October 28, 2025 • 19 mins
Greg sits down with three-time All-Star and AL MVP Mo Vaughn to talk about what it really takes to help kids succeed in baseball. They discuss early specialization, the importance of playing multiple sports, and how coaches can create a positive and consistent environment for young athletes. Mo shares his approach to building confidence, developing skills the right way, and focusing on long-term growth instead of short-term wins.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Make sure you subscribe to both our YouTube channel and our RSS
feed for all future conversations here at you think.
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode
here on you think today. Super pumped about our next
guest, three time All Star ALMVP, one of the best hitters
in the history of Major League Baseball, MO Vaughn, someone who
(00:20):
I know who is very involved in the world that youth sports.
So, MO, we're really thankful for you joining us here at You
Think and appreciate your time. Great.
Thanks. Thanks for having me.
I look forward to having a good show with you.
I'm happy to be on. Awesome.
Well, I know you got a little youth sports pod of your own, so
give us a little sense of of what you're doing.
Give us a little sense of why you care so much about this,
(00:43):
about about this crazy world we're living in in youth sports.
Well, I'm in. First of all, I've been able to
to be in a partnership with Perfect Game, which probably is
the largest Yep, you know, youthbaseball organization across the
world. I have a son who's 13 year old
13 you. So I've been actually on the
(01:04):
field coaching for six years now, and it's just a really
necessary thing that you got to do.
We provide, you know, we're perfect game.
There's so many things that thatwe're doing on the fields with
these opportunities, showcases different things that are
happening. I just thought it matched, you
(01:25):
know, what I was doing, you know, correct some narratives.
So it's, it's, it's been a really good time.
All in all, the whole thing. Perfect game for sports Academy
of the podcast. It's been great for me.
Say you want to fix some narratives.
Obviously there's a lot of so we'll stick with the baseball
world. There's a lot of conversations
right now in the baseball world about is it too much too fast?
(01:48):
And are we bringing this showcase level to too young and
then age? Are we skipping over a lot of
these important developmental years?
What what what do you say to those people?
What, what are you guys at Perfect Game especially doing to
balance giving kids opportunities to, you know, to
present themselves and showcase themselves, but also making sure
that it's age appropriate. Listen, you said the right word.
(02:11):
It's balance, and you need to have balance when you're doing
this. Baseball's the game, you know,
and I know, you know, Greg, you're a tremendous, you know,
tremendous athlete. I don't know if you played
baseball or other sports, but you have to have been.
You're just too good of an athlete not to.
We need time to practice and we need time to let youth minds
(02:38):
grow. Yes, I love, I love and I and I
tell our guys I love the showcases and I love the
opportunities, but we need structure to develop the game
right now. You know, I, I don't, I don't
know how you feel on the football side, but I tend to
feel like in the youth baseball side, we're losing a lot of the
coaching aspects. Guys are coming to to to the
(03:00):
ballpark, not understanding really how to play.
And I think for perfect game. Now our job is to not only show
these events, but try to get into some regional things that
really teach the game because it's it's, it's it's this is all
about money and paying monthly fees.
(03:20):
Coaches are all all worried about getting that monthly check
and they're not really, really worried.
And all parents, parents don't know.
All they want to do is play, play, play, play, play.
So if you take that model, but that's all you can be doing on
in in most organizations is collecting that monthly tech
monthly fee as a coach and play,play, play.
(03:43):
You can do some things, but I just think that we all in
imperfect, you know, you know usin perfect game.
We understand this. There needs to be more teaching
and there needs to be more time to grow.
I feel that, you know, you don'tknow what's going to going to
happen, especially in this game.There could be late bloomers.
(04:05):
There could be guys that come onthat, you know, they're great at
12, but they're not great at 14.They're people that are not good
at 1213 and 14 could be good at 15/16/17.
So it's, it's, it's I call it the highway.
When you're going to, you know, make that entrance to the
highway. It's all different times.
People grow at different times and at different sizes.
(04:27):
And we all need to be cognizant of it, of it, when we're going
down that path of playing youth baseball.
Well, yeah, I mean, you're spot on.
And we and we see it on the ground here with our own kids in
our own, you know, hometown here.
And we've gone to all the biggest events that PG has to
offer all around the country. And I think there's so much of
what they're doing that is really good.
(04:48):
And we, we, my team just played in one this weekend here in
Charlotte. I do think though, there is a
little bit of a slippery slope going on with the awards and the
select fests and the showcase teams.
At 12 and 13 years old, the highschool kids is a different
animal in my mind that you're getting ready for college, that
that's a whole different world. But at the middle school level,
(05:11):
you know, even even something assimple, and I love your point
about like they need to practicemore.
There needs to be more development.
Very few, as you know, very few of these teams actually practice
together. Very few of these teams are
actually a team as opposed to just a bunch of kids that meet
each other in Atlanta or meet each other and in Florida to
play a given weekend and then the next weekend they're playing
(05:32):
for somebody else. So how do we get how do we find
that balance between competitiveand getting the best kids and
getting the best competition to improve, but also continuing to
foster an environment where there is team, there is
consistency in our rosters. There's consistency in who's
wearing this jersey every weekend and that every
(05:53):
tournament I go to, I don't see the same kid in a different
uniform. That's hard because I think
parents are caught up in play, play, play, So they're looking,
you know, you know, to to to maximize.
It's all about it's all about learning what's really
necessary, and I think there needs to be more and more guys
(06:16):
that really understand the game and what it takes to be
successful yes, you know, I evenI even got into it.
I was begin to the development and I have, you know, 100 plus
teams at different levels. You know, we have some teams
that that that just play you triple SA because it's a certain
level. Then we have some teams that
play, you know, you know, the Cal Ripken and some leagues,
(06:40):
some teams that play just LittleLeague.
And then we have teams that playthat, that, that, that majors,
that majors competition of, of, of, of, of perfect game.
And you got to pick and choose when it's time.
Like me, my son and I, you know,he's gone up the path.
He started at a level where he wasn't there and I wasn't
(07:01):
forcing it. And then as he's developed, you
know, we're, we're going for it.But it's, it's hard because
everybody's saying showcase, showcase, showcase.
And everybody feels it's so necessary.
But but a 13 to me or a 14 year old showcase, is that really, is
(07:22):
that really necessary because kids haven't even hit puberty
yet? How do we pump the brakes on,
like I always say, like we're not.
We got to stop anointing 12 yearolds.
We're like crowning 12 year oldslike they're the first baseball
player we've ever seen. How do we stop that culture?
That is, that is internal. I do it all the time with my
(07:44):
squad. I've had some of my kids since
they were eight years old. They're all enamored with, you
know, we know they just went to 13.
In fact, I had him at 13 playingup.
They just went to 13. So now just right now they're
going, oh man, this is 6090 now that guy that was hitting home
runs at 12 U. Those are puff lies.
(08:06):
And I go, This is why I tell youand your parents to keep your
head down and work. It's all about you, you know,
you know, Greg, it's all about the magics in the world.
That's that's the way that it is.
But we need and I think, and I think parents are starting to
come around and see that. Oh man, wow, my kid was my kid
(08:29):
was banging out of the park at 466512.
You, we just went to, to to, youknow, to 6090.
Can't even seem like you could run around the bases.
I, I couldn't agree more. My, my young team that I coach,
we just played our first 6090 fall tournament this weekend.
So we, you know, we, we went through that exact same field.
(08:50):
I mean, we've been practicing onit.
We've been throwing bullpens at 6090, getting ABS and doing
infield. But first time you play in a
real game and the kid hits it, it's like it felt like I was
never, you know, we're getting thrown out stealing third.
We're getting, we're trying to score on base hits from 2nd and
we're trying to show them here in the fall.
Like, OK, we're we're not reallyworried about the end results,
the wins. We're getting used to this.
(09:11):
So in the spring, you guys can all go make your middle school
teams and play, you know, play real ball.
But like we're getting thrown out by 20 feet from second base.
Like it's just a whole differentanimal.
So everything you're saying is so spot on.
Let me ask you this. How often do you draw on your
playing days in your messaging to your kids teams?
(09:32):
I draw everything, everything I've taken in my life from the
game of baseball. And I was lucky enough to play
in a, in a, in a very, very tough, tough environment.
What caused you to to step up and be a man and answer
questions at a level that some people didn't have to?
It might take my time at the RedSox and things I learned at the
(09:54):
Angels and things I learned at the Mets.
And I used all of that to coach.And I demand a certain mindset.
I demand there's a way to play. I demand there's a way to wear
your uniform. I demand everything about the
game to help you to become a better person.
(10:15):
And all of the, the good, all ofthe bad, all the hurt, all the
things that happened in my career, I pull that at different
times out to, to make my teams understand that first and
foremost, if you're not ready tohandle adversity, this is not
the game for you. No doubt.
(10:35):
Time to move on to something else.
If you're not ready to, to be a good teammate and be supportive
in that. The scouts and people that come
around in high school, they're looking at you when when you
fail, they want to see how you react with negativity.
Negativity strikes. It's easy to play when things
are going well. How do you play when things are
(10:55):
going wrong? And I use every inch, every
fiber I have in baseball to present that number one to my
son. That's the number one to his
team and all my teams. What's up guys?
Do you want custom fan wear likethis cricket shirt for Charlotte
Christian School? We've got premium apparel from
your favorite brands. The best part about it is I
(11:15):
don't have to just wear it to Charlotte Christians events.
I can wear it to golf, I can wear it to lunch.
It's turned into my uniform. Go right now over to Youth dot,
Inc Sign up for our newsletter. It talks about our podcast for
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itsnot.com, it's Youth dot Inc. Now back to our episode.
(11:40):
It's so true. And again, I didn't.
I played baseball as a kid. I didn't play in high school, I
didn't play. I've learned baseball now just
through the lens of coaching my kids teams and being around
other people that know the game well and trying to learn from
them. What what are some things that
we all can do as coaches? We can talk about, you know,
handling adversity. We can talk about, you know,
what do you do when you strike out?
(12:01):
But like, how do we actually implement those practices?
Like how do we actually, I know how to teach somebody to field
the ground ball. I know how to teach somebody how
to hit and how to do a double cut.
Like that stuff's easy. How do we teach kids the
mentality of baseball? Or can we?
You can definitely, but it's allabout the team.
(12:22):
Can you hit behind a runner? Are you willing to sacrifice?
Are you willing to to cut that swing down to to, to put the
ball in place so your team can, so your team can score a run?
It's all about, you know, baseball is the individual game
played together as a team. How can we best suit our suit?
(12:48):
Be in a role that's going to be helpful, the helpful to the
team. If you know how to, that's
great. The fact that you know all these
things already, the double cuts,the you know, the different
things, teach them how to play together.
I think that's what the most important is.
Give yourself up, die for that ball, you know, run the bases.
(13:12):
The little it's all like, I feelbaseball is all about the little
things that you do. I love it.
How do you approach kids on yourteam that want to play other
sports, whether it's your own kid or kids on your team?
How do you guys handle that? I would tell kids and parents,
play what you want to play and play these sports because
(13:36):
ultimately it makes you a betterathlete.
I never did strengthen the condition of speed, agility, but
I play football, basketball, baseball, basketball.
We got to turn around and slide and those are all the things
that we were doing. But if you want to go to that
elite level, I think it's hard now.
I think it's hard now to concentrate on two or three, two
(13:58):
or three things without losing some steam when when you're
playing off 3 sports. And that's just my reality.
I think I heard Bo Jackson say something like that a few months
back that it's very, very hard now to to do dual or triple
things. That's an athlete.
(14:19):
Because the guys that are betterfor like my son, he plays one
sport. I wish he could play all the
sports, but but you know what, Greg, you know, two days a week,
strength and conditioning, two days a week, skill work, two
days a week he's working with mehitting.
And then there's two days a weekthat he's on the field.
Where's the time? You know what I mean?
And if you want to complete it, complete at that high level, I
(14:40):
think you got to really put yourtime in nowadays.
How do you, and that's what you're describing is the reality
that most kids are feeling. That's what parents are feeling.
And that that it, that does seemto be the reality.
Now. I guess my question is how do we
make that determination that that's the best sport?
That's the sport they're going to love at 17.
(15:01):
That's the sport that best suitsthem size wise, height wise,
skill wise. Like how do we know at 12 that
football's their best sport? How do we know at 12 baseball's
their best path? Like how do we?
We didn't have to make those. You and I didn't make those
decisions till we got into high school.
And the decision kind of made itself for me, right?
(15:21):
Like it wasn't like a conscious thing that I said, OK, I got to
get ready for football. Football chose me.
I was always better at football than I was the other sports.
I still played them. How do we know at 12 years old
wet path to put all of our eggs in?
We don't, I think you know, you know, we, we don't know.
(15:44):
It's a hard, it's a hard thing to, to, to look at.
I think we, we, that you and I have a, an eye for what we're
looking for because we've reached the highest level in our
sports. So we have the ability to to see
(16:04):
something that parents that don't play athletics don't get
to see. So I think in that way, we have
an advantage. But they're they're it's, it's
very, very hard to do. And it's a very, very tough
decision to make. And hopefully you could get some
information that allows you to make a good conscious decision.
(16:26):
But it is very, very, very hard.Now, if you haven't stepped on
that arena, like you know, I was, you know, I look at my son
and you know, 1213 year old, youknow, his body is tight.
You know, he's got speed, power.He, you know, he does so many
more things that I could ever doand you're able to see that.
But you're right, it's it's a difficult choice to make at that
(16:49):
age, But it's also you got, you got to get there because at some
point in time, people are going to continue to inch away from
you if you're not staying in line with with the skill and the
strength and what you got to do for the.
Competition, No, you're listen, what you're saying is spot on.
My kids struggle with it. You know, my older son, he's
(17:09):
playing football right now also playing fall baseball on the
weekends with his travel ball team.
My younger son's playing football and on his travel ball
team. You know, I have a daughter and
then right from there, my older son will try out for the
basketball team. And then from there they'll be
school tryouts for spring baseball.
And it just, it's non-stop and it's it's hard to give the time.
(17:32):
When we were growing up, the kids you went to baseball
training with, we're all walkingonto the baseball field after
basketball season ended. We were all kind of in the same
boat. None of us had touched our glove
or our bat since baseball the previous year.
So we're all kind of on the sameplaying field.
Exactly. Those days are over.
Over the. Kids you're competing against
have only been doing that. So if you have any aspirations
(17:53):
of playing on a good team or at a good school, if you're not
really, really gifted and just areally unique athlete, it's
going to be very hard, very hard.
Correct, I believe. That no, I, I I think you're
spot on. What what 13 U team?
What team does your son play on?We are.
He plays on the VSA National 13.Oh yeah, I know.
VSA. Yeah, that.
(18:14):
Those are those are my, that's that's me.
Those are my guys. Oh, you guys.
Oh, OK, yeah, OK. I didn't realize what I didn't
realize the initials. Yeah, yeah, we play a bunch of
teams from down in Florida. We play like a bunch of like the
Cane Scout and yeah, we play a bunch of those Florida teams.
There's a bunch of good ones in that age group.
Well, MO, I can't I, I appreciate you, your
perspective. I mean, you're living it, your
(18:34):
boots on the ground, you're practicing, you're grinding
everything that you're doing in the world of youth sports, man,
we appreciate it. We appreciate you joining us
here on You Think and really enjoyed the conversation.
Listen man, thank you for havingme.
Anything you need get in touch with me, hitting whatever.
I'll help you out any way I can.I'll take you up on that.
We can use all the help we can get.
(18:55):
We'll catch you again next week right here on You Think.
Make sure you subscribe to both our YouTube channel and our RSS
feed for all future conversations here at you think.
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode
here on you think today. Super pumped about our next
guest, three time All Star ALMVP, one of the best hitters
in the history of Major League Baseball, MO Vaughn, someone who
(00:20):
I know who is very involved in the world that youth sports.
So, MO, we're really thankful for you joining us here at You
Think and appreciate your time. Great.
Thanks. Thanks for having me.
I look forward to having a good show with you.
I'm happy to be on. Awesome.
Well, I know you got a little youth sports pod of your own, so
give us a little sense of of what you're doing.
Give us a little sense of why you care so much about this,
(00:43):
about about this crazy world we're living in in youth sports.
Well, I'm in. First of all, I've been able to
to be in a partnership with Perfect Game, which probably is
the largest Yep, you know, youthbaseball organization across the
world. I have a son who's 13 year old
13 you. So I've been actually on the
(01:04):
field coaching for six years now, and it's just a really
necessary thing that you got to do.
We provide, you know, we're perfect game.
There's so many things that thatwe're doing on the fields with
these opportunities, showcases different things that are
happening. I just thought it matched, you
(01:25):
know, what I was doing, you know, correct some narratives.
So it's, it's, it's been a really good time.
All in all, the whole thing. Perfect game for sports Academy
of the podcast. It's been great for me.
Say you want to fix some narratives.
Obviously there's a lot of so we'll stick with the baseball
world. There's a lot of conversations
right now in the baseball world about is it too much too fast?
(01:48):
And are we bringing this showcase level to too young and
then age? Are we skipping over a lot of
these important developmental years?
What what what do you say to those people?
What, what are you guys at Perfect Game especially doing to
balance giving kids opportunities to, you know, to
present themselves and showcase themselves, but also making sure
that it's age appropriate. Listen, you said the right word.
(02:11):
It's balance, and you need to have balance when you're doing
this. Baseball's the game, you know,
and I know, you know, Greg, you're a tremendous, you know,
tremendous athlete. I don't know if you played
baseball or other sports, but you have to have been.
You're just too good of an athlete not to.
We need time to practice and we need time to let youth minds
(02:38):
grow. Yes, I love, I love and I and I
tell our guys I love the showcases and I love the
opportunities, but we need structure to develop the game
right now. You know, I, I don't, I don't
know how you feel on the football side, but I tend to
feel like in the youth baseball side, we're losing a lot of the
coaching aspects. Guys are coming to to to the
(03:00):
ballpark, not understanding really how to play.
And I think for perfect game. Now our job is to not only show
these events, but try to get into some regional things that
really teach the game because it's it's, it's it's this is all
about money and paying monthly fees.
(03:20):
Coaches are all all worried about getting that monthly check
and they're not really, really worried.
And all parents, parents don't know.
All they want to do is play, play, play, play, play.
So if you take that model, but that's all you can be doing on
in in most organizations is collecting that monthly tech
monthly fee as a coach and play,play, play.
(03:43):
You can do some things, but I just think that we all in
imperfect, you know, you know usin perfect game.
We understand this. There needs to be more teaching
and there needs to be more time to grow.
I feel that, you know, you don'tknow what's going to going to
happen, especially in this game.There could be late bloomers.
(04:05):
There could be guys that come onthat, you know, they're great at
12, but they're not great at 14.They're people that are not good
at 1213 and 14 could be good at 15/16/17.
So it's, it's, it's I call it the highway.
When you're going to, you know, make that entrance to the
highway. It's all different times.
People grow at different times and at different sizes.
(04:27):
And we all need to be cognizant of it, of it, when we're going
down that path of playing youth baseball.
Well, yeah, I mean, you're spot on.
And we and we see it on the ground here with our own kids in
our own, you know, hometown here.
And we've gone to all the biggest events that PG has to
offer all around the country. And I think there's so much of
what they're doing that is really good.
(04:48):
And we, we, my team just played in one this weekend here in
Charlotte. I do think though, there is a
little bit of a slippery slope going on with the awards and the
select fests and the showcase teams.
At 12 and 13 years old, the highschool kids is a different
animal in my mind that you're getting ready for college, that
that's a whole different world. But at the middle school level,
(05:11):
you know, even even something assimple, and I love your point
about like they need to practicemore.
There needs to be more development.
Very few, as you know, very few of these teams actually practice
together. Very few of these teams are
actually a team as opposed to just a bunch of kids that meet
each other in Atlanta or meet each other and in Florida to
play a given weekend and then the next weekend they're playing
(05:32):
for somebody else. So how do we get how do we find
that balance between competitiveand getting the best kids and
getting the best competition to improve, but also continuing to
foster an environment where there is team, there is
consistency in our rosters. There's consistency in who's
wearing this jersey every weekend and that every
(05:53):
tournament I go to, I don't see the same kid in a different
uniform. That's hard because I think
parents are caught up in play, play, play, So they're looking,
you know, you know, to to to maximize.
It's all about it's all about learning what's really
necessary, and I think there needs to be more and more guys
(06:16):
that really understand the game and what it takes to be
successful yes, you know, I evenI even got into it.
I was begin to the development and I have, you know, 100 plus
teams at different levels. You know, we have some teams
that that that just play you triple SA because it's a certain
level. Then we have some teams that
play, you know, you know, the Cal Ripken and some leagues,
(06:40):
some teams that play just LittleLeague.
And then we have teams that playthat, that, that, that majors,
that majors competition of, of, of, of, of perfect game.
And you got to pick and choose when it's time.
Like me, my son and I, you know,he's gone up the path.
He started at a level where he wasn't there and I wasn't
(07:01):
forcing it. And then as he's developed, you
know, we're, we're going for it.But it's, it's hard because
everybody's saying showcase, showcase, showcase.
And everybody feels it's so necessary.
But but a 13 to me or a 14 year old showcase, is that really, is
(07:22):
that really necessary because kids haven't even hit puberty
yet? How do we pump the brakes on,
like I always say, like we're not.
We got to stop anointing 12 yearolds.
We're like crowning 12 year oldslike they're the first baseball
player we've ever seen. How do we stop that culture?
That is, that is internal. I do it all the time with my
(07:44):
squad. I've had some of my kids since
they were eight years old. They're all enamored with, you
know, we know they just went to 13.
In fact, I had him at 13 playingup.
They just went to 13. So now just right now they're
going, oh man, this is 6090 now that guy that was hitting home
runs at 12 U. Those are puff lies.
(08:06):
And I go, This is why I tell youand your parents to keep your
head down and work. It's all about you, you know,
you know, Greg, it's all about the magics in the world.
That's that's the way that it is.
But we need and I think, and I think parents are starting to
come around and see that. Oh man, wow, my kid was my kid
(08:29):
was banging out of the park at 466512.
You, we just went to, to to, youknow, to 6090.
Can't even seem like you could run around the bases.
I, I couldn't agree more. My, my young team that I coach,
we just played our first 6090 fall tournament this weekend.
So we, you know, we, we went through that exact same field.
(08:50):
I mean, we've been practicing onit.
We've been throwing bullpens at 6090, getting ABS and doing
infield. But first time you play in a
real game and the kid hits it, it's like it felt like I was
never, you know, we're getting thrown out stealing third.
We're getting, we're trying to score on base hits from 2nd and
we're trying to show them here in the fall.
Like, OK, we're we're not reallyworried about the end results,
the wins. We're getting used to this.
(09:11):
So in the spring, you guys can all go make your middle school
teams and play, you know, play real ball.
But like we're getting thrown out by 20 feet from second base.
Like it's just a whole differentanimal.
So everything you're saying is so spot on.
Let me ask you this. How often do you draw on your
playing days in your messaging to your kids teams?
(09:32):
I draw everything, everything I've taken in my life from the
game of baseball. And I was lucky enough to play
in a, in a, in a very, very tough, tough environment.
What caused you to to step up and be a man and answer
questions at a level that some people didn't have to?
It might take my time at the RedSox and things I learned at the
(09:54):
Angels and things I learned at the Mets.
And I used all of that to coach.And I demand a certain mindset.
I demand there's a way to play. I demand there's a way to wear
your uniform. I demand everything about the
game to help you to become a better person.
(10:15):
And all of the, the good, all ofthe bad, all the hurt, all the
things that happened in my career, I pull that at different
times out to, to make my teams understand that first and
foremost, if you're not ready tohandle adversity, this is not
the game for you. No doubt.
(10:35):
Time to move on to something else.
If you're not ready to, to be a good teammate and be supportive
in that. The scouts and people that come
around in high school, they're looking at you when when you
fail, they want to see how you react with negativity.
Negativity strikes. It's easy to play when things
are going well. How do you play when things are
(10:55):
going wrong? And I use every inch, every
fiber I have in baseball to present that number one to my
son. That's the number one to his
team and all my teams. What's up guys?
Do you want custom fan wear likethis cricket shirt for Charlotte
Christian School? We've got premium apparel from
your favorite brands. The best part about it is I
(11:15):
don't have to just wear it to Charlotte Christians events.
I can wear it to golf, I can wear it to lunch.
It's turned into my uniform. Go right now over to Youth dot,
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itsnot.com, it's Youth dot Inc. Now back to our episode.
(11:40):
It's so true. And again, I didn't.
I played baseball as a kid. I didn't play in high school, I
didn't play. I've learned baseball now just
through the lens of coaching my kids teams and being around
other people that know the game well and trying to learn from
them. What what are some things that
we all can do as coaches? We can talk about, you know,
handling adversity. We can talk about, you know,
what do you do when you strike out?
(12:01):
But like, how do we actually implement those practices?
Like how do we actually, I know how to teach somebody to field
the ground ball. I know how to teach somebody how
to hit and how to do a double cut.
Like that stuff's easy. How do we teach kids the
mentality of baseball? Or can we?
You can definitely, but it's allabout the team.
(12:22):
Can you hit behind a runner? Are you willing to sacrifice?
Are you willing to to cut that swing down to to, to put the
ball in place so your team can, so your team can score a run?
It's all about, you know, baseball is the individual game
played together as a team. How can we best suit our suit?
(12:48):
Be in a role that's going to be helpful, the helpful to the
team. If you know how to, that's
great. The fact that you know all these
things already, the double cuts,the you know, the different
things, teach them how to play together.
I think that's what the most important is.
Give yourself up, die for that ball, you know, run the bases.
(13:12):
The little it's all like, I feelbaseball is all about the little
things that you do. I love it.
How do you approach kids on yourteam that want to play other
sports, whether it's your own kid or kids on your team?
How do you guys handle that? I would tell kids and parents,
play what you want to play and play these sports because
(13:36):
ultimately it makes you a betterathlete.
I never did strengthen the condition of speed, agility, but
I play football, basketball, baseball, basketball.
We got to turn around and slide and those are all the things
that we were doing. But if you want to go to that
elite level, I think it's hard now.
I think it's hard now to concentrate on two or three, two
(13:58):
or three things without losing some steam when when you're
playing off 3 sports. And that's just my reality.
I think I heard Bo Jackson say something like that a few months
back that it's very, very hard now to to do dual or triple
things. That's an athlete.
(14:19):
Because the guys that are betterfor like my son, he plays one
sport. I wish he could play all the
sports, but but you know what, Greg, you know, two days a week,
strength and conditioning, two days a week, skill work, two
days a week he's working with mehitting.
And then there's two days a weekthat he's on the field.
Where's the time? You know what I mean?
And if you want to complete it, complete at that high level, I
(14:40):
think you got to really put yourtime in nowadays.
How do you, and that's what you're describing is the reality
that most kids are feeling. That's what parents are feeling.
And that that it, that does seemto be the reality.
Now. I guess my question is how do we
make that determination that that's the best sport?
That's the sport they're going to love at 17.
(15:01):
That's the sport that best suitsthem size wise, height wise,
skill wise. Like how do we know at 12 that
football's their best sport? How do we know at 12 baseball's
their best path? Like how do we?
We didn't have to make those. You and I didn't make those
decisions till we got into high school.
And the decision kind of made itself for me, right?
(15:21):
Like it wasn't like a conscious thing that I said, OK, I got to
get ready for football. Football chose me.
I was always better at football than I was the other sports.
I still played them. How do we know at 12 years old
wet path to put all of our eggs in?
We don't, I think you know, you know, we, we don't know.
(15:44):
It's a hard, it's a hard thing to, to, to look at.
I think we, we, that you and I have a, an eye for what we're
looking for because we've reached the highest level in our
sports. So we have the ability to to see
(16:04):
something that parents that don't play athletics don't get
to see. So I think in that way, we have
an advantage. But they're they're it's, it's
very, very hard to do. And it's a very, very tough
decision to make. And hopefully you could get some
information that allows you to make a good conscious decision.
(16:26):
But it is very, very, very hard.Now, if you haven't stepped on
that arena, like you know, I was, you know, I look at my son
and you know, 1213 year old, youknow, his body is tight.
You know, he's got speed, power.He, you know, he does so many
more things that I could ever doand you're able to see that.
But you're right, it's it's a difficult choice to make at that
(16:49):
age, But it's also you got, you got to get there because at some
point in time, people are going to continue to inch away from
you if you're not staying in line with with the skill and the
strength and what you got to do for the.
Competition, No, you're listen, what you're saying is spot on.
My kids struggle with it. You know, my older son, he's
(17:09):
playing football right now also playing fall baseball on the
weekends with his travel ball team.
My younger son's playing football and on his travel ball
team. You know, I have a daughter and
then right from there, my older son will try out for the
basketball team. And then from there they'll be
school tryouts for spring baseball.
And it just, it's non-stop and it's it's hard to give the time.
(17:32):
When we were growing up, the kids you went to baseball
training with, we're all walkingonto the baseball field after
basketball season ended. We were all kind of in the same
boat. None of us had touched our glove
or our bat since baseball the previous year.
So we're all kind of on the sameplaying field.
Exactly. Those days are over.
Over the. Kids you're competing against
have only been doing that. So if you have any aspirations
(17:53):
of playing on a good team or at a good school, if you're not
really, really gifted and just areally unique athlete, it's
going to be very hard, very hard.
Correct, I believe. That no, I, I I think you're
spot on. What what 13 U team?
What team does your son play on?We are.
He plays on the VSA National 13.Oh yeah, I know.
VSA. Yeah, that.
(18:14):
Those are those are my, that's that's me.
Those are my guys. Oh, you guys.
Oh, OK, yeah, OK. I didn't realize what I didn't
realize the initials. Yeah, yeah, we play a bunch of
teams from down in Florida. We play like a bunch of like the
Cane Scout and yeah, we play a bunch of those Florida teams.
There's a bunch of good ones in that age group.
Well, MO, I can't I, I appreciate you, your
perspective. I mean, you're living it, your
(18:34):
boots on the ground, you're practicing, you're grinding
everything that you're doing in the world of youth sports, man,
we appreciate it. We appreciate you joining us
here on You Think and really enjoyed the conversation.
Listen man, thank you for havingme.
Anything you need get in touch with me, hitting whatever.
I'll help you out any way I can.I'll take you up on that.
We can use all the help we can get.
(18:55):
We'll catch you again next week right here on You Think.
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