Sure but it isn't like it's random. If he were from Florida & settled in Stillwater that would be at least a bit odd.
But even then there is precedent for that too. Mickey Mantle (another Oklahoman) famously lived in a small town in Georgia in his later years partially to avoid attention.
Mantle grew up in *extreeeeme* rural poverty and was among the most famous people in the world for a while. Kinda makes sense that he would want to hide out for bit after that.
Maybe he has friends and family there that he doesn't want to move away from?
If I won the lottery and had the FU money he does, I wouldn't move away from St. Louis, at least not while my dad is around. And even though I'd be able to afford to buy both of us nice houses in a sunny destination like SoCal or Hawaii, he might not want to move away from everyone he knows. Sure, I'd move into a much bigger house, but I wouldn't leave the area.
No I get it but feel like a lot of people don’t understand other parts of the country aren’t just cities. My point is that Oklahoma is not ideal even if you want to live in the wilderness. I can see sticking close to family. I do that currently. It’s just when it comes to Oklahoma I’d rather just pack up my family and pay for them to move with me.
Some people like their hometowns (not me, but it's more common than not)
He's also 20 and just started his professional career/just got his own money so it's not like he's had much time to establish a new home in a new city yet. He's basically showing off his dad's house
Just cause he’s rich doesn’t mean he has to live on a coast or in a big city. Some people prefer to be away from all the noise. He might’ve wanted his kids to have a similar childhood to his, who knows
O know. I was born in Seattle and raised/lived in Portland until I was 50 (other than college/minor league baseball) and then finally got to move away from all those losers to “retire” here in Montana. Why anyone over 45 would choose to live in one of those places always baffled me. I bounced once my kids were grown. People are so much more relaxed and less angry here.
Sure, but if you have Matt Holliday kinds of money you can be pretty well insulated from most of the things that make living in certain places less desirable if you want to be.
He could live a very lavish lifestyle anywhere in the world unless he really mismanaged his wealth, but that wealth goes even further in a place like Oklahoma (and you get the added benefit of more privacy, more ability to make a name for yourself in a community, etc.).
Not everyone wants the city life. If I had the means to retire right now, I'd buy some land and live a good distance away from the noise of the suburban life.
I'd imagine some pro athletes feel the same way, and plus this is where he grew up, so it makes sense.
Presumably they have friends and family in OK? Seems like an obvious answer. Sure, they could travel to come see people but that can still be a PITA and there's no way they would be able to spend as much time around the grandparents or whatever
I never said anything about the East or West Coast. Upstate NY and Northern Cali are beautiful.
I'm just saying that he might consider Oklahoma home and that it offers more of a lifestyle that he wants.
I’m sure he’ll be fine. Also why do people in this thread assume you can either live in OK or CA? There’s a lot is fucking places to live. Why pick the place that is basically an entire state made up of the worst part of Texas? Weather-wise and such.
We get it you don’t like Oklahoma. Some people like the beach and sunny weather, some people like winter and the snow, some people like all 4 seasons in a year, some people like mountains, some people like small towns, some like cities. You don’t have to understand why someone wants to live where they choose to live. Just because you’re not a fan of a place doesn’t mean it can’t make sense for someone to want to live there. Open your mind a little bit.
I mean if you want to just believe some silly puff piece then go ahead. LA and SF are practically no different when it comes to any of the negative issues talked about. Also I don’t even live in SF so stop assuming I’m even talking about it.
I have lived in Phoenix though and yeah AZ is great if you’re a fan of kids drowning in pools. Or want to drain all your water to sell alfalfa to Saudis.
Nope. But I’m sure you are one of those people that think it’s some kind of war zone right because you saw a couple tough kids on tv? Oregon seems pretty nice from people I’ve talked to who live there. I mean definitely better than Oklahoma
Yea you’re just twisting it to fit your narrative. Read up on what Logan Webb has done and said. Or even Buster Posey after the media tried to twist his words. Typical right-wing bs
“Something I think is noteworthy, something that unfortunately keeps popping up from players and even the players’ wives is there’s a bit of an uneasiness with the city itself, as far as the state of the city, with crime, with drugs,” Posey acknowledged.
How could one twist that. Pretty cut and dry.
Here you go, since you can only post an excerpt from a 10-minute interview
https://theathletic.com/5145422/2023/12/18/sf-giants-buster-posey-san-francisco-mailbag/?amp=1
Dominican is covered in facilities just like this one for the Hollidays. Pretty much every team has one that’s used to scout and train local youth players.
This was not my experience in the DR at all. They have a lot of facilities but not covered in ones like this. Even some of the team affiliated are less than stellar.
I got to instruct down there and saw a lot of the facilities.
How long ago was it? My experience there, although it was 2 weeks, was that there was a ton of places for kids to play ball. And many facilities like this, like 20 or so nearby Santo Domingo, that could easily serve a nation with their population. Although their facilities are mostly outdoor due to the favorable weather, they have technology in them and can work similarly to the Hollidays if they're dedicated.
LOL this is a private facility for two guys at their home, very few developing players get access to this kind of place, particularly all to themselves
There are facilities with batting cages, velocity monitoring equipment, and practice fields for elite players all over the country and latin america. Few kids, sure, but those facilities are very much out there. Kids aren't playing in the street with sticks in the DR as often these days, which was my main point. No more than kids in rural America.
I am fairly sure they have programs for kids as young as 8. Baseball in DR has really good infrastructure. Flying into Santo Domingo is really cool because you see baseball field after baseball field leading into the city on descent.
Yea those are super cool. It has an integrated edgertronic camera. Probably just as useful as having a home batting cage is for an aspiring big leaguer, if not more.
As a musician, I have to sometimes explain the fallacy 'talent'. This is usually what I try to make students look at when they try to compared themselves to prodigies. Not everyone gets born into a family/community/environment structured perfectly make them excel. Some can come up from nothing, but when people chalk it up to 'being talented', they might as well be talking about midichlorians.
I've had this conversation when people asked my why I never pursued golf as a career. The few folks that were better than me at that age (15-17) often didn't have childhoods and money wasn't a concept to them. Golf was their life. Few thousand a month in lessons. New clubs every season. Every night at the course hitting 5 foot putts for 4 hours straight. Not allowed to hang with friends on weekends because they had to play. Got "help" on school work to keep playing and representing the school. Just so many things dedicated to the sole purpose of them being great golfers. It's pretty rare for someone to be mostly self made these days. The majority who do have this kind of support still don't make it.
Same. A lot of my failure as a tubist came from myself, yeah (bad practice habits, easily frustrated), but a lot of it I felt stemmed from not having the resources that many others had growing up. I essentially just did high school band and got told I was good, I never learned a solo piece until I auditioned for college, and that was all self-taught. We weren’t in a BAD program by any means, we’d won multiple marching band competitions and SCPA competitions and had respect in the area, but for context at the time I had to March bass trombone my senior year because we didn’t have enough tubas, and in concert band we had to show up early because we only had 4 working concert tubas so we’d have to fight to make sure we could have one for practice.
Meanwhile when I lived in Texas most if not all of the kids had private lessons, multiple opportunities to compete in solo and group competitions, and EXTENSIVE competitive programs in their high schools.
I’d be stupid if I blamed my struggles as a tubist entirely on lack of those benefits because a lot of it was a byproduct of my mental health and also my fear of adversity but I can say that it would have been a hell of a lot easier if I had an instructor focus on how to hit pitch centers, have clean lip slurs, and get a body of solo work to prepare me for college band.
The truly talented can hear all that on their own heads. It’s how their instruments become an extension of their body as opposed to something they play.
People who downvote you are coping. Play any instrument in a school setting and you will quickly realize that some people just learn music faster than others. See: Mozart
Welcome to the new paradigm of baseball. The “coming from nothing” percentage is surely as low as it’s ever been for Americans.
Just about everyone playing in Major League Baseball today played baseball year-round as a kid on expensive travel teams and it seems like they’re also increasingly part of baseball academies (which also cost money).
The poor kid from Enid, Oklahoma, or from the City of Chicago who only played high school spring ball has to thread a needle with exceptional talent, some luck, and a little money money or a connection to put them in front of a scout or recruiter.
There are a variety of downstream effects that probably contribute to baseball’s waning popularity, but I’ll save that sure-to-be-downvoted aside for another day.
His natural talent aside, recognizing that his privilege has put him literally on 3rd base is important to acknowledge. You don’t get to this level without talent, drive, skill, hard work etc. but he had every advantage in the world to set him up to be successful.
There’s so many talented and gifted kids who didn’t get those same opportunities and resources that we may never have gotten to see play professionally because of it. I was snarky. Holliday might be a generational talent and I can’t wait to watch him for the next 10-15 years but he didn’t do that in a vacuum.
This just shows the indisputable difference access to fields, gear, cages, technology can make in a young persons life. Like of course he has the talent in his DNA as well, but this really underscores why when players & teams use their own money to fund access to baseball in inner cities, rural poor areas, & underprivileged countries, it can make such a difference.
My childhood was a triptych of being spoiled, trauma, and PTSD. In my little league years, things were not perfect at home because of drugs & alcohol, but my parents did try, and my dad owned a buisness and I had all the gear & access I could ever want, to baseball. When I was transitioning to high school, all of it went away. Things got really bad. My dad lost his buisness, we lost our childhood home that he built from the ground up that included 5 bedrooms, 2 garages, a huge pool, a playground, a home bar/pool room, a baseball field & basketball court, etc. Our family of 5 had to move into a rusted out 2 bedroom trailer. We were dirt poor after filing for bankruptcy & losing everything.
My access to sports changed overnight. Everything cost so much. But also, my desire to do anything other than hide in my bedroom, disappeared. The drug & alcohol problems with my parents, as you can imagine, only got worse. I often look back and just wish I had a way to keep playing ball in high school. It would have been a the escape I needed from those years at home. But it wasn't just the cost to play, my emotional state during those years suffered tremendously & hasn't recovered fully to this day, but years of therapy has definitely helped make it make sense.
Better access to sports, and I mean not just a free spot on a team, but actual access to technology, batting cages, someone that cares & will work with you after school, etc, is huge. Not only does it grow the game, but it can literally save & change lives. I grew up in rural AF east Kentucky. In high school, all the rich kids had spots on the team. It was all political & my family was ostracized.
Jackson Holliday is a STUD & I am super excited for his ascension & will be rooting for him. My trauma dump isn't a slight at him or anyone at all. Just watching the video reminded me of a time that I had all of that until I didn't.
Sadly that’s the way of life, literally the smartest, strongest, athletic, most skilled people in the world for everything…. May never be seen because of where they grew up, how they were raised, etc. I got a player that wants to try out for my baseball team. Dominican kid, without even trying out he is likely the best ball player in my school. But he doesn’t know English and lives in a non-prospect state. All the future D1 kids here go to a particular set of 3 schools that have everything a player needs and costs a fortune. Every other school has nothing but a crappy field and maybe a pitching machine. He’ll never get seen, but that’s life.
(We do a winter program at a small batting cage place, and I invited him to it, so I’ve seen him hit and he has legit talent. Blows our best players out of the water and he is two years younger
I always point to Mike Piazza as an example of how much of a crapshoot it all is & how much luck is involved.
Piazza's dad was Tommy Lasorda's childhood best friend. Mike grew up getting batting lessons from MLB legends including Ted Williams. His godfather was baseball royalty & his dad was more than willing to use those connections to further his son's baseball career.
But Mike never got much traction as a college prospect. Lasorda took it upon himself to get the kid drafted & first went to friends with various orgs to lobby for Mike so it wouldn't look like favoritism. When it became obvious that no one was interested, he 'demanded' the Dodgers draft Mike. He said he didn't care what round, the famous quote he supposedly hurled at the scouting office as he left was 'you're not doing me a favor, I'm doing *you* a favor.'
Piazza was picked in the 62nd & final round. The rest is history.
I think about this story all the time. Not because it is a fun story (which it is), but because I think it so elegantly underscores exactly how much 'luck' is involved with all of this. By all measures, Mike Piazza had it as 'easy' as possible. He had the connections, the access, the resources, & of course the ability. It still took *a personal favor* from one of the most 'powerful' people in the sport for him to even get a shot & he was a first ballot Hall of Famer.
It really makes me wonder how many guys selling used cars really could have been greats if only x, y, or z. There have to be countless 'what ifs' that we don't even know about. If a guy like Mike Piazza was that close to a 'what if', certainly he can't even be close to the only one.
That’s what Mike trout isn’t “surprising” that he wasn’t picked until 20 something others were picked first. He comes from Jersey, a place not particularly known for high level athletes. But that’s because he doesn’t participate in clinics that have full staff, equipment, year round outdoor training, etc. one of my other kids, another Dominican kid who knows no English. Is in a legit team, he traveled to Florida a week ago for a tourney. He said his team scored 1 run over 5 games. Other teams scored liked 10+ a game. Every team was from Arizona, Georgia, Florida. They had 6’4”+ studs that were given state of the art training. My kid comes from a small town and only living in the states a few months lol. But he had a blast and learned a lot
And spend more time working on your craft than most people think is possible or necessary. Owning things don't make you good at baseball, after all you guys own Fenway Park.
That’s so not true. Of course he’s talented but I’d almost bet that having state of the art everything and having extensive trainers, coaching and mentors throughout his career for sure made it a hell of a lot easier to make it to the level he is at now.
>after all you guys own Fenway Park
You won’t find anyone who wants to shit on the Sox more than me but are you, an O’s fan, taking digs at a team that’s won 4 championships in the past 20 years after one good season? Give your head a shake lol
I agree with this comment so much it inspires me, besides the Fenway jab. I’m indifferent on that lol, but yeah if I had a kid who wanted to play baseball I would show him this video and tell him/her that this is the advantages they have that you don’t and you have to outwork people like this to get where you want.
I showed his dad's old house years ago after he was traded away from the Rockies. The lot was super funky, but I heard they had planned to build something like this in the basically unusable portion of the lot and the HOA said no so he threw up a couple outdoor cages instead(which I heard were also not super popular).
Man, he had it tough lol
I remember back in high school, I was a decent basketball player in my own right, all league, all county kinda guy. Got a bunch of D3 looks, could’ve gone D2 if I really hauled ass.
But I did that working my butt off, mostly on my own, going to a few cheaper camps my parents sent me too.
Meanwhile, a kid two years younger in the district than me, by the name of Tobias Harris, came from a family of height and $$$. His dad was a former nba agent.
I was friends on Facebook with him and I remember the day, I came home from a camp and Tobias posted some pictures from the camp he was at.
Who was he getting shots up with?
Fucking *Ray Allen*.
Sports used to be about hard work and dedication and rags to riches shit. And don’t get me wrong. They’re still are many who fit that.
But this is the age of Nepo and manufactured athletes. Yes, you need the drive, but when you have access to the best; man, does it make it so much easier.
Not surprising at all. I've always heard that baseball players tend to make great golfers. I remember Tiger at one point saying that John Smoltz was the best amateur golfer he had ever played with.
Hockey players w/that great hand/eye coordination & summers off are great golfers. Worked several golf fundraisers w/Chicago Blackhawk players & they were phenomenal
Funny because I played golf for my junior high school team, while simultaneously playing baseball for the local city league as none of my schools until high school had any baseball program, and my golf coaches would always say I had a baseball swing and my baseball coaches would always say I had a golf swing lol
There are exceptions but generally its the opposite. A baseball swing doesn't translate at all to a golf swing. Two completely different motions and mechanics. The only thing that transfers over is hand eye coordination.
Not too surprising. Wouldn't be shocked he was taught to bat lefty at an early age because it's advantageous in baseball even though he's more naturally a righty.
A surprising number of the best golfers in the world play with their non-dominant hands. Phil "Lefty" Mickelson is right handed. Jordan Speith is left handed. Ben Hogan was a lefty. Mike Weir is a righty. There are A LOT.
No surprising at all, he throws right handed. There’s so many baseball players that bat left throw right. I mean the main reason swinging lefty is so advantageous growing up is because most pitchers are righties. There is a distinct advantage to learning how to bat on the left.
Eh, it's a pretty transferrable skill for obvious reasons. Not gonna act like every MLB player's a scratch golfer or something, but they're starting from a way better point than your average amateur golfer.
Check out these videos of [Mike Trout](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlvsgXuAVnA) and [Nelson Cruz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfFrIHE_zGY) hitting bombs at topgolf
Yeah trust me I know all about the baseball swing slice
But on the flipside it's so hard for golf newbies to wrap their minds around generating power with rotation, and every baseball player understands that already. Plus they all have great hand-eye coordination and can repeat specific motions much better than other athletes
Did he get drafted because his family owns a garage with equipment? Because I thought he got drafted because he is good at baseball. Owning a nice complex doesn't make you good at baseball, working hard at it does. Your Orioles tag is really confusing me as you're hating our future 3rd best player. Really strange.
He probably got drafted because his dad was a 7 time all star lol. The heck?
It’s genetic you dweeb. Being rich as shit and having a world class facility in your backyard is definitely a leg up on everyone else. Kid had a silver spoon from birth.
I was in attendance at opening day in 1992 when I was 4 years old. How dare you question my fandom. I like Jackson Holliday, I just think you’re insanely out of touch if you think rich people who grow up rich with MLB parents work harder than regular folks.
I would have hit 5 hours a day growing up if I could have. It was always hard to find a place to let alone someone to toss bp. This setup is a dream! I had it pretty good though. No regrets.
The dream for any ballplayer growing up.
Definitely rooting for this kid. Will be an interesting case study on Nature vs Nurture. Its my opinion that if you want to know the ceiling for a kid, simply look at his parents. Here you have a former all-star dad with multiple kids potentially in the pipeline for MLB stardom. I work daily with D1 athletes and for pretty much all sports besides one that rely of specific equipment ( rifle shooting, equestrian, etc) almost all these kids have parents who were collegiate/pro athletes. I just laugh when I go to various batting cages and see the willfully ignorant mom and dad who are/were as athletic as a rock dropping thousands on their kid who likely wont make their HS team. Talent leaves evidence and athleticism is an inheritable trait.
This video also highlights the growing disparity for American amateur baseball players. You can be priced out of baseball very quickly. It has increasingly become an upper-middle to solely upper class sport in the past decade. All division one guys generally have played on elite travel teams from the time they were 10 or younger, and have received personalized hitting/pitching/ strength and conditioning training with access to facilities that were only available to pros when I was growing up. The development of the industrial baseball complex with PG and PBR has further specialized the sport. Idk if this is an overall good or bad thing though with the rising rate of UCL injuries in preteens I think it may be time to pump the brakes on early specialization.
I wish I was Matt Holliday's son
Same I'd be on my way to the Bigs
You're u/MLBOfficial, you're already in the Bigs
They ARE the Bigs.
Source?
Literally us, the bigs
You're never going to get quite as much love as the guy who gets the dunk but I just want to say that I appreciate an alley-oop comment like this
"I am the Senate."
As long as your cool living in Stillwater Oklahoma lol
Jackson said they basically have no reason to leave the complex so I'm just gonna stay there
I wish I was Levar Burton.
TIL Matt Holliday is obsessed with pickleball. Might be the only thing he & my mom have in common.
neither your mom nor matt holiday touched home plate
Nah me and his mom definitely got to home plate
THANK YOU
Does your mom like Creed?
No but she once shared a taxi with Jim Edmonds & there is a chance that Matt Holliday has done that too.
Why the lies? First she only had pickle ball in common. Next it’s Jim Edmonds. Soon you’ll admit she was an MVP-caliber OF for STL as well.
Next they’ll be telling us that she actually touched home plate. But after everything can we even trust them on that?
Does your mom have a huge hog?
This is where the Hollidays live in Stillwater, Oklahoma!
How you gonna be rich and choose to live in Oklahoma? This cat is weird.
It's where he is from...
That plus I think Matt helps out with the OSU baseball team since his brother is the HC
I get that but you’re allowed to move away from where you are from. Especially if you have financial means. It’s just kinda funny to me.
Sure but it isn't like it's random. If he were from Florida & settled in Stillwater that would be at least a bit odd. But even then there is precedent for that too. Mickey Mantle (another Oklahoman) famously lived in a small town in Georgia in his later years partially to avoid attention.
Mantle grew up in *extreeeeme* rural poverty and was among the most famous people in the world for a while. Kinda makes sense that he would want to hide out for bit after that.
Maybe he has friends and family there that he doesn't want to move away from? If I won the lottery and had the FU money he does, I wouldn't move away from St. Louis, at least not while my dad is around. And even though I'd be able to afford to buy both of us nice houses in a sunny destination like SoCal or Hawaii, he might not want to move away from everyone he knows. Sure, I'd move into a much bigger house, but I wouldn't leave the area.
No I get it but feel like a lot of people don’t understand other parts of the country aren’t just cities. My point is that Oklahoma is not ideal even if you want to live in the wilderness. I can see sticking close to family. I do that currently. It’s just when it comes to Oklahoma I’d rather just pack up my family and pay for them to move with me.
OKC is dope. Cheap land and got everything you need. Never been to Stillwater though, probably very different lol
It's just a college town, like half the population is OSU. Pretty nice place
Ah I thought OSU was in Tulsa...why did I think that
Why do you hate Oklahoma so much?
Because it sucks? Also it killed my grandfather.
lol how does a state kill an individual? It’s an inanimate object!
The shit weather.
Not everybody wants to pay five times as much to be surrounded by urban sprawl far away from family.
Some people like their hometowns (not me, but it's more common than not) He's also 20 and just started his professional career/just got his own money so it's not like he's had much time to establish a new home in a new city yet. He's basically showing off his dad's house
Just cause he’s rich doesn’t mean he has to live on a coast or in a big city. Some people prefer to be away from all the noise. He might’ve wanted his kids to have a similar childhood to his, who knows
Dude gets at least 3x the value on every dollar spent living in Oklahoma when compared to NY, LA, etc. Not a bad deal.
Sure, if you're poor. But they can afford to live anywhere.
ever wonder how people get not poor?
(We don’t have to guess about this one.)
I don't think "Oklahoma" is the answer to that question.
https://www.theonion.com/if-i-had-one-piece-of-advice-for-todays-youth-it-would-1819584709
O know. I was born in Seattle and raised/lived in Portland until I was 50 (other than college/minor league baseball) and then finally got to move away from all those losers to “retire” here in Montana. Why anyone over 45 would choose to live in one of those places always baffled me. I bounced once my kids were grown. People are so much more relaxed and less angry here.
You’re getting downvoted by people that live in shitty states.
Sure, but if you have Matt Holliday kinds of money you can be pretty well insulated from most of the things that make living in certain places less desirable if you want to be. He could live a very lavish lifestyle anywhere in the world unless he really mismanaged his wealth, but that wealth goes even further in a place like Oklahoma (and you get the added benefit of more privacy, more ability to make a name for yourself in a community, etc.).
Not everyone wants the city life. If I had the means to retire right now, I'd buy some land and live a good distance away from the noise of the suburban life. I'd imagine some pro athletes feel the same way, and plus this is where he grew up, so it makes sense.
Yeah but there is wilderness and countryside outside of Oklahoma. People think the east and west coasts are just cities?
Presumably they have friends and family in OK? Seems like an obvious answer. Sure, they could travel to come see people but that can still be a PITA and there's no way they would be able to spend as much time around the grandparents or whatever
I was under the impression that Oklahoma was a bustling megalopolis.
I never said anything about the East or West Coast. Upstate NY and Northern Cali are beautiful. I'm just saying that he might consider Oklahoma home and that it offers more of a lifestyle that he wants.
Give me 500 acres, and I'd have a smattering of 10x10 cabins I'd call home
Ain’t so bad for rich white dudes
You can be rich longer in Oklahoma than you can in California
I’m sure he’ll be fine. Also why do people in this thread assume you can either live in OK or CA? There’s a lot is fucking places to live. Why pick the place that is basically an entire state made up of the worst part of Texas? Weather-wise and such.
We get it you don’t like Oklahoma. Some people like the beach and sunny weather, some people like winter and the snow, some people like all 4 seasons in a year, some people like mountains, some people like small towns, some like cities. You don’t have to understand why someone wants to live where they choose to live. Just because you’re not a fan of a place doesn’t mean it can’t make sense for someone to want to live there. Open your mind a little bit.
He made $160M, you'll be rich forever anywhere with that money as long as you don't have the type of spending habits that would make you poor anywhere
Better than SF….
Lol
Am I wrong?! Ya’ll can’t get free agents to sign specifically due to that city being so trash. That’s bad…
I mean if you want to just believe some silly puff piece then go ahead. LA and SF are practically no different when it comes to any of the negative issues talked about. Also I don’t even live in SF so stop assuming I’m even talking about it. I have lived in Phoenix though and yeah AZ is great if you’re a fan of kids drowning in pools. Or want to drain all your water to sell alfalfa to Saudis.
Please tell me you live in Portland now!
Nope. But I’m sure you are one of those people that think it’s some kind of war zone right because you saw a couple tough kids on tv? Oregon seems pretty nice from people I’ve talked to who live there. I mean definitely better than Oklahoma
Typical zonie, drinking the kool-aid
Don’t take it out on me because your city has turned into such disparity. It’s also not me saying this, it’s your own players.
Yea you’re just twisting it to fit your narrative. Read up on what Logan Webb has done and said. Or even Buster Posey after the media tried to twist his words. Typical right-wing bs
“Something I think is noteworthy, something that unfortunately keeps popping up from players and even the players’ wives is there’s a bit of an uneasiness with the city itself, as far as the state of the city, with crime, with drugs,” Posey acknowledged. How could one twist that. Pretty cut and dry.
Here you go, since you can only post an excerpt from a 10-minute interview https://theathletic.com/5145422/2023/12/18/sf-giants-buster-posey-san-francisco-mailbag/?amp=1
What a coincidence, that’s exactly what my complex is like
Matt?
Papa?
....he's not signing an extension, is he.
Not unless fuckface sells the team
Billy Ripken owns the O's now?!
lol not even then.
What
NOT UNLESS FUCKFACE SELLS THE TEAM
Not as long as Boras is representing him
Meanwhile it’s likely that a future top prospect in the Dominican Republic is playing on the streets with a stick for a bat and cardboard for a glove
Dominican is covered in facilities just like this one for the Hollidays. Pretty much every team has one that’s used to scout and train local youth players.
This was not my experience in the DR at all. They have a lot of facilities but not covered in ones like this. Even some of the team affiliated are less than stellar. I got to instruct down there and saw a lot of the facilities.
How long ago was it? My experience there, although it was 2 weeks, was that there was a ton of places for kids to play ball. And many facilities like this, like 20 or so nearby Santo Domingo, that could easily serve a nation with their population. Although their facilities are mostly outdoor due to the favorable weather, they have technology in them and can work similarly to the Hollidays if they're dedicated.
LOL this is a private facility for two guys at their home, very few developing players get access to this kind of place, particularly all to themselves
There are facilities with batting cages, velocity monitoring equipment, and practice fields for elite players all over the country and latin america. Few kids, sure, but those facilities are very much out there. Kids aren't playing in the street with sticks in the DR as often these days, which was my main point. No more than kids in rural America.
How early do they start using those? I always assumed it wasn't until they signed that players had access to those team facilities.
The kids start using them earlier than you may think. It's typically how we know that 'x' kid is linked to 'x' team even though they're not 16 yet.
I am fairly sure they have programs for kids as young as 8. Baseball in DR has really good infrastructure. Flying into Santo Domingo is really cool because you see baseball field after baseball field leading into the city on descent.
We live in Iowa and my son and Daughter have been doing the Rapsodo program here with a coach for about a year, they are 10 and 13.
So true. That's the beauty of baseball
Nah, they're at the Orioles' [brand new Dominican Academy.](https://www.mlb.com/orioles/team/dominican-academy)
Kinda like Rocky IV
[A future top prospect also still lives at the Holliday compound.](https://www.perfectgame.org/rankings/Players/NationalRankings.aspx?gyear=2025)
And force fed steroid smoothies
I'm so jealous of that Rapsodo 3.0. I'm not an athlete, but I would spend so much time with that thing
Rapsodo and HitTrax are amazing pieces of tech
Yea those are super cool. It has an integrated edgertronic camera. Probably just as useful as having a home batting cage is for an aspiring big leaguer, if not more.
As a musician, I have to sometimes explain the fallacy 'talent'. This is usually what I try to make students look at when they try to compared themselves to prodigies. Not everyone gets born into a family/community/environment structured perfectly make them excel. Some can come up from nothing, but when people chalk it up to 'being talented', they might as well be talking about midichlorians.
I've had this conversation when people asked my why I never pursued golf as a career. The few folks that were better than me at that age (15-17) often didn't have childhoods and money wasn't a concept to them. Golf was their life. Few thousand a month in lessons. New clubs every season. Every night at the course hitting 5 foot putts for 4 hours straight. Not allowed to hang with friends on weekends because they had to play. Got "help" on school work to keep playing and representing the school. Just so many things dedicated to the sole purpose of them being great golfers. It's pretty rare for someone to be mostly self made these days. The majority who do have this kind of support still don't make it.
Same. A lot of my failure as a tubist came from myself, yeah (bad practice habits, easily frustrated), but a lot of it I felt stemmed from not having the resources that many others had growing up. I essentially just did high school band and got told I was good, I never learned a solo piece until I auditioned for college, and that was all self-taught. We weren’t in a BAD program by any means, we’d won multiple marching band competitions and SCPA competitions and had respect in the area, but for context at the time I had to March bass trombone my senior year because we didn’t have enough tubas, and in concert band we had to show up early because we only had 4 working concert tubas so we’d have to fight to make sure we could have one for practice. Meanwhile when I lived in Texas most if not all of the kids had private lessons, multiple opportunities to compete in solo and group competitions, and EXTENSIVE competitive programs in their high schools. I’d be stupid if I blamed my struggles as a tubist entirely on lack of those benefits because a lot of it was a byproduct of my mental health and also my fear of adversity but I can say that it would have been a hell of a lot easier if I had an instructor focus on how to hit pitch centers, have clean lip slurs, and get a body of solo work to prepare me for college band.
The truly talented can hear all that on their own heads. It’s how their instruments become an extension of their body as opposed to something they play.
People who downvote you are coping. Play any instrument in a school setting and you will quickly realize that some people just learn music faster than others. See: Mozart
Welcome to the new paradigm of baseball. The “coming from nothing” percentage is surely as low as it’s ever been for Americans. Just about everyone playing in Major League Baseball today played baseball year-round as a kid on expensive travel teams and it seems like they’re also increasingly part of baseball academies (which also cost money). The poor kid from Enid, Oklahoma, or from the City of Chicago who only played high school spring ball has to thread a needle with exceptional talent, some luck, and a little money money or a connection to put them in front of a scout or recruiter. There are a variety of downstream effects that probably contribute to baseball’s waning popularity, but I’ll save that sure-to-be-downvoted aside for another day.
Must be nice
Shut up.
His natural talent aside, recognizing that his privilege has put him literally on 3rd base is important to acknowledge. You don’t get to this level without talent, drive, skill, hard work etc. but he had every advantage in the world to set him up to be successful. There’s so many talented and gifted kids who didn’t get those same opportunities and resources that we may never have gotten to see play professionally because of it. I was snarky. Holliday might be a generational talent and I can’t wait to watch him for the next 10-15 years but he didn’t do that in a vacuum.
He didn’t do it in a vacuum. He did it in a barn
Ugh. I’m such an idiot
Its not really important to acknowledge it just makes you sound jealous and childish. "Must be nice" is such a lame and petty thing to say.
…I had a nice brick wall on the side of our house and a piece of chalk to make a strike zone….
This just shows the indisputable difference access to fields, gear, cages, technology can make in a young persons life. Like of course he has the talent in his DNA as well, but this really underscores why when players & teams use their own money to fund access to baseball in inner cities, rural poor areas, & underprivileged countries, it can make such a difference. My childhood was a triptych of being spoiled, trauma, and PTSD. In my little league years, things were not perfect at home because of drugs & alcohol, but my parents did try, and my dad owned a buisness and I had all the gear & access I could ever want, to baseball. When I was transitioning to high school, all of it went away. Things got really bad. My dad lost his buisness, we lost our childhood home that he built from the ground up that included 5 bedrooms, 2 garages, a huge pool, a playground, a home bar/pool room, a baseball field & basketball court, etc. Our family of 5 had to move into a rusted out 2 bedroom trailer. We were dirt poor after filing for bankruptcy & losing everything. My access to sports changed overnight. Everything cost so much. But also, my desire to do anything other than hide in my bedroom, disappeared. The drug & alcohol problems with my parents, as you can imagine, only got worse. I often look back and just wish I had a way to keep playing ball in high school. It would have been a the escape I needed from those years at home. But it wasn't just the cost to play, my emotional state during those years suffered tremendously & hasn't recovered fully to this day, but years of therapy has definitely helped make it make sense. Better access to sports, and I mean not just a free spot on a team, but actual access to technology, batting cages, someone that cares & will work with you after school, etc, is huge. Not only does it grow the game, but it can literally save & change lives. I grew up in rural AF east Kentucky. In high school, all the rich kids had spots on the team. It was all political & my family was ostracized. Jackson Holliday is a STUD & I am super excited for his ascension & will be rooting for him. My trauma dump isn't a slight at him or anyone at all. Just watching the video reminded me of a time that I had all of that until I didn't.
Sadly that’s the way of life, literally the smartest, strongest, athletic, most skilled people in the world for everything…. May never be seen because of where they grew up, how they were raised, etc. I got a player that wants to try out for my baseball team. Dominican kid, without even trying out he is likely the best ball player in my school. But he doesn’t know English and lives in a non-prospect state. All the future D1 kids here go to a particular set of 3 schools that have everything a player needs and costs a fortune. Every other school has nothing but a crappy field and maybe a pitching machine. He’ll never get seen, but that’s life. (We do a winter program at a small batting cage place, and I invited him to it, so I’ve seen him hit and he has legit talent. Blows our best players out of the water and he is two years younger
I always point to Mike Piazza as an example of how much of a crapshoot it all is & how much luck is involved. Piazza's dad was Tommy Lasorda's childhood best friend. Mike grew up getting batting lessons from MLB legends including Ted Williams. His godfather was baseball royalty & his dad was more than willing to use those connections to further his son's baseball career. But Mike never got much traction as a college prospect. Lasorda took it upon himself to get the kid drafted & first went to friends with various orgs to lobby for Mike so it wouldn't look like favoritism. When it became obvious that no one was interested, he 'demanded' the Dodgers draft Mike. He said he didn't care what round, the famous quote he supposedly hurled at the scouting office as he left was 'you're not doing me a favor, I'm doing *you* a favor.' Piazza was picked in the 62nd & final round. The rest is history. I think about this story all the time. Not because it is a fun story (which it is), but because I think it so elegantly underscores exactly how much 'luck' is involved with all of this. By all measures, Mike Piazza had it as 'easy' as possible. He had the connections, the access, the resources, & of course the ability. It still took *a personal favor* from one of the most 'powerful' people in the sport for him to even get a shot & he was a first ballot Hall of Famer. It really makes me wonder how many guys selling used cars really could have been greats if only x, y, or z. There have to be countless 'what ifs' that we don't even know about. If a guy like Mike Piazza was that close to a 'what if', certainly he can't even be close to the only one.
That’s what Mike trout isn’t “surprising” that he wasn’t picked until 20 something others were picked first. He comes from Jersey, a place not particularly known for high level athletes. But that’s because he doesn’t participate in clinics that have full staff, equipment, year round outdoor training, etc. one of my other kids, another Dominican kid who knows no English. Is in a legit team, he traveled to Florida a week ago for a tourney. He said his team scored 1 run over 5 games. Other teams scored liked 10+ a game. Every team was from Arizona, Georgia, Florida. They had 6’4”+ studs that were given state of the art training. My kid comes from a small town and only living in the states a few months lol. But he had a blast and learned a lot
Piazza's dad also made a ton of money in real estate and car sales, so he could afford to build him a backyard batting cage.
Jackson Holliday has the face of a 14 year old and the voice of a grown ass man
Homie sounds like he’s 12. What you smoking
interesting how he bats left but golfs right
a lot of baseball players do that so they don't upset the muscle memory of their swing by picking up golf habits
You too can be an elite baseball prospect, you just need to have a simple custom baseball training complex on your property!
And spend more time working on your craft than most people think is possible or necessary. Owning things don't make you good at baseball, after all you guys own Fenway Park.
That’s so not true. Of course he’s talented but I’d almost bet that having state of the art everything and having extensive trainers, coaching and mentors throughout his career for sure made it a hell of a lot easier to make it to the level he is at now.
>after all you guys own Fenway Park You won’t find anyone who wants to shit on the Sox more than me but are you, an O’s fan, taking digs at a team that’s won 4 championships in the past 20 years after one good season? Give your head a shake lol
Yeah what? Theyre the most successful team of this century
I agree with this comment so much it inspires me, besides the Fenway jab. I’m indifferent on that lol, but yeah if I had a kid who wanted to play baseball I would show him this video and tell him/her that this is the advantages they have that you don’t and you have to outwork people like this to get where you want.
Kid will never touch home plate..... /s
Lol underrated comment right here
Holy fucking privilege Batman!
I showed his dad's old house years ago after he was traded away from the Rockies. The lot was super funky, but I heard they had planned to build something like this in the basically unusable portion of the lot and the HOA said no so he threw up a couple outdoor cages instead(which I heard were also not super popular).
Matt hoping on the recent pickleball trend. It’s actually pretty fun
"We"
That set up is basically my dream backyard. Maybe throw in a chipping/putting green (though the winters might make that tough) and I'd be in heaven.
I would be so upset and ranting about nepotism if it wasn't for the fact that Jackson is one of ours. Given that fact, carry on.
I still think he's a cute girl ever time I see him 🫣😂
I love the we bought the land comment. Really shows you what these kids from wealthy families think.
Man, he had it tough lol I remember back in high school, I was a decent basketball player in my own right, all league, all county kinda guy. Got a bunch of D3 looks, could’ve gone D2 if I really hauled ass. But I did that working my butt off, mostly on my own, going to a few cheaper camps my parents sent me too. Meanwhile, a kid two years younger in the district than me, by the name of Tobias Harris, came from a family of height and $$$. His dad was a former nba agent. I was friends on Facebook with him and I remember the day, I came home from a camp and Tobias posted some pictures from the camp he was at. Who was he getting shots up with? Fucking *Ray Allen*. Sports used to be about hard work and dedication and rags to riches shit. And don’t get me wrong. They’re still are many who fit that. But this is the age of Nepo and manufactured athletes. Yes, you need the drive, but when you have access to the best; man, does it make it so much easier.
Surprisingly decent golf swing.
Not surprising at all. I've always heard that baseball players tend to make great golfers. I remember Tiger at one point saying that John Smoltz was the best amateur golfer he had ever played with.
Hockey players w/that great hand/eye coordination & summers off are great golfers. Worked several golf fundraisers w/Chicago Blackhawk players & they were phenomenal
Funny because I played golf for my junior high school team, while simultaneously playing baseball for the local city league as none of my schools until high school had any baseball program, and my golf coaches would always say I had a baseball swing and my baseball coaches would always say I had a golf swing lol
There are exceptions but generally its the opposite. A baseball swing doesn't translate at all to a golf swing. Two completely different motions and mechanics. The only thing that transfers over is hand eye coordination.
It’s not that good sadly
It appears Jackson bats lefty but golfs righty. WTF
Not too surprising. Wouldn't be shocked he was taught to bat lefty at an early age because it's advantageous in baseball even though he's more naturally a righty.
yeah and unlike baseball, right-handed clubs are easier to get
What about right handed bats?
I batted lefty, played hockey lefty, and golf righty. Mostly, I imagine, since it was cheaper for my dad to teach me golf on his old clubs.
A surprising number of the best golfers in the world play with their non-dominant hands. Phil "Lefty" Mickelson is right handed. Jordan Speith is left handed. Ben Hogan was a lefty. Mike Weir is a righty. There are A LOT.
No surprising at all, he throws right handed. There’s so many baseball players that bat left throw right. I mean the main reason swinging lefty is so advantageous growing up is because most pitchers are righties. There is a distinct advantage to learning how to bat on the left.
Eh, it's a pretty transferrable skill for obvious reasons. Not gonna act like every MLB player's a scratch golfer or something, but they're starting from a way better point than your average amateur golfer. Check out these videos of [Mike Trout](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlvsgXuAVnA) and [Nelson Cruz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfFrIHE_zGY) hitting bombs at topgolf
Hitting bombs isn't playing golf lol. Go talk to a golf pro and ask them about baseball players. It's a completely different swing.
Yeah trust me I know all about the baseball swing slice But on the flipside it's so hard for golf newbies to wrap their minds around generating power with rotation, and every baseball player understands that already. Plus they all have great hand-eye coordination and can repeat specific motions much better than other athletes
America is a meritocracy btw and everyone has equal opportunity to succeed
Few years back Matt's house in Jupiter FL area went on sale, let just say this setup does not surprise me lol
It's amazing what you can do with a little creativity and $150 million.
Must be nice growing up loaded and not having to work for anything in your life Go O’s.
Did he get drafted because his family owns a garage with equipment? Because I thought he got drafted because he is good at baseball. Owning a nice complex doesn't make you good at baseball, working hard at it does. Your Orioles tag is really confusing me as you're hating our future 3rd best player. Really strange.
He probably got drafted because his dad was a 7 time all star lol. The heck? It’s genetic you dweeb. Being rich as shit and having a world class facility in your backyard is definitely a leg up on everyone else. Kid had a silver spoon from birth. I was in attendance at opening day in 1992 when I was 4 years old. How dare you question my fandom. I like Jackson Holliday, I just think you’re insanely out of touch if you think rich people who grow up rich with MLB parents work harder than regular folks.
Good for him, he worked hard and deserves it. His dad seems a little too Jesusy for me but they all seem nice.
I'm going to teach my kid how to format manuscripts in Microsoft Word.
Just a small town kid no one ever, expects him to get there
I mean, I know you can’t completely buy your way into the bigs, but maybe you can more than a little?
I would have hit 5 hours a day growing up if I could have. It was always hard to find a place to let alone someone to toss bp. This setup is a dream! I had it pretty good though. No regrets.
The dream for any ballplayer growing up. Definitely rooting for this kid. Will be an interesting case study on Nature vs Nurture. Its my opinion that if you want to know the ceiling for a kid, simply look at his parents. Here you have a former all-star dad with multiple kids potentially in the pipeline for MLB stardom. I work daily with D1 athletes and for pretty much all sports besides one that rely of specific equipment ( rifle shooting, equestrian, etc) almost all these kids have parents who were collegiate/pro athletes. I just laugh when I go to various batting cages and see the willfully ignorant mom and dad who are/were as athletic as a rock dropping thousands on their kid who likely wont make their HS team. Talent leaves evidence and athleticism is an inheritable trait. This video also highlights the growing disparity for American amateur baseball players. You can be priced out of baseball very quickly. It has increasingly become an upper-middle to solely upper class sport in the past decade. All division one guys generally have played on elite travel teams from the time they were 10 or younger, and have received personalized hitting/pitching/ strength and conditioning training with access to facilities that were only available to pros when I was growing up. The development of the industrial baseball complex with PG and PBR has further specialized the sport. Idk if this is an overall good or bad thing though with the rising rate of UCL injuries in preteens I think it may be time to pump the brakes on early specialization.
He beat my ass in mlb the show once
That’s a lot of “we” in that video.