‘Phillies Extra’ Q&A: Mick Abel on overcoming failure, collecting baseball cards, and more

No matter how it turned out, Sunday was destined to be an unforgettable day for Mick Abel.

It wound up being historic.

Abel struck out nine batters, tying Curt Simmons’ 78-year-old Phillies record for a pitcher in his major league debut, and outdueled Paul Skenes in a 1-0 victory over the Pirates at Citizens Bank Park.

» READ MORE: ‘Be the silent assassin’: Phillies’ Mick Abel pitches six scoreless innings, strikes out nine in MLB debut

Last week, one day before he learned he was getting called up to make a spot start, Abel joined Phillies Extra, the baseball show from The Inquirer, to discuss overcoming adversity last year in triple A to dominate this season. He also touched on several other topics, including his sports card collection.

Here’s an excerpt from our wide-ranging conversation, which has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Watch the full interview below.

A: It was really the first time that I’d hit a stage in my baseball career where I was failing, like truly failing. I thought I knew what failure was because I had 4.00 ERA. To me, that was failing. And then I go through last year and I’m like, ‘Well, alright, now I know what failure kind of tastes like.’ The ups and downs of a baseball season, it’ll kind of tear you apart at some point. I got to a point where I was like, ‘Damn, man.’ I knew what was going on, but at the same time I didn’t. I tried to go out there every six, seven days and trust the preparation that I put in throughout the week, but there was always something that I was chasing and all these certain feels and all these different mechanical looks and this and that.

» READ MORE: Mentor, mood-setter, bowling team manager: The Garrett Stubbs Experience is a hit at Lehigh Valley

By the end of the season I was spent and I was just like, ‘I just needed a little break.’ It was through all that, I think coming out on the other side, knowing that everything that I do with my career … Everything I can do, whatever’s under my control lies in the offseason or lies within my work throughout the week. And those are kind of the big takeaways that I had from last year.

I think having a strong offseason, like I did this year, just kind of getting back to being athletic and keeping things simple, whether that’s in my routine or my delivery or whatever I’m doing off the field, it’s just finding the simple things that I can do every day to get better and trust that that’s going to put me in a position to succeed.

A: Yeah, 100%. I had conversations, whether it was once a week or two times a week with [Phillies director of mental health] Deanna Nobleza and then Todd Dilbeck, who is our mental skills coordinator. And it helped me a lot just being able to kind of talk about what I was going through. Because I definitely felt comfortable talking to teammates and coaches about it, but I think going through Todd or going through Deanna … they’ve seen multiple kind of cases of what I was going through at the time. It was nice to be able to just kind of vent and be able to find some strategies to deal with what I was going through, whether it was breathing exercises or just simple talk therapy. It was extremely beneficial.

» READ MORE: ‘Phillies Extra’ Q&A: Justin Crawford on the challenge of triple A, preparing for a call up, and more

A: I think, even now, I talk to Deanna, I talk to Todd and it’s not just because I’m going through anything, but it’s more just so that can kind of keep myself in check and keep talking to them about strategies. It’s nothing about what was going on last year. It’s more just like, alright, how can I wind down better after an outing from still a little amped up before going to sleep? I know a lot of guys go through that or have an issue doing that. It’s extremely beneficial.

A: Compared to last year, I think there’s a handful of things. But I think there’s two that I can really key in on. I think as far as how I look out there and as far as how I feel out there just kind of getting back to being athletic. People say pitchers aren’t athletes, but in order to throw a baseball hard, you’ve got to be an athlete in some capacity. So taking all offseason to get back to a position where I can just be athletic and not try to throw the ball a certain way, that helped a lot. I’m not thinking about anything while I’m out there other than trying to compete but also mentality wise I’m just trying to attack hitters. It’s strike one, strike two, good luck. That’s kind of how I’m trying to approach it.

» READ MORE: ‘Phillies Extra’ Q&A: Farm director Luke Murton on Crawford, Painter, a sleeper to watch, and more

It’s basically from the top down they’re trying to preach [that philosophy]. We’re trying to attack hitters. That’s the whole job of being a pitcher. You’re trying to attack hitters and try to get them out in as little pitches as you can. And for me, I guess for anybody, you’re not always going to get a guy out within the first three pitches every time, but if you can get strike one, like that’s a pretty good way of doing it. And it’s been a very consistent way of thinking for me and it’s helped a lot.

A: Yeah, 100%. I told him after his first outing up [in triple A], I’m like, ‘Dude, you have no idea how happy it makes me to watch you pitch again.’ It’s one of those types of things. Like I love watching him pitch. I love talking to him about baseball, but we also have fun off the field and, whether it’s in the dugout or off the field, we’re having fun. So it’s awesome to be back with him again.

A: … I love it. During spring, [Phillies reliever Matt] Strahm got some of the Tokyo Series cards that Topps did … it was one of the Japanese series ones where it was exclusive Cubs and Dodgers. That was fun. I think [Phillies prospect Dante] Nori does a lot of breaks, and he got one of mine out of five, like a red. It was a red out of five. I can’t remember what set it was, but he got that during spring training and gave it to me. That was pretty cool of him.

» READ MORE: Phillies prospect Dante Nori grew up collecting baseball cards. Now he’s chasing his own rookie cards.

There’s a guy that pulled, it was a sticker auto[graph], it was a one-of-one of me and [Phillies prospect] Aidan Miller. I DM’ed the guy and didn’t hear from him for like a month, and then he DM’ed me. I still haven’t DM’ed him back, but I’m going to try to purchase that one off of him just so I can have that. I haven’t ripped too many packs. I ripped a case of series one in camp. I love it. It’s fun, especially when you have guys like Strahm who gets guys into it. He was telling me stories about how guys started ripping boxes. He’d pull up to the clubhouse and they’re like ‘Dude what is this?’ and I’m like, ‘That’s pretty cool.’

» READ MORE: Team USA has its ace. Will Paul Skenes’ decision to pitch be a game-changer for the WBC?

A: I’ll tell you two because they’re both pretty cool. It was two or three years ago, I opened a box of Panini One and One and pulled a Kevin Durant Downtown. I love that card, it just looks great. It’s just a pretty card, so that was a cool one. And then two years ago in Reading, I just went to the card shop there and I didn’t even know Topps had college basketball. And so I bought a box of that and I’m like, ‘Oh, well, here we go.’ … I opened the box and it was like my second pack. I had a Caitlin Clark [autographed card], it was like an insert [autograph], but it was a pretty big card. And I’m like, ‘Oh, OK. That’s pretty cool.’ My dad sends all the cards into PSA [Professional Sports Authenticator] whenever I bring them home, because he’ll do his own submissions. He’ll throw some of mine in there. And that came back a Gem 10 [virtually perfect condition]. So that was pretty cool.