Baseball Talk w/ Diego Solares & Chris Erwin | Playing High School Baseball | YBMcast - YBMcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
M definitely a different type of process.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Cut down or freeze, you know, being a coach's son, jackson,
of course, Uh, they keep reaching way, why stuff the
things I hit by a pitch.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Oh that's the way to open. Hello, everyone, welcome inside
the Red Earth Production Studios for this edition of ybm
cast Baseball Talk powered by Game seven Baseball Game seven

(00:49):
baseball dot com. You know, if you've noticed, I do
not have my dot com.

Speaker 4 (00:55):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Game seven had on much to the chagranted the gentleman
to my right. But he is a Padres fan, and
I always i'm this guy. If he was showed up
here and he's wearing a Padre shirt, that's cool with me.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
I don't care.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
I always think that people should follow their team if
you like them. Don't give people you can tell them,
you know, I think they suck, but you know, you
respect the person, the respect the fandom, right except for
I feel that way about the Yankees personally. I do

(01:33):
not do pin stripes. I would never put a team
in pinstripes. That is the evil Empire? Are the Dodgers Now.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
That I have I don't care about the Yankees at all.
I don't want anything like almost twenty years now.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Uh, it was fun last year because it was not
just not just that, it was there's a lot of memories. Honestly,
that's the first time I really watched baseball at at
a level that I could remember. I mean, I remember
the big Red Machine here and there, you know, as
a kid and whatnot and talking about him. But in

(02:15):
seventy seven, uh, you know, Reggie Jackson crushing bombs, beating
up on the Dodgers. Then again in seventy eight, it
was just like, that's what I grew up on. So
you understand the uh the intensity of that dislike, I
know you don't, and that's okay. And uh but it
wasn't until eighty one that the Dodgers finally beat him,

(02:38):
and oh my gosh, that was terrible. Man, it was
quite a run. And uh but you know that's baseball, right, Yep.
You're a Cardinal fan.

Speaker 4 (02:49):
I'm a Cardinal fan. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
See there's that.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
Yeah, I'm a big Cardinal fan.

Speaker 5 (02:54):
I always.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
You know, I like the Cardinals. I like I like
to watch the Cardinals play. I like to watch baseball.
I like to watch the Cardinals play baseball. You know,
it's one of the better franchises around as far as
I hope they still will be.

Speaker 4 (03:08):
Oh that's it's tough stretch. It's tough stress, right, that's
being nice. It is being nice.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
I mean I think they're playing a little above their
pay grade. Yeah, personally, Yeah, because honestly, I didn't expect
them to do this.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
Well I didn't either. I look, keep looking the stands
and one.

Speaker 5 (03:28):
Okay, there's a chance, five out chance.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (03:32):
They got the Potters for four this weekend. Oh, it's
a big one.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
You're gonna go.

Speaker 5 (03:37):
Got a tournament I went last year, will be working.
I went last year that the Potter has lost both
games shockingly, one of them was a walk off. There
was like ten people in the stands and it was
one hundred and fifteen degrees. So just like it will
be this week.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, yeah, nice and hot.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Speaking of tournaments, Youth Baseball Midwest will be heading to
Sedalia as soon as we're done recording right here. We're
heading to the Missouri American Legion Baseball nineteen U State
Championship Tournament. Got some good teams get to I saw
Gavin Williams, the kid from Saint Elizabeth, which the other day. Yeah,

(04:15):
he is for real. I like that kid a lot.
He throws strikes. Yeah, it's amazing what happens when you
throw strikes. And Moberley is back in it. A lot
of those kids, they're kind of a lot of young guys.
But Mitchell Bruce is going to Crowder is going to
be there, Jackson Angle, k Baum all Moberley area. They

(04:42):
got a kid going to the mineral area. I'm trying
to remember all the names, but Kirkwood from here Post
one fifty six. First time they've been in the state
championship in like twenty years. I think it is so
good for them. Big big shout out to Chris Copeland,
who's who's pushing and work hard bring that club back.

(05:03):
Festus is going to go back. They're just a juggernaut
in American Legion baseball. Fest has been doing it for a.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
Long time, a long time. They were good back when
I was playing.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Right and Zach Bowle, you know, he was coaching there.
Alex Cassenna, he's from the state of Washington but played
at I think he had a little bit of time
in the minors coaching that team. Now, they got some
good dudes. They're always there. They were the last team
from Missouri to play in the World Series. And it

(05:36):
wasn't that long ago. It is in twenty nineteen, so
Festus will be there. We've got Sedelia of course, the Travelers.
Connor Spinagel does a great job with that group, whom
I missing Drew. Oh gosh, Mule Club new one, the
Mule Club out of Warrensburg. Yep, Eli Anderson, Charlie Morgan.

(05:57):
I'll get yeah because I mentioned Gavin Williams. It's jeff City.
They're they're they're loaded, fadom A kids, Halias. Uh, you
know Sat Elizabeth. They got three Saint Elizabeth kids, that
Jeff City squad. It's made up of basically three different
groups of all state champions of class one, two, three,

(06:21):
I mean, and they are really good. It's it's really
good baseball. So but I was getting back to where
did I say, what Juel Club? That's it, Warrensburg, that's it. Uh,
they're young, They've got a lot of kids that'll be back.
So it'll be interesting. We'll look forward to it should

(06:42):
be a good one. I appreciate Kyle Zimmerman, the head
coach at Smith Cotton and UH coach Boyer from Moberley
High School will be joining us on the call, so
appreciate them coming over and working with this. It's gonna
be a lot of fun, So tune in tomorrow. We

(07:03):
start with our road to Sedalia. Then we got two
games five and eight, Friday the same and Saturday all
day Sunday Championship. Look forward to it, folks. I want
to introduce I know we've been just chatting.

Speaker 5 (07:14):
Of course, you know.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
The gentleman to my right, Diego Slais legend, legend.

Speaker 5 (07:21):
I would not go that was quick. No, I would
not go that far. I'm just happy to be here.
Everywhere I go, happy to be there.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
And to my left, met this gentleman at the Game
seven Baseball World Series. He had his team there. This
is the head coach at Father mc givney High School,
Chris Irwin.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. I'm excited to
be here.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, man, appreciate you taking the time. We got a
chance to chat. I'll probably talk more than I always do.
I always talk more than I should.

Speaker 5 (07:52):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
I'm passionate about a lot of these things, and this
is one of the reasons why we do this podcast,
and we want to talk, you know, playing high school baseball.
You know, we we were having a chat off air,
you know, before we started, We're talking about major leagues
and Diego and I are talking about, you know, throwing
ninety eight and dudes being scared to get hit by

(08:15):
ninety eight even in the major leagues. And I think
that's real. But you know, high school baseball is not
played at ninety eight miles an hour.

Speaker 5 (08:23):
It's just not.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
And I think that's an interesting take. But before we
get into some of these things and how we build
to that, I want to ask you, Chris, you know,
do you think that high school baseball is better today
than it was when you played.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
I think that's a great question, at great debate, And
if I had to really think about that, I'd say
that the top end players are better than we were.
They have more technology, more abilities. There's a lot more
facilities for them to practice and get better and hone
their craft. You know, there's a lot more with video
technology than back in the day. I think the low

(08:54):
end players are not as good. I think that there's
a lot more Most of us back in they played
multiple sports, so there wasn't an attention to detail at
a one or two sport in high school, you're playing
all three sports. A lot of us did, and so
you're in and out of season so quickly that you're
focusing on the season when you're in the season. And

(09:16):
then the summer was always baseball, right, so you really
have two seasons for baseball and then the other two
you're playing you know, football, soccer or basketball. You know, wrestling,
that was that big back in the day when when
I was I didn't wrestle, but you know, those were
all the competing sports. And but if you told me
that I would have been able to have an indoor
hitting facility to go to, I don't know that I

(09:37):
would have played basketball. I don't know. I mean I
enjoyed playing my you know, my grandfather was a big
basketball player and he loved watching me. I wasn't very
good at the sport, but it's what you did because
you know, you didn't have anything else to do, and
I wasn't going to sit around and do nothing. So
I think that plays a big part of the decision
making today when when kids go into it. So I

(09:58):
think that the high end players are better. You still
have the anomalies that came out during my are or
guys's era that you know good players, a good player
and in the era, but I think collectively that they're
throwing harder, their their their skills are better. And then
you have the group that you know is filling out

(10:18):
the high school team that maybe not be as good
because they don't play it enough. They're not playing summer baseball,
they're not playing you know, legion baseball, they're not playing
select baseball, whatever it may be. So I don't know
that the and always well, I should say nobody. There's
a lot of people that aren't watching baseball. So when
you don't watch baseball, you're not understanding the intricacies of

(10:40):
the game and what to do. I've seen a lot
of bad base running just because guys are not watching
the game. They're not understanding the differences of the game.
And I also think that's how high school teams can
separate themselves, or part of what they can separate in
the game today is taking advantage of understanding the game
better than maybe your opponent can. So high end players

(11:01):
the answer the question high end players, I think they're
they're better. I think collectively the teams maybe not as
you know, collectively as good, but the high end players
certainly are.

Speaker 5 (11:12):
Yeah, I don't have a comparison obviously for when you played.

Speaker 4 (11:16):
Or the old joke comes out more.

Speaker 5 (11:20):
I'm more of like I grew up playing in the
era that we're in right now, right right, I'm twenty five.
I'm not the old like I still kind of kind
of build in. Honestly, didn't even mean for that to
be an old joke, but half my age. The one
thing I will agree with is I think I think,
like what when you say better, like, what.

Speaker 4 (11:42):
Does that mean? You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (11:43):
Are they more? Are they more talented? I would say
they're more talented. Yeah, there's probably I.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
Don't know that that's a great point. I don't know
more talented there is.

Speaker 5 (11:53):
When I say talented, I would say there is a
larger collection of players now than there were quote unquot
back in the day. That have louder raw tools, Guys
that have more arm strength, guys that run faster, they're bigger,
they're more physical at sixteen, seventeen eighteen than they probably
were when you guys were around. But are they better

(12:14):
because I watch a lot of baseball and there's a
lot of dudes that, like you said, don't run the bases.
There's a lot of bad base running that don't know
where to be in the right spot. Pictures that don't
back up bases or cover first base on a ground
ball on the right side, First baseman that don't trail
runners when they go to second base, first baseman that
when a guy hits a double and it's a sure
fire double, the guy's not turning around and watching and

(12:36):
making sure he hits the back. I haven't seen that
one time this entire summer. Double cuts the catcher saying
cut the ball off. Just like small things that you
probably get.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
The picture being the cut man.

Speaker 5 (12:50):
Yeah, the picture when it's a no doubt gap shot
and he's standing there and the throws going to the
plate and instead of backing up home, the pitcher cuts
it off. That drives me nuts. But like the things
that you get from actually watching the game and focusing
on those things, I don't think those get stressed enough
now as because I and don't get me wrong, there

(13:12):
are programs, whether it's travel or legion or high school
that do focus on it, because I've been around that.
But I think there's a lot of individualization going on
right now from a training standpoint, and you'll see it
like and again, the importance of summer ball and club
ball and travel ball. We can talk about that for

(13:33):
three hours, Like, doesn't really matter if you win a tournament?
Does it really matter if if you guys go one
for three in a tournament? But there's fifty college coaches
there and all the players are getting recruited, right, because
how much does a college coach care about your ex
travel team winning the Scout connect Saint Louis Cup tournament?

Speaker 4 (13:50):
Right?

Speaker 5 (13:52):
But there's a lot like I have seen a lot
of teams that are crazy talented, like one through eleven
or twelve, one through thirteen. Man, there's some really good
baseball players and they don't win anything. And why is
that likely? Because we're not stressing the importance of winning.
We're stressing a lot of individualization and whether that's right

(14:14):
or wrong. Like, we could debate that for hours, But
that's kind of my view on it as someone that's
surrounded and watches a lot of baseball.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
I like the point you made, you know better? What
makes something better?

Speaker 4 (14:25):
Sure? You know?

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Because I think that because of the development processes that
we have today. You know, like you said, there wasn't
a place to go hit and it was cold outside,
so you went to the gym and played basketball and
to where you grew up in a different era where
there was a place to go, oh yeah and do that.

(14:48):
And so yeah, I can see I understand your point
to that, because just in the fact that they can
develop those tools better in today's game, not necessarily that
they couldn't have them, but they just didn't.

Speaker 5 (15:03):
Yeah, exactly, Like, it's not like just because we're now.
There are technological things and things that we found out,
but it's not just because we're twenty years later that
we have some magic potion. Like, to be honest with you,
a lot of the times when you talk about developing velocity,
it's just an emphasis on the weight room, right, Like,
how much even when I was playing seven, eight, nine

(15:23):
years ago in high school, we didn't lift. We lifted
like push ups, sit ups, pull up stuff like that.
Now you've got these dudes doing like all these super
minute workouts that are hyper focused on this muscle to
do this and keep you healthy, and it's just more
like that information is more readily available than it was
twenty years ago, and you have the people now and

(15:44):
the resources and the facilities to implement it. But it's
not like the actual baseball things are different. Like if
you're talking about growing velocity, a lot of it is. Yeah, man,
you just got to eat and lift more. And I
don't know that pictures back in the day, we're dumbbell
benching one hundred and thirty by six because I didn't

(16:04):
do that. We didn't do any of that. We'd lifted
like football players or it was just body weight stuff.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
Yeah. I think that's you know, the other part of
it is the technology of kids understanding. I didn't know
what a kid in California was doing. I didn't know
what a kid in Florida was doing. When I played,
we didn't have cell phones. Yes, right, so you know,
and I'm not really that old, right but you know,
I mean apparently i'm old, but no, But I think

(16:33):
that's guys can compare. You were just comparing yourself to
the other players in the area. Yeah, you know, so
if you know, in your talent level, if somebody's better
than me, I'm trying to get better than him, you know,
and that guy maybe two towns over. Now, guys are
trying to, you know, really measure themselves against some kid
out of Indianapolis or some kid out of Atlanta, or
some kid out of and and you see some different

(16:53):
workouts that are out there, and what guys are doing,
and now they're comparing themselves to the national perspective, which
is really the college and professional game. Way back in
the day, you could see, you know, what these guys
were doing collegiately. But then again in college you saw
guys the team was made up of kids from that state. Right,
you have eyes made up from kids from Illinois and

(17:15):
Texas made up from kids from Texas. You didn't really
get this burst of national recruiting, you know, or I
should say you did get this burst of national recruiting
for somebody schools. Now, you always had the what I
was considered this is maybe more football related, but you
have your Stanfords and your Notre Dames that were always
recruiting nationally, right because of the recognition. Again, that's way

(17:36):
back in the day. I'm not talking about now. But
now you know, you'll get a kid that gets recruited
from Illinois that goes all over the place, right, And
you just didn't see that back in the day. And
so I think this comparison, this Social media has helped
with kids understanding that there's always somebody bigger, there's always
somebody stronger, there's always somebody faster, where before it was
just is anybody stronger in my zip code? Right? And

(18:00):
that was really all they were focused on. If you are. Unfortunately,
they may have stopped training harder because they already knew
they were the best guy in the zip code. And
I don't know that that was great for the game
back in the day.

Speaker 5 (18:12):
It's also like now, the amount of information that's available. Like, really,
if you're a sixteen year old kid and you're trying
to gain velo or increase your bat speed or something like,
you can just go on YouTube and type how do
I gain ten miles per hour on my fastball? And
you could probably watch like an hour or two hours

(18:32):
worth of YouTube videos about how to lift, how to eat,
how to track your lifts, how to track what you're eating,
do this lift on this day, Here's a thirty day
program on how to work out. Now does that stuff work?
Or Like, I don't know, but the spread of information
or like, if you're a pitcher that's trying to tinker
with a curveball grip, you could YouTube baseball pitching grips

(18:54):
and here's fifty big leaguers going through Here's how I
hold my slider, or here's my queue. You can go
to pitching Ninja and do this and do that. Like,
there's so much information that you got. We didn't. I
didn't even have that. I never YouTube until I got
to college. I watched a ton of Trevor Bauer stuff
because he was the only one doing it at the time,
with like pairs of reference and change ups and and

(19:15):
hey do this with your with your this and whatever.
But like all the information that the players nowaday have, like, really,
if you're not molding yourself into the player you want
to be, it's kind of on you at this point.
Now genetics plays a factor whatever, But there is there's
so much out there, you know, and.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
You guys the YouTube video and uh watching those things
and the and and the amount of information that comes around.
I we just talked about, you know, why is it
baseball in one respect better? Because we see these things

(19:55):
and I think this is the trouble. This is to
me what's troubling. And you can you know, as we
talk about, you know, is it better today high school baseball?
Because we have all this information, and I think sometimes
it's too much. Sure, And as a fifteen year old
kid and you coach a lot of kids, you coach

(20:16):
a lot of kids. You see a lot of kids.
How many of them can take that information and disseminate
it in an applicable way for themselves to get better
utilizing it? Application of knowledge? You know, my dad helped
me with this many years ago. He's been a minister

(20:38):
for a long time. It's a matter of my life
and who I am as a person. And a simple equation,
and it's you can find it in most flight manuals.
It's called power plus attitude equals performance power. Everybody we
know we equate that to knowledge. Right, So you have knowledge,
but can you use the knowledge? Any knowledge that cannot

(21:00):
be used as useless. The application of what you know
has to be the tangible thought process. And I think
that's where we get lost in all the information.

Speaker 5 (21:13):
Yeah, I think I think a reason why, Like that
method that I just mentioned of like a sixteen year
old going on YouTube and finding it may not work?
Is that right? Like you have all this data, you
have all this information, Like what do you do with it?
That's why the the P three's, the npls, the clubs
of the world are so beneficial to the success of

(21:34):
the player is because they have people that can take
all this information and make it really really dumb down. Honestly,
Like from a pitching standpoint, And I always reference pitching
because I'm a pitching guy, Like whatever for me hitting like,
hit ball hard, cool, don't strike out, Like that's that's
what it is. But like we have all this information
with the pitching side, like like the track man data,

(21:56):
the rap Sodo data, how much the like the spin
on the all the access of the ball, like and
all these dudes can take all this information, like these
pitching guys and make it super simple to where it's like,
hey man, just take your fingers and instead of holding
the ball like this, turn it that way and see
what happens. And then, oh my god, this subtle change
from this to that goes from a bad slider to

(22:21):
really good right, and all you had to do was
move your fels this way.

Speaker 4 (22:25):
You got it.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
You know, a ten degree till.

Speaker 5 (22:27):
Or hey, all your pressure points are like right here,
let's just put a little bit more and now we
go from a flat fastball to a sinker. It's really good, right,
and they take they get that information from all these
numbers and they're able to take all these numbers that
look like a math equation and make it to this
to that. And that's why those guys are so good,

(22:49):
because you can have all the information in the.

Speaker 3 (22:50):
World if you don't know how to apply.

Speaker 5 (22:53):
And let's just be honest, most fifteen, sixteen and seventeen
year olds, they're.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
Very few kids can take that information and bring it
in and turn it how your body feels, those types
of things, you know to that point, Well, let me
try this. There's there's kids that just don't know how
to think that way.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
No, and they can't see themselves doing it right. Sure,
so they can get up there and they can do
the home remedy of I'm going to work on this X, Y,
and Z, but they can't see themselves, you know, and
I think that that's the or they can't break it
down in the frame that they need. You know, at
the release point, are we still staying with here or
have we moved back because our muscle memory is telling
us we may grip it that way, but we end

(23:31):
up in the same spot when we release it, right,
so those types of technologies that allows them to see
what we're doing is really unlocked. I think a really
cool part of the game that we never knew before.
We kind of probably assume some of it because we
know the game. But can you slow it down fast
enough or sorry, slow it down enough where the kid

(23:51):
can digest it, and then can you replicate it where
you get it in full speed motion and you can
get the kid to do what we want them to do.

Speaker 5 (24:00):
And now you have to do it in a game,
right in a pressure situation implication. Yeah, like that's where
that's where the stuff gets even more amplified, right like you,
Like I have seen so many guys work on things
in bullpen, Like like Ben Hernandez was a guy, super
sixty guy, I think like four or five years ago.
The Royals took him in the second round and the

(24:20):
big knock on him and man, it was a big
physical kid. Fastball was mid nineties. He had one of
the best high school changeups I've ever seen. The biggest
knock on him was couldn't spin a breaking ball like
never it was. It wasn't even like it wasn't even
like below average, Like he just couldn't he had no
feel to spin a breaking ball, right. He went to
the Super sixty and he was throwing his breaking ball

(24:42):
in the bullpen and it was hard. It was like
low eighties probably I don't remember, but watching it, I'm like,
that's okay, Like it's a usable breaking ball if it's fastball,
change up, and then here is like a get me
over you go in a game, no feel for it whatsoever.
And that's what in my opinion, he had Tommy John
and whatever, like high school arms are risky from the

(25:03):
draft standpoint, but he has not really ever taken a
step in pro ball. And here's a guy in high
school that, like you watch him pitch, it's like that's
a big leaguer. Like he's got the body, the velo's there,
he has a plus secondary and in a bullpen the
breaking ball was okay. And then when the game, like
when the lights were on, I have to get dudes out.
There's there's radar guns behind the stand. Some private school

(25:23):
kid from Chicago is chirping at me over here, like
I can't spend this breaking ball at all. And that's
the part of it too. It is like how do
you like the application side of it?

Speaker 4 (25:33):
For a teenager. You know, that's a really good point
because I don't know that we spend enough time there, right,
I really do, And we try, you know when I
say we as in our program, we try to spend
as much time on the mental piece of it as
we can. And I think that's a lot that's forgotten
and we just say, oh, go practice it, or go
think about it, or go clear it out of your head. Right,

(25:53):
And you know, but we spend so much time on
the technical details of every little thing. But to your point,
you get in a game and you got all that
other stuff going on, and some kids just flat out
cannot handle it.

Speaker 5 (26:06):
Like how do you simulate it?

Speaker 4 (26:07):
Yeah, you know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (26:08):
Like that you can't. The only way you simulate it
is by doing it right. And I think that's why,
like the and if we tie it all back into
high school baseball, like the teams in the area that
have been really successful, it's because they they early season
put themselves in those environments, like I'll say Edwardsville for it,
because just because I live in Edwardsville. Like every year

(26:29):
they do the PBR Kickoff Classic, and Tim Funkouser like
puts the schedule together and everything. But like if you
look at who they play, it's always the Chicago the
teams from Chicago that are the best teams every year
because those games are gonna be high atmosphere. Like I
remember watching them play brother Rice at Edwardsville the year

(26:50):
after they had played each other in the state championship.
I think it was twenty twenty three, correct, and that
game that this it was in March. The game and
in the grand scheme of things, meant absolutely nothing, like
but they did. That was a playoff game, like it
was the opening game of the season for both teams,
and you could tell like they didn't like each other.

(27:12):
There was chirping going on. Like that is how you
get better. You can't the mental thing. You can stress it.
You can teach techniques how to slow yourself down, like
the breathing techniques and all that stuff, but unless you're
in that atmosphere, it's really hard to do. And some
kids they just crumble. And it is what it is.
Like I was that way, Like I could not pitch
in high leverage situations.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
I couldn't do it.

Speaker 5 (27:33):
Like if you look at my numbers in college, they're
very bad. To look at them, but in high leverage situations.
When our team was it was like a one run game.
I probably had like a fifteen r And if I
ever came into a game when we were down by
three runs or up by three runs, I think I
got everybody out. I couldn't do it. That's just how
it is.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
You're right, and the same thing I agree with you
on edwardsult They put themselves in it as good a
scenario as possible to simulate something that's going to happen
three months later. And it's it's fascinating to watch because
you know there's no way to simulate if you can
talk about piping in music and trying to.

Speaker 5 (28:12):
Bring it out, you need some fan yelling at your
your players, telling them all these things.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
And I think this goes to, especially in high school,
the other part of that attitude, because if application, how
do you apply everything, your knowledge and whatnot in a
setting that is very hostile towards you having success? And
and I think part of the I have a problem

(28:43):
with some of this in the way things have gone
very negative and I don't like it. Never have I
think you can chirp and you know, listen, I've been
on a basketball court in my day, and it's not pretty.
It's not play isn't And if you shy away from

(29:03):
those things, you will get beat up hot quick in
a hurry. And I mean, I understand trash talking and
all those types of things, but I think it we
could clean that up a bit. But on the other
end of that, we'll we'll leave that for another time.
But I want to come back to the attitude. See

(29:23):
that goes to the individual. How confident are you in
yourself and your own abilities? And at some point each
player realizes I've peaked. You can say what you want to,
but we all know inside what we're capable of. This
is where I'm at. I don't think I can get

(29:44):
that guy out. And once that, once that is there,
all the rest of the stuff, that's when it becomes
real I can't get this guy out, or I can't
hit this guy. I can't do that. I can't And
your attitude changes, and then all the pressure of those
things begin to seep in and I think that's just

(30:06):
where it's at. What is your level and your ability?
And at some point we all just peek in our abilities.

Speaker 4 (30:11):
It flips on the other side of that too, right, yes,
I mean absolutely. I've seen guys that should not be
able to get guys out, that routinely get guys out
because they believe in their stuff so much, and they
believe in either the system that they're in or what
they're doing on the mound or at the plate. And
it shouldn't happen. You're watching it, and you're going this

(30:32):
shut down. What's going on? And the kid's confidence level
is through the roof and his guys behind it. Yes,
and especially from a pitching standpoint, Yes, this guy knows
that he can are shortstop and second basement, are going
to field everything. Here you go hit it, We're gonna
field it. And then all of a sudden, now you
can start expanding and nibbling and do things because your

(30:53):
confidence level is so high that I don't care if
they hit the ball, We're gonna field it. It's a
pretty spec place to be, right, And then you fall
off that cliff real quick, and and then everything, all
the doubt and everything else. You know. I've seen guys
that have great stuff, that pitch really good and have
a great defense, and the first time a guy makes

(31:15):
an air, it's like, oh no, like this is gonna
be a disaster.

Speaker 5 (31:21):
Wow, you can't get to the fin fast enough. There
there has not been a player on the ilinoid side
that has come through our area that has gone on
to have success collegiately or at a professional level that
has lacked any of what he just said. Like all

(31:41):
the guys, like all the guys that have come through
here that are dudes, it's because they have that mentality,
like you have to have it, you really do it.
And honestly, like, I think it's an underrated aspect of
college recruitment.

Speaker 4 (31:54):
I don't.

Speaker 5 (31:54):
I haven't talked to very many and they're they're worried
about different things, right, But I haven't talked to very
many college coaches that have asked me like is he
a dog?

Speaker 4 (32:03):
Like?

Speaker 5 (32:03):
Does does he have that? And what's it like? Mentally?
A lot of people are like, well, can he play
the game? And I get it, you have to be
able to play the game, right, Like if you're the
most confident person in the world, but you can't play whatever.
But there have been a lot of guys that I
can think of that pop in my head right now
that have gotten the most of their ability because they

(32:24):
think they're the best player in the world when they
play baseball. And if you have that, that, to me,
you can be a really good baseball player. If you
have that and you're a seven to five runner and
you don't have a huge arm, and you don't bang
balls in the gap or throw ninety four miles an hour,
but you might think you're that good. Yeah, and that

(32:46):
goes a long way, A long way. He goes a
long way.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
And I would love that. I think that was you know,
you go back to the conversations of what college coaches
we're looking for. I feel like we've gotten away from
that for sure. You know where they're now looking for. Okay,
is he two twenty or heavier? Is he six foot
two or six foot three? How long are his arms?
How big are his hands? I'm like, are we at
a football compine now? Yeah? You know, because ultimately Kenny win? Yeah?

(33:14):
Can he win? Can in when the game's on the line, Kenny,
And this is the dumbest thing in the world for
most but not for me. Right, Kenny hit a twenty
five hopper to second base to score the run from third. Yes,
you know, we we have rounds of BP. We call
him Pepper and we go through it, and we do
it every single day. And so I want to know,

(33:35):
can my guy hit a twenty five hopper to second
base to score the run from third? Because if he can't,
I'm what, I gotta hope he hits a home run
because that's a whole lot harder been grounding off the second.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
Give me a productive out, please.

Speaker 5 (33:49):
Yeah, And that's where like we we come back to
like the whole era we live in, right, Like what
are we trying to do? Yeah, your perspective as a
high school guy, or someone's perspective as a college coach
at X school is going to be way different than
the guy that coaches the summer ball team.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
I liken it to this, and I go back to
this example because it was an epiphany for me coaching
nine year olds. How does a kid who fields everything
in practice then get out in a game even at
nine years old and can't field anything. You're like, his

(34:29):
hands are good, everything works, everything you see the movement,
good footwork, even at nine. You you can see certain
things and patterns that move, and you're like, there's no
reason for this young man not to be able to
field a ground ball even in a game. And it
dawned on me right there what confidence really is and
an understanding of this because we would play and so

(34:51):
I started playing Knockout, and you play Knockout and these
kids are rolling, you know, they're fielding everything. And I
would we'd go through three rounds, everybody fielded it. I
would stop and go, Okay, how many of you guys
made an are in the last game? You know, raise
your hands. I said, you just fielded everything?

Speaker 4 (35:12):
Here.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
What's the difference? And it's like, I'm not coaches asking
me for you're the coach, and and it really did.
And it's like I said, guys, the difference is you

(35:33):
know the baseball is coming to you. And that was
a light bulb. How do you get a player to
understand during a game that each and every pitch is
going to be hit to me and be prepared mentally
to field a baseball? The amount of focus that it

(35:55):
takes at the major league level, and they you trickle
that down all the way even at the high school
level when you start playing high level high school baseball.
The amount of focus and intent that it takes to
have that mindset every single pitch so that you're confident
when you see the baseball and whatnot. And that's when

(36:18):
it dawned on me how hard the game really is.

Speaker 4 (36:20):
Yeah, yeah, it's you're one hundred percent right. You've seen
those guys that are big time players and big games
only yeah right. And it's because you're playing, you know,
a different team on a Tuesday and it's not the
big rival that's coming on a Saturday, and the pitcher
is not even close to the same guy you're going
to see on Saturday. And the Tuesday game is bad, right,

(36:45):
and you're like, what is going on? But the Saturday
game against the team that beats this team by thirty
five runs, right, you win that game and everything is
crisp and everything is sharp, and everything is good, and
you have that conversation. But it's all up here. Nothing
has to do with the talent level of what you

(37:05):
have versus what you're playing. It's all the mental game
of you can't taken it bad off if you want,
because hey, you don't know who's around b right, or
you don't know who's around and at the park. But
be you can't do that at a collegiate level. For
these guys that move on, you're not going to get
that that guy I'm in a Tuesday that is throwing

(37:26):
seventy two miles to an hour. You know you're not,
so how do you prepare your mind to not take
a pitch off? And especially in today's world with you know,
instant coco everything, right, I mean, it's you know, I
got something to do, or I can pick this up
and I got something going on. Now can you focus
for five minutes and not have something in front of you?

(37:50):
And the ability for some kids to do that is
not very high, and it's hard to try to navigate
that when you're I mean, I don't remember number one. Well,
of course it wasn't around. Think about just ten years
ago or when I first started coaching. I never had
to say, hey, guys, put your phones down at practice

(38:10):
and let's let's go do this.

Speaker 5 (38:11):
I get guys. I get guys that like I'm at
tournaments and I'm tweeting, like I'm tweeting players out, and
like they're they like the tweet in the middle of
the game, in the middle of the game, and I
don't know, like I'm like, okay, one of two things,
either your dad runs your Twitter, which I'm out on,
or you're in the dugout and you saw the notification
and you decided I need to drop the like on

(38:32):
this right now. Either one of those two things, we're
both in a bad spot. If that's where we're we
are at a bad spot.

Speaker 4 (38:43):
It's awesome, but it's so true.

Speaker 5 (38:46):
Yeah, you can tell it happens. It's like, dude, I'm
watching you.

Speaker 4 (38:52):
I just watched your his it's almost like you want
to look out of short and he's going.

Speaker 5 (38:57):
Like, what are you doing self?

Speaker 4 (38:59):
The time? What are you doing? Is going on?

Speaker 5 (39:02):
We can't wait two hours?

Speaker 4 (39:04):
Man, Oh my god, dude.

Speaker 5 (39:07):
You need to change your right You can't wait two
hours our forty five time on.

Speaker 4 (39:13):
We're making it really easy for you. We never play
seven innings anymore.

Speaker 5 (39:20):
I know, it's very simple.

Speaker 4 (39:22):
Oh my god. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
And you know, I mean I love this subject because
because of these things. And I think, you know, how
do we and we you're coaching I met you. You're
you're coaching your son's fourteen U team.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
Correct, Yeah, I help out with his team. You just
help out.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
And so you're seeing from all these sides, and I
think it's it's tough because we spent I'm gonna skip
down to this because I think this has more to
do that. When you're talking about the athletes and you're
talking about eight, you youth baseball to me, and that's
why we call it youth baseball Midwest. I don't separate
youth baseball and high school baseball. To me, it's all
youth baseball because a seventeen year old kid is to

(40:06):
I know, I was a youth when I was seventeen.
Oh and uh so I look at it from elementary
to middle school to high school. Those those three components
are what makes up youth baseball. You get to collegiate
and that's one of the things Kevin Mulder always said,
you know, he said, it's why they call high school

(40:27):
baseball as boys high school baseball and college is men's
collegiate baseball, you know, And I think there's some truth
to that. You know, you get the differentiation in those
two things. But what you're talking about here is how
do we is what do you see and what would
you like to see? How do you think there's enough

(40:48):
going on that's going to maybe swing that pendulum back
to a little bit.

Speaker 4 (40:55):
Of balance, well balance between the the selfies on the field.

Speaker 3 (41:04):
And getting back to you know, the the Because I
do think and to your point, you know, Diego, I agree.
I think there's a lot of great programs out there.
I think there's a lot of guys trying. But for
the I think it's still in that handful to large.
We have a lot of Dad's coaching, which I people go, oh,

(41:25):
Daddy ball and shut up, and I will say that
just like that, we need Dad coaches, we just need
to help them.

Speaker 4 (41:32):
Yeah, I think I think that's a so. Yes. Do
I think it's going to change? No, I don't. I
don't think we're in an era where it's going to
you know, nothing's going to change with this. It's only
going to get worse from a perspective, social perspective, and
the attention levels perspective of you know, we try to
do things in shorter spurts, even at the high school level.

(41:54):
I mean when I was a college coach, we would
go way longer. I mean, you know, from a practice
stamp point, because there wasn't something they were running back to.
It was an empty dorm room with maybe a TV,
you know, those types of things where now.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
Was its MLB, the show.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
Yeah, I mean I didn't. You're gonna laugh now right,
I didn't Baseball Tonight. I didn't even knew it existed
until I was in college because I didn't have cable
when I grew up, like I grew up in a
non cable household, we had four channels, so TV was
not that big a deal. It was more going out
and I know, I sound like I'm a hundred years old, right,
but playing tennis ball ball right with throwing it on

(42:31):
the roof, doing things that were shorthand or quick hand stuff. Right,
whether we knew we were doing it to train for
baseball or not, it was better than sitting in front
of the TV and watching nothing on there. Right, Baseball Tonight,
I was, you know, I didn't know un I was
on my first college trip and I'm like, holy god,
I didn't know there's a whole channel dedicated to baseball.
And then I became addicted. But that's what happens now.

(42:52):
I became addicted to watching baseball because I couldn't get
enough of it as a kid, And now I got
this whole channel on Baseball Tonight, and I'm like, I'm
I'm glued to the TV right during that time frame
because I loved it so much and I didn't know
anything more than because I grew up in Saint Louis,
the Cardinals. I didn't know anything about the Dodgers, anything
about the Padres. I knew nothing about them because there

(43:14):
wasn't anything on TV. I could get some things with
the Socks, some things with the Cubs. You know, if
I was at you.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
Saw the logo on the screws on the ten o'clock news,
right well, and I would.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
I was a fanatic, right, so I would. I would
get the you know, get the box scores in the paper,
and I'm looking through and every once in a while
you got the leader boards of Major League base player like,
oh man, this guy's hitting this and this, and it
got exciting. You can find that out in two seconds
now on your phone. Oh yeah, And in today's era,
you have to, in my opinion, you got to practice

(43:45):
in spurts and do different things to keep them so engaged,
because otherwise that the intention level, they lose it. They're
you know, they're they're trying to pick up their phone,
and we got to know phone policy in certain areas
and what we're doing, and then you know, so I
don't think that's going away at all. I do agree
with you. We need dads in baseball. You know, my

(44:05):
dad never coached me in baseball, specifically on a team,
but he was a very knowledgeable baseball guy. I mean,
that's that's how I grew to love the game. We
went to cardinal games and sat in the stands and
watched the game, and he would explain the game to
me while I'm watching. I miss those those times, right,
And the hard part is is that everybody wants to
complain about dads in baseball, right, but nobody wants to

(44:28):
volunteer to help with the baseball. That's the funny part, right, everybody,
It's easier to sit back in the stands and complain
about what's going on than it is to actually take
the time out of your day to go coach it.
You know, nobody wants to do that. They just want
to complain about the guy who is doing that. Right.
Are there hard parts about that? Of course there are?
With anything, there's hard parts about that. I know that

(44:48):
there's pressure on high school coaches. You know, I'm in
a very fortunate scenario. I'm not a teacher at the school, right,
you know, I don't I coach baseball at the school.
And if they don't want me, They're going to get
rid of me. So I who the best kids are,
and if they don't like it, they just get rid
of me. And that's okay because I'm not defined by that.
I love the game and I'm very fortun to have
a great administration. I have a great group of guys,

(45:10):
and I have a great group of parents. But it's
also we've won a lot of games recently, so I
don't have a whole lot of issues because of that.
If I didn't win so many games, I'm sure there'd
be issues, and that's okay, you know, But for me,
we need those dads in baseball to teach the game
and we can't go all the way down to now
having eight year old, nine year old, ten year old
teams that have a paid coach. Yeah, it's crazy to

(45:33):
think that that would be where it's going. But are
we there? Are we not there?

Speaker 3 (45:38):
That's a good question.

Speaker 4 (45:39):
There's a lot of money in that piece of it,
and what are the expectations, And for whatever reason, sometimes
we're tying the expectation to the money we're paying. Yeah,
I don't know if that's fair. I don't know if
that's the right thing.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
I think it's completely unfair.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
Yeah, I think that there's expenses that are tied to
things that are real expenses, and these things are expensive,
and so it's you're choosing whether you to want to
be a part of that experience and it's going to
cost right, and then if you're not a part of it,
you know, what are the other options and how can
we you know, get better? And unfortunately I've seen it,

(46:17):
but it's extremely rare. Where I had a kid last
year and it's come through our program that was never
involved in select sports because their family couldn't afford it.
Plot I couldn't afford it. They had a farm and
had to work on the farm. He was the exception.
But I haven't seen where he's been very very very good.
And but and I'm sure everybody has an example somewhere.

(46:39):
It's not he's not just the only anomalist, but it's
an outlier of But I can tell you that most
people don't know who the kid is because he wasn't
involved in the travel scene, right, he wasn't out there
at these big tournaments, and so we're like, who's this kid? Right,
and then they go watch them player, like, oh, who's
this kid? And yeah, well it's the same kid that
we've had. It's just not involved and there's there's guys

(47:01):
out there like that, but it's it's very rare.

Speaker 3 (47:02):
Now, yeah, the I and I and I say this.
Ge Go has heard me say, I believe this. You're
not paying to play if you truly are are in
in the elementary middle school. Your thought process is you're
paying for the development of your player, and you should

(47:26):
have people around if you're if you're spending X amount
of dollars for a season and that includes the the tournaments,
whatever the case is. Are is your is your athlete
getting better? And that's the thing. And are you listening,
paying attention watching that. I don't care if my my

(47:50):
son and this is the other part of it, and
it's hard, you know, Okay, he played you know, three
innings in this game, he played five in this one,
two in this one. Three, but he's gotten better. We're
we're not focusing on and I think that's the dynamic
personally that.

Speaker 4 (48:06):
Has to change that that is yes, that's another hour
and a half. But it's the funny part is it's
who are we trying to please? Right, because ultimately we're
trying to develop. You exactly what you just said. But
the parents in the stands, they want to brag about
the tournament they want yes and yeah, and so that's

(48:29):
what they care about, is how many tournaments they win,
not all of them. I'm not, you know, make people,
it's a general but the general general idea is that
they want to go talk about the tournaments they want.
But the kids, the players themselves need to focus on
getting better and developing their skill to play at whatever
level they can play at right or wherever level they

(48:50):
want to play at. Everybody measures the record at the
end by the success level of what you're doing, and
it should should not be that way. It just can't
be that way.

Speaker 5 (49:01):
I view as someone that's involved in the spring season
with the high school and the runs tournaments in the summer,
like I view them as like in high school ball,
you should like you should care about winning like you
care about winning in high school. Obviously, you want your
guys to get better. You want, you know, Ben Sink
and Isaac Wend learn those guys to develop and be

(49:21):
great at father, forgive me, but at the end of
the day, like you're gonna get measured on that we
win or not right, and so is ever that job.
That's his job is to win baseball games in the summer.
In my opinion, yes, you want to win, right, And
there's a competitive nature to it. The players want to win.
The clubs are competing against each other because Club one
wants to say they be Club two and Club two

(49:42):
wants to say they be Club three. But if you
are prioritizing winning in the summer, in my opinion, you're
doing it wrong. You should be prioritizing the development factor
of it as you when you're younger. Yes, you want
to win, you want to build competitiveness, you want to
build that culture, develop the thirteen, the fourteen to fifteen
new players, and then as you get older, it should

(50:03):
be about let's get in front of schools. If that's
what we're about, If that's what these guys.

Speaker 4 (50:07):
Want to do.

Speaker 5 (50:08):
They all want to play collegiately. Great, then where like,
what opportunities are we getting, what opportunities are maximizing our
players recruitment opportunities?

Speaker 4 (50:19):
Yeah, I was sorry, that's exactly right. I mean, I
think the collegiate level simulates from a high school perspective,
and the summer is not because they're not going to school,
They're not going to class, they're not practicing every day. Nope,
they're not doing things that are team related or team bonding.
So when I was a college coach and I try
to do that now as a high school coach, I

(50:42):
think the college coach wants to seek did you win
in high school? Like, because that's this that it's very
similar to what you're going now at different level. I'm
not comparing the talent level. I'm just comparing the day
to day operations of a high school student and a
high school student player and student player, right, they translate

(51:02):
better from a standpoint of practicing every day, the same system,
the same routine, the same stuff that you're doing. You
got to pass, right, you got to do those things
collegiately or sorry something from a summer perspective, you're dead on.
Because if some coach comes up to me and I'm
coaching the seventeen years this in your tournament this weekend,

(51:23):
and I know that a coach is here to see
a catcher catch that guy's catching for has to be
that guy's catch it. I don't care if I have
a better catcher that guy's catching for me that day,
because that's the whole point of what he's doing this summer.
If we lose the game because I have the wrong
guy catching, but he signs and plays in college because
that's the guy he wants success success. We just helped

(51:47):
that young man out on what he was doing in
the beginning.

Speaker 5 (51:52):
When you have that mindset in summer ball, you can't lose.
In my opinion, you can't lose if you have the
mindset of we we got to play the same nine dudes,
because we have to win every single game and win
every single tournament. You're doing it wrong. I'm just I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
I get it.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
I think because we have we have understanding what winning
is is as as as a mindset having success. You know,
I believe this very much goes back to you know,
equals your performance. Okay, if your performance is good, that
doesn't guarantee that you will win the game. You want

(52:29):
your performance to always be at its peak best. But
that guy may have beat you today. You tip your cap,
you shake hands, and and and you you you continue
to work. That's that's the nature of competitive sport. And
and I think somewhere along the line, we've we've skewed

(52:50):
that instead of understanding that I'm not always going to
I don't ever there may be the closest, closest thing
I ever saw was I was looking back and it
was twenty sixteen and my son Justin was looking at
schools and he, you know, Tampa popped up, you know divisions.

(53:14):
He's looking at this and we see the record and
it was like fifty five and two or some ridiculous
number like that. I'm like, who are these guys? I mean,
I'd never heard of the University of Tampa, but I
did there, and I was like, that's the closest thing
I've ever seen, too perfect in baseball. And because I

(53:36):
don't know of anybody that's ever gone undefeated in baseball, I.

Speaker 5 (53:39):
Don't happened this past year? Actually, did it really?

Speaker 4 (53:42):
Eunice?

Speaker 5 (53:42):
They won the National fifty seven and no, first time ever?

Speaker 4 (53:46):
Yeah, there you go, first time ever.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
That's crazy, See, because it's the nature of baseball. Just
isn't that the nature of sports?

Speaker 5 (53:55):
It's not that it's not real, is it?

Speaker 3 (53:58):
And and I think that's that's the tough thing that
we've got to come back to a little bit in
that respect and bring those perspectives back. How what is winning.

Speaker 4 (54:08):
What does it mean?

Speaker 3 (54:09):
Because ultimately it does matter.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
That's why you play well, and a college coach doesn't
want to see you not care on the field, right,
or recruit a bunch of guys that just lose all
the time. Yeah, that's not how that works. You know
that's a really good point, right. I always wonder that
from a as a high school coach. Yeah, you know,
I watched some of these guys that goes to chases
and I'm like, man, I you know, in my head,

(54:33):
I'm not the college coach. You know, I'm not the
guy recruiting that guy to go to that school. But
there's got to be something with does he know how
to win? Ye?

Speaker 3 (54:41):
Yes, does he know how to you know, towards that result.
You may not reach it, you may not get the
result every time, but hey, this kid can produce the
things that are necessary to get the results we want
and that's the goal because you have a fly. And
the last thing here just to kind of put put

(55:03):
a cherry on this because we're looking at you know,
you talk about elementary middle school. You don't now, Father
mc givney. I know there's no recruiting, but in that respect,
but you get kids that are different from different you know,
a normal high school, you're only getting kids from.

Speaker 4 (55:22):
Live in your district.

Speaker 3 (55:24):
So how do you develop a philosophy where whereas a
college recruiter is looking to recruit a kid because he's
got speed, we play baseball this way and again, you know,
you've got a team of kids at eight, U, nine,
U ten, U eleven. You I ask these kids, where
are you guys going to play baseball? I'm going to Francis.

(55:48):
How can you bunt?

Speaker 4 (55:51):
Yeah? If you ask a.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
Twelve thirteen year old can you bunt?

Speaker 4 (55:54):
And you're going to Francis, how I should probably learn
if you don't quickly. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
And I mean there's just things in philosophy. And you
hear these kids, and I know these coaches now I've
gotten to know them. I really enjoy that part of
it and looking at these kids that tell me where
they're going to high school and are like, oh, okay.

Speaker 4 (56:19):
You know my favorite practice of the year. My favorite
one is the first time we run bun defense. It's
the first time because because we run everybody together, I
run it the way I run practices, and it's just
unique to maybe what we do. But we have everybody.
I don't separate and send the freshman here and the
JV there, in the varsity here. We bring everybody together
and we run our because you don't have many of

(56:41):
them in the season. Let's be honest, you're playing too
many games in two short period of time. Bring everybody
together and we run bun defense, which nobody does in summer, right.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (56:52):
I have not seen one team the whole summer called
out a bunt.

Speaker 4 (56:55):
Defense, right, nobody, And if you did, it's going to
be chaotic because you're gonna have different guys from different
schools on how do you run this bunt defense? How
do you run this? Which is why you know safety
or suicide squeezes in summer like brilliant, right, because nobody
knows what to do, okay, and so it's honestly, that's crazy.

(57:15):
But I love watching that because I run this. We
run our, and we do it really early just so
we can kind of almost prove a point. So we
run it and I don't say a word. We just hey,
we're gonna run bunt defense. We're gonna run just a
normal to get the guy out of first base. Let's
see what we do. Go no, No, instruction just and
it is a disaster. I mean it is like and

(57:39):
you look at it and you're like, you know, the
catchers are like calling stuff out or waiting to be
told what to do, and you're like, okay, hold on, partner,
you gotta be there. You're the quarterback in this drill here.
And they're like what it's just but it's comical. We
sit there and we have I'm very fortunate. I got
a guy that that is our hitting coach and Magiveney right,

(58:00):
he is the former hitting coach of wichstof State back
in Jean Stevenson's Oh yeah, he's a great guy, you know,
just really awesome dude. And so we get the biggest kick.
Me and Coach Dorgan and Coastover are just sitting there
watching the bunt defenses and it's just funny. And it
reminds us that it's not to make fun of the kids.
It just reminds us how pure this game is, right,

(58:22):
how it's fun, and you got to remember that that
it's it's a fun game. It's a really cool, fun
game that is not without direction, is chaotic, right, And
so then we get into our how we're gonna do it?
How we're gonna handle it. Then we get pretty good
at it. But at the first it's just it's funny.
We always find it. It's the first thing we do
when we run our stuff. We run bun defenses, and

(58:43):
it's like it's like putting ice skates on people for
the first time, and they're all running into each other.
Balls are flying everywhere, guys are running around the bases
all over the place, and you go, we're not gonna
be good this year.

Speaker 5 (58:58):
It is cool like the Francis Howle thing, right, Like, hey,
if you go to Francis holl you better learn how
to bun. Like every program has its own unique things, yes,
and you have to be like for us, when I
was in high school, we had these wristbands and all
these like our coach, he was crazy, the best guy
I ever played for. He's an ISSABC Hall of Famer.

(59:18):
He was a little different and still is still has
a ton of success coaching at Huntley. But he would
hand us these wristbands and he would say, I'm gonna
call out these numbers and follow alone in the wristbands.
All right, cool, So he would like yell like five, five, four, whatever,
and then you'd have to sit there with the wristband
and like five and five there, and I was like,
you know, I'll play baseball. I don't have to do math.

(59:41):
And every time, every time like he'd call it out,
I would mess it up, and a lot of other
guys would mess it up. So like it got to
a point. It got to a point to like where
like in summer camp and practices, I was like, hey,
give me the wristband, like I need to memorize this
and get this all down. But it's like unique things
to all that that makes the sport so incredible.

Speaker 4 (01:00:03):
It's so right, and it's so fun because at the
end of the day, you could probably say steal second
base and they can't throw you on anyway.

Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
It's the catch, just like is he really gonna go?

Speaker 5 (01:00:17):
It's like this fake out right catcher doesn't throw.

Speaker 4 (01:00:19):
A guy walks in and you're like, you're brilliant. I just.

Speaker 5 (01:00:25):
Since that day, I'm anti risk. Anybody that uses risk
fans come out, come out. I can't figure out five,
five four, And where am I supposed to go? I'm
going down to the right up three, Like what's going on? Then?
Can you just tap your arm and tell me what I.

Speaker 4 (01:00:40):
Didn't remember.

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
That's fantastic, guys, fun conversation. I enjoyed that, great coach.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
Appreciate you taking the thank you. This is this is
a great day talking baseball and I love it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:59):
I love thank you absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
You gotta come back and see it absolutely, folks, thanks
for tuning in as always. Uh the dog over here,
it's got some dog.

Speaker 5 (01:01:11):
God, I can't have that pub site.

Speaker 4 (01:01:13):
It's too late.

Speaker 5 (01:01:14):
It's hard podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
I won my fault. Diego Selaris dio. Always good work.

Speaker 5 (01:01:24):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
We got some good stuff coming up. Make sure you're subscribed.
Please support the channel. We appreciate it. Hit the danger
next to it. It's not a home run, but it
is notifications for upcoming episodes just like this. It'll get
you some notifications for when we go live for some
baseball this weekend. We appreciate you tuning in and uh, everybody,

(01:01:45):
have a great day in the Lord all you pictures strikes.
It's a simple game and as we Willie Keeler once said,
I learned that the other day. Hit them where they
We'll see y'all next time.

Speaker 5 (01:02:09):
Mm hmmmm

All Episodes

Baseball Talk w/ Diego Solares & Chris Erwin | Playing High School Baseball | YBMcast

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

Stuff You Should Know

Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Baseball Talk w/ Diego Solares & Chris Erwin | Playing High School Baseball | YBMcast