December 18, 2024 • 39 mins
Doug sits down with Tennessee Volunteers Baseball Coach and reigning National Champion Tony Vitello! Tony shares his journey to Tennessee, how he rapidly transformed the program, his thoughts on the evolving college baseball landscape, and much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome back everybody to the Dugout Podcast. I'm your host,
Doug man Cabage. Very honored, humbled to have this man
today on our podcast. Tony Battello, you started your career
spring Hill College, three year letter in Missouri, volunteer coach
at Missouri, eight years at Missou. Twenty eleven, you go
to TCU with Shlashnagel. Twenty fourteen, you get to go
(00:33):
to Arkansas, who now become a powerhouse. That's your kind
of your set and your seed for the SEC. June seventh,
everything changes. Twenty seventeen. You become the head coach at Tennessee.
You are the defending national champion, head coach of the
Tennessee Volunteers. You defeated my knowles in what I thought
was Game one of that was the winner of the
(00:54):
national championship, and you proved it right. I want to
welcome Tony Battello to the Dugout Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thank you. Thanks for the memories too. They're going through
the timeline.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
It's been a fun ride and now it's kind of
crazy to say it's been a fairly long at least
there's some years to it now.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I'm sure you're excited to get back on the field
in the sense to kind of get back at it.
But I want to give you a background too. From
my perspective, I got to coach USA eighteen U national
team for three years now. I don't do a lot
of moving around in that. I try to watch what
goes on in the peripheral with the pro scouts and
the parents, and to give people a background. You were
(01:32):
the only head coach I saw there three years in
a row every day, and I thought, Okay, now everything's
starting to line up and makes sense to me. Why
is he getting the elite talent, Why is he keeping
the elite talent? How is he continually his success? Well,
to me, that speaks volumes to me, because you're out there,
(01:53):
you're in the trenches. You're not sending somebody else. And
then kind of fast forward that to last I think
it was his past fall. We're in Fort Myers PG tournament.
It's raining, there's cancelations all over the place. We're around
some high school field at eleven thirty at night. There's
a power outage. I'm standing next to Sean Jannis, who's
the owner of EAS Recruiting. We're looking at some kids
(02:15):
and there you are. You were one of two Division
one Power five Conference coaches I saw. I saw Brian
O'Connor and I saw you and we got to speak
and I was blown away. Try to put myself on
my eighteen year old shoes and to be like, there's
the head coach of the defending national champion. He's standing
out here in the dark in the rain watching I
(02:36):
forgot it was like Team Australia play. And it just
shows that you put your time in and you work
your butt off. You know, this didn't happen out of luck.
This happened because of you put your nose of the
grindstone and you worked. And from a baseball guy, it's
it makes sense, and it's you've proved a baseball lifer.
(02:56):
Why this is really happening and it's been inspiring. So
that being said, my first kind of hit you in
the chest with a question is who are your biggest influences?
Like who hasn't made you who you are? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I think my dad is the easy answer because I
was around him, you know, every day at home, but
not as often as you'd like to be because he
was out working like crazy, and you know, he coached
a multitude of sports at the high school. Eventually baseball
and soccer became the two that he did the longest.
But even when he wasn't doing those, he was announcing
(03:29):
the football games or helping them at the scores table
for basketball. So I was always around these different sports
and these different teams, and he helped influence me the most.
But I still remember a lot of those players that
some of them maybe never even went on to play
in college, but they were like a hero to me
because I'm a little kid getting to sit on the
bench or near the bench. So again he was the
(03:50):
number one, but it was all those people at the
smet Jesuit High where I went, which is eventually what
led me to spring Hill to meet up with Sean
and experience that place my freshman year year.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
That was the foundation.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
And then from there, you know, I was blessed to
work with coach Jamison, who you know, coach me, and
then I coached with him for over a decade, so
a lot of his philosophies just seamlessly became mine. And
you mentioned getting a taste of the SEC coach Van
Hornet at Arkansas, I think really showed me, you know
(04:25):
what works I guess as a head coach.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And what maybe would be similar for me.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
So a lot of things that I've copied or plagiarized,
if you will, and owe him a lot for that.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
That makes sense. I get that question. I managed ten
years in the minor league ball, and they would ask me,
what's your style of management? I said, well, I'd be
foolish if I didn't take you know, I took something
from Joe Torrey. I took something from Terry Francona. I
took stuff from Ron garden Hier, I took stuff from
Tom Kelly. I'd be foolish not to take some of
what I felt was important and kind of put it
in a melting pot and kind of you know, and
(04:59):
kind of molded my my own spin on it. But
yet at the same token used the backbone of why
these guys were successful. So that makes total sense. Okay,
what were some of the biggest challenges in today's landscape
of college baseball? It's ever changing.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah, the phrase it's ever changing. We literally don't know
what the rules are for next fall. I mean, that's
just a crystal clear statement and it's a fact. And
then if you turn back the clock, ever since you know,
the COVID year, there's kind of been all these things
that are up in the air and things that are changing,
and you know, prior to that, by no means that
(05:34):
I have the world figured out, But there was a
little bit of flow going on there with the draft.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
You knew what a forty round draft was going to
bring and things.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
You could couldn't could and could not do to help
influence your program with that. Now, recruiting at the same
time had turned into us watching eighth graders and freshmen,
which is, you know, a little bit of an insanity
to be honest with you now that I'll look back
on it. So you know, I don't know that there's
been a golden period of college baseball because it's been
(06:03):
growing like crazy. And at the end of the day,
that's what you want is you want more kids invested,
you want more kids choosing that are great athletes, choosing
baseball over other sports, and you want a lot of
people watching on TV and a lot of people coming
to the games. So regardless of how we got here
or what the rules are going to be next fall,
I think college baseball is as big of a deal
as it's ever been and the star power seems to
(06:25):
be growing because a lot of kids see college is,
you know, a great route to develop and then move
on to pro baseball.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I think the fact that the pro ball has taken
away two or three teams, the draft is smaller, you're
leaving guys in there in the college baseball world that
maybe and ten years ago would have went in the draft,
and now you're stockpiling. And last year's Omaha was I mean,
my goodness, gracious, you're talking about your last two years
in Omah for that matter. You're seeing you know, there's
(06:55):
just there might be five Rookie of the Years on
the field at one time, and that's just unheard of.
So yeah, I mean, I'm it's become a it's become
a man's world, and the Division one college baseball is
it's a it's just look at him. I have an
eighteen year old, nineteen year old son who's at JUCO. Now,
I'm like, you want to see what it looks like.
Look at these these are dudes, Like these are men,
Like you're playing against men. Now, this is a different animal. So,
(07:18):
without getting too specific, what do you look for in
a player?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I think presence is a big thing, because if we're
gonna get tipped off on a guy by a scout
or a coach, he watched this guy, or we look
at his video and it's appealing enough to go watch
him at a field, he probably already meets the skill
category at least to an extent. So presence the I
guess the root. I'm not smart enough. Although I did
(07:44):
take Latin, I don't know the root of presence or
but how you present yourself is kind of what that
word brings to mind as we talk now, and.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
How you handle situations like that Florida Stay game. There
were so many swing moments.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And I thought teams had a bunch of future big
leaguers and a bunch of guys that competed in the
right way, And that's why it was such a grudge match,
and so it was entertaining at times to be in
the dugout. I had to pinch myself and like, listen,
you're not a fan here. You might have to pinch
hit somebody or do something like that. But I was just,
you know, caught up in the fact there was a
lot of guys that presented themselves on the field in
(08:22):
a very impressive way. Whether it's one of our guys,
you know, looking over the dugout and encouraging the guys
literally in the middle of his at bat, or you
know Arnold. To me, he's your typical quirky lefty with
kind of a high energy approach out on the mound,
and I'm saying to myself, how is this guy not
going to be the number one pick next year? So,
(08:44):
without rambling on too much, I think presence is at
the very least one very key factor that we look at.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
It's funny you say that. I had a couple of
playoff games where at the time I had Jose Barrios,
Max Kepler, Byron Buxton, Jorge Polanco, the list goes on
and on. And we were playing the Cubs and they
had Jose Baiez Contreras, I mean, they like Schwarber. And
we sat back and was like, hang on a second, like,
(09:12):
let's take this. I will do me a favor. I
told my staff, I said, let's take this inning in
as fans and let's just watch this and like put
our hats down for a second and be like we're
staring at the backbone of major League Baseball for three
or four but seven eight or nine years, so I
get that part of it. Look back and like again
from it as a fan standpoint that went to Florida State.
(09:35):
The passion and the intensity that was on that field,
like that, to me, College baseball should replay that game
a million times because the passion was everywhere. There was
intense moments, swings, good, bad, all that stuff. Kind of
the back and forth was was amazing. It was one
of the best games that didn't come out the way
I wanted it to. But the same token as a
(09:55):
baseball fan was like, this is what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
It kind of goes to the show you.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I'm very appreciated of the fact we were able to win,
but I think more now than ever, just appreciative of
the fact that you have to have fortune. You can
call it luck, you can call it whatever. There's a
lot of good things that have to happen along the
way to a championship, especially in baseball, and then especially
in college baseball. You get into pro sports the NBA,
(10:19):
you can kind of script it from the start a
little bit, and in no disrespect to those guys, but
if you spend the most money in Lebron's passing to
you know, Dwayne Wade or whoever it might be. You
can kind of see the writing on the wall, and
the script went back and forth that night and really
over the course of the whole tournament several different times,
as it does every year, and makes the thing a blast.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yep, that's I always say, that's the one thing that's
eluded me, and that was like that. It still wakes
me up in the middle of the night. I had
teams in ninety four ninety five that I felt were
a ninety five team for sure. I thought we were
the best in the country and that you know, that
got us, you know, a bag of seats that didn't
mean anything. We didn't you know, we didn't finish, and
it was It still haunts us of this day. But
how do you communicate your vision to your players?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
You know?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
I think daily it pops up, like you know, just
to have one PowerPoint presentation or one big long speech.
First of all, these kids' attention spans now are TikTok version,
So I think daily, you know, kind of embedding messages
that you want to get across and hopefully they become
common speak. You know, we had a kid, Drew Gilbert,
(11:27):
that I don't mind saying was kind of a controversial
player because he was so fiery our center fielder. If
people could see him off the field or in the
locker room, he probably would have had ninety nine percent
of the country cheering for him, regardless of what school
you went to or cheer for. But nonetheless, Drew was
a guy who I think influenced our culture, maybe as
(11:47):
much as any player since we've been here the last
seven years. And Drew had a way of taking what
the coaches said and making sure it became common speak
with the players, and so he wasn't necessarily like a
Tom Brady to your Peyton Manning leader, where I'm giving
you a direction or I'm a point guard. But it
was just these little phrases that he would take from
our meetings and make sure they were a big part
(12:10):
of our team's approach every day. And you know, you
can only go so far as a coach, I guess
is what I'm saying, because again, we try and to
embed it every day, but then they got to take
it and run with it.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And we've been blessed with some guys that do that
for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I want to ask you between old school and new school.
I know you already previously talked about your dad, and
I did some homework and I saw the Missouri Hall
of Fame and two different sports forty six years. I
did high school for four years, and I don't know
how he ever managed to do it for decades for Davids, Plus,
it's challenging as heck. But the more I did more,
(12:47):
I did some more research on you, I realized how
much old school is in you, but you also have
some new school feel to it to where the younger
generation really really wants to play for you. Just describe
that that that that ying and yang, that kind of
combination of the two.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, I think part of it is uh. I favor
natural grass. I loved going to Wrigley with my daddy's
from Chicago, but in order for us to catch up
to some of these other teams, we needed more reps.
So it finally caved and we went to the artificial surface.
Kind of a necessary evil a guy goes to second.
I think Josh Hamilton and the Rangers were the first
(13:26):
ones to start the celebrations at Second, and ironically, Jase Tingler,
who's the most intense player I've ever coached, along with
Drew was on that coaching staff. It's kind of like,
we got to do this every day and we got
more downtime and time at the field anybody, So you
got to kind of fill it with some stuff that
adds some personality.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So I want guys personality to shine through.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
And I guess going to the second base example too,
I don't want to be looked at as the coach
where guys now they got the power of Google, Like,
wait a minute, you're telling me I can't celebrate at
second I just did my homework and you barely had
any doubles your whole college career, So who are you
to tell, you know? And then also I think behind
the scenes, you know, Muhammad Ali's got the quote of
(14:09):
you know, basically what's going on behind the scenes is
what makes you a champion, not in the ring. And
you know, for for me, I really think we're super
demanding of our players.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
So if you.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Get through that gate of meeting all the demands of
us and you get to be the guy standing at
home plate for us, then as you're at bat, you know,
you get to do with it as you see fit.
And same for the pitchers that are on the mound
and then if it goes too far, then it's our
job to corral guys. And I know we had a
guy that was a superstar kid and player for us
make a mistake in twenty two and immediately the media
(14:44):
asked and fans online, what's the punishment we want to see? Like,
you're not in our locker room. We'll handle this within.
And you know all the great teams you've been a
part of and the team chemistry that you either gave
thumbs up or thumbs down. The thumbs up is usually
a team that self police in a team that maybe
has an incident happened and it doesn't get out to
(15:04):
the public because it's such a tight knit group. And
that's one thing we've tried to create here as well.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Do you think that twenty two I think twenty two
was one notre dame?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
No, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Do you think that loss had how much if you've
got to put a percentage on it, that loss at home?
What do you think that did for your program? Did
you think that was a stepping stone to winning the
whole thing?
Speaker 3 (15:27):
We don't win a national championship without that moment. I
truly feel that way.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
I think the.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Hunger, and also the mental adjustments or the willingness to
look at something and learn had a huge carryover effect
and it helped in twenty three get us to Omaha,
even though that year was nowhere near as smooth or
you know, is a rocky road which makes me want
(15:54):
to have some ice cream in the morning. But you know,
in twenty four, I think it was a culmination really
of the whole program kind of building up. But more
than anything, it was a twenty three able to make
it to Omaha. We knew what worked and what didn't
work from that year because it was tumultuous. And then
twenty two was you need to come to the park
or get on the field feeling invincible, but you also
(16:15):
need to respect the game and your opponent enough to
know that you're not invincible. And that's a very you know.
Twenty two was that somebody needs to wise up and
put a netflix special together and that team would be
the focus, but college baseball would.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Be the main backdrop.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
And you've got guys like schemes and recruiting of Paul Skins,
just different things that could be a magical story about it,
and we learned a lot from it.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I guess is the main point.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Absolutely, your players will run through a burning building. For you,
how does that make you feel.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Well?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
To hear from someone that I watched a bunch and respected,
it means a lot. And no matter who you are,
you could be I don't know if Michael Jordan is exempt,
but you could be a great.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Athlete Tiger Woods.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
You need to hear positives that hopefully outweigh the negatives,
because there's more of those these days. And I think
that's important for players to realize is if you're going
to go out of your way to look at your
phone and maybe read some negative comments, you need to
balance that out by seeking out positive. And that doesn't
mean you're needy. I just think your mind needs to
be balanced by everything that's out there. So that's a
(17:22):
long way of saying I appreciate that. I think one
thing that players know is if they want to get
there at eight am to hit off the tee or
stay till eight pm, I think I'm willing to do that.
And anytime something good happens and we've been able to
have some success, there's no one answer. Because you were mentioning,
(17:43):
you know, being at the park or hustling and recruiting
and things like that, despite us being accused of taking
shortcuts a bunch of different times, because we've had success.
You know, maybe there's been a mistake or two along
the way, but there's been no shortcuts from the beginning.
But there's also been a lot of good ingredients. Like
some guys will come to me for recruiting advice and
it's like, well, first off, I've been at four schools
(18:06):
that are pretty easy to recruit to that are for
pretty great places. So there's been a lot of ingredients
mixed in. But however we get there, I do want
the players to see me as a good teammate for them.
And I think when you know, when you got a
teammate you know has your back, you want to have his.
And it turns into this thing where on TV, like
you said, it looks like you're run through a brick wall.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I've always said this, and I've used it in pro
ball and it speaks with everywhere. If you really want
to find out what a player is, ask the strength coach.
He spends the most time with him. You can find
out some dirt that you might need down the road,
like for free agents, you'll find out what kind of
guy he is by asking the strength coach does he
respect him? Does he give him the same respect he
(18:48):
gives the head coach. And that was my thing, was
whether you're talking to the head coach, you're talking to
the assistant coach, or the strength coach or the administrator,
you treat them with the same ounce of respect that
you do a head coach. You would never do that.
He wasn't here, So be act right and do what
you're supposed to do and treat him like you would
treat me, and we'll never have a problem. And that's
(19:08):
to me. It was like, I know, I've watched a
couple of interviews you had about your strength coach and
I'm still friends with one of my one of my
best friends was my strength coach, my strength coordinator, And
I know why my friends with him for the most part,
because he don't bs me. He tells me like it is.
He tells me exactly. Sometimes it's not what I want
to hear, but I know I get the truth from him.
(19:29):
And I think I heard you talk about your strength
GRD and I thought, like, man, that makes total sense
to me.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, he's a superstar and if kids only knew it.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
It's kind of like the old you know, Albert pujols
Off Brad Lynch hits at epic homer and he's like,
I'm just trying to back spin the ball up the
middle of the field. He wasn't trying to hit a
home run. And for a kid that's trying to impress
the head coach, like coach Van Horn, he's been there,
done it, he's seen it all. You don't need to
kiss up to him or go out of your way
to make sure you know he likes what you're doing.
(19:58):
You need to gain the respect to the strength coach
and the director of opsky and maybe even that he
passes you and the janitor.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
At the same time. And you, you know, whatever disrespectful
or are respectful.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
That's what really earns, you know, the respect of kind
of you know, the people that are making decisions involved
in your career.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
But I don't think all kids see that.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, you know, our guy is very well compensated, very
well thought of across the country. So to me, he's
the number one guy for a lot of reasons, and
a lot of recruits don't realize what you said. The
NCAA rules literally dictate. They can be around him more
than the baseball coaches. So scouts wear him out, and
it's it's wise that they do, because he'll give them
(20:41):
the goods and he doesn't pull any punches when he
talks about our kids. And yeah, you walk through that
weight room a lot of times our first few years.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I would walk on the treadmill backwards.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I don't like standing still, and I wanted to watch
and it's funny, like they know I'm in there.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
But if the.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Straight coach can't exactly see everybody in every spot of
the weight room, you kind of get to see the
guys that like to take shortcuts and the guys that
want to get away with some things, and those are
the guys that'll knife you when it matters most. So
it helps to know who those guys are in a
setting like the weight room.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Your alpha males get better in the dark, no question.
And that's you know. I tell my son that every day,
you want to get better, get better in the dark.
I didn't get better in front of anyone but my dad.
That was it. I just want to get better on
my own. Okay, this is probably one of the one
I thought about the most. What would today's Tony say
(21:38):
to eighteen year old Tony?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Relax for one thing.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
You know, you mentioned the old school thing, like I
was the guy that would get a walk or earn
a walk, and or the picture was foolish enough to
out throw me strikes and I dang near sprint to
first base, and you know, a I was trying to
stand out, but be I I was trying to hustle.
But you know the game, as you move move up,
people say it speeds up, but there's also people that say, no,
(22:04):
it slows down. Like you know, watch Machado at third base.
Now he's got the bazooka to rely on, but everything
is a lot smoother. And I think I had the
work ethic foundation, but I didn't let it work for me.
So I'm answering with more than one phrase. But you know,
when's this hard working to payoff when you let it.
You know, I never had that phrase until the last
(22:26):
few weeks of my career. Is when you let it.
And then the same thing everybody will say is take
the time. Take take the moment that you had in
the dugout where you said, let's chill out for a second,
and let's really embrace this moment and kind of basking
the talent that's on the field.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And it's so hard for anybody to take a time out.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
That's why I think yoga, you know, love it or
hate it, for a baseball player, at least do it
a couple times so you get the feeling of not
having your phone, not worrying about what's the next play,
and just here, here's the thing I'm doing right now.
Is a very powerful thing for a baseball player to have.
And I was always kind of running around almost you
(23:09):
know here on fire Jojo the circus clown like Tommy
Boyce said.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Well, I mean, like be where your feet are at.
We preach that control the controllables, right, but like we
don't ever do anything. I know, the Dodgers late in
my career, the Dodgers created the yoga and the pilates,
and it was every Sunday morning and it was like,
you know, we go in there, and you go in
there at all, and then all of a sudden you realize, like, man,
that was pretty cool. Like one, it's relaxing, you might
(23:34):
fall asleep, but it is. It's beneficial. So I think
you're starting to see the ad of that stuff too,
and mental health to me has come a long way.
And I've always I've always started every season with every
team I've ever had, and I've always said, I don't
know if I'll make you physically better, I know I'll
make you mentally tougher. And then at the end game,
(23:55):
you guys are all talented here, it's the ones that
are mentally tough enough to handle the up and downs
and to stay where you're at. I said, the easy part.
Everybody talks about he can't handle failure. Well I go
the other way. You can't handle success. That's your problem.
You don't handle like you you get too high. And
it's the same thing. It's just a way to flip
the strip, flip flip the phrase. And I try to
(24:17):
tell them and they understand, like, well, I'm if I
get you mentally tough enough to handle the day in,
day out grind. And I think that's the biggest thing
for college guys going to pro ball. It's you don't
get that midweek guy to go beat up on and
get pat your stats right. You don't get the you
got the Friday night guy a lot, And it's and
it's not just Friday night it's Tuesday afternoon, it's Wednesday.
(24:38):
And that's where you find the mentally tough ones figure
it out faster than the other ones, and sometimes it
takes time. And the phrase I always use in front
offices was just because he's not getting it at the
speed that you wanted to get it at doesn't mean
he's not getting it. And I think that's one of
the things. And that's the change in college baseball, because
you know, everybody wants to now. You don't have time
(24:59):
to develop that much anymore. Right, It's it's it's winning now,
or I want to have to be physical, to be physical,
you're not physical enough. Well, you know, there's there's a
there's a blueprint to it. It's just willing. Are you
willing to put in the work to get to be
that guy? So yeah, it's.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Frustrating the lack of patience. And that's one thing about
our twenty two team. Dol Lander came in, you know,
as a first rounder with the Rockies as the one
portal guy we had on the team, but most of
the guys playing were guys who had to sit the
year before, and some of the guys had to sit
the year before that as.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Well, and even a couple you know.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Further so, I think it's a little bit of a
lost art with the portal and my favorite thing this summer,
by no means am I a Texas fan, but I
am an arch Manning fan because of the family. And
if you know that group of guys, especially Archie's grandfather,
is like, hey, just because the Superstars coming back doesn't
mean he's leaving.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
He's got a path that he sees for.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Himself and he's going to keep grinding down that path
and he's to be undeniable. And I wish I would
have had that mindset of of being undeniable. I thought
I could more reps in the weight room, more reps
in the cage would have got me there. And so
I guess, circling back my final answers, like you said,
I would have put as many reps in on the
mental side, or at least half of as I did
(26:18):
off the tee when no one was watching and I
was really trying to get better. And that's that's something
that I think helped my coaching career, was meeting Ken
Rivisa and kind of becoming obsessed with that whole mindset
thing because I was a pitching coach to start, even
though I want a pitcher, So like, how can I
help these guys, Well, I can't tell them. Here's how
(26:38):
I threw my breaking ball. So one thing that kind
of became a staple for our you know Schurzer was
with us and some other guys at Missouri, was you know,
stuff we learned from from Ken. I wish I would
have involved that more when I was playing.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
It's funny too, because Dave Duncan was a pitching coach
for the Cardinals for how long and he wasn't a
pitcher either. Like, well, I would force my pitching coaches
to talk to my hitters, and I would force my
hitting coach to talk to the pictures. Because your job
depends on getting me out, and your job is depending
on getting like getting hits off that guy. So there's
the mental side of it. We all need to know mechanics.
(27:13):
I understand that, but I always tell our hitters this,
the faster and quicker you make. This when you're six
years old in the backyard playing wiffle ball against your boy.
You don't care if your foot's down, you don't care
where your hands are. You're just trying to either a
hit a ball through your neighbor's window or you're trying
to hit a line drive off his face with a
whiffotball and you don't. All you're all you're trying to
(27:33):
do is and everything else goes away. I know, Carlos
Beltran said it perfectly. We were locker mats in New
York and we were facing Roger Clemens that night, and
I'm like, how do you do against Rock? How do
you do against Rocket? And he goes, who And I
go Roger Clemens. He goes, I don't face Roger Clemens.
I face the ball. And I was like, that's why
you just got two hundred and fifty six million and
(27:55):
I got a minor league contract, because that's where you think.
And that's so, I mean, just little things like that
are are are? I learned throughout the time was We're priceless?
But last question, what are you most proud of?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Ah? That's a good question. Uh, you know, it's it's
the holiday season.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
So making my parents proud, or at least they say
they're proud of me is special.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
But really truly for me.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I think the reason why I wanted to stay in
athletics in general, and it was just baseball because it
took me the furthest It was the camaraderie. And I'd
like to think, you know, even though I teased that
I wasn't a great player, I think the guys that
I played with would at least say I was a
good teammate. And I think the kids I've coached too,
(28:40):
you know, for the most part, you know, I have
their back and they have mine. And that's easy to
do on day one of practice and easy to do
on opening day. But what about when you lose, you know,
in a regional or a super regional or your season's over.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
What does it look like then? Or what if the
kids struggles? What does it look like then?
Speaker 3 (28:58):
And I guess that was my one skill I was
really good at. So while Tony Gwinn probably helped those
hitters at San Diego State know how to hit off
the tee and how to use the whole field, that's
the one thing I try and make sure I checked
that box.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
And I let our strength.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Coach and coach e Lander and coach Anderson and the
other coaches do what they do best.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Eye lied, I'm gonna follow that up. Yeah, bring it on,
you said, you just said, Now, has that ever backfired
in your coaching career as far as being I know
it has for me a couple of times where I
found myself too close. I had the same group from
a ball double A, and then I let him once
they got past me there in the big leagues and
I got there were times where I felt like I
(29:39):
was too close to him. I got to pull back
the rings. I'm getting too I don't want to say friendly,
but I was like, I'm becoming one of them, and
I need to. I need to, like, don't mistake my
kindness for weakness, because I will put my foot in
your ass. And that's and like I felt that I
learned that and I didn't do it long. I did
it for a decade, but I had to find that
(29:59):
that finally line to be like I want to. I
want you all to understand that I am behind you
one thousand and Hell it got me fired twice, but yeah,
I still there's still there's a line that you can't
cross because I am the hancho and that's that's where
that stands. So I was just curious to see, have
you ever had the moment where you felt like I
(30:19):
got to kind of drift myself back a little bit.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, I think balance is the most frustrating word on
the planet. It's easy as a coach to just throw
it out as a as a term. But last year's team,
to me, the number one trait that stood out was balance.
And I think, you know, again, twenty two and twenty
three didn't just help the players, but it helped you know,
the coaching staff too. Is I don't get to be
the recruiting coordinator anymore, where you can get a little
(30:43):
closer with parents and you know, the guys.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
And I think for me, there's moments where, yeah, you'll
let it go.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
You'll let it go because you are a little little tighter,
a little closer with the guys. But I think there's
got to be a cutoff point, and we had a
few of those points last year where you know, call
it putting the foot down and drawing.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
A line in the sand that this is a this
is not acceptable.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
And I think really the thing that came to mind
when you start to bringing this up is because we're
close with our players and we really want them to
do well, we're very flexible, and sometimes that flexibility can
bite us in the butt.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
You let a guy do his own throwing routine or
own throwing warm up, and he goes home over Christmas
and meets one person and next thing you know, he's
doing something totally different, which I'm all for learning. But
this time of year, we're all under the umbrella of
the team and anything again, balance is key. Anything drastic
or extreme in one direction or the other could be
harmful to the whole group.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
I've always thought that college is always weird. Right, you
spend the fall, you get there, you do all the weight,
you do the running. You got him under your umbrella.
There's time cons straight from the fall, and then you
go on for Christmas and hang on a second. The
season starts in a month, and we haven't strike in
the field yet together, and yet you're opening your Friday night.
Guy is starting to throw. Probably the most important time
(32:03):
for him to start throwing is now, and I can't
have my eyes on him. So I sent him home
to go through a pen with. You know, Johnny be
good at high school and going, oh, no, like this guy.
I'm depending on this guy to make every Friday Night
start and I don't have my eyes on him until
three weeks from opening day, and I always I don't.
I'm not a college coach yet. I'm hoping to be
(32:25):
one someday. I'm finishing my degree, but I'm like, I
wake up in cold sweats with that thought and I
haven't even been there yet. So to me, that's kind
of it's it's kind of crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Now most of these guys have advisors or agents and hey,
so like I'm a guy has Scott Boris, he might
instead of being with coach Anderson, be with the Boris
Corp training And they took care of mister Soto just fine.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
So I think they know what they're doing. That's not
the question. It's is it in line.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
With you know, these kids get confused enough getting on
YouTube rabbit holes or hearing different fans opinions. So I
think being in line with what your team is asking
you to do is incredibly important. So if you go
to Florida State or you go to Oregon, you need
to be doing what the Florida State guys are doing
or the organ guys are doing, especially come January or
(33:13):
just even December, because the season's right around the corner
and it's not going to be how do you perform
in the eighteen to one game against the team you're
clearly better than on paper.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
It's going to be that back and forth battle.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Is everybody on the same page, and if you're not
on the same page before the season even starts and
bullets bullets start wizzing around, as you might say, then
it may not work out too well.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
That goes back to where you just said about the
team and how crossing the lines like that respect level
comes from the players too, Like you have to have
the trust to where like I trust you, guys not
to cross that line, and that's where that give and
take goes. Where I trust you, I'm letting you go home.
I expect you to do what we do. And that's
where I always say, that's where your alpha males come in, right,
talk about Gilbert, Like you change your culture like that
(33:59):
cultures where we throw around way too much, but it's
so poignant, right your culture kind of once your culture
is set, it kind of and your team's changed from
year to year. Of course they do. You're you know,
depends on how you want it and what it looks like.
But you develop a culture that kind of hopefully you stick,
and then you kind of just one one group teaches
the next, and the next group teaches the next, and
(34:20):
then it's that avalanche that you hopefully you get to
when that's kind of where I'm thinking where I know
back when Florida State in the nineties, like we didn't
have to do anything. We just pick up and pick
up the rope and keep pulling right because it was
I remember freshman coming in JD Drew. I'm like, you know,
I'll never forget this. We go to Arizona State. He's
(34:40):
a freshman, I'm a junior. He tweaked his hamstring. Don't
know if it was real. I'm not saying it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
JD.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
We all knew was our unicorn. But JD was like,
I don't know if I can play this weekend. And
I went into Coach Martin's office eleven. I said, then
leave him here. We don't need them. We've won this
for him, will win it after him. And and we
left him at home. And because we trusted the guy
that was there before. Long story short, it was we
(35:09):
don't do that stuff here like we want you to,
like you might be able to just be able to
pinchhit on Sunday. That matters to us. We need you
and like this whole like and not say anything negativebout
Jad because Jady was one hell of a teammate and
he put up you know, gangster numbers like Nintendo numbers,
and it was the best player arguably to me that
went there. But there was a culture we had that
(35:31):
was like, we don't do that here, Bud, Like that's
not how that's not how this works. And if you
don't get together with us. You know, we voted guys
off the island a lot in college and in pro bawl,
like this guy's not one of us, and so its wins.
We did the same thing like this is we don't
want this guy and they end up being you know,
all stars. And then but the other come back and
say thank you because I didn't do things right. We
(35:53):
don't show up at the last minute, we show up
on time. We get we want to be together, We
want to do the dinners. You know you talk I
heard you talk about that before, Like you want those
guys to have relationships off the field, because this game
is not about numbers. It's about relationships. It's about moments
that you have together that will echo through that They
(36:13):
all have the same story they come back, those guys
that won the national championshipre Gonn come back ten twenty
thirty years from now, they're gonna have the same stories.
And that, to me is what this game is all about.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
No doubt. I wish how many people. I wish people
knew how.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Many guys they're watching on TV or in college or
pro you know, that are doing well and they look
up to and know, like that one, what that guy
was like two.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Or three years ago.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
He needed this role player or this senior captain to
kind of steer him in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
And that's ninety nine percent of the guys.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
And then every now and then you get the one
percenter like Ian Kinsler or Drew Gilbert, where as soon
as they walk through the door, they're like, this is
how it's going to be, and they have the capability
and of course the skill set to do that. But again,
everything we're talking about is within the frame work at
the team, and it's in the locker room, in the dugout,
and that's got to be affected. And I hate to
(37:05):
ramble on, but you know the one thing that's frustrating
about the Dodgers is I'm not a fan or an
anti fan, but I do know enough their culture is
really good too. Yes, they're spending the money, and in
pro sports you kind of have to be. It seems
like you got to have all your chips in or not,
or you don't have a chance at the trophy. They've
got all their chips in and then have a big budget.
But I know it's very well known too. They've kind
(37:28):
of got the culture the way it's supposed to be too,
where guys get in line, like you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
I started my I ended my baseball my playing career there,
and I started my coaching career there. Don Mattley adamantly
asked me to be a coach there and I told
him no twice. He's like, I'm not going to ask
you again. Well, my first guy I had as a
hitting coach was Corey Steger, and I'm like, well, you know,
Jock Peterson and I had them, Like my gosh, these
are guys all like this, Like where have I been?
(37:53):
These guys are amazing. But yeah, the culture that they
would they were growing to build, you see it like
you see it. Played with Dave Roberts. Dave had a
you know, obviously the manager like you see that you
can just look at them from afar And the scary
part is if you looked at like when they pan
the dugout their pitching staff, that was hurt was like
(38:14):
those like nine Deep like you're looking at you're looking
at like four starters of the All Star Game and
they're not even playing yet. So but you're but you're right,
like you can have all the talent in the world.
But if you're those guys, you can tell they have
a blast going to the field. Keiky Hernandez is right.
Those guys that are though glue guys. We talk about
you need glue guys. If you don't have glue guys,
you can have all the talent in the world and
(38:34):
it's not gonna work. I appreciate your time, Tony. This
has been great. I appreciate it. I know you're a
busy man. I can't thank you enough. If I don't,
hopefully I'll keep in contact with you. But as now,
thank best of luck moving forward. Hopefully everybody that you
need to stay healthy stays healthy. And more importantly, I
hope you get a chance to kind of xale once
in a while and take a step back and look
(38:55):
back up what you built it's been and what you
continue to build, it's uh, it's something that a lot
of teams need to pay attention to if they haven't already.
You're doing it right, and uh this has been an
honor for me to to kind of interview you, so
thank you.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Well likewise here too, I appreciate you including us, and
uh we'll have to do it again sometime absolutely,
Welcome back everybody to the Dugout Podcast. I'm your host,
Doug man Cabage. Very honored, humbled to have this man
today on our podcast. Tony Battello, you started your career
spring Hill College, three year letter in Missouri, volunteer coach
at Missouri, eight years at Missou. Twenty eleven, you go
to TCU with Shlashnagel. Twenty fourteen, you get to go
(00:33):
to Arkansas, who now become a powerhouse. That's your kind
of your set and your seed for the SEC. June seventh,
everything changes. Twenty seventeen. You become the head coach at Tennessee.
You are the defending national champion, head coach of the
Tennessee Volunteers. You defeated my knowles in what I thought
was Game one of that was the winner of the
(00:54):
national championship, and you proved it right. I want to
welcome Tony Battello to the Dugout Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thank you. Thanks for the memories too. They're going through
the timeline.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
It's been a fun ride and now it's kind of
crazy to say it's been a fairly long at least
there's some years to it now.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I'm sure you're excited to get back on the field
in the sense to kind of get back at it.
But I want to give you a background too. From
my perspective, I got to coach USA eighteen U national
team for three years now. I don't do a lot
of moving around in that. I try to watch what
goes on in the peripheral with the pro scouts and
the parents, and to give people a background. You were
(01:32):
the only head coach I saw there three years in
a row every day, and I thought, Okay, now everything's
starting to line up and makes sense to me. Why
is he getting the elite talent, Why is he keeping
the elite talent? How is he continually his success? Well,
to me, that speaks volumes to me, because you're out there,
(01:53):
you're in the trenches. You're not sending somebody else. And
then kind of fast forward that to last I think
it was his past fall. We're in Fort Myers PG tournament.
It's raining, there's cancelations all over the place. We're around
some high school field at eleven thirty at night. There's
a power outage. I'm standing next to Sean Jannis, who's
the owner of EAS Recruiting. We're looking at some kids
(02:15):
and there you are. You were one of two Division
one Power five Conference coaches I saw. I saw Brian
O'Connor and I saw you and we got to speak
and I was blown away. Try to put myself on
my eighteen year old shoes and to be like, there's
the head coach of the defending national champion. He's standing
out here in the dark in the rain watching I
(02:36):
forgot it was like Team Australia play. And it just
shows that you put your time in and you work
your butt off. You know, this didn't happen out of luck.
This happened because of you put your nose of the
grindstone and you worked. And from a baseball guy, it's
it makes sense, and it's you've proved a baseball lifer.
(02:56):
Why this is really happening and it's been inspiring. So
that being said, my first kind of hit you in
the chest with a question is who are your biggest influences?
Like who hasn't made you who you are? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I think my dad is the easy answer because I
was around him, you know, every day at home, but
not as often as you'd like to be because he
was out working like crazy, and you know, he coached
a multitude of sports at the high school. Eventually baseball
and soccer became the two that he did the longest.
But even when he wasn't doing those, he was announcing
(03:29):
the football games or helping them at the scores table
for basketball. So I was always around these different sports
and these different teams, and he helped influence me the most.
But I still remember a lot of those players that
some of them maybe never even went on to play
in college, but they were like a hero to me
because I'm a little kid getting to sit on the
bench or near the bench. So again he was the
(03:50):
number one, but it was all those people at the
smet Jesuit High where I went, which is eventually what
led me to spring Hill to meet up with Sean
and experience that place my freshman year year.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
That was the foundation.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
And then from there, you know, I was blessed to
work with coach Jamison, who you know, coach me, and
then I coached with him for over a decade, so
a lot of his philosophies just seamlessly became mine. And
you mentioned getting a taste of the SEC coach Van
Hornet at Arkansas, I think really showed me, you know
(04:25):
what works I guess as a head coach.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And what maybe would be similar for me.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
So a lot of things that I've copied or plagiarized,
if you will, and owe him a lot for that.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
That makes sense. I get that question. I managed ten
years in the minor league ball, and they would ask me,
what's your style of management? I said, well, I'd be
foolish if I didn't take you know, I took something
from Joe Torrey. I took something from Terry Francona. I
took stuff from Ron garden Hier, I took stuff from
Tom Kelly. I'd be foolish not to take some of
what I felt was important and kind of put it
in a melting pot and kind of you know, and
(04:59):
kind of molded my my own spin on it. But
yet at the same token used the backbone of why
these guys were successful. So that makes total sense. Okay,
what were some of the biggest challenges in today's landscape
of college baseball? It's ever changing.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah, the phrase it's ever changing. We literally don't know
what the rules are for next fall. I mean, that's
just a crystal clear statement and it's a fact. And
then if you turn back the clock, ever since you know,
the COVID year, there's kind of been all these things
that are up in the air and things that are changing,
and you know, prior to that, by no means that
(05:34):
I have the world figured out, But there was a
little bit of flow going on there with the draft.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
You knew what a forty round draft was going to
bring and things.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
You could couldn't could and could not do to help
influence your program with that. Now, recruiting at the same
time had turned into us watching eighth graders and freshmen,
which is, you know, a little bit of an insanity
to be honest with you now that I'll look back
on it. So you know, I don't know that there's
been a golden period of college baseball because it's been
(06:03):
growing like crazy. And at the end of the day,
that's what you want is you want more kids invested,
you want more kids choosing that are great athletes, choosing
baseball over other sports, and you want a lot of
people watching on TV and a lot of people coming
to the games. So regardless of how we got here
or what the rules are going to be next fall,
I think college baseball is as big of a deal
as it's ever been and the star power seems to
(06:25):
be growing because a lot of kids see college is,
you know, a great route to develop and then move
on to pro baseball.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I think the fact that the pro ball has taken
away two or three teams, the draft is smaller, you're
leaving guys in there in the college baseball world that
maybe and ten years ago would have went in the draft,
and now you're stockpiling. And last year's Omaha was I mean,
my goodness, gracious, you're talking about your last two years
in Omah for that matter. You're seeing you know, there's
(06:55):
just there might be five Rookie of the Years on
the field at one time, and that's just unheard of.
So yeah, I mean, I'm it's become a it's become
a man's world, and the Division one college baseball is
it's a it's just look at him. I have an
eighteen year old, nineteen year old son who's at JUCO. Now,
I'm like, you want to see what it looks like.
Look at these these are dudes, Like these are men,
Like you're playing against men. Now, this is a different animal. So,
(07:18):
without getting too specific, what do you look for in
a player?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I think presence is a big thing, because if we're
gonna get tipped off on a guy by a scout
or a coach, he watched this guy, or we look
at his video and it's appealing enough to go watch
him at a field, he probably already meets the skill
category at least to an extent. So presence the I
guess the root. I'm not smart enough. Although I did
(07:44):
take Latin, I don't know the root of presence or
but how you present yourself is kind of what that
word brings to mind as we talk now, and.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
How you handle situations like that Florida Stay game. There
were so many swing moments.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And I thought teams had a bunch of future big
leaguers and a bunch of guys that competed in the
right way, And that's why it was such a grudge match,
and so it was entertaining at times to be in
the dugout. I had to pinch myself and like, listen,
you're not a fan here. You might have to pinch
hit somebody or do something like that. But I was just,
you know, caught up in the fact there was a
lot of guys that presented themselves on the field in
(08:22):
a very impressive way. Whether it's one of our guys,
you know, looking over the dugout and encouraging the guys
literally in the middle of his at bat, or you
know Arnold. To me, he's your typical quirky lefty with
kind of a high energy approach out on the mound,
and I'm saying to myself, how is this guy not
going to be the number one pick next year? So,
(08:44):
without rambling on too much, I think presence is at
the very least one very key factor that we look at.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
It's funny you say that. I had a couple of
playoff games where at the time I had Jose Barrios,
Max Kepler, Byron Buxton, Jorge Polanco, the list goes on
and on. And we were playing the Cubs and they
had Jose Baiez Contreras, I mean, they like Schwarber. And
we sat back and was like, hang on a second, like,
(09:12):
let's take this. I will do me a favor. I
told my staff, I said, let's take this inning in
as fans and let's just watch this and like put
our hats down for a second and be like we're
staring at the backbone of major League Baseball for three
or four but seven eight or nine years, so I
get that part of it. Look back and like again
from it as a fan standpoint that went to Florida State.
(09:35):
The passion and the intensity that was on that field,
like that, to me, College baseball should replay that game
a million times because the passion was everywhere. There was
intense moments, swings, good, bad, all that stuff. Kind of
the back and forth was was amazing. It was one
of the best games that didn't come out the way
I wanted it to. But the same token as a
(09:55):
baseball fan was like, this is what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
It kind of goes to the show you.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I'm very appreciated of the fact we were able to win,
but I think more now than ever, just appreciative of
the fact that you have to have fortune. You can
call it luck, you can call it whatever. There's a
lot of good things that have to happen along the
way to a championship, especially in baseball, and then especially
in college baseball. You get into pro sports the NBA,
(10:19):
you can kind of script it from the start a
little bit, and in no disrespect to those guys, but
if you spend the most money in Lebron's passing to
you know, Dwayne Wade or whoever it might be. You
can kind of see the writing on the wall, and
the script went back and forth that night and really
over the course of the whole tournament several different times,
as it does every year, and makes the thing a blast.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yep, that's I always say, that's the one thing that's
eluded me, and that was like that. It still wakes
me up in the middle of the night. I had
teams in ninety four ninety five that I felt were
a ninety five team for sure. I thought we were
the best in the country and that you know, that
got us, you know, a bag of seats that didn't
mean anything. We didn't you know, we didn't finish, and
it was It still haunts us of this day. But
how do you communicate your vision to your players?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
You know?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
I think daily it pops up, like you know, just
to have one PowerPoint presentation or one big long speech.
First of all, these kids' attention spans now are TikTok version,
So I think daily, you know, kind of embedding messages
that you want to get across and hopefully they become
common speak. You know, we had a kid, Drew Gilbert,
(11:27):
that I don't mind saying was kind of a controversial
player because he was so fiery our center fielder. If
people could see him off the field or in the
locker room, he probably would have had ninety nine percent
of the country cheering for him, regardless of what school
you went to or cheer for. But nonetheless, Drew was
a guy who I think influenced our culture, maybe as
(11:47):
much as any player since we've been here the last
seven years. And Drew had a way of taking what
the coaches said and making sure it became common speak
with the players, and so he wasn't necessarily like a
Tom Brady to your Peyton Manning leader, where I'm giving
you a direction or I'm a point guard. But it
was just these little phrases that he would take from
our meetings and make sure they were a big part
(12:10):
of our team's approach every day. And you know, you
can only go so far as a coach, I guess
is what I'm saying, because again, we try and to
embed it every day, but then they got to take
it and run with it.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And we've been blessed with some guys that do that
for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I want to ask you between old school and new school.
I know you already previously talked about your dad, and
I did some homework and I saw the Missouri Hall
of Fame and two different sports forty six years. I
did high school for four years, and I don't know
how he ever managed to do it for decades for Davids, Plus,
it's challenging as heck. But the more I did more,
(12:47):
I did some more research on you, I realized how
much old school is in you, but you also have
some new school feel to it to where the younger
generation really really wants to play for you. Just describe
that that that that ying and yang, that kind of
combination of the two.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, I think part of it is uh. I favor
natural grass. I loved going to Wrigley with my daddy's
from Chicago, but in order for us to catch up
to some of these other teams, we needed more reps.
So it finally caved and we went to the artificial surface.
Kind of a necessary evil a guy goes to second.
I think Josh Hamilton and the Rangers were the first
(13:26):
ones to start the celebrations at Second, and ironically, Jase Tingler,
who's the most intense player I've ever coached, along with
Drew was on that coaching staff. It's kind of like,
we got to do this every day and we got
more downtime and time at the field anybody, So you
got to kind of fill it with some stuff that
adds some personality.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So I want guys personality to shine through.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
And I guess going to the second base example too,
I don't want to be looked at as the coach
where guys now they got the power of Google, Like,
wait a minute, you're telling me I can't celebrate at
second I just did my homework and you barely had
any doubles your whole college career, So who are you
to tell, you know? And then also I think behind
the scenes, you know, Muhammad Ali's got the quote of
(14:09):
you know, basically what's going on behind the scenes is
what makes you a champion, not in the ring. And
you know, for for me, I really think we're super
demanding of our players.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
So if you.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Get through that gate of meeting all the demands of
us and you get to be the guy standing at
home plate for us, then as you're at bat, you know,
you get to do with it as you see fit.
And same for the pitchers that are on the mound
and then if it goes too far, then it's our
job to corral guys. And I know we had a
guy that was a superstar kid and player for us
make a mistake in twenty two and immediately the media
(14:44):
asked and fans online, what's the punishment we want to see? Like,
you're not in our locker room. We'll handle this within.
And you know all the great teams you've been a
part of and the team chemistry that you either gave
thumbs up or thumbs down. The thumbs up is usually
a team that self police in a team that maybe
has an incident happened and it doesn't get out to
(15:04):
the public because it's such a tight knit group. And
that's one thing we've tried to create here as well.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Do you think that twenty two I think twenty two
was one notre dame?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
No, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Do you think that loss had how much if you've
got to put a percentage on it, that loss at home?
What do you think that did for your program? Did
you think that was a stepping stone to winning the
whole thing?
Speaker 3 (15:27):
We don't win a national championship without that moment. I
truly feel that way.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
I think the.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Hunger, and also the mental adjustments or the willingness to
look at something and learn had a huge carryover effect
and it helped in twenty three get us to Omaha,
even though that year was nowhere near as smooth or
you know, is a rocky road which makes me want
(15:54):
to have some ice cream in the morning. But you know,
in twenty four, I think it was a culmination really
of the whole program kind of building up. But more
than anything, it was a twenty three able to make
it to Omaha. We knew what worked and what didn't
work from that year because it was tumultuous. And then
twenty two was you need to come to the park
or get on the field feeling invincible, but you also
(16:15):
need to respect the game and your opponent enough to
know that you're not invincible. And that's a very you know.
Twenty two was that somebody needs to wise up and
put a netflix special together and that team would be
the focus, but college baseball would.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Be the main backdrop.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
And you've got guys like schemes and recruiting of Paul Skins,
just different things that could be a magical story about it,
and we learned a lot from it.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I guess is the main point.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Absolutely, your players will run through a burning building. For you,
how does that make you feel.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Well?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
To hear from someone that I watched a bunch and respected,
it means a lot. And no matter who you are,
you could be I don't know if Michael Jordan is exempt,
but you could be a great.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Athlete Tiger Woods.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
You need to hear positives that hopefully outweigh the negatives,
because there's more of those these days. And I think
that's important for players to realize is if you're going
to go out of your way to look at your
phone and maybe read some negative comments, you need to
balance that out by seeking out positive. And that doesn't
mean you're needy. I just think your mind needs to
be balanced by everything that's out there. So that's a
(17:22):
long way of saying I appreciate that. I think one
thing that players know is if they want to get
there at eight am to hit off the tee or
stay till eight pm, I think I'm willing to do that.
And anytime something good happens and we've been able to
have some success, there's no one answer. Because you were mentioning,
(17:43):
you know, being at the park or hustling and recruiting
and things like that, despite us being accused of taking
shortcuts a bunch of different times, because we've had success.
You know, maybe there's been a mistake or two along
the way, but there's been no shortcuts from the beginning.
But there's also been a lot of good ingredients. Like
some guys will come to me for recruiting advice and
it's like, well, first off, I've been at four schools
(18:06):
that are pretty easy to recruit to that are for
pretty great places. So there's been a lot of ingredients
mixed in. But however we get there, I do want
the players to see me as a good teammate for them.
And I think when you know, when you got a
teammate you know has your back, you want to have his.
And it turns into this thing where on TV, like
you said, it looks like you're run through a brick wall.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I've always said this, and I've used it in pro
ball and it speaks with everywhere. If you really want
to find out what a player is, ask the strength coach.
He spends the most time with him. You can find
out some dirt that you might need down the road,
like for free agents, you'll find out what kind of
guy he is by asking the strength coach does he
respect him? Does he give him the same respect he
(18:48):
gives the head coach. And that was my thing, was
whether you're talking to the head coach, you're talking to
the assistant coach, or the strength coach or the administrator,
you treat them with the same ounce of respect that
you do a head coach. You would never do that.
He wasn't here, So be act right and do what
you're supposed to do and treat him like you would
treat me, and we'll never have a problem. And that's
(19:08):
to me. It was like, I know, I've watched a
couple of interviews you had about your strength coach and
I'm still friends with one of my one of my
best friends was my strength coach, my strength coordinator, And
I know why my friends with him for the most part,
because he don't bs me. He tells me like it is.
He tells me exactly. Sometimes it's not what I want
to hear, but I know I get the truth from him.
(19:29):
And I think I heard you talk about your strength
GRD and I thought, like, man, that makes total sense
to me.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, he's a superstar and if kids only knew it.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
It's kind of like the old you know, Albert pujols
Off Brad Lynch hits at epic homer and he's like,
I'm just trying to back spin the ball up the
middle of the field. He wasn't trying to hit a
home run. And for a kid that's trying to impress
the head coach, like coach Van Horn, he's been there,
done it, he's seen it all. You don't need to
kiss up to him or go out of your way
to make sure you know he likes what you're doing.
(19:58):
You need to gain the respect to the strength coach
and the director of opsky and maybe even that he
passes you and the janitor.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
At the same time. And you, you know, whatever disrespectful
or are respectful.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
That's what really earns, you know, the respect of kind
of you know, the people that are making decisions involved
in your career.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
But I don't think all kids see that.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, you know, our guy is very well compensated, very
well thought of across the country. So to me, he's
the number one guy for a lot of reasons, and
a lot of recruits don't realize what you said. The
NCAA rules literally dictate. They can be around him more
than the baseball coaches. So scouts wear him out, and
it's it's wise that they do, because he'll give them
(20:41):
the goods and he doesn't pull any punches when he
talks about our kids. And yeah, you walk through that
weight room a lot of times our first few years.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I would walk on the treadmill backwards.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I don't like standing still, and I wanted to watch
and it's funny, like they know I'm in there.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
But if the.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Straight coach can't exactly see everybody in every spot of
the weight room, you kind of get to see the
guys that like to take shortcuts and the guys that
want to get away with some things, and those are
the guys that'll knife you when it matters most. So
it helps to know who those guys are in a
setting like the weight room.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Your alpha males get better in the dark, no question.
And that's you know. I tell my son that every day,
you want to get better, get better in the dark.
I didn't get better in front of anyone but my dad.
That was it. I just want to get better on
my own. Okay, this is probably one of the one
I thought about the most. What would today's Tony say
(21:38):
to eighteen year old Tony?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Relax for one thing.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
You know, you mentioned the old school thing, like I
was the guy that would get a walk or earn
a walk, and or the picture was foolish enough to
out throw me strikes and I dang near sprint to
first base, and you know, a I was trying to
stand out, but be I I was trying to hustle.
But you know the game, as you move move up,
people say it speeds up, but there's also people that say, no,
(22:04):
it slows down. Like you know, watch Machado at third base.
Now he's got the bazooka to rely on, but everything
is a lot smoother. And I think I had the
work ethic foundation, but I didn't let it work for me.
So I'm answering with more than one phrase. But you know,
when's this hard working to payoff when you let it.
You know, I never had that phrase until the last
(22:26):
few weeks of my career. Is when you let it.
And then the same thing everybody will say is take
the time. Take take the moment that you had in
the dugout where you said, let's chill out for a second,
and let's really embrace this moment and kind of basking
the talent that's on the field.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And it's so hard for anybody to take a time out.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
That's why I think yoga, you know, love it or
hate it, for a baseball player, at least do it
a couple times so you get the feeling of not
having your phone, not worrying about what's the next play,
and just here, here's the thing I'm doing right now.
Is a very powerful thing for a baseball player to have.
And I was always kind of running around almost you
(23:09):
know here on fire Jojo the circus clown like Tommy
Boyce said.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Well, I mean, like be where your feet are at.
We preach that control the controllables, right, but like we
don't ever do anything. I know, the Dodgers late in
my career, the Dodgers created the yoga and the pilates,
and it was every Sunday morning and it was like,
you know, we go in there, and you go in
there at all, and then all of a sudden you realize, like, man,
that was pretty cool. Like one, it's relaxing, you might
(23:34):
fall asleep, but it is. It's beneficial. So I think
you're starting to see the ad of that stuff too,
and mental health to me has come a long way.
And I've always I've always started every season with every
team I've ever had, and I've always said, I don't
know if I'll make you physically better, I know I'll
make you mentally tougher. And then at the end game,
(23:55):
you guys are all talented here, it's the ones that
are mentally tough enough to handle the up and downs
and to stay where you're at. I said, the easy part.
Everybody talks about he can't handle failure. Well I go
the other way. You can't handle success. That's your problem.
You don't handle like you you get too high. And
it's the same thing. It's just a way to flip
the strip, flip flip the phrase. And I try to
(24:17):
tell them and they understand, like, well, I'm if I
get you mentally tough enough to handle the day in,
day out grind. And I think that's the biggest thing
for college guys going to pro ball. It's you don't
get that midweek guy to go beat up on and
get pat your stats right. You don't get the you
got the Friday night guy a lot, And it's and
it's not just Friday night it's Tuesday afternoon, it's Wednesday.
(24:38):
And that's where you find the mentally tough ones figure
it out faster than the other ones, and sometimes it
takes time. And the phrase I always use in front
offices was just because he's not getting it at the
speed that you wanted to get it at doesn't mean
he's not getting it. And I think that's one of
the things. And that's the change in college baseball, because
you know, everybody wants to now. You don't have time
(24:59):
to develop that much anymore. Right, It's it's it's winning now,
or I want to have to be physical, to be physical,
you're not physical enough. Well, you know, there's there's a
there's a blueprint to it. It's just willing. Are you
willing to put in the work to get to be
that guy? So yeah, it's.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Frustrating the lack of patience. And that's one thing about
our twenty two team. Dol Lander came in, you know,
as a first rounder with the Rockies as the one
portal guy we had on the team, but most of
the guys playing were guys who had to sit the
year before, and some of the guys had to sit
the year before that as.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Well, and even a couple you know.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Further so, I think it's a little bit of a
lost art with the portal and my favorite thing this summer,
by no means am I a Texas fan, but I
am an arch Manning fan because of the family. And
if you know that group of guys, especially Archie's grandfather,
is like, hey, just because the Superstars coming back doesn't
mean he's leaving.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
He's got a path that he sees for.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Himself and he's going to keep grinding down that path
and he's to be undeniable. And I wish I would
have had that mindset of of being undeniable. I thought
I could more reps in the weight room, more reps
in the cage would have got me there. And so
I guess, circling back my final answers, like you said,
I would have put as many reps in on the
mental side, or at least half of as I did
(26:18):
off the tee when no one was watching and I
was really trying to get better. And that's that's something
that I think helped my coaching career, was meeting Ken
Rivisa and kind of becoming obsessed with that whole mindset
thing because I was a pitching coach to start, even
though I want a pitcher, So like, how can I
help these guys, Well, I can't tell them. Here's how
(26:38):
I threw my breaking ball. So one thing that kind
of became a staple for our you know Schurzer was
with us and some other guys at Missouri, was you know,
stuff we learned from from Ken. I wish I would
have involved that more when I was playing.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
It's funny too, because Dave Duncan was a pitching coach
for the Cardinals for how long and he wasn't a
pitcher either. Like, well, I would force my pitching coaches
to talk to my hitters, and I would force my
hitting coach to talk to the pictures. Because your job
depends on getting me out, and your job is depending
on getting like getting hits off that guy. So there's
the mental side of it. We all need to know mechanics.
(27:13):
I understand that, but I always tell our hitters this,
the faster and quicker you make. This when you're six
years old in the backyard playing wiffle ball against your boy.
You don't care if your foot's down, you don't care
where your hands are. You're just trying to either a
hit a ball through your neighbor's window or you're trying
to hit a line drive off his face with a
whiffotball and you don't. All you're all you're trying to
(27:33):
do is and everything else goes away. I know, Carlos
Beltran said it perfectly. We were locker mats in New
York and we were facing Roger Clemens that night, and
I'm like, how do you do against Rock? How do
you do against Rocket? And he goes, who And I
go Roger Clemens. He goes, I don't face Roger Clemens.
I face the ball. And I was like, that's why
you just got two hundred and fifty six million and
(27:55):
I got a minor league contract, because that's where you think.
And that's so, I mean, just little things like that
are are are? I learned throughout the time was We're priceless?
But last question, what are you most proud of?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Ah? That's a good question. Uh, you know, it's it's
the holiday season.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
So making my parents proud, or at least they say
they're proud of me is special.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
But really truly for me.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I think the reason why I wanted to stay in
athletics in general, and it was just baseball because it
took me the furthest It was the camaraderie. And I'd
like to think, you know, even though I teased that
I wasn't a great player, I think the guys that
I played with would at least say I was a
good teammate. And I think the kids I've coached too,
(28:40):
you know, for the most part, you know, I have
their back and they have mine. And that's easy to
do on day one of practice and easy to do
on opening day. But what about when you lose, you know,
in a regional or a super regional or your season's over.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
What does it look like then? Or what if the
kids struggles? What does it look like then?
Speaker 3 (28:58):
And I guess that was my one skill I was
really good at. So while Tony Gwinn probably helped those
hitters at San Diego State know how to hit off
the tee and how to use the whole field, that's
the one thing I try and make sure I checked
that box.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
And I let our strength.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Coach and coach e Lander and coach Anderson and the
other coaches do what they do best.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Eye lied, I'm gonna follow that up. Yeah, bring it on,
you said, you just said, Now, has that ever backfired
in your coaching career as far as being I know
it has for me a couple of times where I
found myself too close. I had the same group from
a ball double A, and then I let him once
they got past me there in the big leagues and
I got there were times where I felt like I
(29:39):
was too close to him. I got to pull back
the rings. I'm getting too I don't want to say friendly,
but I was like, I'm becoming one of them, and
I need to. I need to, like, don't mistake my
kindness for weakness, because I will put my foot in
your ass. And that's and like I felt that I
learned that and I didn't do it long. I did
it for a decade, but I had to find that
(29:59):
that finally line to be like I want to. I
want you all to understand that I am behind you
one thousand and Hell it got me fired twice, but yeah,
I still there's still there's a line that you can't
cross because I am the hancho and that's that's where
that stands. So I was just curious to see, have
you ever had the moment where you felt like I
(30:19):
got to kind of drift myself back a little bit.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, I think balance is the most frustrating word on
the planet. It's easy as a coach to just throw
it out as a as a term. But last year's team,
to me, the number one trait that stood out was balance.
And I think, you know, again, twenty two and twenty
three didn't just help the players, but it helped you know,
the coaching staff too. Is I don't get to be
the recruiting coordinator anymore, where you can get a little
(30:43):
closer with parents and you know, the guys.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
And I think for me, there's moments where, yeah, you'll
let it go.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
You'll let it go because you are a little little tighter,
a little closer with the guys. But I think there's
got to be a cutoff point, and we had a
few of those points last year where you know, call
it putting the foot down and drawing.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
A line in the sand that this is a this
is not acceptable.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
And I think really the thing that came to mind
when you start to bringing this up is because we're
close with our players and we really want them to
do well, we're very flexible, and sometimes that flexibility can
bite us in the butt.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
You let a guy do his own throwing routine or
own throwing warm up, and he goes home over Christmas
and meets one person and next thing you know, he's
doing something totally different, which I'm all for learning. But
this time of year, we're all under the umbrella of
the team and anything again, balance is key. Anything drastic
or extreme in one direction or the other could be
harmful to the whole group.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
I've always thought that college is always weird. Right, you
spend the fall, you get there, you do all the weight,
you do the running. You got him under your umbrella.
There's time cons straight from the fall, and then you
go on for Christmas and hang on a second. The
season starts in a month, and we haven't strike in
the field yet together, and yet you're opening your Friday night.
Guy is starting to throw. Probably the most important time
(32:03):
for him to start throwing is now, and I can't
have my eyes on him. So I sent him home
to go through a pen with. You know, Johnny be
good at high school and going, oh, no, like this guy.
I'm depending on this guy to make every Friday Night
start and I don't have my eyes on him until
three weeks from opening day, and I always I don't.
I'm not a college coach yet. I'm hoping to be
(32:25):
one someday. I'm finishing my degree, but I'm like, I
wake up in cold sweats with that thought and I
haven't even been there yet. So to me, that's kind
of it's it's kind of crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Now most of these guys have advisors or agents and hey,
so like I'm a guy has Scott Boris, he might
instead of being with coach Anderson, be with the Boris
Corp training And they took care of mister Soto just fine.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
So I think they know what they're doing. That's not
the question. It's is it in line.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
With you know, these kids get confused enough getting on
YouTube rabbit holes or hearing different fans opinions. So I
think being in line with what your team is asking
you to do is incredibly important. So if you go
to Florida State or you go to Oregon, you need
to be doing what the Florida State guys are doing
or the organ guys are doing, especially come January or
(33:13):
just even December, because the season's right around the corner
and it's not going to be how do you perform
in the eighteen to one game against the team you're
clearly better than on paper.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
It's going to be that back and forth battle.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Is everybody on the same page, and if you're not
on the same page before the season even starts and
bullets bullets start wizzing around, as you might say, then
it may not work out too well.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
That goes back to where you just said about the
team and how crossing the lines like that respect level
comes from the players too, Like you have to have
the trust to where like I trust you, guys not
to cross that line, and that's where that give and
take goes. Where I trust you, I'm letting you go home.
I expect you to do what we do. And that's
where I always say, that's where your alpha males come in, right,
talk about Gilbert, Like you change your culture like that
(33:59):
cultures where we throw around way too much, but it's
so poignant, right your culture kind of once your culture
is set, it kind of and your team's changed from
year to year. Of course they do. You're you know,
depends on how you want it and what it looks like.
But you develop a culture that kind of hopefully you stick,
and then you kind of just one one group teaches
the next, and the next group teaches the next, and
(34:20):
then it's that avalanche that you hopefully you get to
when that's kind of where I'm thinking where I know
back when Florida State in the nineties, like we didn't
have to do anything. We just pick up and pick
up the rope and keep pulling right because it was
I remember freshman coming in JD Drew. I'm like, you know,
I'll never forget this. We go to Arizona State. He's
(34:40):
a freshman, I'm a junior. He tweaked his hamstring. Don't
know if it was real. I'm not saying it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
JD.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
We all knew was our unicorn. But JD was like,
I don't know if I can play this weekend. And
I went into Coach Martin's office eleven. I said, then
leave him here. We don't need them. We've won this
for him, will win it after him. And and we
left him at home. And because we trusted the guy
that was there before. Long story short, it was we
(35:09):
don't do that stuff here like we want you to,
like you might be able to just be able to
pinchhit on Sunday. That matters to us. We need you
and like this whole like and not say anything negativebout
Jad because Jady was one hell of a teammate and
he put up you know, gangster numbers like Nintendo numbers,
and it was the best player arguably to me that
went there. But there was a culture we had that
(35:31):
was like, we don't do that here, Bud, Like that's
not how that's not how this works. And if you
don't get together with us. You know, we voted guys
off the island a lot in college and in pro bawl,
like this guy's not one of us, and so its wins.
We did the same thing like this is we don't
want this guy and they end up being you know,
all stars. And then but the other come back and
say thank you because I didn't do things right. We
(35:53):
don't show up at the last minute, we show up
on time. We get we want to be together, We
want to do the dinners. You know you talk I
heard you talk about that before, Like you want those
guys to have relationships off the field, because this game
is not about numbers. It's about relationships. It's about moments
that you have together that will echo through that They
(36:13):
all have the same story they come back, those guys
that won the national championshipre Gonn come back ten twenty
thirty years from now, they're gonna have the same stories.
And that, to me is what this game is all about.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
No doubt. I wish how many people. I wish people
knew how.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Many guys they're watching on TV or in college or
pro you know, that are doing well and they look
up to and know, like that one, what that guy
was like two.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Or three years ago.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
He needed this role player or this senior captain to
kind of steer him in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
And that's ninety nine percent of the guys.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
And then every now and then you get the one
percenter like Ian Kinsler or Drew Gilbert, where as soon
as they walk through the door, they're like, this is
how it's going to be, and they have the capability
and of course the skill set to do that. But again,
everything we're talking about is within the frame work at
the team, and it's in the locker room, in the dugout,
and that's got to be affected. And I hate to
(37:05):
ramble on, but you know the one thing that's frustrating
about the Dodgers is I'm not a fan or an
anti fan, but I do know enough their culture is
really good too. Yes, they're spending the money, and in
pro sports you kind of have to be. It seems
like you got to have all your chips in or not,
or you don't have a chance at the trophy. They've
got all their chips in and then have a big budget.
But I know it's very well known too. They've kind
(37:28):
of got the culture the way it's supposed to be too,
where guys get in line, like you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
I started my I ended my baseball my playing career there,
and I started my coaching career there. Don Mattley adamantly
asked me to be a coach there and I told
him no twice. He's like, I'm not going to ask
you again. Well, my first guy I had as a
hitting coach was Corey Steger, and I'm like, well, you know,
Jock Peterson and I had them, Like my gosh, these
are guys all like this, Like where have I been?
(37:53):
These guys are amazing. But yeah, the culture that they
would they were growing to build, you see it like
you see it. Played with Dave Roberts. Dave had a
you know, obviously the manager like you see that you
can just look at them from afar And the scary
part is if you looked at like when they pan
the dugout their pitching staff, that was hurt was like
(38:14):
those like nine Deep like you're looking at you're looking
at like four starters of the All Star Game and
they're not even playing yet. So but you're but you're right,
like you can have all the talent in the world.
But if you're those guys, you can tell they have
a blast going to the field. Keiky Hernandez is right.
Those guys that are though glue guys. We talk about
you need glue guys. If you don't have glue guys,
you can have all the talent in the world and
(38:34):
it's not gonna work. I appreciate your time, Tony. This
has been great. I appreciate it. I know you're a
busy man. I can't thank you enough. If I don't,
hopefully I'll keep in contact with you. But as now,
thank best of luck moving forward. Hopefully everybody that you
need to stay healthy stays healthy. And more importantly, I
hope you get a chance to kind of xale once
in a while and take a step back and look
(38:55):
back up what you built it's been and what you
continue to build, it's uh, it's something that a lot
of teams need to pay attention to if they haven't already.
You're doing it right, and uh this has been an
honor for me to to kind of interview you, so
thank you.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Well likewise here too, I appreciate you including us, and
uh we'll have to do it again sometime absolutely,
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