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On ClubHouseGAS.com , former NL MVP, Jeff Bagwell talks about his youth sports experience.

Transcript

Casey Bass: Today on Clubhouse Gas with a very special treat joined by none other than Jeff Bagwell. Jeff, thank you so much for joining us. Jeff Bagwell: Good to be here. Casey Bass: Well it’s a little hard to talk about your professional credentials. Everybody knows that. But we’re talking about your youthly credentials. Talk about what it was like growing up playing new sports, was it just baseball? Jeff Bagwell: No. I was like everybody in the east coast. I played baseball when I could in the spring. Fall, I played soccer and then I play basketball on winter. But I had a very interesting story growing up we didn’t have football which is weird nowadays. I didn’t have all those specialty sports there are now. So those are the three sports that I had a chance to play. But I went through a whole different area where I was like really, really good and then I stunk for about three or four years that I couldn’t throw the ball across the infield because they’ve got to the bigger diamonds; and then I was okay after that and eventually got to the big leagues. Casey Bass: So you had a little league career and then what from middle school? Jeff Bagwell: I think once they pushed me up a little higher or the bigger diamond I kind of struggled a bit and I think my parents were a little bit worried about me that my career might have been over by that. Casey Bass: So growing up in Connecticut no football. Jeff Bagwell: No. Casey Bass: And played the three sports we talked about, when did you decide that baseball was the sport for you? Jeff Bagwell: Basically college. You know, I played soccer and baseball in high school. I was probably a better soccer player than I was in baseball player. I was a good baseball player but for some reason whenever I pitched I couldn’t get any hits, but I played short stuff I could hit. So I don’t know it wasn’t working out really well. So people ask me all the time was I dragged into this. I say no and I missed the army. There is no way I was going drafted. But I was very fortunate to get a chance to play for one school and that was University of Hartford and they mentioned something about doing dual scholarship between soccer and baseball. But as my coach said he’s not going to allow me to do that. Casey Bass: I thought you're going to say dual scholarship between Hartford and Yale. Jeff Bagwell: No. I drove by Yale once, but I was not allowed to go there. Casey Bass: They wouldn’t even let you on campus. Jeff Bagwell: No. Nobody let me in. I would be smart enough to get through the gate. Casey Bass: You talked about playing multiple sports and even in college or up to college not deciding which one to play, as we travel around the country we see all the time dads and moms pushing their kids to play one sport even at a young age, what’s your opinion on that? Jeff Bagwell: To be honest with you, I don’t think its right for a couple of reasons. If you're a baseball player – these kids – I'm down on Texas these kids play up to 100 games a year. Well their bodies haven’t finished growing yet, so if you're pitching I don’t know how many innings they let them pitch but I mean that’s a lot of torque on your shoulder and on your elbow. I went to James Andrew, the famous surgeon and he was saying, “Jeff, I used to see 23 or 24-year-old pitchers and I'm seeing 12 and 13-year-old kids now.” I think the kids play too much. I think they have a chance to get hurt and more importantly I have a chance to get burned out. They play, they play, they play and that’s their whole focus on life is to go and select team and go here and here because really more than anything else it’s the parents. The parents think that they’ve got the next Tony Greene or the next Albert Pujols and they want to push him to be that. I just think you need to let it be a natural progression. Let the kid enjoy himself and he might find something else that he might like. Casey Bass: How did soccer—did soccer add at all to your ability to play baseball? Did you gain anything from playing soccer? Jeff Bagwell: Well probably. You know with my agility with my feet, you know, obviously when you're playing a position you need agility to go left, right, back and forward. So I think that that could probably benefit me in that sense. And it’s just like basketball with your foot work and your hand and eye with shooting and all that; I think all those can help in a way. Casey Bass: I think we’re going to do a Clubhouse Gas quiz and maybe before we show this episode -- the day before we’re going to put a quiz up. What was the second sport that Jeff Bagwell played in high school -- football, basketball or soccer? Jeff Bagwell: There you go. Casey Bass: I guarantee you soccer comes in last. Jeff Bagwell: I know. Casey Bass: I guarantee you football is going to win. Jeff Bagwell: Yeah I know. It really wasn’t a fashionable thing to be soccer player back then either, but it was our way of good time. Casey Bass: If you enjoyed soccer so much you lived in Houston for so long playing for the Astros, there is a large Hispanic population I bet you saw a lot good of soccer. Jeff Bagwell: Oh yeah. Now they have their team down there that I think won a championship a couple times there. So there is a huge push for soccer down there. I think they're going to get their own stadium now too. So it’s exciting for the people of Houston. Casey Bass: You’ve got two young girls, how are you going to use everything you’ve learned from sports experience from high school to college and then playing for the pros and then the stuff that you see of all these others kids and talking to people like James Andrews, how is that going to shape the way you raise your girls? Jeff Bagwell: Well, my career has already helped me with my daughter. First time, she’s a lot like me. She’s kind of shy and when something doesn’t workout right away she wants to kind of quit and go away, but I won’t let her do that. So she made an out one day in softball and she started to cry a little bit. So I said, Honey daddy made a lot of outs it’s not a big deal its part of the game. “No, no. I made an out.” And so I’ll tell you what let’s go back home. So the game ended she did well, we went back home and we get on the computer. I pulled out my stats and I said look at this. I've got 2000 some hits and I have 10,000 something at bats. I made a lot of outs. So little things like that, and that’s what I do with my kids. I'm trying to tell some of the things that I went through that its okay to strike out, it’s okay to miss a free throw or things like that and that are part of life. My important thing with them is if you sign up to play basketball, if you sign up to play soccer, if you sign up to play t-ball you're not quitting. Don’t quit. I'll never be mad at you for anything except don’t quit. Casey Bass: What growing up playing ball – what’s your fondest memory as you look back on your sports and training? Jeff Bagwell: Probably the time I spent with my father. No matter – whatever happened my dad was there after work to throw me back in practice. And the time that I've got a chance to spend with him with that relationship went all the way up to the big leagues and I remember spending an entire afternoon at Dodgers Stadium sitting in the seats with him just him and I talking. Those are the memories that I take. Casey Bass: What is for you – we hear those stories and all the professional athletes I've talked to and it makes you realize how much baseball is a game of Buddies – how much it is a game of fathers and sons. And I told you the other day I was watching Baseball Network and they were doing a special and a large portion of that was he wanted to make sure that you were on the field. And then he talks in the episode how important it was – it was his night. He felt like it was incomplete unless you were there with him. Talk about that night and what it meant it to you and Buddies and baseball. Jeff Bagwell: Well that’s what baseball has brought for me or has done for me. It has brought me relationships. That’s what I take away from the game. Stats and numbers that’s all great, but memories and friendships and relationships that you’ve had with all different types of people that’s what I take from the game and that’s what I really, really enjoy. Moises is a Dominican player, he is the godfather of two of my children. It’s just things like that that you have—sports in general brings that you can go and start a company with three buddies from college. I can pick up a phone and call a friend of mine in Dominican Republic. I can go to California and see Casey Kendall who is there 1991 during my first year. I mean those are the things that I really love and that I really cherish. Casey Bass: Well I really appreciate you joining us. Hopefully you’ll come back and maybe we’ll get into some specifics of how to have proper batting stats. Jeff Bagwell: You’ve got it. Casey Bass: Alright. Jeff Bagwell thanks so much. If you like our show you’ll love their product. That’s going to do it for us today. Thanks to Jeff Bagwell and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow for another great edition of Clubhouse Gas.