Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Backflips and Nerds, the Baseball Podcast
Speaker 1: with a British twist. I am Darius Austin and we
Speaker 1: are delighted today to be bringing you the great Britain
Speaker 1: World Baseball Classic Preview, the podcast you've all been waiting for.
Speaker 1: The tournament starts extremely soon and we didn't want to
Speaker 1: let that go away without the opportunity to preview the
Speaker 1: full GB roster in detail. Joining me to do so
Speaker 1: the excellently named Rob jazz Nevera as he's put on
Speaker 1: his little caption here, Rob, how are you doing jazzed today?
Speaker 2: I'm loving it. It's great. I'm all about it.
Speaker 1: We are recording as the Brewers are about to play
Speaker 1: the GB team right now, and also joining me is
Speaker 1: going to be our man on the ground for the
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks. It is, of course Russell. Lisam Russell.
Speaker 1: How's it going?
Speaker 3: Yeah, doing good, doing good.
Speaker 4: Just pretty much finished packing most of my stuff, will
Speaker 4: record this, then pack the laptop and we'll head down
Speaker 4: to Heathrow at six o'clock in the morning to get
Speaker 4: my flight out to Houston. It's going to be fun
Speaker 4: a couple of weeks.
Speaker 5: Yeah, remember a couple of times ago you flew out
Speaker 5: that way and you triggered a global pandemic. So if
Speaker 5: you could lay off that this time, that would be
Speaker 5: really appreciated.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we haven't quite had the months of warning that
Speaker 4: we had the last time around that something is.
Speaker 3: Spreading around the world. Pandemic.
Speaker 4: Yeah, still a pandemic or something else. Maybe that's happened
Speaker 4: in the last few weeks.
Speaker 1: Topical on that cheery World War three inducing note, Let's
Speaker 1: let's talk about some baseball. I suppose before we talk
Speaker 1: about what you're going to do, Russell. I think we
Speaker 1: should because we'll obviously have a lot more coverage around that,
Speaker 1: and we'll be able to the listeners know a bit
Speaker 1: about where you'll be and what you'll be able to do.
Speaker 1: But I think we should talk about the team, and
Speaker 1: maybe we should talk about what seemed to be some
Speaker 1: potential late changes first. So I think a lot of
Speaker 1: the listeners will probably have seen the originally announced roster.
Speaker 1: But does it are there rumblings that we might have
Speaker 1: to make a couple of probably not surprising me so,
Speaker 1: but a couple of late changes to the roster.
Speaker 4: Yeah, according this has been confirmed by our sources within team.
Speaker 4: Team GB as well, but on the WBC roster, a
Speaker 4: couple of pitchers have been scratched and one replacement has
Speaker 4: been confirmed, with a second one being TBD. But Antonio
Speaker 4: Knowles and Michael Peterson, which is a shame for myself.
Speaker 4: British Gast himself will no longer be competing for Team GB,
Speaker 4: and Dylan Cubby has been added into the roster as
Speaker 4: of right now. Both all of the teams have like
Speaker 4: an extended pitching pool which they basically I think give
Speaker 4: five to ten players which they were basically allowed to
Speaker 4: kind of poll players from during this kind of as
Speaker 4: the tournament goes on, or even a pre tournament right now.
Speaker 4: So that's what's happened. We don't know the exact reasons
Speaker 4: why yet. It's pure speculation, but both of them are
Speaker 4: fringe roster players, especially for Peterson with the Marlins, not
Speaker 4: certain if Noles would be directly making the Dodgers roster
Speaker 4: at the start of the season, but both of them
Speaker 4: could be probably potentially prioritizing getting roster spots, which in
Speaker 4: most regards you don't blame them because there's a seven
Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars difference between being a driple a player
Speaker 4: and being an MLP player.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a difficult time of the season for those
Speaker 1: players who are trying really hard to win that job,
Speaker 1: isn't it. I think, you know, these couple of weeks
Speaker 1: are probably the most crucial couple of weeks for spring training.
Speaker 1: If you're that player who's not necessarily going to make
Speaker 1: the team to make your case, this is crunch times.
Speaker 1: So as much as it would be great to see
Speaker 1: those guys on the roster, I understand why they're they're
Speaker 1: not making it over.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but obviously with with Covey as a replacement, it
Speaker 4: is a player with with major league experience, so that's
Speaker 4: great as someone who's competed in International Baseball with Team
Speaker 4: GUS Team US previously in a Premier twelve, so video
Speaker 4: have experience and a good like head just to bring
Speaker 4: in as well, I think what will help with this squad.
Speaker 3: But like, yeah, it's.
Speaker 4: It does kind of put Team GB in a position
Speaker 4: of maybe having not a full plethora of lefties from
Speaker 4: the pen, But we'll have to see how that goes
Speaker 4: as the tournament progresses.
Speaker 1: We certainly will. I will say we are recording right
Speaker 1: now as GB are about to play the Brewers. I
Speaker 1: think we've just started the game. I think ny and
Speaker 1: just led off for GB, so we've got an actual lineup,
Speaker 1: and I guess i'll ask both of you, is this
Speaker 1: are these are names you're expected to see? Rob, you've
Speaker 1: got some familiarity with the GB team from the past.
Speaker 1: Do you know these guys? You heard of them?
Speaker 2: I know some of these guys. Yeah, of course there's some.
Speaker 5: There's some names in here that the you've you've you
Speaker 5: remember from days of and I don't follow the team
Speaker 5: nearly as much as as probably I should.
Speaker 2: However, of course I know some of these names. I
Speaker 2: cannot now find it, which is really frustrating because I
Speaker 2: can read out them. I'm vamping. It's fine, I'll get there.
Speaker 2: I'll get there.
Speaker 5: No, Look, there are guys on this team we do know,
Speaker 5: Like I've called myself Rob Jazz on the on the thing.
Speaker 2: That's the big name.
Speaker 5: Obviously, but he's not one of the heroes from last
Speaker 5: time who pushed over that Columbia team. So yeah, there's
Speaker 5: there's names here, and yeah, the pitching perhaps is a
Speaker 5: little lighter than we expected, and maybe we're missing some
Speaker 5: of the star names that we thought we we might
Speaker 5: get there was some you know, some Chapman's and some
Speaker 5: you know, some of the little bits around the edges.
Speaker 5: But you know, we've got the Harry Force, We've got
Speaker 5: a Tasman right there, and we're not going to win
Speaker 5: this thing by being the most talented you know baseball team.
Speaker 5: There's sort of a gritty element here, which is, you know,
Speaker 5: we're going there to win a game and and and.
Speaker 2: Yeah we got we've got a decent chance, you know.
Speaker 2: So yeah, mum, how with it?
Speaker 5: I know some of these guys ask me three four
Speaker 5: years ago, probably not, you know. So it's building, it's
Speaker 5: getting bigger, it's getting better. So yeah, I do know
Speaker 5: some of these guys, not as much as you guys,
Speaker 5: but you know, I would put myself in.
Speaker 2: Probably the more even normal.
Speaker 5: Baseball public here in the profile is raising and that's
Speaker 5: what we need, is what we want so long way
Speaker 5: to continue.
Speaker 1: And Russia made some lineup predictions a little while back.
Speaker 1: How does this match up with what you were expecting
Speaker 1: from this roster? Do you think this is what they're
Speaker 1: going to use going into the first game of the
Speaker 1: tournament itself?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it'll be interesting.
Speaker 4: Last time around the lineup when they faced the Brewers
Speaker 4: the first time around, had seven out of the nine
Speaker 4: players who ended up starting game one. So it is
Speaker 4: Dbon under a new helm ship with the brad Mars
Speaker 4: Leno and does sort of Spencer. But I imagine they're
Speaker 4: working from a similar playbook as before, So this, I
Speaker 4: imagine is gonna be pretty close. Some positions maybe different,
Speaker 4: some defensive alignments might change, and the order might change.
Speaker 4: But yeah, we'll kind of see how that works out.
Speaker 4: But yeah, the lineup we've got Eaton chism Ford, Murray Robinson, Johnson,
Speaker 4: Trace Thompson, Fox, and Lewis Junior basically in that order
Speaker 4: from the prospective lineup that I had that I put
Speaker 4: out a couple of weeks ago. The kind of the
Speaker 4: main difference is with Luke kind of like with Lucia's Fox,
Speaker 4: and with h Lewis Junior in for Macaperniac, who I
Speaker 4: had in and I also had an Aquard in. That
Speaker 4: stuff really comes down to who's going to play shortstop
Speaker 4: for fteen GB. Really, Fox is the only one that's
Speaker 4: played at the highest level and they're still currently playing
Speaker 4: in that position. We know Jazz has history in that position,
Speaker 4: but we don't know he's currently playing second base in
Speaker 4: this game for TMGB, and we don't quite exactly know
Speaker 4: what strings have been attached to kind of some of
Speaker 4: these players players joining. So tgb's general approach has been
Speaker 4: put the best nine hitters in a lineup and the
Speaker 4: defense will sort itself out. To Gav's heart rate, my
Speaker 4: the last tournament might have suggested that sorting it out
Speaker 4: is a an over positive. There were definitely a few
Speaker 4: crows to first base when the point award was there
Speaker 4: as a as a as a shorter fellow basically trying
Speaker 4: to trying to deal with that, didn't get the best
Speaker 4: of throws, and there was a few errors in that
Speaker 4: in field. But we'll see kind of how that progresses
Speaker 4: through this this this this tournament. But no, it's it's
Speaker 4: a lineup. It's a lineup that has more players in
Speaker 4: affiliated baseball than they did last time around. And as
Speaker 4: Rob said, that's because we're basically seeing this team be
Speaker 4: bigger profile and as I talk right now, they've just
Speaker 4: scored their first run against the Brewers, So yeah that Mazerowski,
Speaker 4: Yeah again, Jacob Mizarowski, So already going better than maybe
Speaker 4: some of their preseason games last time around. So yeah,
Speaker 4: to be one of the things that's highly amused me.
Speaker 4: There was BJ Murray singling to a guild bad who
Speaker 4: was somebody who was rumored as having gathered to be
Speaker 4: the team to play for Team GB. So maybe there
Speaker 4: are these some discussions going on in between with a
Speaker 4: few of those guys. We'll get to the names of
Speaker 4: the second but I think as Rob kind of went through,
Speaker 4: there was a lot of maybe this person can play
Speaker 4: a lot, especially with players with Caribbean heritage. The WBC
Speaker 4: rules effectively as like do you have the chance to
Speaker 4: get a passport? Which is a kind of effectively with
Speaker 4: the way passporting works with the Commonwealth countries, which is
Speaker 4: effectively as like most of them is like could your
Speaker 4: grandparent get a British passport? Which means that your parent
Speaker 4: could get one and then means that you could get one. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I think some of those rules have been tightened just
Speaker 4: around now because we have the Olympics coming up and
Speaker 4: those things get a little bit more stringent and are
Speaker 4: more round of like getting closer to the point of
Speaker 4: just adding you having to need to have the passport.
Speaker 4: But yeah, this is a this is a strong line up,
Speaker 4: and yes it's the best team that GB's ever put
Speaker 4: out there, and I think hopefully that'll just continue over
Speaker 4: the next few years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's definitely a lineup full of names that you
Speaker 1: you may well have heard of. I think there's quite
Speaker 1: a lot of representation, either guys who've played in the
Speaker 1: majors or guys that you know, we think may well
Speaker 1: play in the majors at some point in the relatively
Speaker 1: near future. That's exciting. I don't know if there's anyone
Speaker 1: rob You can say Jazz if you want to, But
Speaker 1: is there somebody in this lineup that you're particularly looking
Speaker 1: forward to seeing play for GB?
Speaker 6: Is it?
Speaker 1: Is it the obvious names or is there somebody that
Speaker 1: you know, maybe you've seen glimpses off here and there,
Speaker 1: the Nate Eaton's of the world that you might have
Speaker 1: a little exposure to, but you think might be a
Speaker 1: bit of a spark plug for the team.
Speaker 2: Actually, it's Trace Thompson for me, that he's got.
Speaker 5: A bit of a his his career is on a
Speaker 5: bit of a tea to there, you know, and any
Speaker 5: he has something to show off, and you know, he
Speaker 5: had a couple of moments looking maybe a little bit
Speaker 5: grumpy playing for GB last time around, Like he smiled
Speaker 5: in his picture for in his uniform this year, which
Speaker 5: was which was a nice improvement on what we had
Speaker 5: last time. So you know what, he's taken a second
Speaker 5: bite of the jerry and he's got something to prove.
Speaker 5: And I reckon this time, maybe he's actually gonna think this,
Speaker 5: this actually means something, because this is this is a
Speaker 5: real big chance for me to actually put myself out
Speaker 5: there and be seen a little bit. You know, if
Speaker 5: he can be the Harry Ford, you know, if he
Speaker 5: can be the big moment man, then you know, maybe
Speaker 5: this does something for his career, which you know it's
Speaker 5: not at the best point right now. So yeah, Trace
Speaker 5: Thompson is what I'd like to look out for.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think Trace was a key player in the
Speaker 4: last time around, Like his home run against the US
Speaker 4: had mean Gabb jumping for joy in the alternate press
Speaker 4: box looking a little bit daft wearing our hearts on
Speaker 4: our sleeves there. But I think Rob is right that,
Speaker 4: like it will be really interesting seeing how he progresses,
Speaker 4: Like he is not potentially like the standout player in
Speaker 4: that squad as he was kind of like last time around.
Speaker 4: The thing that I noticed most from being like on
Speaker 4: the ground at these games and watching these guys play BP,
Speaker 4: is like, how well like they actually like hit BP,
Speaker 4: Like the difference between the independent guys, the guys in
Speaker 4: the miners, the guys with like major league experience, and
Speaker 4: then going watching Team USA hit bbcause that was the
Speaker 4: first game last time around, and watching the quality of
Speaker 4: BP is just higher, like more balls are going in
Speaker 4: over the fence or getting close to the fence just
Speaker 4: on every single swing. And then take it to the extreme,
Speaker 4: watching Showyotani hit BP in Miami.
Speaker 3: Was just ridiculous.
Speaker 4: He was basically putting on the second deck and putting
Speaker 4: them into the scoreboard like every single swing. So you're like,
Speaker 4: it's it's a really simplistic guide, but like you could
Speaker 4: clearly see that Trace Thompson was a level above quite
Speaker 4: a lot of people around it last time around. This time,
Speaker 4: I think he might have more broader support. So for me, obviously,
Speaker 4: seeing Jazz back is amazing. It's been effectively ten years
Speaker 4: since he wore that jersey in a qualifier that was
Speaker 4: in late twenty sixteen, so that's kind of like amazing
Speaker 4: to come back around again. Otherwise you just got like
Speaker 4: people that Aya was lucky enough to talk with in
Speaker 4: person kind of last time around, which would be just
Speaker 4: great to kind of like meet up again and just
Speaker 4: kind of see these guys like Tyler Bizza was a
Speaker 4: really kind of like interesting person to speak with and
Speaker 4: Vance Warley life last time around. Those were guys are
Speaker 4: just great baseball experience and honestly just interesting people to
Speaker 4: have conversations with baseball around. So getting a chance to
Speaker 4: see those guys again, I would have said Michael Peterson
Speaker 4: if he'd been in the squad, just because he's someone
Speaker 4: that I've met on multiple occasions, as he was one
Speaker 4: of the few players I met in the forlorn attempt
Speaker 4: for the twenty two twenty twenty tournaments before everything was ruined.
Speaker 1: You, Yeah, I think everybody. Before I forget, before Gaff
Speaker 1: tells me off, everybody should definitely go to the website.
Speaker 1: Gav's got some great content on there, including a player
Speaker 1: by player profile, so if you want he detail on.
Speaker 3: Any of you guys, he bled.
Speaker 1: Gav has done incredible work and profile of each member
Speaker 1: of this roster, So if you want to get any
Speaker 1: more details, he's got it all. He's got videos in there,
Speaker 1: he's got little fun facts, it's the works. He's done
Speaker 1: a lot of work on it, so definitely goes to
Speaker 1: the website check it out. We'll obviously I have lots
Speaker 1: more coming over the next few weeks as well on
Speaker 1: the WBC. Gav Gave really loves this stuff and we
Speaker 1: already appreciate his work, So do go and check it
Speaker 1: all out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's genuinely, genuinely the best place you can find,
Speaker 5: like the best summary of the team. You won't find
Speaker 5: it anywhere else on the internet like that. It's yes,
Speaker 5: I'm a homer for for the website, but you cannot
Speaker 5: find writing about GB baseball like what Gav has done
Speaker 5: there that it is top notch.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was half expecting when Rob was going to talk
Speaker 4: about the different players that like, here's a couple of
Speaker 4: raised prospects in there, and I thought he would gone
Speaker 4: especially with the name Gary gil Hill.
Speaker 1: I thought that I was going to go straight to
Speaker 1: Rob with that. Yeah, that's the one. And what is
Speaker 1: your familiarity with Gary gil Hill?
Speaker 2: Gil for gil Hill? No, I have not seen gil
Speaker 2: Hill play.
Speaker 5: I don't think he was a spring training invite last year,
Speaker 5: and if he was, I missed him wearing a number
Speaker 5: eighty six on his back or something.
Speaker 2: So no, I've not seen him at all, but it
Speaker 2: is good to have the prospects in there. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: good for them. It's good for them.
Speaker 5: Like this is people might actually watch some of this,
Speaker 5: whereas you know, the eighth inning of a spring training
Speaker 5: game against the White Sox ain't gonna happen. Not that
Speaker 5: they would be playing the White Sox of course, because
Speaker 5: it's a different league, but that's neither hi nor the Yeah.
Speaker 1: I will say that at BP we have gil Hill
Speaker 1: eighteenth in the race system, which doesn't sound very high,
Speaker 1: but as you'll know, the Race have a lot of prospects.
Speaker 1: They usually have a pretty deep system. This year is
Speaker 1: no exception. So we see like a you know, potential
Speaker 1: fourth startup, maybe mid rotation guy if he hits his upside.
Speaker 1: So there's a chance we could be looking back in
Speaker 1: a few years and saying, hey, he was the best
Speaker 1: picture on this ther BC team. I think that's that's
Speaker 1: within the realm of possibility. I mean, you know, we
Speaker 1: may well see him in a you know, two three
Speaker 1: years time actually making up a significant role on a
Speaker 1: major league mount So I'm excited to see him because
Speaker 1: I also have not seen him play, but it will
Speaker 1: be good to see Russ. You've already sort of touched
Speaker 1: on a bit of the pitching, but how do you
Speaker 1: see this playing out over the course of the tournament?
Speaker 1: Who are we going to go to in the rotation
Speaker 1: and do you have an idea of how that's going
Speaker 1: to map out across the group game to that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's an interesting one basically to be like, who
Speaker 4: are actually going to be like the guys that are
Speaker 4: the starters, Like there isn't a massively like standout like
Speaker 4: these is what you're going to expect. I think like
Speaker 4: Jack Settings is probably going to do reasonable amount. I
Speaker 4: think that Tyler Vizard, Vance Walley will do that as well.
Speaker 4: But I think what you'll see from Team GB, maybe
Speaker 4: a bit more than some of the other teams, is
Speaker 4: an approach where it's basically every inning matches the most
Speaker 4: because they're effectively going to they're going to win as
Speaker 4: many games as possible. But with basically International Baseball, you
Speaker 4: kind of lose a game and it really scuffers you,
Speaker 4: like no matter what it is. So they will be
Speaker 4: waking to utilize their best players as and when they can,
Speaker 4: like as much as possible, so you'll probably just see
Speaker 4: two or three innings of anybody max before kind of
Speaker 4: getting over to the next guy. A few of the
Speaker 4: other teams with their top pitchers, there are limitations in
Speaker 4: the WBC in the first few rounds of like sixty
Speaker 4: five pitches as the maximum, and then it's like eighty
Speaker 4: pitchers in the knockout rounds and like ninety pitches in
Speaker 4: the final to just because we are in spring training,
Speaker 4: we don't want teams don't want their players going out
Speaker 4: and throwing and forty pitches in it in a shutout
Speaker 4: because the manager of Team GB or Netherlands or Nick
Speaker 4: or Agua wants to win this game more than like
Speaker 4: deal with what's going to happen in the major leagues
Speaker 4: next season. So in some regards, it doesn't matter that
Speaker 4: you don't have the top arms because they can't be
Speaker 4: used too much. But I think we'll definitely see like
Speaker 4: a high Ton over with Team GB, being like, let's
Speaker 4: just matched to the situation that we're in. Like, if
Speaker 4: we think we've got our best guy up there right now, cool,
Speaker 4: he'll continue for another inning. If we think we've got
Speaker 4: a better option for this inning full of three players
Speaker 4: that we're going to face, let's go to that basically
Speaker 4: kind of pull that through. And so when you have
Speaker 4: the variety that they do with having like the Beg Brothers,
Speaker 4: with having Jack Anderson and a few of the others
Speaker 4: were like we've already mentioned Gary Gailhill, like we still
Speaker 4: have Donovan Benoir and have as Fernandez who took part
Speaker 4: in like the previous tournament. So I do think that
Speaker 4: you have, like there are names there aren't like there
Speaker 4: aren't the rumored ones that we're talking about maybe in
Speaker 4: the past, like Tristan McKenzie and a few others that
Speaker 4: were potentially kind of MLB like quality starters, But they'll
Speaker 4: do a good enough job and they'll basically put themselves
Speaker 4: in a position to be competitive in most of those games.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we saw last time that that you know,
Speaker 1: we had some experience with these types of tournaments, and
Speaker 1: there was some set very sensible management of those games
Speaker 1: gave us not only that win, but a very very
Speaker 1: close game as well. We could easily have won a
Speaker 1: second in that tournament. So be very interesting to see
Speaker 1: how that plays out this time. I suppose we should
Speaker 1: actually talk about what you're going to be doing with us,
Speaker 1: and also what the schedule looks like for GB. So
Speaker 1: I assume you will be making it to all these games?
Speaker 1: Can you can you take us through what you've got planned?
Speaker 1: And most importantly, you've already crossed the show Hay off
Speaker 1: the list. Who's hand are you're going to be trying
Speaker 1: to shake this time?
Speaker 3: Yeah? That's yeah, that's the interesting one.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I fly out tomorrow morning.
Speaker 4: As we're recording this, probably all the time by anybody's
Speaker 4: actually listening to this, I will already be on a
Speaker 4: plane out to Houston and therefore all of the group games,
Speaker 4: so luckily enough to have the press coverage for all
Speaker 4: of the games. So I will basically be sat in
Speaker 4: Daikon Stadium or Minute Made Park, whatever you want to
Speaker 4: call it, for about ten hours each day watching two
Speaker 4: games of baseball and all of the jazz that goes
Speaker 4: on before and after games. If it's anything like it
Speaker 4: was that Arizona in Arizona last year, it'll be there
Speaker 4: will be some highly amusing moments because the teams have
Speaker 4: to basically wait for all the other people to get
Speaker 4: out of the changing rooms before they can then go
Speaker 4: into the changing rooms for their next game. So last year,
Speaker 4: I was down waiting to go into the press room
Speaker 4: to hear some of them, the manager speak and just
Speaker 4: in the corridor chatting like they were mates, because they
Speaker 4: obviously were, with the likes of like Mike Trout and
Speaker 4: Rookie Betts, just having just like conversations. And you're just like, like,
Speaker 4: it's probably wrong to me to get down on my
Speaker 4: knees and be like.
Speaker 3: We're not worthy, We're not worthy.
Speaker 4: But there are moments in my head where are doing that,
Speaker 4: But yeah, yeah, we're We're lucky enough to coverage for this,
Speaker 4: So I will be out there, will basically be speaking,
Speaker 4: hopefully getting some time with some of the TEAMGB on
Speaker 4: the March fifth to kind of give us a little
Speaker 4: bit of a preview before the tournament actually gets underway,
Speaker 4: and then we'll be providing effectively hopefully pregame and postgame
Speaker 4: coverage from the players, the coaches, and anything that happens.
Speaker 3: Here for that whole entire journey.
Speaker 4: And then once we've gone through the group stages and
Speaker 4: the quarter finals that are in Houston, off to Miami
Speaker 4: for another few days to watch the two the semi
Speaker 4: finals and final in Miami, and if those are anything
Speaker 4: like the one that I saw in Miami last year,
Speaker 4: I probably watched two or three of the best spawning
Speaker 4: events I've ever seen live. The USA Venezuela game was
Speaker 4: frankly ridiculous, and that the ending moment of the last WBC,
Speaker 4: which was scripted to high end, which I think the
Speaker 4: only way it can switch around this time is if
Speaker 4: you have Cherio Tani hitting something off like Paul Skians.
Speaker 4: I think that's the only way that you can probably
Speaker 4: match that end moment. But yeah, it's going to be
Speaker 4: an amazing two or three two and a half weeks
Speaker 4: to effectively just watching baseball.
Speaker 5: So have you set yourself any goals for any special
Speaker 5: handshakes this time? I've got some suggestions, some targets for you.
Speaker 3: We've got the targets, then that's something we can work through.
Speaker 2: Okay, I've got three targets for three games.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'll talk you through some of the interesting people
Speaker 4: that I met last time around. Like obviously Adam Jones
Speaker 4: was a good one that I met and had a
Speaker 4: really nice chat with with last time around. Amusingly, I
Speaker 4: had a five minute conversation with Tony Clark last time around.
Speaker 4: But maybe that, oh, we won't get a chance to
Speaker 4: reprieve that one. Are you saying you have an inappropriate
Speaker 4: relationship with Tony Clark? Law, Well, i'll tell you all boys,
Speaker 4: Tony Clark makes me feel small.
Speaker 2: So that's what she said.
Speaker 1: Well, we've got the explicit tag on this one now.
Speaker 4: No, I think the last time I was a little bit.
Speaker 4: I was definitely almost a star struck with the press
Speaker 4: as I was with the meeting, like John Morose and
Speaker 4: Ken Rosenthal and Jeff Passon. Was a bit like these
Speaker 4: are like these are summer bar but like superstars.
Speaker 3: But on the player's side, I think.
Speaker 4: If we're going for the big, the big ones, we've
Speaker 4: got to be like it's gonna be out. We've got
Speaker 4: either girl like Aaron Judge or I maybe somebody like
Speaker 4: Fernando Tatis or or a Kunya if they make it
Speaker 4: to those semi finals where I can actually, uh, you.
Speaker 5: Can even bigger man, yeah, like the biggest man, like
Speaker 5: you thought the guy was big last year, like this
Speaker 5: year the biggest man you can find.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's got to do that.
Speaker 4: I've got to like feel small in the conversations and
Speaker 4: see if I can work my way through. Last time, yeah,
Speaker 4: the handshake with Otani was one of the funniest things
Speaker 4: with the last time around, just in a huddled mass
Speaker 4: of all of the press watching him take like his
Speaker 4: VP and everybody just being in awe. And then these
Speaker 4: two or three people standing beside me, like obviously know him,
Speaker 4: call him across, and he starts starts shaking hands with
Speaker 4: people and just continues to kind of like offer his
Speaker 4: hand to me because I'm stood next to these people,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, oh, yes, next year.
Speaker 2: Yes, I also I am a Japanese reporter.
Speaker 5: Hello, yes, so yeah, I think time this time, I
Speaker 5: think we need to say some target.
Speaker 2: I don't know who who we should get from Brazil because.
Speaker 5: They haven't got the like Yang Gomes does he still
Speaker 5: play there, Like that's the most famous Brazilian player I know.
Speaker 2: But I think let's go for Randy.
Speaker 5: You gotta get a picture of Randy, surely a picture,
Speaker 5: even if even if it's just a close background picture.
Speaker 2: You gotta get some Randy action. Again, I'll maybe rephrase that,
Speaker 2: so Randy, Randy.
Speaker 5: Gotta get on the pass watch, gotta get on the
Speaker 5: pass watch with Italy, gotta get something out of there.
Speaker 5: You've got, You've got to go with with some passquatch
Speaker 5: and then for for for the USA, which will be
Speaker 5: the hardest one. Just you've got to shake any cy
Speaker 5: young hand, any hand, there's one of so young.
Speaker 2: Just got to touch that hand. You gotta get a
Speaker 2: sy young hand in there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, pictures will be a bit more difficult because they
Speaker 4: do not hang around the bullpen area.
Speaker 1: Kursher is notoriously bothered when you when you interrupt his
Speaker 1: free game preparations.
Speaker 5: Let's get published by Kershew. That would be That would
Speaker 5: be amazing, that would be the pinnacle.
Speaker 1: It would be I'd love to say, Actually, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: really interested to know if he's still just as serious
Speaker 1: even though he's basically retired, if he still like approaches
Speaker 1: it exactly the same way. It's like, don't talk to me,
Speaker 1: I'm getting ready.
Speaker 6: For the game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it will be highly amusing to see if any
Speaker 4: of those guys will will offer sel off themselves.
Speaker 1: Out mostly they were. Surely you can get Vinie on
Speaker 1: the on the pod. He seems like a personal chat.
Speaker 1: I reckon, we can get him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 4: Like the it was I think the most thing I've
Speaker 4: had most remarkable in the tournament last time around was
Speaker 4: just like the different numbers of press for like the
Speaker 4: different games we had. We're in USA's poop last time around,
Speaker 4: so like anytime the USA were playing, the main press
Speaker 4: spots was almost full, but like there was a little
Speaker 4: bit of spots that I like I could sit in
Speaker 4: when basically Team USA wasn't playing, Like you could go
Speaker 4: sit wherever I want in the press box and kind
Speaker 4: of effectively just find a front row seat and kind
Speaker 4: of just just enjoy what was going on because it
Speaker 4: wasn't allocated seeding, but also down on the field like
Speaker 4: pre game it was like you had like a quarter
Speaker 4: of the people there when it wasn't a USA game.
Speaker 4: And then the madness of the number of Japanese like
Speaker 4: reporters once were watching the japan games in Miami, it
Speaker 4: was I there was so many people there. It's just
Speaker 4: unbelievable for kind of just to see those huddles and
Speaker 4: to see the conversations. But yeah, I will, I'll do
Speaker 4: my best to work with to work with that, I
Speaker 4: think if we can. I'm trying to work on my
Speaker 4: head being like, so, are there any Cleveland players that
Speaker 4: I could mentally like be like, you know, they actually
Speaker 4: support you? Dated, but then the one that I would
Speaker 4: want to meet Jasi Ramiro even playing for the Dominican
Speaker 4: because he feels that he's been slighted and was told
Speaker 4: that my name and charade would played the base ahead
Speaker 4: of him.
Speaker 3: So that feels a bit rough. Is that true?
Speaker 2: I mean, it's all alleged at this point, I'm sure,
Speaker 2: but yes, I've not heard.
Speaker 4: That some cryptic messages that have been put out there
Speaker 4: on Instagram by Jose effectively claiming that he's been slated.
Speaker 4: I didn't say exactly why, but reading between the line, moved.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I'll run through the actual schedule for the group.
Speaker 1: If you're interested, you want to know when gb are playing.
Speaker 1: They will be playing on March sixth at six pm.
Speaker 1: That is the Mexico game. They are playing the USA
Speaker 1: and TERRK scuball of course at one am on March
Speaker 1: the eighth, that's technically March the seventh in the US,
Speaker 1: but obviously you know it's quite late. Then they're coming
Speaker 1: straight back later that day in the UK and playing
Speaker 1: Italy at six o'clock, and then the next day they've
Speaker 1: got Brazil, also at six pm. I will also add
Speaker 1: that there are a number of watch parties around the UK,
Speaker 1: so a lot of the GB baseball clubs are getting
Speaker 1: involved in this. They're putting things on So Manchester, Bristol, Exeter, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Newcastle,
Speaker 1: Guildford West Midlands Baseball League, which you know is in Dundee, Brackenhill,
Speaker 1: Preston and of course London. There are watch parties at
Speaker 1: all of these locations. So there's more information on the
Speaker 1: British Baseball website that Christnal Blocks put out there for
Speaker 1: the specific venues for that. But there will be lots
Speaker 1: of GB Baseball clubs hosting those parties. So if you
Speaker 1: would like to go and watch with some fellow GB
Speaker 1: baseball fans and you're near any of those locations, then
Speaker 1: then do pop along. I'm sure it would be a
Speaker 1: great time.
Speaker 5: A million points to anyone who does Bracknell and Dundee
Speaker 5: in the same day, like during the.
Speaker 6: Do B game.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, like Phil Collins during Live Aid, like you
Speaker 5: start start at the beginning of one and then you
Speaker 5: get there for the end of the second one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, would you reckon?
Speaker 6: I'm go look up Bracknell to Dundee. Now I have
Speaker 6: anything that would take that'll be.
Speaker 2: The wrong kind of leaves on the track.
Speaker 1: So don't you.
Speaker 4: Even if you can have your own personal helicopter like
Speaker 4: flying you from one venue to the other. I'm not
Speaker 4: certain you could do it in the time of one
Speaker 4: baseball name.
Speaker 6: No, I don't think so.
Speaker 4: Depend it's telling me six hours to do you have
Speaker 4: extra Dundee there are extras yep, I'm seeing the twenty
Speaker 4: one inning thriller against Brazil.
Speaker 1: That's that's when to try it. I think it's going
Speaker 1: to be a challenge.
Speaker 7: Rob.
Speaker 1: It says eight hours to drive up there, and the
Speaker 1: London Dundee helicopters being advertised as an hour and fifty minutes,
Speaker 1: it still seems a bit slow.
Speaker 2: You win a hat, I don't know. Have we got
Speaker 2: a hat we can give someone?
Speaker 1: I think we probably have a hat.
Speaker 2: I think that.
Speaker 5: I think you're someone in Bracknell and Dundee, same game.
Speaker 5: We will send them a hat, any hat. BRO will
Speaker 5: buy you any hat of your chores.
Speaker 3: Probably just a flat cap.
Speaker 6: If you can.
Speaker 1: Somehow make this eight hour car journey in the space
Speaker 1: of three hours, we will definitely send you a hat.
Speaker 1: It okay, Well, I think we've we've covered off the
Speaker 1: The GB preview Russ. Was there anything else you wanted
Speaker 1: to add about your schedule or or the team in general. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think it's just like it's one of these ones
Speaker 3: where it's like they're I think what we're.
Speaker 4: Seeing your hill of all the time people talk about
Speaker 4: like TMGB about this, like it's not like, oh, these
Speaker 4: aren't British players, These aren't.
Speaker 3: People who are like born and raised in the UK.
Speaker 4: And I just think that, like it's it's always important
Speaker 4: to say that like this is this is what makes
Speaker 4: Britain Britain. I think this is what makes people. We're
Speaker 4: constantly like redefining what it means to be to be British.
Speaker 4: There are people who have reasons to be connected with
Speaker 4: this country. And every time that these GB teams have
Speaker 4: been pulled together in the last like five to ten years,
Speaker 4: like the coaches, the whole system is they make sure
Speaker 4: that everybody talks about the reason why they want aware
Speaker 4: like that Jersey and why they want to kind of
Speaker 4: like represent Great Britain from hearing it last time around,
Speaker 4: talking to people like Anthony Seymour and talking to kind
Speaker 4: of James Young from their Bahamian backgrounds kind of like
Speaker 4: really understanding why they want to kind of like to do.
Speaker 3: That is it's a great.
Speaker 4: Part of kind of like one actually this tournament and
Speaker 4: this team gets to get to represent because we know
Speaker 4: right now that we wouldn't have, like we don't have
Speaker 4: a professional league in this country. This is something that
Speaker 4: wouldn't be possible without the vagaries of the historical British Empire.
Speaker 4: But it's it is great to basically see that there
Speaker 4: are all these people that are wanting and willing to
Speaker 4: kind of like represent Great Britain and kind of be British.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very cool to say all these these people
Speaker 1: coming together, often from very diverse back, very different experiences
Speaker 1: getting into baseball as well, I think myriad paths. I
Speaker 1: think Gav covers us off quite well in his pretty
Speaker 1: on the site about you know the different experiences some
Speaker 1: of these guys have had getting in from you know,
Speaker 1: being the highly touted draftd or international signing to the
Speaker 1: guy who's had to toil in the miners or not
Speaker 1: even the miners in the inn these for years and
Speaker 1: years until being you know, finally picked up on a
Speaker 1: sort of a you know, a very low low cost
Speaker 1: deal from you know, the brewers or something to stick
Speaker 1: in their minor league system. You know, it's a real
Speaker 1: range of roots into baseball and it's it's really fun
Speaker 1: to see all these players come together from a range
Speaker 1: of countries and backgrounds. And yeah, I'm really excited. I
Speaker 1: think it's going to be a great tournament. I think
Speaker 1: the hype after last time has definitely got up, and
Speaker 1: I'm excited not just CGB, but some of these other
Speaker 1: really high class rosters that we talked about last time
Speaker 1: coming together, and I think it's going to be a
Speaker 1: real good fight at the top as well to see
Speaker 1: who comes out as champion this time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think although like we'll be potentially like
Speaker 4: realistic with like where we anticipate GB to finish in
Speaker 4: this tournament, Like we do think that they are better
Speaker 4: than the Brazilian team, and they'll have a tough match
Speaker 4: against Italy, but that's kind of like that the other
Speaker 4: the other two games are very difficult, and like if
Speaker 4: they were to get something out of them, it would
Speaker 4: be phenomenal and would drive like a massive growth like
Speaker 4: in this sport, like anything that basically, if GB beats
Speaker 4: the USA in a in a baseball game, that makes
Speaker 4: like BBC sport like front page sort of stuff like
Speaker 4: it is enough to basically be like the kind of
Speaker 4: like the what's the Remember the Norwegian football commentator.
Speaker 3: And he was just like Margaret Thatcher Winston, your boys
Speaker 3: took one hell o the beating.
Speaker 4: That's like if I when I write that up, that
Speaker 4: is exactly what like the first the first paragraph of that,
Speaker 4: it's gonna be gonna be Ronald Reagan, George Washington, Donald Trump,
Speaker 4: your boys took one hell of a beat.
Speaker 1: Avery's notoriously overright by Brace, as we've often said on
Speaker 1: this podcast.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but the team, the team is going out there
Speaker 4: to compete and to win all of their games. They're
Speaker 4: not going out there to be like we just want
Speaker 4: to win one game and make sure we're qualified. Like
Speaker 4: that qualification is now the minimum expectation right to be
Speaker 4: set in this position where they can work the way
Speaker 4: they have in the last two to three years to
Speaker 4: be in a good position to actually kind of be
Speaker 4: prepared for the next tournament. In a lot of reasons
Speaker 4: you'll see with the chat with Gary that will put
Speaker 4: on the end of this is that there's still the
Speaker 4: potential of a qualification for Olympic Games and funding around
Speaker 4: that out there, because in twenty twenty eight there will
Speaker 4: be baseball in the Olympics and there's only six teams
Speaker 4: in that tournament, and one of them will be a
Speaker 4: European team. So qualification and how that goes makes a
Speaker 4: massive difference. And in this country getting money into a sport,
Speaker 4: if it's an Olympic sport, it's a lot easier to
Speaker 4: get money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely a lot, a lot more riding on this
Speaker 1: than just how we do in the tournament. So I
Speaker 1: think it's going to be really every time we see
Speaker 1: the profile go up, don't we. I think so some
Speaker 1: of these these other eyes against some of these really
Speaker 1: high profile teams playing the USA is a great opportunity,
Speaker 1: I think. And yes, Derek Scruble is quite good, but
Speaker 1: it's probably going to throw like forty pictures, right, So
Speaker 1: it's fine.
Speaker 3: Oh, maximum, we can throw it sixty five.
Speaker 4: So get up there and start fouling them off, boys
Speaker 4: and ross.
Speaker 2: This is the answer upside down lineups.
Speaker 4: Like it's generally like, it's not like it's not that
Speaker 4: much of an unknown thing in international baseball role there
Speaker 4: have been definitely times when people have like messed with
Speaker 4: messed with lineups to basically try and work counts.
Speaker 2: And there's not fully stupid, then no, it's not he
Speaker 2: talking that one of us a win.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so when are you getting on the plane to
Speaker 1: join russ as the GB's official tactician. Is that that
Speaker 1: happening now?
Speaker 3: And the resume ever to Gary if you want.
Speaker 1: Send them all the research you did on roy Utah
Speaker 1: and you're really impressed with Yeah, you'll see that.
Speaker 2: I've got the pictures of uniforms and everything.
Speaker 3: That's one thing we haven't discussed.
Speaker 4: Have you. Have we seen the new fresh teas that
Speaker 4: they're they are that are wearing this year that hopefully
Speaker 4: the tea will stay on the shirt.
Speaker 3: I have seen them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've I've been looking at I've been looking at
Speaker 1: GB Baseball's twitter feed. There's quite a lot of of
Speaker 1: shots of all the guys wearing the uniforms. Actually, I
Speaker 1: think we can.
Speaker 5: Line all the letters up better than the Red Sox
Speaker 5: did on a very similar uniform.
Speaker 2: So that's, you know, one better than them.
Speaker 1: These are these are Nike rather than fanatics, aren't they?
Speaker 6: Well?
Speaker 3: The Red Sox admitted that they were the ones that
Speaker 3: were responsible for the what they told phonetics to do,
Speaker 3: which are then just like, wait, so you told them
Speaker 3: to make it like just poor quality. There's so much
Speaker 3: are gonna be said about like these fanatics jerseys and
Speaker 3: what we've got compared to what we used to get
Speaker 3: with Majestic. It's just it is just a shame that
Speaker 3: like this is this is the quality that we have
Speaker 3: now compared to like what used to exist before.
Speaker 1: Yes, well we are optimistic that no letters fall off
Speaker 1: the GB uniforms. Yeah, if you are watching the video version,
Speaker 1: you can now see Rob holding up a picture of
Speaker 1: on his iPad.
Speaker 2: I'm going to win the base bar.
Speaker 4: And hopefully this time around they'll actually be GB much
Speaker 4: in the in the in the MLB store, in the
Speaker 4: store inside the Houston Stadium. Last time there wasn't because
Speaker 4: everything was had to be so quickly rushed because they
Speaker 4: were a qualifier and basically didn't get the chance to
Speaker 4: use some of the logos that they wanted because they
Speaker 4: didn't have the right copyright rules.
Speaker 5: To was clearly ironing on his own words. So you know,
Speaker 5: this time things crossed. So anyone who wants st a thing, yeah,
Speaker 5: orders him with Russell Now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well yeah, I'm taking a suitcase that we'll have
Speaker 4: definitely have some space in it. Don't know how much
Speaker 4: I'm we'll we'll fill it with things along the way,
Speaker 4: but some baseball gear being brought back.
Speaker 3: I will say.
Speaker 1: The good news is that GB are currently no hitting
Speaker 1: the Brewers. The bad news is that Brewers pitcher Dl
Speaker 1: Hall is currently pitching for US, will not will not
Speaker 1: be on our roster. The quirks of these exhibition games
Speaker 1: so regressively, deal former former top prospect Deal Hall, is
Speaker 1: not going to be joining us for the actual tournament.
Speaker 1: But it's going well. It's a good sign. We've scored
Speaker 1: a run.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was watching it through and it's one of
Speaker 4: those weird things where you're just like, so Harry Ford
Speaker 4: came out and then he pinched it for him.
Speaker 3: Back forward for himself.
Speaker 4: So what you can do is in the spring training
Speaker 4: or not even spring training.
Speaker 1: Will send some raal suggestions to to Manfred just to
Speaker 1: do this and there regular season.
Speaker 6: I will love that.
Speaker 4: I just sometimes love the names that are in baseball
Speaker 4: where you're just like Jesus made lines out to Jazz
Speaker 4: Chisholm Jr.
Speaker 3: It's just like you just get quite compute what's being
Speaker 3: said here.
Speaker 1: You don't get this any other sport. Okay, well, I
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna I'm gonna wrap us up there, because
Speaker 1: this podcast is not done. Russ. You have spoken to
Speaker 1: Gary Anderson, haven't you. And you've got a separate chat
Speaker 1: for us which you conducted a little while ago, so
Speaker 1: we will tag that onto the end of this podcast.
Speaker 1: But can you give us a quick quick preview of
Speaker 1: what you talked to Gary about to what the appetite?
Speaker 4: Yeah, a bit about Gary's background and why him is
Speaker 4: like the performance director Britty has kind of like helped
Speaker 4: GB move to backs next level. He's worked with like
Speaker 4: in the FA and like Team Bob's and Team GB
Speaker 4: bob sleds like in the past to kind of like
Speaker 4: to pull that through a bit of how this season
Speaker 4: this time around has been different, what approaches they've kind
Speaker 4: of set up and what kind of what is their aim?
Speaker 3: How do we get an Olympic medal in baseball?
Speaker 1: All very promising stuff. I look forward to hearing it
Speaker 1: along with the rest of you. Thank you both for
Speaker 1: joining us. I'm sure we will be back soon with
Speaker 1: more WBC content as well as an idea rob that
Speaker 1: you put out I think about three months ago, now
Speaker 1: that we still haven't done what we keep saying we're
Speaker 1: going to do, which is to recap the off season
Speaker 1: in the order of the most boring moves. So yeah,
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll get to that soon, along with what I
Speaker 1: expect to be a preview of Team GB's triumphant WBC run.
Speaker 1: So that's all to come all to look forward to.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us, and over to Russell's Into
Speaker 1: You with Gary Anderson.
Speaker 4: You don't do links often, however, and welcome to Bablpton Nerds,
Speaker 4: the Baseball podcast with the British Twist. I am your
Speaker 4: host today, Russell Lisam. I'm not joined by any of
Speaker 4: my other crew, but that's because I have the amazing
Speaker 4: opportunity to interview someone who has a lot to do
Speaker 4: with the British national team. I'm delighted to be with
Speaker 4: Gary Anderson today. He is the Director of Performance or
Speaker 4: Head of Performance, I can never remember which one it
Speaker 4: actually is for Baseball soft for the UK and the BBF.
Speaker 4: A native of what for a longtime supporter of What
Speaker 4: what FC, he's been had the reputation for transforming i
Speaker 4: would say underdog profrograms into world class organizations. What he
Speaker 4: did with the British Popsley team getting a retrospective bronze
Speaker 4: medal back in twenty fourteen. We'll probably talk about that
Speaker 4: and some of his greater work with the FA as
Speaker 4: well since joining baseball in twenty twenty two, and this
Speaker 4: has been the focus behind a great Britain's historic ascent
Speaker 4: into the world rankings.
Speaker 3: Gary, thank you for joining us today. How are we doing?
Speaker 6: I'm doing okay. Thanks for Russel and what an introduction.
Speaker 7: I think it's I've been parachute into places because there's
Speaker 7: been problems and I've been asked to sort them out.
Speaker 7: But certainly with baseball, I've fallen in love with it.
Speaker 7: And normally, once I've got things going well, I usually
Speaker 7: move on to the next project, but it seems that
Speaker 7: I'm stuck with this one and it's fantastic.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I'm in reviewing kind of what you've done in
Speaker 4: the past and seeing somehow people have talked about you
Speaker 4: and you've been on with the podcast with some of
Speaker 4: the other guys before in the past, because I see
Speaker 4: you as like this performance architect, but it's kind of
Speaker 4: like you've never like stock to just want sports. You've
Speaker 4: won a FIFA fair Player award, I said, the bronze
Speaker 4: medal with the bobsley team, Like, what's kind of like
Speaker 4: the universal truths of high performance? That will kind of
Speaker 4: like you brought into like this GP role. That's kind
Speaker 4: of like the Gary Anderson view on kind of like
Speaker 4: high performance.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 7: I have a philosophy on performance is that whatever sport
Speaker 7: you go into, it's at the top level, it's not
Speaker 7: about teaching people the technical basics of that sport. It's
Speaker 7: about putting together a team around a team that can
Speaker 7: support that performance process. And my philosophy has always been
Speaker 7: is that, you know, the it's not my job to
Speaker 7: teach someone to hit a ball or to pitch a ball.
Speaker 7: It's to make sure that they turn up on time,
Speaker 7: that all the coaches have everything they need in order
Speaker 7: to execute that performance.
Speaker 6: And you know, it's it's almost like I guess.
Speaker 7: Conducting an orchestra, you know, with having all those instruments,
Speaker 7: having all those talented musicians, but ensuring that they know
Speaker 7: when to play their instrument and what beat. And that's
Speaker 7: what I enjoy doing. It's certainly I've carved a career
Speaker 7: out of it, and you know, it's something that I'm
Speaker 7: passionate about You know, I'm passionate about my performance sport
Speaker 7: and I love when it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel it very interesting. Like looking through your career,
Speaker 4: you talked about the fact that, like you've tried and
Speaker 4: failed to retire, Yes, especially before taking this role. I
Speaker 4: guess the question is what was the specifics of like
Speaker 4: the Great British Baseball puzzle that drew you back in
Speaker 4: from you from from that sweet retired life.
Speaker 7: I'm looking forward to that day that I do retire,
Speaker 7: but it's it's looking like it's going to be way
Speaker 7: beyond their lay now.
Speaker 6: It's I I had.
Speaker 7: Retired up until this job came up and I was working.
Speaker 7: I haven't retired. I don't think I'll ever retire. I
Speaker 7: think that I'll always do some sort of work. I
Speaker 7: can't ever see myself sitting at home watching homes under
Speaker 7: the hammer and enjoying my life in a company arm chair.
Speaker 6: That's not me.
Speaker 7: I would always be involved in sport in some way,
Speaker 7: and as I'm getting older that is more and more
Speaker 7: the administrative side of things, and I had retired from.
Speaker 7: I've been working through the COVID period, working in professional
Speaker 7: rugby and professional football and helping you know, very successful
Speaker 7: teams navigate that very difficult time and then return to play.
Speaker 6: And I always described it.
Speaker 7: I never experienced COVID like everybody else did because I
Speaker 7: went to work every single day, you know, because your
Speaker 7: elite sport continued, albeit in a very strange way. But
Speaker 7: I still got in my car and drove to work
Speaker 7: every day because it was my job to make sure
Speaker 7: that all these regulations were visire to and that you know,
Speaker 7: elite athletes had the opportunity to train. So I was
Speaker 7: working through that, and trust me, Russell, at the end
Speaker 7: of that, I was ready to retire because it was
Speaker 7: nobody knew how to do it. We didn't know what
Speaker 7: we were doing, whether we were doing it right or wrong.
Speaker 7: But it was a hard time. And at the end
Speaker 7: of that, I thought, you know what, that's it.
Speaker 6: You know that, you know.
Speaker 7: And then the Tokyo Olympics got moved by a year
Speaker 7: and I started doing some work for karate, for the
Speaker 7: international karate scene and making sure that, you know, the
Speaker 7: high performance system within karate was fit for taking place
Speaker 7: in Tokyo post COVID, And this job came up with
Speaker 7: Baseball Softball UK and I saw it and I thought
Speaker 7: nothing of it. I thought, that's you know, that's the
Speaker 7: last thing I want to be doing now, is I
Speaker 7: want to be maybe doing a consultancy job somewhere rather
Speaker 7: than going back to be a performance director. I done
Speaker 7: that for so many years I didn't fancy doing it again.
Speaker 7: But then a very good friend of mine, who at
Speaker 7: the time was the head at the British Olympic Association,
Speaker 7: Mike Haye, pointed out to me that this job was
Speaker 7: going and he said, it's right up your street. He
Speaker 7: said that two sports, baseball and softball, both are sort
Speaker 7: of underperforming and with huge potential all and with the
Speaker 7: Los Angeles gains on the horizon, he said it it
Speaker 7: just fits you to go in there and put an
Speaker 7: Olympic system in place. And when I looked at it, Russell,
Speaker 7: it was uncanny. The situation was very very similar to
Speaker 7: when I moved into bob slid. Very similar, same characters,
Speaker 7: same issues, two sports that weren't really talking to each
Speaker 7: other but had very similar needs. In bob sleay it
Speaker 7: was bobsley and skeleton, you know, to what are now
Speaker 7: very successful sports as we are seeing in the land
Speaker 7: Cortina at the moment that didn't talk to each other.
Speaker 7: But had the same need, need the same resource. And
Speaker 7: it was good work in that area putting those two
Speaker 7: sports together. And I saw the same with baseball and stockball,
Speaker 7: and I thought, do you know what I will?
Speaker 6: You know, have a look at this. It was a
Speaker 6: funny story.
Speaker 7: I was interviewed for the role six times. Official interviews
Speaker 7: I went through and I couldn't believe it the amount
Speaker 7: of times I had to be interviewed for a role
Speaker 7: which I didn't particularly want at the time anyway, But
Speaker 7: I went through it and more and more.
Speaker 6: I was learning about it the more and more that
Speaker 6: I wanted it.
Speaker 7: And it was when I met with Drew Spencer that
Speaker 7: finally convinced me that, you know what, this is what
Speaker 7: I want to be involved in.
Speaker 6: And yeah, after.
Speaker 7: The interviews, I spent some time with Drew before I
Speaker 7: decided to take the role, and it was Drew that
Speaker 7: convinced me that this was me.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's amazing to hear.
Speaker 4: In your book The Winner's Mindset, you talk about like
Speaker 4: performance planning when you first arrived with this role. When
Speaker 4: you took it, was that the first like cultural pillar
Speaker 4: that you felt need to be installed before like results
Speaker 4: could follow.
Speaker 3: Ors. There's something else that you decided this is what
Speaker 3: I need to do. First, I think it.
Speaker 7: Was getting people to understand what could be achieved, what
Speaker 7: the potention of was. I'm not sure many people in
Speaker 7: baseball knew about the Olympic Games, and not necessarily the
Speaker 7: inmp Games, but the process of qualing fire Olympic Games
Speaker 7: and running a program and receiving funding to run a program,
Speaker 7: you know, rather than begborrow stealing money from everywhere to
Speaker 7: ensure that a national team could go somewhere and players
Speaker 7: put in hands in pockets and you know, but don't
Speaker 7: get me wrong, ru We're a long way from being
Speaker 7: able to fund everything that we are a lot closer
Speaker 7: to what I recognized as a full time professional program.
Speaker 7: And it was put in that in place of people
Speaker 7: understanding what could be achieved and then identifying a appropriate
Speaker 7: performance pathway, highlighting competitions that we believed we could win,
Speaker 7: and then putting together a plan for that. And when
Speaker 7: Drew was imposed, that was easy because Drew got it.
Speaker 7: Drew knew exactly what he wanted and working alongside him
Speaker 7: with the age group teams were very good coaches and
Speaker 7: Jonathan Craman, who's gone on now to work in professional
Speaker 7: baseball and guide the under twenty threes to a gold medal.
Speaker 7: Having people like that in the program, it was quite
Speaker 7: easy to sell the performance concept of which is my
Speaker 7: philosophy and what I hope is when I leave baseball
Speaker 7: and softball, which I will do one day, it's the
Speaker 7: legacy I want to leave is an understanding of you know,
Speaker 7: what people can achieve if they really really wanted to,
Speaker 7: what they can achieve. And I think that was the
Speaker 7: first pillar that had to go in place, is that
Speaker 7: you know what, this can be us? And we are
Speaker 7: as saying if not us, if not us, why you know,
Speaker 7: why not GB? You know why can't it be GB
Speaker 7: doing this?
Speaker 4: Yeah, speaking to Drew and Lillam and Jonathan all the time,
Speaker 4: the phrase they always say is that you can get
Speaker 4: there from here. I think is the is a big
Speaker 4: attitude that they have shown that to to some people
Speaker 4: within the playing world, within in this country. They didn't
Speaker 4: think it was even like a possibility, and so that's
Speaker 4: like a great thing. So let's get them done more
Speaker 4: into the kind of like the GB. It may be
Speaker 4: too much to say, but Garrey, you're part of the
Speaker 4: people who have put like the great in Great Britain,
Speaker 4: and when it comes to baseball, like recently we've had
Speaker 4: a pretty large momentum shift.
Speaker 3: From being a maybe team, a nearly team.
Speaker 4: On the international scene to now being a top twenty
Speaker 4: ranked program. We have talented players playing at the major
Speaker 4: league level. Like, has there been a system that you've
Speaker 4: introduced or was already kind of there that helped us
Speaker 4: kind of constantly punch a little bit above what would
Speaker 4: be traditionally regarded as like the powerhouses of baseball.
Speaker 7: I think it's and thank you for saying that, And yeah,
Speaker 7: I am a small cog in a very big machine
Speaker 7: that does this, and I'm hoping that I I, yeah,
Speaker 7: I contribute a little bit to that. I think it's
Speaker 7: in suring that the head coach has what they need
Speaker 7: to do the job, you know, and then supporting that
Speaker 7: head coach and making those decisions because as you know,
Speaker 7: it's the head coach.
Speaker 6: You know, in most people eyes is never right.
Speaker 7: You know, there's always you know, you own in the
Speaker 7: pub and you can pick a much better team than anybody.
Speaker 6: We all do it.
Speaker 7: I do it with with my biloved Watford. You know,
Speaker 7: I can pick the best Watford team ever, you know,
Speaker 7: but do you know what, I'm never going to be
Speaker 7: wrong with that because my team is never going to
Speaker 7: be tested, all right, So I can pick that team
Speaker 7: and it's never gonna be tested. When our head coach
Speaker 7: Brad Marcelina picks a team at the moment, he's going
Speaker 7: to be tested every single time that's that scene takes
Speaker 7: the field.
Speaker 6: So I think what I would like to think that.
Speaker 7: I do is put that you know, the arms around
Speaker 7: but fingers out philosophy with him. That I put my
Speaker 7: arms around and support him with his selection decisions and
Speaker 7: what he wants to do, but I keep my fingers
Speaker 7: well out of the technical and tactical decisions.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we we kind of were now in a
Speaker 4: position where GB is I think players are maybe coming
Speaker 4: to you guys instead of like having to like go
Speaker 4: find players. It feels like it's now in a much
Speaker 4: kind of like healthier position to finding that sort of talent.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we're much more visible, the program is much more
Speaker 7: visible on the world stage. For this World Baseball Classic.
Speaker 7: We didn't have to go knocking on players' doors this
Speaker 7: time round. Okay, they were ringing al bell whereas I
Speaker 7: remember for the qualifier in Reagensburg with Drew. We were
Speaker 7: ringing people up asking you know, is it true that
Speaker 7: you know you're ellergible to represent Great Britain.
Speaker 6: This time round we didn't have to do that.
Speaker 7: People know about Great Britain now and they were coming
Speaker 7: to us to say that they have a British passport
Speaker 7: or or they are entitled to a British passport. So
Speaker 7: it was very very different this time round. So I
Speaker 7: think it's attractive to play for Great Britain now, you know.
Speaker 7: You know, we we were pre qualified for the World
Speaker 7: Baseball Classic. People knew three years out we were going
Speaker 7: to be in this edition of the World Baseball Classic,
Speaker 7: so players had had enough time to work out that
Speaker 7: they wanted to be in this event and contact us.
Speaker 7: So selections this time round was very very different.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I say I had to learn a different
Speaker 4: set of skills around kind of actually determining people's eligibility
Speaker 4: compared to how it was before.
Speaker 7: Yeah, this time round it's been tightened up as well.
Speaker 7: The I think that that's to do with the Olympics.
Speaker 7: You know, the Olympic qualification points up for grabs, and
Speaker 7: so you know, it's I think it's a lot tighter
Speaker 7: now that you know, for now there has to be
Speaker 7: a route for eligibility through the parental route. You know
Speaker 7: you can no longer go back beyond that. So you know,
Speaker 7: to play for Great Britain now you have to have
Speaker 7: eligibility by parents to be a UK citizen or be
Speaker 7: applied for a UK passport. The only difference is in
Speaker 7: the Olympic Games you have to physically hold that passport.
Speaker 7: In the World Baseball Classic, you have to be eligible
Speaker 7: to hold that passport, and you know that you don't have.
Speaker 6: To go through the physical process in obtaining one. Yeah.
Speaker 7: But yeah, in terms of our debt a chart and
Speaker 7: the players that were on that, it was you know,
Speaker 7: we didn't have to go ringing around and knocking on
Speaker 7: their door and saying, you know, do you want to
Speaker 7: play for Great Britain.
Speaker 6: You know that didn't happen this time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so as you said that you were qualified
Speaker 4: for this twenty twenty sixth tournament, not having to search
Speaker 4: for players the same way, it was probably one of
Speaker 4: the elements. But how much difference has there been in
Speaker 4: this basically build up to this tournament because you've known
Speaker 4: for three years that you are going to participate in
Speaker 4: this tournament and not have to win a qualifier six
Speaker 4: months beforehand and then put all of your efforts through
Speaker 4: that and then have to put all of your efforts
Speaker 4: in the next six months to what you're actually going
Speaker 4: to do in the tournament.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was almost too long. I think it's there's
Speaker 7: not many sports that you know three years out that
Speaker 7: you're qualified for. You know, in other sports there's usually
Speaker 7: a qualification event for everybody, or you know, if you're
Speaker 7: the holder, you might get automatic entry.
Speaker 6: But you know, you look at the FIFA Worlds up
Speaker 6: in football.
Speaker 7: You know, you only know a year out that you're
Speaker 7: definitely going. We knew three years out, and that was
Speaker 7: a lot of time to think about it. Okay, we
Speaker 7: didn't know where we were going, but we were you
Speaker 7: we were going somewhere, and it was.
Speaker 6: It was a luxury.
Speaker 7: But we also had to make sure that we still
Speaker 7: had that urgency.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 7: We didn't sit back and say, oh, we've got three
Speaker 7: years for that. You know, there was always going to
Speaker 7: be the urgency, but we did. We created our own
Speaker 7: urgency by Drew Beying so successful and going and decided
Speaker 7: to work full time for the New York yank does,
Speaker 7: so we created our own urgency there by then having
Speaker 7: to recruit in Brad Marcelino, who only had a year
Speaker 7: to prepare, So we created our own urgency there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But obviously in between we've had the European Championships
Speaker 4: that have come up, all the times we've had the
Speaker 4: under twenty threes to go through that system as well.
Speaker 6: Did you have any kind.
Speaker 4: Of clear steps along the way from the performance in
Speaker 4: those tournaments that were leading towards kind of like how
Speaker 4: you wanted to perform like in the WBC.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we knew that there were going to be investment
Speaker 7: triggers and we had to highlight certain competitions to UK
Speaker 7: sport that we had to perform at in order to
Speaker 7: receive the amount of investment that we now do. And
Speaker 7: we targeted those events and they were the Under twenty
Speaker 7: three Europeans, the Under three World Cup qualification, and the
Speaker 7: Senior Europeans and up until the last Senior Europeans, which
Speaker 7: were a little bit of an anomaly because we're we
Speaker 7: had target the world but it wasn't a nominated competition
Speaker 7: for us. The World Baseball Classic was our nominated competition
Speaker 7: that's coming up, But we the ones Europeans where we
Speaker 7: meddled at it were the Europeans we chose as our
Speaker 7: target events, our milestone events. You know, we would we
Speaker 7: went to win the last Europeans. Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 7: We didn't think it didn't matter. We went to win,
Speaker 7: but we always had one eye on the Premier twelve
Speaker 7: and the World Baseball Classic. We knew fairly fairly certain
Speaker 7: that we were going to be in the qualifier from
Speaker 7: the Premier tworld. We knew that because we knew it
Speaker 7: was going to sixteen teams and we knew that it
Speaker 7: was quite lightly we would be in that playoff bracket,
Speaker 7: you know, to qualify for the Premier twelve. So we said, right,
Speaker 7: the target is going to be the World Baseball Classic,
Speaker 7: and that's what we said, that would be our milestone
Speaker 7: had event. Yeah, no one's saying that we're going to
Speaker 7: go to the World Baseball Classic and win it. I
Speaker 7: am a bit of a realist and know that that's
Speaker 7: you know, highly unlikely. But what we can do is
Speaker 7: go there and try and go one better than last time.
Speaker 7: So at each stage of the process there Russell, we've
Speaker 7: had a targeted event, a milestone event where we tested
Speaker 7: everything that we know that we've learned so far on
Speaker 7: this trajectory, and yeah, we're going to we're going to
Speaker 7: put all of that into play at the World Baseball Classic. No,
Speaker 7: that's really interesting to hear. Yeah, would if it makes sense.
Speaker 7: If it makes sense, I think it does.
Speaker 4: In part I would I would be interested to know
Speaker 4: if the European Championship just gone. It was a very
Speaker 4: youthful team that took part, given the fact that it
Speaker 4: maybe it wasn't one of your targeted events, which were
Speaker 4: I think you, if I'm right, would say actually directly
Speaker 4: linked like funding. Were you using that event more as
Speaker 4: a preparing people for future events than necessarily kind of
Speaker 4: going out with the explicit aim of like putting like
Speaker 4: our best players on the field.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we we fielded a strong team, though, Yeah, we
Speaker 7: we did underperform. We put we should have done better
Speaker 7: than what we did. And everybody knows that we had
Speaker 7: a lot of things that were knew at that event.
Speaker 6: It was Brad's first competition in.
Speaker 7: Charge, and there we tried a few new things out
Speaker 7: and there were players that weren't available to us for
Speaker 7: whatever reason. But you're right with that. We know that
Speaker 7: we you know, that's never an excuse not to win something.
Speaker 7: And we went to the Europeans thinking that we were
Speaker 7: good enough still to be in the medal zone. And
Speaker 7: when I say medal zone, that's being the last four.
Speaker 7: You know, once you get to the semi finals of
Speaker 7: any competition, anything can happen. So you know, Icler call
Speaker 7: it medal zone and that's the last four of a competition.
Speaker 7: We didn't do that. One result could have changed that,
Speaker 7: but and we didn't do it. But you know, we
Speaker 7: learned a hell of a lot from that adition. We
Speaker 7: learned a hell of a lot, and I think for Brad,
Speaker 7: but Brad, it was a great learning process.
Speaker 4: No, yeah, that's interesting, see because obviously that you guys
Speaker 4: are now learning through the tournament, Brad's gott to learn
Speaker 4: through how to kind of like seer the ship as well.
Speaker 4: Do you feel that other nations in the tournament will
Speaker 4: treat you guys differently now that you're not necessarily like
Speaker 4: the happy, go lucky minnow that's kind of made their
Speaker 4: way into the into the tournament.
Speaker 6: Oh absolutely.
Speaker 7: I was provely to attend the MLB Winter meetings with
Speaker 7: bradsher and we met the other nations that were competing.
Speaker 7: We met the head coaches, the performance director of the
Speaker 7: sporting directors of the other nations, and the reception we
Speaker 7: got was very different to the reception that we got previously.
Speaker 7: I think people now know that with the roster that
Speaker 7: great Britain offendord that you know, we're going to be a.
Speaker 6: Match for people.
Speaker 7: You know, it's they're going to have to watch us
Speaker 7: and scout us like we are scouting everybody else.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 7: It's I think there are still some guides I think
Speaker 7: where it's a gibbon when we play them.
Speaker 6: I think that that's natural.
Speaker 7: But I you know, there are teams within our group
Speaker 7: that I think that we can be and I think
Speaker 7: that there are others that we could shock, and that's
Speaker 7: what we intend to do.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I still remember Trace Thompson's home run at the start
Speaker 4: of the game against the USA, which kind of quieted
Speaker 4: that stadium a little bit, as I don't think many
Speaker 4: of them were quite prepared for gb to even stand
Speaker 4: a chance in that game.
Speaker 3: So yeah, let's go a little bit more into the
Speaker 3: twenty twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4: Obviously, like the rosters have been announced, it is a
Speaker 4: fairly complex process which has most of it has to
Speaker 4: be kept.
Speaker 3: Under lock and key. Is a bit of that.
Speaker 4: Directed from like the tournament or is more of that Actually,
Speaker 4: you kind of don't want to know what your opposition
Speaker 4: know what you're roster is because then they have more
Speaker 4: time to prepare.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and now it's all announced and everybody can see
Speaker 7: people's pen pictures and their names and all their stats,
Speaker 7: and you know your sport and I call it your
Speaker 7: sport with a baseball sport, I'm fascinated by the data
Speaker 7: that that's the sport generates, you know, it's it's driven
Speaker 7: by numbers, and it's fantastic.
Speaker 6: I love reading it. I love learning.
Speaker 7: About it, you know. And the scouting process is something
Speaker 7: that fascinates me. You know.
Speaker 6: Even at European Championship level, we scout.
Speaker 7: Our scouting network is tremendous, you know, and I can
Speaker 7: sit for hours in those meetings and listen to what
Speaker 7: those scouts are saying, and when the game starts, I
Speaker 7: remember what they said. I'm looking for it to see
Speaker 7: if it's going to happen. But I think that the
Speaker 7: rosters are out there now, everybody can see who's picked.
Speaker 7: Two there's still one or two things that are still
Speaker 7: to be finalized with one or two players. So I
Speaker 7: think it's going to be some players in some nations
Speaker 7: will drop out and there's some others come in.
Speaker 6: But people would see.
Speaker 7: Who's on show now, and I think that.
Speaker 6: That gets everybody excited.
Speaker 7: But it's one off games, and scouting in for a season,
Speaker 7: a league season is very very different and scouting for
Speaker 7: knockout International Baseball. Yeah yeah, because you've it's one off
Speaker 7: games and that you might only face that team once
Speaker 7: and you might only face one, two, three pitchers.
Speaker 6: You know, it's.
Speaker 7: Very difficult for anybody to scout anybody that accurately.
Speaker 4: No, that's interesting to see. Obviously, the GV team are
Speaker 4: playing in Houston. Playing in the US, I think it's
Speaker 4: fair to say that that it allows you to have
Speaker 4: a stronger team than if you would potentially be playing Japan.
Speaker 4: I think the MLB teams are more willing to kind
Speaker 4: of let their players during spring training come and perform
Speaker 4: there than going out in Japan. Is that a correct assumption?
Speaker 6: I think so.
Speaker 7: Yeah, We've only ever played in the US, so we
Speaker 7: can only go on what we experience. I was at
Speaker 7: the WBSC Congress last week and I was speaking to
Speaker 7: the chech guys there, and whilst they don't have many
Speaker 7: big leaguers playing for them, you know, traveling to Tokyo
Speaker 7: to Japan is you know, it's not as simple as
Speaker 7: some might think. You know, they have restrictions on them
Speaker 7: as well, and I think that it does have benefits
Speaker 7: being in the US. Certainly teams would be more Certainly
Speaker 7: if I was an owner of a Major League team,
Speaker 7: I'd be more inclined to let a player go and
Speaker 7: play up the road rather than halfway around the world. Yeah,
Speaker 7: because you know, at least you've gon keep track of
Speaker 7: them and you know where they are. Anything goes wrong,
Speaker 7: they're straight back to their own their home team. One
Speaker 7: thing I have noticed this time around as well is
Speaker 7: the confidence major league organizations have with Great Britain. Yeah,
Speaker 7: we have a very strong medical team that we draw from.
Speaker 7: You know, we draw medical staff from major league teams.
Speaker 7: And I think when you asked about the minnows being
Speaker 7: class and minnows before, I think the organizations that release
Speaker 7: players to play in the World Baseball Classic view US
Speaker 7: differently now as well. They know that we're going to
Speaker 7: look after their players when they come to US, and
Speaker 7: I think that gives them reassurance as well.
Speaker 6: We're no longer that unknown. You know, we've done it.
Speaker 7: We've shown that we can compete with the best our staff,
Speaker 7: you know, the majority work in Major League, so that
Speaker 7: there's an air of confidence around releasing players to Great Britain. Certainly,
Speaker 7: that's the information I get given. Anyway, I've met a
Speaker 7: lot of owners now, I've met a lot of head
Speaker 7: coaches and managers, and you know, they've all formed that
Speaker 7: relationship with me where they want to learn about what
Speaker 7: I've done.
Speaker 6: In sport, and I want to learn what they do
Speaker 6: in baseball.
Speaker 7: You know, they know I know very long about baseball,
Speaker 7: but they they want to ask me about the other
Speaker 7: sports I've worked in. So I'm guess they're you know,
Speaker 7: they're trying to get as much out of me as
Speaker 7: I'm trying to learn from them, because I'm like a
Speaker 7: sponge when it comes to baseball.
Speaker 6: I just want to learn everything.
Speaker 7: And if I get an opportunity to sit down with
Speaker 7: a manager and a head coach or an owner, you know,
Speaker 7: they can't get rid of me because I'm asking all
Speaker 7: these questions and I'm noticing it all down on my
Speaker 7: iPad about what they do because you know, trust me,
Speaker 7: if their ideas are good at work, I'm going to
Speaker 7: steal them.
Speaker 3: Now one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: I think any any person would be would love to
Speaker 4: have that opportunity. So I think the obviously the WC
Speaker 4: are coming right now, but the big point in the
Speaker 4: future is is LA twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 3: It's I think you said right at the start.
Speaker 4: It was actually part of like the what was thrown
Speaker 4: at you with this baseball opportunity is the fact that
Speaker 4: like there is this potentially eight year plan to get
Speaker 4: into an Olympic cycle.
Speaker 3: Can you just talk through how.
Speaker 4: Like sports and funding in the UK, it's almost like
Speaker 4: so can be at the level dependent on it, like
Speaker 4: sport being in like an Olympic sport compared to being
Speaker 4: like an Olympic sport.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 7: One thing I will add, Russell is they didn't tell
Speaker 7: me there was only going to be six teams at
Speaker 7: the Olympic Games. I took this job because you know,
Speaker 7: actually getting through to the Games is going to be
Speaker 7: a medal for a lot of teams.
Speaker 6: And when you get there, fifty percent of those teams
Speaker 6: are going to win a medal.
Speaker 7: You know what other sport have you got those odds,
Speaker 7: you know, you know, once you get there, anything can
Speaker 7: have and so I think anybody that gets to the
Speaker 7: Olympic Games as a chance of a medal. In order
Speaker 7: to receive investment from UK Sport, the government agency that
Speaker 7: fund sports in our country, you have to be an
Speaker 7: Olympic sport. There aren't many sports that receive any form
Speaker 7: of investment to the level that Olympic sports do. So
Speaker 7: the status of being an Olympic sport opens up so
Speaker 7: many investment opportunities from the UK sports for the sports
Speaker 7: are Olympic sports. The issue that baseball has and software
Speaker 7: has is that we are not one of the core
Speaker 7: sports for the Olympic Games.
Speaker 6: You know, we can come and go.
Speaker 7: We are fingers crossed for Brisbane in twenty thirty two
Speaker 7: and the you know last week at the Congress, the
Speaker 7: noises were positive that for inclusion in twenty thirty two.
Speaker 7: But until that is agreed and it's in writing and
Speaker 7: the local organizing committee in Brisbane have said it, then
Speaker 7: no one's going to invest in us. But for us
Speaker 7: to receive the investment I think the sport deserves, it
Speaker 7: has to be an Olympic sport. It concerns me that
Speaker 7: we are not a core sport. I believe it should be.
Speaker 7: I think that there's a there's a space for a
Speaker 7: sport like baseball in the Olympic Games, and you know
Speaker 7: for but I you know, who knows what the local
Speaker 7: organizing committee in Australia wants, you know, it's and then
Speaker 7: they have the maneuver that juggern or of Major League
Speaker 7: Baseball to agree to allow the best players to play
Speaker 7: in it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I think you spoke about it at the start,
Speaker 4: and I think it's a good place to kind of
Speaker 4: like end our conversation on is the kind of like
Speaker 4: what is like the legacy like and the future of
Speaker 4: this as a player here in the UK, like the
Speaker 4: we have kind of like we have a setup, we
Speaker 4: have some wonderful teams and wonderful places around here, but
Speaker 4: it is a very kind of low level sport like
Speaker 4: in the United Kingdom. But we do have all the
Speaker 4: opportunity to amazing players thanks to some of the heritage tools.
Speaker 3: Soho the national team can compete at higher level.
Speaker 4: How do we use this to build that legacy kind
Speaker 4: of like at like the local grassroots level.
Speaker 7: I would like to see there be visibility of the
Speaker 7: sport at the highest level. Yeah, there's no point us
Speaker 7: playing at the World Baseball Classic if there is no
Speaker 7: cascade of that down to.
Speaker 6: Grassrooms, there's no point whatsoever.
Speaker 7: It's great that we're there, and it's great that we're
Speaker 7: competing with the top teams, but we need to make
Speaker 7: sure that people see that.
Speaker 6: And so it's the visibility of that.
Speaker 7: And you know, we've already started to see it with
Speaker 7: the Emerging Players program that bs UK and the BBF
Speaker 7: are put together. When I came in, there was an
Speaker 7: academy structure, but yeah, I didn't like the word academy
Speaker 7: had all sorts of connotations of football academies, and you
Speaker 7: know that was hijacked by various places that run academies,
Speaker 7: and you know everybody calls their program an academy, and
Speaker 7: it lost its meaning for me. So I would love
Speaker 7: the World Baseball Classic and a legacy of that to
Speaker 7: be to fund an emerging player's pathway, so that anybody
Speaker 7: that picks up about or a ball in Great Britain
Speaker 7: can see a pathway through to the national team. We
Speaker 7: all know that if a player is good enough to
Speaker 7: do that, the likelihood is they're going to have to
Speaker 7: go and play abroad because that's where the professional leagues are.
Speaker 7: Because if we're going to be a competitive sy with
Speaker 7: medals at European Championships, we're going to be up against
Speaker 7: professional players and our players have got to be playing professionally.
Speaker 6: We've got to be playing day in, day out.
Speaker 7: And you know, whilst there's no professional leagues in the UK,
Speaker 7: which I think is another huge opportunity, why can't there
Speaker 7: be a professional league in the UK. You know, why
Speaker 7: can't we attract talent from other countries to play in
Speaker 7: a professional league in the UK. All it needs is
Speaker 7: some really good entrepreneurial brains to put that together, because
Speaker 7: I think that there would be interested in that. But
Speaker 7: I would love there to be a legacy of a
Speaker 7: pathway that a young player could carve himself out a
Speaker 7: career in professional baseball coming from one of these fields
Speaker 7: we've got dotted around our country.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's amazing to see, and we've had already had the.
Speaker 4: First few sessions of those this year with that emerging program,
Speaker 4: seeing if you're down in Greenwich and across the country,
Speaker 4: So amazing to see how those continue.
Speaker 6: On.
Speaker 4: My final question for you, Gary is kind of like
Speaker 4: the final pitch. We are sitting here in twenty thirty.
Speaker 4: What does success look like? Is it a medal at
Speaker 4: the Olympics or is it more a change in how
Speaker 4: the British public pacity use baseball or why not both?
Speaker 7: I was going to say, that's an easy answer, because
Speaker 7: I just say to you, both of those are So
Speaker 7: that'd be brilliant if we could do that. I think
Speaker 7: that let's be brutally honest here. Yeah, the journey we've
Speaker 7: been on, the trajectory we've had over the last four
Speaker 7: years is fantastic, you know, from what we've achieved. We
Speaker 7: are ahead of the plan that I laid out. You know,
Speaker 7: I have a blueprint on my office wall, and we
Speaker 7: are ahead of the S curve. You know. We I
Speaker 7: didn't think we would be where we are, you know.
Speaker 7: And I never go on world rankings because the WBSC
Speaker 7: world ranking methodology is so convoluted and so confusing, right,
Speaker 7: it's untrue. Yeah, and we are we will be gauzed
Speaker 7: on one off tournaments because you look at that world
Speaker 7: ranking and we don't host events start in this country,
Speaker 7: so therefore we're penalized straight away because we have to
Speaker 7: qualify for everything, you know, other countries host events and
Speaker 7: they don't qualify because they're the host nations, so they
Speaker 7: automatically get big points. We don't, so that I disregard
Speaker 7: the methodology for that ranking straight away, so I don't
Speaker 7: think it's right.
Speaker 6: So I would like to.
Speaker 7: See that one our world, you know, standing in major competitions,
Speaker 7: is that we're regularly medal zone. In European Championships, we
Speaker 7: are regular medal zone and we qualify it for the
Speaker 7: bigger platforms. That's what I would like to see happen.
Speaker 7: In addition to that, I would like to see more
Speaker 7: opportunities for people to play baseball in the country and
Speaker 7: for people to be able to pick up or they
Speaker 7: don't pick up newspapers these days, and they go online
Speaker 7: these days and read about their national teams and also
Speaker 7: read about their local teams. You know, I used to
Speaker 7: live in Hemml Hampstead and I used to see this
Speaker 7: baseball round and Grove Hill when I was walking my dogs,
Speaker 7: and I didn't know who played there or anything. Now
Speaker 7: I follow their results, and I'd like everybody in the
Speaker 7: general public to know that they have a local ballpark,
Speaker 7: they have a local team, and maybe the visibility. Yeah,
Speaker 7: we were joking last week saying that you know you
Speaker 7: watched Breakfast TV at the moment and you see the
Speaker 7: red List from Milan Cortina coming on there talking about
Speaker 7: sports that are much smaller than baseball. Okay, and everybody
Speaker 7: wants to be now the next skeleton rider or the
Speaker 7: next acrobat skia or the big hill or whatever they
Speaker 7: want to be. I would love to be on Breakfast
Speaker 7: TV talking about Great Britain beat in USA. Wouldn't that
Speaker 7: be a fantastic story, right? You know?
Speaker 6: It would be an upset amongst all upsets. And as
Speaker 6: I said, I'm a realist, but wouldn't it be good.
Speaker 7: If we could suddenly see the visibility of Great Britain
Speaker 7: baseball on a Breakfast TV or on Radio five Live Thrivetime.
Speaker 7: But because we've achieved so good results well Baseball Classic,
Speaker 7: and there's no reason we can't.
Speaker 6: There is no reason we can't.
Speaker 7: And I would hope if in twenty thirty, when I
Speaker 7: probably have retired by then, Russell, we're talking now and
Speaker 7: you invite me back on as a guest and whatever
Speaker 7: sport I'm working with them, lets me come and talk
Speaker 7: to you and you tell me, isn't it great? That
Speaker 7: we've got this professional league and we've got all of
Speaker 7: these young players coming through and four or five British
Speaker 7: born players are making their debut in the Major League
Speaker 7: this year. That would be fantastic.
Speaker 4: Now, that is a dream and a place I thing
Speaker 4: we all want to get to within the British world,
Speaker 4: those of us who play on this side of loaders
Speaker 4: who just enjoy watching baseball as a whole.
Speaker 3: Gary, thank you so much for your time. It's always
Speaker 3: a pleasure.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Your insights are always very interesting to have, so thank
Speaker 4: you very much.
Speaker 3: Thank you all for listening.
Speaker 4: You can find us at Batfleots, Underscore Nerds on Twitter
Speaker 4: and batflets and nerds on other social devices and batflops
Speaker 4: and nerds dot com. We'll have another episode devoted to
Speaker 4: actually going through the roster of the GB team soon,
Speaker 4: but until then, thank you and we'll hope you listen soon.