Latest / Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast / Lance Lynn, Matt Holliday, & Kyle Gibson tell rookie stories and more!

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Lance Lynn, Matt Holliday, & Kyle Gibson tell rookie stories and more! · Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to a brand spanking new edition
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of Cardinal Territory. Jim Hayes alongside Lancelin, Kyle Gibson, and
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Matt Holliday, who is in the ride today. And for
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the folks viewing or listening, these gentlemen you have, in
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: my opinion, are the finest panel in the universe of
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: baseball podcasts. So we're asking you for a favor. If
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: you're watching us, say on the YouTube, go ahead and
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: hit that subscribe button. See we're on the Foul Territory
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Network and the big boys say get to seven thousand
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: subs whatever that means. That means. If you like us,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: go ahead, hit the subscribe button. If you're listening to
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: us on a podcast, give us five stars, say nice
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: things about it. All right, Well, gentlemen, we're about two
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: weeks away from pictures and catchers reporting. Even if the
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Cardinals add a veteran outfielder, which I think they may,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: they're going to be a very very young ball club,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: right A lot of guys that maybe have done it
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: shown what they can do, other guys haven't shown it.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: For a full season. They'll be getting the opportunity. So
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I want you guys to think back to when you
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: first broke in, maybe you're first or second year and Matt,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: what was that like. I'll start with you, all right,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: you're a young guy. Obviously a lot of hype around
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: you as a player. What was it like for you?
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Was there pressure? What were you dealing with in that circumstance.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think as a young player, you're
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: trying to establish yourself. You want to play well in
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: spring training. You know, for me, I was trying to
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: keep my mouth shut, work hard, show up early, you know,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: work after practice. Watch the older guys, watch like Larry
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Walker and Todd Helton and guys you know, some veterans
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: like Todd Green and uh Mark Sweeney were some older
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: veteran like uh, utility type, you know, bench players that
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: kind of took me under their wing. So to me,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: it was you know, especially back then, you were kind
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: of taught to keep your mouth shut and and work,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: and then you earned the respect of the older players
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: by by how you went about your business. Obviously, try
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: to play well and make the team, and and then
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: once you're on the team, try not to get sent
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: down and try to play well enough to where uh
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: you get to stay. So that was always my philosophy.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: And and uh, like I said, I had some older
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: players that really were good to me, took me under
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: their wing, took me to lunch, told me about talk
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: me about being a professional, and and that was really helpful.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: And and uh, I think.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: That's what you know, veteran guys, You know that they
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: want to see the young guys work hard and and
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: see what kind of work ethic they have and how
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: much it means to him. And so that was kind
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: of the way I saw it.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Now, Lance when you came up with the Cardinals, you
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: had a pedigree, showed what you could do at the
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: minor league level. You also had some veterans in that rotation,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: great guys to learn from. But Matt Holliday said something
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: about keeping your mouth shut. So I'm wondering what was
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: it like for the for the early days of Lance
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Lynn as a major leaguer.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: I would say that that first year when I was
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: in the bullpen, I did a really good job at
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: keeping my mouth shut, standing in my locker and looking forward.
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: And then year two, year two, I made the All
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: Star team, already had a World Series ring, I got
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: a little I got a little chirpy, and Matt enjoyed it.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: I know he did always. He was always laughing.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: But there's a few guys that I could but that
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: kept me in my place.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: As we know, Matt was one of them.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: But you had Karp, you had Wayne Right, he had
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: Jake Whisburg and Kyle Loach. So I had a good
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: group around me that let me become myself but also
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: put me where I needed to be when it was
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: time to be put there. So learned a lot from
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: those guys, and it would have been I think it
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: would have been terrible for me. If I was on
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: a really young team and had the success I had
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: early on, I would have been a real problem because
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: I'm a problem anyways. And if I would have had
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: no guidance heads Uh.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Well, he's known as a constant delightle hold on a
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: second man. Was there ever any times you had to
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: shoot looks at Lance lann or or say anything because
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: you're an imposing guy.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: H Uh? You know, I like Carp carb kind of
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: regular lance. But yeah, I mean, you know, you gotta
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: gotta You had to rate him in a few times,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: but you know, for the most part. Uh, Hey, look
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: if you're if you're dominating on the mound, you get
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: a little more leash. You know, if you're if you're
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: an all star uh and you're you're you're you're doing
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: your job, you get you get a little more leash
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: as a young guy, and.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: I went, what was it like for you the the
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: early days of of Kyle Gibson, Uh.
• 4:56
  Speaker 6: The early days not not quite like Lance maybe just
• 5:03
  Speaker 6: not not exactly like Lance. I had a couple of
• 5:06
  Speaker 6: guys that kind of kept me in my place and
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: walk me through things. Mike Pelfrey was was a big
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: help for me. Some of you who had been around
• 5:14
  Speaker 6: for a while and just stepped in and you know,
• 5:16
  Speaker 6: kind of like Holiday was saying, you know, you have
• 5:17
  Speaker 6: guys that take you under your wing, and you know,
• 5:20
  Speaker 6: take you out to dinner, and you'll kind of show you,
• 5:23
  Speaker 6: you know, some of the areas where you're following short
• 5:25
  Speaker 6: and being a professional, and some of the areas were
• 5:27
  Speaker 6: are doing well and trying to help you out in
• 5:29
  Speaker 6: that specifically. I remember after I got called up in
• 5:32
  Speaker 6: twenty thirteen, I went and made a sandwich in the
• 5:36
  Speaker 6: middle of the game, because that's what we did.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: In Triple A.
• 5:38
  Speaker 6: You know, you're doing the chart, you go make a sandwich.
• 5:40
  Speaker 6: It's not a big deal. Some life as a starter.
• 5:42
  Speaker 6: And Pelfrey came in and said, what are you doing.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: It's the third inning.
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: If you want to eat, eat before the game. If
• 5:49
  Speaker 6: Moreno sees you at that sandwich right now, he's going
• 5:51
  Speaker 6: to kill you. And I was like, okay, well let's
• 5:53
  Speaker 6: just throw this thing away. Let's go back out.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: To the dugo.
• 5:56
  Speaker 6: This is not how it's done here. So, you know,
• 5:59
  Speaker 6: certain things that we're really helpful. Her Zuzuki was a
• 6:03
  Speaker 6: big help behind the plate, you know, helping me figure
• 6:05
  Speaker 6: out how the kind of picture I was on the mound.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: He gave me a little bit of leash.
• 6:11
  Speaker 6: He would, you know, maybe give me one or two
• 6:12
  Speaker 6: shakeoffs to start the game, and then when those didn't
• 6:14
  Speaker 6: go well that next mountain visit normally sounded like something, Okay,
• 6:18
  Speaker 6: I'm giving you your two shakeoffs, now, just can you
• 6:20
  Speaker 6: throw what I'd like to throw? And I normally said sure,
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: and it worked out quite a bit. So I think
• 6:27
  Speaker 6: this is what we've brought up a couple of times
• 6:29
  Speaker 6: on this podcast, and and you know previously when it'll
• 6:32
  Speaker 6: serving it up is that veterans have a role that
• 6:35
  Speaker 6: can set young players up for a career of being
• 6:39
  Speaker 6: a professional or sometimes a career of not living up
• 6:43
  Speaker 6: to being a professional and being, as Lance says, a problem.
• 6:47
  Speaker 6: So I think this is where if you have the
• 6:49
  Speaker 6: right veterans, you can really create a culture and create
• 6:53
  Speaker 6: a group of young professionals that can can turn into
• 6:56
  Speaker 6: winning players and do it the right way.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Smat was what was your take on in game snacking,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Yes or no.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: I didn't have a problem if you got your snack
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: and got back out to the dugout.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: I had a little bit of a problem.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: You know, as an everyday player if you went in
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: there and and guys were just hanging out or you know,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: they were checking their phones or you know, having a
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: four course meal. You know, I think in general, you know,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: as an everyday player, you're out there grinding, you know.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: And that was one of the things with the Cardinals
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: that when I, you know, I got traded over, that
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: was that was one of the first things I noticed
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: was is that the starting pitchers set right right there
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: the whole game, and you know, carp and Wuno and
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: and and these guys, uh, you know, they made sure
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: they they governed that and and uh, you know that
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: you were on the bench rooting for your teammates, and
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: that was something different, you know, I think from what
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: I had seen previously. So that was something that I
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: always appreciated about the demand that you know, whoever passed
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: that down, whether it was Widdy Williams or Daryl Kyle
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: or whoever passed that down to Carp and then Carp
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Dauno and then you know on Lance and you know
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Jake and and Loshi and and you know all the
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: guys that we had.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: So I don't have a problem if.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: If you know how your workout took you right up
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: to the game time and you need a little snack,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: I don't care if you're eating on the bench as
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: long as you're in the dugout.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: And that is different because with some teams you don't
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: see all the starting pitchers in there. And I know, Lance,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: with you guys, the rotation was a tight unit. They
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: operated kind of as one. I know that didn't always
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: sit well with you, but I'm just curious that kind
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: of guidance that you had with early success in Major
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: League baseball. Would you be the Lance Lend that you
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: became if you didn't have those guys kind of setting
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: up guardrails for you.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: No, I think you.
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: I mean, I've already pretty much alluded to the fact
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: that I'd be a real and it probably wouldn't.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: Have been in the best of the ways, you know.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: But that being said, like there's always little tidbits and
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: stuff that you learn as you're as you're coming up,
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: you know from those guys on when to do your workouts,
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: when to do certain things, when to you know, what's
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: your day. Pretty much, it teaches you how to plan
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: your day, do the things you need to do. But
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: when it's also done, we're on a team and we
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: need to be there for each other when it's game
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: time too, even though there's other stuff that you have
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: to do to get yourself prepared for five days from
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: now or whenever your start is. So each guy had
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: a different thing that had to do that day, and
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: what I learned during that time is those take different
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: you know, time frames and this and that. So we
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: got to pick each other up. So when guys are
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: doing video or something like that, when they're placing this
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: team the next day and they go inside and doing
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: some of their homework, the other three guys that are
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: not pitching the next day, are out in the dugout
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: doing their things. So you're picking up for each other
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: when guys need whether guys need some treatment. Some of
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: the starters get their treatment during the game because they
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: don't want to get in people's way pre game and
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: stuff like that. So making sure that we're not all
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: just sitting there in the training room together and stuff
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: like that, just you know, as Matt said, you're just
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: you know, kicking your feet up, you know, shooting the shit.
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: You're actually the other guys are out there taking care
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: of their teammates, and you're mindful of those guys because
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: when you're playing one hundred and forty one hundred and
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: sixty two games a year and stuff, you know, you're
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: wearing it. There really is no other and starters the
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: best gig in all sports. You get paid the most
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: money most likely, and you get four days off in between.
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: So I was smart enough to pick the right thing
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: for my personality and I was able to make the
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: best of it.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: So, Kyle, you had a college resume, Pitch one in college,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: pitch one in the minors. You're in the big leagues
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: now and you have to learn all these different things
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: outside of when to snack and when not to snack,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: but in terms of how you have to pitch at
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the major league level, how much pressure is there on you?
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Added pressure that you're not you because you kind of
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: sailed along, not that you didn't work hard, but sailed
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: along through college and the minors. What's that like where
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: suddenly it's like, this is my dream. Now I have
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: to stay here.
• 11:12
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, I think it's the first time that
• 11:15
  Speaker 6: you start to look at this as bad performance as consequences.
• 11:22
  Speaker 6: It's probably the first time that I started to realize
• 11:25
  Speaker 6: that being sent down as an option. All through the
• 11:28
  Speaker 6: minor leagues, it was kind of Okay, we're building you
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: up to get you a certain amount of starts here,
• 11:32
  Speaker 6: get your certain amount of innings here, to you know,
• 11:34
  Speaker 6: kind of slowly push you through the progression of professional
• 11:37
  Speaker 6: baseball and have you see better hitters each way, each
• 11:40
  Speaker 6: time along the way, and then when you get to
• 11:42
  Speaker 6: the big leagues, it's like, hey, by the way, like
• 11:45
  Speaker 6: kind of like Matt said, really nobody cares what you
• 11:48
  Speaker 6: do to a certain extent if you're pitching well, and
• 11:51
  Speaker 6: then if you're not pitching well, all of a sudden,
• 11:53
  Speaker 6: bringing your golf clubs on the road tends to have
• 11:56
  Speaker 6: negative connotations, you know, being in the clubhouse a little bit.
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: More guys tend to be like, hey, why don't you
• 12:02
  Speaker 6: go out and learn something rook you know. So there's
• 12:05
  Speaker 6: certain things like that that you know, come along with it,
• 12:08
  Speaker 6: and I think it's just the that would be the
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: added pressure to me is it was the first time
• 12:13
  Speaker 6: that I realized that three or four bad starts could
• 12:17
  Speaker 6: mean that I'm no longer in the big leagues. And
• 12:20
  Speaker 6: eventually it happened my first year in twenty thirteen. You know,
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: I was reaching an innings limit, but I had a
• 12:25
  Speaker 6: five and a half or a six cra and my
• 12:27
  Speaker 6: ten starts and they said, hey, you know you're going
• 12:29
  Speaker 6: to get a couple more starts in triple A and
• 12:30
  Speaker 6: be done the rest of the year. So, you know,
• 12:33
  Speaker 6: I think that adds the pressure because it's it's human nature.
• 12:36
  Speaker 6: Everybody wants to be in the big leagues. But you
• 12:37
  Speaker 6: know that, you know, negative performance, you know, has its
• 12:41
  Speaker 6: business decisions that go on.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: With So, Matt, you had monster numbers in the miners
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: when they brought up in Colorado, everyone was waiting, you know,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: for you to arrive and help the ball club. Did
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: you feel the pressure back then that, Okay, this is
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: something totally different now.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, look, I think everybody when you get to
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: reach the dream of being in the major leagues, like
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: you get the call and you're in the major leagues,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: and that's what I always wanted to do as a kid,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Like there's an excitement to that. And then quickly, you know,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: you go for nine like I did, and you go
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: if I don't get a hit, soon like I'm gonna
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: be back at Triple A. So like that, you do
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: feel the pressure of like performance. You know, it is
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: a it's a it's a performance league, and if you
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: don't perform, you're gonna go back to Triple ah. So
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: thankfully the fourth game, I got three hits and felt
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: a little bit better about myself, and then you know,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: started started to play well, and Clint Hurdle, who was
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: the manager at the time of the Rockies, kind of
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: gave me a vote of confidence and said, you know,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: you're safe to go ahead and get an apartment here
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: in Denver. The You're you're not one bad game away
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: from going back to the Colorado Springs. So you certainly
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: as a young player like you. It's the first time,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: or maybe not the first time, but you feel that, uh,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: that pressure to perform that you know there you're gonna go.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: You like, you don't get to just collect at bats,
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: like they're not just gonna give you, uh, keep giving
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: you opportunities if you don't perform. And so I think
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: that's something as a young player. It's probably healthy and
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: and good for you to learn that, like, hey, there's
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: consequences if if you don't perform, and uh, you know
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: that's why preparation and uh learning for veterans and watching
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: how they do their thing and getting advice from Clair
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: Walker and Todd Helton and Preston Wilson and Jeremy Rennett's
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: and all the really good players that we had when
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: I first got called up. You know, you need to
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: apply uh what you're learning. And and uh, thankfully h
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: had had a good enough fricking year where I didn't
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: have to go back down. But uh, you certainly, you know,
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: if you feel the pressure.
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: Of of of.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: The option to get sent back to the Triple A
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: and and how much more fun and how much better
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: it is the leagues that you certainly don't want to
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: go back to. I don't know if you guys ever
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: played Colorado Springs, but it was it's not the greatest
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: Triple A venue to play baseball, So I I, uh,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: you know, we had Jackson and Leslie were trying to
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: figure out if we were good to go ahead get
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: the apartment in Denver and be full time at Denver,
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: or if we needed to keep the place Colorado Springs
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: just in case I continue to not get any hits.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: But uh, it was uh, like I said, I'm thankful
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: I did well off that I got to stay in
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: the big legs the rest of that year.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: How did lance Lynn deal with that pressure?
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: When I got there, I was like, I'm finally where
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: I'm supposed to be, and now just let me shine.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: That was my motto when I got there.
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: Especially in eight or in my eleven I was in
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: the bullpen, so I've never done that in my life.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: So that was kind of like, hey, you know, if I.
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: Throw three indies as a long reliever, I'm probably going
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: down tomorrow. You knew that, so it was like, there's
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: nothing you can do about it except just go dominate
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: for three innings. So that was my mindset. And then
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: when I got into rotation, it was like, hey, I'm
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: going to help win as many games as possible, so
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: they have no choice to keep me. So that was
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: I was. I was a little different, I guess, thinking
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: there's always that fear of failure, but I would rather
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: just you know, worry about trying to win the game
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: and then go from there. So but you know, everybody
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: has their ways of coping with it. I just told
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: myself I was amazing and never going back down, So
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: that worked for me.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Lance Do you recall the moment where you realized it
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: was okay for lance Lynn to be lance Lynn, where
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: you thought it was safe. Do you remember a time
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: or an incident where you felt it's okay for me
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: to let out the real lance.
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: I was in Texas in twenty nineteen is when I
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: finally got said let it, let it roar, I guess,
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: or in Saint Louis every year it was like, hey,
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: you know, you can't scream at the other hitters. You
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: can't do this, you can't do that, and I was like,
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: I get it.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: I get it.
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: And then I went to Minnesota and I was trying
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: to figure out who I was and as a person
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: and all and all kinds of different things. Went to
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: New York, learned some other things, and then went to
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: Texas that year and I was like, man, I'm gonna
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: stop throwing my sinker because I don't care about ground
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: balls anymore. In Saint Louis, that ship sailed, here's my
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: four seamer. I'm punching tickets, and I'm gonna tell you
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: about it. And then the second half of my career
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: was was quite quite interesting, with some some choice words
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: and some sound bites and stuff like that. I finally
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: got to, uh, you know, let the you know, let.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: The let the roar go a little bit.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: I would describe the little edge, you know, the big bear.
• 17:42
  Speaker 6: You always knew the big bear was gonna growl. You
• 17:44
  Speaker 6: just kind of wait for him to come out.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: And don't you let don't you let him get hot?
• 17:50
  Speaker 6: Bear get hot? That multiple times in Minnesota. Yeah, I
• 17:54
  Speaker 6: think it goes more back to Ian. I think becoming
• 17:57
  Speaker 6: Lancelne is probably more about age eleven or twelve. That's
• 18:01
  Speaker 6: probably what I would say, is when you really I don't.
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: Think it has to start somewhere.
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: Yes, So, but the Cardinals, they they reeled me in
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: a little bit so I could you know, get that professionalism,
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: and it's like when you're.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: When you're young and you yell you're you're.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: A bad attitude, right, And then all of a sudden,
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: I got a little bit older, I got a little
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: bit of money, started winning some games, and man, this
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: guy's a bulldog. Oh my goodness. I didn't change a bit.
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: I was the same, Dick. I was just a little
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: quieter when I was younger.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: I want to share a story if I may, about
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Lance because he told me this when we were doing
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: stuff on the Little League World Series and Lance was
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: in there and I said, what do you remember about
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: playing in the Little League World Series? And he said,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: how to teach kids from other countries how to curse
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: in English? And I thought that was Lance Linn at
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: an early age, right, Yes, just kids. You know what
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Venezuela was teaching us their words. We were teaching them
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: our words. Sandwich Japan. It was it was a good time.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: That's awesome. Count Now, you were a little different. But
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: when as a veteran, did you realize it's okay for
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: me to try to reach out with a young kid
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: and try to help them. Because I think you kind
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: of got to feel out personalities and everything. How did
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: you handle that?
• 19:20
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I would say every year going into spring training,
• 19:24
  Speaker 6: probably with the exception of twenty sixteen. You know, twenty fourteen,
• 19:29
  Speaker 6: my goal is to make the club. Twenty fifteen, I
• 19:31
  Speaker 6: just threw okay. At twenty fourteen, I was trying to
• 19:33
  Speaker 6: make the club. Twenty seventeen. I had a bad year
• 19:36
  Speaker 6: in twenty sixteen, so I was trying to make the club.
• 19:38
  Speaker 6: So there was a lot of years where I just
• 19:41
  Speaker 6: wasn't for sure on the team. And then I would
• 19:44
  Speaker 6: say in twenty eighteen, you know, getting to know odor
• 19:48
  Speaker 6: Rizzimore and getting to know Lance, you know, actually playing
• 19:53
  Speaker 6: on the same team as him, you know, kind of
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: watching him go about his business, and honestly, like how
• 19:59
  Speaker 6: how Lance struggled in the beginning of twenty eighteen and
• 20:03
  Speaker 6: still went about his business was a good learning opportunity
• 20:07
  Speaker 6: for all of us starters. And then twenty nineteen, when
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: when Lance was no longer there, you know, that was
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: probably the first time that odor Isi and I really
• 20:15
  Speaker 6: kind of leaned into the veteran status I was in
• 20:20
  Speaker 6: year six in my big league career and started to
• 20:24
  Speaker 6: really put into practice some of those things At Suzuki
• 20:26
  Speaker 6: and Pelfrie and some of those other guys that instilled
• 20:28
  Speaker 6: in me and then kind of allowed it to springboard
• 20:32
  Speaker 6: into Texas, you know, for those couple of years, and
• 20:35
  Speaker 6: then you know, from there on, I was kind of
• 20:37
  Speaker 6: always joining a locker room and trying to figure out
• 20:40
  Speaker 6: where I fit in. I've never been a believer that
• 20:43
  Speaker 6: leaders just go and take control of everything. I've just
• 20:46
  Speaker 6: been a believer that when you show up to a place,
• 20:48
  Speaker 6: if you're a leadership personality and you're doing things the
• 20:50
  Speaker 6: right way, people will follow. A leader that doesn't have
• 20:53
  Speaker 6: anybody following their lead is not a leader at all.
• 20:56
  Speaker 6: He's just a loner. So I just kind of took
• 20:59
  Speaker 6: the took the appro I'm going to go about my
• 21:01
  Speaker 6: business how I always have. I'm going to be open
• 21:03
  Speaker 6: for conversations, open for questions, and if people think that
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: I can bring value from that aspect, then I'll become
• 21:09
  Speaker 6: a leader. If they don't, then I might become a owner.
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: I saw Kyle I saw in twenty eighteen. I saw
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: Kyle throw.
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: Away a sandwich from a rookie in mid game. I
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: saw it happen, so he passed it down.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: That's the growth of a leader. You know, leadership takes time. Now,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Matt Holliday was a leader on the Cardinals. I know
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: this because a lot of the young players were absolutely
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: terrified of them. I'm not going to mention names Randall
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Gritchick and Matt Adams terrified of Matt Holliday, but total
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: respect Matt. Is there a player or two that you
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: can remember kind of helping along that you enjoyed working with.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Give us a couple names where a couple guys that
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: you enjoyed helping them maybe get to where they could go.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, look, I think.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: We had a lot of good young players come up
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: with the Cardinals, you know, with my time with Colorado,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: even at the end, most of those guys were similar age.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: So I'd say, like, you know, you feel like.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: An older player probably around I don't know, thirty two,
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: thirty one. You feel like maybe you're an older player
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: when I twenty two or twenty three year old comes up.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: I love kolbe Rasmus. You know, it wasn't it wasn't long,
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: but you know he got uh he got kind of
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: got ruffled some feathers and and uh, you know, he
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: had pissed, pissed some some veteran guys off and and
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: I don't think Tony loved him when I got traded
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: over there, but I really liked Kolbe and uh and
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: I knew that he had a ton of talent and
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: and enjoyed trying to help him understand where people were
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: coming from. So I enjoyed trying to help him. And
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: then like the guys you're talking about, Matt Adams and
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: and Colton Long, we're good young players that came up
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: when when I would, you know, we were veteran players,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: and so I would say probably those three, you know,
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: jumped to the top of the list. But look, I
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: think as a as a as an older player, you
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: start to you know, and actually probably in twenty eighteen
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: when I was with or twenty seventeen when I was
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: with the Yankees, they put Aaron Judges locker right next
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: to me, and so I got a chance to.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: That.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Again, he's super mature and just an unbelievable person, so
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: I didn't really.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: Have to do much.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: But getting a chance to be kind of an older,
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: older player that he leaned on for a season was
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: was really fun because obviously the immense talent, but an
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: unbelievable human. So I really enjoyed kind of getting into
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: him that it'd be somebody that we still stay in
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: contact with. You know, Tulo was a guy that came
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: up when I was an older player in Colorado. I mean,
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: it's not that much older than him, but he came up,
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: was a rookie, you know, I was. I was seven
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: when we went to the World Series and kind of
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: I was probably at the best season I ever had, So,
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: you know, he was another young player that I really
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: enjoyed getting to know and trying to help out a
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: little bit.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Now, I would be irresponsible as a host if I
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: didn't circle back and ask you another question about Rasmus,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: because Cardinal fans would love to hear about it. So
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: really nice kid, super talented, right, but he was a
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: bit of a project in terms of trying to get
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: him on the right track.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Correct, Yeah, Yeah, I mean, look, I think Kolby had
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: you know, he was he was a young first round
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: pick and.
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't know, I don't know you know a.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Lot of the details of before I got there, but
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: you know, at the time, you know, he he you know,
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: he missed the cut off man a lot and I
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: don't know, he was just uh, you know, he was
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: a little bit you know, I think Tony preferred veteran players,
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: which I think everybody would agree, and and he would
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: get after Colby from missing the cutoff man or being
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: a little bit selfish or But to me, I I
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: saw the heart that he had and I really I
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: really liked him. I just think he, uh, he got
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: jaded early and then you know, he was just kind
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: of a.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: Quieter kid. Uh.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: And so yeah, you had to work for for his
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: trust and and I didn't mind doing that. So I
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: didn't mind sit down and trying to have a conversation
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: with him and get to know his his kind of
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: point of view on some of the things that you know,
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: the other guys weren't putting up with. And so he
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: ended up getting traded. Like I said, I didn't get
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: to play with him long, but still keep in contact
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: with them. And I really like him as a human.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, really nice guy.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: Jim.
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: I have a question, Jim.
• 26:08
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna ask a question. You always direct these you know,
• 26:13
  Speaker 6: hard hitting questions us, so you know, as I think
• 26:16
  Speaker 6: it is only fair, and you know, Jim, who is
• 26:17
  Speaker 6: a veteran sideline reporter that you looked up to, and
• 26:21
  Speaker 6: then as you've got some veteran status, you know who
• 26:23
  Speaker 6: would be really enjoyed, you know, bringing along and showing
• 26:26
  Speaker 6: them the ropes of asking the hard hitting questions and
• 26:29
  Speaker 6: knowing how to how to act and be a professional
• 26:32
  Speaker 6: in the locker room. And you know, when did you
• 26:34
  Speaker 6: realize you were a problem?
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Okay, So Kyle, just so you know, Ken Rosenthal to
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: me is the top of the heap. I had them
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: on another podcast once someone had someone one of the
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: other major media people in baseball. I'm not going to
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: say who, but said, hey, yeah, I'll come on your podcast.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Can you book it through the talent service of the network?
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: You know, like I know the guy I had his
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: cell phone, so I asked. I asked Ken. I said, hey,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: can I text him? Can you come on the podcast? Whatever?
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: And He's like sure when? And I said, do you
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: want me to book it through the talent person? He said, Jim,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: if I ever tell you that you have to go
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: through the talent coordinator, you have permission to punch me
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: in the face. He's the best. And with young people,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: I don't young reporters. If they ask me, I try
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: to help them. I look at myself as kind of scraping.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: By all. You guys are bona fide major leaguer. I'm
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: just a lunch pail guy, all right. So if someone asks,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: I haven't taken anyone under my wing. I work in
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: radio with young people. If they ask, I always try
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: to help them. I say, be well rounded, read a lot,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: because you have to learn how to write, not just
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: be handsome on television or beautiful on television. Has to
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: be some substance and then hopefully they leave me alone.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Now I always say this about our panel. It is
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: the best in the baseball podcast uniform. If you like
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Cardinal Territory and you want merch we have merch Okay,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: we have hoodies, we have hats, we have mugs, we
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: have backpacks, and it's all available at Shop cardinals Territory
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: dot com. Quality merchandise, reasonable prices, very nice. So if
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: you like it, or maybe you have a Cardinal fan
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: you want to get something, go ahead at Cardinal Territory Shop.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: Is that what it is?
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Shop Cardinal Territory dot com. All right, last question and
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: I'll let you guys go. We talked about this a
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: little bit in the last episode that the big strong
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: guy Pete Alonzo was talking in some caravan interview situation.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: He said, the toughest guy for me to hit was
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Kyle Gibson. He was oh for seventeen against Kyle Gibson
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: in his career. Lonzo's wonderful talent. Right, you're over seventeen,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: you know, against the guy he owns you. So my
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: question told him the nibbler by the way, meaning your
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: sense of the strike zone was impeccable. Right, you nibbled
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: and made him acquious to what you wanted to do.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Matt Holliday, give me a name of someone who owned
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Matt Holliday.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: Who owned me?
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: Uh? There was a guy named Brian Lawrence who pitched
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: for the Padres that everybody else in the league seemed
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: to have no problem with. I couldn't figure him out.
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: He was kind of a side arm three quarter starter,
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: and every time I thought he was kind of running
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: it in, he's throwing a sweeper or slider like kind
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: of slurvy thing away every time. I mean, he jammed
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: the piss out of me with eighty seven. Like I
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: just I couldn't. I couldn't get him. There was one
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: time I remember Clare Hurtle came up to me and
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: he said, am I gonna have to sit you down
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: against Brian Lawrence? And I was like, you know whatever, dude,
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: you know it was sure, Oh yeah, I'll take him.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: Hey whatever.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: But he's a guy that I don't I don't even
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: know what the numbers were. And there's probably guys that
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: had better that owned me, maybe more than him, But
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: I remember him as a guy that I I couldn't
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: quite figure him out. Every time I look in, he
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: throw it away. I look away, he throwed in. I
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: just he had my number, So there's one for it.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: That's a good one.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Lance who was a guy who had your number.
• 30:28
  Speaker 5: Neil Walker for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: He would just take sinker away, pitch one, tank secret away,
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: pitch two, come inside with the four seamer double off
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: the waller home run.
• 30:39
  Speaker 5: That seemed to be it. You could never get ahead
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: of it, and he always was ready.
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: And then later in my career, I just started peppering
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: him away with four seamers for strike one and strike.
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: Two and he's like, oh, it's not running off the
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: plate anymore.
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: So I learned my lesson, but it took me about
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: seven years to figure it out, So that was my
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: issue with him.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: How about you, Kyle, Was there a guy that had
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: your number that owned you in a sense?
• 31:03
  Speaker 6: Yeah? The entire Cleveland Indians from twenty fourteen to twenty nineteen,
• 31:09
  Speaker 6: all of them, I'm pretty sure, hitting over three hundred
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: for the except for Carlos Santana. Jason Kipnus, I believe
• 31:16
  Speaker 6: is hitting over four point fifty with probably almost a
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: six hundred on base against me. So I don't know
• 31:22
  Speaker 6: what I was doing.
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: Maybe they just were really good.
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: But every one of those guys, and I don't know
• 31:29
  Speaker 6: that I got Francisco Lindor on an over until I
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: started throwing a cutter. So I'm like, all of those
• 31:35
  Speaker 6: guys over three hundred, really really bad numbers against the
• 31:39
  Speaker 6: Cleveland Indians, except for Carlos Santana.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Like morewe just you know, I plan to ask you
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: give me names of guys that you dominated against. Unfortunately
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: we have run out of time.
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: We'll get to that in another episode.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: But gentlemen, you were great. The stories were entertaining. I
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: appreciate the time, and that's going to do it for
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: this edition of Cardinals Territory. Join us for the next episode,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: and hopefully that one won't suck.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: H