Winston & Blakk present ...Entertain The Thought
Winston & Blakk present ...Entertain The Thought
Baseball Dreams & High Altitude Schemes: Trinidad's Triggers Tale
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Step into the vibrant world of independent baseball with us, as we chat with Kimberly Schultz and Andrew Dunn, two pivotal figures in the Pecos League's journey to Trinidad, Colorado. Kimberly, who transitioned from leading the local Chamber of Commerce to helping establish the Trinidad Triggers, shares her inspiring journey alongside Andrew, the visionary commissioner of the Pecos League. Together, they reveal how they cultivated a thriving baseball culture in smaller towns, transforming the Trinidad Triggers from an idea into a reality TV sensation. Expect to learn about the challenges they overcame, the community's vital role, and the unique dynamics of running a team in high-altitude areas.
Discover the evolving landscape of baseball's minor league system, as we uncover how independent teams like the Trinidad Triggers offer crucial opportunities for player development amid industry changes. We discuss the impact of the Minor League Minimum Wage Act and MLB's consolidation of teams, and how independent leagues fill the gap for aspiring players. Hear about success stories, such as Eric Yardley’s rise from the Triggers to the major leagues, and explore international partnerships that are opening new avenues for athlete growth.
Our conversation also dives into the cultural shifts in Trinidad, contrasting the rise of marijuana legalization with the enduring heritage of local baseball. We discuss the economic and cultural impacts on local businesses, particularly in the dispensary sector, and how these changes parallel the transformation of sports culture in the area. From innovative merchandise strategies, like the famed pink jerseys, to community engagement surrounding the Pecos League, this episode celebrates resilience, creativity, and the spirit of community embedded in the heart of Trinidad and beyond.
The Pecos League
Speaker 1all right , the show is on the road today , guys , we are welcome back .
Speaker 2Trinidad colorado yeah , temi made a trip .
Speaker 1He came out this weekend yeah , man , I man , I'm loving it , I'm loving this community . Not only is it aesthetically pleasing , I am doing as the Romans do , so to speak , when I'm in Colorado , I am behaving like someone who is how do you say that Coloradoan .
Speaker 2Yeah , I think so .
Speaker 1Coloradoan .
Speaker 3That'll work .
Speaker 1People know what I'm talking about . Thank you guys for being with us today . We have some special guests here .
Speaker 3We have Kimberly Schultz with the Trinidad Triggers we also have Andrew Dunn , and Andrew is the commissioner of the Pecos League of Independent Baseball , owner of 16 teams .
Speaker 1So , yeah , I mean's , he's a busy guy . I am so grateful you guys for uh making time for us today . Um , we will . I'll jump right in . Uh what inspired you guys to become involved with the pecos league and like for you uh kimberly the trinidad Tigers , to be specific , triggers , my bad .
Speaker 3Sometimes they're tigers , you know it's okay .
Speaker 1My bad . My bad , it's the festivities of being in Colorado . So I mean , what inspired the ? What was the vision ? You know what role were you hoping to play . You know , in the grand scheme of , like the baseball layout , you know how was this supposed to relate to developing baseball . You know , in the grand scheme of of like the baseball layout of , you know how was this supposed to relate to developing baseball .
Speaker 3You know well , um , you know , I'll just open a little bit here and kind of start my story . I was the chamber of commerce um ceo in 2011 when , and Andrew Dunn walked into my office in downtown Trinidad . I was in the economic development game , trying to bring anything and everything to Trinidad that I possibly could to make a difference . The landscape of our economy looks a lot different than it does today . We had just come in and out of a mortgage crisis , a boom and bust cycle with our oil and gas industry , and so entertainment really was where it's at .
Speaker 3You know , people come to Trinidad and have a good time , and Andrew had just gotten off the ground with the Pecos League and he came to my office a few times . Finally , we had a conversation and he said let me bring you guys a baseball team . And I said , well , let's go to City Hall . And we did , and luckily , the city manager at the time was all about it , and the rest is really history . At that point , we played our inaugural game in May of 2012 against the Santa Fe Fuego , also a new team at that time . And here we are , andrew , please expand on that .
Speaker 4It's a great ballpark and it's evolved to fit right into what we were doing at that time we were small-town big time baseball and it fit right in . And it'll be in its 13th year . So , although we've gotten bigger in cities and bigger in certain things , I mean we still have our roots and it's the only Colorado team in our league and it's the most successful independent team in the state of Colorado . So , outside of the Rockies , the triggers are your options .
Speaker 3Wow , that's amazing that you say that .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's very interesting .
Speaker 3You know , and then Andrew had the opportunity to put a docudrama show in our laps in 2013 . Show in our laps in 2013 . It was originally slotted for Alamogordo , new Mexico . One of the first teams down there the Pupfish was ready to take that show on and things fell apart .
Speaker 4So Trinidad ultimately ended up with a six series docudrama that was the opener for fox sports one in 2014 wow , that's really cool when you , when you have new mexico , has um state filming commission and then they want to , they want to take money off of anything they can get much like mexico that's why they call it new mexico and um , they had a fee , they were going to charge the producers and we had one team in the state of colorado and and um , those guys said , hey , um , let's just do it over there . And although they filmed a lot of things in new mexico , the , the base which is where they do their filming off of , was in colorado and got a reality tv show a year later . And um , you know great players , and so I mean , it's all it's always worked out andrew says it has so much of somewhat of a uh , counterculture following .
Speaker 3Um , I thought it was just buried away in the archives and you know I was pleasantly surprised that people still watch it a lot of people see it , you'd be surprised we talked about that as well earlier , uh , when we were having a little pre-show , uh , conversation about the towns , or so it seems like across the league .
Speaker 1But I'm I've I researched trinidad a lot and the , the towns , the communities are really involved in these leagues , like not only watching , but like also involved in , you know , housing some of the players and like just involved in the development of the of the league period . Like how did you guys envision the reception like that ?
Speaker 4Like when you decided to make a team .
Speaker 1When you decided to make a team , when you decided to bring it .
Speaker 4Well , you , you , basically I came from the continental baseball league and , um , obviously the reason there is no more continental baseball league is because a lot of things didn't work and I went west on the i-25 corridor yeah , I would tell people we were in el pasoo to Denver League and basically one of the requirements is host families . For if you're going to offer these guys the minimum money that we were offering , you're going to have to offer them housing . If you're going to get any type of caliber of players and we did and we got good players but with no housing and with no buy-in , then why are these guys going to play baseball in these towns ? They can just stay in their local towns and play . There has to be something , a fan base . That's in an offering , you know , and that's that .
Speaker 1I mean , what kind of qualities do you guys look for when you're recruiting players , because I'm sure recruiting is a big part of it , right , like having to go find good quality players , you know high character guys that are , you know , worth the investment and that would actually buy into your process . I mean , what kind of qualities ?
Speaker 4Remember that we're playing . Ultimately , we're playing to sell tickets and to provide entertainment and to win games . Our fans that follow standings and want to go and win a playoff and want to do this . They're not just doing it . Of course we're developing the players . We've developed more players in Class B baseball than anybody in American history . But if it was a developmental league , we'd be in a backfield in Phoenix at spring training .
Speaker 4We're playing games with umpires , with with , to win games . So we're looking for the best players that fit within our rules and our guidelines , um which a lot of those were developed in alamogordo , new mexico , of a certain number of players at a certain number of age that are , that are prospects , and and trinidad's taken that a step further by bringing in these players from Mexico , which are even better . So I mean we follow a very strict guideline in what type of player fits our profile . If you will , we're looking for a guy that's right out of college , that's 22 or younger , 23 or younger and that is excited about playing here . We're not really looking for the 28-year-old , 29-year-old guy . He doesn't work in our league .
Speaker 2I just want to take a second and kind of have you guys explain what Pecos League is , because some people listening might not know the difference because it is professional baseball , correct ?
Speaker 4So Pecos League would be considered independent baseball . It's not affiliated with major league or minor league baseball . That is um , that is not major league partner league . So they do not meet the minimum . So they're minimums as far as a minimum wage monthly salary , like the major league teams do . So our players get paid and they get housed and they make money on baseball camps 50 50 , similar to junior two . Hockey is what I tell people that follow sports . You have junior one , junior two . We provide pay , we provide some transportation and things , but we don't provide and we do provide phone washing services , as you just saw from Kimberly . That is in our league . We provide that . So it's a skill .
Speaker 4You've got your different levels , but what you offer and that's where we are and also we're in the state of California . So it's a whole different ballgame there , different league , different , although it's under the Pecos League , I mean , the difference in California and Trinidad and Colorado is night and day . There's no overnight stays , there's much less housing offered , etc . So that you know it's a totally different um animal out there did you grow up playing baseball , andrew ?
Speaker 4um , I played baseball , probably like all the rest of you guys . You know , um , I'm in the era of the 90s where you know you played all sports , right Even played hockey . Oh yeah , imagine that .
Speaker 3No , but he still plays baseball . You know , he's in his 40s and he's still on the field with the 20-something guys . People are fanatical about baseball here .
Speaker 4That's just the way it is . It's a baseball place and people are fanatical there's no other way to say it . But as far as this league , it's been a great opportunity for many of these people and we're proud to be a part of it .
Speaker 3So how did you— Really a great opportunity Baseball chose me . I didn't choose baseball , so , ramon , I'm sorry .
Speaker 2What were you going to say ? That's what I wanted to get into , because I've gotten to know you a little bit , kim , since I've lived here now this past year , and , yeah , I've heard you say that before . So I kind of wanted to see if you would dive into that some more . How you didn't choose baseball , I chose you .
Speaker 3Well , and I grew up in Albuquerque , new Mexico , and you and you know , going to Dukes games , the Dukes were a farm team for the LA Dodgers and I mean that was that's what we did in Albuquerque . We played baseball . I mean you didn't have a real tall demographic , you know , as far as powerhouse in football or anything of that nature . So baseball was , was the game or is the game . And you know , from that perspective , I love baseball and always thought , you know the mystique of baseball and being part of a team and a league , and you know , I never , ever , would have thought in a million years that I would have landed doing professional baseball and it just by happenstance .
Speaker 3Andrew brought the team to Trinidad and had the faith for our community and as the Chamber of Commerce lady , I didn't want to see it go south . I wanted it to prosper and do well for our community . I felt it was really important and so it has and I've been able to continue and be part of it and learn something every day from it . You know I'm proud to say I've probably had close to 400 guys play just on the Traders team over the last decade and some change , and so you know that's huge connections to people all over the world and started the international recruiting just a few years ago , just on a perspective of trying to find something new , some new talent , some hungry talent pitching .
Speaker 3Pitching is at a premium in this country . It's hard to find pitchers . So it worked out well and developed some really amazing partnerships just over LinkedIn and just you know , in a digital perspective , people that you had to work with and they had to trust you and you had to trust them on behalf of the player and having the faith that this guy that they're going to send me from Croatia or whatever the case may be , who's traveling , you know , half the world , to be here is gonna work out . You know , because there's visa stipulations , I mean , there's all sorts of things , there's the culture and it's proven to be you , you know pretty good for the .
Speaker 3Trinidad Triggers and hopefully for the league as a whole moving forward . This year , working with Carlos Villarreal and Sir Raul Cano out of Tijuana Toros and Baseball Connects , we were able to recruit upwards of 12 Mexicanos that came to Trinidad and another team to mention , the Pecos Bills , the new Spanish team down in Texas , and they sent in some really good talent .
Speaker 3And we've had four big league promotions right out of the Trinidad triggers this season and I can't be more proud , three of whom went to the Mexican bigs per se , and we had one of our pitchers signed to the Detroit Tigers just two days ago . It's awesome and of course , you know I mean our team did very well . We went to the second round of the playoffs and we're still we're in it to win it . You know Trinidad needs a championship and we're in it to win it . You know Trinidad needs a championship and we're working hard to get there .
Speaker 3But I'm really proud of what's been accomplished and you know it's come at a price . You have to stick your neck out to make things happen and there's a lot of variables that you're not necessarily prepared for . That you , you know you learn and so hopefully , this beta test that we did with our international players coming in and actually bringing in a new manager I'm going to keep Carlos Villarreal close to us . I mean he's coming to Trinidad , he's going to be our new field manager and he pretty much was the boots on the ground in Mexico with all of the paperwork and the recruiting and the free agents that he sent us and everybody's been outstanding . It's been a huge compliment to the team as a whole , so I'm pretty proud to be a part of
Speaker 1that . Yeah , yeah , yeah , um you . You took the next two questions right out of my mouth because I was gonna ask you what has been , uh , what , what has been rewarding about , you know , being involved in this , so I'll kick that right over to you , andrew , like for you , what has been rewarding about being the commissioner of a league like the Pecos League ?
Speaker 4Well , I think my story is similar to Kimberly's in the fact that I was doing a team , you know , and they came to me and said , hey , at this point you're the person with the best opportunity of getting this off the ground .
Speaker 4And in the beginning I was just trying to make it happen , understand , to get through the season and to find the Trinidad Colorados , which no one knows about , and the Roswell New Mexicos , and to make it work in Santa Fe . So I think for me it was basically just a past fail
Evolution of the Pecos League
Speaker 4. It wasn't really like all the great things we've done and all the all the great stories you'll have and and and there's thousands of those , but for me I was going in the into this , coming out of a total failure of a league , hoping to do better and and that's what I've done . There's no , there's no gray area in that and um , but so I never really I mean people think I I was dreaming one day and I was in iowa with you guys and we said let's do a baseball league and if you will , we're gonna go until every till we run out of gas .
Speaker 4When we run out of gas , that's where we're gonna put the team and we're gonna fill up again , but that's not how gas . That's where we're going to put the team and we're going to fill up again , but that's not how it works . There's serious planning and there's serious . It takes a lot to have one of these teams and it's gotten even harder . And Trinidad and Roswell and Santa Fe have evolved with us . Other places have not . And you know we used to be a small New Mexico-based league and you know when we got off I-25 and we woke up one day and we were in San Francisco Bay . So this level of baseball is very hard to continue . Many people have tried it . Very few people can justify the profitability with the amount of time and investment to continue it . So it's been . I mean you guys , are you guys in Davenport or are you guys's been ? I mean you guys , are you guys in in davenport ? Are you guys in sioux city ? Where you guys at ?
Speaker 1uh , I'm in spencer iowa um my family's from esterville .
Speaker 2It's by the great lakes , what they call the great lakes , spirit lake , okoboji , arnold's park , things .
Speaker 4So we've got . We have a team in north platte , nebraska , and then you have the sioux city explorers and then , okay , from from there you go AAA Cubs , that's your Iowa baseball , right ? So , yeah , we don't really . We worked with Sioux City one year , we opened our season over there , but yeah , I mean , it doesn't really relate to anything of kind of the scale of the towns , of what we're doing , other than North Plot . That would be the closest thing we have to you guys . But yeah , I mean , um , that's it . I mean it's it's . Trinidad has been , has been great . I mean , you gotta realize , for when you started a team in trinidad , colorado , in 2011 , if you had told people that it would be there for for for two years , they would highly doubt against you , much less you know you're going I've been waiting to interject about that .
Speaker 1you know I'm saying we're giving it up for that . I know you can't hear it . You can't hear the sound effects due to technical difficulties , but there was applause rolling and a bunch of horns Because I feel like , based on what I'm hearing , the level of difficulty and you know the level of engagement that you would need to have from the community and just the sheer amount of work to promote , promote , to get players where they need to be and to have the level of success that the Pecos League and the Trinidad Triggers I've had , I feel like it's noteworthy for the for that .
Speaker 4Well , I think it's . It's a timing factor that players needed . People have to want to go somewhere to advance their career and play in front of a community , but a community has to embrace baseball and want to have something like this , and nowadays we could rebuild the Pecos league again . Baseball , I mean you guys know , has fallen in our country substantially then , as it been in the 15 years we've done it . So we were at the perfect timing of all these communities where they were on board for things like that . They had people like Kimberly at the time in positions that wanted things like this , and other people like Kimberly that are no longer . You don't have people like Kimberly in these communities anymore . That doesn't exist . You've got people that are just not like that anymore . Totally different world , guys .
Speaker 1I meant to ask how it fits in your life . I'm sorry , based on what he was saying , how does this fit in your life ? Because this can't be like . You can't be 24-7 dedicated to as much much . I'm not saying you're not dedicated , but I'm saying you have other aspects of your lives going on . So you know , based on how time consuming this is , how does this fit into your into ?
Speaker 3your , everything else gets wrapped around the baseball team . I mean , we're we're talking baseball year round now . I mean , there was a time when andrew and I we didn't just season , and at the end of july , middle of august , and we wouldn't talk again until january , remember , it is a two month , it is a two month season .
Speaker 4That's the big advantage we have is that we we only have 54 home games , versus some of these leagues that play 100 games , 120 games . Man , I don't know how , I don't know how they do it .
Speaker 3He started out doing 72 and it was . It was killer . It really was , it was .
Speaker 3It was definitely a marathon and you know , with that said the biggest push I mean what we do in trinidad is we really try to embrace the whole wellness piece of the team too . I mean keeping guys healthy . They come to Trinidad from you know parts unknown . Many are at sea level . They arrive here , they have altitude sickness for a couple of days or weeks or whatever it looks like . You know I mean our community . They have chiropractic care and they get their laundry done and they have great housing and they eat every day .
Speaker 3It was really important to the Trinidad community that they were taken care of to the extent in the early days we would have volunteered sponsored meals for both teams every night after the games and it was , I mean it was a killer rigorous schedule . It was also cool to the extent that we all got to , you know , connect and you know that that perspective has gone away as times , especially after the pandemic . You know that that tradition kind of went away along with many things . You know we were . That tradition kind of went away , yeah , along with many things . You know we were thankful just to be able to get back on the ground and play baseball after sitting out in 2020 . But you know that's , that's what we could offer as a smaller market team , the fact that we worked really hard with like people like yourself , ramon , offering up your home for players to provide a good environment .
Speaker 3That guys my thing was , as the chamber lady at the time , I wanted guys to leave Trinidad and say , man , that was the time of my life , that was the time of my life . And now you know , I mean it is , it's hashtag triggers for life . I mean the guys you speak to them and they look back and they remember the grind , but they also remember what an amazing time in their life it was . Yeah , and so you know , we just keep it moving . And that's the same thing for the community . I mean we've raised a whole lot of kids out at that ballpark , including my own , I mean my Maddie Lou . I put her in the dugout as a you know eight-year-old bat girl and I really don't know what I was thinking .
Speaker 2Yeah , well , that's sometimes you got to do what you got to do , right . I mean , you know it was phenomenal .
Speaker 3But I mean , I've seen many kids that are now bringing their children to the ballpark . I mean , even in that timeframe of , you know , 14 , 13 years , with an asterisk , whatever it looks like , I , I'm really proud to be that person , um , and to bring many people together to make it happen , because it's it's an amazing opportunity and I , I hope people see it that way . You know , I know the city of Trinidad saw the value . They just invested $2 million into our ballpark , upgraded the surface fans , everything , the bathroom . That has changed the game literally for us . You guys have a nice field .
Speaker 2I've only been to a couple games , which I am not very proud of , because I was hoping to go to a lot of games , but I ended up working so much this first year that I lived here . It was kind of crazy actually how much I worked , but the field is very nice . It's a very nice field .
Speaker 4Remember , it's only been that way and I have to let people know this , it's only been that way for this year . Lot of people had played it at central park , either at the juco level or at triggers level , and they're like , oh , I remember when it flooded the room . You know the progress is is in in the pictures . You know brad kirby won our photographer's year . They're just so vivid and yeah , between the , between the amtrak and the pink uniforms and the turf , yeah , I mean you get any kind of sunshine at all there and it's and it's just , it's moving .
Speaker 2It really is .
Speaker 1You know , I think , I think it speaks to the commitment of the community to making sure that they do their part in keeping this thing going as well their part in keeping this thing going as well .
Speaker 2You know , I kind of want to backtrack a little bit to what andrew was saying about baseball kind of being like a dying sport a little bit . Um , just because talking to kim and getting to know her and what she does with baseball , she's explained there's like levels of leagues to baseball and how some of those level maybe I misunderstood , but I think you were explaining how some of those levels . Maybe I misunderstood , but I think you were explaining how some of those levels have fallen out and you guys are still there , which is very fortunate for you , obviously . Um , so , if you like , if you guys could kind of explain the levels of the leagues but also how you guys kind of maintained , you know , staying as while those other leagues were falling off .
Speaker 4So Major League Baseball for all the years had six levels , right , they had Major Leagues Triple A , double A A , low A , destroyed
Baseball's Changing Player Development Landscape
Speaker 4baseball . Everybody's like , oh , there's going to be so many players that will be out there that play . It's wrong . Here's what happens . Everybody that grows up . You two guys grew up and you guys both wanted to play for the Montreal Expos . You may not admit it right now , but in your mind you wanted to play in the big leagues for Montreal . You didn't .
Speaker 1I don't know , he's cutting out a little bit . Oh , he's cutting out a little bit .
Speaker 4No , that's not a good time . I said you two guys grew up wanting to play for Montreal Expos . Can you hear me ? Yeah , that was good , yeah , okay . So when they had six minor league teams , thousands of guys got opportunities as 40th round draft picks to play one year of minor league baseball and then get released . They would just release an army of people .
Speaker 4Well , congress came along and said we're going to do a minor league minimum wage act . We're not happy with how they're treating those guys in the lowest levels . So major league baseball said okay , they took over all minor league operations and they folded a third of the teams . They said our analysis says all the players in the major leagues are picks 1 through 10 . We'll get rid of anything picked 20 through 40 and eliminate those teams . That killed baseball . Because even when you play one year for the Montreal Expos and the minor leagues and you get released and then you get sent to the Trinidad Triggers , at least you can say I played one year for the Montreal Expos , right , that's one year . You played under the minor or the Colorado Rockies and we had thousands of guys we picked up and these other leagues picked up that their mindset was ready to go play , they get released right before spring training and then they come play for us .
Speaker 4With that not being attainable , people just quit playing baseball . Ninety percent of the players know they're playing four years of college baseball . If they make it that far and they're quitting , they're not going to go and play in an independent league in hopes of getting picked up by an affiliated team . It's the other way around . They want to come out of a minor league team , get released and up by an affiliated team . It's the other way around they want to come out of a minor league team , get released and go into an affiliated team and they hardly release any of these guys . So what we've done is a miracle in itself to circumvent that system , to get guys .
Speaker 4Like trinidad and the roswell invaders were involved in getting international players that still can get signed and tr Trinidad had a guy signed yesterday . You guys are aware Roswell had a good showing . So we're getting guys . The guy was 17 years old , played a season with us , played well , got signed , and it's just an incredible economic system that the food chain is way more advanced than you guys realize and we're fast movers and we have resources and we've moved in that food chain . Trinidad Trigger is being at the very top of that list . So they said we're going to go with Mexico and they had three of our best players in our league and they were very helpful . They realized they had three players we had an expansion team so they released their best player , topek pick us , the best pitcher in the league . They decided to release him and he got to laughing just because , um , they wanted to get other guys work out . I don't know why they released him you'll have to ask kimberly that but they ?
Speaker 3but the point is is they had to bring that one out of the line .
Speaker 4Yes , yes , so um , that's your food chain question , but it's an advanced question .
Speaker 3Yeah . So basically there's there's not a lot of options for us to send guys for promotion anymore . I mean we have five , six guys , you know , every year out of the team promoted to several levels of baseball and we've had those that have climbed every rung of that ladder to make it to the very top and a good grip of them out of the Trinidad Triggers over the years . Truly a fine history . So we're looking for options and Mexico presents an option , whereas their season runs opposite of ours . And if we can get guys going there and they can bring guys here , it's a good relationship and they see the value in us , because these guys that were just newly promoted I mean , what did they do when they're offseason ? They played for the Trinidad Triggers and they were ready to go um for winter league in mexico yeah , at the very least it's a .
Speaker 1At the very simplest form of it , you're giving people a place to keep honing their craft and stay loose , so to speak , right while you're getting ready to get pulled up and people get some good baseball out of it that's it right there .
Speaker 4That's that's the key thing . You have to put in there what you said at the end . And , and just to be clear , the trininidad Triggers had Eric Yardley . He played in the major leagues for the Padres , played for the Triggers in 2013-14 , and made it all the way to the major leagues through the Padres . So that was one of those guys that had played and went this direction , made it . But there were lower levels . There were six teams to send him to . At the time he could go to rookie ball , low A . Nowadays he would have never got
Baseball Challenges and Funny Tales
Speaker 4signed .
Speaker 4And Mexico also . Last thing for your food chain , since you guys have a full education , mexico used to have this thing called six pochos , meaning you got six pochos , six imports , and then you could have pochos . Now you have 20 imports , which kills the mexican players , because they're just going and getting guys from cuba and the dominican republic and venezuela to play their games in mexico , leaving nowhere for the mexican locals , who they've trained in their academies , to have a shot at playing in their own leagues . So what we're doing is we're getting the younger guys . We're saying , look , you're not ready to play in the League of Mexicana , play here , maybe you'll get signed by somebody in Curacao , maybe you'll get signed by the Netherlands and lo and behold , like Kimberly did , maybe you'll get signed by a big league team . So it's a shot in the dark , but we've had more guys signed than anybody . It's just very hard , guys . It's very hard because there's just no opportunities .
Speaker 2Well , from my understanding too , from the research , and you guys have a YouTube video too . I think it was on the news or something , but these players , they love the game of baseball , they love playing the game .
Speaker 4We try to avoid those YouTube videos made by the players .
Speaker 3There's really nothing going to happen good out of that .
Speaker 4I know the one you're talking about the players . Ultimately , you've got guys that want to play the game . They've got to have a reason to want to play the game . You can't force them to play and if they want to play , this is the best opportunity they're going to get time and time again . It's at their level , unless they played in the SEC for Mississippi State , maybe not , but other than that , this is it .
Speaker 1I mean , even then you would imagine that the players in the major leagues and the minor leagues are probably like the tippity top , Like all these guys were stars in college . All these guys were Mr Baseball in their hometown . You know what I'm saying If you look at it now .
Speaker 4It's all Power 5 , division 1 guys and international guys . You just don't get the in-between guys like you did 10 years ago . If you look at the draft , well , just look at the Dodgers Yankees World Series , look at those guys carefully . You see one of two things the very best international guy , juan Soto . He's from Antarctica , really , that guy is he ?
Speaker 3look at ?
Speaker 4no , he's not you're getting the very , very best stand . You're getting the best . You know the best power , five division , one sec . You know big 10 guys or you're getting international . You have nothing and you don't have some guy . He went in the 40th round and bounced around no , although the yankees reliever pitched in the frontier league , one of the guys , but for the most part it's major guys the other animals , I mean just amazing , amazing baseball , so like um , um .
Speaker 1I gotta ask , like , what is one memorable story for each of you ? What is one memorable story ? It doesn't have to be super duper , uh , formal and business like , but what is something that you always remember . It could be a moment with your family at a game , or something that was personally stood out to you , that was during your time being involved with the Pecos League . And for you , kim , the trend and triggers you know , there's so many stories .
Speaker 3It's just unbelievable . Andrew reminds me of many of them . He's all . Don't you remember when we did hey , we got time ? I mean it hasn't been an easy . I mean it's been very rewarding , but it's also been a challenge . I'll have to think about a story for a minute , andrew . What do you have ? Your story I ?
Speaker 4always have the best story . So in COVID in 2020 , all the players moved to our private park in Houston and anybody . So we got all the Houston Astros . They're a major league team . Look them up . They allowed their players to play in our college league , but they wouldn't let them touch the Pecos League . They had no minor league operations in 2020 . It was frozen . So we had some of these . The guys are in the big leagues now . We see them a lot of their relievers and stuff . Some of them got traded . So one day in spring training , jose Cruz shows up .
Speaker 4Jose Cruz is a legendary player in the 1970s . You know we're out selling bats and balls and Jose just pulls up just like he's a regular guy . You know Anybody that was in the game of baseball . We were restricted to our houses and Jose's looking at our bats and everybody's like man , it's Jose Cruz . I mean , these guys think it's . You know he's a legendary guy . In houston we got a worker named on somo leva and he mows the field . He's never picked up a baseball . He's from . He's from mexico and um jose crew , we're all center . Jose goes who in that ? He says in spanish who in the hell is this guy and what is he doing here ? Because he goes , I can tell he can't play baseball , so we get him over there and Anselmo says I bat right and I throw left . And Jose told him in Spanish what good is that going to do you and those guys would ? I mean they loved it .
Speaker 3Jose looked at Anselmo and he says you're not any good , are you ?
Speaker 4He goes no and he walked off . It was the greatest , but the guys thought that was the coolest thing and they never let Anselmo hear the end of it the rest of his time there , to this day . But look up Jose Cruz . He's a main executive for the Houston Astros . He's a legend and he came out . We see him from time to time , but it was a cool Pecos League story .
Speaker 3Tell us about the triggers . I can't think of one right now .
Speaker 4There's many stories about the triggers , but I'll tell you the funniest thing . When the triggers were launched , they said we're going to be the Trinidad Triggers . And they said well , how are they going to travel to the games ? It's really far from all the other teams . You know , are they going to fly ? They , it's really far from all the other teams . You know they're going to fly . They thought it was Trinidad and Tobago , the island .
Speaker 3Nobody knows where , unless you're in .
Speaker 4Colorado , you don't necessarily . Trinidad's not a place that you , unless you're there , it's not . You know , you guys know that Come on .
Speaker 1But you know what , since I've been here , it should be on . I've been here , it should be on the map . It absolutely should be on the map .
Speaker 4Well , it was going to be on the map when I was there . They were going to put in casinos . They were going to do this , they were going to do that , and nothing really ever happened well then , marijuana came to town . Well , marijuana came to town that's going to fizzle off as well , you think , think so I know so , because it's illegal everywhere it already has .
Speaker 4I mean it's illegal everywhere else . I mean it's just , that's a fad . I mean it's just going to be a fad , it's going to be like you know , it's just , it's just In the last 10 years .
Speaker 3We have 35 states in the country that are now legal in one form or another . So I mean it happens .
Speaker 4You
Changing Landscape of Marijuana Legalization
Speaker 4know what they do . You guys want to hear the best story of your podcast , so you know what the best story about Trinidad marijuana is . It's like boxing . You remember when everybody liked Mike Tyson and the Sandman and it was the coolest thing ? Well , nowadays , who likes boxing ? It's the same thing with marijuana . When Trinidad had those people at the first dispensary man Trinidad had the first dispensary man they were the coolest thing ever . Well , guess what ? Oklahoma legalized New Mexico legalized Utah . Now it's just like nothing .
Speaker 3Trinidad was the oasis there for a couple years , but it's like boxing .
Speaker 4Who follows boxing anymore ? Nobody .
Speaker 3You can't tell .
Speaker 1Walking down the street there's a lot of dispensaries .
Speaker 4Yeah , and it's just that's the thing that I mean . That was great in its time when you were the only guys doing it . But , you guys get into harder drugs ? I guess I don't know what the answer is , no , but in all seriousness , that was a fad , guys , and that's your story , but I mean did you guys follow boxing 20 years ago and y'all don't hardly follow it now , do you ?
Speaker 1I mean , I was young when Mike Tyson was 19 .
Speaker 3These guys are barely 20 years old now . Oh , shoot .
Speaker 1I'm 39 . If he's 39 , he's perfect age .
Speaker 4So he knew Mike Tyson . He probably played Mike Tyson's Punch Out on Nintendo , oh yeah .
Speaker 3So see , he knew that .
Speaker 4Nowadays on nintendo . Oh yeah , so see , he knew that nowadays nobody's following that , and that's that's my thing with this . This whole marijuana craze , it's just okay it's just .
Speaker 1I mean , the thing about it is there's more research into it now that it's getting more widely legalized , but I could see how that would dilute the product . You know what I mean , so to to speak how it did but it was definitely .
Speaker 3it was hipping and a hopping and every baseball player in the country went through my dispensary , come and travel into play , you know , in the play coast league and and guys were climbing over each other to . You know , just hang out in Colorado and in Trinidad because it was just laid back and they didn't have to worry and the face of the player changed too , you know , in Trinidad , because it was just laid back and they didn't have to worry .
Speaker 3Colorado is the OG , though , and the face of the player changed too . You know I had initially the guys would drink . You know , I'll be honest , they were definitely consumers of alcohol and the face of that has changed considerably . Just the habits of the player . They're a lot late , you know , a lot more laid back .
Speaker 4And you know that you say that the factual matter on that is once we put the teams in California , we got less California players and a lot of those wild guys stayed over there . You know that's probably a documented thing on that , I mean .
Speaker 1I was in New York recently . My daughter graduated from high school . I took her on like a little graduation trip and the way , uh , they just recently legalized and it's still a novelty over there . Everything is still expensive and you're still paying 30 for one grand free row at the , at the dispensary . It's still , it's still wild over there . So I guess , as it sweeps , you know it , for those places it's still in brand new and , like he said , the fat it hasn't , it hasn't gotten normal to them yet over here it's normal . You know , colorado is the og .
Speaker 1This is where absolutely but I feel like well , I feel like other it'll fizzle . It'll fizzle out deeper , if that makes any sense . I don't think it'll go past a certain level . In Colorado it might fall , but this is always going to be the OG , you know there's still tourism , you know people will still travel to Colorado .
Speaker 3That won't change , you know . So we saw the boom and bust . It happened very quickly . We knew it would happen . We just didn't know how fast . The minute New Mexico legalized and Texas had the availability along their western border , the whole face of marijuana sales in Colorado and Trinidad Colorado changed dramatically . You know we were . We were hipping and hopping in a way that I mean Trinidad's higher calling . My husband's dispensary was the first rec store to open and then we had 28 thereafter but it became an attraction . So you know baseball played right into that as part of the Colorado perspective for creative districts . Trinidad is a creative district which you know baseball is considered a huge cultural asset to this community and baseball itself goes back to the 1800s in Trinidad with the coal camp teams and the mining teams of all of Colorado .
Speaker 3I mean baseball was , you know has been and continues to be , you know , the sport for Colorado . So Trinidad's team , one of the old teams , the retro teams , was the Trinidad Vampires and they were called the Vampires because they played at night . You know , I mean just a whole history like that that we really , you know , played right into the hands of and , you know , hopefully we can keep this baby moving , you know , until the wheels fall off really Right .
Speaker 4But back to your , the last thing on your dispensary , the manager , jd Drotty . He was so opposed to it . It was funny and I said , jd , I'll tell you what you do . Buddy , you get the piece of land at the top of Raton Pass and you put the dispensary there . That way you'll be the first one . They've got to go 12 more miles . And you put the dispensary there that way , you'll be the first one They've got to go 12 more miles . And you'll make right when you cross that state line , mile marker number one . That's where you should have opened it up , jd . You'd have got everybody cornered . But there's no way . I don't think you can get off the path there . But the point is , man , crossing that state line was like crossing a country line at that time .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's what I've heard . Is that and ?
Speaker 3everything's from texas , so I mean it was even more . You know black and white really .
Speaker 4I mean , texas is just . It's such a massive place now that it's , it's just so big that it's . It's just , it's a , it's its own place in its own . It's like los angeles , it's the same . I mean you have so many different guys here from from doing all kinds of things , but , um , you know the baseball thing . We've all put all this work into it . We're all not going to live forever , we know that . But we've got some years left
Pecos League Legacy and Supernatural Beliefs
Speaker 4in us . And with that stadium in Trinidad , it's just the . It makes things so much more attractive , it makes things so much more easier and it makes it better for people to want to go out there and look at that ballpark . For whatever you're paying for , you can't beat it for that entertainment .
Speaker 1Yeah , like Kimberly said earlier , players that were kids over there are now bringing their kids I mean , kids that watched over there are now bringing their kids to watch , and it just creates a legacy of its own . You know Whole generations are going to remember it . It's definitely a good thing for the community and an achievement for the league , and I was looking at the Wikipedia page . I'm sure there's like stories like this , like in in other communities , you know where the Pacos Pacos league has teams in Monterey and San Rafael and Vallejo and Bakersfield and Tucson and Santa Fe and all these places you know . I'm sure there's stories similar to these in all these communities .
Speaker 4Well , but Trinidad . The one thing Trinidad has as a person that's been all the way through this is they got the reality TV show and they got it by the luck of Alamogordo's lack of intelligence . Like Kimberly said , it was set to go to Alamogordo and that puts Trinidad on the map at a point it will never . You couldn't pay to have the publicity that that thing had . You couldn't . The city government couldn't do anything to get that . I'll give you an example Alamogordo burned the Bibles . In 1982 , before you guys were born , they burned Bibles and that didn't get as much publicity as the reality show . For the triggers , that publicity was in a negative manner guys .
Speaker 4Look it up on your show . They burned the Bibles and they buried Atari games .
Speaker 2No , because we get into these things .
Speaker 1Yeah , we get in the rabbit hole . Over here we talk about it Right , let me just come back to the show real quick .
Speaker 3Oh , go ahead .
Speaker 4Sorry , all these towns do have their own stories , but remember , trinidad is a market that our league created . There was never baseball before it was there . A lot of our places , a lot of these places had baseball before we were there . Only Monterey , california , santa Fe , roswell and Garden City are original places where we were the first baseball team . I mean Bakersfield had the Dodgers were there for 30 years . I mean they've had baseball since 1940 . Tucson's had baseball since . I mean that . You know , all these places have had teams . North Platte , nebraska , had teams . So I mean , the cool thing about these places is we're the one that invented and introduced the game there . That's the cool thing . Yeah , yeah for sure .
Speaker 3Well , and please know , at the very beginning it was oh , the team's not going to last a week , a year , two years , six months , whatever the case may be , and , and you know , we just kept trucking right along and here we are . It's a very volatile business , you know . So I mean we have to , I mean we're in a good position and we're doing good things , and it's very rare and it's exciting . Producer , for instance , john Hinnion , who did our Pecos League Life's a Pitch docudrama , is the executive producer for a show called Welcome to Rexham , and Welcome to Rexham is about a soccer team that was moved to Europe and purchased by Ryan Reynolds and his partner it's very popular .
Speaker 2It's a really good show . I actually watch that regularly well , it's got the .
Speaker 4It's a really good show I actually watch that regularly our show , but they got these guys wanted to trigger stories , so I guess I'm gonna have to run out of time on the show . We're gonna have to give them the best trigger story . Um the first year the triggers . It was a very good team and you know kimberly and all them . They took pictures of these guys and posted them on um , like their roster right like you got a picture of this dude .
Speaker 4Well , yeah , one of the dudes , a couple of the dudes didn't take it very seriously . So I got a call last year and this person is now an executive with major league baseball . He said , hey man , how hard would it be to make that picture disappear ? And I looked him up and , sure enough , he's the assistant GM in Major League Baseball for a team and it was pretty cool .
Speaker 3Yeah , we've got him all over from the GM to a Major League team , to the Budweiser truck driver in Louisiana and the girl that filmed the Dodgers .
Speaker 4The photographer worked in Santa Fe for two years . She's the head photographer for the Dodgers . Wow , that's really cool so yeah , there are things that happen . It's a small world .
Speaker 2It's a small world Andrew , do you oversee 16 teams ? Is that what it is ?
Speaker 4Yeah , I mean you have to make sure that you have to be a backbone for the entire league and the processes that keep the league together , or you won't have a league .
Speaker 2You got a favorite team .
Speaker 4The White Sands Pupfish .
Speaker 3He picked one that's no longer in operation .
Speaker 4No , I mean White Sands was everything they did so much , they did so many good things . But I mean it Dance was everything they did so much , they did so many good things . But I mean it's just so different . I mean you're talking about the difference in Oklahoma and Colorado to Arizona . So I mean there's just no favorite teams , it's just getting it working . And at this point if you're in this league , you're my favorite team , all 16 of these teams . They wouldn't be there if not .
Speaker 3That's a good answer talk about the hormigas a little bit , just give an overview .
Speaker 4Kansas City hormigas will be a Mexican Hispanic only team in Kansas City at a historic Satchel Paige field . You gotta look that up , guys . They'll play in inner city , kansas City . They'll have a pinata , they'll have drums , everything will They'll have drums , and they'll have things just going . Everything will be in Spanish and on US soil , so that's an even better atmosphere .
Speaker 2We got to make a trip , yeah , I like On the train , there's a train , there's a train .
Speaker 1Well , I'm closer to Kansas City , I believe , because I came up from .
Speaker 3You're probably right there .
Speaker 1I came up from there , I came to take it in . We're definitely going to have to . I personally haven't been to a Pecos League game yet , but it is now on my list of things to do . I'm really glad to have two people to ask this question , because I like to ask everybody this question . You guys are in a state that is rich with paranormal subterranean activity , so I'll ask you do you believe in aliens ?
Speaker 4I'll let her answer first , because I have the answers for that .
Speaker 3I'm going to say absolutely . I'm from New Mexico . So my husband says that I'm an alien . Mexico . So my husband says that I'm an alien . He will attest to that .
Speaker 4The whole league is based in New Mexico . Everything we've done is based in New Mexico . And so back to the same story . I brought on Selma Lave on a road trip . He's from southern Mexico . We go to Roswell . I know all the people and he tells me in English Roswell . I know all the people and he tells me in English they want $10 for this moon rock .
Speaker 3They got that on the side of the highway .
Speaker 4They were selling . You guys ever seen them sell moon rocks ? They sell moon rocks . It's asphalt from the New Mexico Department of Highway Transportation , $10 .
Speaker 4And so that's been our joke ever since is that we got a moon wrong , that they they'll try anything , but I mean you got to give it up to the roswell chamber of commerce . There was nothing going on . They got in a room and they said her let's see what ? Let's say we saw something in the 70s . They were just trying to promote for a weekend . They were trying to change the culture of the whole damn you know , look what they've done .
Speaker 1I mean , I mean , I don't know , man , I fell down that rabbit hole recently and , like I said , like I don't know , I don't know what . Not to believe Whoever is putting the .
Speaker 3All you have to look at is the history of the cattle mutilations that happened in this area . You know , yes , of the cattle mutilations that happened in this area , you know yes , with the pupfish invaders rivalry in our league .
Speaker 4They would play each other and the guys in roswell would always beat white sands and they would get drunk and say it was a weather balloon . It was a weather balloon like in the middle of the night , like in the middle of the games , and it's just like I don't know , man . I mean it's just , you know , there's so many drones and satellites anymore yeah , that's true ufo .
Speaker 4Nowadays they're go out there and in dimming new mexico and look at night man it's , it's game on when it gets dark out there . Who knows who has control of those things ?
Speaker 1whatever it is , like I I do . I personally believe there's something out there . I mean , it might not be what we see , you know , but there's definitely Something out there . It's wild to think we're the only ones .
Speaker 4Maybe I'm a kook .
Speaker 1Anyway , any shout outs guys , anybody you want to , since you have this Humongous Gigantic Life changing Platform , have , since you have this humongous gigantic life-changing platform , you know you have everybody you want to . Uh , shout out , shout out the city of Trinidad .
Speaker 3I just want to say that's my shout out , absolutely , and the community , you know , and Andrew and the league , and we're looking forward to a good 2025 . I mean mean we're thinking about it every day . I mean I know it's 200 and some days out , but I mean we're there . We're there and thank you guys . You're welcome on our field Anytime in our stadium . Please come , come and visit us .
Speaker 1No , no , thank you , thank you guys , thank you .
Speaker 1Thank you guys for making time and actually you . It was like uh , eye opening in in one way because , like you know , I um , until I started preparing for this uh interview , I I didn't know there was like an independently , but then , after doing research for a little bit , you start to see that , man , this is really like you're getting some traction . Like you said , everything that I googled has communities involved and like like just the wikipedia page has information about people that have gone on to be successful , like you guys mentioned , and I think it's an amazing thing . And talking to you guys and seeing how difficult it actually is , it makes it even clearer to me that it's such an achievement . So congratulations guys .
Speaker 3Thank you , guys for your time . Thank you Thank you .
Speaker 4Okay , guys . Thank you , bye guys .
Speaker 1All right .
Speaker 3That was great .
Speaker 1All right guys Um we're going to wrap up the show real quick , real quick .
Path to Sports Management Success
Speaker 1Um . Is there anything else you would like to ?
Speaker 3yeah , let's um , I'll think of a million things once I hang up with you , but uh , no , I'm just . I'm grateful for the opportunity and the platform .
Speaker 2It's lots of fun yeah , is there any like links you want to put in um or you want to send us you linkedin ?
Speaker 3twitter yeah , I mean I for that . And then , of course , trinidadtriggerscom . I mean that's that has everything . Andrew creates all of , he's the programmer , he does all of the websites , and you'll see our merchandise , you'll see all of our stats , you'll see our teams , teams , our photos , our uniforms . I mean just photos , everything . It's amazing and you can buy tickets .
Speaker 2On that website . I think there's like something about this saying like recruiting or something , or recruiting players . Do you guys take walk-ons Just for the people listening ? You never know , absolutely .
Speaker 3Yes , we take walk-ons . I mean , we look at everybody . We look at everybody and the recruiting aspects . I'm kind of proud that I've been able to get into that game and do all right so far . We had three guys promoted off this team this year and there was , I think , six total in the league .
Speaker 2And I think that , like hearing , that makes it more exciting to want to join something like the Trinidad Triggers .
Speaker 3Absolutely , because if we don't have anywhere to promote guys , then we're off the lead . I mean , that's the objective when it's you know , plus . Guys make their dreams and do their thing , but they've got to be able to tell their people back home , you know , maybe .
Speaker 3I'll get promoted in this I mean it's not just a frivolous summer , so yeah , it's a . It's going to get really exciting . It really is . I mean this is with the new trail and everything . I told myself this is the beginning of the beginnings for us . I mean this is what we've been working towards , we got . We can't stop now .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's awesome to hear . That's awesome to hear .
Speaker 1What's the name of the dispensary ? I'm literally going to go there like now .
Speaker 3It's Trinidad's Hire Calling T-H-C-U . Trinidad's Hire Calling U . It's right across the street from where Ramon's office was at H&R Block .
Speaker 1I'm going to go check it out . It's the big green building . I told my husband back in the day .
Speaker 3I said we need a sign . We need a big glowing sign out there . He said we painted the building green , kim , that is our sign . He was right . Everybody knows the big green building on I-25 . It was a Pepsi distribution center and so you know he was right , I mean everybody knows the big green building on I-25 . Yeah , it was a Pepsi distribution center , so like there's a big fence around it , that was already there . All of that parking lot and… .
Speaker 2What about the solar ? You guys got solar panels there .
Speaker 3Yeah , they had to drop in the solar panels . I mean , you know , sustainment is… . You got to come and fuck off those $15,000 a month electricity bills , you know .
Speaker 2Cause you guys grow there too right .
Speaker 1Yeah , just out of curiosity , does it sort of the solar panel was really offset , like the electricity costs that much ? Just curious , like do you get ?
Speaker 3it . The protection on that is and actually that's an interview for my husband really but they brought in some high end essentially like big batteries that they're feeding that power to . It's really new technology , so it is positioned to offset the cost of doing business for that business .
Speaker 1Nice , that is fabulous . That is fabulous because I mean , I was just . I've always wondered . I have a friend of mine always wants to get off the grid .
Speaker 3I'm going to build a cabin and get solar power and I always do research but you know , on a small scale it's a little easier than running a big giant , you know .
Speaker 1Yeah , I always think like , yeah , do you get enough power for me to actually be able to sustain ? I was just curious .
Speaker 3Well , you know the perspective of that is across the country . You know the big , big guys , the utilities they had to dedicate a whole area of their business to sustainable energy , solar , wind and that sort of thing . But the bottom line is it's not reliable , if you , you know in that perspective , if you talk to those people . So it really takes both to . Just like my hybrid car . You know I have to put gas in it but it'll go 40 miles to the gallon because of the constant charging of the batteries , yeah , regenerative , all that .
Speaker 3On a small scale . That's what I can compare it to . And again I circle back to just even the topic of your podcast . You're talking to people that take risks , they're putting their neck out there to try to make it happen , and in different ways , you know , and so we just hope in many ways we're pioneers , just learning as we go we just , yeah , that's absolutely right , and I mean everybody we talk to .
Speaker 2They're just regular people at the end of the day , trying to figure out how to make it better , and that's what we hope to get out of this podcast is that people just get the idea that you can just be yourself . You can try these things , fail at whatever and be good at this stuff , just because you , you're being yourself well , and failure is hard to deal with you .
Speaker 3You know we saw a lot of failure really . Honestly , when marijuana hit the skids , I mean , you know we were all in man and that just goes back to kind of my antidote at the ballpark and like what you see is what you get with me . You know it's a small town . People would drop their kids off at the ballpark . You know , I mean , for the longest time we gave very low prices just to get people in the door and you know everybody was welcome . But you know the rule of that was look , if you leave your kids with me at the ballpark , they're subject to my discipline and they're going to get that . So I mean there's no , um , not hiding behind anything really . I guess there's no hiding behind anything really . I guess Just trying to be honest and do good business and and bringing things to a community jobs , economic development , housing , you know , whatever it look like Dreams , you know , letting guys live out their dreams playing baseball too .
Speaker 1So it's been a ride , that's for sure too , so it's been a ride , that's for sure what advice would you give someone that is that is looking into sports management on an independent level ?
Speaker 3come run with me for a summer and I'll teach you everything you need to know , from the bottom to the top and how can they get a hold of you ? You know I published my number for years , from the bottom to the top . And how can they get a hold of you ? You know I told this my number for years . It's simply , you know , 719-859-1008 . I've got a LinkedIn account . I'm on Facebook . It's Trinidad Triggers .
Speaker 2You can reach me through that website or Facebook page .
Speaker 1Show notes for anyone who may be interested .
Speaker 2So if you're interested in walking on trying out for the team or sports management , anything and the college here , trinidad State , offers a sports management class .
Speaker 3I need to get in front of the president there and see if there's any opportunity for interns . But you know it's not easy and there's not a lot of jobs out there . You really gotta love it . And not easy and there's not a lot of jobs out there . You really got to love it and being honest and true with who you are to people because you know , as we say , the ball never lies . I mean , you know the honesty has to be there , otherwise , I mean you can have strategy and do your thing , you know . But I have found the guys that have failed miserably are the ones that try to maybe be something that they weren't or they weren't honest with people would you ever think about managing players ?
Speaker 1let's say , like you get enough of these guys that you recruit and bring in and somebody that , like , becomes a big-time player . Would you ever consider sports management on that level ?
Speaker 3Absolutely , absolutely . I mean that's that's like the next tier of dreams , you know . I mean that's honestly . I think that's what I've been working up to this whole time . I mean I'm finally in a capacity where , you know , my method is kind of it's been working honestly and we've been able to bring some good talent and I've been able to do some different things that not everybody has the bravery or you know the audacity or whatever it looks like to do , and so , yeah , I mean that would be , that would be phenomenal , just to get to that level .
Speaker 3I mean that's where it's at for me .
Baseball Merchandise and Marketing Strategy
Speaker 2Wow , your baseball gear behind you is really dope . I like the pink .
Speaker 3It's for sale . That's just it too , I've got a great , you know merchandise line .
Speaker 2Yeah , we got to . If we see you later , we got to bring them so you can show Temi , Because those are some nice jerseys .
Speaker 1Whose choice ?
Speaker 2was that you designed those don't you the pink .
Speaker 3Okay , so the pink . Our color is black and gold . Like Steelers , black and gold .
Speaker 1Yeah , because that's what I saw on your page . I was looking at your Facebook page and the colors were black and gold . I didn't see the pink ones on there yet .
Speaker 3Well , the pink rolls back to at the height of the marijuana boom I don't know 2022, . I was able to put together a sponsorship with a firm called Sexy Pizza and Sexy Pizza . Its leadership was really dynamic and , but you know , they were ever bit corporate out of denver and I developed a campaign and it was sexy enough to wear pink because their color was hot peak and so they bought it hook , line and sinker and so ran a couple of years with the sexy pizza campaign sexy enough to wear pink , and the boys wore the pink jerseys and I really need to download those customized .
Speaker 3You know it wasn't like you could find big giant men . You know hot pink jerseys and the next thing , you know , everybody's in pink hey , real man wear pink .
Speaker 1It's not just the october thing , guys , they were .
Speaker 3It's not no , and I found the guys were really happy in pink . You know they had a whole different like energy to them . Um , andrew says we're going back to the black and the gold , but you know the sexy pink will still be , yeah , hanging out down here . And we also started . Um , we launched our new brand with tequila's mexican family , the Los Triggers brand .
Speaker 2Los Triggers Los .
Speaker 3Triggers is hard and heavy and yeah , so that perspective is all . It's all fitting together nicely so with my Mexicanos and you know , our American boys and the Los Triggers and the pinks and the blacks and you know we're just , it's fun , it's good stuff it really is but you can fail miserably . One time this is a story Andrew and I said , oh , we'll do gold , let's do gold jerseys . We spent all this time designing , do all this stuff and we did gold with white numbers and first game of the season . They're in their golds and game of the season .
Speaker 1They're in their goals and we look down on the field from the box and we can't read the numbers , I mean , but so that was a major tale .
Speaker 3You know um lots of , lots of uniform stories really , but I never did white again .
Speaker 1You have to wait till the end of the season to scrap that or you wear it a couple more times dude at the time , you know , I mean we've he's finally dialed it into where we're .
Speaker 3We're paying really low prices for , you know , jerseys and the such , but I mean , back in the day our cost would have been 50 a jersey . I mean , you know , now we're down to like 20 , depending on what we do , and and we still , you know , he insists that we still do the tuck and twill , um , embroidery , um . Yeah , the most triggers is the first one we've done with sublimation and that's basically where they just print the jersey . There's no sewing involved and that's where you're seeing everybody go .
Speaker 2I mean , even in the majors they're yeah using sublimated products yeah , I was gonna say they don't even stitch anymore the stitch is so much better , though I've always liked it so much yeah yeah , we haven't moved away from .
Speaker 3I mean , you know , stitching is important and so , yeah , at the time when I did the gold and the white , no , I , we had to . We had to roll with that throughout the season . I mean it was um too expensive , even now with a lower price it's . You know , I had to do a couple of rounds of jerseys this year and I don't need to do that , cost wise it might not be like the way to go if you're trying to save cost , but it definitely feels more premium the stitch definitely gives absolutely like this one here .
Speaker 3This is a handmade jersey . I mean it's cut . The cloth was cut , I mean all of it , from the ground up , with the pink Nice .
Speaker 2Nice . Yeah , it's a nice color too . How much are those going for ?
Speaker 1I'm assuming they're on the website , right ?
Speaker 3Yeah , they're on the website . On the ground they're a lot cheaper . I mean , you know we usually it's a $75 jersey when we go . It depends anywhere from that to you know . If the players want it , I sell them for $50 .
Speaker 3And the hats are truly the hats are every bit . I mean we used to go with New Era . New Era stopped doing minor league teams . We switched . We now use a company called Zepper out of Fort Collins , colorado , and they're truly premium hats . You know we're always looking at hats but I mean that's , you can't deplete your quality of those items . They have to be every bit professional of those items . They have to be every bit professional . From the game ball . You know people take our balls , our game balls , when they hit a foul ball or something . But I mean those are costing me $10 a piece . No , laugh over that .
Speaker 3I mean you know I'll spend $5,000 on baseballs in a season and I'd rather get them all back and not have to do that .
Speaker 1Are they available during the season ?
Speaker 2They're available all year round , aren't they ? This ? Merch Is there anything , all the merch .
Speaker 3All the merch ? Oh , absolutely . Yeah , take a look at it . Trinidad , you can get a full spec . I've got stuff here on the ground too . But TrinidadTriggerscom the shop tab at the top . You'll see everything and it's pretty much just in time . You order it and it's sent right to you . And there's gosh . There's everything from the big tote bags to the hats , to the helmets , to the jerseys , t-shirts , you name it .
Speaker 2Yeah , buddy , y'all heard that Trinidad triggerscom .
Speaker 3Go check it out , check it out .
Speaker 1Man , go check it out , check it out . I'm definitely grateful for your time . Hopefully we get to see you later so you can show me your town by yourself alright .
Speaker 3Well , I'll reconnect with you guys here shortly .
Speaker 1Sounds good alright ladies and gentlemen , kimberly Schultz , thank you , thank you .
Speaker 3Thank you very much , Ladies and gentlemen .
Speaker 1Kimberly Schultz . Thank you , mark , thank you .