218. How Stories Reveal The Life We Want with Bob Wheatley

I wanted to throw baseballs faster. Like I just really cared about playing. And as somebody who had good talent but not world class talent, how do you become a world class performer with those tools? The only thing that you can do is the things that you can control. Your preparation, your training, the stuff that you can be intentional on.

Hey. Hey. Welcome back to the Bullpen sessions. I'm excited today. Anytime I get a chance to talk to a former pro baseball player, especially one who spent time on the mound, I am loving it. And today's episode guest is definitely fits that bill. I got Bob Wheatley joining me, who I just recently met. We are part of the Brand Builders Group, which is an amazing organization that's helping us grow our brand. At Complete Game Consulting today, Bob is the sales director at Brand Builders Group. But Bob is also a former college baseball player at the University of Southern California, former Major League baseball player found in the Blue Jays and Cardinals organization, and he is also an author, podcaster, as well as serving as co host of the Single that Singles Show, a singles ministry with KCBI Christian Radio in Dallas. He currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where the Brand Builders Group is headquartered. So, Bob, welcome aboard.

Yeah, thanks for having me. It's been a while since I've been in the bullpen, but it's good to be back.

You know, I actually the reason I called, I called a podcast bullpen session. This is going to make a lot of sense for you. Back in the day, right? Every week you had that bullpen session, it was your time to, to get, to get coached from your pitching coach to work on your craft. So I view these, set these episodes as that opportunity for people to work on their mindset, their skills. So thank you for being part of this again. It's, it's even better when I get to have a pitcher on. By the way, I'm gonna start this episode by telling you this. You're a southpaw and you're six five. I am extremely jealous being five, nine, right handed.

So if I could just throw baseballs fast, then I might have been pretty good.

Yeah.

Lefty's always had the nasty hook, man.

Yeah, I hear you, I hear you.

But let's start, let's start right there. Where were you born? Where did you grow up? And we'll. Let's talk about early Bob Wheatley leading up to your time playing and pitching at usc.

Yeah, so like you said, I live here in Nashville, Tennessee. Been here for about five years. I grew up in Southern California, so grew up in Orange county, was A football baseball player ended up accepting that scholarship to play baseball at usc. Reason why I chose usc. My parents had met there, so I grew up a Trojan fan my whole life. And it was right during the heyday of, you know, Pete Carroll, Matt Einert, Reggie Bush. Like our football teams were amazing. We had season seats. So I was a Trojan through and through. And when they offered to have me come to school, it was, it was an easy yes. So grew up in Orange county, went to school in la, and then I drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays. So the, the one, the one professional team not in America. But yeah, it was, it was all good.

Let's talk about that. A couple questions I have, you know, being 65 and left handed and you play quarterback in high school. Number one, just out of curiosity, did you ever, did you have any opportunities to play college quarterback at the college level?

I did. It would have been your smaller D1s. Like the school that most heavily recruited me was Duke, which obviously is an amazing school. But I wanted to first of all stay somewhat close to home and I wanted to play in the pack is the Pack 10. My freshman year became the Pac 12. My sophomore year. Obviously now it's the Pac 12. But I wanted to play what I determined to be big boy, division one sports. So being six five and left handed, that's an advantage as a pitcher, not necessarily an advantage as a quarterback. It's kind of just a wash. And so I was more heavily recruited for baseball, even though my skills might have been somewhat comparable between the two. I loved football. It's funny, I still have, you know, dreams from my days in, in sports and it's almost always football. It really is. Like I, I just, I always envision myself and I approached my baseball career as a football player. I don't know if this is your experience, Andy, but with baseball, sometimes, not all the time. Sometimes there's this culture of less is more or it's kind of like slacking off, messing around. Like taking the extra time is like what the best players do. Whereas football is the exact opposite. It's like first one in, last one out. It's almost militaristic where it's like, okay, the best players are those who grind. And so I was a good baseball player. I wasn't a great baseball player. Like I said, I was a 26 round draft pick, number 774 overall. The Toronto Blue Jays gave me a thousand dollars and a plane ticket. Like I was a senior sign. I was a nobody. I was just a body good Baseball player, not a great baseball player, but I wanted to play in the big leagues. So I applied that football type of mentality where off seasons I was grinding, I was, I was lifting in season to try to get that 87 mile an hour fastball up to, you know, 91, 92, like whatever I could do. I learned a lot through that. But you asked about the connection with football and, you know, was I recruited.

I wanted to play that big boy, Division 1 sport and baseball was just the ticket for that. I could have gone to like a, you know, San Diego State, maybe Nevada, things like that. But when SC came calling, that was an easy yes for me.

Yeah, yeah. And it, you know, it's interesting, I love that analogy you gave that football tie into baseball because I think you're exactly right. One thing that has always irritated me is right, pitchers have this reputation of being lazy. Right. And I remember, and some are, and some are. Yeah. It's not entirely, entirely wrong.

So.

Well, look at, look at the guys that we watched pitch in the late 80s, early 90s. I even go like, I remember the guys I grew up with watching. I, I just saw a picture of Gaylord Perry because he recently passed away. But like, when he pitched, he had a beer gut. Like, he did not look like an athlete whatsoever. So I get the reputation. And truth be told, Bob, like my first two years at UW Milwaukee, I fell into the trap of not being totally committed. And it wasn't until I made a recommitment to baseball, my final two years at uwm, kind of bringing that mentality you just mentioned to all the work off the field when no one's watching. That's when everything changed for me. And I laugh when you were saying I was drafted in the 26th round, I signed for a thousand dollars in a plane ticket. You got bean beat, man, by about 24 rounds, 500 bucks and a plane ticket. So, okay, those bring back memories. Question I have for you though, because I think we get a lot of people, a lot of parents who listen to this and I think they share the content with their, their kids. When you were a kid growing up playing baseball in California, being a kid from Wisconsin, where, like the few stand out because baseball you can't play all year long in California, where it's so competitive.

Did that help mold you as a baseball player early on? Because that competition for Little League at the Little League level in California is just, let's face it, so much better than it is in so many other places in the country.

Yes. And no. Yes. It molded me in that anytime you can be around better competition, it's going to ask you to raise your level of play. Of course. But then I'd also say no because sometimes people, oh, well, if you played collegiately, if you play professionally, you must have like been totally bought in and played baseball year round, right? No, that's not true at all. Like in, in high school, I probably played football eight months a year. I played baseball four. So I'm actually, I was skipping the football because you have seven on seven and stuff like that during the spring, because I was, I was pitching. Like you can't be on the football field and the baseball field at the same time. Those, you know, baseball for the spring, essentially. But it was, once June rolled around, it was football season, I'm watching film, all that stuff. And so I don't know how things stand currently. I do know that the trend, at least when I was in high school and to answer your question when I was growing up, was to start to specialize, like, hey, you need to get your kid in baseball and only baseball and have baseball coaches and be doing that year round and be on eight different travel teams and all that stuff. That wasn't the case for me. Like up through 8th grade I played basically every sport that was in season, mostly baseball, basketball, football. If we did like soccer or something in PE or whatever, track and field, I would do that as well. But it's just kind of a kid like, hey, what season is it? Oh, it's track and field season. Like, okay, well, I guess I'm not fast, but you know, maybe, maybe I can throw something.

So.

Yes, no, I think the competition helped me. But then also I was not completely specialized on, on baseball really until I got to college, which isn't the case for most people, especially in California.

It's refreshing to hear that. I graduated high school in 96. And back then you wanted the three sport stars and I didn't. I would go to a baseball camp over Christmas break, but I was playing basketball. I didn't pick up my glove until March 1st, until about two weeks ahead of, of our first practices. I was, yeah, I, I totally agree. And I. My nephew now is a senior. He's going to play college baseball, but he's also a very good football player and hockey player. But guess what? He did not go out for those sports the last year or two because he focused on baseball. That is the way it. As much as I don't like it, that is the way it is. Yeah. And so three really? Three questions I want to ask you about the sports career. Number one, was there, was there a moment you can remember playing high school baseball where you're like, I do have a legit chance of playing Pac 10 now, Pac 12 baseball?

Yes.

I grew up in Orange County. USC is right in the heart of Los angeles. It's like 45 minutes away. So I grew up going to some camps there. And I was approached at the end of one of those camps, like, hey, we just want you to know, like, we're, we're seriously considering, considering, you know, making an offer. Like you're on our list, basically. So that was number one, just helpful, but eye opening. Okay. I mean, I guess I'm doing something right. And at that point, you know, I'm the, I'm the six foot left hander, but like, you're a freshman, you know, high school or whatever, throwing 68 miles an hour or whatever I was. You're like, hey, I can kind of. This guy's projectable. So I would say that high school was truly the last time that I felt like the best player on the field.

Wow.

Where.

That's interesting.

Every time I went out, I expected to win as a symptom of talent. And I still worked hard, but I was like, you know, I'd look at the team that I'm facing, like, I am, I am truly better than these guys. If I play well, we'll probably win. Whereas when I got to college, like, I was never all conference at a, you know, pretty vanilla college career. And then professionally, like, I was far outmatched. So high school was the last time that talent was enough to help me, you know, get. Go over the finish line, so to say. And I think what that did is it caused me as somebody who wants to win, like nobody wants to lose. Yeah, it forced action, it forced my off seasons. It forced me to not drink in college. Like, you know, I turned 21 and drank sparingly, but I didn't drink alcohol for the same reason I didn't drink soda. I wanted to throw baseballs faster. Like, I just really cared about playing. And as somebody who had good talent but not world class talent, how do you become a world class performer with those tools? The only thing that you can do is the things that you can control. Your preparation, your training, this stuff that you can be intentional on. So. And of course, everybody has a ceiling, but the way that you meet that ceiling is not by, you know, partying and drinking, you know, drinking all the sodas and stuff like that. I just Knew I had to take those extra steps 100%.

You know, you just made me think of something. I don't know if I've ever verbally shared this, but I thought. I've thought about a lot for the last 30 years. I can remember certain games in high school where I was pitching, I was starting against a certain team in our conference, and it wasn't a matter of, do I. Are we going to win tonight? It's. My goal is a shutout because I already knew I was going to beat him. Now the goal is I want to shut out. And that mentality that sounds. They may sound egotistical, but it's just a. It's just a sign of confidence. Right. You knew you were talented and better than a lot of the people on the other team. And it's interesting, Bob, I haven't felt that until very recently running this business. It's. It's because when I got to pro ball, my challenge was I. I didn't feel like I belonged. Yeah. And so I want to go back to you because you. You're at usc, which, by the way, you got to play with your brother Brent, who was also a pitcher, who also got drafted, which is really.

Yeah, for two years. It was awesome.

By the way, I want your family jeans. You're six five, he's six four. So I, I need to find out how that happened, because that, that, that's the piece I was. My pitching coach in college said, andy, if you were six four, you'd be a top five round pick. But you're five. But you're. But you're five foot nine.

Thanks.

So. But when you were at usc, was there now an equal moment when you realize you have a shot to actually play pro ball?

It was something that I always wanted. I ended the second half of junior season. I was. I was a starter. I finished with like a. I think I had like a 28 ERA. So, like, I performed pretty well. I threw 70, 80 innings or something like that, but the last maybe two months of the year, I was somewhat injured. Like, started with an elbow. I had some issues with my fingers, stuff like that. Like, I was literally starting in Division 1 baseball, throwing 78 miles an hour, but I was still somehow getting people out. It was like, slow. Slower and slowest like that, and people just couldn't hit it. So I didn't get drafted, which, you know, I needed to heal up. Like, I couldn't have gone and played pro ball. But then senior year, I'm like, okay, well, I want to get Drafted didn't perform as well. Like, was stressing about it was trying to light up the radar gun, things like that. All of the, the pressure that I didn't feel as a junior, I then felt as a. As a senior.

So.

And honestly, it was to the point where.

I wasn't sure if I was going to get drafted where on. On draft day, like I said, it was a 26 round draft pick. So I guess I was on the second day of the draft, now that I recall. I was literally, I was working out at my house, I was doing pushups on the floor, and I. It was probably just like a stress workout more than anything. It wasn't like I'm, you know, Rocky Balboa trying to get in shape to fight Drago. I was probably like, oh, man, my career's over. And I remember seeing my phone light up and says, bud Smith, Toronto Blue Jays. And I'm like, who the heck is Bud Smith? Like, I had literally, Andy never met Bud, and he's the area scout for the Toronto Blue Jays. Fortunately, I had taken his business card and punched in his contact information on my phone. Like, you know, you send those letters and I'm sure, you know, bud, God bless you. I'm sure, you know, you send that to all eight eligible seniors on the team, right? So, like, I punch it in on my phone. Bud Smith's Ronald Blue Jays. So I pick up the phone and he says, hey, Bob, we're about to go to a break here at the 25th round. We want to sign you in the 26th round. Will you sign for a thousand dollars? Like, duh, of course I will. Are you kidding me? Like, yes, Bud Smith, whoever you are. So I guess that was the moment I believed I could get drafted. When I got drafted.

That's awesome. That's cool. Yeah.

I remember the day I didn't get drafted. So all three days go by and my name did get picked and I actually had started an internship at a company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And I remember it was day one, literally the first day of the internship.