Stubby Clapp - Becoming a great Leader, Father and Coach

00:00:03:08 - 00:00:17:24
Unknown
Hey Team. Welcome to Benchmarked. Thank you for joining us today. Coach Messier, along with my co-host Coach Larocque today. We are excited to have a very special guest with us. I'm going to turn it over to Coach Larocque to handle the introduction for this one.

00:00:19:24 - 00:00:42:15
Unknown
Thanks, Mess. Today, we're going to have with us. Windsor native Stubby Clapp played collegiate baseball in Texas at both Parents Junior College and Texas Tech had a professional career, including Saint Louis Cardinals. He's an Olympian. Pan Am Games gold medalist was with the Houston Astros. Toronto Blue Jays and Saint Louis Cardinals at the minor league minor league level.

00:00:42:21 - 00:01:08:07
Unknown
2017, 20, 18 PCL manager of the year and then called up to the Saint Louis Cardinals in 2019. But most importantly, his famous wife, Chastity, who was a TikTok star. Please have a look at that online. And his two sons Cooper and Cannon as well as his daughter Crosby which is probably his pride of everything. Besides all these accomplishments I think family's most important thing.

00:01:08:21 - 00:01:31:11
Unknown
Stubby, welcome. Thank you, guys. Thank you. You hit it right on the head. Family's most important thing. That's that's one of the things going about is kind of taking taking a when it comes to making decisions about career choices and stuff that's going on. And I always think of the initials F and that's Family First and then you kind of go from there.

00:01:31:14 - 00:01:47:08
Unknown
But yeah, well, thanks for having me on. And I look forward to having a discussion. I remember we spoke I can't remember how many years ago, I think. Yeah. You're still with the blue Jays at the time, maybe New Hampshire. And in the summer, the kids would come up and see you in New Hampshire. And that's kind of the most of the time you get with the kids was during the summer.

00:01:47:08 - 00:02:08:13
Unknown
And I remember how difficult it was awesome when you had the kids was difficult at the same time when you had to go back. And it's funny for some of us that they kind of look at a professional career. But I got to see a little bit behind the curtain, which just threw you a little bit in that regard from a coaching perspective, not necessarily from a playing perspective, the sacrifices that are made, then people just kind of don't realize that specifically on your family.

00:02:09:09 - 00:02:31:14
Unknown
Yeah, it's it's not a it's not as glorious as it looks on the outside. You know, there's there's a lot of sacrifice made with my wife, my kids. My wife runs the home by herself. You know, she's a single mom for nine months out of a year. And then obviously the kids sacrifice the time away from dad. And so when and when the opportunities they get to come up in the summer, those are special opportunities.

00:02:31:14 - 00:02:55:03
Unknown
And we try to spend as much time with them when they're there. And, you know, throughout the baseball industry that's and understood lots and understood way of life. And you know, when families are there, everybody understands that family first love it. I'm going to rewind a little. We're going to go back in time. Mark and I being health and physical education teachers in the high school system here in Ontario.

00:02:55:14 - 00:03:14:05
Unknown
I'm going to rewind a little bit. Which high school did you go to in Windsor? I went to Kennedy Collegiate High School for the first four years, and then I did my always senior at Riverside. So those are not familiar with Oak is not a thing anymore. That's kind of our grade 13 at the time, which is I think should have stayed in the system, but that's a whole other episode for another time.

00:03:14:16 - 00:03:36:09
Unknown
It's a grade 13 for some of you guys are not aware it's almost was there almost a mark would you say for college university. Yeah for sure. That's definitely a great way to describe it. And I loved you in The O.C. and you could get those credits and that was a big deal. And it was kind of your, your punching your ticket to getting to universities in Canada or at least in, at least in Ontario.

00:03:36:18 - 00:03:51:15
Unknown
Yeah, and then, you know, right now kids are like 16, 17 heading to college, university and no idea what they want to take and do. It's, it's a tough one. Anyways, thanks for mention. You see it, it kind of opens up some other things. Did you have any teach or study at the time in high school that kind of had some positive influences on you, sir?

00:03:52:17 - 00:04:16:06
Unknown
Yeah, I had a couple I have a couple of different teachers. I enjoyed my, my PE teacher was David Pelz. He was the head of the swim team and at Kennedy it was penciled in every year that they were going to win the provincials. I mean, his business for coaching kids and getting the best out of them, you know, in the classroom and in their in their sports was really good.

00:04:16:06 - 00:04:36:21
Unknown
And then I had another guy, Chris McCaffrey. He was my English teacher at one point, and he was close with my dad. And so he always made sure that I was doing the right things at the right times and making sure I had my nose clean and to make sure, you know, that I had had the ability to be able to get a scholarship if I wanted to, you know, young young.

00:04:36:21 - 00:04:55:13
Unknown
And in high school, you didn't always know what direction you were going to go in. And that's where honestly, that's where the Oasis kind of kind of held me out because I didn't know was going to play baseball, baseball or hockey. I didn't know what I wanted to do at the time. And that extra year of going overseas, give me give me another year of playing junior hockey.

00:04:55:13 - 00:05:28:07
Unknown
Give me another year to mature was a that's my dog walking over and around doorbell. That's what gives me an opportunity to to mature another year before I actually left home and went to the Academy to baseball game in Montreal. It was it was fun. And I was saying to you, as we were on a show, I had a chance to play against you and be at some of the same national team tryouts as you and watch you and I remember my dad saying, you want to be a ballplayer.

00:05:28:08 - 00:05:45:19
Unknown
Watch this guy. And I remember watching you take ground balls and I remember watching you run the 60. I remember watching you hit. And I was just like everything you did, you did it with a purpose. And I think that was something that I took away as a young ballplayer that reminded me of, you know, this is what it is.

00:05:45:19 - 00:06:10:22
Unknown
And to me, you're right. At that age, you were a Canadian baseball icon. And just the presence that you had on the field was was outstanding. Now, how did you find the transition? Because you had a great career as a player and now you've got a very extensive career as a coach. How did you find the transition from playing to coaching First of all, thank you for the compliments.

00:06:10:23 - 00:06:43:05
Unknown
All those checks in the mail I don't know I don't know if they're going to check in for COVID before you get up but no, thank you for that. And the transition from from playing to coaching, it wasn't it wasn't terribly hard, but it wasn't easy. I remember the first time I picked up my head to hit ground balls to somebody in the infield and it was my roommate class and another great Canadian.

00:06:43:14 - 00:07:00:12
Unknown
And I looked up and I'm like, man, I'm like, he's still playing. And why am I not still playing? You know? Like, why am I having to make the transition to coaching now? And so there are some there are some self-doubt there early on. Like, should I still be playing or should I be coaching? Was the time to really hang up cleats.

00:07:02:08 - 00:07:30:08
Unknown
And there were some indicators, like after playing two years of independent ball and doing everything I possibly could numbers wise to get another chance at organization level and just didn't get the invite. So that was the indicator to me. Like, you know what if I've done everything I can and got all the accolades that I should, you know, in order to get noticed to get another shot and I'm still not getting noticed then it's, you know, it's time to hang up the cleats.

00:07:30:09 - 00:07:49:13
Unknown
And that's when I took the opportunity to make some phone calls and some emails they sent out the notice that I was ready to switch over to coaching, and I was lucky enough to get the opportunity from Houston. And, and that was, you know, like I said, that was the time when I first picked up the ball and I want to hit the ground ball and hit the ground ball across.

00:07:49:13 - 00:07:53:16
Unknown
And I was like, man. So it was it was a learning it was a learning curve.

00:07:56:19 - 00:08:14:11
Unknown
You have to take everything that you do as a player, and now you're trying to flip it over. Go go ahead if you want. If you got to go for it, dude, you got to do it. I don't even do the editing. I'm sitting there thinking like, how's Mark going to deal with this? It's okay. It doesn't matter.

00:08:14:12 - 00:08:33:18
Unknown
It's all good. And you just it go or try not to let I try this is the real world, man. Yeah. I try not to let it out too much because she takes off. She's the only one on the fence, so she'll take off through that. We've got some real gauge of the front, and she takes off and just goes wrong, and I'm just like, My God, it's my daughter's dog.

00:08:33:18 - 00:08:54:02
Unknown
So if she goes missing, I'm in trouble. We'll put out an APB on the podcast. Does anybody seem to clap? Family dog that's crazy. And my wife goes nuts over and she's just like, a bad dog gets lost. I'm like, Baby, we live out in the country. No, it's still a dog. Yeah, except the coyote. But I won't say that.

00:08:54:02 - 00:09:20:01
Unknown
I won't say not the coyotes. Well, they're there. And they are. They are very like, if we sleep with the window open our next night, you can hear their closing. I think we've had cats permission bears back to the coaching thing, back to the coaching part, making the transition it was the hardest part was actually taking the information that you knew as a player.

00:09:20:01 - 00:09:54:11
Unknown
When you're in the moment and playing the game and you're you're analyzing situations and you're making those decisions as you're playing, and now you're having to take that information and think ahead for somebody else and help them understand that information. So I think the whole thinking ahead part and anticipating what's going to happen as a coach and trying to remember every possible situation to help prepare the player, whether it's on defense, whether it's hearing, whether it's coaching or whether you're looking at know situational awareness and stuff like that.

00:09:55:24 - 00:10:24:05
Unknown
That took a while. That took a while for me to do. You know, in the first three years I did hitting, for example, like I can find I can find the problem easy, I can see what was going on. But it took me about a good three years of being in the cage every day with the hitters and then especially during spring training, that was the most important thing for me because there was other hitting coaches there in our hitting coordinator there, and we were all hands on at the time.

00:10:24:06 - 00:11:00:16
Unknown
It was those spring trainings where I really felt like I got that much more better because I had other guys to bounce stuff off of and understand what the root of the problem was, not just diagnosing the problem, but understanding what the root of the problem was, and then help the players fix it from their right. It took me a good three years, I feel like, where I actually got comfortable diagnosing the root and then having good drills and ideas and multiple ways of helping somebody fix what they're trying to fix.

00:11:01:12 - 00:11:24:22
Unknown
When you say root, do you mean you know? I don't know. Above whatever technique it's not applying. It comes from something physically. The big there's limitations physically there's mental blocks. Is that those? That's where the root is, not necessarily the end product. Exactly. There's others. So like just say somebody fly an open. You say somebody slide open with the front side.

00:11:24:22 - 00:11:44:22
Unknown
That's great. That's easy to see. Usually it's usually you usually see the front shoulder going quick or something like that. But if you look down at the feet, like, how are the feet planted you know, at, at the point of contact, are they planting square? Are they planting open? Are they able to keep a firm front side? You know, that's the physical aspect.

00:11:44:22 - 00:12:09:01
Unknown
But then I like how you you mentioned the mental part of it. It's like you have to ask these guys, what are they? What are you thinking right now? Because if they're thinking that they're worried about hitting an inside fastball, well, maybe that's the root of the problem because they're trying to cheat to get to that pitch and they're opening up the whole outside part of the plate because they're worried, they're mentally worried about what they're going to see.

00:12:09:10 - 00:12:33:20
Unknown
So those are the routes that we're talking about being able to understand how guys think if they're negative thinker, if they're a positive thinker, and especially like when it comes to teaching them how to do something or get them to recognize something, like are they good? Are they good learners through listening? Or they get letters through visual meaning like demonstration or do they need video?

00:12:34:15 - 00:12:58:07
Unknown
Some guys are good learners through just drills. Like you give them a drill to feel something, you know, and then they feel it and then they can apply that immediately to their to their swings or whatever it may be feeling or whatever. So it's like understanding how guys learn is also a big aspect of trying to get guys to the next level, that communication.

00:12:58:12 - 00:13:18:01
Unknown
Have you ever really had any athletes who haven't been open to or been receptive to the coaching and the advice that you've been given them, and how did you work through that? Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, especially the higher you get in levels, I mean, the higher the level you get, the more guys are, the better guys know themselves.

00:13:18:12 - 00:13:42:23
Unknown
The sometimes the more they get locked into what they think is good for them. And so it takes it right. And you build you don't always build trust right on the field. You build trust in the clubhouse. You build trust out at lunch, you know, trust dinner. You know, you build trust over a phone call or several phone calls consistent phone calls or communication.

00:13:43:21 - 00:14:08:11
Unknown
That's where you build the trust. And then goes from there. And then now, you know, once once you have their ear and you can communicate on several different topics, you find something similar that you both agree on. Or if I something similar that you both like, whether like I mean, I've gone as far as, you know, studying video games so I can talk with guys about their games.

00:14:08:11 - 00:14:31:16
Unknown
Like I hate doing things like I trust do and I'll call my son's up on my son's up and say, hey, what about I think it was it was the first game like Fortnite or something like that way back like, yeah, that's when I first came back. Like, I didn't know what it was, but I knew these guys were playing and I knew my sons were playing Fortnite with these guys online.

00:14:31:23 - 00:14:51:13
Unknown
So, like, I explain the game to me, like, tell me about the game. What what's at work? How does it work? So the next day, go in the clubhouse. You know, you can talk something other than baseball, you know, that starts to build a relationship that no one, they realize that you care beyond them besides the results on on the field.

00:14:52:01 - 00:15:18:00
Unknown
And that goes a huge way. And that only builds trust and relationships but that's going to start building a culture that's maybe not one of the most important things you've done for yourself and become a better coach. But I think the top one of the top things anyways is learning Spanish, correct? Yeah. Yeah. My Spanglish why I like it all, all in the cage.

00:15:18:10 - 00:15:38:23
Unknown
You know, I even studied I studied Rosetta Stone for a good month and a half for probably five, five to six, six and seven nights, one spring training. And I did it religiously and I was on it. And every day I go in the cage and I would try and spit something new out with the guys. And they were like, every now and that's not how you see it.

00:15:41:20 - 00:16:04:14
Unknown
Or they must have been at least impressed that you were trying there. Yeah, and they love it. Right. And I and I felt at times like I felt at times I like it was going to be easier for me to learn Spanish than it was for some of the guys to learn English just because of their background themselves and what kind of education they might have not had or had in, you know, in their countries and not had those opportunities.

00:16:04:23 - 00:16:32:16
Unknown
So I felt like that was my opportunity to be able to learn to to help them. But that's the thing, I think. And our big theme is our three C's, a three E's, and our three P's leadership is the big part. And I think I don't think you did it say, hey, this is going to make me a better leader, but it definitely made you a better communicator and probably broke some barriers between you and a lot of the players.

00:16:32:22 - 00:16:49:01
Unknown
But why did you decide, like, this is what's going to make it better for everyone? Because you living in, you know, in Tennessee, where it is the Spanish, I don't think this story is going to help you. I could be wrong, but I don't. Why did you yeah, but why did you decide to go that asks because you know, is going to make other people better.

00:16:49:01 - 00:17:11:06
Unknown
But I don't think everyone goes to that extent. So why did you do it? Good question. Your question and this is this is the long and short of of why I got into coaching because I wanted more players to have more opportunities, better opportunities and go farther than I ever did in my career growth mindset. That's just that.

00:17:11:08 - 00:17:42:03
Unknown
Just I wanted to give somebody else a better shot, whether it's learning how to communicate, whether it's learning how to hit whether it's and for me, like I think about the communication part of it between me and the players, but I thought about the communication part where those kids those those kids had to go into a completely strange country and try and go to try and go to McDonald's and order a cheeseburger, you know, like I try to think about that stuff.

00:17:42:03 - 00:18:13:05
Unknown
And for me, it was important for me that those guys had just as good a life out in public as they do at the at the baseball field. Amazing. Now, study on that as an extension of that youth. You've seen every level of professional sports as a player and as a coach. In your opinion, what's separate? What's the greatest separation from the people that just kind of hang out in the minors and the people that make it to the pros and the people that stay in the pros?

00:18:13:05 - 00:18:39:11
Unknown
What's the difference? What what can you can you label a couple of things that really separates people from making it and staying preparation is, number one, preparing to do from preparing what you're going to do for that day, for practice, from preparing to what you're going to do in the game and what you're studying in the game, especially at this big league level.

00:18:39:11 - 00:19:11:07
Unknown
It's a whole different bag of apples when it comes preparation, the amount of information that's available is mind boggling. So not only knowing how to prepare, but also knowing what information is going to help you and then taking taking what you're preparing for and being intentional about what you're actually doing. But it's great if you prepare your day, you know you're going to go work on base ready, you're going to go work on jobs, whatever it may be, you know, if you're a base stealer.

00:19:11:10 - 00:19:35:11
Unknown
But are you intentional while you're out there looking for tells tales on pitchers are you intentional about feeling the push off on your left foot? Are you intentional about how your feet are setting up when you're in that lead? Are intentional about running in a straight line? Or are you just out there in a couple of jumps? Three, four jumps, okay.

00:19:35:11 - 00:20:02:05
Unknown
My legs loose and move on leg that's that's the difference between a lot of guys. And at the big league level, I mean, you have to be intentional about what you're going to use as far as information, because if you try and use everything all at once, you will get mentally bogged down and I'll use Tommy Edman as an example like he was when he first came to the big leagues.

00:20:02:13 - 00:20:33:10
Unknown
You know, that was one of the first things we talked about, like just sat him down I said, Okay, you're going to be coming off the bench. Here's what I think you need to understand coming off the bench because you've never done it before. Okay, here's my ideas. I want you to gather your ideas and then go and sit with Chad or video guy and get with your hitting coaches, see what their ideas are and then and then and then simplify them all that stuff, stuff that you can handle.

00:20:33:10 - 00:20:56:18
Unknown
And then as you get better at it, then you can add those pieces back to it. So being intentional about what you're preparing for to be able to compete. And then, you know, we see a guy like that, it's his opportunity with the Gold Glove because he he did it at the very beginning. He was very intentional on how he prepared for each day amazing.

00:20:56:22 - 00:21:13:13
Unknown
That's excellent. And you've been part of the Cardinals now for a man, I don't know how many years in a row now gold gloves have been. So you lost your second baseman Wang, correct. Two years ago. Produce another guy. You know the gold gloves. Not that they just happened, but what do you think it is that is that the intent?

00:21:13:13 - 00:21:30:18
Unknown
Is that what it comes back to? Like how come the organization just keeps producing gold? Glovers Well, no, no. Well, we got good athletes. I'll just I'll just throw that out there. We have we're really good athletes on the infield. And when you have a good athlete. Sorry, I I'm going to cut you off there for a second.

00:21:30:18 - 00:21:51:09
Unknown
So does every other major league team study. Okay. And I'm going to I'm going to give you the next part. Think you have good athletes, right? But you have athletes that are intentional about their work and what they're working on. And we have we have some good coaches with Josie. We can do a really good job down in the minor league sports.

00:21:51:09 - 00:22:10:16
Unknown
Now, he's kind of heading that up and he's done a really good job at preparing some of these younger kids on what they're going to face in the big leagues and how to be ready for that stuff. And then and then it's intentional on on their work every day. You know, we go down we go down and we break down.

00:22:10:16 - 00:22:33:01
Unknown
We break a break down video every night, you know, the good, the bad, the ugly. And when we do that well, we break down the good stuff. It's because we're trying to see, okay, what's working. We break down the bad stuff, right? What have we missed that didn't work? And, you know, there's, there's a lot of stuff that you can look at that you have no idea actually affects what you're doing and what your performance is.

00:22:34:02 - 00:22:55:11
Unknown
Now, I guess as a Canadian, my question is, we were all underdogs in terms of the baseball world coming out of Canada. Like before us, there weren't very many like Larry Walkers, the biggest name. You people think about it, and that's who they think about. When they talk about pain and baseball players. So is there an underdog that you just root for in the organization that you just love seeing succeed?

00:22:55:11 - 00:23:01:05
Unknown
Or is there somebody that you're just like in the background? Like, Come on, let's get it. I love more.

00:23:03:05 - 00:23:40:07
Unknown
I love all I love all my guys just because we're blessed with the Cardinals we have really good human beings. They're good athletes, but they're really good human beings. So I want I want every one of them to get $1,000,000,000 contract and be able to be said for their life. Like it's we're absolutely blessed with the Cardinals, with the type of players that we have when it comes to, you know, human beings on and off the field knows that designed by intent, as in if they're going to sign a free agent, if you are going to draft a while, drafting may maybe a little different.

00:23:40:07 - 00:23:58:02
Unknown
But example, sign a free agent after this. You have to fit the cardinal way or the cardinal mode. I would have to I would have to defer that actual response to like the front office type guys, you know, because I don't I don't get a choice in who we sign for free agents or anything like that. And I'm okay with that.

00:23:58:08 - 00:24:25:17
Unknown
It's above my pay grade. But it seems it seems very relevant that, you know, you have to I'm not to say they have to that because sometimes you need someone to break the mold a little bit, you know, like reminds me of $1,000,000 coach that I read but yeah, I can't give you a solid answer on that. But it just seems it seems, it seems that it does.

00:24:26:03 - 00:24:31:16
Unknown
Yeah. So based on that, like you've been in a lot of locker rooms as a player. And as a coach and so on.

00:24:33:18 - 00:24:55:21
Unknown
Leadership plays a big role in successful teams and successful individuals. How do you build that culture? How do you build that? Like, does the leadership build the culture? Are you guys kind of the older players can help formulate that culture? What is it that you see makes a good locker room? Makes a good team culture? Does it come from all parts?

00:24:55:21 - 00:25:32:03
Unknown
And what are some of the things that can work against a good culture in a Major League Baseball team? That's a great question. You know, the first thing the first thing that I'm going to think of is if you want to get culture, you got to collaborate. And that starts from from the coaching staff to the players so when we're doing things and we're trying to think about like how we're going to go about our day, how we're going to go about a week, what's a process look like you know, it's it's important that we include the players in those decisions when those players are included in those decisions.

00:25:32:03 - 00:25:59:24
Unknown
No. One, they feel like they have input in what's going on to, you know, what's going on with our team. And I think when they feel like that they're included they feel that No one, they feel like they have a say. So that gives them importance and value beyond just performing on the field. And when you have somebody that feels valued beyond just a performance, I think that that shines.

00:26:01:10 - 00:26:28:00
Unknown
And then they they begin to I think they begin to make other people feel valued. And when people feel valued, they want to be a part of something, right? And that's when you see teams, you see, you know, small groups of people band together and start to go on a mission important in the right direction. I'm going to I in a circle back from the beginning, I was just holding on to this, but I really got to get back to it.

00:26:28:11 - 00:26:51:00
Unknown
You said your dad had a friend who was your English teacher back in high school and he kind of watched over saw make sure, you know, you're kind of head in the right direction because high school's a tough time, let's say, for some adolescents at the time. How do you think that and I come back to your reflection of the five people you hang out with the most, but if you looked back at that guidance or that situation, how did that help you in a way?

00:26:51:00 - 00:27:09:06
Unknown
Did you feel like, give me some room to breathe or how did that help mold you a little bit? No. One and held me accountable for what I did at school, plain and simple, because I didn't want I never wanted to embarrass my dad. Or my mom. That was just something I love my parents so much that I always try to think about my actions.

00:27:09:06 - 00:27:29:13
Unknown
Like when you have those split second decisions, like hey, you're getting by, hey, you want to go do this younger than you? And it doesn't seem like a good, good idea right away. There's always that split second time of frame where you're like, Ah, this going to embarrass my mom or dad if I get caught, you know, mom or dad if it gets put in the newspaper or embarrass mom.

00:27:29:20 - 00:27:50:07
Unknown
Like, that was always my first thing. And so having having Chris McCaffrey there was like I always had, Okay, if Chris sees this, I know it'll I'll back to my dad, you know, and it's not that I was just a terrible kid, but there's always as an adolescent, there's always those challenging times where, you know, someone walks up, up to you in a hallway.

00:27:50:07 - 00:28:11:03
Unknown
Hey, man, you wanna try this and you're like, Yeah, I'm good. You know, even if, you know, even if you feel that it's shallow. Yeah, that sounds like fun. Like, let's try something creating. But for me, it it it always held me accountable because I knew it would get back to my parents, and I never wanted to embarrass my parents, so let's.

00:28:11:06 - 00:28:36:03
Unknown
Let's stay on the time machine theme. So let's travel back in time. And you could talk to Stubby, the 20 year old player at Texas Tech and what would you say to him? And then the second part of that question, if you can go back to I can't remember how old you were when you started coaching, but your first version of yourself when you were coaching What advice would you give yourself as a player, a call NCAA baseball player?

00:28:36:08 - 00:29:02:11
Unknown
And then what advice would you give yourself as a new coach in the league? As a player, I would have gave myself more grace to fail. I didn't understand and understand failure was a good thing. Early on in my career, I myself was very I would get very disappointed and frustrated if I didn't perform up to the levels that I thought I should be performing a team.

00:29:02:12 - 00:29:27:05
Unknown
And I didn't give myself that grace. And that's something that's something that I consistently talk to about athletes right now. And not that not that they strike out of a well and you flip your mind you know, you go you make a kind of a mockery. You know, it's just understanding how hard this game is, how hard sports is you know, to perform at high levels.

00:29:27:14 - 00:30:18:18
Unknown
And so that's that's that's the first advice I would give myself back then was like, you know, it's okay to fail as long as you learn from it. Now, going back as a coach on I think one of the best lessons that I learned early on that definitely that definitely affects me today and will for the rest of my coaching career is that like if you've got something on your mind that you want to address a player about doing something the way you like it done and it's really, it's, it's, you know, I don't do it in the heat of the moment.

00:30:19:21 - 00:30:48:23
Unknown
Okay. I always have a calm head. So the advice was if it still bothers you the next morning, so go home, sleep on it, if it still bothers you the next morning, then you have to take time to take time to think about how you want the conversation to go in a calm manner. Think about the result that you want to have the conversation and think about how you want that athlete to take the information before you talk to them.

00:30:48:23 - 00:31:16:11
Unknown
And then go talk to them. And that was given to me probably about my third year of coaching. And it came out of a situation that happened actually and tried to but one way or down like six or seven runs. And obviously to me logical thought like that's a no no, you don't do that. Jumped his tail right away in the heat of the moment and he barked back at me and I backed off right there because I didn't I didn't want it to escalate on the bench.

00:31:16:24 - 00:31:33:17
Unknown
But then my manager pulled me aside he's like, Hey, listen, guys, I get it. I understand you had the right thought process and it's not yours, but there's a better way to do this. And I was like, All right, give it to me. And that was the information that he gave me. Was it almost at the time to try some rice for myself?

00:31:33:17 - 00:31:49:21
Unknown
And I'm trying to use your experiences to learn from myself at the time I already know I'm off a little bit here, but it was more about I'm going to get this off my chest because it feels better for me, but not really thinking how it feels for the person on the other end. And now you're more cognizant of what's going on the other end.

00:31:49:21 - 00:32:25:02
Unknown
Not so much for you. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like, I like it. When he did it, I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed that he did it. I was embarrassed, but he tried to bite. I think it was like the seventh or eighth inning and we're down six runs. Like, you know, that's one of those unwritten rules like that game's over, you know, and and I was embarrassed that he did it, I think probably because I didn't give any information so I was more so like I jumped his tail right there to show the other team, like, you know, like, hey, we don't we don't play baseball like this.

00:32:25:18 - 00:32:49:19
Unknown
We always we've said in our show before. We've said praise in public and discipline in private. Yes, I like that. That's a good that's that's a great little it's a great little acronym or thought process to go by. And that's 100% the way I do it now. So, like, if they're if I have something that I want to address it's always a conversation and it's always a calm conversation.

00:32:49:19 - 00:33:13:19
Unknown
Now, in that part of being calm took me a lot of a lot of time to learn, not only as a player but as a coach because I was so intense as a player. Sounds like somebody else I know on the show all the above. So on that, do you find that being a leader in sports today is is more challenging than it was 20 years ago?

00:33:13:19 - 00:33:37:02
Unknown
Has things changed since you've entered the league? You have to approach people differently. How do you how do you see that evolution? I think the evolution has changed in the way that kids learn and adapt to think and take information. You know, back in the day, someone could jump my tail coming several different names and tell me that I'll never make it.

00:33:37:02 - 00:33:54:02
Unknown
And my attitude to be like, Oh yeah, I'll show you. Now you do that and they call an agent. You know, they call an agent and you're getting a phone call from the agent. You know, my player didn't like this, this. And so it's definitely a cognizant effort to make sure that you address people in the right way.

00:33:54:02 - 00:34:18:08
Unknown
And and frankly, I'm not saying I'm not saying that that's wrong because I think it's right. We just didn't know any better as player. But then, like, there's some things that happened to me as an athlete that I look back and I'm like, man, if I did, if I would have been a little bit older, I probably would knock this guy out if I if I did it a little bigger the way he dressed me because it's not right.

00:34:18:08 - 00:34:48:02
Unknown
I think it's it comes down to a human element. I think there's a right way to talk to people, whether they're athletes in the heat moment or whether it's your spouse or whether it's your boss. And I think everybody deserves an opinion. Everybody deserves a rebuttal to that opinion. And it's a conversation instead of a instead of a we do as I say, not as I do deep, deep, deep cuts with stubby clap.

00:34:48:17 - 00:35:07:05
Unknown
I love it. I love it. I love it. Now, do you do you parent the same way you coach like it or is it is it a different study at home than it is in the in the clubhouse? Yeah, I know. I do parent the way I coach. And I don't know if my player I don't know if my boss like he's going to call his agent.

00:35:09:01 - 00:35:39:18
Unknown
But I'm I'm I'm very honest with I'm very honest with my boys. You know, personally unfortunately for them, it's my industry, right? It's I'm paid to evaluate talent every single day. And so when it comes to them playing baseball, I'm very I'm I'm honest with them. And I don't necessarily I don't get I don't get real I don't get real crazy about the techniques and the results.

00:35:40:10 - 00:36:10:01
Unknown
I'm very adamant about effort level and how you treat your teammates. And to me, that's that's the that's the part that gets me the most is if I see bad body language, if I see if I see that you're not leading on the field by example, that's that's when there's usually conversation and that's where that's probably where I think I help them the most because I try to keep that in perspective.

00:36:10:01 - 00:36:29:06
Unknown
For you. Keep hitting on a lot of our nine elements, like you've talked about communication, you've talked about prepare. Now you've just mentioned effort. I want to jump back on to that we talk about effort. You know, we're looking at sometimes we put things to scale from zero to ten on a scale and we talk about no sevens because for us sevens is like that.

00:36:29:06 - 00:36:54:22
Unknown
Gray. Everyone's going to rate themselves a seven because it's a gray area rather. Six, five, four, three, two, one, eight, nine, ten. So in regards to effort, you talked about that's more important than, you know, like you said, the mechanics need to be perfect. You know, the swing, whatever the case, maybe would what's your thinking? Would you scale it every day after you're done a session or a practice?

00:36:54:22 - 00:37:15:00
Unknown
You know, we might try to use the word here. I'm trying to yes. They're great on my day's effort. Yeah, great. A diary, wherever the case may be. Jot down some notes afterwards about effort is it's a controllable right. That's one thing. Litter you can't control is your effort. Yeah, that's it. Right. It doesn't take talent to have them.

00:37:15:12 - 00:37:39:04
Unknown
That's it. Plain and simple. That's that's probably one of the best quotes that I've ever read. It doesn't take talent to have effort. And you're not going to be perfect every day. Mechanical, and you're not going to be perfect every day. Mental process. But you can be perfect every day given the effort that you have and you know, every effort or beat talent that doesn't work.

00:37:39:23 - 00:37:56:18
Unknown
I simple you can you can be the best here and all. But if you're not going to give the effort to be the best hitter that you are, I can take, you know, several guys that aren't as talented, that are going to have effort. They're going to grind out a BS that are going to you know, jump in front of every ground ball and I'm going to beat you every time.

00:37:57:14 - 00:38:24:06
Unknown
So for me, effort, effort, effort is one of the top one of the top things have you ever been frustrated with professional athletes that come through you and had amazing talent but just wouldn't put that effort in, put the time in? And what happened to that athlete? Absolutely. Never saw what happened. And how how can you approach those young coaches run into these athletes all the time?

00:38:24:06 - 00:38:40:08
Unknown
We just like if you can give us some advice on how do you deal with it? So like, for example, running running to first base, that's that's one of my biggest pet peeves. And, you know, we see it every day in the big leagues right now. But this one happened to happen in triple-A and one of our big players.

00:38:40:08 - 00:39:00:05
Unknown
And, you know, you'd hit a blazing five ball 500 feet in the air was barely touching first base when that ball hit the glove. So it happened twice in the benefit of doubt. The third time it happened is to prove some real quietly on the bench and just put my hands on his knees and just kind of whispered in his ears.

00:39:00:05 - 00:39:18:14
Unknown
And I just asked him, said, you know, how far right in fetus? And he said, yes, sir. I said, I appreciate it if you get around 90 feet so you could be on second base, hit the ball drops, please. And that was the conversation. That's exactly about as excited as I got. And it got better for about two days.

00:39:19:02 - 00:39:40:19
Unknown
And then it started out of habit he started doing it again and I just made the phone call call the communist say people say, Hey, this gentleman's not going to be playing for the next two days. Why? Is it because the lack of effort is he's showing something to other other players on his team that is not warranted in our organization.

00:39:41:06 - 00:40:02:09
Unknown
And they're like, Okay, go ahead, do it. And the third day, the third day that he sat, he finally came to my office and I just said, hey, listen, I said, I'm not going to remind you consistently about effort I gave you I gave you two graces. I asked you the third time you got a little bit better, but then you fell back into your habits.

00:40:02:18 - 00:40:23:10
Unknown
You need to create a new habit, and that's getting around first base. So from more job on second base. So I'm not asking to be up there. That's not that's not the kind of player you are. But I'm at play to be on second base of the ball dropped and said, okay, are those things that you can control that 90 feet?

00:40:24:03 - 00:40:42:21
Unknown
You know, you can you can control that 90 feet that effort that you give in that so I gonna jump to another one here, which is emotion because you're talking about the emotion you gave and the level of emotion you gave when speaking to that player about both that incident. But we use also event plus response equals outcome.

00:40:42:21 - 00:40:57:22
Unknown
That's one thing we use in regard to how we handle things. And the other one, we talk about signal lights, know when things are going well, that's a green yellow and things are starting to slip. And then red is, you know, we're kind of out of control. I might have booted one or two balls, you know, I'm, I'm falling behind hitters on a consistent level.

00:40:58:01 - 00:41:15:08
Unknown
I'm all for three. How have you taught either yourself how you deal with that? Either you can you know, from a business perspective, how are you doing it at your facility? How are you doing with your teams? You're helping out with the high school team right now. You said on whatever level you want to address that, but event plus response equals outcome.

00:41:15:08 - 00:41:35:09
Unknown
Let's deal with that one first. That's a great question right now, too, because actually I had a dad come up to me in the academy today to go. I was watching I was watching his daughter was working on the softball and she was working on her stuff. And him and I got to talking and he asked me if I did lessons and stuff like that.

00:41:35:14 - 00:41:58:07
Unknown
Yes. You know, this lady nonsense more. Would you work with softball? I said absolutely. And so I work with any athlete and and I said I said, what do you I said, you know, what do you see wrong with your tires hitting your fielding? You know, what's your what do you want me to work on? This is what any any points to his head like is like her thinking.

00:41:58:24 - 00:42:24:15
Unknown
And I was like, okay, I can do that right now. I've got 10 minutes. I can have a conversation with this young lady and just talk talk a little shop. And so long story short, he he went to put the balls away and I called her over there and I asked her her name and I said hi. I introduced myself and I said, I said I said, how do you said, how do you feel when you don't do something?

00:42:24:15 - 00:42:51:23
Unknown
Right. And she goes, I get frustrated. And so I said, why are you why do you get why are you frustrated? And she says, well, I feel like I let people down I said I said, you know what? I said that it's awesome. I said, that's that's a true feeling. And I said, that's a great I said, that's that that's a great thing to have because no one that tells me that you care about what you're doing and you care about how it affects your team so you're not thinking about yourself.

00:42:52:11 - 00:43:15:23
Unknown
So so that's huge. I said that's important. And I said that that's a true emotion. It exists. But I also want you to know that it's okay to fail. And she kind of looked at me like real perplexed, and I said, it's okay to fail. I said, I asked, I said, What's a good batting average in softball? And she kind of like him in harms probably a little bit.

00:43:16:10 - 00:43:35:11
Unknown
And she's like, 300. I said, Yeah. I said, think about it. I said, If you've hit 300 you really good. I said, So how many times did you just feel a lot of out of the thousand times when she was 700? I said, Yeah. I said, Welcome, welcome to hitting a baseball or softball and said, It's really hard.

00:43:36:00 - 00:44:07:13
Unknown
I said, it's okay to fail. I said, as long as you learn from it. I said, You're even better than the last rep that you had and you could see, you could see like the it was almost like a response of like, like a sigh of relief that I gave her. I gave her the opportunity to fail and let her know that it's okay that nobody's going to chastise her and nobody's going to tell her she sucks and nobody's going to sit around the bench because she didn't hit the ball the right way.

00:44:07:23 - 00:44:26:22
Unknown
And so it was funny. I watched you kind of watched her right before she left. I said I said, for the rest of your time that you're working with that I want you to smile and have fun. And I said, if you miss hit the ball, I want you to take your shoulders, shrugging shoulders and say, oh, well, and just make the adjustment for the next pitch.

00:44:27:12 - 00:44:54:17
Unknown
And when she walked away, she had a little bit more hopper to turn gallop. And it was just like she walked away, like kind of like, oh, it's okay to fail. It's a good thing. And I did I did some other things. I explained the T-shirt to her that I wore, that what I wear, what it means to me, and it's a failure success T-shirt and and it just kind of gave her like that feeling of, hey, it's okay to fail.

00:44:55:06 - 00:45:03:17
Unknown
But that's, that's how we become good. We become good from failure, because if everybody woke up out of bed and was perfect, this place would be boring.

00:45:06:14 - 00:45:33:02
Unknown
One said Okay. So we talked about because Marco added some of the stuff out. We talked about this young lady failure. I just want to be able to build off that. And at the same time, with failure strip, I guess to to explain the T-shirt, there's a T-shirt I got from oh, my you know what? Oh, my is our own hustle my yesterday.

00:45:34:16 - 00:46:01:15
Unknown
So it's a Canadian it's a Canadian T-shirt company. And follow them on Twitter and stuff like that or whatever. And it's the failure isn't great and it's chopped up on the top and then the success is right underneath it and white and basically the thought process is all your fail failures learn success. And so it's like I wear that T-shirt constantly to remind me, no.

00:46:01:15 - 00:46:27:03
Unknown
One, I'm going to fail. It's something I feel every day. I feel every day. Like if you listen, if you listen to it, we feel a life miserably, but somehow I'm still here and I'm still kicking. So there's got to be some kind of success. And so, like, I take that thought process to want to go to work, and I try and take that thought process when I'm teaching teach in the teaching the kids whatever it is for the day.

00:46:27:13 - 00:46:45:07
Unknown
And that's one of the first things. Like I've had several new lessons this year, and that's one of the first things that I introduced to them. Well, before we even start, I'm like, Hey, listen, it's going to be tough. It's going to be hard. And if you don't do it right, it's okay. And if you don't know the answer when I'm asking you questions, it's okay.

00:46:45:24 - 00:47:14:07
Unknown
I don't know. I don't understand. I've never heard that some other guy told me never to do this. Like, those are all perfect answers. Like they try to give them the availability to be vulnerable and failing, being vulnerable at the information they don't know being vulnerable and understanding emotions and letting that feeling of embarrassment. You know, letting them know it's okay.

00:47:14:07 - 00:47:34:12
Unknown
Because when you when they get to that point, they're going to try more things. We're going to experiment with more stuff. And then you never know what they really can do. Mark and I took a course was like six weeks, like Marc, I can't remember. And it was the courses about how to ask a better questions, like how to ask it's ask more, tell less.

00:47:34:23 - 00:47:54:17
Unknown
And it was just a certain book before. Now it's ask more, tell less for coaches and men. Mind blowing I try it with my own kids. I've tried it with kids in my classes, some of my players, and like you said, for lessons or communication because you're avoiding the yes no responses. Like, Why did you do this? I don't know.

00:47:55:05 - 00:48:14:15
Unknown
Right now it's questions like quality questions like how and you're really digging deep. And I've been blown away by some of the responses I would get when I get these short one word answers. And now I'm getting at least ideas of what they're thinking. And it it's their progress has been a lot better. Mine personally has been better just by simply asking better questions.

00:48:14:15 - 00:48:42:00
Unknown
It's unbelievable. That's awesome. That's awesome. I mean, it's it's when you ask questions number one, you hear the response, you hear the conviction and their response, and then you hear the type of information that comes out of the response. It gives you a better idea as a coach. Of where they're at, where they're at, understanding the information, where they're at with their confidence level, where they're at on actually understanding how to execute whatever we're trying to get.

00:48:42:04 - 00:49:07:07
Unknown
The step beyond that sounds like you got so many great things going on. Can I ask you how you measure success for yourself and others? Like how what would be your measurement of success? I get to wake up every morning restless, like I try and keep it simple. Like that's just the short, short end of it. As a coach, how do I measure success?

00:49:12:14 - 00:49:27:24
Unknown
Let me let me let me help you stab me with this little bit, just to guide you a little bit. We had this conversation on one of our podcast among ourselves, and we felt at some point, maybe for myself anyways, earlier my career could have been in wins and losses and championships and rings and those types of things.

00:49:28:09 - 00:49:43:04
Unknown
And then as they progressed, it became a little bit more about the process and the failures and those types of things. But it's the, you know, and I talked about myself, I call myself G one point. Oh, the G 2.0 where. But it just took me time, I think you mentioned this before to you, is your coaching career it take time.

00:49:43:09 - 00:50:05:02
Unknown
It takes time throughout to kind of learn yourself as a as a person more so what my thought of success was before and what I think of success now. Sometimes it is two different conversation. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think I think success for me, like thinking about it along those realms is just is definitely watching the process and seeing kids grow.

00:50:05:24 - 00:50:33:24
Unknown
Like I think about I've got three kids on the top of my head when we talk about this that walked into my academy two weeks ago literally cannot take a balanced swing in last night there's one there's one kid was he's ten years old and he's almost the same size as me, just tall, gangly, got the giraffe type balance and stuff like that.

00:50:34:10 - 00:50:57:20
Unknown
And he's actually he actually squared up balls hard enough to to actually make me flinch badly and I'll scream you know, like that was for me that success, being able to watch the process and watch kids develop from step two, step to step, the step. And then obviously like at the big league level, those your successes are smaller because they can do more.

00:50:58:07 - 00:51:27:11
Unknown
So there might be like smaller ideas that you're trying to get somebody understand where it's understanding the timing of a prep step so that they get a better jump on the ball, understanding situational awareness. So now that they're lined up in the right spot, and I'm thinking shifts, my like shifts are such a debacle right now when it comes to lighting up for cutoffs, relays like begging to really get messed up.

00:51:27:11 - 00:51:51:18
Unknown
If guys don't know where they're at, if they don't know where they need to be, if they don't pre if they don't anticipate what's going to happen prior to us. Okay, what's going to happen prior to the pitch? If it was hitting a gap like those for me, like when guys line up the correct way, that's a success whether we throw the guy out or not, you know, that's that's something else.

00:51:51:18 - 00:52:18:04
Unknown
It's like you said, I think it's the process of them knowing exactly where they need to be. Guys teaching other guys now veteran guys, veteran guys actually starting to take leadership roles and take take the rookies out of their under their arm and teach those guys. That's a success because that's not easy. That's not always that's trying to get some guys to be unselfish and teach somebody else.

00:52:18:17 - 00:52:37:10
Unknown
And you mentioned him before. Yadi Molina was an example you gave me in the past where I had made an assumption and terrible assumption that, you know, I don't know how many gold gloves, wherever it is and maybe you take your foot off the gas and you said that's totally the opposite. He's the person that would look for any flaw on a consistent basis and he's just persistent.

00:52:37:10 - 00:52:58:22
Unknown
And you talk about that a little bit. Doesn't have to be about him statistically, but that was an example maybe you gave me. Yeah, no, that's that's a great example. Right. So like these guys these guys function such a high capability now, especially mechanically, like not that they're flawless mechanically, but it's it's limited stuff. It's stuff that you have to like, really.

00:52:58:22 - 00:53:20:19
Unknown
You need to try to cameras now and like to dictate some of the flaws you can't see with the naked eye anymore. And then like situational awareness, like the foot on the gas tank thing is like when a ball is when a ball hits the catcher's glove. And I'm thinking about Yadi right now. When a ball hits the catch his glove, he hits his glove he's throwing the ball back to the pitcher.

00:53:20:24 - 00:53:38:16
Unknown
When he's throwing the ball back to the pitcher, I know that he's probably watching the third base coach. He's probably watching their bench. He's probably might be looking at a runner on the base. And for those 15 seconds, he scanning the field and like, I have this picture of him. What, what is mine is like, I got a pitcher.

00:53:38:16 - 00:54:06:03
Unknown
His mind is like a bunch of binary codes in a matrix. The stuff that he's able to see and do and process in a short amount of times. He, he does he his mind never shuts off during the game. And that's the way these guys get better. And that's these are the small successes these guys have is being able to process more and more information in shorter amounts of times to make better and better decisions.

00:54:06:13 - 00:54:34:04
Unknown
Those are small successes. That you don't always get to see until it happens. And for some of us on the outside looking in, there's some high end players, all stars on the on the team you coach right now. How does that jive together? Do egos get in the way? I don't know if I put you in a bad situation, ask these questions, but how does that how does that chemistry come together with some young outfielders that are up and coming and then it's just got all these pieces everywhere.

00:54:34:04 - 00:54:55:02
Unknown
They look awesome on the outside, but what's it look like on the inside? It's work. Is this like not if not everybody's best friends and that's okay. That's 100% okay. But as long as everybody's pulling on the rope on the same rope the right way, then you start to see those personalities, all those different personalities and stuff like that.

00:54:55:12 - 00:55:30:13
Unknown
They start to pull together and then it's work, it's constant, it's maintenance, you know, paying attention to what's going on. It's maintenance, listening to guys talk it's made and, you know, paying attention to any of the daily nuances of of how guys are feeling, of how guys are reacting and how guys are if they're making comments or they're not making comments and constantly nurturing that culture that we're all pulling on the road the same way I hear you talking.

00:55:30:13 - 00:55:47:11
Unknown
I keep hearing communication, communication, communications. Like, I bet you I didn't even listen to a whole story. Now, it's always going to come back to I hear you talk. I'm here. I'm I'm not listening to you. I'm hearing now that it's just it's everything else. It's like how people are feeling, how they walk, how they talk, because it gives you a better idea.

00:55:47:18 - 00:56:06:20
Unknown
And I think it's been from the beginning of the show, we talked about example hitting, and now I think you're always looking what's at the core you're not always seeing the results. It seems like we talked about this earlier. What's at the core and at the core is how am I feeling today? How did it go yesterday? All those types of things exactly.

00:56:06:20 - 00:56:52:02
Unknown
So that and that's the constant shall go without leaving that shit in. This is a good that's exactly right. Like it's the process that you're talking about. It's paying attention to everything. Before they execute. It's paying attention to when they're trying to execute. And it doesn't go the right way. Like, what's their reactions, what's their body language, what's their comments, what's like it's paying attention to all the little nuances of the process to keep the process going in the right way, to eventually get to the end result, whatever it is.

00:56:52:19 - 00:57:17:23
Unknown
And it's like, you think about it in our, in our perspective, like the end result is a World Series. You want a World Series championship but if I don't prepare for if I don't prepare for tomorrow morning, making sure that my early work is done and is going to potentially execute the right way worrying about the World Series is ridiculous.

00:57:18:16 - 00:57:44:07
Unknown
I need to worry about tomorrow. I need to worry about tomorrow's early work. I need to make sure that my stuff is scheduled for my for my defense and make sure that everybody knows where they're going, what their responsibilities are, and what they're going to work out. So I execute that process and if we execute that process step by step by step by step, okay, we execute that process, say, for a month and a half for spring training.

00:57:44:14 - 00:58:04:24
Unknown
Then we get to the season, we get 162 games. You repeat that process day in and day out, and you're the best at executing that process of making things happen step by step by step. And when things go awry, you get them lined back up as quickly as possible so that it's not going to be perfect every day.

00:58:04:24 - 00:58:21:20
Unknown
No matter how hard you try and do, something's going to happen. There's going to be a different challenge, it's going to be a different request, there's going to be a different drill that somebody wants to do. There's going to be a different you might have like I might have different schedules at 4:00 on the field for the field might not be available.

00:58:21:20 - 00:59:02:17
Unknown
I'm gonna have to make an adjustment. So the best executing a process, making adjustments day by day, and at the end of those same month and a half for spring training in 162 games, if we were consistently as a team, as a staff, as players and just doing that the World Series will will be there at the end process over outcome and you've been 100% and I just I can buy in that much more because you've been part of some Cardinal teams that have been their fourth place most of the season and all of a sudden it happens like late July August and it just, it just it clicks.

00:59:02:17 - 00:59:25:20
Unknown
I don't know what happens. Things just click and I don't I've watched it over the last two or three years where it's like you're sitting at the top of the division, everyone's catching up. You guys have been playing catch up, which I think is harder than anything else, playing catch up everyone can have different philosophies on that, but it's just and what I hear you say that it has to be the mentality of just stay consistent, stay process, aren't just stay process and you know, those things will happen.

00:59:26:01 - 00:59:36:15
Unknown
And I think you guys are proof in the pudding in the sense of like, it does happen, just stay with it. But how does that get boring or is it just great? Players love the boring stuff.

00:59:38:21 - 01:00:05:08
Unknown
It's that. So that's the discipline, right? That's the that's the discipline of life is executing what's boring because that's what works everybody can we can all we can always go get a new guy. That's exciting for a little while. But is that gadget work? We can try new drills, but does that drill work? If it does keep it make that boring, right?

01:00:05:13 - 01:00:31:05
Unknown
When you make something boring, that means you're doing it right. Now, do we need stuff that's tough and challenging? Absolutely. So like that process we're always going to evaluate is there something better we can be doing? Is there a different drew we could be doing? Is there a different daily schedule that we can put together that's going to that's going to maybe engage the guys better?

01:00:31:19 - 01:00:53:04
Unknown
That's a part of the process is finding out, do we need to get do we need to do something different now? So that's a good question. Mike, yeah, it does sound boring, but in the process, you're also questioning, okay, what can be better? Can we do something different? Can we add a different gadget to engage the guys in a different way?

01:00:53:05 - 01:01:18:23
Unknown
So when they're seeing the results, they're they're grabbing the information in a different way. So that's a part of the boring is actually asking, can we can we do something different because you're paying attention again to their nonverbal or how they're feeling and. Yeah, yeah. I mean, like, I like, like, I think I think about the infill things like, like I have certain I have certain laws that we take in field a certain way.

01:01:18:23 - 01:01:40:08
Unknown
We do a in a certain way. We do certain stuff certain ways. But it's different every day. So like we might do we might do ground balls in a left handed shift. One day we'll do ground balls in a right hand shift. The next day we'll do a regular ground ball routine that we execute. That's going to be one day.

01:01:40:08 - 01:01:56:17
Unknown
So that's three different days of work right there. But it's different work, different situation. So I'm keeping their mind engaged in different ways. That's part of it. And like even law, I'll go to the players and I'll ask the players, Hey, what can we do differently? Is it something that I'm missing or something that you guys have seen?

01:01:56:17 - 01:02:18:21
Unknown
Or Is there something you do in the off season that you guys like that we could do that we don't do here like? And again, there's a part of building culture, right? Looking for players information to be included so that they have input on what we're doing. So like player fed or player led instead of coach fed minutes, he's helping us out here.

01:02:19:05 - 01:02:47:24
Unknown
Yeah. Anything else gets you one more. And then I think just about every team. Yeah, we're we're pretty much on the home stretch here. Stubby I want to go with your routines. I find routines are important. What is your daily routine throughout the field that you're at work where work is? What's what's a typical routine and what do you think of routines routines every night right now we function.

01:02:48:02 - 01:03:14:10
Unknown
We function through change. Number one, I think routines are great because that's a type of it's a type of checklist right. And so when you have checklists or routines, you have things that you're able to make sure that you're covering all your bases to make sure the day is done. So, like, for me, I'll go in and out the briefing up to give me a second.

01:03:15:03 - 01:03:42:14
Unknown
Are you in and usually I'll make sure that in some of the redraft from from the season. Oh, my goodness. My dogs are actually coming up. Yeah, it's just pitches them like pushing the ball I think picture stuff is having a great time with those puppies there. I think we're doing it on purpose. But is there anything in your chain on purpose that they they know?

01:03:42:14 - 01:04:00:06
Unknown
Exactly. It's funny because it was funny. I was doing an interview, I was doing an interview a while ago and they did the same thing. It was like they knew I was on the computer and trying to get some stuff done. And normally they if I'm sitting on the couch, I'll have three dogs on top of me laid out on the couch.

01:04:00:20 - 01:04:21:18
Unknown
Yeah. Hey, this is the real world. People got to know that we're we all have, like, magical sound studios that we did make this stuff happen in real world stuff. Kids dogs, whatever. This is real life, man. This is this is good, this is rich, this is it. So this is how it works. I know my daily routine well.

01:04:21:19 - 01:04:47:02
Unknown
Now, ironically, because of COVID, like, we're not allowed to get to the toilet, to the stadium whenever we want so, like, we have a designated time. When you come in, you automatically go right into your your daily routine as a coach. So I'll go and make sure that I've got everything scheduled that I need to have scheduled my check in with the trainers if there's anybody on rehab and see if there's somebody that needs something on the field.

01:04:47:20 - 01:05:09:01
Unknown
So they can do their progressions to get better. And then obviously I'll make sure I'll make sure that I have my all my work done on a computer making sure I have my my layouts as far as infield defense. And then make sure that make sure that I'm getting all my stuff done that I need to get done.

01:05:09:05 - 01:05:35:02
Unknown
If the manager's got any request off the bench, coaches got any request, if there's anything I need to tend to player wise, like. So sometimes I'll be intentional about if I need to talk to player about something or if I need to do video work review video work that are reviewed after the game the night before, and then we will go into coaches, maybe discuss our stuff there.

01:05:35:12 - 01:06:06:10
Unknown
And then and then you're doing your day go there, you start you start checking the boxes, meeting of players, making sure the equipment, making sure that your routine is done, making sure that you're getting early work done with particular players. And then you get into BP and you make sure that routines done. And then after, after BP, you come back in and you check those boxes again, make sure that if something didn't happen during BP, that you meet with the players to make sure that they need it and they want if they need anything extra, you're taking care of that.

01:06:06:20 - 01:06:29:24
Unknown
Making sure the paperwork's done. You know, that needs to be done as far as having stuff set up for the players, for the for in-game and then once you get all that, making sure that anything between the coaches, like if there's anything that happened the night prior to that that that's been covered and whatever you need adjusted is adjusted.

01:06:30:11 - 01:06:55:14
Unknown
And then they start there within probably about a half an hour of the game. Go and close up shop, make sure you got everything ready, go over my checklist for the game, make sure I got my cards and everything like that. Make sure that everybody knows if there's like lineup changes or something like that. Make sure the players know that so that when they're looking at their their defensive guards, they understand where the changes are.

01:06:55:18 - 01:07:19:07
Unknown
And and then you go through the checklist. I go, I have a checklist every inning that I go through checklist at first base when it comes down first base I've got a checklist of information that I'm telling them. I've got a checklist after the pitch. Make sure I'm looking around the field and making sure that the information that I'm seeing and I'm making sure that that information gets back to the runner between pitches they're on.

01:07:19:07 - 01:07:37:20
Unknown
And I come back after the inning when I'm on the bench and now I'm thinking defense. I've got a checklist of stuff before the inning starts with the same thing. I got another checklist of stuff that I'm looking at as the game happens. And then I'm able to communicate information to the manager. The bench coaches stuff is happening so they can make decisions.

01:07:38:11 - 01:07:59:20
Unknown
So it's constantly a checklist, checklist check. If you ever read Checklist Manifesto, it's a great book. Sounds simple, man. Thanks for up. Yeah, yeah. It was like, you know what people. And that's the first inning I watch you on TV. I see you walk out in between innings on TV. I was like, Oh, that's easy. I can coach first base in the big leagues.

01:07:59:22 - 01:08:21:10
Unknown
Why not? I can't wait to talk to my first base coach. Yeah, I guess the first person I'm calling when I get off this podcast is I'm calling my first base coach and I'm like, Listen, man, you're listening to this guy's checklist. Make it make to hear what. And no, I, I, that's actually, that's probably the first thing I do want to do.

01:08:21:17 - 01:08:56:01
Unknown
I get a copy well-deserved while I get a coffee to start my day before I flip on the computer and start going through our stuff. But yeah, I mean, in in the big leagues, like the game is won, games are won or lost on such small margins that those, those checklists are huge because you don't want to miss any information because your opportunity to pass information along is like you're talking like you get 15 seconds of time, that's it.

01:08:56:12 - 01:09:13:03
Unknown
So you get 50 games between pitches. So if you've got to get information passed on to the manager or the bench coach, you've got those 15 seconds. If you get information you're trying to pass on to the base runner, you've got those 15 seconds and you got to make sure that the first baseman is not listening you know, it's stuff like that.

01:09:13:03 - 01:09:35:21
Unknown
Like there's so much stuff that happens that nobody gets to see, which is that's part of it. And that's why I think that's why I love it so much, because it's, it's that to me that's competition. And, and that's the, that's the way you win baseball games. Is on small margin now. So we've, we've, we've asked you a lot of tough questions here.

01:09:35:21 - 01:09:54:11
Unknown
What's one of the craziest things like let's, let's go off off the radar here a little bit. What's one of the craziest thing that's ever happened to you is either player or as a coach that you're like if you had to write a memoir in chapter one, this is it. This is the most crazy or exciting thing or what's what's been the most exciting thing that's ever happened to you?

01:09:56:02 - 01:10:21:22
Unknown
For me for me, I'll say the Olympics, the 2004 as a child, when I was 12 years old, I was baptized for the U.S. national team when there was a tournament in Windsor. And that was when my love to to actually pursue being an Olympian actually like that flourished. I always followed the Olympics as a kid, love the Olympics, winter and Summer Olympics.

01:10:22:07 - 01:10:39:12
Unknown
And I used to be able to rattle off the 100 times and who was one of them. And I used to be able to obviously follow Tinker with hockey and I could, I could rattle off, you know, guys that were pole vaulting. I could rattle off guys over a javelin. So like I was an Olympic nut when I was a kid and I usually did this event.

01:10:40:07 - 01:11:11:21
Unknown
So that's where my love for the Olympics fell, fell in place. And I had no clue that baseball was not an Olympic sport at that time. Baseball was just something I did. I loved it. And then as I grew older, that love for baseball merged to gather with wanting to be an Olympian. And then in 2003, we had the opportunity to actually qualify for the 2004 Olympics, and that was probably one of the craziest, most fun times when we were qualifying for that tournament in Panama.

01:11:12:05 - 01:11:36:18
Unknown
And just the competition with those guys. And when we actually won and just qualified to go to the Olympics, like I still get I get chills thinking about those games and thinking about the time that like when we actually qualified, it was just like, oh my God, we did it because an epic moment in Canadian sports history really yeah.

01:11:36:18 - 01:11:56:16
Unknown
And it was just like, we actually we did it. We did it. And with that group of guys that were with I mean, it was so much fun. And then I think the icing on the cap for me, for those for that situation was getting the Canadian Olympic gear when we got to the village and trying on that stuff and started to become a little surreal.

01:11:56:23 - 01:12:32:06
Unknown
And the most surreal moment was walking through, walking through the gates at the opening ceremonies. And you're wearing Team Canada gear and you're there with every other athlete from Canada, and you're here in Canada chanted in Athens, and what a better place for for Canada. I'd like the original place of the Olympics in Athens, Greece. And getting to go and see all that stuff and getting to be a part of that Olympics was that's probably the most rewarding, the most rewarding, crazy duration of time for me because it was a childhood.

01:12:32:12 - 01:12:54:07
Unknown
It came true love it. Love it. All right since you're an expert in 15 second segments or this is our study, we like to give our listeners something to focus on between shows. Call it a homework assignment. Since we're teachers anyways, we always give out homework or we're the only phys ed teachers in the world with homework assignments to our podcast listeners.

01:12:54:07 - 01:13:16:02
Unknown
But I think it would be great if you gave us something to in 15 seconds. Can you think of what if somebody wanted to excel at leadership tip? What would it be? What would your suggestion to them be and how should they work on developing it? 15 seconds. I JJ, you're going to love this because you and I share books all the time.

01:13:17:01 - 01:13:49:19
Unknown
Go get the book. The Carpenter by John Gordon. The premise is to love, serve and care and when you get done reading that book, I think you understand at number one, how to be a better leader and how to help other people and help organizations businesses excel at being at being good at what they do. And John Gordon's got several books, but I read that one last year.

01:13:49:19 - 01:14:10:16
Unknown
Right, right before the season. And it helped me it gave me a different look at the way the way I did some things. Is it wrong that I'm sitting there like I'm thinking I'm on first base in studies at whispering that my ear before the first base because they love serving care? You're probably like, Yeah, are you sure?

01:14:10:16 - 01:14:32:09
Unknown
Why not? Well, you know, you're going to love to steal second base. You're loving by getting there and you're going to care about it when you score those veteran run never stolen second base in his life. So you're not giving him any grief whatsoever. You're saying, don't get ticked off. Read this. Yeah, I think we could get J.D. Base there we go.

01:14:32:14 - 01:14:55:15
Unknown
With a lot of help. Yes. I mean. I mean, yeah. All stubby. It's been awesome having you on the show. Appreciate it. It's awesome. I've enjoyed it, guys. Great, great time. Great questions of the great camaraderie. Well, that does it for this episode of Benchmark. Thanks for listening. Until next time. Keep crashing it That's it.