Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Backflips and Nerds, the Baseball Podcast
Speaker 1: with a British twist. I'm your host, John McGee, and
Speaker 1: we have got a real treat for you on this episode. Firstly,
Speaker 1: I'm delighted to be joined by our regular visitor, the
Speaker 1: artist maestro extraordinary mister Andy Brown.
Speaker 2: How are you doing mate.
Speaker 3: Good evening, John, I'm good, Happy new year, happy to
Speaker 3: hear to all the listeners. Thanks for having us back on.
Speaker 3: It's great to be and especially talk about today's topic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're excited to talk about it. Good to see
Speaker 1: Andy joining us from the world's worst narrow boat. For
Speaker 1: those of you not already following along, make sure you
Speaker 1: get on Andy's in Instagram and Andy Brown is on
Speaker 1: the narrow boat. It's well worth following the travials of
Speaker 1: Andy getting a knackered narrow boat down the canals of
Speaker 1: Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, aided by the affable Jerry, who is
Speaker 1: a great addition. It's never dull, it's never dull, and
Speaker 1: good to see your paintings behind you. But as you said,
Speaker 1: we are going to of course talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about your contribution to this, but we're not really here
Speaker 1: to talk about your amazing baseball paintings, but to talk
Speaker 1: about the gb women's baseball team, the reigning European champion
Speaker 1: women's baseball team. And I'm delighted that we've got Cat Golic,
Speaker 1: who is the third base bass player.
Speaker 2: Do you say base women's based player? How do you
Speaker 2: say it? Cat?
Speaker 4: You tell me, I'm just say basement. It's fine, all right, fine,
Speaker 4: I'm trying.
Speaker 1: I tried to be as inclusive as possible and trip
Speaker 1: myself up there. So Cat, you played a third base
Speaker 1: for the reigning women's European baseball champions in the summer.
Speaker 1: So it's a little bit after the party, but welcome
Speaker 1: to batlups and neds and enormous congratulations for your success
Speaker 1: at the back end of the summer.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: It's a real pleasure. So I'm pleased.
Speaker 1: This isn't the first time that we've chatted about women's
Speaker 1: baseball on the pod. So we had the amazing Doris
Speaker 1: Hocking and Kelly Wright on the show just over five
Speaker 1: years ago. I was looking back at this this afternoon,
Speaker 1: thinking that when we had Doris on and Kelly, that
Speaker 1: was the absolute infancy of the GB women's team and
Speaker 1: it's been a pretty meteoric five year journey, Kat, hasn't
Speaker 1: it for you guys? Going from Doris thinking about this
Speaker 1: being a good idea and having conversations with the then
Speaker 1: GB men's manager Liam Carroll about how to go about it.
Speaker 1: Five years later the European champions. I don't think anyone,
Speaker 1: including Doris would have thought that, would they?
Speaker 5: Oh it's epic And yeah I met Doris in those
Speaker 5: early days. She was one of the reasons of getting
Speaker 5: into women's baseball. So yeah, what a journey. It's been fantastic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's been absolutely fad fantastic to watch the
Speaker 1: efforts and energy of people like you and Jess Vernon
Speaker 1: and Doris and the right sisters in Sheffield Sow. What
Speaker 1: has that journey been like? Obviously you're very involved in
Speaker 1: the Bristol club, Cat, what's the what's the journey been
Speaker 1: like in those five years that we haven't you know,
Speaker 1: we've been keeping an eye on it, but not docking
Speaker 1: in with you. What what's been the process been to
Speaker 1: get GB women's baseball from an idea to a successful
Speaker 1: program that it is and has been you know over
Speaker 1: this last six months or so.
Speaker 5: So a lot of it was just getting women to join.
Speaker 5: So I was at a random game in Western that
Speaker 5: Doris had been trying to put together and I think
Speaker 5: it was early COVID, early twenty twenty. We finally had
Speaker 5: a get together Farnham for anyone that was interested in
Speaker 5: this GB team and the potential of a GB team
Speaker 5: and it's grown from there. So he had I think
Speaker 5: it was Drew and Jose were the initial coaches that
Speaker 5: came in and Carloss that joined. So it's a lot
Speaker 5: of going up and down the motorway up to Sheffield,
Speaker 5: a lot of fun journeys to Farnham as well. And yeah,
Speaker 5: it's been a lot of training. I can tell you that,
Speaker 5: a lot of training.
Speaker 1: How many of you were there at that that sort
Speaker 1: of first gathering at Farnham?
Speaker 5: How many people talk about I want to say there
Speaker 5: were at least twenty, if not going into thirty and
Speaker 5: to the point where there was a random girl on
Speaker 5: the side watching and even she just joined in, which
Speaker 5: was amazing, like that's what well should be, right, people
Speaker 5: just watching and going oh I'd like to have a
Speaker 5: go and yeah.
Speaker 1: And what was your so what was what was your
Speaker 1: journey to it. I know you play play with Bristol,
Speaker 1: and I think if I if, I if I know right,
Speaker 1: you play in the men's team, one of the men's
Speaker 1: teams at Bristol as well.
Speaker 2: How how did you come to start playing baseball yourself? Uh?
Speaker 4: Sort of rope in or my boyfriend I played softball.
Speaker 5: I've played slow pitch softball for years and yeah, we
Speaker 5: sort of just swapped sports really and said, oh, let's
Speaker 5: have a go at each other's sport. And I'll be honest,
Speaker 5: it wasn't til the COVID year where we couldn't play
Speaker 5: slope pitch and baseball was happening and I thought, yeah,
Speaker 5: I'll give that a go and play properly play games,
Speaker 5: and yeah, I really loved it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm five years later you were a European champion.
Speaker 4: That's it. Yeah, Can I ask you?
Speaker 3: Can I ask you a question there? What is the
Speaker 3: big difference between the two games, with the two sports?
Speaker 3: What did you find was the basic biggest thing to
Speaker 3: master or change? Your biggest thing you're at toalter.
Speaker 4: Mainly is hitting.
Speaker 5: I mean the pitching is Yeah, the difference one is
Speaker 5: slow ones fast. Yeah, so it's an underarm throw and
Speaker 5: slow pitch, which.
Speaker 4: Should be fairly easy to hit.
Speaker 5: Yeah, baseball has definitely got to adapt and change the
Speaker 5: swing slightly to it. And I just love the tactics
Speaker 5: of baseball as well. That's a big part of the game,
Speaker 5: so you don't get as much in slow pitch.
Speaker 1: So that's and that's a good question. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: one of the things I wanted to to ask you about.
Speaker 1: And I'll be interested in the perspective from slow pitch
Speaker 1: as well. So if people haven't watched a women's baseball
Speaker 1: game before, which I imagine quite a few of the
Speaker 1: people watching this and listening to this might might not
Speaker 1: have because it's unfortunately not as readily available as as.
Speaker 2: The men's game.
Speaker 1: It is what what will look different? Obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: the rules are the same, the dimensions of the diamond
Speaker 1: are the same. You guys are all playing hard, you're
Speaker 1: all playing your hearts out. But but what might look
Speaker 1: different in terms of the style of play?
Speaker 5: If anything, Cat, I definitely say that you'd see a
Speaker 5: bit more of the short game in the women's version.
Speaker 4: It's yeah, definitely something we're working on and seems to work.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Yeah, I was notable when I was when
Speaker 1: I was looking back on all of the stats from
Speaker 1: from c Chechia this afternoon. The you know, the two
Speaker 1: stolen base leaders were both from GB, and there was
Speaker 1: a lot of games which were you know, both teams
Speaker 1: scoring a lot of runs. So you know that tracks
Speaker 1: with that idea of sort of keeping the line moving,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of a GB very much. If you
Speaker 1: were talking to Drew Spencer or or Brad macelino, that's
Speaker 1: the GB way keep it moving. So it's there in
Speaker 1: the DNA of the women's program too.
Speaker 4: Right, absolutely stay aggressive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So Andy, you've also been following the team like
Speaker 1: for the last five years too, and you had that
Speaker 1: amazing opportunity to be out there with with the team.
Speaker 2: What what have you.
Speaker 1: Noticed in terms of watching them? And you've been involved
Speaker 1: in a huge number of GB tournaments.
Speaker 2: Is artist in residence? You even managed to wrangle your way.
Speaker 1: Into some of the team photos, which is that the
Speaker 1: biggest leg I've ever seen in my life? So what
Speaker 1: are your observations on that having having been so close
Speaker 1: to it to lots of different baseball programs over the
Speaker 1: last couple of years.
Speaker 3: You know, it's superb. It was you know it was
Speaker 3: the first first you know, GB women's games and action
Speaker 3: that I've seen, and the I mean number one. The
Speaker 3: facilities in Czech era so good. The facility in Herbloca
Speaker 3: was amazing, beautiful place, beautiful ballpark, absolutely wonderful. But the
Speaker 3: tournament itself was superb. It was it was high for
Speaker 3: well supported. It was great to see GB fans out there.
Speaker 3: But the standard play was brilliant. It was so good.
Speaker 3: After I think I just come from the under twenty
Speaker 3: threes and came down to the South where where the
Speaker 3: ladies were playing, and the quality was fantastic and the
Speaker 3: games were about as now biting as I've seen with GB.
Speaker 3: It was, you know, one moment you feel whe everything's
Speaker 3: going to be all right the next year on the
Speaker 3: edge of your easel, and then you know we come
Speaker 3: through at the end as well. So it was, it was,
Speaker 3: it was brilliant. It was really really good. And like
Speaker 3: Kat's saying, they're like the short game, it's just that
Speaker 3: things just moving on. Things are always happening, and it
Speaker 3: was great to see. You know, it's great to really
Speaker 3: cover the well the development of the program. You know,
Speaker 3: now I've done the senior team, the under twenty threes
Speaker 3: the women now and hopefully I can work my way
Speaker 3: down down the down the different teams in the coming years.
Speaker 3: But it was it was good to kind of get
Speaker 3: to experience it, get to witness it, and get to
Speaker 3: put it down on canvas for.
Speaker 1: Us all all to see for prosperity. Uh, posterity, not prosperity.
Speaker 1: What am I talking about? Goodness, it's it's it's late
Speaker 1: on Friday evening, guys, I'm just about flamed out. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so let's let's talk a little bit about about about
Speaker 1: the tournament itself. So it's it's it's a it's a
Speaker 1: four team tournament, isn't it played in around robin style,
Speaker 1: and and then and then placing. So it's it's short
Speaker 1: and sharp. You know, a three day tournament, pretty intensive competition.
Speaker 1: You've got a game every single day. How that's I
Speaker 1: mean you guys, you know, if you're playing for Bristol
Speaker 1: and you're you're going around the country to play scrimmage
Speaker 1: games and stuff, that that probably was a little bit
Speaker 1: more familiar with you than it might have been in.
Speaker 2: Different baseball programs.
Speaker 1: Right, The idea that you're there for a weekend and
Speaker 1: you're playing a round robin tournament and it's really really intensive.
Speaker 1: But the level of competition is is you know international
Speaker 1: as opposed to you know play playing new pals down
Speaker 1: at Farnham.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's verry true, as you're saying, short and sharp.
Speaker 3: So there was two games on the final day as well,
Speaker 3: I should went in there. There was the rain day
Speaker 3: on the sixteenth, there was the rained out day, so
Speaker 3: you got two games in one day and that was
Speaker 3: I don't know how Cat and co did it. It
Speaker 3: was full long and what was that?
Speaker 1: What was the preparation you said, you know, getting into
Speaker 1: women's baseball in the UK was an awful lot of
Speaker 1: shot link to Farnham and shot link to Sheffield, shotling
Speaker 1: in Bristol. I'm sure there was a lot of that involved.
Speaker 1: But what's there sort of a level of intensity about
Speaker 1: how you're going to be training, how you're going to
Speaker 1: come together as a squad. That was different when you
Speaker 1: were preparing for a tournament like this as opposed to
Speaker 1: you know, when you were just coming together for training
Speaker 1: camps and so on.
Speaker 5: To be honest, the coaches really prepared us well, like
Speaker 5: there's always a constant high keep everything intense.
Speaker 4: I suppose there's the.
Speaker 5: Dealing of nerves and what is going to happen, because
Speaker 5: it is, Yeah, this is the competition that we prepared for.
Speaker 5: So we did have some good chats in the morning,
Speaker 5: think just to get anything out of the way of
Speaker 5: our feelings. But yeah, we just had our routine and
Speaker 5: we stuck with it. That was the main thing, and
Speaker 5: it was the routine we'd done most of, yeah, that
Speaker 5: time leading up to it, and.
Speaker 1: Was the majority of your preparation on your side of
Speaker 1: the diamond, because I know over the course of our
Speaker 1: our following the GB men's program and the under twenty
Speaker 1: threes program, it's you know, still intense focus on the team,
Speaker 1: on the on the team in the GB Jersey, but
Speaker 1: as as more is understood of opponents, as data is
Speaker 1: more readily available of like you know, who's playing in
Speaker 1: the French League, is it on YouTube or was it
Speaker 1: more of a we're just going to play ourselves. We're
Speaker 1: going to play the ball, and.
Speaker 4: We had our plan to stick to.
Speaker 5: But I know the coaches definitely did a great job
Speaker 5: of of looking at the other teams, looking at the
Speaker 5: other players. A couple of us from the Swibble League
Speaker 5: had gone over to France, So we had a little
Speaker 5: bit of insight of a couple of players that was
Speaker 5: quite useful. Yeah that I know that a lot was
Speaker 5: done in the background, especially by Danny Briggs.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and so it was it was Pietro who
Speaker 1: was leading the team out in check herein So.
Speaker 2: What what what?
Speaker 1: He's like a formidable character in in British baseball with
Speaker 1: with the Mets, and of course his Mateo has played
Speaker 1: for the men's team as well. What what What was
Speaker 1: sort of Pietro bringing to you?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 1: What was the sort of mantra that he was preparing
Speaker 1: you in advance of the tournament and then on the
Speaker 1: days itself.
Speaker 5: Super mancher, just stay true to yourself, believe in what
Speaker 5: we've done, believe in our preparation. Yeah, he just trusted us.
Speaker 5: That was the best thing. I think he said, We've
Speaker 5: done all the work, now just go do it. So yeah,
Speaker 5: it was good. It was confidence building so and paid
Speaker 5: off eventually.
Speaker 2: It did. Well, Look it paid off right away.
Speaker 4: You know that the opener did definitely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're you're playing the defending champions and you absolutely
Speaker 1: hammered them. I mean, in a terms of building confidence,
Speaker 1: you can't really get better than that, can you?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: No, that was that was a pre epic opener here.
Speaker 1: That was good to what I mean, look, you know
Speaker 1: everything went right, clearly if you went sixteen one, everything
Speaker 1: went right. But was that about the preparation that you
Speaker 1: put in?
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 5: We knew roughly how the pitcher pitched, and yeah, we
Speaker 5: had the game plan and we stuck to it and
Speaker 5: they couldn't do anything about it.
Speaker 4: Really, so that was that really? Yeah?
Speaker 2: And Andy, you must have been like, hang on.
Speaker 3: It, super there was owner was on the on the
Speaker 3: mound and again like the quality was fantastic, but you know,
Speaker 3: the all through the team, the hitting both sides of
Speaker 3: the plate. It was just like you said, dominant absolutely
Speaker 3: smashed him. And I was like, wow sixteen one. I
Speaker 3: was like that that you made it look very very easy.
Speaker 3: But it was you know, it was a great start
Speaker 3: when it was the way to start start start tournament.
Speaker 1: Sure, absolutely, But then the then you you were the
Speaker 1: the unstoppable force ran into the immovable object, which was
Speaker 1: the the sort of the wagon that is the Czech
Speaker 1: baseball program you're playing in. In her Blocker and Jeckia
Speaker 1: absolutely rabid baseball fans. They put an awful lot of
Speaker 1: energy and funding into into baseball. We're going to get
Speaker 1: onto what happened in the final in a minute, of course,
Speaker 1: But what was that atmosph feel like? What was it
Speaker 1: like playing you know, you're used to playing in a
Speaker 1: municipal park in Western or in Bristol or you know,
Speaker 1: at best you're playing at Farnham Park. What's he like
Speaker 1: playing a Czech team in Pabloca?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 5: The noise, Yeah, that was yeah, just something you'd had
Speaker 5: to deal with. But the noise of the crowd and
Speaker 5: they're involved, and yeah, you just haven't somehow have to
Speaker 5: try and block it out if you can, if you're
Speaker 5: playing on the pitch. And it was evening games, which
Speaker 5: is also interesting because a lot of us haven't played
Speaker 5: in flood lights. I'd probably say the majority of the
Speaker 5: team hadn't played in flood lights, so that was a
Speaker 5: first and getting used to that as well.
Speaker 2: Wow, of course.
Speaker 1: And I mean had you even been able to do
Speaker 1: any any training, like take some some swings in the
Speaker 1: cage on the night before or anything like that. I
Speaker 1: wasn't just like, hey, it's the first time I've hit
Speaker 1: under flood lights. I'm on the time and done playing check.
Speaker 4: Think you about it.
Speaker 5: I don't think we did have I mean we had
Speaker 5: stuff in the cage, but yeah, nothing. It was still
Speaker 5: light when we started, so yeah, it was here you
Speaker 5: go go do it.
Speaker 1: And and and you you you obviously you came to
Speaker 1: baseball in East Asia, right, and there's some pretty rampant fans,
Speaker 1: but you've also been with the GB team in Arizona.
Speaker 1: You've in Burno at the European chair the men's team
Speaker 1: in when they'd be playing in Burno.
Speaker 2: How was this crowd? Was this?
Speaker 3: This is a very very noisy, very intense because it
Speaker 3: was it was a small it was quite park, and
Speaker 3: the crowd were very very close and the very very
Speaker 3: passionate and it was mostly you know, very friends and
Speaker 3: families I guess, and the local people from the local area.
Speaker 3: So it was pretty It was pretty intense, like you know,
Speaker 3: as they're hiding behind the ease or as the ladies
Speaker 3: were doing their thing, and it was I mean, it's
Speaker 3: one I mean to paint. It was fantastic because it
Speaker 3: was a beautiful setting. You had people doing little workers
Speaker 3: down at the front, dancing around and there's of course nice, nice,
Speaker 3: nice cold beer. So I was enjoying all the good bits.
Speaker 3: But it was, it was it was a pretty intense
Speaker 3: you know, the checks like their baseball, So it was.
Speaker 3: It was fantastic. I mean, you know it was really
Speaker 3: it was great.
Speaker 1: You must have been looking down that third base line
Speaker 1: and Andy Browncat just been like, here's this chancer.
Speaker 2: Check time.
Speaker 3: Somebody's got to do it. John. You know that's the thing.
Speaker 2: You you earn your way into every room. You get
Speaker 2: yourself into.
Speaker 1: You and I both know that it's not just with
Speaker 1: the painting, it's the gift of the gab too. So yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously that the Czech team came out on top and
Speaker 1: then you but you you win your way into into
Speaker 1: the placing round in a really like nail biting tense
Speaker 1: game with with the Netherlands. That that and that was it.
Speaker 1: I mean an nail biting day all round. You see that?
Speaker 1: That what's it like?
Speaker 2: Look I'm never going to know this. Look I was.
Speaker 1: I was a useless, washed out skool boy sportsman and
Speaker 1: I've played at no competitive level. I played rec rec
Speaker 1: soft pitch softball in London and I was the worst
Speaker 1: player and a bad team. Like so I'm going to
Speaker 1: ask you, Kat, who has played like at like elite
Speaker 1: level European sport. What how what's going through your mind
Speaker 1: when you're on that diamond and you're in a position
Speaker 1: where you're in a nip and tuck game that's about
Speaker 1: you know, placing, it's about about winning a championship. What
Speaker 1: would take us through your sort of thought process? Are
Speaker 1: you able to stay in the moment, Are you able
Speaker 1: to stay in the zone or is your mind just thinking,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is this is insane.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'll say that Netherlands game I got thrown
Speaker 5: in I think it was a second or third inning
Speaker 5: when it was very nail biting.
Speaker 4: I just say, you just got to stay in the moment.
Speaker 5: You're trying to keep that tunnel vision and just one
Speaker 5: ball at a time, yeah, or one pitch at a time,
Speaker 5: and stay as focused as you can. For me, I
Speaker 5: talked to myself a lot, so if the camera was
Speaker 5: ever on me, oh dear, But yeah, I talked to himself,
Speaker 5: not just situations.
Speaker 3: I was wondering cat, Yeah, how like at the top
Speaker 3: of the second I'm watching and I'm like, oh, no,
Speaker 3: nine zero, I'm like, what, like, what are you thinking?
Speaker 2: Then?
Speaker 3: What's the team doing? On the bench because I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: what are you doing? Like, what's going on? Like, what
Speaker 3: was the what was the chat, what was the what
Speaker 3: was the feelings, what was it happening? What was happening?
Speaker 4: Interestingly, we were on a high.
Speaker 5: Weirdly, even though we were nine or down, we weren't no,
Speaker 5: we've got this, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: Yeah it was.
Speaker 5: We knew it was just yeah, some things that had
Speaker 5: been missed or whatever. But we had this belief that yeah,
Speaker 5: it's fine, we can we can get.
Speaker 4: Back to this. Yeah. Yeah, I've never been a dugout
Speaker 4: like that where you're.
Speaker 3: Just now, it's amazing. It was quite It was a game.
Speaker 3: It was a great game to watch because it went
Speaker 3: from just that to coming out and winning.
Speaker 2: That's how GB, That's how GB does it.
Speaker 1: I remember watching it and like, I mean, look, I
Speaker 1: know that there's been a bunch of European games recently,
Speaker 1: but on the men's side, the one that that lingers
Speaker 1: in the memory is the World Baseball Classic qualifier against Spain,
Speaker 1: isn't it When they were down by I think it
Speaker 1: was seven, and they won. They won on in the
Speaker 1: bottom of the ninth, didn't they were? They won in
Speaker 1: the top of the tenth, but they tied it in
Speaker 1: the bottom of the ninth. Yeah, so, like you know,
Speaker 1: this is I know that Leah, Liam and Drew and
Speaker 1: Pietro would not tell you that the gb way means
Speaker 1: something entirely different, But the gb WA actually means go
Speaker 1: miles down and come back and win.
Speaker 3: I guess, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that must I mean I was going to say,
Speaker 1: like interesting that you had that way. The way of
Speaker 1: around it for you is you you sort of talking
Speaker 1: to yourself like repetitions and stuff. Because again that's it,
Speaker 1: you know that, that's what's the mental preparation for a
Speaker 1: program like yours, because you know, the best will in
Speaker 1: the world, like you haven't got sports scientists. You know,
Speaker 1: you're not Man City, you're not the LA Lakers. But
Speaker 1: was that part of your preparation as well, like think
Speaker 1: like all of that like mental conditioning thinking, or is
Speaker 1: that just something that works for you that you've alighted
Speaker 1: on yourself?
Speaker 4: There was some prep from that point.
Speaker 5: The girls we actually have our own chat and we
Speaker 5: do discuss things like that, how do you help yourself
Speaker 5: in tough situations or so we have discussed it, but
Speaker 5: it's never been on.
Speaker 4: The plan, I would say in the program, But.
Speaker 1: I just want to circle back to a conversation that
Speaker 1: I had earlier about that the sort of the beginnings
Speaker 1: of your journey into women's baseball.
Speaker 2: But also it's the same for a lot.
Speaker 1: Of your team, right, So, so Jess Vernon, who like
Speaker 1: set up her own team in order to sort of
Speaker 1: start playing baseball, Laura here I played since since she
Speaker 1: was tiny, playing men's baseball in North London. Or come
Speaker 1: on to Laura and look what Laura is doing next
Speaker 1: in a minute. But do you think that that obsession,
Speaker 1: the fact that this is just so niche and that
Speaker 1: you need to be super committed in order to just play,
Speaker 1: let alone play at the level that you are, was
Speaker 1: in a funny sort of way, like your trump card.
Speaker 1: You know, no one's expecting Great Britain to have the
Speaker 1: standards of a Dutch team or a Czech team or
Speaker 1: a French team, and so in a funny sort of way,
Speaker 1: they underestimate you guys, who are so so so into
Speaker 1: this because you have to be.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I fully agree.
Speaker 5: I think it is that shared experience of unfortunately both
Speaker 5: baseball and softball and not huge in our sports programs,
Speaker 5: And if at all in step Gouls, So we've all
Speaker 5: shared a similar journey of just trying to grab as
Speaker 5: much coaching as we can and we've traveled a long
Speaker 5: way usually to try and find that. So yeah, I
Speaker 5: think that has built a big part of the program
Speaker 5: and the girls camaraderie.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I imagine in a funny sort of way that
Speaker 1: the fact that this is a this is a victory
Speaker 1: born of grassroots baseball in the UK like that that
Speaker 1: that that that's the winner, right, It's the people taking
Speaker 1: out the temporary mound in in Bristol and in Sheffield
Speaker 1: and raking, raking the grass and taking the stones off
Speaker 1: the diamond before you even got a.
Speaker 2: Chance to play.
Speaker 1: Does that not make it, in a funny sort of way,
Speaker 1: feel a sweet different or sweeter than than it might have?
Speaker 2: You know, you will you might like.
Speaker 1: I guess we'll never know, But from your point of view,
Speaker 1: I guess that that it's a different perspective on the sport,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, I think it does make it feel sweeter
Speaker 5: in that way. Yeah, because we've all had to start
Speaker 5: from the ground up and there's not a lot out
Speaker 5: there unfortunately. So yeah, it's hard research and lots of
Speaker 5: chats together and comparing different ways of trying to do
Speaker 5: stuff at home, not just in your leagues and clubs, and.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: So what what are you doing at home? You know
Speaker 1: if you have you got a net in your back
Speaker 1: garden that you're you're knocking baseballs into every evening.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm quite lucky.
Speaker 5: I've set up a space in my garage, so yeah,
Speaker 5: I've got a tea set up and just hitting into
Speaker 5: a curtain basically.
Speaker 1: Then, And I guess if if your partner's brought you
Speaker 1: to the sport, it's then difficult for them to look
Speaker 1: at the other.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, they're they're very good.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they've been very supportive and helped me, have taken them,
Speaker 5: force them to go out to the field and hit
Speaker 5: at me and yeah, throwing the ball throughout the preparation.
Speaker 4: So they've been very.
Speaker 1: Good, as as all great teams are. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: the nine on the field, but it's it's everybody else
Speaker 1: behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: I love that you hit the ball into a curtain.
Speaker 2: That's absolutely incredible. Where where did that?
Speaker 1: Where did the British victory in European baseball? In the
Speaker 1: European Baseball championships come from. It was it was winning RBI.
Speaker 1: Knocker cat garlic cotting into a curtain in south somewhere in.
Speaker 2: The southwest of.
Speaker 1: MS are made of Yeah, they are now. And and
Speaker 1: I'm interested in your perspective on this because you know,
Speaker 1: as we said at the top, you've you're now a
Speaker 1: veteran of a number of GB adventures, right, and this
Speaker 1: one is so different from some of the others, Like, look,
Speaker 1: the GB programs are different to you know, the USA
Speaker 1: World Baseball Classic team, right, but even still there's a
Speaker 1: degree of funding and commitment and star power that comes
Speaker 1: with you know, the team and who's still the team
Speaker 1: in Reagan'sburg?
Speaker 2: So how how different was that contrast? Could you see?
Speaker 1: Or was it just this is another this is another
Speaker 1: GB team. The principals are all the same. What was
Speaker 1: your perspective as someone who was there on the ground
Speaker 1: having seen all of those different views of GB as
Speaker 1: a baseball nation.
Speaker 3: I think you know that one of the biggest things,
Speaker 3: and it kind of goes back to the conversation you're
Speaker 3: talking about before, is there was there was a chemistry.
Speaker 3: There was the chemistry, and you could feel like everybody
Speaker 3: you know like Cat was staying there, like even with
Speaker 3: their backs against the wall, they're still just going through
Speaker 3: it and they know they can do it, and there's
Speaker 3: there's an absolute belief and you could really feel that.
Speaker 3: You could really see it, and you could see it
Speaker 3: in the way that they were pre pairing, the way
Speaker 3: they were celebrating, the way they were on the field.
Speaker 3: I think that was from one of the biggest things.
Speaker 3: And it really felt like like and I don't know
Speaker 3: if you know, Cat, I don't know if it's just figured.
Speaker 3: It felt like yours. It felt like it was the
Speaker 3: team's thing. It really felt like everyone had put in
Speaker 3: so much time, so much effort. You know, drive, like
Speaker 3: you said, driving up and down motorways to go and
Speaker 3: you know for a training session or a coaching clinic
Speaker 3: or whatever else it is, and you know that that's
Speaker 3: that's a different that's a very different approach. And I
Speaker 3: think it's incredible. I think, you know, it's a bit
Speaker 3: of you know, when you're talking before, it is a
Speaker 3: bit like the field of Dreams type thing as well.
Speaker 3: And you you're there, not in the cornfield, but in
Speaker 3: the garage with the curtain and you know you're doing
Speaker 3: your own thing, and I think that's that's the dedication
Speaker 3: and that's what that's what I loved about it. I
Speaker 3: thought it was so it was so close and it
Speaker 3: was so the chemistry was fantastic, and you know, I
Speaker 3: just think, right, just keep going. We need more, we more,
Speaker 3: need more girls and women getting into GV baseball and
Speaker 3: getting into basement in the country. So you know, anything
Speaker 3: anything we can do for that is it's absolutely got
Speaker 3: to be done.
Speaker 2: It was brilliant.
Speaker 1: It's a world away from Hey, did you know this
Speaker 1: guy's grandma was one in Hong Kong. I'm not knocking
Speaker 1: that because it's on the men's team when they're going
Speaker 1: to be facing Arab judge. Right, but but but but
Speaker 1: it's it's so different in terms of its essence and
Speaker 1: in terms of where it comes from.
Speaker 2: It is you know, he said, it's the curve.
Speaker 3: Really really done. The chemistry and the the the stories
Speaker 3: I think it was it was that was quite amazing,
Speaker 3: really really cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's a good, good transition.
Speaker 1: I haven't talked about the final I'm sort of going
Speaker 1: around that coming back to the so cat you know,
Speaker 1: we are absolutely black. Well, like it's it's it's it's
Speaker 1: amazing that to have had you. But we're we're so
Speaker 1: blessed that you know that. Again, was a really intense final.
Speaker 1: It was an opportunity to oh, what's what's Brownie bringing
Speaker 1: back here? It was an it was an opportunity to
Speaker 1: avenge your defeat to to the checks and you did
Speaker 1: and it was you who who managed to knock in
Speaker 1: the winning run like that. Just what what an experience
Speaker 1: that must have been, like, like could do it?
Speaker 4: I think it might have been Ellen, but yeah, because
Speaker 4: I got you.
Speaker 2: Were you were very heavily involved.
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh man. Yeah, the fact that we got in
Speaker 4: the final was just huge.
Speaker 5: And again it was that belief like this is what
Speaker 5: we were here for. Everyone knew, like we have that
Speaker 5: one goal, we're just going to win, and we were
Speaker 5: referring to the noise level. I mean, I've really got
Speaker 5: to give credit to the GV supporters.
Speaker 4: They were amazing.
Speaker 5: There weren't many of them, but they are Gosh, you
Speaker 5: could hear them. I remember on the field like just
Speaker 5: hearing people in my ear and it put a smile
Speaker 5: on your face and a bit of extra belief that
Speaker 5: we could do it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, gosh, it was fantastic.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's absolutely awesome. And what was the reception
Speaker 1: like afterwards? I mean, you know they were they were
Speaker 1: they gracious and defeat your opponents and hosts.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think they were pretty good.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the fact that we're playing women's baseball at top level.
Speaker 5: Like all the teams, we all gathered afterwards, we all chatted,
Speaker 5: we all bonded.
Speaker 4: Yeah, women's base war is different in that way.
Speaker 5: I don't I mean, I can't say anything about the
Speaker 5: men's but there's just such a bond, Like there's so
Speaker 5: few opportunities to play in these types of tournaments, so
Speaker 5: we're all just so grateful, I think, and we all
Speaker 5: share that together.
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
Speaker 1: And Andy, you you, as we said, got to capture
Speaker 1: for prosperity or indeed posterity. Did you imagine that when
Speaker 1: you were you know, as I said, you've been on
Speaker 1: a few of these jumbrees and several several of them
Speaker 1: very successful.
Speaker 2: But that must have been pretty sweet to be.
Speaker 1: You know, they're they're they're there with a winning team.
Speaker 3: You can't be it absolutely fantastic. It was just it
Speaker 3: was just perfect. I mean it was the whole tournament
Speaker 3: was great. It's been a great couple of weeks and
Speaker 3: everything just came together and like Kat said again, it
Speaker 3: was just great that the presentation on the field at
Speaker 3: the end and all the teams there, it was it
Speaker 3: was Yeah, it was special, you know, and that's that's
Speaker 3: what it's all about.
Speaker 2: It.
Speaker 3: It's so amazing to be there and see these things unfold. Yeah,
Speaker 3: love it.
Speaker 1: And obviously, like women women's baseball, CAT has been a
Speaker 1: bit more in the public eye recently. You know, you've
Speaker 1: had Kelsey Whitmore, who's been playing in independent pro ball
Speaker 1: with Staten Island and then was in Banana Ball this
Speaker 1: year alongside Valperez. He's one of the managers in Banana
Speaker 1: Ball and plays for the US women's baseball team. This
Speaker 1: is like, you know, it's it's still still a minority
Speaker 1: sport and still a niche within a niche, but starting
Speaker 1: to build more profile when with the Women's Pro Baseball
Speaker 1: League coming up this year, that you know, not a
Speaker 1: bad time for GB to be in the spotlight, is it?
Speaker 4: Definitely not?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's really great to see the opportunities are expanding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of your team and one of your teammates
Speaker 1: is going to be playing in that as well.
Speaker 2: Isn't she in Laura? Who was Laura here? Yeah? That's incredible, that's.
Speaker 4: Huge, It's really huge.
Speaker 5: I'm so glad because there are already a couple of
Speaker 5: us that I think applied to the Pro Bowl trials.
Speaker 5: But yeah, she made it, which is fantastic and yeah,
Speaker 5: huge thing for the program.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so when when? When does that? When does that start? She?
Speaker 1: Is she over there yet or is it? Is it
Speaker 1: in the in the early spring or when when she'll
Speaker 1: be when? When we should be keeping our eyes out
Speaker 1: for a loo she's playing with the Boston team, right.
Speaker 4: That's right?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's in the summer, early summer. I've
Speaker 5: been given two different dates, but yeah, I think either
Speaker 5: early May or potentially August to look out or but yeah,
Speaker 5: we'll definitely be posting it on the g base for
Speaker 5: women's side to let you know for sure.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And and outside of Lauria, what what what's what's
Speaker 1: coming next for the program?
Speaker 2: What? What? What? When?
Speaker 1: When are you defending your championship? Is that I genuinely
Speaker 1: don't know. You tell me is there? I'm assuming there's
Speaker 1: a world championship that you're now going to take part in.
Speaker 5: Yes, So there's qualifiers this year and it's still to
Speaker 5: be confirmed where and when. They have one location in
Speaker 5: Illinois in July, but there is potential for another location
Speaker 5: for Yeah, the section that we're in, so that's our
Speaker 5: prep at the moment is for that?
Speaker 2: Is that where?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: Prep? And that was is that in rock Port?
Speaker 4: Was that the one that was talking about in Yes, that's.
Speaker 5: Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's the original I think.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe Blair and all that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what an amazing place, Like, how how apps would
Speaker 1: that be? That would be incredible And so you're you're
Speaker 1: sort of full steam ahead preparing for that as as
Speaker 1: a program. So how are you guys part of the
Speaker 1: UK sport? Are you completely fully funded? Self funded? Self
Speaker 1: completely self funded? How how is this working with you guys?
Speaker 1: Because because you know, there's an opportunity here to have
Speaker 1: a conversation about that.
Speaker 2: And you know, he knows where that might go.
Speaker 5: We're definitely self funded. Yeah, we don't have any support yet. Unfortunately,
Speaker 5: we've had a few freebies which has been really kind
Speaker 5: via the Instagram, but yeah, so far any finances, Yeah,
Speaker 5: we'll buy ourselves.
Speaker 1: And you know that I think the best place to
Speaker 1: leave it is is to say that, like, look what
Speaker 1: a thing?
Speaker 2: What things have happened?
Speaker 1: Like, you know, if this isn't going to inspire more
Speaker 1: young girls and women to come along and try the sport,
Speaker 1: then then what will? So you know, how, how's the
Speaker 1: best place to do that? What if you if you
Speaker 1: are have seen GB women winning in the summer, or
Speaker 1: you're listening to this podcast or seeing a clip of
Speaker 1: it on social media and you're thinking, oh, I'm interested
Speaker 1: in that. Where where's the best place to go and
Speaker 1: find your your local club, whether you want to be
Speaker 1: a player, a supporter, or even if you've got a
Speaker 1: check book in your pocket.
Speaker 4: So you got a couple of options.
Speaker 5: You can either go to the GB Women's instagram, so
Speaker 5: that's at GB Underscore Baseball Women. Or you can go
Speaker 5: to the BBF website and they can direct to to
Speaker 5: the nearest clubs or leagues that are available. But I
Speaker 5: know that anyone available on our instagram will pass you
Speaker 5: on to the right people for sure. I know there's
Speaker 5: quite a few female opportunities, women's opportunities coming up, Like
Speaker 5: there's a picture catcher clinic in Taunton. There is a
Speaker 5: junior development team run by Danny Briggs, So I know
Speaker 5: there's potential opportunities coming up there in Leicester and Cardiff,
Speaker 5: so definitely look out on the women's Instagram for that.
Speaker 1: We'll definitely make sure that we point people in the
Speaker 1: direction of that. And hopefully your your dms are going
Speaker 1: to be stuffed full of enthusiastic new people are willing
Speaker 1: to give it and hoping to give it a go.
Speaker 1: And yeah, Andy, what's what's new for you in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six? Where where's the papers taking you? Other than
Speaker 1: the other than the canals of Northamptonshire.
Speaker 3: Yeah, off the Grand Union for a while. We shall see.
Speaker 3: There is always baseball in the world, there is always cricket,
Speaker 3: there's always sports ready to be painted. So I've got
Speaker 3: a few things in the in the air, nothing fully
Speaker 3: landed yet, so we have to see John, it's all out.
Speaker 3: If we'll wait and see, we'll see what see what
Speaker 3: comes along. But you know, there's we all know there's
Speaker 3: a few big base of things happening this year, so
Speaker 3: hopefully we'll see see where.
Speaker 2: The plane takes me, see where the plane takes you.
Speaker 1: So kat Andy, it's been really awesome to talk to you,
Speaker 1: thanks so much of your time, thanks for sharing those
Speaker 1: amazing memories of last summer, and yeah, fantastic to hear
Speaker 1: a little bit more color, both on the paint brush
Speaker 1: and in terms of the anecdotes of what came with
Speaker 1: that amazing triumph.
Speaker 2: So guys, you know you know where.
Speaker 1: We are on the socials, but this is not about us.
Speaker 1: It's about going and following GB women, So get over
Speaker 1: to the instagram at GB Underscore Baseball Women and kat Andy,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for your time and hopefully we can
Speaker 1: hear a bit more about that trip to Rockport, Illinois
Speaker 1: later in the year.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much for having me pleasure.
Speaker 3: Sh