CLEVELAND — Get to know more about Tyler Naquin as we go "Beyond the Dugout" with the Cleveland Indians outfielder.
3News' Dave Chudowsky: Time now for Beyond the Dugout Tyler Naquin joins me. On our morning show it is called “GO” so we're gonna do “go-time” questions…
Indians' Tyler Naquin: All right.
Chudowsky: What makes you go?
Naquin: Waking up knowing I get to go to the ballpark. That'll make you go.
Chudowsky: Right!
Naquin: Thinking about my family, the main thing man. They make me go. My mom, she's a pretty tough woman. She's a stud. So her and my brother, my dad, they're all just blue collar, hard-working, very respectable people and I couldn't have learned it from anybody better. I take a lot of pride in having my last name on my back and I take a lot of pride in my work ethic.
Chudowsky: Love that answer. That’s great. You talk about going to the park every day. What on-the-road park do you like to go to the most?
Naquin: The Yankees. It's interesting there every time. Those fans, you gotta appreciate them because the enthusiasm that they put into it. Pretty mean, but I always win a section over so they always get mad at me because they're like, man you're actually pretty cool. I was like, ‘Hey man I’m just like you.
Chudowsky: You have one memory that stands out in any city?
Naquin: Oh yeah. Recently. So we were playing in New York and I'm in right field and they hit a ball and I know that you know Yankee stadium's a short porch. So I go back to the wall and I position myself and I know I'm gonna get to rob a homer. As I jump it, we were beating the Yankees. I think it was the game that was like 18 to two or something like that, and I go back on the baseball and I jump. I feel my arm go over the wall and I'm fully expecting to catch this baseball. I come back down, I don't have it, but I felt someone's arm. I grabbed someone's arm and I turned around and looked in the stand and said, ‘Hey man, I would have robbed a homer right there.’ And he goes, ‘You wouldn't have,’ yelling at me and stuff and he's like laughing at me. I said all right, so we go back down in the dugout and I replay it and Tito goes, ‘I mean, we're winning. You know we're winning.’ So he's like there's no reason to challenge it. I said, ‘Man, I robbed a homer in the big like this.’
Chudowsky: You got robbed!
Naquin: Yeah! We started laughing. I get to my hotel room, I'm just kind of relaxing and I get a message on Instagram. It's the guy that took the ball away from me. He goes, ‘Man, I just want to apologize. You're really cool talking to me before the play.’ Then he goes, ‘By the way, you definitely would have caught that ball.’ If you look at the replay, his whole elbow is in my glove as I'm coming back and he just took away. He's like, ‘So I just want to apologize. I'll see you tomorrow.’ I was like that's pretty, cool.
Chudowsky: That’s a great story.
Naquin: I gotta respect that.
Chudowsky: Wow!
Naquin: Now I gained a lifelong fan for the rest of my career.
Chudowsky: How about that!
Naquin: Yeah, that's cool.
Chudowsky: On that note, I don't think you can do much better.
Naquin: Yeah, I know.
Chudowsky: You are off the hotseat. I’m not going to rob you of anything.
Naquin: There you go.