How To Get Players Out Of A Rut In Youth Baseball

The fastest way to ruin a good team isn’t a bad swing, it’s a bad mindset. We start with a little real life color (blue jays, cardinals, and the kind of Monday mood that only baseball can create), then get honest about coaching, expectations, and why relationships matter more than any “magic” adjustment. When a talented player is in a slump, we talk through what actually works: building trust first, creating pressure on purpose, giving a kid one clear job, and knowing when a coach should push hard versus when to go soft. If you coach youth baseball, high school baseball, or you’re a parent trying to help your player compete, this is the kind of practical conversation you can use tomorrow.

Then we get into the topic that always lights people up: dugout chatter and sportsmanship. We react to a complaint about “too much” noise and lay out our line in the sand. Cheering for your team is fine. Talking at the other team is weak. Timing matters, and yelling while a pitcher is coming set is asking for trouble. We also explain why “energy” doesn’t come from being loud on the bench, it comes from clean defense, first pitch strikes, and quality swings between the two white lines.

We close with the best hitting advice we ever got: stop chasing hits and start chasing three quality at bats per game. That one shift can calm a hitter down, protect confidence, and let the stats take care of themselves over a long season. We even sneak in some NHL and NBA playoff picks and a quick take on why playoff basketball gets officiated like a different sport. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a coach or baseball parent, and leave a review so more players find the mindset side of the game.

Transcript

Dawn, Birds, And A Fresh Start

SPEAKER_01 0:00

It's always darkest before the dawn, and the dawn has arrived here in my life. I woke up today, I saw a cardinal and a blue jay playing in the sky. I walked up to each of them and I said, hello. And they said, How you doing, Josh? And they said, We're doing actually I said we're doing just quite fine. And they said, Great. They asked me if I was gonna make a show today. And I said, Yes, I am. They flew away, they said we'll be listening in. So that Cardinal and that blue jay, this is for you.

Clearing Up The Teacher Comments

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Welcome to the Good Man Show with Bruce Soss and Lord Buck.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

I guess it's gonna be a funky good time with the president.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

It's gonna be a funky good time.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Before we get started here, I just want to get this out of the way. I think it was a podcast ago or two podcasts ago. Was it a podcast ago? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

I don't know what you're preferencing, so until you until you tell me, I can't tell you.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Regarding teachers, my comments about pensions and vacations. I was speaking specifically about two people that I know that I've gone out with. I did not want to paint a wide brush on all teachers, and those are their genuine reasons for teaching. Teachers have an important role in a lot of in thousands of millions of kids' lives. It is an important profession. I would consider myself and yourself teachers as well and educators. So again, I am not making light of the profession or saying that all teachers are just getting into it for the reasons why I listed in the last two. So if I offended anyone out there, I apologize and I just want to get that out.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

I love teachers.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

I love teachers too.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Mary did a teacher, my mom's a teacher or was a teacher, my brother's a teacher.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

I to be honest with you, if I probably didn't go to Bradley and I went to a school where there was more of an education degree, I probably would be a teacher myself. Yes. I wish I was a teacher. You are a teacher. Well, I mean like a legit in-the-school teaching moral time. Oh, yeah. I think I'd be a really good PE teacher.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

I agree. Your brother is a good one.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Oh, for sure. Yeah. I just people are always like, oh, which one would you do? And I think middle school would be where I'd go. Which people always say you're nuts, but I think I can crack the whip on some middle school kids.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

I think so.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

High school kids, I'd lose it too much on them.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

I heard you had to crack the whip on some middle school teach kids this past weekend.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

You know,

Weather Chaos And Baseball Adversity

SPEAKER_02 2:35

per se. You just had to, you know. We'll talk a little bit about that. It wasn't the best weekend. You know, but that's baseball. That's that's that's the way of the game. You have your highs, your lows, like we talked about last week. Always. You have good games, bad games, average games, you have your great innings, you have your bad innings, right? You have to deal with some bad weather. We had some interesting weather we had to play in this weekend. We were actually playing one of the games, and one of the dads I was talking to from another team down the line, and he goes, Well, we just experienced all four seasons in about 30 minutes, and it was legit. We started, it was sunny. It was sunny at one point, then it went to overcast, then it got real windy, then got light rain, then it was sleet, then you had like literally it was a minute or two of snow, and then all of a sudden the sun came back out with just a little bit of rain coming down, and then that went away. And it was like all four seasons in a 30-minute stretch. How did that make you feel? What do you mean? The seasons change I went through or the comment from the dad? The seasons. Well, I don't know. At that point of the game, can't say that I was really too too I didn't care too much because the the worst of it had already gone past us, and to be honest, we got stuck on the field during the worst of it, but whatever. Like I said, both teams had to play in the same conditions. You gotta battle adversity. I think it's good for them. I think I think long term it'll make those kids tougher. And you know, I'm I'm glad that we have to battle some adversity early in the season.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Good.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

So I think we're gonna have a great practice tomorrow. We get to play napjack on Wednesday, got a little rubber match, one and one against them currently. So it should be a good game, good bounce back. Got two on Sunday, another one next Wednesday, and then we head off to Indy. And who doesn't love the Indy tournament? So I'm I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

I'll be there this weekend. You're gonna be where this weekend? I'll be in Indianapolis on Saturday night.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

You're going to Indianapolis?

SPEAKER_01 4:34

My brother is there, yes.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Oh, the kid.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

He is there. Cramdown. He is there, yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

The kid, a couple back-to-back game-winning hits, huh?

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Correct. They had a big series against Merryville, too, I believe, punched their ticket into the conference tournament. Oh, wow. And they were down 16 to 11 going into the bottom of the ninth inning, and he delivered the final blow to get him up 17 to 16, and then they were down four to three going into the ninth inning. He delivered the final blow.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Was that back-to-back games? Yes. And you know what? Noah's been doing that since he was a kid. He he has always thrived in the pressure situations. It's the work and and JD with the pop-in, real quick. Love you, JD. It's the work that kid puts in. He's just he's just being rewarded from all the behind scenes that he does. We talk about doing the work when nobody sees it. What you do in the dark is gonna matter. And Noah has done that for a very long time. It's great to see him having a lot of success in college, and it's not surprising.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Yeah, Troy Stukenberg, two off of that team. So Vineyards having a year. Yep. Connor Lash just got his 100th hit. Saw that at CUW. Congrats, Con man. Who else on that? Jack, I'd I've checking with Jack Rosmus. But the core of that team still doing good things in college. Yep. One of the first teams that we had here. They were the first team. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

First graduate.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

And then Kal Prosky throwing at UC.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Cal Santa Barbara.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Yeah. Great, great group. Fun to see those kids thriving in college, now juniors. Just just uh just a nice little group that you kind of

College Clutch Moments And Youth Wins

SPEAKER_02 6:10

never out of it. Yeah, they were never out of it. Never out of it. No.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Never out of it.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

It didn't matter who they faced, they were always willing to battle and compete. Correct. All right. So in your intro, okay, you talked about your blue jays and your your cardinals that you saw.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

It made me think.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

Got a little curveball I'm gonna throw at you. What's your favorite bird?

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Um I'm debating between two, but I'm probably gonna say I see a lot of them. So we're just gonna say the hawk so I can do the sound. The hawk. Yeah. It's like the Walmart eagle.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Yeah? I do. I love hawks. Hawks are sweet, they're all over all over my neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Someone told me this past weekend I'm a Walmart Puerto Rican.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

That you're a Walmart. You get called a lot of interesting things.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

Why?

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Because I don't think people know what I am when they see me. And my voice throws people off too when I meet them.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

What are you for all the people?

SPEAKER_01 7:11

I'm well, I'm three things. I'm white, black, and brown. I'm Puerto Rican on my dad's side and black and white on my mom's side. I'm I have the voice of a white man, the skin of a brown man, and the attitude of a black man. And people say, What do you mean the attitude of a black man? I'm like, I have a dream. And my dream is that we will all one day come together on the baseball field, no matter our color, our race, our gender, and hold hands.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Maybe one day we're all we're 42.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yes. So yeah, that's what I am. All right.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Now the people know.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Now when they see you, everybody will know. They'll say, There's Josh. We know what Josh is. We don't have to guess anymore.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

We got it. We do got it.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Fair. So a little baseball roundup from this weekend from the youth. Another good weekend. A lot of tournament dubs. The 14 black take it down again. They had to run the gauntlet on Sunday. Earhart did it again. Earhart won it again.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

They say once is luck. Two times is, I don't know. So you got a three-peat. So he needs to go three times.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Well that's he's two for two, and he's got a lot of good momentum going into indie. So hopefully he can rack up another week.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Two weekends. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

13 Black took it down this weekend out in Joliet.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Is it Indianapolis this weekend?

SPEAKER_02 8:30

No, two weeks.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Oh, I won't.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

First week in the Mayo. I'm there this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

We got you.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

13 Black won this weekend out in Joliet. Great first win for them.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Started off rough.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

They didn't. Hey, listen, pool play games. Sometimes you don't win all your pool play games, but when you turn it on on Sunday and you show up on Sunday, that's really all that matters. 12U Ramirez, big shout out, Tony. Ready to go. Good job, man. We get the two boys going, take down a dub. 11U Butcher played 11U Fields in the championship out in Wheeling. Butcher took it down. Great game. Heard was a good one, though. And then big one, 10U Mahler Pena. They won their tournament this weekend. Kind of a Mahler had a team last year. Paina had a team last year. We took the teams. We kind of combined them. They're coaching together. Take down a win this weekend. It was great. Good for them. They're off to a good start. So a lot of good things from top to bottom in the youth. Gotta gotta love gotta love the tournament dubs for the boys, though. How many of those four? I was five. Five. Yeah, one at each age, one at 14, 13, 12, 11, and 10.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

I'm glad at the youth level they're experiencing that. When you get to high school, so much harder. Oh. So much harder. It's mostly the pitching.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Yeah. It's mostly the pitching. And because in the high school like tournaments, a lot of it is still showcasing your kids. Yeah. That you know, some of how you structure your schedule is to showcase the pitchers or or that, like how you build your your rotation out. So like it's not always about winning the tournament. Like, yes, we are still out there to try to win, but that's why I love the MPL. I agree. You go out there, you play five games, there's nothing after it. It's just five good baseball games.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Love Indianapolis. Love Indianapolis. Love it.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

I can't wait, dude. I'm I'm excited to get out there. St. Elmo schedule should be out soon. Scott keeps talking about going to St. Elmo. Going to St. Elmo? It depends. Ruth Chris. Oh, what a dinner that was. It's a great time. Dom. I can't order anything.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Well. Good times. Good, great times.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

That was fun. But yeah. More baseball coming. Hopefully the weather can kind of hold off a little bit better here.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

It looks fine. I mean, didn't you give us your farmer's almanac that said it was supposed to be raining and the rain has come?

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Yeah, but I thought it was I was told that it was gonna be a rainy summer, and it has been a spring. So hopefully, hopefully it was an early spring rain, and now we got a good late spring, late summer. Because I'll say this the farmers have been loving the rain.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, why wouldn't you? I mean, really. A robey room-doo. I love Scooby-Doo. I still sometimes watch Scooby-Doo.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

It's a great show.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

You know what I was watching yesterday?

SPEAKER_02 11:20

What's that?

SPEAKER_01 11:21

The opera.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

You mentioned that earlier.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

What opera?

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Italian. There's this guy, Elvino. Okay. And there's this woman Amina.

unknown 11:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

And they were getting married. And Amina promised her heart only to Elvino. Elvino promised his heart, his farm, and his entire life savings to Amina. And then they had the Nor Nor, I think it's Noraiter came and wrote it all down. And then there's this other guy that was jealous. And there's this other woman that's jealous.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

What made you watch the opera?

SPEAKER_01 11:56

It was Sunday at 11:30, and the only two sporting options were Manchester United versus Arsenal. Sorry. And then another soccer game. And then there's college softball. And I love college softball. But you know, so then I just went over to the opera and I watched it for 30 minutes. So yeah. Love college softball. How much? Give me a couple months to come back.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Okay. We'll talk about that in a couple months. Maybe by episode 25.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Big episode tonight, episode 20.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Today is episode 20. We've been doing this for 20 weeks.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

We've hit 20.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Technically

Identity Talk And Favorite Birds

SPEAKER_02 12:40

a little bit more. We got some we got some some episodes that never came out.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Oh, yeah, we do. In the archive.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

And to be honest with you, some of the best stuff we did was when Jake and was it maybe it was when just Jake was here when we went too long.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

Like the wrestling talk we had when Jake was You still have that.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

I sent it to you.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

I know. Yeah, yeah. You think I know how to do all the stuff and get it out?

SPEAKER_01 13:05

No, no. I'm saying like you, if case you ever want to go listen to it, you can go listen to it. Yes. You can play it. I actually asked the one big regret that I I'm mad, I don't have my dad's voice, like his entire voice on recording. So I told my mom to record a story of her just reading it, and so I can show it to the grandkids. Because that's the one thing I'm mad about.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Logan was actually asking him about my dad the other day. Hey dad, you know who I miss? I said, Who, bud? He said, Grandpa True. I said, why? He goes, he always had chocolate. And I said, that's the truth, bud. I used to take him over there when they were like little. And uh Ethan was in school by now, but like even when he wasn't little, like I would take my kids to visit my dad every Friday.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

So we'd go over and just hang out, and they always had a you know, a little jar of the like Hershey's like little ones, crackle, the good man or the good bar, all that stuff. So like the kids found it funny that every time they'd come into the house, they'd always go running over there and grab the chocolate. And I will say this after my dad passed, and we did all his services and we had his memorial and his ashes where his ashes were. Logan put one of the old the yellow, like good bar ones, which is his favorite. He goes, I took one because these were Grandpa True's favorite, and he put it on there. And I'm pretty I I have not been to his house in a while. I should probably go over there now that I think about it, but I'm pretty sure the the little bar is still on top is ashes, which is kind of it's it's a yeah, it's a funny story and a good remembrance about like the little things of like to your point, the kids have the memories of being with them and seeing them and all that stuff because like they don't get the experiences as they get older. Yeah, like I still have a my Nana who is 97 years old is still around, and the fact that I still have a grandparent living is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Amazing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Correct. So I keep telling her, I was like, Nana, you got we have the same birthday, so she'll turn 98 here in July. And I'm like, You got two more years, just so you know, you're getting the triple digits. She's I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

I just don't know. I have a grandma too, she doesn't know my name. You know, she forgets me.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

She goes, Who are you?

SPEAKER_01 15:34

And I said, I'm Josh Grandma. Oh I go, Josh, which one is that? I said, Grandma, it's I'm Kim's son.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Whoa? Kim had a son?

SPEAKER_01 15:46

I go, Grandma, she's had four. Well, four sons, four kids, three sons.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

He goes, Oh, nice to meet you, John.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

That's my grandma. Yeah. Uber.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Gotta love grandparents. I we have a lot of grandparents who show up to our baseball games. I think it's great. They they love coming, like they travel all over. I know so like some of our grandparents are traveling to India with us and going to the College World Series in Omaha.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

You need to keep on. Hold tight to those grandparents. I didn't have one show up to my games.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

They love it. I have one of the grandparents, also uh a Nana, brings cookies at times. Uh oh. We get bags of cookies. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

You know who has good cookies that I'm really looking forward to this summer? Who's that? Rocky Vineyard.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

She lives across the street. I get cookies for my kids.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

I'm looking forward to the Rocky Vineyard cookies.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

I tell you what, I've shown you this before. Yeah. Her cinnamon rolls or cinnamon buns, whatever you want to call them on Christmas. Oh, Milanta.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Everything she makes is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

The cinnamon rolls, out of this world. Only one month old. I always appreciate Sam walking over and he's like, uh, you're on the list again. It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Bring them on over. I'll take those. Thank you. It's good times. Great times.

Remembering Grandparents And Small Traditions

SPEAKER_02 17:08

So um let's talk a little bit about the first topic tonight. Which is you got a good team, good players. Okay. It can be youth baseball players, pro baseball players, college baseball players, and you feel like you have a team that's underperforming,

Coaching Players Through Slumps

SPEAKER_02 17:28

or a player who's underperforming. My question to you is what do you do to try to bring the most out of a player who you feel is in a rut or struggling, or as in the baseball world in terms, they would call it a slump, or let's say a pitcher who's struggling to find the zone. What are tactics you use to approach your players, right, who are dealing with this adversity that or teams that are dealing with this? How do you pull them out of it?

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Well, number one, step one, you to do what I'm going to say in the following couple minutes, you first have to establish a relationship with these kids, or men or women. And what I mean by that is you have to spend time with them at the practice field, off the practice field, etc., just so you can tap into what gets them to click. So if you skip over that first step, everything that I'm about to say is useless. So I'll use an example. Actually, it just happened. It happened today. Matt Montini. I'm not going to mention the player's name. He's been struggling very badly. Hitter. And if you look at him, as all the athletic tools, body, swing, build, like, man, this guy can be a guy, but he's been underperforming. So he's hitting in the cage the other day, and in the turtle, actually, and he asks me, Did you see anything about my last two at bats uh from last game? We played a really tough opponent. He had first and second, two outs, huge part in the ball, huge, huge part in the ball game. We got ourselves out on the base pass, but in his at-bat, I think he had an eight-pitch at bat. It was his best at bat of the year, confident hacks, too bad it had to end with full count, runner at second, flying away a little too early. And this was the second pitch. Usually you get him on the first pitch. But they got him on the second pitch. But anyway, that same hitter comes up the next inning in the leadoff, whiff wiff, whiff, completely different body language than he had in the inning previous. And I mentioned that to him. And I said, Why is that? And he said, Well, I really don't know. I go, Because here's what I think. I think when the pressure was on, you became laser focused on the job you needed to do. And you had one particular job in mind and you had intent behind those swings. And I mirrored it to tennis. I'm like, there's certain people, people that know uh tennis scoring, when you're down 5'2, you're down a double break already, you just give the next game away because you're done. And so your next at bat, you came up to lead off. You were still thinking about the last at bat, how we didn't score anything, and you just were laissez faire, you threw it all against the wall, you struck out on three swings. So I want you to go into that cage now with a runner on third. I want you to think there's a runner on third, literal runner on third, or runner on second, like that situation you just had, and that's I want you to take every swing. And with every swing that you fail, I want you to put a mental consequence in your head. For example, like me at the gym, if I feel like I can't get a rep, I need one more rep, I tell myself, I'm going to be deprived of X, Y, and Z for the next week. I usually get it up afterward. I say, You gotta do that. And he's like, All right, that round, pow pow, pow pow pow. We get to game day today. We're struggling off this pitcher. I tell this hitter, lay down a button. He lays down a bunt, he gets a hit. We score three runs that ending and break the shot out. We go up 3-0. You can see he's like, uh next at bat, he comes up, piss missile the center field, caught one of the best swings he's taken. Third at bat, he comes up, piss missile to center field this time. This one falls. He comes up to me after the game, gives me the biggest hug, and says, Thank you. So I bring that up. You gotta find an incentive for every player, but you can only do that by spending a certain time with them. For example, we had a kid at infield today who needed that sometimes, and I that one I had to go very softly and gently during that time when he was in a slump. I'm like, dude, I have you hitting three for a reason.

unknown 21:59

I

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Don't really care if you went 0 for 50, you're still gonna hit three. Next game, pa pow pa pow. But then there are other ones that I've yelled and screamed at, and I go, You're too damn good to be doing this right now. And for you to even be thinking that you suck, you have a problem. Who who the hell do you think you are? Next game, pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa. But that all comes from that I had to do the first step first, and then they were able to receive that. Like, for example, some people for the first few weeks I've been a part of a new team or whatnot, they're like, Why aren't you saying anything? Well, you you gotta learn the landscape. And and especially whether you be an assistant or head coach, you gotta you gotta spend the time with them. So, because time's the equity that you transfer between two parties. And if you don't do that, then and that's why especially a lot of young coaches in the in our sphere, summer ball, they meet the kids a couple times throughout the summer sometimes, and then they encounter them for the first time in a long time in a decent amount, and then they just start yelling and screaming. And then the kids are like, Who's this guy? Because there was no equity built up. So you're just spitting at the wind. So yeah, sorry for the long-winded answer, but yeah, that's what it is.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

No, I think that's a perfect answer. I think it's you said it best. You gotta learn your players, learn your landscape, and then figure out how to pull the most out of them. And I agree, there's some kids that you can get on more than others. There's some kids you gotta kind of be a little bit softer on. I think it's just like parenting. You like I have three kids. You have to learn what makes each one of them tick and how to pull the most out of them and adjust to how they're feeling or what's going on with them and all that stuff. So, like I agree with you. I guess a follow-up question to you, and I guess you kind of answer this slightly, but let's say you're in-game, right? Do you feel it is productive or harmful yelling at kids during a game?

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Depends on the kid.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

What about what about a team?

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Like Yeah, yes, I've depends also on the team. I've had teams that I it's just they would crumble if I were to start going off. But I've been that's been rare though. It's only been one team I've had like that. The majority of my teams, and this starts in practice, you are able to yell at them at practice, and then you will, I'm not a huge yeller in the game, but in occasionally when there needs to be a slight, you got to pick these out. You got your spots, you got your certain spots, and when you pick them out, that's when you got to jump on it. And so, for example, if your team feels like really underperforming, and it is, is it from a lack of focus? It's I'm not talking about there is a lefty junk thrower throwing up on the mound and he's doing his job. I am not talking about that. What I'm talking about are physical mistakes or mistakes, mental mistakes that are are coming from a lack of preparation pre-pitch or pre-ed bat. That's when you jump on them. But if you're yeah, do not be yelling at your team if they if they go one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, because the dude on the mound's doing his job. That I know you yelling isn't going to propel people to start hitting him. Just not. But it like, for example, this is what you can yell at. You have you're down three in top of the seventh inning, and you have first and second. Actually, no, sorry, run on first. 2-0 count, 3-1 count, or let's say even a 3-0 count. Let's just say 3-0 count. Dude takes a hack at the first pitch like a wild man after you told him to take a strike, then you can start yelling. Or forgetting how running off the field, forgetting how many outs there are. That's you you can light him up for that. Not running to first base, that's where you can yell them at. And all that stuff. But in terms of like defensive airs, that you know, you booted a ground ball, I'm not yelling you about that. Striking out, dude, I went struck out four times in a row. I'm not going to be yelling at you either. Don't forget that you've been in the player's spot before and have some empathy. So to answer your question, yeah, if it's a mental mistake that you think that can be fixed by sharpening the focus back up, because sometimes the players do need that, by all means go ahead and do that. But if it's over physical mistakes or man, what can we hit, man? And it's not gonna help.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

No, sometimes you would say that as a coach, especially over third base, that find a way to manufacture something. Yeah, right? Find a way to manufacture something.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Bunted five times in a row. Yeah, because it's here's the thing the Rays, the Rays was it three, maybe three or four days ago, bunted four times in a row.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

Yeah. It was four four guys in a row and they scored two runs. I think I know they at least scored one. I thought it was they scot two runs on four butts.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

And that's in the big leagues. Correct. And you you you just again, there are there have been times where as if you know your team and you see that guy on the mound, and this is not you saying that you suck. This is I'm not saying that you can look at the terrain. We're not gonna get this guy. So we're gonna have to change, we're gonna have to do people like if you keep doing the same thing over and over again, that's insanity. People want to view that, want to always throw that quote out just to see them that they're smarter. Yeah, yeah, duh, dummy. Key is though, what are you as a coach going to start changing in terms of not saying changing the lineup, I'm not saying pinch hitters, I'm saying with the current lineup that you thought was gonna be good at the beginning, are you gonna stick with it and find a way to use that lineup? Because all of that in lineup construction needs to be planned out. You're you're so people like, I need a pinch hitter here, pinch, then you then you did a bad job at preparing the night, the morning, or whatever of if it's a doublehead or the afternoon. Well, you did a bad job. Because if you think that you're gonna pull out pinch hitter after pinch hitter after pinch hitter, what's first of all, what's that telling your team? Number one, and then number two, all of that stuff needs to be calculated beforehand in terms of this person can come up in this certain spot, in this certain spot in the game, here, there, and there. And then, no, I'm not saying I haven't used a pinch hitter ever, but I try to stay away from it because again, yeah, there are certain matchups that you can exploit, but I've already thought about that before the head beforehand. And that's how you're gonna get it. Your magical pinch hitters isn't what do you they're on the bench for a reason.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

If they were your best players, they'd be out there, they'd be in your starting nine.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

So, so oh, I'm gonna pinch it for you. Oh, I'm smart. No, you're dumb, dummy.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

It unless you have an equal player that's a lefty, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:06

That's having a scheduled day off.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

You're playing a matchup. Yeah. I'm saying that like you you could you could argue that there's a rare occasion that, like, okay, I got two equal players that like rotate based on who who's pitching. That yeah, maybe if they bring in a new pitcher, then yes, you would have a pinch hitter. But yeah, I agree. Like, you're gonna start your best. You you shouldn't be relying on the old pinch hit department. But I I think that's all a good insight to to the players and adapting to how players are performing and trying to pull the most out of them. And I think I think we talk about it a lot, how to pull the most out of all of our players, whether they're eight years old or 18 years old. Like we want the most out of these kids and we want to pull the most out and make them the best we can. Figure out the way they make, figure out how they tick, right? What you can push where you want to be a little softer, like the time, time to do it right time, wrong time, all that stuff. I tell my kids all the time, I said, listen, the moment I stop yelling at you guys, that's when you should probably be worried. Like, and it's purely because I have very high expectations for you guys, probably way higher than they even have for themselves right now. But it's just, you know, you when you know they have capabilities of doing things, and then you you feel like there's they're not doing it, there's frustration to it. I would say this, like I I lose it at times on my 11-year-olds, and I feel terrible when I get home because I try to think they're 11. I always remember though, my son is in that same huddle with all these kids, so I'm not doing anything to any other kid that I'm not doing to my own kid. But I I just know what they are capable of doing, and to your point, it's the mental lapse or the the lack of mental focus or or uncertainty that like that they don't know what to do, but it's like you do know what to do. We've we've practiced this, we've trained this. Trust yourself, let your instincts take over, go play the game. Don't don't think with fear of if I do something wrong, I'm gonna get yelled at. Like, that's where I think my biggest frustration as a coach is with any team or any player I coach watching them play, and there's that timidness of I don't want to make a mistake. Like, I'd rather you do the absolute wrong thing, but give me everything you got, because at least you're trying to do something and you're you're you you had a thought and you stuck with it, right? That's that's teachable. It's the thought of like, I don't know what to do, then I kind of hesitate, then I then I'm here, then I'm there, what am I doing? And then you're basically just spinning circles. And I think that's where my biggest frustration comes with my little guy team at times, because I know how much we work on things and practice things, and I know how high their baseball IQ is because they all are students of the game. I and it's just figuring out how to pull that out of them as much as physically possible.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

And as and as coaches, uh I've from my experience and then my perception from others, especially older ones, they don't put themselves in positions to fail anymore. And what I mean by that is more coaches that I run into, married kids, same job for 20 or 30 years. There's nothing wrong with these things, but I'm saying there's a position of comfort, and there's a position of there's no more pressure anymore. Obviously, there's pressure raising kids, there's pressure dealing with the wife, but I'm talking about pressure related to sports. That's a totally different type of pressure. And so I I would challenge coaches to find, however old you are, to find a different sport other than baseball, get into it and see how much it humbles you. And so that gives you some empathy for your athlete before you want to jump on them. You remember, I'm learning this, I'm I'm and I again I tell my players this there's no in terms of skill or talent, I might be better than you, might be better than me, but more times than not, we're all the same human beings. We're gonna fail. The only difference between you and me right now is that I'm trying to use my pain and experience for your benefit. And hence I said pain and experience. And I think that as coaches, we need to still continue to experience some pain. So find a way to pain yourself. And with me, at least, I've I've told people on here, I've picked up the sport of tennis. That is more mentally taxi than baseball. Why?

SPEAKER_02 33:43

Because you're by yourself, yeah. You're on an island alone, you have nobody, then no team to rely on besides yourself. Correct. I will say this though, really quick, because I know some of my my little guys listen to this. I love those dudes more than anything, right? And the amount of reflection I do, just like any parent does with all their kids, if you reflect on everything you do. I reflect on everything I do with those kids, and I write a lot of things down and I keep a lot of things written for myself that I don't ever share. I love those dudes more than anything. They're like 12, my they're like 12 kids and 12 sons of me. Like I'll see them tomorrow practice, and I'm actually going to bring them up and tell them like, listen, I know sometimes I yell at you guys. I do not do that for any reason besides the fact that I care. I also know you guys can take it, right? They respect the hell out of me, and I respect the hell out of them. And I think that speaks more volume than anything to your point. Like, I know those dudes and they know me. I know those kids would run through a brick wall for me, and I would run through a brick wall for them to do anything to protect them. I love them. I love our families. I love that they let me do what I do, and and I understand that sometimes I probably take things to an extreme that some parents probably look at it like that's a little bit too much. But they all trust me, and I just it's it's a beautiful thing as a coach when you have that buy-in from not just your players, but families in general. And I just know that like we are not playing the baseball that we are capable of playing, but it is a long season, is not how you start, is how you finish. And I know these boys are gonna figure it out, and I can't wait to see them pull out of it and what they become because I know that how much I know what they're capable of, and it's it's just gonna be fun to watch.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

Oh, I've heard I act I heard how your weekend went from another parent. All I'm gonna say is if you've watched sports long enough, teams have bad weekends, teams have bad weeks, teams have bad months. If you don't know that, you don't watch enough sports. Sorry. So if you're pressing the panic button after having a long stretch of winning, and you have one bad blip on the on the radar, you need help. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

But hey, good good conversation. I thought that was a great, great little talk there.

Sponsor Shoutout Caliburn Bats

SPEAKER_02 36:05

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SPEAKER_00 36:26

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SPEAKER_02 36:27

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SPEAKER_01 36:42

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SPEAKER_02 36:51

Topic two, dugout chatter.

Dugout Chatter And Sportsmanship Lines

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Right? I think there's a lot to talk about here. The reason for the bring up of the dugout chatter is for some bizarre reason in the youth baseball world, okay, and I technically I could say this has happened in high school, but Mondays are usually one of my favorite days during the spring because you never know what you're gonna get. Meaning teams all go out and play all over this place. If our teams win, it's usually a pretty peaceful Monday. If we have teams that go out and lose or they're struggling, or bad things are happening, sometimes Mondays can get a little chaotic. Today was a day that, you know, we got a random email reach out from not anybody within the organization, but a parent that was out. Clearly, their team played against our team and they did not win. And the email subject line was sportsmanship. And it basically said that our dugout chatter was too much, that they were still cheering and yelling while the pitcher was coming set, that they would expect an organization such as ours to have a little bit more class and then told us to do better. I talked to Aaron Earhart, our youth director, and asked him if he knew anything about this. It was directed at our 13-year-old team, which they are not the loudest. Like if it was our 14-year-old team, I would be like, Yeah, that makes sense. Those kids are loud and obnoxious. I had reached back out to the parent to try, or the person who reached out to us to try to connect and ask a little bit more and figure out what happened or what team they were and what happened, or what was going on, just to get a little bit more context. They have not replied back to me. I just find it so intriguing, though, that in this world of this madness youth sport, that people on a random Monday have time to go dig up an organization's contact person to then send them an email telling us to do better and run our organization better. Like, maybe like you and I I don't know, just reaching out to random people on Monday and telling them how to do their jobs better. Like it just it blows my mind that people do this. But I will say this my question to you is what's a because you are in a Catholic high school, and I've been to Catholic high school baseball games, and sometimes these games can get ruthless. But really quick, before we talk about it, just so you know, my my other point and question to this person was Did the Umpire say anything to our dugout to stop it or control it, or were they out of line to the point that the umpire had said something? Because any game I've been to that kids are doing that stuff, if it's out of line, the umpire will handle it. So, my question to you is being in the high school baseball, especially the Catholic League, what do you feel is acceptable and what isn't?

SPEAKER_01 40:04

Well, I've been in the Catholic for four years now. We this topic actually came up last week. We had a very heated Catholic League game. We have a couple people on our bench that like saying some things, loves saying some things. My thing is with the dugout chatter, and I had this talk years ago with someone, energy, and I put that in quotes, you can't see me. Energy starts from the field. Energy doesn't come from you being a punk on the bench. What I mean, a punk on the bench, any chatter directed at the other team is being a punk. There is zero, there is zero reason to do that. And with certain players on the other team, they might be having a really bad day. You start running your mouth at them, all of a sudden they wake up. All of a sudden, balls start flying over the fence. Why? Because a guy at the end of the bench who had nothing better to say wanted to pick a fight with somebody on the other team, and all of a sudden the game's changed. So here's what I tell my teams there won't be any talk directed at the other team in terms of any clapping, cheering, and whatnot, do it in between pitches. Let's follow the golden rule. Rule number one would you like another team barking at you personal things throughout the game? I know the answer to that question. The question is no. Number two, while the pitcher is mid-pitch, would you want someone yelling and screaming at your own pitcher? No, then why are we doing it? This is all stuff to avoid having the other team have bulletin board material on you. So we're just gonna go in, we're gonna play. And I always ask my kids this um, hey, when you're watching uh major league games or even high-level college games, what are they doing in the dugout? Sitting there? Yeah. Yeah. So you're telling me the best of the best aren't cheering and hooting and hollering. Yeah. Okay, but they're the best, coach. My point being you don't need all that. Usually the weakest person in the room is the loudest person in the room. Hence around a podcast. Ha ha ha. But my point is don't try to start anything with the other team. Keep it here, keep it within ourselves. In fact, I've actually had our team go silent for some innings to throw the other team off. We'll go completely quiet for innings. And then all of a sudden, fifth, sixth inning rolls around, then we start chatting it up and loud, chatting it up again. And here's another thing. I've been part of a couple dugouts where the coaches are micromanaging the conversations that are going on in the dugout. Again, who the hell do you think you are? There are some people in the game that don't need to be talking about the game. Why? Because if they keep talking about the game, the too much pressure starts racking up on their head, they go out there, they underperform. And then there are other people that are vice versa. So the dugout's a place, keep it people operate within their own thing and let them do their own thing. I've had players sit on the opposite end of dugouts while the other teams over here. One of those players was the best player on the team. He led on the field. Because on the field is what matters. And that's what I'm gonna say. That's the energy. So don't give me this boys. The lazy coach will always point to where's the energy? Where's the energy? You yelling and screaming isn't gonna help you hit 92 with a slider coming in at 85. It's just not. It's not. You either gotta do it or you don't. And if you don't, it wasn't because how loud you were screaming. And if you had to resort to such tactics, you suck.

SPEAKER_02 44:13

It's funny you say that. So quit. It's funny you say that because there were two separate instances this weekend that my team would come in. They get in the dugout, they're like, we need energy. I'm like, the energy's not in here. The energy happens between the two white lines. That is where you need energy. That is the only part where this game matters. You do whatever you want on the dugout, you yell whatever you want, you cheer for your team as much as you want. I'm not telling you guys not to do that. But stop coming in this dugout and saying, we need energy. Have your energy between the two white lines.

SPEAKER_01 44:43

With me, that's the quickest way to find your way on the bench. The beach. I'm dead serious. I've and I and I I've and the kids that have play with me know this. I'm not a rah-rah guy. It just has no place. This is a thinking man's game. And the quiet one catchers say this all the time in pitchers. The scariest guy that comes up to that box are the ones that come up really nonchalantly, and they're just kind of standing there. And then you know, this is a man not to be messed with. And you leave it like that. And the and here's the thing: the quiet teams that I've run into, whether it be in the high school on the travel circuit, the quiet teams, whoa, those are the scary. Those are the scary teams.

SPEAKER_02 45:26

Especially the high school level, I find that the teams who come out with all the like blah blah blah in the first instance, like all you have to do is weather their initial stupid storm. Correct. And you will steamroll them. Because once you get up on them, they will crumble. Yeah, it they'll just they'll just quit.

SPEAKER_01 45:42

It's over.

SPEAKER_02 45:43

Correct. It's like a lot of the you know, when you look at the 18U summer and you go to Jupiter stuff, like if you get up on a scout team, like they're done because they have no team camaraderie to bring anything back, they just quit on each other, point fingers, or just move on to wherever else they have to do next. But my go, I guess my last question on this, and I know you touch on a little bit, but how do you control like without taking out the fun from these kids? How do you control the dugout without taking the fun away from it though?

SPEAKER_01 46:22

We establish in practice what's the definition of fun.

SPEAKER_02 46:26

Because like I do think there's part of it where like you ask me that, I think you and I side. I think everybody has a different thing.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

We lost 10-0. You find that fun? No. You you you you yelling and screaming while we're getting our ass kicked by 10? You find that fun? No. Okay, so let's establish what fun is. Fair. Fun. Here's what's fun. You want your energy ready? This is the best on the defensive end. This is what starts energy. First pitch strikes. You know what else establishes energy on the offensive end? Quality swings. Now they might not fall, but if you get some quality swings, swinging early on in the count, by all means it's fine. And here's another thing. People like, oh, we're taking, I'm not okay, I'm not, I'm not saying three pitch innings are great on the offensive end. I'm not saying that. But what I'm saying is if you have a quick offensive inning and your pitcher's working quick as well, sometimes that's not bad. Let's say you have you on the offensive end, you work six pitches, seven pitches, you made three hard outs, you none of them fell, but you know your pitcher's going well. Sometimes in this game, the best offense is your pitcher. And so I've been in these games where I'm like, I can kind of sense the pace of this game. It's probably gonna be an hour 20 game, hour 30 game. I just need one. Give me one, and sometimes I'm wishing my offense, get out, get out, because I need to put the best guy back out on the field. And it works. I'm not saying it works 100% of the time, but 80% of the time, you work off that pace, you put your best player on that day with the ball, majority of the time. We get out of there with a one-run win. That's fun, that's energy. Because here's another thing. Sometimes, like you can tell again that your team's not hitting that day, but they're making hell plays out in the out in the field. Get those guys back out there quick, get out of there quick. Get get your run, work your way to get your run and get out of there. So, yeah, sometimes it's not bad to have a quick inning on the offensive end, but working the pace of the ballgame. Now, some people be like, no, no, no, no. I've seen it work, it's a pace thing. Also, watch more sports than baseball. There are a lot of relatable concepts. For example, I'm gonna use a tennis concept, another one. If you got both guys serving really well, where are we going? Where are we going? Serve. To the tie break. Oh, yeah. I'm gonna meet you in the tie break. Tie break with baseball. We'll go extra innings. That's fine. We're gonna get my one and we're out of there. We're fine. Why are we serving real well? You can tell the other term serving well. So, what I mean by that in tennis, if you see a guy serving really well, you're not gonna go for big rallies because it's just wasting energy at that point. You can see where this is going. He's throwing well, he's serving well. So we're just gonna get him in the last word. It's gonna get down to sudden death, and we're gonna be better than you in some day. And then you just gotta win one extra point. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 49:41

I get I like what you're saying. I get it. That that is a very good way to think about it and some good insight for for people to coaching, players, all that stuff. Of the like I like you said, I like that with the talk of definition of fun. What is fun? Like, is fun being loud, obnoxious, idiotic, doing stupid things? I don't know. Some people would say that is fun. To you and I, winning baseball is fun. And how you win does not matter, but find a way to win. And I think there's a right way to do it and wrong way to do it, and styles, right? And to your point, like, yeah, sometimes like getting your pitcher out there and letting them work, like that's your best attack, right? And to your point, like when it has that feel of a tight game, like you're you're scraping to get one, yeah, and and let's just get one.

SPEAKER_01 50:33

Then I'm willing to go extras with you, especially in the travel ball circuit, if time allows in the playoff setting, if you can get that runner out on second base, I'll go with that. Yeah, and we'll get it, especially for the home team. We're gonna ride with that for sure. And yeah, but again, you gotta have the to your point, in terms of you hate it when your players play timid. As a coach, you can't coach timid. No, and so you see what's going on, you gotta have the cojones to say, Yeah, we're gonna win this by a run.

SPEAKER_02 51:03

Yep, gonna be a one-runner. So, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

Very

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SPEAKER_01 51:08

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SPEAKER_02 51:32

Love you,

The Quality At Bat Mindset

SPEAKER_02 51:33

Jeff. So today we're gonna talk about the best advice I ever got as a player, right? And I did not get this advice till later on in my career. And I would say it's more the best advice I got when it comes to a hitting perspective and how you approach and look at the game, right? And this will kind of go back a little bit to what we talked about last week of highs and lows and being in four for 58 and going through some struggles and battling adversity and having to figure things out, right? And I would say that this is an area that kind of really I wish I learned this earlier, but I'm I've when I learned it, it was like a perfect time for me to actually learn it because it was the point of the game where it was the most mental, and like everybody was talented at that point. It was okay, who's gonna figure out mentally more than others? I played with this guy, older guy, outfielder came on too of Trenton Thunder team that I was playing on in double A in 2010. They have a nice hat, great hat, great uniform. To be honest, we used to wear a pinstripe cutoff, like our day games, we'd always go pennies cutoff. It was I would actually love to bring a cutoff pinstripe back. But needless to say, so he should he shows up late. We're making a playoff push, we had a good team, and JC, my guy, Justin Christian, shows up and got to know him, got along with him really well. He played left, I played right, and then you know, with our center fielder. So he was a one-hitter, just a good dude, a scrappy guy, me and him, very similar style baseball players, both right on right, both kind of average tooled across the board, but just played the game the right way. And I just started picking his brain a little bit, and it was kind of like, you know, what do you do in these situations? Like, what's your approach? How do you mentally approach the games? And he's like, Listen, I'm gonna tell you something. Like, I got this advice younger in my career, and it's always helped me. He goes, Every day you're gonna show up to the yard. If you're in the lineup, you're gonna get four to five at bats a game. He said, if you hit towards the top of the lineup, he's like, What you do, you're gonna get five at bats a game, and that's how you gotta look at it. He said, You can't get a hit every bat, and you know that. He's like, I don't have to tell you that. I said, Yeah, he goes, and you're not gonna walk out and have a great at bat every single day. Like you're gonna have good days, you're gonna have bad days, you're gonna have good at bats, you're gonna have bad at bats. And he goes, and you do a really good job of tracking all your stuff and logging your stuff, and mentally you're starting to figure it out, and he's like, You can see that you understand this game. He goes, I would tell you this: don't think about hits. You're gonna have five at bats, have three quality at bats a game. And he goes, if you do that over a long haul, if you have four at bats a game, you have three quality bats, right? You're that's 75%. If you can throw a 75% quality of bat ratio over an extended period of time of 140 games or 162 if you get to big leagues, you got five, six hundred at bats. Do the math on it. Like your quality of bat percentage is going to be off the charts, and you're gonna find your hits and your numbers and all that stuff is going to translate. He goes, but you are no longer thinking about all the numbers they put on the sheets that they put in the dugout or in the clubhouse. Because every day you show them the clubhouse and the stats every day would be updated and be on there. So you could look at them, and some guys would look at them, some guys don't look at them. He's like, but none of that matters. He goes, because those are just numbers. He goes, and I understand it matters, but when you start worrying about those numbers, you're not focused on what you really can control. He goes, and if you start to figure out the smaller things of, okay, I'm gonna have four bats today, I'm gonna have three, my goal is three good at bats. And he goes, now you go three for three in your first good bats. Not saying three hits, but you hit a line shot at somebody, you draw a walk, you move a guy over, or you or you you sack fly somebody in. He's like, you're oh four on the day, but in your mind you're three for three. You walk into that fourth at bat. If you think you're oh for three, walking into your fourth of bat, he's like, you got no chance to get a hit. You walk in thinking you're three for three with three quality bats, you got a chance to get another good hit or another another good at bat. He's like, now you walk either one for three or one for four. Like, it's a different mindset than if you go into that fourth at bat being all pissed because you're 0 for 3. And it's just the advice of it as a player and the where I was in my career and hearing him say it, and he had a little bit of time in the big leagues, had a lot of time in triple A, like it was just a way different way to start going into games or leaving games and be like, okay, it's not about that batting average or the OPS or my on-base percentage or slugging or or or my RBIs or run score. Like, it's about I'm gonna sit here and say, okay, I'm gonna put together a 75% quality of bat ratio, and I guarantee I'm gonna figure everything else out. And you go mentally, it was just a lot more calming. And it was just like I said, when when he kind of explained it, me and him sat down after a game and probably talked for like an hour and a half about this stuff, it just really opened my eyes to a different way mentally to approach the hitting that I felt like took my hitting to a whole new level. And the hardest part was like I I the hardest part I felt as a hitter was always keeping that. And at times, like everybody who's played this game will tell you, like, you get to a certain point and you feel great, and then like you go in waves, and you'll lose it. And then sometimes you're trying to chase what you used to do, and it's like you can never go back, you always have to try to continually move forward. Like, late in my career, I would tell you, like, I had a hard time I got away from that concept, and then I was trying to chase what I used to do, and it was really hard to get back because I kept trying to go backwards instead of moving forward. Question.

SPEAKER_01 57:26

Sorry to cut you off. You're friends, did you did you have immediate success after that?

SPEAKER_02 57:31

I would say when I first bought into that, yeah, I don't know, to find immediate success. I felt like my success ratio of Claudia. Your stats went up. My yes, my stats did definitely go up. But I was also on a this the swing I was on at that point, I was also on a very good upswing from where I was at the beginning of the year. The hitting coach I had this year, Frank that year, Frank Menacino. Great, nothing against the guy I grew up hitting with, Steve Hayward, strikes baseball. Love that man. I hit with him for third, what, 13 or 14 years, taught me so much about hitting, is a is a good man. Love that guy to death. He's not doing lessons anymore because he can't, but that guy was fantastic. But I'm saying in professional baseball, the best hitting coach I ever had was Frank Menicino, hands down. He was the hitting coach for the the Italy team for the World Baseball Classic. He had me doing some things mentally, like approach-wise. Like he taught me to start zone hitting and really trusting that. And when I really started trusting it and buying it in, like that's what really took my hitting to to a different level. And then when I took that along with what Justin Christian taught me about my approach and and the quality of bat ratio off of that, I'm telling you, I've I finished the year in 2010.

SPEAKER_01 58:53

I don't know, I hit like 360 the second half of the year. I brought that up because you spoke about them chasing. I've and I've realized this with some hitters, they allow their body and their mind to do something without they allow their body and mind to become one where it's almost unconscious. And then when stuff starts to go really well, there's something called ego that slips in and goes, You we gotta take some type of ownership for this. And then so you start wondering, oh, I think I found the secret to hidden or found the secret to life, and then the ego then ruins everything that was happening just due to you, like I said, you had this mentality, and if we just would have been in almost autopilot mode and letting our body just do what it's supposed to do, you know, who knows where would we be as people? But that's why I was asking that because the ego then slips in. Like, for example, you have a how many lessons we do? You have a kid in a cage, you tell them to do something, focus on one thing. They have six, seven good swings. You let them off the hook, you let them off the chain, you say do whatever you want, and then three bad swings happen, and then you ask them what happened, they're like, Well, I was just trying to do X, Y, Z. But what happened to the non-thinking part again? Because, well, the body feels like they need the mind and the ego feels like we need to have some ownership in this. We can't just let the body do its thing. So that's why I ask that.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:25

Yeah, I here. To me personally, I don't think it was ever, I don't feel like I ever went into an ego of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:33

Right? It was more so like, you know, dude, you get if you ever have a chance to play anybody who has a chance to play professional baseball, like it is grind, dude. It is, it is tough, it is long. This the there's bus rides all over the place. You stay in some really interesting hotels, you stay in some interesting cities, like you gotta deal with eating certain stuff that like you don't always want to eat, but that's the only options you get. Like, there's a lot that goes into it, and mentally it's exhausting. So, like, but I don't I don't feel like I ever got to an ego point where like I felt like oh I got it, right? I felt like it was keeping it just controlled, and and like I said, I learned a lot from those two guys. I used to write a lot of things down, I used to log a lot of stuff. Mentally, that helped me a lot because it kept me accountable for myself. Like I always felt like okay, if I had a scouting report that I wrote on a pitcher compared to reading something else that somebody else wrote, like I want my plan because that's me visually or feeling and experience things in real time. So that's why I did it. I've actually challenged my little 11-year-old team. I gave them all little notebooks this year to to kind of write things after games and their bats and how they did and what they felt, and just it's your own little journal and own little log. And uh Ethan's grabbed onto it. I know a lot of my kids have done it. I just think it's one of those areas that it helps it helps a lot of players. Like I said, that was just some of the best advice I ever got from another player and teammate. And I think that's important for like older guys to share with younger guys, like the experience we talked about this. As you're around this game or play this game, or you just have love and passion for this game, the more experience you have, like the more you start to see learn. And it's a game that you are as long as you're willing to, you can continue to learn, right? I think it's jobs as mentors and leaders in this game to share your knowledge with younger generations. Some kids will look at you and buy into what you say, and some kids will look at you and basically double bird you're like, we don't want to hear, like, whatever. That's that's just part of the game. But as a young player, like I'd take any advice I can get because you might get something from somebody you had no expectations of getting from, and it might be some of the best advice you get. Teammates talk to each other, share things. Like, I talk to our infielders all the time when they're out there. Like, you guys should talk to each other. Dom Jacoby does a fantastic job doing doing that during our infield camp. He talks to all of our younger kids out there. It's great. I think that's some of the best knowledge because those kids are going to learn and listen to him. I just think that that's the part of the game that is one of my favorite things is the the willingness to give back and willingness as a team or as teammates to share knowledge to help each other.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:22

Talking, and that's energy. Uh, yes. That's energy.

NHL And NBA Playoff Picks

SPEAKER_02 1:03:28

All right. Last topic that we're gonna cover tonight. Playoffs for the NBA and NHL are underway. Indeed, they are. And anybody know who knows Lord Puck knows he likes himself some hacky. So who do you like? Let's start NHL to start. Who do you like? To win it all. To win it all. The Oilers. You're taking the Oilers. Yeah. They're getting off the schneid. Yes. It's happening this year.

unknown 1:03:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:59

Who are they playing? Right now? No. Oh. I got a prediction that I had come in from a young lad. Well, give me your prediction first, and I'm going to Well, I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go with what my guy Parker told me. He's always my late, late hockey NHL playoff extraordinaire. He told me it's gonna be Edmonton and Carolina. So that's what I'm going with. Although I do love the Vegas Knights. What about my Aves? I listen, I get it. The Aves are a good team. They're fast. What about McKinney? You gotta watch against uh the dock so when they got them oranges on.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:48

Quack and Joel Quadville.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:50

Correct?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:51

No, Oilers. Yeah. Oilers. So you don't care who else. It's just the Oilers.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:59

Yeah. Oilers are gonna be there. I agree. I can't see another team. The Oilers. And then I'll skip you in the NBA, it would be Denver and Boston.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:14

So you got Denver and Boston in the NBA.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:18

Okay. My question about the NBA playoffs.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:21

Yes.

unknown 1:05:22

Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:22

First round's big.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:23

We walk a we watch a lot of NBA. We do. If you watch the NBA regular season, and then all of a sudden the playoffs come, it's like two different games. It's like all of a sudden the refs swallow whistles. Correct. Like it's it's amazing to me. It gets very close to a college basketball. So lopsided? Like, how can how does it get to that point where it's like all of a sudden now you guys are gonna officiate the game that way? Like, how does that happen?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:56

I if I had the answer, I I'd I don't I don't have the answer because I was thinking the exact same way. Way because there's some guys that got absolutely smoked smoked and like I was watching the game last night.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:04

I was like, oh my god, I mean, dude, yeah, there was a down back down possession. So I forget who it was. They had two possessions. Somebody else said one. Dudes were getting hacked. Mauled. Mauled. On the ground, falling over, into the pad. Nothing. I feel back down.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:21

I feel as if the reps don't want to have a series that one of their calls influenced an entire. Because with NBA and when college basketball, one play can shift the entire game. And I don't think people understand when they watch the NBA playoffs, and sometimes even the players don't understand this. In playoff basketball, one play is tremendous. One possession, the value of possessions is it's paramount. So yeah, I feel as if refs don't want to have it where they influence the series. They try to take themselves as much out as possible. That's what I think.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:01

And usually that bodes well for more physical teams. For example, Detroit. And then on the West, the Nuggets. And this what this really benefited the Thunder last year. Mauling. Yeah, but then there's Mauling. My Pacers.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:19

But then there's S SGA who the other day in the games getting calls left and right to get the free throw. Here's my thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:27

When they start, they're good, they're going to sweep that series. When they start playing teams that actually can get them, he's not getting that whistle. And the refs are becoming privy to that little push-off move that he does. Yeah. Watch. I told you about the Lakers. The Lakers just need to get past the Rockets, then they're going to go get them. You want to see some officiating wee wheeling somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:50

You told me the Lake Show last year, too. And the Lake Show is the first time. Lake show didn't even show up. They got just steamrolling.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:56

It did show up. They lost.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:59

They didn't show up.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:01

They should try hard. They pretended. Tried hard. LeBron's last playoff here.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:06

You think he's done after this year?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:08

Do you? What happens to Baronny?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:10

Cut immediately.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:14

Anybody pick him up?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:16

No.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:16

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:17

Only to sell tickets. So the Wizards.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:21

Hey, he could go partner up with AD.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:24

And Trey Young.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:26

Yeah, that'd be a team. That'd be the new three-headed monsters. They could do a little Miami Heat. Alrighty, another one. Who is it?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:35

Chris Bosch, Dwayne Wade, LeBron James.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:38

That was a joke.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:39

Alright.

Closing Thoughts And The Love Train

SPEAKER_02 1:08:40

Well, hey, listen. Another good one. Yes. It's always a pleasure sitting down with you. Always. I'm happy we get it. We got one more week of infield with Broom. Yes. We're going to keep the show rolling.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:53

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:53

We're going to have the show on the road in Indy.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:56

We will.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:56

It's going to be great. Looking forward to the summer. Thank you to all you listeners. Thank you. We appreciate you guys always tuning in.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:04

Love you.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:05

Hopefully the lake show goes down. And Lord Puck with the ending grace. Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:14

Say hi to me whenever I see you. And this is what I want you to tell me. I love you. And I'll say I love you right back because you need more love. Let's everyone get on the love train. Love train.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:27

I'm a love doctor. Bruce. Lord Puck. Out. Bye.