Amazin’ third baseman Mark Vientos, nicknamed “Swaggy V.,” takes a swing at some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: Describe your mentality on the field.
A: I’m a competitor. I want to be the best out there, I want to be the best for my team. I want to win. … I am confident. … I play the game hard. … If I’m not the best player out there, I want to believe that I am. And I feel like I use a lot of my anger out on the field to my advantage. I feel like I’m intense during the game, like I’m not how I am mellow right now that we’re having a conversation. I’m intense, I’m, like, super-focused, and that’s what I like about the game. It makes me feel different. When I’m in the game, I’m intense, I’m fearless, I’m, like, a competitor, and that’s why I like playing this game.
Q: So you play angry?
A: I play angry. … As human beings, we all have anger in something, we have stress in something, and I use it to my advantage. I use it like, “Come on,” like, “Have that aggressiveness.” Some people want to be chill on the field, some people want to be happy. I want to be aggressive, I want to be like I’m-gonna-bite-your-head-off-type of mentality.
Q: You’d be a good football player.
A: I think in every sport you have to have that mentality, in my opinion.
Q: What drives you?
A: I feel like the drive is just myself. My mind is constantly making fun of me. My mind is constantly saying that I’m not gonna do this, I’m not gonna do that. And I’m like competing against myself. It’s like no matter how old I get, I want to be at the top of my game, and I feel like winning is one of the things, I want to win. I feel like if I make an All-Star team. … I won’t be satisfied with that because me, myself, would be like, “You’re not gonna do it again.” It’s a never-ending, like, cycle of me competing with my own self, my own thoughts.
Q: Seven years ago you wrote, “I feel like I can be an All-Star in the future.” Do you still feel that way?
A: Absolutely. I feel like everything you speak into words, into existence. I mean it 100 percent. Because I’m showing up to the ballpark every day, no matter how tired I am, no matter how much sleep I did or did not get, I am working to the point of those goals. I say that, and that could happen in 10 years, that could happen in two years, that can happen in one year. I don’t know when it’s gonna happen, but I know it’s gonna happen because I’m working towards it every day.
Q: How long have you been keeping a journal?
A: I’ve done it for four years now. I just started writing down thoughts and things that come up in my head, maybe ideas. It’s not just about baseball. One day I could be driving to the field and something pops up and I’ll write it down. It’s a good thing to take stuff off your mind. I feel like sometimes we keep things in our mind that, as men, I feel like we keep it inside, we don’t want to talk about it. So I feel like if you don’t want to talk about it, you could write about it. That’s a way you could get it off your mind.
Q: Can you give me a recent example?
A: Just, like, telling myself, like, to keep doing what I’m doing, and I’m in a good spot just mentally and emotionally, like what I’ve been doing is right on cue. Just little things like that so maybe two years from now I’ll go read and I’ll be like, “Oh look, on this day I was doing this, I was here mentally, I was here spiritually,” whatever the case might be like.
Q: Do you read books about the mind or speak to sports psychologists?
A: This is a great question because I feel like that’s my biggest interest, is how the mind works, and how the human brain works, and why people do certain things and why they don’t … why some people want to be CEOs of companies and could handle all that pressure and all that stress, and some people just want to live average lives. It amazes me ’cause I want to know why. And I’ve always had that curiosity at a young age. … I’ve always been talented at the game, but I feel like when I was younger, I never had the confidence. I’m talking about like high school, middle school, like, I always had that doubt in myself. As many times as I would perform well, I’d always have a doubt in my head. And I would always be like … “Why do I feel this way?” So I started reading books about it, just like self-help books. I’m very big on YouTube and just, like, listening to podcasts on certain athletes that I admire or certain, like, spokespeople that I admire, and just pick, like, their brain by listening to them and see how they talk about themselves and see how they go about their lives. I’m not where I want to be at right now. I’m still working on it, I’m still trying to be a lot better. Like, even with my teammates here, they might not know, but I’m listening to them and just watching to see how they do their things and how they became who they are now. I like learning every day.
Q: Who are some of the podcast or YouTube people you like?
A: Joe Rogan has a lot of good people that hop on his podcast … [Andrew] Huberman … Kobe [Bryant had] a good amount of podcasts he [was] on, I’ve heard a lot about his stuff. I go on YouTube, I’ll find someone, it could be a random person, and I’ll get information and just like run with it if it works for me.
Q: So that helped you overcome or eliminate doubt?
A: Absolutely. … I’m just trying to improve every day, any way I can.
Q: Believing in yourself.
A: I feel like if you don’t believe in yourself, who is gonna believe in you? So I just worry about my opinion and my point of view. Whatever I do, if I stop playing baseball and I become a plumber, I’m gonna believe that I’m gonna be the best plumber.
Q: What is the criticism about your game that bothers you the most?
A: Everybody talks about my defense. All I could do is appreciate that. First of all, I gotta give thanks to God for the ability I have. I feel like I was born to play baseball. And this game has always come easy to me, and I feel like when it came to defense, it was almost like I didn’t really put the focus and the emphasis on it, and now that everybody is talking about how bad I am or whatever they’re saying, it makes me work that much harder on it.
Q: So you have no doubt that you will be able to master defense at third base.
A: Hundred percent.
Q: What advice would you have for Pete Alonso in the Home Run Derby?
A: It’s hard to give advice to someone that’s already won it, he probably knows what do. I’ve been in one Home Run Derby and I didn’t win it.
Q: When was that?
A: In high school, it’s called the All-American Game, and I did terrible. … I think he has a great shot.
Q: Describe Francisco Alvarez.
A: Energy … good vibes … you want him on your team because he’s a competitor, he wants to win, he’ll bite your head off. That’s what you want, especially a catcher in that position, you want that.
Q: J.D. Martinez.
A: Great mind … very wise … winning player … knows what it takes … hard worker.
Q: Francisco Lindor.
A: Leader … winner … knows what it takes to be at the top … great mentality on and off the field.
Q: Brandon Nimmo.
A: Another [unofficial] captain … knows how to do everything the right way … maybe a little more laid back than Lindor.
Q: “OMG.”
A: That’s Jose Iglesias. When I was in Triple-A with him, all he would talk about it is this friggin’ song that’s out now (smile). Like, “Hey, what do you think about this? You think it’s gonna be big?” And I would tell him every time, “Yeah, it’s gonna be big.” I’m happy for him.
Q: Carlos Mendoza.
A: Great baseball mind … has great feel for the game and his players.
Q: What is the funniest moment from the road dinners?
A: So, we do this thing where we put our cards in a pot, and I think I was like the last three in the pot, and I was probably shivering, sweating because I knew that bill was gonna come out to way more than my credit card limit (laugh).
Q: What happened?
A: My card came out, so it was a good thing (smile).
Q: If you could test your skills against any pitcher in MLB history, who would it be?
A: Pedro Martinez. He was a competitor on the mound, and I don’t know why, but I tend to lock it in a lot more when it comes to the best pitchers. I want to see how I do against the best of the best. It brings the best out of me.
Q: What is the biggest adversity you had to overcome?
A: I feel like every year of life you go through adversity, and I feel like it’s at the same degree of difficulty. We make our lives a lot harder than what they are. I feel like I haven’t had any serious, thank God, yet, knock on wood. Just like my career, ups and downs in my career. It’s like funny to say, like, ’cause it’s, like, not really something serious. I feel like something serious is like a passing of a family member or a sickness. I feel like my career is fun. Like, baseball’s fun. I like competing, I like winning, and feel like adversity is every year, like, you always deal with something, whether it’s an injury that you’re dealing with, or something mental.
Q: How about the emotional or mental low point?
A: I could say 2020 COVID. That was a tough year ’cause I didn’t have baseball for a whole year and I was,like a normal person. And that was weird, being a normal person for a year (laugh). I was just in my head every day was, “What’s going on? What’s next?” I was just working out every day, practicing. It felt like I was just standing still, I was going nowhere. It just started, like, eating at me. Usually in the summertime, I’m playing, and I’d probably say, hey, like, “Man, I wish I could have a break in the summer, I never had a summer before,” and I actually had my first summer during COVID, and it was like, “Man, I want to be playing baseball.”
Q: How did Swaggy V. start?
A: I mean, you don’t see it? No, I’m just kidding (smile). I’ve always been super-invested in my appearance and how I look. One of my teammates started calling me Swaggy V., and I kind of ran with it because as a little kid my parents’ll be, “Oh, let’s go pick up food real quick.” And I’ll go dress and put my freshest outfit on, and I always just took that as it was my identity that I wanted to look good all the time.
Q: Are you among the top three dressers on the Mets?
A: I like to say I am.
Q: No. 1?
A: I’m gonna be honest, I’ll give it to Francisco Lindor ’cause he’s been in the league a lot longer than me, he has more years. But we’re pretty close.
Q: How would you describe your fashion style?
A: I felt like I’m versatile. I feel like I could go from street wear to super, like, formal, like spiffy. I could wear a collar with nice slacks and nice shoes, and then one day I could wear baggy pants with ripped jeans and a big shirt. … I like doing different fits.
Q: When and why did you grow the mustache back?
A: I don’t know, man, I’m just bored with, like, how I look sometimes. Like, two years ago I had blond hair, and then I do a buzz cut. I just like changing my look up. I like trying new things seeing if this works or this doesn’t work.
Q: Alex Rodriguez, Manny Machado and David Wright have all been role models for you.
A: Manny Machado and Alex Rodriguez, I feel like I could relate to them ’cause they’re both from Miami, they were both shortstops in high school, turned into third basemen, and I like the swagger that they got. More David Wright the Captain is just like the way he played the game. My dad, big-time Mets fan growing up and I grew up watching the Mets, grew up going to Marlins games to see the Mets and David Wright. I wore No. 5 ’cause of David Wright when I was younger. Those are three guys that I’ve looked up to, and probably still look up to to this day.
Q: Do you miss playing shortstop?
A: Yeah, I do, I miss playing shortstop, shortstop’s cool. Now I go back to shortstop, I’m like, “Man, there’s a lot of room over here.”
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Kobe, Marcus Aurelius, David Goggins.
Q: Why Marcus Aurelius?
A: He’s stoic. … I started reading five, six years back, casually as a routine, and the first book I read was “Ego Is the Enemy,” and Ryan Holiday, the author, he mentions Marcus Aurelius a lot. Just, like, how he went about his life, all the things he dealt with, and basically a stoic is someone who goes through hardships and gets through them, and goes about their life.
Q: One of your Instagram posts: “Can’t appreciate the sun if you ain’t never stood in the rain.”
A: That was a couple of years back. I feel like if everything was just given to us, would we appreciate all the good things that happened? You go through hard times, and when you get through them and the good times come, you appreciate the good times that much more because you know that you don’t take it for granted.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Q: Favorite actor.
A: Adam Sandler
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Margot Robbie.
Q: Favorite singer/rapper/entertainer?
A: Drake.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Pizza.
Q: Describe your two Subway Series home runs off Gerrit Cole.
A: That’s, like, stuff you dream of doing. One of the things I do is I visualize me in certain situations and certain scenarios, and I like to do it over and over again, over and over again, so when I actually do it in reality, it’s almost like, “I’ve seen this before. I’ve done this before.” One of the things I’ve seen over and over in my head, and I kid you not, is the walk-off home run I’ve hit earlier in the season, I might have seen that when I was like 14 years old, 15 years old, I would be thinking about things like that. It’s surreal when you actually do it. It’s like, “Wow,” like how powerful visualization and the mind is.
Q: You ever visualize the Mets winning the World Series?
A: Hundred percent. One thousand percent.
Q: What do you see?
A: Just holding the trophy and, like, the parade, and all of us, like, happy. … I’ll for sure cry. Crying of, like, happiness of how much hard work it took for us to get that.
Q: Is this a playoff team?
A: One thousand percent. ’Cause we have a good combination of veteran guys, young guys that are hungry and willing to learn, and the energy is where it needs to be, and I feel like we’re a playoff-winning team.
Q: You like playing in New York?
A: Love it. ’Cause it brings the best out of me. The energy, the fans, how they expect nothing but greatness, and it makes me wake up every day wanting to do the same for them.
Q: What would your message to Mets fans be about this team and Mark Vientos?
A: They’re gonna be surprised about this team because everybody was doubting in the beginning, and I have a feeling, a big feeling, that we’re gonna prove a lot of people wrong. And then me, that you’re gonna get a competitor, someone that wants to win and someone that’s gonna work his ass off every single day.