This week, I am joined by AAA RHP Ryan Murphy and his father, Chuck, for a special Father’s Day episode. So often on this site, we focus solely on the numbers and performance, but we lose sight of the human element to sports, and as we know, Tony La Russa used to famously quote, “Men, not machines.”
00:29 Introduction to the Murphy Family’s Baseball Journey 02:47 Ryan’s Path to Triple A and Overcoming Challenges 05:46 Chuck’s Perspective on Parenting a Future Star 09:02 Memorable Moments in the Backyard
12:03 The Transition from Player to Pitcher 15:10 Emotional Aspects of a Potential Call-Up 17:46 The Importance of Support and Resilience 21:09 Advice for Parents in Youth Sports 24:06 Dealing with Failure in Sports 27:00 Ryan’s Teammate and Future Prospects 29:59 Conclusion and Future Aspirations
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Transcript:
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (00:29)
Welcome to the Viva El Birdos podcast. As always, I am your host, Jake Wood, and I will be flying solo for this Father’s Day special episode. Today, or I should say last year, I had the pleasure of being joined by Andy Carroll, who we had on the show last week, and his son to interview the 2025 AA manager of the year, Patrick Anderson. This year it is my pleasure to welcome back Triple A pitcher Ryan Murphy and his dad, Chuck Murphy. Ryan was selected by the Cardinals in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft this past offseason and is one step away from realizing his dream of playing in the big leagues. Welcome, fellas. It’s a pleasure to have you. Thank you so much for doing this.
Ryan Murphy (01:09)
Yeah, absolutely. yeah.
Chuck Murphy (01:09)
Ple Pleasure to be here.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (01:14)
Ryan, I’ll start with you, man. You know you were right
Chuck Murphy (01:15)
Let’s not talk over each other, Ryan.
Ryan Murphy (01:16)
Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re already doing it. You’re already
doing it.
Chuck Murphy (01:20)
We’ll get this going.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (01:21)
Ryan, I’ll start with you. You were recently promoted back you were recently promoted back to Triple A after a stint with Springfield. You know, first of all, how are you feeling physically, and what’s been working for you that’s kind of helped you take this next step in your career?
Ryan Murphy (01:38)
Well, physically, I feel great. You know, obviously, this is my first full year post Tommy John, and they say, you know, well, I guess it’s gotta, you know, depends on like the person, but you know, some people say they feel great at this time, some people still feel like there’s kinda like cobwebs, but I’ve been feeling great. You know, it’s been kind of a blessing to not really have any issues, knock on wood. But yeah, and then, as far as like the stuff that I’ve been doing just to get me to this point, you know, it’s kind of trusting my stuff and just throwing a bunch of strikes and, you know, just kind of listening to my pitching coaches. And you know, at the end of the day, it’s just, you know, doing what I do best. So, you know. And I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be up here in Memphis. I know last time was a is a the shorter stint. Hopefully it’ll be longer this one this time, but you know.
Just kind of taking it day by day and just being where my feet are, you know.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (02:35)
Is there anything you learned in that first stop in Memphis that you know you took with you down to Springfield, and now you’re ready to reattack again, as you’ve you know, jumped back up?
Ryan Murphy (02:47)
Yeah, and it was definitely a jump, a different game, a different style of playing, I feel like. You know, when you’re facing more professional hitters, like big league hitters, a little more sophisticated approaches, more discipline in their approach, and committed to their approaches. So it’s a different mindset you have to have, and it’s a lot less kinda just like pitch into, you know, what feels comfortable, and more we’re like reading swings and like trying to analyze hitters’ approaches so you can kind of, you know, figure out a game plan to attack them. But we have a great staff up here, too, catchers and the pitching staff that really have helped me out in getting acclimated to that kind of style of pitching, I guess. So it was definitely a big jump though, I gotta say. When I first got up here, I was, you know, it took me a couple of outings to kinda get my feet set and rolling, but once I did, it started to, you know, show improvements. So
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (03:56)
Well, you know, again, you’re just right there on that doorstep, so you know, just keep doing what you’re doing, and we’ll get you there as quickly as possible. Chuck, let’s start with you on this topic. You know, from early on, T-ball to kid pitch to high school. When did you discover that your son had this real baseball talent? And were you more of a hands-on parent with his early development, or were you more hands off and you kinda just let the coaches, instructors, do a majority of, you know, the moulding?
Chuck Murphy (04:28)
Well, when did I realize it? I started to realize it when I was trying to have a catch with him. I was having difficulty catching the pitches that he’s throwing to me. Now I was hands-on. We were constantly, he, Matt, and his other brother Nick, were all in the backyard, couldn’t wait for me to get home to have a catch. And so we started doing that. My other son, Matthew, was really, really into baseball. Ryan was he was into everything, you know, all kinds of stuff. Basketball, baseball, and all. started as an outfielder, but his little league coach got him on the mound back in, I don’t know, Ryan was it 10, eleven, or something like that, years old. And and he he loved it. He had this old glove that I gave him that he laughs about. It’s a big
Ryan Murphy (05:19)
Yeah, ten years old, I think, yeah.
Chuck Murphy (05:28)
I don’t even know. It’s a big glove. It w looks ridiculous in this little hand.
Ryan Murphy (05:31)
Yeah, well, I wanna I wanna point out that we found this glove. Somebody left it in a dugout, and it was a softball glove that was like a twelve and three-quarter glove, that that not even not even like grown people use a size of a glove. And I was using that as a ten-year-old.
Chuck Murphy (05:37)
Mizuno, but
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (05:40)
Ha, that’s awesome.
Chuck Murphy (05:46)
So, yes, that is very true. and I did find I did find that club. I looked good on him, though, I thought. Anyway, so he started he started liking the game a lot. And then he started. Ryan is the type of guy, and I found out early on, he’s a lot different than me. I was a pretty good ball player, but I was not dedicated like this guy is. He gave up a lot of stuff to work out. No empty calories. Protein, you know, he he you know, workouts, he would travel forty-five minutes when he could drive a car to go work out places, you know, to get better and better. He had a guy, it was an old scout, his name was Eric Gluck, and he saw Ryan, and I don’t know what it was, it was like a fourteen-year-old tournament or something like that. And he said, This guy’s got a lot of talent. Can I work with him? And I knew then that he had special things. Eric said he had special things, and it was kinda awkward, but I let him take the reins. I felt like I got him to that point. We had a thing where I taught him his control, by the way. I taught him control. And he knows exactly where I’m gonna go with this. Cause we would have a catch, and I would make him hit me in the chest. Yep.
Ryan Murphy (07:03)
It was like Pavlov,
it was like a dog, training him to like to hit you in the chest. Yeah, I exact by
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (07:06)
Ring the bell. Hit me in the chest.
Chuck Murphy (07:07)
Yep, man. And if and I I would put up a piece of plywood behind me that hopefully if he missed me that it you know was too low or outside that it would hit the plywood. If not, they’d have to go across the street into the edges and get the ball. So Matt can tell Matt knows too. He’s smiling. And I know they hated it, but I think he learned to hit me in the chest. And so he started to learn to control from an early age. That was I don’t know, that was early on eight years old, something like that, you know? But Eric Eric took him and started teaching him, he was an Oreo scout. And he said, This kid’s gonna make it. And I’m like, Well, yeah, that’d be nice, you know. And you know, right, Ryan. I mean, we were sitting in the backyard, he was trying to teach him different pitches, and he had a big, big effort, a big thing in his life, really, at that time.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (07:51)
Ha ha ha.
Chuck Murphy (08:06)
But then it got to the point where he was really good, and I knew he was gonna be, I knew he was gonna achieve the goal. I knew he was gonna, he wasn’t, he’s not complacent. He’s never gonna, he’s never been the kid that’s gonna sit there and go, I’m good. I did that. I’m good, you know. You know, he wanted to be there, ‘s a there’s goals. There’s, I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do this. I think Josiah Gray at Lemoyne when he was with was the teammates.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (08:31)
Mm.
Chuck Murphy (08:35)
He saw what Josiah Gray was going through with scouts looking at him. And his coach there, Scott Cassidy, told him, ” You know, you could be that guy. I think you could be that guy. You know, you gotta put the work in. And he goes, I I’m gonna put the work in. And so he followed that path. It was all steps, all a process, you know, for him, a fun process. He gets to play baseball. And I, yeah, I he’s achieved more than I could ever possibly in my lifetime imagine that he could have gotten there. It’s not a surprise, really, but it’s like it’s hardy went to a D2 school, you know, in the Northeast to be seen somewhere, to be taken seriously. You know, it’s like, well, you didn’t play against Oklahoma, you know, all that kind of stuff. But the guy who scouted him for the Giants saw it, you know, and that took a chance on him in that fifth round and
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (09:16)
Yeah.
Chuck Murphy (09:32)
You’re right. He’s on the doorstep. He’s a call-up.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (09:36)
Ryan, what do you have? What are your memories of you know, those days of playing catch with your dad in the backyard and the plywood behind him, and you know, th those those memories.
Chuck Murphy (09:44)
Truth, Ryan, truth.
Ryan Murphy (09:46)
No. No, I well the obviously say the biggest one was hitting him in the chest. And if he wouldn’t move, so like he’d have his glove like right here. And then if it was in a vicinity like where his arm could go, like he would get it. But if it was at like his ankles or anything like that, he’d just let it go. And then, like I would have to, we had like a little bit of hedges on both sides of our backyard. So it was like it was either going to be like the woods area or like in the hedges, and I’d have to go run and get the ball or sometimes go across the street and get the ball and stuff like that. That was the biggest thing that I remember. I also remember I honestly kind of low-key remember the day that our catches kind of changed. I remember I think I wanna say it was definitely like a little bit darker out too at that point. It was in the evening.
Chuck Murphy (10:20)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan Murphy (10:38)
One thing that was also true, really quickly, is that he was right. Every time he’d get home from work, and you would be working like a nine-to-five, and then I would ask him to play catch and he’d be like, just give me like five minutes to take a nap or something like that, or whatever. I always remember that. I would like to sit there and wait for him to fall asleep, so then we can go play catch. But I remember the day that we had to pretty much stop playing catch, and I was like, I threw him a slide or something like that, and he just like completely like
Chuck Murp,hy (11:01)
Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan Murphy (11:04)
I don’t even know. It’s like it hits you in the wrist or something like that. Or I don’t even know. It’s like, yeah, hit you in the thigh or something. And like, kind of like really hurt you like pretty good. And I was like, okay, well, I can’t really do that anymore. So that was when I knew that all of our stuff would change. I also remember you know, sometimes we’d go to Robinson Lane, and he would hit me ground balls at shortstop sometimes. I remember that. he did that for
Chuck Murphy (11:07)
He hit me in the thigh. Hit me right in the thigh. I think it was just woo, you know.
Ryan Murphy (11:33)
Me a few times. because I was playing shortstop in high school, and actually that’s what I was originally supposed to do, I guess, you know. That was an infielder, and then I got in the mound and started pitching, and then that that was history. but yeah, so those are probably the three biggest things I remember would be like getting the ground balls, hitting them in the chest, and then the day that our catches pretty much changed forever.
Chuck Murphy (11:34)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Ryan Murphy (12:04)
‘Cause after
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (12:04)
You know
Ryan Murphy (12:04)
that it’s like, I know he’s gotta lob
Jake WoBut(@woodbat28) (12:06)
Most kids you know that wind up getting drafted spend some time at shortstop generally. Do you miss having a stick in your hand? Do you walk up to Josh Baez and tell him in the dugout, like, Hey, you know, I could do that too, buddy?
Chuck Murphy (12:17)
Okay.
Ryan Murphy (12:19)
Definitely not. I definitely can, especially with that guy’s doing. I definitely can’t do what that guy’s doing. But I also do not miss hitting in the slightest. I was never really a good hitter. I think my best years of hitting were in Little League and after that. It all just kind of fell apart. but I do kind of miss I I do kind of miss playing the infield. I liked playing the infield a lot. I liked playing shortstop a lot. like playing travel ball. I was always playing shortstop and You know, just it’s always exciting, like making like cool plays and stuff like that and kinda just being like if you’re not pitching, it’s like shortstop is like the one position that well that and catching, but you know, you’re kind of always in the mix of every play and some you know, always have somewhere to be or whatever, you know what mean? But I definitely don’t miss hitting, especially nowadays. Like back in my day, like high schoolers were throwing like eighty-five, and that was like he’s pretty good. And then if you were throwing like
Chuck Murphy (13:03)
Yeah.
Ryan Murphy (13:10)
Eighty-eight, this guy’s like really good. And then if you were scraping 90, you were a big league pitcher. So that was that was my high school experience. Nowadays, high school kids are like, you know, you the the worst guy on the team is like throwing eighty eight. You know what I mean? It’s like crazy. I don’t think I would be able to touch anything if I had a stick in my hand. I’ll tell you that right now.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (13:31)
I don’t think I’d be allowed to play on a team because whenever I finished high school, I topped out at like 77. So like I don’t even think I would have made that team. You know, Chuck, I want to throw it back over to you. Cause I want to get your perspective on this. Do you do you watch other parents whose children have been promoted to the big leagues or who are giving like those in-game so like whenever a player gets called up and, you know, they have the family on that does the in-game interviews, are you are you like either A preparing yourself for that conversation or
Ryan Murphy (13:33)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (14:01)
Or B, does does it make you kind of emotional, you know, knowing that there’s a real chance that your son and your family are are very close to that situation from occurring?
Chuck Murphy (14:12)
I I am not preparing myself, so to speak. I feel like when that moment comes, cause it’s gonna, I’m gonna embrace that and I’m gonna run with it. However, I am a very emotional guy. And and and so who knows what’s gonna happen when when that happens because I feel like I’m prepared all the time for that. I I I know I’ve been his his his his best fan. I know he wants it. I know he’s gonna do it. His son Matt, our son, his his brother Matt said he’s gonna make it to the major leagues years ago, years and years ago. So we were, you know, and it’s like I feel like I’m ready for that. I feel like it could happen. But I’m gonna be the guy, I don’t know. I’ve seen him in the stands. I’ve seen fathers crying. I don’t know, man. I might be the guy that it’s right. I might be the guy crying. I I don’t know. I would like to think I could hold it together, but I It’s such a it’s it it’s God, you know, it’s like if I could talk to some parents about it, I haven’t really talked to too many. The ones I’ve talked to have like their sons that have made it. I haven’t talked to him since they made it. You know, so I s I would see him at games, you know, I would see like with the San Francisco Giant guys, I knew a lot of those guys and a lot of the parents that were there. But when they made it, they left, you know, and you don’t really Get to call. How what do you feel? You know, how do you feel? You know? I know how you feel, you know. It’s like I wanna be that guy, you know. I can’t wait to jump on a plane. I wherever. but I don’t know, man. I might be the guy crying.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (15:41)
Yeah.
That’s okay. That’s totally okay. It makes you genuine, it makes you real. You know, the good news is that you’ll get to have you know, the best conversation with Jimmy the Cat Hayes that that that very few parents get to have and he’s he’s terrific with his in game interviews, so you’ll get to work with a
Ryan Murphy (15:55)
Definitely.
Chuck Murphy (15:58)
Yeah, yeah. You know, I want to tell you one other thing. You know, Ricky Horton, who’s the play-by-play guy for the St. Louis Radio, I’m friends with him. And that would be cool, having him talk him talk to me. We met him down in what was it, West Palm, I think it was, and and we went up to the booth and had a great conversation. I played with him back in high school. So yeah, I mean the same yeah, yeah, yeah. He he was good too, man. I I bunted him, got a hit off of him.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (16:15)
Mm-hmm.
Wow.
Ryan Murphy (16:40)
Yeah.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (16:41)
Hey.
Chuck Murphy (16:43)
But I w I’m like Ryan, man. I couldn’t swing a bat really well. I could field, I could play, you know, I could pitch and all that stuff. But this isn’t about me, it’s about that guy. Yeah. Yep.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (16:51)
You know and and and I did want to throw it back over to Ryan, you know, hearing just kind of the way that that Chuck talks about it, you know, how impactful has, you know, your dad’s support and involvement been in helping you grow as not only a player, but also just a person in general? Like how much has has in his influence, you know, kind of molded and built you into who you are as Ryan Murphy, the Memphis Triple A pitcher?
Ryan Murphy (17:19)
Yeah, well I mean my dad definitely is one of my if not my biggest role model. you know, the way he just handles life and everything like that has pretty much shaped me as a person. I’ve always wanted to be exactly like him. and he is my one of my biggest fans, obviously my biggest supporters. And he’s been there through the times where, you know, I’ve had late night phone calls with him trying to have him, you know. Talk some sense into me because I’m, you know, wondering if this game’s for me, or you know, just basically and things like that. you know, but he’s been a really big part of like just helping me kind of get through some of the tough times that this game causes. Cause you know, it’s never really easy and it’s never a a linear scale. There’s always gonna be ups and downs. And I’ve had my plenty of down times where I’ve had to lean on him earlier in my career. And then even like with TJ, you know, same thing. It was kind of like, you know, but he was always there supporting me. He’s always in my corner and he’s always pushing me to kind of keep going because he, you know, he believes in me and I believe in myself, obviously. But sometimes you just need like, you know, him and him and my wife are the two biggest supporters in my life that kind of helped me go. But yeah, no, he’s He’s definitely my my biggest role model. as far as like just who I’d wanna be like as a person in life, outside of baseball and everything like that. no question about it.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (18:55)
Would you say that easily would you say that you probably wouldn’t be where you are without your dad’s influence?
Ryan Murphy (19:02)
of course, of course. I mean, he wasn’t the type of dad that, you know, I guess was like making me do things. Like he never he you know, some I feel like some kids end up like losing love for the game because their dad tries to push a a lot of you know, stuff onto you. And I I’ve seen it with other people too, but you know, he was never really like that, but he was the most supportive in whatever I want to do. Like When I wanted to go play travel baseball, like, you know, if even if money was tight, like they found a way to to get me to do it, you know, they they found a way a lot of times to send me to Cooperstown, you know, do things like that. So it was it was always like, you know, just you know, for from I’m assuming like his perspective was how can I find a way to just like keep letting him do this? and obviously that was like the biggest thing because, you know, if I didn’t have a dad like that, that was so willing to, you know, cause Travel baseball’s expensive, you know what I mean? Like that, especially like when we were getting into it too. Like it was not like cheap and I’m sure it’s even more expensive now. But like, you know, just having a dad like that that was willing to kind of, you know, give up a lot of things, a lot of his free time, you know, traveling to baseball tournaments, you know, weekends that like, you know, he probably would have rather just stayed home and, you know, relaxed. I I know I know you might say that now, but I know, I know I know there were definitely days where you’re like, yeah. I I’m sure there were.
Chuck Murphy (20:20)
I know. Yeah, yeah, yes. Yes, yes.
Ryan Murphy (20:29)
But, you know, at the end of the day like Yeah, exactly. You know, but
Chuck Murphy (20:30)
Yeah, they were those gimme ten minute days.
Ryan Murphy (20:35)
he was always there, you know, just making everything available for me and and sacrificing a lot of his time and I’m forever, forever grateful for that.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (20:46)
You know, I’m so glad that you kinda you talked about that because I wanted to throw this question to both of you. You know, just one thing. Wha for parents with kids in sports today, right? What’s one piece of advice you each would give to anyone whose child is in sports now? So Ryan, I’ll I’ll kinda let you if you want to kinda continue on that train and then Chuck from your perspective too. Just just keep it to one thing.
Ryan Murphy (21:09)
Yeah. I guess it depends on the age level. For me, it’s always been because you know, the situation’s the situation. I I mean at the end of the day, like there’s there’s kids in the Dominican Republic that are like literally, you know, playing catch with cardboard boxes. You know what I mean? It’s like, you know, situation situation. But at the end of the day, you know, if you just put the time and effort into what you’re doing. And if you really love it, then everything’s gonna work out. that’s just my opinion. So it’s like, you know, if I had I mean, regardless if you’re playing travel baseball, if you’re playing little league, if you’re playing whatever, men’s league, if you just take the time and effort to really just like, you know, practice and you know, just make sure that like you’re paying attention to detail, things like that, this game will will reward you. It it rewards the people that are the most stubborn, you know, in a sense of like or resilience. so I would say like the biggest thing would just, you know, constantly keep trying to find ways to get better in any facet of the game because there’s multiple ways you can be good at this game. Whether if it’s you’re the best defender on the team or you’re the best pitcher on the team or you’re best hitter on the team, you know, there’s always a way to to make yourself valuable in this game. So for young guy, that would I would say would just be, you know,
Just keep keep grinding, you know.
Chuck Murphy (22:39)
Yeah. I I mean I would I would agree with that. My thing was as far as a parent goes, my goal was to give all my guys the present with the opportunity. You know, that was my whole goal was to, you know, if they’re gonna really like something, I I I want to get them in it. I want them to be excited about it. I want them to enjoy it. I was hoping one of the three would even like baseball. It turned out they all did, which was that was phenomenal. But you made the point before, both of you guys made the point before is the, you know, the these the parents get over they get over excited about it and the they all think that their their son or daughter is the best athlete ever, ever, ever, ever. And what’s the matter with you? You know, and it’s like, what’s the matter with you? You should be able to field that ground ball. You you gotta be able to hit better. You know, and I and I’ve seen those attitudes where the kids and Ryan knows parents, that the kids fell out of love of the game. You need to have the love of this game to succeed in this game. You can’t go I don’t think you can go about it just as a business. You you need to love it. You need to be all in. And and if you could find that, whether it’s baseball, whether it’s whether it’s playing an organ, whether it’s a musician, whatever that your your child can get into, support them, give them that opportunity to succeed and fail, because they’re gonna, as we know. You’re all you’re never it’s not a bowl of cherries, you’re gonna fail. And you have to be able to as a parent, you gotta be able to pick up the pieces that child is very vulnerable and you gotta make keep loving the game. You gotta help keep loving the game.
Ryan Murphy (24:19)
Yeah. And to go off that really quick, just the failure part of it, I think, is another thing that a lot of people need to accept in this game because a lot of people, especially young kids, when they’re failing, they’d probably just rather quit and just be done with it. and that’s where again the resilience comes into play and just like how this game rewards res resilience and like a lot of times failure will make you want to not play the game anymore. so you’re you’re gonna go on like an 0 for 20 streak or you’re gonna just go on stretches where like you just keep getting hit and or you’re walking guys or whatever. but the biggest thing is just how you deal with failure and the ability to kind of like push through that, you know, and just kind of keep going and just keep trusting the process or make an adjustment. but
Chuck Murphy (24:44)
Yeah, yeah.
Mm.
Ryan Murphy (25:05)
You know, I think dealing with failure is the biggest thing with young kids that I’ve noticed. A lot of guys I’ve played with, you know, there’s like they love the game ’cause they’re doing well. And then the minute that they start failing, it’s like, Okay, well, I don’t really care about baseball anymore. And then they kinda just fall out of love with the game. But failure is, you know, as they say, the biggest part of the game and the best hitters fail seven times out of ten and you know, this, that and the other thing. So but there is a lot of truth to that. So
Chuck Murphy (25:31)
Yeah, and you always have to you always have to evolve. You know, it’s con you could you can’t rest on your laurels. You can’t say, Okay, you know, I don’t need to do this. You have to you have to be a sponge. That’s the thing about Ryan too growing up was that he loved talking to people that knew baseball and he listened to what they had to say, whether it was an old guy or a young guy or whatever. He was constantly listening to people and accepting some All right, maybe I’ll try that, you know? So you got you gotta be open too. But the most important thing is is that you you can’t you you have to resist pushing your your your child to you you can’t. You gotta you gotta make it so they like it.
Ryan Murphy (26:12)
Yeah.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (26:13)
For sure. Yeah, you know, there it’s funny that you say that that last part about, you know, no matter what age he was always listening to somebody. I remember back to whenever I was, you know, a kid in and just, you know, kid pitch ball like middle school and I had one coach that told me, you know, there’s a reason why God gave you only t or two ears and only one mouth. It’s because you should listen twice as much as you speak. Right? And so it it’s one of those things where you just you you take in as much as somebody is telling you as possible. And then, you know, Ryan, to your point about like dealing and handling failure, I was at a seminar, because as you can see back here, my kids each gave me Father’s Day present early.
Chuck Murphy (26:40)
Huh? Huh? Huh? Good point.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (27:00)
I I went to the seminar for my kids that the Cardinals put on it’s called Redbird a program called Redbird Rookies, and they had a bunch of guest speakers up and talking about it, and you know, they said that you know for the for kids they will get discouraged very easily because and they start saying the words, you know, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. Right. And he said that that is one of the biggest enemies in terms of like kids falling in love with the game because you need to remind your children that it is not that you cannot, it is that you have not.
Chuck Murphy (27:16)
Mm. I can’t.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (27:30)
Not yet, right? And you just you continue to work and try to to until you do get it. And then once you get it, you find that joy and and and love of it a little bit more. Ryan, you know, I we were joking about it in the DMs back and forth, but I wanted to real quick get your take on what you know your teammate Josh Baez is doing at the AAA level right now. You know, a four home run game the other night, just absolutely punishing baseballs that go anywhere near the zone.
Chuck Murphy (27:31)
Yeah well yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (28:00)
You know, not only the athlete, but can you speak to the kind of person that Josh is and and what Saint Louis is getting closer to experiencing in your teammate?
Ryan Murphy (28:10)
Yeah, he’s a great, great dude. I actually had the honor to be his road roomie right before I got sent back to Springfield. But I will say ever since I was his road roomie, he started going on a tear. So that was in Omaha or no, Iowa. Iowa, I think. Yeah, Iowa. And then once he got to Omaha and he had like that good week in Omaha and now he’s been on a tear ever since. So I just want to credit myself to that. and
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (28:36)
That’s right.
Ryan Murphy (28:38)
But now but now I’m his locker roomie too. So we’re in the locker room. I’m right next to his locker. And no, he’s just a great guy. He’s a very soft spoken guy, but you know, he cares a lot about you know, the team and like, you know, just like getting better each and every day. he really he’s a really, really hard worker. I know he works really hard on his defense, because his offense is obviously through the roof right now. And it’s just like one of those other like missing pieces to the puzzle, maybe, you know, but like regardless, he’s he threw a guy out last night. at the plate. It was awesome. but he’s no, he’s a tremendous guy and a really hard worker. And whenever he gets to St. Louis, which should be soon, fans are gonna love him. he’s a r he’s an electric player and he’s just a great human being too.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (29:21)
You know, I’m reminded I think it was Franklin Roosevelt who said that you speak softly but carry a big stick. Am I am I remembering that quote correctly? So s so that’s Josh Baez, right? Is is Franklin Roosevelt. Alright. It’s you know, it’s it’s also worth noting, like you s that’s right. It’s also it’s worth noting that, you know, like you mentioned, Baez has done some special things with the bat when you’ve been there, Ryan, so
Ryan Murphy (29:28)
That y yeah, well that’s him. That’s Josh Maez. Yep, FDR.
Chuck Murphy (29:37)
His new nickname FDR.
Ryan Murphy (29:39)
Yeah.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (29:47)
the Cardinals are are are also currently experiencing a little bit of turbulence in their bullpen, so I think it’s only fair that if the Cardinals want Josh Baez at his best, that they also need to bring Ryan select Ryan’s contract in concurrence with Josh’s promotion. So that just that just that just seems fair to me. don’t mess with what’s working, right? That that seems to be the way that it goes.
Ryan Murphy (29:59)
Yeah. Yeah. We’re we’re definitely a package deal. Yeah.
Chuck Murphy (30:01)
that’s sold.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (30:08)
Ryan, it it it was just an absolute joy to have you back on again, man. Keep your head down and keep grinding, like you said, and we we look forward to being the first show to talk to you when you get your first big league call. Of course, Chuck will probably be the first call overall, and you know, I hope you both get get the opportunity to share that moment in the near future together. I know, just speaking to both of you, how special that’s gonna be. Chuck, it was a pleasure to meet you. you
Ryan Murphy (30:22)
Yeah.
Chuck Murphy (30:22)
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
That was fine. That was fun,
man.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (30:34)
You did a terrific job raising a great son and you know, he’s always a pleasure to interact with and and Cardinals fans are really looking forward to what Ryan is gonna be able to do when he takes the ball at the big league level.
Chuck Murphy (30:38)
Thanks. Well thank you. He’s gonna be a big fan guy. He’s he’s good. He’s good with the fans. All right, man.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (30:51)
All of the autographs. Hell yeah, brother.
episode of the Viva El Birdos Podcast. Don’t forget to rate and review and hit that subscribe button so you’re notified every Monday morning when a new episode is released. We will talk to you all next week when we are joined by a VIP guest. That’s right, we are scheduled to be joined by the Cardinals president of baseball operations, Chaim Bloom, for a special one-hour episode next week. Have a great day, St. Louis, and let’s go, Cards!
