The Cubs make their first splash in the free agent market! JJ and Max break down the week for the Cubs and Cards. The guys are joined by Scott Throneberry, baseball father of 2 high caliber athletes. Scott talks about the commitment from kids and parents necessary to excel in the armature baseball world.
Welcome to one Cardinal one CB and one beer this is the excited Edition in January of 2024 and we’ll get into that excitement that me and Max shares soon but I do want to start by asking you to like us on Facebook contact us through onecard onecu onebear gmail.com you can
Subscribe to our page by clicking on the icon at the bottom right you can support us through patreon you go to patreon.com you search one Cardinal one Cub one beer and you can support our efforts for as little as $3 a month or as little as $10
A month I mean it’s not a whole lot of money and if you all support us me and JJ will get rich we’ll be on here with our bling Max will completely quit the show because he’ll retire so why don’t you just help us in our selfish Financial
Endeavors and be a patreon member we not going to hear it any more blunt than on here on one Cardinal one cub and one Pier uh last week we had guest the cubby and I gave you a giant hint I said I will let you know this is not Brad
Hand it wasn’t it was Barry foot see what I did there Barry foot Brad a man Our Guest The Cubby was Barry foot last year and Mark bar Maranello uh he he got that right so he has four tall so far tomama has two and
Cter Lev has one um I did hear a uh get an email from a guy named Paul Parker Paul I’m gonna mention you on here and he said I only listen to the podcast I don’t watch it so you need to describe the player so I thought that was kind of
Funny uh but Paul uh the player this week is behind me um the picture right over my shoulder he kind of looks like a rock star and then there’s a picture on the other shoulder he’s an older man throwing out a first picture of the game and uh there’s another picture of two
More pictures of him just like in mid stride um so I hope that helps you understand who this guy is but really if you watch the the YouTube show you will you you will actually see uh because there are people who just wait for this to drop and then
They say hey I know who that is you know so on and so forth but remember if you do guess the Cub you get a tally and the one with the most tallies at the end of spring training will’ll get the 750 milliliter no 500 milliliter drinking that’s got the one Cardinal one
Cup one beer logo and then on the back it has a reminder that we drop most episodes by noon on Wednesday you $500 item right there $500 item the coffee mug look that beautiful mug with with me and JJ’s beautiful mugs on oh yeah yeah
Uh you also get the uh one cardal one Cub one beer official unofficial license plate so you can put it on your car and get pulled over and get a ticket that’s great and you will also get the one Cardinal one CB one beer you didn’t know
This is this kind of a show some cheesecake there shirt right there the official one and uh also you will get two tickets to a baseball game and I’ve been just talking about it being a Cardinal game because you know me and JJ and Max we all live in the St Louis area
But Mr Paul Parker said what if we want to go to a game in Wrigley you know what if you win this I will let you decide Cardinal game in chicag or in St Louis or Cub game and Wrigley and we will make it happen so
That’s that’s the very nice so uh that’s the uh opening stuff uh JJ Max how are you to what Max I’m fine a little bit tired but I’m managing look at that guy man Ace noa’s test taking over conratulations he he’s he’s I’m done I’m completely you’re done yeah oh yeah
That’s all that celebrate getting yeah that’s why he’s drinking he’s done yeah he’s done so we are we are day we are going up to Kirksville to uh move everything out of this apartment that we can carry with us and what we can’t carry with us we will put at the curve
And let some other freshman sophomore pick it up and put it in there well I hope you have good weather because it’s been kind of shoddy weather and I hear Sunday Monday they’re calling for some some uh possible bad weather so I hope we have good weather and I tell
You what I don’t know about you guys but this is like the furthest point away from the baseball season it’s cold it’s windy it’s been sleeping and snowing I don’t know where this is we’re all around the St Louis area all you folks I know we got people that listen all the
Way over in Thailand and Cincinnati and down in Texas but up here it’s been kind of rough weather so uh I tell you what I’m I’m really uh Missing baseball season I don’t know about you guys but it’s been kind of a rough time I know college football just ended and that’s
Just one of the little yard markers to us getting closer to the baseball season I because of this show the offseason has not been nearly as Dreadful as it used to be last year the show really got me through the offseason and this year it’s kind of getting me through the uh the
Offseason too so um I’m feel like we’re fortunate that we can do this show and uh other people you know just kind of sit there and get depressed like I used to and cry in the fial position when baseball season was over so what do we got like seven six five weeks before
Spring training yeah I think it’s five weeks I think we’re getting near the five week Mark I’m ready I’m ready yeah I think the Cubs are getting ready too Vince let’s let’s do Cub news please yeah I will start with this and then I’m
Gonna turn it over to Max the Cubs had a major claim off waivers this week when we claimed Brian serving a catcher from the Rockies off waivers it’s apparent that the Cubs are trying to figure out their backup catcher position by having a lot of options that aren’t just young
Options so um possible backup catcher this year um possible third string catcher because I think we’re going to go into the season barring injury with Jan Gomes and Miguel Amaya as our two catchers so if we carry a third catcher um I guess uh Brian cin may be that
Third catcher but there’s always the possibility we’re just GNA stick him in Triple A or double A and let him catch and bring up bring him up if we need him for an injury so max is there any other Cub news yeah well first I’d like to dive
Into that uh that waiver wire claim so there’s actually a lot of competition iway right now because they’ve got Jo Hudson Jorge alaro and Brian cin now in in the system cin is well he’s he has to be on the 40 man right now but uh Alfaro
And Hudson are on minor league deals so it is very interesting uh Alfaro and Hudson probably have opt outs after spring training but Servin has options so he’s optionable catcher depth and they’re probably not ready to bring P Pablo Ali Endo up yet but it is is quite
Fascinating I mean I’m I’m quite looking forward to this battle between these three cat in spring training in fact that’s that’s the one thing if I were a Cubs fan the one thing I would keep my eye on the spring spring training is you know that third catcher battle battle uh
And another unrelated Cub news they actually did sign someone uh sh imanaga they’ve been it’s been rumored that they are the uh his decision the the final team the terms haven’t been disclosed yet although it’s rumored to be somewhere in the $15 million range very exciting
He’s a left-hander and um he Sports uh four pitches uh fast ball change up is it a curve or a slider and a splitter he’s got like a weird he’s got a splitter and a kind of like a sweeper that she throws also okay and he throws
In the mid 90s in six years in Japanese baseball he’s got an ER of about 3.15 somewhere around their first career averages close to a strikeout and ending so he slots very nicely into being that second or third starter behind Justin steel that we’re looking for do you
Think we’re done looking for pitching or as far as the starting pitching goes uh probably close to it the Cubs have a lot of very near MLB ready pitching Talent uh Ben Brown Kate horn will probably get some starts at some point even guys like Caleb Killian who’ve kind
Of their Prospect stock has fallen Killian still touches 97 I have hope for him you if he kind of last year was lost year um even got and then you got Jordan Wicks also so and and Javier Assad so they’re they have six or seven or eight you know lb ready
Starting pitchers granted you know not all them are going to be ready or effective most likely but there is a lot of depth uh steel imagas you’re one two is perfectly fine U I’ve actually spent all day today not all day today I spent a good chunk of my day today did do
Research on imanaga I texted you this morning I said I have a feeling in my gut the Cubs are going to sign imanaga yes and we are going to go on the uh Carnival circus and make a lot of circuit make a lot of money you know uh
Guessing Futures and stuff I will manage you anyway keep going but um he’s got a lot to love about him uh he’s a lefty who touches you know 94 95 with his fastball it’s a very unique fastball it has some very interesting characteristics for a fast
Ball thrown by left has a ton of vertical break uh the only I the only comps I saw for it were like Alex vessia who you know is a fairly effective reliever for the Dodgers uh and there was one other guy who I can’t remember but he’s got some very interesting pitch
Pitch shapes the shaping on PCH is very interesting he has home run issues which could be a problem at Wrigley but that might be a matter more of location rather than you know the raw stuff um his pitches are pretty nasty from what I’ve seen um he had a strikeout rate of
You know 10 10ks per nine which is very impressive in the MPV where you know guys don’t strike out you know like they do here so he’s he’s got strikeout stuff which the Cubs rotation desperately needed you know if I to guess he he’ll probably have over 150k you know Fang
Graphs hasn’t projected for around that zips hasn’t projected for around that so I I have hope um obviously it’s a big adjustment coming here but Koda is is probably his closest comp in terms of what you would hope to expect from him maybe best case scenario uh probably the
His medium his median outcome was probably a 3.7 3.8 er um Fair number of innings a lot of strikeouts though I like um last week I made a statement on there on the um show that I I cannot remember the name of the guy I was listening to it’s just
Blanking on me but he was saying that the Cubs from here on out are only going to trade for or sign pitchers starting pitchers that they will make a start in the postseason so that’s Justin steel comes make the playoffs Jus seal as your game one starter right now I mean he may
Go out and uh crap the bed this year who knows but as of right now you got a number one in Seal who could start a playoff game after that who did you really have Kyle Hendricks maybe you’d feel comfortable with him because he’s a veteran but he’s not really that player
So this guy brought up if the Cubs make the playoffs they’re only gonna make the playoffs if K Kate Horton comes in and makes the roster sometime during the year and has an impact and he has the stuff to be a playoff pitcher that’s two playoff pitchers there one in the system
One on on the MLB roster now we’ve got that third pitcher who could make a playoff start I’m still of the mindset that if we can let’s go let’s go to Jordan Montgomery Jordan Montgomery is asking for a contract that’s better than arinola uhuh I’m not doing that he’s had
One decent playoff run and some decent years he’s not Aeron NOA but he’s got Scott bis as his agent so I would move on from that so I would still be open to listening to trade options for uh Shane Bieber other than that I’m pretty comfortable with the pitching going into
The season if we don’t have someone because a lot of people do not take this into consideration but real hardcore Baseball fans the team that you break spring training with is not the same team you’re going to finish with there’s a trade deadline that comes in the
Summer that you’re going to make any additions or tweaks to your teams that you need to make so I’m pretty comfortable with the pitching right now as it stands I think there’s room for improvement but I wouldn’t cry if this was the staff we have going into the
Season we still need the center field situation settled we still need the first base situation settled we still need the third base situation settled that’s I we need two of those three positions settled before we start the season what are your thoughts on that yeah I think U it’s all SC Boris
Man um none of like they have all leverage right now you know re hins is a perfect fit for the Cubs he’s a Scott bis guy he’s not going to sign before Bellinger it it kind of sucks because the Cubs are in on both those guys when
You know all Scott has to do is effectively just wait um right now it feels like the Cubs are the only real Suitor for Bellinger which kind of makes things a bit weird um also I wouldn’t say the pitching is necessarily done because they still need probably another another one or two quality
Relievers um just as far as like the bullpen completely fell apart in the last month of the Season no one was healthy you can’t have adbert closing 70 games a year or whatever I mean it’s just not going to work so ideally they probably need a reliever like the the
Robert Stevenson kind of sphere someone who’s G to be your your eighth inning guy my issue with Ross last year when the bullpit fell apart he had one guy who had the stuff to get out lefties and righties and he didn’t use him that much and that was Luke little you might as
Well die with a guy with the best stuff rather than recycling people Who your your quases quas is a good sixth inning guy he’s not an eighth ninth inning guy um uh lighter Jr who who lost his splitter the last month of the Season quit sending him out there Sinker swim with Luke little that’s what I would have rather done you know so I
Think Luke little is going to be a big part of this Bullpen this year I love his stuff and I think maybe a Ben Brown could be a big part of the bullpen too I think it’ll be guys like that who certainly Step Up um and it’ll be
Interesting to see how Council kind of manages that um who was there there was a rookie reliever on the Brewers this year who touched like 101 or something crazy um trying to remember his name but um I don’t know I mean that guy was a rookie he came up and he was immedately
In high leverage spots because he had the stuff for it and you know Luke little he he pitched fantastic he threw I don’t know seven or eight Innings of zero ra ball just striking out everybody I mean he touches a 100 guys like that should be
105 yeah there was a video in College of him hitting 105 yeah oh man and I don’t know if the hesitation was because he was stretched out as a starter to beginning of the year and maybe they didn’t know how he would transfer into that relief role but he
Seemed completely comfortable when he did actually pitch um they certainly have a lot of internal options and I think it if the front office doesn’t acquire you know another reliever or any relievers I think that really speaks to their faith in the pitching development yeah yeah well JJ you’ve got
Some exciting news as far as the Cardinals go they’ve they’ve had a busy week yeah we’ve met we’ve made a couple of moves and and congratulations on your pickup too I I know it’s kind of early but I’m sure most of Cub fans are pretty excited about that uh because you know
You always heard the Cubs hadn’t made any moves yet but I knew it was just a matter of time they probably were big on Yamamoto and some of those other guys and of course things just went the other way but congratulations and I tell you
What it’s going to be a heck of a season this division is going to be I think wide open but the car on the Cardinal side the Cardinals traded one of their outfielders uh Richie palasio a lot of people checked out of the season a lot
Of the average fans once the cars were way out of it they didn’t really watch palasio came up at the end of the year we got him from the Cleveland ball club for cash considerations I’ve heard some Cleveland fans saying we we drafted this guy we we we working with him and he
Never really bloomed and then he goes to St Louis and he had a great couple of months with us um but I hate to see him go but we have a long Jam of outfielders out there and I knew some had to go Tyler O’Neal went to Boston and now
Palasio is going to Tampa Bay and uh good luck he I I wish him all the best I love that kid he wor the goggles and I remember there was a big game we had where it was him US versus us the Cardinals versus the Pirates and he got
To play his brother and it was really kind of a neat thing to see and both of them came up big his brother in the second game and I know he him in the third game but um we trade him over to uh Tampa Bay and we got a reliever who’s
Coming off with Tommy John surgery uh Andrew kitridge um I’m excited about this this guy was a allar uh he played since 2016 with Tampa Bay uh the last couple of years has been sparse playing time because of he had the injury but um uh this could be something good he’s 33
Years old which um as a reliever I don’t think that’s such a big thing as a starter because they’re going to pick his spots and everything uh you know when you’re 30 three in your starter you’re starting to maybe get at the end of it unless you’re a freak like Nolan
Ryan or Clayton Kershaw or somebody like that but as a reliever that’s not so bad um he uh he’s been in the big league since 2016 with a 3.56 ER 15 saves he’s more of a middle reliever and he had one All-Star appearance but to be honest
With you every team gets an All-Star participant and he was the one participant from Tampa Bay that year so that’s to be honest but our Outfield still we have a lot of outfielders and some more coming so uh I don’t know what they’re going to do about this but Alec
Burlson can play First and the Outfield we we have Dylan Carlson who I hope can um defensively I’d love him to be our center fielder he’s just got a cut down on the strikeouts and I wish he would only bat one side of the plate there’s
One side of the plate he’s a much better hitter but for some reason they still have him out there switch hitting so we’ll see I love Dylan Carlson I hope he we have so many players that are just these young guys in their second and third years that really haven’t stepped
Up to the next level they’re just you know you know uh have a shot at being really good players so Carlson’s one of them uh Gomez is still on the team new bar Walker and then of course Edmund and Donovan can play The Outfield as well they play everywhere on the diamond so
That was our big big move and I wish Richie all the luck out there because he’s such a nice guy big smile on his face face and I’ll be watching some Tampa Bay games just to see him play but it looks like on their roster he’ll be
The fifth outfielder and that’s kind of what he was with us too I didn’t see him getting a lot of playing time so this was a good pickup for that for that deal I I I like the trade because if kidge if he does bounce back he’s gonna be an
Asset to the bullpen oh yeah we need to that Bullpen this is a situation where his age is going to be something that’s going to be a positive because he’s going to be one of the older people in the bullpen so he’s going to be one of the bull been
Leaders um but I and I’ve seen the memes you know well you know the arose Arena stuff you know they trade it to the Rays for you know stuff like that this guy was going to be at best your fifth outfielder or probably starting in Triple A so I I
Thought you you got you’ve got to trade some of this Talent somewhere and I thought for the potential he shown compared to the pitcher that you got um yeah it’s pretty good trade that it was I hope it works out for both teams and like you said Vince the team that you
Start with April 1 is not the team you end with and Richie may be out there starting you know he may work his way into that lineup and good for him and if you if you ever had a bad trade you’d never I mean every team’s had bad trades
You you you wouldn’t stop trading with that team I mean we’ve had some really good trades we’ve had some really bad trades and the Rose Arena was one of the bad ones but uh we still make deals with Tampa Bay another move the Cardinals made this uh this week uh they hired an
Executive he Bloom from the Red Sox and I’ve heard the name over the years a lot and to be honest with you he’s 40 years old fence he’s 40 years old man that makes me feel what have I done with my life H Bloom is only 40 years old and
He’s with T he was with Tampa Bay 10 plus years and a big part of their minor league system and working weight people that the the man Tampa Bay’s got a great minor league system and they do it on a shooring budget and they brought up so many pictures through the years and
That’s one thing the Cardinals have not done he went out to Boston I don’t think that was a good fit for him anyway because about the time he went out there they kind of cut their payroll a lot so um I don’t hold that against him but
He’s coming here and to be honest with you everything I’ve heard is John moso’s just got like two years on his contract left he may be retiring and uh maybe Bloom is just coming in learn the Cardinal Way have a fresh perspective do things in a a new light a new uh voice
In the room and uh I’m kind of excited about it you know um so I’m I uh appreciate the Cardinals going out and getting this guy uh top management kind of guy and let’s see what happens so he’s going to be with the Cardinals uh I
Don’t know right now he’s with us I don’t think he’s going to uh what the what else have I heard about him that’s about it for him uh you have any thoughts on him the Heim Bloom uh no I I think it is he’s at the right age uh to
Be the replacer from mosac if he chooses to go elsewhere after two years um and mosak may want to go somewhere where they’re a little more loose with the spending um every GM wants to have H Team where you could spend a little bit more you know like the guy that went to
The from the Brewers to the Mets you know and so that that may be that’s probably the Avenue the Cardinals are looking at this is a young guy who’s 40 who’s got a lot of experience for his age and after a couple years he’s gonna
Take over and and work his magic and Mos lock chooses to retire chooses to do something else with his life or he chooses to be a GM for another team um that Avenue is open for him so uh not not a bad hire I’ve seen people who’ve
Said online you know we need to bring back luno um why why uh he and the Cardinal did not have he’s kind of been a scumbag so why bring him back so I wish him well but no don’t come back please yeah yeah oh there is things going on this week in
Cub and Cardinal land this is the week they have their winter warm-ups uh the Cardinals call it the winter warm-up it’s going to be January 13th through the 15th I’ve never been it’s a it’s nice they have uh questions and answers they have uh demonstrations uh you meet the players
They get everybody excited about the upcoming year and it’s down there at uh baseball Village in the and Bush Stadium but also the Cub Fan Fest is going on this week January 12th to the 14th at the Sheridan the gr the Sheran Grand in Chicago so they bring back a lot of the
Old players and uh we both know a lot of cardinal Cub fans will be out there and getting the pictures and stuff signed so it’s just a good time and I know the Cardinals also have a caravan there’s like six groups that drive through different towns kind of get everybody
Revved up they take pictures and uh talk about the upcoming season and everything and it’s usually um some young players and a and a few coaches or something like that they just they go to Cape Dorado and all over the place when did the Cardinals start doing this
Caravan the first time I heard about it was about 10 years ago about 10 years ago when I lived in Kanas City that’s what the Royals did and it wouldn’t just be you know it would be Brett Bo Jackson you know they did that Caravan thing
With because their fan base is in these little towns scattered in Kansas and Missouri and a little bit of Oklahoma so they would just do this Caravan thing and I I didn’t I think for a long time they were the only team doing it that way and uh
They had a write up in Sports Illustrated about it um it was so cool and now uh the Cardinals doing a lot of teams do it the the Cubs I don’t think do anything comparable to it but uh yeah pretty cool thing you know in a small
Town cap dardo you know hey the oh Cardinals are coming for Arkansas yeah this is a chance some of the people don’t make the trip up to see a a real game and here’s the players you hear about and here they are coming through Al Bowski he’s always on these Caravans
And things like that Jose okendo all you know folks like that so it’s pretty cool and I know a lot of people go to them a lot of kids they go to schools or you know community centers and things like that so it’s a good time I got some
Dates on here this date January 9th uh in in in baseball history I got three events that happened on this date in uh 1990 Jim Palmer and Joe Morgan were inducted to the Hall of Fame and uh you know Vince that’s in our wheelhouse Jim Palmer and Joe Morgan those guys we grew
Up loving them we didn’t get to see Palmer much because we didn’t get to see American League games but Joe Morgan and the Reds used to smack the Cardinals around in the 70s every time we played him so that was 1990 in 1989 Johnny Bench and uh krimsky went into the Hall
Of Fame and between them they played 40 years and they both played for the same team all those years that was pretty cool I I was a big fan of car scri well Johnny Bench like last week Vince we said he’s the greatest catcher we’ve ever seen in our lifetimes yeah so so
That was it and then 1952 on this day uh the Korean war was still going on and the Marines gave notice to Ted Williams that he was to return to active duty so this man went to World War II for three years comes back is the greatest T that ever lived
And then he retires and has to go off to Korea and be a fighter pilot again Ted Williams man that’s that’s something else right there so 1952 that happened and then this date I like to talk about the dates I look up all this stuff but there’s two players that have birthdays
Today one’s a cardinal one’s a cub today is born in 1970 C TJ Matthews TJ Matthews birthdays today from Columbia Illinois well I haven’t been at Belleville Illinois I probably born in Belleville grew up in he went to high school in Columbia oh is that close by
Yeah they’re close by oh they’re close by he spent eight years in the big leagues 32 he was a relever 32 and 26 16 saves and a 3.82 erra and got traded for Maguire yes that’s what I remember about him more than anything he was Stein yeah
Yeah well on the Cub side today’s birthday is a name we all love Ivan De Jesus yeah born today yeah good and that is not just a little clue that is not not Ivon De Jesus behind Vin so back there that is not Ivon De
Jesus um he was born in Puerto Rico he played for a lot of clubs he played 15 years he was a Dodger a cub he played for the Cubs more than anybody five years the Phillies the Cardinals the Yankees the Giants and the Tigers and he ended his 15-year career with
1,167 uh hits um a 254 batting average but he in those uh 15 years he ended with 194 stolen bases that’s a that’s a pretty good statistic there and he brought over ran sber that’s who we traded for sber yep yep well see Dallas Green came over from the
Phillies to the Cubbies and and he had a he knew how good Sandberg was I wonder if Council might bring some of those Brewer guys over that he’s knows about well originally the trade was just gonna be uh De Jesus for boa and uh that’s when Dallas Green said
Throw that Sandberg kid in too and the Philly said all right so got right there uh little bit of a uh names of notice it’s been a in the transactions this past week the angel signed pcture Zack pleas sack um father former Cub former Brewer uh Zach is fit for the
Guardians and I think he was suspended for covid violation of some kind a few years ago that’s in by but anyway he had that one good year and he’s just kind of not rebounded since then the white sock signed veteran catcher Martin Maldonado pirate sign pitcher Martin Perez the Rockies signed Dakota Hudson
Former Cardinal and they also signed Jacob Stallings former catcher for the Pirates and the Mariners and why is that significant this is why it’s significant is because Jacob sulling father is Kevin sings who coached basketball at uh Vanderbilt uh Illinois State and I can’t remember where else but uh Kevin Stallings graduated from
High school from Collinsville Illinois was a heck of a basketball player and um this is how this uh Six Degrees of Separation separation from Vinnie goes uh my ex-wife grew up right down the street from Kevin Stallings and Kevin’s sister Cindy was my wife’s good friend growing up
So it’s a small world Jacob Stallings you don’t know it but somehow we’re almost related uh the Brewer sign uh first basement catcher Austin Nola uh the Brewers trade Justin Chambers to the Dodgers for Brian Hudson pitcher for pitcher the Met sign former Cardinal center fielder Harrison Bader and signed
Pitcher sha manah the uh manah deal is a two-year deal and he has an opt out after one de one year the heck I mean two-year 28 million for a guy who has kind of uh Fallen apart the last few years I don’t know opt out after one
Year whatever Mariners trade Robbie Ray former sa young winner Robbie Ray to the Giants for right fielder Mitch hanigar and pitcher Anthony D scina and I do like uh that the uh um Mariners picked up uh a quality Major League hitter and a quality Major League starter for the price of a Robbie
Ray who seems to be trending down uh so I thought that was a pretty good trade uh the the twins they claimed Ryan Jensen off waiv vers in the Marlins the Red Soxs signed one of the bigger free agent pitchers left on the market Lucas
Gito um who uh seems to be kind of and maybe going on the downhill directory to uh trajectory to excuse me for that uh U what’s the word I wanted verbal mistake uh and uh the Mets hired Rachel balkovic as the Director of Player Development the Mets the Marlins did so
Uh the Marlins uh they had a uh Kim um can’t remember her name name the Asian lady they had her for the GM and she left and now they have hired a female for director Player Development so they’re one of the more Progressive organizations when it comes to um their
Hiring practices so that’s pretty cool so any of those transactions worthy of discussion Ryan Jensen was a cub for a while came up from the system he’s been kind of in the the DFA limbo where teams kind of want him but they don’t want him
For a 40 Man spot se’s trying to pass him through waivers and he keeps getting claimed by everybody uh so he’s kind of in a in limbo right now um he’s a renter he’s not buying his houses yeah he is waiting until spring training I’ll say
That what do y all think about the Geo and uh manah signings actually I kind of like the maniah signing um I saw when he came back from his injury last year from that point onwards he had like a a 3.5 ra with per FS to match so you know maybe
There is hope for him I have more I think he’s going to be a more effective pitcher than Gio Gio is gonna give you a ton of innings but maniah I think has a lot more upside very good yeah yeah and I I do like Harrison Bader going to the
Mets and I think the Mets have learned their lesson and they’ve got an intelligent GM now um who is not just going to say yeah let’s throw money 40y old pitchers who might get injured um 40 billion for you I got 37 billion for you
Uh those days seem to be over and uh Harrison Vader is a pitcher dream in center field because he’s gonna catch everything that’s hit in his general direction um so that’s a good signing for the Mets I like that so I you know my jury’s out on Bia you know
Um I think I saw him twice last year and he looked so bad both times so um didn’t he get sent to like the instructional League last year you’re were thinking of the uh the blue J’s pitcher yeah yeah oh no remember his name the big guy the big
Guy manaa yeah Manoa yeah so um but anyway that’s the uh transactions but you know as far as U further trades you know who’s never going to get traded oh you I would never trade him he’s the he’s the piece of the pie you gotta have Jeremy Conor Jeremy Connor is
Never going to get traded comes the time in every man’s life when he needs some advice on relationships you need to listen to the podcast dmdr which stands for dating marriage divorce remarriage from my good friend Jeremy Connor the Dr Phil of the Boot Hill you can find dmdr on Spotify
Or whatever platform you choose to listen to your podcast and Welcome to our interview segment M and we have a special guest with us another graduate of Wood River High School yeah so uh you you were a year behind me so you graduated in 85 yep that means you’re just a year
Younger than me so you’re 34 that that works out great so perfect that’s that’s the math that I got from my baseball coach Mr Davis so wonder if Mr Davis is still with us I don’t know but anyway uh Scott throneberry uh I’ve known him since uh we played uh football together
In high school way back in the 80s and uh this is the first time we’ve seen each other since probably 1984 and like he said I have not changed a bit I have looked like this I’ve looked like a pudgy middle-aged balding man since I
Was 16 years old and I’m proud of so anyway Scott how are you doing I’m doing well I’m doing well I appreciate you guys uh inviting me I don’t know what I’m in store for but you know I’m up for it so well we start with something very
Soft um tell us about your history as a baseball fan were you raised as a Cardinal fan how you fell in love with baseball you know baseball fan I’m I’m a Cardinal fan so I hate to disappoint I see all the Cub background but uh you
Know obviously as St Louis person I grew up a Cardinal fan and you know got into it and uh as we talked a little bit before the show with uh uh if you remember remember Donnie Cobb was one of my coaches and oh yeah Terry Brown was
One of my coaches and uh you know we played the little league baseball and you played 16 games in a summer and you thought that was the best of all and um you know it was uh you know that was about it you know summer was over
Baseball was over and uh you know it’s it’s here 35 40 years later and it’s just um it couldn’t be further different than than the way it was when we grew up much simpler but uh you know know now you’re you’re playing year round and it it’s be it’s become quite complicated so
Quite complicated indeed um I reconnected with you on Facebook and you you put a lot of posts about your you got two sons and they’re both excellent athletes as you were growing up and you have a son Connor who is a sophomore a Reger at sophomore at Penn State playing
Baseball and you have a son Kaden who’s a sophomore Marquette High in uh the western part of St Louis County and he’s also an excellent athlete plays baseball uh starting quarterback as a sophomore on the varsity that’s very very impressive uh so I’ve kind of kept up with you like uh
Through what you’re your you post about your kids doing and my sister her second son he was a pretty good baseball player and whenever she was telling me about all the stuff that he was doing I thought man things have really changed there’s 16 games and if you were good
Enough to make the all start team you would you played like I said one year I think we played granded City and got completely stomped and so we didn’t go to the world Little League World Series which I thought we would um but it’s quite an investment of uh of time it’s
Quite an investment of uh of finances um tell us how the kids got involved in baseball and what all you have done to Foster their uh their baseball lives sure I uh I I don’t think when I started I knew what I was getting myself into I’ll
Start by saying that is that you know I was still the kid from Wood River that okay my my five-year-old wants to play baseball and we’re going to play 15 games in the pond athletic league and it’s going to be a great time and who
Cares if they win or they lose or if my kid’s good or my kids’s bad it’s just it’s just part of growing up right and um so we played the the first year and the second year and you could start to see that you know that it was a little
Bit more competitive than that and and I think when it all kind of came to a head and it kind of sounds really scary to say this but my kid was seven and the coach came up to me after the the the season and he’s just like well Scott
I have to have this conversation with you but we’re gonna cut your kid he’s just not good enough to pay play for the pond Sluggers wow that’s heartbreaking it was it was a complete Heartbreaker I my kid’s seven years old so but this comes back to how do you how
I raise my kids how my my wife and I have been married 30 years by the way so oh congratulations yeah thank you lovely wife and and how we raise our kids and and it comes back to us that I had that choice where at at seven do I just tell
Him yeah let’s go do something else son let’s go you know let’s go to another team and and you know or do I just be flat out honest with it you’re not good enough took that road I mean I I’ve always been whether there seven or he’s
20 years old he’s 21 now I mean it’s very transparent relationship and so I sat down with my kid at 7even years old and I just said look you’re not good enough they don’t want you on the team they don’t want you on the team and he’s
Like well I want to play on that team that’s all my buddies I’m like well he’s like how can I play on that team so I had to go back I had to finagle my way back on to the coach to the team and I said just give us give us the fall
Season to work through it and and you know it’s kind of a do or die if you cut him again after the fall you know I’ll uh I I’ll live with it you know I’ll move on to greener pastures right and so you know then it started you know okay
We’re GNA go to the hitting cages okay we’re gonna get instructors okay we’re gonna you know learn how to be a better baseball player and you know I mean my 21y old is the one thing he had going for him at that time was his size you
Know he’s big kid he’s he ended up being 66 and I think he’s 66 235 240 now and he’s he’s a big kid and but he was always a head taller even at that age and so you know I gotta you got to learn how to hit the
Ball far that’s what you got to do if you’re G to make this team you gotta learn how to hit the ball far and so you know let’s just say we had a good fall for the to keep this as short as possible is that he had a good fall and
He hit he hit the ball far and they were like okay let’s um we want this kid to play on our team and so you know the first life experience for a seven-year-old right you’re not good enough and and and it’s been a great it it’s actually good that he went through
Through that because that’s not the first and and not the last time that that’s happened in life with him as he’s played Sports and he’s been an incredible athlete at all levels um but you know as you got it there seven years old and you’re like okay let’s go but
Then that’s when it started and that was the transition was this coach was like okay guys last year it was 30 games this year if we don’t play a 100 we failed w i I took the bait I went I said I’m all in let’s go my kid was having a
Blast I was enjoying the life with the parents I was you know it was it was a fun thing to do but it you know it’s still it’s it’s a lot of time you know and you know and if you really want your your child you know whether it be
Softball or baseball or any sport to anything they’re passionate about it doesn’t have to be baseball um you’ve got to be a part of it you’ve got to be a part of it and and that’s where you know with you know so many kids nowadays I see that you know yeah they’re going
To the best coaches and they got the best lessons and they you know it’s mom and dad dropping them off you know I listen I wasn’t the greatest baseball player in the world I’ll say it straight up but after 20 years of seeing the best coaches and being at practices every day
And and listening to people talk about the fundamentals of playing the game I know it pretty well but that’s the involvement that I have with my kids and and so you know ask me what I did on Christmas you know on CHR the Christmas Day after the presents were all open
After we ate Mills what was I doing I was up at the batting cages throwing BP I was throwing BP you know I mean my kids will you know he comes home for Christmas and he’ll be like you know my other one will go up there and he’ll throw now because he’s a
Pitcher now but the other one he wants to hit so it’s it’s that involvement and that and that’s where you really that makes the difference right I mean you’ve got to work with your kids because you can send your kid to a coach and it can
Be very expensive but that’s one day one hour a week what happens with the other six or seven days and what happens with the rest of the time you’ve got to have that commitment and and so you know my it’s seven at eight nine I mean he
Started to experience success and so as success grows more do the opportunities right I mean so the better he got at seven eight nine years old the more opportunities came along and so then you had you know teams and then you’ll you’ll love this is that so that’s the
Other part and this was before really now it’s commonplace but this is when he was 10 11 years old how do you get your kid noticed man there was this great thing out there back then called Twitter and and if you started putting your stuff on Twitter people around the
Country would see it and so you know so that’s where we started laying a foundation on Twitter to where you know we would post different highlights as he was continuing to grow up but then I was getting coach calls from coaches in Florida and from the Carolinas and from
Texas and from from other places it said hey is your kid open this weekend would you would he like to come and play and so and I’ve been blessed from a from a professional standpoint to to be able to afford these things because they’re incredibly expensive
Um it’s a lot of travel I travel for work so I have a ton of frequent flyer miles and a ton of you know Hotel points and and of the likes but it’s it that’s it evolves from there and and it continued but and and and I’ll tell you
It with the older one I was incredibly hard on it you know I was I was we’ve all seen it right that dad you know we’ve all seen the videos right the the dad and and it’s pretty it’s it’s pretty embarrassing because I have a YouTube
Channel that I’ve got over 700 videos on the YouTube channel and these are from my kids from when they’re babies to to today I post videos of games highlights you name it but it’s 7800 videos so you can see the one at 16 now where I’m draw
Chalk lines on the concrete floor to make sure he keeps his feet to where he’s in his diaper and he’s hitting off a te at two and and there’s there’s other videos where I’m screaming at my kids to to do better it’s just embarrassing it it’s to
To where I’ve evolved as a parent to where now my second one’s going through it and I’m not the same way as I was with the first you know so I’ve learned you learned a lot I I’ve learned a lot you know I don’t need to and and I kind
Of chuckle at the parents that that are going through it the first time that are doing what I did when I went through it the first time so you know the second time through the second one he’s blessed right he got to he got to hang out with
All the kids he got to see all the training he got to so he had an advantage over the first one but um with him he’s got the internal drive to to take it to the next level but he um but he’s he he works hard at it you know I
Mean it but I’m I want him to have fun you know I I can’t sit here and honestly tell you with the first one that I always wanted him to have fun I wanted him to hit a damn home run and I wanted to win the game okay it’s not about that
And I learned that but it took me time to learn that so you know but but that’s that’s where it evolved from and then I think when they got you know when the older boy got to Conor got to you seventh eth ninth grade um you either have you know they they’re
Either going to develop the the passion from within and and I coach Little League football too so you know my kids make fun of me because I always talk about my passion speech right you can teach kids how to play you can show them instruction you can you can show them
What they need to do to be successful the one thing I can’t give any kid and I’d love to give any kid is passion to play the game if I can give you passion if I could give it to you I would but I can’t you’ve got to have it from within
So I’ve taught my kids that and so when they get to be about eth or ninth grade it’s like that passion takes over and now they’re on their own and and I’m still along for the ride believe me I’m still shagging fly balls I’m still throwing batting practice I’m still you
Know before they could drive I I’m you know I’m taking them everywhere I’m still spending all my money but you know it’s but it’s but that passion’s there and now it’s pretty exciting to see them continue to grow into who they’re going to become um but like I was saying
Earlier it those hard talks don’t come at just seven years old or nine or 10 or you know they get to be 15 or 16 you know those those conversations go on all the way through and so you you’ve gota the one thing that I’ve always had with
Both kids is is transparency you know when I didn’t think they were playing their best I would tell them that when they would ask me you know I mean it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows right it’s not always you know hey you just hang in there you’re a great player
You’re just super fantastic yeah you are but are you playing to the best of your ability did you go out there and and do the best that you could do if you say yes then I’m good with it yeah you know so you know it it’s but if you went out
There and you weren’t all the way in then why are we doing this and so you know and and so that’s that’s how it got started I mean it it’s it’s evolved over time but um you know even when my son went to up to Penn State he went up to
Penn State as a hitter believe it or not and um you know he gets up to Penn State and he’s there for the first year and he gets done at the end of the year he had a great first year I mean we were excited about it a little disappointed
We thought he should have played more but then the coach calls him into the office and says n you’re not good enough you need to go on the transfer portal kid I need you out of Penn State and my kid said I don’t want to leave Penn State I like Penn
State and it was probably the hardest conversation I mean you’re you’re talking to somebody now that this has been his whole life and now his whole life’s going to end because this coach is saying look you’re not good enough any wasn’t you know he probably wasn’t
So you know it’s 66 and 235 240 he said but how about if I could pitch coach and so the coach was like yeah whatever all right go play in the Northwoods league and come back and if you if you want to come back and play
For the fall and play in the fall I’ll let you come back as a fall player but I’m probably gonna cut you I’m just telling you that straight up but come back and if you can pitch we’ll we’ll kind of go from there well yeah he came
Back he had a great summer he pitched in the summer great Northwoods league is a fantastic Collegiate league and then he went to he went to uh back to Penn State he had a great fall he got to pitch he made the team he got to pitch a lot last
Year and so you know this year going into this year it looks like it’s going to be a great year for him he’s gonna get’s he’s one of their I’m not yeah I hate saying top pitchers but he’s one of their core guys that’s going to get
Innings right I mean he’s a guy he’s he’s he’s going to be weekend guy I guess in the college world that’s what you like to hear yeah you like that he’s going to be a weekend guy so so but you know once again being told that he can’t do it and
That passion coming out and him saying yeah I can’t do it that all came from him that’s one of the great things about baseball as opposed to other sports baseball is is a sport that is built on failure you’re gonna fail more times than you succeed and so you get used to
The failure ingame failure and then you got used to the being told you’re not good enough and having to overcome that and going from seven to what the age of 20 and suddenly he’s hearing it again and uh he he kind of has to reinvent himself every time he’s
Told you’re not good enough then I’ve got to find an Avenue to be good enough that’s just how life goes and that’s why one of the reasons why I really love baseball because it is a sport built on overcoming your failures knowing that you’re going to fail you know even the
Best seven out of ten times when you’re when you’re hitting um I I’ve seen you you’ve been from Alaska to Florida and everywhere in between uh baseball tournaments um it it is it’s quite the the investment in time but what better way to spend your time with your kids than doing something
That they’re passionate about something you can share in and something that you’re using to help mold them into uh young men um one thing I did want to bring up uh your youngest Kaden is a Pianist correct yep does Connor play piano a little bit but you could tell
When he started they got into it at the same time yeah my my daughter is a Pianist she’s uh finishing her graduate degree and she’s looking at PHD programs that’s awesome and one thing that from the time she could play piano um I guess she was about eight
Years old and she wanted to play for relise for her recital and her mother said I think you need to try something else and that just pissed her off and she said well I’ll show you and that has just kind of been her music career is
I’m going to show you I’m going to show you uh but that discipline that it takes is what drives her or one of the things that drives her into that discipline is people who continually tell her man you’ve You’ you’ve got such a talent and that that kind of gets under her skin
Because they don’t see the eight 10hour days of practicing um until your fingers shake and going to these recitals and hearing the Perfection at the recital been knowing what she’s put in the past eight months to get there y even though your your kids are great athletes it’s the hard work that makes
Them Excel and it’s the uh the ability to say maybe I’m not good enough but I’m going to find a way to make it and uh you know I I commend your kids for that well it’s the work that no one sees I mean it’s it’s you put all of this time
Effort and energy into it and no one sees that all they see is the end product and and if you could see you know the the time they spend in the weight room or like you said your you know the time practicing the piano and and just playing and playing and playing
And playing and no one see and the times that they mess up and the times that they fail and it’s just over and over no one sees that you know they see it they see it I mean we we and then people see it and they’re like oh my gosh they’re
So talented it was just such you’re your a your sons are gifted athletes yeah they got size they but they worked their their tail endend off to yeah to get where they needed to be so now Conor was a allsta football as a lineman correct he was Kaden is
Obviously a fantastic quarterback at as a sophomore starting for a big school like Marette yeah um did you did they ever consider going into football more so than baseball because I uh Kaden has already verbally committed to missou to play baseball if I’m correct yeah that’s
That’s part of um that’s part of the process right I mean and it’s like I’ll talk about Connor first is it so Connor all state his Junior and senior year in football all state baseball and the same thing and all Metro St Louis all Metro so pretty big deal and he so
He could play either way um part of the challenge of deciding whether or not to go football was he just I remember him coming to me one day towards the end of the season and I was like man you could play football in college you know you’re
Going to have to put on 30 or 40 pounds but you could play in college and um he just looked at me and and he just said he goes Dad it’s high school football and he goes even after the high school football games he goes I get headaches
He goes I don’t want to do it he goes I couldn’t imagine it if I had a guy 300 pounds standing across from me he goes I don’t want to do it he just says I can’t I’m like okay we’re done and so we never had another conversation about it he
Just he said that um you know from a from a health standpoint and he just he’s like then I’m not saying that because I still coach it and my other one still plays it and you know but Conor was just like yeah I’m ready to
Move on and and I ask him every now and then because he gets to watch his brother play I’m like you miss it he’s like yeah I miss it but I think what they miss is and this is why Kaden likes football and I would say Kaden actually
Likes football more than baseball is because of the the the team and the the ones mhip that you have in a football environment and you don’t necessarily have that in a baseball environment and so you know in football we all know that you got 11 kids on the field and if one
Kid misses a block or one kid doesn’t do what they’re supposed to the whole team can fail and and it’s not necessarily always that way in baseball and so you know having to have a the unity and the close-knit group of of guys that that
That he has on the field um Kaden just thrives in that kind of environment and so you know that I seem very passionate about it but I can also be very critical of him and his release is slow and that he needs to pick up his 40 Time by 310
Of a second and me I can go down the list and tell you all of the things that’s G to keep him from playing in Illinois or missou or some other school you know I mean so he’s got things to work on but he loves he loves the football um baseball he’s
Just you know the advantage for Caden and baseball he’s got an older brother his older brother was recruited you know throughout so you know having knowing that he has a little brother they start looking at the little brother so Kaden actually had Schools starting to look in talk to him in seventh and
Eth grade back when recruiting was a little bit more lenient and as Kaden got into he committed he verbally committed to missou in eth grade they since have the the NCA has St stepped in and stopped all verbal commitments and they’re like when I this is this is
Crazy because seventh grade kids are committing to colleges that they know nothing about and it’s kind of silly so yeah so the beginning of his I think the August of his junior year so he’ll play this spring season is a sophomore he’ll go through the summer season and
Then you can actually commit the uh the fall of your junior year so the so the NCA has gotten a involved in it a little bit so JJ you got any questions I oh yeah I’ve been talking no no this has been so good I’m just enjoying watching it Scott
I’ve never met before I’m JJ I’m the Cardinal part ofation here and I want to tell you something I never met you before yeah I sound like the amazing keskin right now I’ve never met this man before but I could tell you were a coach
And be until you said that I was like this guy’s a coach and you said you can’t te Teach passion but I tell you what when I hear you talking I’m fired up I’m ready to go out there and do some squat thrust out in the snow right
Now oh I tell you something that it’s changed because I’m the oldest person here I was I graduated in 83 I when I graduated de leopard’s drummer had two arms okay that’s how old I am all right but I I want to tell you little league was completely different like remember
We had those little helmets for the half helmets Yeah the ball wouldn’t hit yeah yeah and all that and um I loved it but some uh everybody got to play two innings and usually we put them in right field it’s sad but that is true and even on the
High school team if a lot of schools if you just try it out you got to make the team in some kind of capacity I didn’t know it was so much uh competition out there now you know and some of the schools have gotten so big like these 5A
And 6A schools you know it’s just a handful of kids that make the team it’s it’s pretty tough you have you’ll have 100 kids try out I mean easy oh yeah and what like probably 16 make the team or something like that 13 to 16 make the
Team yeah it’s something my son playss baseball but he’s a nice high school player and things like how what age did you know cuz not only size helps and speed of course and the desire but when did you know these guys got like your oldest son had like the skills like so
Conor was Connor was a puggy kid he was um he was always a head taller but he was look I mean it got it got this is how bad it was how bad a got is that I had coaches you know he was always a big
Kid and he could hit the ball a mile but I would have coaches come up and like yeah he can hit the ball now he’s 12 years old but he’s a little he’s he’s a big kid but he’s fat your kid’s fat that’s rough and your and your kids’s
Not athletic if you looked at your kids’s ankles your kids’s got thick ankles so thick ankles no he’s he’s not an athlete athletes have thin ankles I mean it it got that bad and so so here he is he’s already a head taller but then there’s this thing that I know that
Maybe we all we have to think back in time called puberty puberty God you gotta love puberty things change because puberty comes along and all of a sudden my kid goes from boom he goes from being a big kid to a monster he goes to 6566 and he thins out um and
And when all that starts happening all the work that he’ done starts to even get bad better and he he accelerates and and and he gets and and so and that’s when I can remember him being in like going into eighth grade I was like he might really have a shot here
He’s he’s in eighth grade and he’s six foot three and he’s thinned out and now he’s quick and now he can run he still couldn’t run all that good but he could run and now all the the pieces are starting to come together right and and that’s that’s when I I started to
Realize and then eighth grade I remember the varsity baseball coach came from high school came down and started watching him and was just like yeah you’re GNA have an impact You’re Gonna Play you know they went to the state finals his sophomore year and um they lost
To they lost to desm in the state championship and um but yeah that was he was a sophomore when they did that but yeah he um and then his junior year was a covid year and then he had a great great senior year so but um yeah I was
Probably eighth grade or so and then the the younger one I think we’ve known it from I don’t know he was we high so just because you know when you’re that little and you got a brother that’s five years older and all the F those kids are like
Get off the field you can’t play with us unless you can catch and run and hit with us a five you know the kid who’s five playing with the 10y olds he learned real quick how to be able to play baseball with 10y olds
And so you just you let it go and and Take Shape itself so it it sounds like that was a good school your kids went to too because I’ve heard a lot of parents say they they will only let the kid play one sport like okay you pick your sport
And that’s it I have some friends that go up to Sean and they said U like lacrosse their son L lacrosse but he wanted to play basketball but they had it they wanted him to make a decision there you know it’s I mean I think there’s it doesn’t happen at Marquette
You know Marquette that they they’ve always been respectful of the the two the two or three Sports and now I’ve split them out you know I mean Connor could have probably played basketball and I know Kaden could play basketball but I was like there’s gonna be some
Overlap so don’t do the overlap so if you’d make my life a lot easier and I’ve done a lot for you so I hope you can take it into consideration when you make this decision but could you just play two and they’re like yeah we’ll play two
Dad and I was like all right so when we got uh yeah so we got we got that going and and um and mostly we use the winter now for you know we we do a lot of hitting and lifting and a lot of other
Stuff and and like I said I mean the crazy thing about and you guys in and probably you know parents that you know and talk to that have kids in this stuff that you know it’s ridiculous now baseball bats now are $500 um you know you’ve got you know
Playing on a club team or travel team you know back in the day it was here pay your $25 for your Corey League team or your little league team and yeah now just playing in a 35 or 40 Game season with a local club team can run you
$2,500 you know you start getting into the high school teams they can run you three to $5,000 you know then plus you’ve got all the travel then plus you’ve got you know it’s you know I mean it’s it’s it’s a little bit sad in the in the
Fact that I think because of the cost that it excludes some people that that don’t have the means to do it and um you know it’s just it’s sad that it’s gotten to that point where you know you wish more kids could play and they could do more but it’s just unfortunately with
The it’s become like everything else in this in our society and this is for a whole different podcast money it’s all about money you know and so and I see that now with the colleges I mean with the nil money and uh you know and the
Kids getting opting out of the games and and you know you know that’s a whole another podcast too you know but it it’s uh it comes down to the money comes down to the money and winning that’s it you know and I think a lot of times whether
It be the club or it be the school not so much the high schools but at the but the the clubs and the colleges it it’s the kids are just a means to get what the colleges ultimately W and and so you know the school loves you the coaches
Love you the that coaches you know look I can pretty much tell you and I tell this to everybody I’m like my kid made the club team did you walk in with your checkbook open because I’m pretty much they were sure they were gonna find a
Spot for your kid as long as you had the checkbook open and and unfortunately that’s what it’s come to I mean it’s I I get it they want to help the kids and they want to help the k get better but they don’t necessarily turn kids away you know not
If they got a willing and abled parent that’s going to pay well I respect I respect you making those great memories with your kids probably up and down the road and talking and remembering those days uh that’s great I I got kind of emotional when you were talking about
The time got SP with your kids because that’s beautiful man it it is it’s it’s some of the best times that that I have you know it’s like my kid tells me it’s kind of funny we get home and and the joke is you know it’s um when we’re on the
Road we have to watch Forensic Files I I don’t know why but soon as my kid because we’ll never watch that damn show at home but soon as we’re in a hotel room my kid will be like Dad gotta get Forensic Files on man let’s get it going
That’s just stupid stuff like that that you’ll never forget so we do need to wrap this up man Scott thanks a lot for being on here thank you sir um I I I’ve thought about getting you on here for a few months but the timing just hasn’t worked out for what
We wanted to program but I thought during the off season it’s a great time uh for people that are our age to hear about what’s going on to get your kid to be um in baseball and other sports at a high level these days because you know
Like we were talking beforehand you I I I was a pretty decent baseball player growing up and I was excited to play 16 games in a summer and my parents would go to maybe half the games you know I didn’t care if they were there or not because we were just having
Fun and then when you know like I said off the air when my sister her son started doing the traveling stuff and everything thought my gosh times have changed so quickly and it’s it’s quite an investment so I do commend you for your investment I thank you for your
Time okay and and I would tell you real quick I’ll just finish on this note it’s just for any parents that are going to do it you’ve got to make the commitment just like your child’s making the commitment to do it too so spend the time with them enjoy it but you’ve gota
You’ve gotta you gotta make that commitment and if you make that commitment they’re willing to make that commitment any kid can get to that next level great thanks a lot Scott and uh we will we will see you on down the road okay you got it my friend take care JJ
Nice to meet you take always pleasure my friend take care all right take care care all right that was uh was my uh friend from high school Scott uh oh great tremendous uh man a fired up individual for sure yeah and commitment to uh the process and uh like I said I I
Wanted to interview him so people who kind of don’t understand how the system works now it has completely changed from you know yeah when I was a kid man 15 games and you know oh yeah you won or lose you know you still got a
Soda after the game and for us now you got a coaches saying seven years old you’re out of here you suck goly I can’t take that rejection now when i s I would have cried man I would have cried my eyes out can can I mention something yeah
I went up to the card show uh oh yeah yeah yeah yeah Sunday all right and I do have to tell this story let me tell you 40 years after you’ve played you don’t sometimes look like you did on the baseball card you know you so there was
Three lines there was the Jackie Smith line the Johnny Roland line and Jackie Smith is still alive I seen him move around he didn’t look like animatronic or nothing and then there was Sixto leano all right well Sixto leano was late I didn’t know that so I thought can
I go on up and I went up there with my baseball cards and I was in the Johnny Roland line they go that’s Johnny Roland well you know Johnny Roland is an African americ and uh six toc’s Hispanic so uh I’m not very good I see I see no
Color everyone’s equal to me so anyway I finally got a six to lecos and he was late and I I bought a few autographs but I just kept pumping cards to him and he kept signing them so I got quite a few so I will show them at the card time but
I got so so much stuff I I made deals they’re they’re willing to make deals this time of year because the baseball season’s not uh going on so I got a lot of things but here’s a couple things I wanted to share with you this is from
1974 uh Sports Illustrated and the thing on there is uh it goes the A’s go for three in a row and it’s Catfish Hunter on the front of Sports Illustrated that’s pretty cool him at the height of his career right there yeah right before that ball hit him in the
Eye they caught at the last second well in 1975 they were going for four in a row which they did not get but there is Mr Reggie Jackson as a kid I love I got a Reggie Jackson A’s jersey and a Yankee Jersey I loved Reggie Jackson Mr October
And that whole a team that was one of my favorite teams back then I also got I had I got a lot of stuff my wife only knows some of the stuff I got you know but I Got U from one collector who collects only vintage stuff I got
Another I didn’t I’ve never seen this picture before I got an autographed Ena Slaughter and as you guys know that’s my favorite player so that’s like my 11th uh Ena Slaughter sign piece and you know these there’s not a lot of this stuff
Out there so if I bump into it I have to get it I traded for that and then um a new thing Vince when we see all these man caves and stuff I see these frames with the sign jerseys so I’ve been working on that and I got two now I’m
Going to build I’m going to build something really neat but I got uh Lee Smith I got the Lee Smith autograph Jersey and he signed the four right here and I got the letter of authenticity right here but the one I got this week was oh Tommy her and these jerseys look so
[Laughter] good yeah I got Tommy her and uh oh they’re really nice some of the jerseys are just almost like iron on but these are the more the patches that are sewn that look really nice and they have the patches on the sleeves and everything so
I’m go I’m getting some shadow boxes and I’ll be work that’s some of my winter projects to get ready and of course I also got a couple things from I got a uh I got I met Lee Smith and had that sign and I love that picture but uh I bought
This one and this is Tommy her Jack Clark and Azie Smith celebrating a victory right there I’ll be working on the shadow boxes getting that done and then uh I got uh some brewer stuff too after going to Milwaukee I kind of kind of like I kind of like to follow
The Brewers now uh oh so it’s gonna be one Brewer one one Brewer two Cubs that that would work I I tell you what I I’ll be honest with you I uh I knew the Cubs from AF far but after talking to you and Max I love seeing what they’re doing and
What’s going on I’ve always loved Wrigley Field when I was in the Navy I’d go down there and watch ball games I’ve learned so much about the Cubs from you guys when I play the immaculate grid now you know I’m pulling stuff out from way deep like uh Don kessinger and uh Frank
Chance and things like that you know I’m putting those names out there in there so anyway I appreciate you guys and really the only team I don’t like is the Mets sorry Uncle Mark I think it’s Mark cousin mark cousin mark my cousin who’s younger than me yes hey I’m My Own
Grandpa hey I ran into a lady who’s about 70 years old yesterday who told me that something you know we were talking about the WEA she said well at least you’re young you can you know I said well thank you for calling me young she
Said well how old are you in your 30s I said I’m 57 are you kidding me hey hey look at you Mr you right there but JJ I’m you did not get the memo you cannot mention Tommy her anymore because my wife goes crazy Tommy her the permed mullet in the back oh
Yeah him he’s something else ain’t he yeah well where are you opening up JJ well I found my cards this week and I’m opening up series two of 2023 and it’ll be about three or four weeks when the new 2024’s come out so I’m going to try
To get all these shown before we get into the 2024 okay well once more I am opening up a minor league package from 1989 and yes it is green so it doesn’t mix well with my green screen but anyway that’s kind of cool yeah uh but anyway uh when we open
These we could see if any of these guys have ever played in the major league so go ahead Let’s Have It All right well I am going to show some of the the brewer stuff I got uh I opened up a pack this week that’s a it’s a hard for me not to
Open the packs before the show when I get a pack of cards I want to open them and look but this week I opened up a pack and I got a joey weamer autograph one so when you open these packs and you get an autograph card it basically has a
Thing on the back it says congratulations you are the owner of and a lot of these players and now these players get paid a lot of money back in the old days they didn’t make so much and they all have some sort of contract with top and they sign like 20 to 50
Cards and they’re just scattered in there so I got joy weer right there and then the six toe leono cards I got signed there’s a six Toe with the Brewers he’s a good guy that he is a good-look guy uh right there with the old M hats they have the old M hats
Right there I think that’s like 77 maybe and then this was him with the Brewers I also got a cardinal and a padre one too but anyway I got all my my Brewer ones out and now for the 2023 um let’s see oh this is the guy I
Picked to win the MVP in the National League Austin Riley had a very good year I think this kid’s a superstar he’s getting he’s a and he’s a big Lynch pin to that team right there so anyway Austin Riley on this uh stars of the MLB
They have that Series going and then uh here’s a Cincinnati Red player and you can see they’re kind of embossed right there and it’s Hunter Strickland the pitcher for Cincinnati Reds right there I don’t know they got so many different borders and there’s different prices on different ones I don’t worry about that
Too much uh let’s see I’m looking through here some of these things oh the closer for Pittsburgh Pirates this guy I think’s the best reliever in our division right here badar of the Pirates he play World Baseball Classic I good dein Willam dein Williams Oh dein
Williams that’s true I still I would go with Bernar though I would go with Bernar that guy last year had a great year and Deon Williams is great Deon Williams is great I someone on on a on one of the baseball websites said something someone posted who has the nastiest pitch in
Baseball and someone posted Devin Williams air bender which I contend is nothing more than a screw Ball but said that before and someone said he said but he said as a Brewers fan I would say you know Devin Williams Airbender another guy said I’m a Brewers fan to and I
Concur and I said I’m a Cubs fan and I concur sadly with a little crime I hate when he comes in he is almost unhitable he is fastic B bednar’s really good too so there’s he’s really good too yeah well thank you for straighten me out there I completely forgot about Deon
Williams there um I tell about Kansas City this is uh Jonathan Hesley right here and uh one of the young pitchers for Kansas City I think they’re on the upswing uh uh Rocky he’s been there for a while Kyle Freeland right there with the
Rockies uh oh man you say a name and it comes back and bites you Randy or rosarina running the second base right there that guy’s got such a Flash and flare for the game very enthusiastic he deserves everything he’s fantastic player uh Detroit Tiger I know he was an Oreo too Jonathan
Scope right there with Detroit he’s he’s been everywhere it seems like in the yeah in the American League it seems like he’s kind of made the rounds they got some team pictures or teams here this is the Royals their like team picture with all the like a checklist on the back every
Team has some sort of action picture there um let’s see the next one here oh San Diego Padres there they are celebrating uh got a couple more here oh he was a big guy in the news this week Chris S going to Atlanta yeah right
There I tell you what if he finds any kind of the form he used to have look out because he’s going to be the number three picture I think is what they’re projecting him to be and then uh Trace Thompson from your Los Angeles Dodgers right there with
Their uh what $1.4 billion dollar payroll cu’s Legend yeah yeah very briefly he hit a go-ahead like three-run Homer Grand Slam in like the second to last game of the season against the Cardinals a couple years back great memory Max man I don’t remember that maybe I’ve taken that it
Was like o October 1 or something it was that out my mind probably so that’s it for my set all right I’m gonna open up the minor Leaguers and we’ll see if the first time we did this we nobody the second time we did this we had some decent
Players Albert Bell and a few others so let’s see what we got here yeah oh pitcher for Pittsfield Mark Willoughby don’t know him oh outfielder from Burlington the I never smile Nolan Lane that dude’s got that bat man he’s gonna do some damage Johnson City Cardinal Class A organization Richard
Shackle you not know Richard shackle sparenberg shortstop Mike waren deie I wonder if he’s related to to Mickey maybe Mickey Mor andini I wonder if I don’t know could be I don’t know ah former All-Star pitcher pitching for Kingston at this time went on to pitch in the world series Charles
Naggie oh yes there he is very good yeah good pitcher for Princeton Kelly Woods smart guy okay Miami outfielder Michael maxan and I swear to God he looks like he’s 40 years [Laughter] old yeah I don’t know that’s a real guy there Kingsport first baseman James Harris no wasn’t James Harris a backup
Quarterback for the Rams back quarterback for the Rams first African-American for the Rams quarterback really I’ll be um Belo third baseman Frank bollock and oh from Gastonia second base Jeff fry so well we got Charles naggie that’s the only one I’ve Charles naggie ever heard of so that was pretty good I
Forgot that name that name I kind of had let slip out of my mind Charles very good when when Cleveland was really good in the mid 90s he was the race he Pizer man they were they were good team so want to thank Scott for joining us uh
And thank you all for being here um it’s it’s an exciting Cub day uh you know and watch him go five and 17 but right now on this date on Violet’s 20th birthday I’m excited about it so very cool remember the uh gu guest the cuup
Contest um we still have two free agents to be signed before we can complete that and that would be Bellinger and Snell yes um and they will be signed probably in about uh three hours before spring training breaks so anyway and uh we will see you all next week thank you
1 Comment
Great show as always! Is the Guess the Cub Steve Trout?