Burnout, Rediscovery, and Fresh Challenges: Ty Buttrey's Story

In this conversation, Ty Buttrey shares his journey from being drafted by the Red Sox to his experiences in the major leagues with the Angels. He discusses the challenges he faced, including burnout and the pressures of maintaining success. Ty reflects on his decision to retire from baseball, explore new passions, and eventually return to the sport, emphasizing the importance of self-discovery and pursuing what truly matters in life. In this conversation, Ty Buttrey shares his journey from professional baseball to navigating life after sports. He discusses the challenges of transitioning careers, the importance of mental health, and the realities of pursuing dreams in a competitive environment. Ty also highlights the success of his wife, Sam Green, in the NIL space and their collaborative efforts in building a community around athlete branding and personal growth. 

Transcript

Jeff Perro (00:09)
you

Jeff Perro (00:35)
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of  with JP. My name is Jeff Perro. Our guest today is Mr. Ty Buttrey He spent some time in the big leagues 2018 to 20 with the Los Angeles Angels. Looking forward to learning more about him and what he's up to nowadays. Welcome to the show, Mr. Buttrey.

Ty Butt (00:54)
Thanks, JP Appreciate you having me on,

Jeff Perro (00:57)
Thank you for being here. you were drafted out of high school by the Red Sox. Did you give any consideration to go to college?

Ty Butt (01:04)
Yeah, definitely gave a lot of thought, talked to lot of people. it came down to a financial aspect. ⁓ I think for a lot of high school guys that are going through that process, you don't want to forego a college education and potential, that whole experience for an amount of money. And I don't want to make it just about money, but that's a big thing. College is expensive and...

⁓ For me, I kind of needed to be valued by the organization and when you're getting drafted, having that dollar amount that represents what they think about you and that investment into you is some security that they're gonna kind of like pour into you, keep you on the team, not gonna cut you after the first year or two. So I felt really comfortable with that decision with the Red Sox, what they were giving me. It was a very ⁓ generous signing bonus and so.

⁓ But on the back end, I've been looking at it 13 years later. I think you can always think, you know, maybe what that would have looked like if I went to college, but I don't regret it at all.

Jeff Perro (02:07)
You could have gone to and had an injury and never touched professional baseball. That what if game is tough to play. ⁓ So you sound like the Red Sox. What was it like making your debut in professional baseball?

Ty Butt (02:09)
Exactly.

Yeah, 100%.

⁓ geez, it was...

Jeff Perro (02:25)
What it, what did you expect? The glorious life of riding the bus around the South Atlantic League, the Eastern League. Was it as exciting as you expected?

Ty Butt (02:35)
⁓ you know what professional baseball getting into it was different because, this was when JetBlue Park first was built and this is a brand new facility, awesome place down in Fort Myers. I mean, it felt like, it felt like a, ⁓ just like kind of like a boarding school. I was there for a year and a half, you know, like a young kid with other guys, my age and

for like a year and a half, know, we're just down there at this Florida facility. So you don't really get a taste of like true professional minor league baseball until you get into, low A which was Greenville, even short season low A in Lowell, Massachusetts was a very condensed half season. So I didn't really have that experience until later on, but I mean, first off the bat, yeah, like Fort Myers, JetBlue Park, it was awesome. Like, like I said, it was like a

baseball getaway, we just trained and worked out and did drills and there was three people in our stadium you know, I was throwing pretty good and just, you know, learning thinking I'm on top of the world, not realizing that, you know, how much more ahead of me I really got.

Jeff Perro (03:38)
by my math, like five and a half seasons before you were traded to the Angels. Do you feel like you're making good progress up the Red Sox chain?

Ty Butt (03:46)
Jeez, I sucked for a good three and half, four years. I did really well in the sense of I came in, I had five innings in the GCL, which was nothing. And then I had a really good ERA. I wasn't really striking out a lot of guys, but I was getting a lot of weak contact as a starter, but you know, four or five innings. And then after that, I really kind of started getting into training improper ways.

lost a ton of mobility, lost a lot of velocity, lost my curve ball, my mechanics started getting out of whack, had a little back injury thing going on. And I just really started like for about two and a half, three years was stuck at this, you know, low period, lost kind of the prospect status, all that stuff. ⁓ And then wasn't until I really got moved to the bullpen and started changing on my training program, my mindset really started diving into the mental side.

And then it just kind of catapulted within like a year and a half ⁓ in AA, AAA and then get traded to the Angels.

Jeff Perro (04:52)
Yeah, that 2018

season seemed like you really found it. And I guess you put a little value on yourself and got yourself traded to the team that wanted you.

Ty Butt (04:56)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, was I was the leading the league and pretty much all minor leagues and you know strikeout stats Whip all that stuff. And yeah, like you said team value that ⁓ and then I was able to get trading today

Jeff Perro (05:15)
Is that how you felt

at the time? Were you like, yippee, the angels want me? Or ⁓ man, what the Red Sox are done with me?

Ty Butt (05:23)
I was pretty, honestly, not in a sense I'm mad at the Red Sox as a competitor and as someone that came up with the team that drafted me, I was like, how do they not see value in me? I'm clearly a 52 innings in AAA, dominating two strikeouts per inning, a 1.01 ERA, not walking guys. I'm like, how do I not, why can't you call me up? I always use other people's opinions of me as fuel and fire and motivation in the game.

⁓ but in terms of, I mad at the organization? No, they were first-class organization. They treated me really well. Top to bottom, you know, they treated us well. I just, as again, I was like, man, that sucks, but who cares? I'm going to go play in the West coast and hang out in Southern California and, you know, earn myself a closing and eighth inning role for a few years.

Jeff Perro (06:14)
And that's what you did. shortly after the trade, you were called up to LA. What was that call up like? Was it something you expected? I always love hearing people's stories. Were you on the golf course? Were you fishing? they call you in from the bullpen? How'd you get the call to the big leagues?

Ty Butt (06:18)
Yeah.

⁓ Eric Chavez was the manager. He was like interim manager for AAA ⁓ for the Salt Lake Bees. it got to the point where I was doing really well ⁓ in AAA in the international league and then got traded over and then just

was a matter of time that I knew I had, was dealing with kind of like a knee thing. had some knee tendonitis. And so I actually went to Arizona to rehab for about a week and a half and did really well down there and went to AAA for the Bees and had two outings where, you know, I was 97, 98, struck out two batters, no hits, no walks. And then I got the call that I was meeting the team in Texas the next day. And so I was,

I definitely want to say I was surprised. Now was extremely happy and excited. you know, holy crap. Called my dad right away, called my agent, my wife, you know, everyone was excited. Okay, we're flying out to meet you. ⁓ At that point in your head as a rookie, you're like, wow, you know, you have so many thoughts. I'm going up, what, you know, what's going to happen? Am I going to, are guys going to this and that, you know, you're thinking all these what ifs and.

At the end of the day, it's the same game, it's the same thing, you just gotta go out there and attack the strike zone and that's what I did.

Jeff Perro (07:55)
And you had success, man. You had success for this first, that part of that first season and the next two in the big leagues.

Ty Butt (08:03)
Yeah, the 18 season I did really well. The 19 season did really well. A little inconsistent towards the end of the season. was really, that's something that throughout my career, I really was always battling, trying to get as good as I can. And one thing I've learned looking back at it at 32 now, when something's going good, you don't need to change it to make it better. Especially in pitching, you can kind of get yourselves into some situations where, you know, that was one thing that looking back on my career.

if I could change. I had a lot of success, but I wanted so much success and I wanted to keep getting better and better. And you can kind of lead yourself to a little bit of burnout, ⁓ fatigue, exhaustion, getting kind of stressed on. And it's like, go out there, lift your leg, do the same thing over, change the ball around, don't overthink it, get hitters out.

Jeff Perro (08:54)
That's great advice. I love collecting advice from former players for current and future players and I've never heard anybody put it that way. When you get good enough, stop thinking about being better. Be consistent.

Ty Butt (09:06)
Yeah, like

be consistent, do your process in routine. Obviously strive little pieces, but don't, no, yeah. I did a lot of wholesale changes, wanting to change up grips and mechanics and this and that, really wanted to, know, everyone in their head wants to be 100 to 104 with a 92 mile an hour slider. And it's like,

Jeff Perro (09:15)
Wholesale changes are not necessary.

It's a dream.

Ty Butt (09:34)
Dude, mean, at some point, you're great as you are, and you're in the big leagues, you know, a little bit of imposter syndrome, I guess you could say, in the sense of, I didn't realize how good I was until looking back on it, how good I was doing, and there was no need to really change and add stuff.

Jeff Perro (09:52)
But you feel that pressure, you know, there's a draft every year, there's international assignments every year, there's hungry guys at AA and AAA. I see where you get that need to not just maintain but also prove that you really belong and can keep your job for a decade.

Ty Butt (10:07)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, my whole career. I I was never a kid that was on the All-Star teams growing up. You know, I got cut from a lot of leagues, played JV multiple years, got sent down from varsity, you know, really sucked my first couple of years in minor leagues. And so for me, you know, I was always a good athlete and I obviously pitched well in senior year, my senior year in high school to get drafted. like, you know, it's almost like out of nowhere I had this...

amazing, amazing two, three year run. And I couldn't understand that, wow, like you're this good right now, stop like it's here, it's time. I was still caught up in, well, I'm not good enough, I gotta get better, I gotta get better, I gotta get better. And it drove me and it motivated me a lot, but it also didn't, you don't really know when to stop and just say, hey, let's keep on doing this right now, this is working, we don't need to add much.

Jeff Perro (10:51)
could say it.

Cool man, that's a cool perspective, thank you for that. So in the spring of 2021 rolls around, what happened in the off season or during that spring training that triggered you to decide you were done? Is it one thing, I guess it could have been something that added up over time over years.

Ty Butt (11:06)
Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I mean, I definitely was in a burnout stage, right? I trained extremely hard. I trained really, really hard. I I put pretty much all my mental energy and physical energy into training, right? And I was always the guy that I wanna put in what I get out. What I put in my training, I wanna see it on the results. And that kinda goes back to my talk about trying to do more, which, so you kinda had like, I kinda had the physical exhaustion of baseball. ⁓

Number two was my goal from a young kid was I wanna be a major league player because that's what I'm supposed to be. I'm gonna be a major league player. I'm just going to figure it out. lot of people believed in me growing up. I thought it would be awesome to play in the big leagues.

I always played baseball because I was an inner competitor and I liked, I didn't like other people being better than me. And it was just a natural, you know, tall kid, big kid. I was athletic, I could throw a ball hard. This was my path. And COVID happened and I started to really find other, not other hobbies, but I always had a big knack I always had a big interest in.

Jeff Perro (12:31)
Are there

Ty Butt (12:34)
doing other things, other business things and ⁓ opportunities. And when I say business things, I mean just like other career paths, other options, other hobbies, other things I like to do. And I started kind of exploring that. I always liked real estate and investing and things like this. And ⁓ I just remember when I was in the big leagues in 19, I remember sitting there and I was actually the best eighth inning reliever.

almost like I had the best three months stretch in the big leagues, punching out two guys per inning practically, not walking guys, had like a one ERA was racking up a bunch of holds. And I just remember feeling kind of, ⁓ and I'm not gonna say the word lackluster, but I was thinking, I was like, man, okay, I did it. I made it here.

Wow, I'm the best in the league practically, especially for a rookie. there wasn't this feeling in me that just wanted to keep going and chasing all-stars and chasing World Series and chasing this contract. It's like in my head, yeah, I accomplished it. And I realized how much stress and anxiety and stuff it put on me and all these things that I'm like, whoa, do I?

Jeff Perro (13:49)
your accomplished it

Ty Butt (13:59)
really, really love doing this? And the answer was, I love aspects of it. I love the fans, the experience. It's fun to compete, but do I really just want to play baseball for my whole life? Do I want that to be my thing? You know, I love coaching.

Jeff Perro (14:17)
for 10 months

a year, 12 months a year with the off-stage and training. I don't think people realize how much time is involved from spring training to after the playoffs. That eats up your life for sure.

Ty Butt (14:21)
Yeah, being away from family and stuff.

Right.

Right. it was my whole life was that, you know, my whole entire life. And, ⁓ you know, and people got a little bit upset the way I wrote it because it was a little bit of a jab towards baseball. But really what it was was it was a jab towards, you know, hey, this has been great. But Ty Buttrey is not Ty Buttrey the baseball player. He's Ty Buttrey the human being. And

I don't wanna be known as just the baseball player anymore. I wanna go do other things in life. And that is crazy to think about for some people to be like, yeah, but the money and the fame and you live in your dream and it's like, can't their head around that, somebody would actually just throw that away. But for me, I enjoy doing things that are hard to do. And so now I'm on other tasks and I'm building stuff with my wife and we're.

Jeff Perro (15:07)
It's kind of shallow. To think of it that way, it's little shallow.

Ty Butt (15:26)
You know, we're launching a whole bunch of other things that are extremely difficult and it's full on and it's and that's what I want. Like that's life. Like I didn't want to be 42 and I know this is pretty deep and some people may see this and be like, what the hell is he talking about? But like I just didn't want to be a baseball player for my existence and that's not a knock on baseball. It just was during covid. I kind of woke up to what I really like to do what I really love to do and at 28 years old when I decided it.

it wasn't playing baseball for another 10 years. It was starting over, which to be fair, it has been a full on transition of changing the lifestyle. The money isn't as consistent. We're really grinding. Basically, I'm starting over at a whole new career doing things. And that's where it's like, that's that chase that I loved baseball for. I love the chase. I'm addicted to the chase. so,

I know that's not really a simple question or a simple answer because it wasn't really a simple decision. It was a lot of years all kind of piled up and then finally getting to the point where, hey, I'm ready to make this decision and I'm gonna go do something else because we got one life here on this earth that I'm like, you know what? That was awesome, I did it. Let's go do some other fun stuff.

Jeff Perro (16:47)
I feel like you need to hear this kind of for me. What you're saying might sound weird in baseball circles, but in real life, real careers, real people, it happens. mean, everything you talk about, think about if your career path was you wanted to be a surgeon or something like that. And you work for being a surgeon, you get your good grades, you skip out on social events, you don't date because you're studying so hard to be a surgeon. And then you're 32 years old and you're a successful surgeon and you're like...

Ty Butt (16:56)
Yeah.

Jeff Perro (17:16)
Man this sucks. It happens in real life. Like I said, in baseball circles and in the New York Post and on ESPN, it might sound weird, but on everyday people and everyday careers, it's realistic stuff that everybody's talking about. So I feel like you kind of need to hear that.

Ty Butt (17:31)
Absolutely.

I appreciate that. Yeah, I appreciate that because that was that was it all came kind of full circle when I really stepped out of the game this year and it was wow. I spent countless hours countless, you know investment financially into my career and it's just wow. I'm just starting over but as you can see, you know.

Jeff Perro (17:53)
It could happen if you were, like I said, surgeon, ⁓ jockey, anything that people think they want to be any of those dream jobs. That could happen to

Ty Butt (17:56)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah,

exactly. And so I found a lot of, know, I love coaching. I love inspiring. I love, you know, using the experience and knowledge I've gained. You know, that's why I've been doing a lot of the Instagram videos, helping kids, helping the parents. Geez, I mean, the parents need help. There's just so much information out there and I try to kind of simplify it, be real to the point about it. I've been having fun doing that. My wife's running the convention. I'm selling turf. You know, I'm building a camp.

Jeff Perro (18:29)
We'll

get to all that, because I'm curious about that and I've got a lot to hear about that. But you decided to come back to baseball in 2022. What made that decision?

Ty Butt (18:31)
Yeah, yeah.

⁓ it was just because, you know, okay, maybe, maybe I'm second guessing it. Maybe I made a rash decision, you know, maybe I do like it. Let's go play it again. ⁓ I'm only 29. I still have a few years in me. ⁓ wasn't ready to go get a normal job as you would say normal job. My wife and I, we started a nonprofit was, you know, successful, but it was going to take time. ⁓

And again, it was just kind of me chilling out for a year thinking, okay, you just quit the big leagues. ⁓ Maybe you should go back. Sure, maybe it was a rash decision, but it was the right decision looking back because I tried to get that passion back. I tried to get myself to get into the weight room and train like I used to and do the things I used to do. And I just couldn't.

flip that switch like I did. And I got close last year with the Mariners in spring training. ⁓ But it just, it brought on kind of the same type of feelings, know, sleepless nights, overthinking, anxiety, what am I doing? Is this really what I'm supposed to, it just was kind of the same feeling. And it was something where, you know, I didn't want to be.

I guess I didn't want to be a lifer minor league player. again, I wanted that the writing was on the wall to, hey, let's go back and try it. And then this year officially kind of calling it.

Jeff Perro (20:10)
So it's 2024, but do you think that was a rash decision or a well thought through?

Ty Butt (20:15)
here's the deal. definitely was, you know, I was, I'm 32 years old. I got put on, you know, I got put on the Phantom. I dominated spring training. Wasn't really moving the same way. Had a little bit, you know, a little bit of knee thing, little bit of a back thing. ⁓ Nothing serious, but it just, the way I was looking at it is.

32 I can go to Mexico or try to go play in Japan or Korea or try to get back into minor league ball and it just was you know, I Still just I didn't have that fuel that fuel that kept me going up into that point to really To be that good at the big leagues. I mean you really do have to it is a full-on mental physical 100 % buy-in if you're Yeah, if you're 95 %

Jeff Perro (21:03)
365 days a year.

Ty Butt (21:07)
you won't make it. And I didn't want to just be a minor league player for the next six years. No problem with that. Like I said, I'm like, okay, yeah, let's start this new path officially. And that's where it kind of started.

Jeff Perro (21:20)
Yeah, because

then you're just delaying starting a new career. Why not get now? Starting new things.

Ty Butt (21:23)
Yeah, like started at

32 or started at 36. Right.

Jeff Perro (21:28)
Right, exactly.

So what was your first move after hanging them up? Did you have a plan? The last couple months of your last season, were you like, okay, I'm ready to go start doing this?

Ty Butt (21:35)
jeez, iPad.

No, I had no plan. that was, it's been a very, very hard ⁓ eight months in the sense of ⁓ life got really real. you're in this, basically as a baseball player, you operated on Mars. Like you operate on Mars, you are for 13 years, you're in clubhouse, you're on private jets, you're having nice dinners, you're getting paid nice. Even if you're in the minor leagues, you're still, you're in this world.

and you don't think about other normal problems and things. You're thinking about baseball and slider grips and tunneling and changeups and force them up and analytics and like, you know, eating clean. It's like these muscles that you don't flex and you don't use at all, you know? So it's like, okay, cool. Like most athletes, they get into a sales job or they get into coaching and stuff like that. And I was in the point where my wife is very successful in her field.

she got me a job in the NIL basically as a salesperson selling website subscriptions and working in this company. And it was like a really fun, crazy job. And that was my first experience and it just, that company imploded. So then I needed to find another job. I was doing remote training and then that kind of separated. Then I was doing cold calling, doing a business coaching job, which was a great thing. And then that didn't really work out. And so I had like,

four different jobs in six months. Granted, I don't have a college education, so certain jobs you're kind of limited with getting. And so it was a really eye-opening experience of, let's build this thing up. Let's start basically as a sales rep and something that you can,

is fun that gets you outdoors. I don't like being stuck behind a desk. ⁓ And then led me to kind of helping my wife again with her convention, with what she's doing, doing a lot of coaching to keep me kind of moving around, working as a sales rep for this company called Artificial Grass Pros where

You sell turf and it's fun and it's interesting and it's like a full on you get a work truck. ⁓ You're doing sales.

Jeff Perro (24:04)
That's great. That's fun that you get

excited about that, but I could see how you could get excited about that.

Ty Butt (24:10)
Yeah, because it's just, you make it what you want. if you, it's, you're kind of your own entrepreneur with it. And that's always, I always wanted the freedom to kind of do what I want. You meet a ton of people. ⁓ It's a grind and it's a process. And again, I just, it's, I've never done it before. I've never really had a true real job. you know, some people hate their job. I have fun with it. I make the best of it.

Obviously, money is important, right? People want to have some financial freedom. This job allows me to do things that like I love meeting people, I love talking to people, I love relationships with people. I love.

being like you do something for someone and they're happy about it. And so the money for me is that's gonna come. And it's just, I'm not looking at a job because if I wanted to make a lot of money, I would have kept playing baseball and I would have just kind of, yeah, I would have just sucked it up and I would have just kind of been here.

Jeff Perro (25:09)
Yeah, he could have gone and played Mexico or something like he said and made solid money.

bet your body would have

paid for it and other things. And your quality of your life would have paid for that.

Ty Butt (25:18)
Yeah.

Right, I just, again, I want to build something wherever turf takes me, it's freaking, again, it's fun. It was a little stressful at first because there was a lot of details that you have to kind of keep in mind. ⁓ But once you get into the flow of it, again, you go out, you meet people, you install this beautiful freaking pad and they love it and they give you a five-star review and you're on to the next one.

Jeff Perro (25:46)
I read a lot about AthleteCon and what your wife's doing on there. Are you still pretty involved with that?

Ty Butt (25:52)
Yeah, I would say I'm involved as any like, you know, spouses when their wife or husband's doing something, they're kind of helping in the background. I mean, my wife, she's, she's a rock star, man. She really, really is a pioneer in this. And it's so cool because it's something she, she loves doing it. And I love seeing people that love doing something that, she's been putting years into this, you know, I going back into 2017 started her own YouTube channel, interviewing athletes.

grinding in the RV when we had an RV and doing interviews and, you know, building pages and content and working and editing. And I mean, it's really been an eight year, nine year thing for her. And she's, she's now really starting to be with this NIL. And again, everyone says NIL. It's like, they roll their eyes. You know, there's NIL and then there's pay to play. And she really, she really focuses on the true NIL thing of the brand building of the athletes. And ⁓

Jeff Perro (26:42)
Yeah.

Ty Butt (26:48)
She decided to launch a convention called athlete con and it's freaking blowing up and she's got a huge community.

Jeff Perro (26:54)
That's great, I mean it sounds like it

Ty Butt (26:55)
Yeah, some people when you say NIL, they're like, yeah, so you're just paying. It's like, no, no, no, that's pay to play. Like you give someone here's a million bucks to come to my, the transfer portal. know, people get the two confused. What NIL was originally intended was, hey, I'm an athlete. If I have a YouTube channel and I'm in college, I should be able to monetize off of that. That's how it kind of got brought up in a player, guy wasn't able to, and then kind of transfer portal and pay to play. And that's kind of where people get weird about it. But the,

The nuts and bolts of it is it's social media, content creation like we're doing right now, attention, building a brand. Everyone's building brands now. My wife is really kind of became an expert go-to in that space. And it's fun. I mean, I'm looking at our living room right now. We have a huge poster. We have electrolyte supplements. We have all this skincare product. We have turf from another company that's sent there. have energy cans, more banners. It's like...

this whole thing, you know, it's just like, it's all constantly going. Now she's launching a tech app. She's smart. She's really good at what she does. And I love it because I help her and I kind of talk her down, you know, as an athlete trying to, hey, the mind's, hey, gotta keep going, babe. You're there, you know, you're close. This is the time, this is when it gets hard, you know, kind of that stuff. So it's fun to do it together.

Jeff Perro (28:09)
Give her a different perspective.

She helps you with the Instagram as well? You guys have a girl? I hear a female voice. I assume it's your wife.

Ty Butt (28:21)
Yeah, I mean, I just.

Yeah, yeah, she, you know, she kind of laughs at me because she does these like long edits and puts all this stuff together. And she's like, really all I have, all you have to do is say five things and you're getting 50,000 views per whatever. Just like.

Jeff Perro (28:40)
I would love it.

If you guys haven't seen it, I'm going to post some links and stuff to it. But Ty stands there with his hands in his pockets in most of the videos and his wife asks him a question. Do you like chicken or steak? Slider or a cutter? And it's so simple, but it's so I can't take my eyes off it.

Jeff Perro (29:01)
First pitch strikes. I'm gonna give it an eight. Most people would say it's a 10, but it's not the end of the world if you fall behind a batter. It's 1-0. Yes, everyone wants to go 0-1-0-2, but more times than not, coaches really pressure players and you can kind of get in your head a little bit of trying to go 0-0 first pitch strikes all the time.

Training barefoot. Training barefoot is a 10. Absolutely. ⁓ We wear these expensive shoes and our feet are meant to be on the ground and gripping and feeling through our workouts. And we wear these nice, bougie shoes. We lose a lot of the support and our feet get weak. When you guys are driving and you're pitching down the mound,

Everything starts with that big toe.

Ty Butt (29:40)
Yeah, I really don't know the appeal. just was, you because everyone grabs the phone and they talk to it and it gets kind of lost and Sam, it's just like, boom, like topics, quick thought, move on. There's just, I started doing it because there's so much, there is so much information right now in baseball. There's so much. mean, it really, and everyone's trying to make a buck right now off it too.

and they're charging really expensive travel ball and gloves and ⁓ training program. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And so I'm just trying to like, you know, it may come across as a very like, this is the way it's done. They're all in my opinion. This is how I see it. Take it for what you want, apply it.

Jeff Perro (30:26)
So I'm about

to be in the shoes where I really need you. I'm 46. I'm old. I have a five year old son and a T ball baseball things about stuff. And I have this podcast where I've talked to people who are doing lessons, doing academies and stuff. And it's kind of nice to hear their perspective on it. I feel like all the guys I've talked to have been good guys who have the player in mind, the player's best interests at heart instead of making a buck. So your little

thing of three sentence response to a four word question is so simple compared to paragraphs and hundreds of websites saying conflicting information about what's best for a five or 11 or 17 year old player. I appreciate it. you.

Ty Butt (31:11)
Well, thank you. Thanks, Jeff.

Appreciate

that, thank you. I've got a lot of parents reaching out and saying, really appreciate the content. I feel like I can really understand you break it down. And again, I'm not, know, there's no hook. There's no, let me now sell you a program. It's like, no, like in order to throw hard, yeah, like in order to throw hard, yeah, everyone wants to throw hard. It's like, they tell you one thing, no, like there's a million different aspects and.

Jeff Perro (31:26)
Right. Because that's a common thing too.

Ty Butt (31:37)
Things and everyone everyone's trying to make a buck right now and there's a lot of money in baseball. I mean it's a lot. There is a ton of money right now in the game. The game is marketing to a ton of people. It's worldwide growing. ⁓ You know.

Jeff Perro (31:52)
It's equipment,

it's lessons, it's gadgets, it's velocity and exit velocity and everything else. ⁓

Ty Butt (31:57)
Yeah. Yeah.

Because it's also

like, it's also, baseball a lot of kids can play, right? You don't have to be, you know, the physicality of football, the finesse of soccer, the speed, ⁓ the height or athleticism of basketball, even though you do need to be athletic for sure. like, baseball, anyone can kind of play it and they can find their own niche to it. to me, it gives parents, like if my son's good at baseball.

it gives them like a pat on the back, right? And the son or the daughter playing softball, it's like a lottery ticket, right? It's like a, whoa, you know, if I throw 100 miles an hour, I'm gonna be a millionaire. Or if I hit home runs, I'm gonna make $100 million. And it's like, there's this chase of one in college, won't my college paid for it, and I L now. And so like all these parents that...

Jeff Perro (32:54)
And you

have some hitting coach who your parents are paying $100 an hour telling you, You can make $100 million if you hit all runs. And that just continues the cycle of shh shh shh with the money, you know?

Ty Butt (33:04)
Right.

And you know what I've learned Jeff is the reality is the truth doesn't sell. The truth does not sell. hey, you're gonna cry yourself to sleep some nights and you're gonna wanna quit and you're gonna have to train six hours a day, six, seven days a week. You're gonna have to sacrifice blood, sweat, energy for years, vacations, not partying. I never partied in high school, drank all that stuff like.

Jeff Perro (33:33)
Vacations, everything, huh?

Ty Butt (33:40)
That's the truth, right? Like that's the truth that you can't sell that because people don't understand that. But that's what I noticed when I got to the big leagues. All the guys around me worked as hard, if not harder than me, went through the same trials and tribulations of ups and downs and cuts and this and that. Some are obviously freaks and have been good their whole life. the truth is it's extremely, I think I did a stat and.

since 1990, and I don't really believe in statistics, even though it's kind of, know, now I'm talking. Yeah, I mean, they're there for a reason. You know, it's 35 million people since 1992 have played Little League Baseball and 22,000 big leaguers, ⁓ you know, cut that in half, probably about 12,000 big leaguers. It's like a 0.06 % chance of making it to the big leagues. And it's like, geez, who wants to sell that?

Jeff Perro (34:12)
and style.

Ty Butt (34:36)
You know, that's it's but it's it's you don't focus on that you focus on for me. It was I always tried to be the best on my team. If I was the best on my team, I would eventually just keep moving up moving up moving up. But that's really easier said than done. Yeah.

Jeff Perro (34:49)
That's wise words.

So Mr. Buttrey, I appreciate your insight. I appreciate hearing about your experiences in professional baseball. Thanks for joining us today.

Ty Butt (34:59)
Thank you. Appreciate you, JP.

Jeff Perro (35:02)
Hydration. Hydration is a 10, but make sure you're hydrated with the right type of water. If you're just drinking distilled and purified water, you're not really doing any benefit for your muscles. You want to have salt in your water. You want to have electrolytes. Even mineral water is really good. Squats. Squats is a five. It's good to have a base level of strength. You're going to get really strong in your glutes and your quads. I wouldn't recommend going over 275 pounds. You're not going to be able to hold that strength throughout the season if you're maxing squats anyways. Red light.

I like therapies of six. It is going to increase collagen and increase mitochondria production, which is benefit for your recovery and just overall health as a pitcher with your tendons and ligaments, but it's not going to make you some superhero and get swinging misses automatically. So for that reason, it's a six.