Ep 76 - Joseph Baldwin | Pressure Behind the Plate

You see the strike call. You hear the crowd. What you do not see is everything it takes to earn the right to be there in the first place. We’re joined by Joseph Baldwin, a Division I softball umpire who has worked his way up through years of reps, mentorship, and camps where the right evaluators can change your trajectory with a few handwritten notes. 

Joseph walks us through the real ladder of college softball officiating: starting young, learning mechanics the hard way, getting comfortable with three-man crews, and showing up prepared when the speed of the game leaves no room for guessing. We talk about the CCA manual, why communication is often nonverbal in loud stadiums, and how a plate assignment demands focus because one bad day can ripple into real consequences. If you’ve ever wondered how NCAA softball umpires get games, how conference assignments work, or why reliability matters as much as talent, you’ll get clear answers here. 

Then we pivot to the other half of his life: Nashville area real estate in a fast-growing market where the average home price can turn every decision into a high-stakes one. Joseph explains why real estate can be more stressful than umpiring, how he uses numbers to serve clients, and what growth around Spring Hill and Nashville means for families moving in. We also hit travel logistics, taxes, conference realignment, and what it means to chase postseason goals while keeping life at home steady. 

If you enjoy behind-the-scenes sports stories and honest talk about building a career, queue this one up. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave us a review so more Bulldog Nation listeners can find The Dog House.

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Transcript

Welcome And 100th Episode Plans

SPEAKER_01 0:01

All right, Bulldog Nature. It's time to get in the dog house. This is where Python Frida 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 drip, we've got you covered. You're listening to The Dog House, the voice of Titan. What is Bulldog Nation?

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Checking in again. Another week, Micah, episode 76. Awesome. And I'm Micah Harris. I'm Matt Tanner. Thanks for checking us out again this week. Micah, I have you'll be very proud of me. I have all of July scheduled, and I've actually got two more guests for August. So actually, probably about three, and maybe just may just about have the whole month of August as well. So we're Micah fusses at me a little bit. I I gotta and I'm doing better.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

You do great.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

I just I'm the one giving it. No, it's all good. But I I want to tell you though, I've been kind of thinking about this, and maybe you can think about it too. I want to do something for our hundredth episode. And so I had the calendar up. Let's count the weeks ahead. Guess what week will be the hundredth episode? It's probably either Christmas or New Year's. Christmas. The week of Christmas. Isn't that cool?

SPEAKER_04 1:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

The week of Christmas will be our hundredth episode. So I thought that was that was really cool the way it worked out. I've chat GPT'd some things. I don't know exactly what what we want to do. We'll talk about it. I I'll I'll share with you some of the ideas that it gave me. Some of them are pretty cool. Some of them are a little I don't know. But anyway, let's uh it is best it is festivist week too. That's true. It is festivus week. So maybe we'll have a little Christmas festivist hundredth hundredth episode celebration. We'll have all kinds of stuff. So maybe we maybe we can get the whole family on and do festivists. My gosh, I don't know if our listeners could handle that, Micah. It's uh we go we're all you know that's that's kind of what we've been known for. I mean, people have always lived for our festivist videos. That is that is true. That is kind of true. Uh so hey, if if if you're listening to this and you like the idea of festivist, maybe make a post on our Facebook page or social media page. Yeah, maybe I can just play some excerpts of Festivus on our broadcast or something like that. That would be that maybe maybe maybe yeah, maybe. So anyway, this is again episode 76, season two, episode 35. Give a shout out to Mercy Phoenix, Healthcare Staffing, Healthcare Staffing Solutions. And I saw where you shared it and I shared it. They are looking for some EMTs or EMS, excuse me, paramedics. Thank you. Illinois, I think is what it says. You can click

Sponsors And Community Shout Outs

SPEAKER_02 3:10

on my Facebook page, Micah's Facebook page, or go to Mercy Phoenix, M-E-R-C-I Phoenix, just like town P-H-O-E-N-I-X. Click on that, and they've got or on their Facebook page, click on the link that's on there, and it will take you to all about the specifics of the job. And it's got it listed on there. They have housing for DM stipend. I yeah, I don't I don't I don't want to speak about it because I don't want to. I didn't read all that, I just read the first part of it and thought, well, we'll share it. Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

And also a shout out to Greengrass guys, D.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

Bizzle, David Bizzle. Oh, me back up. Percy Phoenix, that's Mr. Jody Cheney, and his folks, Tucker Cheney, his son, helps him as well, and his wife Karen is involved with it. And so they are again not just EMTs and EMSs and paramedics, they do nursing and all kinds of things. So if you're looking for that, or if you are in that field and looking for a job, they will undoubtedly have something for you. And if not, they'll probably have it pretty soon. So they're they're always looking to add to their to their team. And green grass guys, David Bizzle, D. Bizzle, they are turf management specialists and they will make your yard look unbelievable. So unbelievable, you'll have to go twice a week because that's that's what I've got to do. We need to like this, everybody's got it. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And Micah, you need to come over. Of course, I know we're doing them virtual this week, but if you come over, they've got the concrete poured in their backyard now. So I was wondering if they had that done. I drove by there the other day and I was wondering, I was like, where's our working today? Yeah, they got it all poured, and so now the all the landscaping and all that stuff will start. So we're Aaron and I are very excited. He's gonna have a couple weeks off because our guest next week is gonna be virtual, so he'll have a couple weeks off where he doesn't have to provide any i or excuse me, audio visual stuff, but he's he's still to help when he needs it. Aaron, shout out to my wife, Justin, our general nuisance and general counsel, Tucker Cheney, again, for his video editing expertise. He's helped me a lot, and I've learned a lot. If you guys have watched any of the YouTube videos, you see I've got a little countdown into it this week. I had uh we've got credits at a roll at the end now. I've got our names on there, Micah. Man, I'm I'm I wanted to go watch YouTube one. You you need to watch one of the last started with Jamie and now with uh Tyler and Nason. It's it's uh some pretty cool little graphics and video editing I've learned how to do. Shout out to Derek James, Brian James for their stats, behind the scenes, uh lore, history, uh, stories, all kinds of things. And Brian texted me the other day and he was listening to uh which one were we talking about? Oh, uh when Jody Glidewell, we were trying to figure out what the name of that uh grant project is called Donors Choose. And he said, Matt, you need me on the show to be in the background and going back to Donor's Choose, tell you what it is on the show. He said, or you could just put my put me in there and say uh said have his voiceover sound like James Earl Jones. So I told him, I said, Brian, I will pay you double what I'm gonna pay to do that. So he said his salary is negotiable. But we appreciate appreciate those guys. And certainly last but not least, Tyler Anderson Twisted Arrow Woodworking. Can't see our cool sign on the wall, but you can we have a cool sign on the wall. If you go back and look at some of our other YouTube videos, you'll see the cool sign on the wall that Tyler has done. I could have got some shout-outs this week. My wife always always appreciates her. Appreciate her letting me have time to do this. Um and just uh I think you know, I think every every day for what she makes me. That's right. That's right, for putting up with us. If you don't mind, we really appreciate any like, shares, follows, reviews,

Swag Updates And How To Listen

SPEAKER_02 7:35

comments, really anything to help us spread our message on social media. We're on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Please go on there. We're closing in on eleven hundred followers on Facebook. We're about 900 and something on TikTok. And we're up to 70 followers on YouTube. So that yeah, uh I was looking at it. They want you to get to like a thousand and then something else if you just like start monetizing. So we're not monetizing on there or anything yet. We'll we'll uh we'll get there. No, no rush for that. And you can catch all of our podcasts on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeartRadio, and then on our website, the doghouse.busfrout.com. We have an embedded player and listen to all the previous podcasts, actually back to the 15th one. Then if you want to go all the way back to the first 14 when it was Richard and me, you can go on one of the Apple. Uh we've got two, I know, two Apple streams. One of them I've actually got pinned on our Facebook page, which is the one that has all of the episodes on there, all the way back to the very first one. So if you're interested in that, please go back and listen to those. Shoot us an email, doghouse.sikston at gmail.com, or send a message to Micah and me on our Facebook pages, or text us or call us, come by and see us, or whatever you need to do. Still, we we would always be open to somebody partnering with us. We'd love to talk to you about it, give us a shout. And we got some swag in. I got our two X's in now. We've got Marges in, and Mr. Brian Henson said that our dry fit are coming in probably in a week or so. So we're we'll have all those. So we're hopeful again. Actually, had somebody follow up with me today. I'm looking at some other other swag as well, maybe some AirPod covers and some cool things like that to have giveaway. So we're we're looking looking at those as well. The the Bulldogs were off this past week, best I can tell. I know Coach was out of town, and so uh they may have had a few open gyms and stuff, but there's no

Summer Bulldogs Sports Check-In

SPEAKER_02 10:05

they had they didn't play any basketball this week. I don't know. Again, the Mount had some workouts, individual workouts, and stuff like that, but they didn't have any Rib City stuff. I do know that they that there were some games going on, uh but they but they didn't have uh they Sykes and didn't play in it. They watched June. But even last week of that week, like kind of yeah, June AAU kind of calms down, uh and uh they can play with their high school teams, and then July kind of that that's kind of the big end to the AAU season. So they kind of ramp that back up, and and in July they kind of get going with their AAU teams, and so they do some individual workouts and things like that. So we're looks like the wrestling looks like the wrestling team's working pretty hard. I mean, from Facebook, it looks like they're having a pretty good turnout. Yeah, I think football is doing the same. I was just just gonna say I haven't heard any updates on football. I know they had that camp in Dexter, they have one in Charleston. Yeah, the big man, get what they call it. I haven't heard any updates from that yet. So as soon as we hear from that, we'll we'll give some updates. They usually do some 7-0 seven in the summer, those type things. Right. Right. Right. And even tackle camps. I don't know if they've participated in any any full contact camps or not. I'm not sure. I'm not sure about that. But if you'll just stick with us, we'll be back with our guest. Yes, he happens to be my brother-in-law, but he is a Division I softball umpire, and we'll get into uh his story. Uh it's pretty cool. Some of the places he's been and some of the games he's called and some things he's doing to kind of grow and move up, so to speak, in that uh uh that sport and in that profession. So just uh hang with us and we will be back in just a few minutes.

Meet Joseph Baldwin

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Hey, thanks for sticking with us through the break. We're gonna now move on to our guest. I've got an intro. It's kind of flattering, and I really don't want to read it because I'm related to this guy, but I'll go ahead and read it anyway.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

I guess I'm heck I'm related to you too, Micah, so yes, yeah. Both of you are my brother-in-law.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

You just now figuring this out?

SPEAKER_02 12:23

I just now kind of sitting in on me. All right, here we go. Some people spend a lifetime mastering one profession. Our guest somehow found a way to excel in two. Joseph Baldwin grew up in New Madrid, where sports, hard work, and community were a way of life. Today he calls one of the fastest games in college athletics as a Division I softball umpire, earning assignments at the highest level through years of preparation, professionalism, exposure, and pressure. It's all written by ChatGPT. I don't believe a word of that. When he's when he's not behind the plate or on the basis, he's helping families find their next home as a successful real estate agent in the Nashville area. Or excuse me, Nashville. Is it Nashville? Nashville. Nashville. Nashville. Joseph's story is about more than college softball and real estate. It's also about legacy. His father spent more than four decades officiating basketball, baseball, and volleyball throughout Southeast Missouri, becoming a familiar and respectful figure for generations of athletes, coaches, and fans. Tonight we'll talk about growing up in New Madrid, the journey to Division I softball, what fans never see behind the mask, balancing two demanding careers. Joseph, welcome to the doghouse. Welcome to the doghouse. You're uh you're already kind of a legend because I can't remember if if I mentioned him with you or if it was Richard, but I I told the story of

The Basement Toilet Disaster

SPEAKER_02 13:55

our Brown Thursday. So Joseph, Joseph is the one that uh caused all the trouble in the basement, you know, with the leaky toilet. Yeah, yeah, I do remember telling about this on Thanksgiving. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:09

I got an update on that too, by the way. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Remember, we were we all went to the we went to the river band that afternoon after after you got somebody to fix it. Yes, that was uh a Donnie, our our other family member, our cousin, lives in uh outside of Cape. We uh basically the story was if you hadn't heard Joseph and his family were here, would have been Thanksgiving of 2024, and they were in the basement, and uh the toilet was uh as we come to find out, of course, my son probably knows Luke lives in our basement, or that's where his bedroom is. And uh Joseph was like, hey, your toilet's loose, by the way. I was like, what? You know, I looked at Luke and he gave me kind of one of those so probably been like that for three years. Oh, more than likely. So went down, thought I could get it fixed. Well, long story short, it didn't get fixed, and uh I was holding the toilet up and it slid, broke off the shut off valve inside the wall in water with just whatever.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

Think of this, y'all. Y'all ever heard like a little girl scream as loud as they can? That's exactly what the host of this show was doing. Screaming like a little girl.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

That's partially true.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

If I get squarted by water, I do too. This just wasn't getting squirted. This was a like pressure, like shooting out of like a fire hose. And so I finally got all the water shut off, but I had to shut, of course, I had to shut off the water to the house. Like we had no water in the house after that. So I'm yelling, Joseph comes running down and slips on the floor, and he's going from the water, yeah, but that you pause because I was fixing the freaking toilet that you're flu.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Yeah. And Joseph's rolling around on the ground, going, oh, and Aaron's like, You need an ambulance. I'm like, don't worry about him, let me get this water out the floor.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

And and then Joseph's two little girls, Merritt and Abby, were upstairs and they were crying, they didn't know what the heck was going on. We sound like the freaking peasone tops downstairs. Um, so what's it and Joseph went to the doctor, he was just bruised, he's fine, nothing happened.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

Yeah, no, no. I actually went back to the doctor this week, thank you very much. Had to get a steroid shot about a month ago, and went back and they said that this was the actual cause of my impingement and bursitis of my right shoulder.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 16:48

Now I get to start twice a week for six weeks for uh PT. So you would have to go. I guess I guess my attorney would be reaching out. Oh, I had time to file. I had time to file.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Reach out to our our our general counsel, our general nuisance, Justin.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

You can reach out to him. The the the statute of limitations has moved on from that.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

So I gave you some golf balls. I don't know what else, what other people.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

That's a good point. I didn't even realize that. That's hilarious. Oh gosh. You know, it only takes like it only takes one little extra turn to to cause a plumbing problem when you're working on plumbing, you know. True.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

Matt's always said he's the jack of all trades, but what he doesn't tell you, he's master of none on that. Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

I I have a similar experience where I was putting a toilet tank on the on the toilet, and it was full of water. The tank was full of water because I was just tightening it up. I turned it one too many times and cracked it. It it well, it cracked, yeah. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 18:02

And I ate like a face full of water. That's what rental property can get you.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 18:13

Very true.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Alright, so so you got so there's Joseph's. That's his real introduction. Joseph, you I've you're you're you're from here. You and you know, Joseph, for those that don't know, obviously it's my brother-in-law, his uh, my wife, his sister, much younger sister, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:31

Yeah, I mean, she's like, what, we're three years, six days apart. So when when Aaron was in kindergarten, I believe Matt was a senior. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

So I mean, that doesn't that doesn't do anything. That is accurate. That is accurate. Yes, that is accurate. Joseph, we hey, thanks for the interview. We appreciate it. We'll talk to y'all next time. We'll let you know when it airs.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

So you you uh grew up in New Madrid, played baseball and all that stuff. Tell

New Madrid Roots And Moving Away

SPEAKER_02 19:05

us how you got from there to you went to school at Williams Baptist and then moved to Nashville. Kind of tell us how your story went that way.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

Yeah, I mean, I I spent the first, I guess, 18 years of my life in Southeast Missouri, growing up in Marston, then living the majority of my life later in New Madrid. Graduated from NMCC, the home of the Eagle, back in the class of 2004. Yeah. Oh, dang, you had a 20-year then, haven't you? Yeah, yeah. I don't even think we had one, but 20 years. Yeah, it's kind of weird. Yeah, after after graduating high school, I went down to Northeast Arkansas and uh went to college at Williams Baptist University and spent a great four years there that I loved it so much I took an extra year to finish it out. So yeah, yeah, I was on the I was on the five-year plan. It happens to the best of us. Yeah, yeah. I I you know I I worked at a golf course the year after. Then I got hired by my college to be the assistant volleyball and assistant softball coach for a couple of years.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Joseph, I forgot about that. I actually did forget about it. That's right. You were a college coach. I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

Yeah, yeah, for for a brief time, but man, what a what a great experience that was. And then after after that, since go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

I just gonna say now that's NAIA, and isn't there a national tournament at Gulf Shores? Isn't that right?

SPEAKER_03 20:35

Or something the the NAIA World Series rotate several years. So while I was a coach there, we were we got to number five in the nation. So we actually went to Gulf Shores to participate, and I think we won a game or two, then we got put out double elimination. But that was gosh, that was probably 2010 and 11, I think. And now lately it's been in Columbus, Georgia. Oh, so okay. So yeah, I after after doing that since college, I ended up moving over to Nashville and and going to work for a Southern Gospel Group called the Booth Brothers, and then I have a tour bus four and a half years, you know, waking up at a Walmart or Cracker Barrel parking lot day in, day out. Didn't know where I was going, didn't know where I was heading.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

So you weren't driving the bus, were you?

SPEAKER_03 21:33

I cannot confirm nor deny. Um I'm not a host.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

Not a host. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

I will not the statute of limitations hasn't ran out on that yet.

SPEAKER_03 21:46

Yeah. Grant, if you're listening, don't pay attention to this.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Uh yeah, Grant. Yeah, he'll he'll let he'll let you slide. Yeah. He's speaking of Grant Williams, our good friend. Friend and neighbor who's a lieutenant highway patrol. That's what he said, Grant. So how so you or maybe you left there? How'd you get into real estate? What what kind of led to all that?

SPEAKER_03 22:14

Yeah, so once I got off the road, I I found my wife. Actually, she found me. Um I mean, why not, right? Not online. I was all I out of all places. Uh Match.com. This this uh this show is serious. Yeah, that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

I'm gonna go.com. I thought it was like Christian Mingle or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

Now farmers only.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Farmers only, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

No, there's uh but we had met and she told me he's like, hey, this being on the road thing tough. I was gone, I think we did 130, 135 dates a year. So I was on the road for over 250 days a year. I mean, that's that's quite a lot. That is a lot. But little did she know about my umpiring career and how it was gonna take me on the road again.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

To be continued.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

Yeah, so tell tell the interesting part about Lindsay's background, who she went to school with.

unknown 23:17

Congratulations.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:18

So I there was it if y'all turned on the TV at all this week or past week, you might have seen a headline at Madison Square Garden where Travis Kelsey and somebody some country singer, whatever. I I don't know. Then she went rock or pop or pop. Taylor, is her

Coaching And Life On The Road

SPEAKER_03 23:40

name Taylor Swift? Yeah, yeah, T Swift. T Swift Swift. You may have heard of her. You can just, you know, type her name in. There'll be one or two articles online. Really, really boring read. But yeah, no, my wife actually attended high school with Taylor Swift for a few years. Uh unfortunately, was not very good friends with her. Right. But apparently, well, yeah, we we reached out to her team, they said it was in the mail, but yeah, the invite to the wedding.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Or you wasn't you weren't you didn't want to sign the disclosure that you would like the yeah, the NDA.

SPEAKER_03 24:19

Nah. Did they have to sign an NDA? I I think a lot of people did. No, it's a r it's a really interesting. I'm sure it's gonna be publicized. I mean from what I've heard and read, all the invitations were somewhat coded. So if you were to put that out there, they could tell who released it based off the invitation alone.

SPEAKER_04 24:44

What the heck?

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Oh, what happens when you get a lot of money? That is, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

I mean, like when you were you were putting people out of air conditioning, they're like, What? Oh, there was all kinds of articles about how like they were doing rolling blackouts in New York because of the power usage and stuff, and and they were celebrating. I don't know. Who knows all about that stuff? I gotcha, I gotcha. So after you did that, you got how'd you get into real estate?

SPEAKER_03 25:20

You know, real estate has always been in my mind growing up. I I remember taking a class with Miss Jane Barnes. Wow, I didn't expect to even talk about this tonight. But I I I took I I took accounting class in high school and absolutely fell in love with numbers for whatever reason. My my wife's not great at numbers, and I'm way better than her with them, but I just happened to fall in love with that. So the you know, the credit and the debits, and then you know how how can I use that part to help educate my potential clients or former clients moving forward? Yeah. So I think I think that really maybe planted the seed on how I wanted real estate back in high school.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

So you've you've been how long you've been doing that? That's been a minute, right?

SPEAKER_03 26:11

Oh gosh. I I think I've I've been in Nashville now for 14 years. Yeah. Was that 11? 2011 or 12? Yeah. Yeah. So maybe 50, yeah, maybe 15. It all goes by real fast. Yeah, I mean, Matt's old, he can't remember what he did five minutes ago. So, but yeah, I yeah, I I I think I've been doing real estate now for seven years.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

Okay, okay. So we we talked a little bit, of course, a lot of people that listen to the show, they're from this area. No, your dad, obviously. Like I said, your dad called my games. He called how long what'd he do basketball for? Something 40? Well, he's still doing a little bit of volleyball now.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

Yeah, he's still doing volleyball. I how I don't know. I mean, he he never could see to begin with. How he how he's able to see the step in front of him to climb up on the ladder, I I I don't know. That that's that's to be determined.

SPEAKER_02 27:13

Allegedly, I've got to bring this up. We'll get back to your career in a minute. But allegedly, for a few years there, I I I don't recall what time frame it was. There was a there was a few years of grudge match between the fighting Joes and the brothers Tanner.

SPEAKER_03 27:30

Yeah. We're still waiting to hit our next shot.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

And yeah, from Justin. I I recall one match, Joseph. We were it was a close match, we were on 17. And you hit one OB, OB over the green, and we go back there and look. I go, Joseph man,

Why Real Estate Became The Plan

SPEAKER_02 27:55

it's out of bounds because we looked at two space. You picked the ball up and you fired it into the ground. You were you were uh frustrated. I know, I know. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Micah, can you imagine me and Justin playing him and his dad at the at the Smack Talk?

SPEAKER_03 28:20

Oh man, that that was good times. I wish we would uh started that sooner.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

Oh, that was that was a blast. So sorry, I digressed for a minute, but did you go with your dad some?

SPEAKER_01 28:32

I know you guys saw him, and of course Aaron booted. She booed him all the time when he called the games that we were at.

SPEAKER_03 28:37

Dude, I I did too.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

I mean, you know, I said what's he gonna do, throw his daughter out?

SPEAKER_03 28:42

Yeah. Yeah, I know, right? I yeah, I I've gone to many, many games of his, whether it probably more basketball games than anything, whether it was at the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament or at the uh Pake Christmas Tournament. You know, he was always calling one of those two places each year and just got to go watch, hang around, meet the other officials he was working with. Um dad even called called my game growing up, and I think he only struck me out once because I never would let him have the opportunity to do it again. Yep, just sway my my my my zone was always a little larger compared to everybody else when I was in the batter's pot. I'm sure I remember one time. Yeah, I I was 16 playing, I guess it was Babe Ruth at that point, and dad was umpiring back behind the plate. I was playing with 18-year-olds, and I remember I was catching, ball came in from center field, and it bounced high, and I'm I'm going up to catch it like this. Next thing I know, some 18-year-old kid from Dexter lowered his shoulder and ran into me, and I did a backward somersault. I think dad signaled safe or something because I dropped the ball, obviously, because the kid was 70 pounds bigger than I was. Next thing I know, Joe Mac, Joseph McClarty is coming down first baseline, arguing and was at the game, and let's just say we didn't have review back then, but that play got overturned, and I I believe the guy was out and also ejected for malicious contact.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

I was gonna say for uh well, you can't do that in in at that level. You can't run over people.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Not not legally, not legally. Yeah. Oh, I mean, yeah, you can.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

It's against the rules. That's right. And they've taken that out even out of the big leagues, too. They've they've taken a lot of that out, too.

SPEAKER_03 30:44

Yeah, they cracked down and that, and rightly so. There's no place for that in our game today. They get yeah, getting guys hurt.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

So you you watched your watched your dad, you went to the games and all that stuff. Is that how you kind of got into that, or what made you decide to do that?

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Yeah, I I don't know. It just seemed like an interesting aspect. You know, I was always watching them officiate, and then growing

Learning Officiating From His Dad

SPEAKER_03 31:10

up, I started calling Little League. I was probably 15. Starting to call Little League. I started from back behind the mound or the pitching circle, and then after three years or so of doing that, like, all right, time to get back behind the plate. I caught my whole life. Umpiring and catching are two different things at 18 years old. So I so I started doing that and uh it just progressed further and further, doing more games and more games and more games.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

And you had so you did some games that wasn't there a little league team over by your way that was really good for about three or four years that went to the Little League World Series and did some other games like that.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

Yeah, an Owensville Little League had a very, very dominant three or four seasons. Yeah. Where's that? It's it's just east of Brentwood. Oh, okay. So it all kind of runs in there together. I mean, they were they always they went to the Little League World Series. Um so they were on TV quite a bit. And I got I I got into Little League over in Tennessee after I came off the road. I I met one of my best friends, uh Derek Crawford. He was the UIC, which is the umpire in charge. Got to meet him and umpire with him. He's like, Man, you can kind of umpire a little bit. Let's see what you do. And we god, we worked so many games, we were on the board there for a couple of years. In Nolan's? No, at Spring Hill, Spring Hill locally. Okay, yeah. Even worked some of the state tournaments here locally, whether it was at Columbia or Spring Hill. So that was that was always fun. That's kind of the next level for those kids to make it to the regionals and whatever to go to the world. Being a part of that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 33:11

Well, how did you get into college sports or college softball?

SPEAKER_03 33:17

Yeah, so I I officiated baseball back in Missouri for a couple years. You know, grew up playing baseball, loved baseball. Uh when I went to co Misha certified or whatever official? Yeah, yeah. You called some high school high school games? I I did.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

Really?

SPEAKER_03 33:38

Yeah, I don't even remember that. Yeah, not not very long, maybe a year or two at most. But once I started coaching at Williams, I I really fell in love with the game softball. Yeah. It's a lot quicker pace than baseball, and it's getting faster and faster year in, year out. But yeah, that's I I got into our local high school association over here in the Nashville area. My assigner, his name is Eddie Litton. He used to be a former SEC umpire in software, so I wanted to move up to the next level. We have probably 65 umpires out of our association, and over half of them do college law, whether at JUCO or Division I level. We have a wide range of collegiate umpires over here, and so my I had a lot of mentors I could reach out to. Like, how do I get that next step? So that's kind of the driving factor in wanting to move up. Um just the availability of having people who have been there or who were currently doing it.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

So you started in that association and then what now you've gone how did you how did you continue to move up at that? What what what kind of what's the process of that?

SPEAKER_03 35:03

You gotta be lucky in

From Little League To Serious Reps

SPEAKER_03 35:05

in some ways. I I I met a uh an assigner who was a my high school partner, you could say, and he assigned some fall games for Martin Methodist, which is an NAI school now called University of Tennessee Southern, UTS out of Alaska. And so he's like, Man, you're pretty good, official. You can do high school. Let's I'll take you up here to do some fall games because you know they're they're not they don't count for records, it's just straight free subs. You don't have to keep a lineup or anything. So it's just playing at that higher higher speed, next level stuff. And got to do that for a while. I'm like, Cow, what's my next process like? How do I get involved into getting picked up by an assignment? Gotta go to camp. So I I I signed up for a camp over in Johnson City, Tennessee, which is kind of north of Knox area. Went to camp, got picked up for NAIA. That's kind of where my college career started off working at the NAI.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

With but you've gone to like Florida State or something?

SPEAKER_03 36:24

Yeah, so yeah, I I've been gosh, I've been I've been to Johnson City, I've been to Raleigh, North Carolina. I I've been to Florida State two or three times. I just got back two days ago from a camp out in Denver, Colorado. A very, very large tournament. There's over 150 umpires there alone. I think I called 17 games in a week. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

So that that wasn't a camp, that was calling games?

SPEAKER_03 36:59

Three three games out of those were my camp. So I called 14 games. What does that mean? What do you mean three games for the camp? So so camp, so this was my first time being at a week-long camp. I I I really didn't know how it worked, but they they choose one day to evaluate you at all three positions, because in college we run three-man mechanics. So there's the plate umpire, there's the third base umpire, which is U3, and then there's the first base umpire, U1. So for three games, we rotate into each of those calling positions, and that's where they evaluate us. And then we they bring in other umpires, and the camp continues while we go out and call the other teams.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Oh, so they've got is it part of an association like United Umpires of America or something? I mean, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 37:54

Yeah, so this was our NCAA Softball Umpire pro people, like all the way from high-level SEC all the way down to your mid-majors to division two to division three assignments. People, people who write the book, people who choose the postseason assignment. Very, very important people to be in front of. That's why I went out there.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

Wow. So does you got to get a grade? Do you get a grade?

SPEAKER_03 38:26

Yeah, so I this this was my first time where I actually received a handwritten evaluation from both my evaluators. We have a platform that we are all associated with, and we don't have access to that part of our evaluation, but only the national coordinators will will have that access. So they can look to see what camps we've gone to in the past and see if we've continued to show improvement, hopefully, shown improvement through each camp. But that that kind of puts you on the progression chart per se by doing that.

SPEAKER_02 39:09

So that that puts you in front of like an assigner, like somebody that gives you games and stuff like that on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

Yeah, yeah. So I mean, we have to update our block, we have a schedule, different assigners assign at different times. In the past, so our our my assigner just changed over last year. We I was working for a lady by the name of Christy Cornwell, and she had the SEC, the A Sun, the Athletic Sun Conference, the OVC, the Ohio Valley Conference, and the Sunbelt Conference. I primarily worked in the OVC and ASUN. This year, our new assigner took over in middle of I actually a year ago now.

Switching From Baseball To Softball

SPEAKER_03 39:55

His name is Tom Meyer. He still has those conferences as well. But me and I gosh, through the umpire world, I become family with many of people traveling to different camps or to ball games. You become a tight-knit family pretty quick, um, because you're almost with them more than you are your own family at home. But but yeah, we I got together with them and I said, guys, we gotta go to this camp in New Jersey in October. Like, doesn't everybody want to go to New Jersey in October for vacation? Like, I mean, there's like a wait list aboard the plane, not uh, but yeah. I was like, guys, we have to go up there and get in front of our new assigner, primarily just to keep what we currently have, because he didn't he didn't know us. Yeah, we didn't really know him. And I was like, well, go up there because we're not gonna be competing with the umpires in the Northeast for those different conferences, whether it's the Big Ten or whatever else is up there for the Big East. And I'm like, let's just go. And I got a good friend of mine, David Corvin. He said, Joseph, that may have been the best decision you've ever talked me into doing. Uh so it it it really turned out well. Behind the scenes, people have no idea what it takes. No, that's that was some other stuff I'd like to get to. Go ahead, Martha.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

You got some get rid ass something. I was just like, so that was last fall when you did that, right?

SPEAKER_04 41:37

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:39

Yeah. I know you had some other assignments in the fall last year. I mean, I think Matt and then went and watched you, I guess, yeah. Uh SEC.

SPEAKER_03 41:50

Yeah, so I my my highest level that I've actually called. I I've called at the SEC level non-con, which is non-conference play. So one SEC team playing a different team. Who'd you call? Who'd you have? This season I had Texas AM. Oh, that's right. Texas at Texas State down in San Marcos, Texas. That was fun. I did a high level. That did a decent job. Yeah, both coaches were turfing a little bit, so I must have been consistent. Uh but but yeah, I've done that. I've I got to call a midweek at Louisville a couple years ago. That was my first time experiencing kind of the power four level. And then, you know, this past fall, I got to go officiate a game at Mizzou. Um what was cool about about the Mizzou game is my wife's sister lives, and I also have some family in in Columbia too. But we we were visiting them uh two or three years ago. I was like, guys, let's stop by the softball. I got out and I said, guys, I'm gonna call here one of these. I I didn't know it was gonna happen. Uh I was kind of hoping it would, so uh spoke it to it to existence, but uh that's cool. Yeah, yeah. Um so three years later, after stopping in the parking lot taking a picture, I I got to feel that dream due to a mentor friend of mine, Scott Mayer. So very very appreciative of that.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

And we sat behind the right behind the plate.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

We did not give him any grief at all, if you can imagine, like none, none.

SPEAKER_03 43:39

Matter of fact, I I ejected everybody from from from from the stadium that day, if you recall. Actually, actually, you could say God.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

You moved him indoors, and you moved them indoors, right? That's yeah, I wanted to hear more.

SPEAKER_03 43:53

But man, that was a big bolt of lightning down in center field. I'll never forget that. Yeah, we were.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

They were playing watching U and K C something.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Wasn't it U and K C I think?

SPEAKER_02 44:06

They were doing like a kind of like a round robin kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03 44:10

Part and I have I got my seat right here actually while it's in our locker room. Oh that that kind of tells the the pre-game timing

Camps And The Grind To Get Seen

SPEAKER_03 44:20

of when the first switch was gonna be in field for both teams, who the umpires were gonna be and all that. Pretty neat, pretty neat to have.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

Yeah. What is that what what is uh what does a game day look like Division I what is that?

SPEAKER_03 44:36

Everybody has their own routine, like when it comes to assignments, like I I used to get assigned like in January for my game. Now most recently I got assigned as early as October last year.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

For this coming spring?

SPEAKER_03 44:54

For this coming, yeah. So I've already got some dates blocked for a couple of different assigners already. So my season really starts when the season ends. It's kind of ongoing. But for for me personally, now I'm I'm looking at the weather, the week out, the two days before the day of, like, what am I gonna have to pack? Yeah, you know, am I packing cold gear, am I packing short sleeves, uh gloves, whatever? But each umpire is different when it comes to you know division one. We obviously each conference has their own set of guidelines that they play by, whether you know, lightning and stuff like that, or when they when you can access the field. So you have to be aware of those kind of small nuances. I check out the team, see if it's a conference matchup, if it's a rivalry. Not saying they're treated any different, but I might I might look at it a little bit closer. Um I watched a little bit of game film of the of the teams before, just to kind of get an idea of what type of pitching they have. Always watch my plate game.

SPEAKER_02 46:12

You go back and review your plate games? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:16

Do you really? Yeah, every every pitch.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

Can they review? They can't review like pitches.

SPEAKER_03 46:23

I can't review balls and strikes, no, thank God.

SPEAKER_02 46:27

Not yet, because they just implemented in the SSR that they didn't.

SPEAKER_03 46:32

Yeah, yeah. Really? The ABS, you know, the automatic balls and strike system is now in the major league. MLB has a big influence on what happens in the umpire realm of NCAA softball. Matter of fact, they changed some mechanics MLB did based off the NCAA softball. So it's it's really neat type of partnership that they have together. MLB is the primary financer for the Athletes Unlimited Softball League. Not sure if y'all knew that or not, but I did not know that. It's a it's a growing, growing sport, guys. It yeah, got six teams now, probably gonna double in size before we know it. Okay, does that answer the question?

SPEAKER_02 47:18

Yeah, I was just I was just curious how how that how your day went kind of before that.

SPEAKER_03 47:23

But like if you Yeah, I mean I like I'm gonna focus if so if I had the plate on a on a Friday or Saturday night.

SPEAKER_02 47:35

Which those I've let me say the college baseball or softball, with what he was calling a midweek, the the the the the quote unquote, like if you're a pitcher, you want to throw Friday or Saturday night. That's the marquee game, so to speak, that they talk about prime time. Prime time. So when he says you got a Friday night or Saturday night, that's kind of what they would term a big game, kind of, so to speak.

SPEAKER_03 48:01

Yeah. But before my plate game, regardless of when it is, the night before, I'm gonna go to bed a lot earlier. I'm gonna get hydrated earlier, may not partake in other beverages before the plate game, but definitely after the plate game. Uh because you need it. Yeah. I'm talking I'm talking of Gatorade, of course, y'all. Of course. Not out there. Just brown water. But but it it's it's really important to kind of just give yourself 20 to 30 minutes of nothing but complete silence just to get focused. It's an important task. You got yeah, you got people's livelihoods and jobs on the line every time you go out there and and officiate a ball game on the plate or any really any position, but you know, plate always gets gets the most action. But if you're consistently bad and you could I'm not saying umpires deliberately change the outcome of games. Right. But they can. Things do, but but they can, but but things happen. You know, a lot of things have to happen for that to even come about in in the thought process. Unfortunately, our performance band cost somebody their job, and that that sucks. That's a lot of pressure. Yeah, a lot of pressure. It is.

SPEAKER_02 49:22

I want to kind of go I'm gonna kind of go back a little bit here. You talked about the con the con the when you got a game. Is those like individual contracts, or is there like a contract you sign for so many games with an assigner?

SPEAKER_03 49:33

Yeah, so I uh you know, umpire. I'm I'm a 1099 subcontractor. Uh I have to sign a 1099 form for each conference I work with, whether it's ACC, SCC, Sunbelt, ASUN, OVC, Conference USA, had some games there before, which is a mid-major D1.

SPEAKER_00 50:02

Yeah, some CMO games.

SPEAKER_03 50:04

Yeah, I

SEC Non-Conference And Big Moments

SPEAKER_03 50:05

go to CMO, go to UT Martin quite a bit. So yeah, I I have to sign a contract for each of those conferences year in, year out.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

So it's not individual games, not in like so what if so let's say they say you get an assignment and say, all right, of course, uh softball is just like baseball. I mean, like they're playing in February and March, and you can catch some cold, you can catch some cold days, and let's just say, Joseph, we want you March 15th in uh Columbia, Missouri. Well, there's a high probability that it's gonna be colder than well than a weld dick, but could be short, whatever. Yeah. What if you go, I'm out, it's too cold. What is that? Is that is that like a yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 50:55

That's that's that's frowned upon. That that's how you don't get future games. Okay, that was where I was going with that.

SPEAKER_02 51:01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:02

You you you act if your date is not blocked, if you show you're available, you better accept that game. If not, they might let you get out of it once, and you better have a good reason. Yeah, but but if you are a repeat offender of that, you won't have a schedule. Somebody else is always waiting to take your spot.

SPEAKER_02 51:23

Right, right, right. So, so where are your goals to go from here, like in softball?

SPEAKER_03 51:31

Yeah, I you know, I I got short-term goals, I got long-term goals. With my career starting in NAI, I've worked several mid-south conference tournaments in my collegiate career. I've worked four different NAI opening rounds, which is the quarterfinals before they go to the World Series. Have to give a shout out to my nephew that made me miss one because he graduated high school. But you know, that's all right. I'm not I'm not bitter about that, not holding any grudges. Uh yeah, yeah. But I think my my short-term goal is to work the NAI World Series, strictly because the fact I started NAI, I was a coach. I'm really curious to know if there's a coach and an umpire who's been to the World Series for NAI. So that might be part of our history there. I don't know. I haven't really researched. That'd be a cool, that'd be a cool footnote. Yeah, it'd be pretty cool to have my name tied to that. Yeah. Um, and then obviously the the dream goal is to work the college world series. Um, but you know, if I can get on a SEC crew or ACC crew, power four level would be be ideal.

SPEAKER_02 52:51

So right now, when you get assigned, let's say UT Mark, are you assigned with two other guys, or do they just say, Joseph, you're here, and like you might have Joe and Steve this week, and next week might be Bill and George?

SPEAKER_01 53:09

I mean, is it?

SPEAKER_03 53:10

Yeah, yeah, I just it it yeah, it rotates. I mean, I've I've called with guys Rhode Island all the way down to Florida, Texas, California on a cruise. It's it's different. Where I the where I call mostly in the mid-majors, it's a different crew each each series. Oh, okay. Okay. Calling through a lot of different a lot of different umpires from a lot of different parts of the country.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

And I how do you learn how do you adjust to it being different? I mean, like I guess you know, work as a team. I mean, kind of Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:42

I mean, we're we're definitely a team out there. Um, that's a great question. I don't know why I thought of that, not Matt. Well, actually, I know because you're smarter than that. Um that that that's really the reason. But no, we have what is called the CCA manual. That's that's kind of our five per se for how we officiate. It gives us what does that stand for? I I knew you were asking that. I don't have it in front of me. I see that's a great question. Yeah, I know, right? But it it tells us where our starting positions are, where our calling positions have to get to, whether with bases loaded to runners on first, third, second only. It tells us where we need to be in order to make that call. So we are all within that manual.

SPEAKER_01 54:31

The Collegiate Commissioners Association, the official guide

Division I Game Prep And Film Review

SPEAKER_01 54:35

detailing mechanics and procedures for college softball home.

SPEAKER_02 54:38

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 54:39

That is it. Thank you, Chat GPT slash Google.

SPEAKER_02 54:43

That was Google.

SPEAKER_03 54:44

Google, yeah. So, but what's interesting, even though it's our Bible, it's a guideline. And it this is a big topic within our industry as umpires. There's a lot of different interpretations of it. Some people, some group, what depends on what part of the country you are, interpret it different ways. So you have to communicate, not only verbally, but also with your eyes. Yeah, you have to remember you can scream as loud as you want to, but if you're in a stadium with two to five thousand people, you ain't gonna hear anything. So it's really it's really important to uh keep your eyes on your partner at all times, but they may dictate what you do next, or you may dictate what they do next. Oh, geez, I didn't think about that.

SPEAKER_02 55:34

That's so kind of this this book or the Bible or whatever you want to call or some call. So it's like your code of ethics. Like, so like yeah, as as a social worker, I have a code of ethics that I have to adhere to. And that you know adds validity to our our profession. So I mean I'm I'm assuming that's kind of what you do with the collegiate, whatever Matt Googled there a while ago. CCA. Cascadia, yeah. This yeah, the submissioners collegiate association or collegiate commissioners. But it gives us more direction than then than ethics, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_03 56:14

Yeah. I mean, I uh as a realtor, I have to abide by the code of ethics. If I was just a real estate agent, those code of ethics wouldn't mean anything, which I don't know why you'd want to be in that profession and not abide by the code of ethics. Why would you want to work with that person to begin with? But that's that's a tote box for another day.

SPEAKER_02 56:32

Right. But I'm just kind of making the point that you know that that it's important to have those standards. Not only the communication, but as as a profession.

SPEAKER_03 56:41

Yeah, yeah, and and you know, that's that's what these camps do too. They they make you go by the manual. If you're doing something different, they're gonna let you know and and kind of slap your hand on it, like, why are you doing this? And you know, when in Rome. But uh, but yeah, it it's really important to know different game scenarios, situation, what's going on, because you you can find yourself in a in a kerfuckas if you're pardon me if that if that's not you might want to edit that out. But uh, but but you can but you can find yourself in yeah, in in some stuff, and and it's bad when it happens.

SPEAKER_02 57:25

It it's just bad. So, I mean, a lot of people always hate the umpire when you know they're in the crowd or the team or whatever. What are some things that you could tell people maybe that they should consider whenever they're yelling at a referee or umpire or something like that? Like I hate when people do that, so yes, please give us yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:49

Speaking from experience, it sounds like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:53

Uh he probably yelled at some people.

SPEAKER_03 57:58

Oh, Joseph yelled at some. Yeah, you know, uh Lloyd, Lloyd Rice, if you're watching, man. I I remember back in high school, I I'm pretty much Q one side up, one down the other, and ended up writing an apology letter. And uh I've grown a lot since then. You know what?

SPEAKER_02 58:18

And you had, because you tried to embarrass your brother-in-law at a football game back in 2000. That's great.

SPEAKER_03 58:25

Do you remember that? Matthew Tanner, yeah, I remember that. You you you so one of my favorite quotes in life is from uh from John Wayne. You're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough. So we were playing Pike in New Major when Matt and Aaron were dating. I guess Aaron finally reached dating age. Um Matt Matt was Matt had already had a he was already getting his career going in the banking industry, probably already a vice president somewhere. Aaron literally just got out of junior high. Yeah, junior high at least. All right, guys, what's the uh next so we're sitting up there with it with the uh student section? I'm like, guys, I gotta remember that guy.

SPEAKER_01 59:11

I'm on the other side of the field. I think what happened, we were winning at half, and then somebody went crazy. One of your running backs went crazy, had like 150 or 200 yards. You remember who that was? I don't remember who that was.

SPEAKER_03 59:25

It's probably it was probably Derek Tipp. I mean, he was a generational type of athlete.

SPEAKER_01 59:31

No, I think it was after him.

SPEAKER_02 59:32

This would have been yeah, Aaron and I, we we started dating in oh two or oh three, so this was after Derek. I can't remember who it was it. Who was like number six? I think it was like number six. I don't remember who that was. I don't know, but he went crazy. We were ahead at half, and I was ribbing, and then y'all ended up winning.

SPEAKER_03 59:55

Winning, so I had I had the student section chant Matthew Tanner. And and I mean, I'm pretty sure the crowd in the Sykes and crowd got

Pressure And How Umpires Get Work

SPEAKER_03 1:00:05

silent, started laughing.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:08

Yeah, yeah, he he gave me a shout-out.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:12

But but to answer your question, Micah, you know, it it in all honesty, it's part of the game. You're never gonna get that out of the game unless you do what I've always suggested, just drop your kids off and and come back in a couple hours. You know, there's always emotions.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:32

There's always emotions.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:33

Oh yeah, yeah, there's always there's always emotions. It's kind of like water off the duck's back. You do get used to it. As long as people don't make it personal, that that's one thing. But you know, come on, blue, or where was that pitch? You know, that that's that's something you're gonna get game in, game out, and it you're gonna hear it from both sides. One one story that I've heard throughout my journey as an umpire. I remember a guy was telling me this now, whether or not it was his family member, couldn't say, but there's this lady at the ball game, and they're like, Why are you yelling at my kid? Because, you know, everybody's yelling at the up umpire. You you you don't usually hear a parent yelling at a batter. Why'd you swing at that bitch? Or why did you miss that ground ball? And the lady's like, Well, that's my that's my boy, and the boy was the umpire. You know, it kind of puts things into perspective that you know somebody belongs to that person that they love. Um just kind of puts it into perspective, like we're all human, we're all gonna make mistakes. Right. Oh whenever, whenever I get done or get close to being done, I'm gonna find out where some of these people work and I'm gonna go to their job and I'm gonna just scream at them like, why are you typing like that? Why are you picking up the piece of paper that way? You're awful.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:01

You've seen those you've you've seen those deals with Pate Manning, he did that. It's that means like well, you're not a very good salesman or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

He was you can't put the bread up there like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:14

That yeah, I just what for whatever reasons sports allows people just to speak freely, and that's not always a good thing. That's true.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:24

Just not. I mean some things are like, oh, I shouldn't have I shouldn't have done that, you know, or but anyway.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:36

Well one one of my favorite things, uh I remember working a gosh, I used to work travel ball. No no no disrespect to travel ball. It got me in a lot of reps. Made it made a lot of money by doing travel ball, you know, 16 games a day for the weekend. But I remember coming out of a meeting and that we were talking about the stepback for a pitcher. Well, in high school, a pitcher can step back, but in college it's considered illegal. So there's a baseball or softball. In softball, softball from their from their wind up. You wait a minute, hang on, hang on, hold on. You can't step back during your windup? No, not in softball. You can rock, but you can't physically step back. So this coach, I was calling the bases, and this coach just started off the first pitch of the game. Come to find out this pitcher used to play for him, so he was trying to get into her head and all this stuff. And one of my favorite comments I've ever made to coach, he kept on, and and and at 8 30 I'd finally had enough. I said, Coach, do you want a coach or do you want an umpire? Because you can't do both, right? And and after after I said that, he he kind of got quiet. He got real quiet. So of course you do.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:03

So what's what's some of the uh toughest toughest calls you've had to make?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:12

I think the toughest calls to make are obstruction or interference. That's one that people always seem to get confused on. I always get a chuckle when coaches scream, that's interference, that's interference, when they really want obstruction. Like you want me to enforce interference, I can, but but you're not gonna like the outcome that you're hoping for. So yeah, that that one's that one's always hard because uh obstructions caused by the defense, interference is caused by the offense. There you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:48

Does softball have in field fly, I assume? They they do. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:53

Okay, second lesson

Fans, Heckling, And Keeping It Human

SPEAKER_04 1:04:55

two. So do you still call high school softball?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:00

I do. Yeah, I actually got to go to state this year, kind of as a fill-in CSS Able, which is the Tennessee, you know, Athletic Association part of it. They play their games in Murphy's Boro, because I guess it's central location to the state. They play their championship games at middle Tennessee State, MTSU, which is in the Conference USA division. Division one, yeah. Yep, all division one. But it rained every year for our softball tournament. And it just puts a it puts a hassle on the signers, the schedulers, and everything. So I kind of got called in last minute to to go work a day. But two years ago I was selected to go work and had a great, great time, great opportunity. Glad I got to uh put that on my resume.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:50

Yeah. Do you does each conference or each and I I'm just supposing here like a like uh an OVC?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:27

Yeah, each conference different. Like I I make pretty good money in the OVC. I won't disclose what I make because I'm not sure if that's proprietary information or not.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:40

I don't want to know that.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:41

But the OVC does provide a game fee and they also provide a hotel ring for the series. Oh, cool. So usually if I go to UT Martin, they put me in the hotel for a couple of nights. And then I, you know, go to the next place. ACC and SEC, they're more your flat rate schools, so you get a higher, higher flat rate. Out of that will come your travel expense per se.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:08

So to get there, that's Yeah, it's on you. To get there, it's on you, right? Yeah, I think.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:18

Yeah, I've not had this opportunity yet. And if I get it this year, I'm gonna just go because that's what you do. But if you go out to other states on the very, very west coast, won't mention that state by name. But you gotta fly out there. Well, yeah. You you you work your game, you get a hotel, and then then you gotta file in that state. And that's a lot of money that you have to pay for taxes. So you might break even or come out just a couple hundred ahead, as opposed to if you work closer to home. But that's just the logistics of it all. It's what you do.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:58

I would imagine with like conference realignment stuff with like the bigger conference, the power four, you know, I mean like the those.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:07

Yeah, Pac-12's coming back this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:09

I mean it's spread off.

unknown 1:08:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:11

What do you mean?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:12

But they're not having a they're not having a media. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:16

No, they're not, but Pac 12, Pac 12's coming back in existence. What? Um different teams? Different teams.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:23

Yeah, there's some different I'll say because most Pac-12, a lot of them went to the Big Ten. Or Big Ten. Yeah. Or Big 12. ACC. Big 12. ACM.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:34

I mean, yeah, Stanford is part of the ACC. Make that make sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:39

Well, look at uh USC is part of the Big Ten, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:42

I was gonna say, yeah. I mean you're talking about talking about spending some money for traveling for football. Whew, could you imagine that charter playing? Uh but yeah, it's there's a brand new conference coming out too called the UAC, which stands for United Alliance Conference. A lot of a lot of A Sun schools are going to that that with football, and some of the softball schools or sports are going there too, such as University of North Alabama. That's an hour and 15 minutes away from me. Oh, Robert, my niece went there. Yeah. Austin P State University in Clarksville, Tennessee is joining that. What's it called? What's the new what's it called? UAC, the United Alliance Conference. Really? Uh don't know much about it. It literally just officially became a conference on July the 1st. Um, so you know, I'm looking at that. I I don't even know really who's signing that yet, but as an umpire, I'm looking at all these schools right now that I currently attend that are moving to this. I'm hoping to, you know, continue that. But yeah, you just never know. But I'm I'm interested in that for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:51

Well, yeah, that'd be right around your home base, basically.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:54

Mm-hmm. Yeah, Austin. I got Missouri, uh yeah, I got Missouri Valley literally 30 minutes away at Belmont. That's right. Lipscomb is part of the A Sun. You got Murray State, which was former OVC, which is in Missouri Valley now. Yep. Hour and 45 away.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:14

Chattanooga, you got Chattanooga's one of our yeah, UTC.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:17

Yeah, it's hour and a half for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:20

Um that's I I didn't realize that.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:24

Now, will that be a new alignment for like football or is that just softball or no football?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:31

Everything is driven by football. Okay, that's I mean, football

Tough Rules And Worst Misunderstandings

SPEAKER_03 1:10:35

is the the big the big thing that brings in the money.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:39

It's the one that spreads it out, the money.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it it's all it all comes down to the Benjamins, baby.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:51

So how do you how do you, you know, you're like and you talk about it, you're you're gone typically weekends. Not it's not yeah during the week, you're not typically you're not typically so when my season starts, the month of our season starts really in December when I'm going to camp.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:12

I'm I'm usually I'm I'm actually going to another camp in Indy in a couple weeks. But I'm always trying to track pitches when when January comes, whether it's high school or reaching out to Tennessee State or Lipscomb or you know, colleges nearby where I can go and see live pitches. Um so my season starts there. The week, the month of February is primarily college because high school doesn't start here till March. Yeah. But a typical college weekend for me, I'm calling maybe a Tuesday or Wednesday midweek games, and then I'm I leave Thursday night to go off Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I'm usually home Sunday night. Then doing high school Monday, Tuesday, whatever to fill in day. But thankfully high school don't have to travel more than 15 minutes, but then I'm home at a decent time.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:06

You may have actually caught one of my cousins' game. She plays down in Smyrna.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:11

Smyrna, I that that's not my association, but definitely know where Smyrna is. You probably know some umpires who have had her games. Yeah, she's a catcher, so I just kind of yeah, my high school signer is really good to me. I got two schools here in Spring Hill that no more than 10 minutes away from a house.

unknown 1:12:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:33

So that's that's really nice. Yeah. I think I think next year's her senior year, so I think it'd be uh her name's Mackenzie Hayden. So she catches down.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:41

Mackenzie Hayden. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:44

I'll have to reach out to some friends of mine. Small see what they can small.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:53

So you're you're still planning. So do you have your schedule full for college right now, or is that no, not not yet.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:01

They're they're still in the midst of, you know, especially with these new conferences coming come to the forefront. They're they're trying to. You know, I typically, but I I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't start getting some games in August as in the earliest. Be wrong on that.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:20

But that's my guess. Is it kind of like basketball?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:23

I mean, I know football schedule is out like you know, you could look at the schedules are turned in right now, to my knowledge.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:31

Because I know basketball is a basketball NTA that hasn't finalized their schedule. You know, I mean, I mean all that changes.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:41

Like our our assigners for the most part, I mean, especially your your power four level umpires, people who are getting looked at to go to the college world series, they probably already have the majority of where they're gonna go pretty soon, I would think. That's just you know seniority, that's how it works. But for too much longer.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:02

I was gonna say the earlier you get the the schedules, probably the more in demand you are, too.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:07

Yeah, most definitely.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:11

How do you get assigned like a NCAA regional game or uh or a College World Series bid? How how does all how do you get that?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:25

I can answer this politically correct that way. You know, no, you have to you have to go to camp. You have to get the be seen by the right people essentially. Yeah, yeah. Well, I probably you probably need to be in the tower four to to get selected for the D1 regional, super regional security stuff. What's that? No, I I wouldn't think there are many OVC. Yeah. I do know I I have some good friends who work some SEC non-con who are primarily OVC umpires. So I mean, we're I'm in a good area to to get to that level. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity as soon as this season, but but we shall see.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:13

Yeah. Well, you're in Nashville, you're pretty close to a lot of SEC stuff. I mean, Vanderbilt, obviously.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:20

Yeah. So they don't have a softball program though, unfortunately. Well, I didn't I did not know that. You you would think that's like I think they have underwater basket weaving, but they don't have softball for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:32

Well, I mean, you're not that far from O Miss and Mississippi State and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:38

I mean, I got Auburn and Georgia, I got Georgia Tech, which is ACC in Atlanta. Right, right. Um but yeah, you have to you have to go and be seen. They're not going to use you unless they know you. This past week, the main guy for NCAA, Steve McCallan, he actually sat and watched a few innings of mine and my friend's game. He liked what he saw and what he said afterwards. You know, what what what does that mean? Yeah. Remains to be seen. That's better than saying he didn't like what he saw. Uh hundred percent. I I'm I'm gonna celebrate that win. Promise you that.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:18

Shifting gears out there. Oh yeah. How is the uh real estate market in Ashville?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:25

And I probably had one of my best years so far. Congratulations. Yeah, I mean, of course, the end of last year was slow, but that rolled into to this first and second quarter of the year. I'm getting ready

Pay, Travel, Taxes, And Realignment

SPEAKER_03 1:16:40

to start my quarter four here pretty soon. I I start about three months earlier. But it's it's picking up, it it goes in ways, man. You know, I think the average home price here where I'm at is $600,000. I know, right? Like Joseph's in Spring Hill, by the way, for those who are it's it's kind of south 35 minutes south of Nashville, 15 minutes south of Franklin. Yeah, um, so an hour, an hour and 15 minutes from Buck in Athens, Alabama. That's better than that.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:16

And it went there a couple weeks ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:18

Yeah. And it is it is it was like a bomb off, and it just exploded the that that area, just as far and I mean in a good way, just growth.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:29

It just well, and there I think when I moved here 14 years ago, I think we only had twenty, maybe thirty thousand people. Maybe we're we're over fifty-five, maybe six now.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:42

It's a lot of a lot of people that moved to Tennessee.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:45

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:48

Yeah, Amazon. Is Amazon or Amazon? So there's a big fulfillment center over in a Murpheesboro area. Yeah, but we have we have the GM plant. That's GM plant here in Spring Hill. They used to make the Acadias. Yeah. So if you own an Acadia and you're listening, open the driver's door. There's probably a little circle that says made in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:16

Wasn't Ford making some batteries or isn't there a battery plant there or something behind the old house?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:22

Yeah, it's called Ultium Battery Plant. They supply batteries, I think, for GM and maybe some other companies. Micah mentioned these Nissan, that's in Franklin, big headquartered there. Yeah. Uh a lot of a lot of automotive industry.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:38

That brought a lot of into the area, though, didn't it? Because in California.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:42

Yeah, you used to have yeah, the battery plant brought in a lot of people from California. The GM plant used to be Saturn. And so Saturn brought in a lot of people from Detroit, Cincinnati area. And then GM. GM has invested billions of dollars into this market here in Spring Hill. I'm always asked if if GM goes under, will Spring Hill survive? I'm gonna I'm gonna say yeah. There's a lot of job growth opportunity here in Spring Hill. For sure. Middle T C in general.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:19

Speaking, speaking of that growth in that area, isn't these isn't isn't Nashville on the possible major league baseball coming there?

SPEAKER_03 1:19:29

You know, they there's a lot and lots of talk about the Nashville Stars, I believe is what they're called, backed by a lot of former MLB managers and players. I don't know what you triple A them now. Yeah, yeah. We have the uh Nashville Sounds. Yeah, they're the in Memphis Sounds. Yeah, that's same state, Matt. Good job. Well, I know what to get you for Christmas, Micah, and get you a plate notebook. Yeah. I just offended everybody in Tennessee. Yeah, I know, right. Yeah, right. Nashville is not Memphis.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:11

I'm gonna be I'm gonna be getting yelled out by little Shirley's Shirley's boy at one point or something.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:17

But yeah, Nashville Sounds is the triple A affiliate of the uh Milwaukee Brewer. Oh there was there was rumored years ago that when they built that new stadium downtown that it would be converted into a major league footballpark. I don't think that's the case. I'm I guess you know, anything possible, but the last I've heard, they're looking at the area just north of Tennessee State, which is kind of in the metro center area of Nashville, north of downtown, northwest of downtown. Okay, okay. If one if if it did come to you know fruition now, you talk to the major league baseball side of things, you know, the commissioner Rob Manford, he's he's really looking at expanding in general. I think Nashville and maybe I think Sacramento might be the other town that's highly on the list. I would think Nashville's gotta be crazy how much well. I mean, so Nashville's in the process of building a Starbucks. Yeah, Starbucks headquarters is coming here, but but Nashville's in the process of building a larger, smaller stadium for the NFL visiting team, a larger, smaller stadium for the NFL visiting team to host their fans in Tennessee's Titan, Tennessee Titan Stadium. So they're building a brand new football facility stadium here downtown Nashville.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:45

Yeah, isn't it gonna host a Super Bowl?

SPEAKER_03 1:21:47

Yeah, yeah. So I call it the larger smaller because it it's a larger footprint, but smaller seats. I think it's actually 5,000 seats less. I would have to do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:57

But it's a stadium climate control, though.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:01

Yeah, it's probably going to the old stadium's probably gonna be demolished and turn into parking lot, commercial space, would be my guess. You can see that note already. Yeah, oh yeah. I mean, literally, it's right next door. I don't know who the owner is of the La Quinta hotel, but I mean it is right on its front porch where the new stadium is. So if you're a Lakinta, which is maybe a choice hotel brand, yeah, you're in luck because when Nashville hosts the Super Bowl in 2030 and Jason Swift and Taylor Kelsey is there, you know, however that is, they'll be headlining that on support. Yeah, I it Nashville is just freaking growing. Yeah, Travis, Jason is a big thing.

Balancing Weekends With Real Estate

SPEAKER_03 1:22:55

Yeah, Jason is the brother, yeah. That's right. He's a color one.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:00

He's the cooler. He is a cool, he is a he is a color.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:04

But you think about Nashville, Nashville has the Predators, which is the hockey team. They have women's basketball now. I think it's part of the Athletes Unlimited belief. They play downtown as well. But you got the Titans and then the AAA team. Can Nashville really help with her what what's the word I'm looking for here? Support.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:34

Can can they support an MLB team? I think so. The sounds holds 10,000. It's sold sold out every time. Another sport that's big, you may have seen it on TV last month, but football. Do they have a soccer team? Yeah, man. They got a national soccer club. Uh actually St. Louis has one too. Yeah, it actually hosted Japan's national team for its practice and whatnot. So uh they've been in the playoffs and SE's played there.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:08

So pretty cool. Wow, that is cool. That is cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:13

Well, Joseph, we're uh we're gonna get wrapped up here pretty quick. We've been going and out. Can y'all see the the time on there? Hour and 15. Yeah, hour 15. I know, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:26

I mean, if you stretch that out, that's almost the Matt eyebrow on his left eye.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:33

Wow. Keep the gloves up, keep the gloves up. Our promo for this one will be uh shot at Matt. Shot at Matt. Shots fired. Shot fired. All right, we're gonna move to the quick hitty lightning. Baseball, baseball or softball? Softball. Plate or basic? Plate, that's where the game lives. Favorite division one venue.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:08

Ooh. Okay. Loudest crowd. Texas state that I've experienced. Really?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:19

Is it the same? Yeah, I mean, I think it's forty one hundred people there, maybe. Okay. Texas State, Texas AM was a big big crowd.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:29

Well, that's things like Texas AM is not that far from there, is it?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:33

College station, I don't know how far it is from San Antonio, San Marcos area. You may have to be saying as big as Matt's head, but you know, getting there.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:48

What gosh dang it, now I forgot what I was gonna say. Oh, how many people what's the what's the capacity at uh Oklahoma City at the World Series? Do you know? 12,000, I think. That's a lot of people. That's I mean that's a that's a that's a big that's a big game. We got to see Oklahoma, we got to see Love Stadium at when we went out there last year.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:12

Yeah, that'd be another nice place to go to as well. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That was really cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:16

That's cool to see that too. The coach you'd most like to have dinner with after a game. Probably Patty Gasco. And she is Oklahoma's coach. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Favorite road trip meal. Bucky. Is there another place? The uh we stopped at Bucky's coming.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:44

We stopped at Bucky's coming and going when we went out to Oklahoma to watch Mizzou play football.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:49

Me and me and Micah and just we stopped there in Springfield on the way out there, and that's right. If we're gonna get our OMS tickets, we probably need to start looking at those pretty quick. That's that's a good point, Micah. Yeah, we sure do. What's one rule every fan misunderstands?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:09

If they need to keep their mouth shut when they enter the gates.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:12

Um interference. Oh, okay. Okay, you mentioned that a while ago.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:20

Or now And baseball would be a ball.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:25

Yeah, balls are always questionable.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:28

I'm glad we don't have those in the office. Um when you're talking about interference, it's catcher's interference.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:35

Is that what they're talking about?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:37

Is there catcher's interference like baseball to hit the glove or whatever?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:41

Okay, okay, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:42

That still applies.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:46

Real estate or umpiring, which causes more stress?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:51

Real estate. I mean, because the strike zone doesn't change because of the interest rate. Come on now.

unknown 1:27:59

Hey.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:00

Right, right, right. Alright, since you're a pneumad alum, give me give me new madred one word. Be nice. Oh like it. I like it. I like it. And what's your best piece of advice you've received about officiating from your dad or from your father?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:23

Always go out there and do your best. Like these are athletes who have trained and worked hard. Call it fair. Call it like you say.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:32

Don't take it home. Don't bring it home rather. Interesting. Well that's of course you don't sound like you do that because you said you listen, you go back and watch all your the play games.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:44

Yeah, I watch them before

Goals From NAIA To College World Series

SPEAKER_03 1:28:45

I get home.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:46

Watch them while I'm watching while driving down the road. Allegedly watch them while you're driving down the road.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:54

That's allegedly that's what happened when we were coming to your house that time during the masters. I had Aaron had the XM satellites. You know, you know the thing about I notice about umpires really is they're unnoticeable until they do something wrong.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:09

You know, that that's that's that's our goal. Game in, game out. You you want to go unnoticed.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:15

I mean, like the people that you know's name, like Angel Hernandez, made mistakes all about.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:20

I mean, like I'm just like I mean, like I mean, you you think you think about the animosity that Gallagher may have held against Jim Joyce when he blew blew that perfect game call, safe call at first base.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:37

We talked who did we talk about that with Jamie? I think it was Jamie Johnson. Oh, Jamie. Yeah, do you know Jamie?

SPEAKER_03 1:29:44

Maybe. I I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:46

He's an assistant with Minor. Okay. Yeah from Zenith. Yeah, he's a principal. We had him on. We were talking about that specific play in general.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:56

Yeah, I mean, you think about that. I mean, that's that's as high as it gets. And in the umpire, I mean, he just blew it. Uh didn't mean to. No. But they didn't have review. Uh they didn't have review. I mean, the dude, the grown man was crying. Yeah. And and Gallagher just said, man, it's all good. It's life's not fair, guys. It's all part of the game.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:22

You might get a call go your way, you might not.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:24

Yeah, yeah. That's right. That's right. So um well, before we go, Joseph, give me uh give me three, give me three people if you got three. Do you know three? You got three friends?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:43

That's the other. That is the other. I tell you what, if you could just have Lindsay get Taylor Swift on here, that'll be that'll be it.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:51

That'll be all we need.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:52

You would stick with one.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:54

I mean, I'm a follower of the podcast. I it I can't remember who I've seen, who I've not. I I got a great memory, guys. It just doesn't last long, okay?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:02

So have you had your brother? My brother? Yeah. Why would I have Himble?

SPEAKER_03 1:31:09

He's been on a podcast or two. Yeah, but he you're not interviewed him. He's got an interesting background because he still works at that church, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:31:19

You're gonna ask that. I mean you're gonna say that. Yeah. I you know I tell you, I tell you what, if if you can't get Taylor Swift, you know, I tell you what, we need to have Lindsay on. She's got all the connections to the to the uh to the uh sports world and the celebrity. Tell her about who her cousin is now.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:40

Oh, yeah, yeah. Now, if if I could get this to uh come to fruition, I then by all means my agent will be reaching out. But so Lindsay's cousin's husband, his name is Luke Flout. And if you follow NBA, you probably know the name Luke Flouts. Uh he used to play at Florida State, actually won an ACC conference championship down there. He went over and played in the D-League in Europe. He coached for the Golden State Warriors for a couple years, won, I think at least one, if not two, NBA championships with him. Yeah, went over to the Kings. Believe he won another NBA championship. The Kings? Um, Sacramento. Did they not win? Maybe not. I don't think so. I can't remember. Anyways, he was with Mike Brown. Mike Brown was just in the NBA playoffs. Yeah. I think I matter of fact, I think he did win. Maybe that's why I had it in my mind.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:39

Yeah, Mike Brown was the head coach at New York. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:42

Yeah, yeah. He he coached under under him at Sacramento. Um, so that's that connection. But he's now the men's head basketball coach at his alma mater, part of state. Yeah. Down in Tallahassee.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:55

Yeah, so we we need to like Joseph. We this may not even air now. I need to get Lindsey. We we got the wrong bald one.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:01

Yeah, I got the wrong ball.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:02

We should have got Lindsay on here talking about her cousin.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:05

I mean high school. Have you classes? Have you had Coach Mac on? I don't know. I mean, that would be another that would be a great one to do. Unbelievable. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:16

Totally agree with you.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:18

I gotta call I gotta get him on. Yeah. I I I think Justin, I I I really do. I think Justin would be a good one for a comedy

Nashville Growth And MLB Talk

SPEAKER_03 1:33:30

space. I don't know how many views you get, but I sure would enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:33

We'd probably get views, all right. We'd get views just the anticipation of the sibling rivalry. Yeah. We need to add Becky. Add Becky in there. Oh the the podcast world could not handle it. Yeah, we'd be worse than the Trek the Kelsey brothers.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:51

I w I wish I would have got that guy's number, Matt. Oh, good. We were on our way home from St. Louis. I wish I had his number. Yeah, I wish I had his number with that. Oh my goodness. I I really think Coach Mac Coach Mac would bring a lot. He would be awesome. I think Joseph McClarty would be another good one. He he's got a great, great story. Joe Mac. He's talking about investing in kids' life. I mean, that talking about legacy. I mean, his dad, I I think I may have been the only person in Southeast Missouri that didn't work for Dave grocery store. Um, I don't I don't know why that is. Um, but I mean he jump started a lot of people's career and how to treat people. Joe Mack called that piece. Yeah. And then I guess if you if you wanted to, I don't I don't know if you can understand the Chicky Tanga or Cesadilla or anything, but you can get my dad on there.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:51

I mean that's he he was actually Jamie Johnson said gotta get your father-in-law on here.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:57

Yeah, I mean get him and get him and Joe Bill on. Joe Bill.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:01

Oh, you know what?

SPEAKER_03 1:35:02

Y'all could have a y'all could have a whole series dedicated to them too.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:07

You know what? Those two, that is a great idea. I bet they got a bunch of stories. Oh my gosh, are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_03 1:35:17

One one story that reminds me of of dad officiating with basketball. I think I think basketball was his primary primarily love. I know he umpire baseball for years and still is the rules interpreter for Nisha, I believe. But I remember him telling a story they were down at Brothersville back in probably the late 80s, early 90s. Dad had to call 911 from the locker room because after the game the coach just went ballistic, beating the door down, and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:50

Like stuff was going on back then. It's gotten a lot worse now. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:57

What about uh was it the home team? Well, I mean, I'm trying to I I don't even remember, but I mean when you have to call the cops. But I'm just thinking, like, how's how much help would the cops be if it was the home team?

SPEAKER_04 1:36:09

Probably not they might be bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:11

You screwed us.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:13

Yeah, might be. What what what Belmire on here? Wasn't he an official or no?

SPEAKER_03 1:36:22

Yeah, yeah. I think so. I know he's an administrator, he could probably talk on that aspect. Talk about how he get how he gets his golf club down hard.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:38

I knew you were going there as soon as I said that. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:46

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:48

Speaking of the golf course, the the uh Kevin Collins interview is good and learned a lot of interest. Learned a lot of interesting stuff about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:57

Speaking speaking of that, yeah, we I talked to him today. We were out there, we had lunch today. He said, Oh, they built 200 new sheds, and he said that there are 190 of them filled.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:12

Holy crap!

SPEAKER_02 1:37:13

Yeah, he said we're gonna have to build more. I mean, at some point. Now he said it won't be like tomorrow, but probably because he said right now there's like a hundred and I think he said 160 or 170.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:26

So with all most of the members moving over and then plus people joining and then wanting a cart shed, they're up to 190.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:33

Where did the members move over from? I guess would be my question. Is that from what do you mean like New Madrid? Are they moving?

SPEAKER_02 1:37:40

No, I'm talking about I'm talking about moving the cart shed though. The new cart sheds, yeah, the new cart sheds are over, you know what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:48

Yeah, across the tennis courts. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:51

Well, they're they're across uh back behind 10 green. Yes, correct. Correct. That's correct. That's correct. So that's why I'm saying that. Yeah, I hate that hole. I don't know if I've ever gotten it. Have they already started breaking ground on the pool? I thought I seen something out there like where they were maybe like the pool area or whatever they were. No, because that's gonna go that that that's gonna go where they're gonna tear down current sheds.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:17

I couldn't remember if they poured them down yet or not. So no, no, no, I hope not. I still got a golf cart there. Okay. No, that'll be that we'll be we should be moving, I I believe, in in July.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:30

So all the irrigation, that's that's been completed too.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:33

That was done last year, yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah, that was done last year.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:36

I wonder when they cleaned out all the brush and trees along seven. If if I could have gone back and picked up my thousands of golf balls I hit over. There was a bunch of them, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:48

I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:49

I'm sure. I mean, you think about that, like baseball field has nothing to protect it.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:55

Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. They're gonna they're there's some park over there. Oh, no doubt. No doubt. Oh, shoot. Well, Joseph, we appreciate you taking time. Yeah, man. And you're and

Lightning Round And Final Advice

SPEAKER_02 1:39:10

are you at your house or are you at your office?

SPEAKER_03 1:39:12

I'm in uh I'm in my office, man. I if if I was at home, I'd hear two girls crying and screaming, probably the wife screaming at me. You know, hey, so quick quick quick story here. When when I went out to this Colorado fireworks stand, they they had all the rookies, which means the first time attendees come up and and say a few words. I I introduced myself from Tennessee. I said I flew 1200 miles to come get yelled at. I could have I could have stayed home and got yelled at for free, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:45

Right. Did you tell them you didn't tell them you're gonna be on the doghouse podcast, so I hope if you did, man, this plate it'd blow up. I'd probably shut down our website.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:55

So yeah, I'll I'll be I'll be uh waiting for my royalty check along with the Swift wedding invitation in the mail this week. Right, right, right, right. Oh gosh. All right, guys. Well, enjoy it. Glad to be a part of the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:10

Thank you. Thank you. Gotta end it. That's right, we gotta end it. But Joseph, we appreciate you coming on. You are Micah Harris. I'm Matt Tanner, and we end all of our episodes with go dogs, so I expect that go dog. I'm guessing when I'm not when I figured. I know it. That's right, that's right. So at least with that, that's right. With that, Micah, go dog.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:38

Go Dogs.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:40

That's gonna do it for this episode of the Dog House. Thanks for hanging with us and showing love to Type 2. 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 is in the doghouse. The tightness stories always have a hold.