Episode 7

Colton Hock Interview

Guest

Colton Hock

Host

Shane Herman 

About This Episode

Shane Herman: What’s up? I’m here with Colton Hock of the Miami Marlins Organization. How are you?

Colton Hock: Good man. How are you doing? Thanks for having me on the show.

Shane Herman: Thank you. Thanks for doing this. What age did you start playing baseball at?

Colton Hock: I started playing baseball when I was seven years old and I think it was tee ball or coach pitch actually. And I was on my dad, he coached me up until I was about 12. But I didn’t really play a whole lot. I pitched a little bit and played first base. And literally, you had to play two winnings each game no matter who you were. I’d always play like the last two innings kinda. But I pitched well and I always enjoyed pitching and I just threw all fast balls at the time. So, I kinda got started going up through middle school and high school. But, yeah, I was seven years old. I still remember playing on a Widener’s trophies team. We were green. It was all my best friends. It made it really fun.

Shane Herman: Yeah. So wait, were you were you the best on that team?

Colton Hock: Was I what?

Shane Herman: Do you think you were like the best on your, like on your little league team?

Colton Hock: No [laughing], I was not that athletic when I was younger. I was not. Compared with my friends especially, they all had like really good athleticism and I just could always throw the ball a little bit harder then them, but I had no clue where it was a going. And I probably was one of the worst players in that team. I was always the last guy to go in the last two innings.

Shane Herman: Yeah [laughing]. So who was your favorite MLB player as a kid?

Colton Hock: So growing up I grew up not too far from Mike Mussina. He played for the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees and . . .

Shane Herman: Hall of Famer in 2019, I believe

Colton Hock: Hall of Famer in 2019. And I grew up in a small town and he kind of was always the talk of the town. So, my dad worked in New York City and we’d go watch him pitch sometimes and I just grew up watching him and tried to imitate him when I was out there on the mound. And we went to the same college, so I always admired him growing up.

Shane Herman: Nice. So I heard you went to Stanford. Oh, like what did you study?

Colton Hock: Yeah. So, at Stanford I studied a degree called Science Technology in Society, which sounds really confusing and exciting and important but, what it really was, was just like a Civil Engineering Degree. So, the hopes and intentions were that I could go build buildings and construct buildings and change streams and kinda just stay outside with nature. So I grew up on a farm and I always want to stay to that. So something that drew my interest.

Shane Herman: That’s nice.

Colton Hock: Yeah.

Shane Herman: So do you have any advice for people who want to become pitchers and stuff like me?

Colton Hock: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, there’s a ton of advice out there, but I think the biggest thing is, you know, surround yourself with other guys that just, you know, love the game and they always want to get better. And, you know, just always be at the Ballpark, you’re just going to naturally get better. Just if you play video games a lot or if, you know, you drive race cars or something, whatever it is, you know, you studied math a lot, you’re going to just get better at it. The more you, you know, put your time in and it’s going to come more natural to you. So I was lucky to have a bunch of good friends that, you know, always pushed me in the weight room and like with baseball and other sports and all of us ended up doing real well. We succeeded and, you know, now we’re all doing really well with what we’re doing. But we all pushed each other. I was just surrounded by a good group of guys. Yeah.

Shane Herman: Yeah. So, what’s your favorite food?

Colton Hock: My favorite food is chocolate chip cookies. I have to limit myself, how many I eat because I will, like, if I can have a last meal, it’s going to be a chocolate chip cookies.

Shane Herman: What’s your favorite place to get them?

New Speaker: Have you ever heard insomnia cookies?

Shane Herman: No I don’t think so.

Colton Hock: Okay. So they’re like a chain we had ’em last year in, Greensboro when I played in “Low A” and there’s one right next to the ballpark. We would always go over there and get these chocolate chip Insomnia Cookies, they heat them up and, right out of the oven, they were super soft and they just melt in your mouth. They’re the best.

Shane Herman: Nice. So what gear do you use?

Colton Hock: I use a little bit of everything. Just pretty much whatever I’m given. You know, the funny thing is, is that a lot of the big lagers come through the “High A” clubhouse like you’ve probably seen. And a lot of them will bring extra pairs of cleats and they always are going through cleats and gear and shirts. And they always will ask, you know, like, “who wants these cleats or whatnot?” And not a lot of guys are size 14. But a lot of guys seem to be in the big leagues, so somehow I’m getting all their cleats and I’ve been wearing like Nike recently.

Shane Herman: Oh nice! So, I think that wraps up the interview. Thank you so much for doing this.

Colton Hock: Thanks for having me on.

Shane Herman: Thank you.