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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 817 of the Juicebox Podcast.

In 2021, a left handed pitcher from Arkansas was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays. His name was Patrick wick lander, and he had recently been diagnosed with type one diabetes. Patrick is back today to talk about just stuff he's checking in. And this was recorded back while he was playing, just as he was getting going in the minors. Love that Patrick back again sometime soon. But for now, I thought this was a nice way at the end of the year to remember the baseball season which is all dormant and cold for the moment, but getting ready to bloom again in just a couple of months. While you're listening today, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. If you have type one diabetes, and are a US citizen or are the caregiver of someone with type one, please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box and fill out the survey. T one D exchange.org forward slash juice box. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries G voc hypo Penn Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox. today's podcast is also sponsored by touched by type one, visit them online at touched by type one.org Find them on Instagram, locate them on Facebook, but whatever you do, just find them. They're doing really great work for people with type one diabetes, and they'd love for you to see what they're up to touched by type one.org. Additionally, the podcast is sponsored today by Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes. You can get the ink pen right now at in pen today.com I'll be telling you more about it in just a few moments. Patrick, you were on the podcast prior when we talked about you getting drafted by the race and now you are actually playing right it is the season just starting right now.

Patrick Wicklander 2:30
Today is opening day for Tampa Bay Rays Charleston RiverDogs and all of minor league baseball.

Scott Benner 2:37
Excellent that's the best day of the year. Sometimes I'm more excited about opening day than I am Christmas. I'm telling you I woke up this morning thinking baseball baseball baseball excellent just I super excited that everything's getting going especially because you know as a as a cheering Phillies fan. Things look up all the sudden so I'm excited to see it get moving.

Patrick Wicklander 3:03
This is just an exciting time because like with a lockout everything. People weren't sure if there's gonna be baseball this year. Yeah, no

Scott Benner 3:11
kidding. How did that affect you? The lockouts?

Patrick Wicklander 3:16
So it doesn't affect minor leaguers because we're not put on the 40 man roster. So for us, I mean, spring training went just as just as scheduled. Okay, but the it turned chaotic a little bit when the big leaguers had to come back.

Scott Benner 3:34
So we say release. So you're, you're using the facility, they're not there. And then they just show back up and

Patrick Wicklander 3:44
you got Yeah, I mean, because like we are complex we we don't share with another team. So it's just a raise at our facility. So we were it was just all the minor leaders, you know, just going about, like, Hey, you guys had to do this, this and this today thing, get ready for a game like okay, no big deal then when the big leaders came back, so what the way it was. So it's been training started on March 10. Like first full day, and game started a week later, like I'm not joking, like on the 17. So I was like, damn, they're turning it around quick. But when games started they started pulling from like the minor league or like the minor league guys. They hate when EJ has done a big league game. So seeing that was cool though. That's what got to look out like chaotic a little bit because that was like some guys were scheduled to throw like the day before. And they would have to hold off another day or totally we work there throwing schedule.

Scott Benner 4:51
Let me make sure I understand so the major leaguers come back. A lot of the pitchers are not ready to go yet but they're gonna play games so they pull you guys eyes to go pitch because you've been working already. And then that that leaves your game short. And guys are thrown in situations they didn't expect I would imagine to.

Patrick Wicklander 5:11
Yeah. And that's that's all part about bombing from my friend so far, it's probably as long as you've got to be able to learn and flip and then like move on the fly. Anything can happen a drop of the dime, especially something like that.

Scott Benner 5:25
It's pretty cool. So you're on? Are you on the Charleston? RiverDogs? Is that your roster right now?

Unknown Speaker 5:32
That is the roster I'm

Scott Benner 5:34
on right now. Cool. And are you do you have any? So I'm interested does give any idea where you stand right now? Or do you just show up and do your work and hope somebody notices? How does that are you or are you in the rotation or

Patrick Wicklander 5:52
so right now, so I started as a stalker, but I'm the type of guy that was like, Hey, I just want to pitch. Like, let me be able to go out bro. And they have me down as a book. And a guy was called a piggy piggy back. So I come in right after the starter no matter what. So I'm scheduled to start or not sorry, piggyback Saturday. And it's like, what the rays are know for the to have the opener belong reliever, like the second starter. So I mean, they told us when they drafted us, they're like, Hey, be ready to do anything.

Scott Benner 6:31
Okay. Well, that sounds like a good offer, actually.

Unknown Speaker 6:36
So I'm not complaining about it. Yeah.

Scott Benner 6:39
It's a weird situation you're in though, because the guy starts the game. And as a teammate, you're like, Oh, I hope he does well. And as the guy who would really like the pitch, like, I hope he's got to come out soon.

Patrick Wicklander 6:50
That's a weird part about pro baseball. Like you guy, like, You got to be able to come as a team come down as a team and have that team aspect. But up until the big leagues like you want individual success. Yeah. It's just, it's just a weird. It's a weird dynamic, but very, it's just normal within professional baseball.

Scott Benner 7:11
Right? Hey, I have a question. So as you're coming out of college, you're an older guy at college. What's it like to show up and be a young guy again?

Patrick Wicklander 7:21
You've like, I told my dad this because it was like my first returning. And I was like, Hey, I feel like I'm living into my dorm freshman year. I have at the bottom of the totem pole. I earned my stripes, you know? So I literally felt like it was freshman year all over again. Because like, you have guys, I've been there forever, like, living there seven, eight years. And then you have some guys that are very like me. This is their first stream spring training. Yeah. So I mean, just being a guy to talk with many people that could. Luckily, like I was able to, like in the offseason workout with one of the guys on the big league roster. So like whenever I saw him like boots off and chat. And it was just like, this is this is what I'm doing for my for my job now. This is cool. This is cool.

Scott Benner 8:21
Okay, man, there's got to be like a little boy inside you. There's just like, every day like, look where we are. Look, what we're doing isn't I'm sure you'll get used to it at some point. But

Patrick Wicklander 8:30
you're on me. I think it was like, second week in spring or not. It wasn't second. It was like second to last week in the weight room working out. And it was to my right and it's Corey Kluber and Tyler glass now, like eight year old and he was like, Yo, okay, what is

Scott Benner 8:47
this trying to go? Hey, I'm Patrick.

Patrick Wicklander 8:52
You literally I'm just like, I'm not trying to stand right now. But like, you know, those are two of the best pitchers in the game right now.

Scott Benner 8:59
It's really something. It's pretty cool. It really is. Well, congratulations. It's amazing. Amazing success. Did you by any chance here? Trace Beasley on the podcast that not a week ago. He's the he's the bench or the equipment manager for Alabama baseball.

Patrick Wicklander 9:17
And he wrote about he actually reached out to me when he heard about my story on Twitter. Yeah. Fun fact I actually keep all the DMS about people who are diabetic

Scott Benner 9:30
that reached out to me. Oh, no kidding. Oh, that's very cool.

Patrick Wicklander 9:34
Even if it's like a mom or dad like a kid like if I don't get back to you i I will. I will keep it and like read them I don't know that sounded very weird coming out of my head. I

Scott Benner 9:51
know it's nice. Yeah, he cuz I said to him like you know, I started you know, Patrick, I don't know the map so well. So I'm talking to him like Alabama, Arkansas, I think They're relatively close to each other. And I thought like he must have, you know, heard when you were diagnosed. And he talked about you for a few minutes. And I just thought it was really kind of nice, you know? Just a nice overlap.

Patrick Wicklander 10:13
Yeah, I mean, because I got this message requests on Twitter, I was like, Who's this guy then? It was either Twitter or Instagram. I can't remember. And he said he was the manager at Alabama. And it was like, right after we played on so I was like, Oh, shit, those

Scott Benner 10:31
guys were both there. Sorry. So I got this. I just found you on the roster. It's so crazy that it That's amazing. You don't know. That's very cool. So I hope I hope you have a ton of success man and a great season and you know, everything goes the way you want. You feel good. Right now. Go on Phil. Right.

Patrick Wicklander 10:50
Oh, I honestly was great. I thought Bolton the other day, it was one of the better bullpens that thrown. I mean, just the weather here is so much better than Port Charlotte, Florida. Yeah, it's it's humid. But there is a waco get to the field. And somebody sent me one, what a breeze. I'm like, This feels great.

Scott Benner 11:10
So it's excellent. Did they help you with? Like, like you said, you're lifting like, are you on your own? Or are there people keeping track and helping? Or how does the is it chaotic? Is it does it feel? Does it feel like there's a plan? How does it all go?

Patrick Wicklander 11:29
Downhill plan? Do I know what it is off the top of my head? No, because it's a very long, detailed plan. But our strength, our strength and conditioning program is like we live twice a week is what I was told about. They're like, Hey, if you feel like you can't do it today, like you feel like you're not gonna get anything out of it. It's okay, we can rework it. There is a little chaos in it a little bit. But it's just you got to be able to take it a step at a time and just kind of like, okay, I need to do this. And this before I do. XYZ is just kind of, it's just kind of reading it. So like, the cool part about the funny part about Prolog is that they're like, Hey, bring your phones to lift. So you know what you're doing.

Scott Benner 12:20
So you can follow the plan, because we're not going to help you. How about on the field? Do you feel like? Is it just like you working and people watching? Are you actually being coached? Like, are people in your ear talking to you as you're working? Or like, are they just trying to get a feel for you? Like, how does that all work out.

Patrick Wicklander 12:41
Um, so at the beginning of it, like you had the coaches, you're like spring training, they put you the coaches that are gonna coach you at the affiliate. So I was with our pitching coach a lot of sprint training. And he said, to get a feel for you, like they understand what they like, the higher ups wanting from you. And so they tried to put together a plan. And like, hey, we need you, like we need and want you to do this as a mess. And I mean, because that like a lot of the programs like they like they understand it, they're like, Okay, maybe I could try this. Like it's a lot of bouncing ideas off one another. Like I could tell you right now I could stand in the outfield with like two or three of our other pitchers and I could probably learn the grip on a slider or something and try and give you a better slider. And that's the cool part about pro ball is like hey, you go out you talk to someone who has a really good breaking ball you have someone has a really good changeup

Scott Benner 13:43
kind of learn from each other.

Patrick Wicklander 13:45
Yeah, and that's, that's literally all pro ball is.

Scott Benner 13:47
Yeah. It's a so it's a little bit about your desire, I guess to meet people and form relationships and, and have these conversations and then have I guess, kind of the, like, the personal comfort to to admit to yourself, like his grip might work better than mine or, or something like that, and then go out there and and look around for it a little. It's interesting, really is it's it's a fascinating thing, because, you know, so many times in, like coming up through baseball, like you're the you're the guy and then all of a sudden you move to the next level and you start over again. And it just it just keeps happening and keep happening and because you know I'm putting myself in your head, but there's a moment where you're, you're at your house or wherever you are, you're like I just got drafted. I was I've just just chosen in the Major League Baseball draft, you got to feel like you're 1000 feet tall. And then you show up and you're like I feel like that's my first day of college it's it just kind of seems like a churchy back and forth a little bit and then it's up to you to define some centering and and move forward. It's interesting.

Patrick Wicklander 14:55
Yeah, it's it's it is a lot of like, humbling experiences because And you can't, you can't be too high and you can't be too low. There's got to be times you got to learn to just swallow your pride and be like, hey, I need to do this. Or that there are people out there that are better than you. And it's like, okay, what I need to do to be better?

Scott Benner 15:17
Well, it's a it's a really interesting. I mean, it's a perspective on life that not a lot of people are going to have. But it as you're explaining it, it seems like it fits with almost everything that a person would have to do. How are you making out? Managing your blood sugar during spring training? Is it any different than college? Or is it going about the way you expect?

Patrick Wicklander 15:37
So that's been training, they didn't have like Gatorade, like they had like a little eight ounce, eight ounces of orange juice in the cafeteria. So when I first got to Florida, I was like, Hey, I would take like, wanted to feel like the old ones use this from the cafeteria. And they're like, Hey, why are you taking it? I'm like, Well, I'm a diabetic. Maybe he would like plumb it a little bit. But so I started going out and buying like the flat to Gator that you get at Sam's, Costco, WalMart, wherever you get on and just start bringing to the field. I was like, Yo, where'd you get the Gatorade? I'd like you to that brought them. So I would always come to the field. Like what to Gatorade, like days, I would throw it. And I was like, really the way I was the way I really managed it. So. But the last, like last week of spring training, I think it was like nerves adrenaline, like I don't know what it was like, I wasn't changing my diet or anything. I kind of like would shoot up. And I'm like, what was going on here?

Scott Benner 16:41
Yeah, well, that could definitely be adrenaline as it gets closer, right? Yeah. Is there is that feeling like you're practicing right? Until you're not? And then it's very important all of a sudden, and, you know, you don't I mean, like, you know, you could throw 1000 pitches, and you're just like, Oh, I'm working on location, or I'm working on a slot or I'm doing this doesn't matter, blah, blah. And then all of a sudden, you think, Oh, somebody's going to be paying attention and keeping track and I'm trying to succeed to move up. And yeah, maybe it's adrenaline, you'll have to either either, it'll settle in and you'll get accustomed to it. Or you might mean you might get into a situation where you have to give yourself a little bit of insulin for it. But just be careful, because on the back end when the adrenaline goes away the insulin still there. So

Patrick Wicklander 17:27
yeah, that would have to be in college. Like after I would throw like I get this major, like just drop. And I got like, I go kill a Gatorade or two. And I'm just like laying on our training table during recovery. I'm like, I'm just gonna sit here for a little bit.

Scott Benner 17:43
need just a second? Well, so you know, it's interesting, because I think for people listening whose kids play sports, they're probably there's probably 1000 Moms listening right now who are like, wait, they didn't come up to him immediately when they arrived and said, Oh, you have diabetes, we have Gatorade for you. Like, no one's probably talked to you for four seconds about I would imagine.

Patrick Wicklander 18:02
They said they had stuff like, like, I have cars galore. Like all of our spread for food is like, it's always like carbs, protein, and some sort of greens. So I would load up on the carbs, especially after practice. And then the protein was going to help me balance it out.

Scott Benner 18:20
Right? Is there a trainer? Have you in the trainer had a discussion about it? Or is it something you're taking care of by yourself?

Patrick Wicklander 18:28
The trainers are there. They're like, Hey, if you need help, let me know if actually, I need to talk to him today about getting my bloodwork done to check my agency appointment next week. But they're very, they're very open about it. Because the way pro ball work in every aspect is like, hey, we'll help you if you come and ask for. I see. A lot of the time it's like you paid your professional.

Scott Benner 18:54
Yeah, you're an adult and you know, you're gonna take care of yourself. Yeah, right. Yeah, we're not gonna hold your hands. Like, I respect that. That's how I was in college. Yeah, no, I mean, listen, it's not that it shouldn't be that way. I'm just trying to pick through how it is so that people can hear it and understand it.

Patrick Wicklander 19:12
Like, cuz it's funny because like, I talk like, I don't call our coaches coach. It's like, oh, a skit, or it was FRC or like, we call it the first names. And I'm just like, this is weird, and they're okay with it.

Scott Benner 19:31
Yes, sir. And, sir, and

Patrick Wicklander 19:37
yeah, it's just like, I think it was like, it was like a short season after I got drafted. I get to Florida and I'm like, Hey, Coach, like don't call me coach.

Scott Benner 19:45
Okay, that easy. My name is this

Unknown Speaker 19:48
guy. All right. All right.

Scott Benner 19:51
Well, you were in, you know, about five games that in that short season, right.

Unknown Speaker 19:57
That was it a little bit at 218 innings I believe. Okay. 18 innings 22 punches, three walks, couple hits, no runs.

Scott Benner 20:09
Nice. I must have felt good.

Patrick Wicklander 20:12
I felt good. I'm just excited to play a full season 140 Some games.

Scott Benner 20:18
I was gonna just ask it's 140 games. Wow. That's it. This will be the longest you've ever played, right?

Unknown Speaker 20:27
Yeah. Especially because like, because it's like, I think we get like, an off day, every 20 days, or something like that. Wow.

Scott Benner 20:36
So do you think there's a world where you'll say you really get they start using you? Will you? Can you pitch once a week? Or is it like, like, what's your rest time in between?

Patrick Wicklander 20:50
It's more five or six days. I can't remember off the top of my head. Okay, but so we played two weeks series. So we put a CMT in for two weeks, I believe. I see.

Scott Benner 21:00
So in fan or the guy

Patrick Wicklander 21:02
who throws on Tuesday, we'll throw again on Sunday against the same team. So let's see if I did fix it.

Scott Benner 21:08
Yeah. And, but that's actually good practice. Because you know, I mean, it's, it's obviously easier to pitch to somebody who you've never pitched to before, because they don't know what you're gonna do. But I can see where that would be beneficial for you to have to throw against the same guys over and over again, because you'd have to get more creative as they start learning about you. And I guess vice versa, you start learning about them. I guess you think it puts the pitcher an advantage over the hitter? Seeing I think

Patrick Wicklander 21:39
the thing is, is like there's so many different pitchers that like yeah, you got a scouting report, but the human aspects different because you're adjusting on the fly so many people. So that's like, if you go from a lefty to a righty, like that's two totally different types of fishing styles. So I feel like at one I feel like the most advantage pitcher, but then every like, you'll have your really good hitters don't get me wrong.

Scott Benner 22:06
Yeah. What about what was I just thinking? Oh, when you when you do get in? Do you have? Do you have it set in your mind? How long you'd like to go? Like, if everything goes right, I'll throw a certain amount of pitches. Is that how you think about it?

Patrick Wicklander 22:21
Um, as soon as I get it, I don't really think about it. I'm just thinking, hey, I need to get pallets quick. Just strike one strike to put them away. Get ahead. The other say my buddy's, like, enter on like, our on is three. So it's either out. It's either out or he's on base and three pitchers

Scott Benner 22:41
that are on in three. Because you don't want to use up seven eight pitches to lock somebody. Or?

Patrick Wicklander 22:47
Yeah, cuz Yeah. Cuz if you think if you think about it, so say say you just do four pitches, you get two outs and you walk through in a row. One, two or three pitches is what there's 16 pitches right there. That's a full inning, you got to throw an extra three or four to six guy that's just like 1920 pitches. And if you do that ever gonna you're not gonna you're gonna be lucky to last four or five.

Scott Benner 23:12
Yeah. It's interesting. It's a whole, like, I find the whole thing kind of fascinating. So, all right, well, we've, you asked to come back on because you've got something you want to talk about, but I don't actually know what it is. So I'm going to find out along with everybody else what's so. G voc hypo pen has no visible needle, and is a pre mixed auto injector of glucagon for treatment of very low blood sugar. In adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Find out more go to Jeeva glucagon.com forward slash juicebox G voc shouldn't be used in patients with insulinoma or pheochromocytoma. Visit Jeeva glucagon.com/risk. I'm feeling a little sentimental here. This is my last ad of 2022. I did some rough math before I started. I have done over 450 advertisements this year spread out over Oh God, I didn't do the math on that one hold on a second. Calculator need that. This is probably gonna be one of these things I could have done in my head over 200 episodes 450 ads. And Medtronic is not coming back next year with the red pen ads. So this is really a finale for me. Let me see if I can. Let me see if I can do a really good job here. Hold on a second. If you don't want to use an insulin pump, but you want a lot of the functionality that insulin pumps have, you should take a look at the in pen from Medtronic diabetes. The pen is one of today's sponsors. And if you really go look at in pen today.com What you're going to find is an insulin pen that doesn't look Much different than what you're expecting. Actually, I don't think it looks different at all from what you're expecting. But where the difference comes is that that pen connects to an app on your phone. And this app, I'll tell you that this app shows you your current glucose when paired with your continuous glucose monitor. Is that not enough you need more it has a dosing calculator calculates the optimal dose for meals and corrections using current glucose and activity levels. And excuse me an active insulin levels. I was getting ahead of myself, it shows you active insulin remaining, your glucose history generates reports for you or for your physician. It has an activity logs, you can see doses meals, glucose readings, it keeps a history of your doses. You can see when the insulin went in a meal history. It's amazing. It's right on this app, it's just fantastic. Now you can go to NPN today.com right now and just sign up and just get going. You can learn more watch videos, there's a lot to do on this website. If you scroll down far enough, you'll see that while this offer is available to people with commercial insurance, in terms of conditions apply, you may be one of the people who will pay as little as $35 for an implant. It's crazy. Medtronic diabetes doesn't want cost to be a roadblock to you getting the therapy you need. So with the implant Access Program, once again, you may pay as little as $35 in pen today.com, head over there now. I had a great time. I love him. I think it's terrific. I wish they could have come back. I think they wanted to but it just didn't work out. You know, grown up reasons. But don't take it out on them. Go get yourself an NPN from Medtronic diabetes, I really do appreciate the time they spent with the podcast. And I hope Medtronic comes back soon. I thought that our partnership was actually very enjoyable. And I'm thinking of one certain person. I can't say her name right now. But when she hears this, just know I really enjoyed our time together in Penn today.com G vote glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. Don't forget about touched by type one.org. There are links in the show notes of your podcast player to these and all the sponsors. And if you can't remember them, head to juicebox podcast.com You can just click on them right there. And that really helps to show. Alright, let's get back to Patrick. Oh, wait a minute, one last time for this. Let me get ready. In pen requires a prescription in settings from your health. All right. In pen requires a prescription and settings from your healthcare provider. You must use proper settings and follow the instructions as directed, where you could experience higher low blood glucose levels. For more information, and that safety information visit in Penn today.com Well, I messed that up but as last time, so

Patrick Wicklander 27:49
Wow. We have a few of the guys and organizations we like you understand what CAMI was right.

Scott Benner 27:57
cameo? Yeah, yeah, I

Patrick Wicklander 27:58
know. Yeah. Cameo you Are you familiar with discord also?

Scott Benner 28:03
Alright, so I know the word. But I couldn't describe it. I can describe what cameo is. Okay.

Patrick Wicklander 28:10
So Discord is like a like you can have live audio chats, just different chats with different types of titles. It's kind of like a more personal read it. Okay. So me, me and a few other guys came together and we put together this thing called athlete access those the regular fan to connect with professional athletes,

Scott Benner 28:38
right athlete access. Yes, sir. Got it. Got it.

Patrick Wicklander 28:42
Well, whether it's football, baseball, basketball. Like we, we have a good amount of guy like a good amount of people like we all the guys that are athletes, and they're gonna call them coaches. So we do offer coaching. We offer mental like mental wellness talks, we prefer over 18 There's sports betting, there's video games, like we have all of our socials in the come interact with us. Like it's we're trying to bring together the the youth like the just the regular player, the act and the professional athlete. So we're trying we're not trying to like we're trying to show people like, hey, these athletes are just like us.

Scott Benner 29:33
Is this a platform that you could get to like online or would it only be through an app?

Patrick Wicklander 29:39
So we have our like our Instagram social like we have it's athlete dot access, I believe athlete dot x is on Instagram, and athlete access, underscore access on Twitter, but it is a discord. It's a certain app you use on Do a computer to and we have like different a bunch of different people on the servers like we're doing. They're currently doing a giveaway. It's like, hey, that new MLB The Show 22 came out. You got to like, go on, go on the server and say hey, free stuff. And we're like we're giving away like the game currency right now. So we're, we're, we're still growing a bit. So we're trying to get more people involved because they were proposed we are on Tik Tok. We're on all the socials. So we're trying to, like you probably see what Trevor Bauer is doing right? With his walk with his logs. Yeah,

Scott Benner 30:43
I know. He was making like a ton of video blogs. Right. And yeah,

Patrick Wicklander 30:48
we're trying to allow more fans like hey, like actually interact with us. So we're not we're not really vlogging right now that's going to be like the next step. Okay. For us it's just getting our name out there a little bit more like we like the discord from for y'all a little bit.

Scott Benner 31:09
So if you broke up for a second there so so if somebody's looking for you, the best way is to find

Unknown Speaker 31:16
your good

Scott Benner 31:21
okay, it's back. Sorry about that. Yeah, that was my that's something that happened on my end. What I was gonna ask you so do people find you through discord? Is that the best way or through any of the socials that you're on? Or what what's the best thing?

Patrick Wicklander 31:35
Discord is the is the best way possible. But we still like we we will take DMS on Twitter or Instagram. So I mean, like some of the channels we have on our Discord is like we have general chat mental health and wellness pitching hitty guiding gaming. We have like Call of Duty like the multiplayer war zone, zombies, different clips. We have fortnight we got the show sportsbetting all athlete chat. It's just a bunch of different like, hey

Scott Benner 32:07
it's a hang for, for people to come in and meet guys like you. And even there's some discord. So some channels where people could ask questions about a pitch they're throwing or, or that they get nervous before they play or like anything like that, like just it's interaction that that's there. Yeah,

Patrick Wicklander 32:29
we're trying to bring that like that human aspect to so like, it's not like, some people are more and more comfortable around professional athletes. And they understand that, hey, they're the same person as the 1516 year old kid. Like we're all trying to get better was just thinking a little differently than the other.

Scott Benner 32:46
Yeah, you know, it's funny. I think that one of the things that allowed Cole to think that he could keep playing baseball was that he knew a guy who played the minor leagues. And that it seemed like a real thing. I don't know if that makes sense or not, you know what I mean? Like you. But as a way of an example, I wanted to write books when I was growing up, but I didn't know anybody who did anything like that. And so it didn't seem like, it didn't seem like a real job to me, I guess, as you know, is an easy way to say it. And so I never really aspired towards the biggest I couldn't, I couldn't see it anywhere in the world. It felt like it just felt like an idea that that happened to other people. And I know that when cold met a guy who's like, you know, hey, I played baseball around here in high school. And then I get I got drafted. And I went and did this. And I played the monitors for this many years. Guys got like, cool stories, like a lot of great stuff happened for him, etc. It made it feel possible. And when I think of that guy, he just seems like a regular person to me, like even you to me, like you, you just seem like a regular person to me. But later today, with any luck, you know, around the fourth inning, you're going to be like, Hey, I'm here to pitch and, and that's a thing that, you know, seems the other worldly to people. So it's a really cool idea. Just let people see you as as yourself.

Patrick Wicklander 34:07
Yeah. And that's what we're trying to get at. And nobody came to me with the idea after he's actually he called me one day when I was given lesson. I said, Hey, I'm giving them good working right now. You can like let me let me call you back after he goes, okay. I said, Hey, I'm working. What's up? And he's like, do you coach kids? I was like, yeah, he goes, Man, you're I got something for you. And he told me about it. I was like, Dude, I'm all in.

Scott Benner 34:35
That's great. So when we're done, send me the social links, and I'll read them in so that people have them perfectly.

Patrick Wicklander 34:45
Branding is becoming big and baseball too. And it's helping a lot of guys.

Scott Benner 34:49
You know who you're making me think of by talking this way. Trevor may with the maths. Yeah, yeah. Right. Like while he's in the minors, he's like playing music online. and doing like playing he did. He did so much stuff like that, where he was just interacting with people and making his stuff available. Whatever it was he was doing it was he was always putting it out there. And I think he's gonna be there. I think he's there set up man this year. Right at the at the pro level. So yeah, I can just think of him on Twitter with the twins. Match. Yeah, mess now, right? Yeah, he'd been with uh, yeah, he was he was with his twins prior. But and he spent five seconds in Philly, which is how I knew who he was. And then yeah, like, you could do all kinds of cool stuff on on social media. That's, it's I think it's a great idea, man.

Patrick Wicklander 35:38
I mean, because I know, so I watch a little, a lot of videogame streamers. And he'll play with them. Like, Well, did you throw you throw like a hundo? Like, and you're over here playing video games.

Scott Benner 35:51
on Twitch, like hanging out with guys.

Patrick Wicklander 35:54
Yeah, it's just really cool. And I'm like, damn, okay.

Scott Benner 35:58
Well, I'll tell you. This is probably this might not make a lot of sense to many people over a certain age. But my son watches some Twitch channels, like their television. Like, like, like a person, you know, like a person my age. But think of as watching a TV show. Like, there's people on Twitch them that my son's like a fan of and he'll he'll, he'll watch their stuff, even off to the side while he's doing something else. If not,

Patrick Wicklander 36:23
literally, that's what I do. Yeah, yeah. Like I'll be, I'll be on FaceTime with my girlfriend and like, she'll be doing something or like, talking to her mom or something. I just have the iPad up watching Twitch or YouTube. Big gamers.

Scott Benner 36:36
I think it's a whole world that that older people might not understand. But when you said it, I thought it's a good idea. You know, I wish you a ton of luck, but I hope it I hope it takes off and, and becomes a real platform for you. Because it's a great idea. And as you meet more and more people, you'll easily be able to bring more and more people into the fold and give other people access to new people all the time.

Patrick Wicklander 36:59
Yeah, like I was actually talking to one of my buddies last night and cuz he's, he's trying to, like he's in a good job. Now when he's trying to get somewhere better. I'm like, Hey, you just got it. Like the now is important. But what you do now dictate your future?

Scott Benner 37:17
Yeah, no. Listen, I made a podcast for a long time that nobody listened to. So it takes it takes a while to build things up. Yes, you got to stick to it. Yeah, no, really nothing. I think that anybody that believes that you just do something, and it automatically works. That's the random, like, you know, there's one person that that happens to and even then if you spoke to them, they probably had a long journey that you're not aware of things don't just happen overnight. And when they do, they burn out as quickly as they start up a lot of times. So I think putting a lot of work into something and building it up and making it valuable is, is it's the only way to go. Really. So I liked it. I liked this. I like talking about something like this, that's just starting to happen. And you know, be interesting to hear you. You know, be interesting to hear you four or five years from now where you're like, Hey, Scott on the you know, I mean, look at Trevor, like you could be like, I'm the setup man for the you know, for the raise now and and we've got this whole thing going. Alright, cool. I wish you a lot of luck with that. I hope it goes great.

Patrick Wicklander 38:21
I appreciate it. Absolutely. I mean, that's, that's all it is like branding was baseball now. It's like, well, you fell back, because a lot of like a lot of good relationships. Like I've been talking to you like you and getting to know you and call. Right. So I mean, it's just, it's cool to see the people you meet along the way too.

Scott Benner 38:40
Yeah. 100%. Like, you really don't know, like, seriously, there's a weird world where, I don't know, 10 years from now, you and my son know each other because you came on a podcast because you got diabetes, like it just like it's a weird, like, you never know how things are gonna are gonna go and you need people, especially in a modern age. Like the I mean, listen, it's not going to die overnight. But going into an office and doing your job is I mean, my wife has been working in my dining room for two and a half years now. And if you ask her, is there any significant reason why you need to be back in that office, she would tell you, you know, she's getting more worked on like this. It's easier. She's not traveling as much, you know, etc. The world, the way people are interacting with each other has already changed, but it's going to continue to morph. And you know, the way you meet people is going to change as well. So I think it's a I don't know how long I'll live, Patrick, if I'll see the end of it. But, you know, people are gonna have jobs one day through people that they know, who they've never stood in front of. And I think that's 100% True. So yeah, dude, I think you're on top of something there. Make sure the guy running the digital stuff that he's the important one and Everybody be nice to him

Unknown Speaker 40:03
make or break this whole thing.

Scott Benner 40:06
All right, so what's the rest of your day like now we're talking pretty early in the morning, what time you have to be at the field.

Patrick Wicklander 40:12
So, I'm leaving the field to the field at 145. It's like 1520 minute ride. And that's how far out I am of actual the City of Charleston. As got my schedule last night stretch at 350. So get there eat, chill out for a little bit, do some athletic. Prefer stuff I need to find out if I'm hot or not to like, I don't think I am because I'm piggybacking tomorrow. Okay, so it's kind of really hard today to leave my tariffs on. Or put spikes on the play catch. It's in the dugout, look good.

Scott Benner 40:56
Tomorrow. So if you if you have no plans on pitching today, you might have a catch. But you're not going to you're not going to ramp your arm up at all right?

Patrick Wicklander 41:08
Like it's it's a giant like usually for me deal for it, though. It's a big field a day. So I get to a point where my arm, my arm and other pitches you'll get to. So it's like, okay, I got some, I feel good going into my outing.

Scott Benner 41:20
Gotcha. And then on a pitching day, like tomorrow, there's a certain time tomorrow afternoon, you're going to you're going to, you're going to get loose, and then there's another time where you're gonna get hot, and then you're gonna go play. What's it like? Is it better to have short? How long I guess my question is how long in between innings once you're in the game, if if you you pitch you know, let's say you get your you know, you're in and out of your get on and get in. Whatever you were saying earlier about three pitches. You have a nice quick inning and you come sit down. How long until you are starting to think like I want to get back out there again. Like how long is too long to sit on the bench between innings?

Patrick Wicklander 42:02
I would say too long would be shoes would be like this. Very rarely happened. Say that again. I would say I would say the too long would be like 10 to 12 or in any okay innings. That very rarely happen the older you get.

Scott Benner 42:26
Yeah, hopefully, right?

Patrick Wicklander 42:28
Yeah. But it's when the opposing pitcher doesn't throw like It's like ball one, ball two ball three. Strike one, strike two, when it's like those high pitch count innings. You're just like, hey,

Scott Benner 42:41
get back out there. Yeah, it's hard on you as well, I would imagine. All right, cool. Well, I wish you a ton of luck. I mean, 140 games, man, like, I don't imagine I'll talk to you again for a while. You're gonna be you're gonna be underwater for a little bit. But Nah, man, I really appreciated having you on so I feel like we I feel like you're the the official baseball player of the Juicebox Podcast. So I think we're all pulling for it.

Unknown Speaker 43:08
I really appreciate that.

Scott Benner 43:17
A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon. Find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G voc glucagon.com. Ford slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGLUC AG o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. I also want to thank Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes and remind you that in pen today.com is waiting for you. And of course, a huge thanks to touched by type one, find them at touched by type one.org or on Facebook and Instagram. And there's two things I need to tell you about Patrick before I go. So one obviously Patrick was like in a hotel room or something when he recorded this so he had kind of spotty internet service. I'm sorry about that. I hope it wasn't too hard to listen to. But the other thing is that he talked about a discord idea that they were doing that did not end up panning out. So don't go looking for it. But do go look for Patrick. He's on Instagram. Patrick wick lander. Terrific. I just I wish him a ton of success in the coming year. I mean, it's a long road right from, from the little kid playing baseball to the minor leagues and trying to go further and go check out his other. His other interview with me. I think it's like 512 Yes, Episode 512. It's interesting. Patrick thought, anyway, I won't ruin the story. But I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Don't think? I don't know if I'm gonna do one more in 2022 or not. I'm still deciding. Looking at my content with Jenny and I'm trying to decide between putting up another one this week. Yeah, we're putting up all three of them next week as a way to start the new year off. I'm still figuring that out. You know, you'll see it in your podcast app if it's there. That's pretty much it. Thanks so much for listening. Check out the Facebook page Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, private fate, private phage private page with like, 33,000 people in it. Really fantastic place to get support and ideas about diabetes. Find juicebox podcast.com If you need to use the links, when you support the sponsors, it really does help the show it helps me pays my bills. I appreciate when you do that. Gets that's about it. Right? I'm going to wish you happy new year here just in case there's not another one. But I'll be back on January two, with an all new season. It'd be laying out some pretty cool stuff for you. That's it. I hope you had a happy holiday. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.