Life with Sean McNaughton: Medium-Rare Steak, Mormonism, and a Battle Royale

The latest one-on-one Navigators interview the Sports Information Department conducted was with the scorching Sean McNaughton, who leads the NECBL in both doubles and triples, and is second on the team in batting average (.355 BA). Here is what the BYU-product had to say...

Any unique or unusual eating habits?

"I just really like meat. If I go a few days without meat, I’ll go crazy. So, I have to have meat every day…I don’t know if that’s good or bad."

As a steak connoisseur, where is the best place to order a good steak?

"I really like Outback [Steakhouse], Texas Roadhouse; I would say those are my top two."

Any sauce on top?

"I like it medium rare, so I like it really red. If you get it like that, you shouldn’t have any sauce."

What was your Mormon mission call to Washington D.C. like?

"Basically, I went out there for two years, I didn’t play baseball for the entire two years. I didn’t hit, I didn’t throw…I really didn’t do anything. I didn’t go to school, so it was missionary work every single day. Basically, we would just go out and teach people about our religion and help them understand it more and if they want to join the church, then we help them through that process."

What was your daily schedule like during those two years?

"We’d wake up at 6:30 every single morning for two straight years. We wouldn’t have one day off, so we’d work on Christmas, Thanksgiving, all holidays. We’d go door to door, if people in the congregation had friends, we’d go and teach their friends. Any way that we could get our church name out there, that’s what we did."

What did those two years do for you?

"It helped me grow up a lot. It helped me realize that this life is important. It made me realize that my family is very important to me, especially friendships and the relationships we have with other people. You know, every single day, I went out and helped others. That was my main goal, to uplift people and to make them happy, and give them a better life."

What has a drug-free, alcohol-free lifestyle been like for you?

"I think it is a huge part of my baseball success that I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t smoke, I don’t do tobacco. I’ve never done it in my life, so I think that has helped me have a healthy body, a clean mind. Every single day that I come to the park, I’m focused, and I’m ready to go. You know, I don’t have a hangover or anything. So yea, I think it is a huge part of my success."

What hobbies do you hold outside of baseball?

"We live on a lake up in Washington, so we do a lot of boating and wakeboarding, and really anything out on the water. Also, there are a lot of mountains in Washington so we do a lot of snowboarding. I’m kind of just an outdoors guy."

What’s the best vacation you have every taken in your life?

"I’d have to say, probably to go visit my brother when he was playing minor league ball. I think that was a cool experience to go see him play in the minors. I visited him once in Florida for spring training and then once in Peoria, Illinois, when he was playing for the St. Louis Cardinals. When I saw that, it made me want to work hard and be successful in the game of baseball."

If all members of the Navigators roster were summoned to a WWE-style Battle Royal match...who comes out on top?

"I think it’s Chris Kowalski. He has size, he’s always excited, he’s always giving people high-fives. He just has adrenaline. There is never a moment when he is not happy and excited. I just think he’d tear everyone apart."