- 11 hours ago
The G-Bag Nation caught up with Texas Rangers Infielder Nicky Lopez today on the Rangers player show! Lopez shared his excitement about joining the Rangers, his flexibility playing all across the diamond, his strong food takes, and more.
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00:00it's time now for the rangers player show brought to you by golden chick and globe life
00:04for over 125 years globe life has helped protect families when they need it most globe life make
00:09tomorrow better as uh here he is acquired may 28th hitting 310 in the month of june had a hit
00:16in a stolen base last night it's nicky lopez here with you on the fan and a good afternoon sir
00:21how
00:21the heck are you i'm great thank you for having me i appreciate it man thanks for joining us thanks
00:26for all the good work you've you've done so far and and and welcome to texas man what do you
00:30think
00:31of our state so far i love it man i love it i've loved the opportunity obviously and i just
00:37love
00:37the the people here and um you know they they greeted me with open arms and the fans have been
00:42great and obviously the ballpark and the clubhouse is awesome and um so i've been i've been loving it
00:49so far um actually funny enough like four years ago five years ago me and my wife uh spent an
00:56off season here in dallas just to see if we decided to want to live in arizona or dallas and
01:02uh ultimately chose arizona but we we spent an off season out here in dallas so we we like
01:07well heck yeah we like you man i mean that it looks like you show tremendous pride in all the
01:13little things the defense that that make up a a good player do i have that right i do i
01:19do and um you
01:20know you can call me kind of a an old school player someone who can just kind of play all
01:25over
01:25the diamond but you know put the ball in play uh work a good at bat um and then just
01:30just bring
01:30some energy and um you know some some clubhouse presence and and stuff like that um every single
01:36day and um i take a lot of pride in that i take a lot of pride in my defense
01:40i take a lot of pride
01:41in and just that that craft of just being a tough out and just someone who's just going to battle
01:46when
01:46you get into the box and just compete what's your favorite position to play in the infield do you
01:50have a most comfortable spot that's a that's a good question um i think i think second base um
01:58you know i i've i've always liked second base um but you know i i feel equally as comfortable going
02:06over to shortstop and then um and then the corners obviously are um are just a toss-up um but
02:12i've played
02:12all over the diamond um and but i think to answer your question i think second and shorter are
02:19definitely uh my more comfortable comfortable positions what have you thought about some of
02:23the rule changes like with the shifts would you would you did you like the shifts when you're
02:27playing in the infield so like so that's the thing is like when you play the infield um you obviously
02:35liked it uh you know i didn't mind being able to play in the outfield and and field a ground
02:40ball
02:40and throw the guy out at first when those guys have you know severe um you know splits or you
02:45know
02:46they're going to be pulling the ball a lot and we we knew ahead of time hey this guy likes
02:49to pull
02:50so we we put like three guys on the on the right side i um you know i think just
02:55the the point of
02:56baseball is how how many how many times can we get them out um you know and and score more
03:02runs than
03:03that you know if you just dumb it down so um you should be able to kind of do whatever
03:07you want so
03:07with these rule changes now of not being able to go out in the grass and um you can only
03:13have two
03:13people on each side of the base it's it's a little different obviously but i i know um it helps
03:18with the you know the offensive part of the of the game and um but you can also you can
03:25also argue
03:25that with the shifts if you learn how to hit the ball the other way you know you can get
03:29a little
03:29bit more hits or if you learn how to bond you can you can get some more hits because there's
03:33no one
03:33over there so um yeah but i mean the rule the rule changes it's a game of adjustments and
03:39obviously the game is always just going to keep adjusting so hey nicky oh nicky lopez you're with
03:46you on the fan brian yeah nicky i was i was gonna ask you know you mentioned all the positions
03:50and
03:50stuff you like to play how was that those couple times you went out there and pitched what was that
03:55all about so the first the first time i went out there to pitch um you know i i've always
04:01said you
04:01know you know oh it's or you know we always joke about it in the clubhouse like oh it's easy
04:06you
04:06know to pitch it's easy to get out on the mound and then once you finally do it it's like
04:10man like
04:11you're you're really close to the plate it's it's very intimidating and definitely something i'm not
04:17really interested in but you know throughout my career i've been on the mound probably six or seven
04:23times so um i'd rather be in the infield or the outfield rather than pitching and so but it is
04:30definitely needed sometimes when you know whether you're winning a lot or losing a lot so i've been
04:34on the mound for both of those and um yeah it's not it's not necessarily fun but you try to
04:39have
04:39fun with it and um try to get try to get out of the way of any comebackers yeah i
04:45promised this last
04:45question about that what's that discussion like do you just know as the game's going along that like
04:51the skipper's gonna like he's gonna look at you and go hey nicky get ready man i need you to
04:56finish
04:56this one out today do you just know or is it a discussion how how's it come about when they
05:01ask you to
05:02pitch it's been it's so it is a discussion um but it's also it's also one of those where you
05:09know
05:09i've played many roles in in my career i've been you know obviously the the prospect that just gets
05:16got called up so you know that you're not probably going to be the one that's going to be
05:19called upon the pitch and then i've been in utility roles and i've been in bench roles where it's like
05:24all right now that i'm in a bench role it's like okay well i know that if this goes a
05:30wall like
05:30um we're going i'm going to probably be the one that's been going to be asked to pitch if need
05:36be
05:36so it's one of those things that's if you're kind of ready for and once you see because now the
05:41rule
05:41is if we're down by eight or more if you're up by eight or more you can have a position
05:45player pitch
05:46so now it's um you're kind of just watching the game what kind of unfold you know where you know
05:52where the bullpen is at you you know when you know if there's been a lot of use on the
05:56bullpen arms
05:57it's like all right well you i might i might be asked to pitch here so it's one of those
06:01the
06:01skipper comes up to you and kind of gives you the hey you know we're gonna we might need you
06:05for an
06:05inning are you all right with that and obviously you do anything for the for the betterment of the
06:10team for sure nikki lopez you're with you on the fan now uh chris young rangers gm or i'm sorry
06:16president of baseball operations put respect on that title he was last with the royals in 2017 your
06:22first year 2019 had you crossed paths with our guy cy before you got here um well so yeah so
06:30i was
06:30actually drafted in 2016 from the royals so i um you know and i i remember it was either 16
06:37or 17
06:38where i was used they you know they would call me up from the the minor leagues to you know
06:43during
06:44spring training to do like rundown drills or if people were doing you know pfps or if they were
06:49working on rundowns i was used as like a base runner so i've definitely been on the same field
06:54as as cy when he was just you know obviously getting his work in and um obviously a lot of
06:59respect for him and um you know we we both share the the the royals connection and um and then
07:08what
07:08once getting here obviously just going in and talking to him and um just picking up where we left
07:13off kind of thing and it's you know he's done a tremendous job here and i'm just i'm just happy
07:18to be a
07:19part of it do you have an opinion one way or another on the whole kc versus texas barbecue
07:24debate so that's the thing is like i and i when i was in kansas city i think for one
07:32or two years i was
07:33i was actually i had an endorsement with jack stack and so i was very fond of jack stack and
07:40and um i'm a
07:41big ribs guy so i like their ribs um you know i'm very i don't know if i'm the right
07:47guy to ask about
07:48uh barbecue but um i then i when we moved here uh for an off season you know i was
07:56trying texas
07:56barbecue and it's it's equally equally good i mean i i don't know who is better i don't know who
08:02tops
08:02what but uh since we're on a texas show right now i think i'm gonna have to
08:10let's keep the food conversation going because you you went to high school in illinois you got
08:14to play with the cubbies we actually talked earlier about some of the foods the world cup
08:19fans that are visiting need to try in chicago style deep dish was brought up and eric one of
08:24our co-hosts we went to lou malnati's in surprise we were out there for the week he didn't have
08:29a
08:29good experience what's your take on the chicago deep dish pizza see that's where i don't i'm not
08:35i'm i'm a little bit it's being obviously from a chicagoland area i'm not a big fan of deep dish
08:43i i don't like how they label it um i think i'm a big tavern fan if you ever heard
08:50of chicago yeah
08:51absolutely jake burger told us about that yeah that is the way to go and so i if anybody who
08:57would ever
08:57you know ask me about chicago pizza i'd say yeah you got to get a tavern fan um i just
09:03think
09:03any pizza that you can only have one one slice you feel yeah absolutely disgusting afterwards um
09:10i think is not a pizza so i like to eat you know multiple slices when i sit down and
09:16so um
09:17but with saying that though like i will say that the the chicago chain foods that are in
09:26arizona like so like portillo's for instance big fan of portillo's i can honestly say that
09:33the portillo's in chicago and in the chicagoland area is way better than the the portillo's in
09:39arizona and like i i think the same goes with lou malnati's i think the same goes with some of
09:44the
09:44other other restaurants as well what would you say is the best sandwich in the world is it the
09:49brisket sando is it an italian is it a cuban where would you take us there nicky i'm a i'm
09:55an
09:55italian beef sandwich with sweet and hot peppers that's the way to go and if you want to get a
10:02little bit more into it i'm a combo which is the italian beef with the with the italian sausage in
10:08it um with sweet and hot peppers it's just that's that's my go-to it's it's unmatched are those
10:15sandwiches you dip that italian beef is that you did that you can order them dipped yeah you can order
10:20them you can order them wet you can order them dry obviously um but if you get slightly dipped and
10:26then uh it's just yeah i'm kind of craving one right now i was able to catch a little bit
10:32of
10:32your pregame interview over the weekend with jared sandler and i think it's very rare that somebody
10:37that's professional baseball player is not the best athlete in your family can you take this down
10:43like not only just your wife but you're you're you're from a family of athletes i'm i'm a family of
10:49athletes yeah i could i'll start it off with obviously my my dad was a really good football
10:55player um he was he played semi-pro um got offered to go to iowa but um i think the
11:02family put a um
11:04a stop to that and then has a letter from mike dicka that's in our house framed uh to to
11:11uh trial for
11:11the 85 bears and then when he was going to training camp he bruised his kidney and and then that
11:17was it
11:18kind of and he was just like you know what i'm going to focus on the family and and all
11:22that
11:22stuff so he turned to softball um which if you guys know or if you don't know in chicago
11:28um it's called 16 inch softball it's a huge deal um it's been around for ever um and so yeah
11:37he's a
11:37he's a i think a one or two time national title uh winner um because there's there's other states
11:43obviously that play it as well but so it's 16 inches and you don't use gloves and it's it's
11:49pretty hard nose like blue collar sport and i think that's where i kind of learned how to
11:56play and kind of play the play the game hard and play the game the right way and um i
12:00learned it
12:01from him so yeah he was a big athlete and he's a um a hall of famer and in that
12:06sport and then uh
12:07yeah my wife um met her at creighton um basketball player um only only player there to don't that
12:17scored a thousand points 800 assists and 500 rebounds um i think i'm saying that right i think
12:23someone um a girl who was there for a fifth year actually just matched her uh matched sydney but
12:31said did in four years which was awesome and so uh but yeah she she beats me at horse i
12:37said that
12:37the only time i ever beat her at horse was i i threw a baseball style uh half court shot
12:42that
12:43went in and she was like that's not fair so um but yeah so it's surrounded by athletes but she
12:49she was uh she was unbelievable nikki lopez wrap it up with the rangers infielder here on your home
12:56of the rangers final question a serious baseball question love to get your thoughts on how
13:00how the game has evolved here over the last 10 or 15 years to to so heavily favor the power
13:06guys and
13:07and with your place in the game salute to you scratching out a great career what what do you
13:12think about that is is mlb kind of missing missing the point on this one so i think um i
13:19personally
13:20think that mlb and sports and life in general over corrects and then it comes back down it's always
13:28that it's kind of always kind of the flow of like oh something's wrong with the game or something's
13:32wrong with sport and so it's over corrected so like the in the in the life of anal or in
13:38the
13:38era of analytics it's like oh let's just over correct it and then now it's coming back down so in
13:43this sense you know the power hey how can we get the power how can we get the guys that
13:48hit home
13:48runs well these guys that can hit home runs are also striking out 200 times so you can have that
13:53argument of well is that a good product is that a product that fans want to watch and so i
13:59think
13:59it's kind of slowly coming back to hey we need to we also need you know the power guys are
14:05great
14:06but we also need to you know have people on the team that can you know working at bat it
14:12could put
14:12a bunt down can play multiple positions can base run and so i think it is slowly but surely kind
14:18of
14:19coming back down which is which is really good i think for the sport i think it's it's good where
14:24the sport is trending as well especially with these pitchers who have wipeout stuff and with
14:29the breaking balls that are unbelievable and the velos that are astronomical so it's it's it's now how
14:36can we you know put the ball in play or you know put a bunt down against a guy who's
14:41throwing 100 with
14:42a 95 mile per hour change up and uh and see him make a play you know what i mean
14:47so um but i think
14:50i mean yeah i wish i can hit a ball you know over the time but i but i had
14:57to adapt it throughout my
14:58career okay well what got me here and what made me stand out and what can i do that a
15:05power guy might
15:06not be able to do and so that's what i had to do amazing stuff man sorry for keeping you
15:12so long
15:12hopefully we didn't make you late for anything but that was just terrific thank you all good no
15:16no thank you for having me i look forward to talking to you guys again soon cheers there he
15:20goes nicky lopez with you here on your home
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