Latest / Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast / Allen Craig Joins The Show To Look Back At His Cardinals Career and Recall The 2011 World Series Run

Transcript

Allen Craig Joins The Show To Look Back At His Cardinals Career and Recall The 2011 World Series Run · Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Cardinal Territory.
0:10
Speaker 1: And today we have a very special guest. He's a
0:13
Speaker 1: twoy and eleven World Series champion. Right now he works
0:18
Speaker 1: as part of baseball ops for the San Diego Padres.
0:22
Speaker 1: Cardinal Finn certainly know him. He is Alan Craig hi Allen.
0:27
Speaker 2: How are you.
0:29
Speaker 3: What's up, Jim kat Hayes. Good to see you, man,
0:31
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me on.
0:33
Speaker 1: Good to see I want to start by catching up
0:35
Speaker 1: because it's been a little while. You're part of the
0:38
Speaker 1: Padres organization, have been for a while. Tell us a
0:42
Speaker 1: little bit about what you do for them.
0:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is my eighth season with the with the Padres.
0:50
Speaker 3: They signed me as a minor league free agent back
0:51
Speaker 3: in twenty eighteen. I played in Triple A that year
0:54
Speaker 3: and then they hired me to be in the front office.
0:57
Speaker 3: You know, for the past eight years. My roles you know,
1:00
Speaker 3: evolved and changed quite a bit over those years. The
1:03
Speaker 3: last three years have been you know, kind of focused
1:06
Speaker 3: on you know, the major league team and working around
1:08
Speaker 3: ops around the major league team and uh, you know,
1:10
Speaker 3: doing a lot of different things. You know, been blessed
1:12
Speaker 3: to be a part of the Potter's organization. They've allowed
1:15
Speaker 3: me to you know, be exposed to pretty much every
1:17
Speaker 3: department within the front office, and you know, gained a
1:21
Speaker 3: pretty good understanding of you know, what it kind of
1:24
Speaker 3: looks like behind the scenes, you know, you know in
1:26
Speaker 3: the front office with scouting, amateur scouting, pro scouting, player development,
1:32
Speaker 3: you know, in the Major league ops around the team. So,
1:35
Speaker 3: you know, blessed to have the opportunity and learn. I
1:37
Speaker 3: love the game and love to continue to learn about it.
1:41
Speaker 3: So excited for the for the opportunities they've given me.
1:44
Speaker 3: So sounds great.
1:46
Speaker 1: And uh, I know you're also a girl dad, right,
1:49
Speaker 1: you have a couple of girls. Been a while, so
1:51
Speaker 1: tell me about when you're not working the day to day.
1:54
Speaker 2: For Alan Craig.
1:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I have three girls and I have a
1:59
Speaker 3: son who's three years old. Now, so I have four kids,
2:01
Speaker 3: and I lost my oldest time flies. You look up
2:08
Speaker 3: and the World Series was fifteen years ago, right, So yeah, yeah,
2:13
Speaker 3: I have three girls. I have a thirteen year old,
2:14
Speaker 3: a ten year old, a seven year old, and then
2:16
Speaker 3: my son's three. So yeah, you know, obviously, like you know,
2:20
Speaker 3: family is my my number one priority, and you know,
2:24
Speaker 3: my wife and I are on you know, the full
2:25
Speaker 3: circuit of you know, taking our girls to horseback riding,
2:28
Speaker 3: taking them to school. My middle daughter plays basketball, and
2:34
Speaker 3: you know, my son loves to hit, throw and play
2:37
Speaker 3: basketball in the front yard, backyard, and you know, we
2:40
Speaker 3: live busy lives and we love it. So we have
2:42
Speaker 3: a great combination of you know, family life and and
2:47
Speaker 3: baseball life. You know, I'm blessed that my family loves baseball.
2:50
Speaker 3: My wife loves baseball, my kids love baseball. So you know,
2:54
Speaker 3: when I'm working, it doesn't really feel like I'm working.
2:56
Speaker 3: They enjoy being around the park and doing all that stuff.
2:58
Speaker 3: So you know, us for sure.
3:01
Speaker 1: Perfect perfect Now if your kids realize but they hit
3:05
Speaker 1: the genetic lottery with you being one of the parents.
3:08
Speaker 1: You know, we have Matt Holliday on our show quite
3:11
Speaker 1: a bit. His kids turned out pretty good. Kyle Gibson's
3:14
Speaker 1: kid apparently it's pretty good. Are your kids showing the
3:19
Speaker 1: athletic ability that leads you to believe there might be
3:22
Speaker 1: college or something else in their future?
3:26
Speaker 3: You know, they are athletic, you know, believe it or not.
3:29
Speaker 3: There is some athleticism that goes into horseback writing. And
3:32
Speaker 3: my oldest daughter is you know, pretty accomplished in horseback
3:35
Speaker 3: riding and that's kind of her thing, and she wants
3:38
Speaker 3: to go on and be a nurse. My middle daughter
3:40
Speaker 3: loves basketball and you know she's I think she's got
3:43
Speaker 3: a chance to be pretty good. You know, she continues
3:46
Speaker 3: to love it and work hard at it. My youngest
3:48
Speaker 3: daughter is actually she's seven, and she's just picking up
3:52
Speaker 3: a baseball bat for the first time, and she wants
3:54
Speaker 3: me to work with her swing. And I mean she's
3:56
Speaker 3: improving like daily, so you know, there's definitely some sneaky
3:59
Speaker 3: apple this isn't in there. And then you know, my
4:02
Speaker 3: son is asking me to hit and throw every single day,
4:04
Speaker 3: like I mentioned, and you know, he's got a nice
4:07
Speaker 3: little lefty swing and you know, he basically thinks he's
4:10
Speaker 3: on the Padres team, and it's it's the coolest thing
4:13
Speaker 3: to watch him watch the games, ask me amazing questions
4:17
Speaker 3: as a three year old, and you know, you can
4:19
Speaker 3: see that love for the game just sparking, and yeah,
4:23
Speaker 3: it's it's awesome. So we'll see, we'll see what happens.
4:27
Speaker 3: But yeah, my kids, my kids love sports.
4:30
Speaker 1: My my son is seventeen. He's a pitcher and he
4:34
Speaker 1: doesn't listen to anything I tell him about baseball, even
4:37
Speaker 1: though he've been around the game a little bit, he
4:39
Speaker 1: does not listen at all. So enjoy while they're little,
4:43
Speaker 1: because at some point they might not listen to you,
4:45
Speaker 1: even though you're Alan Craig.
4:46
Speaker 2: All right.
4:47
Speaker 1: I think cardinal fans watching this have one big question.
4:51
Speaker 1: We'll talk about your your your time as a cardinal
4:55
Speaker 1: in a little bit, but they want to know how
4:59
Speaker 1: is to.
5:03
Speaker 3: Toty is amazing? He's uh, you know, he's living life
5:06
Speaker 3: at his own pace, like I always say, you know,
5:08
Speaker 3: he's not in a hurry to get to too many places.
5:11
Speaker 3: And you know, I can I could promise the fans
5:13
Speaker 3: out there that he's well taken care of, he's fed well,
5:17
Speaker 3: you know, he's socialized well with the people that come
5:19
Speaker 3: and visit him, and uh, you know, he's doing he's
5:22
Speaker 3: doing great. He's uh, you know, the best pet that
5:24
Speaker 3: that anyone could have. For sure.
5:26
Speaker 1: Now you told me that he got a visit from
5:31
Speaker 1: another piece of cardinal folklore recently.
5:34
Speaker 2: Tell me about that.
5:34
Speaker 3: Please, Well I can't I can't share his location that's undisclosed,
5:41
Speaker 3: but his caretakers, his caretakers put up a a a
5:46
Speaker 3: camera just to make sure that he's being taken care of,
5:48
Speaker 3: that he's eating his food, and he he had a
5:51
Speaker 3: visit last week. From it looks like the rally squirrel.
5:55
Speaker 3: That's no joke and that's not AI that that is
5:57
Speaker 3: not AI generated. I can promise everyone that Rally Scroll
6:02
Speaker 3: showed up and met Torty for the first time. So
6:05
Speaker 3: stars are aligning in some fashion. I don't I don't
6:07
Speaker 3: really get it, but that was pretty cool.
6:10
Speaker 2: That's awesome, right, uh, real quick.
6:13
Speaker 1: The Cardinals are in a reset, right you understand as
6:16
Speaker 1: part of baseball that they made some changes at the
6:19
Speaker 1: top of they're supposed to be a recent they're playing
6:21
Speaker 1: pretty good baseball as an opponent as my brother padres.
6:26
Speaker 2: Just your view of what the Cardinals have going on, Yeah, well,
6:30
Speaker 2: I think.
6:30
Speaker 3: It's It's part of the beauty of baseball is that
6:33
Speaker 3: you never really know. You know, you got to go
6:35
Speaker 3: out there and play and you know, we can make
6:37
Speaker 3: projections on how things are going to play out and
6:39
Speaker 3: this and that, but you got to play the games.
6:40
Speaker 3: And you know, I have two of my closest friends, uh,
6:45
Speaker 3: you know, in baseball in life over there working for
6:48
Speaker 3: the Cardinals in John Jay and Daniel Descalzo and you
6:51
Speaker 3: know got to know Ali over the years, and you know,
6:55
Speaker 3: there's clearly a lot of good things going on behind
6:57
Speaker 3: the scenes. You know, I don't know exactly what they're
6:59
Speaker 3: what their processes or anything like that, but as as
7:02
Speaker 3: someone observing from the outside, you know, I'm I'm excited
7:05
Speaker 3: for you know, my two friends, you know, to be
7:08
Speaker 3: succeeding at a high level.
7:10
Speaker 1: And uh and both John Jay and discalso doing a
7:13
Speaker 1: great job on Ali's stuff. And they're they're fun to
7:16
Speaker 1: hang around. They're still there's still great guys.
7:19
Speaker 3: As you know.
7:19
Speaker 1: Well now there's lots of things to get out and
7:23
Speaker 1: see during the summer. Perhaps it's perhaps it's a World
7:27
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8:12
Speaker 2: Thank you, seek Geek. I wanted to.
8:15
Speaker 1: Talk to you about your career as a Cardinal, and
8:21
Speaker 1: I guess the best place to start, right would be
8:24
Speaker 1: twenty and eleven when you guys won it all. I'm
8:30
Speaker 1: thinking about what you did in World Series Game seven
8:34
Speaker 1: against Texas, right. I remember you catching the final out
8:39
Speaker 1: and running in almost like on a cloud with John
8:42
Speaker 1: Jay big smiles on your face after you guys had
8:46
Speaker 1: done that. But you also homered in the game. Believe
8:48
Speaker 1: you rob Nelson Cruz of a home run in that game.
8:53
Speaker 1: When you think about two and eleven in that magical run,
8:56
Speaker 1: what stands out to.
8:57
Speaker 3: You as you have like two or three hours to
9:02
Speaker 3: talk about all the stories and how we got to
9:04
Speaker 3: that game seven? I mean, I think about I think
9:07
Speaker 3: about a lot of things. You know, it's funny that
9:09
Speaker 3: you know you bring it up. I actually my wife
9:12
Speaker 3: and I threw on the World Series DVD for our
9:14
Speaker 3: kids yesterday, and you know we try to watch it
9:18
Speaker 3: like one time a year. You know, it's not it's
9:21
Speaker 3: not about like oh, look at what dad did or
9:22
Speaker 3: this and that. But it's about there's so many amazing
9:25
Speaker 3: storylines of resilience and competitiveness and you know, working through
9:30
Speaker 3: failure and all that stuff you know that went on
9:34
Speaker 3: that I'm able to bring color to, you know, as
9:36
Speaker 3: their dad and somebody that experienced it firsthand. So that's
9:40
Speaker 3: probably like the first thing that comes to my mind
9:42
Speaker 3: is just like team resilience, individual resilience, you know, Waino,
9:48
Speaker 3: having to have Tommy john in the beginning of the
9:49
Speaker 3: year as our number one starter, you know, myself, David Freeze,
9:55
Speaker 3: Albert Poohols all broke bones in the middle of the
9:58
Speaker 3: season and came back and recovered and and we're contributors
10:02
Speaker 3: to the to the World Series team. And then being
10:06
Speaker 3: down you know, to our last strike, our last out,
10:09
Speaker 3: you know twice, and you know, having the Lance Berkman
10:12
Speaker 3: come through, you know, with his focus and calm, you know,
10:16
Speaker 3: in the face of pressure. And then obviously what what
10:18
Speaker 3: data did you know twice multiple times you know, over
10:23
Speaker 3: that whole playoff run and specifically with the triple the
10:25
Speaker 3: right field, you know, and the walk off home run
10:28
Speaker 3: in Game six. You know, there's just amazing storylines, and
10:30
Speaker 3: that's that's probably what I look at the most is
10:33
Speaker 3: just you know, the team, the team aspect, you know,
10:36
Speaker 3: for me individually, just being able to start Game seven
10:39
Speaker 3: and left field and just have the have the game
10:44
Speaker 3: come my way like that and be able to capitalize
10:46
Speaker 3: in those moments is is something that I'll that I'll
10:48
Speaker 3: never forget with the with the go ahead home run
10:50
Speaker 3: and robbing a home run and being able to catch
10:53
Speaker 3: the last out. I mean, it's just something that that
10:55
Speaker 3: you can't really draw up. And you know, the last
10:58
Speaker 3: thing I'll say about Game seven that that was just
11:00
Speaker 3: amazingly special. As you know I mentioned Jay and Daniel earlier.
11:06
Speaker 3: I'm just at my relationship with them and how close
11:08
Speaker 3: I am with them. You know, you look back to
11:10
Speaker 3: that ninth inning and you know, Jay caught the first
11:14
Speaker 3: out in center, Daniel got the second out of third,
11:17
Speaker 3: and then I caught the final out, and you know,
11:19
Speaker 3: I've said this before and probably told it to you,
11:21
Speaker 3: but it's like that's that's like storybook stuff and things
11:23
Speaker 3: just don't happen like that, and it was just a
11:25
Speaker 3: special time and it's very special.
11:30
Speaker 1: And the Memphis Mafia impact on that ball club. I mean,
11:34
Speaker 1: Cardinal fans love that you're part of a Cardinal folklore.
11:37
Speaker 2: But I'll be honest with you, if if that was me,
11:41
Speaker 2: I would.
11:42
Speaker 1: Have that DVD running on a loop twenty four to seven, am. I.
11:46
Speaker 1: It's not something that would play I would have. So
11:50
Speaker 1: tell me your view of tell me your view of
11:53
Speaker 1: the Freeze triple Well, probably probably the most famous of
11:58
Speaker 1: anything that happened that year.
12:00
Speaker 2: What was your view of that?
12:01
Speaker 1: Because the story came out later, the creuse kind of
12:04
Speaker 1: came in a little because he wanted to get to
12:06
Speaker 1: the celebration.
12:08
Speaker 2: What do you remember about.
12:09
Speaker 3: Mm hmm, Well, I may be wrong. I believe that
12:13
Speaker 3: I had just struck out right before that. So I
12:15
Speaker 3: was like disappointed and you know, putting, putting my helmet
12:20
Speaker 3: away and like making my way back up to the
12:22
Speaker 3: top step to root for him. And then it just
12:24
Speaker 3: happens fast, you know, and you see the ball off
12:26
Speaker 3: his bat, and you know, you know, being a guy
12:30
Speaker 3: that is shagged and shagged fly balls in right field
12:33
Speaker 3: with David hitting, you know the extra juice that he
12:38
Speaker 3: has that way, and you know the extra carrier that
12:40
Speaker 3: he has, so like right when he hit it, you know,
12:42
Speaker 3: I knew it was going to be a close play,
12:43
Speaker 3: but I felt pretty good about it the way the
12:46
Speaker 3: ball comes off his bat, So you know, it was
12:48
Speaker 3: a really tough play for Nelson to make. I think
12:50
Speaker 3: that that he gets, you know, unfairly, you know, some
12:53
Speaker 3: criticism for not making that play, but a lot of
12:55
Speaker 3: people don't realize like how far back you need to
12:57
Speaker 3: go to to to get that, how tough for it
13:00
Speaker 3: is to make a playoff against the wall, and how
13:03
Speaker 3: much Carrie David's ball actually has. So there's a culmination
13:07
Speaker 3: of a lot of things and David was did an
13:09
Speaker 3: outstanding job coming through for the team. There.
13:13
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break here. Our guest
13:15
Speaker 1: is Alan Craig. When we come back, we're going to
13:17
Speaker 1: talk more about Allan's career. You're watching Cardinal Territory on
13:21
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network.
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14:24
Speaker 1: Two thousand and thirteen. You hit three fifteen. You knocked
14:30
Speaker 1: in ninety seven runs and I have to go back
14:34
Speaker 1: and like double check this because I remember it. But
14:36
Speaker 1: it does You hit four fifty four with runners and
14:40
Speaker 1: scoring position, four fifty four with runners in scoring Where
14:46
Speaker 1: does that come from? You were always a guide known
14:48
Speaker 1: as clutch. What do you think that came to?
14:52
Speaker 3: I want to be up there, cap, I wanted to
14:54
Speaker 3: be up there hitting. You know the great thing about
14:58
Speaker 3: baseball is that when the game calls on you to
15:01
Speaker 3: be up, you're up, and no one can help you. Uh,
15:05
Speaker 3: You're out there on an island, and you got it.
15:07
Speaker 3: You gotta want it. You gotta want those opportunities. And
15:09
Speaker 3: I felt like, over the majority of my career, you know,
15:12
Speaker 3: I wanted to be that guy that wanted to be
15:14
Speaker 3: in the spot too to drive in runs. You know,
15:17
Speaker 3: I felt like I had the right preparation that went into, uh,
15:21
Speaker 3: coming through in those at bats. I had the right approach,
15:23
Speaker 3: and I had a really good mentality, you know, to
15:26
Speaker 3: drive the ball consistently through the middle of the field.
15:29
Speaker 3: And you know, when I felt like there was a
15:31
Speaker 3: fastball over the plate, I was ready to go on
15:33
Speaker 3: it and uh and make something happened. And uh. You know,
15:36
Speaker 3: a lot of it goes to like, you know, selfishly
15:39
Speaker 3: wanting to be the guy that that drives in the run,
15:41
Speaker 3: but but doing it the right way and setting up
15:44
Speaker 3: the teammate behind me with a with an easy at
15:47
Speaker 3: bat too. You know, think, I think there's a selfish
15:49
Speaker 3: way to go about it and a selfless way to
15:52
Speaker 3: go about it. And I felt like, you know, I
15:54
Speaker 3: had developed an approach that that really helped me. And
15:57
Speaker 3: and honestly, I looked back to my time with Tony.
16:00
Speaker 3: You know, I connected with Tony like you know very well,
16:03
Speaker 3: the way that he spoke, you know, the way that
16:05
Speaker 3: he thought about the game, like, you know, psychologically, and
16:08
Speaker 3: the time invested you know that him and Big Mac
16:11
Speaker 3: invested into us as hitters on the on the mental side,
16:14
Speaker 3: and to be able to focus and come through in
16:16
Speaker 3: those situations like really helped me a lot, and it
16:19
Speaker 3: pay paid dividends on the highest stage. So I'm thankful
16:22
Speaker 3: for the opportunity to be around those guys as well.
16:25
Speaker 1: I think the thing that Ali says about guys like
16:27
Speaker 1: you zero heart rate, Like you can have the best intentions,
16:32
Speaker 1: you can have the motivation, the drive, but if you're
16:35
Speaker 1: in those moments and and you're maybe too emotional or
16:40
Speaker 1: want it too badly, it might not work out. Well,
16:43
Speaker 1: did you feel that way when you're at the plate,
16:45
Speaker 1: you were able to quiet everything down and just focus?
16:49
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, for sure. I Mean everyone gets nervous, right,
16:52
Speaker 3: everyone gets you know, a little too energetic, and and
16:56
Speaker 3: that's kind of where it all starts, is like before
16:58
Speaker 3: you get on deck, and while you're on deck, it's
17:00
Speaker 3: like you have to have the awareness of where you're
17:04
Speaker 3: at physically, mentally, emotionally and find a way to like
17:07
Speaker 3: regulate yourself, you know, And that's something that you know,
17:10
Speaker 3: during that time period, it felt like I was really
17:13
Speaker 3: able to do at a at a high level. You know,
17:17
Speaker 3: you know the situation, you know can dictate your emotions,
17:21
Speaker 3: but but you know you can't. You can't let that
17:23
Speaker 3: happen so too.
17:25
Speaker 1: September twenty and thirteen, I think you're rounding first base
17:30
Speaker 1: and you hurt your foot, and no one knew at
17:32
Speaker 1: the time that was going to be a real serious injury.
17:36
Speaker 1: What do you remember about that moment where it first
17:38
Speaker 1: happened and what were they.
17:40
Speaker 2: Telling me about the about the foot situation?
17:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I remember the play like it was yesterday.
17:46
Speaker 3: We were down a runner two and I hit a
17:48
Speaker 3: hard ground ball in Cincinnati in the four hoole and
17:51
Speaker 3: bought them in a great diving play, and you know,
17:54
Speaker 3: he made a really tough throw over Bronson Arroyo's head,
17:59
Speaker 3: and I believe Beltron was on seconds, so he came
18:02
Speaker 3: around to score, and you know I was I was
18:05
Speaker 3: trying to bust my butt to get to get the
18:07
Speaker 3: second base so get the tying run or go ahead run.
18:09
Speaker 3: I forget, forget the exact situation, but you know, it
18:13
Speaker 3: was one of those players where I was busting down
18:14
Speaker 3: the line to try to beat the throw. There was
18:16
Speaker 3: a poor throw and I just tried to, you know,
18:20
Speaker 3: make a left turn a little bit too quick before
18:22
Speaker 3: I got my legs under me, and uh, you know,
18:24
Speaker 3: it was just too much, too much momentum and my foot,
18:26
Speaker 3: my foot rolled over and uh, I knew it was
18:29
Speaker 3: pretty serious like right away. So yeah, it was. It
18:32
Speaker 3: was a It was a tough injury, that's for sure.
18:35
Speaker 1: And you know, to be honest, he came back in
18:38
Speaker 1: the World Series. Uh some folks, so maybe it came
18:41
Speaker 1: back too soon. But the Alan Craig that was crushing baseballs,
18:48
Speaker 1: it wasn't quite the same after that. Was that foot
18:50
Speaker 1: injury the thing you think kind of put you on
18:53
Speaker 1: a on a different track.
18:57
Speaker 3: I would, I would say, so, I mean, I think
18:59
Speaker 3: I would say it was the catalyst and like, you know,
19:02
Speaker 3: the beginning of you know, things to come as something
19:06
Speaker 3: that I you know, I obviously played well that World Series,
19:09
Speaker 3: you know, on a on a poor foot, but you
19:11
Speaker 3: know I also had a significant knee injury back on
19:13
Speaker 3: twenty eleven, where I fractured my kneecap. And you know,
19:16
Speaker 3: when you have two, you know, significant lower body injuries
19:20
Speaker 3: like that, it's you know, it's it's going to catch
19:23
Speaker 3: up with you at some point, and you know, you know,
19:26
Speaker 3: while you're going through it, it's really hard to pinpoint.
19:28
Speaker 3: I say, when you're going through a struggle, it can
19:30
Speaker 3: be tough to pinpoint what's exactly going on. But when
19:33
Speaker 3: you have two physical injuries like that, it's going to
19:36
Speaker 3: lead into you know, mental and emotional things like down
19:40
Speaker 3: the road. And you know, that's something that I definitely
19:43
Speaker 3: definitely struggle with, you know, that twenty fourteen season, you know,
19:47
Speaker 3: and then after the trade in Boston, you know, it
19:49
Speaker 3: was something that you know, really just caught up, caught
19:52
Speaker 3: up with me. I fought it and and tried to improve,
19:55
Speaker 3: and I put up some some decent numbers in Boston
19:58
Speaker 3: and had a really really wrong finish with the Padres
20:01
Speaker 3: in twenty eighteen in tripa a sou Yeah, I mean
20:07
Speaker 3: it could take two hours to talk about, you know,
20:10
Speaker 3: what happened and all that stuff, But yeah, the foot
20:12
Speaker 3: injury was was definitely significant, and you know, you talked about, uh,
20:18
Speaker 3: you know, coming back too soon and playing in the
20:20
Speaker 3: World Series. Like, yeah, I definitely did come back too soon,
20:23
Speaker 3: but that's something that that I wanted to do. I
20:25
Speaker 3: was on a long term extension with the Cardinals, and
20:28
Speaker 3: you know, between myself and and Mo and the training staff,
20:32
Speaker 3: we talked about, you know, if we can make it
20:34
Speaker 3: to the World Series and if I can just stand
20:36
Speaker 3: in the box and hit, then I'm going to come
20:38
Speaker 3: and do that. And I'm willing to sacrifice whatever happens
20:40
Speaker 3: in the future for that. And you know, I was,
20:44
Speaker 3: you know, the biggest cheerleader for our team, you know,
20:47
Speaker 3: during that run in the playoffs to get to the
20:48
Speaker 3: World Series, and you know, and and came back for
20:52
Speaker 3: the World Series. It was funny, I remember, you know,
20:57
Speaker 3: before that, before that World Series started, before they were
20:59
Speaker 3: going to activating me, they basically, like you know, wanted
21:02
Speaker 3: me to go take live at bats against himI Garcia,
21:04
Speaker 3: Lance Lann. I think Karp was thrown at that time
21:07
Speaker 3: to basically show, you know that I could still hit,
21:10
Speaker 3: and I hit really really well, and I think it
21:14
Speaker 3: was pretty clear for them that I could contribute to
21:17
Speaker 3: that that World Series team and the rest is kind
21:19
Speaker 3: of history. You know, whatever happened in my career after that,
21:22
Speaker 3: Like I can look myself in the mirror and say
21:24
Speaker 3: that I gave it all that I had and you know,
21:27
Speaker 3: didn't leave any stone unturned.
21:31
Speaker 1: You've had obviously the hives and the lows in your
21:34
Speaker 1: major league career. In your current position, I know there's
21:38
Speaker 1: a time where you're working with players too, and even
21:41
Speaker 1: some minor leaguers. What do you tell like a young
21:44
Speaker 1: prospect who hasn't been through it yet when you share
21:48
Speaker 1: your experience, you know, being at the very top and
21:51
Speaker 1: then having a battle.
21:52
Speaker 2: Through some things.
21:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that, you know, I tell players that,
21:58
Speaker 3: you know, if you haven't struggled in this game, uh,
22:00
Speaker 3: you know, you just haven't played long enough. Like it's
22:03
Speaker 3: going to happen at some point. It's and it's how
22:05
Speaker 3: you respond to it, you know. And I think that
22:08
Speaker 3: like the biggest thing that goes into that is, you know,
22:10
Speaker 3: always keeping yourself in the mindset of you know, being
22:14
Speaker 3: able to make the proper adjustments at the right time.
22:16
Speaker 3: You know, it's not always an overhaul and your offensive
22:19
Speaker 3: game or defensive game, like sometimes it is, but most
22:22
Speaker 3: likely it isn't. If you can make the small adjustments
22:25
Speaker 3: as you go game to game, pitch to pitch and
22:27
Speaker 3: all that, you'll find yourself, you know, in a really
22:30
Speaker 3: good spot. And you know, one thing that I've seen
22:33
Speaker 3: over the years and the players that I've been around, is,
22:36
Speaker 3: you know, the players that have success at a high
22:38
Speaker 3: level and do it for a long time, they know
22:40
Speaker 3: who they are as players and their identity and what
22:42
Speaker 3: they're good at, what they're not good at, and they're
22:47
Speaker 3: able to you know, have real communication with their coaches
22:52
Speaker 3: about you know, getting better. They're able to filter in
22:54
Speaker 3: the good information and kind of put the bad information aside.
22:57
Speaker 3: They're able to ask good questions to their coaches, and
23:01
Speaker 3: they're able to have like real conversations, real back and forth.
23:04
Speaker 3: You know, the players that you do everything that a
23:06
Speaker 3: coach says, you know, tend to struggle at times. And
23:11
Speaker 3: on the other end of the spectrum of the players
23:13
Speaker 3: that don't like, don't listen to coaches, are not coachable,
23:18
Speaker 3: those guys struggle as well. So it's you know, from
23:21
Speaker 3: minor leaguers for anybody really it's like, you know, where's
23:24
Speaker 3: that balance and how can you strike it?
23:27
Speaker 1: See baseball is this is the last thing by the
23:30
Speaker 1: way them, We'll let you go. But baseball to me
23:33
Speaker 1: is always evolving. But in many cases it's cyclical, like
23:37
Speaker 1: it evolves into something that it was doing ten twenty
23:40
Speaker 1: years ago. It always seems that something comes back. You know,
23:45
Speaker 1: you're around baseball now with your current position. How is
23:48
Speaker 1: baseball different now then back when you were a young
23:52
Speaker 1: player coming into your own.
23:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's just clearly, you know, the elephant
23:59
Speaker 3: in the room is that there's a lot more you know,
24:01
Speaker 3: data and statistics around the game, and a lot more
24:03
Speaker 3: information that's making its way to players. You know, then
24:07
Speaker 3: that can be good and bad. You know in my experience,
24:10
Speaker 3: you know, you know, with the padres, I feel like
24:13
Speaker 3: I've gotten pretty well versed in a lot of the
24:16
Speaker 3: different data points and I understand it, you know, at
24:19
Speaker 3: a at a pretty high level. And you know, it
24:22
Speaker 3: kind of just comes down to, like how that information
24:24
Speaker 3: is being given to the players. Is is it being
24:26
Speaker 3: given to them in a way that they can you know,
24:31
Speaker 3: actually like apply to their game. And I think that, like,
24:33
Speaker 3: you know, we do a pretty decent job of that,
24:36
Speaker 3: but clearly, like the numbers are different. You know. The
24:40
Speaker 3: one thing that I'll say with that question is that, like,
24:44
Speaker 3: you know, the fundamentals of the game, you know, I
24:48
Speaker 3: believe remain you know, and as the game speeds up
24:51
Speaker 3: and there's more numbers and this and that, I think
24:53
Speaker 3: it's like even more important to like double down on
24:56
Speaker 3: the fundamentals of the game, you know, offensively, defensively, pitching
24:59
Speaker 3: you always comes down to like throwing strikes, getting strikeouts,
25:03
Speaker 3: putting the ball in play and and all that. So
25:08
Speaker 3: that's how I answer that one.
25:10
Speaker 2: Kat No, I like it. I like it.
25:12
Speaker 1: Hey, Alan, it's great seeing. We appreciate you spending half
25:16
Speaker 1: hour or so with us. Just know, right you're a
25:19
Speaker 1: padre now, but Cardinal Fins never forget, never forget, and
25:23
Speaker 1: you're always part of that Memphis mafia. And when the
25:26
Speaker 1: Cardinals come back to town and I returned to my
25:29
Speaker 1: other job, I will say hi to your boys for you, cause, uh,
25:33
Speaker 1: you guys were fun to watch and uh you're right
25:36
Speaker 1: descalso and John Jay your brave.
25:38
Speaker 2: So we appreciate that one. Thanks, thanks for the time,
25:41
Speaker 2: my friend.
25:43
Speaker 3: Hey Jim, thanks for having me on. I always love
25:45
Speaker 3: I always love seeing and talking ball with you. You're you're
25:48
Speaker 3: the best. You do a great job, man. Thank you
25:50
Speaker 3: you're you're the best.
25:51
Speaker 2: All right.
25:51
Speaker 1: That's gonna do it for this edition of Cardinal Territory.
25:55
Speaker 1: We'll see it for the next episode. Hopefully that one
25:57
Speaker 1: won't suck.