Catch Up with Former White Sox and Phillies Outfielder Jordan Danks

Here it is, the PREMIERE EPISODE of Catch Up with JP. Former White Sox and Phillies outfielder Jordan Danks. Jordan and I talk about his playing career, playing on the White Sox with his brother, and life after baseball, including how he became a firefighter. 

This conversation was supposed to just be a casual catch up for an article for the website, a podcast was supposed to be down the road. But we had SO much fun I decided to turn this into a podcast episode and put podcasts first. Thank you SO MUCH, Jordan Danks

Transcript

Jeff Perro (00:37)
Hello everybody, I'm Jeff Perro Welcome to the premiere episode of Catch Up with JP. Today's guest is Mr. Jordan Danks. Mr. Danks was an outfielder with Chicago White Sox from 2012 to 14. He spent some time with the Phillies in 15.

I actually worked with Mr. Danks in 2009 as the home clubhouse manager to the Birmingham Barons when he was on the team. it's been 16 years since we've had a chance to catch up. a fun fact, when I first started the idea for this, it was gonna be a website. was gonna interview some former players, talk to them, write up something, put it on website, maybe do a podcast down the road. But Jordan Danks and I had so much fun talking.

It was such a good time that I just decided to make a podcast. And that's where this thing got started. So this was a recorded phone call. It was just a casual catch-up session. And it's been turned into a podcast. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 (01:32)
I saw you in 2009 in Birmingham and then you up to AAA and then you got up to Chicago. Can you just kind tell me a little bit what that was like getting the call?

Speaker 2 (01:44)
Yeah, man, it was really cool. I, you know, coming out of college, I started in A-Ball so I kind of started middle of the pack. didn't have to go rookie ball all the way up. But in my second, or actually I would say my first full season, I started in Winston-Salem was only there for a month before I joined you guys over there in 09. And that's where I played the majority of that year was there in Birmingham with you guys. So kind of got on the fast track. I got to play in Arizona Fall League that fall.

Did well enough to I guess when I had camp next year broke with the Charlotte Knights and so short stint really over there in Birmingham with you guys, but got on the fast track a little bit and then Put up a couple mediocre seasons. So I never got that call up until my third year there in Triple-A but Yeah figured something out got the call. I remember we were in in Toledo, Ohio when I got the call

ended up playing that night. Everybody told me I shouldn't, but I couldn't pull myself out of the lineup I was never that guy. And so I was like, somebody's getting an off day today and I don't want to ruin that. So I jumped in the lineup and I just told myself, don't get hurt today. ended up going one for three with a home run. So one, one more for the road.

Speaker 1 (02:42)
Are serious?

That was smart, so you didn't have to run the bases or anything. That's really smart.

Speaker 2 (03:02)
Exactly,

exactly. Yeah, if you hit it hard enough, then you don't have to run. You get a nice easy trot.

Speaker 1 (03:07)
The

hamstrings are safe, the fingers are good,

Speaker 2 (03:09)
Yeah, yeah, so I remember getting in and just being like, you know, I had been in big league camp, so I played with those guys before, but like this was for real. And you get up to the ballpark and you're like, I'm actually like playing against the Blue Jays today, like the actual team. This is crazy. The first.

At bat, I can remember we were actually playing against the Houston Astros and it was Wandy Rodriguez lefty and I actually hit one pretty hard down the right field line. But Brett Wallace, who I knew from college and we played on teams together, first baseman dove and robbed me of my first hit. So, but I did get it later that day. I a little broke bat singles. So.

Speaker 1 (03:54)
your first appearance was a pinch running, right?

Speaker 2 (03:57)
Yeah, yeah, got in

Speaker 1 (03:59)
Kind

of give you a chance to get the, maybe get rid of the butterflies a little bit,

Speaker 2 (04:02)
That's it. Yeah, Ventura was good about that. Anytime you got, you know, was, I was very much got sent down, called back up, sent down, called back up. So anytime you get back up there, he didn't want you sitting around for a while before you get your feet wet. So he does a good job of kind of throwing you in there.

Speaker 1 (04:17)
Yeah, you don't even have time to think about it.

you and your brother have the historical significance of a home run by one brother during the win from another brother,

Speaker 2 (04:27)
Yeah, I actually didn't start that game. Right fielder obviously, Avisail Garcia ran into the wall trying to catch a ball and had to come out of the game. And so when I came into the game, it was a 2-2 ball game. And in my first at bat, I hit a solo home run. And that ended up being the difference in the game. And so I got I got John the win at the same time I hit a home run. They said it was the first time since 1955.

I actually have a cool little thing that my wife made me in my office at the house and it's got baseball cards of me and my brother and then the baseball cards of the brothers that had done it in 55. It was Billy and Bobby Shantz. And so she got baseball cards for that. I got ticket stubs from that same game and then I got a baseball that I had the actual baseball, the home run I hit. I had it authenticated and my brother and I both signed it. So I have that in my office.

Speaker 1 (05:21)
That's freaking cool. That's something that you're going to have forever. the miles back and forth between Charlotte and Chicago for a couple years.

Speaker 2 (05:31)
Yeah, yeah, up and down. You know, know what that's all about. Wife had to pack up the apartment more than one time with our kids and the dog and drive up to Chicago and then back. so, yeah, it was kind of a whirlwind for a little while. I was like, man, I wish we could just stay put.

Speaker 1 (05:48)
But that's job, ride that shuttle back and forth.

Speaker 2 (05:52)
Yeah, we know what we were signing up for.

Speaker 1 (05:55)
you're married were you guys dating before you started pro baseball?

Speaker 2 (05:58)
I've actually known my wife. met her in eighth grade. We didn't actually date till after high school, but yeah, after 05 we started dating. and then yeah, so we had been dating before I got into pro ball. We get, did it all through college, actually did long distance. She was a volleyball player, played at Lamar university in Beaumont, Texas. so we kind of did that long distance thing for a while, but, we got married in 2010.

Speaker 1 (06:23)
I want to get to kind of when your career started winding down.

You know, you're up and down with the White Sox, you end up with Philadelphia and then that last spring training with Texas. Can you kind of walk me through how that all went down and how you felt about leaving the game ?

Speaker 2 (06:42)
Yeah, yeah. So, got put on waivers by the White Sox in 14 and Philadelphia ended up claiming me. went to Philly the next year in their big league camp. Came down to me and another guy, Andres Blanco, but he ultimately won the spot and I got assigned to Lehigh Valley there in AAA. Spent most of the year there.

Had a short stint up with the Phillies when Chase Utley went on the DL, but didn't really play much with the big club that year. And then they put me on waivers at the end of that season and I cleared waivers. So I became a minor league free agent. And then, when I went to my agent and I said, what teams are interested, he gave me a short list, but a list nonetheless.

And I said, well, if I'm not going to make a big league squad, which would be hard to do as a minor league free agent, see if the Rangers are interested because the AAA ball club is my hometown.

Speaker 1 (07:42)
that's awesome. Yeah, that would be a great little match up there.

Speaker 2 (07:45)
Yeah. So I was like, if I go to spring training, you know, I can make the AAA squad and, they didn't know this going in there, but, you know, I told myself if, if I can't make a AAA squad, you know, then, then it seems like it'd be a good time to hang them up. Towards the end of camp, they actually signed two outfielders, Ian Desmond, and then one of my old teammates from UT, Drew Stubbs.

And Then just the trickle down effect happened. So a couple of guys got sent down to AAA and then they were, they pulled me in the office and said, you you played in the big leagues. We're not going to send you to AA. And, they, they didn't know in my mind that I was done if I didn't make the team. so, got released and, and, hung out at the house for about a week or so. I didn't, I don't know that I was really ready to hang them up. I was at home for a week and my kiddos were there and,

And I was like, man, I just got tired of dragging my wife and kids around the country. I was pretty satisfied with my career at that time. I obviously wanted it to go longer, but my ultimate goal was to have one at bat in the big leagues, just to say I played at the highest level.

Speaker 1 (08:54)
Yeah, spent parts of four years in the big leagues and stuff. That's going be with you rest of your life

Speaker 2 (08:59)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. no regrets. So felt pretty good about it. Still feel good about it.

Speaker 1 (09:05)
Good, I'm glad. So, how old are your kids?

Speaker 2 (09:08)
So my oldest Cooper was, he was two or three when I was with Philadelphia in 2015. And my wife was, was pregnant with my, my younger one that year. So, I, yeah, my, my younger one didn't come along till after I was done, but my, my oldest, he's was just old enough to remember watching me play. So he's all about baseball. I'm actually, at a guitar lesson for my,

for my youngest kid and we're leaving straight from here to go to baseball practice for my oldest.

Speaker 1 (09:42)
Yeah,

I can imagine you being a baseball player and walking away from the game. But now that I got married seven years ago, I got a couple of kids and me, man, that family really just takes over everything. it's the most important thing in the world for sure.

Speaker 2 (09:58)
No, absolutely. the year that I had my first was the most home runs I hit in a season. And so we joke that dad's strength is a real thing.

Speaker 1 (10:07)
man, that's the real thing. So what were your options when you were done playing ball and you were living outside of Austin at the time, outside of Round Rock, careers did you have in front of you?

Speaker 2 (10:19)
You know, that was the only hesitation from hanging up my spikes was, you know, what am I going to do now? The fear of the unknown, you know, because I got drafted my junior year at UT. I never actually went back and finished my degree. I didn't really have that to fall back on. And my only job that I've ever had in life was baseball. So not much of a resume as far as getting hired on somewhere.

Luckily, I had a neighbor across the street. He's actually my best friend these days, and he's a real estate agent. He said, go get your real estate license, and then I'll kind of coach you through it. And so I did. I jumped in the books and went to real estate school and had my license within two months. And then it was, it's one of those jobs, sort of like baseball, where you get what you put into it.

first couple of years was a scramble trying to figure out how to navigate all of that.

Speaker 1 (11:16)
That's a complex world.

Speaker 2 (11:17)
Yeah, yeah, it's a crazy world and I feel like every single deal is different and it's never just, hey, I already found the house, I want to put an offer in and the house is immaculate. There's always something that goes wrong and, you know, so it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (11:35)
I've seen from doing research for this project and stuff and in the past I've noticed it seems like a lot of ex-professional baseball players go into two things besides say coaching Go into real estate and finance. Those are two things that I've seen over and over. I've read people say that it's kind of attractive because it's competitive and you have that competitive spirit that you've had for 25, 30, 35 years that that translates into those two fields pretty well.

Speaker 2 (12:01)
Yeah, I think I think just you know, cuz we've we talk in front of the media all the time where you know it's and we're competitive like you said and so so talking to people and being like salesman is kind of where it's at and You know actually so I still have my real estate license and I still practice but I it's kind of like my supplemental income I'm not actively pursuing it but

You know, randomly three years ago, I was giving baseball lessons at one of those indoor D-Bat facilities and a ball got through the net, hit a sprinkler head and flooded the place. We had to call the fire department to come shut it off because we didn't have access to like that water closet and everything. And so I get to talk into this this lieutenant in the fire department.

And, and I actually had looked into being a firefighter whenever I was done. I figured it would be very similar to, you know, locker room setting, just camaraderie with the boys, the bell rings. It's time to go to work. And when I called, I called the local community college and tried to take the classes And the lady on the phone actually kind of talked me out of it. I think I was 31 or 32 at the time that my career ended.

She was like, are you sure you want to go through all this and all the training and everything just to be behind a desk in a couple of years? And I was like, what are you talking about? She was like, yeah, 36 is like cutoff. And, it turns out that was a lie. I didn't know that, but she basically talked me out of it. So I was telling this lieutenant all about it. And he said, well, how old are you? And I was like, well, at that time I go, well, I'm 36 now. And he goes, I'm 49 and I'm still on the truck. And I was like, well, are y'all hiring? And he said, we're doing our first ever.

civilian cadet academy, get on the website and sign up or apply. And I did, I applied and I showed up for the first like exam, just entry level exam with like 450 other people. was like, I didn't know it was going to be like this. So

Speaker 1 (13:59)
When you said that I would have 30 people or something,

Speaker 2 (14:02)
it was like 400 plus. It's like apparently hard, hard deal to get into. And so I passed that exam and I move on to the live interview process. And then, they called me after that and they were just like, yeah, we'd like for you to come on. And so I went to their six month Academy passed all the appropriate exams. And for The last three years, I've been a firefighter in a town, north, north of Austin called Pflugerville.

Speaker 1 (14:27)
I had no idea. I had no idea that you were a firefighter now. That's awesome. Yeah, and that's does sound like something That would translate. Like you said, the camaraderie, the teamwork, the physicality of it. I'm kind of surprised. I haven't really seen a lot of professional players in this thing that I'm researching that end up being firefighters.

Speaker 2 (14:44)
Yeah, no, I enjoy the heck out of it. And you know, the last three years, you know, I find myself Yeah, I'm away from wife and kids, a third of my life, 24 hours on and then 48 hours off. But, you know, they come up, the department's super cool. They, they can come up anytime and visit the boys come up there and play ping pong, just hang out. And so, yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:06)
That's

as cool as being a professional baseball player to a 9, 10 year old, you know what mean?

Speaker 2 (15:12)
You know, that's, I say that all the time and I'm like, man, I had two of the coolest job descriptions ever. was like, or job titles. I was a professional baseball player and now I'm a firefighter. So I, I enjoyed the heck out of it, man. And I actually, I define myself more of a firefighter than a baseball player.

Speaker 1 (15:32)
So how long you played on staying on the, you you said you were 36, you're an old guy already on the team. How long you playing on doing that? When are they going to stick you down at desk?

Speaker 2 (15:31)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, 38 now. There's still people doing it. You just kind of rank up. And while I'm still young, like the idea of being able to do all the work in the backseat and pulling the lines and spraying the water and all that stuff once you start to.

rank up to lieutenant level, you're just kind of delegating and telling everybody else what to do. So while I still can, you know, and I, again, I got it myself into another job that forces me to work out. So I'm staying in shape, you know.

Speaker 1 (16:16)
You gotta love it. It's gotta be part of your DNA from your athletic family to what you've done in baseball.

Speaker 2 (16:23)
Yeah, it's, I never actually liked working out. So, but you know, to have that excuse where it's just like, Hey, you know, you have to work out if you're to do this job kind of thing. I knew the importance of it. So that's why I always did it, but I always needed that extra push from somebody.

there's there's no real way to prepare for it. You just always kind of wonder like, hey, I wonder how I'm going to react the first time I see this or the first time I see that. you know, the way that we all kind of cope and checking on each other, there's other ways of they they have counselors and everything. Luckily, I've never had to go use that. But yeah, I mean, there's there's we see a lot of crazy stuff.

We deal with it pretty well and to the point where you almost have to kind of joke about it.

Speaker 1 (17:06)
you gotta, the best way to cope.

Speaker 2 (17:08)
There's just times when I'll be talking to the wife and I'll be telling her all about something I saw. And then I was like, yeah, we just went back to the station and ordered a pizza. And I was just like, is there something wrong with me? She was like, no, that's just how y'all cope, I guess.

Yeah, you know, the firefighter comes out of me for like camping and stuff and you're like, Hey, let's do s'mores. And I'm like, yeah, we're going to get extra long sticks and then I'm going to be in charge of like all this whole area, know, kind of firefighter in me comes out like, no, I'll build the fire. I'll do the things, you know, and so they, they're just like me though. They probably going to get into it one day. Cause they're just a pyro like me. I told my wife, I wanted to do it. Cause I was a pyro.

Speaker 1 (17:35)
There you go.

Speaker 2 (17:49)
And she goes, you know, you actually have to put the flame out and not actually start the fire. And I was like, yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:55)
depends, know, if nobody's watching, then you can kinda do what you want.

Speaker 2 (17:58)
Right, right.

Speaker 1 (18:00)
Alright man, I'm gonna get to wrap up. I got a lot for you. I know your clock is ticking on guitar lessons. I got a couple preset questions that I want to ask You said you're 38 years old now, What advice would you have if you were able to call up and talk to 18 year old fresh out of high school Jordan Danks? What would you tell that young man?

Speaker 2 (18:12)
Yes.

You know, people ask me this all the time in regards to, know, I had the opportunity to go start my pro career out of high school. but I ended up telling a lot of teams thanks, but no thanks. I'm going to go to college because what really scared me was, you know, luckily I had John, my older brother,

he was like 17 years old and in AA, know, he was on the fast track, but he had dudes on his team that were 32, 34 years old and never had a call up. we know what you make monthly as a AA player that's not a free agent. And it scared me. So I was like, I wanted to go to college because

One, was just like, it's less than 1 % of people who get drafted actually make it to the big leagues. So I was like, I'm a realist. My brother was definitely one that was like, I'm gonna play in the big leagues and since he was five years old and he did it. But I wasn't certain that I was actually gonna make it. So needed something to fall back on, but definitely wanted to pursue it because I was passionate about it and ended up working out.

Speaker 1 (19:34)
you really used your head on that.

Speaker 2 (19:36)
Yeah, so I mean, we get local kids all the time. We had a kid up here at Round Rock High School where I went to school that he got drafted last year. He was a pitcher. I think he was throwing like 100 miles an hour. And so he was one of the top prospect kind of guys and his family reached out. They live kind of over by my parents and reached out and was like, can we talk to your boys? And I was like, there's no better person to talk to about like, should I go pro or hey, should I go to college first? Because it's like, well,

My brother went that route. I went this route.

Speaker 1 (20:07)
You

both sides of the coin there.

Speaker 2 (20:10)
And we're just completely different people like my brother he'll tell you

Speaker 1 (20:14)
it's

a good thing I didn't go to college,

Speaker 2 (20:16)
Yeah, he was like, he was so pumped that he didn't have to go to college. I mean, he hated school. Not saying I loved it, you know, he just school was not his deal. So he was so happy that he had an excuse that he didn't have to do school anymore. Me, I was like, I'll just I'll bite the bullet, because I don't know that I'm going to make it now. I don't want to be that 34 year old guy in double A.

Ended up working out for me, but to answer your question, you know, I think that my advice would be just kind of do what you did, you know, follow your heart and that's know what's right. I knew it was right and so that's why I did it.

Speaker 1 (20:51)
Now, a little twist to that question. Now you're 38 years old and you are able to go back and call 28 and 29 year old Jordan Danks who has one year with the Phillies then that last spring training with the Rangers. What would you tell that young man who's 28 and 29 years old?

Speaker 2 (21:12)
I would say, Don't take anything for granted these last, I didn't know that that was gonna be my last couple of years in pro ball. Everybody, especially after you get the call up for the first time and you're just like, man, I'm gonna be a 10 year big leaguer and I'm gonna make millions of dollars and that just didn't work out for me that way. I did well with the time that I had and baseball certainly gave me a head start in life.

as far as being able to purchase a home and a truck and my wife a car. And now it's like, hey, our debt is very minimal at this time, but we still have to work. I jokingly tell my brother all the time, because he's wanting to get on and play video games And I'm like, hey, some of us have to work. We didn't all sign $65 million contracts.

But now I would just tell I would tell him don't take these last few for granted. You know, I was a bit naive and believing like I said I was going to play longer than I did. And when it when it's over, it ends pretty quick. And I said earlier that I had no regrets whenever I hung them up and I don't. But there is part of you that wishes and I look back at some of the teams I played for and some of the teammates and that I still stay in touch with and.

You know, you don't know you're in the glory days when you're in them. And that was definitely it. 2014 Charlotte Knights was one of the most fun teams I've ever played on in my life. And we had the greatest team, greatest camaraderie, still hang out with those guys or at least talk to them often. And man, to go back to that year and just be that would be awesome.

Yeah, Soak it all up, man. Don't take it for granted.