The Real Cost Of Travel Baseball

The Offer And The Real Question

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged, your son just made the top travel/slash select team in your area. The next question is are you buying development or a uniform and a schedule? Former D1 player with 35 years coaching rec ball select in high school baseball, Bobby Minor breaks down all sides of playing baseball in the summer. Next on baseball coaches unplugged.

Why Bad Decisions Cost Most

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Today's episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged is powered by the Netting Professionals, improving programs one facility at a time. Will Minor and his team at the Netting Professionals specialize in the design, fabrication, and installation of custom netting for baseball and softball. This includes backstops, batting cages, BP turtles, screens, ball carts, and more. They also designed and installed digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, and cubbies. Netting Pros also work with football, soccer, lacrosse, golf courses, and even pickleball. Contact them today at 844-620-2707. That's 844-620-2707. And you can visit them online at www.nettingpros.com. Check out Netting Pros on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. If you enjoyed today's show, please be sure and share it with a friend. You can follow the podcast on X at BCU Pod. Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, Coach Kevin Carpenter. Joining me today is Bobby Minor. He's helping baseball parents to better understand their journey going through the little leagues slash travel baseball all the way up to college. Coach, uh thanks for taking time to be on baseball coaches unplugged.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Well, coach, thanks for having me on. I'm really excited and I'm glad to be here.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Well, it's I don't know, I'm calling it travel baseball tryout season because we're you know we're hitting July and a lot of people are doing their uh tryouts right now. Explain what you mean when you say that the most expensive thing in youth slash travel baseball isn't the fee.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Well, I I think it's a great question. And it's you just made me laugh because I remember, I mean, I've seen like down here in Texas, you know, people have been doing trials for the fall even since last month. And I remember when when fall tryouts didn't start until you're completely done with your summer season. But like we're in August doing fall tryouts, so it's just it's kind of like uh stores selling stuff for Christmas. You know, it used to be the day after Thanksgiving, now you see stuff, you know, in Hobby Lobby before Halloween. It's kind of the same thing. But so here's what I mean: the most expensive, uh the most expensive thing in travel baseball, and I'll speak more to travel baseball. Down here we call it select baseball than little league. It's there are um decisions that you make as a parent, you know, and it's just unfortunate that this is an industry that capitalizes it. This industry is built on the hopes, dreams, aspirations, and fears of parents. And, you know, a lot of people make a whole lot of money off of those things. And so, you know, a lot of parents, like I I literally coach, I get probably five to ten DMs a day from parents asking me questions, guidance. Should we do this with our son? Should we do that? Um, and it's very humbling. And I personally try to respond to every single person and give them, you know, my take on it. But you know, decisions are a big thing. Now, a lot of decisions you can recover from. You know, if your kids are eight or nine or ten, you you make make a wrong choice, you go, you know, pick a team based on the name on the front of the jersey, it's a bad experience. You know, you just end up moving to another team. But you know, a lot of sometimes decisions, you don't know it's a bad decision until down the road when it can be really difficult to, you know, to undo what you've done. And every player, you know, every player has a window, and we don't know what that window is for for anybody. But you know, every player has a window, and it's you know, the window is closing, and you know, 75% of players quit by 14, less than 10% go on to play after high school. So, you know, making making wrong decisions, making emotional decisions, making making uninformed and ill-informed decisions, that's the that's the most expensive thing in travel baseball.

Early Bloomers Versus Late Bloomers

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Well, you just mentioned that that number 14, the average age of retirement from baseball. But uh compare young players that are you know considered early bloomers that are really tearing it up when they're under 14 versus the late bloomer.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Okay, that's a great question. It's funny, I saw a Facebook post today in a group where there was some kid, I don't even know, it wasn't in Texas, somewhere where they're touting him as being this next big thing because he he was you know 12 years old and got MVP of like I think a Ripkin tournament or something. And and I saw the picture of him, and I'm gonna be honest, Kent, like he was like, you know, he's a bigger kind of chunky kid who I and my first thought was, I bet he's that good just because he's bigger than everybody right now. I want to see this kid in two years, in three years, in four years. I want to see him when he's a junior in high school. Now, he could, you know, totally be a stud, be a dude. He might not even be playing baseball. So, you know, it's it's misleading for parents because if you're blessed with a son that is just bigger, faster, stronger, more coordinated, more athletic than other kids when he's nine, ten, eleven, and twelve, it can give you a false sense of of just where he really, where he's really at. And I've seen, look, I've seen a I've seen early bloomers that are hard workers that keep working and they go on to be great baseball players. I've seen a whole lot of early bloomers that they it's easy for them when they're younger, they don't put in the work. And by the time they're junior in high school, they're a non-factor. You know, I've seen it happen a lot. So, you know, to an early bloomer, I would say don't don't rely on on the gift that you have right now. Work like you don't have it. So that way, when all these late bloomers that are working, working, working their butts to catch up to you do, you're not, you're not the one that's that's you know coming from behind. But you know, there are a lot of, I think, you know, a lot of fit kids out there that are just they're undersized. They're you know, they're on smaller size, they're not like my son Julian. I mean, I'm 5'10 and a half. I still tell I still claim the half inch. I'm probably 5'10 now, probably shrinking a little bit. But you know, my son Julian, his when he was a freshman, when he was 14, he was 5'6, 120 pounds. And but he always had incredible work ethic. I mean, he was working, working, working. Um, and his high school, you know, he started growing in high school and you saw his feet grow first. I'm like, why are you wearing a size 11, 11 and a half right now? You know, you look like a clown. But by the time he graduated, he was 6'1, you know, 6'1 ⁇ , 180, um, you know, an amazing shortstop. And he got a got 100% to a D1 JUCO in region five here in Texas out of high school.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Yes, and that you know, everybody that's listening right now can probably look back to their younger days and can remember there's one or two kids that just seem to be so much bigger than everybody else, and and then sometimes they they get passed as they get move up through the high school ranks. Absolutely. Both of us have had a chance to uh talk to former MLB player and manager, Clint Hurdle. I had him on the podcast and you've you've talked with him. And all three of us seem to agree that you should rotate and let young players play as many positions as possible. And

Why Kids Should Play Many Positions

SPEAKER_02 8:29

why do you think it's important to the dads out there that might be listening? What would you tell them that it's gonna benefit their kid to play more than one position?

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Well, great question. I guess I'm gonna say great question every time you ask me a question because they're great questions. Um I there's not a coach out there that I think if you're coaching nine, you, 10, you, 11 you, even 12 you, that can look at a player and say he's a left fielder, he's a cat only a catcher, he's a PO, which is insane to me. The the lone exception being if your son's left-handed, okay, it's safe to say he's gonna play outfield, he's gonna pitch, or he's gonna play first, okay? But everybody else, um, there's no way. Like I look at I look at players, you know, I had a I I helped coach a nine U double-A team with my son Julian. We have four players from that team still playing in college to this day. Three of them are not playing the position that they played when they were 9U, 10 U, even 11U, even 12U. Um, the only one that's playing the same position is a left-handed pitcher. You know, he pitched and played outfield and he's still a pitcher. That's what he does. So, but the other three, um, you know, they're playing different positions. It's you, I tell everybody, to me, like your first step is as a young player should be get be prepared to make your high school team when you're a freshman. Okay. Once you're in high school and you've made the team, then the next step, the next goal should be make varsity as fast as possible. For some players, it's when they're a freshman, some it's a sophomore, some it's not until junior year, but but just you want to be on varsity as soon as you can. And then once you're there, then start thinking about college. You know, to me, it's crazy when you're already thinking about college, you haven't even played an inning of varsity baseball. But but the I'm saying that to say if your son, if you think your son's only a third baseman and he's a freshman and he can hit, and the varsity coach says, Man, I really love his bat, but I need somebody that I can put out in right field because that's what I need. And you are you gonna say, well, no, my son's only a third baseman, so he's I want him to stay on the freshman team. You know, you got to be versatile. I look at the Texas, literally today, the Texas Rangers, I was looking at their box score. They actually got beat by the Indians. Finally, India, I mean, Indians didn't get swept. Um, and I know you're up in Ohio, that's why I'm rubbing it in a little bit. Um, but you know, but uh Josh Smith is a shortstop. Josh Smith came into the game, pinched it, and played left field. Ezekiel Duran is a shortstop, and he played right field today, you know. And so, you know, I did a video where I talked about the Padres a couple years ago. They had seven shortstops in their lineup, you know. Um, they weren't all playing shortstop. It wasn't some weird shift, you know, they're all spread out. They weren't the only two positions were pitcher and catcher. So being able to play multiple positions is going to be better for your son long term in terms of opportunities. And if his dream is to play Division I baseball, I think being a super utility player is another great way to pursue that dream because roster sizes are now 34. So you got less guys on a roster. So if a coach can recruit somebody that can play, you know, can play a couple infield positions, can play a couple outfield positions, you know, he's getting four players in one.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

Totally agree with that. And uh, you know, just trying to get some of those young parents, uh, young players' parents to understand that is the big challenge.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Let me let me tell you something funny though. Yesterday, you know, I posted the clip when I interviewed Clint, specifically, it's like, you know, 30 second real about playing multiple positions. And some some um some lady commented and like because I because he was telling me about kids playing multiple positions, and I said, I agree. And she is like, Um, I forgot, she was trying to be sarcastic, but she was like, Oh, well, you agree. Big surprise. And I'm like, Yeah, I agree. Why do you think I asked him the question? Like, I already knew what he was gonna say. It wasn't like, oh, you know, like, yeah, I agree with him. That's why I asked him the question. So, anyway, all right, sorry, coach.

How Parents Should Watch Games

SPEAKER_00 12:28

That's all right.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Best advice you have for parents who are watching their son and his teammates playing in a game.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Um, don't watch his teammates, just focus on your son. Um, way too many parents worry way too much about other players. And when you worry too much about other players, you start comparing your son to them. And it's just it, this should be an enjoyable process. Like you should enjoy it. Like, you know, enjoy the experience watching your son play a game because it's still a game. Um, I, you know, and I'm saying I'll say that tongue in cheek. I'm not saying literally don't watch other players, but but just watch them, celebrate them, and be if some if another kid on the team is having success, be as happy for him as you want other parents to be as happy for your son, you know, when he's having his moment.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Yes, I I I love that advice because you know, it's it's a big comparison game nowadays, you know, being a high school coach, um, you can you can just feel it with parents sometimes, you know, my my kid's better than this kid, and why is he playing that type of thing? And you know, as a coach, you always try to tell them, you know, I'll I'll talk with you about your son, but I I'm not gonna talk about the other kids in that situation.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Coach, how many people out there think that you played um the teacher's sons, the booster club president's son, the board member sons, you know what I mean? Like, I I have a video that I posted months ago where I was saying that the point of my video wasn't even about high school politics. I was I was just the whole point was if your son's 14 and under and he, you know, and travel balls pay to play. You're gonna play. Okay, you may not play every game, you're not, but if you're paying two, three, four thousand dollars, your son's gonna play. When you get to high school, you may be in for a rude awakening because your son may not play. He may play in scrimmage games only, you know, but he may not play in tournaments. He may because that, you know, and I said, and it's not because of politics. I still have people commenting today on that video, it's telling me, you know, it's absolutely politics in high school. And I'm like, I know that there are coaches out there that are have no morals and scruples and they do stuff like that, but I don't know about you. When I coach high school baseball, I'm trying to win and I'm putting the best team out there. But you know, my version of the best team is based on on everything. You only see a certain sliver of it. And it just because your son's not playing doesn't mean that it's politics.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Yes, I I could probably write a book on some of the uh conversations and things that has happened to me, just like any high school coach out there, when they talk about things that they've either got anonymous letters, emails, phone calls late at night. It's it's crazy. And it's probably the reason why we're losing so many coaches to the game. And it's it's a shame because there's so many good coaches, have so much to give, but at some point everybody kind of draws a line, I would think.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Oh, yeah. You know, why do you why do you think we're losing so many coaches and so many umpires? Because of parents. Yeah, you know, and there are a lot of great parents out there. Don't get me wrong. I've had some great parents on teams that I've coached, but you know, I've seen, I mean, all you have to do is open up social media on any given day, especially on a Monday after people have been playing tournaments, and you're gonna probably see a video of a parent getting in a fight with another parent, parent getting a fight with a coach, coach getting in a fight with an umpire. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Yes, and you know, look, I wanted to jump back to the the whole tryout for travel ball coming up here.

What To Ask Before Joining Teams

SPEAKER_01 16:15

What should parents ask a particular travel team before they join that team?

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Um younger ages, I would say be crystal clear on like what their policy is for guest players. Because I see that a lot. I see it a lot in social media where you know parents paid their, I mean, you know, they're they're paying full price for their son to play, and either their son and other players are not playing because coaches are bringing in guest players when they don't need them. Like I would never I would only bring in a guest player if I knew I was only gonna have nine players, you know, and I'd bring in a guest player too, so that way I have somebody, somebody gets hurt, somebody these, you know. Um, but and I in pool play, my guest players always batted at the bottom of the lineup, and you know, I would rotate them around like I rotated everybody because when I'm coaching younger ages in pool play, everybody plays infield, everybody plays outfield, and pretty much everybody pitches. That's just the way I do it. Bracket play, I treat guest players just like they're a part of the team. If they need to be batting in the three-hole, you know, I'm gonna put them there. But because that's the first question, policy on guest players. Um, second question for younger parents would be what's the total all-in cost? Not just how much are my my team fees? You know, like are there any hidden costs? How many times, you know, because when you look at it, like a team might charge $2,500 for the summer, and a parent might think, like, that's awesome. I can do that, you know, I can do that. And then once they, you know, sign on the dotted line, well, they don't realize there's a $300 uniform package, there's a $100 a month facility usage fee. They're going to four out-of-town tournaments that you know they're gonna have to spend $500 a weekend on for hotels and food and gas and everything. And then we're playing in 10 tournaments, and most of them have at least a $10 per day gate fee. You know what I mean? So that $2,500 can easily become, you know, five, six thousand dollars. So what's my total all-in cost? And then I would say one probably one more would be just like, what's your plan for the development? Like, what does development truly look like? You know, and how do you handle when a player when a player's struggling? Those are what I would ask on on you know, the younger ages. And for the older ages, especially like in high school, I would um, you know, I would ask first of all, how you know, how long have you been coaching at this level? Um, how many of your players from you know last year's team, how many if it's this is or how many people I mean, because you may be coaching a younger age group, and even at the high school level, but you know, how many players from this org have gone on to play at the next level in the past five years? Um, do you know who what like what are you gonna do to help get my front, my son in front of not just random coaches, but the right coaches? You know, how do you help facilitate the whole recruiting process? You know, do you have a network? Does the org director have a network? How does all that work? I mean, those are some things that I would ask.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Let's talk about arm care.

Arm Care And Weekend Overuse

SPEAKER_02 19:09

And, you know, you see this every weekend, and I have a friend of mine who has a son that's I believe 13 right now. And uh, you know, I kind of was discussing this with him, but how do you get a travel coach who throws a kid 50 or six sixty pitches on a on a Friday and then they bring him back in again to pitch again on Sunday because you know maybe they've advanced and they might even be in that third game, which I still don't understand how you're playing three games in one day. And to understand that I guess this will never happen in a high school or college game.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Yeah. Now I do think, coach, I do think unfortunately, and I know there there are limitations, you know, in high school, like if you throw so many, you know, throw so many pitches on on a Tuesday, um, then you're not, you know, you may not be able to pitch again until Saturday or something like that. Um, but uh it's just okay, honestly, it's just it's bad coaches, coaches that that don't, you know, that don't know because unfortunately in travel baseball, anybody can start a team, and there are probably a lot of lot of coaches out there that started off with great intentions, you know, coaching their son in P T ball because there's no coach and he sticks with it, and then you know, when they're nine you they they go select or travel, and he just doesn't have the background or experience, but they get so caught up in winning. Um, and I mean all you have to do is look, you know, look at the number of players. I a mom reached out to me a couple weeks ago, her 11-year-old son and their team at that point had already played 60 games this year. Um, 11-year-old son, he was on his third growth plate separation. So, you know, this I would ask those coaches if it was your son, but unfortunately, a lot of them do it to their own son. If it was your son, would you would you want to, you know, would you want a coach pitching him that much? But see, that's on the coaches. That's why I in pool play, literally, I would not pitch anybody more than one inning. And I tried to pitch everybody if possible. You know, I my best case scenario for me is we play 10 innings between two games, and I had 10 different guys throwing inning because that way on Sunday, if I do need arms, I have 10 guys that can pitch. And, you know, it may not be, it may not be my stud or my ace, but you know, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna blow up some kid's arm because to try to win a stupid, you know, 11 U AAA tournament.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Well, you know, a lot of times it goes back to when you put that team together and you don't have enough guys on your roster that are pitchers that you you work with. And then the other thing that I always wonder about is with travel baseball select in your area, and if they're a tournament only team, those days that they're not in the tournament. They're probably most kids are probably not going out and getting a bullpen in to keep their arms strong and then they're just continually just tearing it up on the weekend. I guess it, you know, it depends on, you know, if you're on a travel team where, you know, you have to be on a team that might be two hours away. And it's it's tough to to make a set up and do practices like you might see like in a rec league.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Yeah, but you know what, even if you have like, I know not all parents have a baseball background, so you know, but even if you don't, you can't even throw and catch. Um, or let's say you can't throw, or uh anything, you can buy a bucket of balls and take your son out to a baseball field and let him get, you know, let him get it on the left field foul line, and he can long toss, he can throw that whole bucket of balls to the right field foul line without anybody having to catch, without anybody having to throw it back. And you know, you can help pick up the balls. And you know, and then he can throw them from the right field foul line to the left field foul line. So there are ways to do it, even if you you don't have somebody at home that you can play catch with.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Yes.

Travel Ball Good Bad Ugly

SPEAKER_01 23:06

Staying with travel baseball here, in your opinion, what's the good, the bad, and the ugly side of it?

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Funny you should ask, because I've posted on that before. Um, you know, travel baseball, the good. Um, normally, you know, you are playing in a higher level of competition. And I know I'm laughing because you know, I've seen some travel baseball teams that are they're just, you know, wreck teams with a higher price tag. But I mean, for the most part, you're gonna be playing against better competition, you know, um, you should be facing better pitching and and things like that. You're gonna build memories of you know, with your teammates and things like that. Again, like I said, I'm 59. I still think of when I was 12 years old um playing summer ball, where my stepdad put together it to me, it was almost like a precursor to a travel team because he took our entire, almost our entire Little League All-Star team. And after we were done with All-Stars, we all played summer ball for um a local boys club here, the Panther Boys Club, and we played in the boys club league. That's really a that was really a select team because he picked, you know what I mean, took our all-stars and did it. And this was in 1978, and we're playing up, playing 14 new teams and things like that. But we went to Houston for the state boys, uh, state boys club championship, came in second in the state. I remember, I remember the uniforms that they got us. We're, you know, I remember all of that. I remember, you know, the the pool that the hotel where we stayed at had an had a pool with a bridge over it. You know, we're playing baseball in the pool. I remember that 47 years later. So, you know, you build memories, you build friendships. You know, my son specified, I mean, like I said, I'm still friends with guys I played little league with, I'm friends with guys I played high school baseball with. You know, my son is friends with, you know, kids, guy that guys he's been playing with for, you know, for the past, you know, man, 10, 12, 13 years. So you build relationships. That's the good. Um, the bad. The bad would to me is that anybody and everybody can start a team and call it whatever they want. I could create a go on Canva and create a graphic saying I'm having tryouts for my six U national elite majors scout team, you know, and it sounds good, but you don't know if I'm qualified to do that or not. Um, you know, that's the bad. The bad, there are a lot of coaches out there that their ego gets in the way. Um they care more about winning than they do about developing players. And a lot of them don't even know how to develop players. Um, and there's some other things. I mean, you know, the bad. The ugly, the ugly is there are a lot of people out there that use this as a you know, as a vehicle to string you along and sell you hopes and dreams and hope you spend a lot of money with them. And, you know, instead of just being real with you and being transparent, and you know, they'll tell you what you want to hear, not what you what you need to hear. And uh another part of the ugly are just parents that are just way way too over the top and force their son to quit sooner than he needed to or wanted to, most likely, because they made it just a grind. And so, yeah, uh that's kind of a good, the bad, and the ugly.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

Yeah. I I always treated it with my son when he went through the experience of playing travel baseball that I always try to end it sooner than than he wanted it to end. Because I I would always take tell myself that if he's mad that the season's over and he's wanting to play more, that's a good thing. Versus, you know, I I can remember back when I used to umpire, I there was a team I was doing a game one time and they were you know had an unbelievable record. They had already played 60, 70 games, and you know, and I said uh I just said to the shortstop, you know, but between innings, I said you to him, I said, What you know, what's your guys' record? And he just looked at me and he goes, I have no idea. I just I don't know. You know, he just you could tell he was he was cooked. And you know, I I felt really bad for the high school coach because here's a kid that had a ton of talent, but you know, maybe by the time he's a senior in high school, he's probably gonna be like, I'm I'm done with this.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 27:24

You know, so I it's it's uh it's a challenge and um and it's a balancing act for parents. But uh the other thing I wanted to cover was the perfect game in PBR.

Perfect Game And PBR Rankings Reality

SPEAKER_02 27:38

You know, that is a uh the two things I think throughout the country that parents, you know, they they strive to to be ranked on those those two um programs. And what are your thoughts on the whole national rankings and the state rankings?

SPEAKER_00 27:58

Okay. I think rankings are a marketing tool. I don't, you know, look, if you're if you're a top 100 player in the country, everybody, all the coaches and scouts know who you are. It's not because you're ranked number two, you know, or number seven or number 10 or 12. It's because you're a dude and like everybody knows who you are. Um, the rankings to me are just eyewash, you know, it doesn't um and maybe there are coaches that that don't get out as much as other coaches and things, and they hear about a kid, and they may want to just kind of cross-reference to see what Perfect Game has him ranked as, but that's not gonna be the determining factor whether he gets recruited or not. They may just use it as a as a point of reference. Um, but it's a way, I mean, it's a way to get parents to spend a lot of money chasing a ranking because you know a lot of parents do get sucked up in that. And, you know, but coach, I've had so many people reach out to me about stories of you know how their son was ranked high by you know by PG, and then they stopped doing showcases and all of a sudden he dropped in the rankings, but you know, he was only better as a player. Um, you know, I've heard stories of guys being completely unranked, and then once they get drafted, then all of a sudden now they have a you know a ranking. Um you know, I mean, I've just a lot of stories, even PBR. I think a lot of people out there probably think more favorably of PBR now than PG. And but it's I mean, it it you know, if you can play and a college coach likes you, I don't think it's gonna matter if you're ranked 100 by perfect game, if you're ranked 1000, if you're a follow or not ranked at all, you know, because most coaches are and it's not like in the majors where it's so so data-driven and you got a bunch of nerds, you know, making decisions. I think most college coaches are still tend to skew towards being more like old school baseball guys where that's the eye test. They want to see him, you know. I want to see him. I want to see him, you know, how he, you know, how he moves. I want to see all of those things. And so the ranking is just one part of it. But it's if I mean if your son's ranked high, I mean, awesome. Like I'm happy for you. I'd be, you know, um, but it doesn't mean anything, and it's not gonna determine whether he does or doesn't play after high school.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Yes, and I can remember probably two of the best players I ever coached as a high school coach. Never played an inning of travel baseball, and they were from a tiny little town, and they both went on and to become captains and have great careers at the Division I level.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

And, you know, going back to the you know, perfect game and talk about the the video.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

A parent takes a video and their kid played in a perfect game event, and how they tie that into this is how many major league baseball guys that we we've had come through our system.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

So, so two things. Like most parents, I mean, I don't normally sign, I mean, I normally don't read terms and conditions. I just figure I'm gonna sign something and can't be anything too crazy in there. Well, I actually read the perfect game's terms and conditions and you know what parents are signing when they sign the waiver. And, you know, it it's it's not a matter of whether they actually enforce it or not, it's just the fact that they even put something like that in there. But you know, if I'm at a PG event and my son comes up to bat and I'm recording my son with my phone, perfect game owns that video. They can do whatever they want to do with that video. They can, if I post it on social media, they can ask me to take it down. It in their terms and conditions that most parents sign, like they own that that media. Now, the reality is, I don't know if they've ever actually had a parent take something down, but my point is like, why even put that in there? Like, why is that even in there? You know, but that's the reality. You record something, you record your son with your phone doing your thing, they own that video. Um, and then I just think, you know, like you go to their website and it has, you know, 15,000 plus um draft selections. It's a factually true statement, but it's just misleading. It's just marketing, you know, marketing at its best. It's to me, it's design, and this is my interpretation of it based on my 30, 40 plus years in sales and marketing. I actually own a digital creative agency, so I know a little bit about marketing. Um, it's to me a classic example of association marketing where they they want somebody to see it and and make the association that if I'm with my son's involved in the PG ecosystem, then that gives him the best chance to be one, you know, to be one of those numbers. To me, it makes you think that you know that they're responsible for players being selected in the draft. But what they don't tell you, or you know, what the number that's not on their website is how many players that have actually attended showcases and paid money for all these things got drafted. And you know, those fit that 15,000 plus draft selections, that includes every person that's ever attended a single PG event, period. Like you could have played in a one PG tournament when you were 11 years old and you get drafted, you're gonna you're adding to their number. So it's just to me it's smoke and mirrors, you know.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

Yes, and it's uh another way to keep that uh parent ATM machine moving, I think. So yeah. Well, I asked this of every guest on the podcast, and you know, you you played the game, you've had your son, he's played, you know, he's playing college baseball.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Hate losing or love winning.

Hate Losing And A Wild Story

SPEAKER_01 33:33

I hate losing.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Um I hate like I was telling my son, this, you know, like he's now he's he's wised up, now he's 21 years old. But I remember having conversations with him when you know all the the data nerds were saying it doesn't matter if you strike out, you know, strikeout's just an out. And I'm like, that is the most insane thing I've ever heard. Because like if a pitcher struck me out, I'm I'm I am looking at him when I'm walking back to Doug out. I'm telling you're not gonna get me next time. Like I'm gonna, you know, I'm trying to hit I'm gonna try to hit a line drive back up the middle next at bat, as a matter of fact. I hate losing. Um, you know, winning is fun, but I mean, I, you know, I it's I don't I don't like, you know, now you got to be a realist because baseball is a game of failure, so you're gonna fail way more than you're ever gonna succeed. But in that moment, I hate losing. I don't want anybody to get the best of me, and it just fuels me more.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

And to finish up with one last question here the craziest thing that you've experienced as far as being around the the youth game all the way up to the college level.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

Oh man, let me think the craziest thing. Um the craziest thing I've witnessed. Um that that I wish you would I wish you would have emailed me this question sooner so I could have thought about it. Um I I don't know, because we I thought you were gonna say the craziest thing I've seen in baseball ever. And I I already had a good story that came to mind. Um, but it was it involved youth baseball. So you can find out after I ever was done playing, um, and I this is back in the 90s, I started a um a men's team in Fort Worth, Fort Worth Lobos, which later I started my youth organization called the Fort Worth Logos, which one of my former teammates now runs. But we played, it was right after we used to have a semi-pro league here in Fort Worth, and that league disbanded. So then it was just more a lot of the guys, ex-college guys and things like that, were playing in this league, but it was just a men's amateur league. And there was a team in Fort Worth that had been the best team for I mean 70s and 80s, the Fort Worth Braves. They had a bunch of, you know, just great team. And they came over, it was kind of their last hurrah. They came and played in the league that we were playing in, specifically to to play us and beat us and kind of go out on top. And we was in July, and we had a uh game scheduled against them, but we had a bunch of guys that were gonna be out of town. And me and my buddy Fidel, who's one of my little league buddies, we were like, if we play the Braves tomorrow, we're gonna get smoked. So I'll uh Bull Durham, and this was way before Bull Durham, he had a little Honda Civic hatchback. We went to the field that we were gonna play the next day on and um picked the lock on the gate and drove his car onto the field and got a 33-gallon trash can and filled it up with water multiple times and drenched home plate and drenched the mound, so the field was unplayable the next day. So we we created our own rain out and our guy, our game got postponed. And when we made up the game and we played them, we kicked their butt.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

There you go. Whatever it takes, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Yeah, I hate losing.

SPEAKER_02 36:43

I hate losing.

Where To Follow Bobby Minor

SPEAKER_02 36:46

Well, um to finish up, I guess, if someone would like to follow you and and see all the great content that you're putting out, where where do they go to on Instagram?

SPEAKER_00 36:56

So at chasing baseball dreams. I'm at chasing baseball dreams. Instagram is my main thing, but it's I mean, app chasing baseball dreams on Facebook, app chasing baseball dreams on TikTok, and at chasing baseball dreams on my YouTube channel, which is actually um growing pretty nicely right now. But I cross-post um all my short content, I cross-post on all those channels, and then I post, I've been posting some pretty good long form content also on YouTube.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

Sounds good. It's Bobby Miner chasing baseball dreams. Coach, thanks for taking time to join me on baseball coaches unplugged. Coach, thanks for having me. Baseball Coaches Unplug podcast is proud to be partnered with the Netting Professionals Improvement Programs, one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or visit them online at www.nettingprose.com. Make sure and tune in every Wednesday where I sit down with some of the best baseball coaches from across the country. As always, I'm your host, Coach Kevin Carpenter. Thanks for listening to baseball coaches unplugged.