Kyle Schwarber on Phillies struggles helping postseason push

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hi, This is Kylee Forber and welcome to the Philly Show.

00:00:19
Speaker 2: Hi, everybody, Welcome to the Philly Show with Ruben Tomorrow, Junior, Jim Salisbury Todd's So Lucky, brought to you by the Foul Territory Network. It is Monday, September ninth, twenty twenty four. Jim and I are here together. Ruben is actually we're taping this on Sunday night. Ruben is flying back from Miami. Not a great end of this road trip, Jim. They finished the road trip four and two, but I'm sure when the team is flying back home night, they're going they left the little meat on the bone, No.

00:00:46
Speaker 3: No doubt, left some chicken on that bone. You know, four and two is a good road trip, but you know, you start off with four straight wins, and you get two of the first two in Miami against which is essentially a JV team. Aaron Nolah on the mount for Game three of the series. He gets hit hit around, which sometimes happens to him in that ballpark. Not sure why, and then they just were never in Sunday's ballgame. Seth Johnson with his major league debut in that number five spot, which has been a problem for them. It won't be a problem much longer. There's only you know what, two or three starts left in that in that fifth start before the postseason, and they can shorten the rotation. Johnson's got some talent, He's got a chance to have a future in this organization. I hope he doesn't get too down about this. I'm sure it stings, but I do remember Zach Efflyn years ago having a really poor debut up in Toronto. Bounce back really nice. Has had a great career, So hopefully he just kind of compartmentalizes this as a learning experience.

00:01:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, they might.

00:01:46
Speaker 2: They had the option of calling up Kobe Allard as early as Tuesday. I mean probably wouldn't happen on Tuesday, but they have the option of calling him up and maybe making those final three starts, So keep an eye out for that. A lot of good that happened as you, as we mentioned early on in the road trip, Jim, so, I think now is a good time for our Philly of the Week. Philly the Week, presented by Shy Ventured Sports, get unique throwback Phillies teas hats and sweatshirts from local artists at their shops in Center City, Wayne and Westchester and at Shibe sports dot Com. We've been sporting these for the last couple of weeks. I got my VET vintage tea, Jimmy, what do you got?

00:02:26
Speaker 5: Philadelphia Believe Blazers, the short lived Philadelphia WHA team World Hockey Association that one of my favorite all time players, Derek Sanderson, had a cameo with.

00:02:40
Speaker 2: That's all right, I remember you mentioning that, Well, this is jim I mean really for the Philly Show, for our purposes, there's never there might never be better timing for Philly of the Week because we had Kyle Schwarber on the show on Friday, and I mean he had an amazing week. Coincidental, I'm sure, but you know, maybe he knew that he was coming on the show and he's like, I got a step up for the fellas. Give him something good to talk about.

00:03:03
Speaker 4: So, jem I mean, you know, Kyle Schwarber, Philly of the Week, Philly the Week.

00:03:07
Speaker 2: What do you you agree with me? Or what?

00:03:09
Speaker 3: Oh? Totally? I mean the trip gets off on a really, you know, kind of a poor foot up in Toronto. They fall down six to one, but he hits three home runs to rescue them, and they post one of the biggest wins of the season, one of the most dramatic wins of the season, and get the trip off to a good start. You hit three home runs in one game, you know, the Philly of the Week, even if you're not appearing on the Todd Pod.

00:03:34
Speaker 4: But we had to.

00:03:35
Speaker 3: Even if he didn't hit three home runs, he's probably a Philly of the Week because kind of suck up a little bit. We appreciated him, you know, coming on the Todd Pod.

00:03:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, he was great.

00:03:44
Speaker 2: We had a lot of fun talking with him on Friday, and so, without further ado, here's our talk with Kyle Schwarber. Kyle, thanks man for joining us. We know you guys are super busy, busy time of year for you, so we'll jump right in. Night you guys beat the Braves. Nick Cassidy Allens has this walk off fit after the game. Somebody asks Nick about the atmosphere at the ballpark, Philly's Braves atmosphere at the ballpark, and Nick says, it feels like October is around the corner, and I'm wondering, I imagine you feel the same way, And I'm wondering what you enjoy most about this time of the year when you're playing on a team that is trying to run down a postseason birth, trying to win a world series.

00:04:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I think the.

00:04:30
Speaker 6: You know, the fun thing is right is you're you're you're in that the weather starts cooling down. You know, it's getting you can start, you can feel fall coming in. You can feel kind of the anxiousness of everyone, you know, not just us obviously the fans.

00:04:49
Speaker 1: You can you can feel the energy.

00:04:51
Speaker 6: Football is around the corner, right, you know, everything everything's just starting to come together, and uh, you know, for for us, it's kind of just that that you know, you roll into September and you know that it's kind of that final push and everything is, you know, all the the sentence, all the senses are starting to get uh in tune, just trying to get to that finish line the best that we possibly can. And uh, you know, it's an exciting time. It's been an exciting time the last couple of years, but you know, this year it feels, you know, just a little bit different in terms.

00:05:34
Speaker 1: Of, uh, you know what we're uh.

00:05:37
Speaker 6: You know, knowing that we're capable of doing and how we're going to go about trying to do it.

00:05:42
Speaker 2: So you had the big game on Tuesday. I'm sure Jim and Rubin might want to ask you a little bit more about that. But you said something after the three homer game on Tuesday, said, Saturday night, you know you have been struggling. You went in the cage. You spend a lot of time talking hitting, working on your hitting, and it reminded me of something that I've always wanted to ask you. So a couple of springs ago, I was talking a bunch of your teammate It's about you know, who do you think in this clubhouse enjoys being a baseball player the most? And a lot of the guys mentioned you, and I very specifically mentioned I remember Ranger and Raphael Marshawn. They said, oh Man, schwarber Man, for sure, he loves baseball. He loves baseball. And I remember, I said, Marshan, I go, what do you mean by that? He's like, oh Man, he's always talking. Schwarbs is always talking baseball, always talking baseball, he said in the most admiring way, And Rangers said, oh Man, totally cage clubhouse dugout playing food rooms.

00:06:32
Speaker 1: He loves it.

00:06:32
Speaker 2: He loves talking baseball. So I guess I'm wondering, like, what has you so hooked on baseball that keeps your juices flowing over the grind of the season, Like, what do you like about it most?

00:06:43
Speaker 1: Man? It's a.

00:06:46
Speaker 6: I mean, there's a lot of different things that I like. You know, it's it's just, you know, obviously it's a dream, right Like, That's why I wanted to play, is that you know, I wanted to be killing Griffy Junior growing up. That's who I wanted to be, you know, backwards at T ball, would bat trying to take a swing, hit home runs. You know, obviously you look back at all the the times as a kid, all the you know times that you put in in college and then you know, you get your chance and then you know, I'm in minor league baseball, kind of get fast tracked to the big leagues and then you know, win a World Series at a young age and it was hurt, you know. Then next thing, you know, I found myself in Triple A and then you know back you know, non tendered, get a deal one year, then sign in Philadelphia, right like It's been an interesting road for me. You know, it's you know, there's a lot of people who you know, grind it in you know, the minor leagues and we're down there for five, six, seven years and then they get their opportunity, and you know, it's a way different experience than what I've had. But you know, it's also been a unique road for me, and I think that just kind of gives me a little bit more perspective on the game, and it just allows you to enjoy it more, you know, Like for me, it's like I wish that when I was younger in the big leagues.

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Speaker 1: You know, it was.

00:08:31
Speaker 6: You knew the stuff that you know now, right, Like you realize that, you know, not taking that that oh for four with three punch outs, you know, it's not the end of the world, right that you got to you gotta get to work and you got to learn from it and you get ready to go tomorrow. And uh, you know, so kind of having a different outlook on baseball for for myself, and you know, I think just being able to enjoy it more in terms of that because you know, everything's performance based in this game, right, and you know what if you're performing your team's doing well. But I think that's the great thing too, is that sometimes when you're not performing, your team can do well, and you're able to learn from that and find a way to be productive even when you're not being productive. Say in the box whatever, it is right that you can find many different ways to be a really good baseball player, just if you don't.

00:09:35
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00:09:40
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00:09:49
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00:09:53
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00:10:10
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00:10:31
Speaker 3: You mentioned like, don't let an offer with a couple of punchouts bring you down because it's baseball. And on the flip side, when you have a night like you had the other night in Toronto, when you hit three bombs and you rescue the team from a big deficit, I mean you talk to the writers after the game, you say all.

00:10:52
Speaker 1: The right things.

00:10:54
Speaker 3: But when you get on that bus and get back to the hotel and you are all alone, do you look in the mira after night at night like that and say, man, I am awesome.

00:11:10
Speaker 6: I mean, I wouldn't say that you don't feel good about yourself right like you know, I think you'd be crazy and that you know you're not going home and you're not thinking about Jesus, how did I strike out four times? You're thinking, okay, well that that was a good day.

00:11:25
Speaker 1: At the park.

00:11:25
Speaker 6: And I think the biggest thing about those days is like, Okay, you know you're you're obviously you do something very good at the field, but it's trying to recreate you know, what were the thoughts, what were the what were you doing in your preparation kind of like what was happening at the plate in your mind when you do have the successful things and you know, everyone sorry, everyone wants to talk about ya.

00:11:58
Speaker 1: Oh.

00:11:59
Speaker 6: You know, you hit three home runs, you know, like the last home run, you go up there and I'm just telling myself, put.

00:12:05
Speaker 1: The ball in play, you know.

00:12:06
Speaker 6: That's that's that's why you saw me smiling and then looking into the dugout like I'm just saying, can I just put this freaking ball play already? You know, I've gotten six pitches that I think I could put in play and I thought them off, and you know then it's just funny how baseball works that it just happens to go out of the yard.

00:12:23
Speaker 1: And that's why you know you saw me. You know, I don't really.

00:12:27
Speaker 6: Smile that much when you know, you hit a home run or things like that. You know, I just thought that was just the cliche thing of baseball right there, is you know, you're not trying to do too much and the next thing, you know, a really positive thing happens.

00:12:39
Speaker 1: You put the ball out of the yard.

00:12:41
Speaker 6: And the team gets the lead. But you know, I think that's kind of the personal side, But you know, for me, it's like also there's so many different things that went well for us in that game that you know, that was kind of a really cool I think game for just the whole team in general, is that you know, we you know, we got down and we were able to hold him there and we fought back and got a good result out of it.

00:13:11
Speaker 9: So, Kyle, you talked about being able to be a good baseball player without actually doing something on the field. Are you able to be a little bit more specific I view you as a person who is and I think this is part of your leadership. I view you as a person that's always willing to help somebody or to give somebody of advice, or to see something in a picture when you you know, or how he's trying to work you, or what he's.

00:13:37
Speaker 1: Got going on.

00:13:38
Speaker 10: I think that's the value, one of the many values that you bring to the club as a leadoff guy. Can you talk a little bit more specifically about some of those things that happened in the dugout in game and yeah, and when you're just hanging in the clubhouse, Yeah, Like.

00:13:53
Speaker 6: You know, I think the biggest thing is, you know, obviously when you're when you're in game is trying to pass as much much information along as you can on what you saw or you know, if Marshie, if you know another you know, left handed hitters coming up and we're talking about, you know, hey, what what.

00:14:12
Speaker 1: Was your bat like? How do the pitches kind of move?

00:14:15
Speaker 6: Things like that, you know what you you know, if you were just in a spot and kind of what he ran to? Things like that, Those are those are kind of things of topic. And also you know, just say if something you know, something you know, a negative thing happens. Right, So if there's an error, if there's a you know, a thing that you know you're that I did out on the field or on the base pass or someone else, did you know that, you're able to kind of have a conversation about it without.

00:14:48
Speaker 1: You know, thinking it's end all be all.

00:14:53
Speaker 6: You know, sometimes this game can make you think, you know, especially when you take you know, say you take yourself out of an inning where you thought that you could add more or whatever it is, and you know, I think it's about trying to put yourself in that position again in your mind. And then you're you're kind of thinking through all the different possibilities. Just because something bad happened doesn't mean that it was the wrong decision, you know what I mean. I think those are those are a lot of different things that you're able.

00:15:24
Speaker 1: To put yourself through.

00:15:25
Speaker 6: Is you know, okay, if Sam in left field and it's first and second, you know what was I thinking that? Okay, if there's a base hit hit down the left field line, Am I going to throw the ball to third base?

00:15:38
Speaker 1: Who's on first base? As he fast? Is he's slow? You know?

00:15:42
Speaker 6: Who's running in the box? Do I want how many outs are there? Do I want to keep the double play in order?

00:15:47
Speaker 1: You know? Should I throw the ball at second base in that scenario?

00:15:50
Speaker 6: I think those are different things that you're able to talk about, especially you know, in at bats as well as okay, you know two one count. You know, is there a base open? Is there not a base open? What's he trying to do? Is he pounding the strike zone right now? Or is he not pounding the strike zone? You know, different, different scenarios just running through your mind. I think that's the biggest thing about this game, is being able to have a conversation about different things, especially not when things are just going great. Especially when things are going not as not as good, and uh, you know, I think that this is going to create a good environment for people to kind of learn, you know, if you get put in that situation again, that you can have a little bit better idea when you're going to be in there and kind of put your mind in a better position to have success and thinking. Just when you get back in that position, without even talking about it, all you can remember is that that that last time you failed or whatever it is.

00:16:57
Speaker 4: So I had to want to I want to follow up on that.

00:16:59
Speaker 9: So you went, you guys had an unbelievable start to the season and then you had a really rough go for a while and you weren't playing the caliber baseball at you what are the things that you learned through that process? As you know, you talk about going through the learning process when things don't go great, what kind of what did you learn at I guess personally and as a team.

00:17:22
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I think when you know, obviously we weren't playing our best baseball out of the break. We went through a pretty tough stretch there and it was kind of just it was a weird thing where you know, you see, you know.

00:17:38
Speaker 1: Everyone everything.

00:17:39
Speaker 6: Everyone just kind of wasn't going at the same time, and you know, everyone's kind of grinding there at the same time, and you're trying to find a way to go out there and and win a baseball game, and right it's it's just not easy. And uh, you know, the game's just not easy the first place, and you know, second off, when uh, you know, you feel like there's a vast majority of you know, your lineup that feels like that, you know, we're we're trying to find the find the feel you're swinging again or whatever it is.

00:18:17
Speaker 1: It can definitely be tough.

00:18:18
Speaker 6: And you know there's games that it's like, you know, the clicheed thing of baseball where you know, you pitch and you don't hit, and then there's times when you hit it feels like we weren't pitching, and you know, that's just the I think that's the nature of baseball, and I think that's what brings a club closer, is you know, trying to you know, everything's great when everything's going good, right, everyone's happy, go lucky.

00:18:43
Speaker 1: And you know you're you're winning games.

00:18:47
Speaker 6: But you know, when you're trying to the fight through it and grind through it. You know, I think that's when the club gets closer and everyone's going to try to find a way through it. And you know, not everything's going to be pretty right. You know, it's not going to be be sexy out there, but you know, it kind of takes those little small victories one at a time that you know, you start putting it back together, back together, back together, and the next thing you know, we're playing our brand of baseball again. But yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing too, is and we talked about it in the media, is that you know, saying that we're going to be better off for it that Yeah, you know it stinks right now, Absolutely it stinks. But you know, if say we find ourselves in October and we get our you know, we get punched in the mouth, we're not just going to roll over and quit. You know that we're going to find a way to the put it back together and find a way in the game again.

00:19:51
Speaker 2: I know there's when when the team has been struggling, you seem to have a kind of a calming presence in the clubhouse. I know, you know, we'll come to you everyone once in a while when things are going bad and you have a way of putting things from perspective. I think your teammates can feel that as well. And I remember talking to you last year. Last year you were nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award, and I remember talking to you about when you were a kid, you would kind of ride along with your dad and you'd spend a lot of time at the police station. You said that was your first real glimpse of like camaraderie and family and dealing with adversity. And I'm wondering that experience.

00:20:27
Speaker 1: With your dad.

00:20:28
Speaker 2: Maybe you know, your mom is a nurse first responder, your sister was in the National Guard, and now she's a police officer. Do you think some of that influenced how you handle a clubhouse when things are going great, but also more importantly, when things are going bad.

00:20:46
Speaker 1: I would say so for sure.

00:20:50
Speaker 6: You know, being able to see how you know, my dad interacted with people, how my mom interacted with people, and you know, obviously my sister now and you know, obviously hearing stories, but also to seeing kind of like firsthand experiences of people being able to come up to them and talk to them.

00:21:11
Speaker 1: You know, I think that's a real thing that you know.

00:21:18
Speaker 6: That people don't really get to see on a daily basis, right that. You know, heck, I remember when it's it's still stuck to me to this day.

00:21:27
Speaker 1: I remember when I was like ten to twelve years old.

00:21:30
Speaker 6: I forget how old I was, but we were at a gas station and me and my dad were and this guy came up and we were at the pump and the guy came out to my dad.

00:21:38
Speaker 1: He goes, hey, you are you Greg.

00:21:40
Speaker 6: And he goes, yeah, he goes, I don't know if you remember remember me or not, but you arrest me, you know, thirty years thirty years ago or whatever. And you know, they they talked about they had a conversation and uh, you know, and it was great right like that. You know, you just see, you know, you see something that happened and negatively the someone and my dad's probably someone who made it feel negative for him. You know, he he's obviously going to jail, but also they're sitting there being able to have a conversation about it, right Like.

00:22:18
Speaker 1: That's I think that's such a big part of.

00:22:24
Speaker 6: You know, not just you know, that line of work baseball, you know, I just feel like in general, right like being able to listen to each other and being able to.

00:22:35
Speaker 1: Talk about different things and be open to that. That's that's positive, right, That's going to be a good thing to have. And you know seeing how.

00:22:45
Speaker 6: You know, yeah, being in my dad's work after school and getting that you know clubhouse feel, you know, seeing how everyone interacts with each other, and seeing how you know, my mom my sister, you know, how they're you know, strong, and how they did a lot of different things when at different times of their lives that we're very challenging, and you know, you see those things and it's like why you know, you can you can put those things that you saw when.

00:23:19
Speaker 1: You were younger into you know, things that I'm doing now.

00:23:25
Speaker 6: And I have a great amount of respect for obviously my family and that's why you know, I'm the person I am today, and that's why I wanted to start a charity, is you know, one the kind of represent them, but also to that kind of just the daily challenges that first responders go through and their families go through, and you know, and shed light on a lot of positive things that they do.

00:23:51
Speaker 2: I mean, your charity is Schwarber's Neighborhood Heroes. You started what in twenty seventeen and your wife page right, and you've you raise over six hundred grand, if I'm not mistaken.

00:24:05
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, so we I think we're I think we're over six hundred grand in the last two years in Philadelphia.

00:24:11
Speaker 4: And since well that's just the last two years.

00:24:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, and since.

00:24:17
Speaker 6: I think since twenty seventeen, we're definitely over a million dollars raised, you know, which is which is awesome, And that kind of all goes back into where we're at as me and me and Paige are at in our communities, right that everyone gets to see us as baseball players and only.

00:24:36
Speaker 1: See on the field.

00:24:37
Speaker 6: But you know, this is you know, Philadelphia is where my kids are growing up. You know, they're they're spending the majority of their time here in Philly, and obviously we go back home in the off seasons, but you know, we're spending six seven months a year in Philly and that's you know, that's home much techically. So you know, you want to impact your community, your community, not just in terms of playing baseball, but you know, then you can kind of give people a little bit of an inside look of you away from baseball and things that you're passionate about and things that you really care for. And you know, we want to try to create as many positive experiences for individuals and families and kids, uh, you know who might not be as lucky as I was when I was growing up. That you know, dad, mom got to come home every night, sister comes home.

00:25:39
Speaker 1: That you know that we can try to put.

00:25:45
Speaker 6: Smiles on faces and as that's just for a day, if that's for a week, a month, a year, or for a lifetime, that's that's what we're trying to do.

00:25:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, that that is great stuff, and that's important stuff that's transcends baseball. It's about human.

00:26:03
Speaker 1: Stuff. I mean.

00:26:05
Speaker 3: Specifically with baseball, it almost seems like you bring some first responder ideals to the clubhouse when a guy's having a tough night. There's been times like a guy might have a tough night. There'll be times I've seen you at his locker mentoring him. I think somebody told me a story about Alec Bawm when he was kind of a young player, maybe in twenty twenty two, and he had a tough night, and you pulled up a chair and said, let me tell you about the night I struck out four times with men on base you know, this relatable stuff. It's almost like nurturing. And I'm sure it has a lot to do with your background. Is that stuff you enjoy And how impactful can that be on a clubhouse over the long season when we know this game is so rooted in failure.

00:27:01
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I think it kind of goes back to what I talked about that, you know, my my kind of journey to where I'm at right now as a baseball player that you know a lot of high expectations. Uh, you know, obviously for myself one that I that I put on myself and expectations outside of of myself too. And you know, I come in twenty fifteen and come in mid midway through the year and you know, have a have a decent start, and we find our way in the playoffs and make our way to the NLCS and have a good postseason. You know, everything's excited, everything's looking up. Sixteen comes third game of the year, I get hurt, find myself in the World Series and after playing you know, playing three games and was able to help contribute to a team that was you know, the best in the National League and obviously the best in baseball, and yeah, then going to seventeen thinking that everything's gonna go great that you know, just win a World Series. You go into the World Series, you got got seven hits and how many freaking baths? Right, like, yeah, this is gonna be great. And the next thing, I'm in Triple A and you feel like everything's like you know, at the time, for me, it's like you feel like everything was like You're like, what's your You're questioning yourself, You're questioning your ability, You're questioning a lot of different things, and you know, it was kind of just like, Okay, what can I do about this? You know, am I gonna out or am I going to work and try to get my way right back to the big leagues?

00:28:57
Speaker 1: You know.

00:28:57
Speaker 6: So I found myself I'm just like, you know what, I'm gonna work every single day and try to get myself back quick. I was fortunate to get back up there pretty soon, you know, have a bat, you know, have a decent few good years there. Then twenty twenty happens, not a good year. Found myself non tendered and going to Washington on a on a one year and uh, you know that's kind of when I really got my opportunity to just go out there and play every single day and kind of found my found my own right that, you know, that's the player I thought I was. And you know, you get traded and get traded to Boston, walk into a team that was in first place.

00:29:43
Speaker 1: And you know, you go to the.

00:29:49
Speaker 6: Postseason again and next thing you know, you're in Philadelphia with a roster of stars, and you know it's just like okay, Like for me, I'm just gonna be my you know, I wanted to be myself. And you see all these young guys that we had in our in our clubhouse and in our room. You know, you see Boehmer, you see Bryce and Stott.

00:30:12
Speaker 1: You know, obviously we trade for marsh you know.

00:30:15
Speaker 6: Now you look at our team where you have Rojas, you know, and you see guys who keep getting years and years under the belt of postseason experience and uh success. So you know it's you know, all the success is great, but also too is making sure those failures when those failures do happen, that you know, we're not carrying those into the into the next day. You know, I think that's the biggest thing, right Like, when I look back, it's like man, I probably carried so many different freaking things on my back that I couldn't even have success.

00:30:49
Speaker 1: For the next for the next week, you know. I mean that, like the.

00:30:54
Speaker 6: Great Ken rivesa. He's a he's a great uh mental skills.

00:30:57
Speaker 1: He's passed away now.

00:30:59
Speaker 6: And I remember we're in LA and playing the Dodgers and it was seventeen. I was struggling and he comes to my hotel room. He goes, hey, what are you doing? And like sitting in my hotel, he goes, I'm coming up to your room. I go, okay, Ken, and then comes in my room. We're sitting there and we're talking. You know, he goes, you know if anyone new can. Ken's got this great voice and does a great personality, and he goes.

00:31:26
Speaker 1: Well, Kyle, I want you to go ahead and get act like you're getting in the box. So I get in the box. He goes, take a swing. I take a swing. He goes, great, now turn around. I turn around. He jumps on my back and he goes, now, take a swing. He goes, you feel how weighted town you are? I feel that, And you know it's funny. You laugh about it, then you think about it.

00:31:52
Speaker 6: You're like, man, you know what, Like it's true, you know that it's hard to take a swing when I got this guy in my back.

00:32:00
Speaker 1: What about you know, the last ten outs I made are the bad call.

00:32:05
Speaker 6: You know, I think I'm the umpire made a bad call me that bat, and I'm still thinking about it in the about, right, Like those are those are all different external things that.

00:32:15
Speaker 1: Your mind can go to.

00:32:16
Speaker 6: Besides, you know what, you've got to be so hyper focused on what you're doing at the plate. Uh, when you know ninety eight's coming at you or an eighty five slider or whatever it is, it's coming at you now, and that you know you need all your focus going into that at bat and uh, you know if you're thinking about any other thing, that it's going to make it just ten times harder. So you know, if I'm able to you know now that I've gone through those things and I've experienced them, and I've always said experience is a big thing, right, that things that you experience are are big learning points. And if you you can kind of help just be an ear and you know, make someone feel like they're they're just the only person going through it. You know that no I've been through it too, and you know, I'm I'm sure everyone else. You know, all the biggest names in the game, you know, Harp, Trey j T. You know, our roster's gone through it. You know, everyone goes through it, you know. But sometimes it makes you feel like you're on island. And if you can make the island full of people and you can find your way off the island with a lot of different people, that's a lot more enjoyable than does you floating on a rap by yourself, you know.

00:33:38
Speaker 1: What I mean. That's great stuff.

00:33:40
Speaker 9: I we have something in common because I did work with Kenravision myself when I was with the Angels, and and he's a spectacular person.

00:33:48
Speaker 1: God bless him.

00:33:49
Speaker 9: He's no longer with us, but but there was a lot of he impacted so many people. I'm really glad that you brought him up. I didn't know that you had had interaction with him. That's that's really really cool. I wanted to just to talk about that island. So I think part of what I like about you guys is went off the field, and I think I felt like this when I a lot of teams that have had a lot of success that off the field, you also like really care about each other, like to be around each other. I think part of that process for you guys is being on the golf course. It seems like that's something that you guys like really enjoy doing. Talk about you know how that has developed over the years, because I know there's a lot of veterans to go and play golf.

00:34:31
Speaker 1: A lot of people say, hey, you shouldn't be playing golf during.

00:34:34
Speaker 9: The season, but it's actually something that Rob Thompson likes.

00:34:38
Speaker 1: And I think that you guys seem to bond with that.

00:34:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I think you're onto something where, right, Like if I enjoy walking into the clubhouse every single day, that's a good work environment. And you know, I'm pretty positive, I'm one hundred almost.

00:35:01
Speaker 1: I'm going to say ninety nine point nine percent positive.

00:35:03
Speaker 6: Everyone in our everyone on our team looks forward walking into that clubhouse because you know what that every single person is going to laugh that day. You know that something, something stupid, something funny is going to be said that everyone's going to enjoy it and you And that comes to the off the field side too, right, that we spend so much time with each other, you know, it's sometimes it can be sickening, right, think that you know, we're we're with a bunch of dudes for this much time and you're away from your your wife, your kids, you know, your your friends back home, your family back home.

00:35:39
Speaker 1: Right that.

00:35:42
Speaker 6: You know, it's it really is a family, you know, because that's that's what that's what we do. And the more, you know, say a lot of it's more on the off day away, right, you know, everyone wants you know, this is a family. This is one of the few teams I've been on that a lot of young families on our team, right, and you know, a lot of kids, a lot of babies, right that it's really cool to see. And everyone loves spending time with their family. And then you know, you hit the road trip and you know you.

00:36:16
Speaker 1: Have that off day.

00:36:18
Speaker 6: You know, we gotta find that we got to find that boy that you know, obviously we miss our families, but we're gonna spend a lot of time with each other and we're gonna enjoy it.

00:36:26
Speaker 1: And that's out on the golf.

00:36:27
Speaker 6: Course a lot of the time, and you know, that's competing away from baseball, and that's competing with each other, and there's smack talk. There's fun, there's uh you know, there there's good times to be had out there, and you know it's we're we're just competing and laughing and trying to act like we're good at something that we're not good at, and.

00:36:53
Speaker 1: Uh, you know, and it's fun.

00:36:56
Speaker 6: And yeah, like you just got to find, you know, not just always talking about baseball.

00:37:01
Speaker 1: Is we don't always talk about baseball.

00:37:03
Speaker 6: You know, if we're talking about golf, we're talking about hunting, we're talking about your family, we're talking about whatever it is, right, Like, that's that's how you keep making relationships through the game, and that's how you find, you know, coming into the clubhouse even more enjoyable at.

00:37:20
Speaker 1: The end of the day.

00:37:21
Speaker 6: You know, you talk about what happened on the off day or you know how I shanked a fifty yard shot or I took freaking three three swings at a chip around the green. You know, like like it's fun to talk about. And that's how memories and that's how friendships are going to be made and last through baseball.

00:37:44
Speaker 2: And then you get to do in the off season on your fantasy football squad.

00:37:48
Speaker 6: Right that's already we already had some some smack smack talk going on yesterday.

00:37:54
Speaker 3: So I remember in uh in September twe twenty twenty two, a couple of years ago, you guys used to do that curveball machine thing early in the afternoon, play the game and kind of hoot and holler and get on each other. And I remember writing a story about it and asking you about it, and you said, well, it brings us together. We're having a lot of fun. And one of the quotes in the stories was the good teams are close. The good teams are close. And I think that had a lot to do with the way you guys rallied in September twenty two and made it to the World Series, and you've carried it over in twenty three and twenty four. You guys are close, You have chemistry.

00:38:34
Speaker 2: You like it.

00:38:35
Speaker 3: Not only are good players, you're good guys are close working toward a common goal.

00:38:38
Speaker 1: I mean it's almost do.

00:38:41
Speaker 3: You feel like because you have that closeness, it's almost like having a little extra weapon in your bag.

00:38:49
Speaker 1: I would say so for sure, right like yo, if.

00:38:56
Speaker 6: You know, like I said, if we walk in that clubhouse every single day and you're forward to walk through that door. You know, that's already one thing that's on our side, you know. And I think the other side of that is too, is that, like we said, when the you know, when everything's going great, it's awesome, you know, and then when there's some things that that might not be going our way, that we're able to have those conversations with each other and we're able to kind of figure it out. And I think that comes back to the relationship side of things.

00:39:31
Speaker 1: That everyone knows in the room that.

00:39:37
Speaker 6: We all one love each other, we all care about each other, and that we all believe in each other, and we have the most respect for each other in that room, and that if we can you know, have fun on a daily basis, we can be accountable to each other, and we can be business like about it as well, that you know, it's gonna be really hard at the end of the day the go out there and beat us, right like, you know, we we know that there's really good players in the room, and that if we're doing everything that we know that we can do on a daily basis, So that doesn't mean going four for four, you know, that means, you know, just going out there and taking our bats, having our bats, being hard outs, the way our pitchers go out there, and the attack the zone and playing defense that we know that we can play. That it's gonna be hard to beat us. You know, teams are going to beat us, right, it's baseball. You play so many games that you know, no one's going one hundred and sixty two and oh.

00:40:48
Speaker 1: That you're gonna go out there.

00:40:49
Speaker 6: You're going to have great wins, you're gonna have bad wins, you're gonna have.

00:40:54
Speaker 1: Bad losses, and you're just gonna lose. You know, it's just how the game goes. And you know, I.

00:41:01
Speaker 6: Think that's why the course of the year is so important, because you know, you figure, you figure those things out, and then you get to the most important time of the year and you put all those things that happened throughout a course of the year, and now everything's magnified in the you know, trying to win, you know, heck, for for us, hopefully we're trying to win what is that four, four and three, so eleven games, you know, and there's two extra games added on now with the wild card, trying to win thirteen games if that happens. But you know, that's the most important time of the year, and you know, trying to win eleven to thirteen games after winning, say, you know, we're what eighty three wins right now, you know, it's so it's such a small number and minu but that's the best part about baseball in that time of the year is because it's just the most pure game. It's the most pure it's the purest form of baseball, and all you're trying to do at the end of the day is just beat the other team and get to where you want to be.

00:42:08
Speaker 1: That's awesome.

00:42:08
Speaker 4: Well, Kyle, Kyle, thanks so much for the time.

00:42:11
Speaker 2: I want to mention again your work with Schwarber's Neighborhood Heroes. You can go to you have a website schwarbers Neighborhood Heroes dot org. You can donate to the cause. You obviously post your events that you have. You had the block party this summer, of course, and that was super successful. So check that out. I mean, I see you talking to these guys when they come to the ballpark all the time.

00:42:33
Speaker 1: It's it's a.

00:42:33
Speaker 2: Really really cool thing that you do, you know, And and so I wanted to mention that Schwarber's Neighborhood Heroes dot Org. They announce the Roberto Clementary Award nominees on Monday. We're taping on Friday, so we'll find out if you get nominated for that. Obviously deserving if you are, and if you are or whoever it is on the Phillies, you can vote for that. I think you can vote for that at MLB dot com for for the Roberto Clemente Award winner.

00:42:58
Speaker 1: So check that out.

00:42:59
Speaker 4: But Kyle Man, thanks a lot.

00:43:00
Speaker 1: Again.

00:43:01
Speaker 2: We truly appre as where people are around every day. We understand how valuable your free time is. So the fact that you hopped on with us.

00:43:08
Speaker 1: We really do, truly truly appreciate it. So thanks a lot, Man, I.

00:43:12
Speaker 6: Appreciate Thank you. Guys, appreciate you so much. So let's keep pushing and see where this thing takes us.

00:43:20
Speaker 4: All right, Thank you again to Kyle Schwarber for the time. Jim when he when.

00:43:26
Speaker 2: You listen back to that interview, what kind of anything jump out at either you really particularly liked.

00:43:30
Speaker 3: I love the whole thing, you know. I like where he talked about they had that tough time, you know, in the middle of the season for a couple of months, and he said, you know, you learn to deal with adversity. In case you get punched in the mouth or punched in the face in October, you know how to deal with it. And I also like the line of questioning you had about his uh, his foundation and how he helps first responders. And his parents were both first responders, his sister is a first responder. And you know lo and behold Wednesday at the ballpark, since is Bank Park his first responders night, so perfect timing for that.

00:44:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, no doubt.

00:44:10
Speaker 2: I liked the story that he told about the mental skills coach when he was really struggling with the Cubs.

00:44:15
Speaker 4: The guy jumps on his back, that's going to take a swing.

00:44:19
Speaker 2: Brilliant stuff, you know, like you never think about this stuff happening, but it happened in his hotel room when he was playing for the Chicago Cubs, so definitely made an impact on him. Well that was It was great, Thanks again to Kyle. Like I said, Ruben, Jim and I will be back on Wednesday to talk more Phillies.

00:44:34
Speaker 4: Jim, I'll smell you later, buddy. This is the Philly Show.

00:44:44
Speaker 2: If you haven't already, please subscribe to The Philly Show wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch us on our YouTube channel. If you like what we do, give us a review, Tell a friend. Catch Ruben, Jim and Me on Phillies Nation TV. He presented by Valley Forge Tourism. New episodes air an hour before every Saturday Phillies game on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Replays air throughout the week, and on philliesmation dot com. Get more of Reuben's analysis during before and after Phillies games on NBC Sports Philadelphia, on the Sports Radio ninety four, WIP Morning Show, and MLB Network. Rejim at the Allcity Network at allphl y dot com. Find more of me at MLB dot com, the philliesb Newsletter, and occasionally on Mlbnetwork