Hit and Sit Podcast - Oct 15th Tue, Oct 15, 2024 11:00 AM to 12:13 PM
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00:01:30All right, we're live with the hit and sit show number 43, the Richard Petty version,
00:01:57Tuesday, October 15th. This is the Rumor 2025 Rumors and World Tournament Results Show.
00:02:07Your host, DW, that's me, from conferenceusaa.com. You can see I'm still in Vieira at the stadium.
00:02:16There's a few fans left over. And I'm joined by Steven Robbs, the manager of I-57 Roofing,
00:02:24the men's USSSA world champion. He also finished fourth at the AA and then turned around and
00:02:32finished fourth at the major, a Roof-X type run, if you will. Steven, how are you doing?
00:02:39How are you feeling after the World's play? How many games did you play?
00:02:4416 total. Oh, man. I'm just tired as hell still. Even after being back for a couple days,
00:02:53life has to continue, though, unfortunately. Still riding the high. A little bit of a surreal
00:03:01feeling, but yeah, definitely a long 10 days. Would you change anything in the future? Would
00:03:07you play less, maybe skip the AA or something, or no? Because you never know you're going to make
00:03:13that run, right? Yeah, it's one of those things. When we came into the weekend, obviously we felt
00:03:21very good about our chances of winning A. We came in thinking we were going to do that, and we didn't
00:03:27really have a game plan. We just said, hey, whatever happens, happens. Luckily, having 15
00:03:34guys, it goes a long way because the guys that really didn't get a lot of playing time in the A,
00:03:40we gave a lot of opportunities for AA. Really, we were unsure if we were going to play it or not,
00:03:44and we decided that night. I think it's the competitive nature of the team that, hey,
00:03:49we're going to come out there. Even if we come out there and we look bad, it doesn't matter.
00:03:53Maybe we make a run, lose a bracket, and then go that route. That was kind of our mentality.
00:03:57I'll tell you right now, it's not so much the physicality. It's the mental state that,
00:04:03by the end of it all, you're just taxed out, even from the coaching side of the house.
00:04:08Yeah, you guys made great memories, though. It'll go down in history as one of the great
00:04:13runs by any A team ever. You don't know you're going to play that many games, right? You entered
00:04:20as the number one seed in 2023 in the B world, and you end up losing your first game. It wasn't
00:04:28that long a weekend overall. You just never know. I guess you sign up as an A team, and since you
00:04:35made the major, obviously, you just do the best you can. I think you guys did a nice job of playing
00:04:41the next inning just like you played every other inning. Let's just put a number up,
00:04:47play great defense like you did, and try not to walk people. This show is going to be about the
00:04:56rumors, but I am going to start off with a quick rundown of the worlds. If Bernie can show my
00:05:02screen, USSSA World Tournament started early October. They're still actually going on. I think
00:05:11the men's E world is this week in Space Coast. Of course, the men's major crowds were down a
00:05:18little bit because we didn't have as many C and women's C and D teams to kind of watch it.
00:05:26Congratulations to Rosmano. Two years in a row, they've won the major. This year was a crazy
00:05:32major. All four major teams were in the loser bracket by the round of four. Three of them lost
00:05:41in the round of eight, and Rosmano was one of those, and they came all the way back through,
00:05:46played nine games overall, and ended up winning three games in their last at bat
00:05:53and beating straight play as a prize double A team. Here's straight play. They finished first
00:06:00at the double A, a second at the major, an incredible run by straight play rebel.
00:06:09Here's your final standings for the major, Rosmano one, straight play two. They came so close to being
00:06:16only the third double A team of all time to win the men's major world series. Nitro Circus ended up
00:06:23an impressive third. I-57, the highest A team, and that's Steven Robb's team who's on our show here.
00:06:33Greg Cannell, a well-deserved tournament MVP. Some rumors that he might retire. If he does,
00:06:40congratulations. He went out on top. If not, he's still at the top of his game,
00:06:45which is impressive. Bubba Mack, offensive tournament MVP. Chad Erickson, center fielder
00:06:50for straight play, a well-deserved defensive MVP, and Bubba Mack and Greg Cannell tied with
00:06:5618 homers, which is more than normal. Derby Girls won the women's major world series in,
00:07:06I believe it was in the IF game. La Familia was second. There's your final standings. Derby Girls,
00:07:13MONSTA, Lady SNI, Team 24. So the cream really came to the top for the women's
00:07:20legacy as the top finishing A team. Megan Baltzell, power hitter for Derby Girls, was the MVP.
00:07:29Lisa Schreiner, one of the best all-around players of all time, to be honest. Offensive
00:07:35tournament MVP. Randy Pauly, the pitcher for Derby Girls, was defensive MVP. Ashley Langone
00:07:42and Baltzell tied in home runs. Straight play won the AA. They beat Nitro Circus. They went
00:07:50undefeated. JBL was third and Steve's I-57, team fourth. Every tournament they entered,
00:07:58they were impressive. There's your straight play team picture. Danny Haker and the management
00:08:04group did a great job. Nitro Circus was second. And there's your tournament MVP, was Daniel Heron,
00:08:13the middle infielder for straight play. Veteran Jason Martel was the offensive MVP,
00:08:18and Chad Erickson, again, in center field, was the defensive MVP.
00:08:25I-57 roofing wins the A Worlds. Undefeated, they beat Bay Area Legends.
00:08:31Cheap Suits, who won three tournaments during the regular season, was third.
00:08:35Primetime out of Georgia was fourth. There's your shot of I-57, Steve's team.
00:08:44That was just the beginning of a great run. Bay Area Legends, my man Chente did not want
00:08:51to take a team picture in the middle right there. Orlando Oliveira, tournament MVP,
00:08:59did a nice job in left field as well as providing a lot of power like he does. Brady Bate was
00:09:05offensive tournament MVP. Dante Broom, running center field for I-57, made some incredible
00:09:11catches. And the all-tournament manager, Steven Rops. Women's A Colossal went undefeated,
00:09:19beating Angry Beavers out of Ohio, who ran through the losers bracket. There's a picture of Colossal
00:09:29and Mr. Sadler's team. Angry Beavers, second. And there's your final standings. DB Brand,
00:09:37based out of Pennsylvania, third. Legacy, fourth. Amanda Somerset, the tournament MVP.
00:09:48Men's B, Elie Riehl, Schleba Trucking, MSG, makes softball great against sports.
00:09:55Won the Conference B. And check out these standings.
00:09:58They were the only conference team in the top four. J&L, Weather Pro, Chick-fil-A.
00:10:07In the top four, there's your Elie Riehl team picture. Josh Schleba runs that team. J&L finished
00:10:16second. Billy Malabar, the pitcher for Elie Riehl, was the MVP. Derek Miller for J&L,
00:10:24offensive MVP and defensive MVP, was the sponsor's brother, John Schleba, the middle infielder.
00:10:33Women's B, Choc Tok beats NCN. Goes undefeated. Edith Third, NH Legacy out of New Hampshire,
00:10:41fourth, a non-conference team. There's your winning team picture of the Women's B.
00:10:48And second place, NCN out of California. And Brady Horn was the tournament MVP.
00:10:58And real quick, Fishers Softball won the Men's C over Charm Builders out of Ohio. Fishers won
00:11:04their fourth world tournament of the year. Some rumors later about them. Levi Stoltzfus was the
00:11:12tournament MVP. And there's Fishers Softball. They also made a nice run at the Maryland
00:11:18Major this year, if you remember. There's Charm Builders out of Ohio.
00:11:26And real quick, touching on the conference MVPs and all tournament awards. Of course,
00:11:34Rufex won the conference championship on the men's side. Monstella-Famiglia on the women's.
00:11:40Managers of the year were Michael Yoder, Rufex, Stephen Robbs, I-57, Tom Wingard for the women's
00:11:50month, Monstella-Famiglia, and Travis Johnson. Second team women's manager of the year,
00:11:55Mai Ottojack. But Michael Yoder, I think, actually went to Spencer Sangster, who's the manager.
00:12:01Michael's kind of a sponsor slash manager. Rookie of the year, Matthew Valencia on the men's side,
00:12:07Melissa Rorick on the women's, if I'm saying that right. I'm not. I apologize. Home run champions,
00:12:15Tyler Irvine and Megan Baltzell. Nothing new there. Batting average on base champs, Kyle
00:12:21Pearson set a new record, 873. Megan Baltzell on the women's. Defensive players of the year,
00:12:27center fielder Brandon Yoder from Rufex and Alyssa Schreiner from Monsta. That's impressive
00:12:34because she's also one of the best hitters of all time that she wins the defensive player of the
00:12:39year. Offensive player of the year on the men's side, Phillip Washington for Nitro, Fiona Fennel
00:12:45for Derby Girls. And the new award, the Andy Purcell pitcher of the year went to Rufex pitcher
00:12:52Patrick Center. And on the women's side, Annie Rardin from Team 24. And the MVP, Kyle Pearson
00:13:01from Rismando and Megan Baltzell from Derby Girls. Umpire of the year was Daryl Rowe, well-deserved
00:13:11rookie umpire of the year, William Mamara. I'm probably saying that wrong, but congratulations.
00:13:17And the Christian Dowling Award to Annette Largespada, if I'm saying that right.
00:13:24I also know Juan Martinez got the
00:13:30award of merit. First-team all-conference, you can see all this on conferenceussa.com,
00:13:36so I'm not going to go through it here. Kyle Pearson leading the first-team men's.
00:13:44Second-team men's, the rookie of the year, Matthew Valencia from Cheap Suits.
00:13:50All look very well-deserved. The women's side, Alicia Schreiner leads, and Megan Baltzell leads
00:13:57the first team. Second team, get some veterans in there, Barlow Brown, Angelia Jones.
00:14:06And that'll do it for the awards. So back to the show. Hope I didn't bore you too much there,
00:14:13Steve. But we're going to get to, I think we'll just jump right into the rumors. Two of us will,
00:14:23and we were supposed to be joined by Jason Magnum, not sure, he's probably traveling somewhere,
00:14:30who knows. But we're going to take turns creating or bringing up rumors. Then when we run out,
00:14:37we're going to go through the teams and see which teams we think will be back for 2025.
00:14:44And then we'll take questions from the Facebook chat. If you have a question on there,
00:14:50list it, and we'll check it out at the end. Or if you have a rumor, we'll discuss it.
00:14:55So Steve, let's start with you. Throw out a rumor for 2025. What do you got?
00:15:02Just from speaking to several folks, it seems like LSR and Juneau will be coming together as a
00:15:11major team next year. Not sure from a player perspective what that involves, but as a
00:15:17sponsorship, that seems to be a connection there. Also, straight play and Dan Smith.
00:15:25Been hearing rumors that straight play is going to go major for a little while now,
00:15:29for a little while now. And hearing that Dan Smith is a big sponsor that's going to be coming over
00:15:34with them. Again, all rumor related. Those are conversations, like Danny and I had a lot of
00:15:40conversations just about our teams and stuff. We really never dug into anything for 2025,
00:15:46but that's what's coming from many players that are around the scene.
00:15:50And then also, I actually confirmed yesterday that Chick-fil-A is going to be coming back as a
00:15:55AA team with 80% of the guys that were there from the previous year, the last year that they
00:16:03had the team. So those are three major things that I've been hearing. Really from a rumor
00:16:09perspective, there's nowhere near the amount as a year before. I don't know if less sponsorships
00:16:15kind of helped with that, or if teams were just, so many teams are kind of in the mix to
00:16:22win a world ring in such a competitive year that I think a lot of folks, it really depended on what
00:16:28was going to happen at world more so than anything. There's also rumors of like Mitch
00:16:35talking to, Mooch talking to Seth and Joel. I haven't had any conversations with Mooch. It was
00:16:41my goal to reach out to Mooch in the last 24 hours. I've just been really tired, haven't been able to
00:16:47really get on the phone with anybody just to catch up with him. So not sure what you're hearing
00:16:53on your end. It would have been kind of cool to get him on here. But other than that, those
00:16:58are the main four ones that I've been hearing across the board. And then obviously,
00:17:03JBL, I know that they were probably not going to be a team coming back next year as well. But again,
00:17:10we heard that in the previous year. So I think it all depends on X interviews,
00:17:16what the sponsors want to do, so on and so forth. Yeah. So the main ones there, you just said the
00:17:23Dan Smith straight play one, right? Yeah. Chick-fil-A coming back and LSR going over to Juneau
00:17:30as a sponsor. I have heard all those. I think we have some retirement announcements coming from
00:17:38Jason Branch and Ryan McClanahan. Of course, McClanahan's early 30s, but he's been at it
00:17:47for over 10 years in the conference. And he has some young kids at home. He's coming from
00:17:52California. There's all that kind of stuff. So just want to thank those guys for
00:17:57providing such great softball over the last 10, 15 years. I think Branch has been
00:18:04he's been in it since 2008 or 2009. He came up as a center fielder, actually, believe it or not.
00:18:11He could run center with the best of them. I have a couple other ones. Rufex is the management
00:18:19group. They're not going to be called Rufex, but they're going to add an A-team to their
00:18:24organization. There's a rumor of John Williams going back to Juneau. Who knows him and Flip.
00:18:30Cheapsuits said they want to come back, but they're looking for a new manager.
00:18:39Dirty Vegas said they would probably come back. I think Legends wants to come back.
00:18:44We'll go over the team's list in a few minutes. Just to touch on some of the old scout rumors,
00:18:53it's one of them was Seth and Joel are taking their sponsorship to Rismando. I believe that's
00:18:59false. There's a rumor that Mooch is with Thunder. I believe that's false.
00:19:08And then there's some C-teams moving up that probably will join the conference depending
00:19:14on the schedule when it comes out. And that's Fisher Softball, who won the C
00:19:19out of Pennsylvania. And then Tiger Fitness and Steve's could make the jump. I think those
00:19:26teams are from Ohio or the Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio area. So those are kind of my rumors.
00:19:36It could be a short show. So if you don't have some rumors on Facebook or some questions,
00:19:43hit us up there. But in a minute here, we're going to jump. We're actually going to be joined.
00:19:50If Bernie can patch him in, Joey Caporelli is going to join us. So maybe he's got some
00:19:58rumors. He played, of course, left field for the double A champs, straight play.
00:20:06What do you think about these? It looks like four major teams, right, Steve?
00:20:12Yeah, I mean, let's see. You got Rezzy, Brupecs. If Dan Smith's straight play make a jump, that's
00:20:19three. Then Juneau LSR will be major. So that's four right away. I don't know what's going on
00:20:27with Sonny's. I would assume that, you know, the rumor was they were coming back. But there was
00:20:32also rumors, you know, a few months ago that that was an area where Dan Smith could come into play
00:20:36too. So I was very curious what Magnum was going to be able to say coming around the show or whatnot,
00:20:43because that's one team I haven't really heard a lot of information about. But, you know,
00:20:47talk about these Ohio teams. What I'm really, really hoping for, and it's not just to benefit
00:20:53us, because, you know, we do have guys that come from all over, you know, being able to make the
00:20:59game grow and all that, adding some more Midwest events, I think would go a long way, you know,
00:21:04because you're talking about, what, four or five teams right there that is willing to make some
00:21:09investments to be able to get into the conference. And, you know, as you know, the more teams, the,
00:21:14you know, the better that we can do to keep this thing alive. And also from a competitive standpoint,
00:21:20you know, this past year, like of all my years at Washington South Pole, it's one of the most
00:21:23competitive years. So very interested to see some of these young kids that can come up and make a
00:21:29name for themselves and be able to have more opportunities, because the less sponsors, the
00:21:34less areas, the less places that players can go to, you know. So, you know, hopefully some
00:21:40adjustments are made there to help those kind of teams out. I even know of a couple of teams
00:21:44out of Missouri that would have loved the opportunity to play more conference events
00:21:50and potentially pay for the patch. But again, from a cost perspective thing, it didn't really
00:21:54make much sense for them. So hopefully we'll see some more news on that. Yeah, I agree.
00:22:03And I've had that discussion with some of you, Triple-SA leadership. Some more Midwest tournaments
00:22:09is going to get you a lot more teams. And then Texas had 14 B teams in their state last year.
00:22:16So, and I did hear a rumor that it's going to be easier to join the conference as a B team.
00:22:22So if you're a B team out there, keep that in mind.
00:22:29Yeah, and I know it's unfortunate for those Coast teams, you know. But at the end of the day,
00:22:35you got to kind of look at everything, right? So the West Coast, we had some West Coast events
00:22:39added to assist some of them, and they just didn't get a lot of teams in those events. I mean,
00:22:45it's just the way that it is. Phoenix actually had a really good turnout. That's something that,
00:22:50you know, I wish we could have changed on our schedule. We assumed it would have some teams,
00:22:54but not that big of a turnout. So those are the things that you kind of have a guessing game on.
00:22:58But other than that, I mean, unfortunately, if you want to draw more, the Midwest typically does
00:23:04that. And it's centralized for teams to be able to fly to. And I also like the idea, and I think
00:23:09Joey Kapp has brought this up. And once he gets on, he'll probably, I know he'll agree with me
00:23:14from just being on another podcast together and stuff, you know, ideas of playing at the
00:23:20same locations too. Like a couple of these locations, people don't mind traveling to
00:23:24twice a year, you know, such as in Texas or, you know, if you have a really nice complex
00:23:31and it's easy to travel to, that makes life a lot easier. And, you know, as much as people
00:23:38complain about the duals from two years ago, when they had more, it is definitely more cost
00:23:43effective for teams as well. So just some things to kind of keep in mind and hopefully
00:23:51USSA took some notes from this year compared to the year before too, and are able to make some
00:23:56of the changes that they need to make to grow the game. Yeah, for sure. Tournaments and key spots
00:24:03where there's hotbeds is going to create new teams that, you know, then become those future AA
00:24:11and possibly even major teams. Looks like we're going to be joined by Joey Kapp here in a minute.
00:24:20There he is. I think you're muted, Joey. You're muted. Muted. Hey, there you go. He's got his
00:24:28turnover chain. My turnover chain. Well, what is it? That's a nice one right there, bud.
00:24:33It says Palm Springs. Yeah. Ah, Toys for Tots. Ah, Toys for Tots. Nice. Hey,
00:24:40Chad. So, uh, straight play, of course, almost did the double, right? Which would have been
00:24:46unprecedented. You won the AA. You had your, a great shot at the major all the way to the
00:24:52seventh inning in both games. Tell us about your week there. Uh, my week was pretty cool. Um,
00:24:58obviously got the chance to join straight play halfway through the year. Um, somehow convinced
00:25:03them that I'm a great lead off. Um, and I'm not sure how I made that happen. Um, but ended up,
00:25:10ended up playing left field for them, bad lead off, had a good year, um, really found a home,
00:25:15which was cool because they really embraced all my antics and, and nuances. Um, so that was fun.
00:25:21We ended up winning the AA pretty, pretty handily, I think. I mean, not that we didn't get tested.
00:25:27We did. West Point gave us a good run. Beating a nitro is always tough. Um, but it was fun to see
00:25:33and fun to do with the boys. Um, right from the AA, I ran to the hospital, um, and I had my first
00:25:39born son. So that was cool. Yeah. Um, congratulations, everything. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah,
00:25:44yeah. All good there. And then came back for the major and it's interesting. We had some luck
00:25:49against Sunnies in a, in a rain game. Um, uh, and we, we made it to the major. Um, I didn't
00:25:56realize, and cause I'm so new to the conference, I didn't realize, I thought the seating thing only,
00:26:01only applied to a winner's bracket, but, um, had visitors. And I think, you know,
00:26:07maybe having home might've, might've, might've helped us a little bit better, but listen,
00:26:11those guys were on fire. They played six games. They hit, I don't know how many hundred home runs
00:26:16in that day. So, um, tough to beat, but we gave him a run seventh inning, both games. And I think
00:26:21we lost by a cumulative six runs. Um, and wouldn't change it for the world. It was fun. And you put
00:26:28the pressure on them in that first game by you took a lead, right? Like a three run lead. And
00:26:34think about those at bats for his mind on the bottom of the seventh, they're down three,
00:26:39that's their whole season on the line. So at least you did put some serious pressure.
00:26:44If you added a few runs in the seventh, that would have been that much better. And maybe you
00:26:48would be major world series champ. I think we didn't have the zero. I think we had a zero.
00:26:52And I think, um, Nino, who was on fire the entire tournament, I think one of his only outs,
00:26:58I think was like a double play in the fourth, maybe. Um, and rare cause he didn't make an out
00:27:04that I can remember otherwise other than that, maybe a couple, but, um, without that double play,
00:27:08we put up a couple of zero, a couple of runs. And I think the score is different, but either way,
00:27:13you're hoping for a miss. I mean, Clark, Matusik, Bradley, they're hitting balls 500 feet. It's just,
00:27:21you know, you're hoping for a rollover. As much power as straight play had,
00:27:25and as hot as you guys were, they still pretty much doubled your home run totals in each game.
00:27:30So like you can't defend a ball over the fence. That's partly what the major is. And
00:27:35I told people that day, the day of the finals, uh, if those flags,
00:27:41which were pointing out towards right, if those flags in left center that are pointing to right,
00:27:47go down and there's not as much wind up there, uh, Rizma is going to be tough to beat. And that's
00:27:53exactly what happened. They took advantage. Yeah. And I think that we showed the power is
00:28:00important and I'm not knocking that, but we showed that like similar to Rufax last year,
00:28:04that it can be done with singles and doubles and a couple of guys who can hit it. But I think the
00:28:09one thing that we learned as a team is that if we play our game, um, we're really hard to beat,
00:28:16but when we try to swing it with the big boys and we're just not all 500 foot home run hitters,
00:28:21like we're, we're double singles and hit your home runs when you can.
00:28:25Yeah, for sure. You were right there. Total runs wise, doing it with the base hits and,
00:28:31you know, some solid defense and pitching as well. It's not like you gave him a ton of runs,
00:28:36like you didn't make that many errors and I 57 too. And all their runs, hardly any,
00:28:42they didn't give Rizmando an inch with the hurricane bearing down on them. Uh, Steve,
00:28:47Steve, tell us about that game where you beat Rizmando over a three day period, which are four
00:28:54way Tuesday. No, it was Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So it was a three day period. You beat
00:29:00Rizmando. Yeah. Well, it's kind of, you know, when you have three days to think about it too,
00:29:08it just adds a lot more pressure, even when you're ahead, you know, because all you're
00:29:12thinking about is, wow, we're in a spot that we can kind of do the unthinkable, you know,
00:29:16put the, uh, major favorite into the loser bracket. I think our mentality really look
00:29:23when you win in a world, as Joey knows, when in the way world, you go, I mean, you're going
00:29:27in the major and you have nothing to lose at that point. You know, your, your thought process is
00:29:33like he had said, we're going to play our game. We're gonna do things the right way. We know we
00:29:36have sound defense. Our pitching is superb along with that. So to us on that side of the ball,
00:29:42we know we're right there with them. It's not better in some ways, just with having the youth
00:29:46and everything else. And, uh, you know, I was proud of the guys with the way the wind conditions
00:29:52were and everything else of just hitting the gaps and firing the holes instead of just trying
00:29:57to take every ball out the right field. I think one of our issues against straight play, that was
00:30:01our worst loss of all three tournaments was that we were trying too hard to force things, you know,
00:30:06as an example, instead of just doing what we need to do and not to mention, I mean, Jones pitched
00:30:12a remarkable game. I can't say enough about how good he was for straight play as well, but, you
00:30:17know, to the Prismando thing, we didn't, we kept coming out with one on top of the seventh and
00:30:21having to start the game there. You know, you're just hoping you can get at least five runs. That's
00:30:26what we were shooting for. We got three, we were ahead of eight. Um, but I, I felt really good
00:30:32coming to the dugout just because it was a bit of a crosswind. So anything you try to pull,
00:30:38it wasn't going to do too much. And, you know, we came out of it. We, uh, we, uh, uh, I believe
00:30:44in that game. We, we basically had a couple of guys that we didn't want to give anything close to
00:30:49and put it on a few others. And we just came out on top and it was an awesome experience and
00:30:55something that I know that they'll remember for a long, long time.
00:30:59Yeah. What I remember the most about your, the Friday restart of the game was the seventh inning.
00:31:06You're up five. You need to add some runs. Where as Prismando is going to have one last shot in
00:31:10the bottom of the seventh was that you had two outs and the Yoder brothers who also helped
00:31:17sponsor the team came through clutch with some big hits. Uh, that, that was impressive. And
00:31:24there were two out hits against Prismando with the wind, all that stuff. So that's what I remember
00:31:31most about that win. And then the defense. Yeah. Marcus, I mean, he hit it to the left
00:31:36center gap off the wall, which I mean, that was incredible. And in the park home run,
00:31:44I was sending them regardless, um, was a great throw by Bay that, and the tag was high. He got
00:31:51in, they reviewed it. I was hoping to God it would go our way that time. Um, and then, um,
00:31:59and then Davey with the double down the line, like great, great execution with two strikes.
00:32:03He took what was, you know, he wasn't worried about hitting the ball foul. He's done that so
00:32:07much this year. I mean, those guys are just incredible athletes and, uh, needless to say,
00:32:12I mean, Sean Keeney at shortstop made a hell of a play on bubble Mac and the bottom of it,
00:32:17there was a short hop. And if that ball gets through in my, in my change, the whole entire
00:32:21game. So, um, those were very memorable. Yeah. So that part of his mind on the losers bracket,
00:32:28Joey, uh, we're talking about, you weren't on the show earlier, but we were talking about
00:32:33rumors for 2025. Uh, you know, we talked about the straight play, Dan Smith, possible merger,
00:32:40Chick-fil-A coming back, uh, Juno and Ellis are kind of combining. Do you have anything new for
00:32:47us on the rumor side? I heard, I heard Dan and Elvin might make a run at it. Oh, wow.
00:32:54Elvin. That's a thing. But somebody texted me that, um, a couple of days ago. Um, uh,
00:33:01I also heard some like pivots from, um, like going away from these, uh, pro player
00:33:12rep type things and more of like team sponsorships. So like, if you're an Eastern guy, it's only on
00:33:17the Eastern team and going away from the, the, the reps, because there's so many of them out
00:33:22there. So I don't know if that takes away from like team sponsorships. Um, I haven't heard much.
00:33:28I mean, I've been trying to get ahold of Danny, but he's probably celebrating on a boat somewhere.
00:33:32So I haven't talked to Danny much. Um, I haven't heard, I mean, I haven't heard much. Um, other
00:33:39than the normal stuff you always hear, like, is there going to be three major teams or four,
00:33:43or is somebody going to drop out? Like it seems to be always the same rumors. Um, yeah.
00:33:48Regarding the major teams, like Juno is not coming back or months is not coming back or
00:33:52vice versa. Like, and I feel like they always come back. So, um, I have heard the LSR Juno thing.
00:33:58Um, I heard the Dan Smith, Elvin thing. Um, other than that, I'm, I'm waiting to figure out,
00:34:04I mean, I know where I'm staying. I'm staying with straight play. That's, I'm not going anywhere
00:34:06that that's been home for me. So that was a lot of fun. Um, and I learned, I learned my lesson
00:34:12that like, I'd rather just be with my buddies and have a good time. Um, and we're able to do
00:34:18like softball, um, kind of like a backyard tournament almost just keep it fun. Keep it.
00:34:22I mean, listen, I know we're annoying. I know we have our antics and it's not traditional
00:34:27softball, but we enjoy it. We have fun and it's our hobby. So I found my home and I'm cool with
00:34:32that. Yeah. I think, you know, you can tell straight plays having fun out there and maybe
00:34:38that's part of the success too, right? Like roster wise, great, you know, straight play at
00:34:43a phenomenal roster, but not necessarily at the beginning of the year, we were picking
00:34:47straight play to win it. So, you know, the chemistry and having fun, uh,
00:34:53accountability, I think, I feel like maybe I 57 Rosemondo teams have some built-in
00:35:00accountability as well. Uh, you saw Rosemondo bench, uh, Josh Riley, you know, and Riley came
00:35:07in as a pinch hitter. Uh, so, so I think you guys right here in front of me, if we would have had a
00:35:14Rosemondo player on as well, uh, you know, the success was with, with chemistry, you know,
00:35:24and that's played out through the whole season for all three of those teams.
00:35:28I was really impressed with Mitch. Again, I'd never faced you guys. I don't think I've ever
00:35:32faced you guys. Um, and I have some buddies on that team, Jake and Orlando and Hoskins, but
00:35:38I never faced Mitch. Um, and I got a couple good swings and then I swung at some really bad pitches
00:35:45in some clutch situations. So I feel like I was talking to, I was talking to Zane about it. I was
00:35:50like, I feel like you guys had such an emotional win that you emptied the tank and then trying to
00:35:55fill it back up is just really tough. Um, so kudos to you guys, but Mitch, Mitch was a dog all year.
00:36:01I mean, I think he pitched every game or if not every game, almost every game. Jones for us,
00:36:07so damn near every game. Um, he had Jacob Neal that came in when he was needed and he's
00:36:13super underrated and very valuable, but, um, I think, I think we had a lot of chemistry
00:36:18between both teams here, um, that it's hard to find. For sure. Yeah. And to add onto what Joey's
00:36:27saying, like the chemistry aspect, I mean, um, you know, when you go through the off-season grinder,
00:36:32trying to put a team together and we knew all the teams were going to be talented. I mean,
00:36:37even some of the lower, the teams in the lower part of the A that didn't do too well, if you
00:36:41look on paper, ton of talent on those teams. Um, at the end of the day, you've got to be able to
00:36:47find a way to understand your players' mentality and it doesn't just come from your coaching staff
00:36:53or sponsors. Those players need to understand each other too. So being able to find what works
00:36:57for everybody, um, making sure that your dugout is always clean thing, things that you want to
00:37:04do different than other teams that can be the edge. Um, and at the end of the day, the chemistry
00:37:09was going to be the edge. I mean, the double A was absolutely insane as far as the teams across
00:37:16the board. And then you had some of the fake teams that are able to come in there and do damage too.
00:37:20So, um, you know, Danny, kudos to Danny. Like, I felt like Danny was very deserving of manager
00:37:26of the year too. Like, like, you know, I, I'll just say it was a little surprising that I got,
00:37:32I really mean that because I think he did a lot of great things for straight play. Um, and was
00:37:36able to kind of take them to like that next level to where I felt like that they were the favorite
00:37:41coming into the weekend. Um, and so, um, you know, I, I just, I'm just happy to see teams that do it
00:37:49the right way. Um, we preached about it on this show many times. Um, and I think that's why you
00:37:55saw, you know, Russ model come all the, all the way through. They, they've had, they've had the
00:37:59experience for a long time. And when you got players at that high of a level to be able to
00:38:03learn how to play together who are very, very good, that's, it's a very, very hard thing to do.
00:38:08Um, so I, you know, that shouldn't go unnoticed as well. So just to extend what Joey is saying.
00:38:14Yeah. Rosemondo's run through the loser's bracket, uh, almost unprecedented Dan Smith
00:38:21back in 2008, they were the two seed. They lost the 15 seed TNR stucco and went through the
00:38:30loser's bracket and double dipped Rosemondo on the final. So that was, that was a most
00:38:36impressive run of all time, but Rosemondo's right up there. Uh, we're going to shift gears back to
00:38:41the rumors. Uh, Bernie can share my screen. Uh, it's a list of the 2024 teams and we'll just go
00:38:50through and say whether we think they're coming back or not. Juno, I think we said we all agree.
00:38:57Yes. With LSR as a second sponsor, uh, Rosemondo, I think we all agree. Yes.
00:39:06Rufex, I think we all agree. Yes. Sonny's, I'm going to put a no, I heard no. Did anyone hear
00:39:13any different? I know, I believe Jeremy Yates, I heard was trying to keep the team together
00:39:18and look for sponsorships. So if you're a sponsor out there and you want a
00:39:22really good core, right. Call Jeremy Yates or Magnum or whoever. I feel like they always say no.
00:39:29I feel like they always say no and then they end up coming together. So yeah.
00:39:32I'll put a no question mark about that. Classic Glass, I think they're coming back.
00:39:42I'm sure it's a little up in the air. What do you, anyone heard anything?
00:39:49That's one team of guys I don't know very well, to be honest with you. Um, Kirkwood made it sound
00:39:56like that. They were, um, you know, that's coming from other people, but I would say yes,
00:40:06just because of their history. Yeah. And, uh, just so everybody knows, I did email all of the team
00:40:14contacts that I have and asked if, you know, they want to put out there that they're coming
00:40:18back or they're not, not a lot of response. So I usually don't get a lot of response.
00:40:25Um, JBL roofing. I've heard no. Anybody heard any different? As of right now, that's a no.
00:40:34That's a no. And remember last year they were saying no all the way up till February
00:40:39and then they had one of the best LA teams out there. So Nitro Circus, I heard yes.
00:40:45Chris is always going to find a team. I mean, the weatherman's AA, but he's going to put a
00:40:50team together. He has put a team together. Now it's been three years. They've all been
00:40:56quality world series teams and they all have almost total turnover on players.
00:41:02So I don't, I think that's impressive. If you think about it, sports reach, I believe. Yes.
00:41:12A straight play. We're saying yes, but maybe with somebody at the major level,
00:41:17or do you think AA or it depends on the players? I mean, I got a man that depends on the player
00:41:22and I think it depends on who gets bumped, who doesn't, like where we all land. Um,
00:41:26I personally liked being AA and just playing up and kind of, you know, you know, rubbing elbows
00:41:32with the major teams all year. Um, but I don't, I haven't heard anything. So. Okay. West point.
00:41:39I've heard both. I've heard, we've heard the nose all over the internet. Um,
00:41:47but I'm going to put no slash. Yes. Anybody heard different? I think they'd probably come back.
00:41:54I think they might be like, need some help with merging with somebody or picking, you know,
00:41:59picking sponsorship money or whatever it is. I think some kind of merger would happen. Yeah.
00:42:05West point's been a staple for a long time. They do a nice job. Bay area. I heard. Yes.
00:42:12Anyone heard different cheap suits? I heard they want to, so we'll put a yes. You know,
00:42:18there's always things can happen in the off season, right? You can lose a chunk of players.
00:42:23You could financially things could change with your business, et cetera. But I believe they're
00:42:28coming back and looking for a manager. I'm told that might've been tongue in cheek, the manager
00:42:34part. If you know, if you know, Daryl Lenore and Sonny Aguilera, you don't know what to believe
00:42:41there. Uh, dirty Vegas. I heard. Yes. Yeah. I heard. Yes. Yeah. Uh, I 57. Yes. Double-A
00:42:51or going double-A Steve. We'll be double-A. We'll be double-A.
00:42:58Legends. I heard right now. Yeah. Legends. I heard. Yes. I'm on towel ball coming back.
00:43:05I think he enjoys the conference. Uh, I think they didn't have a ton of success this year,
00:43:11but, uh, I think, you know, kind of a first year building team. So it's always tough. LSR
00:43:20we're putting with Juno. Tommy made a post that he's done. So if it's anybody boss, so I don't
00:43:29know what Reggie's doing. So Tommy boss at that age, uh, we want to thank Tommy, you know,
00:43:37but I haven't, I haven't heard that from Mike Lacey directly though. So that's the rumors that
00:43:42there was, you know, um, back to Tommy bar, he started as a C team, his superstar player on that
00:43:52C team. And I forget the year it was like 2010 was Kyle Pearson. Original was the shortstop.
00:43:59And everyone's just looking at Kyle Pearson, like, wow, this guy is going to be the next major
00:44:04player. And sure enough, Tommy moved up to B and a he, he played major with combat. He played
00:44:12double a with, uh, uh, his own law for team had Brad record and a bunch of people on it.
00:44:19He's been all over the map and we want to thank him for all his years. And hopefully the door's
00:44:25still open. You know, he, he pitched his team to second place at the hall of fame, classic dual
00:44:31number two and second place at Las Vegas as well. So it's not like he can't get it done.
00:44:36Uh, alleys, I, I haven't heard anything from them. They folded during the season.
00:44:42We'll put a no there. Uh, it'd be nice to see him back, but
00:44:47NFM lending, they didn't respond to my email. Uh, what do you guys think?
00:44:52Any West coast team? You guys probably don't hear a lot about
00:44:58I pay, I think I paid him once or twice, but I don't know much about him.
00:45:01And I'm going to put a yes question, Mark.
00:45:06I'm time never responds, but they've, I mean, how many years in a row has it been? They put quality
00:45:12world series quality team on there on the field rubble folded during the year.
00:45:18I guess we'll say no. Hopefully the door is open. Seminoles.
00:45:23Uh, I have no idea. I'm just going to say no idea unless you guys have heard it.
00:45:29No, I don't know anything. I don't know much about anybody down here.
00:45:35I reached out to Matt Cochran, but I didn't hear anything. Van work. Anybody
00:45:42have a nice little idea on them either. I know that from talking to some of the players from
00:45:47there, I think they had talked about coming back and just increasing the, I would probably put yes
00:45:55for their work. Cause it sounded like that they were going to try to make another run to just add
00:45:59and retool some, some guys. Hopefully they do. I mean, they're a good group of dudes.
00:46:06Yeah. No cutthroat sports, a B team out of California is thinking about it.
00:46:10He told me that personally, you, we real is coming back as an a team, right?
00:46:18Yeah. I think Ellie and I think thunder are going to a
00:46:25team.
00:46:27Uh, okay. So this is the same. Yeah, I think so.
00:46:38And then pure pressure. I, I haven't heard anything about they, they didn't really finish
00:46:43the season. Didn't play a whole season, but there is that, like I said, Texas had 14 B teams and
00:46:51they're in the U triple, I'll say it would. So there's so much talent there that it wouldn't
00:46:55be surprising to see another team come out of there. So then let's add to this new teams. We
00:47:01know that, uh, the roof X management group is having an 18. We don't know what it's going to
00:47:12be called. And then, um, we know Fishers softball wants to get in the conference
00:47:22Chick-fil-A as well. There's double a Chick-fil-A.
00:47:27They're going to come back.
00:47:29Chick-fil-A that's, uh, confirmed that yesterday.
00:47:32Well, then that'd be, uh, that'd probably be a lot of the LSR guys go back or go over.
00:47:39Yeah. Yeah. They were saying that it's going to be, you know, a lot of the guys from the previous,
00:47:46you know, last time they're there about 80% of them. Um, I would assume I didn't get confirmation
00:47:51on this, but I would assume some of the shore boys guys to do that. Yeah. Play some tournaments
00:47:55with them. So that might be a mix. Uh, I'd be curious of Trey Porter, where to go back or stay
00:48:01with Bay area. You know, that might be an, an end back there too, because that's who he had
00:48:06originally played with. So that, that I'm, you know, that would be a pretty dang good roster,
00:48:12you know, Cody Sanford, Zach Ross, Ruth, um, uh, Brady, all those guys. Yeah.
00:48:22So I'm looking is about 23 teams here. Uh, someone on old scout mentioned a couple of Ohio
00:48:30teams that might play B it's supposed to be easier for B teams to join this year.
00:48:35Uh, we'll see that information come out of the convention in November. Uh, so you're already
00:48:40looking at a base of 23. I'm going to just on experience of doing this, I'm going to say we're
00:48:47going to be in the upper twenties or maybe, maybe 30 total. Uh, I that's my guess. Um,
00:48:56so let's go over Bernie. You can stop sharing the screen. I appreciate that.
00:49:01And let's go over to the Facebook, uh, comments section.
00:49:07They said there's a C team bumping himself to be conference on a SoCal
00:49:11under wicked sports, wicked Facebook channel.
00:49:17I'll just put that name at the bottom. Wicked sports. You said California.
00:49:24Oh, you're looking at the chat. Yeah. I'm going to chat.
00:49:28Okay. Yeah. Shout out to Jimmy Ralph. Uh, Dino Stan. Uh, let's I'm just going through the chat
00:49:36here. Uh, combat's got a new bat line under the Rawlings umbrella, right? Uh, player movement
00:49:47rumors. I'll throw that to you guys. I haven't heard a lot about players. I heard Yates to Dan
00:49:53Smith. I heard Yates wants to, he's looking for a sponsor for his core of his Sonny's team.
00:50:01Uh, I've heard big John and flip back to Juneau. I've heard big John and flip to Dan Smith. Like
00:50:08what have you guys heard about players? If Griner does what Griner does, he's going to
00:50:12have 15 new dudes. So, and they're all going to be pretty solid. So I heard from a source that
00:50:22like to somebody that I'm close to that, you know, flip told them there's no way he's going
00:50:26back to Juneau. So that's what I heard, but I haven't asked flip that directly. Um, yeah. So
00:50:33I don't know what's going on with that. I would assume that, I don't know him and big John have
00:50:37kind of been together for quite a while. So it'd be interesting what happens there. Um, somebody
00:50:43made a good comment. They said Sonny's and Juneau would have to join forces to even have a chance.
00:50:48And I think if they're both looking for our rosters, right? Like the, if the H&M were done
00:50:54with Sonny's and Juneau is looking to rebuild that, that is an interesting comment by Donald
00:50:59and Polanco. Yeah. There's also, there's also a rumor that Mitch Carragher is getting off the
00:51:06watch list and not on any list. I'm kidding. Yeah. Watch and major lists usually come out
00:51:14mid-October. So we'll see what happens there. A question about events,
00:51:19attorneys being eliminated or added. I don't have any information other than I think a couple
00:51:26will be added in those hotbed areas, uh, Midwest and Texas. You guys heard anything on the schedule?
00:51:35Well, I'm really hoping that they add a file in Illinois. It's like 25 minutes from the airport.
00:51:41I had sent, I had talked about it with some of the directors or whatnot. It's got eight turf fields,
00:51:48three 25 in center, three 59 lines, beautiful complex, cheap government per DM rate. Um,
00:51:54guys, the rumor was they were looking heavily into that. So that may be added. That would be
00:51:58a huge event that would draw a lot. Um, I love to see him add something back in Ohio too,
00:52:04just to draw a lot of those teams. But Joey's talked about this before, like attack the areas
00:52:09that, you know, it's going to draw a lot. Even if you have to play there twice, like if it's a
00:52:14nice complex while you go there again, you know, Steve, what are your, what are your thoughts on
00:52:18like, cause obviously coach bonds are all the things. Um, what are your thoughts on like one
00:52:23dual a month for like the middle of the season and just, is that cheaper? Is it more effective?
00:52:29Is it, is it instead of having two different tournaments, what are your thoughts on finding
00:52:32somewhere to do like, yeah, one dual a month? Yeah, I, I, I would be all for it because
00:52:39even, I mean, the thing is, it's like, everybody likes to get together every few weeks. You talk
00:52:43about like every three weeks is ideal. Um, and maybe if you did that, you could kind of schedule
00:52:49that way. You know, as long as the schedule gets out super early to where guys could take that
00:52:54time off, because obviously you're having to find a Wednesday night, so on and so forth.
00:52:58It makes a lot of sense to me. I think if you just have four duels in the schedule,
00:53:03it would go a long way. You would draw a lot and make it to where it's at a place to where you're
00:53:09not playing all night long either. You know, so that's kind of the key. So, you know, when they
00:53:15did a Texas, I remember we were playing Rosemont with like four in the morning. Don't get me wrong.
00:53:19It was great to have that dual, especially in April where it was cooler, but it really
00:53:24sucks playing till like 6am and to get up at 10am. It's a lot harder than people think to be
00:53:29able to do that, but you got to have that in a complex where you have at least eight fields to
00:53:33work with. And I don't, I don't see why they can't find that. Um, I do know one thing. I don't want
00:53:40a conference championships played on dirt again. That's for sure. Um, the Alabama thing was just
00:53:45an absolute disaster. And I, you know, you know, you talk about funding. It was one of the most
00:53:50expensive tournaments we had this year. It's hard to get to Oxford. It's really hard to get.
00:53:56But it's everywhere that there's a, everywhere that there's a nice turf complex like that can
00:54:00hold that it's tough. Like Panama city, they got like 13 fields hard to get there. Myrtle beach,
00:54:06hard to get to, but they have the car. So I would love to see, um, some more in the Midwest.
00:54:13And then like, if I don't know how it's possible or not, but if worlds happens November 1st,
00:54:20the weather is better in Florida. There are no storms. It's cooler. It's all the nicer things.
00:54:24So I don't know, you know, how the NLV era has the baseball schedule and all that, but
00:54:29finding some more duels would be nice in terms of my work schedule personally. Um, but also
00:54:36having worlds like two weeks later with the weather, like right now it's 74 degrees this
00:54:41morning and it was like no rain. Perfect. Cause storm season is September, early October. So
00:54:46I would love to see more duels, less tournaments, more duels, and like fill in some, some places to
00:54:53go that, that, that are, I mean, listen, spiders goes like all around the country and they fit 200
00:54:58teams in a six day, you know, event. So if they can figure 200 teams, we should be able to figure
00:55:04out 30 teams. I feel that again, I don't know, logistics, my crazy. I was just going to say
00:55:14my crazy idea this year, uh, is a compass bracket. Uh, you, you get 32 teams or you get 16 teams.
00:55:25So a 32 team compass bracket, everyone plays five games. The chant, the winner's five and O
00:55:33the loser is O and five, and there's everything in between. And so it gives teams, um,
00:55:44those B and A teams that were going one and two, O and two at the big events this year,
00:55:48they're still getting five games no matter what. Um, and then a 16 team compass bracket,
00:55:54if you don't have 32 teams, you do a duel. You do, you play one on Friday and you play one on
00:56:01Saturday. Uh, and everybody gets four games in each. So they have eight games for the weekend
00:56:07and they have two, two sets of points. Um, those are my crazy ideas. The problem is you got to
00:56:13kind of fit it in. You got to have the, you got to cut it off at 16 teams or 32, uh, with a compass
00:56:19bracket. But I think I would like to present that idea to you, triple, let's say in the off season
00:56:25and to have them try it at one event this year and see how it goes, see how teams like it.
00:56:30Um, someone was asking about Colorado. Would we come back? Colorado has got a lot of B teams out
00:56:37there. BNC. Um, I think it's a decent spot for West coast, but I don't turf fields. Uh, yeah,
00:56:47we're turf. Uh, we were in Utah. They had turf out there. Yeah. I'm not sure. Skyview, Skyview
00:56:54out in Colorado Springs has them all. But again, you're, you're going to, I mean, they would have
00:56:58to use a 52, 300 ball. Like when we play the bandaid out there, we use a bait and fire and
00:57:03the ball still flies 400 plus feet. So, um, just something that that's something that, you know,
00:57:10they'd have to do logistically, but everybody loves playing in Colorado. It's a nice area.
00:57:15Um, I think, I think I was going to say we're in a spot where they got to find a way to draw
00:57:22these teams or it's going to, it's going to continue to be an issue. So whatever they do,
00:57:29they need to, they need to make a schedule that way. You know, the whole, the whole excuse for
00:57:34having the West coast schedule was to draw those teams and, uh, no offense to the West coast teams.
00:57:38I mean, they had very few in the West coast events. So, um, you know, Phoenix was obviously a hit is
00:57:45on. If you have that early on, like they did, even though it was still a little hot,
00:57:48that's a good place to go play in because Phoenix can get straight flights from a lot of places.
00:57:53But other than that, I mean, they need to just, they got to focus on logistics and that's the
00:57:59first step. And then, you know, if these teams are saying they're going to play, you got to put
00:58:03the trust in those teams by creating those types of schedules and they go from there. So, um, and
00:58:09I'm not just saying it to benefit us, obviously we would have saved a lot of costs having that.
00:58:13Um, but we lost six teams that we knew we were signing up before last off season. That's just
00:58:19an example. I mean, even if we had to use the 300s, we use them in Texas and that loser bracket
00:58:24last year and the people that were hitting them out, hit them out. If you were the people that
00:58:28are supposed to hit them out, still hit them out. If you're not supposed to hit them out,
00:58:30you just didn't get to mistake home runs. So I think feeding tournaments into those
00:58:36smaller fields with maybe a lesser ball, um, I personally don't, don't like it.
00:58:42Um, the high core ball on turf fields is a pretty good ball.
00:58:47I also don't like, I think the hardcore flies better than a stadium and I, and I,
00:58:53it, it hit them equally as good. I mean, when they got wet, they started to break bats, but
00:58:57um, I feel like unless you're at Vieira or I didn't go to, what was it, Kansas City? No,
00:59:04what was, uh, where was the one that was, it was, it was, uh, big fields, Kansas City this year?
00:59:10No, not Kansas City, Memphis, Memphis. I didn't go there though. Those baseball 385, 400 share
00:59:16break out a stadium or a hardcore, but everything else, like if you get a good batch of balls,
00:59:21they fly, but you have to get a good batch of balls.
00:59:24Yep. Yeah. Shout out, shout out to she gone sports from Virginia. They won the GSL women's
00:59:30AB. I forgot to mention them. Um, just going through the comments, you know, yeah,
00:59:36Mooch has mentioned this too, going back to, uh, uh, a really good place that sheep to get to
00:59:43twice in a season. That's that's, I don't think players have a problem with that.
00:59:48I love Texas. I think it's not big enough for everybody, but like
00:59:51Texas is a easy to get to for everybody. I feel like, and it's a nice complex and you're still,
00:59:58I like Texas a lot. I'm a big fan of Texas. I would play there twice.
01:00:03So, um, I hate Chicago, hated Chicago. We all hate Chicago. It was a miserable rain there.
01:00:12Even Evansville is like, for me, as some of us, it's tough. I gotta fly into Nashville and drive.
01:00:17Um, so, or, or Louisville and drive because direct flights were like,
01:00:21but the field is nice. So like, how do you not go there?
01:00:26Yeah. Yeah. Just scroll again. If you got to drive a little bit, a dual makes it worth it,
01:00:32right. So, I mean, if it's something that's logistically a little tough,
01:00:38then at least make it worthwhile to play, you know, more games or whatnot. So, um,
01:00:44we all have the right ideas. We just, hopefully, hopefully when they have these panels and stuff,
01:00:48I, I, I said last year and I got kind of reamed out for it, but surveys go a long way,
01:00:54get surveys out to some of these managers and you may not get feedback from everybody,
01:00:58but typically they talk to their teams, their teams get feedback. That's how you're going to
01:01:03get it to grow. And yeah, you might get a thousand of them back, but that's what surveys are,
01:01:08you know? So if you have web-based links to where you can create your percentages of what's best for
01:01:15everybody that's involved. So, um, just something, something they could do as an idea.
01:01:20Yeah. I also, I also would, would love to see, and again, somebody sent me this. Um, I believe
01:01:27that the Resmondo straight play game had some of the most viewership, um, on YouTube live.
01:01:36I would love to see YouTube live start to incorporate some of these like
01:01:41influencer, broadcaster, like streamer guys. If we want to grow the game, I understand the
01:01:47importance of YouTube live, but the reality of it is streaming platforms and having commentators
01:01:52commentate the game. Like that's what people look for. Like at the end of the day, 50 home runs is
01:01:57really boring, but if somebody is talking about it and they're talking about the game and the guys,
01:02:01like it helps grow the game that way. And I think we have to find a way to make
01:02:05the conference appealing to somebody like an A team or a B team who is going to go to a conference
01:02:11event and get shit on for the most part. Um, when they play a Resmondo or a Juno or, or, or whatever.
01:02:18Um, so how do we make it more appealing? Well, you, you make it fun and you make it interesting
01:02:22and you have conversation. It can't just be 60 home runs beat 62 home runs. Like that's
01:02:27not always fun to watch. Right. Yeah. Maybe, maybe we, we get remote announcers,
01:02:34right. That all, you know, these streaming people that are out there that are restreaming it
01:02:41instead of restreaming it, they plug in and become the announcer for those games that they want to
01:02:48announce. You have J-Roll, you have Trey, uh, Trey Wastelaze. There were some guys,
01:02:54they were streaming our game, make softball great again. I mean,
01:02:57were they completely professional? No, but it was fun to watch. And it was like
01:03:00cool to see the commentary from a D or B, a C player who is commenting on the major worlds.
01:03:07Right. Yeah. Maybe, maybe we can get away. We can get a group of announcers that can plug into
01:03:16like, like Eric does, right. Eric McCarthy does all those remote announcing games.
01:03:22We just have a whole pool of people that, that, that can do the games they want to do. And
01:03:28we'll see, we'll talk to Bernie about that one. Uh, so we've talked about the rumors we've talked,
01:03:33we think we have already 23 teams. So when you have 23 teams this early in the off season,
01:03:40that usually means about 28 or 30 for sure on the men's side. Um, and we talked to you guys
01:03:48about the worlds, uh, just to wrap up the show, we've gone an hour. I appreciate Joey coming in
01:03:54the last second, filling in for our man, Magnum and Steven, and you guys are world champs and
01:04:00that's all you can say. So what's your final thoughts on the rumors, the worlds and everything
01:04:06we've talked about and go ahead and plug anything you want. Oh, me. All right. Um, I'm glad to see
01:04:15you go ahead and do it. Go ahead, Joey. I like what to do. Nothing. I just, again, I want to
01:04:23thank straight play guys, um, so much for welcoming me and just letting me be who I am and enjoying
01:04:29softball. And I think the rumors are, we're going to, we're going to hear a hundred of them and
01:04:33who knows, Juno might end up with West Point and at this point, cause you never know what's going
01:04:37to happen. I think it's interesting to see how the talent is creeping up, um, how the eight teams are
01:04:44competing with the double A and the major teams. And it's really cool to see that you don't have to
01:04:50be this power conglomerate to have a chance. Um, I think the game is changing a little bit in that
01:04:55sense. Defense is important. Um, so is offense, but want to shout out Danny Hacker, Cholo, JJ,
01:05:02Henry. Um, you guys were great to me. Uh, Courtney, thank you for the gear at the end of the
01:05:07year. Um, and just blessed to have a chance to, to play this hobby and do it the way that I want
01:05:13to play it and kind of the style and for the guys who embraced me in doing that. So big shout out
01:05:18to my team and my guys. And, uh, I really appreciate that. Yep. Steve, what do you got for the closing?
01:05:27Yeah, to, um, to extend on what Joey is saying, like, uh, rumors, um, huge thing that's going to
01:05:33occur in the upcoming days. I mean, we are hearing about it leading up to world and everything else.
01:05:38It's like, I appreciate my guys, you know, communication is key. Um, you know, for folks
01:05:43that are listening here that are part of teams, just, just make sure you're being honest with
01:05:47your sponsors that took care of you the whole year long and vice versa, the sponsors with the
01:05:51players too. Like there is no issues with going and saying what's on your mind or being able to
01:05:56talk about what's to come or to be able to ask those types of questions. At the end of the day,
01:06:02if your team is like family and everybody treats each other the same, and you all have the same
01:06:07type of goals and you understand what your players goals are, what your sponsors goals are,
01:06:11those conversations should not be hard to have. Um, you know, to me, uh, do things the right way.
01:06:17If you're looking for teams or if you're wanting to make things better, always think about what's
01:06:22the consequences of it, as well as the positives. There's always pros and cons to every decision
01:06:27that's being made. And, you know, for us, the way that we handle things, those are things that,
01:06:31you know, you do take into account. Um, I, as far as things, I want to think a big thank you
01:06:38to Marcus and Davey from I-57 Roofing. They own the company, uh, being incredible players as well,
01:06:44uh, separating those types of duties to have a checks and balance of being a sponsor and being
01:06:49a player, allowing us coaches and management to be able to do what we want to do to be successful
01:06:54and then putting the trust in us instead of trying to take over. And, and, you know, at the end of
01:06:59the day, it's their, it's their money too, but at the same time they had, there was a respect
01:07:03factor there and that was huge for us throughout the season. And, and that's a very, very hard thing
01:07:09to do. And I can't thank them enough. And for all the good things they did for us, Glenn and Karen
01:07:13Beachy, they've been around the game a long time. A lot of people don't know them. Uh, we have four
01:07:17or five kids on our team that they have sponsored since they were 16, 17 years old. And, uh, and
01:07:23they've stuck around and been an awesome sponsor, nothing but positive vibes from them. Uh, the
01:07:28company I worked for, Royce Geo, um, as well as Squared Away Sports, TJ Foose is veteran owned.
01:07:34Uh, he's, he was a prior Army, um, an amazing guy. If you ever see him at the ball field, he's
01:07:39always helpful, wanting to help people do, and he does things the right way. And to my coaching
01:07:44staff, uh, Sam, Sam and, uh, Tom, I mean, they're, we, it was such an amazing run this year and we
01:07:52did so many great things together and, and, and, you know, there's times where you have a grind
01:07:56and things are hard and you get heated and we never allowed that to go from game to game. You
01:08:01know, we fixed it then we moved on and that's kind of key to being successful too. And, uh,
01:08:06at DWDU for everything you do from your end, being able to spread the word to all the teams and
01:08:12the, the, the media, like these guys love it. They feed off of it. Um, hopefully, um, hopefully
01:08:18you're being taken care of well and, and, and maybe get some help in the future. So it makes
01:08:22life a little bit easier for you too. Um, other than that, I just can't, I can't thank everyone
01:08:27enough to include the players and really everybody in this game that does things the right way.
01:08:30Straight play, Joey, congrats to a great season. Like you guys were awesome group. We loved watching
01:08:36you. People say you're dug up annoying. They're saying the same thing about ours too. So nothing,
01:08:42nothing to be ashamed of. It got you to the end. So that's how it works. But yeah, that's all for
01:08:47me. Yeah. And I want to say thank you to the umpires. Uh, they spend weeks down there doing
01:08:54these games. Uh, that's the number one thing. I want to thank all the broadcasters that came
01:09:00into the booth. You guys came in and did a game, did a great job. Uh, just a couple of guys that
01:09:06did multiple games. Dan Kirkwood, Zach Ross, Matt Petroff, Luke Boyster, Matt Cromie, Mike Cornell
01:09:14did a lot of extra games I asked them to do. And I really appreciate that. Uh, and conference
01:09:20you triple say.com, check it out daily. Please be patient with me when you have that many worlds in
01:09:25a row, my hard drive, literally if my hard drive crashes, there is hundreds of hours of softball
01:09:33that won't get to be viewed, but I'll try to get out a video every day. We'll get the world term
01:09:39and reports out. And what I like to do, since there's no way to do it as the worlds are going
01:09:44on, cause there's another one starting the next day. Uh, I like to just spread it out between now
01:09:49and Christmas and everyone can kind of remember and have memories of what happened by watching
01:09:56them. Uh, and then we'll lead up right up to the challenge cup challenge cup. Yeah. And, uh,
01:10:02January and we'll start the whole thing over again. So you guys have a great off season. I
01:10:07want to thank you for coming in and, uh, enjoy being world champs, which they can never take
01:10:12away from you. Thank you guys. Yep. Thanks. Thanks fans. Check out conference. You triple
01:10:21a.com each day. We'll see you later.
01:11:52Yes. The all blacks, uh, all black Genesis one piece was my signature bat. When I first came
01:11:56back, um, that was just flat amazing up until present. The bats have just been top notch.
01:12:01They've been just at the top of the game. We brought back that one piece Genesis and it was
01:12:06like a light switch went off night and day. It just, it was such an amazing bat. Everybody jumped
01:12:10back on to Louisville Slugger knowing that the product they were getting, we're just going to
01:12:14be amazing. And, uh, that was the start of what we have now, which is just unreal.