Golf With Jay Delsing - - Brad Thompson

Jay Delsing spent 25 years on the PGA Tour and is a lifetime member of the PGA Tour and PGA of America. Now he provides his unique perspective as a golfer and network broadcaster. It's time to go On The Range with Jay Delsing.

On The Range is brought to you by Vehicle Assurance. And good morning. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host, Jay Delsing. I've got John Perlis sitting next to me, and Brad Barnes is taking care of us here in the ESPN Studios. Good morning, boys. What's going on? Just another beautiful day in the sun, ready to rock and roll, and I can tell meets kind of on fire today, so it's going to be a good show.

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314-805-2132. All right, Pearl, Brad Thompson interview this week, really a fun guy. This guy, besides being a great dude, had some really cool, insightful things that we can share with people, and so I'm really excited for them to hear about this interview. Well, the idea was to incorporate golf into whatever the different interviewees' kind of career and life was, and I thought you guys were just awesome with that.

There's so many cool scenarios, because he was a journeyman, he hit the pinnacle, but he kind of came up through it in a funky way, and just great stories. Oney, tell us about it, and I mean, how about his record in the minor leagues anyway, so you've got to stay tuned for that. We've got the Masters next week.

Holy smokes, have you got to pick? How can it not be Bryson D. Chambault? I mean, Jay, obviously you have to do everything at these majors to get it right, but if this guy's bombing it, and I know they've tightened Augusta up to the degree they can with the rough and stuff, but that's the degree that they can. If this guy's bombing it, it's going to be a whole bunch of wedges. Well, I thought it was interesting, John, what he said at the players, because clearly TPC Jacksonville is not a golf course for Bryson D. Chambault, because it takes the driver out of your hand, it takes so many options away from you, and he said it's such a huge confidence builder to be able to compete and nearly win on a course that just never, just does not suit my game at all. Well, when he's leading, I don't know the stat exactly, but when he's leading par threes, so everybody's talking about bombing it, that says to me his iron play is pretty dang good too. The guy has it, that's why I'm such a fan, I just want to celebrate his genius, and he's playing out of the box, and quit with all the doomsayers, it's a lot of fun. I got a feeling that J.T. 's going to be right around there. He had a tough go earlier in the year, and he came back and had a beautiful weekend.

He uncanceled himself. That's right, and he had a beautiful weekend at the Players, and you know, 64-68, and just you know. It was so fun to watch at the Players, and I'm with you, I think he can absolutely do it, and he did get that goofy social monkey off his back in a classy way, which is who he is, and I thought it was just absolutely fantastic. This year, the Players was a blast to watch, the rest of the majors are going to be a blast. We have so much great golf to watch this year, it's just, I can't wait. Yeah, no kidding, and DJ, you know, defending champ, he's kind of had a few, he's kind of in a little, minor little valley, still world number one, and he kind of was following his driver off a little bit. It's going to be great to see his in the mix. But he has to feel great around Augusta because of his win.

That wasn't that long ago. He's going to be in the mix, it's just going to be spectacular. What's the latest with people getting to go in there and watch it? It's a much smaller crowd, it's like one quarter of the tickets. Okay, so at least there's some stuff. It's going to be odd, but it was nice to see, this is why I really wanted to talk about the Players, and I know it's been several weeks ago, but there were fans there. There were more than just a- There's Florida, baby.

Yeah, I know. There was more than just a, you know, a dot of fans over here and a dot over there. You could see, and you know what, Jon, I've talked to the Players and it's hard not having the fans here.

Billy Andre talked about it last week. It's hard not having the fans here. It's almost like we're not saving lives playing golf, but it really felt super irrelevant.

Yeah, and it shouldn't have, because how important golf has been to the comeback for this country. But yeah, they don't have stuff to feed off of. Now, they've also talked about some guys that aren't used to the fans have benefited because they don't have the same heat. Yeah, that's right. And that scenario and all the noise and the people moving around.

So it's kind of good for some and not so good for others in certain ways. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it'll be interesting. Boy, it's going to be, it's always fun to watch the majors and the masters is so special. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to activate again this year because the companies that I and the folks that I take down there, we don't have, they don't have, we can't get in because of the number of tickets. Next year, man. Next year. And it'll still be, it'll be a blast to watch. That's gonna wrap up the on the range segment.

But don't go anywhere. We've got St. Louis Cardinals World Series champ Brad Thompson coming on the front nine. This is golf with Jay Delson.

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Yeah, thanks Colin. Alright, we're going right to Brad Thompson, World Series champ with the St. Louis Cardinals. Big leaguer and really cool dude. And another Cardinal draft choice makes it to the major leagues. We're going to see the major league debut of 23-year-old right-hander Brad Thompson, just called up.

He's a baby-faced 23-year-old. He got him. Ojeda doesn't like the call and Brad Thompson gets his first big league strikeout.

For the first time since 1982, St. Louis has a World Series winner. Brad Thompson is brought to you by Golden Tee. What's it like as a young guy? You always wanted to play in the bigs. And then you get drafted by an organization like the Cardinals.

You know, the funny thing is, and I'll take you a long way to answer the question. I think a lot of times you hear about major league baseball players, right? And their story of coming up and through, you know, through youth leagues, through high school, maybe getting drafted out of high school, maybe it ends up being out of whatever Division I that they wanted to go to.

My path is nothing like that. From getting, you know, to getting drafted to getting to the minor leagues to the big leagues, I always joke around when I get the opportunity today to talk to kids, if I'm doing a camp or if I'm just doing some individual lessons, I always tell kids, look, you don't have to be the best player on the team. You just got to want it more. And you got to love what you're doing. And you got to enjoy it.

You got to put in the work. Because I'll tell you this right now. I have never been the best player on any team that I ever played on ever. And I'm not talking about when I got called up to the Cardinals and you got pool holes and Roland and Jim Edmonds and Matt Morris.

And I'm not talking about that team. I'm talking about Little League where you got Tommy and Timmy to eat his boogers. Like I was never the best team, best player on those teams, you know. So to be able to go to high school, I didn't even pitch in high school. I pitched like five innings my senior year. I played third base. I was a crappy hitter. But I got the opportunity in my senior year of high school in Legion Ball, American Legion, so summer ball. I got a chance to go play and pitch. And I had a coach who said, he said, hey, man, you've always had a good arm. I know you didn't get the opportunity to pitch much in high school.

We're going to throw you and add another wrinkle. You drop down sidearm all the time. Anyhow, when you're making throws in the infield, what if we just drop your sidearm on the mound? Maybe we'll get a team to see you. And who knows, maybe get a chance to play some college baseball.

So lo and behold, I start slinging it sidearm and I'm throwing the ball well. We play in a tournament in St. George, Utah, and there's a school there. Dixie State College was at UCO at the time, a Division I now. The coach saw me. And a couple of months later, I get a phone call right before school was going to start. I was going to walk on at the Community College of Southern Nevada, famously where Bryce Harper ended up going to school. I was going to try to walk on there.

But I get a call right before school that, hey, we had a kid dropped out of a scholarship to go to Oklahoma State. Would you be interested in coming? And I said, hell, yes, I'd be interested in coming there.

And actually not having to walk on a team. So I went to Dixie State College, Jay, and I know it's not a school that probably resonates with a ton of people. But they gave me a chance. They gave me a chance to go there. I pitched out of the pen the first year.

I got my first college start at the Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado, which was an unbelievable experience. And then the next year, scouts started showing up the game. And mainly showed up to see our shortstop, who got drafted in the third round by the Cardinals. But I had seen it as well.

So it was kind of a long route to get drafted. And the fact that it was the Cardinals growing up in Las Vegas, Jay, I didn't have the same connection to the Cardinals, obviously, that you did. I watched games on WGN. So I'd see the Cubs.

The Braves would be on, on TBS. So I would see those. So I didn't have the connection. So I didn't get to feel that until 2003.

I actually showed up to spring training. But it is unbelievable. I feel like things happen for a reason, right? Like things. Everything kind of falls in place for you the way it's supposed to be. I'm just so blessed to kind of be a part of this Cardinal family. Now, I didn't know at the time when I got drafted in the sixth round by the Cardinals what this family was going to be like, but it's unbelievable. Brad, what's what's so impressive, I still want to talk about this, your your playing career, but you've made such a great transition from the field to the booth, you're you you're on the fast lane at one on one ESPN here. And it's one of the top ranked afternoon drive shows. It's it's absolutely a fun listen, you guys, Jamie Rivers and Anthony Stoltz are two great dudes as well. And it's just really fun.

And then your Fox Sports Midwest broadcasting career. I love listening to you and Danny Mac when you guys get together. There's something about the way that you're able to tell us what happened or what's going on.

It gives great insight into the game. I appreciate it, man. I gotta tell you, I never thought a that this was going to be my life. A full disclosure, I thought I was gonna pitch well enough. I never have to work again in my life. I just figured I'd make the big leagues I'd make the trillions of dollars and we'd be good to go.

I'd be out golfing with you every single day like that. That was the goal of things. But I was so fortunate to be able to get into this. And honestly, the only reason that I had the opportunity to get into broadcasting at all is because of my good friend, the late Chris Duncan. Duncan is the one that got me in the door. It was during the offseason.

I was trying to come back from Tommy John. I was pitching an independent ball and Duncan. I didn't know it at the time, but he was starting to go through some of his issues. And for a lot of your listeners that don't know, Chris Duncan, former Cardinal, outfielder, one of the huge reasons we ended up winning the World Series in 2006. And he made the transition to radio and Fox Sports as well. And Duncan would have been doing all these things that I'm doing right now, tenfold, had he not passed away, brain tumor. But Duncan is the guy that got my foot in the door. He said, hey, if you need somebody to fill in for a little bit, Brad Thompson's in town.

I think he'd be really good at this. So I went in during an offseason. I got a chance. And that part of it, you know, that part of it was great.

I got in with it was Randy Carriker and DeMarco Farr from the Rams at the time. And it was a great opportunity and kind of grown into this. And I've been able to kind of grow into myself, you know, on the air, showing more personality, having more fun. And when it comes to the relatable aspect of it, and I appreciate you saying that when it comes to like Cardinal game, dude, I've been through the struggles. I've had the successes. You can look at the back of my baseball card and know I can relate to a pitcher that's having a tough day.

And and we can all relate to what it feels like when you have a great success in your life. I think one of the main things that I try to do when I when I'm specifically in the booth doing things and calling games alongside Dan McLaughlin, who's ridiculously talented, is I just try to remember how hard it is when you're out there, because it's easy to watch the game at home and say, how did you not hit that? Or a pitch where he's like, why would you hang that slider?

And then you think to yourself, hey, you idiot, how many sliders did you hang in your career? It ain't that easy. So I try to just keep keep that in mind while I'm going out there because this game is hard. Baseball is incredibly difficult. They say hitting a baseball is arguably the hardest thing to do in all of sports. Some guys that hit against me would disagree.

But I still think it's a very, very difficult thing. And I try to remind myself that all the time. Oh my gosh, Brad, it's such a gift to be able to you know, there's a there's been quite a few you guys have played at the big leagues and have this sort of experience, but it's a real gift to be able to explain it the way you do and go, Okay, I can kind of relate to that sort of thing.

So but so but let's go back to the Tennessee Smokies. You broke a 97 year old record with 57 scoreless innings. I mean, you were too short of the of the all time baseball record set by her scheisse. You know what the Dodgers talk to us a little bit about what that was like, but did you have it on autopilot? I mean, were you thinking about it for someone like me? I would have been on my mind a lot while I was going through it.

Yeah, well, I started thinking about it closer to the end, right as we were getting there, and it was starting to gain a little national traction. But this was again, one of those things in my career, and it's just been a happenstance of like, being very fortunate being ready for an opportunity that shows up. But I wasn't even supposed to be on that team. I think we had an injury late in spring training. And I was the last guy to make the roster for the Tennessee Smokies out there in Knoxville.

I was the last guy to make it you know, right at the end, say, Hey, you're not going to Palm Beach, actually, you're going to be going to Knoxville. It's like the last day of spring training. So I jump on and it's a streak that almost ended before it began. I remember my first game, I got the pitch in, I believe it was out of relief against the Chattanooga Lookouts. And I had the bases loaded, somehow got out of a jam, and then got plugged into the rotation and just rolled from there.

It was unreal. And the funny part was, Jay, we've been around each other a few times. Would you agree that I probably don't look like the most scary menacing individual in the world? You're not you're not the tallest, biggest guy.

No, you're not. Right, right. That's fair.

That is fair. So when I would start showing up at ballparks, and facing the opposition, remember, the media is not like it is today, where you just pull up anybody and see, you know, see who they are, know everything about them. I chose the ballpark in the opposite, like two words, this monster that's getting everybody out of like, they've got a zero er a seven and oh, I'm like, Oh, that's me.

That's I'm your I'm your guy. But nothing really changed for me. It was all sinkers. So that was my thing is to see fastballs down in the zone, pitch to contact, not a bunch of strikeouts, sinker slider, and was just aggressive.

And it was a magical run in double A, which talked about the pressure at the end of it, I still never forget on the day that I was set to break the record. There were there were news crews there in Knoxville, Tennessee. They were doing a promotion at the ballpark with Krispy Kreme donuts, which I'll get into in a minute, but I'm supposed to have Krispy Kreme donuts for life and they have never paid off on that. But everybody in the ballpark got a free donut for all the zeros that I've been throwing up when they came into the game. And I walked in after doing some arm treatment before I was about to go out to the field. And all the guys are in the clubhouse around the big screen TV watching the like the live newscast outside of the event.

And they see me walk in and everybody scrambles and shut off the TV and act like act like it's just a normal day. And it was it was hilarious. And then after the fact I ended up setting the record. And then quickly as quickly as it started, right, it went away, it was a base hit double, the streak is over.

Like that's how quickly it can happen. Pretty easy to give up a run in this game. But I remember talking to Chris Duncan afterwards. And Duncan said, Dude, I had no idea that it was it wasn't just earned runs. It was any runs because dunk famously wasn't the best fielder in the world.

So that's not he didn't know that that he couldn't make an error during during this time or we'd have been out a lot. But there's a lot of guys during that in in 2004. J that I owe some steak dinners to I remember one place specifically, a cardinal fan favorite skip Schumacher. He comes in makes a diving play in centerfield and guns a guy trying to tag up from third base to home. We had people trying to squeeze bond in the second inning to get a run off me man. It was awesome. It was so fun. It was one of those times. I didn't have that many times in my career where I felt like I was like the king of the hill. But when you get out there if you when you look back at the scoreboard, you see your seven and O with zero era. I mean, I felt like I was 10 feet tall and bulletproof.

I'm going after everybody. And it was unbelievable. And honestly, had that not happened? Had I not set that record? I wasn't going to be I wasn't on the radar with the Cardinals. Nobody was looking at my stuff and say, Wow, look at this prospect coming up. I was a 16 round draft pick. I didn't make you know, much money at all out of the draft. Even before I showed up to my first spring training, I blew out my back and had back surgery.

So the expectations were not incredibly high. So had that not happened had not everything not fallen in place for me at double A, I would have never been in the position the following year to end up just getting called up to the big league. You know, BT, it's just my gosh, these stories are just terrific. I can remember my dad playing down in Durham, and he wound up hitting a home run that hit the bowl and he actually did get a steak dinner out of that. And I you know, you hear those stories. And it's so fun to see what the minor leagues do to get kind of people interested in the game.

And it's really funny. So so but you come to the Cardinals, I, I had the pleasure of playing with Tommy John, in the AT&T pro am and he was just a great guy. And I was peppering him with baseball questions and and and and things like that. And we were in the same foursome together, but he wasn't my partner. And he and his partner started doing really well. And I saw this huge change in him, Brad, where is he started creeping up the leaderboard all of a sudden, his game just went south, his golf game went south. And we were having lunch after this round. And I mean, he got to the point where he couldn't make a two foot putt, he got that, you know, upset and that nervous. And I said, Man, Tommy, you're getting our professional hitters at 82 miles an hour, and you're tricking him into keeping him off balance and stuff. And I said, What happened out there today?

And he said, Man, this is just not my arena. You know, give me a ball. Let me you know, change speeds, get them you know, down and then up and away to keep people off balance.

That's what I do. This just made me so uncomfortable. But talk a little bit about the mental toughness that it takes to pitch in the big leagues.

Well, it's, it's incredibly difficult look. And I think that this is something that resonates with any of your listeners, no matter what you do for a living, when you're succeeding, things are great. And whatever you're doing, it's going well, whatever you do at work, when you're doing good, you're doing good, and you're feeling the flow and you're working it. But when you're having downtime, like that's where it really gets to you.

So I mentioned in you know, in in double A feeling like I'm 10 feet tall and bulletproof. I had times in the big league standing on the mound where I felt like I was a couple of inches high trying to get out of monsters, like that's how quickly things can change. And the hard part and the ones that are so successful for the longest time, certainly there's God given abilities, and they work their tails off to be able to get there. But mentally, they've got it more dialed in than a lot of the other guys. So focusing on that aspect of it, the focusing on and you know this from from your career of the focusing on what you can control and not all the other noise.

It's it's difficult to do and you got to be able to tone stuff out. But I will say this part of it when you when you're on the mount, generally, you don't hear the thousands of people you don't hear the noise, whether it's the cheers at home, or it's the booze on the road, which I got a couple of those and a fun story where I hit Prince Fielder on the road and ends up getting a couple of booze in that one. But it's, it's kind of a white noise and you do get locked in.

I don't know how many of your listeners have seen that that that movie for the love of the game or Kevin Costner. Costner harnesses the mechanism, you know, I think is what he calls it. But that's kind of what it is.

It's laser focus. And if you allow yourself to drift at all, if your laser focus just isn't there for an inning, or hella pitch, if it's not there, well, they're gonna make you pay for it. The guys that do this at the highest level, these hitters are so ridiculously talented, there's no time for room, you know, or no room for time off. So it's, it's a mental grind for sure. Like everything else, when things are going well, it's easy.

But when things are going bad, dude, it's tough. I'll tell you this once I retired from baseball, and I loved it. I love playing so much.

I missed the competition. I miss my friends and Mr. camaraderie. I sleep better.

I sleep a lot better than I did before because I'm just not anxious of like that next day and that next matchup. Okay, that's gonna wrap up the front nine but don't go anywhere. We're gonna finish this Brad Thompson interview on the back nine. This is golf with Jay Delsing. Hey, everybody, it's Ben skill.

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How you doing today? Great, Joe. Thanks so much for the support. We really enjoy it.

Thank you. We look forward to the show every Sunday morning. We love all the information and all the great tips and we all sit around the radio on in the morning.

I'd love to listen to you show the good old days. Yeah, I get the wife and the kids and the dog and we wait for whacking chase to come on. It's our favorite part of the show. Which one are you? Are you whack or chase? Oh, no, I'm whack because I'll hit it. And then because probably is also a caddy. He's got to go chase it, which he's the chaser.

He's got the worst end of the stick. Well, we really enjoy it. And thank you so much for having us on the show. Don't miss the hottest rookie class in PGA Tour champions history. Stars like Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk and more compete at Norwood Hills Country Club September 6 through the 12th. Join legends Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Hale Irwin to celebrate the PGA Tour champions newest event professional golf returning to St. Louis in 2021.

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If you have any sort of insurance needs for your company, for your family, anything give it a call at 314-398-0101. All right, let's get back to the second half of the Brad Thompson interview. Brad pitched his team to a victory but not before giving up an absolute bomb. Oh yeah, we had a great time.

Everybody had a great time. Anybody following my career knows I can do a couple things. I can get some ground balls, got some of those, and I can give up some home runs and I did one of those. So congratulations to Skip here who was the player of the game, hit a 326 foot home run.

Thank you. I'm surprised they found the ball because there's no way that was 326 but if all people hit off of Brad Thompson, my number one, I don't remember my home runs. I hit so many of them in the major leagues. This one I'll never forget.

Ever. Brad Thompson is brought to you by Golden T. You know something, BT, what's really cool? When you get to the big league level, those professional hitters don't miss your mistakes at all. It's unbelievable how I watch a pitch that's just a little bit off and these guys punish the ball. And the similarities, bud, is that I could play a round of golf and I could be five, six under par going to 18 and make some sort of uncommitted swing and I can completely undo the round by where I hit this ball.

I can hit it in a spot where it's going to take me four to get out and rack up a double bogey or something. And it's the same thing with you guys on the mound, right? One pitch can destroy the whole thing. Yeah, for sure.

Like when you were talking about that, right? The one uncommitted swing, I think about the inning where you're facing and just, you know, here's an example of guys that were there when I was playing, you know, the Brewers, right? You have Ryan Braun and you have Prince Fielder.

If you're playing against the Phillies, it was Chase Audley, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard. Like if you navigate through those guys and you get through there, you got to execute some pitches. I mean, you got to focus, right? But the biggest mistake that you could possibly do when you get through the meat of a lineup is taking that deep breath and say, oh, now it's smooth sailing. Then all of a sudden sailing is you backing up bases and you end up you end up in a hole because you weren't fully concentrated or you were uncommitted for a couple of pitches. And that's all it takes, you know, is that that small period of time where your focus isn't exactly where it should be.

That makes all the difference in the world. Brad, I so so agree. What's the what was the toughest thing about playing in the bigs and talk us tell us a little bit about the mental side, which we talked about, but then talk about the physical side too, because the human arm, your right hand or the human shoulder, the elbow, you know, Michael is just going through problems. You see it every year. It's not meant to do what you guys do to it.

No, it's not. And the maddening thing when it comes to arm health and arm strength is, you can have a pitcher that has perfect mechanics, and everything that he does is to a T and every doctor will say, that's how you should throw. That's the guy you should emulate. And then that guy has Tommy john, because that's how it is. You can have some other guy that has a funky mechanics, and he puts a lot of stress on his arm, but God made him differently.

And he's good to go. But the physical aspect, the toll that it ends up taking, it's, it's a difficult one, certainly for guys to they get called upon every day. I remember watching and this team made one of my favorites ever and I have such a profound respect for Jason is ring housing, especially later in his career. That dude was so banged up by he had the bad hips, the arm and everything and he hurt walking to to the mound to start throwing, but he would, you know, be able to overcome and, you know, work out all these things, just to get out there and answer the bell. The guys that answer the bell every day to me are so incredible that they're able to do that because it's you're asked to do a lot.

So that part of it is is definitely there and it goes into it. I'm sure a lot like your career, right? What work do you put in beforehand? You can't just roll out of bed and play in an entire, you know, PDA tour season.

You can't just roll out of bed and play a baseball season. You better be working to make sure you're ready throughout the entire time. And from a physical aspect, that's something I learned. Like I worked hard in the off seasons because I had to like I knew that that I needed that little extra. I didn't have all the abilities that jump off the page, but you always think you work hard until you see somebody that works hard. And I like I remember watching in between starts because my hard work a lot of times was during the during the off season. That's where I really pounded.

During the season it would kind of be maintenance. I watched Chris Carpenter when I got called up in 05. He ended up winning the Saigon. I watched that dude work in between starts and said I said to myself, I need to make some changes. I want to do what he's doing.

I want to be the guy that is here, you know, and our roles were different. Certainly my talent levels were different. But drive and work ethic, you can be, you know, on the same page. I watched him work and said I want to do the things that he's doing.

And I learned a lot about watching other people's people work and what I need to do for myself from the physical side of it. And on the mental side, like you said, we hit on a little bit, but it's one of those things where you can be your own worst enemy at times or you can be your own best advocate. And the key is to keep that balance. The key is to, if you have a bad day, know that the next one is going to be great.

And if you have a great day, know that the next one could go awry if you don't do the right things. And if, again, it's one of those things that happens in life, we get the ups and downs, but you can't ride them. And that was one of the hardest things in my career. Physically, yes, it was difficult. Mentally though, that's what got to me. I ended up having times and in my career, I had the ups and downs on the field certainly, but I had them in transactions as well.

It would be two weeks in the big league, the week in the minor league, two weeks in the big league, week in the minor league, and that can wear you out mentally, but you can't let it. Like you have to continue to keep fighting, to keep battling because the shelf life is short. And as soon as you let any of that stuff take over, as soon as I get sent down to AAA, and this is a lesson that I learned quickly, because the first time I got sent down, I was down in the dumps about it. But as soon as you let that happen to yourself, well, people are going to pass you by.

Like you got a small time to make a big mark and mentally you have to be ready for that. This is golf with Jay Delfina. I'm visiting with world series champion, Brad Thompson. You know, Brad, it's so interesting because the guys on the PGA tour just love to watch you beat yourself up.

Love to watch you get really pissed off. Love to watch one bogey lead to two, three, four more bogeys because they don't have to worry about you then. And when I watched Tiger play and I didn't get to watch Jack knowing what I know now, you know, like I do with Tiger and watching what these guys could do, I just marvel at it. Who was the best who was the strongest mentally in the MLB that you played with? Well, the my first thing goes to the same guy that I mentioned earlier when I watched him work is Chris Carpenter, that's the first guy that I think of from a pitching standpoint, who was just mentally above everybody else. And the preparation was there, as I mentioned, the physical preparation, the preparation was digging into video and tendencies and having a game plan.

That part of it was there. But he was just I'm trying to find the right way. He was damn mean on a game day. But it was it was mean and focused, like even as a teammate and members of the media knew it. Like if it was game day and Karp was pitching, don't even look at him. Like just make sure you just you could be walking in the same direction. He's coming at you.

Feel your eyes a little bit because the man on a mission is coming through. And you would see that through the entire game and every single pitch that intensity was there. The intent was there all the time.

As you referenced, you know, the one swing that gets away and then all of a sudden your game gets away. He never let that happen. Like he was so dialed in on every single pitch. And again, just a guy who I didn't have to talk to him to learn like I just learned by watching him go about his business, incredibly mentally tough. And then it'd be, you know, remiss to not bring up the audio Molina when you watch that guy.

But it's 18th year, dude, still still doing it in his 18th year. And you want to talk about a guy that can compartmentalize his game, right? The beginning of his career. Tony La Russa basically told him, hey, I don't even care if you bring a bat up there with you to hit.

Just catch and just just make sure you call great games. Well, he's always thinking steps and steps ahead. And I know a lot of your listeners saw over the over the weekend where he had the back pick on the on the pinch runner for the Astros ended up trying to steal the just the cat and mouse game. The guy is so ridiculously talented, but so mentally lost. There are no lapses.

There is no downtime. There is no Hey, let me just go back here for an inning and I'll pass I'm gonna worry about my at bat. That guy is just so dialed in all the time and I love it. I hope he never retires. I hope we talk about every offseason for at least the next five years of I don't know if God he's coming back and then he ends up coming back again.

Oh my gosh, the end the dude is tough as nails. I mean from a physical aspect that that position is so demanding and you're just getting he he has taken so many foul balls off of body parts and should never be hit with a baseball and you're just like oh my gosh, come on. Yeah, you'd see them like you notice the ones if you're watching on TV or if you're at Busch Stadium and you see a game like you could tell like, ooh, that one ended up getting him.

Well for everyone that you can tell got him. There were probably 15 others that ended up making some sort of a body part of you look at him after a game and look halfway through the season near the end of the season. He's one big walking bruise and one big ice pack right but he's going to do everything to make sure that he's in in every game and that's that's a cool part too because you'd watch him. He wants to catch the day game after a night game. He wants to catch both ends of a doubleheader.

Hell we saw him in spring training early already this year catching in the seventh inning of a ballgame because you know, he wanted to get another at bat and wanted to work with some different guys. They don't build them like that. Like they don't like I think that a lot of guys are very happy to all right. Want me to go in? I'm going to put in my work.

Oh, you're right. I probably could use a couple of off days here and there. Maybe that's going to be better for me in the future and certainly there's some validity to downtime of being at your best at the end of the year. Yachty's just not wired like that. He wants to be out there and he wants to impact every single game and the beauty of it is he impacts every game. He can go all for four with four punch outs, but he's still navigating a young pitching staff or even a veteran pitching staff from start to finish.

Like everything is thought out. I have such a profound respect for that guy, the way that he goes about it and what he has meant for this organization. And I don't know if you did the same thing that I did during the offseason, but I let myself start picturing him in other uniforms and it was disgusting. It killed me. It killed me. I'm like, this can't happen. I know.

No, this can't happen. I'm so glad it didn't. Brad, did you guys get to play much golf on the on the road? I know that most of the position players don't play anymore, but a lot of the pitchers I know Greg Maddox was notorious at playing, you know, almost three days a week. Yeah, Jay, unfortunately for me, I was always the guy that was clinging to my major league life, so I never really had a chance to go off as much as I would like to. I was kind of in and out of the rotation. We played near and there spring training. We play more. We also would do every year when I was in the bullpen, we would do a bullpen golf trip. So we pick a day where we had an off day on the road and we would all dress up like idiots like everybody's wearing.

You better at least have knickers or something. We're in the hats is doing it up and just making a mockery of an entire golf course, but trying hard. But I never got the opportunity to play as much as I wanted. And I got to tell you, and I'm pretty sure you know this when you don't play a lot of golf, it is very difficult to be good at it, Jay. It's my dad always told me the hardest thing ever was trying to hit up you know a round ball with a round bat like you know a baseball moving 100 miles an hour and all over the place. And then he started playing golf. I said, Dad, he's like, Well, this ball still so it's got to be easier. And I'm like, Okay, all right, we're not even gonna have this conversation.

You would think so. The funny thing is, so my son, my son is he'll be eight in May and just last week. I'm trying to get him doing more stuff. He played some baseball, play some soccer, but I wanted him to start playing a little golf or like we'll hit balls around in the backyard just kind of chip stuff around here and there. But had him go to his first lesson last week. And when he got home, I said, Hey, buddy, like show me some of the stuff that you learn and you've shown me like, you know, just different grip hand position on the golf club. The following day, we went on the backyard, same stuff working on and he was showing me his grip his swing.

And you I'll be damned. I held the club like he showed me like my seven year old son showed me and I'm hitting the ball straight dude. And it's like everything feels good.

I'm not slicing it. My hands on top. I felt powerful.

You guys are amazing. And it's the small tiny adjustment, right? Like a little thing that can be different. And that's where pitching and golf align so much is because if I'm throwing a slider and my finger is just barely on the side of that thing, instead of on top of it, I'm getting the spin the horizontal spin instead of the vertical drop, right? That's the difference between a double and a swing and miss.

For you. If you know this clubface doesn't come through clean and you're trying to hit it, you know, it opens up a little bit all of a sudden, you end up, you know, shaking the ball. It's so slight, it's so subtle. I think that there's so many similarities there and I'm pumped up my son's got another golf lesson. I can't wait to learn something myself.

Okay, so that's gonna do it for the back nine pearl. I just love some of those baseball stories. It reminds me so much of my dad. This this guy is such. There's so much to learn from him about what he said. I can't wait to break this down with you. I agree.

I agree. Looking forward to it. All right, that'll, and we'll do that on the back nine. Nope, we'll do that on the 19th hole.

Yeah, let's try it there. This is golf for Jay dosing. This is build with the third president of the St. Louis Cardinals and you're talking to Jay dosing. And wait, what's the name of the show? Golf with Jay dosing.

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Grab your friends a cold one and pull up a chair. We're on to the 19th hole on golf with Jay Delsing. The 19th hole is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Hey, this is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host Jay. Pearly is with me. We are on the 19th hole brought to you by Michelob Ultra.

Oh man, nothing better than we'll have a little altar right now. Pearl, we'll talk a little the Brad Thompson interview. Perfect.

Perfect. What's the biggest thing that stuck out in your mind from that chat we had? There's a lot, but it's a couple of scenarios that were so like your career. His going back to double-A, triple-A a couple of times, you going back to tour school. Him knowing he had to keep improving just to maintain. How many times have we talked about how much you improved just to be able to stay out there?

Not to necessarily leap up, but there's just that improvement. I thought that was great. I think his general attitude, like yours as well, I just thought there's a lot of similarities between the past you guys took in two different sports.

Yeah, it's interesting. You know, he said I was never the best player on any team I played in, little league, anything. That really struck me because we were brought up to go, well, if you're not the superstar, if you're not this, and if you don't accomplish this, or let's say you just love it and you want to keep on going and you don't know when you're going to mature or when that opportunity is going to present itself.

And by the way, when it does, do something about it. Yeah, he sees the hell out of it. He said he dropped down a little bit sidearm and all of a sudden nobody could hit him in hell. He throws 57 scoreless innings in double A ball for the Tennessee Smokies?

I mean, are you kidding me? I love the name of these minor league teams. All I could be thinking was Wild Sing, Bull Durham, all the movies that come out there because you know that's the way these guys lived. Well, I brought up the Bull Durham interview because my dad actually hit the bull down there and he said they bought a mistake at the restaurant that night. By the way, of sports movies, you know, Caddyshack, you know, there's a couple good ones in golf, but there are a couple good ones. There's a couple good football ones. The baseball ones I think are the best of the sports movies just because of all the characters and all the stories they've got. The Field of Dreams was the best. Fantastic. And then the Bull Durham with Susan Sarandon breathing through your eyelids. Oh yeah.

I mean, it did get a whole lot better than that. And the rose goes in the front, cowboy. Just fantastic. And I will say this, I don't know about the other athletes, but baseball players from what I know are crazy superstitious. Jay, they have so much time on their hands.

I mean, think about what's going on there. You're out playing golf. We're practicing for an hour or so before you play. You're warming up before that.

We have eight, nine hour days. These guys, even if they're playing, they're not doing a heck of a lot necessarily. If you're a catcher, yes. If you're a pitcher, yes. But I mean, the rest of the guys are kind of like, maybe a ball comes to me this game. Maybe it doesn't.

I guess I got to stand up there and bat maybe every couple, two, three, or four innings. There's a lot of time for those guys to be thinking and they're thinking crazy stuff out there. Oh my gosh. It is so true.

I can remember some of the rituals that you'll see. Watch these guys come to home plate and they're like, tap, tap, tap, tap. I'll be like, oh my gosh, I forgot to tap. Hang on. Time out. I got to do this over.

Well, I was in Detroit when it was Mark the Bird Fidrich. Oh yeah. Doing all those antics and that kind of stuff.

Yeah. There's so many characters through the years. I can remember, cause my family is superstitious. My sister, Moochie, when Taylor was playing in the MLS, she would only eat pork that day and do all this. And I was like, oh my gosh, when I was playing, I had all this stuff heaped on me and I'm like, I have to have a nickel in this pocket. And then finally I'm like, I'm done with this.

I can't even remember what I'm supposed to do. Which sister was the one that put the names in a jar and froze it in the freezer? Oh yeah, Moo did that. Oh yeah.

If she, if you pissed her off, she put, she put your name on a piece of paper and slapped it in the freezer. I'm not sure. Oh no, no, no, no, no. Not that I know. Not that you know.

I had a couple of lean years. I was just wondering, was that where I was? Oh my gosh. But we had all these, you know, mark your ball heads up, mark your ball tails up. I'm like, I'm not making any butts.

Can I just mark my ball and just stand the coin on its edge? But sports in general can do that to you, whether it's golf or baseball or anything else. Okay. What was your favorite part of this interview? Again, I think I say this a lot these days because I think you're killing it, but a great interview and what a fun guy to talk to. I loved what he said, what he circled back about his, his young son and he's given his son golf lessons and his son comes back and gives dad a couple pointers like, dad, you don't put your hands on the club, right? And Brad's like, I put my hands on their rhinos, striping it right down the backyard with my son.

It's just, it goes better when you do it right. I know. I know. It's just, just terrific. And I've gotten to know Brad a little bit through, you know, the fast lane is such a popular show and Brad, you know, produces the fast lane. It's the most popular drive show here in St. Louis. And so, you know, we've seen the guys in the studio from time, from time to time and just watching him play and being a fan of his and never meeting him and now getting to meet him.

It's, I'm a huge fan of his. One other fun point on that was when you guys were talking about not losing focus and he said, he said, get through the tough part of the lineup and all of a sudden loses focus and somebody just rip it out there. Man, can you relate to golf in that way or what? Get through a couple of tough holes, get several under par, think you're on a roll and then kind of lose focus and this thing can go. And then what happens when you, when you hit one bad one? Oops, I'm capable of hitting a bad one. Now all of a sudden my confidence just went from, I own this thing to where am I, who am I, and how the hell am I going to finish?

Yeah, no, no doubt, John. I mean, there were, there were times early in my career where I would let that go and I'd hit it in the water laying up on a par five or something. Just used to chat me like, I would be so pissed off, you know, and it's, but it's, you don't get that opportunity to let up on that kind of concentration at all. Especially on those kinds of golf courses. I mean, it's kind of funny now cause you're not playing anymore, but the things that would happen and it would be things like chipping it out, you know, you'd be a little disappointed cause you're in the trees, be this wide open alley to chip it back in the fairway. And I hit a tree, you hit a tree, you go further the ones I hit. I gotta tell that story when we're down in Louisiana. I mean, I hit this, I hooked this, I don't know, probably probably gave me a bad yardage or something, but I hooked this ball over left of a green and it rolls down this embankment and somehow hops this little bitty creek.

It's only about six, eight inches wide and maybe two inches deep just enough to cover a ball. And I'll tell you why I know how to cover the ball. So we're looking up there and Perle and I, we got to go under this tree and we got to do that. And, and I'm like, I got this, I got this. I get up there and there's a, there's a lip on the curb.

That's what, Perle, two inches, three inches high. I do everything except get it over the lip of the curb. It hits that thing, goes behind us in this creek. That's got enough, enough water in it to cover the damn ball. He had eight iron in for the second shot and we met, ended on a par four and ended up making an eight. And he was very much in the hunt cause he had made like 600 to that point.

He goes like nine under the rest of the tournament and still finishes top five or something like that. And I'm thinking if we just would have kept that eight iron from Miller Fairway in play, you would have won this damn thing. If I could have just shanked it and put it in the bunker and made double bogey. We had double easy. Man, if someone had told me, I'd have thought about shaking it, but oh my gosh, why do we have to talk about that stuff?

That's why I have all the gray hair and wrinkles. Damn. Well, that's going to wrap up another show. Perle, thanks for being with us. Meet, thank you for taking such great care of us here and we will see you next week. This is Golf with Jay Delsing.

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