June 18, 2025 • 30 mins
Baseball has been a lifelong love for Donnie Wise and shaped how he views the world, from the field to everyday life.
• Started playing baseball at age 5 and it became "the one constant" through childhood, high school, and adulthood
• Baseball teaches valuable life skills like patience, reading people, and strategic thinking
• The sport uniquely allows for socializing and conversation while still following the game
• Memorable experiences include coaching Little League, seeing Chipper Jones' career-delaying injury, and watching Michael Jordan play baseball
• Baseball superstitions and traditions remain important to fans, from hat selection to uniform preferences
• The analytics-heavy approach to modern baseball takes away from the gut feel and strategy that makes the game special
• Despite changes to speed up the game, baseball remains America's pastime - "synonymous with apple pie"
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
yeah, you need something snappy, exactly, we'll
see, all right.
Well, welcome everybody to, uhyet to be named video series.
Um, my name is ed, also knownas the dad hat, with me.
I've got my good friend, themayor himself, um, donnie wise.
Um, uh, I, I, you know, I Ithought about not having you.
(00:35):
Just just, let's be honest,totally kidding, totally kidding
, totally kidding, guys.
Um, my good friend the mayor,he is also on our one of our
co-hosts on the show, the theData Chronicle Sports Show.
Every Tuesday and Thursdays, 9pm Eastern time on YouTube.
Just check it out, guys.
Hit the subscribe button, youknow, so that way you don't miss
it.
All right, my friend.
So here's some five questionsfor you, okay.
(00:55):
Okay, are you ready?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I am ready.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
All right, and this is how you know we're going to
get to know you as a baseballfan, as you, you know, a lot of
people already know who you are,right, because you're part of
our show.
You, you know, you have yourcontact on, um, on you off to
work hat.
Uh, your thirsty Thursday hat,like you know.
So you got a lot of uh contentgoing on which I am loving,
right, um, so, uh, I, I I'm veryintrigued about what people
(01:22):
think when I ask these questions, so they're very simple.
So I want to start with thefirst one.
Okay, when did you fall in lovewith the game of baseball?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
It had to be an early age.
I've got memories of playingprobably I don't even think
T-ball was quite what it istoday when I played.
I mean I can remember havingwooden bats and having somebody
approach it Back in the early1900s Exactly.
Sorry, sorry, sorry guys.
It's a joke.
It's a joke, all right,literally.
(01:56):
I mean 74 was when I played myfirst ball.
I mean I was five years old, ohwow.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Really yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, so years old, oh, wow, and uh, yeah, so uh, or
between, yeah, 74, rightbetween five and six, yeah, um,
and I just like, I've justalways played baseball, like I
played little league.
I never really cared a lotabout basketball.
I played some football, littleleague, but baseball was just, I
always gravitated to baseball.
Um, the only time I reallydidn't play baseball was
(02:25):
probably pony league level.
I got to be about 14 or 15,kind of got it like into some
like middle school, it's likeyou know.
Then you're into music andgirls and sports was kind of and
baseball, off it went.
Yeah, for at least rec league.
It was Right, right, right.
And then high school camearound and I was like, okay, I'm
going to try out for the highschool team.
And I played three years on thehigh school team 10th, 11th and
(02:46):
12th grade Nice.
But I've just always been abaseball fan.
I don't know what it is.
I mean, I had uncles thatplayed, my uncles played.
I was the oldest grandchild onmy dad's side of the family Well
, on both sides of the family,actually, actually, my mom and
my dad's side family.
So, um, I didn't really haveanybody other than my uncles, uh
(03:09):
, to look up to as baseballplayers and, um, I don't know,
it just was always like all myfriends played and and that was
the thing we did.
So it was just something that Ifell in love with.
I started collecting baseballcards as well.
Uh, a little bit.
I mean, I wasn't diehard intoit till probably, uh, you know,
11 or 12 years old I got gotinto a little bit more.
But, um, but, yeah, it justit's always been there and, um,
(03:33):
it's the one constant huh yeah,it just always has been that one
sport that I've just I'vealways loved it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So have I, I don't know, you know, and we, we both
love football, right, we're,we're very heavy, you know,
football fans.
But I, you know, like I wastalking to um, because this is
episode number two, I wastalking to virgil about it is, I
, I love football, but footballdoesn't unite us the way that
(04:00):
baseball does, especially withminor league baseball, how we
all, you know, love minor leaguebaseball.
It really doesn't unite it likeit does, right, you know,
because you go to a baseballgame, it's you go, it's also to
socialize, to meet people andhang out and all that with
football, you got to payattention the whole time and
it's like you don't have thattime to really socialize when it
comes to that yeah, it's just,it's no, there's nothing about
(04:21):
it that same.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I mean even playing football, and I played football
in high school.
I played little league football, Um, and it was fun to get out
there and play, but it wasn'tlike a like looked forward to it
, If you know what I mean.
Like I was always ready forbaseball season right the spring
.
When it got to high school.
It's, like you know, Februaryand stuff is cold.
But you just look forward togetting out there and throwing
(04:44):
that ball and getting on thatfield and just everything about
it.
Yeah, it's like spring is justlike everything blossoms new and
I guess because it's throughthe summer, you know you're
outside and the weather'snormally pretty good throughout.
So it's just one of thosethings that just playing a game
(05:04):
of catch I mean, you know, weover the last few years we we've
gotten to follow some peoplethat that make the game of catch
every day a thing, and I wish Icould do that.
I haven't gotten the dedicationyet to do that, but I would
love to try to find a way to dothat someday and and do my own
like 365 days of catch, causethere's nothing like just
(05:24):
getting out and throwing theball a little bit, just playing
some catch.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, I'm with you, man Um Ethan.
Uh, he's the one that you knowwrote the book on.
You know, uh, catching 365,.
Right, like you know, he wascatching a ball.
You know, uh, playing catch orhaving a catch.
However, anybody wants to say Idon't really care, you know, um
, but you know playing ball.
Right, you know, like uh.
Recently I told you thisbecause I, you know, like my
(05:48):
daughter really has gotten sinceI started playing sandlot
baseball.
She's really now getting intolike having, you know, having a
catch.
I was like daddy, let's gooutside play catch.
I'm like absolutely, baby girl,let's go right.
Just like one of those uhmoments, just like you can uh
have that and and really enjoythat right absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
And then when you get a little older, you know you
get, you get too old.
Well, it's never too old forbaseball, but too old to compete
.
Yeah, you know, it was like,okay, I got, I played adult
league a couple of years but youknow I was like 28 playing on a
30 and over league and youcould have two players under 30
on the team.
But some of those guys, youknow those are 30 year old guys
(06:25):
that maybe played some minorleague ball and now they're
coaching baseball and it's likethey they're still ultra
competitive and it just it wasabove my skill level at that
point.
But softball was.
I kind of gravitated tosoftball because it was kind of
a version and I loved playingsoftball.
I probably played softballharder than than I should have
(06:45):
because I mean I dove foreverything, I broke ribs,
probably diving for some balls.
I know it's like you know andyou're I mean, and I'm whining,
but that's like in my 30s.
I'm thinking I'm like 18 againand finally just got a little
bit too old.
And then last year I tried.
I like what you're doing withthe sandlot.
I wish I could probably get outthere and do something more
(07:07):
like that too.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I'm sure there's a Sandlot team somewhere in your
area, dude.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, the guys that I got involved with last year, it
was just like they needed someextra bodies.
On a Saturday They'd get outthere and be like you know, 10
guys on each team and they'd bat10.
10 guys play nine in the fieldyep, uh, I mean.
And, and they were ages, youknow, 20s to 70 yep, so it's a
lot.
It was a lot of fun, but it wasjust like, uh, yeah, I played
(07:32):
like three or four times becauseit was like, okay, they would
need me to fill out and thenthere might be two or three
weeks go by that they didn'tneed me.
I just want to get to where I'mplaying with a group of people.
I can go out and play on aregular basis, but I've got to
be able to schedule that too.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
That's the thing too.
But, like you know, here, onecool thing that they do what it
sounds like collective is thatnot only do they have games, the
teams have games and I playwith a couple of teams already
as a fill-in right, which I'mvery thankful for but also they
have the open right.
But also they have the openright and you can go in there
(08:09):
every saturday.
You know there's no teams oranything, you go in how you want
to and you go out there and youplay, and I am having such a
blast doing that.
You know what I mean.
Um, just because it's so muchfun, so that's something that
I'm truly enjoying.
Uh, doing now as as a 43 yearold, right, um, man, that you
know just like kind of found thepassion to play again.
(08:30):
Yeah, um, maybe in the fallI'll play some.
You know some softball too.
You know who knows, right, aswe speak, you know I literally
have a softball here in my hand,so all right.
So, um, so, obviously, when youfell in love with uh, with a
fin here's our question did Iask you question number two
(08:52):
already?
No, I haven't all right.
So here we go.
How has baseball changed yourlife?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
oh, that's a good one .
I know these are good questionsto ask yeah, I mean my friends
joke about the, the wealth ofuseless knowledge and trivia and
stats and things like that thatI have rolling around in my
head.
A lot of that at the time.
A lot of that comes frombaseball.
Just, you know, I learned tokeep a book in high school.
(09:22):
Like, like I said, I playedwell again.
I said I was on the team forthree years.
I played off and on throughoutthree years, but I was mostly a
scorekeeper on the team.
I wasn't a great athlete, but Ijust enjoyed being out there
and having fun.
And putting the jersey on dude?
Yeah, exactly.
So I enjoyed it.
But just things like that, justlearning the strategy of it,
(09:44):
that's the word I'm looking for.
Strategy and a chess game iswhat it's like to me, and that's
the beauty to me of baseball,is the strategy of of all of it,
though.
Yeah, when to when to switchpitchers?
I think the, the analyticsitself now, to me is is overkill
.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Oh, my god, same here , yeah it's just way too much.
The the gut analytics is what Ilike, so that's the old school
um body language, positioning,all of that.
That's what I really love, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
And I see that day in and day out.
I see that I can look at people.
I would even when I used tohire people.
You know I could read people alot better because of watching
baseball.
Just seeing mannerisms, the waypeople kind of talk and handle
themselves.
At mannerisms, the way peoplekind of talked and handled
(10:37):
themselves, you could kind oftell whether they were, you know
, going to be a goof off or ifthey were going to be serious or
whatever.
Just baseball in general, justit taught me.
Rhonda says I'm not patient.
Well, I'm not patient withincompetence, but I'm very
patient with a lot of otherthings.
And baseball taught me patienceas well.
Just, you know anything canhappen.
(11:00):
You just got to have patience.
When I did coach little league,you know she would be sitting in
the stands and all the peoplewould be John Cause we'd have a
bad game or or you know we had abad team.
First couple of years I coachedlittle league and after the
game she's like I can't believethose people were up there.
Did you hear them?
I'm like I didn't hear anything.
I didn't pay attention toanything outside the fence, like
(11:20):
yeah, I just zoned out on thatkind of stuff.
And so baseball kind of taughtme that too.
It's like okay, you can watchit, you can keep up with it, you
can have a conversation, butyou can still have multiple
things going at one time yeah,and that's a lot of what
baseball is for me too yeah, Iagree with you.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
That's like you know I.
There's something uh to be saidthat as soon as you cross that
line over to this field and thenyou just like a lot of times,
you just kind of tune outeverything else because it
doesn't matter, right it's just.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I can care less what people back there are yelling.
I I'm not.
I'm focused on what.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
I'm trying to do.
Trust me, I'm one of them too,right.
I'm one of those fans.
I'm like dude, what are you anidiot, right?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I do that now.
I yell at the umpires, at theFireflies games, from our table
up there and Ron is just likestop it.
I'm like, but that was ahorrible call and it's there's
times I want to get up and goall the way down the steps to
the net and just do it downthere, just go down there closer
and chew out the umpire Like,hey, you ding dong, come on now
(12:20):
Really.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Like really, come on Right, Exactly, I'm with you
there, like I do the same thingtoo, you know, but at the same
time you know it's like theseare paid players, like a little
bit different man.
We've got to chill out with theLittle League stuff.
These parents are like dude.
If you're going to jaw, I'mgoing to kick you out because I
can't have that yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I had a parent that was pulling his kid off of the
field because we were gettingbeat something I don't know, it
was probably 11 or 12 to nothingor something like that.
And his son comes running infrom left field and he comes
running across the infield.
I left field and he comesrunning across the infield.
I'm like what are you doing?
And all of a sudden, behind meI hear we're leaving.
And I turn around like what doyou mean you're leaving?
If he leaves and we have toforfeit, he's like I don't care,
(13:01):
y'all are losing this gameanyway.
I said, well, that's a great,uh, you know lesson to teach
your child?
Yeah, just be a quitter.
Yeah, he wanted to jaw at meabout that and I'm like, hey,
you, it is what it is.
You're teaching him just to bea quitter instead of sticking it
out, taking your lumps andlearning from it and coming back
better.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
That's one of those things.
I know I'm going to get a lotof hate for this, but I hate
when everybody gets a trophy.
No, not everybody should begetting a trophy.
No, exactly.
Prime example and this is atotal tangent my daughter a
couple of weeks ago did not geta medal because she didn't
participate right.
She got upset and I said babygirl, but you didn't get to do
(13:39):
the move that you were supposedto do in order to get the medal.
I was like what does that mean?
That means that, yes, youdidn't get it now, but that
means that now you have to workharder to achieve that goal.
Once you achieve that goal,then you'll get that medal.
And she was like buteverybody's getting a medal.
I was like just becauseeverybody got it doesn't mean
that you have to get it.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Right, yeah, the whole thing about that, I mean
just all participation.
It's like I understand, to acertain level and certain levels
of sports, you want to makesure everybody plays, everybody
gets, but at some point you haveto get to the point where if
you're not good enough, you'renot going to play, and that just
should should force you to tryand be better at it.
(14:20):
Yep, you know there's a lot ofyeah, there's a lot of kids that
go out there just because theirparents make them yeah, and
they don't really want to bethere but they're doing it.
And then you know theysometimes you have to kind of
help, push that, that kid tolearn to want to do it.
And then you know you've got tofind those ones that don't want
to do it and don't want to bethere.
They're just bringing everybodyelse down too great and parents
(14:43):
are like, yeah, but everybodyshould know, everybody shouldn't
no, not everybody shouldabsolutely all right.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Question number three um, give me a couple of your
baseball memories, like yourfavorite baseball memories.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
From playing or just in general.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
In general, this is an open question.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
I mean, one of the biggest memories I have as far
as coaching, when I did coachLittle League and it probably
wasn't my best moment, but wewere playing for the uh, well,
baxter a little bit.
So the first round of the stateplayoffs for this, this team we
had, we had, we had a couple ofkids, that a handful of kids
actually, that went on to pitchcollege baseball, one that was
(15:29):
drafted out of out of college,uh, by the nationals and um, you
know this point, they were like13, 14-year-olds and we went to
the state tournament playingdown in Florence.
I mean, our team was stacked.
We go down there and we getbeat like 13 to something I
(15:51):
forget what the numbers were,but like 13 to 1, 13 to 2 in the
first game of this tournament.
So we're dropped into theloser's bracket and we battle
back, we battle back, battleback, win, win, win, um, and we
had a kid that threw aknuckleball like you wouldn't
believe for a little like for a13, 14 year old kid.
And um, we get to the one game,from going to the championship
(16:18):
to play for the championship outof the loser's bracket and a
call at home plate.
Kid was clearly out, umpirecalled him safe, we lose the
game.
I turned around.
I was keeping book.
It was me and two other coaches, so we had the head coach
assistant coaches.
I was the was keeping the book.
It was me and two other coaches, so we had the head coach
assistant coaches.
I was the one keeping the book.
I had the clipboard, theplexiglass clipboard.
(16:41):
I just slammed it on the benchand broke it in half.
I was so mad.
But I was more upset for thekids.
It wasn't mad because I was madat the guy making the call.
I was mad that that call endedthese kids' season and it just
tore me up.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
They did everything right.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
They did everything right, made a great play, the
catcher made a great play andclearly was out and the umpire
missed it and it's just one ofthose things.
There's no review in the league.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
It is what it is and you move on.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
So I mean, that was probably one of the memories
that has stuck with me over theyears.
As far as coaching ball isconcerned, as far as, like
playing, um, I can't reallythink specifically of anything.
I mean, I know there's probablysomething if I thought a little
longer about it, with sure,with high school or or uh,
(17:38):
little league that that wouldcome to mind.
Um, you know, as far as, uh,like as an adult, uh, ron and I
go into the world series in 96.
I mean that that's a memorythat's fantastic.
Um, you know, just just finallyseeing the team that I rooted
for win a world series game I'mstill, I'm still waiting for
(18:01):
that world series win I'm nottrying to rub it in, but that's
just a memory that sticks withme that, uh, that I'm exactly.
No, no, no, no obviously yeah umlisten.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
You grew up a yankees fan and you want to see your
team right win the championship,absolutely as you should um,
and going back before that, Imean 94.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Uh, I went to spring training.
Uh, ron and I went to fortlauderdale for spring training
and I I saw chipper jones blowhis knee out running the first
base, which delayed his wholerookie season by a year.
We were there when thathappened.
I mean, it's just one of thosethings like most people wouldn't
remember that or know aboutthat, but if you but I say that
(18:39):
it's Chipper Jones yeah, if yougo back and look at what when
Chipper Jones, you know, firstcame up with the Braves, if you
look at his history and you seethat he in the spring training
game blew his knee out, had tohave surgery and delayed his
whole start to his career by afull year.
I was there that night whenthat happened.
It was just crazy to see ithappen and getting to see
(19:01):
Michael Jordan play baseball.
That was such a small window oftime.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
But from all accounts , I guess he was really good he
was.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
He played right field .
We had seats in the stands inFort Lauderdale in the right
field side behind the bullpenand it really was kind of cool
to watch him play, see him getin that bat I think he got on
base, if I remember right andjust seeing him play and play
defensively in the outfield foryou know a handful of innings.
(19:33):
It was just it's really neat tohave seen.
I never saw Michael Jordan playbasketball in person, but I saw
him play baseball.
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
That's the coolest thing you know.
I've never.
I never saw him play basketballin person, but I guarantee you
I saw him in, you know, playingbaseball in person and that's
cool.
That that's a cool memory manyeah, so, so, stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Um, you know that that that's.
Those are probably some of thethe more specific ones I can
think of right now absolutely,um, okay, here's a question
number four.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Give me a couple of your baseball traditions or
rituals.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
I don't know if I had too many.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
specifically, You've got to have at least one.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I don't know.
I honestly can't think ofanything specifically that I
would have done as a ritual.
I mean, I'm sure I probably hadsomething back then.
I mean, you know, I didn't evennow I can be.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
We're all superstitious, let's be honest.
Like you know, when it comes tothe game of baseball, we're all
superstitious like I know that.
Like if I'm I have my jersey onand everything, I'm watching a
game in the playoffs and theylose that game, I'm taking that
thing thing off, I'm taking itoff.
I know this is embarrassing tosay I'm taking that sucker off
and I'm not wearing it againuntil they win a game.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I guess in some ways I mean, yeah, like with Clemson,
I will wear.
You know, I try to wear thesame hat that they're wearing,
which doesn't always work.
I wish teams it's not even justwith Clemson, with the
Fireflies teams, it's not evenjust with Clemson, with with the
Fireflies, with anybody I wishthey would put out that day what
the uniform was that team waswearing.
If you're a fan of a teamespecially if I go to a game and
(21:15):
I've got a handful of differentjerseys I've got pretty much
all the hats that they wear Ihate showing up wearing one hat
and they're wearing a differenthat.
I mean, that's a little bit ofa superstitious thing.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I guess in in a way.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Because it's just one of those weird things.
It's like man, why did they notput out there what outfits
they're wearing, what hatsthey're wearing or whatever?
Just like a uniform trackerLike this is what we're wearing
today.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
The football team sometimes does it for Clemson
Right Football teams they do it.
I know some professionalfootball teams do it.
Some professional baseballteams do it, like in Major
League Baseball, but not inMinor League Baseball.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
You're right, yeah.
So, like on Saturdays, I knowClemson's on the road where
they're going to wear white, soI always joke to Rhonda if it's
an away game we're wearing white, I wear a white shirt, I wear a
white hat.
I don't wear orange and purplestuff.
I know the military game ispurple, I know everything else
is pretty much orange, so I kindof have that down.
(22:13):
With football, baseball isdifferent because they play so
many different days and theyhave different colors for
different days and things likethat.
That's the one thing thatprobably drives me as a fan,
drives me crazysuperstition-wise is I want to
wear the hat they're wearing.
If I go to afly's game andthey're wearing one thing and
I'm wearing a different, thing,it just bugs me.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
I was like, can you just guys tell me, please, just
tell me, send me a text messageand then I'll you know.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Exactly I like that.
When I was growing up, I mean,I was probably very particular
about the stirrups.
I had to have them a certainway.
I mean, kids these days don'treally wear them too much,
although Eric posted a picturethe other day of Zach and his
summer team and he had thestirrups outside of his shoes,
(22:59):
just hanging by the Achilles onboth of his legs.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Just the fact that the kids that age today were
wearing stirrups is cool to me,because most kids don't yeah,
some of them don't actually wearthe traditional stirrups, they
actually wear the socks thatlook like stirrups, right, and
this one was actual stirrups, Imean, you can see, yeah, that's
pretty cool shout out to Eric'skid man.
(23:24):
That's awesome.
Alright, last question, myfriend.
So why baseball?
You know Eric's kid man, that'sawesome.
Yeah, all right.
Last question, my friend.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So why baseball?
Why not?
I mean, it's that age-old thing.
It's like baseball's abeautiful game, it's.
You know, we've talked aboutsome of the things that they've
done that we thought were goingto ruin it, and I guess in
hindsight they haven't reallyruined it.
Yeah, I think they can tweak ita little bit more.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Absolutely yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
We've always said the pitch clock.
I even told Ben that the othernight.
I'm like we should just addlike four or five seconds to
each of the parameters of thepitch clock.
This still would be a shortergame, but we had a game that was
an hour and 59 minutes thisweek, Like come on If that was
2.25,.
What's the difference?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
We're in the ADD generation man Exactly.
Whether we like it or not,that's where we're at.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
But again, I love the strategy of the game, I love
the flow.
I hate the fact that they gospecifically just to analytics.
I hate like okay, gospecifically just to analytics,
like I hate like okay, I'm goingto bring this pitcher in just
to pitch to this one batter orthese couple of batters and then
he's done, or whatever it'slike, come on, you got to have a
(24:39):
better gut feel for the game.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
I agree, I 100% agree with you there.
Man Like that drives me up awall.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, but like you said, baseball you you don't
have to constantly pay attentionto keep up with it.
Yep, you can, you can.
You know you might miss, likehow'd that guy get a third or
whatever.
But overall you can enjoy agame.
You can enjoy being out thereand kind of keep up with what's
going on and socialize and enjoyjust being around friends and
(25:08):
hanging out.
You can't do that with othersports.
You're not going to go to abasketball game unless you're
that idiot that sits there andtalks the entire time and
doesn't pay attention to thegame yeah, there's certain
sports you just can't do thatright hockey, you can't do that
in hockey there were some guysat a hockey game a few weeks
back one of the playoffoff games, sitting behind me and Rhonda.
They were talking about how theywere cooking their steaks or
(25:31):
whatever what this one guy doesto marinate.
They spent the whole timetalking about their social life
and things that they do andhardly even paying attention to
the game itself.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I'm like, why are?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
you, even here, with hockey, with basketball, with
football, if you're not there towatch the game, you might as
well.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Go to the bar.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
But baseball is one of those that it's actually the
opposite at the stadium than itis.
You can sit at home and you cantalk about anything and not
even really pay attention.
The announcers you can hearthem explaining what's going on.
Yeah, at a baseball game youcan still sit there and you can
(26:16):
just like pitch by pitch, kindof keep an eye on what's going
on and still have a conversationgoing about something else, but
you're still involved in thegame.
You still follow it you're stillpart of it, and just the sounds
of it.
You're still part of it, andjust the sounds of it.
You know, every time there's apop fly, everybody's looking for
where it's at and is it comingto you?
And if it is, then there's thescramble for it, those kinds of
things.
It's just this.
(26:38):
Baseball is just to me, it'sjust the best game.
I mean, but baseball was, isand always will be the best game
in the world.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
And it's still America's pastime.
I don't care what anybody saysto me.
I don't want to hear aboutfootball and all that.
It's not America's pastime.
This, to me, is still.
Baseball will be synonymouswith apple pie.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Absolutely.
You know what I mean.
Yep, exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Donnie, my friend, thank you so much for answering
my questions.
I greatly appreciate that.
Where you so much for answeringmy questions.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I greatly appreciate that.
Um, where can people find you?
On the soldiers, my friend?
I am at wise drjr, instagram,twitter, uh, threads, um, not so
much on the blue sky.
I've never really got.
I mean, I don't know, I don'tknow about you, but I tried to
stick with it.
I don't know, it's just not.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Not a thing really but anyway, trying, I'm trying,
but it's not a thing really.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I'm trying, but it's not, yeah, it's not really
taking hold for me.
But mostly my Twitter andInstagram.
Instagram is somewhat personalstuff and sports related, but
Twitter is where, like you saidearlier, my hat of the day that
I do, whether it's off to workor Thursday or whatever
Wednesday.
I try to come up with adifferent little name for each
(27:48):
one depending on whether it's awork day or not.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
That kind of thing yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Just showcase all my hats, cause I got too many.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Same here.
And then, obviously, you guyscan find me on all socials.
I am the dad had two, one, six.
That's my the sign on for allof my socials.
I am on blue sky not a wholelot, uh, threads is where I
spend.
Some is threads, instagram, uh,youtube and twitter, uh, so you
can find me there.
Um, we will, oh, make sure thatyou guys are tuning in every
(28:17):
tuesday and thursday, 9 pm,eastern time, the dhc sports
show.
Um, it's a lot of fun.
We talk, uh, baseball in allsports.
Right now we are in the middleof baseball season, right, so we
are talking mostly baseball, uh, but we also touch on on
football and all that.
Make sure that you guys arecatching it, because we are
doing an amazing tournament onalternate identities at the time
of this recording.
So check it out again.
(28:38):
Odds on, uh, just look for thedad hack chronicles.
We will see you guys on thenext episode good night bye bye.
yeah, you need something snappy, exactly, we'll
see, all right.
Well, welcome everybody to, uhyet to be named video series.
Um, my name is ed, also knownas the dad hat, with me.
I've got my good friend, themayor himself, um, donnie wise.
Um, uh, I, I, you know, I Ithought about not having you.
(00:35):
Just just, let's be honest,totally kidding, totally kidding
, totally kidding, guys.
Um, my good friend the mayor,he is also on our one of our
co-hosts on the show, the theData Chronicle Sports Show.
Every Tuesday and Thursdays, 9pm Eastern time on YouTube.
Just check it out, guys.
Hit the subscribe button, youknow, so that way you don't miss
it.
All right, my friend.
So here's some five questionsfor you, okay.
(00:55):
Okay, are you ready?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I am ready.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
All right, and this is how you know we're going to
get to know you as a baseballfan, as you, you know, a lot of
people already know who you are,right, because you're part of
our show.
You, you know, you have yourcontact on, um, on you off to
work hat.
Uh, your thirsty Thursday hat,like you know.
So you got a lot of uh contentgoing on which I am loving,
right, um, so, uh, I, I I'm veryintrigued about what people
(01:22):
think when I ask these questions, so they're very simple.
So I want to start with thefirst one.
Okay, when did you fall in lovewith the game of baseball?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
It had to be an early age.
I've got memories of playingprobably I don't even think
T-ball was quite what it istoday when I played.
I mean I can remember havingwooden bats and having somebody
approach it Back in the early1900s Exactly.
Sorry, sorry, sorry guys.
It's a joke.
It's a joke, all right,literally.
(01:56):
I mean 74 was when I played myfirst ball.
I mean I was five years old, ohwow.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Really yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, so years old, oh, wow, and uh, yeah, so uh, or
between, yeah, 74, rightbetween five and six, yeah, um,
and I just like, I've justalways played baseball, like I
played little league.
I never really cared a lotabout basketball.
I played some football, littleleague, but baseball was just, I
always gravitated to baseball.
Um, the only time I reallydidn't play baseball was
(02:25):
probably pony league level.
I got to be about 14 or 15,kind of got it like into some
like middle school, it's likeyou know.
Then you're into music andgirls and sports was kind of and
baseball, off it went.
Yeah, for at least rec league.
It was Right, right, right.
And then high school camearound and I was like, okay, I'm
going to try out for the highschool team.
And I played three years on thehigh school team 10th, 11th and
(02:46):
12th grade Nice.
But I've just always been abaseball fan.
I don't know what it is.
I mean, I had uncles thatplayed, my uncles played.
I was the oldest grandchild onmy dad's side of the family Well
, on both sides of the family,actually, actually, my mom and
my dad's side family.
So, um, I didn't really haveanybody other than my uncles, uh
(03:09):
, to look up to as baseballplayers and, um, I don't know,
it just was always like all myfriends played and and that was
the thing we did.
So it was just something that Ifell in love with.
I started collecting baseballcards as well.
Uh, a little bit.
I mean, I wasn't diehard intoit till probably, uh, you know,
11 or 12 years old I got gotinto a little bit more.
But, um, but, yeah, it justit's always been there and, um,
(03:33):
it's the one constant huh yeah,it just always has been that one
sport that I've just I'vealways loved it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So have I, I don't know, you know, and we, we both
love football, right, we're,we're very heavy, you know,
football fans.
But I, you know, like I wastalking to um, because this is
episode number two, I wastalking to virgil about it is, I
, I love football, but footballdoesn't unite us the way that
(04:00):
baseball does, especially withminor league baseball, how we
all, you know, love minor leaguebaseball.
It really doesn't unite it likeit does, right, you know,
because you go to a baseballgame, it's you go, it's also to
socialize, to meet people andhang out and all that with
football, you got to payattention the whole time and
it's like you don't have thattime to really socialize when it
comes to that yeah, it's just,it's no, there's nothing about
(04:21):
it that same.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I mean even playing football, and I played football
in high school.
I played little league football, Um, and it was fun to get out
there and play, but it wasn'tlike a like looked forward to it
, If you know what I mean.
Like I was always ready forbaseball season right the spring
.
When it got to high school.
It's, like you know, Februaryand stuff is cold.
But you just look forward togetting out there and throwing
(04:44):
that ball and getting on thatfield and just everything about
it.
Yeah, it's like spring is justlike everything blossoms new and
I guess because it's throughthe summer, you know you're
outside and the weather'snormally pretty good throughout.
So it's just one of thosethings that just playing a game
(05:04):
of catch I mean, you know, weover the last few years we we've
gotten to follow some peoplethat that make the game of catch
every day a thing, and I wish Icould do that.
I haven't gotten the dedicationyet to do that, but I would
love to try to find a way to dothat someday and and do my own
like 365 days of catch, causethere's nothing like just
(05:24):
getting out and throwing theball a little bit, just playing
some catch.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, I'm with you, man Um Ethan.
Uh, he's the one that you knowwrote the book on.
You know, uh, catching 365,.
Right, like you know, he wascatching a ball.
You know, uh, playing catch orhaving a catch.
However, anybody wants to say Idon't really care, you know, um
, but you know playing ball.
Right, you know, like uh.
Recently I told you thisbecause I, you know, like my
(05:48):
daughter really has gotten sinceI started playing sandlot
baseball.
She's really now getting intolike having, you know, having a
catch.
I was like daddy, let's gooutside play catch.
I'm like absolutely, baby girl,let's go right.
Just like one of those uhmoments, just like you can uh
have that and and really enjoythat right absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
And then when you get a little older, you know you
get, you get too old.
Well, it's never too old forbaseball, but too old to compete
.
Yeah, you know, it was like,okay, I got, I played adult
league a couple of years but youknow I was like 28 playing on a
30 and over league and youcould have two players under 30
on the team.
But some of those guys, youknow those are 30 year old guys
(06:25):
that maybe played some minorleague ball and now they're
coaching baseball and it's likethey they're still ultra
competitive and it just it wasabove my skill level at that
point.
But softball was.
I kind of gravitated tosoftball because it was kind of
a version and I loved playingsoftball.
I probably played softballharder than than I should have
(06:45):
because I mean I dove foreverything, I broke ribs,
probably diving for some balls.
I know it's like you know andyou're I mean, and I'm whining,
but that's like in my 30s.
I'm thinking I'm like 18 againand finally just got a little
bit too old.
And then last year I tried.
I like what you're doing withthe sandlot.
I wish I could probably get outthere and do something more
(07:07):
like that too.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I'm sure there's a Sandlot team somewhere in your
area, dude.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, the guys that I got involved with last year, it
was just like they needed someextra bodies.
On a Saturday They'd get outthere and be like you know, 10
guys on each team and they'd bat10.
10 guys play nine in the fieldyep, uh, I mean.
And, and they were ages, youknow, 20s to 70 yep, so it's a
lot.
It was a lot of fun, but it wasjust like, uh, yeah, I played
(07:32):
like three or four times becauseit was like, okay, they would
need me to fill out and thenthere might be two or three
weeks go by that they didn'tneed me.
I just want to get to where I'mplaying with a group of people.
I can go out and play on aregular basis, but I've got to
be able to schedule that too.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
That's the thing too.
But, like you know, here, onecool thing that they do what it
sounds like collective is thatnot only do they have games, the
teams have games and I playwith a couple of teams already
as a fill-in right, which I'mvery thankful for but also they
have the open right.
But also they have the openright and you can go in there
(08:09):
every saturday.
You know there's no teams oranything, you go in how you want
to and you go out there and youplay, and I am having such a
blast doing that.
You know what I mean.
Um, just because it's so muchfun, so that's something that
I'm truly enjoying.
Uh, doing now as as a 43 yearold, right, um, man, that you
know just like kind of found thepassion to play again.
(08:30):
Yeah, um, maybe in the fallI'll play some.
You know some softball too.
You know who knows, right, aswe speak, you know I literally
have a softball here in my hand,so all right.
So, um, so, obviously, when youfell in love with uh, with a
fin here's our question did Iask you question number two
(08:52):
already?
No, I haven't all right.
So here we go.
How has baseball changed yourlife?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
oh, that's a good one .
I know these are good questionsto ask yeah, I mean my friends
joke about the, the wealth ofuseless knowledge and trivia and
stats and things like that thatI have rolling around in my
head.
A lot of that at the time.
A lot of that comes frombaseball.
Just, you know, I learned tokeep a book in high school.
(09:22):
Like, like I said, I playedwell again.
I said I was on the team forthree years.
I played off and on throughoutthree years, but I was mostly a
scorekeeper on the team.
I wasn't a great athlete, but Ijust enjoyed being out there
and having fun.
And putting the jersey on dude?
Yeah, exactly.
So I enjoyed it.
But just things like that, justlearning the strategy of it,
(09:44):
that's the word I'm looking for.
Strategy and a chess game iswhat it's like to me, and that's
the beauty to me of baseball,is the strategy of of all of it,
though.
Yeah, when to when to switchpitchers?
I think the, the analyticsitself now, to me is is overkill
.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Oh, my god, same here , yeah it's just way too much.
The the gut analytics is what Ilike, so that's the old school
um body language, positioning,all of that.
That's what I really love, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
And I see that day in and day out.
I see that I can look at people.
I would even when I used tohire people.
You know I could read people alot better because of watching
baseball.
Just seeing mannerisms, the waypeople kind of talk and handle
themselves.
At mannerisms, the way peoplekind of talked and handled
(10:37):
themselves, you could kind oftell whether they were, you know
, going to be a goof off or ifthey were going to be serious or
whatever.
Just baseball in general, justit taught me.
Rhonda says I'm not patient.
Well, I'm not patient withincompetence, but I'm very
patient with a lot of otherthings.
And baseball taught me patienceas well.
Just, you know anything canhappen.
(11:00):
You just got to have patience.
When I did coach little league,you know she would be sitting in
the stands and all the peoplewould be John Cause we'd have a
bad game or or you know we had abad team.
First couple of years I coachedlittle league and after the
game she's like I can't believethose people were up there.
Did you hear them?
I'm like I didn't hear anything.
I didn't pay attention toanything outside the fence, like
(11:20):
yeah, I just zoned out on thatkind of stuff.
And so baseball kind of taughtme that too.
It's like okay, you can watchit, you can keep up with it, you
can have a conversation, butyou can still have multiple
things going at one time yeah,and that's a lot of what
baseball is for me too yeah, Iagree with you.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
That's like you know I.
There's something uh to be saidthat as soon as you cross that
line over to this field and thenyou just like a lot of times,
you just kind of tune outeverything else because it
doesn't matter, right it's just.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I can care less what people back there are yelling.
I I'm not.
I'm focused on what.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
I'm trying to do.
Trust me, I'm one of them too,right.
I'm one of those fans.
I'm like dude, what are you anidiot, right?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I do that now.
I yell at the umpires, at theFireflies games, from our table
up there and Ron is just likestop it.
I'm like, but that was ahorrible call and it's there's
times I want to get up and goall the way down the steps to
the net and just do it downthere, just go down there closer
and chew out the umpire Like,hey, you ding dong, come on now
(12:20):
Really.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Like really, come on Right, Exactly, I'm with you
there, like I do the same thingtoo, you know, but at the same
time you know it's like theseare paid players, like a little
bit different man.
We've got to chill out with theLittle League stuff.
These parents are like dude.
If you're going to jaw, I'mgoing to kick you out because I
can't have that yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I had a parent that was pulling his kid off of the
field because we were gettingbeat something I don't know, it
was probably 11 or 12 to nothingor something like that.
And his son comes running infrom left field and he comes
running across the infield.
I left field and he comesrunning across the infield.
I'm like what are you doing?
And all of a sudden, behind meI hear we're leaving.
And I turn around like what doyou mean you're leaving?
If he leaves and we have toforfeit, he's like I don't care,
(13:01):
y'all are losing this gameanyway.
I said, well, that's a great,uh, you know lesson to teach
your child?
Yeah, just be a quitter.
Yeah, he wanted to jaw at meabout that and I'm like, hey,
you, it is what it is.
You're teaching him just to bea quitter instead of sticking it
out, taking your lumps andlearning from it and coming back
better.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
That's one of those things.
I know I'm going to get a lotof hate for this, but I hate
when everybody gets a trophy.
No, not everybody should begetting a trophy.
No, exactly.
Prime example and this is atotal tangent my daughter a
couple of weeks ago did not geta medal because she didn't
participate right.
She got upset and I said babygirl, but you didn't get to do
(13:39):
the move that you were supposedto do in order to get the medal.
I was like what does that mean?
That means that, yes, youdidn't get it now, but that
means that now you have to workharder to achieve that goal.
Once you achieve that goal,then you'll get that medal.
And she was like buteverybody's getting a medal.
I was like just becauseeverybody got it doesn't mean
that you have to get it.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Right, yeah, the whole thing about that, I mean
just all participation.
It's like I understand, to acertain level and certain levels
of sports, you want to makesure everybody plays, everybody
gets, but at some point you haveto get to the point where if
you're not good enough, you'renot going to play, and that just
should should force you to tryand be better at it.
(14:20):
Yep, you know there's a lot ofyeah, there's a lot of kids that
go out there just because theirparents make them yeah, and
they don't really want to bethere but they're doing it.
And then you know theysometimes you have to kind of
help, push that, that kid tolearn to want to do it.
And then you know you've got tofind those ones that don't want
to do it and don't want to bethere.
They're just bringing everybodyelse down too great and parents
(14:43):
are like, yeah, but everybodyshould know, everybody shouldn't
no, not everybody shouldabsolutely all right.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Question number three um, give me a couple of your
baseball memories, like yourfavorite baseball memories.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
From playing or just in general.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
In general, this is an open question.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
I mean, one of the biggest memories I have as far
as coaching, when I did coachLittle League and it probably
wasn't my best moment, but wewere playing for the uh, well,
baxter a little bit.
So the first round of the stateplayoffs for this, this team we
had, we had, we had a couple ofkids, that a handful of kids
actually, that went on to pitchcollege baseball, one that was
(15:29):
drafted out of out of college,uh, by the nationals and um, you
know this point, they were like13, 14-year-olds and we went to
the state tournament playingdown in Florence.
I mean, our team was stacked.
We go down there and we getbeat like 13 to something I
(15:51):
forget what the numbers were,but like 13 to 1, 13 to 2 in the
first game of this tournament.
So we're dropped into theloser's bracket and we battle
back, we battle back, battleback, win, win, win, um, and we
had a kid that threw aknuckleball like you wouldn't
believe for a little like for a13, 14 year old kid.
And um, we get to the one game,from going to the championship
(16:18):
to play for the championship outof the loser's bracket and a
call at home plate.
Kid was clearly out, umpirecalled him safe, we lose the
game.
I turned around.
I was keeping book.
It was me and two other coaches, so we had the head coach
assistant coaches.
I was the was keeping the book.
It was me and two other coaches, so we had the head coach
assistant coaches.
I was the one keeping the book.
I had the clipboard, theplexiglass clipboard.
(16:41):
I just slammed it on the benchand broke it in half.
I was so mad.
But I was more upset for thekids.
It wasn't mad because I was madat the guy making the call.
I was mad that that call endedthese kids' season and it just
tore me up.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
They did everything right.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
They did everything right, made a great play, the
catcher made a great play andclearly was out and the umpire
missed it and it's just one ofthose things.
There's no review in the league.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
It is what it is and you move on.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
So I mean, that was probably one of the memories
that has stuck with me over theyears.
As far as coaching ball isconcerned, as far as, like
playing, um, I can't reallythink specifically of anything.
I mean, I know there's probablysomething if I thought a little
longer about it, with sure,with high school or or uh,
(17:38):
little league that that wouldcome to mind.
Um, you know, as far as, uh,like as an adult, uh, ron and I
go into the world series in 96.
I mean that that's a memorythat's fantastic.
Um, you know, just just finallyseeing the team that I rooted
for win a world series game I'mstill, I'm still waiting for
(18:01):
that world series win I'm nottrying to rub it in, but that's
just a memory that sticks withme that, uh, that I'm exactly.
No, no, no, no obviously yeah umlisten.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
You grew up a yankees fan and you want to see your
team right win the championship,absolutely as you should um,
and going back before that, Imean 94.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Uh, I went to spring training.
Uh, ron and I went to fortlauderdale for spring training
and I I saw chipper jones blowhis knee out running the first
base, which delayed his wholerookie season by a year.
We were there when thathappened.
I mean, it's just one of thosethings like most people wouldn't
remember that or know aboutthat, but if you but I say that
(18:39):
it's Chipper Jones yeah, if yougo back and look at what when
Chipper Jones, you know, firstcame up with the Braves, if you
look at his history and you seethat he in the spring training
game blew his knee out, had tohave surgery and delayed his
whole start to his career by afull year.
I was there that night whenthat happened.
It was just crazy to see ithappen and getting to see
(19:01):
Michael Jordan play baseball.
That was such a small window oftime.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
But from all accounts , I guess he was really good he
was.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
He played right field .
We had seats in the stands inFort Lauderdale in the right
field side behind the bullpenand it really was kind of cool
to watch him play, see him getin that bat I think he got on
base, if I remember right andjust seeing him play and play
defensively in the outfield foryou know a handful of innings.
(19:33):
It was just it's really neat tohave seen.
I never saw Michael Jordan playbasketball in person, but I saw
him play baseball.
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
That's the coolest thing you know.
I've never.
I never saw him play basketballin person, but I guarantee you
I saw him in, you know, playingbaseball in person and that's
cool.
That that's a cool memory manyeah, so, so, stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Um, you know that that that's.
Those are probably some of thethe more specific ones I can
think of right now absolutely,um, okay, here's a question
number four.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Give me a couple of your baseball traditions or
rituals.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
I don't know if I had too many.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
specifically, You've got to have at least one.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I don't know.
I honestly can't think ofanything specifically that I
would have done as a ritual.
I mean, I'm sure I probably hadsomething back then.
I mean, you know, I didn't evennow I can be.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
We're all superstitious, let's be honest.
Like you know, when it comes tothe game of baseball, we're all
superstitious like I know that.
Like if I'm I have my jersey onand everything, I'm watching a
game in the playoffs and theylose that game, I'm taking that
thing thing off, I'm taking itoff.
I know this is embarrassing tosay I'm taking that sucker off
and I'm not wearing it againuntil they win a game.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I guess in some ways I mean, yeah, like with Clemson,
I will wear.
You know, I try to wear thesame hat that they're wearing,
which doesn't always work.
I wish teams it's not even justwith Clemson, with the
Fireflies teams, it's not evenjust with Clemson, with with the
Fireflies, with anybody I wishthey would put out that day what
the uniform was that team waswearing.
If you're a fan of a teamespecially if I go to a game and
(21:15):
I've got a handful of differentjerseys I've got pretty much
all the hats that they wear Ihate showing up wearing one hat
and they're wearing a differenthat.
I mean, that's a little bit ofa superstitious thing.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I guess in in a way.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Because it's just one of those weird things.
It's like man, why did they notput out there what outfits
they're wearing, what hatsthey're wearing or whatever?
Just like a uniform trackerLike this is what we're wearing
today.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
The football team sometimes does it for Clemson
Right Football teams they do it.
I know some professionalfootball teams do it.
Some professional baseballteams do it, like in Major
League Baseball, but not inMinor League Baseball.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
You're right, yeah.
So, like on Saturdays, I knowClemson's on the road where
they're going to wear white, soI always joke to Rhonda if it's
an away game we're wearing white, I wear a white shirt, I wear a
white hat.
I don't wear orange and purplestuff.
I know the military game ispurple, I know everything else
is pretty much orange, so I kindof have that down.
(22:13):
With football, baseball isdifferent because they play so
many different days and theyhave different colors for
different days and things likethat.
That's the one thing thatprobably drives me as a fan,
drives me crazysuperstition-wise is I want to
wear the hat they're wearing.
If I go to afly's game andthey're wearing one thing and
I'm wearing a different, thing,it just bugs me.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
I was like, can you just guys tell me, please, just
tell me, send me a text messageand then I'll you know.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Exactly I like that.
When I was growing up, I mean,I was probably very particular
about the stirrups.
I had to have them a certainway.
I mean, kids these days don'treally wear them too much,
although Eric posted a picturethe other day of Zach and his
summer team and he had thestirrups outside of his shoes,
(22:59):
just hanging by the Achilles onboth of his legs.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Just the fact that the kids that age today were
wearing stirrups is cool to me,because most kids don't yeah,
some of them don't actually wearthe traditional stirrups, they
actually wear the socks thatlook like stirrups, right, and
this one was actual stirrups, Imean, you can see, yeah, that's
pretty cool shout out to Eric'skid man.
(23:24):
That's awesome.
Alright, last question, myfriend.
So why baseball?
You know Eric's kid man, that'sawesome.
Yeah, all right.
Last question, my friend.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So why baseball?
Why not?
I mean, it's that age-old thing.
It's like baseball's abeautiful game, it's.
You know, we've talked aboutsome of the things that they've
done that we thought were goingto ruin it, and I guess in
hindsight they haven't reallyruined it.
Yeah, I think they can tweak ita little bit more.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Absolutely yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
We've always said the pitch clock.
I even told Ben that the othernight.
I'm like we should just addlike four or five seconds to
each of the parameters of thepitch clock.
This still would be a shortergame, but we had a game that was
an hour and 59 minutes thisweek, Like come on If that was
2.25,.
What's the difference?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
We're in the ADD generation man Exactly.
Whether we like it or not,that's where we're at.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
But again, I love the strategy of the game, I love
the flow.
I hate the fact that they gospecifically just to analytics.
I hate like okay, gospecifically just to analytics,
like I hate like okay, I'm goingto bring this pitcher in just
to pitch to this one batter orthese couple of batters and then
he's done, or whatever it'slike, come on, you got to have a
(24:39):
better gut feel for the game.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
I agree, I 100% agree with you there.
Man Like that drives me up awall.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, but like you said, baseball you you don't
have to constantly pay attentionto keep up with it.
Yep, you can, you can.
You know you might miss, likehow'd that guy get a third or
whatever.
But overall you can enjoy agame.
You can enjoy being out thereand kind of keep up with what's
going on and socialize and enjoyjust being around friends and
(25:08):
hanging out.
You can't do that with othersports.
You're not going to go to abasketball game unless you're
that idiot that sits there andtalks the entire time and
doesn't pay attention to thegame yeah, there's certain
sports you just can't do thatright hockey, you can't do that
in hockey there were some guysat a hockey game a few weeks
back one of the playoffoff games, sitting behind me and Rhonda.
They were talking about how theywere cooking their steaks or
(25:31):
whatever what this one guy doesto marinate.
They spent the whole timetalking about their social life
and things that they do andhardly even paying attention to
the game itself.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I'm like, why are?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
you, even here, with hockey, with basketball, with
football, if you're not there towatch the game, you might as
well.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Go to the bar.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
But baseball is one of those that it's actually the
opposite at the stadium than itis.
You can sit at home and you cantalk about anything and not
even really pay attention.
The announcers you can hearthem explaining what's going on.
Yeah, at a baseball game youcan still sit there and you can
(26:16):
just like pitch by pitch, kindof keep an eye on what's going
on and still have a conversationgoing about something else, but
you're still involved in thegame.
You still follow it you're stillpart of it, and just the sounds
of it.
You're still part of it, andjust the sounds of it.
You know, every time there's apop fly, everybody's looking for
where it's at and is it comingto you?
And if it is, then there's thescramble for it, those kinds of
things.
It's just this.
(26:38):
Baseball is just to me, it'sjust the best game.
I mean, but baseball was, isand always will be the best game
in the world.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
And it's still America's pastime.
I don't care what anybody saysto me.
I don't want to hear aboutfootball and all that.
It's not America's pastime.
This, to me, is still.
Baseball will be synonymouswith apple pie.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Absolutely.
You know what I mean.
Yep, exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Donnie, my friend, thank you so much for answering
my questions.
I greatly appreciate that.
Where you so much for answeringmy questions.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I greatly appreciate that.
Um, where can people find you?
On the soldiers, my friend?
I am at wise drjr, instagram,twitter, uh, threads, um, not so
much on the blue sky.
I've never really got.
I mean, I don't know, I don'tknow about you, but I tried to
stick with it.
I don't know, it's just not.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Not a thing really but anyway, trying, I'm trying,
but it's not a thing really.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I'm trying, but it's not, yeah, it's not really
taking hold for me.
But mostly my Twitter andInstagram.
Instagram is somewhat personalstuff and sports related, but
Twitter is where, like you saidearlier, my hat of the day that
I do, whether it's off to workor Thursday or whatever
Wednesday.
I try to come up with adifferent little name for each
(27:48):
one depending on whether it's awork day or not.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
That kind of thing yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Just showcase all my hats, cause I got too many.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Same here.
And then, obviously, you guyscan find me on all socials.
I am the dad had two, one, six.
That's my the sign on for allof my socials.
I am on blue sky not a wholelot, uh, threads is where I
spend.
Some is threads, instagram, uh,youtube and twitter, uh, so you
can find me there.
Um, we will, oh, make sure thatyou guys are tuning in every
(28:17):
tuesday and thursday, 9 pm,eastern time, the dhc sports
show.
Um, it's a lot of fun.
We talk, uh, baseball in allsports.
Right now we are in the middleof baseball season, right, so we
are talking mostly baseball, uh, but we also touch on on
football and all that.
Make sure that you guys arecatching it, because we are
doing an amazing tournament onalternate identities at the time
of this recording.
So check it out again.
(28:38):
Odds on, uh, just look for thedad hack chronicles.
We will see you guys on thenext episode good night bye bye.
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