Andy Hnilo joins Rod to talk MLB Baseball Playoffs and stories from his life!
15 Oct 2024 · 13 min
Podcast interview (Oct 2024) featuring Andy Hnilo and host Rod. Andy recounts his background as a top-100 high-school baseball player (graduated 2000), college baseball at UC Berkeley, a post-college shift into acting after booking a lead role, and a life-changing traffic accident on March 20, 2011 that drove his interest in natural skin-healing remedies. He founded the skincare brand Alotero (branded as feeding/nourishing skin) and discusses its clean-ingredient philosophy, bio-photonic glass packaging, and use of botanicals and bee products. The episode also includes timely MLB playoff commentary (Yankees, Dodgers, Mets; pitching vs. power debate) and a sponsor/text-line mention for Alotero.
Questions this episode answers
42 years old.
2000.
March 20, 2011.
UC Berkeley.
alotero.com.
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Andy Nilo joins us, our baseball analyst. We couldn't get Jim on to talk baseball. Connection issues gives us more time with you. Andy. Welcome to the RP show, brother. How are you?
Better now. Hey, it's so nice to meet you, Rod. How are you?
It's nice to meet you. Yeah, I'm 100% man, 100%. I wish my smile could match that one of yours. But, Andy, before we get into the Major League baseball playoffs and then talk about Alotero, would you mind telling our viewers and me a little bit about yourself, if you don't mind.
No, sure. Thank you. My name is andy Nilo. I'm 42 years old. I'm originally from Northern California. Grew up obsessed with picks in general, but focused in on baseball. I was a top 100 player coming out of high school. Played with Adam Lowen. I'm not sure if you know those names early on, but yeah, graduated in 2000, went to UC Berkeley on a baseball scholarship. Played on three Division 1 teams in four years of eligibility. Had a draft party my junior year. Wasn't drafted. Lost my timing at the plate. They turned me into a pitcher. My senior year developed the circle change and I was set to be our closer. Senior year at St. Mary's West Coast Conference, partially tour the rotator. So I went from 91, 92 down to 84, 86. And I was getting banged around a little bit. And so long story short, wasn't drafted. Moved down to Los Angeles, California, where my roommate was an actor auditioning for a baseball film called Great American Dream. And I was running lines with him going back and forth, and I was fresh out of baseball, so I wasn't thinking about the script. When you're not overthinking things, you kind of nail the lines in this case, and I was adding my own twist. And he's like, dude, you're pretty good at this. Have you ever thought about taking a step into acting? And I, you know, it was kind of cool that he brought it up, but I hadn't even dreamt about it. But he got me an audition without representation or manager in la that never happens. It's a needle in a haystack role just to get called in based on the submission from your agent or manager. And I remember just getting in like my first audition ever. I got a call back. Billy and I, Billy Snows his name. We started laughing about it, got another call back, really started locking in. By this time he was out of the running for the role, kind of coaching me. And I got a screen test, ended up booking that role as the lead in a feature film. And the director let me go off script and I was fresh out of ball, so I was kind of just being me, the lead. The role was me in college kind of. So I had so much Fun. Shot for 6 weeks, got representation from that and got, you know, fell into the entertainment industry in under six months. Got my SAG card and just ran, throw that out for a little bit. But that all came to, you know, a halt. March 20, 2011. I was crossing the street and got hit by a westbound heading. Land Rover hitting the eastbound lane, run over by a tundra close, cut off me in the middle of the street. And I woke up at Cedarstein ICU with the compound fracture of my jaw, you know, with my chin going through the bottom like the middle of my mouth to beneath my left ear. Seven broken ribs collapsed along, just unrecognizable. And a very long story made short, that's where Alex was born. I went around town kind of sharing this four clay based facial treatment mask. I didn't have a name, definitely didn't plan on ever having a business around it, but I wanted to see if people kind of felt the same results as I was seeing. My abrasions were completely healed. My scarring obviously was input. The swelling was mitigated from the microcirculation, from the, the clays. And I just fell in love with scar healing naturally and finding natural elements to that serve the skin. And I didn't want to leave the house, so I had a lot of time on my hands. You know, people look you in the eyes and they immediately look down at, you know, my jaw and my, I was missing my front three teeth, jaw was wide shut. I was, it was very humbling and you know, it was important to go through that, you know, reach a bottom and then build yourself back up with something that you create. And that's now helping others feel better about what they see in the mirror. I can't imagine doing anything else besides baseball. So this is an honor to be talking to you and thank you for having me on.
Oh, hell of a story. And it sounds like you found the secret that you can't appreciate the light without experiencing the dark. Right. And you turned a tragic event into a positive. That's amazing. Which we're going to come back around that on a second. So you're a baseball guy. I spent the summer working in minor league baseball, but I wouldn't put myself up in the knowledge of a guy like yourself. So I will say this. How, how much is MLB drooling at this Yankees, Dodgers or Mets World Series possibility out here, man?
What do you think they're thinking the Subway Series is? I mean it's perfectly aligned right now. I, you know, during the playoffs it all comes down to pitching and consistency with that and one person getting hot that you're not expecting to in my opinion. So we're looking for like for instance Josh Naylor. I believe he's do you know, I think he's sitting around 250 right now. Hasn't really caught the power in the plate. Starting to drive in runs and look for him and Jose Ramirez once they catch up, I think the Yankees, you know, will have some trouble there. I just, you know, the Yankees are clicking on all cylinders. I believe that midseason acquisition of Jazz Chisholm just electrified the the roster and having somebody as versatile as Jazz, infield, outfield as well as a personality speed on the base pass, you know, that game changing speed as well as somebody getting hot, I just. It's going to be a interesting series with on both sides.
Already is. But I'm dying to ask you this. We all thought pitching one in the playoffs but now people are saying no, no, no, no. It's the long ball, it's offense and home runs. Is that changed? Like what do you think is going to get it done this time of year?
That, that's a great point. The thing is the Dodgers have a lot of hittable pitchers in my opinion. Walker Bueller, not the same Walker Bueller as he was in 20, 18, 19. You know, I Flaherty very hittable fastball pitcher. I mean 94, 95, 96, but it's straight. In my opinion you need a little movement like class, a little cut to throw them off. Mane has got a little cut from the Mets. But if you're throwing, you know, at this high level game with the stakes on the line right now, if you're a fastball based pitcher that kind of miss over the middle. That's going to turn into a long ball game.
Well, game five of the nlds, Dodgers two, Padres zero. And I had my money on you, Darvish. So there's a, there's an example where pitching one, I'm not moving off pitching, winning. I'm. And Aaron Judge hasn't done anything yet. Wait until he does. That's kind of how I'm looking at it with the Yankees.
Absolutely. And I don't know if you saw Rizzo last night, but he took a couple aggressive hacks at the plate. Looks like he's getting on time towards the baseball. And I, you know, just, he's another guy off the bench. If he just ignites some of that spark that he had with the Chicago Cubs, I think that could be a game changer. But the, you know, the Indians, Naylor Ramirez classes lights out. He's good for a six out save, you know, in these times. So that's two innings right there. He, you know it this the Cleveland starters. I just, I, I don't know. I think the Yankees really liking Luke Dreamweaver coming in, lights out. He's got that momentum. He seems locked in and focused on the mound. Just that war cry after that last, you know, so we'll have to see. But yeah, when you have pitchers.
Go ahead, man.
Oh no, I'm saying when you have pitchers delivering and getting that electricity, passing the ball, you can feel it like reliever to reliever. That like shutdown mode. Back to the Chapman days classes. Got that. Do the Dodgers have that Mets with Diaz? I really feel like closing that game out, you know, Diaz with all that momentum, unpredictability early on in the season, now getting that adrenaline going, I just really feel like. Yeah, having it tightened up. Bullpen, the Dodgers not quite as developed in the momentum. This is all momentum right now in, in this stage of the playoffs, in my opinion.
Absolutely. And it's a fantastic final four. Well, Andy, we're already almost out of time. The reason you're here is not just to chat baseball but also Altera. I' so excited to bring you on board as the sponsor of our text line. As you see, it's been getting a workout throughout the program already, man. Maybe we should just talk about that and about the product again and how it's going to help a lot of people.
Absolutely. So alloture is Latin for feeding and nourishing. Your skin. Being your largest organ, it's important to treat it with ingredients that you can consume as close to food grade as possible. So when I was formulating my original product. That's what I paid attention to. I just would look on store shelves and every product had some type of hole. Whether it was a toxic preservative or unnecessary filler or fragrance. You can source all of these components naturally. It just takes a little bit longer to get the emulsion down perfectly. But through bee products, through a collection of organic botanicals and plant derived stem cells and nutrient dense superfoods, based on the particle size, I think that helps regenerate your skin during the cell turnover process, feeding it live, nutrient dense, antioxidant rich ingredients just generate a thicker, more lively complexion and stay consistent with that over time. Not having to worry about toxins and toxic buildup over time. On average, there's a study that women leave the house with over 160 government recognized carcinogens through 12 products. You're thinking makeup, deodorant, hairspray, perfume. I mean, something you're doing daily. It unfortunately does build up over time. So it's just important. It's fun for me too because this was all theory and it turns out now organic food versus organic food, that organic food with the pesticides, it becomes a part of that fruit or plant, then you consume it, it gets into your bloodstream. Something you're doing daily. Now they're pointing out, yes, that does matter. Organic versus non organic. I promise you it's the same thing with skin care and the synthetic ingredients that they allow on store shelves and the thousands of ingredients that they don't allow in Europe that they allow in the United States. Like it's just everything I believe is. It just, it costs a little bit more. But we're not using the toxic preservatives. We're using a bio photonic glass that allows only the good violet light to enhance the life of our natural ingredients in the products. It limits the oxidation of our often raw organic botanicals and just enhances the life of natural products. That's why they, that's what it originally was made for. So that's, you know, every part that we can optimize nine years ago would not change anything of my ingredient decks. It's, it's just, yeah, there's a beautiful, in my opinion, beautiful movement because a lot of people are looking for, you know, clean products and there are holes. Ours is as good as I can, you know, physically, mentally make it. So I'm very proud of you.
Should be, man. And this has been awesome chatting baseball with you today. I'll say welcome to the team. Let's bring you on again. A chat. World Series, when that rolls around. And alotero.com is where people can find you. Andy, thanks for this, man. Enjoy the ball.
Oh, thank you so much, Rod. Very nice to meet you.
Andy, Nilo from Alatera Skin Care. Brand new partners of ours. And it's the Alatera text line. Let's see what's happening on that when we come back, all right?