Jason Corley: Welcome everybody to the Travel Dads Podcast brought to you by Barstown Bourbon and Green River Whiskey. I'm your host, Jason Corley. My amigo is off today because I am in Florida. ⁓ I am in sunny, well, it's not sunny today, but it is absolutely beautiful out. ⁓ it's like 900 degrees. So by the time this podcast is over, this shirt will probably be soaking wet. ⁓ but it is what it is. And ⁓ grandpa's house that we're staying in down here in Sarasota is not the most aesthetically pleasing to the eye, let's just say. So I brought it over here to the bay. I think we're downtown. I think we're downtown Sarasota, is where I think we are, and ⁓ surrounded by all these new buildings and this bay back here. This place is called the Nest Cafe, and it's right downtown Sarasota and free Wi Fi. ⁓ the guys are trimming bushes and doing some other things, getting ready for a World Cup party on Sunday. They're expected to have like 600 people here on Sunday. So, anyways, ⁓ they're doing that. And I just thought, why not, why not come down and and do it down here? So I think I like this and I think I can set this up for the rest of the week with the podcast. ⁓ if it works out great, I mean it should be. ⁓ today I'm gonna be joined by Coach Jason Ferber. ⁓ with the goaded and also he is just renowned ⁓ with prospects throughout the country. He literally just got back from IMG where he was ⁓ he was doing some testing with game changers, some other things. So it'll be fun. It should be interesting. And we're gonna we're gonna have quite a few things to talk about. So I'm looking forward to it. Okay. So before we let coach in and talk to coach, I want to give a shout out to somebody that very easily could have tried to rip me off and take advantage of my UConn having Ohio license plates in a very touristy state. And that ⁓ that is a gentleman that owns Sun Coast Auto Repair and Auto Repair LLC. Okay. They are located in in Sarasota here. This guy's got this shop. So this is how I found him. I've went on to chat GPT because the AC went out in the Yukon and there was a little bit of an oil leak. And I thought it was coming out of the compressor, out of the top seal of the compressor. And I thought it blew the seal completely out of the compressor. Okay. I just say compressor seven times. And I thought, worst case scenario, I thought this was going to be a whole ordeal. And I took it to this guy. I swear to God, when I pulled in and found this guy, I thought to myself, you gotta be kidding me. This is the shadiest thing I've ever seen in my life. Basically, there are different types of auto mechanics in these like storage units off of the off of the highway. And I just told the guy, I was like, listen, I'm gonna be real honest with you. Like, I'm not a dipshit. So if you try to, if you try to screw me over here, I'm gonna know and I'm gonna bury you. The guy had the car for about three and a half hours today. I see it pulling in right now. I the guy had the car for about three and a half hours today and he came back. And after what I thought was going to be over $2,000 turned out to be $229, he found the smallest little leak. He f he ⁓ he sealed it, filled it, and he said he let it run for 35 minutes and he had zero issues. So I want you guys to know that if you are in the Sarasota area and you have issues with your vehicle's AC, I'm telling you right now, Sun Coast Auto Air. And auto repair LLC. That guy is incredible. You can trust him. And I cannot thank him enough. And the good ones in this world need to get their flowers. And I wanted to give them these flowers. So there you go, sir. Thank you very much. Yeah, and I am still looking for a place. I haven't found a place yet to take the HUD Brooks to get some work in, a cage. I I I mean, I can go to a field if I can find a field around here, but ⁓ a lot of stuff around here is locked up. Like ⁓ a lot different than what it is back home. And maybe it's because things are abused around here because there's more humans. And whenever you have more humans, you're gonna have more people that don't think of things the way you do. So a lot of stuff I I found. we're real close to the Orioles, Baltimore Orioles Spring Training Camp and across the street is a Ripkin facility and there's a bunch of cages over there, but they look like they're all locked up. So ⁓ still trying to find a cage ⁓ to get some work in down here. You know, we can use a field, but I also ⁓ I don't want to trespass on somebody else's field down here, and I don't care what it is, just a you know, dirt. I don't care if it's a football field, actually. We can we can go work anywhere, but so I am still looking. So if you do know if if anybody's out there and knows of something in the Sarasota, Bradington, North Bradington, South Bradington area, anywhere within, you know, I would say a forty-five to an hour long drive, ⁓ of where the boys can get some work in before East Cobb, ⁓ in two weeks. And then after that, they go to PGI. Well, HUD goes to the PGI and then Cooperstown. So just we're down here for two weeks. So we got to get some work in there's coach right there. What's up, my man? I am joined right now by Coach Jason Forever. Coach, thank you so much for joining us. I Jacob would would loved, loved to be on this with you today because he is a massive, massive fan. But You've got a schedule. I've got a schedule, clearly, as you can see with the sunshine behind me. We both have schedules, buddy, and we can't wait. So we had to I had to get you in because you just coming fresh off of an East Coast trip. Tell us about it.

Ferbs: Yeah, I just got back from IMG. I was in Bradeton, Florida. I know you're down there with your boy Hudson playing right now. And I I guess summertime, that's when everybody, all the birds fly south for the winter or whatever. You know, all the players go down there to Florida to play. Super hot, but we had a great time. I do this, I'm doing this project with ⁓ Game Changer, you know, the scoring app that everybody knows about. This is it's a cool project that I took on because it is collecting a lot of data.

Jason Corley: Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Right. Yeah.

Ferbs: on kids well we started last year when they were twelve making their transition to the big field from the little field. And this is the second time. The first time was last year, which was the initial go ahead.

Jason Corley: Right. Is this the first time you guys have done it? But w s same kid same kids though? Okay, okay.

Ferbs: A lot of the same kids. So what we wanted to do is we want we wanted to track why do so many young players on their transition from the small field to the big field quit baseball. And we thought by collecting all the data from some of these top end guys in the country, and we could end up sharing that and it'd be real helpful for for players, for parents and players of, you know, 11-year-olds, 10-year-olds, where everything seems

Jason Corley: Okay.

Ferbs: kind of easy when you're on that little field and you can get hits relatively easily and you can throw strikes relatively easily. And when you know that that big field is is a is a ⁓ is a whole different animal. And I think over yeah I think over 50% of baseball players quit because you can't buy a hit. You maybe you're not being able to same play the same position. So we just are collecting data and then

Jason Corley: It's an equalizer, it's an equalizer. Mm.

Ferbs: Being able to share that so we can say this is the the the forces that or the speed or the or the power that if you that you produce at this age to keep you competitive on the big field. This way, if they're working on other things that maybe they they think that they should be working on, I don't know, hitting or what throwing or whatever they've working on, at least you can give them some objective numbers that aren't just opinions on why it is and it could help some people.

Jason Corley: Yeah. Okay. So before we get into this, because it it's fascinating to me because I I see the I don't want to say I s I s at 12, so HUD playing 12U on the national stage, I see, you know, some kids already starting to already starting to peel off. So before we get into that whole thing though, I want to make sure that people also understand you for what what your it would you consider it your side hustle or is it your main hustle with the goaded brand? I do not want to forget. I do not want people to not know that you because I'll be honest with you, coach. I had no idea. I had absolutely no idea that you were the face behind the goaded brand. So tell us about goaded.

Ferbs: Goaded. So that is more of a side hustle. Obviously, I'm I'm a coach first. My my main full time job is coaching and developing players and helping them ⁓ navigate the recruitment process and help them get on the draft board. the the the goaded custom protective designs was literally just a hobby that I I was I I were I started working on as like a part-time thing. ⁓ there was a it was there was a guy similar to you. It's like a dad of a young player.

Jason Corley: Okay. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Ferbs: And we were communicating back and forth on social media. He was just like, show me some, like he would send me some of his sons, like I would watch him take his BP videos and things like just and he basically reached out and just said, Hey, I ⁓ because he he's a lawyer and he does business with China, like businesses in America that do contracts with China with Chinese companies. And he reached out and said, Hey, there's a ⁓ somebody he was doing business with where there was a a factory that I guess the

Jason Corley: Okay.

Ferbs: the workers or they move the factory from China to like Vietnam. But the workers, the workers stayed in China. So he's like, hey, there's a factory that can make these kind of products and things for baseball players. Would you like to try making some cool designs? And I'm I'm like, yeah, I know a lot of players and I I mean, I'm not a huge I I'm not a I'm not a super high fashion guy. You know, I'm not like crazy into fashion. I wear a hat and t shirt like you and shorts every day. But, but

Jason Corley: Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. ⁓

Ferbs: It sounded interesting because I was like, All right, we'll try it. And so we we came out with the first design and it really took off and everybody was like, Yeah, we're looking for this type of stuff and

Jason Corley: Cause it's different, cause it's different.

Ferbs: Yeah, it's more like artwork. What we wanted to do is we're not we're not interested in trying to put out a million trash designs and the same thing over and over. We want we wanted to ⁓ connect with players, make them feel like they could be a little more unique.

Jason Corley: Yes. So it's it's funny you say that because Hudson loves golf. Okay. That's his that he likes he loves when if he's not playing ball, he wants to be fishing or he wants to be golfing. One of the two. And he said that your he said that the goaded brand, he goes, Daddy, goes, just think of the Scotty Cameron head covers. He goes, that's what coach does. He goes, it's that Scotty Cameron feel. Yes. Yes. So I get what you're saying. Yes, exactly what it is.

Ferbs: Yes. That's exactly what it is. Yeah, we we have doubled and tripled down on the the artwork piece of it. So we're not gonna come we're not looking to compete with Evo Shield with distribution or places that are owned by Wilson or these big huge brands. That's not what we're doing. And and everybody has their own little space in the their own little ⁓ you know, place in the space, I guess you would call it. Yeah. We are we are, you know, if some of these other companies are like,

Jason Corley: Right, right. Right. Right. Nitch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Ferbs: maybe Kirkland brand at Costco, we're just kind of like the Gucci version of that, you know? Then you know, some people wanna drive it, some people wanna buy wanna drive a old ⁓ you know, Toyota, like a nineteen eighty five Toyota, and some people want to drive a Ferrari.

Jason Corley: Yeah. Yes, yes. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ Right. And of course all the kids want to drive Ferraris. Yeah. Yeah. No, they don't. They don't.

Ferbs: Everybody wants to drive a Ferrari, but some people don't have the money to do it. Yeah. So yeah, we but I I've been I've been blessed to be able to work with some players over the years, like ⁓ the Palacios brothers from Brooklyn. And Richie is an everyday starter on the Tampa Bay Rays, and he got our designs out to a lot of guys over there. And also ⁓ I gotta shout out ⁓ Geraldo Perdomo, the shortstop, the switch hitting shortstop for the Diamondbacks, who's a big league all-star, and I think runner-up rookie of the year.

Jason Corley: Yeah.

Ferbs: He loves our stuff. ⁓ he wears it all the time. He wore it in a WBC for for for DR. So it, you know, the player No. No, no, it's great to have, you know, it's great, it's great to it's great to have those guys repping repping your stuff. And we actually have doubled and tripled down on prospects in the minor leagues and guys that are draft prospects in in in i school. So probably will take a few years to get to like this point where all of these super high prospects are wearing it, but

Jason Corley: Yeah. That doesn't suck.

Ferbs: We we just like the collections. ⁓ we like we like the idea of presenting yourself in a professional way on the field. Obviously, it's not for everybody. Some guys wear batting gloves, some guys don't. Some guys like Jorge Pasana, just pee on pee on my hands and go rake, you know? But so so not so not every not everybody's into fashion, but surprisingly enough, I didn't think I was gonna like fashion as much.

Jason Corley: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right.

Ferbs: Ads when you start messing around with because that there's an infinite amount of colorways and there's an infinite amount of design. So it's kind of cool to toy around and just and the whole idea of it is because it's goated brands, it's about goats, right? So if we we have we have a Michael Jordan throwback, we have a a Travis Scott coming out, we have a Drake, we have ⁓ Kobe, we have a Kobe mitt. You know, so anybody we have a Jesus mitt. Jesus was a goat to a lot of people.

Jason Corley: Right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Right, right, right, right. I love it. Yeah.

Ferbs: You know, so so we have we have some faith-based we have some faith we have some faith-based stuff for guys. And so it's kind of ⁓ and we do drop, so like five hundred at a time. Sell the design.

Jason Corley: Who's who's the who's the who's the Pope? Who's the goat of Popes for the Catholics? Who's the Pope? You're gonna ha you're gonna have to throw one out there now if you're gonna do Jesus, you're gonna have to do yes. Yeah, yeah. There's there's yes, you're gonna have to be a burning bush. There's gonna yes. Yes.

Ferbs: I guess Pope John Paul Pope John Paul the Fourth or somebody I think was the Yeah. G gonna have to do ⁓ gonna have to do Moses Moses for the Jewish guys, Muhammad for the for the Arabs. Yeah. That is funny.

Jason Corley: All right. So speaking of prospects, how did your like ⁓ I know that that's that's your wheelhouse. That is, that's what you love. That is what you get up every day to to, that's what gets you up every day is your prospects and working with your prospects. Where did that how did that come to be? Like nobody knows how you got into this. I shouldn't say nobody, but a lot of people don't.

Ferbs: Well, it was no. Sure. I mean, I was like similar to most other people. After I finished playing, ⁓ I played college baseball as JUCO in California. ⁓ I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. I moved to California ⁓ when I was eighteen. Not on the best path in life, ⁓ you know, during high school. And so my uncle.

Jason Corley: Yeah.

Ferbs: live he he l was living in the Bay Area and he said if you come here you can live at my house you just gotta go to school you gotta get a job you gotta do this type of thing so I I walked on at the baseball team got a spot and after that I played a year or two at like indie ball around a Bay Area and then I just felt you know at a certain time it depends on how much money you have but you see you see all of your all of your friends that you grew up with are different people your age they start getting full time jobs having families and things so I did that I I actually rent

Jason Corley: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Girls

Ferbs: Yeah, I ran a nightclub for a couple of years. ⁓ did promotion for a nightclub. I I I actually sold then I went to I w I went moved back to New York and I was selling real estate and apartments and things in New York City. ⁓ And my wife was the one who yeah, it was tough. That's a tough racket right there.

Jason Corley: Holy shit. ⁓ No. No, no. And that's where and that's where you learn to communicate. Cause you had to read, are they full of shit? 'Cause I don't want to do this all day or are they legit?

Ferbs: Try if you if you think a double if you think a double header if you think a doubleheader in Florida, perfect game is tough. Try walking around the city of New York in July when a hundred and five degrees with a hundred percent humidity with a full suit on, going up and down subways, meet meeting clients and trying to sell ⁓ houses. No. Yes. Yes. No, that's a doggy dog. That's a real shark tank of a of a of a of a type of business. And I mean you'll be I've been with peep with with a client for show ⁓ eight different apartments all over New York City. Midtown, ⁓ Wall Street, Financial District, Chelsea, all the and then at the in the last one you say, so which one of those did you like? And she goes, Hold on. She takes a call. Hey, my other broker has to show me this other thing. What what? You have another broker? ⁓ dude, it happens routinely. Yeah, you want to kill your volume.

Jason Corley: I ⁓ Yeah. Come on. ⁓ my God. ⁓ my god. You're like, come out. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. ⁓

Ferbs: Yeah. Yeah, hold on. Let me just go up to call up to the Empire State Building and just jump off the top real quick. Thank you. Appreciate appreciate your help. Appreciate appreciate you working with me. So, so ⁓ so basically this all happened and my wife actually she noticed that I was not in a, you know, as as much as that joy. Yeah, that yeah, yeah, yeah. Like when you first meet, when you first meet your wife, you're in that like joyous and free and happy state, and then all of a sudden you're like,

Jason Corley: About to crash out, as the kids say. Right. Yeah. Right. ⁓

Ferbs: Hold on, wait a second. Nothing's joyous anymore. I'm just chasing money around all day trying to trying to pay trying to pay for to live in New York City and and buy buy a couple of suits you gotta dry clean, you know? And so she says, She says, Hey, why don't you pick up a hobby? And I said, I don't have a hobby. What kind of hobby? I gotta sell, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta make money. There's no hobbies. And and she said, What about baseball? She

Jason Corley: Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah, that's dr that's the code word for drugs in New York City, honey. We don't do that. Yeah. A hobby. Yeah. Yeah.

Ferbs: Exactly. So yeah, so she basically she said, What about baseball? You love baseball. You love watching Yankees. I said, What about it? She said, Well, you can volunteer and maybe hang out with some kids and and and and coach them up a little. I said, No, I don't have time for that. I can't do that. I have to I have I have to work. And so the next day, oddly enough, in the middle of the day, I got a call from some, it's like a it was like a

Jason Corley: Yeah.

Ferbs: One of these like 501c3, like a chat, like ⁓ under pr underprivileged kids or something like that, where they said, they said almost like it was called Harlem RBI at the time. And yeah, they said Mark Teshar a bunch of Yankees and stuff have gone over there. They said, ⁓ it was like you can. She's like, all of so the guy called and said, Hey, ⁓ I got your email of that you wanted to apply to, you know, volunteer. I said, huh?

Jason Corley: Right. Right. Like a boys and girls club. ⁓ okay. Mm-hmm.

Ferbs: What and I was like, ⁓ my God, my wife actually just submitted my application without with me not knowing. So I yeah, at that point I was like, ⁓ okay. It's like, yeah. And she just said, you know, it was like meet at Central Park ⁓ for on Wednesdays for a practice at like three to five. And then there was like a double header in Brooklyn, ⁓ at like in Sheep's head bay on Sundays or something like that. And so I was like, okay. And, you know.

Jason Corley: Course she did.

Ferbs: The game, you know as well as I do, if if you love the game, as as much problems as you have and stress in your life and everything that's going on, once you're out on the field, yeah, it disappears. You start hitting fungos to the kids. You know, you see the kids' reactions when they make an adjustment, kids looking at you, asking you to tell them, you know, what's my next move? What do I do here? How can you help me? And, you know, it she was right. It it helped me tremendously because it

Jason Corley: There's something about it. Dude. Yeah. Yes.

Ferbs: It blocked out all the problems and things and the everyday grind and just gave me a little break. You know, that went on for a little while. And what I noticed was there was like two kids or three kids on that team that had a chance. They were like obviously a lot better. The other kids were using it more as like a recreational activity. And I had a I yeah, you could you could clearly see it. And so I had a talk with some of their parents and

Jason Corley: Yeah. Yeah. Sure. But you saw it. You saw it. You could see it.

Ferbs: So, you know, your two or three, these two or three kids, your guy, your kids are a little different. They're more competitive. They're, you can see their actions are a little bit faster and stronger. They should be looking elsewhere for something a little more competitive than this to keep them, you know. And so I said, Okay, well, what do you recommend? Yeah. So so one of the moms started researching some things and she saw a program out of Pennsylvania. It was like maybe a two and a half hour drive from New York, like around Harrisburg area.

Jason Corley: Okay, okay. Engaged, yeah.

Ferbs: Called US Elite at the time. I don't even know if they're still around. ⁓ yeah, I still have some teams. It's changed ownership. Yeah. Yeah. But it was one of the original, like what you think of the Canes or Team Elite or that type of thing now, that's what they were in the beginning when I was there. And I think it's kind of gone in different directions and kind of broken up. But when I when I was when I was there, it was so foreign to me. So what happened was I she goes, there's a tryout for this thing. It's a national team. This is 15 years ago.

Jason Corley: I think they are. I think they are. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Sure, sure. Yeah. Sure.

Ferbs: 15 years like and so I I jumped in the car with these kids and their parents and we took a drive on like a Sunday to go to this tryout. And after the tryout, the the the owner of the organization came over and he said, Yeah, all three of these guys, they're all yeah, I take I'll take all three. And and and everybody was like happy about it and this and that. And then the guy came over to me and he was like he was like, Who are you? Are you his dad or his uncle? Or what what I said, No, no, I'm a I'm his coach on his other team. I I was coaching him on this kind of like a

Jason Corley: Right. Right.

Ferbs: And he kind of looked at me crazy. He was like, he's like, what do you he's wait, you're you're his coach and you're giving us your best players? And it didn't make sense because what coach would try to give give his best players away to somebody else? And I just told him, I said, I said, I'm just vo I'm just volunteering here. I'm not there's not a lot of money involved here. ⁓ I I it

Jason Corley: Right. Sure. Yeah. And that's when it clicked. That's when it clicked for you.

Ferbs: Yeah, I mean I s yeah, I guess so I th it well he said he said

Jason Corley: Because you there was something euphoric for you, there was something beautifully euphoric about I just helped these boys get out. I saw what all the colors so you just figured out in your head, you're like, okay, I already know what they want. I know what they're looking for. And if I spot it and I can deliver it to them, then I just took this kid and gave him his shot. That's that's all the payment you need. You don't need any payment. Like in your in your mind and in your heart, you're like, that's the euphoric spot. Go find them in the burrows.

Ferbs: Yes. Yes.

Jason Corley: And give find the ones that have a chance and let's get let's show them the door of opportunity. That's where it was, right?

Ferbs: Yeah. I mean it's interesting you say that because a lot of people like yourself, maybe or s or other people might see the end result or s look at the social media page on Instagram and say, Man, look, you know, like this is look at this. He's he's working with these big leaguers and and draft prospects and all this other stuff, but they didn't what they don't see is the beginning of when I was just in the in the park in Brooklyn working out with 12-year-old Dominican kids that didn't even speak English. They were just here for the summer visiting their families. And we were just working out in the park and things. And I wasn't charging them a dime. I literally was doing it for free. So I was trying to learn how to coach by working with young kids and trying to make adjustments. And by the way, any young coach that really wants to sharpen their coaching skills, try working with a kid that doesn't speak English because it will force you. All that stuff that you say that sounds real

Jason Corley: Right. To use actions.

Ferbs: Yeah, all the stuff that that sounds smart and you go, ooh, ⁓ that doesn't matter. Your words mean nothing anymore. You have to, you know, maybe touch like his shoulder or his hip and like try to explain certain things like no, no, no, and like show it through visuals. Yeah. It makes you very it makes you different with communicate communicating and and transfer information.

Jason Corley: That's that's a very good point. Yeah, yeah.

Ferbs: ⁓

Jason Corley: Do you I have a question? I have a qu now that you say that, do you think that's why Trotsky is so he's so he's so good at what he does because the of the language bear? I mean, I know that he knows the language, but he seems to be, he's always working with those Dominican boys, but you always see him doing exactly what he wants them to do. He does it. Where you see coaches, you and I both know 25 million coaches out there that can't even throw from the mound, let alone explain how to throw from the mound.

Ferbs: Right. I think Trotsky is good at what he does for tours. One is because he lives and breathes infield th things and and and I you could tell he's got a super, super high passion and motor for helping infielders get better. I I also could I mean you I never met a successful part time worker. There's a lot of guys in this game.

Jason Corley: Right, right. Right. Yeah.

Ferbs: They're they're they're they're like part-time hitting coaches and it's not bad. I'm not saying it's bad or part-time coaches. What I'm saying is is that ⁓ you know, I've never seen somebody I I went all in after I went to there was no way that I would have become where I'm at now as far as coaching if I would have done it part-time, in my opinion. Because I just yeah, whatever I do, I feel like you have to do it full time to be successful at it.

Jason Corley: Right. I get I know, I know. Yeah. Okay.

Ferbs: And you have to put a crazy amount of hours and effort into it. So I there was really not that much money involved in the beginning, but there there was a extremely large amount of happiness and joy doing it. So I was able to supplement my income a little bit by training different players. And I wasn't just doing one-off lessons. So what I was doing to be able to sustain, I was like,

Jason Corley: Right. Okay. ⁓

Ferbs: There's no way you can't you can't do enough lessons in a week to be able to live in New York City comfortably. You know, you w even if you do four or five lessons a day and you're renting cages from places and you're doing all this stuff, you're not gonna be able to live there. So what I did was I talked to a couple of different families that had the financial means to be able to, to be able to give their son to me in a

Jason Corley: Right, right, right. Okay.

Ferbs: In a setting where it was instead of we're meeting once a week to hit for an hour, I said, I'm taking on three guys. And what I what I what I need is four times a week for three hours in a clip. They were like, wait, what? I said, Yeah. No, I said, if you want your son to do this, that means I'm gonna pick him up at school right after he gets out of school at three o'clock. We're we're going to go to the park. We're going to

Jason Corley: Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Ferbs: We're gonna practice hitting for an hour. We're gonna practice fielding for an hour. And then we're going to the gym. And I'm gonna go train them at the gym with them and me. And basically, and then I'm gonna get their whole nutrition plan. I'm doing it everything from top to bottom. I'm not just hitting for an hour and then whatever happens, I don't see I don't see him. I don't know what he's doing. That that to me, it takes a certain type of player to be able to just come in for a week, get some hitting tips, and then you don't know.

Jason Corley: Yeah. Right.

Ferbs: What they're doing in games, you don't know how much other practice you're doing, you don't know who they're who else we're gonna see, you don't know what information you're getting from other people. And you're just throwing out random drills to see if something sticks. You know, so I so they so I basically took on two to three guys where my complete every single day in my week was three hours at a day, sometimes two times at a time, with the same guy, about 12.

Jason Corley: Yeah, yeah. Okay. How young were they at the time?

Ferbs: thirteen, twelve and thirteen started and I

Jason Corley: Okay, ай, со рейдні.

Ferbs: Yes. And I I worked with them until they were through college. So they they they so so basically coached them on the field. A kid named Ben Greenspawn. He is from the upper west side in Manhattan. He ended up going to William and Mary. ⁓ got a degree over there. He's now becoming a lawyer. It's just I just crazy to me. Meet a kid at twelve and all of a sudden now he's got a better job than you. Which is wait a second, man. I I used to I used to buy

Jason Corley: Okay. Hey, job well done. Job well done.

Ferbs: Yeah, yeah. So I don't get what's going on. I used to buy you s I used to buy you slices of pizza and little little ice cream cones and now now you're now you're protecting me in civils in civil suits.

Jason Corley: Right. Right. Yes. Yes. Yeah, coach. I told you. Let's get that LLC, coach. Rest. Hey, Lee, they hey, that's just that's just kudos to you. You told them how to work. You got through law school.

Ferbs: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. The guy went guy went from my player to my attorney. He went from my player to my attorney. So Yes, sir. There's another kid named Alex Bauman. He went to Bucknell University as a catcher. And he also is ⁓ he's getting involved with business now. But it's great to see these guys graduate and go further and to maintain the relationships with your players, I feel like is the ultimate success for me, even after they're finished playing. Because as a coach, what that tells me is everybody goes, How do you know if you're a good coach or not? And some people define that as

Jason Corley: Yeah.

Ferbs: Well, how many players have you gotten scholarships for? How many players have you gotten drafted? How many players have you gotten a Vanderbilt or LSU? You know, how many players have you coached and they're in the big leagues? I think that's a very poor way to evaluate somebody's coaching ability because I've known guys, I've been blessed to work with three guys that have made it to the major leagues, but I've worked with probably a hundred very closely. And I know guys been coaching for 20 years that never

Jason Corley: I couldn't agree more.

Ferbs: Had a guy make it to the big leagues. And they're excellent, phenomenal coaches. There's so, it's so hard to make it there and to stay there. I mean, there's like 875, maybe 900 big leaguers, and only 650 of those guys are American born. So you really have such a small, small, small shot, even if the kid's a really good player. So how I like to define good coaching is after you're finished working with them, do they even

Jason Corley: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right.

Ferbs: Care about reaching out. Do they wish you a Merry Christmas? Do they say happy holidays? I miss you. Send you a little funny video once in a while. That's how I determine the relationships with my guys, how well I coach them was if they want to continue to have a relationship with me after I coach them. I I I, you know, we all, we all tell me, tell right and wrong, Jay. We've all been with coaches that we've been coached by guys that.

Jason Corley: Right. Yeah. Mm.

Ferbs: Everybody hates and everybody motherfucks them after they leave the field, right? The whole team. You you you play because you love to play and your teammates, even if you're winning, but but but when you leave, yeah. When you leave, all the teammates, all your teammates go, fuck, man. I hate that guy, bro. What a what a dick. What a jerk off, bro. Why can't he just be cool? And but but there's also these other coaches that when you leave the the huddle or you leave the postgame talk, they're like, man.

Jason Corley: Yes. ⁓ it's so hard to hear you say this right now. Yeah.

Ferbs: I love that guy, bro. That guy's such that guy's so cool, bro. He cares about us so much, you know? And I always wanted to win or lose. Yeah. And that's why you you you have to really be grateful. I kids don't realize how few and far between those coaches are that make those long, long impacts.

Jason Corley: Yeah. Win or win or loss. Win or loss. They love him. Okay. So let me ask you this. Let me ask you this because I just, there's kids out there right now. There are 12, there are 13, there are 14-year-old kids out there. They're gonna watch these podcasts or they're gonna watch these little clips. And they might be going through a s a situation right now, coach, where they they are stuck. They are stuck in a situation where they are motherfucking this coach every time he leaves because he is an asshole or he is a dick or he doesn't treat them the right way. ⁓ what How do you help these kids that don't have the control over their own situations where they do have to grind through it? Like not everybody has a perfect coach. There's very few you and I both know that. The the gems, the gems are hard to find, and when you find them, you gotta hold on to them. So what how do you help a kid who is stuck in a situation?

Ferbs: I think the first thing to realize is that when you say doesn't have the perfect coach, there's no perfect baseball situation first. We have to realize that that as much as we love to play, kids, I feel like, especially with the NIL, the transfer portal, how how how kids leave travel teams maybe once, even twice a season. ⁓ it's not bad or good. It's not I don't think of things in in bad or good terms. What I what I look at is what I would ask them, what is a perfect baseball situation, first of all? If you're looking for something perfect, that means I'm starting every day, no matter what. I'm I'm I'm playing I'm playing short, maybe your center field. ⁓ I'm batting third every day no matter what I'm batting third every day. ⁓ I I love all my teammates

Jason Corley: Right. Right. Yeah.

Ferbs: I don't think any one of them is shit. I don't think any one of them is shithead, which never happens. ⁓ the coaching staff, the co the coaching staff, I love all my coaches, right? They're all great. They give me great feedback. There's not one of it just it it's not realistic, right? It's not realistic, but people people think that the grass is greener, or the people think that if I just leave here and go to this other team and get a new start, you don't realize is wherever you go, there you are.

Jason Corley: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. ⁓ Mm-hmm.

Ferbs: Right? You're you're changing a location. Changing a location doesn't change your personality. Yeah, it doesn't change your personality. Doesn't change how you if if my approach to the game at my first school was very selfish, worried about my own stats, ⁓ worried about my own performance. I was not a team guy. I I didn't care about picking up other guys in a dugout. I didn't care about anybody else's struggles. If that was why I

Jason Corley: There you are. Is on you. Right. Right. Yeah.

Ferbs: Didn't have a good experience at this one program. If I go to the next program with the same exact attitude, why would anything change?

Jason Corley: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I yeah. I mean, we just talked we just we talked about it. We talked about it like you and I talked about it off air. We talked about it off the record and we said, we're probably gonna bring this up because the the attitude difference now in the kids is drastically different. But the problem is is that you and I both I think you would admit to this, but I've said this before on previous podcasts. Never in the history of mankind.

Ferbs: You know what I mean? So I feel like when I if from going in the portal and you're looking to change schools.

Jason Corley: Honest to God, has there ever been this much attention on youth baseball than there is right here, right now in this country? Every there's so many more, there's so many more eyeballs, there's so many more, there's so much more brand awareness. And every time a kid throws a fit, he's either learned it in the dugout or he's learned it at home. One of the two. Like they've they've been able to get away with this. And you and I have talked about this. that it's just, it's ⁓ the good one, you're right. The the good one.

Ferbs: Hundred percent. Yes.

Jason Corley: The good coaches are really, really hard to find. And you're only as good as what you make your dugout to be. There are some kids that say, you know what? I've had enough. I would like myself to have a mature dugout. So I'm gonna I'm gonna eject myself out of here and I'm gonna take myself and go find maybe a less maybe won't be as successful. Maybe we won't win so many games. But by God, we're not gonna be dry humping the fence in between innings. This isn't gonna be an F bomb dugout. And I'm gonna be able to grow as a young man because my coach seems to have be very high character, less about the wins and more about the character. There are kids out there that want that. And then there are kids out there that they just wanna toss shit and act like they don't care.

Ferbs: Well, yeah, I mean, the the nature of what the game is at the younger levels, I think you we always have to start. People like to look at, hey, look at what these big leaguers are doing. ⁓ and then it trickles down. There's some of that, but I feel like the way that we introduce the game to young players, these are the kids that we're gonna be seeing on TV one day. So all these people that have all these criticisms of these guys throwing a bat. 50 feet into the air and hitting an umpire in the head, or you know, jo jogging down, jogging down the line to first and taking three minutes to to go around the field when he hits a home, a 200-foot home run. You can you can crit you can criticize it all you want, but guess what? It doesn't matter because what the market will decide what plays and what doesn't. And there are situations that I don't personally think are helping young kids be better baseball players. There's a lot of events that kids go to, even with the brands pouring all types of free gear and giving all this kids to 12-year-olds kids kids stuff. I like it because I like the idea of a kid being, you know, rewarded for for working hard on a field

Jason Corley: Yeah. Spoiled. It's spoiled spoiled. Yeah, spoiled for their talents and their hard work. I get it. Yeah.

Ferbs: And and I I get that because they also do have to you could make the argument that they have to sacrifice a lot of social time, you know, by training and baseball, and they don't get to hang out with the other kids. So they're doing that. However, I've talked to a lot of college coaches recently. And since this whole craze started with kids getting all these brands and free merchandise and kind of NIL guys, they'll say that, you know, they'll get to like an ACC program and they'll get, they'll come in and go.

Jason Corley: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Ferbs: Guys, we're sponsored by Under Armour. We have any Oakley glasses. You got this and that. And the kids are just like, and no, not a comedy. It's it's just it no, it's not even a conflict. It's just like they're not appreciative of it, because you're just like, I already have all this. I've already had all this stuff. It's no big deal. So there's the lack of appre the lack of appreciation. But that too, they they might have cross deals like that, what you're mentioning. But but I but I think the main problem is that, you know, you you're you're

Jason Corley: ⁓ and there's a conflict. There's a conflict 'cause of Nike or something. Okay, okay. Why do you think? Sorry, coach, we gotta peel this off. I'm with Nike. Yeah, yeah.

Ferbs: Yeah, exactly. Sorry, let me put a USA flag over over your little Adidas Adidas patch. Like your Michael Jordan in the in a dreams in a dream team when they when they were wearing Reebok in the in the Olympics and he had Nike view. But the kids but the kids thirteen.

Jason Corley: They're so ⁓ they're already conditioned that if they just get enough views and enough clicks that the the the monetization is coming in that the the nobody sees the work because they don't sometimes have to do the work.

Ferbs: Yeah. I mean that yeah, you're your what they're rewarding now is your following rather than your baseball performance stats. You know, and and so I see a lot of kids out there that almost value practice videos more than they do actually playing in a game or their performance stats. I see kids that are doing, you know, running guns in a in the offseason, pull downs, throwing a ball 96 miles an hour.

Jason Corley: Right. Ooh, yeah.

Ferbs: And they have all these cool hype reels. And then June comes around when they really need to be locked in. And this is what and and they go, ⁓ man, my arm hurts. And you go, What do you mean? Is it hurt? Is it ⁓ my just my arm hurts? I use it a lot. Wait a second. When the when it was the off season and nothing was going on, and you were you were at an at your peak performance, throwing 95, ripping things, you got highlight reel videos and all types of stuff.

Jason Corley: Right. Right. Right. Right.

Ferbs: What's the point of all this practice? If when you're in season and you need to perform, your arm hurts and you're shut down because you overused it or you had too much volume or too much intensity and you taxed it too much. I I it's like the cross-fitification of baseball, where practice, where practice becomes more important to a kid and how many views or clicks he got or how many little goat emojis he got then.

Jason Corley: Mm. Yeah.

Ferbs: Him shoving in a real game against a really, really good lineup, you know, 100%. Yeah. So I I think I I think that at some point, you know, everything comes full circle. And I think at some point it does. You're seeing it right now a little bit in the in the transfer portal situation. As much as I don't like a lot of things about the transfer portal situation, what it has done is is it rewards the D3.

Jason Corley: Right. When it mattered for all of his boys. Yeah, yeah.

Ferbs: D two, ⁓ the the guys that are in JUCOs, the guys that are putting up numbers and they have no brand awareness and they have no clout from a from a brand name. And some of these bigger schools are going, Hey, hey, hey, Mr. High School kid. I I like the fact that you have a hundred thousand followers and I like the fact that you that you have eighteen different brand deals. But guess what? I need a twenty year old dude that hit three thirty with fourteen homers in a D D two program.

Jason Corley: Yeah. Yes. Yep. Mm-hmm.

Ferbs: More than I need you. I don't need your following here. I don't need your following does nothing for me. And your your clicks and views do nothing for our program. It doesn't help me win a national championship.

Jason Corley: Right. Right. No. And that's what I have to have in order to keep my job. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So speaking of which, let's get back to the let's get back to the the situation where you're down here at IMG. So first of all, I do apologize for bringing that up because the Uber guy did tell me armed security. He's like, dude.

Ferbs: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Jason Corley: Armed security. He's like, there's no in, there's no out at IMG. Because folks, for those of you that don't know, I'm down here and ⁓ HUD wants to get some work in before the East Cobb event. So I put a little thing out on on social channels about anybody knowing any cages. And Jacob was like, ⁓ did you not ask Coach Jason like what's up with IMG? I was like, good point, I will. And ⁓ coach is just like, Coach is just like, yeah, you're not getting in. And if you do get in, you're not, you're definitely not getting out.

Ferbs: Yes, yeah. Yeah, it's furbs.

Jason Corley: So ⁓ tell us about IMG. You were down there with how many, how many studs did you go with? And I think for the f I don't want people to not hear what I'm about to say. He did not go, first of all, he did not go with the most popular kids in this country. He went with hand-picked specimens to do evaluating for metrics on. You were very specific with that on me. You said some of these kids, nobody even knows that we took them down there because they don't have the biggest following.

Ferbs: Yeah.

Jason Corley: They might not be select fest kids, but they were kids that you guys wanted. Tell us about that.

Ferbs: Well, what I've noticed is that I at some of the special events that they have, whether it's a Select Fest or any of these different like events that these kids go to, it's like the same 20 guys that are talked about all the time, over and over and over. And there's two two million amateur baseball players in the United States. And so you start looking around and going, wait a second. There's there's no way that there aren't other kids that can compete with this level of player.

Jason Corley: Right. Right. Right. Right.

Ferbs: And so I I've been blessed. I've been blessed to have a ⁓ to build a really big network of coaches across the country since I've been doing this for so long of guys that I trust their opinion. So I reach out to the coaches that I know and say, hey, anybody in your area that isn't highly isn't highly talked about, they not may maybe they're not even a high follow. Don't worry about where they're ranked. Don't worry about where they're ranked. Get me a guy.

Jason Corley: Second.

Ferbs: That has a high motor, he's coachable, and his actions at 12 look clean. And we can talk about projecting him out and working with him. If we we get him in early enough, ⁓ we can we can help him through the process. And so that's what we're looking at. And there was a lot of kids that also were highly ranked kids that we didn't take because that we didn't take on purpose.

Jason Corley: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Ferbs: Not because they weren't good players. They were good players, but their energy and their attitude was not for not what we wanted. And I'm not saying that's not for everybody. Every coach, every coach knows their own personality and they know like you as a coach, know your system. Who what kind of a kid? Whether he's from a certain region, whether he ⁓ dresses a certain way, whether he talks a certain way, whether he says sir or

Jason Corley: Yeah.

Ferbs: Thank you, or whatever it is. You may have, you know, you know guys that work well in your system, just like I know coaches, know players that work well in my system.

Jason Corley: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I know exactly the kind of guys that I know exactly the kind of guys that you're targeting. When you take Cooper Ooton, I already know that tells me everything about your what you guys are doing because I've known that kid since he was nine years old in Columbus, Ohio, because him and Huddy used to that he was always a year above HUD. And I'm telling you, when you sit when when you tell me that you're taking Cooper Outon, I know exactly the kind of kind of athlete and the kind of person that you're taking. He tells me everything I need to know.

Ferbs: Yes. Yeah, just a super mature for his age, all business when he's out there. He wants to get better. He not so business like where he can't smile. So he he competes his ass off and he's a very, very driven, very driven kid. But if you talk to him, he'll still he'll still crack a smile. You know, he's not, he's not, he's not ⁓ crazy. Some some of these kids they take it so serious that you know you you you end up going ⁓ for four, you end up with a school shooter or something crazy. know what I mean? You can't have that. ⁓

Jason Corley: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yes. Right, you're right. It's so true though. It's so true. It's not the end of the world. Yeah, you're right. ⁓

Ferbs: We don't we yeah, we're not trying to turn any we're not trying no, it's not the end of the world, right? And so so ⁓ yeah, we're look we're we're we're we're looking for kids also. I I hate to say it and I know people have probably said it before a lot of people don't believe it, but there are some kids, unfortunately, that we don't take because of their parents.

Jason Corley: know. I know. I know. ⁓

Ferbs: Sad. That's like the that's like the most sad to me, bro. Honestly, out of all the kids that that I can either because you don't have too many. I only I'm only taking 28, you know. So I don't, it's not like this endless list. And so when you get two or three different people giving you feedback about his dad's a little dad's crazy, bro. His dad's a psycho, dad's nuts. All he ever does is talk about his son. He's in the stands, he's always talking about his son. People

Jason Corley: Right. Yeah.

Ferbs: All it takes is out of 28 people, the problem is all it takes is one psycho, whether it's a mom or dad to ruin 27 other people's times. So you you you have to you have to kind of I I always err on the side of caution and I've taken kids that are a tick under from a development or physical ability standpoint of another kid just because their parents were super appreciative, grateful, thankful, show up on time, they communicate well.

Jason Corley: Yeah. The whole thing. Yeah. Yeah.

Ferbs: ⁓ they follow directions. They're they're good spectators. ⁓ they they they're I'll take those people because there's another piece to this that people don't realize is that they think that coaches all they care about is just getting the highest level player so they can say I'm working with the highest level player. Maybe some coaches do. I think most coaches do this because they enjoy baseball, they enjoy teaching kids. And so for me, if it if I have a

Jason Corley: Yes. Yes.

Ferbs: A a choice between a kid that's a potential first rounder, that his par his parents are constantly complaining, constantly talking shit, constantly doing stuff like that. And then this other kid that maybe he's a college guy or or or he just needs some more development, but his parents are exemplary in the way that they show up and show support and show love and and they're those type of people. I want to be around people that make me feel good. I don't wanna be around people that that that have this when I see them I go, ⁓ shit, man, not this guy again. You know what I mean? You know those you know those people.

Jason Corley: Right, right, right. No, I I I get it. I get it. I do, I do, because and do you have the parents that that ⁓ their son can't do anything right on the field, no matter what it is. It's something you know I mean, there it's always you could have done better at this, you could have done better at that. And then it's the pair yeah, it's just the parents you do have parents that just stand in the back and it's just this. It's just this and it's just toxic. It's just toxic bullshit all the time. ⁓ so yes, I understand what you're saying a thousand percent. I agree with you. I yeah, I mean I would feel the team. I would, I would much, I would, I would, I would turn a a stud right-handed or a left-handed top arm in the country away if his dad was toxic. Or you know what I mean? It just, I get it a thousand percent. So ⁓ what was the most impressive, ⁓ what was the most impressive thing that you guys were able to discover over the weekend with the with the kids down at IMG? What was the most, what was the thing that you took away out of out of everything? What was the thing that you just can't stop thinking about?

Ferbs: I would say that there were well, first of all, there are kids that are 13 years old that are sitting mid 80s with a wipeout slider and a college level change up at 13. I don't even know what that turns into. ⁓ I don't even know what that turns into. I I I don't even know, but it that that's pretty crazy. And the and the crazier part than that is.

Jason Corley: I agree.

Ferbs: the other kids that we're hitting are actually squaring those guys up and doing damage and hitting doubles and triples and homers. ⁓ Cooper, if you since you know since you know Cooper and you mentioned him, he hit a ball 109 miles an hour off the bat. Now, I do want to put a caveat on this.

Jason Corley: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Wait, tell tell yes. Tell ⁓

Ferbs: Listen, though the the so when they're the when they were 12, when the kids were 12, ⁓ they swing the they swing drop fives, they do triple SA bats until they're 13. And then they start at 14, I think BB core. So at 12, Rawlings hooked us up ⁓ with a bunch of these unreleased bats so they could do some testing with them. And and that's what we were doing to help the parents. We're collecting data. And then this year, when I saw these guys and the the the the

Jason Corley: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Ferbs: The jumps in physical development, I go, I don't even think we should be swinging drop fives anymore at 13. These guys, maybe other kids that are a little smaller can, but these guys can swing regular BB cores. But then I look at it, I go, wait a second. I'd have to use the drop five one more time because we need to keep the the testing. The pro we can't, it's not the the data's not going to be right. If you use a drop five at 12 and they use a BB core at 13.

Jason Corley: Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Ferbs: All the exit vehicle, the attack angles, the batted ball, everything is gonna be off. So we kept it with the drop fives, and they gave us these unreleased icons, and the boys loved them and everything. And that's the last time that those guys are swinging the drop fives. Yeah, the in August. We have another event in August in Texas, and those guys were all swinging BB chords. That should be a good little ⁓ equalizer, too. But ⁓ it it was it was it was all around the level of athleticism. I

Jason Corley: Mm-hmm. You told me that. ⁓ Okay. Okay.

Ferbs: I feel like when I was growing up, you we didn't you and I probably it didn't look like this because we never really went to events where you took all the top guys in the country and put them in there. Like ⁓ Legion Legion ball was like all the guys, all the top all the top high school guys, like you know, three, four top high school guys from each team, those guys are there. But then that you're still talking about one county or one region or one city. You're not talking yeah, you're not you're not talking about across the country.

Jason Corley: Yep. Yep. One county. That's right. Yeah. Right.

Ferbs: So it looks crazy. Some of these guys look like they got an A fifty credit score, look like they got six wives and two kids, right? I mean

Jason Corley: Right. That that clip is gonna be amazing. That clip is gonna be amazing. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓

Ferbs: Yeah, somebody's guys. Yeah. So yeah. I don't know. I I seen a couple of a couple of kids with mustaches at 13 and things. I'm going, okay. You know, so so ⁓ and people's like ⁓ yeah, like there was there was a couple of kids, like there's a kid, Ben Hamlin. I don't know if you know who he is. He's a f he's he's

Jason Corley: I I d I've heard the name, but I don't know if I could pick him out of a lineup or not.

Ferbs: He's a lefty stick catcher with a power hit tool. He's 6'1, 200 pounds as a 13-year-old. And he hits balls 450 feet with those drop fives. I mean, just stupid. He at 13, I swear to God, if you put him on like a ACC college level team or a power four team, and you just had him take BP and like if you were sitting in the stands, you would look

Jason Corley: Maybe ⁓

Ferbs: be you might be like, ⁓ it looks like a freshman or but you wouldn't be like, what's he doing here? You wouldn't. And he's 13. And he and I swear to God, if you put him on the field taking BP with college level hitters, he would look like ⁓ close. I mean, it's crazy, bro. Honestly, I've never seen anything like that.

Jason Corley: Right, right. Okay. Okay. So w ⁓ with these metrics, were you guys able to also look at their physical develop? I'm assuming the physical development was a big part of this too, like how many kids didn't grow anymore or how many kids grew six inches in that one year compared. And is that something that you guys try to target when you pick these kids out? Like let's just say, for instance, you get the short little scrawny kid that runs really, really fast, and you want to see how much does puberty change in him in a year? And then you get the kid that's six foot at, you know, at twelve years old. You get the kid at six foot and a hundred and sixty-five pounds. Did he grow anymore or did he stay the same? Is that something you guys look at as all as well?

Ferbs: Well, at the very beginning, we're just looking for some of the most talented kids at the 12U level. We we try we try to stay away from, well, we're just looking for the biggest kids, just because some of those biggest kids, if that's if they've already peaked, ⁓ I you don't really know. Nobody can tell you who's going to what window of development that anybody's in. So like none none of them have facial hair or anything like that. So they they most of them will will continue to grow.

Jason Corley: Okay. Right, right, right. ⁓ MVP hustle. No, I'm just joking. I'm just joking. Marcos, Marcos brings a few in. I'm just joking, Marcos, don't don't come at me. Right. Right.

Ferbs: So well, I mean like some couple of couple of couple of have a couple of mustaches a couple of mustaches here and there on thirteen. Yeah, I guess I have seen a couple with some peach fuzz. But ⁓ but generally speaking, it's it is so first of all, a lot of times when you see whoever, drive line or any business showing VLO jumps on people they work with, 13, 14, 15-year-old kids, you it's really hard to be able to say.

Jason Corley: Yeah, yeah.

Ferbs: What caused the VLO to jump? And was it their training or was it just the fact that they have a bunch of testosterone going through their body and they and and and they've just gotten man strength and and and they're going through puberty? There's no way of defining and quantifying what came from where. but I do think I do think it's the most interesting at this age because there's no other time in human life in a human life where you see these type of jumps in this amount of time.

Jason Corley: Okay. Okay.

Ferbs: Where you'd see a guy jump eight miles, eight miles an hour in VLO in six months or something crazy or seven miles an hour. That stuff just doesn't happen when you're when you get to be a professional baseball player, you know, in 20, 21, 22, you might you might see a a mile an hour, two miles an hour here or there. You might see three, but generally speaking, you're you're you're you're cleaning up, you kind of your growth plates have fused.

Jason Corley: Yep, yep.

Ferbs: You know, you're not really seeing these types of of jumps in physical force output.

Jason Corley: Yeah, for sure. Okay. All right. So ⁓ i i it first of all, thank you. Thank you for blessing us with your knowledge and your time. I know first of all, firsthand how busy you are. Just you and me trying to get a text message when we first started, it was like playing tag, trying to get to each other. And ⁓ so I I so before I forget about this, I want you to know from the bottom of my heart and everybody's listening, thank you for making the time today.

Ferbs: Plus

Jason Corley: To come on and talk about this. With that being said, ⁓ is this something, is this something, you know, I I I mean not I don't mean anything in this whole realm. It's just I'm I'm being dead serious. You could have chosen anybody and you chose our audience to come and talk to. So with that being said, is this something where you're going out and handpicking something? Is this something that parents can nominate their kids for? How does this process go about? Because you're your DMs are gonna blow up now.

Ferbs: Thank you. ⁓ yeah, I've already been getting quite a few quite a quite a lot of DMs from kids. Yeah, they they looked at it and they go, shoot, I would like to do that. ⁓ it is a

Jason Corley: Right. Right. Is this a Potstown application process or no?

Ferbs: No, no, Potstown's doing something. They have a different model. Potstown, I think, is just all they're doing is just like a one-time event that all you're doing is having fun. It's almost like a whiffle ball game. ⁓ ours, ours is more we're tracking development over years of time, and then we're expanding the kids' network and matching them up with certain college programs. ⁓ I think, I think their number one goal is.

Jason Corley: I I know.

Ferbs: views and engagement and content, which is not bad. Again, there's no right or wrong. It's just completely differ. There's no better or worse. It's two different things. You got Savannah Bananas or you got the New York Yankees. You know, you you can you yeah.

Jason Corley: Sure. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Hey, coach, coach, it's all it's all eyes, it's all eyes on the game. So I don't give a shit. Yes, yes, right.

Ferbs: Yes, it's all eyes in the game. It's all good. And I and I know some of those, I know some of those, I know some of the the guys that run that team with ⁓ Mohan and a couple other posters, they're really nice kids, man. They're really young, really good young men. I think they want to provide a cool experience for the kids. The only thing I worry is that when the kids are that young and you kind of say, ⁓ whatever you want, ⁓ a lot of sometimes sometimes those kids will go back to

Jason Corley: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ferbs: their region of where they're with their regular team and their coach doesn't get down like that. I'm I'm more of a laid back guy. I want I don't coach personalities and coach styles out of players, but there are a lot of coaches that do. And there's a lot of coaches that if you do something where you show up somebody else at that age, they'll end up treating you poorly. And so you just have to be able to separate as a kid, I'm going to this event for what reason? I'm

Jason Corley: Yeah.

Ferbs: I'm not going to this event for development or exposure. I'm just going there to have fun. Cool. And leave it there. And you say, well, I'm going now, now I'm going to ⁓ a different event where there's scouts and cross-checkers and college evaluators and all different types of people. And so I have to I have to lock back in and understand the type of the the brand of baseball that I'm playing. There is no, I I if if I hit a if I hit a fly ball to the center fielder, it's an easy out.

Jason Corley: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

Ferbs: I better be standing on second base and leg that out like a double. It's a double out of the box. Because I see kids that come from some of those events and they hit a fly ball and they're jogging, Cadillacing down the and they just veer off. They just veer off. And you go, hey, dude, like no matter, no matter how good you are, guess what that college coach does?

Jason Corley: Right. Right. Right. Yep. And they they start it right, right right, right. Yeah. Yeah. So we have ⁓ we have one of so one of my best friends, Dominic Nucelli. So Gino's dad. And if you don't know Gino yet, you better get to know the kid. ⁓ but G Dominic is the dad that's in the back and the pot fly goes up or the or or the blooper to you know to the right center field, whatever. He's the dad that's always in the back saying, You never know, you never and you just you wish he's you wish you didn't have to say the shit sometimes to twelve year olds. And I'm not saying he says it to Gino, he says it to every kid that's on the team, like all of them. But he's just like you get to that point where you want your kids to jump out of the box and you don't ever have to say those words because they know that you never know and you gotta go. So I get what you're saying. Like some of these kids are just so conditioned that, well, if it's not over the fence, then it's an out because the single sucks, you know what I mean, or any of this stuff. It's just they're so conditioned that that the the the love is rewarded by the ball going over the fence.

Ferbs: Correct.

Jason Corley: And that's not the case. The the love is rewarded from the effort. That's all us as dads has ever cared. I've never told my son, go hit four home runs. I said, go leave it out there. Leave everything you got out there. I said, and I don't give a shit what you do. Just leave it out there.

Ferbs: Yeah. Right. Yes. Well the issue the issue becomes I know exactly what you're talking about and the issue becomes i s for some kids it's it's tough because you don't know as a coach if they are acting that way because nobody has ever showed them how to do it the right way or if they know how to do it the right way, which is significantly worse if they know what to be doing but they actually they're disrespecting the game.

Jason Corley: And they're ignoring it.

Ferbs: Right. And and once once you get to a level of there's there's there's a a clear cut line for me, for me and everybody else that's out there, every coach has his limits on what he'll stand for and what he won't. For me personally, if you start flirting with disrespecting the game, I won't I won't I won't be a part of it. No, but but

Jason Corley: But they have no idea. Coach, there's no chance that these kids have any idea what respect means. They don't even let's start with just respect. Forget the game. They don't even know what respect is. They have no idea what it's like to get to get popped in the jaw. They really don't. I and I'm not I'm not trying to be funny about it. I'm being dead honest with them. They have not, you and I both said this. They have earned, they have earned zero right to disrespect anything. One of my biggest pet peeves is.

Ferbs: Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Corley: Kids 12 years old, kids 10 years old, kids 11 years old in the dugout, throwing F-bombs or saying derogatory things when, bro, you have not lived enough life to earn the right to talk like that. Like I'm 50 and I've been through hell and back four times, okay? Forgive me if I throw an F bomb because I'm pissed off. I earned the right. Like I'm I survived it. You haven't even, you don't even, you don't even, you don't even have a login for your own Venmo of the money you're spending to mine.

Ferbs: I agree.

Jason Corley: Like let's cut it out.

Ferbs: Yeah, no, I get what you're saying. And I think when you look at like so for me, I'm torn too because I like the Savannah bananas because it gets more eyes on the game. I like the players that play there. I like anything that has to do with revitalizing the sport. However, when you start trying to differentiate, when you have young kids looking at certain things like that, they don't realize that every one of the players on the Savannah Bananas has. either went through the college grind or the professional grind and gotten released. And like you said, they've earned the the right to be able to entertain people with some with like a Harlem Globetrotter style. I'm gonna do a backflip and catch a ball. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna feel this ground ball, go through my legs and throw it. There's nothing wrong with that, but just understand where you where you s where you lie on the on the totem pole and you know the it it does

Jason Corley: Mm-hmm. Right.

Ferbs: People are gonna respect you more if once you've gone through the grind and you sacrificed and you got to that point, you you went through it, they're saying, okay, now you can do that. But when you start trying to act like you're too good or you're too cool, or like running hard is not something that you value, ⁓ hustling or your energy, what when you act like that, it makes you less attractive to coaches, especi at every level.

Jason Corley: Yeah, and it's a real thing. It's a real thing. It's a real thing. Even as a dad, I'm not even a coach. Even as a dad, I can tell you that just in personal life of people in your circle or the people that you work with on a daily basis, like the people that are egotistical maniacs, you don't want to be around them. You don't want them part of your group. You don't want them part of your team. You don't want them influencing your family. You don't want them influencing your kids. It's the same thing, kids, and it goes for coaches. The coaches don't want that shit in their locker rooms or in their dugouts or in their huddles. They don't want it. It's real.

Ferbs: Right. Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

Jason Corley: So, ⁓ so okay. So long story short, to make it to to wrap it up in the most simplest terms, parents, if you get a call from an ocean city, California right ocean city, Bay Area, Bay you're Bay Area?

Ferbs: No no bay area c Castro Valley. Castro Valley is where I live. In the Bay Area.

Jason Corley: Okay, so if the if a if a Castro Valley area code comes up on your phone, answer that shit, 'cause you might be going to IMG.

Ferbs: Yeah. We might be going to IMG or our our next event in Texas. We have them all over. Hey, but by also, by the way, before we get off, Jay, I wanted to tell you is that there was also a reason there was also a reason why I not only am I grateful that you reached out to talk to me, but the reason why I said yes right away and said, Hey, let's do this is because I like your energy too. And I like when I watched your podcast and the people you had on and how you guys were talking about it, I thought you guys were doing a really good job of just giving the perspective of dads and parents.

Jason Corley: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Ferbs: and what you you're seeing from your end. So ⁓ keep yeah, we'll keep doing what you're doing. The podcast looks great. I think you guys are covering some cool topics. ⁓ I like to listen to it. And so so ⁓ thank you for thank you for for thinking of me, by the way.

Jason Corley: I know nothing. You like the coaches. You like the coaches, don't you?

Ferbs: I like the coaches too. I've like I like but I like I like I like your whole podcast, the whole thing you had but on it.

Jason Corley: Well, I think I I my favorite part of it is for so long, you know, HUD started this journey ⁓ at eight years old. And ⁓ we're forever grateful for the opportunity that was presented to us to bring him along on a national level and develop into where, you know, his last tournament with that organization was this weekend and he's going on to bigger and better things with a new group of of coaches. Forever grateful for that. For four years, coach, I have just seen names and faces of teams we play it against. No idea what any of these people were really like as human beings. And so my favorite thing that I've been able to do is is yes, I understand that you have the goaded brand. Yes, I understand you help kids get to college, but there's a lot more to you than that. And just if you can just sit down with somebody for the, you know, there's a lot of people that growing up thought I was an asshole. Just because of just the just the the the mannerisms until they sat down, until they sat down and we talked for 30 seconds and they were like, I would actually kick it with you. I'm like, I know you would, because I would have great beer. And great, great stuff on the barbecue. But it's the thing of these coaches, you pull the veil back and you you show people what the what these organizations, these coaches, these brands are, and it lets people, it humanizes you guys. So that's my favorite part of this. So thank you for allowing people to see behind the veil of you and to know what you're doing. What is your Instagram handle? Where all where all can people follow you and find you?

Ferbs: Yeah, exactly. Yes. Coach Ferber, ⁓ C F like Frank E R, B like Boy ER, Ferber, like Gerber the Baby Foo Boy to F. Coach Ferber. And that's pretty much it. I like I go on Twitter, but I don't really post anything on there. I have a YouTube channel, not too much. Yeah. I I I ⁓ I

Jason Corley: Yeah, I'm I d I'm I'm off of that too. Yeah. Yeah. So ⁓ do you have a LinkedIn? Wait, wait, do you have LinkedIn?

Ferbs: No, I got Tinder. No, I'm kidding. Nah, man, I'm married, bro. What are you crazy? I'm married. My wife will kill me, bro. I don't want to

Jason Corley: Good. Good. ⁓ I just no, because Mark Kessler came on and he was telling me about how if I want to be taken serious in the world, I have to have a LinkedIn profile. And I said, Coach, I said, I swear to God, I said I can't do one more profile. I can barely keep up with what I've got. Like, can I just master one before I can become a jack of all? So, anyways.

Ferbs: I'm not, I'm not, I'm not on LinkedIn, I'm not on Grinder, I'm not on Tinder, I'm not on. I got a wife, I got a wife, I got a wife in a game. I love you too, man. Anytime, man. Don't look, don't don't go on there, bro. Later, brother. Hey, stay crispy out there. Stay crispy. Thanks, Jay. Appreciate you, brother. Later, bro. You got it.

Jason Corley: Okay. Coach, I love you. Thank you so much, dude. I didn't know grinder was a thing, but I'm gonna look it up now. Thank you, bro. Yeah, stay crispy. Thank you, man. See you, man. Bye-bye. So thank you to Coach Ferber for coming on. God, he's just so good. I, you know, it's one of my favorite things about the podcast is relationships that I build and make because so many of these people, so many these coaches, just all over the place, all over the place. ⁓ you hear about them, like I said, like I was telling him, you hear about them, you see about them, but you don't get to know them. And it's it's just it's incredible to build relationships with people and network. And ⁓ it's just ⁓ I'm very I don't take it lightly. I guess that's what I want you guys to know. I don't take it, I don't take it for granted. I don't take it lightly. Probably because I'm 50 and I know what it's like to lose relationships. So I also know what it's like to build relationships, if that makes sense. So, ⁓ folks, this episode of the Travel Dazzle Podcast is brought to you by Barstown Bourbon and Green River Whiskey, two names that flat out represent everything we love about Kentucky bourbon. If you're a travel ball parent, you already know long weekends, early mornings, late nights at the field. Sometimes you just need a way to unwind when it's all said and done. That's where Bargetown bourbon comes in. These guys are pushing the envelope with some of the most innovative blends in the game right now. Whether you're a seasoned bourbon guy or just getting into it, they've got something that's going to hit your palate the right way. And then there's Green River Whiskey, the comeback story. Historic brand, reintroduced the right way and doing it with serious quality, smooth, approachable, and perfect for sitting back after a long day at the ballpark. So whether you're wrapping up a tournament day, sitting outside the hotel, or just chatting a quiet moment, or just catching a quiet moment at home, pull yourself something good. Bargetown Bourbon Green River Whiskey. Enjoy it. Appreciate it. And as always, drink responsibly. Folks, this was a good one. We missed Jacob. We'll see you in a couple days. I got things I got to get back and I got this thing edited up. So I love you. See ya. Bye.