May 19, 2025
Pitching Through Pain: A West Point Athlete's Journey to Pro Baseball
Shoot me a message! Tanner Gresham, former Army West Point pitcher now in the Philadelphia Phillies minor league system, shares his remarkable journey of resilience and determination through baseball, military service, and recovery from Tommy John surgery. • Son of a minor league baseball player who reached AAA level and briefly made the majors • Chose West Point for its prestigious education and post-graduation opportunities • Balanced the intense demands of being a cadet athlete with rigor...
Tanner Gresham, former Army West Point pitcher now in the Philadelphia Phillies minor league system, shares his remarkable journey of resilience and determination through baseball, military service, and recovery from Tommy John surgery.
• Son of a minor league baseball player who reached AAA level and briefly made the majors
• Chose West Point for its prestigious education and post-graduation opportunities
• Balanced the intense demands of being a cadet athlete with rigorous academics and military obligations
• Underwent Tommy John surgery that gave him "two UCLs" in his pitching arm
• Completed an accelerated 11-month recovery instead of the typical 14-18 months
• Posted a 2.70 ERA with the Trenton Thunder in the MLB Draft League
• Applied for the World-Class Athlete Program to continue professional baseball while serving in the military
• Working toward potential selection for Team USA Baseball at the 2028 Olympics
• Credits surrounding himself with like-minded people as key to his success
• Lives by the philosophy that the only two things you control are effort and attitude
Follow Tanner on IG: @Jommy.tohn and @tgresh
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Episode Powered By
Act Now Education
01:12 - Meeting Tanner Gresham
03:01 - Father's Influence on Baseball Journey
06:18 - College Selection and West Point Experience
11:01 - Tommy John Surgery and Recovery
19:24 - Balancing Military Service and Baseball Career
35:00 - Professional Goals and Life Lessons
55:16 - The Power of Effort and Attitude
WEBVTT
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Warriors fall in.
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It's time for formation Folks out there.
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I have a special guest on today.
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Today I have the pleasure of interviewing someone whose journey truly exemplifies the concept of adapt and overcome.
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Our guest today is Tanner Gresham, a former Army West Point pitcher who's now chasing his professional baseball dreams within the Philadelphia Phillies minor league system.
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Tanner's story is one of resilience, dedication and overcoming setbacks.
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A lot of these athletes that go through the Academy not just deal with the day to day grueling activities of being in a military Academy, but then they are also training every day, making huge, huge sacrifices when it comes to just their young adult life and what they're accomplishing at the end of it all.
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Because graduating from West Point is a very prestigious action.
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It demands excellence, not only academically and athletically, but also through military discipline.
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Furthermore, our guest today is recovering from, or has recovered from, Tommy John surgery.
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Our guest today is recovering from, or has recovered from, Tommy John surgery, a journey of physical and mental strength coming from a high level of discipline and just can-do attitude.
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So today I'm very, very blessed and honored to have you on the Morning Formation, Tanner.
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Thank you for joining us today.
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Absolutely Thank you for having me.
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I'm really excited.
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So let's just get started, man, and talk about where it all started for you.
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I understand that your father played in the minors and he reached AAA.
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How did his experience and his overall I guess approach to how he raised you shape your passion and your approach to the game of baseball?
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Yeah, my dad is a huge, huge impact on my life.
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You know, he played for nine years in the minor league system.
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He reached he reached the major league level, for I believe what he told me was three days with the Orioles and then he got sent right back down.
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But I think my childhood with my dad was probably like anyone you'd see out of a movie where you know the dad was a star athlete and coaching their kids the right way.
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And I still think he, to this day he calls me to, you know, ask me questions about what I've been doing, how I'm working out and things like that.
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But from a young age, baseball was the number one priority for him and myself and you know he never forced it on me, he didn't try to, you know, spoon feed me everything that he knew.
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But he gave me the opportunities to pursue baseball, and in the way that I wanted to.
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And so, um, again, from a young age, he coached me all the way up until I was about 14.
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Um, and it was long nights, long car trips with just him and I, um, you know, driving down to wherever you know United States of America to play the weekend tournaments and week-long tournaments during the summer, and so he was a huge, huge part of my baseball journey and he still is, even up through college.
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After every game I'd pitch, he'd call and tell me to give him a breakdown of what I think I did right, right, what I think I did wrong, um, and then and then he'd kind of get that sort of background coaching, I guess, and sort of the the dad's hand in the pot to kind of, you know, tell me you know to get over myself or or kind of you know, just bring me back to square one, if, if I had a bad day or something like that yeah, that's huge man.
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My dad had a major impact on me growing up too.
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My dad was drafted into the military in 1971, spent 20 years in, was a drill sergeant for five years.
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Army Ranger did all the crazy military stuff.
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So dads have those huge impacts on the boys for sure.
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In high school did you play other sports too.
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No, so I played.
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I played football up through middle school.
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I was actually a kicker, so it's not a lot of strenuous football activity, I guess you would say as a kicker.
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But when I was younger I swam and things like that and I was sort of an all around sort of sport kind of player.
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But once, once I got to the high school level is when baseball came my ultimate focus and, um, especially with travel ball and things like that, during the summer there was just not a lot of time for me to worry about other sports and really, really my passion for baseball grew so much that I didn't really want to play anything else.
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Yeah, I know those travel leagues are really no joke, man.
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Man, I know it takes up a lot of your time, doesn't it?
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yeah, it was.
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It was every every weekend of the summer, um, and into the early fall, um, before you know, before school started and things like that.
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That was just constant.
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You know whether it's going down to Atlanta to play, to Florida, to Mississippi, louisiana, everywhere in the southeast pretty much um to just play games and and be with some of my best friends now tanner.
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Did you always see yourself as yourself playing college ball at such a prestigious program?
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Did you have other colleges that you were considering as well?
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um, I would say yes and no.
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Um, you know my, my college recruitment.
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It wasn college recruitment.
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It wasn't big and grand or anything like that.
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I didn't until the summer before my senior year, that West Point, you know, kind of made the call and opened my eyes to that side of the house, I guess you could say, and everything kind of just changed from there.
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Yeah, and you know, playing at Army West Point that's a huge take.
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It requires a lot of discipline and commitment that not every college athlete faces.
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What do you think was the most challenging and rewarding part of balancing your academics, athletics and just your military obligations?
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you know, dive into that, that are challenging and things like that.
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But the most rewarding by far was was the teammates that I had all through all four years.
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Um, you know my freshman year there were numerous, numerous seniors that kind of took me and the rest of the freshman under their wing, um, and that that was.
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That was COVID year too.
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So it was.
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You know it was pretty strenuous on on COVID testing and practices were limited, games were limited during the season when it started and there was a time, there was a time where you know it was Wednesday, you would kind of sit in class and then get out early practice and then leave Wednesday night to travel to a game series that was Friday, saturday, sunday, wednesday night to travel to a game series that was Friday, saturday, sunday, and you're driving on a bus the whole way so that you know there was.
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There were 14, 15 hour bus trips throughout the week with my teammates and and you know it was probably that was probably the most rewarding is just getting to know 40 to 50 of, you know, my best friends to this day.
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Now, how often was it that you would travel cross country?
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Was it always on a bus?
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No, so.
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So COVID specifically was was strictly bus trips.
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Um, I know the farthest we went was to actually North Carolina.
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We traveled to Raleigh, um sort of back to back, back to back weekends, and then, um, the rest of the time after that was, you know, mostly, mostly by plane, once every restriction was upended and things like that.
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But I think the farthest we had traveled was to Lubbock, texas, to Texas Tech at the end of my freshman year and I was actually by plane, come to think of it.
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But then again I've been to so many schools you know Vanderbilt, texas, christian, um Stetson, you know anywhere that you can think of.
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You know big schools and things like that that were really good competition for our team what was the biggest name school that you played?
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at the time I would say Vanderbilt 100 percent.
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Um, you know they had won multiple back-to-back world series and and had a a rap sheet that you know longer than most people's driveways.
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So you know it was.
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It was pretty cool to be there and, granted, you know it's it's the middle of March in Tennessee so it's not warm by any means, but again it was.
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It was more about the experience and, you know, getting the guys on our team the experience that they needed to play an SEC team like that and getting the guys on our team the experience that they needed to play an SEC team like that.
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What was your ultimate deciding factor when choosing West Point At the end of the day?
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My dad told me that he went to UNC, charlotte in North Carolina, and he left after his junior year, after when he was drafted um in north carolina, and he left after his junior year, after when he was drafted um and and he told me that had he stayed in school, you know he would have finished his degree.
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And and that was kind of a deciding factor is you know, if I've finished my time at west point and I get the chance to graduate, then you know I'm set for the next 40 years of my life, and that was a recruiting tool that the coaches used as well.
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As you know, if you graduate from West Point, whether you move on to sports afterwards or you know you join the army, no matter what, you know the next 40 years of your life are going to be set because you know you spend your time in the army that however long you want, and then after that, you know there's such a prestige with, you know, the West Point degree that hiring I guess is kind of in the you know the top percent of West Pointers wanting to get hired.
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So you know, I think that was ultimately the deciding factor is just the opportunities that came after West Point.
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Yeah, definitely.
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I have such an immense amount of respect for you because I was enlisted in the National Guard for four years and then I went active duty as an officer and it was the same deal for me where my dad was enlisted, did 20 years, retired as an E-8.
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And he wanted me to become an officer because he said, hey, if you stay in for 20 years you're going to be better off, you're going to at least be a major, hopefully Lieutenant, colonel or more.
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And he said, son, I know what it's like to spend 20 years in and I know what it's like and I want you to accomplish and finish your bachelor's degree, your college, before anything else.
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And I can tell you, as a second lieutenant and as a lieutenant, I immediately went to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004.
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And by the time I was 27 years old and I got out as an 03, I had experienced so much leadership opportunities, whether it was leading a convoy or leading a platoon in Iraq or a patrol in Iraq.
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A lot of the folks that were in my same peer group could not say the same.
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So you're 100% correct on that, like when it comes to just leadership in general and getting put out in front of the platoon or in front of the formation to have to command troops.
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So how does that work for you right now as far as your military obligation, and then you being in the minor leagues?
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being in the minor leagues.
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Yes, sir, so at the current moment, I submitted a packet to join the world-class athlete program I'm not sure if you're familiar with that where it's a it's sort of a pathway for athletes that are in the military to attend the Olympics, and so recently it was capped.
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I believe she's a captain, captain Sullivan was a member of the US Army rugby team in Paris, and so it's a way for active duty soldiers to to train for their sport while serving on active duty and ultimately end in the pathway to where you are in the Olympics, are in the Olympics.
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And so, in my case, once my, you know, once my packet is approved by the hand of God I guess you could say at this point, you know, I once, once that happens, I will return to Florida to play with the Phillies for the foreseeable future, and then, once 2028 comes around, when they're selecting teams for the Olympics, I'll try out for the USA baseball team and then participate in the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
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And so that's kind of the pathway that I guess you could say, and there's some other, there's some other pathways that my teammates, my former teammates, have taken, but in my case that's, that's how I'm traveling have taken, but in my case that's that's how I'm traveling.
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Yeah, I mean, that's been huge man with college right now.
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Um is there's so many different pathways for folks out there, even getting commissioned into the military.
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You know, the thing that you just mentioned, I'd never heard about before, um and I think overall with nil being a big deal in college ball right now, in college sports in general, and then this year the West Point quarterback.
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There was a little bit of talk behind him being able to draft, but he wasn't able to and he's not able to, and from the last I heard, he's going to go into the military as an officer and serve his time, which is very commendable.
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At the same time, has that NIL stuff even touched the academies at all?
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An officer and serve his time, which is very commendable at the same time, has that NIL stuff even even?
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touched the academies at all?
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No, not at all.
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And I think I think even I think it's a good thing.
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Honestly, you know it because that was a that was a huge part of why we were so successful at West Point.
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You know, because, specifically for baseball players and things like that and coaches will get offered a ridiculous amount of money to attend a school for one or two years to then get drafted later on.
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But you know, at West Point you're there for four years and you're not leaving unless you're paying a hefty amount of money.
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That you know that not a lot of people want to look at twice.
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And so I think you know that not a lot of people want to look at twice.
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And so I think you know having a set group of individuals for four straight years at one school and not having to rebuild a team or rebuild relationships with coaches and things like that is very crucial to why we were so successful.
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Yeah, and you know that camaraderie is so important.
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And now in college sports you're seeing not a lot of camaraderie.
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It's taking teams.
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You know in college football it's taking teams at least four or five games to figure out how to gel together and how to work together, versus, like what you said, having teammates for several years and understanding how everybody functions and what's everybody's role.
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I want to get into the adapt and overcome part of your life where you had Tommy John surgery just before your senior year.
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Can you talk to us about your recovery process and how you managed to make such a strong return in 2024?
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Yes, sir.
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So in April of 2023, I was actually pitching against Navy and I felt some weird things that day, and then the next day I got an MRI and found out that my UCL was torn off my bone actually and so I went through the surgery about a month later and started my rehab process.
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I went through the surgery about a month later and started my rehab process.
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West Point actually sent me home for the summer to rehab with a doctor that I knew at home.
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From that point, I think I spent around eight weeks in a brace while I was at home during the summer.
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I wanted to say, when I started off, it was probably 10 to 12 hours of, you know, lighter rehab just because I was coming off surgery, so they didn't want to, you know, kill me, I guess you could say, in the first couple parts of it.
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But once I got back to West Point and things started to kind of mesh together and I had a sort of a schedule I guess you could say is to you know, go to class, go to practice and do my rehab and things like that, um, and you know so I had a wonderful, wonderful trainer.
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A shout out to Julie Uh, she's an awesome, awesome trainer that works at West Point and um, you know it was her and I were in the training room at the baseball field, probably 30 hours a week.
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Room at the baseball field, probably 30 hours a week, maybe 40, um, on some, on some weeks, and it was just a constant, constant battle to try to get back to where I was and, if not better, and the the hardest part about it was, you know, in in a full reconstruction of your UCL, the full Tommy John surgery, um, it's, it's a 14 to 18 month rehab, no matter what, um, and I only had to.
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I only had 11 months to do it because West Point doesn't offer red shirts.
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You know, once, like I said, it's, it's four years and you're gone, um, and so I had to do it in 11 months, um, from May to basically April, before the season ended and before I graduated, and so, in that in that case, you know, I talked with my coaches and my in my training staff to basically understand that I I've got to work a lot harder than a lot of people to try to get this done and get back to where I was and get back to square one where I was and get back to square one.
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And so again, the the 30 hours in the training room, um, even more time, even more time, kind of by myself and trying to figure out, you know, going through the struggles of rehab and the setbacks and things like that, because you feel great one day and you don't feel so great the next day, um, and there's just a lot of challenges that come into that.
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Yeah, that's really what life is all about, man.
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It's picking yourself back up again, brushing yourself off and getting back on it again and over the years.
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I mean I'm in my mid-40s now and I've had injuries.
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Just doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu, I tore my Achilles, tore my pec muscle completely off, had to get it reattached, huge setbacks.
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And what tells me that you're a true professional is that I honestly didn't take my physical therapy seriously.
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I didn't take it seriously.
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I was like, whatever I'm Wolverine, I'll recover, but being so young, you're able to do that.
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But what you don't realize, in the long run, man, if you don't take that rehab seriously, it'll come back to bite you.
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So that just that you were raised right at the end of the day, tanner, as far as your discipline and being a true professional overall.
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So, with that being said, your injuries a lot of times kind of change the way that you approach the game in general.
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Did, would you think that your pitching style, or were there aspects of your game that you refined or adjusted for a better performance after your surgery?
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Um, I don't want to say my mechanics or anything related to my pitching specifically changed that much, um, but one say one thing I will say that changed was my preparation and my post-preparation.
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I guess you could say, because I had gone through so many hours and so many weeks of rehab, that I kind of retrained my brain almost.
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I guess you could say to understand OK, if I prepare a certain way and I do certain stretches and I do all these things properly, then I'm going to feel better on the field, um, when I'm actually performing Um, and and by that time my, my coach, my pitching coach, um, he kind of, you know, we went through some videos and things like that during my rehab process to kind of understand, like, where do we need to start to get you back better than you were before?
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And so, in terms of a baseball standpoint, increasing my velocity was never a problem and it was never a question as to this is what we want to do.
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It was just changing the way that my brain worked to help me prepare for pitching outings and then recover from those pitching outings.
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And in that came, you know, the increase in velocity, the increase in strength and things like that.
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And so, again, I think the focus on the rehab was probably the most important factor as to why I gained I don't want to say talent, but I gained some knowledge as to, you know, improving myself.
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Yeah, and I would say taking it serious too, because a lot of times people aren't going to invest their time and effort and energy into you if they don't see you meeting them halfway and showing up and giving it all that you have.
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But what about the mental aspect of it all, like, what mental and physical training routines have you found to be most effective in recovering from surgery and now competing at the professional level?
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Mentally.
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You know there was a lot of struggles at the beginning because you know I had never had a major setback or a major injury like this in my life.
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Now I've broken bones here and there, but you know I was a kid and things heal fast when you're a kid.
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But at the time you know I was struggling a lot mentally because, especially during the summer when things were kind of slow and you know I live on the lake so it's hard for me to go out on the lake with a brace on and, you know, a fresh car.
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So you know there are a lot of challenges with, you know, staying inside and being, you know, so cooped up, what it felt like, and then again like I didn't have use of my right arm for much of anything other than holding a fork for a very long time.
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And so you know it was challenging, was challenging and I had some some really personal struggles with that.
00:21:43.332 --> 00:21:55.376
And then once, once I got back to West Point, things kind of got a little bit better because I knew there was a road ahead and I knew at one point I was going to be back on the field, but then again it was just the.
00:21:56.038 --> 00:21:59.003
The time away from baseball was probably the most challenging.
00:21:59.003 --> 00:22:04.138
Is you know I watching the first ball was probably the most challenging?
00:22:04.138 --> 00:22:04.821
Is you know I watching the first?
00:22:04.821 --> 00:22:07.454
I want to say eight to 10 weeks of the season where my teammates were doing all the work and I couldn't do anything.
00:22:07.454 --> 00:22:08.317
You know I was.
00:22:08.317 --> 00:22:17.290
I was just sitting on the on the bench, uh, cheering my teammates on as best as I could and and helping them as best as I could, um, at the time.
00:22:17.290 --> 00:22:21.338
But the, the struggles were definitely definitely true and hard.
00:22:23.021 --> 00:22:27.349
Now, when you found out that you had to get Tommy John surgery, what did the doctors say?
00:22:27.349 --> 00:22:31.738
Did they say, yeah, you will have trouble pitching?
00:22:31.738 --> 00:22:32.038
Did they?
00:22:32.038 --> 00:22:32.219
What was?
00:22:32.219 --> 00:22:43.837
Would you equate the overall success and recovery to the quality of the surgery itself, or what did it look dire as far as like what the doctor's outlook was with Tommy John?
00:22:43.837 --> 00:22:50.766
Just for those folks out there that aren't really familiar with Tommy John surgery, because a lot of times that can be a really debilitating injury, right yes, sir.
00:22:50.846 --> 00:22:52.699
So, um, what?
00:22:52.699 --> 00:23:00.423
What happens is the, the ligament on the inside of your arm that connects your humerus and your ulna, um, it, basically it usually tears in half.
00:23:00.423 --> 00:23:02.268
So what mine did?
00:23:02.268 --> 00:23:11.145
It tore off the humerus rather than tearing down the middle, and so it didn't necessarily tear it.
00:23:11.145 --> 00:23:13.028
Just, you know, it kind of almost snapped.
00:23:13.028 --> 00:23:14.698
And so what?
00:23:14.718 --> 00:23:20.599
The doctor said that you know the outlook was still the same as any other regular full reconstruction over UCL.
00:23:20.599 --> 00:23:26.058
However, you know, he told me that there was going to be a different surgery.
00:23:26.058 --> 00:23:28.736
And I asked him I said is this going to cause me any problems?
00:23:28.736 --> 00:23:31.563
Is this going to change the way that I throw?
00:23:31.563 --> 00:23:34.979
Is it going to negatively affect me in the long run?
00:23:34.979 --> 00:23:36.061
And he said no.
00:23:36.061 --> 00:23:38.589
And obviously I had to trust him.
00:23:38.589 --> 00:23:44.767
He's the one with the doctorate and you know the medical, you know the medical training to understand that this is going to be all right.
00:23:44.894 --> 00:23:53.827
But the initial reaction for me was was pretty heartbreaking, just knowing that there was only I want to say there's probably four weeks left in the season.
00:23:53.827 --> 00:23:57.939
At the time, my junior year, and we were going to a regional.
00:23:57.939 --> 00:24:03.317
That year we were going to play at Virginia against some very good teams to a regional.
00:24:03.317 --> 00:24:13.569
That year we were going to play at Virginia um against some very good teams and just just having that news that you know I'm going to be out for a year or more was was pretty heartbreaking and debilitating at the time, more than the surgery even itself, um.
00:24:14.653 --> 00:24:41.201
But then again, you know, the doctor did a great job, dr Donahue, out up at West Point, and basically what he did was he reattached the original UCL to the bone and then took a ligament out of my wrist that is pretty much the same tensile strength and the same density as my UCL, retied it on itself with some sutures and then drilled it and anchored it into my bone.
00:24:41.201 --> 00:24:44.268
That wraps around the original UCL.
00:24:44.268 --> 00:24:48.509
So people like to say I'm bionic now because I have two UCLs in my right arm.
00:24:48.509 --> 00:24:52.641
And then again, I don't know if it affects anything, I don't know if it changes.
00:24:52.641 --> 00:25:01.642
You know the anatomy of my arm, I guess you could say, but again, he's the one with the doctor and I just I was just yes, do you feel like Wolverine?
00:25:03.555 --> 00:25:05.700
Sometimes one with a doctor, and I just I was just yes, you're like, do you feel like Wolverine?
00:25:05.700 --> 00:25:06.221
Sometimes you feel strong.
00:25:06.221 --> 00:25:06.540
No man before.
00:25:06.540 --> 00:25:27.759
Before I move on to talk about your professional transition into the big leagues, what advice would you have for anyone out there, either in the military or maybe in sports in general, that that have this type of setback when it comes to injuries like, what did you learn either being at West Point or just throughout your life that kind of helped you through this?
00:25:27.759 --> 00:25:32.763
What advice would you give to motivate or inspire others who are having an injury setback or something like that?
00:25:33.755 --> 00:25:43.564
Yeah, the biggest thing and it came from my dad too, because he had numerous injuries throughout his nine-year career and he said, you know, the harder you work now, the less you have to work later.
00:25:44.625 --> 00:25:54.941
And so that was probably the biggest thing for me that the harder I work now and the more pain and suffering that I go through, it's going to work out in the long run and it's going to benefit me in the long run.
00:25:56.124 --> 00:26:10.465
And again, you know, spending 30 to 40 hours a week in the training room is pretty mind numbing and it's pretty, pretty hard to go through, especially when you know, again, you don't, you don't have the capabilities to even do that much with working out.
00:26:10.726 --> 00:26:31.809
Or, you know, even sitting there at practice, all you can do at practice is just sit there and watch and again, so I think, just focusing all of your time and attention on your rehab and kind of shutting everything else out, and at the end of the day, you know, you know treating yourself in a way that you know it's not going to affect you mentally negatively anymore.
00:26:31.809 --> 00:26:42.768
Because a big thing that I would do, you know, if I was down or something, or just you know not having a good day, I would kind of go back and watch my old film from when I was pitching just, you know, not having a good day.
00:26:42.768 --> 00:26:45.914
I would kind of go back and watch my old film from when I was pitching and it kind of got me back in the mindset of you know, the harder I work.
00:26:45.914 --> 00:26:48.623
I'm going to get back to that point at some time.
00:26:49.646 --> 00:26:50.830
Yeah, that's huge.
00:26:50.830 --> 00:26:59.180
You definitely want to get all your work done when you're younger, in your 20s, and you're able, and you don't have all the distractions, all the variables out there.
00:26:59.180 --> 00:27:04.096
That's actually really excellent advice that your father gave you with that.
00:27:04.096 --> 00:27:16.210
Now, from my understanding, you spent some time pitching for the Trenton Thunder in the MLB Draft League, where you recorded a solid 2.70 ERA.
00:27:16.210 --> 00:27:26.249
What was your biggest takeaways from that experience and how did you prepare to get into the Phillies system overall?
00:27:28.134 --> 00:27:28.355
Yeah.
00:27:28.355 --> 00:27:32.426
So the Trenton Thunder is a great, great place.
00:27:32.426 --> 00:27:54.684
I loved officially graduate Because I was an August grad because of my surgery that hindered me from completing some summer training and so in between those trainings I was with the Trenton Thunder and again, they run it very professionally.
00:27:54.684 --> 00:28:03.582
They run it so well that it almost mimics any minor league team that you can think of, where you're playing five, six games a week and you get one off day.
00:28:03.582 --> 00:28:17.060
And again the coaching staff in Trenton was so professional and they had so much experience that I think that allowed me to sort of understand the ins and outs of a higher level of baseball.
00:28:17.643 --> 00:28:27.944
And then again you know there's always that you know you go to the MLB draft league and you know are you going to perform, am I going to perform well enough to live at this level, and things like that.
00:28:27.944 --> 00:28:33.387
And you know, even meeting all my teammates there, that I still talk to most of them today too.
00:28:33.387 --> 00:28:44.469
It was pretty eye opening in a sense that you know this is kind of how baseball operates at a higher level, the more than just college and more than just at a D one level.
00:28:44.469 --> 00:28:53.326
Um, and so I think you know, having those three weeks kind of prepared me, to prepare me mentally more than anything, rather than physically, to kind of understand.
00:28:53.326 --> 00:29:05.209
Like you know, in order for me to be successful at the next level, I have to work just as hard as the guy next to me that's trying to do the same thing to get drafted and get signed by some team out there that believes in him.
00:29:06.455 --> 00:29:09.965
And it's, it's so competitive, so competitive, especially in baseball.
00:29:09.965 --> 00:29:18.789
Yeah, and now that you're with the Phillies minor league team, what do you think has been the biggest adjustment, transitioning from college to professional baseball?
00:29:27.494 --> 00:29:27.977
to professional baseball.
00:29:27.977 --> 00:29:34.096
Um, I, I wouldn't even say that it's a challenge, honestly, but it's more of a benefit because, you know, at West Point especially, being a cadet athlete is practically impossible.
00:29:34.096 --> 00:29:43.635
Um, I myself, you know, I I wasn't the greatest student at West Point, um, and I, you know, I attest that to how much I spent focusing on baseball and things like that.
00:29:43.635 --> 00:29:51.844
But you know, once I, once I got down to Florida for the first month that I was there before I went out to basic officer training.
00:29:51.844 --> 00:30:00.544
I was there for about a month and what I noticed and what I saw was that there was so much different than college baseball.
00:30:00.584 --> 00:30:06.628
Like it is, it is cutthroat, it is, you know, you do your work and you you can go home.
00:30:06.628 --> 00:30:07.372
That's pretty much it.
00:30:07.372 --> 00:30:10.180
And so the only thing I had to do was focus on baseball.
00:30:10.180 --> 00:30:20.759
I didn't have class, I didn't have, you know, anything else to worry about, and and some of my teammates I had, I had known from, you know, mutual friends and things like that with the Phillies and things.
00:30:20.759 --> 00:30:29.458
But again, I got to wake up and I got to go do baseball and I got to come home and do nothing.
00:30:29.458 --> 00:30:43.623
So I just think, again, the attention to detail just increases to a high level, and the coaches and staff that are there, they pay so much attention to you that you don't really have that much room to do anything wrong.
00:30:43.623 --> 00:30:59.797
Um, and so you know, my, my short time with the Phillies definitely opened me up to to focusing more on my craft and focusing more on my, my, my sleep, my, my workout routine, the, the way that I eat, and everything that you can think of that comes with, you know, a professional level.
00:31:01.160 --> 00:31:06.229
So you know what that that actually makes me want to go back to talk about your West Point days.
00:31:06.229 --> 00:31:17.500
Take us through what the what an average day in the life of an Academy scholar athlete might endure from start to finish.
00:31:17.500 --> 00:31:20.662
What time are you waking up, what time are you going to bed and what are you doing?
00:31:20.662 --> 00:31:21.518
Everything in between.
00:31:28.674 --> 00:31:45.000
Yeah, so for my, for myself I can't really speak to the rest of the academy but how I operated was every day I woke up about 630 and we had morning formation around seven, and then we go to breakfast and things like that and started classes, started 7 40 every day, no change, never, never a day off.
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:48.608
Um, it was always starting at 7 40 but hang on.
00:31:48.628 --> 00:31:49.775
When you showed up the hang on.
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