Trevor Plouffe's MLB debut was one to remember | Sequence Ep #60

What's up everybody, welcome back to Sequence. I'm your host Trevor Plouffe and today's episode is brought to you by DraftKings. Now we got a new guy working with us on Sequence, my guy Dan O'Rourke. Put the follow stuff in the bottom here. He's going to come help me produce the show. We're going to be doing some different things going forward and this episode is going to be one of the things that he suggested. A little bit more stuff about kind of my career. We're still going to have the guests. We're still going to break down some of the bigger moments but also some more of the personal stuff for me because I can go in depth about that and I think it'll be interesting for everyone to kind of hear the stories. So today the first one we'll do is my debut. When I got called up from Rochester to Minnesota and kind of everything that went along during that day. Now I was drafted in 2004. First round, my bad. And then you get to the minor leagues and you find out yeah first round's cool but you got to grind your way through it. And I know I always tell people I'm a baseball snob. I only care about the big leagues but deep down I'm a grinder. Okay, I touched every single level in the minor leagues. It took me six years to get to the big leagues. I rode every single bus you can ride. Worst food. I mean the minor leagues we'll have another talk about that in another day. Very tough. But May 21st, 2010 comes along and it makes it all worth it. Now the couple days leading up to that day, J.J. Hardy, who was our shortstop in Minnesota at the time, he had something going on and they were trying to figure out if they were going to put him on the DL or not. So he sits out one game and you know then you start to think like hey am I going to get the call? I was already raking in AAA. You know I was kind of the next guy up. Don't get the call. Two days, doesn't play. I'm like okay J.J. you want to go on that DL buddy? Don't get the call. Finally on the third day, he doesn't play again. They decide to put him on the DL. I get called into the manager's office. Tom Nieto was our guy in Rochester at the time. He gives me the news. You know it's incredible to get the news. All the teammates are very happy for me and then I did what everybody does. Call your parents. Call your loved ones. Thank them for everything they did because you know that you know they put you in this position and it's very special for them. So did that and then it was all focus. Like let's get to Minnesota. Let's make an impact. See if I can stay. I don't know. Maybe. But then you get there and let's talk about the game. I always tell people that I had a really easy debut. Kind of like a stress-free debut. Not necessarily the case. Obviously I was nervous but the situations I got put in really helped me transition. If you know what I mean. If you look here, it's the first inning. We're already at four nothing. We're facing Dave Bush and no offense to Dave Bush. Obviously a really good big league pitcher for a while. He's the kind of guy you want to see in your debut. Right-handed guy throwing upper 80s. Not the nastiest guy. More of a control guy. He's struggling today. So I come up here. First ever AB. I got first and third. Less than two outs. All I gotta do is touch the outfield grass. So it takes some of the pressure off me right away. Am I still nervous? Sure. But the situation is probably the best I could hope for. We're playing Milwaukee and still to this day it's a very inter-regional rivalry with the Twins. So the place was packed. No matter if you go to Milwaukee or Target Field. Gonna be a big crowd for those games. So I had the crowd on our side. Already at four nothing. Everything is good. And then I step in the box, man. So let's go. Let's run it right now. Again, Dave Bush kind of struggling. Here I am. I'm auto-taking here right now. So when you watch this first pitch, you see hands up. Kind of a different stance for me. But I feel myself. Had a good start to the year in AAA. And now I know, hey, 1-0. Thank you for that one, Dave. I'm swinging, man. I need to get that ball in the outfield grass. And that's my only thought here. So get a strike. Don't hit into a double play. Put something in the air and go for it. And he kind of does this. He lays it in there. Base hit, man. And that's like the weight of the world being lifted off your shoulders. You get that first hit and it's like, dang, I'm so fired up. Like right now I'm fired up just watching it because I know how happy I was. And I still am. It's an awesome moment. You'll see Dave throw the ball here. Something you'll never forget. You're first at bat, especially when you get the hit and get it right out of the way. I've heard many stories of guys, you know, Steven Vogt, I think was 0-32. I couldn't imagine, man. That's a lot of stress. And I was able to get it out of the way right away. Nice little swing right there. Just base hit to left. That swing was really good at that time. Dang. So like I said, wasn't so nervous in this at bat. I'm going to take you guys right now to the one thing that really made me nervous during this game. Let's go. It's not quite time for the madness that is college basketball in March, but that doesn't mean the fun has to wait. DraftKings Sportsbook, America's top rated sports book app, is giving all new players the chance to cash $100. New customers, you can bet $1 on any team to hit a three-pointer in any basketball game this week. And if your team makes it rain, you can cash $100. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. So download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use promo code JOHNBOY to get your shot to turn $1 into $100 when you bet on any team to hit a three-pointer in any basketball game this week. That's promo code JOHNBOY for new customers to get a shot at 101 odds on any basketball team to hit a three-point shot. Only at DraftKings Sportsbook. Must be 21 or older, New Jersey, Indiana, Michigan, or Virginia only. New customers only. Restrictions apply. Winnings paid out in four $25 free bets. See DraftKings.com slash sportsbook for details. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or in Indiana 1-800-9-WITH-IT or in Virginia call 888-532-3500. See ya. Before the game. Plain shortstop. Second baseman on our team is Orlando Hudson. You know, veteran. Loud, present. Not a guy that wants to really make you feel comfortable. He's more about making sure that you know you got to work and earn the ability to be comfortable. It's a different game nowadays. They want to make everyone comfortable. It was not that way in 2010. Not when you're on a team with a ton of veterans. So like I said, we're a double play tandem. But we haven't done a lot together in spring training. It's him and J.J. Hardy doing it. I'm doing it with some other scrub. So we didn't have a lot of rapport together. So he said, hey, young buck. Let's go take some ground balls. So we go out there. Pre-batting practice. Nobody else out in the field. Just me and him and the coach. So nervous, man. So nervous. But I just, I blacked out, man. Every throw hit him right in the chest. Return to our place. Every single one. Boom. So I'm thinking, dude, I'm doing great. You know what he says to me? It's not good enough, young buck. This is the big league. It's not good enough, young buck. Not good enough. You got to do better than that. And I'm thinking to myself, Oduk, I can't do any better than that, man. That's the best I can do. I don't know. I don't know what else to do. So boom, boom, boom. Keep hitting him. Keep hitting him. Finally, we end. He kind of was like walked away. Kind of like shaking his head. I'm like, I don't know. So he didn't make me feel really comfortable. But here we go. We practice this. We get to a point in the game. We got Prince up there. 3-1 count. Bronze on first base. And we do it. Check this out. Prince is a bad man, by the way. My goodness. Especially during this time. These two together. Blackburn. Ground ball. I'm up the middle a little bit. Range to my right. Oduk is over in the three hole. Has to come along. We just turn it, man. We just turn it. I don't know if you saw that, but that was right in his chest. They're going to show some slow right here. And the one thing that really like got me fired up, like I was so happy. I'm going to show you in a sec right here. Watch this. Range my right. Lead him. He's far away from the bag. Boom. Perfect toss. This is what gets you fired up. Right there. When he gave me like the, it might as well have been the Pope blessing me. It felt that good. I was like, I made it. We practice all that. And then after the game, he came to me and said, you see what I did there, young buck? I was like, what'd you do? What do you mean? So fired up. He's like, well, I told you that wasn't good enough. I was just getting in your head. And then we did it during the game. And I was like, yeah, you're right. You know, thank you for that. And all the while, I'm like, dude, you made me feel so nervous. I can't even believe I made that throw. I'm glad I did though. But shout out Oduk. I love you for that. I'll never forget that feeling. Ever, ever, ever in my life. One more at bat. I'm going to show you why it's special to me and then we'll be done with this. But I'm stoked. I hope you can tell. All right, here's I think my third at bat of the game. And I'll tell you why this one's really special to me. Jeff Supan is pitching for the Brewers now. And Jeff and I went to the same high school. So like when he was in the big leagues, I was in high school, he would always come back, bring gear. And to have a mentor like that, as humble as he is, it was really special for all of us that went to the school. So Jeff and I go way back. Delman is hidden in front of me. And I think he's on first base here, second base or something. Del and I have played together forever since we're eight years old, nine years old. So we're childhood friends. We go way back. And then in left field for the Brewers, we got Bronny. And him and I play the same little league together. He's a little bit older than me, but our families know each other. We've at this point had been working out together in the off season. So all of it comes full circle, a bunch of Southern California baseball guys. I come out here and then this happens. 1-0 count, 11-0. He hangs the curveball and I just whack it down a left field line. I told Jeff, I said, thank you for that hanger. I really appreciate it. But Del scores, Bronny gets the ball, Jeff's standing there. And it was just a really, really cool moment for me and something I'll never forget. I still talk to all these guys today. I haven't brought it up to Jeff in quite some time, but maybe I will since I'm doing this video. But watch the swing here though. Hands back, explode through that. I had a really good swing at this point. That is a nice, nice swing. Got it down the left field line. I love it. But that's my debut. And I'm sure you can tell it makes me happy to talk about it. I'm fired up. It was an awesome experience for me. The crowd was shouting my name. That's kind of when like the poof chant started. Had really nothing to do with me. I think they just liked it. And yeah, man, something I'll never forget. So I appreciate you guys sticking with us. We're still gonna have guests on. We're still gonna do the breaking moments, all that stuff, like I said. But I hope you enjoyed this. Hope you have a great start to the week. And baseball season's here, baby. Let's go. Peace.