March 12, 2025 • 38 mins
Pat Bailey opens up about his remarkable 42-year baseball coaching journey that culminated in two national championships at Oregon State and D3 George Fox University. With a career spanning high school, Division III, and Division I baseball, Bailey offers a treasure trove of wisdom on what truly builds consistent winners.
Bailey's approach to recruiting and team-building is refreshingly countercultural. "Culture eats strategy for breakfast," he explains, detailing his three non-negotiable criteria: character, work ethic, and selflessness. This philosophy led him to prioritize high-achieving students (rarely recruiting players with GPAs below 3.5) and team-first personalities. The results speak for themselves—a whopping 813 collegiate wins and a pipeline of MLB talent including Adley Rutschman, Michael Conforto, and Stephen Kwan.
For coaches, Bailey delivers practical gold on outfield development, comparing outfielders to defensive backs in football where mistakes often cost multiple bases or even games. His systematic approach includes daily route work and structured drills to develop complete outfielders. When it comes to hitting, Bailey emphasizes attitude over mechanics: "Hitting is attitude, attitude, attitude," followed by approach and strike zone management.
Perhaps most compelling is Bailey's perspective on purpose. "Coaching is not about me. It's about helping other people and having an impact," he shares, explaining how he used baseball merely as a vehicle to develop young men of character. After retiring from coaching in 2020, Bailey now works with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, continuing his life's mission outside the dugout.
Whether you're coaching Little League or college baseball, Bailey's parting wisdom resonates: "Capture an athlete's heart and you capture the athlete." His legacy proves that when you focus on developing the person first, the championships often follow.
Join the Baseball Coaches Unplugged podcast where an experienced baseball coach delves into the world of high school and travel baseball, offering insights on high school baseball coaching, leadership skills, hitting skills, pitching strategy, defensive skills, and overall baseball strategy, while also covering high school and college baseball, recruiting tips, youth and travel baseball, and fostering a winning mentality and attitude in baseball players through strong baseball leadership and mentality.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
What does it take to become aconsistent winner over a 42-year
coaching career?
The career started as a highschool coach, eventually moving
to a Division III where you wona national championship, and
finishing up as a nationalchampion for Oregon State.
(00:23):
As a national champion forOregon State, coach Pat Bailey
goes in-depth on winning theCollege World Series, outfield
play, recruiting and so muchmore.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Next.
On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Welcome to Baseball CoachesUnplugged with Coach Ken
Carpenter.
Presented by AthleteOne.
Baseball Coaches Unplugged is apodcast for baseball coaches,
with 27 years of high schoolbaseball coaching under his belt
, here to bring you the insidescoop on all things baseball,
from game-winning strategies andpitching secrets to hitting
drills and defensive drills.
We're covering it all.
(00:56):
Whether you're a high schoolcoach, college coach or just a
baseball enthusiast, we'll diveinto the tactics and techniques
that make the difference on andoff the field.
Discover how to build a winningmentality, inspire your players
and get them truly bought intoyour game philosophy Plus.
Get the latest insights onrecruiting, coaching, leadership
and crafting a team culturethat champions productivity and
(01:18):
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Join Coach every week as hebreaks down the game and shares
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Your competitive edge startshere, so check out the show
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Now to my episode with OregonState Associate Head Coach Pat
(03:05):
Bailey.
Hello and welcome to BaseballCoaches Unplugged.
I'm your host, coach KenCarpenter, and I'm excited to
bring to you from the state ofOregon, pat Bailey, associate
Head Coach at Oregon State, andhe was a two-time national
champion Coach.
Thanks for taking time to be onBaseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Absolutely.
Thank you for allowing me to beon.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well, you know, I had a chance to research your
career a little bit and it'snothing short of incredible.
But I've got to ask, now thatyou're no longer coaching, what
keeps you busy these days?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I quit coaching when I was 64.
I coached for 42 years 16 inhigh school, 26 in college.
And when I finished, in 2020,during the pandemic, my wife
goes hey, buddy, you better findsomething to do, because when
you coach Division I baseball,you put in a lot of hours.
Because when you coach DivisionI baseball, you put in a lot of
(04:07):
hours.
And so I had Ryan Johnston,who's the five-state director
for the Fellowship of ChristianAthletes, called me and asked me
if I'd be interested in goingto work for FCA and I said yes
and we met.
And then he and my wife and Imet and I said yes.
And so I've been working forFCA since December of 2020.
(04:28):
I'm 69.
Fortunately, I'm still healthy.
I'm not taking any medicationor anything.
So other than I've had quite afew surgeries related to
baseball Tommy John, bothshoulders, left hip just
recently.
So I'm going to be the $6million man when it gets over
with, but that's what I'm doingnow.
I'm working for FCA.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Well, that's great.
I noticed that you know you'vecoached high school division
three and division one, and youalso played college baseball.
At what point did you say, hey,I want to become a baseball
coach.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
You know it's funny, that's a great question.
When I was a sophomore incollege, I was majoring in
business and a teacher took meout to dinner and he said I
think you should go intoeducation.
And I laughed.
I said I'm not going intoeducation.
They don't, teachers don't makeany money.
And he said would you just takeone education class?
(05:26):
And I said well, I'm majoringin business.
And he goes, they teachbusiness in high schools.
So I took a class and I'mswitching to business education
and graduated in four years,finished in 78.
And I applied for a job down inEugene Oregon and it's the
first job I applied for and Igot it.
(05:47):
And so I started coachingbaseball.
I was the JV baseball coach andthe JV football coach for both
sports and that's when I gotgoing.
So, anyhow, I think it's a Godthing that I ended up doing so.
That's what I'm doing.
Well, you know it's a God thingthat I ended up doing so.
That's what I'm doing.
Well, you know it's funny youmentioned that.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
It's like it wasn't necessarily a baseball coach.
It was somebody at the collegethat wanted you to must have saw
something in you that thought,hey, you need to be out there
educating young students.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Yeah, that's what he talked to me.
That's exactly what he told me.
He goes.
You're a great guy, you havegreat morals.
We need people who have highcharacter teaching in schools,
and so that's what happened.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Well, you mentioned, you've done it, you said 42
years.
You mentioned, you've done it,you said 42 years.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
With all that you've done for baseball and for all
the players throughout that time, what has baseball done for you
?
Well, you know what?
Coaching is not about me.
It's about helping other peopleand having an impact and
influence on other people, andevery coach should know his why
and my why was to develop men ofcharacter and to help them
become great citizens If theychoose to get married, great
husbands, great fathers, greatcommunity members, and so you
(07:17):
know, I use baseball as avehicle to teach that.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Well, I want to bounce around with a lot of
different things here todaybecause I just think you've got
so much knowledge in all theseareas.
But I just read a stat theother day that said I believe
the average division one collegebaseball player age is 21.9
nearly 22 years old, and thismakes it incredibly hard for a
(07:48):
high school kid that hasaspirations of playing at the D1
college level.
I got to get your thoughts onthe transfer portal.
Is it good for college baseball?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
You know what the problem with what's happened?
And it's not so much thetransfer portal, it's the nil,
and so it depends how much moneyuh school has in nil money.
I mean, I have a buddy who'shad a short stop at a division
one program.
That was a really good player.
In fact he's going to be afirst round pick this year and
(08:22):
he came in at the end of lastyear and he said coach, I need a
hundred thousand dollars in nilmoney or I'm not going to come
back first-round pick this year.
And he came in at the end oflast year and he said Coach, I
need $100,000 in NIL money orI'm not going to come back.
And he goes, I don't have thatkind of money.
And so he hit the transferportal and the next day he was
at SEC school.
I mean that thing was alreadydone before that kid even came
in there.
So honestly I'm glad I'm notcoaching anymore between the NIL
(08:43):
and the transfer portal.
And the transfer portal wasthen when I was coaching too.
It's just the NIL.
Things really changed that.
And that 21.2 years part ofthat's the pandemic, you know,
because kids were playing longer, because they got that extra
year I would be worrying about.
If you looked at that beforethe pandemic, it was probably
(09:03):
somewhere around 19 to 20,probably 20.
Because most kids maybe alittle over 20, because not
everybody signs after theirjunior year.
But yeah, I think it's reallychanged things.
I think it affects development.
You get a guy in your programinstead of developing him either
.
You know, because I think itworks both ways.
(09:24):
I think coaches tell kids theyneed a transfer because they
want to get a better, better PAC, a player in the portal, and
they want to get a better player.
So the whole thing is I'm justthankful I'm not doing it
anymore because of it.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, it's tough, I mean.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
And then you have the kids that jump in the transfer
portal and they don't find ahome, and then they have the
kids that jump in the transferportal and they don't find a
home, and then they shouldn'thave jumped into it.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Well, in 2018, Oregon State you guys won the College
World Series as a coach on thatteam and in the 12 seasons that
you you were at oregon state,you won yeah he's actually at
oregon state for 13 years.
13 okay, yeah, well, I believeyour record was 496, 205 and 3.
(10:15):
How I had bob todd on, I don'tknow if you.
If you know bob todd, he wascoach for Ohio State for a long
time and he was a big proponentfor moving the season back a
little bit because he felt liketeams in the North are at a
disadvantage.
What did you guys do, or whatdo they still do, at Oregon
(10:39):
State?
You're in the Northwest.
How do you continue to put outgreat teams and compete at such
a high level?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Well, first of all, let's just be honest.
Good coaches become greatcoaches when you recruit talent,
and we had a lot of talentedplayers.
So that's I mean.
You know, come on, I thinkeverybody every coach that's at
the college level knows whatthey're doing.
Everybody has strategy.
(11:10):
But I'm just telling you,culture eats strategy for
breakfast, and we had a greatculture, and you know, every
place I've been, I primarilythink culture is really
important.
So you've got to recruit theright kind of guy.
So our big three, because I wasa recruiting coordinator.
Number one you better be a manof character.
(11:30):
If you're not a man ofcharacter, you're not going to
fit our culture.
Number two you better be a hardworker, and hard work starts in
the classroom.
I rarely recruited a guy thatwas below like a 3.5 GPA.
Most of them were like 3.8 orhigher.
And I'll give you three quickexamples Madrigal, who, in 18,
was the fourth pick in the draft.
I think that was a 4.0 in highschool and I think he ended up
(11:52):
with like a 3.85 there.
Adley Rutschman, who was thefirst pick in the draft.
Adley Rutschman was like he hadone B in high school.
I think he's a 395.
And he ended up being like a378 GPA in the business
department here.
So, and then Caden Grenier wasa 4.0 in the valedictorian of
his class in his high school andhe was a first-round pick in 18
(12:15):
.
So we recruited guys that werereally hard workers.
And the thing is, when studentsget really good grades, that
tells me they're doing thingsright on and off the field.
The kid's getting bad grades.
Whenever I talk to a guy thathad below 3.5 GPA, I ask what's
going on in your life thatyou're not getting good grades?
Well, I got a 3.2 because 3.2,anybody can get a 3.2.
(12:38):
I can chew bubblegum in a classand not do anything to get a
3.2 GPA today.
So, anyhow.
And then the last thing is youbetter be selfless.
You better make other peoplemore important than yourself.
It's team, teammate, self, inthat order.
And if you can't buy into that,I can't recruit you.
I mean, the very first time Italked to kids on the phone,
(13:01):
that's what I told them.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Then we talked about that that's a great way of doing
it, because I mean, you seethem, you see a lot of teams
that if they're having success,but if they don't, they're not
selfless and happy when somebodyelse does something well, and
things like that, it can eataway at the culture a little bit
, and it probably all startswith the head coach, I would
(13:24):
think absolutely, and case was agreat motivator.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I mean he had a really good job with motivation.
He was very good with ourplayers to motivate him, to make
sure we got the most out oftheir god-given talent.
So that factored in too.
But I'm just telling all ittakes is one guy and he can
destroy your culture, and that'swhy I said teams more important
(13:48):
than an individual.
If you have one guy that'saffecting your culture and he
won't change, you got to letthat guy go.
I mean, if I went to businessI'd do the same thing, and this
is I mean it's kind of likerunning a business.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Right Makes total sense to me and I can relate to
that.
When I look back on my career,I can think of some situations
where that came up.
I got to ask you you work withthe outfielders too.
What advice would you give highschool coaches when it comes to
(14:25):
creating elite outfielders?
What do they need to be?
Do you need to hold the backupshortstop and put him out there
in the outfield, or is there anycertain things that you look
for in great outfielders?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
doesn't catch.
I mean Trevor Larnik was afirst round pick and Trevor's a
great guy.
He's with the twins.
I mean he's a big kid, but hewas a six, seven, 60 guy.
I mean he could run in centerfield.
You want a guy that's you know,preferably a guy it's like a
six, five or better runner forthe gaps and your corner guys.
You want to be around six,eight or better.
So we recruited speed and Irecruited speed for defense, not
(15:13):
offense.
There's some times where guysare really good athletes that
play shortstop but they're notgood defenders in the infield,
so you move them to the outfield.
There's a whole bunch of thingsthat factor into that, but I'm
just telling for high schoolcoaches.
When I was a high school coach Ialways had an outfield coach.
An outfielder makes a mistake.
(15:33):
It's always a multi-basemistake.
It's not just a single baseerror like a fielding error.
So I kind of equate outfieldplay to defensive backs in
football.
If a defensive back makes amistake, it could cost you the
game.
It could end up being atouchdown and sending an
outfielder.
(15:53):
If an outfielder makes amistake, it could cost you the
game.
So we I worked our outfieldersevery day and our big three was
this number one secure the couch.
Number two take great routesand we did route work every day
in practice For me, throwingballs to them.
It was really controlled.
They hit and fly balls to themevery day and we had a sequence
(16:15):
that I did every day with flyballs.
I'd always have them startshallow and I'd hit them over
their heads.
They worked on going over theirheads.
I'd hit them to the left, I'dhit them to the right and then I
would hit them out in front ofthem, then I'd hit him out in
front of him, then I'd hitplayers to him where they'd have
to run in and dive and gougehim.
So that was our sequence when Ihit live down.
(16:36):
And then the last thing is Iwant guys being accurate with
their throws.
I'll take a quick arm and anaccurate arm any day over a
great arm.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Well, if I read it right, didn't you have one
season where all three of youroutfielders were first team, all
pack 10?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yes, yeah, we did.
I remember what year that was,but I think that was when
Michael Conforto was there, whoplays for the Dodgers.
Now, I think that was 2014.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
That's incredible considering the level of talent
that's out there on the westcoast yeah well, let's just be
honest again.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
It goes back to recruiting talent yeah, there
you go.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Well, speaking of recruiting, though, how do you
get a kid to come to oregonstate versus, you know, sunny
california or arizona?
Arizona state, I mean what well?
Speaker 3 (17:35):
first of all, the weather's not that bad.
I mean it's going to be 55degrees here.
That oh, okay so I mean we'reonly 230 feet above sea level,
we're 50 miles from the pacificocean, so we hardly ever get
snow.
I mean, if we get snow.
We got one inch of snow about amonth ago and they closed
school down because they have noway of cleaning it up.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
So we don't have any kind of equipment to clean the
roads up, so hardly ever snow isthere.
We get freezing rain once in awhile.
If we have any issues at all,would be with rain, not snow,
and we get about, I think,between 35 and 40 inches of rain
a year, but it's mostly innovember, december and january.
I mean, we'll get rain once ina while now, but it's it, and
(18:24):
our fields turk.
And the other thing is we havea great facility.
We have the best facility onthe west coast.
It's beautiful, and, and and,by the way, we kids come have a
great facility.
We have the best facility onthe West Coast.
It's beautiful, and, by the way, kids come to a game to watch
us play.
Our place is sold out everygame.
It seats 4,000 people.
There's going to be between3,500 and 4,000 people at every
home game.
(18:45):
Wow, that's amazing, and it'sjust a great facility.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Well, you also worked with the hitters and I don't
know if you get on.
You know you get online andcheck out.
You got all these hitting gurusand everybody's got a different
way of doing it.
And if you could simplify it,what would you emphasize and how
(19:11):
would that routine work dailyfor a high school player?
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Well, if I was working with high school kids,
first of all, everything we didwe got from Biokinetic Research
Institute, which is Salt LakeCity, and it's Bob Kyes that
runs that, and Bob has beenworking with major league
hitters now for over four years,where he has cameras that are
like $35,000, $40,000 a pieceand Bob videotapes them and he
puts them into three-dimensionalmotion analysis.
So number one is be on time.
(19:48):
If you know, if a guy doesn'thave a strike foot down by it at
uh, by the time the ball's aminimum 30 feet away, he's not
going to unlock and seek once.
And you and you, whenever youwork with hitters, you always
start with their base uh, andthen work your way up.
And then the second thing is,uh, besides being on time, is
you have to stabilize yourposture.
(20:09):
If you don to stabilize yourposture, if you don't stabilize
your posture, if you have spineangle movements when you're
striding, you're not going tohave proper swing mechanics.
So those would be my two bigones.
There's some things.
And the third thing I would sayis, when you're working with
guides, don't be a cookie cutter.
Not everybody's the same.
(20:30):
Every person is uniquely bold.
There isn't any one athletethat's the same.
So you know the posture thingand getting down on time, those
have to be done, but everybodyhas their own signature in terms
of how they add.
So but I would definitely if Iwas a coach, I would get some
information from biokineticresearch and the thing young
(20:52):
coaches are doing is they're notgoing to clinics, which is
crazy to me.
They're not going to a clinicand learn from somebody who
really knows what they'retalking about.
They get online and look atstuff and a lot of the stuff
online is not accurate.
So you got to be really carefulwho you learn from.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yes, I totally agree with you on that one.
And you know, when you talkabout, have you ever come across
a player where somehow he'sputting the ball in play, he's
getting hits, but maybe hismechanics aren't the greatest?
Speaker 3 (21:24):
That's the very first thing I talk about.
Hitting is attitude, attitude,attitude, attitude, attitude.
That's the first thing I mean.
Come on.
And then the second, you know,probably more important than
mechanics is approach.
You know what?
What?
What do you teach?
Approach wise, because you knowthat's going to determine how
(21:46):
good, how well you hit.
I mean, if you're swinging atpitches that are out of the zone
, so you it.
You got it from day one.
We talked about approach andstrike zones, strike zone
management, and we also did uhtwo strike hitting almost every
day of practice.
I mean approach, uh zonemanagement.
I mean, if you look at our guysin the major leagues that are
(22:09):
up there right now you look atConforto, you look at Rutschman,
you look at Kwan Stephen Kwanwith the guard nails, you look
at Trevor they all manage thestrike zone really well.
So I mean that was a really bigdeal for us and let's be honest
, the only person that hits areally good slider or breaking
ball is God.
So you know you've got to befastball ready yes, that's,
(22:32):
that's true.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
You know I I had, it's been, it's been a little
while, but I had a brad commencegone and he was a first round
draft pick of the braves and hetalked about how he was just
tearing it up through the minorleagues.
He was a leading hitter in theAAA and he said as soon as he
(22:56):
got up to the Braves theystarted changing everything on
him and he didn't want to do it,but he thought I'm at the major
league level, I better listento these guys, major league
level, I better listen to theseguys.
And he really thought that thatkind of affected his career
because he made so many changes.
He got away from what was sosuccessful for him and you know,
(23:21):
if you have a guy come in thathits really well prior to coming
to you, how much do you try tochange that?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
leave them alone.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Leave them alone, you know they.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
They even know what you teach fitting wise, and they
they need to use the languageyou use and all that kind of
stuff so that they understand itwhen you're talking to them,
cause there's going to be littletweaks.
But I mean, if you got a guythat comes in and can really hit
, I mean, the biggest thingwhere our guys jump, I think, is
what you know from theirfreshman year to their sophomore
(23:56):
and junior years.
They learn how to manage thestrike zone and they come up
with a really good approach.
And so, uh, I think that's toobad that he really had minor
legs and they're trying tochange things to manage.
I think that's crazy.
But, uh, if a guy can hit, Imean he's doing everything right
mechanically where he's able to.
(24:17):
You, you know, hit pitches indifferent locations and, let's
be honest, there's spots whereguys just don't hit.
But pitchers make mistakes.
A major league pitcher inquadrants misses an average of
four and a half inches everypitch.
Those are major leaguers.
So if you're patient enough toplay, you're going to get a
pitch and your swing zone tohead at some point, not a bat,
(24:39):
and that's the critical piece.
That's part of the approach,and I firmly believe you can't
hit 17 inches of the plate.
There's about eight inches ofthe plate that you need to focus
on.
That's your area that youreally hit and look for a pitch
in that area because, let's behonest, most hitters get
themselves out.
Pitchers don't get them out,they get themselves out, and it
has a lot to do with swingdecisions and strike zone
(25:00):
management.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yes, I think it's.
You know, it's clearly thehardest thing to do in sports is
to be a successful hitter.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Hey, you do three out of 10 for 15 years.
Guess what?
You're in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Exactly.
Well, I want to jump back towhen you were at George Fox.
You were the head coach atGeorge Fox for 12 seasons and
you won a national title in 2004.
Talk about going from being thewinningest coach in school
history at that division threeschool to becoming an assistant
(25:40):
at oregon state.
And what was your approach to?
Because you know, I I've comeacross coaches where they've
been head coaches and now all ofa sudden they're like I don't
want to deal with all theheadaches, I, I just want to go
and coach at the high schoollevel.
What was your approach to that?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Well, first of all, when I met with Case, when he
offered me the job, we spent thefirst probably hour and he's a
friend of mine and so I mean wewere friends before I even came
to Oregon State.
But I asked, I said I knowwe're good friends and we've
talked before, but I want toknow why do you coach?
What's your why?
And we probably spent an hourtalking about that and he had
(26:23):
the same philosophy I did interms of why he was coaching
Developing men of character,developing men who are going to
be accountable and responsible.
That was the most importantthing to me.
And secondly, I honestly wantedto have an opportunity to coach
at a higher level.
I mean it just you know the guysI've seen play when we were in
(26:45):
the Pac-10 and it became thePac-12, I mean there's a lot of
guys in the majors that Icoached against, along with the
guys that we've had in themajors ourselves.
I mean Matt Boyd, who's nowwith the Cubs I think this is
Matt's 11th season.
He is one of ours.
Drew Rasmussen, who's with theRays, is one of ours.
You know, I just it's funseeing talent.
(27:09):
So you know, it was anopportunity for me to coach at
higher level and I love my timeat George Fox.
I love being a head coach and,by the way, when we won the
national championship in 2004, Ihad four guys or five guys on
that team that got drafted.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
So I mean we had talent.
I mean, when we went, I thinkwe had we were allowed to take
24 players to the World Seriesand 18 of those players were
first team all-state players inhigh school.
So we had a lot of talent.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
That's crazy for a Division III team, because here
in Ohio we've got a lot ofDivision III schools, so any
time a kid's playing collegebaseball they're pretty good.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Five percent buddy that play high school get a
chance to play college at somelevel.
I always tell kids if you havean opportunity to play college,
you're a stud.
I don't care what level you'replaying at, you're a good player
.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Well in 23 seasons of college baseball, you were part
of 813 wins.
For the coaches that arelistening here to the baseball
coaches unplugged what do theyneed to do to become a
consistent winner the way youdid?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Well, again, it goes back to it's not about the coach
.
And as soon as you figure thatout, why do you coach?
What's your purpose, what's thereason?
And so you know, I thinkhumility in me is huge.
I do not like being aroundarrogant people.
I mean, it's not about you,dude, it's about what are you
(28:55):
doing for your players.
And the second thing is, I thinkyou know you need to be a class
act.
I mean what you, what you allow, you encourage, what you permit
, you promote, and so there hasto be standards that are set,
and those standards are thingsthat just you can't.
They have to abide by them.
And then you need to be clearabout your expectations.
(29:15):
I mean from expectations aboutyour program philosophy, the
expectations about discipline,the expectations about practice.
And when we practice, I tellguys, when you walk through that
gate to come to practice, youbetter be a laser bait.
I'm not going to put up withfloodlights.
I don't care what's happenedduring your day, I don't care if
you got three hours of sleep.
(29:37):
When you walk through that gate, it's all about 10.
And I expect you to work hard,I expect you to be focused, and
I will not put up with anybodythat's not focused in practice.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So you have to have high expectations, definitely Do
you hate losing or love winning.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I hate losing or love winning.
I hate losing, I'll be off.
You know it's funny because mygrandkids they we play games
together all the time and I playto win.
I mean, my grandpa did thatwith me when I was growing up
and and you know they're oldenough now where they're beating
me in the games and stuff likethat.
But to start with they didn'twin a lot.
And you know, I I don't wantsnowflakes for grandchildren, I
(30:20):
want grandchildren that aregoing to compete.
So you know, whatever I'm doing, I'm going to compete at it.
I want.
There's a so many people.
When you ask them how they'redoing now, I say they're doing
good.
I don't want to be good, I wantto be great at everything I do,
and that's what separatesgoodness from greatness.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
I mean, come on, man yeah, I love that, that's, you
know I I get a lot of different,uh, opinions on that, you know,
because it's almost like, a lotof times I find people saying,
well, winning was theexpectation, so I hate to lose.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
So you know, you know , but the winning part's a
byproduct of everything you do.
I mean, if everybody's shootingto win a state championship,
and I mean that should be a partof what you want to do, but
it's a byproduct.
I mean, john Wooden won what?
12 national championships whenhe was at UCLA.
He never once talked aboutwinning.
(31:20):
We didn't talk a lot aboutwinning, we talked a lot about
you know, all the stuff you dowith your program, what your
culture is.
I mean being relentlesslypursuing excellence.
It's not about success.
Success is a scoreboard.
If you pursue excellence andyou make the most, if you get
(31:41):
every kid to make the most outof their God-given talent, then
the success part takes care ofitself.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Well, I got to ask do you miss not putting the
uniform on?
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Here's what I miss.
I miss the relationship withthe players.
I don't miss the travel.
I mean I was gone a lot.
I was a recruiting coordinator,so I was probably in a hotel
room between the season andrecruiting.
I had probably 150-plus days ayear.
I was gone from home, wow.
So I mean everybody that wantsto be a Division I coach.
(32:16):
I'll just give you an exampleyear when we won the national
championship, we started onvalentine's day and I didn't
have any kids at home, so mywife traveled with us a lot.
So I got to be with my wife alot, who I've been married to
for 47 years and, by the way,I'm jamie and she's varsity how
the hell I'm.
I'm very blessed.
I have a great wife and a verysupportive wife, because she saw
(32:38):
our main coach in baseball'sadmission field, so we had kids
over our house that came and atedinner at our house and all
kinds of stuff.
But anyhow, we started onfebruary 14th, from february
14th till june 28th when, whenwe won the national championship
, I had three days off and oneof them was Easter.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Yeah, and it's a 70-plus-hour-a-week job, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
It's not an easy job and the best part is everybody
in the stands thinks they can doit better.
That's for sure.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Oh my gosh, and you know what, most of the people
that complain are people thatnever even played sports and
they think they know stuff.
Or you know, everybody's,everybody's played baseball or
whatever, so they think theyknow things.
So, yeah, you just that's Icall that noise and just
eliminate it.
Eliminate the noise.
Yeah, all that matters is yourteam and your players.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I got to ask this because I'm players I got to ask
this because I'm out here inthe Midwest and how big is the
rivalry between Oregon andOregon state?
Speaker 3 (33:41):
It's good, it's a healthy rivalry, but it's a good
one.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Now they.
You hear the talk about the uh,is it called the civil war?
Speaker 3 (33:52):
for football.
Yeah, they changed the name ofit.
Okay, I don't know what namethey call it now, but they don't
use that name anymore.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Is that same intensity there for baseball and
basketball and sports like that?
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Yeah, it is.
Yeah, I mean you want to beyou're, I mean they're only 45
minutes away.
45 minutes away, 50 minutesaway, I guess, from we're 50
minutes away from each other.
So the first rule in the art ofwar is respect your opponent.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
So you know, it was a rivalry, but we were, we
respected each other yeah well,best story from coaching in a
college world series that youlook back on and it could either
be a funny one or a greatmoment, or whatever it might be,
(34:46):
and Caden Grenier was at theplate and he hit a pop-up down
the right field line.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
They didn't get caught.
That would have been the thirdout and he ended up getting a
base hit through the sixth holeto tie the game up.
We had a runner at second base.
Then Trevor Lernick came up andTrevor hit an absolute missile
over the right field fence andput us up 5-3.
And then we won thechampionship game.
I think the championship gamewe won 5-0.
To three.
Then we won the championshipgame.
I think the championship gamewe won 5-0.
(35:18):
I would say Trevor's home runwas the highlight that we're
going to lose that game.
The guy not catching the balldown the right field line and
the second baseman over aroundthe ball I had behind him.
Honestly, the ball was not hisball, it was the right fielder's
ball and that's why you wantyou know.
(35:38):
I just I'm firmly convincedthat our right fielder would,
would have called off and gotthat ball.
Because we work on fly ball,communication and what.
In areas where three peopleconverge, those are called tough
ball areas.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
We worked on that all the time best college venue to
play or watch a game.
And since you've already saidoregon state, what was?
What was?
Speaker 3 (36:02):
another one that you went to and you're like, wow,
this is just a place, a greatplace to play I think when uh 19
we went to mississippi state, Ithink they broke a record for
february for attendance, I thinkwas 12,000 people at the game.
That was pretty cool, yeah.
And then we played at LSU intheir new stadium.
(36:22):
The seats had 10,000 people.
That was pretty neat.
Yes, we were at a regionalthere.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Well, I got to mention Tim Saunders here
because Tim had a chance to meetwith you out at the Montana
State Baseball Coaches Clinicand I told Tim.
I said if you come acrossanybody that I could have on the
podcast, I said I'd be gratefuland, coach, I can't thank you
enough for taking the time to beon Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Oh, absolutely, tim's a great guy.
I mean, I just met him for thefirst time, but I really enjoyed
spending time with him.
He loves kids and he lovesbaseball.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
The last thing I'll tell you for high school coaches
you capture an athlete's heart.
You capture the athlete andthat means you got to care about
them.
If kids aren't stupid, theyknow whether coaches care about
them or not.
And the second thing I'll tellyou is never attack the person.
You know you can useconstructive criticism whatever
(37:28):
you want, but don't attack theperson personally.
That's a no-no.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Pat Bailey coach.
Thanks for being on BaseballCoaches Unplugged.
If you enjoyed today's show, besure to share it with a friend
and tell them about BaseballCoaches Unplugged.
We put out a new episode everyWednesday.
Baseball Coaches Unplugged ispowered by the netting
professionals improving programsone facility at a time.
Contact them today at844-620-2707, or you can visit
(37:58):
them online at wwwnettingproscom.
As always, I'm your host Coach,ken Carpenter, and thanks for
joining me on Baseball CoachesUnplugged, thank you.
Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
What does it take to become aconsistent winner over a 42-year
coaching career?
The career started as a highschool coach, eventually moving
to a Division III where you wona national championship, and
finishing up as a nationalchampion for Oregon State.
(00:23):
As a national champion forOregon State, coach Pat Bailey
goes in-depth on winning theCollege World Series, outfield
play, recruiting and so muchmore.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Next.
On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Welcome to Baseball CoachesUnplugged with Coach Ken
Carpenter.
Presented by AthleteOne.
Baseball Coaches Unplugged is apodcast for baseball coaches,
with 27 years of high schoolbaseball coaching under his belt
, here to bring you the insidescoop on all things baseball,
from game-winning strategies andpitching secrets to hitting
drills and defensive drills.
We're covering it all.
(00:56):
Whether you're a high schoolcoach, college coach or just a
baseball enthusiast, we'll diveinto the tactics and techniques
that make the difference on andoff the field.
Discover how to build a winningmentality, inspire your players
and get them truly bought intoyour game philosophy Plus.
Get the latest insights onrecruiting, coaching, leadership
and crafting a team culturethat champions productivity and
(01:18):
success.
Join Coach every week as hebreaks down the game and shares
incredible behind-the-scenesstories.
Your competitive edge startshere, so check out the show
weekly and hear from the bestcoaches in the game.
On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Today's episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged is
powered by the nettingprofessionals, improving
programs one facility at a time.
Coaches are open to get onemore season out of your batting
cages or L screens, tired orbroken ball buckets or
windscreens flapping in theoutfield fence.
It's time to take your facilityto the next level.
Will Miner and his team at theNetting Professionals specialize
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in the design, fabrication andinstallation of custom netting
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This includes backstops,batting cages, bp turtles, bp
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They also work with football,soccer, lacrosse and golf
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The netting professionalscontinue to provide quality
products and services torecreational, high school,
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Contact them today at844-620-2707.
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(02:42):
Or info at nettingproscom.
Visit them online atwwwnettingproscom or check them
out at Netting Pros on X,instagram, facebook and LinkedIn
for all their latest productsand projects.
Now to my episode with OregonState Associate Head Coach Pat
(03:05):
Bailey.
Hello and welcome to BaseballCoaches Unplugged.
I'm your host, coach KenCarpenter, and I'm excited to
bring to you from the state ofOregon, pat Bailey, associate
Head Coach at Oregon State, andhe was a two-time national
champion Coach.
Thanks for taking time to be onBaseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Absolutely.
Thank you for allowing me to beon.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well, you know, I had a chance to research your
career a little bit and it'snothing short of incredible.
But I've got to ask, now thatyou're no longer coaching, what
keeps you busy these days?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I quit coaching when I was 64.
I coached for 42 years 16 inhigh school, 26 in college.
And when I finished, in 2020,during the pandemic, my wife
goes hey, buddy, you better findsomething to do, because when
you coach Division I baseball,you put in a lot of hours.
Because when you coach DivisionI baseball, you put in a lot of
(04:07):
hours.
And so I had Ryan Johnston,who's the five-state director
for the Fellowship of ChristianAthletes, called me and asked me
if I'd be interested in goingto work for FCA and I said yes
and we met.
And then he and my wife and Imet and I said yes.
And so I've been working forFCA since December of 2020.
(04:28):
I'm 69.
Fortunately, I'm still healthy.
I'm not taking any medicationor anything.
So other than I've had quite afew surgeries related to
baseball Tommy John, bothshoulders, left hip just
recently.
So I'm going to be the $6million man when it gets over
with, but that's what I'm doingnow.
I'm working for FCA.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Well, that's great.
I noticed that you know you'vecoached high school division
three and division one, and youalso played college baseball.
At what point did you say, hey,I want to become a baseball
coach.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
You know it's funny, that's a great question.
When I was a sophomore incollege, I was majoring in
business and a teacher took meout to dinner and he said I
think you should go intoeducation.
And I laughed.
I said I'm not going intoeducation.
They don't, teachers don't makeany money.
And he said would you just takeone education class?
(05:26):
And I said well, I'm majoringin business.
And he goes, they teachbusiness in high schools.
So I took a class and I'mswitching to business education
and graduated in four years,finished in 78.
And I applied for a job down inEugene Oregon and it's the
first job I applied for and Igot it.
(05:47):
And so I started coachingbaseball.
I was the JV baseball coach andthe JV football coach for both
sports and that's when I gotgoing.
So, anyhow, I think it's a Godthing that I ended up doing so.
That's what I'm doing.
Well, you know it's a God thingthat I ended up doing so.
That's what I'm doing.
Well, you know it's funny youmentioned that.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
It's like it wasn't necessarily a baseball coach.
It was somebody at the collegethat wanted you to must have saw
something in you that thought,hey, you need to be out there
educating young students.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Yeah, that's what he talked to me.
That's exactly what he told me.
He goes.
You're a great guy, you havegreat morals.
We need people who have highcharacter teaching in schools,
and so that's what happened.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Well, you mentioned, you've done it, you said 42
years.
You mentioned, you've done it,you said 42 years.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
With all that you've done for baseball and for all
the players throughout that time, what has baseball done for you
?
Well, you know what?
Coaching is not about me.
It's about helping other peopleand having an impact and
influence on other people, andevery coach should know his why
and my why was to develop men ofcharacter and to help them
become great citizens If theychoose to get married, great
husbands, great fathers, greatcommunity members, and so you
(07:17):
know, I use baseball as avehicle to teach that.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Well, I want to bounce around with a lot of
different things here todaybecause I just think you've got
so much knowledge in all theseareas.
But I just read a stat theother day that said I believe
the average division one collegebaseball player age is 21.9
nearly 22 years old, and thismakes it incredibly hard for a
(07:48):
high school kid that hasaspirations of playing at the D1
college level.
I got to get your thoughts onthe transfer portal.
Is it good for college baseball?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
You know what the problem with what's happened?
And it's not so much thetransfer portal, it's the nil,
and so it depends how much moneyuh school has in nil money.
I mean, I have a buddy who'shad a short stop at a division
one program.
That was a really good player.
In fact he's going to be afirst round pick this year and
(08:22):
he came in at the end of lastyear and he said coach, I need a
hundred thousand dollars in nilmoney or I'm not going to come
back first-round pick this year.
And he came in at the end oflast year and he said Coach, I
need $100,000 in NIL money orI'm not going to come back.
And he goes, I don't have thatkind of money.
And so he hit the transferportal and the next day he was
at SEC school.
I mean that thing was alreadydone before that kid even came
in there.
So honestly I'm glad I'm notcoaching anymore between the NIL
(08:43):
and the transfer portal.
And the transfer portal wasthen when I was coaching too.
It's just the NIL.
Things really changed that.
And that 21.2 years part ofthat's the pandemic, you know,
because kids were playing longer, because they got that extra
year I would be worrying about.
If you looked at that beforethe pandemic, it was probably
(09:03):
somewhere around 19 to 20,probably 20.
Because most kids maybe alittle over 20, because not
everybody signs after theirjunior year.
But yeah, I think it's reallychanged things.
I think it affects development.
You get a guy in your programinstead of developing him either
.
You know, because I think itworks both ways.
(09:24):
I think coaches tell kids theyneed a transfer because they
want to get a better, better PAC, a player in the portal, and
they want to get a better player.
So the whole thing is I'm justthankful I'm not doing it
anymore because of it.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, it's tough, I mean.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
And then you have the kids that jump in the transfer
portal and they don't find ahome, and then they have the
kids that jump in the transferportal and they don't find a
home, and then they shouldn'thave jumped into it.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Well, in 2018, Oregon State you guys won the College
World Series as a coach on thatteam and in the 12 seasons that
you you were at oregon state,you won yeah he's actually at
oregon state for 13 years.
13 okay, yeah, well, I believeyour record was 496, 205 and 3.
(10:15):
How I had bob todd on, I don'tknow if you.
If you know bob todd, he wascoach for Ohio State for a long
time and he was a big proponentfor moving the season back a
little bit because he felt liketeams in the North are at a
disadvantage.
What did you guys do, or whatdo they still do, at Oregon
(10:39):
State?
You're in the Northwest.
How do you continue to put outgreat teams and compete at such
a high level?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Well, first of all, let's just be honest.
Good coaches become greatcoaches when you recruit talent,
and we had a lot of talentedplayers.
So that's I mean.
You know, come on, I thinkeverybody every coach that's at
the college level knows whatthey're doing.
Everybody has strategy.
(11:10):
But I'm just telling you,culture eats strategy for
breakfast, and we had a greatculture, and you know, every
place I've been, I primarilythink culture is really
important.
So you've got to recruit theright kind of guy.
So our big three, because I wasa recruiting coordinator.
Number one you better be a manof character.
(11:30):
If you're not a man ofcharacter, you're not going to
fit our culture.
Number two you better be a hardworker, and hard work starts in
the classroom.
I rarely recruited a guy thatwas below like a 3.5 GPA.
Most of them were like 3.8 orhigher.
And I'll give you three quickexamples Madrigal, who, in 18,
was the fourth pick in the draft.
I think that was a 4.0 in highschool and I think he ended up
(11:52):
with like a 3.85 there.
Adley Rutschman, who was thefirst pick in the draft.
Adley Rutschman was like he hadone B in high school.
I think he's a 395.
And he ended up being like a378 GPA in the business
department here.
So, and then Caden Grenier wasa 4.0 in the valedictorian of
his class in his high school andhe was a first-round pick in 18
(12:15):
.
So we recruited guys that werereally hard workers.
And the thing is, when studentsget really good grades, that
tells me they're doing thingsright on and off the field.
The kid's getting bad grades.
Whenever I talk to a guy thathad below 3.5 GPA, I ask what's
going on in your life thatyou're not getting good grades?
Well, I got a 3.2 because 3.2,anybody can get a 3.2.
(12:38):
I can chew bubblegum in a classand not do anything to get a
3.2 GPA today.
So, anyhow.
And then the last thing is youbetter be selfless.
You better make other peoplemore important than yourself.
It's team, teammate, self, inthat order.
And if you can't buy into that,I can't recruit you.
I mean, the very first time Italked to kids on the phone,
(13:01):
that's what I told them.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Then we talked about that that's a great way of doing
it, because I mean, you seethem, you see a lot of teams
that if they're having success,but if they don't, they're not
selfless and happy when somebodyelse does something well, and
things like that, it can eataway at the culture a little bit
, and it probably all startswith the head coach, I would
(13:24):
think absolutely, and case was agreat motivator.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I mean he had a really good job with motivation.
He was very good with ourplayers to motivate him, to make
sure we got the most out oftheir god-given talent.
So that factored in too.
But I'm just telling all ittakes is one guy and he can
destroy your culture, and that'swhy I said teams more important
(13:48):
than an individual.
If you have one guy that'saffecting your culture and he
won't change, you got to letthat guy go.
I mean, if I went to businessI'd do the same thing, and this
is I mean it's kind of likerunning a business.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Right Makes total sense to me and I can relate to
that.
When I look back on my career,I can think of some situations
where that came up.
I got to ask you you work withthe outfielders too.
What advice would you give highschool coaches when it comes to
(14:25):
creating elite outfielders?
What do they need to be?
Do you need to hold the backupshortstop and put him out there
in the outfield, or is there anycertain things that you look
for in great outfielders?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
doesn't catch.
I mean Trevor Larnik was afirst round pick and Trevor's a
great guy.
He's with the twins.
I mean he's a big kid, but hewas a six, seven, 60 guy.
I mean he could run in centerfield.
You want a guy that's you know,preferably a guy it's like a
six, five or better runner forthe gaps and your corner guys.
You want to be around six,eight or better.
So we recruited speed and Irecruited speed for defense, not
(15:13):
offense.
There's some times where guysare really good athletes that
play shortstop but they're notgood defenders in the infield,
so you move them to the outfield.
There's a whole bunch of thingsthat factor into that, but I'm
just telling for high schoolcoaches.
When I was a high school coach Ialways had an outfield coach.
An outfielder makes a mistake.
(15:33):
It's always a multi-basemistake.
It's not just a single baseerror like a fielding error.
So I kind of equate outfieldplay to defensive backs in
football.
If a defensive back makes amistake, it could cost you the
game.
It could end up being atouchdown and sending an
outfielder.
(15:53):
If an outfielder makes amistake, it could cost you the
game.
So we I worked our outfieldersevery day and our big three was
this number one secure the couch.
Number two take great routesand we did route work every day
in practice For me, throwingballs to them.
It was really controlled.
They hit and fly balls to themevery day and we had a sequence
(16:15):
that I did every day with flyballs.
I'd always have them startshallow and I'd hit them over
their heads.
They worked on going over theirheads.
I'd hit them to the left, I'dhit them to the right and then I
would hit them out in front ofthem, then I'd hit him out in
front of him, then I'd hitplayers to him where they'd have
to run in and dive and gougehim.
So that was our sequence when Ihit live down.
(16:36):
And then the last thing is Iwant guys being accurate with
their throws.
I'll take a quick arm and anaccurate arm any day over a
great arm.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Well, if I read it right, didn't you have one
season where all three of youroutfielders were first team, all
pack 10?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yes, yeah, we did.
I remember what year that was,but I think that was when
Michael Conforto was there, whoplays for the Dodgers.
Now, I think that was 2014.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
That's incredible considering the level of talent
that's out there on the westcoast yeah well, let's just be
honest again.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
It goes back to recruiting talent yeah, there
you go.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Well, speaking of recruiting, though, how do you
get a kid to come to oregonstate versus, you know, sunny
california or arizona?
Arizona state, I mean what well?
Speaker 3 (17:35):
first of all, the weather's not that bad.
I mean it's going to be 55degrees here.
That oh, okay so I mean we'reonly 230 feet above sea level,
we're 50 miles from the pacificocean, so we hardly ever get
snow.
I mean, if we get snow.
We got one inch of snow about amonth ago and they closed
school down because they have noway of cleaning it up.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
So we don't have any kind of equipment to clean the
roads up, so hardly ever snow isthere.
We get freezing rain once in awhile.
If we have any issues at all,would be with rain, not snow,
and we get about, I think,between 35 and 40 inches of rain
a year, but it's mostly innovember, december and january.
I mean, we'll get rain once ina while now, but it's it, and
(18:24):
our fields turk.
And the other thing is we havea great facility.
We have the best facility onthe west coast.
It's beautiful, and, and and,by the way, we kids come have a
great facility.
We have the best facility onthe West Coast.
It's beautiful, and, by the way, kids come to a game to watch
us play.
Our place is sold out everygame.
It seats 4,000 people.
There's going to be between3,500 and 4,000 people at every
home game.
(18:45):
Wow, that's amazing, and it'sjust a great facility.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Well, you also worked with the hitters and I don't
know if you get on.
You know you get online andcheck out.
You got all these hitting gurusand everybody's got a different
way of doing it.
And if you could simplify it,what would you emphasize and how
(19:11):
would that routine work dailyfor a high school player?
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Well, if I was working with high school kids,
first of all, everything we didwe got from Biokinetic Research
Institute, which is Salt LakeCity, and it's Bob Kyes that
runs that, and Bob has beenworking with major league
hitters now for over four years,where he has cameras that are
like $35,000, $40,000 a pieceand Bob videotapes them and he
puts them into three-dimensionalmotion analysis.
So number one is be on time.
(19:48):
If you know, if a guy doesn'thave a strike foot down by it at
uh, by the time the ball's aminimum 30 feet away, he's not
going to unlock and seek once.
And you and you, whenever youwork with hitters, you always
start with their base uh, andthen work your way up.
And then the second thing is,uh, besides being on time, is
you have to stabilize yourposture.
(20:09):
If you don to stabilize yourposture, if you don't stabilize
your posture, if you have spineangle movements when you're
striding, you're not going tohave proper swing mechanics.
So those would be my two bigones.
There's some things.
And the third thing I would sayis, when you're working with
guides, don't be a cookie cutter.
Not everybody's the same.
(20:30):
Every person is uniquely bold.
There isn't any one athletethat's the same.
So you know the posture thingand getting down on time, those
have to be done, but everybodyhas their own signature in terms
of how they add.
So but I would definitely if Iwas a coach, I would get some
information from biokineticresearch and the thing young
(20:52):
coaches are doing is they're notgoing to clinics, which is
crazy to me.
They're not going to a clinicand learn from somebody who
really knows what they'retalking about.
They get online and look atstuff and a lot of the stuff
online is not accurate.
So you got to be really carefulwho you learn from.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yes, I totally agree with you on that one.
And you know, when you talkabout, have you ever come across
a player where somehow he'sputting the ball in play, he's
getting hits, but maybe hismechanics aren't the greatest?
Speaker 3 (21:24):
That's the very first thing I talk about.
Hitting is attitude, attitude,attitude, attitude, attitude.
That's the first thing I mean.
Come on.
And then the second, you know,probably more important than
mechanics is approach.
You know what?
What?
What do you teach?
Approach wise, because you knowthat's going to determine how
(21:46):
good, how well you hit.
I mean, if you're swinging atpitches that are out of the zone
, so you it.
You got it from day one.
We talked about approach andstrike zones, strike zone
management, and we also did uhtwo strike hitting almost every
day of practice.
I mean approach, uh zonemanagement.
I mean, if you look at our guysin the major leagues that are
(22:09):
up there right now you look atConforto, you look at Rutschman,
you look at Kwan Stephen Kwanwith the guard nails, you look
at Trevor they all manage thestrike zone really well.
So I mean that was a really bigdeal for us and let's be honest
, the only person that hits areally good slider or breaking
ball is God.
So you know you've got to befastball ready yes, that's,
(22:32):
that's true.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
You know I I had, it's been, it's been a little
while, but I had a brad commencegone and he was a first round
draft pick of the braves and hetalked about how he was just
tearing it up through the minorleagues.
He was a leading hitter in theAAA and he said as soon as he
(22:56):
got up to the Braves theystarted changing everything on
him and he didn't want to do it,but he thought I'm at the major
league level, I better listento these guys, major league
level, I better listen to theseguys.
And he really thought that thatkind of affected his career
because he made so many changes.
He got away from what was sosuccessful for him and you know,
(23:21):
if you have a guy come in thathits really well prior to coming
to you, how much do you try tochange that?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
leave them alone.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Leave them alone, you know they.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
They even know what you teach fitting wise, and they
they need to use the languageyou use and all that kind of
stuff so that they understand itwhen you're talking to them,
cause there's going to be littletweaks.
But I mean, if you got a guythat comes in and can really hit
, I mean, the biggest thingwhere our guys jump, I think, is
what you know from theirfreshman year to their sophomore
(23:56):
and junior years.
They learn how to manage thestrike zone and they come up
with a really good approach.
And so, uh, I think that's toobad that he really had minor
legs and they're trying tochange things to manage.
I think that's crazy.
But, uh, if a guy can hit, Imean he's doing everything right
mechanically where he's able to.
(24:17):
You, you know, hit pitches indifferent locations and, let's
be honest, there's spots whereguys just don't hit.
But pitchers make mistakes.
A major league pitcher inquadrants misses an average of
four and a half inches everypitch.
Those are major leaguers.
So if you're patient enough toplay, you're going to get a
pitch and your swing zone tohead at some point, not a bat,
(24:39):
and that's the critical piece.
That's part of the approach,and I firmly believe you can't
hit 17 inches of the plate.
There's about eight inches ofthe plate that you need to focus
on.
That's your area that youreally hit and look for a pitch
in that area because, let's behonest, most hitters get
themselves out.
Pitchers don't get them out,they get themselves out, and it
has a lot to do with swingdecisions and strike zone
(25:00):
management.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yes, I think it's.
You know, it's clearly thehardest thing to do in sports is
to be a successful hitter.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Hey, you do three out of 10 for 15 years.
Guess what?
You're in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Exactly.
Well, I want to jump back towhen you were at George Fox.
You were the head coach atGeorge Fox for 12 seasons and
you won a national title in 2004.
Talk about going from being thewinningest coach in school
history at that division threeschool to becoming an assistant
(25:40):
at oregon state.
And what was your approach to?
Because you know, I I've comeacross coaches where they've
been head coaches and now all ofa sudden they're like I don't
want to deal with all theheadaches, I, I just want to go
and coach at the high schoollevel.
What was your approach to that?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Well, first of all, when I met with Case, when he
offered me the job, we spent thefirst probably hour and he's a
friend of mine and so I mean wewere friends before I even came
to Oregon State.
But I asked, I said I knowwe're good friends and we've
talked before, but I want toknow why do you coach?
What's your why?
And we probably spent an hourtalking about that and he had
(26:23):
the same philosophy I did interms of why he was coaching
Developing men of character,developing men who are going to
be accountable and responsible.
That was the most importantthing to me.
And secondly, I honestly wantedto have an opportunity to coach
at a higher level.
I mean it just you know the guysI've seen play when we were in
(26:45):
the Pac-10 and it became thePac-12, I mean there's a lot of
guys in the majors that Icoached against, along with the
guys that we've had in themajors ourselves.
I mean Matt Boyd, who's nowwith the Cubs I think this is
Matt's 11th season.
He is one of ours.
Drew Rasmussen, who's with theRays, is one of ours.
You know, I just it's funseeing talent.
(27:09):
So you know, it was anopportunity for me to coach at
higher level and I love my timeat George Fox.
I love being a head coach and,by the way, when we won the
national championship in 2004, Ihad four guys or five guys on
that team that got drafted.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
So I mean we had talent.
I mean, when we went, I thinkwe had we were allowed to take
24 players to the World Seriesand 18 of those players were
first team all-state players inhigh school.
So we had a lot of talent.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
That's crazy for a Division III team, because here
in Ohio we've got a lot ofDivision III schools, so any
time a kid's playing collegebaseball they're pretty good.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Five percent buddy that play high school get a
chance to play college at somelevel.
I always tell kids if you havean opportunity to play college,
you're a stud.
I don't care what level you'replaying at, you're a good player
.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Well in 23 seasons of college baseball, you were part
of 813 wins.
For the coaches that arelistening here to the baseball
coaches unplugged what do theyneed to do to become a
consistent winner the way youdid?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Well, again, it goes back to it's not about the coach
.
And as soon as you figure thatout, why do you coach?
What's your purpose, what's thereason?
And so you know, I thinkhumility in me is huge.
I do not like being aroundarrogant people.
I mean, it's not about you,dude, it's about what are you
(28:55):
doing for your players.
And the second thing is, I thinkyou know you need to be a class
act.
I mean what you, what you allow, you encourage, what you permit
, you promote, and so there hasto be standards that are set,
and those standards are thingsthat just you can't.
They have to abide by them.
And then you need to be clearabout your expectations.
(29:15):
I mean from expectations aboutyour program philosophy, the
expectations about discipline,the expectations about practice.
And when we practice, I tellguys, when you walk through that
gate to come to practice, youbetter be a laser bait.
I'm not going to put up withfloodlights.
I don't care what's happenedduring your day, I don't care if
you got three hours of sleep.
(29:37):
When you walk through that gate, it's all about 10.
And I expect you to work hard,I expect you to be focused, and
I will not put up with anybodythat's not focused in practice.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So you have to have high expectations, definitely Do
you hate losing or love winning.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I hate losing or love winning.
I hate losing, I'll be off.
You know it's funny because mygrandkids they we play games
together all the time and I playto win.
I mean, my grandpa did thatwith me when I was growing up
and and you know they're oldenough now where they're beating
me in the games and stuff likethat.
But to start with they didn'twin a lot.
And you know, I I don't wantsnowflakes for grandchildren, I
(30:20):
want grandchildren that aregoing to compete.
So you know, whatever I'm doing, I'm going to compete at it.
I want.
There's a so many people.
When you ask them how they'redoing now, I say they're doing
good.
I don't want to be good, I wantto be great at everything I do,
and that's what separatesgoodness from greatness.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
I mean, come on, man yeah, I love that, that's, you
know I I get a lot of different,uh, opinions on that, you know,
because it's almost like, a lotof times I find people saying,
well, winning was theexpectation, so I hate to lose.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
So you know, you know , but the winning part's a
byproduct of everything you do.
I mean, if everybody's shootingto win a state championship,
and I mean that should be a partof what you want to do, but
it's a byproduct.
I mean, john Wooden won what?
12 national championships whenhe was at UCLA.
He never once talked aboutwinning.
(31:20):
We didn't talk a lot aboutwinning, we talked a lot about
you know, all the stuff you dowith your program, what your
culture is.
I mean being relentlesslypursuing excellence.
It's not about success.
Success is a scoreboard.
If you pursue excellence andyou make the most, if you get
(31:41):
every kid to make the most outof their God-given talent, then
the success part takes care ofitself.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Well, I got to ask do you miss not putting the
uniform on?
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Here's what I miss.
I miss the relationship withthe players.
I don't miss the travel.
I mean I was gone a lot.
I was a recruiting coordinator,so I was probably in a hotel
room between the season andrecruiting.
I had probably 150-plus days ayear.
I was gone from home, wow.
So I mean everybody that wantsto be a Division I coach.
(32:16):
I'll just give you an exampleyear when we won the national
championship, we started onvalentine's day and I didn't
have any kids at home, so mywife traveled with us a lot.
So I got to be with my wife alot, who I've been married to
for 47 years and, by the way,I'm jamie and she's varsity how
the hell I'm.
I'm very blessed.
I have a great wife and a verysupportive wife, because she saw
(32:38):
our main coach in baseball'sadmission field, so we had kids
over our house that came and atedinner at our house and all
kinds of stuff.
But anyhow, we started onfebruary 14th, from february
14th till june 28th when, whenwe won the national championship
, I had three days off and oneof them was Easter.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Yeah, and it's a 70-plus-hour-a-week job, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
It's not an easy job and the best part is everybody
in the stands thinks they can doit better.
That's for sure.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Oh my gosh, and you know what, most of the people
that complain are people thatnever even played sports and
they think they know stuff.
Or you know, everybody's,everybody's played baseball or
whatever, so they think theyknow things.
So, yeah, you just that's Icall that noise and just
eliminate it.
Eliminate the noise.
Yeah, all that matters is yourteam and your players.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I got to ask this because I'm players I got to ask
this because I'm out here inthe Midwest and how big is the
rivalry between Oregon andOregon state?
Speaker 3 (33:41):
It's good, it's a healthy rivalry, but it's a good
one.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Now they.
You hear the talk about the uh,is it called the civil war?
Speaker 3 (33:52):
for football.
Yeah, they changed the name ofit.
Okay, I don't know what namethey call it now, but they don't
use that name anymore.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Is that same intensity there for baseball and
basketball and sports like that?
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Yeah, it is.
Yeah, I mean you want to beyou're, I mean they're only 45
minutes away.
45 minutes away, 50 minutesaway, I guess, from we're 50
minutes away from each other.
So the first rule in the art ofwar is respect your opponent.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
So you know, it was a rivalry, but we were, we
respected each other yeah well,best story from coaching in a
college world series that youlook back on and it could either
be a funny one or a greatmoment, or whatever it might be,
(34:46):
and Caden Grenier was at theplate and he hit a pop-up down
the right field line.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
They didn't get caught.
That would have been the thirdout and he ended up getting a
base hit through the sixth holeto tie the game up.
We had a runner at second base.
Then Trevor Lernick came up andTrevor hit an absolute missile
over the right field fence andput us up 5-3.
And then we won thechampionship game.
I think the championship gamewe won 5-0.
To three.
Then we won the championshipgame.
I think the championship gamewe won 5-0.
(35:18):
I would say Trevor's home runwas the highlight that we're
going to lose that game.
The guy not catching the balldown the right field line and
the second baseman over aroundthe ball I had behind him.
Honestly, the ball was not hisball, it was the right fielder's
ball and that's why you wantyou know.
(35:38):
I just I'm firmly convincedthat our right fielder would,
would have called off and gotthat ball.
Because we work on fly ball,communication and what.
In areas where three peopleconverge, those are called tough
ball areas.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
We worked on that all the time best college venue to
play or watch a game.
And since you've already saidoregon state, what was?
What was?
Speaker 3 (36:02):
another one that you went to and you're like, wow,
this is just a place, a greatplace to play I think when uh 19
we went to mississippi state, Ithink they broke a record for
february for attendance, I thinkwas 12,000 people at the game.
That was pretty cool, yeah.
And then we played at LSU intheir new stadium.
(36:22):
The seats had 10,000 people.
That was pretty neat.
Yes, we were at a regionalthere.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Well, I got to mention Tim Saunders here
because Tim had a chance to meetwith you out at the Montana
State Baseball Coaches Clinicand I told Tim.
I said if you come acrossanybody that I could have on the
podcast, I said I'd be gratefuland, coach, I can't thank you
enough for taking the time to beon Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Oh, absolutely, tim's a great guy.
I mean, I just met him for thefirst time, but I really enjoyed
spending time with him.
He loves kids and he lovesbaseball.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
The last thing I'll tell you for high school coaches
you capture an athlete's heart.
You capture the athlete andthat means you got to care about
them.
If kids aren't stupid, theyknow whether coaches care about
them or not.
And the second thing I'll tellyou is never attack the person.
You know you can useconstructive criticism whatever
(37:28):
you want, but don't attack theperson personally.
That's a no-no.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Pat Bailey coach.
Thanks for being on BaseballCoaches Unplugged.
If you enjoyed today's show, besure to share it with a friend
and tell them about BaseballCoaches Unplugged.
We put out a new episode everyWednesday.
Baseball Coaches Unplugged ispowered by the netting
professionals improving programsone facility at a time.
Contact them today at844-620-2707, or you can visit
(37:58):
them online at wwwnettingproscom.
As always, I'm your host Coach,ken Carpenter, and thanks for
joining me on Baseball CoachesUnplugged, thank you.
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