August 9, 2021 • 35 mins
Today's Diamond Conversations welcomes former Major League Pitcher, Clayton Richard. Clayton pitched for the White Sox, Cubs, Padres and Blue Jays. In today's interview we discuss his new gig as Head Baseball Coach for Lafayette Jefferson High School and his expectations for the program he is taking over this season. We also discuss his playing days, being drafted by The White Sox in 2005, his memories of travelling in the minor leagues and his "hidden" power at the plate to include his 3 career home runs.
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(00:11):
All right, let's get it goingright here, right now. This is
Diamond Conversations, and you're listening toan all new Diamond Conversations here exclusively on
the Creative Controlled Podcast. Member.If you didn't know by now, my
name is Ian. In every singleweek we take a journey across the Diamond.
This time we head out towards peoplean area as we sit down and
(00:32):
discuss I guess maybe the art ofpitching, but also the pitching career of
today's guest, mister Clayton Richard joiningme today. Clayton, how's things going
in your neck of the woods?Terrific? Thanks for having me. Oh,
it's it's my pleasure. I'll tellyou. The best thing to get
this relationship started, to get thiscall going was connecting via Twitter because anybody
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who's got the Hulkster in their profilepictures over with me because I am a
wrestling guy, so that caught myattention right away. Yeah. We unfortunately
we're a clear water beach a littlelonger than we expected. A couple of
years ago, when I was withthe Blue Jays, we had a rehab
stand. We had to stay downin Dunedin and uh not where you want
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to be during the course of abig league season. But we try to
make lemonade down there and make thebook best of what we had and hung
out around Hulk Coogan. Did youlike the Hogans Beach Shop. It's like
the museum slash world of Hulkster whenyou when you go inside the Hogans Beach
Shop. Yeah, and then it'sgoing up looking into the gym, kind
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of checking that out. I mean, it is really a beautiful area,
beautiful beaches, and we had alot of fun as a family down there.
Yeah. Fun fact the beach isrun by bush Whacker Luke of the
bush Whackers, if you remember them, gotcha, Yes, that's true.
There you go very Yeah, that'sthat's one of those. Sorry, that's
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me showing off the wrestling chops.I don't want to I don't want to
cross. I don't want to crossthe streams, but you know, I
gotta I gotta strike the pose whenI can. But let's talk about what's
going on with you. How's everythingin your world? Uh? Starting a
new gig out there where you live? What's what's going on in Clinton Richards
world this week? Well? Ihave three children, so that's kind of
(02:30):
the primary driver of our actions rightnow. They are eight seventy four.
I started a golf cart business throughCOVID, and we weren't able to go
play baseball. So that's that's buildingup. And then recently, more recently,
I took the quarterback coaching position atthe local high school, Lafyet Jeff.
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And then even more recently it tookthe head coaching baseball job here at
Laffyet Jeff as well. So we'repretty busy every day. We keep it
moving. Hey, just take thegolf cart from the football field to the
baseball field, right exactly. Idid take one over there. I did
take one over there to take itoff my leg a little bit. So
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how has that been though with thebaseball coaching specifically, you know, obviously
with your career and what you've doneand going through your training and your years
of playing, and also you know, the development, what's it been like
to get in there on the highschool level and be able to kind of
mold some players, you know,maybe the way you'd like to see them
play well. Right now, we'reso early in the process. We are
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trying to establish the staples of ourprogram, what we want foundationally to look
like as a team how we wantthe culture of the clubhouse to be.
Because right now, so many ofour student athletes are in fall sports,
and I took over the job acouple of weeks ago there in travel ball,
so we have not really had theopportunity to work on the baseball field
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together. But we've met a fewtimes and kind of established what we see,
what direction we want to see thisprogram go to, and we kind
of harp on being on time,being honest, and doing our work.
And we think that if we canaccomplish those three things at a consistently high
level, the other things that wedon't have control of will fall into place
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more frequently than not. So we'reestablishing lines of communication, which is something
I did not really think about,but when you're dealing with high school age
student athletes, it's something a lotof them have never had to experience before,
the responsibility of communicating on their own, making sure they respond to attacks,
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making sure they show up on timeand show up when where they're supposed
to be, and if they're notable to adequately communicate ahead of time,
that they're not able to. Sothey're challenges that we have to established first
before we really can move on tothe stuff that's exciting, the baseball stuff,
right, Yeah, it's a wholething. You know, the maturation
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process for high school athletes is sodifferent because you know, you really go
from being thrust as just like akid playing ball for fun to possibility of
this being something to carry on throughcollege, maybe professional, who knows.
But it's such a delicate age.Where was the program before you you were
thrust into the head coaching position.Not bad shape. We just moved into
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the varsity plays on a brand newin the stadium. Really here in Lafayette,
Indiana, we have Lobe Stadium.They rebuilt a stadium which was the
traditional home for Lafiett jeff baseball andit's it's first class. It really is
so. And Scott mccarrett was ahead coach before. He did a great
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job for many years. So it'snot like I'm taking over and have to
raything down. It's there's little thingsthat I feel need to be adjusted to
get to where we want to go. So I'm very fortunate to be in
the role I am in where I'mat. So you're about, i would
say, a year and ten daysyounger than I am, So the high
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school experience was a lot different backwhen we were when we were coming up.
What do you remember about your highschool playing days and how you're going
to use maybe some of the influencesyou had as a as a player growing
up with maybe what you've learned alongthe way throughout your professional career. Right,
we want to establish a certain expectationof discipline within our program and makes
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them understand that this discipline is tohold everyone accountable to the same standard.
That way, we can trust ourteammates, trust our coaches that we are
also performed without expectation. And oncewe've build that trust on the field,
it's just playing a game. Andthat's why I'm excited about it, is
the enthusiasm and the freshness of thebaseball game at this level because it is
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it's just a lot of fun.And hopefully I can get through to them
that you don't want to take thesefour years for granted. They go quick
because it is so much fun.And I know I remember people telling me
when I was that age, oh, it's gonna go fast. It's gonna
go fast. And we have tofigure out a way to make sure they
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understand that without just telling them it'sgonna go fast. So make sure they
understand that we have a special opportunityto play baseball. Not everyone gets that
opportunity. We need to take advantagebecause at some point that window to participate
in this great sport is going tobe taken away, whether you like it
or not. So right now wehave it, let's let's make the most
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of it every single day. Yeah. No, that's a that's a great
point. That's an absolutely great point. And the only reason I know your
age is because I'm looking at youryou know, your Wikipedia right to the
right of me. So that's whyI could be so precise on the exact
date range and fellow September birthday,So that's why I could say that.
But the other cool thing too,with you doing both my boys or September
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and there you go, very nice, very very bright futures ahead for both
of them. But I can say, you know, the fact that you
were a dual sport athlete yourself,and that you're coaching in both football and
baseball, it's a real strength becauseyou have the experience and doing both.
When you were kind of approaching footballand baseball as a student athlete, when
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did you kind of see that baseballwas the route you should go on with
your career. When I did notget the opportunity to play at Michigan,
I went to Michigan to play football. That was Michael. I wanted to
be a Heisman quarterback when the NationalChampionship and then being an NFL quarterback like
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that was my vision. Fortunately,I loved baseball the way through, and
I had talked to coach part andthe football coaching staff about playing baseball well
I spent time up with Michigan.They agreed to that before my arrival upon
campus. So when I did notget the opportunity that I had desired at
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Michigan for football, I went overthe across the across the parking lot played
baseball. First season, I gotdrafted by the White Sox. It's pretty
good. That's not a bad trajectory. Might not have worked out the way
you had thought in your head,but it still worked out pretty good in
the long run, getting drafted bythe White Sox. What do you remember
about the process, because now youknow, with the way the draft looks
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these days, it's very it's almostlike the NFL draft was, you know,
years ago. Now it's the theMLB draft is the way it was.
What do you remember about the draftingprocess and getting picked up by the
White Sox. I remember there wereone team that I did not really expect
because I had not personally communicating muchwith them. I had communicated with them
in high school and I think thatthat was kind of their why theys at
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that time. But I did notget a mini innings in at Michigan.
I think I threw the thirty suminnings for that season, which which is
not a lot. And I justremember being at home and it was the
time where internet was was prevalent,but all the accessories the Internet. There
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wasn't the Twitter. There wasn't thingsupdates so green and refreshed and refresh and
the next pick will come up.It was definitely a different process than it
is now. My gosh, Imean, it is just it's so different
to to kind of see like howit's been so widely, uh like a
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broadcast in recent years, especially thisyear where it was done at the actual
All Star Game. But that,yeah, that was a lot different.
So when you finally when you getthe call and and you're you're now is
going to join the White Sox organization, what's the what's the feeling, and
what's the what's being told to youby the White Sox as you're coming on.
If I remember Cray, I metwith Mike Shirley. He came,
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he was the regional scout. Hecame. We had dinner with my wife
and myself and a girlfriend at thetime, I think, and we went
to dinner. He kind of gaveus the expectation or what we should expect
out of the process going forward tounderstanding is that no clue what minor league
baseball was. Like probably most peoplein America the same minor league baseball say,
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oh, Triple A. I'd like, well, but it could be
yeah, it could be Arizona League, it could be rookie ball, low
A, double A, high.Like, there's so many, so many
levels that you just really you're notaware of unless you're in it. And
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so that was an eye opening experience. I flew out to Great Falls,
Montana and on a little a littleplane, and it was those a quick
wake up because flying charter for MichiganFootball to flying out the Great Falls on
a little plane and then going tothe host families basement was a little bit
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of a contrast for what else usedto. Yeah, it can be a
wake up call to some who anticipate, you know, like you said,
going right from the draft to TripleA. There's many levels in the minor
leagues, and many of them aren'talways very glamorous. But the White Socks
have a pretty good system. Soyou know, you you went through it,
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I would say, in a goodamount of time, and you make
your debut in two thousand and eight. But I'll get to that in a
second. Do you have any greatminor league memories? You know, some
people again they have some you know, the long bus rides, they have
some not so stellar experiences. Doyou have any fun memories of the minor
leagues? The things that teammates weregreat, And that's something that you'd never
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experience again. Is because when yougo through times of adversity, and some
degree that the minor leagues are atime of adversity, you're not getting paid
much. You really don't get paidenough to cover the living expenses of the
season. So everyone's going through ittogether though a lot of peanut b and
jelly sandwiches. You're going through longbus rides, not enough sleeps. You
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have a roommate on the road.You share all these experience, so you
create a bond that you will neverhave again, an all likelihood with another
group of people. So I rememberthose times. I remember we very few
off days, but when we didthe pool parties, we'd have those were
wed, grill out and have apool party. I remember the watching Entourage
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on the bus rides with the oldschool DVDs. I would by the seasons
of Entourage as they come out,and we'd we'd watched the season of our
Entourage. Even though our pitching coachhated it, all the guys loved it
so but I mean it was whenyou look back on it, they were
some of the most fun time youhave in baseball, sharing in those moments
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because it is it's pretty much justbaseball and doing wherever you can to play
the game. That's because at thatage again, I'm in the same age
rains as you. Those guys arereally cool. That's why everybody liked watching
that show. Oh man, it'sbusiness everything you wanted to be exactly be
a star making millions of dollars andhanging out with your friends. Were at
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that age when you're going through highschool, college's it doesn't get much better
than that, doesn't. No,no, no, no. And it's
funny. You know, there's beena kind of a microscope on the minor
league systems as of late. Theycontracted a lot of teams and there's been
a lot of emphasis on the pay. But I just I read a story
recently about minor leaguers that are havingto still pay rent for a house that
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they split, but they both havenow advanced to the next level and they're
paying rent in the next level andthe previous levels housing. So it really
does stink in certain guards because theteams aren't really covering it. Have you
seen how there's been a kind ofan outcry for support for the minor leaguers
recently. I have, And Ithink Twitter is a platform, the social
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media is a platform that's really acceleratedthat process, because if it weren't for
those avenues of information, I'm notsure that that word would get out.
But it's tough because you have probablyhalf the players that say, well,
it kind of weeds out the peoplethat aren't going to make it moving forward
because they're not willing to sacrifice.Because I remember a teammate that and he
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just finished his playing career recently,so he's about the same age as myself.
He showed up the Tucson, Arizonawith you had to get a callard
shirt. So he went to Walmartor whatever and got his callard shirt and
that's pretty much what he had andgrinded through it and found a way.
And I'm sure there's others in hissituation that weren't able to mentally make those
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overcome those hurdles and they eliminate themselves. And because once you get to the
big league, that's a big partof the game, is how you mentally
overcome adversity and the ability to dothat. So there's something to be said
for grinding through it, but you'reright, it's I don't know that that's
the way to do it through financiallystrapping the players within your organization, because
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you want them to be able toplay baseball and you don't want them to
have to worry about whether they're gettinga meal or whether they're sleeping or I
think that I think we're probably nottoo far away from one of the organizations
really being creative and taking advantage ofthe opportunity for housing and food and taking
the whole system and doing something uniquewhere the players are really taken care of
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on those fronts through the minor leagues. It's great that there is a lot
of organizations coming, you know,up that are supporting the minor leaguers.
It's great that they're voicing it.A lot of times I don't think,
you know, and I worked inthe minor leagues in the mid two thousands,
I would never have thought it wassuch a dire situation, you know,
seeing how I mean, I wasthe same age, thinking like,
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wow, these guys have this amazinggig. You know, I'm working for
thirty bucks a game, you know, and I'm just trying to get my
teeth grinding in this business, butnot knowing what's going on on the other
side. And it's great to see, like you said, Twitter as a
platform giving guys a voice and givingpeople the opportunity to know what's going on.
And maybe the switches will begin tochange in the next few years,
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right, And that's typically how itworks. You have to identify the problem
before you you make the adjustment andcorrect it. So hopefully that is in
not judismal future. And because baseballis a difficult sport, let's let's not
make life around baseball. I don'tthink we need to be be so tough
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on on those guys because I wasfortunate. I had great support for my
mother and father and they would neverlet me really hurt in that way.
And I signed for a little bit, not a ton of money. I
think it was seventy or eighty thousand, So I had money to if I
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needed to live, to eat,to whatever it was. I had the
means to cover it. But there'sguys that did not have that through those
difficult times where you're all of asudden playing higher baseball competition and then you're
living on your own, and thenyou're trying to figure out how leases work
with an apartment and it's a lot, it's a lot, a lot of
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life coming at you. Hot.Yeah, absolutely, but all for the
goal, you know, and that'swhat you did make. You made your
major league debut for the White Sox. Kind of take us back to that
day. What you remember, youknow, were you nervous, what was
going through you had? Were youconfident, You're feeling, okay, I
got this ball, it's time togo. Where were you you at mentally
with the major league debut? Ithappens. So it's kind of surreal where
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it's I mean, if you thinkabout it as a child, you're acting
like your King Grifie Junior and youwant to be King Griffy Junior. And
then you play baseball with this visionof being a major league baseball player.
At least I did. I neverI never thought of doing anything I was
than playing professional sports. I sawI was gonna be an NFL quarterback.
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I thought was gonna be a majorleague baseball player, and that's how I
operated. But when you actually getthere, it's like whoa. You never
really think like you always think whatam I gonna do to get there?
How do I work to get there? And you're there, and it's like
you have to shift to all right, now I have to perform like I
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have been. But at that levelthat I've been, I've placed my vision,
I've placed my goal at this level. Now I have to readjust But
it was surreal. The day ofI remember my parents came up to Chicago
from Lafiatte. My dad gave mea ride. My mom and dad gave
me a ride over to Ussel atthe time, and it was it was
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the longest twelve minute drive I thinkI've ever been been on. I think
I don't know if we talked.I remember pulling up and having no clue
or to go, and fortunately gotout of the car and John Dinks was
walking out, and I had nevermet him before. But I was very
fortunate that it was John Danks tokind of show me into the clubhouse and
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make that arrival more comforting than hadit been someone else. Maybe that's great.
That's usually my next question of whowas the first guy you met at
the stadium, So that's that's perfect. But yeah, I mean just the
emotion I'm sure was absolutely off thecharts. What do you remember about the
game the most? I remember myfirst two at bats probably I think that
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Ian Kinser. If I remember correctly, I might get name Ian kins Are
let off. Matt Young was toowhole. I got full counts to Ian
Kinsler struck him out in the highfastball, so I got my first track
out right the way, and thensecond about trade of the same thing,
got full counts. It well,I'm just gonna throw as hard as I
can. Gave up my first homer. So it was a It was so
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much fun though, because it issomething that I'd worked for and then you're
on that stage and you get todo what you've prepared to do your whole
life, and now you get theopportunity to do it on the stage at
which you're trying to get to,and um, it was it was so
much fun. Josh Hamilton had justcome off the All Star Game where he
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dazzled at the home under. Hedidn't win it, but I think everyone
remembers him as winning it. Iwould never have guests I thought he won
based off of my memory. Well, I mean he was sitting bowls with
the moon and it seemed like hehit twenty in a row. But yeah,
and I think I struck him outthree times in that in that outing,
and it was it was a lotof fun. Yeah. I mean
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you had seven strikeouts. I meanthat is like, that's a heck of
an impressive showing from a strikeout perspective, you know, and in the debut,
and that's just that's gotta be amazing. Seven strikeouts Again, until I
might not have had a you.You had many great stops along your way.
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I mean, I'm I'm gonna moveinto something else because I don't want
to just you know, hard,I don't want to go in complete order
and then have you here all day. I want to hit a couple other
spots. But great career, youknow, playing with the Padres, the
Cubs, the Blue Jays. ButI want to talk about something that I
think is very cool, especially uhit's out there, you can see him.
I got to talk about your homeruns. I gotta do it because
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you I swear you would have thoughtthat you were a third baseman coming up
in the minor leagues with the strokeyou have on these home runs. What
are your memories of hitting your firstmajor league home run and actually watching that
ball sail out of the park,Because it's a thing of beauty to see
your reaction when you when you're roundingthe bases. Well, it's good that
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you just watched the home run.Just if you watched every bat, you
would know that I did not.We only skipped to the good stuff here,
and we only look at the goodstuff. I appreciate that because if
you watched the rest of my badto have known that that was not a
stream. Um uh, we're inMilwaukee and I was going on deck.
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The owners have a few seasons inthe travel secretary of that day left my
dad, who brought a couple ofmy high school coaches with him, my
head baseball coach, Jake Burton,Mike, his son, the coach as
well for high school. They weresitting with a couple of the owners and
so they were enjoying the refreshments upin Milwaukee. Um one of the assistant
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coaches, and he was running hismouth on how good of a hitter it
was in high school, and sothe owners like, well, we haven't
seen that yet. And so Iget on deck and the owner the owners
were giving me a hard time becauseI wasn't hit, and I said,
your coach said you'll hit a homerun, and I just kind of smiled
at him, and then went upfirst pitch, hit one to right field
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in Milwaukee that that went over andI think I went upper deck, and
I mean just the feet of thatput a smile on my face. But
then as it was rounding second andthen looking at those six guys standing up
high five in each other, itwas just it was a special moment,
a lot of fun. Yeah,it's a it wasn't upper deck shot,
and it's uh, you know,you didn't you didn't have anything cheap.
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They were all they were bombs,especially the one in Colorado. My gosh,
that one was like almost uh youknow, bat flip style the way
you that was like a no doubter. But you know, I mean again,
you know, there's a whole loopof of your your hitting on YouTube,
which is fantastic because if you neversaid that, man, again,
I would have thought you were apinch hitting third baseman coming up throughout the
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ranks. You got a great strokeup there. Yeah, I appreciate that.
It's not quite reality, but I'lltake the compliment or I get that.
One of the coolest one of theYeah, one of the coolest baseball
moments was We're at home in SanDiego as a getaway day as a day
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game, and the end we wereplaying the Angels, and it was an
extra inning, so our bench hadbeen exhausted. It was two outs in
the I don't know if it wastwelve thirteenth somewhere late in the game or
in extra innings, and I pinchedit and I get in get a basically,
so I'm on first two outs.Will Venable comes up and he hits
(26:02):
the ball to kind of left center, and I'll say, I'm gonna score
and I think the left fielder kindof balled it, and Glynn Hoffman sent
me around and I scored the winningrun, and it was like I had
never experienced that type of baseball sincehigh school. And I don't know that
I've ever scored a walk off run. I didn't get the walk off hit,
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but like the walkoff run, andmy heart rate did not come down
until we landed in Saint Louis.I was sweating. I was sweating from
getting the interviews to the shower togetting on the bus and the plane.
I think I was sweating the wholetime. I was probably breathing hard the
whole time. And then I waslike, man, that was so much
fun. It was It's like that'swhat that's a baseball. Baseball can be
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such a fun game. You neverknow, I mean, what do you
think about that that they might bephasing out the pitcher as an offensive spot.
You like that or you think youknow the beauty of the game is
you know you see it. Ilike Jacob deGrom who was hitting like,
you know, like three ninety beforehe got hurt. You see these,
uh, these great moments where thepitchers contribute a lot. Do you think
(27:08):
that that being phased out is notgood. You do you kind of like
that for the arms, you know, stability. I always liked hitting.
I always thought it provided a uniqueopportunity for the NL to be different.
I think I don't know if it'sspecially game or not, but selfishly,
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as a pitcher and a player,it created opportunities for the managers to handle
the game a little bit differently.It was definitely more challenging for a nationally
manager and it was just a differenttype of baseball that I've found myself.
In AL games where there's a DH, you don't have to pay as close
(27:52):
attention to the situations at points,but in the NL, you have to
know where we're at in the lineup, what's going on. It strategically changes
the game and it gives the guysan opportunity to participate that would otherwise get
that chance. And it's it's harderas a pitcher because you have to come
prepared. You have to be ableto bunt the ball, you have to
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be able to base run and dothese things to help your team win.
You become more of a baseball player, which is is something that you kind
of lose sight of. I justtalked with our quarterbacks. We just had
a zoom call with A. J. T. O'Sullivan and he's coaching Do
you remember that name. He playedfootball for a long time and now he's
coaching high school football in California.But he was so kind to talk to
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our quarterbacks. And one thing hesaid about his quarterback, He's like,
Hey, I want you to bea football player first. If you throw
an interception, you can't just say, oh man, what if you have
to go make a tackle. Andthat's kind of how I view pitchers.
It's like, hey, we pitch, but we have to be a baseball
player first. So what it takesto win this game we have to do.
And sometimes we was side of whatit takes to win a game.
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We're so caught up in spin ratesand waited on bass averages and what's my
slug? What's my expected run?Like all these things that we really don't
have control of. But we wantbaseball players first, someone that's there to
help win a game. And thatI think that having that aspect of not
(29:26):
having a DH how the pitcher's hit, I think that really brings that into
play more frequently. Yeah, andespecially when you see a guy like,
you know, a Max Freed hada walk off single, you know,
as a pinch hitter because he hasa good bat. You know, it's
it's the beauty. I was atthe game earlier this year where Jacob Degram
you know, had a two rbisingle as well as pitching a complete game,
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you know, three hitter. Soit's just it's a beauty of the
game that I feel like it's gonnaget lost. But I don't I understand
why they would do it, butit just kind of stinks. If you're
a purist, you don't want tosee it go. Yeah. Oh,
I like the baseball with the picturehitting and people. Some people hate it,
and it's one of those things outand think are gonna bridge it the
(30:11):
gap. There will be people thatlove the people that hate it, and
you have to figure out which one, which one of those people bring more
money to the table. Is probablygonna be how the decisions made. But
it also kind of brings the lightlike how special show he tany is And
I feel like, no matter howmuch they gets talked about, it won't
be talked about enough. Is whathe's doing is just it's unbelieved. It's
(30:36):
unreal. Now it's so special.I mean, and again, it's not
like he's just a you know,a light hitting, you know, utility
guy who can also pitch. Imean, this is a man who's hitting
no doubt home runs, I meanbombs. He doesn't get cheated on one
home run. He's like you,he doesn't get cheated on any of his
home runs. You just you knowthe second they leave the bat that they're
rather gone. But it's not likehe's also you know, a bad picture.
(30:57):
He's he's putting in quality and meansstriking guys out. It's a it's
a it's a very interesting special athleteto watch him play in this day and
age. Uh yeah, but Imean I'd hit three home runs in ten
years and he's had how many?Is the happen this year? I think
he's he's gotta be yeah, upto almost forty thirty eight, I think,
(31:19):
yeah, he's almost forty. He'sgot this is r ny three Still
hitters are hitting like one ninety offof them. He's leading his team in
stolen bases. It's it's just it'sunbelievable, like it really is. He's
thirty seven home runs as we speak. We don't want to don't want to
(31:41):
jimp him on any So he's atthirty seven home runs and let's see the
era is currently uh as the lastprinting two point nine three with one hundred
and six strikeouts. We saw thatguy before. His name was Baber,
and well, I think he's verythan he did. Um, what what's
(32:02):
gonna be interesting is like from myperspective, like he if he's the MVP
and there's not even someone in aclose second like this, I don't know
how you could argue anyone being evenclose to that production. And I don't
see if he had and what I'mgonna say, average a show, Hey,
(32:22):
average year, how you can nothave him be MVP if he continues
to do this. Yeah, feellike it's the first guy that I think
it's the first guy that he performshis average for ten years in a row.
He should win ten MVPs because evenif someone breaks almost every offensive record,
(32:43):
they're not gonna have the production thathe has overall and impacts the game.
Yeah, and it's imagine if hewas healthy for those first two and
a half years that he'd come over. You know, this is what we
were expecting and it's delivered so that'svery cool. Yeah, it is,
it really is. So all right, well, let's head into the to
the wrap up portion here. Appreciateyou coming on to spend a couple of
(33:07):
minutes with me. If you canjust tell the listeners one more time what
you've got going on, if theywant to follow you on social media,
and I guess anything else going onin the world of Clayton Richard. I
wish I knew my social media wellenough to share it. I could share
it if you'd like. I gotit in front of me, if you'd
like, all right, yeah,let's do that. It's it's at CR
(33:30):
threes with two ease at the endof course, at CR Three's Clayton Richard.
Yeah. Yeah, I haven't figuredout Instagram. I need to do
that because I need to get theword out for my players. As I
know recruiting is it's going to bemore of an important thing. I need
to get my guys noticed in footballand baseball. But coaching here at Lafia
(33:53):
Jefferson High School excited about helping thisthe baseball program and that we're really involved
in the youth program as well.That's something that has been a challenge,
is it's kind of went the wrongway for a while and we're trying to
get that back back to where itshould be. So the youth program and
Laffettelfette Youth Baseball, Lockett Jeff Baseballand the Jeff Football And if you get
(34:17):
join the golf carts, you cancheck out Captain Spiffy dot com. That's
where our website for golf carts.So we kind of got a little bit
of everything going on. Captain Spiffy. That is a great name, so
please captain Spiffy dot com. Verynice. Yeah, my dad nicknamed my
boys. My older ones Cashed andkeenixt Night calls him captain, and my
(34:40):
younger ones Cannon, who likes There'salways dressed really well and he calls him
Spiffy. So Captain Spiffy, that'sthat's so genius. I can't even begin
to stress at the end of theinterview that we should have said that at
the beginning. That's uh, that'swonderful. Now you did great well.
(35:00):
I appreciate the time. Today wewill say goodbye for this week on Diamond
Conversations. If you want to followme on Twitter, it's at Chad E
and B. On Instagram it's atIB Exclusives. My website is ibexclusives dot
com. You can find out allthe information going on with my autograph signings
and memorabilia dealings on there. Andwe will get out of here for this
week and catch you next time onDiamond Conversation. So for Clayton Richard,
(35:22):
this is your old pal, wewill catch you on the flip side.
Yo. What up? This isConan and I host Keeping in one hundred
my co host Disco Inferno. Unfortunately, well i'd say you're my co host.
Listen every Thursday here on Spreaker.We taught pro wrestling, sports,
movies, music, TV, popculture, some politics, it's everything.
The rest of the pro wrestling podcastsare not tune in to hear myself the
(35:45):
superior one, educate and inform.Tune in to hear me very disco.
That's very disrespectful. Join us everyThursday on Spreaker and keep it one hundred boom
All right, let's get it goingright here, right now. This is
Diamond Conversations, and you're listening toan all new Diamond Conversations here exclusively on
the Creative Controlled Podcast. Member.If you didn't know by now, my
name is Ian. In every singleweek we take a journey across the Diamond.
This time we head out towards peoplean area as we sit down and
(00:32):
discuss I guess maybe the art ofpitching, but also the pitching career of
today's guest, mister Clayton Richard joiningme today. Clayton, how's things going
in your neck of the woods?Terrific? Thanks for having me. Oh,
it's it's my pleasure. I'll tellyou. The best thing to get
this relationship started, to get thiscall going was connecting via Twitter because anybody
(00:57):
who's got the Hulkster in their profilepictures over with me because I am a
wrestling guy, so that caught myattention right away. Yeah. We unfortunately
we're a clear water beach a littlelonger than we expected. A couple of
years ago, when I was withthe Blue Jays, we had a rehab
stand. We had to stay downin Dunedin and uh not where you want
(01:21):
to be during the course of abig league season. But we try to
make lemonade down there and make thebook best of what we had and hung
out around Hulk Coogan. Did youlike the Hogans Beach Shop. It's like
the museum slash world of Hulkster whenyou when you go inside the Hogans Beach
Shop. Yeah, and then it'sgoing up looking into the gym, kind
(01:47):
of checking that out. I mean, it is really a beautiful area,
beautiful beaches, and we had alot of fun as a family down there.
Yeah. Fun fact the beach isrun by bush Whacker Luke of the
bush Whackers, if you remember them, gotcha, Yes, that's true.
There you go very Yeah, that'sthat's one of those. Sorry, that's
(02:07):
me showing off the wrestling chops.I don't want to I don't want to
cross. I don't want to crossthe streams, but you know, I
gotta I gotta strike the pose whenI can. But let's talk about what's
going on with you. How's everythingin your world? Uh? Starting a
new gig out there where you live? What's what's going on in Clinton Richards
world this week? Well? Ihave three children, so that's kind of
(02:30):
the primary driver of our actions rightnow. They are eight seventy four.
I started a golf cart business throughCOVID, and we weren't able to go
play baseball. So that's that's buildingup. And then recently, more recently,
I took the quarterback coaching position atthe local high school, Lafyet Jeff.
(02:51):
And then even more recently it tookthe head coaching baseball job here at
Laffyet Jeff as well. So we'repretty busy every day. We keep it
moving. Hey, just take thegolf cart from the football field to the
baseball field, right exactly. Idid take one over there. I did
take one over there to take itoff my leg a little bit. So
(03:15):
how has that been though with thebaseball coaching specifically, you know, obviously
with your career and what you've doneand going through your training and your years
of playing, and also you know, the development, what's it been like
to get in there on the highschool level and be able to kind of
mold some players, you know,maybe the way you'd like to see them
play well. Right now, we'reso early in the process. We are
(03:38):
trying to establish the staples of ourprogram, what we want foundationally to look
like as a team how we wantthe culture of the clubhouse to be.
Because right now, so many ofour student athletes are in fall sports,
and I took over the job acouple of weeks ago there in travel ball,
so we have not really had theopportunity to work on the baseball field
(03:59):
together. But we've met a fewtimes and kind of established what we see,
what direction we want to see thisprogram go to, and we kind
of harp on being on time,being honest, and doing our work.
And we think that if we canaccomplish those three things at a consistently high
level, the other things that wedon't have control of will fall into place
(04:25):
more frequently than not. So we'reestablishing lines of communication, which is something
I did not really think about,but when you're dealing with high school age
student athletes, it's something a lotof them have never had to experience before,
the responsibility of communicating on their own, making sure they respond to attacks,
(04:46):
making sure they show up on timeand show up when where they're supposed
to be, and if they're notable to adequately communicate ahead of time,
that they're not able to. Sothey're challenges that we have to established first
before we really can move on tothe stuff that's exciting, the baseball stuff,
right, Yeah, it's a wholething. You know, the maturation
(05:09):
process for high school athletes is sodifferent because you know, you really go
from being thrust as just like akid playing ball for fun to possibility of
this being something to carry on throughcollege, maybe professional, who knows.
But it's such a delicate age.Where was the program before you you were
thrust into the head coaching position.Not bad shape. We just moved into
(05:34):
the varsity plays on a brand newin the stadium. Really here in Lafayette,
Indiana, we have Lobe Stadium.They rebuilt a stadium which was the
traditional home for Lafiett jeff baseball andit's it's first class. It really is
so. And Scott mccarrett was ahead coach before. He did a great
(05:55):
job for many years. So it'snot like I'm taking over and have to
raything down. It's there's little thingsthat I feel need to be adjusted to
get to where we want to go. So I'm very fortunate to be in
the role I am in where I'mat. So you're about, i would
say, a year and ten daysyounger than I am, So the high
(06:16):
school experience was a lot different backwhen we were when we were coming up.
What do you remember about your highschool playing days and how you're going
to use maybe some of the influencesyou had as a as a player growing
up with maybe what you've learned alongthe way throughout your professional career. Right,
we want to establish a certain expectationof discipline within our program and makes
(06:42):
them understand that this discipline is tohold everyone accountable to the same standard.
That way, we can trust ourteammates, trust our coaches that we are
also performed without expectation. And oncewe've build that trust on the field,
it's just playing a game. Andthat's why I'm excited about it, is
the enthusiasm and the freshness of thebaseball game at this level because it is
(07:06):
it's just a lot of fun.And hopefully I can get through to them
that you don't want to take thesefour years for granted. They go quick
because it is so much fun.And I know I remember people telling me
when I was that age, oh, it's gonna go fast. It's gonna
go fast. And we have tofigure out a way to make sure they
(07:26):
understand that without just telling them it'sgonna go fast. So make sure they
understand that we have a special opportunityto play baseball. Not everyone gets that
opportunity. We need to take advantagebecause at some point that window to participate
in this great sport is going tobe taken away, whether you like it
or not. So right now wehave it, let's let's make the most
(07:47):
of it every single day. Yeah. No, that's a that's a great
point. That's an absolutely great point. And the only reason I know your
age is because I'm looking at youryou know, your Wikipedia right to the
right of me. So that's whyI could be so precise on the exact
date range and fellow September birthday,So that's why I could say that.
But the other cool thing too,with you doing both my boys or September
(08:09):
and there you go, very nice, very very bright futures ahead for both
of them. But I can say, you know, the fact that you
were a dual sport athlete yourself,and that you're coaching in both football and
baseball, it's a real strength becauseyou have the experience and doing both.
When you were kind of approaching footballand baseball as a student athlete, when
(08:30):
did you kind of see that baseballwas the route you should go on with
your career. When I did notget the opportunity to play at Michigan,
I went to Michigan to play football. That was Michael. I wanted to
be a Heisman quarterback when the NationalChampionship and then being an NFL quarterback like
(08:50):
that was my vision. Fortunately,I loved baseball the way through, and
I had talked to coach part andthe football coaching staff about playing baseball well
I spent time up with Michigan.They agreed to that before my arrival upon
campus. So when I did notget the opportunity that I had desired at
(09:11):
Michigan for football, I went overthe across the across the parking lot played
baseball. First season, I gotdrafted by the White Sox. It's pretty
good. That's not a bad trajectory. Might not have worked out the way
you had thought in your head,but it still worked out pretty good in
the long run, getting drafted bythe White Sox. What do you remember
about the process, because now youknow, with the way the draft looks
(09:33):
these days, it's very it's almostlike the NFL draft was, you know,
years ago. Now it's the theMLB draft is the way it was.
What do you remember about the draftingprocess and getting picked up by the
White Sox. I remember there wereone team that I did not really expect
because I had not personally communicating muchwith them. I had communicated with them
in high school and I think thatthat was kind of their why theys at
(09:58):
that time. But I did notget a mini innings in at Michigan.
I think I threw the thirty suminnings for that season, which which is
not a lot. And I justremember being at home and it was the
time where internet was was prevalent,but all the accessories the Internet. There
(10:22):
wasn't the Twitter. There wasn't thingsupdates so green and refreshed and refresh and
the next pick will come up.It was definitely a different process than it
is now. My gosh, Imean, it is just it's so different
to to kind of see like howit's been so widely, uh like a
(10:43):
broadcast in recent years, especially thisyear where it was done at the actual
All Star Game. But that,yeah, that was a lot different.
So when you finally when you getthe call and and you're you're now is
going to join the White Sox organization, what's the what's the feeling, and
what's the what's being told to youby the White Sox as you're coming on.
If I remember Cray, I metwith Mike Shirley. He came,
(11:05):
he was the regional scout. Hecame. We had dinner with my wife
and myself and a girlfriend at thetime, I think, and we went
to dinner. He kind of gaveus the expectation or what we should expect
out of the process going forward tounderstanding is that no clue what minor league
baseball was. Like probably most peoplein America the same minor league baseball say,
(11:28):
oh, Triple A. I'd like, well, but it could be
yeah, it could be Arizona League, it could be rookie ball, low
A, double A, high.Like, there's so many, so many
levels that you just really you're notaware of unless you're in it. And
(11:48):
so that was an eye opening experience. I flew out to Great Falls,
Montana and on a little a littleplane, and it was those a quick
wake up because flying charter for MichiganFootball to flying out the Great Falls on
a little plane and then going tothe host families basement was a little bit
(12:09):
of a contrast for what else usedto. Yeah, it can be a
wake up call to some who anticipate, you know, like you said,
going right from the draft to TripleA. There's many levels in the minor
leagues, and many of them aren'talways very glamorous. But the White Socks
have a pretty good system. Soyou know, you you went through it,
(12:30):
I would say, in a goodamount of time, and you make
your debut in two thousand and eight. But I'll get to that in a
second. Do you have any greatminor league memories? You know, some
people again they have some you know, the long bus rides, they have
some not so stellar experiences. Doyou have any fun memories of the minor
leagues? The things that teammates weregreat, And that's something that you'd never
(12:54):
experience again. Is because when yougo through times of adversity, and some
degree that the minor leagues are atime of adversity, you're not getting paid
much. You really don't get paidenough to cover the living expenses of the
season. So everyone's going through ittogether though a lot of peanut b and
jelly sandwiches. You're going through longbus rides, not enough sleeps. You
(13:16):
have a roommate on the road.You share all these experience, so you
create a bond that you will neverhave again, an all likelihood with another
group of people. So I rememberthose times. I remember we very few
off days, but when we didthe pool parties, we'd have those were
wed, grill out and have apool party. I remember the watching Entourage
(13:41):
on the bus rides with the oldschool DVDs. I would by the seasons
of Entourage as they come out,and we'd we'd watched the season of our
Entourage. Even though our pitching coachhated it, all the guys loved it
so but I mean it was whenyou look back on it, they were
some of the most fun time youhave in baseball, sharing in those moments
(14:01):
because it is it's pretty much justbaseball and doing wherever you can to play
the game. That's because at thatage again, I'm in the same age
rains as you. Those guys arereally cool. That's why everybody liked watching
that show. Oh man, it'sbusiness everything you wanted to be exactly be
a star making millions of dollars andhanging out with your friends. Were at
(14:26):
that age when you're going through highschool, college's it doesn't get much better
than that, doesn't. No,no, no, no. And it's
funny. You know, there's beena kind of a microscope on the minor
league systems as of late. Theycontracted a lot of teams and there's been
a lot of emphasis on the pay. But I just I read a story
recently about minor leaguers that are havingto still pay rent for a house that
(14:50):
they split, but they both havenow advanced to the next level and they're
paying rent in the next level andthe previous levels housing. So it really
does stink in certain guards because theteams aren't really covering it. Have you
seen how there's been a kind ofan outcry for support for the minor leaguers
recently. I have, And Ithink Twitter is a platform, the social
(15:11):
media is a platform that's really acceleratedthat process, because if it weren't for
those avenues of information, I'm notsure that that word would get out.
But it's tough because you have probablyhalf the players that say, well,
it kind of weeds out the peoplethat aren't going to make it moving forward
because they're not willing to sacrifice.Because I remember a teammate that and he
(15:35):
just finished his playing career recently,so he's about the same age as myself.
He showed up the Tucson, Arizonawith you had to get a callard
shirt. So he went to Walmartor whatever and got his callard shirt and
that's pretty much what he had andgrinded through it and found a way.
And I'm sure there's others in hissituation that weren't able to mentally make those
(16:03):
overcome those hurdles and they eliminate themselves. And because once you get to the
big league, that's a big partof the game, is how you mentally
overcome adversity and the ability to dothat. So there's something to be said
for grinding through it, but you'reright, it's I don't know that that's
the way to do it through financiallystrapping the players within your organization, because
(16:29):
you want them to be able toplay baseball and you don't want them to
have to worry about whether they're gettinga meal or whether they're sleeping or I
think that I think we're probably nottoo far away from one of the organizations
really being creative and taking advantage ofthe opportunity for housing and food and taking
the whole system and doing something uniquewhere the players are really taken care of
(16:52):
on those fronts through the minor leagues. It's great that there is a lot
of organizations coming, you know,up that are supporting the minor leaguers.
It's great that they're voicing it.A lot of times I don't think,
you know, and I worked inthe minor leagues in the mid two thousands,
I would never have thought it wassuch a dire situation, you know,
seeing how I mean, I wasthe same age, thinking like,
(17:14):
wow, these guys have this amazinggig. You know, I'm working for
thirty bucks a game, you know, and I'm just trying to get my
teeth grinding in this business, butnot knowing what's going on on the other
side. And it's great to see, like you said, Twitter as a
platform giving guys a voice and givingpeople the opportunity to know what's going on.
And maybe the switches will begin tochange in the next few years,
(17:37):
right, And that's typically how itworks. You have to identify the problem
before you you make the adjustment andcorrect it. So hopefully that is in
not judismal future. And because baseballis a difficult sport, let's let's not
make life around baseball. I don'tthink we need to be be so tough
(18:00):
on on those guys because I wasfortunate. I had great support for my
mother and father and they would neverlet me really hurt in that way.
And I signed for a little bit, not a ton of money. I
think it was seventy or eighty thousand, So I had money to if I
(18:21):
needed to live, to eat,to whatever it was. I had the
means to cover it. But there'sguys that did not have that through those
difficult times where you're all of asudden playing higher baseball competition and then you're
living on your own, and thenyou're trying to figure out how leases work
with an apartment and it's a lot, it's a lot, a lot of
(18:44):
life coming at you. Hot.Yeah, absolutely, but all for the
goal, you know, and that'swhat you did make. You made your
major league debut for the White Sox. Kind of take us back to that
day. What you remember, youknow, were you nervous, what was
going through you had? Were youconfident, You're feeling, okay, I
got this ball, it's time togo. Where were you you at mentally
with the major league debut? Ithappens. So it's kind of surreal where
(19:06):
it's I mean, if you thinkabout it as a child, you're acting
like your King Grifie Junior and youwant to be King Griffy Junior. And
then you play baseball with this visionof being a major league baseball player.
At least I did. I neverI never thought of doing anything I was
than playing professional sports. I sawI was gonna be an NFL quarterback.
(19:30):
I thought was gonna be a majorleague baseball player, and that's how I
operated. But when you actually getthere, it's like whoa. You never
really think like you always think whatam I gonna do to get there?
How do I work to get there? And you're there, and it's like
you have to shift to all right, now I have to perform like I
(19:51):
have been. But at that levelthat I've been, I've placed my vision,
I've placed my goal at this level. Now I have to readjust But
it was surreal. The day ofI remember my parents came up to Chicago
from Lafiatte. My dad gave mea ride. My mom and dad gave
me a ride over to Ussel atthe time, and it was it was
(20:15):
the longest twelve minute drive I thinkI've ever been been on. I think
I don't know if we talked.I remember pulling up and having no clue
or to go, and fortunately gotout of the car and John Dinks was
walking out, and I had nevermet him before. But I was very
fortunate that it was John Danks tokind of show me into the clubhouse and
(20:40):
make that arrival more comforting than hadit been someone else. Maybe that's great.
That's usually my next question of whowas the first guy you met at
the stadium, So that's that's perfect. But yeah, I mean just the
emotion I'm sure was absolutely off thecharts. What do you remember about the
game the most? I remember myfirst two at bats probably I think that
(21:04):
Ian Kinser. If I remember correctly, I might get name Ian kins Are
let off. Matt Young was toowhole. I got full counts to Ian
Kinsler struck him out in the highfastball, so I got my first track
out right the way, and thensecond about trade of the same thing,
got full counts. It well,I'm just gonna throw as hard as I
can. Gave up my first homer. So it was a It was so
(21:30):
much fun though, because it issomething that I'd worked for and then you're
on that stage and you get todo what you've prepared to do your whole
life, and now you get theopportunity to do it on the stage at
which you're trying to get to,and um, it was it was so
much fun. Josh Hamilton had justcome off the All Star Game where he
(21:52):
dazzled at the home under. Hedidn't win it, but I think everyone
remembers him as winning it. Iwould never have guests I thought he won
based off of my memory. Well, I mean he was sitting bowls with
the moon and it seemed like hehit twenty in a row. But yeah,
and I think I struck him outthree times in that in that outing,
and it was it was a lotof fun. Yeah. I mean
(22:15):
you had seven strikeouts. I meanthat is like, that's a heck of
an impressive showing from a strikeout perspective, you know, and in the debut,
and that's just that's gotta be amazing. Seven strikeouts Again, until I
might not have had a you.You had many great stops along your way.
(22:38):
I mean, I'm I'm gonna moveinto something else because I don't want
to just you know, hard,I don't want to go in complete order
and then have you here all day. I want to hit a couple other
spots. But great career, youknow, playing with the Padres, the
Cubs, the Blue Jays. ButI want to talk about something that I
think is very cool, especially uhit's out there, you can see him.
I got to talk about your homeruns. I gotta do it because
(23:00):
you I swear you would have thoughtthat you were a third baseman coming up
in the minor leagues with the strokeyou have on these home runs. What
are your memories of hitting your firstmajor league home run and actually watching that
ball sail out of the park,Because it's a thing of beauty to see
your reaction when you when you're roundingthe bases. Well, it's good that
(23:22):
you just watched the home run.Just if you watched every bat, you
would know that I did not.We only skipped to the good stuff here,
and we only look at the goodstuff. I appreciate that because if
you watched the rest of my badto have known that that was not a
stream. Um uh, we're inMilwaukee and I was going on deck.
(23:48):
The owners have a few seasons inthe travel secretary of that day left my
dad, who brought a couple ofmy high school coaches with him, my
head baseball coach, Jake Burton,Mike, his son, the coach as
well for high school. They weresitting with a couple of the owners and
so they were enjoying the refreshments upin Milwaukee. Um one of the assistant
(24:14):
coaches, and he was running hismouth on how good of a hitter it
was in high school, and sothe owners like, well, we haven't
seen that yet. And so Iget on deck and the owner the owners
were giving me a hard time becauseI wasn't hit, and I said,
your coach said you'll hit a homerun, and I just kind of smiled
at him, and then went upfirst pitch, hit one to right field
(24:37):
in Milwaukee that that went over andI think I went upper deck, and
I mean just the feet of thatput a smile on my face. But
then as it was rounding second andthen looking at those six guys standing up
high five in each other, itwas just it was a special moment,
a lot of fun. Yeah,it's a it wasn't upper deck shot,
and it's uh, you know,you didn't you didn't have anything cheap.
(24:59):
They were all they were bombs,especially the one in Colorado. My gosh,
that one was like almost uh youknow, bat flip style the way
you that was like a no doubter. But you know, I mean again,
you know, there's a whole loopof of your your hitting on YouTube,
which is fantastic because if you neversaid that, man, again,
I would have thought you were apinch hitting third baseman coming up throughout the
(25:19):
ranks. You got a great strokeup there. Yeah, I appreciate that.
It's not quite reality, but I'lltake the compliment or I get that.
One of the coolest one of theYeah, one of the coolest baseball
moments was We're at home in SanDiego as a getaway day as a day
(25:41):
game, and the end we wereplaying the Angels, and it was an
extra inning, so our bench hadbeen exhausted. It was two outs in
the I don't know if it wastwelve thirteenth somewhere late in the game or
in extra innings, and I pinchedit and I get in get a basically,
so I'm on first two outs.Will Venable comes up and he hits
(26:02):
the ball to kind of left center, and I'll say, I'm gonna score
and I think the left fielder kindof balled it, and Glynn Hoffman sent
me around and I scored the winningrun, and it was like I had
never experienced that type of baseball sincehigh school. And I don't know that
I've ever scored a walk off run. I didn't get the walk off hit,
(26:22):
but like the walkoff run, andmy heart rate did not come down
until we landed in Saint Louis.I was sweating. I was sweating from
getting the interviews to the shower togetting on the bus and the plane.
I think I was sweating the wholetime. I was probably breathing hard the
whole time. And then I waslike, man, that was so much
fun. It was It's like that'swhat that's a baseball. Baseball can be
(26:48):
such a fun game. You neverknow, I mean, what do you
think about that that they might bephasing out the pitcher as an offensive spot.
You like that or you think youknow the beauty of the game is
you know you see it. Ilike Jacob deGrom who was hitting like,
you know, like three ninety beforehe got hurt. You see these,
uh, these great moments where thepitchers contribute a lot. Do you think
(27:08):
that that being phased out is notgood. You do you kind of like
that for the arms, you know, stability. I always liked hitting.
I always thought it provided a uniqueopportunity for the NL to be different.
I think I don't know if it'sspecially game or not, but selfishly,
(27:30):
as a pitcher and a player,it created opportunities for the managers to handle
the game a little bit differently.It was definitely more challenging for a nationally
manager and it was just a differenttype of baseball that I've found myself.
In AL games where there's a DH, you don't have to pay as close
(27:52):
attention to the situations at points,but in the NL, you have to
know where we're at in the lineup, what's going on. It strategically changes
the game and it gives the guysan opportunity to participate that would otherwise get
that chance. And it's it's harderas a pitcher because you have to come
prepared. You have to be ableto bunt the ball, you have to
(28:14):
be able to base run and dothese things to help your team win.
You become more of a baseball player, which is is something that you kind
of lose sight of. I justtalked with our quarterbacks. We just had
a zoom call with A. J. T. O'Sullivan and he's coaching Do
you remember that name. He playedfootball for a long time and now he's
coaching high school football in California.But he was so kind to talk to
(28:37):
our quarterbacks. And one thing hesaid about his quarterback, He's like,
Hey, I want you to bea football player first. If you throw
an interception, you can't just say, oh man, what if you have
to go make a tackle. Andthat's kind of how I view pitchers.
It's like, hey, we pitch, but we have to be a baseball
player first. So what it takesto win this game we have to do.
And sometimes we was side of whatit takes to win a game.
(29:00):
We're so caught up in spin ratesand waited on bass averages and what's my
slug? What's my expected run?Like all these things that we really don't
have control of. But we wantbaseball players first, someone that's there to
help win a game. And thatI think that having that aspect of not
(29:26):
having a DH how the pitcher's hit, I think that really brings that into
play more frequently. Yeah, andespecially when you see a guy like,
you know, a Max Freed hada walk off single, you know,
as a pinch hitter because he hasa good bat. You know, it's
it's the beauty. I was atthe game earlier this year where Jacob Degram
you know, had a two rbisingle as well as pitching a complete game,
(29:48):
you know, three hitter. Soit's just it's a beauty of the
game that I feel like it's gonnaget lost. But I don't I understand
why they would do it, butit just kind of stinks. If you're
a purist, you don't want tosee it go. Yeah. Oh,
I like the baseball with the picturehitting and people. Some people hate it,
and it's one of those things outand think are gonna bridge it the
(30:11):
gap. There will be people thatlove the people that hate it, and
you have to figure out which one, which one of those people bring more
money to the table. Is probablygonna be how the decisions made. But
it also kind of brings the lightlike how special show he tany is And
I feel like, no matter howmuch they gets talked about, it won't
be talked about enough. Is whathe's doing is just it's unbelieved. It's
(30:36):
unreal. Now it's so special.I mean, and again, it's not
like he's just a you know,a light hitting, you know, utility
guy who can also pitch. Imean, this is a man who's hitting
no doubt home runs, I meanbombs. He doesn't get cheated on one
home run. He's like you,he doesn't get cheated on any of his
home runs. You just you knowthe second they leave the bat that they're
rather gone. But it's not likehe's also you know, a bad picture.
(30:57):
He's he's putting in quality and meansstriking guys out. It's a it's
a it's a very interesting special athleteto watch him play in this day and
age. Uh yeah, but Imean I'd hit three home runs in ten
years and he's had how many?Is the happen this year? I think
he's he's gotta be yeah, upto almost forty thirty eight, I think,
(31:19):
yeah, he's almost forty. He'sgot this is r ny three Still
hitters are hitting like one ninety offof them. He's leading his team in
stolen bases. It's it's just it'sunbelievable, like it really is. He's
thirty seven home runs as we speak. We don't want to don't want to
(31:41):
jimp him on any So he's atthirty seven home runs and let's see the
era is currently uh as the lastprinting two point nine three with one hundred
and six strikeouts. We saw thatguy before. His name was Baber,
and well, I think he's verythan he did. Um, what what's
(32:02):
gonna be interesting is like from myperspective, like he if he's the MVP
and there's not even someone in aclose second like this, I don't know
how you could argue anyone being evenclose to that production. And I don't
see if he had and what I'mgonna say, average a show, Hey,
(32:22):
average year, how you can nothave him be MVP if he continues
to do this. Yeah, feellike it's the first guy that I think
it's the first guy that he performshis average for ten years in a row.
He should win ten MVPs because evenif someone breaks almost every offensive record,
(32:43):
they're not gonna have the production thathe has overall and impacts the game.
Yeah, and it's imagine if hewas healthy for those first two and
a half years that he'd come over. You know, this is what we
were expecting and it's delivered so that'svery cool. Yeah, it is,
it really is. So all right, well, let's head into the to
the wrap up portion here. Appreciateyou coming on to spend a couple of
(33:07):
minutes with me. If you canjust tell the listeners one more time what
you've got going on, if theywant to follow you on social media,
and I guess anything else going onin the world of Clayton Richard. I
wish I knew my social media wellenough to share it. I could share
it if you'd like. I gotit in front of me, if you'd
like, all right, yeah,let's do that. It's it's at CR
(33:30):
threes with two ease at the endof course, at CR Three's Clayton Richard.
Yeah. Yeah, I haven't figuredout Instagram. I need to do
that because I need to get theword out for my players. As I
know recruiting is it's going to bemore of an important thing. I need
to get my guys noticed in footballand baseball. But coaching here at Lafia
(33:53):
Jefferson High School excited about helping thisthe baseball program and that we're really involved
in the youth program as well.That's something that has been a challenge,
is it's kind of went the wrongway for a while and we're trying to
get that back back to where itshould be. So the youth program and
Laffettelfette Youth Baseball, Lockett Jeff Baseballand the Jeff Football And if you get
(34:17):
join the golf carts, you cancheck out Captain Spiffy dot com. That's
where our website for golf carts.So we kind of got a little bit
of everything going on. Captain Spiffy. That is a great name, so
please captain Spiffy dot com. Verynice. Yeah, my dad nicknamed my
boys. My older ones Cashed andkeenixt Night calls him captain, and my
(34:40):
younger ones Cannon, who likes There'salways dressed really well and he calls him
Spiffy. So Captain Spiffy, that'sthat's so genius. I can't even begin
to stress at the end of theinterview that we should have said that at
the beginning. That's uh, that'swonderful. Now you did great well.
(35:00):
I appreciate the time. Today wewill say goodbye for this week on Diamond
Conversations. If you want to followme on Twitter, it's at Chad E
and B. On Instagram it's atIB Exclusives. My website is ibexclusives dot
com. You can find out allthe information going on with my autograph signings
and memorabilia dealings on there. Andwe will get out of here for this
week and catch you next time onDiamond Conversation. So for Clayton Richard,
(35:22):
this is your old pal, wewill catch you on the flip side.
Yo. What up? This isConan and I host Keeping in one hundred
my co host Disco Inferno. Unfortunately, well i'd say you're my co host.
Listen every Thursday here on Spreaker.We taught pro wrestling, sports,
movies, music, TV, popculture, some politics, it's everything.
The rest of the pro wrestling podcastsare not tune in to hear myself the
(35:45):
superior one, educate and inform.Tune in to hear me very disco.
That's very disrespectful. Join us everyThursday on Spreaker and keep it one hundred boom
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