The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - House Call: Why the World's Best Pitchers and Quarterbacks Seek This Man's Advice
Thu, 10 Apr 2025
He got the Sandy Koufax seal of approval, then re-trained Nolan Ryan in his forties. He upgraded Drew Brees into one of the most accurate passers of all time, then went tête-à-tête with Tom Brady. He even tried turning Michael Jordan and Tim Tebow into baseball players. But for legendary pitching coach Dr. Tom House, the science of throwing is all in the mind, from performance anxiety to the human nerve bank. And now, at 77, he's looking into a future without Shohei Ohtani on the mound — and a 118-mile-an-hour fastball coming for your head. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Dr. Tom House and why is he significant?
Walk off.
Walk off. And that was the beginning. I didn't pitch for 42 days after that. The joy of going to the ballpark every day kind of got diminished a little bit when I knew I was in the doghouse and was probably never going to get a chance to work out of it.
There's a quote from Don Zimmer, manager of the Red Sox, your old boss. He said, quote, I think a lot of his problems were mental. He wanted so much to do well for us, it seemed as though the harder he tried, the worse he got.
It was exactly right. I thought too much and I cared too much. And that combination is a performance anxiety problem. So I became a defensive pitcher for about six months to a year after leaving Boston. And until I got involved with the research on performance anxieties, did I figure out a way that even a guy with my limited abilities could actually manufacture and do better.
with these particular protocols. And that became the beginning of my research into the PhD program.
So you get a PhD in sports psychology after you retire from baseball. Right. Your career as a left-handed pitcher professionally is done. You go to grad school. And that part, you had what kind of reaction from your folks?
Neither my mom or my dad could understand how anybody could make a living playing sports. In fact, on her deathbed, my mom looked me in the face and she said, Now, Thomas, when are you going to find a real job? Seriously, they enjoyed coming to the games, but her number one priority for my brother and myself, no A, no play.
If you want to play sports, you have to have straight A's, and you can play sports as long as you go to school. That's why I went to school until I was 44.
You may or may not know this, but 20 years ago, the origins of this very show were just a dream for Dan and Stugatz. That dream turned into a show and a business you're listening to today. Starting your own business is a dream lots of us share, but too many of us let it remain just a dream. Don't hold yourself back thinking, what if I don't have the skills? What if I can't do it alone?
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Chapter 2: What was the historic moment involving Tom House and Hank Aaron?
When Nolan Ryan joined the Rangers and started throwing the football, at least they shut up publicly.
To look at Nolan Ryan's statistics on baseball reference now is to be reminded what the last five years of his career looked like. And it's to marvel at how the he got better.
I'll tell you how he did. He embraced the new information like it was mana from heaven.
I don't have Nolan Ryan as the guy being like, I would like the PhD. nerd with the glasses to tell me how to do my job.
And in fact, when he went into the Hall of Fame, he actually mentioned that, that Tom had all these weird ideas. But when I tried them, they worked.
I was very fortunate to have a pitching coach by the name of Tom House. And Tom and I are the same age. And Tom is a coach that's always on the cutting edge. And I really enjoyed our association together. and he would always come up with new training techniques.
And because of our friendship and Tom pushing me, I think I got in the best shape of my life during the years that I was with the Rangers.
And he literally said I was a better pitcher from age 39 to 46 than I was any time during the previous 39 years.
So the guy who was at home played with those glasses. wears these goggles in this role, but now you're Professor Gadget.
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