Can't Be Broken
Can't Be Broken
Grinding Through Life Lessons On and Off the Diamond with Bobbo Marcial
When former pro baseball player Bobbo Marcial hung up his cleats after five seasons in the Atlanta Braves organization, he discovered his true calling wasn't just teaching the game—it was transforming young lives through it.
Marcial takes us behind the curtain of modern youth baseball, revealing how the explosion of travel teams and showcases has fundamentally changed the landscape for young athletes and their families. With refreshing candor, he addresses the uncomfortable truth many coaches avoid: the industry has become increasingly focused on profit margins rather than player development. Drawing from his psychology background, Marcial explains how he's created a program that prioritizes transparency, communication, and genuine connection with athletes.
The conversation shifts into deeply personal territory as Marcial shares how his journey to sobriety nearly three years ago transformed both his coaching philosophy and personal relationships. This vulnerability provides a powerful framework for his approach to mentorship—meeting young athletes where they are emotionally while still pushing them toward excellence. His mantra of "master the boring" speaks to the disciplined, consistent work needed for success in sports and life alike.
What makes this episode particularly valuable is Marcial's practical wisdom for parents navigating the complex youth sports landscape. From understanding appropriate expectations at different age levels to recognizing when specialized training actually benefits developing athletes, his insights help families make informed decisions. Whether you're a coach, parent, or athlete, Marcio's balanced perspective on competition, character development, and creating good humans first will transform how you approach sports.
What up, what up, what up, and welcome to another episode of Can't Be Broken Podcast. I am your host, c-monster, and I have a very special guest with me today. I'm blessed to have him. I'm blessed to call him a friend, a kid that I've. I call you a kid, but you're obviously not a kid. I was a kid friend, uh, a kid that I've.
Speaker 1:I call you kid, but you're you're obviously not I was a kid, yeah yeah, uh, but a kid that I, that uh grew up actually watching us, but also, um, learning and him, him and himself has developed into uh, an amazing human being first of all, yeah, and second of all, an amazing baseball player and coach and mentor. You know that that I'm actually very honored to say that. That's when people ask me different organizations of where to go, I always give them your name first. I know you don't know that, but I'm telling you that because, because I want to send people to the person that I think is going to make them a better individual. That also comes along with uh, with good baseball techniques and mentorship and how you're leading these kids. But, uh, without further ado, I want to welcome my friend, um colleague, cause we're in the same realm, I guess we would say a little bit different. But, um, robert Bobbo Marcio, thank you for coming in and joining us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, thank you for having me. Man, it's it's, it's been a pleasure. You know, kind of same, I think, like you said. Just I appreciate that you referring people to me because I would like to think I'm one of the good ones still out there. You know, I know it's changed and we kind of briefly talked about that and we'll probably elaborate more, but, um, the game's definitely changed, so we're trying to, I think, like you said, not even so much baseball players or softball players, as good individuals, good human beings, so, um, yeah, so just a little bit about myself. You know, I grew up in the Valley um San Fernando, san.
Speaker 1:Fernando Valley, yep Cause everybody would be like, oh, the Valley San Gabriel? No, no for sure, yeah, san fernando valley.
Speaker 2:So uh went to cleveland high school, graduated in 02. Uh, we won a city title in 02 at dodger stadium. We beat silmar one zero that year. Great game was uh ray krelis. Uh, you know what? Uh donatello was it was his last year.
Speaker 1:Oh, it was gary's last year, so it was.
Speaker 2:It was a great year. They were the one seed, uh, we were the 15 seed. So the 16 teams were the 15 seed. And that year we beat, uh uh, ricky romero okay, was at roosevelt at the time, so how to go on the road? He was undefeated, yeah. And then we had to beat paulie. And then we beat chatsworth at pierce college, who threw uh. Jason dominguez, who was undefeated as well. And then we beat jamie ma, who was a good friend of mine at dodger stadium, who was also undefeated. So three undefeated pitches that year. 15 seed barely snuck in. That was that. I guess Coach Cascione effect man, like you're just going to go, and that was your coach there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, coach Cash man, he was the man. So he was like hey, man, just get us in. You know that old chip in the chair like you do what you gotta do and we, we were terrible offensively, like we were really bad, but it was pitching defense you know pitching defense wins championships and what position did you play?
Speaker 2:I was shortstop, so I played shortstop, yeah. So I you know what? I was supposed to go to chatsworth high school, yeah, um, but my whole family went to cleveland right and again I will. I watch you guys growing up and you know my uncle, julio, played at cleveland and I knew I like I wanted to go. So, um, I knew I had a better shot of starting right away. So I started as a uh um freshman on varsity at Cleveland and it worked out well. You know, I played all four years at shortstop. We went to daughter stadium three out of four years. So we won the divisional. The divisional my freshman year, the divisional my junior year I think it was called um the invitational that year, okay, and then the city title, the one you want to win, we won my senior year. So it was. I mean Dodger Stadium throughout a four years is pretty cool, and to say that you won your last high school game is an honor, you know so.
Speaker 1:How did it feel going there? I know there's a lot of pressure. You have family that went there and did all that. Your uncle, who I played with, who I believe is an amazing person, probably one of the I want to say, one of a couple handful of second basemans that are to me, one of the best. I played with Adam Kennedy, who obviously is really good when I'm playing the pros, but at a younger age, when your uncle and I were playing man Hujo balls would not get by him. He was legit, you know, and he was a scrappy guy who would get on, make shit happen. He was a guy that you wanted in your team, but so you chose to go there. Uh, were you like little cousin here and there? And then now you're winning championships. Like how did that? Um, what?
Speaker 2:would people be saying? I think for me it was uh, first of all it was comfortable. Yeah, to me that was home, you know. I mean like that's, that's where grew up. I grew up watching him play and being there and my dad would take me to basketball games and he would take a you know a stat line and we'd go to football games. And you know, for me it was comfortable being there, so it felt like home. But when we started winning, I think that was the cool part there.
Speaker 2:But to say that, you know, I don't want to call it a legacy, but somewhat of like, hey, man, we kind of redirected, I mean Saber Hagen, I think, wanted in, uh, when it went in 02.
Speaker 2:So in 82, I think is when he won it, cause we won it 20 years later. Um, but to kind of put us back on the map, you know that my senior year we beat Chatsworth four out of five times that year, which is really tough, right, chatsworth's a powerhouse. So for me it was kind of cool to go. Okay, I put my stamp, um on my legacy there as far as putting Cleveland on the map and doing that. And you know they have my name on the wall right there which is pretty cool for the O2 city titles. So, um, I think for me it was that just kind of um, you know, cause I wasn't that great, like I was pretty good, but going into high school I kind of was in that weird stage, you know, and so to be able to go in there and kind of put my stamp on that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:So and during that time you guys started, cause I know, when I was growing up, high school started at 10th grade. Years was nine through 12. Correct, I don't know. I don't know when all that shit changed. You know in la usd, but yeah, 9 through 12, yeah, okay. Um, I know some of the private schools, like notre dame and whatnot. They started 9 through 12, yeah, but I know la usd was like you'd go to middle school and it would be 7, 8, 9 and then high school would be 10th and oh wow I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's where my brother went and stuff.
Speaker 1:Uh, he graduated in 91. It was that's why, actually, when I went to notre dame, I didn't go to my sophomore year, because I was in middle school at LAUSD.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, so yeah, yeah, no, it was ninth grade yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, started ninth grade, let's get into a little bit of like really quick, because you mentioned it, and then we'll get a little bit more of like your, where you grew up and what's going on. But you talked about you know putting the stamp there at Cleveland and going back there and your family had played there and people that you knew and whatnot. But do you think, like in today's society with like even college or high school like the portal coming in right and then all these travel ball teams, it seems like my kid ain't playing. I'm going and that's just from either the low level, from travel ball teams like the kiddos, to even college.
Speaker 1:I've seen people that all of a sudden they were at csun and the kids now texas tech and they're winning a fucking championship and I'm like, well, why didn't you just stay here? You're at a d1 school and I know the nail and getting paid is is good for them, right, which is great. Make you as much money as you can, but I think loyalty has gone out. What's your opinion on on some of that stuff that's happening now in today's like uh, uh society and generation of that?
Speaker 2:I mean it's crazy. I mean I've been really blessed, um, you know in this BM family that I've started with BM baseball and sports training and BM softball. Um, we've been really blessed to have a good set of families that that get it. Um, you know, for example, I have a kid on our 14 year team that doesn't play that much right, but he buys into the team factor. And you know what I tell these guys a lot is like you signed up for a team sport. It's not singles tennis, right, it's not just you by yourself doing it. You signed up for a team sport and need to see it through. You know, and I think that kind of goes hand in hand, what you said earlier as far as just having good individuals right. So I've been really blessed to have um good support on the family end.
Speaker 2:And you know, again, this kid going back to this kid he's going to kennedy and um doesn't play that much for us, comes off the bench sparingly but great kid um will do anything you ask of him. He actually just started pitching because he wanted to and we got him out there. And you know, the other day his mom texted me going hey, coach, you won't believe it, but, um, it kind of brought a tear to my eye. Christian got hyped up by the coach and I'm like hell, yeah, he did really well pitching, whatever it is. He's like no, no, no, it had nothing to do with baseball. I go, what do you mean? Well, the coach said that in all his years of coaching he's never seen a kid stay behind and clean out the dugout, and so all the trash was picked up and left and they like it just even now brings chills to my heart.
Speaker 2:John. Hey, that's kind of what you and I just talked about, like we're not just building up great players, but individuals. But if he didn't buy into it, if the parents didn't buy into it, if they didn't believe the culture and what we're doing, then we wouldn't be here, you know. So, um, but then you have the other end, where you have, you know, a player recently is like hey, listen, you know, my daughter's not getting the playing time that she wanted to, and, mind you, she just started playing, so she's working her way up. Um, I think we're going to head a different direction, you know, um, so it goes both ways, right, but you do see that a lot nowadays where it's like it's not going your way and, um, you know, we call that that reset button, right, like when you're playing video games. I tell the kids all the time. You know, at least for me when we were playing, uh, rbi baseball back in the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rbi. Yeah, I used to get the uh st louis carlos because they were fast, fast yeah, well I think the oakland a's remember they had the power hitting guys can say yeah, but you had ozzy on that team and you kind of hit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those guys were fast yep, oh, willie mcgee, yeah, yeah. So rbi baseball man, it's like okay, well, you know, are you the person who, when you're down 10-0 in the video game, you hit the reset and start over, or do you find a way to get it done and win a ball game? I go, I'm the guy who tries to find a way to get it done. Right, I'm gonna make it it 10 to 10. For we always say cut the lead in half, right? So, um, it kind of goes hand in hand with that, and we kind of tell the parents too, like, hey, sometimes you got to grind it out, and when you you know we're trying to get you ready for high school, yeah, well, what's going to happen when you go in and your kid's not ready yet? Or they have 20 guys on a guys and everyone's paying to play, but at the same time we're trying to do that. And I think that's where it changed, right, it's that pay to play didn't exist.
Speaker 1:One and two, I'm not in that arena that I do the strength and conditioning for kids, right, um, which evolves the mind, the body and the soul, right, whole thing. But, um, when I have a kid that presents himself here with their parents, I said what do you guys want? Where do you want your kid? Is he doing it or she doing it for fun? Is it to get through high school? Is it to get to the next level? Is it to get to pro, like? What's the purpose, what's the end goal here? Because if it's recreational, so by all means get as much playing time, cohesiveness, make some friends, enjoy yourself, do all that. But if it's up here, if it's at another fucking level where you want to be the best of the best and you want to go on, you want to get your education paid for, you want to be the best of the best and you want to go on, you want to get your education paid for, you want to go to the pro level and all that, that's a different deal. That means you're here early, you're leaving late, you're working hard. I don't need to motivate you, I don't need to find that purpose for you, and the parent needs to understand that there's going to be expenses and you guys are in with this and this whole deal. So there's a, there's a change, right, but, um, you know, it could be that parent that comes up. That's what we want and the kid is not putting in the work right and it's not going to go.
Speaker 1:You guys obviously traveled to like Vegas or different places and parents will pay. They pay for the tournament fees, they pay for the travel, the hotel, the whole experience and the kid doesn't get playing time Right. The whole experience. And the kid doesn't get playing time right. And parents are like my kid, why am I paying? It's not getting playing time. I travel all this way. I saw him play two innings, one at bat, and I get it in my mind from the outside. Looking in, I'm like, well, what's the purpose here? What do you, what do you guys? What do you guys want? Because if your kid's not good enough, maybe he's not putting in the work, how do you deal with with, like because I know it's happened to you how do you deal with parents that leave you because their kid didn't get that playing time right? Yeah, or they feel like they deserve more or whatnot. It's a fine balance of being a coach and telling the kid, hey, you're not good enough, or let's get better, or whatnot. Do you talk to the parents.
Speaker 2:Well, I was going to say I think key for me and I think why I've been doing this so long and have um, at least what I think is a good rep in the in the game is transparency. You know, I keep it real and it's not in a mean way, right, kind of what you said. It's um, hey, he or she is not quite there yet, they're just going to be a practice player. Because it's almost like people want to be a part of something now. They want to be part of a club, oh, I'm on this travel team, oh, I'm on that team. And they'll even take it back and say, okay, as long as I'm a practice player and around it, just to say I'm on and I and again, I've been really fortunate to not have too many kids leave the program. I would say it's only been a handful really in the 10 years I've been doing it. Because of that, because of transparency, I think some of these programs lose sight of that. They're telling you that they they're becoming salesmen, right, and it's more so. What can I do to get you part of the program and collect the fee so I can pay my bills, as opposed to hey, man, I got to be transparent because we're trying to build you up. You know, and I don't know if a lot of them are asking those questions like hey, why are you doing this? Is it, you know, do you want to get to the next level? Because we asked that a lot, cause then I have to know how I got to push them and go and where we're at. And you know it's tough man.
Speaker 2:We took a 13 man roster to Hawaii and not everybody was guaranteed Monday. You know you have four games. You have two Saturday, two Sunday. Seven teams, top four make it Monday. Well, I told the parents straight up on game changer hey, listen, we are not guaranteed Monday. I have to play to win. I might hit nine or 10 guys the first couple of days. If your kid's on the outside looking in, it's all good, I'll make sure I make some men, not one complaint, right. So we get there, we're doing it.
Speaker 2:I, I think, one game I hit 13 guys just cause I felt like that was the right thing to do. But it kind of handcuffs you as a coach a little bit, cause you're thinking like shoot, like you said, hey, they paid all this money to get out there. What do? I do, but I set some of my guns. We did it. We ended up getting some.
Speaker 2:Monday we lost in the semifinal to a really good team who won it all. But there was a couple of gripes. You know I'm going well, you know, I know you had said that, but I just didn't think my kid was not going to start in the semis. And I said, well, also, your kid didn't have a hit the whole tournament. You know, he of the game, you have to look at that too. So for the most part they're pretty realistic and they get it. But to me it's transparency. I think a lot of coaches have lost the transparency because they're afraid of conflict or they're afraid to tell the truth. And then and you could tell the truth without being a you know what about it? You know, but you have to like what are we doing here?
Speaker 1:You know, I think, one thing you mentioned really important is transparency and communication. You know, and that's key and I think we lost a little bit of that. Sometimes, you know, I'll text somebody and I don't get a text back for like a day or two and I get it. Everybody's busy, no big deal. When I have to continue to ask like hey, I'm trying to set up the schedule for this week and you're not hitting me up to that day. I'm sorry, coach, I didn't get back to you. You took a shit. You could have fucking texted me back.
Speaker 2:You know you were taking a shit, Like you were eating, Like there's don't tell me you didn't.
Speaker 1:You were so busy that you couldn't get on your phone, cause I just saw you watch that fucking Instagram video and like it. You know, don't, don't give me that shit, but I'm I'm very, very transparent as well, and and I love communication, because when communication breaks down, that's when we start having problems. 100%, you want to talk, let's talk what's going on. Let me tell you the truth. I hope you can take it the right way. This is my opinion and let's move forward in how we can help out the kids. It's important. I had a kid one time here. This is actually what started me in getting all these athletes, more than anybody else. This is one kid by the name of last name was Cervantes, god, why am I forgetting his first name, dom, or no, no, not Dom, oh God. Kid went to Alamany. Anyways, had this kid and he came in. Dad heard about me, so-and-so. Dad came in. He goes hey, I brought my kid. We want him to play ball. He's a lefty, throws, righty, plays second base. Cool small kid. And came the first time that gave me cash money for all like five, six sessions, whatever it was going to be. I'm like, okay, cool, let's do it. They're in, buy on, he comes, he doesn't work hard. Like I'm pushing the kid, hey, you got to give me more, you got to give me all 10 reps instead of eight. You're stopping right before. And just what I told him like to change, like come on, let's go, he'd just stop. Like he was telling me, like fuck you, I'm not doing this Kind of like that and I'm like this is not my standard. I can't do this because everything comes back to me Like if I, if I put out a kid, that's substandard. They're going to look back. Oh, he's a substandard coach. I take pride in not trying to be substandard in anything I try to do, because my whole thing is the purpose of to build better human beings first and then build better athletes and just be better in anything we try to do.
Speaker 1:Dad came up afterwards. He dropped them off. I said I got to go talk to your dad. I brought the money with me, kid got in the car and I said hey, sir, here's your money back. I appreciate you and the whole deal. It's just not going to work. It's just our thing is not going to work. He's not listening to me, he's not giving me what I believe his potential could be. Here's your money. Thank you very much. I hope I can refer some people if you want. Maybe your kid doesn't want it. What he got, all pissed, he goes no, no, no, keep the session, keep the money. He's coming back next time like how's he gonna make this happen? What do you want to get with a kid?
Speaker 1:Came back and worked his ass off one of the hardest kids that I've had work. He wanted more, he worked harder, he did better. Within like three months he hit his first home run over the plate. He was taking doubles into triples, he was taking singles into doubles, speed, everything. The parents that saw him play go oh, matthew, matthew's first. Yeah, what have you done to Matthew? Like, what's going on? He's like oh, I take him to a trainer. Yeah, he goes over there. He works on speed strength conditioning. What's his number? Oh, yeah, here we go. And then boom, yeah, started blowing up Like Nice. I didn't do anything except be transparent. Yeah, tell the truth. And the kid did all the work and I put on a program and it was him who did all the work. But because of him it changed the trajectory where I went into all these kids and whatnot.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, and it was cool.
Speaker 1:It was a good story for him. Yeah, you know that one person can be the marketing table for my business, and so that's awesome. It was really cool.
Speaker 2:Let me let me ask you this, because my wife says sometimes I over the first question.
Speaker 1:I get asked by a person. That's awesome, yeah, oh, there you go.
Speaker 2:So so my wife says I over communicate sometimes. Do you think that that's a thing? Do you think sometimes we can over communicate, or do you think you rather over communicate than I guess not?
Speaker 1:at all, you know, yeah, I think I think you can't over communicate. Yeah, yeah, I think that sometimes we shouldn't say things and you're like okay, you know, maybe just keep that with myself, yeah, so yeah, there is a. There is a thing of like being too honest, like you know. Let's just bring it back to a funny thing. Probably would be like if your wife asked you how does this look?
Speaker 2:and you're just like yeah, yeah, if I tell her it doesn't look that great, she's gonna go change you know it's like yeah, babes, it looks good, yeah, you're fine. You know, yeah, no, no, no, you didn't like it.
Speaker 1:You didn't tell me this yeah, no, for sure so I think there's some stuff, but it's a fine line for sure. Yeah, I mean, it's hard, I mean, but at the other end, if you're looking at in sports and like competition and moving up and all that, I think, so I guess I'm saying if I, from looking at myself, I would rather have said it than not said it, correct, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, well, you never told me that. Yeah, I told you. Yeah, I'd rather get faulted by uh, well, you said it the wrong way or I didn't know this, or over communicating, then holding something back, I'm like why didn't I say it? So to me there's a fine line and sure it could cost you, but I think for me and I think we're in the same page of how we think and where we're going and building individuals I would rather say it than not say.
Speaker 2:When I think, I think for me. I. I'm such a I like being a people person. You know, when I played pro ball it was. I love interacting with the fans, meeting new people. So in travel ball I'm not the coach who's just like hey, man, you're paying me, don't talk to me.
Speaker 2:Whatever my door is, always open and I think that my wife feels like that's one of my biggest flaws in the game is I'm leaving the door open. I'm too comfortable with a lot of these, these parents, or I give them that where they feel like they could come and go. Hey, well, why didn't my kid play today? Why this? Or, like you said, like sometimes I said something. Maybe I shouldn't have to kind of open that door and go. Well, hey, you kind of said this.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I did, but that doesn't leave you room to come and talk to me about whatever, whatever you know. So I think, like that there's that fine line. And I think as I get older and wiser in this game, I kind of realize, okay, well, there's times to kind of open the door a little bit and times to just kind of like you said, just, maybe I shouldn't say that. Let me leave that off to the side, you know.
Speaker 1:You know what, bro, don't change who you are. You know what I Like. That's the way you like who you are. I actually like I told you, I, I. I tell people, hey, bob was a good person, he comes from a great place, he knows the game. But, as you can see, I didn't say he knows the game. He's a great coach. I said he's a good person. I appreciate that you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Like I know what you're telling these kids. You're giving them the same thing that I'm telling them Like, do the right thing, because it's harder to do. Yeah, right, it's harder to go to a supermarket and there's a, there's a shopping cart that's left in your stall. It's easy to just move it out of the way and leave it for somebody else and move it to the next parking stall. Like, get that cart, that some knucklehead left and put it away and do the right thing. That's hard to do, it's easy, easy just to move it and become somebody else's problem. And I know that you're giving that message to the kids and the parents and that's where you come from. So don't change any of that.
Speaker 1:And I love the open door policy because communication is key. Sure, are we going to say some stuff that's going to piss people off. I know I have. But, like I said, I'd rather do that than not say nothing and not have good communication. And so don't change your being, because your being is to always. If you come from the heart of like, helping people out, how can you go wrong? Yeah, you're not going to not everybody's going to like you, but but I'm okay with that, I'm sure you're okay with that. You're just making sure you're saying it because you're coming from a good place, correct, and you're trying to better the person you're trying to save the best way that you can. But if you don't have that open door policy, that shit, that's where things get lost. I believe, yeah, a hundred percent Tell us a little bit about um.
Speaker 1:You went Cleveland, won it. Uh three years uh won the division or went to Dodger stadium yeah. We won a city title down here, Yup, and then how did college? And pro and um?
Speaker 2:how did that transpire into your next, uh, adventure there? So I mean, first I was blessed like we didn't have money growing up. You know, I remember living in I tell people this all the time when it was a small house. Um, we grew up in my grandparents' house on Scroll Street. When they came over from Mexico they came over and wanted a better life and did all that good stuff and so we grew up in that house and that house is still there to this day and I remember living on I think it was called Brard Street or Brard Street in Reseda and it was this tiny house, man. It was like you walk out of one of the rooms, you're already in the kitchen, kitchen living room. There's cockroaches, like people wouldn't believe me to this point.
Speaker 2:You know they're like, ah, I don't know, and I'm like dude, I'm telling you it was really, really bad. And you know my parents worked their tails off man. They had me when they were young. I't have lessons, we didn't have all that stuff. I was supposed to go to Pierce College actually. So out of high school I was supposed to go to Pierce College. Uncle Jay helped me out, my Uncle Julio, who played with you, helped me out, and the Reno coach came down and he saw me take some ground balls, hit a little bit, I ended up taking a recruiting trip to reno crazy story. So on my recruiting trip, I don't know if you remember, uh, jacoby elsberry remember fred socks dude he was on my recruiting trip with me.
Speaker 2:No, shit and the whole time I knew I was going to reno. I'm like I'm gonna come here, I love it here here. I knew he was going to oregon state. He's like I'm just here for the free ride. And I remember telling him at one point like hey, dude, like f you man, like I'm coming here, like you go do that, like not knowing who's gonna be, you know and then he ends up making it to the major league I think, he actually won the college world series and then went to the major leagues but uh, so he was on my recruiting trip but uh, I loved it there.
Speaker 2:I loved reno yeah, small town, all about it, and I'm like I want to go here. So I remember coming back to school, signing my contract and then knowing I to go. I think that's kind of what helped me out my senior year going. Okay, cool, I know where I'm going in college. Just get your stuff done in the classroom and finish out your year. And we ended up winning it all. So I ended up going to Reno, went in as a shortstop but the shortstop at the time was a senior. But they had struggled mightily the year before. So coach was like, hey, man, we're looking for a freshman to come in right away. Well, they weren't going to kind of take him out of shortstop. But I had a really, really good fall. Like I mean, I was swinging it extremely well. I'm talking doubles, home runs. I was starting to work out a little bit more and I said, coach, I could play outfield man. Like, put me some right field during the fall. So anyways, I had a really good fall.
Speaker 2:We go up to play pacific opening, opening weekend in stockton. I don't start game one, I'm like, okay, cool, it's a little different for me, right, because remember I started all four years in high school. Um, so now that was a little bit of like, okay, cool, like culture shock, right, what are you gonna do? You know, I tell our guys all the time like, do you go on your turtle shell and just go, oh, what was me? Or do you? Okay, let's see, let's let you know, let's, let me be a good teammate, so good teammate. Sec, our first game, our second baseman got hurt. So I started the second game and I remember my first ever hit was a rollover to shortstop. I freaking go top spin rollover to short, beat it out for a single. I'm like, yeah, let's go. Were you fast?
Speaker 1:uh, I was pretty fast, okay, would you run like the 60, you know what. I don't remember all that because I wasn't really in.
Speaker 2:I don't care, I just fucking ran yeah, I just ran, man, it wasn't even that people say that what's your?
Speaker 1:I don't know I just was quick, man it was instinctive and fast and um. Everybody's too much into data yeah, it is a lot of my. My spin rate is I'm like what the fuck is that? I?
Speaker 2:don't even know what that is. I don't know what that is. Just can you throw a strike, dude? That's all I care about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then my, my launching angle and my bat speed. I'm like what, yeah, who's taking all that? What kind of fucking shit technology.
Speaker 2:Now that is crazy. So, yeah, so we end up. So, anyways, we end up going. Yeah, we end up going. Uh, uh, oh. So second baseman gets hurt, I start the second game, do really well, and then that was it. I kind of took over there the shortstop struggle a little bit and I want to say I pretty much started every game at shortstop in my three years. Um, there, I think the only time I really sat was when my cousin passed away my junior year. I had to come back home, but other than that I played and then, um, I thought I was gonna get drafted my junior year. So I talked to the White, white Sox, the Blue Jays and Pirates and I'm like I'm going, man, I'm going to go day two, $40,000. I'm pumped, I'm hanging out Like cool. At the time I was playing summer ball in Santa Barbara.
Speaker 1:So I go play summer ball with the Forresters right.
Speaker 2:So the Forresters tremendous team, coach Pinter, amazing. Out there. Day one of the draft. I tell my dad, like dude, I'm not even going to go out and play, like I'm going to get drafted. And he's like, just go play. So we go out day one. I know I'm probably not going day one, go back out to Santa Barbara day two, cause we have a game. And same I'm like dude, I'm going to get drafted. He's like, just go play. So he has my phone and I remember clear as day. I keep looking at him every inning just to see nothing, nothing, nothing. Whole day goes by I don't get drafted. I I pretty much cried on the whole way home like I sat in the back seat. My dad drove home just bawling like dude, like there was how many rounds back then.
Speaker 1:You remember it was a lot I want to say 40 or something or whatever.
Speaker 2:It was right, what it was like 20, now there's 20, so it was about 40 or so.
Speaker 1:My brother got drafted in the 24th correct. There was like 40 or 50, I think it was a lot.
Speaker 2:It was a lot, there was a lot.
Speaker 1:So uh, covid changed it. Yeah, during covid is when they cut in half right.
Speaker 2:So I'm like there's so many rounds like I'm gonna go and I kept thinking in my mind the whole 35 000, 40 000 dollars, like dude, that would be dope like you know and so give myself a nice little car for something, yeah, yeah 100 man, so you can't even get a fucking
Speaker 2:motorcycle, I think just the the fact of like saying I got drafted too like hell yeah, I got drafted all that so, um, anyways, I'm, you know, basically balling on the way home and I told my dad I kind of didn't want to play anymore in the summertime, I just want to take a break, and you know, I was burned out a little bit and that was about a day I think a day went by and then it was that, all right, man, let's go.
Speaker 2:We've got to go back to work. Dude, like you can't, you can't feel sorry for yourself. Dude, like you gotta fucking grind, you gotta go now and the next probably month. I just balled out, man. I mean like crazy balled out. I mean it was wood bat, so it was like three for four with a couple doubles, four for four making six plays. That shorts up. So one game I just go off. Four for four, a couple doubles, make a backhand, five, six hole. Um, and the brave scout was there so he gives me a question there and I'm thinking same like I've already filled out a million these right the brace, because you're uh tom batista oh okay, tom batista, there was a brave scout that was from the valley.
Speaker 1:we used to call him the bird or something. Do you remember him? No, older man.
Speaker 2:Oh, I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:He's still around. He's still around, he's still around. I see my son in Shumat Valley all the time. He used to have a nickname I don't know if that was his nickname, something like that. I called him like and I think it was because like the Braves, you know, whatever he was, always around, and now he's at Valley College every now and then. Oh, he shows up to everything, Everywhere. Yeah, you know why I love him? Because he hypes me up all the time. Hey, Rob best shortstop ever.
Speaker 2:I'm like, yeah, keep going man.
Speaker 1:Bro, I saw him and I go hey, sir, how are you? I don't know if you remember me, but you used to scout, I used to see you. All the time he goes, tell me your name and I go Cesar Martinez, oh, from Notre Dame, this and that. I remember you from Pierce, and I remember you went oh my God, what a team. You're an awesome second baseman. What are you up to? And I was like this guy still remembers.
Speaker 1:And your brother was Eric. He got I'm like what the hell is his name? But I'll find out who it is.
Speaker 2:I'll have to find out too, because he's been around.
Speaker 1:Who else was around during our time was I don't know if you ever remember George Genovese. Yeah, he passed away. He wrote a book, but he's the one that drafted Eric Karros. Okay, he became very famous because he put a guy, from wherever he was from, into. I think Eric Karros went to UCLA, gary carol's went to ucla, I'm not sure. Yeah, he did yeah and uh and brought him up to the bigs and he made his name around us here and so, um, yeah, he passed away, but um, that's why I asked the name of the yeah, yeah, no, yeah, it was tom batista who actually ended up, I think, marrying um, um, what's the lefty from the brewers?
Speaker 2:uh, yell it. I think he ended up marrying his mom. Yeah, yeah, crazy story. So, yeah, crazy, all right. So Tom hits me up on Friday to fill out this questionnaire. I'm like, all right, cool, I've been there and done that. So, um, or, actually, I fill out the questionnaire. So then Friday he calls me going hey man, we want to draft you. Um, I got a thousand dollars for you. I'm like, dude, I can't do that, I'm going to go. Remember, I could go back for my senior year.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna go back right after the draft where they can still draft like a free agent, correct, free agent. So this was, this wasn't the next year.
Speaker 2:No, no, it wasn't the next year so that same summer, so this was probably like a month after that all that stuff went down and so or maybe less than that, um, but he, so he goes, a thousand dollars. I go, hey, man, like I'm gonna go back for my senior year, it's all, it's all good because I could still go back, but I wasn't a big school guy, like I did what I needed to do for baseball but I didn't love it that much. So he calls back like five minutes later Okay, dude, I can get you $5,000 and I'll pay for the rest of your schooling. I'm like okay. So I call my dad and I go hey of gummy bears, like I'm there, you know, like I'm ready to move on.
Speaker 2:My thought process was I'm not going back to school. And he's like it's up to you, man, whatever you want to do. So I call him back that Friday. I said let's do it. We go to cheesecake factory on Saturday. My whole family's there, uncle Jay's there taking pictures. Sign my contract Saturday. Fly out Sunday. So it was like top Friday, sign contract Saturday. I'm at Wildwood Sports Complex in Kissimmee, florida on Sunday going.
Speaker 2:First day I get there. The shortstop that's there at the time is Elvis Andrews. I don't remember Elvis.
Speaker 2:He was like 15 at the time, stud. But I ended up going, man, I played five years, Did okay, struggled with the bat a little bit, but it was a great time. The biggest takeaway, I think, for me from pro ball was the community service. I did, I loved it. I think I got my last two years in myrtle beach, which was high a ball. I got the community service award to me, like that was the highest honor. You know, working with the miracle league, um, just going out, kind of helping out a little bit, that was the biggest thing that I took away, that I always wanted my players to kind of be around, you know. But I mean I mean shoot. I got to play with Freddie Freeman. I mean I was locker roommates with ship.
Speaker 2:So in Myrtle beach I was locker roommates with Freddie Jason Hayward was there, kimbrel was there, so that's the cool part, man, like being able to play with those guys and go man. And I just had to talk at camp yesterday going, hey, when I would hit with Freddie man, just his mindset, dude, it was let me stay inside of baseball, let me go middle oppo, but he kept doing it over and over and over again. So like that was pretty cool, that was a humbling experience. So when I once I was done, I knew I wanted to coach right away and kind of get back on on that end. Yeah, um, but very humbling experience, man, it was really really cool.
Speaker 1:so yeah, that's, that's some really cool stuff. Like I go back and I said, man, who did I play with and what did I learn and all these different things playing summer ball. I played up in Wausau, wisconsin, which is the Northwood League. Yeah, yeah, when it first started, you know, and you know you can go back to Jeff Supan, randy Wolfe, dan Say shit in college, adam Kennedy and all that and the work ethic that these guys like Freddie Freeman and Adam Kennedy had is unmatchable.
Speaker 1:I know I worked my ass off and I had to write, but it's different fundamental shit that they did, that they were going through that just wouldn't change the belief in themselves and the way they hit was unmatchable. Yeah, I mean Adam Kennedy broke so many college records for D1 and hitting this and hitting that, and I remember I mean I wasn't getting outworked, I had to work for my shit because I was five foot nothing. You know, stocky guy, I wasn't fast, I couldn't throw hard but you weren't going to beat me. But Adam Kennedy would hit, just like Freddie Freeman, off a tee, off a tee, and he would make sure that his head and everything stayed down. So he would actually go from one shoulder his right shoulder he was a lefty and then make sure that it stayed down to his left shoulder. He hit so much that he would cut his chin. Oh, I see, yeah, and he would be bleeding and his shirt would be bleeding. So then he's like, all right, I cut myself. Finally, it almost seemed like he did it on purpose so that he could like see his blood and like keep working. And then he would put tape and be at practices with tape around his chin, like, oh, my gosh, yeah, and I'll be like what the? And he just like, I gotta keep working, yeah. And then, once it got better, he created like a callus around his chin and I was like this guy, yeah, but every two strikes that he had he kept his head down, he would hit, he was, he was so, he was so good, he was on a different level than other people, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, we talked a little bit about um, getting recruited and and you know you were going to go to pearson and reno came up and all that stuff. Like nowadays, in today's, you know where we're at, with travel ball being so big and everything, what do you tell kids that want to go to the next level, like, how do they get to the college or pro level? How do they get recruited? Is it travel ball? Is it high school? Is it showcases? What do you think is like the proper way? If you're asking, a parent comes up to you hey, my kid wants to go down to the next level coach, can you tell me that steps to take to get there? What level coach can you tell?
Speaker 2:me, yeah, that steps to take to get there. What do you tell them? Well, that's a great question. I mean, first and foremost, I tell them get your shit done in the classroom, like you're not going to be able to get somewhere if you can't get it done in the classroom. One you can't play high school if you don't have at least a 2-0, and that's bare minimum, right, some coaches go hey, you gotta have a 3-3-5. I go, but that's not us telling you can't play, that's the school saying you can't play. So that's first. But then that's the one thing they look at. You know, my time when I was at mission was um, and now I'm at Valley college for softball.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the first thing they ask is what's their GPA and are they coachable? You know. So they want to know are they getting it done in the classroom? They want they. They're hoping for three, five or higher. If you can, obviously three. I was good. And then are they coachable? You know how are they. Are they great teammates? So I tell a lot of the families that first, like, get it in the classroom and then just be a good, good person. So on the baseball, it's crazy. So on the baseball end, a lot of these guys are getting recruited out of high school right, so they got to go.
Speaker 2:They'll play their showcase, do all that. I tell them social, use that as an outlet. As far as Instagram, twitter's huge now, or X, whatever you want to call it but a lot of video does help. And I know we say sometimes it's too much or little Johnny's mom's back there, but that's what they're looking for now, because a lot of these coaches don't even have to leave anymore, right? They're not flying down to Cleveland High School or Crestview, they're looking at video now or putting on social media. Hey, send us video, dm us, right. So that's where the game changed a little bit. So I tell these parents a lot like have video footage, have that put together a little short snippet where you can send the college coaches, right, cause that's what I was doing, that's what I do now. You know we had a girl just signed and a lot of it was video footage that we had, and then you just blast it out email to see son here there. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:You just continue to get their handle and then send it to them and see what happens, and then they come back. Okay, cool, because a lot of them again aren't coming back anymore. Now, on the softball end, it's, it's a different beast man.
Speaker 2:It's crazy Like you're only really getting recruited out of travel ball. So high school is almost like some girls don't even play high school, some girls only play travel ball. I told my wife the other day I'm like this is crazy, it's insane. So on the softball end, it's a little different now. So now we're the ones kind of doing video for these girls, we're the one advertising. We're going to do the Zoom into June next summer, which is like a huge event and a lot of like.
Speaker 2:We went into it this year to recruit man. We saw probably 20, 25 D1 coaches just at one facility where there's like four games going on. And then you have each team has a roster of their girls that they have same handles uh, gpa, all that. And then you have one particular person. Let's say you're my guy on on, uh, my BM softball side, where you're going around talking to all these coaches and you're the pitch man. You're selling the coaches going. Hey, I got. So who's the stud second baseman? This isn't that gpa. So it's big time man, and in softball it's that. So, um, but either way, still it's. It's the gpa, it's uh. Videos huge nowadays. Social media is huge nowadays. Uh, we kind of talked about that right, like we didn't have that. Yeah, you know, and, and so social media plays a big part in that nowadays too.
Speaker 1:So, you know, I, I looking back now um, like, why is gpa so important? As long as you're matchable and you're like and I know people struggle with like school or like taking tests or whatnot. But I always feel like, if I can get the kid that's doing the hard, then like is putting in the work. When is doing the right thing? To do the hard, to do the right thing. Sometimes the hard thing right In school is a hard thing and they have a good GPA or they're they're they're pushing, or they want to get better at that. That means they're, they're good people. Yeah, that means they're willing to do the hard work that they struggle at or whatnot.
Speaker 1:No-transcript. Then that's the way you're living your life. Like that's not what we want and I think that has to do something with coaches. First of all, they don't want to worry that you're not going to play based on school. But also it tells something about your character, yeah, so that that's really great advice, because you know obviously what. What age is like travel ball starting at eight. You, dude, I saw like a four you the other day.
Speaker 2:No shit did there. I saw, um, one program took a five you team this probably a couple years ago took a five you team out to like florida for a huge tournament and then little johnny's posting oh home run, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like all right, cool, it's just the coach pitching. It's like t-ball. The coach is pitching in there, the kid hits it goes between like three people's legs running all the way pitching. It's like T-ball. The coach is pitching in there, the kid hits it. It goes between like three people's legs running all the way around.
Speaker 1:And it's a home run.
Speaker 2:you know it's crazy. Now I mean it's… what do you have? What do?
Speaker 1:you have for me.
Speaker 2:The youngest we have right now is our 10U team. Oh, okay, so 10U and we I want to go any younger than that Like I feel like maybe we might need to because everybody else is. But kind of what you said like stay true to yourself and what you do, but I don't know. So my daughter's seven, about to be eight, she's, so she'll be eight. You, I thought about maybe eight, you just for her, Cause she just playing a little bit of baseball right now. So I thought about maybe doing something that, but I, they're just so young you doing something that, but I, they're just so young, you know, and the last thing I want is for them to get burned out so early through travel ball, like still play rec ball. You know, I'm doing again, I'm doing all my stuff at CJBL, right there Chats for junior baseball league, and I tell all these kids like they come up to me, coach, can we do travel? I said and then when the time's right, they can do travel.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it's insane man, I get parents that are like, hey, my kid's eight, can you come and train with you? And I'm like, yeah, you can come, but I'm going to teach them some jumping jacks and some squats, with no weights and maybe a little bit of resistance, but I'm like it's basic. It's pretty basic at that age. So I try to do 10 or above. I've only handful of kids younger than that one, because they're too young. They don't pay attention, their focus is different. This is different. It's not like we're hitting and having fun. I'm not trying to make it fun here. I'll be honest with you. Yeah, I'm trying to make it fun in a way. Um, like people go like, oh, how do you you love running? No, I don't love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like who the hell loves running you know, yeah, I love the process and the mindset and everything that I get out of running. I love it, I love grinding. Yeah, it's not fun, but you know, I think we're confusing, like when people use the word love all the time, like what are you talking about? Like, what's fun is that I got through this shit. Yeah, what's fun is that you gave me something hard and I learned it and I got better and that I overcame and all that. To me that's fun.
Speaker 1:And so running to me is hard because I'm a short little stocky, grommet guy. You know I don't have the long legs. You know, weigh a hundred pounds or whatever. I'm talking about long distance, right? Yeah, so that's why I do it, because to lift weights and do high rocks or CrossFit, that's easy for me. I don't want to do easy shit, I want to do hard stuff. Anyways, I don't know where I was going with that, but I think intentionally, people should do hard stuff and I think if a kid could focus at eight or nine and do it, great. If not, I'm not taking them. So I do 10 or above. But so then you have what. First of all, tell us a little bit about how you got into coaching like after ProBall was done. What led you into coaching? Where did you go from there and then how you started BM.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I knew I wanted to coach right away. I just I think for me I kind of was that born leader right, like when I my time at Cleveland I was always a team captain, like that. Just I lived in that role. I wanted that role, right. Some people shy away from it and I go towards that Absolutely Right. So once I was done with Pro Bowl, I knew I wanted to coach right away. So I went back to Cleveland and Greg Venger was the head coach there at the time, my dad, ruben, was there at the time so I coached I think I coached JV my first year and I was young man, I was young, I was crazy Again, I grew up watching you guys and PC Shaw and my dad.
Speaker 1:Making me feel old now.
Speaker 2:Making me feel old now, yeah, Well, some of my favorite times man was Stangle Field man Going to watch you guys play at Stangle Field.
Speaker 2:To me that was like my daughter's stadium, like watching you guys grind and play and meet out there with my little glove, like ready to go. And I remember, years later coaching at Stangle. Actually, we played at Stangle a little bit and then coaching Like that was always my favorite time and so I knew I wanted to coach right away, went back to Cleveland and I coached JV. So again, young, crazy, I mean there was times where, like we would lose a game and I'd keep the kids there after and we'd play like a little six out game and I'd be like, hey, man, you can truck somebody at home plate, like I just want you guys to grid and grind and get after it. Um, and I had to learn, man, cause I was really inexperienced, I didn't know, I just got done playing.
Speaker 2:I was a young man still, you know, and uh, remember I played. You know I was gone for eight years, so three years of D1 and five of pro ball. I hadn't been around and I was used to this. You know rock star lifestyle, right, you're on the road, there's girls, you're drinking, you like all this stuff, man and you get hooked up so, and it wasn't like we're making that much money, no, but still that lavish you know rock style.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hell yeah man.
Speaker 2:And so you come back and you're like, oh, shoot, first off off it was, and kind of what we'll tap into again. On the mental part is damn, like I let everybody down, like I was supposed to be the guy from Reseda to make it out. And I remember I don't know if you remember ever watching those like MLB shows when they talked about, like, um, how they got there right Like the big show, whatever it was, and I always visualize that like, hey, I'm going to be on that, I want to be on MTV cribs like all that stuff, right.
Speaker 2:So I came back and I'm like damn, I let everybody down, I'm a nobody. I remember drinking a lot around that time too, going fuck, dude, this sucks. And I would go out and coach and I kind of would put that on them a little bit. So I think I was there for three years. My last year there I was on varsity. We ended up going to Dodger stadium. We had a great team man.
Speaker 1:This team was phenomenal man, you live at Dodger stadium. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, a hundred percent, man.
Speaker 2:And so we were there in 2013 and we ended up losing two to one to San Fernando, and I remember just being devastated, man, like I locked myself, and I was back at my grandparents' house in Reseda and I promise you, man, I would lock my. I locked myself in for a week. Man, just in the house, the only time I would go is to go grab some tall cans and go to Wendy's right there, dude, and then I would come back and that's what it was, man, and I would just do that.
Speaker 2:And I was devastating At that time. I knew I was moving on to mission college with coach Casciani, who's a huge mentor of mine, but it was devastating because we had put so much time and effort into it. And not that I wanted it for myself, cause it would have been pretty cool to win as a player and a coach, but for those guys, man, cause they put in the work everything you just talked about the grind, the grit, like they were that man and so, um, even now, when I see those guys, we talk about a little. We don't really talk about the game too much, we just thought about what the work we put in. So, um, so, yeah, so did that. So the night I'm going to mission college was there as an assistant for six years. Um, and even that man, um, it was a rude awakening for me because now these are college guys, right, and I still was young in the game and I remember probably my second day on the job.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm coaching third base in inner squad, guy goes shot off the wall in the yap, hits off the wall, gets a double, and I yell out weight room. Hey, weight room, right, two players, two plays. Later, shortstop goes, full layout misses it. I go by you, dude, coach cascioni comes storming at me. He gives me the cascioni look, which you don't want to get, and you're like, oh shoot, he goes. We don't do that in our program. If a guy hits a double off the wall, why would you discourage him? Why? Why would you say weight room, that's bullshit, man. If a guy lays out and gives his full effort, why would you say by you, right. And I remember really that resonating with me going oh shoot, okay Right. And so it was different. And I promise you, man, to this, positive, it's never that like negative connotation, right, it's never that, um, hey, don't get out right here, hey, don't roll over. And I tell kids all the time, like, why would you say that? Like what do you think that kid's going to feel If you say that it's a do damage, right here. Hey, go, hit a gap, hey, find a way of the zone, right, it sounds different than the negative stuff. So I remember cash lighting me up a little bit. But, dude, when I got there we started winning man, and I feel like you know, I think that young, energetic, coaching me and still a player brought that out on these guys and they had fun doing it and we end up winning uh, conference two out of six years and made it to playoffs four out of six years and they had never been to playoffs ever. So that was kind of cool to be a part of that.
Speaker 2:And and uh, the tradition, are putting mission on the map on the baseball end with that. And um, then, and right before COVID is when I took over as a head coach. So I was a head coach for four years there, loved it. But you know, we were out at El Carizo park, which wasn't the greatest. Um, don't get me wrong, I loved it there. I love my time there. I mean, think about it, I was there for 10 years. Man, I'm 41 years old now, so you're talking about 10 years of my life that I was at mission college and I love the admin, I loved everything about it, just to feel kind of situation and we just kind of were handcuffed, you know, and um, that was a tough part for me and I just would come home exhausted and my wife's like, well, why don't you come up, help me out with softball? And I'm like you know what, let me do it. Change of pace, you know. So now I'm going into year two, uh, valley college for softball.
Speaker 2:Um, last year, so the two years before when she took over, they won, I believe, three games. I mean it was bad dude, they had like eight players. Nobody wanted to go. Last year we got some. We end up winning 12 games. So we're we're on, we're up on the up and up. You know what I mean. So we're trying to change that program a lot. We have altar field light. I mean it's phenomenal there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, valley's changed. It's beautiful, it's beautiful, oh my.
Speaker 2:God it's, it's crazy. And so now we're trying to get, now we're starting to get girls in that want to be there, want to be a part of it. We're changing the culture. You know, we had one of our top recruits recently, who you know. We said why not come here, why go to these other colleges, why not, you know, start your stuff here and build your legacy here, kind of like I did, you know. So it's cool, man. It's definitely a change of pace. The drills are a little different than the boys, but they work, dude, these drills work man. So, yeah, man. So I'm there now and then we have.
Speaker 2:So BM Sports Training started a while ago when I was at Cleveland, my buddy Mondo Contreras, and he was a second baseman at Cleveland in 02. So it was that shortstop second base combo. We started VAS Academy, valley Athletic Strength Training, okay. And I kind of got the idea from my buddy, bub Madrid, who I played with at Reno, who was a second baseman. Okay, above Madrid, who I played with at Reno, who was the second baseman, he had fast academy. So it was functional athletic strength training in Reno and it was a lot of what you do, the training, all that stuff. So I said, well, let's piggyback off that, let's go with VAS, because VAS is a broad amount and we could coach any sport, like I didn't want to limit it to just baseball. So we had tandem workouts, we had a couple of guys that would go work out, we would do half strength training and then half baseball-related stuff and it just kind of evolved over the years.
Speaker 2:And then recently, two years ago, I went to Cooperstown with the Vipers out of Chatsworth, out of Sierra Canyon, because I was helping out there on campus a little bit. And when I came back I'm like man, I want to do something. That's mine. And I started doing lessons under BM Sports Training. I think when I was at Sierra Canyon we started BM sports training. I was doing tandem workouts, just kind of doing fielding lessons, uh, group fielding lessons, group hitting lessons, all that Right. So I came back and one of the moms like, well, why don't you do something around BM? And I'm like, yeah, you know, and I know BH had his stuff going on and, um, a couple other ex-pro guys had their stuff going on. Uh, trevor brown, um, yeah, it was a lot of that. It almost seemed like it was going that direction. I'm like ah, do I kind of want to do that because, like now it's your name. Are people going to look down on like oh man, that's conceited dude like baba marciel academy.
Speaker 1:Like who are you dude like?
Speaker 2:you're some dude from recita you know, like you didn't even make it and I'm like, nah, but it's something I want to do. So we ended up doing it, man, we had tryouts. It took a little while to kind of get it going and, uh, we had a good turnout. And then one day one of the moms brought over some mock uniforms that had the BM logo, the circle logo, and it was like black, pink and till, not like okay, pink and teal. Cool, because we kind of had the teal and black already, which I like and the boys loved it, dude, because it was like the City Connect and all that. And it took off, man. And now we have, I want to say, seven teams or so. We have our 10U team, a 12U team, a 14U team, a high school prep team out of high, out of, uh, chatsworth, and then we have we're about to have three softball teams a 12, um, 16 and 18 year softball.
Speaker 2:So that's new, that's getting started and so the 12 years going to be new, getting started, the 14 and 16 year softball we already have and they're going to move up in age and that's what we do out of Valley college and then everything else I do out of CJBL Chatsworth Junior Baseball League. So it's cool man, super blessed to be doing what I love, you know.
Speaker 1:So how do? What's your guys? You have a mission statement or a credo or what would you tell people that makes you either different or like want to come to BM either for softball or baseball.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one of our biggest thing is something that Coach Cash taught me when I was playing, and it's one of our biggest mottos that we use is preparation plus confidence equals success, right? So the more you prepare, the more confident you become, the more likely you're going to be successful.
Speaker 2:So, exactly what you're doing, right. Hey, monday we're to kind of got, do you know? 10 pushups. Uh, tuesday, let's go 10 pushups. Wednesday, let's go 20. Thursday, let Tuesday, let's go 10 pushups. Wednesday, let's go 20. Thursday, let's go 20. You know what I mean. So you're gradually working up to that and then by them doing that and preparing, they become a little bit more confident, right, and then more likely to be successful. So that's one of our big models.
Speaker 2:And then I think for me, kind of what we talked about earlier, just the transparency, and you're going to get good, clean, fun baseball where, dude, like I'm a menace out there, man, like the other day we're at softball practice and we're doing this competition and the girls are getting after it and it's like a bang bang play at home play. It's called our star drill. So I got to hit the ball to the infield. So the girl starts at home plate as a runner. At crack of the bat she has to go all the way around and beat the throw. So we go ground ball to short, short throws the home, home throws the second, second throws the first, first throws the third, third throws, the second, second. Back to home. Okay, the girl has to score before all that happens. Mind you, softball is quick, right, so we want to put a little out of pressure. Dude, this girl's flying around, these girls are playing catch, bang, bang at the dish barely gets her out and I lose my shit. Dude, I'm like let's go. I like throw my fun, go up and do all that. So I think that's what you get out of the BM program, and not saying that other coaches aren't doing that, because I'm sure they are. But it's just that passion, man, just the love I have for the game, right, and we're teaching softball, we're teaching baseball, we're teaching them how to be good human beings on and off the field.
Speaker 2:We always say you know, be a good brother, be a good son, be a good um um grandson. You know, be a good um teammate, just be good in general. Be the last person in the dugout, clean up the trash. Go, pick up your team. I'm a big, big, big advocate of picking up your teammate. Man, like guy or girl, hits a foul ball and they're at first base. Go sprint and pick up like dude.
Speaker 2:If you saw our 14, you team, um, and maybe you'll see them this weekend, if you're able to get out there and see us play, because they're out there, dude, these guys are on it, man. Like this guy goes and picks up the bat and as that guy goes and picks up the bat and dropped his bat, the guy from the dugout is picking up his bat. You know what I mean. Like it's just, it's just clockwork, man, and it takes time, right, yeah, but like I don't let that get go unnoticed, like if a girl's not doing their job or guy's not doing their job, like I'm on them right away, like I'm a maniac with that the little stuff.
Speaker 2:Pick up your teammates, be loud over communicate. You know what the crazy part is? These guys, always they play video games and they have their headsets on, like we do right now. And oh, yeah, I'm over here. Oh, you know, call of duty, yet You're down the field. They don't say a word. I go, dude, I guarantee, if I put headphones on, all of you guys you're freaking, talking it up. So all of a sudden you're out here like come on, man. So it's that man just communicating. You know it.
Speaker 2:We talked about it. Us small guys. How were we so good in our career? How did we make it? Well, we out-grinded, we out-worked teams. But just that mental part of it. I think we were able to outsmart other teams and other players. I look back at that Encino team that went to the World Series that year and you guys were kind of physical team that went to the World Series that year and you guys were kind of physical. But I just thought you guys were so smart man, and all the little stuff you did, like trick plays or seeing you know getting to the next base because somebody fell asleep reading ball in the dirt, like you guys were so good with that, and I always remember going. That's how I want to be, you know.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I think you mentioned it earlier when you talked about culture and that Encino team was a different culture. It was a team that was built on communication, hard work, trust, being a dog on the field but being good kids, respecting not only our names but the name of Encino and where we came from. A lot of passion, a lot of grit and we all wanted to win. We were all on the same page. We learned so much from PC Shaw yeah, and not only him but our other coaches, and we would intimidate teams right by our infield outfield when we would do the Phantom.
Speaker 2:The Phantom. Yeah, I remember that, Remember that. And people were like where's the ball?
Speaker 1:Like we were so good at it, I mean we would practice it. For what reason, I have no idea, but, um, it was such a fun time in my life and we went so far and we traveled when there was no travel ball around, based on just winning. Um, and it was one of the best times and actually at that age you're a sponge and we learned so much that that transcended every player on that team when it probably played, definitely played high school and definitely played some college, from Chris Garza, who played pro ball, from Ryan Strong's work, who played pro ball on USC, to Glenn Carson, who played I think he went to Reno.
Speaker 2:No, he went to USC. No, he went to USC, he was at.
Speaker 1:SCC, to Steve Chavez, to myself, to Hujo, to that whole infield outfield, justin Paperny. I mean, it was just a great time and I think, going back to that, what you're talking about and what you learned, who were your mentors that guided you into that culture, that mindset, the person you are now and then how you want to, you know, leave that or guide other kids in that way who are your mentors?
Speaker 2:man, I'm the main guy, my name's literally on the Jersey. So if I'm not putting in the work or I'm not a certain way, it's a trickle effect, man. And you just kind of see that in some of these programs. I mean, we played a tournament not too long ago and we go to the dugout and the dugout's a mess, you know, and that starts with the coast not holding them accountable to clean up their, their stuff. So, um, going to mentors, I mean obviously my dad, you know my dad was a huge mentor man, I think the fact, and I just got married recently about a month ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, congratulations. Yeah, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:So you know, the speech he gave at the wedding was more so like hey, man, listen, like I was a young Latino dad and it would have been really easy for me to bounce like a lot of other dads did and I stayed, man, he's like I stayed and I worked my tail off and I grinded and I did everything I could for Bob and his career and all that. And so you know him for sure, man, because he's the one who kind of got me into baseball and was a great coach, great mentor, just taught me the little things you know he was. It was the old school, like it wasn't working on hands out in front, like if he was mad he was in a shoot a ball and you had a body up. That's where you body up and knock it down.
Speaker 2:Now, you guys are like Elaine you know, but um, just little stuff, like that man, he helped me out. And then, um, you know, my mom. So so, um, my dad and birth mom had split up when I was one, so my birth mom was out in like, uh, I think San Dimas doing that, but, um, what I call my mom now, margarita, she dude, she was amazing too. You know, technically I was her stepson but she treated me like I was her son. But just her work ethic as well, man, like both of them together, everything they did was for us, everything they did was for baseball and helping us out and doing that.
Speaker 2:Um, and then my sisters. You know, I have my three sisters I grew up with. I have my brother and sister as well for my birth mom side, but, um, I think for me it's just family right, and that's what I preach on the bm side, like it's we're family man, family's first. Like, through thick and thin we got it like you use the word trust earlier. I love that word because you got to trust people in your program, but my sister's having my back, man, like they would go to all the games at cleveland, all the games in reno, like driving eight hours to go see me. So that was kind of motivation for me too. Um, and then my uncle, julio. You know, again I'm telling you, man, and I don't just say this because I'm here with you, but like I looked up to that team a lot because you guys played the game the right way and you you said something earlier about you know, that's when travel ball wasn't around, but that's when it was like pure man, like you guys were having fun. You're young. It started from the top right. Your coaches helped you guys out and then you guys fed off each other. You guys did it and then you bought into it like who? For those of you who don't know what a phantom infield is, it's you're basically taking the infield outfield with no ball. Yeah, so you're pretending you're hitting a ball and doing infield outfield, so, but that takes buying man, like I don't know if a lot of teams would do. They'd be like coach, that's dumb dude, what are we doing. But that was you guys buying into culture and so program. And so I remember growing up watching that, going damn, again, I want to be like that, you know. So, um, and then lastly, coach Cassione. Man, he started playing with him when I was 14 at Cleveland high school. But he so my dad, kind of taught me that old school way and and and that, that, that uh grit that we had. I think coach Cassione really tapped in mentally. Man, like he was the epitome of mental uh awareness. Be just grinding mentally. Uh.
Speaker 2:We always say, hey, man, you could push yourself a little more right. Like you see these boys and girls going, I think I'm done, I can't do one more. No, you can. Like I always tell these guys empty the tank. Like you think you're on empty but you know how sometimes you're. Like you think you're out of gas and you still have a couple more miles to get to that gas station. Like you have a little bit more man that you can tap into. And I point like I'm not gonna get you where you're passing out or you're gonna freaking die, but there's a little bit more you can get to, and that was cash. He always knew how to push you to that next level he had a great scene.
Speaker 1:What was that one scene that he'd yell all the time? He just yelled. It. Was it one more, right, you know, I didn't hear no bell. Um, I didn't hear no bell there was one more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was one more but he always said last one's better than your first two, so he would say that a last one's better than your first, you know, but it was always out. He was a big rocky fan. Oh, huge, huge rocky fans. I think he knows the whole lyric yeah, like everything, yeah, 100.
Speaker 2:But he'd say something like I hear no bill you know he might yeah, he might have said that all the time because my brother played with him okay, so they played at pierce together, yeah, um, then I think cash went played.
Speaker 1:I want to say calu, no, cal, yeah. So then my brother moved on, so I'd go see my brother play. Okay, that was my mentor. Yeah, and that's how it got to me Cacchione and Joey Arnold and Travis. Arsenault and all those guys that played with my brother. I'd go see them. I'm like, I want to be like that and I remember there's confidence and preparation and equal success and all this stuff. There's a saying I don't know if you know it or Casciani told you, but his coach, bob LaFrano used to say and I learned it from my brother.
Speaker 2:And then, when I went to go play at Pierce, Bob LaFrano would say confidence increases in direct proportion to the amount of preparation put into your endeavor, and it's so true.
Speaker 1:It's so true the more you do something, you gonna get better at it, and it builds confidence and it builds success and all that stuff. And it's not magic pill. Yeah, you just gotta put in the fucking work. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. You can't just show up, you gotta do the work. Um cascioni was a instrumental part of one of the guys that I looked up to as well, because he was like assistant fielding coach at pierce when I was there.
Speaker 1:My first year, that's right my, I think actually my second year, um and uh, he taught me this, this play at second base, where I would field it backhand for a double play and I'd flip it behind my back to the short stop and we would do it and Bob Lafrano would see he goes. What are you guys doing? You knuckleheads or nothing.
Speaker 1:That's our last play yeah don't do that, just make the play. I was like just do it, we do it, and we do it when Baba wasn't looking and I remember we're playing at Stanglefield, the magic place you know, because it looks like a, like a bigger ballpark, like you know it's not just a college ballpark, it was a college but it had a nice wall, you know nice stands and everything.
Speaker 1:Anyways, I'm playing and Jeff Shapiro's a shortstop and we're playing against I don't know who we're playing, probably Glendale. There's a double play ball at the middle and it's perfect. Like I didn't even think about it, just instinctively from doing it, I get the ball and I flip it behind my back and it goes right to Jeff. Jeff grabs it with his hand, turns a double play. Oh man, and everybody I remember the dugout from Glendale was like clapping at us, like what the hell did you just do? And it looked amazing, right, and we go and we're just both in awe, like did this just happen? Yeah, and we go inside and Bob was just looking at it, going, shaking his head, you know, like hand over his face.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hand over his face.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you knuckleheads.
Speaker 1:And then I'm like, but did we do? And he goes that's a good play. Yeah, man, and he gave us credit right. Yeah, even though I'm like see, I told you it was gonna come, yeah 100.
Speaker 2:He had to do that at cleveland too. We'd always worked on that, man and I and I probably use it twice in my whole career and we still do that with our travel team yeah, so the last one we'll go behind the back. We would love, like because you, like you said, you just never know, and for you it was like instinctive because you've worked on it, you've done it, you know well.
Speaker 2:And that and let me tell you something too, with cash was we used to work on the pick tag all the time. So he would throw balls and we have to pick and put a tag at second, but it couldn't be too much movement. So we go to dodger stadium in 02 and there was a huge play where I think they had botched a hit and run or something like that. But our if you see the video our catcher flings it, but it goes shore hop and same deal. I just go a little pick tag boom, like before that umpire calls them out, I flip it. But that's stuff we'd worked on, you know. So yeah, you have to work on those things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, because it's gonna happen. 100 you know, sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you work on, you're like there it is. Yeah, that's what that's all this time, that that I worked on it, that didn't happen in the game or so and so, but it happened. It didn't happen this season, it's gonna happen and then boom and we say master the boring like sometimes all that stuff is boring.
Speaker 2:Right master the boring man, because I'm gonna write that yeah, master the boring man, because you know you might do workouts soon. They're like coach, really like, come on. But master that dude, master the boring man, because you know you might do workouts soon. They're like coach, really like, come on. But master that dude, master the boring man. We and parent, you know and it goes hand in hand with travel ball parents don't want to see that stuff, they don't want to see you working on, they want to little johnny, go out and hit bombs and do all this stuff, you know. So, um, yeah, I think I think again, that was that was um. Again, cash was a huge instrument, was instrumental to my career, real fast too, if I got to say also too.
Speaker 2:you know, I think, having kind of that chip on your shoulder too, some kids don't have that right For me. I told this story the other day. It's a great story, but when I was playing 12 view travel ball, when travel ball just started, I was with the sock. We were called the white sock. Well, first we were with like the black socks and then we did like the quakes for a little bit, I think, but we were on the main team we were on was called the white socks. We literally just had the white socks uniform. Like we didn't have much money. There's a lot of us latino kids out there that were just grinding and my dad was the coach of the team. We had some silmar Kennedy, cleveland guys, right.
Speaker 2:So I remember when I was 12, I kind of was in that weird stage man, like I was a girl's best friend in in in junior high. You know like girls would come to me like, oh, I like so-and-so and I'm like, yeah, but I like you and like you know, like I kind of was in that weird stage man, like I had well, I don't part and I had braces and at one point I broke my wrist. I had a pink cast Like dude, just not at all. I would go hang out with my boys on the weekend and play travel ball. And then I went to Nobel and we all go to the same school. Dude, they wouldn't hang out with me, they were too cool for school. So I was in that weird stage, man, and I remember being at 12. I remember being at 12. I was kind of insecure on how I was and mentally I wasn't there.
Speaker 2:And I remember one tournament or game. My dad sat me dude, I was a shortstop. My own dad sat me for Felipe Gallo. Felipe Gallo, I think, played over at Alamany, I think, or no, he did play at Alamany and so he sat me and I remember, from that day on I was like no one's ever going to take my position.
Speaker 2:Dude, right, and it's kind of what we talked about Like again, are you going to go in your turtle shell and go cry about it or do you go? Okay? What do I need to do to get better? Let me look in the mirror and go. Okay, why did my dad sit me? Well, damn, bro, you got to work harder. So I went that way, man, and Felipe Gala was always my chip on my shoulder high school. I remember as a freshman going hey man, I'm, I'm not gonna relinquish my job when I was a starting shortstop on varsity. No one's ever gonna take my spot. Well, fast forward, dude. My senior year. We end up going uh, they had the daily news tournament, right. So we end up going undefeated.
Speaker 1:we go to birmingham high school daily news remember that daily news tournament, man.
Speaker 2:So we go birmingham night game huge, everyone's there. We're playing Alamany this is my senior year. We're playing Alamany. And who's the shortstop? Fucking Felipe Gallo man. So I remember going all right, dude, let's go head to head. Dude, I go off that game. I go like four for four play unreal shortstop. And then at one point in time in the game and PC Shaw told me this story a while back he's telling Randy Thompson, who's the coach going hey, dude, I, I think bobble's gonna steal home right now. And randy's like no, no, you're good. He's like no, dude, but bobble's gonna steal home right now. And then all of a sudden we go I fucking steal home, dude.
Speaker 2:And pc goes well, bobble just stole home right now dude, you know like and I remember just going dude and being so pumped up, but like, and I ended up getting mvp that tournament, like I'm east and bad, you know that. But like, remember that I always had that chip on my shoulder and I told our 14 you guys this other day in hawaii, like, find that. It's almost like that michael jordan effect. Right, he always found something to like motivate him and I feel like kids these days don't have that because not that they're privileged but they're very catered to.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And you can't blame the parents. Like, I have my daughter, I want to give her everything in the world, but sometimes she's got to grind through it. Dude, Like I always tell her, figure it out, figure it out, dude. I get you're seven years old and I'm here to help out, but figure it out. Did you try to figure it out? Did you? You try to do that? Once you tried it and I've seen you actually try then I'll help you out.
Speaker 2:But you know it's finding that chip on our shoulder, that why, like why do we want to get there? Why, you know, cause it's so easy for them to go see, you know uh, TV or Instagram and want that Right, and you say it all the time. And I see your posts all the time. Like, you know, trust the process, grind, grit, um. You know, uh, daily deposits, all that right, Like that's all good, but you got to continue to do that. But find, like your, that chip on your shoulder to do it. You know, and I think for me I've always had that and I think nowadays the chip on my shoulder is just trying to be the best version of myself. Like how can I be the best version? You know, and I'm going to kind of go on top off topic real fast, but you know, I got a new tattoo recently and so I got to this one's for my wife. So I'm a big penguin fan and she likes butterflies, so we just have our wedding date there.
Speaker 2:Um, but this one was very important to me because this is my sobriety date. Oh, so, about almost three years ago now, um, wife was like hey, man, like you're drinking a lot, dude, you know. And I kind of told you like, when I came back from pro ball, it was that, that mentality Right. And so, um, it was like hey, dude, you got to stop drinking. Or I'm out, like kind of ultimatum, and I'm like, oh yeah, dude, Like that's, that's an easy decision, you know. So, um, I kind of pride myself on this and, honestly, man, like I feel like all the successes I've had and all the teams and people I've come across in this last almost three years now is a testament to that dude, Like just more focus and I'm not saying that drinking is bad.
Speaker 2:Anybody can drink, anybody can have a couple, like I'm not saying that by any means, but I think, just having that and then be able to tell the kids kind of my story a little bit and how they kind of helped me out too and and humbled me a little bit, going okay, what am I doing here, like I'm going to go drink and mispractice, or I'm going to go do this or I'm going to cancel and do this, like as opposed to like hey, man, let's go grind and grit, you know. So, um, I think that was a huge part for me and that's kind of my chip on mentor to them. Right, they're looking up to you, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's a great story, bro. I think everything's out of energy. There's this book called the Energy Bus. I don't know if you've ever read it or heard about it. I have not, so a parent introduced me to it. He's a coach also. I train his kid and he says, hey, uh, the book the energy bus is all about energy and it's all about you and what your energy brings out. Will uh, will bring it out on other people. And there's this great story about uh. As an example, a kid comes and works out here and he has bad energy. Right, he's a, he's driving, let's's just say, and he just has a bad workout and his energy sucks, or he didn't have it today and he goes out and he's turning the corner on recita and a car cuts him off and that energy is going to be like you know, forget you, man, maybe getting a what do they call it?
Speaker 1:a road rage right where, if he came here, had good energy, worked out right, gave it, his all had good energy and he went out. Then the guy cut him off. He'd be like, hey, maybe that guy's in a hurry, it wasn't. The incident didn't change, it's the same incident. Yeah, the same guy cut him off. It's his own energy and how he responds. That's most important, because if he has bad energy, he's going to respond in a bad way. If he has good energy, he's going to respond differently. And that's what I tell people. I said don't let external factors change who you are or your energy. That's on them. How you respond and how you carry yourself is most important and how you have a choice. And so, anyway, that's a great book, it's a good read. It's it's a. It's a good read, it's an easy read, it's a fun read.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll have to read that for sure. Well, we always say control what you could control. Right, you can control certain things, do you? Do you remember I think this came from uh uh Bobbo over at uh uh Pierce, because cash, a lot of the stuff he gave us was from there. But Did you guys ever talk about magic today? No, like M-A-G-I-C. So magic today. So Cash was big on magic today. Make a greater individual commitment today, right, and we use that a lot too.
Speaker 1:Like magic today.
Speaker 2:He was his first year, so I'm sure he learned a lot, yeah, and then took it over, obviously in Cleveland, and I'm sure he implemented some of his own, but I know a lot over there and um, but we were big on that magic today, make a greater individual commitment today, and that kind of goes hand in hand with like controlling what you can control, coming in with a positive attitude. And again, I think our job as mentors in this game and as um coaches in this game is kind of instilling on that Cause, imagine, like all the guys and girls that come through here and work out with you and you're instilling such great knowledge and people first mentality like dude, now we're putting that into the world, Right, and now we're going all right, cool, you know, and that's why I like I, you know we talked about Instagram a little bit earlier and how big it is now and like I try to give people their props, man, because there's to me there's a lot of haters out there like, oh well, you know, bm is this and or this guy, whatever. But at the end of the day, we're all kind of doing the same thing and we're trying to get the kids better. So, instead of fighting and gritting, why not team up a little bit? Why not help each other out? I've even reached out to you like, hey, man, when you have time, do you mind helping out our softball drills, or maybe my camp, whatever? And you're like, yeah, hell, yeah, man, the Valley Cats can't, whatever. And you're like, yeah, hell, yeah man.
Speaker 2:You know, uh, the Valley cats who just started a 12, you in a 13, you team, I think they're going to go 14. It's a couple of kids I used to coach at college admission and I said, hey man, I'm here to help out dude, as opposed to going oh shoot, that's my rival, oh shoot, they're in the San Fernando Valley. I don't want a seventh grade team, I only have eighth grade. But I trust you guys. Hey, man, can I push them your way? Absolutely, you know. So, like we're all in it together, man, we're just trying to make these kids better, you know, and the coaches that kind of don't see that and are kind of about the money and stuff like that is.
Speaker 1:I think that's why travel balls about earlier. If it's not a right fit between me and you or the parent or the kid, I'm just like, okay, let me find you somebody who is. I'm a very competitive guy, I play ping pong. I try to beat you, you know whatever it is, and the strength and conditioning, world baseball all these things are very competitive, but I'll tell you something the goal still stays the same. It's helping these kids.
Speaker 1:All these things are very competitive, but I'll tell you something the goal still stays the same. It's helping these kids achieve their dream, like you did, like I did and whatnot. And so that means guiding them to a different organization, to your organization, to BH, to the Braves, to wherever, to all these organizations out there. Great, what is the best fit for this kid to get better, to learn, to grow and to become a good individual and go from there? We all obviously want the best for them, but if you're not leading with that heart, then you're the one with the problem, because it's about them, it's not about the money, it's not about any of that stuff, at least for me. In doing it in this realm, I'm trying to give back because I knew growing up there wasn't travel ball but we had no money. I mean I could barely get to practice in the back then.
Speaker 2:Thank God there was great people that offer those opportunities. It didn't hurt that I was good in baseball, but they wanted me on the team. But no, a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's how I got to Notre Dame. You know that it was because people wanted to get a team there going from that Encino team, and I was blessed to get that opportunity. What were we talking about? Let's talk about culture. Oh, you know, one of the things that I wanted to ask you that we were talking about earlier and really nobody talks about is the mindset of baseball, like the mental game of baseball, but just mindset. And you were talking about how you were drinking, but you haven't drank since the 2022, correct For three years now, and we're going on three years and um, what is um?
Speaker 1:and I, and I understand that you got your degree in psychology right, your master's, yep, my bachelor's and master's in psychology, and so so how does that translate and where do you go from there, and not just in life, but in the mental game of baseball, and what's your kind of take on that? Yeah, what really talks about it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I appreciate that. So we, you know, first off, that was one of my biggest accolades. You know, my dad for years had pushed. So when I came back, like I told you, I was lost man. I didn't, I didn't have education, I didn't have anything. And so for me to go back and do that was a huge accomplishment. You know, I had a couple of my sisters there, my wife, my daughter. Like I remember having my daughter there, I'm like bawling Cause, like it was a cool accomplishment, man, like it was something that I worked so hard.
Speaker 2:And this, um, I think for me too, for my players to see that, like, hey, man, I preach it every day, go to school, do this, do that. So for them to see me as 40 year old man that is so busy to get his stuff done was pretty cool. So, um, but the mental part is so huge nowadays, man, you see it right, the mental health awareness, you're seeing it everywhere. Now, um, people want to say, ah, you're, you're just, you know you're giving them excuses. Or, um, you know, we always say on our team, don't be a weenie. Like, don't be, don't be a weenie man driving through it. But you know there is times that people are going through shit. And you know, like, even as adults, man, we go through shit all the time. But I know I have to and I have to do it. Um, but you know, I think the pressure sometimes for these guys you know, we always say pressures are privileged, like you know, you're part of something, so you get to go. But they're still young kids, man, you know, and we see it all the time Like I had a kid, uh, one of my buddies took a kid to Cooperstown, probably five, six years ago, and he shut down, dude.
Speaker 2:Like he completely shut down, like he was so overwhelmed with anxiety, with the flying part of it, with the pressure of trying to hit a home run in Cooperstown, like he stopped playing, dude, he played, I think, a couple of games in Cooperstown, end up in the hospital for like a day and never played again. Never played. He actually came out the other day and helped me out. It was really good to see him back on the baseball field again. But this was a kid. When I saw him when he was younger, like when I was coaching at Cleveland, I'm like, man, this is cool, he loves it, he's around it, and all of a sudden he never played ever again. So it is real man, the anxiety of it.
Speaker 2:And I think, as coaches again, when I was younger man, like as a coach dude, I was screaming, I was yelling, like just think of all that added pressure we were putting on these individuals. And don't get me wrong, dude, like I still want to kind of teach that old school way a little bit on how to grind and how to be gritty and how to lay out, how to go hard 90, how to take somebody out. But you know, I think I've taken a step back and going. Okay, I don't want to compound that. I know he knows he messed up, he knows he missed the ball out short. What is me yelling at him going to do in front of everybody? So now I'll pull them aside. Hey, listen, dude. Like go attack it. Remember, we worked on this and work through that. You know, for me I try to make practice hard. So in practice is my time to get in their ass a little bit and go. Hey man, listen, this is what we need to do.
Speaker 2:I freaked out on the girls the other day. Our softball girls are 18. You do, they did tremendous first tournament this summer. They go championship game. They lose a six to five in the championship game on a, on a wild pitch, and the next day at practice they're kind of slacking off a little bit and I lose it.
Speaker 2:I go, hey, they're kind of slacking off a little bit and I lose it. I go, hey, I get that. You know you guys had a good tournament, all that good stuff, but what does that mean now? Now it's time to move on. Let's go, let's get our stuff together. You know. So every now and then I'll do that no-transcript. That's cool, man, you excited about high school. So just simple conversations sometimes, man, just kind of get some going and knowing that they have somebody good on their side. And I think that's where I've really evolved as a coach man. And and the games change on that end too. Right, like no one talked about mental health awareness and, and you know, you said you graduated 93, right, I graduated, oh two, like no one was talking about that. Like you think coach cash was talking about that, like he probably was the opposite man like he's grinding you and grinding you.
Speaker 2:And you know my dad, the old school latino mentality, like you got to go, man, and so that's the part that I think was very intriguing when I did psychology. Was that part of it and something I want to instill in these kids? You know, I eventually I would love to be in a spot, whether it's at Valley college, wherever it may be where, you know, I can sit a young individual down and we sit and just talk man, hey, how are you feeling? What do you got? You know, hey, coach, I'm, you know, a little overwhelmed because I I do feel like I've been through a lot man, with baseball.
Speaker 2:You know, growing up in Reseda, the grind of baseball, um, you know, dealing with alcoholism, um, just the ups and downs in lives. You know, I've lost, lost a lot of good people in my life, from my grandparents to my cousin, my uncle. So, like, dealing with a lot of that. I feel like I could sit down with the individual and go. I know what you're feeling like and then we can resonate with that. You know what I mean, as opposed to them maybe going to someone who really hasn't gone through that or hasn't gone through the grind of sports like you know it, man, it's a grind dude, and the physical part is one thing, but the mental part's a whole different beast. Right, and you talk about it even pushing some of your players through, going, hey man, let's push through a little bit more mentally. So, um, for me that's the cool part about you know, tapping in that way.
Speaker 1:I think, uh, you know hopefully people don't take it the wrong way I'm like, oh well then, you know, you talked about figuring it out, so are you talking about not figuring it out anymore, like, are we getting softer? No, what I hear you saying, and what I'm trying to say in the message that I think we're trying to give, is the deliverance is different. Yeah, the deliverance of hazing, of belittling people, of, you know, causing this thing and yelling and trying to get into that's different. The message is still the same. Yeah, right, the message is still same. Yeah, right, the message is still hey, we want what's best for you, let's get better. It's just the approach is different, right, and the approach should be different. We're in a different time, in a different world, different generation and, um, you know when we, when I was growing up, I can tell you stories of hazing on the sheriff's department or, like you know, the things that they make us do. I mean, you know from CSUN.
Speaker 1:I can tell stories that probably put somebody in jail or coach or somebody but obviously they wanted the best for us at a certain point for us and we had to figure it out and there was learning experiences that we went through. But I think you're absolutely correct. One is tapping into the person in front of you and how they respond. Some people respond by yelling or by a little bit of different ways. Some people want more attention. Some people are different. Maybe they're going through something and getting to know everybody and what works to get them to work harder or understand that and figuring it out. That is the coach's part. That is the coach's part is to get to know their players or their clients, the people in front of them, and I can't talk to everybody the same way. Everybody responds differently and if the coach ain't doing that and putting everybody in a broad umbrella and thinks that yelling at everybody or treating everybody the same way, that's not the right way, I think John Wooden said it best. My job as a coach is to know every player and get the best out of them for every position they play individually. Absolutely, because Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played there, responded differently to John Wooden and he would have a different conversation and talk to him differently than somebody else who played for him at that time, and every year there's different players that come across and you don't know what they're going for.
Speaker 1:There's a coach that I follow, a strength and conditioning coach, by the name of Luz Carella, and it says right there lazy people do a little work and think that they should be winning, but winners work as hard as possible and still worry if they're being lazy.
Speaker 1:And he has this book called 365 Firelighters, and every day there's a message or something. But what he does for strength and conditioning, and he has every football player that comes in and he asks them this questionnaire like what's your family life like? Do you have your mom and your dad? What do you like to do as hobbies? What did you grow up doing? All this stuff. And he knows every player and he knows how to approach them so that they're on a trust level, because trust is everything. If they don't trust you, they're not going to learn from you, they don't care about you, and so for me, I'm hoping that I can earn the trust of these kids in front of me so that they can take a little bit out of me and take a little bit out of you and surround yourselves with good mentors, like you did and like I did. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Like I don't want them to be like me.
Speaker 1:I just want them to understand a little bit of me and where I'm coming from and hopefully they take that when they're in a bad situation and they're just going to make the right decision. Yeah, you know, oh for sure, and I think the approach that you're taking where you're so alike you know you don't need to yell at that person that made that error or things that you worked on. You pull them aside and say, hey, you remember that? Oh, yeah, coach, I do. That's the situation. We want to do it right there. Let's go. You got this, didn't you something?
Speaker 1:Your approach is probably going to be the same as me let's do it more often so we can get better, so that you're going to do it instinctively and when you do it, you're going to be so proud, not because of that incident, but because all the hard work that you did before. That, yeah, okay, and that's amazing. Now, in getting your master's in psychology and the mental game of baseball and all these different things like what do you recommend or what do you think is, do you think that's lacking in today's game one and two, what would you be approach or give advice into other coaches doing something like that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean to me, you know, we do the softball a little bit, a Valley a little bit. We'll do like mental days, right. Well, so we'll give them some mental days off where they, you know, kind of go or we'll have like a beach day, or you know, this year too, we had a younger basketball coach. She was doing the same, getting her master's in psychology, and she had to do some stuff for class. So she would bring in the girls and they would have sessions and they would just talk about something and, like, sometimes girls would leave crying because it was so emotional for them to go. Yeah, I am feeling a certain way, I am feeling this and yeah, I am feeling a certain way, I am feeling this, and no one's really asked them that or tapped into that, you know. So every now and then we'll have those days to um, you know, we try to tell our guys to to visualize a lot, I think visualization is huge.
Speaker 2:I used to do that in high school a lot Um. The meditation is huge nowadays as well. I know um on the baseball and we do that. I remember Pierce college doing that a lot to Just that visualization.
Speaker 1:Who did you guys have there? Who did the visualization for you guys?
Speaker 2:Well, I never was at Pierce. I'm sorry, okay, but I remember I know Pickett's was on it a little bit, but there was gosh, what's his name. It was the pitching coach at the time that was big on that Calgill, no somebody else. It was the pitching coach at the time that was big on that Calgo, no somebody else. And then even at Valley they were big on that where they kind of would all they would lay down the outfield and kind of visualize a little bit.
Speaker 1:Allen, who's the guy with the band thing I forgot.
Speaker 2:Oh, that was Jaeger. Jaeger was big.
Speaker 1:Jaeger was big on that. Well, he still did it. I think now obviously he has the Jaeger band yeah, yeah, yeah, but he was.
Speaker 2:I remember he was big on that right up here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, he was big on that and I think transcended it towards in the Valley to all the colleges and all that Because I remember my brother took one of his classes in the mental game of baseball and visualization and all that. But he was big on that until, I guess he created the Jaeger bands and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:No, it's huge man. We actually this year I talked to my wife. There was a book she read when she was playing at Mt SAC for softball God, I forgot the name of it, but same, it was like the mental part of the game. So we want to get all the girls that book this year and what they would do is they would have sessions, so at Mt SAC they would go, you know, like that.
Speaker 2:So, um, I think just tapping in that way and I love the part that you said about like each individual is different, because I think some coaches are losing sight of that because of travel law being so watered down that it's so easy just to take kids in and collect money and all that. And you know, the one thing I'm seeing is a lot of these kids and I love it Like we just took a team to Cooperstown that we weren't that great man we were. We struggled a lot, we lost a lot defensively, we weren't that great, but like and you know, some of the parents were like, hey, man, like I don't want to take my kid to Cooperst, like we're going to get them ready. And we did really well. We ended up going out of 82 teams, we were the last 16 left and then in that silver bracket we went to the lead eight, because they split it up this year in three brackets, which I thought was perfect for us and so, but it was that being able to tap into each individual differently, and I didn't know that as a younger coach I'm like, oh, they're all the same. Um, but it's that we always say hey, tap in, like be able.
Speaker 2:And I feel like a lot of coaches can't do that. It's easy for them to coach the kids that are always superstars and be like, oh, yeah, I coached so-and-so. Well, yeah, you kind of coached somebody. He was really good already. You just kind of tapped in a little bit. But can you tap into the kids that aren't that great? Can you look beyond and go gosh, that kid's really raw right now. But there's some upside. I see some upside there and honestly, I feel like we do that a lot at BM. We take the kids in that I feel like other programs wouldn't. And I'm not taking them because I'm trying to collect money. I'm taking them because I feel like I could tap in. I mean, dude, I have two kids on my BM 14U team that I met at CGPL, like if I were to show you videos when I met them two years ago to where they're at now. You'll be like no way like that Like I should be charging 500 bucks a month.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean Like dude night and day.
Speaker 2:But it was that I go okay, let's work, that's what I want to work, let's work. Yeah, you know so. And it was the parents too, though they bought into it. And the other ones be going to cleveland and dude, I'm telling you, they night and day, but a lot of coaches just won't do it. You know, and don't get me wrong, man, like I get paid to do this and I always pay the bills, yeah, yeah. But I'm like you, man, like to me, I'm like it's. You know that to me that's not the end all I do it because I love it, I show, because I love it, and I want to teach and mold and and I want to take those kids that maybe you know so-and-so didn't look at. I want to, you know, cause I look back to the Philippe Philippe Guile moment, where I didn't play at one point or that.
Speaker 1:That name is never, never, never met. I said I got to make a shirt that has his name on the back. I got to find him. You know you were challenging him, yeah that I mother-apped him for you know 20 years and he's on a podcast now 100% man Freaking Felipe. Yeah, you got to find him. Yeah, we should. I wonder what he's doing.
Speaker 2:I'm curious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm curious Now I'm intrigued of, like, what he's all about. Man, it's funny how certain people or certain things or certain events were emotional based and how certain things can trigger us to become our better selves. Yeah Right, um, we talked a lot about mindset and mental game of baseball, or just being mentally more aware. And where we're in society, what advice would you give kiddos or people that you're mentoring now? Uh, to help them with, uh, uh, educating their mind right, because the the mind is is educating their mind right, because the mind is a muscle.
Speaker 1:You train it to be better to be more overcoming, to have a calloused mind, or whatnot? So what advice would you give kiddos in front of you to make sure that they're investing in their mental side of the game?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean I would think write more. You know, I tell myself every day I'm going to write more, right, Like I'm going to write little notes down, or I'm going to carry a notebook and if I have thoughts I'm going to write about it. You mean?
Speaker 1:typing, yeah, typing. Nobody writes anymore.
Speaker 2:That's the funny part, you know what's funny is there's stuff I'll do and I'm still writing on it and everyone's like why don't you just use your laptop? I'm like, I don't know, I just like to write, man, like a notebook. 100, I have my phone, I can easily type. I'm like no, I love it, I love the whole show writing. I have my little notebook sometimes too, but, um, write more, you know, I think, just write more, like write stuff down.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, give yourself a daily quote. You know, I remember when we um for practice plans, coach cash would always have his practice plan and there was always a daily quote there and I always felt like he didn't so much pertain it to the practice plan that day, I just felt like that's how he felt that day, or that was a message he wanted to send. That day was, whatever the quote may be, and it could be whatever, and it wasn't just always like a sports quote, it could have been from anybody, you know, um. So I think that like, kind of um, tap in, maybe give yourself a. I think they have apps for that now, right that, give you like a a daily quote. Maybe upload that, right, cause these guys and girls are on their phones all the time. So get your daily code. All right, cool, write a little bit more on how you're feeling.
Speaker 2:Um, and then I noticed one thing is just staying positive to yourself. Like these, these boys and girls have to believe in themselves. But again, we always say it starts from the top right. So the coaches, but sometimes the parents, man like I'm at camp yesterday and this kid comes up and the parents from the sands right away is like, oh, easy out, oh, he's going to get out, and I get it, it's joking around his camp. I totally get it. But the first thing out of my mouth was like, hey, be positive man, be positive to your kid. And the kid's like, yeah, dad, you know, but you know, just instilling that you know, because a lot of this stuff I saw when I first went to CJBL was a lot of that. These parents were like ragging on the kids a little bit and you know, we say you hit on the head earlier. Like I kind of get bothered when people are like, oh, the kids are soft nowadays, blah, blah, blah. Yes, maybe I don't know, but I feel like it's us coaches that are making like, treating them as they're soft. They're not, they just want to learn, but it goes hand in hand. What you said is tapping in individually, and some of these coaches don't know how to do that. So, instead of trying to figure out what makes little Johnny tick, or knowing the background, or ever meet, they're just like, ah, he's soft because it's easier that way, right? So, um, I think for that is just continue to be positive.
Speaker 2:Um, putting yourself in a positive environment. You know, I remember reading a Derek Jeter book back in the day and his biggest thing was always being a good teammate but surrounding himself with good people. Right, never put it, never put himself in a predicament that was in a uh, hurt him by any means, but putting around like-minded people. You know, just like you and I are sitting here today because it's that that we're like-minded, right, it's positive, we're trying to get the best out of kids. So, putting yourself with more people like that and, honestly, when I stopped drinking, I lost some friends.
Speaker 2:I lost some people that I didn't hang out with as much because I felt like I didn't want to be around that anymore. I wanted a different version of myself, and that kind of went hand in hand with the BM side of it. So people might go. Uh well, hey, you're just doing it because you want to. Bob Marcelle Like no, to me it meant something different to go. Hey, I'm going to surround myself with a little more different people, more positivity in my life to do that, so um yeah, yeah, no, I think you're right.
Speaker 1:I mean, um, you know, like you said, we're growing up in a different era where, you know, our parents wanted the better for us and so we leveled up a little bit. And as we level up, we want our kids to level up and whatnot, and so they lose the hard times of you know, uh, of just generations. Like, being a mechanic is different. Now it's all computerized. You put something to a car and it tells you what's wrong with it and you fix it. Back then a mechanic used to get in there hey, it could be this, it could be that, and those days are gone, you know, kind of dwindling. And so how do we expect our kids to have grown up grinding when we've made their lives better and easier, when we've made their lives better and easier? And so, yeah, it's a double-edged sword of we want them to be like the way we were and gritty and figure it out and all that, but we're not allowing them to figure it out. And so, hopefully, a good mentor and coaches and people go, okay, cool, maybe you didn't grow up like that and you're not going to grow up like that because it's a different generation, which is fine, fine, but what else can I do to have you figure it out in a different way? Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you're on a digital. Get off your digital shit. Go read a book. Oh yeah, you don't know how to do cursive writing. Well, get on it like. Do a notebook. Yeah, do something that you didn't grow up doing that. Now it's hard because we had to adapt to learn this phone. I know I did, you know what'm saying.
Speaker 2:I know you're a little younger, but I didn't grow up with no phone. I didn't grow up with pagers. Baby, you know what I'm saying? Pagers we were just talking about that the other day. I'm like what do we do? You got a page and then what, Like you, just it was more. Your girl texted that. You're like all right, cool, I get that all the time I had that all the time Just kidding From my mom.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no for sure, Definitely different times for sure, yeah, so I think, figuring it out, I think great coaches there's good coaches out there, but great coaches really listen and understand the person in front of them and then are able to tap into that and build the trust which is super, super crazy and then get the best out of them and have them be a better individual. I mean, I think what you're doing brother, the family, the people that you surround yourself first of all and foremost like you've said it before, I mean knowing them is family. So I just want to give you props of how, where you came from and where you're at right now and what you're doing to give back. It's an amazing thing when I see people that are giving back the way you are, I told you earlier, and not just because you're in front of me, but you can ask anybody. Any kids that come to me that go to you, I always tell them hey, say hi to him for me.
Speaker 1:And when they ask me what programs, I give them the honest truth of what the pros and the cons are, and I have nothing but good things to say about you and your program and I think that's because we're like-minded. We want the best for the kiddos and for everybody in front of us, and you're leading with that. You're leading with your heart. You want nothing but the best from the mind, body and soul and obviously parents and people have to understand that. For yourself and myself and other programs out there, we have to make a living and we have to charge money and certain things cost and if we can give it away, we would, unfortunately, if we could.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:That's not what I can do, that's not what you can do, that's not anything. So it is. We have to charge, yeah, and sometimes you charge more, sometimes you charge less, but the mission has still stayed the same and I think you're leading with that. So I have to give you props and I have to say that I'm very proud of you. I'm very proud of you. I'm very honored to have you as my friend and to know your family, like I do, and play with your uncle, who I think is an amazing person but an amazing player, and your dad. I'm very proud of that. I'm very proud of where you're going and I'm honored to have some of your kids here and the way they carry themselves.
Speaker 2:Appreciate that. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I appreciate that and talking about that, that was long, but that was a lot of shit to say. Yeah, yeah, talking about that, the game has changed. Yeah, let's have a little fun with this. I know the game has changed and I'm still going to be a believer in certain things, as I'm. We have to adapt or you die. Yeah, but in baseball, uh, you were around when they were taking people out at second base, right. Do you think that? Uh, and and blocking home plate, like mike social did, and shit like that that we remember. Do you think that it's good they took that out? Do you think it should still be in the game? Or certain changes? What do you like? What do you not like?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean that's. It's a great question, man. I mean again, I grew up watching you guys play, so I was the gritty take somebody out at second. And if you got taken out, that was kind of on you or you know, we would turn a double play and someone would take me out, but I would get rid of it and as I came down it was kind of like the people's elbow on somebody you know Like that was just the game at the plate.
Speaker 2:But I miss that. I miss that you have to give somebody a lane. I feel like a lot of these guys are safe nowadays because the catcher's too afraid of blocking home play. I miss that part of it being able to run somebody over, going through somebody. At the softball level we see so many of interference nowadays where it's like if anyone's even close to being in the line, it's interference. We saw them in the College World Series for softball. So that part I dislike because I feel like you're giving the umpires too much to deal with and it's hard for them and then we get upset at these umpires. But really it's like the rules are kind of putting them in tough predicaments. The one thing I do like actually is uh, surprisingly is the two bases I like when uh I think, uh, yeah.
Speaker 2:So first of all for major leagues. Obviously it's bigger now, yeah, but college is starting to go for baseball to two bases. Softball always had it. But, um, the two bases I kind of like, because there's always that runner's lane deal or someone's there or you know. I just feel like it just it's easier, you have your two bases and one runs through, you don't have to worry about running into anybody.
Speaker 2:So, um, that I like I, I I wish we can take guys out again and go in. You know I, I still teach our guys going hard. You know, don't slide past the base but go, try to take somebody out if you can. And on the other end, if someone comes in and takes you out, that's on you guys, like you got to be able to get away from it and we'll do the. You know, roll the bucket every now and then we're at the turn double play and jump over it. So, um, but it has changed. You know it's changed a lot. We talked about earlier launch angle. We're still old school, man staying above that ball. You know some people are like, ah well, coach, I go man, I'm just very old school with that. You know, hands and knobs, that ball. Stay above the ball a little bit, not that I'm trying to teach you to hit the ball straight into the ground, but you know, one of our biggest philosophies is uh, hard ground, ball line drive, hard ground, ball line drive, man.
Speaker 2:You know, there's no bad hops in the air. So we're trying to cut through the ball. And you know, I tell these guys it's like a golf swing right, like as I go down through the ball I'm creating backspin. Yeah, these guys think they gotta go lift and separate. And you know, you know where I've been seeing. The biggest issue is from cooperstown to the big field. Because, mind you, these guys are going cooperstown 50, 70, right, and it's small field. So we're teaching like, hey, hey, don't hit one out in Cooper sound. Well, now they come to 13, you 14, you seven, eight grade, they're on the big field right away. And now these guys are trying to go big fly and they're all outs.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to tell these guys those are outs, man, you got to cut through it. So, um, it's changed. Man, you know, we talked about it, the analytics, the uh spin rate we talked about that earlier. Like you know, oh, my spin rate is this and that and, and we joked around about it earlier, like we don't know what that is. But to me I'm like don't throw a strike, you know. Oh, my rpm is this cool dude, you just threw eight straight balls. Like what does that mean? You're throwing 90 something. You're not throwing strikes. So I think that's where it's changed a lot, man and um, you know, these guys are a little bit more physical, bigger, stronger, faster, but you know, the game's still the same. You know it's crazy.
Speaker 1:I heard last time somebody come in here telling me about a story that he met and he goes yeah, I met him and we're talking about baseball and I think his kid's like 8U. I don't want to get the age wrong, but he's young he goes yeah, my kid's the best at you, he's the top 10 at you in the nation. I'm like wait, wait, a minute, wait.
Speaker 2:Yeah, who the fuck said that? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like what do you mean? Where are they? Great that, when did?
Speaker 2:that happen.
Speaker 1:How come I was like what the fuck? Yeah, when does the dad the fuck?
Speaker 2:is it? It's a lot of eyewash, man. We we would joke around that too, because they would do stuff like that. I'm like, yeah, I think someone's mom's is in a garage making rankings and they put it up you know, like like same deal, like how do you know that?
Speaker 2:but to me it's, it's. And again, that's where the game has changed, man, it's, it's a lot of eyewash, it's a lot of, uh, money. You know, some of these parents are going and spending a ton of money to go to these showcases and this and that and um, you know we had. So let me give you a prime example. So you play these U triple S a tournament.
Speaker 1:So which we?
Speaker 2:love, we go out there and we have a chance to win and compete a little bit, um, but afterwards, usually, like, if you play a bid tournament, let's say Memorial weekend you get an email back. You get to choose like two or three players that you want to choose to go play in an all-star game. Right, well, I can choose anybody. Maybe I'm choosing the kid who didn't play that much to go hey, go play in the all-star game. Well, they're gonna go playing it. But now they have to pay another 300 to get a uniform. Go do it.
Speaker 2:But mom and dad love it because they can post on instagram like, oh, we're in the all-star game, we got selected. But yeah, really, it was me choosing whoever I wanted to wasn't like someone's handpicking that kid, you know. So that's why I say it's a. It's a lot of eyewash, man, it's a lot of show, it's a lot of uh, there's a lot of money out there being spent, man, that doesn't need to be spent. You know what I mean? Um, how do you deal with it? I mean, I like to try to stay local.
Speaker 2:You know I tell our teams we're gonna stay local. I local. I know parents love the tournaments and stuff like that. I love friendlies, I love scrimmages because you're going to go play the same teams, you're going to play anyways and spend. These tournaments are $700 nowadays. I'm hosting a tournament this weekend at CJBL and we're charging $675 a team. That's a lot of money. You're looking at $ 70. I mean, some programs are charging $100 a tournament because they're not only charging the turning fee but there's a coach's fee, right. Or if you're traveling, there's a hotel fee. So there's all these fees that come into it. Well, I could spend $10 for an umpire fee and go play the same team's hunting to play anyways. And now I have a little bit more leeway. You know, for example, I can go play a scrimmage and play 10 innings and I can throw one pitcher every inning and develop, whereas that you go to the tournament you're like, hey, man, we're trying to win, you know. So, um, it's changed, man, the game changed a lot.
Speaker 1:I think you said it correctly right now. You said develop, yeah, and that was that's. That's all I mean. I guess when I was growing up, that has been the key is how can I just get better every time I go out there? How can I get better every year? How can I just grow and continue to learn Like I'm still, even with what I do now? I still continue to learn.
Speaker 1:Every time I sit in front of somebody that I'm interviewing, a guest, I'm trying to learn from you, everybody who I meet, from the coffee store and the guy running, I try to learn Cause I'll walk away with something like oh my God, you know, give me a great quote I just wrote. You know, master, the boring. I'm like, oh shit, I'm going to use that. You know, how can I learn from you? Um, and I think that's great. I think that at the end of the day that's there's so many travel teams throughout the nation, probably the world man it's. You know, I didn't grow up during that time, but I, I, I know that there's good ones out there like yourself and some local ones here and whatnot. And as long as that stays the focus of growing the kid and developing and getting better.
Speaker 1:you know, that's what it's about yeah, I know for sure because if you're going out there for the rings and the traveling and all these different things, uh, good luck. You're giving a your kid. You're giving your kid vacations at these places at a young age. Yeah, later on they're like, oh yeah, like they're gonna grow up one day. And I'm not talking about everybody, but the ones that are just doing it, like you said, to show their kid on Instagram or to do this, or we were in this, or I'm the best at you in the nation or some shit like that, or you're paying for something or whatever.
Speaker 1:You're going to have a hard reality check. When nobody's doing that anymore, nobody cares when the real big boys like the college guys and colleges start knocking on your door and realize that you're not that good because it was all about show. But you didn't grow, you didn't listen, you didn't, you didn't really work hard for it.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be fucking, it's gonna hit you in the face 100.
Speaker 1:I was a guy.
Speaker 2:I was the best au guy in the nation yeah, yeah, bro. Well, we always say, like when you get to high school, no one's gonna ask you hey, did you win that cjbl tournament when you're eight, like no one's gonna give a shit. Do you know how to back up the bases? Do you know how to um lay a bunt down? I mean dude. So so I kind of got that. You know my buddy, and I use that quote master the boring, my buddy, uh, wally ruiz, uh, he coaches the caballeros team.
Speaker 2:They're dude, this team is dude, they're, they're legit, they're gonna be, they're moving into 11. You, this team is so good and they've done a really good job with them. But again, he's one of the good guys out there where they just run this program.
Speaker 1:So well, there's nothing but good things about him. I don't think I have a kid here. We've got to get a couple in here because they're good.
Speaker 2:Again, we say Master of the Boring all the time, but we always joke around about that too, going, hey, no one's going to remember if you won or lost that tournament. But can you do the little things? And we're big on bunny, like we brought, like him, and I brought bunny mad bedtime, like, oh yeah, and cooperstown, dude, we won a lot of dude, we won, uh, on a safety squeeze we stole home one game, like just old school gritty baseball, you know. And then, um, you know, he had a player actually the other day.
Speaker 2:They go blunt to try to win a game and he pops it up, the kid bops it up and the kid comes back going well, why did you make me? But in my new he's 10, why'd you make me? Bunt, I've been on fire. And he goes all right, go sit on the bench, dude, you know. And right away the mom's like, hey, no, he's got to do his job. Yeah, you know, and that was the cool mentality to go. Okay, we've instilled that in them. They're like, hey, no, it wasn't go swing. Like, do your job. You know what I mean. So, yeah, we're bringing that back a little bit some old school, some old school bunning and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So we used to have, uh, I don't know if you heard, ever heard this story, but remember coach Kernan.
Speaker 2:Kernan was from CSUN okay going from CSUN.
Speaker 1:After him was coach Mike Batesell okay, yeah but Kernan was before him and he was a psych major. It's like you right, yeah, crazy like he was off out there and different things back in the day, when you can do a lot of different things on social media and cameras and whatnot. So I guess I wasn't there during that time. He recruited me and he left during the summer. Then I came in and played for Big Soul his first year. Okay, long story short from some of the OG guys. They're like dude, you don't even know Kernan. He said I want everybody to show up tomorrow to practice with their best trophy, their MVP, their rings, whatever they've won, whatever you have gotten to this day from high school, to your little league, to your pony league, to your cult league, bring the best one that you think represents who you are. And they all brought it in. We put them in the middle and he lit it on fire. Shoot no way Straight up.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, that's one that you think represents who you are, and they all brought it in and put them in the middle and he lit it on fire. Shoot no way. Straight up, oh my gosh, like something that was, you know, like a ring.
Speaker 1:And he goes that shit doesn't mean anything here, nobody cares what you won in eight U or what this and that, what you did in high school. You are here now, but he lit it on fire. Oh my gosh, that's crazy, that's nuts, you know, and it's cool.
Speaker 2:It's cool. Right, like I'm looking around your garage right now, right, you have your accolades hanging up and pictures of guys and like we know, like that's cool, like that's something. You, it was the process of it, like you said, the grid of it, like you got to the end, all like I remember, oh, two winning the city title, like. But you know, the things that I remember were the stuff that Coach Cash taught me. You know how to be a good teammate. You know if you see a piece of trash, like be the one to pick it up you said it earlier. Like you see a shopping cart, like come on, dude, you know that it goes there. Are you going to be the one that leaves it there? Or walk five more steps. You know.
Speaker 2:So, like that's the stuff that I hope that when I walk away from this game as a coach, that my players remember that you know again being a good person, teammate, all that, et cetera. And, um, the accolades, cool man, I get it. You know winning a, uh, a couple of championships in Vegas or getting rings Like it's cool, man, I love it, that's awesome. We get a post on social media. You know, we know that's a thing now, you know, you and I will probably take a picture after this and post on social media.
Speaker 1:Like 100%.
Speaker 2:That's what you do now, but to me it's the little things that you talked about, and I hope that there's more. I hope people listen to this and go take a step back and go hey, man, am I one of those guys that's still doing that? Am I not doing that? Or did I used to do that and I lost my way a little bit, cause I do feel like there's some coaches that mean, well, out there, I just think they lost their way, dude, I really do. I think they lost their way because they got caught up in that it's so easy to make a travel team, it's so easy to get money because so-and-so wants to be a part of a club, that they're going to pay and it's easy. But are you still teaching those values that you learn coming up, that we learned that's going to put better people out in the universe, or you're just collecting a paycheck and then, when they get to high school, whatever, on to the next, you know yeah, and obviously I think most people started with great intention.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sometimes you grow so quickly and sometimes you grow and you're like I can make more money and I can do this and I can tap into more people and that's great if you can and you can handle it, yeah. But once you can't in the program or kids are going by, by the way, right, I want every person that comes to me to be special in their own way. Yeah, I don't want one person to get lost and I hope programs go. Every kid that wears this uniform for this program. I want to. I want to tap into every kid, yeah, every kid. Yeah. And because I want them to go and tell a story about I had a mentor, I had a coach, I had a friend, I had somebody that I trusted that gave me good advice and I remember, just like you remember, the shortstop.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah Right.
Speaker 1:So stuff like that that I hope. All I want to walk away with is that when the kid made a decision, maybe I was in his mind saying I'm not going to go and get in that car and do this, because I remember coach used to say this yeah and um, and maybe I'll get a phone call and say, coach, you saved my life. You know I'm going to start crying, you know, but you know, um, you know, coach, I I wouldn't have done this if it wasn't for you, just by that little saying that I kept in my mind and things like that. And so to me, everybody's special that comes here and I know everybody's special that goes to your program, and I hope that other coaches continue to teach that every kid is special in their program and it's not about the money, but we all need to get paid.
Speaker 1:I get it, you know, because it's a hard thing. It's your livelihood, my livelihood and the other coaches livelihoods, um, but I hold that. I hope that we all lead with that heart. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. And when you stop and you reflect and hopefully, if you do and you're one of those coaches then go back to what got you there and what started that out, because don't lose your way and we all do it, bro.
Speaker 2:I've lost my way.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying, I've lost my way, and so, um, we just hope that we continue to surround ourselves amongst people that bring us back Correct, you know correct, because you lost your way when you were drinking, like you said, and took your wife and other things and other factors and probably say you've lost your way, brother.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you could be better, you are better, yeah, and so we, we've all done well and be able to look in the mirror and go, yeah, dude, you did lose your way. You know, not, not go, you don't know what you guys are talking about. Man like I know it all to be humble and go, okay, yeah, you're right, you know. You said you're learning every day. I'm still learning every day as well, and I learned from other coaches too to go okay, yeah, cool, all right, yeah, I get it. You know. So, and I think for me, part of the BM program is like I don't want to water it down, you know, I do want to grow it for sure, but I gotta have people that I trust in the program that are no, going to do a good job. And you know, people keep telling me well, team. And I'm like I can only coach so many teams, you know.
Speaker 2:And uh, you know, even recently, like we had a 13 year team where my cousin uh, you know, his his son was on the team that's going to go to Cleveland, um, and I felt like I'd kind of did them a disservice because I wasn't fully there all the time, and he even mentioned it. Yesterday I saw him, he came over to hit. He's like yeah, we kind of felt like the you know, the stepchild at times because we didn't get all of you and coach bobo and what we did. We felt like the fortune, you got this and that.
Speaker 2:And then you know, for me, that's what I don't want. I don't want to grow it so much where it's watered down or where I'm just going hey, man, I want to build a team, just to have a team. You guys go there. Cool, we got another team. Hell, yeah, you know, like I don't want it to be like that. Like you said, I wanted to feel special. I want every player to spill, spill, feel special. So I think in the beam program that's what we're trying to do. We want each individual to feel special.
Speaker 1:We want them to get the same coaching, whether it's myself or somebody else, it's the same philosophy, same culture, and if I don't feel that, then we go a different direction, you know so yeah, I remember when I got asked hey, coach, you know you should build a big, big, you know, get a gym, we'll help you out. Come on, everybody needs some. Like I grow, I know I need other coaches. Yeah, and nothing against other people or anything, but to me it's always been about just keeping it small. For for me, and here, oh, do you do zoom? No, I don't feel you, I don't see you, the energy is not there. Yeah, it's different. No, I don't do zoom. Yeah, you know. Um, anyways, uh, that's that's my thing. But, um, man, we live in weird times, different times, which is beautiful. Um, where do you have a favorite like motto, credo, quotes or anything you live by, or like you really like and enjoy, and you're like yeah, that sticks in my mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, first off, the, the preparation plus confidence equals success. I mean the fact that we both recited that earlier, like that's obviously something that lives in my mind every single day when I wake up, um, and the one thing that I think I preach to everybody nowadays and again it sounds cliche, but just being the best version of yourself. You know, because I remember being, you know, 14, 15, going to Cleveland and I couldn't lift the weight. I mean, I couldn't lift the bar up, and you know, I was playing football at the time, my freshman year, and some people were making fun and laughing and I'm like, okay, and then, as it got stronger and bigger, I remember using that as motivation as well. But just understanding that and I tell the kids this all the time like, hey, I know you're not going to lift as much as that person or that person, right, be the best version of yourself, do what you can do right, don't worry that so-and-so is hitting the bomb. If you're a little guy, hey, man, then you'll hit the gap. Lay a bunt down, wear a pitch right, kind of old school baseball. So for me, it's that just being the best version of yourself.
Speaker 2:You know, for me, as a coach trying to stay in my lane cause. You know it like well, you know, we get lost in the sauce sometimes. You know, we talk about Instagram and I might go on a story and go, oh, dude, so-and-so is doing this, oh damn, that looks cool. But then I have to take a step back and go okay, you know, we were talking about right now too, a little bit about um on social media, seeing what other people are doing, and um, just trying to stay in your lane man. You know, I think that's where I used to as a younger coach. I would look into that and go, hey, I kind of want that, or I want this, or I want that, and not realizing what I have in front of me is perfectly fine, right.
Speaker 2:And we always say you know, a big actually a big motto of mine is stay humble, stay hungry. You know, and I'll post that a lot Stay humble, stay hungry man, just stay in your lane, be appreciative of who you have around you and the people you have, and then just stay hungry man, like, don't let your guard down. You know, the moment you let your guard down, I think that's when, uh, this game will bite you in the butt. We always say that, right. So, um, stay humble, stay hungry man, keep grinding.
Speaker 2:I tell the kids that all the time, go, do something, be happy in what you're doing, but stay humble. Doing it be even kill, you know. And um, again, I think I have a good group man. All the teams that we have, I think, are pretty good with that. In the moment that we feel like they may be getting out of line or getting too high and mighty, we kind of bring them back down to earth a little bit and you know, we're know, we're going to pump them up. Hey, do that, but just stay humble, stay humble, stay hungry man, you know so.
Speaker 1:I think you had a kid that works for you.
Speaker 2:Uh, michael Guerrero. Yeah, he was helping out a bit, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I train him here. He's a good kid. Yeah, great family.
Speaker 2:Great, great team. Oh, okay, and same. I told michael hey, man, you want to come out and help out with the pitchers a little bit, especially our lefties. So, um, that too, like I love kind of bringing those guys out, especially the chasser guys, because we're at cjbl, yeah, and I'll bring some of those guys out and I'll throw a little extra money in their pockets and they're going to help out. Because for me, like even this last week at camp, right, so I had, you know, coach wally who helps me out with the caballeros uh, he has this caballeros team, so he helped me out with camp coach miggy, who used to go to cleveland, great guy yeah, castellan yeah.
Speaker 2:So he started helping me out, who I love, um. And then we have saxon, who used to um play for me a little bit, and then I had four bm guys, so four 14u kids that all helped me out sammy brody, uh, gavin q, they all came out and helped out this week. And then we had Donovan, who actually played at CGBL. So my biggest goal is like, hey, man, like you kind of came through the camps, now you're kind of helping me out with the camps, we'll shoot maybe down the road You're running the camps, you know where we're still building this up, and you go hey, yeah, man, I used to be in your shoes. Now look where you know I did x, y and z. Now I'm here. So you know, I remember working the pierce college camps with coach cash and and lou tapia and venger and like those guys all the time, you know, and they kind of showed me the rope. So that was always pretty cool man to do that, you know.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I mean uh, yeah, I love uh, I love uh. Michael and matthew. They come here and train at six in the morning For Matthew to get up at six in the morning and then during when he was playing at Chatsworth.
Speaker 1:Now he's going to I think he's going to Glendale, yes, yes, and he used to get here before school Grind it out, because on Tuesdays they started like later, okay, whatever it was, so they'd get their workout in. That's about, yeah, and you know, and whether you make it up to the next level or not, or whatever level, that's creating something in you. It's different. Yeah, that means you're creating um hard work ethic, but, um, um, you're doing, you're willing to do the hard things to get up early. I mean, at that age, who does it? You know what I'm saying? No, a hundred percent man, so that's just life right, like you said.
Speaker 2:Like, yeah, we're getting them ready. Maybe you're training them for baseball, cool, but you're getting ready for life. You know, we've had so many players that I've coached. I mean one recently who's an actor actually. So when I first met him, he kind of was doing Disney channel, malachi Barton, and so he was a great player. Dad helped out and we always talk about, like we just want good individuals.
Speaker 2:So I remember the day I got the call going hey man, coach, he just doesn't want to play anymore. He's not really you know, it was after Cooperstown, the bigger field. Now he's a little smaller. He kind of wants to do his deal. So I remember, and I found a text the other day and he texted me hey, coach, know, um, I appreciate you, thank you for you know, allowing me to come back whenever I want. I kind of want to do this. I'm hoping this show picks up, cause he was going to be on a show and I text him back right away Like, and it could have been easy, like, ah, dude, well, you know, hey, man, you're always family, you're always welcome back, dude, I just want the best of you.
Speaker 2:I hope your show gets picked up so you don't have to come back to the field. But, dude, he just got a big uh deal. He's part of this uh uh, zombies on Disney channel Okay, right, and my daughter loves it. So the other day I happened to text the dad um, hey, when's his show coming up? So he's going on tour, this whole show. Dude, like he's blowing up. And he's like, dude, we have three tickets. But like you got to come tonight in Anaheim, I'm like, yeah, so take the family. Dude had a blast Mom's Felicia, dad's Lauren, and so Malik.
Speaker 2:We get to go backstage and Malik is there and we say what's up, dude, so humble man Remembers my daughter, says hi, gives her a huge hug, she meets some of the other cast members. I gave him a BM sports training shirt so he got to support that. And then I guess he was on like tit-tock the other day wearing it. Um, but just so cool. So like I think about that, like we're not just building baseball players, basketball, whatever it is, it's, like you said, just good human beings. And now this dude's going on a 45 day tour doing this whole deal and giving back to, you know, all these fans that love him too and going like man, it was cool to have a small piece of that, not that like I helped them get there, but you know, to have a small piece and him go like, yeah, that's my baseball coach, like he used to coach me and stuff.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool, you know 100%.
Speaker 1:I think you know you walk in here you've walked in my place here where we do strength and conditioning and grind and see some of these pictures. I used to have that motivational board, which is not covered all the way up. Yeah, and one of the parents came up here and goes hey, how come you don't have a picture of like one of the kids that you train up on the board? I'm like no, I'm not that guy. You know, I'm not the guy that's gonna boast of who I train or what I do. It's not about that. Like, I don't even want to be on social media. Yeah, like, when I'm working out, you rarely see me. I'll post a picture of me hiking or running or something, but but very small.
Speaker 1:When I hit the weight room, people probably think I don't hit the weight room, I do, right. But, um, he made an idea. He goes well, this isn't about you, this is about other kids that come. They, they want to see who else is training here. And oh my God, I know that kid and, oh my God, I played against him and so on. So I hasn't completed, not because I haven't had the kids, I've been very blessed, but once again I go to like come on, man, it's about here, not there. Yeah, but I've been blessed to look at this board.
Speaker 1:Andores, who won the city championship and now has moved on to play college ball, who came here for a while and got to know the family, and got to know him and where he was from and how he grinded and how he was a small kid and, like you said, I didn't help him get there fully, but it was a pleasure to have him here and see his grit, see who he was Excuse me but other kids that there's this one kid who was kind of funky he's at cooperstown this week and last week and um who um worked his butt off and um believed in what we had going on and believed in himself and he's hit a couple home runs there and he's closed out like the finish the game, complete game now and it's good to see them overcoming on their own, yeah, trusting the process and what we have going on here as well.
Speaker 1:And we're all just a fraction of what's going on in this big world, from a mental coach to a strength and condition conditioning coach, to almost like an extension of the father and mom or family to a hitting coach, to to a coach coach, baseball coach, to almost like an extension of the father and mom or family to a hitting coach, to a coach coach, baseball coach, and all these people mold and who they hang around. Just like you said, the mentors that we learn from is very important In your program. If you were going to pitch something to me if I was coming to you with my kiddo and say hey, man, look, we've done tryouts at different places and we're looking for a program that we can be family, or I want my kid to grow, or whatnot. What would you tell me that you do different or the same that gets my kid or myself interested in your program?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that the one thing I tell, and the constant, is, first off, family. Like you're going to get a family here and again and I saw a parent straight up it's not like we're doing anything completely different than other other teams. You know, I'm sure we're all kind of doing the same, but it's that family. And then passion man, I use passion a lot Like you're gonna get good, clean passion and love out of this program, out of all the coaches, right? Cause, again, I'm really particular and we keep using that word trust, right, like I have to trust the coaches I have in the program and if I don't, then they can't be around there. You know, and coach Wally made fun of me the other day. He's like you're always waiting for that one coach that to help you take over, help out, he's like, but they're never coming, cause you're so particular. And I'm like, yeah, you're right. Cause, like you and I, like we're passionate in what we want to do and it's hard to have other people do that. But you can groom them, you could kind of show them what the way. But I think just the passion we bring, man, I don't know, it's not fake, it's not for show, there's not cameras on me, it's dude. I'm just doing it because I love the game, cause I want you to learn the game, I want you to feel that I want you to do, I want you to enjoy showing up and doing it and having fun doing it Right, cause sometimes it's it's some of these coaches are making it like you know, they're going to go D one and and and there, which, again, that's our mindset. We have to think big, but they're not that yet, they're not there yet. And and you hit it on the head earlier when you mentioned the coach who, um, took the resume early on like hey, what's your childhood? Like, cause we don't know what they're going to do. Like you know, you have kids that probably come in here. Like we don't know what they're going through, dude, this might be an outlet. You know, coming to see sea monsters, like hell, yeah, man, like I need it. I need to come twice a week because life at home is tough. Maybe mom and dad aren't together, maybe there's no mom and dad around, um, maybe they're just going through the grind mentally, maybe they're. You know that we don't know what they're going through, man, so this is an outlet for them. So I want that to be an outlet. I want them to come to practice and go.
Speaker 2:Hell yeah, I've heard so many parents in the past go coach. They've been through other programs and it was hard to get them to practice with you. They want to go, they want to be there because they just love it. They know they're going to learn, but they know they're going to have fun. Man, you spice it up, you keep it fun for them.
Speaker 2:So I think the keyword is just passion. Man, you're going to get passion for me, no matter what I might be having a bad day, but when, once you know it, once you walk between those lines, once you walk in here, this is your safe Haven. Man, like all that ish goes out the window. You're here for the kids and the focus, and I think we talked about it earlier. Some coaches lose sight of that man. It's hey, it's a business. And I think we talked about it earlier. Some coaches lose sight of that man. It's hey, it's a business. I'm going to coach. This is what it is, and it's kind of that monotone like all right, here we go again. We're like with us, we're just trying to spice it up and have fun with it.
Speaker 1:And a lot of the coaches are doing the same. You'll be surprised of how many parents I get that their squatting form or like we want to get them a little faster. You know what they call me to do is say, hey, my son or my daughter is having a little trouble at school getting bullied. Or hey, you know what she's a little, or he's a little depressed or something's going on or whatnot. Can you talk to him? Yeah, that's what they ask most of the time for me and that's what I'm most invested in. I'm most invested in the person and trying to change or trying to talk to them, see where they're coming from, and trying to give advice and see what's going on. How do people find you? Like, what do they do to get a hold of you? I don't know if you guys have practice or like not practice but tryouts coming up or whatnot, but if somebody wants to be part of your program, how do they get a hold of you? What's the?
Speaker 2:best way, either, if you want to leave your phone number, instagram, post all that stuff. And then, what is in the future for bm? Cool, yeah, I mean. You know social media is huge nowadays. It's crazy. So we, you know I have the bm sports training, so bm sports training on instagram. We have a bm sports trainingcom, so we havea website that my cousin randy helped me out with. Um, you know, typically everything will go through Instagram. A lot of people have my name and number around, so right now we've just been doing open workouts.
Speaker 2:You know, Tuesday, thursday, we used to do open workouts. I think next week we're going to take the week off to start revamping some of these teams. But you know, it's very easy to find me in the Valley here, especially on Instagram. It's crazy man Like I'll post stuff on Instagram and I'll get people hitting me up and I'm like, oh my gosh, like again. We didn't have this back in the day, you know. And uh, I think I like get excited now too, cause I think I'm like 13 away from like 2000 followers and I'm like, oh my.
Speaker 1:God, that's huge when?
Speaker 2:you know, some people probably have, like you know, thousands and thousands of followers, that just.
Speaker 2:But, um, typically we'll post up on Instagram, so stuff will be on Instagram, I'll be all up there. Uh, we do have week two of our summer camp next week. It runs Monday through Thursday from 9.00 AM to 1.00 PM and it's right there at Chatsworth junior baseball league, so CJBL. Um, and that was fun. We had week one, just happened. Uh, it's a great time. We're teaching, uh, fielding, hittinging, hitting, um base running. We actually did a, a base running day, because I feel like base running is a lost art. A lot of people are not teaching base running because people think it's boring, but it's huge, yeah, um, and then we have some fun. We play like a little tennis ball game in the afternoons. Uh, we'll do some ultimate football sometimes, um, you know. And then thursday's our slip and slide day, so the kids love that, so Thursday we'll end it with a little slip and slide.
Speaker 2:We usually have two slip and slides on each field. They'll run through it. So we got that coming up. So that will be week two of summer camp next week. We still have openings for that. And then we have a tournament this weekend that most teams already signed up but come out. We're actually auctioning off a bat, more so for like the 10u 11u division. So we'll be raffling that off um this weekend at cjbl as well. Um, and then other than that, just you know, with the softball, we have some tournaments coming up, softball. Actually, we have our 12u uh softball childs coming out in a couple weeks, I want to say august, uh, 8th or 9th, I believe. Um, same, we'll have that on instagram. Um, but that will be for a new 12U team that we're starting and that will be out of Valley College that will be running that stuff.
Speaker 1:This is the first time you're going into softball, or you already have a team.
Speaker 2:No, we already have a team for softball. So we have a 14U and 16U teams. They're both going to move up, so they'll be moving up to 16U and 18U and then we'll be starting a 12. And then we've actually had some parents set me up to maybe do a new 14 you team. But again, we'll see, you know, if we have the coaching to do it. Again, like I told the parents straight up, I don't want to water it down. Yeah, I don't want to do it just to do it. I want to make sure it's done right, um, but the 12 you will do for sure.
Speaker 1:So oh, you're a busy man, you got a lot of stuff going on. I just got to worry about this garage here and my clients in front of me. You got all kinds of stuff. It's not an easy thing you're doing and it's blessed and glad that you're doing it, because you're growing a different breed of kids that are looking to you for advice and experience advice and you're giving it to them and, like you said, it's all about them growing. Yeah, and I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:I mean the cool part too is I get to work with my wife too. So I can, you know, she's the head softball coach at Valley college and I'm the associate head coach, and then she helps out with our 14 year old softball team. So that's pretty cool to you know, coach with her and be around her, and then my daughter usually is hanging out.
Speaker 2:So she played college by your wife. Yeah, she played at Mount Sac for a little bit. So just some some Juco ball. Is she from the Valley? She's from the Valley. Went to Chatsworth, boo, chatsworth, no just kidding, she went to Chatsworth yeah. So she went to Chatsworth. She's a little younger than us, she just turned, I think, 34. Okay, yeah, so, like you said, just really blessed to be doing it all. So that's good at all. So that's good, yeah, no, it's uh it's amazing, man.
Speaker 1:I appreciate your time. I know we, we, we, we can talk here all day.
Speaker 2:I think we can continue to talk.
Speaker 1:I think earlier than that. We're talking for like 30 minutes. I'm like shit. I should have recorded that. Yeah, uh, I'm raw man. Everybody listens to this podcast, which I'm blessed to do. I learned a lot from it. You know it's, it's work, um, but, um, anything that I can learn or leave back, especially to my daughters. That's how I started this. I just want to do and continue to do, as for as long as I can, um, but I I thank you for your time, because time is, uh, something that you can't get back and, um, and you're here and I appreciate that. I appreciate having you and learning from you. I wrote some stuff down that I definitely will, definitely will pass on and use, with your permission. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, but I thank you for your time. I'm very blessed to call you my friend and to call you a colleague as well, and keep on doing what you're doing, brother. Yeah, thank you, appreciate you.
Speaker 1:Keep on doing what you're doing, man, because I hear nothing but great things. I know who you are and I what you're doing, man, because I hear nothing but great things. I know who you are and I know you're doing it right and for the right reasons, and so I'm going to continue to feed people your way in any way, which way I can. That's just the way it works. You know? Anything you want to leave us with besides?
Speaker 2:anything. Yeah, thank you again, man. And likewise, man, just keep doing what you're doing. Again, thank you. I know we're making a huge impact in these guys' lives and you know you train some of the kids I coach and it's the same. Just nothing but love for you and these players just loving what they're doing. And again, it's good to see that. It's good to see that there's still some good ones out there doing what we do and love it. So now I appreciate you and thank you for having me on. Thank you.
Speaker 1:And I can't wait. You know, I don't know if I should say it, but hopefully you're getting a podcast sometime soon about mental awareness and mental stuff and what's going on, and which is great. We all need more of that. Yeah, absolutely so. Um, you know, I'd be blessed, maybe, to be on it.
Speaker 2:I'll say definitely return the favor. Yeah, get it done. I just like invited myself to it. No, absolutely not.
Speaker 1:I'm a big sarcastic guy, but thank you for your time, man. I hope to see you this weekend. I'll be out there. I have a couple kids that are going to be in your tournament, so that'll be really cool. And I just want to tell everybody who's listening continues to listen to this podcast and get the feedback, and then see me outside and say hello, and that they listen to the podcast when they're on the road going to the arizona tournaments or san diego, and that my kid listens to it and all that.
Speaker 1:First, I gotta apologize for the cuss words. Sorry, but sometimes I need to use it to emphasize certain things. Yeah, don't take it the wrong way. Kiddos and parents don't get mad. But uh, I'm from the old school way and it's just a cuss word, people, it's just fuck Okay, it's just the word Okay. But I'm glad that the kiddos do listen and take something out of it and that you allow them to listen and grow from that, and I'm blessed for that. So I know we all go through hard times and this podcast is about overcoming adversity and that you can't be broken. So everybody and anybody who's going through hard times right now that have listened to this episode or other episodes in the past. Just remember you can't be broken.
