Baseball Talk | Mid-South Regional Championships Preview | YBMcast - YBMcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Definitely a different type of process.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hut down or freeze, you know, being.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
A coach's son Jackson, of course. Uh, they keep reaching
in why stuff the things hit by pitch. Oh, hello, everyone,
welcome inside the Red Earth Production studios for this edition

(00:40):
of ybm cast powered by Game seven Baseball, Game seven
baseball dot Com. All kinds of fallball stuff going on.
It's starting. Everybody's starting to you know, it's all cooling
down and all that. Well, I don't know if it's
cooling down. Did for a moment, but we'll see. But
two Brandson dates you got one at Ballparks of America,

(01:03):
one at the Recplex, got a dated here at O'Fallon
at Ozzie's eight Warranton dates you So make sure you
go to Game seven baseball dot com. And again, fall
ball is about, you know, going out and just getting
some extra swings, just keeping yourself in tune, get your

(01:25):
buddies together, go get some shirts that says snot rockets
or we hit dangers or something like that, and go play.
Just go play some baseball for some fun. Right, That's
what it's about. That's what you should do. That's fallball.
Game seven baseball dot Com today on Baseball Talk. Joining
me on the show, here is our good friend, been

(01:50):
a contributor from time to time, mister Kent Gansey. Mister
Kent Gansey runs the Washington Post two to eighteen American
Legion program, and he's taken on the monumental task of
hosting the Mid South Regionals for the last two years. Kid,
how you doing, Buddy.

Speaker 4 (02:08):
I'm good, I'm good. Thanks for having me on as always. Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
On the other side, it is the man. It is
Mitchie the Kid Hitting Zone podcast host and regular contributor
to the Youth Baseball Midwest Channel. Mitch, how you doing, Bud?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
I'm doing good.

Speaker 5 (02:28):
I'm actually obviously you can see I'm inside the facility
right now. I've got actually a group of college kids
I'm working with, and so I'm happy to jump on
here for a ton of reasons.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
And I'm I'm excited about this call.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
A former Thoeman Booth Post three thirty eight big swinger, right.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:52):
If I was looking to see if I still had
any of my three three eight hats, and I don't.
It's a bummer because they're no longer, don't. I don't
know they'll come back or not. But you know, three
point thirty eight was a special group back then. I
played in the late nineties, and I think in early
two thousands it kind of started to you know, talent

(03:12):
wise started to change. But I played in the late
nineties and we.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Had a blast.

Speaker 5 (03:18):
We had quite a few players move on and play
college baseball. And you know, Legion back then was something
that it was It was special to be a part of.
You were one of the elite players kind of in
the area, and it really separated people from kind of
the recreational level, which was still good baseball. A lot

(03:38):
of your high school kids still played on it, so
you know, recreational baseball was the alternative and you didn't
have what you have now. But Legion was a big
part of the four years of my high school career
that I'll never forget. Whether it was the fish fries,
the camaraderie that we had, it built an insane amount
of rivalry. I I loved every piece of of Legion

(04:02):
baseball when when I had a chance to play it.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
I'll tell you what can't And that's some of the
things that we talk about still today. And I think
a lot of those things are come back your post
I has still a lot of involvement and what you
guys are doing and your your group they still put
together and we're seeing a lot of that here. Uh
Moberly and yourself. Both these teams are going to be
representing Missouri, uh quality clubs and a lot of kids

(04:28):
moving on to college.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, I mean it's uh, you know, for us in Washington,
it's uh, you know, it's a laboral love. When we
got basically this year we had four teams again, you know,
it's it's a full community effort.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
To Mitch's point, we're still doing all those things, the
pride and stuff like that, like you know, we have
we just have people that you know, we that we
can uh you know, we just tap and they come running.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
They come a running.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
You know, we have if some people coming out, they're
gonna do a pulled pork, that's gonna be on Wednesday.
We're gonna do Friday, fish on on Thursday, and then
wings on Friday. I mean, you know, but it's not
an everyday thing. Obviously, this is a special occasion. But
a lot of times, like when we have tournaments like

(05:18):
the Mory Weekend and things like.

Speaker 4 (05:19):
That, we still have that so you know, not every
program is like that.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
You know, Brian, go ahead, I'm sorry, but we'd lost
your sound from your back.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
So you know, the secon saucelity is longevity of people
in you know, within the framework of the program. When
when you have transient like a dad comes in and says, oh,
let me touch this Legions team and I'll take a.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
Freshman in junior senior. Gone.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
You know, we just don't have that, but you know,
we love it and we're still trying to, you know,
keep the dream.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
Alive absolutely, and you know, Legion is folks. If you
don't know, go to the Missouri American Legion Missouri American
Legion Baseball dot org. Go check it out. There's places around.
It's starting to there. Kent and the Commission, you know,
with Jason Howard, you got Mark Lewis down in Zone four.

(06:18):
You got Connor Spinagle over in zone two. These guys
have been working hard over the past year, breathing life
back in, bringing those things, bringing new thoughts. And we
did the state championships again this year, live streamed it
from Sedelia and it was a really it was a
lot of good baseball being played and I think we're

(06:42):
looking forward to seeing what's going to happen with this
mid South, what goes next, and what's bringing up for
twenty twenty six. It's curious to me Kent. Zone three
has been something you know that has been a push,
But it seems like this year there's a lot of
baseball being played, a lot of teams coming back and
forth and playing down there. Talk to us a little

(07:05):
bit about what's going on down there in the Southwest.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
I mean, you know, as a group on the commission,
as you mentioned, I'm I'm a Zone one commissioner. We've
got Zone one, Zone two, and Zone four that are thriving.
Zone three is really not We have we you know,
we have people there, but the question is what can
we do to you know, to grow teams down there.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
So you know, you have to think a little bit differently,
you know.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
I mean, you know, in some cases you want to
be able to, you know, have a high school be
able to bring their entire team in like kind of
like union did you know this year? And so you know,
letting them understand that that's a that's an option open
to them is the big thing. Because there's they have

(07:51):
a league going on down there where it's all high
school coaches basically, but you know, they don't really have
any framework, you know, like you know, there's no rules.
They just play, run guys in and out. They do
whatever they want just to get guys, you know, on
the field. And I believe to this day it's it's
it's in my core that you play every game, you're

(08:14):
playing either to win or you're playing for a title.
And that's where that's what they would have at open
to them. They could play for a say a junior
state title. They could play for a senior state title. Uh,
you know, if they would get involved. But you know
those are things that just just changing mindsets.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Man's your thoughts on that, buddy.

Speaker 5 (08:36):
Well, I mean, why do you play the game? This
is this is what one of my biggest problem is.
And you got to remember that I'm part of an
organization that has high school athletes. And I'm still saying
this because I think there is much more value into
playing for something and I don't see enough of that
right now in in the youth sports, whether that's you know,

(08:57):
grade school, middle school, or high school. When you have
these summer tournaments, what are you really playing for? So
what motivates you, what drives you. I'm not saying that
you can't play in these tournaments, but there's nothing at
the end that tells you that you're a champion at something.
This is why I love high school sports, like high

(09:17):
school baseball. And for people to say, like, you know,
high school baseball is dead or whatever the case may be, Like,
that's a croc to me because you have a chance
to represent something that very few people do get a
chance to and win a state tournament.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
I mean we've I.

Speaker 5 (09:33):
Had a part of a really good three three eight
and District ten was tough, and we end up getting
into the Farmington schools and things like that, and they
take us out, and you know, next year when you
see Farmington, you want to go out and you wanted
to beat them, and you know, there's none of that anymore.
And I think, like that's a big deal, because what

(09:54):
do you get in college, whether you're at a junior
college or you're at an NAIA school, you have rivalry
and you better compete your tail off. And I have
a hard time on understanding why a doubleheader on a Saturday,
you know, and you're playing in a hundred degree weather,
Why that's motivating and if you know, to me, like

(10:15):
that's a big change between what I think Legion can
represent and what we should think about. And I'm not
saying that you shouldn't have these tournaments or these clubs
need to you know, send everybody to Legion Baseball. I
think everybody can win here. But I love what Legion
represents and a chance to play in something like you're
going to have this week out at Rosney.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, you know, if I could just jump in and
just dumktail onto you know what bitch said. The aspect
to Legion in my this is again, you know, it's
one man's opinion. It's high school baseball on steroids. Because
when you play high school baseball, there's one championship and
it's for all ages right where we actually have a

(10:59):
freshman stay tournament, a junior state tournament, and a senior
state so even those younger guys get to play with
semextra juice in the game to try to win a
state title. And that is it's pretty cool when they
do it.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, and that's Saint Jen team down there was pretty good.
Uh yeah, so and it's good Bay. It's high quality
baseball and look, I think, you know when you're talking
about these things and overall, and I don't want to
get too far afield here because I want to get
to some of the mid South and we'll look at
some of these things. But I always like to bring
these topics up because I think baseball I don't I

(11:38):
think I think there's a lot of times people are
kind of lost in the ether, for lack of a
better way to put it, And uh, there's not a
lot of direction, you know, do I go play here,
do I go play there? What's it? And I don't
think there's anybody really guiding anybody to well, what do

(11:58):
you want to accomplish? What's your goals? We're just we're
not setting goals first and then looking at where do
I best fit in and who is the coach that
I like or that I believe is gonna best help
me succeed. And and I think those are where those
some of those things get lost. And I mean there's

(12:19):
a lot of kids. I saw the I got a
chance to talk to a lot of the kids from
Washington down at the at the Zone tournament. I like
to just come around and sometimes just talk to the kids.
You get a feel for what's going on. They're they're
pretty honest most of the time as far as when
you're talking, just chatting it up with them, and uh,
they have a great feel that these are kids that

(12:41):
are working hard. It's really good baseball players from Washington
High School, Saint Francis, Borgia, kids that are competing every
year in the GAC, one of the top top conferences
in the state Borgia. Usually, Uh, they're they're competing, uh
for you know, in in dish for a district championship.

(13:02):
I think it was kind of a bummer they got
bumped up to class six. Man. I felt bad for
Coast struck off there. Man, that was a tough that
was a tough that was a tough task right there, boy.
And they had yeah, man, and that's those championship points
for private school. It's it's kind of tough. But uh,

(13:22):
they they competed, they battled, they didn't make excuses and
and you see that in these kids. And I think
that to me, Kent is something I think that that
is lacking overall, is finding you know, we understand this
one percent of players, but ninety nine percent of the
players still want to play baseball. Somewhere and still want

(13:42):
that opportunity recruiting. Where do you go? How do you do?
And I think that's where the direction uh needs to
be handled better.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
You know, you know, Brian, if you know what I
would what I would say to that point is you know,
to your viewership, right, you've got you've got these these
young men that are playing in twelve U, thirteen U
even some you know, you could start looking at eleven U.
You know, they should in my opinion, if they wanted

(14:13):
to really kind of get into you know, another level,
those those younger teams right there, those ages I just
mentioned should start looking at. Okay, what do I need
to do to start a Leegian team in my community?
Or how do I get into a program that aren't
exists the Saint Peter's, the wins Fills, the what have you?
Because that is that is what's going to what's going

(14:37):
to bring more players into more growth. I mean to
say to say tomorrow that like all the players from
Timberland are going to go out, Uh, they're already playing
high school baseball, They're already on a Gamers team, They're
already on a Rawlings Tigers team. They're not just going
to make a switch over, right because they're already playing
with some of their buddies.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
But you have to.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Start at that that back level and get those teams,
those players that say we want to play together, but
we can play together and play for something. Is you
know what kind of we've been talking about as far
as the commission goes to try to kind of grow,
you know, get more players, grow the program more.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
But we could we could talk about that all day long.

Speaker 5 (15:15):
And that's that's exactly how what I would love to do.
And maybe that's another show for the Hitting Zone podcast
or something. But I'd think at the end of the day,
like I tried a long time ago to find community.
That's what I absolutely love about Legion is community. And

(15:36):
again playing ball with your high school team. It only
benefits your high school team. Like if you if you
want to think about it on a on a selfish level,
I coached at Timberland. I'm glad that you brought that up.
There's a ton of good players there. Can you imagine
if they spent all summer playing together to you know,
what would they be like, you know, moving into the
next year, building relationships, getting to know each other a

(15:58):
little bit better. That would have been something that would
have been phenomenal to do when you're correct the twelve
and thirteen's, I think where Legion has to to work
with like facilities, and I'll say this for my space,
you know, I think the thing that's attractive to club
ball is the ability to have training opportunities leading into

(16:19):
high school. And I think that could be a relationship
between facilities and Legion Ball that you know, training is
always still there. You don't need to go pay forty
five hundred dollars. It is not a great investment for
the average athlete to spend that kind of cash every
single season and then turn around and may or may

(16:41):
not still play college baseball. I'm sorry, there's better opportunities.
I am a club owner. I know I'm kicking myself
right in the jump, but at the end of the day,
there's got to be a better solution because I think
Legion Baseball to be able to play on a Tuesday,
a Thursday, a Saturday, a Monday, that has way more

(17:05):
value than trying to play three games in twenty eight hours.
You're talking about risking injuries, all of these different things,
and then you have days off the weekends off. I
haven't taken my boat out in four years in the summer.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
I would love to do that.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, you know, I would be happy to be a
Legion coach if we could put that together.

Speaker 5 (17:25):
Just the thing is, I love Legion baseball, and for
somebody to say Winsville's trash or this, that and the other, No,
the community is not rallying behind it.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
Right right.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
I was gonna.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
I was just gonna, you know, make a point here
that we literally just hit the jackpot here at Washington, Missouri,
because we wanted to that very thing.

Speaker 4 (17:46):
Pretty much.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
The only Cajun town was my own, the one that
I have in my office, So we were all, you know,
I would have guys coming and we do winter we'd
have to come two or three at a time. But
Travis Griffin just open Griffin Baseball here in Washington, and
they've got you know, I'm sure it's similar to what
you got there. Twelve cages, track man, uh, you know,

(18:08):
hack attacks, they got it all.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
And you know we're going to do our winter training there.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
So that's going to be a next level thing for
us in Washington, which is obviously good.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Oh now we can come right now, We can come
and winter workout tour. There can't.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, yeah, it's my coach. My page was a little sketch, right,
it works. It's an opportunity. Since my son was started playing,
I've had a cage. I've had my own cage here
in Washington, Missouri since two thousand and one.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
Oh wow.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
So it was pretty nice of uh Drivis to finally
put some cages in here.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
And I think these are things that are accessible. I
like that because you know, everybody knows to get better
it is about development, and then you go and play
the game to compete, you go to you go to practice,
and you work on the things that you knew, and
then take those things and learn how to apply what
you've worked on in practice in the cages, in that

(19:14):
development on the field. Am I getting better engaging those things?
And maybe if you're not getting better, maybe you ought
to think about who you're training with, what's the issues
and whatnot, and having real conversations. I think sometimes that's
one of the things I like about this. People might say, well,
you agree, people can agree disagree with conversations and this

(19:36):
and that, and I don't think anybody like you said.
One man's opinion that's not an opinion, that's a thought
that you've had based on your experience over time. Kent.
An opinion is an emotional outburst sometimes that somebody throws
out there. That's what I think of opinions. But what

(19:58):
you've brought here is a well thought out experience that
you've had over how many years of baseball. And I
think that's a difference. And that's what we need to
start looking at and thinking about. When somebody talks, is
listen to what they say that your experiences is talking.
It's it's what you've experienced and what you've grown over

(20:19):
the past however many years. And I think whether you
agree or disagree with the thought, that's okay, you know,
but this is where the conversations come into play.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
So one thing about having a facility like you have, Mitch,
you know, like we just you know, God, is you know,
we can actually have winter workouts and we're actually helping
that high school team, right because that's stuff that they
actually don't do cannot do.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
Whereas we could say, hey, you're on an allegiant team.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
We can practice every Sunday for twelve weeks, fourteen weeks
leading up to the high school season and you know,
not only help ourselves obviously, and you know, get our
players to be a part of our program, but we're
also helping both of those high schools that we're feeding
that are also feeding us.

Speaker 4 (21:09):
You know, you can look at a two way street.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
So you know, I think you know, like like you're saying, Mitch,
the facilities are the way to go. And if you
can have that team that's a local team and they
go to that facility, I mean, I don't think you
could find a better win. Uh if you if you've
tried to, you know, create it out of the blue.

Speaker 5 (21:31):
Yeah, it goes back to value and what we're offering
to our families and with the cost of doing business.
It's you know, you can see it in the big
league level right now with the Cardinals, right fans aren't going.
They're trying to they're trying to speak out for whatever reason.
I'm not a fan of that because I think there's
a lot to be watched at the big league club.

(21:51):
But fans are frustrated, right and people are getting frustrated
with the cost of doing business, and you know, some
of this be created because of the demand. So you know,
you see these facilities pop up, organizations pop up all
the time, but at the end of the day's the
what's the goal? And I wanted to talk about this

(22:11):
a little bit more before we get into what you know,
this week's about or even this call. But the thing
about high school baseball is when I get kids in
the summertime, they are absolutely crushing high school and then
they get to summertime baseball and then they kind of
they you know, regress a little bit or whatever. I'm
trying to say. They're they're not as good as they

(22:33):
are in their high school seasons. And I always ask why.
They never give me an answer.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (22:37):
Maybe it's because I'm not you know, I don't see
as many pitches or whatever, and I'm like, exactly, in
high school, you practice six days a week, or you're
playing six days a week, and it may not be
stressful practices, but maybe you're an hour of hitting one
day because Mondays are stretch days, recovery days. Then you
play on Tuesday, you recover Wednesdays, and you recover Thursday,

(22:59):
hit it on Thursdy day. You're doing something consistently right.
And every time that you do something consistently guess what happens.
You magically get better. I say magically, but that's sarcasm
and Legion for me, that's what it was about. Right,
Like you played on Tuesday, you didn't have no days off.
If you have a Sunday off, you get Monday off
like a college routine. You know, you're busting your tail

(23:20):
for six days a week and you get Monday off.
You know, and it's like, well, why all of a
sudden are these kids better or getting better? It's because
they have opportunities every single day to work on their craft.
It does not have to be three hours of practice.
A matter of fact, it's probably a waste of time
at some point during the week because you need to recover.

(23:42):
That's what I loved about Legion baseball art coach practice.

Speaker 4 (23:45):
Now.

Speaker 5 (23:45):
It was different when I played Legion. We actually couldn't
have winter workouts and stuff. There was still a very
big niche hold on high school back then, and we
literally couldn't even try out till our baseball season was over.
So tryouts happened after baseball season happened, which now I
think they can happen almost a year prior, or you know,

(24:09):
in the fall.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
Or something like that, right, right, we can have one
tryout on a Sunday.

Speaker 4 (24:16):
In the fall and in the spring.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Oh gotcha, Yeah, very different. But that's that's the thing
is every one of these kids have an opportunity to
get trained by somebody. They don't have to do this.
And again.

Speaker 5 (24:33):
I am not taking business models away from anybody that's
out there that's a facility owner an organization owner. But
there's opportunities that we can develop our athletes much much better.
And you know, think about the ro o I what
is what is an investment?

Speaker 3 (24:54):
Speaking of which, Mitch, you know we've got Mitch Thomas
kit Getzi joining a on the Prime Sports call in link.
Go check out Prime Sports MW dot com. Get your
baseball gear. In fact, the American Legion store is right

(25:17):
there on the web page Missouri American Legion Baseball dot org.
Go to the store that's Prime Sports Store. They'll get
you hooked up with all your gear. Appreciate Prime Sports
and what they do in our partnership with Youth Baseball Midwest.
And that's the thing. I've said this for a long time.
I know it ruffles some of the old timers feathers,

(25:37):
I really do, but Legion Baseball is the oldest club
baseball there is, and it's just a matter we separate
these things and we really don't know really kind of
what we're talking about. It is club baseball, you got.
I mean, kid just said he's had four teams this
year's and for a while he's had two freshmen as

(26:00):
a junior and a senior team, and those kids feed
up through that. That's a club, that's an organization, and
it's like anything else. It just depends on where you
want to play, what's the best fit for you, where
do you work? And I think that's that's got to
be to the parents and what we're doing in what
Legion Baseball is doing now to start getting back, as

(26:21):
you said, with some of the eleven, twelve, thirteen year olds,
do you make those decisions. That didn't mean somebody can't
go play for the Rawlings, Tigers or the Gamers, whatever
you're fit, whatever you think is best. People have to
make their decisions what they believe is best for their kids.
And I don't ever tell parents it's up to you,

(26:42):
but you have to understand that there are plenty of
opportunities with really quality coaches. Kent's been doing it a
long time. The Elsberry programs got quality coaches. I'm just
talking District nine because that's what we're talking about there.
And the Saint Peter's program, Rick Reno been doing it
for a long time, quality program. Andy Cook the new

(27:03):
nineteen U coach there. I really like Andy what he's
doing there, a lot of positive stuff. I think he's
got some really good energy UH and seems like a
good guy to play for. And Saint Peter's made some
noise in the in the Zone tournament this year, UH
took down Elsbury got to the semifinals. So you know,

(27:25):
you you got to look at the process and what
we're getting ready to look at here coming into the
Mid South Regionals with some really this is the icing
on top in my opinion, UH teams coming from Oklahoma, UH, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi,

(27:49):
and of course too from here right here in Missouri, Kent.
You've played you did you play any of these teams?
I know you have in the past. Did you go
get into any of the tournaments with some of these teams?

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Well, four of the teams that four of the teams
in the tournament are returnments from last year. Yeah, so
we did play the Oklahoma team.

Speaker 4 (28:19):
Yeah, so we played the Oklahoma team, so you know,
I mean.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
It's other than that. No, we haven't played any of
these teams. So Moberley obviously we played who is the
state champion. They're the ones that knocked us out of
his own tournament, so you know they're a good team.

Speaker 4 (28:38):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
It's gonna be a really weird situation if we end
up playing each other because I think.

Speaker 4 (28:44):
They have to win.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
They have to win to lose, and we have to
lose win, you know, something like that. It's what our
vice versa for us to end up facing each other.
So you know, they're going to get to see some
different teams, and so.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
Will we absolutely. Uh the Boser Phillies out of Louisiana, folks,
I want to, I want to. I want to share
something with you here. Uh Boser Phillies. They got a
team era of a buck sixty nine a team yeah,

(29:20):
uh team batting average. Oh, opponent's batting average is a
buck seventy seven. Their offense as a team slashed three
sixty six five oh six and they're slugging five fifty six.
This team is loaded. For Bear, I think they're you know,
if you want to see teams can't I would probably

(29:43):
consider them number. It's on paper. All this is on paper, folks.
You gotta play the games, and anybody will tell you
can beat somebody. But on paper, my goodness, how do
you beat out team.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
I mean, they basically have their entire team to back
from last year. I think they have their entire team
plus a college pitcher.

Speaker 3 (30:06):
Uh yeah, they.

Speaker 4 (30:08):
Should be pretty good.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
However, however, just let's let's keep things in perspective here.
And I think everybody that was at his own tournament
thought Ellsbury was gonna win his own tournament agreed.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
And you know, they brought a lot of their guys
back and had the pitching and whatnot. But Moberly, you know,
and Ellsbury again, Saint Peter's took him down. And that's
that's again, that's where.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
It goes to.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
And to your point, the the one kid that I
think has come back. I think he from Boser. He
was the starting first basement at Louisiana Tech last year.

Speaker 4 (30:48):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
You know, listen, they've got they've got some players, There's
no doubt about it. Uh, you know, they're the defending
champions they deserve. You know, coach Pebe has been on
nothing awesome. You know, he you know, he has a question,
he messages me. You know, he's super nice, super thankful.
You know, they're a worthy champion. There's no doubt about it.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
The Mountain Home team, what do you think of them?
Get Mountain Home market.

Speaker 4 (31:16):
So I a few teams I see play that many games.
Very few. I mean, I think they've played fifty one.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Games already, so uh, that's uh, that's impressive. But you know,
they're a little bit like those teams on the on
the western side of the state.

Speaker 4 (31:36):
You know that.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
I think they play a lot of doubleheaders. You know,
they play a lot of tournaments and stuff, so you know,
you end up stacking a lot of games. If you've
got a pretty good team, you're getting into the you know,
the weekends.

Speaker 4 (31:49):
Seems like they're going to be a pretty good team.
I know one of their pitchers.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Is on a golf scholarship, so he's headed, he's not coming,
He's going.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
To play golf. So that was I found that out yesterday.
I thought that was kind of crazy. It's one more
week keeping with that team all year. But you know, whatever,
So I don't know, you know, I it.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
You know, teams play differently in different states, from different
parts of the you know, country. The game is the same,
but just kind of like you know, how they develop
and how they play is different. And that's one of
the cool parts about this tournament. You get to bring
them all together and figure it out.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Mitch.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
The travel part has got to be I think the
biggest thing. You know, you're coming up on the bus.
You're not sleeping in your own bed. These are seventeen, eighteen,
nineteen year old kids, you know, and if they haven't.
You might have some kids that have experienced it to
this level, if they've come back maybe from their first
year in college or but a lot of them really haven't.

Speaker 5 (32:50):
Yeah, I mean that's that's the thing that you just
talked about. Can't just you know, these guys got to travel.
So what's it going to be like sleep? You know
what hotel that you have, and you know, what are
those beds gonna be like? And what are the evening's
gonna be like? You know, what's it gonna be.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Like waking up? Did you get a good breakfast? Did
you you know? All of those things?

Speaker 5 (33:08):
I think factor and some people get jacked up to
get out of town, and some people don't need that,
you know, and you know, some.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
People need music.

Speaker 5 (33:18):
Literally, all I wanted to ever do was compete, So
I didn't go to bed early to you know, be
at Max's effort or whatever the case may be.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
It literally was I have.

Speaker 5 (33:30):
Three and a half seconds to focus for two and
a half hours, you know what I mean. So if
I can focus on three and a half seconds per pitch,
per whatever, I'm gonna be all right.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
And I don't need a ton of sleep.

Speaker 5 (33:43):
I'm sure that maybe by the end of the weekend,
I'll probably get a little bit crinky.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
But if I get a little.

Speaker 5 (33:48):
Bit more anger, then I mean I'm gonna swing a
little bit harder. So but that's that's you know, that's
a bigger difference from when I played to Like, now
people care about some of that stuff way.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
More than then we used to. You know.

Speaker 5 (34:02):
So these kids might come in there, coach might put
curfews out, you know, telling them to get you know,
in bed by or in their room by nine o'clock
so that they can go out and produce because it's
gonna be hot and it's humid, here, you know, and.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
Again, I love this game. I love the experiences that travel.

Speaker 5 (34:20):
There's nothing like spending ten hours on a bus hanging
out with your buddies. But when you get off, probably
need to go stretch in the lobby. Because I've been
on some road trips and playing college and coaching college,
and we went on one of them that was like
a nineteen hour, twenty hour bus ride and we had
to get new We were behind and so we had

(34:41):
to get a new driver. So we literally just passed
off a new drivers you can only drive for ten hours,
passed them off, got back on her and kept driving.
End up being like a twenty hour drive. I got
off that bus. I'm gonna tell you right now, I was.
I was cranky. I was also I was also like
thirty eight years old. I wasn't a kidnaped, so I
had to deal with that nonsense and the breakfast was terrible.

(35:04):
But you know, at the end of the day, like
coach has to deal with the same stuff. So if
he goes out there cranky, his kids ain't gonna play
for him. So traveling does matter, and that'll that'll be
interesting because again, the game is the game, and what's
gonna separate, is gonna be what's between the years. You
gotta have heart and this. You gotta have heart and

(35:25):
desire in this game. And if you got a team
that's got twenty guys on it, that has more heart
than the five on the other team, you might be
able to scratch a win, and you're gonna be able
to walk away proud knowing that you gave everything you
had to beat that team that's number one, and good luck,
you know, at the end of the day, good luck.
But if you ain't got that desire and to compete,

(35:47):
it's gonna be a long day for some of these teams, can't.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
You know, you guys, this is your second year. I
don't know that it probably gets easier, but you've got
a heck of a quality team, uh. Trent Hendrickson, Joe
Buehler's been great with us answering all questions, been uh,
top notch that way. Looking forward to live streaming this

(36:11):
event through the through the weekend. Talk to us about
just logistically in the whole scope of bringing you know,
all these teams together just to play some baseball.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah, you know, I mean, if if if we if
I gave you a list of what's happening as we
as we're on this podcast, you guys would be like out,
You'd be like you number one, you would order uh
doctor Phil to come over here and have me chat
with us.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
I mean.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Today, before I got on this podcast, I was I
had a mower out and I was cutting a whiffleball
field or the wall is gonna put on.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
While I was doing that, giant pieces of military.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
Equipment were being delivered on the grounds of the ballpark.
So you know, we've got a couple of sponsors, one
of his Missouri military equipment, and they brought all I mean,
I think they're gonna bring a cannon out that next.
I mean, I've never seen machines so big in my
entire life. They're sitting on the grounds. There's a VIP
pavilion people can get into that's gonna have the live

(37:24):
stream that you're gonna put on while they can be
drinking and eating. I mean, these guys are out of control,
but I love them to death. They're having a great time.
The guy that you didn't mention is Eric Bolperty is
our junior coach. He's he was out there at six
point thirty this morning doing stuff around the grounds. His

(37:47):
wife was out there painting our concession stand door. I mean,
it's it's amazing, it's an amazing effort.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
I love it. I love it.

Speaker 5 (37:59):
I didn't mean any rupt you, Brian. But again, the
community that is Legion. I don't think there's a better
crest out there than the Legion crest for for all
these groups. I know they have their post numbers and stuff,
but it's an amazing patch to have been a part of.
But again, what is Legion Baseball? You know, it represents
something much much bigger than whatever is on the front

(38:20):
of that right, Like you're representing hundreds of years of
people fighting for this country, and so it becomes a
massive amount of pride to have worn the Legion crest
and represent Post three thirty eight. We had some of
the best old guys, which you talked about that earlier, Brian.

(38:40):
I haven't been more proud to have represented people that
have fought for this country.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
I mean, you know, that's that's at the core.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
You know, we we you know, we had our paperwork
check we did last night, and you know we had
the guys that are the tournament directors. You know, they
tried to stress that to our guys. You know, they
were like, well, this is how you standard attention and
this is how And while I can understand that some
teams would need that, that is something that is fundamentally.

Speaker 4 (39:08):
You know, what we are about.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
And you know that's one of the reasons that everybody's
involved here is because you know we do feel that
same way.

Speaker 3 (39:17):
And just you know you're talking about spot. I want
to give a shout out to Premiere Pitching Performance. Brett
Crave is going to be sponsoring our broadcast right behind Mitch.
You see that poster go to Athletic. They're going to
be providing an award for our player of the game.

(39:37):
We're doing interviews with our players in the game all
fifteen games. They're they're providing a link for batting gloves.
Whatever the case, it's a great it's a great.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
These are seriously good batting gloves. And I want to
give a shout out to those guys for coming on
board and help them with this and bringing that to
bear because you know, at the end, these athletes they're
competing there. It takes a lot of people to come
in here and you want to you want to make
sure that you know this is this is a big event.

(40:12):
This look and here's the cool thing. It can't You
can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think
I am. But the winner here gets on a plane
and gets flown to Shelby, North Carolina. Correct, that's correct.

Speaker 4 (40:25):
They don't even get to go home.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
And not to mention, all the games in the World
Series are on ESPNU, and I believe the championship game
is on ESPN two. If I'm not mistaken, correct.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
That is correct, That is correct. I mean it's a
big deal. I mean it's it's a cool thing. I mean,
you know, to win it is a pipe dream for most,
you know, because only eight teams are going to make
it every year. You know, you got to have such
good fortune throughout the course of the season and then
have that same good fortune during the tournament. But somebody,

(41:03):
somebody will leave Washington, Missouri and head to Shelby, North
Carolina or or Shelby and they'll have a good time.

Speaker 4 (41:10):
There's no doubt about it. Hopefully it's.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
There. You go, hey, look, you know, and that's the thing.
I think, that's the that's a fantastic thing. You talk
about playing for something Mitch, and an opportunity that you know,
most kids around the country don't get an opportunity to do.
That's I think those are things and and we talk
about baseball, building character and those things life lessons and

(41:37):
things you walk through. If you can put together a
group of kids that have the same goal and learn
how to play as a team, how are we competing together? How?
These are things that when you look at because all
of us at some point stopped playing sports and we
went into business, we're doing our things. How do you

(41:58):
not want to a person of that kind of caliber
working for you, that knows how to be a member
of a team, that can push forward, that can do
they work through adversity, know how to achieve success. And
I think we've kind of maybe lost sight of some
of those things in the pursuit of just getting to college.

(42:21):
Well what are we how are we growing this? And
I think these are the things and lessons sometimes that
need to come back to what we're doing here in
youth sports.

Speaker 5 (42:34):
I couldn't have said that any better when I think about,
you know, what we're going through with club ball, and
then kind of where Legion's at, and you know, some
people are happy just playing at the next level, you know,
or just to saying I get a chance to play
college baseball. I don't remember ever going to something going.

(42:56):
I just want to be a part of something, and
that being enough. There was a Jameis Winston was on
a podcast not too long ago, I don't It was
with like Ryan Clark and some guys I don't remember,
and they asked him if you know what he felt
about not getting to the super Bowl until I guess
last year as a backup or whatever, and he goes,
the only thing I ever dreamed about was making it

(43:18):
to the NFL, and that was it. He didn't dream enough.
He didn't dream big enough. He didn't dream about winning
super Bowls. He didn't dream about those things, so he
didn't work hard enough for it. And I thought that
was very a very humbling thing to say, because this
guy's made millions and he still is willing to admit

(43:40):
that he didn't dream big enough. And I understand it's
difficult to play college baseball, and yet beyond right, I
didn't want to play high school baseball just to be
a part of the high school baseball team.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
I wanted to win.

Speaker 5 (43:52):
I wanted to win my conference I had just met,
I had shamanad had guys that got drafted, played in
the professional baseball ranks. We were pitching against and playing against.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
I wanted to win.

Speaker 5 (44:03):
I got fired up to beat these guys. And then
when I didn't, I went to Legion and I wanted
to win my zones. I wanted to ren our districts
and then zones. And you know, think about going to
Shelbyville or whatever it was called, sorry in North Carolina.
How awesome that would be?

Speaker 2 (44:21):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (44:21):
I don't have that ability as a club coach to
take my team to something that special, you know. And
I know that PBR in perfect game and all these
people have great events. I'm not taking away that, but
I got goosebumps hearing can't talk about somebody is leaving
this weekend and flying for something so much more important

(44:46):
and pretty motivating if you ask me, and if we're
not motivated enough, you probably aren't gonna play college baseball.
And that tells me why these teams have college kids
all over it. It's because of the desires that these
young men have. And you know, sure there's a place

(45:07):
to play for everybody. And if you just want to
play baseball and you just want to be a part
of something that's recreational baseball.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
M R can't final thoughts.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
What let's see what I would just having everybody that's
you know, paying attention here to this podcast would be,
you know, come out and watch some of these games
and then you'll figure out what we're talking about. You know,
I joked around on your show before with my my
one of my favorite sayings is that you don't know

(45:44):
what you don't know? Right you come out and your
eyes get opened and you realize you it's a new
realization that you know, you think that you know everything
about baseball because you're playing for a team, and then
you come out and you see what we're playing for.

(46:05):
The fanfare that that that goes.

Speaker 4 (46:07):
Around it, I guarantee you. I mean our regional we're
doing a.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Lot of cool, really neat things, which so is every
other region. It's almost like we're in competition with each
other who can do the craziest, wildest, you know, foolest thing.

Speaker 4 (46:21):
Like we're busy.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Smith is going to throw out the first pitch on
Wednesday night before our game. I mean, doing things to
make this special. But then when the games begin and
you watch the quality of the game. That is what's
gonna should change your mind.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
There you go. I love it. Folks, you can catch.
If you can't get I I would encourage you. I'm
with can't If you're in the area, get out to
Ronstick Park. It's a great venue. For one, it's a
great venue to watch baseball in coached in it. We've
live stream there. We're gonna go back and do it again.

(46:58):
Mitch Thomas will be on the call with us through
some of these games. We'll have the head coach from
Saint Francis Borgia, Rob Struckoff, joining us for some calls.
We got Dane Goff, head coach of Washington joining us
for some calls. So we've got we're looking forward to.
We're gonna have a lot of fun. Check us out.

(47:19):
If you can't get there, watch right here on the
channel everything. Of course, you know what it is. All
you got to do is click on it and watch it.
That's what we're here for. We want to share as
much baseball, youth baseball as we can and American Legion
has been the catalyst for much of youth baseball in

(47:41):
America for a long time and and I think they
can still. They are still a big part of what
we do in baseball. So we're we're we're thankful to
UH to Kent for thinking of us and bringing us
on board on this event. We appreciate it very much, Kent,
and and look forward to working with all you guys.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
We'll look forward to having you guys out there.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
Absolutely, Mitch always appreciated. Buddy, you gotta get throw them
and Booth going again.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
Bro Man, listen.

Speaker 5 (48:16):
There, I'm a I'm a Lake Saint Louis wins Villian
Now I love I love my orange and black. I'm
a writtener guy, I will always. By the way, there's
a sophomore there infielder. That's pretty darn legit. I he
was at the thing, Brian. That was the kid that
was the kid in the white shirt at the thing
this past Saturday. Yeah, thank you that brain feart. That

(48:42):
young man that was all over the infield in slides,
just making plays left to right. He's a writtener kid, sophomore.
Don't get me wrong. I love UH Legion baseball. You
know some of this it has to make sense, and
you know, unfortunately I'm not in position to do that.
There's enough people in Saint Louis that should be able
to get Thilm and Booth going. But you know, some

(49:04):
of it's actually I think they're I think they're I
think they've closed the Legion Hall. I could be wrong.
The Legion field, the pool and all that stuff that
was there I think is getting demoed. I could be
wrong on that, but that's something that i've heard, can't
I don't know if that's something you can help me with.

Speaker 4 (49:23):
But I have posted about it.

Speaker 5 (49:27):
Yeah, I'm post three thirty eight all day long, but
I got to help Winsville. Now they're in my backyard.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
There there you go. All right, Well, hey folks, thanks
for tuning. If you like what we're doing, please hit
the subscribe button, hit the dinger next to it. It's
not a home run, but it sure is. Plenty of
notifications for up upcoming episodes, just like this baseball talk
all the way around. We appreciate our guest kick Getzy

(49:55):
Mitch Thomas for coming on. We'll see at the ballpark, folks,
but for now, have buddy, have a great day in
the lord. All you pictures.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
Mitch, you give me the pitching.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
I knew he was gonna do that. No, I'm gonna
give the pitching to Kit Kient. Some advice for the pictures.

Speaker 4 (50:17):
Stay out of the middle of the plate all day long.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
Mitch, What would you do with that pitch in the
middle of the plate.

Speaker 5 (50:26):
I'm gonna park it, probably foul because my eyes are
gonna be about this big, and I'd probably a.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Pitch I'm gonna miss. But I'm gonna swing Haart, that's
for sure, just.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
In case you hit it. That's it, all right, folks.
We'll see you all next time.

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