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For more information, please visit Bellco.org or visit Bellco.org or stop by any Bellco branch. Membership eligibility required equal housing opportunity, all-own subject to approval, insured by NCUA. Bellco, banking for everyone. Welcome, welcome to the Brett Boone podcast. Explore the mind of M.O.B. All-Star, Silver Slugger, and Gold Club winner, Brett Boone. As he sits down with his friends from the world of professional sports, now up to bat. Welcome to the Brett Boone podcast. I'm your host, Brett Boone, and today I'm getting to catch up with an old Reds team-mate of mine. He was a two-time All-Star in 2007. He was the NL comeback player of the year, and most importantly, he is my inside source on the world of wrestling, which I know nothing about. Demetri, thanks for coming on. All right, thank you there, Boone. How's everything going with you? Everything's good. How about you? You're looking a little gray. You got your full head of hair. You got the corn rose rocking. Hey, this ain't gray, man. We grew up in the chrome generation. This is chrome right here. Well, oh, I like it. Chrome. That's a good twist. We're talking off camera. I wanted to get caught up with you on this. Few years ago, I saw you at the Combine. They did one of the first ones down here in San Diego. It was a part of it. It was interesting to see different than when I was coming up, when you were coming up. They're headed towards more of the NFL way of doing things, where us, it was just kind of draft us, and we'll see what happens. My question to you is, I was a fifth round pick. You were the first overall pick in the first round. Your brother was a one-one Delman. When you were at the Combine recently, and I believe it was in Arizona? Yes. Arizona. With going through what you went through, what was your advice for those kids? Funny you say that, Brett, but let me correct you. I was the fourth pick overall in '91. I said fourth pick overall. You know what? I'm 50 now. I'm getting old. Anyway, I was in the cage area. The kids would come through the cage and get their swings in prior to going out on the field, and basically putting on the show for the rest of their lives, basically. They'll walk in. A lot of them have that little, "I'm cool, and who are you kind of deal?" I quickly correct her, "Hey, I'm over here to introduce yourself. My name is Dimitri Young. I'm a 13-year veteran. Former number one pick, fourth pick overall in the 1991 draft. My brother Delman Young was one-one in 2003, and my nephew, Quentin, he's going to be in a 2025 draft, possibly in the first round. The perfect game has him rated at number three right now for the 2025 class, so I know a lot of them knew who he was. I said, "My nephew, Quentin, he'll be here next year." Then all of a sudden, they went from that cocky, "I know it all." To all of a sudden, they were listening, and there was really nothing to tell these guys except for the fact that they are getting ready to audition for the rest of their lives. Everything that your parents sacrificed for you, all those baseball trips, the blood, sweat, and tears. I love this game. I'm quitting. I'm going to go do something else. All the masks, the moment that you go on the field, and you're facing the guy throwing batting practice to you, what are you going to do? A lot of them really started opening up because they really were nervous, and I felt like I eased their mind just a little bit due to the fact that when I was back at the hotel, a lot of the kids came up to me and thanked me for just giving them some sound advice before going out there. Isn't it amazing, Dee? We're getting to that age where in a lot of those kids, you're right. I remember going through it when I first retired, and I would be at some events with my father, and I grew up in his Bob Boone, and he won seven gold gloves, and I expect everybody to know him, and he was going into some camps, and they genuinely didn't know who Bob Boone was because they're so much younger than them. I was recently retired, so everybody knew who I was, but now we're getting to that age where you're right. At first glance, they're going, "Who are you?" Well, I'm Demetri Elgin, by the way, I could hit, but you're right. These kids have no clue, and probably that day after you introduce yourself, we're with them throughout the day. Half of them probably wouldn't Google your name like, "Oh, man, he could hit. He hit 300 or five times in the big leagues." But that's where we're at. Try to put yourself back, and that's an error. We didn't have combines back then, but try to put yourself back when you were 18 years old. Was there any advice now looking back you wish you would have gotten ready for that draft? You know what? Just enjoy the process, really. Be ready to play every single day, because in high school, you didn't play every day. You played three times a week, and I live out here in Southern California, where I play with George Genevieve on the weekend, played with Doug Deutsch during the week, and I was getting a lot of scout ball in a sense where I was getting a lot of that bats and stuff, and was used to playing every day, but there is a lot of kids that, you know, they only play a few times a week, or they'll go play in a weekend tournament and they're tasked. I was like, "Well, how do you think those guys that you see on TV feel? They're playing 162 games, and they're playing in different weather, different temperature, different times, and it's from the time they stepped foot on the field in spring training, where they had a great generic conversation with everybody, "Hey, how are you doing? How was your all season? The family good? The kids good?" All right, you do that a thousand times, and then you go into the spring training games where you'll play a few winnings. I think now that these guys are seeing like they're playing four games already, but we'll get ready during the course of spring training, and then we'll go up north because I was always in Florida, and you know, you're going to a cold climate place where now you have to make that adjustment to the cold versus you're in spring training. It's sunny outside, the body feels good, and now you go into a cold place, and you got to perform. You know, they don't care that, you know, you can't adjust to the outdoor climate. It's something that you have to do every single day, and I got a chance to explain that to a bunch of kids that I coached the last year. I was a manager at Mahonin Valley with a draft league last year, and for the first half, we had a bunch of the kids that were getting ready for the draft, and so the main thing was to just play them a full game unless they get thrown out or injured. So the scouts in the college were cruised, because there was a lot of kids going through the transfer portal, and then the second half came around, and these were guys that no longer had eligibility, and/or were guys that played indie ball, and that was treated as such, and a lot of these kids at the beginning, they were coming in, wanting early work every single day, and I'll start looking at my watch, which I don't wear, and just kind of tapping my wrist on. You're important between the start of the game, which was at seven, to the end of the game, because all that work that you're doing before, if you can't perform during the game, you're useless. So all that eyewash going in at two o'clock, one early hidden early pitching and early defense, I mean, there's a time and place for all of it, but not every single day, because all of a sudden, out of getting gassed, and it's like, "Dude, what happened, man? You keep coming, you were coming in early for the first two weeks, and now you're over your driving feet." Right, no, I mean, that's a great point too, and I think that's one of the huge differences from going to amateur baseball to professional baseball, because for you, and I'll get to this a little bit later, because you came out of the draft at a high school, and there's a vast difference, I think, between being 18 and being 21, as far as your maturity, your mental maturity, your physical maturity. And we're going to discuss that in a little bit, but I watched these kids, high school seasons like 30 games, a college season, which I went to college, and you know, you bump it up to our full season, it was like 65, 68 games, you play good, you get to go to a regional, and if you play really good, you get to go to the college world series. But that's nothing compared to when you get pro ball. It's all right, now it's 142 games, and you play every day. Now they've tweaked it a little bit, and they've got all this body and all this data on when you have a day off, and if you're sleeping good, I get it. But you got to be prepared to be a man, and now this is, this is, you either produce or that number one pick will give you, will take you so far, it'll give you so much rope. But in the end, if you don't produce, on to the next guy, my thing is, sometimes we get caught up, and we were fortunate enough to have careers in this game and make a living at it. But sometimes I forget, and I need to be reminded of how tough this game really is. I've coached, you know, my kids coming up in the travel ball, and I was a rover with it, with the Oakland A's one year, and I got to go see a ball and double it, triple away. I've got a son playing playing minor league baseball right now, and it kind of reminds me, you know, as a dad, or as a coach, you're sitting there, and you want to help these kids, and like, just do this, you know, and it's like, wait a minute, wait a minute, this game is really hard, and I've learned to have a different perspective, and it gives you, you know, it shakes you once in a while, go, wait a minute, when you're getting frustrated at your kids, or at players on your team, sometimes there's that moment where you go, wait a minute, all right, I was here, I remember this, this is really hard, and it gives you a little bit different of a perspective. I know you've done a lot of coaching in your day, high school, you just mentioned the league last year, you've been around kids a lot with your mentorship, talked to a little bit about how hard this game really is, and sometimes even the guys that did it for a living, we got to sit back and take that in. Well, funny you say that, because I do a hidden lessons out of my dad's backyard, I'm right across the street from him, and we built a nice batting cage and stuff, and I fight with the cage with him and my nephew, and then with my sister, Deanna, because she does a softball, but when I get the kids in, especially when I'll just break it down, a scenario that, all right, I'm getting a new student that comes in. So let's say he's 12, we'll say he's 12 years old, and the first thing I do is I build a relationship with the kid, one, by telling them who I am, and you know, what we're trying to accomplish. Number two, which I feel is very important, I talk to the parents about just being a parent, as opposed to trying to coach them, and be that helicopter dad that's hanging on the fence. Hey, come on, you need to swing at that, or you're dipping. It's like you have to calm down, because this is like a kid taking a test at school, and he's not going to. If the kid's doing his homework, is the house noisy or is it quiet? It's quiet. So the hardest thing to do in all sports is hit a baseball consistently. Yet you have somebody that's constantly in your ear yapping, you're doing this wrong, you're doing that wrong. So one, tell the parents that they're going to have to chill. I don't need a second coach, I don't need the kid looking back after every swing, do you prove it a swing dad? We don't need any of that. We need to build the kids confident up, because that's why he's here. You know, and number two, what I like to do with the kids is find out who you are as a hitter. A lot of these kids, they might be five, two, 77 pounds, 13 years old trying that launch angle swing that they see on TV. And it's like, no, you have to have a nice line drive approach. You want to get hits and games. And I said, guess what? If you was the swing on plane, and the ball happens to go into air, hey, good for you, but you need to work on getting hits and games. And then if you get a big chunk of your kid, you want to teach him how to be consistent, and you can give a little tweak there to catch the ball out in front. But a lot of it, for me, is building up the kids confidence, making them love the game, fall in love with the game, because what happens when you're going good, your confidence is built up, you perform well. But when you're sitting there thinking, trying to solve the Rubik's Cube in four seconds, your brain is scrambling, you're taking fast balls, you're swinging at balls in the dirt, you're not getting your breathing down properly. So those are the things that I like to work with with the hitters. And then I tell the parents what I want you to do is have conversations with the kids based on what we talked about here. And usually the kid will go out there and they'll do some good and then they'll go back to old habits, but that's what a progression part of it comes from. And the parents want that instant, you know, turn water in a wine kind of scenario versus this is work in progress step by step, let the kid get better. I agree with you, because I've dealt with a lot of parents. And when I was doing the travel ball team, you know, everybody wanted Little Johnny to play short hit third, fourth, and pitch. And if they weren't doing all, you know, they move on to the next team. And it's like, you got to realize at some point that they're kids. And that's exactly what they are. They're children. This game gets serious enough, as you know, soon enough, you get to be 16 17. The real players start to separate themselves. The guys that are going to have an opportunity to go on to college or potentially be a draft pick. But when we're young and we're 12 and we're 13, you got to have fun at this game. We can't make this a full time job for a 12 year old. You got to be able to be able to go out, get some hits, have fun, go get a slurpee, go get a soft pretzel, chase girls, do whatever you do, be a kid. Because let's just look at the numbers, Dimitri. There's not too many kids are going to make it at the highest level and make a living at this yet. I feel a lot of the parents have these expectations when for a kid that comes to the Dimitri Young School of Hitting, your job is to, I don't know what I'm getting. Let me see the skill set here. But I want to try to, you be the best you can be, whatever that skill set may be. Some are going to have a ton. Some are going to have a little bit, but I want to make you the best. But at the end of the day, this is about enjoying the game. Because if you don't enjoy the game, you're done. Unless you're like a freaky talent. You've got to be passionate about this game, but you got to enjoy it. And I just don't see a lot of kids enjoying it. I remember guys hanging on the fence, parents. And years later, I talked to those parents and they said, well, you know, maybe it wasn't the best way. I said, do you think? I said, these kids are going to resent it, Dimitri, I don't know about you. But I grew up in a baseball family. I got to play a long time in the big leagues. And some of my greatest, I got to go to All-Star Games and World Series. Some of my favorite memories to this day are Little League. Oh, remember in that championship game? Because I enjoyed it back then. It was like, just go play and enjoy yourself. Go get four hits and go have a pretzel instead of grinding on it. And I don't know if that happens so much in today's game. You know, I think a lot of guys, you know, you turn 20 and you're 25 years old and you're out there in the workforce. And a lot of guys don't have those memories. Like remember on our 12 year old team, when we beat them in the state finals, I don't think they have that because it's from the get go, people are taking it so serious. Like I'm 10 and I got to go to the big leagues tomorrow. When really, that's not, not only is it not reality, it's just, it's just, it's kind of nonsense. It's like, no, let's start at a base. Let's have a good time. Let's be, let's see if this is my sport. Let's see if I'm good enough to continue in this. But I think people nowadays, we just take things a little too serious. America's favorite place to watch football is stadium swim, located at circa resort and casino in Las Vegas. Catch all the biggest games and a viewing experience built for sports fans. Chill in one of their six pools on three different levels for a perfect view of their massive screen. 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Get a quote today. Ability to receive a quote depends on membership eligibility, membership eligibility and product restrictions apply in our subject to change. USA means United Services Automobile Association and its affiliates San Antonio, Texas. Oh man you know and I see that a lot with the kids because when they're that from 10 to about 13 that's the pizza and ice cream era you know after a game we're going to get pizza and ice cream. We're going to go get pizza. We're going to go hang out in the hotel room where you're supposed to have your clothes outside the hotel room by eight o'clock so it could be washed. You still have 10 kids that are in the room playing video games. Funky is God knows what enjoying baseball and then all of a sudden they get to high school and they get that all serious face like I got to make verses. I'm going to get a college scholarship. I need to commit somewhere and it's like oh no where is it? Why not this turn into a drama? First and foremost I mean this is supposed to be fun and I got to do that. I got to do that. Are you enjoying yourself and I mean to your point I have to tell them work you're working hard but you got to enjoy this and if you had a passion for it this is not a sacrifice like you're not sacrificing your time because this is something that you want to do and these are the necessary steps that you know you have to take. So if those kids are like that I'm fine with that. If they just want to get a little bit better I'm fine with that because I teach them that this is part of life skills that you're going through. You know when you go through the struggle how are we going to find a success and a lot of has to do with them actually putting in effort and that's a word that I try and get out of the kids because when I work with them in the cage I challenge them every single time. I don't do the underhand flip sound like chubs from from Happy Gilmore yeah good swing good. Now I'm laughing at them. I'm chirping like the other team with chirp. I'm trying to get in their head. What are you going to do during these circumstances? Are you going well you're talking crap it's like a giant should never acknowledge a pissing period and you're letting that little kid that's on the far side of the dugout whose uniform is going to be even cleaner after the game because he's not stepping on that field at all so if he wants to be a part of that team what is he going to do? He's going to chirp and try and get in your head and if you allow it he won. I think it's you know I don't know about you but you talk about life lessons through sport through baseball without a doubt and I learned a lot more life lessons D about getting my ass kicked about going 0 for 15 a hell of a lot more than I that I learned from when I was on a run and I was 10 for my last 15 with three homers you know those are great and that's what we strive for but a lot of the life lessons that I've learned in my life that humbled me were through getting my butt kicked and finding out after I get my butt kicked all right what do I need to do to get back on track what do I need to learn what adjustment do I have to make that's where the life lessons come in that you talked about and I think they're they're huge yeah they're very huge it's important too because those aren't the things that the kids are even thinking about when they come over when they when they first come over and now I have a reputation to get the kids minds right because them to me and we both have senior as a as a hidden coach and he he was a big believer that the the metals control your mechanics you know if your mind is thinking about I want to pull the ball you're gonna try and pull the ball first is when you stay through the middle and put my swing on it whatever happens gonna happen and so I queers the kids at the very begin when I first meet them I say what's the strongest organ slash you know muscle in your in your body and of course they go legs chest arms I'm like wrong wrong and wrong I said it's your brain and the reason why it's your brain because let's say your mom told you to clean up your room you're either gonna clean up your room or you're not you're gonna tell yourself you're gonna do one the other so if you go up there to the plate say I'm gonna get a hit chances are you're gonna put a better swing on as opposed to going up to the plate I don't want to strike out because now you put a negative thought in your head about as you feel the worst possible thing that you can do at the plate versus let me go get a hit let me drive this run in let me help my team win you know so I also focus on the positive mind frame and having that mindset of doing something positive to help the team want to talk a little bit about your journey and pre-draft versus being a big pick being the fourth overall pick post draft did you have from that draft a let's forward a year into your pro career did you have an oh crap moment like whoa I didn't know it was gonna be this tough or now it's about what I expected to be I know I had my moment you know my moment was deep when I came out of college as a junior and I thought I was gonna be a number one pick and I was in the fifth round and I went what do they do with taking me in that do they know who I am and my dad you know Dimitri for those of you watching the Brett Boom podcast Dimitri's uh knows my family very well spent a lot of time with with Aaron a lot of time with my father Bob I think you played for dad yes so you could see him telling me all right Brett you've done pouting at the draft you you ready to get your shit together go play because it doesn't matter you know we can rewind the draft if you want I'll call Major League Baseball because we draft see if we can get you picked out that was my old crap moment did you have and oh I didn't know I didn't expect this was gonna hit me that was in double A when I finally started to struggle but my first year in Springfield I hit 310 and did well and then my first half in 1993 I was in Saint Pete and that was high at the time for the Cardinals and I hit 315 got called up to double A and I was a little rock Arkansas and then I decided to drop the anchor there and spend two and a half years there as opposed to moving up in the organization and then I was like is this it for me but I also I didn't exactly take care of my body in a sense of being in shaping stuff and I kind of half asked it until I went to Mexico in 95 and I had one of those hey either shit or get off the pot moment and I just said eff it and start banging because I was hitting like 276 just very pedestrian nothing major and I got hurt and I wasn't with the team for eight days and after that happened I just I said I'm gonna get nasty and then my average one from 276 to one in the batting title at 356 and then went in the spring training with the Cardinals the best shape I was in at that at that point and um and went to triple A one the batting title there got caught up to the big leagues uh helped the Cardinals and the playoffs and we were one game away from the World Series and then my rookie year in 97 you know it was one of those things where you're playing for uh a manager who has experienced ball players and all they want to do is win this is not time for developing so my best moment was right when I got traded to the Reds and you were there there was a pokey reach there there was a Aaron Boone there there was a Danny Graves you know Sean Casey wound up coming over a day before opening day and and you know all this stuff that you work on along the way it plays an important part of building your character and that's what it did for me you know I look at I look at coming out of high school as a as a pick you got to be a special kid to be to be picked high in the draft as an 18 year old I you know I see enough players now I was a low pick out of high school I think I was a 29th rounder of course I thought I should have been the first pick um but but it ended up being the best thing for me going to college I think I needed that I think I think to be a first round pick and to be able to handle pro ball you've got to be mentally and physically mature beyond your years because you can't just if you got the physical but you're still a little kid uh that that pro as you know that pro ball will eat you alive being away from mom for the first time the house oh yeah you know just just expected to be a being adult and by the way you got to play and perform on a daily basis looking back on it I don't know how I would have done as an 18 year old coming out of coming out of high school to the draft but I know when it when I was 21 I had signed it as a junior I was ready to go I was a man and I was ready to go and I hit the ground running and I didn't have a real hiccup until I got to the big legs and then I got my first taste of humble pie my first six weeks hitting a hundred hundred ninety seven you know in the having a beer after the game talking to mike blowers going blow man the big leagues is hard and he just looked to me and he said no shit you know d i'm hitting 310 320 and triple a I think I'm gonna go to the big leagues and do the same thing and it's an adjustment working with these players these young kids today in 2024 do you think they're better prepared than we were coming out of the draft they definitely have more information they definitely have more ways of training but it all comes down to where they're getting that information from if they're getting it from one of these guys that are part of the money the money grab you know they're doing it for the wrong reason versus having somebody that's an actual coach which brings me to this point here those guys built ball players and they built young men and you know this may sound like a commercial but I joined Jeff Weaver, Jared Weaver, Royce Clayton and Mike Lieber though we have a place called clubhouse 805 and what that place is basically is a place for kids to come in and get some training from former major leaguers that been there and done that and and unfortunately there are a lot of places out here in Southern California where you have a bunch of false prophets that you know how many kids you got coming here you know it's like like that's a big deal it's like no it's not a big deal you know I have a small group because I'm not trying to I'm not trying to make this a lifestyle I want to I want to become a hidden coordinator that's my goal is to become a hidden coordinator and when these organizations in part of it for me is being down here the grassroots the high school level the junior high level hey I do elementary kids too and because I want to know how to teach everybody the game whether whether they're eight years old and picking their nose in the batter's box whether they're 12 years old and they hadn't grown into their big boy body yet or you have that late bloomer in high school that you see the dad he's six seven and the mom's it's five ten and meanwhile the kid at 16 years old is it's five four ninety five pounds right you know he's going to grow into something so for me teaching that kid I'm teaching him the basics of how to get hits in game have a line drive approach use the entire field because when you all of a sudden get those genetics from your parents and you have those skills now those little bloopers are gonna turn into doubles gonna turn into bombs but you're also going to have a high batting average which is going to make you attractive oh and also have multiple gloves especially nowadays I mean that's the thing that's that's amazing to me when I was coming up I was a second baseman from day one and that's all I ever played these kids today they do it differently it's like unless you're that can't miss shortstop prospect you're expected to play short second third guys are moving around all the time maybe if you're a real real athlete they can play short they'll they'll put you give you some time in center field so it's a different animal than it used to be in our day you you kind of we had our position and and that's where we played that's where we that's only place we played and the one the positive thing I'll say about that is I'm really seeing a in today's game man is it athletic you know I'm not saying it's a better game they necessarily play the game better but I'll tell you what they're athletic you see in those combines how athletic they are I was always very critical of the second basements around major league baseball and I always had a handful that I said well he's pretty good and he's pretty good but they were far in few between I look at these kids today the way they play the position man are they athletic man are they skilled doesn't always translate into a better baseball player but if you have that athleticism coupled with somebody that really knows how to play the game and has a high IQ baseball man that that's a tough weapon one more question about draft picks pros and cons of being as high a pick as you were now you you talked about kids earlier their chest pumped out thinking they're cool if you're the fourth pick and you walk into camp everybody knows who Dimitri oh that's the kid that got all the money he's a fourth pick so give me the pros and cons about being that fourth pick well the pros of being that pick one being a bonus baby and they're gonna let you bump your head for a couple of years and especially for me I was 17 when I got drafted and so they gave me time to develop and I was fortunate enough to be in the cardinal organization back in the day when they focused on the little things in baseball we had this young this old man who was absolutely awesome by the name of George Kistle if you played for the Cardinals or been around the Cardinals you would know that name he's been around forever and I was learning how to switch it because I switched it in high school going you know in my senior year and then I'm gonna make this part of my my me who I am and George Kistle had a whole bunch of us switch hitters in instructional league and after we finished we would go there and we'll do like switch hitting stuff we'll have weights and we're strengthening the other arm and stuff and then we're doing like steps but with our legs to you know get that feeling of everything that you have to do and then we're doing a lot of T-work one hand drills you're doing the bottom hand you're doing the top hand and it was a lot of work and we did it every single day and at the time I was like this is torture you know it's like I'm 17 we don't do stuff every day and now you're a professional it's like you got to do stuff every single day so part of all of that that we did helped develop me mentally as a ballplayer and then of course we had to do all the small stuff you know we worked on butts yeah my big butt was button and it taught us how to bite you know bun for a base hit you know push the ball down third baseline as a lefty you know kind of walk the dog on the right side get it past the picture on the right side you're doing the same thing and I felt that was very important because now I'm equipped to do everything even though I'm not called upon a bun often if I'm old for three in a game and I'm one of the players why waste a player to go up there when you can be used yourself to you know help the team win it's a team of bat right here point now you move the right of the second and third and whatever happens after that you just know that you did your part and moving the runner over out do they even do that anymore it's you know what it's the one thing it's amazing to me that they don't and I watch it at all levels I think to me and as I moved on throughout my big league career I started to learn this how important little stuff like that was and I don't care how big of a star you are and how many home runs you hit how many runs you drove in playing the game right and and I've talked about this at nauseam people are probably sick of me telling the story but there was a day in 2001 where I'm sitting there and that's the team we won 116 games that year in Seattle and I hit third on that team Edgar Martinez hit four and as everybody knows we we grew up watching Edgar how great of a hitter he was so the respect you know was was there from everybody Edgar as a hitter and I remember in the beginning of that season early in the season it was like an eight to two ball game we're winning uh we're winning eight to two it's kind of a blow outs late in the game there's a runner on second there's nobody out Edgar hits a one hop rocket to the second baseman and you could tell he was hitting the ball over there and he came in and I and I looked at him I said Eggers no outs it's eight to two I understand if it's a three to two game you're moving the runner sack fly I said but it's like you gave yourself up why'd you do that he goes he goes I didn't give myself up he goes I was trying to get a hit he goes but if I didn't get a hit I was gonna get the job done I said it's eight to two what does it matter and I'm a your veteran at this time and he said Boonie I'll tell you this he said the one thing I I've learned in all my years he said you play the game right he said and if you play the game right when it's all said and done your numbers will be where they need to be but you always play the game right and I started thinking about why that was important it's important because if Edgar Martinez does it then I'm sure as hell gonna do it and Johnny Ola rude's gonna do it and Demetri Young's gonna do it down to the 25th man now 26th man on that roster he's gonna be out now you're all pulling on the same end of the rope and man I'm gonna do it for him because he did it for me and in the process you become really good because you're constantly moving I remember that team D we if each row let off with a double the next guy would move him over and then there's a sack fly and it's one to nothing before the national anthem finished and that other team it starts to wear on them going man that's how they do it that's how they play the game you play the game right and if you play the game right it creates an unbelievable team chemistry and I think today's game they get away from that they look at the data points and the analytics that say well statistically it doesn't well throw your statistics out the window because it's more than that it becomes a mental thing it becomes a a way that you come together as a unit it's 162 games and a lot of the times it's just you and your teammates that's all you got in the foxhole and if you get those guys pulling on the same end of the rope that camaraderie you create the team aura you create it's unbelievable I haven't had it on many teams but that was the first time where I saw it so to your point do they move it no but that's why in my opinion it is so important it's not necessarily the bottom line or did you get them over did you get them in no that's not the point point is you did it right and everybody notices on that team which creates cohes Ryan Reynolds here from mid mobile with the price of just about everything going up during inflation we thought we'd bring our prices down so to help us we brought in a reverse auctioneer which is apparently a thing mid mobile unlimited premium wireless and then you get 30 30 30 30 but you get 20 20 20 20 20 then you get 15 15 15 just 15 bucks a month so give it a try at 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that you know it got to a point where where we had some number three hitters or um or uh player development guy uh mike jorgensen would come down and would have extensive meetings about the importance of you know what cardinal baseball means and you have a runner on second base and no outs you know by the time you're at bat's over you have to move that runner over and when I coached um the jv with uh Royce Clayton over at oaks christian and then later when I was the head coach at camera go high school those were the things that I taught and I think I got more upset when they did not move the runner over there anything else you know with the runner on third I know they their little booty holes pucker up and they can't get anything in it trying to move that runner but when they when they don't get them from second to third and give our team two opportunities it just it messes with the flow especially you you get a runner on and you're getting ready to rally and then that kills it right there so that's one thing that I will be teaching myself is that that first round execution is so important yeah and and we've gotten away from it a little bit but I think everything you know ebb and flows and I think one day it will get back to to play in the game right because the time will tell and and I think history tells the great teams do that the 2015 Kansas City Royals played that way and they weren't sexy and they didn't hit a ton of home runs but they played the game right and and I hate to use the term little ball I think it's a stupid term everybody uses oh little ball what does that mean I don't know it sounds good but uh yeah I I think there are just core things in this game that transcend errors and it doesn't matter what area you're in you play fundamentally good baseball you will come on top more times than not and strictly from the mental side for me I think it's it's such a mental edge you can have if you play the game right um 98 to 2001 you hit 300 every year over 300 um 2007 uh you'll come back player of the year tell me about the biggest challenges in your career and and how for a guy like you at the end you end up finding a way to come back and be in a comeback player of the year when when a lot of a lot of guys just go off into sunset and it's hey what happened to Demetri Young he just kind of went quietly all of a sudden you come back in your comeback player of the year uh talk about the challenges you went through and and how rewarding that was for you in 2007 well in order to become a comeback player of the year you had a think you got a stick a year before oh my god I mean I was I was awful on and off the field you know going through a nasty divorce I had a uh trumped up charge where where I was accused of doing something and then it wound up getting released by the tigers and that was when they went to their first World Series since um 1984 and I was there to help build the team but I wasn't there to do what I was born to do and then on top of all that I became a take-to diabetic and almost died and because I didn't my brother told me that you know you still have plenty to show and my dad was like you don't want your kids to see you as a quitter so that was when when I fought scratch clawed to get myself you know mentally ready to go out for that challenge because I was ready to quit and and I tell it but it was a blessing in the skies it was like Cincinnati East over there in DC you know jumbo's the GM your dad running the minor leagues yet Tim Foley had um Jose Cardenal over there and um these are people that I had and as coaches in my past and and then there were some of the players that came over and it was just like I and I was in a celebrated camp I didn't go right to a big league camp they had accelerated camp and you had some future big leaguers that were in the minor leagues at the time there and they could have given a rass ass on what happened in 2006 they were just like hey how was it facing Pedro Martinez or you know you played with Pudge Rodriguez how was that and and I start falling in love with the game again and then I had Lenny Harris if I was Rocky getting in the shape he was my Mickey you come up every day come on big D you know your big ass can't get up and hit that ball you gotta get in shape come on let's go and I was still trying to manage my medicine with the diabetes and that was real it was actually a lot of work but but I had people that were in my corner and it made the um the rise of the Phoenix as I call I have a tattoo on my back with a Phoenix rising but that was where it came from was and you had people that was pushing for you every day and then when I had the opportunity I had a good game against the Dodgers they're gonna hit Jason Schmidt out and then got another hit I was two for three had four BI and then next thing you know I come up to the big team at the end of spring training Travis Lee wound up retiring and I was opening day first baseman and we were supposed to lose 130 games I was on the team that lost 119 in 2003 with the Tigers but I but the team that I was with in '07 versus '03 the team in '03 there were a bunch of young kids where the team in Washington you know you had some guys that had a couple of few years and you had a young Ryan Zimmerman who led the way and he was just absolutely incredible yeah that's awesome I mean you talk about it it's it's sometimes getting your butt kicked those little life lessons that we learned through this game of baseball today biggest thing you miss about the game all right you know everybody's gonna say the checks but those were nice oh they were awesome now we gotta earn our money oh but in all honesty I missed being around the guys you know it was just part of my life going to spring training and getting ready for the season playing the entire season and and you're around these guys more in your family you're just like either like you or I'm gonna learn to like you it was one of those things with me I was always the guy like to bring people together and and and have a good time and so that's what I miss most about the game but I'm a coach now and part of being a coach is relaying that stuff to the kids that mentally need to hear some sound advice about how to handle certain things you know I was like oh I broke up with my my fiance and you know somebody passed or you know you're you know your best friend on the team gets released and I mean those are things that that play with you mentally and and that's what I like I like I like just being a that person that that sounding board and I mean because I want to be a teacher if I wasn't gonna be a baseball player and we know how thank was that job is yeah one of the most important jobs on this planet and so I really love giving that information to the younger people and that's what I did when I was in DC you know the younger guys I would spend time in the cage with them you know kind of see where their heads at as far as their hitting approach and things of that nature and and they and you know I actually gave them something that they can use and and they go and take it and they want to flourish and you know those are like the little ego things like yes you know I helped somebody but no actually all of you're supposed to pass this information on yeah that's what we do give it to them give it give it away give it away all right I mentioned that at the beginning of the thing that you're my wrestling guru now 1998 Demetri Young and myself were teammates and Cincinnati and and Demetri will tell you I didn't know what the hell was going on but there were two teams in that in that clubhouse and they were wrestling teams I knew nothing about it it was NW this and NW that and they would it's like they would have they would have games before our games but they were wrestling and we got Goldberg coming by he's hitting BP on the field and on I kind of learned a little bit about the wrestling game but tell me what was what was going on in 1998 that Cincinnati Reds clubhouse that I had no clue what was going on it found out that there were a whole bunch of wrestling fans there I'm a big wrestling fan and I found out Danny Gray's is a huge wrestling fan Sean Casey is a huge wrestling fan and so that was when we came up with the the two NWO shirts that the the white NWO was NWO Hollywood I think he was on that team you and Barry Larkin all y'all Reggie said y'all pretty guys all the old guys yeah and then the wolf pack which was in red with myself gravy your brother poky poky course case man and yeah we were where those shirts religiously and it was all about that NWO culture because they were absolutely the coolest thing that was on wrestling I mean it spilled in the mainstream at a point so it was like we were going to Milwaukee and and guys you know the green flies out right by the bus asking for autographs and you know they'll have NWO shirts on so I'm giving them the two the two sweet and yeah I mean that was pretty cool you know because you know from 98 on you know we went to many more wrestling events as and you know we did it as a team you know not necessarily all 25 but there'll be a good portion of us that would would go to an event and we would go represent and they'll give us nice seat and we'll meet everybody backstage and and hang out with some of those guys so it was it was one of those things that that brings a team together is just stuff silly stuff like that to most people was but it was real important to us baseball players because one we're superstitious and number two and we're gonna be somewhere we gotta make it fun yeah that's awesome D and you guys did that and you had a lot of success I left after that 98 season but you guys went on to to do a lot of great things and Cincinnati and and I know you got a lot of great memories I know to this day Aaron Boone still talks about it so very cool I appreciate you coming on the on the on the bread boom podcast today it was a lot of fun it's great catching up I wish you all the best D you look great you got the chrome beard I know the chrome beer yes yeah it it ain't great it's chrome but I appreciate coming on I wish you all the best and we'll catch up again soon for those of you watching the bread boom podcast now on the YouTube keep checking it out subscribe to that Odyssey app and check out this podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you download your podcast till next time keep it here All-Star closer Kenley Janssen we have a question what's the best podcast of all time this boy isn't boring baby I'm Rob Radford and every single day I'm sitting down with the biggest names to show you this great game is the greatest game it's my podcast it's my passion it's a cause I started more than two years ago and it's now the most prolific national daily baseball pod there is another fact so jump aboard the BIB Express follow and listen to baseball isn't boring presented by wasabi hot cloud storage 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