Guest Player Connect: Rethinking Travel Baseball with Kevin McNee

What if travel baseball didn't have to mean long-term contracts, uneven playing time, and a win-at-all-costs mentality? Rob Semerano and Jessica Curtis sit down with Kevin McNee, former Division I baseball player and partner at Guest Player Connect, to explore a fresh approach to youth travel sports. Kevin shares how the platform — founded by Eric Johnson in 2024 — is giving kids the freedom to play when and where they want, while addressing the biggest pain points families face in the travel ball world.

From elite coaches fresh out of professional organizations to teams made entirely of guest players, Guest Player Connect is building something different. But the conversation goes beyond baseball. Rob, Jessica, and Kevin dig into why developing life skills, handling adversity, and learning to thrive in unfamiliar environments matters far more than any championship hoodie — and why those lessons will follow kids long after they leave the diamond.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Progress Report, where we don't just talk about what's broken. We shine a light on what's being built.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Progress Report. Along with my co-host Jessica Curtis, I'm Rob Samarano. We have with us today a former Division I baseball player and now a partner in a new concept in the travel baseball and possibly travel sports world called Guest Player Connect. Welcome to the show, Kevin McNee. Thanks for having me, Rob. So, Kevin, uh tell us a little bit about Guest Player Connect and how uh, you know, what what the genesis of it was and what what the mission of it is.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Yeah, look, great question, and and thank you so much for the the opportunity. Um, the the genesis behind Guest Player Connect really came from our our founder and CEO, Eric Johnson. Um in August of 2024, he brought the idea, the concept of Guest Player Connect to market. And really it stemmed from, I would say, his own experience within the travel world. Um, you know, uh he was a very successful little league coach, you know, somebody that had had, you know, seen some really high highs, some very good teams, and you know, had a very good player, you know, for his son as well, too. And so, you know, of course, he he tries travel ball out, and like the rest of us, you know, he got a variety of what I'll call experiences. Um, I just want to say for the record, we're travel parents. We love travel baseball. Um, our audience is primarily made up of travel baseball players. Um, you know, so I want to get that across. What we do that makes us unique in addition to allowing kids to play when they want, where they want, is really solving for pain points that are common within the industry. Um, and the way that we see ourselves now is really as a partner to existing programs and a partner to little leagues that are out there. Um, we're really that that platform that allows kids and families to create their own playing path. Um, so for instance, you know, if if you're number 12, 13, 14 on a team, are you getting all of those reps that you need to get at your primary position in youth sports today? And, you know, I am definitely one of those guys too in in coaching my own teams where, you know, I would have maybe played kids that gave us our our team a little bit more of an opportunity to win rather than going in with the mindset of it doesn't matter at all, at all. The only thing that matters is that one, we're developing a love for the game. And, you know, two, we're helping kids to get a little bit better, you know, day by day. And that's something that's been forgotten in the the travel world. So, you know, looking out, it's those pain points are money. It's the tie-up that people are getting into, you know, these long-term contracts where you don't always know what you're gonna get. Families are are, you know, sacrificing an arm and a leg to be able to go play ball with the the things that they have committed to. Kids are maybe not getting all of the reps at their primary spot, they've gotten forgotten on, you know, whatever team it is, or they just want to get extra reps to stay sharp. You know, maybe they're not getting their innings pitched on a primary team. Um, you know, there's a myriad of reasons why anybody would come to go play baseball with Guest Player Connect. Um, we're happy to just be a part of that, you know, and again, solving pain points like communication, um, you know, making sure everybody has fun. We know what we're doing, where we're going. And what's pretty cool is that we're able to tie this together in a really unique way, where every kid is going into the same situation on a team made up entirely of guest players in most situations. We're getting data from their parents in advance and some videos. Um, you know, and we're using these independent coaches. And we've been really, really blessed and lucky that we've been able to find, you know, coaches that have played Division I college baseball, coaches that are just out of Division I baseball and more recent standouts, guys that are just got let go from, you know, double A. And basically, my biggest worry is they might sign before next week. And what's really cool is you know, showing up to some of those games and seeing the coach signing baseballs, you know, while kids are warming up. Or, you know, we've got a guy that just left the Mets organization after 10 years coaching teams down in Florida. Uh, we've got guys like Ron Reggio up here was one of the first coaches with um, you know, with Guest Player Connect in New Jersey. Not only did he play in the minors and have this strong background, but he created things like the Yankee magazine or This Week in Baseball, right? Which, you know, are really cool. So it just goes to show that we've gotten these really, you know, good coaches that believe in this philosophy that's definitely unique. And so for that first year, people maybe looked at us a little bit different. Um, but it's been fun to see the growth, you know, see a thousand plus kids from you know a bunch of different countries coming together and and playing baseball, doing so in a low stress environment, um, growing their network, making new friends, having these experiences that they they otherwise wouldn't have. And yeah, we're we're really, really, really happy to be a part of that.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

That's really cool, Kevin. And you know, Jess, you know, I'm obviously very uh much in this industry. And one thing my dad always says is when we're working with players, we're preparing you for someday. And and that kind of goes along with what Kevin is saying as far as the win now mentality. You know, we we do we want to win? Absolutely. I think that's kind of but I think that's what makes it fun is the the attempt to win. But we're not gonna do it at to at the expense of developing a player's talent. And and I think that's what Kevin is saying is you know, the winning is okay, this is how you want to field a ground ball, because if you field a ground ball this way, you have a better chance of getting an out. And if we get outs and we, you know, swing the bat this way and hit the ball this way, we're gonna get runs. And if we do all those things, we're gonna win. So that's the the drive of everything, but it's not the end all be-all. And and as long as you see players developing and getting better, that's really the real victory. Because I can tell you, you know, in in my time of being recruited in college in seven years of pro baseball, and now in 20 plus years of you know, running a baseball academy and speaking to colleges or scouts for for other players, I have never been asked once what my record was as an 11-year-old. I was never asked once. So, how many championships did you end up winning? You know, how many uh how many hoodies do you have from winning championships? So it it really, like Kevin says, it really doesn't matter in the big picture. It it's you know, are these players developing and and are they having fun? Are they enjoying themselves? Are they getting a lot out of this and and maybe, you know, as I like to say, building some life muscle through baseball? They're learning skills. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

I I I might add, uh if you've not seen the the documentary, uh it was on HBO probably now. I'm dating myself, probably about uh 12, 15 years ago when I was still at Fox News. It's called Undefeated by Coach Bill Courtney. Or he coach Bill Courtney is is in it. Um and it is about um he's a football coach. He's a uh a longtime friend of mine now, great, great guy, but um he took the most losing uh high school football team in inner city Memphis and um took them from um a terrible record, but it was really instilling in in them character and and personal values, personal responsibility. Um and and they ended up winning the state championship um that that last year of his coaching before he decided to stop and focus on um being being a coach to his kids more than um to the team. But I mean that that is you what you're what you're doing is is I mean that is something that um you just said Rob, right? Giving giving these kids um the the life skills that they need in a multitude of areas uh and and you know in in all of these um episodes we've done in the past and talking to folks, that's the the life skills that people get and the ability to you know accept defeat, you may not like it, but to accept it and be able to bounce back and trend transition into other things. Those are those are skills that are invaluable to young people and and props, props to you, Kevin and Eric, for for um for for helping be a part of the solution.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Yeah. Well, like it, I mean it's like I said, it's we're baseball parents, we've lived this, we feel it. You know, we've seen it kind of on the other side in different ways, too. And and that's kind of where we're at right now, is is we feel that you know pain point. You know, there it's just I've done it, I've been there, you know, and Eric's got a better story behind it where his kids in the first couple of years of travel, I don't think they want a game on their particular Jackson team. That same Jackson team ended up going and was basically one bad coaching decision. Uh Eric will tell you about that. I won't I won't break it down. But uh, you know, one bad decision basically away from going to William Sport. And, you know, that to him was was the ultimate. And that's why he blames himself still to this day, because they were so close, you know, to seeing that ultimate like story of trust in the process, trust in the kids, you know, trust in doesn't matter if we win today. It really doesn't. And yeah, no kids getting no kids getting recruited to Ford them, you know, based on what they did as an 11-year-old.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Yeah, and and you know, and as Jess said, there's so much to be learned. That I even say to my boys, there's something to be learned from getting screwed. You get screwed on a call or you get screwed with where you're batting in the lineup. I said, you've got to learn how to have those things happen to you in life and and not even have it be a hiccup that you just you just bull right through it. I said, now if it becomes a consistent thing, then okay, now maybe we have to have a conversation, or maybe the coach has to say something to the umpire because it's happening too much. But you are gonna have things happen to you in life that are unfair.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

And you know, you look at the three of us in all different walk walks of life. I I talk about this with my neighbor all the time who uh who worked for JP Morgan, and he said, you know, it's funny the things you talk about with baseball in terms of motivating, in terms of uh, you know, human human response and and different things like that. He says, it's all it comes down to managing people, and it's the same in in all the different industries. And you know, I think uh understanding human behavior and and understanding you know how to coach kids to be better, like you said, better human beings all around, you're gonna instill those those um values of of hard work, of dealing with tough times, which is gonna help the team have a better chance of winning and it's gonna just make you a better person in life.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

100%. And I and I'll tell you when I was hiring guys for sales teams, you know, I was always looking for division, you know, for athletes, because athletes are people that know how to overcome obstacles, that can take rejection and failure, um, you know, that understand that there is just this different way of going about your business on a day-to-day. And part of what I like with what we're doing, because it's a team made up of you know entirely of guest players, you know, everybody's in the same boat. You're learning at an at a young age how to go into a new dugout or slash clubhouse. You know, I could tell you for me, I didn't have that too too often, you know, outside of CBA, you know, walking in there. My first real dugout of challenge felt like it was in college, you know, at that time. And it was always hard to go into to new teams, whether you're playing in a summer ball league, you know, when when those are the guys that you're learning to compete and work with. And I think there's a lot to be said for getting that experience at a young age, just the same way it's easier to pick up a language at a young age. These are building skills that are transferable both on and off the sports field.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

I I think so. I I think that, you know, especially looking at the world the way it is today, you know, I'm not sure what the numbers are exactly, but I know I know, you know, 50, 60 years ago, people would they would sign on with a company, they would stay with that company for 30, 40 years, they would retire with that company, and you know, where today I think it's something like the average is seven or eight different jobs that you're gonna have in your lifetime, maybe more than that now. And you know, that's obviously meaning that you're gonna be working with different people all the time. So you've got to really be a you know chameleon that can kind of adjust to each different environment. And that's why I think it's good sometimes that players play with new kids, that they get a little bit out of their comfort zone because, like you said, it can slap you in the face if college is the first time you know you experience that. I'll never forget when I landed in Arizona the year I got signed by the Oakland A's. I just remember thinking when I landed there, I said, I literally know nobody out here. I said, I literally don't, I don't know one player, I don't know one coach. I said, I uh the only people I'm gonna know are former big leaguers that I'm gonna have as coaches that I've seen before, but I don't know them personally. Right. And you know, it was a it was kind of a wow kind of moment, you know, especially if a kid coming from a small town like Port Jervis and at Fordham, I still at least knew some kids before I went there. But it it's good for kids to kind of just be thrown in an environment where it's all new kids and okay, now you know make yourself become part of that that fabric. Be a guy that's a leader for people that you don't even know. You know, that's that's valuable, valuable skill, especially today. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Absolutely. Until next time, keep looking forward because progress is always just ahead.