Jason Corley: This episode is brought to you by, if you appreciate craftsmanship and doing things the right way, well, that's what Bardstown Bourbon is all about. They're not just making bourbon, they're pushing the standard forward. Smooth, bold, layered with flavor, whether you're winding down after a long week or celebrating a big win, it just fits. Bardstown Bourbon, modern flavor, timeless craftsmanship. Green River Whiskey is authentic Kentucky whiskey with no gimmicks and no shortcuts. It's just done right. Smooth, balanced, and refined over generations. Whether you're sitting around with friends or relaxing after a long day, raise a glass to a good conversation and even better company. Green River Whiskey. What's up everybody. Welcome to the travel dad's podcast brought to you by Bardstown bourbon and green river whiskey. am your host Jason Corley alongside my buddy Jacob Moreno. Bienvenidos al otro pesado de travel dad's podcast. So folks, you are getting us on an abnormal Sunday afternoon just because ⁓ there's a lot of things going on in the world of travel baseball this weekend with the massive Houston 1000 tournament for PG out in Houston, Texas. And we are waiting any second to be joined by one of our very best friends and one of the greatest families we've ever met in travel ball. Thanks to travel ball in a J Schroeder who is from league city, Texas. Correct. Yeah. He's from league city. Yeah. And how far is that from, Houston? I always forget like an hour 45 an hour. Okay. Dependent on a day and dependent on the traffic. Yeah. Everything's an hour zone. Houston. You know that. Yeah, ain't that the truth. But he's going to call us or he's going to join us via video from the field because they're playing today his son Nolan, which we can get into that story. We're not sure exactly how much time we're going to have with Jay, but we're going to take every second that we're allowed to get with him before Nolan takes the field because Nolan's got two games this afternoon. So I'm going to keep watching my phone here and make sure that I'm not missing. Yeah, nothing yet. But he did ask for the link. But This is the first time for us that we're not there since we've been on travel on a, guess you could say a national travel schedule. This is the first year that we haven't gone. So I keep getting, so who's up the, and here's something else cool folks. So as we're having these conversations with you today, you might see Jacob and I constantly looking down at our screens and our phones because we're both getting live updates nonstop from the tournament. So. A lot of teams that will be playing next week that are there. So we'll be down in Florida next week. And some of these teams that are in Texas this week will be in Florida next week. So we're just kind of keeping up. We've got friends all over the country playing. what's crazy is that we're having a hard time because trying to keep up and figure out who's with who, what team. And that's just the world we live in. All right. So he gave me a thumbs up that I sent the link. So hopefully he's coming in here pretty soon. I'm not worried, you know, ⁓ We'll chop this up a little bit. there's too much dead air, we'll kill it. I think we'll be, yeah. I mean, I think we'll be all right. I think we'll be all right too. Yeah. So your setup looks good, Thank you. Thank you, man. Yeah. I actually moved downstairs to my daughter's old bedroom and set everything up. Got a corner desk and Andrea helped me with all this, man. She had a vision that I just, she was just telling me where to put stuff and I did. And it looks good. Yeah. We, um, we hooked up with our sponsor Friday late morning, right? Yeah, was fine. Yes. Yeah. About brunch time. Yeah. Brunch. Did you? Oh, brunch time. Yeah. Hooked us up with all of the paraphernalia that you can see. And Jacob, told Jacob, he looks like he's at a trade show. Like, look like you're doing a sampling in a trade show, but it looks good, I got the sample bottles right here. You need to sample some stuff. We can't. My sample bottles have already went out, man. They are currently being sampled. Yeah. I gave, I gave two away, but that's about it. I'm very, I'm going to be very, you're a hoarder. You're a hoarder. No, no, I'm going to be, I'm going to be, no, I'm not just going to give it to everybody though. No, I know you're like, I think we have him. Yes, we have him. Hold on folks. I'm methodical with the way I'm going to do it. There he is. What's up dude? What's happening, man? How are y'all? Where are you at? I'm good man, I'm inside the cages at Baseball USA, in the indoor cages in a quiet place. Hey, Coach Rocky, this is Jason Corley. Hey, what up Rocky? Yeah, I'll be on at some point, fellas, I promise. All right, man, we'll have you anytime you want to come on. Anytime you want to come on. So tell us, you guys are, so I've seen, Jay, you guys are not at Diamonds of Daily Park, you guys are at the other place. We're, yeah, we're at baseball USA and they've got, they've got teams all over the place. They've got, they've got teams up in Brenham as far as college station an hour and half from Houston. Yeah. And somebody tonight after they their last pool game is going to have to drive all the way to Brenham, Texas to play one bracket game and then bracket tomorrow. I know I saw our four. I saw the hit dogs 14 new yesterday was playing in Brenham and I was like, how far is this? And I was like, shit. looks, a hall man. It's an hour from Houston from, I mean, we're from our house. It's almost two hours, but I'm really hoping we don't have to drive home from Brantham, Texas. Okay. So it's the opposite direction of league city where you guys live. Yeah. It's North. It's like Northwest. Okay. North West. Yeah. I saw that. Yep. Okay. Okay. Yeah. All right. All right. So you guys, so it's, it's just now getting ready to be noon there where you guys are now. And yeah, did you guys play? No one plays it. At what time? We played today at two and four. Two and four. Okay. So three and three and five our time. Okay. All right. So quickly, listen, I know we don't have a lot of time with you, but I wanted some time with you. First of all, happy anniversary. The anniversary. sure you the anniversary. is it? 20 years? 17. Dude, it, you, I was gonna say, were you guys legal when you got married? Bro. Congratulations on that. tell, um, I don't, know we don't have time to go into the story of how we met. can say that for another time, which is a really cool story. Hey, what's up? What is that? Dude, tell him, tell him, tell him I said those colors are sick. are sick. Oh, they love it. That whole locker, that whole locker room presentation was, Oh dude, they had a, they had a locker room reveal at the sugar land space cowboy stadium. It was a whole production. was. That's awesome. That's awesome. So I want to get into this and this is something I definitely want to cover. So we met you as Houston Wildcatters. That's how we met. We met you when our boys were eight years old and all I ever ever known is that the Schroders in Nolan and Hudson have been Houston Wildcatters. This is the first year you guys are no longer there. Tell me what that transition has been like, because you and I have not had a conversation about this at all. Yeah, man. So, know, Nolan was with the Wildcatters almost from the inception up until last fall. You know, it was we had a really good thing going. The Wildcatters got their national program up and running. ⁓ And, you know, we've all been around it long enough. We know what that means. You know, we're flying kids in. We're paying. We're paying to win essentially. And it got to a point where I didn't think it was best. It was what was best for Nolan and his development. So we made the move to South side defenders, you know, with Rocky last fall, it was a good move. And now, you know, we, we changed names to DK national same team. Yeah. Okay. ⁓ So what is that all about? What is the DK national because. When I, when I first found out that you guys left and went to Southside defenders, first of all, Jacob and I were like, well, that makes sense just because that's an amazing program. We all know that program. Jacob and Rocky and I Jacob's half fat with that club. Yeah. we Bradley would blend in great with this team. You guys let me know. That's all I'm saying is let me know. There was this folks, if folks, if you don't understand, that's exactly how national travel ball works right there. That pitch was just made. Yeah. They have my number. You have my number. Just let me know. The difference is with our team is we don't have money. So you got to, you got to come on your own dot. Hey, that's fine, man. I'll sell an arm or a leg. will. Yeah. We can figure it out. Refinance your house or something. Right. Right. Hey, so what is the DK? What is that? Explain why it's outside defenders. it is. DK is Diamond Kings organization that started out in Dallas. A of Dallas guys, a of baseball guys up there. I think they started their national program with their 13-year group last year, and they're just looking to grow. They're looking to expand the organization. They were essentially looking for competitive teams that could wear the brand and go around and compete nationally. kind of a perfect match for us. We were looking for a little more for the boys in terms of some swags and different looks on the field in terms of uniforms and they've got a huge social media presence. mean all the national teams, they've got camera crews there, they're getting videos and pictures for the kids. So it was a move for the boys. It's a really cool thing for them. For us, like I told Rocky and Ralph, I don't care what we wear or what our name is. strictly for the boys and they're super excited about it. So is Hudson, is Hudson, he come with you guys or is he just, and I don't mean this weekend, but he come over to DK as well or is he just doing high school ball and that's it? He's just doing high school ball. He'll have his first summer showcase, his first showcase summer this, this coming summer. He's a freshman, so he'll play for Texans baseball out of Houston. It's, ⁓ it's funded by the McNair family that owns the Texans, which is pretty cool. So you make it. Oh, you make it so incredibly hard to live in Ohio. know that. And also it's, you know, February 28th yesterday. was 78 degrees. So yeah. Well, okay. It's great. It was not 55 year heat slopes yesterday. Yeah. Honestly, I was hot. like, God, what is it? mean, it was sunny all day. 78. I got, I got a lot of sun. Yeah. Keep rubbing it in. Keep rubbing. Good for you. Good for you. Good for you. So, um, go ahead. that, how was the transition? Was it smooth or were there bumps on the road? No, man, it was smooth. was, ⁓ honestly, it was pretty seamless. We played, ⁓ you know, we played our last, our last fall tournament in Portland, Texas with Southside defenders back in November. The conversation to move over to DK started probably, ⁓ late January, early February, and it just took off uniforms already and less than a month. There really wasn't, wasn't a lot to do. other than getting uniforms and signing up. So it was easy. Did you have a relationship with them before? No, actually. there's a, you know, I guess the inside track that ⁓ Rocky and Ralph had for the organization, there's a kid that plays on the third-year national team. That's a former South Side defender. He moved out to Central Texas and started playing for DK. So, you know, they kind of knew a little bit about it because of him. But no, we really didn't have a relationship. prior to that, we just said, Hey, we're PGE says we're the eighth ranked team in the country. Do you want to, you want to 12 U national team? they took off. Gotcha. Okay. I just didn't know if like, if they had a relationship with knowing Nolan as a, as a player or, know, worked. Okay. So this was a blind audition. Oh yeah. Okay. So for families, so for families out there listening, you just heard it. This is not everything in high level travel ball has got to have some sort of a connection. Sometimes it can be a cold call. And it can be the right move for your family at the right time. A hundred percent. That's, that's essentially what this was. It was, it was basically a cold call, zero politics involved, zero prior relationships. These guys took a chance on our team and you know, here we are. Okay. So how many of you came over? Our entire team. Oh, are you talking about from Walk Betters? Yes. Yes. didn't know if it was just, okay. I didn't know if it was just Nolan or if anybody else with Nolan came over. Just Nolan. Okay. Okay. So that was Oh no, sorry. I take that back. You remember Orion miles, the little catcher with the dread. Oh, he did. Uh, bow, arsenal, real slick and filter. came over. Okay. I think that's it. That's, those are the only one of the wildcatters that Oh, this now. Okay. All right. All right. Yeah. How many guys are you guys carrying? Typically 12 for the NIT since it's a three day tournament. We were carrying a couple extra just for arms, but usually 12. Yeah. We're, we're rolling 10 deep, always, like, like every year we're only, we're only rolling 10. ⁓ I like it. You can allow it all 10 guys. Yeah, but it gets tough, man. It gets tough. Once you get to them big tournaments, a hundred percent. Yeah. Especially the three four day tournaments, you know, if you got to have solid outings from forever down your roster. And we saw it yesterday. I we went to, know, yesterday we allowed seven runs, but you know, we had to go through probably two. too many guys that we would have liked to do, but you know, it's, it's early in the season. None of these kids are sharp. You know, you, you kind of, you kind of expect a solid outing from everyone, but you know, that's not always the case. we know that. yeah. What, ⁓ as far as the tournament goes that you're there, I know that there's any teams in our division or in your division. We're not there. It's, it's weird. It's weird not being there, but it's also, we're totally okay with it. Like we're all at peace. with knowing that we're going to be in Florida next week and that's when we're going to start. We just needed something different here, honestly. Yeah, man, I understand that. I don't know what it is, but we all just were kind of like, you know what? don't need to do $2,500 plane tickets to start the season. We can just drive to Florida and have a good tournament. Yeah. And I think a lot had to do with how big that event is getting. You literally started the show by talking about how spread out now it is. So it's getting harder. For to maintain it's crazy. Who's the sleep? Who's who's the sleepers this week over there that, ⁓ you know, every year, like you guys, you guys are a new name and new face, new colors. Who's the sleepers this week that you're mentioned to. after, after day one of pool play, the number one scene was a scorpion scene out of Florida. Yeah, I've heard of scorpions and, ⁓ in the high school, in the high school setting, ⁓ have not seen them in the youth setting, but they had a good showing yesterday. They were the number one seed of this, this new golden prospects team. There's a lot of buzz around them. wouldn't consider them sleepers because all their kids are pretty well known, but, they came in and dominated all four games. know, there's your owner is the, when your owner has a show in that discovery channel, you're not a sleeper. Yeah. It's, it's kind of the usual suspects, SBA national wildcatters elite. It's. You know, the golden team, which we know is a lot of the, the Florida kids, VSA, the golden futures team had a really good showing. Kind of usual suspects right now, but you know, we all know how the 12-year age group works. A lot of things happen to these kids physically in the next six, seven months. That's what I'm excited to see. We saw some, some decent arms yesterday from some teams that we didn't really expect much from, but you know, testosterone starts flowing around this age and it gets real interesting. Who did you guys who's you guys play yesterday? We played the NRP Astros out of New Jersey and USA Prime Southwest, Florida the Astros team. So is that they look they honestly they look like they they haven't played a lot of baseball outside in a long time Which is understandable. They're from Jersey. They're big athletic looking team They just didn't look polished and didn't look ready the USA Prime team They were probably one of the better contact hitting team, but I've seen it a long time every kid got the bat of the ball Uh, so that was where Andrew Robinett is that who he's playing with this weekend? USA prime. Yeah, but out of Texas. Okay. All right. There's like five USA primes here this weekend. Shocker. There's five. There's 12. Yeah. There's 12 wildcatters teams. There's I don't even know. I think I saw seven SBA teams now. Yeah. Yeah. There's an SBA, Texas, you know, SBA, Jackson national. There's all kinds of them. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, I have a question for you. Since you, since you have been you know, you have coached at this level. How does that work with, ⁓ you know, like with Xavier, how does he balance having both of those top level national teams, the JSM and the SBA X, how does he balance those in the same tournament in the same division? the SBA team is listed as SBA JSMS. So, so then he's still, he's still coaching the other team. don't mean, think, I think they're both Xavier J. I think they're both Xavier. One's the little small guy. And then the other one is the big guy. Yeah. ⁓ I didn't know they both have the same name of Xavier. I want to say that both, both of their names. Okay. Well that makes sense. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Put it in there. That would be tough. mean, trying to into teams at once. What are you guys seeing? What are you guys seeing for velocity? Velo it's, ⁓ you know, I mean, so far we've seen mid upper sixties. I don't think anything we saw yesterday was touching 70. I've seen, I've kept up with a bunch of the games. I've seen, you know, mid seventies from a couple of kids. But we know when bracket starts, you're, know, you're going to see 75 plus, know, a couple of kids touching 80. So the kids that, you know, the kids that can really chunk it haven't had to throw yet, but you know, we're seeing a ton of breaking stuff. You know, average VELO with a ton of breaking stuff. So it's kind of been a grind, you know, this early in the seasons. would you say? What would you say to all the 80 teams, the percentage of, you know, these teams are legit. Like, you know, they're going to be a problem all year. May not win much, but will compete at the high level. And I know you haven't got to watch all of them. No. And I mean, I feel like I've got a, I've got a pretty good pulse on this, on this age division. Out of the 80 teams that could go and compete nationally, I would say maybe 15. It just comes, it didn't, it simply comes down to arms, man. And that's the, that's the issue with. You know, those other 65 teams, they might have a guy, you know, that can, that can chunk at 70, 75, but he's probably the only guy. top 10 teams, top 12 teams, you know, they've got two or three, maybe four guys that are chucking at 75 plus, I mean, from 50 feet, man, you know, it's it's Yeah. So, you know, if you got a guy like that, you know, you got a guy like that and you only have one and another team sees it. Yeah. They're going to try to do whatever they can. to grab him so he can add another arm to the books. yeah. And that's the dangerous part about a tournament like this is, you know, these, these smaller teams, these lesser known teams that come in and, let's say they have a guy and they play, you know, one of these top five, 10 teams and he throws against them. Good luck. Good luck keeping that kid. Yeah. Because he's going to have a bunch of money thrown at him. He's going to, his parents are going to be offered to fly everywhere. And it just, and I get it, man. It's, it's an expensive sports. It's a hobby for a lot of people. And that's a tough thing to turn down. You know, when teams come and say, Hey, I'll fly your entire family every time that we go. That's saving you thousands of dollars over the next six months. Yeah. I have a question pertaining to that, that I want to get your take on. And that is, is that, you know, with Hudson being in this, as long as he's been in this, how have you seen the landscape of high level national travel ball change, not just in the country, but in Texas from where it was? When, when Hudson started to where it is now with how things are developing and how these clubs are getting so big, how have you seen it change? Yeah, it's, it's, ⁓ it's kind of crazy, man. You know, Hudson's 14 now his nine and 10, you season, you know, he was on a pretty competitive team out of Houston that was competing nationally. You know, now I think the biggest thing is just these, these guys with money. They're realizing the advantages of kind of throwing money at a travel team and, and, and, know, it's gotta be a tax break for them. You see way more funded teams now way more. And what is it? What is the payoff? don't understand what the payoff is. That's only explanation I can think of that. also, also, you know, instead of having, you know, millions of dollars sitting in your bank account, you're getting taxed on it. There are a lot of these guys with creating 501 C threes that they're dumping money in and their tax breaks for. So way more, way more funded teams now than, there were six, seven years ago. And how do you compete with that? Like you can't. you just have to, you have to prepare the boys. And I will give our boys credit too. Our boys are smart enough now to know that they're going against a paid and bought teams. Like they're very aware of them. Yeah. And at the same time though, you know, you have to set expectations, not only with the kids, but with the parents, you know, like for our team, we're essentially a local Houston team. You know, we know the chances of us going in and competing with these top three or four teams is slim. ⁓ but at the same time, all we want to be is competitive. ⁓ we're not trying to be, know, the best 12U team in North Lerota. As long as we can go in and get in a dog fight and compete with these teams, then that's what we're about. mean, it's about developing the kids and not winning every 12U tournament. you seen it change or get more dramatic in Texas compared to other places in the country as far as the struggle to keep your kids? Because there's always been these rumors and I'm not asking you to get into any of that stuff, but there's always been these rumors. You know, the Wildcatters are funded by the oil business and all, which is actually not true because their logo is an oil rig. Right. You know, that's how these things get started. Have you seen it changing in Texas, a place like Texas, where it is harder to even go out and play in these national events because you might have got yourself a little golden gen sitting at third base and you're scared to death that SBA is going to see him and they're going to have some conversation with dad behind the porta potty. And then next thing you know, next week he's gone. I mean, look, it happened to our team in the fall. You know, we had a kid out of South Texas, really good hitter and one of the Bayou city team that just merged with Wildcatters. got them. And, and, and look, I haven't had a conversation with his dad, but they pay for a lot of stuff. So I'm confident that they said, Hey, look, we can save you a bunch of money and we'll take care of your family. And as long as your kid plays with us, you know, that's happening. mean, it's, you can't, you can't fault the parents. No, not at all. Not at all. it's something that you really don't even want to think about, you know, because Rocky and Ralph kind of preach the family aspect, you know, like, Hey, we grind twice a week together. play on it. We spend weekends together. You know, we're a family, but at the same time, know, families have to do what's easiest for them. Um, and what it takes a little bit of burden off them. And I do not fault them whatsoever. Yeah. You got somebody coming and say, Hey, we're going to give you essentially 25 to 30 grand for the year to fly. Or you got to spend your own 25, 30 grand. think it's easier for fans to be like, we'll just spend this millionaires 25, 30 grand in our, you know what I mean? Yeah. But you also Jay, Jay, you also have to be careful too, because as a parent that can be very alluring and that can be like, man, what a blessing. What a, what a burden that we don't have to carry anymore. But is my kid going to play like, okay, this is great, but you're rostering 14 kids. So that's, that's what led us to, to leave Wildcatters was. We were part of the national program. was trying to figure out how to get there. Yeah. We were paying, you know, they were paying for our, for our trips and our stays and everything. But, um, we got to a point where, you know, Nola was a DH, uh, and a pinch hitter and, know, he, wasn't consistent enough at the plate for him and he couldn't play the field. You know, I at the PGI and, and, uh, I think it was two U that said it or 11 U like, man, I don't think this is what's best in his development. No fault to them. Those coaches have a job. They asked us to run them to win. Yeah. ⁓ I know for a fact, the owner and the, the, you know, the VP they'll pay attention to go click price on these guys to go win games. And if, if, know, if my kids not a, not a part of that recipe and I can find something else that will fit him more. That's what we did. There's a lot of travel ball teams available. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. 100%. So who's on tap today? Who do you guys have today? So we've got DBC Prime, it's team out of Dallas, don't know a lot about them. I know they're 0-3, they've given up a ton of runs. And then the second team we play is a Beach City Prospects team out of California. What was exciting for me was all four of our pool play games, we've never played any of those teams. I've never even heard of it. So I was excited about that. Playing in Houston, we play the same teams all over every other weekend. Playing four new teams. was exciting. So today don't know much about the two teams we play. One of them is one and one, one of them is 0 and 3s. We go in and we have to, we got to take care of business and keep the runs down. Top 16 move on the goal. Yeah. Ooh, top 16. Top 16 out of 80. Boak, if you didn't that. 16. There are going to be two and 0 teams that don't make goals or four and 0 teams that don't make goals. That's happened in the past. You've warned us about that in the past. Yeah. So yeah. I mean, that's, that's a very, very real thing, which is hard, man. That's hard, man. When you're, when you're flying, when you're buying plane tickets to go to Houston and you're there for a week in hotels and then you find out you went four and ⁓ and your kids did great. You didn't even make gold. Bro, that does not sit. So wake up call, man. It's a wake up call for, as a team and we are cut down, giving up runs. Yeah, absolutely. right. Yeah. So who are you guys throwing today? Not sure, probably play Arsenal game one. This is it. This is it live. Nobody's getting ahead of time. Yeah. Well, I think we're going to, think we're throwing a, we're going to throw Arsenal game one, you know, solid arm and then a game two, depending on how game one goes, we'll see. My game too. We'll know what we need to do. Yeah. the bracket play starts tonight at eight. Did I see? 8pm. Yeah. Are you guys going to Cooperstown? We're not. So isn't that. No, it's all summer from May to September. starts in May and goes all summer. ⁓ it starts in May. So we got invited to go with Premier National and they're going in June. Man, Hudson's got like five showcases, back to back weekend, starting the end of May all the way through June. It would be way too hectic. So we're not going to make it. Nolan's bummed about it. He doesn't like to talk about it, ⁓ we're not going to make it. Okay. All right. All right. I'm surprised. I'm surprised. I figured that would have been now. Did you ever go or did, ⁓ did Hudson ever go? No, we've never been Jacob. That's the difference about living and playing in Texas. freaking radar. Yeah. I mean, we all got it, especially since, you know, in social media age, ⁓ we know about it, but it's not, it's not a, it's not really a bucket list thing for a lot of Texas teams. I don't know why it looks like a really fun tournament, but it's just not a good time. Yeah. Because you guys don't like traveling North. Yeah. I'm not, I'm going to say that's not accurate. Also a really bad time. We're busy. We're busy, busy man. Yeah. it's only going to get worse to you guys if he's a freshman. yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, listen, man, I don't want to take up any more of your time. I mean literally best of luck. We are watching. Yeah, we've been paying attention. We've got iPads open We've got laptops open all day long between diamond cast and game changer So please give the boys our love give Brittany our love. Thank you for taking the time to come on Thank you, Jay. Give us a little update Yeah, and best of luck tell Nolan best of luck and whoever just died in the background back there They got absolutely hammered with a sword. It sounded like yeah thoughts and prayers thoughts and prayers, so Thank you, man. Tell Ralph and Rocky we said good luck, Yeah, we'll do. Thanks for having me on. And glad to see you guys doing your thing, man. This is really fun. All right, man. it. Have a good day. Tell the boys we said good luck. We'll do. Thanks. If you appreciate craftsmanship and doing things the right way, well, that's what Barge Town Bourbon is all about. They're not just making bourbon. They're pushing the standard forward. Smooth, bold, layered with flavor. Whether you're winding down after a long week or celebrating a big win, it just fits. Bardstown bourbon, modern flavor, timeless craftsmanship. Man, for those that don't know or haven't heard, we, ⁓ yeah, we'll tell the story. Like we met, we met the, the Schroeder's, I don't know what year it was, but HUD was eight. Going into nine. I know, but I don't know what year that was four years ago and met them at a hotel and in Georgia. And there was nobody else there. Like it's not like it was a team hotel. It was a random thing where, because we were a late ad. Remember I sent you the link where we were saying, cause we to get a discount. But that's one of the beautiful, beautiful things about travel ball, man. We met, you met the Schroeder family four years ago and he literally was like, said, Hey, can you come on the podcast and give us an update from Houston? And he's like, hell yeah. Is he's got words. Green river whiskey is authentic Kentucky whiskey with no gimmicks and no shortcuts. It's just done right. Smooth, balanced and refined over generations. Whether you're sitting around with friends or relaxing after a long day, raise a glass to a good conversation and even better company, Green River Whiskey. So yeah, love that family. We've got so many good families from Texas. Probably I would say what? Texas is by far the place that we've met the most amount of people that we've spent. Yeah. So just great people, man. Great families. Great. Yeah. Texas is just a great environment to play in. How about that? How about that? Where they, where Cooperstown isn't even on their bucket list. Yeah. They don't like coming to North. But I mean, that's just what a, what a vast difference in baseball folks. Like when you're from California, when you're from Florida, when you're from Texas, like the Cooperstown of the world is not, it's not that big of a deal because you're playing in a Cooperstown every freaking weekend. Yeah. Well, especially when you go play in the big tournaments like direct now. I mean, like he said, 80 teams. And only 16 make bracket. Now, mean, 64 folks, that's 80 teams in 12 you made alone. Just that division. We're not talking about 12 you double a and 12 you single AAA. We're not talking about any of that stuff. We're talking about just 12 you major and that's just age 12. There's 80 in every age and in every bracket, there's a, there's a over a thousand teams there. A thousand and 17 from what I read. It is. Insane and we've done it for three years in a row. This is the first year we haven't done it and I am not missing it at all. I thought I would be. thought I'd have FOMO big time, but I haven't at all. am. You are. You know, I, yeah, man, you know, I like going to Houston. No, I'm not missing it at all. Just because I think I've been so, I've been so jaded with the whole off season of the buying of the teams in the building of which It's like, seriously, man, like I asked him and I want to ask you, what is the payoff for this? Like they're not making tickets. Like it's not like they're selling jerseys and ticket sales. It's not, it's not like it's the Dodgers. No, but it's like, it's like Jay said, how are they money? They're not, but remember all the money you have sitting in your bank account gets taxed. Bro. I understand. But not all of these teams are 501 C3s. They're not all nonprofits. But that's why he said that they're all starting them. You don't think, you don't think the golden prospects are. And stuff like that. mean, no, I don't think the golden prospects are a 501 C three. No, I don't. Cause I know how those operate. like, you can't be like that would have to be, they're not labeled as a nonprofit. Like a nonprofit is a charity organization. So I understand you can have like, we have two, we have two 501 C three baseball programs in my town. Okay. now press on and Christ the King. ⁓ and they are faith based organizations. period end story. ⁓ I don't think the golden prospects are in that. I don't think they're, they're operating as a five, one C three. We'll look it up. We'll find out, but I don't think they are. it's to the point now, they winning at all costs? That's, I understand that they are, but what is the winning and getting them? What is their ROI? Nothing. They're just going there. Maybe they don't want the ROI. Is brand just brand awareness. Yeah. Well, that's really stupid brand aware because you're not You have no return on your investment. You're not making anything at ticket sales. You're not making anything in merch. It's not like people are out running around buying 12 you kids jerseys and wearing them to the fair and having them sign. So that's what I'm saying. Like I don't understand, you know, what, like, what does this, there's gotta, it's gotta be enrollment. That's gotta be, there's gotta be some sponsorship. There's gotta be enrollment. Yeah. But I mean, who's sponsored, who sponsors the wildcatters? Nobody. Yeah. I mean, SBA, but SBA only has one sponsored team and that's the SBA bolts. So it's only like, it's not all of SBA. No, yeah. And I'm not, I'm just trying to figure it out because it just doesn't make any, any fiscal sense of why you would dump this much money, why you would tilt the scales so much in travel ball to where, okay, we are the number one team in North America. Cool. What did I get you? Like where did you make money? know you spent money. this is above our heads. I'm hoping somebody can answer for it. I'm hoping somebody will listen and watch this and say, Hey, listen, if you want me to explain it to you, like you're too, I can come on the podcast. We would love to have you on. Yeah. It's got to either be, it's got to be all ego driven status or there's got to be some underlined, there's some underlined fiscal reason why you would build these empires of Wildcatters, SBA, the VS. MVP hustles of the world. None of those teams are, you know, SBA or not SBA, but the Wildcatters is not Wildcatters brought to you by Ford. You know what mean? Or Dodge. but do they all want to be like the Kings, the five star Mafias? So what I'm saying, I understand that they do want that. I know that's what they want, but what is that getting them for all the money they're pouring out to all the families that they're buying? How are they getting that money back? That's what I'm not understanding. That's all I'm saying. If you're going to go out and spend 25 grand a kid on one team to be the number one team in the country, how are you getting that money back? Where's that money? What's your name? Yeah. From them, because you're still paying for the tournament. Okay. Let's just say in a perfect world, you're getting free entry just for showing up. Okay. All right. That's fine. But how still you've got 10 kids on a team at 25 grand ahead. That's 250,000. Okay. You're not getting free tuition. You're not getting free tuition and free entry of $250,000 worth. So, so you're putting out a whole lot more than what you're getting back. Yeah, you're losing. Well, that's what I'm saying. What is this for? Is this ego driven? What is this for? Or is this for enrollment of all the other teams in your, in your program? And it's the parents, you know what I mean? It could be. That's a, it's a striving point of, Hey, you know, these guys are on a national team. These guys don't have to pay, but you're not at that level yet. So you still have to pay until your kid. Until your kids good enough to play international. You know I mean? While you wait, you're paying for these guys to essentially play. Man, just, yeah. It's, ⁓ it blows my mind. ⁓ you know how it, ⁓ and it, it, it also blows my mind. But also, I will just say this. makes you respect. It makes you respect like what Scott and Tony and some of these guys do with the smaller organizations being able to compete and being able to keep their kids. because sometimes like the Hammons of the world. Yeah, sometimes, but like the Hammons of the world, you know what I mean? Or, know, the, the Karen's is of the world. You know what I mean? It goes to a, like what Jay said, you know, they left for family and they left for that culture. ⁓ you know I mean? Like the fiscal side of it was a wash to them. You know I mean? ⁓ it sounded like, ⁓ but to them, they fell in love with this Rocky guy and his culture. Now that the guy that you were telling that you were texting me about. Yeah. So you met Rocky. We were in Florida at the video was super blurry. I couldn't make out what he looked like. Yeah. was Rocky, a Mexican guy that we met. You know, I talked to him in Florida and he's saying bullshit with us for a while. That's Rocky from the South side defenders. Now the diamond Kings. I mean, uniforms are those uniforms are bad ass, man. The colors, that picture that Brittany posted on her story was like, I was like, That is insane. How cool for those kids. I like the colors, man. Did you watch the video? That's colors on the wall right there. You see that? you watch the video of them walking in the locker room? No, I didn't see that. didn't see it. a locker room. They each got their own individual locker with their name on it. Uniforms hanging, helmet, matting gloves, everything, Dude, I have to find it and send it to you. The video was badass. Yeah. He's the one that showed me. Oh, he's probably, he's probably FOMO and big time. No, he goes, he goes, this is sweet. He goes just to make a video like this. Yeah. I mean, he knows like he, like he said, he'd be good. He knows who that team is. That's why I said, get ahold of me, Jay. You know where I'm at. Yeah. I mean, listen, like with all due respect, there are, there are only a handful of people in this country that I would let Hudson, my HUD, go play with and that's one family that I would without a doubt go and figure out financially how to pull that off. So I'm not, don't get like Scott, don't freak out. I don't need you to call me right now. I'm not going anywhere, but I'm just saying there's a handful of people, know, there's a couple in Florida that we've met, you know, there's a, obviously a couple in Georgia that we've met and I can tell you that like Jay is for sure. The, the like, yeah, Nolan and HUD just always have gotten along. brand, it seems like those three, those three. or whenever we're tournaments, it's Nolan, Brantley and Hud. And they're walking around and they're just in other people's dugouts and they're sitting watching games. And there isn't a whole lot being said between them. They're all kind of, well, Hudson and Nolan are very quiet personalities. It's just like when they're together, they're quiet together. And then you add Brantley, just, Brantley just comes in and plops down in between them. like, Hey boys. then, know, let's party going. But Brantley's that friend that comes in with the snacks like let's party boys. What kind of snacks you got boys. Yeah. Like what, what does this turn this party out? Yeah. He, um, with them now, he joined them that, you know, Rocky and Ralph are both great people. Okay. And them three together, like just, I mean, it seemed like they molded well together. have with the names, but I'm sure that I know this face like that. Yeah. You know, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah. So, and then, yeah. So they're playing, he said, he said they're playing two teams that they've never seen before. Which I will tell you. Yeah. Which is it's us. mean, never they never saw us before either until we showed up. So, you know, you know how that can go. You cannot you cannot underestimate teams from the north or teams from the east or anything like that when it comes to it. Usually when it when it comes to big tournaments like that, especially the first ones of the year, about two games in, it takes them about which is unfortunate because you could lose to and be out of the tournament. But by the third game, people were like, yeah, that's not the team we saw day one. Yeah. All of a sudden the winter workouts and all the winter work starts to then come together. And by game three, when it's too late, you're like, damn, like if we could adjust, which is why we kind of chose to not come anymore because why have such an expensive tournament be the tournament that you get warmed up at? So, yeah. I mean, like he said, there was that team from New Jersey too that looked athletic. They just looked up then played outside. And that's how we usually look, you know? Yeah. They says, it says they're playing the DVC prime at two, which they are 0 and three. And then they're playing a beach city. Yeah, that's right. Beach city ballers. No beach city prospects. He said California. So, he said that the wildcatters, uh, brought in the, uh, Bayou Ballers or Bay City. What was it? The Bayou City. Bayou City. Is that It was AJ's team, So where's AJ at now? He's, I want to say he's still with Bayou, which I will look up right now. Okay. And I'll look at their roster. That's another one. AJ Martin. Yup. Shout out to the Martin family. Got his dad. Love his dad. Yeah. It's, yeah, just another family that we met playing in Texas a lot. His dad works for... government, right? Yes, some sort of Yeah, like police or thought it was it was border or immigration like that. I don't remember. But his dad is a secret service agent. He's a black Jack Ryan. Yeah. And he dabs us up and we hug and we laugh and we smile every time we see each other. So it's just another one of those families that we've met that Yeah, you just can't You just you just can't get that anywhere else than having the opportunity to play in some of these events at some of these levels because like and you know what? It's unfortunate. It's probably why it's probably why we became such good friends with them because they see the same faces all the time when they're in Texas. They don't get out like we do. We got to go all over the place to get competition. They have competition every weekend in Texas. So I do. Yeah, I do envy that. Like they don't have a lot of travel overhead in their life. don't have to know. Yeah, he's still on the team. AJ. Okay. AJ is still on the team. Okay. All right. So, and now they're back. So, I mean, if they're under the Wildcatters organization, then they're back where they started. Yep. Yeah. And there's a couple of kids that were on the Wildcatters that left that are on this team that are back now too. So they're on that Bayou City now they're Bayou City, you know, Wildcat, Wildcatters Bayou City, 12U. So, which is pretty good team, you know, looking at them. Nationally ranked six. So yeah. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, I mean, but this is the first big one of the year. So yeah, put, you know, put whatever weight you want to on your by yourself on, know, in that ranking, but you know, it is what it is and you got to start listen every year you got to start, you got to have a ranking. So you got to put people somewhere. you got to start it somewhere. Yeah. You got to start somewhere. College does it. The pros do it. all do it. you know, you gotta, there's a list and you gotta put names somewhere. So you might as well start with just what you assume. And a lot of this is projection, you know what mean? Projected, you know, rankings. Yeah. ⁓ speaking of that, did Pat get older? He text you or anything? ⁓ let me look here. Let me see what Pat, no, he did not. Did you look at their game? I'll look right now. He texted me earlier. I was trying to remember. He said that very competitive 40 of the 45 teams. Like belong in the 12 major division. It's just harder every year, bro. Yeah. Oh, I know. I'm looking now. We need a Jamie. We need it. Yeah. Right. We do. Jamie could have been looking this up as we were talking. Yeah. This is a team Andrew's playing for. Oh, as of now, they won their first game yesterday, six, four, and then won the second game 11, 10. Right. Well, how'd they do? And then this morning they were down this morning. They won eight, nothing. And then one at 10 again, six, three. So they're four and O, but gave up three, 13, 19 runs. Okay. So if they gave up 19 runs, yeah. And if we, so if we do this and we look at pool standings, full standings, scorpions, did you know anything about the scorpions? No, that's what he said. was like, I never, wonder if the scorpions I knew was It's a lot of has to be here or something. The Eastern Scorpions from Texas that we've played. Yeah. I'm looking for USA prime as far as the stands go. They're 21 right now. Yeah. So they've, so they've given up. They've given us 17. Yeah. 17. I don't think they're going to make it. Yeah. There's a lot of teams that haven't given up that many, not even close. I mean, 11 rocket baseball club, you West elite three and O giving up 11. Yeah. Uh, golden prospects are four and only given up one golden futures are four and only given up six. Four and oh seven. Give it up seven SBA, JSM X national four and giving up nine. So it's going be a tough for them. It's going to be tough for them to try to get in with giving up 21. Yeah. Hey, I have a question for you. got, we, somebody reached out to us via, I don't remember if it was. I think it was on Facebook and wanted to get our take. And I thought it was a good question to ask you, uh, cause this is the world that you live in, which is the world that I'm getting into. But it's the world you, you definitely live in. And that is, is, um, asking us what our take is or how much we're seeing or not seeing the electronic pitch, um, communications between coaches and catchers and all of this stuff. And I told him, that I, I mean, we've seen it all the way back to, to nine new, because Cody Hendricks was the first one I ever saw use it with his team. Like he's always used it. If I was rich, I would, I would have it for Brantley. Okay. So why Scott? So why Scott? So against it? Why does he, is it, I he's just old school, man. I think he's just one of those old school guys that rather use hand signals. Cause I remember asking him one time and I remember I could have swore. heard him say something on the lines of it's not teaching him baseball. But I don't understand what that means. And maybe, maybe it was, maybe he was answering that to a different question I had. Cause I don't understand how that's not teaching baseball. don't, I don't think there's a, I don't know. I mean, see it now in high school college, even the major leagues, you know what I mean? Everybody's using it now. I just think he's more of a guy that is an old school baseball player rather use the, you know, hand signals to call pitches, chouts and that. And it also could be too, that, you know, we're talking about teams like, so we've seen it against, well, we've seen it with SBA. We've seen it with the Wildcatters. RBI was ZT National. ZT National. We've also seen it with VSA. It's mainly your top teams in the country. I those are all top teams. And what do they all have in common? It seems like they all have unlimited resources. Yes. So I would assume this might have something to do with Scott. you really, if, if you held a Nerf gun to Scott's head, he would probably tell you, well, with the lack of resources, I'm not going to blow those, what limited resources I do have on that shit when I can just use, when I can just call it. So that alone, the one, the one that I like for Brantley, it's the one you see the college, goes into your ear. You look like a secret service agent. You know what I mean? And that one's that was 4,500 grand. Yeah. And that comes, and that's only for one earpiece. So if you have two catchers, you want your, both your catchers using the same earpiece. Cause I think if you get two, bumps up to like seven grand, eight grand. I looked into it last year. Cause I thought we had ourselves, I thought I was able to lock down a sponsor, um, for the one that Cody uses and the one that. The one, the watch, the Apple watch. Yeah, the watch. And I looked into it. It wasn't, it was only like, I don't know. want to say it was only like 13 or 1400 bucks. And it came with two of them. ⁓ and, but then you could get them for like, think then every other one after that was like another a hundred bucks, something like that. Like 99 bucks after that. And I was thinking to myself, cause SBA has it on every kid in the field, every kid in the field for SBA, at least they did last year. I don't know if they're doing it this year, but last year, every kid in the field, even the kids that weren't playing that were in the dugout getting ready, what was coming or what. And you know, had, had that. pitch communication on. if you're, and folks listen to this, like listen to this right now. We're talking about a new baseball kids, every position on the field has got an indicator on their wrist. That's going to tell them what pitch the pitcher is going to be throwing so they can be ready for a pop-up. They can be ready for a position. Moving yourself into position. Moving to self. So if you like, we, We try really hard Jacob and I to give you guys a perspective that don't understand what this level of baseball is like This was happening when we were nine you playing against Texas teams So you can only imagine how how much more it's cranked up at 12 you at East Cop like it's this is not Daddy ball. This is no this is not wreck ball at the sandlot these kids The level that these kids are playing at and the amount of information that these kids are processing at a young age of this sport that is so mentally grueling is next level. It's next level, Jacob. is, is. It's the way it makes the game easier for them. It does make the game easier for them, but it's also a lot at the same time. It's a lot of information, dude. It's a lot. Oh, it is a lot of information. It also leaves zero room for excuses. Zero room for error. of from the training. Like if you get to train with that all winter long and understand that, you know what, you know, Z 35 Q means, you know what I mean? Or you look at your wrist. It's a fast ball outside. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you know that ball's going hot to first base or second base. Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah, it's either going to to the right side or he's going to, you know, it's a, the right side be ready. You know, you get your, you get your left side to shift over. know, it is a lot of information. mean, But it's easy. think it's easier than a coach standing like, well, don't you think it's easier? Well, don't you think it's easier for the, for the catchers at this age? Because the, because you guys might change your signals between every game. Yeah. And what do you do between innings because the coaches you're doing it between innings. Cause the coaches are figuring out the head signals. Yes. Yes. That is, I mean, the coaches are smart. The coaches, you guys got to understand this too. It's not just the coaches figuring this out. They've got 20 parents sitting over there, staring at the signs to figuring it out and then texting coach on the field. So am I right or am I wrong? No, you're right. I mean, yeah. mean, we knew what does we picked up pitches before and told our boys, but you know, there's certain situations, you know, like, you know, you're let's say we're on defense and we just walked the batter. Well, the first, you know, we got to remind the pitcher, okay, we're not throwing a pistol down the middle. We're throwing a breaking ball. You know what mean? We're throwing a change up, getting into a double play here, but you got to remind them sometimes because they're kids. So it's one of those things where- And that's where the communications come in easier and just let the coach call the pitch. Everybody sees it. The catcher doesn't even have to make a sign. They just go. Yeah. And, but I will say that this has, that this, that that technology has burned us in the past too. It's pissed me off because we've had, we've had teams use it with delays. Batteries though, we got to switch these in. Yeah. Like with, with time limits and games. Yeah. Yeah. Make multiple battery changes in devices to delay the games with these things. And I don't know that we got to get that under control too. I mean, I think it just, you leave it as a umpire. Hey, you got to leave it. Now he's playing the game the old school way. Yeah. Or you got players, you know, you got players around you, let them communicate with you and tell you. You should get one of those a game as far as a battery or a device. If it's not working, rip that thing off and go back to picking your nose and wiping your, you know what I mean? And wiping your mouth and combing your hair. You're right about that. So it has come back. I remember it biting us in the butt at that championship game in Florida. Cause he used that when they were tying their shoes and everything else, they were talking. We were doing the whole device thing. then ⁓ have we played anybody with the walkie talkie in the earpiece? Have we played anybody that uses that? We have. I just don't remember who it was. I've seen it. I want to that was Rodriguez. I want to see that was VSA. I want to say that might've been, You know, the really tall catcher that they have. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. I want to say it was Rodriguez, the third base coach. Cause I, I feel like he always had his clipboard up covering his mouth. Yes, you're right. Okay. So we have somebody it's It's just Cody and SBA are the ones that use the watch. But yeah, I remember that tall catcher that catches for them. God, the kid is huge. He had that earpiece in. So answering the question, for me, be, yeah, I Braylee to have it. It makes it a lot easier. It makes it a lot easier and more on the local level. You don't see it because it's local baseball. The further you go out, the more you expand it. You start seeing it. Especially like I said, from them top national teams, they have the money to get those resources. Yeah. I it's, I mean, yes, it, you know, get a sponsor for whatever, but that's a really hard ROI for a sponsor to do because how do you, how do you get, you how do you get a return on your investment there? So that's gotta be really honestly a donation more than, more than a sponsor. You just call it a sponsorship. But, uh, yeah, I mean, I just, it was curious and I, you know, he was asking and wanted to know if we'd seen it. And I was like, bro, we've seen it all the back to nine you. So this is, but yes, you do not see it locally at all. I don't even know. I don't even know if our high school or for local high school uses it. Um, our local high school is in the stone age when it comes to development, everything else. I, yeah, but you live in the middle of nowhere. Bro, don't get me started on this. We're not gonna get into the conversation about our high school baseball program here. Okay, so we'll leave that alone. Shit's gotta change. Shit's gotta change and it will change or else you're not gonna have. Bro, there's things happening now. This is... We don't have to get into it. We don't have to get into it. That's another podcast, that's another podcast and we will. We will cover it as it gets closer because I will be paying attention this year to the high school program. You have to. a lot more than what I ever have in the past. Because if this community that I live in is they they're very, they're very comfortable with the way things are. And it's not just our sports programs. It's not I'm talking the way of life. I'm talking how you live. They're very comfortable with with status quo and what separates the the the programs in Northeast Ohio or across the country from programs like us in every sport. And every sport, I'm not just going to single out one is that those other programs do not settle for status quo. They strive to be the best. They strive to be the greatest. They strive for ticket sales at football games, at basketball games that that, you know what mean? They want to put out the product. They want the product to represent the community and for that to be the best in the state. So either we got to we got to either we got to shit or get off the pot, as dad would say. So, well, my dad would say that, but. somebody else's down. You would say that. It's funny, man. Big conversation I had a lot during the week was the conversation about high school sports. Yeah. Do they matter after what you said? Yeah. Yeah. Do they matter? And I mean, I said, if you listen, I mean, obviously you listen to podcasts because you brought the topic up to me. Like, you know, you know how I feel about it. don't think it does. And they would just got into the depths of why and what has to change. It came off of our conversation with coach Cairns because I, I, after going back and listening to it, I completely disagree with you. I think it does matter. Cause if it didn't matter, you wouldn't go and want to play the top, the top division in the state of Ohio division one at your question. If you're used to playing top elite travel, why would you go play for a division four or five or six? If it doesn't matter yet, of course you want to play. want to know you want to stay. All that matters is trying to win a state championship. Does it matter? If you get in a scholarship or anything like you said, don't know, man. We got to have somebody. Why does high school baseball, why is high school baseball the same time as high school or college baseball? Well, it's always going to be that way because it's the, it's that's the season that the sport is in across the board. know, man. I mean, to me it's not. I mean, we see it, man. You see it when we go to East Cal. How many times have we, you know, we've been there go up. They're still playing. They're still playing their high school. don't, I don't know. No, no, I'm not saying don't go play high school. No, I know you're not saying don't go play, I to me, just feel. You don't get your panties in a bunch if you go to a school that your baseball program sucks. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think this is just my opinion. I think that by the time that it matters in high school, so get through Pony, Pony league, which is the next two years. By the time you're a freshman and a sophomore, I think that the majority of the future college baseball players in this country. have already done the work that they need to do. I think it's the late bloomers that get exposed and it's the late bloomers and the kids that come straight out of the cornfield that have never played, that have never thrown a baseball in their lives and all of a sudden, you know, the old man at the corner liquor store saw this kid throwing rocks into the creek was like, you gotta come out to the baseball diamond. You know what mean? There's, there's, there's two of those in this country every year of kids who've never played the game and all of sudden start playing the game. You know what mean? A Paul Skings of the world, which that I'm just saying, like just a freak, a freaking nature. think in my own opinion, I would say that no, high school baseball doesn't matter other strictly for just bragging rights. I think that if you go to a school that is dominant and high school baseball college programs already know that. So there, I think that the only thing that matters in all honesty is, is I think the relationship that your club coach has with recruiters across the country. think that this is completely opposite in, in different than football. think that the relationship that high school coaches have with recruiters is the equivalent to the same thing that travel baseball coaches have with recruiters in baseball. I don't think high school baseball is mattering as much as what I've worried that it's going to. Yeah, I think. High school baseball, like I said on the last one is you play with your friends to go try to win a state championship. Yeah. I don't think it can, I don't think it can break you. think, I think only make you if you don't. Does that make sense? Yeah. And I think that's where I'm at with you too. I don't think it's good. It can't break you because I mean, you're a top player and elite player, elite team. mean, your game's going to talk its own one. You know, you go face the elite competition from all over the country. 90 plus arms or whatnot, you know what I mean? But I think like you said, it's the, I think it's going to help the kids that are the late bloomers. Or the kids that don't play a lot of travel ball. Yeah. You know what mean? like, it's high school baseball is for the kids that don't have exposure in travel ball, but I don't, you know, it can make somebody's career that doesn't, nobody's ever heard of. And he throws 95, you know I mean? As a junior in high school, but he doesn't play travel ball because his parents. worked third shift if you know what mean? And you know, it lived that life. ⁓ but I think that if you're a top, I think that if you're a top 200, the top two 50 baseball players in, in America, everybody already knows who they are anyways. So it doesn't matter. So high school baseball is just something to do. It's something to maybe probably build more character than it does development because these play with friends and play with buddies and play with buddies. just, found it interesting. I found it interesting though, when he said, you know, because, because Bishop Watterson is there a wagon in sports. Yeah. But when he said that, that, you know, that Grady's two minutes away and Bailey was 55, that probably had a lot to do with it too. And a lot more buddies that he plays travel ball with it go to Dublin. And he's a boy. He doesn't like to get up to school. You know what I mean? He rolls out of bed and just goes. Yeah. I mean, he could go to, he could go to Bishop Watterson and win four state titles. You know what mean? ⁓ in baseball there without any questions asked whatsoever. And he's choosing a harder road with, you know, Dublin Jerome, cause you got to play Cincinnati, Mueller and all these other division one schools in the state. Yeah. But at the same time, like you, like you said, it doesn't matter. because the eyeballs that he wants to be on him are already on him. They're taking care of during these showcases and during these college camps and stuff like that. yeah, I would say that you're probably right. I would say that I'm probably getting a little bit more worked up over what high school baseball is going to look like than what I should. I probably shouldn't care that much about it. And maybe I need to reevaluate my attitude towards that. But at the same time, too, I also just don't want to be dog shit. So. Well, no, none of us wanted to be dog shit. No, no. So, you know, I don't want to be, you know, the armpit of the county when it comes to, to high school baseball. Yeah. So, and I think things are, listen, I have hope. I have hope. I think things are changing. I, there's some good people that are, that are making some moves, but we've, we've got to, we, we've got to, we've got to get into the deep end when it comes to competing. That just, we have to, like, we have to. So we do it with a lot of other sports at our school district. So there's no reason we shouldn't be doing it in baseball. So Yeah. So anyways, okay. So this week coming up. So what I'm thinking is, is we will record Wednesday night as scheduled. And then I was trying to figure out what we'll do is, is I think, depending on how the weekend goes, cause we'll be in Florida, how the weekend goes, we will either record. We'll either record after we're done on Sunday before we head home or maybe, you know, if we have a break in between games and it's more than an hour, we're just going to have to play this one. We're just going to play this one by year to see how Sunday rolls around. I don't want to do it in the morning because that's too hard on you on Sunday mornings because Sunday morning is not hard on me. So I'm not. Okay. So we got to do it. We have to do it. Like we did the one eight, seven, 38 o'clock. Well, as long as we don't play have an 8 a.m. game second morning. You know, we'll shoot and we'll shoot for Sunday morning. That way I can kind of give you because you know me. And after a tournament is over, my brain shuts down. Yeah, you want to decompress. I'm so, so mentally exhausted and stressed out from watching my boys go through it that it's really hard for me. And I don't also I also don't want to get on a podcast and be emotional. Yeah. mad So we'll shoot Saturday morning. Yeah, we'll shoot Sunday morning. Sunday morning. And if we have to, if we have to do a six o'clock or for 45 minutes and that's what we'll do, you and I was just getting ready to say that. Yeah, you and I both operate well at that time. We're fresh and we're good to go. So yeah, we'll see. And then if, if I... If Saturday night, we've got some dads that want to get on out. We'll communicate that with you. We'll log them on or we'll log you in and we'll get on the couch and we'll record. Or if I get a dad that wants to do it, you know what I mean? Sunday morning, who knows? But, mean, don't have nothing as of now on Sunday or Saturday. So you let me know. Okay. All right. Cool. All right. Let's get out of here. This was a quick and an easy one. Thank you to Jay. Jay, thank you. ⁓ Yep. And we're going to get off of this podcast so that we can both get on game changer and we can watch Nolan's game. So y'all have a great day. Jacob, love you. See you, man. You guys, everyone have a good week. Love you. See you. Bye.