Pitching Machines, Walk-Offs, and Chaos: 'Mike's Wrong...However, Mike's Also Not Wrong'

This week on the Walk-Ons Podcast, featuring Oakland University Coach Brian Nelson, the guys kick things off with a deceptively simple question… is baseball actually the hardest sport to explain? What starts as a quick story turns into a hilarious and surprisingly real breakdown of just how layered the game can be. 

From there, it’s a full sweep across college baseball — all levels, all divisions. From Power Five matchups to D3 and JUCO storylines, they cover the teams, players, and moments that stood out this week. 

Michigan makes noise with a statement series win over a ranked Oregon team behind dominant pitching, while Michigan State finds itself in a tough spot despite flashes of big-time production. The guys highlight key performances across the board, including hot bats, breakout arms, and under-the-radar names you should be paying attention to. 

They also touch on a unique midweek matchup featuring pitching machines, the tightening conference races, and what it all means as the postseason picture starts to take shape across every level of the game. 

Plus, an interview with Oakland head coach Brian Nelson… where one of the guys gets put on the spot without warning. 

You already know who.

Write in at thewalkonscast@gmail.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello, everybody. Welcome into another episode of the Walk-Ons podcast. We talk college baseball. Doug, if you're watching, is not here right now. He'll join us in a little bit with some scheduling stuff. He's here for this. He's going to give you your D3 and Chuco. Yeah, of course we can make fun of him. But a couple housekeeping things before we get started. One, we have reassigned Jay. So Jay did not do his homework again. So never going to do my homework. So we brought the homework to the show. He is now, as Mike calls it, the look it up guy. Yep. I think it's great. I think it's pretty good. I look shit up. That's exactly what I needed for.

SPEAKER_05 0:37

And it was clear your cookies before you look things up, and then we're good.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

And it was great because in our interview today, we have uh Oakland head coach Brian Nelson on later. In that interview, he put Jay on the spot, and we didn't even tell him to. It just happened naturally that Jay got put on the spot. And we're not a bad first impression, still looking for improvement. Definitely. You're going to be looking for improvement probably most of the time. So, okay, one other thing before we got started, I had a situation where I think it was actually a couple weeks ago, and I didn't think about it because, you know, you grow up with baseball, and by the time you're like six, you know, six to eight years old, you kind of just have absorbed the knowledge in the general aspect of the game. Well, I was working a game and I think it was an international student came into the box and they were supposed to work the uh scoreboard, like it was a student worker, and they looked at uh their boss and goes, I literally know nothing about baseball. Not like I don't know the rule, like no, I know like didn't understand balls and strikes.

SPEAKER_06 1:39

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

And then that brought me around to is baseball the most complicated game to explain to someone with zero knowledge? Because football is fairly simple. Get ball in end zone. You have four tries to hit a checkpoint, essentially. And penalties and tackle somebody if they're running with it. When they hit the ground, the play's over and they reset. Basketball, the the the orange thing in the round thing, get points. Hockey and soccer, put thing in net. Yep. Baseball, it's well you hit okay. And it feels like even to people that know baseball, there's situations that they run scored, but that was the third out.

SPEAKER_05 2:19

What the hell is yeah?

SPEAKER_00 2:20

But a lot of people still think what you're saying, it's throwball hit ball. Yeah, no, I a lot of people don't realize there's a ton more going on than throwball hitball.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Like it's well, why was that a strike? Well, because the umpire thought they could hit it. Well, what's the strike zone? And then like, because they're natural follow-up questions that you go, oh my god, I've never had to explain this to someone before. Where any other sport, it's fairly simple, right? Puck in net, ball in net, ball in hoop.

SPEAKER_05 2:46

Yeah, yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Run in end zone.

SPEAKER_05 2:48

So I obviously you know I'm a father. That was like when my kids were little, that's the shit I thought about, which is terrible, right? I wasn't thinking about, hey, are they gonna go to school and learn this? And I was like, how am I gonna explain to Tommy on why we move a runner over on third with less than two hours?

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Mike give us the highlights.

SPEAKER_05 3:49

Unbelievable pitching, pitching, pitching, and pitching. I know they won 10-0, but game game one, left-handed pitcher, Shane Bringham, freshman, went seven innings, three hits, zero runs, seven K's, and no walks, zero walks. There we go. Against freaking Oregon. So good for him. No, Noah Miller in game one, local kid, two for three with three ribbies and a jack. And I told you guys every week I'm gonna tell you what Colby Turner did because I can figure this kid out. Second baseman Colby Turner went one for three with two ribbies.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

He might put a like a restraint order against you because it feels like the second the the social media admin for U of M baseball types in Colby, you're like retweeting it.

SPEAKER_05 4:34

I love you, Colby. Well, here's here's what's cool. I sent um Coach Stone a text this morning just to kind of validate like I didn't miss it. You know how it is looking at box scores just in case I didn't miss. We were almost like spot on. He goes, Shane shoved, Kurt Barr game two shoved, David Lally game three shoved, and then he gave me a couple stats. So game two, Kurt Barr did what he always does. He is six innings pitch with nine K's. Uh Evan Hager, local product, two for four with a riby, Kobe Turner, one for four with a run. Game three, David Lally, another local kid, six inning pitch, one urn and five K's and three walks. Here's a cool part about game three. I don't know if you saw it or not, but DH Cooper Mullins. Do you know the name? Yeah. Walk off, two ribbie walk off. His dad is the athletic director at Oregon. Yeah, that's cool. How freaking cool is that? You're at Michigan against Oregon.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Well, it's I mean, it's more awkward for the dad than it is the kid.

SPEAKER_05 5:40

Well, like I don't know anything about the kid. I'm gonna learn a little bit more about him, but like from a recruiting perspective, I imagine.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

I imagine there was not the fill night money to your kid.

SPEAKER_05 5:50

No, but I'm saying I imagine there was happened there. I imagine they recruited him. Or if they didn't, and then he does that.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

You're gonna have to find the story behind that.

SPEAKER_05 5:59

Really freaking cool. So again, uh one thing I did want to highlight is Colby Colby Turner's season stats. He's batting, I talk about him every week, and he had a I guess we'll say an off weekend for him. He was he's batting 373 with 44 hits and 28 RBIs. 373 in the Big Ten with that schedule. Pretty impressive. Michigan's uh 16 and 14 with a 5 and 7 uh conference.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Hold the records real quick. I want to get to it after Michigan State Um because they only took one of three from Northwestern. Real quick, they did beat the Lanceen lug nuts, and I'll say that is a midweek that does not matter.

SPEAKER_05 6:36

Did you see who pitched? Everybody? No. Take a guess. Who? You're not gonna get it. No, who hack attacks. They used pitching machines.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Did they really? Yeah, yeah. There was well that makes sense because Lansing does you don't want to waste any.

SPEAKER_05 6:53

It was Lansing's first game, I think. The lug nuts didn't even, you know, they were just reporting.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

They're probably leaving extended spring training. No, that makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_05 7:02

Yeah, it was kind of cool. I think what they did is they gave like six outs per inning or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

So really, I mean, the score it's a scrimmage, but I just wanted to mention it did happen. Um, so anyway, state one of three from Northwestern.

SPEAKER_05 7:16

Yeah, it was tough. I'm not gonna have too many stats for this one. It was it was a little disappointing. Um, it it felt like they had them in all three, I think. It was pretty close, but um game one on their win. This Aiden Donovan kid is for real. Eight innings pitched, five hits, one run, two K's, and no walks, no walks for Aiden Donovan against Northware. They won five to one. Here's one of the things I told you about the offense. There are 11 hits spread out through the offense. Uh Isaac Sturgis and Kamari Thomas had two hits. So there's the stats for the win. Again, game two, they lost 10-9. Game three, they lost eight, six. Uh, a couple things about game two. Uh uh Randy Seymour and Kamari Thomas had three hits each. You're starting to hear the same names pop up. Yep. Uh Randy Seymour and CJ Decking are my favorite freshman, uh, had a home run each in that game. And then the 10-9 loss in game two. Uh game three, I have a note here, Bright Spot with quotes. Noah Bright went freaking nuts. He's he's, I guess, what you'd consider the backup catcher, but he's a veteran. He went five for five. That's a pretty good with a home run, two ribies, and two runs. So, like, good for you, Noah, kid that's been grinding it out for years. Um, season stats for Randy Seymour. We are getting to this point where I'm gonna pick out some season stats, kids. Uh, he's up to 11 bombs and 32 ribies. If he gets like I think Jelly told me, I think the season record is like 18 or 19.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

He can get he's in the ballpark, but he I wouldn't say he's on pace. He's a halfway point.

SPEAKER_05 8:54

Yep, he's been going nuts, and I think episode one for us, I think I mentioned he might be a draft prospect.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Yeah, I do remember that.

SPEAKER_05 9:02

Like, I think he's gonna be one of those guys. So up next for them, they're at Notre Dame on Wednesday, and then big stuff this weekend, they're at home versus Michigan.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

And the series that actually counts towards. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:16

Yeah, the weekends, yep, the weekends count, and it's gonna be a big one. I mean, I'll hold off on the rest.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Especially because Jay, pull up the standings. Top 12 teams make the Big Ten tournament. Great call. And right now, Michigan is just in, Michigan State is out. But if you look, it is a cluster from like six to thirteen or something.

SPEAKER_05 9:35

So, Jay, you gotta start having some feel. Like you gotta start realizing shit, I should probably have this up already. Are you around six milligram or three milligrams? I have it up, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Okay, so I'm looking at the cluster here. All right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

All right, well, tell us about the cluster.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

So the cluster, I mean, Iowa five and seven, Michigan five and seven, northwestern five and seven, Rutgers five and seven, Indiana and Michigan State. So last year.

SPEAKER_05 10:00

So last year it was between Northwestern and Michigan State for that last spot, and it came down to the series. So that's why this series, this past weekend, was Northwestern State.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

So head to head is the first tiebreaker.

SPEAKER_05 10:13

That's what they said on the on the screen when I was watching. So that was on the screen.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

He says like he's a 1940s.

SPEAKER_05 10:20

What do you want me to say?

SPEAKER_02 10:21

I don't know if I was watching it on my last. I can't remember. On the on the stream on the broadcast. Broadcast, there you go. Anyway, the five and seven starts, Iowa, you mentioned them. They are uh quick math, it looks like eighth in the in the big tour.

SPEAKER_05 10:36

They don't put numbers on there, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:37

You've got to do it.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

They're nine. Indiana's 13th. So Rutgers is the cutoff line at 12 right now.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

And the they've played um three less games than Michigan State, but they only have to win one of the three. So Michigan State is gonna have to pick some up because just get in the conference tournament, give yourself the chance.

SPEAKER_05 10:54

So what happens this weekend? What's the what's okay? So Michigan State is five and ten. Michigan is five and seven.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:03

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

This is a big anticipation. Yeah, I think.

SPEAKER_05 11:06

No, this is big. I should take out a way. This is big, and I think we got some rain coming, so watch out for a little bit. It's just bad weather. But just watch out for a switch of rule. They might go to Ann Arbor. They might just say, hey, let's just go to Ann Arbor State.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Um, the Mac. Central takes two or three from Western. I was not expecting this. Western was rolling. Now, when we get to the conference, I it feels like the conference is starting to sort itself out, but I was not expecting Central to take two or three. I'd consider that an upset.

SPEAKER_05 11:35

They can play, man. Like Central has some dudes, they just got to get their shit together. And it sounds like they're starting to. I I did like a like a mix and match here because they played each other. Yeah. So game one, CMU eight, Western seven. Uh cool part I wanted to note. You'll recognize this name because you used to pay attention to Mooney back in the day, but freshman Cam Neehouse, I think he was uh Richard kid. Yeah, the Maroon one. Was he Maroon? Or was he Divine Child? Was he Gabriel Richard?

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Mike, you're in that coached in the league. Either way, I thought you would know. He got his first He looks at me like, oh yeah, you know, you talked about our team. You must know the team we played.

SPEAKER_05 12:13

Do you remember what I did? I go, All right, Bastion, you're pitching. All right, Lutzky, you're pitching. I'd sit on a bucket and we'd we'd win. I mean, people think, oh, what a good coach. We had we had players that I'm sorry, dude. Like I couldn't remember.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

So uh numbers by the number. Yeah. You say their number, he'll remember.

SPEAKER_05 12:31

No, not even. No, I said I literally said, All right, Tommy Gill, go pitch and wake me up in the sixth. Yeah, well. Um, no, Cam Neehouse is a freshman. We got his first career, career win. Um one thing I wanted to highlight. That's what I want to highlight, game one. I mean, big big time win for CMU.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Well, because Central just got swept by Eastern, right? Yeah, so so they were coming off in Eastern had we'll get to them in a second.

SPEAKER_05 12:55

But so game two, Western beat Central nine-eight. Um winning pitchers, Ty Tomlinson, uh Turner Doran got his sixth save of the season in that. Okay. And who do you think I'm gonna mention for uh Western? Oh, yeah, uh Mason Polarski, two for two with a double and a run. Um infielder Josh now like 4'9. No, he's not. He's he's he's doing his job. Like as a freshman, uh, he's probably 230, 240, but playing exceptional D. And again, you see these every once in a while, but uh infielder Josh Poblinski, pinch hit grand slam to tie it. And and Polar Polarski ended up scoring the run next on an error. But um, I see a lot of pinch hit grannies late. We should probably add those up. Seems like it. I mean does that sound funny? Pinch hit grannies.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

I was waiting for Jay to like I want Jay to be locked in to look it up, but I also want him to still be able to catch when it sounds what do you think so far, Jay?

SPEAKER_05 13:52

You doing are you liking this or no? I think it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

All right, he just gives the one when a funny thing comes in his head, don't lose. Don't lose what I just said.

SPEAKER_05 13:59

Pinch hit grand slams.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Yeah, no, that's nuts.

SPEAKER_05 14:02

Big time. So game game three, uh, Central beat western six to three. Um I'm not gonna say this last name, and I should know how to do it, but I know his nickname. So Gavin Muzzy. For a second.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

I thought we I was thinking it was gonna be one of the NAI names we talked about.

SPEAKER_05 14:18

No, no, no, no, no, no. So Gavin, Gavin Mazelowski, they call him Muzzy.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Sounded pretty good to me.

SPEAKER_05 14:23

Yeah, yeah. He went five innings, zero runs, one walk, four K's. Um, he started that game, didn't get the win, but here's another name you hear every week. Are you laughing? Are you having that high school?

SPEAKER_06 14:34

Yeah, I'm not doing it.

SPEAKER_05 14:35

So left fielder uh Cole Prout, who I think is gonna be probably a next level guy, like whether it's US PBL or something, he went two for three with five ribies and a grand slam to take the lead. Um, one note, Tanner Malley, who you guys have probably seen some stuff on him, uh he's leading the nation with five at batting five ten.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Five like no matter what you go three for six on a day, you've made yourself worse.

SPEAKER_05 15:05

He's he's 50 for 98. That's better than three for six, dude. But no, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Like, if you could say if you were to only go 500, you're doing worse than what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

You go, damn it, my average went down.

SPEAKER_05 15:17

Yeah, so but but here's what CMU did. They they held him to two for twelve for the series.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Pretty good.

SPEAKER_05 15:23

And he's still batting five ten.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

So yeah. So good. So um Eastern, we won't have to spend a lot of time on it. They got uh smacked by Toledo, they gave up 39 runs, and they're if you can see this, this this is CMU Western, and they have this. Yeah, just just it should have just been sad face.

SPEAKER_05 15:42

Because they were playing really well, they were, and I'm pumped up for Trevor Beerman. Like he's he's gonna be really good. Um, a couple guys Toledo's solid, aren't they? They are, they are they're chirpy though.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

Are they? Yeah, if you remember that second in the conference. Oh, that was the one that Central wanted to fight.

SPEAKER_05 15:57

Yeah, and they're getting chirpy. You I've heard it from multiple people, not from CMU. Um, Bruce Jellison is a kid that I'm looking at for the US PBL. Bruce, if you're listening, I'm looking at you. He he's five for ten with a homer this weekend. So good job for Bruce. And another kid we're gonna start seeing pop up for Eastern is uh Keegan Knupp, K-N-U-P. Uh he played the last two games of the series. He's a freshman, so three for six with two ribies for him.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Way to go, Canupp.

SPEAKER_05 16:26

Canup, nup, canup. Sure. Uh up next for them, they're at Michigan today, which is Monday. So I don't know. You probably know what's going on there. And then they're at home versus UMass, which I'm kind of curious. UMass sucks. Yeah, I know, but I'm kind of curious to just go see UMass. I wonder if like John Calipari runs around there still.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

UMass? You're not even old enough to do that. I know, I know, but like UMass sucks. Yep. I think have they won a Mac game yet, Jay? UMass? Yes. Let's see. So or are they just US?

SPEAKER_00 16:55

In the conference, they're 2 and 13. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

So sorry, they won two. I'll hopefully Easter back. If Easter can pull off a nice sweep and eliminate that, um Oakland was on a bye because the Horizon League's a five-team league. Uh, they just didn't have a game in a series this weekend, so they had a bye week. Yeah, they tried to get some in, right? But they got rain, I think. Uh, they might have had a midweek or two that got rained out, but um they have five home games this week, two of which have happened by the time you uh listen to this. They played played Toledo on Tuesday, Rochester Christian on Wednesday, and then a three-game set with Milwaukee on uh over the weekend. Are they at home? Yeah, they're all five are at home. Oh, okay. All five are at home, so they get a nice uh nice deal of home games.

SPEAKER_05 17:38

We'll have to make it out there Sunday if Green's pitching Sunday. I'm hoping he's pitching Fridays. But we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

I don't I don't think you're gonna get that. Um in the Gliak had a big series between Wayne State and Grand Valley. They actually get a split. And this was one of the bigger series, I'd say, in the country in D2. Uh game one, G V just got on top. Will Lowry, the the the front guy for Wayne State, did not have it. However, his weekend wouldn't be done. We'll get back to him in a minute. But uh G V was up eight-nothing before there was an out in the second inning. You're just dead. Wayne State's bulletpen held them to nothing, but um, outside of one uh bomb, it was eight to two. Braden Crow had the lone home run. He actually hit a home running game two to win it three to one, and Gavin Nash pitched like an absolute dog in that one. Uh, you remember his name because he had to go after Will Lowry when he threw the no-hitter, and then he got out dueled by Davenport uh in a game, an uncharacteristically low-scoring game there, so they had split. Uh, that was the first game of a doubleheader. The second game, uh, Grand Valley got on top. There was like 15 hit batters and walks for Wayne State pitching. And I will tell that say this about Grand Valley. Their lineup is just stupid. Jay, pull up uh Wayne's schedule while Brady's go ahead. Like Grand Valley's lineup is just stupid because I will tell you, oh, real quick, game four, Wayne State ended up going to win 10 to 8. They were up seven to one, and I was doing the game, and I just went, nope, don't feel comfortable. Do not feel comfortable.

SPEAKER_05 19:14

Randomly random here. I'm gonna say the field looked freaking awesome. Oh, Harwell fields. Did they paint the fence or something? Like no, they just arcade green monster.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Yeah, it's it's looked like that the last few years. It's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_05 19:27

Doug, Doug and I went to the Sunday game because you know, say was it Saturday? Saturday. Yeah, we weren't there any, sir. So what do you want to know about? Well, real quick, Doug and I went and I went and introduced him to Coach Kelly. Yeah. Doug like proceeds to walk on the field. You know how Coach Kelly's kind of like intimidating?

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Like anybody else, like you know it's funny with Coach Kelly, and I'm sure if he's listening, he'll yeah, he'll have to say something. Like when you see him outside the field without the hat, like he looks he's al he has a smile when he meets you and he's very presentable. He's always like that. He's just intimidating. But on the baseball field with the hat, because he wears his hat low and and he he looks a little more intimidating than he is. Like he's he's mine and Jay's age. Right.

SPEAKER_05 20:07

And what we this is how we wear our hats. Right.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Well, Jay, if you pull up the picture of him on your laptop, you'll see we've got a big smile. We're not pulling up pictures of each other.

SPEAKER_05 20:17

We're giving Jay some go back to the Now I'm looking at the schedule. Yeah, go back to the schedule. So anyway, Doug walked on the field and I was like, Doug, what are you doing? Get back in. He goes, I literally put one foot on the field and I got scared because I'm just I just I got a lot of respect for him and he's intimidating. So we're when does Wayne play um Davenport? They already did. They already that was last damn it. Yeah, Mike who won that they split it with split. Yeah, um so Saginaw will be my next one.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Saginaw is this week, and then they have the last two are Purdue Northwest and Roosevelt. They've already played their tough part. Um Wayne's or Grand Valley, this Caleb Estrada kid's a problem. Yeah. Third baseman? Yeah, yeah. He hit three bombs. One was to center field that cleared by 15 feet. The other was an opposite field bat flipper. Like one was jets, but he's he's a he's a dude. Evan Morrison at the top of the lineup, he's the one hitting like 450 right now. He's one of the top uh average hitters in the country. Um, and then this Aiden Van Eckenvoort kid at the at the nine-hole, I think he walked or got hit by a pitch like seven times in the series. He was what every coach's wet dream is for a nine-hole hitter in this series. Grand Valley's one of those lineups, and Mike, I'm sure you know about it. Like when you're playing a team and you're like, okay, you know, sometimes if you get through the three, four, five. Two five, man. You feel like, okay, I have an inning and a half before I have to worry. Yep. You've gotten maybe one batter. And the bad ones for Grand Valley are aren't quote unquote bad. They're just not as high level. You might be even younger, like the younger guy. Okay, you're gonna bat fourth next year. It's ridiculous. But Wayne State absolutely Battle, like I said. Gavin Nash, I wrote down pitch like a dirtbag. There you go. I like it. I mean, he just it's hard to describe, but it's something even Coach Kelly told me. Like, yeah, his competitiveness. Wait a second. So you talk to Coach Kelly before games? Oh, yeah. We have a pregame interview every time.

SPEAKER_05 22:18

You gotta start that. You gotta start there with Coach Nelson.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

I don't broadcast the game. Doesn't matter. Anyway, um, there was a play in game two. So Rhett Rosier, Delus Alki, right? Um kid's been a stud his whole career. He Evan Morris and the kid I just mentioned for Grand Valley's at the plate. Uh, I think runners are on there's a runner on second. I think it's a three to one game of the game. What is Rhett playing? He's at third. Okay. Barrels one up going down the line, right? Rhett has to jump to try to go across the body. Backhand, as you're backhand, hits him in the face. Off the mitt? Or I it might have clipped. It got him pretty flush. Like his nose was bleeding. I bet he still picked up the ball. This is where I'm going with it. Ball's rolling foul. He looks up, goes, I gotta go get the ball. Like he takes a step towards it, sees Nash off the mound, runs to get it, and then he goes, You could tell he just kind of went, All right, fuck, I'm gonna sit down for a second. He's a grinder kid. Oh, he stays in the game. Yeah, like they look at him, uh, making sure more so that his brain isn't scrambled. Like he had like three of those cotton plugs in his one nostril, one in the other. No way to look cool with that. No way. I mean you look cool by coming back out there. Yes, no, absolutely. Here's the thing. So this is a five-minute delay. Then I do laugh at RK for this. He goes and has a mound visit after a little something. Yeah. I was like, come on. Um, next batter, ground ball right to to Rhett, goes on the backhand, throws it a little off, and and Bennett Hitzelberger, the first baseman, goes backhand across and like toe taps down to get the final out. And yes, no, it was it was awesome. I did feel bad for Rhett. He came up a little limp on a um ground ball in the second game of that doubleheader, so he didn't play. Uh Caleb Sanders also threw a guy out of the plate. He was awesome. Right fielder? Left fielder. Well, a corner outfielder. Okay, yeah. Corner outfielder, the Edison kid. Um, and then uh in game four, when Wayne State won, it was Ty Garza had was four for five. I did not know he was there.

SPEAKER_05 24:32

He's one of the he was one of the best high school middle infielders I've seen. Like right when I got there, I'm like, who the hell is this guy? And uh Jason Hill, because it's Garza. His dad played at Michigan.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

Well, and Drew Hill hit a hit a uh bat flip bomb to uh to secure it.

SPEAKER_05 24:49

He couldn't even walk in that game.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

Did you know that?

SPEAKER_05 24:53

His right knee. But he looks like he's playing wiffle ball. It's so easy for him at the plate.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

If he's healthy if he's healthy, he's the I I got on the broadcast. I don't want to say it got on him, but like he made a mistake. It was 3-0, Wayne State had some momentum, and he chased a pitch and popped out. And it was just a like That was his one out. Yes, and it was a you know, you expect more it, you know, if it's a pitch down the middle, no, okay, but he chased it and you go, okay, next bang, next at bat, bang.

SPEAKER_05 25:23

Okay, so you know what was going on with the 3-0 count. What was that? How was there anybody on base? Uh he's completely useless standing on first base. True. Like they were doing, they hit him previously. I don't know if you remember that he got hit. Yeah, and he got pissed because he got hit in the ribs because he's raking and then he can't run right now. So, like, I I'm fine with a three-o.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

But still, it was just funny because it was a little bit like, okay, you gotta figure that one out. I've had too much water. You and Jay have fun. All right, you go pee, and me and Jay will keep talking. Um bladder do you have? Jeez, oh, Pete. You can't go with your P. So um that's a big one, though, because if you look at the Gleak standings, that was the second loss for G V. Yeah. And they haven't played as many games. So Grand Valley, Wayne State, Davenport, and Saginaw are all in the thick of the race. Yep. If you look at it right now, because Davenport and Saginaw Valley, they split the one game uh that wasn't delayed. Actually, the um other game's right there. Yeah, should have been playing today uh before we recorded this. Uh and as I check that, um, it looks like uh Davenport won game one of the uh delayed game tonight, and it should be playing right now or has been played. Uh we're we're gonna find out live with everyone. So Davenport took at least two, um, maybe three uh in the series. So uh, but no, it's it it's an absolute cluster in the Gliak, real quick. Um, of the numbers we had uh for that one. Um Lucas Mead had a three-hit, three RBI day for Saginaw Valley. Uh Jacob Pitt had four RBIs in the win um for Saginaw. Uh and a name I said last week that's come up a lot. Dylan Powinski uh hit a bomb and had three RBIs in the game one win as they split the initial doubleheader. Uh and right now, wow, they're actually still playing out. Um They're actually still playing Davenport and Saginaw Valley. Davenport took game one of the the rescheduled doubleheader, and it's 6'6 in the ninth right now. Okay. So we'll we'll update that live uh when we get that. So if I didn't have any stats from that, that's because it happened as we were basically recording. Uh in the G Mac, Northwood took took uh three of four from Splitzdale. Um so Northwood Stop that. I will why why is he getting so did they do? Did they split? No, they just said they took three of four.

SPEAKER_05 27:54

Listen, you put it on the bottom. I was trying to open up my citrus chill.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

Um, no, they took three of four uh in that one. Um uh here's an all-name uh candidate. Guard Swenson for Hillsdale had a bomb uh in that one for uh Northwood, uh Evan Larson and Brennan uh Hallman combined for six of the seven hits in game three. And uh, you know what? I can pull up that uh game four. You know, you do it, Jay. Pull up the uh Northwood schedule and see what the final was. I know they were up seven-nothing, so I was premature and saying asking a lot for me here. Just type in Northwood baseball schedule.

SPEAKER_05 28:32

Brady, have you been seeing Nar in any of the stats?

SPEAKER_02 28:35

Uh I figure out a few burger. He wasn't um no, I don't think he's been in the lineup. Oh, wait, sorry, I actually have it right here, um, Jay. So you you are excused. Yeah, they ended up winning nine to five, so they took three or four um from Hillsdale. Uh and then uh yeah, that's uh about what we had for that. Um and then we're gonna skip around, go to the whack before Doug gets in. Um pull up the whack standings because Cleary is Cleary and Madonna are the two teams that I think have a chance in there. They're making moves.

SPEAKER_05 29:09

They gotta make moves, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Indiana Tech and Northwest Ohio are pretty good. Um Cleary took, and there's a lot of reigned out games. So some teams played two less, some teams play four touchdowns, some teams played none at all. Cleary took two against uh Lawrence Tech in the two that did play. Brendan Simon again in the win, three RBIs, and pitched five and two-thirds as well.

SPEAKER_05 29:31

So probably throwing in the 90s.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

Yeah, it was a two-way uh player. Bryce Wesley had a three-hit game. Uh Justin Baird had six hits and four RBIs for uh Lawrence Tech in the series. So they they lost the double header, but a bright spot there. And uh Landon Campanion with a three-run bomb in the uh second win for Cleary in the four or three games. So we got Jay pulling up the standings or no? Yeah, he's getting there because um yeah, you have the wax standing, you have it in the trade. You know what's amazing is you look at I looked it up, you had to check. Um, but Madonna, they took two of the first three versus Rochester, and you can tell me if this is not fair, but I'm gonna say a little bit disappointing because Rochester is down, and if Madonna wants to win a league, you have to take all three.

SPEAKER_05 30:23

I was surprised when you just said Well, because here are the scores.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

Game one, Madonna wins 16-4. Game two, they win 23-0. And then they lose five to two.

SPEAKER_05 30:33

Are these, by the way, in I wonder are they stopping at seven innings in NAIA or are they going in the full nine when the I believe the double headers are uh I like you know how you know how even in the Big Ten, if it's 10-0 in the seven.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

They have run rules, yes. Okay, they have run rules. Um uh Amir Mitchell had two more bombs. Jesus guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Start getting on them for US PBL.

SPEAKER_05 30:55

Well, here's I think he has here's what we're gonna have to pay attention to this offseason.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:02

He's I think he's only a junior. And this is when we're gonna find we're probably gonna be having some conversations about transfer portal. Where is this guy gonna go? I mean, we're up to like 17 boxes. I mean, he yeah, and in and that's a place you can go play four years and still get drafted, but you know how people are, right? How do you think? Yeah, so he I think he's an outfielder.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

They're enlisted as no position.

SPEAKER_05 31:30

Um, he's an out, he's playing outfield. He can just freaking leave.

SPEAKER_02 31:34

Yeah, absolute dude. Um, I did want to give a shout out to uh Matthew Redman because after giving his team gave up 39 runs in the first two games, he goes seven innings, two walks, 10 K's in the win for uh Rochester Christian in game uh in game three of that series, which again for Madonna, when you want to topple those teams that have been at the top of the uh the the whack for so long, you have to real quick, they were playing game three or game four as we were uh recording, and they lost three to one to Rochester. Yeah. Man, oh man. So that's that's a tough split? Yes, they split with Rochester, and that puts them how many games back of uh Northwestern Ohio. Who are we talking about? We got Stanley.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

They have an easy spot for Stan Air. I'm looking at this, and Madonna is not even listed on this. Let me see what you call me crazy.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Look it up, guy. You're in the GMAC, not the Northwood in there.

SPEAKER_05 32:38

No, they're the they're a GMAC. Yeah, whack is anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Whack is any you should remember whack. There, here. You had it give it to Jay toolbar in the toolbar. Look, right there. Okay. Yeah, you know what? Yeah, who's in first place? Let me be the first to report that Madonna will not win the GMAC this year. Yeah, never. So Northwestern Ohio, I know, is in first, Indiana Tech should be in second. Then Cleary, Aquinas, and Madonna.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Yeah, but they're how many games back are so Madonna is nine and seven in the conference, Northwestern Ohio is 13-2.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

So you're five games back, four and a half games. And they they probably have to play each other. I haven't paid attention. Um Aquinas did uh they split the first two games against Cornerstone, two to nothing and nineteen or thirteen to nine. Uh Sam Pollock for um Aquinas went seven innings, four hits, one walk. All right, which not bad. I'll take it. I'll take one walk and seven innings. Um and then six K's in the game, one win. Uh in the uh for uh in the loss, it was Steven Hawk Haxema. Uh six innings, four hits, one earned, one walk, two K's in a lot losing effort.

SPEAKER_05 33:48

I think Jay pronounced it Haksema last time.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

Haksema. Um for Cornerstone, four hits for Drew Goodman in game two. Nate Jackson, uh Brody Durham each had three RBIs. Now I had an anomaly, and I wanted to ask you guys about this. Is this fishy scorekeeping or a complete anomaly? If I was reading the box score right, the Aquinas three, four, five, and six hitters had a combined nine RBIs, right? That's not completely out of the realm of possibility. No on three hits. So three three-run homers? I don't think there was a home run. Three hits, nine RBIs. I think there were a few fielders' choices that scored a run, but I just saw that and I went, that looks funky. Um anyway, moving on. Uh Sienna Heights from and Defiance was rescheduled for this week, and uh U of M Dearborn uh was getting swept by Indiana Tech. Yikes. Show today is produced by Hunch Free Studios, a full-service digital media company specializing in video productions, comprehensive digital marketing solutions, software development, and full-service website design. They do a great job making the studio look beautiful, editing all of our nonsense together, and getting uh getting this look all nice and tight for you when we uh when we put it out there. So with that, we'll go now to D3, where Doug, you you're our D3 guy, and Kalamazoo is an absolute wagon. Uh they beat Albion their their two games this weekend, and they're now 21 and 2 coming coming into this show.

SPEAKER_03 35:39

Uh yeah, Kalamazoo had a lot of different contributors, so it was really hard to narrow this thing down. Um uh for the week I had uh or the weekend I had Robert Newland went uh for Kalamazoo and went five for eight. And uh the the pitcher that stood out to me was Logan Lockhart, he went five and two thirds, one run and five K's uh for Albion, um kind of the same boat, not a ton of stats. No walks again. He didn't care about the walks, did you? Gavin Stahl went four for twelve, and Ty Wazlinouski, and I believe this was in the loss, but he stole uh through four innings, only give up two runs.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

Yeah, so I mean Kalmazou, they're starting to get nationally ranked. You're starting to see them climb up the standings as like the D3 team. It looks like that's going to make a lot of noise, and I'm and uh I'm sure our friends at Adrian are probably looking at me sideways, but I mean they they've been really solid in that one. Um, I know they were playing uh Albion today, and Kalamazoo uh in the bottom of the ninth is up three as we record this. So they're probably gonna sweep Albion. I know there's a lot of rain, so we talked about all the the games that have changed, but Kalmazou um is about to be 22 and two. That's pretty hard to do in Bay Chi.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

You got their standings by any chance? Yeah, yeah. So Kalmazou's first. Adrian's right on their tail, though. Because Adrian's 17-6.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

Adrian just uh they beat Albion uh in I think a reschedule or it was midweek, and then beat Calvin 11-5, and then in a doubleheader twice 19-6. Yeah. I Doug, you have to have a lot of stats from that to narrow it down.

SPEAKER_03 37:10

To narrow it down for it's hard. Yeah. Adrian, I had Nick Brunder went six to fifteen, Jack Boykie went five and ten, and uh Landon Kozelowski threw seven innings, no runs, seven K's. And for Calvin, uh Gay Boner Boomer Bonamer. Jesus Christ. Sorry about that.

SPEAKER_05 37:31

His brother's like in triple A with the White Sox, the Bonimer kid.

SPEAKER_03 37:35

He was uh seven for 14, had two doubles. Uh Thomas Paplowski went four for twelve, and Ben Ferguson went four innings, two runs.

SPEAKER_05 37:43

We did say, I think we talked about it this week. Remember, I think, didn't we say we have to sneak in the word boner? I think we did.

SPEAKER_02 37:52

Bonhomer, boner, it's okay. Two of us have made uh in you well, not even just innuendos, just straight up mis. I had seamen uh a couple weeks ago. Now we have boner.

SPEAKER_05 38:02

That's a drop, right?

SPEAKER_02 38:04

Yeah. Don't clip that, Tommy. All right, um, Alabat uh with uh with beat Alma twice. Uh it was really a lot of one-sided series, wasn't there?

SPEAKER_03 38:14

Yeah. Yeah, uh, although you know, when you look at when you break down just a few kids in the stats, it doesn't seem like it should be that way. Uh your boy Cameron Bleasdale had another good week, seven to fifteen with two doubles. Uh Cole Cole Grunwald had five innings, one run of four Ks, and uh Grady P route was the MIA player of the week, 10 of 15, 7 RBIs, 8 runs. Uh from the Olivet side, EJ Suggert went five of 13 with a homer. Brady Parton went seven for 14, and Brian Carney, uh, which I think we've messed up mentioned him before. Yeah. Seven innings, zero runs, fourteen Ks.

SPEAKER_05 38:49

Isn't it harder? Like, I try to compete with Doug with doing the stats. It's way harder when the scores are 25 to 12 versus 3 to 1.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

Right, because the fifth best hitter is still like 3 for 6 with two RBIs. And it's like, sorry, Kate, you were seventh in the in the pecking order. You you get cut. I think I got one with notes that just says offense had multiple hits. Everyone did well. Uh, the other one, unfortunately, uh hope lost to uh try.

SPEAKER_03 39:19

Yeah, they that one was real tough. And uh, but they did have one kid hit pretty well. Nick Verdusco went seven of ten. And even in a loss, uh, I believe it was yesterday, uh, Noah Reeves went seven innings, one run, four K's.

SPEAKER_05 39:34

Do you recognize the Verdusco name? It made me it just made me give me chills in a negative way. Do you know where it's from?

SPEAKER_02 39:41

I'm guessing a Catholic League team or a D4 team. The team we lost in the state championship.

SPEAKER_05 39:46

His dad was the coach, he was the shortstop. What was the team named again?

SPEAKER_02 39:49

Uh Hackett.

SPEAKER_05 39:50

Yeah, Kalamazoo Hackett.

SPEAKER_02 39:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:52

Congrats.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

So well, at least Trent Rice is one rice that can win at Michigan State. So um, I will go to Juco. Um Doug, in the east, a bit of a surprising split. Mott takes two of four from McComb. And I know it's a split, but I word it that way because McComb had been red hot and Mott really struggled out of the gate. So I would say a surprising series there.

SPEAKER_03 40:19

Yeah, yeah. I was pretty shocked to see that one, especially because, like you said, Mott did get off to a rough start. But they they've they've won some games lately. That that's what I was gonna ask before you get to the stats.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

They were 0-10 in non-conference. Now, four and five in league isn't great, but when you start 0-10, 4-5 but the non-conference is like just like with Oakland going to play Texas, Texas AM.

SPEAKER_05 40:41

Don't they play tough but they're not playing Texas AM, but they're playing tougher teams.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

They're not playing like Galiak teams or D D1 teams.

SPEAKER_05 40:56

Right, but they're playing in Florida, I think.

SPEAKER_02 40:58

For we'll have we'll have Jay look it up in his new role.

SPEAKER_03 41:01

Doug, I think that's the hard part when when I was looking at the non-conference. I I don't know what teams are good in Florida. Still pretty much you can assume in Florida they're probably better. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

So Mott's coming up against Kellogg next, so that's not gonna be an easy batch.

SPEAKER_02 41:16

No, but go to the non-conference real quick. Who did they have? Do your job, Jay. From before? Yeah, like their first 10 games that they played. All right, have that ready, locked and loaded.

SPEAKER_03 41:26

Uh for McComb, uh, some guys I had, uh Buster Debo at 9-15, seven RBIs, six runs.

SPEAKER_06 41:32

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 41:33

My boy Vito Zito just makes his way back on seven to thirteen. Seat? Can we get you a Vito Zito jersey? We're gonna have him on.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

Can we have Doug out?

SPEAKER_03 41:42

He was walking into the facility as I was leaving on Saturday night.

SPEAKER_02 41:46

Can we can we get like an NIL deal with Doug in just like a$50 one so he has a Vito Zito jersey?

SPEAKER_05 41:52

Vito Zito Cimente Law. That would be freaking.

SPEAKER_03 41:58

He also had uh two doubles and a home run, another one. Uh best pitcher that I saw was Jonathan Mayette. Yep. Six innings, zero runs, nine K's. And for Mott, John uh Lavler, and I I will say this it was really difficult because Mott did not have any stats up until like this afternoon. You couldn't even find a box, couldn't even find a box score until this afternoon. So at least they got one up today. Actually, they did, and I had to find a recap. And so But listen up, listen to this kind of Doug is dedicated. I found a recap. So John Lavalier, and I again I only have one game because I could only find one recap. He went three for four, but he had a hit uh uh walk-off home run. Oh, so um, and the only other thing I had was Trenton Crewalt was the previous week's uh player of the week. All right.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

You you think it's split with McComb, you're she's shouting it from the rafters, right? Yeah. All right, um Jay. So I've got February. Yes, that is a great pronunciation.

SPEAKER_00 42:55

So what do you know? Did you hear that? What do you want to know? Tell us the first ten games. So the first looks like four games they started against USC Union. Is that lost every one of those games?

SPEAKER_05 43:08

Yeah, we know what they lost.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

Like just name so USC Union, who else? So they went to USC Union, then they had Iowa Central. Yeah, then in March.

SPEAKER_05 43:16

Iowa JUCO is really good.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

Yes. Then they had after Iowa Central Community College, they played Mineral Area College. Sounds really good.

SPEAKER_05 43:26

Doesn't it just sound good?

SPEAKER_02 43:28

Nerd school. It sounds really freaking good college, sounds good. By the way, USC Union is a D1 JUCO, so that's a that's a pretty good thing.

SPEAKER_05 43:35

That's what I'm saying. Like they went 0 and 10. It's not that off from these.

SPEAKER_00 43:39

And that's their first nine games right there. All right. Mineral. I'm right. Am I right? Am I right? Yeah, they're 0-9. I don't know. I'll look at it real quick.

SPEAKER_05 43:48

I'm just saying they're better schools.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

Mineral College? Mineral area college? I don't know. Anyway, all right, um, let's just move on. That's not a right. Um, sure, you're right and you're wrong. Um uh Henry Fort and Jackson split a pair.

SPEAKER_03 44:06

Yeah, I believe Jackson's second in the uh Jay in the in the JUCO East. Uh going there now.

SPEAKER_05 44:12

Good for them.

SPEAKER_03 44:14

The uh I I I did the series. Donovan uh Maltamore was five of six with two doubles. Jackson Kopas was three of six, and Luke man, I don't even know how to say his last name. McCunick went six innings, two runs, seven K's. For Henry Ford, uh Bray Braylon Orsett went five for seven, one double, two triples. Casey Robinson went three for seven, two doubles, one home run, five RBI. And I didn't get the stats, but Ian Manis again, I think I've mentioned him every week.

SPEAKER_05 44:42

Yeah. How many how are you getting the stats for Henry Ford? Is that guy calling you back? Is Coach calling you still? Are you just league web screen?

SPEAKER_03 44:49

I actually didn't because of Easter, I didn't even bother touch touching base. So I basically just get as many box scores as I can. Yeah. And then just try and look at guys. Keep popping up.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

All right, and then uh Schoolcraft, they actually had a nice series for the first time. They take three of four from Doug Skippers.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

Uh yeah, yep. Tony Menendez went seven to sixteen, four RBIs. Uh Lucas Clun pitched five and two thirds, zero runs eight K's. And Alex Stepniat went three and two thirds, one run four K's. And for SC4, Will Wiegand went four for four for nine. That's another name you've said like every week. Well, here's another one I've said every week. Mason uh Goblack went four to twelve with one double and two homers, and uh Kaden Shankowski uh went the full uh full seven and got the win.

SPEAKER_00 45:40

All right, so let's give some credit. St. Clair, I mean, they're nine and eleven overall. So they have some wins last year.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

They yeah, they're struggling in league.

SPEAKER_03 45:48

I think they're in last seven in league, but I know they won two last week against probably the Alma's JV.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

Yeah, I think so. But again, this is a team that like went like 700 days without beating a team from Michigan. Yeah, it's good. This is good for us, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

And then at the top of the uh standings, it's a McComb race, right? McComb's the top of the Easter, and then you got Jackson coming in uh at five and two in the conference right behind McComb, then Henry Ford at four and three. But four and five.

SPEAKER_03 46:16

We touched on it a little bit last week when we were when kind of Caruso was you know making fun of me or joking around about SC4. But I think there's got to be a little bit of reality that recruiting up there has got to be difficult. I mean, first of all, there's not a lot of big schools in St. Clair. And when you're trying to recruit, I mean, that school's 45 minutes away from Macomb County.

SPEAKER_02 46:41

And and I always joke about it, but for people that are from southern Macomb County, if you go north of 23 or 26 mile, you might as well be asking them to drive to Houghton. Which is it's really not that bad of a drive. Like it's it's all highway, but yes. Like I can tell you from the high school experience, like coaches in in Warren, they will bitch till the the cows come home about having to go up to play uh a team from St. Clair County.

SPEAKER_03 47:10

And then you look at the other teams in the conference, you're still going the other way for somebody from not terribly far, but somebody from school craft a kid, a kid from northern Racone County or Oakland County, and Oakland uh community college doesn't have a baseball team, so you're not competing with that. So what Henry Ford would be the closest to them, I believe.

SPEAKER_05 47:30

And they don't even have a website.

SPEAKER_03 47:32

And they don't even have a website. I don't know how they get it. The coach doesn't even call you.

SPEAKER_02 47:34

That's but that's a good point. Like those other schools can go every direction where yes, SC4 will get an odd kid from Sanalac or the thumb, but the biggest school up there has like 500 some kids in the school.

SPEAKER_03 47:48

I mean that's the that's huge. I think Port Huron Northern might be the biggest school in St. Clair County. It is think they have 1,200 kids. There's probably anywhere from 12 to 14 schools in Macomb County that have more than 1200 kids.

SPEAKER_05 48:02

And Port Huron, was it North, which one is that? The red and black one or PH is red and black, northern blue and yellow. And they're kind of football-y, right? They're footballish.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

They've had some northern good baseball players. I mean, if you remember the Manises, they were they that they can went there. They've had some D1. But I mean, you're um and there's Macomb right now. Um, why am I blanking on his name? Uh he was an absolute stud for them last year. They actually beat Anchor Bay in the district final.

SPEAKER_05 48:26

Anyway, where did Joey Seppo go?

SPEAKER_02 48:28

He was pH, he was red and black.

SPEAKER_05 48:29

He's at St. Clair. Yes. Oh no, not yet, right?

SPEAKER_02 48:32

He's got Yeah, this is his last, I believe so. Um anyway, um, in the north, nobody played. At least according to the site. Thank God because nobody played because the weather was bad down here. I can only imagine what it was up there. Uh in the West, I'm just gonna put what I wrote down.

SPEAKER_05 48:49

Well, I do get a kid from the north to highlight.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

Well uh well you do. No, it's in the west, you do. Um Kellogg insert gruesome adjective here, body slammed, uh just curb stomped. They swept Glen Oaks in four games and outscored them 60 to 7. Yikes. That's Kellogg Kellogg is now nine and oh in the league and 24-5 overall. Is it safe to say they're right now they're the number one JUCO team in in the state? Yes. Are they ranked? I I I'd have to look up Google uh NJCAA D2 baseball rankings.

SPEAKER_05 49:28

I think they are. I think they have even in the past couple years, like between them and Lansing, it's been so darn close. Do you ever see their uniforms? Kellogg? Yeah. No, I can't say I have. It's a funny thing. They look like um and this is like with being respectful, they look like East Bay uniforms, like those ones that you used to the ones that you just used to Google and just you'd you'd get them, and but what it is is these guys don't care. I don't care what I look like, like the dirtbag comment I had last last week. These guys just go out and play ball. Right. Their their bills are all bent and they've had the same unis for the past five years.

SPEAKER_02 50:03

Football analogy, middle Tennessee State, uh you know, mid-major football team, they said, screw alternate uniforms. We need the money for other things. So we're gonna have a home and we're gonna have an away.

SPEAKER_05 50:14

And those are the kind of players you get, right?

SPEAKER_02 50:16

That's what Kellogg gets. So um they haven't even cracked the top ten yet, though. Well, top ten top ten, what where are they at? Uh is the D2 ranking. I gotta keep make sure it's D2 because if you there is D1 and D2 Jupiter, I don't think there is a D1 in Michigan. No, no, we're all D two. Um Lanceen and Kamazoo Valley split a series, um, which kind of hurt them because one of those two needed to get blood in that one to keep pace with Kellogg. So kind of the split was a little mutually assured destruction.

SPEAKER_05 50:47

Yeah, but back reverse and back to your 60 to 7 score we were talking about, you almost can't avoid that in JUCO. Like, think about those kids that they're trying to move on to the next level, right? Like, baseball's such a respectful thing.

SPEAKER_02 51:01

You can't tell them not to play because they're trying to get the number. Lansing and KVCC split us here.

SPEAKER_00 51:07

Oh, they're at 21?

SPEAKER_02 51:08

No, Kellogg's uh in seventh. Seventh now? Yep. That's two. So yeah, they're number seven in the country, which 24 and five record will get you there.

SPEAKER_05 51:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Mike, I know you had something on Lance.

SPEAKER_05 51:19

So Jay and I have a mutual friend, uh, Frank Yokum shot me a text the other day, and he said, take a look at this kid at Lansing and tell me what you think. And I knew who he was. And then I called I called their coach, their assistant coach. This kid's name's Corbin Smith. Uh he's an outfielder, had a great um had a great Puma classic. That's like their big recruiting tournament they play in. He's batting 325 with a homer, 19 ribbies, and 17 stolen bases. So shout out to Corbin to keep up the good work. He's a sophomore looking to uh you know move on to that four-year.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

All right, I did uh mention that uh well I didn't mention Lake Michigan did beat Ancylilla twice, so yay. Um they were supposed to play again today. I'll pull it up right now just to see um if that game happened uh because they were supposed to. Uh I don't know if they did just go over the standings. Yeah, so give us the standing. Give us the West the West No, the West standings right now are just Kellogg killing everyone. Oh yeah, Kellogg's there. Lansing's in second.

SPEAKER_00 52:24

Lansing's Michigan College is now in second.

SPEAKER_02 52:27

Yeah, because Kalmazou Valley and Lansing beat each other up, so they gave each other two losses, which brings them down, and Kellogg's kind of running away with it. All right, now time to welcome on uh another very special guest, uh, our first D1 head coach, uh Brian Nelson, the head coach over at Oakland uh joins us. And there's a lot of backstory to this, I guess, in multiple ways. Let's start with how uh this all got started. So our second episode, the first one where we actually talked about games, uh they had a a series that I I was at, and I basically said the first two games they didn't play well. Yeah. And then game three, they played a lot better, got to win, had a few really nice plays. And Rice texts our group chat uh that the day it drops and goes, Hey Brady, uh one episode and you already got a coach pissed in. Yeah, and to be to be clear, you said you were at the game. What are you doing at the game? So I'm sitting in the in the press box trailer uh right behind home plate and you know, talked about it. And Coach Nelson texted uh Mike saying, you know, uh, yeah, have your boy talk to me. It was a good conversation. Obviously, everything's good now, but but coach, uh, I guess we'll start off. Would you like to say your piece to me right now?

SPEAKER_04 53:38

Well, well, first first, I guess I'd say, is everything good? No. You're just making some assumptions here that everything's good. So I I mean, sure, I guess everything's good, Brady. You guys played a lot better in that thing. Here's what here's uh Brady, here's what I will say. First off, on your defense, if I was standing behind that fence and I didn't know anything, I would also go, these guys don't look very good, and they also did not play very well. So you weren't wrong, right? What I will say is, and this is what I told Mike, and so when we talk about, hey, well, this started a couple weeks, I'll tell you when this started. This actually started about five years ago when I met Mike Rice. This is when the so having the ability to to then text Mike, you know, after being able to watch his show and and and and offering some constructive criticism, and my constructive criticism was hey, if if I was gonna be the PA announcer of a of a program, somebody, I want to be the best at it. And so I probably should go get some information about what I am or am not doing. And and um, and you know, I will I will I believe in extreme accountability. It is um it's something we preach in our program. And Brady, what I will do is I'm gonna give you the uh the free pass, and I'm gonna say I did a bad job as the head coach of the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies to recognize that we had a new public address announcer in the booth, and I didn't do a good job of coming out of my way to introduce myself to you and say, hey, feel free to always come chat me up. And to be honest, this is partially Mike's fault. I didn't know that you were part of the podcast. And if I had known that, and if I had specifically even known that you were going to be talking about us, I would have gone out of my way to make sure I introduced myself. But um nonetheless, we got a great story, and we are here now chatting about Golden Grizzly Baseball.

SPEAKER_02 55:37

So oh, yeah, and so a little backstory. So I I'd been filling in like the last two or three years. It started when the last coach Jordan Banfield was there. And I will say, in my defense, and I think you'd agree with this, there is no PA announcer that will ever talk to the Jordan Banfield on game day. Well, that's the when I got started, like the first day I do it, like this is the script. You do it at this exact moment. So this is how you say the names properly. This is how you say every name and make sure like like you were on your your toes there, um, and you made sure everything was to the T. So yeah, I I was like, all right, no, don't need to talk to uh coach on game day, and there and I guess that leads into the first thing where you and him are still close, but two very diametrically opposed personalities.

SPEAKER_04 56:27

Um absolutely. Uh number one, yes, we are. Um, I mean, one of my better friends in coaching, one of my best friends, you know, outside of coaches. We we um we are we're we're we're the uh we're polar opposites, we're black and white cookie. Um whatever you want to, at least from an outsider's perspective, we are. But what people don't realize probably is how much we were actually in line with a lot of the things that that we that we cared about and that were priorities to us. Um, you know, winning is winning is and and will be, you know, always a priority for for both Coach Banfield and myself. Um, you know, and what he did here at Oakland uh was unprecedented. And I'm I'm fortunate to have gotten the opportunity to be a part of it. Um but yeah, we you know, at the end of the day, like we we do coach differently, and it's because it's our personalities. And if I ever try to be like him, I'm being I'm gonna be unauthentic, I'm gonna lack being the genuine coach Nelson that I am, and then vice versa, if he ever tried to be like me, yeah, he'd he'd probably pull his hair out, you know. And um we we we both want the same thing. And I think that that's a it's a perfect example that um there's there's multiple ways to skin the cat, you know, and and winning, winning in college baseball is hard. Um winning at the division one level is is really hard. And um there's a lot of good coaches out there, and there's a lot of people that do things differently. That's what I'd tell you. But we worked well together because, you know, for lack of better words, we we tended to pick up where the other person lacked. Um, but we also we were so in line with what we were trying to accomplish, and that's why we worked so well together. And and I was very astute to the type of athlete that responded well to Coach Bamfield's type of coaching, and so it took us a year or two to really kind of find that niche and that type of player as we kind of work through that, and then you know, and and it's no different now that I'm I'm the head coach, we're we're having to find, you know, and we're in the process of of adding and and and bringing players into the program that that fit the way that I coach.

SPEAKER_05 58:46

Yeah, I want to I want to hear, I know so much about you, and I don't want to take any of this stuff for granted, and I want to make sure the people can hear it. So tell us a little bit about I want to hear about the team and the players eventually, but tell us a little bit about your background, how you got into it, all that fun stuff, and I got a couple more after that.

SPEAKER_04 59:04

Yeah, I mean, we could talk. I and that's probably one of my biggest flaws is I tend to talk. Um but how did I get into it? I I played college baseball, I love college baseball. Um, I played college football for uh for a hot minute. Um, I went to the Air Force Academy, um, blew out a disc in my blew out a disc in my back, tore a labrum in my shoulder, transferred out, um, continued chasing the dream, bounced around to Texas AM and Sam Houston, trying to trying to figure it out. Um, during that process, played some summer collegiate baseball for an organization called the Barazz Valley Bombers. Little did I know that that was gonna end up being a um a big part of my coaching career. And um finished finished playing, finished kind of realizing. So I had shoulder surgery, had knee surgery, um, decided that I was gonna be a better coach than I was a player. And started going that route, coached Division III baseball at a little place called Mary Hart and Baylor out in Belton, Texas. Um, then I got the opportunity to coach on some summer collegiate teams for the Brass Valley Bombers. Um, we won a quote unquote national championship. It was, you know, as however you want to, that's it's as it's as fake as it really is, but we were pretty good. You ran, didn't you run that league too? Yeah, fast yeah, fast forward to then I get an opportunity to go coach at Lamar University out in Beaumont, Texas. Um, and I was there for a while. Um, and that was honestly the the biggest part of my coaching career. Um, coached underneath a guy named Jim Gilligan, who at the time was top five on all-time wins lists. He had and I and I say this because I feel like, in a sense, I'm kind of modeling a little bit of what he did, but he was at Lamar for 30 something years. He's got a street named after him. Um and an island, I think. Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's yeah, touche. Uh he um, anyways, did a lot of things, but the the assistants there were also unbelievable mentors to me. A guy named Scott Hatton and a guy named Jim Rickelson. Rickelson is now um an assistant over at Lafayette um with the Rage and Cajuns, and Scott Hatton is actually still at Lamar underneath Will Davis. Um, and I I still utilize both those guys for for mentorship. Um, but being there, was there for a while. Then we went to uh UTRGV. Um, I say we, my family, my wife, we had a daughter while I was down there, uh a little nine-year-old now. And um time flies. Time flies. And um COVID hit, my head coach, you know, actually at that time, a guy named Manny Bantra, that's actually where I met Jordan. Um, so Jordan, Jordan and I, this guy shows up from Illinois Springfield up north. And at the time, I had I I ain't spent too much time north of Texas, and um, and so here comes this guy, and I'm like, who is this guy coming down to the southern tip of Texas?

SPEAKER_06 1:01:58

Yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:59

We are talking like we are stone stone from the border, and um, and it's a guy named Jordan Banfield, and so Jordan's the recruiting guy, he's doing all that. Um, we're we're coaching our tails off. Our head coach, wild, signs a three-year contract. At the end of right at the end of the season, comes in, he's like, Hey fellas, I'm stepping down for health reasons. You get the press release, you know, the one that the one that everyone gets where it's just like they just don't want to fire you.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:28

And and and and listen, man, God bless him. He he ends up dying of cancer a year and a half later. Um, unbelievable. But so Jordan and I are are are are both kind of sitting there going, okay, now what?

SPEAKER_05 1:02:42

Wait, where is where is this at at this point? This is at UT RGB down in a metal. Big crowds, big crowds.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:48

We are, yeah. Now, and it was UT Pan American, like right before we took over. Um, and so we kind of went through this transition to RGV. Um, so anyways, fast forward, Jordan goes out to Arizona to do some PBR stuff for a minute. Then he gets uh the the the associate head job at Akron, and then he eventually fast forward to he gets the job at Oakland and he calls me up and he's just just hey man, you want to come to Oakland?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:13

And I I was like, yes, sweet California sounds awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:16

Yeah, and um turns out it's in Michigan, and um, so that was I don't know, six years or so ago, and we came up and my wife and I, my daughter, and we um we were assist, I was the assistant for four years. Um my wife then gets the uh she's she's the director of marketing here at Oakland at the time. She gets the head coach or head coach, excuse me. It felt like she would. She gets the director of the of the uh lettermen's association at Texas AM. So she heads down there in the fall. So this happens like around September, October of the fall of my last year physically at Oakland. And um, so we had just actually lost our pitching coach. So it was just Jordan, myself, and two of our grad assistants who were both had just graduated from the from they were both on this in the starting lineup the year before. And I was like, well, I can't leave. And I also thought, man, we got a chance to really do this. And Oakland has never won a conference championship. We don't run from that fact. I mean, that's the truth. And we really felt like we were in position to do it that year. And fast forward to the end of the year, you know, with the game ends and heartbreak, we made it to the championship. Um, we were in the winner's bracket and we just couldn't finish the deal. And um, we lost. And at the end of that that season, I had to look Jordan in the face and just say, Man, I'm I I love you, but I um I gotta I gotta go. I gotta go back to Texas. I gotta go find my wife and my family, and they're down there. She's she's doing the the the director job at AM. And I had kept my daughter in the fall so she could finish, and then we sent her down there in the spring to get started in school. And so the plan was the plan was hey, get down there and go find a job and and keep coaching and and and get to work and um you know get lucky, honestly, and roll the dice and get lucky. And um, and and and it didn't. I finished second place in a lot of jobs, and um, so didn't happen. Fast forward a year later. Well, you know, and this is where I owe a ton to Jordan. Um, you know, he kept me on staff in a capacity that allowed me to stay in the game um and allowed me to still help him. I mean, we are uh limited in resources at Oakland in certain capacities, so we got to get creative with how we get things done. And and so even from afar from Texas, I was able to um help him out with operations, help him out with some of the recruiting processes. He, because I left, because our pitching coach had left mid year, we were he had to hire, bring on a whole new staff. And um, so me being there to help kind of transition how he operates to these new to New staff members, um, it provided some value to him. So he he kept me on, which allowed me to uh keep my foot in the in the door a little bit, especially specifically at Oakland. And um, so then fast forward to the you know, and I came up for a handful of games, met him out on the road a couple times. I actually ended up, and we'll get to this I'm certain later, but I ended up having fusion surgery on my spine. So I was like, well, this will be my first opportunity where I'm I don't need to be out there every day. So I end up getting back surgery, get that kind of taken care of, and and then I'm coaching the Brazil Valley Bombers during the summer again, and um honestly didn't want to. My wife kind of told me I should do it just to kind of scratch the itch a little bit. And um sure enough, Jordan calls me one day and I was in the mix for some other jobs, and and um Jordan gives me a call and he says, Hey, I'm uh I think I'm taking this job out of Bakersfield. And he's like, Would you be interested in coming back? And I was you know, I looked at my wife and she was at this point.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:01

If it was on speakerphone, if it was on speakerphone, you would have been in trouble. Hopefully you heard it and then you were able to ask her. You know, I I've had those calls before.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:09

We had we had already kind of talked about, you know, what I guess I didn't say. And the truth is that during that year down in Texas, I mean, I was I was miserable. Um I was not coaching, I was really searching for purpose. I was um I was I was making more money than I probably had ever made in coaching in my career. I was spending more time with my family than I probably ever had. Makes me sound like a schmuck. Yeah. And um, but the truth is I I woke up every day going, what the heck am I doing? And um I was lacking, I lacked purpose. And so my wife, you know, bless her heart, she um she was able to see that. And I think she knew now she got a she had a really good job, and she wasn't just gonna let me go for anything. So it was kind of like, hey, head coach or bust. Yeah, you get an opportunity to go be a head coach, like, yes, let's go.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:05

Division one head coach. I mean, that's pretty freaking specifically, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:08

So that I mean that, but but we were, you know, we were open, we were open um to a lot of different things. And so when this opportunity came, uh it was kind of funny. It was like, do you want to be the interim? Um if we if we go the interim route, because I had been still part of the roster, it was like, if you if we go the interim route, then you can start tomorrow and we get to do work on retaining the roster and and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Or we can open it up and go the traditional route. And I'm not, you know, telling this was my athletic director speaking to me, and he's like, I'm not telling you that you you don't got a shot at being a finalist and being a part of this, but like it's you know, I'm still gonna open it up and we're gonna go through that route. And and you get the shot to be the interim, and you know, at the end of the year, you know, yes, we're gonna have to open it up again, but you've been the interim, you got a shot to really earn it. So so I kind of gambled on myself, and um, I was fairly confident in my abilities to to do it. And I mean, it's funny I say that, and we went out, we had we played 19 one-run baseball games last year. I think we lost 16 of them. So back to that interim. I didn't get I didn't give Steve too much of it. I was making it tough on him. I think he really wanted to hire me, but I was I was I was I was making it tough uh from an outside perspective. I can tell you that. I'm sure he wanted us to win a few more games.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:22

Um hey, back to that interim part real quick. Sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:25

Yeah, go for it.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:26

As an outsider, I didn't know that. And like it was a good move. It was a good ass move to say, let me grind it in. Yeah, in retrospect, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:33

Like I'm the head coach now.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:35

Well, but no, but but still, you got to prove to everybody what you're doing, right? Like, no matter what, the players got to get to know you, and you got to kind of prove your shit for the season for next year.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:46

You know, I talked to I talked to Beerman over at at Eastern right now, and and um, you know, he's he's in the middle of being an interim too, and just giving him a little bit of just like, hey man, I've been there. Um, and it's you know, it's a tough, it's a tough way to coach, to be honest with you. It's um you you do everything you can to not be fixated on winning and losing. Um and you really want to be able to build a program and you're you're doing everything you can to think long term and you want to make long-term decisions and you want to do what's right for the program and not in the moment. And and sometimes that's that's tough when you're an interim because because you also you feel like you're getting judged on a lot of different things, and we constantly are, anyways, don't get me wrong, but um you know it doesn't feel like you got much leash sometimes as an interim. And and and then it's hard because you gotta have faith that that people see that you are building, that you are doing the right things, and and and then you gotta have faith in yourself, and um, but it's easy to get lost, it's it's tough. Um, and it's and it's easy to it's easy to get elated when you do really good things too, because um being an interim is it's not just about winning and losing. They gotta I I truly believe now that it's they want to see if you can build a program. And um, it's not just about one year.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:03

So, how did you how did you find out you were the no longer interim head coach? You were just head coach Brian Nelson.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:10

Uh yeah, well, we went through your traditional interview process. Um other people were candidates. He um, you know, he brought he brought other candidates on on campus. Um I will say that was a little awkward at times.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:23

No one He was acting like you were acting like Will Farrell in uh was it Step Brothers when they're trying to buy the house. Hey neighbor.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:31

That's the best analogy you've ever said. You know, that's right. I um, you know, you you gotta leave the office, you know, you want to you gotta be out, you know, and it's kind of like you know, they're they're touring people around, and it is. It's kind of like they're they're showing your home around.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:43

Um yeah, I didn't even think about that.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:46

The the answer is the answer is it didn't matter. Um I was I got to a point, there was a point in that in last season where I made a kind of an internal decision um that I was gonna stop worrying about it. And you know, I'm a I'm a man of faith, and I will tell you that you know, sometimes we get wrapped up in our own will and and um got to keep perspective a little bit. And so for me, that was you know something that I was able to turn that corner and and fortunately things worked out. How did I find out? Uh went through the process, you know, and and I want to tell you to credit to Steve and a lot of other people in the process, um I knew that they were gonna do their jobs as far as evaluating and making sure that they found what they believed was the best person to run Oakland University program, uh baseball program, and they weren't gonna gift it to me by any means. Um but I was I was um he called me in the office and you know, it was it he tried to make it as official and and professional as it kind of was. Like if I hadn't been there for five years, you know. I I think that was the thing that was very um it was interesting. I think both both parties had to like try to be great actors in a lot of the scenarios I'm going through. It's kind of like I sent my resume and my cover letter, like I was just Joe Schmoe off the street. And even though I had been here in some capacity for five, I I did the interview process, like, hey, how you doing, you know, Mr. Hitchings, hey, how you doing, you know, etc. And so you know, but that's also part of it, right? Like that's you know, I at the end of the day, like I would I was gonna treat it like uh like it was the most important thing because it is the most important thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:32

Yeah, the other thing is though, like I think you're downplaying it because you are doing a hell of a job. And one thing you didn't mention that I know you know, the players love you, right? So you've been there for you've been around for five years, and I've been around even kind of recruiting with you. And one of the things people say to me is they like you as a as a person from a personality perspective. So that was a big deal being there as a coach, as an interim coach, and for them to know players are gonna stay, especially in times like today.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:03

I was gonna say, in this day and age in 2020, man, it's um you know, a lot of the tough coaching and all that's kind of trending all over Twitter and and about coaches who, you know, and Tom Ezo's, you know, I I I will hand up say I I I wish I knew more about college basketball. I did not fill out a bracket. Um, the only reason I know who's playing tomorrow is because one of them happens to be an hour and a half away from us. So um is it tomorrow? Shoot.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:32

I was just saying, and it's tonight. So you don't know shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:34

So actually, I guess my point is, however, with that being said, like, you know, I I got I got I got books and things that you know you leaders are leaders, and um so you know, listen to a lot of that stuff. You're right, like it's important. You gotta have players, you gotta have players. I don't I don't think they gotta like you, um, but they gotta respect you, they gotta believe you when you're telling when you're talking to them. And the only way to do that, at least the way that I have found to accomplish that is to be as genuine and as authentic as I can be. And I'm a terrible liar, and so I I do my best not to, and so my and I I remind people I'm gonna give you my version of the truth, uh, my perspective, um, and how I see things, and I'm gonna be honest with you, and that goes a long way, and and and then and then the other part of this, and this is the part that I think people miss, like I mean, you gotta love them. Like you gotta truly care about these kids.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:38

Here's a story. Here's here's a story about what you're saying. So last year or two years ago, uh uh Steven Rule, who's on the staff, who you probably see the name, uh kid that played for me who I love, and uh you can't even argue, he has major league stuff. Uh I think it was uh against, I think you guys were at Michigan, and he walked the bases loaded. You I don't even know if you will remember this, but I'm an observer. I watch shit. He walks the bases loaded, or Nelly calls time, does his little walk out there, and you see him like you're talking about how you care for players. Whatever the hell he said to him was genuine and made this kid feel like I can fucking do this, like I can get these, and I think I can dip out of this. Yeah, exactly. And I'm 99% sure he got out of that with maybe three strikeouts. It might be exaggerating in my brain, but you went out and visited, and I'm just kind of piggybacking on what you're saying is just kind of I believe in the kids.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:38

I don't want to sit here and act like I'm like I'm I'm you know I'm Yoda or something.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:41

No, but you're but what you were saying a second ago when I interrupted you is just believing in these kids.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:46

There is some of that. I I don't want to necessarily tell you it's what I said, but there is a there is a hey man, like I'm gonna they're gonna know if I really believe in them. Yeah. And if and and so, and vice versa, like it's we talk about accountability in our program. We do and we really have ripped the onion layers back on what it takes to actually hold somebody accountable. And it usually starts with knowing that that other person genuinely cares about them. And so when you when you when you can do that and you have the ability to actually hold people accountable, you know, that's that's where you start real growth. And um you get buy-in, you get all the you get all the the the the cliche words that everybody likes to throw around. And we talk a lot about everybody always said trust the process, trust. But I said, Well, like man, you started asking kids. I was like, Define your process. What's the process? And half of them are just like, uh, you know, it's uh you know, and so okay, and then I started realizing, well, everybody's got a process, right? Like, like we all got processes, and you know, Brady's got a process. They may not be very good, he's he's getting a new one.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:04

He's getting a new process at the cheap job, Brady.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:06

I'm sorry. I'm just oh it's okay. I called something for Mike, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:18:10

So we all have processes, and the question is okay, so then if that's the truth and we're gonna trust in it, well, then the question is not what we do, but how we do it, and so then it's a definition of hey, what's our standard? So now that's kind of another one. It's like, hey, everybody's throwing like a standard. Hey, we have a standard, a standard. Okay, what's your standard?

SPEAKER_05 1:18:30

It's no, it's no difference than telling someone to throw strikes, right? What how are you gonna do it? Or hey, go throw strike, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:36

And so that's kind of like how we've started to rewire our brains within this program and really focusing. You know, Jordan kind of had this concept of there are no little things, and and it's kind of that thought process that hey, it's not necessarily what socks you're wearing or you know how you're gonna grip this, you know, this slider or this cutter.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:00

Part of it's the socks, though, dude. You know, I hate those white socks, no tubes.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:04

Dedication to discipline to doing just saying, hey, this is what we're gonna do. We've all decided as a group, like we all said, hey, I I want to be a part of this, and this is what we have to do in order to be a part of it. Okay, cool. I'm in, coach. Like, let's go. If that's what's gonna help us win, and you may not think that wearing the same color socks is gonna help you win. And you're right, the color of the sock probably aren't. However, what it tells me is that you are just in that moment when you were putting physically on the sock, you just said, forget the other 34 guys on 36 dudes that are gonna do it one way. I'm gonna be different. Or, hey, my stuff's too important, or I'm in a rush because I had class, or because I was supposed to go to here, or coach, I was supposed to XYZ. And oh, hey, by the way, you realize that every other player had that exact same scenario, but somehow chose to wear the right sock.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:00

So, where were you when people were calling me a Manny's looking bastard uh on on Twitter because of my sock thing? I needed a like a subtweet or retweet or whatever they call it. But that was a perfect explanation that I couldn't put into words.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:13

Because it's because again, it's it's like, hey, man, do I sit here and think that the the if you hey, do I care if you're gonna wear your pants up or pants down, or you want stirrups, or you want you know solid color, like or if you want to be the little leaguer that's got the built-in, like I think it looks like goofy, but like if everybody on my team was like, hey coach, we're gonna do this, and I would be like, All right, if we're all gonna look the same, like let's let's buy in. Cool. I I can buy into it if we think that that's what we want to do, and we all make an agreement. Now, I might say, Hey, you know what, at the end of the day, I'm gonna rule we're not gonna do that, right? Um, but yeah, again, it's you set the standard, you allow your programming, your players, because if you want your players to hold something accountable, well, like it's got to be something they believe in too, in that process, and they have to have buy-in in that same situation. And so we sit there and we talk about like, and sometimes, and I'll tell you, this is the hardest part. I think people deal with this in their everyday lives. We have a hard time holding people accountable because internally we we don't we don't view our, we feel like we have to be perfect in order to then hold somebody accountable because they think that that's like because because unfortunately society's response tends to be, well, yeah, you're not doing this. And hey, well, I see you do X. And the truth is how we've combated that in our program. And number one, we have to grow up and learn how to be adults and have real conversations. That's the first part of it, right? Learn how to be honest. And then the second part is we sat there and we said, Hey, okay, let's say you know, Steven Rule walks by the ball bag and he's supposed to pick it up on his way, and we're all leaving to leave, and he just walks by something that he could easily pick up. And then Ben Clark looks at him and says, Hey, Steve, you just gonna walk by that ball bag? Steve goes, Yeah, you're right. And then Ben might also know, hey man, I'm not perfect. I've walked by equipment, I'm doing the best I can to try to be better at that. And Steve knows that Ben is trying to be better at it. He knows he's not perfect, but he's trying to be, and he's also willing to hold him accountable because he knows that we need to do X, period. And and it's not, it's it, you know, as people talk about it's like, hey, it's it's not about it's this isn't military. I'm not out here yelling at pick up the ball back. No, man. I might crack a joke, I might say, hey man, like you're just gonna leave that for the guy that that's got a broken shoulder over there, like in the or what? And he'll be like, Oh, my bad coach, you're right, you're right, you know, and he'll go run, pick it up in the way. It's a culture time, it's a culture thing. It's just and it's it's you gotta be consistent, and then you gotta hold everyone to the standard, and it's and it's that that's the hard part. I knew that's the hard part.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:48

I knew we were gonna do this because I love you, and we love days of grammar. No, no, I just knew no, it was gonna be one of those things where I told these guys Brian's gonna go off and it's gonna be intriguing. But I do want to dig into a couple things, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:00

Ask me some questions.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:02

Tell me a little bit about like recruiting these days. Again, it changes this is gonna sound high level, but like even two years ago, it was different than five years ago to today, like recruiting, transfer portal, all that fun stuff. Like, can you talk a little bit about that? Kind of how it's changed, how it's changing.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:22

Um, but you know, I think the the reality is though, um like Michigan States and Michigan's answer, Michigan's answer is gonna be different than Michigan States. Michigan States is gonna be different than ours. Um my answer is gonna be different than Central and Eastern for that matter. Yeah, uh so that's where I would tell you is the first part. Um, and then let's say we were on the level playing field and everything was the same and all the resources are the same, we still might have a different approach because of my style versus somebody else's style. Um what I will tell you is at least here at Oakland, um we we we see the value in being old, just like everybody else. Okay, there is there's no doubt in my mind that but there's some caveats to that, okay? So the 22 year old, like, hey, the 22-year-old is better than the 18-year-old. You're right. The 22-year-old that's been with me for four years is definitely better than the 18-year-old that's just not with me. Okay, that's true. The 22-year-old that has bounced around at four different places and uh is still trying to do X, Y, or Z. You know, I don't know that he's better than the 18-year-old. I don't know that for certain. Not necessarily the 22-year-old that I can get sometimes out of the portal. And that's where the percent, you know, like the the attack for Oakland might be a little different. Um what I do recognize is that what the portal has done is it has shifted the timeline of that reason.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:58

That's what I wanted to know. That's what I kind of want to hear there.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:00

So look, we're in you know, conversations like I'm still gonna be in the high school game. Oakland University will still be in the high school hunt. Um I may not sign as many as I have traditionally. Um, and let me rephrase it. I might still look like look we might still look up at the end on come you know September 1st when school starts, still have the same amount, but I don't think I'll commit as many early, is what I'll say. But but I do think like right now we've got I've got uh three high school kids committed for next year, four maybe. Um and then we've got two already committed in the 27 class. Um from a position player standpoint, I don't know that we'll commit another 27 for another year. What I would tell you.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:53

Which year is past that go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:55

In the past, in the past, if I'd seen one somebody that I was like, oh, no brainer, especially if I felt like, hey, this kid's a guy that uh you know Ohio State really wants, is gonna want in a year, you know, if I'm out in Ohio or in the state of Michigan, hey, this is a guy that Michigan is really gonna want, but Michigan can't pull the trigger right now because Michigan doesn't need to pull the trigger right now. And also Michigan does have the ability to go, hey, we might be able to work, we can attack a different level of the portal than Oakland can. So if I personally, and this is my opinion, is if I feel like I'm gonna go and fill my roster and fill all the holes with portal guys with the and and hit on all those transfers, I mean, I I'll be honest, I'd rather I'm gonna go the other route first, and then I'm gonna get proven that that way doesn't work before I try that one. Right. I don't like to gamble. I don't I don't gamble. And I will tell you that that I'm gonna I I'm a big believer in in increasing my odds and my odds of saying, hey, and like listen, what I what I realize is that I've also recognized that I'll play freshmen. We play young guys. Um and and I feel like I can, I'm getting, I'm getting now a uh another level up of freshman than what we used to get five years ago. Now, part of that is because I think we've done a good job at Oakland and create and showing that, hey man, like we're gonna play and we're gonna get out there and we're improving our facility, we're doing these different things, okay. Um, but we're also the reality is they're available. Um they're available a little bit more, and and there's also just becoming more of them um in general, because the the average 18 year old just feels like they throw four miles an hour harder, they're they're two inches taller, they're 25 pounds bigger, they're you know, all the different things. And um, and so it feels like, man, there's a there's there's a log jam of really good high school players.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:57

So that guy, so that guy, and hopefully I say this right. So that guy that was at let's just say Oregon for the ease of this conversation leaves Oregon and goes to Michigan. That kid that was gonna go to Michigan might say, I want to look at Oakland. Is that is that what you mean by some of the freshmen that's gonna be like?

SPEAKER_04 1:28:15

I think that sometimes is tough. I think sometimes that is a tough one. I think that kid, so think about this, and and this is the truth. Until I, and this is you know, talking about I'll be genuine, I'm gonna be honest. Yeah, um, look, and this is like like we want to we want to be the best team and like one of our goals as a program is to go be the best baseball school in the state of Michigan. You know, people can say I'm crazy, whatever, that's fine. What I will tell you is a kid, a kid that has committed to the University of Michigan. And now, if I was a part of the recruiting process, this might be a little different. Let's say I was a part of the recruiting process, we brought him in, and he loved us, coach, man, everything's great, and then Michigan comes in and they offer a great scholarship, and he goes there and he gets and he gets the line and down. He's like, Man, I love that, and it's Michigan, I'm going there. Okay. If that then kid gets dropped, assuming I've got roster flexibility and availability, I'm absolutely making a phone call for the most part, unless I felt like unless I felt like part of the reason why he chose Michigan over me was actually something because I'm gonna tell you, recruiting's hard. And one of the things we do at Oakland, man, like like I I buy into the longevity of players, and and I really believe that what we got going on here is special. And I'm gonna tell you what, I'm not here just to go win and so I can catapult to a great a bigger job. I my my wife is the director of philanthropy here. My daughter goes to Oakland Christian, like Oakland baseball. I feel like has it's you know, they they've lacked somebody with long-term vision, I believe. And um, it's nothing against Jordan. Jordan's right. Well, that makes a championship. But but Jordan also, Jordan to his defense, like like like he's doing exactly what part of what he wants. He wants to go, he wants to go be on a big time scale, uh, you know, national state and go prove to the world.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:20

Yeah, I always tell I told Jordan if the timing works properly, if I'm able to retire from my real job, I want to be his bench coach, wherever the hell he ends up, right? You're right. Every coach has a different goal or aspiration.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:34

Quite entertaining. Yeah. Um, so what I what I would tell you is we just like shoot, man, like we the the reality is I don't know if that kid, you know, if his ego would allow him to come. He he probably feels like he would go to junior college and and then have the ability to go go hit 400 and drop 10 homers and then re-sign with you know Iowa. Um, you know, something of that nature. So it's not that a phone call wouldn't happen. I think every situation is completely different. Um, I'm gonna tell you this, like, and I and I'm adamant about this. I don't burn bridges, um, and that's with players, families, coaches, etc. Um, because you just never know in this day, and that's part of the portal. Like, man, you don't know. You know, one of the one where I have had success in the portal is in the grad transfer kids, or some kids that might be looking to get back to Michigan after spending three or four years out of state, they want to get back close to home and you know, etc. So, um, and and like I said, kids that you recruited in high school and they go somewhere, and it's no fault to anybody, but this is why we talk about it's got to be the right fit. Yeah um, it's no fault to anybody, but they did it just didn't work out, and then that kid hits the portal. Hey, I called coach, hey, tell me about so-and-so. We recruited him high school. Hey, man, honestly, kid, I love him to death. It just wasn't getting done, or he was we over-recruited for him, or et cetera. We're gonna have to take his money, yada yada. I think you're a world of him, you should definitely go after him if you if you if you got a fit. Okay, great. So, and I might have a shot at that kid because of our history.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:08

So, on the flip side of that, let's so you bring it, let's say you bring in a freshman, right? You bring in a guy and you find a diamond into the rough, and in two years, he's all horizon league, he's your number one guy. And after his sophomore year, he comes into your offices and goes, Coach, uh, you know, because let's let's call a spade a spade. There's back channeling going on in every sport. Yeah. And coach, I'm gonna have an opportunity to go to a high major school and make a lot of money. What do you say to that kid?

SPEAKER_04 1:32:38

Well, here's what here's what I'd tell you. Um, I mean, number one, it it ain't hypothetical. I mean, it's happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:43

Well, I'm just I I just want to keep it hypothetical so I'm not referencing anyone. So we don't want to.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:48

I mean, listen, I here here's what I'd tell you. Um I don't ever want to be the reason to stand in anybody's way of reaching and accomplishing their dreams. That's what I would tell you. Um here's what I tell you. The true answer is if we're recruiting, and I hope that I got multiple players every year that that big schools want. And I think we do currently on our roster right now. And the answer is if if if I can't, you know, if I can't, if I'm look, if if a kid's got an opportunity to go walk away with a bag of money, do the thing that he loves doing, and he believes that and we haven't we haven't done what we feel like we need to be able to do to to give him the pathway to to to being able to reach that in a year or two via professionally. Uh I who know I'm I'm I'm just hoping that I'm driving, hey, I'll drive you to the airport. I'm just hoping, I'm just hoping that you know, you're in the front passenger seat and we got a conference championship trophy in the backseat that helped us win along the way. Right. I mean, that you know, I think it would be very easy for me to sit up here and say, hey man, if you have an intent on leaving here, then don't come in the first place. Well, you know, like say that to every coach that's probably been this before me. That's the truth. Um, and and I I'm gonna sit here and tell you right now, like, I got no intent on going anywhere. And I truly love it here. And um, I don't, you know, I never had a dream school, I had a dream job, and that was to be the division one head baseball coach. And and so, but what I would tell you as far as the player, like, look, look, last year we had three players transfer out to what you would call Power Five program, power four programs. And I'm gonna tell you what, all three of them sat there in my office and cried, and it was hard on me, and it was hard on them. And um I don't think they, you know, it it's I think sometimes we make this this these we we make these decisions into such a and we we've turned a lot of things into this in society into very superficial, we look at it like everything's just pure business, and and because a lot of it, because we deal in such big dollar amounts sometimes now that we're like, well, it's business. Well, the reality is there's still 18 to 22 year olds, right? Yeah, and and they have emotions, and the way we coach, um man, like the only way I know how to coach is to is to connect. And if I want to get the most out of you, then you you it's usually because you know that I'm gonna do everything there is for you. And so a kid leaving our program for the most part, um, it's a hard decision for them. And and and from an emotional standpoint, you know, like I like to tell you that um that when people the people love their time, you know, here and and so so yeah, man, it's hard, but I also understand, you know, the realities of the world we live in. I don't have to like it. I don't have to like it. Um, and I also will tell you this there's a little part of me that goes like, hey, and like sometimes I want to grab a kid and say, just give me one more year, and I promise you you're you're gonna have 10 more options. Um, you know, and I'll help you get there, you know, and and it's hard because kids, you know, we are we are in the process of recruiting good kids, like with good hearts, um, that come from good families that have good foundations and good values. And one of those is is being selfless and being being a per being have having a purpose of service, and and and so you you're constantly instilling all this stuff into them every day. And then at the end of the year, what society has forced these kids to do is hey, go make a selfish decision. What feels like a selfish decision, right? Because you're doing what's best for you, yeah, right. And so now, and so look, and this is where sometimes, like even Coach Banfield and I, like, he probably he probably hit me, and then he'd be like, No, man, like they're dead to me. And and listen, there's sometimes sometimes you're not wrong, like like some because I'm gonna tell you this this is the truth. When I say sitting there, like, you know, I got kids crying, like, hey, I'm a I'm a 40-year-old man, and like I'm pouring my heart and soul into some of these players. And when you talk about a freshman, you know, who who like the the journey didn't start on the first day of school. Sometimes that journey started when they were sophomores in high school, and you build real relationships. And then the moment that they leave mom and dad at home, you are, for lack of better words, the the the closest thing they have to a parent in that setting up.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:57

They spend more together than they do with their family. Absolutely. Hey, real quick so you know, about a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, you you went to Michigan and you beat you beat the Wolverines in Ann Arbor. We did and you know, anything to be fair. Yes, well, it goes on your record. So, for better or for worse, it goes on your record. Um, so I'm like in the group chat, I'm like, hey, nice win. You know, you guys played a loaded non-conference, and you know, you took it on the chin a couple times in Georgia, Texas, or Tennessee, and you go to Michigan and you get a win, and Mike responds with midweek means nothing. So I just would like to congratulate you on the win that means absolutely nothing, according to Mike.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:38

So Mike's wrong. Not the first time that he's been wrong about all right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. However, Mike's also not wrong. Okay, and and and and here's what I tell you is um okay, we play 56, you know, we try to play 56. Welcome to the north. I've had four weeks already canceled. Um whatever. We try to play 56 games. So we got 34 to 37 men on the rosters. Uh, if if you don't have midweeks, you got guys that are not playing, first of all. Um the here, okay. First of all, here's what I'd say the misconception about about midweeks. Okay, the mid the perception is that when when a big school gets beat by a small school, it turns into Excuse City. Well, they weren't playing their best arm, they didn't have their best arm, so they were playing the bench. Well, who the heck do you think I'm playing?

SPEAKER_05 1:39:43

Like, no, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:45

You're not you're not going your ace when you get away.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:47

I ain't the R Friday guy either, right? You know, that's a good point. So, like that that's first off, that, and here's what I'll tell you. That used to be kind of the the real like kind of answer. But the truth is, Mike, like, and I'm gonna actually have you has anybody got an iPad or computer in front of them? Jay's new lookup. Do me a favor, Jay. Do me a favor, pull up the box score from that game. So go on the first one, first one under pressure for Jay.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:14

Yeah, because I what you're gonna have him look at how many different pitchers were used? Nope. Oh no, okay. No, no, no, no. Perfect timing. This is crazy. This is awesome.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:22

Brian, what you don't know is Jay has changed his role. So he he is the look that shit up guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:29

Yeah. Hey, you gotta everybody's gotta have that guy.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:32

Everyone has a role, right? I got a guy like that. And Doug only talks football, so that's why he's been sitting here chilling.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:40

He's like, Oakland doesn't got football.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:42

I feel like I should have preempted, like giving him like behind the scenes, told him that we were gonna go down this route. No, no, no, this is great.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:48

Put him on the spot. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:50

Michigan was it the seven to six game?

SPEAKER_04 1:40:53

Yes. Yeah, that sounds right. Okay, so here we go. Okay. Now, who started that game for Michigan? I'm getting there. On the mound on the mound, that is.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:03

By you asking that question the way you're asking it, I could probably Yeah, I know the answer because I was there. No, I know, but I'm saying, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what I meant. I could probably guess who it was because I can tell that you're loading this thing up on us.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:19

Jay's learning how to use a computer. This is a good thing. I'm glad we're all a part of this.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:24

Yeah, no, this is I want to preface this by telling you that Okay. Like, I I think I think the world of of what Michigan's going on. This is not about Michigan. This is about education purposes for you guys. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:36

So you want to know who they had. Who is this?

SPEAKER_01 1:41:38

I want to know who they started. Shane Brynham. Or Brynham. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:42

Yep. When was what's his most reveal most previous appearance?

SPEAKER_02 1:41:46

I got I should have uh so wow, you gave Jay a time. Go ahead. Go ahead, Mike.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:52

I'm trying, I'm thinking this. Oh, oh, you son of a gun. A frickin' absolute stud ace. He went he went seven innings of shutout ball against Oregon. Pretty good team, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:42:05

Freshman. They have a number next to it, their name.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:07

Yeah, yeah. So okay. Then hey, Jay still got that box girl, man. Talk to me about who who who finished the game. The last give me like the last three arms for those for permission. So Preston.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:19

Who was trying to put us away on a Tuesday in a game that didn't matter? Preston Barr, Max uh Debitch. That guy pitches a lot. And Cade Montgomery.

unknown 1:42:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:30

I'm pretty sure those two guys lead their bullpen in appearances.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:33

Yeah, and it looks like Shane gave up three earned runs in that uh start.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:37

Now I would say if you really want to, go click on his start and say which program in this country has scored the most against Shane this year.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:46

Look at this. Look at how close he is to the fricky camera. Sounds like you know the answer.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:50

What I'm gonna tell you is what I'm gonna tell you is we treat every game no different. We are we scout, we recruit, we do defense alignments, we do, we break, we do everything that we can to win every game. So yes, they all matter. Now, do we recognize that a win or a loss on Tuesday does not impact our conference standing? So, thus, in the grand scheme of things, with our primary goal, our clearly our primary goal is not to go lead the country in the win-loss record. Okay, if I was doing that, I don't think we would have scheduled the teams that we scheduled, right? Okay, at least from that perspective. Our objective is to win conference. So, so does a win against Michigan no, does not actually have play into the outcome of our win-loss record in the horizon league. But it meant a lot to those kids in that dugout.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:52

Yeah, so okay, so when I was talking about this, that's kind of what I said. From an Oakland side of the game, I thought it was more important. But your points that you're making right now, you know, with the shane with Shane, with Shane getting some innings in, getting some work in, and was that his next start? Was Oregon his next next start?

SPEAKER_04 1:44:10

Was Oregon?

SPEAKER_05 1:44:11

Yeah, so he made adjustments.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:12

What I'm saying is Tracy, Tracy did not want his team, and this is where from a head coach perspective, is what I will say that like we played Toledo tomorrow, and we have not played what feels like since last year.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:25

Um yeah, those damn bye weeks in conference play, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:44:28

We had that, and we've had the cancellations with midweeks with unfortunate weather situation. It just feels like we haven't played in a minute, and so you know it's gonna be real easy to go out, and I told our team, like, it's gonna be real easy to go out and you know, play like crap and say, Oh, we got to knock the rust off, and like, yeah, you know, we could be all right, and then we play against Wednesday, um, against Rochester, Christian. We go play them and we you know do what we should do, what you're supposed to do, and then you build that into Friday, but like getting your butt kicked, like doesn't feel good, right?

SPEAKER_06 1:45:01

Right, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:02

I don't like on Tuesday, like I can promise you this like Michigan 1000% expected to go in and win that game. No different than we expected to win, and we were gonna perform to try to win, we were gonna do everything we could to win. They expected to win, and when you don't accomplish what you're trying to do, it matters. And especially when we only get 56 games and we only get three and a half months in a in a season setting, you know, we get from September till hopefully you know, July. But like the reality is, you know, you get this amount of time to be with this group of human beings, and by no way, shape, or form, but like I can promise you that it wasn't an off day for them. Um, it's not an off day for us. None of them are like on Wednesday when we play Rochester Christian, you don't think that game matters to RCU? Shoot, you think it doesn't matter to me? Like, we better, we need to get going. We got a big one on Friday. Like, those are big games.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:59

So next time you next time you send me a midweek score, yeah, I'm gonna say doesn't matter, but matters. And let me look up, and let me look up some shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:09

What I would tell you is what I would tell you is sometimes don't read into the scores, you know. Like that's where like sometimes it's kind of like, oh, they played sloppy baseball. Well, you know, sometimes we do because unfortunately we do got to give certain guys rest. Yep, and you gotta you can't play certain guys, or you are banged up, so you're throwing in some, you're giving young guys opportunities, and that can be a recipe for chaos. Yep, but just because I throw a freshman out there, like it's important, and that and you you better believe I'm evaluating that player based on that performance, and he knows it as well, and so it it matters.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:47

So, coach, this has been awesome. Um, you you your excitement and it just exudes, right? And um, I think that has been evidence before, or um, as as I will show you, um, we do have video evidence of back in the day. Uh yeah, this was April, I think it's April 2023. So, um if if if we can see, yep, here on the screen. Everyone focusing attention at the third base coach who's not in the box box. Oh, you might need a render. You're not oh it it's oh there you go. And grand slam, and so he doesn't he's waving a guy home on a ball that lands 50 feet over the fence. Luke is Luke, and then the the jump, the split, still back up, beautiful excitement, but what a uh what one of the best highlights in the background of social media we've seen.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:43

So here's here's the deal with that, right? He this shows you what Brian Nelson is like in just 10 seconds of a video, his passion for these kids. Wouldn't you agree, Brian? Like that's kind of how you are with kind of so freaking proud.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:01

There is some there's some you know, there's some kind of backstory to a lot of that. If you keep playing, I don't know how far it shows, but you'll see me go over to the dugout, and Coach Banfield comes out of the dugout, and I kind of give him a little chest bump. And you know, we had um Lucas Luce was a kid that we had brought in. Um that this was semi-late. Yeah, there are there I am. I'm some somewhere in the background, but you'll see me go over to the dugout, and and Jordan and I kind of have this little side moment, and um it's in the background, yeah. Yep, and so I give him a little shove, and it was kind of funny because we had been, you know, Lucas was was it was a very special hitter, um, but had you know, needed had some time to to continue to work, and and um trying to get him into the lineup was was a constant discussion with Coach Banfield and myself. And finally that morning, I was just like, dude, like let's just put loose in it, we'll put him in right field. Like, you know, he was a he was a third baseman, but Brandon and I was our third baseman, and so he was kind of stuck. And I was like, we were having some issues in the outfield, and it was like, dude, just go stick him out there, like we need some offense, like and he was like, you know, he's like, fine, forget it, let's do it. Well, this war we're down, we're down by like three or something at the time, and it's the seventh or eighth, and it was late in the game, and he comes up, and sure enough, it's this you know, this big grand slam, and um, and yeah, I was uh I I will say that the turf was wet. That's why I slipped it.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:37

This is this my recovery was good.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:39

It was this interview. But I was fired up, and so I went over to Coach Bamble and I shoved and I was like, and we were kind of doing one of those like I told you so's, and um, and it wasn't it wasn't, and I I'm trying to say that it wasn't like I wasn't it wasn't a told you so, it was more of like how about us, you know, kind of really. But um, it's not that Coach Bamble did like he trust me, he knew he could hit. Um, we it was just hard for us to find a spot. in the lineup form until we had a couple you know free spots open up and it was good to get them in there and yeah it was a big moment and and to to Mike your point is is yeah I mean like you you you through a recruiting process you build relationships with players and you know I think that's one of the things that people don't realize is that you know it's like we get kids out there and when they don't do well um I mean it you know they're hurting we're hurting you know like I'm hurting for like I trust me I want them to do well you know all the things like we brought you here because we thought you would do well um and when you don't do well and it's kind of like I tell people all the time I said you know it a lot of times again we talk about extreme ownership like we got to do a good job of evaluating whether or not we believe you can actually play it at this level okay so that's a part of it that's my responsibility and my coaching staff's responsibility in that recruiting process I got to do a good job of evaluating whether or not you're the right fit for me and the way I coach and your character and if you can be a part of this program and if you can uphold the standards. Okay. So like that's also my responsibility. So then if you if all that works out and you say yes and you want to be a part of this and then you show up to campus and I tell you to stand on your head to hit or you know I tell you you need to drop your ankle down to underarm or you know I tell you the only way to run to first base is to run backwards and you do all of these things and you show up on time and you bust your tail academically and you're you're you're you're in the community doing service and we are we're doing all the things and you're you're listening to everything I say and then you hit a buck fifty or you got an ERA of eight then the reality is I mean my staff did one of two things wrong. We either poorly evaluated you in that process or we have done a a piss poor job of developing you and coaching you while you're here. And um and and sometimes it's just not an uh the right fit and that does happen but the reality is so who am I to then bring a kid in a lot of times and say hey um we're taking your scholarship because you you underperformed and we need a move on and and and then if I'm doing that what you know everything I'm pouring into these kids during the months you know from the moment they step here like it's and it's hard to do that man we care about these kids you know looking at you right in the face and I'm talking to mom and dad and they tell you I'm gonna take care of you and and um that's we got to shoulder some of that responsibility. That's the reality. By the way that Grand Slam made a uh 9-6 game a 10 to nine game against Purdue Fort Wayne he was on it so uh coach really appreciate you joining us um awesome conversation uh Mike was right so uh we'll have to have you on again hopefully you guys finish out the season strong going into the horizon league tournament and uh I'll make sure I say hi to you right at the turn well I'm looking forward to meeting you in person um and absolutely listen I I I think what you guys are doing um is something that's much needed um it's it's awesome like look we got i I'm from Texas originally um you know we talked a little bit off camera about about some of the baseball in the area and high school ball and things of that nature but we got good baseball in this state and and um you know it's you know you know we're not in the SEC we get it and you know we're we're pretty far above the the Mason Dixon line so we get it but from a national perspective you know it's it's tough when you don't when there's not a lot of coverage up north and um we got some good baseball in Michigan. So I I from from my standpoint I will tell you this always feel free to reach out I like I said I'll I'd be I'll be honest with you always but doesn't mean I'm right so taking everything like like please don't don't take it to the grave man I'm I'm I'm just an opinion but I do have a perspective if you're always willing to listen and we I will say just from from a coach's perspective it's very easy to go listen to you guys and and anybody for that matter not just you specifically but listen to a podcast and and complain about it and say you guys don't know what you're talking about. And the reality is hey man how many of you guys have been have been college baseball coaches oh cool cool nobody like okay but you're out here doing something that I don't want to say needs to be done but like it sure is awesome and you're gonna bring exposure to a lot of players that that they deserve it they deserve it and and and if we can help make you better and I think more coaches should be able to open up to you and be honest with you and say hey man I think what you're doing is awesome. If you want my opinion on how to make it better here's my two cents but whatever I love what you're doing and um you're gonna keep my you guys you guys all of y'all y'all y'all continue to get better each show. So um what I would tell you though is everything matters.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:51

Yes it does yes it does coach uh thank you we'll talk to you again sometime soon guys appreciate you being here man well I want to thank again to uh Brian Nelson for joining us awesome unbelievable we could have talked for two and a half hours I think he should be did you ever see the McAfee show where they have like Aaron Rodgers on every couple weeks maybe we bring him in for like five ten minutes it'll be hard to get one question we'd get one question but it's okay. That's what people and again that's what I wanted with him I I know you got something to go over but what I wanted was Coach Nelson to I wanted people to see authentic be and see what he's like at the beginning people can smell bullshit and that's one thing he even told us I think before we recorded he goes listen I'm gonna be honest don't ask a question you don't want to know the answer to but um I want to thank him and again our show today is brought to you by the Detroit Thread Company. Detroit Thread Company is a top servicing embroidery and uniform provider in the Metro Detroit area delivering premier sports embroidery and uniforms force teams schools and organizations they provide high quality stitching custom designs and durable team apparel that stands out on and off the field. Call 866-382-4287 to get your team or organization geared up today. All right we have one did you see this ship because we've gone along show you didn't tell us what it is I wanted this authentic reaction it's similar to uh the Central Toledo incident so this is ULL Louisiana Lafayette Louisiana whatever the hell you call them and James Madison so sunbelt baseball so Tommy if you want to play it so it it you can't even see it at first it's very nonchalant it's a bunt attempt down the first baseline and then you won't see it on the initial view but there's a little bit of a collision uh the guy running down the line lowers his shoulder will see it on the replay there you see it right there yeah Tommy if you can go it back just a little bit just so they can look at it again I gotta get I gotta be natural. This is the first one he's running pretty hard and he kind of lowers his shoulder he makes no attempt to get around him. Now Tommy let it play after this because this is only part one so this is the ULL player first of all what if you can pause it right there. First of all initial thoughts on the hit I need the guy took the hit like a champ.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:14

He did though the first baseman stayed my first hit that's my first hit I think the runner is a dildo honestly there's no reason for it.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:23

He's not blocking first base you're 10 feet from the base okay so hit play because that's not all that happens so you know obviously you get shoulder tackled you're not happy yeah there's I mean or look he's like my size so he's got like little man syndrome or whatever. So you know both dugouts stand up and all of a sudden the the the Louisiana coach starts going off on the James Madison I don't I don't just mean like like talking back and forth.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:58

I mean his assistants get into it too he has he has rage in his eyes okay so did you know anything about this any backstory to it?

SPEAKER_02 1:58:08

Because I tried to find I now I did I did see this. Yeah so so that's what I have for follow so I mean he's yelling and he's getting into it's not with the head coach but he's yelling at another coach um there was a little bit of I guess quote unquote follow up if you guys remember remember Jonathan Lucroy who is a former Louisiana player now before Tommy pulls up the other tweet yeah and there you see the replay he is going over with intent I mean he is trying to run through this umpire. Look at everyone staying behind there one one coach is blocking them so you you have that um and then Tommy if you can pull up the other tweet of the one that the Jonathan Lucroy quote explanation which Well this is good you found it okay because I was reading like comments this is this is from a Louisiana perspective. Scroll up if you um uh all the way so we can see the top of it yeah so he says just got the inside scoop on this deal but to suffice to say that tensions had been boiling since the beginning of the series JMU baseball had some players chirping since the start in the series F bombs and such our raging Cajuns baseball player had a bad drag bun and uh dropped his shoulder into the first baseman since he was in the line bad decision on his part and he knows it um Deggs the head coach of UL uh was going to handle um him after the inning however JMU baseball dugout started chirping hard and cussing at Deggs at third base coaches and players um oh so the so the so the bench was yelling at the coach on the third baseline they that again okay from the ULL perspective um saying that that happened um head coach didn't tell his players to shut up huge eye wash in my opinion players don't yell and cuss at teams other head coaches that's a no go zone uh Deggs was all over the the crap talking was all was over the crap and decided to get after it you can see the video the JMU head coach didn't want to deal with it. Okay and then he goes on to basically say my coach is in the right yeah I read I read some stuff that they were getting very personal to about his private life so here's the thing unless you know what was said because you know a coach uh someone from the bench going hey get to control your fucking team there is I think is completely in line now if you're throwing out his wife's name or his kids' names that is 100% I read some things about that. There was also a um of the press conference that Degs did after the game it was two and a half minutes of him saying basically they said things I didn't like now first of all there and take that's taking the high road right well what do you want him to say so if you listen to it it's a lot of word soup where he's not saying a lot and he's uh and he's trying to deflect and well we know he did something wrong like like how hard is it to go up there like listen he did something really friggin' stupid and that's the one thing I don't like is like well well yes the one player did try to run a guy over so the guy trying to run him over had nothing to do with no it like sparked two separate things you can tell tensions had been boiling.

SPEAKER_05 2:01:35

I mean if that would have happened in the 90s this guy right here Jay would have been rolling around with that guy whipping his ass that's all I'm gonna say like that's how shit happened back then.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:44

Yeah it's a different world now which I but here's the thing like I you know I'm a I'm a more old school guy right Mike you know I'm an older soul there is no point to try and run a guy over 70 feet down the first base like that's not a collision at the plate that's not you know you're diving back or or you're trying to break up a dunk.

SPEAKER_05 2:02:04

I mean even if there was somebody on third and less than two outs like maybe you're trying to cheat a little bit to get that runner. What you do is you do the Javi Bayas and run back roll but I'm just saying there wasn't even anyone on base. Hey I just got a um I just got a text from the Rochester coach. Oh yeah so the Madonna game Landon Fahy was the pitcher for Rochester.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:25

I just love hard transition yeah I'm sorry go back to the first segment yes we're recording this as Rochester actually swept Madonna in a doubleheader.

SPEAKER_05 2:02:32

So Landon Fahey five from Rochester former Detroit prospect and Lutheran North kid really cool story that I know we don't have a lot of time to tell but five innings pitched one hit zero runs one walk six K's set 8687 and topped at 88. Pretty good this is NAIA for Rochester University. So we talk about how there's good baseball around like good for landon yeah he was a big couple of wins there. He was a last minute like summertime commit to Rochester this past summer.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:05

So but anyway back to as Mike called him dildo running down for no that's good that we had that it happened because we got the result live but like I don't know I I guess Jay am I wrong that basically depending on what was said if it was personal then that reaction it could be justified for the coach?

SPEAKER_00 2:03:25

Yes. It's tough because I don't think that reaction is really ever justified for the coach because it's the coach's job to keep Google heads. So that just looked bad all around and then it looks like he's yelling at the kids. Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:39

Yeah I mean or are you to yell at somebody else's team if they really said something that egregious put it out there. Put them on I mean if they said like something about your family or something about your wife or your kids then say no they brought my family into it that's completely unacceptable and I lost my mind. Yeah. Because right there it looks like your guy acted like an ass then you got mad because you were being called an ass. So so if they did that you're fine with his reaction I wouldn't say completely fine. I understand it. I'll tell you what it becomes I'd say you talk to the other team's coach. Well according to the the LuCroy tweet he was trying to but quote according to LuCroy the JMU coach didn't want anything to do with it. Yeah he probably said I coach my team you coach your team and he probably saw him running over like a maniac and going nothing good's gonna happen to this so no it just it definitely triggered him but like it's like walk over to the coach and say hey we're gonna fucking talk after this game I'll meet you I'll meet you behind home plate because the demeanor of him going over there was not yeah it's all a bad look yeah bad look from the start yeah it's I'm gonna go fight somebody yeah yeah so either way those are like field of 64 NCAA basketball team so who cares? Well yeah but we get to talk about it's not one of the teams we cover so we don't have to depend to pretend that everyone's in the right yeah no there is no right in that one like I guess all right Jay let me just ask you this before we wrap it up what would someone have had to have yelled for that for you to say acceptable response shit for me yeah for you to act like you're the AD of Louisiana right and you go coach what the hell was this he'd have to say well they said no even further for Jay to be that third base as the as the AD for you to go okay coach not a good look but I get it.

SPEAKER_00 2:05:41

Yeah there's nothing in my opinion that's acceptable and I was a hothead when I was a kid. Right. So a coach I mean there's it's just not acceptable for the coach to do that. I mean unless somebody responded your teammate like point blank punched him in the face that's the only time a coach is going to be a little bit of your player just attacked the it's all wrong on their end. I mean the kid hits the first baseman I don't even know what the point of that was were you trying to knock the ball out what were you trying to do right there wasn't even trying to write out it's just the guy sitting there tagging you and you all of our personalities have changed over the years.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:16

Like what would have happened I I know what you asked that question but like if you can't get to that bench to fight the next pitch is ear hole in the guy. Like and it doesn't happen anymore.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:26

People just fucking talk they just do put your I mean you could also argue you put your team in danger of the pitcher going all right I'm breaking this kid's ribs. Yeah yeah I'm throwing a fastball I'm grabbing a four seamer and this guy's gonna but it doesn't happen anymore they don't do it anymore.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:43

And guess what they did there? They all just talked yeah talk shit.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:46

Anyway I thought that was um something that I kind of like it being a surprise. That was kind of cool to because I think that needed I wanted the honest reaction to that before you like you said you read anything about it.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:57

My honest reaction is the whole thing was stupid.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:58

Yeah like it was a great video good for you but like the these people these people are just anyway um thank you all for listening again uh we'll be back next week Mike might have to be virtual because he goes let's do a podcast and then takes two vacations in five weeks this is work I'm going to Vegas for work right like like we were supposed to start this a week earlier but Mike went to Florida.

SPEAKER_05 2:07:21

Went to Florida that's true yeah all right I feel like everybody has to take a deep breath yep breathe remember why you're doing this anyway