MSU's Taylor Grzelakowski Joins and The Rat War Continues, Tournament Positioning Closes In

The guys are back as the college baseball season hits crunch time, breaking down conference tournament races, postseason implications, and where Michigan stands as things tighten up. 

But first… Jay’s ongoing war with neighborhood rats escalates (yes, there are casualties), and the chaos only gets better from there. 

On the field, the crew dives into a huge stretch of games across the state and beyond, with Michigan climbing, Michigan State making noise, and the MAC turning into complete madness down the stretch. 

Plus, a great sit-down with  Taylor Grzelakowski who joins the show to talk program insight, late-season mentality, and what it takes to win when everything’s on the line. 

A little bit of everything in this one… baseball, rats, and a coach who knows exactly what it takes to close. 

Write in at thewalkonscast@gmail.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:00

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Walk-Ons podcast, talking everything Michigan baseball. As the season's starting to wind down, we're really getting into the nitty-gritty of conference tournaments. Uh, some team seasons have actually already ended by this point. But before we get all to the baseball, the biggest update that everyone's waiting for. Oh, yeah. Jay Voltrauer has declared war against rats in his neighborhood. Uh, and there have been fatalities since we've last talked. Jay, I'm gonna turn it over to you. Let's uh give a quick recap for those that didn't listen last week and then tell us what's happened in the last seven.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Hopefully, it wasn't your neighbor, the fate fatality. No, not at all. It was a rat.

SPEAKER_04 0:44

So, yeah, having a rat issue. St. Clair Shores has a big rat issue right now. Construction driving them up. Um talked about a neighbor who thought feeding wildlife was a good idea um and now has attracted rats to live in a couple of things.

SPEAKER_07 0:58

Well, they're not just feeding wildlife, putting out like a buffet of seeds. Yeah, an MGM casino style buffet for these rats of nuts and seeds.

SPEAKER_04 1:07

That's subsided. Buffet, but there's still shells all over the neighborhood, and they eat those too. So cleaning up is is a big problem.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Have you been sleeping?

SPEAKER_04 1:16

Uh no, I was a little sick. Doing a few different things right now, projects just to kind of alleviate rats and then you know, upgrade some things that the rats have destroyed around my house. So yeah, still killing a lot of rats, uh catching them in traps uh yesterday, doing some of that work around the house, see a rat walking disoriented on the lawn of one of my other neighbors who did not cause this issue, but she's dealing with it as well. So I saw him, I had a shovel in my hand, and figured, let's whack him. So I whacked him on top of that.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

You go straight down?

SPEAKER_04 1:51

Oh, yeah. I did like a whole like you know, sledgehammer above the head and foom.

SPEAKER_08 1:55

So did you did you jump the fence or did you hit over the fence?

SPEAKER_04 1:58

No, no, I just walked right out on my driveway. Oh, saw him hiding in some rocks, then he slowly moved into a lawn area, so I just crept up real slow, held the shovel back, and thoom.

SPEAKER_07 2:09

Did you hit them? Did you get broadside or did you go guillotine style?

SPEAKER_04 2:12

No, broadside, so I hit him flat. Yeah, flat. And your neighbor was watching? No, she was on the other side of her house, so I called her over. I'm like, hey, come here, come here, I got a rat. And she looked at it and was like, that's a rat, and it was huge. Took up the whole spade shovel when I lifted it up. Um, but it was clean. Nobody, you know, was no pain in this. Just knocked them right out cold in one shot and then picked them up, threw them in a trash.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Nothing's gotten in the house, nothing's in the house.

SPEAKER_04 2:39

No, still nothing in the house. Uh, everything's going good. They are dwindling. I've put a lot of things out, like like we talked about before, some coyote pea, things like that to keep them out of my yard.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Did you try the Dunham's brand? Or do you no, no, it was ordered on Amazon.

SPEAKER_04 2:53

Those are gone a lot.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Big Ted might be still there.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

It only lasts so long, so you gotta reapply. Like I spray it on wood and things like that, where it'll sink in and sit there, and they can smell it. It's a predator, so it I think they're fewer and farther between in my yard, but still there, just trying to keep them at bay.

SPEAKER_08 3:12

And hopefully, as things get more are you are you finding anything inside your garage?

SPEAKER_04 3:16

Like any no, no, I've I've taken steps to keep them from doing that, but I am going to rebuild the whole garage because they've chewed away the bottom of it. Um, because it's a wooden garage, standard, you know, 14 by 20 wood garage in St. Clair Shores, and they've been eating away to get in there. So I've backed it all up with like bricks and brick pavers, so they can't actually physically get into the garage. Um, but part of my project right now is I'm going to knock down the garage and rebuild a new one.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Like this summer.

SPEAKER_04 3:46

Yeah, oh yeah, within weeks.

SPEAKER_07 3:48

So you're you're advancing towards Berlin.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

You have it's turning into quite a project. You know, we're gonna do some new cement, gonna do a whole new privacy fence because they've chewed little uh Tom and Jerry, right? Who was the who was the mouse in that scenario? Was it Tom? Tom. So they've they've chewed through all the privacy fences. There you go. They've chewed through all the privacy fences to make little doorways, so that's all destroyed and yeah, it's a mess.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

So what was Jerry's boy's name? Uh Speed was it Speedy Gonzales?

SPEAKER_04 4:20

No, that's a totally different car.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

That's a totally different cartoon, dummy. Didn't he have a buddy though that was fast?

SPEAKER_08 4:26

That was the Roadrunner.

SPEAKER_04 4:27

Yeah, Roadrunner and Bugs Bunny, and then there was Speedy Gonzales, Undaleandola, and the I don't know.

SPEAKER_07 4:34

And I was born 30 years after these cartoons came out. Yeah, but you still watch them, probably.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

That that was Hey, I thought of Dunham's again one more time, and I won't make this like a we're gonna have to bleep out the story. Who was the guy certain things you can't say about Dunham's? No, but who was the guy that tried to fire you and called your dad? John.

SPEAKER_04 4:59

Remember that guy. When we went to spring break. Johnny D.

SPEAKER_07 5:03

Oh, okay. Story time. How do you get fired from your job or almost get fired from your job on spring break when you're gonna be able to do that?

SPEAKER_04 5:10

I don't know if it's didn't fire me. He said I could not go on spring break.

SPEAKER_08 5:15

Yeah, because he was scheduled. Hold on. You gotta have a backup. This is the same spring break that we talked about before.

SPEAKER_07 5:22

When you just committed petty theft.

SPEAKER_08 5:24

Yeah, that's it. Same trip, but almost everybody that went with us, I think six of the eight guys all worked at Dunham.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

Jay was there at the time.

SPEAKER_08 5:33

Yeah, all worked at Dunham. We all made a decision to go to Florida. Like it, we didn't plan it months in advance.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

We borrowed a thousand bucks for my dad. I had no idea.

SPEAKER_08 5:41

We literally made all these plans within two weeks. Yeah, it's pretty literally. So we all went to the managers and we're like, all right, we're all gonna be gone for the next week. Yeah, and then Jay was probably the last one to say it. Yeah. We already had a day of. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:54

Well, I waited because everybody else had already said.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

I don't even know if this is that funny, but the way Jay tells the story is how he's sitting at home.

SPEAKER_04 6:01

So I called him, I'm like, look, John, I'm I'm going on spring break, I'm not gonna be at work. And he's like, No, you can't. I was like, Well, I can, and I'm going to. And he's like, Well, do you want your job? I was like, No. As a matter of fact, I don't want to go on spring break. He goes, Did you tell your parents? I go, I am 18 years old. Why would I tell my parents anything? He's like, Why I should call your parents? I was like, Go ahead, call my parents. I'm 18-year-old adult. Yeah, yeah. I go, I go, you can call them all you want. Nothing's gonna happen. I'm not coming in. I'm going on spring break, and you know, first I'm gonna fired up by some clothes. You you can find a replacement for me. Or this was probably the final straw for this man because you know, we were young, we were 18 years old working at Dunham's, and I was a shoe salesman. And I did the Dave shift, so nobody's buying shoes in the daytime from people.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

People would come in and be like, Jade be sitting back there, be like, they'd be like, yo, let me see those new Barclays. And Jade'd be like, no, get out. I'm not, I'm not even going to the back together.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

Yeah, because half the time I'd be laying on the bench in the back, just bored out of my mind, flipping off the camera. One day John calls me in the office, he's like, you know what? I'd really appreciate it if you just stop laying on the back bed and giving the finger to the camera.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

But he would tell people no. Like he's like, go down, go to sports authority. Like, I'm not going to the back room to get you marked.

SPEAKER_07 7:23

So you're bored out of your mind, and then you finally get something to do, and you go, nah, I'm good.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

No, we're good. We don't, you don't want those shoes. So didn't John John called your house?

SPEAKER_07 7:33

Real quick, how old is this John guy? Is he like 25 or?

SPEAKER_04 7:36

No, no, no, no. He was he's probably 40s or so. Mid 40s at least.

SPEAKER_07 7:40

So you're John now.

SPEAKER_04 7:42

Yeah, exactly. But we wouldn't call like on kids. If you're an adult, I'm not gonna say I'm gonna call your parents on you. Um you'd probably be like, Can I go on spring break?

SPEAKER_08 7:51

Well, this guy was this guy was the manager of like probably the busiest Dunhams in the entire chain. And the worst group of people he had no control over anybody. We'd all be in the back room hanging out. There'd be like eight of us in the back room hanging out, and he would walk, and you would think a manager walks by, everybody would like scatter.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Like rats would be like, we would just like throw shit out of like.

SPEAKER_08 8:15

We would be like, he goes, Can you guys please just pretend that you're scared of me when I walk back here? Because nobody even moved.

unknown 8:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:21

Well, that's what you get when you employ a bunch of teenagers and nothing.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Dude, tell the story though.

SPEAKER_07 8:25

He called so he calls your parents.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Yeah, nothing. Your dad didn't you answer, and you're like, Why are you calling my house to talk to my parents?

SPEAKER_04 8:33

Yeah, exactly. He he calls, I get the phone, because at that time, you know, there's still landlines, and he's just like, Yeah, this is John from Dunham's. Uh, I'm looking for Mr. Voltrour. I was like, Yeah, this is him, this is Jason, actually. Because I'm 18 now, and what I told you was that you can call my parents, but nothing's gonna happen. I was like, so no. You're like, why are you calling my dad, dude?

SPEAKER_07 8:55

How long after the threat did he call? Was it like after right after your shift?

SPEAKER_04 8:59

Well, it was pretty much within a couple days. It's all kind of hazy now because it's been so long, but yeah, he called. I just told him, No. You're not talking to my parents, I'm not coming to work. Deal with it. There's so many more. Oh, yeah, I was fired. I mean, at that time I didn't need the job. I was doing it because, you know, we're young, want some money, and that's it.

SPEAKER_08 9:19

And there were a lot of fun people to work with at that time. Yeah, it was great. It was actually I'll never have a job that fun again for the rest of my life. There were so many people that I still talk to this to this day that I worked at Dunham's 32 years ago, and we still talked. That's how we met.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Really? Yeah, we would go next door. What was that bar called? Travers Tavern. Travers Tavern. And they wouldn't check IDs or anything. And you're basically you're still a high schooler. Yeah, I took out of there. I graduated from high school, took a year off from baseball, so I wasn't playing baseball yet and at McComb. And we would walk next door to Travers and just do like three or four shots, go back in to the shoe department.

SPEAKER_07 10:00

I would like to put out a disclaimer for any young 18-year-olds listening to this. Do not follow in their own. Oh, that's a good point. Please, please, to any 18-year-olds that are getting ready to graduate high school, please do not take a job and do shots in the middle of the day.

SPEAKER_08 10:13

I mean, we could do we could do seven podcasts over things you shouldn't.

SPEAKER_07 10:16

I think we should we're gonna keep some in the barrel.

SPEAKER_08 10:18

Yeah. There's plenty. There's plenty.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

To you young kids out there, this is when the drinking age was 18. But Brady kind of believes it because he's so young. No, I'm not looking at you thinking shit. No, we have too many dunhom stories, and we definitely cannot tell them on this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 11:23

Give them a call, 866-382-70 or 4287. Again, 866-382-4287 to get your team or organization geared up today. And that takes us.

SPEAKER_08 11:35

Well, hold on. Oh, we've gone two rat stories and haven't even brought up the fact that Mike's nickname was rat.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

I didn't know this.

SPEAKER_08 11:43

Yes, he's got a rat tattoo.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Where? Is it a rat? It's a rat swinging a bat. I forgot about that one. I'm still thinking of the Black Panther that's on it.

SPEAKER_07 11:55

Where is this tattoo? Where is this tattoo? Wait.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

It's on my right throwing shoulder.

SPEAKER_07 12:01

Can we see it?

SPEAKER_02 12:02

No, no.

SPEAKER_07 12:03

Bullshit, we can't see it.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

One day, one day. Maybe we'll tweet it out from the walk-on.

SPEAKER_07 12:08

I'll just beat you up and take your shirt off yourself.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

No, it's uh it's pretty embarrassing. I got it when I was 18. I went to ink slingers in Roseville.

SPEAKER_05 12:21

Just show us. It's too hard. I'm bundled up.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Was that the was that the second pretty off? The first one was the rat, and then like two weeks later. Hold on.

SPEAKER_08 12:31

Now I gotta tell this story because I wasn't there.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

He was addicted to the ink already after one and went and got a black panther.

SPEAKER_07 12:37

I've known Mike for six years and I've never seen his shoulders. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Yeah. We were just talking about that with Tommy Nahas. I'm a long-sleeve guy as long as I can go.

SPEAKER_04 12:46

Yeah, he's a three t-shirts at the same time kind of guy. No one can't. He's the guy who wears a t-shirt under a t-shirt. I don't know how that's possible.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Well, because I don't want to get taco pits, dude.

SPEAKER_04 12:56

I shave my armpits too. I trim my armpits. Anyway, Doug, you had a story.

SPEAKER_08 13:01

So I was not there for this tattoo. Full disclaimer. For a rat bat tattoo. For rat bat tattoo. However, probably no more than 20 minutes after he went initially to get the tattoo. My phone started. The two people that took him were also friends of ours, and they're like, dude, you're not, you should have been there today. And I go, what did I mean?

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Remember the two people that want Eric was there?

SPEAKER_08 13:27

Eric and wasn't Donnie, didn't he go with you?

SPEAKER_02 13:29

I don't know, dude.

SPEAKER_08 13:30

Anyway, so Eric calls me and he goes, dude, you should have came with us to the to watch Rice get a tattoo. I'm like, what? What happened? He goes, he passed out.

SPEAKER_03 13:40

I didn't he pass out.

SPEAKER_08 13:43

And these guys, these guys are in like the lobby, and he's in the back getting his tattooed. And the tattoo audit comes out. He's like, hey, dude, you gotta come get your boy off the floor.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

That's not true. These guys exaggerate so much. He didn't, he had it.

SPEAKER_08 14:00

They wouldn't finish the tattoo. I got lightheaded. I had to go back to get it finished because the guy's like, you gotta go, man. It hurt all a factor.

SPEAKER_04 14:09

Hey, that woman, come on back here. I'm ready for you.

SPEAKER_07 14:11

He was sober. He was sober. This dirty man gotta show us this tattoo.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

I mean, it's probably the uh the night before and malnourished the next day, but I didn't pass it.

SPEAKER_04 14:24

You gotta be at least happy. You didn't go with the whole 90s tribal thing like I did. Everybody else did. You got unique too. Just move the damn thing out of your way.

SPEAKER_07 14:33

You don't have to be on it the whole take your headset off. Take the headset off before you rip those off. There it is.

SPEAKER_04 14:41

T-shirt under a t-shirt heads.

SPEAKER_07 14:43

They're gonna be right there.

SPEAKER_04 14:45

Hell yeah, everybody. Look at t-shirt under a three layers. Under a hoodie, and it's 65 degrees in it.

SPEAKER_07 14:51

Tucked into sweatpants.

SPEAKER_04 14:52

Yep. Oh yeah. Let's see. Alright. Boom. It's a little faded camera.

SPEAKER_07 14:58

Yeah, there. It is a little faded.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

But yeah.

SPEAKER_08 15:04

Oh, this is gonna be a the struggle's real now.

SPEAKER_07 15:07

Yeah, I was gonna put one layer on, another layer on. No wonder why you couldn't play baseball. You have no s you have no feel for your body. No wonder why you hit kid rocking.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

So to be clear, I did not pass out, dude. I got like lightheaded. And it's still funny, but listen, I wasn't there.

SPEAKER_08 15:25

I'm just telling you the story that was told to me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:28

I was so drunk. I just bled like a sieve. And the guy was finally like, I can't, I can't do this. This is just too bloody. I'm like, just get it done.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

But I went a week later and got a panther on my back.

SPEAKER_04 15:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

He loved it so much. The ink got into his veins. My grandpa had a panther like on his left forearm. I thought it was really cool. So I put one on the back left shoulder. You can't see it if I'm wearing a shirt or a three shirt. Yeah. Yeah. Where did we go from this? Where were we about to do and then dodge?

SPEAKER_07 15:58

I was about to talk about Michigan. Michigan taking two and three from you to violently. Hold on, wait a second. Mike has a rat tattoo. Hold on.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Mike is shitty, and I'm gonna who does that?

SPEAKER_01 16:10

He goes, hold on, Mike has a rat tattoo. Oh, because of the rats. Because of the rats.

SPEAKER_04 16:16

I didn't bring it out of nowhere. And he does a face that's kind of like a rat, but we're not gonna give you fun home. Mr.

SPEAKER_07 16:22

Bean. I'm gonna give you fun homework. Next week you need another embarrassing Mike story or another Dunham's one. Oh, yeah. There's a bigger one to but but give let it think for a little bit, and maybe if you need to ask somebody.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

We have another there's a good one we can talk about next week, is when we when we kind of quit, but also got fired when we worked at Kroger together. Oh yeah. Because we had baseball, we had baseball practice.

SPEAKER_07 16:43

All right, from Dunham's to Kroger next week, give you a reason to tune in.

SPEAKER_04 16:47

Kroger was pre-Dunham's. Oh was it?

SPEAKER_07 16:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:51

Yeah, it was 18. Oh, yeah, that's right. That was before me.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

Barely had license. 16. Yeah, you had your uh Geo Tracker. We drove around it.

SPEAKER_07 16:58

Yeah. All right, tell us about U of M. They took to a three from UW after they did lose the RPI game against Miami, Ohio.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Yeah, um man, I'm really finding myself rooting for these guys now, like a ton. And Jun Sung Park. Remember I brought him up last week. You guys are like, how do you did you say the name right? That is how you say it. But he had a walk-off basis clearing double in game one. It was really freaking cool to see. And then I watched game two, and he came up in the same scenario and hit a two-run double in the ninth to tie it. So they had a couple walk-offs. Cade Liedenhoff walked it off in game two. Um I didn't even report game three. I mean, they fought back. They almost got to that ninth inning to be able to score a couple runs here and there. But they're 27 and 17 and 12 and 9. I know you're probably gonna go over the we'll probably go over the standings eventually, but I I made some notes, some updates to some season stats. Go ahead, run through those real quick.

SPEAKER_07 18:00

And six. Oh yeah, dude. No, they're in the Big Ten, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Yeah, Kurt Kurt Barr's five and two, and he's he's holding steady under that four. He's at a 339 ERA, 73 Ks, um 32 walks, and 61 innings pitched. Um Colby Turner's just under 400. So he's at 399 slashing 10 homers, 40 RBIs. Braden Jeffers is at 339, and Noah Miller is at 292. He dropped down a little bit, but I have one thing I noticed watching so much college baseball this weekend is holy shit, he can like really take care of the staff, like from a receiving standpoint, and there's not there's no ABS. He gets his hands are smooth, and he's just probably like a silent MVP for that team defensively.

SPEAKER_07 18:51

Well, having a good having a bad catcher is something that you don't really realize how nice it is to have a good one until you don't have one. Yeah. And when they're struggling behind the dish, that's when it really like pisses you off. You're like, man, it was good when we had a guy at least.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

And there is a worry about there's a feel to it too. And your pitchers are freaking head cases, right? Even if they're if they're not finding the zone a little bit, but Noah Miller's you know, working from the ground up and making those even feel like strikes from a mental standpoint. It's like there's not a stat for it, but he's he's he's huge. I have them right now, they drop to a 50 RPI.

SPEAKER_07 19:25

So I'm really you saw when before we did this that they're what projected to be like right on the bubble, either last four in or last four out.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Yeah, yeah. And I have to give a shout out to David Lally Sr. He he uh politely called me out via text and was like, dude, we were sitting at the game and we're I was I, Mike, I was ripping on midweeks, and he's the first guy that brought up RPIs to me. So shout out to Mr. Lally. Now I'm like all over it. I'm looking, there's a there's a live RPA RPI, RPI link. Why do I did I say RPA a couple times already? No, that was there's a live link for it. Um that's what our guest Stone gave us last week, right? Yeah, yeah. But if you look at Michigan's schedule this week, upcoming they got Maryland, but they have no midweek. Just for the hell of it, I was looking at again the RPIs to see who's kind of close in the region and the area that has a nice RPI. In Cincinnati, uh our buddy Jordan Bishop, who coached here in the in the state, they have a 20 RPI and they have no midweek. So that would be like ideal. Like set it up. Cincinnati, I don't think, has anything to lose because they're so high now. That would be a really cool thing. So I of course put it on social media and ask those two guys to get together.

SPEAKER_07 20:45

Well, the thing about Maryland is they're not very good, so that could actually hurt Michigan because Michigan State just took two or three from Maryland.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Maryland's RPI is 70. I mean, it's better than some of these 200 guys, 180 guys.

SPEAKER_07 20:59

True. Uh, Michigan did take two or three from them, and it gave them a little bit of cushion for that last Big Ten tournament spot.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Uh that was big. And man, the same names keep showing up. Kamari Thomas cannot be stopped. He has 41 hits. He's batting 336 for the season. Isaac Sturgis holding strong at 327. Um, Noah Bright was kind of on again, off again in the lineup. He seems to have like stabilized, like he's in there. He's either DHing or catching. He's at 290 with five homers and hasn't played too much yet this year. They haven't all added up. Um Parker Pico, I have in parentheses power. I was talking with Jelly a couple weeks ago about Parker, the Alabama he was at Alabama. We talked about him last week. You told me about him being a quarterback. He's added something to that lineup where he can go yickety at any given time. And he's I don't even have his stats written down, but I just wrote freaking power. Um update for Randy Seymour. He's At a well-respected 280 right now, 14 homers and 43 ribies. Aiden Donovan, our favorite pitcher, who's been pitching game two, which I think you guys have noticed. They have UCLA this weekend. It'd be kind of cool to see if he pitched game three on Sunday. But uh Donovan's four and two with the 362 ERA, and they have no midweek either. Um, and they're at UCLA. Uh I think BP and starts at like 315. UCLA is here. Yeah, did I say at home. At home. But BP starts at like 315 this Friday, so I'm trying to get Doug to go hang out with me.

SPEAKER_07 22:36

Well, UCLA is like, if you look at those ratings, like one of the best bit college baseball ratings ever. Like they're not just number one, they are a wholly dominant number one.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Yeah, I'd like to see it's kind of neat, and then we can talk to Jelly about it, but I wonder how different they are than like the Texases of the world and some of those SEC teams. Because no offense to the Big Ten, which we are probably biased and love the Big Ten. But those SEC teams are crazy. So I'd like to. They have the same advantage. Like yeah, but they I'm saying they're running through the Big Ten. Yeah. They ran through everyone, though, even not in the Big Ten. Yeah. Well, I'd like to see the feel difference after this weekend. And like I said, hopefully they can sneak out one against UCLA. One note I have about Maryland is white tube socks. I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? I can get it if my, you know, those those little D3, D4 high schools can't afford it, or whatever you want to say for the socks. Under Armour's headquartered there, their Under Armour uniforms, and these guys had white tube socks. Their coach came out to argue a call and had on like the stocking hat. It was it was like, what the hell is going on? I was getting really bothered, old man pissed about it. But Maryland, clean your shit up.

SPEAKER_07 23:55

It was uh not milk toast.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

I was a Manna's looking son.

SPEAKER_07 24:01

No, Manna's looking sons of bitches. Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

But Maryland's gotta clean their act up. That's there's no excuse for that. Wear black socks, wear the Maryland red socks, wear yellow for all. Just get the long socks.

SPEAKER_07 24:12

Anyway, uh onto the Mac. Uh, Western drops two of three to Kent State in a big series. They're now two games back of first. There's they're firmly in the tournament, but they're two games back of first.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

Yeah, I gotta pull up because I wanted to talk about the RPI more, but we'll go to the Mac. Um, yeah, Western lost two of three, like you said. Uh one highlight I have for Western this weekend is our buddy Ricky Kidd keeps showing up. Eight innings pitched. This is in the win, game three win. Eight innings pitched, seven hits, two runs, one walk, and one K. Like, how good is that defense and how well are you spinning that ball if you go eight innings and only have one K.

SPEAKER_07 24:52

Well, and how important is it to get that win? Because otherwise, you know, you're two games back at first, otherwise, you're you're swept and you're kind of out of any hope of the race.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

Yeah, big time, big time. And Mike Maloney and Taylor, Tanner Malley, the the two usual spuck suspects had uh three hits each. So Mike Maloney, Tanner Malley. Um on the season, Tanner Malley is at 483 with 69 hits. Uh Drew Howard is at 358 with 54 hits. Mike Maloney's at 350 with six bombs and 40, 45 ribbies. Ricky Kidd is up to six and one now with a four respectable uh 420 ERA. He's at 64 innings pitched, 22 walks, and only 30 K's, which I say only because I still, like I said, think he's a pitcher. He's not blowing anybody away, but he's pitching to get out. So up next, they're at uh Miami of Ohio. I'm noticing no midweeks for people.

SPEAKER_07 25:47

I mean they maybe for arms. Yeah, keep the arms fresh. Speaking of Miami, Ohio, they swept Central and they're keeping pace up top, and Central is well, they they they're fading down the stretch a bit.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

Yeah, Central is getting one update for my favorite player.

SPEAKER_08 26:03

Okay. Cole Pan. One of the kids on my Stevenson team just committed to Miami of Ohio this week. Oh football?

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_08 26:11

Do you do a lot of work on that? Zero. He's an offensive lineman.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Take credit for it. Tweet it, take credit for it.

SPEAKER_08 26:17

Zero, he's an offensive lineman.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

All you gotta do is like retweet it, say, congratulations, Billy, and people will think you had something to do with it.

SPEAKER_04 26:24

And Western's hanging in there, too. I mean, they're only a couple games behind Miami of Ohio.

SPEAKER_07 26:28

No, they're in the mix, but losing the series puts you just you need some help now.

SPEAKER_08 26:33

Yeah. There's not many series left. And Kenn State's the is the leader, right?

SPEAKER_07 26:37

Right. They're only two games behind both of them. It's it's not a sin to lose a series, especially a well-played one, but if you want to win the Mac, that's a series you need to have. But you have Miami of Ohio to kind of make up for that. Yep. Yep. Eastern did also drop two of three to uh northern Illinois, and Eastern is they're struggling down the stretch.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

Yeah, but I still want to talk about Cole Prout. Okay, tell us what's going on. Cole Prout at CMU. This is the kid that was batting 227 on April 1st. He's up to 314. That's a racket. Pretty good April. He's up to three.

SPEAKER_06 27:08

He's got the plague.

SPEAKER_02 27:08

He's up to 314. He has 44 hits, seven bombs, 45 RBM. So anyway, he's it's a kid I'm paying attention to, and I'm I think he's a next level guy. Um CMU does have a midweek. They're at Notre Dame. Um, then they're at Grace Christian. Yeah. Anybody got any information on that?

SPEAKER_07 27:30

Small, I think it's in that like uh N C C A.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Yeah, like the G like the Christian College Junior College, right? Just a N Junior.

SPEAKER_07 27:40

N J J C A A?

SPEAKER_08 27:42

No, it's N C C A. Yes. National Christian College. Yeah. My wife's one of my wife's friends, her son is the best hitter on Notre Dame.

SPEAKER_07 27:50

Uh Seven Degrees of Doug, baby.

SPEAKER_08 27:52

Yeah, the uh what's his name? Yeah, the um he's got that interesting first name.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

They all do, his whole family does. Beano Waters.

SPEAKER_08 27:59

Yeah, and then his brother Waters. His brother just committed to Central for football.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

Yes, yeah, and he's got another little brother that's a baseball player, too.

SPEAKER_07 28:07

I think his name's Tino. No, no, Jay. I think we need to do a segment where we just throw out people and see how Doug can connect to them. Well, Doug, that kid, is getting gonna get drafted. How many calls would Doug have to make to get to those people? Not a lot. Two degrees of those. It would be one to Mike and then Mike to the person he knows.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Yeah, but Beano Waters is uh he's gonna get drafted. He's a stud. And how do you know he's your cousin's brother's friend?

SPEAKER_08 28:34

No, one of the wife's that wasn't even used to work with his mom.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

I like it. I like it, Doug. Keep those. It's better than my mom.

SPEAKER_04 28:44

My wife used to work with his mom's sister's cousin. No, the one he had this year.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

Does Mike have CTE? I might. I compliment you on your memory and shit, but mine's so basic.

SPEAKER_07 28:54

He he just goes, yeah, you know, my wife worked with, you know, whatever. Oh, is it your brother's cousin? Or Doug's.

SPEAKER_08 29:00

I only said it five seconds ago, no big deal.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Doug had one this year that was. Jerry and Speedy Gonzalez.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Doug, here I can remember this one. Doug had one this year that was a kid that he coaches, his dad. No, a kid that he coaches his sister.

SPEAKER_08 29:17

I said it in a horrible way. Yeah. I mean, what I should have just said is the kid comes to my games because he's dating his dating his sister. I just I just made it way harder than it needed to be.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

Eastern Eastern Eastern is 13 and 28. They're 7 and 17. They did beat Oakland in their midweek.

SPEAKER_06 29:39

That seems like I was at that game. Yeah, they they tried to blow the game.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

Yep. And then they lost two of three at NIU. Uh Ty Stecko from Eastern has been on a tear. He's at 305 with 10 homers and 33 RBIs. That's a freaking really good stat line. Uh Devin Zerwis is at 243 with 12 homers and 42 ribies. Tristan Crane, brother ice kid, their short steps, bat 313 with four homers. Uh Washington, who was just in town playing Michigan or Michigan? Yeah, Michigan with my CTE.

SPEAKER_05 30:15

Good lord. He we just spent 20 minutes talking about.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

Washington's staying in town. They're gonna play Eastern, which is kind of cool.

SPEAKER_07 30:21

We need to give this man, can we give this man a cognitive test next week? He needs some creatine. Yeah. Good lord.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

I got too many zins.

SPEAKER_07 30:29

Anyway, zins going on. Alright, so that's good for Eastern. They're playing Washington, and then they're, I mean, they're probably, I think they're mathematically out of the tournament or pretty close if not. Uh Oakland is struggling big time right now. They gave up 30 runs in game one to northern Kentucky. That's hard to do. Like you score nine runs and you lose by 20 plus.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

Yeah, it's it's sticking to what I was kind of going after last week. They scored nine runs again.

SPEAKER_07 30:59

Yeah, like you think you score nine runs, but it's something like uh eight now, eight of the last ten, they've given up double or nine or more runs. Their team ERA is now over nine. Like I think might be close to ten now.

SPEAKER_08 31:11

I haven't watched any of their games, but I gotta imagine it can't just be the pitchers. I mean, their defense has got to be struggling too.

SPEAKER_07 31:19

It's I mean, their defense I'll say this the defense from what I've seen doesn't take hits away, but they're not really like booting the ball around.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

Yeah, they could maybe extend the inning a little bit and they get more runs, but yeah, it's no it's pew pew at times.

SPEAKER_07 31:35

So I mean it it is what it is, and then the next game you go lose 10-0. They they had decent showing, but it's all right. It feels like it's in it's in free fall a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Let's do the math from like a timeline perspective here. This is Coach Nelson's first full year, not this year is yeah, is the officially as the head coach. Okay, so last year he's the interim, so Jordan left. So some people left. You know, maybe some people didn't commit. Like he's gotta get he's gotta get a few years to get his players in.

SPEAKER_08 32:06

Well, that that's a question, and and this is something where I just don't know enough about college football or college baseball. Like, how many years do you get?

SPEAKER_02 32:16

I that's what I was gonna say. I think three.

SPEAKER_08 32:18

But you so the intro the interim is a freebie?

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Yeah, oh well, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_07 32:23

It was it was because it's hard to recruit when you're the interim.

SPEAKER_08 32:26

I I get it. I'm I'm asking a question. I'm asking judgment.

SPEAKER_02 32:28

I have no inside information at all. I'm just speculating. That interim season is like show us how you can run a program, don't lose some of these kids because they like you, and maybe keep some of those guys that committed. Like Anthony Voikas is a kid that played in our club. He's a 94 mile per hour kid. Yeah, about six foot four. He's at Stony Creek. He's staying, he's going to Oakland. Like, that's a victory for for Nelson and the interim.

SPEAKER_07 32:57

Well, obviously, they just need to get not, I don't want to say a whole new pitching staff, but they need to retool a lot of that and reevaluate.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

Nowadays, you can fucking do it quickly.

SPEAKER_07 33:06

You know, it that brings up something else slightly related, but you know, the joke is like I was talking to someone about um you know the directional schools, and I was like about a kid going somewhere. I was like, what is he going to Western? He goes, No central. And he goes, well, you had a 50-50 shot because no one goes to Eastern from here. Do you know how many kids from Eastern are from Michigan? It's like seven.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

The guy before Trevor was like a West Virginia guy.

SPEAKER_07 33:32

But like I get that, like, okay, Oakland's roster is not all Michigan guys, but you know who is a lot of Michigan guys? Wayne State, Saginaw Valley, Grand Valley, and Davenport. And you know who is pretty damn good and could compete in the Mac? Wayne State, Saginaw Valley, Grand Valley, and Davenport. There's a good talent in there's good talent in Michigan. I just don't get it. And the other thing for Eastern that's hurt them, I think I counted six players that were not freshmen that started their career at Eastern. They are almost all portal. Yeah. Which is not help you out. So anyway, yeah, Oakland's struggling. They have Wright State at home this week.

SPEAKER_04 34:13

Right. Yeah. I think I think he's gonna turn it around. I think with his philosophy and his his, you know, the way he thinks about this and he prepares, I think they'll they'll they'll start to make a good push once he starts getting his players in.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

And his personality is good, right? People want to play like Yeah, they want to play for him, it seems. My brother loves the guy, right? And you know how Brian is. He's pretty like it's kind of hard to like break his barrier. Like, there's his personality's gonna work, you gotta give him time.

SPEAKER_04 34:40

Yeah, I even think next year they'll be vastly different than they were this year.

SPEAKER_08 34:43

I again like Well, I think you have a big selling point when you're him, other than you know, your philosophy and all that stuff. I mean, the one thing that kids want more than anything, they want to get on the field.

SPEAKER_07 34:54

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 34:55

Yeah, and it's pretty easy to go and sell and say, hey, look, I got playing time right there for the taking.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

No one else, along with that, that freaking that non-conference schedule.

SPEAKER_03 35:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 35:06

We're gonna go play at Michigan, we're gonna play at Michigan. Georgia, Georgia, Texas AM. You want to play against the best in the country, you don't need to go somewhere else to play. You can do it right here and get a chance to play.

SPEAKER_07 35:17

Yeah, it's just it was not, I'm sure, not a good weekend, not a fun one. And right stayed at home for the senior weekend.

SPEAKER_08 35:24

Yeah, that's gonna be I mean, I gotta, I would love uh to ask him. Like, when you're losing by 20 runs in a division one college baseball, like, at what point are you just praying that the game just ends? Just make it over with.

SPEAKER_07 35:37

Make this because you can only make so many pitching changes.

SPEAKER_08 35:40

Yeah, I mean, that's all right.

SPEAKER_04 35:41

You can't run out the clock in baseball. It's a division that's kind of wide open going forward in the future.

SPEAKER_07 35:46

I mean, right state's usually on top, but there's no no one no one's gonna be able to do that's being the number one contender. It's right state and a bunch of teams that are trying to figure out.

SPEAKER_04 35:54

But even right state overall, they're under 500. It's like the whole division. Now they do play on tough, yeah, non-conference.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

No, but Jay's right right state three years ago compared to today. Like three years ago, you ain't you were not messed. They were like LSU. Yeah, honestly.

SPEAKER_04 36:10

Now there's a little bit chance like it's open for whoever wants to grab it.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

I'd be curious to see when what he does this year with the transfer portal and the the good guys staying, some kids that might leave on their own. We'll have to see. He I don't know. It it would be a good good thing to follow this offseason.

SPEAKER_07 36:30

All right, Galiak going to D2. Grand Valley takes three of four from Davenport. It essentially clinched the title, not mathematically, but they're not gonna lose three of four to Wisconsin Park side or get swept. Uh, they give up eight runs in game one. Colin Bradley, who led the country in ERA, got hit around a little bit. It's called the beat and jinx. Oh, yeah, right. No, he's been he's been a study. Like the Madden cover. Yeah, it is. Hey, I've talked a lot about a lot of good. There's gonna be another one later on that we're gonna talk about, but um no, he got he got hit around a little bit, and yeah, it happens. You're not gonna have a one-something ERA the entire season. No, gives up eight runs in game one, and then in the next three games, their staff gives up seven. So they bounced back really well. Uh, I know everyone at Wayne State saw that game one result and went, ooh, Davenport took game one. If we can get a split, we've got a real shot. They kind of shut it down. Jackson Keys uh threw a gem. And here's the thing about Grand Valley, man, they just beat you in so many ways. Like they can outpitch you, they can beat you in a two to one game, they can also beat you in a 14-13 game and just absolutely slug. It's gonna be fun to see these Michigan teams when regionals comes around. Oh, yeah. The Gleak tournament's gonna be a bloodbath. Uh for Davenport, Dylan Powinski had a three-hit game in their win. He's kind of been leading the way for them at the plate. He's been a stud for the comb kid. Yeah. Um, Wayne State took three or four from Purdue Northwest, had a combined no-hitter in this one. Uh, Wayne State had a kid, Evan Langloy, who has been coming off of Tommy John, so they used him as an opener. Goes the first two of the seven inning game, then actually his old high school teammate Philip Miller comes in, throws five no-hit innings. Woodhaven? Yeah, down downriver. Um, those uh five no-hit innings. Only batter that reached was a hit by pitch in Miller's first batter faced, and then got a double play to get out of it.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

You were so proud when you texted to us about your first no-hitter that you called, and I sarcastically said, like, no, it doesn't count. Like it's seven innings, who cares? And then and then I played the video, the call, and listened to you call it, and I got chills. Like, it's really cool.

SPEAKER_07 38:43

Well, it's pretty cool for those kids. Like, it is Langloi was it's been a long road back where they introduced him as the starter, the bench went friggin' nuts because it was a long way back. And yes, it's a seven inning no-hitter, but I'll tell you what, uh in the seven innings, two balls left the infield. That's ridiculous. And on turf. So I have a question. Why is it seven innings? So in the Gleak, um, to get the double headers in. They do seven. Yes, yeah, double header. The first game is seven. If it goes uh extra innings, then the second game of the day is a doubleheader. So first game's nine, second game's seven, third game's nine, fourth game's nine. Okay. So basically to conserve arms, uh, and also not every stadium has.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

How did you do on the call?

SPEAKER_07 39:25

Like, did you say anything? Yeah, jinxes aren't real. I started saying no hitter in the fourth or fifth inning.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

You did? Yeah, jinxes aren't real.

SPEAKER_07 39:32

Because here's the thing, and this pisses me off because you know, the one time you go, like, oh, you know, he's made his last 12 free throws and then brick, everyone goes, oh, what an asshole. But the time you go, oh, he's made his last 12 free throws, swish.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

Yeah, no one goes, Wow, that guy's really smart. Yeah, because 99% of the time they miss it. And that's you ruined it. No, not 99%.

SPEAKER_07 39:52

You remember it. He it, oh, that may it just annoys me that all the announcers ginch. I I would be a mess. No, he the only time I won't say something, and sometimes when I did the high school stuff, it was because if the players can hear you, then it's a little different. Then maybe it gets in their head. But I'm up in a booth, yeah. I'm like, yep, Purdue Northwest, no hits through four innings, zeros across the line. But you didn't say no hitter. Oh, yeah, I said no hitter. You did?

SPEAKER_04 40:18

Ernie would have been so upset.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

I do I do that like watching, rooting for the team. Like, no, this guy's got a no-hitter, no hitter, no hitter.

SPEAKER_07 40:26

Yeah, I I I don't care. Say no hitter. There's no such thing as an announcer's jinx.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 40:31

Because you know what? If you're watching whatever sport you're watching with the NBA playoffs, if you're watching uh I disagree. There's no That's it, Doug. I disagree.

SPEAKER_08 40:44

I'm trying to think of a I'm not saying you could.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

He sounded like Moses. I disagree.

SPEAKER_08 40:51

I I disagree in in the one sense that I don't know if a jinx is real or not, but this this guy is single-handedly gonna knock the pistons out of the first round, and I don't think he should ever be allowed to watch another game. After they lost game one, he texted me with five minutes to go. He's like, sorry.

SPEAKER_07 41:08

That's a tough drawing. I've watched it four times this year. Good thing they're playing as we record this. That's a tough one. It's an eight tonight. That's a tough draw, right? If they're my 15, I'm gonna get on the treadmill, turn it on. I love that Doug just was like, you know what, Brady, I don't give a shit what you're saying.

SPEAKER_04 41:23

But fuck Mike anytime he can.

SPEAKER_07 41:27

He's got a rat tattoo.

SPEAKER_02 41:28

I still can't believe a rat bastard. I still can't believe we fucking did that. And he can't watch sports.

SPEAKER_08 41:35

I did, I did, speaking of Wayne State, I did also uh because of my biases. Yeah. Um, not that I have a vote, nor would anybody care about my vote, but the Drew Hill show continues and he needs to be the Gliak player of the year.

SPEAKER_07 41:48

Yeah, I'd say he's he's up there. I'm gonna tell you that uh one scene as Jay dies, the Estrada kid from Grand Valley's been really solid.

SPEAKER_08 41:58

We need to Estrada's hitting 394, and Drew Hill's hitting 427.

SPEAKER_07 42:02

His OP, yeah, Drew Hill's OP.

SPEAKER_08 42:04

And his OP Drew Drew's is 1.226, Estrada's 1.138. Uh the only thing Estrada has on him is he's got a few more home runs.

SPEAKER_02 42:14

What is the home run difference?

SPEAKER_08 42:15

13 to 9.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

All right. We need to start like getting on social media. Let's get Drew Hill.

SPEAKER_08 42:21

We gotta we're we gotta start politics with Drew Hill basically.

SPEAKER_07 42:26

But I I can admit it's a tight race between him and Estrada. And I even thought before last I talked about it, Bradley, yeah, you pitcher could have been in the conversation, but um I digress. Uh we're gonna go, we're we're gonna make that let's start some hashtag but the big biggest game with the plate uh this weekend for Wayne State, Bennett Hitzelberger, two doubles in a home run in game one.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

Uh it's very easy for him. Yeah. That's all I will say. Like I watch, I've been watching him since he was in ninth grade. This sport is very easy for him.

SPEAKER_07 42:58

Yeah, they and Wayne State did lose game four, uh, which kind of eliminated not again, not mathematically, but which I went to that game, so they lost.

SPEAKER_02 43:06

Yeah. It was funny. I was in the stands with Jay Hill, which Voltrouer, he was um talking about going up to the cottage. He can't wait to hang, so you gotta make sure you go. Who will be doing his own?

SPEAKER_01 43:18

He said he he said he watched our podcast from last week and was in tears with Jay talking about his hernia.

SPEAKER_04 43:26

It was the fucking thing. He told him one day he's gonna wake up and I'm gonna be there like a cow milk in his eye. It's hernia.

SPEAKER_08 43:38

It's protruding right now. And I want to know, I really want to help him with that and get rid of it. But I mean, you gotta understand if you don't like please don't like a thing just sitting right there.

SPEAKER_04 43:48

Okay, poor guy. I want to lance it myself, but I can't.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

If you know Jay Hill like we know him, I didn't know how he was gonna react. Like sometimes he gets just like mad at shit. He was dead. Dying laughing about it. And now you're talking about.

SPEAKER_05 44:02

Now Drew's sitting here going, like, what the fuck are they talking about?

SPEAKER_08 44:04

Like he doesn't get mad about stuff like that. Like we love his dad's a stuff.

SPEAKER_02 44:10

The reason I was telling this story is Jay Hill and I are in the stands. You know, down the first baseline, the like the big stands. The grandstands?

SPEAKER_07 44:19

Or you're you're talking like the movie. Way down in the stands.

SPEAKER_02 44:23

Yeah. So Jay Hill and I are up there just kind of avoiding people. We're just sitting there laughing about shit. And Drew Hill, I forget what he did because I have a bad memory. Either grounded out or popped out. It wasn't a great.

SPEAKER_07 44:35

No, he didn't have a great game on Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 44:37

And Drew's walking out, sees me and Hill, like Jay Hill, and I'm talking.

SPEAKER_07 44:42

I'm guessing it's probably when he struck out looking.

SPEAKER_02 44:44

It was the one lowing away.

SPEAKER_07 44:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:46

And he so he sees me and Jay probably assume we're talking shit about him. And he like gave me and Jay. He looks at us both and he goes like this, like, fuck you guys. And Jay's like, we weren't even saying anything, but he was mad at me and Jay. But anyway.

SPEAKER_08 45:01

Jay is also, I won't, I won't call him famous, but he has one of the most infamous stats in sports because he's the true only dad in the history of the Little League World Series to send three separate sons to Williamsport. They actually did when the youngest one, Brennan, made it, he actually they did a story on either on ESPN or HP. It was ESPN, yeah. Yeah, it was ESPN about the fact that they went through all of the records. I mean, that tournament's been around for a while.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

It was one more guy. He's the United States, but the other one was the left fielder that's out for steroids now. I forget his name. But that's a 14-year-old.

SPEAKER_04 45:41

Throwing 98.

SPEAKER_08 45:42

They've had lots of brothers playing it, but they've never had three different brothers on three different teams playing it.

SPEAKER_06 45:49

Jay Hill. No, that's true. That was really good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 45:52

I don't know why this makes it reminds me of because I Jay coached his kids to little league.

SPEAKER_02 45:58

This is what happens when you bring up Hill to Doug.

SPEAKER_08 46:01

Happened a little bit. And I remember him and I were talking on the phone randomly one day, and he was coaching Drew. I don't know what age he is, 12, 13, whatever it was. And he was like, I go, how's how'd it go? He goes, Drew got pulled after three pitches. I go, three pitches? I go, what did he hit? The first three guys? He goes, No, he uh he threw one right down the middle on an O2 count and gave up a bomb. Told him his day was over.

SPEAKER_02 46:24

Yeah, when he says Drew got when he says Drew got pulled, Jay pulled. Jay pulled, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 46:29

I go, I go, what did he say when you went out to the mond? He goes, he knew I wasn't taking questions today.

SPEAKER_02 46:35

It's a great family.

SPEAKER_07 46:36

They're the best. So um with that, Saginaw Valley split a trip to Missouri. It was their off week. They beat Truman State in Missouri, Southern State on Friday, lost both of them on Saturday, Sunday. Uh Lucas Mead had a four RBI game. Ryan Jarvis had a nice uh day, three hit day, and then a five RBI day. Kid who hadn't played a lot. This kid, Zayn Wilson, uh St. Mary's kid, had one RBI coming into the game, the game he played. He got six in one town in Missouri. Uh, when they they put up like 24 runs. I don't even think I have six college RBIs in my career. But no, uh just that stuck out in a name we haven't said a lot, but Zayn Wilson made the most of his opportunity. Saginaw Valley right now, they were in the initial regional rankings, so they're at least in the top 10. They're probably nine or ten. Uh, they're not projected to be in the field right now. I think they are. I thought I saw something where they are. It's close. They're going to need to have a RPI move? Might have been pair ratings that you saw. No, was that a move by them playing those random? No, no, no, no. They had the week off in the GLIAC, so they probably just scheduled another team that had uh a week off. But no, right now Saginaw Valley is projected to be on the outside looking in. Oh, really? Yeah, so uh split there. They're gonna need to have a strong finish in uh Gliak play. Uh GMAC Northwood was swept by Ashland. They dropped a 500 in League Northwood, struggling to figure it out. And it all works back. Splitstale. It even goes deeper because last week they beat Wayne State. They lost to Wayne State this week. Last week they took three of uh or they lost three of four from Finley, they take three of four from Tiffin. It always even what's the standings? They're 21 and 24 overall. What did I tell you before? They're gonna end up being like four games both three or four games below 500. If you need a team to go 26 and 29, Hillsdale's your squad.

SPEAKER_02 48:36

If you ever meet Tom Vasella, their coach, he's gonna just punch you in the heart. That's you know, just like a fucking heart punch.

SPEAKER_04 48:43

And then the biggest question is what was the latest food truck at Northwood? Oh, that was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

One of the players' dads tweeted to the walk-ons of a picture of his like cheese fit. There was a grilled cheese truck or something.

SPEAKER_07 48:58

No, they they have they have like a different one every time. It must be a happening uh food truck scene up in Midland. Uh, but for Hillsdale, some guys played well, a couple good pitching uh performances. Uh Jacob Polo went all seven uh in a win with walk and only giving up one word, one earned. And then Patrick McLean with uh the seven inning shutout in the second game of that double, had their GMAC plays two seven-inning doubles, three walks, eight Ks, but a seven inning complete game and 87 pitches. Efficient. That's real efficient. Uh Jake Figman had a uh three-hit game in the uh game two win in that one. They're both, again, about the same spot in the GMAC standings, third, fourth teams are creating a little bit of separation. All right, uh, let's go to D3 because there was a league that was flipped on its head.

SPEAKER_02 49:49

Oh my gosh. Doug Doug's gonna go, but there's a lot to talk about.

SPEAKER_07 49:53

So, Doug, where do you want to start with? Because do you want to start with the team that has a rocket strap to their ass or a team that's gonna be like? Which is not Kalamazoo anymore. Not anymore. Who was red hot for the first 30 games. Now the Adrian Bulldogs are alone in first place going into the final weekend of the season.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

Yeah, I mean, back at it. It happened, it happened fast. I think I said it last week where Rainy, uh Rainy just plug and play again is inevitable.

SPEAKER_08 50:26

So I and really looking at their stats, it was kind of you know, they obviously had a really good weekend. But again, they're it it's hard because I'm trying to just pick out a few kids that had a really good series or whatever, and it was different, really different guys game by game. Um they're super deep.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

I think that might be the differentiator.

SPEAKER_08 50:47

Um, I had uh Jackson, uh this is a real tough one, Jackson. I apologize. Jackson McGoonigan, he was seven to ten.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

Either Doug can't read or he has the worst names to pronounce everything.

SPEAKER_08 50:58

It's not easy, dude. There's not a lot of Smiths going on. Um he was seven to ten, had five stolen bases on the uh on the series. Rolando Jimenez had two home runs, and um Parker Ferris had he went five innings, one earn run, five K's.

SPEAKER_01 51:14

McGoonigan hit a double again?

SPEAKER_07 51:16

All right, McGoonigan is not that tough of a name.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

Yeah, I mean he said it right.

SPEAKER_07 51:21

I'm just saying making it sound different. I don't know. Jay, there is that a hardened, is that that's just right there?

SPEAKER_08 51:29

First of all, it's not McGoonigan, it's McGoon again because there's no McGeigan. McGuigan, dude. McGeagan.

SPEAKER_01 51:35

It's not McGoonigan. It's McGuigan. Doug can't read the game. I read it. The guy owns his own law firm, but can't read the game.

SPEAKER_08 51:42

He can read numbers. I I was struggling with it. I'm like, that's literally that's nowhere near McGoonigan at all.

SPEAKER_07 51:49

McGuigan. Yeah. Let me see if it says, keep talking. I'll see if it says on his bio how to pronounce it.

SPEAKER_08 51:55

It's it's you can read it. It's McWeegan. First of all, we're not taking any reading advice from you. I can read.

SPEAKER_02 52:02

I just can't remember things.

SPEAKER_08 52:04

You you passed one class in McComb because you cheated off me and it was an English class. Relax.

SPEAKER_01 52:09

That's true. I don't if you meaning you did all the work for me, is that's cheating.

SPEAKER_08 52:16

Meaning the test. How many of us have them? Meeting the test. I was taking my test like this on the edge of the desk so you could see it. Yeah, I would do the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 52:24

I was like Chevy James. I was like Chevy James. See, see. Pulse.

SPEAKER_07 52:34

Young man from Manchester, give it up for him. McWeegan. McWeegan. Sorry, McWeegan. United Kingdom.

SPEAKER_08 52:42

Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:43

That's hey, let's just start calling Doug McWeegan. What's up, McGean? Whoa. All right, Doug. All right. Who's next? This Jake Burnus guy or Burns? Burnus.

SPEAKER_08 52:58

Now I forgot who they played. Olivet. Sorry, Olivet. Uh didn't have a lot for Olivet. Um except for there were a couple of kids that that had decent weekends. Uh Tyler Duncan went five of ten with Tyler DuCan went five of ten with two home runs. Uh and uh the same kid that Jay brings up, uh Brian Carnes. Five innings, uh three runs, seven K's.

SPEAKER_07 53:24

All right. I guess I got some um real quick. I just have their roster up. Great baseball name, all name team JW Babbitt. Oh, that's actually a sweet name. That is a that is a sick name.

SPEAKER_02 53:35

I got some uh up-to-date stats for Adrian. I went through so Jake, I got their slashes. Jake Burns is 288 with 10 bombs and 30 ribbies. Gabe Jones is 362 with four homers.

SPEAKER_07 53:48

No, sorry, I just remembered something.

SPEAKER_02 53:49

Uh Nick Brut Nick Bruder's batting 321 with four 44 hits. Jack Boykie's three, these are names I hear you say every week. Jack Boike's at 371 with with 43 hits, and I wanted a glance at their pitching. They got some low ERA guys. So Ambrose Horwath, probably Horvath, maybe, if we're gonna pronounce the W or not. Yeah. Um, he's 8-1 with a 263 ERA, and Landon Kozlowski's 2-0 uh with a 160 ERA in 40 innings pitched.

SPEAKER_08 54:21

I do try and spread it around.

SPEAKER_07 54:22

I know, but that's kind of like their leaders. I need Jay to make I for I just remember this. Purdue Northwest had a kid that I needed a Jay Voltrauer name ruling. Good name or stupid new name that needs to be named like Jack or something. Okay, who is it? They're I believe it was their right fielder. His name was Denham Cozy.

SPEAKER_04 54:45

I just couldn't do that, dude. Denim Cozy.

SPEAKER_01 54:48

You named your kid Jeans. Your name's nicely fitted jeans. You have some cozy denim. Denim cozy.

SPEAKER_07 54:57

So when it's on a thing.

SPEAKER_04 54:58

We know the parents are they're thinking of this stuff when they're naming their kids. For sure they are.

SPEAKER_07 55:03

If you're a substitute teacher, you're going, Cozy denim.

SPEAKER_04 55:06

Yeah. Is there a cozy denim?

SPEAKER_07 55:08

A cozy, comma denim. No, denim cozy. All name team. Don't know if it's a baseball name, but I needed a J ruling on Denim Cozy.

unknown 55:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 55:18

Is that like uh what's the case?

SPEAKER_04 55:19

Could have been Jeffrey Cozy. Would have been just fine. Paul Cozy. That's nice. Is there any chance that's just a nickname? You're all serious like this.

SPEAKER_07 55:27

That's what it was listed on on the rock. Okay. That's a shit name, dude.

SPEAKER_02 55:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:31

I feel bad. Sorry, Denham. Even if like, why would they ever do that? I think parents have a real sense of humor sometimes and they just think it's funny.

SPEAKER_07 55:42

Let me just make sure he's that's let's see. It's spelled D-E-N-H-A-M, so it's not close to Dunham's. There you go. Doug would have pronounced it. Old world people are just he would be like uh that commercial where they sell their kids' names. But Jordan Ash. Denham Sporting Goods.

SPEAKER_04 56:02

Yeah, you could name him Jordan Ash Cozy.

SPEAKER_07 56:05

Stupid dude. Uh anyway.

unknown 56:09

Sweet.

SPEAKER_07 56:10

Moving on. Um, yes, we're in the in D3. Adrian keeps winning. Uh, where did you want to go next?

SPEAKER_08 56:17

I mean, you probably the most important series of the weekend was was because not only did Alma knock Kalamazoo out of the out of the race. Well, not out of the race, but out of the top spot. But now they're in a tie with Kalamazoo from the end of the tour.

SPEAKER_02 56:32

And Elma is five and one against Adrian and Kalamazoo. Three three one-run wins this past weekend. But the tiebreakers, Alma's man, they're five and one against both of those.

SPEAKER_08 56:43

And kind of what I was saying about eight uh Adrian, Alma had a lot of different contributors. Um, three guys that I brought up, uh Braylon Ryan was six of fourteen. Uh Alexander Kavalik was four of ten. Tyler Sparks went five innings, three runs, five K's. And for Kalamazoo, um, I had Robert Newland went six of twelve with four stolen bases. Cade Pressing, who I've named a lot, seven of fourteen with two doubles.

SPEAKER_07 57:09

All right, so I need to ask you guys four dumbasses that have not watched a Kalamazoo game, is this cause for concern? Because they were 24 and 2. They have gone five and five in their last 10 and have lost three straight. Is this, guys, it's baseball, shit happens, their one run games, or is it water finding its level? I think it's baseball more than anything.

SPEAKER_08 57:34

Yeah. I mean shit happens, basically. Not to not to compare the two because it's two different things, but I mean, look at the emotions that the Tiger seasons has been through already.

SPEAKER_02 57:42

I mean, we were we're the worst team in the world, now we're the hottest team in the world, now we stink again, and it's just I think I I agree with you, and I think what's gonna hap what we're gonna see here is what what are they made of. Probably probably where you're going if Kalamazoo comes out and wins again, yeah, they they got better because of those losses. If they didn't, then I mean you don't win 24 games on accident.

SPEAKER_08 58:03

I mean it's how do you recover from it? Maybe starting off 5-0 and then dropping off as one step.

SPEAKER_02 58:08

It does get easy. Don't take this is gonna sound weird. It gets easy when you're winning. But like just expensive. How do you lose? How do you lose, man? Like like I told you before in that Mooney State Championship. We were down three-nothing and in the championship game, and I had no fucking idea what to do. I, as the coach, was like, I felt like we were down by 25. So let's it'll be cool to see how Kalamazoo.

SPEAKER_08 58:31

I don't know what's like losing, just to let you know.

SPEAKER_02 58:33

Yeah, I know Doug went 4-0 this weekend as a coach.

SPEAKER_08 58:36

Technically, as a team went five and oh, we missed one game, but I was this was my first weekend that I got invited to sit on the bench and hey, a couple of things with Kalamazoo.

SPEAKER_02 58:46

There's a couple stats. Yeah. Uh Ryer Reinhardt, not Ryan, Ryer Reinhart is the all-time home run leader now at Kalamazoo with 41 bombs and 2029 RBIs in his career. Pretty good career. This year he's batten 353 with 11 homers, and I think this is the most RBIs I've spit out. 67 RBIs.

SPEAKER_07 59:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 59:10

That's freaking crazy.

SPEAKER_07 59:12

So I saw you do that. Of course. Um, so coming down the stretch, or what do you what else do you have?

SPEAKER_02 59:18

New uh Newland broke the uh single season stolen base record with 40 for Kalamazoo.

SPEAKER_07 59:23

That's a lot, especially nowadays. Well, hell yeah. That's pretty good. So uh, Doug, did you have anything else? Because I was gonna go over the last weekend of games.

SPEAKER_08 59:30

Uh well, there was one other series. Therapy and trying. Yeah, well, Calvin and Hope played. Oh, Calvin, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:37

Uh for Calvin, I had you guys just want to see my other tattoo instead of the Calvin and Hope's tattoo. Yeah, please. Plaw out the Panther.

SPEAKER_08 59:44

Wow. I'm just going. You're gonna get lots of laughs out of this because I have no idea how to say this name.

SPEAKER_02 59:49

Hold on. It's it's Gabe Bonimer. No. And his mother plays in the White Sox organization. For Calvin. And the dad is gonna whip our ass if we ever see him, probably.

SPEAKER_08 59:58

Boner? Is Boner one of them? No, it's Ryan Smith. What do you know the number? No, but it's Ryan to Shearhart. Shearheart. To Shearhart. Probably just shearhart.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:15

Are you looking at it? Yeah, the T is probably just.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:17

Let's trust Brady here.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:18

Yeah, it's probably just Shearhart. Okay. I I don't know. T is silent looking at Shearhart. That's what Doug's doing, isn't it? Is Doug sounding out every line? Sounding out. He's referring back to his phonics days. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:32

He was five of I guarantee you that's sheerheart.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:34

Maybe.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:35

If your ears could be brains, man.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:40

He was five of twelve with one double and one home run. Evan Steinbecker went eight innings and only gave up two runs. And James Ross went five innings, one run, eight K's. And for Hope, Colton Kinney went six of twelve with two doubles. Noah Reeves went six innings, no runs, nine K's. And Landon Harris went five innings and one run. And because I don't want to leave No, I got everybody there.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:01

What's the Alma?

SPEAKER_08 1:01:03

Sorry, Alma played shrine. Bradel and Ryan went six of fourteen. Albion. I'm sorry. Yeah. Sorry. Albion played shrine. Carter Stahl went five of thirteen with six RBIs. Daniel uh Brutchowitz went six seven innings, two earn runs, five K's. Brandon Schultz went seven innings, zero runs, 11Ks.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:21

What's the trust factor with Doug now going forward in last names? Here's what we're gonna do. So we need a cognitive test for Mike. And Jay, I I think I might put you on this one. I want you to just go through some rosters when you're you have a little free time and you're bored on your phone or computer and just pick out the worst names that aren't in D3 for Jay to try to say.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:41

Doug or Jay? Okay, Doug can't read. I have no memory, and you don't remember anyone's names. I don't call people Doug and Jay.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:50

Oh no, I just I that's just making a mistake. But Jay, I want to. No, I I agree. I want you to go find five to ten names uh for next week that you're gonna we're gonna show Doug for the first time.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:02

Plus, I don't want to be bad at it, so I think I put more pressure on myself because I feel bad that I'm hacking a kid's name up.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:08

Yeah. So finishing off the MIAA, uh, Adrian, they play Hope. Hope has struggled. Kalamazoo plays Olivet. Alavett's been alright. Alma's played Albion, it's been alright. Adrian, they sweep outright champs.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:24

Okay, who but I mean Kalamazoo's I mean, yes, Adrian should probably take care of business with Hope, but I mean Kalmazou's gonna have to run into Carney. Yes, yeah, yeah. And that is that's just a tough out.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:37

And you and K zoo's gonna probably have to sweep. You you can hope that Hope takes one, no pun intended. You can't really rely on them taking the series. No, and Elma's a sweep.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:47

I almost got the tiebreaker with all of them.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:49

I don't I don't think for regular for seeding, yes. For tiebreaker, I think it's just hey, if you have the same record, you're both league champs. I don't I think you're well, but for seeding, yeah. Yeah, yeah, for seeding, yes, but for a league championship, I think it's just if you have the same record, you can both who does Alma have next.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:05

Alma has Albion. They're nine and nine, but they've been fighting. They've been they've been getting it.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:11

It's gonna be very fun to watch. We go to the WAC where the standings are solidified. Um, just gonna go over real quick the teams that still made it because U of M Deerborn season is done. Um they're they took a small step forward again. We knew it was gonna be a long project for them. Madonna sweeps cornerstone, they end up the three-seed. Uh Uno, Northwest Ohio, won the league. Uh, Indiana Tech was two, but Madonna sweeps cornerstone, they end up the three-seed. Amir Mitchell sets the single season home run record with 22 and still a lot more to go. This WAC tournament, uh, just so you know when I'm talking about it, an eight-team double elimination tournament. That's a hell of a conference tournament. That's like a little league district. That's an old school uh tournament. Uh Cleary, they take three of four from Aquinas. So they're the four seed, but the quirk here.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:01

It's gonna be a fun little tournament.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:02

But here's the quirk. Aquinas is the five seed. So they just played a four-game series and they'll turn around. Well, on what the tournament starts on Wednesday. This will probably be out Thursday morning, but as of recording, they'll play a fifth time in under a week. Wow. That's a tough got the scouting report. That that's a tough turnaround, and of especially in a four or five matchup where you're pretty even. I got Cleary. All right. All right. Thanks, Mike.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:29

Cleary, sorry about your luck. You just got jinxed.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:31

Yeah. So when you lose, you you can say you can motherfuck Mike. Uh Rochester Christian takes three or four from Defiance to get the sixth seed. They match up with Madonna. All this is taking is going out over in Grand Rapids at Meyer Field or uh. Wait, are they playing this weekend? Coming weekend?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:49

Wednesday through Saturday. Ooh, I'm gonna be there. Ooh, Mike. Casey's getting her master's, he's graduating. I might sneak off. Did you ever play up by Meyer? Uh that's where Aquinas is home field. I think so.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:01

Like any of your teams you coach, I'm not.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:03

I don't know. I don't know. But yeah, that's where it's all out west. I played. Um, so it should be a fun tournament, but you're gonna get the the theme of you know, most of these teams are coming in playing pretty good ball. Because Madonna swept, clearly takes three of four. Aquinas obviously dropped three of four uh coming in, but they get a game against someone they've already played. Sienna Heights wins three of four. You can tell Tommy to cut this is a if this is mean, but I called it the hospice series because both schools are gonna die after the season.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:32

Oh lords and uh in Sienna Heights, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:36

So Sienna Heights, they get to live for at least a week longer. Uh they take three of four. They're the seventh seed, they'll play Indiana Tech. The only one that's limping in, Lawrence Tech was swept by Indiana Tech. Uh they dropped to the eighth spot, and they're gonna have to play Northwest Ohio Uno to get this one started. Uh, so everyone outside of Lawrence Tech and Aquinas, a lot of teams do. Playing some pretty good ball coming into this.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:01

I got I got a thing I want to say here. I don't know how how this is gonna sound, but I I like the new staff at U of M Dearborn. And remember, we kind of compare them to SC4, how they're doing better. I'm not gonna give specific numbers, but their ERA from last year to this year has gone down by five runs. So I mean that's big time. And I'm being serious right now. Their whip has gone down by a half a run. Uh their hits per nine.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:32

So wait, was it like 1.5 and it got down to one? Is that what you're saying? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So like two. Half a point.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:38

Yeah, half a point.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:39

That's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:40

Yeah, yeah. In the ERA, five runs difference, too.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:44

So a trend in the right direction.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:46

Yeah, everything. There's a bunch of categories. Their runs per nine has gone down by three runs. Um, their home runs per nine has gone down, and their walks per nine has gone down. And that's Rich Robinson is their pitching coach, a friend of mine. Um very serious about his craft. And again, I know we got other things to talk about, but I was happy to see we want these schools in our area to get better.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:11

Well, and that's something you can look at because the wins I think only went up by like six, seven, eight, eight. Yeah, but I think they are zero in 30 last year. I think they won one or two. Um, maybe not. But my point being, those are all the things you can look at and go, while the results haven't flipped yet, the gap was just so big, they've closed that gap down now. And now you can go and say, guys, we've played with all these. We're not losing all these games by 20 runs. But yeah, whack tournament starts this week. It's a fun time. I love that they do an 18 double elimination tournament. That's a friggin' gauntlet, man. That'd be fun. That'd be a lot of fun. If you're if you're a retired baseball guy on the west side, you've got four days of baseball to watch. So uh all right, let's rifle through JUCO. Um, McComb caught fire. They've won nine in a row, Doug. Uh, tell us about the monarchs.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:03

Uh, Brett Leonard uh decided to go off last weekend. He went 10 of 13, three doubles, one triple, three home runs. So seven out of his ten hits, which I mean, ten hits in a series is pretty good, but they're seven were extra base hits.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:16

Yeah, these guys are facing at McComb, they're facing this is SC4. Well, they're facing aces, though.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:21

Like Well, they're into the series play now where they're playing four in a row.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:25

Uh Aiden Miller went six of 15, one double, one triple, one home run, and guy that I I seem to mention every week as a pitcher, uh, Jonathan Miet, seven innings, one run, six K's.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:34

91 miles per hour in the seventh inning. That's pretty good.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:38

SD SC4, uh Drew Hosterman went seven to seventeen. Brad Mackey.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:43

Are we gonna have to do name checks when he's reading?

SPEAKER_07 1:08:45

It's Hosterman, but that's I mean, he at least he at least pronounced all the letters. He just used a long O instead of short.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:52

Brad Mackey uh only looks like he only played two games of the series. He went four for six, and uh Aiden Caroldin went six innings, three in runs.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:00

So I'll get SC4.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:02

I'm sure if you did the same numbers as last year, Hotling's cut improved 405 winning percentage this year for SC4? Yeah, they're 15 and 22 overall. Yeah, that's big.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:12

That's a huge amount. I met their coach last week. Did I guess tell you that? Yeah, dude, dude's a uh a ball of energy. Did I tell you guys that at all? No. He's good, dude. Like he's he came up, shook my hand, like wanted to meet because we have kids in the area that play. And he's uh the the the staff kind of. This is his worst year, too.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:30

Yeah, and and not it's this isn't unique to SE4, but one thing where you know he's building the program that I could tell early on, like he made the team go. He's like, hey, we're going to the basketball games, we're gonna be a student section. Things like that. Again, not unique to them. Other places a good sign.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:45

The only concern I have I saw I saw multiple tube socks, white tube socks. We might have to have like those kids are doing this purposely now.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:56

No, I mean prospects might have to like sponsor or like a donation thing where it's like, do you need dark blue tube socks? Do you need black tube socks? Go to the stance website and buy yourself some fill out this form and we'll send you so you don't have to wear white gym socks. All the Detroit Thread Company. Yeah, it's correct. Way to miss that one, Brie.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:16

That's where I buy my socks for my team is for the Detroit Thread Company.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:20

Yeah, Detroit Thread Company. It's like, all right, we will we can we'll have to do something with them where it's a good idea. Yeah, where it are are you is your teammate wearing white socks?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:29

I got an idea Detroit Thread Company. For the Gliak tournament, we'll bring all the colors for each team. Put a little bit on them. We will.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:38

We will give them a lot of them. Give them like the player of the game.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:41

No, no, literally the player in the middle of the game. I'm gonna go put these fucking things on. Just shoot them with one. Rifle.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:48

Go get one of those t-shirt guns right in the face. Right in the face with short stocks.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:54

Um see those tube stocks. Hey, Daniel Rice hit two doubles today for Lansing, who's not on the box. We're not there yet.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:02

They've got three division, yo. We're not even close to get.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:07

Thank God. We've talked about the biggest. I got 13 minutes left. Yeah, we've talked one team in the East. All right, uh McComb. Well, yeah, two, one series. Uh McComb has a two-game lead because Jackson split with Mott. That's a big split for Mott and helping out uh McComb.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:21

Yeah, uh for Mott, uh Ryan Metz went seven to fifteen for one with one double, one triple. Luke Trotter went six of fifteen, and Connor Sweeney, who I seem to have mentioned a lot. Six innings, zero runs, ten K's. Uh for Jackson, Donovan Mattimore went six of 15. Owen Madison went five of five of eleven. And here's a great old baseball last name, Corey Viola. Ooh, nice. 5.1 innings, two runs, nine kids.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:48

You know, Frank Viola does have uh family in the area. I was gonna say Dave Viola.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:56

That's one thing, Brady. I knew that Frank Viola was. If we were kids, they would always say the wrong name. Frankie Sweet Music Viola. Yeah, he was a pitcher, right? And I was gonna be like Dave Viola.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:08

Is he related? He always said the wrong name. Uh the other one, Henry Ford kept pace. They're tied with Jackson, I believe. Yeah, uh Jay, right, uh Jackson and Henry Ford, I think, are they the same thing? Yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:22

Henry Ford had a big series.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:24

Well, no, actually, it's Jackson's 14 and 7. Henry Ford's 12 and 9.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:28

Oh, sorry, I was thinking of Jackson or Henry Ford has a shot to catch them because remember the top two in every conference in the MCCAA. Uh they make the regional tournament. So McComas clinched a spot. Jackson and Henry Ford are fighting for the last one.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:44

Yep. Emmanuel Good for Henry Ford, Emmanuel Gutierrez went six of thirteen, three doubles, one triple, one home run. Casey Robertson went six of thirteen with two doubles and two home runs. Hunter Witt went five innings, one earned run, four K's. Schoolcraft had a rough one, uh, but a couple kids had a nice, nice weekend. Jace Jace Wallersky, three home runs, seven RBIs. And Luke Nelson went six innings, one earn run, and five K's.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:11

Are you getting shirts from Detroit Thread Company made for School of Craft? Not me. What is it called? What was it? Uh bottom hashtag bottom feeders. They I talked to their coach, TJ, who is like a great sport, right? He's very serious about his job and we're like like poster, what do they call it? Locker room uh material for them bullets and board material with Brady Bede and talking shit. That's all right. That's cool.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:40

No, it's good. All right, let's let's bust through the last two because yeah, not all 40 of our teams need to be great. So, so um or are gonna be great.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:47

So some yeah, hey, by the way, random. McComb got a few votes in the top 25, I heard today, which would be kind of neat.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:54

Uh Mike, so what did you do for your division in the North?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:57

I worked really hard on Elma and Kalamazoo and things like that. So you did nothing.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:04

So Jay, Jay, now you can yell at Mike if you want to. Jesus, Mike. Jeez. All right, but luckily I have some stuff. GRCC clinched the title. They swept out Pina. So they have won that. They've won nine straight games. They've been playing a lot more to catch up. One little an odd quirk, Muskegon swept Delta. They're two up on the win column in mid-Michigan for the uh two spot, but they don't have any games left. Mid-Michigan has two against Delta coming up after they took three or four from Bay College. So if mid-Michigan beats Delta, who's been down, they can tie Muskegon for that two spot. And I don't know what the tiebreakers go to.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:45

Go head to head? Any head-to-head? I can ask Mike to look it up, and he ain't gonna look up at all. I don't have any internet. No, I don't know. It's head to head. And remember I'm talking about anytime. Yeah, I know. I don't have internet. Like anytime between now and ever.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:58

So that's just something to watch for in the north is they finally maybe have some okay enough weather to play some baseball. Um, they're they're starting to get that in. And then in the west, Kellogg is still just so dominant. They're 20 and one. Conference champs. Jeez, are they really? Well, in conference play, they're 20 and one. They swept Ancilla. Doesn't surprise me. The big race in the West is Lansing is a game ahead of Kalamazoo Valley. And here's the shitty thing for Kalamazoo Valley. Lansing gets to play Ancilla in a four-game series. Oh boy. Time for my boy Danny Blue Eyes to show.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:32

Yeah, big Dan Rice getting in the ballgame. Danny Blue Eyes, big shots to Jazus.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:40

Lansing, they're probably going to sweep. Um, but Kalamazoo Valley has Glen Oaks.

SPEAKER_08 1:15:45

Not that it's had anything to do with the actual game, but I saw a tweet the other day. Their whole they had to go play their series, or home series actually had to go play at their opponent's home because their field was completely underwater.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:59

That's honestly not that uncommon. Like uh I know uh I want to say Davenport played a home game or two at Grand Valley this year. Like there is a lot, like there is a lot of movement, especially if you have a turf field, yeah, you will host a lot more. Like you'll hear baseball coaches, I think, are the most psychotic and neurotic when it comes to finding things. Like, how many stories do you hear about coaches moving venues or finding games in a week? Especially in JUCO, like quite often, because they don't have the resources and you have yeah, you have to be you don't have a grounds crew at JUCO's, like you're the grounds crew. Sorry, your ground crew the grounds crew is your shortstop. Yeah, your ground crew's in psych 101 right now. Yeah, so you know that's it it happens, it's unfortunate, but it happens uh a lot. So uh that's everything uh it catching everything up. We're gonna have no a lot more conference tournaments. I know, Mike, we're excited to uh at least be at the Gleak tournament starting next week. The the regular scenario season finishes this week, next week, and more. Uh, before we get to our guest this week, Taylor Jelenkowski. Uh the show is produced by Hunch Free Studios, where we do it looks great every time. A full service digital media company specializing in video production, comprehensive digital marketing studio solutions or digital marketing solutions, software development, full service website design, located here in uh downtown Mount Clemens, a beautiful spot to do our show. So, uh, with all that said, a time for what I was assuming is going to be a really fun guest. I know he will be, Michigan State Assistant Taylor Jelikowski. All right, now joined by our guest this week, Michigan State Assistant Taylor Jelikowski. Uh coach, I mean, this is gonna be a lot of fun. We all know each other. Thanks for coming on. I'm uh disappointed it took Mike this long to get you to join us.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:45

I was saving it. I was saving it so we'd be ready for it. Oh, okay. And before he even goes, I want you to try to spell his last name. Oh, I pulled it up.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:54

Good luck. Oh, you better.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:55

Well, I always do your homework.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:57

Well, yeah, I have I have the bio up right now and everything. So I mean I knew I knew most of the background, but you know, I always have it up to reference. But uh yeah, G-R-Z-E-L-A-K-O-W-S-K-I. And it's just jelly. Yeah, just jelly. So from here on in, he will be referred to as Jelly. So, Jelly, thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:17

Happy to be here. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:19

All right, Mike, where do you want to start? Because there's a lot of things we can talk about. He's been at Michigan State, he he coached in the US PBL, coached at Macomb, had a pretty good playing career. What are those do you want to start with?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:28

Yeah, so so Jelly and I have an interesting relationship where I've learned a ton from him, and then from like a mentor standpoint, because I'm an old man, I think he's learned some things from me. But one thing I've learned about Jelly is like he this he wasn't just born to be a great baseball player and a great coach, he's worked hard at it and things like that. So, Jelly, if you're cool with it, like let's talk about your playing career and some of the things you went through. I mean, you know, even as far back as high school, like how did you get recruited and how did you end up where you were from a playing standpoint? I think it would be a good story for everyone to hear.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:11

Yeah, no doubt. So um I went to Fraser High School. Um Freytown.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:16

They call it Freytown.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:17

Freytown, baby. Oh, yeah. Like, so it was I played for Dave Cuppy, um, did well enough there where I played varsity as a sophomore.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:25

Um, so I did enough you can say even back then, like you're not that old, but I'm just saying 32. It was very hard to play varsity as a sophomore. Now it seems like it happens often for some reason, but that's that's a good thing because that was a division one high school, but go ahead, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:43

Yeah, and there were a ton of kids on that were seniors that year that played at Saginaw and Adrian, Albion. Like we were we had probably six or six or eight kids that played college on that team. Um, but I mean to me it was like a dream come true. Just wanted to be up there and got lucky enough not to play JB. Um but I played there, had a pretty successful career. Uh I mean I hit 480 my senior year, like had a good senior year, but I was 280 pounds, so I struggled mightily in the recruiting process. So um I had a prior relationship with Scott Cardin. Um from his younger brother was one of my best friends in high school. Scott and I'm sorry, guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:22

Scott and I played against each other in Summerball.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:25

Yeah. Good dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:27

Yeah, he's the man, he's one of my mentors. Um, but so I always was going to Albion camps like crazy, and like that's kind of just where I wanted to go and hope I could make that happen. Um I mean I was a good student and Albion's super expensive, so it was it was like 60k at that time, and I had a 3-5, which was fine, but to go there and not break the bank was just not gonna happen. Um and you were a catcher? I was a catcher, yeah. Well, kinda. I kind of played everywhere. I played third base left field um as a sophomore for sure, because we had a good senior catcher. Um, and then I'd caught my junior and senior year. Um but yeah, I mean it was it was kind of just all over the place, I guess you could say. And once we started the recruiting process, so like I went to it was before PBR, it was Michigan baseball prospects, if you remember that.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:17

So I went to one of those, so making a long story longer, I met with Joe Neal at 2SP, um, just because one of my high school math teachers, her son, went to 2 SP and like was getting in better shape and getting college looks. So I was like, okay, like I'll go see what it's all about. And um, so we met with him, and Joe, if you know Joe, he's as straight of a shooter as you could possibly be. And he literally just told me, dude, you're overweight, like you're not going to play high-level college baseball, it's just not gonna happen. And I was like, okay, so like I went to went to work from there, but um again, went to Michigan Baseball Prospects, that's where he told me to go. Um, so I went to one showcase, had decent numbers. Like I don't even remember what they are, to be honest with you, but had decent numbers. Um, and then my senior year summer coach called me from that showcase, Matt Sandals. Oh, wow. Um, he was yeah, he was uh it was the Michigan Jets at the time. Um so he called me and was just like, Do you want to play for me? And at the time I was like, Yeah, sure. Like it was a fairly cheap team, it was local. Like just hearing from Joe that I wasn't gonna play high-level college baseball, I was like, Well, okay, well, I don't need to go to Georgia and Florida, like it's not gonna happen. Right. So I just I played mostly tournaments in Michigan with a pretty solid team. And um, the way I ended up at Madonna is Matt Sandals called one of the assistant coaches at Madonna's restaurant straight up, asked for him, and told him that he had a catcher that is yeah. So then he ended up calling me. I went to a practice, um, I showed up to the practice, and it was like that was Madonna Hey Day. Like it was Hager was the coach, and they were winning 45 games a year. Yeah, they were winning 45 games a year. So I show up, and that like in the NIA and JUCO, like you can practice with the team one time or whatever it is, a tryout or showcase or whatever. Wild, wild. Right, exactly. So I ran through a practice with them, and I'm just like walking around. I was talking to my mom after. I'm like, there's no way I'm good enough to play here. There's no way.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:20

I love this guy. I'm telling you, he's the most humble. Like, I love this kid, but keep going.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:24

Well, if you knew Donnie Holland was the senior catcher when I was a freshman, and like I I he is to this day, like my the biggest impact on my baseball career, probably from a teammate standpoint. Um but he was just the best defensive catcher of all time. Like every throw was on the money. Every time we needed an out, he'd find one. It didn't matter how he could backpick anybody at any time.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:45

Backpick.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:46

It's like, okay, like I I literally told my mom after that when we were driving home, like, I'm not good enough to play here. Like, I but I want to go here. Like, this is my best option. And it was a walk on a Madonna. Like, and that's that's all.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:57

Did you have an offer while you were doing the tryout, or was the tryout to see if you would get an offer?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:02

Um, I believe I had one before it was just kind of this on the table. Yeah, it was just kind of to see if something more could come of it, I guess. Like to see if I was worth a different scholarship amount or something. I don't even remember. It was 10 years ago. I'm old now, but um God, it was longer than that.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:19

I was gonna say 10 years ago was 2016.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:22

Yeah, I graduated in 2017, so yeah, it was it was 2011 probably. Um, but yeah, so I ended up playing a game there that summer after I already committed. Um sorry, I'm gonna call took me off the page.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:37

Hopefully it's not a big recruit.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:39

No, it's Nick Williams, actually.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:41

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:42

Um, yeah, that's my guy. Um but yeah, anyway, so I played a summer tournament there, a summer game there over the summer, ended up going well, and I was just like, this is it. Like, this is my home, this is where I want to be. Um and as I expected, when I showed up, I did not play at all. I redshirted my freshman year, and it's it was just what I expected. And obviously, I had hopes that I would be good enough, and I just wasn't, and that's kind of how it is. But um I just kind of took it in stride and tried to learn as much as I could from Donnie before he left, and like he gracefully took me under his wing, as well as guys like Austin Belmont and Jeremy Gooding. Jeremy Gooding just passed away, but he's one of the best, yeah, one of the best pitchers in Madonna history, if not the best.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:25

Um Nick Capafari is up there at Madonna. Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:31

For sure. We talk about it all the time, every time I see him.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:34

So funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:35

But yeah, so um after that, I went through the the gauntlet of trying to play at college, right? So my freshman year, my red shirt freshman year, um, I did well enough. I DH'd a ton because I was still like severely overweight. Um DH'ed a ton, played probably 10 games at third base. Um, but had a good year for a freshman. Like hit 300, no homers, but like did okay. Um and I met I met with Hager after that year. We had some his end of the year meetings with me were like they changed my life, like quite literally.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:07

Hager's a hitting guy, too, right? Like if you call like he's everything. Is he okay? Yeah, I've heard like wonderful things.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:14

I want to say he two-way in college at Michigan and won a big time tournament.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:18

His kid's the center fielder, correct?

SPEAKER_00 1:26:20

Yeah, he's a stud.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:20

You remember the Hager kid we've been talking about? Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:23

Yeah, he's been a stud since he was five years old when he would hit with us in the cages.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:27

But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:28

Um yeah, I mean it made me lose my train of thought.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:32

No, so the end of the year meetings.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:33

End of the year meetings. Got it. Yeah, so the end of the year meetings after my freshman year, like he basically just told me, like, you gotta lock this in. Like, you gotta try to get yourself in better shape and like maybe play the outfield was the goal. Because I was always like, even though I was 280 pounds, I ran like a 7-2. Like I was I still could move. Um, so he's like, if you lose 20 to 30 pounds, you'll be 250. Maybe you'll run a 7-0. Like, we can hide you out there. So I ended up doing that. Um, played right field that whole year, won a gold glove in right field. I don't know how.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:04

Jeez, that's awesome. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:07

I have no idea how I did that, but because you raked probably because you raked and you just caught a couple fly balls.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:13

Yeah, so I hit I ended up hitting like 350 that year was first team all conference. So like it was really that was like when my I was like, wow man, like I can actually do this and like do this at a high level now. Um, and then my junior year happened where we were unbelievable. Like we won 42 games or something like that. We were a two seed in the regionals, we should have been a one seed probably. Um, but we ended up going to Santa Barbara, and I hit 299 with three homers that year. Like it was my worst year. Like I just couldn't live up to it, I guess, or I couldn't make the adjustments. Um Yeah, so I mean it was just a down year, and it sucked, right? Obviously, I wanted to be as good as I could be for the team and try and help us win a regional and go to the World Series for the first time ever.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:55

But that was junior year that was junior year.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:58

My that was my red shirt junior. Years that was my third, my fourth year in school. Um, and then again, I had an end of the year meeting with Hager. So I was right around there, I was probably 250 pounds. And like he straight up told me, he's like, if you take this serious, like and you truly dive into this, he's like, You'll be the conference player of the year next year. Wow to my face. And I'm like, okay, like this guy, at least if I can take nothing else from this, this guy believes in me wholeheartedly. So I went nuts. I tracked every single piece of food that went into my mouth for uh six months of the offseason or whatever it was. Um, I was running all the time. I did CrossFit workouts by myself at Fraser High School and at five in the morning, just tried to figure it out. Um I came back that year. I think I started the season at 218. My 60 was like a 6'8. Oh, wow. Um, yeah, like I made significant changes.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:52

So you're taking this super seriously. You realize, you know, you've gone from I'm not good enough to be on this team to now your coach telling you point blank, you take it seriously, you you've made all the difference. When did you really feel like, okay, I've done what I've needed to do? Was it when you went back to Madonna for the fall and the coach saw your transformation? Did he see the progress? Or was it you showed up and it's like, oh, there's less of jelly now significantly?

SPEAKER_00 1:29:17

Right. Yeah, it was a little bit of that, and it was a different year in the whack, too. Like we played nine conference games in the fall that counted towards the season.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:25

Yeah, it was what?

SPEAKER_00 1:29:27

Yeah, yeah, we did it for one year.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:29

What year was that?

SPEAKER_00 1:29:30

2017. It would have been fall 2016. I don't know why, but I actually kind of liked it. It like it was terrible for the freshman, but me being a fifth year senior, like I was never more ready.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:40

And the weather is good too, right? The weather was good.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:43

I liked it. No, no, I don't. My wife took a video of every at-bat I took in college, pretty much. Like every game she went to, she recorded all of my at-bats, and it's all short sleeves, sunshine. Like it was it was awesome in the fall.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:56

Yeah, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:57

Um, but it ended up working out good for me because I I don't even remember what I was hitting after the fall, but uh, it was like 650. So like I was hitting 650 for for literally like three months the entire winter offseason. I was just sitting on like I'm hitting 650. Like, this is the best.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:13

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:14

So yeah, so then we started up again. Um, I don't remember any of my stats or anything like that from that point, but um, I ended up having the best year of my life and like hit 426 with 12 homers, and um Skip Johnson saw me there, and that's where my USPBL career happened. But I ended up actually winning conference player of the year. So it's like Hager's awesome. Hager to me is he changed my life, like 100% changed my life. He gave me the opportunity, he believed in me the whole time and like knew when to push the right buttons. Like he's like Yoda, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:44

We're here, we're here, we're here to talk like about many things, but selfishly, I I met you, I heard so many things about you, but then I met you when you were already done. So I'm actually I am curious for this next step. So when when Jim Essian, who is a legendary baseball guy from this area, saw you, like tell us what happened. He saw what happened. How did he even hear Hager call him or something? Or what happened?

SPEAKER_00 1:31:13

I honestly don't remember. Well, funny enough, Hager wasn't my coach in the spring. He resigned after the fall. I don't remember why, probably something in administration or something.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:25

Well, kids were at that age too, right? His kids were probably.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:29

I think Trey was in 11th grade and Evan was a little bit younger than that. I'd probably off by the year. But regardless, Ted Faulkner took the job and it was kind of the perfect in-between. Like Hager is very good with like messing with you mentally to grow, like psychologically to grow. And then Ted Faulkner is like we're still like he was at my wedding, also. Like he was we're very close still to this day, and he was like, uh, no, you're here and you're ready. Like, take a breath and take it all in and and go for it.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:59

Um, and you're like, I'm batting 650, bro.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:02

Yeah, right, right. So ended up having a really good year, ended up being conference player of the year, which to this day is one of the coolest things I've ever done. Um, because there was, I think there were five or six guys drafted from the WAC that year.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:15

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:16

Um, yeah, so it was really cool. Um, I was not one of them. So um, funny enough, when Skip saw me, it was we were playing Merry Grove um versus Kotki. Oh, yeah I don't know who who called him or who told him or whatever, but he texted me and said that he was coming to a game, and I'm like, all right, cool. I hit a backside double the first app out of the game, I hit second. So like he literally was there for 12 seconds, and in the end of the video, he's walking right out of the stands.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:41

That's pretty sweet.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:42

Yeah, so I saw it after, and I'm like, is he not gonna take me? Like, what is going on here? And then he texts me afterwards.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:48

What you know now is swings play. Like Jelly's Jelly's great at Jelly does that shit too. He'll go see one guy take a swing, whether he hit it in the air or ground it out. You can see, and that's probably what Skip saws is your swing.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:03

I would hope. I would hope. But yeah, so he walked right out, told me that he had a spot for me when the time came. Um, we got eliminated just short of regionals. I think we lost to Davenport in the uh finals of the WAC tournament that year. Um so I went to opening day in the US PBL, but I wasn't active on the roster. So I showed up and I hit BP, and then he's like, All right, change and go sit in the stands. I got you two tickets. So I went and sat in the stands with my wife, and we just watched the game. Why is that? What am I missing? I don't know. I don't know. It was how it was back then. Like there were guys that would come up and hit BP with us all the time, and then they'd either make it or they wouldn't. So like I don't know if he would judge it off of one day, but he told me that there would be room for me. And oddly enough, I like met a guy that day who was like the only person I talked to the whole day, and he's the one that ended up getting released for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:54

Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:55

Yeah, it was tough. But um, but yeah, so it was cool. I was I was playing professional baseball 15 minutes for my house. Like, it couldn't have been better.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:03

Um what point in your college career did you realize you had a chance to play Pro Ball? Was it that summer going in that it's like, hey, if you take it seriously, you're gonna figure it out, or is what you were hitting 650?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:15

Not even then. It was probably I don't even know. It was probably April of my senior year. Because I was I'm a nervous, I'm a nervous year.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:24

If you know if you know Jelly, like even today we went and kind of scouted together a little bit. Jelly is like well known. People know who he is from a coaching side of the game. He like looks at me, he's like, I got my state stuff on. Like it's still it's still like unbelievable to him, even though everyone on the outside knows he deserves it.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:44

But like, so I mean, so you're getting ready to for your whatever your real job's gonna be, right? And then you figure out, oh, I've got a chance to go play professional baseball.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:55

Yeah, so I was actually working my internship with Team Sports Incorporated, which is now game one, um, in the athletic apparel industry. Um, and I was working 40 hours a week there, and I was like, Skip, will you work around this? Like, can I just like leave? And both were okay with it, so I was able to go to practice when I had to. Um, I was always on time for games because they were at night, anyways. Um, but when we got into playing in the US PBL, I was playing left field mostly, occasionally first base.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:22

Really?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:23

Um, yep. So we I think I what did I do my first game? I got I got I was one for four my first game. I got a hit in the ninth, was my first pro hit. I got like a little nubber through the you still have the ball. I still have the ball, I still have the video, everything. Yep. Um, so that was that. I got the first one out of the way. Um, but you know Skip, Skip loves homers. Um so our our next game was the Tuesday uh non-public, and we were playing the Hoppers, and I hit two homers in one game, and it was my first ever multi-home run game. So I was like, oh my god, like there's no way. This is this is just unbelievable. Like, and then I don't know, a month later I'm hitting 306 with nine homers leading the league in homers, and it's just like all surreal. And I don't know how it really happened, to be honest with you, because it's I have this thing that I do, and it sounds probably ridiculous to everybody else, but like when I get to a place for the first time, I'm like, this is unbelievable. Like, what is going on? Like, I was I remember taking like just shagging in left field my first game in the US PBL, and I'm just looking at all like the backdrop and the 3,000 open seats, and I'm just like, what is going on? You didn't like I am yeah, like I'm I'm playing professional baseball. Like, I can't, like I'm a kid from Fraser.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:36

See what I mean? He's the same guy like today. He goes, I have my Michigan State.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:41

So all right, dude. I I can't even explain. I'll get to that and it'll probably make me cry again.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:47

I want to hear, I want to hear go ahead. Well, I was gonna say, so you're kicking ass in the US PBL. Does the thought ever come to you, like, maybe I can get into affiliated ball? Maybe an organization wants to pick me up. Was there someone that said, like, hey, there are some scouts asking about you, or are you just so happy to be playing pro ball and doing well? It never crossed your mind.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:07

Yeah, well, a little bit of both, I guess, because about a month before Skip said that we're gonna start catching you. So I'm like, okay, like I was a terrible catcher in high school and I haven't caught since. So I did not know that honestly, Jelly, I did not know that Madonna. I caught one inning at Madonna in five years.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:25

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:26

And we were we were down 11 to 1 against Indiana Tech.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:29

Okay, so sure, he says you were gonna catch you, then what?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:34

Yep. Uh then I started catching, um, got relatively good quickly, I guess you could say. Um Ray Ortega was the catching coordinator then.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:43

And wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Who was the catching coordinator?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:48

Ray Ortega. Was he really? He was the catching coordinator. He was the he was Nool's assistant for the Beavers, but back then we all practiced together every day at Jimmy John's. So like it was like he would show up early, I'd bring him a coffee, and we'd just do receiving or throwing or whatever it was. But at the time, receiving wasn't as important. So all we were worried about was my throw, um, my pop time or whatever you will. Um, so I don't even know what I was or any of that, but like we just worked on getting it better, and we did it every day, over and over and over again until it was fine. Um, receiving was never really that big of a problem, it was just my mobility. Like I back then, back then it was still two feet catching, and I couldn't do it. Like, I just my hips were not in a good place where I could just move like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:32

So um, but then I played in the all-star game in the home run derby there. Um, and after that game, uh I don't again don't remember what happened, but he came up to me and goes, apparently there was some like mumbling about you, something might happen here soon. And I'm like, Okay, like that's freaking amazing. Yeah, it was nuts. So um the next day, my one of my best friends at the time was on the Beavers, Kevin Marnan. He got called from the twins and he got signed, and then my teammate Randy Dobnek got called and got signed. So I was out to eat with Randy and his wife Ariel with my wife Sarah. Um, and we were just at we were at Uno's Pizzeria right by uh right by Jimmy Johns, yeah. And my phone rings and it's Justin Nord and Duff. And I'm like, okay, this is weird. Why would he be calling me? And so I walk outside, I'm just like, yeah, what's up, Duff? And he's like, All right, like you just got signed by the twins. And I literally told him, I told him to shut the F up, like actually, like, and I don't, yeah, I'm a I mess around a lot, but like when I'm talking to a superior, I don't do that ever. And he just busted all laughing, and it was the coolest moment of my life, probably.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:41

Um, I know you, but I know you. You're you're a crier too.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:46

Oh god, I sobbed, bro.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:48

I sobbed.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:48

So I'm outside of Uno's pizzeria sobbing. I call my wife right away. It was like, or my wife was there. She didn't even found out after I called my mom, I called like whoever I could think of at the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:00

So you're walking to Uno crying?

SPEAKER_00 1:40:02

Yeah, I walk, dude. I walk into Uno's, my eyes are all bloodshot, and I just got low. You're thinking you just got like this is just wet.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:09

Someone died, is probably what everyone's thinking when you're walking into skin.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:13

100%. And Randy's just like glowing, and he knows what's going on because it was duffed. And he's like, whoo, whoo, who? And I was like, we're going. Both of us and Marnon. It was unreal. And Marnon and I, Marnon went to Stevenson, I went to Fraser, and he actually ended my high school career. But we ended up being roommates for the next three years, and like it was just looking back, like if I would have known today what I knew or known then what I know now, like Kevin's still one of my best friends, Randy's still one of my best friends. It's like it's yeah, it was just an un unbelievable thing. Um, so that opened up a whole another can of worms where I was planning on proposing to my my girlfriend now wife on August 11th in the USPBL. I had to leave July 31st. Like I had to scramble to try to figure out what I was going to do.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:59

And then it came to my so for those people that don't know like the logistical side of this, like they just think, oh, signed, and they end up there. Walk us through what's the date when you get signed? Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_00 1:41:12

Uh I believe it was July 30th.

SPEAKER_07 1:41:14

So July 30th, you get signed. You have to be, I'm guessing you went to what, like uh Florida or Fort Myers or wherever. Yep. When did you have to be there?

SPEAKER_00 1:41:24

My flight was August 1st.

SPEAKER_07 1:41:26

So you have 36 hours to get your life in a double.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:30

Basically. Yeah. And if you if you talk to my wife about this, it's so funny because well, anyways, I I proposed to her during my like celebration on the field. So it like was the double whammy, yeah. Double whammy of double whammies, because we were we've been together 17 years now. Oh my god, I don't know what I did to deserve that woman. But um, so we were together for a long time, so I was like, alright, like this is just the perfect way, she won't expect it. Like, and it was the an absolute dream day. Like my dream of baseball, my dream of life, and my woman, like are it all came together. It was the best day of from Freytown.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:12

From Freytown to the freaking twins, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:15

Right, it was nuts. So I was on a plane August 1st and played the rest of that year in rookie ball. Um, and then the following year I broke, I skipped two levels, so I skipped advanced rookie and low A and went straight to high A. It was probably catcher, right? As a catcher, yep. So I was the third catcher on the roster. Um, and there were two studs in front of me, and it was Caleb Hamilton and Ben Rutvet. Ben Rutvet won a World Series with the Dodgers last year, and Caleb Hamilton was in the big leagues with the twins for a while. He's a catching coach with the Yankees now. Um but they were they were both in front of me. I was catching once a week, maybe twice. Um, so I was not getting a ton of A B's, and I went into our uh our manager's office and I was like, hey, I can play outfield in first base. Like I don't need to just catch. Like I can do whatever you need me to do whenever you need me to do it. Um so the story goes, I got a start in left field against the Pirates on April 22nd. I'm weird that I know this, but uh Byron Buxton was playing with us because he was rehabbing a toe or something like that. And I was starting in left field, I hit third, he hit fourth, I think, is what it was. So Byron Buxton protected you in the like right, and it was my like first real start, like besides the the couple day games I would catch just so that the prospects didn't have to. And I hit two homers that game and in the clubhouse after Buxton's like, you're making me look bad. Like it was just it was showing up Byron Buxton, yeah. It was unreal, but so I ended up making it through halfway of the season with them. Um I was a mid-season all-star, so I got to like the whole experience. I got to go to the all high all-star game, and um, which was unbelievable. It was at the Yankees spring training.

SPEAKER_07 1:44:06

Here's here's his numbers from that year. You know, you hit oh just over 330 at bats, you hit 298, eight bombs, drove in 40, OPS of 828. Like, that's a pretty freaking jelly.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:19

Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, I was I was a point away from being the batting title. Were you? Yeah, the batting title was 299. It was some guy with the uh blue jays. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:30

How cool is this, Brady? How cool is it? We're around athletes all the time, but like just these humble guys. Like, if I was jelly, I'd be telling everybody all day long what I'm doing, what I've done.

SPEAKER_07 1:44:41

Right? I I'd have gotten like a t-shirt from the that all-star game, and I just wear it every day. I hit in front of Byron Buxton. Yeah, I wouldn't put that on my shirt. I scored one touchdown in my college football career, and my friends never hear the end of it. Well, yeah, I'm gonna do it. I don't know what if I hit two home runs in front of Byron Buxton.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:56

Yeah, so yeah, well, if if either of you ask Caruso, I open up the yearbook quite often, probably more than I should.

SPEAKER_07 1:45:02

No, no, I no, enough that you should. So, anyway, okay, so we do need to get to the coaching part, but keep going. So, you have a great year, and then you actually spend some time all the way up in double A that next season.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:12

Yep. Yep, so before that, and in game three of the finals against uh Daytona, which was the Reds, I hit a fallball off inside of my ankle at 106 and broke it clean in half. So I was unable to yeah, I had two surgeries, I was unable to walk for like four to six months. So pretty much my entire off-season, I was on bad rest almost. Um so the rehab process was terrible. And yes, I I broke the next year in double A, I think, just because of the high year I had, like it was just like a preset thing, probably. Um, and I just I couldn't figure out how to get it going again. Just my mobility wasn't the same, I wasn't as fast. Like I put on probably 10 pounds just to be weighing around all the time.

SPEAKER_07 1:45:55

Uh he was 25. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:46:00

Shout out the baseball team.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:02

Right, and I was I was old, so um, but yep, so I finished that year, did not have a good year by any stretch. Um finally started to feel good at the end there a little bit, and then had a really good offseason. That was my first offseason at 2SP where I was there with Nate Sire four days a week. Like I was grinding, like best shape of my life, probably. Um, and then we show up the next year to spring training, covet hits, we all get sent home whole year, whole years over. Yep. So the way I got released was I was working for my father-in-law at Art Van just right when they sold, like to whoever, I don't remember who it was, but I was I was filling trucks with furniture eight hours a day from like 5 a.m. to three or whatever it was. So that was what I was doing. I got the call there, and it's like, okay, we're we're releasing 45 guys, mostly independent ball guys, like just kind of the way it is, because they were cutting teams at the same time.

SPEAKER_07 1:46:55

Yeah, oh yeah, that's yeah, the purge.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:57

Yeah, so it's like, okay, like, but the only reason I'm talking about this is because I want to explain how I turned it into a positive. Um, so I I thought it might happen, and I would just wanted to be prepared just in case. And now that I've been a coach in the USPBL and I have released people, like I know how much it hurts the person doing it.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:19

Um, and it was Alex Hassan, who is I don't know what he is with the twins, but he's still with the twins in a pretty high up role. And he called me and he was just like broken. And I'm like, dude, it's like it's a business at the end of the day, right? So instead of me complaining I belong here, I should be here, I asked him if he would be a reference on my on my resume. Um, him and the GM, he's Jeremy Zole's the current GM of the twins. So like those two are on my resume.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:43

Like, which is which is really cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:45

So which we always had a good, a good uh relationship. And I mean, I'm not I'm not really like the standoffish type, like I want to be around people and I want to be positive around people. So um, but having them on my resume, I have to assume, has helped me.

SPEAKER_07 1:47:58

Yeah, so getting that's huge, an MLB GM when you're getting into coaching, and then you go to the US PBL, and I'm sure it helps when you're want to take over Macomb. I'm sure that's a pretty strong name to have on your resume.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:11

Yeah, I would imagine so, but I haven't.

SPEAKER_07 1:48:13

Like I think like if I'm at a community college and someone has the twins GM as a reference, I would think this guy's lying. Yeah, like not if I didn't know you played in the org, I'd go make up a believable reference here.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:26

Or like no pressure. Don't turn this guy away.

SPEAKER_07 1:48:28

Yeah, right. Right. So so you're getting into coaching, you know, you're at the US PBL, but the one I really want to talk about is Macomb, because that's it's a different animal than the US PBL, right? Because that's a without question. That's a partially a developmental league. It it's a very it's not everyone at each other like you're trying to help the guys out, right? Like you want to get have more stories like yours where they move on. Winning a championship would be awesome, but that's not the ultimate goal of a lot of it. So you go to Macomb, a program that had been decent, one that you were familiar with, right in your backyard. What was that like getting that job and taking it over?

SPEAKER_00 1:49:05

Um a dream, truthfully. So I coached the last two the two years before that, I was at Madonna with Justin Carn, who is my one of my best friends and like an absolute mentor to me. And we talked about if I should Okay. Yeah, so we're best friends, and we talked about if I should go for it or not. And he's like, Yeah, absolutely. At least try for the interview process, right? So I tried, I tried to apply, and Nick Crusoe actually is the one that convinced me. He called me and was like, You need to go for this, right? So I was like, Okay, well, it's in my backyard. I was driving forty five minutes back and forth to Madonna every day. Like I would drive ten minutes to Macoma every day, so it kind of works out.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:45

We we had we had Nick on a few weeks ago, as you know, and he told us he went through the interview process, and in his interview process, the A D said, Would you be interested in working as an assistant?

SPEAKER_01 1:49:59

And uh And that's when Nick knew, like, oh, Jelly's getting this freaking thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:04

Yeah, yeah. He he was on the previous coaching staff and just kind of talked me into trying. And the AD was my AD at Madonna when I played for four years, more of my five years. And the SID, Tim Johnson, um, just named National SID, um, was the SID. So like it, I was being interviewed by two people I was familiar with, so I made it a little bit easier. Um, but so the whole interview process was as you'd expect. I think I had three interviews. Um, my last interview when I was told I was in the final two, an hour. So I'm leaving a bachelor party from one of my buddies' places up north, right? So I get home at like 9 a.m. My wife walks in the door at 10 a.m. telling me that we are pregnant with our first kid that we've been trying to have for a year, and then I am out the door at noon and I have my final interview to see if I'm gonna get my first head coaching job at one. So again, a whirlwind of a day. Did you tell them perfect?

SPEAKER_02 1:51:03

Did you tell them you were gonna have a baby in the interview?

SPEAKER_00 1:51:07

My wife's like, don't tell anybody, don't tell anybody. Like it was really early, but I was like shaking when I got there. Yeah, and they're like obviously they were happy for me, but um I was hanging out with you during that time.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:18

I was around the USPBL. I remember just knowing you were gonna be a perfect fit. Um and of course, I had guys, I'm like, Yeah, get the job, and I got this guy, I got this guy. Yep, but I was pumped for him.

SPEAKER_07 1:51:30

Because I remember talking to you about that, and you're like, Man, we have like for Macomb, it's like we have so much talent within 15 miles of this school. Like, there's no reason why McComb shouldn't have all these guys that maybe need a tweak here or a tweak there, guys like yourself that you can put on. And how many guys did you move on to four years in your in your stint at uh Macomb?

SPEAKER_00 1:51:51

Oh, I don't know the exact number, but every single kid that wanted to go to a four-year the last three years had a place to go.

SPEAKER_07 1:51:58

That's I mean, that that's the recruiting pitch right there.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:01

Right, yeah. Nick, so Nick, I got the job, and obviously Nick was my first call, and he was my assistant, and when he came back for the third year, he was my associate head coach.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:10

But um he probably didn't call him ass coach or what it would uh Yeah, he said that.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:16

I never called him that.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:17

Nick said Jelly called him his ass coach because he's a social coach.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:21

I never called him that. He was my bad cop because I'm a good cop at heart. I'm really good at being a good cop. I'm terrible at being a bad cop.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:29

By the way, that's all natural. You're a good cop, he's a bad cop. Like he can't be, he can't be anything else.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:35

Yeah, well, I mean, he's his if you know his parents at all, like his they're the most wonderful people on the planet, but his dad's military, and it is yeah, just it's like him and his dad are the same. Like they're if it's not the way he wants it when it's his team, like it's going to be the way he wants it, or you're going to leave. Like, there's no there's no bending.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:55

And and no bull and no bullshit.

SPEAKER_07 1:52:57

Yeah, there's no room for debate. So right. So you're at Madonna, you know, or Madonna, you're at Macomb and things are going well. I mean, you got you got that thing going pretty well. What you was the first conference title in however many years uh when you were there. How does the Michigan State thing come about? Is that another moment where it's like, you know, you didn't think you'd play at Madonna and then you're sitting there being getting conference player of the year? You didn't think you'd play Pro Bowl, and now you're looking around playing Pro Bowl. You're playing in double-A with you know some high-level prospects, which we need to ask about a couple of those. Um, and then you get how does the Michigan State job come about?

SPEAKER_00 1:53:33

Um, well, I mean, we always talked about moving on or like if it could potentially happen, and I knew McComb was a good like feeder for myself, even though I wasn't using it as such. Like, I I truly could have pictured myself retiring at McComb. Like I a hundred percent. Like it's it was my hometown team, like it was the perfect place for me. Um, I don't remember how I actually heard of it, um, but I just heard of rumblings that Stone was gonna get it. Was it you?

SPEAKER_02 1:53:58

I think it was.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:58

Yeah, I don't I think it probably I think we can probably say it now.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:02

No, because remember, I was going through some things there at that time too, I think from a recruiting standpoint, and I was like, oh shit. But anyway, yeah, you probably heard it from somebody else, but I remember calling you right away, like, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:54:17

Yep, yep. So I just heard rumblings that Stone was leaving and going to Michigan, and I'm like, okay, well, that means there's an opening, and like I'd be a fool not to at least try, like at least try to get an interview or whatever. Um, so that night I like fixed up my resume, made it a little bit more current, and I emailed it to Jake. And the next morning he called me and was we talked for a half hour and like just talked about the possibility of it. And then he at the end of the phone call, he told me, and it was kind of crazy that he told me this this fast, but he's a he's a no BS guy, so it totally makes sense now knowing him. But he told me I would be in the final three and I'd have an on-campus interview, and I was like, holy crap, like this is this is like you've never had a slow process in your life, have you?

SPEAKER_07 1:55:04

No, it doesn't seem that way. You're not it's not a slow burn for any major event in your life.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:10

Yeah, no, not at all. So it was literally, I think we talked Monday morning, and my on-campus interview was Sunday, the following Sunday. Um, which I also thought was kind of weird, but like again, he he has a reason for everything he does, and I think it was just so that nobody would be around, like, so there was no rumblings of people on Twitter or whatever. So I go there for my interview.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:32

But there was there was there was rumblings on Twitter.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:37

Yeah, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:38

I don't know if you remember that or not, but there was some I sure do.

SPEAKER_07 1:55:40

I was gonna say, hold on, let's let's hit the interview story and then the fallout that Mike's talking about.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:46

Yeah, so I had an interview, it was it felt more like a visit. Like he drove me around in his car for two hours, showed me the campus, like we just talked baseball. Like he didn't like drill me with questions. Honestly, it was more so me drilling him with questions. Um, but I think he was just trying to get a feel for like baseball savvy and can I hold a conversation? Can I be professional? Um stuff like that. Um, but it went great, and I was really happy with it. And I gave him like I made probably three or four different things. I can't I went in with a full PowerPoint presentation on how I'd run the offense and like what's important to me and my philosophies. Um, a couple things I used at McComb that were like like game management charts, like how we're how we learn to shift people, develop people, whatever. Um, so I slapped it on his desk and just here you go. Like, use it if you want. If you don't, that's okay too. Like, this is just stuff that I've used. Um so that's done. I'm back at the US PBL, just going through practice and everything, and I see a uh tweet on Twitter that says Greg Lovelady seen in East Lansing wearing green, hashtag sparty, and I'm like, all right, like that's okay. Like, I kind of knew I was out of my depth, or at least I thought I was.

SPEAKER_07 1:56:59

For for those of Greg Lovelady, for those not familiar, Purdue guy, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:57:04

Wasn't he a Purdue guy or something?

SPEAKER_00 1:57:06

Uh I believe he was the head coach at Wright State for a long time when they were really good. And then he was at Purdue. I think he was at FIU or some UCF, one of the schools down there, too. Like long time, oh yeah, long time, like unreal coach for a long time. He's at Tulane right now. Um, so I was like, okay, like if I'm gonna lose to anybody, like I can accept that. Um so about three more days go along. Like I'm waiting to hear from Jake. I'm doing early work with Derek Wood in the USPBL outfield cages, and I he calls me out. I don't even remember what day it was, but so I walk in and I'm walking around center field, and he calls me, and he like basically offers me the job, and I'm like, what? Like, I just just I was shocked because I was like, I literally saw it. I was expecting to be let down easy.

SPEAKER_07 1:57:55

Yeah, you're coming to grips, you're you're starting the grieve, the grieving process, you're getting to acceptance.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:00

Right. I was trying to think of ways that I could positively be like, it's all good. Like I appreciate the opportunity so much, like just to be able to meet with you and like begin a relationship there and grow as a professional. And that would have been great.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:12

That would have been great if you would have said that. He offers you the job and you're so programmed, you're like, Well, thank you for the opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:18

Uh Love Lady is gonna be a good guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:22

Right, right. And I don't know if Love Lady took the job at Tulane first or not. I don't care. I'm here and I love her.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:28

Um so but yeah, so I accept the job on spot. Like he's like, Does that mean you're in? And I was like laughing hysterically. I'm like, I can't believe this right now at all. Like I could that yes, like my wife and I talked about it. If it did happen, like we were gonna do this.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:43

And um how hard how hard how hard were you throwing BP after you took the job at Michigan State? You come back in the cage and throwing it.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:51

So the hardest part, the hardest part about it all, me being a crier, I was sobbing in the outfield. I'm like, this is like like I am a division one hitting coach. Like, what is going on? Like, I don't understand this at all. And again, so family member has died.

SPEAKER_07 1:59:07

But he's so humble.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:09

This guy's like, oh no, what's wrong with Jelly? Do we need to go give him a hug?

SPEAKER_02 1:59:13

But he's so humble, he's so humble. He you are a division one hitting coach. I mean, you you have the experience and you deserve it, and it's not it wasn't just so you know, it wasn't a shock to anybody.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:26

No right from the outside, it was a shock to me, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:59:29

But my point is like the outsiders in the baseball world were like, that's a perfect spot. That's like with his experience, and you know, same thing that we were talking about with Stone last week. Like, you better not lose the best Michigan guys, right? Like, with your recruiting experience and like the manzellas of the world or whoever, these these great players in Michigan, you and Stone are the guys that are supposed to say, All right, the best guys are coming to the Big Ten, and you're just a perfect spot, you're in a perfect spot for it.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:04

Yeah, so well, thank you, Juan. Um yeah, oh yeah. I called my wife because I tell her everything, and she's my world, and she being the kind-hearted soul she was, saw that I was like unconsolable, not unconsolable, but I was like so anxious and just like I gotta tell somebody. So she drove all the way to Jimmy John's, and like I met her and just gave her a hug for about 10 minutes. And and like we just talked through it all, and like the hardest part was I had to go through a background check before anything could happen. So like I literally couldn't tell anybody. Like my wife knew and my mom knew, and my mother-in-law, like that's that's it. Like, Karn didn't know, Nick didn't know, Mike didn't know, nobody knew. Um, which again, a background check for me, like should take 30 seconds.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:49

I don't have anything on there, but um we go to the bar and he orders like water.

unknown 2:00:56

Pretty boring.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:56

Well, I'm a Coke Zero guy now, as Ocean State staff is absolutely they destroy Coke Zero and Die Coke, but um, so yeah, so I accept that and um I message in the Macomb group chat, like, hey, I gotta have a team meeting on Monday. I think I what I had a plan. Yeah, the and then the same guy that tweeted, yeah, and then the guy that tweeted about Love Lady also leaked that I was getting the job. So all my Macomb players probably knew already. So I show up to this meeting and I I'm just like, this is the worst day ever. Like I spent so much time with these guys, they are forever a part of who I am and like the way I do things. They trusted me with their careers. Like we were the my first year, we were nothing. We were we were not a great team. Like we had some bright spots and some good players, but like we just weren't where I wanted us to be at all. Um and like the next two years we won the first first title since '93, first back-to-back titles since '93, '94, which is almost as old as I am.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:02

Um, like just I was I think I was on one of those teams. That's how old I am.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:07

Yeah. Yeah. Like it was it was the absolute best thing ever for me. Um, so telling those guys was an absolute gut rip, but all it in the monarch way, like everyone was happy for me. Nobody was like, oh, how could you? This is unbelievable. Like, we're left out in the cold. Like, I got so many hugs and just like thank yous.

SPEAKER_07 2:02:30

And it was not treating you like uh Coach Taylor and Friday Night Lights, where they're making you be an evil person. How dare you go to a bet a bigger school?

SPEAKER_00 2:02:39

Right. It's yeah, and it it was the coolest thing ever, just seeing how happy they were for me. And it was like, yeah, I mean it was unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:48

I mean, you did you did recruit great kids, but it wasn't like you were going to like Ancillo or something, like right? You're going to Michigan State, and it's a it's it's the right move.

SPEAKER_07 2:02:59

So now that you're there. I mean, they were all go ahead. I was gonna say, now that you're there, um, what was your first like I'm at Michigan State moment like all the other ones?

SPEAKER_00 2:03:09

Um well the first day, my first day on the job, we had camp.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:14

So I'm showing I'm showing up to camp, and like I am all about this Jack Manzella. Like, I I wanted to see him at camp.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:23

Yep, like and hey, and Frasier, Frazier, Fractown kid.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:26

Yep. So I he was at camp and like I was all about this, and he was sensational as he always is. And um, like it ended up being that he was like the first recruit that I talked to that was committed, and like it happened in like three days. So it was that was my like dang this guy can recruit.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:48

Jelly, I don't know. Did I tell you that he almost didn't go to that camp? Did we talk about this?

SPEAKER_00 2:03:54

Yes, we did.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:55

Okay. I'm sure people at home want to hear that. Yeah, I know. I I always get weird when we're talking about things in public, but he he was he wasn't sure, like, should I go again? I've been in front of them, and I'm like, Jelly's there now, he's familiar, go shove it up their ass and see what happens, right? Go up and chuck and don't leave without having a conversation. And I think it was really cool the way it all worked. Obviously, it worked out.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:21

Yep. Yeah, and the the best part about it is his older brother Aiden is the one that drove him to the camp, was there all day, and he played for me at McComb. So I'm literally staying, I'm sitting behind the track man, Aiden's in the stands when he's throwing, and I'm literally like signaling him numbers of like he's 92, he's 93, and it was just like that's what I'm saying. Guess where those numbers went for me?

SPEAKER_02 2:04:40

Guess where those numbers went? They went from your fingers to Aiden's text to my phone. I'm getting updates the whole time.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:47

Yeah, it was it was awesome, right? And it's it ended up working out for everybody, and um, that was my first like this is crazy. Like, this kid is one of the best pitchers in Michigan, if not the best pitcher in Michigan, and like he's coming to play for us, and like it's a whole new meaning of us and all that. But um the next day was probably my biggest like I'm here moment, and it it sounds crazy, but I was literally just sitting in our bullpen alone at like eight in the morning, and I'm just like looking at the field, and it's like okay, I'm no, I was not crying. Yeah, I only cry during the big moments. Okay, all right, the truth for the world. Yeah, I'm tough besides that. But yeah, I was just looking at our stadium and I'm thinking to myself, like, and I'm not I don't mean this in a bad way, like I'm not on 12 mile anymore. Like I you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_07 2:05:35

Like it is something to get out from your, you know, what you're familiar with, and like I a little bit of a I made it. I mean, and you've made it in multiple regards. So Jelly, I know we could talk about a thousand different things. Uh we'll have to we'll have to have you on again, maybe over the summer when there's uh a little more time. But I guess the last question I'd have for you is you know, you've gone through so much from a kid that like you told us, didn't think he was good enough to play on Madonna to conference player of the year to double-A to you know, just hoping to coach to now hitting coach at Michigan State. What what what what's uh just a piece of advice you try? You talked about you know turning things into positives, you give to these to you know, kids, whether they're leaving Michigan State, they're at Macomb, US PBO, what do you try to impart on you know guys going through whatever journey it might be?

SPEAKER_00 2:06:24

Yeah, it it's words I've lived by my entire career as a player and a coach, and it everything's possible until someone says it isn't.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:32

That's perfect.

SPEAKER_00 2:06:33

Right. So until you're told you're not good enough, you're good enough. Like you just gotta find a way to do it. So that's that's what I've lived my career on as a player and a coach.

SPEAKER_07 2:06:42

And yeah, not everyone's path is gonna be a straight line. So obviously, you you took a lot of left and rights along the way, so and still a lot a lot of road left in front of you. Yep, a lot of road. I I can't wait to we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 2:06:55

We'll see.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:55

I'm gonna no, I was just gonna say I I appreciate your friendship, as you know, and I'm a fan, and I just can't wait to see what you're gonna do in the future. And it's it's gonna be an exciting time. So we are I think we're closing it out now because we could talk to you for nine hours. We gotta go close it out. And as we're about to say, this will be a long one. As we're you know, it and again, we could have him and Caruso back. We could have and we'll have some fun. Yeah, you know, baseball guys, you can talk and you go, Oh, it's five hours later.

SPEAKER_07 2:07:24

Whoops.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:25

Yep, yep, yeah, 100%. 100%. I wouldn't be surprised if I looked at my phone and it was midnight.

SPEAKER_07 2:07:31

So, Jelly, I appreciate it. Good luck the rest of the way, and and I know we'll talk again soon. So appreciate it and good luck.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:38

Appreciate you guys. See you, brother.

SPEAKER_07 2:07:40

Have a good one. All right, you know, Jelly was awesome, like we said, could have talked for we could have talked for five hours, and that's what's great about all these guys. And you know, we barely even talked about his time at Michigan State, but his story is just so crazy. He's so humble, man. Right, such a humble guy. But that's I think a story that needs to be told. So don't have a lot here for the third segment because we went long on the first one. We had Dunham story time, we had we had Rat Bat story time, and Jelly was awesome. So we'll be back next week with a lot more fun stuff. But no, that that's a guy that is easy to root for. 100%. So really appreciate him. Appreciate everyone watching and listening. Uh, again, next week, you know, we'll have the WAC tournament to talk about. We'll get closer. We'll know what the Gliak Tournament setup is gonna be like and a few others. So we're we're getting into the big time uh of the season. So it's that time of year, dude. Like it's gonna be Christmas for baseball. It's gonna be a lot of fun. So appreciate that. Appreciate everyone here at Hunch Free that helped produce it. I appreciate Detroit Threat Thread Company for making this possible, and appreciate you guys for listening. So we'll talk to you next week here on the Walk Onts Podcast. Peace out.