Episode 84: Spencer Oborn

Welcome into Episode 84 of the 1544 Miles to Omaha Podcast. Today's guest, Spencer Oborn, is arguably one of the greatest "one and done" players to have worn the Fullerton Orange and Navy Blue uniform.

Oborn played for the Titans for the 1999 season and is ranked in the top ten in numerous single season achievements for the Titans. For that one season, Oborn hit .395, blasting 14 home runs and driving in 82 runs. His 104 hits in 1999 ranks tied for seventh with Kurt Suzuki for hits in a season. He hit seven triples which ranks tied for fourth with the likes of Hank LoForte, Gary Brown, Jose Mota and Matt Vejar. Those 82 runs batted in ranks tied for 10th with Titans Slugger Jared Clark. Oborn touched 182 total bases that season which ranks sixth in Titans single season history.

Oborn's fantastic season did not go unnoticed earning Baseball America All-American 3rd team honors, Big West 1st team all-conference and named the Big West Conference Player of the Year.

Selected in the 14th round of the 1999 MLB draft by the Chicago White Sox, Oborn played three seasons in the White Sox organization playing in the Midwest and Carolina Leagues.

Episode Highlights include:

🎙️ Growing up Spencer Oborn (5:30)
🎙️ Playing for BYU first (9:32)
🎙️ Choosing to transfer & come to CSUF (12:29)
🎙️ First impression when joining the 1999 Titans (20:57)
🎙️ 37-game hit streak (26:44)
🎙️ Why so much success at the plate (34:30)
🎙️ Draft Day 1999 (39:25)
🎙️ South Bend Regional (42:37)
🎙️ Choosing to stay on the road after South Bend (44:46)
🎙️ Super Regional at Ohio State (51:00)
🎙️ Omaha (53:11)
🎙️ Game 1 vs. Stanford (55:00)
🎙️ Game 2 vs. Texas A&M (57:20)
🎙️ Game 3 vs. Florida State (58:17)
🎙️ Once a Titan, Always a Titan (1:02:22)
🎙️ Going to play professionally (1:05:07)
🎙️ Coaching youth baseball now (1: 12:17)

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Channa State's Fard Tenn has done it. They've gone from fifteen and sixteen the
champions of Chilege Baseball. Welcome tothe fifteen hundred and forty four Miles to
Omaha podcast. Talking about the pastpresident and future of cal State bulletin baseball.

(00:25):
Bitch, he's swinging. There's ahot ride the right field. He
has done it. Scott Hurst saysit is fourth home run of the game.
Wow, what else can he do? Oh my goodness, that's gonna
give another harm hand on this littlestory. He's kills on his way to

(00:49):
turn out as all in cal StateFullerton wins it. Here's your host,
Dave Lamb. Welcome Episode eighty fourof the fifteen to forty four Miles to
Omaha Podcast. Today's guest is arguablyone of the greatest one and done players
to have ever worn the orange andNavy blue uniform at cal State Fullerton.

(01:11):
Spencer Oborne played for the Titans forthe nineteen ninety nine season and is ranked
in the top ten in single seasonachievements for the Titans, which include for
that one season, he hit threeninety four, blasted fourteen home runs,
and drove in eighty two runs.His one hundred and four hits in nineteen
ninety nine tied for seventh with KurtSuzuki for hits in a single season.

(01:33):
He hit seven triples, which rankstied for fourth with the likes of guys
like hankle Ford, Gary Brown,Jose Mota, and Matt Vaihar. Those
eighty two runs batted in ranks tenth, tied for tenth with Titans slugger Jared
Clark, and Oborn touched one hundredand eighty two total bases that season,
which ranked sixth in Titans single seasonhistory. Obourne's fantastic season did not go

(01:57):
unnotice, earning Baseball America All AmiaThird Team honors. Who's a Big West
First Team All Conference and made aBig West Conference Player of the Year.
Selected in the fourteenth round of thenineteen ninety nine MLB Draft by the Chicago
White Sox, Okbourne played three seasonsin the White Sox organization, playing in
the Midwest and the Carolina League.So welcome into the podcast. Thank you
for having me. I appreciate it. You got it, so you're kind

(02:20):
of not in your head as Iwas going over some of those some of
those accomplishments as if not sure ifthey're correct or you're you're still now just
being reminded of them. You know, I think what goes through my head
is how in the world did Ido that? Really? Yeah, I
mean it's it's definitely special to benamed with some of those great Titans that

(02:46):
that you know, suited up anddid it. You know, the RBIs
and hits you know, definitely hadto do with a lot of my teammates
for sure. So yeah, it'spretty incredible when you say it out say
it like that out loud, youknow, it's almost you know, it's

(03:06):
definitely humbling to be a Titan andyou say one and done me makes me
laugh. Like as basketball, well, I mean, you know, when
it comes to when it comes toTitan baseball, you get the you kind
of have to parse guys out tothe point where you look at guys that
went all four years. You know, the David mcconnie's of the world are

(03:27):
going to be in the record book, not just because they were really really
good players, but because of thelongevity. They played as a freshman all
the way through their senior years.So they had those at bats, they
had those opportunities to be able tomake a name for themselves if you will.
And then you've got to parse outother guys that are just the three
year guys which they left after theirthird year and and and went and played,

(03:52):
and then you've got the potentials ofthe one and don's which are those
junior college guys did two years ofjunior college. Obviously, cal State Florida
is a huge, huge program forjunior college guys to kind of cut their
teeth and then come and play.So you could you kind of took a
little bit of a different path,and we're going to get to that.
But yeah, we're not We're notusing it as a negative term. No,

(04:13):
definitely not, definitely not. Itwas it's just gonna it was.
It was a funny term. ButI you know, that season was just
such a fun season and great teammatesand all over the place. So that
was you mentioned Bikani. I mean, one of the best teammates ever had,
one of the best guys still texts, you know, just one of

(04:36):
the one of the great ballplayers thatcame out of Fullerton. Just what a
what a fun teammate, what agreat guy, and just fun to be
around. Just in general. Yeah, that guy's always smiling always. But
this isn't about Dave. This isabout Spens right, all right, So
let's start at the beginning. So, born in Pasadena in nineteen seventy seven,
but grew up around the Diamond Bararea, came out of that area.

(05:00):
Is it like growing up in theeighties and into your high school and
college years in the nineties. Ithought it was amazing. I'm glad I
was back then and not now,you know, with the with the phones
and everything. But my you know, grew up in Diamond Bar, had
a great Titan as one of myas one of my baseball coaches, and
high school in rich Gonzales, andyou know, my head coach Kent Neil

(05:26):
back there was one of the best, you know him and all the coach
Horton and coach Serrano, coach Vanderhook up there with with with those like
so I got really lucky having greatcoaches, being around really good players and
good people. Uh So, I, you know, I had a great,
great high school experience, great youknow, growing up. So it

(05:49):
definitely is nice being close you know, Diamond were being so close to Kelsey
Fullton was definitely nice. For myparents. So it was you know,
it was fun. I got touh listen, you know, learn from
Rich Gonzalez, who was probably oneof the best athletes at Kelsey Fullerton too,

(06:09):
you know, with you know,playing football and playing and playing baseball.
He did when when in nineteen ninenine when I saw him right before
we went to the College World Series, and I don't know if you remember,
but he took a head first diveinto left field fence and so and
I played left field. So helooked at me and said, hey,
watch out for that left field fence. I said, okay, no problem.

(06:32):
So growing up a lot of alot of the interviews that we've done
with with with past Titans, growingup, a lot of them were just
the multi sport athletes. That thefact that we don't have it seems like
today where kids will be quote unquotemulti sports athletes through preschool and then they
start focusing on something. Were youthat multi sport athlete where you played a

(06:53):
number of different sports, but thenbaseball was was was where you tended to
have success. I loved all sports. So in high school I played basketball,
four years of basketball. Loved basketball, played a couple of years of
football wasn't my wasn't my thing.I loved it was fun. You know,

(07:15):
if I could have played soccer,I probably would have loved to play
soccer in high school, but Ichose base or basketball over that. You
know, Baseball, it was itwas a fun sport for me and I.
You know, the kids nowadays theyplayed, you know, one hundred
games in the season. I mean, we played, you know what,
twenty little league games and two AllStar games and you were done pretty much

(07:36):
back then. So you know,I didn't even start playing baseball year round
until I got to college. Butthat but basketball was one was really my
first love. I loved playing basketball. I love getting up and down,
you know, And at some pointin high school, I realized that it's
probably, you know, as faras I was going to go. So,

(08:01):
you know, I don't know howto say I focus on baseball because
I still played basketball. But wewould go out and you know and hit
and do all the all all theother things during baseball season. Like I
said, I had a great greatcoaches that you know, really, I
mean, they gave us the keyto the cage that they put in so
we would go hit whenever we wantedon the weekends, we didn't have to
be there, so it was youknow, I definitely didn't specialize, but

(08:26):
you know, all of a sudden, it just the way everything kind of
worked out was baseball was you know, something that you know that I was
good at and I just, youknow, like I said, I feel
like I feel like I was inthe right spot at the right time and
kind of got a little bit lucky. Well, talk to me about your
your high school years and the factthat you know you're gravitating towards baseball,

(08:52):
talking about the one and done.You did two years at b YU before
you came to cal State Fullerton,So tell me a little bit about the
recruiting process and then going to BYUfirst. So that's actually interesting because I'm
an older sister who played volleyball atBYU, and my both my parents graduated
from BYU. My brother was up, my older brother, everybody was going

(09:15):
to BYU. Kind of a funnystory. There was one of the BYU
baseball players who may was getting recruitedby Fullerton, Tyson Dowdell. Came home
from his mission and he was friendswith my sister who played volleyball, so
he was playing baseball there. Hecame home and we started hitting at El

(09:37):
Dorado and that was the summer beforeI think my senior year, and between
my junior and senior year, hewent up and you know, told the
coach like, hey, Oborne hasyou know Oborne meaning my sister Gail played
on the volleyball team, has alittle brother that's pretty good at baseball.

(09:58):
And so my start, I'll neverforget. My sister calls home one day
and she goes, hey, Italked to the baseball coach and I said
really, He goes, yeah,what do you say. He goes,
well, he said, you didn'ttell me that a little brother, And
I thought, and she goes,well, I didn't know. I had
to recruit for you, you know. So it kind of so then I
got a couple of phone calls andthey were really the first ones to you

(10:18):
know, it was pretty early.You know, back then, no one
was signing as sophomores and juniors orfreshman even. It was you know,
in between about that time. Sothey came in early and you know,
offered me a scholarship, and youknow, that was kind of the place
that I was going to go.So that was kind of really, my
whole recruiting experience was just I mean, I got some letters, and I

(10:41):
talked to some junior colleges around youknow really you know, talk to some
some pro scouts during you know,right before the draft, like during our
during our baseball season. But reallythat was kind of the place that I
was going to go, and youknow, that was kind of it so
that people kind of know that that'swhere you're going, and they kind of
stayed away, just kind of like, hey, why waste the time and

(11:03):
energy on a guy that's pretty muchsigned, sealed and delivered. YEP,
I think pretty much because you know, after the fact, you know,
I talked to my high school coachand he goes, yeah, you know,
these people were calling and asking,and you know, I just told
him, like pretty much the truth. You know, they don't want to
waste anybody's time. And really,it would have it probably would have been
hard for me to go somewhere elseat that point in my life. What

(11:26):
happened during your time at BYU fortwo years that you decided that you wanted
to come And I know now nowadayswith the transfer portal, it's a lot
different in the fact that you know, a guy can't just say, hey,
I want to transfer, throw hisname in the portal, and then
he starts getting phone calls or emailsfrom coaches. It was a different time.

(11:50):
It was twenty five years ago wherethere was no portal. So how
did you come to the decision thatyou wanted to leave BYU and eventually come
to Calsti Ford. That actually wasa tough decision, a tough a tough
time. I wanted to play professionalbaseball and I wanted to get drafted.
And you know the thing about playingin Provo was, you know, your

(12:13):
offense, your numbers. It's likeplaying in Colorado, like, oh,
you had home runs. You know, the bats are juice, the this
and that, the you know,at that point, the facility we had,
our fences were kind of short,so you know, pop flies were
homers and really, like my wholegoals, I wanted to play professional baseball.
So I looked around and saw,you know, some really good you

(12:35):
know, some kids from University ofUtah, some kids from our school that
were really good players and you know, not get drafted or get drafted in
the fiftieth round back then when theyhad that many And I thought, uh,
oh, like, I may notbe in the in the right spot
if I want to do that.So with some consideration and talking, you

(12:56):
know, to my parents and myhigh school coach. Again, can't me
I will never forget. I calledhim up, and remember this is all
before cell phone, so I'm callinghim from a home phone in my apartment
and I said, hey, youknow, I'm interested in maybe transferring it.
And he was shocked and said wholla, are you sure? I said
yeah, and he goes, wheredo you want to go? I said,
somewhere back home, somewhere back home, and you know, and he

(13:20):
said, okay, And he's thisphone call happening in January when there's snow
on the ground. No, no, no, no, Actually, this
this phone call was happening like inMay. I want to say, like
close close to the end of theseason. You would think that that phone
call people are out here shoveling snow, sunshine and you're you're digging your car
out to go to class. Butyeah, this happened later on in the

(13:43):
season and he instantly called me back. I mean, from what my memory,
he called me back A couple ofminutes later. He said, what
about Calsey Fullerton I said absolutely absolutely, and he goes okay, and so
you know, there there was definitelylike they couldn't say, there was definitely
rules put in place. So aftermy season was over, I I knew

(14:07):
that UH coach Toronto and Coach Hortonwanted to talk to me. So I
had to go into the coaches atCoach Polling's office up in Provo and and
tell them, hey, I think, you know, I may want to
transfer. And you know, Iwas a twenty year old kid. That's
not necessarily the easiest thing to do, you know, when when they gave
you an opportunity and they you know, really get yeah, I mean g

(14:31):
just gave me the opportunity to play, and that that wasn't the that wasn't
you know. I felt like Iwas betraying him and and my teammates.
But you know, at that time, I thought, you know, you
know, if you can come upwith some UH with a better solution for
me, like I'm all years andyou know, the conversation went well,
you know, as well as itcould be. And and so they granted,

(14:52):
you know, hey, you cango talk er a release or I
don't know what what it was backthen, but So then I came down
and the the sad part of itwas our season was over and I came
down here and I met with coachcoach Toronto at Kelse Fullers and they were
still playing. So I was like, I want to still be playing too,
Like this would this would be great. So, you know, coach

(15:13):
Toronto, coach s Horton just youknow, they were honest and open and
said, hey, this is whatwe've got and this is you know,
this is what we got coming in. This is you know, they laid
everything out and you know, basicallyall I said is I just you know,
I want an opportunity. You know, I don't need a starting position.
I don't need you know, Iwant to earn that, and nothing

(15:33):
is you know, I don't needyou to promise me anything but my number
twenty one. And that was prettymuch all, you know, all my
demands and an opportunity. So thenthey were, like I said, they
were upfront and honest, and soI said, let's do it. Let's
go. So you mentioned number twentyone. What's the significance of twenty one?
I don't know. I just likedit in high school and I was

(15:56):
kind of a big Dione Sanders fan, so twenty one seemed right. Well.
The reason why I brought that upis that just most recently this past
season KL State Fulton retired George Horton'snumber eight, and it was kind of
an unwritten rule of nobody gets numbereight until and George shared this with me

(16:18):
on a podcast that in order torecruit Justin Garza out of Ontario, he
went to high school in Laverne areaor something that hook came to him and
said, Hey, this kid reallywants number eight and it's not officially retired.
Can I give this kid number eight? He's a really good pitcher,
I really really get him. AndHorton kind of relented and said, yeah,

(16:40):
okay, you know, sure ifit's going to help the program or
whatever it is. And then numbereight was kind of worn until it got
retired. But twenty one, Ithink you were the third to last.
There are two other guys to wearnumber twenty one after you, and then
I think it was kind of likethis unwritten rule where that was Nevan's number
and we're not going to give itout anymore. Yep. And I think
the same thing goes uh with numberseven. Number sex you know marks Mark's

(17:03):
number isn't really given out to anybody, even though it's not officially retired.
Right, I was wondering what thewhat the significance of twenty one was?
No, just just that I woreit all through high school since I was
a freshman, so you know,didn't want to really change. Got to
wear it at b YU, andthen unfortunately that's probably the last the last
time I ever wore it. Inever got in pro bawl. That's that's

(17:26):
a rough. That's rough. Soyou so you get to go to calif
State Fullerton and you have a chatwith them, and you you want the
opportunity, and then what was it? Was it a mutual like okay,
hey, you know what if you'reable to get your release from b YU,
show up on campus and in Augustand we're going to start, you
know, putting on the team.Pretty much. So I was actually so
I came here and then that summerI played in Cape Cod. So I

(17:49):
I remember being in the basement ofmy host family's house calling coach Coach Pollins
at BYU and saying, hey,I think I'm going to transfer. You
know, can I get my release? Because if they didn't give me a
release, I would have to sitout of here. So he said,
no problem, he said, Ialready sent the release over there a couple

(18:11):
of days ago. You're good togo, you know, thanks for everything
and good luck. And so Isaid great. I hung up the phone.
I called coach Toronto. He said, we got everything. We're good
to go. So I was playingin the Cape. Who did you play
for? I played for Wareham Gateman. So, in fact, on that
same phone call, he said,hey, we have Ree Johnson. He's

(18:32):
out there playing for I think heplayed for Brewster white Caps. So he
goes, hey, when you guysplay him, you know, make sure
you introduce yourself. And so weplayed them. You know, there's only
ten teams. So we played themin the next within the next week.
And so I walked down and heseeks me out. He walks in and

(18:53):
he's like, hey, I heardyou coming, and I said yeah,
he goes, you know, hedidn't even tell me his name. I
just you know, I knew whathis name was because because coach, yeah,
he's a retelling coach. Rono hadtold me like, hey reads out
there. So you know, Ifigured some stranger, you know, wasn't
going to come up to me,So Read was actually the first guy that
I met, and I met himin the Cape, so you know which,

(19:15):
you know, he and I endedup being really good friends and road
roommates and on all sorts of things. So well, I got a I
got a quote from from Reid thatI'll read to you, but I'll save
that for a little bit. Idid a little bit extra research. I
reached out to coach Horton, andthen coach Horton kind of reached out to
some folks. The nineteen ninety nineTitans advanced to Omaha that season. I

(19:37):
feel the team of four guys thateventually would go on to play in the
major leagues, Red Johnson being oneof them, Adam Johnson, Jordan Jong
and Kirk Sarlos other teammates we've alreadytalked about. Mcconnie, Ryan Owens,
Aaron Rifkin would eventually advance and playTriple A. Every single player on that
nineteen ninety nine squad would either eventuallyget drafted orld play professionally as an undrafted

(20:00):
free agent. So the MLB touchedevery single player, whether it's an offense
or or a pitcher in some way, either drafting or they actually played minor
league ball professional ball. So whenyou show up on campus, what was
your impression of the team. Didyou think that this was going to be

(20:22):
an Omaha caliber team and was goingto be what it eventually turned in to
be? Your first impression, Myfirst impression, quite honestly, was I
was scared a little bit. Iwas in a weird kind of spot because
I was a junior. I wasolder, but I was new, so
you know, I wasn't you know, I was just trying to fit in

(20:47):
a little bit. And and definitelyright away it was intimidating me. Guys
like Chad Baum, I mean that, you know, he was the second
guy I met. He was readroommate. And I walk in and he's
know looking at me, and andyou know, you know that these guys
are intimidating. Ryan Owens has beenthere forever, and Dave bu Kannie had

(21:07):
been there forever, and you know, you know, it was a little
bit of it was a little intimidatingfor sure, and you know, everybody,
I think what my first impression,you know, real quick was these
guys are a bunch of hard workers. Like there's no you know, I
remember seeing, oh, it's anon mandatory workout, you know, and

(21:32):
in you know, in my head, I'm a non mandatory workout and they
all kind of look looked at meand like, no, no, you're
there, and you know, ofcourse we were there. But I think
that's like the big I think that'sthe big difference of playing out of Kelsey,
Fullerton or somewhere. It's like,you know, that's what's that's the
minimum that that you have to do, and that's the minimum that you have

(21:55):
to to put in to even evenbe on the team or to being sittered.
So you know, that was thatwas kind of intimidating. But you
know, my first part, thesethese folks work their tails off every single
day, every single day, andit was you know, competition every single
day. You know. In theFall, I wasn't the biggest fan of

(22:17):
the Fall because I just you know, you're it's just a grind. It's
almost like practice. It's practice everyday, and then you're facing your teammates,
you know that are that are throwingand playing. But you know,
you don't want your teammates to punchyou out. You don't you know,
you want to get hits off yourteammates. You don't want to, you
know, and so it gets superit got really competitive. So it took
me a while to really relax andsay, you know, I belong here,

(22:41):
because still in your back of yourhead, you know, am I
good enough to play here? Igrew up going to these games watching Kotsee
and then the ninety five team,you know, grew up watching all these
guys, like am I really goodenough to play here? So it was
it was definitely intimidating, Uh,to step in and to step on the
same field as all these guys thatare, you know, legends. So

(23:03):
did you coming out of the falldid you did you have an idea that
you were going to be a majorcontributor or did that Did that come about?
Not until the spring when it wasactually spring practices to get ready for
the season. Uh that was youknow, we're battling for a for a
spot, you know, you're battlingto play, and you know, I

(23:27):
didn't care at the beginning, likehey, you know, I never really
cared like, hey where do Ihit in the lineup? I just want
to be in it at some point. But it was, you know,
I started the first game the firsttwo games against Stanford, and then I
didn't start the third game against Stanford. I didn't start the next game against
Pepperdine, and I didn't start thefirst game against Presno State, not that

(23:48):
I remember, No, I didn't. I didn't start those. I started
the first two games and I didn'tstart the next three. So it definitely
wasn't in my mind like hey,I'm going to hit third here or you
know, driving, you know,get a hundred hits. That definitely was
not in my I was trying tojust get in the lineup. So who

(24:10):
was you talked about the competition?Who were the outfielders that you were you
were competing with? Well, Reidplayed center, and you know he was
gonna play there. He wasn't comingout. We had Robert Guseman who was
a freshman at that point, ChrisStringfellow was a freshman at that point,
and Rod Perry was there at thattime breath briefly and then he you know,

(24:30):
I'm not sure what happened to himafter, like kind of in the
spring. So there were the fourof us and there was two spots,
so we were all kind of kindof battling and out, you know,
day in and day out, andyou know, I know that if I'm
not going to hit and produce,you know you're not gonna play. So
you know, it's not a secret, it's not you know, there wasn't

(24:51):
any feelings involved. When I didn'tstart the third game. I was you
know, I wasn't gonna go cryin the corner. I just was like,
you know, get me another abso I can so I can get
a hit. When when did itturn around where you were a mainstay in
the lineup? You know, afterthat? I think I started every game
after after those three games, SoI think if the second and the Saturday

(25:15):
and Sunday against Fresno, I thinkI got a couple of hits and did
a couple of things, so Istayed in the lineup. I don't I
don't necessarily know where I was battingat that point, but you know,
it didn't matter really, So I'mactually not even sure when when that kind
of when they bumped me up inthe lineup. Well, I know you

(25:37):
had and I don't know the exactnumber, but I know you had a
hit streak during the course of thatseason that broke brent Mains hit streak.
Do you no, no, okay, you're taking no no, no,
correct me. Well, Brent Main'shitting his stream is thirty eight games.
Then I know that because I hadthirty I was thirty seven. Oh ok

(26:00):
so it was one that was oneshort. So how long of a stretch,
because obviously this is a Major LeagueBaseball where everybody's playing every single day.
How long did thirty eight games orthirty seven games span? Was that
good? Two months? Two anda half, so, I mean it
had to be. I'm not evensure it got kind of it definitely got

(26:22):
long. But it was started becauseI got a hit in the second game
against Stanford. Third game, Ididn't start, but I came in and
I got a hit. The fourthgame at Pepperdine, I didn't start,
got in, got a hit,and then Fresno that so the three games
I didn't start, I actually Igot into the game at the end.
I only got one at bat oneof them. But so it started in

(26:44):
the second game of the year.And I'll never forget. Aaron Rifkin and
I were in the back in theold days in the locker room, which
was halfway across campus, getting ouruniform, and we were talking about how
we were talking about hitting or something, and at that moment I kind of
turned to him. I said,I think I've gotten a hit in every

(27:07):
single game except for the first one, and he kind of and he looked
at me and he was like really, I said, yeah, I think
so, because we were, youknow, twelve thirteen games in at this
point, and he goes, huh, and that was in. I mean,
it was already over. It wasalready ten something games in, and
you know, I didn't even realizeit. And then soon after that I've

(27:30):
read it. I read it inthe paper or something that oh, you
know, it's like fourteen or itwas at like fourteen or fifteen. And
then it kind of became a littlebit of a joke as it just kept
going on and on and on.It kept becoming a joke because I would
go like one for five or onefor six, and you know, they

(27:52):
were just asking me questions, youknow, and Ryan Owens is like going
three for four with two homers,you know, and we were kind of
just laughing, and it was itactually kind of got a little bit of
a joke. But you know,like I said, thank goodness, like
Instagram wasn't around or anything. Iwould have felt a lot more pressure.
But the last game, when youknow, there was one game I remember
at Pacific University of Pacific, andit got you know, I'd hit a

(28:18):
couple of balls hard, it's justnothing to show for it. And it
was like the eighth inning or something, and my my dad was wandering around
and just you know, you know, like, man, Dad, you
gotta stop. You're making me nervousa little bit. So, but it
was a windy game. It waskind of a weird kind of kind of
games. And the last at bat, I hit a ground ball through the
six hole and you know, andeveryone was like, oh, it was

(28:41):
almost like the whole you know,and at some point the whole team got
behind it for sure. But thelast game against cal Pauly Slow, I
dumped one into right field that theguy dove and caught. It ended up
being a sackfly because of course Bokaniwas on third in the first yeah,

(29:03):
and so and then it just youknow, I think we were in the
seventh, we were up, andin the seventh inning I got out,
so I was over three and Icome back to the dugout and that was
like the the s That was likethe second out or the third. You
know, it was in all theall the whole team was like, we

(29:23):
got to get him up. Wegot to get him up, like everybody's
I gotta get him up. Wegotta get him up. So I ended
up gett another at bat in theeighth and grounded out. But you know,
it was like it ended up kindof I felt like the whole team
was was behind it. So thatwas really a cool moment, even though
you know, we came up oneshort, but it was still kind of

(29:45):
a kind of a crazy thing.But it was something that I felt like
the team, you know, everybodyon the team wanted wanted it to happen,
and they were rooting for it.Talking about a hit streak is not
like talking to your picture during theno hitter, because I've done a podcast
sorry who had a no hitter?Who specific it turned out to be a
football score or something like twenty eightto zero or something ridiculous like that.

(30:07):
Also talked with Brett Kaye about catchingthat no hitter and all that. But
I guess a hit streak is alittle bit different than you know, is
there is there already some baseball superstitionsabout like, hey, you can't talk
about it, or you can't saya certain word or anything like that,
or just you know, that's agreat question. I don't know the answer
to that. For you know,everyone knew it wasn't a secret, and

(30:30):
we talked about it. There isa funny story kind of you bring that
up. We're playing Loyal or Maryormountin a midweek game, and you know,
we were in the third base dugout. The cages are in the first
you know, on the first baseside. So we're in the cages and
we're hitting. And then as youcome back, you know, you run
right in front of the opposing dougoutand Jason Gill right as the coach,

(30:56):
and he as I'm you know,jogging by about ready to take Bay in
practice, and he's like, hey, oh board. I turn around,
like heyes, come here. SoI come over there and he goes,
I hear you got a good headstreet going. And I kind of started
laughing. I I think, Imean, I was in the twenties somewhere,
you know, it was it waspretty good. And I kind of

(31:18):
laughed, you know, and hekind of laughed. He's like yeah,
I go yeah, you know,pretty good. He goes well, hey,
good luck with that. I said, okay, thank you, and
kind of, you know, likeyou said, he's trying to jink,
you know, throw the jinks onher. So the first step bat and
the first step bat, I hita ball down the right fle line for
a triple and I slid into third, you know, and vander Hook gives
me a high five, and Ilook in at coach Horton, who's you

(31:41):
know, in his in his position, slumping, you know, with his
hands on his hands on his knees, and he's looking into the other dug
guy. He's looking at Gil andhe's laughing, just smiling like I told
you, you know, And sothat was kind of that was kind of
a funny thing. So it's funnyyou asked, like, you know,
it never it definitely, you know, we're still superstitious. And of course,

(32:02):
you know, I took batting practicethe same every day, the same
amount of swings and you know,my on deck. But that didn't change
as the streak broke anyway, Soyou know, but there's definitely some superstitions.
But we still talked about it,talking about Horton and vander Hook.
We did a podcast, actually wemade it into four for So Long,

(32:24):
four different episodes fifty two through fiftyfive, where we talked about some of
the greatest all time Titans, butspecifically about different aspects of the game.
We talk about things like who hadthe best curveball or the best slider because
not everybody has, you know,a four pitch mix that is spectacular,

(32:45):
or who was the best first tothird base runners. Ryan Owens was one
of the ones that Hook said hejust loved being at third base. When
Ryan was at first, he knewhe was going to be able to bring
him into third no problem, sometimesto bring him into home on a nice
easy But when it came to hittingcategories, your name was brought up numerous

(33:05):
times when it came to topics likestrikes, your own discipline, contact hitters,
bunters, slash hitters, clutch hitters, situational hitters, two out hitters.
So what do you think made youso good with a bat in your
hand that coaches like vander Hook andHorton would put you in the category of
having all the all of those aspects. Well, I think you know,

(33:34):
having like Pakani and Reid on bassevery sing, you know, every single
time I got up to bat,you know that that helps, you know,
I don't. You know, it'sa hard thing because I know one
of my goals when I walked upto the place I wanted to be,
you know, be productive. AndI think that there's sometimes lost is those
productive outs. You know, Iwould take a ground ball the short you

(34:00):
know, with with Butkanyie reid onon third base to driving a run,
you know, almost every single time. So I think that, you know,
it was just you know, Ibought into what they were, you
know, what the coaches were saying. You know, I bought into this
and and and a lot of timesI was successful, and I you know,

(34:20):
I don't it's hard to put afinger on it, you know,
Like I even now, like Iwill go to a Kelsey Fullerton game now
and I think, how did Iever hit? I mean, these guys
so hard, you know, Butyou know, it was just I never
felt I never felt pressure from thecoaching staff. I never felt pressure.
I didn't put pressure on myself.I wanted to, you know, have

(34:43):
have fun, you know, havea have a plan, you know,
try and stick to it. Iknew what my strengths were, and I
tried to play towards those during thegame, and that's kind of that.
That was kind of all I did. And you know, it just happened
that I hit a lot where theyweren't. And you know that's the hard
part too, right You you canhit a ball hard and get out,

(35:05):
and you can hit a blooper andget a hit. It's baseball is kind
of a strange game like that,So you know, it was you know,
we put in a lot of hardwork and we hit all the time,
so you know, it's that that'sa that's a tough question. I
don't I don't know the answer.I think, you know, a lot
of some of it's luck, someof it's just you know, able to

(35:27):
put the barrel, you know.I think that was one of the things
that I could do well, wasI could put the barrel of the bat
on the ball, and good things, you know, happened more times than
they didn't. So Tony Gwynn obviouslyone of the greatest all time hitters of
all time. He loved to hitit in that five point five hole,
left handed hitter, and he wouldhit it in between the shortstop and the
third baseman, just scream her intointo left field and be able to get

(35:51):
all the singles that he did.Did you have a particular spot where you
tried to drive it to the gapor you know, slash it over somebody's
head, or did you have aparticular style that you tried to adhere to.
You know, when when I wasgoing well, I would hit the
ball at a right center and thatwas you know, I like I said

(36:12):
against LOYL. Merriormount, I hita ball a triple down the right field
line. It's you know, whenI was using the whole field. It
just for me kind of like thesame. I mean, I don't want
to put myself in that in noway in that category, but I was
the same way. If I washitting the ball the other way, I
could turn on a ball as well. So but you know when I got

(36:32):
you know, not not going sowell, it was you know, trying
to roll over or whatever. Youknow, So I did did it stick
with that up the middle approach andthat you know, I liked the ball
middle away, so that that workedout well from me. I try to
play to that. You know duringgames who were some of the better hitters
at that era. For you,uh that you face that gave you trouble

(36:55):
it sounds like you had a lotof success. But who were some of
the who are some of the opponent'spitchers or were they all Titans in the
fall? Definitely, I mean yeah, I mean to face you know,
Kirk Sarlows and Adam Johnson and andMatt Sorensen and John Smith, you know,
and Marc Ohanlon and Ruben Gerardo.Yeah, I mean, this definitely

(37:17):
will get you ready for the season. But you know, I mean Stanford
always had a lot of good arms. Jason Young was I think he was
a first rounder and then he handed. I ended up playing against him in
a ball two a couple of times. You know, Stanford always had had
had good players. I think inthe in the Calls World Series, I
mean we faced a couple of goodguys from Florida State, you know,

(37:44):
that was you know, and weplayed at Alabama that year too. They
had a bunch of good arms andI can't it's hard to remember everybody's name,
but it just you know, thoseguys were they could pitch and it
was you know, they're good opponentsand that's what that's what being at Kelsey
Fullerton playing those games, that's whatyou love to do. So the season

(38:06):
goes pretty pretty well and Draft Daycomes along. So you had mentioned that
one of the reasons why you leftBYU was to eventually get drafted and to
play professionally. What was draft Daylike for you, because that was in
early June and the Titans are stillwell Draft Day. Draft Day, we

(38:28):
were on a bus going from ColumbusNo, No, from Cleveland, Ohio
to Columbus, Ohio, So thatwas draft day. No one had any
cell phones. I remember we stoppedand you know, at a gas station
or something, and somebody called somebodyand I think ry Owens went like the

(38:49):
seventh round or sixth or seventh round, so we knew that, and then
I didn't know until I got toColumbus in my hotel and called my dad
and my dad said, up,you know, drafted by the White Sox
on the fourteenth, and you know, all sorts of crazy emotions kind of
go over. But it was kindof a funny day, right we think,
no, you know that like nowadayswe would do way different, but

(39:10):
without any cell phones and you're justout in the middle of you know,
the middle of America, just ona bus, right. It was definitely
anti climactic almost so being able toget the news from your dad. You
know, it wasn't that you werecalling your dad to say, hey,
where I was drafted. It's justthat the news came that in that medium

(39:35):
was it was it relief like hey, all this hard work is kind of
paid off, or you know,I rolled the dice and took a chance
transferring and now you know, nownow it's kind of come to fruition.
I mean, what was what wasfor you? There was all sorts of
emotions. I mean, you know, being a little naive not you know,
thinking that this that yeah, thisof course is going to happen,

(39:57):
right like, you know, youlook back and you think, well,
man, that was really lucky thatthis happened. So yeah, there was
just a lot. I mean,you know, coming from my dad was
really cool because he you know,obviously was you know, my number one
fan with him and my mom.They didn't they missed My dad missed one
game and that was that third gameat Pepperdine. The entire year, my

(40:17):
mom and my dad were mainstays onthe road at home. They didn't miss
any regional super regionals. Omaha,you know, they didn't. They didn't
miss one game. So it wasit was it was a pretty amazing experience,
and you know it, you know, it's just hard to put into
words, you know, when youyou know, I had always had a
great relationship with you know, withboth my mom and my dad, and

(40:39):
so you know, to hear itfrom him and you know, have them
say hey, look, you know, congrat congratulations, like you've worked hard
and you know, I'm proud ofyou. So that was definitely a cool
moment. So talking about regionals superregions, nineteen ninety nine was the first
year of the super regional format becauseyears prior it wasn't a sixty four team

(41:00):
tournament as we have come to knowtoday, but it was like forty eight
and if you won your regional,you went to Omah, whereas now it's
brand new. And the fact thatthey've got sixteen regionals, that pair down
had eight supers and the Titans werethe three overall seed nationally yet still got

(41:23):
shipped off to Notre Dame. Wasthat kind of the old Titan chip on
our shoulder, woe is me?We have to travel? Or how did
you guys approach the Notre Dame regional? No, I think we knew we
were going somewhere else. We knewwe weren't going to host the first region.

(41:44):
I think coach Horton knew that,So you know, we rolled in
there with bleeds, blonde hair.We rolled in there like I think that
was one of the cool things aboutthat team was we didn't care. We
did not care. We knew wewere the best team there. I always
laughed because I said, man,if we were playing football, I'd be

(42:06):
really scared because Michigan was in there, Notre Dame was in there, and
I'm like, man, these arepretty big powerhouses, but here, you
know, they're not better than usin baseball for sure. So we just
you know, we went into thatfirst regional just no one's going to beat
us, and they didn't. Well. In fact, the first game we

(42:27):
were playing Michigan and we were downin the bottom of the ninth by one
because I let off the inning.I hit a line drive to right which
got caught and Sean bischoff Berger hada walk off double in the bottom of
the ninth and we went out anddogpile. But this is the first game
of the regional. We went outdog piled that second base and that was

(42:47):
the only time we dogpiled the wholethe whole postseasons because the other games weren't
necessarily close. So yeah, youbeat was Creighton, and then you Michigan,
and then you know, we didn'twe didn't play Creton, We played
Michigan Notre Dame and then Michigan again. Michigan came back. I know Creighton
was in that. So you gothree and oh in the in the Notre

(43:12):
Dame Regional and then everybody thought thatthere was the potential of the host.
Yet Columbus Ohio and Ohio State getsthe super Regional and you guys are going
into that Columbus Regional and you're notgoing to have everybody playing. So if

(43:35):
you can fill in those that don'tknow, I know the story, But
what what was the rationale as towhy some of our better players were not
going to be playing in Ohio?Well we left, Well, our last
game in Notre Dame was Sunday andour flight home was Monday, and we
ended up going to a dinner andyou know, sitting there's not much going

(43:59):
on in South Indiana on a Sundaynight, Coach Horton called us to his
room. I think it had tobe twelve thirty one o'clock in the morning,
and we had a team meeting andthere were a few members of our
team that weren't there. Coach Shortensaid, Hey, by the way,

(44:20):
we got snubbed because we wanted tohost that super regional, but they gave
it to aiole state who had abrand new facility and I don't even think
they were ranked at that time.They just put us there. Yeah,
So, you know, we hada couple guys get get in trouble for
something about throwing rocks. I don'tknow, but they got in trouble and

(44:44):
so then they didn't They ended upgetting shipped home I think that Monday while
they were trying to figure out whatwas going on. So we went from
so and then the other thing aboutthat story is we weren't going to go
home. We're supposed to go homeMonday. Coach Horn said, well,
we could either go home Monday,practice Tuesday, and get on a plane

(45:06):
Wednesday to come all the way backhere, or we could just stay head
to Cleveland, Ohio and work outat some facility and then we can go
We can go into Columbus on youknow, Wednesday night and We're all like,
let's stay, Like, let's not, let's not go home. So
we ended up staying and we wentto Cleveland and you know, had a

(45:27):
great workout, and we get toColumbus and we get to Columbus, Ohio,
and my my I think we gotthere Wednesday night. Well, my
parents came in on Thursday, andI'll never forget my parents walk in.
My dad comes into our room andRee Johnson and I are teammates, and
my dad's like, you guys stink. And I was like, I go,

(45:52):
yeah, well, we packed forfour days and we're over a week
now. So my dad goes,okay, get all your laundry. I
mean we they would do our practicestuff, our baseball stuff, but everything
else. Yeah, you know,we packed for four days and we bat.
You know, we're not the bestpackers at you know, twenty years
old. So I will never forget. So I start pulling stuff out and

(46:15):
he's like, read, get allyour stuff. So we start pulling stuff
out. My dad's knocking on thedoor, so everybody, Hey, give
me your laundry. Give me yourlaundry. So my dad and my mom
and my dad took everyone's laundry tothe laundromat, came back folded all up
and said, hey, everyone grabbedyour stuff. So I was like,
mister Ollborn, thank you, missusOverborne, thank you. So it was

(46:37):
actually kind of a funny, afunny thing, but yeah, you know,
and then should have gifted them likeall quarter something. Yeah, they're
at the laundromat pumping in quarters.Yeah, it's pretty funny. But yeah,
and then you know, and thenyou know, going into Ohio State
without you know, your ace pitcherand your leadoff hitter, and you know,

(46:57):
it was definitely a challenge. Butlike coach Horton said, you know,
you know, Coach Horton always say, you know, like this game's
a challenge and how do you youknow, how do you deal with that?
You know, this game's never easy. You know, you may have
to win a doubleheader in the wind, in the snow or whatever it is,
you know, and he would alwayssay that, and so we you

(47:20):
know, said, okay, wellwe'll pick our teammates up and and get
through it. And that's you knowwhat we did, even though we lost
the first game. So what wasthe what was the what was the attitude
of you know, hey, we'regoing into Notre Dame and we're just going
to run ropshot over everybody. Youknow, no one can can can hang
with us. And then you losegame one in Ohio State. You know

(47:43):
you're down some players. Was therewas there anybody saying like, oh well,
maybe maybe we really missed them morethan we thought we were or was
the confidence? Now? That wasthe one thing about that team there was
There was always confidence, you know, always confidence, and that's you know,
we had bleach bond hair. We'rerunning in there, there's ten thousand
people screaming at Y and they hita they hit a It was a close.

(48:07):
The first game was close, andthey hit a grand Slam I think
in like the seventh or eighth inning, and the place was going bananas,
I mean, and they were talkingall sorts of trash to us, and
and you know, after the gamewe kind of walked a We're like,
oh, okay, this is howit's gonna be, you know. And
then Ryan Owens just put it.Put the whole team on his shoulders the

(48:28):
next two games, and I thinkhe probably had seventeen RBIs in the two
games. I don't know how manyhe did, but he put us on
his shoulders, and you know,the games weren't really close those last two.
And you know, we never wenever panicked. You know, we
were too confident in what we had, so there was definitely no panic.
And you know, but you know, our coaching staff wasn't panicked either,

(48:51):
you know. I mean, wellthey at least they didn't show it to
us, But I don't think theywere panicked. We had we had a
good team. We knew we hada good team, and you know,
it just and it. You know, I think that they they did kind
of poke the bear a little bit, how the fans and how how they
were when they won that first game. It definitely didn't sit well with to

(49:12):
this day. I still don't likeOhio State route against Ohio State, you
know every time. But they,you know, they got they definitely,
you know, a little fire underus. So you said you only dogpiled
that one game. So winning Gamethree to clinch and go to Omaha in
Columbus on their field, knowing whatyou know now, was that a little

(49:38):
bit sweeter knowing after losing game oneand the way you were treated by the
fans and then winning it and punchingyour ticket to Omaha on their field.
I mean, you know, wasthat kind of some validation or deferation.
The thing about it was was thegame was over in like that third inning
or fourth inning. I mean wescored it was nine to one, nine

(49:59):
to nothing, and it was likewe weren't giving that up, you know,
so we had already gone through ourwinning preparation, you know whatever was
so by the time, yeah,we were excited, don't get me wrong.
I mean we didn't dogpile, butwe definitely celebrated. But I think
as we walked off the field,there was a collective let's go home,
like we've been gone for you know, however many long, however long we

(50:22):
were gone for, you know,Wednesday to now it's the Sunday afterwards,
so we were just like, let'sgo home, you know, let's get
on this plane, let's take ashower, and let's get out of here.
So it was it was relief,it was excitement. And then I'll
never forget that plane ride home.It was you know, we were pretty
excited. We got I mean,I feel bad for the other people that
were on the plane because we weredefinitely loud and excited and rowdy, and

(50:47):
you know, we were definitely excitedabout. You know, it kind of
hits you. I mean, atleast it hit me on that plane ride
home, like, oh my goodness, like we get explaining the College World
Series, So it hit me atthat point. So so talk to me
about and before we start even talkingabout games in Omaha, what was it

(51:07):
like for you as a player inOmaha, Because it has been twenty five
years, it was still played atRosenblatt. It was when Omaha wasn't The
College World Series now has become moreof a television event and all that kind
of stuff, whereas you still havethe neighborhood and the row of houses that

(51:30):
are right there by the stadium,and they still they still have the pregame,
opening ceremonies and the banquet and allthat kind of stuff, and the
whole town just absolutely just wraps itsarms around the College World Series, and
especially cal State Fullerton because cal StateFullerton has been there so many times.

(51:51):
So if Nebraska can't be there,the home team, the facto home team
is cal State Fullerton. So asa member of that team going in to
that environment, what was that likeBefore you even played that first game against
Stanford, it was a lot likeit was a lot. You said,
you you went to a banquet andthen you went this. They had an

(52:13):
opening ceremony, they had a theyhad a band play, and they had
you know, it was it wasa lot. Before you even Matt sore
My he was at my actual roommatehere right down the street from here.
Yeah he was he if you knowMatt, that that's exactly what he would
do. Yeah, so he jumpedon stage. Who It was fun.

(52:35):
I mean, we had a goodtime. I have a home, I
have had a video camera somewhere.It was a lot. It was.
It was amazing. I mean,fireworks and you know, walking down the
street and you know, walking intothe stadium, you know, you're right,
there's the in in the neighborhood.I mean, they love Kelsey folks
in there because you're the underdog.No one's had really ever heard of you,

(53:00):
so you know, and you comein and you know, you're the
I don't want to say cool Californiakids, but you're the California kids.
And you know, you got bleachedblonde hair and you know, and it
was awesome. It was amazing.It was it was one of the you
know, I had grown up youknow in high school watching the you know,
the College Bole Series, and Iremember, you know something that my

(53:21):
dad and I would I mean wewould watch every single game, but it
was on TV and he would alwaysgo here, you know, whoever team,
whatever team's losing, they're coming back, and you know, there was
always some pressure. There was alwaysreally good games. So to be a
part of that was, you know, pretty pretty amazing. Talking about Stanford,

(53:43):
you open the season with Stanford.Here we go, h got to
open up with Stanford. I don'tknow why they the NC Double A or
the Powers to be always match upCal State food with Stanford somehow, but
here comes Stanford. So what wasthe approach going into the game one with
Stanford? Well, I think wewere you know, a different definitely a

(54:05):
different team you know in June thanwe were at the beginning of the season.
So we we definitely you know,went in thinking, you know,
we were gonna win that game.Yeah, it was it was a close,
it it was a really good game. Nothing really changed for us,
and that was I think one ofthe good that was one of the good
things about our team. We weregonna be who we were and knowing that,

(54:30):
you know, Jason Young was onthe mound that day. He was
good, he had good stuff.But we had Adam Johnson on the mount
too, who was the first pickin the draft. So it was it
was, you know, we knewit was going to be a close game.
We didn't think it was, youknow, any we were gonna blow
him out or we didn't think wewere gonna get blown out. So it
was gonna be a battle. Andthat's just kind of how Kelsey Florida's Stanford

(54:51):
games are and whether they're in Omahaor they're here or there, every time
you play him, it's it's abattle. But yeah, we you know
it, it's definitely w I mean, not not to say we wanted to
play someone else, but yeah,I don't know why they always they always
put it put the two West Coastteams together. I don't I I don't
know how that happens. But wewere confident, and you know we I

(55:14):
think we we made a couple oferrors that you know, gave them a
couple extra opportunities and they took advantage. And you know, that was game
one. Yeah, so after aftergame one and you're you're now in the
losers bracket, what was what wasthe the mood of the team or how
was it going into that that secondgame. We're just one game at a
time, you know, That's kindof how we It was the same after

(55:37):
uh, after Ohio State, wel you know, Okay, let's just
move on and and take care ofour business. So going in game two,
it was no you know, eventhough we were in the loser bracket,
we knew what was on the line. You knew your season could be
over. I definitely didn't want togo you know, two and two in
the Q, so, you know, and we knew every games and you

(55:58):
don't get to Omaha by not beinga good team. So we knew every
game was going to be tough,and you know, we just we were
confident in what we could do.Well. You guys were victorious against tex
A and m How did that?How did that game go for you guys
to the point where leading up intogame three, you know that that game

(56:20):
was a really good game. Swornsonpitched a really really good game. I
think he went like seven or eightinnings and you know, it's four to
two. I think we took wetook the lead in like the seventh or
in the seventh and then uh,they kind of put a couple of guys
on in the ninth and Sarlos youknow, slammed the door. So it
was it was an exciting I wasin left field being nervous, you know,

(56:43):
definitely in the in the ninth inning, definitely nervous. But after that
we were, you know, let'sgo, let's get on a roll,
let's keep let's keep it going.We had you know, I didn't I
didn't know who our next opponent wasgoing to be because I think Florida State
had played Stanford, they had tothey hadn't played yet, so we didn't
know who we were gonna play.And it didn't matter at that point.
It's like, let's just keep winningand keep going. So that Florida State

(57:07):
game, you know, everybody knowsthat that came out on the short end
on that one. But how didhow did that kind of shape the whole
the whole season? I guess,you know, kind of, you know,
I thought that game was that gamewas an outlier for our season because
we had a couple opportunities to hit, to get hits and to score some

(57:31):
runs and it just didn't happen.You know, the balls that you know,
like like we said earlier, Imean, the ball didn't find a
hole. You know, the shortstops playing right there. The second basement
was playing right there. And itjust you know, wasn't our best game.
It wasn't our worst game, butjust we couldn't we couldn't get much
going offensively. I think we scoreda run in the first and then you

(57:52):
know, we had some opportunities andjust you know, couldn't get over the
hump. And and but they youknow Nick Stocks pitched that game. You
know, no, not Nick Stocks. He didn't bits that game. He
was faced him later. I can'tremember who was. He was a good
pitcher, and he kind of shutus down, and we settled in and
kind of shut us down towards theend. Who who started for the Titans?

(58:14):
We started John Smith I believed thatday. Yeah, sounds about right.
So season's over, obviously, youknow, terribly successful, nothing to
be ashamed of, but it's it'sover, and obviously you're going to come
home. You've already known that you'vebeen drafted. Ryan's been drafted. Reid

(58:35):
I think drafted fifteen, sixteenth roundor something like that. So a number
of the guys on that on thatteam are drafted. The younger guys obviously,
you know, are going to becoming back. What was what was
it like when you guys got home, knowing that a lot of the guys
are going to sign and and takeoff and start their pro career. You
know, I feel like that startedas soon as we drove away from Rosenblat.

(59:00):
For me, at least, Iremember looking I mean I vividly remember
looking back, you know, upthe hill and seeing the lights on and
and really wondering, like, man, that was really my last college baseball
game, you know, and andit you know, every year it's like,
you know, you never play withthe same guys, Like the team

(59:20):
always changes at some point, soyou know, you kind of get used
to that. But yeah, itwas it was a it was a hard
deal knowing, you know, hey, I may not you know, I'm
not gonna play with Ree Johnson again. I'm not gonna play with you know,
I may not play with Dave Buccaniagain. It may not, you
know. You know, Chris Beckwas on that team. He was he
was a really good player and ahuge contributor for us, so you know,

(59:42):
and he was gonna he was asenior, so he was gone.
So it was you know, therewas a lot of you know, emotions
there and but I think at atsome point too, you're like, I
wasn't sure my future of what wasgonna happen with me, So that was
a hard thing to you know,my head around at that moment as well.
Well, we kind of name droppinga bit here. But before I

(01:00:07):
forget in reaching out with George,and he said he got a text message
from Reid. He had reached outto Reid saying that I was gonna chat
with you. So he says,So the text message from Reid says he
was just a boring Mormon when weplayed together. Two laughing crying emojis what

(01:00:29):
a great baseball player. Did everythingwell, run, defend, hit for
average with some pop, and hehad me and maccannie getting on base for
him all the time. Tell himyou're welcome. He's not wrong. He's
definitely not wrong. So you youhad mentioned, and I think you mentioned
before we started rolling off air thateven though you were on this team for

(01:00:52):
one year, you know you're you'restill text messaging Dave, and you're still
in contact with Reid, and you'restill in contact with with these guys.
But it was only one year,wasn't And I know that, like you
said, that the team rolls overand you have a different set of guys
every single year. But what doyou think made that team special? Not

(01:01:14):
only just for you and the friendshipsand the relationships that came out of it,
but to to to go all theway to Omaha and and and play
in the College World Series, Well, I think that, you know,
has a lot to come. Youknow, I didn't play for Augua Gurito,
but I feel like that has alot to do with him and Coach
Horton and and just the way theyset up the program. It's it's unlike

(01:01:34):
anything else there. You know,I've reached out to Coach Horton, you
know, many times throughout the throughoutthe years, and he's always answered.
You know, so you know,on this text messages, guys I didn't
play with, but they're still myfriends. You know, you go to
the alumni game, you know,I see guys like d c Olsen,
I didn't play with him either,and you know they give you hugs.
Tony Miranda, Tony Martinez, youknow, all these guys that are before

(01:01:57):
you know, Shane Costa, likeeven the kid you know, some of
the I say kids, some ofthe players after me. That's one of
the greatest things that you just can'tyou know, you can't replicate, you
know, and it's something that's justyou know, very natural and and and
that's just the program that it isand why it's so special is you know,

(01:02:21):
you put on that that Titans jerseyand everybody's your teammate, so that
that and that's just the way theprogram has been run. And so it's
very special to me. Even thoughI played one year. If anybody asked,
I always say I play at CalciFullard Ti. I mean now it's
where I feel like I'm still apart of the family. I you know,
Hooky you know, will call hey, make sure you come to this,

(01:02:45):
and make sure you come to that. You know. And this is
twenty you know, like I said, twenty five years later, and they're
still wanting you to be around.They're still wanting you to be a part
of it. So that's you know, a good feeling. It makes you
feel special and to feel like,hey, I was like a small part
of it, you know, definitelyis something that makes me proud and humbles
me. But you know, toyour question about that team and that team

(01:03:06):
as special man, you know,like I said, I feel like we
just we worked hard. We workedhard. We everybody bought in and that
was kind of it. I mean, not everybody loved each other, you
know, Pee there were fights inthe lock. You know, there were
fights everywhere you go. But atthe end of the day, I feel
like that team and those players,like when we got on the field,

(01:03:28):
it didn't matter, Like, itdidn't matter what you were going through off
the field or what you were goingthrough. You know, if I was
battling you for a spot, Iwasn't gonna sulk because you were playing over
me and I was going to rootfor you. And that's something that doesn't
happen all the time. And youknow, I feel like everyone on that
team was that way going away toleaving Rosenblat and knowing that your professional career

(01:03:55):
is going to start. What wasthat process, Like, did you immediately
just pick up the phone with theWhite Sox and say, hey, you
know what where do I sign?Where are you gonna send me? Or
any that kind of stuff? Howdid that? How did that work for
you? Now? For me,it was probably different than a lot of
the a lot of others. Youknow. They drafted me in the fourteenth

(01:04:18):
round and I got up the phonecall as soon as I got home and
they said, hey, you know, you know, you probably should have
gone a little bit higher, butthis is where we got. And you
know, I'm not sure what's goingon, and you know, there was
there was a little bit of confusionon my part. I didn't know what
was going on, and so Icalled, you know, coach Horton,

(01:04:39):
coach vander Hook and said like,what do I do here? You know,
and Coach vanders was like, yougot to go play because they I
wasn't signing right away. So Iwent and actually played in Alaska that summer,
went and played in Alaska, hada great summer, and you know,
they were in touch and they said, okay, well now, like

(01:04:59):
so I and signed until August afterthat, so I didn't I didn't even
play that year or that summer withthe White Sox. I played in Alaska.
So it was a little bit different, and I'm not sure where the
breakdown was, but you know,and actually I kind of felt bad because
you know, I was literally twodays before coming back for my senior year

(01:05:21):
on campus that registered for classes,everything was ready to go, and then
I decided to sign and so thatwas kind of a hard That was a
hard phone called the coach Horton too, to say, hey, I'm you
know, we're two days before theseason, you know, school starts,
and I'm gonna leave you hanging,which was was a difficult decision. But
you know, I think coach Hortonknows that, hey, our goals are
to play professional baseball. Obviously ourgoal where at Fullerton's and win the College

(01:05:44):
World Series. But you know,he always has said, hey, you
just be open and honest with me, and so I you know, I
had talked to it with him thewhole process, and I'm sure he was
disappointed, as was I. Iwas disappointed to not come back for one
more season, but you know,that's just kind of what breaks were at
that point. So by signing solate, when when was your first spring

(01:06:06):
training or when was your first SoI went to instruct instructional league that so
that I think this was August September, so I went, I went,
I did go right away, butit was instructional league that and then had
the off season and then spring trainingthe next year. Okay, so how
did how did that go? Andthen kind of take us a little bit
through the professional career. For you, it was fine. You know,

(01:06:29):
the professional baseball is a lot differentthan college baseball. And I'm not talking
about the bats or the balls oranything. It's more, I mean,
everything is individual. You know,you go from wanting to win every single
time you step on to wanting toyou know, be a little bit selfish
and you know, I'm going tosteal this base because I want as I
want as many stolen based out basesas it can. And they always kind

(01:06:50):
of say, you know, whatnumbers are gonna put in the back of
your baseball card, And that's adifferent That was different for me going to
I went to Berlinton, Iowa myfirst my first year, and I'll never
forget my first ever professional baseball gameis Burlington, Iowa. And We're playing

(01:07:10):
the Cardinals organization and I'm playing rightfield and in during the game the game,
I went over four I struck outthree times. And during the game
there was a play at the plateand you know, the cat they got,
we got a little we got alittle mix up. So the bench
is cleared, so I'm running infrom right field, like, what's going
on? Cooler heads prevail, nothinghappened. Well, when I went to

(01:07:34):
get my first paycheck, my eighthundred and fifty dollars a month that I
was making, there was twenty.I got fined twenty five dollars that day
too, for leaving my position.So a lot of people don't know if
you leave your position, you getfined. So you come out of the
dugout, you get fined. Soeverybody got fine. I didn't know.
I had no idea. So myfirst professional game, I went over four

(01:07:54):
or three strikeouts and I got finedtwenty five dollars. So not the great,
not the best start, but youknow it was. It was definitely
hard. You know, you're goingfrom you know, your parents at every
single game to being in a littletown in Iowa by yourself. So it's
definitely a difficult process and really kindof it's the same sport, but it's

(01:08:20):
not the same sport, if youknow, you know what I mean.
It's it's really hard. You gofrom playing you know, three, three
four games a week to playing everysingle day, you know, and long
bus rides and this and that andyou know, being hungry after the game
and being you know, I mean, I'm sure it's a little bit different
now, but you know, therewas no food in the clubhouse and a
ball and you know, it's justit's it's not the most glamorous of life.

(01:08:43):
But you know, you still lovebaseball and you still love what you're
doing. You know, you don'thave teammates like you have a Calsey Fullerton,
you have you know, you haveteammates, but they're not your friends,
and you know, you know,and they move around, so you
know, you get close to somepeople then they leave, and you know,
it's it's it was definitely a difficult, a difficult life to be in
the middle of, you know,so far away from your family and your

(01:09:05):
friends. And I didn't I mean, I think I had a cell phone
my first my first year was thefirst time, like I had a cell
phone. So you know, you'reyou're you're gone, and it was it
was kind of a struggle for surefor me. So you had one year
with Burlington or did you split thatyear and then play in the Carolina League.
And I spent the whole year inBurlington and then the next to the

(01:09:28):
next year I played in Winston Salemfor the Carolina League, and then the
year after that, I actually brokecamp with Double A and then after like
three games, I got sent backdown and then finished the year, you
know, in the Carolina League again. So how did it? How did
hopefully I'm not bringing up nothing,nothing, but how did it? How

(01:09:49):
did it end? Basically? Theyyou know, I got a phone call
right after that saying, hey,we're not going to have a spot for
you next year, and that waskind of that was it. And I
thought, man, I'm already becauseI was already old when I got drafted.
I was almost twenty two, Sonow I'm twenty five. I'm still
in a ball. You know.It was it was kind of a grind.

(01:10:12):
So I thought, you know whatI had. I had a good
time. I promised my mom thatI would I would, I would finish
college. So we'll go back andwe'll finish it up. So take me
through finishing up your degree. Andthen now we're sitting in your offices,
your business, so tell us,you know, kind of catch us up
to what's going on right now.Yeah. So I got an economics degree

(01:10:35):
the year after, so I spentone full year just hitting it hard and
going and finished that and kind ofyou know, didn't know, of course,
you know, I didn't know whatelse you wanted to do. In
fact, you know, that wasone of the times I actually went into
coach Horton's office and and you know, not even on the team three,
you know, four years, fiveyears later, and he you know,

(01:10:57):
carved out time and you know,sat and chatted with me, which you
know, I definitely appreciate, andyou know, just kind of kind of
buzz around and ended up. Theydo electrical work and we do a lot
of the restaurants you eat at.So so it's been you know, it's
been good. Can't complain. Andnow you're you know, a coach of

(01:11:23):
a burgeoning all star team. Definitely, that's actually one of the I love
it. It's literally one, youknow, watching your kids grow up.
It's definitely you know, kind offlipping it around to have, you know,
having my dad watch me get toplay. You know, I think,

(01:11:45):
you know, I have an olderson who's twenty two now, and
one of my favorite baseball memories ofanything is his first home run when he
was eleven years old, at ahome run over the fence, right,
Like, I was so excited.I think I was probably more excited about
that home run than any home runI ever hit. So it's definitely,
you know, the moments are fleeting, and you know, I try to

(01:12:05):
take advantage of it when you can, and yeah, it's it's definitely.
You know, although you run,you run into a lot of former Titans,
former teammates that you know you're playing, so now your kids are playing
against each other, and that rightthere is pretty crazy, something that you
know, when you're twenty years old, you can't even fathom, but now

(01:12:25):
you know you're out here and andyou know, in fact, Barry Hawkins
My kid plays against Barry Hawkins kid, and you know, and Brett Kaye's
kid, and so it's it's it'ssuper fun to see those guys out at
the ballpark and you know, givethem big hugs and talk and and root
for their kids too, you know. So kind of putting a bow on

(01:12:46):
this whole thing, what what's probablyyour biggest takeaway from from your one year
as being a Titan. You know, like I feel a part of the
family, and that is something thatI'm really proud of and something that you

(01:13:09):
know, it's hard to explain toother people. You know, even you
know, one of my friend's kidplayed there, and so now you know
every you know, we we givehugs at each other, and you know,
it's just the family aspect of it, and you know, rooting for
you know, when they won thewhen they won the national championship, when

(01:13:30):
coach Horton won his national championship infour two thousand and four, I call
them, you know, not rightaway, but afterwards, and it was
I felt as proud as if Iwas actually on the team. I was
really happy for coach Horton. Iwas really happy for the program, you
know, and I think that's justyou know, when you're tight and you

(01:13:51):
get to put on those pin stripes, man, there's there's nothing like it.
Thanks for listening to the fifteen hundredand forty four Miles to Omaha podcast.
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(01:14:11):
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