March 12, 2020 6:20 pm

Friday, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Gary O’Reilly, and Chuck Nice Sit Down with MLB Legend Carlos Beltrán.

On this Friday’s episode of StarTalk Sports Edition, Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Gary O’Reilly and Chuck Nice, sit down with Carlos Beltrán to explore his extraordinary career as a switch-hitting slugger, base-stealer and outfielder, which includes 3 Golden Gloves and 9 trips to the All-Star game. Recorded live last summer at the Southampton Arts Center, our crew spent the day breaking down what it takes to become a baseball legend.

We start at the beginning. You’ll learn about Carlos’ humble roots in Puerto Rico. You’ll find out how his commitment to practice, even when it was by himself, led him to be discovered by a major league scout and brought over to the United States. Discover more about Carlos’ early adaptation into becoming a switch hitter.

We investigate the physics of switch hitting. Carlos tells us how he took advice and council from Yankees legend Bernie Williams. Neil shares the science behind switch hitting. He also gives us  a simple experiment to demonstrate how difficult it is to do something with your non-dominant hand.

Learn how Carlos changed his game during the rise of the Moneyball era. Find out more about vision training and how it helps batters “see” pitches better. Carlos tells us why studying is equally as important as practice. And, you’ll hear why Moneyball has changed the game from athletes being resistant to data-driven baseball to athletes seeking it out themselves.

Carlos explains his decision to forgo an interview to manage the New York Yankees. Lastly, Carlos gets to ask Neil questions about baseball and Neil fires back his ideas on how to make the game “better.” All that, plus, we talk about one of Carlos’ most proud achievements – opening the Carlos Beltrán Baseball Academy in Puerto Rico.

You can find The Carlos Beltrán Interview right here on our website, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you’re a StarTalk+ Patron or an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
-Ian Mullen