Travis Kelce is foregoing his retirement and returning to the Kansas City Chiefs for at least one more season to try and win another Super Bowl alongside his All-World teammate, Patrick Mahomes.
Until the season starts, fans can see and hear from Kelce on New Heights, the weekly podcast he hosts with his brother, Jason. The pair recently raised questions about why baseball players approach conditioning from an endurance standpoint rather than focusing on quick speed.
Kelce revealed that the reason he stopped playing baseball in high school was due to the conditioning part of the sport.
“Why am I running foul pole to foul pole? If you want me to run, let’s just work base running drills,” Travis said.
“Why am I running like a cross-country jackass? Like just foul pole to foul pole? I’m not f***ing doing this.”
“We should just be doing sprints,” Jason chimed in. “…maybe you do a couple, let’s go to second base sprints, but outside of that, even third, maybe even third. Heck, but makes no sense to do this jogging monotonous cardio that has nothing to do with the game.”
It didn’t take long for former MLB catcher Jonathan Lucroy to respond.
“You guys play once a week, we play ;almost’ everyday,” Lucroy posted on X.
“The pitchers run poles to endure longer outings. Nolan Ryan did them everyday. He played 20 years and was still throwing 95 at 40. Position players run bases for conditioning in Spring Training.
“During the season, we don’t do much conditioning as an everyday player. Why? Because we play almost EVERYDAY. Just for myself, I caught 200+ pitches every time I caught. That means I did at least 200 squats every game. (not counting warm ups before game and at start of inning.) If I caught 120 games in a season, that’s 24,000 squats I did over the course of the regular season.
“Plus all of ST, and then the warmups before and during the game. We play 162 games. Plus Spring training, and then the playoffs if we get there. If you make the WS, you are talking 190+ games. NFL games are brutally violent, and I’m not understating that, but our game is more about endurance and longevity over a 7 month season of daily attrition.
“It is a marathon, not a sprint.”
With how long baseball has been around and the technology at the sport’s disposal, it’s safe to say that MLB and even high school training staff probably know a thing or two more than the Kelce brothers about what will put players in the best position to be successful.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.