Kody Clemens At Spring Training 2024

Beasley Digital

Jeff and Kody relate to having baseball dads. They talk golf, making the Major Leagues and whether or not his wife wears Phillies gear.

Transcript

00:00It's Jeff Kirkshin here at Clearwater Spring Training. I'm with Cody Clemens. What's going on, my friend?

00:05Not a whole lot.

00:06You know, we can bond over having two baseball dads, which is pretty cool.

00:09I mean, your dad, definitely a lot more accomplished than my father, I won't say that much.

00:14Quite a legend, but it's really cool because, you know, being able to relate to that,

00:19you're a Major League Baseball player, which is so cool, and you grew up dreaming of that,

00:24going to Yankee Stadium, seeing your dad play.

00:26So how cool is it to now realize what you dreamt of, like every little boy does,

00:31now you're doing it. You're in the Major League.

00:34It's surreal for sure.

00:36Obviously, growing up, watching my dad pitch, kind of trying to follow in the footsteps of him,

00:41I always say it's really nice that I'm not a pitcher, so I don't have to live up to what he did.

00:46Trust me, that's why I feel like I'm glad talking country music every day

00:49instead of breaking down, you know, a slider, because that's just not what I do.

00:54Yeah, so, I mean, I'm glad I'm not a pitcher.

00:57So no one can compare me to him.

00:59But it's awesome.

01:00I mean, just grinded, growing up, loving the game, and, you know,

01:04your dreams of making it to the big leagues, and it's, you know,

01:06I'm super grateful and blessed that I've made that.

01:09As you should be.

01:10I mean, I love telling, I don't know if you realize this,

01:13but if you filled up where the Cleveland Guardians play,

01:17it's the smallest stadium, progressive field of any Major League park.

01:20If you filled it up with every single person who has ever thrown a pitch in Major League Baseball

01:25or seen a pitch, it will not even be three-quarters full.

01:29Yeah, that's wild.

01:29And you would be in that stadium.

01:31Think about that.

01:32I think I've seen that picture on Twitter.

01:35I think they posted that where it shows the stands by the screen out there.

01:39Yeah, 130 years, and you would be in that stadium.

01:44And to think of how many people grew up saying,

01:47I want to be in that stadium one day and didn't have that opportunity.

01:50So not that you need to hear this from me.

01:53I'm sure you seem so humble.

01:55This is such an amazing opportunity to be out here and how special that is.

01:58I want to pivot real fast because I know you're a golfer.

02:01I am.

02:01So I want to talk more baseball, but I want to talk a little bit about golf.

02:04And I notice that you guys do, because I follow you on Instagram,

02:08I notice that you guys do family tournaments.

02:10You'll do par-3 tournaments.

02:12And for you, are you as competitive on the golf course as you are on the baseball field?

02:18Or are you able to kind of have a little more fun on the course?

02:21No, I have a lot more fun on the course.

02:23Oh, good.

02:24Okay.

02:24I mean, it is competitive with your brothers and family and my dad,

02:28and I try and always get in his wallet a little bit playing golf.

02:31But it's fun and games.

02:34One of my brothers is really good.

02:36He's like a stick.

02:37He's probably a one-handicapped Casey.

02:39Wow.

02:39So he's gotten a lot better.

02:41You know, I'll shoot, like, low 80s pretty consistently.

02:44So, you know, I can hit it around, but I have my fair share of, you know, triple bogeys.

02:48You know, I mean, don't we all?

02:50But when your fair share is, like, seven or eight,

02:52when you're named Jeff Kirkshan, it's a little bit different.

02:54It's just so funny to me talking about playing golf,

02:56and, like, you look at, like, the John Smoltz's of the world.

02:58It's, like, basically below a scratch.

03:01Yeah, he's really good.

03:02But I think there's so much translation.

03:05And my dad and I have said this for years.

03:06If you made, like, the all-Major League Baseball NFL team,

03:11so only Major League players playing football,

03:14it would be better than the all-football team playing baseball relative.

03:19Does that make sense?

03:20Yeah.

03:20Because I feel like there's so many skills that are transferable,

03:23and I think a huge part of it, though,

03:25and you can speak to this because you're a Major League Baseball player,

03:28is the mental aspect, wouldn't you say?

03:30Yeah.

03:30I think, I mean, for some reason,

03:32baseball players can kind of transition to every sport.

03:37You know, like, we say we can kind of go compete

03:39and play defense and basketball,

03:40and maybe, you know, my jump shot's horrible.

03:43But I can maybe throw up a shot and make it,

03:45but it's tough when those players come in

03:48and try and hit a 100-mile-an-hour fastball.

03:49Like, that's pretty dang hard to do without having any practice behind the scenes or anything.

03:54But mentally, it's more so just, like, we play a game of failure, you know,

03:59and we fail all the time, so we're just used to that.

04:02So, and I think other athletes are not used to failing as much as we do,

04:06so maybe that gives us the little edge.

04:08You fail 7 out of 10 times in your borderline Hall of Fame.

04:11Yeah, you're the best.

04:12You do it long enough, like hitting 300.

04:14I know your teammate Bryson Stott recently said, like, you know,

04:17the goal is to hit 300, and he was doing it a little bit throughout the season.

04:21But it's a long season, and it takes a lot of time.

04:25But off-season is also a time to get in your head.

04:27But I realized that you got engaged in the off-season.

04:31I got married in the off-season, yeah.

04:32Okay, was that on November 11th?

04:34I couldn't tell if that was engagement or if that was a wedding.

04:36Yeah, no, I got engaged the prior year.

04:39Okay.

04:39I got married this off-season, yeah.

04:40And so how did your wife feel?

04:42Because we had to – my wife was dying to get married in October,

04:46and this was back in 2022,

04:49and I had to tell her that we can't get married in October

04:52because it's playoffs season, and Dad's a little busy.

04:55And even though my dad got mad at me for saying that

04:57because he said, I would, of course, miss the ALCS to be at your wedding, Jeff,

05:01but I had to tell her.

05:02So we got married in April, which is like after the chill.

05:05But how does your wife feel about dealing with the fact

05:08that she's married to a major leaguer, which is really cool,

05:11but also everything's dictated by the schedule at this point?

05:14Yeah, you know, we adjust and adapt.

05:16You know, we're on the go all the time.

05:19We had to plan that, obviously, in November.

05:21All the baseball guys get married in that –

05:24Yep.

05:24You know, getting closer to Christmastime.

05:26Right.

05:26Because that's the only time we can.

05:27Right.

05:29You know, she loves it.

05:30She's starting to get in the rhythm of traveling and everything,

05:32and so I think she's going to travel with me this summer for the first time.

05:37She's a special ed coordinator in Houston.

05:40No way.

05:40Yeah, so this will be her first time.

05:42She's kind of going to stop that job, I think, and come with me,

05:46so I'm excited about it.

05:47If I can ask, and you can plead the fifth here,

05:50you know, being that she is in Houston, is she wearing Phillies gear?

05:54Yeah.

05:54Is that upsetting?

05:55Or is she like a Kylie Kelsey where she's only going to wear Eagles,

05:58she's not going to represent anybody else?

06:00No, she wears the Phillies gear.

06:02Oh, good.

06:02Okay, okay.

06:03And she walks into her school, and everyone's like,

06:04why are you wearing that?

06:05Especially because, you know, Astros fans are everywhere,

06:08and they see the Phillies, and they've just played in the World Series in 22,

06:12so it was like, they're like, why is she wearing that?

06:14And then they kind of put two and two together.

06:15They're like, oh, okay, it makes sense.

06:17Yeah.

06:18They're like, that's Mrs. Clemens.

06:19Yeah.

06:19All right.

06:20So, well, Cody, I'm so excited for your year.

06:23I expect big things.

06:25You're one of those guys who grinds it out every time.

06:28Every time you come up to bat, I love the everyday guys,

06:31but it's guys like you that are true issuers of baseball when it comes to

06:35you grind it out, you're out here every single day.

06:38I wish you the best of luck.

06:39I love watching you play.

06:41You're going to crush it this year.

06:42Thanks for taking some time.

06:43Yeah, absolutely.

06:43Thank you for having me.

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