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Kolten Wong on Cardinal Territory · Foul Territory

0:07
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Cardinal Territory.
0:12
Speaker 1: This week a treat a special guest, two time gold
0:16
Speaker 1: Glover eight years with the Cardinals. We welcome Colton Long
0:20
Speaker 1: into Cardinal Territory. Colton, how you doing, my man?
0:24
Speaker 2: I'm doing good, man. How you doing?
0:25
Speaker 3: Jim doing great?
0:27
Speaker 4: Uh?
0:28
Speaker 1: My first question is folks should know this. You are
0:33
Speaker 1: at Cardinals camp. So what's it like being back at camp,
0:38
Speaker 1: back with the boys.
0:40
Speaker 2: Oh? Man, it's amazing, you know, obviously, just kind of
0:42
Speaker 2: coming back and being in Jupiter.
0:44
Speaker 5: This is first time been in Jupiter since twenty twenty, realistically,
0:48
Speaker 5: like I've never been back since, so, you know, a
0:51
Speaker 5: lot of cool memories obviously, I you know, I turned
0:53
Speaker 5: into a man, you know, being with the Cardinals and whatnot.
0:56
Speaker 5: And you know, Jupiter is always a special place. So
0:58
Speaker 5: coming out of here special for me. And driving back
1:01
Speaker 5: and and you know, pulling into the clubhouse and seeing
1:04
Speaker 5: the new clubhouse that they have. Man, it's it's beautiful.
1:06
Speaker 2: And these kids are They're lucky, man, They're they're very lucky.
1:10
Speaker 1: How did this all come about? How did it happen?
1:13
Speaker 1: Where Coln Wong was gonna come back and talk to
1:16
Speaker 1: the younger guys.
1:17
Speaker 5: Yeah, honestly, you know, I took the I took a
1:20
Speaker 5: year off after I retired just to kind of be dad.
1:24
Speaker 2: You know.
1:24
Speaker 5: I wanted to really lock in and learn my children
1:26
Speaker 5: and and you know, figure out you know, who they are.
1:29
Speaker 2: You know.
1:30
Speaker 5: That's one of the biggest things that you know, was
1:32
Speaker 5: in my decision for retiring was you know, the first time.
1:35
Speaker 5: First thing that really hit me was my oldest son.
1:38
Speaker 5: I saw his first steps on my phone, you know,
1:41
Speaker 5: and uh, that killed me, man, that really did. So
1:43
Speaker 5: that was a big thing for me to step away.
1:45
Speaker 5: And you know, so I got to really enjoy my
1:47
Speaker 5: my my oldest and then my youngest was starting to
1:50
Speaker 5: do his you know steps and whatnots. I was there
1:52
Speaker 5: for that and uh, you know, so the decision was
1:55
Speaker 5: was correct, and it was it was a great time.
1:58
Speaker 1: You know, people don't realize too professional athletes like yourself
2:02
Speaker 1: make a lot of money, okay, but that doesn't mean
2:05
Speaker 1: it's a perfect existence.
2:07
Speaker 3: There's a sacrifice. You're not there.
2:09
Speaker 1: I know, you got two boys and and you mess
2:11
Speaker 1: a lot. And I know, no matter how great you are,
2:14
Speaker 1: how well you're doing at the plate, or how well
2:17
Speaker 1: the team is doing.
2:18
Speaker 3: There's a bit of a sacrifice there.
2:20
Speaker 5: Right, absolutely, absolutely, And that was the biggest thing too,
2:23
Speaker 5: is like I started to realize towards the end of
2:26
Speaker 5: my career that when I had my kids, like before
2:29
Speaker 5: I was, I was, I was a feuder rat, like
2:31
Speaker 5: I just wanted to be at the field early I
2:33
Speaker 5: was probably you know I was right after YACHTI every
2:35
Speaker 5: single day of showing up just wanted to get better,
2:37
Speaker 5: wanted to continue to push. And then towards galenside my kids,
2:41
Speaker 5: I just wanted to stay home, you know, I wanted
2:43
Speaker 5: to be there.
2:44
Speaker 2: I wanted to hold them, I wanted to play with them.
2:45
Speaker 5: And it just my priorities just changed three sixty and
2:49
Speaker 5: then you know, that's that's a beautiful thing about having kids, right,
2:52
Speaker 5: It just it takes that selfishness out of you as
2:54
Speaker 5: a person and it puts all the spotlight on that
2:57
Speaker 5: beautiful thing that you created.
2:59
Speaker 2: So you know, definitely blessed with that for sure.
3:02
Speaker 1: So for people that don't remember, you were a first
3:07
Speaker 1: round pick with high expectations for the Cardinals, and the
3:11
Speaker 1: same can be said for JJ Weatherhold And I've seen
3:14
Speaker 1: the pictures from Jupiler, You've been talking to tim working with
3:17
Speaker 1: him a little bit. Tell me the things that you're
3:20
Speaker 1: you're talking to JJ about.
3:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, just trying to be an ear for him to
3:25
Speaker 5: be honest with you. Man, the guy is special. The
3:27
Speaker 5: kid is absolutely special. Just like his makeup, the way
3:30
Speaker 5: he cares himself, his attitude about how he's trying to
3:33
Speaker 5: get better. You know, he's really good at just accepting
3:36
Speaker 5: the fact that he needs to work more, he needs
3:38
Speaker 5: to get better at a lot of different things. I mean,
3:40
Speaker 5: the guy's special. Man, He's going to be a heck
3:41
Speaker 5: of a player. We all know that. And I think
3:43
Speaker 5: that's the coolest thing is like he realizes that he's good,
3:47
Speaker 5: but he knows that there's so much more that he
3:48
Speaker 5: can add to his game. And it's that's that's a
3:50
Speaker 5: special trait that a lot of guys don't have. So
3:52
Speaker 5: just watching him, I mean, obviously you watch the bat.
3:54
Speaker 5: The bat is incredible. You know, if you're going backside
3:56
Speaker 5: at Roger Dean, let's say something.
4:00
Speaker 2: Guys are doing that. So you know that's going to
4:02
Speaker 2: play in the big leagues.
4:03
Speaker 5: Man, the makeup, the head, you know, him being confident
4:06
Speaker 5: in himself, that's gonna play in the big leagues.
4:08
Speaker 2: Defense is gonna play the big league. It's just cleaning
4:10
Speaker 2: up a little bit things here and there. But he's
4:12
Speaker 2: so young, man, he's gonna figure out. That guy's gonna
4:14
Speaker 2: be specialist. Saint Lewis be ready man, JJ's coming.
4:18
Speaker 1: So a lot of guys that have his resume might
4:22
Speaker 1: not take that well. Work is still a big part
4:25
Speaker 1: of it. You're saying that this kid understands what's ahead
4:28
Speaker 1: and what he has to do to get to where
4:30
Speaker 1: he wants to be.
4:30
Speaker 2: Right absolutely, you know, he's for me.
4:33
Speaker 5: It seems like he's a guy that is okay with
4:36
Speaker 5: breaking himself down and understanding that. You know, I'm at
4:40
Speaker 5: the highest level of the games that I play my
4:42
Speaker 5: whole life.
4:43
Speaker 2: Now I need to make sure that everything is at
4:45
Speaker 2: that level, you know.
4:46
Speaker 5: And that's the biggest thing with big leaguers and a
4:48
Speaker 5: lot of these guys is you don't get the special
4:50
Speaker 5: guys in the game that have created these amazing careers,
4:53
Speaker 5: you know. And you talk to him and they're constantly
4:56
Speaker 5: getting better and better and better, and they're never satisfied.
4:59
Speaker 5: And he's got that in Trague with him, you know,
5:01
Speaker 5: and it's just special to see that. Uh me being
5:03
Speaker 5: the guy now I'm just wanted to be an ear
5:05
Speaker 5: for him, you know, help him do anything that he's
5:07
Speaker 5: got any questions a lot, And I told him, I
5:08
Speaker 5: was like, man, take my number during the season, bro.
5:11
Speaker 2: You know, I don't.
5:12
Speaker 5: I don't want to put it on you, but you
5:13
Speaker 5: know you're gonna have your ups and downs. That's just
5:15
Speaker 5: part of a baseball season. If you need help, you
5:17
Speaker 5: need just somebody that talks to an event, hit me out, bro.
5:21
Speaker 1: I remember when the Cardinals drafted you and being the
5:25
Speaker 1: first round pick and with high expectations that comes with
5:29
Speaker 1: a certain amount of pressure, the same some of the
5:32
Speaker 1: same pressure that the JJ I'm sure probably will have
5:37
Speaker 1: to deal with it at some point. How How tough
5:41
Speaker 1: is that to him?
5:45
Speaker 2: It definitely is tough, you know.
5:46
Speaker 5: But I think that the thing that a lot of
5:47
Speaker 5: people don't realize, like the pressure that they put on
5:51
Speaker 5: us is not even that close to the pressure we
5:54
Speaker 5: putting ourselves.
5:55
Speaker 2: You know.
5:56
Speaker 5: It's it's that attention to detail that we put on
5:59
Speaker 5: every single day on the little things to make our
6:01
Speaker 5: game as perfect as we can do, you know, and
6:04
Speaker 5: then when it doesn't come up, obviously, the fans are pissed.
6:06
Speaker 2: Everybody's pissed, Like you got to realize how pissed.
6:09
Speaker 5: We are, you know, like we take pride and so
6:13
Speaker 5: much time and effort into just constantly working on these
6:16
Speaker 5: little intricate details to make your defense better, to make
6:19
Speaker 5: your offense a little bit, to figure out your bunting,
6:21
Speaker 5: the little things like that. So when you do mess
6:23
Speaker 5: up as much as you, guys get pissed off. I
6:25
Speaker 5: promise you, if we could take out how many hit ourselves,
6:28
Speaker 5: say hey, what a bad we would.
6:32
Speaker 3: So the Cardinals now.
6:36
Speaker 1: Rebuilding, it's a different scenario than when you were a
6:40
Speaker 1: Cardinal low those many years. I'm just curious, what's your
6:44
Speaker 1: sense of the energy level and the exsignment level for
6:48
Speaker 1: a lot of young players getting their opportunities this year.
6:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think I think a lot of guys
6:54
Speaker 2: are kind of figuring that out.
6:55
Speaker 5: They're understanding that, you know, this is a big opportunity
6:58
Speaker 5: for a lot of these young guys that you know,
7:00
Speaker 5: maybe some of them have a year or two maybe
7:02
Speaker 5: if somewhere on the verge of trying to make that
7:03
Speaker 5: big leagues. Like listen, man, there's so much opportunities right
7:07
Speaker 5: now for you guys to get there. This organization is
7:10
Speaker 5: trying to rebuild. We're trying to figure out how to
7:11
Speaker 5: get back to where we were back.
7:12
Speaker 2: In the day.
7:13
Speaker 5: And you know a big step is the transition of
7:16
Speaker 5: this complex down here. I mean, these kids are coming
7:19
Speaker 5: into a top of the line see to the art
7:21
Speaker 5: complex and you know, with that kind of complex that
7:25
Speaker 5: you're playing in, the level of play is going to continue.
7:27
Speaker 2: To get higher. It has to because you have everything.
7:29
Speaker 5: They have force plates, they have track man's, they have trajets,
7:33
Speaker 5: they have every single thing to make you a better player.
7:35
Speaker 5: It's all about now you putting in the work and
7:38
Speaker 5: using the tools that the Cardinals have provided now to
7:41
Speaker 5: get to that next step. And I think that that, honestly,
7:43
Speaker 5: this thing has come together perfect timing because now you've
7:46
Speaker 5: got kids that you can bring down here and you
7:47
Speaker 5: constantly build and build the Cardinal way back the way
7:50
Speaker 5: that we want to do because we have everything in house.
7:54
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8:55
Speaker 1: How different is it the complex I'm talking about in
8:57
Speaker 1: the facilities from when you were a young player in camp?
9:02
Speaker 2: Oh man, do you really explain that to people?
9:08
Speaker 5: Yeah, you guys, ever been to a nineteen ninety seven baseball.
9:16
Speaker 2: Dugout? Very similar feeling it was, you know, it was
9:20
Speaker 2: old school rugs man.
9:21
Speaker 5: We had the ceiling was probably eight feet high as
9:24
Speaker 5: some of the top of the scenes were falling out.
9:26
Speaker 5: We had the old metal lockers with the little benches,
9:29
Speaker 5: you know, And now these guys are coming in, man,
9:30
Speaker 5: and their thing. It's it's beautiful. They got the car
9:34
Speaker 5: on the seating lit up. They got brand new rugs.
9:36
Speaker 2: These guys have couches, they got TVs, they got all
9:38
Speaker 2: these things. Man, they got this lunch room. Now that's
9:41
Speaker 2: state of the art.
9:42
Speaker 5: These guys are getting fed unbelievable meals, and like, dude,
9:46
Speaker 5: take advantage of this, boys and enjoy this and appreciate it, man,
9:49
Speaker 5: because I promise you, as much as you guys love
9:52
Speaker 5: playing this game, you're gonna be retired lot long when
9:53
Speaker 5: you're playing, man, So just enjoy it.
9:56
Speaker 3: Seems like it's nice.
9:58
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about your your cardinal career,
10:01
Speaker 1: and you had so many highlights along the way. I
10:04
Speaker 1: know you took a lot of pride being a cardinal.
10:08
Speaker 1: What is the one moment that jumps out to you?
10:10
Speaker 1: Because I'm thinking about Game two NLCS twenty fourteen, you
10:17
Speaker 1: walk it off in the ninth inning. When you think
10:20
Speaker 1: about your career, what are the moments that stand out
10:23
Speaker 1: to you.
10:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's definitely a big moment for me.
10:26
Speaker 5: You know, I mean, obviously, you know, I think we
10:29
Speaker 5: all understand twenty thirteen what happened, So twenty fourteen was huge,
10:32
Speaker 5: but honestly, twenty thirteen was I'm sorry to say, it
10:36
Speaker 5: was something.
10:36
Speaker 2: That I would never give away. You know.
10:39
Speaker 5: Getting picked off obviously sucked, man, it really did as
10:41
Speaker 5: a person. As a player, I was twenty two years old,
10:44
Speaker 5: just got to the big leagues, you know, and to
10:46
Speaker 5: have that happen.
10:47
Speaker 2: You know, at that time, I thought it was the
10:48
Speaker 2: end of the world.
10:49
Speaker 5: But in the reality of things, man, that situation right
10:53
Speaker 5: there made me want to become so much more than
10:56
Speaker 5: I thought I could be. You know. It made me
10:59
Speaker 5: want to push so much harder to make people for
11:01
Speaker 5: not forget, to make people understand that I'm not just
11:05
Speaker 5: that guy that I could constantly be better.
11:07
Speaker 2: I could push the envelope to be who I want
11:09
Speaker 2: to be, you know.
11:09
Speaker 5: And I was like, I think that that pickoff took
11:13
Speaker 5: away the fear of the game for me after that,
11:15
Speaker 5: and I was like, okay, listen, I did the worst
11:17
Speaker 5: thing you probably could do in a game, get picked
11:20
Speaker 5: off to end the game in a World series with
11:22
Speaker 5: Carlos freaking Beltron at the plate, you know, and it's
11:26
Speaker 5: so I kind of started to really lean onto that
11:29
Speaker 5: and be like, you know what, man, if I hit
11:32
Speaker 5: that rock bottom, there's no place lower for me to go,
11:35
Speaker 5: So there's no fear anymore. So I think that was
11:38
Speaker 5: a big transition for me to really start taking that
11:40
Speaker 5: next step and becoming the player that I was. And yeah,
11:44
Speaker 5: so I would never give any of those situations away,
11:46
Speaker 5: and that was definitely a big one for me.
11:48
Speaker 1: It's funny because another media guy, a buddy of mine,
11:51
Speaker 1: once said, when you talked to Cotland about his cardinal
11:54
Speaker 1: career of all the accomplishments and great things, even if
11:59
Speaker 1: you know the pick, if it's not something you plan
12:01
Speaker 1: to ask him about, he brings it up. So obviously
12:05
Speaker 1: that was sort of the pivotal moment in your career.
12:09
Speaker 5: Right, Absolutely, absolutely. And the thing is, I'll never run
12:12
Speaker 5: away from that, you know. I try to tell kids
12:14
Speaker 5: that too after be like, look, you guys, wanna watch
12:16
Speaker 5: the video. Go see it, Like learn from that. Understand that,
12:19
Speaker 5: you know what, man, Like, we're gonna mess up. You're
12:21
Speaker 5: gonna mess on the field. You're gonna make these little
12:23
Speaker 5: decisions and at the wrong time, and you're gonna you're
12:25
Speaker 5: gonna pay the consequences, you know, as long as you
12:28
Speaker 5: face the music and you come back and you want
12:29
Speaker 5: to be better and you're you're not gonna let that
12:31
Speaker 5: define you, and you're gonna be better.
12:33
Speaker 2: You know.
12:33
Speaker 5: It's gonna build you to the man that you want
12:35
Speaker 5: to be and the man that you're expected to become.
12:37
Speaker 1: So when, uh, when you talk about the Cardinals, like
12:43
Speaker 1: I could see your eyes light up. And you played
12:45
Speaker 1: with with other teams too, but you're a cardinal. What
12:49
Speaker 1: was it about playing with the Cardinals being a Cardinal
12:53
Speaker 1: that that you appreciated so much?
12:56
Speaker 2: I tell everybody this to this day.
12:57
Speaker 5: I was like, you know, the biggest thing for Saint
12:59
Speaker 5: Louis was when I came here, we were winning, you know,
13:02
Speaker 5: And so when I stepped in, the aura that was
13:05
Speaker 5: in that clubhouse was we were expecting to win every
13:08
Speaker 5: single day, you know, And we weren't just expecting to
13:11
Speaker 5: play one sixty two. We're expecting to go and continue
13:14
Speaker 5: to play in the playoffs. So we're always getting ready
13:16
Speaker 5: for one sixty two and the playoffs. It was never
13:19
Speaker 5: we were never accepting just playing. And that was a
13:22
Speaker 5: big thing, man, that really helped me as a person
13:25
Speaker 5: to continue to push and get better, because I was like,
13:27
Speaker 5: you know, I don't want to feel any of these guys.
13:28
Speaker 5: I want to let any of these guys down, because
13:30
Speaker 5: at the end of the day, like these guys are
13:31
Speaker 5: showing me what to take. It's gonna take to be
13:33
Speaker 5: a big leaguer. So I'm gonna do whatever I can
13:35
Speaker 5: to be the guy that needed to be, you know.
13:38
Speaker 5: And then realistically, like the Saint Louis Cardinals, man, they
13:40
Speaker 5: were so good at teaching us how to create a routine,
13:44
Speaker 5: especially for us young guys coming into the you know,
13:46
Speaker 5: pro baseball whatnot. You know, I tell a lot of
13:48
Speaker 5: these young guys nowadays, I'm like, man, they're the only
13:52
Speaker 5: way that you can be confident as a player is
13:54
Speaker 5: if you have, you know, a bulletproof routine, something that
13:57
Speaker 5: you can do every single day. It doesn't matter if
13:59
Speaker 5: it's you know, you play eighteen night game or eighteen
14:02
Speaker 5: innings the night before and you got to dig in
14:03
Speaker 5: the next day.
14:04
Speaker 2: You know, you still understand that my routine is what
14:06
Speaker 2: I do every single day to get you ready.
14:08
Speaker 5: So I was telling them, you know, you build a solid,
14:10
Speaker 5: bulletproof routine and your confidence is constantly behind that because you're.
14:13
Speaker 2: Never worried about how you're feeling this night.
14:15
Speaker 5: You just realize, like I did everything I need to
14:17
Speaker 5: do every single or the same way to get ready.
14:19
Speaker 2: So I just gotta go out there compete.
14:21
Speaker 5: And yeah, that's been a big thing with a lot
14:23
Speaker 5: of these guys, is just understanding what the cardon the
14:26
Speaker 5: way is. You know, it's a hard work, it's attention
14:28
Speaker 5: to detail, and it's a win to go out there
14:30
Speaker 5: and compete all twenty seven ounce.
14:32
Speaker 1: I'm just wondering what the day to day, the daily
14:37
Speaker 1: for Cold Wong is. Now you mentioned your dad, you're
14:40
Speaker 1: watching your kids. What what is a normal day like
14:45
Speaker 1: for Colton wall Man.
14:47
Speaker 2: I wake up usually went right around like six six
14:50
Speaker 2: thirty ish.
14:52
Speaker 5: I'll get up and then I'll kind of wait for
14:53
Speaker 5: the boys, and the boys will wake up and they'll
14:55
Speaker 5: come down and won't hang out, and then.
14:57
Speaker 2: We'll go outside.
14:58
Speaker 5: I take them outside every day right wake up, They'll
15:01
Speaker 5: get like a little yoga. We'll go outside and then
15:03
Speaker 5: we'll start hitting baseball's off the tea. They love baseball, man.
15:06
Speaker 5: They're just constantly out there and we hit baseballs. Then
15:08
Speaker 5: we'll come in. I'll cook through a breakfast. I try
15:10
Speaker 5: to make them like super healthy breakfast. Is because the
15:13
Speaker 5: one thing I learned is like when Matt Holliday when
15:17
Speaker 5: he was here, he had Jackson, he had Ethan. They're
15:19
Speaker 5: I think eight and six at a time, somewhere around
15:22
Speaker 5: that age. Now, i'd pay attention to him and how
15:24
Speaker 5: he took care of these kids and how he fed
15:26
Speaker 5: them and how he just he had them on a
15:28
Speaker 5: regimen of realizing like this is life. You know, this
15:31
Speaker 5: isn't you know me just doing like this is how
15:33
Speaker 5: we're gonna live life. And like you look at those
15:35
Speaker 5: kids now and like the way that they carry themselves
15:37
Speaker 5: and how they're like they're I mean, these kids are machines,
15:40
Speaker 5: you know. So I learned from Matt, and I took
15:42
Speaker 5: all those things and all the guys that had kids,
15:44
Speaker 5: I just constantly will just learn and figure out. So
15:46
Speaker 5: I was like, okay, But the funny thing is now
15:48
Speaker 5: that I'm here, I'm like, so I talked to Brownie,
15:50
Speaker 5: the hitting coach. I'm like, hey, Brownie, what should I
15:52
Speaker 5: do with my kids?
15:53
Speaker 2: You know? What can I start adding? That is smart thing?
15:55
Speaker 5: So he Brownie's a mad scientist, so he's like telling
15:57
Speaker 5: me He's like, yeah, you need to get this, that this.
15:59
Speaker 2: I'm like all the time, I'm here writing down all
16:01
Speaker 2: the different things and I do. Thank you, Ed. I'm
16:03
Speaker 2: gonna grab all these things and we're gonna just go
16:05
Speaker 2: it to town.
16:07
Speaker 1: Well, your kids have you know, have the gene pool
16:12
Speaker 1: they won the genetic Lottery, like holidays kids. You think
16:14
Speaker 1: your kids will be big leaguer someday possibly.
16:18
Speaker 5: You know what, I just whatever they do, I hope
16:21
Speaker 5: they do. It's the way that I did. I just
16:23
Speaker 5: hope they attack whatever they want to do wholeheartedly. That's
16:26
Speaker 5: the thing is, like, you know, I tell Everyboddy like
16:28
Speaker 5: the baseball is my journey. You know, something that I
16:30
Speaker 5: want to do. I don't ever want to portray that
16:32
Speaker 5: on my kids. They want to do it amazing If
16:34
Speaker 5: they don't, like, I just hope that whatever they do
16:36
Speaker 5: they attack it just as hard as I do.
16:38
Speaker 2: That's it.
16:39
Speaker 1: So, Colton Wong, I don't know if you've been watching
16:41
Speaker 1: the WBC wh you had a little clunker last night
16:45
Speaker 1: for Team USA. But you didn't play in the World
16:48
Speaker 1: Baseball Classic. But you did represent America or Team USA
16:54
Speaker 1: in college. So what's the difference between playing in the
16:58
Speaker 1: college game where lay game and representing your team, which obviously.
17:02
Speaker 3: You have love for it, but we're in the USA
17:05
Speaker 3: on your chest. What's the difference.
17:07
Speaker 5: Oh, it's crazy, you know. I mean, you're not just
17:10
Speaker 5: playing for yourself. You're not just playing for a city.
17:12
Speaker 5: You're playing for the whole country, you know, and on
17:15
Speaker 5: the biggest stage like this too. Like I didn't mine
17:17
Speaker 5: in college, and I wasn't even really playing. I was
17:19
Speaker 5: just part of the team at the time. But uh,
17:21
Speaker 5: you know, even just being on it and you know,
17:24
Speaker 5: realizing how special that was and the guys that I
17:26
Speaker 5: got a chance to be around. You know that Team
17:28
Speaker 5: USA Jersey will always weigh heavy and always have that pride,
17:32
Speaker 5: and you know, you see it on all the guys
17:34
Speaker 5: that are playing right now. You know, obviously everybody's still
17:36
Speaker 5: in spring training moment. Man, these guys are turning up,
17:39
Speaker 5: you know, and you know, seeing the little animosity that
17:42
Speaker 5: is going on and whatnot.
17:43
Speaker 2: I love it, man. I think it's just great for
17:45
Speaker 2: the game.
17:45
Speaker 5: I think it's great for the fans, and it's great
17:47
Speaker 5: for just you know, showing people that you know this,
17:51
Speaker 5: it's okay to have a little animosity, Okay to do
17:53
Speaker 5: that man, that's just part of these guys competing.
17:57
Speaker 3: Last night.
17:58
Speaker 1: Now, there was some confusion as to whether or not
18:02
Speaker 1: the the Americans were into the next round if they
18:06
Speaker 1: had already qualified.
18:07
Speaker 3: I'm just curious.
18:08
Speaker 1: So, like, you're playing Team Italy and there's major leaguers
18:12
Speaker 1: on there to you, and the United States gets upset.
18:16
Speaker 3: Just put yourself in that.
18:17
Speaker 1: Position if this All Star team from the US and
18:20
Speaker 1: again you're playing against the Italian team, which has bona
18:24
Speaker 1: fide professional players too. But put yourself in that mindset.
18:27
Speaker 1: What's it like to suddenly be behind eight to nothing
18:31
Speaker 1: to Team Italy.
18:31
Speaker 3: What would that be?
18:32
Speaker 2: Like?
18:33
Speaker 5: It's tough, man, because I mean in baseball, like it
18:38
Speaker 5: doesn't matter, you know, you can have a good team.
18:41
Speaker 5: Sometimes that's just off on that day, you know. And
18:43
Speaker 5: the thing is like when you're down eight, that is
18:45
Speaker 5: so far to catch, especially when you understand the other
18:49
Speaker 5: team has solidified big leaguers, you know, like, yeah, it's
18:52
Speaker 5: Team Italy, but you look at that team and a
18:54
Speaker 5: majority of those guys are big league guys.
18:56
Speaker 2: You know, there's a.
18:58
Speaker 5: Good group of guys that you know, have a chip
19:00
Speaker 5: on their shoulder because they realized that everybody calmed them
19:02
Speaker 5: out right away. You know, they're like, Dude, I play
19:04
Speaker 5: with a lot of these guys on TSA. I play
19:06
Speaker 5: with a lot of these guys in Team Mexico Dominican Republic.
19:08
Speaker 5: We all play together, you know, and it's like, so
19:11
Speaker 5: I think that's the cool thing with Team Italy.
19:12
Speaker 2: And then the whole situation.
19:13
Speaker 5: Is like, you know, you're starting to realize, like these guys,
19:17
Speaker 5: you know, they might not be household names, but everybody
19:20
Speaker 5: in this league is pretty dang good man, and it's
19:22
Speaker 5: it's fun to see the competition growing all over the world.
19:26
Speaker 1: So Holidays coaching and he's doing, you know, some of
19:31
Speaker 1: the podcasting. Lance Lind's doing some some broadcasting. I know
19:35
Speaker 1: he's doing some coaching on the side too. What's a
19:39
Speaker 1: hemp for Colen Wang? What do you want to see
19:42
Speaker 1: in the future? What direction do you think you might hit?
19:45
Speaker 5: Yeah, honestly, I I've been asked that question a couple
19:48
Speaker 5: of times this week, and I honestly don't know. You know,
19:50
Speaker 5: this is kind of the first step of me just
19:52
Speaker 5: kind of coming out and just wanted to kind of
19:54
Speaker 5: give back to the organization that gave me everything, you know,
19:56
Speaker 5: give you my start. Drafted me believed in me, you
19:59
Speaker 5: know when I was like just a kid from Hawaii,
20:01
Speaker 5: you know, so for me, I just it was always
20:03
Speaker 5: pulling on my heart to come back, and you know,
20:05
Speaker 5: when I was done to give back and do what
20:07
Speaker 5: I can.
20:08
Speaker 2: I don't think I'm ready to do the coaching thing yet.
20:10
Speaker 2: You know, I've been really enjoying my times.
20:12
Speaker 5: My boys there are four and about to be three,
20:14
Speaker 5: you know, so they're that prime time of you know,
20:17
Speaker 5: really just learning them and you know, seeing them grow
20:20
Speaker 5: and constantly become, you know, the men that they're gonna be.
20:22
Speaker 5: So yeah, I don't think there's really much it's gonna
20:25
Speaker 5: pull me away from them at this point. But you know,
20:26
Speaker 5: definitely these you know, little show ups here and there
20:29
Speaker 5: I'd love to do and you know, even start bringing
20:31
Speaker 5: my boys with me to so that they can realize,
20:33
Speaker 5: you know, what dad used to do back in the day.
20:36
Speaker 3: And you're just thirty five years old. I mean, you're
20:39
Speaker 3: still a young man.
20:40
Speaker 1: But that's one thing your kids need to get that
20:44
Speaker 1: feel you got to come to camp once.
20:46
Speaker 3: You wan't bring your kids, right, I.
20:47
Speaker 1: Mean, because that's part of the process for the for
20:50
Speaker 1: the kids, and maybe one day they end up where
20:52
Speaker 1: the Holiday kids are.
20:53
Speaker 5: Right, absolutely, absolutely, I mean that's so special just to
20:56
Speaker 5: get that, you know, I used to I used to
20:58
Speaker 5: watch the Holiday kids and you know, everybody who'd bring
21:00
Speaker 5: their kids on, like, man, this is crazy. This kids
21:02
Speaker 5: don't realize how lucky they are to be out here
21:04
Speaker 5: and to appreciate this thing, you know.
21:07
Speaker 2: And so yeah, I'm definitely.
21:08
Speaker 5: Going to try and continue to do to come out
21:10
Speaker 5: and support and whatnot. And you know, who knows on
21:12
Speaker 5: the road what may happen. You know, I'm not trying
21:15
Speaker 5: to take anyone's job or come in and be that guy.
21:17
Speaker 5: I just I really just genuinely want to just help out,
21:20
Speaker 5: you know, whatever I can do, like especially like for instance,
21:23
Speaker 5: the jj I thing, like that was perfect for me
21:25
Speaker 5: to just come in and kind of help out the
21:27
Speaker 5: guy and just be an ear for him. That's really
21:29
Speaker 5: all I wanted to do, just kind of be around
21:30
Speaker 5: the guys and just tell them, you know, and just
21:32
Speaker 5: kind of be that guy to explained to him like, hey, listen, man,
21:35
Speaker 5: my career was never hall of fame, you know, like
21:38
Speaker 5: it was.
21:38
Speaker 2: It was hard.
21:39
Speaker 5: You know, I started from the ground zero and I
21:41
Speaker 5: had to work my way up and constantly you know,
21:43
Speaker 5: getting back down, figuring out, getting back down, figuring out.
21:46
Speaker 5: And you know, so for me, like so, it's kind
21:49
Speaker 5: of easy for guys to like compare their careers to
21:52
Speaker 5: or like, you know, talk to me because they realized, like, man,
21:55
Speaker 5: the game wasn't so easy for me. I had to
21:57
Speaker 5: work so much harder thebody else just to be able
22:01
Speaker 5: to be average or you know, somewhat above average. To
22:05
Speaker 5: hold myself there for ten years. I was like, you know,
22:07
Speaker 5: it was it was a grind that I did every
22:09
Speaker 5: single day that I loved and I became obsessed with.
22:12
Speaker 5: And you know, if you guys have any questions, man,
22:14
Speaker 5: I'm sure majority of the situations you guys are asking
22:17
Speaker 5: I've been in, so yeah, ask away.
22:19
Speaker 1: You were a very good player and some of the
22:22
Speaker 1: best defense at second base I ever saw steel base.
22:25
Speaker 1: I used to say, someone has a low pop too.
22:29
Speaker 3: You were the clear. My last question, now, one of the
22:32
Speaker 3: less you go.
22:34
Speaker 1: Is, you know, we we've talked about you being back
22:39
Speaker 1: and being away from it.
22:41
Speaker 3: Take me to the.
22:41
Speaker 1: Moment where you're in the clubhouse and you're putting on
22:44
Speaker 1: the gear for the first time in a while and
22:47
Speaker 1: walking out on the baseball field what's going through your mind?
22:50
Speaker 3: What's coming over you at that moment?
22:53
Speaker 5: Oh man, that was kind of crazy because I walked
22:55
Speaker 5: up and obviously, you know, instead of going into the clubhouse,
22:57
Speaker 5: I went to.
22:58
Speaker 2: The coach's locker room. So I go and there. I'm like,
23:00
Speaker 2: we're just coach's locker room.
23:02
Speaker 5: So I figure out my way and I getting there,
23:03
Speaker 5: and of course, while she's the man, you know, he
23:05
Speaker 5: had me. He had my stuff all hanged out with
23:07
Speaker 5: with the wall and the sixteen. But I told her, dude,
23:09
Speaker 5: I don't want the jersey. You know, that's that's Gorman's thing,
23:12
Speaker 5: Like just give me a nice little hoodie. That's totally fine, man.
23:15
Speaker 5: But you know, just being back here and you know
23:18
Speaker 5: some of the smells, you know, walking through the hallway
23:21
Speaker 5: and having those smells. I remember walking like the first
23:22
Speaker 5: time I was walking, close my eyes and just smelling
23:24
Speaker 5: and I'm like, holy smokes.
23:25
Speaker 2: Like I remember being I remember the smell.
23:27
Speaker 6: I remember walking here and going to the backfields and
23:29
Speaker 6: getting ready to play, you know, the minor league games,
23:31
Speaker 6: were getting ready to go out to the Roger Dean
23:33
Speaker 6: and you know, it's just like the little things like that,
23:35
Speaker 6: the subtle thing because I mean, there's so much changes
23:37
Speaker 6: to this place, you know, the little things that are
23:40
Speaker 6: still left.
23:40
Speaker 2: Those are the things that I was starting to appreciate.
23:44
Speaker 1: Well, Colton, we uh, we appreciate you spending time. Great
23:48
Speaker 1: catching up with you again. It's great that you're back
23:50
Speaker 1: with the team and helping a young player, you know,
23:53
Speaker 1: to make his next step. But we appreciate you coming
23:56
Speaker 1: on with us. Always a pleasure, always one of the
23:59
Speaker 1: good guys.
24:00
Speaker 3: Them won and.
24:01
Speaker 2: That's gonna do it.
24:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's gonna do it. For this edition of Cardinal Territory.
24:07
Speaker 1: We'll see you for the next episode. Hopefully that one
24:09
Speaker 1: won't suck.
24:12
Speaker 5: H m hm m h m hmmm.