Episode 202 - Goldeye

We are joined by Trevor Curl, the radio play-by-play of the Winnipeg Goldeyes. We talk about Trevor's background, the American Association and his broadcasting influences. Also hear what the experience at a Goldeyes game is like and what Trevor says is his Proffitt & Loss.

Make sure to follow the Goldeyes online.

Winnipeg Goldeyes -

Website: https://www.goldeyes.com/

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Trevor Curl -

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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/trevorcurl9 (@TrevorCurl9)

Earned Fun Average -
 
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Curved Brim Media -

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Transcript

0:17

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Earned Fun Average Podcast. I'm your host Eric Profit, coming to you from Wichita, Kansas, and with me as always. I have, Johnny Boland tonight from the, uh, Bayou Broadcast Center. And is known worldwide as Lake Charles Gumbo. Gators super fan. Well, Johnny, I know both you and I are excited for this one. It's been a little bit, but we're going back to the American Association. So, uh, we have a special guest with us. We have Trevor Curl with us. How are you, Trevor? Good guys. Johnny Barrick. Thank you guys for having me on. Uh, really excited to talk about some Goldeyes baseball and a little bit about the American Association as well. Perfect. Well, I did want to jump right into, so you kind of mentioned the name, but would you mind sharing again with everybody who you work for and what you do for the team in independent professional baseball, please. Yeah, absolutely. I am the radio and I guess on streaming side play by play broadcaster for the Winnipeg Goldeyes in the American Association. team has been in the American Association since the early 2000 tens, uh, was originally a part of the Northern League back in 1994 in the inaugural season. So, the goldeyes itself has been around for a little over 30 years now. but it's, uh, time in the American Association is a little bit shorter compared to a lot of the other teams that either were initiated into the league or joined in as the, uh, the quote unquote independent leagues. Were slowly starting to kind of either, not just go away, but start to morph together. So the old Northern League then became, Disbanded. So the American Association took a ton of those teams and the goldeyes were among them and ended up winning a championship in 2012 to open up their time in the league. So it, it really is special to be a part of an organization that has 30 years of history. Which is something that isn't exactly all that common, especially in the partner league ranks that there is now. my job is pretty much self-explanatory. I do play by play for all 100 games of the irregular season, plus preseason games and postseason games. You can find all those broadcasts either on the American Association streaming, which is AA baseball tv, or the flagship, uh, radio station, for Winnipeg called CJ nnu, 93.7 fm. I love it. Well, I do appreciate you sharing a little bit there. Uh, one of the things we'll do, and obviously we'll talk about the team and the league a little bit more here in a minute, but I'd like to kick off talking about a favorite hat. So do you have a favorite hat that gold eyes wear, or maybe you had a favorite team growing up? Any, uh, hat you wouldn't mind describing for us? Yeah, I'll, uh, I'll do a two for here. Um, I'll start with the gold eyes. Um, I'll do their, uh, can day hats, which is. Which is very unique for Canada itself. There's only one team in the American Association from Canada, and that's the Winnipeg Goldeyes. And so this year was our first game back on Canadian soil for Canada Day since goodness maybe. 2018 or something. So this year it was very special. We actually got to have one of our fans, part of our junior fan club design, the jerseys and the caps that the players wore this year. I got to meet him. He is a really nice kid. Family was really cool. We talked a lot, during the rest of the season, but the hat that we wore is, it's somewhere in my closet right now, but it's a, uh, a black hat or not black, a red hat. On the Brim bread hat around the outside except for the, the front of the crown, which is white, and it has our angry fish logo with its swinging an American flag bat. And that was a huge, sell at the pro shop, the team store this year. It was a really fun, uh, unique look that all the other teams in the league being in America, they kind of had their own like little 4th of July, like little frill. But for us we got to do a whole, you know, Jersey and hat to the only team in Canada. So that was really unique and that was a fun, uh, hat. This year we actually wore it a couple of games, so it wasn't just for the one game. Guys really loved it. They loved the hats. It was new era too, so. that got a little extra love as well. And then I grew up as a Seattle Mariner fan, so one of my favorite caps was the, uh, the old school Navy brand with the all teal cap. Like you probably last saw that sometime in the mid nineties, probably like 94, 95. those two probably would be the hats that stand out to me the most that I would have in my, uh, in my rotation. I love it. Yeah. When this episode drops, what we may do, if you have a picture of that hat you could send over, we could share it with everybody.'cause that does seem like a really cool hat that you're describing that the goldeyes we're using. Yeah, it's, it's for sure, it's super unique. Um, like, you know, when you're the only team in Canada, you really kind of get it to dig into that pride a little bit more. And yeah, it was a sold out game. Our pitcher, I ended up getting married. The morning of the game and he ended up throwing a complete game shutout. So it was Wow. A surreal day for him too. And yeah, it was just a fun day in general. It was probably one of the best crowds we had all year too. Mr. Bullen, what hat do you have today, sir? Well, after he's been married a while, there'll probably some extra zip on the fast ball uh, in celebration today. Today has mean days. The the night we're recording three Kings Day, day of the epiphany, day of carnival season, or commonly if you looked at my Facebook feed King cake day. So in celebration of carnival season, all of the above three Kings Day, I had to go. New Orleans baby cake. He just couldn't go on the start of this season. I mean, I've seen one, it had to, it seemed like 1 billion king cakes on Facebook today. hard to find them in this if we've document hard to find them. Uh. And it's part of Mississippi. We're kind of north. Uh, our friends at Kroger carry a particular brand, so you can get one, an hour away. the start of King cake season, not. A diabetic friendly product. Right. They are delicious. Yeah. I think I had mentioned that last year. I think I went try to find one here in Wichita and I couldn't find it. I think we're a little too far north. I'd have to go somewhere on some website to order one to get one here. So yeah, I definitely can't find any here if you can't really find them that often there in Mississippi. we're. Just north enough, I think to kind of, be out of the, grocery stores, you know, and we, we don't have any local stores, even in the Tupelo market that are, that have affiliate stores, but other south. like I said, Kroger carries, I think Gambinos, which is a pretty good king cake. And like you said, Eric, you have to order one really to get, other brands, other bakeries. but, uh, we had one made last year for my birthday from a food truck called a six. That king cake, I think, wa weighed 12 pounds and six ounces. It was ginormous. It was delicious. she didn't normally make king cakes. I think that we, we were her trial run. Hmm, okay. The husband and wife that owned this food truck and it was fantastic. I'm a, uh, you know, there's always that dispute. Are you a traditional cinnamon or a field cake guy? Mm-hmm. I like stuff in the cake and this had apple in it and it was, like I said, it was fantastic. So love it. Ginormous. Like I said, it was a, it was so big. The box, you couldn't close the box that came in. Mm-hmm. That's how big this cake was last year for the old man's birthday. So, um, happy, uh, happy, um, beginning of king cake season for those who celebrate today. There you go. For, for myself, I'm wearing the. Solos to dig Gwinnett hat. It's the, kind of the inverse of the normal Copa hat that the Gwinnett Stripers, the AAA of the Atlanta Braves wears. And this one is actually one that was designed by our friend Pat Larson. he, it's, uh, all blue and then has kind of a pink under brim and then kind of the side has a, a new era in kind of a pink, but yeah, this one they typically have a little bit different color way to it. But, Patrick designed this and so, uh, I got this hat going on, so I got the Gwinnett Stripers, Copa hat today. You know, your big time when you design products for AAA football, just so you, that's all right. Well, Trevor, I'd want to get a little bit of, of your background if we can. So obviously you said with, you're with the gold eye, so how long have you been with them? And then prior to going to, uh, Winnipeg, uh, did you have anything else you've been doing in sports at all? Yeah. So, this is gonna be my third season with the Gold Eyes. I started in 2024. this last year in 25 was my second season. So kind of my, uh, my sophomore season in professional baseball. I played collegiate baseball, Juco, NAIA level, made my way, just through California and then into eastern Oregon. And after my time in college ball, I really wanted to still stay with baseball, stay connected somehow. And I knew that broadcasting was always something that I was either not just interested in, but also I was already practicing it. at my second school at, uh, my NAI out in Eastern Oregon, uh, I did some volleyball play by play, football, basketball, men's, women's, uh, soccer as well. So just kind of to really get my feet wet into what actual broadcasting is and, uh, sports that I didn't really. Have a full grasp as a player in other than maybe soccer, but football, just from watching on TV and listening to, uh, the radio broadcasters. Same with basketball and, soccer. So it's really just kind of immersing myself as best as possible, just going right into the deep end. But baseball, I've always kind of had just an understanding better just because of a player, obviously. the broadcasting side of it, like those first couple of, games that I did, they were sloppy. They were really rough. It's hard to go back and listen to those, But I got my start really in this league that's called the Old North State League out in North Carolina. Uh, you guys may have done a couple of things with them, maybe. Uh, there's so many teams now, but when I first was there, it was in 2022, they were still kind of growing their legs out, and at the time I believe it was just an 18 league, so there was a west and east division. Now it's like, I think there's almost like 20 teams now. It's really just expanded and they've done such a great job of promoting and making that league as big as possible. But at the time. I was one of the, four teams in the West Division, and this was a team that was called the Swep Sweepers Great name. Uh, all these names that they have nowadays are fantastic. but it was just as bare bones as a set up as possible. It was just a tripod. My phone, my laptop had the score bug and everything, and it was just straight up in the swamps of North Carolina. I think maybe we were what? Maybe 15, 20 ish miles south of like Durham, Greensboro area. So somewhere in between there. it was a really cool experience. I had friends who were in the Cape. I had friends who were into the New England Collegiate Baseball League and you know, those guys really got like a much better kind of like experience I guess. Like they had a little bit more, um. Like professionalism there in those places. But then, here it was just really kind of just getting your reps in. Maybe there's 15 people in attendance. It's just have fun, enjoy the moment and uh, just keep getting your reps in. So that was about 35 ish games there in North Carolina. The second year I was up in the perfect game, collegiate Baseball League in upstate New York, and that was with the Auburn double days. So they used to be a part of the New York Penn League. And that pretty much, that entire league was former New York Penn League teams. And that league got, uh, scraped together, uh, the perfect Game league. It was because of COVID. All those teams that we used to be an affiliated ball, those were all short season Since MLB decided that they didn't need the whole short season in general, a lot of those teams and leagues were pretty much without a home Perfect game. Came in and took over a lot of those teams out there in upstate New York area. So that was another 40 ish games or so that season. Another good experience, a little bit more of a step up, at least like talent wise, it was a little bit more Division one players, some division two. Some higher JUCO guys. but it was still just working on getting to where I wanted to get to. And that was just professional baseball in general. It didn't really matter to me if it was minor league baseball or the, uh, partner league route. It was just get into pro ball as soon as possible and just go from there. So, I'm gonna backtrack a little bit. So, after the 2022 season in North Carolina, I ended up going to the baseball winter meetings. That was in, uh, San Diego this year. They were in Orlando. but at the time when they were back in San Diego, it's just, you go in, I don't know if you guys have really been to the winter meetings before, if you guys have kind of heard about what that whole experience is like, but it just basically you're in a hotel lobby of, I think it was the, uh, the Hyatt. Regency, I think in San Diego, just off the water in downtown. it's just full of baseball media members, guys with MLB network credentials, E-S-P-N-A-B-C sports, um, the entire baseball world under one roof. You know, executives are there. managers are there. Agents are there. I remember Scott Boris had a media scrum and it was just, people are kind of elbowing each other just to get their microphones in a little bit closer so they can hear what's going on. there's this little mix up. At the patios outside. And I ended up going out there introducing myself to pretty much anybody I could talk to. And it just happened to be the commissioners of the American Association. We're at this table handing my business card and, just tell'em, you know, this is what I plan to do in the future and I'm going to New York of this, uh, this season, but hopefully in the future we can reconnect. So after the 23 season was over, sent all my reels and my, uh. Anything else I needed to, to send to the guys at, uh, the, American Association with their commissioners. They sent it out to San Kate's, our owner of the Goldeyes. And the next thing you know, I'm a 23-year-old kid who's, uh, going to Winnipeg to broadcast professional baseball for the first time. That's awesome. I appreciate you sharing a little background on yourself there. one thing I did want to then talk about, obviously with mention the American Association here is just a little bit about the league. So, you know, you and I chatted briefly offline and I have a little familiarity with it. So here from 2008 to 2018, we had the Wichita Wing nuts, which were part of the American Association. So I'm sure there was plenty of times that we got to see the goldeyes, play here or they went up there, I'm sure. But, one of the things Wichita did, and I'd be curious to see if Winnipeg kind of does it now, obviously maybe not everybody was kind of whacking crazy is what like the St. Paul Saints were before they became mm-hmm. Affiliated, but a lot of. Kind of promotions and different stuff that you can do now. Obvious it like as far as like for the fans and stuff. So would you mind first just kind of sharing a little bit about, kind of the fan experience for those that do get to see the Gold Ice play and then just kind of your overall thoughts.'cause obviously for me, I loved watching the American Association, so just kind of talk a little bit about the league itself as well. Yeah. So we'll start with the league. I can't remember the exact year when the American Association was established, but, over the last couple of years, the American Association, along with the Atlantic League, the Pioneer League and the Frontier League, all four of those leagues decided to go under the umbrella of Major League baseball and law. This has to be with the help of the Major League Commissioner, Rob Manfred, is that his idea was that these leagues shouldn't be competing with Major League Baseball. They should be helping. Major League Baseball really should be helping grow the sport of baseball in general. You know, because Major league, you know, baseball, US baseball guys we're competing with basketball detention. Football's attention, hockey's attention, especially up in Canada. So the idea was that to form a umbrella underneath Major League Baseball. So that's where the name Partner League comes from. So scrapping away of the independent leagues and turning into the partner league. So that Major League baseball has a bit of a helping hand in the whole process. So. The American Association in general, in my personal opinion, has one of the strongest foundations. Out of the four, uh, we have some of the best streaming in the partner league atmosphere in general, aa, baseball, tv. You can watch every single game of the season live for free. No paywall. That was something that was implemented my first year in 2024. It allows fans to not just be able to watch their team, but also for family members to watch their players.'cause that's, you know, who the biggest audience is for a lot of these guys is their friends and families. On top of that, you have the travel, which is not as bad as it is like in the Atlantic League, where you've gotta go all the way up and down to Eastern Seaboard. for us it's a little bit chaotic, going from the border crossing in Canada down all the way to Texas. But depending on the schedule, it's not too bad. The Frontier League probably has the hardest schedule out of anyone.'cause you could be in like, outside of Chicago and need to go all the way up to like Quebec or something, or to, uh, Troy Servie. So it really kind of does add up. Extra, you know, LA as to the Frontier League, but us and the American Association, it's really good competition as well. Uh, former big leaguers litter the league. Usually it's, uh, Kansas City Monarchs players who are, kind of the big former big leaguer teams. Uh, Cleburne, railroaders have been like that. Uh, as of recently. Uh, the Gold Eyes, we had Zach Reiner and, uh, Jacob Robson to, for Robson. He was a Team Canada guy. So, the talent is there. This league is so unique in that aspect where you could have guys who had historic big league careers wanna keep on playing, or you have kids who just graduated from college or just got done playing college and are just looking for any sort of opportunity to play in a very competitive, league. Logan Watkins was our manager. He used to play for Wichita back in the day. he asked me my first day when I got to Winnipeg. He said, are you ready for this? And I'm like, I, I'm ready for this. I just don't know what to expect. And he just said, it's pretty much somewhere between the line of high aid and AA baseball. and if you can play well in our league, you could play well anywhere. And we have a kid, his named Jason Cruz, who's in the, uh, San Francisco Giants organization who batted over 300 last two years in our league. And now he's on the doorstep right now. Could possibly crack the major league roster or the 40 man. for the Giants next year. So it really kind of shows you, uh. What our league is about. And then, for Winnipeg specifically, I mean, just being in Canada and being the only Canadian team, we also have one of the biggest cities in the league. So Winnipeg has a, just about a million, people outside of the, uh, perimeter or inside and outside of the perimeter. So we have the opportunity to be in the quote unquote major market. That's where the Winnipeg Jets come into play. You know, that's a NHL team. Winnipeg Glue Bombers are a good CFL team. Winnipeg is a pretty darn good sports town, especially over the last few years with the Jets. Uh, but the goldeyes have probably had the most success there. four championship banners flip between the Northern League and the American Association. great ballpark. Blue Cross Park, gorgeous, right in the heart of downtown, not that far away from the Forks, which is a place where you can go out, drink beers, get food, easy walk to the ballpark. The hotels are not too far away from downtown. The team hotel is about a 15 minute walk from the ballpark. Everyone loves doing that. After games, they wrap up. They can just walk to the hotel instead of having to wait for the bus. Or they can get to the ballpark as early as possible if they want to. It's just right there. I mean, it really is a part of our central location, and there's not a whole lot of, teams in our league who kind of have that ability where you could walk from the ballpark to get food and go back to your hotel all within the course of like an hour. what's also special about the goldeyes is how great or how, smoothly run the organization is. Uh, our general manager, Andrew Collier, just does such a good job because a lot of our guys coming from the us, they have to. Have a work permit in order to play for the goldeyes, and that doesn't come easy, and those things are complicated as all heck. But Andrew, he's been doing this for his entire life, pretty much with the goldeyes now since, uh, since he started working for Winnipeg. I don't even remember when he took over the general manager job, but. He's been doing this for so long. He's one executive of the year for so many reasons, and it's just how smoothly run the organization is from the top all the way down to the guys on the field. It's just a top-notch organization. There's a reason why guys wanna come play in Winnipeg and a lot of teams circle that trip on their calendar just so they can come up to us. So. Being a part of the goldeyes is a really unique opportunity. And, uh, the players who know our league understand that it is a one of the best places to play just because the fan turnout too. It's on a, you know, random Tuesday or Wednesday night in, let's say like middle of June, we're still getting almost 3000 people in. Wow. Easily, easily. And then on the weekends, firework Fridays, we're probably getting a little over 5K and that's just kind of business as usual for these guys. So. They gotta know they know what they're doing. They've been doing this for so long and it just continues to evolve. As you know, baseball evolves. Yeah. Obviously you had mentioned real briefly the Kansas City Monarch. So since Wichita no longer has the wing nuts here in the American Association, the closest I have about three hours south. Of Kansas City. So went up there and saw them when they were the T-Bones, and then they obviously mm-hmm. Rebranded a few years back to the Monarchs and we tried to get up to at least a game or two, per season. And you're right, they seem to have quite a few, big leaguers or ex big leaguers that have played for them. So, and then was Logan Watkins, did he play for Cleburne? No, he was just the manager for Cleburne. So he was a hitting coach in 21, and then midway through the season, he became the manager was there for 21, 22, 23, made the playoffs In all those years, they decided to part ways in prior to 24, and then that's when, uh. Logan came up to Winnipeg and he's really loved the experience so far. Good. Yeah. Obviously you mentioned Wichita, his ties there, so I was familiar with him. Uh, speaking of a little ties to the, uh, gold eyes, John, I know you have a little story you've told, so I'll let you hop in here. Well, you know, I, I was just sitting here thinking I've actually seen CFL football in person back in the nineties. Uh, you know, there was a one year season. The CFL expanded into United States? Well, the stallions, Baltimore stallions, I think were around for two seasons, so I actually saw my hometown Birmingham Barracuda, great name in unis, won't get into that, played the Defending Gray Cup champions. They were the only team outside of Canada, of course, to ever win a gray cup. The Baltimore stallions. So I have seen CFL football and thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it was a very, very fun brand of football. in 2021, because of some COVID travel restrictions, the gold eyes played several games in Jackson, Tennessee. Mm-hmm. So I got to see the gold eyes host. Those Chicago dogs. So I've actually seen the gold eyes, in person and we had a blast. My only disappointment, Trevor, from that experience, I was hoping there'd be some gold eye merch in their little store. Mm-hmm. and they had all this great, of course, you know, they had been dissolved, the Jackson Journals had been dissolved in 2020. So they brought out all this great west Tennessee diamond Jack. Mm-hmm. For what? And, and the store was packed and I left with some diamond jack, couple of diamond jacks hats. And I remember asking the lady at, at the counter, I said, you have any gold eyes? Hats? Any anything gold eyes, I can leave Jackson, Tennessee with, you know. Yeah, I don't know if they put any, uh, I don't know if they shipped any merchandise down there. Yeah, that was a, uh, that was a wild time. That was just right before where I got a couple of years before I got there. But, uh, you know, hearing some of the stories of the players of how that experience was, they said they actually enjoyed it because it was, it was still, they can get back to traveling, which was, they, they didn't do that really in 2020 at all. They were stuck in Fargo, in these pod cities. but that season where they opened up in Jackson for half the year, they said it was. Pretty darn unique because they were just able to enjoy what Tennessee had to offer. And then midway through the season, they head back up to Canada. And that was a fun, uh, fun little trip for those guys for that 21 years. So, as wild as it was, it's pretty cool that there's some ties that the goldeyes have all the way out there in the southeast. it was, it was really fun, a chance to see two teams you, you wouldn't normally get to see in person. I got to stand for the Canadian National Anthem for the first time in my life. And, uh, my wife said, why are you putting your hand over your heart? I said, it's the Canadian National Anthem. You know, uh, it's a, it's a good anthem. I'll say. We've got a couple of, uh, really good anthem singers that make it a really fun experience when you go north of the border. We, so I, yeah, that, yeah. I just thought, I've seen the CFL in person a million years ago, and then of course the American Association with the Goldeyes. Trevor, I wanted to ask you, who are some of your broadcasting heroes? Some, some guys or gals you look up to as sort of models that you may have patterned parts of your career on. So I think the, uh, probably the bedrock of that would be Rick Riz of the Mar of the Seattle Mariners. he was a broadcast partner with Dave Nehouse, which is Ford c Frick Winter. You know, they always know for my, oh my, that stuff. But, Rick, I've been listening to him on the radio since I was probably five years old, just kind ingesting his, uh, storytelling and his unique way of, Describing the game and the action and everything else around it. so him, Aaron Goldsmith, who's the current Mariners broadcaster. I love his booming voice. It's kind of just his, his is very unique just because it kind of feels like it. He takes a little bit of like hockey and soccer that like long calls that he has on certain home runs or diving plays. and then away from the Mariners, Brian Anderson, who does games for the. brewers and then TBS in the postseason. I think he is absolutely incredible. When you wanna talk about fundamentals of broadcasting and having smooth mechanics, I think he's probably one of the best in the business and he's been doing it for, you know, how many years too. So, uh, he's up there. I know Joe Buck's a lot of unnecessary flack, but I. Thoroughly miss hearing him on, uh, on Fox. I truly love the way he describes games. I think he's the perfect example of being as simple as possible and for us, I think there's kind of a line of, if you really said what you wanted to say. You would not be saying as much as you do on error in reality. I think there's just such a simplicity that Joe Buck brings to games that, you know, I was listening to him on Saturday when the Seahawks were playing the 49 ERs was like, I, I miss that. He, you just don't get that anymore. Joe Davis does a great job on Fox, but I still love Joe Buck as much as possible. a little bit of a less known one. His name's Mike Monaco. He does games for ESPN some football. He's done some Red Sox stuff on, uh, Nessen a couple of times, but. He's been kind of more of a mentor for me over the last few years. I met him back when I was 19 years old. He was doing games up in Seattle for the Junior League Softball World Series. I ended up just sitting in on about a week's worth of his broadcasts and he's been a really, really helpful hand on helping me kind of carve my way through the industry so far. He's just got such a sharpness to his voice and I really love listening to him. I hope he gets more games in the Major league level soon. Uh, he does some ESPN stuff, especially for the Little League World Series. So he usually does the international games while Ravich and, uh, I can't remember who else is on that, uh, on that slate. Does the US side. I think for him, just because of the personal connection that we have, anytime I want him to listen to something, I'll send it his way and he'll get back to me within a day or two. And he's really good about like dissecting the call and the just the whole mechanics of everything and telling me things that I did well on, things that I can improve on. And then just his knowledge too. He's been in my shoes before. He was a guy who went to Notre Dame and was, you know, very. Recently in my shoes, I think he's just a little over 30 years old right now, so he's still extremely young and. Having someone who one can I can look up to and then two, be able to ask him advice or you know, just message him kind of outta the blue about anything. And he's so good about being able to get back to me, it just kind of feels like that passing the torch of a connection in a way. So if there's a kid who's. Wanting to send stuff to me. I'll listen to it and I'll send back my critique as well.'cause just, it's really good to find when other broadcasters help out other broadcasters because they know the shoes that you're in and they know where you want to get to and they will wanna see you succeed as well. Oh wow. That's a great answer. My final question, how much of is it a challenge in today's broadcasting? Because for several years, as you know, we're in the era of the outrageous sports talk. The Mac, well, McAfee and the Stephen a Smiths and others that have such an influence. Do you find that as a challenge? I mean, how much of that element can a professional broadcaster in your line of work? Is it, is it a challenge of, do I wanna be a little more outlandish, outspoken, like. The sports taught world or more professional announcer? Is that a challenge for you? Yeah, I think, uh, I think the biggest difference is the dollar sign that's in front of their paychecks. That usually, uh, that usually allows them to be a little bit more outlandish, like, you know, Stephen a and Pat McAfee. But in reality, those guys have a completely different job than I do. Those guys are Getting paid to be on that outlandish side. You're kind of hoping for that wild reaction. You know, I, the job I work at right now, I'm pretty much listening to Pat McAfee 24 7 at this point. I don't know how much I love it or not. I've liked Pat. He's a good dude. but really his job is just so much different than mine. Him and Steven, a, both of their jobs are. More sports debate talk or just sports talk in general? Uh, my job is describing what's happening on the field itself and the play by play and the storytelling element. it's just, it's a, it's a very different line of broadcast. Um, for mine especially. I think like there's, uh. As a broadcaster, there's certain things that you feel like you wanna say on air, but like at the same time, I don't have the credibility to say that, that say all those other guys who I just recently, me, Jim, like Mike and uh, and Rick and Aaron and all those other guys, Brian, those guys all have so much more credibility that if they say something that's a little bit more maybe on the. Edge of risky side, they can kind of get away with that just because of who they are and their broadcasting, you know, their credentials. For me, I'm a partner league broadcaster, so I still absolutely think my word is worth something, but at the same time, it's uh, it's not really about the outlandish try to get on, the SPN for just saying this outlandish, wacky, description, but it's more of just trying to be as, uh. As unique of a broadcaster as I can be, but still like telling the story of the game itself. So like, I think if there's a difference between a one nothing game in the seventh inning in a, you know, high stakes leverage spot versus maybe a 13 to three blowout middle of the fifth inning, cut the deal. I think there's a little bit of a difference where that's when you can go into maybe that more of that sports talking side where you can kind of just more talk about stories and then the game's kind of happening. Yeah, it really just comes down to time and place really. if you are in that high leverage moment, you wanna be locked in on the game as possible and try to avoid like the silly goofiness, just sides of things, just having a feel for that thing. But then it's like those big blowout games where you're just now trying to really kind of kill some time and just eat out the clock if you can. Uh, I think honestly the biggest challenge in modern day baseball right now is the pitch clock. at least for broadcasting side of it.'cause I'll go back to. 2022, even the last year where we didn't have a clock, just looking at all those games and just feeling it drag out and those long affairs where it's just like, good night. It's, or almost at midnight, it's almost tomorrow and we're still got two and a half innings to play. the game is speed up for the best reasons, but at the same time, it doesn't allow as much color or as much storytelling as I would like it to be. Sometimes, like, I can't tell you how many times I've started a story. Five pitches later, there's already two outs, and the guy's on a one two count. And that just, you know, that's just part of the game nowadays. It's just, it's gotten so much faster and you kind of have to keep up with that pace. But in a way, it also kind of allows you to really kind of decide which topics are more important that we need to hammer today. So those are the notes I make in my book where it's like, okay, these are the things I need to talk about immediately because these are important and I want to not just get'em outta the way, but also frame'em in a specific way. These are the stories that I would like to kind of hold out for if it is those blowout games, like talk about, Jacob Robson's, time in the world, baseball plastic, kind of his perspective on everything. While it is relevant in those tight games, those big blowout games, you can go a little bit more in depth to those stories. Or maybe it's a guy who was telling me about his time in high school where he was. Doing all, playing all three sports at the same time and having practices from Monday to Friday and each day he has multi-sport practices. Like those are great stories, but time and place in a two, one type game in the eighth, maybe not so friendly as. 16 to 13, you know, blowout affair, you know, nothing's happening and we're all just, all right, let's just keep throwing strikes and let's just get outta here. All right. I haven't had dinner since six o'clock, so let's go. Right, for sure. Well, Trevor, one of the, uh, segments we talk about towards the end is the profit and the loss and the profit's something you gained or earned. Maybe that was a favorite Mariners player or team growing up that you enjoyed watching, or maybe a favorite gold eyes moment, any profit or gain you can think of. Mm-hmm. We'll start with the prop. We'll start at the very, very top here. I'll do one mariner, one, one gold. I just keep it consistent. Uh, can I do that to start the episode? So that's it with like that, yeah, I'll go. Having the pleasure of being able to watch the whole, pretty much the entire Mariner career of each of Rose Suzuki as a kid. I was born in 2000. He made his debut in Seattle in oh one. And there's no player I've ever connected with more than Ichiro. just his presence on the field, everything he did from the way he took care of his equipment to the way he just walked around, he carried himself, his attention to little details. I mean, there really was not a player quite like him at the time that he showed up. And, uh, I was captivated by it. And he's the guy who. Pretty much turned my entire, you know, baseball world upside down. he was the one who really kind of pushed, not really him, but more or less just watching him play really pushed me into, uh, wanting to really love baseball more and more and more, and watching a guy who just, carried his self the way he did. Uh, same thing kinda with Felix as well later on, but, you know, getting a chance to watch a Hall of Famer who you got to see, say that you probably watched the bulk of his career. That was really special to me. I know there's a lot of older kids who grew up in Seattle who've gotta say that about Griffey. I've just missed on, on those, uh, those years. And, you know, the Ichiro legacy kind of still lives on, in, in the city. then the second one on that, uh, it'll just be just getting an opportunity to be with the gold eyes. there's such a great organization. I mentioned that so many times tonight, but it's just every time I say it, the more it rings true. they just treat their players so well. They treat their organization front office staff so well. you know, there's that true manitoban friend, you know, friendly. Manitoba is on the license plate for a reason. Uh, I've been asked to go to dinners at families houses. When I've been there for the season, uh, I've been asked to join in celebrations for weddings or, uh, whether it be, uh, birthday parties, et cetera. It's such a great culture there. like I said, it goes beyond baseball. It goes beyond my job, the connections I've made there. Just as people, you know, I, there might be a time where I might not be broadcasting within the next 20, 30 years, but I'll know that those connections that I made. Over the last few years are gonna live on for the rest of my life. and there's just so many great things about, you know, that organization that doesn't get talked about too, from the guys in the, uh, the training room, the guys in the, the clubby room. I mean, it really just goes top to bottom. It's top class. It's, there's a reason why guys wanna continue to play in Winnipeg. There's a reason why I like broadcasting in Winnipeg. The crowd is fantastic. I've had the. Pleasure of broadcasting championship series. I've had the pleasure of having clinching calls and you know, the first year of my broadcasting career we got to go to the championship series and that meant something to me. It really showed that. I can do this, which, you know, a couple of years ago I was stuck in imposter syndrome. I didn't know if I belonged at this level. And I know that I do belong and I know that I continue to make strides going forward. and just, you know, it's just trusting and believing in myself and the people who I've made contacts with who also have that same trust in me. it. Appreciate you sharing that. What about the flip side, the loss? Would that be, you know, this year's Mariners team who I thought had a good shot of getting there? Yeah. Cal Rowley getting robbed for not winning the al MVP this year? He definitely should have won that. I mean, we can, first of all very briefly touch on that. you know, both him and judge were both deserving of it. the judge had a, just a monster season. Cal had a monster season. Doing what he's doing as a catcher I think should have been enough, but at the same time, the numbers that judge put up were just simply that good as well. that would've been, I think that's the one thing that all Mariner fans and Yankee fan. At least the reasonable Yankee fans could agree on that. You know, what, if we had a co MVP this year, I don't think, don't think there would've been a lot of angry, uh, angry faces. And certainly the buzz around the Winter leagues was, the winter meetings was kind of the same deal of, you know, what if both guys won MVP, I think everyone in the base world would've liked it. I mean that Mariner loss was pretty tough. That was a, that was a twist of the nail. honestly, the biggest loss for me was just the season ending. Maybe seven games early. Yeah, just not being able to call postseason baseball again. for the goldeyes we missed out and it wasn't like it was a bad season, it just. Just tough results. Like, uh, I was hearing one of our veteran players talk about the way the season went. He is like, I've been on bad teams. This was not a bad team. This was just a team that just couldn't find a way to push a win across. And that does matter at the end of the day. But, I think it also at the same time kind of shows you how hard it is to win baseball games in general. Yeah. I mean, not just the major league level, but just professional baseball in general. Like your pitcher has to be on that day. Your hitting court has to be on that day. You know, we have the hardest travel schedule of anyone in the league. We go. Uh, we went one day from Milwaukee to Sioux Falls from a one o'clock game that ended around four o'clock, got on the bus around five, drove all the way through the night to Sioux Falls, had to play an 11:00 AM game the next day. Mm-hmm. I know, like, but somehow team found a way to win that game. Like I said, baseball's hard, but at the same time, it's um. You know, you look back on those moments and you say, man, this was still a fun season. Like, I didn't know, the only thing I lost was seven more games that I got to maybe not call, but at the end of the day, I know I'm going back this, uh, this next spring and I'll, you know, whatever happened last year is certainly in the rear view mirror. But I'm just so focused on, what's gonna happen in the future that I'm just. Trying to enjoy the last few months of kind of relaxing out here in St. Pete, the beach. I just went to the beach earlier today and I was just sitting with my feet in the sand, 75 degrees and realizing that this is the last few weeks I get of, you know, calm off season before the craziness of a season starts. And, certainly ready to get back to it. Right now. It's, uh, it's already been too long as it is. Well, Trevor, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on getting to talk a little bit about you and your background and then of course talking about the American Association. besides having a passport, uh, where can people go if they wanted to get up to see a Gold Eyes game, the website to get like tickets or get the gear? Uh, where can they follow along on the website and as well as social media if you have the handles? Yeah, so Goldeyes, you can go to goldeyes.com. And you could find our website right there. We have a couple of headings. You can go to tickets. So if you are happening to be in Winnipeg or Manitoba, later this summer, go find your way down to our ticket account. Go make yourself an account and go join the action at Blue Cross Park. our schedule's also there as well, so if you wanna find us on the road, were pretty much all, all along the, uh, upper Midwest. So, you know, Chicago area, Gary, south Shore, Indiana. Kansas City Fargo. I mean, we're a lot of places out there. so many teams to name off the top of my head. and then for my Twitter, you can just type my name up in the header, Trevor Kroll. And my name should be there. It's me with a microphone. So it's, uh, it's not the most flattering of pictures, but it's to the point. Like, you know, what you're getting into, go to goldeyes, uh, Twitter as well. And just so you can find clips of our season last year, we try to highlight and put videos up as much as possible so folks who can, uh, who don't get a chance to go up and see a gold eyes game, can find a way to stay connected with the ball club. I Well, I appreciate you sharing all that. So yeah, make sure you guys get out there. If you get a chance to get up to Canada, check out a Goldeyes game or if they're on the road. I know we have some friends that are season ticket holders for like the Chicago dogs and one that lives pretty close to the railroaders down there in Cleaver. And so hopefully someone will get a chance to see you guys either at home or on the road. And then make sure you guys check us out as well. We're earn fund average. Average is a VG. We're on Instagram, Twitter, and blue sky. One more time, Trevor. Really appreciate it. Thank you for your time today. Absolutely. Thank you guys for having me. A lot of fun. Uh, best wishes. Hope you guys have a fun rest of your, uh, fun rest of your year. We're off to a good start in 26 North America, lower your standards average is what these guys do best.