April 28, 2025 • 15 mins
Completing their series against the Royals down in Missouri over the weekend, the Astros fall short to Kansas City although, turning things around yesterday afternoon to avoid the sweep with a final score of 7-3. Following the series loss with the Royals taking 2 of the 3 games from the Astros, Steve joins and shares a few notable takeaways from the weekend along with a few key players and things to be mindful of as we roll on through the schedule with the Astros set to take on the Tigers here at home next.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Steve, I'll tell you what pitching on both sides. I
know that the Astros got to him yesterday. But man, live,
if I told you that the pitching was going to
do what they did over the weekend, you wouldn't have
said one and two correct, correct, No.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
But I think that the pitching for the Astros is
going to keep him in most games all year long.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
They've been that good. I mean, they're as good as anybody.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, Steve, I the one two guy, Steve, I'm trying
to go over my mind. You know, you think about
the one and two, especially lefty righty in a lineup
Fromber and Hunter Brown, I'm not sure in a rotation.
Put it this way, if they're not one or two,
they're in the team picture when it comes to the
best one two front line guys. When we see what
we did. Hunter Brown's been like that all year Fromber
(00:43):
a little up and down, but we know when this
stuff's good. I mean, we had John Smoltz on here
raving about him. He said, I love him, he said,
but I may even love Hunter Brown a little more.
They're at the top of the league when it comes
to one two punches in baseball.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I agree and you know, Hunter Brown, I'd be Pitcher
of the Month, agreed. His stats stuck up with anybody
in the league right now. And he's been doing this
for a while now, It's been since May first of
last year.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
He's got the best era in the American League.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
So it's not a flash in the pan, and we
can all watch.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
And just understand that the confidence is through the roof. Now.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
He's kind of a bully with his fastball and I
love it, you know. It reminds me of JV and
his Aday, just going at guys and just daring them
to try to make contact with either one of his fastballs,
so the two seamer or the four singer. But one
of the hardest throwers in baseball. You love, you love
everything about what he brings. And I say this all
the time fromber. If he's right, he can tell you
(01:40):
he's got he's got three pitches that he could tell
the hitter what's coming, and they still not make very
good contact at all.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
They might just hit a hit a groundball and.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Get you a double play, and he could tell you
what's coming because of the late turbulent action on all
of his pitches.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Steve last year at this very time Hunter Brown struggle
early and you'd come on here and we asked about it,
because there was that time we missed the start, and
there was there was even the talkles he gonna get
sent down to get right. And I remember you saying
on this and said, what is the mechanics? And you said,
it may be just as simple as taking the inner
part of the plate, challenging people inside. And it's almost like,
(02:19):
I'm not whether he listened to you. He should, I mean,
but it's almost like that that mandate to himself or
from somebody who was like, all right, I'm gonna do this,
and his whole game turned around. His whole game has
turned around since and now we got him as one
of the elite pitchers in baseball. Is it just as
simple as that Steve to turn it around?
Speaker 3 (02:38):
It is? It really is. I mean, there's a couple
of things.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I don't know if you remember this too, but Berlander said, hey, man,
go back to shug Land a couple of years ago,
find your best two games and let me look at
it and see if there's anything different.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
And he found something. Did I tell you this? No? Okay?
So he said, you used to he watched the film.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
He said, hey man, you used to kind of drift
toward the right handed batter, step toward him and then
cross fire. He said, all your pitches looked like they
were a little bit more lively back then. Why don't you,
Why don't you just kind of inch over just a
little bit to see what it feels like. And he did,
and he's kind of inched a couple more.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, maybe you did tell us this you're talking about
on the stride?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Got you? Okay?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, So he's throwing across his body now, so he's
not stepping straight toward home plate. He steps across his
body and it keeps him clothes longer, and it's filth.
It makes that two seamer right and a little tighter.
But everything else just explodes out of his hand. And
a lot of credit to him, you know. I read
an article not too long ago talking about his off
(03:44):
season program and how much more flexible he is. And
I ran into him during batting practice the other day
at Dyking Park and I said, hey man, you can
do a back back then, and he.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Goes, you want to see it?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I said, yeah, so behind the dugout, you know, we're
in this little tunnel area.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
He gets on the back and just forms a perfect
backward c.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
And he's flexible, like you cannot pin him. If you're
trying to wrestle him and trying to pin him, he's
going to get off of his shoulders because he can bend.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Out of that position. So he's done.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
A lot of work, you know, and he's flexible. He
bounces back start to start. I'm not sure if I've
seen anybody this year being able to bounce back and
have his A plus stuff every odding. That's really hard
to do, by the way, and he's a different guy.
I hope he's a Picture of the Month. He deserves it,
(04:33):
and he's starting to get a lot of note writ
and you hear other managers talk about Hunter Brown, and
most of these guys are saying, that's the best arm
we've seen this year.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, he's pretty filthy Steven, It's obvious. And now he's
into that mode where the confidence I feel like he
goes out there is thinking, I'm giving you a six
no matter what, You're not gonna be able to touch me. Yeah,
Steve at the middle and with him last year, you know,
Christian Walker, we see this all the time. People go
through struggles, new team, it happens, and then they alive
whatever it is for the reasons, Well the chicken or
the egg thing. Does physical affect mental more or does
(05:06):
a mental lapse? I almost feel like the mental lasts longer,
but that the physical is why the mental gets adjusted.
You get what I was like a Christian Walker's case.
You grind more on the middle than the physical or
is it opposite, Steve? What comes first?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, I kind of go back to the part like
which comes first?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Success or confidence? Right?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
And for me, and I'm sure you've dealt with this
throughout your career, I think you have to have confidence
in what you do to prepare.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And believe in it before you even present it, right, Steve.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Right, if you practice right and you believe in your
preparation and it's worked in the past, just stick with it,
that's what's going to win out over the long term.
You know things are going to creep in your mind
when you're at the plate or if you're pitching or whatever.
But you got to learn there's little ways. This is
(06:02):
what happened in my career. I think it was probably
my fifteenth or sixteenth year as a professional baseball player,
And I remember pitching at Fenway, and I remember just
about to release the ball, and I remember something popping
into my head, and it was I wonder if my
family made it to the ballpark yet.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I threw the.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Ball, and I remember afterwards just going how in the
world did that pop in my head? With thirty two
thousand people screaming? Right, So, all it is is an
illustration of how crazy and weird your mind is and
what can happen if you're not locked in and taking
care of that. And this is what I learned. Maddox
(06:40):
did it, A lot of great players did it. They
had a pre pitch routine. But part of the pre
pitch routine involved repeating something which is a mantra, which
is one of two three words. For me, it was
I developed hit the glove. So once I got my sign,
I took a big, deep breath. I would come set.
Then I would repeat.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Hit the glove, Hippi glove, Hippi glove, Hip the glove.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
By the time I released the ball, nothing else could
pop in my mind, right, Not the not the base runner,
not the hitter. What was simply my tax was to
hit the glove. And that's all that was going to
pop into my mind at that point. It changed a
lot of things for me.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, and Steve, that'll sustain when you have that mentality
you're talking about and I'm you're exactly what I applied
to football. Yes, that because you know, you throw a
game where you'd like to throw a couple picks right,
and nothing's different your mechanics. You just maybe made a
bad read, made it, and then all of a sudden
you'll get into your own head on the sideline saying,
well that's two. Then you start to grip the ball,
and then maybe was it a mechanical thing and you
(07:38):
start to change stuff that you're chasing a ghost and
borrowing trouble that doesn't exist when really, in your mind say,
that's not who I am. It's a couple of bad pitches.
These guys are getting paid too. Let me go back
to like my golf pre shot routine. Here's how I
line it up, and if somebody coughs in the background,
I back away and get up and go through my
routine again. And the part of it of training the
mind mentally to do it isn't that the See I've
(08:00):
always believed that that's harder to do than the physical side.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I do well.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
We always understood that neurologically that our body didn't perform
at its best unless it was very relaxed, and if
we had some kind of doubt in our mind that
it just did something, we tightened up.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
What it's really hard to explain.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
But we we would tighten up, we would pucker whatever
it was.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
We just weren't free and easy like like we were
when we're at our.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Best and we're not thinking about anything. You know, people
talk about being in the zone. Michael Jordan wasn't thinking
about keeping his elbow in when he was when he
was shooting the basketball, right, You don't think about mechanics,
You don't think about what might happen or anything like that.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
You just it's very simple.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
You see it and hit it, or if you're pitching,
you see the glove and you hit it.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
It's as simple as that.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
You've done all the prep work beforehand and all the
mechanics stuff beforehand.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
To go out there and just let your mind breathe.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
And be all Right's Steve, You and I are Steve
Sparks for his weekly visit here at eight o'clock on Monday,
Astro's broadcaster Steve and I are sitting in a room
and we're watching the tape you know of the team
when you talk about Verlinder, Hunter Brown. We're watching it
and I say, Okay, Steve, this many games, you know
into the season, let's watch this tape I'm talking about
at the plate. What will we find watching that tape
(09:22):
from the just the offense in general. If I'm sitting
there and you're we're walking through this and you're walking
me through it, what are you going to tell me
about the offense in general right now?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Good and bad?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I think some guys try to get outside of themselves
and try to hit home runs and try to pull
the ball when they don't need to yin or obviously
hits a ball like a left handed poll hitter the
other way.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And we saw that at Kaufman Stadium yesterday, which is
very hard to go the other way. It's a tough ballpark.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So he could probably just take something from that, just
like okay, and it's pre previous to it.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
That's kind of led to that.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
We were even talking like Man his last two swings
before that home run, he looked like himself. You know,
he stayed closed and drove the ball to center field.
Flew out twice, but he didn't let it discourage him
from that approach and he was rewarded for that next
that last at bat. So you're hoping he can build
off that. Jordan's double on homer. We're both around one
(10:20):
hundred and ten miles per hour yesterday, and that gives
you hope.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
That he can get it going.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Remember last May he had he had a tough stretch
last May where he had a couple of homers and
just four RBI. So he'll go to little stretches like
that and then he'll carry you for three months. So
you're just not worried about a few of these guys.
And I think with Kristin Walker too. I mean, he's
averaged thirty homers and right around ninety ninety five RBIs
the last three years. I trust that when I watched
(10:47):
him swing in batting practice, there's there's no lack of
bat speed or the swing looks good to me. I
just think it's going to take a little time for
him just to get confident and comfortable in what he's
doing with a new team for the do you think.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Do you think he feels any pressure Steve with that,
I know, it seems like an elementary question. Yeah, that
he's new here and they've had struggles at this position,
and he knew coming in that since yu LEI, we
haven't had solidified first basement. You recognize that as a player,
don't you, Steve, Yes, you do.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You know, it's just probably swinging at pitches he typically
does not, you know, and he's getting pitched very tough.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Sometimes you go through stretches where guys make mistakes and
sometimes they don't.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
And right now, I mean they're living on the edges
of the time. I watch it pretty closely.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
And the pitches that when he last last homestand you
could start to see that he was starting to get
it going a little bit. Yep, then he got painted.
He got painted in Kansas City Man Lugo and Waka.
Those are veteran pitchers that just absolutely painted him. And
h you know, that happens sometimes and it might put
you in another slump for a little bit.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
So those guys were pretty good on Friday and Saturday.
I mean they were pretty good over the weekend, weren't
they see, Yeah, they.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Really were, you know. And there's one there's one more
thing I want to talk about. It's Jeremy Payne and
you go to a baseball game. I'm telling you, Sean,
if you if you take your kid to a game,
you want them to watch Jeremy Payne.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
And it reminds me of what.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
A reporter asked George Brett, former Kansas City Royal Hall
of Famer, was asked about a month before he retired,
and a writer said, hey, man, have you thought about
your last at bat? You know, in this great career,
do you want to hit a home run? If you
if you started to think about, how about a double?
Since you hit all those doubles. He goes, no, that's
a good question, and I have thought about it. But no,
(12:37):
I don't want to hit a homer and I don't
want to hit a double. That this is what I
want to do. So I want to hit a two
hopper to the second baseman. I want to run as
fast as I can to first base to show every
guy on my team how to play this game.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
That's that's the legacy.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
I want from first to last at bat. That was
George Brett.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
That's exactly what he did to he had a two
hipper or Ranos fast as he could, and that is
exactly yeah, right, this is what Payna does every His dad,
who had a seven year major league career, taught him
the right way.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Man. This guy plays hard. And if I was if
I was a dad and I took a kid to
the game, I'd have him watched Jeremy every every ab.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Kind of like we did Pete Rose growing up. Right, Steve,
I watched the way this guy regular that that that's
how you're supposed.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
To play it, right, Yeah, that's exactly right, Steve.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I mean, and he's going to play for a long
time and he's gonna he's gonna avoid extended slumps because
he already has five nfield hits this year, led the league.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
With thirty one of them last year. It's because of
that consistent hustle.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I love it. I love the way he plays. I'll
finish with this, Steve. Is are they closer?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Steve?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
You mentioned you felt Walker's getting closer as an overall
hole is there is there is there a major gap
between there close and they're not. I mean has that
gap distant or have they closed the gap and they're Oh,
they're really close to busting out on a ten twelve
to fifteen game type streak with the offensive guys.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
It's hard for me to predict. To be honest with you,
I would love.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
To seeing I guess is what I'm saying. Maybe that's
the way I should ask it. Are you seeing hints
that say recovery and get back to driving runs and
driving the baseball.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
It was just one day, but very encouraged with what
you saw from both Yiner and Jordan, So you get
encouraged about that you give out two by an off day.
He usually comes back with a vengeance after those. So
playing a very tough team in Detroit. They're eighteen and
ten with the best record in the league, so you
(14:34):
got to get after it. Jack Flahert, He's been good,
but so is Blanco. Blanco pitched great his last game
against Toronto, so it's going to be a good series.
I think the Ashles fans is be well served to
get out to the Dyking and watch these games because
I think it's two of the best teams in the
American League squaring off.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Steve great stuff, and I guarantee you you'll never hear
another story about a player maybe until payin your retires.
That's lasted bat. He wanted to hit a two hop
for a second base and run hard and hopefully beat
it out. That's the first and last time we may
hear that story. Most of us, you know, want to
hit an upper tanker and then walk off on a
walk off and say I'm done right. Yeah, but I
(15:12):
don't even remember if my last pass was a completion
or a pick or a touchdown. But I know this.
George Brett did exactly what he wanted to do, and
that's pretty cool. Great story, great stuff, Steve, and we'll
look forward to not only this home standing here in
your calls, but also next week on Monday, and hopefully
a lot more offense next time we talk. We appreciate you, brother.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Thank you you guys, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
That's right, great, Steve Sparks, no shock, but that's why
Brett played its way. Pain you please. I didn't realize
he led the league with those thirty plus infield hits.
That's impressive, man,
Steve, I'll tell you what pitching on both sides. I
know that the Astros got to him yesterday. But man, live,
if I told you that the pitching was going to
do what they did over the weekend, you wouldn't have
said one and two correct, correct, No.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
But I think that the pitching for the Astros is
going to keep him in most games all year long.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
They've been that good. I mean, they're as good as anybody.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, Steve, I the one two guy, Steve, I'm trying
to go over my mind. You know, you think about
the one and two, especially lefty righty in a lineup
Fromber and Hunter Brown, I'm not sure in a rotation.
Put it this way, if they're not one or two,
they're in the team picture when it comes to the
best one two front line guys. When we see what
we did. Hunter Brown's been like that all year Fromber
(00:43):
a little up and down, but we know when this
stuff's good. I mean, we had John Smoltz on here
raving about him. He said, I love him, he said,
but I may even love Hunter Brown a little more.
They're at the top of the league when it comes
to one two punches in baseball.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I agree and you know, Hunter Brown, I'd be Pitcher
of the Month, agreed. His stats stuck up with anybody
in the league right now. And he's been doing this
for a while now, It's been since May first of
last year.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
He's got the best era in the American League.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
So it's not a flash in the pan, and we
can all watch.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
And just understand that the confidence is through the roof. Now.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
He's kind of a bully with his fastball and I
love it, you know. It reminds me of JV and
his Aday, just going at guys and just daring them
to try to make contact with either one of his fastballs,
so the two seamer or the four singer. But one
of the hardest throwers in baseball. You love, you love
everything about what he brings. And I say this all
the time fromber. If he's right, he can tell you
(01:40):
he's got he's got three pitches that he could tell
the hitter what's coming, and they still not make very
good contact at all.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
They might just hit a hit a groundball and.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Get you a double play, and he could tell you
what's coming because of the late turbulent action on all
of his pitches.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Steve last year at this very time Hunter Brown struggle
early and you'd come on here and we asked about it,
because there was that time we missed the start, and
there was there was even the talkles he gonna get
sent down to get right. And I remember you saying
on this and said, what is the mechanics? And you said,
it may be just as simple as taking the inner
part of the plate, challenging people inside. And it's almost like,
(02:19):
I'm not whether he listened to you. He should, I mean,
but it's almost like that that mandate to himself or
from somebody who was like, all right, I'm gonna do this,
and his whole game turned around. His whole game has
turned around since and now we got him as one
of the elite pitchers in baseball. Is it just as
simple as that Steve to turn it around?
Speaker 3 (02:38):
It is? It really is. I mean, there's a couple
of things.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I don't know if you remember this too, but Berlander said, hey, man,
go back to shug Land a couple of years ago,
find your best two games and let me look at
it and see if there's anything different.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
And he found something. Did I tell you this? No? Okay?
So he said, you used to he watched the film.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
He said, hey man, you used to kind of drift
toward the right handed batter, step toward him and then
cross fire. He said, all your pitches looked like they
were a little bit more lively back then. Why don't you,
Why don't you just kind of inch over just a
little bit to see what it feels like. And he did,
and he's kind of inched a couple more.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, maybe you did tell us this you're talking about
on the stride?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Got you? Okay?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, So he's throwing across his body now, so he's
not stepping straight toward home plate. He steps across his
body and it keeps him clothes longer, and it's filth.
It makes that two seamer right and a little tighter.
But everything else just explodes out of his hand. And
a lot of credit to him, you know. I read
an article not too long ago talking about his off
(03:44):
season program and how much more flexible he is. And
I ran into him during batting practice the other day
at Dyking Park and I said, hey man, you can
do a back back then, and he.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Goes, you want to see it?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I said, yeah, so behind the dugout, you know, we're
in this little tunnel area.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
He gets on the back and just forms a perfect
backward c.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
And he's flexible, like you cannot pin him. If you're
trying to wrestle him and trying to pin him, he's
going to get off of his shoulders because he can bend.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Out of that position. So he's done.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
A lot of work, you know, and he's flexible. He
bounces back start to start. I'm not sure if I've
seen anybody this year being able to bounce back and
have his A plus stuff every odding. That's really hard
to do, by the way, and he's a different guy.
I hope he's a Picture of the Month. He deserves it,
(04:33):
and he's starting to get a lot of note writ
and you hear other managers talk about Hunter Brown, and
most of these guys are saying, that's the best arm
we've seen this year.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, he's pretty filthy Steven, It's obvious. And now he's
into that mode where the confidence I feel like he
goes out there is thinking, I'm giving you a six
no matter what, You're not gonna be able to touch me. Yeah,
Steve at the middle and with him last year, you know,
Christian Walker, we see this all the time. People go
through struggles, new team, it happens, and then they alive
whatever it is for the reasons, Well the chicken or
the egg thing. Does physical affect mental more or does
(05:06):
a mental lapse? I almost feel like the mental lasts longer,
but that the physical is why the mental gets adjusted.
You get what I was like a Christian Walker's case.
You grind more on the middle than the physical or
is it opposite, Steve? What comes first?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, I kind of go back to the part like
which comes first?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Success or confidence? Right?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
And for me, and I'm sure you've dealt with this
throughout your career, I think you have to have confidence
in what you do to prepare.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And believe in it before you even present it, right, Steve.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Right, if you practice right and you believe in your
preparation and it's worked in the past, just stick with it,
that's what's going to win out over the long term.
You know things are going to creep in your mind
when you're at the plate or if you're pitching or whatever.
But you got to learn there's little ways. This is
(06:02):
what happened in my career. I think it was probably
my fifteenth or sixteenth year as a professional baseball player,
And I remember pitching at Fenway, and I remember just
about to release the ball, and I remember something popping
into my head, and it was I wonder if my
family made it to the ballpark yet.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I threw the.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Ball, and I remember afterwards just going how in the
world did that pop in my head? With thirty two
thousand people screaming? Right, So, all it is is an
illustration of how crazy and weird your mind is and
what can happen if you're not locked in and taking
care of that. And this is what I learned. Maddox
(06:40):
did it, A lot of great players did it. They
had a pre pitch routine. But part of the pre
pitch routine involved repeating something which is a mantra, which
is one of two three words. For me, it was
I developed hit the glove. So once I got my sign,
I took a big, deep breath. I would come set.
Then I would repeat.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Hit the glove, Hippi glove, Hippi glove, Hip the glove.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
By the time I released the ball, nothing else could
pop in my mind, right, Not the not the base runner,
not the hitter. What was simply my tax was to
hit the glove. And that's all that was going to
pop into my mind at that point. It changed a
lot of things for me.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, and Steve, that'll sustain when you have that mentality
you're talking about and I'm you're exactly what I applied
to football. Yes, that because you know, you throw a
game where you'd like to throw a couple picks right,
and nothing's different your mechanics. You just maybe made a
bad read, made it, and then all of a sudden
you'll get into your own head on the sideline saying,
well that's two. Then you start to grip the ball,
and then maybe was it a mechanical thing and you
(07:38):
start to change stuff that you're chasing a ghost and
borrowing trouble that doesn't exist when really, in your mind say,
that's not who I am. It's a couple of bad pitches.
These guys are getting paid too. Let me go back
to like my golf pre shot routine. Here's how I
line it up, and if somebody coughs in the background,
I back away and get up and go through my
routine again. And the part of it of training the
mind mentally to do it isn't that the See I've
(08:00):
always believed that that's harder to do than the physical side.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I do well.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
We always understood that neurologically that our body didn't perform
at its best unless it was very relaxed, and if
we had some kind of doubt in our mind that
it just did something, we tightened up.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
What it's really hard to explain.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
But we we would tighten up, we would pucker whatever
it was.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
We just weren't free and easy like like we were
when we're at our.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Best and we're not thinking about anything. You know, people
talk about being in the zone. Michael Jordan wasn't thinking
about keeping his elbow in when he was when he
was shooting the basketball, right, You don't think about mechanics,
You don't think about what might happen or anything like that.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
You just it's very simple.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
You see it and hit it, or if you're pitching,
you see the glove and you hit it.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
It's as simple as that.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
You've done all the prep work beforehand and all the
mechanics stuff beforehand.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
To go out there and just let your mind breathe.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
And be all Right's Steve, You and I are Steve
Sparks for his weekly visit here at eight o'clock on Monday,
Astro's broadcaster Steve and I are sitting in a room
and we're watching the tape you know of the team
when you talk about Verlinder, Hunter Brown. We're watching it
and I say, Okay, Steve, this many games, you know
into the season, let's watch this tape I'm talking about
at the plate. What will we find watching that tape
(09:22):
from the just the offense in general. If I'm sitting
there and you're we're walking through this and you're walking
me through it, what are you going to tell me
about the offense in general right now?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Good and bad?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I think some guys try to get outside of themselves
and try to hit home runs and try to pull
the ball when they don't need to yin or obviously
hits a ball like a left handed poll hitter the
other way.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And we saw that at Kaufman Stadium yesterday, which is
very hard to go the other way. It's a tough ballpark.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So he could probably just take something from that, just
like okay, and it's pre previous to it.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
That's kind of led to that.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
We were even talking like Man his last two swings
before that home run, he looked like himself. You know,
he stayed closed and drove the ball to center field.
Flew out twice, but he didn't let it discourage him
from that approach and he was rewarded for that next
that last at bat. So you're hoping he can build
off that. Jordan's double on homer. We're both around one
(10:20):
hundred and ten miles per hour yesterday, and that gives
you hope.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
That he can get it going.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Remember last May he had he had a tough stretch
last May where he had a couple of homers and
just four RBI. So he'll go to little stretches like
that and then he'll carry you for three months. So
you're just not worried about a few of these guys.
And I think with Kristin Walker too. I mean, he's
averaged thirty homers and right around ninety ninety five RBIs
the last three years. I trust that when I watched
(10:47):
him swing in batting practice, there's there's no lack of
bat speed or the swing looks good to me. I
just think it's going to take a little time for
him just to get confident and comfortable in what he's
doing with a new team for the do you think.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Do you think he feels any pressure Steve with that,
I know, it seems like an elementary question. Yeah, that
he's new here and they've had struggles at this position,
and he knew coming in that since yu LEI, we
haven't had solidified first basement. You recognize that as a player,
don't you, Steve, Yes, you do.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You know, it's just probably swinging at pitches he typically
does not, you know, and he's getting pitched very tough.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Sometimes you go through stretches where guys make mistakes and
sometimes they don't.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
And right now, I mean they're living on the edges
of the time. I watch it pretty closely.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
And the pitches that when he last last homestand you
could start to see that he was starting to get
it going a little bit. Yep, then he got painted.
He got painted in Kansas City Man Lugo and Waka.
Those are veteran pitchers that just absolutely painted him. And
h you know, that happens sometimes and it might put
you in another slump for a little bit.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
So those guys were pretty good on Friday and Saturday.
I mean they were pretty good over the weekend, weren't
they see, Yeah, they.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Really were, you know. And there's one there's one more
thing I want to talk about. It's Jeremy Payne and
you go to a baseball game. I'm telling you, Sean,
if you if you take your kid to a game,
you want them to watch Jeremy Payne.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
And it reminds me of what.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
A reporter asked George Brett, former Kansas City Royal Hall
of Famer, was asked about a month before he retired,
and a writer said, hey, man, have you thought about
your last at bat? You know, in this great career,
do you want to hit a home run? If you
if you started to think about, how about a double?
Since you hit all those doubles. He goes, no, that's
a good question, and I have thought about it. But no,
(12:37):
I don't want to hit a homer and I don't
want to hit a double. That this is what I
want to do. So I want to hit a two
hopper to the second baseman. I want to run as
fast as I can to first base to show every
guy on my team how to play this game.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
That's that's the legacy.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
I want from first to last at bat. That was
George Brett.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
That's exactly what he did to he had a two
hipper or Ranos fast as he could, and that is
exactly yeah, right, this is what Payna does every His dad,
who had a seven year major league career, taught him
the right way.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Man. This guy plays hard. And if I was if
I was a dad and I took a kid to
the game, I'd have him watched Jeremy every every ab.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Kind of like we did Pete Rose growing up. Right, Steve,
I watched the way this guy regular that that that's
how you're supposed.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
To play it, right, Yeah, that's exactly right, Steve.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I mean, and he's going to play for a long
time and he's gonna he's gonna avoid extended slumps because
he already has five nfield hits this year, led the league.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
With thirty one of them last year. It's because of
that consistent hustle.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I love it. I love the way he plays. I'll
finish with this, Steve. Is are they closer?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Steve?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
You mentioned you felt Walker's getting closer as an overall
hole is there is there is there a major gap
between there close and they're not. I mean has that
gap distant or have they closed the gap and they're Oh,
they're really close to busting out on a ten twelve
to fifteen game type streak with the offensive guys.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
It's hard for me to predict. To be honest with you,
I would love.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
To seeing I guess is what I'm saying. Maybe that's
the way I should ask it. Are you seeing hints
that say recovery and get back to driving runs and
driving the baseball.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
It was just one day, but very encouraged with what
you saw from both Yiner and Jordan, So you get
encouraged about that you give out two by an off day.
He usually comes back with a vengeance after those. So
playing a very tough team in Detroit. They're eighteen and
ten with the best record in the league, so you
(14:34):
got to get after it. Jack Flahert, He's been good,
but so is Blanco. Blanco pitched great his last game
against Toronto, so it's going to be a good series.
I think the Ashles fans is be well served to
get out to the Dyking and watch these games because
I think it's two of the best teams in the
American League squaring off.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Steve great stuff, and I guarantee you you'll never hear
another story about a player maybe until payin your retires.
That's lasted bat. He wanted to hit a two hop
for a second base and run hard and hopefully beat
it out. That's the first and last time we may
hear that story. Most of us, you know, want to
hit an upper tanker and then walk off on a
walk off and say I'm done right. Yeah, but I
(15:12):
don't even remember if my last pass was a completion
or a pick or a touchdown. But I know this.
George Brett did exactly what he wanted to do, and
that's pretty cool. Great story, great stuff, Steve, and we'll
look forward to not only this home standing here in
your calls, but also next week on Monday, and hopefully
a lot more offense next time we talk. We appreciate you, brother.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Thank you you guys, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
That's right, great, Steve Sparks, no shock, but that's why
Brett played its way. Pain you please. I didn't realize
he led the league with those thirty plus infield hits.
That's impressive, man,
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