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Allen Craig On Cardinal Territory · Foul Territory

0:06
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Cardinal Territory.
0:10
Speaker 1: And today we have a very special guest. He's a
0:13
Speaker 1: twoy and eleven World Series champion. Right now he works
0:18
Speaker 1: as part of baseball ops for the San Diego Padres.
0:22
Speaker 1: Cardinal Finn certainly know him. He is Alan Craig hi Allen.
0:27
Speaker 1: How are you.
0:29
Speaker 2: What's up, Jim kat Hayes. Good to see you, man,
0:31
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me on.
0:33
Speaker 1: Good to see I want to start by catching up
0:35
Speaker 1: because it's been a little while. You're part of the
0:38
Speaker 1: Padres organization, have been for a while. Tell us a
0:42
Speaker 1: little bit about what you do for them.
0:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is my eighth season with the with the Padres.
0:50
Speaker 2: They signed me as a minor league free agent back
0:51
Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen. I played in Triple A that year
0:54
Speaker 2: and then they hired me to be in the front office.
0:57
Speaker 2: You know, for the past eight years. My roles you know,
1:00
Speaker 2: evolved and changed quite a bit over those years. The
1:03
Speaker 2: last three years have been you know, kind of focused
1:06
Speaker 2: on you know, the major league team and working around
1:08
Speaker 2: ops around the major league team and uh, you know,
1:10
Speaker 2: doing a lot of different things. You know, been blessed
1:12
Speaker 2: to be a part of the Potter's organization. They've allowed
1:15
Speaker 2: me to you know, be exposed to pretty much every
1:17
Speaker 2: department within the front office, and you know, gained a
1:21
Speaker 2: pretty good understanding of you know, what it kind of
1:24
Speaker 2: looks like behind the scenes, you know, you know in
1:26
Speaker 2: the front office with scouting, amateur scouting, pro scouting, player development,
1:32
Speaker 2: you know, in the Major league ops around the team. So,
1:35
Speaker 2: you know, blessed to have the opportunity and learn. I
1:37
Speaker 2: love the game and love to continue to learn about it.
1:41
Speaker 2: So excited for the for the opportunities they've given me.
1:44
Speaker 2: So sounds great.
1:46
Speaker 1: And uh, I know you're also a girl dad, right,
1:49
Speaker 1: you have a couple of girls. Been a while, so
1:51
Speaker 1: tell me about when you're not working the day to day.
1:54
Speaker 2: For Alan Craig. Yeah, so I have three girls and
1:58
Speaker 2: I have a son who's three years old. Now, so
2:01
Speaker 2: I have four kids, and I lost my oldest time flies.
2:07
Speaker 2: You look up and the World Series was fifteen years ago, right,
2:11
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, I have three girls. I have a
2:14
Speaker 2: thirteen year old, a ten year old, a seven year old,
2:16
Speaker 2: and then my son's three. So yeah, you know, obviously,
2:20
Speaker 2: like you know, family is my my number one priority,
2:23
Speaker 2: and you know, my wife and I are on you know,
2:25
Speaker 2: the full circuit of you know, taking our girls to
2:27
Speaker 2: horseback riding, taking them to school. My middle daughter plays basketball,
2:32
Speaker 2: and you know, my son loves to hit, throw and
2:36
Speaker 2: play basketball in the front yard, backyard, and you know,
2:39
Speaker 2: we live busy lives and we love it. So we
2:42
Speaker 2: have a great combination of you know, family life and
2:47
Speaker 2: and baseball life. You know, I'm blessed that my family
2:49
Speaker 2: loves baseball. My wife loves baseball, my kids love baseball.
2:52
Speaker 2: So you know, when I'm working, it doesn't really feel
2:55
Speaker 2: like I'm working. They enjoy being around the park and
2:57
Speaker 2: doing all that stuff. So you know, us for sure.
3:01
Speaker 1: Perfect perfect Now if your kids realize but they hit
3:05
Speaker 1: the genetic lottery with you being one of the parents.
3:08
Speaker 1: You know, we have Matt Holliday on our show quite
3:11
Speaker 1: a bit. His kids turned out pretty good. Kyle Gibson's
3:14
Speaker 1: kid apparently it's pretty good. Are your kids showing the
3:19
Speaker 1: athletic ability that leads you to believe there might be
3:22
Speaker 1: college or something else in their future?
3:26
Speaker 2: You know, they are athletic, you know, believe it or not.
3:29
Speaker 2: There is some athleticism that goes into horseback writing. And
3:32
Speaker 2: my oldest daughter is you know, pretty accomplished in horseback
3:35
Speaker 2: riding and that's kind of her thing, and she wants
3:38
Speaker 2: to go on and be a nurse. My middle daughter
3:40
Speaker 2: loves basketball and you know she's I think she's got
3:43
Speaker 2: a chance to be pretty good. You know, she continues
3:46
Speaker 2: to love it and work hard at it. My youngest
3:48
Speaker 2: daughter is actually she's seven, and she's just picking up
3:52
Speaker 2: a baseball bat for the first time, and she wants
3:54
Speaker 2: me to work with her swing. And I mean she's
3:56
Speaker 2: improving like daily, so you know, there's definitely some sneaky
3:59
Speaker 2: apple this isn't in there. And then you know, my
4:02
Speaker 2: son is asking me to hit and throw every single day,
4:04
Speaker 2: like I mentioned, and you know, he's got a nice
4:07
Speaker 2: little lefty swing and you know, he basically thinks he's
4:10
Speaker 2: on the Padres team, and it's it's the coolest thing
4:13
Speaker 2: to watch him watch the games, ask me amazing questions
4:17
Speaker 2: as a three year old, and you know, you can
4:19
Speaker 2: see that love for the game just sparking, and yeah,
4:23
Speaker 2: it's it's awesome. So we'll see, we'll see what happens.
4:27
Speaker 2: But yeah, my kids, my kids love sports.
4:30
Speaker 1: My my son is seventeen. He's a pitcher and he
4:34
Speaker 1: doesn't listen to anything I tell him about baseball, even
4:37
Speaker 1: though he've been around the game a little bit, he
4:39
Speaker 1: does not listen at all. So enjoy while they're little,
4:43
Speaker 1: because at some point they might not listen to you,
4:45
Speaker 1: even though you're Alan Craig.
4:46
Speaker 2: All right.
4:47
Speaker 1: I think cardinal fans watching this have one big question.
4:51
Speaker 1: We'll talk about your your your time as a cardinal
4:55
Speaker 1: in a little bit, but they want to know how
4:59
Speaker 1: is to.
5:03
Speaker 2: Toty is amazing? He's uh, you know, he's living life
5:06
Speaker 2: at his own pace, like I always say, you know,
5:08
Speaker 2: he's not in a hurry to get to too many places.
5:11
Speaker 2: And you know, I can I could promise the fans
5:13
Speaker 2: out there that he's well taken care of, he's fed well,
5:17
Speaker 2: you know, he's socialized well with the people that come
5:19
Speaker 2: and visit him, and uh, you know, he's doing he's
5:22
Speaker 2: doing great. He's uh, you know, the best pet that
5:24
Speaker 2: that anyone could have. For sure.
5:26
Speaker 1: Now you told me that he got a visit from
5:31
Speaker 1: another piece of cardinal folklore recently.
5:34
Speaker 2: Tell me about that. Please, Well I can't I can't
5:39
Speaker 2: share his location that's undisclosed, but his caretakers, his caretakers
5:43
Speaker 2: put up a a a camera just to make sure
5:47
Speaker 2: that he's being taken care of, that he's eating his food,
5:50
Speaker 2: and he he had a visit last week. From it
5:53
Speaker 2: looks like the rally squirrel. That's no joke and that's
5:56
Speaker 2: not AI that that is not AI generated. I can
5:59
Speaker 2: promise everyone that Rally Scroll showed up and met Torty
6:03
Speaker 2: for the first time. So stars are aligning in some fashion.
6:07
Speaker 2: I don't I don't really get it, but that was
6:08
Speaker 2: pretty cool.
6:10
Speaker 1: That's awesome, right, uh, real quick. The Cardinals are in
6:14
Speaker 1: a reset, right you understand as part of baseball that
6:18
Speaker 1: they made some changes at the top of they're supposed
6:20
Speaker 1: to be a recent they're playing pretty good baseball as
6:23
Speaker 1: an opponent as my brother padres. Just your view of
6:27
Speaker 1: what the Cardinals have going on, Yeah, well, I think.
6:30
Speaker 2: It's It's part of the beauty of baseball is that
6:33
Speaker 2: you never really know. You know, you got to go
6:35
Speaker 2: out there and play and you know, we can make
6:37
Speaker 2: projections on how things are going to play out and
6:39
Speaker 2: this and that, but you got to play the games.
6:40
Speaker 2: And you know, I have two of my closest friends, uh,
6:45
Speaker 2: you know, in baseball in life over there working for
6:48
Speaker 2: the Cardinals in John Jay and Daniel Descalzo, and you know,
6:51
Speaker 2: got to know Ali over the years, and you know,
6:55
Speaker 2: there's clearly a lot of good things going on behind
6:57
Speaker 2: the scenes. You know, I don't know exactly what they're
6:59
Speaker 2: what processes or anything like that, but as someone observing
7:02
Speaker 2: from the outside, you know, I'm excited for you know,
7:06
Speaker 2: my two friends, you know, to be succeeding at a
7:09
Speaker 2: high level.
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8:10
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk to you about your career as
8:15
Speaker 1: a cardinal, and I guess the best place to start,
8:18
Speaker 1: right would be twenty and eleven when you guys won
8:22
Speaker 1: it all. I'm thinking about what you did in World
8:28
Speaker 1: Series Game seven against Texas, right. I remember you catching
8:33
Speaker 1: the final out and running in almost like on a
8:37
Speaker 1: cloud with John J big smiles on your face after
8:40
Speaker 1: you guys had done that. But you also homered in
8:43
Speaker 1: the game. Believe you rob Nelson Cruz of a home
8:47
Speaker 1: run in that game. When you think about two thy
8:50
Speaker 1: and eleven in that magical run, what stands out to you?
8:55
Speaker 2: Austy have like two or three hours to talk about
8:58
Speaker 2: all the stories and how we got to that game seven.
9:00
Speaker 2: I mean I think about I think about a lot
9:03
Speaker 2: of things. You know, It's funny that you know, you
9:05
Speaker 2: bring it up. I actually, my wife and I threw
9:08
Speaker 2: on the World Series DVD for our kids yesterday, and
9:12
Speaker 2: you know, we we try to watch it like one
9:14
Speaker 2: time a year. You know. It's not it's not about like, oh,
9:17
Speaker 2: look at what dad did or this and that, but
9:18
Speaker 2: it's about there's so many amazing storylines of resilience and
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Speaker 2: competitiveness and you know, working through failure and all that
9:28
Speaker 2: stuff you know that went on that I'm able to
9:30
Speaker 2: bring color to you knows as their dad and somebody
9:32
Speaker 2: that experienced it firsthand. So that's probably like the first
9:37
Speaker 2: thing that comes to my mind is just like team resilience,
9:39
Speaker 2: individual resilience, you know, WANO having to have Tommy john
9:44
Speaker 2: in the beginning of the year as our number one starter,
9:48
Speaker 2: you know, myself, David Freeze, Albert Poohols all broke bones
9:53
Speaker 2: in the middle of the season and came back and
9:56
Speaker 2: recovered and were contributors to the to the World Series team.
10:01
Speaker 2: And then being down you know, to our last strike,
10:03
Speaker 2: our last out, you know, twice, and you know, having
10:07
Speaker 2: the Lance Berkman come through, you know with his focus
10:10
Speaker 2: and calm, you know, in the face of pressure, and
10:12
Speaker 2: then obviously what what data did you know twice multiple times,
10:18
Speaker 2: you know, over that whole playoff run and specifically with
10:20
Speaker 2: the triple the right field, you know, and the walk
10:22
Speaker 2: off home run in Game six. You know, there's just
10:24
Speaker 2: amazing storylines and that's that's probably what I look at
10:27
Speaker 2: the most, is just you know, the team, the team aspect,
10:31
Speaker 2: you know, for me individually, just being able to start
10:34
Speaker 2: Game seven and left field and just have the have
10:39
Speaker 2: the game come my way like that and be able
10:41
Speaker 2: to capitalize in those moments is something that I'll that
10:44
Speaker 2: I'll never forget. With the with the go ahead home
10:46
Speaker 2: run and robbing a home run and being able to
10:48
Speaker 2: catch the last out. I mean, it's just something that
10:51
Speaker 2: that you can't really draw up. And you know, the
10:53
Speaker 2: last thing I'll say about Game seven that that was
10:56
Speaker 2: just amazingly special, is you know I mentioned Jay and
10:59
Speaker 2: and Daniel earlier. I'm just at my relationship with them,
11:03
Speaker 2: how close I am with them. You know, you look
11:05
Speaker 2: back to that ninth inning and you know, Jay caught
11:09
Speaker 2: the first out in center, Daniel got the second out
11:12
Speaker 2: of third, and then I caught the final out. And
11:14
Speaker 2: you know I said this before and probably told it
11:16
Speaker 2: to you, but it's like that's that's like storybook stuff
11:18
Speaker 2: and things just don't happen like that, and it was
11:20
Speaker 2: just a special time and it's very special.
11:25
Speaker 1: And the Memphis Mafia impact on that ball club. I mean,
11:29
Speaker 1: Cardinal fans love that you're part of a Cardinal folklore.
11:32
Speaker 1: But I'll be honest with you, if if that was me,
11:37
Speaker 1: I would have that DVD running on a loop twenty
11:40
Speaker 1: four to seven am. I. It's not something that would
11:43
Speaker 1: play I would have. So tell me your view of
11:47
Speaker 1: tell me your view of the Freeze Triple, probably probably
11:52
Speaker 1: the most famous of anything that happened that year. What
11:56
Speaker 1: was your view of that? Because the story came out later,
11:59
Speaker 1: the cruise kind of came in a little because he
12:01
Speaker 1: wanted to get to the celebration.
12:03
Speaker 2: What do you remember about mm hmm, Well, I may
12:07
Speaker 2: be wrong. I believe that I had just struck out
12:09
Speaker 2: right before that, So I was like disappointed and you know,
12:14
Speaker 2: put putting my helmet away and like making my way
12:17
Speaker 2: back up to the top step to root for him,
12:19
Speaker 2: and then it just happens fast, you know, and you
12:21
Speaker 2: see the ball off his bat, and you know, you know,
12:25
Speaker 2: being a guy that is shagged and shagged fly balls
12:28
Speaker 2: in right field with David hitting you know, the extra
12:32
Speaker 2: juice that he has that way, and you know the
12:34
Speaker 2: extra carry that he has, so like right when he
12:37
Speaker 2: hit it, you know, I knew it was going to
12:38
Speaker 2: be a close play, but I felt pretty good about
12:41
Speaker 2: it the way the ball comes off his bat, So
12:43
Speaker 2: you know, it was a really tough play for Nelson
12:45
Speaker 2: to make. I think that that he gets, you know, unfairly,
12:48
Speaker 2: you know, some criticism for not making that play, but
12:50
Speaker 2: a lot of people don't realize like how far back
12:52
Speaker 2: you need to go to to to get that ball,
12:55
Speaker 2: how tough it is to like make a play up
12:57
Speaker 2: against the wall, and how much carried David's ball at
13:00
Speaker 2: actually has. So there's a culmination of a lot of things,
13:03
Speaker 2: and David was did an outstanding job coming through for
13:06
Speaker 2: the team.
13:06
Speaker 5: There.
13:08
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break here. Our guest
13:11
Speaker 1: is Alan Craig. When we come back, we're going to
13:13
Speaker 1: talk more about Allen's career. You're watching Cardinal Territory on
13:17
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network.
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Speaker 1: Two thousand and thirteen. You hit three fifteen. Uh, you
14:26
Speaker 1: knocked in ninety seven runs and I have to go
14:29
Speaker 1: back and like double check this because I remember it,
14:31
Speaker 1: But it does. You hit four fifty four, let's runners
14:36
Speaker 1: and scoring position, four fifty four with runners in scoring?
14:41
Speaker 1: Where does that come from? You were always a guide
14:43
Speaker 1: known as clutch. What do you think that came from?
14:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wanted to be up there, cap, I wanted
14:50
Speaker 2: to be up there hitting. You know, the great thing
14:53
Speaker 2: about baseball is that when the game calls on you
14:57
Speaker 2: to be up, you're up and no one can help you. Uh,
15:00
Speaker 2: You're out there on an island and you got it.
15:02
Speaker 2: You gotta want it. You gotta want those opportunities. And
15:04
Speaker 2: I felt like over the majority of my career, you know,
15:08
Speaker 2: I wanted to be that guy that wanted to be
15:10
Speaker 2: in the spot too to drive in runs. You know,
15:12
Speaker 2: I felt like I had the right preparation that went into, uh,
15:16
Speaker 2: coming through in those at bats. I had the right approach,
15:18
Speaker 2: and I had a really good mentality, you know, to
15:21
Speaker 2: drive the ball consistently through the middle of the field.
15:25
Speaker 2: And you know, when I felt like there was a
15:26
Speaker 2: fastball over the plate, I was ready to go on
15:28
Speaker 2: it and uh and make something happened. And uh, you
15:31
Speaker 2: know a lot of it goes to like, you know,
15:33
Speaker 2: selfishly wanting to be the guy that that drives in
15:36
Speaker 2: the run, but but doing it the right way and
15:39
Speaker 2: setting up the teammate behind me with a with an
15:41
Speaker 2: easy at bat too. You know, I think there's a
15:44
Speaker 2: selfish way to go about it and a selfless way
15:47
Speaker 2: to go about it. And I felt like, you know,
15:50
Speaker 2: I had developed an approach that that really helped me.
15:52
Speaker 2: And and honestly, I looked back to my time with Tony,
15:56
Speaker 2: and you know, I connected with Tony like, you know
15:58
Speaker 2: very well, the way that he spoke, the way that
16:00
Speaker 2: he thought about the game, like, you know, psychologically, and
16:03
Speaker 2: the time invested you know that him and Big Mac
16:07
Speaker 2: invested into us as hitters on the on the mental side,
16:09
Speaker 2: and to be able to focus and come through in
16:11
Speaker 2: those situations like really help me a lot, and it
16:14
Speaker 2: pay paid dividends on the highest stage. So I'm thankful
16:17
Speaker 2: for the opportunity to be around those guys as well.
16:20
Speaker 1: I think the thing that Ali says about guys like
16:23
Speaker 1: you zero heart rate, like you can have the best intentions,
16:27
Speaker 1: you can have the motivation, the drive, but if you're
16:30
Speaker 1: in those moments and and you're maybe too emotional or
16:36
Speaker 1: want it too badly, it might not work out. Well,
16:39
Speaker 1: did you feel that way when you're at the plate,
16:41
Speaker 1: you were able to quiet everything down and just focus?
16:45
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, for sure. I mean everyone gets nervous, right,
16:48
Speaker 2: everyone gets you know, a little too energetic, And that's
16:52
Speaker 2: kind of where it all starts, is like before you
16:54
Speaker 2: get on deck, and while you're on deck, it's like
16:56
Speaker 2: you have to have the awareness of where you're at zickly, mentally,
17:00
Speaker 2: emotionally and find a way to like regulate yourself, you know,
17:04
Speaker 2: And that's something that you know, during that time period,
17:06
Speaker 2: it felt like I was really able to do at
17:10
Speaker 2: a at a high level. You know, you know the situation,
17:15
Speaker 2: you know can dictate your emotions, but but you know
17:17
Speaker 2: you can't. You can't let that happen so too.
17:21
Speaker 1: September twenty and thirteen, I think you're rounding first base
17:25
Speaker 1: and you hurt your foot, and no one knew at
17:27
Speaker 1: the time that was going.
17:29
Speaker 2: To be a real serious injury.
17:31
Speaker 1: What do you remember about that moment where it first
17:34
Speaker 1: happened and what were they telling you about the about
17:36
Speaker 1: the foot situation?
17:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I remember the play like it was yesterday.
17:41
Speaker 2: We were down a runner two and I hit a
17:44
Speaker 2: hard ground ball in Cincinnati in the four hoole and
17:46
Speaker 2: Bottom made a great diving play and you know, he
17:50
Speaker 2: made a really tough throw over Bronson Arroyo's head, and
17:54
Speaker 2: I believe Beltron was on seconds, so he came around
17:57
Speaker 2: to score, and you know, I was I was trying
18:01
Speaker 2: to bust my butt to get to get the second
18:03
Speaker 2: base so we get the tying run or go ahead run.
18:05
Speaker 2: I forget, forget the exact situation, but you know, it
18:08
Speaker 2: was one of those players where I was busting down
18:09
Speaker 2: the line to try to beat the throw. There was
18:11
Speaker 2: a poor throw, and then I just tried to, you know,
18:15
Speaker 2: make a left turn a little bit too quick before
18:18
Speaker 2: I got my legs under me, and uh, you know,
18:20
Speaker 2: it was just too much, too much momentum, and my
18:22
Speaker 2: foot my foot rolled over and uh, I knew it
18:24
Speaker 2: was pretty serious like right away. So yeah, it was.
18:27
Speaker 2: It was a It was a tough injury, that's for sure.
18:30
Speaker 1: And you know, to be honest, you came back in
18:33
Speaker 1: the World Series. Uh, some folks that maybe came back
18:37
Speaker 1: too soon, but the Alan Craig that was crushing baseballs,
18:43
Speaker 1: it wasn't quite the same after that was that foot injury.
18:46
Speaker 1: The thing you think kind of put you on a
18:49
Speaker 1: on a different.
18:49
Speaker 2: Track, I would I would say, so, I mean, I
18:54
Speaker 2: think I would say it was the catalyst and like
18:57
Speaker 2: you know, the beginning of uh, you know, things to
19:00
Speaker 2: come as something that I you know, I obviously played
19:03
Speaker 2: well that World Series, you know, on a on a
19:05
Speaker 2: poor foot, but you know, I also had a significant
19:08
Speaker 2: knee injury back on twenty eleven, where I fractured my kneecap.
19:11
Speaker 2: And you know, when you have two, you know, significant
19:14
Speaker 2: lower body injuries like that, it's you know, it's it's
19:18
Speaker 2: going to catch up with you at some point, and
19:20
Speaker 2: you know, you know, while you're going through it, it's
19:22
Speaker 2: really hard to pinpoint. I say, when you're going through
19:25
Speaker 2: a struggle, it can be tough to pinpoint what's exactly
19:28
Speaker 2: going on. But when you have two physical injuries like that,
19:31
Speaker 2: it's going to lead into you know, mental and emotional
19:34
Speaker 2: things like down the road. And you know that's something
19:37
Speaker 2: that I definitely definitely struggle with, you know, that twenty
19:41
Speaker 2: fourteen season, you know, and then after the trade in Boston,
19:44
Speaker 2: you know, it was something that you know, really just
19:46
Speaker 2: caught up caught up with me. I fought it and
19:48
Speaker 2: and tried to improve and I put up some some
19:52
Speaker 2: decent numbers in Boston and had a really really strong
19:55
Speaker 2: finish with the Padres in twenty eighteen in Triple A.
19:59
Speaker 2: So so yeah, I mean it could take two hours
20:04
Speaker 2: to talk about, you know, what happened and all that stuff,
20:07
Speaker 2: but yeah, the foot injury was was definitely significant, and
20:11
Speaker 2: you know, you talked about you know, coming back too
20:15
Speaker 2: soon and playing in the World Series, like, yeah, I
20:17
Speaker 2: definitely did come back too soon. But that's something that
20:20
Speaker 2: that I wanted to do. I was on a long
20:21
Speaker 2: term extension with the Cardinals, and you know, between myself
20:26
Speaker 2: and and Mo and the training staff, we talked about,
20:29
Speaker 2: you know, if we can make it to the World
20:30
Speaker 2: Series and if I can just stand in the box
20:32
Speaker 2: and hit, then I'm going to come and do that.
20:34
Speaker 2: And I'm willing to sacrifice whatever happens in the future
20:36
Speaker 2: for that. And you know, I was, you know, the
20:40
Speaker 2: biggest cheerleader for our team, you know, during that run
20:43
Speaker 2: in the playoffs to get to the World Series, and
20:45
Speaker 2: you know, and and came back for the World Series.
20:48
Speaker 2: It was funny. I remember, you know, before that, before
20:53
Speaker 2: that World Series started, before they were going to activate me.
20:56
Speaker 2: They basically like you know, wanted me to go take
20:58
Speaker 2: live at bats against Heimigercia Lance Lane. I think Karp
21:01
Speaker 2: was thrown at that time to basically show, you know,
21:04
Speaker 2: that I could still hit, and I hit really really well,
21:08
Speaker 2: and I think it was pretty clear for them that
21:11
Speaker 2: I could contribute to that World Series team. And the
21:14
Speaker 2: rest is kind of history, you know, whatever happened in
21:16
Speaker 2: my career after that, Like I can look myself in
21:19
Speaker 2: the mirror and say that I gave it all that
21:20
Speaker 2: I had and you know, didn't leave any stone unturned.
21:26
Speaker 1: You've had, obviously the highs and the lows in your
21:30
Speaker 1: major league career. In your current position, I know there's
21:33
Speaker 1: a time where you're working with players too, and even
21:36
Speaker 1: some minor leaguers. What do you tell like a young
21:39
Speaker 1: prospect who hasn't been through it yet, when you share
21:43
Speaker 1: your experience, you know, being at the very top and
21:46
Speaker 1: then having a battle through some things.
21:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that, you know, I tell players that,
21:53
Speaker 2: you know, if you haven't struggled in this game, you know,
21:56
Speaker 2: you just haven't played long enough. Like it's going to
21:59
Speaker 2: happen at some point. It's and it's how you respond
22:01
Speaker 2: to it, you know. And I think that like The
22:03
Speaker 2: biggest thing that goes into that is you know, always
22:07
Speaker 2: keeping yourself in the mindset of, you know, being able
22:09
Speaker 2: to make the proper adjustments at the right time. You know,
22:12
Speaker 2: it's not always an overhaul and your offensive game or
22:15
Speaker 2: defensive game like sometimes it is, but most likely it isn't.
22:19
Speaker 2: If you can make the small adjustments as you go
22:21
Speaker 2: game to game, pitch to pitch and all that, you'll
22:24
Speaker 2: find yourself, you know, in a really good spot. And
22:27
Speaker 2: you know, one thing that I've seen over the years
22:29
Speaker 2: and the players that I've been around, is, you know,
22:31
Speaker 2: the players that have success at a high level and
22:34
Speaker 2: do it for a long time, they know who they
22:35
Speaker 2: are as players and their identity and what they're good at,
22:38
Speaker 2: what they're not good at, and they're able to, you know,
22:45
Speaker 2: have real communication with their coaches about you know, getting better.
22:49
Speaker 2: They're able to filter in the good information and kind
22:51
Speaker 2: of put the bad information aside. They're able to ask
22:53
Speaker 2: good questions to their coaches, and they're able to have
22:57
Speaker 2: like real conversations, real back and forth. You know, the
23:00
Speaker 2: players that you do everything that a coach says, you know,
23:05
Speaker 2: tend to struggle at times and on the other end
23:07
Speaker 2: of the spectrum of the players that don't like, don't
23:11
Speaker 2: listen to coaches, are not coachable. Those guys struggle as well.
23:14
Speaker 2: So it's you know, from minor leaguers for anybody really,
23:18
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, where's that balance and how can
23:20
Speaker 2: you strike it?
23:23
Speaker 1: See, baseball is this is the last thing by the
23:25
Speaker 1: way them We'll let you go. But baseball to me
23:28
Speaker 1: is always evolving. But in many cases it's cyclical, like
23:32
Speaker 1: it evolves into something that it was doing ten twenty
23:35
Speaker 1: years ago. It always seems that something comes back. You know,
23:40
Speaker 1: you're around baseball now with your current position, how is
23:43
Speaker 1: baseball different now then back when you were a young
23:47
Speaker 1: player coming into your.
23:48
Speaker 2: Own Yeah, I think there's just clearly, you know, the
23:54
Speaker 2: elephant in the room is that there's a lot more
23:56
Speaker 2: you know, data and statistics around the game, and a
23:58
Speaker 2: lot more information that's making its way to players. You know,
24:03
Speaker 2: that can be good and bad. You know, in my experience,
24:06
Speaker 2: you know, you know, with the padres, I feel like
24:08
Speaker 2: I've gotten pretty well versed in a lot of the
24:11
Speaker 2: different data points and I understand it, you know, at
24:14
Speaker 2: a at a pretty high level, and you know, it
24:17
Speaker 2: kind of just comes down to like how that information
24:19
Speaker 2: is being given to the players. Is is it being
24:21
Speaker 2: given to them in a way that they can you know,
24:26
Speaker 2: actually like apply to their game. And I think that, like,
24:29
Speaker 2: you know, we do a pretty decent job of that,
24:31
Speaker 2: but clearly, like the numbers are different. You know. The
24:35
Speaker 2: one thing that I'll say with that question is that, like,
24:39
Speaker 2: you know, the fundamentals of the game, you know, I
24:43
Speaker 2: believe remain you know, and as the game speeds up
24:47
Speaker 2: and there's more numbers and this and that, I think
24:48
Speaker 2: it's like even more important to like double down on
24:51
Speaker 2: the fundamentals of the game, you know, offensively, defensively, pitching
24:55
Speaker 2: you know, always comes down to like throwing strikes, getting strikeouts,
24:59
Speaker 2: putting the ball in play and and all that. So
25:04
Speaker 2: that's how I answer that one. Kat No, I like it.
25:07
Speaker 1: I like it. Hey, Alan, it's great seeing We appreciate
25:10
Speaker 1: you spending half hour or so with us. Just know, right,
25:14
Speaker 1: you're a padre now, but Cardinal Fins never forget, never forget,
25:18
Speaker 1: and you're always part of that Memphis mafia. And when
25:21
Speaker 1: the Cardinals come back to town and I returned to my
25:24
Speaker 1: other job, I will say hi to your boys for you, cause, uh,
25:29
Speaker 1: you guys were fun to watch and uh, you're right
25:32
Speaker 1: descalso and John Jay your grave so we appreciate that one.
25:35
Speaker 2: Thanks.
25:36
Speaker 1: Thanks for the.
25:36
Speaker 2: Time, my friend. Hey Jim, thanks for having me on.
25:40
Speaker 2: I always love I always love seeing and talking ball
25:43
Speaker 2: with you. You're you're the best. You do a great job, man, Thank.
25:45
Speaker 1: You, You're you're the best. All right, that's gonna do
25:47
Speaker 1: it for this edition of Cardinal Territory. We'll see it
25:51
Speaker 1: for the next episode. Hopefully that one won't suck.