Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and
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Speaker 2: National Champion Andy Lopus. You baby baseball. How are you coaching?
Speaker 2: I'm doing good, Stee. Thanks for having me. Man, you're
Speaker 2: an old veteran at this. I'll just find it out.
Speaker 3: I had a radio show and a TV show in Gainesville,
Speaker 3: Florida when I was coaching at the University of Florida.
Speaker 3: Lois rating show in the history of radio and TV.
Speaker 3: But but I survived it.
Speaker 2: But you survived it? Was it difficult?
Speaker 4: You know what?
Speaker 3: By the grace of God I had, I had. I
Speaker 3: was there seven years, and six of those years we
Speaker 3: won we want a couple of conference championships, went to
Speaker 3: Omaha a few times and went in his number one
Speaker 3: team in the nation in nineteen ninety eight, and only
Speaker 3: one year did we not go to postseason there in
Speaker 3: the seven years I was there, and we started off marvelously.
Speaker 3: We were twenty two and three going into Athens, Georgia
Speaker 3: about the second week of conference and fifth in the nation.
Speaker 3: We had just the year before gone to Omaha's a
Speaker 3: number one team in the nation, and that's another story.
Speaker 3: Didn't win the national title. Still have thoughts about that.
Speaker 3: But anyway, and in that weekend I lost Jason dill
Speaker 3: Are All American first basement hit three in the lineup,
Speaker 3: a Friday.
Speaker 4: Night guy, and our closer. We lost our.
Speaker 3: Friday Night guy, our closer, and our number three old
Speaker 3: Winter in one week in the season Indian injuries. So
Speaker 3: we spit oil the rest of the way of the season.
Speaker 3: We didn't get into postseason. And man, that radio show
Speaker 3: was very interesting.
Speaker 2: Well it predated or about the time internet started, but
Speaker 2: not you know, online stuff, So that was when you
Speaker 2: got your grief instead of online.
Speaker 3: It was I gotta be honest, like I said, I
Speaker 3: was really fortunate. Six of the seven years we were
Speaker 3: in postseason. Everybody was happy, life was great, life was grand.
Speaker 3: But woo nineteen ninety nine, Man, though, when did you
Speaker 3: leave there? I came here in two thousand and one.
Speaker 2: Okay, so two years later you must have did well.
Speaker 2: The two thousand year, yeah, we were in.
Speaker 3: We lost to Miami twelve innings they've won that regional
Speaker 3: and then went on and won the national title.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and yeah, you know, yeah, we played.
Speaker 2: Okay, you had a fantastic career. It's easy to say
Speaker 2: that you had a numero longtime career. How many years.
Speaker 4: Thirty eight years?
Speaker 2: Coach, head coach, head coach, always head coach. Okay, So
Speaker 2: at Pepperdine you had a national title, correct, a fantastic
Speaker 2: career there. You moved to Florida from Pepperdine. From Pepperdine,
Speaker 2: then you moved here. So at what point along the road,
Speaker 2: this glorious road that you took, did you think, oh crap,
Speaker 2: this is kind of big time baseball. You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. You're doing it for fun and you enjoyed it, right.
Speaker 3: I mean yeah, I mean here's the reality of it.
Speaker 3: I'll keep it as quick as because you know again,
Speaker 3: I'll keep it quick. But I never ever, ever had
Speaker 3: one thought of being a baseball coach. Ever, What do
Speaker 3: you want to be when you grew up? Honestly? Yeah,
Speaker 3: I grew up poor, kind of a poor kid. My
Speaker 3: mom and they were the greatest parents on Earth, man.
Speaker 3: But I grew up you know what I want? I
Speaker 3: just want to make money.
Speaker 4: I did.
Speaker 3: I just want to make money and be able to
Speaker 3: buy things that I wanted and kind of split. It
Speaker 3: had to be something I didn't care. You didn't care,
Speaker 3: I didn't care. I really didn't care. I was learning
Speaker 3: to sell real estate life insurance policies.
Speaker 4: What age were you?
Speaker 3: Right out of UCLA twenty two and then the guy.
Speaker 3: I was about ready to be certified, and the guy said,
Speaker 3: you know what, I got to be honest, you you
Speaker 3: look way too young. I don't think you can go
Speaker 3: into a home and sell term policy life insurance policy.
Speaker 3: And so he kind of discouraged me, right, but he said,
Speaker 3: you know if you want, and I got a little discouraged.
Speaker 4: So I drove home and uh never it was raining.
Speaker 3: I was living in LA and I went to junior
Speaker 3: college before I went to UCLA. So I stopped by
Speaker 3: the junior college and then you know, I was there
Speaker 3: and told the coach and he said, well, why don't
Speaker 3: you come help me? And I went well, and he goes,
Speaker 3: it's helped me, and I said, well, I need some money,
Speaker 3: so I can't pay anything, but you know, do something else.
Speaker 3: My family were all long shortman, so I worked on
Speaker 3: the dots. I work on the docks a little bit,
Speaker 3: but you get your degree before history.
Speaker 2: So what the hell you get in? What history is
Speaker 2: not gonna pay you anything? What's wrong with you?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, my wife's a graduated UCLA as well.
Speaker 4: Now she's really sharp, she's a three point five.
Speaker 2: So you're a smart man.
Speaker 3: Married Andy Lopez is the epitome of c's getting degrees.
Speaker 3: Stay eligible, stay eligible, and play baseball. Right and uh
Speaker 3: so that was that was my hope and prayer.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you go back and you get the job
Speaker 2: at the JC.
Speaker 3: I'm working at the j C. So I was an
Speaker 3: assistant that one year. It's a great story from this standpoint.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, okay, ready, uh for young anybody out there
Speaker 3: that's a young coach or this and then I I've
Speaker 3: shared it with my coach, my coaches, and with my
Speaker 3: son who's coaching at the University of make Swore. Now
Speaker 3: this is a true story. So I'm at I'm at
Speaker 3: l A Harvard Junior College in Los Angeles on a
Speaker 3: thirty man roster. Number one is the best player on
Speaker 3: the team. Number two is the second best. Three four
Speaker 3: If I said, the thirtieth man is a young guy
Speaker 3: man named Jeff Turchie. Okay, he's now a very Successfuldnnist
Speaker 3: in Orange County. But Jeff Turchi, so he comes to
Speaker 3: me all the time. I say, hey, loas we you
Speaker 3: hip ground balls me before practice? Will you throw BP?
Speaker 3: Will you hit within? All these things. I'm twenty two
Speaker 3: years old, and I'm going, yeah, why I do that?
Speaker 3: The head coach even came to me one day, I said,
Speaker 3: why are you working with this guy? He's never gonna play.
Speaker 3: I said, yeah, I know, but you know he asked me.
Speaker 3: And this is a credit to my mother, my father,
Speaker 3: my grandmother. They always taught me, you befriend the guy
Speaker 3: that's not the rumpeter guy. So I did that the
Speaker 3: whole year. Right, we played for the state championship. I
Speaker 3: bet you Jeff played maybe five games and had maybe
Speaker 3: four bats, right, Okay, laid any defensive replacement or whatever.
Speaker 3: So the season ends and I'm going, hey, I'm not
Speaker 3: doing this. I'm not making any money, so I'm going
Speaker 3: to go back on the docks. I'm not figuring out
Speaker 3: what I'm gonna do. So now I'm thinking about getting
Speaker 3: my real estate light chains. I'm doing all these things
Speaker 3: and I get a call at my home. Now, this
Speaker 3: is nineteen seventy six, seventy seven, seventy eight.
Speaker 4: Maybe seventy eight.
Speaker 3: No, no phone, sty I pick up the phone.
Speaker 4: I hear, is this Andy Lopez?
Speaker 3: Well, buddy of mine, Bobby Ramirez and I we would
Speaker 3: play jokes on each other and say, hey, this is
Speaker 3: Bill Smith with the Cincinnati Reds. Hey meet me at
Speaker 3: the at Peck Park in San Pedro at ten o'clock.
Speaker 3: I said, I'm going to give you a workout, maybe
Speaker 3: I'll sign you a contract. So I think it's Bobby Ramirez.
Speaker 3: I say, hey, Bobby, nice, try hang up the phone.
Speaker 3: It's a true story. So I start walking away and
Speaker 3: the phone rings again and I hear, is this Andrew Lopez?
Speaker 3: Is Andrew Lopez? Well, I was only called Andrew in
Speaker 3: my life. I was in trouble. Yeah, So I said, ooh,
Speaker 3: excuse me, sir, I'm sorry, Yes, this is Andy. And
Speaker 3: I thought this was a prank, called that a well
Speaker 3: long story shirt. This gentleman says, I'm Dick Jacobson, superintendent
Speaker 3: of school South Bay Union High School District, which is
Speaker 3: in southern California, matt In Beach, Elsagundo, Torrence Ridondo.
Speaker 4: On that by the airport, he.
Speaker 3: Says, I'm looking to hire a baseball coach, football coach,
Speaker 3: rush offt football, varsity baseball, and teach five classes of
Speaker 3: freshman Spanish.
Speaker 4: I said, I.
Speaker 3: Got no job right, twenty two? Yeah, I'm twenty two.
Speaker 3: And I said, well listen, I'm interested, but I don't
Speaker 3: have a teaching credential. He said, well, let's meet next week.
Speaker 3: So we meet and when I get there, he's got
Speaker 3: an emergency credential. All mapped out. I go to this
Speaker 3: junior college in La. Then I go to La Kel
Speaker 3: State in LA. But I got to go to school
Speaker 3: all summer. Now I'm having this meeting in June. School
Speaker 3: starts in September out in LA after Labor Day. So anyway,
Speaker 3: I take the job right But as I'm walking out
Speaker 3: of his office, I say yes to the job. So
Speaker 3: I'm going to do it, and I ended up doing
Speaker 3: I started as the high school I did for five years.
Speaker 3: As I'm walking out, I said, mister Jacobs said, can
Speaker 3: I ask you a quick question?
Speaker 4: Yeah? What's up? Great?
Speaker 3: Lesson? Great, lesson. This is how I got into coaching,
Speaker 3: he says. I said, how did you get my name
Speaker 3: a number? He said, well, my dentist is Mark Turchie.
Speaker 4: This is right.
Speaker 3: I'm getting my teeth worked on the other day, and
Speaker 3: he asked how I was doing.
Speaker 4: I said, I'm doing good, but I got to hire
Speaker 4: a baseball coach.
Speaker 3: Mark Turchie is the father of Jeff Turchie, the kid
Speaker 3: I worked with every day before and after practice.
Speaker 4: Now, if i'd have blown him off, sure, yeah, those long.
Speaker 4: I mean, you're working on the dogs.
Speaker 2: Don't know. You were telling me this something. And there's
Speaker 2: three people already that I know. You have to say
Speaker 2: thank you to the guy who told you. To the
Speaker 2: first guy who stirred you away. There was two of them.
Speaker 2: There was two of them, and then you went somewhere
Speaker 2: else and then this guy, there's three of them. You know,
Speaker 2: to go here there. This is a butterfly effect. Yeah,
Speaker 2: where you know this, this and that and then here
Speaker 2: you are. Right. So, so is he still around?
Speaker 4: Who's that mister? You missed?
Speaker 2: The dentist.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he's still out there. Yeah, still out there. Well,
Speaker 3: the kids doing well. I don't know if his father's
Speaker 3: still well.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, but the kid is doing well.
Speaker 3: He's doing well. He's he's a very successful dnist in
Speaker 3: Orange County. And yeah, we communicate every now and then.
Speaker 3: Didn't you write some books, didn't you? I wrote one
Speaker 3: after the National champion. When you win the National champions
Speaker 3: you're the flavor of the hot, right. You got answers
Speaker 3: everything you can solve world peace from Pepperdine or did
Speaker 3: you do it for Okay? It started at Pepperdine, the book, yes,
Speaker 3: but you didn't finish it.
Speaker 4: Finish it in Florida.
Speaker 3: In fact, if anybody got it, it's not I don't
Speaker 3: think it's in the pub case anymore. It's funny because
Speaker 3: I started it was started at Pepperdine ninety two. We
Speaker 3: win the national championship in ninety four is my last
Speaker 3: year there for two years. So you can see how
Speaker 3: quick I wasn't doing it? Okay, I had a ghost writer.
Speaker 3: What was this was the premise of the book. It
Speaker 3: was called Coaching Baseball Successfully about Baseball. It was about me. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so every every every chapter was a little bit about
Speaker 3: my background and then you know why we did the
Speaker 3: things we did, and yeah, etattat cetera and drills and
Speaker 3: all these other things, but philosophies and the whole thing. Okay, ahead, okay,
Speaker 3: So so I take the job to Florida in ninety five,
Speaker 3: I'm off to Angel, Florida, nineteen ninety five. I finished
Speaker 3: the book in ninety six, okay, and and I vowed
Speaker 3: I'd never do another one. It took me forever, but
Speaker 3: I finished the book in ninety six. And there's pictures
Speaker 3: of guys in Florida baseball uniforms all over the book.
Speaker 4: Because I was at Florida the time.
Speaker 3: So there's Pepperdine guys and there's Florida guys in it.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it gets a little confusing, but it went well
Speaker 3: for a while.
Speaker 4: And you know I mean it. You know I did
Speaker 4: not make a lot of money on it. I can
Speaker 4: tell you that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, No. One of the mysteries of books is
Speaker 2: there's no money unless your bill. Unless you're Bill Clinton
Speaker 2: or Donald Trust, they're going to pay you a million
Speaker 2: dollar advance. Other than that, you're saying, okay, twenty five,
Speaker 2: you're like Pete Diddy or somebody. I shouldn't say that
Speaker 2: with the guy with with things in your trunk, say hey,
Speaker 2: you want to buy a book. You know I give
Speaker 2: you a discount. You know you buy them for ten bucks,
Speaker 2: you sell it for twelve.
Speaker 4: Let me put it this way, we get our with
Speaker 4: the residual checks.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: On the every month. My wife and I in Florida
Speaker 3: and she go, here's another one. Yeah, and go, hey,
Speaker 3: that's twenty five dollars in bad.
Speaker 2: Long John Silver's here we come. Yeah, yeah, no, no,
Speaker 2: hear what one of the reasons why you're here? You
Speaker 2: tell the greatest stories. I think you have a better book, book,
Speaker 2: better book inside you. Mike Kendred. We talk about this
Speaker 2: all the time with him having a book because he has,
Speaker 2: you know, eight titles, A lot of people who love him.
Speaker 2: You do because you're you got a great story to tell.
Speaker 2: You just do the way you grew up where you're at.
Speaker 2: How you butterfly effect. Come on, if you had you
Speaker 2: not taking care of that kid.
Speaker 4: I don't know what I'd be.
Speaker 2: It's just like these things happen. Yeah, these things happened.
Speaker 2: SA mean, I got here, I stayed, but a lot
Speaker 2: of people along the way have helped me.
Speaker 3: And then I tried to get out of coaching three times.
Speaker 3: Where let's see, I took the Dominga's Hill I was
Speaker 3: at America's High school for five years and then I
Speaker 3: got offered the Kelctate Domingu's Hills job, which is a
Speaker 3: Division two program in Los Angeles, and it was an
Speaker 3: absolute nightmare there. Just it was the worst job a
Speaker 3: man could take in his life. I said no to
Speaker 3: it for three days in a row. My dad. I
Speaker 3: went to see my dad one day and I told him, hey, Dad,
Speaker 3: I got this Dominga's Hills job offered. I told him
Speaker 3: everything that was wrong with the job. There was no
Speaker 3: money for assistant coaches. You had to teach four lecture classes.
Speaker 3: There was no irrigation on the infil. I dragged the field.
Speaker 3: I dragged the field every day before practicing, after practice
Speaker 3: with my own car, in my own car. The crips
Speaker 3: and the Bloods. This is a true story. People think
Speaker 3: I lie about this. If anybody wants to challenge out
Speaker 3: of this, you need to call Steve and he'll give
Speaker 3: you my number, and I'll let you talk to my wife,
Speaker 3: because why I got married my second year there.
Speaker 4: She lived to help you.
Speaker 3: The crips in the blood stole our equipment on a
Speaker 3: nightly basis. So I put all of our equipment, every
Speaker 3: piece of baseball equipment, in the back of my little
Speaker 3: hot my little Jetta. It was a GMC jetta. I'm
Speaker 3: not a Jedda this little hatchback. I put it in
Speaker 3: the back, so I dragged the field of my car
Speaker 3: and then I put all the equipment in the back
Speaker 3: of my car and drove it home, then drove it
Speaker 3: back and take it out.
Speaker 4: And that was my routine every day.
Speaker 2: I would think that you'd need a look, a small
Speaker 2: pinto or something like that, just to kind of take it.
Speaker 3: Out of unblu. Like I said, not one penny for
Speaker 3: assistant coaches. At that time, the nc DOUBLEA allotted fifteen
Speaker 3: scholarships to a Division two Division one NCAA baseball.
Speaker 4: I had one and a third. That was what the
Speaker 4: university game.
Speaker 2: That's not you guys worked magic because of the scholarship limits. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and all other sports like that where football gets all these
Speaker 2: and you have like fifteen or not even fifteen seven
Speaker 2: seconds now, which is good.
Speaker 4: I'm happy for chipping those guys. It's changing.
Speaker 3: But anyway, I did that for a while, and about
Speaker 3: my third year there, I was offered a job. I
Speaker 3: was going to be the director of Athletes and Action
Speaker 3: Christian Organization. They were going to send me to Colorado Springs,
Speaker 3: put us up in a home. It was all set
Speaker 3: and I said yes, and my wife was out shopping.
Speaker 3: She came home and I said, Linda, we're set free, man.
Speaker 3: We're going to Colorado Springs. We had one you know,
Speaker 3: I have four kids. My first daughter was born at
Speaker 3: that time. And she said, what are you talking about.
Speaker 3: I said, I took the job today from you know,
Speaker 3: I took the job. This is my last year to me.
Speaker 3: She was back to the job and she didn't like that.
Speaker 3: She said, you know, we need to pray about this
Speaker 3: as a couple. So we prayed about it a couple
Speaker 3: of times that night, and I woke up the next
Speaker 3: morning and I had to call the general.
Speaker 4: We say, I'm not taking that job.
Speaker 3: And then another time, in nineteen ninety one, I was
Speaker 3: offered a management position. What happens. I had a player
Speaker 3: at Pepperdine. I took the Pepperdine. I'm in eighty nine.
Speaker 3: There was a player on that program that first year.
Speaker 3: I'd heard the program and he was kind of a
Speaker 3: kind of a rough edge kid, and I, you know,
Speaker 3: I was I was a very demanding coach. I'm not
Speaker 3: gonna apologize for it, but I was very demanding on
Speaker 3: the field. And he got his life in order and
Speaker 3: it impressed his dad. So his dad came and he
Speaker 3: took me to lunch. In nineteen ninety one, I was
Speaker 3: at Pepperdine. I was at Pepperdine in eighty nine, ninety ninety,
Speaker 3: my third year there, and he says, hey, I'm going
Speaker 3: to offer you a management position, your own office, and
Speaker 3: ready for this, a fifteen thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: Raise from my salary. Yeah. So I'm thinking this is
Speaker 4: an answer to prayer.
Speaker 3: I'm out of here, right, I'm getting out, and I
Speaker 3: go home and I tell my wife and she goes, oh,
Speaker 3: let's pray about Like, oh, Linda, No, come on, you know,
Speaker 3: come on, you know we're both we both are born
Speaker 3: again Christians. I said, hey, come on, this is this
Speaker 3: is too good to be true. I don't have to
Speaker 3: recruit anymore. I don't have to worry about winning forty games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you very much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm gonna get a fifteen thousand dollars race.
Speaker 3: Come on, Lynn, what we gotta pray about? And the
Speaker 3: next one I won't go to. Oh my god, I'm
Speaker 3: not taking this job. Oh guess what happens next year
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety two, you.
Speaker 2: Get the job at pepper where you win the title.
Speaker 4: We win the national team win the title. Yeah, so
Speaker 4: I would have left the year early.
Speaker 2: And again again, your your path would have been different.
Speaker 3: As we're flying home on the charter jet from Omaha, Nebraska,
Speaker 3: we just won a smaller school they ever win a
Speaker 3: national title, only three thousand students, no football program of
Speaker 3: Pepperin only three sounds, three thousands enrollment. My wife nudges
Speaker 3: me and says, hey, you probably need to stay in
Speaker 3: this job.
Speaker 2: That's for a little while longer. Okay, we gotta go.
Speaker 2: We had to even mentioned the guests. We're gonna We're
Speaker 2: gonna talk to Larry Gilman, a former TV guy in Cincinnati,
Speaker 2: while Pete Rose was a player and a coach, I
Speaker 2: think for sure a player. And then we're gonna talk
Speaker 2: to Donnie Salem at the four to fifteen hour. If
Speaker 2: you paid attention to our social it's reversed. So Gilman
Speaker 2: will come on first and then Donnie Salemon. Donnie Salem
Speaker 2: will be afterward. Let's take the break. Thank you, Ryn.
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Speaker 1: Steve Rivera and Jake and Salez. They have their eye
Speaker 1: on the Ball on Tucson's Sports Stage Jet Fox Sports
Speaker 1: fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean iHeart radio Wapps.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to Why I'm About Hero Fox Sports
Speaker 2: fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera. In with me today's former
Speaker 2: you of a baseball coach, Andy Lopus. Now on the phone,
Speaker 2: we have Larry Gilman, a former sports report in Cincinnati
Speaker 2: who covered Pete Rose extensively and became friends with him.
Speaker 2: Is that right?
Speaker 12: I don't know if you would consider to be the
Speaker 12: right thing to do as a reporter that Pete and
Speaker 12: I got to be quite close during the three years
Speaker 12: I was there.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, So I saw your post on Facebook. How
Speaker 2: did this hit you?
Speaker 4: Well, the fact that he had passed away.
Speaker 12: Yeah, well he was eighty three years old, and you know, she.
Speaker 13: Has devoted the last.
Speaker 12: You know, many decades of his life. Really in terms
Speaker 12: of his quest to get into the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 4: It made me.
Speaker 12: Very sad that he had passed away before that happened, because,
Speaker 12: as I said in my post, I really felt that well,
Speaker 12: he definitely should have paid a price for violating the
Speaker 12: rules in the way it was, still he was still
Speaker 12: one of the greatest players. It's not the greatest non
Speaker 12: home run hitter of all time. And I think he
Speaker 12: belongs in the.
Speaker 4: Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Larry, this is a at coach Lopez, Andy Lopez,
Speaker 3: And I've got to ask you a question I never
Speaker 3: had the honor and the pleasure to and I echo
Speaker 3: your thoughts. You got, you know, and hey, who didn't
Speaker 3: have a little bit of a dark side in their life?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 3: I mean, come on, but but boy, what a great
Speaker 3: player and phenomenal And I was a big fan of
Speaker 3: Pete Rose growing up as a kid. I'm seventy years old,
Speaker 3: so I remember when he was a young when he
Speaker 3: was just getting after it with the Reds and even
Speaker 3: with the Phillies and all the rest. But I do
Speaker 3: want to ask you something. I was very intense on
Speaker 3: the field, and then off the field.
Speaker 4: I was not that way and that I just had.
Speaker 3: It's almost like I had two personalities meet personally, right,
Speaker 3: Pete's intensity on the field, how was he off the field?
Speaker 4: Good question.
Speaker 12: I think that I wouldn't describe him as an intense
Speaker 12: person off the field. I mean, he really did have
Speaker 12: a problem with gambling long before you know any I mean,
Speaker 12: I had left Cincinnati when all of his his issues
Speaker 12: became public. He left Cincinnati too. He went to play
Speaker 12: for the Phillies, and I went to another market. I
Speaker 12: moved to Milwaukee, and then many years later this all
Speaker 12: sort of emerged. But when I knew him and was
Speaker 12: with him, I wouldn't call him intense as a person,
Speaker 12: but he had his quirks. I mean, one of the
Speaker 12: things is he would bet you on anything. You know,
Speaker 12: you be in the car with him and you're going somewhere,
Speaker 12: and I'll say, I'll bet you a dollar that we
Speaker 12: see a red car before the car. Or We used
Speaker 12: to go to the racetrack a lot sometimes with his kids,
Speaker 12: and we socialized a lot. And I wouldn't call him
Speaker 12: intense off the field, but he was clearly a product
Speaker 12: of his background. He grew up in the western Hills
Speaker 12: of Cincinnati, which is sort of a blue collar, white
Speaker 12: Catholic area.
Speaker 4: And.
Speaker 13: He sort of.
Speaker 12: He had a very high sense of propriety when it
Speaker 12: came to certain issues. We were once my wife and
Speaker 12: I and he was and I was on a double
Speaker 12: date with Pete who was with not his wife, even
Speaker 12: though he was very visibly and publicly married, and we went.
Speaker 12: He was part owner of the Cincinnati Wave indoor soccer team.
Speaker 12: We're sitting in the press box and watching the game
Speaker 12: and I made a comment.
Speaker 4: To the group.
Speaker 12: I said, boy, our team really got and I used
Speaker 12: an X live on that call, and Pete looked at
Speaker 12: me and he said, how can you use language like
Speaker 12: that in front of women?
Speaker 13: And here he was out in a public setting with
Speaker 13: a wife.
Speaker 12: So it was a set of values that was, you know,
Speaker 12: was new for me as a Jewish.
Speaker 13: Kid from Saint Louis. How can you be out in public?
Speaker 12: Beget that when I dropped the F bomb and here
Speaker 12: you are with this very attractive woman who in front
Speaker 12: of everybody, you know. So he was someone who really
Speaker 12: added a dimension and an insight about a lot of
Speaker 12: things to my life. And I think that he was
Speaker 12: very intense about baseball to a point of over focus.
Speaker 12: You wake him up in the middle of the night,
Speaker 12: out of a dead sleep. He could give you every
Speaker 12: statistic about his baseball career up until that moment. And
Speaker 12: on the one day, I mean, during his forty four
Speaker 12: game hitting streak.
Speaker 13: I pitched in college.
Speaker 12: I was left hander, and he says, we played twenty
Speaker 12: two games and really calls me up.
Speaker 13: He says, I'm down at Riverfront. Come down here.
Speaker 4: I go down there.
Speaker 12: He said, I need a left hander to pitch banning
Speaker 12: practice to me because I'm facing Jim Bunning tomorrow.
Speaker 13: And you know, he's an amazing game.
Speaker 4: He's hitting thirty five games in a row.
Speaker 13: He already had the national leader.
Speaker 4: On his one day off.
Speaker 12: He's down there taking baddock practice and wants me to
Speaker 12: throw to him because he wants a left hander.
Speaker 4: Like you know, he's never seen a left hander before.
Speaker 4: So he was very.
Speaker 12: Focused and very passionate and very determined to do things
Speaker 12: in a certain way.
Speaker 13: But that way wasn't always a way I was familiar with.
Speaker 2: So so you kind of maybe already asked answer this
Speaker 2: question his background and his intensity. But you don't see
Speaker 2: players like him anymore, Right, that drive, that run down
Speaker 2: to first base to kind of plow you over, kind
Speaker 2: of over over overplay almost. But I loved that he
Speaker 2: was my hero growing up. I love how he played
Speaker 2: you ran hard, you played hard? Uh? Is that a
Speaker 2: product of his background too? Did he have a dad
Speaker 2: who kind of stressed that or where did that come from?
Speaker 13: Well?
Speaker 12: He once told me that if there weren't such a
Speaker 12: thing because the game of baseball, he'd be selling aluminum
Speaker 12: siding like his dad did. I mean, he was very
Speaker 12: much aware of the fact that, you know that he
Speaker 12: he was uniquely talented in a certain way, but in
Speaker 12: other ways maybe not so much.
Speaker 4: But I.
Speaker 12: I just think that he he was that way. And
Speaker 12: I also think that one of the reasons that so
Speaker 12: many people really loved him as a player was because
Speaker 12: as a as a baseball player myself.
Speaker 13: I mean, baseball, as we all know.
Speaker 12: Doesn't have the same reputation as as as as football
Speaker 12: or even basketball of being a physical kind of sport
Speaker 12: where where passion, you know, has a huge role, it's
Speaker 12: really more of a skill sport. And and here comes
Speaker 12: Pete Rose and he's, you know, sprinting down to first
Speaker 12: base when he gets a walk, and he's running over
Speaker 12: Ray FOSSi in a meaningless All Star game and actually
Speaker 12: putting FOSSi out of the you know, it sort of
Speaker 12: ended his career in a very real sense.
Speaker 4: But you know, that's just the way Pete was.
Speaker 12: And I'm not sure that anyone ever called him on
Speaker 12: it or suggested that wasn't one hundred percent positive because
Speaker 12: so many people just sort of worshiped him for it.
Speaker 12: And you know, when it came to free agency, I mean,
Speaker 12: he had grown up in Cincinnati, played his whole career
Speaker 12: with Cincinnati, and when I was there in nineteen seventy
Speaker 12: eight or nine, he went in the free agent market
Speaker 12: and ended up going to the Phillies. And the decision
Speaker 12: process for him was not about money, because he could
Speaker 12: have gotten pretty much the same money anywhere, but it
Speaker 12: was really about finding the right fit for him and
Speaker 12: finding a place where he would be happy and where
Speaker 12: he would play a role. And I think he was
Speaker 12: a friend of Bobby Wine and that was one of
Speaker 12: the reasons that he went to the Phillies instead of
Speaker 12: the Braves or a couple of the other teams that
Speaker 12: were sort of after him. So he really did have
Speaker 12: that kind of side to him that was very traditional,
Speaker 12: very old school in terms of.
Speaker 13: You know your you know your word is your bond.
Speaker 12: I mean, he did have a problem with gambling, but
Speaker 12: in terms of everything else, I would have trusted him
Speaker 12: with anything.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The one question I was just curious, Like I said,
Speaker 3: I never had the pleasure or to see him in person.
Speaker 4: Was he big? How big was he?
Speaker 12: It was not big. He wasn't small. I call him
Speaker 12: average sized. I'm not saying it might have.
Speaker 13: Been five to ten uh and you know, not but
Speaker 13: but very dirty thirty, very sturdy, you know, but but
Speaker 13: not not a slugger.
Speaker 12: I mean his skill was was having a complete control
Speaker 12: of the bat at all time. I mean, if you're
Speaker 12: pitching to him, or someone's pitching batting passes to him.
Speaker 13: He would call out where he was going to hit
Speaker 13: the ball.
Speaker 12: Uh, and he'd hit it there, you know, sort of
Speaker 12: like Tiger Woods with that thing he did with a
Speaker 12: golf ball kind of thing. I mean, he was just
Speaker 12: uh uh he really was a technician.
Speaker 2: Well he just recently, I don't know how long ago
Speaker 2: on Twitter or on Fox. He was doing the Fox
Speaker 2: TV thing right and and Rodriguez was there, and so
Speaker 2: was uh the Chicago White Sox guy forget his name
Speaker 2: us No, no, the big guy, Frank Thomas. So he
Speaker 2: was teaching them or you know, this is what I
Speaker 2: did when I was slumping. He went up, went back
Speaker 2: and he was giving baseball hitting lessons, you know, choke up.
Speaker 2: He was teaching them and they were like, wow, I mean,
Speaker 2: these guys who know how to play the game. He
Speaker 2: was telling me, if I'm gonna slump, I do this
Speaker 2: and we'll step up curveballs here, do this, and do that.
Speaker 2: He was he was brilliant at that. And there's no.
Speaker 4: Question, whole life, his whole life.
Speaker 2: And and like coaching is a technique, right, you either
Speaker 2: you got it or you don't. And I think the
Speaker 2: players loved him because he knew all that stuff. He
Speaker 2: was good at it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The thing that I was always impressed with him, Larry
Speaker 3: Man as a coach, but as a young player two
Speaker 3: growing I was. I was a middle infielder, my my
Speaker 3: during my career. But he was so versatile. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know in today's world of baseball, they're they're looking
Speaker 3: for that, They're looking for the gather the interchangeable parts.
Speaker 3: You know, the Dodgers are famous right now, you know,
Speaker 3: put Mookie Bets at short, put him at second, put
Speaker 3: them in right, Okay, But I mean, right, am I
Speaker 3: right about this? Pete Rosie. I remember him playing left field.
Speaker 3: I remember him playing second base.
Speaker 12: Well, he came up as a second base. Yeah, and
Speaker 12: for the first whatever big percentage of his career he
Speaker 12: was the second baseman. And then Joe Morgan came along,
Speaker 12: and so he became a third base and then later
Speaker 12: in his career he he became, uh he became an outfielder,
Speaker 12: so he could play anywhere.
Speaker 4: He played first left Philadelphia, he played first base. Yeah
Speaker 4: yeah he did at the end.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah no, what what if? Did you inredible talent?
Speaker 2: And as a reporter, Larry, did you have any run
Speaker 2: ins with him?
Speaker 4: Never?
Speaker 12: But uh, yeah, know it was It was interesting because
Speaker 12: I was local, and you know, we used to hang
Speaker 12: out together and I'd see him a lot. And yet
Speaker 12: because of his standing and because of his his career,
Speaker 12: I mean, he was already well in his career when
Speaker 12: when I met him, and they were right in the
Speaker 12: wheelhouse of the big Red machine with Johnny Bench and
Speaker 12: George Foster and.
Speaker 4: And sig concepts to own.
Speaker 12: And I mean I think other than their pitching, I
Speaker 12: think from from a lineup point of view, places one
Speaker 12: through eight, it could have been the best.
Speaker 4: Hitting team ever.
Speaker 12: Uh in terms of just not being a weekly anywhere
Speaker 12: in the lineup.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 12: But so he had he was a major national sports
Speaker 12: figure and he knew major national sports reporters.
Speaker 13: So I was in that regard.
Speaker 12: I mean, I was covering the Cincinnati Reds because I
Speaker 12: lived in Cincinnati and worked for a Cincinnati TV station,
Speaker 12: And I know I knew Pete Rose because he was
Speaker 12: in Cincinnati, and I got to meet him and have
Speaker 12: a relationship with him. But in terms of his his
Speaker 12: relationships with the national news media, he clearly had his
Speaker 12: friends and people who weren't such friends. So but that
Speaker 12: really didn't have an impact on me, because you know.
Speaker 13: I was in a different place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, what's your what's your favorite memory?
Speaker 13: I was thinking.
Speaker 12: About that today. The favorite memory, Well, the one was.
Speaker 4: When I.
Speaker 12: Well I talked about that a little bit, when you
Speaker 12: know at the at the at the game that I
Speaker 12: went to. I mean because of him, I got to
Speaker 12: go to things I wouldn't have otherwise gone to. The
Speaker 12: favorite memory I guess I had during in nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 12: the Reds went on a.
Speaker 4: Good will trip.
Speaker 12: In Japan, and so Haw Ruo was there at the time,
Speaker 12: who was the greatest slugger in the history of Japanese baseball,
Speaker 12: and I got to meet him and get some photos.
Speaker 12: You know, people didn't have cell phones back then, so
Speaker 12: I don't know be selfies, but I have a few
Speaker 12: pictures that other people took but that trip, I mean,
Speaker 12: it really brought into focus what an international hero he
Speaker 12: had become.
Speaker 13: We went to there's a Mizuno, which.
Speaker 12: Is the biggest sporting goods maker maybe in the world,
Speaker 12: but they're in Japan, and they have a whole huge
Speaker 12: department store in downtown Tokyo. And one day Pete and
Speaker 12: George Foster and Johnny Bench had been paid to come
Speaker 12: and sign autographs.
Speaker 4: And post for pictures.
Speaker 12: And I wrote down there with Pete and there were
Speaker 12: lines three times around the block of people waiting to
Speaker 12: get in. I mean, japan huge baseball interest over there.
Speaker 4: I was really surprised by that.
Speaker 13: But he was so great. He's just so open to everyone.
Speaker 12: And then before the games in this tour, he would
Speaker 12: do that hitting clinic where he would call where he
Speaker 12: was going to hit the ball and and and you know,
Speaker 12: and everyone.
Speaker 4: Just ate it up.
Speaker 12: I mean, he he just loved being in the spotlight.
Speaker 12: He loved being a hero, and he really was proud
Speaker 12: of the fact that he felt that he had done
Speaker 12: it without being born with tremendous natural ability, that he
Speaker 12: really had had to work hard, uh to get as
Speaker 12: good as he was, and had to hustle more than
Speaker 12: everyone else and do all these other things. And I
Speaker 12: would say, rather than have one single story or one
Speaker 12: single incident, I would say that being around a guy
Speaker 12: like that and getting to know him, uh was was
Speaker 12: just a very special opportunity, and you know, I was very,
Speaker 12: very blessed to have it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Right, well, Larry, thanks for your time, Appreciate your time.
Speaker 2: Thanks talking with you.
Speaker 13: See the business all right, I'll see I'll see at
Speaker 13: Viera Mori.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you, We'll see my Tuesday guys with the guys. Okay,
Speaker 2: let's take a break and come back. If you're an
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Speaker 7: Hi, this is.
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Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and
Speaker 1: Jay Gonzalez sound Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Subscribe now to
Speaker 1: the podcast on the iHeartRadio app just Surgeon I on
Speaker 1: the Ball.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to my I on the Ball here
Speaker 2: Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's mister Andy
Speaker 2: Lopez coach and Lopez two time national champion. Here here
Speaker 2: one at ULA and win at Pepperdine right, and we
Speaker 2: got Ryan with us today. So let me ask you
Speaker 2: how many you give me a number? You can be
Speaker 2: any number. In your time, you've coached about a thousand kids,
Speaker 2: more than about twelve hundred twel hundred. Okay. Did you
Speaker 2: have a Pete Rose guy where you talked about the
Speaker 2: kid who at the end of the thirty right, who
Speaker 2: ran hard, played hard, did all that, but just was
Speaker 2: a marginal player, but made himself into one player. I'm
Speaker 2: talking Pete Rose that way.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 3: David Exstein, David Exstein, when the world's MVP of the
Speaker 3: whatever I was.
Speaker 2: You don't even have to think about it because he
Speaker 2: was a walk on at Florida, Okay.
Speaker 3: And when he walked into my office, my secretary, I'll
Speaker 3: never forget normal it's my first year there, and Norris
Speaker 3: says Coach Loy and gets on my phone. Coach Lopez,
Speaker 3: we have a player that wants to talk about the baseball proer. Yeah,
Speaker 3: come on, that's my first year. Come one, Come on,
Speaker 3: you know I'm you there. I don't know one soul
Speaker 3: in Florida now, one human being. So I'm going, yeah,
Speaker 3: come on in. So here comes this little guy walks in.
Speaker 3: I kind of go, okay, how you doing? And I'm
Speaker 3: thinking he's going to ask about the manager's position. Just
Speaker 3: Coach Lopez, David, and I said, okay, David, okay, well
Speaker 3: you know, tryouts and so and so he comes out,
Speaker 3: wait keep him and he's got okay. Actions didn't have
Speaker 3: a really good arm. His nickname in Big Leaues was
Speaker 3: just enough, just enough strength to get it out. So anyway,
Speaker 3: and I still stay in close contact with him and
Speaker 3: his brother Ricky.
Speaker 4: They both played for me.
Speaker 3: And uh so fall baseball starts and you know I'm
Speaker 3: having I had my routine as head coach.
Speaker 4: We had meetings every morning nine o'clock.
Speaker 3: For one hour with the team, no no with coach
Speaker 3: step and we'd go over yesterday's practice, today's practice, and
Speaker 3: then we'd go over recruiting, and then we'd go over some.
Speaker 4: You know, scholarship issues.
Speaker 3: Well, I'll never forget the beginning fall, I'm saying to
Speaker 3: my staff, Hey, we've got to go out and find
Speaker 3: a couple of second basements because you know, the ex
Speaker 3: Time kid, he good kid, works hard, but you know
Speaker 3: he's short in his arm strength. And not that that
Speaker 3: he's short, he's just short in some ability. Well, by
Speaker 3: the end of the fall, my meetings were, hey, guys,
Speaker 3: we got to find some money for Exstein.
Speaker 4: It was like the guy, it was unbelievable. And all the.
Speaker 3: Guys I coached, and I was really lucky to coach
Speaker 3: a lot of good players, so I got some wins
Speaker 3: because I had good players. Right, But if he had
Speaker 3: a bat at bat, you could lay your life that
Speaker 3: the next at bat was gonna be absolutely fantastic. I mean,
Speaker 3: if he had a We're in Omahon nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 3: It's it's LUs in LSU. It's the famous game that
Speaker 3: war and Morris hits the home run to win the
Speaker 3: national championship the next day against LSU Miami.
Speaker 4: Well, we're playing LSU.
Speaker 3: Winner of this game plays Miami tomorrow x Steinn's up
Speaker 3: in the fifth inning, has a really bad at bat.
Speaker 3: He's coming up in the next seventh or eighth inning,
Speaker 3: and I turned my estaff, I said, and it's one
Speaker 3: to one. It's a one one game. I said, if
Speaker 3: x steinn comes up with people on base, we're gonna
Speaker 3: win this game. We're gonna be playing for the National
Speaker 3: Championship Ball. And it's my second year of Florida. And
Speaker 3: they turn a double play right before he gets up though.
Speaker 3: In the eighth, Nam whack all the gap double. We
Speaker 3: don't score him, we lose two to one. They played
Speaker 3: National Chair. They win the National Chamis the next day
Speaker 3: on Warren Morris's grant home run in the ninth.
Speaker 4: But yeah, he was phenomenal and that's who he was.
Speaker 2: Right right. So you've had I'm sure you had more
Speaker 2: more like him, but he's the one that popped.
Speaker 4: Up right away.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think in I think in every program, I
Speaker 3: was big on intangibles, and I was always looking for
Speaker 3: that and recruiting and uh a few huge on intangibles.
Speaker 3: In fact, there were many times I avoided the guy
Speaker 3: that was the he passed the eye test for the guy.
Speaker 17: You know, he's got intangibles just talking to his coaches.
Speaker 17: Don't do that. I mean what you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 17: They want They want the Jay Jay who sat next
Speaker 17: to near you with me regularly. He was the eye
Speaker 17: test dude. He was the airport guy. You look, you
Speaker 17: look the part.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's it's a phrase. You know, you look
Speaker 2: like Targa played like Jane and I'm that guy where
Speaker 2: I don't want that dude, I want the intangible guy.
Speaker 4: I think it's because of my career.
Speaker 3: I started as a high school you were that guy,
Speaker 3: and then six well know, but my first five years
Speaker 3: I was a high school coach. Okay, my next six
Speaker 3: years I'm at kel State, Dominga's Hills. I recruited a
Speaker 3: kid one night at kel State to mean was like,
Speaker 3: so I wish Linda were here because she was married
Speaker 3: to me. I did not get a recruiting visit until
Speaker 3: my thirty fifth phone call.
Speaker 4: Really, I called thirty.
Speaker 3: Five players and said, would you come visit and visit
Speaker 3: the gruen No.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 3: I had a guy tell me, ask me where are
Speaker 3: you located? I said, well about four blocks from your house?
Speaker 3: He lived four blocks in our house.
Speaker 2: We got to call coach you're on the air, eye
Speaker 2: on the ball.
Speaker 18: Hey, what going on?
Speaker 13: Is Vic?
Speaker 7: Vic?
Speaker 2: How you doing?
Speaker 13: I am great?
Speaker 18: I wanted to Coach Lopez.
Speaker 4: This is Vic.
Speaker 18: I met you at High Corbett. I'm a good friend
Speaker 18: of Gary and Kevin de Lamico's.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, Delamico is my left field on the
Speaker 3: national championship team at Pepperdine.
Speaker 4: How are you?
Speaker 13: Vic?
Speaker 18: I am great? Great, Steve I had a chime in
Speaker 18: with a Andy Lopez story. Don't mind clean, it's clean,
Speaker 18: but uh. In nineteen eighty nine, I went to a
Speaker 18: clinic from Coach Lope to cal State, LA, and he
Speaker 18: told this story that I've told him to every baseball
Speaker 18: team I've ever been associated with, every player. So he's
Speaker 18: going to Dodger Stadium and they get lost going up
Speaker 18: to leaguel And Park. They take a wrong turn and
Speaker 18: they can see the lights of the stadium, but he's
Speaker 18: kind of lost and stuff. And he pulls up and
Speaker 18: he sees these little kids out in the street playing
Speaker 18: with football. And he pulls up and he says, hey, kid,
Speaker 18: come here. Kid walks up to Andy's carr and says,
Speaker 18: what's up. He goes, how do you get to Dodger
Speaker 18: Stadium and the kid turns around and says, your practice, man,
Speaker 18: your practice. I told coach Lopa that when I met him.
Speaker 18: He goes, how do you remember that? And I said, man,
Speaker 18: it stuck with me.
Speaker 4: Forever and ever.
Speaker 18: And then there's a little PostScript to that. He goes
Speaker 18: to Pepperdine the next day they have practice, and he says,
Speaker 18: if I if I go through the neighborhood in Long
Speaker 18: Beach there where he lived and see a kids practice
Speaker 18: are playing with football, We're not going to condition tomorrow.
Speaker 18: So he says, he takes his wife to dinner. He says,
Speaker 18: where the heck are you going? And he goes, I'm
Speaker 18: just looking for something. And he's driving through the streets
Speaker 18: of Long Beach looking for a game of which football,
Speaker 18: which he never found.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my wife was so mad at me. We went
Speaker 3: to church. We went to I always took Sundays off.
Speaker 3: That was just something I spend time my wife and kids,
Speaker 3: and we went to church. That was a routine. I said, lin,
Speaker 3: let's go to dinner later tonight. She says, okay, let's
Speaker 3: go worry. So we started driving around Long Beach, California.
Speaker 3: I had not yet moved to Pepperdine yet I hadn't
Speaker 3: moved to tousands. She's going, what are we doing? And
Speaker 3: I said, I'm just looking for a wolfleball game? And
Speaker 3: she goes, have you lost your mind? I ain't go No,
Speaker 3: I just looking for I couldn't find one, which was
Speaker 3: a heartbreak for me.
Speaker 2: Man, Yeah, nobody does that anymore.
Speaker 4: Who plays it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, nobody plays.
Speaker 18: I just had to chime in, see that that you're
Speaker 18: you're with a bad story teller of all time.
Speaker 2: Man, I agree.
Speaker 4: I told you got a great memory. Vick.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 13: Thanks.
Speaker 18: I love your coach, but you take care, Thank you
Speaker 18: very much.
Speaker 2: My story with you is a camp and I was
Speaker 2: doing some things at camp. You're camping, uh? And I
Speaker 2: think you probably talked to us somewhere in America, baby,
Speaker 2: somewhere in America. Can you tell me we've said that
Speaker 2: story before?
Speaker 4: Somewhere in America. That was my saying to my teams.
Speaker 3: I'd say, you know, a guy would dive for a
Speaker 3: ball and just come up just a little short, you know,
Speaker 3: an infield, or a guy would pop up a ball
Speaker 3: with an inner squad.
Speaker 4: Guy would pop up, pop up.
Speaker 3: A ball with bases loaded, and I would just you know,
Speaker 3: I just very calmly say, hey, you know what, somewhere
Speaker 3: in America, someone just made that play. Somewhere in America,
Speaker 3: someone just got that hit, Like somewhere, don't think, don't
Speaker 3: fully sure someone's making that play that you just didn't make,
Speaker 3: and someone's getting that hit that you just didn't get. Now,
Speaker 3: when we start making them at that time Pepperdine or
Speaker 3: we start making them at floor, and we start making
Speaker 3: them here in Tucson, you know what, they'll be saying
Speaker 3: that about us, sure, like, hey, they make those plays
Speaker 3: in Tucson.
Speaker 2: Was that Obviously that's a motivator right there, But what
Speaker 2: was your go to motivator?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 4: You know what, I honestly as and I have a
Speaker 4: lot of time reflect now. I've been down for about
Speaker 4: eight or nine years.
Speaker 3: And all I do know is hang out with my
Speaker 3: two Golden Retrievers and they never talked to man.
Speaker 4: You know, they're good listeners, but they don't talk back.
Speaker 4: They don't give any feedback.
Speaker 2: Treats, man, I've heard treats, do yes, right.
Speaker 3: I got in trouble the other day to give I
Speaker 3: gave our female one too many treats my wife.
Speaker 4: My wife got mad at me.
Speaker 3: But I think my biggest motivator, honestly, Steve was I
Speaker 3: used to tell our guys very first team meeting, we
Speaker 3: have two rules in the program, beyond time and do
Speaker 3: things right. Now people are going to be shocked at this,
Speaker 3: but you can call anybody. I'll give you phone numbers
Speaker 3: and talk to anybody that me right, we will not
Speaker 3: have a curfew. And the guys would look at me.
Speaker 3: Then you guys like, what, no, we won't have a curfew.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 3: I grew up in the streets of San Pedro, and
Speaker 3: I grew up in the hood San Pedro, so I
Speaker 3: could tell what someone had a.
Speaker 4: Rough night to night be shore. That was pretty easy
Speaker 4: for me to kind of read that.
Speaker 3: We had nine o'clock nine am breakfasts on the road
Speaker 3: every morning and you had to be there and you
Speaker 3: had to be there on time. And so I'd walk
Speaker 3: around and just take a look at bodies, take a
Speaker 3: look at faces. But I said, now, the reason we're
Speaker 3: not we're gonna have two rules, beyond time and do
Speaker 3: things right, because that's gonna be a challenge for you
Speaker 3: the rest of your life. Be on time and do
Speaker 3: things right. And the other thing is, I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: cur for you. You want to know why, because I'm
Speaker 3: gonna treat you like a man. I'm gonna treat you
Speaker 3: a man, like a man. And then I would say, now,
Speaker 3: practices are gonna be mine, they belong to me. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna do it. I think I needed to get you
Speaker 3: ready to play a big game. Omaha, and get ready.
Speaker 3: But games are gonna be yours. Games are gonna be
Speaker 3: you gonna make the worst mistake ever known the mankind.
Speaker 3: But you know what, I'm not gonna embarrass you. I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna yell at you at the Pride yet. Now,
Speaker 3: practice could get a little interesting, but games sure yours.
Speaker 4: So just relax and play.
Speaker 3: And when the guys understood that, basically, our practices were
Speaker 3: tremendously intense and sometimes almost sure madness. And I know that,
Speaker 3: and it was a bit designed. But games were loose
Speaker 3: as a goose and go out and play a man.
Speaker 2: But I think that's part part of your success. It
Speaker 2: was it was as rich Rod would say, you know,
Speaker 2: getting comfortable in the uncomfortable and you'd win games Monday
Speaker 2: through Friday during the practice because you played it on Saturday.
Speaker 3: And I think that had a lot to do with
Speaker 3: our postseason success. Like I mean, I'm really thankful for
Speaker 3: this statement. Two things come to mind when I look
Speaker 3: at my life as a coach. I only had one
Speaker 3: recruiting class that did not go to a World Series.
Speaker 3: That was in two thousand and eight, and we were
Speaker 3: in Miami as a one seed. We didn't host. I
Speaker 3: remember that we went to Michigan. We were once they
Speaker 3: went because we couldn't. We still had Moodaike Corbit. We
Speaker 3: were in Michigan as a one seed, so we had
Speaker 3: to win that, which we did, and then we go
Speaker 3: to Miami and we lose in the set in the
Speaker 3: third game. We went on Friday, lose on Saturday, and
Speaker 3: we lose two to one or three to one, and
Speaker 3: they go to Omaha.
Speaker 4: We come home.
Speaker 3: If that team would have won that game is a
Speaker 3: great team, great team, big time pitching staff with Shlerath
Speaker 3: and Perry and Gilman and those guys, if they would
Speaker 3: have gone, every recruiting class that I had from my
Speaker 3: college career would have gone to a college World Series.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: The other thing though, is is we only had one
Speaker 3: time where we went on too. That was only my
Speaker 3: first year here. We went on to first my second year,
Speaker 3: we went to a Flordson region. We went on to
Speaker 3: other than that, we we stuck around regionals.
Speaker 2: We have about ninety seconds in this segment here, U
Speaker 2: was there a Was there a point in your career
Speaker 2: earlier otherwise that you kind of realized, not that you
Speaker 2: had something, but hey I got a good life?
Speaker 4: Oh man?
Speaker 2: Like there won you won the first title and then
Speaker 2: you're thinking it, Okay, I'm.
Speaker 4: Thirty seven years old.
Speaker 3: We just won the national championship and I remember flying
Speaker 3: home with my wife. Yeah, okay, and we fought because
Speaker 3: to meanings Hills was a hard job, man, Steve Oh
Speaker 3: to meanis Hills was a hard job.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: I mean, I you know, I had four arties replaced.
Speaker 3: I had quadruped. Why passed? One of them had to
Speaker 3: be Domingo skills. I mean one of them might be
Speaker 3: doing it without a doubt. But anyway, but I'm flying
Speaker 3: home and my wife nudged me. She goes, you're going
Speaker 3: to stay in this profession now, And I looked at it.
Speaker 3: I said, wow, I can't believe we just did what
Speaker 3: we did. But what really what I was saying is like,
Speaker 3: you know, I got a chance to really take care
Speaker 3: of my family. Now, yeah, I mean, you know, I
Speaker 3: mean I wasn't stupid. We just won the national championship.
Speaker 3: I'm thirty seven years old and we just did it
Speaker 3: at Pepper and yeah and three thousand students and the
Speaker 3: student body.
Speaker 2: You know, I mean, come on, you know. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: time we can go. We're gonna take a break, come back.
Speaker 2: We got breaking news with Ryan on the other side.