Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball with Steve Ramira on
Speaker 1: Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio just search I on the Ball.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to Eye on About herel Fox Sports
Speaker 2: fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera, your blake eager, and I
Speaker 2: was gonna ask you. You've been around town all your
Speaker 2: life except for the time you left. Uh, when did
Speaker 2: baseball become part of your life and maybe impressionable for
Speaker 2: other people to watch?
Speaker 3: Ten years old day nineteen two two? For me?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know that you started paying attention and you
Speaker 2: saw this guy's pretty good or whatever?
Speaker 3: Oh, how good? Although I was playing with yeah oh
Speaker 3: to eight eight year old?
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a kid in my little league that through
Speaker 4: absolute fuzz. And I think I got to play majors
Speaker 4: when I was nine, maybe ten.
Speaker 2: So don't tell me in your in your recollection and
Speaker 2: your memory bank, who are the top three five best
Speaker 2: player as you saw from Give me a time, give me.
Speaker 3: I mean, listen, it's gonna say.
Speaker 4: I think my generation for two Sonans is by far
Speaker 4: the best generation for baseball players in tu Son's history.
Speaker 4: I mean, you can make the argument, right, you had
Speaker 4: the Duncans, you had Harriston, you had Kensler, you had
Speaker 4: JJ Hardy, you had Would I'm just I'm just naming
Speaker 4: the Jamie Vermilia you had. I mean, just naming the
Speaker 4: big leaguers. Right then you start going down the list
Speaker 4: of guys. Every team you played had two guys that
Speaker 4: were pro guys. Mhm uh, I mean Pallaverdi had three
Speaker 4: top draft guys. You know, you had Jared Fuel, you
Speaker 4: had Will Smith, you had Jason Hannah. Like, it's it's
Speaker 4: why every literally every school you played had a minor league.
Speaker 3: But how so that's not Gilbert de Vera.
Speaker 2: That's not the same now right, It's not the no, no,
Speaker 2: no to the high school baseball Listen. And I hate
Speaker 2: to say this because I ran an academy for pretty
Speaker 2: much my adult life. But the development stage is now
Speaker 2: where you're just trying to go out and win trophies,
Speaker 2: like they're just trying to pick him pick the best
Speaker 2: players and go win.
Speaker 3: There's no development so high school level.
Speaker 4: And this isn't a knock on anybody, but there's no
Speaker 4: there's no sense of what high school was. There's a
Speaker 4: few out there, like there's some good high schools out there,
Speaker 4: but as a whole you look around, it's just you're
Speaker 4: not seeing developed competition. Why is that because you play
Speaker 4: year round. You've got coaches telling twelve year olds they
Speaker 4: need to pick one sport like it's absurd.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and you're against that. I'm one against that.
Speaker 4: I don't want to listen no offense to anybody, but
Speaker 4: I don't want a baseball mentality on the mound. I
Speaker 4: want a football mentality, Like, give me somebody that's not
Speaker 4: scared to run over somebody. Right, it's plus you're telling
Speaker 4: you're telling people like I tell you about this with
Speaker 4: girls softball, Like, I don't know how those girls by
Speaker 4: the time they're sixteen, you're just like, I never want
Speaker 4: to play the sport ever again. Right, you're spending every
Speaker 4: single weekend of your life and it's not like you're
Speaker 4: going to Phoenix. You're traveling over the country. Hey, I
Speaker 4: don't know how parents afford it. And then it's not
Speaker 4: a knock, but you don't have the development at that level.
Speaker 4: It's just you're trying to play as much you can.
Speaker 4: You're trying to take as many swings as you can.
Speaker 4: That's not really like there's too much going into the
Speaker 4: sport at this point. There's too much information out there
Speaker 4: to do that. I think it happens with soccer two
Speaker 4: I happened. I think it happens with every sport. Right
Speaker 4: you're getting into academy model. From a soccer standpoint, if
Speaker 4: you're in Europe or you're in South America, you're going
Speaker 4: into academy when you're ten. I mean you're looking in
Speaker 4: Asia America too. It's the same thing.
Speaker 2: Chinese, like Chinese ping pong players are going and playing
Speaker 2: at like six years old. So how would you fix it,
Speaker 2: or at least not fix it. Fix this is not
Speaker 2: the right word. How would you handle it?
Speaker 3: That's a really good question. I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you can reverse the course we're on.
Speaker 4: But you're looking at look at the NBA. Look at
Speaker 4: where NBA players are coming from. Like the international game
Speaker 4: is huge, right They're they're not just playing basketball all
Speaker 4: year round right there, You're you're finding different athletes and
Speaker 4: going through the system. You're looking at baseball. Baseball is
Speaker 4: an international sport, but they're starting early, starting earlier, and
Speaker 4: the emphasis has to be on I think the mentality
Speaker 4: that winning doesn't really matter at a young age.
Speaker 3: They shouldn't.
Speaker 4: Who cares, Like nobody's asking nobody's asking me if I
Speaker 4: want a TENU championship on a resume, like nobody cares.
Speaker 2: Just what they'll guess what. We live in a place
Speaker 2: where that's all that matters, you know, who cares the most?
Speaker 4: Parents, that's and the coach is always wrong, the umpire
Speaker 4: is always wrong, you're my son's never wrong. My son
Speaker 4: he's not playing enough. It's like, well, you've got three
Speaker 4: big league coaches in the dog, Well he needs to
Speaker 4: play more. It's not the spot for you, like he's
Speaker 4: not good enough. Yeah, no, no, no, I don't. I
Speaker 4: don't disagree with you at all because it's true.
Speaker 2: And the parents, right, and they talk about winning, winning, winning,
Speaker 2: it's not about winning, it's about getting better.
Speaker 3: And it's my age, it's my age culture, right.
Speaker 4: I mean you look at parents all my age that
Speaker 4: were not raised like that, that are raised now. And
Speaker 4: we've had this conversation a couple of times that the
Speaker 4: action has to stop with them and they have to say, listen,
Speaker 4: I don't care if they get a trophy, like I
Speaker 4: don't care if they get a ring, like are they
Speaker 4: becoming better human beings?
Speaker 3: Should be your number one question.
Speaker 4: Are they second questions should be are they having fun?
Speaker 3: Maybe you can flip flop both of them.
Speaker 4: If both some of them are, yes, you're in a
Speaker 4: really good situation in life.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, I totally agree with you, and I wish
Speaker 2: more people would think that way. How realistic is it
Speaker 2: today to have parents think that way?
Speaker 4: I mean, you're asking the person this is what I
Speaker 4: went through, right, I mean you're you actually coach like
Speaker 4: it's not realistic, it's and it's not realistic.
Speaker 3: Okay, let's say we had unrealistic in every fifteen we
Speaker 3: have fifteen kids.
Speaker 2: You're just a number fifteen kids, and of the parents,
Speaker 2: how many of those believe that? I listen, there's a
Speaker 2: handful of people that But yeah, agree, Yeah, it's not
Speaker 2: like it's not one hundred percent across the board. But
Speaker 2: how many times did your parents ever talk to a coach?
Speaker 2: My dads were friends with them. So, but he's not
Speaker 2: your playing. He didn't talk about that.
Speaker 3: I was good. I was good, But no, that never happened.
Speaker 3: Never happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, if I wasn't good enough, because what
Speaker 2: I wasn't good enough? Yeah, it's wild to me yeah, no,
Speaker 2: it ended with my time. I think with my and
Speaker 2: I had friends whose parents did that, you know, and
Speaker 2: we knew who they were.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you couldn't stand them. There were our friends.
Speaker 3: It's not that was in it.
Speaker 4: We just says, why he's just not good, and that's
Speaker 4: a hard it's maybe it's just not the line where
Speaker 4: they want to go, right, Like maybe they're just not athletic,
Speaker 4: and that's okay. Yeah I'm not very smart, that's okay, right,
Speaker 4: I try to make do with what I've got.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's not enough fit in where you fit in, right,
Speaker 2: or getting where you fit in, or well he's a
Speaker 2: heckless Evins player, or he's a heck of a guy
Speaker 2: to help with a whatever.
Speaker 4: I'm an only child, so obviously you can take that
Speaker 4: how you want. But my parents did a really good
Speaker 4: job at a very young age of making sure that
Speaker 4: to choose a path that I was that I cared about.
Speaker 4: But I like I thoroughly. I enjoyed going to work, right,
Speaker 4: and that's that's not always the case. You don't always
Speaker 4: get that option, true, right, So outside of that, there
Speaker 4: should be some kind of self sustainability where it's work
Speaker 4: life balance, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, I
Speaker 4: think you're putting so much pressure on these young kids
Speaker 4: to perform at a level that's unrealistic to the most
Speaker 4: quest degree that you're you've got You've got eleven year
Speaker 4: olds that are and listen, they came to me taking
Speaker 4: pitching lessons, taking any of the lessons, taking catching lessons.
Speaker 4: Then they're going to a personal trainer, and then they're
Speaker 4: going to like, let's like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe step back a little Todd marinovi Che, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Give him a bucket of rice, get your hand in there,
Speaker 4: see how much you can develop those forums, and then
Speaker 4: go from there.
Speaker 3: That's funny.
Speaker 2: No coach Nopus said this last time he was on
Speaker 2: you were on here, But I think this is when
Speaker 2: he was personally on, said one of the parents or
Speaker 2: one of the kids talks about you know, because he
Speaker 2: teaches with his sons. Right, one of the kids came
Speaker 2: up and said something to me. I got a calls.
Speaker 2: I'll bring up the story. It was when I was
Speaker 2: on Okay, Hello, you're on the air nine of the ball.
Speaker 2: Who's this Hello, You're on the air.
Speaker 3: Hello, Hello, Jim, turn off that radio you call him
Speaker 3: from the past. Hello, Hey, what happened. You turn off
Speaker 3: the radio so you can get us in real time?
Speaker 3: What's off?
Speaker 5: And I couldn't even hear you?
Speaker 3: Guys, Hey, it's yes, Well your thoughts? What's up?
Speaker 5: Well, we're talking about I spend a little time at
Speaker 5: I coached for eight or nine years in the Little
Speaker 5: leagues and juniors and pony leagues. And Blake, is that
Speaker 5: your guests name?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I hope.
Speaker 5: So I agree with what you said that and what
Speaker 5: Steve said, primarily that you know, you've got to sell
Speaker 5: the team and the parents on the idea that.
Speaker 6: This is done.
Speaker 5: Best with twelve people who man who play a role,
Speaker 5: not necessarily a position, but they play a role which
Speaker 5: we map out them as their performance changes or grows
Speaker 5: during the year. And sometimes your role is, you know,
Speaker 5: have your butt on the bench.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jim, let me ask you real quick, how long
Speaker 2: did you coach? And who was your last year?
Speaker 5: Oh? Man, twenty ten was probably the last year I
Speaker 5: did it. And I coached for ten years.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, so not a long time. But sometimes so
Speaker 2: when did it start to change? Maybe it's probably started
Speaker 2: to change before you, but did you see it change
Speaker 2: on you?
Speaker 5: I'll tell you what I what I noticed, Steve is
Speaker 5: you know, and one of the reasons I got involved
Speaker 5: is kids had a hard time having success hitting the ball.
Speaker 5: Just a really difficult process to master, and nobody really
Speaker 5: masters it, but to gain some consistency, I should say.
Speaker 5: And and so we tried to give kids and I
Speaker 5: think we did that. Jay would attest to that, we
Speaker 5: give them the fundamentals, and our two or three approaches
Speaker 5: of that, Blake's probably hurt all of them.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 5: We focused on rotation, a little bit of batley lag
Speaker 5: and looking for a fastball out over the outside part
Speaker 5: of the play if you want to hit the ball consistency.
Speaker 5: So kids had a hard time with, you know, learning
Speaker 5: to hit, learning why they're not hitting with another thing.
Speaker 5: And then soccer. I mean I wasn't a soccer guy,
Speaker 5: so I don't want to come down on that, but
Speaker 5: I mean, baseball, you're swinging at a hard ball, that's
Speaker 5: what is it, two and a half inches in diameter
Speaker 5: something like that, and it's harder to hit it than
Speaker 5: it is the mythic soccer. You're dealing with a ten
Speaker 5: or eleven inch ball, and if you whiff on a
Speaker 5: soccer ball, you must be blind. So just the contact.
Speaker 5: The field of success is a little different, a little
Speaker 5: easier to achieve, and so we started seeing the numbers
Speaker 5: in the league start to slowly drop. Yeah, and that
Speaker 5: was ten twelve more years ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, right, Okay, Well, thanks Jim for the call.
Speaker 2: Gotta go.
Speaker 3: Okay, I appreciate it, right, thanks for listening. Kay, welcome.
Speaker 3: So so Blake, So you.
Speaker 2: Were on the call, But did you talk about I
Speaker 2: don't know if you were here when we talked about
Speaker 2: this though, that he was.
Speaker 3: Teaching the kids and talking the kids.
Speaker 2: And maybe batting or whatever it was, and the guy says, well, you.
Speaker 3: Need to do Lopez is telling you need to do this.
Speaker 3: Do this, coach. Offensive players are the ones who make
Speaker 3: the money.
Speaker 2: No, don't get paid to hit. Yeah, don't get paid
Speaker 2: aunt right yeah not coffee baby.
Speaker 3: That's a unbelievable to me.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Literally, you have the chance that you're talking him, one
Speaker 4: of the greatest college coaches of all.
Speaker 3: Time, like some ten eleven twelve year old saying this. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's it is Back in.
Speaker 2: My day when I told when Jason Terry was playing
Speaker 2: and he was, you know, defensive player and he didn't
Speaker 2: make the All Star team or something coach, you know, well,
Speaker 2: defensive players don't drive Cadillacs. Then he kind of looked
Speaker 2: at me. Shut up. You know, he was kind to me,
Speaker 2: but because it's all stupid. Yeah, I mean, what does
Speaker 2: it matter? Just win, just playing.
Speaker 4: It's like Jack McDowell, right, the old picture for the
Speaker 4: White Sox and everybody like he didn't have great eras,
Speaker 4: but they won a lot of games, right, That's all
Speaker 4: that matters in the today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, crazy crazy about sports, especially with the kids.
Speaker 2: And it's gonna get worse because it's all end the result. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, we'll see. You wouldn't go back, would I
Speaker 2: go back?
Speaker 3: Yeah? And do which part? Coach? I I hope.
Speaker 4: I don't want to Alma helmbta No, I mean I
Speaker 4: did it forever, right, Like that was a phase of
Speaker 4: my life that I think I'm over with. I'd like
Speaker 4: to continue on what I'm doing now. Yeah, everythink I
Speaker 4: provide more to the community at this point. Yeah, but
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, it's give him the chance,
Speaker 4: and it gave me some scratch and I would lose
Speaker 4: my mind.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, especially at a certain teaching, certain age of kids. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you've got it's just yeah, well I'll give you this.
Speaker 2: Uh could you coach? What agentes or you had? My
Speaker 2: academy was nine, you to I had up to eighteen years. Okay,
Speaker 2: so you had you had a bride. I went to
Speaker 2: go substitute teach here when the paper closed, just to
Speaker 2: pass the time and earn some money. I did it
Speaker 2: for a friend who went and got all my grades here.
Speaker 2: So it's it's junior high. You know me, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be helping with pe YadA YadA. I'll enjoy
Speaker 2: the kids have fun. It was the worst experience of
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: They were using words I've never even heard of. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I'm thinking to other people, says, how is this allowed?
Speaker 3: What did they?
Speaker 2: Just as long as the building name burning, we're doing okay,
Speaker 2: and I you last of the week, last of the week.
Speaker 3: I couldn't deal with it. Were you so?
Speaker 2: Were you a substitute or yeah? I was a substitute.
Speaker 2: So yeah, first of that strike one What year was
Speaker 2: this maybe five six years ago? Probably pretty COVID And
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, oh god, I'll never.
Speaker 3: I couldn't do this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was too stressful and I didn't want to
Speaker 2: do it anymore. I just so I didn't I played
Speaker 2: after a week. I mean, it's that's that's an occupation
Speaker 2: to me. That's wild, right, because you're you're a teacher.
Speaker 2: You've got to have a college degree, right, Yeah, you're
Speaker 2: gonna and there's plenty of teacher jobs out there.
Speaker 4: You're gonna find a position. It might not be in
Speaker 4: the place that you want to, but you're probably gonna
Speaker 4: find a position. But you get on campus, especially in Arizona,
Speaker 4: especially in Tucson, you're making thirty four thousand dollars a year,
Speaker 4: you can't dictate, you can't take away cell phones from
Speaker 4: kids like they're they're.
Speaker 3: Literally able to do it.
Speaker 4: And then after that you've got to answer to their
Speaker 4: parents and you're like, what am I doing?
Speaker 3: Why am I doing this?
Speaker 4: Like I get I get a lot of occupations, and
Speaker 4: I listen, more power to them. We definitely need great
Speaker 4: teachers that obviously a special person. It is that is
Speaker 4: a sometimes a very thankless job, and you're definitely not
Speaker 4: doing it for the money, no question. But you know what,
Speaker 4: you get two months off a year to go figure
Speaker 4: out another job, right, and then realize.
Speaker 3: You've got to go back. Yeah, you gotta go. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth fifding.
Speaker 1: I want to take part in the show called up
Speaker 1: Steve now went five two oh four one, six seventy
Speaker 1: four fortnight.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to my the ball here on Fox
Speaker 2: Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve Rivera. You're Blake Eager Now
Speaker 2: on the phone. I think we have Corey Williams Corey's issue.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir, how you doing fine?
Speaker 3: How are you?
Speaker 6: I can't complain, can't complain? Good, good, good, It's a
Speaker 6: little hot.
Speaker 2: Everybody's under the same conditions. Then let me ask you
Speaker 2: back nineteen ninety six, you were senior. You're playing in
Speaker 2: a Desert Classic.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And when you're playing in the Desert Classic, what are
Speaker 2: you thinking in a few months, I'm gonna be ready
Speaker 2: for the NBA or what what is the hope of
Speaker 2: a twenty one year old and twenty two year old?
Speaker 6: Well, the Desert Classic you're bringing back fond memories. For me,
Speaker 6: I was a fringe player.
Speaker 16: I was a guy who because I played at Arizona,
Speaker 16: we had a solid program.
Speaker 6: I came on strong my senior year.
Speaker 16: I had a very very thin shot to get my
Speaker 16: name called.
Speaker 6: At the very end of the draft, they were saying
Speaker 6: that I could go anywhere between fifty two and fifty eight. Now,
Speaker 6: you know, I was just like hoping just to hear
Speaker 6: my name called. I knew I wasn't going to be
Speaker 6: a lock first round guy.
Speaker 16: I knew that if I just wanted the opportunity to
Speaker 16: try to make a team in the NBA.
Speaker 6: So for me, everything happened very fast.
Speaker 16: My performance in the NCAA tournament turned the head of
Speaker 16: a lot of scouts and I quickly got added to
Speaker 16: some of these lists for the Desert Classic and the
Speaker 16: Chicago pre draft workout, so I got thrown in the
Speaker 16: mix of the very end of my career. So I
Speaker 16: was just blown away that I was considered one of
Speaker 16: the top forty seniors in the country. I was super
Speaker 16: excited to have the opportunity to play. So for me,
Speaker 16: I just was on cloud nine. But I was also
Speaker 16: felt pretty confident. I felt like I was an undiscovered secret.
Speaker 16: I had kind of been a team Arizona, but getting
Speaker 16: to the next level you really had to show yourself.
Speaker 16: So I was excited about the opportunity.
Speaker 3: And I can't remember what exactly happened.
Speaker 6: I did not get drafted.
Speaker 16: One of my claims to fame is being a part
Speaker 16: of that nineteen ninety six draft, and if people google it,
Speaker 16: they will see that, to my my opinion, is probably
Speaker 16: the best draft in NBA history when you look at
Speaker 16: the level of players that were in.
Speaker 6: The nineteen ninety six draft. Also in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 16: Six, I believe there were twenty six underclassmen that declared.
Speaker 6: That was the first year of the big.
Speaker 16: Push of underclassmen coming out early, and there were some
Speaker 16: pretty solid players that came out early, and they altered
Speaker 16: the draft and I just ended up on the outside
Speaker 16: of the second round.
Speaker 6: And I know now I'm not bitter about it. It
Speaker 6: is what it is.
Speaker 16: It was a hell of a draft class that was
Speaker 16: the beginning of people leaving school early in ninety six.
Speaker 6: And you know, I still ended up having a good
Speaker 6: career and a great experience.
Speaker 16: But yeah, ninety six was was was a definitely a
Speaker 16: life altering time for me and for the NBA as well.
Speaker 2: So if you're Caleb Love who by all intensive purposes,
Speaker 2: we think he's an NBA guy, right, Coach Lloyd believes
Speaker 2: that wholeheartedly, as he should, but everyone's many people aren't
Speaker 2: saying that he is. Well, what would he be thinking one?
Speaker 2: And what do you think his hopes are?
Speaker 10: Well?
Speaker 16: I think the crazy part about it is there's a
Speaker 16: group of men who decide what names get called later
Speaker 16: on the night. They don't pay attention to Instagram, they
Speaker 16: don't pay attention to Twitter, they don't pay attention to Nil,
Speaker 16: they don't pay attention to people's mother's, grandmother's well wishers
Speaker 16: or girlfriends. So what happens tonight is a few people's opinion,
Speaker 16: and their opinion comes out in the form of the draft.
Speaker 16: The very last player added to the nineteen ninety six
Speaker 16: as a classic was a guy nobody had ever heard
Speaker 16: of from a little over university called Derek Fisher. He
Speaker 16: just got added at the last minute. Somebody got hurt
Speaker 16: and Fisher was the last guy added, and we all
Speaker 16: know what an NBA career he had. So the big
Speaker 16: thing for guys, no matter what names get called tonight,
Speaker 16: you still write your own story.
Speaker 6: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 16: There's so many different ways into the NBA now more
Speaker 16: than ever, whatever happens on draft night is not the
Speaker 16: be all end all of it.
Speaker 6: You've got an opportunity to.
Speaker 16: Play, You've got an opportunity to play summer league basketball,
Speaker 16: You've got free agency, you can go to Europe and
Speaker 16: call your way back to the NBA. But you can't
Speaker 16: look at this as the coronation because I know guys
Speaker 16: whose names.
Speaker 6: Did get called and.
Speaker 16: They never played any beyond their rookie contract. So I
Speaker 16: think so much is made of it as a benchmarking
Speaker 16: for talent and an ultimate goal. But your ultimate goal
Speaker 16: is to get better every year as a player. And yes,
Speaker 16: obviously make it to the NBA at one point, but
Speaker 16: where you get picked, if you're Gilbert Arenas, did that
Speaker 16: really impact? Did that decide whether or not Gilbert Arenas
Speaker 16: was going to be an NBA player?
Speaker 6: I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, But gil was
Speaker 6: the second round.
Speaker 3: Pick, yeah, early second, and he was the.
Speaker 6: Cover of NBA two K. So you've got to look
Speaker 6: at it.
Speaker 16: And it's hard to tell a young person nineteen twenty
Speaker 16: twenty one years old to have an older person's perspective
Speaker 16: on tonight, but they you've got to because no matter
Speaker 16: what happens tonight, you're gonna have to.
Speaker 6: Show up somewhere and hoop. So you didn't get your
Speaker 6: mind right real quick. If you like your draft spot,
Speaker 6: if you don't like your draft spot, if you did get.
Speaker 16: Drafted the corner, everything changes. There's no empathy, there's no sympathy.
Speaker 16: You're in the business of you now. You know you've
Speaker 16: got to be a one man. You got to sell yourself,
Speaker 16: You've got to perform.
Speaker 6: You got to have your head right, your mental health,
Speaker 6: your physical health, all of it is now on you.
Speaker 16: And I literally say the training wheels have come off
Speaker 16: your career right, and it's literally up to you at
Speaker 16: this point.
Speaker 3: At what point, because You're a bright dude.
Speaker 2: We all know that, and I know that very well
Speaker 2: having covered you, and you know our friend you you're
Speaker 2: When did you realize it's a business. If you already
Speaker 2: knew going in, you probably already knew what's going in.
Speaker 16: I realized it was a business when I went to
Speaker 16: play for the Milwaukee Bucks the summer of nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 16: They had already drafted Ray Allen, so they really didn't
Speaker 16: need a two guard, but Johnny Newman was getting.
Speaker 6: Old and they wanted to replacement. So I'm in there
Speaker 6: playing with Sherm Douglas and I'm absolutely killing it.
Speaker 16: In summer camp, We're going two times a day. I'm
Speaker 16: knocking down every shot I throw up. I'm playing defense,
Speaker 16: I'm grabbing boards. Chris Ford is looking at me, like, man,
Speaker 16: this kid can play, This Williams kid out of Arizona,
Speaker 16: and I'm like, not only I know I'm coming in
Speaker 16: auditioning for Ray Allen's backup, but I'm a pretty good
Speaker 16: player and I've got a chance to make this team. Steve,
Speaker 16: I've got a real chance to make the Milwaukee Bucks
Speaker 16: team in the fall, because they literally don't have any
Speaker 16: two guards. About the fifth day of a five day
Speaker 16: two a days, but we'll go two hard practices a day.
Speaker 16: On the fourth day, three or four guys come into
Speaker 16: camp that were never there, and a handful of.
Speaker 6: Us get bumped and cut.
Speaker 16: Right before we take the flight to Los Angeles to
Speaker 16: play in the Long Beach Summer Pro Am. I got
Speaker 16: cut from the team because the three or four guys
Speaker 16: that they.
Speaker 6: Decided to take and added the last second.
Speaker 16: They were being added to the team as a favor
Speaker 16: to Magic Johnson. They had got through playing in one
Speaker 16: of his amateur semi pro tour situations, and he called
Speaker 16: in a favor with Chris Ford and said, hey, can
Speaker 16: you let my guys play for the Bucks this summer?
Speaker 16: And four legitimate hoopers that had busted their butt all
Speaker 16: week got cut a day before we were set to
Speaker 16: go to LA to make room for some guys who.
Speaker 6: Played at UIC.
Speaker 16: Not to trash their program, but they were not even
Speaker 16: nowhere close to being on our level, but they were
Speaker 16: touring with Magic Johnson's little semi pro all Star team.
Speaker 16: Magic called in a favor. We got bumped, and that
Speaker 16: gut wrenching me laying in a hotel crying experience introduced
Speaker 16: me to the business of basketball. It wasn't loud Olsen
Speaker 16: where the best guys play. It wasn't you have a
Speaker 16: good weekend practice you get rewarded with minutes.
Speaker 6: It wasn't merit based anymore.
Speaker 16: It was a business, and who your agent was and
Speaker 16: who your friends were had a great deal of impact
Speaker 16: on who got opportunities.
Speaker 6: I'm so glad I learned that lesson.
Speaker 16: Four months out of college, not even four months, two
Speaker 16: and a half, three months out of college.
Speaker 6: It was July.
Speaker 16: I was in a hotel crying my eyes out because
Speaker 16: I had never been wronged like that before.
Speaker 6: And you know, we.
Speaker 16: Talked about meritocracy in sports, that's why people love them,
Speaker 16: because they are a meritocracy. But the business side of it,
Speaker 16: who gets opportunities, whether we're talking about Bronnie James getting
Speaker 16: with the Lakers and all the dust up and that
Speaker 16: that caused, or you know, who gets invited to camp,
Speaker 16: and who makes teams and who doesn't make teams. It's
Speaker 16: so layered that you have to develop thick skin instantly,
Speaker 16: otherwise you're just simply not gonna make it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Mike Kin, I think yeah, No, Corey, I mean
Speaker 2: what you were you able to do and everything like
Speaker 2: that was incredible. But so at that moment, what was
Speaker 2: your what was your thought process? What was your next
Speaker 2: step in that journey? Because I think I think we've
Speaker 2: all been in that position in some kind of way
Speaker 2: or shape or form in life. What did you do
Speaker 2: in that in that moment that got you to.
Speaker 3: This point because you're so successful.
Speaker 6: Well, it was a lot.
Speaker 16: Of what my father put in me and a lot
Speaker 16: of what I picked up from Coach Olsen. I had
Speaker 16: my little pity party for about twenty five thirty minutes.
Speaker 16: Then I walked down there and asked me with the
Speaker 16: coaches and we met.
Speaker 6: I'll never forget we.
Speaker 16: Met at the lobby and the matter of the marriag
Speaker 16: got down there in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I shook everyone's hand.
Speaker 16: I said, thank you for this opportunity. I just wanted
Speaker 16: to know, you know, what do I need to improve on?
Speaker 16: Can you give me any feedback to make me a
Speaker 16: better player? Obviously you know I wasn't good enough for this.
Speaker 16: And it was met with absolute silence. They did not
Speaker 16: say anything. They offered me no feedback because they knew
Speaker 16: that wasn't what this was about.
Speaker 6: And I'll never.
Speaker 16: Forget looking at Chris Ford. He couldn't even look me
Speaker 16: in the eye.
Speaker 6: And I knew a Scott feeling sorry for myself.
Speaker 16: B don't burn any bridges, go shake their hands, be professional.
Speaker 6: You'll get another opportunity.
Speaker 16: And I had a very similar situation happened, but the
Speaker 16: other way. The following summer, I played for the Phoenix.
Speaker 6: Suns and they had no room for me.
Speaker 16: But Danny Ainge loved my hustle and he said, I normally,
Speaker 16: you know, we've got Jeff Honisek and Jason Kitt we
Speaker 16: don't need you, but you busted your butt in camp.
Speaker 16: If you can pay your own way to Salt Lake City,
Speaker 16: you can play for the Suns this summer. I can't
Speaker 16: fly you on the plane, but if you're there, we'll
Speaker 16: get you in a jersey.
Speaker 6: And that was one.
Speaker 16: Of the situations where you know, fortunate and luck swung
Speaker 16: my way, but I earned it. But the quickest thing
Speaker 16: I did in that situation is you stop the pity
Speaker 16: party and you don't burn bridges, and you try to
Speaker 16: become solution based, like, Okay, what do I want and
Speaker 16: how do I make that happen. It's hard to change
Speaker 16: gears after you've been punched in the gut. I mean,
Speaker 16: as adults, we've been through those situations before. But man,
Speaker 16: for the kids that don't get called tonight, you got
Speaker 16: to bounce back.
Speaker 6: If you really love basketball as much as you say.
Speaker 16: I mean, I played basketball anywhere they would let me
Speaker 16: for the following twenty twenty six months. Twenty seven months
Speaker 16: after leaving college, I played in Manila, I played in
Speaker 16: the Philippines. I rode on buses semi pro. I remember
Speaker 16: playing in Canada for two hundred and fifty dollars a week,
Speaker 16: chasing the dream, and then finally the moment I was
Speaker 16: ready to quit, everything fell into place and I played
Speaker 16: another eight years in Europe after that. So mentality is everything.
Speaker 16: You write your own narrative, you write your own script,
Speaker 16: be professional, and make sure you give yourself opportunities, don't
Speaker 16: burn bridges, create alliances, and you're.
Speaker 6: Giving yourself the best shot of their career.
Speaker 2: So now here we are with Caleb Love, a guy
Speaker 2: who's not listed in many places whereas muck drafts, but
Speaker 2: we see that he has that ability to play at
Speaker 2: the next level.
Speaker 16: What are your thoughts, Caleb Love when you talk about
Speaker 16: an NBA player you're talking about a game changer, and
Speaker 16: Caleb Love is no question a game changer.
Speaker 6: He was at the head of everyone's scouting report for
Speaker 6: the last two years at Arizona.
Speaker 16: Not a lot of players who have been the go
Speaker 16: to guy for two years in a row at Arizona, so.
Speaker 6: He, by that definition, is an NBA level player.
Speaker 16: When you talk to coaches what's the key to beating Arizona,
Speaker 16: the first name out of their.
Speaker 6: Mouth was we got to stop Caleb Love.
Speaker 16: Why because he can knock down five or six three
Speaker 16: pointers like somebody getting out of bed.
Speaker 6: He's that good.
Speaker 16: Now, The fact that he saw every gimmick defense known
Speaker 16: to man, He saw every variation they sent defenders at him,
Speaker 16: gimmick defenses all season, and he still managed to have
Speaker 16: a quality season shows you that there's a lot of
Speaker 16: talent there and a lot of time. You have guys
Speaker 16: sitting on players hoping that nobody else drafts them.
Speaker 6: You even have guys bad mouthing guys.
Speaker 16: We always plan to take Kayle Love with the thirty
Speaker 16: second pick, but we didn't want anybody to know that.
Speaker 16: So the the prognostictors are all full of it.
Speaker 6: The websites are all full of it.
Speaker 16: The only people who know what's gonna happen are the
Speaker 16: people in that war room.
Speaker 6: Steve.
Speaker 16: There's gonna be names called from Europe tonight that you
Speaker 16: and I have ever heard of. It's going to be
Speaker 16: a domino effect. But the thing about it is, you know,
Speaker 16: with two ways in the G League, there's tons of
Speaker 16: success stories. There's more pathways than ever to the NBA.
Speaker 6: So I think Caleb loves an NBA talent.
Speaker 16: I think any team that has a good insight presence,
Speaker 16: you want to surround those guys.
Speaker 6: With a player like Caleb Love. He without questioning his
Speaker 6: size and strength.
Speaker 16: His ability to shoot the ball, He's a no brainer.
Speaker 16: I I would say, talent wise, You've got to show
Speaker 16: me anybody else in the country that's revered as much
Speaker 16: for their outside shots as Caleb Love was.
Speaker 6: That's this past year.
Speaker 16: I mean, if you're if you're taking scorers, there's only
Speaker 16: a handful of guys that I think shooting on.
Speaker 6: The level of Caleb Love.
Speaker 16: So I'd be surprised if he went undrafted because there's
Speaker 16: just not guys that can shoot.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you got guys that.
Speaker 16: Can jump and dunk and rebound, and there are no defenders.
Speaker 16: Let's just get that out there in the open playing defense.
Speaker 16: But man, the name of the game is knocking down shots,
Speaker 16: and Caleb Love can do that. You can make them
Speaker 16: a defender, you can you know, make them a team player.
Speaker 6: But man, what you can't do at.
Speaker 16: This stage of a player's development. You can't fix anybody's jumper.
Speaker 16: If you're if it's draft night and your jumper is
Speaker 16: so so, it's probably not going to improve over the
Speaker 16: course of your career.
Speaker 6: So I'd be surprised, But I think he's definitely an
Speaker 6: NBA player.
Speaker 16: I would I would be taking Caleb Love early second round,
Speaker 16: no question about it.
Speaker 4: When's the last player that was drafted just because of
Speaker 4: his defense? Or who was that? Because you just said that,
Speaker 4: I thought about that.
Speaker 16: Ninety six was the year Alan Iverson was in that draft,
Speaker 16: and it was also when you started to see a
Speaker 16: change in Reggie Gary was drafted out of Arizona to
Speaker 16: go to Cleveland and he was known as a defender.
Speaker 6: Ninety six. You know, Jason Kidd was a West Coast
Speaker 6: guard a couple of years, a year or two earlier.
Speaker 6: Who win the earlier draft?
Speaker 16: Who was you know, assist guy? They didn't take him
Speaker 16: for us jump shot. They took him for his ability
Speaker 16: to run the team, being a bruiser and a defender
Speaker 16: and a shot blocker. They stopped using draft picks on
Speaker 16: those guys in the early two thousands. I don't know
Speaker 16: specifically who it was, but I do know when they
Speaker 16: remove move the hand check from the NBA game to
Speaker 16: free up Allen Iverson, they made a conscious effort We're
Speaker 16: gonna be all about scoring, and the teams followed too.
Speaker 16: You used to be able to get a job in
Speaker 16: the NBA Steam You remember there in the eighties and nineties,
Speaker 16: there was two or three goons on air.
Speaker 6: Yeah, guys who just got to check the foul people.
Speaker 16: Michael Jordan had enforcers, Isaiah Thomas had enforcers. You know,
Speaker 16: every team had two or three guys whose job it
Speaker 16: was protect the star and protect the rim. And you know,
Speaker 16: it's funny because everybody looks at Draymond Green and I'm like,
Speaker 16: Draymond Green is just the guy through some miracle time travel.
Speaker 16: He's in eighties basketball play, Yeah, and he's playing. You
Speaker 16: guys are so enthralled by him. He's every team had
Speaker 16: three Draymonds in the eighties and even more in the seventies.
Speaker 16: So you look at you know, getting drafted for your defense,
Speaker 16: getting drafted for your ability to rebound. Now you're shooting
Speaker 16: in the dark. You're drafting a nineteen year old kid
Speaker 16: with one year of basketball under his belt for a
Speaker 16: coach who knows if he listened or paid attention, and
Speaker 16: then previous to that, it's just five years of AAU
Speaker 16: basketball Right, Well, that's that's the profile of your first
Speaker 16: round pick.
Speaker 2: Well, you're right, and guess what happens to be Arizona
Speaker 2: has one of those guys in in the Carter.
Speaker 6: Carterbryant.
Speaker 16: You liked what you saw, but you didn't It's hard
Speaker 16: to figure out.
Speaker 6: What you're seeing is crumbs on the table.
Speaker 16: Okay, they forgot to box out Carter because they were
Speaker 16: focused on Toby. Oh he got the three because Jayden broke. Like,
Speaker 16: what with the things that you saw out of Carter?
Speaker 16: Why are you seeing them? Are you seeing them because
Speaker 16: he's he's coming off the bench, or are you seeing
Speaker 16: them because he's the fourth or fifth option and nobody's
Speaker 16: thinking about him. See Caleb Love and Jaden had the
Speaker 16: ball in their hands out front.
Speaker 6: They're seeing hedges.
Speaker 16: Teams traps, second defenders coming, They're seeing junk defenses boxing ones.
Speaker 6: Carter Bryant was.
Speaker 16: Not the defensive focus of the coaches in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 16: And that is not to take away from how great
Speaker 16: he is. I think Carter Bryant is on some Tracy
Speaker 16: McGrady type trajectory.
Speaker 6: He's going to be a hooper.
Speaker 16: But he's very hard to evaluate because he didn't have
Speaker 16: the offensive weight of the Arizona basketball program on his shoulders.
Speaker 16: At no point was that placed on his shoulders. Could
Speaker 16: hit a couple of three. When he would hit a
Speaker 16: couple of threes, and he'd shine and look good. You know,
Speaker 16: I'm in the barbershop arguing, well, Carter Bryant should play
Speaker 16: more minutes. That's like saying Corey Williams hit four threes
Speaker 16: in the Final four against Arkansas, he should have played
Speaker 16: the whole game. No, I hit those threes because we
Speaker 16: had two NBA guards that were cold and Nolan Richardson
Speaker 16: was daring me to shoot. I wasn't a four to
Speaker 16: three pointed game player as a sophomore Arizona. But you
Speaker 16: know that it all fit all factors into it. Carter
Speaker 16: Bryant's skill set, his height. But what I love about
Speaker 16: the kid, he's got so much heart. He's a good kid.
Speaker 16: He's going to be a hooper. But somebody's gonna have
Speaker 16: to bet on his upside and his promise because we
Speaker 16: don't have a huge cross section of work to look at.
Speaker 6: When you talk about Carter Briant.
Speaker 2: Right right, I mean last thing real quick, if you
Speaker 2: can't know, I totally agree it. He'll probably go in
Speaker 2: the top twelve for sure.
Speaker 3: House things. How are things going at the Tucson Summer League?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 16: You know it's boys and girls ages ten to thirteen.
Speaker 16: What else could be better? I mean, we're having fun.
Speaker 16: We're playing basketball, you know, just letting the kids play free.
Speaker 16: We have coaches, but it's really an open style of play.
Speaker 16: That's the age where kids fall in love with basketball,
Speaker 16: and that's our whole folkus prevent, you know, create a
Speaker 16: safe space for these kids to hoop, learn about themselves,
Speaker 16: play with kids from all over the city.
Speaker 6: And really enjoy basketball.
Speaker 16: Because you know, once you start getting co coaching and
Speaker 16: training and club, you know, basketball can beat the life
Speaker 16: out of gas if they're over exposed. So we're just
Speaker 16: trying to slow that process down and give the kids,
Speaker 16: a fun, fun outlet, knowing that the current culture and
Speaker 16: climate of youth basketball perfect.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Corey. We'll take uh, we'll take a look
Speaker 2: at what happens tonight. Appreciate your time as always, no problem.
Speaker 2: You gotta take care of than Corey Williams. He's talking
Speaker 2: about exactly what we were talking about at the end with
Speaker 2: you just enjoy enjoy your time when you're playing ball,
Speaker 2: no matter what it is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think, uh we got to go about a minute.
Speaker 4: Uh no, what he just said right now is like
Speaker 4: the greatest thing ever. So when I was coaching in Sweden,
Speaker 4: we would do these school visits to pe classes right
Speaker 4: to try to get because nobody knew about baseball over there, right,
Speaker 4: it's hockey.
Speaker 3: You'd live or die.
Speaker 4: So you get these kids to come out to the
Speaker 4: baseball field and you literally just let them play the game.
Speaker 4: And that was the greatest time ever because I would
Speaker 4: just throw it and run around and play with them,
Speaker 4: just kids being kids.
Speaker 2: And it's a great novel. Hell novel is up right? Yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: take a break, come back.
Speaker 3: If you're an.
Speaker 2: Arizona Man's basketball fan, you'd know it's been successful for
Speaker 2: nearly forty years now, take a look back at the
Speaker 2: Ludolsen era in my new book, Lessons from Loot. It
Speaker 2: was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty
Speaker 2: five former players, coaches and friends to give insight to
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Speaker 2: years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Lut is an
Speaker 2: insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse.
Speaker 2: Want one Email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com.
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Speaker 1: Streaming live on the iHeartRadio wipp This is Eye on
Speaker 1: the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 3: Hey, welcome back to me on the bar here on
Speaker 3: Fox Sports fourteen fifty on Steve Rivera, your Blake Eager.
Speaker 2: We have a little time, maybe seven minutes before we
Speaker 2: call it a day. We want love with Corey Goo's
Speaker 2: good stuff, good show today, mister Eager. Despite us Jason
Speaker 2: Gardner and Corey Williams. Yeah, I mean, you couldn't asked
Speaker 2: for two better guests. You did a great job. It's
Speaker 2: funny because I didn't know some of the stuff that
Speaker 2: I knew about the because that's why I asked the
Speaker 2: question about the cactus plastic or the summer thing in Phoenix,
Speaker 2: but I didn't realize the Milwaukee thing. I didn't realize
Speaker 2: a couple of other things with Corey because he had
Speaker 2: a pretty good career overseas, and like I say, with Caleb,
Speaker 2: whether he's in the NBA or not. I wish I
Speaker 2: had his career hit his future, because he's gonna.
Speaker 3: Have his career future.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think when Jason Gardner said it, we
Speaker 4: obviously knew it, but I didn't even think about it.
Speaker 4: I mean, to be an All conference player in three
Speaker 4: different conferences and three of the five power conferences. M h,
Speaker 4: it's pretty impressive, right, highly regarded ACC and Big twelve
Speaker 4: at that point, right, Maybe not so much Back twelve
Speaker 4: in the last couple of years or decades or maybe
Speaker 4: two decades, but yeah, very very very highly regarded. And
Speaker 4: you know what the difference is now is basketball is
Speaker 4: such a sport where and I've seen this from a
Speaker 4: financial standpoint, you can make a living playing overseas, oh right,
Speaker 4: and have quality, really good living very on.
Speaker 3: So you can't.
Speaker 4: You really can't do that in football. There's really nothing
Speaker 4: overseas anymore. That German League's pretty much dead.
Speaker 3: Then fail one.
Speaker 4: Uh, baseball you can, it's just very specific a lot
Speaker 4: of Winter League.
Speaker 3: But I mean, how is.
Speaker 2: Life if you don't mind me, how was life at
Speaker 2: Double A or whatever you do? It's grind, yeah, but financially, oh.
Speaker 4: It's not great. You're not going to get I mean
Speaker 4: you're not as a minor league player. Now, it's way better.
Speaker 4: They're they're in the union, right, so they have salaries.
Speaker 4: They fall into the same union as Major League Baseball
Speaker 4: for MLBPA, so they much better than when I was playing.
Speaker 4: But you don't really make that much money until your
Speaker 4: six year can you can renegatiate your contract after and
Speaker 4: the miners. Yeah, so then if you've got double, A,
Speaker 4: triple A major league experience, you can make quite a
Speaker 4: bit of money.
Speaker 3: And then you make a lot of money in Winter League.
Speaker 2: Yeah okay, but but again you're getting to do what
Speaker 2: you want to do and the only thing you really
Speaker 2: want to do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, it's I mean, it's professional sports, right.
Speaker 2: Sure, what did you say? Okay, this is what I
Speaker 2: want to do the rest of my life too? Two
Speaker 2: and you can you can say that confidently. But you
Speaker 2: were thinking this too.
Speaker 4: The only the only time I don't think I've ever
Speaker 4: said another profession in my life.
Speaker 2: I was giving given me by bottle. I want my bottle. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I still asked for the bottle though. Yeah. It makes sense.
Speaker 2: Your only child, Yeah, that comes with its own complications.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I am the only child with both my parents
Speaker 4: and both sets of grandparents here, and I was the
Speaker 4: only part was spoiled.
Speaker 3: I was unbelievably spoiled. Yeah, it kind of makes sense now, Yeah.
Speaker 4: No, it definitely made the checks, all the boxes, all
Speaker 4: all all, uh, all roads to lead to spoiled.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: We get a chance for one call if you'd like
Speaker 2: to call five two o four one six seventy four
Speaker 2: forty if you want to call and agree with with
Speaker 2: anybody that's talked today about even today's kids sports. We
Speaker 2: talk about this a lot because you coached them and
Speaker 2: I kind of coached them. You had kids, sucker kids. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's not it's sports. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did X.
Speaker 2: My ex was a soccer player, so she started with it.
Speaker 2: I was on the road a lot with the teams,
Speaker 2: so uh and then they turned out to be pretty
Speaker 2: good players.
Speaker 3: So that's good. Yeah good. You've talked about that before. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's incredible.
Speaker 2: So I mean, come on, anybody who's a parent with
Speaker 2: who has kids who play sports and turned out to
Speaker 2: be Okay, you're pretty good.
Speaker 4: My poor, my poor dad came to every soccer game
Speaker 4: I ever played it. And then let's just say I
Speaker 4: was not a good soccer. Well, it takes a it
Speaker 4: takes a knack because I wasn't either. But I'm sure
Speaker 4: he was at every baseball game then too. No, he
Speaker 4: never came to my baseball. No, my dad would sleep.
Speaker 4: But my dad would sleep on my couches in college.
Speaker 4: You drive all the way to Denver to come watch.
Speaker 4: Very cool and so my mom, that's special. That was
Speaker 4: super special. Hell, you're on the air and I on
Speaker 4: the ball.
Speaker 3: Who's this? I see?
Speaker 15: This is done?
Speaker 9: How you doing?
Speaker 3: Hey? Don good?
Speaker 2: We got about three minutes, three minutes, Okay, I.
Speaker 15: Just wanted.
Speaker 2: Oh you broke and I went to the drive through. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you broke it up. We wait, wait, started again and
Speaker 2: started again because you broke up.
Speaker 15: I just want to pick up what we were talking
Speaker 15: to you guys were talking about the youth.
Speaker 3: Sports and stuff earlier. Yeah, and I coached.
Speaker 15: I coached Little league and up the pony and stuff
Speaker 15: from ninety five to six. And I did some recreational stuff,
Speaker 15: like in winter ball with some of the guys. We
Speaker 15: went and played before we got to we were still
Speaker 15: in the majors, and we went played high school rules
Speaker 15: for one year just for the heck of it, and
Speaker 15: stuff just to have some fun and stuff like that.
Speaker 15: And had I had a friend that he had a
Speaker 15: daughter played ball.
Speaker 3: Here in town. She went to a Pac.
Speaker 15: Ten school and didn't make it to the spring with
Speaker 15: the pressure that the game came and stuff. And we
Speaker 15: always thought that, you know, for most kids, they only
Speaker 15: have certain amount of innings in them and when they
Speaker 15: reach it, they're done. And I always thought it was
Speaker 15: unfair for the girls to play competitive ball. They have
Speaker 15: to play tournaments all the time, so it's blood and
Speaker 15: gut every weekend, not like where the boys play in
Speaker 15: a Pony league or American Legion and stuff, and you
Speaker 15: get to play a whole season and then at the
Speaker 15: end of the season you get to play the tournament
Speaker 15: for the championships.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right down. But they had
Speaker 4: Bobby Socks forever. That was kind of the league structure,
Speaker 4: wasn't it for the girls?
Speaker 15: Well it was, but then when girls started Bobby socks
Speaker 15: is kind of well when back when I was doing
Speaker 15: it at the at the turn of the century, it
Speaker 15: seemed to be it seemed to start lagging a lot.
Speaker 15: It didn't it didn't seem as big as it was
Speaker 15: when when my sisters were playing back in the eighties,
Speaker 15: and I just think that. You know, I got to
Speaker 15: be All Star manager a couple of times, and I
Speaker 15: had I had parents come to me like, hey, my
Speaker 15: son has been raising money and doing all this stuff
Speaker 15: and he has his church camp and this and that
Speaker 15: and he but he didn't want to lose his spot
Speaker 15: on the All Star team. And I said, hey, your
Speaker 15: kid earned his spot here. He can go to camp,
Speaker 15: but just know he's going to be behind in the
Speaker 15: you know, the coach trying to get the team together
Speaker 15: from all the guys from the different teams and stuff.
Speaker 15: But hey, let him go to camp. And he's still
Speaker 15: an All Star in my in my eyes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, always we got to go.
Speaker 15: I always hated the guys limited the rosters too.
Speaker 3: But okay, thanks guys, Hey, thanks thanks for getting us
Speaker 3: to the end. Here we are. Thanks for coming in.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah sure of course, uh thanks for coming in. Yeah,
Speaker 2: thanks for having me. Sorry I was running late. No,
Speaker 2: no deal with adult situations. You you'll run your laps
Speaker 2: after today. Thanks everybody for listening. I'll be in tomorrow.
Speaker 2: I see what goes on. I'll be here Friday and
Speaker 2: then get on Monday and taking some time off. Let
Speaker 2: us know where you're saying so we can all send
Speaker 2: you nasty notes. Please come to Denver, she said no,