4 clueless dudes
4 old dudes talking about sports and everyday things that we can think of.
4 clueless dudes
Baseball talk
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Discuss first week of my coaching career
Let's see. So I'm back here with another episode of Four Clueless Dudes, and I actually have one of the clueless dudes with me tonight. So we have Tim here with us. So hello Tim.
SPEAKER_01What's going on, peeps?
SPEAKER_00So just gonna talk about a little of high school baseball. So uh I am four games into my coaching career. Uh we're three and one. We had a really good game last night against a local team called Bar Reeb that actually win nine innings. So and uh Tim there just happened to come and watch the game, sit up with my wife and you know some of the people that we know from school. So uh impressed, even though you lost. Uh yeah, pardon the background noise. We're actually sitting outside at a hobby lobby while our wives are in there doing their annual walkthrough. So what do you think about the game last night?
SPEAKER_01I was impressed. I was really impressed with the pitching. Uh yep, a bunch of young kids that you said were mostly freshmen. Mostly freshmen. All those kids that pitched yesterday were they freshmen?
SPEAKER_00Uh one was a uh sophomore. The titchener boy was a sophomore. Everybody else were freshmen.
SPEAKER_01A couple of kids hit the ball real hard. Uh just seemed to be right at somebody. Uh I, you know, I was there was hardly any errors. Well, maybe one error I saw, maybe uh uh or the drop play at first base there in the ninth inning when they scored, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was that bang bang. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But uh yeah, for uh for a JV young kids, uh the future looks pretty bright at Gibson Southern High School.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like I said, we've had some injuries, varsity level, JV level, that's uh you know, created a uh lineup issue because I don't know who I'm gonna have from game to game because uh the varsity coach is you know pulling some of my sophomores up, maybe even a couple of freshmen to you know play and and then giving me you know some of the other ones to stay down if they need to pitch or do that. So it's a little different. I will say with Bar Reeve, if we they were pretty decent.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they were pretty and like I said, both teams are pre uh fundamentally sound. I you know, like I said, there wasn't many uh bad plays on the defensive side of it.
SPEAKER_00If we'd had uh if I'd had my right fielder and I would have had uh my center fielder, and then another guy that plays first base occasionally. The other guy that plays first base was was my first pitcher last night. But you know, he plays first two and sometimes DHs. If I'd had those guys, we'd have beat him. Because I mean I'm taking three big bats and you know out of the lineup and putting some freshmen in there who hit the shit out of the ball.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they did last night. They've said it. Really good hits, uh timely hits, just uh hit them right at him. Yep.
SPEAKER_00Right at him, and then you know, it was uh it was a pr it was good. I was proud of them, you know. We got down three to one and we scored two to tie the game, and then they scored two to what in the ninth inning, I think, yeah to take a lead, and we actually got a run in the bottom and hadn't had to tie a run on second base, and uh the guy just what I think he hit a ground ball up the middle and hit it back to the pitcher. Hit it back to the pitcher, and you know that kind of hurt it. But hey, otherwise, I'm proud they you know they they tried to you know they were never out of the game. You know, pitcher got a little dejected, he gave up that two-run bomb. Well, that was a bomb, and then he kind of got a little dejected, and you know.
SPEAKER_01I don't know how far the bomb went, but I heard it hit the building.
SPEAKER_00So it's probably about 380 feet. Yeah. So get unloaded on it. Yeah, it was just uh it was I asked the pitcher Jake, I said, when when finally got him out and he was walking off, and you know, I asked him what he threw him, and he said he took a fastball and he was just waiting on it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I asked him, I said, hey, you you you ever pitch in because he plays travel ball a lot, and he's you know one of the big travel ball players. And I said, You ever give up a home running travel ball yet? Nope. He said, and I said, Well, you just gave your first high school dinger up, and I said it won't be the first and it won't be the last. And you keep pitching throughout your career, get into college, and if you ever you're good enough to go with the pros and you pitch, you're gonna give up dingers. It just happened. That's part of the game.
SPEAKER_01You know, good hitters.
SPEAKER_00Good hitters.
SPEAKER_01Make good pitchers look bad at times.
SPEAKER_00Good hitters know how to adjust. Yeah. And that kid hit the home run looked like a good hitter. He was a good hitter, I mean. He was a good hitter. And I walked him twice after that, and he got a little bad, but hey, you know, that's part of the game. I told him in the handshake line, I said, you know, dude, I can't let you beat me twice like that. So he he understood. So but yeah, so Varsity won last night too. They beat Central three to nothing. Cam Truxel, he uh threw a one-hit shutout, struck out eleven guys in six innings.
SPEAKER_01So I have to go watch them play. I haven't seen him play.
SPEAKER_00Well, we play Thursday at doubleheader at home against Mount Vernon, so they'll we'll they'll play before us and then we'll play after them. So we'll only play five innings since it's a doubleheader, so don't know how good Mount Vernon is, but don't really care. We play Central on Monday at home, like I said, Mount Burning Thursday at home, and then we have a game Friday it's away, and I can't really without looking at my schedule, don't really know who it is. I mean, we playing, I just, you know, since I hadn't ever coasted in high school, and you know, been since the early 80s since we played, I just forgot how many games you condense in such a short uh basically one month. It's a you know, it's a one month, it's uh three or four days a week.
SPEAKER_01Shit.
SPEAKER_00Hold on, we had to pause for a minute to something walk by. Sorry, bring the thoughts back. But yeah, I mean it's a short six-week season. I mean, and then you know, depending on the sectionals and all that, how far you're gonna go, you get in, you know, the first or second week of June. So if you make the state championship, so which Barcy's got a good chance, they got a good team. Like I said, they lost a third baseman for the year, broken foot, but and that's why the you know, the lineup differences because gotta change day to day. Yeah, it changes day-to-day pitchers. I mean, you know uh, you know, they've they have four starting pitchers up there, and uh, you know, I only have two that are traditional pitchers. Uh turn the other way, you dumb bitch. Sorry, got distracted another driver that can't drive. Uh but anyway, yeah, so it is, you know, it's it's is what it is, so with the pitching. So actually, my best pitcher, you know, he's a pitcher only, and he actually got to actually swing the bat. He said last that's the first time in two years he's actually uh got to swing a bat, uh, first time ever in high school. And he damn near got a base hit. Yep, he tried. If he'd have been a step quicker, he'd got a base hit. He tried. And our dugout went nuts. Yeah, when he almost, you know, got a base hit there. It's kind of cool, so yeah, that explains it all right there why that car, you know. God damn, some people need to wear fucking clothes that fit. Anyway. You have to edit this one, on it. Yeah, I'll edit it. Sorry, but you know, it is what it is. We keep it real on this channel. So it's just uh sometimes too real. Some of the sights and sounds, you know, you just sometimes you gotta pause and say what the hell. So anyway, so yeah, that's how it's going so far on baseball. We're we're three and one, JB, and varsity's four and one. Which they should be undefeated, but uh Castle beat them uh eight to seven.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they were up four to nothing in the first inning, and then Pitcher kind of lost his bearing and kind of let them come back in the game. So but they tried to come back. Hell they actually had the bases loaded and with two outs and one of the kids hit a bullet to second baseman and he dropped it. But then he was close enough to second base where he all he had to do was step on the bag, so kind of stopped it. But uh, yeah, they're they're they're starting to find their way now. You know, they're pitching starting to last two the last two games, they've thrown those two lefties that they got, and they've uh uh almost, you know, pitched uh, well, they gave up one run Thursday and no runs on Friday, so I think they're starting to kind of feel out their stride there a little bit. So been pretty cool. So uh I hope we have a good season. They have a good season. Hope we uh big thing is keeping everybody healthy and keeping the pitchers fresh, you know, because we don't throw we don't throw any pitcher over 65 pitches.
SPEAKER_01So you got a pitch count?
SPEAKER_00Got a pitch count. 65 pitches is a max. We don't go over that to keep everybody fresh. That's why we we uh bring them in, you know. I usually go between 50 and 60 for my starter. And then when I bring a reliever in, I might go 30 or 40. You know, it just depends. Uh you know, where we're at. I mean.
SPEAKER_01So there's no chance of a complete game.
SPEAKER_00Unless you go out and, you know, you well, you could, I mean, uh technically I guess you could. You could go out and you know, do your 65 pitches and you know, get a 10-run rule in the fifth inning, you know, and uh you can do it that way, you know, and maybe hit right at 60, 65 pitches. It's it's uh pretty possible. Titchener come pretty close his first game. You know, he got to the fourth inning and got to 60 pitches, and I took him out, but he could have he could have got there. Uh you know, just uh, you know, first pitch of the season it hit a guy and he scored. You know, usually we tell them if you hit a batter or you walk a batter, you know, they're gonna, you know, usually that about 80% chance that that runner's gonna score. Oh, she's got a backup camera.
SPEAKER_01Sure God it does.
SPEAKER_00I don't know, look at the dent in the side of the band. Yeah. I'm gonna honk my horn and scream, look out! Yeah, but anyway, yeah, so I'm hoping to have a hoping to have a good year. They won 11 games last year, and I'd like to win more than that. So I think we've got like 18 games scheduled, so shit. It's just funny that by the end of next week we'll be almost halfway through our season in two weeks.
SPEAKER_01So question.
SPEAKER_00Kind of crazy. Yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01It's the first time you've coached.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_01What was you thinking? Your first game. Have you ever been overwhelmed?
SPEAKER_00Uh no, last night, I not overwhelmed. I mean, I know baseball. You know, I've been an umpire for 20 years, so I know the rules and the regulations. It's just uh, you know, managing the kids. I mean, if I if I had to come in and not known any of these kids, like I say, like like the varsity coach, you know, he came from, you know, he was the uh he was the hitting coach for the Evansville Lauders, but he's not from here, he's from Indianapolis. But if I'd have been like that, I would have come down here and I'd have not known any of these kids. But as practice went along and found out, you know, I know sorry for the background noise. Uh Jake Tester, I know Jake, you know, and you know uh Dill Pickle, Kipton Dill, you know, found, you know, that you know, his his mom is, you know, the daughter of a kid we grew up, went to school with, and just getting to know some of these other ones, you know, Tywitton with him, you know, I know his Uncle Casey. And you know, just you get to know, well, hell I know that I know this person, I know that person, you know, just like you know, I had no idea that Kellen Lewis's mom was, you know, Jar's daughter. You know, I just, you know, but and it makes you eat feel at ease as you get to know, man, the varsity guys, you know, I know a lot of those, you know, their parents and stuff like that and their family. So it that that made it a little bit easier, but I wasn't overwhelmed, but I was nervous just because you don't know and making the making the decisions and decisions. Yeah. But it's also easy when you go out in your first three games, you run roll them. Yeah. And you don't have to, and there's not really much uh uh not really much, you know, any by inning decisions in a game like that. You know, you beat your you beat the first team 18 to 2. I mean, you know, there's really not much. I think the biggest thing you gotta worry about is getting your subs in there. That's it, you know. Does everybody play? Uh we try to get everybody in there. Uh I got one kid I didn't get in last night, and uh just just for the fact I couldn't get him in the way the game went and the way the lineup was. Uh he's not as good as hitters, the guy that I moved from first to third. So uh, you know, it is what it is. But most of the time they uh you know play that kid that pitched, not the not the last, not Dill, but the kid that pitched before that. Uh Sexton, he got a you know, he went one for one the other night up at uh Washington, you know, put him in a game, and damn, RBI single right off the bat. So I mean they all contribute, every one of these kids is contributing. Like I said, they're all freshmen and they're they are hitting the ball and contributing. But I will say that's the first time they saw left-handers.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Last night was the first time that they saw uh left-handed batters, and then you bring in a reliever and it's left-handed, and you know, a guy had a pretty good nut curveball. Both of them had pretty good curve balls. But you know, a couple of times through the lineup, they started timing him up, and you know, and like I said, like you were saying, we hit the ball hard. It just damn, every time we'd smoke a ball, it would be you know right at somebody. You know, we couldn't get nothing down, you know.
SPEAKER_01No, I I was impressed with the young pitching. Yeah, so I think the future's bright.
SPEAKER_00As long as I keep playing. Yeah. So last night was a little, you know, I wasn't overwhelmed, it's just, you know, you gotta make decisions on the fly, you know, what am I gonna do? You know, it's just because of the pitch count, you know. You wanna save the kids' arms.
SPEAKER_01I I know nothing, uh I know not that much about baseball, but I mean I know I know baseball over on, but yeah. When you walked the kid the last, I was saying he needs to walk him because they already had runner on and they were already up a run, two runs.
SPEAKER_00Now that's that next guy, and he didn't want to hit the double down the third baseline.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so but he had not hit the ball all night long.
SPEAKER_00Oh, he'd pop up the center field twice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so you you take your you do you you take your chance with a kid that's not hit the ball all night long as opposed to the kid that just wrecked one 380 feet.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm walking him both times coming up. Yeah, so you just gotta take that chance. And, you know, the sextant kid doesn't throw hard. He's got a good curveball, you know, and bringing him in after uh titching her through, titching her through a little bit harder. Got a really nasty curve ball. So you bring in somebody that throws 10, 12 mile an hour slower, you know, their timing was off for an inning.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And if he'd have picked that guy off at first base, yeah, if that throw would have been a little bit higher, he had that guy dead to right. That got us out of the inning.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, that would they get that that might have changed the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01It was a good move on his part as far as pick-off throw.
SPEAKER_00And he's a good kid. I like all the kids. Uh, you know, they're you know, they're having, and I didn't, you know, I guess there was a parent that made a comment that they like how I coach, how I go out and coragulate the kids and whether they, you know, meet them out of the thing. That's what you're supposed to do. That's how you keep the kids engaged and keep them pumped up and keep them playing hard.
SPEAKER_01I always told my parents when I coached football that, you know, I coached from first grade up to 12th seniors.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_01I told the parents every time, I'm gonna be the loudest one on the field getting on your kid, but I'm also gonna be the loudest one on your field on the field when I'm congratulating them. We're doing something right. I'm gonna let them know. That's the way you just gotta pick your spots with certain kids.
SPEAKER_00So and it's you know, it's it's mine's a little different because, you know, I was in the army for 30 plus years, and if you discipline a soldier, you don't do it in front of other soldiers. You take them to the side and you talk to them. That's the way I've always lived. And you know, a couple of kids made mistakes last night, and I met them out of the line and put my hands on their shoulders and said, hey, you know, do this next time, or you know, keep your head up. You know, I'm not gonna berate them in front of the uh other players. It just don't work that way. Like I know her. Uh so anyway, yeah, so I I guess one of the parents told my wife that, you know, that was kind of cool to see a coach doing that and not just constantly, you know, hollering at him out on the field and all that. Now we had to holler at one guy, you know, because uh one of their runs shouldn't have scored because a first baseman decided to play behind him and not hold him on. Right. And he stole the base, and he's the one that scored on that double. So, you know, they gave him that one-run lead, and you know, that kind of hurt us a little bit, but uh pitchers are not real good at holding, not all of them.
SPEAKER_01So young kids.
SPEAKER_00But again, they're 14, 15-year-olds, and uh, you know, they're playing baseball.
SPEAKER_01Still learning.
SPEAKER_00Still learning, and like I said, skip system is uh, you know, it's taking me three or four months just to, you know, get down what they're doing because it's you know, it's not just come out there and hit ground balls, take BP, and you know, you have strategies, you know, for first and third, first first and second, you know, second and third, what you know we want the kids to do. And first three games I didn't do any of that because they scored so damn quick. And you know, last night, you know, I had to, you know, play a little strategy, and you know, and plus, you know, first three games we played, they had, you know, the catchers couldn't get the ball to second. So we could steal on them all night long. Last night I had to take pick my spots because catcher had a decent arm. So and you know, I I just you know, you know, you got to hit and run in certain spots, you gotta bunt, you know, different things, you know, and so you know, it was it was it was it was a learning experience last night for me and the kids, and you know, and you know, I don't know, that might be the best team we play all year.
SPEAKER_01I mean I I I I told somebody in the crowd last night I said that probably will be the best team you and going into it. You hear Barb Reap you think baseball or basketball, yeah. Yep what it that's what they do there, so they're they're good in baseball, and you're in, you're out, and I'm sure the young guys ain't no there are no difference. But all in all, I'm pressed. Like I said, I don't that's probably the first time in 20 years I've been to a baseball game.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was cool. All right, well, we're gonna end there, and we might come back on and do another one later. But you guys have a good night. Have a good evening.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
