EXCLUSIVE: Molina, Wainwright reminisce about careers as Cardinals that's lasted nearly 2 decades

well i'm excited to uh be joined by two guys that mean a lot to the organization mean a lot to me personally and uh to have you guys together i appreciate you guys taking the time what i'd like to do here i want to kind of start at the beginning and walk through kind of current day and just kind of dive in and and uh talk about all the experiences you guys have together and i want to start when in three minutes maybe four four and a half okay but i want to start when you guys came in the organization you come in differently yada you come in drafted wayno you come in uh in a big trade the big name in the trade there's pressure on both of those you come in having two brothers you know been in major league baseball and kind of having that name and that on your back when you come in you know with that trade what's that like coming into the cardinal organization to take me back to your first few days of coming in first of all i met the first time when i was facing him and minorly like a year before we get together in memphis and i was like this dude have i mean this is good for real and then we had him we made that deal for him i was like wow we got a good guy you know and then i met him i was disappointed [Laughter] so we got together in memphia i was like wow these guys for real and then they called me on the next year um in all seasons this guy was ready to go and then i just got to having that team and then we did it we win that championship and that was awesome what's the lecture you found nailed it yeah good for me to be traded over for one thing because just where i was in the braves organization of top prospect but didn't make a good name for myself within the organization was really late every day and didn't work hard and got a chance to get a fresh start over here and so i got to come over here and and be around some really really great people that that for the first time i was around great people over there too i just didn't listen to him you know i didn't pay attention enough and over here i got a chance to kind of start over and uh in in 2004 that's when we started playing together in spring training um funny thing was that the cardinals dubli team was the one that gave me fits you know the cardinals high a team the year before and potomac was the easiest team i've ever faced in my entire life never they were like a high school team with skip schumacher on it of course and then the next day the next year their team was really loaded and bucky what was bucky's last name jake bucky jacobson and yeah papa bollywood papa bolivar yeah just guys and uh there's a little infielder that was really good too isn't it like uh yeah cosmetics and that was just in skip was in center field and the whole team was all stars you know and they were really tough they gave me fits the manager was dj and he was tough to pitch against because he let you know about stuff talking to you out on the field but uh getting to come over here and throw to yachty right away was a different experience i've never seen a catcher like that before ever even at that even at that age you still had a lot of development to do and but still without you knew right away yeah i knew right away and what was cool is that when i was with the braves organization all coming up i always called every pitch and never let the catcher call anything and in fact if the catcher called something i'd be i'd figure out a reason why that wasn't the right pitch and call something else and yadi i remember one of our first games he pulled me aside and said hey you need to trust me you need to stay with me right here and just i know what i'm doing you know and and we can call this game together and it was really great for me and that was easy for me to to go to him and talk because in the past you have some guys that they don't want to listen and then and for me the uh barely i know the language and then it's hard for me to communicate with the picture at that time but he made it easy i mean he was a nice person to me and that's why we still brother because if he gave me some trouble about them right now i was like but now but then it was you know it take care of me a lot and i'm glad for that so early on almost every player has has a moment or somebody that that's really had an impact on their career and typically early on and with you having your brothers in it it in the game but they weren't here with you in the organization and i know dave ricketts means a lot to you and i know this i've heard a lot of stories of how ricketts kind of took you from being a young stiff catcher to to really helping you stretch and open you up that way and adam you talk about how coming over here you were late and you didn't do things the right way well something had to shift on that so what what was that that that helps you was that somebody here for me was i mean dave rickett was the person that changed my life obviously when i came over here my dad my mom they all had me out there but knowing the game knowing calling game knowing about the catcher the position on the catcher dave ricky did a good job i'm i'm just so glad to be here with them and spending most time with him he gave me a tough time you know because he cared and and at that time i didn't understand that but i'm so sinful so glad that i was there for him with him what were some of those things he was tough on you first of all when you had to wake up at 5am every day seven seven day a week that's that's tough and then other stuff you know the mentality part you know it teach me to be a real man you know like a grown man and then all different stuff you know he pushed me so hard you know like because he really want me to be the best and uh at the first i didn't understand and then the sooner i got it i was like wow i want to be next to him for forever yeah and you know that story i'm sure of mike matheny tells of dave ricketts picked him up one day you remind me camp and puts them on the golf cart and says come here and he takes you back and says this is the this is the future best catcher in baseball and and mike said i'm looking at this guy and he can't squat he's stiff you know his hands are you know his hands are pretty good but i'm looking at like what are you talking about and he's like and surely you know he he was able to see it that far ahead and just knew that there was some things to work on and but he knew he could break through and get to that yeah he got so much space in with me i mean he helped me help me a lot he pushed me he pushed me so hard but at the same time he got patient with me and he worked with me on both sides he worked in physical and mentally and a bit thank you for that i think one thing that a message that needs to be heard probably is that yaddy and i had something in common that he and i came straight from little league middle school high school right into professional baseball like a lot of us did but you know when you're thrown into a situation where you're 17 18 years old and you don't have any parents around for the first time ever you're a product of who you hang around and uh it's it's it can be a hard challenge it's just like going off to college right i mean guys that come out of college or they're a little they're little they take pro ball a little easier sometimes because they've been in a format where you know you've you've got to be here at class you got to be you got to be here at practice on time the coach kind of teaches you how to run and and do all that stuff and be a hard worker sometimes and then you come over here but but when you don't have that sort of in high school or anything and you just get thrown right into a professional baseball situation where the best athletes in the world are all competing you know and you just got a signing bonus yeah you just got a lot of money for the first time you never had two nickels to rub together in your life and also now you've been given money you know it's there's could be a lot of uh things to distract you in that so uh your answer your question was who who made a difference on me and when i was traded over here i was traded with jason marquis and you know a lot of a lot of the times you hear me talk about carp and his influence in me and some of the other pictures but what the story i really don't do a good enough job of telling is that jason marquis really took me under his wing and made me go to the field with him and after practice every day we would hang out and and we would talk and he'd never let me pay for anything and he made sure i was on time and he this is spring training this is prior to making the team spring training yeah in 2004 i mean i was still a year and a half away from being in the big leagues but but guys like jason really really made a big impact on me you know they they taught me how to be a professional and and those other names chris carpenter and woody williams and jeff supon and matt morris all those guys had their own roles and braden looper they had their roles in teaching me little things here little things there to kind of piece me into what you become but you know without great people around you as an 18 19 you know 20 year old kid with a with lots of distractions left and right i mean you can it's hard to stay focused sometimes you need those those older guys to shepherd you into the right direction sometimes i agree with that i mean obviously you you gotta have the art to do attitude to listen and understand what's going on then um if you got the bad attitude it's going to take you a while to get to get where you want to be but if you got the right attitude to know to listen and to work hard um like that is gonna you're gonna be where you want to be like sooner than you know so you guys make it to the big leagues you're there a little bit earlier um what is that like when you first get there there's still obviously a lot of adjustments that need to be made um and and yada that you're there in 04 when when you're going to the world series when you come up at the end of o5 and then 06 have a huge role in that round there but what's that that first few years of trying to you know you guys are big names at this point you are big prospects to come up and kind of adapt and adjust to the major league level and fit into a team that has a lot of veterans on i mean for me was easy i mean because we got um guys around us that take care of us i mean the only the only thing i had to be worried is about playing the game and i know how to play the game so um so i was logging out to have guys like tony and they don't then they help me out on kendo pools you know all those you know that tell me hey this is how we prepared to win the game and um that was the hard part the hard part but playing the game was simple for me i mean because i know how to play the game and those teams back then we're so different than our teams now i mean if you looked around the whole field it was like an average of 32 33 34 years old i mean reggie sanders larry walker you know you had tony walmart tony womack albert was one of the young guys you had um mark cruzalonik and edgar renoria and mike matthini and all these people you know that were there when we first got here and the pitching staff was you know all super veteran guys yeah maurice molidor yeah all those guys yeah the bullpen you had izzy and cal eldred cal was 40. you know you had you had uh julian tavares yeah all these guys i mean it was just a you know yachty and i are ancient for compared to all these guys and they had a whole team of those dudes you know it was just a different it was a different it was a different time and uh that like yadi said they really took care of us they really kind of showed us the way because you know we don't get to where we are right now without great people leading us there so you go to 06 you know that that year everybody knows that team was you know not the best team coming in you guys kind of squeak in at the end um and then all of a sudden catch fire i i feel like people think that that world series ended in new york they forget about the next series that happened in detroit because that that series was so incredible um but talk about that a little bit there's that playoff and that experience you had there and then you know what it's like to be a young player to step up on that stage amongst david eckstein and guys like that on the team that have you know huge names and reputations already i think uh for me was i mean sometimes you got a good really good season that you can win the division for 10 games and then you get relaxed for proper week and then no no no said obviously we were fighting and fighting and the whole day every game means something and then we get to uh to a playoff and like everything ship you know like okay we've been fighting for the whole year now we you have to keep playing the same way we've been doing the whole year and that's what we did i mean um back in san diego the first individual i mean that was i mean winning two games over there that was like wow we can't we really can do this and then we got that the right time we we get hot in the right time and that's how we do it that that bad in new york is that your one of your best memories yes in in your whole career yeah basically you know like for me being from puerto rico and then that team and offseason it's like 20 guys in new york med that's been from puerto rico 20 players like in the whole system um bertrand delgado tony valentine all those kind so puerto rico's like basically they ruling for for the best to win and then and then only my family was brewing for me and then when i hit that homie when i hit that homer everybody was like quiet i mean they should stay on the that new year's day you know the mediterranean was quiet even in puerto rico everybody was quiet and then well it was a great great moment for me and great moment for our team for our city for everybody um i'm going to remember that i mean i still uh sometimes almost cried i don't know how i did it chad was like hey look for changeo i was thinking fast forward they told me hanging chain job i hear i was like iron hammer yeah yes how was that this is really happened like and then of course happened and we did it you know what i remember is going down the stretch first of all you have to remember we had pujols scott rowland and jim edmonds in the middle of the lineup yes which i mean to peace along with all the other incredible players we had but you you need three big guys to get it done we had three of the biggest guys there were that time those guys are superstars right in the middle of lineup and we could not win a game down the stretch we couldn't win a game and uh we ended up winning on the last day because john smoltz shut out the astros we didn't even win we didn't win our game he shut out the astros oh that's right yeah dude carp shutout somebody with a two hitter yes yeah car complete game show up yeah two hit yeah and then smaltz beat the braves no the philip won the game and uh uh freddie freeman oh yeah that was 11. oh that was enough yeah so smoke shuts the astros out and uh clark huh clark no smolts the braves shut up yeah that was one confusion yeah that's okay i i don't think we won our game though pretty sure we lost but we lost the last game we did yeah small shut out the astros so we only won because they got us in but i remember the feeling as soon as we knew that we won it was like oh now we go i mean it was like you know we were playing so tense and tight and with this just really i mean we really did have an incredible team you know to put on the field and then as soon as we got in it was like oh now they're all in big big trouble you know because we knew we were good and we just we now now we have nothing to lose because nobody's expecting us to win now that's right and as soon as we got in we were super dangerous and then you taken over for a guy that one was your mentor and two one of the one of the biggest closers in cardinal history because of an injury and you've taken over that role on that stage what was that like i remember in kind of in september was when that happened and the first opportunity went to braden looper and braden blew the save his first opportunity and then the next we didn't win games for seemed like a week and then the next opportunity was against the brewers at home at blue stadium and we were down by we were down two nothing scott spezio came up with the bases loaded and he hit a basis clear and triple with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning to go up by three to two and then the next guy got out right away well braden was on the on the mound warming up he was going to go in and pitch the top of the night when we were losing and i remember the phone rang and it said sit brayden down get out him up and that was my first real save opportunity you know if uh if you look back it'll say like i had four save opportunities but that's just you know how that goes as a reliever you pitch early in the game you blow you know you blow the lead in the seventh so uh that was my first real save opportunity and i remember thinking there's two outs all right this is awesome let's run and i threw three pitches and i went in and i closed the game out one two three we went one two three and closed it out i threw three warm-up pitches and i didn't need one of them i had so much adrenaline going i was so fired up and so ready to pitch in that game that it was not gonna they were not gonna tie that game up it was already over trying 97 96 stop and then that carries you into i mean obviously you do well there and that carries you into the whole playoffs so is it a situation where you don't even know what's happening you're just kind of you know you're in the game all of a sudden now all of a sudden you're the closer you're having to answer questions about it but you're just rolling because you're you're in the postseason not too much time to think and worry about the situation and it made sense to me because that year as you know my story i pitched every game like it was the last game in the world series all season long and then in the postseason i just did the same thing so it was like easy to me in my mind like i was supposed to do it because i was too young to really know how hard the game can be sometimes sometimes young players have an advantage because they don't really know how hard things can be sometimes and they're just supposed to and yeah i'm gonna go out there and i'm gonna win it's no big deal right and uh and that's a that's a good lesson to learn and it's a good mindset to have and so for me it was like big whoop you know yeah it's it's just was another day of the ballpark of course i was supposed to kind of like yaddy said i mean we were putting into position to succeed got it our dave duncan and tony did such a good job of bringing me along slowly and putting me in that moment when i was ready for it as opposed to just throwing me in there you know without without being prepared i was prepared for that moment so i succeeded so did 06 change your career by winning that does it change does things change after that does it does it one are you a young player that kind of you're early on in your career you go to the world series you win it you think this is going to happen every year or do you think if you would have lost an o6 it would have created a different hunger or exposure what you know how how did that 06 world series change you guys early on in your careers for me chang a lot i mean obviously in both sides i mean like i i got like in all four i was still like a young guy you know like all five or six and then i got really tough season offsets like the regular season like hitting offensive side that i didn't know i didn't find myself hitting i mean i was going dude about catching and calling again whatever but after that play off and now says that we won everything and then i was like and this i mean this is all about and then i started learning about my offensive side that's when my career went up on that part yeah i think it it's still my biggest moment you know as new york it's probably maybe one of his too and we need to have some more moments yeah yeah i know it's been a long time since but yeah some people say oh that's sad your best moment is your rookie year and i was like yeah we still won the world series that's not too sad don't feel too bad for me you know i've still had some really good moments since then but i think it what you need at busch stadium with our great cardinal fans if you have a moment like david freeze david was with us for what three or four years he'll never be forgotten in st louis and he'll probably be a cardinal hall of famer because of that moment you know and and we don't win the world series without david freeze so as it should be um but there's there's guys like that have had moments you know those those nazi smith hit that home run if ozzie smith had been an all-star every year but not hit the dramatic home run he wouldn't have been known for you know the same he would have been known as the wizard and he wasn't great but he had those moments you know those big time moments will mcgee had moments you know bob gibson had tons of moments you know so when you have that one moment the cardinal fans never forget you and in the borderline give you a standing o everywhere you go you know if you have something great like that happen our fans are just so incredible so it changed our careers because it put us on the path to success and it put us in a different frame of mind with our fans they looked at us like these guys are winners these guys are championships i remember somebody told me i think it was tony after tony won that world series bob gibson walked up to him and said hey welcome to the cardinals now that he had won you know he'd been there for years he's like oh now you're right yeah i remember him saying that that's pretty cool yeah so how different was 11 and i know atom for you is a lot different but you having a few more years under experience how was how different was it for both of you guys through that year different obviously different team um we got some young guys you know like a bunch of young guys they can really play the game and they know how to play the game um that 11 was up and down too i remember we still you know we were talking about early we're confusing the day but we still had that the last day the last day on the last game on the regular season the car the car throw the chair out um yeah that was called the gas drill against the astro and we were watching the tv in houston in the courthouse and we're waiting for the break to beat um or philly or philly beat the don't breakdown so we were watching that game and then when they complete when they end the game over there we started serving i was like wow we did it i did again this is now we go like the same the same thing happened in 11 something happened same thing happening off season can happen in in in 11. the soon we got we know that we got in that was game over for everyone i think that might have been the best celebration we've ever had too yeah we knew we knew everybody knew we were nuts yeah that was crazy everybody knew like if we we got the thing that if we we got a chance to get in the payoff they're going to be in trouble and that's what happened what people don't know is that the only reason we won more than david freeze and all that was because of me and you eating those magic fruit snacks we had magic fruit snacks that that kyle and i would eat uh especially in philly we crushed some magic fruit snacks we were he and i brought out a thing he and i weren't playing so we we had fruit snacks we were eating on the theme yo come on guys fire it up you know let's go we can do it whatever fruit snack we'd score around like these are magic fruit snacks and so every time we needed a rally we'd run inside get some fruit snacks and you better eat your food snacks by the end of it we're like we ate thousands we won again it worked hey that's serious let me tell you that's syria against philly that was one of the best series i ever played i mean that game fight that was unbelievable and we were down by one we were down one game right lost the first game second game cliff lee was winning four nothing yeah cliff lee was incredible yeah and then we came back and won i mean if we go down two nothing now it's over it's probably over against that team so what do you guys what have you guys learned from each other throughout your careers biggest takeaway from adam and adam the biggest takeaway from yadi i think i start i think to be a better person that's why i teach be a better person but better teammate um very family man i mean i'm i'm so glad to be par be next to him i love this man like my brother you know you know but i mean just that's fallen i mean obviously i know what type of player he is and how he cares about the team and everything but outside the line he teach me a lot so i'm just saying to have him thank you bro do his own i think what yaddi's just shown me so much is that no matter how great you are you got to keep working professionalism that comes with yadier you know everybody that comes over here they said i got here at 6am when i got here he was in the cage doing these little receiving drills with his bare hand and he's already been there he's already sweating and he's like i thought i was being early and it just got he never stops trying to get great at this game you know i don't like to take anything for granted i mean i i i would like to enjoy this game obviously it's some point it's gonna end it and i just want to keep doing it you know as long as i can i'm i don't take anything for granted did that come from albert because that to me of all the people i played with that was the most impressive thing about albertson yeah he was he was the best in the game and he still never acted like it is that where it came from i think so i think so and the mentality the dave rickett dave ricky was a big part of that too and on kendo you know they they pushed me so hard about being working you get this don't don't don't take it for granted just keep working you want to get this and this year and the next year you want to do this work so i i always remember that yeah i mean you can get like one goal go up one year but if you sit down and get comfortable i mean you're gonna i mean you you're not gonna get you are not gonna get to to adjust to the next level and that's what happened with me i want to get more and more and more last year we were sitting on the couch in the film room me and jed turco and matt carpenter a couple other people and the idea just got hit in the face and he got hit in the knee and he got hit in there you know what and we're like ah man this dude just takes a beating what is he gonna feel like when he's 65 years old you know just thinking about his aches and pains and jed goes i don't know he's probably going to have like two hits and you know and played 135 games and it's like you know you're probably right this guy he's like at some point it's going to end i don't know it might not end i mean the guy is incredible he's got an energizer bunny battery inside of him at all times hey well i don't like to think about it but it would be oh we we know but i mean i would like to think about it you look at the cardinals over the over the years and and there's there's there's so many guys that are staples that are names that people remember and still talk about in the clubhouse 15 20 years from now you guys are going to be that you've set the standard for catching and what that looks like in the cardinal organization from a leadership standpoint and things that you've accomplished in your career what does that mean to you guys to know that you're still going to be even though you won't be in that locker room in 20 years maybe in a player's uniform you're still going to be talked about almost on a daily basis and that's great i mean that's a great honor to to have you know to that's why we work hard that's that's what that's how we we do the right things we do the right thing because you want to be remembered and to to be a good example for for the young guy for your son for your family for for you teammates for or whatever and and that's why that's the way i think i mean i'm working hard because i want to put a good example just for this team for this organization and for your family and to people to remember that i was working hard for them yeah i think he nailed it what matters to me is that when people look back they go yeah he was a good player the man was a great teammate you know that's important to me i mean that's important to yachty i mean that's just just knowing that we were there for guys but we didn't turn our backs on anybody that we were always we were always there you know if they needed us that's more important so post career i know you don't want to talk about it it's going to come at some point one of the things that set the cardinals apart i think from a lot of organizations is you still have guys that come back ozzie's in camp carps and camp guys come back they're around during the season they still have you know the cardinals hall of fame and things like that do you envision your guys being do you envision being involved post career and coming to spring trainings and still showing up in st louis and being a part of that yeah i will well i look we love this game so much that i mean even when when i retire i would love to come back and try to teach the young guy um because that's us i mean we love it so much and i mean they pay me to be here obviously this is a job but i love being here i love being that kid i love teaching i love uh every every every second to just to be here out here talking with with all guys like bueno talking with your coaches you know like i just love it i mean i i could do it every day yeah i think so yeah i mean i wouldn't add anything to that you know when i get opportunities to teach what we've learned over the years i love doing that no i i could not be a nine to five or a a ten to five ten to midnight coach like these guys are our coaches put in so many hours yeah it is more than players way more than players i got too many kids for that yeah you want you want to spend time with your family but also if you got the chance to come over here to the cases in my case to go with the catchers and and they see what i've been told in the past i mean that's awesome that i would do that yeah that that that sort of is what we're made for i think yeah a little bit yeah but um the cardinal fans i think it's gonna be good for our souls to go back and see them every now and then maybe throw out a first pitch or whatever so yeah well i appreciate your guys's time appreciate everything you've done for the game for me personally for the organization uh you guys are two of the best and uh it's been it's been fun to sit down and chat with you guys let's go thank you

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Length: 30min 54sec (1854 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 07 2020