May 29, 2024 • 30 mins
Ep. 13 – Parents at Kids Games - “The Funny Life Podcast” - William Lee Martin
In this podcast episode:
o Lisa Fakes It
o Top 5 Blankety Blanks – “Things You Won’t See at a Hockey Game”
o Competitiveness vs. Expectations
o Travel Ball debunked
o Best advice for parents and kid’s sports
Join comedian, writer, songwriter, actor, family man, William Lee Martin along with the Wild Bunch, tour manager, Lisa Bruce and producer Ron Phillips as they dive into life in and out of show business. Take us in the car, on a walk or watch on your phone while lying in bed or hiding out in the restroom at work! After all, all our lives are funny...let’s talk about it. And we will do it in about 30 minutes. Be sure to share, like, and subscribe to this channel!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-funny-life-with-william-lee-martin--5894622/support.
In this podcast episode:
o Lisa Fakes It
o Top 5 Blankety Blanks – “Things You Won’t See at a Hockey Game”
o Competitiveness vs. Expectations
o Travel Ball debunked
o Best advice for parents and kid’s sports
Join comedian, writer, songwriter, actor, family man, William Lee Martin along with the Wild Bunch, tour manager, Lisa Bruce and producer Ron Phillips as they dive into life in and out of show business. Take us in the car, on a walk or watch on your phone while lying in bed or hiding out in the restroom at work! After all, all our lives are funny...let’s talk about it. And we will do it in about 30 minutes. Be sure to share, like, and subscribe to this channel!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-funny-life-with-william-lee-martin--5894622/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Well, Welcome in, everybody toa brand new edition of the Funny Line
podcast. This week, it's theWhat Competitive Sports Says About You, plus
a brand new Top five blanketly Blanksright now and welcome in, everybody.
(00:21):
I'm your host, comedian Wheeley Martinwith me beside me on my right,
your left is going to be LisaBruce, my tour manager extraordinary, and
then behind the controls is Uh.It's almost like he's in Europe right now.
He's almost almost like that he's goingto Europe or he's in Europe.
(00:42):
I don't know how even to describeit, but he's going to be in
Europe this this month and hanging outin Europe. So we're glad you guys
are here. We're glad that you'resafe. You know. It's it's been
a strange it's been a strange springand the start is it not even started
summer yet, but pretty rough forthe last three or four weeks. Yeah,
(01:06):
here in our area with the stormsand uh, and in every year,
is it me or am I gettingolder? Does it seem like they're
getting worse or have they always beenthis bad? No, they haven't been
this bad, you know, itseems to be like they're getting worse,
getting worse. Yeah, so,uh, you know, maybe when this
thing airs, uh, the apocalypsewould have happened, and you know,
(01:29):
nobody's going to see this finally willhave an excuse maybe why there's nobody watching
this damn thing. There might besome people still. Those will be our
fans, seven Christians that we're watchingthis. They're gone now. But for
(01:49):
the rest of you, thanks forsticking around with the titty bar. Yeah.
So it's uh, it's it's beena awful week for some people,
a month for some people with ustornadoes and everything else. So be safe
out there. So if you're walkingand if you're doing your whatever you do
(02:13):
while you listen to us, yougot about twenty seven more minutes because you
know, we end this thing forthirty minutes for a reason, because we
get tired of talking about stuff.You run out of things to say.
You know, it's been a greatOn the opposite side, it's been a
great time to be a sports fanin our area, which is the Dallas
Forward area, or I always saythe Forward Dallas area because I never give
(02:36):
Dallas top billing no ever. Butthe Rangers have now won the World Series
and in both the championship conferences isthe Stars and the Mavericks. And you
know, I am a huge sportsfan, but I'm not a big hockey
fan until we get to playoffs.Now, do you watch hockey? No?
(03:01):
No at all? Do you knowanything about hockey? No? Do
you want me to fake it?No? That I really can. If
I had a dollar for every timea woman looked me straight in the eye
and asked me, do you wantme to fake? Yes, yes,
yes, yes I think I wouldthank you. I don't care what you
(03:23):
do as long as I feel betterabout it. So yes, I don't
even know that I can fake talkingabout hockey honestly fake. How about you?
Are you a hockey fan at all? I like hockey. I mean
I've been to a couple of hockeygames, and more fights or in the
fans than are on the eye orin the stands, and are in the
(03:45):
eyes I think, well one outof three of us are hockey fans.
So this next bit is probably justgoing to destroy y'all. Just y'all won't
even know what the references are,but we might as well do. Our
top five blankety blankst this week isthe top five have things you won't see
at a hockey game, roll thatdrum roll Number five, healthy foods that
(04:08):
the concession stands. Number four,a full set of teeth. Number three
sober Canadians see if y'all go.Number two a triple axle by the goalie's
(04:28):
And the number one thing you won'tsee at a hockey game is a team
full of players with names you canpronounce that that don't. So that's the
top five. It's it's it's justamazing how how fast those guys can actually
(04:49):
skate. If you really want tobecome a hockey fan, go to a
live game. Don't watch it onTV. If you go to a live
game and see how fast these guyscan go forward and backwards with a hockey
puck and a stick. It isamazing how they could do. Now while
we have hockey in Dallas and inPhoenix and in Miami where there are no
(05:15):
ice. But but if you gosee the game, uh, it's it's
great. It's it's it's an amazingfast game and a brutal game too to
your body. Like we had arainstorm once and I fell in the parking
lot and I cried for a dayand a half. These guys fall down
all the time, up and down, up and down into running and doing
(05:38):
the hockey thing. But I II love it. I didn't really like
it. My one of my bestfriends, Joe Still and his family are
in the hockey and I finally wentto a live game, and I next
season, I'm going to send bothof you to see the amateur one because
the other one's too expensive. SoI'm not gonna I'm going to do this
(06:00):
into one until you go see andsee right, Well, once you go,
you're hooked. So here's the here'sthe ironic part for me is when
I lived in North Dakota when Iwas in the military, I went to
hockey games up there. Guess whowas playing the Minnesota Stars they are now,
yeah, I think there was aMinnesota North Stars. That's right,
(06:20):
and so now it's the Dallas Stars. But you know, what you said
about being at a live hockey gameis absolutely correct because you don't feel the
impact of them hitting the side wallsuntil you're sitting there. Yeah, and
you're watch the siwal yea like,holy now that was a human. Yeah,
that's crazy. And you're not abig person obviously, so, uh,
(06:43):
I take it that you probably didn'tplay a whole lot of sports.
Well, I did volleyball, basketball, Yeah, it was that was middle
school. I was point guard.So I would, you know, run
it down the court, pass itoff to the tall girl, call to
play, then pass it off tothe tall girl. Do you remember the
tal Kelly Kraft and Chris Kissel.Yes, Kelly Kraft is still a friend.
(07:04):
Yeah, Chris Kissel is still theresomewhere. So she's not a friend
now. Well, I mean nothingwas wrong. We just didn't hang in
the same group, but Kelly didfor sure. Okay, so what who's
the other girl? Chris Kissel?Chris, We're sorry that she no longer
calls you, and I don't knowwhat happened to your life, but we
(07:24):
hope it turned out well. Itdid turn out well. I know,
Chris, she's she's strong willed.So yeah, I played basketball in middle
school and then I played my freshmanyear in high school and I was short.
You know, I'm six two now. I didn't go through my grocerburt
until eleventh grade when I got tall. I was not tall. I was
(07:46):
I was small, skinny and short. And then I went through a big
grosberd. I wish I was thisbig now, uh, And then I
would have been. I would havebeen the biggest. I got to clean
that up. I'd be the biggestfella on the on campus. I'd be
the top dog on the campus.But I'm ultra competitive until I got older.
(08:09):
Now, and when I go tomy grandson's games, and it kind
of brings up what I want totalk about today. And because you know,
in our lives, I think theolder that you get, the more
your priorities change when it comes tosports. When I go to a sports
thing with my grandson's I get morepissed off at parents and people in the
(08:37):
stands whose expectations apparently are way outof a way out of way. And
I thought it was only in thatkind of vein, right, And then
I go play golf a lot.I love to play golf, most of
you know, and I go playwith guys, and I used to be
this guy that would cuss and throwmy club and be mad all day and
(09:00):
everything else, right, And Irealized all that comes down to expectations versus
the reality of competitiveness. Now,I think everybody should be competitive. I
think the world is competitive. Ithink in order to succeed, you have
to have a competitive spirit. ButI saw a deal on TikTok and it's
(09:20):
this jack assid gets on there andtells everybody how they should live their life
right. And he said, whenI see a kid cry, an eight
year old kid cry after a gamewhen he's lost, and a parent come
up and say it was just agame, he said that parent should be
punched in the mouth. Is whatthis guy says on the internet, and
(09:43):
I disagree completely. I think there'stime to be competitive, and there's also
time to put things in perspective.A damn baseball game at eight years old.
Yeah, if you're upset about it, if you're sad about it,
you know, but get over it. It's a game, and I think
things are competitive. This is wherethe balance has to come in. You
have to put things in perspective ofwhat your life is. And the people
(10:07):
that end up committing suicide and allthese other things, their expectations have been
brought up so high that they beganto compare everything about their lives to that
thing. And that's where I thinkit goes to rye. So these parents
that show up in an eight yearold game with the boom box so they
(10:28):
can have the walk up music,and then they gotta yell at them and
keep the eye on it, andthen everybody's upset because the umpire got one
play wrong in the vast scheme ofthings. Maybe it's because I'm damn near
sixty and the vast scheme of things. You're in moron for yelling at everybody
there except for those just have funwith the kids. And I know that
(10:50):
you were very competitive, and you'reone of those parents, and so that's
why I have get that look onour faces right there. The fact is
is that, but it's because wedon't there are ways of teaching people how
to succeed without it having to beabout the parent. And that's that's where
(11:13):
the that's where the line. That'swhat drives me crazy when I go play
when I go play golf with peoplewho suck at golf and have the greatest
time at it, because they don'ttake it so seriously. They don't take
it. And so you're telling methat now that I'm forty, I'm still
supposed to be screaming and hollering,keep your head down and throwing the club
(11:33):
and everything else. I mean,that's what we teach our kids. What
we teach our kids is that youshould be very sad the fact that you
lost a baseball game, and youneed to teach them to be gracious winners
as sorry, gracious winners and losers. Honestly, but I think you have
to if we started teaching people thatthis is a long life, that this
(11:54):
is just merely just a not evena footnote in your life, this one
Saturday game that you just had.You know, I know people that be
rate their kids all the way homeafter again, well they've got to critique
them. And then you know,the game really wasn't in most parents' places,
The game really wasn't for the child. It was for the parent to
(12:18):
berate the child, or to givethem feedback, or to give them this
and that. Too many parents bickerabout the smallest things in the games like
that. Oh and then and thenif you get travel ball where there's money
involved, Oh yeah, did y'alldo travel ball? See? I am
not a fan of travel ball atall. I think travel ball really is
(12:39):
for the three kids that have achance to go on and everybody, let's
just take baseball, because that's myfavorite sport of ball and baseball travel.
You're playing for three kids, andeverybody else is just there for batting practice.
What do you think about that littletheory? Everybody else is just there
to shag balls. It's those otherthose three kids that may have the potential.
(13:00):
And I'm not talking to three kidson a team. I'm talking about
three kids maybe in the one Yeah, in that one division might have three
kids that are good enough to goon to even play high school ball,
to go on and play college oreven further than that. Uh No,
in my humble opinion, all thoseother people that pay thousands of dollars thousands
(13:24):
of dollars a lot of every weekendis gone, And now all the time
that they could spend with the kidsthat are doing actual fun stuff is now
in this travel sport for three peopleto maybe move it all your other kids.
Hate to break it to your momand dad, your kid is just
(13:45):
there for the batting practice in theshag balls for those kids. Uh And
and and once people realize, hey, my kid probably going to be the
next uh Ken Griffy Junior or AlexRodrieus or whoever the player is that you
want to name, more than likelyyour kid is going do something other than
(14:07):
play baseball, So lower your expectations. Have fun running the fundamentals. But
in the past scheme of things,all the games that I played, and
I bet you I played old mansoftball, I played all the way up
until four years ago, so untilright before the pandemic. So I've been
playing old man softball my whole life, in baseball since I was four years
(14:28):
old. Now one day has itever applied to anything else in my life.
Now. The competitiveness, I thinkthat comes to natural drive. I
think you can look at kids andyou can tell who's competitive and who's not
competitive. But you also have totemper that expectation. Some of that is
just built by mom and dad withletting the expectations. But in my opinion,
(14:52):
if you channel that to know exactlywhen to put all that effort in
and to practice and right to bethe best you can, there's something to
be said about that. But thento send your kid out on travel teams,
I just don't get it. Buty'all did it right. How many
years did y'all do travel? Ohgosh, I don't remember how many years
(15:16):
it was up until twelve when hefinally, and of course Colton's birthday is
in the summer in July, andthat's your son, Colton's my son.
And he finally we were always goneover his birthday always, so he never
got to have birthday parties. Youknow. Later in his youth, he
was like, I don't want toplay. I don't want to play this
summer, and it was like seeingthat funny it was that way for you,
(15:39):
Yeah, because we were so usedto it, and it was like,
who are we outside of that world? Wow? See. Then then
but then the summer that he wastwelve, I think, and then the
summer we didn't It was kind oflike, oh, so this is what
it's like to get to stay homeand have a summer at home. Holy
yeah wow? But did that everdid you ever look back on and go,
(16:00):
what were we thinking? Now?We loved the people we love.
But then, yeah, until hewas about twelve, and then he was
like, I'm I don't want toBut I mean then we still played,
you know, reg ball, andthen he went on to play for high
school and then he went to collegeand played for one semester and hated every
second of it. But do youthink some of the reason why he hated
(16:22):
ball got to where he just didn'twant to play it anymore, is because
you can burn out a kid atnine years old playing a hunter games.
My daughter played one year of competitivesoftball, and that was because my ex
wife wanted to sign her up forit, and Autie really went along with
it to try because she wanted hermom to really love it. Her mom
(16:44):
was a great softball player, agreat second baseman, and when we played
old people with softball, she wasthe best girl out there. I wouldn't
say she's the best ball player outthere, but she's far better than most
of the men out there. Buthe didn't have that. And then when
you go and have a kid doeighty games every weekend, at some point
(17:07):
it becomes a full time job.And it's funny because when we were talking
about your natural reaction was when hesaid, we were what are we going
to tell the other parents now thatwe're not going to be there too.
We have a whole group of people. Yes, I mean we you know,
went out to eat together, westayed. You know, it was
but that means that it became moreabout you than it did about the ballgame.
(17:30):
And I'm not saying that that.This is why I want to have
the discussion, because I'm not sayingyou're a bad person for it. No,
I would have to ask Calton ifhe felt like he was pressured into
playing. I don't know. Ihaven't asked him. Well, he has
never said he regretted. I mean, he told his wife that he had
a great childhood. So I'm openwe did something right. Yeah, well
(17:52):
yeah, and I don't want toover there are kids that will want to
go play, But I've yet tosee kids truly other than those three kids
that live, breathe, sleep,and eat baseball, right, and there
are those kids. All the otherkids really would like it to be a
twenty game season maybe and then thewhole thing be over right. And I'm
(18:17):
not you know, I'm not aperson who says you shouldn't give a kid
a trophy. I think the ringsare something a little too much for me.
That's just me. What's wrong withthe little trophy that you used to
get? Right, but now theygot to have a ring like a world
series? Say, our world serieswas fun, you know, you swapped
those pins and I mean that wasa lot of fun. Of course,
(18:41):
it was the parents doing the penswapping because the kids were too busy playing.
Honestly, yeah so yeah, Butnow one time I did, I
like Colton cheese, if he didn'twant to play, then if we didn't
play, there was no pressure,the like are you sure, I mean
we spent all this money on thiswe spent all this money on this school,
and now you don't want to blowWell no, if he started it,
(19:02):
he was going to finish it.There's no quitting in the middle of
the season, so you have tofinish the season and then you just don't
play the next season if you didn'twant to do it again. And then
but with football, I did kindof put my foot down because he did
football. Also in addition to whatdoes what does? I put my foot
down because he started in elementary schoolplaying football, and then when he became
(19:23):
a senior, he was like,I don't want to play football. I
don't want to do it this year. And I said, you were going
to regret every minute if you don'tplay your last year of school. I
promise you you'll regret it. Sohe went ahead and did it, and
I said, God, did Iscrew up? You know? Am I
making him miserable or what But afterhe graduated, he said, you know
what I missed the most about school? I said what he said, football?
(19:45):
I was like, what team sports? That it's not team sports,
you know. I think it alsogoes down to team anything. I think
if you were not talking about justcompetitive just in sports, if you're in
band, I was. I stoppedall the sports in ninth grade because they
coincide, right with marching band anddrums. Marching and drums. You know
(20:10):
what, if Colton would have stayedat Northwest Independent School District, he would
have had to have picked you know, football, baseball, band, you
know, whatever it was. Butyou know, we moved him over to
boy between fifth and sixth grade,and there you could play whatever sports.
So there were kids who were onthe football team. We would right change
and then come out and it's like, that's how it should be. Yeah,
(20:30):
I agree. I think the otherthing that parents do, in my
opinion, wrong with kids today insports is have them play one sport.
I don't think you'll learn anything fromplaying baseball from the time that year six
to the time that you're fourteen,and then you're burned out and you didn't
explore anything else. Maybe you mighthave been a better tennis player. Maybe
(20:52):
you might have been a better basketballplayer. Maybe, but no, you
were gone for now. Now it'sbaseball. Travel is twelve months out of
the year. Now, yes,they take off one month. I think
they take off one month and that'sit. Otherwise it's competitive, are completely
going. But it was the sameway with band, there was There was
(21:15):
the same way with I'm sure youknow my daughter was in drama with the
plays and everything else. And makingit to state UIL University in Interscholactic League
was a big thing for all ofus in those types of you know,
drama, band, whatever else,choir. That's how we competed against everybody.
(21:37):
Really was UIL. But if Ihad to go March eleven months out
of the year, I don't thinkI would love it either. I don't
think I would. And that's whereI think that the burnout comes out.
You're still dealing with kids. Andthat's that's why I'm talking about expectations versus
competitiveness. You can get competitive spiritin a twenty game season in baseball for
(21:59):
the year. You can also getthat with U I L or anything else.
And that's all I'm saying, folks, is is temper. First of
all, your expectations. If nobodyin the stands is looking at your kid
when he's dripping on the ball,you're probably not going to the NBA.
Okay, you're not, so relax, you know, here's some tips.
(22:21):
Also, if you go to abaseball game and you're watching your kids,
as soon as they strive swing atthe high one, you don't have to
tell him. You don't have tosay, hey, don't swing at the
high ones. Don't swing, westop swinging the high They know exactly all
the years that I coached baseball,little league baseball, that's what I would
(22:41):
tell my parents. You know,there's no sense of telling name he missed
the ball if he's out in theoutfield. There's no sense of teal name
after the play was gone that heshould have thrown it the second. You
know, we'll handle all that andpractices afterward, but there's no he's already
amped up and now and now ifyou be rating because he strikes out or
(23:03):
whatever, now he's no longer tryingto swing to hit. He's trying to
swing, not to strike out.And there is a difference in those two
ideas, and even in life,a lot of people in life. In
my humble opinion, swing not tostrike out and don't swing to hit the
ball out of the field. AndI think I swing for the fences probably
(23:30):
more than I probably should. Butmost of the adventures that I go through
in my own personal life, Idon't swing not to strike out. I
don't do things. I do thingsconservative at times, you know, investments
and stuff, but there you know, I'm not going to go out by
crypto currency. But there are timesthat you have to swing for the fences,
(23:52):
and that's where competitive really does comein, and that's when it needs
to be nurtured. Organ nurtured alittle bit more positive. But if you're
making the noise at least it justdid when your kid says they don't want
to do, then that might bea little bit more on you than it
(24:14):
is on them. Can I hityou with a controversial question real quick?
What are your thoughts on participation trophies? Oh, participation trophies? Is there
an age limit for participation trophies?I used to I think every kid can
get a ribbon right like on fieldday. But I don't know if it
(24:41):
bothers me that much, because that'swhatever the easy answer is to do what
everybody says. All these kids,everybody gets a trophy. Now everybody gets
a trophy. Well, it's notwhat in my experience, it's not because
the kids wanted it. It's notbecause the kids wanted it. It's because
every parent wants their kid to Godwants them feelings hurt, feelings hurt,
(25:07):
want them to go home. Andtrust me, those kids won't if they
get bothered by it. It couldbe a motivator. Well, you know
what, in life, we don'talways get participation in trophies. Well,
we kind of do. I mean, if you think about it, there's
a welfare system, there's a uhall kinds of I think about in life.
(25:27):
I guess you've said, I don'tknow, there's there's a lot of
simply participation in trophies. I gota cousin. They hadn't worked in twenty
five years, and he's got anicer outside. So maybe not, but
but you know what I mean,his daddy, his dad never worked.
(25:48):
I don't know what he's done evento this day when we talk about it.
I know what your dad to dofor a living? They goes.
I have no idea, and there'snot one day that I want him to
say his name, but uncle somethinganother. Not one day I ever heard
him go man. Had a toughweek at work this week. That was
a full thirty forty hours a weekI saw. I think there are some
(26:11):
ways of skating by. But youknow, trophies in themselves, they can
motivate some kids. They did forme. I remember in first through fifth
grade they used to put they bringus all into the library and on a
Friday and they would do Citizenship Awardfor the month. And that became a
(26:36):
motivator for me because they would putyou up on the desk, you know,
the table, and you would standthere and they would give your medal
that you got. You know,there was a medal with a ribbon,
and I wanted to win that thing. That was natural competitiveness. Not everybody
in my family is even competitive.My sister wasn't very competitive with anything.
(26:59):
But I think some of that.I think that helps some kids. I
don't think I have a problem withit. I do have a problem with
acting like everything is the World Championship, you know. And again that's where
it comes in with this big oldass world series ring all these kind of
things. Where are you going toset the bar of expectations. Again,
(27:22):
that goes right back to where weare. What's expected and what's competitive,
you know, and and uh therethere are pretty simple factual ways of figuring
out whether or not your kid isis in the elite athlete And a lot
of times that's just because there's othercoaches that are wanting to work with them.
Yes, if you're having your kid, ask hey, even in band,
(27:45):
if you have your you know,the the band director comes to you
as a parent and go, youknow, you really need to get him
some more lessons because he I'm takinghim as far as we can. And
that's where you that's where you balanceit. But but this idea that you're
going to turn every kid into theworld Major leaguer or a savant when it
(28:10):
comes to the violin or anything else, just lord, just just just try
to get them happy, you know. And I think I don't think that
comes with a trophy. I thinka lot of times that comes with that.
That was a fun game to watch, kid. How many parents say
that after even after they lose,you know, you lose in the bottom
(28:30):
of the of the sixth inning,right, you blow a lead, you
had a six to one lead,and how many parents can literally do this
in the car, get in thecar and go whoo. That was a
fun game to watch, man,I had a good time. Man,
that was that was a lot offun. There were a lot of fun
games that we watched. Them lost. But normally, you got to admit,
(28:53):
normally, with a parent, it'snever when they lost. I mean,
if it was a beat down,it was just a beatdown, and
everybody was yet, yeah, butcalt him. We get down on himself,
you know, if he struck outor whatever. And I would always
remember saying, even the major leagueguys struck out, it happened. I
told that to my grandsons. Youknow, my my one grandson. He
(29:15):
is very competitive. Yes, Likethere's there's two of them. There's Bryce
and there's Blue. They're brothers.And Bryce is not as competitive as Blue,
as Blue is very competitive. Andthat's what I try to teach him.
I'm like, hey, listen,boy, he said, are struck
out. I go, boy,if you get on base one out of
three times, that gets you intothe Hall of Fame, and major leagues
(29:38):
one out of three, you know. So anyway, hey, we're glad
you tune into the podcast. It'suh, if you got comments, if
you if you want to share this, we'd certainly appreciate it. It's also
uh, you know, we putstuff out on Instagram and Facebook and the
TikTok and and the YouTube channel.And the next time we all get together,
(30:03):
I may have a pretty big announcementabout my new special maybe coming out,
and so we'll we'll try to getall that worked out first, but
we're glad you tune in every time, you know, so on behalf of
Lisa and Ron Phillips and myself,you know, go out there and have
(30:26):
a funny life, y'all.
Well, Welcome in, everybody toa brand new edition of the Funny Line
podcast. This week, it's theWhat Competitive Sports Says About You, plus
a brand new Top five blanketly Blanksright now and welcome in, everybody.
(00:21):
I'm your host, comedian Wheeley Martinwith me beside me on my right,
your left is going to be LisaBruce, my tour manager extraordinary, and
then behind the controls is Uh.It's almost like he's in Europe right now.
He's almost almost like that he's goingto Europe or he's in Europe.
(00:42):
I don't know how even to describeit, but he's going to be in
Europe this this month and hanging outin Europe. So we're glad you guys
are here. We're glad that you'resafe. You know. It's it's been
a strange it's been a strange springand the start is it not even started
summer yet, but pretty rough forthe last three or four weeks. Yeah,
(01:06):
here in our area with the stormsand uh, and in every year,
is it me or am I gettingolder? Does it seem like they're
getting worse or have they always beenthis bad? No, they haven't been
this bad, you know, itseems to be like they're getting worse,
getting worse. Yeah, so,uh, you know, maybe when this
thing airs, uh, the apocalypsewould have happened, and you know,
(01:29):
nobody's going to see this finally willhave an excuse maybe why there's nobody watching
this damn thing. There might besome people still. Those will be our
fans, seven Christians that we're watchingthis. They're gone now. But for
(01:49):
the rest of you, thanks forsticking around with the titty bar. Yeah.
So it's uh, it's it's beena awful week for some people,
a month for some people with ustornadoes and everything else. So be safe
out there. So if you're walkingand if you're doing your whatever you do
(02:13):
while you listen to us, yougot about twenty seven more minutes because you
know, we end this thing forthirty minutes for a reason, because we
get tired of talking about stuff.You run out of things to say.
You know, it's been a greatOn the opposite side, it's been a
great time to be a sports fanin our area, which is the Dallas
Forward area, or I always saythe Forward Dallas area because I never give
(02:36):
Dallas top billing no ever. Butthe Rangers have now won the World Series
and in both the championship conferences isthe Stars and the Mavericks. And you
know, I am a huge sportsfan, but I'm not a big hockey
fan until we get to playoffs.Now, do you watch hockey? No?
(03:01):
No at all? Do you knowanything about hockey? No? Do
you want me to fake it?No? That I really can. If
I had a dollar for every timea woman looked me straight in the eye
and asked me, do you wantme to fake? Yes, yes,
yes, yes I think I wouldthank you. I don't care what you
(03:23):
do as long as I feel betterabout it. So yes, I don't
even know that I can fake talkingabout hockey honestly fake. How about you?
Are you a hockey fan at all? I like hockey. I mean
I've been to a couple of hockeygames, and more fights or in the
fans than are on the eye orin the stands, and are in the
(03:45):
eyes I think, well one outof three of us are hockey fans.
So this next bit is probably justgoing to destroy y'all. Just y'all won't
even know what the references are,but we might as well do. Our
top five blankety blankst this week isthe top five have things you won't see
at a hockey game, roll thatdrum roll Number five, healthy foods that
(04:08):
the concession stands. Number four,a full set of teeth. Number three
sober Canadians see if y'all go.Number two a triple axle by the goalie's
(04:28):
And the number one thing you won'tsee at a hockey game is a team
full of players with names you canpronounce that that don't. So that's the
top five. It's it's it's justamazing how how fast those guys can actually
(04:49):
skate. If you really want tobecome a hockey fan, go to a
live game. Don't watch it onTV. If you go to a live
game and see how fast these guyscan go forward and backwards with a hockey
puck and a stick. It isamazing how they could do. Now while
we have hockey in Dallas and inPhoenix and in Miami where there are no
(05:15):
ice. But but if you gosee the game, uh, it's it's
great. It's it's it's an amazingfast game and a brutal game too to
your body. Like we had arainstorm once and I fell in the parking
lot and I cried for a dayand a half. These guys fall down
all the time, up and down, up and down into running and doing
(05:38):
the hockey thing. But I II love it. I didn't really like
it. My one of my bestfriends, Joe Still and his family are
in the hockey and I finally wentto a live game, and I next
season, I'm going to send bothof you to see the amateur one because
the other one's too expensive. SoI'm not gonna I'm going to do this
(06:00):
into one until you go see andsee right, Well, once you go,
you're hooked. So here's the here'sthe ironic part for me is when
I lived in North Dakota when Iwas in the military, I went to
hockey games up there. Guess whowas playing the Minnesota Stars they are now,
yeah, I think there was aMinnesota North Stars. That's right,
(06:20):
and so now it's the Dallas Stars. But you know, what you said
about being at a live hockey gameis absolutely correct because you don't feel the
impact of them hitting the side wallsuntil you're sitting there. Yeah, and
you're watch the siwal yea like,holy now that was a human. Yeah,
that's crazy. And you're not abig person obviously, so, uh,
(06:43):
I take it that you probably didn'tplay a whole lot of sports.
Well, I did volleyball, basketball, Yeah, it was that was middle
school. I was point guard.So I would, you know, run
it down the court, pass itoff to the tall girl, call to
play, then pass it off tothe tall girl. Do you remember the
tal Kelly Kraft and Chris Kissel.Yes, Kelly Kraft is still a friend.
(07:04):
Yeah, Chris Kissel is still theresomewhere. So she's not a friend
now. Well, I mean nothingwas wrong. We just didn't hang in
the same group, but Kelly didfor sure. Okay, so what who's
the other girl? Chris Kissel?Chris, We're sorry that she no longer
calls you, and I don't knowwhat happened to your life, but we
(07:24):
hope it turned out well. Itdid turn out well. I know,
Chris, she's she's strong willed.So yeah, I played basketball in middle
school and then I played my freshmanyear in high school and I was short.
You know, I'm six two now. I didn't go through my grocerburt
until eleventh grade when I got tall. I was not tall. I was
(07:46):
I was small, skinny and short. And then I went through a big
grosberd. I wish I was thisbig now, uh, And then I
would have been. I would havebeen the biggest. I got to clean
that up. I'd be the biggestfella on the on campus. I'd be
the top dog on the campus.But I'm ultra competitive until I got older.
(08:09):
Now, and when I go tomy grandson's games, and it kind
of brings up what I want totalk about today. And because you know,
in our lives, I think theolder that you get, the more
your priorities change when it comes tosports. When I go to a sports
thing with my grandson's I get morepissed off at parents and people in the
(08:37):
stands whose expectations apparently are way outof a way out of way. And
I thought it was only in thatkind of vein, right, And then
I go play golf a lot.I love to play golf, most of
you know, and I go playwith guys, and I used to be
this guy that would cuss and throwmy club and be mad all day and
(09:00):
everything else, right, And Irealized all that comes down to expectations versus
the reality of competitiveness. Now,I think everybody should be competitive. I
think the world is competitive. Ithink in order to succeed, you have
to have a competitive spirit. ButI saw a deal on TikTok and it's
(09:20):
this jack assid gets on there andtells everybody how they should live their life
right. And he said, whenI see a kid cry, an eight
year old kid cry after a gamewhen he's lost, and a parent come
up and say it was just agame, he said that parent should be
punched in the mouth. Is whatthis guy says on the internet, and
(09:43):
I disagree completely. I think there'stime to be competitive, and there's also
time to put things in perspective.A damn baseball game at eight years old.
Yeah, if you're upset about it, if you're sad about it,
you know, but get over it. It's a game, and I think
things are competitive. This is wherethe balance has to come in. You
have to put things in perspective ofwhat your life is. And the people
(10:07):
that end up committing suicide and allthese other things, their expectations have been
brought up so high that they beganto compare everything about their lives to that
thing. And that's where I thinkit goes to rye. So these parents
that show up in an eight yearold game with the boom box so they
(10:28):
can have the walk up music,and then they gotta yell at them and
keep the eye on it, andthen everybody's upset because the umpire got one
play wrong in the vast scheme ofthings. Maybe it's because I'm damn near
sixty and the vast scheme of things. You're in moron for yelling at everybody
there except for those just have funwith the kids. And I know that
(10:50):
you were very competitive, and you'reone of those parents, and so that's
why I have get that look onour faces right there. The fact is
is that, but it's because wedon't there are ways of teaching people how
to succeed without it having to beabout the parent. And that's that's where
(11:13):
the that's where the line. That'swhat drives me crazy when I go play
when I go play golf with peoplewho suck at golf and have the greatest
time at it, because they don'ttake it so seriously. They don't take
it. And so you're telling methat now that I'm forty, I'm still
supposed to be screaming and hollering,keep your head down and throwing the club
(11:33):
and everything else. I mean,that's what we teach our kids. What
we teach our kids is that youshould be very sad the fact that you
lost a baseball game, and youneed to teach them to be gracious winners
as sorry, gracious winners and losers. Honestly, but I think you have
to if we started teaching people thatthis is a long life, that this
(11:54):
is just merely just a not evena footnote in your life, this one
Saturday game that you just had.You know, I know people that be
rate their kids all the way homeafter again, well they've got to critique
them. And then you know,the game really wasn't in most parents' places,
The game really wasn't for the child. It was for the parent to
(12:18):
berate the child, or to givethem feedback, or to give them this
and that. Too many parents bickerabout the smallest things in the games like
that. Oh and then and thenif you get travel ball where there's money
involved, Oh yeah, did y'alldo travel ball? See? I am
not a fan of travel ball atall. I think travel ball really is
(12:39):
for the three kids that have achance to go on and everybody, let's
just take baseball, because that's myfavorite sport of ball and baseball travel.
You're playing for three kids, andeverybody else is just there for batting practice.
What do you think about that littletheory? Everybody else is just there
to shag balls. It's those otherthose three kids that may have the potential.
(13:00):
And I'm not talking to three kidson a team. I'm talking about
three kids maybe in the one Yeah, in that one division might have three
kids that are good enough to goon to even play high school ball,
to go on and play college oreven further than that. Uh No,
in my humble opinion, all thoseother people that pay thousands of dollars thousands
(13:24):
of dollars a lot of every weekendis gone, And now all the time
that they could spend with the kidsthat are doing actual fun stuff is now
in this travel sport for three peopleto maybe move it all your other kids.
Hate to break it to your momand dad, your kid is just
(13:45):
there for the batting practice in theshag balls for those kids. Uh And
and and once people realize, hey, my kid probably going to be the
next uh Ken Griffy Junior or AlexRodrieus or whoever the player is that you
want to name, more than likelyyour kid is going do something other than
(14:07):
play baseball, So lower your expectations. Have fun running the fundamentals. But
in the past scheme of things,all the games that I played, and
I bet you I played old mansoftball, I played all the way up
until four years ago, so untilright before the pandemic. So I've been
playing old man softball my whole life, in baseball since I was four years
(14:28):
old. Now one day has itever applied to anything else in my life.
Now. The competitiveness, I thinkthat comes to natural drive. I
think you can look at kids andyou can tell who's competitive and who's not
competitive. But you also have totemper that expectation. Some of that is
just built by mom and dad withletting the expectations. But in my opinion,
(14:52):
if you channel that to know exactlywhen to put all that effort in
and to practice and right to bethe best you can, there's something to
be said about that. But thento send your kid out on travel teams,
I just don't get it. Buty'all did it right. How many
years did y'all do travel? Ohgosh, I don't remember how many years
(15:16):
it was up until twelve when hefinally, and of course Colton's birthday is
in the summer in July, andthat's your son, Colton's my son.
And he finally we were always goneover his birthday always, so he never
got to have birthday parties. Youknow. Later in his youth, he
was like, I don't want toplay. I don't want to play this
summer, and it was like seeingthat funny it was that way for you,
(15:39):
Yeah, because we were so usedto it, and it was like,
who are we outside of that world? Wow? See. Then then
but then the summer that he wastwelve, I think, and then the
summer we didn't It was kind oflike, oh, so this is what
it's like to get to stay homeand have a summer at home. Holy
yeah wow? But did that everdid you ever look back on and go,
(16:00):
what were we thinking? Now?We loved the people we love.
But then, yeah, until hewas about twelve, and then he was
like, I'm I don't want toBut I mean then we still played,
you know, reg ball, andthen he went on to play for high
school and then he went to collegeand played for one semester and hated every
second of it. But do youthink some of the reason why he hated
(16:22):
ball got to where he just didn'twant to play it anymore, is because
you can burn out a kid atnine years old playing a hunter games.
My daughter played one year of competitivesoftball, and that was because my ex
wife wanted to sign her up forit, and Autie really went along with
it to try because she wanted hermom to really love it. Her mom
(16:44):
was a great softball player, agreat second baseman, and when we played
old people with softball, she wasthe best girl out there. I wouldn't
say she's the best ball player outthere, but she's far better than most
of the men out there. Buthe didn't have that. And then when
you go and have a kid doeighty games every weekend, at some point
(17:07):
it becomes a full time job.And it's funny because when we were talking
about your natural reaction was when hesaid, we were what are we going
to tell the other parents now thatwe're not going to be there too.
We have a whole group of people. Yes, I mean we you know,
went out to eat together, westayed. You know, it was
but that means that it became moreabout you than it did about the ballgame.
(17:30):
And I'm not saying that that.This is why I want to have
the discussion, because I'm not sayingyou're a bad person for it. No,
I would have to ask Calton ifhe felt like he was pressured into
playing. I don't know. Ihaven't asked him. Well, he has
never said he regretted. I mean, he told his wife that he had
a great childhood. So I'm openwe did something right. Yeah, well
(17:52):
yeah, and I don't want toover there are kids that will want to
go play, But I've yet tosee kids truly other than those three kids
that live, breathe, sleep,and eat baseball, right, and there
are those kids. All the otherkids really would like it to be a
twenty game season maybe and then thewhole thing be over right. And I'm
(18:17):
not you know, I'm not aperson who says you shouldn't give a kid
a trophy. I think the ringsare something a little too much for me.
That's just me. What's wrong withthe little trophy that you used to
get? Right, but now theygot to have a ring like a world
series? Say, our world serieswas fun, you know, you swapped
those pins and I mean that wasa lot of fun. Of course,
(18:41):
it was the parents doing the penswapping because the kids were too busy playing.
Honestly, yeah so yeah, Butnow one time I did, I
like Colton cheese, if he didn'twant to play, then if we didn't
play, there was no pressure,the like are you sure, I mean
we spent all this money on thiswe spent all this money on this school,
and now you don't want to blowWell no, if he started it,
(19:02):
he was going to finish it.There's no quitting in the middle of
the season, so you have tofinish the season and then you just don't
play the next season if you didn'twant to do it again. And then
but with football, I did kindof put my foot down because he did
football. Also in addition to whatdoes what does? I put my foot
down because he started in elementary schoolplaying football, and then when he became
(19:23):
a senior, he was like,I don't want to play football. I
don't want to do it this year. And I said, you were going
to regret every minute if you don'tplay your last year of school. I
promise you you'll regret it. Sohe went ahead and did it, and
I said, God, did Iscrew up? You know? Am I
making him miserable or what But afterhe graduated, he said, you know
what I missed the most about school? I said what he said, football?
(19:45):
I was like, what team sports? That it's not team sports,
you know. I think it alsogoes down to team anything. I think
if you were not talking about justcompetitive just in sports, if you're in
band, I was. I stoppedall the sports in ninth grade because they
coincide, right with marching band anddrums. Marching and drums. You know
(20:10):
what, if Colton would have stayedat Northwest Independent School District, he would
have had to have picked you know, football, baseball, band, you
know, whatever it was. Butyou know, we moved him over to
boy between fifth and sixth grade,and there you could play whatever sports.
So there were kids who were onthe football team. We would right change
and then come out and it's like, that's how it should be. Yeah,
(20:30):
I agree. I think the otherthing that parents do, in my
opinion, wrong with kids today insports is have them play one sport.
I don't think you'll learn anything fromplaying baseball from the time that year six
to the time that you're fourteen,and then you're burned out and you didn't
explore anything else. Maybe you mighthave been a better tennis player. Maybe
(20:52):
you might have been a better basketballplayer. Maybe, but no, you
were gone for now. Now it'sbaseball. Travel is twelve months out of
the year. Now, yes,they take off one month. I think
they take off one month and that'sit. Otherwise it's competitive, are completely
going. But it was the sameway with band, there was There was
(21:15):
the same way with I'm sure youknow my daughter was in drama with the
plays and everything else. And makingit to state UIL University in Interscholactic League
was a big thing for all ofus in those types of you know,
drama, band, whatever else,choir. That's how we competed against everybody.
(21:37):
Really was UIL. But if Ihad to go March eleven months out
of the year, I don't thinkI would love it either. I don't
think I would. And that's whereI think that the burnout comes out.
You're still dealing with kids. Andthat's that's why I'm talking about expectations versus
competitiveness. You can get competitive spiritin a twenty game season in baseball for
(21:59):
the year. You can also getthat with U I L or anything else.
And that's all I'm saying, folks, is is temper. First of
all, your expectations. If nobodyin the stands is looking at your kid
when he's dripping on the ball,you're probably not going to the NBA.
Okay, you're not, so relax, you know, here's some tips.
(22:21):
Also, if you go to abaseball game and you're watching your kids,
as soon as they strive swing atthe high one, you don't have to
tell him. You don't have tosay, hey, don't swing at the
high ones. Don't swing, westop swinging the high They know exactly all
the years that I coached baseball,little league baseball, that's what I would
(22:41):
tell my parents. You know,there's no sense of telling name he missed
the ball if he's out in theoutfield. There's no sense of teal name
after the play was gone that heshould have thrown it the second. You
know, we'll handle all that andpractices afterward, but there's no he's already
amped up and now and now ifyou be rating because he strikes out or
(23:03):
whatever, now he's no longer tryingto swing to hit. He's trying to
swing, not to strike out.And there is a difference in those two
ideas, and even in life,a lot of people in life. In
my humble opinion, swing not tostrike out and don't swing to hit the
ball out of the field. AndI think I swing for the fences probably
(23:30):
more than I probably should. Butmost of the adventures that I go through
in my own personal life, Idon't swing not to strike out. I
don't do things. I do thingsconservative at times, you know, investments
and stuff, but there you know, I'm not going to go out by
crypto currency. But there are timesthat you have to swing for the fences,
(23:52):
and that's where competitive really does comein, and that's when it needs
to be nurtured. Organ nurtured alittle bit more positive. But if you're
making the noise at least it justdid when your kid says they don't want
to do, then that might bea little bit more on you than it
(24:14):
is on them. Can I hityou with a controversial question real quick?
What are your thoughts on participation trophies? Oh, participation trophies? Is there
an age limit for participation trophies?I used to I think every kid can
get a ribbon right like on fieldday. But I don't know if it
(24:41):
bothers me that much, because that'swhatever the easy answer is to do what
everybody says. All these kids,everybody gets a trophy. Now everybody gets
a trophy. Well, it's notwhat in my experience, it's not because
the kids wanted it. It's notbecause the kids wanted it. It's because
every parent wants their kid to Godwants them feelings hurt, feelings hurt,
(25:07):
want them to go home. Andtrust me, those kids won't if they
get bothered by it. It couldbe a motivator. Well, you know
what, in life, we don'talways get participation in trophies. Well,
we kind of do. I mean, if you think about it, there's
a welfare system, there's a uhall kinds of I think about in life.
(25:27):
I guess you've said, I don'tknow, there's there's a lot of
simply participation in trophies. I gota cousin. They hadn't worked in twenty
five years, and he's got anicer outside. So maybe not, but
but you know what I mean,his daddy, his dad never worked.
(25:48):
I don't know what he's done evento this day when we talk about it.
I know what your dad to dofor a living? They goes.
I have no idea, and there'snot one day that I want him to
say his name, but uncle somethinganother. Not one day I ever heard
him go man. Had a toughweek at work this week. That was
a full thirty forty hours a weekI saw. I think there are some
(26:11):
ways of skating by. But youknow, trophies in themselves, they can
motivate some kids. They did forme. I remember in first through fifth
grade they used to put they bringus all into the library and on a
Friday and they would do Citizenship Awardfor the month. And that became a
(26:36):
motivator for me because they would putyou up on the desk, you know,
the table, and you would standthere and they would give your medal
that you got. You know,there was a medal with a ribbon,
and I wanted to win that thing. That was natural competitiveness. Not everybody
in my family is even competitive.My sister wasn't very competitive with anything.
(26:59):
But I think some of that.I think that helps some kids. I
don't think I have a problem withit. I do have a problem with
acting like everything is the World Championship, you know. And again that's where
it comes in with this big oldass world series ring all these kind of
things. Where are you going toset the bar of expectations. Again,
(27:22):
that goes right back to where weare. What's expected and what's competitive,
you know, and and uh therethere are pretty simple factual ways of figuring
out whether or not your kid isis in the elite athlete And a lot
of times that's just because there's othercoaches that are wanting to work with them.
Yes, if you're having your kid, ask hey, even in band,
(27:45):
if you have your you know,the the band director comes to you
as a parent and go, youknow, you really need to get him
some more lessons because he I'm takinghim as far as we can. And
that's where you that's where you balanceit. But but this idea that you're
going to turn every kid into theworld Major leaguer or a savant when it
(28:10):
comes to the violin or anything else, just lord, just just just try
to get them happy, you know. And I think I don't think that
comes with a trophy. I thinka lot of times that comes with that.
That was a fun game to watch, kid. How many parents say
that after even after they lose,you know, you lose in the bottom
(28:30):
of the of the sixth inning,right, you blow a lead, you
had a six to one lead,and how many parents can literally do this
in the car, get in thecar and go whoo. That was a
fun game to watch, man,I had a good time. Man,
that was that was a lot offun. There were a lot of fun
games that we watched. Them lost. But normally, you got to admit,
(28:53):
normally, with a parent, it'snever when they lost. I mean,
if it was a beat down,it was just a beatdown, and
everybody was yet, yeah, butcalt him. We get down on himself,
you know, if he struck outor whatever. And I would always
remember saying, even the major leagueguys struck out, it happened. I
told that to my grandsons. Youknow, my my one grandson. He
(29:15):
is very competitive. Yes, Likethere's there's two of them. There's Bryce
and there's Blue. They're brothers.And Bryce is not as competitive as Blue,
as Blue is very competitive. Andthat's what I try to teach him.
I'm like, hey, listen,boy, he said, are struck
out. I go, boy,if you get on base one out of
three times, that gets you intothe Hall of Fame, and major leagues
(29:38):
one out of three, you know. So anyway, hey, we're glad
you tune into the podcast. It'suh, if you got comments, if
you if you want to share this, we'd certainly appreciate it. It's also
uh, you know, we putstuff out on Instagram and Facebook and the
TikTok and and the YouTube channel.And the next time we all get together,
(30:03):
I may have a pretty big announcementabout my new special maybe coming out,
and so we'll we'll try to getall that worked out first, but
we're glad you tune in every time, you know, so on behalf of
Lisa and Ron Phillips and myself,you know, go out there and have
(30:26):
a funny life, y'all.
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Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.