Jeff and Kody relate to having baseball dads. They talk golf, making the Major Leagues and whether or not his wife wears Phillies gear.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
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.
06:17Yeah.
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.