A Super Talk Mississippi Media Production.

This is a Thunder and Lightning exclusive here on Super Talk, Mississippi, available at

supertalk.fm or wherever it is you get podcast from. Brian Hayd out here with a guy you might

know. You may have heard of him if you're a Mississippi State fan. Former player.

You don't like to get those guys on there and let them relive the glory days a little bit.

You know, I guess he had some.

My good friend, Jake Mangum, is going to join me here. Jake, I'm not even going to talk about MSU for a minute. How are you doing? Man, doing great. Just been down here in Florida for a couple months now, training, getting ready for spring training. Today we had our first COVID test, our intake test they called it, and the first day of practice

is Saturday.

I can't freaking wait.

When is the last summer you didn't play baseball prior to last year?

Age five.

Oh, man.

How was that?

Just not going through the routines of whatever baseball season is for you.

How difficult was that mentally?

It was difficult mentally, but to be honest with you, man, there was a lot of great things

that came out of it.

Whenever COVID hit a year ago and we left spring training to go back home and whenever they called off the camp, I actually went on a Matt Wyatt show and I remember saying, I remember vividly. I said, look, you can look at this one or two ways. You can either look at this optimistically. You can be negative about it just like anything in life. And in 2020, it was a big year of growth for me, man. I did a lot of things that I've never been able to do. I was able to get in the weight room and change some things with my body. I was able to get in the cage and change the things with my swing, and I'm really excited about to put on display this year and to see how it does. I grew in my faith more than ever. You got closer to God.

I relied on him through most of it. I was able to spend a lot of time with friends and family that I

weren't ever able to do in the summer. I was able to go on a boat on the reservoir. I was able to

enjoy a beach day in the summer. You name it. And the biggest thing was I was able to, you know, enjoy a beach day in the summer.

You name it.

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