Latest / Scene Projects Sports Network / Keaton Smith Talks Baseball, Beast Hack Innovations, and Youth Sports Impact
Transcript
- 0:03Yeah.
- 0:06Get your balloons and baseball tic tacs.
- 0:09Yeah.
- 0:11Yeah.
- 0:12Yeah.
- 0:13Head to the back, and I'm stepping with a purpose.
- 0:14Grip on the back, and you know I get to work.
- 0:16V Shaq swing, got the whole field nervous.
- 0:18Pitch coming fast, but I'm turning it to search.
- 0:19Crack of the back, yeah, you heard that sound.
- 0:21Send it to the fist.
- 0:22Now they looking around.
- 0:23Coach like, damn, how you hitting like that?
- 0:24I just
- 0:24point down like V Shaq.
- 0:25I mean, now, I don't chase hits.
- 0:27Create that
- 0:56Welcome into the Scene Project Sports Network.
- 1:00We are here with a very special interview for you all.
- 1:03You saw it right there, but we got the man himself, founder of Beast Hack, Keaton Smith.
- 1:08Keaton, welcome to the show, brother.
- 1:10Yeah, baby.
- 1:12What's up?
- 1:13Yeah.
- 1:13This ain't a regular interview, so we had to make sure we got the seven eight nine logo on
- 1:18there.
- 1:18Obviously, Beast Hack being a sponsor of the show.
- 1:21We appreciate everything that you've done for seven eighty nine and the Scene Project Sports
- 1:26Network.
- 1:26So today, we wanted to pay it forward a little bit and give you a chance to tell us not just
- 1:31about Beast Hack, but get to know you as a man as well.
- 1:34So that's where I'd like to start out, Keaton.
- 1:36Have you give us a little bit of your backstory, and then we're gonna get into the
- 1:40beast hack hitting stations.
- 1:42Sure.
- 1:42Sure.
- 1:43No problem.
- 1:44Yeah.
- 1:44So I I grew up, playing baseball, man.
- 1:47I guess it's you know, the from the time I could I could walk and swing a bat, I was I was
- 1:53swinging the stick and, started off living in, Brandon Valrico down in Florida, just outside
- 2:01about forty five minutes outside of Tampa at Bloomingdale Little League.
- 2:06And, man, I'm talking about getting up there and and taking swings with, you know, my jersey
- 2:12on, my white pants, and and, you know, you see my underwear through my white pants back in the
- 2:18day.
- 2:18You know, I had my I had my my reds and my blues and my Scooby Doos on and, you know, back
- 2:23from when I was young.
- 2:25And, that's when I started.
- 2:27And, you know, it was kinda funny.
- 2:29My brother was four years older than I was, and so I had to wait about an hour before he would
- 2:36get home from school.
- 2:37And down in Florida, you had these stucco housing.
- 2:40The the side of the houses were stucco.
- 2:42And so I had to figure out what I wanted to do before my brother got home so we could play
- 2:47together.
- 2:48And so I used to grab me a wiffle ball bat, and I had a tennis ball.
- 2:52And I'm right handed.
- 2:53I throw right handed, and I was hitting right handed.
- 2:55And I couldn't if I was standing like this, I couldn't throw it against the house and then
- 3:00get my hands back up to hit the ball in time as it bounced back off the house.
- 3:06And so I had to stand like this, and I had my bat in my hand right here, I had the tennis
- 3:11ball right here.
- 3:12And I throw it off the house.
- 3:13I grabbed the bat, and by the time it bounced back off the house, I could hit it back off the
- 3:18house.
- 3:19And so I actually learned to be a switch hitter by out of just necessity of playing by myself.
- 3:25And so I used to have to hit it back up the middle, right back off the house, bounce off
- 3:29the house, or else because if I pulled it or I was late on it, I had to go get it because it
- 3:35went to either side of the a frame.
- 3:38So, anyway, so that's kinda how I grew up learning how to play baseball.
- 3:42And it was just a it was just a real fun time.
- 3:45Florida has year round baseball.
- 3:48It's awesome.
- 3:50And, wound up leaving there probably around seventh grade and and moved up to Georgia.
- 3:56And, finally, I was just I was always a part of, like, kind of the worst teams, like, in
- 4:02little league.
- 4:03And and then finally in high school, man, I got to be a part of a really good team, baseball
- 4:08wise.
- 4:09We had a really good coach, and we were taught the fundamentals.
- 4:13And we were all a bunch of mediocre ball players.
- 4:15We had some guys that were better than average.
- 4:18We had some guys that were average, and we had some guys that were below average.
- 4:22And, we were just taught the fundamentals.
- 4:25And so we wound up being a really good group of ball players.
- 4:30And so high school was really fun for me, and, I learned to play every position.
- 4:35We had a bunch of good ball players from the time I started as a freshman and sophomore and
- 4:41then junior and then senior year.
- 4:42You know, you always have to kinda move around because the the higher you get up in your
- 4:47levels, the the more you have to be flexible.
- 4:51And I don't know if they do this very much anymore, but, you know, a lot of your better
- 4:55players were pitchers and short stops and center fielders, and things like that.
- 5:01And so but I learned to play third base and shortstop and left field and right field and,
- 5:07wasn't really fast enough to ever play center.
- 5:09We had a guy named Tony Moore, so he was he had that place covered up.
- 5:12So, but anyway, you know, wound up switch hitting and, you know, getting getting to go
- 5:19pretty far with, with high school and then wound up getting a college, scholarship to go
- 5:24play college baseball, play throughout college.
- 5:28Then, senior year, I was second team all American, for the NCAA Rawlings, which was
- 5:35chosen on by the coaches in the Southeast Region.
- 5:38And so, that was a that was a cool award and a cool selection to be a part of.
- 5:43I actually didn't even find out about it until I went in the class one day.
- 5:47I was in the the the business, management section of of of school.
- 5:52That's what I was going to school for, going to college for.
- 5:55And I walked in, and one of my professors was like, oh, we saw you in the paper, or I saw you
- 6:00in the paper.
- 6:01You know, congratulations.
- 6:02And I'm like, what are you talking about?
- 6:03And she's like, oh, you was all American NCAA Rollins or something like that.
- 6:07And she's like, here.
- 6:08I got the paper.
- 6:08You wanna see it?
- 6:10And I was like, yeah.
- 6:12Sure.
- 6:12That'd be cool.
- 6:12And then I saw it.
- 6:13Was like, man, that's awesome.
- 6:14I wish somebody would have told me about it.
- 6:16You know?
- 6:17So, so, anyway, played, all over in college as well.
- 6:23And, I actually was signed to be a short stop my last two years of college.
- 6:28And then right before we started in January, our catcher failed out of school.
- 6:35His grades were were bad.
- 6:37And so, I went up to our coach, coach Edward Taylor, and, and I said, hey, coach.
- 6:42I said, I used to catch in little league.
- 6:44You know?
- 6:45I'll get back there.
- 6:46You know?
- 6:46We're we're deep everywhere else, and, I'm a team player.
- 6:50Put me out.
- 6:51You know?
- 6:51Let me get back there.
- 6:52And so I caught my junior and my senior year and had a lot of fun.
- 6:55And, we we won a we won two conference championships my junior and senior year, which
- 7:00was actually the third and the fourth in a row conference championships for Albany State
- 7:04University, a division two school.
- 7:07A ton of fun.
- 7:08I absolutely loved those two years.
- 7:11And then, had an opportunity, went and did a tryout at, Georgia State University, in Atlanta
- 7:19for an international tryout.
- 7:22And so, so I threw from the outfield.
- 7:25They they you know, they gun you from the outfield.
- 7:27They gun you from the infield and from behind the plate and then off the mount if you're a
- 7:32pitcher.
- 7:32So I played everywhere, and so I wanted any opportunity to to continue my baseball career.
- 7:38And so I threw from the outfield.
- 7:40They clocked me at 94.
- 7:42I threw from shortstop.
- 7:43They clocked me at 94, and then I threw from behind the plate.
- 7:46And I had a 1.87 pop time, and I was a switch hitter.
- 7:50And, unfortunately, for me, I was about a hundred and eighty pounds.
- 7:54And so, I think I was the skinniest catcher ever, whenever I was going to tryouts and all
- 7:59this other stuff, these these guys that are that are studs.
- 8:03And, and so, so, anyway, did the tryout.
- 8:09I had an offer to go to Belgium, Holland, or Austria in Europe.
- 8:13And so in Florida, I grew up down the street from, world champion, winner Jay Bell with the
- 8:23Arizona Diamondbacks, when they beat the Yankees in the World Series.
- 8:28So I met Jay Bell, actually.
- 8:29It's a cool story.
- 8:30I met Jay Bell trick or treating as a little kid.
- 8:33So knocked on the door, trick or treat, you know, hey.
- 8:37I'm out of candy.
- 8:38Would you like an autograph?
- 8:39I'm like, wow.
- 8:40Sure.
- 8:41I don't know who this guy is.
- 8:42You know?
- 8:42And and it was Jay Bell.
- 8:44He was playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
- 8:46At the time, he was the shortstop.
- 8:48And so, anyway, became really good friends with Jay and a wonderful family.
- 8:53And, and so, what is this, fifteen years later almost or something like that, I get this offer
- 9:00to go to Europe, these offers to go to Europe.
- 9:02And I call up Jay, and I'm like, hey, Jay.
- 9:04You know, I've got these offers.
- 9:05What should I do?
- 9:06And he's like, Keaton, Austria is the most beautiful place I've ever seen in the world.
- 9:11And so that's where I chose to start to go after college is, is to Austria.
- 9:17And so I went to Austria.
- 9:19I was in charge of, you know, helping develop the junior team and then also playing and
- 9:25helping the, the guys develop that I played with as well.
- 9:29And so, so, anyway, so what we had, we had a it was a lot of fun, and definitely, it's a it's a
- 9:36step down in competition, but it was a incredible experience.
- 9:42Halfway through the season there, I was already precommitted to play with the USA athletes
- 9:47international tournament team in Stockholm, Sweden.
- 9:51And so, so I went to, bounced out of the Austrian league for the week to fly to
- 9:57Stockholm, Sweden.
- 9:59I met up with my USA Athletes International Baseball team in Stockholm, Spent a week there
- 10:05playing an international tournament.
- 10:07Had a had a had a fabulous time there.
- 10:09It was a lot of fun.
- 10:10Sweden actually has great baseball too, by the way.
- 10:13And, and so then flew back to Austria, finished out my contract there.
- 10:19And while I was finishing out the contract, the New York Yankees had a European tour team come
- 10:24through.
- 10:24And Paul Blair, who played in the late seventies, he played with Reggie Jackson.
- 10:28He was an all star center fielder for the Baltimore Orioles.
- 10:33So Paul Blair and Larry Massaroni were the two coaches for this Yankees European tour team
- 10:38promoting baseball through Europe.
- 10:40And so, they came through, and we put together an Austrian all star team to play their to play
- 10:45their prospect team, the team that they were traveling with.
- 10:49And, right before the we had a home run derby right before the all star game.
- 10:53And I went up to Paul Blair, I said, hey, Paul.
- 10:55Just give me give me a golden nugget, man.
- 10:57Tell me something that's just gonna blow my mind I've never heard before, about hitting.
- 11:02You know?
- 11:03What's the what's the difference between a line drive swing and a home run swing of a Major
- 11:08League Baseball player?
- 11:09And he said, Ketan, it's like this, and it's like this.
- 11:14And I
- 11:14said, okay.
- 11:15And he said, here's what you gotta do.
- 11:17You have to train to the power alleys in center field.
- 11:20You have to train to the big parts of the field, and you have to catch contact off the
- 11:26front side of the hip.
- 11:27Your hands need to be off the front side of the hip.
- 11:30And, on a pitch down the middle, the barrel should be directly across from your hands at
- 11:34contact, and that's how you stay behind the ball.
- 11:37But you have to train to the big parts of the field.
- 11:39That's where your best power is.
- 11:42And, and so he worked with me for, like, ten minutes, you know, just just hanging out with
- 11:46me, you know, give me a couple flips and everything like that.
- 11:50And then we have the home run derby, and I win the home run derby.
- 11:53And Paul as soon as I won it, I was the last guy to go, and, and I won it right handed,
- 11:59which is kinda a little bit crazy, but we had a short porch in in left field.
- 12:04And, and so, so I hit right handed.
- 12:07And, but, anyway, I was the last guy to go.
- 12:09And when I hit the home run to win it, and I took off, and I just did around the bases.
- 12:14I was just pumped up.
- 12:15And I took off, and I did around the base trot.
- 12:17And Paul Blair was the first one at home plate to meet me at home plate, man.
- 12:23And it was just like, hell yeah, Paul.
- 12:26You are the man.
- 12:27You know what I mean?
- 12:28Out of everything he knows, kids.
- 12:29Look at this guy.
- 12:30Absolutely, man.
- 12:31I'm like, ten years too late, but this is awesome.
- 12:34You know?
- 12:35But, yeah, man, that was cool.
- 12:36And they asked me to come back the next year and be their shortstop for the next year's
- 12:40European tour.
- 12:42And but that's where the beast hack started.
- 12:44That's what Paul told me is is is the reason for the development of the beast hack.
- 12:51And now we've got a good product.
- 12:53We're teaching kids the fundamentals.
- 12:56You don't have to pick up a ball.
- 12:58You don't have to throw a ball.
- 12:59The angles of rotation tell you everything about what your hands are doing at contact, and
- 13:04now parks and rec are putting them in.
- 13:06It's slow, but, you know, we need that's what we need people to do.
- 13:09We need people to call up their local park and recs and say, hey.
- 13:12We we need to get some beast hat hitting stations out here.
- 13:15Because at the end of the day, man, all these all these parents will have to do is bring
- 13:20their kid and a bat up to the park.
- 13:22And a and a parent or a coach with no hitting experience whatsoever can help these kids
- 13:28become better.
- 13:30And we're putting
- 13:30And that's that's massive.
- 13:32And we've had our setup in the backyard now, for less than a week, but I've already seen it.
- 13:37Now we haven't got to take it to the game yet, but seeing the difference that it's made with
- 13:41my kids because they only get reps when they're at the park and rack.
- 13:45And we had, you know, we got some balls that are down there, but kids are stealing the balls
- 13:49and the bats that are in there aren't great bats.
- 13:52And it just makes it really, really tough where the BSTAC has kinda changed that.
- 13:56I got a video I'd like to add up here.
- 13:58You you sent me some of this stuff, and and I wanna put this one up here.
- 14:01Sure.
- 14:01You can kinda narrate it if you need to.
- 14:03I'll kinda mute the video, and you can just tell us this is the start up video that you had
- 14:08sent me.
- 14:09So just gonna put this up there, and you can explain a little bit of what's going on here
- 14:13with the B Stack and some of the features on it.
- 14:16Yeah.
- 14:17So what we really wanna do is we wanna make sure the kids are standing in the right spot.
- 14:21You know, the the basic of what is step one if I wanna hit a baseball or a softball.
- 14:28You wanna catch that ball out front.
- 14:29So with with kids, you wanna make sure that they're standing far enough back to when they
- 14:33trigger and they take that step, that stride, that at contact, they're still catching that
- 14:38ball out front.
- 14:40And so what he's doing right here, he's looking to see if he got that 06:00 to 12:00 rotation.
- 14:45Because when you're working on a pitch down the middle, you wanna hit that ball back up the
- 14:48middle.
- 14:49Bam.
- 14:50Right there.
- 14:51If it goes 06:00 to 12:00, you got perfectly behind the baseball.
- 14:55And if it goes to the side like that, you're either getting inside the ball or outside the
- 15:00ball.
- 15:01And so for youth kid, you know, youth, and even, you know, as for me, especially, all the
- 15:06way up, all I ever worked on was a pitch down the middle because that's a pitcher.
- 15:10See how that ball swung to the side?
- 15:12He got around that ball.
- 15:14And when you get around the ball like that, that means you're throwing the barrel out there
- 15:17too far.
- 15:18You're not getting your hands through and then letting the barrel come through.
- 15:22So once the kids start to see and understand these angles of rotation that the ball assembly
- 15:28is taken, they understand how to fix their hands.
- 15:31Right?
- 15:32And so even, like, once the parents understand this, the parents with no hitting experience
- 15:36whatsoever can start to sit there and help their kids become better hitters.
- 15:42So that's that is the purpose of it.
- 15:44Well, and it's giving you real time data that you don't necessarily get hitting off a tee.
- 15:49You're not chasing balls around.
- 15:51You're not having to sit there with them and put the ball.
- 15:53These kids can sit in the backyard, and my kids did it all day, last Saturday and Sunday where
- 15:59they're just out with the bat.
- 16:00And it really they didn't even need the best bat.
- 16:03Right?
- 16:03Like, we have an old t ball bat.
- 16:04They're a little 26 incher.
- 16:06Right?
- 16:06But it's good enough for them to step behind.
- 16:08And what they need to see more than anything, especially my kids are nine and 10, they need
- 16:13to see the bat hitting the ball over and over again, seeing that rotation, building those
- 16:19reps in there.
- 16:20And I've never seen anything on the market better for that than this.
- 16:25And and for people that can afford to put one behind their home look.
- 16:28If you're playing baseball and your kids are playing competitive baseball, you're spending
- 16:31over $1,000 a season on shoes and new bags and a new mid and $3,400 bats that are out there.
- 16:39Go get yourself a b stack for a thousand bucks that will last them the entirety of their
- 16:44career, and all you gotta do is replace the ball assembly in it.
- 16:48It's a no brainer on the, the value side to me anyway.
- 16:52And for the Parks and Rec that are establishing those, what better way do you have to give back
- 16:57to these generations upon generations of kids that are gonna be using this system?
- 17:03I mean, we just need to tell people about it and get these things out there.
- 17:06And I think it's really easy to see, especially just watching a video like we just did of like,
- 17:12oh, yeah.
- 17:13We need one of those.
- 17:14Yep.
- 17:15Absolutely.
- 17:16You know, Park and Rec, I mean, they're there to to enhance the park for the community.
- 17:20You know, they're gonna spend your tax dollars to enhance the park for the kids and adults.
- 17:26You know, we've got down in Orlando at Redbug Lake Park.
- 17:29They actually put in three bees tax at the adult softball fields.
- 17:34And all the kids are using it while while while moms and dads are playing.
- 17:37You know?
- 17:39And even the adults are using it too.
- 17:40But, I mean, they're they're starting to go up.
- 17:42You know, it's just a long sales cycle with parks and rec, and that's why we're just, you
- 17:48know, we're really just trying to find all the ways we can to get the word out there about it.
- 17:52And, the the kids love it.
- 17:54You know?
- 17:55The kids love it.
- 17:55Redbug Lake said the kids will be there on Saturdays lined up, waiting their turn to hit
- 18:00in it.
- 18:00Because at the end of the day, batting cages really aren't making youth players any better.
- 18:06You know?
- 18:07Batting cages are just what's been around forever.
- 18:10There's there's there hasn't been anything new.
- 18:12You know?
- 18:12And so what we're trying to do is we're trying to teach the kids the fundamentals, the basics.
- 18:17We're trying to help them to build muscle memory.
- 18:20Right?
- 18:20Every swing a kid takes on a B stack is gonna be at a strike.
- 18:24Every kid a swing every swing a kid takes in a batting cage is gonna be here, here, here,
- 18:29here, here, here, here, right, and all that stuff.
- 18:31And that's not how you build muscle memory.
- 18:34Now you absolutely need a cage because a kid needs to work on their timing, but you have to
- 18:38build a foundation before you build on your timing.
- 18:41Right?
- 18:42And so because you wanna groove that swing, and and it's, and it's just it's just one of those
- 18:47things the way you take five to 10 hacks, and then you step back, you let the next guy go,
- 18:53and then now now all of a sudden, you've had a chance to think about what you just did, what
- 18:57you just saw, you know, capture that feedback, think about what you're doing because baseball
- 19:02is a thinking game.
- 19:03It's not just about hitting it, watching it spin, stopping it, and then hitting it and
- 19:07watching it spin and stopping it.
- 19:09It's hit it, watch it spin, Understand what you just saw.
- 19:14Let it spin until it stops.
- 19:17Take a breather.
- 19:18Step out.
- 19:19Dig back in.
- 19:21Gather yourself just like a game scenario.
- 19:24You know?
- 19:24And now moms and dads can can do it from the bench over there at the rec thing.
- 19:29You know?
- 19:30And a lot of these kids nowadays, you know, they wanna do it themselves.
- 19:33You know?
- 19:34And so this is a perfect opportunity for that.
- 19:37I mean, we put Major League Baseballs on the ball assembly.
- 19:40We sent you one, so you could check that out.
- 19:42I mean, you know, this this thing is built in The USA.
- 19:45It's all been about all about quality.
- 19:48I didn't wanna get involved with the, with with this with the bad quality product.
- 19:54You know, getting it cheap, selling a bunch of them.
- 19:56Like, this was really specifically to help kids because a lot of the better instruction has
- 20:03gone into travel ball, high school, and college nowadays.
- 20:06And recreation, god bless them, they're volunteers.
- 20:09They're doing the best they can, but sometimes they're teaching these kids absolute nonsense.
- 20:13And it's just stuff that they're just hearing.
- 20:15They're regurgitating, and they're doing their best.
- 20:18Right?
- 20:18So here's here's something that actually we can put out there, for people to come up to
- 20:24whenever it's convenient for them.
- 20:26They can work on the swing.
- 20:27I mean, now when when have when have the have you ever had a chance, as a parent sometimes to
- 20:33go to Walmart, spend $35 on a bat, take your kid up to the park because they said they
- 20:38wanted to play baseball or softball?
- 20:40Let them take some swings.
- 20:42This is gonna be fun for them.
- 20:44If they swing and miss, it's like good practice swing.
- 20:47You know what I mean?
- 20:47You hit a tee.
- 20:48It falls over.
- 20:49They gotta pick up the ball.
- 20:50It's a little discouraging for kids.
- 20:52Right?
- 20:53And so now we've got these electronic counters that we're wanting to implement into the future
- 20:58to to to connect it in with an app so these kids can compete nationwide on an app of how
- 21:06many spins they get.
- 21:07We can kinda gamify it.
- 21:08You know?
- 21:09And then for the older kids, we're actually gonna take that same electronic counter.
- 21:13We're gonna use AI to convert the amount of time it takes it to take one full rotation, and
- 21:18we're gonna convert that to exit velocity.
- 21:21And so now we can kinda gain the interest of the older kids too.
- 21:25Right?
- 21:25And so, yeah, so that's the plan.
- 21:28We built it for the kids.
- 21:30All this has been for the kids.
- 21:31It's a great product, and, you know, it's it's you just take some hacks.
- 21:37You know?
- 21:38It's incredible.
- 21:39Looking forward to, having one in the backyard here and taking it down to let our kids' teams
- 21:45use them as well and watching it improve the play of our youngsters.
- 21:50You know?
- 21:50We we live in a small town, brother.
- 21:52We don't have a lot of resources that can get put into that.
- 21:55They spent a ton of money putting up new batting cages and raising money in the
- 21:59community to do that.
- 22:00These systems are so much more valuable than those batting cages could ever be.
- 22:05And teaching these kids from a very young age how to hit the ball in the proper spot.
- 22:10I see it all the time.
- 22:10Right?
- 22:11Like, my son Mickey's barely four foot tall.
- 22:13None of his coaches can even hit his strike zone.
- 22:15But now I have something where I can put him in there, and he might get to get three hits when
- 22:20the coach is pitching him at practice.
- 22:22He can get that in a matter of a minute with the beast tag.
- 22:25He's gotten more reps in the last two days in the backyard than he has probably his his
- 22:31entire career playing little league ball.
- 22:34Right?
- 22:34So it it's been a breakthrough for us.
- 22:36And I know that there's a lot of other parents and and teams and leagues that are out there
- 22:41that could benefit from this as well.
- 22:43That's why I jumped at the opportunity to work with you, to have you on as a sponsor of seven,
- 22:48eight, nine to do everything in our power to really spread the word about what we think is
- 22:52the most amazing hitting station we've ever seen.
- 22:55I mean, take the take the pitching machine and throw that thing in the trash, man.
- 23:00This is much better for the teams out there.
- 23:03Is it gonna help you with your timing?
- 23:05No.
- 23:05But it's gonna help you build that foundation that you need to barrel that ball up and to
- 23:11start hitting dingers.
- 23:12Yeah.
- 23:13Balance equals power, and this thing will make you be balanced.
- 23:17Right?
- 23:17And so, again, you know, we're not here to replace everything else.
- 23:21We're here to just just bring a value added piece of equipment to the party.
- 23:26That's all.
- 23:27That's what we're here to do.
- 23:28We are here for that seven year old or five year old or five year old, a 14 year old.
- 23:34We wanna give those kids a chance.
- 23:35Like, eighty five percent of those kids are dropping out by the time they're 13 because
- 23:40they don't have a chance.
- 23:41You know, how many of those kids that are in, Park and Rec Ball because their parents can't
- 23:46afford travel ball, right, because it's thousands of dollars, how many of those kids
- 23:52could possibly have a chance if they were just taught the fundamentals?
- 23:55You know?
- 23:55And then maybe the the middle school program will start to improve.
- 23:58And then when the middle school program starts to improve, the high school program in these
- 24:03small towns will start to improve.
- 24:04And then all of a sudden, now you have kids who may be going to, play on scholarships and
- 24:09stuff.
- 24:09So it's a long play, and we're in it for the long haul.
- 24:12You know?
- 24:12We've got patents.
- 24:13We just finished five year opposition with Monster Energy Drink Corporation, which we won.
- 24:18So, you know, it's kinda like Yeah.
- 24:20Completely not baseball related.
- 24:22Yeah.
- 24:23I mean but but, you know, but it's very much business.
- 24:25Like, it's been a very much a part of this.
- 24:27And when I first started this, I was so pumped up, and then the nastiness of business and
- 24:34lawyers and stuff like that got involved.
- 24:37And and it's been a wait for the last five years, but now it's off of us.
- 24:40We're good to go.
- 24:42And, man, I just can't wait to see these things continue to pop up.
- 24:45I got a picture yesterday from Henry County.
- 24:48They were the 2023 park and wreck of the year in Georgia, and they just sent me pictures
- 24:53yesterday of another park that they're implementing all these bees tax in.
- 24:57Wet cement, beast tags down, is they're going up, man.
- 25:02They're going up.
- 25:03That's awesome.
- 25:04Well and we hope to spread the word up here where we're at in the Upper Midwest and,
- 25:09continue growing this name, of the beast tag, getting as many kids as possible, hitting off
- 25:14of this thing, and becoming better ball players.
- 25:16And maybe this is a renaissance for the game that I think it desperately needs right now,
- 25:22and this is how you do it.
- 25:23You get kids excited about ball.
- 25:25And it's hard to when, you you don't have the right tools.
- 25:30Well, now we got the tools.
- 25:31We just gotta tell everyone about it.
- 25:33So, Keaton, I appreciate everything you're doing for us, what you're gonna what you're
- 25:37doing for my kids and what you're doing for our neighborhood, and what we can do to do it for a
- 25:42lot of other park and recs and, you know, teams across the country now and around the world to
- 25:48to make these kids better hitters and ultimately better ballplayers.
- 25:52Yep.
- 25:53Yep.
- 25:53That's the goal.
- 25:54That's the goal.
- 25:55You know?
- 25:56Get a couple of these kids getting better.
- 25:58Their friends are gonna wanna hit with them.
- 26:00It's something they can do together.
- 26:02It's just it's just a lot of fun, man.
- 26:04Hitting is the most exciting part of baseball and softball.
- 26:07That is the funnest part.
- 26:08Chicks dig the long ball.
- 26:10You know what?
- 26:10So do grandmas and granddads.
- 26:12So do moms and dads.
- 26:13We had a couple of our girls on senior night last night at the softball field hit a couple
- 26:18of dingers.
- 26:18It was pretty awesome to watch and
- 26:20the excitement.
- 26:21And even though it was pouring down rain and it was cold and everything, man, watching that
- 26:27ball go over the fence.
- 26:28And they didn't just hit it over the the the regulation softball fence, right, that's inside
- 26:33of it.
- 26:34One of these girls hit it all the way out of the park and seeing the elation in that.
- 26:39It took away all the cold and wet feelings that you'd had for six innings before that.
- 26:44And, yeah, we wanna give that to as many people as we can, as many of these young kids as we
- 26:49can to get them with that big smile on their face.
- 26:52Now I didn't hit a lot in my high school career, but that's because I didn't have a
- 26:56beast hat, Keaton.
- 26:59Yeah.
- 27:00I didn't either.
- 27:01I wish I woulda had one.
- 27:03Might have might have made it to the show.
- 27:05May maybe maybe it got another step further, a little step closer.
- 27:10Well, Keaton, I appreciate you taking some time for me today to talk about beast hack.
- 27:15You've you've been a big part of seven eight nine for the last couple of weeks here.
- 27:19Glad we got to finally sit down and to do this.
- 27:21I see a long fruitful partnership between our companies and and a lot of smiling faces of
- 27:27these kids become better ball players as well.
- 27:30So thank you for being part of what we're building here, and thank you for being part of
- 27:34the scene.
- 27:35Thank you, Bubba.
- 27:36We look forward to it.
- 27:40So the beast tack is an incredible tool no matter what age kid that you have, but just to
- 27:45be able to work and making sure that their hands are getting to the right position as they
- 27:49hit the ball.
- 27:50It is something you don't have to go chase balls any of those things, but this beast tack
- 27:55is incredible because when you get that twelve six rotation, it's real easy to tell that
- 27:59you're putting a good swing on that.
- 28:01And my kids is after I teach them what they're looking for and they can work on it on their
- 28:05own if they want to.
- 28:06So a great training tool for a team, great training tool for individuals.
- 28:10So I highly highly recommend you purchasing a Beast Tack so that your player can be the best
- 28:17that they can be on the baseball field.