Ep 74 - Jamie Johnson - The Blueprint: Winning the Right Way

A pitcher can go undefeated and still learn the hardest lessons after the wins. We’re joined by Jamie Johnson, principal at East Prairie High School and a longtime coach who’s lived nearly every side of the game: Senath-Hornersville All-State dominance, Division I baseball at Murray State, American Legion championships, scouting connections, and now summer nights with the Fighting Squirrels. Jamie brings the kind of perspective you only get from decades around dugouts, classrooms, and long bus rides. 

We talk about the standards that travel, especially the influence of Coach Gregg Hollifield and the idea that “look right, act right, play hard” is not a slogan, it’s a blueprint. Jamie shares what great mentors demanded, how details like uniforms and punctuality shape confidence, and why the team always has to be bigger than the most talented kid. There are also stories you can picture instantly, including a classic coaching moment on a 3-0 count and a once-in-a-lifetime Whitey Herzog encounter. 

Then we get practical about modern baseball: travel ball growth, fading fundamentals, pitch counts, arm health, and the shift toward max-effort pitching. Jamie explains what he teaches young players so they can adjust without a coach standing over them, and he weighs in on where money in the sport is headed with NIL and draft conversations. If you care about high school baseball development, youth sports culture, and Southeast Missouri sports history, this one is built for you. 

Subscribe, share the episode with a friend who loves the game, and leave a review so more people can find the stories that make our towns special.

👉 Subscribe, rate, and share The Doghouse — your home for Sikeston Bulldogs and everything Sikeston.

🎧 Listen: Apple | Spotify | Amazon Music | Buzzsprout | iHeartRadio

🌐 Visit: thedoghouse.buzzsprout.com

📱 Follow: Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube 

✉️ Contact: doghouse.sikeston@gmail.com

Transcript

Welcome To Bulldog Nation

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Alright, Bulldog Nation, it's time to get in the dog house. This is where Sykes and Pride lives, where we tell the stories that make this town special. From the legends of the past to the faces shaping our future. Whether it's basketball, community, or just that good old Bulldog grit, we've got you covered. You're listening to the doghouse, the voice of Sykes. What is up, Bulldog Nation? Checking. Oh no, go ahead. I'm Micah Harris. I'm Matt Tanner. Thank you for checking back in with us this week. Episode 74, season two, episode 33.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

33.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Yep. Who's a 74, Micah? Who's a good 74 athlete? Number 74. Number 74.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Have to be a man, I'm trying to think right off the and I should know it would be like uh Ed Tutal Jones.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

That was a 72.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

72. 74. I know it'd be a lineman.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Yeah, it'd be like like Larry. Uh what was that guy's name? Larry. Was it Larry Allen? Yep, Larry Allen. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Yeah. I should have known.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Bruce Matthews, Merlin Olson, Bob Lilly.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Yep. There's some good ones. There's some good ones. But anyway, thank you again for checking in with us. Thanks for listening to us. We've had a ton of downloads from this past week with Mr. Sherman.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Very interesting guest.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

What a what a just a what a pleasure, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

I mean, like it was absolute pleasure. It was it was good. A lot of things I didn't know. I mean, like I had I had no idea. We had elephants in the field house. Are you kidding me? Me neither. I didn't know. I didn't know that he was kind of instrumental in in you know the early development of the complex.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

I did not know that. I I knew that about a day or two before. Yeah. Again, the we'll we'll we'll mention Derek's name a little bit later. It's uh either he or Brian one said, Did you know he was involved in that? And I went, I did not. A lot of things. And he's not he being Mr. Sherman is not he's not going to just come out and say and boast. He's not looking for, he's not a limelight seeker to tell you all those things. So no, I was I was very, very happy to have him on here, and we are honored.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

It was also great to hear his side of the the Coach Vic. You know what I mean? Like I thought that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

That was a great story. That's a great story. He's such a such just a fine gentleman, and we are blessed to have him in our community, that's for sure. But we got another great guest this week, Mr. Jamie Johnson. Jamie is currently the head principal at East Prairie High School. He's also an assistant coach for the Fighting Squirrels with Coach Miner, who we had Coach Miner on back in December, January, back in the fall or winter. They are you know Michael runs the fighting squirrels, but Michael's also the head principal at the Charleston High School as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Yep. And I think Coach Jamie has been pretty around the squirrels pretty well from a very early days. Early eight. Early days.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Jamie, and we'll get into this a little bit later. Jamie sent me a bunch of stats that actually Coach Hollifield kept. That's the other connection. He played for Coach Hollifield. He played coach, he played for Coach Hollifield and Senith, basketball and baseball. Division one baseball player played at Three Rivers. He's and he's a he's he's a delightful guy, really good guy, great baseball mind.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Speaking of college baseball, I mean like college world series ended last night. Like what an underdog coming from like a losing record in the SEC to winning the national championship.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Winning the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yep. Pretty impressive. Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Yep. Yep. Exactly. Exactly. So we'll get to we'll get to our guests in just a few minutes.

Sponsors And Community Shout-Outs

SPEAKER_02 3:52

We're gonna pay a pay some bills here real quick. Shout out to our partners. Again, Mercy Phoenix, healthcare staffing for all your healthcare staffing needs, EMT, EMS, RNs, LPNs, CNA's, whatever, wherever they can help you with. And again, they are still hiring. They're looking for some of those positions, EMTs and EMSs, I think, in particular the ones that I've seen them post, if I'm not mistaken.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

They are and it is maybe a question, it would be a question we'd probably ask them, and we probably do need to ask them, is does it matter like what license, like what state you're licensed in or certified in for those jobs?

SPEAKER_02 4:31

I don't know the answer to that, Micah. Yeah, that's definitely a Jody question.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

I would say you probably have to have some sort of licensing for that price.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

I was just gonna say maybe there's a few states that don't reciprocate, but most of them even if you got a license anywhere and you're interested in that, reach out to them.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Yeah, absolutely. It's very it it it pays very well, yeah, for sure. Also, our other our other partner, Greengrass guys, Mr. David Bizzle, Mr. D. Bizzle, who D was on just a few weeks ago. What an interesting guy. What a legacy of his family that they followed with all the community involvement and the things that they've done to help our community and help those that are less fortunate. Frankly, they have a they have a family legacy of that, starting with talking about like his grandpa driving around coaching the truck and correct. I mean all kinds of and then his aunt, Lynn DeWitt, which is Blake's mom, Blake DeWitt's mom has Bulldog Pantry. Yes, carried that on and very instrumental in that. Yes, yes, pretty well started. Well, she and she still she still runs it. That's exactly right. But Greengrass guys, they are your turf management specialist, and they will get your yard in shape. And it is very budget friendly, they will make it work for whatever you need. And D can he he does all the athletic fields here and surrounding areas, all the grass, it just it looks fantastic. And so we're proud as as Pi to have those both of those businesses partner with us. We know that they their values line with what we're trying to do, and that that's the most important thing for us is that we're that we promote who we not not the doghouse, but promote our area, our town, our school.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

I actually drove by the other day at the complex because I was just wanting to check out the soccer field and the and the I guess the junior, senior baby field or whatever. Yep. Um it's pretty interesting. I mean, like looks like it's top notch.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Yeah, it they do. They look pristine. They they do they do just a terrific job. Quick shout outs to Luke. It's getting our cameras and our TVs, and we had he had a week off. We talked about that when we had Mr. Sherman on. We did it all on computer and virtual, basically. But Luke is uh back at it and getting us fixed up. We're thankful that he's that he does that. Um most of the time it's willingly. He didn't normally give me grief because I I tell him awful late. Dad, you didn't tell me he was coming tonight. Sorry about that. Shout out to Aaron for giving me time to do this. Justin, our general counsel, and general nuisance, who actually texted me, and he's in Fort Lauderdale of all places.

SPEAKER_03 7:20

What?

SPEAKER_02 7:21

He said he's on some kind of quarterly meeting, I guess, with his company. And I texted him and I said, now Hannah Blue and Lane Blue are down there. That's where they live now. He didn't reply to me yet, so he knows Hannah and Lane.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

And so maybe there's kind of an interesting story with him and Hannah. What kind of Oh Lord. We're not gonna cover that on here.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Oh Lord, yes, there is. If you guys hear this part, yes. Luke was involved. That the whole the whole Joe, Hannah's mom, it was it's very funny. It is it's a very funny story. I know Hannah remembers. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

So if you know her, ask her.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

That's right. If you know Hannah, ask her what happened. And there was some uh it was there were some shenanigans, that's for sure, but it was funny. Shout out to Tucker Cheney for all of his uh help with our video with my helping with the video editing and getting all that stuff on YouTube. Shout out to Deege and Brian again for their their knowledge and their history and lore of again Sykston, Southeast Missouri sports, football, basketball, whatever it is. Very knowledgeable and I'm very very glad that they're they're willing to share it so easily. Shout out to Tyler Anderson, certainly last but not least, and our cool sign on the wall, doghouse uh sign up there, and thank you for that. Twisted arrow woodworking. Appreciate that, Tyler.

Why Local History Still Matters

SPEAKER_02 8:51

Again, like, share, follow, review, comment, post to all of our to our content on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, please again, those are so important to us. It means a lot. We've picked up a lot of new followers recently on Facebook, and it seems like TikTok is is catching.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Yeah, I well just kind of and I speaking of that, I mean like it seems like I more young people are interested in this than what I really originally thought. You know, and that that that just kind of solidifies why we're doing it. Yes. I mean because we talk about the history of things that come along and like like I mean, wanting to learn about people like Mr. Sherman and and and stuff like that, that's pretty awesome to me. I mean I I I find that very rewarding.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Yes. I mean Yes. It's it's very important to know our history.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

We we talked about it with football, but I think it's overall we need to know our history in all things.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Correct. Correct. Well, not to get off topic, so to speak, but I mean that's why the Bible is gives us history, so we know those things, right? And all of our the lineage and not just the Bible, but we that's why we study history in school, right? I mean, you you you don't want to repeat it, some of the mistakes, but you also need to know where you come from. Right. And and you we need to know those things, it's very important.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

It helps I mean it helps determine why we do the things we do. Correct. You know, I I I firmly believe you're talking about from a lineage of of like the Bible, is you know, once you know who you are, you know what to do, you know. And you know, many people try to achieve that through activities. I mean, like, and that's not it at all. We do that, we do the activity because of who we know, and that being Jesus Christ, and that's who gives us our identity.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Well, even the when the Biles twins were on, you know, how they talked about they got their name and you or no, it wasn't that that was it was Ken Holloway. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

The Barker.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yeah, he was talking about this is your daddy. You're you're you know, you're this is your your grandpa gave you that name, your daddy gave you that name. And so that's who you represent, and it's your history. That's what it so all that's important.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Well, I think was it who was it that oh I think it was uh Coach Pratt when he came on and talked about you know there's something about Sykston. Yes, you know what I mean, like you know a Sykstonian from a lot of places. If you meet one, you met you know who they are, you know. I mean that's right. I I think it was Coach Pratt that talked about that.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

It was that's exactly who it was. Yep, yep. So it's important to that, and you're right. Um thank you going back to that. Thank you for liking, sharing, following, commenting, all of those things, reviewing us. It's it's it's very important, and and we we certainly appreciate that. You can catch our podcast on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeartRadio, and a whole host of other podcast sites and mediums. You can also catch us on the embedded player on our website, thedoghouse.buzzsprout.com. If you need to reach us by email, it's doghouse. Or you can send us a message through TikTok or Facebook Messenger or Instagram or send a message to Micah or me individually. Certainly see us out and about, say something to us. That's right. Easy to reach. Got any shout-outs this week? I know you had one last week.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

If you got another, I got my wife. Right. Right. I enjoy her, allow me to have time to do this. I think they're out eating pizza tonight for they are.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

I saw her share that uh thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

I think they're doing something for the youth or whatever. Right, raising helping raise money for youth. But anyway, I think she's gonna actually bring me some pizza home, supposedly. So uh I appreciate her thinking of me and and and and allowing me time to come over and do this today. Yeah, me too. Matter of fact, she even picked the picked the dog up from the daycare to oh, even better. You know, she she wasn't planning to, I don't think, but she last minute she took it and done it. So I appreciate her for doing that.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Even better, even better. If you're interested in partnering with us, give us a shout. We've still got some swag available. I do have some size large now. We got those in. Shout out to Mr. Brian Henson, he got those turned around for us pretty quick, and so we do have some in stock. And if that's something you're interested in, give us a shout. And we'll stop well, actually, I want

Summer Bulldogs Basketball Check-In

SPEAKER_02 13:31

to mention one thing. The Bulldogs played some games at the Rib City four games last Thursday in Popper Bluff, finished the day two and two, lost to the runner-up in Tennessee, White Haven. They were they were they got second last year.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Are they out of Memphis? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Just out, yeah. Lost by five. It was a really, really physical game, close game, no excuses. They I mean they beat us, just one of those things. And then we beat New Madrid. We beat Chadwick, which is a school over towards southwest uh Missouri. Not sure what classification they are, and then we lost to Sylvan Hills, which is actually out of Little Rock, which is interestingly where Chad Allen went to high school.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Yeah. Really good team, man. They were huge. They had some big bodies, and we lost by eight or something like that. They got on us a little bit, got early, uh, got on us early, and we really picked it up in the second half, and just about I think we cut it to five at one time, I think, maybe not, but we certainly made made a game of it when it could have gotten out of hand, and coach challenged his players four games in a day, and I know it's two 15-minute halves of running clock, but that's a lot of basketball.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

You know, we always we've talked about the third game a lot. Add a fourth one in there, it's even tougher.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

It's even tougher. But the Bulldogs had a good showing. There's nothing to even remotely hang our hat about. That's why we play the games, right? Why they're just getting in the gym right now, still got days to be able to have contact with Coach Hollyfield. July, they'll they'll basically just be doing open gyms. That's when a lot of the AAU they t it's the month of June typically AAU is off to allow for times with the high schools, and then July is that's when they have the peach jam and they have all these things that kind of wraps all that up in July before they go back to school. So that will July will still have some workouts during the week, but not as much. I mean, they'll be competing against one another.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

And I'm sure they got a dead week in there too coming to the case. They'll have a dead week. Probably a week before 4th July or the week of 4th July.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

No, it's it's actually the last week before season starts. Okay. Yeah, so it'll be late July, first part of August, or somewhere right on the street. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Football has a dead week the last week of like the week before practice starts.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

That's all fall sports. Okay. Yep, yep. Same one. Same one. So anyway, thanks for thanks for allowing us to drone on a little bit about the Bulldogs and get a little catch-up on the Bulldogs over the summer. I I can't remember, it's a well above 500 our record for the like 16 and 6 or something like that for the games that we played this summer.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

So and a lot of times those games are they not only played varsity, they play some JV too.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Yeah, that's not that's just varsity. Yeah, we've played at the Rib City, though we have three teams there, usually varsity, junior varsity, and a freshman team. So we've all of our kids have had tons of basketball this summer.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

That's what it's about.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Yeah, absolutely. So hey, just stick with us and we'll be right back with our guest, Mr. Jamie Johnson. Hey, thanks for sticking with us through that long break, that uh about 0.2 second break, maybe not even that long. But anyway, thanks for hanging out with us, and we are moving on to our guests this week. And without further ado, Micah, if it's all right with you, we're gonna Let's rock and roll. Yeah, because we spent probably half hour just shooting the breeze upstairs before we got down here.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Which is not unusual.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

No, no, it's not. It isn't at all. And so we always say we've burned up some content upstairs, I guess. So we'll bring it back up. We will. Well, some of it, some of it. I was gonna say, we might not talk about the scene of the light, and we might not talk about some of the other things, but or or maybe we might talk about that, but maybe not in what in reference to what we were talking about about. So anyway, we're moving on, as they say. I'm gonna introduce our guest.

Meet Jamie Johnson And Murray State

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Today's guest is someone who has spent decades investing in students, athletes, and the East Prairie community. Jamie Johnson has been an educator since 2002 and has served as principal at East Prairie since 2016. But long for but long before the title of principal, Jamie was making a name for himself as a standout athlete. A two-time All-State pitcher at Scenith Hornersville, he continued his baseball career at Three Rivers Community College before moving on to play Division I baseball at Murray State. His love for sports mentorship never left, and today he continues to pour into young people both in the school building and on the baseball field. If that wasn't even enough, Jamie also spent his high school years playing basketball and baseball under the legendary coach Greg Hollifield. Hopefully, you've got some really good stories that you can share about coach too. I'm really looking forward to those, Jamie. Well, I don't know if I can share all of them, but I've got some. Just some good ones. That's right. That's right. When he's not leading out of school, you'll likely find him coaching summer baseball with the fighting squirrels alongside Michael Miner. He's also golfing and spending time with his wife and his daughter. We're excited to hear the stories behind the educator, the athlete, and the coach. Jamie Johnson, welcome to the doghouse.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Welcome to the doghouse. Thank you. It's nice to be here. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Absolutely. We're ready for it. That's right. We've we've been like ready to hear something.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

We're sitting there reading it, and I'm like, uh questions are popping in my head. I'm like, man, like so much. I mean, like uh thinking about like the college world series just ended you pitched at Murray State. Yeah, you got to make it to the World Series last year.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

They did. Yeah. And that probably I how'd that feel as a you know to see those guys and and that facility that they play in and those changes that are happening for them now, that's just amazing. And and to be at that at that university and know the background and the history, Johnny Reagan, you know, great, great former head coach there, and uh that program to see that flourish like that, that's just outstanding. You can't you can't ask for anything better when you play there.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

They were they the thoroughbreds, or they were the thoroughbreds, because see, right was that we had Tyler on last year, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Well, it was when he came back after when he came back from the World Series.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Right. So he went to Omaha. Do you know Tyler? You know, you know Rod. Yes. Anderson. Yes. That's his son. Yeah. He played at Murray. He played squirrels, too. Yes, he did. That's right. And so we had him on talking about obviously his he's a bulldog, but he went to Omaha for I don't know, a few days. Two days a week or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Until they went literally.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

I think they got knocked out.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Yeah. Johnny Reagan Field, when I played, of course, we were the thoroughbreds, and you were not the racers. Right. I mean, you didn't speak about being the racers. That was, you know, the basketball and football. I mean, it was a big deal. We didn't even wear the same colors at that time. What? We didn't get to wear the navy blue and white. You wore, and all my Murray State alumni and all that. I'm sorry. We wore baby blue and yellow. No way. Yes, and that was the original colors that Johnny Reagan's thoroughbreds always wore.

unknown 21:00

No.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

And after I left they moved to the racers. And now every one of them wears those nice navy blue.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

That navy, yeah, that navy blue and the yellow or gold or whatever it is. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Tyler kind of told us about that, and I that's how I knew it was the thoroughbreds when he mentioned that that time. Yes. I did not realize that.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

A change for the better. Those uniforms now are a lot nicer than that baby blue and yellow that we wore.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Who's the guy that was on TV that played there? He was at WPSD something? Didn't he do the sports for WPSD TV channel six? Oh my goodness. I'll be honest with you, I don't watch WPS D. No, I don't either. I mean, well, I did Sunday because the US Open was on. Gosh, I can't think of his name. Dave something. He was a probably he's probably older than you and me, I'm sure. I can't think of his name, Dave.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

There's been a lot of coaches come through though, like Murray State. I mean Coach Beamer there at one time or

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Is football? I believe so. Houston Nutt was, you know, at Murray State when I was there. He was coaching football. An assistant coach or head coach? He was the head coach. No kidding. Yeah. Don't I did not know that. And a great, a great guy. He would come down in the training room. You'd be working either on your shoulder or your knee. He would always stop every morning and say hello to you. How's it going? You know, great, great motivator for the whole, for the whole college. I mean. Yeah, he was very personal.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

Is that before he like went to Ole Miss and some of those big schools? Oh yeah. Yeah. Was it? Yeah. Okay. And then Well you know Dickie Knut. Yeah, I know Dicky. That's his brother. Of course. Yeah. Right. And then another interesting John Gruden was at SEMO when I was there. Really? He was an assistant coach there. Yep. Yep. If I follow him on social media and he does those people send him stuff, like gear and stuff all the time. And last fall, Coach Took sent a bunch of stuff to Gruden.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Like I think packages and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

Hats and pullovers and whatever. Yeah. So he gets stuff all the time. So that's that's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

That's uh a lot of history with with Murray State, though. I mean, like for sure. No longer in the OVC, though. I mean, they're Missouri Valley. Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

I mean, things are changing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

Uh they're moving up. They are. They are. It's it's interesting. Well, how how the heck they get John Morant. I mean, uh the story was basically Who was it before he was, though? Like Oh, they had a Cannon.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

Cameron uh Cameron played for the Sons or something, didn't he?

SPEAKER_02 23:46

He he played for Oklahoma City. Cameron, well, I can't recall his name, but they he played an NBA. That Cannon, Isaiah Cannon played an NBA.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Well, you can't forget Popeye Jones. Popeye Jones was back in the day. That was back in my days with Popeye Jones.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Yes, that's exactly right. Yeah. And then, of course, now John Morant, but I think the story with him basically was they were the first one on him early, and he stuck with them. He did. He did. I you know they I mean he's a generational talent. Unbelievable. Yeah. But yeah, they were I I I we went to SEMO to watch him play up there. That was he was worth the price of a mission anyway. But one thing I wanted to mention, Mike and I were talking about this. This is Jamie Johnson, not the Jamie Johnson that didn't show up to New Madrid last year, the country singer. Let's clarify that.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Yeah, yeah. I'm I I show up to New Madrid when I say I'm coming. Uh I I don't go down there very much because of that, because uh when they hear Jamie. Jamie Johnson, Jamie Johnson, yeah. No, I'm not the country singer. Yeah. And I get that. I got that the other night when we had a double header. Somebody said the country. I said, nah, I don't sing. Don't don't worry.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

Um yeah, Aaron, my wife, was on that committee. That was quite a that was a stressful day, let's just say. I would imagine. They they they got it worked out. But anyway, that was it. Yeah, I just want to clarify. This is not that Jamie Johnson. No.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

So go ahead. Go ahead. No, you

Coach Hollifield And Senath Baseball Culture

SPEAKER_01 25:20

had a question. I was just I was just gonna kind of start with like we know you from Zenith. The connection really probably what brought you on here, which I mean probably other things, but your connection to Coach Holofield.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Like you know, when I was in high school, Coach Holofield came in in 1990 and changed Senate Horner Hornersville already had a great culture of of winning. A lot of talent in the boot hill at that point in time. But Coach Holofield came in and he kind of changed things all for the better. Me and my wife were talking about it last night. I said, I can remember him. We got new uniforms. We had had the same uniforms, kind of the same stuff for years. We went to pinstripes and Greg showed us how to wear the uniform. I mean, there was a certain way that you wore it, and he was really, really high on, you know, if we look the part, we'll be the part. You know, he would work you like no other. I mean, great, and he's a great baseball coach. I mean, I mean, I there's a lot of folks here that don't really know. They don't know how good Greg Holefield is at baseball.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

But but he's that's a minor league experience, didn't he? Like Rangers or something like that. Big league stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

He was strength conditioning coach with the Rangers at one time. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

But some stuff in with the Mariners, maybe too. I can't recall. He just did some stuff in the big leagues. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

But he was he was always really you know informative about hey, this is this is how you carry yourself. If you want to get to the next level, these are the things you do. And and he just took it and ran with it. And and that bunch ended up, like I said, 21 in one that year. An exceptional talent, not just me uh other players. We were loaded with arms. I mean, that we had every bit of I'm thinking about it right now, maybe six guys that were 85. Really? Yeah. And some of them were, you know, some of them threw harder. There's some really great athletes at Scenic, you know, baseball and sports-wise at that point in time, from 89 to 92, when I was there, those guys ahead of me and behind me were just loaded with baseball talent. And and Greg just took that and just nobody outworked Greg either on a baseball field. You know, we were talking about funny stories with Coach Holofield. You know, he's not, he wasn't Coach Holofield that you see today. You know, he was a little bigger at that point in time.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

He was we call him around here and we see those pictures swole G. He was a lot bigger. Coaches.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Well, I showed you that picture last night.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

That's in the locker room, I'm telling you, in his office, somewhere in the house.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

It's it's funny because he would be in the mornings with a with a friend of his while we were practicing early in the morning. Greg would be lifting over on the side. Yeah, that's a swole G and just you know, huge. But always working, but him throwing batting practice, you know. I know he's the great basketball legend here at Sykston, but for me, it's him throwing batting practice outside with his shirt off. Oh my god. With his shirt off and turf shoes on, and then dragging the field in his pickup truck. You know, that's that's how far we go back. But but always outstanding, great motivator. Yeah, you know, and was always talking to you about, hey, what are you what are you planning on doing? You know, wherever do you where do you want to go? He would ask me those questions. He'd say, give me a list. Give me a list of local places you might want to go. And he said, then give me give me your top 10. And he was nice enough. I I mean, we took care of those letters. I made connections at Arkansas, I had connections at Mississippi State, and it was all because Greg, because he kind of started that that on the track to go on and go to that next level. And that's what he expected of you, too. You know, he would work you and get you prepared. And that way when you weren't out on the field or if you were on it, it didn't matter. You were prepared for that next level.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Kind of where'd your love for baseball come from?

Dad Lessons And Handling Adversity

SPEAKER_00 30:02

You know, I would have to say my dad, he played he played with several people uh that played semi-pro. You know, this is going to go way back. There was Don Kessinger Sports Camp, which was down at Braggadosha. Yeah, yeah. And and great players like Mark Lattell. My dad caught Mark Lattell in 71. He's from Get In. He's played for the Cardinals. Cardinals and Royals. He can't Randy Smith, who was the number one draft pick of the California Angels in 71. Did he was he a coach down there? Oh yeah. I agree.

SPEAKER_02 30:37

I was I think Greg played for Randy. I think I've heard him mention that name. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Um Greg and Randy are great friends. I played for Randy when I was 14 years old in Legion Ball.

SPEAKER_03 30:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

So they all knew each other. But I would ride along. My dad was an official too. He umpired. I would go to these games when I was little, and he'd be officiating. I'd be sitting in the bleachers watching or or whatever, or playing cup ball with my friends or whatever. Anything you could get stick and something you could hit. Yeah, we were we were always doing that. But we went to all these games, and then of course I started playing, and well, he was coaching, and it just kind of flourished, and everything was baseball. And it was it was tough now. My dad was not one of these, you know, I say it, these parents today are a little different than mine. I wasn't allowed to go out on Friday nights until I took a hundred swings both both ways, and he brought me the biggest Mickey Mantle wooden bat with a fattest handle I'd ever seen in my life, but I would swing that before I could go out. And he'd say, Did you get your hundred swings in? I'd be like, Oh yeah, yeah, I did it. And he's like, Hard. So I'd be like, Well, no. Well, you better get out there and get you another. So it was just things like that. He had very high expectations for me. He was never easy on me, not some people would say abuse, but you know, there was some tough times where he was just preparing me for when things got tough. And it it's made me what I do today when I'm coaching kids, you know, it's so easy for a kid to always have it easy. It's when they run into that adversity, either at the next level or or higher. At some point you're gonna hit it. They are, yeah. And we see that in the summer ball with the squirrels. You know, we not all these kids, they're so used to being the one or the star, and and now they run into a little adversity and they've got to know how to handle it because we all hit it at some point where the talent level is equal or better, and you've got to figure out a way to compete.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

Blake talked about that on here when he was, you know, early in his career, he kind of hit a lull and was having a hard time and had to fight through it. And he was talking about how well he called it removing the doubt. You know, he just kind of continued like he said, but he had to do that on his own in the major leagues. I mean, like minor leagues and my he said, like they gave you workout, but I mean, it's up to you to do it.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Right. And and that's what we try to tell our kids, and what I try to pass on is, you know, when I'm coaching or helping them with pitching mechanics and things like that, everything I use is so they can use it when I'm not there. So they can make that adjustment on the fly. Because they may not have a good pitching coach in college, or they may have a great one. But they've got to be able to change that instant. And they can't wait for to go to a dugout. Or so I try to simplify the stuff I talk to them about with pitching with little reminders and things, so I can say it from the sideline and they can make that change on the fly and they can use it. Yeah. I have kids that have been pitching for for years that'll call me and say, hey coach, this is what's happening. And you know, this is on the phone. And okay, well, we can.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

So can they this happens in golf, and of course, Jamie's a avid golfer like I am, but now with the advent of phones and iPads and stuff, can they video themselves and send it to you? And you go, Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, you're I get you're not in the arm slot or whatever, your arm's too low, too high, elbow. You can look at that stuff and make some adjustments.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

Oh yeah. And it and there's and I always say this too, your connections and no one has all the answers, but I've always been willing to to find them. I've got a I've got a cousin who is in the my well was with the uh Cleveland Indians organization as a as a top scout. I can send him things and go, hey, have you s look at this. What do you see? And JP will shoot me right back. I mean, it's instantaneous. He'll he'll say, Hey man, that arm slot's bad. You know, you gotta you gotta it's and it's his head, his head's tilted, we gotta get that fixed. So to have those connections and be able to make a phone call has always been really nice. It's and it's been really nice to be successful to be able to do that too. Right,

Fighting Squirrels And Coaching Philosophy

SPEAKER_00 35:25

right.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

Now, how long have you been with the squirrels? We were talking about that before you got here. I think I think this is ten years.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

Because yeah, I how old is that program? It's right around 20 or something.

SPEAKER_00 35:39

I believe it started in 05. Oh, okay. Okay. Because I saw I got a shirt the other day and it says established 2005. Okay. But yeah, when I was coaching Legion Ball, that's where I ran into the squirrels. And it was I'd been coaching Legion Ball for a while, probably 10 years at that point. And then I look up on the on the schedule one day and I see Dunklin County versus Charleston Squirrels. It didn't even say fighting at that time, right? And I'm like, who in the world are the fighting squirrels? I've never heard of this in my in my years of coaching. So, and I ran into Michael, you know, and I'm like Did you know him before then? I did not. I did not know of him.

SPEAKER_02 36:24

He was from he's a cape kid.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Yes, and he's a cape kid, and and we played Cape every year. We were in districts with him. Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, Steve Williams and all those guys that were up there. I know we've crossed paths before, but we really made that connection when when we started coaching against each other, and it was always fun. Yeah, anytime you're coaching against minor, it's fun. And it was always a question who was gonna get thrown out first, me or Michael. Um, and more than more times than not, he beat me to the punch. Um, he still does it today, but uh but injured the lineup card and walks out. Yeah, he's done that to me a few times, but and I've done that too. So we always say it. The the umpires in the area probably just shook their head and thinking, oh my gosh, we got Michael Minor. And now we've got Jamie Johnson together. Yeah. Oh, this is not a good night. So but it's like you start coaching Legion Ball Legion Ball. I started coaching Legion Ball in '95. Okay. Randy Smith had just started the Dunklin County American Legion. That was it. First year we were sponsored by Skeeter Cal.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

And then later years it came. I've I my teams were sponsored by oh, it's Legacy Equipment. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And Jeff Basil from Kenneth and we had Trey, and they were nice enough to to fund that. Yep. But we were always Dunklin County. Yep. Through you, we were Unico Bank and things like that through the years. But 95 was the first year, and Randy Smith started it.

SPEAKER_02 38:10

These guys were always really good. Really good.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

And they were. And I was coaching, I was Randy's one of his assistants that first year it started. We had David Nail, Chris Sledge, Sledge, and those guys played. Yeah, those guys were all there. And then in '96, I went to Paraguld, which was where Randy lived, and I took the Legion program there.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

So sponsored by Dr. Pepper.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

And that was Paraguld Dr. Pepper, where I had played Legion Ball quite. Yes, yes, it was. I can attribute a lot of my success to Bill Shatzley and Randy Smith, who always coached, and Bill Shatzley is a name from up here. He is either from Sykston or around this area. Really? Legendary coaches coaches at a Paragolid High School, does softball now, but Bill Shatzley, if anybody in Southeast Missouri hears his name, he is famous in that area for coaching. But I went there in '96, I was there for '97. And then in '98, Randy called me and said, Hey, I'm going out to Pro Bowl with Kansas City. You want this Legion program? And I said, Well, I wouldn't have to drive to Paragold every day. So we swapped, and I took the Legion program in ninety-eight and it was where did y'all play out of where did it was out of Cena? Oh, okay. Yeah, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

Now that's is it still a program?

SPEAKER_00 39:50

Because I you still No, when I left to be an administrator at Charleston, I guess that was 15, 14, 15, 15, 16, right. I was going to be the assistant principal at Charleston High School. And when I left the program folded. And they haven't had one since.

SPEAKER_02 40:14

It's it's struggling here too. And I don't think we had one this year. I mean, it was when you and I played, and and we've talked about this before, that was where the kids played.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

Yes, and that was your upper level talent played.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

And it wasn't we didn't can didn't have to compete, so to speak, with travel balls. And I I that's the I guess that's the generic term for it. Sure. But the all the different teams that are available for kids to play on, and that's that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

But yeah, so is Legion Ball still I mean, like I know it's still a thing, but I mean in this area it's kind of changed, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 40:50

You know, in the state of Missouri, I believe there's there may be anywhere between 60 and 80 teams. Oh, wow. When I was coaching, there there was 160 AAA Legion teams, which was your older, your older teams.

SPEAKER_03 41:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:07

But I had a great drawing area. I mean, I I had Poplar Bluff. Oh, I didn't realize you had that. I got that when Poplar Bluff's Legion program folded. And they moved to junior bay or senior bay roof. Well, so I got everybody from Popper Bluff, Neelyville, over to Dexter, or I'm sorry, over to Portageville.

SPEAKER_02 41:27

So I think we had Dexter.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

Yes, y'all did. But I got Portageville and anything south. Wow. To the Missouri State line. That's a huge oh yeah. So able to get great kids, everybody's think about it, anybody's number one or two from down there was was secluded into that area. So all of those kids, we would have tryouts, and I'm like, I'm cutting eight kids that could probably be playing somewhere else. Yep. And speaking of that, it's how Michael started competing. He he came down, started stealing, and uh he got he got some pictures, especially one from Risco that just absolutely shoved it one night against me. And I started going, That kid, that kid should be playing, he should be playing for me. And Michael just smiled and he knew already. I mean, he was absolutely loaded. But those kids started migrating north, some of them. And uh because they could choose, they were two different organizations. Absolutely. Yeah, and and Michael can communicate and he can talk. Communicate, that's a good way of putting it. Yeah, that's a great great line for Michael.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

We um we've talked about that on here.

SPEAKER_01 42:42

He's he's made it well with the attraction of like the uniforms and the the you know, having gear and and you know, affordable, all this, all the above. I mean, like, and not only that, you get a good coach.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

And and the families don't have to travel to Cincinnati or Louisville or or Tulsa or Oklahoma City, or you can travel within probably an hour or here, or two hours, or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 43:09

But when you first started playing, though, like they'd show up at a Legion tournament as a Beirut theme.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Uh that'd probably be those were some tough times for Michael. You know, they when we talk about it, and we do, we let we have truck rides home every night after ballgames. We read his post. I'm telling you, if we ever mic that up and Mike, I have told him, I said, hey man, we could sell this. There's no doubt. You'd have to have a bleeper.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

Yes, we would definitely are educators.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

That's true. It's gonna have to be on Netflix. That's where it's gonna have to be. But because some of those conversations you just can't put anywhere. That's funny. But but we've talked about it, and you know, you would see them, they were the fun bunch. Yeah, you know, they Show up and you're like, well, golly, these guys are crazy. And now they took some lumps for some years. But then they started getting better. And and to see what he's done with that program is amazing. Yeah. I mean, to win a a World Series is unbelievable. But that program has to see what he has built and how it's grown, people have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 44:25

I remember when he first started, it was like Kelly, Eastbury, and Charleston kids. I mean, it's pretty well what it was. And then he finally started getting some kids from Sykes and then, like you said, from all around the area, and it just kind of grew from there.

SPEAKER_00 44:37

Well, I mean, you go all over the country now, you know, and I've been places I've that I'd never seen before in the United States, and you'll see a squirrel's hat or you'll see a jersey, and you're like, I where'd you get that? They'll say, Oh, I got this, you know, why was that a regional or whatever? And I'm like, I I coach for them like that. And he's like, You're you're you're kidding. Can you get me some more stuff? And I'm like, I'm like, I know a guy who can get you anything you want. So but yeah, all the uniforms, you know, but what people don't see is how well he treats those kids. Yeah. You know, it's a lot of money that comes in, I know with all the sponsorships and everything that he does, fundraising. But what they don't see is that every bit of that money goes back into those kids, whether it's their hotel rooms or it's their food, their food on the road. I mean, we may be going for a doubleheader, and Michael will just pull over here at this gas station and he'll buy, they'll go in and he he doesn't limit them. He says, Go get what, go get you something to eat or drink, get what you want. And they do, and he pays for it. And that's in that includes the coaches. You know, now our staff doesn't take pay for for coaching, and we and we haven't, but I've never been out of nickel. That's what I tell people. That's good. I've never been out of nickel to coach for the squirrels. I get hotel rooms, my dinner has been paid for, my wife and daughter have been taken on the road with me to regionals. You can't ask.

unknown 46:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:19

They say, Why do you why do you coach with them in the summer? Aren't you tired of that? How can you get tired of that? You get to wear a uniform every day, you still get to put your turf shoes on, and you get to coach with a great friend who we who there is no telling what he's gonna say. Or what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 46:39

Well, there's some stories shared off the air that we couldn't get on here. We had some good ones too, didn't we, Micah?

SPEAKER_00 46:47

Yeah, I bet. But but yeah, it's it's a great experience. Kids he makes sure that those kids act right on the road, you know, so they know how to to act. And I always said this, be able to act and do right. Yep. That's a big part of it. Yep. And his kids always do that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:06

Well, they're they're representing him and the squirrels, but they're almost they're representing where they're from and their families and all that stuff. And so of course, he and he teaches that to his high school kids. I mean, that play baseball for them in high school, but he also teaches that now. And that's a that's a hallmark of a good leader. And I know I know you you do the same, and I know you buy into that.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

Well, and and my role is my role with Michael is different than when I coach Legion ball. I I don't have to deal with parents. I don't make the lineup out. I teach pitching, I'll help hitter, you know, I'll help your hitters. Me and Michael talk if he wants to ask or something, that's fine. I get to handle all conditioning. So while Michael's on the radio, I get to handle conditioning. So if they don't act right or it's something I don't approve of, we'll go handle that out there. And they they know that. Oh, yeah. They they know that this is a way that we act and that we carry ourselves, and that's we'll have a good time, but you're still gonna still gonna be you're still gonna act right. Absolutely. And in this day and age, we're seeing more teams with the yelling and the hooting and the hollering and the ugly comments toward the other players. You know, back in my day, you you might have heard that. But you get some chin music. And I could I could kind of throw it where I wanted it so I could send a message quick. Yeah, and and in this day and age, it's it's it's ugly. Some of these places don't make their kids act the way that that he does. Yeah, and that's not good for baseball. No, it's not.

SPEAKER_01 48:43

And I like I like too that like he often schedules double hitters so that kids get to play. Sure. A lot of times the ones that don't play the first game play the second game. Absolutely, every night. I've noticed that been around for he's been doing that for years now.

SPEAKER_00 48:57

I mean, and we've had me and him have had disagreements about that, you know, where he's like, and that's his philosophy.

SPEAKER_01 49:05

Well, he's building for the end of the season. Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_00 49:08

He's going to make sure that that kid, you know, if his parents come to that ball game, they're gonna see that kid that night. And and you got to commend the guy for that because sometimes that doesn't work out well. Yeah, you know, I was from a different cut. Yeah, and and I always say this to Michael.

SPEAKER_02 49:25

We put the uniform on, we're going to win, we're putting the best nine out there.

SPEAKER_00 49:28

I am. And and my kids competed against each other for that spot. And if you were in if you were in the game, you earned it. Yeah, you know, and uh, but I totally understand Michael's philosophy on it.

SPEAKER_01 49:41

Yeah, but he has to make some cut probably the hardest, he talks about one of the hardest days of his year. It's his cut day to make some cut day, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:46

It's his cut day. Yeah. And you know, that's why I tell him, I'm like, I'm glad I don't have to deal with parents. Yeah. I did that when I was at Dunklin County, and I do that every day as far as an administrator. And I don't mind it. But in the summertime, when it's when I'm doing that, I don't have to worry about it because he'll handle it. And he's done a good job with.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

How did you get into what what brought you into education?

From House Moving To Education Leadership

SPEAKER_00 50:13

Okay, well, this this is a this is a funny story. This'll this'll lighten it up a little bit. I was at Murray State, I came home after I tore up my shoulder, started working with my dad a little bit, and moving houses. That's what he does for a living. I mean, not mobile homes, he moves actual houses. No kidding, like jacks them off the foundation. Yes, could could pick this one up and be gone within a week. Wow. And and move it somewhere you want it. That's been in our family for over a hundred years.

SPEAKER_01 50:45

So I guess he does that kind of all over Southeast Missouri.

SPEAKER_00 50:48

Yes. He I mean, if he can drive there, he'll he'll move it. And he and he's probably been there on a you know, a gravel road somehow. He can get you through all these different areas. But that was our family business. So I'd come back home, I was doing that. Baseball was kind of over, other than the coaching stuff in the summer, and I was like, Well, I'm gonna, I guess this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna I'm gonna move houses. Should have been taking classes and finishing up and all that. And I'm like, I've got a business right here. You know, dad's real, mom and dad are nice and gonna let me live here and make some money, and that's what I'll do. And it got winter time, and we were at Wardell, and I was digging a foundation. It was freezing cold, but we were I was in a ditch digging this foundation, and Danny Glass, who goes to all these basketball games. I don't know him, but I've seen his name.

SPEAKER_02 51:46

Yes, he is he goes live all the time. He's on the SEMO ball all the time. He's on that SEMO.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

He's got a mustache. Okay. I don't know him. Okay. Yes, Danny Glass is we're moving Danny Glass's house. Okay. And Danny Glass is talking to my dad under the floor, and he says, Man, Glenny, I'm in trouble. He was on the board at that time at Wardell. And he's like, We got North Pym, right? North Pym is kind. Okay. And he said, I need I need a baseball coach. Now it's wintertime, so you figure it's December, right in through there, November. And he goes, My dad leans down, looks under the floor at me on the other side of the house, and he looks at Danny and says, Well, this is his words, one of the best ones in the country is sitting right over in that ditch, but he's not doing what he should be doing. He ought to be coaching. Danny Glass walked around the house and started talking to me and said, Would you be interested in coaching baseball at North Pennscott? And I said, Well, it'd be a lot better than sitting in this ditch. Danny said, Well, we got a board meeting next week. Why don't you come? I said, Danny, I hadn't even finished my degree yet. And Danny Glass said, We don't care. We'll pay you while you finish it. So I went to the board meeting. Of course, North Pemiscott's board's, you know, it's the first time I've ever been to a board meeting, especially for a job. Everybody at the table had a styrofoam cup sitting in front of them. When I walked indoor and I thought, hmm. Well, when that when they got to my part, well, they all start pulling out their Copenhagen and their dip and all that stuff. And I thought, well, that's all right. I'm good. I'm good. We're gonna talk baseball here. They offered me the job and I started coaching. I started that started in January at North Pimscott. I've been in education ever since. Did you teach at that time? I did. I was teaching, I was teaching PE and junior high social studies. I went back to SEMO. Dr. Fred Yeo was there. He was my advisor, looked at all my transcripts, and he looked at me and he said, Son, you had a good time at college, didn't you? And I said, I said, I did, but I need to change this. And uh he said, okay. And he said, now if you ever do what you've done before, you're gonna be done, Jamie. And I said, uh don't worry about that. And I never did again. Made great, you know, made my grades, finished up, and eventually ended up getting a my master's and then got an administrative job. You have your specialist too, right? And I have my specialist, yeah. Okay. I went ahead and got my specialist and all three William Woods, but did that while I was working, and here I am. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 54:43

Yeah, that's an interesting story. How that one I it won't say chance, it was obviously supposed to happen, but yeah, that's interesting. So that was in oh that was oh three. Okay, so you hadn't even taken the Dunklin County thing yet then either, had you?

SPEAKER_00 55:03

Well, Dunklin County started in ninety-eight. I started coaching Legion Ball. Um yeah, that's what I coached. In ninety eight. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 55:11

So Alright, so you were at North Pym from Oh, what'd you say?

SPEAKER_00 55:16

Oh three, oh four, oh five. Okay, and then I went to Zenith. Oh, okay. Um, and this is funny, you talk about how everything circles. Shannon Holofield was the girl's basketball coach.

SPEAKER_02 55:28

I've heard some stories about her too.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

Stomping on hard worker stomping. That's where Greg learned the stomp. I'm telling you. Stomping on with her heels on. Greg learned that stomp from Shannon because he would take that, he would take those dress shoes that he always wore because you know he's he's got he's gotta look good. Now, you know, if you want to go really far back, when we saw Greg Holofield, he had a nickname. Oh boy. Now, of course, Bull Durham is my favorite baseball movie of all time. But what Clint Harris, a uh player of his who was the blue angel at one time, yeah, called him Crash. Okay. Crash Davis. Like like Kevin Costner, because he that's kind of how he was kind of suave and you know, hey, he dressed nice. And now he's kind of GQ'd it a little bit since he since he came up here. He has, he has. Uh, but but Coach Vogue, as we kind of called him back there, he was always he was always big time, Coach Vogue.

SPEAKER_02 56:27

Did he know y'all called him big?

SPEAKER_00 56:28

I don't think he did.

SPEAKER_02 56:29

That's what I was gonna say, because if I ask him, he'll say he'll he'll give me like what Joe Pittman's say what?

SPEAKER_00 56:37

But yeah, he uh he always dressed really nice and all that. Um that was just kind of that's just kind of the way it went with Greg. So you were back in Scenith. Went back because Shannon who had been coaching girls basketball, yeah, what was going, I don't know where she went from Scenith. Where was year what year was this? That would have been oh five, oh six. Probably come here. Might have been.

SPEAKER_02 57:03

That's a about the time they met, and that's real close to the time she came here.

SPEAKER_00 57:12

Because I I came to Scenith to coach girls basketball. Oh, yeah, okay, and and then Randy Smith was the head baseball coach. Okay, so I just stepped in and I was helping Randy, I was his assistant, and then I coached the girls. And that's that is how I got back to Scenic.

SPEAKER_02 57:32

Okay, and you were there for how long?

SPEAKER_00 57:35

That was I was at Scenith for eight years. Okay. Yeah, won a district championship with the girls there. Wow, congratulations. That's awesome. I had some really great kids. And then the final two years I was there, we I co I was the head coach of baseball because Randy Smith had retired.

SPEAKER_03 57:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 57:53

And and then the opportunity came at Charleston to be the assistant principal.

SPEAKER_02 58:00

And you were already, were you already kind of linked up with Minor at that point? Just coaching against each other and friends. You weren't coaching the squirrels then. No. Oh, okay. No, no, no. Well, see, he was well, he wasn't in administration then.

SPEAKER_01 58:12

He was just he was just he was a teacher. Was he the athletic director then?

SPEAKER_00 58:17

He was the athletic director. He was the art teacher when I got to Charleston. Yeah, yeah. And so I I came in as his assistant principal. And, you know, I'd get to see Michael in the classroom, and Michael would be walking around on top of the shelves. You know, there would be shelves around his room and tables, and Michael would be standing on those talking to kids.

SPEAKER_01 58:40

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 58:40

And uh, if you've never seen that, that's a site for an administrator to watch it. I can imagine.

SPEAKER_01 58:44

Is the art room still where it's always been kind of back when out towards the VWAG building? Toward that back exit. Yes. Yeah. Like where you come in when we go to the six-man back door. Those back door.

SPEAKER_00 58:56

That was Michael's room. Yeah. And uh that was the first time I got to see Michael in the classroom, which those kids at Charleston. Oh, they're sure they love it. They absolutely adore him. Yeah. And and I can say this, you know, me and Michael have spoken about this before. There's so many stories that people say and they talk, they talk bad about that school district. I had some of the best and funnest times being an administrator at Charleston. He had great kids. Teachers, teachers were great. I I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed teaching and and being an administrator with Michael. And your wife is from Charleston. Yes. Yeah. Yes. And at that point in time when I took the job at Charleston, she took the middle school math job at the junior high at East Prairie. Oh, okay. Yeah. Because she was going to stay back at Zenith and teach, where she was teaching, when I came to Charleston. Because I have I had family, her family at Bertrand. Yeah. David and Carolyn were going to let me spend the week and stay all night with them. Yeah. And then drive back.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:11

I mean, so But it worked out that she was able to come up with the city.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:14

It worked out we moved. It was it was really, you know, there were some positions and things like that at Cena for administrator jobs and things. But I was coaching. I was coaching girls. I was coaching boys. I was driving a bus in the morning and the afternoon. I was teaching teaching government. So you might have been home more by taking the job at Charles, and then holy moly. Well, and I was doing all those things. And they had some administrator positions come open. I was doing the I was doing the assistant principal job, but I wasn't in that title. Yeah. And then some positions got taken, and I Leslie was like, you know, do you want to be an administrator? I'm like, I I think I think I do. And I said put my name out there. Let's see, let's see what happens. Remarkable. I mean, that happened within one week.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:14

What?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:15

You got the job and Leslie too.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:19

When when they made the decisions on the administrators, some people got those spots, and I wanted not to just coach there forever. I wanted to coach. I'd uh and I told them, I said, I'll coach for you, even if I'm in administration, whatever you need. But that didn't work out. So I had to make a decision.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:41

Good Lord's got a way of doing stuff where it's supposed to be. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:44

So it's funny, and I always say this, and I've I've told others this. I was at the baseball field in my truck the night of the board meeting. When I got the word from the the superintendent that I didn't get a position for an administrator. And I went down, it's three o'clock in the morning. And I'm at the stop sign, and I said, and I did. I said, Lord, if you don't want me here, I'll never forget saying it. I said, then show me what you want. And the next morning, me and Leslie were talking, and I she was a teacher there at that time too. And I said, I think I'm ready to go. And she said, You're serious. I said, I'm ready to go. I said, You find me, find me something, and let's see what happens. Tony Watkins was a superintendent at Charleston. Leslie sent I didn't even do this. Leslie sent my resume. Oh. That morning. I was already a little upset anyway. Now I look back at it, you know, you mature and you learn. Right. Phone rang in my classroom. It's Tony Watkins. He knew me from when my dad was officiating at North Pembiscott when Tony was coaching there.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:09

I didn't realize Tony coached there.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:10

Yeah. Tony coached boys basketball at North Pembiscott before he was an administrator. Way back in the day. Well, he said, Why don't you come work for me? And I said, Where Tony, where are you? He said, I'm at Charleston. He goes, I want you let's just set up an interview for you know Thursday and you come up. Came up to Charleston, met with him and a man by the name of Daryl Hoppe, who was the assistant superintendent, and Kathy Joe Browning, who was the high school principal at that time. And they offered me the position. And I told him I couldn't. I said, not without speaking to my wife. I said, there ain't no way I'm without Leslie's uh input on this. So on the way home, I called her and I said, Hey, they offered me this spot. And she's like, Well, I'll I if it's what you want to do, I'll support it. Within a week, my house sold.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:10

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:12

I mean, we just put a sign in the yard. The guy walks up to me at Casey's and says, Hey, he was my neighbor across the street. He said, Is your house for sale? I said, Well, yeah, these signs in the yard. And Clint Harris's older brother, Bill, who was my neighbor, bought my house.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:37

Really?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:37

Took care of all the paperwork, and within three days, my house sold. The next three days after that, up to about a week, Leslie calls, gets a job at East Prairie. We're moving. I got the administrative job from the board at at Charleston, and we were northbound.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:01

All within a week.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:02

It was that quick. What time of the year? I mean, was that we moved in June. Oh, after the school year? Holy cow. Yeah, because I usually you're wanting to I'm on a school board here, and I don't mean this in any kind of way. But typically, if you have to hire somebody that late, we go, man. And you're not. You're the exception in this tit a lot of times, but if you're hiring them, you're like, gosh, a lot of the qualified candidates have already been sure been picked up. But it was just supposed to work out that way.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:34

Well, it was. The the principal that was there got let go in February. He walked in, saw me in the hallway. He was my Legion coach when I was 18 year old. Really great friend of mine. He goes, Big boy, it's all yours. And he walked out the door. Said he would he was going to use his days and he was gone. Where was this at? That was at Cena.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:58

Oh Lord.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:59

And so So the superintendent called me and said, Hey, we've had this go on. Would you mind being the administrator and handling this until well that ended up being a couple months. Mm-hmm. Because that was February and it didn't happen until like April.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:17

Well, but I mean, but you didn't even apply for the Charleston job until after the school year.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:23

That timing on that April was kind of when that all went down. Okay. And then I applied and then boom within a week.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:34

Well, I mean, but typically you're hiring administrators, especially high school principals, superintendents, things like that in December. December. That's kind of all of that. Yeah. Because you're getting set up for the next school year kind of thing. You're kind of past that window. That's interesting. Yeah. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:52

But that's how it happened. And I mean, you ask, you will receive. I mean, that's what happened, and it happened quick. Yeah, I guess. Um, and you know, hey, it's Cynthia Hornersville is still home. Sure. I I still love that. I still there's people down there that I love. I really appreciate the time I was there. Of course. But me making that jump and just taking that leap has worked out wonderfully. I couldn't be any happier than the way it has worked out. And then you were there, you said three three years at Charleston.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:25

Two. Oh, two years.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:25

I was at Charleston for two. Okay. And like I said, Leslie got a job at East Prairie, and we moved. We moved to Charleston first. Leslie drove to East Prairie. She was teaching math. We brought Ann Lynn, who's, you know, of course, now a senior at Arkansas State University psychology major, but she was in third grade. And she went to school at East Prairie. Okay. And administrative position came open two years later at East Prairie. They asked if I might be interested. Applied, and I got the job. And I've been there ever since. Did did you go there as as principal at the high school? I was the assistant principal at Charleston and then got I got the high school principal job. I'm sorry. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:13

So you went to East Prairie started as the high school principal. Yes. Gotcha. Okay. And that was in 16, I think. I believe that's right. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:22

Yeah. 15, 16, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:24

Yeah. Yeah.

East Prairie Pride And Program Upgrades

SPEAKER_02 1:08:25

Okay. And so you've been there 10 years, isn't it? 10 years. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:30

You start your 11th, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:32

Yes. This will be the 11th. Yeah. Wonderful district. Of course. It I always draw comparisons. East Prairie feels like home. It feels like Cena's Hornersville. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:44

The colors are even the same. It's red and black. Right. The hallways are painted the same, or the lockers are the color. I mean, the comparisons are it's uncanny just how close they resemble. And but, you know, we've got so much family that's in that district. You know, my my mother-in-law, Carolyn Peters, taught second grade at East Prairie for like 34 years. Oh, God. Legend. Anybody can teach second grade for that long as a legend. Boy, you got that right. Yeah, absolutely. But, you know, I've got a brother-in-law that's a football coach, Ian Penrod, and you know, I've got nieces and nephews that are coming through that school district. So, and it's been absolutely a great place to work. I mean, I've got Dustin Hicks as my superintendent, the best superintendent I've ever worked for, bar none. Where's he from?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:40

Bloomfield, Bernie. Was where was he before he came to he had been East Prairie long, right? I mean three or four years.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:49

Talking four years, yeah. Has it been that long?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:50

Yeah. Okay. He uh he was at Bernie. Okay. I know he was at Bloomfield. He coached a little bit at Bloomfield before. Yeah. You know, I'm coaching, I'm coaching his son now with the squirrels. We've got we've got Leighton this summer, but now Dustin has been he's you know really instrumental in that new football field at at East Prairie with the turf. That's really nice. All the facilities always look great. He does an outstanding job.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:18

Since you've been there, there have been a lot of upgrades from junior high and stuff like that been done.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:24

Yeah. Yeah, without a doubt. New buildings, new facilities. We did. And and there's a lot of upgrades. You know, we have one of the best vocational, you know, votec kind of FFA aggraph.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:41

Do you send your uh votec kids to here? Yes. Are you ascending school here? Yes. Okay, perfect.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:46

They love it. Yeah. And it's a great experience for them. They they really do enjoy.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:52

FFA's always been really big down. I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:56

Yeah, we've got 135 kids in the FFA.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:00

What's up? Out of 312. Wow. Oh. It's Kevin Small's son, right? Rylan. Rylan, yeah. Yeah, he does you know phenomenal stuff with those those FFA kids. And the bass team, right? Yeah, yeah. The bass team has done really well. We have a bass team, bass fishing team at East Prairie. Is that a MISHA-sanctioned activity? I believe it is. Really? I didn't know that was. I haven't gotten asked on one of those trips yet to go supervise the bass.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:34

That's where you want to go, right? Because they go over to like Table Rock and everywhere, don't they? Yeah. They go all over the place. Oh my gosh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:40

Got their own boats and it's it's awesome. It's been going on for Yeah, we've had it several years now. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:48

I want to uh I want to I want to take us back to some baseball stuff. I want to mention we we talked briefly about Jamie being a I'm trying to find this while I'm scrolling here. It's uh two-time all stater. But he also when we talked about Dunklin County, I read, Jamie, that you had s over 600 wins as an American Legion baseball coach. That's amazing. That's a lot. And you won a state championship in 2000. That's a big deal winning the state championship there, I can tell you.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:26

Well, and that level of baseball back then was was very, very competitive. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:33

So do you go to like when you win a state, do you go to a regional like that from a zone or something they called it?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:39

You went to the zone after district. There was five teams in the district. Well, there's actually eight teams in the district and five in the zone. And then then you moved on to state where there was only four. Oh, okay. There's only four teams in the state of Missouri. That year, we were fortunate enough we beat Kansas City uh Blue Springs. Oh, wow. So you've got Dunklin County and all those little little 1A and 2A schools, and and you know, we've got Kenneth too. Can't can't put them out there. But and they're competing against Kansas City Blue Springs.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:15

Great. Now that you want a great story. This is a good one. And we're playing in the championship game. John Urick is Whitey Herzog's grandson. Okay. I'm a huge Whitey Herzog fan. White rat. And me and Aaron. And a Kansas City team? Yes. Okay. And we're at Columbia.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:34

And Aaron knew and me from Kenneth's head coach are standing there, and I see Whitey Herzog and his wife walk into the bleachers. I immediately grab my bag and get a pat and pen. We're fixing to play the state championship in like 10 minutes. And Aaron knew, you know, his voice goes up when he gets when he gets upset or angry or whatever. But uh he goes, What are you doing? I said, I'm going to get Whitey Herzog's autograph. He said, We're fixing to play the state championship. I said, I don't care. I'm going to the bleachers. So I go up, and of course, it's it's Mr. Herzog and his wife are sitting up there. And I said, Mr. Herzog could have an autograph. And he goes, and he looks at me, and I know he thought, son, you're fixing a coach. It's bogging. He didn't, he said, Why sure, have a seat. So he I sit down beside him. Nicest fella you could ever meet. And they had been to Kansas City for Whitey to be put into the Hall of Fame there. Yep. Yep. And she had a picture. It was like a drawing picture that had been painted of Whitey. And he said, You got me one of them pictures? She said, Well, of course. And she pulls one out of her bag and hands it to me. And then he signs the autograph below it.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:49

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:49

Good luck and best wishes, Whitey Herzog. Wow. And you still have it? Oh, of course. I have it framed and all that now. But but very complimentary. He I thought, this guy he doesn't know who I am or whatever. And he goes, I've been noticing your ball club. Y'all play a lot like we did. He said you have to run and bunt and small ball and hit behind the runners and all that. But coolest thing ever. And then of course we beat his grandson. We beat John Urich, who went on to pitch for Nebraska in the final game. But but yeah, that was a that was a pretty good day.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:25

I guess. That's awesome. That's awesome. I and now I've got these, and and these are in Coach Hollifield's handwriting. I just want to read you, we we talked about again, Jamie was a two-time all-stater. So these are hitting hitting numbers from the fall of 88 to the spring of 92, and then the spring would be 89 to 92. So the the fall, the small schools, like in the boot hill we talked about earlier, don't have football, so they play uh fall baseball, which like Bernie does, Cooter does. A lot of schools down the small schools down that way, they don't have football. Jamie's batting average from 88 to 91 in the fall was 416. Again, this is over four years, 20 home runs and 104 RBIs. In the spring session from that same time, was he at 515, 21 home runs and 141 RBIs for a total uh 463 average, 41 home runs and 245 RBIs again in four years. And in pitching in the fall, in fall baseball, he was 19-0 with three saves with an ERA of 178. In the spring, he was 24-0, eight saves and an ERA of 152 for a total of 43 wins, zero losses, 11 saves, and an ERA of 163. I say that's pretty special. I'd say that's pretty special for sure. I know Blake, I think Blake DeWitt had 27 wins in a row when he pitched here. And you probably had something up there until he eclipsed it, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:17

Well, and back in those days Golly, that sounds old. You're right. But back in those days, we didn't have I I mean, I don't even think that those were submitted. Oh, probably not. You know, yeah, same. Me and Greg have talked about that. Right. Um that's why I'm like, Coach Oleville, you're the only one that can verify this.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:37

Yeah, I sent those to him and he said I can verify every all of those. And I I've got the picture of of you signing with uh Swole Greg behind you. And so I'm gonna I'm gonna have these out on our I may have some on our social media and maybe uh it'd definitely be on our YouTube now that we're talking about this. I can load in these pictures and stuff behind it. So I'm gonna I'm going to throw some of those in there that we'll have on the on the uh YouTube video that now we're talking about it, some pictures and and that stats that of that sheet that's in Greg's handwriting. So I wanted to mention that before we before we we moved on. I like I told Jamie, we get questions and we give them to all of our guests, and we're kind of all around and everywhere, and that's okay. But that kind of keeps us kind of keeps us between the the between the ditches, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:23

Well, and I and I'll say one thing about because everybody wants to know when they ask me, they're like, did you really not lose? Uh I'm like, no, I never did. I said, but in all fairness, I said, I played with an outstanding group. I said, the I was the only kid in my grade that played baseball. And my best friend was the only kid below me that played baseball in his class.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:55

Really?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:55

Yeah. We were the only two. His name was Ronald McLean, and still doing well today, but uh he was my catcher. And the group that was ahead of me was a very strong group that had all kinds of talent in it, all kinds of arms. And then the group that was below my friend, who were freshmen at that time, was a loaded group who eventually go on to win the state championship for Greg. Yeah. 1994. That was 94-95. You know. So baseball talent was was really good through there. Yeah. But that's an amazing. It was it was expected to win. Yeah. And we we as a group won a bunch. I mean, just I guess. I mean, like I said, Sandh Hornsville won 12 district championships in a row. It's unbelievable. I think it was like 89 to 92. 89 to 99. No, it goes back for the 79. 79 to 82. 92. 92. Yeah. 92, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:01

I'm throwing numbers.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:03

It was a 12 year span, and there was great players through there. Yes. I mean so many arms that you can't even that rivals.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:13

You know, in the heyday, Charleston and Scott Central basketball, you know, they'd win 12 runoff 12-15 in a row. You know, the Bulldogs here, we win four or five, and we've had a great run. Sure. And and I'm not knocking it, I'm just saying that's just kind of some different things in basketball, but Scott Central, Scott Central and Charleston.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:32

Well, and in those times, Notre Dame was the same. We we played, I can remember groups before me. I would be in I'd be going down to the ballpark to watch the big game in the quarterfinals or whatever, and Notre Dame would come down. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:49

They used to be class two.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:51

You talked about like playing against like St. Pius and stuff like that. Yeah. Like the private schools, stuff like the N1A, which was pretty common back then.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:59

We all class. We were two. We were two A. I was gonna say, yeah. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:03

I mean, it was common. That's that's who you ran up in, you know, ran up against.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:07

Well they and y'all's district, or did you see them afterwards?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:09

We saw St. Pius at State Championship.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:12

Or what about Notre Dame?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:13

Notre Dame was in quarterfinals back in those days.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:17

Okay, okay. What do you besides playing and talked about coaching at Dunklin County, we talked about North Pym and all those places.

Scouting Stories Plus Draft And NIL Talk

SPEAKER_02 1:21:29

You did some work in professional baseball with some scouting or in I I did.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:34

I was fortunate enough to work with Kansas City Rules a little bit. I had a my boss was Phil Huttman, who was he worked in the he I actually worked downstairs in the office for a long period of time with the Rules, and then he became over scouting, and he needed someone in this area and in Northeast Arkansas. You know, Freddie Fluke is up in this area as a Kansas City Rules Scout, been a Rules Scout for years and years. But I was playing more teams in Northeast Arkansas, and I would see people down there, and Hugh Walker, who was draft pick in 90, I won't, golly, my goodness, 90 or 89 for the Kansas City Rules. He was right behind Bo Jackson. He had a connection with Kansas City. That's kind of how I got in a little bit. And then when Hugh went to San Francisco, he's like, hey, I'm going with with this organization. Do you want to you want to hop on? And that's where I got hooked up with San Francisco. Yeah. For the Giants. And just associate scouting, bird dog, and stuff like that. Kansas City was absolutely wonderful. They were nice enough to send me on a few things, like, hey, we Jamie, we'd love for you to go see this guy or this guy. Yeah. And they take care of that. And that was a lot of fun. But as far as looking at talent, I'd have loved to have done that for a career. Yeah. But but that's a very difficult career to get into. But but yeah, there's no problem.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:06

I want to piggyback off that. Go ahead. Because like kind of the big thing right now, I think baseball is renegotiating the collective bargaining agreement and stuff like that. And one of the big proposals is to do away with the draft out of high school. Yeah. How would you feel about that? I know that's kind of a spur of the question.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:22

You know, those kids, we were talking about that. One kid that was pitching for North Carolina the other night, went graduated a year early so he could so he could play there. You know, these clubs have made a lot of money for a long period of time. Now, I mean, as far as a limit and things like that, I think there probably needs to be because these numbers are getting totally out of hand for what these people are paying. But as far as the kids, let them make their money. Yeah. I don't have a problem with that. I agree with you.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:55

You know, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:56

These organizations, if they didn't pay them, there's too much, especially in the college game, too, especially with money and things like that. Where once kids go, they become a they're just another piece of another number. And when they've got a little money invested in you, they tend to take better care of you.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:13

That's true. That's what Blake said. Yeah. Yeah. Blake Blake said he said, know the money's there, like make them make them invest enough into you that they can't just cut you. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:21

If they've got money invested in you, they'll make sure, they'll make sure you're going to class, they'll make sure that you know you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. And if there's no money involved, and you just, I'm just gonna walk on and do that, they don't have anything invested.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:36

Yeah. Yeah. So I th I think NIL's been kind of really big for college baseball because it's the the scholarships they're more oh sure. They're more there now than what they used to. You if you got a full scholarship in college five years ago, you were doing something. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:53

Oh, absolutely. But baseball, there's like 11, which I don't understand how they div but like you get like eleven scholarships for 35 kids or something, and you a bunch of walk-ons and you're given partial scholarships everywhere. And all that kind of stuff. That's odd to me how they how they do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:08

But you know, that's been going on for forever. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:11

That's what Jacob Prade, we he talked about that too, trying to divide up all those scholarships.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:16

Yeah. And and you know what's crazy about that is the guys you're talking about, Blake DeWitt, Jacob Prade, Lance Rhodes, even. Right. Those are guys that I I have coached against when they were playing. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And now, you know, I'll see Blake out the golf course or whatever, and I'm like, he's a grown man, you know, and he was a grown man when he played, too. Don't get me wrong. He could hit it. Uh-huh. But but it's it's really neat to see those guys now.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:44

For sure, for

Travel Ball Changes And Lost Fundamentals

SPEAKER_02 1:25:45

sure. What what do you think has been the biggest change in baseball, say the last 20 years?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:51

You know, as far as the biggest change in it's the travel ball. I think I think the amount of teams and and I'm not knocking anybody's program because 30 years ago I was, you know, that's what I was doing just in a smaller scale. Right. Getting the best and taking them and going. Right. But I see it more now in it's not it's not true baseball. Interesting. I don't like the part where a kid, I'm going, I'm going to Indiana, I'm gonna throw my three innings, I'm gonna I'm gonna get my two at bat, three at bats, yeah, and and I'm good.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:32

I I agree with you there. It doesn't seem like that you're and I I didn't play in this era, and I'm not being critical of it. I'm I'm with you. It doesn't seem like you're playing for something. Legion, we're playing for a district title. We're playing you your your season comes to a culmination, not just well, we got one more tournament in St. Louis and then the season's over, or whatever's over. Playing for a district title, state title, regional title, world series, whatever. It seemed like that there was a culmination to it and a and a and a and a reason to do that to chase that. I agree with you.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:12

Right. And and even the aspects and the the fundamentals of the game. You know, we get we get kids that that don't know how to bunt or they don't know situations. Yep. Because they've never had to.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:29

Yeah and and now you're playing and you're you're trying to get them ready to go on to a program where they're going to be expected to know that. So it's a different brand of baseball. It's not just how to how to bunt or how to hit and run or why do I throw this ball this that way. It's because mechanically this is this is the way the game is played. Not just you go out and do for yourself. Yeah. It's a team, it's a team game.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:58

I agree.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:59

And I think. That's the difference. I see you know that's probably the biggest thing on the field I see.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:05

What what's your what's your opinion on like pitch counts and stuff? Because you know when you and I played and I keep going way back, I know, and we did. No, I totally get it. I feel like kids when we played, I don't maybe there were and we don't have we didn't have social media to talk about it, so to speak. I don't feel like there were as many arm problems as as there are now. And that and I think that's a couple of I don't think kids throw enough, as funny as that sounds, to to have a strong muscle to whatever it is, you've got to use it. Yes right? You have to work it. I also don't I also I don't think they throw enough, and I think there's more it might be I think Blake Blake termed it like max effort guys. That they only throw they only know they're gonna throw if I start, I'm only expected to throw five innings. Right. Where again you talked about you threw a state tournament. Ten innings in state tournament. Yeah. So as you said, that'll never be broken because you can't throw ten innings anymore. No, you can't. You couldn't if you wanted to.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:17

No, and I guarantee and unless there's just a miracle, I don't see anybody throwing ten innings under 105 pitches. You know, that's the other part of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:25

That's right. That's right. And so they they limit the pitches and the max effort. Do you think that's part of it too?

SPEAKER_00 1:29:31

You know, I think the biggest difference is kids take Nolan Ryan. Nolan Ryan always said this there's only so many throws in that arm. And I I believe that. I mean, that's that's who my dad patterned my mechanics after. That he built me that way. And they don't prepare like that anymore. You know, I was made to throw long. Yep, yep. Thank God for Coach Holafield when he would say, Jamie, after throwing so many innings, you're at first today. I'd never had that before until I got to Greg, where it was like, hey, you get a day off instead of going back behind the plate again. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:17

Because that's we talked about that too. The catcher throws more than anybody.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:20

Yes, yes, absolutely. And and I I think that that's tough these days. You know, when I went to college, I didn't know if I wanted to pitch or hit. And Coach Pope from Mississippi State told me. He's like, Jamie, go to Three Rivers and decide, and and we'll talk to you, you know, after that year and we'll see how it was. That's why I went with Dave Jarvis, because he let me have that opportunity to do both. I could hit and pitch. And I loved it. But kids today, they don't have to prepare they have all these bands and they have weighted balls and all these different programs, and that's all great. But it still comes down to you have to do your running, you have to be, you have to that arm has to be in that process to get stronger, and it has to be managed. You can't have a kid also that throws every other day at a school and he's and you're you're wearing a mask.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:19

I was just gonna say that there is too much. That's exactly right. When I say kids don't throw enough, there's wearing a kid out. There's no question about that. Yeah. That's that's exactly right. And I know that the that the pitching or the the pitch count is to uh keep teams from doing that, and I totally get that. And I I I support that on some level. And like I said, we did it by limiting innings innings, which listen, I've I've pitched some innings when you're giving up some runs, or you you know you got not on a great team and it can't get anybody out, and you might throw 50, 60 pitches an inning, and you're going five that night, or whatever it is, and you wheel out of there with 150 pitches, easy. So I get it. But on the other hand, you know, I I that's some of the things that I think baseball I think it's I think it's good that they're trying to protect those arms.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:16

Yeah, yeah. Especially at younger ages. But you just gotta wonder how many how many kids aren't getting that protection in the summertime. You know, I know that we have a pitch count and things like that, but not all organizations follow that. And there's games during the week that isn't at a tournament or anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:35

And but that's a big difference on like questions. The squirrels, I mean, like, he looks for pitching. Yes. Like he wants somebody that can hit and pitch. Sure. I mean, like, there's a few that he knows that I just want this pitcher, but most of them he wants somebody that can throw some innings.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:50

Well, and that's the other part of it. Even if they're just a pitcher, he's going to play them in that second game or whatever at a position.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:57

Yeah, they can play a position. Yeah, sure. They're not that philosophy.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:01

And and he's had kids say, no, no, no, I'm gonna be a pitcher only. Not there, you're not, you know, because that ain't why he took it.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:08

They're bringing a second baseman's mitt or that outfield glove or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:12

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:13

Yeah, and they're playing. Yeah, yeah. You get some swings in too.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:16

Yeah, some of them still can't hit, trust me. I know it. We've got some pitchers who struggle with the bat. Yeah, yeah, but it happens, but hey, they're gonna get their hacks and uh they're gonna get better.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:27

Yeah, that's right. What do you guys do you like the new ABS and stuff like in major leagues?

SPEAKER_00 1:33:35

I I do. I I I kind of like it as a as somebody sitting watching it at home because I'm like, ooh, that's a strike.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:42

Right. Uh oh yeah. And then it comes back and shows you.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:46

Now we'll give those guys credit. Oh if they miss them, I mean, we're talking like hairs. Yeah, essentially a hair. It's in the and you know, and the guy'll tap his head. Of course, that shows you how good the hitters are to know that that ball's actually outside.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:59

What was it in the SEC tournament that the Missouri was the first that they used it in the SEC tournament? Oh, I didn't realize that. And the cat just in the the tournament. And uh Missouri's catcher was seven for seven. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:12

You know, I I do like that system. That system's nice and you can see it like spectator.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:18

That's the other part. It's fast, it doesn't take three minutes or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:22

But the only thing that I miss, and it's funny you asked that question because we were talking about it the other night. It's taking something away from the game. When is the last time, and we we've all seen them be reversed, and you know, they were inconclusive on this play or whatever. But I miss Bobby Cox running out there, I agree. And him and that umpire getting after toe to toe.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:49

And I I think Earl Weaver, even though Tommy Lasorda. Sure. Yeah, those guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:56

And it might not get changed, but it was part of the game. Yes. It was part of the show. Yes. Uh and you know, we see that a little bit in the summertime with the squirrels. Yeah. You can't. Yeah, we can't we can't ask for that to be uh reviewed. Yep. But that's a part of the game that I miss seeing those umpires and and those coaches question and and and have legendary stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:22

The games that's right. You you do see. I wonder how many coaches nowadays are like in the dugout still questioning whether the the system's right.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:29

Well, uh every once in a while that you you see that they they get a little frustrated, but but you're you're right. You're talking about guys that go out there, whitey. I mean, they all did it. Yeah. They all would go out and have the dust up, basically.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:43

I mean, and I understand the reason why they have it, so we don't have issues like they did in 85 with Dinkinger.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:50

See, I've and I've had that frontal removed from my frontal lobotomy. I mean, I had a front oh my gosh. I mean I remember watching that and just uh literally almost in tears. Yeah. I'm like, he was out. Yes. Well, moving even a little closer to quote unquote modern day. I mean, what about the the dude that threw the no-hitter? Oh yeah. I mean, you know, and Jim Joyce was he less he's a great umpire, too. He is, and he was literally in tears. Yeah, in tears. Yes, the next day, and the kid, the the the player, I can't even think of his name now. The pitcher came out and they shook his hand and he was crying. I mean, you know, he's like, I cost this guy no hitter. That's a big dang deal. It was. It was. But but those guys said all that, say this. Man, those guys are still really good. Oh, they are. Well, there's a few that weren't too good at it, but I mean I can name a few right now, but I won't. Well, they're not listening to this.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:49

But you know what's crazy? I I was fortunate enough in '98, I I was at Dyersburg State as an assistant coach.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:56

That's another that's another tie to Sykston that we've picked up for. Yeah, all the selfs and everybody else. Well, Eric Shirkey.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:03

Eric Shirky, Golly. Daggum it. I still owe Eric, and I'm not telling that one on there, but I owe you Shirky.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:11

I'm telling you. Oh I have to make sure he listens to this. We'll tell you. Shirky graduated with Justin. I remember Shirky. And um, I I've I remember he's a cop. I can't remember if I maybe a detective, Daven Collierville.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:24

Yeah, yeah. I couldn't believe that the other day when you told me that. I'm like, golly, that's a big thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:28

Justin, Justin, my brother, the as we we call him, he's our general counsel, but he's our general nuisance too. My brother's an attorney. He he graduated with Eric, and we got to talking with Jamie. We were playing at a golf tournament, well, for the squirrels a few weeks ago. And he said, You know Eric Sherkin? You're like, oh my gosh, here's a story about Eric. And Eric knew it. He goes, guys, still not letting that go.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:52

Yeah, those were uh those are some that was not a fun day. Um but uh Dyersburg State then. I was for I was there that was 98.99. Yep, yeah, right in there. Yep. I was working with my dad and doing that some too. Okay. Jamie Frakes was the head coach at Dyersburg State at that time, and I had some kids that had been playing Legion ball for me that were like, Coach, why don't you come over to Dyersburg and help? You know, and I met with Jamie. How long of a trip was that for you? That was a probably 35-40 minutes. Wasn't bad. Straight across 412 minutes. Straight across, yeah. And me and Jamie worked really well together, and I kind of learned some things from him and that that junior college baseball. Yep. And then Jamie stepped out of it. He was getting a different position with Dyersburg State, and the position was offered to me, but back in those days, the pay for a junior college baseball coach was rid was awful. Yeah. You know, and I'm like, I can't do that. I'm I had to make some money. So working for nothing. Yeah, but but it was a lot of fun and a lot of great baseball, and I really enjoyed, really enjoyed a junior college baseball.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:10

Loved it. Give us give us a coach Hollyfield story you can tell. You got one, at least one.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:17

A Coach Hollyfield story I can tell. Well, you know, I'm sure Greg, I don't know if I've got a funny one though. Oh I I mean, Greg He was working this like a dog. He was, yeah, he was. And uh he he even kicked me out of a practice one day. His he kicks it, he kicks all his teams out. You know, he has to do it one time a year at least. I think the the funny one though, and I I might have told you this at the golf tournament, he was helping with the Legion team over at Paragol. And uh I had a really good hitter behind me with our Legion program named Kyle Harris. He played for the New York Mets organization. He was SEC Rookie of the Year for Arkansas in like '93. Jeez. Yeah, great hitter. I guess. And and we're playing, I don't even remember who we were playing. And we had second, I believe it was second, third, or bases loaded, and we were down. And uh Kyle's, you know, they got a base open, and it's 3-0. And Coach Hollyfield knew that I should be taken. You know, I should, I should just be taken. Because he he's standing down there and he's all, you know, kind of voguing a little bit, you know, he's in his uniform. And it's 3-0, and I look at him and he just kind of shakes his head yes, and that's all he did. He didn't stick a finger, you know, tell me to take or anything like that. But he knew I should be taken. And I knew I should have taken. I'm just gonna say, and you knew it too. And I knew I should have been taken. And the kid threw the prettiest fastball just right. The old get the old get me over strike. Oh, just center cut, and and I hit it, and it goes out, and of course, uh, we win a ballgame. We were we were down and we won. And which Kyle never got to hit. Uh that was a walk-off, and before we knew what walk-off was back in those days. And I think at the end of it, I think he said, you know, shouldn't you been taken? You know, Jamie, shouldn't you been taken like that? And I'm like, man, coach, it was so pretty. I mean, it was just perfect, like and he goes, It's great coaching. Of course it was. That's a good coach. Yes, yeah, yeah, it's great coaching. That's exactly. So, of course, Greg probably got the credit. You know, I had him swinging the whole way. Oh, I knew it was coming. Yeah, but but yeah, great story because I remember coming around third just looking at him, and he just kind of like, yeah, stuck his hand out, way to go, you know. But yeah, great coach.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:44

I love that. I love that. Do you still do you still see yourself using some of the stuff like how how he coached you as kids?

SPEAKER_00 1:41:53

Yeah, you know, some of the things that that he would teach and bring up about mechanics and things like that, especially with hitting and things. Still use those things today.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:04

It's funny you you're saying some of the same stuff that he says now. He he and I were talking, I don't know, a few weeks ago or whatever, and he just says, Yeah, he goes, you know, there's people that have lots of rules and this and that. He goes, I got three. And he goes, Some kids can't live up to them, and that's okay if you know if they can't. It doesn't make them a bad person or bad kid, but mine are show up on time, work hard, and do right in the classroom. That's really and you were talking about acting right and doing right.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:35

Yeah, it was always look right, act right, play hard. Yes, yeah. And and that's and that's it.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:40

He does the same. I hear him tell his team all the time Hey, we're going to Cape to play. Put your travel gear on. We're gonna look like a squad. When we go in there, we're not gonna have half of us, you know, stuff hanging off. And you go put you if you got a jacket and your pants and your shirt, they're all gonna match. We're all gonna look the same.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:03

Uh, you know, may have different shoes or whatever, but I mean that's probably the big biggest concession they probably made over the last couple years.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:09

We yeah, we talked about that as you know, used to everybody he'd buy team shoes, everybody wear the team shoes, but I I think he's kind of gotten over that a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:17

Just uh Well, you know, with us and and back in the 90s when we played for Greg, when we walked in anywhere, we looked like a college baseball team. Right. I mean, that's how we felt. We knew that we had no idea how good we were, but we had so much success that you kind of you got a glimpse of hey, this is something different. Yeah. And and even the teams before our bunches kind of knew that down there. But like I said, Greg took that to another level. I mean, when we walked into a place or when we got off the bus, there was a different look about us. And even when Greg came back and when I was a senior, I mean I can cause the level of baseball talent when I was a senior probably wasn't as high level as it was in 90 and 91 with all those great teams. But it was still it was still baseball, and you had to, you know, there was an expectation. But when you got off that bus, it was, you know, somebody's gonna be here to see you.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:25

Yeah. That's that's the same thing he still tells these kids now. I mean, they're still they have expectations of not only that do they think they're gonna win, but we're gonna behave. We're not gonna act like you know, we're not gonna act terrible, we're not gonna talk terrible, we're not that he's not gonna show up officials, you're gonna hand the ball to the officials, you're gonna do, you know, all the things like that. That's who that's Sykes and basketball kind of in a nutshell. Sure. Besides the winning, and it sounds like it's exactly what Scenith baseball was.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:00

That that's that's how it was his approach. That was his guidelines. You know, it was nobody was bigger than the game. Yep. Yep. I mean, it didn't matter who you were, you weren't bigger than the game.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:14

No, he has kicked off some kids that can can play.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:17

And I'm sure he did in baseball too. He did, and you know, Doc Teaster at before Greg down there had the same philosophy that nobody was bigger than the game. Even though you might be a star, you might be the best athlete we got, you're still not bigger than the game. Yep. And nobody was bigger than the team, and your actions were reflection on your coaches. Yep. Yep. And I you know that even with Charleston and Michael and his program, that's when we go to hotels or we go on the road. We don't have to I've never had to run a bunch outside of a hotel for missing curfew. Now they know I will because I did have to do that a long time ago. Yeah. But that's that was part of the if you you know, and that goes back to what you said about Coach Holyfield. If if we didn't act right or if we didn't follow those expectations and we let him down, he would let you know that by we'll we'll just get through your legs. Yeah, we'll get through your brain through your legs.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:22

Yeah, he he always gives that he always he quotes Bobby Knight on the old see how I'll have to find it. Basically, if you you're not playing good, he said the the bench can send a signal. He said bench see bench retains but butt sends signal to brain to play better, and it that that's basically and he goes, it's a heck of a it's a heck of a concept or something like that. Absolutely. PT is the motivator. No, no, no. The bench is.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:57

Yeah, but I'm talking about lack of playing time. Oh, yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:00

Lack of PT. Yes, correct. You you figure it out pretty quick. He said it's a heck of a deal. And here Bobby Knight say it, you can Google it, and but it's it's funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:12

You know, but but Greg, Greg does so so many great things. I mean, I watch him now when it when y'all are playing and at different places, like you know, I'll see him, and you know, I've got the I've got I kept it in my phone, the picture of Hip where he's jerking the tie. That's lovely.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:26

You know, um, I just I just love see there's some memes going around where they'll they'll have like the Superman. Oh, that's good stuff. And that you know, when people are like, well, I haven't seen uh Superman and Coach Olifield in the same room together, you know, and just stuff like that. It's good stuff. That's good stuff. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:43

What's the one about the kittens?

SPEAKER_02 1:47:44

The two Oh he says he's got some he's got some great sayings, and I could fill up a probably a whole podcast with them, but he's too old of a cat to be fooled by kittens. That's what he says. He's got a lot of them, but some I can say on here and some I can't, maybe. Totally get that.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:03

Yeah, he he was uh he's something else, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:06

Oh, there's no doubt. There's no doubt. But a lot of fun, man. Oh, for sure. For sure. What do you what do you do now? I know when I sent you some questions and you're like, well, I used to do that. Now I play golf. What do you do to recharge? I know, and I see you playing golf, Jamie. We we see each other the time.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:25

I do I do. I love to play golf. I love, you know, we go deer hunting a lot in the wintertime when it's too cold to golf, of course.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:33

But a lot of my recharge times right now, when I get to get out of the office and go to the ballpark and and coach in the summertime, that's my recharge time. I get to have some fun, I get out of the office. So coaching for you is recharging.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:48

Absolutely. So so Leslie's obviously she's she's off during the summers. Sure. How do you get how do you balance that? I mean, obviously, she may want you out of the house, right? I I get Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:01

She's probably happy, you know, that I'm out of the house tonight. Yeah. You know, and she doesn't get near the credit. You know, I've been I told some kids this the other day when we were we were having a little session because we had we were on a three-game losing streak and I wasn't happy with the way we were playing and the output. I just wasn't. I told them, I said, you know, I've been doing this for 31 years.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:25

And of course they look at me because none of them have been alive 31 years. Right, right. And uh I was telling them about the expectation stuff, but you know, I'm not able to get that time to recharge and do those things. You know, like I said, me and Leslie have been married for 23 years and we dated for five before that. So she has been around other than maybe one or two years of my whole coaching career. And and she has seen, she's seen the ups and she's seen the downs as far as different clubs and Arguments with umpires and different situations. And you know, she's had to do things that she's had to come to Saxton and get paperwork signed by Homer Dickman, who was the state commissioner in Legion Ball. You know, I've sent her to VFW to get his signature when we were dating. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:21

You know, that's hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:22

So she's done all those things and been really great to let me have that time to go because I've been on the road a lot. Right. And you know, Anne Lynn was little. Yep. And there'd be nights when Leslie'd be home with Anne Lynn, and Daddy's Daddy's in who knows where playing a doubleheader. All those wins and losses come with a little bit of a price. And and when and so fortunate that Ann Lynn, Ann Lynn's wonderful, and you know, she's grown up well. Her mother deserves a lot of that credit because Daddy was on the road. Now she used to spend a lot of time at the ballpark. Don't get me wrong. Right. But you know, Leslie has Leslie's done a great job, and Ann Lynn is very well adjusted and is successful and gonna be a senior at Arkansas State, and we're very proud of her. But but you gotta give a lot of credit to to your wife who allowed me and Michael talk about that. You know, Lisa lets him be gone. I know she was gonna kill him if he had another World Series.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:27

Oh, yeah. But would you have two in a row?

SPEAKER_00 1:51:29

Oh yeah, two in a row. And he told me he said, I'll be divorced if we have a third one. I'm like, you gotta let that thing go somewhere else for a while. Uh but but she's always been very understanding. My whole family has been like that. Yeah. And you know, supportive and always willing to help. And speaking of that, so you can do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:50

Speaking of that World Series, you guys got state and regionals here this year, correct? We do. That be July.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:56

That's gonna be right around. I was looking at that today, I want to say right at the very end of July. Oh, okay. And then the World Series, the final game of the World Series is August 5th.

unknown 1:52:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:10

So it's it's coming.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:12

That's a little bit early.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:16

They got a nice setup over there.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:18

Yeah. Very nice. It was gonna be in Ocala, Florida again. That's where y'all went. That was last year. And that was the facilities were not World Series caliber. Oh. Yeah, it wasn't. We we did really well there, but a lot of the teams were upset about the conditions.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:40

Usually they do try to make you do like almost like a two-year contract, don't they? It's kind of how you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:44

I think you know, that's probably more on Michael's spectrum. I think we talked a little bit about that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I know it's I know it's a ton of money up front to be able to host it and a lot of work, and so many people have to be involved with it to make it successful. Yeah. And those two that Michael hosted at Cape, everybody was talking about just how nice it was, and all the kids enjoyed it, and the parents, and so, you know, they'd love for him to do it again. I'm sure. But this year it's at Branson, and so that's in state. So that's not a bad drive, and we're looking forward to that. Yeah. That'll be a good one. That'd be great. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:28

Well, we're going to we're we just about wrapped her up. How long do you think we've been going, by the way? We talked about this before.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:33

I'm gonna I'm gonna say you're about two hours. We're hour forty. Our 40.

Lightning Round And Closing Thoughts

SPEAKER_02 1:53:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:39

All right. Well, that's not well, you gotta think the 30 minutes we talked upstairs. Well, that's true. We were down, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:44

We were 30, 35 minutes at least upstairs, yakking. So let's uh let's shoot to some lightning round real quick, Michael. What do you think? Let's do it. Well, actually, you already mentioned this one. Favorite baseball movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:55

It's gotta be Bull Durham. Kevin Costner. I'm a big Kevin Costner fan, and like I said, when you have Coach Holofield in high school and you watch Bull Durham and you're like, he acts like Coach Holofield. Yeah. Yeah. So just people people breathing through their eyelids and stuff. Yeah, and whatever works, you know. That that that that you know, that method was probably very in in interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:21

Oh yeah. What's your favorite MLB stadium? Yankee Stadium. Have you been?

SPEAKER_00 1:54:26

No, I have not. But I would love I'd love to go. My dad is a huge Yankee fan. Really? Big Mickey Mantle fan. Okay. Always has loved the Yankees. Even he would take me to the Cardinals games, things like that, but loved all the Yankees.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:42

Yes. Who's the toughest pitcher you've you've seen or faced or whatever?

SPEAKER_00 1:54:47

Toughest that I've seen. I'd say in person, I'd have to say it's got to be Ryan. It's got to be Nolan Ryan in person.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:56

He's my favorite.

SPEAKER_00 1:54:57

I'll never forget being little and sitting up in the top of Bush Stadium, and I could hear him grunt.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:01

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:02

I could hear him grunt from the mound, and I thought that was all I mean, that was just absolutely awesome. I was a big Roger Clemens fan. I love the Rocket. Yeah. I love the Rocket. Probably the toughest guy I had to pitch against was probably Cliff Pauli. Me and Cliff Polee pitched with the Cardinals a few years ago. Yeah. Traded to Philadelphia. Yeah. Pitched against him when he was at Jeff Co. Wow. And uh he beat me one and nothing. Oh my god. Ball hit the front. I threw a slider, hit the front of the plate, and it bounced over the short backstop. And I got beat one and nothing. But yeah, Cliff Polee was as probably as good as I saw.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:40

Oh my gosh. Best coach you ever played for.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:43

You know, that's a that's a tough one. That's a tough one. Yeah. But of course, you got to say Greg because I know he's just legendary anyway, and all the stuff he does. Dave Jarvis.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:55

I was gonna say, I yeah, he'd be there.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:57

Dave Jarvis was as good a coach as I ever played for. Great man, great guy, always one of the best for his players. And Bill Shatzley. Bill Shatsley from this area, he coached Paragold American Legion baseball. And he really made you buy into that uniform meant something. Even though it didn't say Scene of Hornersville or Hawcom or Kenneth or Charleston, it was Paragold Dr. Pepper. But when you put it on, he made you feel like it was it was the Cardinals. Yeah. You know, he was a huge Cardinal fan. Yep. Loved the Cardinals. But yeah, I'd say those three, I'd put them up against anybody. And and the only other one I would say is this that I got to be around a little bit was Gene Bess. Gene Bess at Three Rivers was as nice and just a great coach to listen to. He would let you sit, if you weren't a basketball player, he would let you sit in to his practices and watch his practices at night.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:55

I heard they were tough.

SPEAKER_00 1:56:56

And oh yeah, Coach Bess was Coach Bess was a worker and uh great fella.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:01

He got some Mississippi County ties, too.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:03

Yes, he does.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:05

Anniston. Yeah. He just passed this week. We're sorry to hear that. Actually, it was Thursday, and the reason I remember is because I'm sorry, it was Friday. Because the team, I you know, I think I said earlier they played Thursday, they played Friday over at Red City. Uh Bulldogs did. That's right. But that was the day he passed. Because when I got there, I I texted Greg and he said, Yeah, I heard that. And same thing with Will, because Will played for him. Yeah, Will Hollifield played for him. So sure did. I've had an opportunity to meet him once. I met him once, yep. Yep, great. Really nice guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:36

There's nothing like Coach Bass now. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:40

Coffee or energy drink?

SPEAKER_00 1:57:41

Definitely coffee. Me too. Gotta be coffee. Me too. I can't handle those energy drinks.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:46

I know I get jittery. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:48

I've never drank one. Not for me. Yeah. If if you weren't education, what would you be doing? Well, you know, I'd probably be moving houses, I would say. You know, my dad still moves houses in Scenith today. He's 70, he'll be 73. My brother-in-law runs that business with him now. They live in Scenith with my, you know, my sister is right next door to my dad. Yeah. My aunt lives across the street. So all of that.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:16

Did I move all the houses into the neighborhood? No, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:19

I I will tell my grandfather did raise his to put it on a foundation and brickett, and that's where my sister lives today. Wow. But but yeah, it's a family business, been over a hundred years. Dad's still moving them, still has a shop. Oh my God. That's terrifying. Johnson House movers. That's terrific. Yeah. Yeah. That's a niche. Yeah, oh, for sure. Oh, yeah. He's sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:42

I guess a lot of farmhouses want to be moved and different.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:45

He's just always said this. He's like, you know, if you see a house, you like it, but I'd rather have it on that lot over there. He said, Well, buy it. And he's like move it. Oh my God. And and he can move it, he can move anything. And it's ridiculous. That's crazy. And I've seen him cut houses in five different pieces and put them back together, and you can't tell they're cut. I don't know how he does that. Oh my god. That's I never got to that level. That's like the force, you know, with Star Wars. I don't I don't have that. He does. Wow. Uh but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:15

That's awesome. That's cool. That's awesome. And last question. Three people we need to get on here.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:22

Three people you need to get on here. Or how many? If you've got two or three. Well, we we were talking earlier today about the one from Murray State that we that you needed to get on. Who was it Murray or were you talking about Noah?

SPEAKER_02 1:59:35

It's Noah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, it's Noah. Southeast, yeah, Southeast Illinois.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:39

Southeast Burger, yeah. Yeah. You need to get Noah on. He would he would be a dandy, great athlete. Yep. Yep. I think I think he would be wonderful to get. If you get a chance, you know, I know you need have you had Joe Baldwin?

SPEAKER_02 1:59:54

Actually, no, I haven't. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:56

You've got to get Joe Baldwin on here.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:58

He's got some stories. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:00

Because the stories he can tell. Oh, gosh. And you know that's a good point. And I love Joe to death because, of course, when I I'm a pitching coach, I mean Joe would be calling, a pitch would come across there, and I'd I'd look at Joe and say, Where's that at, Joe? It's on the corner, James. Exactly. That's it. Perfect. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's on a corner.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:21

And for those that don't know, Joe Baldwin is my father-in-law. And that's Aaron's dad. And he he called baseball for well, he called when I played. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So probably 40 years or better. And he called for you guys because I'd I'd go to games. I'd go to the regional. Mike and I'd go over there.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:39

He'd done basketball too, really.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:41

He called basketball.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:42

And it was, you know, back in those days, I was so little that Joe looked like Abraham Lincoln. He had the black black beard and the black hair, and I was just like, who as Joe Bowen. So now when I see him today, I'm just like he and Joe Bill, Mark Mars.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:57

I saw Mark. Where the heck did I see Mark? I haven't seen him. I saw him not too long ago.

SPEAKER_00 2:01:04

I saw Mark Cullen a softball game not too long ago.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:08

I know when I saw him. I saw him week ago Friday. We not this past Friday, Friday before, at a fish fry for Ryan Riley.

SPEAKER_00 2:01:17

I sure did. You know, those are guys, Joe Bill, Mark Mars, uh, George Bays.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:23

I hadn't seen Bays in forever.

SPEAKER_00 2:01:24

See, those are all the umpires that when I would come north, that's who we would run into. And and and Joe Ball winning people like that. They were all calling these districts and stuff up here in Legion Ball. So then I would have some that were from down south. I'm not saying my ones down south were very good because everybody knows they come down south, it was hard to win at Dunklin County. But um exactly because we might have a few that that weren't as good as the ones up north here. I'm not saying it was by design. I'm just saying I'm not saying it wasn't either.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:58

They may have been good for you, but usually it was pretty good for me. I kind of enjoyed that. How do you think you got 600 wins? He's not about being stupid. Good scheduling, right? Could be the talent. No, it was talent and coaching. As this coach, hey, as Greg said, it was good coaching.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:16

It's great coaching.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:19

That's exactly what it was.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:20

Yeah, I'd say somebody else that could probably help you uh and make a great show for you is Jonathan Haddon. Jonathan Haddon is the athletic director at New Madrid County Center. I don't know him. You need to meet him. Okay. We call him Opie because of Opie Taylor, of course. But Jonathan Haddon played for me at Duncan County. He's from Carruthersville.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:43

I was gonna say I thought he was a Cruthersville guy. Okay, but he came over.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:46

He is, he's at New Madrid County Central. He's their he's their AD. Okay. Okay. Knows a lot of baseball on the boot hill. Yeah. Was a really, really good player, good pitcher. He he could probably tell you some stories that would probably light you up. Oh boy. But yeah, he's he's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:02

Awesome. Awesome. I'm gonna I'm gonna write my pens over there. I don't want to move at the moment. I'll I'll write them down when we get done. Otherwise, I will forget. If I don't write them down and put them in my phone, they're gone. So listen, Jamie, we've had a great time. This is just like a continuation of me and you sitting out on the golf course. Sure. Shooting a breeze after we've we've played or hit balls or whatever. And Micah, we've we've I feel like we've learned a lot about the area, about again, ties to this area, ties to Sykston.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:34

We've had a few baseball people on, but I I I feel like I learned a lot about Southeast Missouri basketball. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:40

Like I I really enjoyed it. I appreciate y'all having me on. I of course I've had a ball.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:45

Of course. Same here. Same here. Well, we'll for that. Now you probably won't want to say this, but we end all of our shows, we say go dogs around here. So Michael was quiet. Maybe he said, I can't he said go Jays. I can't remember what he, but I think he might have just sat there.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:01

You know, no, I'll say one thing for before you get off. Yep. When I was the assistant principal at Charleston, I wore a red shirt in one day. Oh, I bet you about got I wore a red shirt because I was from Senate and I had red shirts. So I walk in and Kathy Joe Browning says, What do you have on? Oh yeah. And I said, I'm sorry. She said, You gotta go home change. And I said, Why? She said, We don't wear that color here. And I figured it out. It had nothing to do with Cena, it had everything to do with somewhere else. Oh yeah. So uh yeah, yeah, I learned that lesson.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:40

Well, it's funny because one of two schools. Yeah. Shannon Hollifield said, I walked into a board meeting and she goes, What are you wearing? And I'm like, I'm like, and and we were playing Charleston that week. It was like a Tuesday on our board meeting. She goes, It's Charleston week. We don't wear blue around here. And I'm like, you know what, Shannon, you're right. She goes, I cannot believe you of all people. And I'm like, Shannon, I I just grabbed it. I I don't have much blue anyway. And I grabbed it this morning, and I'm like, you're right. So I get it. I get it. And that and I I I didn't know better. I just didn't think about it at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 2:05:20

Well I can wear red and black again. I'm at East Purple. Perfect. So perfect. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:25

That's right. All right, for Micah Harris. I'm Matt Tanner. Thank you guys for listening this week. Go Dogs. That's going to do it for this episode of the Dog House. Thanks for hanging with us and showing love to Sykston, where small town pride runs deep and Bulldog Grit never quits. Don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and share this with anyone who bleeds red and black. From the heart of the 573, this has been the doghouse, where Sykston stories always have a home.