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Major League Baseball All-Star Wally Joyner
2 Plays2 years ago
In this episode we talk to major league baseball all star Wally Joyner. He played 16 years in the big leagues, and also coached in the big leagues for a number and he takes time to share the wisdom and experiences he gained from that long run. He talked about resilience, intentional practice and shared some fun rapid fire responses to some questions we posed to him at the end.
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Credits:
Hosted by Dustin Smith & Shad Martin
Produced by Shad Martin and IMAGINATE STUDIO
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Transcript
Introduction & Preview of Wally Joyner Interview
00:00:00
Speaker
Well, Dustin, Wally Joyner on today's Sportlight Podcast.
00:00:03
Speaker
We just finished an interview with him.
00:00:06
Speaker
Incredible, incredible interview.
00:00:08
Speaker
What would you preview for the people today?
00:00:11
Speaker
Wally Joyner, everybody.
00:00:12
Speaker
If you haven't heard, go Google him.
00:00:14
Speaker
16-year
Wally Joyner's Baseball Credentials
00:00:15
Speaker
Major League Baseball player, was an all-star, was a rookie, was a coach for many years, and we get into all sorts of stuff from practicing properly to dealing with slumps and even have some fun with him and throw some pretty cool questions at him that he had five seconds to answer, and he had some pretty cool answers to those questions.
00:00:34
Speaker
So it's pretty cool to be able to have a guy of his
00:00:38
Speaker
get on and talk with us for 40 minutes.
00:00:40
Speaker
I think listeners will enjoy it.
00:00:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:00:42
Speaker
One of my favorite interviews we've ever done.
00:00:44
Speaker
Hope everyone enjoys it.
00:00:45
Speaker
Welcome
Guiding Young Athletes: Podcast's Aim
00:00:46
Speaker
to the Sportlight Podcast for parents, coaches, and athletes.
00:00:49
Speaker
The Sportlight refers to the time in an athlete's life when they have increased ability to affect the culture around them and the increased opportunity to learn life's lessons through sports.
00:00:59
Speaker
This podcast aims to help parents and coaches capitalize on their athletes' precious time in the Sportlight.
00:01:05
Speaker
The Sportlight Podcast is brought to you by Especially for Athletes program.
00:01:11
Speaker
Hi, everybody.
00:01:12
Speaker
Welcome to the podcast.
00:01:13
Speaker
This is Dustin.
00:01:14
Speaker
I'm here with Shad Martin, and we've got Major League Baseball All-Star Wally Joyner.
00:01:21
Speaker
Wally, thanks for joining us.
00:01:23
Speaker
Dustin, it's my pleasure.
00:01:25
Speaker
Thank you.
00:01:26
Speaker
We're excited to have you on.
00:01:27
Speaker
Just refresh us all here, Wally, and for some of the maybe younger listeners.
00:01:32
Speaker
I know all the listeners my age and Chad's age are very familiar with you if you were a baseball fan, but when did you start your career and when did you retire?
00:01:42
Speaker
And then I know you got into coaching a little bit in Major League Baseball.
00:01:45
Speaker
Will you kind of give us that sort of update on how that all went?
00:01:50
Speaker
Yeah,
Journey from College to MLB: Joyner's Path
00:01:51
Speaker
I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, played basketball and baseball.
00:01:55
Speaker
I chose baseball to further my education after high school.
00:02:01
Speaker
I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to Brigham Young University, where I spent three years, 81, 82 and 83.
00:02:12
Speaker
After my 83 and junior year, I was drafted by the California Angels, who no longer are in existence.
00:02:21
Speaker
Now the Los Angeles Angels, but spent two and a half years in the minor leagues, broke into the major leagues in 1986, spent six years with the Angels.
00:02:32
Speaker
I left the Angels and went to the Kansas City Royals for four years.
00:02:37
Speaker
Then I played for the San Diego Padres for four years, 96 through 99.
00:02:42
Speaker
I was lucky enough to go back home for one year to play with the great Atlanta Braves at the time.
00:02:48
Speaker
That was in 2000.
00:02:50
Speaker
And then I ended my career back with the Anaheim Angels.
00:02:55
Speaker
So I played on two teams that are no longer around, the Anaheim Angels and the California Angels.
00:03:01
Speaker
But
00:03:03
Speaker
A lot of fun, 16 years longer than I ever thought I was going to play in the big leagues.
00:03:07
Speaker
After I retired, I took a few years off and then got back into the coaching ranks.
00:03:12
Speaker
I was the head hitting coach for the San Diego Padres for two years.
00:03:18
Speaker
I was asked to be the head hitting coach for Major League Baseball International, where we traveled around the world and
00:03:26
Speaker
We did camps and clinics for amateur baseball players.
00:03:31
Speaker
And that was fun.
00:03:32
Speaker
I did that for four years.
00:03:33
Speaker
And then
Coaching Career Highlights
00:03:34
Speaker
I got back into the big leagues with the Philadelphia Phillies as their hitting instructor in 2013.
00:03:40
Speaker
And then 2014, 15 and 16, which were my last years, I was a head coach for the Detroit Tigers.
00:03:49
Speaker
Nice.
00:03:50
Speaker
Well, wow.
00:03:51
Speaker
That's quite the career, Wally.
00:03:53
Speaker
Well, thank you.
00:03:55
Speaker
That's longer than I thought, even talking about it.
00:03:59
Speaker
Is there a portion of that career that you would mark off as the best part?
00:04:03
Speaker
Was there a three- or four-year period that were sort of your either coaching or playing that were just the glory years, you feel, the fun years?
Playing Years & Memorable Teammates
00:04:11
Speaker
I enjoyed coaching, but there's nothing like playing.
00:04:14
Speaker
And so my 16 years of playing, every year I was able to put the uniform on and go out and play.
00:04:23
Speaker
It was a great year for me, so I appreciated all the years.
00:04:27
Speaker
My first year, you'll always remember your first at bat, your first opportunity.
00:04:32
Speaker
We had a great team that year with many, many veterans and some Hall of Famers.
00:04:39
Speaker
Reggie Jackson was on that team, Bob Boone, Don Sutton, Doug Desensei.
00:04:43
Speaker
Oh, geez.
00:04:46
Speaker
Bobby Gritch, Brian Downing.
00:04:48
Speaker
So I learned a lot my first couple of years playing with those guys, which I think was very advantageous for me.
00:04:54
Speaker
I learned how to play the game the right way.
00:04:57
Speaker
And then in San Diego, 96 and 98, we went to the postseason.
00:05:03
Speaker
And in 98, we went to the World Series.
00:05:05
Speaker
We lost to the Yankees.
00:05:07
Speaker
But that season of getting there and
00:05:12
Speaker
And the drive and the success was probably my favorite year.
00:05:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:19
Speaker
See, I seem to remember you.
00:05:20
Speaker
I had forgotten about that World Series trip with the Padres.
00:05:25
Speaker
I remember the...
00:05:27
Speaker
the loss to the Red Sox.
00:05:29
Speaker
But in that series, you got sick.
00:05:31
Speaker
I remember you telling me about this.
00:05:33
Speaker
I didn't know that you, when we went golfing last summer, you filled me in on the whole story.
00:05:39
Speaker
And that was because you were red hot.
00:05:41
Speaker
You came out in the first couple games just killing the ball.
00:05:44
Speaker
And then you got some random, tell us that story.
Career-Threatening Injury & Recovery
00:05:47
Speaker
That blew my mind.
00:05:48
Speaker
Well, it was, you know, some of my injuries throughout my career were some rare, unique injuries.
00:05:55
Speaker
And so this one,
00:05:57
Speaker
Unbeknownst to any of us, I started, I was the first player ever to start in an All-Star game, which was a great honor.
00:06:07
Speaker
Right after the All-Star break, we were in Seattle, Washington, playing the Mariners, and I fouled a couple of balls off of my front chin hitting.
00:06:18
Speaker
The second one cut my skin open.
00:06:22
Speaker
I thought I broke my leg.
00:06:24
Speaker
They carried me off the field.
00:06:26
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I went to the hospital.
00:06:27
Speaker
X-rays were negative.
00:06:29
Speaker
But what happened that we didn't know about was I contracted staph in that wound.
00:06:35
Speaker
And so the second half of the season, I was complaining about being tired all the time and didn't have a lot of energy.
00:06:43
Speaker
And everybody put it in the category of you're a rookie and you're not used to playing this many games.
00:06:49
Speaker
So it made sense.
00:06:52
Speaker
You know, I did the best I could.
00:06:54
Speaker
My stats, my numbers went down the second half, but I was still good enough to play and get the job done.
00:07:01
Speaker
So we made the playoffs.
00:07:06
Speaker
Uh, we were up against the Boston Red Sox.
00:07:09
Speaker
Uh, my first two games had a couple of hits at each game.
00:07:12
Speaker
I hit a Homer.
00:07:14
Speaker
And, uh, in the third game back in Anaheim, I eluded a tag at home plate and I twisted my ankle of the same leg that I hit a couple of balls off of.
00:07:26
Speaker
And that night I came down with flu-like symptoms.
00:07:30
Speaker
I had a fever, chills.
00:07:33
Speaker
And, you know, I was, I was in bed saying, no, not now.
00:07:37
Speaker
We can't, I can't get the flu now.
00:07:39
Speaker
Right.
00:07:40
Speaker
And I jumped out of bed the next day and I collapsed on my right side and I looked down and I have red streaks going up my leg.
00:07:49
Speaker
I don't know what's going on.
00:07:50
Speaker
I, I,
00:07:52
Speaker
hobbled to the car.
00:07:53
Speaker
I drive to the ballpark.
00:07:55
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I go into the training room.
00:07:57
Speaker
And within 10 minutes, the doctors had admitted me into the hospital.
00:08:04
Speaker
And they were pretty serious about it.
00:08:06
Speaker
I didn't know what was going on.
00:08:07
Speaker
But
00:08:09
Speaker
What we found out was staff was going through my bloodstream and through my body.
00:08:14
Speaker
And it was touch and go for a while.
00:08:17
Speaker
I could have lost my leg.
00:08:19
Speaker
And luckily, I didn't.
00:08:20
Speaker
But, yeah, that was a strange injury that took me out of the playoffs, which I was unfortunately unhappy about.
00:08:29
Speaker
You never know if you're going to get back there, right?
00:08:31
Speaker
I mean, you were fortunate enough to.
00:08:32
Speaker
But in all those years, what, you made it one other time just with the Padres?
00:08:36
Speaker
Yeah, I went to the playoffs two other times with the Padres, and then my year with the Braves, we went to the playoffs.
00:08:44
Speaker
We got beat by the St.
00:08:46
Speaker
Louis Cardinals.
00:08:47
Speaker
So, you know, 16 years of playing and one time to the World Series, it's hard to get to it.
00:08:53
Speaker
And we were very appreciative of the opportunity, and it's one of the years that we'll never forget.
00:09:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:01
Speaker
Wally, you said something there a while back that Dustin and I preach a lot to our athletes.
00:09:05
Speaker
In fact, we've talked about it recently on some of our podcasts that when you recounted all of those great teammates that you played with your rookie year and that you attributed some of your success in coming into the league, being surrounded by those great people, we encourage our young people to take opportunities to be humble enough to go to your teammates and to learn from them and
00:09:30
Speaker
to learn from the great things that they do and the things they do well that maybe you don't do as well.
00:09:36
Speaker
Would you speak
Learning from the Best: Key to Success
00:09:37
Speaker
to that and what that looked like for you as you came into the league with those great teammates?
00:09:42
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:09:43
Speaker
I'm a big believer in playing the game the right way, learning how to play the game the right way.
00:09:49
Speaker
My manager that year was an old school manager.
00:09:52
Speaker
His name was Gene Mock.
00:09:54
Speaker
He was a no-nonsense guy.
00:09:56
Speaker
He lived and breathed baseball.
00:09:59
Speaker
And he loved the game, but there was the right way to play it.
00:10:03
Speaker
There was a wrong way to play it.
00:10:05
Speaker
And he told me something halfway through that year, which it stayed with me my whole career and even to today, which was he looked at me and he said, son, you're having a great start to this season and to your career.
00:10:22
Speaker
And he said, son, if you ever come to the ballpark thinking that you know everything about this game, it's probably time to pack up and not play anymore.
00:10:29
Speaker
Because if you don't have room to learn the game and watch the game and improve your game every day, you're not going to improve and you're not going to be helpful.
00:10:40
Speaker
So I took that to heart.
00:10:42
Speaker
And I truly believe that you can learn something every game by watching.
00:10:47
Speaker
You can't learn anything when you're talking.
00:10:50
Speaker
And when you're not watching, in my opinion, one of the hurdles that young players have to get over is thinking that by making it to the big leagues, they've arrived and that that's all that they have to do.
00:11:04
Speaker
And it's unfortunate to see these great, talented players not...
00:11:11
Speaker
progress and not improve and for some they're not around very long and so if i can say anything to young kids and to talented kids let your uh let your talents talk for you um
00:11:31
Speaker
play it humbly.
00:11:33
Speaker
You know, you're, you're, it's, it's a privilege to play the game and appreciate what you bring to the game, but also appreciate what everybody else brings to the game also.
00:11:43
Speaker
And, and you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll have a better opportunity and a better career.
00:11:49
Speaker
Did you, can you think of a player when you coached Wally that, that, you know, really exemplified that, that thirst or knowledge to want to,
00:12:00
Speaker
you know, continue learning.
00:12:02
Speaker
I know I'm sure you had some that probably felt like they had it all figured out, but did there any of them come to mind that you remember that were just, and because of that really benefited?
00:12:15
Speaker
Yeah, I, um,
00:12:17
Speaker
So when I was with the Padres my first couple of years, 07 and 08, they had a lot of talented players on the team.
00:12:25
Speaker
Adrian Gonzalez comes to mind as a very talented first baseman that came every day, wanting to learn, wanting to improve.
00:12:35
Speaker
And I think it showed with how he played every day and how long he played.
00:12:41
Speaker
You know, I know injuries play a part into your longevity, but...
00:12:47
Speaker
I think one of the hardest things to do is get to the big leagues.
00:12:52
Speaker
And then even something harder is to stay in the big leagues.
00:12:56
Speaker
And
Challenges in Maintaining an MLB Career
00:12:57
Speaker
when you, you know, one of the things I'm most proud of is I played 16 years and it wasn't given to me.
00:13:04
Speaker
I had to fight every spring training.
00:13:06
Speaker
There were six or seven first basemen that were at first base wanting my job.
00:13:09
Speaker
And,
00:13:10
Speaker
That fight and that challenge, I think, made us all better.
00:13:16
Speaker
I know it made me better, and I appreciated that challenge.
00:13:21
Speaker
Wally, one of the things we talk a lot about is resilience.
00:13:25
Speaker
As you just shared that, both with your injury and
00:13:29
Speaker
and with your having to win your spot every year over six other first basemen and also just playing a sport where you fail most of the time and you're still really, really good.
00:13:42
Speaker
I wonder what you would tell young people about resiliency, the importance of being resilient and what you've learned about that topic as a baseball player.
Resilience & Handling Failure in Baseball
00:13:56
Speaker
Well, I appreciate the opportunity to talk about this.
00:13:59
Speaker
You know, I think for many people, it's very scary to to push yourself to find out how good you really can be for many reasons.
00:14:08
Speaker
Number one, you may fail.
00:14:09
Speaker
The outcome might not be what you want.
00:14:12
Speaker
we're hoping for, but until you get to that point and until you push yourself to see.
00:14:19
Speaker
So listen, I wasn't the best player ever on a ball club.
00:14:24
Speaker
There were many doubters in high school when they asked me what I was going to do after high school.
00:14:28
Speaker
And I said, I'm going to play college baseball.
00:14:30
Speaker
And they said, well, you know, good luck with that, but I don't think you can do it.
00:14:34
Speaker
And then when I got to college, my hopes were to get, have a chance to,
00:14:39
Speaker
You know, there's no guarantees, but to have a chance to become a professional.
00:14:44
Speaker
And that's in the worst way.
00:14:46
Speaker
You have to go to the minor leagues.
00:14:47
Speaker
It's worse than college.
00:14:49
Speaker
You can barely great money every two weeks.
00:14:52
Speaker
I mean, you get paid nothing.
00:14:53
Speaker
So,
00:14:54
Speaker
You have to find out quickly if you really want to fight for this.
00:14:58
Speaker
But I loved it.
00:14:59
Speaker
I loved competing.
00:15:00
Speaker
I loved the opportunity every day going out and seeing exactly what my practice and my persistence was going to look like out on the field and turn into success.
00:15:11
Speaker
And you mentioned...
00:15:13
Speaker
Baseball is a game of failure, especially on the hitter side.
00:15:17
Speaker
In the big leagues, if you are three out of 10, you're an all-star.
00:15:22
Speaker
And if you do that for a lot of years, you're a Hall of Famer.
00:15:24
Speaker
To get the mental strength of thinking that 30% of your performance is
00:15:31
Speaker
is successful and to be okay with it.
00:15:35
Speaker
You know, it's completely different than anything else we teach ourselves.
00:15:40
Speaker
You know, in high school and in college, we want to make 90%, 95% on our grades.
00:15:46
Speaker
And if we ever brought home a 30% report card to our parents, you know, you wouldn't see us for a couple of weeks, right?
00:15:52
Speaker
But so I think more than anything, that's the struggle.
00:15:56
Speaker
I saw it in the minor leagues.
00:15:57
Speaker
I saw it in the big leagues where the fight to accept,
00:16:01
Speaker
what you're doing is positive truly separates the players.
00:16:09
Speaker
Wally, I'm looking here.
00:16:11
Speaker
I just pulled up your stats while you were talking there.
00:16:17
Speaker
I didn't – I mean, when you said 16 years, I thought that's a heck of a lot of games.
00:16:22
Speaker
So you played over 2,000 games.
00:16:26
Speaker
You had over 2000 hits, 2066 hits over 200 home runs.
00:16:33
Speaker
You only struck out 825 times, which is awesome in that many games.
00:16:42
Speaker
However, 800 times you walked back to the dugout having just, you know, had somebody get the best of you.
00:16:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:53
Speaker
I know that there were times when that happened multiple times in a game for you or maybe multiple games in a row for you.
00:16:59
Speaker
We call it a slump in baseball, right?
00:17:02
Speaker
What did you do or what do you counsel when you were a hitting coach to help guys –
00:17:07
Speaker
I'm curious your thoughts on helping guys get out of a slump.
00:17:10
Speaker
How do
Strategies for Overcoming Slumps
00:17:11
Speaker
we get a, you know, give us some advice on how we could tell our, our sons or daughters.
00:17:16
Speaker
Well, I'll say a few things about those statistics, Dustin, and which is, you know, again, the numbers that are on the back of my baseball card, I'm very, very proud of.
00:17:29
Speaker
They've been earned.
00:17:30
Speaker
One of the stats that sticks out, you mentioned half of it, which was, I struck out 800 times, uh,
00:17:36
Speaker
But I'm only one of a few in Major League Baseball that walked more than I struck out, right?
00:17:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:45
Speaker
So in saying that, I never went up to the plate to strike out and I never went up to the plate to walk.
00:17:53
Speaker
And those are results of an at-bat that, you know, I fought through.
00:17:59
Speaker
I would love to say that half of my strikeouts were caused by the umpire, but I can't say that.
00:18:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:05
Speaker
But you have to give credit to the players that are in the big leagues.
00:18:11
Speaker
They're making the living.
00:18:13
Speaker
And someone thinks that they're good and they are, you know, in the major leagues and on teams, you have a number one pitcher, a number two pitcher, three, four and five.
00:18:23
Speaker
Any one of those can get you out at any time.
00:18:25
Speaker
They're good.
00:18:26
Speaker
So, you know, that was the challenge every night to prepare yourself to face that picture and to see if what you were preparing yourself to do was going to make your at-bats positive that night.
00:18:39
Speaker
So in talking to, as a coach and as a player, um,
00:18:46
Speaker
You know, I would have to say 30 times in my 16 year career, Dustin, I got in my car after a ballgame driving home and saying, OK, this is it.
00:18:57
Speaker
I can't play this game anymore.
00:18:58
Speaker
Right.
00:18:59
Speaker
Nothing I do is right.
00:19:01
Speaker
Everything I do is wrong.
00:19:04
Speaker
I can't even make a hard out.
00:19:06
Speaker
Right.
00:19:06
Speaker
And so it is frustrating.
00:19:09
Speaker
It is absolutely frustrating.
00:19:12
Speaker
And again, that's part of the struggle of and how great and why baseball so great, because no one's immune from a slump.
00:19:22
Speaker
The thing between your ears can really play a role into your success and how you can get yourself out of a slump.
00:19:30
Speaker
In my many times of slumping, the easy fix was get the ball up, quit chasing, swing at a better pitch.
00:19:46
Speaker
All of these things were
00:19:48
Speaker
a part of my anxiety up at the plate, right?
00:19:52
Speaker
So, you know, you focus, you calm down,
00:19:55
Speaker
you slow the game down and when, and, and, and you say that slow the game down.
00:20:00
Speaker
Well, when, when you're not slumping and when you're in the zone, everything looks like it's slow motion.
00:20:06
Speaker
Right.
00:20:06
Speaker
And I, I would imagine it's in all sports.
00:20:10
Speaker
Uh, when, when the game looks easy to you and feels easy, that's, that's when things are going right.
00:20:16
Speaker
And, and we, we, uh, we as players look for that, uh,
00:20:21
Speaker
to stay with us, but it never does because we, we tinker with something and then it's gone.
00:20:27
Speaker
And so, um, you know, the struggle, the struggle of handling, uh,
00:20:35
Speaker
that slump.
00:20:39
Speaker
It's baby steps.
00:20:40
Speaker
There were a lot of times, even the greatest of players, I remember talking to Dave Winfield one time.
00:20:47
Speaker
If you remember Dave Winfield, he was a big outfielder.
00:20:52
Speaker
6'7", 6'8", probably 270.
00:20:55
Speaker
Just a giant of a man.
00:20:57
Speaker
He was intimidating up at the plate.
00:20:59
Speaker
He told me
00:21:02
Speaker
that part of that intimidation was to help him get out of a slump or help him get the edge on the pitcher that he's facing because any edge that you can get is very, very helpful and useful.
00:21:20
Speaker
So we all, we all go through it.
00:21:23
Speaker
It sounds to me like,
00:21:26
Speaker
great players as we've interviewed a number of people here and through all different sports that there is kind of this healthy acceptance that what we're doing is hard as athletes right it's hard baseball is hard and every now and then failure can start to multiply upon itself i've heard dustin say many times don't let this play
00:21:51
Speaker
you know, don't lose the next play because of this play, you know, that we get in that realm.
00:21:57
Speaker
And learning what I heard in your answer is that it's healthy to be able to say, hey, sometimes the pitcher's just really good and he wins.
Learning from Opponents & Failures
00:22:07
Speaker
He makes that great pitch.
00:22:09
Speaker
I've shared this with Dustin before, but my first college coach, one time I had a few strikeouts in a game and I was frustrated.
00:22:15
Speaker
I thought I was going to have this great moment
00:22:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:40
Speaker
That's why it's a great game, you know, and just that for me, that took weight off me that my coach watching me play understood that sometimes the guy pitching against you or the person guarding you, they're good, too, and they're trying to prevent it.
00:22:57
Speaker
And every now and then that they're going to win.
00:23:00
Speaker
And it's healthy for athletes to realize that, to accept that.
00:23:04
Speaker
to accept the reality of failure, but as we've quoted before, not the finality of failure that I'm not going to keep losing.
00:23:11
Speaker
I'm not going to lose next time, but that guy got me.
00:23:14
Speaker
I like that at all.
00:23:16
Speaker
I was going to, I was trying to think of what I was, how I was going to answer that.
00:23:19
Speaker
And that's perfect.
00:23:19
Speaker
You know I think it's important to understand that,
00:23:24
Speaker
that there's great people and great players that you're going to play against.
00:23:28
Speaker
And as you continue to rise in the level of your baseball career, high school to college to the professional ranks to, you know, I tend to – there's five levels or there used to be five levels of the minor leagues.
00:23:47
Speaker
There was A-ball or there was short season, rookie ball, A-ball,
00:23:52
Speaker
High A, double A, triple A, right?
00:23:55
Speaker
And, you know, people go, what's the difference in those leagues?
00:23:57
Speaker
Well, in rookie ball, everybody's trying to figure everything out.
00:24:03
Speaker
Once you get to, let's say, high A ball, you're probably going to face one good pitcher every five days.
00:24:12
Speaker
Double A, you're going to face two.
00:24:13
Speaker
Triple A, you're going to face three every five days.
00:24:15
Speaker
In the big leagues, you're going to face five, right?
00:24:18
Speaker
Every day.
00:24:19
Speaker
Every day, that pitcher can get you out.
00:24:21
Speaker
And so you have to understand that, but don't accept it.
00:24:25
Speaker
And I like what you said.
00:24:27
Speaker
It's not the finality, right?
00:24:28
Speaker
You're not going to fail all the time, and you don't need to accept failing.
00:24:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:35
Speaker
But this game is very humbling.
00:24:37
Speaker
And when, you know, there's a lot of funny stories.
00:24:40
Speaker
I was with Goose Gossage over the weekend.
00:24:44
Speaker
It was talking about that epic battle when he was with the Padres in 1984 facing Kirk Gibson with the Tigers.
00:24:52
Speaker
Right.
00:24:52
Speaker
And he was telling us the story and he said, you know, what really did it for me was before the game, we started talking about
00:25:04
Speaker
the what-ifs of this game that was about to be played.
00:25:09
Speaker
And they brought up Kirk Gibson, and Bruce Gossett said, I own him, right?
00:25:16
Speaker
And he said, right when I said that, I wanted to take all those words and put them back in my mouth because whenever you think you've got this game figured out, it's going to bite you.
00:25:27
Speaker
And that night, he was up against Kirk Gibson,
00:25:31
Speaker
The manager wanted him to walk him.
00:25:34
Speaker
He fought it and said, no, I can get this guy out.
00:25:37
Speaker
The next pitch was a homer, right?
00:25:39
Speaker
So the best of the best have failures in their career.
00:25:46
Speaker
And I think that not that we all want to fail, but unless you have failed, you don't know what success really is.
00:25:54
Speaker
And you don't know when to appreciate it.
00:25:56
Speaker
So it's part of the game.
00:25:59
Speaker
Yeah.
Mental Toughness in Baseball
00:26:01
Speaker
Well, one of the things we talk about, Wally, is mental toughness.
00:26:05
Speaker
And that's a word that gets thrown around by everybody.
00:26:10
Speaker
And resiliency is another one.
00:26:13
Speaker
We've already talked about that.
00:26:14
Speaker
But I found in speaking to kids that
00:26:17
Speaker
I'll use the word resiliency and then, you know, kids I coach or speak to, I'll ask them, do you know what resiliency is?
00:26:24
Speaker
And most of the kids don't even know the word.
00:26:25
Speaker
They've heard it.
00:26:27
Speaker
They think it just means be tough, you know, but mental toughness.
00:26:32
Speaker
I think that's another one that, well, mental toughness means like, what is it really?
00:26:37
Speaker
Like mental toughness, you just touched on it and so did Shad.
00:26:40
Speaker
You're not weak if you accept that you're sometimes going to,
00:26:46
Speaker
you know, you're sometimes going to lose.
00:26:47
Speaker
That's not weakness.
00:26:49
Speaker
That's just reality, right?
00:26:52
Speaker
But you don't have to accept that you're always going to lose or, but what's mental toughness to you?
00:26:58
Speaker
And how did you see that during your career in moments where you had to develop more of it?
00:27:05
Speaker
Or, you know, can we develop more of it?
00:27:07
Speaker
Is there any tricks that you use to, to be more mentally tough when you were in tough situations?
00:27:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:13
Speaker
Yeah, I think that I truly believe that if you understand the game of baseball, I mean, if you really understand the rules,
00:27:21
Speaker
If you understand the strategy, if you understand responsibility, what's my responsibility in this situation?
00:27:30
Speaker
What should I prepare for?
00:27:33
Speaker
And it's different.
00:27:34
Speaker
You have the catcher, first, second, third, short, and the three outfield spot.
00:27:42
Speaker
Their responsibility is all different.
00:27:45
Speaker
in that position on every play.
00:27:51
Speaker
So on the other side, as a hitter, I'll explain it this way.
00:27:57
Speaker
A lot of times we evaluate our success hitting with hits, base hits.
00:28:03
Speaker
Things are good, doubles better, triples really good, homers the best we can do, right?
00:28:09
Speaker
Well,
00:28:11
Speaker
there's other ways to evaluate an at bat and you can have some great positive at bats that helps your team win ball games without getting a hit that, that at bat, right?
00:28:23
Speaker
Because getting a hit is so difficult.
00:28:26
Speaker
That's why we are so happy when we get our hits, but you can make the ride out.
00:28:31
Speaker
Um, you know, one of the, uh, one of the obstacles or the, uh,
00:28:37
Speaker
the hurdle that I fought for many years as a coach was the acceptance of striking out.
00:28:45
Speaker
Again, it's just like accepting a pitcher is going to be good.
00:28:50
Speaker
A strikeout is going to happen, but don't accept it.
00:28:53
Speaker
And do everything you can every at bat not to strike out.
00:28:56
Speaker
It's going to happen.
00:28:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:59
Speaker
it and to say, well, you know, I was trying to hit a homer.
00:29:02
Speaker
I struck out.
00:29:03
Speaker
So it's all right.
00:29:03
Speaker
No, no, no.
00:29:04
Speaker
You know, you could do something if we know what the outcome is when you strike out nothing, zero.
00:29:12
Speaker
But if you do something else and you're at bat without getting a hit, who knows what could happen?
00:29:16
Speaker
You put the ball in play and the, and the hit and the pitch, the guy you hit it to isn't ready.
00:29:21
Speaker
And he makes an error.
00:29:22
Speaker
That's just as good as a base hit.
00:29:23
Speaker
And it keeps the rally going.
00:29:25
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:29:26
Speaker
So I hated striking out.
00:29:30
Speaker
It was, I loathed it.
00:29:32
Speaker
I hated it.
00:29:35
Speaker
And I did everything in my power, every at bat.
00:29:39
Speaker
to have a positive at bat, right?
00:29:42
Speaker
A walk can, can start a rally.
00:29:44
Speaker
Um, you know, the right type of out grounding, you know, hitting a ball to second with the guy at second base and moving him over to third, the guys at third, you don't need to hit, just get the ball in play and up the middle or in the outfield and you score the run.
00:30:00
Speaker
So, um,
00:30:01
Speaker
The evaluation of players, sometimes they can be hard on yourself.
00:30:08
Speaker
You can't lie about it.
00:30:10
Speaker
Don't lie about what is good and bad.
00:30:13
Speaker
But, you know, find the silver lining in the play.
00:30:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:22
Speaker
That's cool.
00:30:23
Speaker
That's cool.
00:30:25
Speaker
Can we move to another topic that we love to talk about?
00:30:29
Speaker
We call it win the hour.
00:30:31
Speaker
And when the hour is basically that you look at every hour of every day and you ask yourself, what's the highest priority for me during this hour of this day will help you get more out of life.
00:30:43
Speaker
If you're a math class, obviously your highest priority should be math, right?
00:30:49
Speaker
And in relationships, get off your phone, look people in the eye and get to know people.
00:30:54
Speaker
And, and of course, when we're on the field,
00:30:58
Speaker
or the court, our team and our coach deserves our work and undivided attention.
00:31:05
Speaker
But most people who become elite and played at the levels that you play at, Wally, later on when we talk to them about what they did as a young person growing up and some of the sacrifices they made and what they learned about working hard, all of a sudden it becomes this revelation like, wow, Wally Joyner just wasn't
00:31:25
Speaker
this incredibly gifted genetic freak that made it to the major leagues.
00:31:32
Speaker
But you set patterns early in your life and you had a plan, a design that helped you get to where you arrived.
Preparing for Opportunities in Baseball
00:31:41
Speaker
I would love if you would just take a minute and talk about what you learned as you kind of went through the progression of a young little league kid.
00:31:49
Speaker
to playing in the major leagues about what hard work looks like, how to work smart, just anything you would tell our young people about that.
00:32:00
Speaker
Well, thank you for that.
00:32:02
Speaker
And I agree with you.
00:32:03
Speaker
No, I wasn't the best athlete ever.
00:32:07
Speaker
I didn't look like the best athlete ever.
00:32:11
Speaker
And I can tell you, I'll tell you this story, which was, you know, I kind of got a little irritated when
00:32:20
Speaker
or a lot irritated when I made it to the big leagues and started to play well.
00:32:28
Speaker
And I, the, the word lucky came into the description of Wally Joyner.
00:32:34
Speaker
Right.
00:32:34
Speaker
And I was like, no, no, no, I'm not lucky.
00:32:37
Speaker
No, that's, that's hard work.
00:32:39
Speaker
Right.
00:32:40
Speaker
But then I, I, I heard it so much that I, I, I looked up the definition of luck.
00:32:47
Speaker
Right.
00:32:47
Speaker
And the definition of luck is when,
00:32:51
Speaker
opportunity meets, luck is when preparation meets opportunity, right?
00:32:59
Speaker
And when I found that definition and then I started thinking back, I agree with everybody.
00:33:06
Speaker
I was lucky, right?
00:33:07
Speaker
I was absolutely, I might've been the luckiest person ever.
00:33:10
Speaker
And the reason why is because I prepared myself the best I could for every opportunity that was going to be in front of me that day or that week.
00:33:20
Speaker
for that year.
00:33:21
Speaker
And I can look back at my college days as a freshman, sophomore and junior, and those years changed.
00:33:29
Speaker
And there were different preparations that I had to do to be successful.
00:33:35
Speaker
And then we moved to the professional levels.
00:33:40
Speaker
And I went from an aluminum bat to a wooden bat, and I had to get used to that.
00:33:46
Speaker
And it was a struggle.
00:33:47
Speaker
And so
00:33:50
Speaker
The preparation that you put yourself through determines your outcome.
00:33:59
Speaker
And everybody knows whether they did a good job that day or not.
00:34:04
Speaker
Everybody knows if they cheated.
00:34:05
Speaker
Everybody knows if I could have done more.
00:34:07
Speaker
And that's one of the things that I would always hear from players that didn't reach the goals that they wanted.
00:34:17
Speaker
Well, if I would have only done this, right?
00:34:21
Speaker
Or if I wouldn't have gotten hurt or other things.
00:34:25
Speaker
And, you know, injury, I mentioned earlier, injury is part of the career, part of the game.
00:34:30
Speaker
Plenty of great players that were injured early on in their careers that couldn't continue.
00:34:38
Speaker
But again, some of those injuries could have been prevented by being in better health, being in better condition.
00:34:47
Speaker
And some couldn't have.
00:34:48
Speaker
So I'm not the one that's going to evaluate that.
00:34:51
Speaker
But for me, I played by the rule of I wasn't going to be the weakest link.
00:34:59
Speaker
Right.
00:35:00
Speaker
Regardless of whether I was or I wasn't, I wasn't going to be the reason why we were going to lose today.
00:35:07
Speaker
And I was going to prepare myself in whatever way.
00:35:12
Speaker
I played first base and I took a lot of pride in my defense.
00:35:17
Speaker
Baseball started to figure out that if you made less errors at first base, you could go hit and you could shorten innings and you could win ballgames.
00:35:25
Speaker
So I was out there many, many hours taking ground balls, becoming a good defensive first baseman, becoming a good defensive first baseman for bad throws.
00:35:36
Speaker
and making outs to help the second base shortstop and third baseman complete.
00:35:43
Speaker
So there's all kinds of things you can do every day to become better.
00:35:52
Speaker
and do it.
00:35:54
Speaker
When I broke in, Gene Mock expected me to bunt whenever he asked me to bunt.
00:36:00
Speaker
He expected me to hit and run whenever that sign came on.
00:36:03
Speaker
He expected me to get the guy over from second to third.
00:36:07
Speaker
And all of these things I worked on every day so that when I was called upon to do this,
00:36:14
Speaker
I did it without any problem or I knew I was supposed to do it.
00:36:17
Speaker
Sometimes the pitcher got the best of me and he prevented, you know, if I know I'm supposed to get the guy from second to third over the pitcher knows too.
00:36:26
Speaker
And so he's going to try to prevent that.
00:36:28
Speaker
So that's the game inside the game.
00:36:31
Speaker
But, you know, players don't become one dimensional.
00:36:38
Speaker
The best thing for me that I learned early in my career was I needed to strengthen my weakness.
00:36:44
Speaker
And my biggest weakness was hitting against left-handed pitchers.
00:36:48
Speaker
So if I didn't address that, I was going to see a left-handed pitcher two times a game in the sixth and seventh and eighth and ninth innings, which was the most important innings.
00:36:59
Speaker
And if I didn't get the job done, I wasn't going to be in the big leagues very long.
00:37:02
Speaker
So understand weaknesses are.
00:37:05
Speaker
Don't deny it.
00:37:06
Speaker
Don't run from it.
00:37:10
Speaker
Strengthen it.
00:37:10
Speaker
And you'll be a better player.
00:37:14
Speaker
You said something there that's so cool.
00:37:16
Speaker
I think it applies to every sport, but I'm just thinking Dustin and I play college baseball together.
00:37:22
Speaker
And so I know like you get in that batting cage before a game and I know what most people are thinking.
Improving Weaknesses through Targeted Practice
00:37:30
Speaker
And it's let's try to put one in the seats.
00:37:33
Speaker
But he likes the homers, right?
00:37:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:36
Speaker
But you're sitting there.
00:37:37
Speaker
You are so intentional in your practice that you're going through scenarios in your head and you're practicing just hitting a ground ball or hitting to the right side to move a guy over.
00:37:47
Speaker
You're practicing bunting.
00:37:48
Speaker
You're practicing hitting off a left-handed pitcher because it's –
00:37:54
Speaker
it's the weakness that you had.
00:37:56
Speaker
And that suggests a level of intentionality that most athletes don't think through, that if they did, they could be more valuable to their team, not only addressing their weaknesses, but finding out what are my strengths and how can I enhance my strengths so that I can help my team more.
00:38:17
Speaker
And if we're self-absorbed,
00:38:19
Speaker
And in this case, it would look like just going and seeing how many long balls I can hit to impress the kids in the stands.
00:38:26
Speaker
That's not good for your team.
00:38:27
Speaker
It's not good for your career.
00:38:29
Speaker
It's good for that moment.
00:38:31
Speaker
But I love that level of intentionality that as you progress through sports, you start to learn how you can benefit your team.
00:38:39
Speaker
But I don't think I got that as a young kid and any kids or parents or coaches who can
00:38:46
Speaker
hear this and get that and start teaching that level of practice.
00:38:51
Speaker
It will be a great thing for the young person.
00:38:54
Speaker
Well, let me, I'll say a few more things about this.
00:38:58
Speaker
Nobody likes to hear what they're not good at doing.
00:39:02
Speaker
And nobody wants to hear, you can't do this, Wally, right?
00:39:06
Speaker
And that was told to me, well, yeah, you can't hit left-handed pitchers very well, Wally.
00:39:13
Speaker
The other part to that is,
00:39:15
Speaker
In batting practice, you work on things that you think is going to help you in the game.
00:39:23
Speaker
So if I want the ball to be thrown to me middle end, right over the plate for batting practice, how many times do you think I'm going to get that in the game?
00:39:35
Speaker
Never.
00:39:36
Speaker
A pitcher is not going to throw to your sweet spot.
00:39:39
Speaker
But what you try to do is get the pitcher to think that that's not your sweet spot.
00:39:44
Speaker
So what do you do?
00:39:46
Speaker
More likely than not, the first couple of at-bats in the game, the pitcher is going to throw away to me, right?
00:39:53
Speaker
So in order for me to be successful early in the game, I need to make sure that when that pitch is over the outside part of the plate, I can drive it over the shortstop's head, right?
00:40:02
Speaker
So I practice that.
00:40:03
Speaker
So when I see it, I know I can do it.
00:40:07
Speaker
And then they see that and they go, well, he can't cover the whole plate.
00:40:11
Speaker
So he's looking out.
00:40:13
Speaker
I'm going to throw in.
00:40:15
Speaker
Thank you.
00:40:16
Speaker
Right.
00:40:17
Speaker
Now you're coming to my strengths.
00:40:19
Speaker
And so that's the, again, the game of baseball is so good in the stretch in the strategy of, of how do you, how do you get a pitcher to throw your pitch?
00:40:29
Speaker
Right.
00:40:29
Speaker
Right.
00:40:30
Speaker
And it takes a lot of discipline.
00:40:32
Speaker
It takes a lot of patience.
00:40:33
Speaker
But more than anything, it takes a lot of swings and to be able to cover every strike in the strike zone because you're going to see those pitches more often than you're going to see the pitch that you're looking for.
00:40:47
Speaker
And when you get that pitch that you're looking for, we miss it all the time, but you try not to miss those pitches.
00:40:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:55
Speaker
Man, that would be some killer, killer advice for a coach or parent
00:41:00
Speaker
listening to this to tell their players.
00:41:03
Speaker
It's the same thing.
00:41:04
Speaker
I'm in the football world.
00:41:06
Speaker
It's the same thing in football.
00:41:08
Speaker
I'll have quarterbacks that I train in my other business that will say, Coach, I'm sending you my highlight film.
00:41:17
Speaker
And I'll say, I don't want to see your highlight film.
00:41:19
Speaker
Why do I want to see your highlight film?
00:41:20
Speaker
Your highlights are what you're already doing well.
00:41:23
Speaker
I want to see your low-light film.
00:41:25
Speaker
Send me all the
00:41:27
Speaker
Send me all the crappy throws you made so we can address those because I promise you before any coach recruits you, he's going to go watch an entire game or two.
00:41:37
Speaker
I met to that point.
00:41:39
Speaker
This morning, I spent an hour with the offensive coordinator of USC.
00:41:44
Speaker
And we were talking exactly about this.
00:41:46
Speaker
And he said, once I look at a kid's highlight film and I like what I see and I like his measurables, his height, his weight and speed and those kind of things, I'm going to go online.
00:41:56
Speaker
And it's easy to do this now because you can access games online.
00:42:00
Speaker
This was harder to do.
00:42:01
Speaker
you know, years ago, but you can go find any game you want.
00:42:04
Speaker
Really high school games.
00:42:05
Speaker
They're all up somewhere.
00:42:06
Speaker
Some, so I'm going to go watch two games and I'm just going to go a couple of drives.
00:42:10
Speaker
And after two or three drives, I can see if you can play or not.
00:42:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:15
Speaker
if you're a next level, big time football player or baseball player, your, you should be, your energy level should be similar all the time.
00:42:25
Speaker
Not just on the, you know, the 30 or 40 highlight films that I see.
00:42:28
Speaker
I should be able to see that in the middle of the second quarter in a random game.
00:42:32
Speaker
I remember a, a, a major league baseball coach that I'm sure, you know, he was a hitting instructor.
00:42:38
Speaker
Tell me that when he was recruiting in college, uh,
00:42:41
Speaker
I love this.
00:42:42
Speaker
Well, no, he was, this was when he was in the pros, he would go to college games and, you know, forgive my language here, but I'm going to say it anyway.
00:42:49
Speaker
He said, I wanted to see that guy's ass get off the bus.
00:42:53
Speaker
I wanted to see if his hat was on backwards and he was, did he talk to his teammates and,
00:43:00
Speaker
Yep.
00:43:00
Speaker
How did he come onto the field?
00:43:02
Speaker
Was he running between the lines?
00:43:04
Speaker
What was his attitude like?
00:43:05
Speaker
Like looking for a reason not to draft the guy.
00:43:08
Speaker
I know he can hit the ball, but I'm looking for something to go back to the offices and say, I don't think we get this guy because of A, B, or C. So don't have something that to turn a coach, you know, off by.
00:43:21
Speaker
And if we go to our players and say, Hey,
00:43:24
Speaker
What do you do really well?
00:43:25
Speaker
What's your favorite pitch?
00:43:27
Speaker
So I know to never throw that to you in BP, right?
00:43:31
Speaker
Or to never give you that defense at quarterback when we're in team, because I know you're going to shred it.
00:43:37
Speaker
I want you to, can you be man to man, right?
00:43:40
Speaker
Can you go to your left hand basketball player, right?
00:43:43
Speaker
And pull up at 12 feet.
00:43:45
Speaker
If you can't, that's all we got to work on, but we don't, we want to go to the gym and we want to shoot the shot that we see go in the hoop.
Practicing Uncomfortable Situations
00:43:53
Speaker
because we feel that's fun, right?
00:43:54
Speaker
We don't want to go shoot the one that clanks off the rim all the time, but that's part of what, Shad, you said about intentional practice, intentional planning, right?
00:44:03
Speaker
Culture by design, not by default.
00:44:06
Speaker
Elite level people do that.
00:44:08
Speaker
You don't go to the driving range and hit your driver all day.
00:44:11
Speaker
If you already rope your driver, you got to go hit your five iron, right?
00:44:15
Speaker
By the way, Wally, everybody, Wally hits all of his clubs right down the middle.
00:44:19
Speaker
I've played with him a couple of times.
00:44:21
Speaker
He doesn't worry about it.
00:44:23
Speaker
I love the game of golf, but Dustin, you mentioned something.
00:44:30
Speaker
You know, the negativity is strong in all sports.
00:44:37
Speaker
There's jealousy.
00:44:38
Speaker
There's envy.
00:44:39
Speaker
There's all kinds of negative vibes that are happening all the time.
00:44:45
Speaker
Doubters and
00:44:48
Speaker
There was a time in my career where I got together with a couple of people and we just looked at each other and we said, never give anybody any reason.
00:44:59
Speaker
And we use bullets.
00:45:00
Speaker
Don't give anybody any bullets to use against you.
00:45:02
Speaker
Right.
00:45:03
Speaker
Right.
00:45:04
Speaker
Because everybody's going to shoot you down.
00:45:06
Speaker
Everybody wants to see you fail and you are going to fail, but don't make it easy for everybody to use it against you.
00:45:15
Speaker
So, you know, I love it coming off the bus, uh, getting ready for a game.
00:45:22
Speaker
Um, all of these things are very important because it's who you are when things aren't going great.
00:45:30
Speaker
And,
00:45:32
Speaker
Baseball, most of the time, things aren't going great.
00:45:35
Speaker
So we got to find out who you are in those times.
00:45:40
Speaker
And, you know, I never had a bad day going to the ballpark ever as a as a player, as a coach.
00:45:47
Speaker
I was excited to go because I was going to learn something that day or I was going to help somebody learn something that day.
00:45:54
Speaker
And it was going to be a good day.
00:45:56
Speaker
And so I've always had that mindset and I think it's contagious.
00:46:03
Speaker
I think you can teach people by your example and not by your words or anything.
00:46:10
Speaker
And it's even more valuable as an example because you do it and you believe in it.
00:46:18
Speaker
And so I truly believe that
00:46:25
Speaker
uh staying positive as much as you can uh hard work uh and and doing you know what what's hard work is hard work getting a batter's box and hitting a hundred home runs no that's not hard work what hard work is is facing somebody that you're uncomfortable with getting in a in a situation with where it's uncomfortable um
00:46:50
Speaker
and trying to find that comfortable feeling, right?
00:46:54
Speaker
I mean, on defense, playing in on the grass and having guys hit you shots, that's uncomfortable, but it's going to happen.
00:47:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:03
Speaker
When I get into that spot where I have to play in, I've done it before.
00:47:07
Speaker
So it's not nearly as uncomfortable.
00:47:09
Speaker
I know I can do it.
00:47:10
Speaker
I know I can catch it and turn to, I know I can catch it and throw home.
00:47:15
Speaker
Why?
00:47:15
Speaker
Because I've done it a thousand, 10,000 times in practice and not just the Sunday hops and, you know, the going through the motion practice, that's not going to get you to the next level.
00:47:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:28
Speaker
You remind me of something Diljeet Taylor, the cross-country coach at BYU, said on our podcast.
00:47:35
Speaker
She said, real growth never happens in comfort zones.
00:47:39
Speaker
That's right.
00:47:40
Speaker
And I love that.
00:47:41
Speaker
I've thought a lot about that with life and with sports, that if we're looking for Sunday hops, we aren't going to be growing.
00:47:49
Speaker
No, no, you're going backwards and you're not helping.
00:47:53
Speaker
When you're not pushing yourself, when you're not –
00:47:59
Speaker
you need to enjoy what you do.
00:48:01
Speaker
And so if you're always uncomfortable, you're not going to have a lot of enjoyment, but, um, put yourself in, in game type situations, put yourself in the batter's box, uh,
00:48:14
Speaker
in game type situations.
00:48:16
Speaker
And it's not always, I got to get a hit right here.
00:48:18
Speaker
It's, you know, man, it's second base, nobody out.
00:48:20
Speaker
What do I do here?
00:48:22
Speaker
Right.
00:48:22
Speaker
And, and see the outcome, uh, make yourself, uh, deliver in those, you know, if, if it's a base hit even better, but, uh, you know, have the positive endings where, um, you've done the job.
00:48:40
Speaker
Right.
00:48:41
Speaker
And, you know, on defense, um,
00:48:44
Speaker
play up, you know, get those hard one hoppers to you.
00:48:48
Speaker
I missed quite a few and I got bruises on my shins and on my wrist and off my chest and a few bloody lips, but that's what it takes to know what it feels like so that when you get into that uncomfortable position, you can get out of it.
00:49:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:08
Speaker
I love that.
00:49:09
Speaker
I want to finish with something, Shad, I didn't even tell you about.
00:49:12
Speaker
I want to
Quickfire Questions: Toughest Pitchers & More
00:49:13
Speaker
do one minute, 60 seconds, and we'll let you go, Wally.
00:49:16
Speaker
But I want to do a rapid fire kind of fun, ask you a couple kind of trip down memory lane questions.
00:49:24
Speaker
And you give us a quick answer and we'll move on.
00:49:27
Speaker
Here we go.
00:49:28
Speaker
I've got three or four ready, Shad.
00:49:30
Speaker
So while I'm saying it, you can maybe think of one or two.
00:49:34
Speaker
All right.
00:49:37
Speaker
Toughest pitcher you ever faced?
00:49:39
Speaker
Randy Johnson.
00:49:41
Speaker
Favorite ballpark to play in?
00:49:44
Speaker
Camden Yards.
00:49:46
Speaker
Least favorite ballpark to play in?
00:49:49
Speaker
New Tiger Stadium.
00:49:55
Speaker
One of, I won't put you on the spot, one of your all-time favorite teammates.
00:50:02
Speaker
Wow.
00:50:03
Speaker
I'll say a few.
00:50:04
Speaker
Trevor Hoffman, Hall of Fame closer, Chipper Jones, George Brett, Bob Boone, Reggie Jackson.
00:50:15
Speaker
How about those?
00:50:17
Speaker
Wow, that's great.
00:50:17
Speaker
Chipper Jones was, man, he was my guy.
00:50:20
Speaker
Okay.
00:50:21
Speaker
Most memorable hit?
00:50:25
Speaker
Most memorable hit.
00:50:27
Speaker
I hit a home run off of...
00:50:31
Speaker
The Minnesota Twins closer, Mark Davis, after 14 pitches, hit a home run to get us a lead 5-4 in the top of the ninth.
00:50:43
Speaker
Most crazy thing you ever saw in a baseball game.
00:50:48
Speaker
Is there a blooper or just some crazy play where Randy Johnson hits a bird flying across?
00:50:54
Speaker
Something crazy.
00:50:55
Speaker
Yeah, that was one.
00:50:56
Speaker
I saw that on TV.
00:50:57
Speaker
That was incredible.
00:50:58
Speaker
Not only did...
00:50:59
Speaker
He hit the bird, but it disappeared.
00:51:04
Speaker
But that's how hard he threw.
00:51:07
Speaker
You know, crazy.
00:51:09
Speaker
There was a lot of crazy games.
00:51:11
Speaker
And, you know, we're down by 11 and we come back and win.
00:51:17
Speaker
We're up by 11 and we lose.
00:51:19
Speaker
Right.
00:51:19
Speaker
These games, you know, there's no guarantee what happens.
00:51:23
Speaker
Go play the game.
00:51:24
Speaker
But, yeah, you know, there was a ball hit off the plate.
00:51:29
Speaker
I was at first base, uh, bounces high, right down the first baseline.
00:51:34
Speaker
I go try to catch it.
00:51:35
Speaker
My head's up in the air and the runner's running and his head's down and his helmet hits me right in the collarbone.
00:51:41
Speaker
And, um,
00:51:44
Speaker
I'm out for six weeks, right?
00:51:46
Speaker
So crazy.
00:51:49
Speaker
Just so listeners know, if my memory serves me right, looking at your stats, something that caught me, Wally, is I only saw three of your 16 seasons where you played less than 100 games.
00:52:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:05
Speaker
I went to spring training to play every day, right?
00:52:08
Speaker
I wasn't, you know, I wanted to play every day.
00:52:11
Speaker
I wanted to prepare myself every day so that I could help the team win.
00:52:16
Speaker
And luckily, the manager of the team I was playing for thought the same thing and put me at first base because I was their best option.
00:52:25
Speaker
And I played more than 100 games most of my career, which was, that's why you put the uniform on to play.
00:52:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:37
Speaker
One bit of advice to every young athlete.
00:52:43
Speaker
Best advice that I could give you is find out how good you can be.
00:52:48
Speaker
Awesome.
00:52:49
Speaker
And here's one more advice to parents of athletes.
00:52:55
Speaker
Well, I'll say it this way.
00:52:58
Speaker
Um, it was kind of funny.
00:53:00
Speaker
Uh, I don't know if we remember, but, uh, the athletic director at BYU, when I went to BYU, uh, was, uh, previously he was the hitting coach or the, he was the baseball coach, Glenn Tuckett.
00:53:16
Speaker
So Glenn Tuckett, he, I'll, I'll answer your question this way.
00:53:21
Speaker
Um,
00:53:23
Speaker
Glenn Tugget came up to my mom and I, and he said, Mrs. Joyner of all the parents who tell me that their son is the next major league star.
00:53:34
Speaker
You are the closest.
00:53:39
Speaker
I know we all believe that we're going to have our next, uh, hall of fame catcher or pitcher or first baseman or quarterback or running back or shooting guard.
00:53:54
Speaker
enjoy the ride as it takes place and, um, you know, support as much as you can.
00:54:04
Speaker
Um, but, um, for the most part, stay, stay out of their way.
00:54:09
Speaker
There you go.
00:54:11
Speaker
Well, appreciate you Wally shot Wally.
00:54:13
Speaker
Thank you.
00:54:14
Speaker
Great episode covered a lot.
00:54:16
Speaker
Wally.
00:54:16
Speaker
We hope we can do it again sometime with you.
00:54:18
Speaker
And, and, uh, again, thanks for your time.
00:54:22
Speaker
Thank you guys.
00:54:23
Speaker
Bye-bye.
00:54:25
Speaker
Wow, Dustin, what a great dude that guy is.
00:54:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
00:54:29
Speaker
I mean, I didn't realize he played 16 years.
00:54:31
Speaker
When you play 16 years, when you do anything for 16 years, but playing in a sport like baseball where you're playing games nearly every day, you play over 2,000 baseball games, and to be able to do that just physically to your body and have the longevity that he had, I mean, that guy's got a wealth of knowledge.
00:54:52
Speaker
We only just touched –
00:54:54
Speaker
Yeah, I kept thinking we need to have him on again, because I wanted to ask him about 17 more questions with everything that he answered.
00:55:03
Speaker
But one of the things that really stuck out to me, it seemed like the whole interview, I was thinking, that's awesome.
00:55:08
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:55:08
Speaker
But yeah, intentional practice.
00:55:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:12
Speaker
That was really cool to think situational baseball and how few young people there are for all you baseball players that might be listening to this baseball coaches who are who are individually that intentional about their practice.
00:55:27
Speaker
You know, I'm going to go practice hitting the ball to the right side of the field, you know.
00:55:33
Speaker
I'm going to go take those short hops off my shins and get a bruise on my chest and a bloody lip every now and then.
00:55:39
Speaker
So I faced it before I have to face it in the game.
00:55:42
Speaker
I thought that was something that if I could go back to 14-year-old Chad Martin and say, hey, know your strengths.
00:55:50
Speaker
I always wanted to be the home run hitter.
00:55:53
Speaker
I wasn't that guy.
00:55:54
Speaker
You played with me.
00:55:55
Speaker
You know I would hit one out every now and then.
00:55:57
Speaker
But if I would have leaned into situational baseball even more than I did, I think that's where my strength was.
00:56:05
Speaker
And I wanted to be something I didn't.
00:56:07
Speaker
So I practiced all of those things instead of leaning in and really being exceptional with the others.
00:56:13
Speaker
And that's something that really stuck out to me.
00:56:15
Speaker
Well, he kind of said that.
00:56:16
Speaker
I didn't think about it until you just mentioned that, Chad.
00:56:18
Speaker
He said at the very end, something along the lines of become –
00:56:23
Speaker
your best or become the very best version of yourself.
00:56:26
Speaker
Something about, you know, becoming your very best, but you can't become your very best.
00:56:30
Speaker
If you're trying to be something that you're not right.
00:56:33
Speaker
If you're trying to be the home run hitter, you may work your butt off to be that, but it's just not the card you were dealt.
00:56:40
Speaker
You could have been the very best just, you know,
00:56:42
Speaker
you know, on base percentage guy that would have won, made you a career.
00:56:46
Speaker
And, you know, and, and, I mean, he was super proud of the fact that he walked more than he struck out.
00:56:51
Speaker
He walked 830 times, you know, and he was proud of that, that that's not a big stat that really looks, you know, you look at, but Hey, got on first base.
00:57:00
Speaker
It's,
00:57:00
Speaker
you know, as good as hitting a single, right?
00:57:02
Speaker
And he loathed striking out, he said.
00:57:05
Speaker
So what does he do?
00:57:06
Speaker
I got to have left-handed pitchers throw at me at practice.
00:57:09
Speaker
I can't sit here and hit off a righty all day because he knows late in the game they're going to go to their middle reliever and they're going to bring in a lefty to face him late in games.
00:57:21
Speaker
He's never going to see a right-handed pitcher in the seventh, eighth, ninth inning of a game.
00:57:25
Speaker
He's got to be able to hit the money shots, the winning time shots,
00:57:30
Speaker
or hits, excuse me, off of lefties.
00:57:32
Speaker
But how many times, I mean, I'm thinking of my own, you know, career in sports, but specifically baseball.
00:57:38
Speaker
I don't remember really ever going to the ballpark and pitching a bullpen or something and saying, okay, every single guy that faces me today in practice, I want to pitch at him as if the count is,
00:57:55
Speaker
you know, O2 and, or if the count's full, right?
00:57:58
Speaker
What's my go-to pitch that I, you know, you just kind of pitch, right?
00:58:03
Speaker
Or I got to get this guy to hit and do a double play.
00:58:05
Speaker
So what's my best pitch to get this guy to hit it, you know, to my shortstop or second baseman so I can turn this.
00:58:12
Speaker
Do I have something that I can really feel comfortable with?
00:58:17
Speaker
That's intentional.
00:58:18
Speaker
It's the same in basketball.
00:58:19
Speaker
We could use the same examples.
00:58:21
Speaker
in golf and everything.
00:58:22
Speaker
What's your shot?
00:58:23
Speaker
Like what's your go-to move?
00:58:25
Speaker
But you got to practice the ones that aren't because like he said, the opposing team knows what your go-to move is, what your go-to shot is, where your hit, where your sweet spot is as a hitter.
00:58:37
Speaker
And he's not going to let you get there.
00:58:40
Speaker
So you got to be able to do other things.
00:58:42
Speaker
That's intentional practice.
00:58:44
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:58:45
Speaker
So many things he talked about.
00:58:46
Speaker
Such a great interview.
00:58:48
Speaker
Yeah, it was awesome.
00:58:49
Speaker
What a great dude.
00:58:50
Speaker
Well,
Closing Remarks & Listener Engagement
00:58:51
Speaker
awesome.
00:58:51
Speaker
Well, thanks everyone for joining the Sportlight Podcast.
00:58:54
Speaker
Share it, like it, leave a review.
00:58:57
Speaker
It helps us.
00:58:58
Speaker
Eyes up, do the work.
00:59:00
Speaker
This has been the Sportlight Podcast from Especially for Athletes, sponsored by Coca-Cola.
00:59:06
Speaker
You can learn more about Especially for Athletes by visiting the website at especiallyforathletes.org.
00:59:11
Speaker
You can also learn more about the book, The Sportlight, by Shad Martin and Dustin Smith at especiallyforathletes.org.