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Live Chat With Former MLB Outfielder Jody Gerut
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Duffy
10:18
Thanks for doing this Jody! Pretty sure I have one of your rookie cards somewhere. What have you been up to since retiring?
Jody Gerut
10:21
No problem! I do two things which feed a passion of mine: to bring clarity to cloudy situations. To that end, I do baseball hitting lessons for kids 7-18, soon online as well! My main profession is a Mortgage Loan Originator. For a family guy like me who helps families grow into new homes, or in the extreme cases we get people out of terrible neighborhoods and into safer neighborhoods, all the while helping them understand the crazy mortgage process, feeds my underlying passion to bring clarity to cloudy or uncertain situations.
Al Kaline battery
10:22
Do players get butterflies before games or is that pretty much an opening day/ first game in the mayor's Kings of thing. It seems with the long schedule players would get used to it
Jody Gerut
10:23
Trevor Hoffman told me in 2009 before opening day that even he had that nervous energy on opening day. I shared those butterflies. Every year without exception.
Ben Nicholson-Smith
10:23
Jody, have you ever considered being a full-time writer?
Jody Gerut
10:24
I see you Ben! No sir, my sister took up the writing profession and she puts me to shame. She's amazing.
RichD
10:24
I believe that fans undervalue the importance of team chemistry.  Do you think it plays a big role in a successful team, or can an organization still be successful with lesser chemistry?  Thanks for your time here today
Jody Gerut
10:28
Good team chemistry is generally present on every winning team or within every winning franchise. BUT, it's super-tough to engineer it. We saw some amazing years here in Chicago with Joe Maddon and his (successful) effort to create a great team chemistry. My sons still tell each other 'try not to suck'. LOL! Not every bad team has bad chemistry, however. Team chemistry can make an average team resilient and focused during stretches of uncertainty or lethargy. Look at the Braves, man! Where were they in July? A lot of other teams may have just given up and started planning their winter vacations.
Lilly
10:29
My dad won't let me put ketchup on a hot dog.Mustard only. Can you help me?
Jody Gerut
10:29
You won't find any help here, young lady. Your dad is right and you are wrong. Go back to class and stop asking such terrible questions. Just kidding, but seriously go back to class.
Dennis
10:30
Do you think the Lockout is illegal because I think it is and the MLBPA should go to court and end it right now
Jody Gerut
10:34
I think that the notion of the lockout at this stage of ownership reign ought to be illegal, in spirit. Look I get both sides of this argument. What I'd like to see is ownership stop attempts to undo Marvin Miller's life's work. What I'd like from players is to be bold and be grateful. What I'd like to see instead of a luxury cap is maybe a max salary per superstar to create better opportunities for all the teams. Yes I'm aware of how that would impact player salaries negatively but my gosh let's save the Texas Rangers from themselves. Wasn't anyone there when they made the $252m mistake with A-Rod? The Yankees don't need to sign a shortstop, they need to wait for the squealing-in-pain moment from the Lone Star State. Again.
Scott
10:35
Pirates fan here. What did you think of the city and the organization when you were in Pittsburgh?
Jody Gerut
10:37
The city is amazing, and the people were amazing! Same thing as Milwaukee. Wished I played better for the team and for the city. Pittsburgh was a stretch of my career that represented the biggest opportunity that I squandered, partly impacted by playing through injury and not saying anything. Such a tough part of being a player, getting a balance between speaking up about injury and just gutting your way through it.
Ro
10:37
Congrats on a great career! What's your favorite baseball book?
Jody Gerut
10:38
The Mental Game of Baseball is the best baseball book on the planet. The next best is Marvin Miller's book.
10:39
By the way I think that they should eliminate the amateur draft from Puerto Rico again. There are too many good athletes in Puerto Rico not playing baseball at the pro level. If the amateur draft was in Venezuela for example, we would not know the names of Omar Vizquel or Jose Altuve.
Mortgage Rate Man
10:39
Jumping off baseball here, are we finally seeing a market shift with the mortgage rates going up?  It's been an insane sellers market for a while now, will the bubble burst?  Is it 2008 all over again?  ARE OUR PETS HEADS FALLING OFF?!?!?
Jody Gerut
10:41
LOLOLOLOL! Yep rates are going to go up. Picture your dad telling you to go start a lemonade stand, but no matter what, he's going to buy all of your lemonade at the end of the day. Now, dad (the Fed) is saying that he's going to guarantee less and less of his lemonade purchases. Rates are going up.
Guest
10:41
Hey Jody Cleveland fan here…thanks for giving us some good memories during some down years…do you think complete revenue sharing and a hard salary cap will ever be in MLB in order for small market teams to be able to compete with the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, etc.? Also can we get umpires to force hitters to stay in the box between pitches and pitchers stay on the mound in order to move games along faster? Thanks for your time and thoughts
Jody Gerut
10:46
I think that the smaller market teams and their accountants should all go camping, have a beer, share their stretches of the truth, laugh about The Great Equalizer (TV contracts), and then rejoin the world with a message that they understand why rev sharing exists. Further, they should start reinvesting in the franchises with the funds, and not feign losses while their franchise values grow. Hey owners, it's not terrible to "lose" on operating expenses if your franchise grew to $1.5B. Why operate your franchise in line with gate rev or otherwise if your franchise grew in value??? Aren't you guys BILLIONAIRES?
10:47
Sorry I lost my head on that last entry. Sorry owners, we love you and I thank you for giving me a chance to play. Especially the Rockies ownership. THANK YOU!
Trog
10:47
Your opinion on whether PED guys should get voted into the hall of fame? Surely you have a unique perspective as a player.
Jody Gerut
10:51
Tough one. I wish that it wasn't a question. I remember in 2000 when I was in the minors, we had a drug test and the 40 man guys could (legally) decline to take the test. 'Nah I'm good, don't feel like peeing in a cup today.' That was allowed. I also remember really good players having to go overseas to play because they couldn't keep up with the massive HR totals of other guys. PED guys, that is PED guys who were caught or tested positive, should not be in the Hall of Fame. I don't want to watch their speeches. And I don't want to hear how you're sorry. You're not sorry. If you were sorry, you'd go find the guy whose spot you took, and you'd stroke him a check for half of your career earnings. That's what being sorry looks like.
Howard
10:52
Did your teammates tease you or treat your differently because of your Stanford education?
Jody Gerut
10:53
Oh heck yeah they did!!!!! All in good fun though. And you can't really get sensitive about little stuff like that. How you gonna be The Guy with the game on the line if you can't take a little gentle clubhouse ribbing??? Those two things don't go together.
Matthias
10:53
Hola from Arizona Jody, curious if you ever got the chance to try a Sonoran dog? It includes bacon, salsa, onions, and mustard, but no ketchup. Thanks for doing this chat, it’s really interesting to hear from former players like yourself!
Jody Gerut
10:54
That sounds AMAZING. I'll have to try that. My good friend Doug Sohn had a sausage place in Chicago called Hot Doug's. It was an awesome place that had a cult-like following including from our family. SOunds like something he would have done.
10:55
Incidentally I'm a foodie for sure. I'd like to eat javelina from the desert some day. Some of my old buddies used to hunt it. Rod Bair hunted it, and he was one of the best teammates I ever had. I'd like to have it one day!
Paw Paw
10:55
Any thoughts on where Freddie Freeman ends up?
Jody Gerut
10:56
Freddie is going to be a Brave, unless Alex A wants to prove for once and for all that he doesn't have little man syndrome. Which he does.
Sleepy Bear
10:56
Hey Jody as a former Brewer what do you think of the name change from Miller Park to American Family Field? A lot of fans like myself are just going to keep calling it Miller Park!
Jody Gerut
10:57
It's Miller Park, and you drink Miller at Miller Park. That's all I have to say about that.
Jeff
10:57
Hi Jody! Curious what adjustments you made to your hitting approach when you knew you were facing a really good pitcher? Thanks!
Jody Gerut
11:00
Adjustments are everything. EVERYTHING. It's what I teach as a hitting instructor now. MAPP Hitting. Mechanics, Approach, Power, Performance. You can take an average hitter with average skills and create a great hitter if they have an informed approach at the plate. I could go on for hours on the topic. Best thing that I did in my career, after 2002 I went into the office and asked what would it take to get to the bigs. I had 10HR that year. They said just stay at it. I said OK I'm going to come back next year with a different approach, and if you guys agree with me, don't say anything and I'll walk out. They said nothing. I walked and revamped my approach. In 2003, I hit a combined 27HR.
11:01
And that's all wrote, y'all. I appreciate your time and questions, sorry I couldn't get to all of them! I gotta go help some folks buy homes. Take care, everyone!
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