him in the backyard playing wiffle ball, and he just got this like beautiful Ken Griffey Jr. swing and you're like, Why don't you hit like that in the game? 'Cause they're athletic and they're not thinking. Bobby Minor: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I know it's so easy to become so outcome focused in a game where everything matters. It's like I mean, it's like going to the driving range, you know, hitting golf balls. Like you can get up there and like, you know, man, I can you know, I can rip one, you know, one after another right down the middle because I'm not worried about the outcome because I know if I shank one or pull one or hook one, I just drop another ball down there. But as soon as you're on the golf course, now all of a sudden you know, you see the trees and like You know, you think everything matters. But, you know, my son, we we he played at a Jukon, California this year and I flew out in May and we were driving back and he just told me, said, You know what, Dad? He goes, You know what I realized? He goes, I don't care what level you're playing at. He goes, baseball's just a game. It's not it's not life or death. And he was thinking about, you know, when he was younger, how he used to like live and die on every pitch, every at bat, every game. And he goes, You know, most of that stuff didn't even matter, you know, and like You gotta just if you if you realize that it's a game and you treat it like it's a game, it just changes everything. Travis: Yep, a hundred percent. It's it's what you do, it's not who you are. Like if your identity is like I'm a baseball player, you go out and you have a bad game and you're like, I stink. You know, and it's just so easy to go down that road. But if if you put it in the proper perspective, like, hey, this is something I love, this is something I do, you're gonna you and you kinda know going into it, like, hey, if I hit three fifty in high school, like I'm doing great, so I'm getting out, you know, six out of ten times. it's a game of failure and a lot of it is how you handle it. So if you make too big of a deal out about it, it's gonna it's gonna eat you up. Bobby Minor: Yeah, it's definitely game of failure. I was on a podcast yesterday and that we were we were talking about that. How, you know, like in football, if you're a quarterback and you only complete 30% of your passes, you're gonna be on the bench. You know, in basketball, if you're only making, Travis: Right. Bobby Minor: you know, 30% from the floor, not three point, you know, but just from the floor, you're gonna be on the bench. Baseball, you know, you succeed 30% of the time and you're probably an all-star with a really nice contract. Travis: Yeah. So so we try to get kids to redefine what success is. Like success isn't like a hit, like it's not just a hit. So, you know, sometimes a kid might come back and they hit a ground ball and they're like, Coach, what did you see? What what did I do? And it's like, Well, did you get a strike to hit? And they might be like, No, I didn't get a strike. Okay, like we can't even talk about the swing because he didn't get a good pitch to hit. So Bobby Minor: Yeah. Travis: we're we're trying to go to the process of like My first job is to get a good pitch to hit. If I don't get a good pitch to hit, I'll walk. If I get a good pitch to hit, then we can talk about the swing and talk about the approach. So, you know, for me success is getting a good pitch to hit and putting a barrel on it. Wherever it goes, it goes. But, you know, like, am I on time that I get a good pitch? You know, did I barrel it? And if you do Bobby Minor: That's good. Travis: that four times and you go for four, like it's a successful day. It's very it's very tough to tell a kid that went over four that he had a really good Bobby Minor: Yeah. Travis: day, you know, because everybody wants to hit, but You know, this is kind of redefining what success is. Bobby Minor: I th I think that's that's perfect. and hopefully the parents out there are listening to that. Like it's it's the quality of your sons at bat it is to me is much more important than you know the outcome. so all right, so I like to do something. it's I just call it in and out. It's like four rapid fire questions, answers, 15 to 20 seconds. You know, we kind of just jump in and do it. And so It's time for In N Out with Travis Hafner. And I know you've taken some in and out a few times in your career. So question number one, for a twelve year old, more games or more training? Travis: I think I think more training ultimately is the way to go. Like it's important to play games. sometimes the games tell you what you need to work on, but you know, the just the training and getting better and getting those reps in is big. Bobby Minor: All right. Second question. Better situation for a 14-year-old. Best player on an average team, average player on a great team. Travis: Average player on a great team, I d I j I just don't I don't wanna be the best player on a team. like I wanna feel like I'm being pushed from all sides and I gotta show up every day and compete. So you know, unless I'm in the big leagues like I don't I don't wanna be the best player. Bobby Minor: Yeah, okay, that's true, that's true. All right. So question number three, what's one hitting lesson that you learned as as a major league player that parents of youth players learn too late? Travis: Hm, good question. for for for me it was it was really about approach. I love to try to hit home runs, I love to try to hit the ball out of the ballpark. And you know, I I realized that having a good approach staying in the middle of the field actually allowed me to pull the ball more often but do it the right way. And then obviously like the the play discipline thing is huge. So somebody told me one time I will hit more home runs the less I swing. Meaning if I chase pitches out of the zone, they'll keep throwing them. but if I can make him throw strikes, I'm gonna get better pitches to hit. Bobby Minor: That's good. That's good. All right. Here's the slow roller. Harder job. Major league hitter or baseball dad? Travis: Well, baseball debt is tough because you like I don't know, it it just is like because you you don't feel like you have that much control when they're in the batter's box. Like you you wanna like help out as much as you can, but sometimes you just gotta let it go. But I guess when you're a hitter in the big leagues, like you you're kind of in control. So I don't know, that's a good question. I was like the worst answer of all time, but it's it's tough to watch your kids when you feel like a little bit helpless. Bobby Minor: Yeah. No, that's good. So that was in and out with Travis Hafner. All right, Travis, just a few more questions and and then we'll wrap everything up. what person it could be a player, a manager, a coach, somebody outside of baseball, who who has been the biggest influence, who was the biggest influence on you in your baseball career? Travis: Hmm. and you said it can't be baseball. Okay. Bobby Minor: No, it can be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm saying it can be. It they don't have it doesn't have to be, but it can be. Travis: yeah, like, you know, I I think my dad just my dad helped me so much develop like a work ethic and you know, kind of focus on the right things and like have good expectations in place. And then when I got to college, like I was so raw in baseball that my college coach taught me so much stuff, taught me about hitting, taught me about mental toughness. And I I like honestly, like I think mental toughness in the game of baseball is like one of the best things you can have. And it took him like two years to really develop that in me. So, Coach Dave Burroughs was incredible. Bobby Minor: Yeah. Travis: And that whole staff with, you know, Darren Burroughs and Scott Hennessy, like, they taught me so much when I came in there just really, really raw. Like a kid from North Dakota who had hardly played. Bobby Minor: Yeah. That's good. All right. So what does the car ride home look like with you and your and your boys after after a tough game? Travis: usually like we don't even really talk about the game. Like like like I think if the game went really well and the kids played really well, they want to talk about it. But you know, if they lost and the kids didn't get any hits, I'm not like what happened on that, you know, curveball you swung and missed on like w really don't say anything. Like I've kind of found like post game speeches and car rides home like after a game. Like they're they're you know The game the game beats up. Like I don't I don't need to, you know, hammer on after a loss. So a lot of times the next day they'll be more ready to to talk about it and and move on. But, you know, baseball's a hard game. Like if you have a a tough game, you know, just you kinda don't want to talk about it. So I don't I don't need to pile on and you know, so yeah, we we usually I I usually try to talk about something other than baseball unless they really want to. Bobby Minor: All right, that's good. So I so I have two last questions. And one of them I literally just thought of. I said this would be a great question to ask Travis. So Monday was my 60th birthday, and I crossed off a bucket list. Travis: Happy birthday. Bobby Minor: Thank you. crossed off a bucket list item. I got to go to Wrigley and watch the Cubs and the White Sox in Wrigley. And it was a great game for the Cubs, if you're a Cubs fan. You know, Pete Crow Armstrong, first pitch of the bottom of the first pitch for the Cubs. he went yard. And he also went yard on the last pitch of the game because he had a walk-off. And I was like, this is a I mean an amazing game to be at. And so it made me think of my favorite baseball memory just as a fan. and so I was kind of going through I was at Beltrace 3000 hit game. I was another Rangers memory when when Juan Gonzalez got his 100th RBI before the all-star break, I was at that game. But my all-time favorite was May 1st, 1991, Nolan Ryan, seventh-no hitter. I was there. And so for you as a fan and as a as a player, What are what are your what are your all time best baseball memories? Travis: Hmm. That's really good. Like I I growing up I didn't have a chance to go watch many games live. Like I don't I think my first game, my first big league game I ever saw was like when I signed with Texas. We went to a game. So I didn't really watch anything live, I guess, growing up in North Dakota, but I loved watching World Series. I loved watching all star games. I was a big Nolan Ryan fan, so to watch those those you know, no hitters were incredible. I think the thing that like one of the things I really liked was like the home run chase, like the single season home run chases like with Maguire and Sosa that summer. that was pretty cool to watch. Just 'cause it seemed like they were hitting home runs every day and and then ultimately like Barry Bonds broke it, but, you know, I lo I love watching the home run stuff. Bobby Minor: Okay. It well that definitely exciting. So speaking of home so in six you had forty you had forty two home runs. That was your career high. You missed the last month of the season with a hand injury. You ever think Travis: Yeah. Bobby Minor: back like you think you would have reached fifty if you wouldn't have been hurt? Travis: Yeah, that that's probably like the one spot in my career that I'm like, man, I w I really wish I wouldn't have broken my hand 'cause that was a year I had six grand slams. I think it was like September first. And I was up with the bases loaded and first pitch fastball hit me in the hand and broke my hand. So, it would have been fun to just kind of see where that season ended up, like home runs, RBI, see if you maybe get another chance to hit a grand slam. But, you know, it wasn't meant to be, so I'm you know, pretty fortunate that I was able to enjoy that year, but yeah, would have would have loved to not break my hand there. Bobby Minor: Yeah, that's that's no fun. so all right. Let's just we'll we'll we'll end on this question. What if your sons taught you about baseball that you didn't understand when you were still playing? Travis: that's a good question. So you you get a feel of like how hard the game is. You know, I I think sometimes when you're when you're done playing, like you you feel like it gets kinda easy and sometimes you expect like your kids to go out and get three hits every game, but it's a hard game and like it's it's just been kinda cool to like, you know, walk them through at bats and you know just the things that they think about nowadays. So just I think kind of being a parent and just seeing it from a different angle, has been pretty eye opening. Bobby Minor: All right. Well, Travis, lots of great stuff, man. I really appreciate you taking the time to join me. And that was Travis Hafner, former major league player, baseball dad. And Trav so Travis, if people want to follow you on social media, where can they follow you? Where can they find you? Travis: I don't even know what my stuff is. Bobby Minor: Just search his name, search his name. Travis: I have a I have a Facebook and an Instagram but I don't know what it is off the top of my head. Bobby Minor: All right. What about if somebody's in the Tampa area and they want to see see about bringing your bringing their son in to hit with you? Travis: I kinda just this is not going well. I kinda just do Bobby Minor: That's it. Travis: I kinda just randomly have people over. Like I don't really do like any like lessons or like Bobby Minor: Okay. Okay. No, no, no. This is good. So anyway, I'll in in depending on which platform you're watching this interview, watching this podcast on, I'll put Travis's social media, I'll put his Instagram at least in the in the caption or the description so you can follow him there. But anyway, Travis, I know you got a lot going on, man. I really appreciate you stopping by and hopefully all the parents out there watching got some good nuggets from this. Travis: Well thanks for having me on, Bobby. I really enjoyed the show and you're doing a lot of great stuff. Bobby Minor: All right, thanks a lot, Travis.