Tyler Matzek’s Journey from AirHogs to the Atlanta Braves


HOUSTON – Atlanta’s most essential post-season reliever was so essential three years ago that he couldn’t even find a job in baseball. So he bought a Facebook ad and got into an independent league team in Texas.

That summer, in 2018, he lived in a trailer and cashed a paycheck of around $400 every fortnight with no idea if he was going to win.

The story of Tyler Matzek’s rise from Texas AirHogs to the World Series includes international relations, a former member of the Navy SEALs, and security guards. Now, it includes nearly every nightly appearances on the October stage with the Braves. Chunky, 6-metre left-back made his way into Game 1 of the World Series here on Tuesday night, making his 10th relief game in Atlanta’s 11 postseason games.

His biggest break came in the decisive match of the National League Championship Series. The win was partly attributed to Albert Pujols, Steven Souza Jr. and Mookie Betts back-to-back. He entered the game with Atlanta leading 4-2 over Los Angeles in the seventh inning. The runners were second and third with no exits, but it let them down.

“Perseverance is something I’ve never seen in baseball in 52 years,” said former Seattle Mariners executive John McLaren, who has coached seven major league events, and was the captain who invited Matzek to AirHogs in 2018.

“You can’t really appreciate the situation without knowing where it is,” McLaren said. said.

The Colorado Rockies selected Matzek in the first round—11th overall—in the 2009 draft pick of Capistrano Valley High School in Orange County, California. and started home openers in 2015. But in 2015 he walked in just five starts, 22 innings in 19 innings, and was sent to the juniors.

He was stricken with a case of “yips” in which an athlete became unusually nervous or nervous during a crucial action of the sport. In his case, it was a sudden and inexplicable loss of ability to strike.

Matzek never fielded for the Rockies again. She passed out among minors for the rest of 2015 and all of 2016. He went to spring training with the Chicago White Sox in 2017 but was released at the end of March.

“It took time,” Matzek said. “It was changing my mind. I always tell people that there is fear in our lives and we have three choices: run, fight or freeze. Yips, you choose the ice cream. You freeze all that fear and when your body throws the ball it stops working. You can’t fly – you’re thrown into the game and you’re going to shoot.”

That’s why he chose “fight” while sitting in 2017. Connecting with Michael McKenry, Matzek’s friend and former hunter in the Rockies, he enlisted the help of Jason Kuhn, a former member of the Navy SEALs whose career as a pitcher was interrupted by a case of yips while in Middle Tennessee. Situation. Kuhn currently runs a company called Stonewall Solutions, which travels to high schools and colleges in Nashville that plans training programs for sports teams.

“Yips are not something you think of from afar,” Kuhn said. “You have to go and train him.”

Kuhn likens it to “pulling a hamstring on your brain.” The couple worked together for a while in Nashville, then continued to work on the phone and with worksheets that provided Matzek with questions to answer questions on key topics focusing on things like mental toughness and a team-first mindset.

“It was all mental,” said Matzek, 31. “I was nowhere near the strike zone. There was a point where I was playing catch with a guy, I’d stand by the fence and have him throw the ball or try to throw it at him and miss 15, 20, 30 feet. The ball would hit the ground, catch it and throw it back to me.

“I just thought the more times I threw wrong, the closer I got to getting it right. So I just kept going.”

Matzek said his work with Kuhn continued in the winter of 2017-18. independent trial league Based in Palm Springs, California.

“I’m not kidding, we had guys in that league who had never played baseball before,” Matzek said. “We had football players trying to play baseball for the first time in their lives and everything in between. Some guys were security guards in their normal lives and just wanted to go out and try it out.

“I paid three thousand dollars for it over the course of a month trying to get back to playing ball.”

The sailors saw him, signed him, but released him at the end of spring training.

Andy McKay was Seattle’s director of player development and had a history with Matzek at Colorado’s organization. Part of McKay’s background is as a mental skills coach. He told Matzek that the Marines had no room for him in the juniors, but they would keep him in long spring training if the shooter wanted. But he encouraged Matzek to play independent ball instead, because Matzek needed to play competitively and in front of the fans, not on deserted backcourts.

So Matzek took out the Facebook ad – “I made it myself,” he said, meaning there’s no agent involved. This ad sparked a season-long commitment from Billy Martin Jr., general manager of AirHogs. Matzek borrowed the trailer from McKenry and drove from Nashville to Texas.

“It was brand new, maybe two or three years old,” Matzek said of the vehicle. “Honestly, it had great air conditioning. I just kept the blinds closed all the time. It’s hot outside, it’s 120, 130 during the day.”

Matzek said AirHogs has signed a partnership agreement with the Chinese national team that “sends more than 30, 40 guys to learn US baseball to prepare for the Olympics.” The situation created a language barrier but eventually led to friendships.

McLaren said Matzek’s condition was “demons, birds on his shoulder talking to him, real perseverance and hard work”. He continued: “It was great to have Chinese players around him. He rooted for his teammates, he was aggressive, he controlled everything as much as he had physical ability but he still hit rock bottom.”

“There were times when I was going 85.86 mph, just trying to shoot, trying to shoot. And it wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t good,” Matzek said.

But it got better. Eventually, Dana Brown, Atlanta’s vice president of scouting, offended General Manager Alex Anthopoulos to sign him towards the end of the 2019 season. Anthopoulos said that Atlanta forwards this original email to Brown every year around the time he signed Matzek because: “I can’t thank Dana enough. If he doesn’t chase after her and send scouts to see him, he’s not here.”

That’s why a lot of people were overjoyed when Matzek fueled Betts on Saturday night in Georgia to extinguish the Dodgers’ latest threat.

“Absolutely incredible,” said Freddie Freeman of Atlanta, who was Matzek’s first strikethrough victim in 2015.

At his home in Phoenix, McLaren said, “Tyler was great!” He was watching her receive texts and emails that read his lines. and “Three hits in one, son, that’s huge.”

“No matter what time the game is, they’re at the computer, they’re following it there,” McLaren said.

And in Nashville, Kuhn said he watched with tears in his eyes.

“It was immeasurably satisfying to see it rewarded and successful,” Kuhn said. “I told him when we met, you are at a crossroads in life. Whatever you choose to do, you want to look at this moment and be proud of who you are and what you have chosen.”

Sometimes the longest journeys can be the most rewarding. One day, a pitcher is an AirHog. Another, even the World Series, is facing Betts.

“I know,” Matzek said. “Crazy, isn’t it?”



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