April 24 — Cal Conley

Columbus Clingstones broadcaster Jack Johnson visited with infielder Cal Conley at Regions Field in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Conley discussed his strong start to the season at the plate, growing up as a switch hitter and playing alongside current teammate Luke Waddell as young players in Cincinnati, and his experience in Major League camp with Atlanta during Spring Training.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back on the Columbus Klingstones pregame show, joined by Klingstones infielder Cal Conley, coming off a great night last night with three hits, several RBIs, and you're off to a really good start this year, batting over 300. But where I want to start this conversation is your home run last week from the right side of the plate. I know you take a lot of pride in your switch hitting. It was your first homer from the right side since 24 with Mississippi. How much pride do you take in those homers from the right side? Because a lot of yours come from the left because those are mostly at Bats EC, but that's got to feel good to get one out from the right side.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Oh yeah, it's been uh work in progress the last couple years, and you know, it was good to you know hit a home run, first one on the right side in over a year. So, you know, I'm just trying to stay focused on you know coming to the field with a good routine and and uh doing what I can to help the team win, and I got a good pitch to do it on, and it's kind of an accident.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

We talked about this briefly when I caught up with you in spring trading before a game against the Jays, but you grew up as a switch hitter. Your dad taught you a lot about the game. He's a former player himself, runs an academy in the Cincinnati area. When was the moment that he kind of determined, hey, my son Cal is going to be a switch hitter?

SPEAKER_01 1:12

From the time I can remember, I've always switched hit. Um we kind of joke about it now. Like I I um, you know, ever since the first time I picked up a bat, he made me swing on both sides. Um so I I think the older I got, the more he made me switch hit and then started to realize I had potential to do it. And, you know, obviously I'm still doing it. So it's uh it's been it's been great. It's uh awesome that you know my dad had a background like that and was able to teach me things at a young age like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

How much of it stems from Pete Rose being the legendary switch hitter he was in the Cincinnati area and your family's ties to that area as well? Is there any crossover between the way that Pete played the game and the way that you came up as a switch hitter yourself?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Oh yeah, I mean in Cincinnati, that's the standard for everybody when you're growing up playing. Like the standard is Pete Rose. You play the game like Pete, you try to do everything like Pete and um, you know, go about it the way he did and play hard every day and give it everything you got every day. So for us coming from Cincinnati, you know, like for me being a smaller infielder type switch hitter, like Pete Rose is my favorite player of all time. And um, you know, there's a lot of people in Cincinnati that are the same way.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

When you watched Pete Rose's highlights growing up, what were the things that kind of stood out to you? Or was there any moment where your dad kind of pointed out a specific clip or a specific moment and said, hey, follow this. This is the way I want you to play the game.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Charlie Hustle was obviously Pete's nickname. The record-breaking hit when he uh at Riverfront Stadium, the line drive up the middle that he hit, he's I mean, he's 44, 45 in that video, and he ran as hard as he could out of the box and made a sharp turn attempting to stretch it into a double. And it's like that's what, you know, in my opinion, that's what led to him having all the success that he did, is he until the game, you know, the until he stopped playing, he gave it everything he had every single day, no matter what.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

So I caught up with Luke Waddell last week in Biloxi, and I know you guys are really close. You grew up in the same area, you played for rival teams, he was telling me when he was 10 and you were nine. So, what were the rival teams and how did the friendship kind of grow from there?

SPEAKER_01 3:19

So, me and Luke, we always knew each other because we went to the same elementary school, everything, he was a year older than me. Um, but in baseball I played up a year, so our teams, when we were real little, we we grew up playing against each other and we we were rivals, and they beat up on us all the time. And and then by about 13 or 14, we combined both of our teams, and that was kind of the team that we rolled with the rest of high school. And you know, it's just a blessing that you know we're still, you know, we're 26, 27 years old, still doing it together, and it's you know, it's a blessing, and it's just amazing that you know uh that we're still here doing it.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

From what I've gotten to know about you over the last year and a half, I imagine that playing in big league camp, one was a great experience, but two, specifically playing for Walt Weiss in Big League Camp as the new manager of the Braves, that must have been awesome because there's a lot of similarities in the way that Walt played the game and the way that you attack the game every day as well. So, what was that experience like in February and March in Northport and around Florida playing for Walt in Braves Big League Camp?

SPEAKER_01 4:21

You know, like like you said, there's a there's some similarities between, you know, uh as Walt as I try to, you know, be a player like Walt was. And um, you know, it's just such a blessing getting an opportunity to be around him on a pretty much a daily basis and um, you know, getting to know him and and him getting to know me. And you know, I I've have such a respect for him of how he played the game, how he manages the game, how he is with the players, with everything that he does. You know, he's a guy that since he since I've been with the Braves, I've always kind of naturally looked up to him about just the way that he goes about his business. And you know, he's an ultimate professional and everyone respects him, and he's just an awesome guy to you know get to be around. So for me it was great. For everybody, it's great to get to be, you know, get that experience to be around guys like that, especially somebody as great as Walt.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Cal, you're off to a great start this year. Love watching you succeed, man. Keep it up.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.