Don't Suck: Life, Family & Softball
Don’t Suck: Life, Family & Softball is a father-daughter podcast where passion meets the grind. Hosted by Ronald and Madison Smith, we dive into the highs, lows, and lessons learned from the game of softball and how they apply to life beyond the field.
From early morning workouts to late-night tournaments, and road trips—we talk about the dedication, sacrifices, and unforgettable moments that come with chasing dreams. Expect real conversations, funny stories, competitive debates, and insights into the softball journey, plus a little family banter along the way.
Whether you’re a player, parent, coach, or just love the game, Don’t Suck is here to keep it real. No excuses, no regrets, just hustle.
Don't Suck: Life, Family & Softball
Beyond the Numbers: The Real Story Behind Madison's Sophomore Season
Madison confronts the fascinating paradox of softball success: batting .365 while battling a crisis of confidence. This raw, honest conversation peels back the layers of what happens when statistical achievement doesn't align with an athlete's self-perception.
The father-daughter duo dives deep into Madison's sophomore season stats - a .365 batting average with 37 hits including 10 doubles and a home run, alongside pitching numbers that include a 2.5 ERA across exactly 100 innings. But beneath these impressive figures lies a mental struggle that many athletes will recognize: "I could care less if my batting average said I was hitting .500 for the season. I still would feel like I hit awful."
We explore the stark contrast between school ball pressure and travel ball freedom, with Madison sharing how travel tournaments offered her a psychological reset: "None of them know how my school ball season went... so it's just like a brand new beginning." The discussion illuminates how environment impacts performance, with Madison finding her confidence returned dramatically during recent travel ball games where she hit over .600.
The episode also tackles serious concerns about how girls' sports are treated in Alabama high school athletics, highlighting questionable scheduling decisions that forced some teams to play six games in a single day during regional tournaments. This passionate conversation showcases why softball families advocate for better treatment of female athletes.
Whether you're a player battling your own mental game, a parent trying to support an athlete through confidence struggles, or a coach looking to better understand the psychological side of softball, this episode delivers powerful insights about the space between statistical success and emotional experience. Join us for this candid look at what happens when the numbers say one thing, but your mind tells you another.
Hit us up at dontsucklfs.podcast@yahoo.com or on Facebook if you're interested in our new merch or the upcoming Alabama Sports Games scholarship opportunity!
Came up, young glove in my hand, dirt on my cleats.
Speaker 2:Yeah, way before I had a fan. Late nights, caged lights, perfecting my stance, got a dream in my heart. I ain't leaving the chance. You're listening to the Don't Suck Life, family and Softball podcast with your host, ronald.
Speaker 3:Alabama high school athletics has our girls' best interest.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:Madison Smith, did you hear? The games got rescheduled and 6A has to play six games in one day just to go to state.
Speaker 3:What's up guys? It's me, ron. I've got Madison and Claudia.
Speaker 1:Hey guys, hey y'all.
Speaker 3:We're on episode 10 here and we're a couple weeks behind. It's been pretty busy, hasn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, haven't got the chance to talk.
Speaker 3:Regionals. Then we kind of busted off into travel, ball practice and things like that. So looking forward to kind of catching y'all up and seeing how our season ended, where Madison ended and kind of what our plans are going forward. So, ms Claudia, how about you go ahead and start us off with the quick pitch questions?
Speaker 2:I have some fun ones. So who's the loudest family member at your games?
Speaker 1:That's kind of hard because I know who yours is like. My dad is loud but he doesn't talk at the games, but then my mom is his cuckoo, so yeah, I'd have to say ronald's mom oh yeah, yeah, I can hear her when she comes.
Speaker 2:Then, yeah, yeah, you got it, baby, love it. The loudest person that was at my games was my Nana.
Speaker 3:My mom talks a little trash too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she does.
Speaker 3:I remember, even like eight years you'd have to kind of give her the eye. Hey shh, they're only seven, eight years old now and you know, I don't know if I ever remember like my parents cheering for me, my mom always kind of sat in the outfield in the in the vehicle, my younger brother and sister, but you know I had a ton of girlfriends, so I'm sure all my girlfriends were there just hollering and screaming.
Speaker 2:What's the weirdest thing you believed as a kid?
Speaker 1:Mine's kind of like funny. But whenever I was younger, I thought that everybody at least had a million dollars. Was younger, I thought that everybody at least had a million dollars. I think I've talked about this before, but yeah, I thought everybody at least had a million dollars. And so, like, if you were rich, consider like with more money, I guess you would say you had, like I don't know, a billion dollars. Like even the people that are like really don't have a lot of money, they at least had a million dollars.
Speaker 2:I just didn't understand money I would probably be like I really did think that money grew on trees y'all can't be that stupid, neither one of y'all we're blonde, we were young, okay, claudia blonde dude okay and I had an older brother and I was very gullible, so the bleach has reached her brain, yeah, the gullible, yeah, um I'm still gullible.
Speaker 3:You know, I think I think I've talked about this before too. I think I told myself I wanted to believe in things so much like Sasquatch or Bigfoot aliens that. I thought I'd seen them, even today. I think sometimes I'll be like, yeah, I seen an alien when I was six.
Speaker 2:Maybe I didn't, okay, so you're crazy, we're all crazy.
Speaker 3:I don't know. You're the one who's still scared to run inside the house because you're scared an alien's going to abduct her leave me alone.
Speaker 2:I don't like aliens. If you could play any other position for a day, what would it be? Catcher?
Speaker 1:I feel like I understand the, the what's the word. You understand responsibilities yes, and I, as a pitcher, I understand what you want from a catcher, so I feel like I could be good at that, but that could just be my head being big or whatever.
Speaker 3:If I could play any position now, I would love to be a softball pitcher. I'm not just talking about what Madison does, but all these pitchers are pretty incredible to watch.
Speaker 1:When I think about it all the time, when I think back to when I was in, at you and 10 you, I had no clue what I was signing myself up for. I mean I I love pitching and stuff and like it's great. But when I think about it, like it's actually like so hard you're, you do this circle with your arm and you hold the ball a certain way and move your hand and it spins the mechanics to a whole other foot the other way when it gets the catcher.
Speaker 2:It's just crazy so if I had to choose, it would be a position I have never played, and that would be sitting the bench oh god, you're insane.
Speaker 1:I was just listening back to one of our episodes. It was the one where we were talking about you quitting or whatever, and we it was like, uh, I said something I think it was one of our questions and I was like what do you, what other people think about it? And you're like, well, my coach lost his star player, so he wasn't very happy, and I was like you're not humble at all no, I like to have a little fun.
Speaker 2:Um, what's something you're oddly competitive about that no one else cares about, I think really any games ever Like.
Speaker 1:We played charades, and there's this game called catchphrase that we played on spring break and all I want to do is win the game. I will get up, I will run outside and yell like a chicken or something, just so we can get that point for the game.
Speaker 2:Actually, do you remember when you ran outside, I was being Sasquatch and I was hiding behind the cars and walking.
Speaker 1:Nobody could guess what it was. That was funny.
Speaker 3:I mean, I hate losing anything.
Speaker 1:We know.
Speaker 3:I've always been that way. I am a good loser, though For the most part I'm saying like I won't let the other people know that it's killing me. We get in the vehicle. I I might be just hot-headed and mad like breaking bats when I get home. I want to hear what Claudia's giving the eye here. I'm curious what this could be, because—.
Speaker 2:No, I just disagree.
Speaker 3:I disagree. You think I'm a bad loser, yeah.
Speaker 2:A lot of times 100%.
Speaker 3:But you know this is funny that we're even talking about this, because I'm trying to think of a time that you've ever seen me lose. Oh.
Speaker 1:Oh, here we go. He's worse than me. Well, you were just talking about losing games, and I've seen you get pretty mad about games. Well, you know I mean you leave halfway through. Sometimes that shows you're mad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I didn't lose, though.
Speaker 1:Your team did.
Speaker 3:When's the time that I left halfway through?
Speaker 1:Maybe not exactly halfway, but during the game you left because you were mad.
Speaker 3:Well, exactly halfway. But during the game you left because you were mad. Well, I left, okay, you want to talk about that? Okay, so let's go ahead and get the. We talk about the messy stuff here too. That was about a year ago, okay, and y'all decided that it was a good idea to eat sausage, eggs, grits, pancakes, bacon and anything else heavy who's y'all at nine o'clock that morning for a game that y'all had at 11. And I watched like 18 pass balls go by a catcher, because what do you expect? I watched us get thrown out at first base on the second pitch of the game because we were too slow to get back, because my bellies were full. We went into a game. We had to restart a ball game. From the day before that we were had all the momentum in the world oh yeah, I remember I was pitching and I was on, we had one out.
Speaker 3:Madison was up to bat and she had like a one two count, two one count, something like that. I think you had two strikes on you because I tried going the whole night without asking you because I held it on to. I said what, what pitch is she gonna throw you tomorrow? And then you're like I haven't thought about it once, which drove me crazy too well, I don't, I try not to think you know so then you hit a shot left center field.
Speaker 1:That was a whole year.
Speaker 3:The person who was at the first base got thrown out at second because they were still standing on first base, like it was just a straight tag-up situation where they should have been halfway down the line because it's in left field. So they get thrown out. At second, they bring a pitch runner in for you and two pitches later she gets thrown out. We're out of the inning. Oh.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I will leave halfway through a game when I leave work to go watch that and that's how you repay yourself after all the work that you put in that season, that's how y'all repay yourselves. So y'all got to just hear a great episode of how we talk softball one year ago and it still bothers me today. Like what do you do all this work for if you're going to punish yourself that morning? Like nobody should be going to play a ball game with sausage, egg and grits on their stomach.
Speaker 1:A lot of people do do that though.
Speaker 3:But you shouldn't.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know.
Speaker 3:That is, you are literally putting all this work in. Why are you eating junk food on a game day? Why are you eating nachos and cheese between games? Pack you a sandwich, eat you some fruit and go be at the best potential that you possibly can be today. Do y'all disagree? I mean, I'm all ears.
Speaker 1:No, I agree.
Speaker 3:We're having a real conversation.
Speaker 1:I didn't know. This is the way it was going to go.
Speaker 3:I didn't expect it to go this way either. What was the next question? I like this game.
Speaker 2:Okay. Next question is do you prefer hitting bombs or making diving catches?
Speaker 1:Well, I don't ever. Never, I don't ever. Well, maybe I have had the opportunity but I haven't taken it as the opportunity, so I don't make diving catches, so probably just hitting bombs. But I really want to make a diving catch. I think about it all the time, really Like I'm in the outfield when you know our pitcher's just pitching and they're not hitting it to me and I'm daydreaming Like hit the ball to me and let me dive and make a catch and feel good about myself, you know.
Speaker 2:I used to make diving catches all the time and I know this does not sound humble, but I'm being serious.
Speaker 3:Nothing that you have said about your sports days have been humble, yet how are we supposed to believe it when?
Speaker 2:we can't see it. Let's go to a field one day, hit me some balls, guarantee y'all die for them?
Speaker 4:No, seriously. I mean, I used to run into fences just for fun, but not with that shirt on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not with this shirt on.
Speaker 1:Because the Don't't suck podcast crew has gotten new gear today?
Speaker 2:yes, new t-shirt, so cute. So all right, are you gonna answer that one there?
Speaker 3:what was the question? I kind of forgot. Do you prefer?
Speaker 2:hitting bombs or making diving catches.
Speaker 3:Let's just be honest here. I I mean just recently there was a post made of me hitting a bomb off of a off of a college committed pitcher. Uh, good luck, kid, getting where you want to go. If this guy who hadn't swung a bat in 25 years can hit a bomb off of you, I don't know if you got it.
Speaker 1:If y'all are confused what he's talking about, please go watch our video and see the lobs the boy was throwing to him.
Speaker 3:I heard him grunt.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:What's your biggest? I'm an adult, but barely moment I'm an adult, but barely moment.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm not an adult.
Speaker 3:Oh, I mean I feel like most parenting you anytime you have a tough parenting situation. It's like I'm an adult, but not really. Yeah, okay you know, because I've always went my whole. I've went my whole life going. Man, when will I make like adult decisions, like when it comes to parenting?
Speaker 2:Well, I feel like immediately.
Speaker 3:But I'm talking like as far as like the discipline side of parenting.
Speaker 1:It's because I'm such a good kid.
Speaker 2:Well then, maybe when she hits around like two years old.
Speaker 3:I don't know, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:I still feel like a lot of things I do are not adult-ish. Yeah, I'd have to say like I still do adult stuff. But like I mean I watch Disney Channel, I watch the old shows I used to watch when I was a kid.
Speaker 1:Oh, I remember, not that long ago I re-watched my Little Pony and it was, and just so fun, all right.
Speaker 2:How do you stay focused in a tight game?
Speaker 1:I try not to think a ton, but it's really hard because that's all it's in your head is thinking about everything ever.
Speaker 1:But I kind of just like you, mean like close game like it's very close game, like, yeah, I kind of just, I don't know, try and focus on myself, I guess, but also at the same time, whenever I start getting stressed and stuff, I just think this is a team thing. So if something does happen or say I miss my spot or I strike out, I mean I got a whole other eight girls that are playing the same game as me at this moment, so they can make something happen too. It's not just all on me.
Speaker 3:I do like that about you. For me, I try to take my brain out of it completely. It's like what we worked with your stance, you know, over the past couple weeks with certain things that we're going to try to do with our bat and things to get our mind eliminated, and we've shown I mean, you know recently that that's really working too. So I think the biggest thing is finding a way to kind of ground yourself to where it's almost like you're not even thinking about that moment. I mean, obviously it's very hard, it's very hard.
Speaker 2:So I feel like for me, whenever I played softball, I really enjoyed like the tight games. I felt like they were fun and I did like the pressure being on me a little bit because I just had such good tunnel vision whenever I did pitch. So, like anytime it was a tight game, I just had that tunnel vision and I was just worried about throwing the next pitch and getting us out of the inning.
Speaker 1:See, I feel like our coach for travel ball was talking to us like a few days ago and he was saying how he thinks that we get bored when we play in those easy games, you know. And so you think, oh, like I mean, yes, you want to have fun, but you think it's just like all giggles. And then you get up there and start slacking a little bit and he was like I guess I'll just get bored, and so the games, that is more competition, it's, it makes it more fun, but you really do have focus. But I feel like those are more stressful. But I don't know, I guess it just depends.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right. What's a fashion trend you secretly miss? I'm going to go first Skinny jeans. Why did we ever get rid of skinny jeans? What are all these flare jeans for?
Speaker 3:I feel like girls still wear skinny jeans. I don't.
Speaker 1:I wore skinny jeans for so long and then, literally maybe last year or the year before that, I bought those.
Speaker 2:Mom jeans yeah like that.
Speaker 1:That's what they call them. Oh, I hate those things. I think they're cute, oh man.
Speaker 2:I just love skinny jeans. I don't know.
Speaker 3:I will say this it's not that they're not cute, because I do see them and they are cute, they look good on people, but they're not like to me. It's like I'm going to the ballpark. I see people wear that stuff out on dates. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I think it just depends.
Speaker 3:I agree about the skinny jeans for women maybe, oh yeah, not a dude, but do me a favor, guys, give those to your wives. That's awful. I hate seeing that Apparently not.
Speaker 2:I feel like it's switched now.
Speaker 3:Well, guys, I've been wearing skinny jeans, yeah, but I will tell you this If you want to know where fashion's going, go to your church and look at what the youth pastors wear. They are always wearing what's cool. Hmm. Yeah, because that's where, when I started seeing the skinny, like cuffed jeans at the feet with like big shoes, I'm like what are we doing?
Speaker 1:I saw a tiktok and it was this girl, who? She's a, I think she does gymnastics and she's from somewhere up north, but she gymnastics at auburn. What do you call it? She plays. I don't know if you call it playing she does hair you know I'm talking about she does.
Speaker 1:Okay, it doesn't matter. I think her name's Sarah. Anyways, she was talking about how all these girls, because she was describing how the South is different from the North, and she was like everywhere you go, if you're going out somewhere, say, you're going to church, you're going to an event, or you're going to here or here every single girl wears them dresses with them puffy sleeves, and every time I go somewhere, that's all I can see and that's what I wear too. But it's just like engraved in my head that everywhere I go, I have to look for and that's all I see.
Speaker 3:Now, that's true yeah, I'll tell you what was cool back in the day the old seashell necklace oh, that's still around.
Speaker 1:Remember the little well, you might not the little choker thing, and it had a pearl on it, the brown brown one.
Speaker 3:Oh yes, If anybody knows fashion it's me, I died for them.
Speaker 2:That was like I was fresh, 16, wore the chokers the skinny jeans with the rips.
Speaker 3:I've hit the age now where fad like I wear what I. I've been wearing the same thing for the last 20 years, like I no longer change with the Doms. Yeah. Snap back. Nothing wrong with that snapbacks, it's a staple.
Speaker 2:You know what's one embarrassing thing you secretly love.
Speaker 3:Embarrassing thing that I secretly love. I actually do have one here. This is stupid, dude. I think it's on. At one time it might have been on Disney+, but whatever it was. I paid for a subscription on TV to watch a show, a cartoon I used to watch when I was a kid, and I'm talking like in the last year it was a hey Arnold with a football head.
Speaker 1:I've heard of that, but I've never seen it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I bought it, that's not embarrassing, that's sweet. I mean, I don't know, it made me feel good.
Speaker 2:You want to be reminded of your past times? Yeah, when I was 12. Okay, I have one. I love whenever you're in your car and like you have tinted windows and stuff and somebody walks up and like is checking their hair and stuff. I see in your car like window yeah, like in your car window, but they're so embarrassed like I'll kind of mess with people, like I'll roll down the window and be like hey or I've seen people do that, like in storefronts yeah, yeah, storefronts, I will tell you that when I go places I try not to look in that dang window or any mirror.
Speaker 2:I think it's adorable though.
Speaker 3:Not when I do it.
Speaker 2:No, I'm just talking in general. I think it's an adorable thing. We're just checking how we look and then there's somebody sitting in the car.
Speaker 1:I cannot think of something Because I don't know, because I don't know. I don't know what I would think would be embarrassing, but I love it. No, maybe like my singing voice, like it is embarrassing. I sing awful, but I love to sing. I don't know. There you go.
Speaker 3:Well, and here's one too, Like I'm embarrassed of Madison, but I love her.
Speaker 2:So there's that too. What's your strategy when you're behind in the count?
Speaker 1:When I get two strikes on me, I widen up my stance and, depending on the pitcher, I'll like step load or I'll just like preload, and then I choke up on the bat and I try and think, literally take my hand straight to the ball and just make contact. There's some videos of me hitting from like tournaments or hitting whatever, and literally my swing stops at contact because all I was trying to do was put the ball in play. I remember at the Sarah Lynn tournament that we played there's two videos, one from when we played faith and one we played Sarah Lynn and they're back-to-back games and I had basically the same exact hit and it was literally my bat stuck out at contact and I just hit it down the line and got a single and a double off of it, I think.
Speaker 3:You got to shorten it up when you get two strikes on you.
Speaker 1:Two strikes. She said three strikes, two strikes.
Speaker 2:And that's it for our quick pitch.
Speaker 3:All right, Claudia. Thank you for the quick pitch questions this week. It's kind of goofy around here, right?
Speaker 1:now I think we're just crazy because we haven't done it in so long. It's like I don't know not real life, I think mine's just.
Speaker 3:I had a bunch of sweet tarts, so now I have a lot of energy, a lot of energy, but we're going to kick it off here with the regional stats for this past couple weeks and unfortunately y'all didn't make it through to state.
Speaker 1:We were so close.
Speaker 3:And let's go ahead and tell us Matt, y'all beat MGM, so y'all got the.
Speaker 1:In area we got first seed.
Speaker 3:Yep first seed, along with Daphne.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so Daphne played MGM first in regionals, and we played Fairhope. Yep and Daphne beats MGM first in regionals and we played Fairhope, Yep and Daphne beats MGM, and then we played Fairhope and they threw Addison Russell which they hadn't thrown her at all to us.
Speaker 3:Very smart. They saved her all year.
Speaker 1:Saved her for playoffs, and so we knew she was going to come out throwing, but we weren't prepared for her stuff.
Speaker 3:We kind of worked her pitching that drop curve outside the week of. I mean, we stayed Me and you worked, worked, worked.
Speaker 1:And then, unfortunately, you weren't in the lineup to begin with, and then I played right field and then, later in the game they brought me in, I pitched two innings, I gave up one earned run and one walk, so we ended up losing 1-8.
Speaker 3:I don't know if I already said that, so that meant that no, but that was a tough, tough loss because y'all played competitive with them all year.
Speaker 1:Oh, we run-ruled them. I'm pretty sure once. I don't know.
Speaker 3:I don't remember if you run-ruled them or not.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it was run rule, but it was like 8-0 or something like that.
Speaker 3:And then y'all lost to them. The second time y'all played to them.
Speaker 1:At home.
Speaker 3:At their home. At their home? Yeah, at Fairhope, but we had some errors. Yeah, Because I think you went five innings no runs and we had six runs against us. Yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 1:So that meant that we were, I guess you'd say, the loser's bracket for it, because it's double elimination. So we went to play MGM and we won 4-1. I pitched that game, but I didn't hit. I went five innings, gave up two hits, no earned runs, two walks and five strikeouts. That was a pretty good game for me, especially against MGM, because that's like MGM, like our rival, or whatever. So was that the first day, and then we came back the second day. That's how it worked, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, y'all played. Y'all started off with Fairhope.
Speaker 1:That same day.
Speaker 3:That same day.
Speaker 1:Okay. So yeah, we no like. Our third game was on the day after and we went to go play Fairhope and we warmed up, then rain delay, we warmed up, then rain delay, then we warmed up again. I think there was another one and then we start playing. I don't remember. Maybe we were in the fourth inning. Third inning it was one-to-one, right. Yeah, bases were loaded, we had two outs, we were up to bat Lightning delay, then it storms and rains and they call it for the rest of the day. So we're up to bat. We were so close. We come back the next day and I think it was Gabby that was at bat. She hit a ground ball. So we got out that inning and they I'm pretty sure one of their batters on Fairhope hit a triple, got on third, and then Addison Russell came up and squeezed Bunted and scored her, so the final score was 2-1. Yep, kind of sucked.
Speaker 3:And you didn't hit in that game either. Mm-mm. You know, and that whole line to me sucks because it's hard for me to take somebody out of my batting. Lineup that's hitting .370. Yeah, it just won't make sense to me. Lineup that's hitting 370. Yeah, it just won't make sense to me.
Speaker 1:And I did feel like my mindset yes, I wanted to hit and I wanted to be in the lineup, but I didn't have a lot of confidence in myself at that time and so, in my mind, it was best for me not to, because I wasn't confident and I felt like I wouldn't provide for my team, like somebody else might could. But I mean, you never know, unless it happens, that's mature thinking on your end.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just look at overall when I think about somebody batting 370 and them not being in my lineup. When I know people I know kids right now who batted 360, 370, who were the probably the offensive player for the team this year yeah you know, granted, now you had strikeouts and stuff, but we'll kick off to that uh later.
Speaker 3:I, I think it all comes down to. You know you lose that game and that's tough and and for me, you know, I'd rather the bat die in my hand to someone else's. That's tough, and for me, I'd rather the bat die in my hands than someone else's. That's just my take. You don't have to think like that. I appreciate that you actually don't think like that. So mature of you, but unfortunately we didn't get to go to state. It would have been a good year to do so. We had some really good seniors that we'll definitely miss. So, matt, I want you to first tell me what your season goals were and then let's talk about your season stats.
Speaker 1:So week one on our podcast, I wrote down some goals that I wanted to have for the season. My goal for my batting average was 360 or higher, my strikeout goal was 18 or lower and I wanted to have an ERA of 1.5 or below.
Speaker 3:Yep, and I think all of those were a stretch, especially when you gave me the goal of the strikeout and stuff, because you were already sitting at like 13 when you told us that. And we were six, seven weeks into balls or six weeks, I think. So you know the 360 I really like, and the 1.5 ERA to me is a little low for your area, but that's not to say that that shouldn't be a good goal for you too.
Speaker 1:I kind of, especially on the strikeout one, like I knew I wasn't going to reach that goal, but I kind of just want to set it there, to have it back in my mind like next year.
Speaker 3:Well, I think next year, I think that number I like next year. Well, I think next year, I think that number. I think we really figure out where I know where it's at, I do too.
Speaker 3:And we're going to know about it in a week when we have our podcast again. Yeah, but we have to figure that part out. You know, we have to come through it, we have to find strength in ourselves sometimes. And so season goals you had 360 batting average. You wanted less than 18 strikeouts. You want an ERA of 1.5. So let's talk about where you ended the season.
Speaker 1:So I ended the season with a 365 batting average over your where you wanted to be. I had even with your strikeouts. I know which I think is so crazy, but I don't know a lot higher than I was expecting. Which I think is so crazy, but I don't know a lot higher than I was expecting. I had 37 hits, 26 singles, 10 doubles and one home run, 18 RBIs and then 26 strikeouts.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, what that tells me there, just from looking at this, is that I don't have your attempts here, but the 26 Ks were mostly you either struck out or you hit the ball, yeah, and which tells me you weren't getting under the ball a lot, you weren't hitting pop-ups, which is you know good from previous seasons. Yeah. So but again you know, kind of looking at your swing now you know like from this past week that we'll talk about later, but it was such a mental game for you this year.
Speaker 1:Oh, it was really. It was really all in my head.
Speaker 3:You know I'd come home. I've talked to your hitting coach several times throughout the season. I thought I just don't understand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I I'll. I'll be thinking in my head and I mean, I get hitting lessons, or hitting lessons it's front toss, it's confidence building, whatever. But I go to all these hitting lessons and I've been hitting for years. I mean, you know, not hitting but hitting, and my mechanics, we tweak them, but we don't change them, like my mechanics have stayed the same for so long. If there's anything to change, it's a tiny little adjustment, like hey, keep your shoulder up, or you know, which usually does not happen. And so when I go to lessons or whatever and I'm at practice and I'm hitting the ball and making contact and hitting it, line drives, whatever, and then I go to a game and I don't even touch the ball, it's like what? I don't understand how, what's going on, you know? And so then I'm thinking in my head okay, well, maybe my mechanics are wrong, but then I go to hitting lessons and it's fine. So it's like back and forth in my head Am I doing it right? Am I doing it wrong? Like what do I change?
Speaker 3:So yeah, You're talking to yourself right there. What's going on? All in my head, it's all in your head. Yeah, you know, and we'll talk about this next episode, but you know, this past week Madison batted over 600. Yeah, she had an on-base percentage like around 700. You stroked the ball all weekend. You did have one strikeout on the weekend and you faced. I had two, you did have two, uh-huh, you did have two, but you faced.
Speaker 1:The first one I had was off. We had been seeing really good pitching.
Speaker 3:Good pitching, yeah, Quick pitching like much faster.
Speaker 2:And then the same game after we'd seen this the fastest girl we'd seen all day and smashed her like off the fence.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this girl comes in, she's throwing on you. I don't know how to judge speed. I mean, I know it was faster.
Speaker 3:It's probably like 52 to 55.
Speaker 1:And I was like, okay, I'm going to have to wait on it. Well, I'm up here waiting three days and by the time I swing the ball, it's done at my eyeballs. And so, yeah, I struck out.
Speaker 3:But you know, still 600 batting average and over two days. It was a heck of a weekend for you, and so to me. That's where you have to change your way of thinking is why am I so good here and I struggle there?
Speaker 1:And I really think part of it is going from playing the whole season of school ball.
Speaker 1:And when I was at the beginning of school ball, yeah, I had some strikeouts, but I felt more more confident still. But then once I got through, it was like strikeout, strikeout, strikeout. And so it was like, well, there goes my confidence right in the ground, because I feel like I'm I suck right now, and then I get the travel ball and it's kind of almost like a fresh start because I haven't played with these girls since last fall and I haven't played with these coaches since last fall, or like this team, you know. And then it's like I get to go out there and none of them know how my school ball season went. If they see anything, it's that I got all county or that I did this and this, that got post or something, so none of them know how bad my season was or whatever. So it's just like a brand new beginning almost for the summer and it's like refreshing you know which school ball. It was so long and then I just had no confidence, so it was just like a new start yeah, and and we'll.
Speaker 3:Well, I guess the biggest thing is you don't want to get there again yeah you know. So how to? How do we get out of that before it even starts? Yeah, you know, and honestly, I think the way you get out of it is you go look around the area and say you know, know, what did the rest of the area? Do you know who batted 365 and what would their season look like? Yeah.
Speaker 3:Were they smiling on their pitchers? You know there's been nights here, you know, and not to get too carried away, but the week going into regionals. You know I sat across the table from you where you were like I mean you had no confidence. I mean you were very emotionally upset. You'd kind of given up on it. You just didn't understand it.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the thing about being in your head and stuff. You can think, oh, I'm late, oh I'm dropping my shoulder, but then half the time it's just I'm in the box, thinking about the wrong things, Like I don't need to be thinking, keep my shoulder up. I need to be thinking like contact, that's it, and it's just like I don't know. It's such a mental game it's so hard to get out of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you know we will come through that together, but I think you just need to walk around with the confidence of in your head right now. You had your worst hitting season. Yeah. And you still, with your worst hitting season, you still bad at three 65. That's pretty incredible. Yeah, imagine for everybody out there Listen, imagine saying dude, I suck. And it probably being better than half, if not three quarters, of the area. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I'm just taking. I don't know if that's correct honestly, but I know what 365 is and that's pretty dang high.
Speaker 1:I even had a like when we were writing these goals down. At one point I did think, if I've set a batting average goal for 360, obviously I knew I was not going to reach all these goals, but I was like that one might be a tough one. But here I am over the goal with 26 strikeouts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so imagine and this is what I thought about, you know, looking over your stats over the last couple days was imagine if I cut those 26 strikeouts to 12, for the season and you just punched the ball. Look, not every you know. I told you I didn't have a lot of strikeouts when I play ball. I'm not saying I hit bombs every time, but I just was a tougher out because I was going to kind of do what you're doing. You're poking the bat out there and, like you got to throw me out you know.
Speaker 3:Um. So what if you would have had only 12 strikeouts this year? What would the bat average look like then? Yeah, what would your confidence look like then? And I'm ready to see you start connected on that 0-1 pitch and not that 0-2 pitch. Yeah, because there's a whole different swing there, baby. I mean it is beautiful.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about pitching.
Speaker 3:Yep, let's get on the pigeon.
Speaker 1:So I pitched a hundred innings on the dot. I had a 2.5 ERA. Yeah, not your 1.5, but that's really impressive. Yeah, 90 strikeouts and a batting average against of 224. I think, I don't. I don't, I didn't write it down, but I think I did have 50 walks too, which is something that I'm going to start working a lot harder on.
Speaker 3:Well, you know and I think we've kind of talked about that too over the past several weeks of just school ball, I didn't get that outside corner like you wanted it. Oh no, so you have to get off of it, especially at those.
Speaker 3:Mississippi tournaments we played in yeah, if you're not getting it, why are we living there? Yeah, and you've got one of the nastiest two-seam fastballs I've ever seen on the inside corner and you know I'm just kind of watching. Girls aren't comfortable hitting the inside pitch. You know, I look back at when you had to face Larkin this year over at Faith, who just really did an excellent job. She had a great season too. Unfortunately, they made it to state they didn't make it all the way.
Speaker 3:But I mean that girl pitched some innings but she had you on your toes, throwing you on the inside corner. I mean all of y'all.
Speaker 1:And from previous years facing her.
Speaker 3:Outside, outside, outside, Outside outside changeup outside, outside.
Speaker 1:And then we got here this year and it's completely different. It's inside, inside, inside. Maybe a changeup.
Speaker 3:I'd love to see that mix up next year for you Find you a couple pitches that you really want to throw inside. And looking at another stat, from talking first pitch strikes, and there was a stat that somebody told me about yesterday that said when Madison had a first pitch strike she had a 76% strikeout rating.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 3:When you do first pitch strike.
Speaker 1:I did not know that.
Speaker 3:That was from this past weekend, so let that be something in your head. You know there's a breakdown. If you go 0-1, your batting average is this against you. You go 0-2, then it's really good, but if you go 2-0, I listened to a broadcast this weekend.
Speaker 3:You had a 3-1 count on somebody and I heard the girl say, all right, this is what we're looking for, she's got to come at you, you've got to throw her something here that she can hit, or a 3-0 count. And you locked her in at the hands and it hit. Or 3-0 count, and you locked her in at the hands, you know, and it was like, all right, now it's 3-1. And then she said, all right, you got another pitch right here and then you locked her in again on the hands and then you threw one of the nastiest change-ups of your series. But I remember going from a 3-0 count to, like, you know they're waiting, waiting, waiting for their one pitch and then you take them out. So really good, yeah, really good season altogether. I mean I hate the 26 strikeouts. You know I'd hate 18 strikeouts truthfully. Yeah, I mean that's a lot of strikeouts when you look at it, but you do have a 365 batting average which tells me you're not just hitting pop-ups. It's not like you're a home run or sit down. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So you did make all this year, so that was pretty cool yep, it was.
Speaker 1:I didn't get it last year, so something like new you know to go to and it was cool.
Speaker 3:It was fun all girls you know for all the sports and a bunch of sports.
Speaker 1:It was cool to see other people from my school or people that I knew going for, I don't know, volleyball or something just completely different, and you're like wow.
Speaker 3:And the girls like winning. You know volleyball and softball.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I seen a bowling and track, you know, I thought that was really cool.
Speaker 1:So they did a really good job of that, like swimming and golf and stuff, yeah.
Speaker 3:So that again you know great sophomore season and I'm really proud of you. You've been a blast to watch this year and you know your confidence at the plate may not be nothing, but it is so crazy how night and day you are, from you know your confidence there to your confidence in that circle, and I think next year is going to even be better and I think you know this ain't. None of this is a talk down on no coaching or people you do lessons with or nothing like that. Confidence is really within yourself.
Speaker 3:You can't depend on other people to build your confidence. I mean, yeah, it's great to find that, but I mean, everybody out there gives hitting lessons and pitching lessons and fielding lessons. Nobody gives confidence lessons.
Speaker 1:And it's the same thing, like you telling me yeah, you had this many strikeouts, but your batting average is this.
Speaker 3:Or you hit like this you had this many hits, but in my head it's my confidence I sucked yeah so it's just something that you have to find and build yourself, and it's hard the whole thing is shattering to me because all year she's been so down on herself at the plate and then I look back and I'm not saying these are like the best numbers. I mean, heck, bug, hit what this year.
Speaker 1:I don't remember, but she had the best batting average, yeah the girl hit like 460.
Speaker 3:And I'll say that the down plate it might have been higher.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Bug was top of the lineup too, and so you of the lineup too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, top and so yeah those. I mean first of all, heck of a season. Probably not much of that going on in 7A. Yeah.
Speaker 3:But 365, to hang my hat up on that. Yeah, the 26Ks suck but 365. And look, that was Baker's softball team. Yeah, it wasn't much lower. It might have changed a little bit the last couple weeks, but everybody kind of stayed in the high 300 and above, which is pretty impressive. I mean, go look at other teams and I will, because I'm very curious but again, congratulations on your sophomore season. I can't wait to watch you play your junior year too. Well, that does it for this week's stats, regional stats. That will conclude Madison's high school sophomore season, so y'all won't hear any of that. There will be some travel, ball talk and stuff like that going on.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. I'm a junior now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, school ball is you know? Y'all heard Emily talk about it. School ball is like playing school ball is you know? Y'all heard Emily talk about it? School balls like playing for something bigger than you know travel ball. I personally do love travel ball more and it might be because you like seeing, I like going all over the place.
Speaker 1:And I also like how, in travel ball yeah, in travel ball you play. You'll show up to a tournament that's five hours away and you'll see somebody you used to play with 10 years ago yeah, I do like that too. And you're like, oh my gosh, that's crazy.
Speaker 3:And we've had big tournaments over the years and going out of Newberry and you see some kid that you played six years with that moved away somewhere and now plays in Georgia or something. So I like travel ball a lot. I love school ball. The meaning of school ball, it's just Baker Just having that community around them. I love to see that change.
Speaker 1:And, like Claudia was talking about earlier, how she loved the stress, the tight games or whatever I feel like in school ball. That is where this like that, if you're going to play a tight game.
Speaker 3:That is where the stress, like the nerves, all that is because, well, a tight game in travel ball is just a tight game in travel ball.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I mean, yes, it matters if you win, it doesn't matter. If you win, you know you have it's nothing going against this record you want for your school and you're not playing for this area or to have a good record in 7-8. You're playing the game to one the college coaches are watching you. And two, if you're playing at a tournament tournament, then you're playing to hopefully go to the championship. I mean, but really it's not even that, it's just playing to get this exposure at this point. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because I mean, you know the turns we go to now like, yeah, there's a winner and a loser most times.
Speaker 1:It's all showcased though.
Speaker 3:But you know it's usually 2-2-2. Yeah, you know the pitchers are going in and out, you're batting a full lineup, especially like Darin Poole, and then everybody kind of. You know, at that point you do go like nine hitters and stuff when it gets to bracket. But I don't know, I like travel ball just because of the experience, nothing more than that it ain't. School ball is about the community, though yeah. School ball is about the community, though yeah.
Speaker 2:And so it's yeah. I mean I feel like school ball it's a lot about you, but it's a lot about it's bigger than you too.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And school ball. You go back to school and people are asking you how your games went for school ball, and it's.
Speaker 3:That's unfortunate. I wish they'd show up and come see how they were doing.
Speaker 1:Oh I know, or like your teachers. They'll be like okay, y'all win y'all's game yesterday, but travel well, I mean nobody knows.
Speaker 3:And since this episode there's been a little bit of sourness here on some things, but we're going to talk about it. The intro talking about the Alabama Athletic. They are absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker 1:That was insane.
Speaker 3:And they are notorious for this. They do not care about girls sports. It is very obvious. They don't care about probably anybody, for what it's worth.
Speaker 1:Just the money.
Speaker 3:But you know how are you going to put a team like in 6A and there's some good teams in 6A- oh, that's where all the competition is in 6A. And you're going to make them all play one day. These are seven inning games.
Speaker 1:And it had been on the radar for the weather for it to rain for that week and weekend and I think we started on Tuesday or Wednesday, wednesday, tuesday, and they were supposed to start on Thursday and our Wednesday game got canceled. And then Thursday, I think it rained or whatever, and they're like, okay, we're all playing, we're playing them all on Thursday, yeah, and our Wednesday game got canceled, and then Thursday, I think it rained or whatever, and they're like, okay, we're playing them all on Thursday. And if you had lost a game, you had to play six games to even have a chance to make it to state.
Speaker 3:They wouldn't have done that to the boys in baseball.
Speaker 1:Well, remember when Baker played baseball and they had that playoff game and they had to play the game by midnight or something like that like forfeit, and the moms and parents were all out there scooping the water off the field and stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's just disgusting. Their hands are so tied up in money All year round, especially during football season. You hear about people switching schools or illegal recruiting, things like that. I mean, what about scheduling a game correctly? Yeah. You know your teammates, like in Mississippi, they play series you know like the best of three games.
Speaker 3:Two out of three they have to play it over three, four day. You know series, most of these pitchers. You know there's a mom who made a really great post. Her kid's a pitcher. I believe it's Sarah Lynn. Yes, and I mean it's spot on, you know, but I'll I'll add this to it too Some of the coaches, or some of the people I've seen complaining about this, are also travel ball coaches and things that we've seen throw one kid for six or seven days straight, or six or seven games straight. Yeah, so to. That was ridiculous. I mean, how are you gonna go in there and talk about alabama, uh, high school sports, but yet you do the same thing to these kids on a travel ball day? You know that we kind of talk about this in travel. Uh, you going to have four pitchers on the team and you're only going to throw one all day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like how, for our travel ball team, we split it up pretty well, especially for the showcase things, and sometimes it does suck because you're throwing really good, but that's how we do it.
Speaker 3:We have a rotation and I really like that, or 3-3-2, things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you're getting equal time to showcase yourself.
Speaker 3:Yeah and then, once we get to bracket, we do stay a little bit longer in there, but for sure, like during uh, during your pool games, you're only throwing two or three innings yeah and, but it also keeps you kind of energized.
Speaker 3:But those games aren't about winning there, you know, um, now, when you get to those last two games? Yeah, probably, you know you've already made it that far. So but that's travel. That's just how that's set up. You, you typically don't have that many pitchers on a high school team no, we had, we have three you'll have three pitchers. You really threw two most of the time. Um, you just don't have that, that development you know right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in most of these places we're in like that tough spot, especially in school ball, like there's like a what's the word? Like an up and down of what you have and we just lost our outfield because they graduated, yeah, graduated. So there's our one tough spot, and then our pitchers.
Speaker 3:We really like we said we have three, two, it just depends so well this year we ran two most of the year and then we brought up one more who's an outstanding pitcher also, but you know she had. She had to play jv, yeah, um, and there's a couple more behind her.
Speaker 1:But we're just in that stage where it's like awkward because you don't know you don't know what you need, you don't know what you have.
Speaker 3:It's just like back and forth yeah, and you know I am a parent where I prefer to see my kid throw two or three innings a day. Some might want their kid to throw you know 10 innings, but I wish we had 10 pitchers on Baker's high school team.
Speaker 1:I do sometimes too, because when you have more people, it feels like you don't have as much pressure on you to always perform your best. But when you have two, it's like, well, it's just me and her, so if I'm not having a good day, I hope she is, because you don't have anything else.
Speaker 3:And you talked about when y'all played y'all in the Sarah Land tournament. Yeah, you're hurting, but so is she she's. When y'all played y'all in the saraland tournament. Yeah, you're hurting, but so is she, yeah she's been a dog up there.
Speaker 1:That's how whatumka was. My fingers over here bleeding and blistering and her foot's bleeding and blistering and both of our arms are squeaking.
Speaker 3:It's just you both got to deal with it at that point so you know, I wish and I don't even know who the blame. I'm not even blaming anybody. So it's not to say I wish I knew to put the blame on, but I wish developing a pitcher was a lot easier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like having preparation, because we did have the freshman from JV, but she never really had much of this experience in varsity. So if she ever did get thrown out there, if I was her, I'd be shaking my boots too Nervous because I'm playing these high school senior girls and I've never done this before. I'm scared to mess up because this is my first time and if I feel like if I mess up then I'm never going to get this chance again, but then, like it's also, I'm so scared to mess up, I'm I feel like I'm going to mess up, you know. So it's just it's hard.
Speaker 3:It's kind of crazy to hear you talk with any lack of confidence about pitching, though you know how we've talked about when bases are loaded. I've always been at one time maybe not so much today, but I've always been. I want Madison and I want her up to bat. If you were pitching and bases were loaded, I definitely wanted you in the circle because it's like you learned, you grew from that. So here you have any lack of confidence at pitching from that you know.
Speaker 1:So here you have any lack of confidence at pitching as I've gotten older, you know, like older, I guess growing or a few years ago if I would have been in a game pitching, especially for high school, but I also was in seventh and eighth grade, so I mean it makes sense. But even in travel ball, if I was in these tough situations I was nervous, I was scared to mess up. I was I don't know, I was not confident at all. But now I feel like whenever I would rather be pitching at the moment pitching than hitting I feel like maybe it's just because that's, do you think that you could strike out you hitting?
Speaker 1:Yes, you do, yes, yeah, because.
Speaker 1:I feel like I could hit a bomb off of you well, we'll see, but I've I've gotten so much more confident with pitching and I think it's because it's something that I've. I guess you could say focus on more. I mean, whenever you're a pitcher, like, and you start going to college, most people become just a pitch. Some people like um jayden sawyer at jones, she pitches and hits, she hits bombs, she pitches great. But for me it's like I really like I feel like pitching is what I really want to. What's the word?
Speaker 3:focus on focus, not focus, but like, have down like oh yeah because that's what I feel like, that's what I'm best at but when I look at your swing, it's one of the prettiest swings I've ever seen everybody says that yeah, I'm, you know, and, and, and I think yours is so small between the ears. Yeah, and again, it just it's something to do with you and school ball and you and travel ball.
Speaker 1:It's two different kids yeah, and I wish I knew how to make it the same good one.
Speaker 3:But I'm gonna figure, I'm gonna get out my head, I'm gonna try you know we we worked on a couple things kind of at the very last week of this season and then, of course, you didn't hit like you weren't in the lineup, so that didn't help much, and but I watched you utilize that stuff in travel ball over the last week or so and I've definitely seen some growth there. The biggest thing to me when you're up to bat is eliminating almost all thought process. I asked a hitter in our area who's supposedly one of the top hitters. I don't get to see her play, but I know who her father is and he's an elite hitting person but what do you think about when you're up to the plate? You know who I'm talking about. No.
Speaker 3:No, and she told me, the only thing she thinks is inside or outside. Oh, I think I remember you telling me this yeah, we've added the bat wiggle, you know, and it works, doesn't it? I mean, we were out in the yard, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:We were out in the yard and Dad was trying to show me this new stance and I'm talking stuff to her. And he was like just keep your back moving, keep your back moving. And so I'm sitting here thinking, keep my back moving. He's over here. He could be talking about rainbows and, and you know, changing.
Speaker 3:We talked about changing your approach, about walking into the box and little stuff, but you know it's not where I want to make a lot of changes. With you at the plate, I really don't want to make any changes. Yeah, um, maybe a little separation. We talked, you know we kind of talked about last last couple weeks and getting a little bit wider stance on that two-strike approach. But people don't hit like they used to. When I was a kid or a teenager, you had a different swing altogether when you had two strikes on you. These kids now y'all take daddy hacks when you got two strikes on you.
Speaker 1:I try not to.
Speaker 3:Y'all are all trying to crush that ball. I don't know, it's just the new age and actually I think there was a stat that come out and said that kids like these baseball players who swing like that, they have a higher batting average, and it's not much, but it was, you know, 0.89% higher or something like that Swing, normal Swing in the same swing every time. Now how somebody was able to break that down, I don't know. I heard it at one of these hitting camps and, again, I don't know how you would break that down on paper. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So well, pretty long little section there. So, apologize about that, but there's a lot of great topics there and the biggest thing is I want Madison and whoever else is listening to realize that batting .365 is pretty impressive. Batting .365 with 26 strikeouts in a season is really impressive.
Speaker 1:But I feel like it also kind of just shows you that, yes, stats matter, but stats really don't matter, especially for me and my confidence. I could care less if my batting average said I was hitting 500 for the season. I still would feel like I hit awful.
Speaker 3:Because you had the strikeouts. Well, I mean again, 26 strikeouts, a lot of strikeouts, it absolutely is. I'm not downplaying that at all, it's a lot of strikeouts. Well, again, again, you know, mad congratulation season congratulation, congratulate man. We're keeping that song playing in my head from uh, who's the guy with all those tattoos?
Speaker 1:on his face, yeah post malone.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh to all the seniors out there. Um, really, I mean, it was some amazing ball. Yeah, you know really, really amazing ball this year.
Speaker 1:This season seemed like a very it could go either way season, absolutely A lot of games that we watched were shocking.
Speaker 3:I look back at like Bryant. I feel like Bryant could have beat any one of us or MGM at any moment. Yeah, it didn't work out in their favor this year, but they definitely have the talent. Yeah, and part of it might be lacking a little bit of confidence. You know, you kind of get beat earlier. I mean, look at MGM. I always said it. But, mgm Barkley, I talked to some of your parents and they said I didn't think we'd win six games this year and then you had an outstanding season in my opinion.
Speaker 1:I remember the beginning of their season was a little bit rocky for them, but they came back.
Speaker 3:They figured it out and they got some really good athletes stepping up too. So again, thank y'all. Congratulations to all the kids, seniors, good luck in travel ball this year. We're not disappearing, we're only going travel ball this year. We're not disappearing, we're only going to get a little. We're probably going to start hitting y'all with a little more content.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sorry it took so long, but we've just been busy bees out here.
Speaker 3:We do have some shirts that are going to be for sale. If you're interested, you can hit us up and there will be pictures on our Facebook. If you want to support us, we really appreciate y'all. Claudia, thank you Sorry. We kind of cut you out there at the for our caught in the rundown question, but we kind of overran this week.
Speaker 3:That's okay, we got carried away, we just kept on talking before we do leave, I want to let everybody know that we did partner with the Alabama sports games. It's their 42nd year doing this and I want to say up to this point they've given away like $415,000 in scholarships. This is an awesome opportunity. We're so thankful they reached out to us. We kind of felt really warm at first second because ain't nobody reached out to us yet. I've been knocking on every door. But they will be doing on June 13th through 15th at the opening ceremony.
Speaker 3:If you sign up to play and we're talking mostly softball here, there's baseball, there's 27 sports If you're at the opening ceremony you have a chance of winning $1,000. I think they're going to give away 34 total. So it's a random drawing. There's no preselected here. It's all random, which is really neat when it comes to thinking about how this works. It's all random, which is really neat when it comes to thinking about how this works. It's Olympic style. We'll be there running media the whole entire week and I mean I'm kind of like fanboying over it already.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited to go.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited I won't be able to make it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we'll have Brooke tagging along with us and we have games that we setting up and and doing some tick tock live videos. We'll have our podcast equipment and we're we're ecstatic. I think this is an awesome thing they're doing and and I'm unfortunately, I was first time I ever heard of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and and you know. But he did say they just got back into it. They took a 10 year hiatus of of softball and so this is their first time getting back into it. If you have a team that's interested, this is for all ages. If you have a team and you want to get into it, you can go to our Facebook and you can see the link tag along, or you can just contact us and I will help get you set up to doing that. And this is we're just part of. We don't get nothing out of this. We just I think it's an awesome event and so you can contact us opportunity through our email.
Speaker 1:don't suck lfs podcast at yahoocom facebook, facebook and emails.
Speaker 3:That probably just wants to get us. So that's gonna do it for our season one. And, uh, before we get out of here, madison's wrote something for y'all and y'all enjoy dear sophomore season, thank you for introducing me to new opportunities.
Speaker 1:I never would have thought I'd be telling people to go listen to our newest podcast episode or to send me a video to include in it.
Speaker 3:I'm so very grateful for the opportunity to share my story and my experiences. Welcome to the very first episode of Don't Suck Podcast. It's me Ron Ronald, dj Ron Ron, my favorite dad. I'm here with my beautiful daughter, madison, hey guys, and we have our friend, our producer, miss Claudia hey y'all, my top. I told you you said toxic my toxic trait would be that anytime I do anything, I go all out very podcasting. We talked about yes, the podcast.
Speaker 3:Buy everything's at the front door the next day and hey man, you want to do a podcast with me, I mean.
Speaker 1:I couldn't even say yes and he's like well, looks like you're doing it because the stuff will be here on Saturday. Thank you for showing me who my biggest supporters are.
Speaker 3:Madison was in eighth grade, I think. Yeah, she was young and this team was an 18U team. We didn't know a single soul on the team or the coaches. And going to college. The girls are going to college next year.
Speaker 4:Right yeah, so I was proud of her for going out there and doing her best. I mean, she just fit in with them, you know. So I think there was a lot of growth that week.
Speaker 1:My mom is always in my corner and rooting for me no matter what, and my dad never fails to find the good in situations and help to build me as a person.
Speaker 3:I parked the car and I said Nope, we're not leaving like this, we ain't leaving this ball field. Upset the circle, don't define you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for teaching me how to get my love back for the sport and have fun again or not even just parents. But the game will get too stressful and you've got to take that time off. Just have fun again, play with your friends and then right back on the same track. For giving me people like Claudia who can share their experiences and help me to continue on my path.
Speaker 2:I could go back, I would absolutely push through. I would tell myself don't worry about what other people think about you, it does not freaking matter. Do what you love, do what you want to do.
Speaker 1:Thank you for the time I had to reconnect with one of my biggest role models and big sisters to be reminded of her story and how she got to where she is now.
Speaker 3:Pat yourself on the back for any offer.
Speaker 1:No 100% If anybody wants you. That is amazing. You know how good it feels to just have somebody say, hey, I want you on my team. You showed me that maybe I shouldn't be on American Idol. I am unwritten, Carried my mind, I'm undefined. I might just go on America's Got Talent and dance instead. Thank you for teaching me that just because you set goals doesn't mean they'll be easy to reach. So I pitched 100 innings on the dot. I had a 2.5 ERA.
Speaker 3:Yeah, not your 1.5, but that's really impressive yeah.
Speaker 1:You reminded me people you are the closest to are going to be the least supportive of you, and I also heard people saying things, making comments like you know, talking about me walking the running run. In that it was my fault, but I'm lucky for the wisdom I have today. So thank you to the people who don't even know me that support me.
Speaker 3:Madison. We are now in 11 countries and 130 cities oh my goodness, I'm thankful for all the support y'all got anything for just don't suck.