April 4, 2024 • 39 mins
Welcome to Navy Sports Central - The Official Podcast of the Navy Sports Nation!
The Army-Navy Star series looks like it could go down to the wire!. Find out how the Women's Tennis team came from behind to post a huge win in our sports update. We'll also get caught up on both track & field and lacrosse teams.
And you're not going to want to miss our Deep Dive Segment. Navy Assistant Coach Jeff Kane joins us to share his insights on everything that goes into developing confident consistent hitters; from physical size to the layout of Bishop Stadium. You'll also hear some candid discussions about the mental game of baseball, overcoming slumps, and how Coach Kane combines the human element and analytics to build the most productive lineup possible.
Related Links:
We want your answer to our Question of the Day. Here is the one for this episode:
How many Patriot League Championships has the Navy Baseball team won since joining in 1991? Is it:
A. 2
B. 3
C. 5
D. 6
You can give us your answer on the Navy Sports Nation Group Facebook page.
Follow Navy Sports Central wherever you get your podcasts:
Check out the Navy Sports Nation group page on Facebook!
Music is provided courtesy of Audio Jungle. Artists featured in order:
- Seven In Music (Intro)
- Alexiaction (Deep Dive)
- Loka Music (Question of the Day Lead In)
- Cinematic Alex (Closeout Music)
You can click on the hyperlink above to make a $1 donation through Cash App if you like what you hear. You can also support the Mids and the show at the same time. Navy Sports Central is a proud affiliate partner of Fanatics.com, the Ultimate Fan Gear Store! Click on the link to start shopping now!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Karl (00:14):
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today on Navy Sports
Central.
I'm your host and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation, where we take adeeper dive into Navy sports.
This is the official podcast ofthe Navy Sports Nation where we
take a deeper dive into Navysports.
It is April in Annapolis, andwhile there are some questions
around where some of the springsports teams will wind up going
into their respective leaguechampionships, the one thing we
know for sure is that theArmy-Navy Star Series will
(00:34):
definitely be decided this month.
We'll get a little bit moreinto that in our sports update
and in our deep dive segment.
We'll be featuring the Navybaseball team and we'll even
have a terrific guest joining usto give his perspective on how
the team has been doing so farthis season.
All that, plus our question ofthe day and mid-watch segments
are coming up, so don't goanywhere.
All right, so glad to have youwith us today, whether you are
(01:02):
new to the podcast or you havebeen with us for a while.
Thanks for taking the time.
So we've got roughly six weeksleft in the spring sports season
and besides the seven PatriotLeague championships that need
to be decided, there's also thematter of the Army-Navy Star
Series.
Now we could wind up knowingthat result as early as April
13th or as late as April the28th, but there's one thing for
(01:27):
sure the women's tennis teamcame through in a big way last
weekend to give the Mids anoverall lead of 10-9, with one
tie, and that means it will justtake three more wins out of the
remaining six contests to winthe competition.
So I did want to do a quickrecap of that match just to let
you guys know how things went.
In the tennis matches, thedoubles point is decided first.
They play three matches andwhoever takes two out of three
gets the point.
Now Navy unfortunately lost thedoubles point because they were
(01:49):
only able to take one out ofthe three matches.
But they quickly regained themomentum in the singles matches
by taking the first set in eachcontest.
Emily Tannenbaum actuallycontrolled the number one
singles match the entire way andshe won 6-3, 6-4.
Then, playing number twosingles, navy's Samantha Johns
closed out her opponent in threesets to give the Mids a 2-1
lead.
After that, Katy Lee andParvathi Shankar picked up wins
(02:10):
at the number four number sixsingles to clinch what turned
out to be a 4-2 victory and, bythe way, it was the Mids' third
straight win over the BlackKnights in the Star Series.
And, looking forward, we gotsix sports left that will decide
everything.
Those would be men's andwomen's outdoor track, men's and
women's lacrosse, men's tennisand also baseball.
Both track teams competed in aseries of invitationals in order
(02:31):
to prepare for the upcomingmeet against Army that takes
place this weekend, and, intaking a look at some of the
results from the Navyinvitational that they just
finished, it looks like they'reready to go.
Some of the winners on themen's side included Brahmir Vick
.
In the 110 meter hurdles, hefinished in 13.73 seconds, which
was the best time ever postedat Ingram Field.
Sam Keeny won the 1500 with atime of 350.72, and in the field
(02:51):
events, Josh Boamah took thediscus, shot, put and hammer
throw, while Walker Rudisailleposted another win in the pole
vault.
Taking a look at the women'sinvitational, junior Kylie
Bedard won the 400 meters with atime of 57.06, and, in the
field events, Bedard's classmateJordynn Hutchinson won the shot
, discus and hammer throw, justlike Boamah did.
As you all probably know, bothteams have quite a bit of depth.
(03:12):
So this was an opportunity toget several of the underclassmen
, some quality reps.
Many of the usual suspects Ioften mention, like Nathan Kent,
Gia Anderson and Ellie Abraham,took a break from their events
to rest up for Army.
Moving on to lacrosse, both themen's and women's teams are 3-1
in the Patriot League.
The men knocked off Colgate ontheir senior day and they did it
the hard way too.
They dug themselves a 4-0 holebefore putting together a strong
(03:34):
second half to win 10-9.
Henry Tolker led the team withthree goals and Dane Swanson had
two.
And, by the way, the Raiderswere undefeated in league play
and ranked 18th going into thatgame.
The women looked really good intheir 20-9 win over Boston
University back on March 23rd,but then they gave up a 12-7
lead in the second half againstSt Joseph's and lost 14-13.
That was reallyuncharacteristic.
I actually watched most of thatsecond half and, man, they just
(03:57):
couldn't get anything goingthere.
The one good thing was that itwas a non-conference game so it
had no impact on the standings.
The mids are currently tied forthird with Army, and Loyola and
Holy Cross are first and second.
No doubt the mids were prettyticked off after that St
Joseph's game, and I'm not surewhat Coach Timshall told him
following the loss, but itdefinitely had an impact.
The team wound up taking outall their frustrations on their
(04:18):
next opponent, who happened tobe Bucknell, and it got ugly
early.
Led by Emily Messonese and ToriDiCarlo, the team sprinted out
to a 14-3 halftime lead andcoasted to a 21-6 win.
Okay, that takes care of oursports update.
I know that was kind of brief,but I definitely wanted to get
into this deep dive segment, soplease stay close.
And just to give you somebackground, I did put out a poll
(04:38):
on the Navy Sports Nation groupFacebook page about a month ago
and I was asking for somefeedback on which spring sport
you'd want to see featured on anupcoming podcast, and it turns
out baseball got the most votes.
So, with marching orders inhand, I reached out to Navy
Sports Information and it didtake some time to get things set
up because, of course, they'reright in the middle of their
season, but things finally cametogether.
So please stick with us forthat conversation.
(05:15):
We are back for our deep divesegment to talk a little Navy
baseball, so let's go ahead andget to it and introduce our
guest.
He joined the Navy coachingstaff in 2014 and is now in his
10th season as both the hittingcoach and recruiting coordinator
.
Over his first nine seasons inAnnapolis, he has been
instrumental in Navy, having sixrecruiting classes ranked in
Perfect Games Top 100, includingfour straight from 2016 to 2019
(05:36):
.
He's also developed 36All-Patriot League hitters as
well as three Patriot LeaguePlayers of the Year during his
tenure.
So I am very happy to welcomeNavy Assistant Baseball Coach,
Jeff Kane, to the podcast.
Okay, Coach Kane, it is greatto have you with us today on
Navy Sports Central.
Thanks for taking the time.
I appreciate you having me, yeah, so I want to just go ahead and
(05:56):
jump right into things here.
This is your 10th year on theNavy coaching staff as the
hitting coach.
When did this coaching positionfirst hit your radar and what
were some of the key drivers inyour decision to come to
Annapolis?
Coach Kane (06:08):
Yeah, you know, I'd been coaching previously at Holy
Cross for five years.
We had had some pretty solidsuccess there, you know, at a
program that you know has somechallenges, different challenges
than here.
But so, you know, I was in thesame conference, obviously come
down to Annapolis every year toplay.
I had some, you know, some,relationships with the assistant
(06:29):
coaches that were here at thetime and when this position
opened they had reached out tome, got a chance to come down,
visit, you know, spend some timewith Coach Costi, got to spend
some time around the program.
Really not a tough decision tocome to a place like this.
I mean, it's a uniqueopportunity, it's one that I'm
(06:50):
still thankful for.
It's one that I don't takereally lightly and, you know,
ultimately it was a chance to beat one of the greatest
institutions in the world andyou know, at the time my kids
were three and two.
It means a little something tome that my son and daughter grow
up looking up to our guys andthe things that they do and the
(07:11):
challenges that they take on.
I think that was a huge factorin getting an opportunity to be
at a place like this.
That was something that cameacross the table.
You know, obviously I wentthrough the proper channels to
vet it and to learn more aboutit.
But it's a special thing to beable to put on a Navy uniform,
(07:33):
for sure.
Karl (07:33):
Right, right, all right.
Well, thank you for that.
So I actually grew up playingbaseball.
I played from one time I was,like you know, seven all the way
up to I was a senior in highschool, and so I'm really happy
to be able to kind of discussbaseball with you, and hitting
in particular.
So what I was kind of curiousabout is, when you go back to
your days at Clemson when youwere a player, how has your
hitting philosophy developedover the years?
(07:55):
And I'm wondering is there anyparticular core principle that
you carried forward from yourcoaches, and what other concepts
do you like to emphasize withyour players when they step into
the box?
Coach Kane (08:04):
Yeah, I think there's a lot.
I mean, first and foremost, Ihad the opportunity and I always
say this my performance as aplayer in college was not the
greatest.
You know I failed.
I had to learn how to deal withthat.
But I also played for some ofthe best coaches in the history
of college baseball.
You know, I played for JackLeggett.
(08:25):
I played for Tim Corbin.
He was our hitting guy duringmy entire time there.
If you look at a way to maybe begroomed to be a coach, those
are two guys that you can't bearound better people in terms of
coaching at the collegiatelevel, doing things the right
(08:46):
way, consistency in preparation.
There's tons of stuff that I'vebrought forward from them and a
lot of that stuff was probablymore on, I wouldn't say more on
the mechanical side, but I thinkthere's some things where we're
not reinventing the wheel froma hitting standpoint and some of
the stuff that we emphasizethere, even as basic as being
(09:10):
aware of your trajectory or likethe hand path or things like
that, are not things that thatI've deviated from wildly In
terms of maybe bringing forwardthings.
(09:32):
There's a lot of it that I'vebrought forward, even in like
delivery, maybe practice habits,drill creation Although I don't
try to inundate guys withdrills because you know, ball to
bat, bat to ball is really likeat its core is a pretty basic
skill that you have to developand you have to develop it over
time and with a lot ofrepetition, that you have to
deliver, that you have todevelop and you have to develop
it over time and with a lot ofrepetition.
So, yeah, I think the beginningphases of me becoming a coach
and a hitting coach certainlystarted there.
(09:52):
Okay, you know, with with thoseguys and and being part of that
program, it's a tremendousplace to to be a baseball player
and you know, at that time andand even now, you know, just
being in that environmentcertainly is something I've
carried forward.
Karl (10:05):
Okay, so, um, let's kind of stay with that that hitting
philosophy theme there a littlebit.
Uh, would you say.
Now you said, obviously there'ssome things you've carried
forward that you don't reallydeviate from.
Certainly, and I'll be honestwith you, I have not followed
baseball as closely as I did,maybe about 15, 20 years ago.
But you know, when I'm watchingTV and catching the highlights
and so forth, I'm picking up onnew-ish trends like launch angle
(10:28):
and exit velocity and stufflike that.
How have those trendsinfluenced the way you coach
your hitters?
Coach Kane (10:35):
Yeah.
So I think those things and whenyou get into maybe the way
hitting has changed and kind ofhow it's coached or what is
valued, you know, certainly whenyou talk about launch angle,
when you talk about exitvelocities, back speed metrics,
kinetic movement in terms ofyour body and the kinetic chain
(10:56):
and how that's measured, there'svalue in that stuff for sure.
And I think, as you go up thefood chain in baseball,
certainly to the professionallevels and at the highest levels
of professional baseball,you're talking about access to
maybe more data or access tomore ability to track those
things.
I think there's value in thatstuff.
(11:17):
I also think that for me, whenit comes down to like core
principles, those have to meshwith a lot of things.
They have to mess with theskill set of our players.
They have to mesh with, quitefrankly, our ballpark and how
our ballpark plays.
What plays at the college levelversus what may play at the big
(11:38):
league level might be a littlebit different.
So a lot of the concepts thatI'm going to bring forward.
You're talking aboutcontrollables.
As a hitter, baseball is theonly sport where the team with
the ball isn't on offense.
So it's, how are we controllingthe controllables, certainly
mindset, pitch selection,preparation and that's more like
(12:02):
on the mechanical side ofthings.
You know, when you talk aboutthose from an umbrella concept
of like we're putting ourselvesin the best mindset to hit.
It's preparation, it's trustand it's pitch selection and
visuals Got it One of my buddiesin Pro Bowl and there was a
sign in their, you know theirhitting facility in spring
(12:24):
training and it's you know, it'ssomething I still kind of go
back to.
It's build your swing in here,trust your swing out there.
I think that's a big one interms of like creating confident
hitters and creating a cultureof confidence as a hitter,
because that's a big one.
I know the mechanical stuff.
We still talk about stayingabove the baseball.
We still talk about seeingabove it, creating pressure.
(12:47):
You know those things haven'tchanged and those were like core
things when I was a player atClemson and you still hear big
leaguers talk about it.
You still hear Mike Trout talkabout being above the ball and
that's still something that youknow.
I'm not, I'm not here teachingour guys to hit 250 foot fly
balls because those aren't goingto be productive outs and
(13:08):
certainly not, not at bishopstadium, right, okay, you know
that's kind of where I where Istand on that one all right.
Karl (13:15):
So let's uh, let's kind of stick with that a little bit.
In terms of just looking at thefirst half of the season, you
guys, it's just a little bitmore than halfway through.
What have your hitters beendoing particularly well this
year so far?
And if there's an area of focusthat you'd like to kind of zero
in on for the second half, thatwould make them tougher outs
what would that be?
Coach Kane (13:33):
You mentioned tougher outs.
I think one of the things I wasexcited about it, you know, and
certainly working with coachRustano and we've been kind of
doing this together now a lot of, a lot of his core tenants and
thoughts on offense are verymuch, you know, I think we think
a lot alike in that.
In that regard, and a lot ofthe stuff that we do kind of
(13:56):
focus on pitch selection, zonecommand, what we're hunting,
zone awareness being consistentwith that.
I think the biggest thing we'vedone better our quality at-bats
have increased and we measurethat.
I think every, probably everyprogram measures that and they
may have different parametersthat they do so, but I think
(14:17):
those have kind of been um,really strong, even from guys
that you know.
You, if you look at the boxscores and you look at the stat
sheet, ah, this guy's onlyhitting 260, but but his at-bats
are quality.
You know, almost every time up,uh, productive outs, moves
runners.
So I think in that respect,like our quality at-bats have
been good, uh, our two strikehitting is something that's you
(14:39):
know, our strikeout numbers fromsome key guys, from a
percentage standpoint is havebeen, have been lower than I've
seen in the past and even in thefall, which means we, you know
we might be doing a better,better job with two strikes, um,
putting more balls in play,limiting the amounts of zero
pressure outs that we're puttingout there.
When I talk about, you know,like a zero pressure out that
(15:00):
we're putting out there, andwhen I talk about, you know,
like a zero pressure out, that'sa ball not in play, that's a
weak pop-up, weak contact.
We talk about, you know,measuring our contacts and are
we getting our best swings offand creating pressure contact.
You know, and in terms of goingforward, I think one of the
areas is that we always want tocontinue to work on.
We want to continue to work onbeing better with two strikes.
You know, I think we've madeimprovements.
(15:24):
I think we can get better, um,tougher to track.
I'd love to see us kind oflimit some misses, you know when
.
One concept I use is what youknow what I call like the
pendulum pitch, and I feel likethat's a pitch that you know.
To me, that's the pitch thatswings the app out one direction
or the other.
Do we miss it?
Do we hit it?
Do it Winning that pendulumpitch that swings things in our
favor and then being able to getour best swing off on the best
pitch in the count to hit.
(15:45):
And that's really, at the endof the day, the better the arm
is, the fewer opportunitiesyou're going to get to damage
that guy.
We've got to be able to damagehim when we get the pitch to do
it, and that's something we lookat a lot in film and we try to
track that and see how guys aredoing when they get that pitch
that they can do damage.
We want to be able to hammer itRight, right.
Karl (16:06):
Okay, cool.
So, uh, one of the things Ialways like to do when I have an
opportunity to chat withcoaches is to um talk about a
couple of the players that um,uh, have really been excelling
so far this season.
And you know, obviously, I meanI could spend probably two
episodes talking about all thesedifferent players, but I'm just
going to pick one, and then Iwould like you to pick another
(16:26):
to kind of share their year sofar and how they've been doing.
The first one is Brock Murtha,and he's currently leading the
team in hitting.
I think he's got an average of379.
But what I caught was his OPSis over one, which, um, is
pretty impressive.
So what are some of the thingsthat he's executing on right now
(16:46):
that have yielded these results?
Coach Kane (16:48):
I think Brock's a talented kid.
Brock's a really athletic kid.
Honestly, I feel like a lot, alot of this is is going to be
predicated in two, two areas.
One I think he's starting tomature as a hitter.
I think he's starting to kindof reap the benefits of having
played an entire season lastyear, coming off of sparing reps
at Notre Dame for his first twoyears.
(17:10):
I think he's starting to growup a little bit as a hitter.
There are still some thingsthat I think he can continue to
improve on and those are thingswe still work on.
But maturity level as a hitterhas gotten way better.
He misses.
He doesn't miss as many pitchesas he maybe has had in the past
.
So we talk about kind of thatconcept we just spoke about.
He creates good contact in amuch more regular clip.
(17:32):
You see, his stolen basenumbers are much higher.
He can create pressure with hislegs.
He's probably our most impactfuloffensive player as it pertains
to being on base and be able tocreate.
He can stretch singles intodoubles.
He can challenge outfielders.
He's kind of put a bunch ofstuff together as an offensive
(17:53):
player that we kind of knew wasin there and strictly from a
mechanical standpoint, I thinkhe's starting to be more
self-aware, as it pertains to.
You know, when he starts tofeel something in his swing that
we know isn't productive, thatcreates weak contact or that
gets him off time or that maycreate a little bit of barrel
plane under the ball.
(18:13):
So I think he's just becomemore self-aware.
I think he knows how toself-correct better, and he is
obviously a guy that I think can.
He can continue to be better,he can continue to improve,
because he certainly has theskillset to do it.
Karl (18:26):
All right, all right.
And who would you say?
Is somebody out there that haseither met or exceeded your
expectations so far this year?
Coach Kane (18:32):
Um, I mean, I can give you a handful of guys.
I'm not going to go in depth.
I mean I think, and and again,it's a work in progress and guys
are always hitting.
As I mean, as you, as you know,hitting is, um, it can be a
rocky road, it can be up anddown.
Uh, it's great to see, it'sgreat to see Zane Raba kind of
getting back, uh, to being kindof an impactful guy at the top
(18:56):
of the lineup, can really createpressure with his legs.
Hudson Lehnertz has done areally good job this year in
terms of in not as much actionas we probably would have liked
because he had some, some nicksand and was dinged up a little
bit, but he's been outstandingin the time that we've had him
back and hopefully we have himback.
And you know two guys that havereally I mean Eddie Diaz and
(19:18):
Logan Keller have been.
I can't, I can't remember thelast time those guys weren't in
the lineup.
You know eddie's numbers mightnot jump out at you but you know
he strings together somequality at bats, he does what we
need him to do in some bigspots and Logan's just found a
little bit more consistency.
Both of those guys' qualityat-bat numbers have been great
(19:43):
and their strikeout percentagesare down, so they're putting
more balls in play and they'recreating more positive outcomes
both of those guys and I don'tthink they were down per se in
years past.
I just kind of think thatthey're figuring some stuff out
in terms of consistency, andthat was kind of one of the
things I didn't get to as muchwith the philosophy piece.
(20:04):
But like, how are we, how arewe just consistently growing as
hitters?
I feel like their at-bats areare consistently on an upward
trend or or plateauing.
We're not seeing as many two,three, four at-bat stretches
where it's like a giveawayat-bat, a weak contact, early
bounce.
You know, when they hear fromme, the most feedback they get
(20:24):
from me when it comes pertainsto maybe like constructive
criticism is is poor contactwithin the first three pitches
Right, you know, if you're goingto get your swing off in the
first three pitches and that'sweak contact or a cap or a jam,
that's not, that's not creatingany pressure for the opposition
and that's not.
You know we're doing thepitcher a favor and I think
they've limited that.
They've limited that to a muchhigher degree this year than
(20:47):
maybe they have in the past.
Karl (20:49):
Right, right and you know it's funny about um.
I guess it's about four yearsago I started.
I started a blog, that Istarted this podcast a year
after I started the blog and oneof the first articles I wrote
about four years ago was talkingabout the Navy baseball team
and unfortunately, I wrote thearticle the day that spring
sports were canceled duringCOVID.
Coach Kane (21:11):
Right, and we were 14-1 when that came out.
Karl (21:15):
Exactly.
I mean, that's what I washighlighting and I was talking
about.
Okay, what's going on here?
They got off to a fantasticstart and one thing I noticed
when I started kind of breakingthings down this kind of goes
back to the quality at batsthing.
Right, the number of runs thatthe team was scoring in, you
know, the last two or threeinnings of the game was
significant.
And, you know, I think thatgoes back to what you were
(21:38):
saying in terms of just beingable to string together a bunch
of quality at-bats, even if oneat-bat is an out right.
If you do that enough times,things are going to happen, and
that appeared to be what wasgoing on, you know, four years
ago.
So that's when you keptemphasizing quality at-bats.
That's the kind of thing Iflashed on when I was writing
about the team four years ago.
Coach Kane (22:00):
Yeah, I think Coach Ristano too has been awesome in
the sense that one of hismessages to the hitters you know
he talks about that six, seven,eight, nine pitch at bat in the
third or the second inning maynot manifest itself until inning
seven, right In terms of justtaxing the pitcher, making those
be stressful pitches, stressfulinnings.
(22:21):
I think we saw a little bit ofthat in um, in the holy cross
game, in game four you knowlogan keller had maybe like a 10
pitch at bat, his his secondtime through that.
You know we didn't you wouldnotice it in the box score, but
we ended up getting to that guyinto the set in the seventh
inning.
We got to him, you know, andAndrew Manning had a huge knock
and Victor Isquierdo had anotherbig one, but we got to him and
(22:45):
that guy was probably at.
You know he was up there eight,90, a hundred pitches and he
probably could have been at at70 if we hadn't kind of grinded
them out a little bit earlier inthe game.
Karl (22:55):
So that's certainly something that that has a lot of
value for us the game, sothat's certainly something that
has a lot of value for us All.
Right, good stuff, coach.
Tell you what.
We're going to go ahead andstep aside here for a minute,
but before we do that, I didwant to give you all a couple of
ways to stay up to date on Navysports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page.
I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
(23:17):
be good to go.
The second way takes even lesstime.
Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're
listening to this podcast rightnow.
It can be Apple Podcasts,spotify, iheartradio, it doesn't
matter.
Once you do that, every episodewill be downloaded to your
directory when it's released andyou can listen to it whenever
you're ready.
So please consider becoming amember of our group and you can
actually tap that follow buttonright now to show your support
(23:38):
for the podcast.
I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Navy SportsCentral, Karl Darden here with
(24:00):
you, and today we are joined byJeff Kane, who is the hitting
coach for the Navy baseball teamCoach.
I just wanted to touch on acouple more things before we
wrap things up here.
One of my favorite movies as itrelates to baseball is
Moneyball, and there was a scenein there, as you probably are
aware, that when Billy Bean wassitting down with his team and
he had brought in his newassistant, pete Brand, for the
(24:21):
first time, and they're tryingto figure out a way how to
replace Jason Giambi, who hadjust gone to, I believe, the New
York Yankees had signed him.
So they're trying to figure out, okay, what are we going to do?
And that's when his team waskind of talking about the
standard metrics that they useto measure a hitter and uh, then
(24:43):
they were introducing thiswhole concept of on base
percentage, right, and I'm surethere's more, but on base
percentage was one they werefocusing on.
They said, well, why do we wantthis guy?
Because he gets on base.
So when?
When he gets on base, yeah, sowhen you're talking, when you're
looking at uh and puttingtogether a lineup, are there any
particular?
And obviously there's theeyeball test, right.
(25:04):
I mean, what you see every dayin practice and in games
obviously factors into it.
But what are?
What?
Are some metrics that?
Or maybe one?
Just let's just pick one, onekey metric that that's important
to you when you're buildingthat lineup, to make sure you
put in the most productive oneon the field.
Coach Kane (25:19):
Yeah, so I mean that scene is a good one in that
movie.
I know exactly what you'retalking about.
You know all the old schoolscouts are getting bent out of
shape because they keep bringingup Scott Hattieburg, I don't
know who else.
I love Moneyball.
(25:40):
I think the access that bigleague clubs have to data and
the brainpower that they haveaccess to to analyze and crunch
that data and ultimately providethe coaches with the
information to make decisions,to provide managers with that
kind of data, is phenomenal.
(26:02):
I think you see it probably toa lesser degree at the
collegiate level in a coupleareas.
One is there's not even a speckof the amount of data at the
collegiate level.
When you talk about bigleaguers with seasons of 600,
650 at-bats, leaguers withseasons of 600 650 at bats, you
(26:26):
know the repeatability of maybeamateur players compare
comparatively to pro guys,certainly at our level and at
our school.
You know when you talk aboutconsistency, well, there aren't
guys in pro baseball that are in21 credit hours and taking
thermodynamics class all day andscrambling to get out there.
So I think that data isimportant.
We do use it, we do look at it,we look at matchups, we look at
(26:51):
splits, certainly for our olderguys who have a bigger pool of
data to go off of in terms ofwhere they're successful, where
they're not.
Lefty-righty matchups, thingslike that, lineup-wise and as it
pertains to the metrics.
On that end I think there'sprobably.
You know, we want guys that cancreate offense at the top of our
(27:14):
lineup.
We want guys, maybe that cancreate offense, to turn the
lineup over, maybe near thebottom that might not be as
impactful Guys.
You know that's something thatwe talk about from a lineup
construction standpoint.
Can this guy turn it over andget it back to the top where we
have some guys that can bang andcreate?
So do we look at thatabsolutely on base percentage
matters, slugging percentagematters and again going back to
(27:36):
what we talked about before, wealso look at the quality of
their at-bats and right and tryto put guys in positions where
you, you know we want LoganKeller hitting with guys on base
, we want Brock Murtha hittingwith guys on base who can get
out there in front of them andcreate.
That's going to be an OBPsituation.
That's going to be a little bitof a speed and a pressure
(27:58):
variable there, and we kind ofwant to be able to put guys
ahead of them that can do thatand truthfully, yeah, there's a
human element.
I mean, we have a pretty goodfeel for which of our guys can
compete at the highest level, ofwhich of our guys can create
and, honestly, which guys do itat the most consistent level.
I don't think there would besomething we could plug into a
(28:20):
computer and say this is goingto be your most productive
lineup.
We know we're going to hitLogan Keller.
Third, we know Brock's going tohit in the middle, and maybe
that's something that changesover time with a little bit more
depth and as the roster expandsto 40 and you can bring in more
guys and there may be a littlebit more inter-team competition
and there may be some moreinterchangeable parts, but a lot
(28:41):
of it's based on who we thinkcan get it done.
Karl (28:45):
Okay, all right, I'm going to combine these last two
questions because they're verysimilar and it goes back to what
you mentioned earlier abouthitting sometimes being a little
bit of a rocky road.
I experienced my share ofbatting slumps when I was
playing, which explains why Ididn't play past the high school
level.
But what are some of the thingsthat have worked for you in
terms of trying to get hittersout of those slumps?
I'm wondering if it's more of amechanics issue that perhaps
(29:07):
grew into something bigger andgot into their heads mentally,
and what was your approach intaking care of that?
And then, to kind of finish upthe conversation, can you think
about a particular situationwhere you'd been working with a
hitter and man.
He came out of it at just theright time, you know, delivered
in the clutch in a big game thatbasically put the team over the
top?
Coach Kane (29:33):
Yeah.
So I think I think from likethe quote unquote, slump
standpoint, you know, as a as aplayer, like you know, that's
real you know how you feel whenyou're in the box.
You know when you're notfeeling good as a coach, I, you
know, I think I read somewhere Ican't remember if it was like
something Tony Gwynn said or itwas something to the effect of,
like you know, slumps arecreated, or or within your own
head, and I guess you know thecoach in me says that you know
(29:55):
every pitch and every at bat isa separate event and you try to
convey that to players.
You know, I think the bestthing that you can do in that
regard is to build those guysback up and to build their
confidence back up.
I talk about confidence andbelief in what they're doing.
That's going to come throughpreparation.
I think the mental element ofthe slump.
(30:15):
You know you can mitigate thata little bit by creating, you
know, a mentality of like pitchto pitch and getting guys in the
right mindset to hit.
I do think the mechanical thingcan be a little bit of a way to
divert their attention fromlike, oh man, I'm 0 for my last
15.
You know, hey, try to feel thisa little bit.
(30:37):
Take a round where you're justkind of focusing on one thing,
but ultimately I'm just kind ofdiverting their attention away
from the fact that they haven'treally put a quality contact on
a ball in a while.
I think it's kind of a two-waystreet.
You create some mechanicalmaybe adjustments to kind of get
their attention somewhere elseand all it takes is one barrel
(30:58):
and they're starting to feelgood again and that confidence
is building up.
But ultimately you want tobuild teams and hit that, that
that confidence is building up.
But ultimately you want tobuild teams and and hitters that
can play the game in an at-batto at-bat basis and one at-bat
doesn't, doesn't?
You know?
One bad at-bat doesn't becometwo and three and five, right?
I think some of the guys havedone a really good job like
getting away from that.
We talked about that a littlebit earlier, but I'm certainly
(31:19):
of the uh again as a guy that'sfailed plenty and really the
mental game was probably one ofthe areas where I felt like I
was the most efficient at 17, 18, 19, 20.
I'll spend a lot of time onthat.
And when guys start to get intolike crutch mode hey, what am I
doing wrong?
Fix me.
That's when I get a little bit,you know, I'll get a little bit
(31:41):
concerned about that becausenow it's looking we're not being
accountable at that point,right, I usually tell them hey,
if I think that, if I thinkthere's something wrong in your
swing, I'm going to tell youabout it.
That's my job to tell you aboutit.
If that's not the case, thenyou're just, you're just
handling your app bat and you'rejust going out back to app bat
and doing what you need to doand finding some mental cues
that create success and VP andand in your, in your preparation
(32:04):
work.
So in terms of, like guyspopping out, man, I'm, I, I
thought about that a bit, youknow I I, more so maybe thought
about it, not maybe necessarilyin terms of individual, like
slump breaking out.
But you know days where we werereally having a hard time
offensively and guys just found.
(32:24):
But you know days where we werereally having a hard time
offensively and guys just founda way.
You know, I think about SteveBourne's walk-off home run
against Holy Cross in thePatriot League Final Game 1.
Could not find a barrel for thelife of us.
That day Just gets his bestswing off in the biggest moment
possible.
You know we had a comeback winat Army.
It would have been 19 or 20.
(32:46):
And I think Mike Koretz andZach Biggers went back to back
with just tremendous at-bats.
We were down one, I think werifled the ball down the right
field line for a double.
Biggers followed that up with atriple Just huge at-bats in
huge spots where nobody had beenhitting.
So I think you know, in terms oflike breaking out of slumps,
(33:09):
I'd like to think, and I hope,that over the 10 years we really
haven't seen too too many ofthem that got to the point where
we were talking about sittingguys down certainly not with our
core guys, you know.
And then probably some of thebiggest swings I've seen in my
time here I mean Christian Hodgeagainst Army, hitting two home
runs over the monster at Fenway.
Oh man, I mean, that's a momentI'll never forget.
(33:31):
I grew up in the greater Bostonarea.
My son was like nine at thetime.
That was like an unbelievablething, unforgettable for him.
There have been a lot ofawesome moments.
There have been a lot of greatkids come through this program.
You know wildly thankful to tobe able to coach those guys over
(33:51):
the time that I have.
Karl (33:52):
So Right, Right, Well, listen, that looks like a great
place to stop there, coach, andI appreciate you sharing those
experiences with us.
It's been a pleasure, man.
I mean I I love talkingbaseball and it's been great
chatting with you about hitting.
I'm actually going to be out inAnnapolis in a couple of weeks
and I was like looking at theschedule, but you guys are going
to be up at Holy Cross thatweek.
That's April 13th and 14th.
(34:12):
I'm going to be there, butanyway, listen, it's been great
talking with you.
I really appreciate the time,and good luck the rest of the
season moving forward.
Yeah, Thanks again for havingme.
This was a blast.
Happy to come back anytime.
All right, Take care, Bye-bye.
(34:37):
Okay, We've got our question ofthe day and mid-watch segments
coming up next, so please staywith us.
It is time for our question ofthe day, so let's go ahead and
check out the responses to theone from our previous episode.
You'll recall that itreferenced the 2004 men's
lacrosse team, and this was thequestion.
As of today, there are nineNavy men's lacrosse players who
(34:59):
have over 150 points in theircareers.
How many of them played on the2004 team that made it to the
NCAA championship game.
Was it A 1, B 2, C 3, or D 4?
Now, most of you went with B.
There were 64% who chose thatone, and there were 14% that
picked both C and D, which werethree and four players
respectively, and finally, 8% ofyou selected A, which was one
(35:22):
player.
So the correct answer is, infact, B, two players.
So great job to those of youwho got it right.
Both Ian Dingman and JohnBershner finished with over 150
points for their careers.
Dingman being on that listprobably wasn't a big surprise.
He wound up with 188 points on125 goals and 63 assists.
Bershner came up with 154points.
He did most of his damagegetting the ball to his
(35:44):
teammates, bringing up 105assists to go along with 49
goals.
So thanks to all of you whotook the time to answer that
question.
Now here's the one for today'sepisode, and, as you might guess
, this one is baseball related.
How many times has the Navybaseball team won the Patriot
League tournament since joiningin 1991?
Is it A 2, B 3, C 5, or D 6?
(36:06):
You can take some time to thinkabout that one, and when you
come up with an answer, you canlet me know what it is by going
to the Navy Sports Nation groupFacebook page and looking for
the poll question.
I should have it up by the endof the day.
All right, now it's time forour mid-watch segment.
The two athletes we're followingthis spring are Emilyonese from
the women's lacrosse team andBrock Murtha from the baseball
team.
Let's go ahead and start withMessonese.
(36:26):
She continues to lead the teamin scoring, with 56 points on 44
goals and 12 assists.
The Mids are 9-3 overall and3-1 in the Patriot League.
In their last three games,Messonese has put up a total of
13 goals and 4 assists.
Seven of those 17 points cameon senior day against Bucknell,
where the Mids just rolled overthe Bison by a score of 21-6.
Messonese had four goals andthree assists in that contest to
(36:47):
send the seniors out in style.
The next challenge on thehorizon is the Army game on
April 13th.
As I mentioned before, I'mgoing to be there for that one,
and there is a chance that itcould be the game that decides
the Star Series, depending onhow things go.
If both track teams can beatArmy up at West Point this
Saturday, which is April 6th,the Mids would need only one
more win to take the overallcompetition.
(37:07):
Men's lacrosse plays at oneo'clock on the road the
following weekend, while thewomen's game starts at four
o'clock.
Those promise to be two verytightly contested games, but if
Messonese can continue herexcellent play, I like the Mids'
chances.
Now let's go ahead and check inwith Brock Murtha.
Coach Kane shared some greatperspective on him earlier in
our conversation, and Murthacontinues to perform at a high
level.
He leads the team in hittingwith a .381 average and he's
(37:31):
getting on base just over 50% ofthe time.
The Mids are currently on afive-game winning streak and
tied for first in the PatriotLeague.
During that stretch, Murthawent 8-for-18, which comes out
to a 444 average, and he alsohad five runs batted in to go
along with five runs scored.
Right now, Murtha is the midsmost dynamic player and if he
and the other teammates thatCoach Kane mentioned in our Deep
Dive segment continue toproduce, they could go pretty
(37:52):
far in the Patriot Leaguetournament and may even come
away with another title.
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports
Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
Once again, I'd like to thankNavy Assistant Coach Jeff Kane
from the Navy Baseball Team forjoining us today.
(38:13):
It was great to get hisperspective on hitting, as well
as learning some of thetechniques he uses to keep the
mid sharp at theplate.
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
I will pin it to the top so youdon't miss it.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
(38:35):
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy, beat Army.
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today on Navy Sports
Central.
I'm your host and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation, where we take adeeper dive into Navy sports.
This is the official podcast ofthe Navy Sports Nation where we
take a deeper dive into Navysports.
It is April in Annapolis, andwhile there are some questions
around where some of the springsports teams will wind up going
into their respective leaguechampionships, the one thing we
know for sure is that theArmy-Navy Star Series will
(00:34):
definitely be decided this month.
We'll get a little bit moreinto that in our sports update
and in our deep dive segment.
We'll be featuring the Navybaseball team and we'll even
have a terrific guest joining usto give his perspective on how
the team has been doing so farthis season.
All that, plus our question ofthe day and mid-watch segments
are coming up, so don't goanywhere.
All right, so glad to have youwith us today, whether you are
(01:02):
new to the podcast or you havebeen with us for a while.
Thanks for taking the time.
So we've got roughly six weeksleft in the spring sports season
and besides the seven PatriotLeague championships that need
to be decided, there's also thematter of the Army-Navy Star
Series.
Now we could wind up knowingthat result as early as April
13th or as late as April the28th, but there's one thing for
(01:27):
sure the women's tennis teamcame through in a big way last
weekend to give the Mids anoverall lead of 10-9, with one
tie, and that means it will justtake three more wins out of the
remaining six contests to winthe competition.
So I did want to do a quickrecap of that match just to let
you guys know how things went.
In the tennis matches, thedoubles point is decided first.
They play three matches andwhoever takes two out of three
gets the point.
Now Navy unfortunately lost thedoubles point because they were
(01:49):
only able to take one out ofthe three matches.
But they quickly regained themomentum in the singles matches
by taking the first set in eachcontest.
Emily Tannenbaum actuallycontrolled the number one
singles match the entire way andshe won 6-3, 6-4.
Then, playing number twosingles, navy's Samantha Johns
closed out her opponent in threesets to give the Mids a 2-1
lead.
After that, Katy Lee andParvathi Shankar picked up wins
(02:10):
at the number four number sixsingles to clinch what turned
out to be a 4-2 victory and, bythe way, it was the Mids' third
straight win over the BlackKnights in the Star Series.
And, looking forward, we gotsix sports left that will decide
everything.
Those would be men's andwomen's outdoor track, men's and
women's lacrosse, men's tennisand also baseball.
Both track teams competed in aseries of invitationals in order
(02:31):
to prepare for the upcomingmeet against Army that takes
place this weekend, and, intaking a look at some of the
results from the Navyinvitational that they just
finished, it looks like they'reready to go.
Some of the winners on themen's side included Brahmir Vick
.
In the 110 meter hurdles, hefinished in 13.73 seconds, which
was the best time ever postedat Ingram Field.
Sam Keeny won the 1500 with atime of 350.72, and in the field
(02:51):
events, Josh Boamah took thediscus, shot, put and hammer
throw, while Walker Rudisailleposted another win in the pole
vault.
Taking a look at the women'sinvitational, junior Kylie
Bedard won the 400 meters with atime of 57.06, and, in the
field events, Bedard's classmateJordynn Hutchinson won the shot
, discus and hammer throw, justlike Boamah did.
As you all probably know, bothteams have quite a bit of depth.
(03:12):
So this was an opportunity toget several of the underclassmen
, some quality reps.
Many of the usual suspects Ioften mention, like Nathan Kent,
Gia Anderson and Ellie Abraham,took a break from their events
to rest up for Army.
Moving on to lacrosse, both themen's and women's teams are 3-1
in the Patriot League.
The men knocked off Colgate ontheir senior day and they did it
the hard way too.
They dug themselves a 4-0 holebefore putting together a strong
(03:34):
second half to win 10-9.
Henry Tolker led the team withthree goals and Dane Swanson had
two.
And, by the way, the Raiderswere undefeated in league play
and ranked 18th going into thatgame.
The women looked really good intheir 20-9 win over Boston
University back on March 23rd,but then they gave up a 12-7
lead in the second half againstSt Joseph's and lost 14-13.
That was reallyuncharacteristic.
I actually watched most of thatsecond half and, man, they just
(03:57):
couldn't get anything goingthere.
The one good thing was that itwas a non-conference game so it
had no impact on the standings.
The mids are currently tied forthird with Army, and Loyola and
Holy Cross are first and second.
No doubt the mids were prettyticked off after that St
Joseph's game, and I'm not surewhat Coach Timshall told him
following the loss, but itdefinitely had an impact.
The team wound up taking outall their frustrations on their
(04:18):
next opponent, who happened tobe Bucknell, and it got ugly
early.
Led by Emily Messonese and ToriDiCarlo, the team sprinted out
to a 14-3 halftime lead andcoasted to a 21-6 win.
Okay, that takes care of oursports update.
I know that was kind of brief,but I definitely wanted to get
into this deep dive segment, soplease stay close.
And just to give you somebackground, I did put out a poll
(04:38):
on the Navy Sports Nation groupFacebook page about a month ago
and I was asking for somefeedback on which spring sport
you'd want to see featured on anupcoming podcast, and it turns
out baseball got the most votes.
So, with marching orders inhand, I reached out to Navy
Sports Information and it didtake some time to get things set
up because, of course, they'reright in the middle of their
season, but things finally cametogether.
So please stick with us forthat conversation.
(05:15):
We are back for our deep divesegment to talk a little Navy
baseball, so let's go ahead andget to it and introduce our
guest.
He joined the Navy coachingstaff in 2014 and is now in his
10th season as both the hittingcoach and recruiting coordinator
.
Over his first nine seasons inAnnapolis, he has been
instrumental in Navy, having sixrecruiting classes ranked in
Perfect Games Top 100, includingfour straight from 2016 to 2019
(05:36):
.
He's also developed 36All-Patriot League hitters as
well as three Patriot LeaguePlayers of the Year during his
tenure.
So I am very happy to welcomeNavy Assistant Baseball Coach,
Jeff Kane, to the podcast.
Okay, Coach Kane, it is greatto have you with us today on
Navy Sports Central.
Thanks for taking the time.
I appreciate you having me, yeah, so I want to just go ahead and
(05:56):
jump right into things here.
This is your 10th year on theNavy coaching staff as the
hitting coach.
When did this coaching positionfirst hit your radar and what
were some of the key drivers inyour decision to come to
Annapolis?
Coach Kane (06:08):
Yeah, you know, I'd been coaching previously at Holy
Cross for five years.
We had had some pretty solidsuccess there, you know, at a
program that you know has somechallenges, different challenges
than here.
But so, you know, I was in thesame conference, obviously come
down to Annapolis every year toplay.
I had some, you know, some,relationships with the assistant
(06:29):
coaches that were here at thetime and when this position
opened they had reached out tome, got a chance to come down,
visit, you know, spend some timewith Coach Costi, got to spend
some time around the program.
Really not a tough decision tocome to a place like this.
I mean, it's a uniqueopportunity, it's one that I'm
(06:50):
still thankful for.
It's one that I don't takereally lightly and, you know,
ultimately it was a chance to beat one of the greatest
institutions in the world andyou know, at the time my kids
were three and two.
It means a little something tome that my son and daughter grow
up looking up to our guys andthe things that they do and the
(07:11):
challenges that they take on.
I think that was a huge factorin getting an opportunity to be
at a place like this.
That was something that cameacross the table.
You know, obviously I wentthrough the proper channels to
vet it and to learn more aboutit.
But it's a special thing to beable to put on a Navy uniform,
(07:33):
for sure.
Karl (07:33):
Right, right, all right.
Well, thank you for that.
So I actually grew up playingbaseball.
I played from one time I was,like you know, seven all the way
up to I was a senior in highschool, and so I'm really happy
to be able to kind of discussbaseball with you, and hitting
in particular.
So what I was kind of curiousabout is, when you go back to
your days at Clemson when youwere a player, how has your
hitting philosophy developedover the years?
(07:55):
And I'm wondering is there anyparticular core principle that
you carried forward from yourcoaches, and what other concepts
do you like to emphasize withyour players when they step into
the box?
Coach Kane (08:04):
Yeah, I think there's a lot.
I mean, first and foremost, Ihad the opportunity and I always
say this my performance as aplayer in college was not the
greatest.
You know I failed.
I had to learn how to deal withthat.
But I also played for some ofthe best coaches in the history
of college baseball.
You know, I played for JackLeggett.
(08:25):
I played for Tim Corbin.
He was our hitting guy duringmy entire time there.
If you look at a way to maybe begroomed to be a coach, those
are two guys that you can't bearound better people in terms of
coaching at the collegiatelevel, doing things the right
(08:46):
way, consistency in preparation.
There's tons of stuff that I'vebrought forward from them and a
lot of that stuff was probablymore on, I wouldn't say more on
the mechanical side, but I thinkthere's some things where we're
not reinventing the wheel froma hitting standpoint and some of
the stuff that we emphasizethere, even as basic as being
(09:10):
aware of your trajectory or likethe hand path or things like
that, are not things that thatI've deviated from wildly In
terms of maybe bringing forwardthings.
(09:32):
There's a lot of it that I'vebrought forward, even in like
delivery, maybe practice habits,drill creation Although I don't
try to inundate guys withdrills because you know, ball to
bat, bat to ball is really likeat its core is a pretty basic
skill that you have to developand you have to develop it over
time and with a lot ofrepetition, that you have to
deliver, that you have todevelop and you have to develop
it over time and with a lot ofrepetition.
So, yeah, I think the beginningphases of me becoming a coach
and a hitting coach certainlystarted there.
(09:52):
Okay, you know, with with thoseguys and and being part of that
program, it's a tremendousplace to to be a baseball player
and you know, at that time andand even now, you know, just
being in that environmentcertainly is something I've
carried forward.
Karl (10:05):
Okay, so, um, let's kind of stay with that that hitting
philosophy theme there a littlebit.
Uh, would you say.
Now you said, obviously there'ssome things you've carried
forward that you don't reallydeviate from.
Certainly, and I'll be honestwith you, I have not followed
baseball as closely as I did,maybe about 15, 20 years ago.
But you know, when I'm watchingTV and catching the highlights
and so forth, I'm picking up onnew-ish trends like launch angle
(10:28):
and exit velocity and stufflike that.
How have those trendsinfluenced the way you coach
your hitters?
Coach Kane (10:35):
Yeah.
So I think those things and whenyou get into maybe the way
hitting has changed and kind ofhow it's coached or what is
valued, you know, certainly whenyou talk about launch angle,
when you talk about exitvelocities, back speed metrics,
kinetic movement in terms ofyour body and the kinetic chain
(10:56):
and how that's measured, there'svalue in that stuff for sure.
And I think, as you go up thefood chain in baseball,
certainly to the professionallevels and at the highest levels
of professional baseball,you're talking about access to
maybe more data or access tomore ability to track those
things.
I think there's value in thatstuff.
(11:17):
I also think that for me, whenit comes down to like core
principles, those have to meshwith a lot of things.
They have to mess with theskill set of our players.
They have to mesh with, quitefrankly, our ballpark and how
our ballpark plays.
What plays at the college levelversus what may play at the big
(11:38):
league level might be a littlebit different.
So a lot of the concepts thatI'm going to bring forward.
You're talking aboutcontrollables.
As a hitter, baseball is theonly sport where the team with
the ball isn't on offense.
So it's, how are we controllingthe controllables, certainly
mindset, pitch selection,preparation and that's more like
(12:02):
on the mechanical side ofthings.
You know, when you talk aboutthose from an umbrella concept
of like we're putting ourselvesin the best mindset to hit.
It's preparation, it's trustand it's pitch selection and
visuals Got it One of my buddiesin Pro Bowl and there was a
sign in their, you know theirhitting facility in spring
(12:24):
training and it's you know, it'ssomething I still kind of go
back to.
It's build your swing in here,trust your swing out there.
I think that's a big one interms of like creating confident
hitters and creating a cultureof confidence as a hitter,
because that's a big one.
I know the mechanical stuff.
We still talk about stayingabove the baseball.
We still talk about seeingabove it, creating pressure.
(12:47):
You know those things haven'tchanged and those were like core
things when I was a player atClemson and you still hear big
leaguers talk about it.
You still hear Mike Trout talkabout being above the ball and
that's still something that youknow.
I'm not, I'm not here teachingour guys to hit 250 foot fly
balls because those aren't goingto be productive outs and
(13:08):
certainly not, not at bishopstadium, right, okay, you know
that's kind of where I where Istand on that one all right.
Karl (13:15):
So let's uh, let's kind of stick with that a little bit.
In terms of just looking at thefirst half of the season, you
guys, it's just a little bitmore than halfway through.
What have your hitters beendoing particularly well this
year so far?
And if there's an area of focusthat you'd like to kind of zero
in on for the second half, thatwould make them tougher outs
what would that be?
Coach Kane (13:33):
You mentioned tougher outs.
I think one of the things I wasexcited about it, you know, and
certainly working with coachRustano and we've been kind of
doing this together now a lot of, a lot of his core tenants and
thoughts on offense are verymuch, you know, I think we think
a lot alike in that.
In that regard, and a lot ofthe stuff that we do kind of
(13:56):
focus on pitch selection, zonecommand, what we're hunting,
zone awareness being consistentwith that.
I think the biggest thing we'vedone better our quality at-bats
have increased and we measurethat.
I think every, probably everyprogram measures that and they
may have different parametersthat they do so, but I think
(14:17):
those have kind of been um,really strong, even from guys
that you know.
You, if you look at the boxscores and you look at the stat
sheet, ah, this guy's onlyhitting 260, but but his at-bats
are quality.
You know, almost every time up,uh, productive outs, moves
runners.
So I think in that respect,like our quality at-bats have
been good, uh, our two strikehitting is something that's you
(14:39):
know, our strikeout numbers fromsome key guys, from a
percentage standpoint is havebeen, have been lower than I've
seen in the past and even in thefall, which means we, you know
we might be doing a better,better job with two strikes, um,
putting more balls in play,limiting the amounts of zero
pressure outs that we're puttingout there.
When I talk about, you know,like a zero pressure out that
(15:00):
we're putting out there, andwhen I talk about, you know,
like a zero pressure out, that'sa ball not in play, that's a
weak pop-up, weak contact.
We talk about, you know,measuring our contacts and are
we getting our best swings offand creating pressure contact.
You know, and in terms of goingforward, I think one of the
areas is that we always want tocontinue to work on.
We want to continue to work onbeing better with two strikes.
You know, I think we've madeimprovements.
(15:24):
I think we can get better, um,tougher to track.
I'd love to see us kind oflimit some misses, you know when
.
One concept I use is what youknow what I call like the
pendulum pitch, and I feel likethat's a pitch that you know.
To me, that's the pitch thatswings the app out one direction
or the other.
Do we miss it?
Do we hit it?
Do it Winning that pendulumpitch that swings things in our
favor and then being able to getour best swing off on the best
pitch in the count to hit.
(15:45):
And that's really, at the endof the day, the better the arm
is, the fewer opportunitiesyou're going to get to damage
that guy.
We've got to be able to damagehim when we get the pitch to do
it, and that's something we lookat a lot in film and we try to
track that and see how guys aredoing when they get that pitch
that they can do damage.
We want to be able to hammer itRight, right.
Karl (16:06):
Okay, cool.
So, uh, one of the things Ialways like to do when I have an
opportunity to chat withcoaches is to um talk about a
couple of the players that um,uh, have really been excelling
so far this season.
And you know, obviously, I meanI could spend probably two
episodes talking about all thesedifferent players, but I'm just
going to pick one, and then Iwould like you to pick another
(16:26):
to kind of share their year sofar and how they've been doing.
The first one is Brock Murtha,and he's currently leading the
team in hitting.
I think he's got an average of379.
But what I caught was his OPSis over one, which, um, is
pretty impressive.
So what are some of the thingsthat he's executing on right now
(16:46):
that have yielded these results?
Coach Kane (16:48):
I think Brock's a talented kid.
Brock's a really athletic kid.
Honestly, I feel like a lot, alot of this is is going to be
predicated in two, two areas.
One I think he's starting tomature as a hitter.
I think he's starting to kindof reap the benefits of having
played an entire season lastyear, coming off of sparing reps
at Notre Dame for his first twoyears.
(17:10):
I think he's starting to growup a little bit as a hitter.
There are still some thingsthat I think he can continue to
improve on and those are thingswe still work on.
But maturity level as a hitterhas gotten way better.
He misses.
He doesn't miss as many pitchesas he maybe has had in the past
.
So we talk about kind of thatconcept we just spoke about.
He creates good contact in amuch more regular clip.
(17:32):
You see, his stolen basenumbers are much higher.
He can create pressure with hislegs.
He's probably our most impactfuloffensive player as it pertains
to being on base and be able tocreate.
He can stretch singles intodoubles.
He can challenge outfielders.
He's kind of put a bunch ofstuff together as an offensive
(17:53):
player that we kind of knew wasin there and strictly from a
mechanical standpoint, I thinkhe's starting to be more
self-aware, as it pertains to.
You know, when he starts tofeel something in his swing that
we know isn't productive, thatcreates weak contact or that
gets him off time or that maycreate a little bit of barrel
plane under the ball.
(18:13):
So I think he's just becomemore self-aware.
I think he knows how toself-correct better, and he is
obviously a guy that I think can.
He can continue to be better,he can continue to improve,
because he certainly has theskillset to do it.
Karl (18:26):
All right, all right.
And who would you say?
Is somebody out there that haseither met or exceeded your
expectations so far this year?
Coach Kane (18:32):
Um, I mean, I can give you a handful of guys.
I'm not going to go in depth.
I mean I think, and and again,it's a work in progress and guys
are always hitting.
As I mean, as you, as you know,hitting is, um, it can be a
rocky road, it can be up anddown.
Uh, it's great to see, it'sgreat to see Zane Raba kind of
getting back, uh, to being kindof an impactful guy at the top
(18:56):
of the lineup, can really createpressure with his legs.
Hudson Lehnertz has done areally good job this year in
terms of in not as much actionas we probably would have liked
because he had some, some nicksand and was dinged up a little
bit, but he's been outstandingin the time that we've had him
back and hopefully we have himback.
And you know two guys that havereally I mean Eddie Diaz and
(19:18):
Logan Keller have been.
I can't, I can't remember thelast time those guys weren't in
the lineup.
You know eddie's numbers mightnot jump out at you but you know
he strings together somequality at bats, he does what we
need him to do in some bigspots and Logan's just found a
little bit more consistency.
Both of those guys' qualityat-bat numbers have been great
(19:43):
and their strikeout percentagesare down, so they're putting
more balls in play and they'recreating more positive outcomes
both of those guys and I don'tthink they were down per se in
years past.
I just kind of think thatthey're figuring some stuff out
in terms of consistency, andthat was kind of one of the
things I didn't get to as muchwith the philosophy piece.
(20:04):
But like, how are we, how arewe just consistently growing as
hitters?
I feel like their at-bats areare consistently on an upward
trend or or plateauing.
We're not seeing as many two,three, four at-bat stretches
where it's like a giveawayat-bat, a weak contact, early
bounce.
You know, when they hear fromme, the most feedback they get
(20:24):
from me when it comes pertainsto maybe like constructive
criticism is is poor contactwithin the first three pitches
Right, you know, if you're goingto get your swing off in the
first three pitches and that'sweak contact or a cap or a jam,
that's not, that's not creatingany pressure for the opposition
and that's not.
You know we're doing thepitcher a favor and I think
they've limited that.
They've limited that to a muchhigher degree this year than
(20:47):
maybe they have in the past.
Karl (20:49):
Right, right and you know it's funny about um.
I guess it's about four yearsago I started.
I started a blog, that Istarted this podcast a year
after I started the blog and oneof the first articles I wrote
about four years ago was talkingabout the Navy baseball team
and unfortunately, I wrote thearticle the day that spring
sports were canceled duringCOVID.
Coach Kane (21:11):
Right, and we were 14-1 when that came out.
Karl (21:15):
Exactly.
I mean, that's what I washighlighting and I was talking
about.
Okay, what's going on here?
They got off to a fantasticstart and one thing I noticed
when I started kind of breakingthings down this kind of goes
back to the quality at batsthing.
Right, the number of runs thatthe team was scoring in, you
know, the last two or threeinnings of the game was
significant.
And, you know, I think thatgoes back to what you were
(21:38):
saying in terms of just beingable to string together a bunch
of quality at-bats, even if oneat-bat is an out right.
If you do that enough times,things are going to happen, and
that appeared to be what wasgoing on, you know, four years
ago.
So that's when you keptemphasizing quality at-bats.
That's the kind of thing Iflashed on when I was writing
about the team four years ago.
Coach Kane (22:00):
Yeah, I think Coach Ristano too has been awesome in
the sense that one of hismessages to the hitters you know
he talks about that six, seven,eight, nine pitch at bat in the
third or the second inning maynot manifest itself until inning
seven, right In terms of justtaxing the pitcher, making those
be stressful pitches, stressfulinnings.
(22:21):
I think we saw a little bit ofthat in um, in the holy cross
game, in game four you knowlogan keller had maybe like a 10
pitch at bat, his his secondtime through that.
You know we didn't you wouldnotice it in the box score, but
we ended up getting to that guyinto the set in the seventh
inning.
We got to him, you know, andAndrew Manning had a huge knock
and Victor Isquierdo had anotherbig one, but we got to him and
(22:45):
that guy was probably at.
You know he was up there eight,90, a hundred pitches and he
probably could have been at at70 if we hadn't kind of grinded
them out a little bit earlier inthe game.
Karl (22:55):
So that's certainly something that that has a lot of
value for us the game, sothat's certainly something that
has a lot of value for us All.
Right, good stuff, coach.
Tell you what.
We're going to go ahead andstep aside here for a minute,
but before we do that, I didwant to give you all a couple of
ways to stay up to date on Navysports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page.
I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
(23:17):
be good to go.
The second way takes even lesstime.
Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're
listening to this podcast rightnow.
It can be Apple Podcasts,spotify, iheartradio, it doesn't
matter.
Once you do that, every episodewill be downloaded to your
directory when it's released andyou can listen to it whenever
you're ready.
So please consider becoming amember of our group and you can
actually tap that follow buttonright now to show your support
(23:38):
for the podcast.
I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Navy SportsCentral, Karl Darden here with
(24:00):
you, and today we are joined byJeff Kane, who is the hitting
coach for the Navy baseball teamCoach.
I just wanted to touch on acouple more things before we
wrap things up here.
One of my favorite movies as itrelates to baseball is
Moneyball, and there was a scenein there, as you probably are
aware, that when Billy Bean wassitting down with his team and
he had brought in his newassistant, pete Brand, for the
(24:21):
first time, and they're tryingto figure out a way how to
replace Jason Giambi, who hadjust gone to, I believe, the New
York Yankees had signed him.
So they're trying to figure out, okay, what are we going to do?
And that's when his team waskind of talking about the
standard metrics that they useto measure a hitter and uh, then
(24:43):
they were introducing thiswhole concept of on base
percentage, right, and I'm surethere's more, but on base
percentage was one they werefocusing on.
They said, well, why do we wantthis guy?
Because he gets on base.
So when?
When he gets on base, yeah, sowhen you're talking, when you're
looking at uh and puttingtogether a lineup, are there any
particular?
And obviously there's theeyeball test, right.
(25:04):
I mean, what you see every dayin practice and in games
obviously factors into it.
But what are?
What?
Are some metrics that?
Or maybe one?
Just let's just pick one, onekey metric that that's important
to you when you're buildingthat lineup, to make sure you
put in the most productive oneon the field.
Coach Kane (25:19):
Yeah, so I mean that scene is a good one in that
movie.
I know exactly what you'retalking about.
You know all the old schoolscouts are getting bent out of
shape because they keep bringingup Scott Hattieburg, I don't
know who else.
I love Moneyball.
(25:40):
I think the access that bigleague clubs have to data and
the brainpower that they haveaccess to to analyze and crunch
that data and ultimately providethe coaches with the
information to make decisions,to provide managers with that
kind of data, is phenomenal.
(26:02):
I think you see it probably toa lesser degree at the
collegiate level in a coupleareas.
One is there's not even a speckof the amount of data at the
collegiate level.
When you talk about bigleaguers with seasons of 600,
650 at-bats, leaguers withseasons of 600 650 at bats, you
(26:26):
know the repeatability of maybeamateur players compare
comparatively to pro guys,certainly at our level and at
our school.
You know when you talk aboutconsistency, well, there aren't
guys in pro baseball that are in21 credit hours and taking
thermodynamics class all day andscrambling to get out there.
So I think that data isimportant.
We do use it, we do look at it,we look at matchups, we look at
(26:51):
splits, certainly for our olderguys who have a bigger pool of
data to go off of in terms ofwhere they're successful, where
they're not.
Lefty-righty matchups, thingslike that, lineup-wise and as it
pertains to the metrics.
On that end I think there'sprobably.
You know, we want guys that cancreate offense at the top of our
(27:14):
lineup.
We want guys, maybe that cancreate offense, to turn the
lineup over, maybe near thebottom that might not be as
impactful Guys.
You know that's something thatwe talk about from a lineup
construction standpoint.
Can this guy turn it over andget it back to the top where we
have some guys that can bang andcreate?
So do we look at thatabsolutely on base percentage
matters, slugging percentagematters and again going back to
(27:36):
what we talked about before, wealso look at the quality of
their at-bats and right and tryto put guys in positions where
you, you know we want LoganKeller hitting with guys on base
, we want Brock Murtha hittingwith guys on base who can get
out there in front of them andcreate.
That's going to be an OBPsituation.
That's going to be a little bitof a speed and a pressure
(27:58):
variable there, and we kind ofwant to be able to put guys
ahead of them that can do thatand truthfully, yeah, there's a
human element.
I mean, we have a pretty goodfeel for which of our guys can
compete at the highest level, ofwhich of our guys can create
and, honestly, which guys do itat the most consistent level.
I don't think there would besomething we could plug into a
(28:20):
computer and say this is goingto be your most productive
lineup.
We know we're going to hitLogan Keller.
Third, we know Brock's going tohit in the middle, and maybe
that's something that changesover time with a little bit more
depth and as the roster expandsto 40 and you can bring in more
guys and there may be a littlebit more inter-team competition
and there may be some moreinterchangeable parts, but a lot
(28:41):
of it's based on who we thinkcan get it done.
Karl (28:45):
Okay, all right, I'm going to combine these last two
questions because they're verysimilar and it goes back to what
you mentioned earlier abouthitting sometimes being a little
bit of a rocky road.
I experienced my share ofbatting slumps when I was
playing, which explains why Ididn't play past the high school
level.
But what are some of the thingsthat have worked for you in
terms of trying to get hittersout of those slumps?
I'm wondering if it's more of amechanics issue that perhaps
(29:07):
grew into something bigger andgot into their heads mentally,
and what was your approach intaking care of that?
And then, to kind of finish upthe conversation, can you think
about a particular situationwhere you'd been working with a
hitter and man.
He came out of it at just theright time, you know, delivered
in the clutch in a big game thatbasically put the team over the
top?
Coach Kane (29:33):
Yeah.
So I think I think from likethe quote unquote, slump
standpoint, you know, as a as aplayer, like you know, that's
real you know how you feel whenyou're in the box.
You know when you're notfeeling good as a coach, I, you
know, I think I read somewhere Ican't remember if it was like
something Tony Gwynn said or itwas something to the effect of,
like you know, slumps arecreated, or or within your own
head, and I guess you know thecoach in me says that you know
(29:55):
every pitch and every at bat isa separate event and you try to
convey that to players.
You know, I think the bestthing that you can do in that
regard is to build those guysback up and to build their
confidence back up.
I talk about confidence andbelief in what they're doing.
That's going to come throughpreparation.
I think the mental element ofthe slump.
(30:15):
You know you can mitigate thata little bit by creating, you
know, a mentality of like pitchto pitch and getting guys in the
right mindset to hit.
I do think the mechanical thingcan be a little bit of a way to
divert their attention fromlike, oh man, I'm 0 for my last
15.
You know, hey, try to feel thisa little bit.
(30:37):
Take a round where you're justkind of focusing on one thing,
but ultimately I'm just kind ofdiverting their attention away
from the fact that they haven'treally put a quality contact on
a ball in a while.
I think it's kind of a two-waystreet.
You create some mechanicalmaybe adjustments to kind of get
their attention somewhere elseand all it takes is one barrel
(30:58):
and they're starting to feelgood again and that confidence
is building up.
But ultimately you want tobuild teams and hit that, that
that confidence is building up.
But ultimately you want tobuild teams and and hitters that
can play the game in an at-batto at-bat basis and one at-bat
doesn't, doesn't?
You know?
One bad at-bat doesn't becometwo and three and five, right?
I think some of the guys havedone a really good job like
getting away from that.
We talked about that a littlebit earlier, but I'm certainly
(31:19):
of the uh again as a guy that'sfailed plenty and really the
mental game was probably one ofthe areas where I felt like I
was the most efficient at 17, 18, 19, 20.
I'll spend a lot of time onthat.
And when guys start to get intolike crutch mode hey, what am I
doing wrong?
Fix me.
That's when I get a little bit,you know, I'll get a little bit
(31:41):
concerned about that becausenow it's looking we're not being
accountable at that point,right, I usually tell them hey,
if I think that, if I thinkthere's something wrong in your
swing, I'm going to tell youabout it.
That's my job to tell you aboutit.
If that's not the case, thenyou're just, you're just
handling your app bat and you'rejust going out back to app bat
and doing what you need to doand finding some mental cues
that create success and VP andand in your, in your preparation
(32:04):
work.
So in terms of, like guyspopping out, man, I'm, I, I
thought about that a bit, youknow I I, more so maybe thought
about it, not maybe necessarilyin terms of individual, like
slump breaking out.
But you know days where we werereally having a hard time
offensively and guys just found.
(32:24):
But you know days where we werereally having a hard time
offensively and guys just founda way.
You know, I think about SteveBourne's walk-off home run
against Holy Cross in thePatriot League Final Game 1.
Could not find a barrel for thelife of us.
That day Just gets his bestswing off in the biggest moment
possible.
You know we had a comeback winat Army.
It would have been 19 or 20.
(32:46):
And I think Mike Koretz andZach Biggers went back to back
with just tremendous at-bats.
We were down one, I think werifled the ball down the right
field line for a double.
Biggers followed that up with atriple Just huge at-bats in
huge spots where nobody had beenhitting.
So I think you know, in terms oflike breaking out of slumps,
(33:09):
I'd like to think, and I hope,that over the 10 years we really
haven't seen too too many ofthem that got to the point where
we were talking about sittingguys down certainly not with our
core guys, you know.
And then probably some of thebiggest swings I've seen in my
time here I mean Christian Hodgeagainst Army, hitting two home
runs over the monster at Fenway.
Oh man, I mean, that's a momentI'll never forget.
(33:31):
I grew up in the greater Bostonarea.
My son was like nine at thetime.
That was like an unbelievablething, unforgettable for him.
There have been a lot ofawesome moments.
There have been a lot of greatkids come through this program.
You know wildly thankful to tobe able to coach those guys over
(33:51):
the time that I have.
Karl (33:52):
So Right, Right, Well, listen, that looks like a great
place to stop there, coach, andI appreciate you sharing those
experiences with us.
It's been a pleasure, man.
I mean I I love talkingbaseball and it's been great
chatting with you about hitting.
I'm actually going to be out inAnnapolis in a couple of weeks
and I was like looking at theschedule, but you guys are going
to be up at Holy Cross thatweek.
That's April 13th and 14th.
(34:12):
I'm going to be there, butanyway, listen, it's been great
talking with you.
I really appreciate the time,and good luck the rest of the
season moving forward.
Yeah, Thanks again for havingme.
This was a blast.
Happy to come back anytime.
All right, Take care, Bye-bye.
(34:37):
Okay, We've got our question ofthe day and mid-watch segments
coming up next, so please staywith us.
It is time for our question ofthe day, so let's go ahead and
check out the responses to theone from our previous episode.
You'll recall that itreferenced the 2004 men's
lacrosse team, and this was thequestion.
As of today, there are nineNavy men's lacrosse players who
(34:59):
have over 150 points in theircareers.
How many of them played on the2004 team that made it to the
NCAA championship game.
Was it A 1, B 2, C 3, or D 4?
Now, most of you went with B.
There were 64% who chose thatone, and there were 14% that
picked both C and D, which werethree and four players
respectively, and finally, 8% ofyou selected A, which was one
(35:22):
player.
So the correct answer is, infact, B, two players.
So great job to those of youwho got it right.
Both Ian Dingman and JohnBershner finished with over 150
points for their careers.
Dingman being on that listprobably wasn't a big surprise.
He wound up with 188 points on125 goals and 63 assists.
Bershner came up with 154points.
He did most of his damagegetting the ball to his
(35:44):
teammates, bringing up 105assists to go along with 49
goals.
So thanks to all of you whotook the time to answer that
question.
Now here's the one for today'sepisode, and, as you might guess
, this one is baseball related.
How many times has the Navybaseball team won the Patriot
League tournament since joiningin 1991?
Is it A 2, B 3, C 5, or D 6?
(36:06):
You can take some time to thinkabout that one, and when you
come up with an answer, you canlet me know what it is by going
to the Navy Sports Nation groupFacebook page and looking for
the poll question.
I should have it up by the endof the day.
All right, now it's time forour mid-watch segment.
The two athletes we're followingthis spring are Emilyonese from
the women's lacrosse team andBrock Murtha from the baseball
team.
Let's go ahead and start withMessonese.
(36:26):
She continues to lead the teamin scoring, with 56 points on 44
goals and 12 assists.
The Mids are 9-3 overall and3-1 in the Patriot League.
In their last three games,Messonese has put up a total of
13 goals and 4 assists.
Seven of those 17 points cameon senior day against Bucknell,
where the Mids just rolled overthe Bison by a score of 21-6.
Messonese had four goals andthree assists in that contest to
(36:47):
send the seniors out in style.
The next challenge on thehorizon is the Army game on
April 13th.
As I mentioned before, I'mgoing to be there for that one,
and there is a chance that itcould be the game that decides
the Star Series, depending onhow things go.
If both track teams can beatArmy up at West Point this
Saturday, which is April 6th,the Mids would need only one
more win to take the overallcompetition.
(37:07):
Men's lacrosse plays at oneo'clock on the road the
following weekend, while thewomen's game starts at four
o'clock.
Those promise to be two verytightly contested games, but if
Messonese can continue herexcellent play, I like the Mids'
chances.
Now let's go ahead and check inwith Brock Murtha.
Coach Kane shared some greatperspective on him earlier in
our conversation, and Murthacontinues to perform at a high
level.
He leads the team in hittingwith a .381 average and he's
(37:31):
getting on base just over 50% ofthe time.
The Mids are currently on afive-game winning streak and
tied for first in the PatriotLeague.
During that stretch, Murthawent 8-for-18, which comes out
to a 444 average, and he alsohad five runs batted in to go
along with five runs scored.
Right now, Murtha is the midsmost dynamic player and if he
and the other teammates thatCoach Kane mentioned in our Deep
Dive segment continue toproduce, they could go pretty
(37:52):
far in the Patriot Leaguetournament and may even come
away with another title.
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports
Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
Once again, I'd like to thankNavy Assistant Coach Jeff Kane
from the Navy Baseball Team forjoining us today.
(38:13):
It was great to get hisperspective on hitting, as well
as learning some of thetechniques he uses to keep the
mid sharp at theplate.
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
I will pin it to the top so youdon't miss it.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
(38:35):
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy, beat Army.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.