Ride Home Rants
Ride Home Rants
Finding Purpose Beyond the Diamond: Logan Bell's Baseball Life
Logan Bell's story begins not in a town, but in a village—a one-square-mile dot on the map called Lisbon, Ohio. It's here where his baseball journey took root, nurtured by parents who somehow balanced demanding work schedules with never missing a game. When most people ask where Lisbon is located, he simply references Youngstown, a familiar landmark that anchors his small-town origins in something recognizable.
The rhythm of Logan's early life followed the seasons of sports—football in fall, basketball in winter, and baseball dominating the summers. But what stands out in our conversation isn't just the athletic achievements, but the deliberate efforts to maintain normalcy amid the demands of competition. From wing nights after practice to street hockey games with friends, these moments provided crucial balance and kept the pressures of performance in perspective.
His college baseball path reflects both perseverance and adaptability. Starting at Akron as a 17-year-old freshman surrounded by junior college transfers in their twenties forced early maturity. After partially tearing his UCL, Logan found his way to Bowling Green State University, reuniting with a coach who had first recruited him years earlier—a relationship that proved pivotal in his development both on and off the field. Now training in Florida while completing his master's degree, he's pursuing professional opportunities with an unwavering "no Plan B" mindset.
Throughout our discussion, Logan offers thoughtful perspectives on the changing landscape of college athletics, MLB economics, and the unique challenges faced by small-market teams. But most memorable is his closing message about pursuing dreams without apology: "If you have this idea of what you want to do and what you want to be, don't let anybody tell you that you can't be it." With supportive parents, loyal friends, and grounding faith, Logan demonstrates that sometimes the journey itself matters more than the destin
Subscribe for exclusive content: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1530455/support
Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREE
Deemed Fit
Be a part of our movement to instill confidence motivation and a willingness to keep pushing forward
Buddy's Beard Care
Buddy's Beard Care provides premium men's grooming products at an affordable price.
Sweet Hands Sports
Elevate your game with Sweet Hands Sports! Our sports gloves are designed for champions,
Shankitgolf
Our goal here at Shankitgolf is for everyone to have a great time on and off the golf course
Tactical Brotherhood
The Tactical Brotherhood is a movement to support America.
Dubby Energy
FROM GAMERS TO GYM JUNKIES TO ENTREPRENEURS, OUR PRODUCT IS FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO BE BETTER.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Follow us on all social media
X: @mikebonocomedy
Instagram: @mikebonocomedy
@tiktok: @mikebono_comedian
Facebook: @mikebonocomedy
welcome everybody to another episode of the ride home rants podcast. This is, as always, your host, mike bono. I have a great guest for us today. He is actually the son of a former guest of the show in charles bell. Uh, he's coming to us from florida, originally from lisbon, ohio. But logan bell joins the show. Logan, thanks for joining.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you for having me. It's been a long time coming. John had asked me to get on a while ago and I was in season, so it kind of made things tough, but I found a little break in the schedule.
Speaker 1:You've got to find breaks in the schedule when you can right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:My schedule is jam-packed as tight as possible, so I definitely get that with trying to find the ways around and to find time for yourself, but I'm glad you made some time for us here. So, like I said, you're originally from Lisbon, ohio, so tell everyone out there what it's like in Lisbon and where it is even at. Not a lot of people know where that town's's out at and you know what it was like growing up there uh.
Speaker 2:So yeah, lisbon is, it's a, it's a village. It's not even a town, that's the best about it. So it's it's a square mile village. Um, it's kind of, I think, just southeast of Youngstown. That's usually what I tell people whenever they ask where I'm from and I say Lisbon, they go where's that? And I say Youngstown, yeah, um, but I mean I grew up with mom and dad had an older sister who went to Lisbon.
Speaker 2:She was three years older than me and played sports. She played sports. So we had a very hectic kind of upcoming between her playing basketball, running track, me playing football, basketball and baseball. Uh, summer baseball kind of took over, took over everybody's summer and the whole house. So it was just kind of getting through that. But I mean I love the village of Lisbon. It's the best. I mean I couldn't have asked for a better place to grow up and a better place to go, go to school and meet friends. That I mean I still talk to guys today, like Justin Sweeney, who graduated with me. Him and I talk probably once every other week, once a month at minimum, and just always ends with us just being like, hey, like whenever I'm back in town or whenever he has time, let's hang out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've always got to keep those close friends and I get it. Being from a small town. I grew up in a little town in West Virginia, follinsby, west Virginia. Again, like you, one of those times if you blink, you miss it, nobody knows where it's at. You've got a little bit better with having Youngstown that close. I have to go to a whole other state and tell people I'm close to pittsburgh, so that's kind of you know telling people when you grow up in west virginia and you have to tell people you know I'm about an hour outside of pittsburgh, like people don't have no idea where that's even too, so I get caught up doing the same one.
Speaker 2:Like I talk to people not from ohio yeah I'll either. I'll either use like akron or Cleveland. Most of the time I use Pittsburgh because it's just easy to be like hey, like I'm an hour east of Pittsburgh, that's it, or an hour west of Pittsburgh, it's easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the easiest landmark for anybody to that kind of. You know Pittsburgh, farnsby, west Virginia, you know Steubenville, ohio, that kind of area in the Ohio Valley. I kind of lump Lisbon into that, even though it's closer to Youngstown.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I grew up with guys who were Steelers fans. Like that's the best part about Lisbon is you get this like this huge mix-up of Pittsburgh and Clevelandveland people and it's, it's the best yeah, you got.
Speaker 1:You got a nice melting pot there for sure. Um, you know, and you mentioned it there, that you were an athlete growing up. You know, uh, what sport other sports did you play and you know how did you balance that. You know, and try to being a regular teenager too as well, because you know I was an athlete growing up, so I know there was a balance to that. You know how did, how did you balance that, especially in such a small town, cause sports kind of dominate in a small town.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it was tough like growing up. So I I didn't start playing football till junior high. I played flag football growing up but I played baseball and basketball until then. But I played baseball and basketball until then and then got into high school, played football, baseball. All four years played basketball.
Speaker 2:My freshman, sophomore and senior year kind of took a break, my junior year to focus on baseball, just for that winter to kind of try and get things to work out. And they ended up working out. But I mean I my freshman year I had a great senior and junior class ahead of me that I was really close with. So like josh craig, josh liberati, uh, austin rutecky, um jake liberati, colin sweeney, mark stanichka, like all those guys I kind of grew up like around so it was like it was nice to have I kind of grew up like around, so it was like it was nice to have them to kind of take me out of, like kind of bring me to this idea of like respecting the moment and kind of learning to take it in when I could.
Speaker 2:Right, my freshman year we went to the playoffs. I was a, I was a holder on a team that went nine and one Okay, it kind of. It kind of made me appreciate it a little more, especially getting into my junior and senior year, where I was relying on other people to do the same thing that I did three years ago, right, um. But once I got older it was kind of a little bit easier because I turned. So I'm I'm a little young for my grade, so I turned 16 going into my junior year.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was when I'd gotten my license and like I'd take, I'd take some younger guys, we'd go, I mean, every Thursday or Tuesday we'd go to Wang night at B-dubs after practice. Like we'd kind of get out of this whole idea of like, oh, we're doing this because we play sports together. It's like no, we're doing this because we're friends, right. So we'd go up to youngstown, go bowl a little bit, go see a movie, like things like that, to kind of get us away from this whole like, oh, it's, it's sports, it's sports, it's sports right, we had that too growing up.
Speaker 1:you know there was a a close knit of us, kind of like you, um, and it was every wednesday. We'd go up to my buddy's house. We lived out in the middle of nowhere, we'd have a bonfire, we'd order some wings and we'd call it wing night, and it was just a bunch of us and we would just sit around a fire and just decompress from you know practices and everything like that and just kind of trying to to not think about oh well, we got walk through tomorrow and the game Friday night, and then we got this and then we got that. It was like no, we're just going to hang out and just be teenagers and just be kids and just have fun and and for lack of a a better term do stupid shit around a fire, like that's yeah, I mean, I mean we did the same thing kind of once.
Speaker 2:I kind of I was kind of go to school, go to practice, do my homework, play video games in high school yeah, uh. But I got to like that's how college was for me. I mean, like we had a great group of guys that I got really close with that. I can't that I transferred into bg with that. We were a very close-knit group. We always did stuff together. We I mean like we like during may when school would be out but we're still playing baseball. We'd we'd be in one of our housing areas and we'd I'd drive around and guys would like hold on to the back of my truck on a skateboard. Yeah, we'd just do fun stuff. That always was just like. It always got rid of the whole. Oh, we're athletes, blah, blah, blah. Like we could be like just kids and just hang out and have fun. We'd play hockey in the street Like we do all of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I still remember, like it was yesterday, growing up playing street hockey with my buddies and just kind of again just being kids, and you know, yeah, definitely doing the stupid things with a truck, especially, you know, getting into college and still being I swam in college, at Bethany College, and just being out of season and being able to be a teenager. And just I remember one time we made, somehow, a hot tub in the bed of my truck, just threw a tarp down, threw some water in it, put a hose from the exhaust into the end of the water revved it hot tub.
Speaker 1:You know the most unsafe thing.
Speaker 1:Now that you're looking back as it as a 36 year, old, just being a kid nobody to tell you no right, that was, that was the best part of it. But, yeah, definitely doing that and growing up being an athlete too as well, definitely, I think, helped me today, you know, as a 36-year-old man with a 16-year-old trying to explain to him but not trying to be upset too much when he does stupid things, because I did stupid things at his age. But it's definitely a balance when you get to that. Um, but you actually played at uh you mentioned their Bowling Green State University, um as a six year senior in baseball. Uh, tell them what it was like, um, and you know at Bowling Green playing baseball. What did you get your uh degree in? And I believe you have a bachelor's and a master's degree, correct? Yeah?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm working on my master's right now. I've got one more class this spring that I got to take and then I got three in the fall that once I get those three done, we're done with school, we don't have to worry about it anymore, nice. So I began at Akron. So my recruitment was kind of a fun little situation and so I had ended up committing to Malone my junior year school and then Coach Halleck, who coached me at BG, took the job at Bowling Green. Actually, I found out that he was going there senior night of football. My senior night.
Speaker 2:At like 2 30 had just gotten out of school, like was at home real quick. Before I went back to the locker room he gave me a call and was like hey, just so you know, like I'm taking the job here. Gave me all his reasoning, understand it at the time, like totally got it. Everything that I like believed in him I had. I'd asked him at the time. I was like well, can I come with you? And he was like I don't know at the moment, like I gotta kind of get things sorted out on my end before I even, because he hadn't even been the coach yet and I hadn't even been announced Right.
Speaker 2:So ended up kind of decommitting from Malone in January and then no in November and then started throwing again in the fall. I remember one Sunday morning at no one Saturday morning after a Friday night basketball game, I had a really good day and my pitching coach in Canton posted it on Twitter and Coach Banfield from Akron had reached out to come to a camp and went to the camp the next day, got a PWL and that was it. I mean, went there, had the COVID season, which kind of sucked, but it was nice for me because we were a first-year program at Akron, so it had been cut in 2015 or 2012, one of the two and had just been brought back and I was part of the first team to play there since and we had 27 junior college kids, wow. So think about me year old freshman the first week of school as a freshman in college.
Speaker 2:I'm not 18 years old yeah I'm hanging out with 22 23 year olds all the time yeah, that's.
Speaker 2:That's a change so it was a little bit of. A little bit of a learning curve for me, kind of had to take myself out of my comfort zone and kind of grow up in a way. And COVID happened.
Speaker 2:I hit the portal after partially tearing my UCL and didn't end up getting surgery but rehabbed that summer, went to Texas and played and had talked to coach hallock that summer and I remember calling him one day and after he had texted me that he had room for me and I was like I called him that minute and I said, hey, I'm coming, hadn't told my parents, hadn't talked to, like I had not given anybody any information on it and I mean best decision I ever made in my life, I'd love playing for him. I mean I'd like you know, like the like the hockey saying, would you go to the wall for me? Because I'd go to the wall for you, like I'd go, I'd go to the wall for that guy, like no matter what any situation. Like he was in my house when I was 15 years old recruiting me, like there's things that just for me it always meant, it always made sense being there with him.
Speaker 1:Right and it's nice to have that, that coach that you know you're familiar with, especially going into a program like that. Swimming was a little different for me. I had a ton of D1 offers. Uh, going into my senior year for swimming, um decided that you know, I wasn't the best football player but all of my buddies played. So you know I played football. I love the sport of football. I do, um, I kind of refer to myself and I know it's two different sports. But, charlie from the Mighty Ducks, I make a better coach than I did a player. I know a lot about the game to be a coach, but I was that habitual backup and special teamer all through high school. I decided I put up with the crap for three years. What's one more year? It's my senior year, football, we'll play football.
Speaker 1:Um, first day of pads uh, we put on, hurt my shoulder, didn't realize I did more damage than I originally thought, actually separated my shoulder and played the entire season on it, okay, and lost my senior year of swimming because the shoulder was just shot. At that point in time Everyone but Bethany College dropped their scholarship. Naturally you get a swimmer and they hear about a shoulder injury. That's the kiss of death. So my recruiting was a little bit different, mainly because Bethany College was the place I still wanted to swim, rehab the shoulder, but my coach there was. He's one of those guys. I got to know him a little bit better going in there, coach McGowan, and that you know my freshman year he made me a manager of the team so that I didn't lose my scholarship and got to keep it while I was still rehabbing my shoulder so that I could swim my sophomore year Again.
Speaker 1:You know, just unfortunate injuries kept me out of sports. But you know it's, it's weird with the here. You know being me, you, you have fun, but you could post a video on Twitter and anybody could see that. I didn't have that in the early 2000s. You know, graduating high school in 2007. There wasn't a lot. You know my space was still a thing. You probably don't even know what that is.
Speaker 2:I can gladly say I've heard of it. Ok, I'll respect that. I can gladly say I've heard of it.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll respect that, but you know it really wasn't you know that big of a thing to where I could post times or something like that on a Twitter, a Facebook, anything like that and, you know, get noticed. You had to do a lot yourself. And not saying that it's a bad thing because I do think it's helping a lot of athletes at smaller towns and smaller schools that literally the only reason these people don't go to big schools or D1 schools is because nobody's heard of the town they grew up in. Yeah, and they're phenomenal athletes and it takes them going to a junior college and then getting noticed there to get any recognition. And junior college is great, but I feel like it hurts the athlete because now they lose a year of eligibility because they went to JUCO a little bit. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Not anymore, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, COVID year and the transfer portal and everything like that.
Speaker 2:Well, it's just, even with the potential, potential changing of d of juco, not counting towards your ncaa eligibility. It's yeah, that is different now too, yeah I'd called coach hallock when I was on the way back from tampa on wednesday and we were just talking about how, even compared to when I was getting recruited, how much it's changed compared to when I was getting recruited, how much it's changed. And college sports is, I mean. We could talk for hours on that. Oh.
Speaker 1:I've had shows that have gone way longer than they should have on here. Just sitting here with a panel of guys just talking sports, and it's just like, yeah, we've been over an hour, we've got to cut the show, or I'm going to have way too many edits to do by the end of this to try to cut it down to at least an hour, you know, and it's just, it's one of those things I could talk about all day yeah and just the changing of of just sports in general and college sports.
Speaker 1:You know, uh, used to be. You know, and look at lebron got, got recruited and drafted right out of high school. You know that's not a thing anymore. You've got to go at least one year of D1 basketball to be eligible for the draft, which I agree with and I don't. I think it should be more than one year, but in the same sense, I grew up in an era where guys were coming right out of high school.
Speaker 2:You know what?
Speaker 1:I mean. So it is what it is, but just how the sports world has changed, especially with college sports, and the transfer portal was huge, especially because you could transfer but you had to sit out a year.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Back in the day. You know that would stop. It was stopped people from just moving around and now the, the NIL deals and everything like that. I mean it's just it's. It can get so complex and just how everything can, can get break, broken down, and just how everything has changed and I think it's most of it's for the better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd say it is. I think the only, again, like the only thing I see is that you're going to run into this issue where I'm a I'm a mid-major sport guy. I love mid-majors, I love the Mac. The Mac's awesome. How can you expect many?
Speaker 2:of those teams. How can you expect them to compete when oh, I'm a power for school that can offer every player on your team as much money as I can ask? But I also understand that's the thing that it it opens doors for people that may not have opened the doors right I mean.
Speaker 1:But you got some programs like alabama who have a 20 million dollar roster in college. Yeah, how do you compete with that? You don't as a mac or whack school, like you, never. I like the 12 team playoff. I didn't think I would. It was awesome, I didn't think.
Speaker 2:I would like the 12-team.
Speaker 1:I thought 18 was a sweet spot. I feel like I had a great plan for it. With the five Power, 5 conferences, all the conference champions automatically get a bid to the playoffs. Then if you have an undefeated, like Mac or whack or something like that that you know these mid-majors that don't get seen, you have an undefeated team there throw them in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, look at like. I mean boise was one of those teams, yeah, like, but boise had a generational running back that could do something. I think if any of those teams have a lightning in a bottle chance, it's another position. It's a wide receiver that can take the top off and defense he can run a slant, catch a ball, go for it all, take a dart, just a regular screen.
Speaker 1:I'll say like I think a running back it's a little bit tougher because you got this much space yeah you can't get out of that space as a running back no, um, I feel like you know the running back, chris mccaffrey, is kind of changing the running back position a little bit in being more of a wide receiver threat too as well. But you're right, you know you're still going to line up in the backfield, you still have five yards to try to make something happen and you're going up against 350, 400 pounders at the line.
Speaker 2:It's the same with baseball like murray state lightning in a bottle yeah team. They were hot, they were playing really well, they were good all year. Like you're not going to get many of those teams at at this point and you know I, I know they get you know swept.
Speaker 1:But you know everyone kind of expected that. I mean I definitely was like there's no way they're going to be competitive against LSU.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean Coastal like.
Speaker 1:That's who it was. Yeah, coastal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were like. I wouldn't even consider that team a mid-major team to me.
Speaker 1:Not anymore.
Speaker 2:They've won the natty. They probably have a little more of a budget than most mid-majors. I think it's going to be a lot more difficult for your run-of-the-mill any mid-major.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Take a mid-major like take the MAAC champion, every year it's. It's difficult to get out of that that first regional. Because if, especially now, the guy that they start against you, that the host of the regional, is typically their Friday guy, that's their, that's their horse. Yeah, he's making a lot of money to be their horse.
Speaker 1:oh, absolutely, your team's not making that amount of money yeah, like I, you know what, and I I equate that to to now. You know we had to talk about this with our um mob round table we had on here and just that. You know, these big uh city teams that are spending more money on one player than most of these small teams have as an entire organization, and I can't believe to say, but Pittsburgh is a small market team, they are. And yeah, it just blows my mind. I always think of Pittsburgh, as you know, being a big city and it's really not when you've got teams like new york and la that are spending 350 million dollars on a shortstop, when that's like the entirety of pittsburgh's roster it's even crazier when they're spending 300 million on a shortstop, but they're already paying the right fielder 450, yeah yeah I, I said it too as well.
Speaker 1:I mean, uh, pitchers in the major league starting pitchers in the major league makes stupid money. Clayton Kershaw had like a 400 or $500 million contract to pitch every five days.
Speaker 2:I mean, look at the money that. I mean if you think, like, at the end of the day, the probably the top five over the last when they were signing contracts verlander, scherzer, degrom like those guys think about how much money they got paid, a lot like it. Those like, if you take probably the top five starting pitchers in baseball in the last 10 years, like if you take probably the top five starting pitchers in baseball in the last 10 years, probably over a billion dollars in total contracts, he's probably pushing two billion.
Speaker 1:I would say yeah, one is yeah, it's good, it's well over one.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:I think it's going to have to pay Scooble. Yeah, you know what? What kills me is schemes for the Pirates. You know, the dude's a generational talent with a four and eight record.
Speaker 2:He has no run support.
Speaker 1:He has no run support in Pittsburgh because they can't get any of these players to come and play for them and it's sad. As a Pittsburgh fan, I am a Pirates fan. It's hard to say and hard to admit out loud, but I do. I am a Pirates fan. It's hard to say and hard to admit out loud, but I do. But every time I see that Skeen's pitch or I see a highlight, it's like well, good to have you for the couple of years that we're going to have you. Then I'll see you in New York, boston, la or somewhere else, because you're not going to stay here.
Speaker 2:There's no way Same with the guards. Right now it's just like we got lucky that jose was willing to take a pay cut to stay in cleveland. But imagine if they had the ability to offer lindor the same money or right even be able to offer the money to keep that 16 team or the 17 team in cleveland. But now, like I get on, I I see trade like mock, mock trades for clausas and Kwan. Yeah, and I'm like we lose those guys. It's going to be hard to cheer for him.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean it's it's. It's tough to cheer for the pirates, uh, but I think everyone on the pirates needs to just sit down and talk to Andrew McCutcheon. He left Pittsburgh uh, really not on his own accord, really wasn't much. Some team offered him money let's go see if I can actually win a pennant somewhere and he came back and other teams were still offering him more money now, as near the end of his career, to go and play there and he says, no, I'm staying in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2:This my home yeah, like I want to win here, huh and like not even to say that those pittsburgh teams were better than you're not. They're really not like. The dude won an mvp, yeah, you can't. You can't win an mvp on a 80 win team or on a 70 win team. No, like they had. They were in the wild card.
Speaker 1:They were like they had that was fun to be a parts fan those years I mean that's how it was with the guards.
Speaker 2:like we went to game one of the world series. I remember I remember when game seven, when davis hit that home run to tie it up in the eighth, I remember going around my house and waking everybody up, yeah. And like, hey, it's a tie game because they had all went to bed. Like I remember, like that's a moment for me in life that I'll never forget.
Speaker 1:Right, you know, even though it was a wild card game, I'll never forget that for Pittsburgh because that was the first time I've seen them in the playoffs in my entire life, you know. So it's fun to see. I hope they get back there. I hope they can build a team around Skeens with the salary cap that they have and it's not even a salary cap. They just don't want to pay the luxury tax and they can't. They don't have the money to do it, and I get it. But you know, it's just. I'm hoping that he can actually bring them back. I was shocked what they did in the draft not really picking any hitters and going back to pitch Like the pitching's. Fine, we have one of the lowest ERAs in the league and we got a sub 500 record by like 20 games record in like by like 20 games.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's tough to as a as a like um organization, to sit there and be like, oh, we don't need to draft hitters when you have a guy who has a 0.9 era right now for the month of july or something. It's something outrageous it's 0.9 for july yeah, and he hasn't won a game in july yeah like how can you sit back as an organization and be like, oh, this is a good idea, this is the right thing to do for him, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, like I just I don't understand it and like I get where. Pittsburgh is one of those cities, man, where they will love you no matter what, but they're going to be vocal about it. Like seeing fans at PNC park holding up signs telling nothing to sell a team. Like that's Pittsburgh, they'll still come, they'll still support you, but they're going to tell you how they feel and they're going to not hold back and I love it.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's great. I mean, I think, at the end of the day, like fans, have the right to do that I want to see good baseball. Yeah, Like as a as a fan who I buy in, like I'm watching every game.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like as much as I hate turning on a guardians game right now, well before the last 10 games before the break, he'll turn it on Right, Because I wanted to see him. I wanted to see one of the best to ever be in cleveland play the game of baseball yeah, and I, I like I, I wish I could get where I live now.
Speaker 1:I wish I could get pirates games. I don't, uh. But yeah, the blackouts, I mean cleveland is here, um, and cincinnati I get them, which blows my mind, being in central Ohio, because literally it is the same distance to Pittsburgh as it is to Cleveland and as it is to Cincinnati, it's two and a half hours.
Speaker 2:It's. It's definitely confusing. I was sitting, I was sitting here the other day trying to watch games and it was the day before the all started before the home run derby. And I'm sitting here and I'm like I'm trying to flip on games, like trying to find them. None of them are on, like any youtube tv, like there's no mainstream of major league baseball that day no, I mean there's like sling tv or like uh, the one, the, the one, betting app.
Speaker 2:It's not hard rock, but they have like a, it's they own, they own bally's now oh, I know, is it. It's not mgm um handle yep like I'm on there trying to watch games. Like why can't I just sit down like every other n fan on Sundays?
Speaker 1:and watch a baseball game.
Speaker 1:I get it. I mean, I know like they have like, well, there's MLB TV that you can get, it's like. But I'm already paying for how many streaming services now, like I don't want to pay for another one just to be able to watch, yeah, a baseball game. Like I'll try to find it. Like I keep hoping like every now and again esbn plus is gonna screw up and put on a pirate's game so that I can, I can watch a, watch a bucko's game. But you know it's, it is what it is like. I catch the highlights, but you know my esbn app's always going off with updates in that. So I get it that way. Um, and I know we got way off topic there and on off track. No, you're good man, that's the point of this show anyways. But you know, like I said at the beginning, you know we had your dad as a former guest on the show. Tell us a little bit about what it's like being the son of Charles Bell.
Speaker 2:Oh man, it's the best it's. I mean, at the end of the day, there's nobody I'd rather have as a father and as a role model growing up. I mean the dude's the hardest worker that you'll ever meet. He goes to work at three o'clock in the morning. He doesn't get done until 8 pm. He's like he. He helped build that business, rl Craig, into what it is today and he spent so many hours doing what he did, while also being the best father he he could ever.
Speaker 2:You could ever ask for going to games, being the most supportive dad, being a dad that when you needed some, when you needed a little kick in the ass, but uh, I mean I talked to him. I mean I talk to him every day. He's my dad. But every Monday, wednesday and Friday when I'm driving back from Tampa, I give him a call and he always finds time for me while he's working and I mean I'll get texts at 5 o'clock in the morning when he gets up, or like I'll get him at 10 pm before he to bed.
Speaker 2:Like it's a dude that I, he's just, he's a guy man. He, yeah, he's he. It's honestly really funny because he's like snapchat got really big when I was in high school and he still has streaks like snapchat streaks with friends of mine that are like over a thousand days, over a 1500 days like, and he's a twitter guy like he's a huge, he loves tweeting, turf the style, and like one one of my, one of the guys that I played with this past year, who is a sophomore now. He texted me and was like guess who? I just got added by on snapchat and I was like oh god. And he said my dad's snapchat. I was like oh gosh, I was like this guy yeah, I, I get that a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:You know, growing up, you know my my dad, being a steel mill worker, showed you know that work, but he never missed the game, he never missed a practice. He never missed a practice anything like that. So I get that 100%. It was great to talk to your dad on here and have him on as a guest, so I'm super pumped that we got to be able to make this happen and get you on here too as well. But you know what's next for Logan here? You know schools wind down. You're in graduate school. You're getting close to the end of uh that and uh baseball. I mean, is it over for you or you know what's next?
Speaker 2:that's the funny thing is I get. I get asked like all the time like hey, like what's going on? Like you got a job yet blah, blah, blah, like everyone's like always kind of like on my heels about like what I'm doing and at the end of the day I'm flying by the tail of my seat. I'm just going like I'm, I'm in, I'm in Vero Beach right now, uh, training three times a week in Tampa at driveline baseball, trying to uh give this body one more chance at playing the game. I want to. I want to take advantage of still being somewhat young and try and play somewhere in the States, hopefully, or even overseas. I'd love. I've always been a guy that likes to travel Like. I played three summers in California, I played one summer in Texas. I wouldn't mind going over to Europe and playing baseball, it'd be awesome. And so that's kind of. That's kind of where I'm at right now. I'm golfing three days a week, throwing baseballs three days a week and hanging out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm rooting for you for that. Uh, man, like I, I always love it when people follow and chase their dreams and do what they want to do. Um, as someone who's been chasing a dream of being a standup comedian for the past 13 years, I get that a hundred percent. You know you want to, you want to do it, it's what you want to do, and I'm glad to see that there's somebody with no give up in their system and and we'll do whatever it takes to make the dream come true. And and I love seeing that attitude in anybody for sure and you got a fan in me and Johnny, I know that for sure. But you know, since we went on a little bit of a baseball rant here, kind of a way to wind down the show here, I need a prediction from you for the World Series in October. What do we get?
Speaker 2:Yeah, See the baseball fan in me. Would love to see Philly's Tigers.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Because I just like Philadelphia, I like seeing their guys, I love how they play the game. And then I know all of my BG friends would be really happy if the Tigers got in. All of my BG friends would be really happy if the Tigers got in. But I'd love to see like Scoob will give up seven earned runs every day Because it's just like I mean, it's all, it's all they get. It's just like I remember we would like we talked so much trash during the series last year and like now they're just beating everybody in boat racing the central. But. But it'd also be great to see another, to see a small market team get in yeah, but there's something.
Speaker 1:There's something about bryce harper getting that chance. Yeah, getting that guy in the world series dude's an animal and you know I hate I you know, being a pittsburgh fan, I hate everything philadelphia, you know, but I hate, you know, being a Pittsburgh fan. I hate everything Philadelphia, you know, but I don't mind Bryce Harper. The dude's just a maniac and I love it.
Speaker 2:And they're a younger team. They're just like, and they have they're. I wouldn't say they're a small market, they're definitely not. I mean, bryce Harper got a lot of money, trey Turner got paid a lot of money.
Speaker 1:I got some guys that are getting a nice check.
Speaker 2:I'd love to see a small market team like the Tigers get in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. I don't even care who it is at this point in time, just to see a small market team make it that far would be phenomenal. I keep holding out hope that one year the Pirates will do it, and it's definitely not gonna be this year. I mean, I I've been saying all year and it's just, it's just the Pirates fan of me. It's like, well, we normally start out hot and then we tank in the end of this season. So now we just started out tanking, so maybe after the all-star break now we're gonna bring that fire back and we're gonna make, make a run. It's not going to happen, uh, but you know, that's, that's the dream I'm holding on to you know, I mean, that was the thing.
Speaker 2:The guards got hot right there before the break and it's like man, they, they have the team that could do it, they have a bullpen. They have a bullpen, that's good enough. They have starting pitching, that's good enough. They just need the defense to be a lot better than what it was in the month of June. Yeah, just hope Carlos Santana can keep swinging it and keep everyone else healthy.
Speaker 1:Right, that's, that's the key there. But, logan, we are running down here near the end of the episode I do need to get this segment in, because Johnny will kill me if I don't get this segment in and that is the Fast 55, and that is five random questions from the wonderful manager of the podcast, johnny Fitty Falcone. For the new listeners out there, these are kind of rapid fire, but you can elaborate if you feel like you have to. Logan, these have nothing to do except for maybe one of them, uh, with what we've been talking about. Uh, for the entirety of the show. So, if you're ready, we'll go get started with the fast 35.
Speaker 1:Let's do it okay, question number one uh, what's a better way to get a car to stop? A red light or a stop sign?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't know okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't think I read that right, because he sends the okay for the the new listeners out there. Johnny sends me these questions day of. I don't get time to prep these questions before anything, so this is me reading them for the first time, so excuse me for if I mess these up. Question number two, though what's a worse name for a pet cat? Eli or Jeff.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna go Eli.
Speaker 1:I blame Jeff, but yeah, I got five cats. I get it. Yeah, it's fine. Neither one, none of my cats, have real names, so it is what it is. Question number three what's the best flavored wing sauce?
Speaker 2:I'm a garlic parmesan guy.
Speaker 1:I love it I, me too, I I can't get it. I get it everywhere there's wigs I found.
Speaker 2:I found a rub that I could use on chicken breasts that make some taste garlic, parmesan and I'm set. I don't need anything else all right.
Speaker 1:question number four Are pencils overrated or underrated?
Speaker 2:Underrated. They're the best. There's nothing like writing with a good pencil.
Speaker 1:I gotcha. I'm more of a pen guy, but I get it. And, last but not least, this is the only thing that has to do with what we've been talking about for the entirety of the show. But the best MLB pitcher of all time is.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go starter and closer. Okay, Just so I can cover bases here. I would say closers definitely Mariano Rivera.
Speaker 1:That's a given.
Speaker 2:Got to go with him. Starting-wise, I'd bounce around a few guys. No one Ryan. He's the guy that reinvented baseball, pretty much.
Speaker 1:No one's going to catch that record.
Speaker 2:No, never, pretty much no one's gonna catch that record. No, never, um, but this might. This might be a bad answer, but roy halliday was, oh my god about. Roy halliday was one of, like, one of the ones that I just always loved to see.
Speaker 1:Okay, always had good stats, I mean hey, not mad at it, I completely forgot about roy holiday. To be honest with you, uh, that was the fast 55, uh, for everybody out there.
Speaker 2:He took it a little easy on you, logan, I'm gonna say that now, um well, he used to beat me in in madden and NCAA football all the time when I was younger, so he kind of owed me that. Yeah, he used to stay at our house on Friday after games. Yeah, and he never took it easy on me.
Speaker 1:So well, you know what you know being how it is now. You know I don't take it If my son and I play. I don't take it easy on son and I play video games.
Speaker 2:I don't take it easy at all. No, I won't. I won't on mine no, like it's.
Speaker 1:I still. I still remember when he was real young playing mario kart with him and uh, it's like no, dude, I'm not gonna let you win. Like no, pick up the sticks, we're going again. Like that. That would be like I was playing with one of my buddies and it's yeah Now. So yeah, you, you'll get there. You can't let him win, you can't take it easy on him. But, logan, I do give every guest this opportunity at the end of every show.
Speaker 2:I'm going to give you about a minute, if there's anything you want to get out there, anything you've got going on that you want to promote, or even if it's just a good message. I'm going to give you about a minute and the floor is yours. Honestly, I just want to. The main thing that I can say is, if you have this idea of what you want to do and what you want to be, don't let anybody tell you that you can't be it. I grew up a small town kid playing baseball. Everyone's always asked me oh, what's plan B? There isn't a plan B. This is the only plan there is. And if you have and find a great support system Like I have two parents that, no matter what, any time of the day, I could call them they're going to pick up the phone and find time for me, and I have friends that are the same way and I mean it's all. It's all nothing, though, without finding your faith. And that's kind of the biggest thing that drives me is how can I pursue that?
Speaker 1:Dude, that's awesome. I'm all for helping people uh promote, but when there's a good message like that to end the show, there's no better way for that, and you are a hundred% right with everything you just said there too as well. But that is actually going to do it for this week's episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast. Again, I want to thank my guest, logan Bell, for coming on. This was a lot of fun to get to sit and talk with you and talk a lot of baseball and everything like that and what you got going on. Appreciate you coming on and as Talk a lot of baseball and everything like that and what you got going on. Appreciate you coming on and, as always, if you enjoyed the show, be a friend, tell a friend. If you didn't tell them anyways, because they might like it just because you didn't. That's going to do it for me and I will see y'all next week.
