Latest / Foul Territory / Cardinals POBO Chaim Bloom joins FT, Kim Ng & Sierra Romero talk AUSL

Transcript

Cardinals POBO Chaim Bloom joins FT, Kim Ng & Sierra Romero talk AUSL · Foul Territory

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Hey, it's the sweet life.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: It is time for heim Bloom to join the show
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: right now, and it is time for him to take
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: over the Cardinals front office, which is what he's been
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: doing now this offseason.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Great to see you.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: I feel like it's like you're back in the wild again.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Does it feel that way?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: It does?
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, a little less time, yeah, a little tougher
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: work life balance, and we don't have a time in
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: the segment.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: So I want to get right to the go here.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: But here, here's my thing.
• 0:39
  Speaker 5: So I saw you two years ago in spring training,
• 0:42
  Speaker 5: right after you had got hired by the Cardinals, and
• 0:44
  Speaker 5: I see you. I thought I was only in the
• 0:45
  Speaker 5: laundry room. Maybe you're washing your own underwear. It was crazy,
• 0:50
  Speaker 5: and I asked, hey, come come out and talk to us,
• 0:52
  Speaker 5: and You're like, I'm behind the scenes guy now right,
• 0:55
  Speaker 5: So now there's no more behind the scenes.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: Now again you're the face.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: We're making up for lost time. Well, it's good to
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: be back. Okay.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: So what are we talking about here at the winter meetings?
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Do you think that there's a next step here coming
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: soon for your team as you guys go through this
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: transition period. Sonny Gray was the first, you know, as
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: you've been asked a billion times already, Wilson, Contreris, Brendan Donovan,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: where are we at.
• 1:19
  Speaker 6: Yeah, well, we have nothing up our sleeves ready to
• 1:22
  Speaker 6: drop at this particular moment. But you know, when you're here,
• 1:25
  Speaker 6: everything's a phone call away. Look, you know, we've been
• 1:29
  Speaker 6: I think maybe more than usual. There's obviously a lot
• 1:31
  Speaker 6: of phone calls, just because we've tried to be very
• 1:33
  Speaker 6: clear publicly about what our goals are and then if
• 1:37
  Speaker 6: that involves hard decisions in the short term to build
• 1:40
  Speaker 6: this thing to where we can be in position to
• 1:42
  Speaker 6: win this division and keep doing it, We're going to
• 1:45
  Speaker 6: make those hard decisions. We're fortunate to have a lot
• 1:48
  Speaker 6: of good players here, and so when you have that,
• 1:50
  Speaker 6: there's going to be interest in those guys.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: My job is to listen.
• 1:52
  Speaker 6: I think, especially in the first winter in this job,
• 1:55
  Speaker 6: it's really important to have your ears open and just
• 1:57
  Speaker 6: understand how the league sees our team, our players, and
• 2:00
  Speaker 6: at the same time, we're hunting players from other clubs
• 2:03
  Speaker 6: that we feel can be part of this core that
• 2:04
  Speaker 6: we like and seeing if we can match up.
• 2:08
  Speaker 7: Is it just gonna be twenty twenty all over again?
• 2:10
  Speaker 7: Minus COVID. But when you were with the Red Sox,
• 2:14
  Speaker 7: you went twenty twenty. You guys stunk. It was a
• 2:17
  Speaker 7: COVID season. Whatever. Jad Martinez didn't hit twenty one. We
• 2:21
  Speaker 7: were in the playoffs. So is that the route? Because
• 2:25
  Speaker 7: it's worked, and because now you can look at the
• 2:27
  Speaker 7: Red Sox and go, oh, yeah, him did that. He
• 2:30
  Speaker 7: built this, He built this metric, He built it. You know,
• 2:33
  Speaker 7: he built this group around these people. Are you just
• 2:36
  Speaker 7: gonna kind of recycle it? And is that what Cardinal
• 2:39
  Speaker 7: fans can expect or hope not expect?
• 2:42
  Speaker 6: Hope for well sandwiched around maybe some other comments. There
• 2:47
  Speaker 6: were some very kind words there about the work with
• 2:49
  Speaker 6: the Red Sox, which I appreciate. Look, we're never going
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: to go into a season conceding anything. Obviously, when you
• 2:57
  Speaker 6: have the goals that we have, you're gonna make moves accordingly.
• 3:00
  Speaker 6: That may lead to some short term sacrifices, and you know,
• 3:04
  Speaker 6: sometimes you are going to pay the price in the
• 3:06
  Speaker 6: short term for those sacrifices. But I think one thing
• 3:08
  Speaker 6: that's really important anytime you're doing something like this, especially
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: in an organization like this. This organization historically has really
• 3:16
  Speaker 6: made its name on dominating details, and on holding a
• 3:19
  Speaker 6: really high standard. So regardless of what we're doing from
• 3:22
  Speaker 6: a strategic standpoint, we're going to hold a really high
• 3:24
  Speaker 6: standard every day in terms of what we expect from ourselves,
• 3:27
  Speaker 6: how we work, whatever's on our plate that day, what
• 3:29
  Speaker 6: we bring to that job, and also what we expect
• 3:32
  Speaker 6: of our players. So I would love to get to
• 3:35
  Speaker 6: those heights without going through as deep of a valley.
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: We're not going to try to make compromises on our
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: plan to avoid going into that valley. But I think
• 3:43
  Speaker 6: we have a lot of good young talent here. Part
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: of the reason we're doing this is because we just
• 3:47
  Speaker 6: want more young talent so we can really build a
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: core that we can sustain. And I am optimistic that
• 3:52
  Speaker 6: regardless of what this winner holds, you know that talent
• 3:55
  Speaker 6: is going to show through in a lot of different
• 3:57
  Speaker 6: ways over the course of the season. And actually, you know,
• 4:00
  Speaker 6: sometimes you know, you cite the Boston Time as an example,
• 4:04
  Speaker 6: there were a lot of ways that we leaned into
• 4:06
  Speaker 6: that project. I'm not going to sit here and tell
• 4:08
  Speaker 6: you we did it perfectly, but we leaned into that
• 4:10
  Speaker 6: project in ways that when we did that, not only
• 4:13
  Speaker 6: was the long term payoff there as we've seen, you know,
• 4:16
  Speaker 6: in recent months. But sometimes we read benefits in the
• 4:19
  Speaker 6: short term because we were willing to make those hard
• 4:21
  Speaker 6: decisions and willing to make those sacrifices, and the baseball
• 4:25
  Speaker 6: gods will sometimes reward you for that. So we are
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: going to be focused on our goals. But I think
• 4:29
  Speaker 6: the more steadfastly we focus on them, the more we
• 4:32
  Speaker 6: stand to realize some benefits in the short term with
• 4:35
  Speaker 6: young players who can surprise you, you know, contributions coming
• 4:38
  Speaker 6: from places you might not have seen, and hopefully it
• 4:40
  Speaker 6: all adds up to us having a lot of fun
• 4:42
  Speaker 6: on the way to getting where we want to go.
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: Okay, so you're going to make lots of trade with
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: the Red Sox because you know all the players, you
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: drafted them all.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: So we got that down.
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: How hard is it because you come into a new job,
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: like when you went to the Red Sox, the first
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: thing you were told, I got to trade Mooki bets
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: and you're the guy everyone's like, hind bloom trade of
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: Mooki bets.
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: But you were told to do that, right. So now
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: you come to Saint Louis and.
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: Like you, Donovan Arnatto, you already traded Sonny Gray possibly Contreras.
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: Dude, when are you gonna get to just run a
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: team and not have to make all.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: These crazy moves? You know what you have to do,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: what you have to do.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: I know, my gosh, dang, I just want you to
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: get a chance to not have to do all this stuff.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: For that other one was brutal, though, Hey, welcome to
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: the party. Mookie Bets like is a freaking legendary Hall
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: of Famer. You have to trade him, you know what?
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: Was funny? Look, I don't want to really rehash too
• 5:31
  Speaker 6: much about that. You know, we probably should probably be
• 5:34
  Speaker 6: at a later hour at a bar or something like that.
• 5:37
  Speaker 6: We're going to do that.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Actually we did.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: Told Star and you said you coming, and now he's
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: not Tea.
• 5:43
  Speaker 6: But uh, that one we could rehash that maybe later tonight,
• 5:47
  Speaker 6: but I hope we're too busy to do that. Look,
• 5:51
  Speaker 6: it's actually funny with with that deal. So my my
• 5:54
  Speaker 6: boys like love baseball, and now they're old enough they
• 5:56
  Speaker 6: really follow this very closely. They're way worse than anybody
• 5:59
  Speaker 6: in the media in terms of how hard they are
• 6:01
  Speaker 6: at me. And they were young enough when that happened
• 6:03
  Speaker 6: that they weren't really aware of it. And now my
• 6:05
  Speaker 6: oldest who's just locked in on all this stuff, realize
• 6:09
  Speaker 6: last year that I traded Mookie back.
• 6:11
  Speaker 8: Oh no, and he was just He's like, Dad, what
• 6:15
  Speaker 8: are you doing. It's like, it's a long story. Yeah,
• 6:20
  Speaker 8: look for me.
• 6:22
  Speaker 6: Obviously, again, sometimes there are hard decisions you have to
• 6:25
  Speaker 6: make in the here and now. If you're not ready
• 6:26
  Speaker 6: to make those, then this is not the business for you.
• 6:29
  Speaker 6: There's also a lot of really good things happened in
• 6:31
  Speaker 6: the organization that are energizing every day in terms of
• 6:35
  Speaker 6: taking our young players getting the most out of them,
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: not even just our young players, like player development should
• 6:39
  Speaker 6: never stop, even in the big leagues, even with veterans.
• 6:42
  Speaker 6: If there's anything the last five ten years in this
• 6:44
  Speaker 6: game should teach us, it's that there's always pathways to
• 6:47
  Speaker 6: improvement for any player, any team, any organization. It is
• 6:52
  Speaker 6: awesome every day to get a chance to wake up
• 6:55
  Speaker 6: and say, how can we get better today? How can
• 6:57
  Speaker 6: I help all the talented people that we have get
• 7:00
  Speaker 6: us better today? And there's so many pathways to do that.
• 7:03
  Speaker 6: We have a lot of really good young talents, some
• 7:05
  Speaker 6: of it's on our team, some of it's coming and
• 7:07
  Speaker 6: so it's it. You don't have to squint that much
• 7:11
  Speaker 6: to really be able to dream big about what a
• 7:13
  Speaker 6: lot of these guys can do. Our job with that
• 7:15
  Speaker 6: is to keep our feet on the ground, stay realistic
• 7:17
  Speaker 6: about what it's going to take to get there, and
• 7:19
  Speaker 6: help these guys see it for themselves so that they can't.
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: I love it.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Hey, we're back ft live in Orlando, and we have
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: two guests joining us now, so athletes Unlimited Softball League
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: is what you should know about. And the commissioners Kim
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: and you know that name, longtime baseball executive Kim.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Great to see you.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: And then also we've got four on the set here,
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: plus Aroscraft who will ask some questions to Sarah Romero
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: is a star in the league, joining us here.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Sierra, thanks for joining us as well. Thank you, Kim.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Great to see you. How are you?
• 7:49
  Speaker 9: Oh good?
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: Thanks?
• 7:50
  Speaker 9: Thanks for having us.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Of course I'm gonna let you got.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: It's going right right in.
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: Yesterday but.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you forgot your mic fell off there.
• 8:12
  Speaker 10: Yeah, so before I've been banging this drama, there's other
• 8:19
  Speaker 10: people I thought you could get into the voting for.
• 8:21
  Speaker 10: I know you're not going to take us through it,
• 8:23
  Speaker 10: but how hard was where I don't know how hard
• 8:25
  Speaker 10: was how incredible?
• 8:28
  Speaker 9: It's incredibly hard. This is my second time I've done it.
• 8:31
  Speaker 11: And listen, this ballot was there were so many good
• 8:36
  Speaker 11: players on the right, and so you're trying to make
• 8:39
  Speaker 11: great decisions. You know, we just didn't get the votes
• 8:44
  Speaker 11: for some that I'm sure other people wanted. But it's, uh,
• 8:49
  Speaker 11: it's it's a crazy process.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: It's a good process.
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: Is it like going there and you guys just throw
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: up a steel cage and then whoever wants their vote,
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: they just you got kind of rumble until one winner
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: comes out something like that.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, go ahead, Cratz.
• 9:10
  Speaker 7: No, I just I just really first, Ken, I'm so glad.
• 9:14
  Speaker 7: Are you able to hear me?
• 9:16
  Speaker 9: Yeah?
• 9:16
  Speaker 7: Faintly, Okay, I'm glad you're I'm glad you're able to
• 9:20
  Speaker 7: come on here. And when you have, did you when
• 9:22
  Speaker 7: you became the commissioner of the league, did you say
• 9:25
  Speaker 7: I want to name it something different because everybody thinks
• 9:28
  Speaker 7: commissioner of Baseball, they think Rob Manford, and they're like,
• 9:31
  Speaker 7: when I think of Kim Hang, I don't think of
• 9:33
  Speaker 7: Rob Manford. I think it's something way different. Are you
• 9:35
  Speaker 7: handling that position? Differently than say what you saw Rob
• 9:41
  Speaker 7: do in your time in Major League Baseball.
• 9:45
  Speaker 11: I think some of the responsibilities are different. You know,
• 9:48
  Speaker 11: clearly major League Baseball has been in existence for one
• 9:51
  Speaker 11: hundred plus years and so our issues probably aren't the same.
• 9:55
  Speaker 11: But there's a lot to get off the ground, you know.
• 9:59
  Speaker 11: There there are number of things that I learned from
• 10:02
  Speaker 11: both of the commissioners that I worked for, So you know,
• 10:05
  Speaker 11: it's really just about trying to do, you know, use
• 10:09
  Speaker 11: all of my skills and experience from my thirty plus
• 10:13
  Speaker 11: career and put that to good use for the for
• 10:15
  Speaker 11: the women here.
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: All right, now we'll get to the softball Sierra Michigan. Sorry,
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: I'm not a Michigan fan.
• 10:22
  Speaker 7: I'm not a.
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: Michigan person, not a Big ten person. I'm an SEC guide.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: What though played Midwest?
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean just because I played there. It's like
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: Notre Dame. See you you're out stop crying, go to
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: your bowl game.
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: But how is Michigan good in softball?
• 10:38
  Speaker 9: How are they?
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: Because they've been good for a long time.
• 10:41
  Speaker 12: The Michigan softball is I feel like, you know, it's
• 10:44
  Speaker 12: one of those programs, you know, especially after being under
• 10:47
  Speaker 12: Carol Hutchins a legend in the softball world in general.
• 10:51
  Speaker 12: She left the program in really good hands when she retired.
• 10:54
  Speaker 12: And you know, now Bonnie's there, you got Jen Brundage,
• 10:58
  Speaker 12: you got Manda Chittister. You have these really big names
• 11:01
  Speaker 12: in the softball world to keep the tradition going. And
• 11:03
  Speaker 12: that's what Michigan softball is all about, is that tradition.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: And then how do you transition to professional softball.
• 11:09
  Speaker 12: I think they prepped me. I mean they prepped me
• 11:11
  Speaker 12: with knowing what it took when it comes to hard work,
• 11:14
  Speaker 12: with dedication, when doing the things you don't want to
• 11:17
  Speaker 12: do because you know you have to. I think, like
• 11:19
  Speaker 12: every pro baseball softball player knows, you don't always want
• 11:21
  Speaker 12: to work out, you don't always want to max out
• 11:23
  Speaker 12: and do all the lifts and do all the things.
• 11:25
  Speaker 12: And for me, it was an easy transition because I
• 11:27
  Speaker 12: already knew what it took. But I definitely think the
• 11:29
  Speaker 12: speed of the game is what took the most getting
• 11:31
  Speaker 12: used to. I feel like it's probably the same, you know,
• 11:33
  Speaker 12: going from college baseball to MLB, it's a lot faster.
• 11:36
  Speaker 12: You're playing with grown women. You're playing now with women
• 11:40
  Speaker 12: that are established who know how to throw who know
• 11:42
  Speaker 12: who are so smarter on the mounds. They know how
• 11:45
  Speaker 12: to read certain things mid game and make changes like
• 11:47
  Speaker 12: that and kind of play with you a little bit,
• 11:49
  Speaker 12: you know, mess with your head, and it's just a
• 11:51
  Speaker 12: different beast. And so it's it's a lot of fun
• 11:53
  Speaker 12: to play that back and forth game of Okay, you
• 11:56
  Speaker 12: got me there, but hey, I'm not going to let
• 11:58
  Speaker 12: you beat me next time up and in or on
• 11:59
  Speaker 12: that change up in that count. So it's a lot
• 12:02
  Speaker 12: of fun.
• 12:03
  Speaker 7: Sierra, my daughter's thirteen years old. She wants to know
• 12:07
  Speaker 7: where can this league go? I mean, it's a fledgling
• 12:10
  Speaker 7: league right now. She's thirteen. She obviously has to go
• 12:13
  Speaker 7: through high school. She wants to play in college. Where
• 12:16
  Speaker 7: can this league go? Because if it goes to where
• 12:19
  Speaker 7: you want it to go, you'll be known as one
• 12:22
  Speaker 7: of the pioneers to push the league to that point.
• 12:28
  Speaker 12: I mean, I think with the backing of the MLB,
• 12:31
  Speaker 12: we are in very good hands. I think of all
• 12:33
  Speaker 12: the other women's pro leagues and how once they had
• 12:35
  Speaker 12: the backing of their male counterparts, it just blew up.
• 12:39
  Speaker 12: We got the fans from that league. We also just
• 12:41
  Speaker 12: got more eyes on it in general, and I think
• 12:44
  Speaker 12: that this league is here to stay. I've been a
• 12:45
  Speaker 12: part of a lot of pro leagues in my career,
• 12:48
  Speaker 12: and unfortunately they all folded and they just there was
• 12:51
  Speaker 12: nothing there for us. And so for us, our career
• 12:54
  Speaker 12: has always felt unsure and we've always been a little
• 12:57
  Speaker 12: bit uneasy. And that's not how we feel anymore. Now
• 12:59
  Speaker 12: it's here to stay. This is my career. I feel
• 13:02
  Speaker 12: more confident saying I'm a professional softball player. I love
• 13:05
  Speaker 12: that now when I say it, the answer isn't always oh,
• 13:08
  Speaker 12: I didn't even know there was a pro league. Now
• 13:09
  Speaker 12: it's oh, wow, yeah, are you what team are you on?
• 13:12
  Speaker 12: You know, I saw a lot of it's I saw
• 13:13
  Speaker 12: the talents win. Unfortunately, I'm not on the talents. I
• 13:16
  Speaker 12: did not win last season, but I'm on the bolts,
• 13:18
  Speaker 12: and so it's cool to see that these players and
• 13:21
  Speaker 12: these fans they're paying attention, they're looking at us, and
• 13:23
  Speaker 12: they're seeing what we're doing, and they like what they see.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: All right, So, Kim, how do you scout?
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: Because you're your baseball background, So how does the scouting
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: go to find players like Sierra?
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: How do you find the players?
• 13:38
  Speaker 11: So our general managers and head coaches are a big
• 13:41
  Speaker 11: part of that process. You know, some of them still
• 13:44
  Speaker 11: are collegiate coaches, so they have that in their pockets,
• 13:47
  Speaker 11: and so it's it's easy for them to you know,
• 13:50
  Speaker 11: to understand who's out there. And then the others who
• 13:54
  Speaker 11: are not necessarily part of the NCAA collegiate world, they're
• 13:58
  Speaker 11: just doing it off of tv PM and you know
• 14:02
  Speaker 11: a lot of word of mouth as well.
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: Awesome, awesome.
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: So I when I was with the Giants in two
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: thousand and four, we had a guy named Barry Bonds
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: on the team, okay, and they brought in Jenny Finch.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: This is when she was going around and she was
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: pitching to.
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: Everybody and I got to catch her, and Barry Bond
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: stood him, but he wouldn't swing because he said, I
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: doesn't want to hurt her. Now I got to catch
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: Jenny Finch and she was the biggest thing in softball
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: at the time, and she was every pitch I thought
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: she threw. I was like, okay, I could see this one,
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: but the rise ball right, So I'm I and I
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: know she struck out like pool holes and all these guys, right.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: I didn't want it to back because I would have
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: punched out.
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: How good because I would have loved to have seen
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: Barry tried to hit it, because if he would have
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: struck out, have been the greatest.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: Thing ever for softball.
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: But how good are the players? Because I watch it
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: on TV and I love it. I think it's great.
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: Did the cheering in the dugout everything that you guys do?
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: I love it, like especially in college, and I can
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: now have to tune into the pro league.
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: But how good are the players?
• 14:56
  Speaker 12: I mean, these players are elate, They're everybody. Everyone wants
• 15:00
  Speaker 12: to beat everyone. We are all extremely competitive. We may
• 15:03
  Speaker 12: be friends outside of the softball field, but when we
• 15:05
  Speaker 12: are playing against each other, we want to beat each
• 15:07
  Speaker 12: other and we want to beat each other bad every
• 15:09
  Speaker 12: single game. You know, the competitiveness is there. Everybody is
• 15:12
  Speaker 12: working day in and day out to be the best
• 15:15
  Speaker 12: and to be the top athlete in the league. And
• 15:18
  Speaker 12: you'll see it when we play.
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: Like, what's the hardest pitch for you to hit?
• 15:20
  Speaker 9: For me?
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: They're all easy.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: They're all easy.
• 15:24
  Speaker 7: I like it.
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: I love it.
• 15:27
  Speaker 12: Hardest pitch the rise ball when I swing at it.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: But how do you not swing? I don't know, Crouchy,
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: your daughter practice. Watch it again.
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: When I was catching it, she was telling me is
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: coming in with and for a baseball player, because everything
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: goes down down, down right. But she'd throw that ball
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: that would start at your knees and would end up
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: at your chest. How do you not swing that? Because
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: when it comes out of her hand, you're like, oh,
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: that's a strike. I'm going to crush that, and the
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: next thing you know, it's over your head.
• 15:49
  Speaker 12: I mean, the biggest adjustment is you're trying to meet
• 15:52
  Speaker 12: the ball where you think it's going to end up.
• 15:53
  Speaker 12: The really good rise ball pitchers they can change the
• 15:56
  Speaker 12: level at which the rise ball crosses the strike zone.
• 15:59
  Speaker 12: So you might have some who throws one out of
• 16:00
  Speaker 12: the zone, but the next time she might say, you
• 16:02
  Speaker 12: know what, actually, I want to throw this one for
• 16:04
  Speaker 12: a strike now. So it's really about meeting the ball
• 16:06
  Speaker 12: where you think it's going to land, making sure you're
• 16:08
  Speaker 12: flat to the ball. You can't be underneath it. You're
• 16:11
  Speaker 12: gonna pop it up or you're gonna swing and miss.
• 16:13
  Speaker 12: So definitely trying to come at the ball level or
• 16:15
  Speaker 12: think to almost miss above it. Since the ball is
• 16:18
  Speaker 12: going to continue to rise, it's just like a little
• 16:20
  Speaker 12: trick you play on your brain. You're like, Okay, I'm
• 16:21
  Speaker 12: trying to miss above the ball, but really you're going
• 16:23
  Speaker 12: to be flat and barrel it up. But you got
• 16:25
  Speaker 12: to really try to make sure you're meeting it where
• 16:27
  Speaker 12: you think it's about to end up.
• 16:30
  Speaker 7: Sierra Siah, this is my opportunity. Sometimes in life you
• 16:34
  Speaker 7: have to ask quite. I have arguments with my dad.
• 16:35
  Speaker 7: My dad teaches fast pitch softball. He pitched fast pitch
• 16:39
  Speaker 7: for forty years. A riser true or false, does not
• 16:44
  Speaker 7: technically rise. It's the spin that keeps it on plane
• 16:49
  Speaker 7: and so it has that late life effect correct or
• 16:52
  Speaker 7: not correct? Oh, it's rising, But analytically when you have
• 16:57
  Speaker 7: it on track, man, does it technically.
• 17:00
  Speaker 9: Rise on track?
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: Man?
• 17:01
  Speaker 12: I don't think that it.
• 17:02
  Speaker 9: I don't know that.
• 17:03
  Speaker 12: It shows that I can't speak, So I'm not a
• 17:05
  Speaker 12: picture who's gonna check the analytics on that. I could
• 17:07
  Speaker 12: ask Montana for you. But as a hitter, it is jumping.
• 17:13
  Speaker 12: It's definitely jumping. It's one of those things. As a hitter,
• 17:16
  Speaker 12: you're definitely reading the spin because that's how I know
• 17:19
  Speaker 12: where I'm trying to get my barrel to end up.
• 17:21
  Speaker 12: When it comes to the contact point. But I mean
• 17:25
  Speaker 12: when I look back after I've swung and miss, when
• 17:27
  Speaker 12: I usually swing at those, it's definitely much higher than
• 17:30
  Speaker 12: I thought it was when it was coming through the zone.
• 17:33
  Speaker 7: All Right. One of the other things you said was
• 17:34
  Speaker 7: or Aj even said it. And it's one of my
• 17:36
  Speaker 7: favorite times a year when the College World Series, the
• 17:40
  Speaker 7: women's College World Series is on. I love watching it.
• 17:44
  Speaker 7: It is on our TV as love as there's games.
• 17:47
  Speaker 7: It's on. My daughter and I get to watch it.
• 17:49
  Speaker 7: She leaves, I still get to watch it. Can you
• 17:53
  Speaker 7: girls take the same energy that we see in that
• 17:57
  Speaker 7: college game to pro because if you can, to me,
• 18:02
  Speaker 7: I think you're ahead of major league baseball in that sense,
• 18:04
  Speaker 7: because I think we lose some of that energy and
• 18:07
  Speaker 7: like amateur amateur fire that the college game creates is
• 18:13
  Speaker 7: lost than in the big leagues, even in the minor
• 18:16
  Speaker 7: leagues and then into the big leagues.
• 18:19
  Speaker 12: Personally, I think it's already there. I think that if
• 18:22
  Speaker 12: if you're a fan, or if you're just curious about
• 18:24
  Speaker 12: like what you just asked, show up to a game,
• 18:27
  Speaker 12: Show up to a game and you'll see it, you know.
• 18:29
  Speaker 12: I think about when we played this past season, we
• 18:32
  Speaker 12: played in Round Rock versus the Bandits, and we had
• 18:34
  Speaker 12: over six thousand fans there and you know, Bandits were
• 18:38
  Speaker 12: we're beating us. But that was a very hype game.
• 18:41
  Speaker 12: There was a lot of a lot of emotion. There's
• 18:43
  Speaker 12: a lot of great plays. We celebrate every little thing
• 18:46
  Speaker 12: throughout the game. It doesn't matter if you made you know, ordinary,
• 18:51
  Speaker 12: you know, everyday type of play, or you do some
• 18:53
  Speaker 12: type of Jeter throw. Everybody's going to celebrate it the
• 18:56
  Speaker 12: same because we know how hard it is to make
• 18:58
  Speaker 12: those simple plays. And for us, playing fiery and being
• 19:01
  Speaker 12: that like fierce competitor is something we truly enjoy doing.
• 19:04
  Speaker 12: And I think that you'll see that at every single
• 19:06
  Speaker 12: game because we're really competitive.
• 19:08
  Speaker 9: We want to win.
• 19:09
  Speaker 12: We all know each other, we've all played against each
• 19:11
  Speaker 12: other for a long time growing up, so I think
• 19:13
  Speaker 12: that there's a lot there with wanting to beat each other.
• 19:15
  Speaker 12: It's just very competitive and very fast paced too, which
• 19:18
  Speaker 12: makes it all the more fun.
• 19:20
  Speaker 7: Kim, I got a question from you. This is for
• 19:22
  Speaker 7: you from a mutual friend, Okay, and the question is, Okay,
• 19:29
  Speaker 7: what kind of player were you like when you played softball?
• 19:32
  Speaker 7: And the question also said he said your college team
• 19:38
  Speaker 7: University of Chicago. Do I have that correct?
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: Yes?
• 19:41
  Speaker 7: How good were you guys.
• 19:44
  Speaker 9: When we had pitching? We were okay?
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: Is that every team?
• 19:50
  Speaker 9: My last two years we didn't have pitching. We were
• 19:52
  Speaker 9: not so good.
• 19:54
  Speaker 11: I was, you know, I was a fiery player, tons
• 19:58
  Speaker 11: of home runs, big power.
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: He's like a you're a slapper, right slapper.
• 20:03
  Speaker 9: I was not a slap.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: We were not a slapper.
• 20:05
  Speaker 11: Gap power tools, gap power line drive. Hitter had some
• 20:09
  Speaker 11: speed played. I played all the infield positions, but I
• 20:13
  Speaker 11: would say scrappy.
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: Okay before before I win his opening day for the
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: for the lead June night, it's on ESPN.
• 20:20
  Speaker 9: We we have so we just signed a three year
• 20:22
  Speaker 9: deal with the.
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: ESPN's so awesome.
• 20:25
  Speaker 11: Fifty games that are going to be on this season.
• 20:28
  Speaker 11: Our championship game, one of our championship series is going
• 20:31
  Speaker 11: to be on ABC for I love pretty exciting.
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: I love it. I can't wait. And then before we
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: let s hear I go. Will the SEC never not
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: win another softball championship?
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: Between Oklahoma and Texas Florida?
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: Will the SEC never not win another National Softball championship?
• 20:48
  Speaker 12: Well, since Oklahoma decided to grace you guys with their presence.
• 20:51
  Speaker 12: I think you're in good.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Hands now, you're good, you're clear. Well, thank you both
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: for stopping by. Yeah, we'll look forward.
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: I can't wait.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: Super we'll make sure yet we talk about it and
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: all that too, So enjoy the rest of the Winter meetings.