Summary

Baseball fans, you’re in for a treat as we dive deep into the art of clutch hitting in this episode. We’re joined by the legendary George Foster, renowned for his clutch performances, and we’ll be breaking down what it truly means to bring runners home under pressure. We’ll also share some of our favorite clutch hitters and reminisce about their unforgettable moments on the field. So, grab your favorite snack, kick back, and let’s chat about how to turn those high-pressure situations into sweet victories!

Podcast Partner Bios

Ethan Dungan - Owner of Glovehound Baseball Glove Repair Shop. Ethan played for several teams during his career including Midland and Fairfield High School. He now operates Glovehound from his shop in Fairfield, OH.

Rick Finley - Founder of MD&I Academy Baseball Training Facility in Fairfield, OH. Rick has successfully coached and trained hundreds of players at the Select, Travel, and College levels in both baseball and softball.

George Foster - Major League Player with the Giants, Reds, & Mets. NL MVP 1977, 5-Time All-Star, Silver Slugger and member of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame. Founder of George Foster Baseball where he offers private baseball instruction.

Timestamps:

1. 00:02 - Introduction to the Podcast
2. 00:52 - Clutch Hitters and Their Impact
3. 23:15 - The Importance of Mental Toughness in Sports
4. 56:06 - The Importance of Positive Reinforcement in Coaching
5. 01:30:59 - Clutch Situations and Mental Toughness

Key Takeaways:

1. Understanding the mental aspects of clutch hitting is crucial for young players to succeed.
2. To score runs, players need to be prepared and practice their skills consistently, not just during games.
3. The importance of individual practice cannot be overstated; it builds the confidence needed for clutch situations.
4. Players must take personal responsibility for their performance and continually seek to improve their skills.

Links:

1. glovehound.com
2. mdaiacademy.com
3. georgefosterbaseball.com
4. twocreativedigital.com

Teaser:

Next week we begin our Defense Directives series by discussing how to Get Out with Pitching. Don't miss it.

Companies mentioned:

1. Glovehound
2. MDI Baseball Academy
3. George Foster Baseball

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He's my son.

And like every baseball parent, my first priority was his development as a player.

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That's why I'm so thankful that we, we found MDNI Academy.

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Rick has trained baseball and softball players at the select, travel and even college levels.

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Career.

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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.