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Ever thought about the transformative power of discipline and dedication in sports? Buckle up for an inspirational journey through the highs and lows of professional baseball with Jason King, former Kansas State Wildcat and fourth round pick of the Detroit Tigers. We delve into Jason's early baseball years, revealing how his innate ability to shine in the weight room and on the field propelled him to all-state player status in Ohio. Hear about the profound influence of Coach Chris Huesman and how a burning desire to compete against the best was instrumental to Jason's success.
We also navigate Jason's path from Ohio to Kansas, diving into his enlightening college recruitment process. You'll learn why he chose to challenge himself, looking past the Ohio State Buckeyes to find the best college program that would help him grow. Jason generously shares nuggets of wisdom for high schoolers contemplating a future in college baseball, offering a contemporary perspective on how the recruitment process has evolved.
Finally, we tackle the arduous transition from college to professional baseball. Jason provides a raw and honest snapshot of the cut-throat competition in the major leagues and gives a glimpse into a typical day in the life of a minor league player in August. The episode concludes with Jason recounting his most unforgettable baseball experiences and the individuals who profoundly impacted his professional baseball journey. So, sit back, relax, and be ready to be inspired by the riveting journey of Jason King.
Today on the athlete one podcast. Former Kansas State Wildcat and Detroit Tigers fourth round pick Jason King.
Speaker 2:All right, this is amazing, like, and we took it just so far. I mean, we had shirts made with wolves faces on it. I mean we, like, did not refer to any baseball language at all. Everything had to do with with wolves. But that literally transformed our culture and you know, we ended up setting the school record for wins. We led the conference in pretty much every offensive category. We went down to Texas at Texas and beat on the first two nights and all the Longhorn fans were losing their mind, thinking they're pro. And this is when Augie Gerito was still a coach too. So all the people down there losing their minds that, their programs falling apart because Kansas State comes down there and looks some two days in a row and we should. Ways to impact others.
Speaker 1:This episode of the athlete one podcast is powered by the netting professionals, improving programs one facility at a time. The netting professionals specialize in design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for baseball and softball. This includes backstops, batting cages, bp turtles, bp screens, ball carts and more. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches and cubbies. The netting pros also work with football, soccer, lacrosse and golf courses. Contact them today at 844-620-2707. That's 844-620-2707. Or visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. Check out netting pros on Twitter, instagram, facebook and LinkedIn for all the latest products and projects. Now to our episode with Jason King. Hello and welcome to the athlete one podcast. I'm your host, ken Carpenter. Joining me today on the show is former Kansas State Wildcat in fourth round pick of the Detroit Tigers, jason King. Jason, welcome to the athlete one podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me today.
Speaker 1:When I think of Jason King, the first thing comes to mind isn't baseball, it's PE class and the weight room and box jumps, your ability. The one day that you just stood there from a standing position and jumped I believe it was higher than I, was tall, just my mind and I was like, wow, this guy's, he's got some special ability.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the the way room at Dublin, jerome, the hours spent there, the you know good memories, so that's definitely, you know, was my first Weight room that I kind of fell in love with. Right it's, you know, super accessible right there at the school and good group of people going in there every day after just trying to get better and, yeah, just trying crazy stuff when you're a kid, like can you jump on a 54 inch box?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was great. Well, as a coach, you can look at someone and tell they're different than other players on the team. When did you know baseball was going to be your ticket to division one baseball.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I started to feel different around the time I was like 14, like I was never, I was never the best player on my, my travel team when I was younger. You know I was a good player and obviously, like I had a dad who played so he was able to you know help me, you know compete at you know the high travel baseball level and the youth ages just with his knowledge and you know ability to help me with fundamentals and you know mechanics and whatnot, offensively and defensively. He was a catcher so that was kind of like his defensive expertise and and I was a very I was very small for my age. I'm young for my grade or was young for my grade in school. So I have a June birthday so most people that were in my class were older than me. So physically I was, I was behind most of my life when I was 14, you know in part over at Dublin Kauffman, you know that was that's kind of funny that's. You know Tim Saunders I know has been on your show. He was my PE teacher in ninth grade and I think it was part of the curriculum you had to do like this weightlifting circuit and it was like all like old Nautilus machines and like everyone, like go in there and like mess around and I'm like, if I have to be in here, like I'm going to number one, just do what the teacher is telling us to do, right, and this guy's the varsity baseball coach at Kauffman, so like I want to impress him, you know. So I'm going to show him that I'm 14 and like I can really do all the, all the plates on these Nautilus machines. And I don't think that I could. I don't even know what, what the weights were, the equivalent or whatever. But the point is is that I was taking it serious and trying hard and naturally found out that you know, I was very good at that type of stuff, really any sort of resistance training. I, you know, thank you, god or whatever, for giving me the genes that respond extremely fast and extremely well to resistance training. So anybody, when they're putting time and effort into something, if, if you get early returns and you know, you see that you're naturally better than your peers, like you're going to be interested in that right and you don't care what it is, so made it super easy to, you know, fall in love with it. I guess.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, you know that that starting at that age, at 14, and then it carried over to high school and you ended up being an all state player in Ohio and and having a great career at Dublin Jerome under Chris Hughes, and then you were a huge newsman as your head coach. And talk a little bit about how that experience at the high school level and what it was like for you as a high school player.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I went to Dumbil Coffman my first year and then Jerome opened and transferred, redistricted over there, you know, played for Huey. It was super special to be a part of something that was being built, you know, from the ground up right like everything that we did was, you know, at first. So that was really cool. Some of the best memories of my life, you know, my entire playing career Definitely happened. You know, especially like my senior year. You know I lost my mother to colon cancer when I was November 7th of 2006, so that was the fall of my senior year. And then the team in the spring of 2007. You know that that was a really, really special team. Like I said it's. You know some of the best memories of my playing life. I mean, if you Asked me like the highlights of my baseball career, I would. I would default to that for you know, probably the first you know couple Number one, playing with my brother. You know, in high school, the, the year the first time I played baseball since my mom died. Right, I'm on the field with my younger brother, who's a freshman, starting on varsity. I had a walk-off home run in the first game that I played after my mom died. I mean that was Like I get goosebumps thinking of it and like I just think I could visually vividly see like every single thing about that, like day and game and people, and you know, and that team went on to Win the district championship, which obviously was, you know, a great memory for you know, everyone involved, some of my best friends still to this day we're on that team. You know John Crawford, corey Valentine, ray Noe, ryan Gallatin, sean Casey, tyler Noss so you know, these are guys that you know I love and and just everything that we went through, not only just with my mom but other things. You know that we're going on and people's lives at the time it's it's really special, it's really really special. So, yeah, and, and you know, huey, I always will have eternal gratitude for for him and the leadership and the role that he played in my life when I was going through all of that stuff personally. So you know that always, he'll always have a special place in my heart because you know it's, you know it's, his office was just sort of like a, was like a safe, safe zone for me. You know I'm a. When my mom was diagnosed I was, I don't know, 14 or 15 at 15 I think, and you know you, you have your dad to talk to. I had my grandparents to talk to but like you know something about like being outside of the home and just being able to have a place where I could go and like know that you know I had somebody to like they cared about me and love me and would listen to me and you know, some days were better than others. But sometimes I would just go in there and you know he would always Find a way to make me laugh with some nonsense and, and you know, just make me feel like everything was going to be fine. So always have eternal gratitude to Huey for that. But yeah, I mean the facility. I mean back then. I mean Jerome's family was Now all these places around Columbus have they're seemingly all you know over in all in B and these incredible indoor facilities. But Jerome was really the first one that had, you know, its own, designated like real hitting facility In central Ohio. So that was super. You know we were all really lucky and blessed to have access to that. Um certainly made getting better very, very easy for, uh, you know, a school in a northern state. So yeah. Yeah, that was kind of a long answer, but well, you know it's.
Speaker 1:You know, I recall the time that you're talking about and you know, a lot of times people don't realize that the role a coach can have in a player's life. And you know, I had a similar experience. I decided to join up with the Dublin Jerome staff, um, and shortly after joining it up, I, with the, the health issues that I came across, have and have a total collect me. I ended up getting cancer myself. And Huey was one of those guys that I talked to and and, like you said, he he was, he was a great listener and he was also someone that, uh, you know he found a way to make me laugh. You know, and it's amazing how that can Really have a huge impact on you, because you, when you have something like that in your order Whether you're dealing with it or a family member, is it? It just dominates your thought process all the time. And you know he was a, he was a good guy that could really, uh, just just be someone that could listen and someone that you know, just like you said, with his, the comments he would make, sometimes it just gets you to laugh and forget about things for a little while absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean it's. You made a comment before we started recording, that's, that's so true. It's like you know, everybody, everybody's going through something and, like you know, now, like in our business, um, you know, I find myself like reminding, reminding people. You know our employees, um, all the time like, hey, you know, when you, when you pick up the phone, you know the thing that we can control is like our intent to serve people, right, like that's what I can control, um, but that person on the phone that's that's coming in hot or they're pissed about something, or they're, you know, telling us about everything that we did wrong, like we have no idea about. You know, we serve thousands of employees, so we have no idea what that person, that one out of however many thousands that we serve, is going through. Right, but there's something, right, because there's always something. Yes, so you, you just have to, you know, understand that about, about life is that everybody is going to have something all the time and um, you know it's they're worst, or their perception of what the worst thing that they're dealing with is In their mind is equivalent to what to what yours is. It feels the same to them. Right, you could sit and look at two situations on paper and be like, oh, they've never, they've never been through anything as hard as me, you know, or or what I had to go through, and it's like no, but they've been through their worst and their worst right now feels the same to them. You know as it as yours does. You know and I think that's important for you know just people to remember just all the time. It's like hey, you know you, you do have the ability, like you know, we're referencing QE here to you know, have that perspective and and understand that just any interaction like little things really can can make a big difference. That you have you know whether it's someone checking you out at at CVS or you know you have to pick up the phone and call customer service for xyz company. You know People that you serve in your own. You know career or job um, you know they're all going through something. So it's really important to always remember that.
Speaker 1:Yes, Well, after your great playing career at Dublin drone, you did something that kind of Was out of the ordinary for a central Ohio player, I thought was you chose to go to Kansas State University to play. Talk about your recruiting, pause the process and both the positive and negatives, and what advice you would give current high school players that are considering going on to play college baseball yeah, so my the process is so different now than than when I went through it, but I mean, you know there's.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of similarities, right, like you got to be playing at a high level in the summer, high level travel baseball teams, which, um, you know that has just gotten even more. You know, more and more crazy. There's more teams, there's more better teams, the travel is more, there's more tournaments. But for me it was, you know, I knew so. My, my dad played baseball at Ohio State and, um, I never was like, uh, you know pushed, or like, hey, I, my goal is to play baseball at Ohio State because my dad's sitting there and he's like, hey, like you know, I want something. Like I want better baseball than that for you. Like I want I want you to, you know, whether it's the sec or the big 12 or the acc, right, like you know, get out of the cold. Right, get away from the cold weather. Like playing baseball in. You know, for college season starts in in February. Playing baseball in Ohio in early March can really be not fun. Um, so that was kind of the. The guiding light at the beginning was like, hey, where can somebody from Ohio go? That is the best conference you know in the country, or one of the best, and you know, even have an opportunity to you know further, to be interested, because you know, back then it was, you know, just so different. If you looked up you know all the schools and those conferences, if you looked at the Texas Longhorns roster, you know you would have had 32 guys from the state of Texas, one from California and maybe one from Oklahoma. I mean, it was so consolidated and those schools they just don't have a need, you know, to go and get some player from Ohio, right, like it. Just they just don't. So if you're going to try to get any interest from a school in a conference like that, or you know southern, you know location, you kind of had to go and like put yourself in front of them and sort of be undeniable, right, like hey, we didn't know that there were players like this from Ohio, but now that we've seen this one, like we want them. So that was sort of like the approach, right, it was. You're going to, you're going to camps, right, you're going to like one school to be seen at a camp by one school, you know, one coaching staff, and so we did that, you know, at Kansas State, which is where I ended up going. We did it at Virginia Tech, we did it at Kentucky, we did it at, you know, some of these schools, in these, in these better conferences, where it was like, hey, you know they might not be the best, or like the team that's winning the conference every year, but you know they're also going to be the ones that like, hey, we see this kid from Ohio, we think he's really good. Like you know, we need the best players that we can find, because I don't know if you've looked at the population of Kansas, but it's not that much. So it's not like there's 35 great baseball players coming out of the state of Kansas every year. That can, you know, make Kansas State competitive, especially when you have the University of Kansas. An hour and a half down the road, you have Wichita State, which historically has been a very good college baseball program, right? So, like, kansas State was already in the mindset at the time of like, hey, we got to go to Arizona, we got to go, you know, to Texas, we got to go, you know, around the country and find the best players and sell them on. You know, this vision of building Kansas State into something because the historically Kansas State had not been a very good baseball program. It just had it was in a great conference for baseball, always finished near the bottom. You know, and Brad Hill, who was the head coach that I played for at the time, I mean he had won national championships at Central Missouri, which is a Division II school. So you know he was super hungry to prove himself at the Division I level. You know he had had a ton of success. His winning percentage was like insane for baseball. I mean it was like 790 at Central Missouri. I mean they just destroyed people and won the national championship like two or three times when he was there. But you know, for me it was. It ultimately came down to again this is all happening where my mom is really sick. So I kind of had eliminated everything based on offers and whatnot you know, down to Kansas State or Ohio State. So it was like, okay, do I take the glory of whatever central Ohio kid is supposed to dream about, even though that hadn't really been my personal, you know, dream, so to say, to be a Buckeye, even though I come from. You know my grandpa on my mom's side played football, for Woody Hayes was a captain. You know my dad played baseball there. I don't know, I've just never been afraid to be different. You know I'll credit my mom for giving me that gift, I guess. And you know, the most important thing to me was playing in the major leagues and I would not have been able to. I don't want to say like I didn't want to live with the thought that you know, I could have done something that was harder, right, like I could have challenged myself more. So I mean, obviously, interstate 70 takes you right to Kansas State's campus. It takes 12 hours to get there. So if anybody wants to go check it out, that's how you get there. So being 12 hours away from home, you know, is significantly different than being 12 miles away from home. And yeah, I just, I wanted the, I wanted to know, and I would sleep better at night knowing that I took the hardest path.
Speaker 1:So Well, you know you mentioned that you took the hard path. It must have been a great experience for you, because your younger brother, jared, he ended up just a couple of years later joining the US Kansas State. And you know I, before I we started this, I reached out to you know your old coach, chris Hughesman, and I asked him. I said give me a question that I could ask him. That you know, would you know kind of get things going a little bit? And he said, talk about the competitive nature between you and your brother Jared.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean it's it's that to be able to play with him in high school and then college. So he was originally committed to Tennessee. And then I actually my 2009, I hurt myself in a summer ball out in California, ended up having to have Tommy John surgery on my right elbow and taking a medical red shirt for 2010. So Jared was committed to Tennessee and then when that happened, you know I was. I would have originally been up for the draft in 2010. That was going to delay it by a year, which is really what lucked out and allowed for, you know, us to play together in college, you know, for the second time. So that year, 2011, I mean getting to play at that level with your brother. I mean he was a really, really good player. So he, you know he started as a freshman. So we have memories not only from high school but getting to do that on like the highest level of college baseball together. You know again, like I mean for my dad, I mean that was literally like, I mean quite literally, what more could, like a father asked for? You know, especially, just go like with what our family had been through with losing my mom and you know, to watch your boys play on the same field, travel the country, you know, have success, you know, earn accolades, you know. And then so after that, after that year is when I, you know, got drafted in 2011. But yeah, I mean, jared, we're pretty competitive against each other. He's. He's better, better than me at a lot of things I'm, you know. If you want to look at certain strength and conditioning things, like I'm, I'm probably better. But if you want to look at just like hey, picking up anything and and being good at it from like a sports perspective, I mean, like he would, I never beat him one on one in basketball, right, like he's a very good golfer I'm trying to get better at golf, but like he's, he's really good, you know. So he just naturally has that ability to pick stuff up and just and just instantly be really good where, like for me, I'll get there, but it takes me a little bit longer on like the sports aspects. But yeah, it's just super fun competing with him. Like we were just at a golf trip up in Northern Michigan a couple of weeks ago and people were asking us about you know which one you could do this better, which one, which one you could do that better, and so Jared is just naturally he was faster than me. The year that I had Tommy John, all that I could do is take ground balls and work on running. So I worked on my sprinting form, I like, just because I had nothing else to do besides take ground balls and try to get faster. And I beat him in a race in the football indoor on a time clock one time in my life, but it was after a year of exclusively focusing on nothing but figuring out how to be a faster runner. So I can say the last time I raced him I beat him and that probably would have lasted for about a month after that and I started doing baseball stuff again and being able to lift again and, you know, gain back all the weight I lost and then all of a sudden he would have been smoking me again. So yeah, but yeah, it was an amazing experience. I mean, that was honestly just one of the best years of my life.
Speaker 1:Well, you led Kansas State to their first NCAA tournament appearance in school history, and what changed at Kansas State in your opinion?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good question. So honestly it's like it's a hard question to answer, but the biggest thing is that the culture changed. My freshman year like just to be completely honest, it's like we had a much more talented team. My freshman year at K-State, that team had like seven or eight guys drafted but, let's just say, never really came together as a team. My sophomore year we had a lot of people return, but the culture that was brought in by a gentleman named Andy Sawyers, who was our hitting coach, really is what transformed just the culture of the program. He brought in a philosophy that came from Matt Deggs, who is the head coach at Louisiana. Right now Andy is the head coach at Southeast Missouri, but it's called the PAC and it's a metaphor for running offense and baseball. So the PAC is a pack of wolves. So the first day that Andy came in, none of us had met this guy. We knew that he was coming from Texas A&M. He was an volunteer assistant at A&M where he learned the philosophy from Matt Deggs, who was A&M's hitting coach at the time. And he has us come into the locker room and he's like all right, everybody lay down on floor. We're like what is going on and he starts telling us this story about this giant buffalo in this clearing, in the middle of, like this dense forest. And then we're like why is this guy telling us a story about a buffalo? And like he's supposed to be helping me learn how to be a better baseball player. And then he starts talking about the wolves and he's like one wolf comes in, another wolf comes in, another wolf comes in. So the whole philosophy is that, right, like everybody in the off, everybody in an offensive team is has their own role, like within the wolf pack, right, and wolves on their own in the wild, like they die, like they can't survive. So you know there's different roles, literally within a real wolf pack, right, you have wolves that are scouts, you have wolves that you know are alphas, you have wolves that you know are more caretakers. You have all these different actual roles within a wolf pack. And so the metaphor obviously you're gonna have your guys on the bit in an offense that are runners, right, like they're at the top of the lineup. They need to get on base and cause chaos, right? We don't need our five foot eight, 170 pound center fielder, like trying to hit the ball over the fence, to lead off the game, right. So I mean anybody who's listening you know it's gonna get the metaphor right it's everybody has their role within the pack, right, and what you can accomplish if everybody is is fully living and living and accepting their role, you know is really special. So I mean Andy's a really passionate guy and so, like he was just I don't know he loved us as people first right, which I'm sure that's been covered on this show is, you know, hey, like you wanna get people to buy in, like you gotta show them that you love them as a person before a player or before a player. That's gonna you're gonna get something from their success on the field. So his ability to get us fired up about this wolf pack idea, I mean we all went just fricking all in after like a couple of weeks being like, all right, this is amazing. Like, and we took it just so far. I mean we had shirts made with wolves' faces on it. I mean we like did not refer to any baseball language at all, everything had to do with wolves. But that literally transformed our culture and you know, we ended up setting the school record for wins. We led the conference in pretty much every offensive category. We went down to Texas at Texas and beat them the first two nights and all the Longhorn fans were losing their mind thinking they're pro and this is when Augie Garito was still a coach too. So all the people down there are losing their minds that their program's falling apart because Kansas State comes down there and woke some two days in a row and we should have swept them on Sunday. We got screwed and the game ended up ending in a tie because there's a time limit on Sunday games, because, like, we had to go to the airport.
Speaker 1:It's amazing. Just something as simple as accepting your role and doing your role to the best of your ability can make the whole team better, and that's a battle that every coach from high school all the way up through has. Every time they take a job they have to battle to get those players to understand hey, this is your role, where you can help the team be better by doing this, and that's amazing that he was able to sell you guys on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I mean it was crazy. It was such a I tell that story a lot People just whether it's just talking about. There's so many lessons that can be learned between the fact that, like I said, that team I freshman year, if you looked at just talent on paper, I mean we got off the bus and people were like that literally looks like a major league team. I mean we had I don't know five pitchers that were 6'5". I mean a third baseman that was 6'3". I mean we were gigantic, we looked like a major league team. So much talent. But just that consistent everyday, same messaging, same culture. You say, like everybody wrote the row the boat thing from the I can't remember if it was like Western Michigan's football coach I don't know where he's PJ Flan, yeah, minnesota, right, yeah, everybody's rowing the boat in the same direction. I mean it's the same thing, right, it's just consistency of culture, it's the same messaging. It's everybody buying in, everybody going towards the same goal and just finding a metaphor that just works for your sport and is applicable. Yeah, so.
Speaker 1:Well, that led to you being selected in the fourth round by the Detroit Tigers. You go from being a stud athlete in high school. You tear it up at the college level in the great conference that you played in in the Big 12. Talk about the adjustments you had to make going from Kansas State to being a professional baseball player in the Detroit Tigers organization.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's adjustments from, like, a baseball perspective. I mean nothing crazy. I mean the biggest change, I think, is that it's pretty much the opposite of everything that I just said about what makes a winning culture at the collegiate level right. It's not a bad thing, it's just different, right, like you're literally, baseball is your job. So and I was blessed that I did really well academically in college. I was very close to having a degree. I knew that at any point, if this baseball thing was taken away from me, that I was going to have great opportunities in life. That's not the case for a lot of people that are in professional baseball. So a lot of the people that your teammates with right, this is like their one shot to have a good life. Like, quite literally, if you're talking about the teammates or players from Latin America right, like they have parents, grandparents, children, sometimes that for those people to elevate to a new I don't want to say like class, but a new lifestyle, a new to have, better to get out of, like just generational poverty, like they have all this stuff riding on them, right, so that raises the tension, certainly, and you're competing with them even though they're your teammates, and that's what makes it. There's only so many spots in the major leagues and everybody's in this funnel. So it's not like a cutthroat backstabbing type of culture. I mean that just doesn't exist. You don't want to. Nobody's going to want that in a major league clubhouse, I can guarantee you that. But I mean it certainly is just different. It's the best way to describe it and it should be Like it is your job. You have to treat it as such. I never had any issue with that. I probably should have relaxed more and taken more time to go out with the guys after games and have a couple beers and just like forget about the fact that I'm 0 for 15 over the last couple of days. Like I should have done more of that. But yeah, it's just very different. Winning is not as important nearly. It's like much more focused on development. So that's sort of nice in a sense, especially if you're coming from a college atmosphere, like I was, where winning is literally all that matters. It's kind of like OK, it's nice that we're not going to get chewed out for losing like the last two games in a row, because there's players in here that the Detroit Tigers have invested in. And what they care about is that their investments are maturing right and that one day they're going to reap the rewards of signing Jason King or Ojen Yosuares or whoever else is in the locker room. So I say that's probably the biggest difference is it's much more focused on development than winning.
Speaker 1:Just for the listener that's never experienced it. Walk me through a typical day of a minor league baseball player in August.
Speaker 2:You wake up at any time between like 9 30 and 10 30. You know, get up out of bed Pretty much everything on your body hurts because you've played baseball Virtually every single day since April 1st Maybe four or five days off, maximum Probably going to Go to the gym and get a very, very, very light workout in. That's the other significantly different part from colleges. College strength and conditioning is like equivalently important as playing baseball. At least it was at K-State and In the pros they're like telling you not to work out. They're like no, don't do too much. And when you get to August that first year you understand you're like okay, now I get why they were telling me to Not be a psycho in the weight room. You know, in April and in May it's because you've never played a hundred, literally a hundred baseball games. You know in a hundred and four days before. So you know you're getting to the field anytime around. You know 12 to 1 this would be for like a 705 start, get some food on the way to the way the field, hang out with everybody in the clubhouse for an hour or so, just listen to music. You know, if you want to go and like get some extra work in you can. Batting practice would start, you know, around like three, three or four. Go out, do like the stretching and then go into like, fall on the field. Batting practice, if you're the home team, typically would have you know once all the on the field stuff got done, another hour or so Before you go out and take in field before the game game starts at 705, get done around 10. Try to get some food, either from the from the stadium on your way home or go to a restaurant with your friends after like. Find a late-night bar place that like serves food, hang out there, go home, go to bed at like 1 am, wake up and do it again well, every baseball player.
Speaker 1:Their career comes to an edit. For most it's in high school. If some are fortunate enough to play at the college level, that's. That's a bonus. And you were fortunate enough to to make it to the professional level with the Detroit Tigers. What's some of the things you wish you knew or wasn't quite prepared for when you were coming toward the end of your career.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's a great question. I Trying to think how I want to answer or start to answer this. So for me, I I had to finish my degree first, so I went back, did what I need to do I had four classes left, major league baseball, paid for it, got it finished and then, you know, my life up to that point had been solely focused on becoming a major league baseball player. So I Did not have the same college experience as Someone who wasn't an athlete, where you're doing internships, you're, you know, thinking about other things in life or what you could possibly be passionate about, or you know anything like that. So my degree was in, was in marketing. So business made a business degree with marketing as a major. So naturally, I'm like okay, you know, what do you do with a marketing degree? Okay, well, a lot of people go into sales. So let's, let's do that, you know, and just jumped into work for a company actually first called hydro works, which was very fitting because they're therapy pools. We had them at K-State. So I'm like, so, I'm like perfect, like this is something that, like I used, I know about, like I rehabbed in one of those pools when I tore my ACL and Pro ball. Like I have a great story to tell. This will be easy and like very quickly you realize that like outside of like your Baseball world or professional baseball world, people don't really care about what you did or what you accomplished. You know you might run into the occasional person's like oh, you know, like yeah, that's cool, my kids play baseball, so like they appreciate that story more. But you know in these other markets that like I was responsible to Target or like sell to. You know you just realize Really quickly that like a sales is really hard B You're not as special as you, as you think you were or probably thought you were, and you know the real world operates different than like this bubble world that you had been been living in, like this baseball world that you know is so insulated and you're constantly judged by other people that care about baseball or know about baseball or think about baseball. So I mean it was. It was definitely like I opening that job in in particular, like knowing what I know now, being a working person with a job other than baseball for ten years or almost ten years, is that was a very, very, very hard sales job and I mean they took a chance on me, certainly with no experience. But with my background and you know, knowing what I know now about, about the sales profession in the sales world, I would, I would never tell someone in that situation to take that. Take a job like that, not just specifically that one, but any job with no experience. It's gonna ritual, require, you know, multi-state Territory management. That's gonna require you know cold calling and setting your own appointments. That's gonna require Hitting numbers, like with pressure immediately, like all these things you know add to the complexity of any sales role, right. So you throw like I mean, that's just three. You know the fact that the product is extremely expensive in the sales cycle is, you know, typically very long. So there's not a way to get like a quick, easy win, like to feel confident or like feel like, hey, I can do this. You know what I mean. So, looking back on it, I would tell myself or anybody in that situation, you know avoid, avoid something like that unless you had a way to have experience prior, you know. But the biggest thing is, like I luckily had the, the Financial ability because I was I, I did sign for, you know, some money that allowed me like, hey, once I figured out that like, like this is miserable, like I don't know what I'm doing, like I'm in over my head, I'm not having success, like I was able to pivot and try something else. Right, I was able to be like hey, if I, you know, leave this job and I left, you know, on good terms, whatever. Like my manager was just like hey, like I can tell, like that You're struggling, you're unhappy, you're living in a new state I was living in Arizona at the time. He's like you know, it just might not be a good fit for you and you know, so I I was like, yeah, like I think I want to try something else. So I did, you know, I went into wholesale distribution For a company called Ferguson to it's the largest plumbing wholesaler in North America. So they had a management training program. There was, just, like you know, big corporate stability. So I went from like working at this smaller company to like a huge corporation. You know, I'm like hey, like let me just get like a corporate training program right. Like I have management experience from Learning about it in college. But like, if I go through this, then I can always say like, hey, at least I've been through like a, you know, real Corporate, top of the line, like management training program. So that sort of is what drew me there. You know, obviously I can't say I was pat, I'm passionate about the products that we were selling, because that just wouldn't be true, right, but again, it's just, I think, what I would tell people. You know, this part of the story is like Just get experience. Like you don't have to figure out the final destination. You know what I mean. Like it's okay to just do something, knowing that you're not married to it forever. The amount of stress and worry that like I put on myself, because I didn't have that like once I was out there and it was like what are you gonna do next? You know where are you gonna go? Like what do you? What is the proof, though? Okay, if you take this opportunity, what's the promotion gonna be? And then what's the promotion gonna be after that? It's like it's kind of like just funny. You know how much stress I put on it when in reality, it's like the skills that are gonna make me successful once I find the thing that I want to be doing, like I already have them right. Like I'm a people person, I can relate to people, I gain credibility Very quickly, like these are the things that are gonna make me successful. Once I figure out how, what industry or what employer is gonna allow me to deliver those, then I'll be successful. You know what I mean, and I think that's the biggest thing. You probably already have the strengths that are gonna make you successful. No employer, industry is gonna make you Successful, right? So it's like figure out what your strengths are and if you've accomplished anything using those strengths, eventually, if you keep an open mind and you and you work hard and do the right thing, the right situation is gonna present itself and bring those strengths out of you, right? So I know so many athletes that have that have been in this same situation, whether it was guys I played with in Pro Ball, guys I went to college with, that are that identity gets taken away from you, and then it's like I gotta find a new identity. What's it gonna be? Right? Like when? Where do I go? Like, can I go to a store to buy a new identity, right? No? So it's like, again, you have certain strengths that are different than mine, right? You know my dad has certain strengths that are wildly different than mine. You know, and and you have to trust that, if you accomplish anything using those, as long as you're a good person, you're making the right choices, you're putting good out in the world. I'm a firm believer that, like, you will find the right situation that's gonna bring those out of you and like, at that point, you'll be successful.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, whatever you define that, yeah everybody's path to success is Very seldom it's isn't a straight line. You know you're gonna have your ups and downs and things and, like you said, it's just Get that experience and then eventually you'll get to where you want to go, for sure, 100% well.
Speaker 2:I wanted to.
Speaker 1:What I do it with every podcast. I throw a little rapid fire question in here for you, so I'd like to get your thoughts on a couple things here real quick. What's something that the average fan doesn't know about Minor League Baseball?
Speaker 2:Prior to the minor league reform is what players get paid for sure, Like your actual paychecks, like the most money that I made like from a paycheck, not from a signing bonus, in a year was maybe like $11,000, maybe $12,000. That's crazy. Right, it's changed now, but yeah, back then. I mean this is like 2011. Yeah, it was not a lot.
Speaker 1:What was your most memorable experience at baseball?
Speaker 2:Man that's so hard to say Probably honestly like winning that. Just the whole experience my senior year with my brother, after my mom and died, I mean that's really hard to beat. Me and Jared, my brother, both hitting home runs against Texas A&M off of a guy, ross Stripling Be hilarious if somehow you heard this. He ended up being a major leaker for the Dodgers, pitched in the World Series, so hitting home run, and he was my teammate in summer ball too, which made that really funny. So yeah, me and Jared dominating Ross Stripling, who is one of the best pitchers in the Big 12, he does not like the King Brothers, so that was a pretty good memory that day.
Speaker 1:Well, if you could change one thing in your baseball career and go back and just change it, what would that one thing be?
Speaker 2:Probably listening to my dad and being a switch hitting catcher instead of not wanting to be a catcher. So I was stubborn. I don't know if it's just because I wanted to do something different than what my dad did or what my problem was, but I had all the physical gifts and size and build to be phenomenal catcher and I was bullheaded and wanted to be a fielder. Probably hindsight especially after seeing how it goes with catchers at minor league games that probably would have been my ticket to making it to the major leagues over being an infielder. Yes.
Speaker 1:Well, to finish up, what is your funniest memory from either high school, college or professional baseball. I guess channel your inner hilly.
Speaker 2:Because this is a family program that's probably knocking off the top 25. So funniest I can't think of one like off the top of my head. But in minor league baseball you do something that's called kangaroo court, which is throughout like the month. Everybody there's like a shoebox in the clubhouse, right, anybody does anything stupid, whether it's during a game, you know, at a bar, after a game, in the hotel, on the bus, whatever. You write it on a piece of paper and you put a fine amount in. The max fine was like five or 10 bucks, right, like we're making $1,000 a month, like you can't find us that much. So you would put the fine in the box and then once a month we would have kangaroo court in the clubhouse with all the coaching staff, all the training staff, right, all the players, and these fines would be read in front of everybody. And those I for sure have never laughed as hard as laughing in those kangaroo court settings. Because you, you just find out about so much funny stuff that people did that like you had no idea funny, stupid, you know, dumb stuff that people had done, and just to see everybody's reaction when those would be read, oh my God, it was just amazing, so I'd probably have to say that I love it I.
Speaker 1:you know I I can't say good enough good things about you. I've known you for quite some time and you know I appreciate you reaching out and wanting to be on the podcast. And you know you, you were able to show me at a tough time in your life as a senior how to handle adversity. And you know you, you both you and your brother were some some of the players that I'll always remember from my experience as being a high school baseball coach. And you know I, like I always tell people, you know I, I really do appreciate you taking the time to, to take time out of your work day to be on the athlete one podcast, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I, I can you're on the success of this? I mean I, when I started looking through the lit, the, the episodes, and you know, obviously, listen to the one with Huey and you know Saunders and a couple others. Like I said, I mean I think it's important that people that have had these unique experiences you know find a way to to give back, and I guess I mean that would be my, you know, final message for anybody who hears this is like, if you have, it doesn't even have to be you know sports or baseball. I mean, if you've lived some unique experience, I mean the the chances are that you had people that helped you and that you know we're willing to give up their time to contribute to you being able to have that unique experience. Mine just happened to be you know baseball and, ultimately, professional baseball you know. So. So find, find the ways within your crazy life Like we said, everybody's got stuff going on right To get that knowledge out of your head. Right, because, like it really can make a huge difference. Right, and even if it's just in one person's journey or story, you know that matters. Right, because you never know what they're going to do with, with what you pass along. So, yeah, I appreciate you giving me this platform and and allowed me to come on.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, once again, it's Jason King, former Detroit Tiger, Kansas State Wildcats. If you enjoyed today's show, don't forget to hit the subscribe button, right the show and leave us a review. It helps us to grow the show. Also, don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at athlete. One podcast and a special thanks to our sponsor, the netting professionals, improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. As always, thanks for listening and take care.
