probably two years. And it was the most frustrating thing I had to deal with because for one, I felt amazing. So when you don’t perform to the level that you’re used to when you feel good, you start asking yourself questions. I knew that I could lean on Coach Henderson for some advice. I called him up and I said, “Coach, these are the things I’m going through. Here’s the pros and cons. What would your advice be?” He goes, “Well, first off, you need to understand this is not a Kaden Carpenter problem. This is a problem that any two-way baseball player has to deal with. The game will let you know when you have to choose one or the other at some time.” Obviously, you have your rare freaks like Shohei Ohtani and guys like that. But at the time, I was like, I need to focus on one, because I wasn’t performing at the level I was used to on either side of the diamond. And so at that time, he asked me, “Do you want to pitch or do you want to hit?” I chose to hit and I’ve never looked back. Mark: It’s an amazing story because I’m sure there’s a lot of mental things you had to go through there; it’s not that you didn’t love pitching but maybe you were just ready to be done. I think the story of Coach Henderson accepting that is important. It’s possible he hung up the phone and said, “Oh boy, I have to find myself another pitcher.” But I appreciate the fact
that he listened. I’m sure that meant a lot to you.
Kaden: What was important to us was building a good bond and a good chemistry within the guys in the fall. And we did a great job at that. So it wasn’t this hard task to get along with one another. We’re a family and we have games that we play on the road, whether it’s on the bus or card games in the hotel. And when you’re on the road and traveling that much and that frequently, you find an appreciation for each other and you get to know each other on a deeper level. You’re literally with your guys 24-7. You are with each other every moment of every day. And so it was a blast. We were with our brothers the whole time.
Kaden: Oh, absolutely. And just knowing he put it out there that if I had a desire or want to get back up on the mound in the fall when I got on campus, then we could explore that option. But he was always supportive of what I wanted to do and where I was at. If I wanted to hit, then go hit. If I wanted to pitch, then go pitch. It didn’t matter to him, which was it was amazing. Mark: Your team has gotten off to a great start, and it all began with a heavy amount of road games, which is just what we have to do here. But did that help this team in some ways?
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CRIMSON CLUB MAGAZINE APRIL 2024
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