Ryan Flores recently won the VYPE Houston Public School Baseball Player of the Year Fan Poll! Flores had a great season for the Rangers and is headed to San Jacinto College next season. VYPE caught up with Flores for the 411 on the star from Baytown Sterling.
VYPE: How long have you been playing baseball and how did you get your start?
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Flores: I've been playing baseball ever since I was 4 years old when I could start tee-ball. My sister played softball and my family was just a baseball family anyway so the bat just naturally fit into my hands.
VYPE: Who's your favorite athlete and why?
Flores: My favorite athlete is Arnold Schwarzenegger for sure because he's an inspiration to every aspect of my personal life. He was so driven to be the best at anything he did, and he did it. It doesn't matter that he wasn't a baseball player. I want to be as driven as he was to transfer it into baseball.
VYPE: Go-to pregame meal? Routine?
Flores: My pregame meal is definitely a banana, teriyaki beef jerky and a Gatorade, and of course a pregame nap in the car if I'm not driving myself.
VYPE: Off the field, what is your favorite thing to do?
Flores: My favorite thing to do outside of baseball is definitely going to the gym and working on building my body. I take a lot of pride it making myself stronger physically and mentally every day because I'm a smaller guy so I have to compensate my size with strength in order to beat these other guys who are way taller than me. I also am into art, I do a lot of animation and digital pieces and of course hanging out with my fellow Chick-fil-A employees.
VYPE: In all of your years of playing baseball, what is the one memory you'll never forget?
Quinlan: In all my years of baseball I will never forget the endless showcases I went to through out my sophomore and junior year. These college scouts would sit down and evaluate you and give you ratings on a piece of paper every time. The thing about the show cases was that they rated you on our power and speed. None of this translated to actual games. Some of these numbers disappointed me but I finally figured out they had nothing to do with how I played the game. I'll never forget getting low ratings at all those show cases because I've been working and will keep working to prove all of those people wrong.