Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast

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Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast - Pat Bailey

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Pat Bailey opens up about his remarkable 42-year baseball coaching journey that culminated in two national championships at Oregon State and D3 George Fox University. With a career spanning high school, Division III, and Division I baseball, Bailey offers a treasure trove of wisdom on what truly builds consistent winners.

Bailey's approach to recruiting and team-building is refreshingly countercultural. "Culture eats strategy for breakfast," he explains, detailing his three non-negotiable criteria: character, work ethic, and selflessness. This philosophy led him to prioritize high-achieving students (rarely recruiting players with GPAs below 3.5) and team-first personalities. The results speak for themselves—a whopping 813 collegiate wins and a pipeline of MLB talent including Adley Rutschman, Michael Conforto, and Stephen Kwan.

For coaches, Bailey delivers practical gold on outfield development, comparing outfielders to defensive backs in football where mistakes often cost multiple bases or even games. His systematic approach includes daily route work and structured drills to develop complete outfielders. When it comes to hitting, Bailey emphasizes attitude over mechanics: "Hitting is attitude, attitude, attitude," followed by approach and strike zone management.

Perhaps most compelling is Bailey's perspective on purpose. "Coaching is not about me. It's about helping other people and having an impact," he shares, explaining how he used baseball merely as a vehicle to develop young men of character. After retiring from coaching in 2020, Bailey now works with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, continuing his life's mission outside the dugout.

Whether you're coaching Little League or college baseball, Bailey's parting wisdom resonates: "Capture an athlete's heart and you capture the athlete." His legacy proves that when you focus on developing the person first, the championships often follow.

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Chapters

00:00 - Introducing Coach Pat Bailey

06:03 - From Business to Baseball Coaching

10:44 - Transfer Portal and NIL Challenges

19:07 - Recruiting for Character and Culture

27:36 - Elite Outfield Development Strategies

34:50 - Effective Hitting Approach

44:00 - Building Consistent Winners

52:48 - College World Series Memories

Transcript

WEBVTT

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Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

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What does it take to become a consistent winner over a 42-year coaching career?

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The career started as a high school coach, eventually moving to a Division III where you won a national championship, and finishing up as a national champion for Oregon State.

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As a national champion for Oregon State, coach Pat Bailey goes in-depth on winning the College World Series, outfield play, recruiting and so much more.

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Next.

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On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

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Welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken Carpenter.

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Presented by AthleteOne.

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Baseball Coaches Unplugged is a podcast for baseball coaches, with 27 years of high school baseball coaching under his belt, here to bring you the inside scoop on all things baseball, from game-winning strategies and pitching secrets to hitting drills and defensive drills.

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Discover how to build a winning mentality, inspire your players and get them truly bought into your game philosophy Plus.

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Get the latest insights on recruiting, coaching, leadership and crafting a team culture that champions productivity and success.

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On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

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Today's episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged is powered by the netting professionals, improving programs one facility at a time.

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Now to my episode with Oregon State Associate Head Coach Pat Bailey.

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Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

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I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter, and I'm excited to bring to you from the state of Oregon, pat Bailey, associate Head Coach at Oregon State, and he was a two-time national champion Coach.

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Thanks for taking time to be on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

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Absolutely.

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Thank you for allowing me to be on.

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Well, you know, I had a chance to research your career a little bit and it's nothing short of incredible.

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But I've got to ask, now that you're no longer coaching, what keeps you busy these days?

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I quit coaching when I was 64.

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I coached for 42 years 16 in high school, 26 in college.

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And when I finished, in 2020, during the pandemic, my wife goes hey, buddy, you better find something to do, because when you coach Division I baseball, you put in a lot of hours.

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Because when you coach Division I baseball, you put in a lot of hours.

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And so I had Ryan Johnston, who's the five-state director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, called me and asked me if I'd be interested in going to work for FCA and I said yes and we met.

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And then he and my wife and I met and I said yes.

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And so I've been working for FCA since December of 2020.

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I'm 69.

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Fortunately, I'm still healthy.

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I'm not taking any medication or anything.

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So other than I've had quite a few surgeries related to baseball Tommy John, both shoulders, left hip just recently.

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So I'm going to be the $6 million man when it gets over with, but that's what I'm doing now.

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I'm working for FCA.

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Well, that's great.

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I noticed that you know you've coached high school division three and division one, and you also played college baseball.

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At what point did you say, hey, I want to become a baseball coach.

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You know it's funny, that's a great question.

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When I was a sophomore in college, I was majoring in business and a teacher took me out to dinner and he said I think you should go into education.

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And I laughed.

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I said I'm not going into education.

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They don't, teachers don't make any money.

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And he said would you just take one education class?

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And I said well, I'm majoring in business.

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And he goes, they teach business in high schools.

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So I took a class and I'm switching to business education and graduated in four years, finished in 78.

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And I applied for a job down in Eugene Oregon and it's the first job I applied for and I got it.

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And so I started coaching baseball.

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I was the JV baseball coach and the JV football coach for both sports and that's when I got going.

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So, anyhow, I think it's a God thing that I ended up doing so.

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That's what I'm doing.

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Well, you know it's a God thing that I ended up doing so.

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That's what I'm doing.

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Well, you know it's funny you mentioned that.

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It's like it wasn't necessarily a baseball coach.

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It was somebody at the college that wanted you to must have saw something in you that thought, hey, you need to be out there educating young students.

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Yeah, that's what he talked to me.

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That's exactly what he told me.

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He goes.

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You're a great guy, you have great morals.

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We need people who have high character teaching in schools, and so that's what happened.

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Well, you mentioned, you've done it, you said 42 years.

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You mentioned, you've done it, you said 42 years.

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With all that you've done for baseball and for all the players throughout that time, what has baseball done for you?

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Well, you know what?

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Coaching is not about me.

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It's about helping other people and having an impact and influence on other people, and every coach should know his why and my why was to develop men of character and to help them become great citizens If they choose to get married, great husbands, great fathers, great community members, and so you know, I use baseball as a vehicle to teach that.

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Well, I want to bounce around with a lot of different things here today because I just think you've got so much knowledge in all these areas.

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But I just read a stat the other day that said I believe the average division one college baseball player age is 21.9 nearly 22 years old, and this makes it incredibly hard for a high school kid that has aspirations of playing at the D1 college level.

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I got to get your thoughts on the transfer portal.

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Is it good for college baseball?

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You know what the problem with what's happened?

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And it's not so much the transfer portal, it's the nil, and so it depends how much money uh school has in nil money.

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I mean, I have a buddy who's had a short stop at a division one program.

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That was a really good player.

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In fact he's going to be a first round pick this year and he came in at the end of last year and he said coach, I need a hundred thousand dollars in nil money or I'm not going to come back first-round pick this year.

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And he came in at the end of last year and he said Coach, I need $100,000 in NIL money or I'm not going to come back.

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And he goes, I don't have that kind of money.

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And so he hit the transfer portal and the next day he was at SEC school.

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I mean that thing was already done before that kid even came in there.

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So honestly I'm glad I'm not coaching anymore between the NIL and the transfer portal.

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And the transfer portal was then when I was coaching too.

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It's just the NIL.

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Things really changed that.

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And that 21.2 years part of that's the pandemic, you know, because kids were playing longer, because they got that extra year I would be worrying about.

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If you looked at that before the pandemic, it was probably somewhere around 19 to 20, probably 20.

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Because most kids maybe a little over 20, because not everybody signs after their junior year.

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But yeah, I think it's really changed things.

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I think it affects development.

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You get a guy in your program instead of developing him either.

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You know, because I think it works both ways.

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I think coaches tell kids they need a transfer because they want to get a better, better PAC, a player in the portal, and they want to get a better player.

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So the whole thing is I'm just thankful I'm not doing it anymore because of it.

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Yeah, it's tough, I mean.

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And then you have the kids that jump in the transfer portal and they don't find a home, and then they have the kids that jump in the transfer portal and they don't find a home, and then they shouldn't have jumped into it.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Well, in 2018, Oregon State you guys won the College World Series as a coach on that team and in the 12 seasons that you you were at oregon state, you won yeah he's actually at oregon state for 13 years.

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13 okay, yeah, well, I believe your record was 496, 205 and 3.

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How I had bob todd on, I don't know if you.

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If you know bob todd, he was coach for Ohio State for a long time and he was a big proponent for moving the season back a little bit because he felt like teams in the North are at a disadvantage.

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What did you guys do, or what do they still do, at Oregon State?

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You're in the Northwest.

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How do you continue to put out great teams and compete at such a high level?

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Well, first of all, let's just be honest.

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Good coaches become great coaches when you recruit talent, and we had a lot of talented players.

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So that's I mean.

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You know, come on, I think everybody every coach that's at the college level knows what they're doing.

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Everybody has strategy.

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But I'm just telling you, culture eats strategy for breakfast, and we had a great culture, and you know, every place I've been, I primarily think culture is really important.

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So you've got to recruit the right kind of guy.

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So our big three, because I was a recruiting coordinator.

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Number one you better be a man of character.

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If you're not a man of character, you're not going to fit our culture.

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Number two you better be a hard worker, and hard work starts in the classroom.

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I rarely recruited a guy that was below like a 3.5 GPA.

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Most of them were like 3.8 or higher.

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And I'll give you three quick examples Madrigal, who, in 18, was the fourth pick in the draft.

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I think that was a 4.0 in high school and I think he ended up with like a 3.85 there.

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Adley Rutschman, who was the first pick in the draft.

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Adley Rutschman was like he had one B in high school.

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I think he's a 395.

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And he ended up being like a 378 GPA in the business department here.

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So, and then Caden Grenier was a 4.0 in the valedictorian of his class in his high school and he was a first-round pick in 18.

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So we recruited guys that were really hard workers.

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And the thing is, when students get really good grades, that tells me they're doing things right on and off the field.

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The kid's getting bad grades.

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Whenever I talk to a guy that had below 3.5 GPA, I ask what's going on in your life that you're not getting good grades?

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Well, I got a 3.2 because 3.2, anybody can get a 3.2.

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I can chew bubblegum in a class and not do anything to get a 3.2 GPA today.

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So, anyhow.

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And then the last thing is you better be selfless.

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You better make other people more important than yourself.

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It's team, teammate, self, in that order.

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And if you can't buy into that, I can't recruit you.

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I mean, the very first time I talked to kids on the phone, that's what I told them.

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Then we talked about that that's a great way of doing it, because I mean, you see them, you see a lot of teams that if they're having success, but if they don't, they're not selfless and happy when somebody else does something well, and things like that, it can eat away at the culture a little bit, and it probably all starts with the head coach, I would think absolutely, and case was a great motivator.

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I mean he had a really good job with motivation.

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He was very good with our players to motivate him, to make sure we got the most out of their god-given talent.

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So that factored in too.

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But I'm just telling all it takes is one guy and he can destroy your culture, and that's why I said teams more important than an individual.

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If you have one guy that's affecting your culture and he won't change, you got to let that guy go.

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I mean, if I went to business I'd do the same thing, and this is I mean it's kind of like running a business.

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Right Makes total sense to me and I can relate to that.

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When I look back on my career, I can think of some situations where that came up.

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I got to ask you you work with the outfielders too.

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What advice would you give high school coaches when it comes to creating elite outfielders?

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What do they need to be?

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Do you need to hold the backup shortstop and put him out there in the outfield, or is there any certain things that you look for in great outfielders?

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doesn't catch.

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I mean Trevor Larnik was a first round pick and Trevor's a great guy.

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He's with the twins.

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I mean he's a big kid, but he was a six, seven, 60 guy.

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I mean he could run in center field.

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You want a guy that's you know, preferably a guy it's like a six, five or better runner for the gaps and your corner guys.

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You want to be around six, eight or better.

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So we recruited speed and I recruited speed for defense, not offense.

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There's some times where guys are really good athletes that play shortstop but they're not good defenders in the infield, so you move them to the outfield.

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There's a whole bunch of things that factor into that, but I'm just telling for high school coaches.

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When I was a high school coach I always had an outfield coach.

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An outfielder makes a mistake.

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It's always a multi-base mistake.

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It's not just a single base error like a fielding error.

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So I kind of equate outfield play to defensive backs in football.

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If a defensive back makes a mistake, it could cost you the game.

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It could end up being a touchdown and sending an outfielder.

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If an outfielder makes a mistake, it could cost you the game.

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So we I worked our outfielders every day and our big three was this number one secure the couch.

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Number two take great routes and we did route work every day in practice For me, throwing balls to them.

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It was really controlled.

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They hit and fly balls to them every day and we had a sequence that I did every day with fly balls.

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I'd always have them start shallow and I'd hit them over their heads.

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They worked on going over their heads.

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I'd hit them to the left, I'd hit them to the right and then I would hit them out in front of them, then I'd hit him out in front of him, then I'd hit players to him where they'd have to run in and dive and gouge him.

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So that was our sequence when I hit live down.

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And then the last thing is I want guys being accurate with their throws.

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I'll take a quick arm and an accurate arm any day over a great arm.

00:16:46.660 --> 00:16:55.052
Well, if I read it right, didn't you have one season where all three of your outfielders were first team, all pack 10?

00:16:55.732 --> 00:16:57.395
Yes, yeah, we did.

00:16:57.395 --> 00:17:04.173
I remember what year that was, but I think that was when Michael Conforto was there, who plays for the Dodgers.

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Now, I think that was 2014.

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That's incredible considering the level of talent that's out there on the west coast yeah well, let's just be honest again.

00:17:15.846 --> 00:17:19.192
It goes back to recruiting talent yeah, there you go.

00:17:20.782 --> 00:17:32.454
Well, speaking of recruiting, though, how do you get a kid to come to oregon state versus, you know, sunny california or arizona?

00:17:32.454 --> 00:17:34.559
Arizona state, I mean what well?

00:17:35.884 --> 00:17:37.611
first of all, the weather's not that bad.

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I mean it's going to be 55 degrees here.

00:17:39.778 --> 00:17:49.723
That oh, okay so I mean we're only 230 feet above sea level, we're 50 miles from the pacific ocean, so we hardly ever get snow.

00:17:49.723 --> 00:17:51.287
I mean, if we get snow.

00:17:51.287 --> 00:17:59.730
We got one inch of snow about a month ago and they closed school down because they have no way of cleaning it up.

00:18:00.092 --> 00:18:00.332
Right.

00:18:01.461 --> 00:18:06.465
So we don't have any kind of equipment to clean the roads up, so hardly ever snow is there.

00:18:06.465 --> 00:18:08.567
We get freezing rain once in a while.

00:18:08.567 --> 00:18:21.409
If we have any issues at all, would be with rain, not snow, and we get about, I think, between 35 and 40 inches of rain a year, but it's mostly in november, december and january.

00:18:21.409 --> 00:18:25.386
I mean, we'll get rain once in a while now, but it's it, and our fields turk.

00:18:25.386 --> 00:18:27.454
And the other thing is we have a great facility.

00:18:27.454 --> 00:18:29.163
We have the best facility on the west coast.

00:18:29.163 --> 00:18:30.272
It's beautiful, and, and and, by the way, we kids come have a great facility.

00:18:30.272 --> 00:18:30.858
We have the best facility on the West Coast.

00:18:30.858 --> 00:18:34.990
It's beautiful, and, by the way, kids come to a game to watch us play.

00:18:34.990 --> 00:18:37.167
Our place is sold out every game.

00:18:37.167 --> 00:18:39.665
It seats 4,000 people.

00:18:39.665 --> 00:18:44.753
There's going to be between 3,500 and 4,000 people at every home game.

00:18:45.596 --> 00:18:48.768
Wow, that's amazing, and it's just a great facility.

00:18:50.280 --> 00:18:55.724
Well, you also worked with the hitters and I don't know if you get on.

00:18:55.724 --> 00:18:59.250
You know you get online and check out.

00:18:59.250 --> 00:19:04.249
You got all these hitting gurus and everybody's got a different way of doing it.

00:19:04.249 --> 00:19:15.075
And if you could simplify it, what would you emphasize and how would that routine work daily for a high school player?

00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:44.251
Well, if I was working with high school kids, first of all, everything we did we got from Biokinetic Research Institute, which is Salt Lake City, and it's Bob Kyes that runs that, and Bob has been working with major league hitters now for over four years, where he has cameras that are like $35,000, $40,000 a piece and Bob videotapes them and he puts them into three-dimensional motion analysis.

00:19:44.251 --> 00:19:48.547
So number one is be on time.

00:19:48.547 --> 00:19:58.659
If you know, if a guy doesn't have a strike foot down by it at uh, by the time the ball's a minimum 30 feet away, he's not going to unlock and seek once.

00:19:58.659 --> 00:20:05.182
And you and you, whenever you work with hitters, you always start with their base uh, and then work your way up.

00:20:05.182 --> 00:20:09.153
And then the second thing is, uh, besides being on time, is you have to stabilize your posture.

00:20:09.153 --> 00:20:17.294
If you don to stabilize your posture, if you don't stabilize your posture, if you have spine angle movements when you're striding, you're not going to have proper swing mechanics.

00:20:18.482 --> 00:20:20.028
So those would be my two big ones.

00:20:20.028 --> 00:20:23.007
There's some things.

00:20:23.007 --> 00:20:29.073
And the third thing I would say is, when you're working with guides, don't be a cookie cutter.

00:20:29.073 --> 00:20:30.382
Not everybody's the same.

00:20:30.382 --> 00:20:32.425
Every person is uniquely bold.

00:20:32.425 --> 00:20:35.131
There isn't any one athlete that's the same.

00:20:35.131 --> 00:20:44.364
So you know the posture thing and getting down on time, those have to be done, but everybody has their own signature in terms of how they add.

00:20:44.364 --> 00:20:56.371
So but I would definitely if I was a coach, I would get some information from biokinetic research and the thing young coaches are doing is they're not going to clinics, which is crazy to me.

00:20:56.371 --> 00:21:00.590
They're not going to a clinic and learn from somebody who really knows what they're talking about.

00:21:00.590 --> 00:21:04.759
They get online and look at stuff and a lot of the stuff online is not accurate.

00:21:04.759 --> 00:21:08.190
So you got to be really careful who you learn from.

00:21:09.400 --> 00:21:10.705
Yes, I totally agree with you on that one.

00:21:10.705 --> 00:21:23.455
And you know, when you talk about, have you ever come across a player where somehow he's putting the ball in play, he's getting hits, but maybe his mechanics aren't the greatest?

00:21:24.700 --> 00:21:27.124
That's the very first thing I talk about.

00:21:27.124 --> 00:21:31.289
Hitting is attitude, attitude, attitude, attitude, attitude.

00:21:31.289 --> 00:21:34.075
That's the first thing I mean.

00:21:34.075 --> 00:21:34.535
Come on.

00:21:34.535 --> 00:21:38.590
And then the second, you know, probably more important than mechanics is approach.

00:21:38.590 --> 00:21:40.382
You know what?

00:21:40.382 --> 00:21:40.742
What?

00:21:40.742 --> 00:21:41.565
What do you teach?

00:21:41.565 --> 00:21:47.588
Approach wise, because you know that's going to determine how good, how well you hit.

00:21:47.588 --> 00:21:51.306
I mean, if you're swinging at pitches that are out of the zone, so you it.

00:21:51.306 --> 00:21:52.728
You got it from day one.

00:21:53.308 --> 00:22:00.509
We talked about approach and strike zones, strike zone management, and we also did uh two strike hitting almost every day of practice.

00:22:00.509 --> 00:22:05.864
I mean approach, uh zone management.

00:22:05.864 --> 00:22:18.971
I mean, if you look at our guys in the major leagues that are up there right now you look at Conforto, you look at Rutschman, you look at Kwan Stephen Kwan with the guard nails, you look at Trevor they all manage the strike zone really well.

00:22:18.971 --> 00:22:26.506
So I mean that was a really big deal for us and let's be honest, the only person that hits a really good slider or breaking ball is God.

00:22:26.506 --> 00:22:33.255
So you know you've got to be fastball ready yes, that's, that's true.

00:22:34.195 --> 00:22:50.339
You know I I had, it's been, it's been a little while, but I had a brad commence gone and he was a first round draft pick of the braves and he talked about how he was just tearing it up through the minor leagues.

00:22:50.339 --> 00:23:08.544
He was a leading hitter in the AAA and he said as soon as he got up to the Braves they started changing everything on him and he didn't want to do it, but he thought I'm at the major league level, I better listen to these guys, major league level, I better listen to these guys.

00:23:08.544 --> 00:23:15.595
And he really thought that that kind of affected his career because he made so many changes.

00:23:15.595 --> 00:23:29.987
He got away from what was so successful for him and you know, if you have a guy come in that hits really well prior to coming to you, how much do you try to change that?

00:23:32.693 --> 00:23:33.415
leave them alone.

00:23:33.876 --> 00:23:35.221
Leave them alone, you know they.

00:23:35.289 --> 00:23:45.696
They even know what you teach fitting wise, and they they need to use the language you use and all that kind of stuff so that they understand it when you're talking to them, cause there's going to be little tweaks.

00:23:45.696 --> 00:23:57.711
But I mean, if you got a guy that comes in and can really hit, I mean, the biggest thing where our guys jump, I think, is what you know from their freshman year to their sophomore and junior years.

00:23:57.711 --> 00:24:01.971
They learn how to manage the strike zone and they come up with a really good approach.

00:24:01.971 --> 00:24:08.613
And so, uh, I think that's too bad that he really had minor legs and they're trying to change things to manage.

00:24:08.613 --> 00:24:09.816
I think that's crazy.

00:24:09.816 --> 00:24:16.714
But, uh, if a guy can hit, I mean he's doing everything right mechanically where he's able to.

00:24:17.457 --> 00:24:22.799
You, you know, hit pitches in different locations and, let's be honest, there's spots where guys just don't hit.

00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:25.237
But pitchers make mistakes.

00:24:25.237 --> 00:24:29.521
A major league pitcher in quadrants misses an average of four and a half inches every pitch.

00:24:29.521 --> 00:24:31.655
Those are major leaguers.

00:24:31.655 --> 00:24:40.462
So if you're patient enough to play, you're going to get a pitch and your swing zone to head at some point, not a bat, and that's the critical piece.

00:24:40.462 --> 00:24:44.556
That's part of the approach, and I firmly believe you can't hit 17 inches of the plate.

00:24:44.556 --> 00:24:48.471
There's about eight inches of the plate that you need to focus on.

00:24:48.471 --> 00:24:55.438
That's your area that you really hit and look for a pitch in that area because, let's be honest, most hitters get themselves out.

00:24:55.438 --> 00:25:01.479
Pitchers don't get them out, they get themselves out, and it has a lot to do with swing decisions and strike zone management.

00:25:02.721 --> 00:25:05.516
Yes, I think it's.

00:25:05.516 --> 00:25:10.959
You know, it's clearly the hardest thing to do in sports is to be a successful hitter.

00:25:12.671 --> 00:25:14.955
Hey, you do three out of 10 for 15 years.

00:25:14.955 --> 00:25:15.718
Guess what?

00:25:15.718 --> 00:25:16.800
You're in the Hall of Fame.

00:25:17.102 --> 00:25:17.583
Exactly.

00:25:17.583 --> 00:25:25.561
Well, I want to jump back to when you were at George Fox.

00:25:25.561 --> 00:25:31.541
You were the head coach at George Fox for 12 seasons and you won a national title in 2004.

00:25:31.541 --> 00:25:42.019
Talk about going from being the winningest coach in school history at that division three school to becoming an assistant at oregon state.

00:25:42.019 --> 00:25:44.583
And what was your approach to?

00:25:44.583 --> 00:25:56.502
Because you know, I I've come across coaches where they've been head coaches and now all of a sudden they're like I don't want to deal with all the headaches, I, I just want to go and coach at the high school level.

00:25:56.502 --> 00:25:58.472
What was your approach to that?

00:25:59.776 --> 00:26:13.058
Well, first of all, when I met with Case, when he offered me the job, we spent the first probably hour and he's a friend of mine and so I mean we were friends before I even came to Oregon State.

00:26:13.058 --> 00:26:18.634
But I asked, I said I know we're good friends and we've talked before, but I want to know why do you coach?

00:26:18.634 --> 00:26:19.257
What's your why?

00:26:19.257 --> 00:26:32.318
And we probably spent an hour talking about that and he had the same philosophy I did in terms of why he was coaching Developing men of character, developing men who are going to be accountable and responsible.

00:26:32.318 --> 00:26:35.636
That was the most important thing to me.

00:26:35.636 --> 00:26:41.165
And secondly, I honestly wanted to have an opportunity to coach at a higher level.

00:26:42.109 --> 00:26:53.970
I mean it just you know the guys I've seen play when we were in the Pac-10 and it became the Pac-12, I mean there's a lot of guys in the majors that I coached against, along with the guys that we've had in the majors ourselves.

00:26:53.970 --> 00:26:59.936
I mean Matt Boyd, who's now with the Cubs I think this is Matt's 11th season.

00:26:59.936 --> 00:27:00.740
He is one of ours.

00:27:00.740 --> 00:27:04.159
Drew Rasmussen, who's with the Rays, is one of ours.

00:27:04.159 --> 00:27:09.340
You know, I just it's fun seeing talent.

00:27:09.340 --> 00:27:16.416
So you know, it was an opportunity for me to coach at higher level and I love my time at George Fox.

00:27:16.416 --> 00:27:24.202
I love being a head coach and, by the way, when we won the national championship in 2004, I had four guys or five guys on that team that got drafted.

00:27:25.044 --> 00:27:25.285
Wow.

00:27:25.390 --> 00:27:26.655
So I mean we had talent.

00:27:26.655 --> 00:27:36.521
I mean, when we went, I think we had we were allowed to take 24 players to the World Series and 18 of those players were first team all-state players in high school.

00:27:36.521 --> 00:27:38.376
So we had a lot of talent.

00:27:40.371 --> 00:27:51.123
That's crazy for a Division III team, because here in Ohio we've got a lot of Division III schools, so any time a kid's playing college baseball they're pretty good.

00:27:53.634 --> 00:27:57.623
Five percent buddy that play high school get a chance to play college at some level.

00:27:57.623 --> 00:28:00.960
I always tell kids if you have an opportunity to play college, you're a stud.

00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:03.930
I don't care what level you're playing at, you're a good player.

00:28:06.773 --> 00:28:16.766
Well in 23 seasons of college baseball, you were part of 813 wins.

00:28:16.766 --> 00:28:28.963
For the coaches that are listening here to the baseball coaches unplugged what do they need to do to become a consistent winner the way you did?

00:28:31.651 --> 00:28:35.541
Well, again, it goes back to it's not about the coach.

00:28:35.541 --> 00:28:39.538
And as soon as you figure that out, why do you coach?

00:28:39.538 --> 00:28:42.183
What's your purpose, what's the reason?

00:28:42.183 --> 00:28:45.920
And so you know, I think humility in me is huge.

00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:49.638
I do not like being around arrogant people.

00:28:49.638 --> 00:28:56.230
I mean, it's not about you, dude, it's about what are you doing for your players.

00:28:56.411 --> 00:28:59.353
And the second thing is, I think you know you need to be a class act.

00:28:59.353 --> 00:29:11.434
I mean what you, what you allow, you encourage, what you permit, you promote, and so there has to be standards that are set, and those standards are things that just you can't.

00:29:11.434 --> 00:29:12.719
They have to abide by them.

00:29:12.719 --> 00:29:15.790
And then you need to be clear about your expectations.

00:29:15.790 --> 00:29:24.715
I mean from expectations about your program philosophy, the expectations about discipline, the expectations about practice.

00:29:24.715 --> 00:29:31.420
And when we practice, I tell guys, when you walk through that gate to come to practice, you better be a laser bait.

00:29:31.420 --> 00:29:33.201
I'm not going to put up with floodlights.

00:29:33.201 --> 00:29:37.103
I don't care what's happened during your day, I don't care if you got three hours of sleep.

00:29:37.103 --> 00:29:39.963
When you walk through that gate, it's all about 10.

00:29:39.963 --> 00:29:46.847
And I expect you to work hard, I expect you to be focused, and I will not put up with anybody that's not focused in practice.

00:29:49.698 --> 00:29:58.007
So you have to have high expectations, definitely Do you hate losing or love winning.

00:29:59.970 --> 00:30:01.272
I hate losing or love winning.

00:30:01.272 --> 00:30:01.994
I hate losing, I'll be off.

00:30:01.994 --> 00:30:06.165
You know it's funny because my grandkids they we play games together all the time and I play to win.

00:30:06.165 --> 00:30:13.811
I mean, my grandpa did that with me when I was growing up and and you know they're old enough now where they're beating me in the games and stuff like that.

00:30:13.811 --> 00:30:15.476
But to start with they didn't win a lot.

00:30:15.476 --> 00:30:22.492
And you know, I I don't want snowflakes for grandchildren, I want grandchildren that are going to compete.

00:30:22.492 --> 00:30:26.040
So you know, whatever I'm doing, I'm going to compete at it.

00:30:26.040 --> 00:30:26.521
I want.

00:30:26.521 --> 00:30:28.173
There's a so many people.

00:30:28.173 --> 00:30:30.439
When you ask them how they're doing now, I say they're doing good.

00:30:30.439 --> 00:30:38.570
I don't want to be good, I want to be great at everything I do, and that's what separates goodness from greatness.

00:30:38.671 --> 00:30:58.144
I mean, come on, man yeah, I love that, that's, you know I I get a lot of different, uh, opinions on that, you know, because it's almost like, a lot of times I find people saying, well, winning was the expectation, so I hate to lose.

00:31:00.131 --> 00:31:05.056
So you know, you know, but the winning part's a byproduct of everything you do.

00:31:05.056 --> 00:31:13.185
I mean, if everybody's shooting to win a state championship, and I mean that should be a part of what you want to do, but it's a byproduct.

00:31:13.185 --> 00:31:18.375
I mean, john Wooden won what?

00:31:18.375 --> 00:31:19.483
12 national championships when he was at UCLA.

00:31:19.483 --> 00:31:20.269
He never once talked about winning.

00:31:20.269 --> 00:31:30.284
We didn't talk a lot about winning, we talked a lot about you know, all the stuff you do with your program, what your culture is.

00:31:30.284 --> 00:31:34.460
I mean being relentlessly pursuing excellence.

00:31:34.460 --> 00:31:36.036
It's not about success.

00:31:36.036 --> 00:31:37.496
Success is a scoreboard.

00:31:37.496 --> 00:31:46.699
If you pursue excellence and you make the most, if you get every kid to make the most out of their God-given talent, then the success part takes care of itself.

00:31:48.651 --> 00:31:52.922
Well, I got to ask do you miss not putting the uniform on?

00:31:54.131 --> 00:31:54.974
Here's what I miss.

00:31:54.974 --> 00:31:57.057
I miss the relationship with the players.

00:31:57.057 --> 00:31:59.017
I don't miss the travel.

00:31:59.017 --> 00:32:00.775
I mean I was gone a lot.

00:32:00.775 --> 00:32:07.843
I was a recruiting coordinator, so I was probably in a hotel room between the season and recruiting.

00:32:07.843 --> 00:32:10.236
I had probably 150-plus days a year.

00:32:10.236 --> 00:32:12.080
I was gone from home, wow.

00:32:12.080 --> 00:32:16.049
So I mean everybody that wants to be a Division I coach.

00:32:16.211 --> 00:32:25.377
I'll just give you an example year when we won the national championship, we started on valentine's day and I didn't have any kids at home, so my wife traveled with us a lot.

00:32:25.377 --> 00:32:33.567
So I got to be with my wife a lot, who I've been married to for 47 years and, by the way, I'm jamie and she's varsity how the hell I'm.

00:32:33.567 --> 00:32:34.653
I'm very blessed.

00:32:34.653 --> 00:32:45.355
I have a great wife and a very supportive wife, because she saw our main coach in baseball's admission field, so we had kids over our house that came and ate dinner at our house and all kinds of stuff.

00:32:45.355 --> 00:32:56.422
But anyhow, we started on february 14th, from february 14th till june 28th when, when we won the national championship, I had three days off and one of them was Easter.

00:32:57.462 --> 00:32:57.804
Wow.

00:32:58.744 --> 00:33:03.161
Yeah, and it's a 70-plus-hour-a-week job, yeah.

00:33:04.714 --> 00:33:10.057
It's not an easy job and the best part is everybody in the stands thinks they can do it better.

00:33:10.057 --> 00:33:10.919
That's for sure.

00:33:11.480 --> 00:33:17.315
Oh my gosh, and you know what, most of the people that complain are people that never even played sports and they think they know stuff.

00:33:17.315 --> 00:33:22.196
Or you know, everybody's, everybody's played baseball or whatever, so they think they know things.

00:33:22.196 --> 00:33:27.497
So, yeah, you just that's I call that noise and just eliminate it.

00:33:27.497 --> 00:33:28.619
Eliminate the noise.

00:33:28.619 --> 00:33:31.817
Yeah, all that matters is your team and your players.

00:33:33.230 --> 00:33:40.529
I got to ask this because I'm players I got to ask this because I'm out here in the Midwest and how big is the rivalry between Oregon and Oregon state?

00:33:41.691 --> 00:33:44.417
It's good, it's a healthy rivalry, but it's a good one.

00:33:44.417 --> 00:33:46.583
Yeah, absolutely.

00:33:47.230 --> 00:33:47.611
Now they.

00:33:47.611 --> 00:33:51.840
You hear the talk about the uh, is it called the civil war?

00:33:52.626 --> 00:33:53.049
for football.

00:33:53.049 --> 00:33:55.175
Yeah, they changed the name of it.

00:33:55.175 --> 00:34:00.390
Okay, I don't know what name they call it now, but they don't use that name anymore.

00:34:00.609 --> 00:34:08.061
Is that same intensity there for baseball and basketball and sports like that?

00:34:08.682 --> 00:34:09.583
Yeah, it is.

00:34:09.583 --> 00:34:13.916
Yeah, I mean you want to be you're, I mean they're only 45 minutes away.

00:34:13.916 --> 00:34:19.331
45 minutes away, 50 minutes away, I guess, from we're 50 minutes away from each other.

00:34:19.331 --> 00:34:23.681
So the first rule in the art of war is respect your opponent.

00:34:24.882 --> 00:34:55.605
So you know, it was a rivalry, but we were, we respected each other yeah well, best story from coaching in a college world series that you look back on and it could either be a funny one or a great moment, or whatever it might be, and Caden Grenier was at the plate and he hit a pop-up down the right field line.

00:34:55.905 --> 00:34:56.826
They didn't get caught.

00:34:56.826 --> 00:35:02.327
That would have been the third out and he ended up getting a base hit through the sixth hole to tie the game up.

00:35:02.327 --> 00:35:04.492
We had a runner at second base.

00:35:04.492 --> 00:35:11.876
Then Trevor Lernick came up and Trevor hit an absolute missile over the right field fence and put us up 5-3.

00:35:11.876 --> 00:35:13.976
And then we won the championship game.

00:35:13.976 --> 00:35:13.847
I think the championship game we won 5-0.

00:35:13.847 --> 00:35:14.009