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"Cowboy Up" With World Series Champion Kevin Millar

March 23, 2020
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In this Episode
Kevin Millar played first base for the 2004 World Series winning Boston Red Sox. He sits down with TaylorMade to discuss his decade-long major league career, his love for golf and how the "Cowboy Up" chant got started.
Transcription

Chris Trottie: Hello podcasters. Welcome to another episode of the Team TaylorMade Podcast, coming to you from Carlsbad, California at the Kingdom. For our returning listeners, welcome back. And for anyone new, thanks for joining us. My name is Chris Trott and I work out on the PGA tour servicing the greatest players in the game for all their equipment needs. Today, I'm joined by a former major league baseball player who was part of the World Series championship winning Boston Red Sox team in 2004. And since retiring in 2010, he successfully transitioned into the media world and is the current analyst on the MLB Network. And he also co-hosts Intentional Talk. Kevin Millar, welcome to the podcast and welcome to the Kingdom.

Kevin Millar: Chris thank you man. I didn't want to break the news to you guys, but I think I'm moving here. So, I'm going to stay right in this office for life because this is like heaven.

Chris Trottie: Well this office as well, I mean if you look at some of the pictures around here, it is pretty much heaven. I mean we've got Pebble and we've got Augusta. Let's kick this off. Have you played either of those places yet?

Kevin Millar: Yes. So Pebble I've played, we used to play in this world series of golf every December. I think they just kind of went off last week, but I didn't go the last few years. But I'll tell you what, you can't beat that place. When you get a chance to play Spyglass and Pebble and Spanish Bay and all that stuff. But I will tell you this, Augusta, I got invited two years ago and I was always told, "You can't ask to play it." Because that's like a no-no. I'm like, "What do you mean you can't ask to play Augusta?" So, whatever.

And the more I started getting into golf, because once I was done playing in 2010 I got into golf. So I didn't want to play Augusta when you have no idea how to golf. That'd be kind of weird. So two years ago I got invited from a buddy of mine out of New York and I'm going to tell you right now, it was more than you think. Because I didn't know if it was going to be stuffy, you couldn't do anything else. Some of this place you go in, it's like hats off, shoes off. You don't know what the rules are.

Chris Trottie: What time of the year was it?

Kevin Millar: This was in... Man, that's a great question. I don't know, it's May? Does that sound right?

Chris Trottie: Yeah. So premium condition just after Augusta.

Kevin Millar: Yes, it was two weeks after Augusta. You're exactly right. End of April maybe, but we went out there and I'll tell you right now, it was awesome. It was awesome and better than you thought.

Chris Trottie: What about Amen Corner. How did you go through there?

Kevin Millar: You know what? I had to birdie 18 and that was the year that Sergio I think won. And that putt he had to make right to left in 18... Basically I had the same putt. So it was kind of cool. And so I hit a good wedge in there. And they ended up birdie 18 break to shoot 79 from the member's tees. We weren't in the big boy tees, but it was kind of cool. I was like, "Oh wow this is cool!"

Chris Trottie: Now we say you hit wedge in there. So I was actually, I had a look out there with Perry who was giving you a fit in one of our fitters here at the kingdom. You've got some serious speed, 170 ball speed. So I can see why you're hitting wedge into the last. I mean you must, if you're playing member's tees and all these celebrity events that you're playing in at these golf courses, you've got to be peppering wedges into a lot of holes with that sort of speed, right?

Kevin Millar: It's funny because you struggle like most of the time the wood side of it is my strength. I can hit my driver comp where I want to and decently far. It's the rest of the stuff, it's learning how to get the ball in the hole. But yeah, there's a lot of wedge, a lot of 9-irons, a lot of situations like that. I think the struggles come on the par-threes at 195 and 210 and then it gets a little bit squirrely out there.

Chris Trottie: So how much about this fitting process do you understand in terms of looking at your numbers? Because straight away I literally just had a snapshot, but I think what you're going to get in your next set is going to massively change that. What do you understand when you look at a trackman and you hit balls down the range here at the Kingdom about your numbers? Did anything jump out at you that changed today before you came into the fitting and when you left?

Kevin Millar: Yeah. It's interesting because you're talking about, you don't want spin, but yet you do want spin with your irons. Because my irons that I'm hitting now were great irons 790 and I think the better you start getting, he was explaining to me is that you want to have a little softer iron, you want more spin on your irons, you don't want to hit a 6-iron 220 and have it roll into trouble. Most of the stuff in golf, you keep the course in front of you, you're going to survive. And I think sometimes that was my problem. I don't have a whole lot of spin, thin iron play and the next thing it's knows bouncing in the rough.

But today it was interesting. You don't want to get up there and have a 6-iron at 26 degrees. So he actually bent it back to 31 degrees as an example. And then we went back to 29 degrees. But you saw the difference and you're absolutely able to feel it. And I think that's... We don't have knowledge like amateurs that love golf, we get out there, you grab a set of clubs, you're like, okay Tommy. But to actually come out here and see and understand what it's doing, because that's the way it was in baseball. You got to figure it out.

Chris Trottie: You've passed all of the equipment questions immediately. Well done.

Kevin Millar: Thank you so much.

Chris Trottie: You even listed the six iron lofts. Fantastic. So you find yourself here in San Diego. What's brought you down to San Diego? What's on the agenda? How did you, other than coming here, and I know you've been frothing about coming. The boys had been telling me you've been listening to it on your shows, but what brought you here? Is there any other business you're in town for?

Kevin Millar: I am. So Tyler Brett, my buddy, my new favorite person in the world.

Chris Trottie: Everyone's.

Kevin Millar: I almost cried on the plane. I was taking off last night with a four and a half hour delay and basically we got in, but... We got the winter meetings right here. And so we all root for Major League Baseball. Winter means being in great places, right? Sometimes it's in D.C. At this time of year it's not great. We've had Nashville, which is great, but San Diego, this is where you want the All-Star game.

This is where you want the winter meetings. This is where you want the World Series. So I'm hoping for the Padres to get good, but we're here for the winter meetings and it's really a unique situation because as a player, you don't know any of the stuff goes on. Then you work on this side of it and you actually have a job and you're suddenly going now every agent, every owner, every front office guy and all these meetings are going on and they're doing multimillion dollar deals over a couple of vodkas and some steak dinners. I'm like, "This is amazing."

Chris Trottie: Why wasn't I in this years ago?

Kevin Millar: Yeah! Now I get it! We're arguing over a million bucks over three vodkas and a big old filet. But it's neat to see everybody involved in baseball's here. Even equipment guys, the clubhouse guys. They're trying to get new products, they're trying to get new helmets. We're trying to make it safer. So it's that constant thing, but that's what we're here for.

Chris Trottie: Okay, cool. And it's all admin for the following season. Obviously, as you can tell from my accent, baseball is not a primary game for me. So it's all admin. It's all getting everything planned as we get going here? Or how is it, what is ... what exactly are these winter meetings?

Kevin Millar: Yeah, it's a great question. Nobody really knows other than it might be an excuse to go out with the boys and act like you're really busy. These front office guys, a lot of them are my buddies and they'll have their 8 or 10 cronies and next thing you know they get a big old steak dinner plan because we're going to talk about, we need some pitching help, we need a four hole hitter, which would be the middle of the lineup guy. But it really is easier to negotiate contracts when you have every team in the same building. Right? So flying to New York, if you want to sign with the Yankees, for instance, if you're a free agent, you have to fly to New York and then you're going to go check out Chicago. And then you have to fly to LA, but right here, everybody’s in the same spot.

Chris Trottie: Okay, interesting. Now you put in different towns there. Looking over your career, you traveled to a lot of different towns. But I think you may have said in this podcast already, golf didn't come until later in life or did you capitalize on going to Florida, Baltimore, Boston, Toronto, all these places were you playing any golf during your career?

Kevin Millar: No. If I had one regret, it's, I didn't play golf while I played. I look at guys like John Smoltz. I always tell him, "I'll trade you my Rolodex." He's got every PGA pro in his phone. I said, I'll give you Aflac and all these guys, these celebrity guys, their fans of the Red Sox, right? Or you go play for the Cubs you might meet Bill Murray and those guys you go play for- There's always celebrities that are fans of your sport. John Smoltz did it right. He's got every single pro shop. Every course in his phone. For instance, I'll give you an example. We're in the World Series in Kansas City. A couple of years ago, it's the Giant's in Kansas City and he's like, "Hey, we're going to go golfing." And he's like my golf. He loves golf as much as I do.

Chris Trottie: He sounds like a good hookup to have.

Kevin Millar: Oh, he's a golf groupie. I'm a golf groupie. He's a golf groupie, but he's really good at golf. But the point is we ended up 30 miles outside the city of Kansas City and it's like Augusta. I'm like, “how do you know this place?” But I mean the little courses that are all over this country, it's what really is intriguing. Because there's so many just plush spots. But John Smoltz is the man that way.

Chris Trottie: So have you played ...I have to ask it because it's coming up in my mind and the passion for golf you've got, it's just oozing out. Have you played much in Europe? Have you managed to get any links golf in St. Andrew's or anywhere like that? I mean-

Kevin Millar: Never. I haven't been there yet.

Chris Trottie: That's a trip. If in your golfing development, if it's only really come on since 2010, you got to make that trip, get the boys, get over there, some links golf, especially now with this new spin you've got in these irons, you're just going to be flighting them like Tiger.

Kevin Millar: See I went to Nova Scotia, we're trying to do a golf trip every year with some boys, right? Went to Nova Scotia and played Cabot. And I'm going to tell you right now, it was as close to links style you're going to see. It's like you got one course that was almost like Pebble, against the water and you've got the hills and then you've got the links style that was ... it was pretty amazing to kind of see how that works. And you can actually putt from about 50 yards out.

Chris Trottie: 100%, 100%`. So you mentioned our man, Tyler Brett here. He helps out with all the podcasts and puts these great podcasts together for the team TaylorMade folks to listen to. He is also a Yankees fan and we have to go there.

Kevin Millar: I know. Can we get security guys? They going to escort him out of here right now.

Chris Trottie: Exactly. We have to go there and he's written me a beautiful brief here, which I feel like I'm going to pain him to read through it. But we want to hear and talk about 2004 going back to winning four in a row and then the World Series, 1918 Boston hadn't won anything. I actually also spoke to Paul Demkowski, who does wedge work for Tiger and works for Mike Taylor on irons for Tiger and stuff. He's a Boston guy, so when he knew you were in here, he gave me some insight and he's like, "Wow, you've got to get on this, guys want to hear." Talk us through how that went down and what it meant to be in Boston around there and to be part of that great city when they went on and was so successful?

Kevin Millar: You know what? It was remarkable. I loved that rivalry back then and I know Tyler probably could sit back as a Yankee fan, the Red Sox, Yankee rivalry back in 03, 04, 05. It was kind of what it's about. It seems like we got in a fight every other series. I always joked around because they were the tall good looking. They looked like Tyler. Rich, just handsome. We had Jeter, Giambi, Sheffield, A-Rod, whoever you want to say Bernie Williams. And then you have the Red Sox come in. It was like Bill Miller, Orlando Cabrera, Mark Bellhorn, Kevin Millar, Jason Varitek, some bad body, just kind of normal guys.

But it's what made the rivalry great because we matched up here and there, superstar wise, we had the Pedro Martinez and the Curt Shillings and Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz turned into a star. But you looked at the Yankees. It was the mighty Yankees and that 2004 season, it never happened in any sport being down three games in a seven game series. And basically we were down three games in a seven game series. So we had to win four straight. And it was remarkable of how that happened.

Chris Trottie: Just reading the paragraph has inspired me to go back and find out and learn about it because baseball is a whole new game for me being from England. But I'm inspired just to hear about it and read about it. But you talk about this rivalry and it sounds like you played off being the underdog. Was that something that was discussed in the locker room? Like boys, we're the underdog. They're the New York Yankees, we're- Boston's a major team, I get it. But did you play on that? Because we talk about it with kids sometimes in AJGA kids. And who's the scrappy fighter one? Was that something that you tried to use as team advantage?

Kevin Millar: Yeah. You know what's great in sports, right? You have about two or three superstars per team. Let's just say. A superstar here and there. And then you've got a 25 man roster. So you have 23 guys that got to fill out that roster. Right? Darn good ballplayers. Darn good golfers. I mean, how many golfers on the Web.com that you're talking about a 10 foot putt is the difference from being on a leer jet making 40 million or sitting over, grinding out 65,000 the Web.com tour having to win, right? That's kind of like baseball. You have your couple stars but you just have a group of guys that you've got to figure this out. What's your strength? Who are you, what's your identity? You hear that right? Did we hit the ball out of the ballpark? Are we a fast team, do we pitch?

And I think we kind of did take on the underdog with the Yankees because it was just, they were all making $15 to $25 million a year. And our average salary in the infield is probably a million and a half to 2 million bucks. And it was just ... so you knew that we were the underdogs. No one's going to say, "Hey Kevin Millar is better than Jason Giambi" yeah, I get that. And no one's going to say Billy Miller is better than Alex Rodriguez, but Billy Miller was a batting title champion in 2003. And you couldn’t even, you probably would have never even known that. But this guy won the American- hit ninth for us. So we had that underdog feel. I think because we have that normalcy about us that we were at the bars and people, there was no VIP limos or leer jets. It was kind of like we’re guys, we're going to go after the game and have a beer and mingle with the fans.

Chris Trottie: Now you were also bringing a lot behind the game. Like yeah, I get it on the field you did your thing. But it's also well written, and again talking to the lads around here, what you brought to the team was massive. Did you recognize that? Did you play on that? Did you realize when you go to a game how you get everyone together to hustle and get after this? That's a big part of me as a player.

Kevin Millar: Yeah. Leadership's a big deal. Right. I was more of a vocal leader-

Chris Trottie: Did you turn it on though, or was it there every time you went?

Kevin Millar: It's kind of who I was. I've always been, I was never drafted, so I was always kind of an underdog role anyways. And to try and make the big leagues as an undrafted player is not easy because financially if you and I own a team and we got Tyler, we give him 1 million bucks and then we got Tom over here that's signed for $500 we want the million dollar player to succeed because that's the business side of it, right?

Chris Trottie: I get it.

Kevin Millar: So you have a longer noose, I like to say, but when you're an undrafted player, you're an underdog, you're having to battle all these first rounders all the way through. And I think that gave me the appreciation that every day I was in the big leagues I appreciated it. And I want everybody to understand that. Even the great guys, I want you to understand that this is an honor and this is a ... you're blessed to be here and take care of the guys around you, the clubhouse kids, because you get to a point where money brings power and then we become a little cooler than the rest of the people and you forget that that's not the case.

It's kind of who you are, it's like take away salaries, but who are you as a person? I don't think we do that enough as society. It's like, how's this guy? Where are you from? What are you doing? Because it's so much. We're in our own little worlds and we're on our own devices. But I was always kind of just, it was always that way because I had to kind of fight for playing time and I had to fight to get there and I'd fight to stay there. And you still just, you couldn't run. I always joked around, I couldn't run, field, hit or throw. It's the five tools they judge you on.

But I always said they need a sixth tool, which is your heart. And that's the toughest one to judge, right? Because you're going to have five foot seven guy or five foot six like Jose Altuve who's an MVP. And then you can have a guy like Aaron Judge who's six foot seven, nine, just beautiful man. So that's what makes the sport of baseball amazing and golf.

Chris Trottie: You just can't measure it, can you? It's the same across everything, just in these sports. That's what we keep seeing. You can't measure it. So on that, we know that through social and the world it is, we know you're a parent, we know your kids are into sports and you're obviously around and kids are impressionable as we all are, want to hear your thoughts on a great career. What do you say to those younger kids coming into sports? Be it golf, baseball, soccer, football, what do you say to them? How do you box? Is there something that we can package up to help them be the best, because some of these kids have got such great aspirations as we all did when we were younger. And that you've listed the five things, but then you've listed, Hey, heart is when you can't measure. What do you say to these kids to give them something for the future to achieve what they want to do.

Kevin Millar: I always tell kids and high school kids like, what are you doing when coach isn't watching? Okay, we can all line up and do sprints and do 10 sprints and you'd be first and all that stuff. But what are you doing when coach isn't watching? I always tell my kids, I've got a 12 year old and a 13 year old actually 13 and 14 now. But I said, do 25 pushups before you go to bed. Just knock that, knock out 20,25, get your grips, get your grip strength, but do stuff to make you better. So love it, believe in yourself. I don't care, scouts going to tell you it's easy to say, Hey, yeah, compare them to Tiger Woods. But there's only one Tiger Woods, there's only one Alex Rodriguez, there's only one Barry Bonds. You can't get compared to stars.

Just believe in yourself. And if you want to play and make it, you can. Because there's many times you're told you can't do it, right? But you keep plugging away and it just takes one break. And life's about timing. So I think that's, I always tell kids, you can do whatever you want, but what are you doing when the coach isn't watching? Or your mom and dad isn't watching. Do you want it or do you ... I lived it. I slept it, I ate it. I wanted to play in the big leagues my whole life. So even Alex says, "What are you going to do if you didn't work out?" "I'm going to play in the big league." Yeah but what are you going to do? I mean, the odds of that, I mean, I'm going to play in the big leagues. So it was kind of, I didn't know what was going to do.

I might have been a fireman afterwards, I don't know. But I know I wanted to play Major League Baseball because I love the sport. I love the game. And that's just, I always tell kids, just work, man, work and work. And if you want to do it, you can do it. You have all of the knowledge to learn and know these days in all sports. It's just a matter of some kids think that, ah, daddy will get me there. Mommy will get me there. Everything's select. Everything's ... that's cute. But at the end of the day, do you want it? And I think that every kid can ask that question by themselves.

Chris Trottie: What do you make about? That's awesome and interesting. So, What do you make about multiple sports and kids playing? Should they specialize early? And then what do you make about participation trophies and making kids soft?

Kevin Millar: That's the big, Hey, we're softer than hummus now as a society. That's just the way it is. You can't say anything. You can't joke anymore. You can't, I mean, you're going to get in trouble. You're going to offend somebody. At the end of the day, play every sport. This whole specialized stuff it drives me nuts because I grew up playing every sport. I stunk at basketball, but I wanted to play with my buddies. I was a terrible quarterback in high school. I played baseball. I never hit a home run until I was a junior in high school over the fence. So Mark Kotsay, who's from San Diego here was an undrafted kid out of high school, never drafted. But then three years later out of Cal State, Fullerton was number one pick for the Florida Marlins. Things change. We all mature differently, right?

But go play everything. You don't even know what you like at ten. There're things you're going to play on the PGA at ten, he's got swing coaches going on and that's great. But you should also play baseball, you should be in basketball, soccer. But I don't ... swimming, so I'm all for, I think sports are great for kids. I think swimming or whatever it is. It just makes you better for that sport.

Chris Trottie: Well, but winning and stuff like that. And it sometimes ... I'll be honest, it’s sometimes a conversation in our house and my kids are super young, but sport, we see so many athletes come here. Winning is important. Right? Do you push that on youngsters or do you say, Hey, just have fun?

Kevin Millar: Yeah. You know what's funny? I don't yet. I don't yet. Like I said, I have a 14 year old now that's now they're in eighth grade and I've a seventh grader. There's that fine line. Right? As dads and we're all out, yeah, we've got to win. And this is it, blah blah. Okay. Easy now Tommy. At the end of day they're wanting to go get pizza and hang out and have a party like I was and like y'all were. So there's that fine line. I always say I want to see a vein in their arm. I want to see them get like one little whisker before you really have to start teaching them like, Hey, let's go. So right now you're trying to teach the fundamentals of being a good teammate, understand how to fail. Because that's something we don't teach. How do you fail? Right? How do you hit a shank? How do you hit one out of bounds? The next shot is as important as that shot you just tanked.

And baseball, you fail a lot. You get out 350 times a year in 500 at bats. So I'm going to make 150 left hand turns, but I'm going to get out 350 times. So we don't teach kids how to fail. So mentally they're not ready to fail. They don't know how to fail at 13 and 14 they're going to cry or they're going to. So you're teaching like, no, no, no. That's part of the game. You're going to strike out five times. You're going to make errors. You're going to hit a home run. It's golf, right? You're going to birdie, you're going to double. How do you get back on the tracks? And I think learning how to fail, understanding how to fail. Not that you want to, but you got to know how to, you got to know how to fail and handle it with class. So, you're as good as you are that next shot or that next at bat.

Chris Trottie: This media career that you have, it's clear that you can communicate fantastically well. How did that transition in the sport and at what point did that become something in your eyes that you're like, yeah, maybe that firefighter career I'm talking about, maybe that wasn't the one, maybe the media is the way to go.

Kevin Millar: You know the network, was-

Chris Trottie: Was it the steak dinners and the vodkas you were like, screw it. I hear about that, I'm going there.

Kevin Millar: Man. I'm in the front office now. No, it was funny because the network launched in 2009 and ‘10 was the first year and I got released in 2010 by the Cubs. So I didn't know anything about television, we didn't have that. We had ESPN. We'd watch Peter Gammons sit back and hopefully they showed you double that mom and dad could see it. Now it's like every game, every highlight, every video. So it's been fun. It's a great transition. My thing, my show, I can be myself, I don't have to be in a suit and tie. I can talk the game. So I bring a little bit of a clubhouse feel to television.

Chris Trottie: Did you have any training?

Kevin Millar: No, I was terrible learning about it. I'm still bad at asking questions because we've always been interviewed. So I still struggle when I have players on, which our show we have one on every day to ask the questions because you kind of like, I've always been interviewed and so to learn how to ask the questions and to get out and listen because they might give you your second questions instead of always thinking, “Oh my God, what am I going to ask next? Oh my God, okay, how is the game? Oh good.” So, it takes some time to understand like no, just let them talk and then they'll give you your next question. But I always used to panic on asking players with the microphone like, “Oh God, I don't even know how to do this.”

Chris Trottie: Because you just ad lib. Have you ever been overwhelmed by a situation and found yourself having to return to the mental process you might have gone through in a World Series clutch situation to deal with the pressure of that? Has your sporting experience helped you in a media situation?

Kevin Millar: Yeah, we talked about failure and I think a lot of years in the minor leagues and I was lucky enough to play 11 years in the big leagues, 12 years in the big leagues. I always say 12 minus because I think it was like 11 plus. But it sounds better when you say 12 but there's a lot of stuff there that you learn from, right?

And now you're a young man in life. So now, yeah, there's some adversity that goes on on television or whatever it is or the interview wasn't great or the show wasn't great, but it's like, okay, that's okay, because that's, that's life. You wake up one day, you feel great, right? You go and shoot 70 and you feel great and next day you go to bed, you shoot 81 and you're like, wait, same guy, same course, but there might be just a little something you might've pulled your calf muscles sleeping as you get my age. When you get 45 you wake up and you're just like-

Chris Trottie: Is everything okay?

Kevin Millar: I was like, ah, I don't know how I blew my hamstring out man, it must have been a dream.

Chris Trottie: What about your golfing goals then, if we look to 2020 you're going to get these new 760s through, I hear. You're going to be spinning those four ions a bit more into those par threes. What are the golfing goals as we move forward?

Kevin Millar: I want to get to the point where I understand the golf swing, the equipment and that's why this visit here is remarkable. I mean I've been looking forward to this. I love to ... I want to learn because I don't have the knowledge. I'm just a baseball player trying to golf and now understanding it, the putter and the lofts and the drivers and the 11 degree, 12 degree. It's pretty interesting. And my goal would be, I want to get down just to that one or two where you can go out to any course and know that you have a chance to shoot par.

And I don't think I'm there. I could ... at your home course everybody knows the breaks of the greens, but when you show up with new eyeballs, and that's why I love playing new courses, figure out how to stay in the game. And I don't want to shoot 80 anymore. And it's kind of like I'm at that spot a hundred rounds. I'm 77 76 to 82 and that's where it be in. And in your good day you might drain five birdies and you shot 74. But it's interesting. So I like to get down to about a two.

Chris Trottie: Is there anything in baseball that’s like this? Do the guys come in, like there must be swing weights and bats or weights in bats or is it a standard across the board or?

Kevin Millar: No, it's interesting. So baseball bats are cool. It's like building shafts. So, you might be a guy 34 inch, 32 ounces is about regular, standard, right? Tony Gwynn swung a 32-and-a-half-inch bat, 33-inch bat, Barry Bonds swung. So, they were shorter, and he choked up, but they were on the plate. Some guys like a heavy bat, they think that the heavier piece of wood is the harder dense. The wood's going to be harder. So then they cut the top of the bat to take out ounces to make it perfect. That's why you'll see there's holes at the end of baseball bats. But that's what they're doing. They're taking out ounces. So I was a 34 and a half, I liked the little bit longer. And I was a 32 ounce guy because I leaked a little bit. What I mean by that, like I stepped out. So I was on the plate but stepped out with my front foot.

Fenway Park kind of ruined that for me because it was 300 to left field and 420 the right center. So it makes you kind of cheat. And so I want a little bit longer of a bat to have plate coverage. But it's a very similar dynamic building clubs and doing baseball bats. And that's what's kind of intriguing to me.

Chris Trottie: Yeah, that's cool. And do you have media goals? We talk about the golfing goals when you're approaching the media side of it, is there anything in that that you're approaching the same as your baseball or for you is it just as we roll with this or is there anything you want to achieve on that side?

Kevin Millar: Yeah, you know what we're going on I think it's our eighth or ninth year. Television you have no idea. It could end tomorrow and we might be going 10 years next year. So our show has been fun. Chris Rose, my co-host is a great guy. He's taught me a lot. He did Best Damn Sports Show with back in the day with Tom Arnold. And who was it? Rodney Pete and John Kruk. It was a great show. And so he's been in television for 20 plus years, so he's taught me a lot because I still to this day I'm off the seat of my pants. The more information, the more nervous I get. If you just tell me some topics oh man, let's go. But it's kind of fun, but no real goals other than just keep this thing going.

Chris Trottie: We got a topic for you now. It's speed injected questions. We wrap up all our podcast with speed injected questions. So you'll be good to know. A buddy of mine texted me earlier and said, if I ask anyone else plastic or wooden tees, he's never going to listen to it again. So we've scrapped that question. That's gone. You would've said wooden .

Kevin Millar: Wooden.

Chris Trottie: Yeah, exactly. And that one's for you Plummy. So Torrey Pines or Bethpage?

Kevin Millar: Whew. Bethpage.

Chris Trottie: Would you rather lead the PGA golf tour and strokes gained off the tee or strokes gained putting?

Kevin Millar: Strokes gained putting.

Chris Trottie: The one course you could play every day for the rest of your life?

Kevin Millar: Shadow Creek.

Chris Trottie: Which MLB player would you put money on to beat Steph Curry or Tony Romo in a match?

Kevin Millar: John Smoltz. Derek Lowe, Mark Mulder.

Chris Trottie: I'm having that. The next question then is about your fall ball. Any fall ball that you could have MLB, but those boys just made it. They're in.

Kevin Millar: They're in.

Chris Trottie: With you to GM up.

Kevin Millar: That's it. They're in.

Chris Trottie: Number of career hole in ones.

Kevin Millar: One. Last year at hole number 15, my baseball number, at Summit Rock.

Chris Trottie: There you go amazing. Now it all comes round. What would you shoot lefty?

Kevin Millar: 212.

Chris Trottie: You beat me by one. Favorite TV or Netflix show right now?

Kevin Millar: You know it's funny. I'm a terrible T ... the voice.

Chris Trottie: Okay.

Kevin Millar: I'm going with the Voice. I love music.

Chris Trottie: Mallet or blade guy putter?

Kevin Millar: Mallet.

Chris Trottie: Beach or the mountains?

Kevin Millar: Mountains.

Chris Trottie: One shot in your career you wish you could have a mulligan on golf and baseball?

Kevin Millar: Cypress. That par three was it 16 or 17 I hit a three wood in the water and then my next one was nice. I'll take the mulligan on that one please. Those only time I've ever played Cyprus and then baseball or just one or the other.

Chris Trottie: No. You got to do both.

Kevin Millar: Baseball mulligan, give me the ‘03 Aaron Boone walk off home run game seven. Give me that game. Just give me that game as a mulligan because it was too good of a game to lose to the Yankees that night.

Chris Trottie: I can feel the pain coming out even now. Tell us about cowboy up. We got to end with that.

Kevin Millar: Yeah, cowboy up. It was funny. Derek Lowe, speaking of, he came out of a game with a blister. It was a few weeks left for playoffs. We were kind of fighting for the Oakland A's at that time for the wildcard and he left. The media was all over him and Derek's a great guy and he's awesome and he's, but he literally is bleeding. Anyways, media, they're all on him. I called him over. I said, “you guys need to cowboy up blah blah.” I started going off on them and basically next day the guy came up to me and asks, "What's cowboy up mean?" And I go, "I don't know, we've got a bunch of cowboys in here but you guys are too negative here and we weren't here 86 years and this is before we won the World Series."

And so the next day the papers; Millar says to cowboy up to the media, to the city of Boston and there was cowboy hats and country music for six weeks that year in '03, and that's those three years when we shaved our heads and we walked in and we went all the way to game seven with the Yankees and that's when Aaron Boone, man Tyler hit a home run off us in the 12th inning and it there was.

Chris Trottie: I'll tell you what, I'm going to cowboy up for this afternoon. I'm stoked by it. Guys, awesome podcast. I want to thank you for coming by. Lot of energy, great to have you in here and you're welcome anytime at the Kingdom. I speak on behalf of a Kroll-er there, who runs it, but I'm telling you, you get a pass. Awesome to have you.

Kevin Millar: No, I appreciate you guys big time. You guys are awesome.

Chris Trottie: And I also want to thank Tyler Brett for this one. This the guy who helps us out with all the podcasts content. Great script here to help me through and a lot of guys put a lot of effort into these. Comment below anymore thing that you guys want to hear from any of our guests coming up, just let us know. Rate it five stars. You can find the podcast, SoundCloud, Spotify, iTunes. You can find Kevin Millar on Instagram @KevinMillar15 we are @TaylorMadegolf and myself is @Trottiegolf from the tour. Guys, thanks for listening, Kevin. Thanks for swinging by. Good luck for everything and enjoy San Diego.

Kevin Millar: I appreciate you. Thanks for having me.