Ep. 34: Taylor Hill

From Little League to the Big Leagues

In this episode, I had the pleasure of reminiscing with Taylor Hill, a childhood friend with whom I played baseball. Taylor continued to refine his skills at Vanderbilt University, eventually reaching the pinnacle of his sport by making it to Major League Baseball (MLB).

We dive into Taylor's impressive 10+ year career in professional baseball, exploring the dedication and perseverance required to sustain such a long tenure in the sport. Taylor shares the motivations that kept him going, even when many others would have sought regular employment.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:21):
All right, everybody, welcome to another episode of the Enkiddo Podcast.
We're continuing with our hometown series. We've got Taylor Hill,
who's been a journeyman on the baseball field, so we're
going to talk to him today. You may know the
last name. We've talked to his brother, he's a principal
at Mount Juliet, and we talked to his dad, who's
probably one of the best rec leave coaches ever in

(00:41):
the United States. So Taylor, thanks for coming on me.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, no problem, happy to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
So we go way back obviously, but you're part of
that group that was in those three or four years
of like just talent everywhere, talent all around. But we
had I would say, a pretty normal upbringing. You know,
spend many a night at your your guys's house and
growing up, when did you know or did you know

(01:06):
that you had some talent on the baseball side versus
like basketball and some of the other scene because you guys,
you and Ryan were always taller on everybody else.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
So when did you.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Kind of figure out like was it your parents, was
it practicing all the time, When did you kind of
know like, hey, I got.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Some skills here, I don't know if there was ever
like a specific moment. I think for me, when I
really started to focus solely on baseball was after eighth grade,
because I was playing baseball and basketball in middle school
and this was pretty funny. They wanted me to play
basketball as a freshman and I was like, no, I'm
not any good like I can you know, that's the typical,

(01:45):
Like I can play defense and I can hustle, but like,
I not a good shooter, and I can make a
couple of layups and get a couple of rebounds. And
they were like, well, you know, we still need guys
like that, and I was like, I mean I don't
really want to and they said, uh, you know, okay,
well we'll check back in. And they checked back in
and I was like, no, I don't want to come.
Like they were having summer workouts. I was like, I
play baseball. Like I played baseball in the summer, it's

(02:07):
baseball season. They're like, well, you know, you can come
in the morning. I said, so you want me to
come in the morning and run stadiums or whatever you
all doing and then go play a doubleheader. No, I'm
just not going to do that. Like I don't even
want to play. You're not convincing me. I get to
go run in the morning and when it's one hundred
degrees outside or I cannot and I can go play baseball.
I'm just going to play baseball. So it's kind of

(02:30):
in high school obviously played baseball. I don't really know
if there was ever a moment. I think I really
took a big jump from sophomore to junior year. That's
kind of when I took off a little bit. And
I think it was just more growing and getting in
the weight room and doing that stuff. If you would
have told me, you know, five years after that, I

(02:52):
would have been playing at Vanderbilt and were playing in
the Pros, I would have probably said, oh, yeah, right.
You know, that wasn't really on my radar. I wanted
to write, like but you know, I didn't know what
that looked like or anything. I'm just trying to play.
I just want to play baseball and be really good
at it. It was, but yeah, we had I mean
we were also it was a fun team to be

(03:14):
on too at that point because, like you said, we
had a lot of talent, so we were good so
you could push each other. That way. It wasn't like,
you know, there was just one good player. There was
a lot of good players. Yeah. So to answer your question,
I don't know if there was ever one specific moment,
but I think me not playing basketball helped me do that.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Understood at our school at the time was very one
dimensional sports wise.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
It came that way, and then we the.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
School split when I was a freshman, and I was
always saying, if if you had been able to keep
that school together with all those players, like you had
had enough teams for you wouldn't needed an A and
a B team out they're playing and you probably just
break people.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, like with James Akkins and all those guys that
were around your years in ryts age or maybe a
year old or a year older, like there would have
been we would have had he would they would have
had to cut thirty guys, guys that wouldn't even have
been on the team, just because there was so much
talent there.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
It was insane. And for all that to come out
of just Mount Julie, it was nuts. So going into
too high school, Uh yeah, the whole freshman thing, that's
kind of like when everybody stopped. There were a bunch
of guys played freshman basketball and then that was it.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
They're like, we're done.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
But then sophomore year, your sophomore year, which was my
senior year, I think you were full time up there
with us, and then you became one of the regular starters.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah I would. I would fill in like if y'all
needed like a random start, like I think I started
against Gallatin one time as a sophomore, or i'd come
in out of the bullpen, like I didn't really cause again,
y'all were stacked, Like y'all, there was nowhere for me
to play, and to be honest, like I wasn't. I
was good as a sophomore, but I wasn't like you know,

(05:05):
I wasn't James Akins or any of those guys at
that point. I was still you know, I was throwing
eighty three when I was a sophomore figured it out out,
you know. So there's there was that, But yeah, I
just that was the to think about the talent pool
we had and not to win state or really even
try to get like we never made a state when

(05:26):
I was there. They made it like the next three
years after I left. I'm like, wow, some can say
that we got them to the precipice or whatever, you know,
and then they finished it out. But it was Yeah,
I was disappointed in that obviously, especially my junior and
senior year because we still had really good talent. Yeah,
that was that was disappointing.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
From when I was a sophomore we went to the
state and that was our first brush with it just
got slaughtered.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Didn't know. I remember I was in Memphis. Yeah, it
was in Memphis. Did you'll play Houston?

Speaker 1 (05:55):
No, we played Mumford and some something else, but Houston
was down there and they had that rocket armed and
he was walking around like you know, five yo of
baseball and he's just chilling. He was sitting on top
of the dug out, which you weren supposed to do,
like doing all this stuff.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
He didn't care.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
He's about to sign a million get a million dollar
signing bonus or whatever. But then yeah, through ours, our
our whole whatever. It was just like we I always
said that that five team, which was my senior year,
we had a bag full of talent, the head full
of crap, like we just could not There's so many
issues on that team with just people in general.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
I was one.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
I was one of the main issues. But once we
got past all that and you guys, you could see
whatever purpose was building, it was starting to gain momentum.
And I think he was only four or five years
in when I was a senior, so it was just
like he was starting to figure out what it was.
And then you just saw this. You saw the shay
Oh brothers both go to Vanderbilt, and then you saw Caleb,

(06:54):
and then you were like the next one, and it
became like kind of a Corbin factory. So I wasn't
around for this, but you're junior and senior year, when
did you start getting noticed by scouts from college and
things of that nature.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
So I would say, and it's so different now, just
like with the portal and all, like you can these
guys are committing when they're in eighth and ninth grade.
I'm like the ninth grade didn't even know what college
was at that point, Like I'm just trying to throw
baseballs here, like I don't know what I'm doing. So
it was probably it would have been my junior year.

(07:29):
The fall of my junior year, I went to Belmont
Camp and I pitched there, and I was able to
talk to the coaches and Ryan, you know, had gone
there for a semester and then ended up transferring after
his you know, his injury. But so it's probably then
they you know, we talked about it, they gave me
an offer or whatever, but I was like, again, I

(07:51):
don't know what I'm doing, Like what does this mean?
Like I don't I don't know, like I'm not going
to commit anywhere. I don't even know, like what what
any of this stuff really means? And then I ended
up having a good, good junior year following up in
the spring, and it was probably towards the end of
my season when Vanderbilt reached out and I had like

(08:11):
Tennessee and a couple other schools that and I really
wanted to go to Tennessee, h but I was Vanderbilt
presented a better opportunity. I'll say that, I will say that,
but yeah, there was. It was it's so different now,

(08:32):
but just then too, it's it's nerve wracking. And two,
like if your parents don't know, Like now there's so
much information out there, but your parents don't know either,
and they're kind of it. They're learning with you, trying
to help, but also they don't know. You know, it's a.
It's a different process, but I think too, I wouldn't

(08:52):
have it any other way, I don't think, because I
can't even imagine being that age and trying to make
a decision about where I'm going to school, Like it's
I don't know, it's a lot of pressure on young
on young kids, and they already have enough going on.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
And these are one hundreds thousand dollars decisions. Oh yeah,
not even millions now with the hell but the then
so you're you get the offer from Vanderbilt. But then
if we take a step back, what was the so
your your parents obviously had some experience with the recruitment

(09:29):
of Ryan, which was kind of easy because we had
a bunch of juice.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Balls out there that day and it was just like.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Okay, and I I was hitting Bob's oo, which would
never happen, never happened, just dropping balls into the woods,
and I'm like, can we not play with these? And
then I remember talking to my stepdad.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
About He's like, yeah, those were juiced up, and I'm like, cool.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Using tea balls out there, but he has his groove
me injury, which we talked to him about, what what
was that like kind of going through that with you know,
because as far as I mean, you guys had some
grandparents dying things of that nature. But as far as
Rock and a family, that was a huge thing because
the amount of talent he had. So from a little

(10:13):
brother's perspective, even though you're taller than him, what was
your what was kind of your take of what was
going on? What was that like kind of working through
all that and just just in general, I think it's
always good to get kind of a different perspective.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, so do you know how we found out?

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yes, your dad told us so, but you can tell
it again. Yeah, I want you to tell it for
your perspective, because we heard it from that. We heard
it from Ryan and your dad. They were in the
car together. You and your mom were in the other car.
We don't know that perspective, Okay, so they'd be.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Great to hear. So I was we were in South
Carolina playing. My mom went with me. We're playing summer ball.
We're leaving a tournament heading home. It was that I
think it was a Sunday, and uh, I don't know.
We're probably a couple hours out from home. And my
dad had said or he called and said, hey, you know,

(11:10):
do y'all want to eat when you get here. I'm like,
of course, you know, where are we going? Let's go
to Charlie's. Okay, great? Well coincidentally, oh, Charlie's was across
the street from some at hospital, so of course we're
going right there. And he's like, but call me, and
the injury had already happened, but he said, call me
when you're about twenty or thirty minutes away so we

(11:30):
can make sure we get there on time. Okay, you know,
and this is going through my mom. I'm just sitting
in the passenger seat and she's like that was She
said something like that's weird, and I was like, what
she said? You know, he never does that, Like he said,
call hi when we get close and we'll meet him
for lunch, like whatever. I didn't think a thing of it.
And so she calls him, or she calls him when
we get closer, and she just starts screaming in the car,

(11:54):
and I'm like I'm looking over at her, like, uh,
you know, I don't really remember my initial thoughts, but
I assume it was something along the lines of who died, right,
you know, it's I'm fifteen or sixteen at this point,
and so my dad kind of gives her a rundown
of what he knows so far, and at this point,

(12:16):
they don't really know a whole lot. All they know
is he got hitten eye with the baseball from a
very close distance. And so I don't even know. I
think I think someone came and picked me up, because
I don't think I went to the hospital right away
because they were trying to figure out what's going on,
like do they need to do emergency surgery, like all
these different things, and then it was just the whole

(12:42):
thing is kind of a blur, to be honest, because
you know, they were gone there going to the hospital,
like my grandmother came into town, like, you know, it
was just there's a lot of different things. And I
can't even remember the timeline of when she came in
because I know that he ended up having surgery later
and she came to stay with him. Did he talk
about when he had to lay on us? Ye, delay
on that massage table. We can get to that, but yeah,

(13:04):
it was, you know, and they don't know what to do,
the doctors. It's not a it's not a common injury
right to get hit in the face with the baseball.
You know, they see orbital blowouts or whatever they call it.
I'm sure, but you know, literally perfectly hit him in
the eye. And you know, my parents I think were
I know they were obviously devastated, and it's one of

(13:25):
those two. Being a dad now you don't have this
perspective then being a dad now, like the feeling of
helplessness is I can see. I can understand it more
now than I ever could before. You know, just based
on Harriet getting sick. It's like she had RSV last
year after Christmas. Unfortunately, you know it was it was

(13:47):
a milder case. It wasn't that bad. But like, you
can't do anything for me, Like, yeah, just hang in there,
that's what the doctor. Yeah, you know, go home and snuggle.
I'm like, she can't breathe, Like what do you mean?
You know? And I can't imagine, Like you're your son, Hey, yeah,
he's he can't see. Well, what can we do about it? Nothing.

(14:07):
We can fix his bones around his face with minimal scarring,
which is unbelievable to me too. You would never know
that he even had that. So the next few months
were We're rough and reflecting on it for me looking back,
like I would hang out with Ryan and stuff, you know,
and Ryan, Ryan's quiet compared to me especially, and you

(14:32):
didn't really get a lot of information out of him.
You don't know what he's feeling or thinking. But he's
also you know. And then he they try to they
try to fix his eye, but he has to lay
on his stomach for two weeks, which is absolutely wild
to me that that's even a thing. But to keep him,
like to keep him do that. He's obviously in pain,
but they get, you know, they want him to lay

(14:52):
down like le me get bed sores and all that stuff.
He can only stand up to go to the bathroom
and like take a two minute shower to wash the
filth off from you just laying on your own stink
the whole time. Like it's it was hard, man, And
it was and not for me, Like I was just
there as a you know, and I don't I don't
think I probably did a great job of trying to
understand either, because I was just watching my parents and

(15:16):
they're obviously devastated, but they're trying to hold it together
for both of us because they don't want us to know.
Like and at that point. I don't think the extent
of the injury really hit me either until I, you know,
and I saw his face and I saw his eye,
and I knew that it was bad. But in my mind,
I'm like, oh, you know, they're going to fix it,
their doctors, like he'll be able to see, it'll be fine.

(15:39):
But obviously that's not the case, and that's not how
it worked out. I think the I'll never forget this.
I don't know if Ryan probably didn't tell you this,
but he came home from he had gone to school,
you know, he went to Belmont and he was struggling
there just and I don't know, I don't blame him.
Like he's around his buddies playing baseball and he can't

(16:00):
do any of it, can't. You know. That's why I'm here, Like,
obviously I'm going to go to school, but you know,
his roommates are baseball players. They're going to practice or
workouts or whatever, and he can't do any of it.
He came home one time, it was in August, because
I remember we were going to the Wilson County Fair,
and I asked him because he came home and I

(16:23):
was going going with Holdman Devon and I was meeting
him there and I was like, hey, do you want
to go? Like we're going and you know, and he
was like, yeah, sure, I'll go. And I thought, you know,
I was glad because he get out of the house
instead of but on the way there, he he broke
down to me and started crying, which never happens for him.
He's not Ryan is not the most emotional, which is fine,

(16:44):
and that's just the you know, that's his personality. It's
not a bad thing, it's just the way it is.
And I'm like, man, you know, at this point, I'm sixteen,
I'm like, what is what is going on? And he
told me that he didn't think he would ever be
able to play baseball again, and that was I don't

(17:08):
even know how to explain it, Like I don't know,
because you know, that's what we did. Yeah, like we
played baseball, Like that's what we did, you know, and
it's I I don't know. I didn't even know how
to respond. Really, I just kind of listened, and you know,
he was right, and ended up he transferred after that
semester and went him to Sue and he needed to

(17:31):
do that for just his quality of life. Anyways, But
it was it was really hard on my parents, and
I think it still is in some ways, you know,
not that it's their fault by any means. They did
every They took him to every possible doctor they could
ever think that might be able to help, even if
there was a point one percent chance they were taking him.

(17:51):
But it was, Yeah, that was that was a hard time,
and I know it was even they they shielded me
a lot from it, but I think Ryan and I
actually got closer because of that too. In some ways,
it makes it was crazy time. It's crazy time. Yeah,
it was nuts.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
No, I just always wondered what your what your thoughts were,
and how it was out it all went down and
living through that and then one day everything's normal, two
budding baseball players and then so that situation happens, and
you know, for so that would have been your junior
year and then when did you When did you decide

(18:32):
you were going to Vanderbilt.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
I think it was I think I quote unquote committed
like later that summer of going into my senior year,
or maybe the beginning of the school year in August
something like that.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
So going into that situation, I mean I almost went
back and played baseball because of what happened to Ryan.
Like when went to I was going to Tribeca and
they needed a catcher, so I was like, you want
me to walk on?

Speaker 2 (19:00):
They're like yeah. It was like fourhand at the time.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
And then he ended up going to Lipscomb like the
next year, so I was like, well.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
That ain't gonna work.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, and then his assistant, Collins, took over, and then
he left to go to Lipscomb, and then it was like, well,
we're just done. But I just had this weird I
don't know it's because we played the same position. We
were best friends, we were ronchill all the time, but
but it was like I couldn't even pick up a
baseball anymore.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
It just felt too weird, you know, too weird. So anyways, the.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Aftermath of that, you're going into your senior year. You've
had this crazy thing happen. It Is it because you
were shielded it was just business as usual? Or was
this like could you feel this because you said you
didn't really turn it on until the junior and senior year.
Do we think this had anything to do with that?

Speaker 2 (19:49):
I don't know, maybe indirectly, I don't know about directly,
but I did. It did make me happy that he
would come and watch us play when I when I
was my senior year and into college and pro ball
and all that, you know, because that's a that's something
that some people you just when it's taken away from you, you

(20:09):
don't want to be around it at all, and I don't.
I wouldn't blame him for that either, if he never
wanted to go to another baseball game or watch it
for a long time or what you know, however he
wants to. His version of healing is you know, going
to be different from mine. It's just how personalities work
so indirectly probably, but I will say that Ryan, you know,

(20:31):
he figured out how to like play catch after that
with one I play softball with us, Yes, he played
softball with you. I would if I needed somebody to
throw with an off season or over Christmas break, if
I was still in school whatever, like I would go
throw with Ryan. You know, he figured it out like it,
and that's I wouldn't have had I wouldn't have wanted

(20:52):
to do that, Like why, like you know, it's stuff
like that, like why would you do that? Like why why?
You know? So it was indirectly, definitely directly, Probably not
as much, but we spent a lot of time and
we'd go up to the the Maybe he's the principal now,
so he might get in trouble if I ad met this,

(21:13):
but we would go up to the indoor facility of
a Mount Julia, you know, and work out and throwing
all that stuff up there because he would go work out,
you know, and he he wasn't playing, but he could
still go work out. And he was huge at this point.
You know, he's a he's a stick figure. Now.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
You know, we need to get him on some yeah calories,
but that's that's something for another day. So you're getting
into your junior and senior year of baseball. You're we've
talked about kind of how the seasons went, but then
now you're going to Vanderbilt. You're close to home, but
it's full on your academics, baseball, everything in between. What

(21:50):
was that like going into that place? You had all
these people the MLB training, in my opinion, had already started.
What was that like walking into that situation. You had
a couple of guys before the showows come through. You know,
one of them made it to like double A or whatever.
But it was like, it reminded me how hard it
was to get through college and get to the pros.

(22:12):
But then Vanderbilt comes his powerhouse and now you're on
this team.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yeah, and you end up become a part of it.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
So what was that like though, From the sophomore throwing
eighty three to now I'm at Vanderbilt freshman year and
I'm trying to figure out who I am and what
I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, it was overwhelming, to say the least. I think it.
I definitely struggled in school and I did find but
it was it was a lot more effort for me,
as I think than I was for a lot of
other students who were there, especially academically and baseball too.
You know, it's I'm glad obviously that I played baseball,

(22:49):
but you know, there's not a lot of free time
in there, especially during the season, but even the offseason
too when you have practice. So it was me for me,
it was just like trying to allocate time to be
able to do everything, and eventually you figure it out
and I'm like I can put that off or I
can you know, I can do this. You know, if
I got an eight page paper due the next day,
and I've written the first paragraph. You know, I should

(23:09):
probably jump on that. We got to but I got
way better at that. But it was it was overwhelming
at times, but it was also challenging too, And I
don't think that I would be where I am right
now if I didn't go through stuff like that. It
definitely didn't help out my anxiety for sure, but I've

(23:31):
I've gotten better at harnessing that in a lot of ways,
and medication helps too. But it was it was definitely
an adjustment, and there were some points. You know, I
went to school, it was thirty minutes from my house.
There's sometimes I felt like I was a thirty hour
flight away though, you know, I just wanted to go
home and I couldn't, and which I think that's a credit.

(23:54):
You know, some people see that as a making you
soft or whatever. I think that's a credit to my
parents and who we were grown up with, Like don't
you want to go home? Isn't it nice to go home? Sometimes?
But I definitely it took a while for me to
grow up there too, I think, and it was a
good thing I needed to do that, And I don't
think I would have gone well if I went somewhere

(24:15):
further away for me, at least at that time. Now
you know, we'll probably get to this, but I ended
up leaving and being gone for essentially ten years. So
you know, there's there's that too.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
There's that too, So jump it back because part of
this is like the outside effects. When when you felt
that anxiety, was it just normal? Do you think it
was normal anxiety or if you've just always been an
anxious kid, an anxious person, or was there something that
tripped it.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
I think it was both to a degree, but I
think part of it was. And I don't know if
I've ever really thought about it like this, maybe not
until now. You could be a therapist. It's been a
lot on therapy. So yeah, we're just pushing it back out. Yeah,

(25:03):
that's a good I think it's I always expected myself
to do well, and if I didn't do well, you know,
I move on. But high school is different in college,
and you know, professional baseball is different than college is
as you move up. But like I never if I

(25:25):
failed in high school, odds were I was going to
be successful at you know, just because I was at
later on in my career I was a good player, right,
so I was if I had a bad game, I
could probably do very well the next time, whereas in
college I might have a bad game, might have another
bad game, might have another bad game. Because all of
these guys are good. It's one of those small or

(25:47):
big fish in a small pond to a small fish
in a way bigger pond. Now guys that are equally
as good or way better than you. And I think
the realization of that. And I wasn't doing I did
fine in school, but I put a lot of pressure
on myself that way, because you know, Vanderbilt costs a
lot of money. Baseball doesn't give out full scholarships. I'm
on the Hope scholarship, which at that point was like

(26:09):
two thousand bucks. But when it costs sixty grand to
go to the school, two thousand bucks is great, but
it's not that much. So you know, you don't want
to lose the Hope scholarship and stuff like that. So
I think a lot of it was perceived by me too.
It's like, oh, if you know, I got to do this,
this and this, and then I would like break down,
you know, I'd call my mom or call my dad,

(26:34):
but then as I went on, I got better and
I figured out how to allocate my time. And also
that you're going to fail, Like life is all about
failures and more about your responses to that than they
are about you know, everything you did successfully, right, Yeah,
because you're not going to be successful later on if
you don't learn from any of your failures.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Anyways, Yeah, you have a similar path that my wife
does great at everything until it's weird.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
You get to know and then life got hard. Yeah,
and she's like, wait a minute, it's a challenge. Wait
a minute.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
And it's like, wait, this has always been easy. I'm
off the floor with these people in basketball. I play
just good at everything. And she's like, that's when it
set it off. And it was like, you know, we
all have these different periods where I would say life
just generally hits us, and do we have the tools
generally know to handle it when it comes because it's
just normal, but the way it perpetuates in us is crazy.

(27:29):
So I think it's definitely easier now to talk about
it than it was back then. They didn't know what
to do with me, so that was always fun, you know,
Blaming on my parents, divors blaming on this, blaming on that.
I'm like, yeah, it's probably all of that, you know,
all culmination, culmination of things. But as you as you
progress through Vandy, you figure it out. You're on this

(27:52):
factory of just hosses. You know, you're playing with these guys.
I mean, you guys kind of set set it up.
In my mind again, like the MJA program, it just
kept getting better and better. So when you when did
you know that, like, hey, pros, the pros may be
a thing.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
It's a good question too. I uh, maybe I'm the
more I think about it, I feel like I was
kind of aloof and a lot of like I never
not that I didn't want to do it, but that
was never like I just wanted to be good because
I wanted to win. Like I wanted to win. I
wanted to go to the College World Series and win
a national championship. And I think a byproduct of that

(28:39):
was you have to work really hard and just like
all of my teammates did too, right, And you know,
I think at the end of the day, you're going
to go where with the work. I don't know how
to say it. I guess your work will pay off essentially, right,
and for me it ended up working out because I

(29:01):
pitched pretty well and I feel like I worked pretty hard.
There was definitely some things I could have done better,
for sure looking back on that too, But I think
it was probably like the end of my sophomore year,
maybe beginning of my junior year, when you kind of
start getting like the letters from MLB or like these teams,
and some of it's like just a bunch of fluff,
like you're checking a box and filling out, you know, questionnaires.

(29:26):
But then you start talking to some of these scouts
and again it's so different now, and they're like, you know,
what will it take for you to sign? Like I
don't know, Like, am I going in the first round? No? Okay?
Then do I even get to name my price? Like
what what am I missing here? And I ended up
getting drafted my junior year, but I didn't go. I

(29:51):
felt like the well, they were the Indians, now they're
the Guardians, Yes, depending.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
On how a tone of friends who are still quote
unquote Indians fans, yeah, and will not acknowledge.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
But that's okay, Well that's because the Guardians, like nobody
really knows where that even came from.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
You have to go and look at the bridge and
two things on it and you have to wicket.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Even people from Cleveland don't even know what that means. Yeah,
but we digress. Yes, So they drafted me, and I
never felt like it was the right thing to go. Now,
I told them, I don't even remember what my number was.
It was probably something ridiculous, like because I knew I

(30:32):
wasn't ready either. I knew that I wasn't physically ready
or mentally. And to be honest, I didn't like the
idea of going back to school either. I knew I
would graduate in another year. I'm like, I'm not great
at school. My grades are fine, but like, I can't

(30:53):
imagine having to, Oh, you get done with your professional
season and you got to come back and go to school,
Like I just I don't. I can't even imagine doing that.
There's no way. Now. Granted, if they had thrown you know,
a few zeros at me and like I can see
it now, I'm like, I'll make it work. But to
be honest, it was that was kind of it for me.

(31:14):
Like I got drafted. I don't even remember like the
thirty first round or so, I don't know. I can't
remember what round it was, and it never felt like
the right thing to do. My shoulder was a little
banged up. I didn't really tell anyone, and I didn't
play that summer going into my senior year. It was
one of the best summers I ever had. I didn't

(31:35):
have to play summer ball. I wasn't really working out
Corbs and DJ sorry about that, and but my body.
I had the best year of my career my senior
year though, So Daniel Daniel Tiger says it, Yeah, I know,
winn doubt, you know, take a rest. I so, yeah,
I don't. Again, that's probably not a great answer. I

(31:55):
don't know. It's you know, there's guys who like, okay,
you're first round, or like we know, that's that's your deal.
And there's guys who are a freshmen. And that's the
thing about pro ball too is or sorry college is
you have to be twenty one or a junior. And
so there was guys that I played. One guy played
with who left after his sophomore year because he turned

(32:17):
twenty one right before the draft. He was held back
and score he just had a weird birthday and so
he left, and like, dude, you get four semesters left.
He's also way smarter than me, So there's he you know,
does works in he majored in econ and they have
like oil and horses and everything. Like, yeah, okay, that's

(32:39):
you can handle the school. You'll be fine. You'll be fine.
So yeah, I don't know if there was a definitive time,
but I think that kind of solidified it for me,
Like okay, like I can at least go play. I
don't know where, you know how far I'll make it,
but at least there's a shot. You know, I got
a shot to go play and versus going to have
a real world job, which I tried to prolong as

(33:01):
long as possible.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Listen, and you would get a text from me at
least once a year, maybe twice, trying to figure it out,
so like you're still out there, and you're like, I'm
still out here, and i'd keep that mi lb dot
com up and I just follow you in cougham, just
keep following.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
I see you guys bounce around.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
So you get to where you have, you know, you
get drafted by the Nationals, and I remember talking to
your dad and he's like he's got no leverage he's
a senior. I'm like, yeah, but he got drafted, so
like it's like, so, what was that, Like was it?
Did you know that was coming, did you? Because I
think it was the thirteenth It was a sixth round,

(33:38):
six round.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Excuse me, but I was a senior sign which for
them means they save money El Chipo. Yes, so yes,
and the Nationals were very good at that. You can
leave that on it.

Speaker 3 (33:51):
Yeah, So I think it was me the sixth round pick,
the seventh round pick at the eighth round, and maybe
excuse me, maybe the ninth round.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
We're all seniors, and we all got like one thousand
dollars less like I got. I was the first one,
and then everybody got. Everybody the drip pick after me
got one thousand dollars less than I did. And it
was all because they had signed all of these guys
in the top four rounds or drafted all these guys

(34:23):
in the top four rounds and they needed It's way
different now because there's a tax and all this stuff.
Then you could do. I think that was the last
year you could sign a major league deal out of
the draft. Like, I think that was it. It may
have been the following year, but we had guys that
they were signing. I think the top two picks three million,
two million, I can't remember the next one. And then

(34:46):
Matt Perk was in there too from TCU and he
had been hurt, but they gave him a big league
deal with four point four million so any cash, and
he was I think the fourth round, like they took
a flyer on him hoping they could get him. And
so they're saving all this money, like, oh, you're a
senior signed, you have no leverage, Like I mean, yeah,
but like do you still want to do the right

(35:07):
thing right? You know? Like I understand I have no leverage,
but also what kind of message does that send to
everyone else about what kind of business you're running too?
And it happens everywhere, it's not just them, but it
was That was that was interesting. But I also knew
what I signed up for. I knew that when I
went back for my senior year. Unless I got drafted
in the top three rounds, I wasn't going to sign

(35:28):
for anything. Anyways, you kind of know what you're signing
up for at that point, Like you know when people
are like, well, you know, you guys are minor leaguers
are finally getting paid. I'm like, yeah, and I respect that.
But also what that did was cut down on the
amount of players who get opportunities now because all these
guys are getting making thirty forty fifty grand a year
whereas before and this is ridiculous, you were making eight

(35:53):
you know, which you can't live off of. If you're
making eight thousand dollars for a full season, you can't
live off that, and so you know, but I knew
that too going in. Like people, you know, people who
complain about the pay, I get it, I understand it,
but you also need you know, you're you're trying to
achieve a dream there, and not everybody gets a chance

(36:13):
to do that, and sometimes you just got to pay
the price like you got it if you want it
that bad, you know, and it doesn't work out for everyone.
I was fortunate to have a facility to come back
and work out at right in the off season. My
parents lived close, so I could live at home and
come work out and go home and not have to
pay rent because I didn't have it. I didn't have

(36:35):
that much money. But there's a lot of people who
don't have that. They don't have that luxury. But it's yeah,
that was that was an interesting time period leaving and
going to play professional baseball. Now it was refreshing not
having to go to school, graduated, I can go play baseball.
Now I'm getting paid, regardless of how much it is,

(36:55):
I'm getting paid to go play baseball. And then you
go to your first affiliate and you're like, ah, this
isn't Vanderbilt anymore. The there's two showers, the you're eating.
You're lucky if you get like a tuna fish sandwich

(37:16):
before the game, like PEB and J was pretty and
I still eat a minor league specials my favorite, but
you know, you're lucky. It's just it was a totally
different vibe. The bus rides, you know, you're not you're
not getting two or three buses to try where you
get your own seat and everything else, so you might
get to have a sleeper bus. Now you're getting all
on one bus and you're all but shacking up together.

(37:37):
There's no room for anyone. They're not spending any money
on anything. Yeah, but that's the part that I miss
the most about baseball. I don't really miss playing. I
miss the the locker room playing cards and and I
don't really miss the bus rides. I'll say that I
do miss the not the ones when we were younger,

(37:59):
the older like when I was older and with the
older guys, like on triple A bus because we always
got two buses, the higher up you went, and that
was fun because we always played cards. We had like
they had these makeshift tables they would make for the bus.
Which there's some other yeah, some debauchery on there we

(38:19):
can't address for everyone else to hear. We can talk
about that when I'm not being recorded. There you go,
But it's I don't know, man, it was it was awesome.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
So when you got drafted, did you did you feel
any sort of way? Was it like culmination of a
dream or was it just kind of like okay, cool,
like steady eddie cool, warma reporting what am I doing?

Speaker 2 (38:44):
Was it was? It?

Speaker 1 (38:45):
Was it this big thing because they don't televise.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
You know, so yeah, and it's weird. I would say
that it was awesome, right like it was the you know,
it's a closer step to achieving my goals and my
dream for sure. But it's weird because I'm still playing
at Vandy at this point. When it went on when
when the draft went on, and like, Okay, that's great,

(39:08):
I got drafted, but like we're still trying to win here,
Like we're trying we're going to the World Series, Like
you know, the whole thing is very stranded. They've switched
it now to where it's like it's.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
Wild, but it used to be you have guys playing
in the World Series final getting drafted two days before. Yeah,
and they got to go play. Yeah, I'm like this
that's effect.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
It's insane, it really is. And you know, for me,
like it wasn't like if I get drafted, I gotta sign, right,
Like I don't have choice my senior year especially, like
there's no I can't go back. I can go play
indie ball or something, you know and whatever, but I'm
not going to do that. Yeah that is true. Yeah,
we can talk about that too. It's just it's an

(39:52):
It was so interesting, but honestly, like we were so
focused on winning that I don't really think the draft.
You know, obviously you wanted everyone to get drafted that
wanted to get drafted, and it's I think we had
eleven or twelve guys drafted that year, which probably will
never happen again for anyone because they've cut the draft.
They cut the rounds down so much. The interesting part

(40:15):
for me, I think, was after we lost in the
World Series, because then it hits It's like, uh, now what,
Like this has been four years where everything has been
laid out for me, like I have to go to class,
I go to practice, you know whatever, and now it's oh,
I'm done. I got to go move out of my
dorm and then I'm going to play like I don't know,

(40:39):
you know, like what's going on some small town, random
place Auburn, New York. There never been there. It was
actually beautiful. I loved it. Yeah, that was my The
least favorite part of that whole process was we lost
I don't know, like on a Thursday or Friday. Maybe
I could be wrong to our season and I you know,

(41:04):
I had talked to the Nationals and they obviously know
I was still playing, and they're like, hey, you know,
take like forty eight hours, like get your get home
and you know, get your dorm packed, everything packed up,
and then we'll call you. So you know, the next
we spent the night because we lost in Omaha, and
we spent the night and we got on the plane

(41:29):
the next morning, and I'm already getting a phone call
from the Nationals. I'm like, didn't even we haven't even
left yet, guys, and like what And there's a lot
of people who are in bad shape on this plane.
I'll just say that, a lot of people who are
not great shape, and what are we doing? And so

(41:50):
I didn't answer, and I called back when I got
when we landed, when I got back to the dorm,
like what do we do? Hey, do you think you can?
I don't remember if it was that day or the
next day, Like, hey, we're going to offer you this
and like we need you to fly out in two days.
I was like, no, what do you mean? I said, no,
I'm I'm taking I'm taking a week off. Like I'm
I'm taking a week off. And they're like, well you know,

(42:12):
I said nope, I said I need. I said I
have to take a week off. Also, I've already thrown over.
I've thrown like over one hundred innings already at this point,
Like I just need a break, man. This has been
a long year. It's been awesome, and I wish it
was still going. I wish I was still playing, but
like this is the last time. I'm gonna e forget
to see most of these guys, like, especially together. So

(42:33):
I went to the beach for a week and they
were not happy. I'm not happy at all because I
didn't throw, I didn't work out, I didn't do it.
They were so mad when I finally signed, and then
I you know, I wasn't like I wasn't gonna sign,
but I'm like, maybe if you're giving me a hundred grand,
I'll come play right now. But you're not. You're not.

(42:53):
So that was that was frustrating, Like you didn't even
get me, like twelve we lost like twelve hours ago,
and I can't even Can I go packed my stuff
at least please and say by to my buddies who
I've been with for four years. No, no, you cannot.
We need you in Auburn, New York to go throw bullpens. Yeah,
it's throw balls are a different animal.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
So you get to so you get that done, you
go to you go to Auburn, and in some ways
it's it's like freshman year again. You got to figure
out this whole new life and so just kind of
speed up your your in and out. But you finally
get to from what I could tell as I would
follow you around Syracuse.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
What didn't Yeah, you did? You were you were became
a regular and Cyrus that's not where you want to
be a regular at.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
Became a regular in Syracuse and so and then in
the summers, I believe you were playing like cape cod
and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
So and and uh in college.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
In college you play cape codin so. Yeah, I check
on you in the summers, you'd be playing cape con
And I'm like and You're like, yeah, I'm living with
these old people and they just feed me.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
All the time and all this stuff.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
So closing up to college loop here and I'm like gosh.
And then I'm watching like Summer Catch, you know, really
corny chick flake, like he's doing it. He's up in
the arm, done him, done him or whatever, chat him.
He's just he's hanging out. He's hanging out, living his dream.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
That is literally it like it was you like that
is it doesn't make any sense. I guess it does.
But you watch the movie because I remember i'd seen
the movie before I ever went up there, and I'm like,
there's no way it's like that. No, it's literally exactly
like that. Like people just come out and watch these
kids play and there a lot of them are on
some backfields like but it's it's fantastic. And then you

(44:47):
you go play baseball at night and then you go
to the beach the next day. Like yeah, we were
literally living the dream for like eight weeks and you
had a host family, had a host family, and not
everyone one was as fortunate as I lived with Brian
Harris and Chatham. Not everyone was as fortunate as us

(45:07):
because our you know, they don't have to feed you,
like they're literally giving you someplace to stay. And she
would like the our host mom would would make breakfast
and launch and like, you know, for me, I'm making
like a turkey sandwich and give me two pieces of bread,
some turkey and some mustard. She's putting like this thing
is to the ns, like we got lettuce, tomato, onion, turkey,

(45:29):
Dujon mustard and all this stuff. I'm like, where am
I Like, I am, I am? This is this is unbelievable.
But that was Chatham. Summer ball in general is always fun,
but being in the Cape, I mean, you're in a
beautiful place. Crazy I'm a single male with going to

(45:52):
the beach every day play getting to play baseball, Like,
what what more could I ask for? At that point? Yeah,
I didn't know. You Sometimes you don't know how good
you have it until it's gone, I know, right, And
it's that's the crazy part.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
So yeah, sorry, I forgot about I want to hit
the Summer League just because I love the living growing
up and always dreamed of playing in the KP League.
And then once I realized the dream was dead, I
was like, gosh, And then you were doing okay, Well
we'll just slip through him.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah, yeah, it's all good. And then so we get in.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
You know, what was the hardest part about kind of
getting up to triple A, which, by the way, is
very hard to do for those of you at home,
Like in some ways it is because we know so
many people that have tried. Sure, and there's all kinds
of different reasons. We've had a Chad Etheridge was in
here talking about how just the luck of the draw,

(46:44):
how they paid this other guy more money, but he
was actually better, hitting better, had more home runs, better average,
and it just didn't fall his way. So sometimes it's luck,
sometimes it's other things. What do you say contributed to
you actually getting up there? And being able to stay.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Up there, staying in Triple A. You mean, yes, okay,
you're good.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
You're good, because even that's hard to do, a lot
of people might not even sniff it. I see a
lot of guys get stuck and double Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Most mostly they're not.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
Most of them are like you know, position players, but
you just get They just get stuck.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
You know, and then they bounce around. I think for
me and Chad's right, it is it's luck. It is
necessity what the team needs. Like, you know, you might
be you might they might need you on the Tigers,
but the Yankees have three of you already, you know,
and like, hey, he can go there and be in
the big leagues or Triple you know, we need him here.

(47:43):
Like it's all it's Mason. It's a lot of its need.
Some of it is luck, and a lot of it
is you know, are you a good player? And you know,
are you a I'd like to say it mattered if
you were a good person. It does in some ways,
but it also depends on are you an okay person,
but you're really good at baseball. Yeah, we'll take you,

(48:04):
you know, and we'll deal with the off field stuff
or whatever. Because you're really good. I think for me,
it was just trying to be consistent every year because
I knew that I was not. I wasn't I'm not
going to wow people. I'm not gonna throw ninety eight.
I'm not gonna be throwing a hundred up there, like.
But I can throw strikes, and I know how to
I know how to pitch a little bit, and I
can field my position and do things like that stuff

(48:27):
that I could do the little things pretty well. I
wasn't going to go out and strike out ten guys
a game, but I also wasn't gonna walk people, you know,
So there was that for me. And I gave up
some hits, but I didn't walk that many guys, so
that you know, there's some give and take there. But
I think at that point too, when I got put
in triple A. So my my second year in pro BAWL,

(48:49):
second full season, which would have been thirteen, was wild
because I started in UH high A and then I
had I was pitching okay, and then I had like
two bad outings in a row where I gave up
seven runs each and like four innings total is not good.
I'm like, man, I going home like, you know, this

(49:11):
is the stinks, and I don't really know what happened,
and like I don't know if something clicked or what.
But after that, I had the best two years of
baseball I ever played. After those two outings, it makes
no sense, Like I don't know what, like mentally, if
something happened or what. But like I literally after that,

(49:34):
I probably had four or five six more outings in Hi,
maybe a few more. Got moved up to Double A
and they were in the playoff hunt there and pitched
really well. Ended up going up to Triple A for
two starts because they called up a guy in Triple
A to the big leagues and they needed somebody to

(49:55):
fill him start in Triple A. So I kind of
got a little a little sniff there, a cup of coffee,
whatever you call it. That was just insane to me
because the amount of salt that was there, the old
the old dudes who were pissed there in Triple A,
and there was a lot of people there that did

(50:15):
not think they should be there, nor wanted to be there.
And I was twenty four at the time, you know,
so that was that was interesting. I ended up going
back to Double A after those two starts and we
made it to the playoffs. Whatever. Well, the next year,
I didn't know this. This was part of the catalyst.
They you know, what is this saying about a scorned woman,

(50:41):
like the he can look at it, Yeah, something like that.
I was scorned because they passed me over for a
big league and big league invite to spring training, and
I didn't appreciate that. Hell, hath no fury like a
woman scorn? Yeah, I felt like that, I think. So

(51:01):
they passed me, and you know, but it goes back
to what Chad said. They invited these two other guys
who were a couple of years younger. They signed for
eight hundred thousand and two million or whatever, so they're prospects.
I'm twenty three or turn around twenty four at this point, like,
you know, having a good year. But I also, I'm
not throwing ninety five. I'm you know, eighty nine, ninety one,

(51:23):
maybe ninety two, ninety three every once in a while whatever,
And at that point that was still somewhat hard. Now
that's like a change up for everybody in the big league.
So if you yeah, don't even worry about going to
the big leagues. If you throw eighty nine, and so
they invited them to spring training. Instead of meeting big
league spring training, they invited me to early camp minor

(51:44):
league spring training. And I was livid, like, wait a
second here, guys, you like, these guys aren't even didn't
even get to Double A this past year, and you're
letting them go to the big like big league camp like.
And I talked to the Triple A pitching coach and
he was like, don't worry about it, and I said,
I am worried about it, like I'm pitts, Like what
do you like, what do I have to do to
get an invite? Like that's he's like, he goes, he

(52:06):
just said just trust me. And I was like, yeah,
but I'm not even going to be with you, like
like you're the Triple A pitching coach now, like I'm
going to go to Double A this year. He's like, no,
you're not. And I was like, I'm not as scorned, now,
are you sure? And he said, he goes, just keep
doing what you're doing. I'm going to get you in
Triple A like you will. He goes, we don't have

(52:26):
any starters there, and you are like you're going to
go there? Before them anyways, they haven't even been a
Double A. I was like, okay, but why am I
not going? He goes, you just can't worry about that stuff,
and I said, well, you know, And I feel like
I did a pretty good job of not worrying, you know,
because I always knew the prospect people have made the
most money, or a signed for the most money, we're
going to get the most opportunities. But I don't know.

(52:49):
They didn't invite me in a big league camp, and
I was in the big leagues in two months, so
at once a season started, so I kind of feel
like I showed them a little bit. But at the
end of the day they probably laughing at me too.
But I will say this one thing that didn't motivate me,
and it has nothing to do with Triple A. I
was in Low A my first full season, and it

(53:10):
would have been in twenty twelve, and I was throwing
a bullpen in Greensboro. I think that was Lowa for
the Marlins at the time, and our I won't name
any names, but our one of our pitching people were there,
that is overseas the minor league side, and I threw

(53:30):
a bullpen and I hadn't been picked. I didn't pitch
well my first full season, and he saw my bullpen
and then came up to me and told me I'd
never pitched in the big leagues. Said, okay, And little
did he know I was in the big leagues less
than two years later. But I think part of that
I was like, because this guy and I didn't I

(53:51):
didn't see it coming from him. But also I'm like,
why who says that to anyone? Anyone. I don't care
whether you got paid three million dollars or three thousand dollars.
Your job is to get us better, to make us
feel like we're going to go to the big leagues,
because that's how everyone gets better, that's how your organization
gets better. Like, and I know that's not a realistic thing,
but like, why would you ever tell anyone there ever,

(54:13):
regardless of whether you thought that was true or not, Like,
that's one thing that you know. And then after that,
I wrote him off. I never I never never talked
to him.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Yeah, I didn't pay attention. No, let's go to a
happy time, not the scorn time. Yeah, let's talk about
this pra the what it was like your pitching triple
A couple of months into the season and you get
called up. It's happening again. I've heard this through you.
You kind of told me the story a little bit,

(54:45):
but then your dad told me the story a little bit,
and you had some scornness there as well. At least
how well. I'll let you tell the story, but from
from what I heard, like, I want to talk about
the excitement of the story and then the process of
how expendable one is, oh.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
At the big league level?

Speaker 1 (55:04):
Oh yeah, but let's let's talk about the happy times
first before we go into the scorning woman again.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
All right. So it was we had just gotten back
I think from an a day road trip, and that'll
play into us in a second. And I was it
was like two am. I think it was like two
two fifteen in the morning. I'm watching a movie on
my computer because I'm don't go to bed till three
or four at this point because our sleep schedules so

(55:29):
messed up. And I get a phone call from our
Florida number like two am. Whatever. I answer. I'm like,
I don't care whatever, So I answer it. It's our
manager and he's like, Taylor, Yeah, It's like, what are
you doing? I was like watching a movie and I said,
what are you doing? Why are you calling me? And

(55:51):
he goes, the big club needs you. Click phone, phone
call drops and I'm like, huh. I'm sitting there, like
do I call him back? Is he going to call
me back? Fortunately, he called me back moments later and
he's like, do you hear what I said? I said, yeah,
did you say what I think you said? He said, yeah,

(56:14):
You're going to the big leagues kid. I was like, oh, okay.
He said flights that. He said, your flights at six am.
It's two fifteen. I'm like, okay, I said, where are they.
He goes, They're in Milwaukee. He said, you're hot tomorrow
and the game's at one. I said, okay, he said,
He said, congrats. Enjoy every second of it, you know.

(56:35):
He was, He's awesome, he said, And I hope I
you know, hope I don't see you again. And so
I'm sitting there. I said, okay, Well, I have no
clean clothes because we just got back from an eight
day road trip. All of my stuff's at the field.
My flights at six am. I can't get into the field.
What am I supposed to do here? I have no idea.

(56:56):
So first thing I did was call my parents, and
my mom I can't remember if she answered, because you know,
they're old, so they still have their landline. Nobody else
does I want to say. I tried to call her
cell phone, shit an answer, so I called the house
phone immediate panic. Why is my son calling me? It
two in the morning. I guess it would have been

(57:17):
around one their time in the morning. She's like okay,
Like yeah, it's it's more than okay. I need you
to put me on speakerphone, and she's like scrambling to
try to fight. I can hear shuffling around on the phone.
She's gonna be so mad if she hears this scrambled.
I'm like, you gotta go here, like I get a roll.
And I said put it on speakerphone because I wanted

(57:39):
them both to hear it. And I said I'm going
to the big leagues. And you know, obviously they were pumped.
They ended up meeting us up to meet me up there,
which was awesome. They turned it around real quick. I
think my dad don't know if he told you. He
went to work that right after that to go. He
booked the flights, went to work for like three or
four hours. When they met us at the game to go,

(58:00):
I had through all of my walk through all of
my clothes in the wash. The trainer for our Triple
A team called me because he knew, and he's like, hey,
what do you think? And I, you know, obviously we
were pumped. He said, I'm going to meet you at
the field because he had the key to get me in.
He met me there had he had kept a special

(58:21):
thing of bottle of bourbon underneath his desk in a drawer,
and so when I got there, he had him and
I both the glassboard, which was really cool. Jeff Alred
he's the man he did that. So I went and
we had a you know, I sat there for probably
ten or fifteen minutes and we just kind of talked.
And because I couldn't, I had to get my stuff.
But at this point there's no way I'm going to sleep.

(58:45):
So I get all my stuff, go back home, pack
my bag, go to the airport connect in Detroit. At
this point, it has been leaked to the media that
there's somebody coming up from Syracuse, but they don't know who.
But at this point, the Nationals don't have a forty

(59:05):
man spot available, so they would either have to move
somebody to the sixty day d L or I L
whatever you call it, and or designate someone for assignment.
And they told me not to tell anyone because they're
going to have to designate someone, which essentially means you're
not granting them their release, but you know, essentially yes,

(59:28):
so you know, I'm like, okay, So I told my
parents and I called I told Korbes too. Korbes knows
this to be Tresai Corbs. I want to tell you this. Oh,
by the way, Vandy's playing in the National Championship in
baseball that night, so it's one or two am. I'm
talking to him. I'm talking to my buddy, and I
told Korbes like, hey, you know, I called him because

(59:48):
I knew he was going to be awake and or no,
maybe he didn't answer. I don't know, but I said,
you can't say anything, like don't post it because he
used to post like, you know, congrats to whoever, like
making it up to the big. They can't post it
because like they're going to have to release someone. What
does he do post something? Because I get a call

(01:00:09):
from the assistant GM and when I was at the
airport in Detroit saying, hey, you know, are you in Detroit? Yeah? Congrats, man,
that's awesome. We're happy to have you up here. Can
you tell Corps to shut his mouth please? Something like that.
You know, he didn't say it like that, but he's
I said, what do you know? At this point, I
don't even know what he's talking about. He just landed
and he had posted something or I was like, so

(01:00:32):
I'm getting I'm getting calls from like media people like
how did they get my number? I have no idea,
Hey are you coming here?

Speaker 3 (01:00:38):
Are you?

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Are we going to see you today in Milwaukee? Who
is this? Who are you all? Because they sent a
screenshot of what Corpse tweeted, like, how do you even
know that? Like, you know, it's it's uh, it was.
It was a fun time though, And then I got there.
I knew a couple guys, but again I'd never been
to big league spring training, so I didn't, you know,

(01:00:59):
I know a lot of guys there, which but yeah
I was. And then I ended up coming in the
game in like the fourth or fifth inning on zero
minutes of sleep, and I do it all over again.
If they said, if they said we need you tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
I'm there, there you go. So that was kind of
the start of it. How long were you up for
that stint?

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Three days? But then you had a longer stint later on.
So that was the next year. I got called up
when Strauss got hurt, uh for like three weeks, which
happened frequently. But yes, wouldn't nice just be Strass's back up?
I didn't want to them. Yeah, oh yeah, And I
love awesome hurt a lot. But I think part of

(01:01:46):
it is because he was so good and so athletic
and could do what he did like your body's not
mint and throw a hundred yeah, you know, and he
worked his tail off too, like I would. My locker
was next is at one point like this guy, I'm like, dude,
maybe rest is best for you too, Like, holy smokes,

(01:02:08):
you're doing stuff. I'm like, I mean, it's it was
refreshing to see though, somebody like that who was already
very gifted and making a lot of money and all
that stuff, but he cared so much because he wanted
he wanted to compete. But yeah, I did have a
longer stet later on the next year, I got called
up that same year when I made my debut at

(01:02:29):
the end of September, which that was why I was scorned,
because they didn't call me up for the whole month
after I had the best year of any minor league
pitcher they had. Yeah, and then the next like three
years they called up everyone who was on the forty men,
and I wasn't because I already idea of it. So
it's like, that's pretty get me a little while and

(01:02:49):
get over that one.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
So you get up there, and what was there was
this one story that I don't it's fuzzy to me,
but the way you were told, like, hey, you're going
back down, which time I don't know you were on
the field stretching your Oh yeah, that was That's the
one I want to hear from your point of view.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
Honestly, I've forgotten a lot about that. So I got
there because you know, when you're in the position of
the new guy coming up, you're not a big prospect,
like you have an idea like I know him expendable.
But I want to make sure they know how valuable
I am to I want to make the decision hard
for them at least. But I knew that they were
I don't remember what it was. I had gotten to

(01:03:34):
the field. I think we were playing a day game
at like noon or one, maybe it was Sunday, and
I got to the feelings. I'm like, I had a
feeling I was probably gonna get sent down because I
think one of my buddies told me that somebody in
triple A was coming up. I'm like, well, the logical answer.
But I go to the field. I get there early
because I'm like, if they're going to do it, just
do it so I can get my stuff and get

(01:03:55):
out of here. Well, they didn't say anything, so I'm like, okay,
I got drafted a breakfast, went out on the field
to go start throwing, and they come out there and
the managers like, hey, yeah, we're gonna you know, we're
gonna have to send you down. Been here for two hours, man,
Like you guys just made this decision, Like it's pretty Also,

(01:04:16):
like you don't have enough respect for me to call
me into your office too, Like you're gonna come out
in the field and do it in front of everyone.
Like I don't know. I just felt like it was
really disrespectful and very unprofessional, you know, and I don't
expect to be treated like the first round pick who
signed for four million dollars. But I do expect to
be treated like a human, you know, in a professor,
in somewhat of a professional way. And I know that

(01:04:38):
professional sports are very different from the corporate professional world,
but you know, sounds professional in front of it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Yeah, but yeah, So then then it's because I know,
we gotta we gotta wrap it up. We we we
have the and we can sit here and talk about it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
Oh, it's awesome. It just fun.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
So you get you're you're at the national you have
that big come up, you get to get to make
some big league money for a little bit, and then
once it's over with the Nationals, then it's I think
the Giants. Yeah, okay, And I kept I would text
you and I'm like, are you done you and You're like, no,
I'm gonna keep doing it. I keep doing it. So
then it was the Giants. Was there anybody after the Giants?

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
I did play Indie ball and Sue falls South Dakota
and then I Mexico.

Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
So I remember your dad, Your dad tell me about
that and he was like, yeah, man, he's getting playing.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Ball in Mexico. Man, it just gets paid, and I
was like, okay, cool.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
But then it was then it was all right. Then
I talked to you and you're like, hey, I'm I'm
down in Florida with the Blue Jays, and I think
you were thinking about switching, like coaching. So when that
finally happened and you said I'm going to coaching.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
But then now.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
Obviously you're back in Tennessee, you have a family, Merrit
got married, which.

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
We never thought would happen. Well, you never think you'd
actually have a girlfriend of it. Yeah, just like we
just like this guy is just going to be nomadic
his whole life. It was a good run. It was
a good run. I mean how many how many years
was it? Ten?

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
Yeah, ten years? Ten years playing professional baseball. It's like
it's it's awesome. But what was that decision when it
was like, hey, I am I'm done. I'm ready to
go be a normal person in society. And you know what,
what was it that kind of triggered that decision.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
After I stopped coaching too, Yeah, all that I think, like,
just done with baseball.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
We're done with this, We're done trying to be employed
by the system of baseball, and we're going home.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
I think there was. There was no like true, like
aha moment. It was kind of always building towards that
because I got married and I knew and I loved
playing baseball. I loved traveling and doing like going to
different parts of the United States that I would have
never seen otherwise, some of them I prefer to have
never seen. But I think part of it too was

(01:07:04):
I don't know how much I loved playing baseball and
I liked coaching, I didn't love it. I love being
around the guys, I loved being in the locker room.
I didn't love, you know, because coaches are there longer
than the players, and the players are there for a
long time, and it's you know, and I love talking
about baseball and all that, but it's like, man, I'm
not playing anymore. I'm not like, I'm not going to

(01:07:26):
work out like you know I can, but like, what
am I doing? You know? I love baseball and all that,
but I'm gone. I'm in Oregon at this point coaching,
which I loved that it was beautiful. I would live
out there if we could, but I'm really far from home.
I'm getting married that offseason. I don't really know what
the coaching world looks like because like I said, I

(01:07:48):
like coaching, I don't love it. And it was kind
of one of those We were buying a house, so
bought a house in Murphysboro. I had to fly back
to close to sign all the paper or whatever, and
so I left spring training and Ali and I were,
you know, I'd been mulling it and talking about it,
and I had been talking to one of my buddies

(01:08:13):
and kind of just threw something out there for the
job that I have now and started interviewing and ended
up working out. I could just kind of see the
writing on the wall, you know, it was kind of
it was kind of a God honestly, was just like, hey,
this it's time, you know. I could feel it. And

(01:08:35):
and it was not easy because I loved I liked coaching,
but I loved the Blue Jays. They were they were
a fantastic organization. They treat everyone very very well and
how you want to be treated. And so that was
hard for me to do that because they gave me
an opportunity and I felt like that I was letting

(01:08:57):
them down in a way and in no way, shape
or fight. I was dreading going in to tell them
and because I felt like I was disappointing them and
they were nothing but supportive and I knew deep down
that they would be, but also like they took a
chance on me, and now I'm the one that you know,
it was. It was that was really hard and they
they were awesome and they still are so they're they're

(01:09:19):
Blue Jays are an easy team for me to for
and the Giants too. You know, I think that the
Giants were awesome as well. They're a great organization, and
I think the Nationals did some things well, you know,
and I assume it's better than now than it was.
But that was the writing was on the wall for me.
And as soon as they reacted the Blue Jays did
the way they did, I'm like, Okay, I knew this

(01:09:41):
is this is not me, this is this is God
throwing like giving me this opportunity here because there's no
way that I would have been able to do this
by myself.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
Yeah, sure, Yeah, it's crazy. Well, dude, it's been fun
going on memory lane. Yeah, got way more out of
you than I needed to.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
Yeah, we gotta do it again. We'll just have to
go apart too.

Speaker 1 (01:09:59):
You have to part two to get into the inner
workings of the baseball system and all the fun stuff.
I'm still supposed to do an off off the record
conversation with your brother as a school administrator.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
The stories, Yeah, yeah, I could get I could get
him in trouble with the stories that I know crazy
and they're the ones that I know, like he it's
every day for him.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
Every day. It's every day every day. It's crazy. But dude,
it has been awesome. It took took us a while
to get there, but we got there. We're gonna get
you out on time. But dude, appreciate you coming in
and chatting and reminiscence.

Speaker 2 (01:10:32):
It's cathartic for me.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
People are like, why do you do this? And I'm like,
because I had a traumatic upbringing and I am now
at almost forty, and I'm like, what's the best way
to go about this? And it's like, we'll just go
talk to people from the past figure out how they
saw things. I remember when Coffin came in here. I'm like,
this guy hate me, because I mean, I did some
terrible things when I was senior in high school and

(01:10:54):
came in here nothing but respectful, nice. I only remember
the good times. I'm like, it's like, dude, over yourself, Casey,
like you weren't that important, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
It's uh yeah, that's funny. That's funny that you have
that perspective on it too, because I, yeah, I think anybody.
I think. What we all forget about or maybe don't
even understand until later in life, is that most of
the time, most people are worried about themselves exactly. They
don't care that you what you You know, they'll they'll

(01:11:25):
remember some things like oh I don't like him, or
I do like him or whatever, but most of the
time you're worried about yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
It comes up so much when I apologize people from
the past or something like I don't even remember.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
That you just said it. Yeah I should have said yeah,
just kept Yeah, I know that's it. Yeah, that's true.
That's true.

Speaker 1 (01:11:44):
Well this has been great guys. Thank you guys for supporting.
Uh yeah, we got onslaught episodes coming at you over
the over the break and appreciate the support, and we'll
keep doing it as long as guys like Taylor come
sit down in the chair here. One day we might
have video, but I doubt it because you know, it's
a cool room. But you know, I don't know why
people want to stare at people.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
We could do it. We got to get tank tops
and then like a camera right on us, and yeah,
we'll be him, we'll be him. Well I got some
weird hair on my arms though, so that's like him.
All right, guys, thank you. We'll see you next episode.