Latest / Beyond the Paw - Clemson Athletics / Ep. 39 - Beyond the Bullpen with Aidan Knaak

Transcript

Ep. 39 - Beyond the Bullpen with Aidan Knaak · Beyond the Paw - Clemson Athletics

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of Beyond the Paw.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Today we have a special guest, Aidan Kannak, who talks
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a little bit about growing up in Florida, off season
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: training as a dum baseball player, and owning a small business.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Let's go beyond the Paw.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Beyond the Paw.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Today we have a very special guest. We have Aiden
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Knock on the Clemson baseball team, and he's also the
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: number four pitcher in the nation right now. So Aiden, welcome,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Thank you guys for having me, appreciate Welcome. What have
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: you been doing today?
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: You know, I just got up, had a little breakfast
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: and then you know.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Came up here, came here and had a prank played
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: on you.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we did prank here. I guess it's prank gone
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: god to where I missed the prank?
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, what was it?
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: You know the one where it's like I'm so hungry
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I could eat.
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: Oh my gosh.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So you did a little stalking and we found
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: one of Aiden's friends from high school.
• 0:52
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I was like, how do you know someone saw
• 0:54
  Speaker 5: our Brett flock And I'm like.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I said, I'm so hungry, I shot out Brett Flock,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Brett Flock.
• 0:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, shadow breath, Yeah, shout out bread.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: But anyways, someone you played within high school?
• 1:04
  Speaker 5: Correct, Yeah, that's what high school teammates.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: So you're from Florida, Yeah, Fort.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: Myers, Florida.
• 1:09
  Speaker 5: I was born in Sarasota and you know, just raising Florida.
• 1:15
  Speaker 5: Moved out to Texas for a little bit, and then
• 1:17
  Speaker 5: to Arizona when I was younger, but I grew up
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: most of my childhood in Florida.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: So you claim Florida. Yeah, So how has it been
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: coming from Florida Clemson?
• 1:26
  Speaker 5: The weather change? Like having a winter in four seasons.
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: That's probably the biggest thing because in Florida it's just
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: summer year round.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: It's like crazy because this is like summer year a round.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is summer year around.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: So I had to buy like all new clothes and stuff.
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: Did you Actually I literally just had. The only thing
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: I had was shorts, shorts and T shirts.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: That was it.
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: Like a coat.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, I had hoodies and stuff.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: But right the one thing I've noticed in is like
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: it rains a lot more than I thought it would.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: The weather's just really up and down, like it's supposed
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: to be eighty degrees, but it's like outside in they
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: that makes no sense.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Can we go back a little bit to your upbringing.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I know you've talked about your dad before and him
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: being you know, an influential person in your life and
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: him playing baseball as well. Can you talk a little
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: bit about his influence on you as a baseball player.
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So my dad, he grew up playing baseball kind
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: of similar to me, like just throughout his childhood, except
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: that his dad didn't really like get him into baseball.
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: It was more of like, you know, a bunch of
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: his friends down the cul de Sac which just go
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: out play baseball, have fun, and then he just really
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: fell in love with the game. And then he ended
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: up going to school at cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Yeah,
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: you know, played Division one baseball there and then you
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: know just kind of just kind of like fell He
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: always had that passion for baseball and then just growing up,
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: you know, he shared that with me, so like we
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: just you know, played catch, you know, watch the Dodger games.
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: He's from California, so just love growing up watching those
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: Dodger games with him.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: So that's kind of.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Hard in California. Is he from Los Angeles.
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: Or like he's from Sacramento and then my mom is
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: from Los Angeles.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Oh fun?
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Oh my gosh.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: Cool.
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: So I got a lot of family out in California.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: What do you say, like Dodgers, it's like yours like
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: your team?
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Dodgers of my team for sure. Yeah.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: So when you played cal this couple weeks ago, where
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: did you have like a lot of family come to that?
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah? I probably had like forty or fifty family members there.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: Mysh.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Is that the first time some of them have gotten
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: to see you?
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: I would say so my my my uncle, my my
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: mom's brother, he's got to see me a few times
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: in college and then you know growing up he would
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: see like my little league games and stuff like that.
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: But like for the rest, like the extended family, that
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: was the first time college.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's cool.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: That's really cool.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: It's always cool and you can like go to a
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: different place and like have a lot of people come,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: like especially once you don't see a lot.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: I think that's really cool about sports. Do you think
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: your dad kind of like inspired.
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: You to play?
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: Uh? Yeah, like you know, growing up.
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: You know I like baseball, but you know, just had
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: a few coaches that like kind of maybe not like it.
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: So like, you know, I'd play other sports and I
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: just didn't really like fall in love with it until
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: you know, my dad started coaching. So like when he
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: started coaching like my little league games and stuff, like
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: he was so he made the game so fun and
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: like I just want to be out there every day.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: Oh wow, Yeah, what about baseball now keeps you in
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: love with the game?
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: I would say, I just love that like one on
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: one competitiveness, like me versus the hitter in the box.
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: That's something that like you don't really get in many
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: other sports. So I just really love that one on
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: one competition. And it's just really fun being out on
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: that mound.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're like notorious for like staring people down on
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: the mound. Can we talk about the psychology behind that
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: a little bit?
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah? So, I mean.
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: I would say when I first started pitching, like it
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: was always taught.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: That, you know, you want to be on the mound
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: ready to go.
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: So I would always just try to, you know, try
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: different things so maybe be on the mound. I always
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: wanted to be on the mound before before the hitter
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: got in there. So I always wanted to be the
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: first one ready and that just kind of kept the
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: flow of the game better for me. So it's better
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: to get it was easier to get better rhythm throughout
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: the game, so you know, I'm always ready, and then
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: you know, the pitch clock came in, so it was
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: kind of easier adjustment.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Like, you know, I already had to be on the
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: mound pretty quick.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: So when did the pitch clock come in?
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: I would say like two or three years ago. Okay,
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: so you know being ready quick was like always a priority.
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: And then you know, coming here, coach Boundary preached the
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: same thing. You know, be on the mound, ready to go.
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: You want the hitter to look up at you. You
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: don't want to be looking up in the hitters, right,
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: So the idea behind that is, you know when that
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: hitter steps in the box, you're like, oh, he's already ready,
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: Like you want to put pressure on them be quicker. Yeah,
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: so just puts a little bit more pressure on the
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: hitter and then you know that's kind of the whole
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: idea about it.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: And then the stearing just comes naturally.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah part of it. Yeah, So like I got.
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: I guess like in between pitches, like it started like,
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: you know, just getting on the mound, like I'm ready
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: to go. But then like in between pitches, if I
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: were like I don't know, just one day and in
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: high school, I would just someone would hitter would call
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: time because I'd be going too fast. But then so
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: then I would have to get off the mound and
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: then wait for them. But then I figured, all right,
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: I'm just gonna stay there because they're going to call
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: time and then they're gonna be like, he's not moving,
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: So I would just stay there and be ready to go,
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: not not let them get off my not let them
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: get me off my game.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: You get them off there.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so just always stand ready.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: I feel like you also put like your face like
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: right in your glove. Like is that something that is
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: like unique to you as a picture or is that
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: something that you just kind of adapted.
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: I mean a lot of pictures do it, but I
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: mean I just always have done that, always just have
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: my glove right here. So I guess it kind of
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: just started to, you know, create that effect when I
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: started just always being ready on the mound and.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: You got a big k.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, can you explain what's on your glove.
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so we have a deal with absolutely ridiculous this
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: year new glove brand that we just sign a deal with.
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: So I asked them to do a glove with my
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: initials on it. So it's supposed to say AK on
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: the web, and they their creative team actually incorporated the backwards.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: K on it.
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: So like backwards K like is a strikeout looking but
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: if you look closely, there's actually an A and a
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: K in there for my initials.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: That's like your initials literally have like K.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Literally baseball, you all spend so much time at
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: the field. Like what does a typical day look like
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: for you? Game day and not game day?
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: So non game day, well every day, I say, we
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: always just start off in the weight room, so we
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: get there about an hour before you know, team meeting.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: So we'll get there, roll out for an hour.
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: What time is this, I would say anywhere from two
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: to three o'clock.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: So I'll get there at like two.
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: Let's just say we get there at two, roll out
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: for an hour, team meeting at three. Coach Backete, she'll
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: go over like our practice plan. Maybe Corey Schafer will
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: be in there. One day you know, give us like
• 8:43
  Speaker 5: a little bit of mental game prep, and then we'll
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: go out on the field and do team defense. You know,
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: pitches will get there throwing in their drill work and
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: then you know, just kind of be incorporated as a
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: team at the end. And then after that, if you
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: depending on what you have that day, whether it's sprint work, recapture,
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: or lift.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: Then you would do that after your training.
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: So like, but on a typical game day, I would say,
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: so if it's a six o'clock game, get to the
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: field at ten, roll out, get the body moving a
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: little bit, and then you know, just go hang out,
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: get some lunch, kind of just relax, and then you know,
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: if I have homework to do, I'll just do a
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: little bit of homework and then the whole the rest
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: of the team will show up four hours before game time,
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: have team meal, and then I'll start my actual like
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: warm ups and stuff an hour and a half before
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: game time. So around like four thirty five o'clock.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: What's you're getting there eight hours before?
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so the idea like it's a long day's live there.
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I mean like if we're just the day behind,
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: that is like you don't want to just be sitting
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: around all day, cause like you know, your body's just
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: gonna get all locked up and you're gonna be a
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: little stiff. So just get up there early, roll out,
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: get the body move in, and then that's supposed to
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: our strength. Coach says, it's supposed to increase your test
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: or later in that day.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Gotcha.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've heard you guys do different events at like
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: specific times, like two oh one or like two thirteen, Like,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: can you explain kind of the reasoning behind that.
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So like it's kind of like a weird time,
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: you know, two to oh one, Like why not just
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: make it two o'clock. So the idea behind that is
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: we all have like a shared language. So two oh
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: one the one is supposed to be after this year
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: we're gonna have won our first national championship. So two
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: oh one our first national championship. So that's just like
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: one of the one of the terminology that we use.
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: Just kind of having that thought being in the back
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: of your mind at all times.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Is there more like.
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: It was like a six thirteen or something.
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: Right after this year we would have been to thirteen
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: Omaha appearances.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, that's so cool. And you guys all have
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: to memorize this what happens if you don't.
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: I mean it's just kind of like common knowledge. I
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: guess that we go through like the end of the year,
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: first team meeting type of stuff.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Gotcha.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: So yeah, just cool, the intentionality and the reminder and
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: continued work towards a goal.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But what do you say, like the culture is
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: like on your team, Like I feel like you guys
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: are such a fun team and like you guys are
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: actually all friends. Like what would you say the culture is,
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: like the vibe on game day like all of that
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: type of stuff.
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I would say we're pretty pretty close
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: knit group. You know, we're I mean, like I said earlier,
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: I mean we're at the field, you know, sometimes eight
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: hours a day something like, depending on how long the
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: game is. I mean, we're around each other all the
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: time every day. So we definitely have a lot of
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: fun with each other, you know, joke around. You know,
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: just a very like close knit group. So like it's
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: almost like we're brothers out there, just because we were
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: spend every single day with each other.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: It's a long time to spend with your teammates. Yeah,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: it's usually like practices like maybe like four hours and
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: then like waits and stuff. But like I can't imagine
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: eight days.
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: I mean eight hours, yeah, I mean that's just like
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: I mean eight days, Yeah, I mean like eight hour
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: days mostly are like I mean not even eight hour days.
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: I mean that's just for me just showing up because
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: I have to get there early because I'm starting.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: But if you just look at the bus rides on.
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: Road trips, like four hour bus ride get to the field,
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: and I mean, you know, I have two and a
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: half hour practice and then you know you're hanging out
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: with your teammates afterwards, you know, getting dinner and stuff.
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: So yeah, I would say like the bus trips, the
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: plane rides, like all that stuff.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: Travel, that's how we get pretty close.
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: You know, playing like fun bus games like Mafia and
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: stuff like that.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, what are some of those ways I feel like
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: baseball players know how to pass the time.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So I mean.
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: Always Mafia, Like I don't know if you've ever heard
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: of that game. So basically it's kind of complex. Like
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: when I first got here, I had no idea how
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: to play, but like I would just sit in the
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: back and watch and that's like how much how we
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: played or how we like pass time those long bus rides.
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: But basically it's like like a murder mystery game. Yeah,
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: but you play like like one person standing up in
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: the aisle and then you got maybe fifteen people and
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: you have like one narrator that's like narrating the murder mystery.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so you're just making it up or is it
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: you have to?
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: Like yeah, there's certain rules, like you know, you pick,
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: like everyone has their head down and you pick certain roles.
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: So like you would say, you know, picking the Godfather.
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: Everyone would go and the narrator would walk down the
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: aisle pick their roles, and then everyone say heads up,
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: and then everyone would discuss what would happen based on
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: what the narrator just said what happened, and.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: Then you're trying to guess who those people are.
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so like it's pretty fun. Like everyone's arguing, yelling
• 13:44
  Speaker 5: at each other, like getting mad, like it's like you
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: did this, but you can't say that you did that
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: because you did.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Like it's just who's usually the narrator.
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: I would say DJ's been the narrator, Reed Garris has
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: been the narrator. I mean everyone pretty much switches as
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: a narrator. As you know, time goes on, but so fun. Yeah,
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: everyone gets to do it.
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: What's your favorite way to past time in the dugout?
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: Pastime in the dugout?
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: And best snack?
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: Oh, I mean most of the games, I'm always on
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: a chart, so I always have like something to do.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: So like.
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: I'm just usually charting pitches for whoever's out in the mouth,
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: So like last weekend, I would be charting pitches for
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: BJ so just making like just charting all the pitches
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: that he's thrown.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: And then.
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: You know, favorite snack. I mean I'm always I mean,
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: I mean everything like cheese, its goldfish, pretzels, you know,
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: good protein shakes kid, But I mean I'll bet everything
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: in there.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: So with your pitching story, did you always know, like
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: growing up that you wanted to pitch and that you
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: wanted to be a pitch or how did that come?
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Did you play any other position before you started pitching?
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Like yes, sorry story with baseball growing up?
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: So in little league, you know, I played all positions
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: and then you know, pitched as well, So like just
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: starting off, you know you're just gonna be playing all positions,
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: but then you know, as time went on, I ended
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: up being more towards like second basement and a pitcher.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: But I've always pitched throughout little league. That's something I've
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: always done.
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: I've always loved pitching, but just never ended up being
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: as good of a hitter as I was a pitcher,
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: So you know, just kind of went with pitching.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: And is that the only position that like you play
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: in college.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, not just a pitcher. Yeah, yeah, I think.
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: That's always really cool.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: And like guys can like pitch and hit. I know
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: that's got to be Like it's so hard because you
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: have to like focus on like completely two different things.
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like not only the focus, it's like when
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: you go to practice, you're going to be with you're
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: gonna have to worry about like you're throwing and like
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: how much throwing you do that day.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: And then also hitting.
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: Like can put a lot of stress on the body
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: because you know, you're you could be throwing a hundred
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: pitches in a game, and then if you were to
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: go out and hit, like that's kind of rough on
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: your back and your body and stuff. So it's just
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: hard to keep your body healthy and stay focused at
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: the same time on both things.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So what's it like playing for Eric Package And
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: I know he just recently started this whole like Instagram
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: reel and TikTok thing. He seems just like a super
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: fun coach.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, he's awesome.
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: He's he kind of brings that team culture to like
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: the whole team, Like I don't know, he's like super fun,
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: super charismatic. Like you know, sometimes you'll show up in
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: the team team meeting, you never know what he's gonna do,
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: Like he'll like pull some pull some like funny prank
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: or something. I remember last year we were just doing meditation.
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: So usually he's like talking throughout our meditation. Everyone has
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: their eyes closed pregame meditation, saying okay, just you know,
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: imagine yourself, you know, make good pitches. You're seeing good
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: pitches to hit. But that day he just switched it
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: up and and just like I don't even know, he
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: hit something made a really loud noise and yep, this
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: is how you're gonna feel when you know things go sideways.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, when things go sideways in the game.
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: So it's like, yeah, he's keeping it on your toes
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: and you know, keeps it fun.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: And so you guys played against the Savannah Bananas this
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: year or yeah in the Fall in the Fall, Yeah,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: how was How was that experience for you?
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: I didn't play in the game, but just being being
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: on the sidelines, like it was pretty crazy. Like every
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: every two minutes something was happening, because you know they're
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: throwing a pitch, they say every three seconds, so like
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: you know, stuff just happened super quick.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: And then you know Jay Dealer coming out on that horse.
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: I thought that was crazy. It was pretty awesome.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: I saw some video that you know, the Jesse, the
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: main guy of the Bananas, said that they do like
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: fifteen new ideas, new things at every game, and they
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: have one hundred games, so there's fifteen hundred new things
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: that they're coming up with a year. I saw that too,
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: and then just knowing like how much they're doing, it's crazy.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: It's crazy.
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Like I remember talking to I mean, they were
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: telling us like we were going over it was kind
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: of like a rehearsal and there I feel like there
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: was so much to remember, but it wasn't even that
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: much because like their creative team just has so much
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: that they want to implement in the game. So it
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: was pretty cool, like they have so many good ideas
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: that like, you know, you've never even.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: Thought of what was your favorite thing that you did
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: in that game?
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: I mean the dances were pretty cool. I thought that
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: was that was pretty fun. And then like just going
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: around the stadium before the game and high five and
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: all the fans.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: That was awesome.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you guys still do like one of the
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: dances like in between every inning.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: It feels like, yeah, the Hayben.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like a dance that they do in the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Bananas game. And then they still do it now, like
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: all the Clemson.
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: Fans know it.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Oh really, that is so cool.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: I was like the rule of pitching like every three
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: seconds or would that never work in college?
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: I mean I would definitely wouldn't work in college.
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: But it's it's fun to watch because like you never
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: see that, like and then you can just go on
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: the mount and just freestyle whatever you want to do,
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: Like you can do a backflip and throw it behind
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: your back if you want to. Yeah.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: I feel like ever since like the Bananas Kinge, like
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Clemson baseball has been popping off, popping off on like
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: TikTok and social media. Eric backage with the AI videos
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: turning your teammates into Tigers. Like has that impacted you
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: at all? Really?
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: For sure, Like you know, in the fall, social media
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: has like kind of been introduced as a new thing,
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: especially for EB. So he's trying to you know, set
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: up social media to our advantage, so you know, use
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: that on our platforms to know, you know, help us out.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: On and off the field.
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: Like you never know, like you can get like there's
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: so much potential in social media, especially as an athlete
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: in college. So you know, I started posting, you know,
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: just like my workout and videos and stuff like that,
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: and I would get like a good amount of views
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: on that, and then you know, next to you know,
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: a few brands started reaching out. Really so I got
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: like a new like a few new like things from
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: I don't know if you ever.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: Heard of it, Old Specialty.
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: So like that's just like a company we like to
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: use a lot for water bags and like equipment for pictures.
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: So we got like a bunch of equipment that we
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: can use for like our facility and our players, so
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: just stuff like that. It's pretty cool that you don't
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: really get those opportunities like that if you don't really
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: utilize social media.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: And put yourself out there.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what is starting your own brand too?
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: Uh yeah.
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: So in the fall or actually beginning of this year,
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: me and Justin Lagernick he's a lefty pitcher, started the brand.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: Actually this has Cardiac Cats.
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: So dating back to last year, you know, I know,
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: we talked about this the FSU game, pretty crazy series.
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: After that, the headline was Cardiac Cats. And then next thing,
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: you know, we just started coming back like almost every
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: single game.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Oh wow.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: We came to known as like, you know, Cardiac Cats.
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: So I thought that was a cool name that you know,
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: we could bring to grow the baseball fan base and
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: just kind of just grow it, you know, get more
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: attention from the fans. So, you know, just a cool
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: little thing, that cool little idea that we started. So
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: it's going to be launching here in the next couple
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: of weeks.
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: That's so cool.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: I feel like you guys do always like you're like
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: down and everyone's like freaking out and then you just
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: like come back and the game like so exciting. That's
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: like the fun of college baseball too, is that like
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: it can be so up and down. But yeah, you
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: guys are the Cardiac Cats for sure.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's pretty crazy.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Do you ever feel like any pressure being like the
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Friday starter and like starting off the series, like you
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: kind of set the tone for the rest of the series.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: You know, No, I.
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: Wouldn't say I feel any pressure. I mean just being
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: out there consistently every week. It's like just kind of
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: falls part of your routine. So it's like, you know,
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: coach Backets always preaches like one pitch at a time,
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: you know, don't try to focus on like the future
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: of like what could happen. Yeah, but you know, mental
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: game that we've incorporated throughout the fall, I think has
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: prepared us for this season, especially dating back to last year,
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: just like having that new college atmosphere, like not being
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: used to everything, but just like all these little mental
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: cues that you know, Corey Schaeffer has taught us and
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: things that we implement as a team. I think just
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: I mean, I really don't feel much pressure when I'm
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: going out there.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Are there any things like you say to yourself, like
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: before you throw a pitch, or what's going on in
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: your brain?
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: So so like.
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: What I've figured out is like the less you think
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: about the better, the better that you can execute your pitch.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: Gotcha.
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: So just try to keep it as simple as possible.
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: Some cues I think about is like, just throw it
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: right through JJ. You know, our catcher, Just throw it
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: right through him. If I try to, like, you know,
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: place the ball somewhere, then that's when things start to
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: go a little south. But just like, one simple cue
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: I think about is just throw it right through the catcher.
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: So yeah, try to keep it simple.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: I know you have like one of the best change
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: ups in the country. Can you talk about you know,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: like the different pitches you throw and you know kind
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: of just like what you're what's going through your head
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: like when you're selling those.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: So the change up I actually learned when I was
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: I think, yeah, started throwing it freshman year of high school.
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: My pitching coach back home, Hank Woodman, he played professional baseball,
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: and he was like, I really preached me like if
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: you want to like play at the next level and
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: play for a long time, like this is the pitch
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: you need to learn, you need to learn how to
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: throw a change up. So I just kind of stuck
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: with it every day, you know, did all the drills,
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: you know, just stayed consistent with it over time, and
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: then you know a few years later just ended up
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: being one of.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: My best pitches.
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: But as a whole arsenal, like I would say, like
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: fastball sets everything up and then change up, but I
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: also throw a curveball, and then this year just worked
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: on developing a cutter and a two seam and I'll
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: throw a slider in there as well.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: So yeah, that's kind of my arsenal this year.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: It could be so hard to like be a better
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: and like mix it out, like different pitches are coming
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: at you like different speeds, like trying to connect. I
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: feel like that'd be obviously that's what you do, but
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: like super hard.
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it can be difficult, but.
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: You know they get to see they got video on
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: a us too, so like that's what makes a challenge.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: And you know we have video on them, they have
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: video on us.
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: So like you're trying to attack each other like in
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: different ways, but sometimes you know their preparation can can
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: get to YouTube just from what they've seen in the
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: past and like tendencies and stuff like that.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: Can you explain to the non baseball fan what a
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: change up is for those people?
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so a change up is.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: Including me, it's my favorite thing. You will always ask
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: that question, like for the non whatever sports, I'm like,
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: it's you, evel for you, for everyone, it's helpful for everybody.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So change up it basically, so like it looks
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: like a fastball coming out of the hands, but it's
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: it's a lot slower and would drop down an arm
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: side in the zone.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: So like you like a different way with the change up.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: Like yeah, you hold it. It looks something like this.
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: I don't know, I don't have a ball in my hand,
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: but it's like it's like that. Yeah. But yeah, it's
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: supposed to look like a fastball out of the hand,
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: so it's supposed to look like it's going to be
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: you know, straight, just normal four seam fastball, but at
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: the last second, it's going to be diving down an armsidecha.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's gonna be a little bit slower.
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: So like a hitter would be way out in front
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: of a changeup if they if they see it in like,
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: oh fastball, they're gonna be way They're gonna be way
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: out in front on it.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: I see, yeah, gotcha.
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: And what's the difference is going to force seam and
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: a two seam, so.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: A four seam when the ball.
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: I don't I don't have a ball would be easy explained,
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: but basically, like you're gonna see four seams rotating just
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: like normal backsman, So you're gonna see four seams every
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: time he rotates one time, but a two seam and
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: that's that ball is just gonna be straight. And then
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: two seam, you're gonna see two seams and it's just
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: gonna look like railroad tracks. And it's going to move
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: like armside. So it's going to be coming at you
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: straight in the last month, the last second, it's going
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: to move armside. That's crazy. So just it moves a
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: little bit more than than a fastball, like a normal
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: Forcene fastball.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, would you say like the atmosphere has been
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: a DKs this year. I feel like with the new
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: beer garden that's opened up, Like the atmosphere has been
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: crazy just watching as a fan, and they're so fun
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: to go to. Like do you notice that does that
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: like impact you at all? Like does that want to
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: make you play better? Like what's how do you feel?
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's definitely awesome to Like I know, last week
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: we played Georgia and that was the most fans I've
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: ever seen.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: It in mid week?
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was That was a fun game to go to,
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah for sure.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: And I would say like the new addition to like
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: the bullpen being moved out into left field, that definitely
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: brings a lot more fans on that side of the stadium.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: Uh yeah, I mean it's fun the point of that
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: bullpen right there, well, like the fan.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: Right there, and it just makes it.
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: It makes it harder for the other team because I mean,
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: you know, the fans are to be talking to them
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: while they're trying to throw, trying to get ready for
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: the game. So that's just kind of one of those
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: things that's a home field advantage for us.
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: Have you ever experienced that on the road, like fans
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: just calling you right on top of you.
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: I'm trying to think we haven't really gone much places
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: where the fans have been like right there at the bullpen,
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: but I do remember a few times last year. But
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: I wouldn't say it would be as bad as you know,
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: what I've seen on the other side of our field.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: I think it's so funny when some of their pictures
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: will like overthrow it and like the ball will kind
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: of be like rolling out.
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: Of the home play almost like the fans are like, yeah,
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: that's pretty funny.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: That's crazy. What would you say, like, has been your
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: favorite moment at DKs this year so far?
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: South Carolina?
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: South Carolina?
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: No, no, wait no, but I'm trying to think, play
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: a lot of games.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: You do play a lot of games.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: I mean.
• 29:12
  Speaker 5: South Carolina was the most intense series, Like that was
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: the most fans we've had, like all year, I would say,
• 29:20
  Speaker 5: besides like the Georgia game, but it was more for
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: like it was a three game series. So you know,
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: we played there at their place. We played at their
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: place and it was packed and they were like, you know,
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: heckling us. And then they came here and it was
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: like it was pretty crazy. And you know, I'm trying
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: to think of a moment.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Are you like you stuck your tongue out?
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that that was I got me pretty fired up.
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: I mean, you know, just a little just a little
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: fun out on the field. I mean, you know, he
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: played for Nolan Rocky played for US last year.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: And you know.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Form a former teammate Banter.
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah, a little former teammate banter. I mean, you know,
• 30:04
  Speaker 5: just stuck his stuck my tongue. I'm just trying to
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: be a little you know, just a little fun and games,
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: just a little fun, just a little fun games is
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: all it is.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: So I remember that game softball played earlier that day,
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: and then we had a gymnastics meet, and then I
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: came like right after the gymnastics meet because I was like,
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: I can't miss this game, and I still have like
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: my glitter and stuff like everything. It was so bad,
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: but it was like the most fun I've had at
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: a baseball game. Like I had my Dippin' dots in hand,
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: I had a hot dog, like I was enjoying life.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: And then y'all just did amazing too. So it was
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: so fun to watch.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: That's awesome.
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: What would you say your favorite baseball stadium sacks?
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: I've got to say the dippin' dots. I will go there.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, I love the baseball, but I do majority
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: go for the dipping.
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: You got to say hot dog too, I mean yeah,
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: Like if it's a heark's the only place you can.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if it's like a hot day and like I'm hungry,
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: like I'll get it. I'll get a hot dog.
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: I guess always getting Diffin' dots.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: But I always get the Dippin' dots no matter the w.
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: The Dippin' dots has been the ice cream of the
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: future for like thirty years. So good.
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: It's so good.
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: It's a little expensive, though, I will have to.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: Say, yeah with inflation. It's Have you ever like felt
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: like an out of body experience where you've wanted to
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: like go sit and like where you wanted to go,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: like sit and be a fan and like see what
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: the atmosphere is like during a game or like yeah.
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: I mean I always think about like what it's like
• 31:30
  Speaker 5: to be out there, but yeah, this year, we just
• 31:32
  Speaker 5: started in the fourth inning, like when we stand up
• 31:36
  Speaker 5: for our veterans, Yeah, we go out into the crowd,
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: so like I kind of get to see like what
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: the atmosphere is out there when I'm just you know,
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: shaking veterans' hands, right, yeah, you know, So that's that's
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: pretty cool to see. And that's kind of like you
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: don't really know how much is going on up there,
• 31:52
  Speaker 5: like how much.
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 31:55
  Speaker 5: It's just like a different perspective because you know, the
• 31:58
  Speaker 5: the fans are so far away from the bump, so
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: like it's pretty cool. To see what it's like during
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: the game.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, that's something I've noticed too, when you guys
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: like all run up in the stands and like shake
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: the veteran's hands and stuff like that, Like that is
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: so cool, Like there are so many that come and
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: support y'all and for you to give back in that way,
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: Like I think that's so cool. And Eric backet like
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: implementing that.
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: Like, yeah, that was that was his idea and kind
• 32:22
  Speaker 5: of inspired by the Bananas because you know, the Bananas
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: would go in the crowd. You know, you've seen some
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: of their games, they'll go in the crowd like high
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: five fans. But then he had the that really cool
• 32:34
  Speaker 5: idea of you know, how about we go out in
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: the stands and shake our veterans hands. So that's that's
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: pretty cool, especially being you know, a former military.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: School, right, Yeah, it's really cool. So why was like
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: the deciding factor for Clemson?
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: You know, I came up here for a summer camp.
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: I was trying to get recruited, so I went to
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: a few camps. Wasn't really getting looked that much my
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: sophomore year. So I came up here and I thought
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: the campus was you know, just really awesome, like such
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: a beautiful campus. You know, everything is pretty close together,
• 33:14
  Speaker 5: and you know, to talk to the strength coach Rick
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: Franz Blow, you know, really good guy, love his philosophy,
• 33:22
  Speaker 5: and just.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: Fell in love with the school.
• 33:26
  Speaker 5: Compared to the other schools I was visiting, I thought
• 33:28
  Speaker 5: this one was like pretty much this school. Like as
• 33:32
  Speaker 5: soon as I was here, I was like, dang, I
• 33:33
  Speaker 5: want to go here, right, So you know, I went
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: to the summer camp, went to the summer camp here,
• 33:38
  Speaker 5: and then ended up committing like a week or two later.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: It's crazy cool. I feel like I always see y
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: all in like the weight room or like formerly the
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: shred shed, and like Rick would be like like yelling
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: at you guys or getting getting on you, and I'm like,
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: oh my gosh.
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Rick loves to get on us. He's trying to
• 33:57
  Speaker 5: trying to get us to omaha. So I mean I
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: get it. Yeah, Rick's a good guys.
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: He's pretty funny.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: Who would you say is like someone to look out
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: for on your team? Like who's coming up?
• 34:11
  Speaker 5: Who's coming up? Like would you say, okay, uh? I
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: would say Dane Moeller. I mean he was supposed to
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: be you know impact player this year. I would say
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: I supposed to be a starting pitcher, but it's just
• 34:26
  Speaker 5: unfortunate that he towards u c Lso yeah, you know,
• 34:29
  Speaker 5: it's gonna be a long process recovery. Not going to
• 34:32
  Speaker 5: come back this season, but when he does come back,
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: I think he'll be like the next he'll be like
• 34:38
  Speaker 5: another starter that will be a huge impact for our team.
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: If you have a day no baseball allowed, what are
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: you doing?
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so Sunday, I actually didn't have We didn't have
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: any baseball pitch backage tolls to get off and you know,
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: a couple of us, you know, my roommates we out golfing.
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: So I love the golf on my free time. Definitely.
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: They just got into like golf, I mean in just Canada,
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: but have been really getting into it lately. You know,
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: I've just been having a lot of off days, so
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: I've just been trying to get out there.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: As much as i can.
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: What's your favorite club?
• 35:16
  Speaker 5: I like hitting the driver, like vombing it. Okay, just
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: swing as hard as I can.
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: I feel like that's what baseball players.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I feel like there could be a correlation
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: between baseball and golf.
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: Very easy one Yeah, a lot of baseball players golf
• 35:30
  Speaker 5: because I mean, you know, swing in the power.
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: I am terrible with my driver more of an iron early,
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: terrible in general, and I'm terrible at golf.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: Whenever I golf, I missed the ball. So I'm learning though.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: You guys have a documentary on Fox Carolina No finish
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: line coming out. Can you kind of explain how that
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: has been that process of like filming and what it's
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: about and why viewers should watch.
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so dating back to.
• 36:01
  Speaker 5: Actually two years ago, you know, they started filming some
• 36:05
  Speaker 5: of our games, you know, like dating back to like
• 36:08
  Speaker 5: the ACC Championship from Team one twenty six kind of
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: just started that foundation of you know, Eric Beckie like
• 36:14
  Speaker 5: coming into Clemson and what he's what he's grown.
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: Here as a baseball program.
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: So just kind of that whole journey that he's been
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: that he's you know, taken us on and all the
• 36:25
  Speaker 5: ups and downs that we've been through between mostly last
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: season Team one twenty seven and kind.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: Of how all that played out.
• 36:34
  Speaker 5: So you know, it's going to feature all the behind
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: the scenes moments from you know, last night aired the
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: Florida State and the South Carolina series. So just kind
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: of seeing the behind the scenes of what's really going
• 36:47
  Speaker 5: on behind you know, Team one twenty seven awesome.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're like a really big inspiration just for like
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of younger players.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: What does that mean to you?
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it means a lot because when I
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: was when I was younger, I always was, you know,
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: looking up to always looking up to players, like trying
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: to see like their mechanics and like always trying to
• 37:11
  Speaker 5: get better, asking them questions. So I just want to
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: give back because I know what their situation is and
• 37:17
  Speaker 5: they're trying to come and play at the next level.
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: So I just want to help them out as much
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: as I can, just because.
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: I know if I were them and their shoes, I
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: would really appreciate that.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what advice would you give, like your younger self.
• 37:33
  Speaker 5: Advice i'd give my younger self. I would say, you know,
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: just have more fun. You know, sometimes I took it
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: too seriously out there, you know, feeling the pressure of
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: trying to get committed or trying to get drafted. Just
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: you know, you're going to do your work throughout the
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: week and then once game day comes, it's a game, like,
• 37:58
  Speaker 5: you know, have fun. Yeah, I've done all the preparation.
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: Don't worry about any of that other technical stuff for sure.
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: Are there any other hobbies that you have other than school?
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: You're a management major, correct, yes? After baseball? What does
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: life look like for you?
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: I see myself, you know, starting my own business, and
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: you know, I have a really strong passion for baseball,
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: So I would like to have a business that you know,
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: I can train, I can train players, you know, help
• 38:30
  Speaker 5: them develop and you know, reach their dreams. So I
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: train at a place like that growing up, and I
• 38:35
  Speaker 5: thought it would be really cool to be the guy
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: helping out those kids, you know, get to the next level.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: You have an insane off season training? What does that
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: look like for you?
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: So you know, I'm in the off season, You're not
• 38:50
  Speaker 5: going to be competing as much, so more that stress
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: on my body, I would say, goes to training and
• 38:57
  Speaker 5: you know, just getting in there with our strength strength
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: coach Rick Flanswoll, you know, just getting our you know,
• 39:04
  Speaker 5: mobility right, our strength right, you know, just simple stuff,
• 39:09
  Speaker 5: but you know, just trying to hit that consistently and
• 39:13
  Speaker 5: that kind of just stays consistent. It's just a little
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: bit more strength to training and a little bit more
• 39:17
  Speaker 5: power training than in season, so you know, just a
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: little bit more volume, I would say.
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: And then you know, during like winter break, I would say,
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: I would go to a.
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: Florida Baseball armory, so they're huge on the water bag stuff.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you've seen, like if.
• 39:36
  Speaker 5: You ever see me warm up, I'm always using those
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: green water bags. Those always make me get the right
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: feels I get through my mechanics, so you know, if
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: something's off, I can always go back to those water
• 39:47
  Speaker 5: bags and you know, get my mechanics going back right.
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: But huge into water bags. I love what they do,
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: you know, kind of keep you off balanced with the
• 39:55
  Speaker 5: water slashing around in the bags. So definitely like one
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: of the biggest things I like to implement into my
• 40:02
  Speaker 5: training off season and in season. But off season I
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: would say I'd throw like I'd throw two bullpens a week,
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: depending on the time of the off season. I would
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: you know, implement more pulldowns, trying to increase that velocity,
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: so you know, running guns, so just running and throwing
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: it as hard as they can, trying to improve that velocity.
• 40:25
  Speaker 5: So when I get in season, you know, that can
• 40:28
  Speaker 5: tick up a little bit and I can hold that
• 40:30
  Speaker 5: higher velocity throughout the long season.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: I feel like you have to be like super disciplined
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: to do that. Much like strength and drills and mobility
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: and stuff like during the off season. Yeah, you're not
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: even playing, Like what keeps you motivated to do that?
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I just love I just love working out.
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: I just love baseball, and I know that it's gonna
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: be worth it when I'm in those I'm in the
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: games come springtime.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: So like.
• 40:58
  Speaker 5: My biggest thing is I don't want to any regrets.
• 41:00
  Speaker 5: So that's kind of my motivation for, you know, being out.
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: There every day.
• 41:04
  Speaker 5: And I always feel like if I miss, you know,
• 41:07
  Speaker 5: one little thing, you know, those little things that you
• 41:10
  Speaker 5: add up to, you know, one little thing every day
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: that can be end up being you know, days, weeks
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: of training that you may never get back. So I
• 41:19
  Speaker 5: just want to be able to go into a season
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: knowing that I've prepared as much as I can and
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: I don't have any regrets.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: So you're a pitcher, so your training must look a
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: lot different from the people who are in the infield
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: and outfield or hit. Like what's the big and major
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: differences between those?
• 41:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So the main difference is all pitchers do is throw,
• 41:38
  Speaker 5: so every throw counts.
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: Every throw is important.
• 41:42
  Speaker 5: We don't have to worry about anything else but throwing,
• 41:44
  Speaker 5: like hitters have to worry about hitting, so they're going
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: to be focused on more hitting mechanics. So as a pitcher,
• 41:49
  Speaker 5: everything you do and you're going to be focused on
• 41:54
  Speaker 5: your mechanics right, and how you're throwing the ball, and
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: you know what your back leg is doing when you're
• 41:59
  Speaker 5: you know, coming down into dropping, Like all these little
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: things add up and could you know, just give you
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: that one little tike in velocity or one little tike
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: and movement. So just learning and trying to improve certain
• 42:14
  Speaker 5: aspects of your mechanics is really important.
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: So like you know, warming up every day.
• 42:20
  Speaker 5: You know you're throwing the plyo balls like weighted balls,
• 42:23
  Speaker 5: and you're hitting certain drills. May look like you're throwing
• 42:25
  Speaker 5: a little funky, but you know these drills are going
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: to help clean up certain things your mechanics. So most
• 42:29
  Speaker 5: of the training is on how you throw, and then
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: the other half of the training is how you're.
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: Making your pitches move.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: Gotcha, So you.
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: Know you're getting on track man, which is a device
• 42:44
  Speaker 5: we use to you know, see spin spin access velocity,
• 42:48
  Speaker 5: using those using data like that to help you, you know,
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: kind of shape your different pitches the way you want
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: them to shape.
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: I feel like if you were to like freeze frame
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: like a whole pitch, like in a picture, like each
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: picture is going to be like important to how the
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: ball throws and stuff like that. Like it's very meticulous.
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
• 43:13
  Speaker 5: Like for example, last year, in my arm when I
• 43:17
  Speaker 5: get to front foot strike, it'd be down here, So
• 43:20
  Speaker 5: like that put a lot of stress on my shoulder.
• 43:22
  Speaker 5: Later in the season, I had a little bit of
• 43:23
  Speaker 5: shoulder problems, So just raising it up here put a
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: little bit less stress. And that's when like our data
• 43:29
  Speaker 5: team comes in, Maven, Like they help us with stuff
• 43:32
  Speaker 5: like that, and you give us the right drills so
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: that all we have to do is focus on the
• 43:36
  Speaker 5: drills to you know, try to clean those things up.
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah. You always a ton of data analytics, a lot
• 43:41
  Speaker 4: of software. Has that been new to your game or
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: have you been doing that for a while.
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: I would say it's more new to my game just
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: because I haven't had much access to it in high school.
• 43:51
  Speaker 5: But I mean we would use the new force mound
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: and track Man whenever I trained at my facility back home,
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: but that was only like once or twice a year.
• 43:59
  Speaker 5: So just being able to have that access to track
• 44:02
  Speaker 5: man like every bullpen if we wanted to, or the
• 44:05
  Speaker 5: super slow mo cameras.
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: Is really helpful, so.
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: It can capture every single movement and give you immediate feedback.
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: So we have a new system called Maven. They're based
• 44:17
  Speaker 5: out of Atlanta, and it's actually sixteen camera angles just
• 44:23
  Speaker 5: surrounding the mound, so they give you like a full skeleton,
• 44:27
  Speaker 5: like three hundred and sixty degree view of everything in
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: your mechanics and they can go in and analyze what
• 44:34
  Speaker 5: exactly are your deficiencies and then they give you a
• 44:37
  Speaker 5: little plan of drills that can like help you improve
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: that through the cameras.
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: Do you have like a favorite like post throw routine
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: or like type of recovery.
• 44:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So that's another thing that's different from position players
• 44:53
  Speaker 5: is like, you know, just taking care of your arm
• 44:55
  Speaker 5: a little bit more just because you're throwing at such
• 44:58
  Speaker 5: a higher volume. Sell like post throw routine, you know,
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: just rolling out your shoulder, rolling out your back scap,
• 45:06
  Speaker 5: wrapping up the arm, just increasing blood flow with like
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: the little bands that we use and then just strengthening
• 45:12
  Speaker 5: everything at the end.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: What do you think about like your team teammate Lucas,
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: who throws and how he throws.
• 45:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, he's like submarine pittures are very unique.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: Can you explain to the non can you explain to
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: me what that means?
• 45:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so pitchers can throw at different arm angles and
• 45:32
  Speaker 5: it makes it different.
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: It makes it difficult for the hitter to pick up.
• 45:36
  Speaker 5: So some guys will throw from up here and then
• 45:39
  Speaker 5: like I threw from.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: Up here, so like from above your head.
• 45:43
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so they'll take me out if I you know,
• 45:45
  Speaker 5: I'll come out of the game. And then if you
• 45:46
  Speaker 5: put someone like Lucas in the game, he's been throwing
• 45:50
  Speaker 5: from down here. So that's like a hard adjustment for
• 45:52
  Speaker 5: the batter to make because they just saw someone throwing
• 45:54
  Speaker 5: from up there, and then they don't see that as
• 45:57
  Speaker 5: much just because throwing submarine is pretty rare. Yeah, so
• 46:00
  Speaker 5: the movement on the ball is going to be different
• 46:02
  Speaker 5: because when you're thrown from down here, the ball is
• 46:04
  Speaker 5: going to spin different. Yeah, and then you know, he
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: just has a ton of movement on his pitches in general.
• 46:09
  Speaker 5: So it's just shows why he's like one of the
• 46:12
  Speaker 5: best closers or relievers in the country.
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: It's crazy.
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: That's crazy.
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: I think I saw him like throwing a different way
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: and I was like, what the heck is Yeah, it's.
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: Called it's called the submarine picture.
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, that's awesome.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: That's cool that you guys have like a lot of
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: different types of pictures. So I feel like that makes
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: like your bullpen specifically just like super unique. And obviously
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: it's helping you guys, you know, in general a season.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: Aiden, Where can people find you on social media? Twitter, Instagram, TikTok.
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: Most active on Instagram, I would.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: Say, okay, and what's your Instagram?
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: Aiden Underscore Kanaki.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Awesome, awesome, Well, thank you for coming on.
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: Add was awesome.
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
• 46:53
  Speaker 5: Of course it was awesome.