A lot of traveling, I was in Triple-A with the Red
Sox and we were playing in Rochester, New York. So we were
on a bus ride when I found out the news that I've been traded and then it was, you know,
Mayhem from there started packing like crazy and
then, you know, obviously making the trip out here from
from the Boston area little traffic, but it's been
great. I mean I'm super excited to be here so it's a pack of
your place in Worcester. Yeah. And how'd you get here? Well I flew out okay yeah dry
and drove traffic, hit in the morning,
headed into Boston Joe's. It was close to a two-hour drive
for me even and I'm going 30 40 miles or so long as it
should be. Yeah. Wait too long. But yeah got here and
everything's been running smoothly so I'm excited to be
here. What do you mean? Do you jump
into this situation with this team? This is incredible. This
is you know what I was feels like what I was
meant for. I love this kind of baseball I've always been always thought of myself as a
playoff baseball player. You know, guy that can bunt guys
over hit-and-run and we put a good
at-bat. So the fact that you know this
organization saw something to me playing AAA so you know it gives me confidence
and I'm just I'm going to do everything in my power to to
play at the best of my ability to help this club. You know, this final push. Anything about your role and
what do they say when? Yeah you know for the most part
is coming off the bench which is
perfectly fine with me. I'd have little speed. So if
they need, you know, some base Stealers or anything for Pinch
running or defensive replacement or a pinch. Hit off
of righty picture. You know, I'm ready for it all. So, I mean it's just a very cool
spot to be and I'm very excited to put on these colors for a living. I am in the
offseason, I do. Yes, you're younger than Tina's. Do you know
any, I'm in the middle. I'm in the middle. If I'm in the
minor leagues, I'm old in front of the big leagues, but yeah, you know, Miami as I love to explain it. It's
such a small, bubble, small circle of every baseball player knows each
other. You know, JD We've ran into each
other fair share of times and then obviously, Vientos
Katana and everyone that's down in Miami. We all run into each
other. So it's cool being in this game for
a long time. This is my tenth year. You run into familiar faces. So
even though it's a new team is still still feels like a bunch
of guys that I played with before and you can, you know, it's just fun
to be placed in a situation where there's a lot of energy
and a lot of excitement and just a lot of fun. How often do
people bring up to you your place in Olympic history, my
place in Olympic history, too much, but it's one of those stories I know
is very unique and I love to share it. I know the Olympic experience
for me was something special. And not many can have been able
to experience that. So the fact that I'm able to share that with
with other players that probably won't ever have that
opportunity to experience. It's it's enough, it's good, it's fun for
me. I mean yeah when it's Cutthroat Olympics is
Cutthroat it's you know you trained for this
one moment every four years which is crazy to think about. So yeah, this is very similar is
this something that I feel prepared to take on and take on
this role? But yeah, that Journey has elevated
my baseball career and to be honest, if it wasn't for my skating
journey, I probably would have never gotten this far. Why is that? Well because you
know, these athletes that you dedicate your entire life, your
entire day, to day your social life,
everything for this one opportunity and some don't ever
get that opportunity. So the fact that you have to lock
it in for this one weekend to be able to go and represent
the country to then potentially win a medal. You know, you do
get put into these high intensity situations, high high leverage situation. So You know, being able to
transition that over to the
baseball has has really propelled me and,
and in gaining ground and all the times that I've lost in
a mindset way. Yes, yes, absolutely. Yeah, my
says, incredible, I mean Olympic athletes deal with so
much behind closed doors, just because every four years,
you get that that platform. You're on top of the world.
You're in front of all the attention, all the cameras, all the sponsorships, And then, you know, once that
closing ceremony comes around, it's all kind of gets pulled
under from under you and you go back into that that closed door
and, you know, back to training for another four years until
that moment. Again, lucky the most accomplished
athlete in the room, but I don't know about that. I might, I might make a little run for best spandex
wearing athlete in the room. Maybe, I don't know. Peter Lanza
might have me on that. I'll talk. I'll talk to him
about it. in terms of the baseball, just yeah, it's been a challenging season
mentally, I You know being 34 and and you
know grinding the minor leagues with a wife at home and two
kids, it has been a challenging year for me but I've just you know my wife
reminds me everyday to take the moments as they come and
it's been great. I've seen a lot
of a lot more power production from my swing. This year, a lot more RBIs, you know, a lot more damage.
Overall I could tell you that I probably
haven't had the luck that I've had in the past but I mean I'm It just feels like a
different me out there right now, and I'm just glad that, you
know, the Mets, gave her that opportunity to show it. One
more power damage. I wish I could tell you. Yeah, I mean, if you know the secret, please
let me know because not, not not as much. The last
three years have been relatively similar swing. I would say it's just a level of
comfort being in the game longer and, you know, just
finding the barrel lot more. So yeah, let's just get through. Into the Fire. Let's see what
happens.