Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of the Bust and Spring
Speaker 1: Football Tour. I know we've been talking about football spring ball,
Speaker 1: but coming to the University of Tennessee, we had to
Speaker 1: get on the juggernaut. We had to get on Coach
Speaker 1: Vitello Tony Tonytel, I feel like this most Italian name ever. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: young gun. I mean, look at he's handsome. Before we
Speaker 1: get into before we sit here and melting our couches.
Speaker 1: This thing is brought to you by the Chevy Silverado,
Speaker 1: the hardest working truck on the planet, Dependable, durable, just
Speaker 1: like the people who drive them. You and Coach v uh,
Speaker 1: But we had to get the baseball guys on. You
Speaker 1: guys are crushing it. I hate that you guys just
Speaker 1: lost one last night because you guys are on an
Speaker 1: eleven game win streak. You're thirty and.
Speaker 2: Two now, is that thirty one and two?
Speaker 1: Thirty one and two? And Jack was Jack is a
Speaker 1: huge Tennessee guy. Yeah. And everybody went to school here, yeah,
Speaker 1: and everybody's been talking about Tennessee baseball. And I'm on
Speaker 1: my phone last night, late at night scroll and seeing
Speaker 1: all your guys' highlights and everything else. And Coach Eckler's
Speaker 1: giving me a background on you guys. You guys are
Speaker 1: kind of like the Detroit Pistons, the bad boys of
Speaker 1: SEC baseball, college baseball. Would you agree, Yeah, would you
Speaker 1: agree with that? Is that fair to say? Is that
Speaker 1: a good assessment?
Speaker 3: I mean, I kind of like that now at this age.
Speaker 3: I grew up My old man's from Chicago, so I
Speaker 3: grew up a Bulls fan, and I hated the Pistons.
Speaker 3: But I think if you're a competitor, that's kind of
Speaker 3: the way it should be. You should love the guy
Speaker 3: if he's on your team, or you should love your
Speaker 3: team if they're yours. And then you want to be hated.
Speaker 3: If you know, if you walk into an opponent's building,
Speaker 3: you don't want them to like you because that means
Speaker 3: if they're thinking easy victory.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but baseball in a lot of ways, Like you
Speaker 2: don't see guys hitting grand slams and going halfway to
Speaker 2: first base throwing that ship in the air like it's
Speaker 2: fucking nothing like you did you walk into the team
Speaker 2: meeting room and dany and go, hey, here's a deal.
Speaker 2: Fuck these guys, all of them?
Speaker 3: Not no, No, I mean I do think we've got
Speaker 3: a certain attitude about us, but you have to in
Speaker 3: order to survive in our league. But sorry, any Power
Speaker 3: five league. No, But then we had a non Power
Speaker 3: five team put it on us last night, so no.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 3: At the end of the day, it's all about competition
Speaker 3: and you got to be who you are. And and
Speaker 3: that guy in particular you're speaking of is one of
Speaker 3: our team leaders, and he's just very unique. He's he's
Speaker 3: a gentleman off the field, and he's an assassin on
Speaker 3: the field. And sometimes I do my best to control them,
Speaker 3: but sometimes I can't.
Speaker 2: What's his name, Yes, Drew Gilbert.
Speaker 3: He's a fan fan favorite, and again, anyone that's got
Speaker 3: to know him as a person would love him.
Speaker 2: But immediately when we go into another place.
Speaker 3: We're in Oxford, Mississippi recently, and it took their fans
Speaker 3: about two outs in the first inning and he was
Speaker 3: just on deck to understand that he's not the one
Speaker 3: to like. But you know, our guys do got a
Speaker 3: little bit of way about him that you know, again,
Speaker 3: if you're cheering for us, I think you enjoy and
Speaker 3: if not, you may question it. But I don't think
Speaker 3: anyone ever goes over the line to do something disrespectful
Speaker 3: to the opponent. It's just in baseball, you got to
Speaker 3: be a personality. If you look at like the most
Speaker 3: fun teams since we've been alive, like the Phillies back
Speaker 3: in the John Crook era, Darren Dalton and those guys,
Speaker 3: and the Red Sox when Malar was on their team,
Speaker 3: it's it's long days as a baseball player. You got
Speaker 3: to have some stuff going on in the locker room
Speaker 3: to bring you together and also keep you entertained or
Speaker 3: in all those all those hours.
Speaker 2: So this is your fifth season with the volunteers. Is
Speaker 2: this like something that's kind of built over time or
Speaker 2: is it for whatever reason this year? No, it's kind
Speaker 2: of just you guys have become like the bad boys
Speaker 2: of the SEC. No.
Speaker 3: I think last year without last year's team, this year's
Speaker 3: team is not having the success they are. And then
Speaker 3: if you go back to our first year, our pitching
Speaker 3: coach and I were joking about how we're just starving
Speaker 3: for any win possible, and that's how we were handling
Speaker 3: our pitching was just one day at a time, we
Speaker 3: just need as many wins. So it's been you know,
Speaker 3: without going into the whole long story, it's been a
Speaker 3: gradual deal. And I'll tell you what, when the fans
Speaker 3: got on board, and you know how crazy our fans are,
Speaker 3: that's what kind of helped catapult this whole thing.
Speaker 1: I think what's cool too, is like you guys, it's
Speaker 1: clear about your gut, you guys having fun it. Like
Speaker 1: you said, if you're an outsider and you don't cheer
Speaker 1: for the for Tennessee, you might question it or whatever.
Speaker 1: But baseball for the most part, is a very uniformed,
Speaker 1: buttoned up sport. And know that you have a team
Speaker 1: like you do having the fun and bringing out their
Speaker 1: personalities and having their unique style about them. And then
Speaker 1: you have a young coach like yourself who kind of
Speaker 1: embraces it. The whole my Concho story, the whole my
Speaker 1: Concho bit is hilarious. Is that something you're conscious of
Speaker 1: You kind of just let it fly and tell the boys, like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're going out here to have fun. Who gives a
Speaker 1: shit like the opinions that are out there about the
Speaker 1: sport of baseball. It's kind of like you guys are
Speaker 1: bringing a flavor to the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think that's something you try and set the tone
Speaker 3: from day one and manage what you think your culture's
Speaker 3: kind of overused word, but what your style or brand
Speaker 3: name is going to be. And when we first got here,
Speaker 3: Tennessee's had great players for quite a while. I mean
Speaker 3: Nixon Zel was a second pick in the draft before
Speaker 3: we got here. I mean, they've had talent, but they
Speaker 3: hadn't had kind of a flavor that Arkansas, where I
Speaker 3: came from, you could stereotype their baseball team. And again
Speaker 3: we talked about Mississippi or Vanderbilt. And now I think
Speaker 3: we've kind of created our own brand name. And along
Speaker 3: the way, I've kind of felt like we introduced some
Speaker 3: ideas to them. They've run with it, and now we
Speaker 3: just got to make sure that fired unburned too bright.
Speaker 3: Sometimes those boys get a little out of control, and
Speaker 3: again they're there is a line to walk. What's what's
Speaker 3: the right way to do it? And what's not My
Speaker 3: question is why is they're allowed to walk? Why not
Speaker 3: just ride this thing in the sunset? You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, Grab the chariots, be like charesty, you go
Speaker 3: to the sun sure, well you know we're on uh,
Speaker 3: we're televised here and you fellas are popular, so you
Speaker 3: got to make sure you don't say the wrong thing
Speaker 3: too many times. But no, it's it's the in between
Speaker 3: the lines. To be fair what you're saying. There are
Speaker 3: no rules, so I know in baseball, yeah, I mean
Speaker 3: there's different versions in football and baseball. If somebody bunts
Speaker 3: when they're winning up by six runs, or someone throws inside,
Speaker 3: I mean, where where's the rules? It's you're between the
Speaker 3: lines and it's killer be killed. And then at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, kind of like UFC guys do
Speaker 3: when they dab each other up, it's like, how the
Speaker 3: hell are they doing? They just try to kill each other,
Speaker 3: but it's a mutual respect for you know, hey, what
Speaker 3: just went on here? There was something pure there and
Speaker 3: almost kind of primal that we are getting, you know,
Speaker 3: getting into it and now.
Speaker 1: It's over with.
Speaker 2: When you say, like, Bunny, when you're up six round
Speaker 2: of six runs, like, what are some of the like
Speaker 2: unspoken rules of baseball? As you just don't do that?
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe you guys do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what's interesting. You know, Like you said, why
Speaker 3: is there a line that they're unwritten? So there is
Speaker 3: no actual book, So it's it's kind.
Speaker 2: Of a gentleman's game.
Speaker 1: Part.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's kind of all up to perception. And you know,
Speaker 3: I don't think you know, you want to be sending
Speaker 3: guys from second base on a borderline call to score
Speaker 3: if you're already up ten twelve runs. I think it's
Speaker 3: just you know, not putting to the pedal of the
Speaker 3: metal too much if it's.
Speaker 1: You know, a big league blower team.
Speaker 3: But you know, otherwise, you know, it's like Batista hits
Speaker 3: that homer against the Rangers and throws his bats. If
Speaker 3: you don't want him to throw his bat, then don't
Speaker 3: give up a home run, you know, if you had
Speaker 3: to ball that far in that situation. To me, you
Speaker 3: can do whatever you want. And if you're the opponent
Speaker 3: you don't like it, then do something about it.
Speaker 2: Well, they do do something about it the next time
Speaker 2: he's up at bat. Next time you guys play music,
Speaker 2: catches a little chin music one in the ribs real quick.
Speaker 2: When is the time do you in baseball? Is it
Speaker 2: like that in college baseball? Do you guys kind of
Speaker 2: give them the hey, this dude's been talking.
Speaker 3: No, No, it really doesn't go on at our level.
Speaker 3: I mean I saw one of our juco commits. I
Speaker 3: went down and watched him and he actually hit a
Speaker 3: kid in the helmet and the first base coach yelled,
Speaker 3: what the I think.
Speaker 1: I can say, Yeah, what the fuck are you doing?
Speaker 3: And he basically stormed onto the field, and you know,
Speaker 3: the kid just had one get away. I mean, these guys,
Speaker 3: that's just not a part of our game as much now.
Speaker 3: I think in the big leagues maybe a little bit.
Speaker 3: You saw Lindor get hit in the head, but I
Speaker 3: really don't feel like there was intent there. There's too
Speaker 3: much money involved. Plus nowadays, instead of like George brutt
Speaker 3: Brett playing for the for the Royals his whole career,
Speaker 3: you might get traded the next day and be on
Speaker 3: that guy's team that you just threw at. So, you know,
Speaker 3: it's wild, like the trades are crazier like in football.
Speaker 3: I don't know when the trades are, but when football
Speaker 3: week eight, by week eight, you can't trade anybody anymore.
Speaker 2: How's it working baseball?
Speaker 3: No, it's deeper into the year in baseball. And two,
Speaker 3: when you come up through the minor leagues, you might
Speaker 3: have played with all these guys because there's a bunch
Speaker 3: of trades that may go on throughout a guy's career,
Speaker 3: just trying to make it up, you know, through the
Speaker 3: ranks and then to now all these guys like Bryce Harper.
Speaker 3: First time I ever saw him was at the Area
Speaker 3: Code games. It's where all the best players go. Well,
Speaker 3: they all become buddies, and especially on social media now too,
Speaker 3: so as intense and competitive is as much money as
Speaker 3: there is out there. I think at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, all these guys are kind of buddies. I mean,
Speaker 3: Drew Gilbert again, maybe the most hated or the villain
Speaker 3: leader of our team. He yeah, trust me, you would.
Speaker 3: But he played on Team USA. So there's the best
Speaker 3: player from Florida and the best player from Georgia, and
Speaker 3: they all get to know him and they all like him.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: The my concho bit was that something that was premeditated?
Speaker 1: Is did you just watch Talladega Knights recently? No? Or
Speaker 1: was that just off the top end you're having fun?
Speaker 3: No, I need to watch Talladega Knights but soon. But
Speaker 3: oh you haven't seen twdy I've seen actually, just I
Speaker 3: feel it's proper to visualize or see that every month
Speaker 3: or so, you know, yeah, yeah, but those in game interviews,
Speaker 3: like I can't believe like a guy like Saban, like
Speaker 3: the halftime interview or right before kickoff. But I know
Speaker 3: they have to do it. But it's cool when you're
Speaker 3: watching on TV. But when you have to do it
Speaker 3: in the dugout and like your guys are hitting or
Speaker 3: pitching it, it's pretty it's distracting. And so I had
Speaker 3: a lot of emotions boiling in my body and that
Speaker 3: was just kind of what came out. I say a
Speaker 3: lot of dumb things sometimes because you got the Italian
Speaker 3: temper going.
Speaker 1: You got that. You got that just I'm Italian. You
Speaker 1: know I got anger issues.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's it's a good it's a good alibi.
Speaker 3: But no, nothing premeditated.
Speaker 1: Just question.
Speaker 3: And Chris Burke, who was a legendary player here, works
Speaker 3: for ESPN. He was the one conducting the interview, and
Speaker 3: I just have a level of comfort with him. So
Speaker 3: it's kind of like us sitting here average talking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I got it. That's my first f wort.
Speaker 2: I think with me, that kind of feels good.
Speaker 1: Let's go.
Speaker 2: You just start letting him fly now, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying Network exactly. Yeah, and you know all the
Speaker 2: stereotypical things doing.
Speaker 1: He's just you're spent thinking he can't help, but he's
Speaker 1: just telling you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well we'll pioneered in there.
Speaker 1: Anytime you have an interview, we'll pioneer that. For nobody
Speaker 1: get mad at him. We'll just redo your interview.
Speaker 2: And what were you should?
Speaker 3: I appreciate that if you do a little history, you
Speaker 3: probably need to pass some things up between uh, a
Speaker 3: fast food restaurant and myself.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, what is that you dive into that?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, it was after a game in my
Speaker 3: stomach was in knots, kind of like you you know,
Speaker 3: would be if you ate it up, you can pick
Speaker 3: whichever one you want. I you know, and I said
Speaker 3: that out loud, And they happen to be one of
Speaker 3: our sponsors.
Speaker 1: So that's so you don't want to say the name
Speaker 1: because there's still a sponsor.
Speaker 2: No, I've already written enough apology rhyme with uh, No,
Speaker 2: I don't want to say raising Canes, not not at all.
Speaker 3: Our guys love Kenes right right up the road. So
Speaker 3: are we able to say we can leave it at
Speaker 3: that from now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is a smart move.
Speaker 1: Hey, he already apologized, so we already backped He's gotta
Speaker 1: he's gotta stay true.
Speaker 3: I gotta find a way to get to make up
Speaker 3: with last night's on fire. So that's on my to
Speaker 3: do list. We're gonna I don't.
Speaker 2: Know, you see him pretty frequently the same ones.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah you do, and got tough, No it is,
Speaker 3: and and you'd like to think, like, hey, man, when
Speaker 3: you're in your you know, garb you're wearing or whatever,
Speaker 3: and I'm in uniform, were these characters and then outside
Speaker 3: like I don't really care. I don't know how you
Speaker 3: guys were as teammates, but you know, sometimes it's hard
Speaker 3: to differentiate. You know, maybe you don't respect a teammate
Speaker 3: as much, but off the field, you you know, he's
Speaker 3: a civilian or he's just a dude.
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, I love the im he's a civilian. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I tell you what. He's got the Italian and he
Speaker 1: reminds me like Coach Bo. He kind of blacks out
Speaker 1: as he's out there coaching. I don't know if you're
Speaker 1: familiar with Coach Bo Polini, very very you guys probably
Speaker 1: running the same, you know, mob ties and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I didn't know where I was going with that. That's
Speaker 1: a beautiful comment.
Speaker 2: I do want to know a little bit something about
Speaker 2: you were bringing up Bonterio, Missouri. Where will when we
Speaker 2: went to school? Yeah, before this I want to hear
Speaker 2: ask me.
Speaker 1: He goes you went to North County and I'm like,
Speaker 1: hell the fuck do you know about North County? And
Speaker 1: then you're like stop saved.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm from I'm from Saint Louis US And so
Speaker 3: the big thing there, right or wrong, is where'd you
Speaker 3: go to high school? That's the first question everybody asked
Speaker 3: someone in high school. So I know where you guys went.
Speaker 3: And because of recruiting rules, I can't speak too much
Speaker 3: about your high school.
Speaker 2: But oh, we got some studs out.
Speaker 3: There, very good relationship there with their best player.
Speaker 1: Why. Okay, you can't speak too much about his school
Speaker 1: because of what kind of rules.
Speaker 2: If a kid commits but he's not signed, you can't
Speaker 2: say anything.
Speaker 1: But I can say, so, there's a kid who's committed
Speaker 1: at the said school, But we can't say the school.
Speaker 2: Can I say the school?
Speaker 1: You can't say school.
Speaker 2: We can't say school. Chpperil High School.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, that's we just can't say, Hey, is he
Speaker 1: from shepperd.
Speaker 2: Studs out there, well, he can't say he can't.
Speaker 1: And we can't even ask that. We just say, we're
Speaker 1: just saying school we can't talk about. But you went
Speaker 1: to Chapperale got you got you outstanding school.
Speaker 2: A lot of good players out of that, A lot
Speaker 2: of good players in that area. Arizona baseball solid. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a nice deal. Out so Ian I coached at
Speaker 2: University of Missouri.
Speaker 3: Ian Kinsler was on the first team that I coached
Speaker 3: and what years in Missouri? Yeah, ninety is a player
Speaker 3: and then I was there until eleven as a coach.
Speaker 1: Were you there with?
Speaker 3: Uh, that's why we're gonna bring up bro So as
Speaker 3: a coach hype recruiting story. He doesn't know you said
Speaker 3: his name. I wasn't gonna say this. I was gonna
Speaker 3: go fast forward.
Speaker 1: We can bleeve. We can bleep that out too. The
Speaker 1: reason we bleep it out here's why. So his dad
Speaker 1: I'm very familiar. I'm very familiar with that family. His
Speaker 1: dad was my football coach growing up. He would was
Speaker 1: a stud player in high school. I'm sure, like obviously
Speaker 1: he went and pitched at MISSOO, But basically I was
Speaker 1: like in fourth, fifth, sixth grade, just terrorizing the fields
Speaker 1: of Bonte Missouri. I mean I was a savage and
Speaker 1: uh and uh every Friday or if it was a
Speaker 1: Saturday day game, Uh, his dad would take me. He
Speaker 1: would drive a couple of US players to go watch
Speaker 1: them play North County play because North County was a
Speaker 1: good football team too. But it was like that dude
Speaker 1: in high school or believe or is that that dude
Speaker 1: in high school? Now what you said?
Speaker 2: He was that dude in high school? Like as a
Speaker 2: player or was he like slamt what we talking about here?
Speaker 1: As an athlete. He's a good football player, good baseball player, small,
Speaker 1: smaller to could sling it like you wouldn't think he
Speaker 1: could sling it. I have a fastball and stuff because
Speaker 1: he's not tall and linking and all that. But he
Speaker 1: was just a stud, stud person that he had like
Speaker 1: a he had a story that we can Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean you asked coach Hype about a recruiting story.
Speaker 3: I was fortunate enough to be listening in, and I
Speaker 3: immediately thought, because you were the one asking the question,
Speaker 3: well I got a recruiting story for you.
Speaker 2: Because I'm really young.
Speaker 3: I I begged the coach to let me be the
Speaker 3: volunteer coach, you know, just unpaid coach, and after a
Speaker 3: year a recruiting coordinator leaves and I eventually get the
Speaker 3: job at a really young age, don't know what I'm doing,
Speaker 3: and I take the baton from him. From this kid
Speaker 3: we're recruiting, He's like, the first thing you need to
Speaker 3: do is kind of finish the task getting this guy committed.
Speaker 3: So I don't want to say he's the first player
Speaker 3: I recruited because I don't want that label.
Speaker 2: But he went to that high school North County. You're
Speaker 2: the one saying his name, so he was a part
Speaker 2: of You're the one saying his name was He was a.
Speaker 3: Part of the first recruiting class we ever had, along
Speaker 3: with Max Scherzer and some other study Max actually threw
Speaker 3: a combined no hitter against Texas Tech.
Speaker 2: The only problem is later in the year stabbed a guy.
Speaker 2: Oh Ship, Hey, that was a twist I didn't see.
Speaker 1: And like, no, ship stabbed again.
Speaker 3: Well it was like a good slider and like, hey,
Speaker 3: I stabbed with a knife.
Speaker 2: He used to.
Speaker 1: And he stabbed it trying to take a life like
Speaker 1: a house party right.
Speaker 3: Yes, out in the lawn. Fortunately I wasn't there. I
Speaker 3: was still and that was that was a that was
Speaker 3: for us.
Speaker 1: That was a monster deal because again I'm close with
Speaker 1: that family. Like this player that we're talking about, I
Speaker 1: like his dad would say, hey, uh, he would say
Speaker 1: hang with Wilford day, take me along with him. I'm
Speaker 1: a younger cat looking up to this dude. So when
Speaker 1: this all happened, I'm thinking, holy shit.
Speaker 2: And he stabbed the guy, You're like, maybe I gotta
Speaker 2: stab it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like if I'm around if I Yeah, I'm saying
Speaker 1: if I'm around him in high school, I'm like, as
Speaker 1: a young kid, I'm wanting to think, oh, he's like
Speaker 1: an older brother type guy to where I can fit
Speaker 1: in and hang around everybody else.
Speaker 2: Okay, So he was at a house party and he
Speaker 2: stabbed somebody. Yeah the person the person. The person did
Speaker 2: not die, No, they did not. And the altercation was
Speaker 2: over a girl.
Speaker 1: I think, so gotta assume I can't. Like it's kind
Speaker 1: of getting away from me, and there's beverages.
Speaker 3: It was one of those deals where this is the
Speaker 3: main house party, but there's kind of some offset ones,
Speaker 3: you know, where you cross the street, and so there
Speaker 3: was some sort of back and forth between a house.
Speaker 3: But I'll tell you what, that's a tragic deal. Fortunately
Speaker 3: the person didn't die. We're at University of Texas and
Speaker 3: we get a big third out and our guys are
Speaker 3: hooting and hollering out of the dugout and it kind
Speaker 3: of gets quiet for a second, and some old fan
Speaker 3: for Texas goes, which one of you boys now and
Speaker 3: there stabbed that poor kid. And he's sitting on the
Speaker 3: bench or he's there in the dug point.
Speaker 2: He had been excuse me, it is later in the year,
Speaker 2: and just like he was excused, he was pulled out
Speaker 2: of his ass, was pulled out of there. That poor
Speaker 2: that poor boy. And uh it. It was comedy in
Speaker 2: a in a weird way. So yeah, uh yeah, like
Speaker 2: the Joker comedy for sure.
Speaker 1: That's wild.
Speaker 2: Hey, that's fucking crazy. But so did he get convicted.
Speaker 2: Is he in jail now?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: No, no, no, he's walking among us. Charges were dropped.
Speaker 2: So he really didn't stab somebody, no, allegedly just for
Speaker 2: the story, just like OJJ never stabbed anybody. Yeah, he's
Speaker 2: having a good old time right now. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you he's a stud I'm talking engineers,
Speaker 1: very smart. I mean, he recruited him.
Speaker 2: He got away with almost murder. Yeah, he's very small boy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure he did. Allegedly he didn't murder anybody.
Speaker 2: What a fucking story man?
Speaker 1: Did recruit Aaron Blunt? Yeah, he was a stud just
Speaker 1: he was. He was. He was one of those cats.
Speaker 1: He was a lefty lank. He was a stud, but
Speaker 1: just didn't want those dudes, just like he had a
Speaker 1: huge opportunity and that he was like a he was
Speaker 1: like a too cool of a guy, like went too hard,
Speaker 1: partied way too hard, way too much. It didn't really
Speaker 1: pan out that information ahead of time. I would have
Speaker 1: if you would have recruited me to play baseball at Missoon. Apologies, No,
Speaker 1: I mean I played baseball growing up. I wasn't at
Speaker 1: this level that there. I mean I wasn't a d
Speaker 1: one baseball player. Worked out pretty well for you, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we chose the right sport.
Speaker 2: We played at the.
Speaker 3: Old Nebraska Baseball Stadium the last year was there. It
Speaker 3: was a piece of crap and it was next right
Speaker 3: next to the football stadium.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And we pulled.
Speaker 3: Into the parking lot and we were able to sneak in.
Speaker 3: We were waiting for the coaches to meet coach Da
Speaker 3: Van Horns, a legend. He was there at the time.
Speaker 3: I worked for him at Arkansas and we're waiting on
Speaker 3: the coaches to decide if we're going to play or
Speaker 3: not in the rain, and we snuck into the football
Speaker 3: stadium and played. We had an empty soda bottle and
Speaker 3: we played like a kind of I mean, we wanted
Speaker 3: to play in that place. The history was insane.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, especially for guys at our age levels.
Speaker 1: Dude, what a small world, What a small world talking
Speaker 1: just I'm just but yeah, Bonti Missouri the place. I mean,
Speaker 1: I wish Aaron would have been a He was a
Speaker 1: stud now now I'm just yeah, he was awesome. I
Speaker 1: just feel like, in my opinion, he probably party too hard.
Speaker 1: You might know more once he got to college, but
Speaker 1: he was just a study. He was like an All
Speaker 1: American in high school. He could sling it, bro, he
Speaker 1: could hit, he could do all this stuff lefty, so
Speaker 1: you know, he had movement on the ball. You know,
Speaker 1: you know all the language. I don't know all the language,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean it's some.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's interesting.
Speaker 3: A lot of guys, you know, maybe follow the Tom
Speaker 3: Brady method and never eat a carb or any of
Speaker 3: that thing.
Speaker 2: But I gotta believe Tom Brady moment. Yeah, when Tom
Speaker 2: Brady comes on, we have.
Speaker 1: To take a Yeah, we take it. We take a
Speaker 1: moment of silence.
Speaker 3: Well, you gotta be able to manage that deal. I mean,
Speaker 3: you gotta be able to have fun, but you also
Speaker 3: got to be able to handle business. Yeah, it's been
Speaker 3: interesting coaching some guys that maybe can't do both and
Speaker 3: other guys, you know, are good at keeping everything organized.
Speaker 2: Handling it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, can you usually tell when you're in a recruiting
Speaker 2: process and you hear things about kids like, oh, hey,
Speaker 2: this kid likes to get after it a little bit.
Speaker 2: Does that worry you or you kind of like, I
Speaker 2: just gotta sure I keep an eye on this kid
Speaker 2: once he gets here. Yeah, no, I don't mind using
Speaker 2: the kid's name.
Speaker 3: Nick Schmidt was a kid in high school from Saint
Speaker 3: Louis and every time I called him, he was at
Speaker 3: a part like maybe it was just a basement with
Speaker 3: twelve but there was always girls and guys in the background,
Speaker 3: and he was kind of that personality. It was my
Speaker 3: first year coach when I was young, and he walked
Speaker 3: by me at the field and I'm supposed to be
Speaker 3: the coach coach fight Tello and he's the recruit and
Speaker 3: he smacked me on the ass.
Speaker 2: It's like, what's up, coach, b oh yeah, so hey,
Speaker 2: imagine having that kind of confidence with the coach I know, dude.
Speaker 2: So we passed on Nick Schmidt because of that, or
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 3: He was the first but well just the whole party
Speaker 3: of what he was a first rounder, but I was
Speaker 3: I was accurate in my read. He went to Arkansas
Speaker 3: and a guy named Dave Jornan was a pitching coach
Speaker 3: and he had to kind of heart to heart with
Speaker 3: him and basically kind of saved the kid's soul a
Speaker 3: little like.
Speaker 2: I don't think he became you know where.
Speaker 3: He never had another beer or anything, but really kind
Speaker 3: of got more. So I was kind of accurate in
Speaker 3: my read, and he went to the right place a
Speaker 3: lot of times. With the recruiting, it's about ending up
Speaker 3: with the spot that was meant for you to be at,
Speaker 3: not necessarily the best place in the world.
Speaker 1: Whatever helps you sleep for missing on that first round
Speaker 1: the first round.
Speaker 2: He ain't the only one, So yeah, no doubt, that's
Speaker 2: a wild deal. As far as atmosphere goes, I've been
Speaker 2: I've only been a one college baseball game that was
Speaker 2: an LSU phenomenal time. I think I'm a big LSU
Speaker 2: fan because of that. What's the atmosphere like here if
Speaker 2: stands packed.
Speaker 3: But then after it's bananas. I mean, it's a hornet's
Speaker 3: nest over there. I think a lot of it has
Speaker 3: to do with our field. You see where we're at.
Speaker 3: We're kind of landlocked, so everything's real close and quaint
Speaker 3: if you want to call it that. And then our
Speaker 3: fan base, you can stereotype. LSU's fan base is gonna
Speaker 3: tailgate and they're gonna do this and that, and they're
Speaker 3: gonna have crawfish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Occajuns do it a little different. They have the
Speaker 2: open container law. They're allowed to do whatever they want. Yeah,
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 3: And I think each team in our league has phenomenal fans,
Speaker 3: but they're all again, you could kind of describe them
Speaker 3: in four or five words and be fairly accurate. And
Speaker 3: our fans are just rambunctious, maybe more than anybody in
Speaker 3: the league. I mean, you guys were talking about the
Speaker 3: game against Mississippi.
Speaker 1: Did you love that? You're not you're not a football coach.
Speaker 1: You can kind of he Yes, he's got to tew
Speaker 1: the line a little bit more. Are you watching your life?
Speaker 2: You're free to say whatever you want. Okay, Okay, I'm.
Speaker 3: Gonna go ahead, let it rip the most deadly words
Speaker 3: and yes.
Speaker 2: Hey, we won't tell.
Speaker 3: You'll just be canceled in the morning. Yeah, okay, couple.
Speaker 3: Here's what I was thinking when you guys talked about
Speaker 3: it with coach I is I don't think anyone in
Speaker 3: the world wants objects thrown at another individual because you
Speaker 3: never know what crazy thing could happen. But you could
Speaker 3: see where the fans frustration came from if you were watching.
Speaker 3: So they acted, you know, a little bit out of line,
Speaker 3: or they acted out of line bottom line. Here's what
Speaker 3: I'll say about ball fans if the if the referees
Speaker 3: at any point, And again I don't coach football.
Speaker 2: I don't know who those guys were, so you can't.
Speaker 1: Sue me or that's right, this is clean in the sponsor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all I had to say was the next thing
Speaker 3: that's thrown on this field were penalized in Tennessee fifteen
Speaker 3: yards and no one would have moved an inch.
Speaker 2: That's how our fans are. Yeah, but what about Mississippi
Speaker 2: fans that might be there'd be like, oh, easy, that's.
Speaker 1: That is that's a good point, that's true.
Speaker 3: But I think they're gonna get a haymaker thrown to
Speaker 3: the jaw off if they throw something and they next volunteer.
Speaker 1: Fans really like that, Hey, that's that Italian.
Speaker 2: Baseball bat to the knees, horse head in their bed
Speaker 2: type mentality. You know what I'm saying. That was my
Speaker 2: take on it.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's always a counter argument, but that would
Speaker 3: have been my perfect solution to call me down our
Speaker 3: fans because they're rowdy, but they don't they they don't
Speaker 3: want to hurt our team.
Speaker 2: I can tell you that. Yeah, Volunteer fans roll deep.
Speaker 2: They were Uh. We were part of the same with
Speaker 2: Barstool with it's like if your seed makes it into
Speaker 2: the sweet sixteen and basketball that we we you get
Speaker 2: a certain amount of money. And I we were playing
Speaker 2: Michigan was playing Tennessee, and Michigan beat Tennessee to go
Speaker 2: in to the Sweet sixteen, and I tweeted something like
Speaker 2: the haters are sick right now with Juwan Howard slapping
Speaker 2: the tee I caught I caught fucking hands via Twitter.
Speaker 2: I was catching hands left and right now. I was
Speaker 2: biting the hand that fed me because allbviously a lot
Speaker 2: of volunteer fans are Tennessee Titan fans, but they go
Speaker 2: hard in the paint where I almost had an issue,
Speaker 2: like an apology, like, hey, listen, i've you guys rolled
Speaker 2: deep like that.
Speaker 1: It's impressive, a formal apology, formal like he's the sponsor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think better than the apology is just wearing
Speaker 3: that hat. That's a class is nice big time. I
Speaker 3: was at what was it, Pete's. We're at Pete.
Speaker 2: Yeah, also great food at Pete's and this kid he
Speaker 2: asked for a photo and I was like, I love
Speaker 2: your hat. He's like thanks, and I said, I'll give
Speaker 2: you a hundred bucks for that hat and he said yup,
Speaker 2: and it was it really was made like that. He
Speaker 2: took it off his head. I readjusted the hat because
Speaker 2: the boy's got a bit of a dome, smacked that
Speaker 2: thing on top and it was. It's been smooth sailing
Speaker 2: with this hat ever since. Other than hijahan. A couple
Speaker 2: of your questions as far as like when stadiums go,
Speaker 2: what's in the sec take the volunteers out of it?
Speaker 2: What's the most hype place to play.
Speaker 3: Well, Arkansas was where I worked before I came here,
Speaker 3: and their fans are like Cardinal fans.
Speaker 2: Uh, just they know the game well, they're Saint Louis
Speaker 2: is really getting lots of shoutouts right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's a massive, massive stadium. But really, I
Speaker 3: mean there's other there's other towns that could throw out arguments.
Speaker 3: Starkville probably has the second or the first, you know,
Speaker 3: nicest stadium, and then Oxford where we just played. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's not normal to go in there and win and
Speaker 3: Lane Kiffin comes and throws out the golf.
Speaker 1: Ball and they're they're going crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think he took some heat for that,
Speaker 3: but I think it was all in good fun, right
Speaker 3: via social media, because he's not scared, and which I will.
Speaker 1: You gotta respect. I respect that.
Speaker 3: It's one of the reasons he's a good coach. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, he's on the edge at all times, and
Speaker 3: I guess you're not. You're taking up too much space?
Speaker 1: Should we do the Duke Cannon question of the day?
Speaker 1: Home run coat?
Speaker 2: What is okay?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 2: What is the home run coat?
Speaker 1: Fan? Question from Jack McPherson Shout outs, Jack, No free
Speaker 1: shout outs, Coach Eckler, what's the question, Jack, it's it's
Speaker 1: coming from Jack. It's coming from Jack. Coach. Home run cove. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a coat coat?
Speaker 3: Well, last year if the guys, you know, it all
Speaker 3: started with the Rangers. I think with Josh Hamplton's on
Speaker 3: our team. If they hit a double, they would kind
Speaker 3: of do a sign. And now, all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: I don't think it was a gang sign.
Speaker 2: It was more of just a gesture.
Speaker 3: And uh ever since then, if you hit a double,
Speaker 3: you got to do something, and then it turned into
Speaker 3: Batista's you know, batflip, and now everyone's got to do something.
Speaker 1: They had a home run.
Speaker 3: It seems like so our guys came up with a
Speaker 3: hat they would wear, which became really popular. The fans
Speaker 3: wanted to see it stay. This team wanted to be
Speaker 3: kind of their own team, have their own identity, so
Speaker 3: they carried over the hat theme but added on to
Speaker 3: it by having this fur or mink. I've never even
Speaker 3: touched it. It's got to be nasty by now, but
Speaker 3: it's a it's a it's a coat. There could be
Speaker 3: a woman's or a man's coat. You know that you
Speaker 3: would wear in a seventies gangster party. Yeah, and they
Speaker 3: throw it on the guy who hit the home run
Speaker 3: when he does so, he kind of looks, you know,
Speaker 3: pimped out or whatever you say, and they love it.
Speaker 3: I think the fans like it. You see little kids
Speaker 3: wearing these, you know, mocked up coats now, so that
Speaker 3: is awesome. Yeah, it's something that's unique to their team,
Speaker 3: and the fans have caught on. And again if opponents
Speaker 3: got things they do when they celebrate nowadays, if you're
Speaker 3: wasting energy on that, you're you're wasting energy.
Speaker 1: What's the what's the hat? Say?
Speaker 2: Daddy hat?
Speaker 1: Daddy get dad?
Speaker 2: I got a daddy hat? Yeah, there you go, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: bought this of a guy for one hundred dollars to Actually,
Speaker 2: you're gonna be soon. They print more every day to coach.
Speaker 2: They print more every single day. That's true. We're out
Speaker 2: here hunting.
Speaker 3: I'd like to know where what that kid's gonna do
Speaker 3: with this hundred boney gave him this morning?
Speaker 1: What kind of thing, Jack, it'll be tonight? No question?
Speaker 2: Hold up.
Speaker 1: He literally he was so stoked to meet and he's like, hey, dude,
Speaker 1: I love the heck kind I bought off you and
Speaker 1: he was like sure, he's I'll give you a hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: He's like okay. Yeah. That was it. There was no
Speaker 1: action made, zero bargain.
Speaker 2: I really feel like I could have got away with fifty.
Speaker 2: But you asked for change and he got it, and
Speaker 2: it's like it became.
Speaker 1: Ask for change.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah it's fifty. I got hundreds on me.
Speaker 1: Yeah you know what I mean? Yeah, I could have Yeah.
Speaker 1: Last question of today brought to us by I.
Speaker 2: Actually have a question too, but go ahead. Last segment
Speaker 2: of the day.
Speaker 1: Last segment of the day brought to us by Duke Cannon.
Speaker 1: Not for clowns. We have an insane and il deal
Speaker 1: for You're bust with the boys of sponsoring you with
Speaker 1: Duke Cannon deodorant. You're looking at it right now, the
Speaker 1: dry ice, and I'm not shoitting you. You put that
Speaker 1: on your pits. It's like cool little breeze missed throughout
Speaker 1: the entire day.
Speaker 2: If you're wondering how the smells, it smells, how you
Speaker 2: look fast?
Speaker 1: Yes, there you go. You like going off of your
Speaker 1: recruiting stories. Obviously it's hard to it's hard to top
Speaker 1: the stabbing one, But what else you're telling us about
Speaker 1: a kid getting mugged when you're on a recruiting trip.
Speaker 1: Do you have something in the bank that you like
Speaker 1: to tell outside of what we've already discussed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a That was a coach one where
Speaker 3: we sent him to get a gatorad and he never
Speaker 3: came back.
Speaker 2: Poor fella.
Speaker 1: Where were you preface? Where were we at?
Speaker 2: We were at the same place coach I Will said
Speaker 2: he was at.
Speaker 1: I think coach I've said University of Houston. We won't
Speaker 1: ask at the University.
Speaker 2: Got buddy area of Houston. I got buddies that work there.
Speaker 3: Actually, that gas station is no longer there in the
Speaker 3: area has been renovated.
Speaker 1: It's gentrified.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is this is a while back. But no, No,
Speaker 3: recruiting in general is wild. I wish I had one
Speaker 3: that that really really stuck out. I know, you know,
Speaker 3: for me, it's always interesting when you get the kids
Speaker 3: on campus and they're walking around and then you know
Speaker 3: that they go off with the guys, and then the
Speaker 3: next morning you see who maybe hung out with the
Speaker 3: guys a little too late at night. And uh, I've
Speaker 3: been a part of some morning meetings where guys can't
Speaker 3: stay awake. But nothing nothing sticks out too crazy or
Speaker 3: where I'd want to throw anyone under the bus. Although
Speaker 3: mister Surezer, I was not a full time coach when
Speaker 3: I took him around on his official visit.
Speaker 1: So you were having a little it was half fun,
Speaker 1: half coach. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And so you guys went the Petez Diner. We went
Speaker 3: to the diner in Columbia, Missouri, which is just the diner. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and that is a lot to be And that's the
Speaker 3: place that sealed the deal for arguably the best picture
Speaker 3: in the world.
Speaker 1: Seal the deal because of the night you guys had.
Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, we did. We did have a good one
Speaker 2: a little bit. Yeah, strippers and cocaine type of vibe
Speaker 2: or no is that was I was that inappropriate? I
Speaker 2: don't know, not know it would have been, but I
Speaker 2: hate strippers.
Speaker 1: It would have been.
Speaker 2: And they made me so uncomfortable anything I've ever been
Speaker 2: in a strip club. It's like do you want to dance?
Speaker 2: And it's like not really.
Speaker 1: For a dollar, It's like, oh, you're so cute.
Speaker 2: It's like okay, maybe, but like leave me alone. It's
Speaker 2: just I feel like I feel like it's when a
Speaker 2: man comes on too strong, to a woman at a bar.
Speaker 2: It's the same thing. It's like, please let me breathe,
Speaker 2: you know, let me work for it, A little bit
Speaker 2: type of deal anyway, strippers, Am I right?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 2: My question for a uh college World Series? What would
Speaker 2: you do to bring that to the Tennessee volunteers? What
Speaker 2: lengths would you go to?
Speaker 3: I don't know if I do what coach Vrabel did,
Speaker 3: although I'm I really liked watching him as a player.
Speaker 2: He's all too intense.
Speaker 3: So I don't want to cut off any appendages that
Speaker 3: i'd like to maybe use.
Speaker 2: Italian he's got dark hair is kind of a I mean,
Speaker 2: he would know he's got the dark hair of the
Speaker 2: tan skin, the big Yeah, he's got that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: He does that, and I feel like that's an Italian
Speaker 2: thing to do.
Speaker 1: But it's also a very Ohio thing to do too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very smug he he And I feel like he
Speaker 2: used your appendage much more than Vrabel, do you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. He just absolutely putting this guy in
Speaker 2: a box. He's a playboy. He's just getting after it.
Speaker 2: He Uh. Yeah, he's got a son that's a really
Speaker 2: good baseball player. Yeah, Carter, Yeah, Yeah, you think he
Speaker 2: should come here and play. I don't know.
Speaker 3: You know, sometimes it's about body count in recruiting. We
Speaker 3: we do things so in advance, like Champarrelle, that's way,
Speaker 3: that's young. But he said to school, I would not
Speaker 3: go Verbel, I'd go Ronnie Lot. I would I would
Speaker 3: let a finger be taken off yea to.
Speaker 1: Go to the mall and his certain finger, like would
Speaker 1: you go middle? Would you any of them for pinky?
Speaker 3: I don't want to lose the middle because would you
Speaker 3: go the pinky cuts off too much?
Speaker 2: It makes your hand look a way small. I'd probably
Speaker 2: go ring finger that you keep the whole with.
Speaker 1: Yet them in that pink. You could really just do
Speaker 1: it out really Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I kind of like this little guy.
Speaker 3: If you're aviad just wearing the ring can put your
Speaker 3: toes on your thumbs and yeah.
Speaker 1: Would you take your thumb off?
Speaker 2: I don't think I go. That takes you down the
Speaker 2: evolutionary chart.
Speaker 1: You can't do that. No, no offensive thumb.
Speaker 2: With Yeah people, it's a it's a big thing. It's
Speaker 2: a big crazy I don't want to get cancel. Would
Speaker 2: you donate your entire salary to busting with the boys,
Speaker 2: If you guys won a world serious pothetically speaking, just
Speaker 2: to win the World Series for the volunteer for a
Speaker 2: national championship, I.
Speaker 1: Would do that all right. Then what do you make
Speaker 1: before Texas?
Speaker 2: You guys got to set up another one of these
Speaker 2: with the A D. I don't even know care. You
Speaker 2: don't know what you make.
Speaker 1: Oh he knows, he knows exactly. We all know. We
Speaker 1: all know what you make. We don't know what you make.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it though. You have been outstanding and
Speaker 2: I really appreciate you being a good sport.
Speaker 3: Well, you guys make it easy my morning coffee after
Speaker 3: a loss last night.
Speaker 2: So hopefully we got good karma going into the weekend. Awesome,
Speaker 2: bigger bath foot we need, bigger bat flips, We need
Speaker 2: more fans talking ship. Yes, bring Bay fall back to
Speaker 2: what it.
Speaker 1: Needs to do. And all the little kids and need
Speaker 1: to be buying the oversized coach the home run. Got it.
Speaker 2: We got to make a bust in baseball shirt for
Speaker 2: the boys. Uh balls, we gotta do something. We gotta do.
Speaker 1: We do something for football. We got appreciate it. I
Speaker 1: am too. I'm gonna start watching.
Speaker 2: The cannon come in my way, so we'll get you
Speaker 2: guys set up all right, cool man, that is a
Speaker 2: fair trade off.
Speaker 1: That sounds right. You should give us something. Coach shakes
Speaker 1: a lot.
Speaker 2: Thank you, appreciate you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Electrics