April 17, 2025 • 19 mins
Darren Headrick talks with Kentucky Baseball Coach Nick Mingione. Listen starting at 7:30pm ET.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good evening, everybody, welcome into the nickmonjeone Show here on
the UK Sports Network.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Coming up.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Over the next half hour, we will chat with the
head coach of Kentucky baseball about the Wildcats weekend against Texas,
where the team is and some guys who were performing
well despite some of these heartbreaking setbacks. This past week,
Kentucky was one in three, a one run loss to
Louisville on Tuesday night, a couple of close losses to
number two Texas over the weekend. The Wildcats are still
(00:28):
battling though. They had that fifteen inning game where they
beat Texas five to four on the walk off bunt
and throwing error, and then Kentucky had the winning run
at the plate in the ninth inning but came up
short in a five to four loss to Texas. The
Wildcats enter this week six and nine in SEC play.
At the halfway point, they'll be on the road at
(00:49):
number four Tennessee this weekend. The volunteers are eleven and
four in SEC play. But before the Cats involves square off,
Kentucky will take on Miami of Ohio tomorrow night at
Kentucky Proud Park. That's a seven o'clock first pitch. That
game will be presented by the Kentucky Department of Fish
and Wildlife Resources.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Coach will join us.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Coming up next, it's the Nick Manjione Show here on
the UK Sports Network. Welcome back into the nickmnje oone
Show as the Cats get ready to host Miami of
Ohio tomorrow night at seven o'clock here at Kentucky Proud
Park and coach coming off a tough week one and
three but easily could have been two and two or
three and one simple question, maybe what you want your
team to learn from from this past week.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, well there's a lot to learn from.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
And me personally, I like learning from wins, mister Darren,
I don't like all the I don't like learning from losses.
So let's make sure we get that part straight. You know,
the thing that it keeps coming back to, and I
just keep reminding them of, is the game does come
down to execution or Hearsazer through fifty nine consecutive scoreless
innings in the major leagues, like, I don't know if
(01:53):
that will ever be broken, fifty nine consecutive, and a
reporter asked him, like, how did you do that? And
he basically said, I didn't worry about the results. I
focused on the execution because if I told or herscheizer
at that time, like, hey, man, you're gonna have to
I need you to throw fifty nine co secutive score sittings,
it would just seem like a mountain. Like what I'm
(02:13):
in the I'm in the major leagues with the greatest
players on the planet.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
You want me to do?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
What? But when you break it down to its simplest
form and you just go, hey, we're gonna do this
one pitch at a time, and the catcher put down
fastball away, You're gonna do everything you can to throw
the ball to that exact location and execute the pitch.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Whether a guy hits it or not.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Then he's gonna say, I need you to land this
curveball in the strike zone, no problem, and you're gonna
do that. And then when you break it down pitch
by pitch, you go, Okay, you just got three outs.
We're one inning. We're one inning go, they have not scored.
We're one inning down, and you just keep doing it.
Well for us, the actual execution of an individual pitch
or a play or a swing is what we're just
(02:54):
coming up short on and when you play really good teams.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
That gets exploited.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Right, So it's not just us like we're forcing our
opponents to make mistakes too, right, And that's why these
games are so close. It's not one sided. It's like, man,
it could go anyway. Yesterday's game is a perfect example.
We have the winning run at the play. That's all
you could ever ask for in any game, is like that,
you have a lead or you've put yourself in a
(03:22):
position to win the.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Game with one swing in the bat. And that's where
we are.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
So what do we learn that the margin of victory
is very small and it comes down to a pitch,
a play, or swing, and the team that pitches the best,
plays the best defense, and gets.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Time with hitting is typically going to win.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And our team needs to understand that and see that
and feel it and they know that and we've done
it like we had a walk off win, right, But
we can learn the importance of just one pitch or
one play.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Coach, Over the years, you and I have these conversations,
and I always hear you use the phrase I believe,
whether it's for a player, a team, or that we're
going to win the game. Believe how powerful the message
can believe or I believe be especially for a group
right now that's going through a tough time.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, you better have that. And you know, I, quite frankly,
it sounds like you're in our team meeting. But at
the end of the game, that's basically what I said,
Like I told the team, like I believed with all
my heart we're going to win that game. And I
just said, hey, I just asked them and challenged them
to decide, like, hey, don't answer this out loud, answer
this question like internally did you believe? And there's a
(04:31):
lot of guys I said, hey, don't answer, but there's
a lot of head shaking, right. And the reason why
I know this team still believes is we had a chance.
If we didn't, we would the game would have been
out of control, like that game would have totally gotten
away from us.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
But it didn't.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
We kept attacking, we kept going, and quite frankly, we
weren't the team that executed the best, so therefore we
didn't win. So I do believe that they believe. There's
a lot of beliefs in there. But that is so
important because I think you guys know this confidence is
such a big thing, not only in athletics and life
in general. And what is confidence come from? And I've
(05:06):
always told people this confidence comes from a lot of things.
One thing that comes from his skill acquisition.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Can you juggle? No?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Okay, So if I put three balls in your hand
right now, I said, all r Darren, here we go.
I'm gonna shoot vide. I'm about to post this on Twitter.
You gotta juggle. Like, how much confidence would you have?
Not a lot? Well, clearly because you don't have you
don't possess the skill. But if you said that to me,
I'd be like, all right, Darren, check this out, and
I would start jugging. I'm like, hey, I'm about to
do this trick. Check out this trick and I could
throw the two balls in the air and catch it.
(05:33):
It's like I kind of think like I'm good, right,
but I'm really not. But I like, I do have
this confidence that I can juggle because I possess the skill. Well,
the guys in our program, they possess skills. That's why
they're here, that's why they're playing for us, right. But
also confidence comes from knowing that you believe, knowing that
you belong. So there are might be a few guys
(05:55):
in our program that are still like, man, do I
really belong here?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Right?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
So it's like, yeah, they possess a skill, they believe
they possess a skill. But the next layer to this is, hey,
they better be believing that they belong here, right. So
and when you have quite frankly, when you have this
many new players, those conversations and thoughts are natural. Yeah,
And so I just challenged them yesterday like, hey, did
you really believe? And I really believe they do. And
(06:22):
you know that I think every guy in the team.
I don't know, that would be a whole other question,
like we'd have to do a survey or something.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
But I do believe in his team.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
And I love the way they fight. I love the
way they scratch and claw. I love the way they
support and serve each other. And they've been a pleasure
to be around. But I am ready for us to
knock over and get on the other end of some
of these games.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Let's go ahead and take our first time out here
on the Nick Men's You Own Show. This is the
UK Sports Network Kentucky and Miami of Ohio at Kentucky
Proud Park tomorrow night. It's a seven o'clock first pitch,
and then the Cats will venture down to Knoxville to
take on the Tennessee Balls this weekend at Lindsay Nelson
Stadium Friday through Sunday. And coach you over this last
stretch against some really challenging opponents, You've gotten some terrific
(07:05):
pitching on the mound. I want to start with Nick
McKay because this is a guy. He is a veteran pitcher,
but he comes from South Dakota State jumping into the SEC.
He's made five starts in this league. Now, how has
that made him even though he is a senior veteran,
how has it made him better as a pitcher?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah? Well, you know the thing.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That I love about our conference is when you look
up and you scot our opponents and our staff does
an unbelievable job of that. But when you go through
and you're like, Okay, I like this lead off for
this guy.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
This is this is a good player.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Then you go to a two hole and you're like,
this guy can really hit in the three hole, man, Man,
this guy's dangerous. Right the four hole, man, this guy's
got power. Here's where you got to exploit him. I
like the five hole and his six hole, seven, eight, nine. Well,
when you go through the lineups in our conference, the
lineups are just longer to where sometimes you face teams
and you go, hey, everything goes with the top three guys, right,
(07:58):
like you got to handle those top three guys and
after that, like there's some mix it match that they
kind of hiding this guy down in a seven hole.
He's got some power, you know, blah blah blah. Well
the lineups are longer. So yes, he's been in college
baseball for six years, but he's facing a lineup filled
and that's a lot longer and deeper.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So you can just see it. This week.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
I told him this was the best look he's had
since opening Day, Like just his demeanor, his attack, his mentality,
his his just aura was fantastic. And by the way,
his stuff was really good too, and it's why he.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Gave us a chance.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
So even a guy that's been in college baseball for
six years, he's doing something he's never had to do.
He's had to get through some lineups with a lot
more talent, and this was a good week for him.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Ben Cleaver on Sunday had one of those games where
I like to describe it as just kind of grinding
through the innings and still gave his team a chance
to win.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
When you look at his development, is this.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Another step forward for Ben becoming the picture that we
all know he can be, that potent being realized.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
And I basically shared something very similar to him as
I took him out of the game yesterday. I just
patted him on a chest and told him how proud
I was of him, because I mean, he's been on
a stretch here now where it's just been outing after outing,
and you know this, out of all the outings, this
was the one outing where he didn't have his best
stuff and he didn't land the curveball as well as
(09:22):
he'd like in the cutter not maybe not as good
at the fastball command, not as sharp. But this says
and tells you everything you need to know about bank Cleaver.
We look up when we take him out and we're
in a position to win that baseball game. Yeah, And
that's all you can ever ask. So to your point,
like he needed to go through an outing like that,
he's going to be able to draw from that experience
(09:44):
and be able to say, like, Okay, I can still
do this right. And as a matter of fact, just
because you maybe don't don't start out with your best stuff,
it doesn't mean you can't get to your best stuff, right.
So like there's like a mentality there too. It's not like,
oh yeah, this is not my day, I don't have
my stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
It's like no, no, no. You can figure out how in
between warm up pitchers too.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
How many times have we seen a pitcher like beyond
the ropes early and then all of a sudden it's
just like damn, he shuts the water off. So this
is one of those outings where he can draw from
because quite frankly, he has just been sharp week after
week after week.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
So definitely a learning and growing opportunity for him.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
How about that double play that he and Devin Burk's
combined on the in and ending, Devon's basically sliding through
a wall and then still getting the ball to Cleaver
to tag the guy out at home.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Well, one thing I give coach Rozelle credit for is
I've never been around a pitching coach that teaches our
players the game of baseball at so many different levels,
meaning like as soon as the ball's hit, the pitchers
have somewhere to go like they have somewhere to back up, Like,
he does not allow our pitchers.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
To stand on the mound right.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Well, in this case, Devon couldn't find the ball, so
Ben is sprinting to point it out he's gonna maybe
even catch it. Then he realizes Devon's gonna catch it,
so he retreats to the open base where he's supposed
to be and gets him. But it was like, so
such a high level play by Devin and Ben both
to point it out, to recognize this catcher doesn't know
(11:06):
he's gonna maybe even catch it, and then get back
and have the awareness is this like and not become
a spectator? Pretty high level play by both guys.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
And coach, you also got a huge outing from Simon
Gregorson in that fifteen inning victory over Texas over the weekend,
and I thought Simon looked like the guy we saw
pitch here at Kentucky Proud Park in the regional final.
And when he's like that, that just takes this bull pin.
It just adds a whole nother dynamic to this relief corps,
doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Well, you had a better view of watching him pitch
than I did, because I had him popped up on
my phone in the locker room watching from my line though, yeah,
cleaning that out.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I really cleaned that thing out good. It was good.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
But yeah, that that is what we all anticipated with Simon.
And I give Simon credit. He's a guy that the
season didn't start out the way he wanted. He's minimized,
he made some couple of tweaks to his delivery, never
lost that belief that you're talking about, and just went
to work and for a moment like that. I mean,
this is a guy that he's made adjustments to every
(12:05):
part of his game and it's just showed up and.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
He's a winner.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
He's a guy that we're gonna need down this stretch
here on the second half of this sec play, and
a guy that we're definitely counting on.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
We've got one more time out to go here on
the Nick man Geones Show. We'll come back with one
more segment here in just a moment on the UK
Sports Network Kentucky and Miami of Ohio tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Night here at Kentucky Proud Park. It's a seven o'clock
first pitch.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Hope to see everybody out at the Ballpark for the
Cats and the RedHawks before Kentucky ventures down to Knoxville.
It's a halfway point in sec play and coach, we've
had a couple of fan questions asking about the pitch timer,
and I guess sometimes folks get a little confused because
the umpires now have all these extra guestures that we're
still getting used to seeing. But basically the question was
(12:49):
about when the umpire steps out to look at the
pitcher in the batter and he's using two hands to
gesture towards his eyes and then towards the pitcher and
just kind of explain there's a warning that each pitch
gets on the timer, and then what he's trying to
do to prevent maybe one getting an advantage over the other.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Well, let's break this down, because the umpires don't just
call balls and sgrice and save sent outs anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
It is their jobs have become more and more difficult.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
So in between batters, there's a thirty second pitch clock.
Once the batter's up there and that bat starts, now
it's twenty seconds in between each pitch. The batter must
have his eyes looking up and set ready to hit.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
With eight seconds to go on the clock.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Okay, So he's got eight seconds to get his head
up and turned to face the pitcher to be ready
to hit.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Okay, so he has to have his eyes up.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Well, if the pitcher starts pitching or starts his delivery,
whether it's the stretch or the wind up, prior to
the eyes and the batter looking up ready to hit,
then the first time, every pitcher gets one warning. So
it's just every pitcher gets one warning. If he does
it again the next time, it's an automatic ball. So
(14:03):
they do this for the safety of the player because
there was pitchers that were you know, the batter is
looking down at the ground trying to get his feet
in line and set up, and as he's looking up,
the pitcher's.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Already delivering the pitch.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
And there's a safety component to this, so there's a
lot of debate. Now the batter's like the clock is
supposed to make the game faster. Well, now the batters
just wait until the very last second and then they
get their eyes up. Well, then if the pitcher can
either either pitch or he's got now eight seconds more
to deliver the ball, so he can make the batter
wait or he can deliver.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
It with time on the clock.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
So there's just like this internal battle going between the
pitcher and the batter. So let's say the pattern gets
his eyes up with twelve or thirteen seconds, Well the
pitcher can just hold the ball and hold the ball
and hold the ball and make them wait and make
them wait and make them wait. So there's this internal battle.
But the batter must have his eyes up looking. If
(14:56):
the batter's head's not up, it's a strike. It's an
automatic strike. So he's motivated to get his eyes up.
So they do it for the safety. But each picture
gets one morning after that, it's a ball.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
One thing I wanted to do on this last segment,
and we appreciate that explanation because I know the fans
ride us all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
What is the ten second mean? What is the eight
second mean? And all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
But real quick, before we wrap up the show, I
wanted to mention, now that the minor leagues and the
major league season has started, we got a lot of
cats in the professional baseball and I just wanted to
ask you how that helps the program. You know, when
you can point to the guys in the big leagues
or maybe a Ryan Ritter, who's now a triple A
with the Rockies, and say, look at all these guys
and a million pea trees down the road in Bowling Green,
(15:37):
right now.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And you know, a couple of weeks ago you mentioned
Ryan Ritter. We just redid some of our gold gloves
in our display case and I sent him a picture
of his and I was like, man, I think about
you all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
This is awesome, man.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So yeah, that was that was neat just to connect
and watch him. I mean, just amount of talent that
we've had come through here. I'm so fortunate because you know,
that's essentially what I do every night, Darren is I'm
on my mob app and I'm like checking box scores
and watching all my former players.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
And things like that.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
And now with the minor leagues, you know, getting cranked up,
it is just.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
So fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
I mean, last night, I know this might be hard
for you to believe, but I was still in the office.
It's eleven thirty last night, and my phone dings and
it's Mitch Daily and He's like, coach is just telling you,
I'm thinking about you.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Keep fighting.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I love how our team's fighting and he's out in
California and you know, he's going strong and playing every day.
And you know what you mentioned Pete right down the road.
That's been awesome. Hopefully he'll get some time where he
can swing up here on maybe an off day or
we can slide down there this summer to watch him.
And you know, Waldy, that was fun to watch him
in a big league spring training game this year and
(16:47):
hit a bomb.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And so, you know, we get to do something.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
That's really cool as we get to coach eighteen of
now twenty four year olds and help them not only
teach him about baseball, but teach him about life. And
you know, when there are time's done here, hopefully we've
put them in a position for them to chase your
dream of making it to the big leagues.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And you know, the.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Guys that are in there is awesome and the guys
that are making their ways there. So that's one cool
thing about what we get to do. And then the
relationships you build forever. So you mentioned those guys, and
it helps because you know, even some of our recruits
and former players and people, they just track and follow
these guys and Matt made us such a good job
of keeping everybody up to date on that.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So it's been fun.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
With all the guys in pro ball coming out of
this program, and also the ever changing landscape of college athletics,
which you and I don't have time to go into
the weeds on that, but I guess the question is,
does it make it easier to sell college baseball to
a high school recruit now than maybe when you were
an assistant coach before you came here as the head coach.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Well, one thing that's really changed, Darren, is the twenty
rounds and the fewer minor league teams. It's just less opportunity, right,
because I mean there's I can't tell you how many
times in my career to a twenty third round or
fourth round or thirty ninth round or fortieth rounder.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Those guys all got opportunities.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
When the commissioner decided to like cut some of those
minor league teams and shorten the draft to twenty rounds,
there's just there's less of an opportunity there. So therefore
it's you know a lot of guys that feel it's
more advantageous to go to college and get your degree
and help prepare you because there's just not as many teams,
so there's not as many games, there's not as many opportunities,
and when you get into pro bawl, you want to
(18:26):
be locked and.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Ready ready to go.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
So but definitely a thing that we just have great
joy in to help develop our players so they get
that opportunity.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Coach, Like we say every week, it's fun to sit
here and talk baseball with you on these shows and
we look forward to doing it again tomorrow night before
the Cats take on the Red Hawks here at Kentucky
Proud part.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Thank you, Darren.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And by the way, I loved your call on the
game on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
That was awesome. Yeah go Cats.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
All right, that's head coach Nick Minjeon will be with
him tomorrow before the game between the Cats and Miami
of Ohio against seven o'clock start. Will be on the
air at six forty five. This has been the Nick
Minjeone Show here on the UK Sports Network.
Good evening, everybody, welcome into the nickmonjeone Show here on
the UK Sports Network.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Coming up.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Over the next half hour, we will chat with the
head coach of Kentucky baseball about the Wildcats weekend against Texas,
where the team is and some guys who were performing
well despite some of these heartbreaking setbacks. This past week,
Kentucky was one in three, a one run loss to
Louisville on Tuesday night, a couple of close losses to
number two Texas over the weekend. The Wildcats are still
(00:28):
battling though. They had that fifteen inning game where they
beat Texas five to four on the walk off bunt
and throwing error, and then Kentucky had the winning run
at the plate in the ninth inning but came up
short in a five to four loss to Texas. The
Wildcats enter this week six and nine in SEC play.
At the halfway point, they'll be on the road at
(00:49):
number four Tennessee this weekend. The volunteers are eleven and
four in SEC play. But before the Cats involves square off,
Kentucky will take on Miami of Ohio tomorrow night at
Kentucky Proud Park. That's a seven o'clock first pitch. That
game will be presented by the Kentucky Department of Fish
and Wildlife Resources.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Coach will join us.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Coming up next, it's the Nick Manjione Show here on
the UK Sports Network. Welcome back into the nickmnje oone
Show as the Cats get ready to host Miami of
Ohio tomorrow night at seven o'clock here at Kentucky Proud
Park and coach coming off a tough week one and
three but easily could have been two and two or
three and one simple question, maybe what you want your
team to learn from from this past week.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, well there's a lot to learn from.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
And me personally, I like learning from wins, mister Darren,
I don't like all the I don't like learning from losses.
So let's make sure we get that part straight. You know,
the thing that it keeps coming back to, and I
just keep reminding them of, is the game does come
down to execution or Hearsazer through fifty nine consecutive scoreless
innings in the major leagues, like, I don't know if
(01:53):
that will ever be broken, fifty nine consecutive, and a
reporter asked him, like, how did you do that? And
he basically said, I didn't worry about the results. I
focused on the execution because if I told or herscheizer
at that time, like, hey, man, you're gonna have to
I need you to throw fifty nine co secutive score sittings,
it would just seem like a mountain. Like what I'm
(02:13):
in the I'm in the major leagues with the greatest
players on the planet.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
You want me to do?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
What? But when you break it down to its simplest
form and you just go, hey, we're gonna do this
one pitch at a time, and the catcher put down
fastball away, You're gonna do everything you can to throw
the ball to that exact location and execute the pitch.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Whether a guy hits it or not.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Then he's gonna say, I need you to land this
curveball in the strike zone, no problem, and you're gonna
do that. And then when you break it down pitch
by pitch, you go, Okay, you just got three outs.
We're one inning. We're one inning go, they have not scored.
We're one inning down, and you just keep doing it.
Well for us, the actual execution of an individual pitch
or a play or a swing is what we're just
(02:54):
coming up short on and when you play really good teams.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
That gets exploited.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Right, So it's not just us like we're forcing our
opponents to make mistakes too, right, And that's why these
games are so close. It's not one sided. It's like, man,
it could go anyway. Yesterday's game is a perfect example.
We have the winning run at the play. That's all
you could ever ask for in any game, is like that,
you have a lead or you've put yourself in a
(03:22):
position to win the.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Game with one swing in the bat. And that's where
we are.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
So what do we learn that the margin of victory
is very small and it comes down to a pitch,
a play, or swing, and the team that pitches the best,
plays the best defense, and gets.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Time with hitting is typically going to win.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And our team needs to understand that and see that
and feel it and they know that and we've done
it like we had a walk off win, right, But
we can learn the importance of just one pitch or
one play.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Coach, Over the years, you and I have these conversations,
and I always hear you use the phrase I believe,
whether it's for a player, a team, or that we're
going to win the game. Believe how powerful the message
can believe or I believe be especially for a group
right now that's going through a tough time.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, you better have that. And you know, I, quite frankly,
it sounds like you're in our team meeting. But at
the end of the game, that's basically what I said,
Like I told the team, like I believed with all
my heart we're going to win that game. And I
just said, hey, I just asked them and challenged them
to decide, like, hey, don't answer this out loud, answer
this question like internally did you believe? And there's a
(04:31):
lot of guys I said, hey, don't answer, but there's
a lot of head shaking, right. And the reason why
I know this team still believes is we had a chance.
If we didn't, we would the game would have been
out of control, like that game would have totally gotten
away from us.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
But it didn't.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
We kept attacking, we kept going, and quite frankly, we
weren't the team that executed the best, so therefore we
didn't win. So I do believe that they believe. There's
a lot of beliefs in there. But that is so
important because I think you guys know this confidence is
such a big thing, not only in athletics and life
in general. And what is confidence come from? And I've
(05:06):
always told people this confidence comes from a lot of things.
One thing that comes from his skill acquisition.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Can you juggle? No?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Okay, So if I put three balls in your hand
right now, I said, all r Darren, here we go.
I'm gonna shoot vide. I'm about to post this on Twitter.
You gotta juggle. Like, how much confidence would you have?
Not a lot? Well, clearly because you don't have you
don't possess the skill. But if you said that to me,
I'd be like, all right, Darren, check this out, and
I would start jugging. I'm like, hey, I'm about to
do this trick. Check out this trick and I could
throw the two balls in the air and catch it.
(05:33):
It's like I kind of think like I'm good, right,
but I'm really not. But I like, I do have
this confidence that I can juggle because I possess the skill. Well,
the guys in our program, they possess skills. That's why
they're here, that's why they're playing for us, right. But
also confidence comes from knowing that you believe, knowing that
you belong. So there are might be a few guys
(05:55):
in our program that are still like, man, do I
really belong here?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Right?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
So it's like, yeah, they possess a skill, they believe
they possess a skill. But the next layer to this is, hey,
they better be believing that they belong here, right. So
and when you have quite frankly, when you have this
many new players, those conversations and thoughts are natural. Yeah,
And so I just challenged them yesterday like, hey, did
you really believe? And I really believe they do. And
(06:22):
you know that I think every guy in the team.
I don't know, that would be a whole other question,
like we'd have to do a survey or something.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
But I do believe in his team.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
And I love the way they fight. I love the
way they scratch and claw. I love the way they
support and serve each other. And they've been a pleasure
to be around. But I am ready for us to
knock over and get on the other end of some
of these games.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Let's go ahead and take our first time out here
on the Nick Men's You Own Show. This is the
UK Sports Network Kentucky and Miami of Ohio at Kentucky
Proud Park tomorrow night. It's a seven o'clock first pitch,
and then the Cats will venture down to Knoxville to
take on the Tennessee Balls this weekend at Lindsay Nelson
Stadium Friday through Sunday. And coach you over this last
stretch against some really challenging opponents, You've gotten some terrific
(07:05):
pitching on the mound. I want to start with Nick
McKay because this is a guy. He is a veteran pitcher,
but he comes from South Dakota State jumping into the SEC.
He's made five starts in this league. Now, how has
that made him even though he is a senior veteran,
how has it made him better as a pitcher?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah? Well, you know the thing.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That I love about our conference is when you look
up and you scot our opponents and our staff does
an unbelievable job of that. But when you go through
and you're like, Okay, I like this lead off for
this guy.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
This is this is a good player.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Then you go to a two hole and you're like,
this guy can really hit in the three hole, man, Man,
this guy's dangerous. Right the four hole, man, this guy's
got power. Here's where you got to exploit him. I
like the five hole and his six hole, seven, eight, nine. Well,
when you go through the lineups in our conference, the
lineups are just longer to where sometimes you face teams
and you go, hey, everything goes with the top three guys, right,
(07:58):
like you got to handle those top three guys and
after that, like there's some mix it match that they
kind of hiding this guy down in a seven hole.
He's got some power, you know, blah blah blah. Well
the lineups are longer. So yes, he's been in college
baseball for six years, but he's facing a lineup filled
and that's a lot longer and deeper.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So you can just see it. This week.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
I told him this was the best look he's had
since opening Day, Like just his demeanor, his attack, his mentality,
his his just aura was fantastic. And by the way,
his stuff was really good too, and it's why he.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Gave us a chance.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
So even a guy that's been in college baseball for
six years, he's doing something he's never had to do.
He's had to get through some lineups with a lot
more talent, and this was a good week for him.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Ben Cleaver on Sunday had one of those games where
I like to describe it as just kind of grinding
through the innings and still gave his team a chance
to win.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
When you look at his development, is this.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Another step forward for Ben becoming the picture that we
all know he can be, that potent being realized.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
And I basically shared something very similar to him as
I took him out of the game yesterday. I just
patted him on a chest and told him how proud
I was of him, because I mean, he's been on
a stretch here now where it's just been outing after outing,
and you know this, out of all the outings, this
was the one outing where he didn't have his best
stuff and he didn't land the curveball as well as
(09:22):
he'd like in the cutter not maybe not as good
at the fastball command, not as sharp. But this says
and tells you everything you need to know about bank Cleaver.
We look up when we take him out and we're
in a position to win that baseball game. Yeah, And
that's all you can ever ask. So to your point,
like he needed to go through an outing like that,
he's going to be able to draw from that experience
(09:44):
and be able to say, like, Okay, I can still
do this right. And as a matter of fact, just
because you maybe don't don't start out with your best stuff,
it doesn't mean you can't get to your best stuff, right.
So like there's like a mentality there too. It's not like,
oh yeah, this is not my day, I don't have
my stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
It's like no, no, no. You can figure out how in
between warm up pitchers too.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
How many times have we seen a pitcher like beyond
the ropes early and then all of a sudden it's
just like damn, he shuts the water off. So this
is one of those outings where he can draw from
because quite frankly, he has just been sharp week after
week after week.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
So definitely a learning and growing opportunity for him.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
How about that double play that he and Devin Burk's
combined on the in and ending, Devon's basically sliding through
a wall and then still getting the ball to Cleaver
to tag the guy out at home.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Well, one thing I give coach Rozelle credit for is
I've never been around a pitching coach that teaches our
players the game of baseball at so many different levels,
meaning like as soon as the ball's hit, the pitchers
have somewhere to go like they have somewhere to back up, Like,
he does not allow our pitchers.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
To stand on the mound right.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Well, in this case, Devon couldn't find the ball, so
Ben is sprinting to point it out he's gonna maybe
even catch it. Then he realizes Devon's gonna catch it,
so he retreats to the open base where he's supposed
to be and gets him. But it was like, so
such a high level play by Devin and Ben both
to point it out, to recognize this catcher doesn't know
(11:06):
he's gonna maybe even catch it, and then get back
and have the awareness is this like and not become
a spectator? Pretty high level play by both guys.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
And coach, you also got a huge outing from Simon
Gregorson in that fifteen inning victory over Texas over the weekend,
and I thought Simon looked like the guy we saw
pitch here at Kentucky Proud Park in the regional final.
And when he's like that, that just takes this bull pin.
It just adds a whole nother dynamic to this relief corps,
doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Well, you had a better view of watching him pitch
than I did, because I had him popped up on
my phone in the locker room watching from my line though, yeah,
cleaning that out.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I really cleaned that thing out good. It was good.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
But yeah, that that is what we all anticipated with Simon.
And I give Simon credit. He's a guy that the
season didn't start out the way he wanted. He's minimized,
he made some couple of tweaks to his delivery, never
lost that belief that you're talking about, and just went
to work and for a moment like that. I mean,
this is a guy that he's made adjustments to every
(12:05):
part of his game and it's just showed up and.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
He's a winner.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
He's a guy that we're gonna need down this stretch
here on the second half of this sec play, and
a guy that we're definitely counting on.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
We've got one more time out to go here on
the Nick man Geones Show. We'll come back with one
more segment here in just a moment on the UK
Sports Network Kentucky and Miami of Ohio tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Night here at Kentucky Proud Park. It's a seven o'clock
first pitch.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Hope to see everybody out at the Ballpark for the
Cats and the RedHawks before Kentucky ventures down to Knoxville.
It's a halfway point in sec play and coach, we've
had a couple of fan questions asking about the pitch timer,
and I guess sometimes folks get a little confused because
the umpires now have all these extra guestures that we're
still getting used to seeing. But basically the question was
(12:49):
about when the umpire steps out to look at the
pitcher in the batter and he's using two hands to
gesture towards his eyes and then towards the pitcher and
just kind of explain there's a warning that each pitch
gets on the timer, and then what he's trying to
do to prevent maybe one getting an advantage over the other.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Well, let's break this down, because the umpires don't just
call balls and sgrice and save sent outs anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
It is their jobs have become more and more difficult.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
So in between batters, there's a thirty second pitch clock.
Once the batter's up there and that bat starts, now
it's twenty seconds in between each pitch. The batter must
have his eyes looking up and set ready to hit.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
With eight seconds to go on the clock.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Okay, So he's got eight seconds to get his head
up and turned to face the pitcher to be ready
to hit.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Okay, so he has to have his eyes up.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Well, if the pitcher starts pitching or starts his delivery,
whether it's the stretch or the wind up, prior to
the eyes and the batter looking up ready to hit,
then the first time, every pitcher gets one warning. So
it's just every pitcher gets one warning. If he does
it again the next time, it's an automatic ball. So
(14:03):
they do this for the safety of the player because
there was pitchers that were you know, the batter is
looking down at the ground trying to get his feet
in line and set up, and as he's looking up,
the pitcher's.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Already delivering the pitch.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
And there's a safety component to this, so there's a
lot of debate. Now the batter's like the clock is
supposed to make the game faster. Well, now the batters
just wait until the very last second and then they
get their eyes up. Well, then if the pitcher can
either either pitch or he's got now eight seconds more
to deliver the ball, so he can make the batter
wait or he can deliver.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
It with time on the clock.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
So there's just like this internal battle going between the
pitcher and the batter. So let's say the pattern gets
his eyes up with twelve or thirteen seconds, Well the
pitcher can just hold the ball and hold the ball
and hold the ball and make them wait and make
them wait and make them wait. So there's this internal battle.
But the batter must have his eyes up looking. If
(14:56):
the batter's head's not up, it's a strike. It's an
automatic strike. So he's motivated to get his eyes up.
So they do it for the safety. But each picture
gets one morning after that, it's a ball.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
One thing I wanted to do on this last segment,
and we appreciate that explanation because I know the fans
ride us all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
What is the ten second mean? What is the eight
second mean? And all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
But real quick, before we wrap up the show, I
wanted to mention, now that the minor leagues and the
major league season has started, we got a lot of
cats in the professional baseball and I just wanted to
ask you how that helps the program. You know, when
you can point to the guys in the big leagues
or maybe a Ryan Ritter, who's now a triple A
with the Rockies, and say, look at all these guys
and a million pea trees down the road in Bowling Green,
(15:37):
right now.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And you know, a couple of weeks ago you mentioned
Ryan Ritter. We just redid some of our gold gloves
in our display case and I sent him a picture
of his and I was like, man, I think about
you all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
This is awesome, man.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So yeah, that was that was neat just to connect
and watch him. I mean, just amount of talent that
we've had come through here. I'm so fortunate because you know,
that's essentially what I do every night, Darren is I'm
on my mob app and I'm like checking box scores
and watching all my former players.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
And things like that.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
And now with the minor leagues, you know, getting cranked up,
it is just.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
So fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
I mean, last night, I know this might be hard
for you to believe, but I was still in the office.
It's eleven thirty last night, and my phone dings and
it's Mitch Daily and He's like, coach is just telling you,
I'm thinking about you.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Keep fighting.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I love how our team's fighting and he's out in
California and you know, he's going strong and playing every day.
And you know what you mentioned Pete right down the road.
That's been awesome. Hopefully he'll get some time where he
can swing up here on maybe an off day or
we can slide down there this summer to watch him.
And you know, Waldy, that was fun to watch him
in a big league spring training game this year and
(16:47):
hit a bomb.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And so, you know, we get to do something.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
That's really cool as we get to coach eighteen of
now twenty four year olds and help them not only
teach him about baseball, but teach him about life. And
you know, when there are time's done here, hopefully we've
put them in a position for them to chase your
dream of making it to the big leagues.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And you know, the.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Guys that are in there is awesome and the guys
that are making their ways there. So that's one cool
thing about what we get to do. And then the
relationships you build forever. So you mentioned those guys, and
it helps because you know, even some of our recruits
and former players and people, they just track and follow
these guys and Matt made us such a good job
of keeping everybody up to date on that.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So it's been fun.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
With all the guys in pro ball coming out of
this program, and also the ever changing landscape of college athletics,
which you and I don't have time to go into
the weeds on that, but I guess the question is,
does it make it easier to sell college baseball to
a high school recruit now than maybe when you were
an assistant coach before you came here as the head coach.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Well, one thing that's really changed, Darren, is the twenty
rounds and the fewer minor league teams. It's just less opportunity, right,
because I mean there's I can't tell you how many
times in my career to a twenty third round or
fourth round or thirty ninth round or fortieth rounder.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Those guys all got opportunities.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
When the commissioner decided to like cut some of those
minor league teams and shorten the draft to twenty rounds,
there's just there's less of an opportunity there. So therefore
it's you know a lot of guys that feel it's
more advantageous to go to college and get your degree
and help prepare you because there's just not as many teams,
so there's not as many games, there's not as many opportunities,
and when you get into pro bawl, you want to
(18:26):
be locked and.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Ready ready to go.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
So but definitely a thing that we just have great
joy in to help develop our players so they get
that opportunity.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Coach, Like we say every week, it's fun to sit
here and talk baseball with you on these shows and
we look forward to doing it again tomorrow night before
the Cats take on the Red Hawks here at Kentucky
Proud part.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Thank you, Darren.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And by the way, I loved your call on the
game on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
That was awesome. Yeah go Cats.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
All right, that's head coach Nick Minjeon will be with
him tomorrow before the game between the Cats and Miami
of Ohio against seven o'clock start. Will be on the
air at six forty five. This has been the Nick
Minjeone Show here on the UK Sports Network.
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.