Hello, and welcome to Backflips and Nerds, the basic podcasts with a fricking
Spist. This is one of hopefully a few bonus episodes of WBC content.
I was lucky enough to get down to the gb training facility managed to have
a chat with a few of the players on their thoughts of the tournament and
how they feeling, how everybody's kind of get together. So you're going to
hear a few chats. I hope you enjoy them. The team looks amazing.
Everybody was looking really forward to what's going to happen, and I can't
wait to share with you over the next few days weeks of what this GV
team can do, because hey, it's going to be fire. So move
to our first chat, which was with Justin Wiley. Apologies for the sound
of us walking on gravel, because well, yeah, we were walking on
gravel. It's nice. So how does it feel to be here? It's
beautiful, that's nice, having the group together, finally, first practice together.
So seeing all the new faces, seeing some old faces from Germany,
it's it's real nice, real nice. So yeah, we're we're down at
the Brew's facility. It's it's a beautiful place with twenty two degrees, Sonny,
Like, I think we're just ready for baseball, aren't we? Yeah?
Absolutely, how can you not be ready with this weather and the facility.
It's really nice, really happy that the brewer is able to have us
um and then our staff is doing a great job. Again that's prepared for
Saturday, you know. Yep, so Saturdays that became against the US and
Chase Fields. Have you guys been lining up anybody who you want to be
taking those homes off or you're just like we're just gonna take it as comes.
Yeah, you know, we're taking a day by day obviously, are
staffs doing a great job of scouting and getting us writing. Once we get
together for team meetings will really dive in deep. But today it's just about
getting our bodies right, getting our practice in and being together as a team.
If you had like a similar like team bonding meeting to the one that
you guys had to break a book, yeah, or do you think people
let's come in once you've got everybody. Yeah, once we have everybody,
we're gonna get together. We haven't because we still have some affiliate guys flying
in and gathering themselves getting settled. So once that happens, we'll have our
meetings and get after it. Yeah. No, that's awesome. It's I
guess kind of like anything you want to say to any of your friends and
families follow us. Yeah, no, just we really appreciate the GB support
and we're we're gonna do our best job of being president in the moment,
competing the hardest of our abilities and getting some ws. Just thank you Donald
the GB practice field when every semo, how does it feel to be here?
Uh, It's it's amazing, you know, just to be around all
the guys again, especially after what we did in Germany. Man, it
was something special. You know. Skip always speaks about family, you know,
coming together and stuff like that, and I really believe that's what we've
grown in and that's what we've become. So just coming back and seeing all
the guys, it's bitter sweet. Yeah, and obviously kind of it's an
amazing chance to kind of continue to put not only being put the Bahamas baseball
like on the map. How does it feel? I know we discuss this
when we were on our part recently, but everybody wears many kind of colors
with this too. How does that kind of like feel for you guys.
Honestly, that that should makes it special. Like I said, you have
a group of guys who's from almost all parts of the world, you know,
and we come together and we put it together and where we GB you
know, so that should makes special. You know, all of us come
from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, but when we all come here and we
all get on this field and we all strap on and put on i GB
here, it's all one, you know. So that feeling right, there
is nothing better, nothing special that's amazing into here. Obviously not telling any
of the secret source that's going to happen for the tournament, but you're gonna
be leading the steel start again. Boy oh boy, you know I'm out
of the gate of trying to get two three a game. Yeah, it's
gonna be fantastic. Obviously if you're at nine again putting it, going in
aheaded with Harry and you're getting on base and just making that trouble, it's
gonna be it's gonna be awesome to see. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like
in Germany it was fun man, you know, being able to get on
base and like kind like Harry Ford is behind me. You know whereas I
have protection, you know, I mean I felt happy. I felt free,
you know, I could do whatever I want. And I'm such a
great hit or that. I know. I just gotta get on second base
form anything you eat. Bass hit him going, no, well that's awesome.
I'm free. Man. So I'm here with Harry Ford down at the
Brewers training facility with GBA bass all the mournment. How does it feel to
be here? It's awesome, man, It's awesome to get us started,
see everyone out here. It's fun. So, yeah, you're you're meeting
up with some of the guys that obviously you met for the first time in
September, recatching up with some friends, making some new friends. How is
this kind of like that that vibe that you guys made a Reckonsburg feel like
it's come back together and it's going to grow again over the next day.
I never loved man, Like we we all stay in touch and everything.
Man, it's just fun being around each other every again and everything, and
like, you know, just knowing that we did something special before and we
I'm gonna do it again. It's cool. Yeah. So obviously for the
reckons BEG Tournament, you will one of like the players of the tournament,
if not the player of the tournament with the face of the tournament from I'll
be being one of those prospects. How does it feel to now be going
up against like you're gonna sit on a field which is you're gonna be catching
behind like Mike Trout and Mookie Bence's Like, is that kind of is that
going through your mind at all? And you still guys like this game at
a time, just gotta play baseball. Do not think about who those guys
are? I would hope be lying we didn't say it was on my mind,
because I mean, it's just like, ah, it's just a dream,
like we're playing as my best teams in the world if ever, and
you know, just you know, the guys you always see on TV.
It doesn't get any like more normal. So it's just like it's really cool
experience knowing that we're gonna get to play against those dudes and just be recognized
the same game as people like that, if anything like, So it's gonna
be really really special. And I guess obviously like for yourself, this this
is hopefully just a stepping stone, like you want you want to be the
playing major League baseball in as short of time as possible. Do you feel
like this will give you like a better experience and help you kind of like
progress? You know, I do think it will give me a good,
good experience in progression, just just learning how to prepare for a game like
this, you know, and just like really like because we're playing the big
league game and we're playing all lightsing me on, four thousand people gonna be
there and everything, so like it's it's good. It's good practice, I
mean, not practice. It's good to learn how it goes and to get
a taste of it, you know, and honestly, more than just a
taste is like something will probably I'm not sure if we'll be able to get
to do again. So does take it on? Yeah, I think obviously.
I think she's gonna get an It's still an atmosphere between you guys,
like you guys are still hungry, Like it wasn't just like a win to
be here, like you know, he had to make up number. It
wasn't. It wasn't just lucky. Yeah we were good too. You're gonna
you're gonna take some names. Yeah, we got some dudes. We've got
some major leaguers. We got a bunch of dudes, a bunch of better
man, You've got a great team, and I don't think people really realize.
All right, chance, Sorry, have a good one, Thanks man.
Thanks. I'm delighted to be chatting with Alex across the here down on
with a GD teams to practice before their warm up games and before the torment.
How does it feel to be here? I mean it feels amazing.
Um quick, easy trip for myself coming from Las Vegas. So you know,
while I'm just happy and proud to be representing great Britain and ready to
get to it. Yeah. So obviously it was an amazing job. Well
done the team and everybody in Regensburg. But we're not just here to make
up numbers. Like this team wants to show that, like you still have
more fight, you still have more to give, So like, how do
you how do you prepare? I feel kind of like this sort of thing.
So I just ramped it up a little bit earlier because you know,
my seasons usually start a month from now, so it's just getting that month
in preparation beforehand, you know, seeing some live doing everything I can.
You know, it's the same routine, working out, get into the field,
hidden the cages. So nothing really changes, just the time. So
you're right, it's just getting getting started a little bit earlier. The preparation
is always key. Just gotta stay focused. So yeah, and there was
a great atmosphere between like you guys as players like at the previous tournament,
like how do you how do you kind of like describe that and how it
kind of like helped you guys like actually like progress. Obviously, it's amazing
that you guys come from so many different backgrounds and the fact that Drew managed
to get you guys to share that and pretty built in commadrate. It's just
the whole chemistry thing, right, So we're just bringing that over. You
know, new guys are welcome, all of them. You know, we
all talk, We all somehow somewhere we're all still connected. Baseball is a
very small world, so you do know people um coming in, coming out,
So that alone will help us with the chemistry. And right, we're
just like Drew's meeting, right, everyone talks about the importance of what great
Britain and what it represents you, you know, because that's what made you
And so like I said, we're just we're all proud to be here,
we're all honored, we're all blessed. We gotta thank God, you know,
put us in the right place, right time, in the position,
and I think we're ready to go. We're ready to shock some people.
That's awesome. So you say you're ready to shock some people, have you
got that line drive to deep set a field and chasing your eyes like who
you're picking as a man, You're gonna you're gonna hit a donk off.
So you know, my goal always in the box is really just compete,
compete, compete, and hit the ball hard. You know, I want
to make sure that if I get out, it's going to be allowed out.
Home runs are never really in my mind. You know, it's a
great thing when they happen, But as far as right, the preparation is
line drive, line drive, line drive, just make something happen. Cool
Jez Alex all the best of the tournament. Man, Thank you, man.
I appreciate you for having me so down the Ghyll facility, and I'm
delightful to have Cooper and eshe to probably the long stage with the dB team.
How does it feel to be here, guys? Coop you want to
go first. It's been a journey man. It's I can't tell you the
emotion like winning that qualifier, Like I cried on the field, Like we've
been pushing for a long time. I joined the team for this and to
like finally be here. I get chills every time I think about it.
So I'm excited. This teams go a long way, and for me,
it's kind of like a second chance. I've been retired for quite a while.
Um you know, I've had some arm problems and finally feel good again.
I was getting ready for the qualifier but didn't quite make the squad.
So I know we're also not here and we're all missing him, but I'm
a benefactor of that, and so just just happy to be here. Do
anything you can to win as many games as you can. Yeah, I
think that's that's the key thing, Like keep he doesn't want to be here.
It's kind of like to make up the numbers. We're not We're not
done by getting Hay from Bregon's. But there's there's plenty more that the team
and you guys want to show. So how do you kind of prepare yourself
for a tournament where if you're honest to yourself. You're underdogs, but then
you want to win games. I mean ust being and I didn't know it's
might be our biggest advantage. It wasn't the golfers, no one expected us
to win there. We won and it wasn't like we skated through. We
beat every team that we played. The Spain game tough game, but we
we dogged it out and we came back. I was going to go that
we came even won that one, so like to be here. Everyone's gonna
sleep on us again. They're gonna be like, oh great Britain, like
we got this one. Well, we we're waiting for Mexico, we're waiting
for Canada and those teams they're not they're not gonna know what's coming for.
So yeah, there's there's a lot of a lot of young, wall humble
talent on this team. Um, you know, when when the lights turn
on, we'll get to see what it's capable of. But Dan and I
have talked this week about how this is by far the most talented gbteam we've
seen get put together on the field. So you know, I like our
chances um in tournament play. You know, if we had to go play
a hundred sixty two games, it might be a little tougher, but you
know, four games, it gets four really good teams. You know it.
You know we've done this for years. GB plays plays tournament Baseball,
and you know it's almost a coin clip in every game and fifty fifty odds
or we will definitely take. Yeah, that's one of the glorious things about
Baseball's that the best team doesn't win off the time, Like and when we
have this this tournament, which it isn't even like a double elimination or whatever,
like obviously you've got your group stages, but if you guys make it
to those quarters, semis finals, it's like it's one and done and Drew
Show and the mastery of handling kind of like the pitch the pitches and all
accounts string like the other tournament? Does it bring? Do you guys think
about this, like when you're actually even on the mound or when you're warming
up knowing that like I may have like a limit of how many pitches are
gonna do because it's going to be different of maybe like how you go out
in other games or tournaments. I don't I don't think so, um I
had some some good advice when I made my big, big debut, which
was, make as many pitches as you can until we come get you.
Um, And I think that's that's really what tournament baseball is about. If
you're here to make ten pitches, you make the ten best pitches you can
make. If you're here to make sixty five, you make the best sixty
five and can make But um, yeah, just one pitch at a time,
make each pitch count, making each pitch matter. Yeah, I mean
these guys, that's what these guys are paid to do. They're here to
handle the numbers, make sure we're doing we're do. We go out there,
get our outs, and they ask them to go out again, we
go out again. If not, let the next guy do it. And
like you said, we've been playing tournament baseball for a long time. These
guys do it once every three four years we've been I've done all of these
now, I think I'm pretty familiar with how these tournaments work. Let's see
if we get him extra any See, they won't they won't know what's coming.
When you start with runners on first and second, They're gonna go out
there and have no clue. We've been practicing for this for years, so
yeah, I guess my final question is obviously Chase Field is normally expecially like
a few door environment obviously for the baseballs, Like, have you guys ever
pitched with like humidal baseballs before or you know, if that's going to be
any difference for you guys? Is it? Um? Well? I know,
I know Coop played quite a long time in the Cal State League,
so you probably can have used some human or baseball. Yeah, honestly,
it's it is what it is. I like them. I throw sinkers.
The balls spends a little faster, so a little bit more depth. If
you make a bad pitch, you make a bad pitch, it biglier.
It's going over the fence anyway, So you just gotta make good pitches.
To me, I like them. They give me a little bit more,
a little bit more bite. They spend a little tighter. Yeah, And
I think, I think anything is mental. So if you put it in
your head, um, it's gonna be difficult to get it out of your
head. And so if you go if you go in with that approach,
I've got this baseball that's gonna fly, then you know that's what's gonna happen
if you go into it, you know, knowing that all you've got to
do is compete against the guy that's sixty feet away from you and give it
your best. I like I like our chances. Now, it's been a
pleasure dance. Wish you all the best and hopefully will see you guys in
Miami yet Cli