Welcome to the Complete Game podcast where we're all about baseball with Ethan Dungan, owner of Lovehound Baseball glove repair shop.

Rick Finley, founder of MDNI Baseball Academy and the creator of George Foster Baseball, the MVP himself, Reds hall of Famer George Foster.

I'm your host, Greg Dungan.

Now let's talk baseball.

All right, welcome back to part three of our offensive objective series.

This is episode 2020 and man, we're almost through the year.

Almost through the year.

We got four more episodes.

So getting, getting season one under our belt, which is kind of cool.

So this is as we, as we promised, this is part three.

So we've at the part one we talked about getting on base and part two we talked about moving runners.

Now we're going to talk about scoring runners.

We're talking about getting them in, getting them across the plate, which is the thing that matters most when games.

Yeah.

Because you can't win if you're leaving them on score.

Yeah.

You don't get a point by how lob left on base.

So we're going to talk about that.

We're going to talk a little bit about being about clutch hitters today.

We're going to talk a little bit about defining what that might mean and, and what, how to, how young players can work on building those skills in their repertoire.

So we're going to go ahead and kick it off with a little name five and we're going to talk about name your five favorite clutch hitters.

Guys who could be counted on to score runs or to score runners when the chips were down.

And because he always ends up stuck in the middle, we're going to let George go first.

Oh, right, right.

So five had to be George Foster.

Dawa.

No, Tony Perez.

Hey, I'm talking here.

So almost said it again.

Tony Perez.

You know, he's the guy that we call him Doggy because when the situation, it's a high level situation, we need that run scored.

He's going to drive it in and some way somehow he's going to drive that run in.

And, and you go to another guy who come from the red, Frank Robinson.

Oh, that guy, you know, he would dare, he gets on top of the plate, he would dare you to throw inside on him.

But that guy was quick inside.

So those two guys really stand out.

And I have some other guys that let Rick and, and the rest, I don't want to take their clout right now.

But Tony Perez, I would take number one and then I'll take Frank Robinson right behind him.

Cool.

What you got Rick.

So do we want to.

You want me to say all 10 of mine?

No one else.

Just, just.

I'm just kidding.

Let's go with Albert Pujols.

Oh, yeah, that was my guy.

Oh, about my guy.

Yes.

Albert Pujols, man.

10 years.

The machine.

330.

100.

Yes.

That is great.

Until he was in a row.

He messed up his.

His feet.

Well, he played turf toe.

Oh, I was Joe Burrow.

Sorry.

Yeah, he actually showed up.

I was.

I did a cross match of doubles, RBIs.

Well, triples too, but triples is a weird thing.

We'll talk about triples someday.

Those are all dead ball guys, but leaders for doubles, RBIs or doubles, home runs, RBIs.

And, and Pujols comes up at the top there.

If he had played one more year, he might have caught Hank Aaron.

I mean, it was that.

It was that close.

Hank Aaron played one more year.

And when you compare.

I actually did a comparison of all their key stats, just the two of them.

And Hank's just like.

He's just like that much more.

And he played one more year.

So you're like, you know, pool entries.

And then playing Atlanta.

Yes.

Fulton County.

That's.

Yeah.

Was definitely, definitely at the top of the.

That's a good one there.

Yes.

Pool house.

Cool.

Okay, what you got?

Well, if you're going to take the number two RBI leader of all time, then I'll take number one.

I'll take Hank Aaron.

I mean, playing.

Playing for that long and accumulating that many rbi.

I mean, and, and the thing is, we've talked about this, when we talked about home runs is that he never hit an insane amount of home runs in a given year.

It was just 44.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Consistent for so long.

Driving men, bringing men in when they're on base.

I mean, it's hard to.

Hard to dispute Hank Aaron.

And I know the RBI catches a lot of flack for being a circumstantial stat because you can't get an RBI if people aren't on base.

And that kind of.

Unless you home run, which he did a lot.

But it doesn't matter when they're out there, they need to be brought in.

And he did that more than anybody else.

The other interesting thing I remember when there was the whole kind of Roy driven home run race, the McGuire Sosa Conseco kind of era of things, and people were talking about how all of a sudden these guys show up and they're just cranking these home runs everywhere left and right and this and that.

And they were all hot for a number of years.

And then once we.

They figured out it was, you know, performance enhancers and things like that, that sort of changed the whole thing.

But while they were in the throes of it and they were hitting all these.

And people like, this is amazing.

This is amazing.

And I remember hearing Marty and Joe were calling a game.

They were talking about it.

It was kind of ancillary.

Somebody had done something in another one of those guys had done something in another game, and it was kind of one of those in between where they're oh.

And so.

And so over at the.

Like the Cubs game was doing something.

They were talking about it.

And Joe made the point.

He said, yeah, but it's only been a handful of years because somebody was trying to make the comparison to Hank Aaron.

And he said, no.

He said Hank did it over and over and over and over again and that that guy was a consistent producer of home runs and RBIs for 24 years.

Yeah, you know, you just.

That's.

That's amazing.

It is, but they don't really look at it as much because it's so consistent.

So it's not one of these numbers that really jump out.

Right.

And so it's like playing golf.

Oh, it's easy to hit the ball if it's down fairway, but if we sit in the rough, how are you going to do it?

But in Hank's case, you know, he's so consistent, you could just put his stats up before the seasons even start.

He can average 40 home runs or 100 RBIs or.

And batting.300.

Yeah.

Career.

That's a foreign thing today.

Batting.300.

Foreign.

To be.

To be playing for 24 years.

Right.

And still end up with it.

Or 23 years and still end up with a.

A career batting average over.300.

That's amazing.

That is.

And.

And you talk about a guy who was just low key and very low key.

The guy who, who would just be like, look, just don't celebrate.

Just act like, never showboat it.

Best play.

I love that.

I love that about Hank Aaron.

He was, in my mind, he'll always be the greatest.

That's just the way it is.

I'm going to throw out a name that did not come up regularly in the top five or six.

When I did those, those three in doubles and home runs and RBIs, he was up near the top, but he didn't show up consistently there.

But he's thought of as a serious clutch guy.

And It's David Ortiz.

I got him.

Oh, yeah.

Especially in the playoffs.

I got him on my list, man.

Yeah.

Just wrote it down.

Yes.

That guy.

I mean, that guy is just esp.

Yeah.

Especially in the playoffs.

Super, super tough.

And I wonder why they keep pitching to this guy.

He keeps raking well.

And I just.

I don't.

I don't think the Red Sox win those three World Series.

You talk about a.

A cornerstone kind of guy, and I mean, he was.

He was the designated hitter.

He really did.

He really didn't play a position.

You know, there's a couple clips of him playing first base, and it's not pretty.

That's when he was with the Twins.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But without him, they're still under the curse.

I mean, that.

Exactly.

And was responsible for getting that.

And if you're gonna.

If you're gonna don the title of designated hitter, boy, I mean, you better do.

Better do it.

And.

And now, nowadays, you know, with a team that doesn't have a guy that can do that, you're.

You're rotating in, you know, whoever's not.

Not.

Not in the field that day, trying to give him some rest.

Yeah, I know the Reds had to do that a lot, but, you know, in the American League, they've been doing the DH thing for longer, and they've got guys who can carve out that career.

And he.

He did it better than anybody.

George, who else you got?

I have Billy Williams.

Sweet swinging Billy Williams along with him.

Him and Ernie Banks.

I would say those guys really stand out.

But Billy Williams, and you can count on him to drive in runs.

And I don't know.

I don't know how many total.

Probably maybe over 1500.

But this guy was consistent.

And you don't want anybody on base or in scoring position when he came to bat.

And at that time, they didn't really pitch around guys.

They're going to challenge him, and he looked forward to that.

But back to clutch hitting.

That's the one thing my brother had said when I were my second year in pro ball.

Said RBI as an important stat.

You don't win games if you don't have the runs scored.

And so I really focus on driving in runs.

I don't care what, how many hours, what the count, who's out there, what the situation.

I just.

My mentality change when men are in scoring position.

Being able to not.

I mean, the home runs were byproduct, but being able to drive that ball.

Who else?

You got Rick on yours, my man, Mr. October.

Reggie Jackson.

Yep.

Who, Who?

And he played for Grenades and the Yankees, man.

Who strangely enough, doesn't show up at the top of those for those stats either.

But Mr. October Man.

Yeah.

When it comes to that time.

Yes.

I remember they showed a video of him hitting a home run on top.

Of Tigers all star game against Doc Ellis.

Okay.

Y.

You were there, weren't you?

No, no, I watched it on tv.

Yeah, man, he was with the A's then, but.

Yeah, but he's a little guy, but he worked out a lot.

He was pretty strong.

Yes, yes, yes.

Yeah.

I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna throw a bone to our hometown guy, Joey Votto.

Towards the end of his career, he just, He.

He really started to dwindle a little bit.

Because he want to walk.

Exactly, exactly.

And you don't become a clutch hitter by.

By walking.

That's such thing.

Clutch.

Walker.

Walker.

Yeah, maybe.

Maybe a grandma.

I don't know.

But if you sort.

Since 2000, in high leverage situations, which is somewhat subjective, with more than 500 plate appearances, Joy Votto has the most weighted runs created.

Plus.

So if you want.

What in the world is that?

What weighted.

You got a scale weighted run work.

Is it.

Wat.

What is that?

Is he on base more than driving in runs?

Is that what it.

That's got to be a saber metric or something.

It's one of those really complicated ones.

But a WRC plus of 100 is considered league average.

So it talks about.

When we were talking about WOBA last week.

It's.

It assigns different values to the different outcomes and how likely that is to, To.

To.

To score a run and that kind of thing.

So it's.

It's a pretty cold, you know, by the stats kind of way to look at it.

But you know, in, in the end, they, they don't lie.

And I, I think his, his earlier.

I think his earlier years probably play a little more into that.

Yeah, I always thought that he was a Pete Rose with power.

Yeah, exactly.

And when it comes to clutch, man, I mean, you're talking about.

We had the Mother's Day game, man, when he hit the walk off grand slam, I mean, that was the card.

Yeah, I mean that was straightaway center.

Three in one game.

That was his third home run.

And that one is cemented in my head forever.

Number two on that list, but I'll say number three on that list is Albert Pujols.

So you could see, you know, guys, we're already talking about number two was Chipper Jones, though.

Another.

Another guy that's come up.

I thought about him, but he's quiet though.

Yeah.

The most interesting thing is we've named, with exception of Reggie Jackson, maybe we've made, we've named just really consistent hitters, guys who are coming through all the time and in the clutch.

You know who we could add to the list.

And I, I looked at his stat.

He had 10, 100 RBI seasons.

Alex Rodriguez.

Oh, Rodriguez.

But Ped, I don't know.

Oh, man, he was just, he was drinking vitamin water.

Oh, it's B12.

I thought.

Yeah, but another guy, I thought when you said 10, I know I eliminated him.

But this guy, I don't think he was on ped.

But he's not getting any recognition as Albert Bell.

Yes.

Nine out of ten years he drove 100 plus RB.

Yes, he did.

Yes, he did.

Yeah.

Albert Bell.

I like Albert, but we have to.

Look at Dale Murphy too.

Dale Murphy.

Was it two or three MVPs?

He can.

We didn't talk about Barry Bonds also.

If you're gonna have Barry Bonds, I.

Have Rodriguez, you gotta have very, gotta.

Have Barry Bonds there.

Yes, I do wanna, I want to bring something up.

The most walk off hits in history by career.

Okay, so this was interesting because this I think is a great example.

What this, what this shows is guys who come in clutch late in the game, but it doesn't necessarily show what happens earlier in the game.

So somebody's ability to bring in runs, but when the game's on the line.

So this is career walk off hits.

Number one is Frank Robinson.

We already mentioned him.

So there you go.

If it's a test, you got the answer.

I bought it.

Number two is Dusty Baker.

Whoa.

How about that?

So a guy that I think is over with being.

When you manage for so long, he was with the Dodgers probably and he played with the Giants at a Brave as well.

But a guy that really gets overshadowed, man, not nobody pays enough attention to him as a player.

And a guy who didn't, didn't maybe put up huge numbers, but he was clutch, he could hit.

Number three, Albert Pujols.

So that's, that's pretty obvious.

Number four, Andre Dawson.

Oh, how about that?

The Hall.

The hall, yes.

Okay.

Number five, we have David Ortiz mentioned him.

Number six, Tony Perez.

Donnie mi amigo.

Number seven, Roberto Clemente.

Yeah, I missed that.

I thought I had him down.

No, I was visualizing for a couple of Clemente fans.

You went right over him.

Yeah.

Number eight, Rusty Staub.

Oh, yeah.

How about that man, the Mets.

Yeah, he talked.

He can Hit the Koufax easily.

Did you used to play with him?

No.

Play it on the same team?

Yeah.

On the same team, yes.

So then tied for ninth.

Well, I didn't give you the number.

Sorry.

Frank Robinson had 26 walk off hits.

That's pretty impressive.

We'll jump down to tied for nine at 18.

Okay.

Carlton Fisk.

Okay.

I could see that.

Don Baylor.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

See that?

Hank Aaron.

Yeah.

Lou Whitaker.

Sweet Lou from the Detroit Tigers.

No, I wouldn't.

I wouldn't have thought that.

He should be in the hall of Fame anyway.

Should be Manny Mota.

Yeah.

I had never heard of Manny Motor.

Really?

Really Never heard of pirates.

Yeah.

Yeah, he can hit her.

I was born in 2003.

We forget guys who aren't in the hall of Fame.

But I remember we just played the Dodgers.

I mean, the game's over and he's out taking batting practice.

They have the guy throw the ball up and in.

So learn how to hit the ball.

Yes.

Put the ball in play.

He didn't want to go up there and walk.

He's a pinch hitter.

Yes, yes.

But I mean, he's a guy who played for 20 years, but only accrued 17 war over that period.

And he only ever played, you know, especially with the Dodgers towards the end.

He's playing under 100 games.

So you mentioned him being a pinch hitter.

So that's one of my favorite parts of this podcast, is that George has brought up the.

The pinch hitter specialist.

Yes.

Like, nobody remembers those guys, but if you were playing, you can't forget it.

So I do.

I watched a lot of baseball.

My mind is like, you know, glued to baseball.

All sports, but baseball.

But when George kind of, you know, break up.

So I like, yeah, man, I remember him.

I remember that card, man, and everything.

I remember, man.

Dodger.

Me too.

So that's pretty cool.

Yeah.

Yes, he did.

So then.

And then last tied for ninth is Stan Mutual.

Okay.

And then I'll go ahead and give you.

So that brings up all the way to 14.

And then I'll give you the guys that are tied for 15, which takes it all the way up to 21 total.

But tied at 17 are Barry Bonds.

Okay.

Yep.

Brooks Robinson.

I have Barry out here.

I thought Barry would be higher, but Greg Nettles.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

Jack Clark.

I can see Jack Clark.

Yeah.

Okay.

Jack Clark with the Giants.

I saw him turn a tom seaboard fast.

I'm playing.

I'm playing left center.

He hit the ball down.

I said, what's going on?

Tom, did he know what's coming?

And then with the Cardinals clutch.

Yeah, with the Cardinals he was, man.

Yes.

Okay, then we have Jimmy Foxx.

Yeah, okay.

Okay.

Lance Parish, Detroit Tigers again.

And then rounding, rounding it off at 21.

Lance Parish was Texas too, right?

Yeah, I know.

It's more Detroit.

I got to drive to settle this again.

Detroit, Philadelphia Angels, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Toronto.

So you play a little bit everywhere he played.

Yeah.

And then rounding it off is Pete rose.

Pete had 17 career walk off hits.

I could see Pete Rose.

Now.

I found that interesting because those are not.

There are some not as notable players in there that maybe didn't have the career stats otherwise, but clutch hitters nonetheless.

And then just for fun, we'll do career walk off home runs.

Okay.

Number one, Jim Tomi.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We talked about him a while with power hitters.

No, we have 13 career walk off home runs, if that's not so impressive.

So Ortiz had to be up there, right?

He's up here.

Number two.

And then tied for, tied for second with 12 is Albert Pujols.

Yeah.

Babe Ruth, Frank Robinson, Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial.

Tied for seventh with 11.

David Ortiz, Jimmy Foxx, Ryan Zimmerman.

How about that with the Nationals.

Yeah.

And then Tony Perez.

Okay.

I remember when Ryan Zimmerman played college baseball for Virginia.

And then I'll, man, I'll throw.

I'll throw out 11 through 18 just for fun because number 11 is Adam Dunn.

And I just like, I love mentioning Adam Dunn.

Barry Bonds.

It's kind of obvious.

Dick Allen.

Oh, yeah.

Harold Baines.

Yes.

I would, I just would not have, I would not have guessed that he gets lost.

Jason Giambi.

Yeah.

Mike Schmidt.

Yeah.

Reggie Jackson and Sammy Sosa.

Yeah.

Okay.

But anyway, those are, those are, those are the guys, man.

And that, that came through in the clutch and it.

I think, I think career walk off home runs is a little more big names, but walk off hits, man, there's.

There's some gems in there.

It is because the other one is deceiving.

Because, because some of these teams are smart enough to pitch around and not pitch to those guys who get the.

Ball out of the park.

So Pete Rose, well, they figured that we could get a Pete Rose out.

Cause they have a Morgan or Bench or those guys coming up.

But that was the key, though.

I remember Tommy John pitched with the Dodgers and he said he had it all fine tuned.

I know I'm going to be in there for 21 outs and then seven innings at least, and make sure guys are not on Base when I'm up or power here is up.

So he's only giving up one run, but try to get a Pete Rose out or get a Griffey out so that now he's giving up a solo.

But there's a guy that should be in the hall of Fame.

I need like 288 victories.

I know that Kershaw is going to make it with two.

Oh, 225.

Yeah.

But he's got 3,000 strikeouts.

3,000.

Then Verlander has, but shoot, he got about 250, 266.

Yeah, but he has 3,000 over 3,000 strikeouts.

Well, I'm looking at the victories.

Victories.

Yeah.

Yeah, he was kind of on that final frontier, maybe getting the 300 wins.

And Scherzer's gonna be like that too.

Yeah, yeah.

3234.

But.

But he's got 3000.

I think the important things that the differences in these two lists highl is that the walk off doesn't have to be a home run, you know.

Right.

See, what I'm wanting to know is I would love to know what those hits were.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

So you take who and you line them up and you say, okay, if Pujols had however many he had, it'd be a walk.

Well, I could, I can actually tell.

You that he hits this hand and what are each one of those of his.

Well, of his 20 of Pujols is 20 walk off hits.

Six were singles, two were doubles.

No triples.

And that's crazy for Albert Fools.

And 12 and 12 fast.

Yeah.

And, and 12 home runs.

Yeah, but were they, were they bunts?

Were they off the field?

He ain't going to, but yeah, I'm.

Just, I'm just saying I'm not talking about him specifically.

Like what of these game winning hits?

What?

Well, and the other thing is, you'll notice a lot of time, you know, maybe man on third and you hit it in the gap and you know it's going to go down as a single, but who knows what it, what it could.

Like Ventura hit a, a grand slam.

But he, he only they didn't count.

Oh, he didn't go all the way around.

He stopped at second base and they start crowding around him.

So he didn't get it.

He didn't get credit for a grassland.

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So, I mean, those are some.

Those are some great guys that we talk about who had that clutch hitting success.

So what is that clutch hitting success?

And this is my attempt to define.

This is.

I sort of set this as our parameters for discussion today.

But I defined it as.

And this is just me.

I defined it as the perfect blend of mental toughness, plate discipline, and aggressive energy.

So the idea is, first we have mental toughness, the ability to keep it together.

When the pressure's on you, you.

You're not caving.

You're you.

Even the people are screaming and everything's going on, and you got guys on base and they need to come in, and the manager's expecting of you, your teammates are expecting of you got all this going on, and yet you manage to close it out and get it done.

Then in addition to that, you have plate discipline.

And by plate discipline, I'm not just talking about choosing balls or strikes.

I'm talking about being able to use some of the situational strategies that George has talked about, and I'm sure he'll talk about again here in a minute.

With how many strikes you got on you?

Where are you looking for the pitch to be?

Is it in the hitting zone?

Can I hit that ball?

What can I, you know, some of these different.

Am I going opposite field?

Am I going to try and pull it?

Am I bunting?

Am I hit and run?

Am I doing some of the other things we talked about in, in part two, where we talked about moving runners, you know, getting them home is just moving runners again.

So a lot of that stuff still applies.

It's just a little bit more high pressure.

And then finally, with the aggressive energy, can you spark that rally that fires your team up and leads to not just whatever runs you can drive in, but more than that, the guy behind you, the guy behind him, you know, these kinds of things.

So can you be that person that can take that calculated risk and say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna hit, swing at it.

If it's in the hitting zone, I'm gonna try and put it where it needs to go and get done, what needs to get done.

So when you talk about the, the mix of those three things, my question is, especially George, in your experience, how do you develop those, those mental parts of the game?

We know about tee work and batting practice and a lot of things that we've already talked about, but, man, how do you get mentally tough?

Well, that's that word you hit it on.

The key word is developing.

And you talk to guys or watch guys or Tony Perez or Reggie Jackson or Albert Pujols, you see what they do.

And it's not, when you talk about being disciplined, it's not just strikes and balls, is the fact that, okay, I'm going to hit the ball up the middle, hit the right field.

I don't care who he's going to throw it, I'm going to hit it there.

Because how do I develop that in batting practice, having.

I remember way back with Manny Mota, he practiced hitting bad balls to put the ball in place.

And Yogi Bear is the best bad ball hitter of all time.

But you know that you're not going to get good pitches.

A lot of time to hit, but learn how to hit those situations.

But the, the mental toughness is very important.

Understanding the mental, toughest to come from the fact that you know that you're not going to do it all the time, but still put that effort into, into doing it.

But I didn't look at it, I didn't look at it as pressure.

I looked at it as a challenge.

Like, it's my time to shine.

I can do this.

If put me in that situation, I'm looking forward to it.

I don't care who's out there, a J. Richard or Steve Carlton or Nolan Ryan.

You know, I feel that I know what I need to do, so I'm disciplined mentally and knowing what I need to do mechanically.

So all those things come into, into play.

But you don't want to go out there and trying to be the hero and hit a home run.

You don't have to.

When you say clutch hitting, it doesn't have to be a hit.

It's just being able to put the team in a position to win.

Right, exactly.

And so, and you, you played in one of the toughest places on earth.

You played in New York.

I mean, you talk about how do.

You want to bring that up?

How do you shut out that crazy New York noise?

No, you gotta go, you gotta go to the game prepared and been able to visualize and been able to block that out.

And for me, I would look, listen to music if it's Al Green or James Brown, so that I'm into that rhythm.

And I hear people, they may be saying something but, but it's like this new place.

There's like, wow, wow.

So it's knowing what I need to do so that what they say is not going to change my mindset.

That's cool.

So what I'm, what I'm hearing is that, it's that it's the confidence that you have in the ability that you've formed in practice.

Right.

It's the confidence in all that work that, that brings you that peace of mind in the moment.

And so what, what you're not trying to do, you said don't be the hero.

You're not trying to do something out of the ordinary.

You're trying to do this.

Well, he's trying to do ordinary thing extraordinarily well.

Okay.

Yeah, I like that.

That's a good one.

Right.

But, but that I always wondered when I was playing, where does the confidence come from?

How do I know?

Well, you're gonna be nervous if you're unprepared.

So if you, if you, you're not sure of yourself.

Exactly.

So that preparation brings the confidence, but the.

Sorry, Rick.

Really not.

But yeah, what comes first, chicken or the egg?

You know, the confidence or the results?

So by, by being able to do it on a consistent basis, that confidence come to play.

But the confidence come in trusting, trusting your mechanic, trusting your judgment, trusting your decision.

I remember back with JR's up there, he's a right hander through hard, had a fastball slider.

So what can I do to change what he's going to throw.

So I got on top of the plate and the catcher felt, well, I'm guarding this.

The slider, no, I'm looking fastball.

So they, they did what I wanted, threw me a fastball.

But you had to trust that, said, well, maybe he will, maybe not.

By that time the ball's on top of me, but I'm sitting, get on top of the plate, look fastball.

And as a hitter, you going to make, you need to make adjustments.

And I see guys, you know, they strike out three or four times, they didn't make it in, adjusted, then they didn't get close to the plate and then choke up or, or really focus on playing.

They.

I remember back, Harry Walker would say, play pepper with the pitcher hitting the ball back through the middle.

What were you going to say?

Yeah, that's a great point.

Yes, it is.

Well, I'm going to talk on the youth level now a little bit.

And confidence starts with playing other sports also where you get coached differently.

So you're talking about being confident with your athleticism.

Yes, but also it's a mental also.

So say for instance, my son Ricky and shot, they played other sports.

Ricky play is a running back.

So he understands, you know, how to get tackle, how to score in certain scoring touchdowns or whatever.

It's got to pick up a block.

Plus he has a leadoff hitter.

So giving him the learning that on that other end when he came back to baseball, slowed down for him because it, you know, he didn't, he, he knew how to handle failure.

You understand saying so by you playing us too, huh?

Chaos too.

Exactly.

Or rugby or whatever, whatever sport it is.

And so now since he is a leadoff hitter, you know, he understood pressure.

So it didn't, it, you know, just, it was just automatic for him just because you played other sports.

And the fact that he's been in pressure situations.

Another thing is too, when you're playing against better competition, the better competition, you're going to fail a lot against older teams or better teams.

But the more, the more you go through it, the more you should get mentally tough.

Some will, some won't.

So what I'm hearing.

That's a great point.

What I'm hearing is that it's, it's how you practice and then it's just doing it, just being in the situation over and over and over and over again.

Which reminds me of.

Okay, so going back to, to music.

Okay.

As a trumpet player, I remember, you know, you always want to be the guy who, who blows the high note Right.

That's your thing.

Okay.

So what I learned, I'll never forget this.

I was maybe.

Gosh, how old was I?

My.

14.

14, maybe.

I went to a.

A thing.

One of the music stores in.

In Columbus was having a.

A thing, and Doc Severinson was going to be there.

You could go and you could go and meet him.

I was so excited to go and meet him.

Right.

So we would go by and he had just like, normally when you would do a signing, he had a stack of, like, pictures of himself or something, and he would sign it, hand it to you and shake your hand and meet you and whatever.

I carried my.

My Arbin's book.

Now, the Arben's book is.

Is the bible for trumpet players.

It's about this thick, and every serious trumpet player owns one.

And you spend most of your life trying to go through this book.

It's just.

It's just what we all do.

And so I carried it with me in there, and when he reached for the thing, I said, would you mind signing this?

And he flipped out.

He said, yeah, that.

Oh, I remember this thing.

Oh, have you ever played this one?

Have you ever played this?

Hey, hey, grab me a horn real quick.

Grab a horn.

So.

And he.

This guy just hands him just some horn, some mouthpiece, just any old thing, doesn't matter.

He picks it up and just starts laying fire with this thing, just blowing and give.

Turned it into a clinic.

There's like 10 of us in line, and he's telling everybody what's going on and explaining and sharing, and he's like, oh, we probably got to go.

All right, all right, here, let me sign your book.

And he signs my book and he sends me on, and I was like, I'll never forget that in my life.

It was.

It was amazing.

And.

But look what you.

It was like a life changer, that situation.

But what I learned, this guy had not warmed up.

He'd not played a note all day, and he.

He picked up that horn and played things I could only dream of.

And that's when I understood what I call the high note principle, which is when you go see somebody whose job it is to do that, they're never playing to the very extent of their level of their ability on stage.

They're not playing the highest note they can play on stage.

They're not doing that.

They can.

They're doing what they know they can comfortably do over and over and over and over again on stage, because that's, you know, people are counting on.

People are showing up going, I didn't come here to hear you make mistakes.

Right.

So, so they're doing what they have practiced so so much that they know.

They can do in their sleep without.

Even thinking about it.

Yeah, because the practice is beyond the average.

Exactly.

And this is where, this is where I was thinking about this after, after part two the other week when we were talking about becoming a hitter with options.

And I'm like, if you really think about it, if we did this in the proper perspective, then we would practice two or three times as much as we play.

Yes.

We would actually practice more than we play.

And what, what happens is because of the busy schedules and because it's hard to get a field and a hundred different other things.

And again, I'm not just, I'm not just picking on coaches and organizations, but the, because of all of the different factors that go into youth baseball, we end up playing way more than we end up practicing.

And the problem now we're putting them, now we're putting them in these situations where we're asking them to do things that they don't, they haven't practiced so much they can do in their sleep.

That describes Dela Cruz.

There you go.

Put him in a situation he's not prepared for and nobody's there to teach him what to do.

And, but back to what Rick was saying, I, I like the expression, you, you win or you learn.

And if you don't learn from the situation.

Yeah, I felt you, you failed because you're not going winning or losing, you, while winning or not winning, you can learn from the situation.

And I like in tennis, you may say you come up against Coco and the fact that, okay, I didn't, I didn't win that time, but what did I learn for the next time?

Yes.

And same with me, when I'm facing a certain pitcher.

Yeah, I didn't get any hits that day, but I said, okay, or maybe I didn't get hit first time up.

Okay, I made the adjustment.

So the next time up I'm ready for that situation.

But that comes from back to Ethan saying confidence, you believe in, believe in yourself and now you believe in that application.

But I love that so much and I think that's so important for youth players because that makes the failure not the end of the world.

Right.

Because so often, you know, we talk about being afraid to strike out and then that's, and then that just ruins your whole game because you had one strikeout, whereas, well, you're terrified that's of.

Kind going to sit you on the bench and you're not going to get anything.

That too.

But.

But being able to turn the failure into a positive thing.

And even in those clutch moments, even, even if it doesn't, you know, you don't come through, you learn from it.

And the next clutch moment, you can bring that information with you more time.

So what you're saying, so I seen your transition from high school to here.

Okay, you see what I'm saying?

And then I see all the things when you were sitting over here, I see all the transitioning stuff that you've been doing to now you're up there running your own stuff now, man.

You know what I'm saying?

So at first I'm sure you thought like, man, being on fail, but hey, but you learned a lot through this process of glove helm and stuff through, you know, it's like, oh, okay, I didn't know I had this in me, man.

Well, and to pull it out of baseball for just a minute.

I mean, something that I struggle with personally is being afraid to fail.

That's not something you struggle with.

You're.

You're very good at just going through it and learning as fast as possible to get down the road as fast as possible.

Whereas sometimes I get.

They call it paralysis by analysis, man.

I use that a lot.

That could be my, that could be my middle name, man.

I mean, it's just.

I have kind of an analytical, logical mind and I get, I struggle with that.

But that fear, that fear is going to keep you from.

You're going to limit you what you can do because you want to play it safe and stay in with 100% in that comfort zone.

You got to get out of that comfort zone to go to the next level.

But just an instant kind of application of that.

One thing that I learned with running my business is last year I worked way too many hours and I did not, I didn't budget my time well, I didn't manage my time well and all that kind of stuff.

And I look, at first, I look back, I was like, man, that didn't go well.

But then I went well.

How can I change that?

This year's been a lot better.

It's been a lot easier on me.

So being able to pull out the.

Value of you've done more work this.

Year, I've done more.

My revenue is roughly the same, but I haven't had to work as hard to get there, if that makes sense.

Smart.

But I.

But being able to pull information out of a failure is so important.

And that was Something I struggled with as a youth player that I've been able to learn later in life and had I been able to tell my my youth self like, hey, it's really not the end of the world.

But if it does.

Well, when it does happen, it's not if, it's when, when you do fail, how can you change it to try to avoid it in the future?

And so to answer your question, when you, you asked the question a while ago, you said where does the confidence come from?

From failure?

Well, it comes from a combination of practice, experience and failure.

Yes, those are the three things that bring that confidence.

First of all, it's an abundance of practice.

It is practicing more than you play.

And this is something that, this is why we advocate getting a private teacher.

Because your private teacher is actually is going to give you reps and your lesson and your private teacher is going to you give, give you assignments to do in between games.

And so that's by having a private teacher, you're going to have someone prodding you to put that practice time in, which is helpful.

So.

But you have to understand you're not going to play 10,000 hours of baseball.

Well, I don't know.

George probably has played 10,000 hours of baseball by now, but the average person is probably not going to play 10,000 hours of baseball in their lifetime.

But they will, they may practice and play, you know, that much time.

So playing more than you practice is a good rule of thumb.

It's a tough measure practicing more than.

You play, but it's a tough measure.

How much do you need to practice?

More than you play.

But it's just go out there and try to fine tune your skills so that now it becomes a muscle memory.

But other things that I look at each you want to strive to use positive words and instead of I wouldn't say failure, I would say not succeeding.

I wouldn't, instead of saying struggle, I would say more so challenge because it brings on that positive energy.

That's a good point.

But it's more of a self talk and knowing that whatever you say, you're giving it out to the universe.

And it's like a boomerang sometime, but you want to give positive thoughts and your voice when you say something, you're putting power behind that.

So just try to be positive at whatever you say.

It's a good point.

And on the topic of practice, when the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about practicing and playing games is I think of scheduled practice and scheduled games.

But what we're Talking about it's not.

We need to have more team practices than games.

And this is something that I think we've uncovered throughout this process is the different types of practice.

And that's something that you kind of.

You were on the, you were on the forefront of that because you, you focused on or you emphasize the importance of individual practice to hone your individual skills to then bring that and be prepared for the team practice because.

Exactly.

Because George, how often at the pro level do you have somebody working on something individually while everyone else is out there?

Would it not usually be you're going to go out with your position coach, get that work in before you start running team chemistry type drills?

That's as a coach.

It didn't as a player because I'm watching in spring training because I look at these guys, they're not go back to Billy Hamilton.

They're not taking him to a one field and working on his skills.

Yeah, his skill is being able to hit the ball on the ground but get on base.

So that's going to.

Now you blend that into to the lineup.

Okay.

Finding out a guy, okay, A guy can hit the ball.

Teach him how to hit to the right side being right handed because I put him in second position.

So I'm going to hit and run and knowing that Billy Hamilton on base, I'm going to hit.

Now you have first and third.

So it's going to be a challenge when you have the whole team there and you, okay, I want you to work on your bunny and the other guy, you only get a chance to bun about five or six time.

You know how, how much is that going to be ingrained for you.

But I know with us we would.

It's like Foster, Griffey, Dries and Conception.

You go to field one or, or bench or Morgan, they're going to go work on what they need.

Say when Morgan's case he had been left handed hitter, he may want to hit off left hander and, and even in my case I felt I got got more prepared facing a left hander because he had the movement on the ball and then that breaking ball.

That's the one thing I laugh at.

These right handed batters getting hit, hit, hitting the ball and hitting themselves because they're trying to hit that slider that's coming in.

They're hitting the back part of the spin instead of the front part.

I just.

But then they say, you know, I would ask them how did that happen or why you, why you keep letting that happen.

But there's nobody to teach them differently.

Right.

Well, and that's another way that you might know if you're.

If you're a young or developing player.

Another way that you might realize is if you get asked to do something and there's any doubt in your mind that you could pull it off, like if you're sitting there, if coach says, hey, I need you to go in and pinch hit.

I need you to go in there and lay down a bunt and get on base.

And now if.

If there's any doubt in your mind and your ability to pull that off, then there needs to be some more practice.

Well, I think that brings up.

That brings up two things.

One is, well, let me.

Let me get this out.

So I was a part of a lot of practices where we were trying to fix individual issues with the whole team present.

So an example, I'm standing out on third base or maybe shagging balls, and the.

The kid at bat is trying to get mechanic instruction.

That's not really the time to do that.

So it's not.

So it's inefficient.

And a lot of times you just end up reinforcing the things you're already good at.

Okay.

So if, you know, the confident hitter goes up there, coach lobs and batting practice, hits it all over the field with no.

Where people are just shagging, there's no really purpose.

Okay.

And then he goes back and he's not really any better.

And so when it comes to.

If you have that doubt in game, because you will, you're never 100% confident.

There's always going to be stuff to work on.

But that doubt is an indicator of something that you need to work on.

Yes, it's what.

It's what I used to have my trumpet teacher in college used to talk about.

Is it a tool in your toolbox?

Okay, if.

If you, if you can go to the toolbox, pull it out and reliably use it, then it's a tool in your toolbox.

If it's not, then you haven't mastered that tool and you need to spend some more time with it.

Yeah.

So if I can say, hey, can I toss you in here?

And can you.

Can you sit in with this, this group and sight read this piece and just play this part you've never seen before.

If your skills aren't up to par with that, then it's not a tool in your toolbox, and you can't just go sit in and do that.

You know, I'll never forget there was a. I was traveling with A gospel quartet.

And we would go and sing places, and I was the only guy who could play an instrument.

So I was playing and we were singing.

And then sometimes the.

The pastors would get all excited and they'd want to stand up and start singing a song, Right?

Hey, everybody sing that.

Oh, you know this one, right?

Let's all sing this song, right?

And.

And so I would be like, okay, just have at it, you know?

And I just kind of find them and accompany them, and I may never have heard that song before in my life, but if I can listen to him and I know enough about what it is, I can find them and.

I can follow it, know the foundation.

And.

And so I was.

One time this guy.

Guy did that, and he started.

He just picked a key out of the air.

So I just found him and played by him.

And he didn't realize he'd picked a key that was going to be way too high for him.

I said, hey, man, you.

You.

You bought the ticket.

You take the ride.

I just kept playing, just looking at him.

He didn't do that anymore.

But that's.

Anyway, yeah, the.

The.

If it's not a tool, if you can't go and pull that tool out of the box and reuse it reliably, then you need to work on that.

You need to spend more time with that tool.

It's not in your toolbox yet.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're playing the game of patience.

Any sports, but especially baseball, it's like taking a test in school.

So you.

You study, and then now you take a test to see how much knowledge you gain.

So the same thing in fielding, running, batting, is the fact that, okay, you're going up to bat.

Now, it's a test of what you recall, what your muscle memory is.

And you may.

You may succeed or may not.

But the fact is, okay, you're willing to get better.

Go back and find out what is.

I use the expression, for every result, there's a cause.

What does that cause?

Okay, I'm popping the ball up.

Okay.

What does that call?

But a lot of people get into.

Oh, you're turning your head.

You're.

You're pulling off.

That's too many.

Yes.

Too many things that usually just one little thing.

Okay.

Okay, you're opening up.

That's it.

Yeah.

There's also another thing, too, that a lot of people.

That's funny, George, Was that they do.

So we're talking about pressure.

And when you work on pressure, your.

Head in a vice.

When you're working on two strike Approach, man.

And you go down swinging.

Okay.

At younger ages, you know, they'll probably come back crying or, you know, mad at themselves, like, okay, you got.

You need to pick them up.

Or sometimes I'll throw a curveball or change up.

They foul it off.

I said, man, that's great, man.

So you got to keep building them up because they need to also know that, man, you fouled off.

That's probably his best pitch to try his out pitch to get you off.

And you fouled it off, man.

Now what you gonna be hunting for?

I'm hu.

Fastball.

Exactly.

You work and you hunt fastball in the zone.

You want to hit it in.

So.

But you got to continue, I think coaches out there, you got to continue working with.

With kids on that until that's built in and it's automatic.

Where there's no fear, you come out, you know, because of course, you.

You don't want to wait, oh, two.

You want to hit while you're ahead.

Right?

Well, and that brings me up to this question.

I mean, Rick, you've probably.

You've thrown more batting practice than the average human being in your lifetime.

When do you decide and how often do you decide that?

Okay.

Okay, let me go back to a specific experience.

I remember I took Ethan for a lesson one time, and Ethan was hitting pretty well, but he was, he was.

Couldn't get out of his head, and he was struggling.

And so you started throwing batting practice, and you threw him some stuff, and he hit it all right.

And then you started throwing the nastiest junk I've ever seen.

Knuckle curve, and he couldn't hit a thing.

And you, you didn't give him an inch.

You just kept throwing and you just kept throwing.

And.

And by the time he was almost in tears, he was so frustrated.

And then you stopped and you said, all right, now are you real.

Are you good and mad now?

Yeah.

All right, then.

Now turn that and focus it and hit this.

And then you.

Then you switched and started.

But it was like, how do you know when to challenge the.

When to challenge the hitter?

By throwing them junk and really make them work for it.

When.

Especially in situations, because it's going to come up, you know, everybody's going to have a two striker, two strikes on them at some time in their batting careers.

And the more you go over it, the more they'll get comfortable.

So let's go back.

I had a kid, he was hitting off the tee, and I had him hit right side.

He kept pulling everything.

Okay.

So after a While you don't want to keep telling the kid, say you want them to kind of figure it out, you know what I'm saying?

Because I think what happens at games, everybody's, hey, get your arm up, get here, do this and that.

So they start overthinking.

So I had, man, I think he had about 10 swings, George, I said, go right center, man.

He kept pulling everything.

Why I keep doing that right?

I figure out we didn't been over so many times.

And sometimes you got to give them it's okay to fail, but I'm going to help you work through it.

You have to work through it on your own.

Because when you have to play, it's just you in the picture, man.

It ain't right.

It ain't you to coach your parents.

We ain't all at the plate.

And so you gotta give them that rope to.

Okay, it's able, you know, you work through it.

And I think we don't do enough of that.

Not patient enough.

Yes, I agree with that.

Because you can tell somebody how to do something as much as you want, but if it doesn't click in their brain, then it doesn't really matter.

So if they never have to work through it on their own and you don't try to turn that on in practice, then why would it happen in the game?

I was shooting, shooting archery with my buddy yesterday and we both were talking about how we're.

We're pulling down into the left.

And I said, I said, I know not to do that, but that doesn't make it that much easier.

You know, I have.

Because I haven't shot very much, so I have to work through that.

But, but yeah, that's a, that's a great point.

That if, if the kid never fights through it on their own, they don't know how and they don't have the.

Confidence because someone is always there to pick them up.

I heard that it's almost like micromanagement.

Yes.

Micromanaging, or you're not helping them with failure.

It ain't really failure, truthfully.

I mean, if you know how to spin it to correct.

You know, if you thought, like I said, I throw you a curveball, you foul it off.

Man, that's pretty cool, man.

Well, that's how.

That wasn't a swing and miss, but you found it off.

That's how that session ended.

He was.

Because you were.

He was just getting more and more frustrated.

More and more frustrated.

And it's.

At one point in time he finally.

He fouled something off and You.

And you were like, okay, yeah.

Now are you.

I've been tough on you.

I haven't given you an inch.

But you just fouled that pitch off.

And 10 minutes ago, you couldn't even think about hitting that pitch.

He said, because you had to fight through it.

You got to have.

You were building fight in him.

And I appreciated that.

And that's.

And I think, too.

And George and I know you understand this too, as you move up levels from high school to college, that's what coaches want.

Those kids that's going to fight through, right?

Yeah.

But they're not going to.

A lot of them not going to take the time.

You got to be ready when you get there.

Got to be.

Exactly.

But it's back to that word adjust.

Yes.

Make the adjustments.

Yes.

Because I.

And try to make it humorous and fun for the kids.

So I would ask him to hit the ball to right field, and they keep hitting the left.

I said, okay.

No, the other.

Yes.

So it's.

It's just trying to make it humorous.

And then.

Okay, okay, let's fine tune this.

Hit it up the middle.

Hit it back.

Yeah, hit it back to me.

Because they don't know what the middle sometimes hit it back to me.

And then when they do it or if I have them, I say I wanted to hit it up the middle, but then they hit the left center.

That's.

That's where I want to hit it, Right.

Yes.

But they focus.

Being able to focus on something.

Yeah.

And being.

Or being successful in doing it, I.

Might put up something like an L screen.

I'll say, hey, see if you can hit that, man.

You know, if you do, you win some Pop Tarts or something like, oh, man, they get focused.

You have motivated more kids.

Top tartar.

Yes.

They've won a lot, man.

But that's.

But that's.

That's an amazing thing.

I. I never, ever left a lesson with Rick and was upset.

It always ended on a high note, even if I was struggling.

And I went, man, I got to work on that.

I was never.

It was always positive.

It always ended positively.

And that's something that.

That Rick or that.

That George mentioned way earlier, is the importance of that positive reinforcement.

And.

And, you know, you got positive and negative connotations, and you can make anything.

You have a choice.

You do.

It's a choice.

And so what I think we've.

What we've uncovered is that to build this clutchness, it's confidence, and that happens in practice, and it's hard to do that.

Negatively, that has to be built positively.

And that, that's like.

That's like oxy.

Positivity is like oxygen to the flame of confidence.

You know what I mean?

Right.

And yes.

And it's like negativity smothers it out.

Dioxide.

Yeah.

It doesn't necessarily make it go away.

You can still be clutch if somebody's hard on you all the time, but it's a lot easier if somebody's positive and that flame just grows a lot hotter.

And the point that Rick just made a while ago, which is as you come up through the.

The levels they're coaches are going to expect that you have more tools in your toolbox.

You know, by the time you get to the major leagues, you've signed it, you've signed a contract, you're being paid.

Well, you're there these days and they're.

Going to turn to look at you.

And if they say, foster, I need you in there, you got to pinch hit and do something, they expect that you know how to do it or you wouldn't be there.

Right.

Got to be ready for.

But I just knew when I was being platoon and then I had had a mentor, Willie Mays.

I'm asking him.

Parky said, I can't hit right handers.

So that word can't.

I. I said maybe I had a challenge in hitting the breaking ball or hitting right handers, but I need an opportunity.

So.

But he said, always be ready.

Yeah.

And even though you're not, you're not physically into the game, mentally be into the game because when they call on you can't.

Oh, ready.

Okay.

I got to go of lists of things you got to be ready at that particular time.

So I just knowing that with Sparky, some.

Some guys, you know, they.

They have an ego.

And so he wanted to prove me wrong on certain situation.

So I came up in a situation, well, we were winning like 10 to 1 or so.

And.

And then they put me in to give somebody else a rest.

And so I ended up hit a home run against a right hander to win the game.

So after the game, the reporters said, man, Sparky said, you can't hit right handers.

And I said, man, if they don't make bats long enough to hit from the dugout, and that's a good way.

But I don't know how that came about.

But that was very witty.

But Sparky was fuming because everybody say, sparky, that was a genius idea.

You're putting Foster.

But he wanted me to look bad.

So now in the next Game, I'm facing Bert Hooten, the right hander.

Oh, he said, well, he's already put down false, is going to go over four two strikeouts and lose the game.

So I went 4 for 4, two home runs, two RBIs.

And.

But the one thing that stands out in whatever you do in life, don't be concerned on who gets the credit.

So Sparky got the credit in that situation because he put him, he put me in the lineup to make me look bad, but I end up looking good.

So they said, wow, Sparky, you're a genius.

Ethan is more than my podcast partner.

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Yeah, it's, it's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit.

Right?

That's a, in a game situation.

You, if you hit a home run to get the, oh, this one kid, he end up, he ended up quitting baseball because, because of that factor.

So the scouts were out scouting this one pitcher.

The pitcher threw a two hitter and I think and the two hit two hits were home runs by this kid.

So now the scouts are talking to the pitcher and not the guy hit the home run.

So he just felt I'm giving this up.

Nobody.

I'm not getting any credit from this.

But now he has regrets from doing it.

But he didn't have anyone telling him, hey, don't be concerned about getting the credit.

You know, your dues will come about, but keep doing what you're doing.

And that one.

Don't let that one game matter one, one time matter.

Well, and that's.

That's another common element when you talk about these clutch hitters and all these people that we've named.

These guys are.

You know, these guys are team players.

These guys are.

That's a key being a team player.

And I look at like.

Like the Reds now.

It's an individual commitment for a group effort.

So what can you do as an individual that's going to help the team win?

That is true.

Yeah.

I say that a lot.

I kind of tell parents that too.

Or the kids, especially the younger kids, because they gotta understand, what if you are not giving a scenario?

You got men on second and third, man, and you hit a hard ground ball to the second baseman and they throw you out at first.

But what if the runner scores?

Man, you did a great job, man.

You did your job right.

You're doing a team.

But I didn't get a hit.

Yeah, sometimes they'll run back.

No, but the parents are like, why, Johnny?

Why didn't you get a hit?

He drove in three runs, but he went over two.

Why didn't he get a hit?

Yes, exactly.

And just understanding and teaching how to play team baseball that we got.

We have to get back to doing that.

George, that was a.

That was a gem.

You just dropped a minute ago.

I want to make sure that doesn't go.

That doesn't go unnoticed.

He said it's it from the individual.

No, no, no.

He said.

He said it's an individual commitment to a group effort.

That is a.

That is a fantastic way to explain.

Well, I think the Reds are a perfect example of that this year.

I mean, we are one day removed.

This is the day after the last game of the season.

And they.

They barely squeaked it in, but they made it in.

And Opta Stats put this out, that the Reds are the first team in MLB history to have no qualifying batter hit.270, no batter hit 25 home runs, no pitcher win 15 games and no pitcher have 200 strikeouts.

I mean, effort.

There are no standout players, per se, but what their motto was, they can't kill us.

You know, they're just.

They just keep fighting.

And it's a.

And Terry Franconis talked about, he said that they are, they are a team, they're just a team.

And they are, they're one one item.

But I look at the Mets, you know, they're maybe two or three guys.

Two or two guys that can hurt you.

Yeah.

But in the Reds lineup there are a lot of guys can hurt you.

Like Fredo hit a home run, did Della Cruz or Steer or even, even McLean.

But Andahar I had to tip my hat to, to Nick Kroll.

He got three individuals in that trade.

The deadline people like why did he said want a right handed power hitter.

But he knew that good defense stop good offense.

Yes it does.

And then you bring in a guy like Anderhar because you know that he pulverized left handed pitching and then you brought in the pitcher latell I think.

But those three guys really made a big impact on that team.

But you just a minute ago when you were talking about your own experience and you know the reputation, you can't hit righties and only being putting in to hit lefties, that was Anduhar's reputation was that he could only hit the lefties.

Well the last few games they kept him in there against righties because he had proven himself.

Yeah.

And he, he was hitting over, over 300.

You know it just was, it wasn't all with the Reds and that kind of thing.

So.

But yeah, being able to prove yourself and I'm.

There's not a doubt in my mind that's something he's working on because he wants to be an everyday player.

Through his career though he, he made a big adjustment and from the time because he had been released, I think a couple either released or.

I know he left the Yankees.

He went to the Pirates.

You get released by the Pirates.

You know that's the lowest.

It is.

That is the lowest.

We had a lot of injuries too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's funny.

Let me throw this out there for, for young players too with.

If you're in a situation where let's say you're, you're, you're on a team and you're not seeing the playing time that you had hoped you would see or that you would, would like to see, be honest with yourself, take a good hard look at yourself and say how many tools do I have in my toolbox right now?

What's my strength?

Yes.

Those kids who are out there playing, do they have more tools in their toolbox than I do?

And what can I do to spend more time with those particular tools and get them in the Box number one.

Is asking the coach.

Thank you.

What do you need to do to get more playing time and not.

Don't ask the question, why am I not playing?

Yeah, it's what do I need to do?

What I need to do.

Exactly.

And also get an evaluation from me.

What are my strengths and weaknesses?

Okay.

Because he sees you every day.

Now.

I always.

Since I do a lot of different skills with kids that come in from pitching, hitting and everything, I've got one today, and he's going to try out for high school baseball.

Now I'm going to have to give him an honest assessment of where he's at.

Yeah.

Plus he's going to Lakota West.

So I think.

I think I see what they're trying to do, but I'll see down the road.

But I have to give him an honest assessment of where he's at because I've always asked him, like, okay, what position you play and who you guys play against and things like that.

And I think that parents need to know that once you get through freshman year, then I think whatever level you play in, travel or select baseball really doesn't matter too much.

It does if you play higher.

Some.

Some kids play JV, but once you get to JV 10th grade and above, this is where 16, you and up, this is where I think kids need to play higher and better competition.

Because now your goal is when you get to JV, you're.

You're going to have kids that's in the 10th and 11th grade.

Okay.

You get diversity.

You have kids from, you know, all levels.

And I think that coaches in the summer and even parents need to understand or kids need to understand this is where you're.

If you want to make varsity, if this is your goal, then you have to put in the work to get to this varsity level.

That's a good point.

But back to Ethan was talking about.

It's not just like you said, organized practice.

You can do things on your own.

Thank you, George.

You can go and if it's tennis balls or safety balls and do soft toss, work on your throwing, work on your running.

So every aspect of the game you can work on.

In addition to organized practice, when you go to a lesson, don't just take what you learned from the lesson and try to work on it on your own.

That's where it becomes second nature to you.

And that just makes the.

That makes a team practice so much more effective and efficient.

The guy's ready.

There was a team in Little League.

There was a team that just walked Dog walked everybody else.

And every time we walked by them on the field, they were, they were taken infield, they were taking.

Doing infield, outfield.

Yeah, all.

We never saw them do anything else and I think they probably did individual stuff otherwise, but it was because they were so sound defensively.

You just couldn't get a ball through.

And we were, I don't know.

They didn't make us.

They didn't make the mistakes.

They didn't make any mistakes.

We were probably eight, nine or whatever and we, we're like, oh, they don't, you know, this is ridiculous.

They never do anything.

And they were so sound.

And so when.

Just to bring that to, you know, a team or an organizational perspective, when you, when you allow those players to build those skills individually, it makes, you can then work on that, that situational, situational play in practice and then it should translate to the game much, much better.

It wins.

It can win.

Whoever make the fewer mistakes have an opportunity to win.

And I just, I work this.

I said these guys on the major league level and they don't know, you know, entry or fly rule or, or being knowing the situation that's going on.

Oh, he hit the line drive to third base.

But, but the guys at second, no outs, hit the ball to the right side.

And I think, I know.

I was watching the game.

Oh yeah.

Back to Andhar.

He was committed.

The first pitch he hit to the right side, a line drive to the right side.

He was committed.

He didn't wait, you know, take a couple of strikes and fight it off.

He was aggressive.

So he's in a situation that he know even if he didn't do it that one, that first pitch, but he's going to give been aggressive.

He was aggressive.

He.

His the mindset and he knew what he discipline up there.

Other guys I saw with the brewers, he takes the first pitch fastball and now, now he ends up swinging a ball over his head.

Then the best pitch you took about.

Sal Frelich, it was the, yeah, I seen that at bat, took that fastball.

I was like the best one you're gonna get.

Did he end up striking out?

I believe it did.

Yes, he did.

But I'm like, what is he doing?

The funny.

It was like the brewers weren't brewering.

You know, I just, I don't think they were wanting to compete, but they didn't want it.

One part they didn't want to get hurt or they want to save it.

They had a non alcoholic day.

Yeah, yeah.

But I know yellow.

He's A, He's a good hitter, but he kept swinging at that slider in the dirt.

What are you doing?

Usually would try to go into left field.

He would be.

He can't hit backside.

Did you ever have one of those times, George, where you were maybe before you made it in regularly, where you were platooning and you were like, I want to get in the game more.

And somebody more like a Willie Mays or somebody who was ahead said, all right, well, this is why you're not in the game and this is what you need to work on.

Well, this part.

That part of that happened.

I'm.

I'm in a dugout in St. Louis and Alice Graham is a right.

Right hand Sparky.

And I'm sitting there.

Always get there early and watch the opposing team hit just in case I go in for defense.

And it happened against the Astros.

Greg Gross, I watch him in batting practice.

He never, he's left handed.

He never hit the ball to the left side of second base.

So.

So now the game start.

They want me to play left center against him.

And I said I moved there, then I moved back because I know where he hits the ball, and he hit it right to me.

They were like, is he a lefty?

He's a lefty.

So he came back.

The came back to you then?

Well, yeah, it came back to him, but I.

But I'm standing there.

It's right to me.

Yes, but they were, you know, waving the towel and everything.

You know, move over, move.

I said, okay.

Did I.

When they weren't looking at where I should be.

But that, that came about with Alec Graham.

I'm sitting in the docker.

He said he was serious about it.

You know, what, what is it that you want to do?

I said, I just want to play.

And he, like, beeline up to the office and I started to get a chance to play.

If I would have said, you know, it just.

I just like being here.

I love the major league.

It's fun.

You know, you.

You get a lot of meal money and.

But I said, no, I want to play with conviction.

Conviction, because I had work that had gone to.

To win a ball.

So I'm ready to play.

You're ready?

Yeah.

Yeah.

But there were this one, though.

Maze.

It started with maze and bonds.

When you do something foolishly, there's.

You're better than that.

Yeah.

They watching me.

It didn't say, what are you doing?

Right?

No, you're better than that.

Yeah.

And I tell kids that you're better than that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's good.

Yeah.

And that's a, that's a, an important thing to remember is that when you get those mentors, whether it's an instructor, it's a coach, or it's just a player who's been around longer than you, a lot of times that's the best way to take that information.

But when they just say, hey man, you know, you need to, you're better than that.

You can, you can bring more than this.

Yeah.

You know, and, and that's when you're like, you know what, maybe I can, you know, I need to put that, put that time in level swing, let it travel, wait for your pitch, be aggressive out there.

It's no wonder young players get confused at the plate.

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George Foster has played baseball at the very highest levels.

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He led the major leagues in home runs twice and RBIs three times.

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Apply at george foster baseball.com Let me kind of wrap up some of this stuff here that we've been talking about.

So we're talking about this sort of clutch hitting ability, this ability to bring in and score runs.

And we spent a lot of time in the heads of players today because I think that's really more than, you know, all the skills that we talked about in part two, they all apply.

Yeah, Runners again, hitting multi.

Hey, if you can hit a double, you'll move more runners.

You hit a triple, you move more runners, you hit a home run, you bring them all in and yourself, okay?

Hits are the.

Hits are the best way to move your runners.

Sacrifice.

If you need to learn how to bunt so you can do it in a situation, learn how to handle a hit and run.

All that stuff we talked about last week, that all applies.

The difference between moving runners and scoring runners is can you do it when the, when the, when the pressure's on and you got to bring them in?

Yeah.

And so I do have a specific question about that, George, earlier in the episode you had mentioned it's about making adjustments and you had given the example, going, trying to take away the slider and doing that whole thing.

When it comes to a clutch scenario, say, you know, bottom of the ninth or.

And that kind of thing, maybe you have runners on, maybe you don't.

When you said make adjustments, those are adjustments I hear you talk about making all the time, not just in clutch moments.

Oh, right.

So my question is, is there anything that you do differently when the game is on the line or in terms of your approach or is it the same situation just brought into a clutch, same approach given the scenario just.

And it just happens to be a clutch situation.

So like for, for a little more illustration, like if you have a runner on second, okay.

And you're up to bat, you have one out and it's a tie ball game.

Does is that the same.

And is that the same mindset you have if in the ninth inning you have a runner on second, one out, tie ball game, does that.

You see what I'm trying to say?

Do you.

Is there anything different that you go, okay, now it really matters or is it just the same?

It's the same.

Okay.

That's what I was after.

You're not going to wait until that high level situation.

But because that run is just important later on.

Okay, so.

But for me, I strived on and when men are in scoring position, but I know I said many times before I'm in scoring position from home plate, but, but you got to be able to go out there and be a team player and it's like a sacrifice, but you're sacrificing yourself to a degree for, for the good of the team.

But I, I'm looking okay.

I knowing that what his best pitches are, what his repertoire is, what he's throwing me before.

So I knowing that I got to really be disciplined and fine tuned and take the opportunity out of the mix of hitting the ball to left field, I want to hit it up the middle of the right center.

I was, when I got two strikes, I was really a good hitter because I've really focused on hitting the ball the right center, it may end up going the left, but your bat should start.

I use the numbers 1, 2, 3 outside, down the middle, inside.

So if you go the balls at 3, don't go straight to 3, you start at 1, 2, 3.

So you have good plate coverage.

So I found that being that's what.

I have all the time.

Yeah, I got to also I'm going to add to that because so this mdni.

So my son Ricky was a leadoff hitter.

George is a, a four hole hitter.

Three or four hole hitter people him.

So we're talking about situational, having confidence and stuff.

So he was a leadoff hitter from 12 years old through college in his high school and all that.

So think about all the pressure that he's had every year from there, all the travel and all of that.

So you build up that situation.

So from 11 and 12, we used to always say, hey, you, you get your first pitch, you better bang it.

Okay.

But as you get older and moving up, certain coaches have certain strategies, start taking pictures so the other batters behind you can see what the, what the.

At least in your first at bat.

Okay.

After that, man, you, you just seeing and you attacking.

So as a leadoff hitter, you know, he can hit, you know, plus he is a switch hitter.

So knew how to not just hit, hit for power doubles, triples, drag bunt, pushbunt, handle the bat and understand situations too, versus your, for the guy, RBI guy, you know, if he got runners on base, man, he, he hunt.

He's going to hunt his pitch a little bit.

And maybe lead off is a better illustration of my question.

Because if you're leading off the fourth inning in a tie game and you're leading off the ninth inning in a tie game, your goal is still get on base.

It's not, oh crap, now I have to do this extra thing because it happens to be the ninth inning.

And that's what I was trying to flesh out because I think sometimes, especially with younger players, clutch becomes a, it becomes a physical almost like a, it becomes a material thing that gets added on to the situation, but it's really not.

You're.

All you're ever doing is what the situation calls for.

Where it happens in the game doesn't really matter.

And so it's a run.

Exactly.

You apply the same mentality.

Yes.

Yeah.

No matter what inning that it is.

And I said earlier, that run is just as important as that.

You may not need that run in the ninth if you got that run in the fourth.

Right.

But I just find that these guys, they don't understand or the one thing that I.

They talk about pitch count.

So the guy is taking.

I don't like them taking.

And I remember it was a while back, they had a general manager for the Reds.

They wanted the player.

Player to take two strikes, take the first pitch of the seven up to the seventh inning.

And this is not profiling, but Latin players are aggressive, you know.

Yeah.

So it's.

And then the other teams knew they're going to, like, here's a lollipop right down the middle.

You can't swing at that pitch throughout the seventh inning.

But they lose their aggressiveness.

And I feel that when they talk about the pitch count, I want to get the pitchers to count up.

No swing to bat.

You can knock him out if you want to get him out of the game.

Thank you.

There's a.

There's a.

And I can't use their name because I'm sure they'll.

But anyway, this.

These kids play for this.

This little league team.

I'll put it as that.

And their coach want them to take the first pitch all the time.

All the time.

And I was like, oh, man.

I said, why is he doing that, too?

Sometimes the best pitch.

Thank you.

And.

And so they struggle.

They struggle.

They put them in.

Put them in the hole.

They put them in the hole.

Thank you.

Well, it limits your opportunity.

I like.

So now they hitting defensively, right?

Yeah.

I think an easy way to sum that up, George, is a consistency of intensity throughout the whole game.

And like you're saying, I'm going to write that down.

Yes.

That's consistency.

I want royalties every time that shows up in a George Foster lesson.

I'm going to spell it differently, though.

But like you said, if you get that run in the second inning, then maybe you don't need it in the.

The ninth inning.

And so I. I think that's a great application of it, is to get ahead early.

Yeah.

But then also to relax a little bit later in the game, because when you're so tense, you're more likely to make a mistake than if it's just business as usual.

And it.

I think that could really take a lot.

That.

That would have taken a lot of pressure off of me when I was playing.

I could say that you got to.

Think about, you know, a diamond is a piece of coal with consistent pressure over a long period of time.

Not a whole lot of pressure.

If you put a whole.

Another diamond, you put a whole lot.

Of pressure on a piece of coal at once.

You'll crush it.

Yeah.

But if it's consistent pressure over a long, long period of time into a diamond and it develop it, it's the same sort of thing.

It's, it's again, having the tools in your box.

Good analogy.

Using them in the situation.

Another reason to like these guys have said 100 times, whenever you're practicing, do it in a situation.

And you're purpose.

A purpose with a purpose.

This man, because I, I can remember of all the times I watched a coach through throw batting practice that you played for every one of those coaches, most of the time was trying to throw strikes so that the kids would hit it and that everybody would feel good.

Well, and so the players had something.

And so the players, funny players are all standing out there waiting for something to happen.

He's trying to throw a strike so you'll hit it so they can field it.

You know, I tell parents this all the time.

There's going to be.

And George probably seen it too, in lessons where kids struggle.

And I said, it's okay, man.

You're gonna.

I'm not trying to have feel good hitting sessions, man, because guess what?

Are you going to have a feel good game every now and then?

You're gonna go three for three.

But there's gonna be some times you're gonna go hitless.

Yeah.

Okay.

So it's life.

But you know, strategy still can be productive.

So I think parents, if you're listening, please be easy on your kid.

And you, you challenge them.

Okay.

But also you make sure you pick them up too, man.

Give them that support.

Yeah, yeah.

Make, let them have fun.

Thank you.

There you go.

So to bring all this kind of back around, we talked about having a combination of mental toughness, plate discipline and aggressive energy.

We've talked about making sure that we practice more than we play.

Meaning specifically individual work.

Yes.

You're putting in that individual work.

You're, you're doing what it takes.

You're spending the time with the tool to get it in the box so that you can use it when, when it's necessary.

So that if you're called upon to pinch it, you're called upon to sack bunt, you're called upon to hit and run it.

That is not a foreign thing to you.

That is not something that you're like, well, I hope I can pull this off.

No, it's something you've done so many times, you're like, sure, I'll go do that.

No big deal.

Boom, here we go.

And, and that's the thing.

You got to try and get that.

That's where those, you know, when you tell you somebody talk about 10,000 hours, that's what they're talking about.

They're talking about outliers.

You have spent that kind of time with each one of those tools to get it in your box.

So you can just go get it out of the box and go use it.

And that's the whole, that's the whole thing there before.

There's a low percentage of players that make it, but you want to be in that, that percentage.

But he's got to work at it.

You got to work not through osmosis or just thinking about or dreaming about.

You got to actually go and do it.

Yeah.

And also taking personal responsibility.

You know, we've talked a little bit about this, but this cannot be overstated.

When you're talking to young players, young players.

Take personal responsibility for yourself.

Be honest.

It's easy to say, well, the coach didn't play me, coach didn't do this, or the umpire, you know what he was talking about.

List, listen, you're a kid and the umpire is a grown up.

And nine times out of 10, that umpire is going to know better than you in just about any situation because he's older than you.

Okay?

So be honest with yourself and say, have I spent the time to have these tools in the box?

If I haven't, then be honest with yourself and go do that work.

Be humble enough to go, I need to work here, I need to work here.

I need to work on this thing.

And then if you need help with those, that's when you go find instruction and you say, look, I need some help figuring out what to do here.

Figuring out what to do here.

But you are honest with yourself enough to know that you have to put the work in.

And you are the only one responsible for that.

Nobody else.

Your mom and dad aren't responsible for that.

Your coach isn't responsible for that.

You are.

And so if you get out there in a game and you're in a situation offensively, defensively, doesn't matter.

And you're sitting there praying to God that something good happens because you don't know if you can pull it off, that's when you got to go, I need to make a mental note and go spend some more time with this tool and get it in the box.

Because that is not, that's not something you've mastered yet.

Yeah, but that's, that's the thing.

Clutch is not this mystical concept that, you know, you were, you were either Born with or you're not.

It's, it's, it's, it's solidified through, through preparation, which translates to confidence.

And confidence and clutch are very similar, if not the same thing.

And then we, we define the confidence, the process for confidence.

Confidence comes from practice, experience and failure.

And to be able to say, okay, I put in, I put in all the practice I need.

By doing that, I have become a player who gets the experience.

Right.

They're putting me on the field because I put that, because I put that work in.

Okay.

And so it starts with the practice that earns you the experience.

And then the experience will come, will bring with it plenty of failure.

It'll happen.

And you fail forward and you learn, and you figure it out as you go, and you consider that it's not necessary.

It's not failure as in you're done.

It's a situation where you just bought some education.

This is Ethan at a situation in business not long ago that was kind of a particularly costly situation for him.

And he was like, man, that cost me a lot of, you know, a money to, to deal with that situation.

Yeah.

So you, you, it was an expensive education.

You bought some education.

You, you know, not to do that again.

And, and that's, that's the kind of thing.

So sometimes the currency that you use to buy your education is sweat and, and sweat.

Hard work.

Yeah.

Sometimes it's not money out of your pocket.

But, you know, when you take that and you practice in the experience and, and failure and you, you combine that together, that's what brings you the confidence.

And these players that we mentioned at the beginning, who are clutch hitters, who were their standard, they're, they're, they're regular strong performers all the time.

They're consistent.

And that's what we've noticed more than anything.

When you're talking about RBIs and get on basing moving people and doing these, the guys who show up at the top of the list, they are the most consistent people, because my guess is they have put in more of that practice time than the average bear.

And they have made sure that they have those tools in the box and they can use them.

And it's not any sort of surprise when they get put in a situation.

And you can be.

To be successful, you can 30% of the time do it 30% of the time, say 3 out of 10, that's 300.

That's the hall of Fame numbers.

But I look at guys, if you 2.7 as far as.

Or 27% is, you know, you're doing well, you're not going to do it all the time.

But the main thing we said earlier, but apply it, put, put all those, that energy and commitment, aggressiveness into it.

Every time and never expect that the game is going to be that you're going to play to the very edge of your ability.

In a game.

You always want to be able to like know the edge of my ability.

That's where I'm pushing myself in practice so that in a game I can play here, you know, what is, ask yourself what is the standard that's expected of me in the game?

And then go beyond that in practice so that you can do that what you expect.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's the thing.

So anyway, those are some, some things that I hope have been helpful.

This has been very heavy.

This concludes our offensive objectives series.

We've got, we're gonna put a wrap on this one and we're gonna start defensive things coming up.

So talk about, talk about defensive things, running, diving next week.

So hope you'll come back and join us.

We hope to, to have another great discussion and hope that you'll check out the podcast.

If you're new to us, there's plenty of episodes.

There's 19 episodes ahead of this one.

You can find it on completegame podcast.com you can also find it on mdaiacademy.com George Foster, baseball.com or glovehound.com so you can also find it any place that you listen to podcasts, whether that's Amazon or Spotify or wherever YouTube listen to.

Yeah, YouTube, the video versions on YouTube.

So check it out, maybe recommend it to a friend.

Leave us a review if you get a chance.

We'd love to have you be a regular part of what we're doing.

So but for the guys here, I want to just say thanks so much for joining us again and we'll see you next week on the Complete Game Podcast.

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