The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - George Springer: For Us It's About Controlling Our Own Destiny

Episode Date: September 16, 2020

George Springer: For Us It's About Controlling Our Own Destiny

This is 790 baseball direct. Direct from the ballpark. To your radio. Driven by Texas Direct Auto, powered by Vroom. 2.31 on the Matt Thomas show, Sports Talk 790. One of our favorite people is joining us for a quick 10-minute visit prior to tonight's 7 o'clock start. He hit his 39th career leadoff home run. George Springer, you're only 14 away from Craig Bizzio.

Can you get it done in the next, well, there's less than 14 games. So we're going to have a while. But congratulations, nevertheless. How are things? Appreciate it, man. I'm doing good. We're plugging away over here. Seriously, I think you need like a voodoo doll in the clubhouse

because if Correa was going to get gone for any length of time and have been like, you know what, let's just shut the season down. We can't have any more injured players. Too much. It's been just too much this year. Yeah, you know, this has already been a weird year. It's been a weird way to kind of go about your daily in life, for one, but especially around the ballpark. And with just the amount of injury that we've had to, you know,

fight through, seeing him go down last night was kind of one of those, you know, stomach droppers. But, you know, luckily for us, I think he's going to be okay. Okay, let's put a few things out there. You love playing baseball. You're very very well compensated for it. You love the game. You approach it. Awesome. You love Major League Baseball. But let's put 2020 in perspective, but just for a second. You're traveling to places you can't go outside and eat. You're playing at 8-10 at night instead of 7-10 most nights. You are not doing the normal routine. What has been, and again, no one's going to complain to you for saying that you're bitching about anything, but what has been the hardest adjustment to

playing this season of 2020? You know, I think one of the interesting things, I wouldn't even say hard, it's, it's, well, we're so used to, as a baseball players, we're creatures of, you know, of habit. We like to do certain things at certain times a day, and if it's not, you kind of get screwed up. And, you know, to have to adjust to doing things that you're not comfortable with, I mean, I don't, you know, having on masks everywhere, constantly washing your hands. and being kind of weary as a guy next to you while at the same time trusting the fact that they're doing the right thing, as are you.

Yeah. But I think one of the hardest parts, I mean, no, I don't want to speak for anybody else, but for myself, it was the lack of time to get ready. You know, it doesn't matter if you're playing, you know, 50 games, five games, 100 games. This game is hard, and it takes time to get your stuff. acclimated to plan this game at this level. So, you know, to have only 21 days to do it, you know, the entire league had to do it, but I think that was one of the hardest parts for me in specific.

But it's just been one of those awkward, weird years, and you're trying to navigate it to the best of your ability. Well, I'll say this. You navigate it quite well at home. Help me out with this, George. You guys are kicking ass at home, and then the road has been, I mean, it's a tough watch sometimes. Why the discrepancy this year? I couldn't tell you. I have no idea. I know we've lost a lot of games on the road in the last inning. I know that. It's hard to win on the road in general, but I don't know. I don't, I think it's just kind of one of those outlier years

where stuff like that happens. There was a year where we, you know, played better on the road it than we did at home, and then it's flip-blots. I don't know. You know, it's just been kind of one of those, again, one of those weird years. I know for a fact that we've been walked off more than once on the road. So it's, I know that the numbers may seem glaring, but a loss is a loss. It, you know, it doesn't matter where it happens. George Springer here on the Matt Thomas Show and George, just you personally at the plate,

obviously hitting pretty well as of late and struggled a little. little bit early. How much of that is what you talked about about the time to get ready or was it just a slump? So what was going wrong early and what's going right right now? Well, I think it's, I think it's a big part of it was not having a time, you know, to get prepared, you know, but this is a season where you're going to get, you know, a third and maybe a quarter of the at-bats that you normally get. And, you know, for a lot of guys, You don't like to look at statistics, but a lot of people outside the game do, and they take into account a one-for-20 start or whatever,

but a normal year, a one-for-20 start in the middle of June, you don't even really blink at it. And I think you're starting to see across the league that guys are kind of on a normal progression, right? You get through your first 50, 100 baths, and then things start to slow down. They start to click in. and now they're starting to see guys be who, you know, they normally are, but people, including the players, expect themselves to play well from the get-go, and that's just kind of what, you know, didn't happen for some guys, you know, including me,

but it's every day is a progression. And unfortunately, this is game 48 for us, I believe, you wouldn't even blink an eye, I'd be going, I got 120 left to go. But instead of that, it's 12. So you set you out and play and try to win the ballgame. Visiting with George Springer here on the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. You know, when we used to come to the clubhouse, because I know you love when we're in there before the games while y'all are playing video games.

It's one of your favorite things. We go to the card and see who's in the lineup. Well, you're always the top, so that goes without saying. But did you look at it yesterday and go, oh, my God, we're a full team today? Um, yeah, I mean, minus Alvarez. You know, I said that was one of the first times, I believe, all year where we had our, our full, um, full squad of guys out there. Um, and then obviously to see, uh, a career go down was tough.

But, you know, I, I think it's, um, a testament to the guys that we have in the locker room, um, that we hadn't necessarily had our quote unquote, you know, all of our guys in there. the guys that haven't been in there have been playing their butts off. And it's a good thing to see basically everybody back out there. So, again, we'll have to see what happens. 2015, you're fighting and scratching and clawing to make a playoff spot for the Wild Card in which you eventually get and beat New York up there.

Does this season have that kind of feel where, let's be honest, 17, 18, 19, y'all are destroying everybody. Is it a little different in these last few games, say, the last three years for you? Well, I mean, I think that's a little obvious. You know, the A's are up by, you know, how well, whatever it is, as opposed to us the last few years. The A's are a very, very, very good baseball team. And, you know, they're going to be hard to beat, especially down the road. But for us, it's honestly that's about controlling our own destiny.

You know, we're going out, understanding that every game that we play is going to implicate something is going to have some impact on something. So it's, it's, it does have that, you know, feel of 15, you know, fighting all the way up until the last day, I believe, in 15. So it's, it's not like we haven't been in this position before. So, you know, I just got to rely on that experience can go from there. All right, far let you run. When we visit with you on this show, in particular last year, you were newlywed and the wife was cooking most of the meals and kind of keeping you on a low-carb thing and highly nutritional, which I guess is cool and everything. But has she allowed you to enjoy a little more junk food in 2020?

You know, I mean, I haven't told her, but yeah, I've been kind of, you know, sneaking some chips here and there, you know, eating some candy on the plane at every blue moon. Yeah. But, yeah, it's, you know, she makes sure that that I eat right, I sleep good, you know, that kind of, I understand that I got to fuel myself. I mean, I'm still trying to get the hang of eating a bunch of salads and stuff and all that good stuff. But I need it to stay healthy and I'm going to keep going with it. Okay, well, lots of fatty foods in 12 years when you retire. Is that fair? Oh, I'm going right for it.

The steaks and chicken wings, I'm going right for it. Seriously, when you're like 44 years old, I want to find you and say, God, look at how gross you are. congratulations. I mean, I hope I don't go to that, you know, that end of the spectrum, but I'll, I don't know, I'll let myself go, I guess. I mean, I might as well, right? You got that right.

George, thank you for the time. Congratulations on all the lead-off home runs. We just don't care when you get the home run. Just get them and have a great time. This is what gets Texas, and good luck in the playoffs, my friend. Appreciate it. We'll see you later. George Springer.

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