Latest / Foul Territory / Aaron Hicks talks Yanks/Orioles contrast, Volpe issues, Judge’s rise

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Aaron Hicks talks Yanks/Orioles contrast, Volpe issues, Judge’s rise · Foul Territory

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: We have Aaron Hicks with us at the pro retired
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: MLB longtime player Aaron Hicks with us and former Aircraft's
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: teammate too.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's cool. And also I'm sorry, Pratts, you got
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: anything else for the intro here?
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: I mean nothing, I mean yeah, like that's what you said. Yeah,
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: like we had a great time. We had a great
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: time being teammates.
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: Unbelievable, Hicksy, No, we did, we did. I definitely enjoyed
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: it for sure. It's always a pleasure to have you
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: as a teammate. Okay, that's fair, that's better.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: I was retired life it's.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: Good, you know. I guess uh, you know, be daddy
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: most of the time, play golf and just enjoy been
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: doing a little bit of traveling. So just enjoy it, man,
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: just enjoying it.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: What was life like for you after being with the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Yanks for a while, So you had the nice run
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: with Baltimore and then twenty twenty four a little time
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: with the Angels, So what was it like post Yanks?
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Because you were with the Yanks for a while.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: It was definitely different, especially going to Baltimore, which which
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: was amazing. I absolutely enjoyed it, but going going going
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: from an organization that you're with for so long and
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: then trying to get used to another organization. It's definitely
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: it definitely takes time. And Kratzy definitely knows that it
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: takes a while to get used to your new teammates.
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: It takes a while to get used to the coaching style.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: And but I had fun. I definitely had a blast,
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: and uh we were able to make that run into
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: the playoffs, and you know, it was fun.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: What's the biggest different What was the biggest difference from
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: the Yanks to the Orioles. Now, I played for a
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: lot of teams. I didn't play for the Orioles. Both teams,
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: both teams were trying to we're trying to win, and
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: you guys were kind of at similar spots.
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: What was the different biggest difference for you, biggest difference
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: for me? I don't know. I guess, I guess. For me,
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: I have to say playing time. You know, as soon
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: as I got to Baltimore, I really went straight into
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: the lineup playing center field and was was was playing
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: every single day and it kind of got me into
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: that groove. I felt like, right before I stopped playing
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: with the Yanks, I was starting to get into a
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: groove and then was able to keep it going with
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: Baltimore and we ended up going to the playoffs, which
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: was dope, especially be with that team. Uh, with such
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: young players and they're they're fun to be around for sure.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: What before we start, oh no, sorry, before we talk
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: about the Orioles or the Yankees, like not playing a lot.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: I always have a theory like you took, you put
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: a superstar on the bench and play them like two
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: out of every five days, three out of every five days,
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: the numbers go down. Can you talk about that and
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: how that is? Like you're an everyday guy, You're a
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: switch hitter, so you're just built to play every single day.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: There ain't no you always have a platoon advantage and
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: when you sit on the bench, how hard is that
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: to just personally just for you put up numbers like
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: you normally do in your career.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: It's definitely tough. I mean you go from you know,
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: playing every single day to where the switch are you
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: kind of just get into a groove. Both swings are
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: most likely going to be prepared and ready for every
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: day at bat, and then once you kind of stop,
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: I mean, especially for for a switch hitter. It kind
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: of slows you down a little bit. You're having to
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: depend on machines and other types of resources to kind
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: of get you prepped and ready for a game. But
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: it kind of doesn't it doesn't simulate the same you know,
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: you're you're often you feel like you're first at bat,
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: is you're behind the curve, and it kind of takes
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: you a while to get into the groove of that game.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: And then you know, if you're not playing the next day,
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: now have to redo the process over again. So it's
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: definitely tough, you know, being a guy that played every
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: single day and then going into uh, you know two
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: every you know, five or seven days is definitely slows
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: down the process for sure.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Have you been keeping up at all with MLB this season?
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Are you one of those guys where were like, hey,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: I was all in for such a long time. I'm
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: taking a break from even paying attention.
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, No, I don't really watch baseball games, I think
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: I'm uh, I pretty much just watched the Golf Channel
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: majority of the time, Golf Channel new TV shows. You know.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: Now I'm starting to get into you know, Spidery and
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: his amazing friends, you know, just the the my my
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: TV shows now are definitely a little bit uh different
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: than how they were when I played, for sure.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Who are you keeping in touch with from your playing days?
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: From playing day? Yeah? I text Judge every now and
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: then see how he's doing. I mean, I pretty much
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: just keep up with guys that I played with for
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: a long time. I still talked to D D C
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: C of course, and man I I kind of keep
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: up with a lot of different guys. Just see what
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: they're doing, you know, see how they're doing. Just you know,
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: try and be a good friend.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Are you surprised at how ridiculous Judge continues to be
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: in the bag?
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: You saw? Well?
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Did you see because you were with him when he
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: was a rookie?
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, I see this. No, I definitely definitely yeah,
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: because he he's always trying to evolve you. You obviously
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: if you really watch it, kind of how his swing
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: has developed and changed over time. First, when he came in,
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: he was a big power guy when it hit the
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: ball really far. Then he hit fifty home runs like
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: it was nothing. And then he changed his swing. He
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: evolved into a better hitter. You started hitting ball the
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: opposite field, which makes you as a variety extremely dangerous hitter.
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: You know, if you're able to hit you know inside
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: uh enter part of the fastball out to right field.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: That that's pretty much covering everything. So definitely he's evolving
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: as a player. I think I think what he's doing
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: now is insane and you know he can definitely do
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: it for sure. He's that good.
• 6:32
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• 7:33
  Speaker 3: Yet if you're not, if you're not watching a lot
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: of Yankee stuff, I'm sure you're not living under a rock.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: So you've seen that Volpi. Volpi's had a little bit
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: of struggles. Now this is a gold glove as a
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: rookie in twenty three. This is a This is a
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: guy that the team has like the team, the organization
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: has really backed through his struggles. You had some struggles
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: and I saw I heard Cashman back you in twenty twenty.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: At the end, you didn't you didn't play as much.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: But I remember in twenty twenty we had a team
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: meeting and Cashman said, Aaron Hicks is an elite level player.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: I expect Aaron Hicks to get back to an elite
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: level player. How important is it that a team backs you?
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: But also how important or how tough is it when
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: that backing all of a sudden, whether it's injury, whether
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: it's poor play, all of a sudden, now you're on
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: the back burner. How hard or how great is it
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: when you're being backed like that? And then how hard
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: is it when they do take you out of the lineup?
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: And then it's like, whoa, how am I ever going
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: to get back? I'm paddling up against stream here?
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: Mm hmm. I mean when you get backed, it definitely
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: helps you out, for sure. I feel like when you're
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: getting back to all the heat is now on you
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: know whoever gave it to you so, and you're kind
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: of playing more a little bit more free at that point.
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: But as soon as you start kind of getting on
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: the back end of that and now it's no longer there,
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: you have to do it internally. There may be things
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: that you might need to change within your approach. There's
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: things you might have to think about that you never
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: you never thought about thinking before. I think when it
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: comes down to hitting, it's all about confidence and lose.
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: As soon as you lose your confidence, it's pretty much
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: a wrap. So you know, like you know that, you
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: know it's it's hard. Hitting is hard, and I think
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: when it comes to you know, you as a person,
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: you kind of have to look back and try to
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: find things that are fun about the game of baseball,
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: because that you know, while you're slumping, it's not fun,
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: you know, especially especially when playing in New York. You know,
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: a lot of you, oh, go ahead, Scottie.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Hold on, just one more on this. So a lot
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: of Yankee fans are like, all right, when they're going
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: through a tough time, they want Boonie to not just
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: go after humps. They want him to, you know, go
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: after players essentially in the media, right like, well, that's
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: one example that we've seen, like he should be more
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: critic Do you really think that would make any difference
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: for a player if he's like, yeah, he's got to
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: pick it up.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: The only guy that we point to, you know, often
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: is someone like Pat Murphy who's managing the Brewers right now,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: and he'll kind of do a tongue in cheek and say, hey,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting this guy for a day or two because
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: he needs to blow. It's not like they don't sit
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: tick guys. I mean Volpi's going through that actually literally
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: right now, he's being benched for a couple of days.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: But do you think that would actually make any sort
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: of difference.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: No, No, not at all. I think most of most
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: of the stuff should be done internally. You know, if
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: if you are a manager of a team, you have
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: to control your team. So I think a lot of
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: it is probably being done internally right now. I'm sure
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: Volpi's working extremely hard right now to kind of get going.
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: But no, all that stuff is kind of done internally,
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: which is which I believe is how it should be.
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: You know, we don't you don't need you know, other
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: people's business in the news. All right, what's a what's
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: a non teammate we never played with that you admired
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: most from Afar, Like you got on the field and
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: you were like, hey, good guy. Uh. It's hard not
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: to say Oltani. It's hard not to say Oltani. Atani
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: is an incredible player, you know, I mean obviously doing
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: it from both sides, so it's it's it's hard to
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: not say, oh, Tani for sure.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Any good old Tony stories.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: I know it wasn't you know, but you did you
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: have any stories about, you know, facing him and seeing
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: something where you were like, I just have never seen
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: something like that before.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: I mean, i'd probably say I took VP with him,
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: I think in twenty twenty one out in Arizona, and
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: I remember I like pulled the I like pulled the
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: home run during VP, and I was, you know, I
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: was kind of feeling myself about it. And then he
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: went APO just a little bit further, and I was like,
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: this is just different, you know what I mean? Like
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: the there's there, you know, there's players, right, you have
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: players that are really good baseball players. You have guys
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: that are you know, elite, Then you got the guys
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: that are just freaks. And then so yeah, and he's
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: one of those guys that it seems like whatever he
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: wants to do with a baseball, he can do it.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: All.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Right, let's spend the last couple of minutes here talking
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: about the pro. So, first off, where do you see
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: yourself in a tournament like this? Do you know the
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: former player scene in terms of like who's really good?
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: Uh?
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: In the golf world, you were always talked about it
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: as one of those guys, right, one of the what
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: crafts probably three guys in baseball during his playing career
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: where would be like.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a hit.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: It was McNeil, Tyler Clipford when right, and now he's
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: been retired a few years.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: Ian Happ, Yeah, see I always had Hicksy ahead of
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: of Happer.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: I didn't say he's I'm just saying, yeah, I was
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: a ranking we just got here.
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: But no, guys, they're definitely good at golfers. Sure, yeah,
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: I've definitely heard that Ian happits good. H Small, He's
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: obviously good. You know, we we have a lot of
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: We have a lot of good golfers in the game
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: of baseball, that's for sure. But I think I think
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: this term is gonna be good.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: I think there's a lot of really good golfers in
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: different sports, and I think we're I think they're all here,
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: which makes this tournament exciting.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Smolt said, yeah, you're one of the guys to watch.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: How did you, you know, pick up such a good
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: golf game, Like when did you, you know, fall in
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: love with playing and even figure out like, oh, I'm
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: really good at.
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: I mean, I actually grew up playing golf before baseball.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: So I started right around when I was five years old,
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: and then stopped when I was about twelve, then picked
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: up baseball, so I played and competed when I was younger,
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: and and then didn't pick it up again until I
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: turned pro. So yeah, I mean I started a young age,
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: so the foundation was always there, and you know now
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: I'm just building on it now.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: To let people know. You don't carry left handed and
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: right handed clubs.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: No bag no.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: But but if you had a hit left handed on
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: the course, uh huh, what would you How many strokes
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: would you give your hand?
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: I've already I've already done this, Cratzy, I've already done
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: it all right. So first round left handed, I shot
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: ninety seven and I'm extremely excited about it. Broke a hundred. Yeah,
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: I broke a hundred there, you know not It definitely
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: wasn't as smooth. I definitely had a lot of thoughts
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: going in my head, but it was fun. It was
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: fun to do, for sure.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Ask most guys around here if they want to just
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: switch sides and see how that goes, they won't break
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: a hundred right at all. So it doesn't convert necessarily. Well,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: you got to practice it too, right.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: I think a lot of it comes down to shore
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: game is the is the hardest part about it, you know,
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: being trying to put on the complete opposite side is
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: so different, and that's where you gain a lot of
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: strokes putting and chipping, So hitting it out it is
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: not that bad, but trying to chip and play is
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: definitely the hardest part about it.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: All right, I got one more because you said you
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: started playing golf at five, which you know at least
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: we're somewhat similar age. It wasn't the most common thing
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: where it's like five, all right, first thing, I'm doing
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: golf and then you stopped, you said, at twelve. So
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: what was the progression there of playing that and then
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: moving on to baseball like you said.
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: I mean, I kinda I kind of just wanted I
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: think I've never been I was never with a team,
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: so you know, when you're playing golf, you're pretty much
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: a lone majority of the time. And you know, all
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: my friends we were playing baseball at this time, so I,
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: you know, told my dad that I wanted to play
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: baseball and just started playing.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Well and great to see you, good luck in the tournament,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: and crats want to say bye to your buddy.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: I don't want to stay by it because when off camera,
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: off camera, he was kind of like, oh, hey, what's up.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: You're locked in.
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: I get it, You're you're locked in. I'm getting ready
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: to go.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: Man, you're my pickin, you're my pick to win. I
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: better come through for the boys.
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: I appreciate it. Man, I'll try hard for you