Home on the Road
Canes president & CEO Jeff Petty and Perfect Game's Daron Sutton talk with some of the biggest names in baseball
Home on the Road
Episode 3: Eric Byrnes
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Former big leaguer & Co-Founder of 'Let Them Play' Travel Baseball, Eric Byrnes joins Petty & Sut to talk travel ball, MLB memories and much more
So, Home in the Road is the podcast. This is a brand new, fresh episode. I'm stuck. I've been around this for a while. You guys know me. If you don't, that's okay because I have all kinds of great supporting casts on this show who carry the show. Mainly my co-host, Jeff Petty. Canes are his team. He's the founder. He's the owner. But on this show, he doesn't really wear that hat. Petty, how you doing, man? What's new with you? And very, very briefly, because man, I got to guess the bubble and I got to bring in. I got to know a quick update. You ready for the summer? Like, how are you? What's new?
SPEAKER_02I'm very excited about the summer. We start in two weeks, but again to your point, Darren. No one wants to hear how I'm doing. Let's jump in and talk to this guy over here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I've never agreed with you more. I've never ever agreed with you more. What an amazing career he had. What passion he has. He's giving back to the youth space. I love saying that he's 49 years old now. That makes me so happy. Oh, it makes me so happy as a 55-year-old. Longtime Major League, and we're going to talk about his amateur journey. He's now giving amateur journeys. He's paving the road for amateur journeys. He's crazy like I am, and that's why we connected when I was an announcer for the D-Backs and he was a player. Eric Burns. Eric, man, thanks for being with us. I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01Sud, thanks for having me, Jeff. Nice to uh virtually meet you here. It's been uh quite a journey from where we were, Sat, and I was playing for the Diamondbacks. You were a young, aspiring broadcaster, crushing it uh in the game. Honestly, it was it was I think a special time in both of our lives and um in our careers, but I think it also sort of goes to show you that uh I don't, you know, we had aspirations beyond that. And and that's the thing that you know I think inspires you know me about you is that you were always a go-getter and it was the on to the next thing and and whatnot. And so uh it was a fun time, obviously, uh in in Arizona during that you know 2000s or late 2000s, but uh you know, now here we are and talking travel ball and just trying to inspire the youth like our guy Jeff here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm not like of all the players I connected with, the list is super short, folks, for our listeners, viewers. Um, Eric's at the top of that list. And neither one of us, if you go Google me, certainly, maybe not Eric, but if you Google me, we weren't afraid to push up against the rules just a little bit. So um that that did that did create and control my journey. Never I was never afraid to for some good content and going about for the athletes, man. I never was.
SPEAKER_01So we were out of the curve, though. I mean, and that was it. And I I think most importantly, I and hopefully this is a lesson to anyone listening to this in life. Do the right thing, do the thing that that that that you believe in, and and that's true to who you are. And that's who I always knew you were as a broadcaster and who I was as a baseball player. Now, along the way, is it gonna ruffle some feathers? Maybe. But guess what? It's just this sometimes you you go against the status quo, and you know, ultimately, even with what I'm doing now, beyond with let them play in in the whole travel ball world and the way we approach things, it's just different. How I approach things from a broadcasting perspective with no filter network and juice is wild, it's it's just different. But it's true to who I am, and I think at the end of the day, that's the only thing that matters, I think, when we put our heads on the pillow at night.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's no doubt. I got one more, Jeff, before I let you jump in and you guys can bang heads together. Why are you in this travel ball space, man? We love that you're here. Um, but what what you know, your your son Colton is playing in that that age group. Um, you know, I'm not sure what Chloe does athletically. I don't know about that, but why did you decide to journey into this space that is amateur baseball?
SPEAKER_01Well, so all of my kids, I have two daughters, they're all uh ski raisers, so two daughters and a son. So they all played baseball when they were younger. So let's call it ages five to eight-ish. I completely stayed out of it, right? And it was the literally the introduction into the game. Uh I didn't have a ton of confidence in my patience. Um, I obviously knew that my kids were gonna get good coaching at home and I was gonna be able to properly teach the game to them. Um, and then as time went on, both the girls moved on into ski racing and riding horses and track and all these other things that they do in their lives. I I could tell Colton was really into it. And so as he got more into it, and we were home actually uh during hope, and we were playing baseball in the front yard, and I learned how to play the game, guys, from my next door neighbor uh in Woodside, California, a small town south of San Francisco. But basically, um we played it's called TB Cheddar Cheese, where Tony was the best pitcher in our little league, and he'd get out there and he's like five years older than me, just and he's firing these balls at me. And here, you know, say let's just say he's 12 at the time, and I was probably seven, and it was like swing and miss, swing and miss, swing and miss. And pretty soon it was like boom, oh, I got one, boom, oh I got one. And I wanted to teach my kids the same way, and so COVID was that sort of weird time where they shut down baseball and everything else, and we went out there and we battled, and pretty soon, the same sort of thing, it was a bunch of swings and misses, and all of a sudden he started piecing some balls up, and slowly along the way, I just kind of realized like they're gonna figure this out, and you go watch any sort of little league coaching generally, it's like you know, put the elbow up, and just it's so it's so hard to watch where I don't think we have enough faith or confidence in our kids' natural ability. Where it's like, if you just show them something over and over and over and over again, they're gonna figure it out themselves. And so from there, I decided I'm like, you know, let's play baseball too. I want to give the kids an opportunity to play. So we created this team called Let Them Play. And we couldn't play in California at the time. So we started going to Arizona and Nevada and Texas. And pretty soon it was like, man, like we're kind of good. And along the way, you meet some, you know, other people. And I mean, Jeff could probably tell you there's a little recruiting process, like, hey, just come play with us for the weekend. And um, next thing you know, we turned into this top national team. So uh it's been it's been fun. I we don't certainly not what the games are um in in terms of size, but I think we have like seven, eight teams underneath us now, all kind of local majors teams, and then we have our one thirteen you uh top national team.
SPEAKER_02Um, your ID, I mean, people identify you as someone that played extremely hard, and clearly you have a ton of energy. Do you feel like you are able to get that out of your kids, these youth kids? I'm sure you demand them playing hard, but you keep it fun as well. And is that something that they are able to meet your energy level? I mean, because if you can get young kids to play hard, I mean, that's really fun to watch.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Jeff, you know, I challenge them to bring the same amount of energy that I bring. I challenge them to care as much as I care. And, you know, ultimately, I told the the kids this the other day um at Beast of the Ace. We can't want this more than you. I've already lived this dream, I've done this, it was really cool, and it was an incredible experience. And if you guys want it, I want you guys to be able to experience this. But if you want to be great, you've got to be obsessed. And if you're not obsessed, if you're not into every single pitch, we can't help you. I don't care how talented you are. Guys, there's nothing we can do for these kids if they don't want it. They're gonna tell you they want it. Oh no, I want it, I want it, I want it. Don't tell me you want it, show me you want it by your actions on the field. And I'm not talking about uh making every play. I'm not talking about um, you know, there's a there's an attitude and effort. The two things we can control, and and that's it. I and there's also a mental focus, and this is coming from someone who grew up full-blown ADHG. So it's no way exactly. The ability to hyper focus is everything, and so when we are between the lines in this in the in the moment of the game, I need you guys to make the right decision, and that's it. We're gonna make physical errors, it's gonna happen. We had a ball hit the other day. One uh we're playing Furia, Furia National, 13 year, and we're we're fighting to get into the bracket, right? We're both one and one at this point, and there was a ball hidden to our right fielder, and we're in a no-double situation late in the game. Ball hit to our right fielder, and he charged, he charges in. And his you know, the ball's gonna be in front of him, he charges in, and for whatever reason in his mind he's like, I thought I was gonna try to get the guy at first. Well, we're in a no-double situation. That's not the play. Or short shot the other. We get a ball to his backhand, trying to turn a double play. Thought it'd be quicker, backhanded it, coming over. Like, no, body, get that like this. We need one out, right? Boom, the ball comes in, kind of kind of oh, like where's that to play? Those are mental mistakes, those are things we can control. So, baseball is figuring out what we can control and what we can't. Attitude, effort, preparation. That's what I demand for my kids. And I told them, and I'll continue to reiterate it. If you are not going to give the right attitude, the right effort, and prepare properly, you're not gonna be here. I love you, I wish you all the best, but that's not who I am, that's not what I'm about. That's not what Let Them Play is about. People see let them play, and immediately, whether I like it or not, they think they think of me. And you guys are a representation of me. And so when you guys go out there and you're not playing the game the right way, and you're not doing the things that we can control properly, that's not a good representation. Have some pride. And this not only goes, Jeff, on the field, I can't agree with any of this more.
SPEAKER_02I mean, it's just awesome hearing all this. The question that I really need an answer to is what age does this start? Like, what age, what what age is too young for you to have this kind of demand out of a ch out of a player? I think because I'm in the world right now, by the way. With with littles. So I'm curious what your answer is gonna be.
SPEAKER_01I think we have a lot more empathy, Jeff, when when they're younger. I I think that we have to understand that uh they don't they don't get it yet. There's gonna be lapses, a lot more lapses say than there are. But what do you think that age is? Um I think as as look, so I wrote a book. I ironically, it's it's right here. It's called Let Them Play. It's a parenting and coaching guide to sports. And I talk about there's three different phases in here. And the first phase is actually like the introductory, the the excuse. I'll go I'll go over them right now. It's it's basically like when we introduce sports to the kids. It's planting seeds, right? We're teaching them about sports, about sportsmanship, you know, about attitude, about effort, but you know, it's about work, and and we're just introducing it to them. And then there's these years, we call them like the formative years, where basically like you're forming it. I call them like the first is like one to six, the next would be like seven to twelve, where we're really forming the kids to be in the people and baseball players that we want them to be. And then beyond that, the 13 and on, I would say are the guiding years. You're you're just you're you're a guidance counselor, you're you're a parent, you're a coach, uh, you're a mentor. Uh they're all the same, really. And we guide these kids to ideally make you know great choices in their life. But I think that 6 to 12, that that area there is where it's it's slowly what one one little thing at a time. We're giving them this information. Uh, we understand that there's gonna be a ton of failure um with all of it. Um, and then we simply uh we do have grace. And then I do think when you get to those 13 plus years, uh, I I noticed how I talked to the kids and the team. It's different now. Uh I'm trying to prepare these kids for high school, I'm trying to prepare them for college, I'm trying to prepare them potentially for professional baseball down the road, but ultimately I'm I'm really preparing them just to be great young men, productive members of society, because when it's all said and done, uh that that's the only thing that matters. I'll give you guys a quick saying here. So we had a you know, I a decent run of PCs, ended up getting a three seed after pool play, and then lost a little bit of a tough one in in the the first round of of the bracket play. And I love the way the boys fought. We gave up a bunch of runs early. You know, it just didn't have Ace didn't have it. Um, and then we we we banged, and it was barrels, and and it was it was taking extra bases, and it was we had the pressure on them all the way to the end. So scored, I think we lost 13 to 7, but we was like 13 to 1 at a point, made it 13-7, loaded the bases twice. I it was it was cool, and and just even even in the last thing, he had second and third again. It just we kept coming out and we finished it. I again like I had this conversation, like like you know, about the proper preparation. Were we properly prepared? What could we done differently, you know, all this stuff, whatever. So we get done. And I walked back, you know, saying saying goodbye to the parents, the kids. All right, dude, see, I'll see you next weekend, yeah, yeah, whatever. And we had one kid in the dugout picking up trash. And and and it was just like it's head. And it was the last piece of trash. You didn't ask him to pick up trash. I go, dude, Leighton, what are you doing, man? Are you really picking up trash? And he goes, Coach, we always leave it better than we found it, don't we? I go.
SPEAKER_02Dude, that's so cool. That's so cool.
SPEAKER_01We won there, but you but Jeff, you know what? You know what, you know how and white did that? That's because that's what I do. After every time.
SPEAKER_02I didn't even ask him to do it and he did it.
SPEAKER_01No, no, no, I don't, I didn't ask him to usually get like Alice like pick up the trash kids, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. But then I'm the last one, not only me and Johnny Donuts and John Donati is our assistant coach. We always will you know scour, scour the thing and make sure every piece of trash is in it. But but now they're watching, they're paying attention, and I think this is important as as leaders of these you know these organizations. Look, what we say doesn't mean anything unless unless we act it out too, right?
SPEAKER_02What you do is in HD Vision, man, no doubt. Amazing. I love you. You guys can keep going, but I just thought about that so good.
SPEAKER_00I uh yeah, you you two guys banging heads, you two guys banging heads. I think it's great. I I love it. Bernsey, who were you? I I think our high schoolers would like to know because some things don't change. I understand the concept of showcases and travel ball, and maybe that didn't exist. There were scout leagues when we were young, there were different ways to play baseball. But like your junior senior year of high school, I want to zone in on that for young athletes that are watching. What do you recall about your attitude, your effort? You got drafted out of high school, you know, you got drafted out of St. Francis high school. You played two sports, if not more. Um, when you look back in high school, what were the positives that built who you were as a major league baseball player? What were some of the things you did right in high school?
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I think the main thing is that when I was probably about nine years old, I decided I was gonna be a major league baseball player. I even went so far to write a paper in the eighth grade about how it was, it was career week. And we got to write, like, what are you gonna do with your life? And what career do you want to pursue? And then you write about the career, you write the process. You know, basically, it'll allow you to uh, you know, get there and achieve, you know, the dreams of the career, whatever. So it's fine, you can be a firefighter, you'd be a pilot, whatever. Mine, of course, is a professional baseball player and a sports broadcaster. And so I wrote this paper and I laid it out, and I had this vision, right? It very, very meticulous. It was like, well, you know, I'm gonna go to St. Francis, uh, which was uh in the Bay Area at the time. It was one of the best, if not the best, athletic schools. I'm gonna play football and baseball, and then I'm gonna, you know, either go to Stanford, UCLA, where I'll play baseball there. And then, you know, at that point, I'll I'll sign either after my junior or senior year. Uh, figure spend a couple years on the minor lease, maybe go over this town, this town, this town, and then get called at the big league. I laid this whole thing out perfectly. And then when I'm done playing baseball, I was going to become a sports broadcaster. A little, you know, vague. I wasn't like necessarily baseball. I loved talking about sports. I was super passionate about like talk radio and the debates and all this stuff back in the day, the call-in shows. I used to call into the shows and uh I just thought it was it was fun, fun banter. So I turned that into my my um eighth grade teacher. And she she looked at it and she goes, Eric, that's great, but she turned it back in to or she gave it back to me and it didn't have a great audience. It said, see me. And so I'm like, What? So I went to see her. She goes, I understand that you want to be a baseball player and a sports broadcaster. She goes, but you know, every kid wants to be a baseball player and a sports broadcaster. I need you to write about something that's more realistic. And oh man. So I just kind of shook my head. I took the paper, I went back home, and I I told my mom, I'm like, mom, like, this is what I'm dealing with. I said she wants me to rewrite this paper. I'm like, number one, I who should who is she to tell me what I can and can't do? And then the second thing is I just didn't want to rewrite the paper. Like, I was not gonna, I just I spent a lot of time on this. That's really annoying. I'd rather be outside playing. And instead, she's like, you know, I had to rewrite it. So my mom uh took the paperback in and she said, Don't ever tell my kid what he can or can't be.
SPEAKER_02I love that.
SPEAKER_01She was she was if he says he's gonna be a baseball player, she he says he's gonna be a sports broadcaster, he is gonna be a baseball player, and he's told me this for five years, and he's going to be a major league baseball player, and gave it right back to her. And so to have a parent grab your back that early in life, and that that meant everything to me. That was that was a belief that I think we as parents, because a lot of times we'll hear the same stuff, right? And we'll try to pass over, and yeah, yeah, sure. And I don't care what the odds are because the odds you know at that point in my life were very, very slim of any of that ever happening. And inevitably, obviously, it did happen. So the process, though, there, this is this is when I'm a roundabout way to get to that junior senior year. The process was when I was 13 years old, up until I was 13. My dad was a fourth-degree black belt in Kempo karate. At one point, he was the eighth highest ranking Kempo black belt in the world. Never played baseball, never a day in his life. Was the most supportive father that uh I could have ever asked for. Um, he would throw me back in practice. So we'd go to the Portola Valley Town Center, and it was just he'd come home from work, and it didn't matter what time of year it was. It was winter, spring, summer, it doesn't matter. Baseball seat is not baseball seat. We just go down there, we have a big bucket of baseballs, and all day. And then when I turned 13, he goes, hey. Like, sweet. I went like what'd you get? It's in the backyard. I go, okay. He's like, his name's Mike. I go, what? I go, you get me a Like, wait, what are you? What are you talking about? I couldn't understand it. I go down there, the big blue iron mic pissing machine. I crank that thing up to 90 miles per hour, day one, as hard as it could go. Right? And sure enough, this is like the story with facing my neighbor. Like, no swing and miss, swing and miss, swing and miss. And then foul ball, foul ball, foul ball. And then back then, you know, the whole goal was always up the middle, up the middle, up the middle. So my everything in life was to bang iron bike right back up the middle, hit the big blue machine. Boom! Boom! So I did this. That was 13 at the time. I did this at the time I it was like 15, 16. And I played at St. Francis, get called up the varsity when I was a sophomore. We're facing a guy by the name of Dan Sarasvini, left-handed top pitching prospect, ironically, on trial for murder right now. It's a crazy short dude. But this guy was the creme de the creme, number one left-handed pitching prospect in the country, throwing 94 from the left side. Nobody could touch him. He was filthy. I hit three balls back up the middle that almost killed me. I don't even think I hit puberty yet at this point. Like it was like it was a really kind of late below. And after the game, Chris Bradford, head coach, legendary head coach of San Francisco, he's like, burn it, bird. Dan Serafini, three balls up the middle. Like, how'd you know? 50 scouts in the stands, too. Like the whole stance were completely filled with scouts. I'm like, coach, I've been hit off dance serfini in my backyard for three years. And that was it. We don't, we uh we do not rise to the occasion, we fall to the level of our preparation. I I don't know who said that. I've said it a million times um lately. It's it's the truth. We fall to the level of our preparation. This wasn't an accident. None of this is an accident. This this is all accomplished and work.
SPEAKER_02I'm still on that, I'm still on that line, by the way.
SPEAKER_01Take it. If you're not willing to work, it's it's never gonna happen. This is what the travel ball kids don't get, Jess, because there's a lot of really talented travel wall kids I know that I deal with in that 12, 13, 14 age group that you know, you can see it now. Like they're getting by on this raw talent, this ability. Um, a lot of the a lot of the kids who are more mature are getting by just on that fact that they're dealing with more testosterone than the other kids. But this game is going to chew you up and spit you out at some point. It has each and every one of us. It doesn't matter if you know you're you're a little leaguer or you were babe roof. At some point, it's it is going to happen. Um, ideally, this happens a lot later rather than sooner for these kids, because I could tell you the tales of who I thought and everybody thought was going to be the best. And this was even at 16. Everyone thought Pete Brennan was insane. He was unbelievable. This is another opportunity where all the scout the scout came out to see this guy Pete Brennan. Went to Sarah, Barry Bonds, Greg Jeffrey School, Tom Brady. Like it's crazy, right? So they went, they come out to see this guy Pete Brennan, and as a scout for the Baltimore Orioles, and I played on the first travel team in on the peninsula. Uh, we were called the Peninsula Mets. And we play anybody and everybody you know we could find. And so the scout from the Baltimore Orioles comes out to check out Pete. And at the end of the game, goes to talk to our coach, Jerry Burson. And Burson's like, yo, he's like, Yo, what do you think of Pete? He goes, Yeah, he goes, he's okay. He goes, That Burns kid's gonna play in the big league, though. And Person goes, What? What are you talking about? And on the way home, that was another moment, and that was actually the first moment where I'm like, okay, this really is happening. Where someone else believed, not only someone else, but a big league stout said that. And once he said that, I just I just I just knew. Um it's it's everything, but you you got you gotta put in the work. And and if you don't put in the work and you don't love it and you're not obsessed, you guys, you you'll you gotta figure out something else to do.
SPEAKER_00Petty, go. You're up.
SPEAKER_02So you went you played in Omaha, correct? With UCLA. What was your experience like there? I know we're heading into college baseball playoffs right now. What was your experience like playing in Omaha? And obviously, this was at the old Omaha. Have you been to the new one?
SPEAKER_01I have. Okay. I actually we we got to go in uh it's a long time ago, 1997. We were uh I was with UCLA, so we were, it was the first time in 29 years that we had gone to uh the College World Series. We had an incredible team. We were number one for a lawn of the year, I think started like 1901 or something. Just something stupid. Troy Gloss was was on that team. Jim Parquet, I think he was the first guy from that draft class of '97 to get to the big leagues. Uh Eric Valent played in the big leagues, a scout now for uh for the Marlins. Just love to see him get a GM job here soon. It's one of the most brilliant baseball minds that I've I've ever been around. Uh we were loaded. And uh I ironically, I think that was the year before Chase Utley and Garrett Atkins came in. So we were dealing with some some serious talent. Um, it was that college feel is everything. And I I want the I want the voice now to understand that that when you get to professional baseball, it's a little bit of a different animal. Uh Gan becomes very selfish. And so whenever you're able to get that college field where you have 25 guys pulling the same direction, rooting for one another, you don't feel the you know the knives getting stabbed in your back or you know, the guys celebrating on the bench when you take it over four or whatever, uh you you generally have that pride. And that's what that's what that team had at UCLA. Now, I'm gonna fast forward a little bit, Jeff, and tell you that's what that money ball team had. The team in 2002, I'm sure a lot of you guys have seen the movie, but that was 25 pounds. There we go. There he is. I love the hat, Scott.
SPEAKER_00Sweet hat, Scott. Continue. I interrupted you. Go ahead. No, no, I'm good.
SPEAKER_01Swinging A's, but but that was that was 25 guys pulling the same direction, um, you know, in it together, and and all of a sudden, you know, it it becomes bigger than you. And there's a moment in Moneyball, actually, it's it's I can't at the beginning of the movie, I strike out, and at the climax of the movie, I actually get pinshipped for it by Scott Hadterberg. And Philip Seymour Hoffman's like, you know, like hey, Bernsey, grab a seat. And it was kind of a nice way to tell me I was getting pinshipped for it. So I appreciated that. But then Hatterberg comes up and he hits the game winning homework. And then they show real footage of home play and us celebrating. I was the guy on top of Billy Totch's back, like in the middle of the pile, celebrating. Like I was the one that just hit the home run. And so I do a lot of you know public speaking and go talk to corporations or you know, his schools or whatnot. And so what I do is I bring that clip up, that moneyball clip up, and I say, like, this right here is what's possible when nobody cares who gets the credit. You're still the proudest moment in my big league career. I just get pinch hit for Hatterer walks it off, 20 consecutive wins, and I'm celebrating like I was the one that just hit it.
SPEAKER_02That's so you can't fake that either. I mean, that's it's not like you can BS your way through that. I mean, it's not an acting job. Like you're just that selfless.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's freaking awesome. No, you're right, Jeff. It's something that comes with it comes with buying into buying into the program, buying into the fact that some people simply just don't have that, though.
SPEAKER_02You know, can't be a good one. Yeah, I guess what's that? Some people are just born with that. You know, I don't know. That's special.
SPEAKER_01I agree with you. I agree with you. And and and we'll weed those people out. Because if you're if you're not willing to sacrifice your selfish needs for team goals, I I just dude, there's so much that we sacrifice to to help put these boys in position to succeed. And if you guys aren't willing to make the same sacrifice, I'm just not I'm not interested in having you guys around. I I love you. I and again, like, oh, oh, you know, hey, I wish you I wish you the best success down the road, uh, and I hope you figure it out. But you know, it I gotta be totally transparent. We've had we've had a couple of them. And and I I do, I, I do, I do love them, and I do wish them well, but I felt like their selfish needs superseded in their minds what the team was trying to accomplish. And and that's that's just not that's not who I was. It's not who we are as as an organization with let them play. And it's it's not that I would ever support. So I I think the biggest thing, you know, if you if you are like we all we all want to do well, and well, we all want to have success, but what I want our kids to understand when when you do things for the team and you put the team first and and and you make that your grander vision than your own stupid stats and home run celebrations and everything else, that's what wins. And that's what's gonna allow you to fulfill your potential because ultimately our job as coaches, Jeff, it's it's to get these kids to fulfill their potential. But fulfilling your potential might mean you drop a runner on second base, no outs in a huge situation, and third base from playing back, you dropping that bunt down that third baseline. Now, we can get into a whole discussion about that because I wouldn't have to do that.
SPEAKER_02When I tell our guys with that, and I'm sure this is no news to you, but you're dealing with these high-level prospects and you're in a tournament and the runner on second base, nobody out, and you give them a bunt. I'm like, listen, if you get this butt down and we win, you just purchased yourself three at bats the next game. How about that? If we don't get it down, we're going home. So if if it's if it's an individual thing, you just bought yourself three at bats the next game.
SPEAKER_01I love that. I challenge my kids, yeah, but I challenge them at VCVs too. Because same thing. Like, we all have they're high-level prospects at 13U.
SPEAKER_02This is such a good they're good players at 13U. And they all want to be a big thing. They want their guns. They don't want to bind. Button's not cool. Okay, but this is what I tell you.
SPEAKER_01Winning's cool. Yeah, but winning's really cool. You know what's you know what else is really cool? Is when I see you running a freaking four flat down the first baseline, and the scout in the stands goes, holy man, that dude just run her second base, snow out, won one game, just drops one down, no problem. That's a baseball player. I'm looking for kids right now with high baseball IQ. Like, baseball IQ, in my humble opinion, is as low as it's been in a long time. Because what's happening with these high-level players is they're getting very little coaching. And they're not running through the meticulous practices, the double cuts. If I if I had a dollar for every top national team we played that doesn't even know how to double cut, like what are we doing? Like, I've watched like the first baseman is not trailing, the the the second baseman's like kind of hanging out a second, Schwarz up just going on, hey, whatever. There's an overthrow.
SPEAKER_02It doesn't get better. As they get older, it doesn't get better. They can't defend a body. I just did it's bad.
SPEAKER_01And I mean I sometimes, because it trust me, it's happened, it's happened with some of our guys before. And pictures not covering backing up. Oh, jeez. I like it. First picture not run over to cover first base. All the little things, the little details that we obsess over as an organization. I always said never take that off the ball. Never, never, ever, ever. So when we first started competing at this top national level, we would be able to compete solely because of those things. Because we did the little things that they weren't willing to do. And now I think since then we certainly have increased our talent pool. Um, but it it's there's there's one specific team. I I don't all right, one specific team. Top national team. That I told the boys before we went into it. I go, bro, I have let me tell you something, dude. We don't have as much talent as them. Not right now. I think down the road you guys will be a mortality group. But right now, like they're just bigger, stronger, faster. That's what we're dealing with. This is a very mature group of them. We will win this game because we are going to out baseball them. Period. Out baseball them. Never take the eye off the ball. Boys, we're on a double cut, backing up base. We do all the little things, all the little things. This team goes down today, and we might not beat them 10 out of 10 times. But guess what? We will win today. And and and start to finish. So like it had everybody that everybody was like, I'm not getting calls from anybody and whoever in the travel ball world. No way, you guys just took down. Like, yeah, baseball. That's it. I don't know what else you want me to say. Are are they talented? Oh, yeah. They're really talented. But we had a plan, we executed the plan. And so much of that is what I think the boys ideally will hold on with going forward. Right? When we pass them off into high school and beyond, and I'm not gonna pick your brain because I I don't know. I our our our oldest team right now is 13 years. So I'm I'm interested in the older people. What's that? We will be chatting. Yeah, please, please. So anyhow, it's just I think those are the things, those are the things that matter. Um, and I I do know that when I see something like that from a scout's perspective, that I you know, Andrew, these kids, these kids gotta remember, you know, you and I both, like, we have direct lines to whoever we want to call. And so when I call and say, yo, such and such, you know, just you know, did this, you know, runners and first and seconds, you know, drop the drag, you know, like those things matter. Those are the little things, like you said, that buy you at bats, that get you in a coach's pocket, be like, yeah, man, this is a guy that I'm willing to go to work with.
SPEAKER_00You're amazing. We love you, and I appreciate you. I appreciate your kind words from earlier. I'm gonna tell you two quick stories, and uh, you're gonna have to listen to me for a second. I interviewed the head coach, the head coach of Southeast Louisiana yesterday, softball, and there's a player that is you. Her name is Bradley Broussard, and she was eight, 23 of 24 in stolen bases. They got knocked out. They beat LSU in their house twice in original, knocked them out so that Nebraska could go on to the Supers. But they, Southeast Louisiana, beat them twice. Bradley Broussard, 23 of 24 stolen bases, fourth outfielder, never gets to play. She's only a pinch runner. 23 of 24. I said, Coach, how'd she get on to your team? She wouldn't leave me alone. Her skills weren't there. She wasn't quite where I needed for my team, even though we're a mid-major. She emailed me. She emailed me. Then she started having other people call on my be on her behalf. I finally let her on the team. I told her you're not gonna play every day. She was fine with it. 23 of 24 stolen bases. And by the way, when she did get her 26 plate appearances, hit 423, but still never started. Wow. So that's you. I love her. And then the other thing I want to tell the people see this energy? Like he threw out the first pitch in Oakland last year on the final weekend, one of the final weekends, and I was in the stands. I had the Oakland shirt on, right? I was representing Oakland, representing my late father who wore their jersey. Anyway, he walks up. I'm a fan, I'm Johnny fan. I'm already a couple beers in. Bernsey! Hey, Bernsey! Walks right up to the rail, introduces himself to my to my daughter who was with me. Dude, the stuff I'm hearing that you're talking about with your kids, and when you play big league baseball that earned you the millions, you still do that every day when you walk the life. And that's the cool part about you, man. We're lucky to have you on here. You are Bradley Broussard. I bet you never thought you'd hear that name. But uh, dude, you're amazing. Thanks for being with us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, thanks, guys. It's great seeing you as always, and Jeff. I I appreciate you, man, and everything you do in the uh travel ball game. It's let's just keep inspiring, keep teaching the game the right way, and um you know, do it, do do everything we can do to hopefully uh see these kids fulfill their potential.
SPEAKER_00You're the man.
SPEAKER_02Awesome.
SPEAKER_00That's a podcast episode. Usually Jeff and I talk amongst ourselves. Nobody wants to hear that after listening to this. Look for the next brand new episode very, very soon. Home on the road. We're gonna wrap it.