00:00We bring to you one of the key components of maybe my favorite, one of my favorite Rangers teams of
00:06all time.
00:07It is Ken Hill. Good morning, sir.
00:10Good morning.
00:11How are you doing?
00:12I don't know, running through that traffic, but I'm doing good.
00:14Okay.
00:15What is it? Traffic is a World Cup traffic right now. Is that what we're dealing with?
00:20Well, I'm coming from Justin.
00:22Okay. All right. Gotcha.
00:23Yeah.
00:24Either way, one 14, 360 or 35. I was hitting it.
00:28There you go. Yeah.
00:30It is. It's that time, Kevin, as we have the World Cup descending upon us.
00:36I mean, that's true, but there's also no such thing as rush hour anymore. It's just always traffic.
00:40Always.
00:41Like, you can be like, I'm going to drive home at 2 p.m. on a Sunday. Nope.
00:44Nope.
00:45Traffic.
00:46Now, we can talk about the contemporary Rangers, of course, and I do want to do that, but I want
00:50to go back to 96 and just what kind of vibe and excitement was happening around the team and the
00:58Metroplex,
00:59because that was our first ever playoff appearance.
01:02Oh, shoot.
01:04Think back.
01:07We had a great group of guys.
01:10Clubhouse was fun.
01:12Plane rides were fun.
01:13Bus rides.
01:13We just had a good mix of some veterans and some youth, and it all came together.
01:22How important are those, like, the plane and bus rides that you were just talking about to kind of create
01:28that camaraderie on the team?
01:30They're very important, you know, where you can sit and talk the game and talk different situations and stuff like
01:40that.
01:40But, I mean, it's just, you know, you think about it.
01:44You're going to spend six months with the guys.
01:46Right.
01:47You spend most of your time with them.
01:49You spend more time with them than you do your family, so you want to get to know the guys
01:53on a personal level.
01:56Every year, would you kind of have that thing where you'd almost have to, not all the way, but, like,
02:00kind of say goodbye to your family?
02:02Because you'd be like, hey, for six months, it's going to be tough.
02:05Yeah.
02:05No, it's difficult, you know, especially if you've got kids.
02:08You know, your wife is the one taking care of all the stuff going on at the house.
02:14So, but other than that, I mean, it was a good time.
02:18What kind of present does your wife get for those situations?
02:21Like, what kind of present do you get?
02:23Hey, thanks for taking care of the kids for the next six months.
02:26I really appreciate it.
02:28That she gets whatever she wants.
02:30Okay.
02:31Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:32I'm always kind of curious on the front of how, like, when new players come into a team and now
02:39they've got to kind of get to know some guys,
02:41or maybe they do have some guys that they know the next year.
02:44Now, you're the guy that's been there for a little bit.
02:47And is it always, hey, I've got to welcome this new guy.
02:49I've got to go chat him up a little bit.
02:51But how do you all get along and find that relationship over time?
02:55Oh, no.
02:55When you get a new guy to the team, you want to welcome him in and fill him in on
03:00everything that's going on,
03:01what the clubhouse is like.
03:03Where to find coffee.
03:04Who to stay away from.
03:06Oh, I like that part.
03:08Yeah.
03:09Are there moments where you're like, I wish I would have had a roof in our stadium whenever we were
03:13in Texas?
03:15Oh, shoot, I wish.
03:17But, I mean, you know the summers here.
03:20It's hot.
03:20Mm-hmm.
03:21But for me personally, I kind of got used to it.
03:26I would run that lake out there in between starts.
03:30Okay.
03:31To get acclimated to the heat.
03:32Yeah.
03:33Colts, yeah.
03:33Because that fifth inning, when that hot breeze hits you in the fifth inning, you've got to be able to
03:39dig deep.
03:40Yeah, you do.
03:40Yeah, that's for sure.
03:41I used to tell people if it got to the end of May or beyond and somebody asked you out
03:46to that Sunday 2 p.m. game, they were your enemy.
03:49They didn't actually like you because they were like, they're your enemy if you're going to go to that game.
03:53No.
03:54I'll tell you, it was hot.
03:57Mm-hmm.
03:57Did you ever look at it, though, as an advantage?
04:00Like, did you think we had, like you just said, you went and ran purposely so you knew what was
04:06going on.
04:06We always hear these stories about Pudge getting IVs before games so he could, you know, withstand all the heat
04:12and sweat loss there.
04:14Did you, like, look at it and like, hey, they've got to come into here, though?
04:17Yeah.
04:18No, we used it to our advantage.
04:20We know teams didn't want to come in.
04:22It was going to be hot.
04:23And we kind of mentally took it to our advantage because we know mentally we play in it.
04:34We know how to deal with it, and that's how we went about it.
04:38Do you ever feel like maybe fans at any time underrate how important that mental aspect is to get through
04:44a grinding baseball season?
04:46Because they'll talk so much about the physical, but it feels like the mental to get you through that season
04:50is just as, if not more, important.
04:54To me, it's 90% mental.
04:56Wow.
04:57Than it is physical.
04:59Well, I mean, physical, if you're hurt, you can't punch it.
05:01But mentally, you've got to, for me personally, from start to start, whether I do good or whether I do
05:09bad, mentally, I've got to prepare every fifth day to be ready.
05:15Say, like, if I go out and I only throw three innings.
05:18Now, mentally, I've got to wait four days and think about what just happened, prepare myself for the next one
05:24so it don't happen again.
05:26Yeah, you know, one of our old co-hosts, Mike Bassick, he always brings up, like, he loved having Charlie
05:32Huff as a guy to get a game plan together for him.
05:35He was like, Charlie Huff was brilliant at putting a game plan together.
05:38Did you ever have any pitching coaches that were really good and then ones that were really bad at the
05:43game plan?
05:44And you're like, now I'm doing all my work myself here.
05:46No, actually, all the pitching coaches that I had were really good.
05:49That's good.
05:51But, I mean, we all sit down, pitching coach, catcher, we all sit down before start and go over every
05:59hitter, even the bench players, just in case they come in and pinch hit.
06:04So we had a game plan going in with every start.
06:09So, we sat down, go over every hitter, certain situations, this guy's the first fastball hitter, so we don't want
06:16to just lay on it, you know, little things like that.
06:19Yeah, exactly.
06:20Over the years, we've seen more and more information available for the players.
06:26Is that always a good thing or can you get to a point where you've got too much information, too
06:30many numbers, and there's, like, just too much going on in your head?
06:34Well, with the analytics, it's good and bad.
06:38Right.
06:38So I can't say analytics doesn't help.
06:42Sure.
06:43Analytics doesn't know how I'm warming up in the bullpen.
06:46Yeah.
06:46How I feel that day.
06:48Yeah.
06:48So that's where, in terms of analytics, to me, doesn't play a role.
06:54Oh, I'm basically loaded, no outs.
06:57I've got to figure out how to get out of this mess.
07:00Yeah, exactly.
07:01Analytics ain't going to tell me that.
07:03Yeah, and it's going to give you the idea of what my work.
07:06But, like, I always said this, Boach was a good example for us.
07:11Like, he talked about liking to marry those things.
07:14And Bannister was a good example.
07:16And I really like what Skip's doing right now.
07:18It's the, you do have to look the guy in the eyes and have a good judge of, I know
07:23what that dude's going through right now.
07:25And he's going to be able to do this, or, man, he doesn't have it right now.
07:29You know, like, the manager, that's their job is to understand the person.
07:33Well, to understand, too, is if this analytics is telling me I need to throw this pitch, what if I
07:40don't have fear for it?
07:41Exactly.
07:42Yeah.
07:42So, now, I'm throwing this pitch, and I hang it, the media's coming to me.
07:49Yeah.
07:51So, the thing about it is, if that pitch ain't working for me that day, why would I throw that?
07:55Exactly.
07:56So, that doesn't make any sense.
07:58And they'll say, why did you throw it?
07:59And you'll be like, the spreadsheet.
08:01That's what it told me.
08:02Analytics told me to do it.
08:03You were talking about when you're warming up in the bullpen and everything, how quickly did you know, I have
08:10to grind it out today, versus, like, ooh, I got my good stuff happening today.
08:14Let's see how it goes.
08:15Oh, you know right off the bat.
08:17Yeah.
08:18But, some of those days, when you feel you don't get it, those are the best games you pitch.
08:23Mm-hmm.
08:24You know, and I felt really good on days, and I got knocked out in the third inning.
08:28So, I mean, it's just like you talked about the mental aspect of it.
08:32You know, mentally, it, boom, I feel good.
08:34Boom, I'm locating.
08:35I got it going.
08:36But, all of a sudden, I'm getting hit.
08:39Mm-hmm.
08:40But, when I'm feeling bad, you know, one day, we were in Chicago, and I was kind of sick.
08:49Okay.
08:50But, I went out there, and I managed to get through six, seven innings.
08:54Wow.
08:54Sick.
08:55Mm-hmm.
08:56Because, my focus was eating laser.
08:59Yeah.
08:59Because, I knew I had to get through it, you know, so.
09:03And, you kind of cut out all those distractions at times, too.
09:06It's not yet.
09:06You can't focus on that right now.
09:07Don't even worry about it.
09:09Is there a, we've talked about this with a couple of Evan Carter plays this year.
09:13Is there ever a protocol for a defensive play that gets made that just really bails you out of a
09:18jam?
09:19That you're like, I'm going to take you out to a steak dinner.
09:21Oh.
09:23Well, you've got to get a lot of those, of course, to the season.
09:25Yeah.
09:26So, that's a lot of steak dinner.
09:28That's true.
09:29You know?
09:30But, I mean, when guys make great plays for you, that just pumps you up.
09:34Yeah.
09:35You know, you want to pick them up.
09:37You know?
09:38So, it's just a team game.
09:40You make good plays.
09:42You know?
09:43So.
09:44You were part of, you know, as Rangers fans our whole life.
09:49Like, Kevin and I grew up.
09:50Yeah.
09:50I was an East Dallas kid.
09:51He was a Garland kid.
09:52We saw teams that never had good pitching.
09:56And then you were part of that group that was, like, really.
09:59Like, this was our great opportunity to watch really good pitching.
10:03Right now, this group has Evaldi and DeGrom.
10:07Young Leiter and Rocker.
10:08Gore.
10:08Like, this is a really good pitching group.
10:11Do you enjoy, like, watching the artistry of what these guys are doing on the Hill?
10:16Oh, no question.
10:18Doing always good pitch and always beats good hitting.
10:21Yeah, it does.
10:21But I just love watching those guys.
10:24You've got some power arms in that rotation.
10:28I mean, you've got some veteran and some young guys still learning on the way.
10:33So, in the future, you've got some guys there that have been really good for a long time.
10:39You know?
10:40And I enjoy watching all of them.
10:42Do you, with Jack Leiter specifically, I'm always curious, him and Rocker, the patience to learn at a young age
10:50and get, really learn the pitching part of it.
10:53I mean, like you said, power arms.
10:54Give them a little more time to grow into that?
10:57Is it because some people are trying to rush them a lot, it feels like.
11:00No, the thing about it is, I think they're doing it the right way now.
11:06Let them pitch.
11:08That's the only way they're going to learn.
11:10You know?
11:11Because what I see, and it's just me.
11:15I was just telling one of those guys over there, my son works for the Twins, and he's in Cedar
11:21Rapids, Iowa.
11:23And I was just there, and I just watched how they do their pitching.
11:27And none of these guys throw more than 50 pitches, 50, 60, 70 pitches.
11:31What are they doing?
11:32And they're out of the game.
11:34So, my thing is, is let them pitch.
11:37That's the only way they're going to learn to get out of certain situations.
11:41And if you don't give them those opportunities, it's not going to happen.
11:47They can't grow.
11:48Well, look, we appreciate the time.
11:51I'm pretty sure we can continue this conversation.
11:53We also have people waiting to get autographs and stuff.
11:56So, we will let you sign for the people.
11:59Ken, thank you so much for jumping on the program.
12:01Appreciate you.
12:02Ladies and gentlemen, Ken Hill right here on 105.3 The Fan.
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