[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the abca's podcast. I'm your host, ryan brownlee.
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Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or infoettingpros.com, visit them online at www.nettingpros.com or check out NettingPros on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Make sure to let CEO Will Miner know that the ABCA sent you now onto the podcast Greg Goodwin has served as a leader in youth baseball for more than 30 years. During his 12 seasons as the head baseball coach at Redan High School In Stone Mountain, Georgia, he compiled a 22896 record, earning region coach the year honors four times and the title of DeKalb County Coach of the Decade. In addition to his coaching accomplishments, Goodwin took on the role of principal at Redan from 2006 to 2015, during which he was recognized as DeKalb County Principal of the Year in 2013.
In 2005, he founded Mentoring Viable Prospects, a non profit organization focused on providing opportunities for minority and underserved baseball student athletes. MVP has helped over 500 young men secure scholarships emphasizing character development and academic success.
Goodwin's dedication to the sport and community has garnered him numerous accolades, including the Atlanta Braves Unsung Hero Award in 2019 and the Georgia Dugout Club Lifetime Legacy Award in 2022. He was also honored with the For Love of the Game Award from the Georgia Profess Baseball Scouts association and became the youngest and first African American coach inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club hall of Fame in 2000. Goodwin was honored in 2025 with the ABCA Youth Service Award. Let's welcome Greg Goodwin to the podcast alright here with Greg Goodwin, Atlanta Public Schools now again, but Goodwin consulting, former Principal, I think CEO still of mentoring viable prospects and 2025 ABCA Youth Service Award winner. So, Greg, thanks for jumping on with me.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Thank you for having me, man.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Hey, what drew you to a life of service?
[00:03:52] Speaker B: I really think it was my parents and my grandparents. My grandmother always used to say that a rent is a pay, it's a price we pay for our time on earth. And that kind of stuck with me. And I didn't know it at the time, but they were public servants.
She was a school teacher.
He was a newspaper publisher, a little local newspaper in Tours and later became an attorney.
And my father followed his footsteps as a newspaper publisher and my mom worked in legal services as well. But they were always either working for the PTA or Little League baseball or Little League softballer. Something in the community, man. And I didn't know it at the time, but it was just kind of shaping my life that I was going to be serving in some type of capacity.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: How did you get to Tennessee State from Tulsa?
[00:04:48] Speaker B: I had a couple of baseball scholarship offers out of Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Tennessee State was not one of the ones that offered me. They didn't give out of state scholarship at the time. But I had been reading about Tennessee State and seeing the great athletes that came out of there. And I wrote the baseball coach and he said I was welcome to come and walk on and that's all I needed to hear. So I got accepted, got there in August. Trials were in September. I made the team at the end of September and was a scholarship recipient the next year.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: What drew you to Tennessee State? What, what was so good about Tennessee State over some of the other schools, man?
[00:05:30] Speaker B: It was just the fact that at that time Tennessee State was winning in everything. Football, basketball, the marching band had been in the Rose bowl, the track team, the women's track team, the Tiger bells, they had 32 girls that had been in the Olympics.
Our biggest magazines at the time of the black community were, were Ebony and Jet magazines. And so I would read those weekly. And Tennessee State, Tennessee State, Tennessee State. And so I was just drawn to Tennessee State. I heard about Grambling and some of the other big HBCUs at the time and segregation Was still pretty big, you know, during the 60s and 70s. So I knew that I wanted to go to an HBCU and Tennessee State was the one that stood out, man. And I was just wanted to be a Tennessee State tiger.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: When you got out, you were in the real world before you got into education though, right?
[00:06:25] Speaker B: I was.
My first job was at Dow Oil Co. In Houston, Texas, right out of grad school. And I did that for a couple of years and found out that wasn't what I wanted to do for a lifetime.
Made a little pivot, ended up in Denver, Colorado, where I was selling cable TV equipment that got me to Atlanta. Got transferred from the Denver office to the Atlanta office, and that was working out real well.
But as things go, cable TV was booming.
Our small company got bought out and I was left without a job. So I was trying to pivot and decide what I wanted to do. And I started substitute teaching. And I started.
Met the head coach at Redan High School, and he asked me would I be interested in serving as an assistant coach. And I said sure. I had a baseball background.
I started being his assistant coach and I fell in love with it, man. And the rest, as they say, is history.
[00:07:31] Speaker A: Love it. Love it.
Why did you decide to start mentoring viable prospects?
Why'd you feel like there was a need to start that I had been.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: After I got out of coaching at Redan, I had an opportunity to be a scout with the Marlins and later on with the Dodgers. And I've been hearing these rumors and in the windows that black kids weren't playing baseball. And I knew that wasn't true because at my level, I would see black kids all the time.
But what the truth was that in the neighborhoods we weren't playing anymore, that's because travel baseball had started and what I like to call pay to play baseball. And so it was prohibiting a lot of kids from playing because of the cost.
Neighborhood baseball was drying up because everybody was migrating to travel baseball. And so I said, well, let's put a tournament together. Because I knew black kids were still playing. Let's get mostly minority kids, get a lot of colleges to come see these kids that are not playing big time travel ball. And our goal was not to get them into professional baseball, but to get them into college. And so we started 20 years ago mentoring volleyball prospects. And it's still going strong today. We've got more than 600 kids in the college to mentoring viable prospects and very proud of our efforts. It's been a grassroots effort from a lot of like Minded individuals. And I can't take all the credit because it wasn't for Clarence Johns and Danny Montgomery, Stacey Williams, Pierce Byrd. A lot of people that are being in the baseball industry helped me get this started, man, and they're still with us.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: You've been able to make some position changes over the years. Kind of switched here and there. How do you know when it's time to maybe try to do something different?
[00:09:15] Speaker B: Well, you never want to outlive your usefulness.
And also, man, I've always learned to hire people that are smarter than me, that go getters themselves, give young people an opportunity.
And when I see these young people are ready to step into my shoes, I can move on and do something else.
And that's what I've been able to do, man. And then these other individuals that have grown, they're staying in the game. And unfortunately, people just don't stay in the game like we used to. And that's what I'm trying to do, get people to stay in the game, provide opportunities. And I don't want to overstay my welcome.
I still got a little bit left in the tank, but I know I'm in the fourth quarter, I'm on my way out the door, but I want to give these other people opportunities, man, where the game will be great long after I'm gone.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: And you were retired for a little bit, then Atlanta Public Schools brought you back.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: Yeah, but I wasn't really never retired, man. I wasn't getting up, going to a job every day.
As soon as I retired from the DeKalb School District, I started doing work with the Braves RBI program. I was still doing a little part time scouting and I was on three or four different boards that I served on, trying to serve communities.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: And big news, I mean, with your relationship with the Atlanta Braves, you're able to get the baseball and softball fields turfed.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: And I take a little bit of credit for that. But the Atlanta Braves foundation and Danielle Pedassi, who is chair of the Atlanta Braids foundation, come up with this idea about turfing fields called the Hank Aaron Project. And she thought it would be fitting that if every high school baseball and softball field, Atlanta public schools could be turfed by the Atlanta Braves, we can call that the Hank in Project.
What more fitting way than the honor Hank Aaron and his legacy in Atlanta. And I was just having to be the right place at the right time. And I'm saying, Danielle, let's get it done. And I took it to my boss. It was a no brainer. And well, thank God we've already got the first four fields completed and we'll have all 10 out high schools done in the next 20 months.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: How'd you get connected with Marquis Grossum?
[00:11:35] Speaker B: Man, I started MVP 20 years ago.
Marquis was at the end of his career.
But I had known Marquis through his brother Antonio, who is currently the coach at Morehouse. And Antonio had got me to meet Marquis. I didn't know what we were doing with mvp and Marquis was saying he was doing his own thing with Mar Marquis Gram Baseball Association. I said, man, we can partner and do some things together. And Marquis thought it was a great idea. And we've been partnering with several different things in the Atlanta area for the last 20, 25 years.
He's one of the greatest baseball people you'll ever meet. Man, he's so unassuming.
You wouldn't know he played 18 years in the big leagues. He just wants to help, man.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: What, what did you enjoy about scouting? Because you said Marlins, but then Dodgers for a while too, right?
[00:12:36] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Sixteen years of the Dodge, two years with the Marlins. Man, it was just giving you an opportunity to travel and see elite baseball players.
You know, in high school, you know, we, we. You get what you get. But man, I'm going to see kids that are going to be drafted. I have the potential to be drafted and I had an opportunity to be tell my area guy on my cross check, hey, this is a guy. We need to follow. This is going to be a guy. Or unfortunately, had to tell some people this, this guy's not a prospect. You know, this guy's a five o' clock guy. I mean, he looks great, but he's not going to get it done when the lights come on. And I think most good high school coaches can scout. That's what we do anyway. You know, we evaluate every day.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: Do you miss coaching?
[00:13:29] Speaker B: I miss some aspects of coaching. I don't miss the aftermath of a ball game. And a parent wants to talk to you about why his kid didn't play.
And, you know, the bottom line is this kid didn't play because he didn't deserve to play.
There's nobody in high school that I know of that's playing a kid that's not deserving. I mean, you know, you're out there to win, you're playing to win.
That's why the score is on. I know in Little League so many kids have to play so many innings and that type of thing, and parents get used to that and accustomed to that. That's not Real life, that's not real world.
You know, we have to make some adjustments as we go, and that's why we have so many roles. I'm not saying you can't be in baseball. You just can't be a player. I mean, you can be a scout, you can be an umpire, you can be working on the field, you can be a coach. There are so many things you can do in our game, and that's another thing we do with military prospects. If you love the game, we find a place for you in the game.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And you and I talked about it when we went and had breakfast, you know, and you mentioned it earlier with. With this generation, maybe not understanding some of the sacrifices that you have to go through to stay in coaching or stay in the game of baseball.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Oh, my God. I mean, it's anything else, man. There are sacrifices you have to make, and if you want to be good at your craft, then, you know, those aren't really sacrifices.
These are things you have to do to be good or be great in the game. And most of us as players want it to be great.
And then we find out the other guy next to it is a little better than me. So we got to make some adjustments, as they say.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: When did you start Goodwin Consulting?
[00:15:12] Speaker B: I started that when I got out of.
Got out of coaching, and I would give lessons, man, for free.
And then I saw people that I taught how to give lessons, they were making a lot of money.
I said, I just taught that guy how to do these drills, how to do these skills. But again, no knock on that individual. And I just started saying, you know, people that I know, I will continue to do it for free. But I started getting a lot of calls from people from. I didn't know. And I would charge them a fee.
It was nominal. But I would also be very, very honest with this kid. You know, if you're 16 or 17 and you're just not getting into the game, it's going to be very difficult as you put a lot of time in it to catch up, man. This is a game that, as you know, is a game of failure.
The more reps, the better you get. A lot of people that don't know baseball call it boring, but it's nothing boring about it, man. It's just the more you do, the better you get.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: Do you feel like nil's been a good thing?
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Nil is a great thing.
I think it needs to be regulated.
I mean, you know how much money these athletes have made, these colleges, you know, they hey, man, when I was in college, we got what we call laundry money. $12. $12 a month is what we got, you know, as well as the scholarship, of course, you know, but I'm glad these kids are, are receiving some money, but I don't think I, I think it's too much money for most of them. I do think that they need to receive something, but it has to be regulated. It's not fair across the board. As you know, if I'm an offensive lineman and my quarterback is getting $6 million and I'm getting, you know, $2,000, I mean, that's not fair.
It needs to be regulated. I also think that has to be a cutoff because if you're getting a scholarship, you shouldn't be getting a million dollars a year to play college baseball.
You're not an amateur anymore.
No one wants to step on the regulator. So NCAA don't want to touch it.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: I know.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: I just don't want to touch it.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: They're tired of getting.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: I know, but somebody got to do it, man, because right now it's a wild, wild west and it's out of control.
And who is hurting? It's hurting the small colleges, you know, because if I'm a coach at a small college and I went and got this kid and I developed this kid and, and in junior year, he's one of the top kids. He's not staying at your school that you can't afford to keep him. And you can't blame the kid.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Do you feel like the game of baseball has changed much over the years?
[00:18:01] Speaker B: The game hasn't changed. The players have changed, the rules have changed. The game is still the game.
I don't believe that in high school or middle school we should be teaching lunchangle. That's just a fly ball. At this age, our kids aren't big enough or strong enough.
It's a pop up, you know, our strikeout at our level. But in the professional level, those guys are professional hitters, you know, so. And then the way they teach it now is an out is an out. So a strikeout is just like a ground out. It's not so in middle school and high school that ground ball is going to be booted by somebody.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: What do you feel like the biggest changes as coaching have been over the years?
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Oh, man.
I really think the biggest change in coaching is that it's not the strategies. The strategies are still the same. I just think that there are so many different techniques about the game. I mean, I go on YouTube all the time just to see what I'm missing. I try to just make sure I'm not missing anything. A lot of these are gimmicks, they don't work. But the things that do work, I mean I find something, I found something the other day about base running.
Just small nuances about the game with left handed pictures, you know, just things like that. These computers are amazing and what they can pick up.
So I just think that the analytics of it as we call it, older guy just say techniques, but it's analytics.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: What about teaching and being an administrator? What's changed about that over the years?
[00:19:46] Speaker B: I really think that it's the lack of discipline in our schools. Now we just allow too much to go on in our schools, man.
And I get it, things have changed. But when we came up with terms of restorative justice, what does that mean?
Justice is justice, you know. What do you mean restorative?
I don't understand that. I still think the punishment has to be key. I think if you do something wrong, you don't throw the kid away. But there has to be some type of accountability and that's with life.
Uncle's that kind of guy.
I mean, I believe in giving second chances by all means, but I just think we've gone too far just to restore the thing. A lot of kids are not punished and they're allowed to do the same things over and over and over again, which has resulted in a lack of shortage of teachers in our schools. And as an administrator, you know, you're giving credit for the success or failure of a school.
And as a principal, I knew I wasn't the guy that was responsible for that. It's the people every day in those classrooms, grinding in those classrooms that are responsible for success, failure of your schools. If you can't keep good teachers, you're not going to have a good school. So your job as an administrator is to protect those teachers.
Particularly if you have good teachers. If a kid needs to be punished, that kid needs to be removed from that space for a while, you know, so that teacher can go about his everyday chores getting those kids where they need to be. And we got 35, 38, 39 kids in the classroom. I mean it's a lot of these teachers today, man, it really is.
So I just think that the administrative part, if we could go back down to some discipline in our schools and it's okay to have alternative schools, it's okay to have other places for these kids to go until they get their acts together. But I still think we need to protect these teachers, man. I'm be the first to tell you that our teachers are highly underpaid for what they do. Other areas that they can go out of high school without formal education and make a lot more money than our teachers do. I never thought that was right.
[00:22:00] Speaker A: What would you like to see out of youth baseball right now?
[00:22:03] Speaker B: Oh, man, I like to see on our little leagues. I like to see our parks back open.
I want. I don't want to see six, you seven, you eight, you traveling out of state to play baseball games. I want to see you in the park. Five or six teams in your neighborhood that you guys can play two or three games a week and you can practice every day and you can get better. And 90% of these kids that come up to them little leagues can make their high school teams. A lot of these guys are playing in Travel Ball at 6, 7, 8, they get burned out. They don't even travel for the high school teams. And it's so disappointing, man.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: Yeah, that's been a point of emphasis for us is trying to get that retention back up to where we've got a lot of kids playing on the small field. But how can we get a majority of those kids to keep playing when they get to the big field?
[00:22:49] Speaker B: Yeah, that's one thing that I've enjoyed about the ABCA when they open it up to youth and travel teams. You know, we're on the same team, man, because all of us want the game to grow.
And I get it that, you know, the travel and the money and in that part. But let's get these kids a strong foundation, a good base where they can be lifelong enjoying the games of their whole lives and they can make their high school clubs.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: Who instilled your love of baseball and you?
[00:23:22] Speaker B: It was my uncle, man, my uncle Jerry.
I was born in a little small town, 3,000 people, Cherryville, Kansas.
And my parents tell me they're deceased now, but they would tell me that I was saying Willie Mays before I was saying mama and Daddy. But uncle Jerry would come home from his work three, four years old, man, we played catch every day. And I just fell in love with baseball. I played basketball and football as well growing up because, you know, back then we didn't specialize. We followed the sports during the season. And we didn't have these things.
These kids had where the world is in their hands. So, you know, our world was outdoors and that was. Those were great times. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I just wish that we could see More kids outdoors today, because you go any neighborhood, I don't care if it's about your social, economic background. Nobody's outside playing, man, in no neighborhoods. You know, we used to make pickup games. We knock on doors and get people to come outdoors and play. And that's, that's. We're missing that.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Who do you feel like affected your path the most in a positive way?
[00:24:32] Speaker B: I think it was. I think it was family. And then again, I just think that the time that we grew up, we had to be connected socially because, I mean, there were only three channels on the television. I didn't have cable tv, There was no cell phone. You know, our life was outdoors.
And so just like most people in my generation, we were outside in the summer, sun up to sundown, you know, when the street lights come on, it's time to get in the house. But prior to that, we were outdoors playing some type of ball, man.
And that was in every neighborhood.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: Do you think the cost is the biggest prohibitive thing to youth baseball right now?
[00:25:15] Speaker B: Cost is one of the biggest things. But again, like I said, our kids are exposed to so much more with every kid got a cell phone now. So their interests are not in athletics like it used to be.
Everybody was outdoors playing, man.
Whether it was running track or playing basketball or football or baseball or whatever it was, we were outdoors. And just the fact that we didn't have the world in our hands, we didn't have electronic games.
I mean, these kids now can go to school on a gaming scholarship, you know, they just have so many other things that they can do. And I'm not knocking that. That's great. But I do think we're missing a lot of kids that are great athletes that don't choose to pursue it because they have other interests.
We're missing a whole generation of kids, man, that could be that next guy, you know, they just don't have the love for it because they grew up with so many other interests.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: You're a really good example of staying active as you get older, you know. What's kept you going?
[00:26:23] Speaker B: My passion for working with young people, my passion for seeing young people achieve.
And also I'm a realist. I've always been a realistic. I know only 1% is going to go play professional athletics, but you can have a lifetime love for sports.
And I just love sports, but I always have. I've seen what it's done for people.
It's a life changer. You can get kids in school for free.
It provides opportunities whether you want to Be a journalist. If you love sports, there are opportunities to stay involved in sports. And I've seen it happen through my, my time in education, man. I just know that with sports, kids have a chance.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: What do you feel like makes a great coach?
[00:27:14] Speaker B: A great coach has to be patient, A great coach has to believe in discipline, and a great coach has to be fair.
I think those three attributes make coaches great.
Now what society says a great coach has to win.
And I think you're winning if you develop children. I really do, man. But don't get me wrong, when I was coaching in high school, if I didn't lose, if I didn't win, I was having a bad day.
Winning was something that drove me. It still drives me. I believe in winning.
I'm not one of them. Guys say it's not whether you want to lose, how to play game. It's about winning, you know, it really is. But you win in so many ways, man.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: And you talked about accountability. What do parents need to hear about accountability right now?
[00:28:08] Speaker B: It's that sometimes your kids need to be held accountable. That means if they're not practiced as much as they need to be, if they're not doing the things that they need to be away from the field, you know, Most practices are 60 to 90 minutes. You're not gonna be a good ball player with 60 or 90 minutes of practice. You gotta go home and work on the little things. You gotta do stuff on the weekends, in the mornings, in the evenings, you know, if you want to continue on that path. And I just think that if you want your kid to, you know, I'm the same way about academics as well, because you can't go far if you, you can be a great athlete, but you don't have academics, you're not going to get in school.
You just got to put more into it than just the classroom. You got to do something outside the classroom. And I'm not saying that you need to spend your whole life with a book.
I do think you need to pick a book once you get home and do 30 minutes, do an hour, you know, particularly on those courses that you need help in. But I just think our adults need to hold our kids accountable.
Because these are life lessons, man, that we're gonna. You wanna take em with you. Whatever you go do outside of athletics, being on time, being a good teammate, all of these things that we learn in athletics, follow you the rest of your life. But I just think that athletics teaches you all of this, man.
[00:29:30] Speaker A: Anything you haven't done yet that you'd like to do.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: I'm sure there is.
I hadn't thought of it.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: You seem to me like you're somebody that doesn't have any regrets.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: There are zero regrets.
There are zero regrets, man. I've been so blessed.
I've been afforded some great coaches in my life and I think that's another thing I need to say.
Coaches don't know the impact they have on individuals.
A lot of the things that I've done is because someone did it for me. I done a lot of things. I've never created the stuff that I do as a coach.
I've stolen it from people that did it for me and they were successful.
I didn't like the running part, but I make people run, you know, I just, like I say, have no regrets. Man, Athletics has been such a wonderful part of my life.
I do know I'm in the fourth quarter. I do know that I can't do this forever, but there'll be a part of me at somebody's ballpark as long as I have an opportunity.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: Do you have any fail forward moments? Something you thought was going to set you back but looking back now, it helped you move forward.
[00:30:45] Speaker B: Repeat that.
[00:30:46] Speaker A: It's a fail forward moment. Is getting out of the real world and getting into education. Is that a fail forward moment because you don't know it's going to work out, but it worked out for you?
[00:30:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
No, but I think that I always wanted to be around children because in college my minor was education.
I didn't think I'd ever use it and that was so easy. Once I started substitute teaching, my principal said, have you thought about doing this? I actually have, but y' all don't make enough money.
I said, so I don't think I'll be doing this.
And then once I got to coaching, man, it wasn't about the money.
And there's so many other opportunities, man. I got to coach all over the country, doing stuff in the summers on all star teams and things like that. And so the money was there. I just didn't know it because you don't go into it looking for the money, but it's there.
And so I think I was at the right place at the right time. I really do. Ryan.
[00:31:51] Speaker A: I just feel like it's a Tortoise and Hare deal, like you might doing something else. You might make more money in the beginning, but I think eventually you're going to get burned out where with coaching and teaching. If you do really love it and are passionate about it, you can Make a much longer career.
So, you know, over the long haul, you're probably going to do better than somebody else that maybe is making a little bit more money in the beginning, but. But it's going to get burned out.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
If they don't get burned out that they have to put so much time in the making that money, you can't work out, you can't give back, you can't it help your communities, you know, because you're you, you wore out, you know. So this, this certainly worked out for me, man. I got to give my wife a lot of credit, you know, you gotta marry. Right. And I'm married. Right.
I out kick my coverage. She's been wonderful.
Every once in a while she'll say, don't forget you got your own family, you know, because I get caught up.
Wanted to help as many people as I can, man, and. But she knows that it's my ministry.
I'm so proud of the kids that have followed my career path that I'm now coaching.
Guy called me yesterday, said, coach, what do you do with your own kid? He said he's gotten to that age that, you know, I can't tell him anything anymore. I said, take his phone from him, you know, about that.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: It's good though to let your kids get coached by somebody else too though.
[00:33:19] Speaker B: It really is. Yeah, it really is. At some point, you know, it's turn time to let them go, you know. But you're always going to be that coach because they live in your house,
[00:33:30] Speaker A: you know, you have any evening or morning routines you do every day that you like?
[00:33:34] Speaker B: Yeah, man, I start my morning, man, but reading a little passage that gets me a good vibe going.
And then I also like to read about individuals that have overcome some obstacle.
One of my favorite things that I read about is that all of us, regardless of our status in life, are one accident or one mistake away. I'm not having the things that we have.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: I'm a firm believer in that too. Like, I think you got to give people grace because we're all in that same boat that like one or two things could happen to you along the way that that sets you back. Like we're also any of us. Any of us. I don't think you can judge people. You got to give people grace because it could. That could have been one of us at some point.
[00:34:28] Speaker B: Yeah. And that keeps me grounded every day, man, just going back and remembering that. And regardless of what a great day I had, I don't get too high. I don't get too low, I stay kind of even, man, and say, hey, what are we going to do tomorrow? Let's get it. Let's get it tomorrow, you know, but it's been a great run, man.
I'm going to keep running as long as I can.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: And I've had a great time connecting with you the last two years, you know, with the Youth Service Award, and then at the convention this year, and then seeing you, Atlanta. I've had a great time connecting with you.
[00:35:01] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you can, you can see it's, it's, it's, it's genuine with me, man. Like I told you when I got that award, man, you reward me for helping kids. That's crazy.
But I, I appreciate it, but there so many of us out here doing it, man, and we're making a difference, and kids need us, man. You know? Kids need us. And so that's, that's why it's so important that want to pass that message on and always want people to know. Whoever sees this, you know, find somebody that has a spare time that can come out and help a ball club, man, get involved, man. We need, we need mentors, and these kids need us.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: What else would you like to see from the abca, from us moving forward? What else do we need to continue to work on?
[00:35:46] Speaker B: I just, like I said, just start opening up to the youth league coaches was amazing because it had been high school and professionals, but it gives us such a broader audience and all of us are in this for the same thing. That's to grow the game, and I love for baseball. So I'm just thankful that you guys allow me to be on some of your committees to help this game grow and just keep keeping me involved, man.
[00:36:13] Speaker A: What are some final thoughts for let you go?
[00:36:16] Speaker B: Oh, man. Just remember that your worst day, if somebody works off than you are, it's not the end.
It's just a bad day, man. And I just want people to realize that it's going to get better. It's going to get better, man. I just want people to understand that faith is real and hope is real, and we all go through something. It's just our time to go through it, you know, and then I just think that's important, and I think it's huge that people understand that, because when you're in the dark time and you think you're by yourself, you're not, man. It's somebody out there that's going through something worse than you are.
[00:37:00] Speaker A: And just give it time, it'll get better. Like, just Just give it time. I know it's hard. You get in some tough situations sometimes, but just give it time. And sometimes the best thing to do is not, is not do anything at all and just wait, wait and be patient and eventually it's probably gonna work out the way it's supposed to work out.
[00:37:15] Speaker B: That's right. I agree, man. Surround yourself like minded people, man. You always have somebody.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: Greg, thanks for your time, man. I love your energy. Love you, sir. Appreciate you. Thanks for being on with me, Brian.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: Thank you, man. Again. I'm one of your biggest fans, man. Love what you're doing. Stay involved.
[00:37:32] Speaker A: I've enjoyed getting to know Greg over the last couple of years. He has an infectious personality and is a shining example of living a life of service, something that all of us can try and emulate. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale and Matt west in the ABCA office for all the help on the podcast.
Feel free to reach out to me via email rbrownleeabca.org, twitter, Instagram or TikTok, coachbrabca or direct message me via the MyBCA app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off with the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks. And leave it better for those behind
[00:38:05] Speaker B: and the world keeps on turning and your life is not for yearning and you know that way Yep Wait for
[00:38:18] Speaker A: another day
[00:38:22] Speaker B: and the world will always return as your life will never for your name and you know that way Wait for another day.
