So what I want to talk to you guys today is about this showcase and also a mindset that
you'll use for the rest of your careers and I want to start with a story so another thing to
know about me is I was a walk-on in college I was a recruiter Walker and didn't get a scholarship
and that meant when I was a freshman I was basically one of the throwaway guys right I could
I could get better and maybe get some innings or I could not get better and they didn't lose anything
right they didn't invest any money in me I was just an extra body and a lot of times Walk-Ons at
schools they go that way they don't see a way that they're going to get playing time and maybe they
don't get any better they say the the low man on the totem pole and it never nothing ever happens
but for me and you guys can look at me right now right I'm in shape right I learned how to
lift in college but I was a right-handed pitcher you know how many right-handed pitchers there are
like 18 million right doesn't mean you can't be a special right-handed pitcher because you
certainly can but I'm a dime a dozen also I'm barely six foot right how many how tall
are most right-handers in the major leagues six five the average Major League is like six
three these days so I'm I was an undersized right-handed pitcher no scholarship money I'm
a pretty ordinary guy right and in my program we were a very ordinary program didn't win a
lot of games not many guys moved on and a lot of guys were okay with that they just kind of
want to get their degree have a little fun playing baseball but that wasn't really for me so I want
to tell you what my legacy at my school was and this wasn't a legacy as like Guy having a power
fastball or the fastest guy that ever came through my school or anything like that my
legacy was the fact that I didn't want my career to end after four years and you guys here today
have a huge opportunity right a lot of Scouts in attendance they're sticking around you guys
got invited here from other performances or you know your other showcases you guys a lot of a lot
of players can't come to this event and you guys are chosen to be here so my legacy in college was
this I went back you know as alumni do year and year out say hello the coaches see my strength
coach who I was really close with you know pal around a practice or two and see some of the guys
and one year I think it was like my second or third year back my head coach he said do you
know what I tell players about you and I'm like I didn't know you told him anything about me he
said no when I go around to new recruits there's a story I tell them and it's about you and so my
freshman year I knew that I was one of the last guys on the depth chart and I didn't like it
I know the Freshman sit the bench but I didn't like it I know that freshmen aren't expected to
do much but I still didn't like it and so I mapped out my week I was going to be in the gym I was
going to run I had extra workouts I was doing arm Care at home pitching drills at home I had a lot
of stuff that I needed to get done because if I didn't get innings in the game I still need to get
better that day and when you're trying to be fresh for a Tuesday night game that you might pitch in
you know you can't be in the weight room that morning you got to do stuff after the game
potentially so on one ordinary Tuesday night I was hoping I would get Innings but I didn't
and I walked with my head coach as everyone's cleaning up the field because we were in a big
enough program to have a ground screw and I said hey coach I really want a long toss tonight I
know it's 10 30. but could you leave the lights on for me so I could long toss for 20 minutes
and he said hmm yeah sure so I found a buddy who didn't really want a long toss but he took
a bucket out and I'd throw to him he'd you know catch it collect it put in the bucket got my work
in for the night that's what I wanted to do if y'all was going to pitch I got my work in and if
I didn't pitch I wanted to get my work in and so I got my long toss in and after that freshman year
I went from being an 80 to 83 guy to an 85 to 87 guy and then the next year I was in 88 to 90 guy
and then the next year I was 89 to 92 guy and it wasn't some magical happening do you know what it
was it was hey coach leave the lights on for me and that he told me was my legacy I didn't know
that so with all you guys here this showcase might go really well and you might really put yourself
on the map right it also might not go as well because pitchers are trying to strike out hitters
and hitters are trying to get hits off pitchers right this is a little bit of a zero-sum game
but what I want you all to know is and especially thinking about tomorrow is
that today will not Define your career today is not your career is not hanging the balance today
and when you take the field with this feeling that I have to perform today you
start to really shrivel up and you start to get tense and you don't perform as well right
so I want to challenge all of you tomorrow to come back really loose knowing that no matter
what happens you can still be that guy you can still be a coach leave the lights on for
me kind of guy because if you do that you will get better every day every week a little bit
and as the months and the years pile on you're going to look back and be like wow
I'm this big strong guy that I used to that other people will look up to when I was a freshman I
looked up to our seniors and then one day I was that same big strong guy throwing hard that they
looked up to that the new freshman looked up to and then my coach told the incoming freshman about
and so no matter what happens today you guys can be that leave the lights on guy and I tell you
that not to brag but because that was completely within my control I'm not tall I'm right-handed I
injure easily I made a paper mache apparently but I controlled what I could control and that was my
work ethic and not squandering the limited time that we have all of you I'm sure know that every
year there's a younger guy coming up who wants your job and when I was in Pro Bowl you're very
aware of that that if I pitch bad for a while coach is Fielding phone calls from players who
want to come take my job and if I pitch bad long enough he starts to listen right and then I get
replaced there's always younger people coming up and so you need to feel that fire not because you
don't want to get replaced but because you want to see how good you can be and no matter what
happens today and no matter what happens tomorrow you still have complete control of your career
by your work ethic your attitude and finding new ways to get better you'll have lots of obstacles
like I did with my elbow you'll have to think harder and find new ways to bounce back from that