Latest / Scene Projects Sports Network / Ed Tuttle on Sports Management, Northwoods League Insights, and Collegiate Baseball Growth

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Ed Tuttle on Sports Management, Northwoods League Insights, and Collegiate Baseball Growth · Scene Projects Sports Network

• 0:14
  Welcome into the Scene Project Sports Network.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is operations and facilities manager of the
• 0:21
  Traverse City Pit Spitters, Ed Tuttle.
• 0:24
  Ed, welcome to the show.
• 0:26
  It's great to be here.
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  I appreciate being invited to come talk, and, you know, I'm super excited to to kind of teach
• 0:31
  people about what we do and talk to you, obviously.
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  So
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  Yeah.
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  I'm excited, man.
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  Talk some Northwoods league ball.
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  You guys are a a summer showcase league.
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  Great stuff going on.
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  A lot of action on the field.
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  The season is in full swing now.
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  But we're also gonna talk about a little bit of the behind the scenes stuff too.
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  But before we get into all of that, love to just kinda give you the floor, let you give us
• 0:54
  a little bit of your backstory, and we'll pick it up from there.
• 0:57
  Yeah.
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  Perfectly fine with me.
• 0:58
  So I'm a native of Flint, Michigan.
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  Grew up, born and raised there.
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  Got, got my degree from University of Michigan Flint, specifically a small campus in
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  professional communications, focused in PR and organizational speech.
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  Bumped into a soccer team in the middle of one of my my event cycles and in one of my classes.
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  They like me enough to take me as an intern.
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  Did the 2019 season with them, won a national title with them, and then just got hooked.
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  You know, there's no better feeling than getting a trophy, getting a getting a ring.
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  I actually have mine behind me.
• 1:30
  Yeah.
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  So I don't know if it's gonna pick it up, but I do have my ring from, you know, my time with
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  the Flint City Bucks.
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  And after that feeling, it took me five years of kinda paying my dues, met a recruiter.
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  Seven rounds interview later, ended up moving up Traverse City.
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  I've been here since April 24.
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  So, definitely very blessed to do what I do and very lucky to get here.
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  So
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  Yeah.
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  Like you said, in professional sports, it's a small pool to begin with, and they have an
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  opportunity to do what you're doing, you know, still at a very young age.
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  You're a young man still and guiding other young people around.
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  And, you you know, we were talking off camera that, obviously, it's easy to focus on the
• 2:08
  talent that's on the field, but there's so many of the the interns that you have working for
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  you during the summer that are learning and moving on to bigger programs and some working
• 2:18
  for professional leagues, some working for some of the top collegiate programs in the country.
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  And I think that's something that gets glossed over.
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  What does it mean to you to, you know, not just coach and and have a hand in the the the talent
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  on the field and these guys that may go up to the show, but also working with these, you
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  know, event professionals, right, that may go on to do some really incredible things as well.
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  So you said it best.
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  You know, it's a tight knit group.
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  That's what everybody is.
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  Sports management, you know, like I said off camera, you know, there's probably a thousand
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  operations managers full time in baseball that actually do this for a career, and I'm lucky
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  enough to be one of them.
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  You know, a small a kid from a small city, you know, in poverty when I grew up in Flint,
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  Michigan.
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  To be able to do this full time is is a blessing.
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  You know?
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  I said it's you know, you're more likely to go from high school all the way up to the pros
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  than you do to grab an operations job like mine.
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  But I don't deter the kids because my job is I'm so tight knit with everybody else to get
• 3:14
  them to their next level.
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  You don't pull up the ladder behind you.
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  You lift them up to the next level because, a rising tide raises all ships.
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  That's the old saying.
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  So I wanna make sure they do well because if they do well, it's not just, you know, for
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  them, but it's for us as an org.
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  It looks good to be able to point and go, that's one of ours.
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  That's one of ours.
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  That's one of ours.
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  And it it means a lot to me because I took one sports management professional to take a chance
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  on me to get me here.
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  Now I'm taking a chance on the people I have around me, the people I spend, you know, forty
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  plus hours a week prepping this place.
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  You know, the interns that are coming and expecting me to teach them, I want them to go
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  on to be the next level.
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  And I pride myself on, like, I have, in operations.
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  I have four girls that work full time with me as interns.
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  And last year, had three, which is the most in our organizational history, to then be able to
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  place them in these higher levels to get more women in leadership, women in sports
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  management, but also just get more sports management professionals that can do the level
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  that it's more than just summer ball.
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  It's a lot of work.
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  When you get to the pros, it gets easier.
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  There's more people.
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  Down here, they need to learn the work ethics, the basis of what it means to do this and how
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  fortunate we are to do it.
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  Well and you mentioned the women, leadership and empowering these young ladies to do more.
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  The Northwoods League does it better than than anyone.
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  I've been privy to a couple of great conversations already.
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  Hannah, shout out to her over at the Rockford Rivets.
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  And I know that the North Dakota team also has female GM up there, one of the North Dakota
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  teams.
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  So I think it's really awesome because you don't see it.
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  And and especially not just female, but very young women, right, in their in their mid
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  twenties out here leading these teams and and really being the boss ladies of these programs.
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  And it's really awesome for me to see that as a father of a a a daughter.
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  Right?
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  And showing her and having examples to show her of the people that we're working with to go,
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  look.
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  You're it's not just the men's world in sports anymore.
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  And both on the field and in the front offices of these places, there are openings for women,
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  to work at a very high level.
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  And I think that's something that the Northwoods League, does better than anyone out
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  there.
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  That is true.
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  I mean, I think it's Green Bay.
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  I think it's oh, it's Madison.
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  Madison Mallards, they actually their new general manager, also a woman, proud leader in
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  sports.
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  And then on top of that, my personal general manager, Jacqueline Holm, you know, long
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  history in sports, but she's also still very young, to be leading an organization like we
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  have and then be a part of, you know, the greater the brand as as a whole, our sister
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  team, the White Cavs, and all that.
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  And it's very good to see because I feel like from a front office perspective, the Northwoods
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  League in themselves led the way with theirs.
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  I mean, when you look at the softball program, Kathy Raditz runs that organization on that
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  side.
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  She's a big fan of the Pittsburgh.
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  She comes to visit all the time, and she is such a inspiration to the young ladies around
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  us that when you deal with, you know, her, Jacqueline, Hannah, you know, you deal with all
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  these females in sports that when you bring in these young ladies, they can point and go, I
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  wanna be her.
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  I wanna go there.
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  Whereas as men, we've always had that.
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  We've always had, you know, we've had the Tom Brady's.
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  We've had the, you know, I like Biff, Bogeys personally.
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  Always been a Michigan fan.
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  You got to meet him.
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  Fantastic guy.
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  But, like, you always look at those coaches.
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  You point them and go, I would love to be that guy.
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  It's nice to see the ladies be able to, I don't have to play professional softball.
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  I don't have to play women's basketball, whatever.
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  They can go and look in a front office and go, oh, I can work in baseball, and I get to lead a
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  team and I get to have all the glory too, but I can do that.
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  I'm just watching her.
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  She's doing it.
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  I can do it too.
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  It's it's very empowering to see.
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  Yeah.
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  It's really incredible.
• 6:48
  Mentioned the Northwoods League.
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  Can you tell us a little bit about the league for those that don't know?
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  A summer showcase league, summer ball is is not a strong enough term, I don't think, for this.
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  These guys aren't just filling time in the summer.
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  72 games in ninety days?
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  Yeah.
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  So we have one of these shortest seasons when it comes to dates, but when it comes to games,
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  this is the closest they're gonna get to a professional schedule outside of going to pro
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  ball or minor league affiliate ball.
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  We actually see more in this league, I mean, we're and I say this because I'm also I know
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  I'm a company man.
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  I will always love my league first.
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  But we are comparable, I would say, to the Cape Cod.
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  We're comparable to the Appalachian League because of the fact that we can put more butts
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  in seats than most of those teams.
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  We can actually produce more pros out of this program and help them go to the next level,
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  whether it's at, you know, going from d three to d one or whatever.
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  You know, you you might have a guy who plays at a community college down in Grand Rapids
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  pitching a guy who's a starter at Alabama.
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  So that's where it becomes a unique showcase to see for coaches to scout.
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  And then from a league standpoint, we are the largest collegiate summer league in the world.
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  And I'll I'll stand on that.
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  I mean, we're growing every year.
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  They're adding more teams.
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  They just announced a new new Buffalo down towards, you know, the, Southern, Southwestern
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  Part of Michigan.
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  They're gonna be entering the league next year.
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  We just added Richmond, the flying mummies from Richmond, Indiana.
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  This this season's their first season.
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  And over 400 professional alumni that came from the Northwoods League, straight to, you know,
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  minor or, affiliates or even, you know, IndieBall.
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  And just in our organization alone, I mean, over I think it's about 17 in the minor league
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  system, six starters in MLB, and at least 15 in the Indy Bowl system.
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  Yeah.
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  It's absolutely incredible what you're able to do.
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  And I think there's an advantage to working out in the Midwest where you the teams are few and
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  far between.
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  Mhmm.
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  So to have these, and we don't necessarily always want to travel to the cities.
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  Right?
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  We're small town folks.
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  Well, we like to be able to and you get an investment on that level from these communities
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  that I think is unmatched working in larger markets.
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  So I think the, you know, the structure of the of the league and the forward thinking of the
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  you know, bringing that not just the on field talent, but the experience.
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  Right?
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  The goal is to prepare these players not just with on field talent, but with the experience
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  in the stadium, having packed houses, having the music, and the experience that you're going
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  to get moving up.
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  And like you mentioned, someone playing at a a a junior college or a d three school isn't
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  necessarily getting that kind of environment for them during their collegiate season.
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  But this preparing them and preparing the nerves and having that experience moving
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  forward, now getting maybe some fresh eyeballs on them, moving from, junior college even to a
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  division two school, they're going to have a chance at a better education if not making it
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  to play in the professional leagues.
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  It's not just the show.
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  There's a lot of professional leagues out there.
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  I mean, even with, you know, show ball becoming more and more of a thing, banana ball obviously
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  being the highest.
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  So there there are other avenues than just playing in the MLB or in the minor leagues of
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  that league for these baseball players.
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  So I think it's really cool to have such a well put together league that is focusing on these
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  young people and and giving them opportunities that they maybe wouldn't get anywhere else?
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  It's a 100%, you know, factual when it comes down to the the experience they have here.
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  You know, Pittsburghers are a unique, like, case because we have a former Frontier League
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  stadium.
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  It's a very, very large venue.
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  The Traverse City people really take it and and and own the team.
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  I mean, that's where our pride really comes in.
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  I mean, we have a 5,500 seat capacity, and, you know, we've had games all the way up to 4,800
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  people in these stands.
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  We're second overall in attendance.
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  I mean, Madison, the Mallards are killing it in attendance.
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  We've never been able to beat them.
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  We're working on it.
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  We'll get there eventually.
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  Kalamazoo down there is doing fantastic.
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  Even though when you get to the late Great Plains where it's smaller venues, smaller
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  cities, they're still maxing out their capacity.
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  The smallest stadium in our league is still larger than most d two facilities.
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  So we do a very good amount of work on the back end to make sure they get that experience, they
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  get that high pressure.
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  And then when it comes to show ball, I mean, they get scouted too.
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  So for example, JT Sokolov, he's with the bananas, Savannah bananas.
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  He came from our league.
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  He came from our team.
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  So JT, his uncle lives in Traverse City.
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  He came and played for us.
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  He perfected his backflip catch, did a tryout, and now he's one of their their base runners.
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  So we have guys at Banana Ball.
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  We have guys that go off to, like, the Ghost Peppers, the Chili Peppers, for Global and all
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  that.
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  And, you know, I think even, the Growlers, have their own version of show ball called Boomball.
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  I think it's Boomball.
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  Yeah, man.
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  Michael Coco's been on the show.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  They're so good.
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  Jack's baseball, we almost had them out here for an event.
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  We couldn't get it to happen this year, but I'm hoping to have them back out here.
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  And, you know, it's and like I said, you know, it's a very tight knit community.
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  So getting to see their people go up, and I'm like, I know that kid.
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  Pitched on my mound.
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  Hey.
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  I know that kid.
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  I ran him his laundry and stuff.
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  It's it's so unique from a league perspective that you cannot get this anywhere else.
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  You just can't.
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  And to be able to come up I mean, like I said, Kathy Raditz comes to our games.
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  Dick Raditz, who owns the league, founded the league.
• 12:11
  He's here a good amount of our games.
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  To be able to walk up, shake the hand of the owner of the league who founded it back in, I
• 12:17
  think, '94, shake his hand, talk to him, and just pick his brain about the thought process,
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  where we're going as a league when I'm not, you know, the the top guy.
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  I'm not the owner.
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  To be able to walk up and talk to him, it's so unique.
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  It's such a good experience.
• 12:32
  Yeah.
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  It's awesome.
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  And and really speaks to, I think, the family atmosphere that the Northwoods is as a as an
• 12:39
  organization, and then they bring that into the stadium with them wherever it goes in all these
• 12:44
  communities that they, you know, pop up a new team in.
• 12:47
  I hope South Dakota can get themselves a team in the near future.
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  I got some friends over at the bird cage where the Sioux Falls Canaries play.
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  And, I mean, the team's on the road half the season.
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  Right?
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  So there maybe there's some openings there.
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  I'm gonna I'm gonna get ahold of the GM over there, Brian, and float some things to them and
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  see how they feel about that.
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  Absolutely.
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  So impressed with everything that I've seen from the Northwoods League.
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  How's the team looking this year?
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  You guys are kind of into it.
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  You've had a couple home stands already.
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  What what's the early scouting report look like?
• 13:20
  So we're still getting our full season guys in.
• 13:22
  Our temp guys are you know, the nice thing about the Pets fitters is we are we're a second
• 13:26
  half team, always have been.
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  But the nice thing is, you know, we've been here so long.
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  We've only missed the playoffs once in our entire history.
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  I know our coach.
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  I I trust him.
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  I know that we're gonna do good.
• 13:36
  We have some fantastic boys coming in.
• 13:38
  We just got a handful of Texas Tech players coming through, couple guys from, Dallas
• 13:43
  Baptist.
• 13:43
  Some of the guys that unfortunately didn't make it to the world series, might have got knocked
• 13:47
  out of the playoffs, but they're coming.
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  We have some guys still in the tournament we're waiting on.
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  We split the series this past, yeah, yesterday with the leprechauns, went down to the wire.
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  If if they would have caught that last ball, we would have made we would tied it up with extra
• 13:59
  innings, but, you know, they're a good team too.
• 14:02
  But last season, we ended up going on the road for the start of the season, and we ended up
• 14:06
  with a four or five game losing streak and then blew out a rival at home for our home opener.
• 14:10
  So no matter where we're at, the pitch fitters always come through, and we're not gonna miss
• 14:16
  the playoffs.
• 14:16
  We can't.
• 14:17
  You know, it's it's they're it's always here.
• 14:19
  You know?
• 14:19
  You can't have the playoffs without the Pits fitters.
• 14:21
  So we're excited.
• 14:22
  Yeah.
• 14:23
  Is it a little bit of a challenge because you have so many of these college players in the
• 14:27
  league and you have the college world series right now in full swing.
• 14:31
  And, I mean, obviously, that's not just like a a weekend tournament.
• 14:35
  Right?
• 14:35
  It it takes a while to get through your super regionals and then onto the show in Omaha that,
• 14:41
  is it a little bit of a challenge kinda waiting for some of these and just hanging on for that,
• 14:46
  you know, early first two, three weeks of the season and then getting this infusion of some
• 14:51
  of the top talent finally hitting the field across the league in June?
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  It's a challenge.
• 14:57
  I mean, the transfer market also kind of hurts a little bit because you might have a coach
• 15:01
  that released him for this school and said, hey.
• 15:03
  You can have him for the summer.
• 15:05
  Have fun, bud.
• 15:05
  Then he transfers to a new market.
• 15:07
  Now we have to reintroduce to a new coach, convince them like, hey.
• 15:10
  You know, we might have to work around this or whatever.
• 15:12
  So there is a lot of different struggles to get through.
• 15:16
  But, also, we don't just have, like, the division one world series.
• 15:18
  We also have the NJCCA.
• 15:21
  We also have d two, d three, NAIA.
• 15:24
  So all these different world series, these college playoffs are going simultaneously.
• 15:28
  So I do see it as a strength, for the league itself because then we can showcase the kids
• 15:32
  that, yeah, their team may not have made it, but they're still great ball players.
• 15:36
  And then as we trickle in those those division top one d one talent, they start seeing the
• 15:42
  skill level jump up a little bit, little bit, little bit, and you could test them and get a
• 15:46
  walk them up to where you know they're capable of.
• 15:48
  So you might have someone from Grand Rapids Community College going up there against
• 15:51
  somebody from Texas Tech or somebody from, you know, Texas A and M or something where it's a I
• 15:56
  mean, it's a story program they're coming up against.
• 15:58
  And then you'll get your Michigan guys, your Michigan State boys, you know, your Ohio guys
• 16:02
  coming through reinforcing that so then you just get to see the mesh and see them go to
• 16:07
  that next level.
• 16:08
  I mean, story program for Troy Troy in Alabama, for example.
• 16:13
  Aaron Piusecchi played here, broke some records last year, played here for three years.
• 16:16
  He started off at Kellogg Community College, ended up at Central Michigan, and then this
• 16:21
  past season, he just finished out with Troy University.
• 16:24
  And you got to see him step up as a player because of the talent he's facing.
• 16:28
  Yeah.
• 16:28
  And I actually think that's an advantage a little bit, especially for the young men that
• 16:32
  are coming in from the smaller schools and the smaller programs.
• 16:36
  They get this early season experience in there while not just coming in and everyone's
• 16:40
  together from the get go where they may just be on the bench and getting a few at bats.
• 16:45
  They're able to be a big part of the team for, you know, two, three weeks or a whole month
• 16:49
  depending on, you know, the team, but then getting to, you know, experience and see what
• 16:54
  that next level looks like.
• 16:55
  See how hard they're going to have to push themselves to get up to that next level.
• 17:00
  I think it's really unique to this league to see so many guys that are playing, and I don't
• 17:05
  wanna say different talent levels, really.
• 17:07
  You know?
• 17:07
  I I think that there's a very slim margin when you start getting into this.
• 17:11
  Right?
• 17:12
  A half a mile an hour can separate a guy from a d two school to a d one program, but they're
• 17:18
  getting to see and, you know, be friends with these guys.
• 17:22
  Hey.
• 17:22
  What are you doing?
• 17:23
  What are training?
• 17:24
  What what am I missing?
• 17:25
  What are you guys doing at your school that I can work on?
• 17:28
  And I think with the players, it's very much the same as with the front office and yourself
• 17:32
  that these players wanna pull these other guys up too, especially once you're on a team
• 17:37
  together and you become brothers over the course of the summer.
• 17:40
  It's fantastic too because they also a lot of them share host families.
• 17:44
  And you have to also realize on the road I mean, they stay in hotels.
• 17:46
  They're on the road a lot.
• 17:47
  We do, 36 at home, 36 away.
• 17:50
  So they'll share hotel rooms.
• 17:51
  They'll kind of bond as, the YMCA going to workout, and you will see certain players start
• 17:56
  adopting the other ones and say, like, hey.
• 17:58
  That's my brother.
• 17:59
  Hey.
• 17:59
  You know?
• 17:59
  And you'll actually see familial ties across the league.
• 18:02
  So, like, yesterday, we had a brother versus brother matchup.
• 18:05
  One of our guys is with us.
• 18:07
  One of the others is with Royal Oak.
• 18:09
  They just ended up on different teams.
• 18:10
  And so you get to see them kind of look at each other and go, alright.
• 18:14
  What are your team doing?
• 18:15
  How can I learn from you?
• 18:16
  But also from an experience standpoint, they get to come to these where, you know, your your
• 18:21
  smaller community colleges maybe see a couple 100 people.
• 18:24
  And now they're coming to this facility.
• 18:25
  Some of them had never played on artificial turf for a while.
• 18:28
  Some of them have never used a removable mound.
• 18:30
  That's where you come here.
• 18:32
  You're gonna experience at Traverse City that some of these have never ever stepped on this
• 18:36
  type of turf and played in, you know, our deepest 400.
• 18:40
  Our left and right are three twenties.
• 18:41
  That's almost pro level.
• 18:42
  That's MLB size for some stadiums.
• 18:44
  And we are one of the medium sized stadiums.
• 18:46
  There's some big ones out there, but there's also some shorter ones.
• 18:49
  So they get to adapt their play style to where maybe, you know, your Michigan guy is not used
• 18:53
  to playing in a smaller outfield.
• 18:55
  Well, your JUCO guys know a little bit more of like, hey.
• 18:58
  You're gonna wanna hit it this way.
• 18:59
  Hey.
• 18:59
  You're gonna, you know, keep an eye on that, on your right outfield.
• 19:02
  Something like that's where you'll see them adopt and band together, and then you get to
• 19:06
  watch them move to as much as I hate saying, you know, get poached by other schools, I mean,
• 19:11
  when you get a a talent from your team going, you need to look at this kid, and then he moves
• 19:16
  up, I mean, that's that's a that's honored to that team.
• 19:19
  That's honored to our team.
• 19:19
  That's honored to the team they just went to.
• 19:21
  And then you get to see him come back and, yeah, new colors, but you get to see him with a
• 19:25
  renewed sense of excitement and energy in the game, which just doesn't happen without them
• 19:29
  seeing some sort of movement like, I can do this.
• 19:31
  This.
• 19:32
  Yeah.
• 19:33
  We gotta get some players on the show and interview them and to talk about the
• 19:37
  relationships that they're building with coaches, but with other players and having
• 19:42
  that.
• 19:42
  And who knows, you know, a recommendation like, look, man.
• 19:45
  I played with this guy.
• 19:46
  And now you're able to bring somebody up when they're looking and and, you know, kind of
• 19:51
  being an advocate for, some of these other players and maybe helping them move up to a a
• 19:57
  little bit bigger collegiate program and having that.
• 19:59
  And I'm sure there's instances out there.
• 20:01
  I mean, there there's just the numbers are so great.
• 20:04
  You know, how many 27 teams in the league right now?
• 20:08
  27 and growing.
• 20:09
  So we actually have a new team coming next year.
• 20:11
  So we have new Buffalo, and then they're adding more every year.
• 20:13
  I mean, since I've been here, they've added three teams in the league.
• 20:16
  And they also have a traveling team that they might bring back in, I think, next season.
• 20:21
  The Minnesota Mud Puppies, they just play all travel schedule, which is pretty unique.
• 20:25
  So they'll go from stadium to stadium and just play travel ball.
• 20:28
  No home base for them, which is pretty cool because, you know, they're they're kind of,
• 20:32
  like, always the enemy.
• 20:33
  They always are the bad guy, and some of the players really live into that.
• 20:36
  So for us, it's really exciting to see them come through.
• 20:39
  But, yeah, I mean, it's a large league.
• 20:40
  It's a very large league.
• 20:41
  And you have to
• 20:42
  think many players are on the rosters for the teams?
• 20:45
  Up to, I think, 36.
• 20:46
  They can travel with up to 30, and they have the coaching staff.
• 20:49
  Times 20.
• 20:50
  So you're talking about almost a thousand players.
• 20:54
  Yeah.
• 20:55
  Also do first half and second half contracts too.
• 20:57
  So I always when I order so I also design the team's uniforms.
• 21:01
  I design their hoodies, all that stuff.
• 21:03
  I order 80 because, yeah, we may have 36, but half the guys are first half, other half or
• 21:07
  whatever.
• 21:08
  We usually see in our team alone between sixty five and seventy players come through these
• 21:11
  doors.
• 21:13
  It's absolutely incredible to see what how many lives you're able to touch in such a short
• 21:17
  amount of time.
• 21:18
  Right?
• 21:18
  The season is literally three months long.
• 21:21
  You get these young men for a short span of time, but all of their lives are are changed.
• 21:27
  No matter where you play or how much playing time you got out there, whether you were a
• 21:31
  first half or a second half guy, whether your team makes the playoffs or not, your life is
• 21:36
  going to be changed by this experience.
• 21:39
  And I just think that's what really attracts me to the league and why I'm so excited to
• 21:44
  hopefully build some relationships of our own and to get more and more coverage of the league
• 21:50
  moving on into the future.
• 21:52
  We're gonna do everything we can this year and maybe make an appearance at some of the playoff
• 21:57
  matchups and be able to come out and catch some of that, hoping to go up into North Dakota see
• 22:02
  some of that.
• 22:03
  We got some trips planned.
• 22:04
  Mankato's not too far away from us either.
• 22:07
  We just drove through there on our way back from Minnesota last weekend.
• 22:11
  So looking forward to covering more and just being a part of this journey for so many young
• 22:17
  ballplayers and young sports management, interns and, you know, managers as well.
• 22:23
  So, Ed, anything we didn't touch on you wanna make sure to mention before I let you go?
• 22:28
  Just to keep on.
• 22:29
  So we, we signed an agreement with Flow Sports this year at the Northwoods League level.
• 22:32
  So, if you wanna catch any games, there's the Northwoods League app.
• 22:35
  There's also Flow Sports Network.
• 22:37
  Every team has their own broadcaster.
• 22:39
  Every single one does a phenomenal job.
• 22:41
  Our guy, Andy.
• 22:42
  Andy is brand new to our league, brand new to our team, and he's already, you know, kicking
• 22:46
  butts and taking names.
• 22:47
  So there's a lot to to watch.
• 22:48
  There's a lot of development happening behind the scenes.
• 22:51
  And I will say if anyone is within driving distance, whether it's even an hour or more, go
• 22:55
  support your local, like, college ball, whether it's Northwoods League, could be Great Lakes
• 22:59
  Collegiate, could be, you know, Great Plains League.
• 23:01
  It matters so much more, and it is more than just summer ball.
• 23:05
  This is somebody's whole life right in front of you.
• 23:08
  It may be their first at bat.
• 23:09
  It may be their last at bat, but you supporting them will mean the world to them, and I highly
• 23:14
  recommend going to a game.
• 23:15
  They're so much fun.
• 23:17
  Awesome, Ed.
• 23:17
  Well, thanks for joining me today.
• 23:19
  Everyone, go check out northwoodsleague.com.
• 23:22
  Find a team near you.
• 23:23
  Obviously, go check out the Traverse City Pit spinners.
• 23:26
  A lot of great teams all over the Midwest for you guys to go and check out.
• 23:31
  Find your new favorite team.
• 23:33
  Find your new favorite players.
• 23:35
  We can't wait to work more with you guys.
• 23:37
  Ed Tuttle, thanks for being part of the scene.
• 23:39
  Thank you for inviting me.