Inside MJ Meléndez's Sneaker & Sports Card Empire | MJ Meléndez DSH #1119

Who's the toughest pitcher you've you've played against personally?

Oh, that's a that's a good one.

It's a question that I probably need to think about more because I get asked all the time and I don't always have like a specific one guy.

Yeah, because there is that mental game that people don't watch on TV between the batter and the pitcher.

Like I said, when you're failing more than you're succeeding as a competitor and as an athlete, you want to be able to succeed more than you fail.

So just being able to stay locked in and stay positive, you know, I think is very important to all baseball players, all athletes in general.

Learning from those mistakes and trying to take the positive things from that

all right guys mj melendez here today we're at celebrity poker tour how you think you're going to do tonight man i'm feeling pretty confident i mean i think poker is a game of confidence i think you need to kind of know um you know yourself uh more than you know anything else and just know how you can uh go against other competition uh other people are gonna have their strategy so kind of you know you you need your own yeah absolutely i'm excited for it i love it you play on the flights in between games yeah we do we uh we do like a little bit of dealer's choice but poker is one of the popular ones that uh me and my teammates play and i learned poker in the minor leagues playing against teammates so uh it's it's pretty uh pretty cool nice do the stakes get pretty high up there um decent time to time it depends like uh it's pretty much you know whatever you have on you so obviously you can bluff for a lot more or you can bet for a lot more and hope to get called or you know just fold people out absolutely coming off a season right how you feeling good man uh was able to take some time off um here.

Just started kind of getting back to work like a week and a half, two weeks ago, started working out again and stuff.

So was able to take a couple weeks off and, you know, back to the grind.

Nice.

Were you at peace with how it ended?

Like, walk me through the mental mindset of that?

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, obviously, you know, we made the playoffs.

So that was really huge for us.

Something that, you know, we had, I think the team hadn't done since 2015.

So it had been a while.

And, you know, just being in winning environments, I think is something that's like super important.

Something that, you know, the organizations want to create and something that we've done.

And obviously, you know, took a few years to get back there, but just being back was an amazing feeling.

I love it.

Hitting that home run against Garrett Cole, was that one of your most memorable home runs ever?

Yeah, definitely.

You know, just that game, all those games in the playoffs are super important.

And, you know, to be able to do that.

uh you know at the highest stage um you know and one of the probably the most important game to my in my life to date um was was really really cool um and just doing that in, we did, I did it in Yankee Stadium, which was cool.

And uh, so to kind of hear the crowd go silent was, was something that uh I'll never forget.

Yeah, imagine just running those bases.

It's pure silence, right?

Oh, yeah, definitely, because it's, it's just, it was super loud, and they were winning at that, at that point in the game.

And um, I think it was ended up, we were up by one after I hit it.

Yeah, so it was, uh, it was really cool just, you know, going around and hearing the silence.

And, I mean, you can hear the KZ fans that were over on our side kind of cheering, but everything else was silent around it.

I love it.

When the World Series was like announced to two teams did you predict it correctly um

i

i wouldn't say that i really like was going for either team um obviously the yankees being in it they're the team that knocked us out of the playoffs so um you know it just kind of watching it i wouldn't say i was really rooting for either but definitely great baseball and stuff that you know i was watching uh can learn from and hopefully um you know our team is in the world series um the next in the next couple years um and hopefully multiple times throughout these next couple of years.

So just being able to learn from that was pretty cool.

Yeah.

Was that playoff intensity something you could prepare for?

Or is it one of those things you got to be in the moment and experience?

Yeah, I think it's just something that you have to experience yourself.

I mean, I was told, you know, just kind of coming up, well, you know, we always talked about the teams in the past and our organization that have made the playoffs and what it took to get there and what it was like.

But it's really,

you don't really know until you experience it.

And I think that's something that we had a really young team.

So kind of now that we're a lot of us were able to experience that, it is definitely going to benefit us moving forward.

I love the what's average age on the team, do you know?

Oof, I don't know.

It was a little bit older this year than the previous year, but um, it's we're, I'd say we're a pretty fairly young team.

We, we had picked up a couple veteran players, um, a lot of veteran pitchers that has definitely, you know, helped, helped us and kind of helped us learn throughout the season on and off the field, I feel like.

And uh, we just had a really uh good camaraderie and great chemistry as well.

Nice.

When I had Trevor Bauer on last week, he was saying baseball is getting younger.

It is.

He said when he came in the league as a pitcher, like he didn't start for a few years.

No, 100%.

It's definitely getting younger.

You're seeing a lot of younger guys getting called up from the minor leagues.

A lot of guys just getting more opportunities to go out there and prove themselves.

And it's really cool to see.

Obviously, me being a young guy, it's something that I love to see in the game.

And just obviously just trying to grow the game as much as possible.

And, you know,

trying to grow that for all the fans.

And I think sometimes.

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You know, just a good mix of like younger and older guys playing on the same team together can kind of create a great you know fan base and great games for people to watch yeah you caught some good timing on that coming in the league at the right time right no doubt no doubt about it I mean I can imagine if I was you know 10 years old or whatever and had to come back you know coming up through the minor leagues into the major leagues that a you know long time ago 10 years ago it would definitely be a little bit different yeah now they say hitting a baseball is one of the hardest things you could do in sports you agree with that i definitely yeah i mean i'm gonna be biased of course because that's my sport but but I definitely agree with it.

It's so hard to do.

And, you know, some guys make it look a little bit easier than others.

Some players can definitely make it look pretty easily.

But, no, it's definitely one of the hardest things to do in sports just because, you know, baseball is coming up to 100 miles an hour

right at you.

And sometimes, you know, it's always going to move in a different direction.

They throw curveballs, change-ups, sliders, fastballs, all this different kind of stuff.

So I think it's one of the hardest things, if not the hardest thing to do in sports.

Yeah, so Trevor broke it down for me because I'm pretty mathematical.

So he said a pitch, like a fastball pitch, takes 0.4 seconds on average to hit the plate and the swing takes 0.15 seconds.

So you have a quarter of a second to react to the pitch.

Exactly.

Isn't that crazy?

It's insane.

And like, you have to swing at, like, we're supposed to swing at strikes.

We're not supposed to swing at balls.

And the pitcher's job is to be deceptive.

So as a hitter, you're having to make a decision.

super, super quick.

And then even after you make that decision, you still have to get a swing off.

And even when you swing, you have to make contact.

And even when you go to try to make contact, you want to hit it on the barrel.

Right.

And then even when you hit it on the barrel, you want to find, you know, open space where you're not hitting it right at somebody.

It's crazy.

It's, it takes a lot.

It takes a lot to, you know, have success.

But I think that's what makes the sport so beautiful because you can, you know, you fail seven out of 10 times as a hitter and you're hitting 300 and, you know, you do that for your career, your Hall of Famer.

You're the GOAT.

Exactly.

I mean, 300, it's like, how many players are hitting that?

Yeah, not a lot.

Not a lot, especially not these days with pitchers.

There's a lot of more pitchers throwing 100 miles an hour than there were a couple of years ago.

That's crazy, man.

How fast do you think you could throw a ball?

Oof.

Have you ever measured it?

Yeah, well, from the outfield, but I don't know.

I don't know exactly what it was, but I feel like if I really, really tried, I don't know.

An alpha pitcher's mount is definitely different.

Yeah.

I would say I could get myself like 94, maybe 95.

As a non-pitcher?

I think so.

I think I can get up there.

I feel like I have a pretty good arm.

Wow.

But it's, yeah, the guys that throw 100, it's, it's crazy.

I don't know how they do that.

100 is up there.

That's crazy.

Like you, you probably can't even see it coming at you with that.

No, sometimes, sometimes I don't see it.

That's why I swing a miss.

Those are the tough ones.

Who's the toughest pitcher you've played against personally?

Oh, that's a, that's a good one.

Um, there's a lot of tough pitchers.

I mean, I feel like a lot of guys go with, you know, pitchers that are, you know, super popular, like Shohei Otani.

He's, he's really nasty, and obviously he's, you know, one of the best players in the game.

Yeah.

Jacob deGrom is a pitcher who, when he's healthy, he's one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball.

So, there's definitely a few guys on that list.

And it's a question that I probably need to think about more because I get asked all the time.

And I don't always have like a specific one guy.

Yeah.

It's fascinating, though, because there is that mental game that people don't watch on TV between the batter and the pitcher.

Oh, it's definitely.

It's a huge mental sport.

Obviously, you know, we talked about the physical, you know, difficulties of, you know, hitting a baseball.

But,

like I said, when you're failing more than you're succeeding, and technically it's still successful if you're doing that,

it's definitely tough because as a competitor and as an athlete, you want to be able to succeed more than you fail.

And in baseball as a hitter, it's just, that's pretty much impossible.

So just being able to stay locked in and stay positive is something that, you know, I think is very important to all baseball players, all athletes in general.

Because as an athlete, you're going to fail no matter what the sport is.

And, you know, just learning from those mistakes and trying to take the positive things from that.

Absolutely.

I know you grew up in Florida.

I saw you say on another show that you believe Florida is the best state for baseball.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's also going to be biased towards that.

But I will say

there are other states that are really good at producing baseball talent.

And that's stuff like states like California, Texas,

New York.

So, I mean, I feel like those are like the top.

And obviously Florida, Georgia as well.

Yeah.

Probably those states are the top at producing baseball, but I'm always going to just be biased towards Miami, of course.

That's your hometown, right?

Yeah.

So you were a Marlins fan growing up?

No, I didn't really have a team growing up, honestly.

I liked players more than I liked specific teams

and just really kind of learning from different players.

So that was really my thing.

I didn't really have a specific team.

Yeah.

Who are your players you really admire?

I'd say Pudge Rodriguez.

He's a catcher that growing up was one of my favorite players.

I liked Alex Rodriguez actually with the Yankees as well.

And

Yadi or Molino was also another catcher that, you know, played for our Cardinals.

And he was one of my favorites growing up to watch his life.

I love it.

And you've been friends with Blake for a while.

I saw a video of you guys like seven years old on YouTube.

Crazy.

Dude, dude, it was crazy.

Yeah.

So we'd kind of met through the whole sneaker community.

Both of us are definitely really big into sneakers.

And we were at a, I remember we did a video too at a sneaker, I think it was a sneaker con.

And I don't remember how many years ago that was, but that might be the one I saw.

Yeah, it felt like forever ago.

But yeah, we love sneakers.

And then we've just been really good friends ever since.

Even, you know, throughout the minor leagues, just kind of having that friendship.

I remember when I was in the minor leagues in Wilmington, Delaware, he was living in New York at the time, going to college up there.

And one of my off days, I drove up to New York and we just hung out, kicked it.

Then we went a little bit of shopping too, probably some sneaker shopping, of course.

And no, Blake's been an amazing guy, amazing friend to me.

And just, you know, to see the success success that he's having and what he's doing um it's it's super incredible yeah shout out to blake for sure

so how many sneakers you got though

lost crack yeah i haven't really counted i probably should count um but i definitely have a lot i have uh you know the sneaker containers i have those in my room um so kind of stacked up like two next to my bed on one side two on the other those are filled up then like another wall face my tv filled up with some and then a bunch of my closet and garage damn so you like collect them you don't wear them i do i wear them but it's hard to wear all of them because some of them are crazy i i would get like some crazy colorways that are just really tough to wear i feel like i wear the same sneakers more than you know i wear all the other ones i definitely have like a little rotation i go through but um i try to like bring out some some cool sneakers every now and then special occasions oh yeah you collect sports cards too i do i do i got into that

I'd say a couple years ago, but I really, really got into it probably like a year ago.

And obviously started with baseball.

It started with me really wanting to collect my own cards.

And then I started getting into more baseball, just, you know, guys I played with, played against two, but trying to collect guys I played with like Bobby Wood Jr.

And then I started getting into football and basketball.

And so it's just like a little rabbit hole that you go

down.

Those basketball ones are expensive.

Dude,

I got a few big,

there's some expensive cards out there.

And I think just kind of like the thrill of, you know, trying to get a card, you know, especially when opening packs.

Some guys like opening packs.

Some guys like just buying the card straight up.

I'm definitely a pack guy because you never know what you can get.

Yeah.

It's like, you know, it's like a mystery.

Yeah, I blew so much money on packs.

I think I lost money on every single one I opened, honestly.

That's how that's how it usually goes.

I mean, if everybody was making money on packs, well, if there was always a rare card in every single pack, I don't think they would be as valuable, but it's definitely like the thrill of trying to get a really unique or rare card is super 100%.

What's the rarest one you pulled out of a pack?

Okay, so there are some rare ones I pulled out of actual packs, and then I've also done like gone on some streams on whatnot and

gotten some pretty crazy cards.

I'm trying to think of like

my rarest card, but I definitely have a couple.

I have a couple good football ones, a couple good Christian McCaffrey one-of-ones.

One-of-one, damn.

Yeah, I have a rookie one-of-one of Christian McCaffrey.

That's worth a lot.

Yeah, yeah,

it's a pretty cool card.

I like that one a lot.

And then

I have a lot of quarterback, obviously, Patrick Mahomes.

I have a pretty cool Patrick Mahomes collection,

some CJ Stroud, some Anthony Richardsons that are pretty unique.

And then I pulled a pretty cool 1B the other day, too.

Nice.

That was probably my best basketball pull, I would think.

that I've actually pulled in a pack.

Was it an auto or was it a no?

It was a

it was like a tie-dye colorway out of select to 25.

Whoa.

So that was cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wemby's going to be going to be hall of famer if he keeps it.

I think so.

He definitely has the potential.

He has everything.

He's got the size.

Yeah, I don't know.

We hadn't seen a player really like him.

I don't think ever.

Ever.

So it's definitely unique.

And I mean, obviously, selfishly, me having like a card of his that's pretty expensive and rare.

I hope he becomes really, really good.

100%.

Yeah, there's the business side of cards.

No doubt, no doubt.

And it's, you know, it's stuff because, you know, obviously some people do it for business.

Some people do it to collect for fun.

Some people do a little bit of both.

So, you know, if you're doing it for business, you don't want to fall in love with the cards because then they're hard to move.

But for me, I'm like, I just like the cards.

And, you know, I like to trade them more than I like to sell them.

But I mean, like, if somebody has a good offer for a card that I have and they really want it, then, yeah, I mean, I'll definitely entertain it.

But I definitely, you know, just like collecting and it's, it's pretty fun for me.

So Did you collect Pokemon going up?

No, not really.

Not really.

I do have a couple at home, but I don't know if they're really worth a whole lot.

I have to look through them, but I don't think I have any of the crazy, crazy ones that you see.

None of those like Charizard stuff.

Oh, my God.

I wish.

I had Charizard, I had Venusaur, and I threw it all out.

Really?

Yeah.

Or no, I gave them away, which because you didn't know back then.

I didn't know.

I gave them away in high school, which, yeah, that was probably five, six figures of cards.

Yeah, no, no doubt.

Also, they were in shit condition, to be honest, because I was actually playing them.

Yeah.

But still, I mean, nonetheless, they still had the card.

At least it'd be worth a little bit something.

But who knew, though, as kids?

Exactly.

You never know.

That's the thing.

You never know.

Like, when it comes to anything like that, obviously, you know, like whether it's cards or like even like sneakers or like, it's just like an investment.

It's like a stock almost.

Like, you never know.

One of them can just blow up.

And, you know, those are the ones that, you know, if you're lucky, you end up having it.

If not, then.

you're like, oh man, if I had it at one point and gave it away or sold it for cheaper, it's like, ah.

It's like our parents with the baseball cards.

you know exactly exactly you see so like nowadays people are coming out um especially like older adults that you know had baseball cards or basketball cards or whatever growing up and you know they just collected them and now they're worth thousands of thousands of dollars yeah it's like who would have knew who would have known because there was that junk wax era

you know for like five years they printed like millions of cards exactly and the ones that are now in like super good condition like i'm sure a lot of those just got thrown out or like just withered away literally so um the people who who kept those are definitely you know in really good shape yeah for sure how long were you in the minors for i was in the minor leagues so i got drafted in 2017

and uh spent that first like half season in the minor leagues um 2017 2018 2019.

2020 obviously was covid so we didn't really have a minor league season um but a few of us on the in the organization were um you know, selected to go basically be in Kansas City and be practicing every day in case something happened to one of the major league players whether they got hurt or if they would have gotten sick with COVID, really anything.

So just kind of being there.

So that was pretty cool to be a part of that group.

And then 2021 was my last season in the minor leagues in 2022 when I was almost

almost five years.

Yeah.

Damn, that must have been tough.

Yeah, it's a grind.

It's a grind, but

definitely thankful and grateful that I was able to, you know, make my way to the major leagues because in baseball, you know, a lot of guys don't get that opportunity, don't get that chance.

And that's something that a lot of people that, you know, may not understand baseball, it's, it's hard to comprehend because people think, oh, you just get drafted, you just go straight to the major leagues.

Like if it was, you know, the NFL or NBA, I know they have a G-League or, but in baseball, it's a lot tougher.

It's a very low percent of players that even after they get drafted

to even make the major leagues to stay up there is tough.

Yes.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely tough.

And a lot of people, you know, it's hard to understand.

Baseball can be confusing.

There's so many rounds, right, in the draft?

There's, yeah.

so there used to be 40, but now there's only 20.

Oh, my God.

That's still a lot.

It's like 20 rounds.

Yeah.

So, but you're always competing.

And obviously, so there's, you know, 26 guys on the major league team and there's hundreds in the organization.

So it takes a lot to go right in your favor to be able to, you know, make that team.

So, um, and there's players that, you know, in the minor league over years that, are definitely worthy of being in the major leagues, but maybe they just don't get the right opportunity because maybe the guy in front of them is, you know, has been in the league for a lot of years or did really well or, you know, potential Hall of Fame.

So these guys may be blocked by that, even though they are really good.

And so it takes a lot to go right.

So it's obviously you have to play well, but just a lot of things have to be in your favor.

Yeah, the politics, the business side of things, right?

It's got to all be in your favor because you could be more skilled, but that doesn't matter.

Yeah, yeah.

So just, you know, it's all about timing.

And, you know, the timing just has to be right.

And, you know, thank God for me, It was it was the right time.

And, you know, got opportunity.

And thankfully, and thankful to my organization, I haven't looked back.

I love it.

Well, timing.

Plus, you still have to deliver, too.

Of course.

Some people get called up and it flops and then they get caught within a month.

No, definitely, definitely.

It's a tough game.

That's like the ups and downs.

So just like kind of being mentally tough through all that stuff.

And you go through a little bit of a slump.

You got to be able to kind of snap out of it really quick.

And that's the hard part.

And sometimes that takes a little bit of, you know, learning and going through it to learn because, you know, somebody can try to prepare you for that.

but unless you go through it, you're never going to really understand 100 because it's a long season, so I'm sure you're going through some high highs and some low lows.

No doubt about it, yeah, definitely very long season playing pretty much every single day.

And uh, but you know, I think that's also the beauty of it.

It's not like you know, football, you know, it's it's cool because you're playing you know, once a week and everybody's watching, but at the same time, if you have a bad game, you got to wait a week.

We got to wait less than 24 hours.

So, so uh, that's you know, that's what I love about you know, the game, and um, I think that's what really is beneficial, you know, to us as players is like, hey, if you're struggling, you have the next day to go there and, you know, make up for it and have a better game.

Yeah.

And all the teams have like mental coaches now, right, too, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Most, pretty much, I would think every single one does.

We do for sure.

And

like I said, like it's, it's such a tough game mentally.

So you kind of need those people to, you know.

bounce those ideas off your brains or those thoughts,

you know, and try to get you in the right spot in the right headspace to be able to have success on the field.

Yeah, that stuff doesn't leave you, man.

I had a missed free throw in high school in the championship game, and I still have dreams about it.

Like, it really doesn't leave you.

It's crazy, dude.

Like, it's just the littlest things that, like, I mean, it's not, they're not all little things, but sometimes the little things can, you know, just pile up and definitely get to you.

So, you guys got to be able to, you know, separate those things to be able to have that success.

Yeah.

Well, you deal with that, then you deal with the fan reaction.

So then you multiply that, and then it's just all taken out on you.

No doubt.

No doubt about it.

Yeah, you got the, but I mean, obviously, you know, fans, I think our fans are some of the best in baseball.

So thankfully for me, I've, I've always, you know, have had positive experiences.

Oh, yeah.

The fans in Kin City are, you know, one of the best.

I definitely have to say that.

So,

yeah, I mean, but there's definitely going to be times where you're going to get, you know,

hate, you know, hate messages or stuff like that.

Or, you know, nowadays, people that are like, we get the craziest DMs.

People are DMing?

Yeah, like, oh, you didn't get a hit and you messed up my bet or something like

I don't know what you want me to do.

Trust me, I wish I could get a hit every single time.

Messed up the parlay?

I'm like, trust me, I wish I could get, you know, hit a home run every single game or, you know, get a hit every single game.

But I mean, it just doesn't work like that.

Mathematically, yeah.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's pretty impossible.

I mean, if there's ever a player that can do that, then they're the goat.

Yeah, they may not be human.

No, it wouldn't be.

They probably wouldn't be human.

So,

no, but it's, you know, we get, you know, get crazy messages and stuff sometimes, but you just got to be able to tune that stuff out and just focus on, you know, what you're there to do every single day.

And that's to try to win a baseball game.

Absolutely.

Well, MJ, it's been fun, man.

What are you up to next?

And where can people keep up with you?

Yeah.

So right now, just, you know, training in this offseason,

obviously, you know, able to spend some of my free time here, you know, like doing things like this, you know, being part of cool events.

Got a couple of weddings to go to, got some teammates getting married.

Nice.

But, you know, just grinding.

You know, want to,

I started, you know, got started on my training a little bit earlier this offseason.

I got started on my hitting.

So just working out all those things to be able to, you know, find some consistency.

And

also, like on the side, I like to do some like salsa dancing and stuff.

So I post that on my Instagram sometimes.

But that's like a little hobby of mine that I do outside of baseball.

And I feel like, you know, it definitely can benefit.

You know, the footwork you're doing that, you know, can help to, you know, when I'm in the baseball games, playing outfield, outfield, like you know, have some good footwork out there.

So, Kobe Bryant did tap dancing, yeah.

I mean, I definitely feel like that stuff, like you're an athlete, so being able to you know move your body in different ways and you know, try to be at you know, being athletic and agile, and all those different things, and having coordination definitely benefits.

I love that.

So, if you win tonight, will you do a salsa dance?

Yeah, if I win, yeah, I'll do a salsa.

All right, thanks for coming on, brother.

All right, no problem, man.

Appreciate it.