PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Selling a Dream: Stone Garrett’s Path to the Big Leagues

Episode Date: September 14, 2022

From minor league player in the Miami Marlins organization, to real estate agent to big leaguer with the Arizona Diamondbacks thanks to LinkedIn, Stone Garrett has quite the story to tell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And Stone Garrett gives the fans who hung around here through the cold night. Something to stand and cheer about him. Stone Garrett's eighth home run of this season. Stone Garrett's first Major League hits an Rubei double. Welcome to the big leagues. Don Garrett hits a fly ball. Deep to center field. Angle is at the wall.

Okay, first I want to start off with the story behind your name because I absolutely love it. Yeah, so obviously my name is Stone. My dad's nickname in high school was Rock. So when it came time to name me, it was Stone. Yeah. And it doesn't stop there. You have Pebbles in your family, too. Yeah, our Cocker Spaniel Pebbles.

That was our dog's name. My dad said it was going to be my name if I was a girl, but I doubt it. But, yeah, we end up naming our dog Pebbles. How glad are you that you didn't end up being your girl? Pebbles would be an interesting name. I'm glad. I would have got bullied. I'm so glad.

As good as the story behind Stone Garrett's name, name is, the one he tells of how he made it to the majors is even better. In this episode, we'll dive into his journey from baseball player to real estate agent to big leager and the lesson everyone can glean from the man they call Stone. I'm Cherston Seussle and this is PHNX, The Story. What we feared for the last three months became official on Tuesday. The 2020 minor league baseball season has officially been canceled. Major League Baseball informing their minor league affiliates that they would not be supplying them with players for the 2020 season. Like many baseball players, the pandemic threw a wrench in Stone Garrett's career. He was in

the last year of his contract with the Miami Marlins in 2020. And after going through spring training, the minor league season was canceled and the Marlins chose not to resign him. Luckily, Stone had something to fall back on. He had already gotten his real estate license a few years prior to help make some extra money to add to his minor league salary. So he ramped up his side gig while he waited for his next opportunity to play baseball again. Went down a rabbit hole one day on the internet and was like, oh, real estate, you know, and I was like getting my license in the off season wouldn't be bad. My friends at that age get down to college, full-time jobs, help them buy an apartment or buy a home.

So I'm selling houses, have my real estate license for like two years before that. I signed with the Indyball team in like February, the beginning of the, February. I hadn't heard anything from any, you know, affiliate teams. Over the course of a year, Stone was hard at work racking up several minor league seasons worth of commission checks from selling houses and staying active on social media, specifically LinkedIn, which helped him link up with a familiar face from the Marlins. A video guy reached out from the Marlins, my very first year of Pro Bowl, he was our video coordinator, reached out and I was like, hey, glad to see you're doing well with real estate.

I was like, yeah, thanks. Glad to see you're doing well. And like a couple weeks went by, and I reached back out to him. His name was Dan. I reached up back out to Dan. He's like, hey, do you know of any teams signing an outfielder? I feel like I can still compete against like AA competition or better. He was like, not with the Guardians, but let me ask around because he was with the guardians at the time. Two days go by. I get a message from Corey Hahn, who's with the D-Backs on Instagram.

He's like, hey, can I get your agent's number? Sure, send it to him. A day later, I'm signed with the Diamondbacks, and I'm headed out to spring training in two weeks, and that was last year, so 20-21. Stone drives it into left-center. It's way back. Played AA, great year. They saw me back this year.

Playing AAA, you know, did well, get called up. When Stone received the news that he was getting called up, he, of course, had to call his rock. And despite his teammates surrounding him hoping that he'd get emotional, he got tricky instead. Where you at? Are you in bed? Where's my mom?

She put my insurance somewhere. Can you ask her? Can you go get it real quick? Yeah. I'm lying. You know what I'm calling you? Why? I'm going to San Francisco tomorrow. I'm going to big leagues. You're going to walk with us, fellow. You're six-nighting for the big leagues? You are? Yes.

Congratulations. Thank you. I love how you did it. I feel like it showed a little something about your personality that you, like, pulled a trick on your parents, and it wasn't just like, mom. Yeah, yeah, I had to get them both together at the same time. And that was the best way I knew how. So I knew the insurance card trick would get him. After Stone broke the news to his parents, there was someone else he had to reach out to. I don't know who reached out first, but, you know, we had this like, thank you, Dan. Like, I wouldn't, legit wouldn't be here without you. And he was like happy for you, like super happy for you.

So it was just, you know, crazy how two years ago I didn't have a job and just LinkedIn. you know, got me here. You know, if you ever need a job, obviously, you know, and I hear something, I'm going to reach out because I legit wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Dan. Like, I would have went to Indy Ball and who knows what would happen. So I'm not sure what that path would have been, but I'm glad I didn't have to go down it. Stone played eight years in the minors before getting promoted.

And at the time he was called up on August 17th, 2022, he was second in the minors in RBI's, tied for fourth in home runs, tied for sixth in extra base hits, and 10th in total bases. And his success at the plate hasn't slowed down now that he's a diamond back. He's one of the many young players in this new era of babybacks that have ignited the team. Stone Garrett hits one way up in the air, deep to left field. Pro Fars at the wall and it's gone. Stone Garrett makes it two nothing. So far it's been great.

The guys been great in the locker room. Play with a lot of guys and AAA that are up here now. So that puts you at ease quite a bit. So it's been great. Although there's no real nerves to have to calm when he's on the field, Stones had to adjust to the fast-paced environment of the bigs, getting to know a lot more faces and making sure he's where he's supposed to be on any given day. Something that may have caused him to drop some weight from the store.

stress of it all. But he's adjusting, gain some of that weight back, and has gotten into a necessary routine of relaxing before games and unwinding afterward. Relax, focus. If you can, go somewhere where it's quiet. After a game, reflect on the game, reflect where you're at, be grateful for, you know, being here. And just see what you need to work on. Aside from having LinkedIn and even Instagram to thank for helping to connect him to the right people, there's a lot to learn from Stone Garrett's story, like making sure you treat everyone you meet along the way with respect.

I think my parents raised me right in that aspect of just treating everybody with respect, and if I didn't, my mom would, you know, discipline me, we'll say that. So just treating everybody with respect, and you never know when you're going to need somebody's help, you know, so they could always, you know, it could always benefit you in the long term. somewhere you don't even think about down the road.

So I'm just treating everybody with respect. Don't be afraid to shoot your shot. And don't you ever give up. Yeah, I'd say just don't quit, keep going and never settle. Stone Garrett hits a fly ball, deep to center field. Angle is at the wall. And it's gone. Stone.

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the story. If you enjoyed this podcast, I would really appreciate it. if you would subscribe and leave a review, it's super helpful. Once again, I'm Chirson Sustelle. Thanks for listening.