June 30, 2025 • 35 mins
Sandlot baseball is experiencing explosive growth across North Carolina with a collective of nine teams creating a welcoming environment for players of all skill levels. Mike Ghilardi, a team captain for the Carolina Kudzu, shares how this accessible, pressure-free approach to baseball focuses on community and joy rather than competition and statistics.
• The Carolina Kudzu formed in 2022 as part of the "Sandlot Revival" event, with their team name referencing the invasive plant species introduced to North America in 1876
• Sandlot baseball welcomes everyone regardless of experience level - teams will loan equipment to newcomers and help teach the game basics
• The movement has roots in Austin, Texas, where they've built dedicated Sandlot fields with bars, live music, and old-timey scoreboards
• The annual Sandlot Revival at the historic Durham Athletic Park (where "Bull Durham" was filmed) has grown from 6 to 13 teams in four years
• Teams keep score during games but don't track records, championships, or statistics - "if you're taking it too seriously, you're missing the point"
• Open pickup games happen most weekends across the Triangle area, with information posted regularly on social media
• The Sandlot collective raises money for local charities including the Long Ball program serving underserved teenage boys and the LGBTQ Center of Durham
Want to experience Sandlot baseball yourself? Follow @carolina_kudzu and other local teams on social media to find information about upcoming open pickup games happening every weekend across the Triangle area.
Make sure to follow the Dad Hat Chronicles: https://linktr.ee/TheDadHatChronicles
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, you can walk right into the stadium.
It's not a ticketed event.
You can come into this historicballpark where the Bulls played
and where the movie Bull Durhamwas filmed, and you can just
sit down anywhere, and they'vedone an excellent job keeping
the stadium maintained.
Not only is the field pristine,but the grounds and the
(00:21):
grandstand, like they've allbeen kept up and sort of
preserved.
You know, is anybody there?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
All right, all right and welcome everybody to yet
another episode of the Dad HatChronicles podcast.
Well, as you guys already know,my name is Ed, also known as
the Dad Hat.
I'm flying solo my co-host.
She's not here.
I guess she's working out, Ihave no idea.
But with me I have someone whoI've gotten to know over the
last couple of weeks herebecause I, as you guys already
(00:59):
know, I'm very excited and havebeen getting into Sandlot
baseball.
I'm very sore, but in a goodway, and his name is Mike
Ghilardi.
Mike, thank you again just forcoming on the podcast and having
the time to talk Sandlotbaseball and actually just
baseball overall.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Absolutely, man, I'm excited, so you know, let's get
to know a little bit about you.
And then how you got involvedin Sandlot baseball.
Man, I'm excited, so you know,let's get to know a little bit
about you.
And then how you got involvedin in solid baseball man.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, so I'm a helper on the Carolina Kudzu in
Raleigh with two of my friends,brian and Joseph, and we started
playing sandlot baseballtogether about four years ago.
Okay, joseph had been doing itfor a while with the Raleigh
Reapers, who was the firstSandlot team in Raleigh.
(01:53):
Okay.
And they were hosting an openpickup game every Saturday and
he asked me and Brian to comeout.
So we did and we had a blast.
And we talked to each other onthe phone a couple days later.
I was like, hey, that wasawesome, do you want to go out
and do it again next saturday?
And my friend brian was likeI'm at dick's sporting goods
(02:14):
right now picking up a new bat,new cleats, new glove.
I was like, all right, I guesswe're going back out there then
and we started going everysaturday.
Back out there then and westarted going every saturday.
And then, uh, you know, fastforward to the following year,
(02:35):
2022.
Um, tyler northrup, with theraleigh reapers, was putting on
this sandlot revival event forthe first time and he needed a
bunch of teams and we had allthese extra guys who've been
showing up to the open pickupand so all the extra people, the
kind of overflow from thatformed the kudzu and that was
kind of the.
The name of the team was thebrainchild of joseph.
(02:55):
He had been coming up withthese invasive species team
names.
He's got a bunch of other onestoo, which are great.
Um, but I won't.
I won't divulge him becausehe's saving him for for the
right moment I love it um yeah,so that the invasive species was
the carolina kud.
The tagline is invading yourfield since 1876, which is the
(03:19):
year that the kudzu plant wasintroduced to north america.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
So I love it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
There's a whole backstory to it, but uh that's
actually, that's great, that'sgenius, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, like you know, I was like honey.
I I mean I'm looking atwatching all these teams and
like one was called the kudzusand like I mean obviously I knew
about the reapers because of umthe work, uh, that um mlb rally
has done and all that stuff, soI kind of knew about that one.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
But kud's, I'm like man, that is just good stuff
yeah, we get a lot of looks whenwe wear our gear out in public
and people ask us about it.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
It's fun, you know yeah, so you've been running it
since.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
It's since, like you know, or you know, early 20s,
the 2020s, and you know like, soyou like the first time you got
hooked right, I'm guessing oh,yeah, the first time you went in
there you were like that's it,I'm in yeah, we couldn't wait to
go back every weekend and, youknow, bring more friends out and
get more people involved so wecan make sure we had at least 18
(04:24):
guys or girls to play a pickupgame.
You know, because eventuallyyou get a little tired of doing
bp and ground balls and flyballs and you want to play an
actual game.
So, yeah, you know, everyweekend it was like a hustle to
try to get more people out thereso we could have a scrimmage.
You know, um, but as, as thingsevolved now, like we werimmage,
you know, but as things evolvednow, like we appreciate all of
(04:48):
it, you know, sometimes we justwant to go out and take a bucket
of ground balls and that's justlike a great form of cardio,
you know.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I can tell you this from experience and you know
I've actually made a couple ofvideos already on this.
But like Saturday, like you isI literally Saturday morning.
Well, the Friday night, I toldmy wife I'm like, listen, babe,
like they're having an, theyhave an open on Saturday morning
at 10 o'clock in Raleigh.
So I just want you to know thatI'm going to go right.
Like, coincidentally, mydaughter who goes to gymnastics
(05:20):
her class was like in themornings on Saturday, but she
went up in in um her level, soshe's now on friday.
So I'm like this is the perfecttime.
Let me go.
I'm gonna go 10 o'clock andthen I'll just I'll be back.
So I was there till like almostone o'clock and by the time I
got home, I'm like, listen, Ijust want you to know.
Like this is this is it?
(05:40):
Like?
I mean, we, we're going to goget I gotta go get a bat and I
need a new glove.
Just so you know, I'm justputting it out there.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, okay, so it hit the bug oh yeah and then it's,
it's addictive what's reallycool is that, after you know,
shortly after the kudzu formed,um, people were coming from
durham and chapel hill andcarborough and all around the
triangle to come to this Raleighopen pickup.
And the people that were doingthat from those outskirts of the
(06:10):
triangle, they all started.
They were like we got to bringthis back to our town so we
don't have to drive all the wayto Raleigh, and they started
their own open pickups.
And then that's what startedforming all these other teams
around the triangle.
Now we're up to eight teams inthe Sandlot collective.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
So it's just like I know I know of a couple of them
already.
So you got the fruits which arein durham.
The wombats, um, you gotobviously the kudzu, the reapers
, the nines.
That's five of them.
What are the other ones thatare missing?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
uh, the eno river possums that's right, yep the
car borough freight trains.
Um, we, we consider the portcity pickles, uh, from
wilmington, part of thecollective too.
They, they were actually.
They've been around for longerthan the reapers have, I think.
Oh, wow, um, so my friends mattand lacy emmerichich from
(07:02):
Wilmington, they, they startedthat team when they moved down
from Pennsylvania, so they'vebeen doing it for a lot longer.
Yeah, and they were.
They were kind of around livingin the Chapel Hill area at the
time when the Reapers and theKudzu spun up, so they, um, they
helped it get, yeah that'sawesome.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So like that, yeah, you got eight.
It's just, it's crazy how itjust evolves.
And listen, I've only been herein in raleigh three years now.
Uh, and the fact that there'sso much baseball here in this
state, it's absolutely wild itis, and I just remembered I
forgot the durham dirt bags.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So it's really nine teams.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
The other.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Durham dirt bags.
They're, they're, they're great.
They're great too.
I love all them, and they'llprobably be mad at me that I
just I omitted them off the bat.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Oh, you're about to get in trouble, Mike.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, they'll get me on that one.
But yeah go ahead.
The baseball is just explodinghere and it's awesome because we
only have, like, the two minorleague teams, but we have a lot
of college baseball and now theMLB movement.
To try to get a team here isreally cool, and you know the
guy that started that isinvolved in Sandlot too, lou
(08:20):
Pascucci.
He's a Reaper, that's right,yep.
So you know it's really cool tosee the community like rallying
around that and the that it'ssustained.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
So let me ask you this, because you know a lot of
people will say I was like allright, ed, like you know, all
right, you're doing, you'redoing baseball.
Great, good for you, awesome.
You know what I mean.
But like, and they, they try toask me what is Sandlot right?
I'm like, listen, everybody'sinvited to this.
Like it's not just like youknow, you know the, the, the
best of the best, you know, it'slike everybody's invited.
(08:53):
If you've never picked up aglove, have at it.
You know, and that's prettymuch how I explain it to them.
How would you, you know,explain it to someone who's
trying to figure out or find outmore about Sandlot baseball?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I mean, you hit the nail on the head.
It really is baseball foreveryone.
It doesn't matter how good youare, if you've ever even played
the game.
I mean, you're going to bewelcomed onto the open sandlot
pick up on saturdays or sundays.
Um, if you don't have a glove,somebody will let you borrow one
.
Don't have a bat?
Same thing.
You know, if you just want tolearn about the game or you just
(09:27):
want to try it out, that's theperfect place to do it.
Everybody there is going towelcome, welcome you.
There's going to be no judgment.
You know, and like it's truethat, like, some people are
there for different reasons too,not everybody is there for the
same reason.
You know, some people are thereto meet new people, some people
are there to get a good workoutand some people are there just
(09:48):
because they want to mash balls,you know.
So you know, if everybody comesfrom the same place of
understanding, which is thatwe're not going to turn anybody
away, it becomes more fun foreverybody um, okay, so let me
ask you then, as far as, like,the teams, right, um, you guys
(10:10):
have are part of what is calledthe sandlot collective.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
You know, give me a little bit of background on that
, like how, if you can, like youknow how that formed, and and
and all of that it wasoriginally called um, the
raleigh sandlot social club, um,and it was really just the
reapers.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I mean, they, they would just get out there every
saturday, and I think it was.
Lions park is where it startedin Raleigh and we still try to
get out there as much as we can.
Right now it's happening atgreen road because somebody else
has lions reserved on Saturdays, but that's where it was
originally when I started andthey had been doing it for a few
(10:51):
years.
But so Raleigh Reapers were thefirst team and then the Kudzu
formed for this first revivaland then by the second revival
we had even more teams the Cargo, freight Trains, durham
Dirtbags, wake Forest Wombats,and then just new people keep
(11:11):
coming out to these open pickupsand it's like, well, these
teams are kind of full.
So if you want to start a team,that'd be great, because then
we'd have another team to play,you know.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I was just going to ask you about that.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yeah, and like the way it works is that these teams
just kind of talk to each other.
We just reach out to anotherteam and be like hey, do you
want to get a game this weekend,next weekend?
We, the team, be like, hey, doyou want to get a game this
weekend, next weekend?
We try to set a schedule at thebeginning of the year but it's
very loose, you know, it'sloosely organized, and we'll
just throw some dates on thecalendar and be like all right,
it's a schedule we can probablyagree on for the next three
(11:44):
months and then we'll try tostart adding more games as the
season goes on.
But we typically play games um,almost year round, kind of
start in March and end inNovember.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
But oh, wow so it's a long, long ways.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, but you know you'll get a couple of nice days
in December or January and ifthat happens you'll see some
somebody out in the field on aSaturday in January when it
might be 70 degrees and thegrass might look brown, but
they'll still be out theretaking grounders and fly balls
see, that's the beauty aboutbeing here in north carolina,
(12:18):
because I'm in cleveland, whereI'm from.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
There's it's not happening in january.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I'll tell you that right now it is not happening
yeah, I grew up in new york, in,uh, central new york, and yeah,
we, you know we started ourseason sometimes with the snow
on the ground, so and it's like20 degrees out there and you're
freezing your ass off trying toplay.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
It's never fun.
Yeah.
I love that, look.
So let me ask you this.
All right, so because I went tothe Open and I was like man,
this is cool.
So there's like differentmembers from each of the teams
that have already been formedRight.
So, for example, like a coupleof questions that I have, you
know, just so that way we can,you know, I can bring light to
(13:04):
how this works, is all right.
So let's say that you knowyou're someone who is coming in
you're new and all that.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
You come in at a couple of the opens and
everything, but they want to.
They want to be part more of aof a team.
How does that happen?
Um?
honestly it just usually happenskind of organically.
You make friends with somepeople that are on another team.
Um, you know you, you expressinterest and, and usually you
know, if you, if you build up agood rapport and you get along
with everybody and they enjoyhaving you around, they'll ask
you to join their team.
Or they might ask you to justlike, come out and be a guest
player for a game.
(13:41):
If they need some extra bodies,you know, and they'll see how
you mesh with the team in anactual game.
Yeah.
And if that works out, theymight offer you like an official
roster spot.
But for people that thatdoesn't happen to, and they
still have the itch.
You know, man, if you couldconvince eight of your friends
(14:04):
to start a baseball team, youcan do it, yeah, and you could
just get some plain whiteT-shirts and a magic marker and
write a team name on it andthat's your jersey.
Put it on and off, we go right.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
And then you can call on to the other teams Like, hey
, listen, we want to be part ofthis.
Yeah.
I would like to put our teamout there to go play.
This is how we, and then gofrom there.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, and this is happening all across the country
.
This kind of started in Austin,texas, with the Texas Playboys.
It exploded there.
They probably have at least 30teams in Austin.
I could be wrong, but Tulsa,oklahoma, is another hotbed.
Los Angeles has a SandlotLeague out there that's been
(14:55):
around for 10 years and, uh, youknow things are spinning up in
new york.
Um, it's just everywhere.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Everywhere you go now you can look for, uh, sandlot
teams forming from what Iunderstand I know and correct me
if I'm wrong, but I thinkdoesn't austin have their own
sandlot stadium or ballpark perse?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah, it's kind of like their field of dreams and
they actually have two fieldsnow.
There's one called the LongTime, which is the original one,
and then there's a new one thatopened last year called the
Wishing Well, which is alsooperated by the same people, and
you know the Kudzu the thefortune of going down there and
(15:37):
playing.
Last year we played on bothfields oh, wow and uh, it's,
it's incredible.
I mean, it really is like alittle field of dreams down
there on somebody's privateproperty oh really.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
So yeah, this is private property.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah, but it's like a party it.
They have a bar, they selldrinks, they have a stage where
live music is going on duringthe game.
They've got old-timeyscoreboards with the placards,
the numbers they hang up there.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Oh that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
They've got little kids up there operating the
scoreboard for everybody andpeople are having picnics and
they're bringing their dogs outand it's it's honestly just.
It's a huge party and thebaseball is really just like
part of the entertainment that's, that's awesome yeah, yeah and
(16:29):
it's.
It's really cool and specialand they have, you know, have
probably, I think, the last timeI read they're up to having
like 60 games a year hosted downthere and people coming from
all over the country to playthere.
So it's like the early versionof what you guys are putting
here together as far as theSandlot revival, pretty much
(16:52):
yeah, yeah, the Sandlot revivalwas actually modeled after an
event that was happening at theactual Field of Dreams movie
site in Iowa.
Really, yeah, One of the peoplethat is on the Tulsa Rumblers
Sandlot team, Brett Spears heorganized an event at the Field
(17:14):
of Dreams two years in a row andhe invited a few teams from
around the country to meet thereand play on that field and they
raised money for charity andthey had after parties and
meetups there in Iowa and it wasreally special.
We got to participate in thesecond one that was held there
(17:38):
and then he didn't do it again.
It ended up being too much tomanage and he stopped doing it
after that.
But the Sandlot revival hasbeen sort of modeled after that
event.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
That's cool.
Talk to me a little bit aboutthat, because I was there this
year at the revival at the oldDAP, the old Durham Bulls
Athletic Park, and I'll tell youthis it was a great experience.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, I appreciate you saying that it takes a lot
of work and we had a huge numberof volunteers that stepped up
this year to help organize it.
So you came to the fourthannual revival and, honestly,
all of them have been reallyspecial events with great
participation, with greatparticipation, participation, um
(18:35):
, but this year was the biggest.
We had 13 teams there this year.
I think the first one had sixteams, so it's really grown um.
You've doubled your teamsalready yeah four years only
yeah, and the way it's set up isthere's 10 games over three
days, and so the first year eachteam got to play two games and
the way it is now the all thewith all the local teams that we
(18:56):
have each local team only gotone game, but we still made sure
our five out of town guestteams got to play two games.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
That's cool.
That way, you know, make theirthem coming.
Yeah, a special time for themto be here as well.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah, and we've.
We've made it like it.
The first year was not acharity event, but we made a
conscious effort after that tomake each, each event charitable
.
So we raise money for the longball program of Durham, which is
a MLB RBI affiliate, so theythey run a baseball league for
teenage boys and in Durham thatare underserved.
(19:34):
And then we also decided to adda second charity this year and
raise money for the LGBTQ centerof Durham.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
And one of the reasons we were able to do that
is because PF Flyers stepped upand helped sponsor the event and
helped cover the majority ofthe costs of what it takes to
rent the facility and some ofthe other costs that go into
running the event, and so wewere able to take some of the
(20:05):
money that would have gone tothat and push it to these other
charities.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
That's cool, right, like I mean, and you know,
awesome for them to step up.
Because, like that's cool,right, like I mean, and you know
, awesome for them to step upbecause, like I mean, like you
said, those are really two goodcharity events that obviously
you know it's near and dear toyou guys and everything, and
like it really does serve thecommunity, which you know it
goes part to be.
(20:30):
What is?
Speaker 1 (20:31):
you know, my guess will be to be part of a Sandlot
team, right, it's likeeverybody's welcome you know,
regardless of sexual orientation, your race, any of that yeah,
yeah, and that's really themessage that we want to send um.
The hardest thing to do is toconvince people to come out, you
know, because you you mightthink like, oh, I'm gonna get
(20:52):
hurt playing, or like there's noway I could.
I could hang with these, thesebaseball players who've been out
there doing it for for years.
But, um, once you get there andyou see how welcoming the
community is and how much fun itis, um you, you understand what
sandlot baseball is really allabout.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yeah, and let me tell you, I spent some money there.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
It's not.
That's not a requirement, butthat does happen.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
It is not, but I, I, I really wanted to make sure
that I did my part and I um,there was obviously a lot of
hats I'm a collector of hats andthen I had a good friend of
mine who was there from Georgia.
He also purchased some hats andsome shirts and everything.
So we're like this is one ofthe coolest events that we were
part of, like you know, and theevent was free, right, Like I
mean, you were just you can justcome in and watch and I got to
(21:40):
meet cool people, which isawesome.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah, you can walk right into the stadium there's,
you know it's, it's not aticketed event.
You can come into this historicballpark where the Bulls played
and where the movie Bull Durhamwas filmed, and you can just
sit down anywhere and andthey've done an excellent job
(22:03):
keeping the stadium maintainednot only is the field pristine,
but the grounds and thegrandstands, like they've all,
been kept up and sort ofpreserved.
You know there's not as manyseats as there was in the movie.
They've taken the bleachersalong the sidelines down, but
you know, all the, all thelittle buildings are still there
.
It's, and obviously the thelandscape has changed there's,
(22:26):
it's surrounded by, you know,condos and high rises, some bars
and restaurants and all of thataround it.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, it still has the charm, though oh, 100, I was
like man I feel like I've been,you know, to be part of be
there and have that part of bepart of, like you know, history
of durham and the movie and allthat was awesome, incredibly fun
.
But I believe that I think it'snc central that still plays
their games there well, theydon't have a team anymore.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I think two or three years ago they cut that program
but they were playing there andI think two Durham high schools
still play there and the longball program their league plays
on that field.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Oh, plays there as well.
Okay, so it's really.
I mean it's being played allthe time.
Yeah, yeah.
Now the Durham Bulls are theones who upkeep that ballpark.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, yeah, the people that the grounds crew at
the historic stadium.
I think they still do some timeat the big stadium.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Awesome, I love that.
That's pretty cool.
I like that a lot, all right,so let me ask you this then you
know these opens, right.
That that's pretty cool.
I like that a lot, um, allright.
So let me ask you this then youknow these opens, right, uh,
how, um, how is it organized?
Like you know who's who's doneit because, like I mean, you got
a couple of areas within um,within raleigh and durham, that
you guys have throughout the theweekend.
How to like, who organizes that?
How is that ran?
Speaker 1 (23:47):
you know all of that, um so the raleigh open pickup
is organized by the reapers, thekudzu and the nine um.
So you know, we have like a acaptain's group chat and we all
kind of agree where the openpickup is going to be and um,
(24:07):
you know, each team usuallybrings a bucket of balls or an L
screen, and then the Durhamopen pickup.
You got the Dirtbags and theEno River Possums, and then the
Durham Fruits have a separateopen pickup that they do, and
then you've got the one inCarbro, in Chapel Hill, that the
(24:30):
freight trains do.
Some of these happen onSaturdays, some happen on
Sundays.
I think the fruits do someweekdays as well.
So you really just you hop onsocial media and you follow all
them and they're always posting.
You know where their next gameor open pickup is going to be.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Yeah, that's, that's a.
That's one of the coolestthings that I saw was like
everybody was very welcoming andthen it's just like we were
just there playing ball.
Like I mean, we, we, you know,we actually obviously we we did
some ground balls and then allthat fun stuff and hitting and
all that and but at the sametime we did play a game, which
was cool, as all you know, assomeone who's like, like I said,
(25:11):
I haven't picked up a bat or aglove for a while, like that and
um, to be able to feel like a15 year old again playing
baseball, it was, yeah, that'sfeeling in the world it is, it's
a.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
It's a very freeing feeling and, um, I think sandlot
baseball is like the, the, youknow, most free expression of
baseball that there is.
When we play a pickup game, wecan make our own rules.
We can decide if there's goingto be steals or if you can go on
a pass ball, or I don't know.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
If you want to play a man down, we could put eight
people out there, it doesn'tmatter, you know it's just, I
saw and then I read the ruleslike you know, the guidelines
and everything is just like youknow.
Yes, you're, you know.
Obviously you want to play, youwant to take a little serious,
but at the same, at the end ofthe day, it's like you want to
got to make sure that you havefun in two.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
As soon on in two, as soon as the game's over, you
forget about the score.
That's it.
It's always done, it is, it iswhat it is at that point, like
it's.
Yeah, you know, a lot of peoplecall our collective a league
and when they hear the revivalthey're like, oh, that's that
baseball tournament.
You know, it's none of thosethings.
It's not a league and therevival is not a tournament.
Um, yeah, we kept score duringthe game, but there's no records
, there's no championships,there's no trophies, we don't
track wins and losses, we don'tdo batting averages.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Because then at that point you're just going down
into the weeds of things.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, the baseball game itself is kind of like an
expression of art, and it iswhat it is, and if you're taking
it too seriously, you'remissing out on it.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Yeah, you're missing the point at that point.
When it comes to the Sandlotbaseball, I want to take a quick
hold here for a second.
I want to introduce my co-host,who decided to show up here at
the end oh no, no, no.
We're just having a fullinterview Half hour in girl, and
then you just decided to showup.
(27:19):
Okay, cool, I see how this goesexcited to show up.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Okay, cool, I see how this goes.
I am so sorry y'all.
I'm gonna be honest with you.
I I will never get my time zonedown correct like I'll.
I'm not even kidding.
Yesterday we were watching the,we were looking at the hockey
schedule and I'm like, oh mygosh, the Golden Knights play at
midnight their time and it'slike like no 9.30 their time.
I just suck at this.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
She's full disclosure .
She does live.
She's in Vegas right now.
She lives in.
Las.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Vegas.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Yeah, this is my co-host Val Stadium Food Girl.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
How you doing.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
We are talking with Mike of the Rally Kudzu.
He is one of the captains forthe Sand uh teams that we have
here uh in uh, north carolinathat I am starting to partake in
um.
So that is, it is.
Listen, I'm telling you rightnow it is one of the most fun
(28:16):
I've ever had on a baseball.
I had fun.
I felt like a 15 year old, youknow, during the game, but I can
tell you my age showed up assoon as I got home and I stopped
playing, you know.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
I'm so sorry.
The first impression of him isme opening.
Don't fire me, it's all right.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
There it is.
There it is, Mike.
Obviously you are part of theSandlot Collective, which is
something cool that you guys aredoing here.
From your point of view, whatdo you think the long-term
vision of Sandlot Collective is?
(29:00):
And Kudzu and all of that, asfar as what you see happening
here.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I talk about my teammates, about this sometimes
and we're all like we're justgonna play till the wheels fall
off.
Man, we're gonna, we wanna bedoing this, you know, into our
sixties and seventies and likemaybe we'll like let our kids
join the team when they'readults, you know.
Yeah.
(29:26):
And they can start turning itover as we move on.
But I mean, we've played teamswith much older people on it and
they've been doing it for awhile and they've given us a lot
of good advice about longevitywithin Sandlot baseball.
You know things like take someyoga classes or do some Pilates
(29:47):
and don't practice too much.
You know, take it easy.
Yeah, there's actually.
There's a Sandlot manifestothat you can get your hands on.
The guy that started the texasplayboys, and one of one of the
(30:07):
items in there is don't practice, do like, do something more
productive to prepare yourselfto play a baseball game, because
you're going to get hurt.
So, you know, go for a jog ortake a yoga class I did a lot of
stretching.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
I'll tell you the next day I was.
You know that was like myregular cardio day I'm going for
a run.
I went for a long walk, yeah,just to get my legs stretched,
cause if not, I can tell you itwould have been, it would have
been bad for me.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I think what I've seen over the last four years is
this you know, this huge growthof more teams, starting from
all these people that keepcoming out to the open pickups,
and what we're seeing now is alot more games being scheduled
amongst those teams, because wehave a lot more teams to play
now.
But I think what you're goingto see over the next few years
(30:58):
is getting back to these openpickup games, because I know a
lot of people on my team missthat.
You know, as much as they enjoy, like the competitive games
that we schedule and play, theymiss the the casual atmosphere
of the open pickup.
So I think you're going to seethat continue to grow and that's
going to lead to more teams and, uh, you know, in 10 years the
(31:23):
reapers and the kudzu are goingto be the old, the old timers
yeah and we're going to bechallenged by all these new
younger teams um, and you'llprobably see a lot of cool
matchups because of that that'sawesome, though.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Like I mean, that's the beauty about baseball, right
?
Like I mean, we watch minorleague baseball.
We watch, you know, at a at amuch, much, you know higher
level and it's been.
It's like, yeah, I want to bepart of that.
But, like you know, we're likethe.
The pickup is what really waslike, what enticed me to go out
there and be like man, I gottabe part of this.
Like I I told you, I was likeat the, at the event, and I'm
(32:01):
like I'm texting my wife rightthere and my friends.
I'm like I want to.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
I want part of this, like I want to be in this and
we're going to make we're goingto make a bigger effort in the
Raleigh Open Pickup to make itmore of a scene.
You know we're going to bringout grills and coolers and try
to like to make it really funfor anybody that doesn't feel
like breaking a sweat orbreaking a bone out in the field
(32:26):
.
You know we want there to be asmuch fun behind the backstop as
there is on the field.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
What's up everybody, and thank you for watching part
one of this episode.
Okay, now make sure you guysare following the Sandlot
Collective Kudzu.
Okay.
The R collective kudzu.
Okay.
The rally kudzu.
The reapers make sure you guysare following all of them.
This is sandlot baseball at itsfinest.
Listen, I'm part of it.
Um, I am.
I'm actually starting a, a teamin the sandlot here league here
(32:58):
.
Because, why?
Because it's fun, guys.
It is a lot of fun and whereveryou're at, you should go and
find your Sandlock League and goand join, go play.
Listen.
I'm 43 years old, about to be44, and I am having the time of
my life, all right, so make sureyou guys are doing that Now.
Also, make sure you guys comeback next week so you guys can
(33:18):
go ahead and finish this episode, okay, and while you're at it,
like I said, get yourself a newglove, get yourself a, a ball, a
baseball, whatever it is.
Go out there and play somebaseball and make sure you hit
this, like and subscribe.
All right, guys.
Until then, support the minorleagues.
Yeah, you can walk right into the stadium.
It's not a ticketed event.
You can come into this historicballpark where the Bulls played
and where the movie Bull Durhamwas filmed, and you can just
sit down anywhere, and they'vedone an excellent job keeping
the stadium maintained.
Not only is the field pristine,but the grounds and the
(00:21):
grandstand, like they've allbeen kept up and sort of
preserved.
You know, is anybody there?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
All right, all right and welcome everybody to yet
another episode of the Dad HatChronicles podcast.
Well, as you guys already know,my name is Ed, also known as
the Dad Hat.
I'm flying solo my co-host.
She's not here.
I guess she's working out, Ihave no idea.
But with me I have someone whoI've gotten to know over the
last couple of weeks herebecause I, as you guys already
(00:59):
know, I'm very excited and havebeen getting into Sandlot
baseball.
I'm very sore, but in a goodway, and his name is Mike
Ghilardi.
Mike, thank you again just forcoming on the podcast and having
the time to talk Sandlotbaseball and actually just
baseball overall.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Absolutely, man, I'm excited, so you know, let's get
to know a little bit about you.
And then how you got involvedin Sandlot baseball.
Man, I'm excited, so you know,let's get to know a little bit
about you.
And then how you got involvedin in solid baseball man.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, so I'm a helper on the Carolina Kudzu in
Raleigh with two of my friends,brian and Joseph, and we started
playing sandlot baseballtogether about four years ago.
Okay, joseph had been doing itfor a while with the Raleigh
Reapers, who was the firstSandlot team in Raleigh.
(01:53):
Okay.
And they were hosting an openpickup game every Saturday and
he asked me and Brian to comeout.
So we did and we had a blast.
And we talked to each other onthe phone a couple days later.
I was like, hey, that wasawesome, do you want to go out
and do it again next saturday?
And my friend brian was likeI'm at dick's sporting goods
(02:14):
right now picking up a new bat,new cleats, new glove.
I was like, all right, I guesswe're going back out there then
and we started going everysaturday.
Back out there then and westarted going every saturday.
And then, uh, you know, fastforward to the following year,
(02:35):
2022.
Um, tyler northrup, with theraleigh reapers, was putting on
this sandlot revival event forthe first time and he needed a
bunch of teams and we had allthese extra guys who've been
showing up to the open pickupand so all the extra people, the
kind of overflow from thatformed the kudzu and that was
kind of the.
The name of the team was thebrainchild of joseph.
(02:55):
He had been coming up withthese invasive species team
names.
He's got a bunch of other onestoo, which are great.
Um, but I won't.
I won't divulge him becausehe's saving him for for the
right moment I love it um yeah,so that the invasive species was
the carolina kud.
The tagline is invading yourfield since 1876, which is the
(03:19):
year that the kudzu plant wasintroduced to north america.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
So I love it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
There's a whole backstory to it, but uh that's
actually, that's great, that'sgenius, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, like you know, I was like honey.
I I mean I'm looking atwatching all these teams and
like one was called the kudzusand like I mean obviously I knew
about the reapers because of umthe work, uh, that um mlb rally
has done and all that stuff, soI kind of knew about that one.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
But kud's, I'm like man, that is just good stuff
yeah, we get a lot of looks whenwe wear our gear out in public
and people ask us about it.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
It's fun, you know yeah, so you've been running it
since.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
It's since, like you know, or you know, early 20s,
the 2020s, and you know like, soyou like the first time you got
hooked right, I'm guessing oh,yeah, the first time you went in
there you were like that's it,I'm in yeah, we couldn't wait to
go back every weekend and, youknow, bring more friends out and
get more people involved so wecan make sure we had at least 18
(04:24):
guys or girls to play a pickupgame.
You know, because eventuallyyou get a little tired of doing
bp and ground balls and flyballs and you want to play an
actual game.
So, yeah, you know, everyweekend it was like a hustle to
try to get more people out thereso we could have a scrimmage.
You know, um, but as, as thingsevolved now, like we werimmage,
you know, but as things evolvednow, like we appreciate all of
(04:48):
it, you know, sometimes we justwant to go out and take a bucket
of ground balls and that's justlike a great form of cardio,
you know.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I can tell you this from experience and you know
I've actually made a couple ofvideos already on this.
But like Saturday, like you isI literally Saturday morning.
Well, the Friday night, I toldmy wife I'm like, listen, babe,
like they're having an, theyhave an open on Saturday morning
at 10 o'clock in Raleigh.
So I just want you to know thatI'm going to go right.
Like, coincidentally, mydaughter who goes to gymnastics
(05:20):
her class was like in themornings on Saturday, but she
went up in in um her level, soshe's now on friday.
So I'm like this is the perfecttime.
Let me go.
I'm gonna go 10 o'clock andthen I'll just I'll be back.
So I was there till like almostone o'clock and by the time I
got home, I'm like, listen, Ijust want you to know.
Like this is this is it?
(05:40):
Like?
I mean, we, we're going to goget I gotta go get a bat and I
need a new glove.
Just so you know, I'm justputting it out there.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, okay, so it hit the bug oh yeah and then it's,
it's addictive what's reallycool is that, after you know,
shortly after the kudzu formed,um, people were coming from
durham and chapel hill andcarborough and all around the
triangle to come to this Raleighopen pickup.
And the people that were doingthat from those outskirts of the
(06:10):
triangle, they all started.
They were like we got to bringthis back to our town so we
don't have to drive all the wayto Raleigh, and they started
their own open pickups.
And then that's what startedforming all these other teams
around the triangle.
Now we're up to eight teams inthe Sandlot collective.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
So it's just like I know I know of a couple of them
already.
So you got the fruits which arein durham.
The wombats, um, you gotobviously the kudzu, the reapers
, the nines.
That's five of them.
What are the other ones thatare missing?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
uh, the eno river possums that's right, yep the
car borough freight trains.
Um, we, we consider the portcity pickles, uh, from
wilmington, part of thecollective too.
They, they were actually.
They've been around for longerthan the reapers have, I think.
Oh, wow, um, so my friends mattand lacy emmerichich from
(07:02):
Wilmington, they, they startedthat team when they moved down
from Pennsylvania, so they'vebeen doing it for a lot longer.
Yeah, and they were.
They were kind of around livingin the Chapel Hill area at the
time when the Reapers and theKudzu spun up, so they, um, they
helped it get, yeah that'sawesome.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So like that, yeah, you got eight.
It's just, it's crazy how itjust evolves.
And listen, I've only been herein in raleigh three years now.
Uh, and the fact that there'sso much baseball here in this
state, it's absolutely wild itis, and I just remembered I
forgot the durham dirt bags.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So it's really nine teams.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
The other.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Durham dirt bags.
They're, they're, they're great.
They're great too.
I love all them, and they'llprobably be mad at me that I
just I omitted them off the bat.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Oh, you're about to get in trouble, Mike.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, they'll get me on that one.
But yeah go ahead.
The baseball is just explodinghere and it's awesome because we
only have, like, the two minorleague teams, but we have a lot
of college baseball and now theMLB movement.
To try to get a team here isreally cool, and you know the
guy that started that isinvolved in Sandlot too, lou
(08:20):
Pascucci.
He's a Reaper, that's right,yep.
So you know it's really cool tosee the community like rallying
around that and the that it'ssustained.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
So let me ask you this, because you know a lot of
people will say I was like allright, ed, like you know, all
right, you're doing, you'redoing baseball.
Great, good for you, awesome.
You know what I mean.
But like, and they, they try toask me what is Sandlot right?
I'm like, listen, everybody'sinvited to this.
Like it's not just like youknow, you know the, the, the
best of the best, you know, it'slike everybody's invited.
(08:53):
If you've never picked up aglove, have at it.
You know, and that's prettymuch how I explain it to them.
How would you, you know,explain it to someone who's
trying to figure out or find outmore about Sandlot baseball?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I mean, you hit the nail on the head.
It really is baseball foreveryone.
It doesn't matter how good youare, if you've ever even played
the game.
I mean, you're going to bewelcomed onto the open sandlot
pick up on saturdays or sundays.
Um, if you don't have a glove,somebody will let you borrow one
.
Don't have a bat?
Same thing.
You know, if you just want tolearn about the game or you just
(09:27):
want to try it out, that's theperfect place to do it.
Everybody there is going towelcome, welcome you.
There's going to be no judgment.
You know, and like it's truethat, like, some people are
there for different reasons too,not everybody is there for the
same reason.
You know, some people are thereto meet new people, some people
are there to get a good workoutand some people are there just
(09:48):
because they want to mash balls,you know.
So you know, if everybody comesfrom the same place of
understanding, which is thatwe're not going to turn anybody
away, it becomes more fun foreverybody um, okay, so let me
ask you then, as far as, like,the teams, right, um, you guys
(10:10):
have are part of what is calledthe sandlot collective.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
You know, give me a little bit of background on that
, like how, if you can, like youknow how that formed, and and
and all of that it wasoriginally called um, the
raleigh sandlot social club, um,and it was really just the
reapers.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I mean, they, they would just get out there every
saturday, and I think it was.
Lions park is where it startedin Raleigh and we still try to
get out there as much as we can.
Right now it's happening atgreen road because somebody else
has lions reserved on Saturdays, but that's where it was
originally when I started andthey had been doing it for a few
(10:51):
years.
But so Raleigh Reapers were thefirst team and then the Kudzu
formed for this first revivaland then by the second revival
we had even more teams the Cargo, freight Trains, durham
Dirtbags, wake Forest Wombats,and then just new people keep
(11:11):
coming out to these open pickupsand it's like, well, these
teams are kind of full.
So if you want to start a team,that'd be great, because then
we'd have another team to play,you know.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I was just going to ask you about that.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yeah, and like the way it works is that these teams
just kind of talk to each other.
We just reach out to anotherteam and be like hey, do you
want to get a game this weekend,next weekend?
We, the team, be like, hey, doyou want to get a game this
weekend, next weekend?
We try to set a schedule at thebeginning of the year but it's
very loose, you know, it'sloosely organized, and we'll
just throw some dates on thecalendar and be like all right,
it's a schedule we can probablyagree on for the next three
(11:44):
months and then we'll try tostart adding more games as the
season goes on.
But we typically play games um,almost year round, kind of
start in March and end inNovember.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
But oh, wow so it's a long, long ways.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, but you know you'll get a couple of nice days
in December or January and ifthat happens you'll see some
somebody out in the field on aSaturday in January when it
might be 70 degrees and thegrass might look brown, but
they'll still be out theretaking grounders and fly balls
see, that's the beauty aboutbeing here in north carolina,
(12:18):
because I'm in cleveland, whereI'm from.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
There's it's not happening in january.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I'll tell you that right now it is not happening
yeah, I grew up in new york, in,uh, central new york, and yeah,
we, you know we started ourseason sometimes with the snow
on the ground, so and it's like20 degrees out there and you're
freezing your ass off trying toplay.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
It's never fun.
Yeah.
I love that, look.
So let me ask you this.
All right, so because I went tothe Open and I was like man,
this is cool.
So there's like differentmembers from each of the teams
that have already been formedRight.
So, for example, like a coupleof questions that I have, you
know, just so that way we can,you know, I can bring light to
(13:04):
how this works, is all right.
So let's say that you knowyou're someone who is coming in
you're new and all that.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
You come in at a couple of the opens and
everything, but they want to.
They want to be part more of aof a team.
How does that happen?
Um?
honestly it just usually happenskind of organically.
You make friends with somepeople that are on another team.
Um, you know you, you expressinterest and, and usually you
know, if you, if you build up agood rapport and you get along
with everybody and they enjoyhaving you around, they'll ask
you to join their team.
Or they might ask you to justlike, come out and be a guest
player for a game.
(13:41):
If they need some extra bodies,you know, and they'll see how
you mesh with the team in anactual game.
Yeah.
And if that works out, theymight offer you like an official
roster spot.
But for people that thatdoesn't happen to, and they
still have the itch.
You know, man, if you couldconvince eight of your friends
(14:04):
to start a baseball team, youcan do it, yeah, and you could
just get some plain whiteT-shirts and a magic marker and
write a team name on it andthat's your jersey.
Put it on and off, we go right.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
And then you can call on to the other teams Like, hey
, listen, we want to be part ofthis.
Yeah.
I would like to put our teamout there to go play.
This is how we, and then gofrom there.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, and this is happening all across the country
.
This kind of started in Austin,texas, with the Texas Playboys.
It exploded there.
They probably have at least 30teams in Austin.
I could be wrong, but Tulsa,oklahoma, is another hotbed.
Los Angeles has a SandlotLeague out there that's been
(14:55):
around for 10 years and, uh, youknow things are spinning up in
new york.
Um, it's just everywhere.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Everywhere you go now you can look for, uh, sandlot
teams forming from what Iunderstand I know and correct me
if I'm wrong, but I thinkdoesn't austin have their own
sandlot stadium or ballpark perse?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah, it's kind of like their field of dreams and
they actually have two fieldsnow.
There's one called the LongTime, which is the original one,
and then there's a new one thatopened last year called the
Wishing Well, which is alsooperated by the same people, and
you know the Kudzu the thefortune of going down there and
(15:37):
playing.
Last year we played on bothfields oh, wow and uh, it's,
it's incredible.
I mean, it really is like alittle field of dreams down
there on somebody's privateproperty oh really.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
So yeah, this is private property.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah, but it's like a party it.
They have a bar, they selldrinks, they have a stage where
live music is going on duringthe game.
They've got old-timeyscoreboards with the placards,
the numbers they hang up there.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Oh that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
They've got little kids up there operating the
scoreboard for everybody andpeople are having picnics and
they're bringing their dogs outand it's it's honestly just.
It's a huge party and thebaseball is really just like
part of the entertainment that's, that's awesome yeah, yeah and
(16:29):
it's.
It's really cool and specialand they have, you know, have
probably, I think, the last timeI read they're up to having
like 60 games a year hosted downthere and people coming from
all over the country to playthere.
So it's like the early versionof what you guys are putting
here together as far as theSandlot revival, pretty much
(16:52):
yeah, yeah, the Sandlot revivalwas actually modeled after an
event that was happening at theactual Field of Dreams movie
site in Iowa.
Really, yeah, One of the peoplethat is on the Tulsa Rumblers
Sandlot team, Brett Spears heorganized an event at the Field
(17:14):
of Dreams two years in a row andhe invited a few teams from
around the country to meet thereand play on that field and they
raised money for charity andthey had after parties and
meetups there in Iowa and it wasreally special.
We got to participate in thesecond one that was held there
(17:38):
and then he didn't do it again.
It ended up being too much tomanage and he stopped doing it
after that.
But the Sandlot revival hasbeen sort of modeled after that
event.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
That's cool.
Talk to me a little bit aboutthat, because I was there this
year at the revival at the oldDAP, the old Durham Bulls
Athletic Park, and I'll tell youthis it was a great experience.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, I appreciate you saying that it takes a lot
of work and we had a huge numberof volunteers that stepped up
this year to help organize it.
So you came to the fourthannual revival and, honestly,
all of them have been reallyspecial events with great
participation, with greatparticipation, participation, um
(18:35):
, but this year was the biggest.
We had 13 teams there this year.
I think the first one had sixteams, so it's really grown um.
You've doubled your teamsalready yeah four years only
yeah, and the way it's set up isthere's 10 games over three
days, and so the first year eachteam got to play two games and
the way it is now the all thewith all the local teams that we
(18:56):
have each local team only gotone game, but we still made sure
our five out of town guestteams got to play two games.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
That's cool.
That way, you know, make theirthem coming.
Yeah, a special time for themto be here as well.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah, and we've.
We've made it like it.
The first year was not acharity event, but we made a
conscious effort after that tomake each, each event charitable
.
So we raise money for the longball program of Durham, which is
a MLB RBI affiliate, so theythey run a baseball league for
teenage boys and in Durham thatare underserved.
(19:34):
And then we also decided to adda second charity this year and
raise money for the LGBTQ centerof Durham.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
And one of the reasons we were able to do that
is because PF Flyers stepped upand helped sponsor the event and
helped cover the majority ofthe costs of what it takes to
rent the facility and some ofthe other costs that go into
running the event, and so wewere able to take some of the
(20:05):
money that would have gone tothat and push it to these other
charities.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
That's cool, right, like I mean, and you know,
awesome for them to step up.
Because, like that's cool,right, like I mean, and you know
, awesome for them to step upbecause, like I mean, like you
said, those are really two goodcharity events that obviously
you know it's near and dear toyou guys and everything, and
like it really does serve thecommunity, which you know it
goes part to be.
(20:30):
What is?
Speaker 1 (20:31):
you know, my guess will be to be part of a Sandlot
team, right, it's likeeverybody's welcome you know,
regardless of sexual orientation, your race, any of that yeah,
yeah, and that's really themessage that we want to send um.
The hardest thing to do is toconvince people to come out, you
know, because you you mightthink like, oh, I'm gonna get
(20:52):
hurt playing, or like there's noway I could.
I could hang with these, thesebaseball players who've been out
there doing it for for years.
But, um, once you get there andyou see how welcoming the
community is and how much fun itis, um you, you understand what
sandlot baseball is really allabout.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yeah, and let me tell you, I spent some money there.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
It's not.
That's not a requirement, butthat does happen.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
It is not, but I, I, I really wanted to make sure
that I did my part and I um,there was obviously a lot of
hats I'm a collector of hats andthen I had a good friend of
mine who was there from Georgia.
He also purchased some hats andsome shirts and everything.
So we're like this is one ofthe coolest events that we were
part of, like you know, and theevent was free, right, Like I
mean, you were just you can justcome in and watch and I got to
(21:40):
meet cool people, which isawesome.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah, you can walk right into the stadium there's,
you know it's, it's not aticketed event.
You can come into this historicballpark where the Bulls played
and where the movie Bull Durhamwas filmed, and you can just
sit down anywhere and andthey've done an excellent job
(22:03):
keeping the stadium maintainednot only is the field pristine,
but the grounds and thegrandstands, like they've all,
been kept up and sort ofpreserved.
You know there's not as manyseats as there was in the movie.
They've taken the bleachersalong the sidelines down, but
you know, all the, all thelittle buildings are still there
.
It's, and obviously the thelandscape has changed there's,
(22:26):
it's surrounded by, you know,condos and high rises, some bars
and restaurants and all of thataround it.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, it still has the charm, though oh, 100, I was
like man I feel like I've been,you know, to be part of be
there and have that part of bepart of, like you know, history
of durham and the movie and allthat was awesome, incredibly fun
.
But I believe that I think it'snc central that still plays
their games there well, theydon't have a team anymore.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I think two or three years ago they cut that program
but they were playing there andI think two Durham high schools
still play there and the longball program their league plays
on that field.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Oh, plays there as well.
Okay, so it's really.
I mean it's being played allthe time.
Yeah, yeah.
Now the Durham Bulls are theones who upkeep that ballpark.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, yeah, the people that the grounds crew at
the historic stadium.
I think they still do some timeat the big stadium.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Awesome, I love that.
That's pretty cool.
I like that a lot, all right,so let me ask you this then you
know these opens, right.
That that's pretty cool.
I like that a lot, um, allright.
So let me ask you this then youknow these opens, right, uh,
how, um, how is it organized?
Like you know who's who's doneit because, like I mean, you got
a couple of areas within um,within raleigh and durham, that
you guys have throughout the theweekend.
How to like, who organizes that?
How is that ran?
Speaker 1 (23:47):
you know all of that, um so the raleigh open pickup
is organized by the reapers, thekudzu and the nine um.
So you know, we have like a acaptain's group chat and we all
kind of agree where the openpickup is going to be and um,
(24:07):
you know, each team usuallybrings a bucket of balls or an L
screen, and then the Durhamopen pickup.
You got the Dirtbags and theEno River Possums, and then the
Durham Fruits have a separateopen pickup that they do, and
then you've got the one inCarbro, in Chapel Hill, that the
(24:30):
freight trains do.
Some of these happen onSaturdays, some happen on
Sundays.
I think the fruits do someweekdays as well.
So you really just you hop onsocial media and you follow all
them and they're always posting.
You know where their next gameor open pickup is going to be.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Yeah, that's, that's a.
That's one of the coolestthings that I saw was like
everybody was very welcoming andthen it's just like we were
just there playing ball.
Like I mean, we, we, you know,we actually obviously we we did
some ground balls and then allthat fun stuff and hitting and
all that and but at the sametime we did play a game, which
was cool, as all you know, assomeone who's like, like I said,
(25:11):
I haven't picked up a bat or aglove for a while, like that and
um, to be able to feel like a15 year old again playing
baseball, it was, yeah, that'sfeeling in the world it is, it's
a.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
It's a very freeing feeling and, um, I think sandlot
baseball is like the, the, youknow, most free expression of
baseball that there is.
When we play a pickup game, wecan make our own rules.
We can decide if there's goingto be steals or if you can go on
a pass ball, or I don't know.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
If you want to play a man down, we could put eight
people out there, it doesn'tmatter, you know it's just, I
saw and then I read the ruleslike you know, the guidelines
and everything is just like youknow.
Yes, you're, you know.
Obviously you want to play, youwant to take a little serious,
but at the same, at the end ofthe day, it's like you want to
got to make sure that you havefun in two.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
As soon on in two, as soon as the game's over, you
forget about the score.
That's it.
It's always done, it is, it iswhat it is at that point, like
it's.
Yeah, you know, a lot of peoplecall our collective a league
and when they hear the revivalthey're like, oh, that's that
baseball tournament.
You know, it's none of thosethings.
It's not a league and therevival is not a tournament.
Um, yeah, we kept score duringthe game, but there's no records
, there's no championships,there's no trophies, we don't
track wins and losses, we don'tdo batting averages.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Because then at that point you're just going down
into the weeds of things.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, the baseball game itself is kind of like an
expression of art, and it iswhat it is, and if you're taking
it too seriously, you'remissing out on it.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Yeah, you're missing the point at that point.
When it comes to the Sandlotbaseball, I want to take a quick
hold here for a second.
I want to introduce my co-host,who decided to show up here at
the end oh no, no, no.
We're just having a fullinterview Half hour in girl, and
then you just decided to showup.
(27:19):
Okay, cool, I see how this goesexcited to show up.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Okay, cool, I see how this goes.
I am so sorry y'all.
I'm gonna be honest with you.
I I will never get my time zonedown correct like I'll.
I'm not even kidding.
Yesterday we were watching the,we were looking at the hockey
schedule and I'm like, oh mygosh, the Golden Knights play at
midnight their time and it'slike like no 9.30 their time.
I just suck at this.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
She's full disclosure .
She does live.
She's in Vegas right now.
She lives in.
Las.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Vegas.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Yeah, this is my co-host Val Stadium Food Girl.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
How you doing.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
We are talking with Mike of the Rally Kudzu.
He is one of the captains forthe Sand uh teams that we have
here uh in uh, north carolinathat I am starting to partake in
um.
So that is, it is.
Listen, I'm telling you rightnow it is one of the most fun
(28:16):
I've ever had on a baseball.
I had fun.
I felt like a 15 year old, youknow, during the game, but I can
tell you my age showed up assoon as I got home and I stopped
playing, you know.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
I'm so sorry.
The first impression of him isme opening.
Don't fire me, it's all right.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
There it is.
There it is, Mike.
Obviously you are part of theSandlot Collective, which is
something cool that you guys aredoing here.
From your point of view, whatdo you think the long-term
vision of Sandlot Collective is?
(29:00):
And Kudzu and all of that, asfar as what you see happening
here.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I talk about my teammates, about this sometimes
and we're all like we're justgonna play till the wheels fall
off.
Man, we're gonna, we wanna bedoing this, you know, into our
sixties and seventies and likemaybe we'll like let our kids
join the team when they'readults, you know.
Yeah.
(29:26):
And they can start turning itover as we move on.
But I mean, we've played teamswith much older people on it and
they've been doing it for awhile and they've given us a lot
of good advice about longevitywithin Sandlot baseball.
You know things like take someyoga classes or do some Pilates
(29:47):
and don't practice too much.
You know, take it easy.
Yeah, there's actually.
There's a Sandlot manifestothat you can get your hands on.
The guy that started the texasplayboys, and one of one of the
(30:07):
items in there is don't practice, do like, do something more
productive to prepare yourselfto play a baseball game, because
you're going to get hurt.
So, you know, go for a jog ortake a yoga class I did a lot of
stretching.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
I'll tell you the next day I was.
You know that was like myregular cardio day I'm going for
a run.
I went for a long walk, yeah,just to get my legs stretched,
cause if not, I can tell you itwould have been, it would have
been bad for me.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I think what I've seen over the last four years is
this you know, this huge growthof more teams, starting from
all these people that keepcoming out to the open pickups,
and what we're seeing now is alot more games being scheduled
amongst those teams, because wehave a lot more teams to play
now.
But I think what you're goingto see over the next few years
(30:58):
is getting back to these openpickup games, because I know a
lot of people on my team missthat.
You know, as much as they enjoy, like the competitive games
that we schedule and play, theymiss the the casual atmosphere
of the open pickup.
So I think you're going to seethat continue to grow and that's
going to lead to more teams and, uh, you know, in 10 years the
(31:23):
reapers and the kudzu are goingto be the old, the old timers
yeah and we're going to bechallenged by all these new
younger teams um, and you'llprobably see a lot of cool
matchups because of that that'sawesome, though.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Like I mean, that's the beauty about baseball, right
?
Like I mean, we watch minorleague baseball.
We watch, you know, at a at amuch, much, you know higher
level and it's been.
It's like, yeah, I want to bepart of that.
But, like you know, we're likethe.
The pickup is what really waslike, what enticed me to go out
there and be like man, I gottabe part of this.
Like I I told you, I was likeat the, at the event, and I'm
(32:01):
like I'm texting my wife rightthere and my friends.
I'm like I want to.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
I want part of this, like I want to be in this and
we're going to make we're goingto make a bigger effort in the
Raleigh Open Pickup to make itmore of a scene.
You know we're going to bringout grills and coolers and try
to like to make it really funfor anybody that doesn't feel
like breaking a sweat orbreaking a bone out in the field
(32:26):
.
You know we want there to be asmuch fun behind the backstop as
there is on the field.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
What's up everybody, and thank you for watching part
one of this episode.
Okay, now make sure you guysare following the Sandlot
Collective Kudzu.
Okay.
The R collective kudzu.
Okay.
The rally kudzu.
The reapers make sure you guysare following all of them.
This is sandlot baseball at itsfinest.
Listen, I'm part of it.
Um, I am.
I'm actually starting a, a teamin the sandlot here league here
(32:58):
.
Because, why?
Because it's fun, guys.
It is a lot of fun and whereveryou're at, you should go and
find your Sandlock League and goand join, go play.
Listen.
I'm 43 years old, about to be44, and I am having the time of
my life, all right, so make sureyou guys are doing that Now.
Also, make sure you guys comeback next week so you guys can
(33:18):
go ahead and finish this episode, okay, and while you're at it,
like I said, get yourself a newglove, get yourself a, a ball, a
baseball, whatever it is.
Go out there and play somebaseball and make sure you hit
this, like and subscribe.
All right, guys.
Until then, support the minorleagues.
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