Former MLB star Jonathan Lucroy pushed back against Travis and Jason Kelce after the brothers questioned the workout routines of baseball players.
“You guys play once a week, we play ‘almost’ everyday,” Lucroy, 39, posted via X on Wednesday, April 1, referencing the NFL careers of Travis, 36, and Jason, 38.
Lucroy, a catcher who played 12 seasons in the Majors and was named to two All-Star teams, was responding to comments made by the Kelce brothers on their “New Heights” podcast on Wednesday.
Jason argued there was “zero cardio necessary to be a good baseball player,” as Travis recalled “running foul pole to foul pole” during baseball practice in high school.
Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes’ Steakhouse Gets Eviscerated in Viral Review
“The pitchers run poles to endure longer outings,” Lucroy explained. “[Hall of Fame pitcher] Nolan Ryan did them everyday. He played 20 years and was still throwing 95 [miles per hour] at 40 [years old].”
Lucroy continued, “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.”
The Major League Baseball season is 162 games, compared to the current 17-game NFL schedule.
In his playing days, which came to an end in 2022, Lucroy said he would catch more than 200 pitches behind the plate every game.
“That means I did at least 200 squats every game. (not counting warm ups before game and at start of inning.),” he explained. “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 [spring training], and then the warmups before and during the game.”
Lucroy added, “We play 162 games. Plus Spring training, and then the playoffs if we get there. If you make the [World Series], 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.”
Chiefs GM Gives Uncomfortable Answer About Travis and Taylor Wedding
The former MLB star concluded his post, “It is a marathon, not a sprint.”
On “New Heights,” Jason argued it makes “no sense” for baseball players “to do this jogging, monotonous cardio that has nothing to do with the game.”
Jason added, “The furthest I can possibly run is on an inside-the-park home run, so why am I ever doing more than that? And then I’m going to get a long break.”
“Baseball, I’m standing all day. That’s it,” Travis doubled down.
