Jake Mangum

I quit football after ninth grade, but love football.

But I just I love you just quit.

You just didn't do it anymore.

Yeah, after the ninth-grade season, I was just like, I'm going to focus on baseball, play baseball year-round in high school.

Did your family be like, hey, listen, come on?

We had 16,000 people at games in college baseball.

And they were living and dying on every pitch.

Isn't that crazy?

It was the coolest experience ever.

But that was a big thing that helped me in pro ball.

Like, now when I come to Fenway Park and there's 35,000, I tell everyone, like, the 16,000 in Mississippi State, yeah, it's not as much as this.

But it –

You feel it.

There's a certain number you get to when you're playing in front of people that it's like a lot of people is a lot of people.

Yeah.

You know, like the difference of 30,000 and 40,000 really like it's a lot of people either way.

Yeah.

16,000 is not near as much as this, but.

It was a crazy atmosphere every night, and it was a big learning experience for me to be able to feel comfortable in the atmosphere.

It was every pitch.