Latest / Foul Territory / Tyler Clippard talks hand licking, Last Nats dance, WBC pitcher ideas

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Tyler Clippard talks hand licking, Last Nats dance, WBC pitcher ideas · Foul Territory

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Former Big League pitcher Tyler Clifford with us on FT
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Do you remember how many innings you locked in the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: bigs or in a range?
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Man, I want to say it's over nine hundred something,
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: wrong along those lines. I know my appearances. I think
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: I had eight hundred and seven appearances because as relievers,
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: you know, that's what we take pride in, is our
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: appearances more so than the innings.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: But I know, I know accumulated quite a bit.
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: That's why I'm asking.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: So what was the key to longevity for you? In
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: a world right now where it's so tough to keep arms.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: On the field.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: I didn't throw hard enough to get hurt, I think
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: was the biggest thing. No, I just had a good routine.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: I think routine in baseball is huge, and I was
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: very structured and you know, the timing of my off
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: season throwing program, off season workouts, and just really stuck
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: to that routine for almost, you know, twenty years, and
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: my body knew what to expect, when to expect it.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: And it's the formula seems to work because I stayed
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: pretty healthy. So, uh, it was a fun ride. I
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: was glad to, you know, as a competitor you never
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: want to be hurt. You want to be out there competing,
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: And so that was like a huge driving force and
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: why I put all the work in that I did
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: because I didn't want to be hurt. I wanted to
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: be out there with the boys and try to strike
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: people out.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: You know, you think, you think.
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: They have a shot at teaching a kid that hasn't
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: been in the big leagues that yet, because everybody just
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: wants their shot. They just want to touch the big leagues.
• 1:26
  Speaker 5: And so they're going to throw the heavy ball as
• 1:28
  Speaker 5: hard as they can and they're like, uh, well, I
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: don't want to play fifteen years in the big Oh wait, no,
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: everybody wants to play fifteen years in the big leagues.
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: But they're taught throw it as hard as you can.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: The the new you know way of the world in
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: professional baseball, especially like the entry point for all the
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: amateurs is they feel like, what's going to get them drafted,
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: what's going to get them to the big leagues the
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: quickest is to throw the hardest. And so it's a
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: tough thing to teach because you know, these kids are stubborn,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: they're they're they're competitive, just like I was, and they
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: want to they want to maximize their stuff, but at
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: the same time, they might like you to your point,
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: it might be a detriment to the longevity.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Of their career. So, uh, could I teach them to
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: do that?
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I can try. I don't know if they would listen though.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned the routine part, right, and a lot
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of guys you talk to will say, hey, I figured
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: out a routine. You know during my time in the
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: big leagues, did you pitch around guys that didn't have one,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: whether they were young guys or just guys around where
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: you'd just be like, hey, you need to like kind
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: of harness things to make sure that you're taking care
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: of yourself.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, oh of course I'm kidding.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: But what did they do?
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, you definitely see you know, you're you're
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: in different you know, I was on ten different teams,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: you know, I've been in you know, a hundred different
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: clubhouses with different dynamics, and guys have certain things going
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: on that that will help them that at least they
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: think that it will, or worth work, ethic or you know,
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: circumstances with their home life and all these all these
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: things that go into that. But yeah, certainly if there was,
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: if there was somebody with a ton of talent that
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: I thought was a little bit behind the eight ball
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: as far as their you know, their preparation, or they
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: were just you know, dumb things that we were gonna
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: hurt them, you know, maybe hurt their arm or not
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: progress them on the mound.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I would step in and try and try to talk
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: to them.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: And and that was really the most enjoyable part of
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: the longevity of my career. And then and towards the
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: back end, being a veteran guy having a voice to
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: to be able to kind of have those conversations with
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: some of the younger players, and you know, maybe I
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: made a difference, maybe I didn't, but it you know,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: it was it was been, you know, it felt you know,
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: I got a lot of a lot out of that
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: for myself, just trying to be that guy. So it
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: was enjoyable and and I hope I helped some guys
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: along the way.
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: All right, part of your journey. I don't remember you
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: as a national first. I remember you as a Trenton
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: thunder great. We used to play against each other in
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: double A. You were a starter at that point. One
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: of the things that even back then, and maybe I
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: just put it into my memory of something back then.
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: You would always lick your hand like I'm not like
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: some guys would be. Like if watching a video, just
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: like a little little on the fingertip, you would hammer.
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: I mean you would go full tongue way out whole hand.
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: Was that something you knew you were doing in the
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: moment or was it like something after the inning and
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: you watch the video you're like, holy crap, no wonder
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: my mouth.
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: Is so dry. Yeah.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: Well I did have a mouth dryness occur at times
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: because of the extreme licking of my hand. But I
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: was always a moisture guy because I had real dry hands,
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: so I needed that moisture to create a little tack.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: Where you know, a lot of guys use the rosin
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: bag because they're they're sweating a lot, and the moisture
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: kind of drips down on their hand and the rosin
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: kind of creates tack in that way. I never had
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: that issue. I wasn't really a high like, I didn't
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: sweat a lot, so I always needed the moisture. So yeah,
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: I was constantly trying to find moisture in my tongue
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: and doing.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: It that way.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: So it looked funny and all my teammates called me
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: out on it all the time, but I didn't care.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: I needed I need a good grip on the baseball.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: So that's just kind of how it all went down.
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: You were looking, you were looking for moisture in your throat.
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: That's how that's.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: I was sticking it. Yeah, you were, you were, you were.
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: Way back there. Did you ever get into the spider
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: tack because you were still around you were using it?
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: Never did it? Did it ever work when you tried it?
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: In a sense of.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Mine, So I certainly, yeah, I certainly I would mess
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: with it in like throwing sessions in bullpens and stuff.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: But it was because I was a change up guy,
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: so having that tacky sensation on my hand with a
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: change up, I mean, I would spike this thing straight
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: into the dirt.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: So I needed that pitch. So for me, it was
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: it was zero.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: Benefit to to try to put tack on my hand,
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: and I I couldn't spin the baseball anyway, so it
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: wasn't something I really needed. And that was pretty much
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: the pitch that it was probably gonna help with the most,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: and I just you know, would sacrifice my breaking ball
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: to keep the good change up and just roll rolled
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: like that for my whole career.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Were you glad when they kind of cracked down on it,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: just like, hey, it's not helping me anyway, and this
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: could this could keep going down a weird direction.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I guess I was in a way, you know,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: Sometimes I felt like certain climates dictated there needed to
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: be something, because like if you pitch on a dry
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: day in Colorado or Arizona and I you know, you
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: ran into it sometimes maybe in Cincinnati, and then and
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: then the inconsistencies.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Of the way the ball was rubbed up.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, you could get a baseball in your hand
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: and it just felt like I had a coating of
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: baby powder all over it, and it just was super
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: slick and almost dangerous to the point where like I
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: don't know where the ball's going. Man, this thing, you know,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: fly out of my hand because it's so slippery. So
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: from that standpoint, I wasn't I was like, I get it,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: I get why guys need it, But yeah, it was
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: starting to get a little out of hand, and you
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: were definitely starting to see, you know, some some ticks
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: up and guys of stuff that you know, like two
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: years prior, like you didn't have that pitch man like
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: you know.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: So, but I never got that benefit.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: So I was like, you know, kind of even the
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: playing field for me because I never needed it. But
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: I don't know, And I also think it's good because
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: it might put a little more torque on guy's elbow
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: because they'd be they're able to rip breaking balls harder
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: and maybe more torque on the elbow. I don't know,
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: but like, at least in my mind, that makes sense.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: So I think overall it's it's beneficial that it's not
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: around anymore. But you know, as a pitcher, you messed
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: with it, but I never I never never could figure
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: it out.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Well, like you mentioned, you were a changeup guy. So
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: have you seen, for example, Tommy Cainley last year?
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, forty one straight change ups or something crazy?
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: What did you think? And do you think that if
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: you were pitching now, a team would have been like, hey,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: let's up that by like double that's some guys do
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: that now.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: The relievers are they're just like, yes, hey, I saw
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: it when I was on the Astros. In twenty seventeen,
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: Lance McCullers came in relief for us in a playoff game,
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: and he threw like thirty six straight sliders or something or.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: What else his breaker, his breaking ball.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: And then I saw Kinley do it, and I'm just
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: I don't get I could never do it. Like I
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: was always a guy who wanted to mix and match
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: and and I you know, I'm watching Kaylee do this.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I'm like, dude, just mix in a heater. You know,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: it has to have to be a strike. Just mix
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: it in.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: And you know, it worked, which is the most most
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: amazing thing. Like every time I see a guy do it,
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: I'm like, how is this working? You know, because I
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: was always in my mind like, you know, throw the
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: two of the same pitch and then go to something
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: else and play that chess game.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: And these guys are just like, screw it, I'm throwing it.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: So uh it was.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: It's fun to watch if he can execute it, but
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: I never understood it.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, KP, this is your first arena club experience. We're
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: going to open a slab pack together. So first off,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: we're gonna buy one of those twenty five dollars slab
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: packs and we get to see what is.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: In the pack there.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: It is the Grail, which is the best card in
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: the pack and worth the most. There are some other
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: cards that we're chasing, and you can see the entire
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: lineup so that you know what you're in the running for.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: There's the Yamamoto signed card. Now let's open up our
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: pack and see how we do we have ourselves a
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: really cool graphic and then a show Heyo Tani fifty
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: to fifty card from last year. What do you want
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: to do? Should we sell it right back to them
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: for sixteen or should.
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: We keep it?
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: You should give it to me, I'll keep.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Good answer, fine, I will give it to you. Since
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: the Blue Jays didn't Ghetto Tani, you can get this
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: fifty to fifty card instead and use the code foul
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: foul to get yourself twenty percent off your first slab
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: pack or card purchase. Yes, you get to keep that
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: card if you want it. They send it to you
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: foul at Arena club dot com slash foul.
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: Favorite baseball moment.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: For me it was the gold medal with the WBC
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: team in twenty seventeen. I think was just being around
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: those guys, having a series of three weeks to be
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: on the same team with it was basically an all
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: star team, and you know, we traveled to three different
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: locations and it felt like a unit, and we won
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: the gold and just the whole all encompasing experience of
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: winning that gold medal was probably the highlight of the
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: things that I accomplished.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: How do they get more American starters to get involved, because, yeah,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: you guys won.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I think it's I know, I think I
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: think it's a you really got to plan it out,
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: and I think I think the d RO is doing
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: a good job of trying to get his starting staff
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: set so they can kind of build up their off
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: season programs, maybe a little sooner than they might they
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: might you know, during like a regular regular season. But
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: that's the biggest thing because you have to plan it.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: As a player, you have to work up to that
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: workload quicker and that that is the biggest going to
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: be the biggest thing to prevent injury and have guys
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: on their on their game sooner.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: So it's just you just got to plan it out
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: really good, because I think guys want to do it.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's such a it's such a cool thing
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: to do.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: Uh, but you got to really plan it out properly
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: for guys to prepare the correct way.
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: All right, at thirty seven years old, you put you
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: got forty innings in Rochester, New York. Going back to
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: a obviously you had you know, you had a couple
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: of rehab assignments before. But forty innings at thirty seven
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: years old in the bushes? Is that because you love
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: the game where you were hanging on because you put
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: up numbers a year before. Did you feel like you
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: were kind of pushed out of the game for no
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: reason other than you just didn't throw hard anymore.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean a little bit of that.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: I think you know, once you once you put so
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: much work into an off season and you feel like,
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: you know, my arm was feeling good, I was still
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: getting out, still able to compete and do it. If
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: I didn't think I couldn't get out, then I would
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: have just shut it down. But I think it was
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: a product of knowing how much work I put in
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: and if I had to spend some time in Triple
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: A to get back to the big leagues, and I
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: really wanted to end my career in Washington, So that
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: was like kind of part of it.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Also, So I wanted.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: To get back to the big leagues at least to
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: say I finished my big league career as Washington National
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: So all those things were at play, and it was
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: a fun experience.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: It was tough at times.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: There was times where I called my wife and I'm like,
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: just tell me, just just just say the word and
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: I'll come home. Like one of those kind of things.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: Is it. It grinds on you. But I'm glad I
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: stuck it out that last year because to get back
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: to be in the big leagues with the Nationals run
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: out of that tunnel for a few more times, with
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: them playing my walk out music and having the fans
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: interact with me one more time.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: It was it was totally worth it. But yeah, I
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: was that year in Rochester.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: It was the first implementation of the pitchclock, and I
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: was a guy who was real methodical, real slow. Had
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: six pitches at that time, so I'm sitting there shaking
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: four times, getting pitchclock violations in triple A and like
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: it was a circus for me to figure out the pitchclock.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: So once the season was all said and done, I
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: was happy to hang them up because I'm like.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: I don't want to deal with this pitchclock thing anymore.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: But it was it was.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: It was a fun experience to have.
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: And then you're coming up to the bigs where you
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: didn't have to deal with it.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: No, it was it was in the wait. Actually, you're right,
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: I don't because that's right, they didn't have the pitchclock
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: in the big leagues.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what year was this, twenty twenty two, right,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: So twenty came.
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that last year where it's like cool, do this
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: up until this point.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: And I had to completely completely change my pitching style
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: and triple A and then you know, figured it out,
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: had some bumps in the road figuring it out, and
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: then got the big leagues.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, no moren pitchclock.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: Yes, right, and then twenty three a tier. Yeah, good time.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: He was great timing.
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a great time, all right. So then
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: let's finish with this.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: So now, I mean you are a marked man at
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: a place like this, at the pro rivals open, Like
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: when we talk to John Smult, who's the commissioner, for example,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: I'll use that that name he goes. Tyler Clippard's on
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: my hot list of guys to follow that could win
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: this thing.
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: So what does it feel like to be.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: One of the top former pro athletes in North American
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: sports to now be confident in a tournament like this.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I'm so thankful for John because I
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: think we share the love of golf. Like I'm a
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: golf psychopath, Like I know everything about the PGA Tour.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: I watch it religiously. It's the only thing I really
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: watch at home.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: I'll throw on a baseball game every now and then,
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: but golf is really like the forefront of my life
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: now and it keeps that competitive side fed for me
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: that I know I need moving forward for the rest
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: of my life, because that's not going anywhere. You don't change.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: You want to you want to compete, and golf facilitates
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: that for me. And you know, I'm still playing and
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: uh you know, local local am stuff and and trying
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: to do US mid am stuff and and so like
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: I'm really I really take it seriously. But getting into
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: this environment around you know, all the some of the
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: best golfers in the world sports here, Yeah, they're they're
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: in for it because I don't know if a lot
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: of these guys are playing the caliber golf that I am.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: But listen, I got to back.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: It up, so you know, but that's what this event's
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: all about, you know, talking some some smack and backing
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: it up.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: So you want that.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna do both of those things.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: There's definitely some guys are gonna come here that are
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: fresh off the field baseball. I feel like the community
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: they know who's good and all of that, but maybe
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: from one of the other three sports where they're like, oh,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm pretty good and then they show up to
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: an event like this and they're like, I'm okay.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Tournament.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Tournament golf is a little different animal. So yeah, it'll
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: be interesting to see how guys hold up. And when
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: you get a pencil in your hand, it's, uh, it's
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: it's a totally different world. And uh, putting everything out
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: making those two three footers that you just rake away
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: on on your normal Saturday is you can't do that here.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: So uh, that's that's really the separator. And especially in
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: a three day event like we have here. So I
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: like my chances.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, so last one top former MLB player now golfer,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: but you can't say so. Besides, you're like, who who
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: is the top competition these days of former players, former
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: you know that you've played with or that you know
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: people have mentioned.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the Aaron hicks Is is up there.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: He's We played together in New York for about a
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: year and we would play a lot of golf together
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: and he always always mentioned him when I talk about
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: people that I've played with in my career, because Hicksy
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: is by far the hits the ball further than anybody
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: I've ever played with, along with a good short game
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: and can putt.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: And you know, you you're.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: Around guys that can hit the ball far a lot
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: because I mean these athletes are strong and fast, but
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: Hicksy's got the full package. So uh, he's he's going
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: to be one to look out for for sure.
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: He played when he was five years old.
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, me and him had a junior golf background too,
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: So me and him, you know, did some a J
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: g A stuff growing up. So he's got the competitive
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: golf background like I do. So that helps a lot
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: to see.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: To me, that's the difference the short game, right where
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: some of these guys are big, strong, you can hit
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the ball consistency.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's just finding the way to get
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: the ball in the hole and not make double bogies exactly.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, hey, good luck, thank you, great to have
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: you on, good to see in person, Thanks for having me,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: appreciate it, and we'll be right back.