Baseball's Inside Journey #1

This is a podcast called Baseball's Inside Journey, hosted by Coach Drew and Eric Powers. The podcast aims to provide information and resources to amateur baseball players and their families. Coach Drew has a passion for coaching and helping young players improve their skills. The podcast covers various topics related to baseball, including offseason training, in-season training, and preparing for the next season. They also discuss the challenges parents face, such as worrying about their child's performance and advocating for their child with coaches. The hosts emphasize the importance of parents supporting their child's development and not being overly involved during games. The podcast also features guests, such as former Major League player Alvin Davis, who share their experiences and insights. Overall, the podcast aims to be a helpful resource for baseball players and their families. Welcome to Baseball's Inside Journey, the podcast that helps players and parents grow their baseball knowledge. This is a show that specializes in youth baseball. And now here's Coach Drew and Eric Powers. Hey, what's up? Welcome to Baseball's Inside Journey, a brand new podcast and a lot of the credit for this podcast, I'd say pretty much all of it, has to go to Coach Drew, everybody. Come on! All right. Well, thank you, Eric. Thank you. The cool thing about this podcast, it just kind of came together organically. It was like an idea you had and that's where all great ideas come from. They just come from spur-of-the-moment. And this is one that we have taken very seriously and it's been kind of morphing in month after month and idea after idea. But I think it all resonated from a place of trying to help people, right? Absolutely. I mean, I've been coaching for for many many years and for me that's that's what scratches that itch is to to be able to coach and and kind of give back some of the knowledge that I have and help help young people out to become better at baseball. What's cool is you have not only been in baseball for 30 years plus, right? Well, longer than that. Yeah, my whole life. Your whole life. But you've been through so many different parts of baseball from a player to a coach. You've done so much to a little league to an adult men's league. So what keeps you passionate about baseball? Yeah, you know, it's it's such a passion. I've played baseball my whole life, obviously. That's how it starts for everybody, right? You go up through little league, you get into high school, and then what's after high school? Well, if you don't get drafted out of high school, you're gonna try and play in college or independent ball or something like that. I ended up walking on at Bellevue Community College after high school and made the team and and boy, that was just a great experience for me. My passion for baseball has always been there. And so what I found was that I was able to kind of redirect that passion into coaching. What do we want the audience to get out of this podcast when they listen to it week in and week out from your vantage point? Because you've created this podcast to help people. It is to help people. That's really the mission of the podcast is just to provide information and resources to amateur baseball players and their families. Everybody has their own journey, you know, and a lot of times it starts out maybe when a son or daughter is 10 years old and gets voted on the Little League All-Star team and the parents are like, wow, this is great. My son or daughter has a real aptitude for baseball, but I don't know what to do, how to help. What do I do? So they always go to the coach, right? And maybe the coach doesn't really know really the right things to say. And that's where I kind of have a lot of passion is to make sure that people get the right information and not just some guy that's winging it. All right, coming up next, we got to ask Coach Drew the question all parents want to know. We're going to talk more about the podcast, but the question they want to know, I'm going to set it up now, is what keeps parents up at night with their players and their kids, their sons? Because at the end of the day, it feels like, you know, parents stress out, lose sleep, spend a lot of time, effort and money. And, you know, and I'd love to hear from you, like, what is keeping them up at night? We'll do that next. Oh, yeah, we got a lot to talk about. A lot to unpack there on Baseball's Inside Journey. Feet pain, ankle pain, knee pain, hip pain. It all starts with our feet. Hi there, I'm Delilah. If you have pain, talk with the folks at Good Feet. They make arch supports that are designed to support all four arches of the foot, aligning your body from the feet up. Get fitted today at one of the Good Feet locations near you, goodfeet.com. Welcome back to Baseball's Inside Journey with Coach Drew and Eric Powell. All right, we are back. The Baseball's Inside Journey podcast number one. My name is Eric Powers, along with Coach Drew, the man of the hour. Good to be here. I love the way the show's going, because, man, you're just open, you're honest, and we're gonna have some fun. Yeah, this has been a long time coming. As you know, we've been talking about this for a couple of years now. So to finally have the time together where we're able to do this is just really awesome. No doubt, and you're in the beginning of your next season as a select baseball coach. You're gonna get real busy here. 13U this year. 13U merchants. And okay, so we kind of talked about this before the break, but I gotta know, man, I mean, what do you believe and feel keeps parents up at night about their players? And that's a loaded question. It is, but it's... But you're also a parent with a player, with a rock star player. Well, thank you. Yeah, I mean, it's not something that I haven't thought about either, right? I mean, one of the things from a coaching standpoint that is very helpful is that I can make sure... One of the things that is a passion of mine, too, as a coaching, is that I want to make sure that my kid and any kid that is on my team doesn't go, you know, has the right message. But the thing that keeps parents up at night, and it kept me up at night as well, is things like, is my son strong enough? Is he big enough? Can he hang with these guys? You know, and what can I do to help? You know, when your son is 10 years old, and he's playing, maybe he's playing majors in Little League, and he's smaller than everybody, and he can't throw as fast, and can't run as fast, doesn't hit as hard, and it looks like he's definitely not one of the better players. That doesn't mean he's not going to be. So much will change. But that's the thing that I hear about all the time. And even, you know, laying up at night myself, my son, Grayson, used to play up with my son, Wesley. And so he was playing with kids that were two years older than him. And that puts him at a disadvantage, but he could hang, right? And so by being able to hang with those kids, naturally, I'm comparing him to those kids, even though they're two years older. And I think anybody that has kids knows that two years can mean a lot, even between 9 and 11. And so that was something that I've even dealt with, and I've thought about, and and so yeah, I would say that's probably the thing that every parent thinks about is, is, can my kid hang? Is he big enough? Is he going to be able to, how does this play out? Because these kids, I mean, you've seen it. We face teams that have, have, you know, six-foot-two 12-year-olds, right, throwing 75 miles an hour from 50 feet. So there's, you always run into these guys, and you're like, where, you know, where do these guys come from? Well, some people just develop faster than others. And you know, the thing that I want to say about that, though, which is really important, and I don't think a lot of, you know, depending on if people that have played, you know, high school sports or what have you, it all evens out. It really does. It's hard to see that in the beginning. It really is. It is so difficult for those parents. But you feel like, you know, I mean, gosh, we're also super aware of how time is ticking, right? We're like, gosh, before we know it, we're going to be empty nesters, right? And so you think about those types of things. You're like, gosh, every moment that's wasted is a wasted moment, right? And you know, my son needs to be getting better. And sometimes you just have to let nature play itself out. Sometimes your son just needs to go through puberty or needs to start growing. And everybody does that at a different time. And the ones that have the benefit of being maybe going through it sooner, getting bigger and stronger when they're younger, they do have an advantage over everybody else. But there's also can be a detriment to them. What happens a lot of times is that they get complacent. They think that they're better and they're always the best on their team and they get complacent and they don't work at it. Meanwhile, a kid that's undersized, that has a lot of heart, but maybe doesn't outwardly have the type of talent that stands out on the field, works his butt off, keeps going to training, keeps doing all the things he needs to be doing to get better. And then all of a sudden he has puberty. And now all those skills that he he has been developing over the last number of years are now very relevant on the same field that that that that big player is. So it does even out. And I've seen it happen in high school. We all have. Yeah, big time. So question for you kind of around that subject. When is if you as a parent have something you want to tell the coach? And I know you're not supposed to talk to you about your player, to your coach during game day. But if it's vital and you really want to talk to the coach and you have something important to say, you through your entire baseball career, you had to have those strange offsetting moments where the timing is wrong and the parents need to learn. Sure. So what is is it always outside of baseball games if it's vital to them, which may not be vital to you? Right. Ideally, you know, ideally. So, yeah, I mean, you know, we make and most programs do this. Most coaches do this where there's a right time and a wrong time to for a for a kid to talk about things, let alone a parent. Parents, when it's game day and even during practice, need to just let things let things be and talk offline, talk after after the game is fine before the game, probably not before practice or after practice is fine or give me a call. And I think any coach worth their salt would would agree that they should be an open book. And if a parent has a concern or questions that they should be able to feel free to call and or email or whatever it takes to ask those questions. What do you think code of conduct should be for parents? Because time and time again, if the player is driving home, obviously with their dad or mom and let's say a certain coach out there, they're not a fan of what happened that day and the parent ends up trashing the coach. Yeah. And then you and I've had these conversations where it can really change the ecosystem on how the player works with the coach. What is your advice to some of these parents who just get so heated in this and really can almost destroy their child's future with that team? Well, it really does. You know, I mean, so many people talk about culture on a team, right? We talk about having a code of conduct that we expect these kids to play by. Right. We want them to. They're representing their team. They're representing themselves. They're representing the coach, their family, the organization. Right. They're representing all these different things. But you know what? We hone in on the kids on that. But meanwhile, mom and dad are out in the stands making an ass of themselves because they are yelling at umpires, yelling at the other team, yelling at me or whatever coach. And it's, you know, it's destroying youth sports. It really is. And I know anybody that has seen it out there would agree. It's ugly. It's toxic. And I guess what I would say is that the time to do it is, you know, think of step back, look at it at 30,000 foot level and say, what would be the right time to address the coach about my son's playing time? OK, right during the game is not the time to do it before the game is not the time to do it. Having your son come to me or daughter during the game, before the game, that is not the time to do it. There's different times to do it. There's different times to do it. But I think parents need to understand that they are part of the problem or the solution if they are badmouthing the coach, the program getting negative on every single player, every single thing. It's hard for the kid to enjoy playing on a team that he's giving his his heart and soul to while his parents are not supportive because they're not really in it for the team. They're in it only for their son. And I don't expect we shouldn't expect people to be in it for everybody. But but I think parents need to kind of heed that a little bit, too, where they need to be looking at the the team and that experience as part of what they're giving their child. Now, when scouts look at players, you know, in their high school level, this reminded me of a conversation I think you and I had a while ago is, you know, parents can be too involved in game day when the kids should be advocating for themselves with their coach and they shouldn't have be talking to the parent. The parent shouldn't be getting water bottles during the game. You know, they need to mature and grow and they need to be independent and only working with the coaching staff or the head coach. And parents honestly should be out of, you know, really, they should just be fans in the stand. Is this true? Absolutely. Those are red flags for for professional scouts, for college coaches. Those are red flags. Even for high school coaches seeing this at a at, say, a 12 year or 13 year level. That's those are red flags because these programs, professional or college or what have you, are looking for young men. Right. Because if you're if you're soft, you're not going to make it. OK, you're going to be facing guys throwing 95 miles an hour in college. Right. Or even maybe even in high school, guys throw harder now than they used to. But you're going to face 90. Right. You're going to get drilled. You're going to get you know, you're going to face some real adversity. And if you have your mom cutting the crust off your sandwich for you. OK, those types of things are are red flags to coaches. If, you know, daddy's carrying your son's catcher's gear and mom's, you know, handing a Z bar over the dugout fence. You know, those things are not anything that coaches want to see or college coaches want to see. Nobody wants to see it. And and that is something that really this is more that's more for parents. I mean, kids need to know that, too. But I think parents are the ones that enable that type of behavior. So so where what age do you expect kids to advocate for themselves and not have the parents ask the questions? You know, I mean, I think everybody's different on that one. I mean, I know personally I would love it when kids are even 11, 12 years old in Little League. But but I know realistically probably that has to stop at Little League. I would say at 13, you went up. It needs to stop. Yeah, 100 percent. All right. Coach Drew, great show so far coming up in minutes. We got a special guest we're going to have on the show. But before we get to any of that, we have got to shout out Facebook because you created the page for it. And our fans can connect to us on that and ask you anything. Right. Is it a no hold bar? Nothing is off limits. Yeah, I mean, I suppose to some degree. But, you know, there's there's obviously we want to want to. There's always going to be haters out there. Right. I mean, you heck, you've been in this industry for quite a long time. There's always going to be haters. There will be there. And, you know, people and we like to bring the haters. You know what? Yeah, look, you know, we won't filter it. We may not air it, but we may not air it. But we will talk about it all year. But we'll certainly we would love to hear feedback. We'd love to have opinions on what type of shows we should have. What kind of topics we need to. Yes. You know, it's you know, what we're going to try to do is or at least part of our focus is to have seasonal appropriate topics because there are different points in the season where you want to be talking about different things. So, you know, like offseason training, for instance, or in season training, what are the differences? What should you be doing? End of the season type of things like what are you preparing for next year and looking for a new team and things like that? So there's a lot of seasonal specific things that we're going to be really trying to hit on every every episode and also having some great guests as well. Speaking of, we got great guests coming up. But first, quickly, let's just touch on baseball beyond borders. And they're based out of Kent and it's tethered and tied to the MLB. And it's a charity, you know, through a friend of yours on your team. I have a friend, Joe Townsend. I've been playing baseball with and against him for, gosh, I don't know, 20 years probably. And he's so baseball beyond borders is a major league baseball initiative. And it's really it's what it's trying to do is increase access to to baseball, empower youth, transform lives and and really giving kids that maybe haven't had exposure or the means or both an access to baseball and, you know, whatever it is they need to make that happen. And tethered to that a little bit reminds me, I don't know why you're talking about it, just a light bulb popped off my head and made me want to ask you the question, which I think is so important to find out what motivates a coach and what is your high, like what motivates you the most when you're on the field coaching, teaching, strategizing? What what kind of makes when you leave that night and the lights go off and the scoreboard is win or lose? Yeah. What motivates you? What gets you excited? Personal pride. And that personal pride comes from seeing the success for one or more of the players that I've been coaching when we work on a pickoff move and that pitcher executes it perfectly or or maybe a kid is working on hitting the ball the other way and that hasn't been able to do it before. And maybe we have to put a hit and run on it, a certain situation that is crucial in the game at the end of the game. And we need him to step up and do it. And he does it. Those types of things give me goosebumps because ultimately it's not about me. It's not about my ego. It's about the kids. But I will say I do get a lot of pride and take a lot of pride out of knowing I taught that kid how to do that, because when it's all said and done, what I would love is for every kid that I've ever coached to be able to say, Coach Drew is the best coach I ever had. I learned this from him. OK, those are the things that I try to be as a coach. And I and I want kids to at least learn as much as they can while they're under me. No doubt. All right. Coming up next, we got a special guest. Coach Drew goes one on one with his guests at former baseball player, former major league player, but also involved with youth sports. And we'll talk to him or you'll talk to him next. Oh, yeah. Baseball's Inside Journey podcast. Episode one. Feet pain, ankle pain, knee pain, hip pain. It all starts with our feet. Hi there. I'm Delilah. If you have pain, talk with the folks at Good Feet. They make arch supports that are designed to support all four arches of the foot, aligning your body from the feet up. Get fitted today at one of the Good Feet locations near you. Goodfeet.com. Welcome back to Baseball's Inside Journey with Coach Drew and Eric Powers. All right. We are on Baseball's Inside Journey. I'm Eric Powers along with Coach Drew. And this is incredible. We are so excited, so passionate to have our very first guest as far as our podcast. And he is Mr. Mariner and 1984 American League Rookie of the Year. Mariner's Hall of Fame, 1997. And just all around, like the nicest guy in baseball, Mr. Alvin Davis right here. Mr. Alvin Davis right here. All right, Alvin. Thank you for being on with us. Appreciate it. So cool. Thank you, Drew. Thank you so much. So let's jump into this, man. First of all, how are you doing? How is life right now? I know you're involved with the Mariners. I mean, you're obviously still part of the team. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for asking. Yeah, life is really, really good. I am blessed beyond measure. You know, my role for the most part in the organization is more supportive, more advisory, more more of a mentor type of role to both our players and our staff. And so, you know, I always try to go into spring training with that mindset of, you know, what can I do to help things go as smoothly as possible and to help the players and the staff get ready for the championship season, both at the big league level and the minor league level. And a big part of it from a staff level, as far as I'm concerned, from a supportive position is trying to encourage as much of that relationship and trust building between the major league staff and and the players as I possibly can. And, you know, and then some of the direct interactions with the players, you know, similar to some of the things we're going to talk about on the cast today is, you know, just with the younger players, kind of helping them get acclimated, oriented to being in major league camp. And and, you know, so that they can put their best foot forward and take advantage of whatever opportunities there are for them to to, you know, to make the impression that they want to have that they want to make and have the have the spring camp that they want to have. And, you know, and sometimes that involves conversations about what to do, but sometimes it involves conversations about not trying to do too much, not trying to over impress, not trying to overdo it. Well, it sounds like a really exciting time. Obviously, it's exciting for us fans, Mariner fans. But to be a part of the organization must just be very, very cool. One thing I wanted to ask you as a follow up to that is like how how has player development changed since your time as a player? I mean, I know that for what I see and what I I'm addicted to MLB Network, and I'm always watching that. I'm watching your old right side of the field. Teammate there, Harold Reynolds, all the time. I love watching him on that show. But, you know, hearing about exit velocity and launch angle and all these metrics that are being tracked all the time and how that's true. And I'm seeing that obviously as a 13 year coach, I see that trickling down into select travel ball programs from the on the major league side or even in the minor league side. How do you see that playing into today's game as opposed to when you were coming up? Yeah, another great question. You know, and there's there's a big answer to. I mean, there's a long answer to that. I think the short answer that I'll that I'll give is that in in many ways it hasn't changed. Like it's not a paradigm shift from what it was, you know, 40, 45 years ago when I was coming through the system in that, you know, you still have to go out and play the game. You still have to go out and compete from a player development standpoint. Obviously, you know, the goal for every player in our organization is to advance, to move to the next level, to continue to do the things that they need to do to, you know, not only prove yourself, prove themselves to the Mariners, but also to the entire industry that they have what it takes to compete at the major league level. And so there's that that hasn't changed. That's kind of foundational. That's kind of fundamental. What has changed a lot is, you know, how how you get there. And and it is it has definitely changed for the better. Now, there's it is great to be a player today. Now, you know, to the to the specific examples that you you cited, I think how organizations use that information, what information gets filtered to the players and how it gets presented to the players is really a dividing point. That that's that's a separator. And, you know, I know with the Mariners, you know, we try to make our players aware that that, you know, we do measure everything. Everybody in baseball measures everything. But we presented to the way to them as as opportunity rather than threat, if that makes sense, you know. And, you know, part of my role is as one of our staff members is to remind our players of that, because, you know, it can be received as a threat. You know, you know, you shot you cited, you know, velocity for pitcher or launch ankle exit velocity for a hitter. And, you know, the hitters see where they're they're being measured. And, you know, man, you know, I'm not as good as this guy or not. And so they can put a negative interpretation on it or, you know, you know, a negative application. You know, I've got to go out and again, revolutionize myself, you know, overnight to make myself relevant. And, you know, you've heard over the years, especially since Jerry and Scott Service came in and Andy McKay and Justin Hollander, you know, controlling the zone, you know, and that that mantra, everything filters back to that. That that's the big idea. And so, you know, again, I get to help remind our players that everything we do is is is is designed to help you dominate the strike, whether it's on offense, whether, you know, as a hitter or whether it's on defense. And then, of course, the other things that are connected to that within the game of baseball, which lead to winning. And that is, you know, being good on the basis, being good on defense. You know, Perry Hill's mantras come to mind, you know, 27 outs and no more. Because that's that's what the great teams do. That's what the best teams do. Yeah. You know, you get 27 outs and you don't give extra outs because, as you know, as coaches and lovers of the game, even at the lowest level, you know, you give other teams extra outs. It's just a matter of time before they're going to take advantage of. Yeah, that's from all on up. But but but at the major league level, it gets magnified because, you know, you end up turning the lineup over and, you know, just staying within our division. You know, here here comes a Corey Seager and a Marcus Simeon or here comes a Mike Trout and a Shoya Tani. Oh, my gosh. You want to see those guys as few times as you possibly can. So, yeah. So anyway, you know, to get back to the answer to your question, you know, we we try to tilt the floor, if you will, of all of our information and everything that we're doing to benefit the player as much as we possibly can. And and so that we know that they know what really matters to the Seattle Mariners and what really matters to other organizations in the game of baseball and try to, you know, eliminate any potential confusion or clutter or overwhelmed. You know, our players being overwhelmed that could come from providing so much information. So, yeah, just to focus, you know, I could go on and on. There's so many other things that are, you know, nutrition, mental. We could have you back a time and time again. We're going to focus the next podcast on nutrition, I think. Well, I like Alvin. I got to say one thing. I really like what you're talking about was the mental approach. And that's something that I'm trying to teach our kids at the 13 year level. And, you know, you are seeing a trend in some some programs more than some of the elite programs or even when kids start getting to be 15, 16, where they become a pitcher only. And obviously, you know, a lot of baseball purists might think that that's probably not that that great for the player. I would kind of lean that way as well, because what you said earlier was that you have pitchers coming to you say, hey, what are hitters looking for? I, I would think that it's kind of beneficial to a young pitcher to have an idea of what it's like to be at the plate against a competitive pitcher and try to think through that at bat. Would you not agree with that? Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, you know, those those are kind of the big picture items. You know, you've probably heard of us talk about the the 15 second funnel, which will probably now be a ten second funnel because of the pitch clock at all levels. But but, you know, the big idea for the Mariners for mental skills is developing the ability to focus on the right thing at the right time or the right thing at the critical time. And so, yeah, you know, if you're a pitcher, you know, being able to focus with confidence on the execution of that pitch, you know, hitting that target, getting that shape in a relaxed manner, you know, for for a hitter, it's the baseball, right? You know, and, you know, I remember, you know, one of our players years ago in spring training, just sharing, you know, some of these cage talks that I mentioned, you know, these cage conversations that we have. Taylor Moderate was a player. And and he said, you know, with the Rays, you know, he was talking with one of the coaches and and trying to get some clarity through the conversation, the coach asking the question, what's the only thing that can get you out? And is that not a profound question? Yeah, that makes it very, you know, well, you know, you know, it depends on the defensive playing and, you know, it depends on what the guy's throwing and, you know, it just depends on how hard he's throwing. He goes, it's a real simple answer. It's the baseball. The baseball is the only thing that can get you out. Yeah. And, you know, simple, but profound. Right. And so transference was trying to communicate. Yeah. What he was trying to communicate is, you know, if you're worried about the wind and the sun and where the first baseman's playing, where the shortstop's playing, you know, all of these things at that critical juncture, when the only thing that can get you out is the baseball, you've probably already gotten yourself out or you've already at least at least given yourself a way smaller chance of being successful and executing your plan on that particular pitch. Yeah. It feels like our audience can take a lot of what you're saying. And it's everything so simplified and transferable and distilled down that I mean, you know, from coach to coach, I mean, it seems like that like even parents could help their their young players with that. Sure. Yeah. I mean, I would say from my from coaching kids right now that I could totally see we're trying to simplify it because they have so many things going on in their head. They're they're wondering how they're competing with their peers and if they are good enough to be on this team or or what have you. And then, of course, if they're worried about launch angle and exit velo and things like that, they've got too many things going through their head than just being an athlete and focusing on what they've practiced. So I definitely think that that will play into it. I mean, if you were going to Alvin, if you you know, if they're what kind of advice would you give to ballplayers and their families who may be just starting out like like that's kind of what this podcast how this kind of started is that, look, I didn't play in the major leagues and but, you know, played some junior college baseball. And that was that was great. But I've been playing my whole life and I just absolutely have a passion for baseball. And so I I coach I love to coach and I still love to play. And from and but I want to I love being able to give back the information because I see the passion in these young kids and they want more. And I want to help them get more. And that's really what this podcast is about. So from your standpoint, somebody that that made it as far as, you know, every every kid is out there dreaming about. I mean, what what kind of advice would you give to a young player that's maybe just just kind of started out maybe 10, 11, 12? And what kind of things should they work on? Yeah. You know, gosh, one of the things that come to comes to mind is just the fact that baseball, just like any fine skill, is developed through repetition. And so, you know, I'll use that instead of work or hard work. But just it's just it's repetition. It takes repetition to master any skill in life, anything that that requires talent and especially in a competitive environment. And so, you know, just, you know, repetition is required at the same time. I think, you know, just just thinking about young kids, I think variety is important. So not just playing baseball, but, you know, practicing other disciplines or it could be music, practicing other sports, because, you know, in that you're going to have some some development of your cognitive, right? Your mental skills are going to develop and they're not totally disconnected from one another. And I think by doing so also, you know, you kind of cut down on, you know, the physical wear and tear of playing baseball, you know, 12 years, 12 months a year at an early age. And and I think you also are going to prevent some of the burnout that can happen. You know, I've been around the travel ball. You know, my brother does travel ball in the Sacramento area. And, you know, I've been around it a lot. And, you know, just a number of players over the years have just reached that point where it's like, man, I just don't want to do this anymore. You know, it's like, yeah, I want to do some other things. So, yeah, so I think, you know, you know, repetition, like interdisciplinary repetition, and then also just the variety of doing some different things, developing some different skills, you know, I think is important for kids, you know, and their love for baseball will eventually rise to the surface. And that's what they'll want to continue to be to do and be passionate about. Now, you know, some kids are going to develop or, you know, display that passion earlier than other kids. You know, there's there's certain kids, you know, they want to play catch all the time. They want to hit all the time. And, you know, they want to watch baseball all the time. They want to learn as much as they can. They're curious. And so, yeah, sometimes that's easier to see. But yeah, that would that would be some of my advice. You know, as I mentioned, you know, with our kids, with our grandkids, you know, just, you know, letting them tell you somewhat what what it is they're passionate about and then supporting them in their passion. And, you know, because we love baseball, of course, we hope that it's baseball. But but it might be something else. And that's OK. Yeah. Yeah, that's OK. For sure. That's really great. So what do you what do you recommend telling youth players, you know, when they're when they're flying high and hitting homers and getting people out? But that's the fun times. But the tough times, what self-talk do you even give Mariners players? I mean, how do they get through the tough times? Because I think Mariners or excuse me, parents struggle with that. Players struggle with that. What is that inside story that that players should be telling themselves or that you talk to players about? Yeah, you know, that's that's an extremely important component of mental skills and character development, even at the major league level. You know, just talking with there's a young man who attends our church here in Riverside who plays at the local high school. I've known him since he was a child and, you know, he's a junior, senior in high school now and just, you know, so every once in a while he'll come up and, you know, we had about a half hour, you know, coaching session, you know, mentoring session with him. And, you know, I just mentioned to him, you know, the great Edgar Martinez. One of the things that I mentioned is one of the that that really separated Edgar, even within his own career, was his mastery of mental skills. And one of the components was was positive self-talk. And, you know, it's well documented in Edgar's story. I would I would commend everybody in the Pacific Northwest to be a student of Edgar Martinez, especially players and and just learn from the great Edgar Martinez. And so positive, positive self-talk and and visualization. And some people would say to the extreme. But, you know, it made Edgar who Edgar became, who, you know, who is a Hall of Famer, you know, a legend. And not only in the Pacific Northwest, but in all of baseball. And so if you ran into Edgar today and you ask him, you know, Edgar, just give me two things that I can do that can help me improve as a player. I'm confident that those two things would be there. That would probably be a long conversation. But but yeah, that would be there. And, you know, so so what does that mean? Positive self-talk? Well, you know, like you said, within the game where, you know, there's so much failure in the game, you know, for example, just just with pitching, even at the major league level, you know, if a pitcher goes out and throws 60 or 70 percent strikes, that's a good alley as far as getting the ball in the strike zone. Right. But, you know, that means that, you know, you know, 30 to 40 percent of the pitches he threw didn't get into the strike zone. Right. And and that's not even talking about, you know, what happened as as the result of the pitch, you know, and, you know, on the batting side, it's very well documented. You know, you know, if you if you get 10,000 at bats in a in a in a major league career and you get 3000 hits, you're going to make it into Cooperstown. I don't know that there's anybody that's done that. That's not considered a legend. Right. But within those numbers are 7000 out. Wow. You know, so so more than more than half of your at bats, you get out. 70 percent of your at bats, you get out. And so my point being that there's a lot of failure in the game. And then which means there's a there's fertile ground for negativity. You know, I'm not good. You know, the game hates me. You know, I have no luck. You know, you know, everybody else is better than me. There's just so many temptations. I'm struggling. I can't get the ball in the zone. I can't make solid contact to save my life. You know, I feel like I'm swinging uphill. I feel like I'm swinging underwater. Coach, I feel like my feet are in lead and I just can't move. There's just there's just so much negativity that naturally comes with the game. And so so developing that positive self-talk and visual positive visualization is really, really critical. And it never stops. It never stops. Even the best of the best of the best in today's game are really good at at positive visualization and positive self-talk. Well, that's powerful. That's great. Well, thank you so much for for jumping on and joining us. And I feel like we could do probably ten podcasts with you. Oh, no, I know it should be great. I appreciate that. I think some of it's a byproduct of being old. Really appreciate it. I'm sure, you know, down the road, if you don't mind, but, you know, if you're not busy, we'd love to connect with you again sometime. Yeah, that sounds good. That sounds good. We'll make time for anything I can do to help develop baseball in the Northwest and Mariners Nation. I'm happy to do it. That's great. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you all.