April 10, 2025 • 29 mins
"Coach Ballgame" James Lowe joins Covino & Rich to share his wisdom on coaching youth baseball and softball. As an MLB partner, he also shares some of the cool interactions and connections he's made with baseball legends, and the life lessons he's learned along the way. Check him out on social media @coachballgame!
#FSR #CRSHOW #Overpromised
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
All right, all right, welcome to our bonus show, the
show gram program known as over Promised with Covino and Rich. Yeah, buddy,
you may know us from Fox Sports Radio Monday through
Friday two to four on the West, five to seven
on the East.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
But we can't fit all of this now call it
ThisDay into two hours.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So we bring you over Promised And today we have
a special guest.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
And let me tell you, the minute you get involved
in the coaching world, hard to avoid this guy, because
I think he's the best of the best. We welcome
to over Promised and Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Coach Ball Game James. What's up man?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Welcome, High praise, high praise. You guys are awesome. At
the sound of your voices makes me want to be
a better coach right away.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, yeah, glad we could inspire you at a coach
is right.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I'm telling you the minute I started coaching my daughter,
I'm doing eight U softball and pony ball T ball
for my son. And the minute you look up one
coaching thing on social media, it's in your algorithm. That
becomes your algorithm. And I'm like, who's this guy?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
He's great? And that is coach baseball from my favorite thing.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I learned alligator vacuum, groundball alligator vacuum. So coach ball game.
I got to start by asking how did this all
come about? Like, how did you become coach ball game man?
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Well, I hope you got about four and a half days.
But it starts in North Carolina. I love playing baseball
with my brothers, my father in the backyard. We play
sandlot ball in the backyard. Had a small house but
a really big backyard, so we'd invite all the neighbors.
And the love of the game started right there with
(01:55):
just a broomstick and a tennis ball. I was fortunate
enough to go to Brown University and play baseball there
four years. Nice career hit by pitch record holder at
Brown University asked Chris Berman at a boy and from
there I didn't get drafted. I had an eye opening moment.
(02:15):
I was facing Justin Verlander in college and he threw
me a curveball that was stripe three. I did not swing,
but I did dry heave. I almost threw up on
home plate, and that was the moment that I knew
I was destined to do something other than play baseball.
So I moved to California. I started coaching with some friends,
(02:39):
and I was a really bad coach for about five years,
but I had really good mentors that showed me how
to engage, how to teach love of play. And my
nickname being Jimmy ballgame in college because I was kind
of crazy. I'd run into walls and get hit a lot.
It just working turned into coachball game when I started coaching.
(03:02):
So it's been twenty one years of figuring it out, learning, failing,
but here we are having a great tame you.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Know, coach ball game.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
It dawned on me last night I went from coaching
my kids to playing softballlas night. I play a couple
of days a week as again, nothing feels better than
hitting line drive still, and I realized I looked around them,
like these are just a bunch of grown.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Men that love baseball.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
And then I'm thinking all these kids could very well
end up being forty year old guys that are playing softball.
It's just the love of baseball that we all have,
like you said, from playing stickball with football it We're
all just kids that love this game, love it.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Yeah, I've been coaching for twenty one years and there's
one kid that made it to the major leagues. One ye,
there's hundreds and thousands of kids that became fathers, went
to college, became adults. So I learned be a life coach.
First teached love of play so their careers last longer.
(04:02):
How many life lessons can you teach on a baseball field?
It's barely baseball. I think a good coach changes a game,
but a great coach changes lives, you know, hundreds and
thousands of them. So good on you, man, you're changing lives.
Tell an eight.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Year old we're here at the world famous coach ball game. Now,
Rich is a coach as well. I'm a cheer dad.
I'm not a coach, but I want you to know
I do have twenty seven little league home runs under
this spell. So yeah, twenty seven little league home runs.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Thank you. But I got to ask you this.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Mitch Hedberg, the comedian, said, only one piece of sports
equipment has made it to the mainstreaming. Only one sports
hat has made it to the mainstream wardrobe, and that's
the baseball cap. But you chose the Fedora. I gotta
know why, because when Rich was like, you know, coach
ball game, I'm like, oh, the Fedora guy. That's everybody
does the Fedora guy. How did that happen?
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Well, I have my mom's side of the family is
from Puerto Rico, so I had a grandpa, Tony Antonio
Bowza who introduced me to that culture, Roberto Clemente and
that whole culture. This is the vibe, it's music, it's dancing,
(05:19):
it's party vibe. So I had that ingrained in me
at a young age, and then in my twenties to
put food on the table. I was doing private lessons,
but I was doing baseball lessons in the middle of
a packed soccer field. And the only way I could
get the people's attention and let them know, Hey, I'm
the guy that you're trying to meet here on this
(05:40):
crowded field was I'll be in the funny hat. I'll
be sitting on a baseball bucket in the middle of
this crowd, in a funny hat. So I've always been
a little lesson center and everything. I think they were
the box and it worked with kids, you know, they
like to be surprised.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Let me ask you this to as a as a
Puerto Rican guy, you know, obviously Bob Clemente Roberto Clemente
is the guy who's second?
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Burnaby Williams, Bernie Williams, Jarge Pasada?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Who else is Yankees for me? Those are the guys
you know? Who are they for you? After Roberto Clemente.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Well, I've got a conga and I call it the
on deck Drum, and I bring it everywhere I go.
And I've gotten a lot of Hall of famers to
sign it. I've gotten Francisco Lindor, my guy, and Bernie Williams.
But if I had to pick, I'll go Bernie because
he's a guitar player.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You know, coach ball game. What I love about you
is the enthusiasm and the fun you bring. I think
sometimes the criticism I might get from some of the
parents is that I'm too fun and light.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I try to keep it loose. I bring music to
the game. I got the bluetooth speaker.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I'm being silly with the girls and the boys baseball
or softball. Every game. I'll run out to right field
after the game. I caught kids and I do taking knee.
I love you do the clap three times. How do
you get the focus of a bunch of t ball
five year old boys? Who are picking their nose, picking
the grass, writing in the dirt. Are there any additional
(07:11):
tips you would give?
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Well.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
First of all, good on you when you're in the
minority there and parents are like, oh, you're not serious enough,
keep going. Good job. The first thing I do is
build trust that they're not going to listen to anything
I say, especially if they're picking their nose or chewing
their glove or rolling around tickling each other. I got
(07:34):
to build trust with them first, so I let them know, yes,
I'm a grown up, but I'm here to listen to you.
I'm interested in you as a person. That's straight out
of the Dusty Baker book of become a savant of people.
So when you build that trust, you ask questions about
these kids and they say, you know what, I love Superman. Okay,
(07:55):
that's going to be your nickname. The nickname is the
number one rule of Sandlot. And I don't pick them.
I let them pick it for themselves. But that immediately
builds trust. So when I do ask to these kids, hey, okay,
now I need you to be quiet, shoulders back, uncomfortable,
eye contact. Let me teach you how to throw. They
don't hear that as anger or militant. It's this guy
(08:19):
that they trust and they're willing to go to battle
for them, So build that trust. I also think you
gotta be you. You can't try and be somebody else.
I don't try to be Jim Carrey. Once I figured
out who I was and what my voice is, I
brought that to the table. As a kid, I love
drums as a kid. I love storytelling as a kid.
(08:41):
I really responded to humor. So I bring those three
to the table every practice and it works.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Are you taking notes because I feel like you're trying
to be Jim Carrey over, I have taken notes. I'm
having fun with it. Honestly. It brings me more joy
than I like to admit.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Like watching these kids make progress, especially when a kid
may contact for the first time and you've been working
on their swaying. That's it's a lot of joy. You
bring up the drum coach bawl game about the drum
I saw you on. I don't know the pitchers mound
at Wrigley Field. Can you tell us about the thrill
of throwing out a first pitch at Wrigley Well.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
I'm a Cubs fan born and raised you know, grew
up in North Carolina where we had no teams, so
you got to pick. And most most everybody in my
hometown are Braves fans. But I would come home from school,
it's three o'clock in the afternoon, I'd make a big
bowl of apple sauce and watch an entire Cubs game
on WGN. That was my thing. So I fell in
(09:36):
love with Andre Dawson, Ryan Samdberg, Mark Grace, lifelong Cubs fan.
The opportunity came up. I was doing a sandlot in
Chicago and the Cubs reached out. I got to throw
out the first pitch, and I thought, you know what,
I've seen Bill Murray throw out the first pitch. I've
seen Eddie Vedder. Nobody's brought out a drum to the
(09:56):
pitchers mound at Wrigley Field. Well, that's my thing. I
bring it every where I go, and I get Rod
Carew and King Griffey Junior and Albert Pools to sign it.
So I bring it out there and I start beating
on it, and Clark, the Cub who's catching the first pitch,
he gets up, starts clapping, getting the crowd going. Then
I get on the rubber and I throw the pitch
(10:16):
and I thought, you know what, this might be the
first and only time a drum is on this mound.
I better make it count. And the guy who was
singing the national anthem right before I threw the pitch,
he says, aim high so I wouldn't bounce it, and
thankfully it got all the way to Clark the Cub.
(10:38):
But yeah, yeah, I thought about my grandma. She loved
baseball and she's not with us anymore. But I looked
up to this guy before I threw it, and I thought, man,
she's watching. And it kind of calmed me down, and
it gave me a you know, just a moment of perspective,
but special, one of the most special days of my life.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It's so cool, man, coach ball game here on over
promise with Cavino and rich, millions of views and followers
on social media. So appreciate your time. Got to ask you,
how do you handle it when your kid stinks, your
kid's just not good? As a coach and a parent,
how do you handle that?
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Yeah, I think as let's start with the parent. You
have to make sure that your joy as a mom
or dad is detached from their results. You need to
be their champion, and they can't be afraid of failure.
They can't be afraid of striking out five times. I
had a dad who sat behind the left field wall.
(11:38):
He would keep score quietly. He would treat the zero
for fives and the five for fives equally. So I
was blessed with natural talent, one of the best players
on the team, but that didn't really matter to him.
He was all about character. The only time he would
get upset is if I was having a bad attitude
or not being a good teammate. So I had a
(11:59):
good role model with my dad. As far as a
coach goes, you're a life coach. It is your job
to reel them in, teach him how to love the
game so they can learn as many life lessons as possible.
At no point are these little league games or these
ten U travel ball games. They're not life or death.
(12:19):
But there could be a tool that you teach these
kids of how to overcome adversity, how to battle that
it could become life or death down the road. They
could make a bad decision, or they're about to make
a bad decision, and then they go, you know what,
Coach rich On my EU team. He taught me how
to overcome failure. So I'm going to make a good
(12:41):
choice right now instead of a bad one. So yeah,
it's barely the sport. It's all about what kind of
adult are we creating here?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
No doubt, you know, coach ball game. I think about
when I was a kid. I feel as though I
was sort of coach poorly in certain areas.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Like I was told I always trying to pull the ball,
and dude, our coaches were smoking cigars.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
I'm always smoking and listen, I feel like we're in
the same you know, age bracket.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Coach ball game.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I feel like if you were a kid of the eighties,
your coach had a pipe, he was like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Get out there, who gives a shit?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And he and hey, if you're not pulling the ball,
you're not getting around on the ball. Elbow up, kid,
elbow up? Hey what did you what?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
You said? You had a coach and be like hit
the green nothing in between, Like my dad used to
say that. As a coach, how.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Do you now, with all the knowledge we have, how
do you handle if you see someone coaching your kids
incorrectly or you know, someone getting bad advice?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Yep, It's the same thing I do with kids. The
first thing I got to do is build trust with
that person. If I see a parent, they're overbearing, micromanaging,
fingers are wrangled in the fence, elbow up, knees bent,
don't strike out all of that stuff, I go, Oh,
I got to take that guy out for coffee or
(13:56):
or a cold milk and just listen to their story.
I gotta I gotta find out why are they the
way they are. Then after I've built trust with them,
then I can drop the truth bomb. But I got
to do it in a way they can hear it,
and I gotta provide science behind it. Your kid performs
(14:16):
really good when you're at work, but when you're here,
there's a lot of looking over their shoulder wanting to
impress you, and they're never gonna be able to match up.
One of my best buddies growing up, he came up
to me when we were seniors in high school and
he's like, you know what, I don't feel clutch. I've
never been clutch. I was like, what are you talking about.
You're one of the best I've ever seen, But in
(14:38):
big moments he was afraid of failure because his dad
was micromanaging every moment. I love the big moment because
Dad didn't care. The car ride was never miserable.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So it works.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Kids play better when they're feeling joy. But you can't
just fight fire with fire. You got to build that
trust first.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah, but coach ball game, what if the parent is
right and that coach stinks, what do you advise them
to do?
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Yes, that does happen, and you are the superhero you've
been waiting for. So raise your hand at the next
practice and say, hey, you need help, and right field
with that throwing and catching station, I'll be there. You
need help break in the field, like, you got to
become a coach, and that's why you got build trust.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
So there you go. That's how I actually did start
coaching for the first time.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
My kid was like four or five playing soccer, and
I felt like the coach was hungover and lazy, and
I'm like, hey, let me give you a hand. The
team was called the Dinosaurs coach ball game, and the
coach didn't even have the instinct to be like, all right, kids,
let's roar. I'm like, what the hell is this guy doing? So, yeah,
sometimes you.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
Are the superhero. You're waiting for I've met so many guys,
and a lot of them played Major League baseball. They
played at a very high level, and they started coaching
their kids because they were like, whoa, my kid's gonna
he's gonna hate full after this. I got to do something.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
So jump in there if you're listening. James Lowe is here.
If you're watching his coach ball game, he's got the
Fedora on. And as kids have changed, kids have changed,
how have coaching technique techniques advanced? Because it seems a
lot more scientific. You brought up science. It seems like
a lot more complex than it used to be, no.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Doubt about it. Like you said, everything used to be
my way or the highway and rubs the dirt on it,
let's go. But everything's changed and you got to go
about it a little bit differently. Now. A lot of
folks see my social media and they go, well, he's
just entertaining one hundred percent of the time, and the
kids gravitate to that. What they don't realize until they
(16:45):
come to my camps in person. I'm pretty firm and
I have high expectations, but it's not for the talent.
It's not for the skill. It's for their choices. I
actually bring baseball cards, put them in my pocket, and
I'll give them out to that are listening, being a
good teammate, cheering, hustling, being kind, all those things. I'll
(17:06):
do the same for parents that are being positive in
the bleachers. I got to give you a car, a
great mustache, and I love your positive vibe. Their dad.
But you got to roll with the times, and I
feel like it worked. I didn't really listen even in
the eighties and nineties. I didn't hear coaches that were
yelling at me. I would go fetal position and just
(17:28):
go inward. Oh, I'm a failure, and my coach hates me. Now,
all my coach was saying is, you know, throw strikes
or swing at strikes. But you hear the tone and
you see the body language a lot more than you
actually hear the words, especially for kids. So I think
I've had to be aware of my body language and
(17:50):
hyper aware of my tone, and then this positive reinforcement thing.
I started out a bad coach. I started out shaming,
embarrassing out the negative right away. That's a self righteous approach.
And I had to become aware enough to go, you know,
what I got some narcissism in here, and I'm coaching
this kid like he's the eight year old version of me.
(18:13):
I had to take a step back, and I had
a mentor named Sean Flicky who was like, hey, buddy,
I love your energy. You got the energy of fifty camels.
But that kid hates baseball now because of your tone,
the way you're talking to them. So once that light
bulb happened, I pointed out the positive. First. Maybe they
weren't doing the alligator vacuum, but their feet were in
(18:36):
a good place, so I'd say, love the feet, work,
love your socks. Now let's talk about the hands. But again,
the lens you have to put on is what kind
of human am I creating? What kind of adult? What
kind of server of this community am I creating for
this kiddo? So you're not trying to create the next
(18:59):
mic trap that that's not going to happen, but you're
going to create the next father mother server of their community.
So yeah, it's it's a deep dive.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
And that was a great answer. And I want to
reward you with your choice of Don Mattingley card here Man, which, Yeah,
which mustache do you want?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Take your pick. I'll take Don Russ nineteen ninety.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Well, you can't go wrong with nineteen ninety stash. But
we're going to go down here, you know, just a
little more than usual. Yeah you have food, man, but no,
the mustache. You're speaking my love language. Now. I've written
songs about Wade Bogs and Don Mattingley's mustache. Yeah, hey,
(19:41):
coach ball games.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Weird not to get a dirty on the show.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
But we used to say, if you were, you know,
with a woman for the first time, and let's say
you didn't want things to go too fast, think of
one of those mustaches.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Yeah, there you go. Keep you a game works.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
We called it the Don Mattingly Stall mustache stall.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Yeah, the mustache. The find thing is it might work
differently for me because I just love the love the
stash and my dad had like a Sam Elliott in Tombstone,
and I have such high regard for him that man.
Just uh, I'm glad to see the mustache coming back.
Paul Skins, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Skins with the mustache and Livy Dunn as his girlfriend
might work to the mustache's advantage. You might see more mustaches.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
I'm pretty sure. I saw Randy Johnson strike a guy
out with his mustache and pick a guy off second
base with his mullet at the same time. It happened
coach ball game.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
You know, I'm glad to hear how much fun he
brings to the game, Like when I feel like sometimes
I second guess, am I doing too much? Like if
a kid gets a hit, I'll run it on first base, like, hey,
wait to go, buddy.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
In a little fist bump. I guess it's not too
much bribery.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I'm glad I heard coach ball game talk about, hey,
here is a baseball card, because I have a current
thing going on with my T ball team. If they
get five outs in a game, not three in an inning,
five in a game, I'm taking them out for ice cream.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Nice. And someone's like, is that bribery?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
And I'm like, I don't think, so, get some focus,
maybe right something I'll look forward to.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Well, you can call it whatever you want to.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
Maybe it is, maybe it is bribery, but I just
I highly recommend try to keep the game balls or
the briberies to choices.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
When you start awarding Benny the Jet Rodriguez for talent, well,
then Smalls is like, well, I might as well quit.
I'm done here. But what I love about the movie
the Sandlot, and I think it's why the movie stands
the test of time. And I talked to the writer
director about this, the dynamic between Benny the Jet and Smalls.
Benny embraced him, taught him how to catch the ball.
(21:51):
So I'm giving Benny the Jet an award at the
end of the game or a baseball card or a
hug nice because of the choices. Same with Smalls, the toughness, improvement,
all the good choices he's making. That's why they're gonna
get the awards. So yeah, I think that's when toxicity
seeps into youth sports, when we're so focused on winning
(22:13):
and talent and we lose sight of the most important things.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Coach ball game with Kavin un Rich.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
I love the involvement that you have with Major League
Baseball and the impact some of these star players can make.
Like I just recently, I'll give you a quick personal story.
My daughter has been struggling a little bit eight U
softball and I posted a little video she was talking
about she loves softball and she's struggling a little bit.
Jenny Finch reached out, and the fact that Jenny Finch
(22:43):
gave my daughter a little message meant the world to her.
And I see you work with Bobby Witt Junior, one
of your heroes, Kavino, He's hanging out with Jeets.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I was so jealous. I know, amazing, so cool.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
I mean, do these players I'm guessing they do, but
they've had a long journey to the bigs. Do they
understand the they have on these kids?
Speaker 4 (23:01):
One hundred percent? Let's start with Jenny Finch. I work
alongside her for many of the NLB events that we do,
the All Star Game, the World Series, and she gets it.
She gets it. I mean, she's nobody's ever going to
match up to her level of talent, but she's actually
in the business of creating good humans and she really
(23:24):
thrives on changing these lives for the better. So it
doesn't surprise me that Jenny Finch did that. Derek Jeter, Wow.
So I mean at this point, I've met my heroes
and I've interviewed a lot of studs. I mean, this
guitar behind me, it's signed by Albert Poohols, It's got him,
and you know big Bird on there I've got baseballs
(23:47):
for Ozzie Smith and Andre Dawson, but getting to meet
Derek Jeter, one of the best of all time. None
of the kids knew who he was, all the parents
knew who he was, and to see him, no phone,
no entourage, just hand in hand with his two daughters,
and he was incredibly present with these kids. I was like,
(24:09):
top shelf player, top shelf individual. He's high fiving, he's
into it. There was no when can we get out
of here? Looking at his watch. I mean, he was
so great and he was communicating amazing life lessons to
these kids. I meet a lot of great players, it's
tough to find a great major leaguer that can also
(24:30):
engage and communicate with kids. He was a natural savant
at it. And his foundation they've been going for thirty
years and he really you can tell his parents did
it right, and he's he's way up there. You know,
maybe the top name on my congo drome.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
How about that, Adam Boy and doctor Jeter raising a
good kid. And it's so cool to see you working
with these pros and super stars and all these kids.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
It's so cool to see even the Savannah bananas.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yeah, yeah, I love the videos man, and I do
have one last question, because we have a lot of
parents listening and watching over Promise that are into you.
What sort of advice do you give the parents that
can't afford coaches and clinics and camps and things like that,
because you don't want your kid to fall behind.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
How do you balance that?
Speaker 4 (25:22):
I think people think, well, I got to have the
most expensive bat glove, you got to have a real
baseball field, foul lines, all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
No you don't.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
You really just need a lemon and a stick. I
talk about Roberto Clemente. He grew up using a lemon
for a ball, a stick for a bat, trash for bases.
If you go down to the Dominican Republic right now,
you're going to see kids with no shoes, no coaches,
no parents, sharing some sort of stick and using an
old rag ball, and they're playing at an elite level.
(25:54):
So find whatever you can. Maybe that's a tennis racket
for a baseball, maybe that's a volleyball instead of a
real baseball, but just get them playing.
Speaker 6 (26:05):
And as long as you can wrangle the kids and
be somewhat of a good pe teacher, you can have
a herd of kids have their friends come over to
a local park, drop those bases down and play some
fun version of baseball.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
I think that's it. That's free. You don't need that
private lesson or anything like that. So yeah, it's hard
to believe what I do is novel that you just
find something to hit. I find a stick and go play.
But it has to become novels. So that's why I
(26:42):
go from city to city so people can see it
and go, oh, so that does exist.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Coach Ball Game, thank you so much for your time.
Where can people find your stuff? Because I know you
do clinics. I know I gotta get myself. I got
to buy one of those at a boy out of
coach t shirts.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Yeah, man, absolutely at coach Ballgame on thesocials and Coachballgame
dot com is where you can sign up for any
of my camps. I've got an online coaching course where
you can watch lots of videos and skill like how
do you teach a kid how to how to cover
second base or how to hit it to the opposite field?
(27:19):
All those questions are answered. And then I got a
book coming out in a few weeks. I spent five
years writing my story of my coaching pillars and how
I got there. And there's a lot of name drops
that I've already dropped today. And and you know, like
a Derek Jeter, he taught me how to be present.
(27:40):
So yeah, at coach ballgame, all the good stuff.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
One last random question, how do I get a How
do I get the kids to hustle in the game
like they do in practice or in their own house?
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Oh? Are you talking about my own?
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Like Mike, Like, my son will run around the neighborhood
like he's been in the jet Rodriguez and then he
runs the first base and he like to skip at
the first base like he doesn't even give a shit.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
So this is a whole chapter in my book of
how to coach your own son or daughter and basically
hand them off to an assistant coach, Like go up
to one of the assistant coaches or you're you know,
maybe their uncle, somebody you know they really look up to,
and say, hey, can you just somehow get this kid
(28:27):
to hustle because you know, there's there's too much baggage
with me and with me being dad. So with my daughters,
I find that dance teacher or that coach, and I say, hey,
probably not going to hear me when I say it,
but they'll definitely hear you.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
So that's good advice.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
I have the the passed off as we call it,
passed that one off.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
James, Thanks for your time, man, appreciate A big fan
of what you do. I'm I'm glad we got to connect.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
Thank you, had it happened. I'll be listening.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Perfect, Thank you, my friend, James Low coach ball game.
And that's episode eighty seven, bro, perfect Bob. We'll see
you guys next time.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
All read it. There you babe, you in the over
Promised Land. Goodbye,
All right, all right, welcome to our bonus show, the
show gram program known as over Promised with Covino and Rich. Yeah, buddy,
you may know us from Fox Sports Radio Monday through
Friday two to four on the West, five to seven
on the East.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
But we can't fit all of this now call it
ThisDay into two hours.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So we bring you over Promised And today we have
a special guest.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
And let me tell you, the minute you get involved
in the coaching world, hard to avoid this guy, because
I think he's the best of the best. We welcome
to over Promised and Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Coach Ball Game James. What's up man?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Welcome, High praise, high praise. You guys are awesome. At
the sound of your voices makes me want to be
a better coach right away.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, yeah, glad we could inspire you at a coach
is right.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I'm telling you the minute I started coaching my daughter,
I'm doing eight U softball and pony ball T ball
for my son. And the minute you look up one
coaching thing on social media, it's in your algorithm. That
becomes your algorithm. And I'm like, who's this guy?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
He's great? And that is coach baseball from my favorite thing.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I learned alligator vacuum, groundball alligator vacuum. So coach ball game.
I got to start by asking how did this all
come about? Like, how did you become coach ball game man?
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Well, I hope you got about four and a half days.
But it starts in North Carolina. I love playing baseball
with my brothers, my father in the backyard. We play
sandlot ball in the backyard. Had a small house but
a really big backyard, so we'd invite all the neighbors.
And the love of the game started right there with
(01:55):
just a broomstick and a tennis ball. I was fortunate
enough to go to Brown University and play baseball there
four years. Nice career hit by pitch record holder at
Brown University asked Chris Berman at a boy and from
there I didn't get drafted. I had an eye opening moment.
(02:15):
I was facing Justin Verlander in college and he threw
me a curveball that was stripe three. I did not swing,
but I did dry heave. I almost threw up on
home plate, and that was the moment that I knew
I was destined to do something other than play baseball.
So I moved to California. I started coaching with some friends,
(02:39):
and I was a really bad coach for about five years,
but I had really good mentors that showed me how
to engage, how to teach love of play. And my
nickname being Jimmy ballgame in college because I was kind
of crazy. I'd run into walls and get hit a lot.
It just working turned into coachball game when I started coaching.
(03:02):
So it's been twenty one years of figuring it out, learning, failing,
but here we are having a great tame you.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Know, coach ball game.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
It dawned on me last night I went from coaching
my kids to playing softballlas night. I play a couple
of days a week as again, nothing feels better than
hitting line drive still, and I realized I looked around them,
like these are just a bunch of grown.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Men that love baseball.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
And then I'm thinking all these kids could very well
end up being forty year old guys that are playing softball.
It's just the love of baseball that we all have,
like you said, from playing stickball with football it We're
all just kids that love this game, love it.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Yeah, I've been coaching for twenty one years and there's
one kid that made it to the major leagues. One ye,
there's hundreds and thousands of kids that became fathers, went
to college, became adults. So I learned be a life coach.
First teached love of play so their careers last longer.
(04:02):
How many life lessons can you teach on a baseball field?
It's barely baseball. I think a good coach changes a game,
but a great coach changes lives, you know, hundreds and
thousands of them. So good on you, man, you're changing lives.
Tell an eight.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Year old we're here at the world famous coach ball game. Now,
Rich is a coach as well. I'm a cheer dad.
I'm not a coach, but I want you to know
I do have twenty seven little league home runs under
this spell. So yeah, twenty seven little league home runs.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Thank you. But I got to ask you this.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Mitch Hedberg, the comedian, said, only one piece of sports
equipment has made it to the mainstreaming. Only one sports
hat has made it to the mainstream wardrobe, and that's
the baseball cap. But you chose the Fedora. I gotta
know why, because when Rich was like, you know, coach
ball game, I'm like, oh, the Fedora guy. That's everybody
does the Fedora guy. How did that happen?
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Well, I have my mom's side of the family is
from Puerto Rico, so I had a grandpa, Tony Antonio
Bowza who introduced me to that culture, Roberto Clemente and
that whole culture. This is the vibe, it's music, it's dancing,
(05:19):
it's party vibe. So I had that ingrained in me
at a young age, and then in my twenties to
put food on the table. I was doing private lessons,
but I was doing baseball lessons in the middle of
a packed soccer field. And the only way I could
get the people's attention and let them know, Hey, I'm
the guy that you're trying to meet here on this
(05:40):
crowded field was I'll be in the funny hat. I'll
be sitting on a baseball bucket in the middle of
this crowd, in a funny hat. So I've always been
a little lesson center and everything. I think they were
the box and it worked with kids, you know, they
like to be surprised.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Let me ask you this to as a as a
Puerto Rican guy, you know, obviously Bob Clemente Roberto Clemente
is the guy who's second?
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Burnaby Williams, Bernie Williams, Jarge Pasada?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Who else is Yankees for me? Those are the guys
you know? Who are they for you? After Roberto Clemente.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Well, I've got a conga and I call it the
on deck Drum, and I bring it everywhere I go.
And I've gotten a lot of Hall of famers to
sign it. I've gotten Francisco Lindor, my guy, and Bernie Williams.
But if I had to pick, I'll go Bernie because
he's a guitar player.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You know, coach ball game. What I love about you
is the enthusiasm and the fun you bring. I think
sometimes the criticism I might get from some of the
parents is that I'm too fun and light.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I try to keep it loose. I bring music to
the game. I got the bluetooth speaker.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I'm being silly with the girls and the boys baseball
or softball. Every game. I'll run out to right field
after the game. I caught kids and I do taking knee.
I love you do the clap three times. How do
you get the focus of a bunch of t ball
five year old boys? Who are picking their nose, picking
the grass, writing in the dirt. Are there any additional
(07:11):
tips you would give?
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Well.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
First of all, good on you when you're in the
minority there and parents are like, oh, you're not serious enough,
keep going. Good job. The first thing I do is
build trust that they're not going to listen to anything
I say, especially if they're picking their nose or chewing
their glove or rolling around tickling each other. I got
(07:34):
to build trust with them first, so I let them know, yes,
I'm a grown up, but I'm here to listen to you.
I'm interested in you as a person. That's straight out
of the Dusty Baker book of become a savant of people.
So when you build that trust, you ask questions about
these kids and they say, you know what, I love Superman. Okay,
(07:55):
that's going to be your nickname. The nickname is the
number one rule of Sandlot. And I don't pick them.
I let them pick it for themselves. But that immediately
builds trust. So when I do ask to these kids, hey, okay,
now I need you to be quiet, shoulders back, uncomfortable,
eye contact. Let me teach you how to throw. They
don't hear that as anger or militant. It's this guy
(08:19):
that they trust and they're willing to go to battle
for them, So build that trust. I also think you
gotta be you. You can't try and be somebody else.
I don't try to be Jim Carrey. Once I figured
out who I was and what my voice is, I
brought that to the table. As a kid, I love
drums as a kid. I love storytelling as a kid.
(08:41):
I really responded to humor. So I bring those three
to the table every practice and it works.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Are you taking notes because I feel like you're trying
to be Jim Carrey over, I have taken notes. I'm
having fun with it. Honestly. It brings me more joy
than I like to admit.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Like watching these kids make progress, especially when a kid
may contact for the first time and you've been working
on their swaying. That's it's a lot of joy. You
bring up the drum coach bawl game about the drum
I saw you on. I don't know the pitchers mound
at Wrigley Field. Can you tell us about the thrill
of throwing out a first pitch at Wrigley Well.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
I'm a Cubs fan born and raised you know, grew
up in North Carolina where we had no teams, so
you got to pick. And most most everybody in my
hometown are Braves fans. But I would come home from school,
it's three o'clock in the afternoon, I'd make a big
bowl of apple sauce and watch an entire Cubs game
on WGN. That was my thing. So I fell in
(09:36):
love with Andre Dawson, Ryan Samdberg, Mark Grace, lifelong Cubs fan.
The opportunity came up. I was doing a sandlot in
Chicago and the Cubs reached out. I got to throw
out the first pitch, and I thought, you know what,
I've seen Bill Murray throw out the first pitch. I've
seen Eddie Vedder. Nobody's brought out a drum to the
(09:56):
pitchers mound at Wrigley Field. Well, that's my thing. I
bring it every where I go, and I get Rod
Carew and King Griffey Junior and Albert Pools to sign it.
So I bring it out there and I start beating
on it, and Clark, the Cub who's catching the first pitch,
he gets up, starts clapping, getting the crowd going. Then
I get on the rubber and I throw the pitch
(10:16):
and I thought, you know what, this might be the
first and only time a drum is on this mound.
I better make it count. And the guy who was
singing the national anthem right before I threw the pitch,
he says, aim high so I wouldn't bounce it, and
thankfully it got all the way to Clark the Cub.
(10:38):
But yeah, yeah, I thought about my grandma. She loved
baseball and she's not with us anymore. But I looked
up to this guy before I threw it, and I thought, man,
she's watching. And it kind of calmed me down, and
it gave me a you know, just a moment of perspective,
but special, one of the most special days of my life.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It's so cool, man, coach ball game here on over
promise with Cavino and rich, millions of views and followers
on social media. So appreciate your time. Got to ask you,
how do you handle it when your kid stinks, your
kid's just not good? As a coach and a parent,
how do you handle that?
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Yeah, I think as let's start with the parent. You
have to make sure that your joy as a mom
or dad is detached from their results. You need to
be their champion, and they can't be afraid of failure.
They can't be afraid of striking out five times. I
had a dad who sat behind the left field wall.
(11:38):
He would keep score quietly. He would treat the zero
for fives and the five for fives equally. So I
was blessed with natural talent, one of the best players
on the team, but that didn't really matter to him.
He was all about character. The only time he would
get upset is if I was having a bad attitude
or not being a good teammate. So I had a
(11:59):
good role model with my dad. As far as a
coach goes, you're a life coach. It is your job
to reel them in, teach him how to love the
game so they can learn as many life lessons as possible.
At no point are these little league games or these
ten U travel ball games. They're not life or death.
(12:19):
But there could be a tool that you teach these
kids of how to overcome adversity, how to battle that
it could become life or death down the road. They
could make a bad decision, or they're about to make
a bad decision, and then they go, you know what,
Coach rich On my EU team. He taught me how
to overcome failure. So I'm going to make a good
(12:41):
choice right now instead of a bad one. So yeah,
it's barely the sport. It's all about what kind of
adult are we creating here?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
No doubt, you know, coach ball game. I think about
when I was a kid. I feel as though I
was sort of coach poorly in certain areas.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Like I was told I always trying to pull the ball,
and dude, our coaches were smoking cigars.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
I'm always smoking and listen, I feel like we're in
the same you know, age bracket.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Coach ball game.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I feel like if you were a kid of the eighties,
your coach had a pipe, he was like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Get out there, who gives a shit?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And he and hey, if you're not pulling the ball,
you're not getting around on the ball. Elbow up, kid,
elbow up? Hey what did you what?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
You said? You had a coach and be like hit
the green nothing in between, Like my dad used to
say that. As a coach, how.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Do you now, with all the knowledge we have, how
do you handle if you see someone coaching your kids
incorrectly or you know, someone getting bad advice?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Yep, It's the same thing I do with kids. The
first thing I got to do is build trust with
that person. If I see a parent, they're overbearing, micromanaging,
fingers are wrangled in the fence, elbow up, knees bent,
don't strike out all of that stuff, I go, Oh,
I got to take that guy out for coffee or
(13:56):
or a cold milk and just listen to their story.
I gotta I gotta find out why are they the
way they are. Then after I've built trust with them,
then I can drop the truth bomb. But I got
to do it in a way they can hear it,
and I gotta provide science behind it. Your kid performs
(14:16):
really good when you're at work, but when you're here,
there's a lot of looking over their shoulder wanting to
impress you, and they're never gonna be able to match up.
One of my best buddies growing up, he came up
to me when we were seniors in high school and
he's like, you know what, I don't feel clutch. I've
never been clutch. I was like, what are you talking about.
You're one of the best I've ever seen, But in
(14:38):
big moments he was afraid of failure because his dad
was micromanaging every moment. I love the big moment because
Dad didn't care. The car ride was never miserable.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So it works.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Kids play better when they're feeling joy. But you can't
just fight fire with fire. You got to build that
trust first.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah, but coach ball game, what if the parent is
right and that coach stinks, what do you advise them
to do?
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Yes, that does happen, and you are the superhero you've
been waiting for. So raise your hand at the next
practice and say, hey, you need help, and right field
with that throwing and catching station, I'll be there. You
need help break in the field, like, you got to
become a coach, and that's why you got build trust.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
So there you go. That's how I actually did start
coaching for the first time.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
My kid was like four or five playing soccer, and
I felt like the coach was hungover and lazy, and
I'm like, hey, let me give you a hand. The
team was called the Dinosaurs coach ball game, and the
coach didn't even have the instinct to be like, all right, kids,
let's roar. I'm like, what the hell is this guy doing? So, yeah,
sometimes you.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
Are the superhero. You're waiting for I've met so many guys,
and a lot of them played Major League baseball. They
played at a very high level, and they started coaching
their kids because they were like, whoa, my kid's gonna
he's gonna hate full after this. I got to do something.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
So jump in there if you're listening. James Lowe is here.
If you're watching his coach ball game, he's got the
Fedora on. And as kids have changed, kids have changed,
how have coaching technique techniques advanced? Because it seems a
lot more scientific. You brought up science. It seems like
a lot more complex than it used to be, no.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Doubt about it. Like you said, everything used to be
my way or the highway and rubs the dirt on it,
let's go. But everything's changed and you got to go
about it a little bit differently. Now. A lot of
folks see my social media and they go, well, he's
just entertaining one hundred percent of the time, and the
kids gravitate to that. What they don't realize until they
(16:45):
come to my camps in person. I'm pretty firm and
I have high expectations, but it's not for the talent.
It's not for the skill. It's for their choices. I
actually bring baseball cards, put them in my pocket, and
I'll give them out to that are listening, being a
good teammate, cheering, hustling, being kind, all those things. I'll
(17:06):
do the same for parents that are being positive in
the bleachers. I got to give you a car, a
great mustache, and I love your positive vibe. Their dad.
But you got to roll with the times, and I
feel like it worked. I didn't really listen even in
the eighties and nineties. I didn't hear coaches that were
yelling at me. I would go fetal position and just
(17:28):
go inward. Oh, I'm a failure, and my coach hates me. Now,
all my coach was saying is, you know, throw strikes
or swing at strikes. But you hear the tone and
you see the body language a lot more than you
actually hear the words, especially for kids. So I think
I've had to be aware of my body language and
(17:50):
hyper aware of my tone, and then this positive reinforcement thing.
I started out a bad coach. I started out shaming,
embarrassing out the negative right away. That's a self righteous approach.
And I had to become aware enough to go, you know,
what I got some narcissism in here, and I'm coaching
this kid like he's the eight year old version of me.
(18:13):
I had to take a step back, and I had
a mentor named Sean Flicky who was like, hey, buddy,
I love your energy. You got the energy of fifty camels.
But that kid hates baseball now because of your tone,
the way you're talking to them. So once that light
bulb happened, I pointed out the positive. First. Maybe they
weren't doing the alligator vacuum, but their feet were in
(18:36):
a good place, so I'd say, love the feet, work,
love your socks. Now let's talk about the hands. But again,
the lens you have to put on is what kind
of human am I creating? What kind of adult? What
kind of server of this community am I creating for
this kiddo? So you're not trying to create the next
(18:59):
mic trap that that's not going to happen, but you're
going to create the next father mother server of their community.
So yeah, it's it's a deep dive.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
And that was a great answer. And I want to
reward you with your choice of Don Mattingley card here Man, which, Yeah,
which mustache do you want?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Take your pick. I'll take Don Russ nineteen ninety.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Well, you can't go wrong with nineteen ninety stash. But
we're going to go down here, you know, just a
little more than usual. Yeah you have food, man, but no,
the mustache. You're speaking my love language. Now. I've written
songs about Wade Bogs and Don Mattingley's mustache. Yeah, hey,
(19:41):
coach ball games.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Weird not to get a dirty on the show.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
But we used to say, if you were, you know,
with a woman for the first time, and let's say
you didn't want things to go too fast, think of
one of those mustaches.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Yeah, there you go. Keep you a game works.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
We called it the Don Mattingly Stall mustache stall.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Yeah, the mustache. The find thing is it might work
differently for me because I just love the love the
stash and my dad had like a Sam Elliott in Tombstone,
and I have such high regard for him that man.
Just uh, I'm glad to see the mustache coming back.
Paul Skins, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Skins with the mustache and Livy Dunn as his girlfriend
might work to the mustache's advantage. You might see more mustaches.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
I'm pretty sure. I saw Randy Johnson strike a guy
out with his mustache and pick a guy off second
base with his mullet at the same time. It happened
coach ball game.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
You know, I'm glad to hear how much fun he
brings to the game, Like when I feel like sometimes
I second guess, am I doing too much? Like if
a kid gets a hit, I'll run it on first base, like, hey,
wait to go, buddy.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
In a little fist bump. I guess it's not too
much bribery.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I'm glad I heard coach ball game talk about, hey,
here is a baseball card, because I have a current
thing going on with my T ball team. If they
get five outs in a game, not three in an inning,
five in a game, I'm taking them out for ice cream.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Nice. And someone's like, is that bribery?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
And I'm like, I don't think, so, get some focus,
maybe right something I'll look forward to.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Well, you can call it whatever you want to.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
Maybe it is, maybe it is bribery, but I just
I highly recommend try to keep the game balls or
the briberies to choices.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
When you start awarding Benny the Jet Rodriguez for talent, well,
then Smalls is like, well, I might as well quit.
I'm done here. But what I love about the movie
the Sandlot, and I think it's why the movie stands
the test of time. And I talked to the writer
director about this, the dynamic between Benny the Jet and Smalls.
Benny embraced him, taught him how to catch the ball.
(21:51):
So I'm giving Benny the Jet an award at the
end of the game or a baseball card or a
hug nice because of the choices. Same with Smalls, the toughness, improvement,
all the good choices he's making. That's why they're gonna
get the awards. So yeah, I think that's when toxicity
seeps into youth sports, when we're so focused on winning
(22:13):
and talent and we lose sight of the most important things.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Coach ball game with Kavin un Rich.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
I love the involvement that you have with Major League
Baseball and the impact some of these star players can make.
Like I just recently, I'll give you a quick personal story.
My daughter has been struggling a little bit eight U
softball and I posted a little video she was talking
about she loves softball and she's struggling a little bit.
Jenny Finch reached out, and the fact that Jenny Finch
(22:43):
gave my daughter a little message meant the world to her.
And I see you work with Bobby Witt Junior, one
of your heroes, Kavino, He's hanging out with Jeets.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I was so jealous. I know, amazing, so cool.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
I mean, do these players I'm guessing they do, but
they've had a long journey to the bigs. Do they
understand the they have on these kids?
Speaker 4 (23:01):
One hundred percent? Let's start with Jenny Finch. I work
alongside her for many of the NLB events that we do,
the All Star Game, the World Series, and she gets it.
She gets it. I mean, she's nobody's ever going to
match up to her level of talent, but she's actually
in the business of creating good humans and she really
(23:24):
thrives on changing these lives for the better. So it
doesn't surprise me that Jenny Finch did that. Derek Jeter, Wow.
So I mean at this point, I've met my heroes
and I've interviewed a lot of studs. I mean, this
guitar behind me, it's signed by Albert Poohols, It's got him,
and you know big Bird on there I've got baseballs
(23:47):
for Ozzie Smith and Andre Dawson, but getting to meet
Derek Jeter, one of the best of all time. None
of the kids knew who he was, all the parents
knew who he was, and to see him, no phone,
no entourage, just hand in hand with his two daughters,
and he was incredibly present with these kids. I was like,
(24:09):
top shelf player, top shelf individual. He's high fiving, he's
into it. There was no when can we get out
of here? Looking at his watch. I mean, he was
so great and he was communicating amazing life lessons to
these kids. I meet a lot of great players, it's
tough to find a great major leaguer that can also
(24:30):
engage and communicate with kids. He was a natural savant
at it. And his foundation they've been going for thirty
years and he really you can tell his parents did
it right, and he's he's way up there. You know,
maybe the top name on my congo drome.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
How about that, Adam Boy and doctor Jeter raising a
good kid. And it's so cool to see you working
with these pros and super stars and all these kids.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
It's so cool to see even the Savannah bananas.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yeah, yeah, I love the videos man, and I do
have one last question, because we have a lot of
parents listening and watching over Promise that are into you.
What sort of advice do you give the parents that
can't afford coaches and clinics and camps and things like that,
because you don't want your kid to fall behind.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
How do you balance that?
Speaker 4 (25:22):
I think people think, well, I got to have the
most expensive bat glove, you got to have a real
baseball field, foul lines, all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
No you don't.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
You really just need a lemon and a stick. I
talk about Roberto Clemente. He grew up using a lemon
for a ball, a stick for a bat, trash for bases.
If you go down to the Dominican Republic right now,
you're going to see kids with no shoes, no coaches,
no parents, sharing some sort of stick and using an
old rag ball, and they're playing at an elite level.
(25:54):
So find whatever you can. Maybe that's a tennis racket
for a baseball, maybe that's a volleyball instead of a
real baseball, but just get them playing.
Speaker 6 (26:05):
And as long as you can wrangle the kids and
be somewhat of a good pe teacher, you can have
a herd of kids have their friends come over to
a local park, drop those bases down and play some
fun version of baseball.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
I think that's it. That's free. You don't need that
private lesson or anything like that. So yeah, it's hard
to believe what I do is novel that you just
find something to hit. I find a stick and go play.
But it has to become novels. So that's why I
(26:42):
go from city to city so people can see it
and go, oh, so that does exist.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Coach Ball Game, thank you so much for your time.
Where can people find your stuff? Because I know you
do clinics. I know I gotta get myself. I got
to buy one of those at a boy out of
coach t shirts.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Yeah, man, absolutely at coach Ballgame on thesocials and Coachballgame
dot com is where you can sign up for any
of my camps. I've got an online coaching course where
you can watch lots of videos and skill like how
do you teach a kid how to how to cover
second base or how to hit it to the opposite field?
(27:19):
All those questions are answered. And then I got a
book coming out in a few weeks. I spent five
years writing my story of my coaching pillars and how
I got there. And there's a lot of name drops
that I've already dropped today. And and you know, like
a Derek Jeter, he taught me how to be present.
(27:40):
So yeah, at coach ballgame, all the good stuff.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
One last random question, how do I get a How
do I get the kids to hustle in the game
like they do in practice or in their own house?
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Oh? Are you talking about my own?
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Like Mike, Like, my son will run around the neighborhood
like he's been in the jet Rodriguez and then he
runs the first base and he like to skip at
the first base like he doesn't even give a shit.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
So this is a whole chapter in my book of
how to coach your own son or daughter and basically
hand them off to an assistant coach, Like go up
to one of the assistant coaches or you're you know,
maybe their uncle, somebody you know they really look up to,
and say, hey, can you just somehow get this kid
(28:27):
to hustle because you know, there's there's too much baggage
with me and with me being dad. So with my daughters,
I find that dance teacher or that coach, and I say, hey,
probably not going to hear me when I say it,
but they'll definitely hear you.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
So that's good advice.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
I have the the passed off as we call it,
passed that one off.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
James, Thanks for your time, man, appreciate A big fan
of what you do. I'm I'm glad we got to connect.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
Thank you, had it happened. I'll be listening.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Perfect, Thank you, my friend, James Low coach ball game.
And that's episode eighty seven, bro, perfect Bob. We'll see
you guys next time.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
All read it. There you babe, you in the over
Promised Land. Goodbye,
Hosts And Creators
Rich Davis
Steve Covino
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.