Latest / Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast / Fan favorite Bo Hart reflects on his career and post-MLB life

Transcript

Fan favorite Bo Hart reflects on his career and post-MLB life · 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: I'm Jim Hayes. Our guest this week. Was a fan
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: favorite when he broke into Big League baseball with the Cardinals,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and he remains a fan favorite today. He is bow
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Hard bo. How are you doing, my friend.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: I'm doing great, Jim. It's good to see you. The
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: other day.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Sunshine is hot in Saint Louis. It's like I remember,
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: but really good to see you.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I ran into you at the game. You were
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: there with your kids as a civilian, and I thought
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: to myself, boy, I age badly. This guy doesn't age
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: at all. You look like you could still play, and
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: you're close to fifty.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Well, I assure you I probably could not play right now,
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: but I am trying to stay young, and my kids
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: keep me young for sure.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: All right, I want to talk about your career. As
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I mentioned, Cardinal fans never forget right. You still hold
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a place in their heart. I mean, honestly, you bring
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: up Bowhart was like Baux Heart. So let's see. You
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: played college baseball at Gonzaga thirty third round pick in
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the nineteen ninety nine draft. If I'm not mistaken by
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the Cardinals. First thing, what was your signing bonus as
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: a thirty third round pick.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: I was lucky I got anything, but yeah, it was
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: one thousand dollars. And I remember signing that minor league
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: contract on the hotel bar at the Double Tree in
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: West Palm Beach when I showed up for mini camp.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: It's pretty great. Did you expect when you were at
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Gonzaga that you would be a major leaguer? Was that
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: something you had, you know in your mind that you
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: wanted to chase that drink?
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Well, I didn't expect it at all. It's still was
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: a dream when I was in college. But you know,
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: I had the mindset of if I can just continue
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: to get better every year and put some really good
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: coaches in front of me and around me, that I
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: would continue to develop. And I think that's was key
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: for me. I did not peak when I was in
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: high school or college. I was never the best player
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: on my team maybe one year, and I just continued
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: to work hard and not take anything for granted.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: And you know I was.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: I was so happy to just get drafted, to have
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: an opportunity to play professional baseball, and you know, I
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: continue to get better that's that's really what I, you know,
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: attribute it to is is not being satisfied with a
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: season and wanting to improve and improve and putting the
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: work in to do that.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Well, you did that, and then June nineteenth, two thousand
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: and three, you make your major league debut. What do
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: you remember about that.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Day, man? I remember a lot. Actually, it is burned
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: into my brain, Jim. I remember arriving in Milwaukee after
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: flying all night long and we were in Tacoma playing
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Triple A and got pulled out of the middle of
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: a game and was very surprised with the news. But
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: you know, getting to Milwaukee and walking into the clubhouse
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: and seeing my jersey hanging there. Again, I had never
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: been to a spring training, a big league spring training before,
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: so I didn't really know, you know, many of the
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: guys on the team. I knew of them, of course,
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: but instinctively I dropped my bags and went into Tony's
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: office and had a really great conversation, and he gave
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: me the option to not play that day because I
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: had flown all night, and I said.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: No, no, you put me in there. I'm ready to go.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: That's pretty great. What was it like playing for for Tony,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: especially as a as a young man who didn't really
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: know the lay of the land.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: Very true, I had a lot to learn, you know
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: how he, I don't know, kind of build his relationship
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: with players and his game management. But again, baseball is baseball.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: So all I did to I did what I was
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: what I was asked to do, and be ready to
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: play every day, and and and just kind of play
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: the game right and play hard, and and and and
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: things worked out that those first couple of months. And
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: I did learn a lot from the players around me,
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: all the veterans around me. But you know, I think
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: it was several days before Tony and I really had
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: a sit down conversation. He kind of just the way
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: things were going. He just kind of put me in
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: the lineup and and and and we just ran with it.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Boy, you talk about running with it like there's usually
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: adjustment period for guys to get their first taste a
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: big league pitching. And it was like you were shot
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: out of a cannon for sixty your first ten games,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: which was a major league record. I mean crazy. What
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: was it like for you to get off to such
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: a fast start work in a way. You became the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: talk of baseball for a while.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: You know, it's I really can't.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: I can't put my finger on any one or five
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: things that created that that kind of lightning in a bottle.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: It was just it was the excitement, It was my
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: heightened awareness. It was me being new to the league
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: and nobody really knowing. So I was getting challenged a lot.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: And and you know, I was really just trying to
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: play baseball the best way that I could, and to
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: be aggressive at the plate and to you know, just
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: be in the mix with all the action and hitting
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: lead offer as long as I did. You know, I was,
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: I was ready to go first pitch of the game,
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: and and uh, it was.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: It was something that I will never forget that time.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: I never forget and I get I get asked about it,
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: and it's really fun to relive and to my kids
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: are now eight and twelve, So my twelve year old
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: gets it. My eight year old is just starting to
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: get it. And so I get to share again the
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: one of the most important times of my life with
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: with my my young son and and tell them stories
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: and and and and relive it as as often as
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: I can.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Do you look at videos with them? Do you show
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: them to see. Yeah, this is what I did. I mean,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: did you do you show the videos and stuff to
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: the youngsters.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: I do not to obviously to my family and to
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: my kids, and and you know, it's it's really fun
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: for them to go, oh wow, and and it's it's
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: it's amazing. I do interact with a lot of kids
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: here because I do give private lessons, and I do
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: a lot of clinics and camps and things here in
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: the suburbs of Memphis. And we had a neighbor kid,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: she plays softball, and she was here last night and
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: she's like, I think I.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Just realized that you played like on a real team,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: coach bo.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: I think my dad finally got it through to me
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: that he used to play for the Redbirds and the Cardinals,
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: and I just thought, you like given hitting lessons to kids.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: And so it's those little moments are fun to go
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: through with kids. And I'm having a great time, you know,
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: with my boys and the coaching that I'm doing and
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: sharing some stories of when I used to play.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to ask you about that in a
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: bit about what you're doing now, but I want to
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: take you back to that red hot start where you
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: were the toast of baseball. Damn Patrick was talking about
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: you on The Damn Patrick Show. He took a liking
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: to you. What was it like being I'm going to
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: use the word the phenom for that stretch where pretty
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: much everyone was talking about Bullhart.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: You know, I really I don't know if I realized
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: how how what I was doing. I'll just be honest, right,
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: I mean, obviously I'm getting hits. I didn't know that
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: I had broken a record till like months later. I
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: didn't I wasn't keeping track of stats. Obviously I knew
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: what my stats were, but I was just I was
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: thriving off of the energy that was around me. I
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: mean I had Albert and Jim and Scott and Mike
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: Matheeni and and Edgar and all these guys were just
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: around me, and and Woody Williams and Matt Morris and Carpenter,
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: all these guys were I was. I was literally just
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: watching and feeding off of the energy from our team,
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: and hopefully they fed off of me too. I really
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: feel that I was a catalyst for a while on
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: that team. And I know we didn't make the playoffs
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: that year, but but I felt like I.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Was contributing, and.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: I started to feel like I really was part of
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: the Saint Louis Cardinals. It took several weeks, but I
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: was just riding that wave and and and trying to
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: trying to continue as much success as I could to
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: help the team. And you know, lots of interviews, right,
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: lots of lots of questions and things. But I didn't
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: really realize the magnitude until after the season, when I
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: got to reflect a little bit and go, wow, what
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: what did I just What was I just a part of?
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: And what did I just do?
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: And here we are talking about it, you know, twenty
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: twenty three years later.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Just people still bring a bullheart all the time. You
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: mentioned some of your teammates, like that is the most
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: OG team of all OG teams, right, you have Edmunds,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: pool Holes, Mattini, Woody Williams. What was their interaction like
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: with you, the young guy that has taken baseball by storm,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: making it look making it look too easy.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: They made me feel like I was part of the team,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: like I had been part of the team for a
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: long time. They weren't like, you know, shaking me and
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: going do you realize what you're doing? They were like
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: just pat me on the back and saying, hey, great job.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: If there was a moment of like a teaching moment
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: you know from jose O Kendo, or from one of
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: a veteran you know, from Orlando Palmero or Kerry Robinson
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: or whoever it was. I soaked it in and and
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: I wasn't too big for the game. I wasn't I
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: wasn't cocky. I was I was humble and I was
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: and I was just enjoying something that was been. Like
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: I said, I just I tried to soak it all
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: in and and continue it as long as I could.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Obviously it wasn't gonna last the whole season, but it it.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: I have so many great memories of of just brief
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: little conversations of whether it was with Albert, you know,
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: talking about a picture specifically. I mean, it wasn't like
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: they're going, hey, bo, you tell me what you see now.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: It was like, I can't explain this, but Albert was
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: in his third I think third year. I think it
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: was his third year, and again he was the go
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: to for everybody for information about pictures or you know,
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: situations and things like that. Everybody when he spoke, everybody listened,
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: and I made sure I listened as much as I could.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: You know, I love Jim Edmonds like I love him personally,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: but I could just see him going, who's this new guy?
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Why does he get to hit so good? What was
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: it like playing with Jim Edmonds, who, by the way,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: I'll say this on this podcast, should be in the
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Baseball Hall of Fame? What was it like playing with Jimmy?
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: I totally agree with you on that for sure. Jim.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: You know, Jim was Jim Emmons was.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: He and Scott were the two veterans that really kind
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: of took me under their wing. And Jim would take
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: me out to dinner or lunch and we'd talk about
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: life outside of baseball, and we talk about, you know,
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: baseball when we were.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: At the at the field, and and he was really.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: He just he treated me with respect, and I think
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: he wanted to be a little bit of a mentor
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: for me. He went out of his way sometimes to
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: do that. And and I will never forget. And I
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: was just texting him on Sunday, I was saying, Hey,
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: you don't have you know what happened to be here
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: in Saint Louis are he lives you know, outside Nashville.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: But he's like, no, I'm not. And I said, you know,
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: next time I'm in Nashville, will connect. And so I
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: still stay in touch with him. I don't stay in
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: touch with Scott. But Scott was He helped me in in
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: other ways. He helped me with some some fielding you know,
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: uh techniques that you know at third base. When I
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: started to play a little bit of third the next
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: spring training, I was having some some difficulties over there
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: making some transitions from middle infield to third. So he
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: would take me and do some extra work there. But
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: he was also a great mentor for me. And but
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: you know, like I said, all those veterans just kind
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: of they rallied and they and they gave me their
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: two cents when they felt like I needed it or
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: or they had something to say. And I listened to
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: one hundred percent of the time.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: That's good to hear. Take care of a little business here.
• 13:22
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• 14:32
  Speaker 1: You finished two thousand and three, that in two seventy seven,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: then it was kind of you know, you you made
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: another run with the Cardinals again. At some point you
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: became a free agent, and then you kind of bounced
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: around a little bit. Tell me about those years trying
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: to chase that magic again.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Cooh Man, that was that was tough.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: I'll be honest, you know, I uh, I thought I
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: had made the team at four. I really did. Didn't
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: work out that way. They made some changes. I don't
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: I don't blame the Cardinals for making those changes based
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: on my spring training performance. I felt like I had earned.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: They gave me every opportunity, let's just say that during
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: spring training to get as much work in so that
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: I could make the team. But I was the last
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: guy cut and then just think less than a week
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: later they did call me up for you know, three weeks.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: I got twelve at bats and and then I got
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: sent down and never saw the big leagues again, and
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: until the end of the year. At the end of
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: the season, I didn't get called up for September at
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: all to play. But at the end of the year
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: I got to go on the playoff run for the
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: full World Series, which was you know, I'll never forget that.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Very thankful for that opportunity. But you know that I
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: was in the Cardinal organization, uh oh, four and five,
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: and then I think it was I think I was
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: six as well, and you know, I I was I
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: was waiting.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: I was playing well.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: I was still hitting around three hundred those years in
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: Triple A, wanting to get.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: That call again. I think I was a little.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: Disappointed, uh for parts of those seasons again, going to
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: spring training, a big league spring training in two thousand
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: and five, and and and being cut with a couple
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: of weeks to go. So I got opportunities, but I
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: feel like they, uh, they kind of had moved on
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: from from that, uh, from that really awesome summer and
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: and that I wasn't able obviously to duplicate.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: That, but but uh, but.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I ended up getting released and signed with with
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: the Rockies, and uh, and the Rockies they gave me
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: an opportunity to to make a Triple A team, which
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: I did and it was kind of a platoon guy.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: I felt like the Rockies were a good organization for
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: me because I maybe was able to to maybe be
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: on a younger team that was maybe rebuilding a little bit.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: But I never got an opportunity to get to the
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: big leagues at all. And uh they released me midway
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: through the season, and then that's when I came back
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: to Memphis and finished out the season in O six.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: And I was in.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: Triple A when the Cardinals won the World Series. It
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: was amazing all right, I was. I was hoping to
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: get back. I lived in Memphis at the time, and
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: so it made sense to come here and start with
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: with the Cardinals, and they gave me an opportunity to
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: come back, and and then you know, they did not
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: re sign me after the end of that year, which
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: was disappointing, but you know, probably more of a business
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: decision because I was an expensive, you know, kind of
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: free agent at that point for a triple A roster,
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: and then I signed an independent team and trying to
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: grind it out a little bit. I didn't want to
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: stop playing, so I signed with an independent team, and
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: then a month after month into that season, I got
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: signed by the Cubs, and I was like, hey, here
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: we go. Okay, cool, they traded me or are not
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: traded me, but they signed me out of that independent
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: league and I was there three weeks and I got traded.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: Like I was playing every position. I played first base
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: their one series. I was trying to do everything they
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: asked me to do, and I got traded to the Orioles.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: And then I was like, okay for probably a box
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: of bats and a bag of balls. Who knows what
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: it was at that point that was seven and so,
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: but then again you kind of refresh.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: You're like, Okay, this team wants me, let's go.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: I was in Norfolk, Virginia, and I said, here's a
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: new start again.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: So I'm playing second base.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: I finally got to play every day, which wasn't happening
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: in Des Moines, Iowa with the Iowa Cubs. So now
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: I'm playing every day and I'm like, okay. First ten
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: games were a little offensively struggling, but I was making
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: diving plays left and right, and I kept getting in
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: the lineup. I was like, and then my hitting started
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: to come around. I was like, this is great. I'm
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: in another organization that might need somebody who has a
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: little bit of experience but not super expensive, and maybe
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: I would get an opportunity to go to the big
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: leagues with the Orioles.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: And I was like, this is great. So I keep playing.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: And then.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: We're playing in Columbus, Ohio, and just a freak play
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: at first base, a collision with the pitcher who was
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: covering on a ball that I had hit to the
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: first baseman, and I tore three ligaments in my ankle
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: and my season was over. And so that was really
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: tough had an injury in a while, so I went
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: through rehab and got and healed up, and they didn't
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: re sign me, which I felt like I was on
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: my way to getting an invite to spring training the
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: next year and really continuing the career. And here I
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: am at thirty years old now and past my prime,
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: all right, but you know, and then and then I
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: signed with another independent team and I played maybe a
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: month and a half two months they ended up releasing me.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: I was hitting under three hundred and and whatever I
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: signed for, signed with another team that was in that
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: league to finish out the season, and and and the
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: cool part of that was is, uh, I was on
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: a little bit, I don't know, a better, more veteran team.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: Ken Harvey was on that team. If you all remember
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: Ken Harvey from the Kansas City Royals, he was an
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: American League He was an American League All Star and
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: and and and the vibe on that team was just
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: way better, including Ken, and because I remember him when
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: I was playing, like we played the Royals. I think
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: in the first couple of weeks I was up and man,
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: he and I had some great conversations.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: At first base of like, man, what what what's going
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: on with you? Bo? You know, this is awesome.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: So I got so I finished this with him and
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: a bunch of other players, and we end up winning
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: a championship.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: And it was it was a good way to go out.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: They were they were entertaining bringing me back. And I
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: was thirty two at that point, and.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: My wife and I had been married for four years now,
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: and I was still trying to grind it out. And
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: I said, you know what this is, this is the
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: time to end it. Ten years in professional baseball, no one,
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: No one signed me out of this league, which was
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: the goal is to get re signed into organized baseball.
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: And and it was time and it was okay. I
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: I remember my last at bat, and you know it
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: was I was having fun again, which was really good.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: It didn't seem like a grind. I was having fun
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: and we're winning and and uh it was it was
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: a good time to go out, and and that was it.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: You know, it's a great ending of the story because
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: you live right outside Memphis where people know you from
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: your playing days. I know. I mean, you're still in
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: some circles a hero there because everyone knows Beau Heart.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: But you got a family nice wife, two sons, and
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: a job. I think it's next tech solutions, right, So
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: that's your main thing. And you still do baseball because
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: we notice you have a hitting cage behind you. There
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: is Beauhart Baseball. So tell me about that, because all
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: these things you learned along the way, and I was
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: sharing with young people, Tell me about Beauhart baseball.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: Baseball has been around for officially since June of last year.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: I have been getting hit, giving hitting lessons to kids,
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: and obviously coaching my kids and and their teams for
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: the last five or seven years or whatever, right as
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: long as Cruise has been playing. And so it started
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: organically by putting a cage in our backyard for my boys,
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: and then it evolved into, hey, you know, do you
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: want to give lessons or what kind of where do
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: you want this to go? And and so I started
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: giving lessons to kids that were on Cruises team, and
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: then it kind of kind of started to get around
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: a little bit. And again, we're playing in rec league, right,
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: This is you know, twenty five games a season in
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: the spring, and then we go do something else. And
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: so it organically grew for a couple of years, and
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: I just kept getting more and more requests and it
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: started to turn into something that was a nice little
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: kind of give back to the community and a side hustle,
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: which was great. And my wife, about two years into it,
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: was like, we need to build something in the backyard.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: I said, I don't want to do that. That's that's
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: that's a huge.
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: Lift, and let's just keep doing this outdoor cage and
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: we'll get through the rain and the cold and all
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: that stuff. And it was a pretty good setup with
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: lights and turf and everything, but it was open air, right,
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: it was under some trees, and it wasn't the best.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: But but last year we decided to to to bite
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: the bullet and build this cage that's behind me. It's
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: it's eight hundred square feet and it is has changed everything,
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: to be honest, kind of created a brand of Bohar
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: Baseball and.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: The batting cage if you guys can see here. But
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: it is definitely something that I can be very proud of.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: And I don't know how the.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: Video is, but but it is. It has changed everything.
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: I do probably twenty five to thirty lessons a week,
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: and I'm doing camps and clinics and my boys get
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: to hit in here whenever they want to. And I
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: think I've seen over about one hundred and twenty five
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: different kids this season that are coming in once once
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: a week or every other week. I have softball players
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: now that are coming through that go to the local
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: competitive leagues in middle school and into high school. And
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: I'm just having a blast because I have a lot
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: of energy, and I have a lot of baseball knowledge
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: about hitting and fielding and gameplay that I get to
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: pass on to these kids who are between the ages
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: of seven and fourteen.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: It's so awes all right. As we get sent to Rephis,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I'm just curious a lot to talk about launchangle, and
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: no one says back up the middle anymore. It's funny
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: because we had David x sign on a couple of
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: weeks ago, who coaches like, I think, the seventeen U
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: national team, and he said, we don't take the guys
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: that hit the most homers necessarily. We're looking for guys
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: who can play the game and who can put the
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: ball in play and that kind of So what does
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: coach bau Hart, what are you telling guys are you
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: launchang because there's only three outfielders and we know that
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: there's plenty of grass out there. What are some of
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: the coaching tips from Beauhart.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm glad you said that, because David and I
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: have talked about fundamentals of hitting and coaching a few
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: times over the last couple of months. And I'll be honest,
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: I am. I haven't said launch angle in my batting cage.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: Other than to say that, I'll never say launch angle.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: It is all about the bat path to the ball
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: and hitting the ball up the middle.
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: That is.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: That is the number one thing.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: I think it's one of the analytics tell us right
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: now it's like seventy five percent of the pitches that
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: people are getting, and this is at the big league level,
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: but it starts young that are middle or away, and
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: so we have to start with hitting the ball at
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: the middle and hitting the other way. I started that
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: with my kids years ago. And who did I learn
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: that from some of the drills? Well, Albert Poohles, of
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: course he was. He was helping me with some drills
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: of what his routine was in spring trainings and during
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: the season, and I've adapted.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Those a little bit.
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: Obviously when I played, I use those those drills too,
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: But I've adapted some of those to help these kids
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: understand that you have to be able to have better
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: bat path and extension through the ball.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: You're gonna pull it when you need to, but you
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: have to stay in the middle.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: You have to stay away. And I'm having a lot
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: of success. I love to watch kids develop. After they've
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: had a handful of lessons, the parents are like, oh
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: my gosh, let me send you this video of what
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: they did in the game. They first time they've ever
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: hit a ball into the outfield, or first time they've
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: ever hit a home run, or whatever it might be.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: Each week during the season, I'm getting videos from parents
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: and I love watching kids develop.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: I love teaching.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: And it couldnot be it could not be better right
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: now with Bohart Baseballs. As you know, I think it's
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: June was last year when I launched it, and the
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: cage went up in October of last year finally, and
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: so here we are in the first year of this cage,
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: and they couldn't be better.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Couldn't be happier for you, not only that you have
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: a great family and now you're doing bo Heart Baseball
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: because the facility looks state of the art, and you
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: have a big smile on your face and you, sir,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: are one of the good guys. But we appreciate the visit.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: It was great scene at the game. Great catching up
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: with you now.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Well, thanks for asking. Jim.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: Always always fun to talk to you and you just
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: let me know. We'll keep relieving these moments and talking
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: talking baseball.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: I love doing it.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: I love it except for the fact that you don't
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: age and I do. That's gonna do it for this
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: edition of Cardinal Territory. We'll see you next time for
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: the next episode. Hopefully that one won't stock