CB, Gary and Coach Finny recaps ODU's 2-2 week against UConn and VCU. Catcher Jack Slater joins the pod to talk about baseball and what is lined up for him after his final season.

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A little intro issue there.

What happened there?

Uh, I don't know.

Everything looked good over here.

Yeah, it looked good

to me.

Oh, okay.

Oh, it was just me then.

All right.

That's

cool.

It's

all as

ucb.

That's, that's usually true.

Yeah.

Yes.

Well, welcome Monarch fans to the Hudson Homers podcast.

Hey, got CB here.

Got Finny here.

Yes, CB tried to get his yay in.

I think his timing messed him up there a little bit.

I have no idea.

I didn't see anything, but,

but, but before we get going, a big shout out to CB's mom for once again.

Yeah.

Crushing the chocolate chip cookie order.

I mean, yeah, our guys, she, she, I'll bet she has made 10 tons of chocolate

chip cookies since crazy mouth and they are always amazing and I never

see anything but an empty Tupperware.

We need to start giving those back to her.

Um,

yeah, we don't it there, she's okay if she doesn't give 'em back, but it, it's, that

is, is appreciated if nothing else because

you guys hate

filling 'em

back up.

Right.

We, we need to start doing a better job with that because

Yeah.

Um, those things aren't free and, uh, the, the cookies are amazing.

Um, you know, it, it reminded me, the latest one reminded me of when

Coach Guz was with us, you know?

Yeah.

And she'd bring those in and he'd always go, Ooh.

I thought of that the other day when, uh, I thought of Guz the other day.

I, I think it ended up being fog, but at first I thought maybe it was like

smoke from then cleaning a grill.

Uh, and I was like, Ooh, hot

dogs.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Ooh.

Smells like ham cheeseburgers.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah.

The

smoke from the grill doesn't travel into the dugout like it used to.

And it was over in

round

alley.

Yeah.

Well, yeah.

Yeah.

But it will next year again, so, um, that'll be cool.

I'll be there.

And so, speaking of, uh, I know we got, you know, some

recaps to go, but I got a good.

Uh, story for the, the VCU game on Wednesday.

Of course, we were, you know, very much a back and forth game and, uh,

we, we weren't pitching, you know, like home run derby for a while there.

We weren't pitching very well early, um, but we were scrapping kind

of back in it and back and forth, and we go into the, you know, top

of the ninth, down 10 to nine.

And the whole day I was a little bit nostalgic just because thinking

about Key Dog coach keys and mm-hmm.

And Guz, you know, with that potentially being our last time

ever playing at the Diamond.

Just so many memories there.

I worked there for six years with Paul, you know, competing against VCU.

Um, at ODU.

We, we've, we went back and looked at the, the records.

I think we've, in 15 years, we've only lost once or twice there.

Um, so we've, we've won a lot there and.

Um, so we're down ten nine, you know, I go jogging out the third,

um, as slow as I run out there.

I don't know if you can call it jog anymore, but I go out the third and

I'm thinking, well guys, if this is the last one, I'm gonna need both of you.

I know y'all are watching.

I'm gonna need a little help here.

Yeah.

And sure enough, when the short stop threw just the tailormade

double play ball down the right field line and let us score two run.

I looked and I said, there you go.

You know, I, I'm just guys key dog eating some pizza and, and watching

the game and one of 'em stuck their foot out and said, kick it.

And uh, there we go.

And the thing about that game was we were swing the bats good too.

You know, it was an offensive game.

Yeah.

That's as small as I can ever remember.

The diamond playing.

Yeah.

I was, I ran into, um.

Connor Overton, uh, he, he and Josh Eldridge were there.

And you know, Connor, he played there with you guys at ODU U. He

played there for the squirrels for about, I think a year and a half.

And he is like, I have never seen this happen here.

No.

Um, and, and you know, fortunately, um, we threw the ball.

We didn't throw the ball well at the beginning of that game, but the last five

innings we did, you know, five zeros and

outstanding.

Yeah.

The guys, the guys really, uh, uh, Ben Tanton in particular and, and, and

Bailey Mattel both, you know, threw up four in four zeros in a row to,

so we get the, we get the, you know, hard talk all 10 win and um, send

a diamond out, uh, on a good note.

So that was a good mid midweek road win for us.

And that's always a hard fought game with them, certainly.

And we had nice weather.

It was warm and

yeah,

so, uh, that was a good thing.

Yeah, Bailey looked unhittable in the final two innings of that game.

Yeah.

I mean, guys were going up there buttoning with nobody on.

I mean, you could tell they, they just were not very confident going up there.

Well, and part of that Bailey was pitching great.

It was almost dark by then too, by the way.

Yeah.

I looked at, he goes, Hey man, I think five 30 we're

gonna have to call this thing.

Yeah, this was about 4 45.

And I said, I can't see now.

Sounds good to me.

Like, um, but you know, the other thing that, that, in that game, you

know, we had a lot of big hits, um, as well, but, uh, I thought we played

fantastic defense and we've been very up and down defensively, our guys,

I've been on their butts about it.

Um, but Will Johnson and Maverick Stallings in

particular really played well?

Um, will made a number of, of really good plays and so did Mav uh, Mav m's

been playing good defense all, all year.

We've, we've gotta get cleaned up on the left side and it's not that

those guys aren't capable, they just have to focus more for one of 'em.

It's more focused.

The other one he needs to like, uh, breathe through his eyelids, you know?

Um, so give some

garter belts.

Yeah.

Yeah, we gotta work on that.

But they're capable.

I see it every day.

They're good defenders and with plenty of, you know, the skillsets plenty there.

Um, we just gotta get, and some of it I think is, is getting back to getting

the reps. You know, we had a very, uh, disjointed first month of the season.

I mean, we'd have, get a game in or two, and then we'd have two or three

days of rain and then we'd get in a game and we weren't able to get in.

It's not an excuse by any means.

You guys know me well enough for that, but.

Just reality.

We weren't able to get any work in.

Um, it was just getting the games in and playing.

Sometimes we weren't even getting ground balls in between.

And I think, you know, this weekend we were able to get back to a

little bit of a rhythm there, even though the weather was crappy

Friday when the fog world, you know,

nuts

but weird in light of the person saying not to jumble all the games together.

Anything else about that, that, uh, Wednesday game, uh, come,

comes to mind for you guys?

Yeah, I'll, I'll just throw in like I agree with you.

I've never seen that many home runs hit outta that ballpark in any single game.

It was almost like a wind tunnel to left center, but your team maintained a ton of

energy even when they were down 10 to six.

And CB and I were actually sitting together for part of that game

talking like, this is the midweek.

We know that we're strong on the back end of our bullpen with what

we have left, and we can just hang around here and chip away.

We're gonna be all right.

Mm-hmm.

And that's exactly what happened.

Plus a little bit of intervention from, uh, people that couldn't be seen to make

sure that that double Taylor made double play ball ended up, uh, down the line.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

That was Well, sometimes you get unlucky and sometimes you get lucky.

So we're not giving any of 'em back.

No, no.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

And then I was gonna say Friday, I feel like the game changed a little

bit as the fog rolled in, but that was honestly a pretty good ball game.

Mean four two.

Yeah.

It's a really good opponent.

Tough pitching

stuff.

It was, yeah, it was.

And they, you know, they, they, we knew they could pitch, um, the two guys

they threw, I thought threw fantastic.

We had, you know, uh, the same amount of hits.

We just didn't get the big one.

And the difference in that ball game though.

Was we made three errors on balls that, you know, plays that need to be made.

And I thought Ky threw the ball really well for us.

I

That's about as well as you throw all season.

Yeah.

I keep track of it was, I keep track of how many pitches guys throw, you

know, how many potential pitches when you make an error on a routine ball.

Yeah.

It costs you guy and I and I, I I think we cost him 25 pitches in that game.

Yeah.

Um, which is the difference in coming out after the fourth or

mm-hmm.

Fifth and maybe getting through sixth.

And so we, we talk about that a lot.

I, I really believe and know we tip your hat to them 'cause they pitch,

pitched well may pitches when they need to and the plays, but we kind of gave

'em the game, uh, if we're being honest.

And that's disappointing on a Friday.

You gotta be better than that.

Uh, I think we've been swinging the bats, you know, all week.

We sw the bats pretty well.

We didn't score on Friday and Saturday.

Um, Saturday was just, again, we got behind too early and, you know, with

another game to play, we just couldn't burn up a bunch of guys, um, Saturday.

So that's just kind of how it goes sometimes.

But I told him, I said, there's gonna be times in, in league play

where you lose the first two.

And the difference between, you know, having a good record and

making the tournament and not, is that Sunday game, can you guys

come out and be ready to play?

We're not that far away from, from playing.

Well, we just gotta play better, you know, and I mean it's, it's, it sounds easy,

but it sometimes it's a big step and.

We gotta certainly pitch better.

We were terrible on the mound on Saturday.

Mm-hmm.

And I, I told all of them Gatti was bad and you know, he's gotta

get his himself figured out.

And we'll talk a little bit about that in a minute.

But, um, and however I will say this, sometimes, you

know, silver linings, right?

I thought a couple freshmen came in and threw the ball.

Well, and Chris Cavalcante, that's his second outing in a row, throwing

the ball well for, uh, Maddox Jack second outing in a well in a row.

He throwing the ball pretty well.

He gave up a home run on hanging, breaking ball.

But, you know, the boss come out of both those guys hands, 9 2 9 4 on the fastball.

Yeah.

Um, and it, it shows some potential to, to be pretty good.

Um, so we, you know, we gotta come back out and battle and fight like

crazy to win one game on Sunday.

And, um, the guy, you know, it's an early game.

I mean, we're out there at 9:00 AM.

And you lost an hour.

So it's really 8:00 AM for batting practice.

And we had some really good energy and the work was good, uh, in our pre-game work.

And, um, the guys came out ready to play, man, I I this point, you know,

we, we get, we hit t hits the home run the first, and we give up a home run.

And, um, however, there again, there wasn't any panic.

The guys were into it.

Mm-hmm.

I thought Sheehy settled down and, and threw a couple zeros up there after that.

He was good.

You know, Hubble worked out of a jam in his one inning and then

Ben Ton came in and just nine, nine straight hitters, you know?

Yeah.

And that gave us a chance to expand that lead.

Uh, Mav hits the big three run Homer, um, and TJ drives in a room of two outs

that that's what we didn't have going on in the first two games series and late

hits a homer to, to get us up six three.

Um, and, and you know, they don't score in that eighth if we turn that double play.

I mean, that's just that simple.

And I said that's the difference between winning and losing.

Like yeah, I was hit hard, but it was right at you.

Cash has gotta catch that and throw across.

It's Taylor made double play ball and those are the things we haven't gotten

in a groove on yet, is those plays and you just have to be ready for 'em, man.

So we give up a couple, make it six five.

Um, they had kellen's grips, you know, he's gotta change something

in his delivery so he is not giving his pitches away and we knew that.

Um, but it's a great story on this.

So, so we, we, in between innings, we switch it up, so,

you know, they were calling out verbals for his, his curve ball.

Mm-hmm.

Um, he gets the first two guys out in the ninth and then the guy, we just

couldn't get out that big giant first baseman just kept wherever we play,

he hit it somewhere else and uh, he gets on and they pinch run for him.

Well, they had been getting kellen's grips coming into his glove.

We called a pick and Kellen, and this is just a, a senior man, this is a

fifth year senior having some feel.

He said he purposely came into his glove.

You know, normally you get the pick sign, you come into

your glove with fastball grip.

He purposely came into his glove with the curve ball grip and then switched it.

And we heard him call the, the verbal.

And so the guy was gonna steal on curveball and he hopped and

we threw a glove, glove drop pick and pick him off and game over.

So he way a, you know, that's kind of a, you know, behind the

scenes thing that people don't see because everybody's going, what

in the world is that guy doing?

Yeah.

You know, he picked off by mile, but they had given him the verbal to, to go.

Um, and so, you know, good ending.

I mean, we deserved to win that game.

We played better than they did.

I think we out Hitt 'em, you know, I don't know, 11 or 12 to seven or

something like that, and they got three of those hits in the eighth inning after

the double play that wasn't turned.

So, but I, I thought our guys played well.

That's way you gotta play on Sunday to have, have a good shot of winning.

And we certainly pitched much better.

We, we pitched well on Friday and Sunday.

We, we didn't pitch well Saturday.

Yeah.

You, you talk about the, the pitching performance.

You know, Friday you get 10 strikeouts to five walks, but I thought that was a

pretty big deal by your pitching staff to keep you in that four, two game on Friday

and then Saturday a little bit different.

It was eight and eight and there were some hit by pitches there too.

And what, what I felt like really just slowed us down and killed any momentum

on that Saturday game was the first, the, the lead off hitter and the first

seven innings reached base safely.

Yep.

And I think five of those were walks and hit by a pitch.

Didn't see that on Sunday, and you got back to the dugout quicker.

Other guys just kind of gassed standing in the, in the field that long.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, caddy through, you know, three minutes, walked, four

guys, like, yeah, it can't happen.

I mean, you just can't, you can't overcome, and we gave him a bunch

of them, um, certainly on Saturday, but, you know, the, the ability to

be resilient and, you know, we talked about Sunday, like resiliency means,

just means you just keep picking your butt up out of the dirt no matter

how many times you get knocked down.

And you've gotta be able to do that.

And the teams that develop that ability, um, you know, usually end

up having a, a pretty decent season.

And this group has shown that from an energy standpoint.

And, and look, we know we gotta create our own energy.

It's not a intimidating place to play right now with the fans being

so far away we're, we get it.

Um, we appreciate everybody that comes out and watches us.

But I mean, you know, if you're a visiting team, you are like,

sweet man, this is great.

And so it is what it is, right?

Unless you're the left fielder, then you're kind

like, ah, crap.

Left fielder gets, gets it right now.

But, um, I heard some, I heard some people yapping, uh, yapping him up the other day.

Bo was getting into somebody yesterday.

Yeah,

I could hear him.

'cause I had moved down to the hitting facility on the wall and I

could hear him out there and left.

I don't know if it was a left field or the center fielder, but somebody was

getting the business from Bo out there.

Good.

I love it.

Um, yeah, but I, I really, you know what, uh, I'll tell you this, it was

an, you know, we lost two out of three.

I get it.

But it was an enjoyable series to play.

I'd never played Ucon before.

Yeah.

In 36 years of coaching period.

Never played 'em once, which is amazing to think.

I was surprised.

OODU had played them at all that we had.

Like one game we'd played.

Well, yeah, Jim said they played here when Guz was here.

Uh, one game, but it was a midweek.

They were so coming up through or something like that.

And, and they won here.

But I'd never coached against Jim Penners.

What a, what a great guy.

Whole coaching staff were fantastic.

I thought their kids played hard.

They didn't run their mouths.

Yeah.

Like very classy series.

No, no issues.

You know, with any of the BS that goes on, you know, in some places.

Um, so I hope, I hope we can keep playing them in the future.

I think we're working on 28, uh, schedule and you know, they're always gonna be one

of the top teams in the northeast, so.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they were playing without their best hitter, um, kid last name a minute.

Who had had some nerve stuff.

Uh, I play center field for him normally.

So I think you had that guy, that lineup.

It's a pretty potent lineup.

And I'll tell you what, man, I gotta tip my hat to that big first baseman.

I never, he swung and missed one time, the entire weekend once, and he hits

the ball all over the place really hard and we kept trying to get in on

him and he would get pieces of it.

I think Tanton finally jammed him and popped him up, but mm-hmm.

Even that was like a, like a 300 foot popup, infield, you know?

He was, he was not happy the couple times that got him out too.

No, he was not pleased.

And, and it's interesting, that guy was nobody.

And the, I asked the head, uh, Jim, about Jim Pender's, their head coach,

and he, he said, man, everybody passed on that kid outta high school.

Mm-hmm.

He's missing two bones, he's missing a bone in each of his feet.

And he was just very kinda unor, but he was a good basketball player.

Um, and so he ended up going to what New Hampshire?

He were New Hampshire or something like that outta high school and played his

freshman year and tore it up because I think it was a D two All American

and then wanted to transfer him.

So they took him that time and that was a pretty good move on that part.

'cause that big carry a mesh.

Yeah.

He is scary.

Yeah.

For a guy to be that big 6, 6 8, 2 70 and be able to make bat to ball

contact like he does, it's an elite level and eye coordination man.

And I, I think he, you know, and he wasn't terrible at first.

Now he can't run a lick, but he, he was fine around the bag.

Um,

yeah.

And what a presence in the middle of your lineup.

Yeah.

You know, I was really impressed with him.

Um,

Jackson Marshall is his name 6 8 2

75.

Yeah, he's, he's

a big, the list of, the list of like 6, 7, 6 8 hitters, like just all

time Major League is like five guys.

It's like Aaron Judge and Frank Howard.

And Richie Sexton.

I mean, it is like, it, it's not easy to do at that height.

No, it's not.

You know, we had the Tyson kid here a few years ago.

Yeah.

He was six seven and he was long though.

He had some swinging and miss in there.

Mm-hmm.

Um, yeah, like you said, he is not in a class by himself, but it

doesn't take too long to call a roll.

You could, yeah, you could, you could make a list pretty easily.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was very impressed.

And he hit everything and he was swinging.

Like, he wasn't in there to take any pictures, but he was

swinging and he could hit 'em all.

So I think that guy, man, that's, uh, for him to just be a sophomore, like they

got potential to have something there.

Um, as he keeps growing as a, as a hitter.

If his hands get any faster, he's gonna be a big problem.

Because that, that's the thing with like the six, seven guys you're talking

about with Tyson being a long swing, the hands don't get through the zone

fast enough and you can throw a lot of braking stuff to get 'em, Hey,

you can throw him whatever you want.

He saw the shift and just looked at as a challenge.

He's not hitting it out.

He is gonna beat the shift one way or another.

I, he's kill, killing it,

I think.

Um, I don't remember who it was maybe, uh, late told me, you know, the one he

hit up the middle that Mav was playing right there and he was just cussing the

whole time down the first, and then he just decided to hit it through the shift.

Like,

yeah,

a couple of those.

I said, all right, that's, you know, hard hit.

It's gonna be right at our shortstop.

But he was, you know, we had moved him over and then he just was

hitting him where we were, man.

So, um, you know, the old school stuff says like, long lever guys, you try to

crowd 'em, you know, you want to throw hard in and try to get inside the barrel.

Um, and we were able to do that a couple times.

Not, not enough.

And that guy, I mean, he was not off time, don't break a balls at all.

Mm-hmm.

Like he, no, he sees it.

You can tell hitters when they see it, that balance.

Um, those are the guys that go, oh boy, don't put that again.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We, you're talking about the shifting, I noticed this at the VCU game and

maybe they just play extreme shifts as part of their defense, but they

had every infielder on the right side of second base against TJ Aiken.

And I was a little surprised because I don't think of TJ

as a dead pull hitter at all.

Well, I don't either.

And I, but I think what happens, especially early in the years, guys

are going off sprays from their career.

Um mm-hmm.

And so TJ does show up as a lot of pull ground balls.

He's a much better approach this year.

Like he gets inside the ball.

Mm-hmm.

He hits it the other way.

Um, he's not just a pull on the ground guy, like he.

Be.

And so I think that's, you know, we'll see.

I hope people keep playing 'em that way because Yeah.

Getting some, some free hits by doing that.

Um, and we talk about like if you, you gotta, you know,

you can't just be a robot.

If you climb up there and you see all those guys over there,

hit

them all the other way.

Uh,

more bunt if you're tj.

Oh

yeah, yeah.

And you know, he hit a home run and got a bunt down yesterday.

That was good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Drove drove a ball up the middle, two outs for another RBI TJ's

off to a great start for us.

We really

So awesome to see

how he's doing.

Yeah.

Because he had a tough year last year.

Yeah.

Um, that sophomore slump can be real man.

Um, you know, we got a couple other young guys that are, are starting

to trend in the right direction.

I thought Nick felt and hit the ball really hard.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, at VCU lined out a couple times, took a two strike pitch and hit

it in the six hole, beat it out.

Mm-hmm.

Like he's starting to, to show some signs of being the guy

that we think he's gonna be.

And then another guy that look, man, this is where fall baseball can trick you.

Um, was really not very good in the fall at all.

And going into the spring, like there were some days he didn't even take

batting practice on game days 'cause he wasn't in the top 15 or 16 guys.

And, but then his work.

Was better.

And we'd noticed and he was starting to make some improvements.

And then he, he's gotten in there a little bit late lately

and had some really good at bat.

Ben at Siegel?

Yeah.

He came in there yesterday, uh, in the DH spot and, and got his first college hit.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, and then he whacked the ball to center field that just

missed, you know, uh, won there.

But he, he's coming along.

He is a strong kid.

He is a left-handed hitter.

He is a tough kid.

And, and he is a good example of, we talked to the guys

about working while you wait.

Uh, yeah.

Shows up having a good attitude.

Be a coachable, doing your work every day.

I was like, you guys, we see it.

We see how you carry yourself.

We see the, the look on your face.

You know, uh, I call it the sour lemon face.

Are you over there going like that when you complain?

Yeah.

Uh uh Or are you just into it going, okay, man, what do I need to do?

Yeah.

Uh, Bennett's one of those guys that hasn't ever complained once.

He just shows up.

He does his work.

And he has been a good hitter.

So I believe he's got an innate belief in himself that he could hit.

He just had some poor hitting instruction growing up guys.

It was that whole swing up thing, and he was the top of the cage every

other swing in batting practice.

And so we've, our h and and, and Pauly have done a good job

with, with flattening him out.

Now he's able to get the barrel out in front and he's whacking balls, man.

So I, I think he's got a, a chance to be a pretty good hitter here in the future.

And, and Nick Felton as well.

Yeah.

Really.

It's great to see the top half of your lineup is hitting the ball pretty well.

I feel like, I mean, will tj, I mean, Zach's hitting 4 42 Maverick's up

to 4 23, uh, and Al is hitting 3 95.

I mean, your top six spots in the lineup are producing for you right now.

And it's kind of the plug and play other positions that I think

are still trying to work through.

Yeah.

And, and, and Cash finally had a good.

Good day Friday.

He should have had a home run.

I mean, that went blowing in 25 miles an hour.

Got him.

And he had three hits besides that.

And he hit a ball hard.

He just, you know, he, he, he got off to a bad start.

He had a, he whacked one at the shortstop yesterday, a

hundred plus miles an hour guy.

Made a good play, knocked it down through a mouth.

Um, he's, he's showing some signs of coming around.

Uh, the Dallas is off to a good, compared to a year ago.

He's night of day.

Better hitter in every way.

And

I think he has more hits than he had last season.

Yeah, exactly.

And he, and he is striking out less.

He's still gonna strike out.

So Yeah.

But much less, he's much more of a threat.

Um, his pitch selection has been better and I think he's, you

know, getting, getting more and more comfortable in the outfield.

We played him in left this weekend, uh, and he looked, he

looked, he looked fine out there.

So

yeah.

I like him in left field.

If we, I do too.

Yeah.

I, it's funny about corner outfield positions that some guys like Grayson

Spar is much better than right.

Than in line.

Right.

And that's the guy we didn't talk about.

I saw, I thought Spar had some good at bats this weekend.

Mm-hmm.

Oh yeah.

He had a hit in every game.

He had a double yesterday.

Mm-hmm.

Hit a double at VCU, so he had some productive at bats for us, and he'll

definitely be a guy, I think, uh, against lefties that, you know, was

gonna be in the lineup because, uh,

what's an interesting weekend for you with the three lefty starters?

You got to see some right-handed hitters that maybe hadn't had

some of those opportunities.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And with f with Morales being out, you know that, that, that

takes a, a DH option a little bit.

You know, he'd be the guy that would definitely d against lefties.

And so we're still waiting to hear about his hand and how he is.

Um, so, and, and, and on that note, I think we're going to hear sometime

in the next week, um, about Luke and if we're gonna be able to get

him back or not with his appeal.

Our people feel like that's imminent one way or another, and it'll be good

for everybody to know, obviously.

Yeah.

Just to know.

Yeah.

Obviously you put a, you add a hitter like that to your lineup, it, it's,

you know, can make everybody better.

Um, you know, and, and you, your most experienced, most productive hitter you've

had, you put him back in a lineup and now you've got a much longer lineup, right?

Mm-hmm.

Because he's gonna bump somebody down.

And you also got a guy that's been a run producer that you can stick back in there

and, and you know, it's like one of those things, like maybe, maybe it's a guy you

can hit behind late to protect him, uh, or in front of him, things like that.

So we'll see.

We'll just keep our fingers crossed and see if we can get him first.

Um, you know, uh, it'll be a big shot in the armed force.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know anything about Luke's long-term plans or anything like that,

but I was wondering as the season went on, do we reach a point where the

NCAA says, yes, you can have an extra year and because we're like 50% of the

way into the season, does Luke think about rolling that year to next year?

I don't think they would do that.

I think they're gonna make a decision here in the next week and

Okay.

It's gonna

be You got it or you don't.

Um, yeah.

So, you know, be unfortunate if they, I mean, it, it, we wouldn't complain

'cause we'd have 'em, but it'd be unfortunate that it takes so long.

Lost a month of the season.

Right.

Um, but be better the, you know, better to last.

You know, 40 something games and none.

Yeah.

So

get the conference play at least would be nice.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

For sure.

A little, little mid-season acquisition for you.

That's all.

Yeah, yeah.

That's right.

Yeah.

Call

called him up, right?

Yes.

Well, on on the, the, on the topic of injuries, I did get an update today.

Uh, Marcus Van Alstine had successful UCL surgery.

Should be back with the team here in a week or so.

That's from his dad.

Let let us know.

Thank you to his dad for listening.

And also just a good news update on Marcus.

Yeah, that's, uh, I know that, I'm sure that's a big loss.

That's why it's been nice seeing, um, you know, guy like a Ben Tanton

stepping up and some of these other guys really showing up in

the bullpen when you needed it.

Well, it's a huge loss.

He was our best reliever and most experienced reliever.

Uh, he was really throwing the ball well, and, you know, between him

and bas, we had two guys that we thought were really gonna mm-hmm.

You know, solidify that bullpen down there, but we don't have 'em.

And so it's opportunities for other guys to step up.

You know, I, I, the guys like Jayce Park, man, Ja off.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Jayce.

Yeah.

Um, Patrick Johnson, you know, if we could get Ben Tanton's coming on,

if we can get some more out of, uh, Chris Cavalcante and Maddox Jack.

I think those two guys in particular, um, are certainly capable of, you know,

doing it and, and you know, the way, the way that things are shaken out.

Um, I think it's gonna be a, a pitching staff that probably, and

we've had to do this similarly before.

I think we're probably gonna be more in groups or pods of

guys that kind of float around.

Um, other than Kuskie, like Kuskie iss probably gonna be your, uh,

everyday Friday or Saturday guy.

It could be Saturday.

Uh, that makes it the easiest to do this other thing around them.

And then, you know, the groups of guys that.

Throw on Tuesday, we'll come back and throw on Sunday, a group

of guys that throw on Friday.

We'll come back and throw the following Tuesday like that,

two, three inch, 50 pitches.

And so you're getting more outings out of guys each week,

just not as long potentially.

Um, and there's been years where that's been really effective.

Um, and you can make it through a whole year with, you know, eight to 10 guys

that are throwing the ball well and keep 'em all healthy and, and out there.

And sometimes, you know, you tell, you tell a guy, Hey man,

we need six outs out of you.

They go out there and, and burn it up a little bit for you.

And, you know, that's the thing.

Um, you know, it may make 'em a little more consistent, um, rather

than just going once a week.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I know Okonkwo was down this week.

I think you said last week it was some shoulder soreness.

How is he doing?

Is he on track?

Uh, potentially

from

East Carolina.

Yeah.

He's doing better.

He won't throw tomorrow, but he'll, he'll be back on the board for this weekend.

Um, yeah, he, he was just a little bit underwater, I think,

you know, sometimes it happens.

I mean, these freshmen have to be ready, you know, so much

earlier than they're ever used to.

Mm-hmm.

Um, some cases, you know, six weeks, six to eight weeks

earlier, which is significant.

Uh, and so I think that can happen sometimes with those guys.

And we, we were on top of it.

Mike's, Mike's usually on top of those things really well, and

so, you know, that kid's got a chance to have a bright future.

So we just, you know, shut 'em down for a couple weeks and then we'll, we'll

burn 'em back, work 'em back up and, and see how we can get 'em in there.

Gotcha.

At, at some points this weekend against Yukon, I felt like we were playing a

previous year version of ODU where they have these really strong left-handed

starters, couple boppers in the lineup that can hit it, and everyone

was just super scrappy at the plate.

And I looked at 'em like, I don't know if that's the 21 team, the 22 team, what that

was, but it, it felt like I was looking in the mirror a little bit, uh, throughout

some of this weekend and be like, that's, that, that's a team I've seen before.

Yeah.

I, and their Friday guy was fantastic.

Yeah.

I really liked him and, and I thought we did a decent job against them.

Uh, their next two starters, we hit their coach was like, y'all

hit those other two guys harder than they've been hit all year.

Um, so, but having left-handed good start pitching college

baseball is always a plus.

Uh, without a doubt.

So, and, and look, I thought the Friday and Saturday, the two relievers

they brought in were fantastic.

Um, the relievers yesterday weren't as good, but those first two guys like that.

That's a pretty good one, two combination for each of those games.

You know, you may roll through a bunch of games and only throw four guys and

have everybody else left for Sunday.

So they're, their pitching coaches always done a great job.

And, you know, those, those guys, I, I, I thought the pitch

with the fastball really well.

Um, I thought we, you know, again, it was a good, it was good for us 'cause

we hadn't seen a lot of lefthanded pitching going in this weekend.

Mm-hmm.

And we needed to, and, and we saw three good ones and I thought, I

thought our guys had a good plan.

I thought this stuck with it.

We just couldn't get those big hits on, on Friday and Saturday.

And we finally got a couple of 'em.

Yes for that.

Yeah.

So big week coming up.

Um, you got, first, got a road trip down to ECU, which is

always a tough place to play.

Always a good team.

And then starting conference play, uh, you know, starting off easy, going

down to Detroit to play the Trojans.

Yeah, east, east Carolina's always a, you know, a fun game.

It's a tough to win at, as you mentioned, but having said that,

we've won down there a fair amount.

Yeah.

So, um, usually good games and we feel like, uh, we've got enough

arms on the board to, to give us a chance to win that game.

And it's a good hitter's, parks to be a warm day.

So, um, we'll see.

Um, and then heading out to Troy, Troy's record is probably

a little misleading right now.

They played a really tough schedule early.

They, they do have some guys banged up, um, that we've been hearing about.

So we'll see what, what their lineup looks like.

But, um.

Our first time down there in Sunbelt play.

I've been down there before just when I was at Western Kentucky a bunch.

It's a, it's a good park to hit in, uh, especially for left-handed hitters.

They got that green monster and or the black monster, whatever color it is.

Uh, that scoreboard's actually, uh, and right field and it's, it's short down

that right field line into the gap.

Uh, there, you gotta get it up.

It's probably 30 feet tall, but, um, it definitely comes into play.

And so that's where hopefully our, you know, some of our left-handed hitters

will be able to take advantage of that.

Yeah.

Zach's gotta start pulling more balls 'cause he is hitting too

many home runs to center field.

That's not gonna get out everywhere in the league center

field.

Yeah.

Don't, don't you ever tell him that Gary right now.

And that's, no, he hitter he is right when he, yeah, he stays

in the middle of field man.

He is really good.

And um, you know, the ball hit Saturday at the guy robbed him

from, uh, I thought was gonna leave.

Um, late, I don't know, the eighth, seventh, or eighth, whatever, but, uh, you

know, he's, he's locked in right now, man.

He is kind of in the middle of all the good things that are happening

for us offensively for sure.

Yeah.

He's a tough out at that plate.

I mean, hitting 4 42, 4 home runs, 27 Ribbies.

I think he's top seven in rbis, so, I mean, he is, he's, you got

some, some offensive guys having a hell of a year this year.

Well, Mav, you know, the, the cool thing is Mavs off to.

Much better start than he had.

Yeah.

First two years where he was ever been 100 the first month of the season.

I mean, we, we did the math last year.

It was like April 15th, both years before he started hitting, and

it

was like disgusting.

How not good he was.

Yeah.

Right.

So it's been a nice surprise.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so I, I, I mean, Mavs a Florida guy.

He likes it when it's morning.

Right.

So, uh, I told him it's gonna be in the eighties this weekend.

So he, uh, you know, but he, he's off to a better start.

I think some of that too is I told him, I said, look, I, you just play good

defense, have good energy, you're not coming out whether you get a hit or not.

And I think sometimes when guys hear that, they relax a little more

and know they're gonna be in there.

And, um, I, as much as he is hitting, you know, um, he's played

fantastic defense the beginning.

Yes.

He is made so many good plays and, and.

And I'm really happy about that.

That's a part of his game.

He is worked really hard on, takes a lot of pride in it, and he's

really developed into a really, really good second base game.

I'll give Zach Leite some flowers as well.

Defensively at first base, the improvement is impressive.

And he's made some big plays on weird ground balls the first this year.

Yeah.

Yeah, he's gotten better.

Um, he's worked hard on it.

And, um, you know, just those two guys, I mean, they're playing

like fifth year seniors, you'd expect them to play right now.

So we need him to keep that way.

And, and that's what you want.

And you know, we got Scotty back in the lineup a little bit this

week coming off the knee injury.

Still not quite himself.

I thought he had really good batting practice today.

Looked like he was getting a little bit, you know, uh, sometimes when you,

you hurt that front knee, it changes your, you know, just how you brace

up swinging and things like that.

So.

I think he's starting to feel a little bit better.

And he was one of our better, you know, hitters in the fall and in the preseason.

Mm-hmm.

Hasn't, hasn't quite gotten it going yet, but I, I think he will,

you know, he is gonna bring the energy for it, that's

for sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's gonna, he,

well I think I know where may have maybe some of Maverick's, uh, Florida

Energy has come in early this year.

Uh, got got some pictures from Angie Holobetz and Craig Brown

from down at Spring training.

Uh, got Sam Armstrong, Dylan Brown and John Holobetz.

They all had, uh, dinner together a few night nights ago.

I don't think Noah and Blake could join, but you got quite a few monarchs

there on the west coast of Florida and some spring training camps, uh,

potentially may see Hobe throw a pro game in spring training here soon.

We'll keep you updated on that.

Uh, but they didn't just bring the players.

Of course, anytime these groups get together, they

got the whole crew with them.

Uh, having a good time down there in, in Florida,

that's super cool, isn't it?

And um, you know, watching anybody that's been watching the World

Baseball Classic, obviously with.

Jared Young playing for Team Canada and Yee with team USA

and Vinny with Team Italy.

Um, that's, that's been neat.

I'm gonna watch that.

USA game tonight, I think at eight.

Yeah.

Um, USA and Mexico.

That's be a good game.

Mexico's beating us three of the last four.

Uh, yeah, they, they Mexico's they got, they got the big boys.

They got uh, was it Rowdy Tellez and um, Alejandra Kirk.

Yeah.

They got the guys with my body type I like to watch.

And the pregame spread is all taco.

Yes,

yes.

Uh, get in the door price today was $300.

Wow.

Oh my God.

Just

to get in the door.

Yeah.

How about that?

That's unbelievable.

But that's been cool to watch, you know, and um, I'd love to see Italy be able to

come, you know, finish second in our pool.

Um, and in advance that'd be, that'd be neat.

And they got a chance.

That'd

be great.

They

got a chance.

So

they got the espressos for the home runs.

That's, uh,

that's

a

good, Vinny is a unique character.

That guy really gets it.

Yeah.

They're, they, he is very unique.

They definitely broke the mold, made the, hey, and then somebody

broke it on purpose after that.

I know you guys have, uh, Jack getting ready to come on.

And I just wanted to say something.

You know, I've known Jack basically since he was born.

Um, his dad, Tommy, his mom Beth, they're just, you know,

lifelong friends of, of mine.

And, um, Jack is, has been a, just a joy to have in our program.

And he is playing really well right now.

In fact, he's gonna catch tomorrow.

Um, but he, he, Jack has a, um, job lined up, um, when he, when he graduates,

he's gonna go into the Secret Service.

Uh, his uncle, but his mom's brother was a career secret service.

Uh, JT Tanney was his name, but So John, talk to Jack A. Little bit about that.

He, he's a perfect candidate for that.

Um, he's had to jump through some hoops and work around some stuff to go through

all the, you know, the things that you have to go through to get a job like that.

And, and, um, so he is got like one more thing.

He is gotta pass a physical and take a test or something like that, but it'd

be a neat thing to, to mention with him.

And, um, you know, I'm just really, really proud of Jack and, and the type

of young man he is and how he represents our program and it's fun to watch

him, you know, getting an opportunity to play a little bit more this year.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

We're, we're excited to have him and thankful as always to have you on here.

Um, and also shout out to ODU for all the access we've gotten this year.

I think I found my rally spot right there on the corner.

Oh,

good.

Hitting facility.

I'm gonna stay there 'cause we do all right when I'm standing there.

Well, we got I'll.

Um, you know, nine days till we'll be back.

Yeah.

You know, back, back at home.

So, uh, what is it, Norfolk State that following Wednesday?

Yeah, next

Wednesday.

Hopefully the, uh, more than likely the weather forecast for the extent is wrong.

Hopefully it'll be better, but, uh, you know what's interesting man?

The field, just with the, with the, the warmer temp, the field's already

starting to green, green up on its own.

Um, and so I think when we get back and, and get that thing going,

it's gonna start pearling for us.

And that's, that's exciting.

The roof's just about done at the field.

I took some cool pictures of that today.

So starting to look pretty neat.

We're excited, you know, to see that continue to grow.

Yeah, it was awesome to have the live music out there on Saturday too.

They were playing under the tent by the concession stand.

There were a good number of people out there.

Uh, it was great weather on Saturday and Sunday for baseball and was

happy to see the fans come out, but.

They, I just continue like Rick French, that whole crew, just an amazing

job making that not look temporary.

Like it looks like it's been there, it's developed, they know what they're doing.

Uh, just great fan experience again.

And we got the, uh, for the fans.

I noticed today when we were hitting they, they've got the, the miles

per hour up on the scoreboard now.

So hey, nice.

We'll have that.

My mom will

be happy

the rest of the time.

And uh, that's the

thank you for the cookies you gave her

the thank you back.

There you

go.

The next thing, I think the parts come in this week to fix the clock.

So we're, we're getting back to operational.

Well

now you just need iPads out there with the track man data so that way

the people that are 375 feet away can actually call balls and strikes from work

there.

There you go.

That's right.

Yeah.

That's a neat thing.

So.

Well, thank you guys.

I appreciate it.

All

right.

Look forward to talking to y'all again, um, uh, after the week on the road.

Absolutely be safe, man.

Appreciate you man.

Thank you, Finny.

Alright,

go Monarch.

Go Monarchs,

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All right.

Welcome back, Monarch fans.

Great to hear from Finny.

We got, I feel like we got a lot of good info about him and planning

and all of that stuff from Finny.

We never get good info from Finny.

Come

on.

No, he's always cloaking.

Dacker.

What are you talking

about?

He's, he's real secretive.

He doesn't talk a lot about everything.

Come on.

That's, that's very true.

That's, uh, that's what we appreciate about Finny, I think more than

anything else's is it's great.

You're gonna get the truth.

He's not gonna sugarcoat it.

If it's good, it's good.

If it's bad, it's bad.

Yeah, that's right.

I love it.

Well, speaking of good, we have our guest this week, Jack, coming on.

Uh, so please welcome to the Hudson Homers podcast, Jack Slater.

How's it going, Jack?

Just going on guys.

What's up, man?

How you doing?

Doing well.

Thank y'all for having me.

Good.

All right.

Yes.

Appreciate you being here buddy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We were commiserating a little bit, uh, before we started recording on,

just like, I got sunburn this weekend.

Jack.

Looks like you avoided it, but you were well prepared.

Yeah, Hannah had some sunscreen in the dugout for me, which is nice.

Yes.

Gotta watch out for us.

Uh, guys that burn super easy, but would love to just get your

thoughts on, on playing at VCU and this weekend against Yukon.

Yeah, VCU was cool.

That's, my parents live in Richmond now, so I got to see

my mom, which is always good.

Give her a hug after the game.

Um, and then kind of a crazy game, just a bunch of home runs, which is

unlike the diamond, but being able to get a win there was awesome,

especially in the ninth inning.

And then Yukon didn't go exactly how we wanted it to, but being able

to scratch that game Sunday was, uh, pretty good for, for everybody.

And, you know, kind of a strange weekend where, you know, a lot of lefty pitchers

kind of kept you from really getting a chance out there, but you've, you've

gotten a lot of chances to play this year.

Tell me how that's been different for you than your first couple

years here with the team.

Yeah.

I mean, it's been fun just being able to be out there and play more.

I mean, as long as we we're winning, I don't, I don't really

care what my role is that day.

Yeah, right.

Um.

But yeah, I mean, playing baseball's fun.

That's why I'm still here as an old man.

So,

well that, so that's the question.

'cause you, you're a fifth year guy, you got the, uh, the extra JUCO year.

Right.

Um, which, you know, I think, I think Scotty pointed out one time, he is like,

you're the only classic guys who, who have ever had that, maybe we'll ever have that.

Mm-hmm.

He's like, I mean, the way I like the way Scotty put it, like, don't deserve it.

I'm gonna enjoy it.

Um, so for you, was there ever a point where you were like, you

know what, I've had my four years.

I'm gonna go on.

I mean, we, we said Finny brought it up and I'm sure we'll talk about

it some about the Secret Service.

Was there any any point where you're like, I'm just gonna go on, or was like, no.

You know, why wouldn't I go back and play one more year with my guys and have fun?

Yeah, there was a little bit, um, of a decision last year.

Um, I wasn't sure if I was done or not, but I kind of looked at it like if I,

in five years from now, I'd probably look back and regret not being able

to go enjoy a win with the guys after,

yeah,

after a good win or just like the every day joking around in the cage, man,

that's what it's really all about.

So, um.

Yeah, being able to come back for one more year and like Scotty said, I didn't do

anything to deserve it, but I'm here, so.

Yeah.

Yeah, they're giving it out for free.

Definitely take it.

Hold on to college as long as you can.

It's, it's not any better out here, I promise.

Yeah.

Well obviously you had time at ODU when the bud was the bud and then

you had the ear on the road and now you're kind of back in the bud in a

little bit different configuration.

How's it been for you getting back to being, playing games

actually at home and in Norfolk?

It's awesome.

I mean, just not having to be on the road 24 7 is really nice.

Um, like, don't get me wrong, we got to play at some really awesome places last

year, but being able to sleep in your own bed and cook food and not rely on

the hotel or anything else is awesome.

And then being able to have fans actually root for you is really cool too.

Where was your favorite away game last year with that schedule?

Uh, Auburn for sure.

I used to live there.

Yeah.

Um.

Still have some friends and family over there, so that was really cool for me.

How old were you when you guys were at Auburn?

We moved when I was in kindergarten, so probably about five or six years old.

I was probably there for three years maybe.

Yeah,

four years.

Yeah.

Yeah.

For folks who don't know, you know, your dad, Tom, uh, his 35 year career as a

coach, uh, college, you know, was the head coach at Auburn, head coach at BMI.

Um, he was, uh, worked with the Yankees for a long time.

Big league coach of the Mets currently with the, the Florida

Gators was even their head coach, uh, for just a little while, for a

few months while they needed him.

Um, what's that been like growing up with your dad, just being

in baseball your entire life?

I mean, it's awesome.

Um, like.

Like, I've gotten to do more cool things and experience more baseball

probably than anybody my age other than actual professional baseball players.

I got, I get to spend summers with him and got to catch bullpens and

basically be a part of the team this summer, which was awesome for me.

And then like growing up, meeting the people I watch on TV was

one of the coolest things ever.

What team are you with this, this past summer with the Phillies?

Uh, the Redding Phillies.

That's who my dad was with.

Yeah.

Um, before he got the job at Florida, so I spent the whole summer with them.

It was awesome.

That's fantastic.

I, I was, that was one thing I wanted to ask of, I'm sure,

like you said many cool things.

Can you think of something like, off the top of your head, like, this is

like, if my dad wasn't who he is, I wouldn't have had this experience

and this experience was amazing.

Like what, what, is there anything that you're like top of list?

Like this was the coolest?

Yeah.

When he was with the Yankees, uh, Derek Jeter was rehabbing and I got to take

ground balls with him when I was like.

10.

That

was awesome.

There

you go.

When I was that age, I didn't realize how cool that was.

'cause I was like this.

Yeah,

yeah, it does.

But looking back, like that's coolest things ever.

That's, that's okay.

Good.

I, I didn't even know what that, what you were gonna say, but I

was, that's, that was gonna beat anything I could have guessed.

That's pretty phenomenal.

Yeah.

Good one.

Hard, hard to stop getting ground balls with Jeter.

I, that's

no, yeah.

Bucket list there.

I actually have a

picture.

There's also,

well, with him and all my friends like to kind of gimme a hard time with it.

So

the hard time is, I'm the one with Jeter.

What are you guys talking about?

Yeah.

Like, do you have a picture with Jeter or you Oh, okay.

I don't know where hard time over I won.

But I, I do wonder too, like, you know, with your dad playing ball, not playing

coaching all the time, has that been a thing where sometimes he hasn't been able

to see you because, you know, obviously he, his job is happening at the same

time that you're playing your games.

Yeah, for sure.

I mean, that's kind of the only downside about what his job was, is,

or is I should say, is there was like, when he was in the big leagues, he

was from January 15th until whenever the season ended, he was gone.

That was when I was in high school.

And, um, but I gotta give a lot of credit to not only him, 'cause

like even when he wasn't physically there, he was always present.

I would talk to him every day.

Um, we have a great relationship that's not revolved around baseball.

It's just my dad really.

And then my mom is really the rock star of the family.

She raised my sister and I those months alone and like, she's awesome.

I, if you've ever met her, she's the joy of the world.

So

she is, she's a, she's a wonderful, and that's kind of the true in

all ways, the moms are the best.

I mean, that's just kind of true no matter what.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, well you're in a pretty loaded catcher's room.

Obviously Mac died coming in.

You got Evan Holman who also I think would feel, have a similar

sentiment for his mother as well.

Yeah.

Uh, tell us a little bit about that experience of being in a

really talented catcher's room.

Yeah, it's been really cool.

Um, like having Matt come in, we lived together.

He is awesome.

And getting to see all the success he's having is really cool.

And it's opened up some cool opportunities for me and Evan is, uh, we've both

been able to play other positions.

Um, I think I carry five gloves to the field nowadays,

so it's, uh, it's been fun.

Do you ready?

What are these five gloves?

'cause I all I know, all I can think of is catcher.

Outfield.

What are you, what are you carrying these, what are

these other gloves

doing?

I've

got, I've got two catchers mitts just in case one breaks.

Okay.

And then I've got Luke Waters outfield glove.

I've got a first basement and then I've got a glove for second base.

'cause there was an inner squad.

Right.

Gots play second

just in care.

Yeah.

Why not?

And sure.

Okay.

That's, I mean, I, I used to do that in high school too, even

though I was left-handed to have the, have the small glove for

second base because you never know.

Yep.

You might actually have that chance though.

We'll see.

Hopefully not.

'cause that mean something happened to Mav, so hopefully Yeah, that's fair.

I stay to the other ones.

See, that's a, that's a true teammate right there.

I like that.

Yeah.

If you were gonna pick one of those position to play instead of catch one

day, what would be your, your favorite?

Okay, so none of those, because I always joke with Marin, I want to pitch, I don't

want to one game and pitch, but, um, first base is pretty similar to catching.

Not like necessarily like the pitches, but like just keeping the

ball in front of you and picking it.

That's probably them.

Most directly, directly related to it.

You've been out there slinging the bullpen and mess with, like Bryce Windham

used to do that like once a week he would go out and take a bullpen just to

try to, not yet.

I'm still trying to talk Marin into it.

So we'll see.

Vinny PAs, Tino, like would like every other day do a bullpen for

like three years convinced at one point they were gonna let him pitch.

Yeah.

So don't, don't let the dream die, Jack.

It can happen.

Uh, I'll keep bothering him until he lets me do it.

I think Kenny LaVar did that too, or at least he would go in and

throw one pitch at like 94 plus and they'd be like, anytime I'm ready.

So how did you end up at od?

I mean, obviously, you know, you've known Finny your entire life.

I have to imagine that had something to do with it.

Yeah, so that's kind of a funny story.

Out of high school I was getting recruited by my junior college.

I ended up going to, and then here and by H at VMI.

Okay.

And then after my two years of junior college.

Um, Paige was now here and he gave me a call and obviously Finny was

here too, and they were like, Hey, wait, we need to catcher to come in.

And I was like, yeah, of course.

So,

so that worked out.

All right.

So the

kind of one big circle really.

Yeah.

The interest was always there.

It was always gonna be the VMI guys or, or at odu.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

What do you like best about being here?

'cause I mean, like, so you, you grew up kind of all over, right?

Mm-hmm.

I've lived in, I live, I grew up mostly in Tampa, but when early life

I lived in a few different spots.

Okay.

So what do you like most about here in Norfolk?

Like the city?

Yeah, sure.

Um, it's, I like how it's gonna sound weird.

It's similar, it is to Tampa.

Like it's a

No, I see

that big, A big city, but not like massive, like New York.

Yeah.

Where you feel crammed.

I like that it's by the water and that it does snow sometimes,

but it usually stays pretty warm.

No.

Absolutely.

I, I haven't been to Sam.

I totally agree with all your points there.

I think, I think you're dead on.

It's all one thing I've always said, I like that.

It's, it's a city and there's stuff happens, but it's not like insane.

Yeah.

I'm with you.

Right.

I can get in and out of downtown in 10 minutes more.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

You still got some bridges with traffic over bodies of water.

Other than that, you're, you're not do.

Yeah.

So who do you root for for Major League baseball?

Uh, I'm up the Phillies right now.

It's, it kind of changed just based on who my dad was working

with, and that was the last team.

So that's, that's just where I fuck at right now.

It's

like the, the Dave Chappelle, like I've, I've done commercials for Coke

and Pepsi and we say Pepsi paid me less, so they're, they're better.

I grew up a Yankees fan, so that was who I grew up mostly rooting for.

But with all the teams he is been with, it's changed.

So

yeah.

I wasn't sure if you had any Tampa allegiances there.

I'm a Tampa Bay Lightning fan, so I don't know if you've been

in hockey games down there.

They're.

Yeah, those are the most fun sporting events I've ever been to.

That's awesome.

The Lightning Games.

Yeah, they are, they are.

Well you were probably there when they were really good too.

Mm-hmm.

It was a cool year.

The Rays made the World Series.

The, and then I think the Bucks and the, uh, lightning both won

that year, so it was pretty cool.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Pretty well a lot of uh, obviously Norfolk and Tampa Bay Hockey connections there.

'cause John Cooper was the coach in Norfolk with a lot of the guys.

Ended up going up one more level to the Bolt, so you'll see a

lot of Go Bolt stickers around the 7, 5 7 and that's okay.

Main reason why.

Nice.

Awesome.

Got one.

Jack, you got what?

You got cb.

I don't wanna cut you off again.

I was ask you got one?

I don't wanna cut you off, sir. I cut you off all the time.

I'm sorry.

Well, looking ahead to East Carolina this week and then Troy over the weekend,

uh, anything mindset wise, change for you as you're getting really close

to getting into the Sunbelt play now?

No, not really.

I mean, at the end of the day, all the games are the same.

You're trying to win each one.

So just trying to go play our best baseball and see what happens.

Really.

Do you have, I mean, now that you absolutely know, like this is gonna

be the end of your baseball career

mm-hmm.

I mean, what are your, how do you deal with that?

Like, what are your feelings on that?

Um, I think if you had asked me two years ago, it probably

would've been a lot of like, worry.

But I mean, I've gotten into my faith a lot and then just like knowing that

like, I'm at peace with whatever happens.

Um, like it's awesome.

'cause at the end of the day, baseball is just what I do.

It's not who I am and as much as I wanna win, but it's, it's

more about just enjoying these last moments with my teammates.

That's, that's so important as well as that realization that you're, you and

you're okay with, with or without this.

Yeah.

That's, that's, I love hearing that man.

Yeah, I mean,

and, and speaking of, I'm sorry.

Yeah, it's just kind of something that I don't, I think Hunter said

it at one of our Bible studies, like, I'm not defined by my success

or failures on or off the field.

It's, uh, just goes back to our faith in Christ.

So it's, it's, it's been really awesome.

That's great.

Um, and speaking of, you know, the next step, as Fannie pointed

out, you know, so you're gonna be working with the Secret Service.

Can you tell us about what made you interested in doing that?

What are you, what are you looking forward to doing with that?

Yeah, so I still have a few hurdles to get through.

I still have to pass a physical test in April, and then there's a interview

and a polygraph and a background check.

So it's not a hundred percent certain yet, but I'm gonna

try to keep moving through it.

Um, the main reasons were now that baseball is coming to an

end, I still wanna work with a team and work for something

that's bigger than myself and, uh.

That's what I'll get to do and they get some really cool training on how to shoot

guns accurately and drive really fast.

So, sounds like fun to me.

I was, I was gonna ask, are you gonna be more on the protective side of Secret

Service or more on the finance side?

It sounds like the protective side.

If you're getting,

if I get a choice, which I don't know if I will, I would just,

I would love to do that, but I mean whatever they really want.

If

show up day one, like I want the driving fast shooting stuff section

where that is point me to that way.

Hundred

percent.

Are you, are you like driving fast guy?

Is that a thing you're into

No, I really don't, but like I would love to know how to do it if I had to.

Right.

That's fair.

Okay.

I like, I like that answer.

That's a really good answer.

It's like, no, but train me and, yes.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

That's a good answer for the Secret Service.

We'll be reviewing our podcast this week for your eligibility.

That's great.

Great answer there.

It might be.

Well, I know the financial side is not that bad either 'cause a lot of people

don't realize that they handle all the counterfeiting that happens in the US and

there's pretty massive counterfeit rings.

So you get to do some, some pretty, pretty wild things on that side too.

But either way, I mean, I think it's a awesome career.

Love that you're kind of tying that into continue to be part of a team

and accomplish like a shared mission.

I'm a hundred percent

and that, that's one thing I've always gotten from you, Jack.

It seems like your one of the most important things to you is

being out there with the guys.

Would you, I mean, is that a fair statement to say that that's

probably one of your biggest pluses for you with being with baseball?

A hundred percent.

I mean, I don't know how much fun a sport would be if you

didn't have teammates really.

Like they, they make the, the hard days easier and the days that

are good, like a lot more fun.

So like when you, I think back at baseball and I'm, when I'm done with

it, it's gonna be more about the people I got to spend time with.

Do you have a favorite teammate?

Uh, either currently or your, in your recent years?

Oh, man.

If you have to, like, make everyone else feel bad and pick

one, you can, you can name a few.

You don't have to pick a one favorite.

I hope he doesn't listen to this.

'cause I don't want him to hear this, but it's, it's definitely maverick.

He's, we've been with each other all five years.

Um,

yeah.

We always give each other a hard time, but yeah, that's my guy.

That's your guy.

Okay.