John Silk - ABCA/Soldier Sports NJCAA Assistant Coach of the Year

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the abca's podcast. I'm your host, ryan brownlee. This episode is sponsored by Netting Pros. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time. Netting Professionals specializes in the design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for backstops, batting cages, dugouts, BP screens and ball carts. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, dugout cubbies and more. Netting Professionals is an official partner of the ABCA and continues to provide quality products and services to many high school, college and professional fields, facilities and stadiums throughout the country. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or infoettingpros.com, visit them online at www.nettingpros.com or check out Netting Pros on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Make sure to let CEO Will Minor know that the ABCA sent you. Now on to the podcast. This week on the ABCA podcast is ABCA Soldier Sports and JCAA Assistant Coach of the year Montgomery College's John Silk. Silk finished his 21st season with the Raptors this spring, leading them to 36 wins, 91 home runs and 505 runs scored. Silk and head coach Dan Rascher both came to Montgomery in 2006, and in that time the MC Raptors have had 45 All Americans, nine Rawlings Gold Glove winners, nine NJCA Division 3 World Series appearances and one NJCA Division 2 World Series appearance. Prior to coming to Montgomery, Silk was a head high school coach in the D.C. metro area and coached in the college summer leagues. In this episode, we cover all aspects of coaching hitters and outfielders. Let's welcome John Silk to the podcast. What's new? [00:02:26] Speaker B: Not much. Getting ready for the fall so we start up in August. Okay, so when we're going to get started and we got about, I don't know, 16, 18 scrimmages set up for the fall. [00:02:42] Speaker A: Okay, cool. [00:02:43] Speaker B: So we're gonna get meet our guys and we've got a lot of new people this year so we got a lot to work on as far as getting the team together, see who can do what and get ready for the springtime, as you know. [00:02:57] Speaker A: How soon do you guys start playing in the fall? [00:03:01] Speaker B: We'll start. I don't have the whole schedule yet, but it will probably be the third week of September. [00:03:08] Speaker A: Okay. [00:03:09] Speaker B: In that range and then we'd go through. We're pretty heavy in in October we got four, we got three NCA teams on our schedule for the fall. Got Maryland, Maryland club team, which is usually pretty good. And then we'll play a few of the junior colleges in the area. So gives us a chance to really get. See our guys against other players instead of just the inner squads. [00:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:36] Speaker B: So that's what we're kind of getting ready for now. [00:03:39] Speaker A: Cool. Here with John Silk, ABCA Soldier sports NJCA Assistant coach of the Year from Montgomery College. But John, thanks for jumping on with me. [00:03:48] Speaker B: I'm happy to be here. Quite an honor. [00:03:52] Speaker A: Well deserved. You have two coaches on your staff in Montgomery? [00:03:57] Speaker B: We have the head coaches, Dan Rasher, and we have our pitching coach, Benny Capozo. That's what we have three of us right now. Sometimes we have four or five, but last year we only had three. [00:04:09] Speaker A: Yeah. How do you split up your responsibilities with what you're doing with the program? [00:04:14] Speaker B: Well, that's a little bit harder with only three. I handle the outfield and the hitting and with, with, with Dan and then as far as the, the hitting goes, then Dan will handle the infielders and Vinnie will take care of the, the pitchers. [00:04:34] Speaker A: How long have you and Coach Rasher been together? [00:04:37] Speaker B: I started there in 2006, fall of 2006. So it's been be 21 years for me in, in the fall, which is a long time. [00:04:49] Speaker A: What were you doing before that? [00:04:52] Speaker B: I coached high school ball, coach summer league ball, and I was head coach on all those teams. So I coached in the, in the Washington D.C. area. The. It's called the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. It's a real good league. It's a, even a better basketball league. But I, I did that for 14 years. And then I had summer ball. The college age in Montgomery county, they had a thing called the major division and that was college. And you could have a few guys over 23. So it was kind of a college age with some older guys that if [00:05:35] Speaker A: they wanted to play was an adjustment for you going from head coach to assistant coach a little bit. [00:05:42] Speaker B: I didn't, I didn't expect to be here 21 years, be honest with you. I had a few people call me, come back to some schools, but be honest with you, I enjoy it. I enjoy the travel that we do. We've had some pretty good teams over the years. We've been doing multiple World Series, which is kind of cool. And you know, Texas and North Carolina and we went to enid, Oklahoma in 24, so been all around. It's kind of nice. [00:06:16] Speaker A: So what were your thoughts on Enid? [00:06:19] Speaker B: I'll Tell you, I thought you'd ask me that. The barbecue is fabulous wherever you eat. My God, the kids loved it and everything. Our hotel, right next to our hotel was another. I forget the name of the place. I'm just. Sorry, I don't remember. But literally we could walk to it. And we ate there a couple of times. [00:06:42] Speaker A: And I know we were talking. There's a ham. You probably stayed at the Hampton. There's a Hampton, I think, across the street from that barbecue place. [00:06:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. There's actually one was across the street and one was literally 20ft away, 25ft away. So we ate there and a lot of other places, of course, but. So that was the main thing is the barbecue that we ate very well. So that's one thing the school does. Our school gives us good meal money. We travel well, when we travel, they do everything very nicely for us. We never have more than two guys in a room, so they all feel comfortable, you know, getting a good night's sleep, getting ready for the games, things of that sort. So there's no complaints there. [00:07:26] Speaker A: What do you feel like the key to having longevity with staff? [00:07:34] Speaker B: The thing called your inner circle, it's the guys you trust the most. We had a coach years. He passed away in 2013. Duck Lee, who's a Korean guy, did some scouting for the Dodgers and the Red Sox, and he had always. He was kind of like. Like our. Like our mentor. And he would say, inner circle, inner circle. You know, take care of yourself. You know, just be careful. Your inner circle, that was his big deal. And we learned quite a bit from Duck. He was a good guy, real good guy. [00:08:08] Speaker A: What are some other things you learned from him? [00:08:12] Speaker B: Oh, boy. Attention to detail. Doc was one of those guys that was very specific, very detailed, but kind of basic, too. Just get the. What they can do well and focus on that and get them as good as we possibly can. Because a lot of the, you know, some of the JUCO guys, when they come in, everyone thinks they're not good students, and that's not true. It's a lot of it is financial and, you know, because, you know, years ago or still the. The aid for the colleges was a. For baseball is a lot less than football and basketball. So you have guys are coming there because it's, you know, a little bit less and get exposure. Because we always tell these guys, they said, you come to us, we can get you some exposure. Maybe if you get really good, you can get an all American or. We've had. For our guy, we've had Eight gold gold winners which is really nice. And we've had a couple of Mariucci elite hitter award. They don't have that anymore for juco. But we, we were, I think we won the first two of those. So we've had some good players and that gives them the exposure. So if they want to move on to a four year school and play at least it gives them some numbers and exposure and a chance to be seen by people. [00:09:38] Speaker A: What do you attribute to your guys offensive numbers jumping last spring? [00:09:42] Speaker B: Oh my God. Well, it was. We had a little bit physically a bigger team but we also have a very good trainer, a physical trainer. I don't know if you know him, his name's John Philbin. John was with the Nationals. He's been with the Yankees, San Diego with the Redskins years ago. He was also the on the Olympic bobsled team back when he was, you know, younger. He was also the Coach of the U.S. olympic Bobsled Team and he's got a lot of. So we've known John for quite a while and this last year he came. He was actually our fourth coach in the sense that he was our trainer and he would come in. So in the fall we have certain times set up for John to come in and work and work with the kids and doing all those different things to get them stronger. And especially the guys that weren't as big that the guys that need it more than I'd say not more. But you know how there's some of the big guys, they're just strong but the other guys we built them up and I think that's the reason why we had pretty strong hitting team. A lot of home runs for us 91's pretty damn good and, and a lot of them were way over the fences. You know, they weren't just. We hit them all around the country. You know, our first this past season we decided to go to Florida really early and we wanted to train in Florida for a few days in January. And then we played in a. They call it the preseason FL Florida JUCO thing which is really good teams. And it gave us a chance for our guys to hit against some pretty good pitching. And we hit a few homers there. We didn't win down there but it helped us win down the road a little bit. So when we saw some pitchers that weren't quite as good as these guys be perfect on, we ate them up. So I think that was the, that was the combination of all that with John Philbin doing the workout with the guys and the Kids, Kids enjoyed it and a lot of them did get a lot stronger and it helped a lot. That's my opinion. [00:12:00] Speaker A: Will you guys go back down to Florida? [00:12:03] Speaker B: Well, we, we wanted to but they moved the back the starting date. So now we can't because when we went down in January we're. We weren't in school so it was perfect. But now this year we're in school because they moved the starting of playing games back. So we don't want to push our luck with the administration and take them out of the school the first week. That's just not smart and it's not good for the players academically. [00:12:35] Speaker A: Do you make many tweaks with your hitters when they get on campus or do you wait for a little bit? [00:12:40] Speaker B: Wait. What I like to do and Dan and I, I like to see a lot of at bats before we start really doing things because I think you can over coach. And then you know, the kids as you know, they have, some of them have their own hitting coaches and they see so many things. So what we try to do is just let them play it out. And then what we tell them is that, you know, when we give you an adjustment, pay attention because it's been, you know, 50, 60 times they've batted as well as practice time. Then we get to see what they can do because we, what we try to do is prepare them for the next level because certain guys, you know, that are physically stronger, they can do things against certain pitchers that maybe aren't quite as good. And I say, guys, I want you to try this because this is going to help you next year or when you go to the four year school, if you want to go D1 or D2 or D3, whatever it is, I can kind of let you kind of do the same thing and make yourself feel really good. But sometimes you got to challenge yourself. So those are the. We do tweaking just like that every so often. But we do not over. Over coach. I hate to say that term, but over coach too much. And I think that helped a lot for us last year. We just let them kind of do their thing and then we just see how they worked in the cage. You know, certain guys, you know, they sit there and they would. One of a couple of our better hitters, they'd really work in the cage. They weren't just trying to. As I always tell them, I said no one hits a home run in a cage. We'll work the whole up the middle left, right? The whole works. So a lot of Them did that. And we. We had a few guys from the year before that struggled on certain pitches. So we told this one particular kid who was a good ball player, I said, you're a.400 hitter, but you hit.320 last year, and this is the pitch you gotta lay off of. So we threw a lot of those types of pitches and made them take them in batting practice. Because part of hitting is taking pitches as opposed to swinging at every pitch in the cage or, you know, on the field. And that, you know, because it's. It's easy. I see. It's easy to hit in the cage, but you know what I mean? It's. It's. Sometimes they got to take a picture to. To read the ball, see where it is, you know, get their timing down correctly. You know, I put up the targets and behind me and stuff and have them work on trying to hit that, you know, one day, maybe up the middle, one day hit this target here type of thing. So we can kind of simulate, as best we can, reading the pitch of its outside, whatever, take it to the right side or whatever. [00:15:35] Speaker A: How much is. Has that been external for you with your hitting, where they're trying to hit external targets? How long have you done that with hitting external targets? [00:15:43] Speaker B: I've done that probably now about six or seven years. And I. I do it because it gives them a visual and they get kind of excited every so often, you know. You know, I say, you know, good job, and I'll put up. It could be a target that has colors on it or whatever. So you go for the black one or go for the red one. Do the best you can. But it helps to help them stay back at all those terms you hear. So they're thinking when they're heading in, in that cage. So in the game, they just react. And if the more times we can replicate that, I think that does help them and maybe help cut down on the strikeouts. And because what I tell them, I say, guys, you could control your at bat, but not the outcome. So the more times you're hitting the ball hard, the more time chance you got a chance to, you know, get on base. Now, you could hit the ball four times like a rocket, and it could be four great plays. But the more often you do that, percentages will help you get better hits. And that's what we're really focused on. And I think that resonated with them a little bit, that they kind of understood that contest. So what you do during the week or preparing yourself for the game on the Weekend or whatever, we're doing these drills or whatever. The drill is to prepare you for that. So when you get to the game, you can do the best you can and just hit the ball hard. And, you know, because what we, the other thing I try to do with them, I say, look, there's. To me, there's three things before you get. When you're ready to hit one. Obviously, everyone knows you gotta have a plan, so have an idea what you want. You may know the picture from one playing against the guy a few years ago. Have your plan, or if you're on deck, watch what the picture's doing. Don't just be there goofing off. The second thing I tell him, I said, I want you to stay strong. And that simply means what I tell them. I says, when you like to take a pitch, you know, do your stride, you know, load or whatever and watch the ball, try not to lunge over it. I said, what that tends to do. It gives the pitcher an idea, you know, that strike zone. But more importantly, sometimes maybe the umpire, because, you know, you know, if the guy has a check swing, a lot of times they'll call you strike. So I tell him, I said, the less times we, we do that, maybe the less time that you may get a strike called on a pitch that maybe was a ball. And then finally, the third part of it is quality at bat simply means this. Just hit it hard, do your best to hit it hard. And that's where all the drills come in to prepare you for the game on whatever day it is. So if we can bang those things in their heads. And a lot of times I'll yell from, I coach third. I say stay strong. If I see them leaning or dropping their hands. And it's just a little quick reminder, mental reminder, okay, next time, if I'm going to take it or I don't like the pitch, I'm not going to lean over the plate or whatever it is. So those are some of the simple things that we try to do to, you know, get the kids to be, you know, educated hitters. [00:18:59] Speaker A: I mean, how much of struggles is just timing and then pitch selection? [00:19:04] Speaker B: The timing and what's pitch like selection [00:19:07] Speaker A: for when hitters struggle? [00:19:09] Speaker B: Yeah, well, that's part of it. Yeah. Yeah, it's. You know, I think that the first part is pitch recognition. If you swing at a good pitch, even if your mechanics aren't great, you probably have a chance of making contact and getting. You've seen it. You know, a guy gets fooled or whatever, but he Stays in there and he hits the ball and he gets a little flare to right field for a base hit. I, I tell him, embrace all your hits, no matter what they are. I don't want you coming, oh, I, you know, I didn't hit it all. I don't give a damn. You got on base, you didn't strike out. Because they're hard to come by. So those are things that once again, I just try to make them think about, you know, be as positive as. Because, you know, it's such a negative sport, hitting wise. But if the kids can think like that and be the best hitter that they can. The other thing we tell them is the difference between an average good and great player is adjusting. And they have guys that are willing to adjust, that maybe don't have a lot of talent, so they become the best 260 or 270 hitter. Then you have guys that are really good players and they're willing to adjust. They're the ones that go way up. Then you guys, you know, you get guys that are pretty good that aren't willing to adjust enough. They know everything and they're the ones that kind of stay down where they could be up. So I think that's, that's another thing, the adjustment. What's the pitcher phone, what's the umpire calling? And you can all you want about the umpire, if he's calling the pitch, you know, two or three inches outside, we'll move up to a plate or something, do something different. So you give a different look to the, the pitcher or the umpire or whatever it is. But the adjusting, we obviously most coaches talk about that a lot, but that's what we try to tell these guys. I say that's the difference, and that's what I mentioned earlier. I want them to be good when they get out of our. When they leave us and they go up to a D1 or whatever, and they're facing much better pitching than they're going to see with us on a consistent basis. We see some good pitchers, there's no question, but not like you will on most D1s. You know, we're going to see a few guys in the 90s. Most guys that we face are probably mid-80s, the ones that are good and, but you know, when D1 or D2, especially on the D1 level, it's going to be consistently 90s for the most part, you know, in that range. So that's what we try to impress upon our guys. [00:21:50] Speaker A: When do you have that conversation with a kid who Maybe isn't as coachable as another kid or needs to be, especially if they're going to go to the next level. [00:22:00] Speaker B: What's that again? [00:22:00] Speaker A: When do you have that conversation with a kid who's maybe not as coachable but needs to hear what they need to. To do and adjust? Because if they want to keep moving up levels, they're going to have to be at least a little bit coachable to. To keep moving. [00:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. There's always a few guys that are, you know, kind of, I say, know it all and. Or they got the father behind them. And we had a. I'm not going to mention any name. We had a kid a few years ago, great kid, and we want him to do so I'm not. I'm gonna keep this generic, but he would do anything. But we knew from behind the dad was saying other things. And so we kind of be careful how. We don't want to offend the father thing. But they say we've been doing this quite a while. We've had multiple all Americans. I think we got like 45 of them. So we kind of know what we're doing. We're giving you this adjustment. You might want to take this to get a little bit better or become the player that you should become. And like I mentioned just a few minutes ago, we had a kid, like I said last year before came back, he was struggling this first year, and he doesn't say he didn't pay attention, but he kind of did his own thing to a point. And we said, you're a.400 hitter. So we worked on that and he adjusted, he listened, and he hit like.421 for us. So, yeah, that. That's the hard part sometimes. And, you know, and if they don't listen too much, then we sit them until they listen, you know. You know, we have another. We have one guy that's doing the job. He's a good little ball player and he's going to help us win because he doesn't either strike out a lot or he does those little things. He's going to play over the guy that may be a little more talented, but then he kind of does his own little thing, which may hurt us down the road, especially when it comes to the playoffs, you know, when it really counts. And you're only going to see the top pitchers on most of the teams. You're not going to see, usually the fifth and sixth in a pitcher you're going to see. So you got to be able to hit those guys or Simply move someone up instead of striking out. Or if the guy's on third, you maybe get a fly ball and get a sacrifice. Instead of trying to hit a home run, you strike out and there's two outs in the guy on third. Fly ball doesn't do us any good, whatever it is. So those are some of the things we try to impress upon them. Once again, I say, you know, you can. We kind of have a resume. You don't. And they don't sometimes like to hear that, but they don't have a resume. And, and, you know, like I said, we, we have there our coaches, especially Coach Rasher. He's got a really good resume. And we have it through the all Americans. We have the Gold Glove winners, the elite hitter awards. You know, those are earned. Those are earned awards. It's not given to them because a lot of guys, they think there's this bird in the sky that's looking down and, okay, you're going to be first team. No, no, no. First. It starts with your coach. The coach recommends the guy so you, they remember the kids who work and hard. You're more likely to kind of promote them over someone that's always giving you like a, you know, a headache. So, you know, those are. We say that to them. Some, I don't know, sometimes they probably think I'm nuts. But, you know, but it's true. It's true. It's. It comes with your head coach first, and he recommends, you know, someone and gives to the, to the board, whoever makes all the final calls and say, I like these guys for this is the reason why. And then the other thing is, is that the other coaches see these things, you know, and they're, they're voting, too. So if a guy does the right things all the time or a lot of times when they're playing, they remember that. So they're more likely maybe, you know, pass a vote on that way and, you know, get an award that maybe that they wouldn't have got. So that's what we try to. Like I said, we try to beat it into their heads as far as that stuff goes. [00:26:15] Speaker A: How do you handle teaching situational hitting to your new players? Because probably not a lot of them have had to really work on situational hitting before they get to you. [00:26:24] Speaker B: No, that's a good, that's a good question. Depending on the school that they come from. There are some good schools in our area, usually the private schools. They're usually the better players as far as playing the game right, or whatever you want to call it. So the other ones, we got to teach them. That's the hard. That's. That's hard. Okay. Sometimes you gotta. If you got a guy on third and. And there's a term on you. I said, work the drill. So we're in practice, we have a. Guys maybe on different. Our third round of hitting. All right, guys, here's a situation. We got a guy on third. Get him in. I don't care how you do it. Get him in. Whether it's a ground ball, fly ball, whatever it is. And that's the terminology. So during a game, they say, work the drill. So you get up there and, you know, do the best you can. If a guy's on third and the pitcher is a good pitcher and he throws your one on the corner, hit it to the second baseman, get that rbi. Because, you know, sometimes they always. They're so infatuated with hits. RBIs win games. Hits help. But RBIs, you can win a game without getting a hit. You could have two sacrifice flies. You could have a guy, you know, a guy get on an air, steal second, you know, pass ball, get the third, hit a fly ball, and then. And then you get to run it. So we kind of. I try to impress. I said, guys, the rbi, that's what. That's what. Really obviously that. That's what wins games. So that's what you got to work on. Eliminating the strikeouts as best you can. But being. Look at the situation, look where they're. Maybe they have a big shift on where the pitcher's pitching you, and then, you know, go from there and, you know, just once again, do the best you can. Always. You've been trained all week long to these different things and then try to execute it during the game. [00:28:27] Speaker A: Do you guys bump much this spring with the amount of home runs you guys hit? [00:28:30] Speaker B: We bundled a decent amount. We didn't have to bunt that much. We averaged about 10 runs a game. So which is. Which is good. And. But there's times that we did bunt [00:28:42] Speaker A: but sack, drag, push all of it. [00:28:46] Speaker B: A lot of drags, obviously, sacks. But we. We work on that. We work on certain guys with the. It's really kind of funny. Some of the big hitters are good bunners, you know. And I remember I was watching. I'll go back a step. I was watching the MLB Network and Harold Reynolds was talking and he was. They were in training camp or something. I can't remember whole story. And it was Matty Lou, or was the coach, I believe, right I think it was Maddie, the older one. It was the father. Is it Maddie? [00:29:26] Speaker A: Yeah, that's Mo and Moises. Dad. [00:29:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. So they were talking about Bunny and some of the guys. Now, this is garbage. So he brought over Willie Stargel and he goes watch him bunt. So Willie, starter gets in there and buns, takes the one hand, bunts it with one hand, takes the bat. This is Harold Reynoldsbach, throws the bat away he goes, if you can't bunt, you can't hit. Now here's a guy that hit a zing and homers, and he's a big guy trying to teach these. This how this was probably still handy [00:29:59] Speaker A: coordination and figuring out how to get the barrel on the ball right. [00:30:02] Speaker B: And it's a good. It's good for. Because there's a lot of. In practice, we'll have sometimes just rounds of Bunny, especially in the cage, like you said, getting your eye, just following the ball in, following in through that, as I call it, the pitcher's tunnel from the. From the plate to home plate. The ball is going to move through that zone. So sometimes I'll set up things. So if they see it go out the zone, they'll let it go. But as far as the hitting goes, but they can watch when they're bunting and see where that ball's, you know, moving. And that helps give them a, you know, visual on, you know, where that strike zone is, you know, and, you know, if it's outside that zone, you probably want to let it go. Unless I said earlier, if umpire's calling those things, then you got to go for it. So those are. That's another thing. I think that works pretty well, but. But we do work on the drags and things of that. The guys that are pretty good at it. [00:30:56] Speaker A: Yeah, it's gonna make a comeback now. Big leaguers starting to bun again. It's gonna make a comeback. [00:31:01] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, the other thing is, is that we always tell. I said, guys, how often do you see that they screw up bunts on my guess, can't field now. Yeah. And it's. You see, they slip or they throw it over the guy's head or whatever it is. Not all the time, but I'm saying at least 30% of the time now. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's more. I don't know, but. Or they don't cover, or the first baseman comes in and the pitcher standing there, whatever it is, there's a lot of things. And it also can screw up their timing. The pitcher. And you know or may have a tendency to. There's many times now and I saw it a lot in the College World Series guys fake bunt or whatever and the pitcher couldn't fit over the plate, you know and we see it more in our level but a lot of times we would do that. We'd have the fake bunt and the pitcher would have trouble, you know, either got nervous or whatever you want to call it. But yeah, absolutely helps with your seeing the ball, but it does the pitchers, some of them aren't very good at it. That's just the facts. [00:32:08] Speaker A: Do you have the same hit set hitting drills every day or do you rotate your hitting drills? [00:32:13] Speaker B: No, I did different ones. A lot of in the beginning I kind of do the Dan and I will do a lot of the same things just to be on a consistency what they can do and then there's certain. Then after a while you kind of change it up just so it doesn't get old. And we'll like. A lot of times what we'll do is sometimes we'll do, we'll put a tea at home plate and we'll do like 21 and I'll sit there and I saw it and I say okay, hit the ball to right field. Hit the, give me a ground ball to shortstop. Give me a line drive up the middle. I'll see whether they can do it or not. And then after a while I say okay, now you tell me where you're going to hit it and, and if they don't do it, I said you told me you're going to hit it to the right side and you hit it up the middle. So let's make that adjustment at the plate on, on that tee. And it kind of gives them, you know, pretty good visual and we do it with guys running the basis. So I might say I hit a grinder, the short slackers. I want to see our guys turn two but I want to see whether our guy can, you know, you know, do that as well. And then it gives them a kind of like a good teamwork and then you know, I'll say hitting one in right center or left center and let's see what they can do with it. And, and when they can't do it and I will, I'll say look guys, this is a control drill. If you can't do this control drill there may be a problem. And I do it so they, they're thinking instead of kind of beating them down, I kind of tell them a fact. I said if you say you're going to hit it to the first basement over his head and you're hitting it up the middle. What's that telling you? So let's do this adjustment here. Let's figure it out so you can do it. Hit it. You should be able to hit it where you want to off a T. So. And then other times we'll, you know, we'll throw or put a machine and. And we'll do the same thing and get them maybe working on the outside and work on hitting to the right side or sometimes just different things. Just so it's not monotonous because as you know, we move over juco, we work just as hard as anyone else and we practice and we do all that kind of stuff. So we're trying to, you know, give them some different. Different looks. [00:34:38] Speaker A: What about your BP routines? They stay the same or did you adjust batting practice routines before a game or every day practice and then pre [00:34:47] Speaker B: game, it's pretty much in. In for. For hitting on the field. So what we do is we have guys in the cage. We always have guys. Guys in the cage. And the guys in the cage come down and they're the. For group hit. Yeah. So we usually do pretty much the same thing depending on the round. The first round we kind of let them hit. Second round could be right side. And third round is usually. Well, we usually bunt in the first round as well, but then we bun in the third round. We'll do some sack squeezes. And then I, like I said, warp the drill. We'll work on getting the guy in that kind of stuff. Then up in the cage. It's their core work. We're just working on, you know, once again, following the ball. Maybe like I said earlier, they're struggling with a certain pitch. I'll work on that. I usually go up in the cage because I want to go one on one with them and talk to them and say, okay, this is what you want to do. I'm going to see how you and I talk with Dan afterwards, how they do on the. On the field that they just completely forget what I told them and they go down there and they just try to hit it over the fence or something. So that's what we kind of do pre game. It depends. I mean, once again, it's, you know, when we're on the road, it's a lot shorter. For our league, it's 30 minutes. Some guys give you more. So if you got 20 guys, we got to really simplify it. We always, usually always have guys running the bases too. So we want to. I'd like for them to see the guys on base and get used to that concept. Trying to drive them in. [00:36:20] Speaker A: Is that running group. They. They in the hitting group or are they a separate group? The running group usually a separate group. [00:36:26] Speaker B: There's been times where we use the hitting group. We'll have the guys do that as well. It just. Sometimes we'll just change it up depending on time and whatever we have to go. If we got to do a quicker one, we might just have the group hitting run. [00:36:42] Speaker A: You use machines pre game at all at home or just all live arm? [00:36:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean I used to throw it all the time and I'm glad we use the machines now because my back's done. Be perfectly honest. And it's faster. So in practice we use the machines quite a bit now. And when we're at home. Yes, to answer your question, we do it. It can go pretty quick. We can crank it up a little bit if we know a guy's going to face someone pretty hard. So we can get them to do that. And it seemed to work. So we usually have a. What we do. At least we did last year. We had a cage and machine and a cage on the field. I mean a machine in the cage and a machine on the field. And then I would sometimes if I would. In the. In the. In the cage I might have it on curve or slider and on the field would be like a fastball. So I'd give them a kind of a different. If we knew the type of picture. If you got a. Like a rinky dink curve, I might put that there. So they can use the staying back and stuff like that. So we kind of would adjust depending on the. The. The information that we may have on a particular pitcher that we expect to face that day. And it seemed to work. So the guys would get a decent amount of swings in and once again taking pitches. You know, occasionally we going in there because some of the balls we use the regular baseball so they'll move a lot which is sometimes the players are bitch about it. But I loved it. I said this is what hitting is about, you know. And then there's times we might just put it right in there. But overall when that ball's moving it gives them a different look. [00:38:21] Speaker A: With your fall schedule, with your games. You guys playing just on the weekends, we'll have a. [00:38:26] Speaker B: Yes, we'll have a few during the week. A few of the teams can't make the weekends. So we'll have. I Think we have two midweek games, like on Wednesdays, but for the most part, we have them on the Saturday and Sunday. [00:38:42] Speaker A: How much of adjustment is that for your freshmen who've never had to spend that amount of time at a baseball field, like, pregame game, like, how much of an adjustment is that? [00:38:51] Speaker B: Big difference. Yeah. There's no question because some of the county schools, they only play, you know, 20 games. And we tell them, guys, our schedule is usually, depending on the weather, 56 games. And we're going every day pretty much from the end of August. And we have the break at Christmas, of course, and then we started, you know, you know, January says so guys, it's a grind for them, you know, because it's something they haven't done. And I said, that's why we want them in shape. And they, you know that. So they're doing the, the, you know, workouts and things they probably never or haven't done much of. So that, that adjustment for them when they've got a little sore. I said, well, you're. So are you injured or you're sore? There's two different things. So we. That's another little bit of a hurdle because they don't, you know, your arm. Oh, you're hurt, you know. No, you're not hurt. You know, you might be sore. There's a big difference. So. But we got to be careful, you know, you don't want to tell them. Otherwise they'll be in the trainer, you know, 24, 7, for crying out loud. Then there's other guys, they get hit, they don't give a damn. They're playing all the time. You know, it's like anything else. But yes, for the, for those first year guys, it's a, It's a big adjustment. It's definitely a big adjustment. [00:40:08] Speaker A: How do you help your outfield or arms, your freshman outfield arms get acclimated to throwing? Because, I mean, it's a great. That's a great conversation point. Because there is a difference between being injured and being sore, because you have to work through some of that soreness, especially to develop arm strength. You're have to work through that soreness. [00:40:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a, That's a good point. We. That's. It's funny you say that. I've had a few. Come on, you know, lash of arms, [00:40:32] Speaker A: give it two weeks. [00:40:33] Speaker B: We haven't really thrown that much. You know, it's not like we're throwing every, you know, 800 pitches. I said, you know, guys, I used to throw two hours of batting practice. I'm much older. I'm 40 years older than you guys. I don't want to hear this, but I, you know, I, I got to be nice, too. But what I. What we do a lot with the outfield is as far as when I do my throwing drills, what we do is once again, I'll bring a tee out. You might laugh at this, but I have one of the outfitters hit off a tee. I have one of the outfielders at a. I put a bag out there and then I work on. I have the. I say, okay, I just want you to hit the ball straight at him or a little bit to the left. We'll see how they come up. I'm going to work on the throws. And what we do is I want to see a one hop to the guy at the base. And the reason I have the outfitter doing it, I want them to understand how hard it is for some of the infielders to catch a short hop. So. And it gives them. Once again, it gives them an idea. Okay, when they're there and these guys are throwing these ones that are a foot in front of them and they're hard to field. I said, now you understand what's going on. So what we do is we work on. I'm a big proponent, obvious, like everyone else on footwork. So we get the, you know, we field. We work on our footwork. We do the stuff we got to do. We work on. I said, you don't need to throw 100 miles an hour. I want to see accuracy. And then I'll tell them. I say, guys, look, nobody can outrun a thrown ball. They may be to throw, but they will not. It cannot outrun a throw unless you're throwing 30 mile or 26 miles an hour. So if we can work on our accuracy, we're going to be able to keep. Get a good chance of getting people out. And that's where I'm. I'm kind of big on the one hop without a cut man. So I want that visual. I want them to work on those throws. And it seemed that. Seems that they understand it after a while. I said, you know, sometimes the throws are bad and we work on it, you know, whatever we have to do and keep them, you know, busy as, as far as that goes, so their arms aren't quote sore. But we might do that two or three times a week. And then the other days, maybe we'll do. At the end of practicing, we do like an infield, outfield with the cut men and all that stuff. And you know, we just work on the lead base drill. You know, we tell them, I say, guys, when you have a guy on first and the ball's hit to you, it's hit at you or towards the base, they're going, you got a shot at making a throw. If it goes to your opposite side, throw goes to second for most times. Now, if it's a slow runner, you know, I mean, there's guys that think they can get to third. Hell, you know, I could throw them out, but. Or if they bobble it. So we want to keep that double play in play. So those are the other things we work on on the, with the ground ball work and things like that. And it seems to help. So the, for the most part we did a pretty clear, you know how they are. They want to throw everybody out and it doesn't happen, but you can keep them from advancing. And so if we can do really work on our throws and get as good as we possibly can in pregame, when we throw the ball nice, the other coach may be less likely to take a shot at it. And that's the other thing I kind of tell the guys. I said, the pregame is important. You kind of showing off what you can do. But we want to be as accurate as we possibly can. So maybe they won't take a base or sometimes that they may try and we can. And if we can get a guy out, great. We threw a few guys out at the plate this year, which is pretty nice. And that's such a big fired up thing for the, you know, the player and all. The only time the catcher drops of the picture, the outfitters get mad. I played outfield when I was playing baseball, so I know that was like, if I made a really good throw, I expect that guy to, you know, tag him out. But sometimes, you know, everyone makes a mistake or whatever. But those are, that's what I do on that. So once again, two or three days a week that, that will do that work on those throws. So quote, I don't have an issue with the, you know, their arms, you know, and even then they, they still get a little sore because I had a kid. They had a couple. Come on. I'm sore, coach. Really? We haven't thrown for two days. You know, today's work. Yeah. So we just. Yeah. [00:45:13] Speaker A: You guys take pre game before every game, so. [00:45:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:16] Speaker A: Three games set on a weekend. So your outfields are throwing the bases before every game? [00:45:20] Speaker B: Yes. [00:45:20] Speaker A: Love it, Love it. [00:45:23] Speaker B: We like it. I mean, I know there's some other coaches that don't do that, but I just like them to get out there and, and once again, just air it out a little bit and you know, get the timing down with the, you know, cut man and you know, you know, all that kind of stuff. So you know, obviously hit the, everyone screams hit that, you know, cut guy. And we, you know, like all coaches, that's all you can do, you know. Yeah, you just work and let the cut man do the job once again. Because I keep telling them, once I said it two minutes ago, no one outruns a throne ball. So if you have a good cut, good throw to the cup man and he turns and makes a nice throw to the plate or a third, whatever, you got a better shot at getting them. And if you make it close, umpires usually give you the call if it, if it looks. But that's what I impress upon them on the one hoppers. I said if we get that right one hop sometimes what I'll do is I'll actually put it like a bucket out there just to give them an idea where it should land. But it's not like a cut guy and, but I'm big on that one. We try to do the best we possibly can as far as that stuff goes. So we get a good throw. If it's a hop, it's a good hop right about his knees or whatever and it makes a good tag and usually we'll get that call if it's a close bang bang play. We don't have to worry about this because we don't have that. [00:46:43] Speaker A: Do you have a set long toss program for the outfielders? [00:46:46] Speaker B: Yes, we, we, we in before practice. Well, as practice starts then we, you know, work on that. We, you know, throw and then we back up a little bit and kind of keep it pretty basic. But it's, you know, just to kind of get the idea behind it. [00:47:03] Speaker A: When's the last time you coached summer baseball? College. [00:47:06] Speaker B: Oh, God. Long time. [00:47:08] Speaker A: So it's been a while. It's changed a lot. [00:47:11] Speaker B: 20 years. Because once we get through the season, I have a full time job. So baseball is not my full time job. I get paid to coach, but it's basically a stipend. So I'm a full time realtor, so I work. And then when you go to practice, you know, like I said earlier, just like you, you, you put a lot of time in, there's a lot on the field and games and you know, so when the summertime comes, you know, I, what I'll do is I'll go out and watch our guys play a little bit. But summer ball, I haven't done that in a. In a long time. [00:47:46] Speaker A: Were you in real estate in D.C. then too? Were you coaching high school and then working in real estate? [00:47:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:53] Speaker A: So what the transition down. So were you then coaching? Is that how you got to Montgomery College? Because you're coaching summer ball in Montgomery? [00:48:02] Speaker B: It was more that I've known Dan for a long time. We coached against each other and in summer ball, I knew I coached against him when he was in high school, when he was coaching high school, when I was coach and we played. We've been friends for quite a while. I'll tell you a quick story. You'll probably like this. So we're. He coached a high school called Bullis High School in Potomac. Merrill and I had a good Council High School in Wheat, Maryland. So we're playing over bolas and we're playing was a kind of a close game and my dad would go to, you know, occasionally go to the game and his father would go, well, those two were on and they didn't know each other, so they're on the sidelines. And my dad goes, what's he doing over there? What kind of move is that? That's my Dan's dad goes that coach there. And being his son. He didn't say it was his son. He did this dumbest thing earlier. And they find out they're both the father, father Dan and I like my dad. We laugh about that all the time. There they are. Second. I wouldn't say criticizing second guessing us never met each other and then find out who and they shake hands. So that's, that's how long. You know how that was 20, I don't know, probably 26 years ago, I guess something like that. So, yeah, so that's. So it was more from, from, from that end of high school and then from high school I went over to Dan and been there ever since. And like I said, I've enjoyed it. I like I said it was pretty cool going to the World Series and, and you know, when you go to those things, it's earned. Nothing gets travelable but travel. You pay to go whenever. This is earned and it's cool. And we got one year. We got to the national title game. We didn't win it. But talking about the hair on the back, your neck going up, you know, when you're playing those teams and you know, we were D3 then, but, you know, once again we faced a guy that was really good. But it was just neat. It was just. Those are things that are. That I remember and been a lot of fun. [00:50:14] Speaker A: You get them in the weight room as soon as school starts, they start lifting right away. [00:50:19] Speaker B: We usually in the fall, it's more of the running and the workouts and the. And once we break after the fall, we. We do the weight stuff in the. In the winter time. Yeah. [00:50:32] Speaker A: So. [00:50:33] Speaker B: And then in other words, RC, we have to be done by November 15th, I think it is. So from then until we start, they're in the, you know, weight room with John doing a lot of different things. So really neat to watch. It's, you know, it's very well organized. He's got programs for all each kid and he does. He. He's one on one with them, you know, work with their arms and does all the isometrics. He gets them in the pool. They go to the. Because we have a pool that's right next to our gym. So he gets them in there and doing stuff's fun but not realizing that they're working out. So it was. It was actually cool to watch. It was really good to watch the [00:51:14] Speaker A: lost art of the pool. Yeah, it's great for resistance. [00:51:19] Speaker B: Yes, sir. [00:51:20] Speaker A: What about team building activities? You guys do much team building activities? [00:51:24] Speaker B: We usually do one a year. We did. What we did is last fall. It was really a rewarding one. We went to a local field that's kind of run by the Washington Nationals. It's called Nationals Field of Dreams, I believe that's what it called. And it's for kids that are. That's the word you want to use. Mentally challenged. And it was. Our kids did a fabulous job. I was so impressed with our guys. They treated these kids like they were their brothers. And you would, you know, each. When they went to the field, each player went with a player onto the field and then if they needed help throwing, they would do that or if they would run and they'd run the bases, you know, with them. They play game, you know, they play an actual game. But sometimes if they couldn't, the kids couldn't get it over. Our guys would come in and throw it or underhand it. They hit the ball and take pictures afterwards. And the guys run and said. Really gave us up. Said, guys, you did a great job. The kids really enjoyed. It was. Was a gorgeous day. We took off. The day was a weekend. We didn't practice or anything. We wanted our kids to do that. And so we used to do something like that once a year. And that's usually during the fall time. And like I said earlier, it was really every very, really neat to watch our kids. And you get to see some good things, you know, that, you know, kids that kids can do and the kid. The kids that were there. One guy was 20 years of age. He had the greatest time that there was. And it was very nice. It was really nice. [00:53:06] Speaker A: You guys. You said you're well funded. Do you guys have to do much fundraising? [00:53:09] Speaker B: We do a lot of fundraising. We have this, like I said before, the school's good with us with the travel, but we also do some fundraising and we do our. The baseball team funds, everybody. So what that does. [00:53:24] Speaker A: That's at every school. [00:53:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And it's. We do a little simple, you know, email thing. You know, can you sponsor us? That kind of stuff. And you have a. [00:53:34] Speaker A: That you go through for that. [00:53:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know the name. We. We had a company then the school just switched last year. [00:53:42] Speaker A: So it's through the school. [00:53:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So the school wanted to go with one. So once again, I was. Last year was the first year for this new group. But, you know, we usually raise a deep. We have some people to give us some. They've been donating to us every year. So we have a pretty good fund. So then when we take a trip that the school usually gives us one big trip a year. And then. So let's say we want to have a weekend series down in North Carolina, they'll pay for that. And then if we. When we usually when we go on our spring break, they'll take care of the food and usually the transportation. And then we got to pay for the. The hotels and things or the condos or where we're staying at. So like I said, the school. They give the school credit. They. They actually do. They do a nice job with it. [00:54:36] Speaker A: Have you had to change your communication style as the kids have gotten. Have you. As you've gotten older and the kids have stayed the same age, have you had to change your communication style much? [00:54:46] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. They've, you know, kids are the same, but it's different. That makes any sense. I will say this. You got to be really careful what you say because sometimes you might, you know, something you could say 10 years ago, kidding around right now, it could be a bad thing. So you have to be kind of smart about it there. They have a tendency, in my opinion, get a little more frustrated nowadays than they did years ago simply because they have their phones. If they want to get something to eat, they can go on their phone and text ubereats and get something two minutes later. You know, that's years ago. That wasn't. So that wasn't the case. And, you know, once again, we say, guys, you're playing baseball, you can't text your way out of it. It's. You got to work. You got to work. You got to be willing to put the time in to get the results. If you're not willing to put the time in, you're not going to get the results unless you're so super talented or you're playing a crappy schedule. So, yeah, that's. It's a little bit different in that, but they still say the same things they said 20 years ago, and they still do the dumb things they did 20 or 30 years. I mean, they do things that I did when I was at that age that I can remember. But, yeah, that's the difference. I'd say they're more. Once they get frustrated more than they. Than they used to. That, to me, is the big. The big difference. The thing to. To kind of just to get through it. And I don't imagine that, you know, with the D1s and you got the nil, you're losing guys left and right. You know, some of the schools, at least I can imagine that's very frustrating. So, you know, everyone thinks they're the best player there is, and the reality is some of them aren't, you know. [00:56:36] Speaker A: Has recruiting changed much for y' all over the years? [00:56:42] Speaker B: Not too much. [00:56:45] Speaker A: You stay in the D.C. metro area for a lot of your kids? [00:56:49] Speaker B: Maybe half. We get a lot from Florida. [00:56:51] Speaker A: Do you really? [00:56:52] Speaker B: You know, yeah, we've had Florida, quite a few from Florida, and sometimes that can work out. And I mean, what's the funny thing about is when you get up here and then March weather here is a lot different, and so they have to get through that, you know, my God, it's cold here. I said, well, yeah, not Florida. So. But we've had. Yeah, we've had kids all. All over the place. But I'd say Virginia, we get a Virginia, which is just. Just next door to us. We get a few of them, a few of the out of county kids, and then what they. And the ones that come in, they usually all three or four will get, like an apartment. We can't handle that for them. When on. On the. On the D2, we can give some financial aid. I mean, the scholarship. Excuse me. And. Or some financial aid, but we can't handle the. The, you know, housing. We can tell Them call this number here and. But the guys will typically get three or four guys in an apartment and they pay six or seven hundred a month or whatever it is. And that's what we do. That's probably the harder part of that because we can't provide housing for them. So it's usually guys that maybe want to just leave where they are, have a college experience. Because our area is pretty nice. There's a lot to do. There's a lot of restaurants. Up in our field is in Germantown, Maryland. Our school's based in Rockford, Maryland. We have three campuses. So the baseball. Well, years ago we used to have two baseball teams and three basketball teams. So the school decided to have one team for all the sports. So we were. We were kept up in Germantown. So that's where we are. But when the guys come in, if they want to go down to D.C. to visit or sightsee or whatever it is, there's a lot of things to do. Which makes it a nice situation for as far as outside of base hell, right across. I mean half a mile away we got the top golf and they go over there a lot, you know, which is they have a great time doing that. So there's a lot of things to do. So that's what we try to sell it on. And that we've had once again, we've had a lot of all America. We've got a nice little campus and stuff like that. [00:59:09] Speaker A: Do you get out to see many high school games? Spring and the summer? [00:59:14] Speaker B: Well, our schedule so heavy it makes it difficult. There's. Yet I do the. We do the best. Best we can. We have, you know, sometimes while we're friend go and you know, take a look because that's just thinking about data. You know, we always once again tell the guys. You never know who's looking guys because, you know, you could have a friend that lives in the D.C. area and you want. Maybe you're looking at a guy and you might call, hey, can you go to the game? And you know, they'll go over there and they mean the kids don't know who the guy is and they're loafing or they don't run out of fly ball and the guy writes them off, says, you know, so. Yeah, so, you know, that's another thing we tell him. I said, you play hard every game. You don't know who's in. There could be 10 people in the stands, but one of them could be a guy that's working for you, you know, for, you know, your Program, you just, you don't know. My dad told me that years ago, said two things. You never know who's, who's watching. And the second that he told me, he goes, there's always someone around the corner better than you, so you better keep working. That's what I try to impress upon these guys. I never forgot that. And, you know, and that makes sense. So you play the game right, you know, and, you know, the baseball gods will take care of you. You know, the guys who play the game right, they're the ones that get that weird hit or whatever it is. And the guys who don't play it right are always, you know, out by half a step. So that's what we try to do and sometimes we, I think we succeed, but there's times with those, a few guys that we fail with that they, they just, you know, do their own thing. And I say, we'll sit them on the bench. That's how I look at it. [01:01:01] Speaker A: Is your dad the one that got you into baseball? [01:01:03] Speaker B: No, my dad was a football guy. [01:01:06] Speaker A: He was baseball then [01:01:10] Speaker B: as a young kid, I just like, I played like most guys when I was growing up. We played football, baseball, basketball, you know, all three sports. And I just, whatever reason, I guess the main reason is my grandfather was apparently a pretty good, I never saw him play. He was apparently a pretty good ball player. So I'm, when I was young, I'm sure he talked to me and my dad would talk about my, you know, grandfather a lot. And you know, so I got into it. I guess I just enjoyed the game and I played it and I'd like to sit on, you know, I did all the other sports. But my dad always encouraged me, you know, as far as, you know, he was the football guy and he played it, you know, for them back when they were good, you know, that kind of stuff. So, yeah, you know, I guess he enjoyed the game, don't get me wrong. But, you know, I just gravitated to, you know, baseball. [01:02:09] Speaker A: Do you have a fail forward moment, something you thought was going to set you back, but looking back now, it helped you move forward. Could be professional or it could be personal. So something you thought, something you thought that was going to set you back along the way, but maybe you look up 12 months later, five years later, and it was a good thing that happened. [01:02:31] Speaker B: Oh boy, that's a good question. Not really. And not I can really. [01:02:35] Speaker A: Nothing along the way, nothing in real estate [01:02:40] Speaker B: sometimes. And you know. Well, you know, yeah, I guess that's a good way of putting it. I. Coaching cost me money because usually the spring market is the, you know, better market. So as far as work wise, it cost me time. I do the best I can, but there's times I just can't get the things because like an idiot I'm coaching baseball. I have a good wife who encourages me for that. So I have no, you know, problem there. But you know, if I was full time real estate, I'd make a lot more money. That's just the facts. So I may be with the real estate end of it. I probably should have stuck just on summer league and you know, but gets in your blood and you know, you know you want to. [01:03:30] Speaker A: You've probably had longevity in real estate though by coaching baseball. Still recharging batteries a little bit? [01:03:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's, it gives you a little bit of both. It gives you time to get on the field, you know, and if you're going to hit grounders or if I threw batting, I don't think I said I don't throw anymore. But you get some exercise in and you know, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, it gives you a little bit of a break, let's say the least, like I said. But once again I just enjoy that competition and that striving to get to the world Series and trying to win it and you know, you know, hopefully one day that will happen for us. I mean, I don't know. And we'll see what happens. We need four or five 90 mile pictures. Maybe we'll get a better shot. [01:04:16] Speaker A: What about evening or morning routines you do every day? You have any set routines in the morning? [01:04:21] Speaker B: Me personally? [01:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah. For personal nothing. [01:04:23] Speaker B: Nothing as far as work goes or baseball life. [01:04:29] Speaker A: You have any life routines that you go to in the morning or evenings feel like help you? [01:04:35] Speaker B: Nothing particular? No, no, I'd say my prayers. [01:04:40] Speaker A: That's one. [01:04:40] Speaker B: You know, stuff like that, you know, I'm into that, you know, thanking God for all the good things that, that I've gotten, you know, and so, you [01:04:50] Speaker A: know, I do that every day is a big one. I don't think people gravitate to gratitude enough. Yeah, you should be grateful every day. [01:04:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And I, that's the one thing I do every day that I just say thank you. You know, it could be a lot worse. Yes. [01:05:09] Speaker A: Somebody's always got it worse. My dad said it all. Somebody's always got worse. [01:05:13] Speaker B: Yeah. I tell the kids, the guys, you could be in the Middle east and bombs blown over your head. You gotta, you don't have to worry about hitting the ball. Come on, that's a piece of cake compared to what some people, you know, go through all the time. You guys got it. I'm not saying easy, but you got it nice. You have plenty of food, you got a warm place to, you know, a nice place to live or wherever it is. And yeah, you're going to have your ups and downs at home and everything out. You know, the parents are split or whatever it is. But, you know, look at. Try to focus on the good things and deal with the bad things. If you focus on the bad things all the time, that's all you're. It's going to pull you down and it's going to make you a little more bitter than, you know, or sad or whatever the term is. So you deal with the bad things, you focus on the good things. [01:06:05] Speaker A: Have you been to the convention much? ABC convention? [01:06:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I've been. The first year I went, I think was 83. I had friends living in. It was in Houston. 83, 84. I don't remember the year, but I had my friend and his because he had just gotten married. So I stayed down at their house and I went to the convention there and I think it was Nolan Ryan was talking and it's a tom house. [01:06:33] Speaker A: Yep. [01:06:34] Speaker B: They were doing the towel drill and all that stuff. But I learned a lot from that. There's no one listening. You know, Nolan Ryan, how well he never had a sore arm or very seldom what he did, the bicycles and all that stuff. And so that was the first one that I went to and I've been to quite. I haven't been to all of them, of course, but I've been to, you know, quite a few. [01:06:58] Speaker A: We'll be back in D.C. a couple years. [01:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Last year was kind of nice. I was at. Obviously I was there and been the love Nashville. That's my favorite by far. I'm in the San Diego, you know, when was it when it was out there. What a gorgeous city. [01:07:14] Speaker A: Yeah, that is gaslight district. [01:07:16] Speaker B: We went. Yeah. Philly had been, you know, we were there and so Chicago is taking my wife because she's. She's originally from. From that area. [01:07:27] Speaker A: Really? [01:07:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So maybe she can, you know, visit some relatives or something while she's there. And so that's what we're going to be doing when we're there in Chicago. [01:07:37] Speaker A: Love it. Where's some final thoughts before I let you go? [01:07:41] Speaker B: Final thoughts? Well, I'll say this, it's. It was a complete surprise that I was I got this award and it's very humbling and I'm very grateful to Dan Rasher, the head coach who nominated me. And it's a Matt west who, I don't know if he made the final call or how that worked, but my, my wife was probably the most excited. And it's funny, I was at her funeral and my wife couldn't. We were the funeral, then after the funeral we were at the, at the reception and my wife didn't go to the funeral. She just went to the, the, the wake the night she had to work. And then she comes, I see her coming in and my family's getting around the table. I said, Annie, I said, why? I said, I said, just figured maybe she took the afternoon off to come to. And then she read it out to me. It was really neat when my brothers and sisters and some of my grade school friends was a grade school friend that had died. So that was pretty neat. Now I'll remember that for, you know, quite a while. And like she was a little all really fired up and she does. She's not even been to sports really, but that's what I remember. So I'm very grateful for abca. It's, I'm looking forward to it. And be nice to get upstage for a minute or two and have your fellow peers, you know, see you. So they can't take it away from me, as they say. [01:09:11] Speaker A: Well, I look forward to seeing you, Chicago. John, appreciate you jumping. [01:09:14] Speaker B: Thank you for your time. I really appreciate it. [01:09:17] Speaker A: Congrats to Coach Silk on this well deserved honor. Great example of grinding it out as an assistant coach for 21 seasons. I look forward to connecting with him in Chicago before the main stage gets going on January 8, 2027. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale and Matt west in the ABC office for all the help on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via email rbrownlybca.org Twitter, Instagram or TikTok coachbeyondersquarebca or direct message me via the Miami app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave a bet for those behind you. [01:10:00] Speaker B: And you know that way Yep Wait [01:10:04] Speaker A: for another day [01:10:09] Speaker B: and the world will always return as your life Never for yearning and you know that way [01:10:23] Speaker A: Wait for another day.