Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're what news Radio eight forty whas Terry miners here.
Pat Kelly is back as manager of our Louisville bats.
Good to see again, brother, Good to see you. The
game is always We're always ready for it to start again. Yes,
and that means spring is here. So you stay in
that mode all the time, don't you think? Baseball all
the time? Pretty much?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I mean I'd probably take about two weeks after season's
over kind of you know, relax a little bit, and
then next thing you know, I've got the TV on
and my wife's going another baseball.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
There we go. I mean, there's so many great stories
in Major League Baseball. Obviously, Showhy is something that just
you know, people are just mesmerized with what this guy
can do. Did you ever think that, didn't you play
like in the seventies in like Venezuela. Oh yeah, yeah,
So you're making fifty dollars a week, think about what
Otani's making now. And this is I don't get how
(00:54):
these numbers work. Well, I mean, I went to the
big leagues in nineteen eighty and major league minimum was
twenty four thousand dollars and I'm like, I'm going to
make four thousand dollars a month. This is unbelievable, you know,
and now the minimum is like seven hundred and seventy
thousand dollars. Was Venezuela and a nice place to visit.
It's one of those places everybody's scared of now. But
(01:15):
then it was. Then it was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
You know, they had heavenly, they had money, they had
the oil. It was very progressive Latin American country, and
they loved their baseball.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So it was a lot of right and you guys
would be rock stars.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, and the Blue Jays sent a bunch of players there,
so you know, we had like Garth Orge and Pete mccannon,
Dave McKay, Terry Poole played on our team. So you know,
dropping some old baseball cards out there.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
You know, you spend a little time catching too. So
how's your body? Ah, it hurts. That's the toughest dog
in the world. Of course, we had Will Smith as
grew up here in Louis Old right, just won a
series for the Dodgers. Yeah. I went to spring train
last year.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
We had the physicals and I wore a T shirt
that said everything hurts.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking is that the toughest position
though on your body as you move through the timeline
of life. It seems like that's the hardest one for me.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I would think, I mean pretty much because the pressure
on your knees and your hips and all that. But
obviously pitching because of all the injuries has become that
just we can't keep guys healthy, so it's gotten crazy.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Well, we're glad to have you back here for bats.
Baseball starts March twenty eighth, opening night against Memphis and
good times of plenty of Nick Kerns in the studio
with us as well and Greg Galliot from the team fellas.
I know we've got an action pack year set up
this year. You're calling the ball games.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, and we're back here on iHeart that's kind of
the big the big theme of the day back on
seven ninetyes, So looking forward to being back here. It's
kind of where the games were when I started with
the team, and now we're back, which is awesome, right.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And then Nick the days that he gets pre empted,
he just moses down the hall here and talks to
me about whatever it is. Do you have a Chucky
Uppards crutch? You know, he's very sad about that right now,
that's perfect. Well, yeah, hopefully hopefully Chucky's okay.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
But yeah, I'm glad Nick has a place to outlet still,
even if even if we're preempty.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
We're glad to have you guys in the iheartfamily again.
We're pumped to be back. That's all good. And Greg,
I know there's a lot of special things that happened
this season that you have set up.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
You've got one of them right there with you, which
is the Coach Denny Crumb bobblehead, which we will give
two fans that have any of our ticket packages. It's
a five game up to a full season. You can
find more information on how you can get a Coach
Crumb bobblehead with one of our ticket packages at our
website at bats baseball dot com. The neat thing is
part of the proceeds when you buy those ticket packages.
We'll go to a Coach Crumb scholarship fund, and we'll
(03:44):
actually be honoring Coach on May ninth, which Friday night.
Coach's wife will be there along with some members of
the eighty and eighty six championship team, so that should
be a special night. As you mentioned, we're going to
open up on March twenty eighth to twenty ninth. Terry
Measor League Baseball's given us permission to play as the
old Louisville red Be there.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, go, So that.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Saturday afternoon we'll be playing the Memphis Redbirds as the
Louisville Redbirds and our old Redbirds jerseys and hats. So
that should be fun. Thunders Back, we have a game
on Thunderday that's April twelfth, so you can get tickets
by again buying one of our ticket packages. July third
is our big firework show on a Thursday night. Everything
you want to know. There's a prece release on the
front page of our website right now bats baseball dot com.
(04:24):
But it's an action packed here. And of course Bluwie
is coming to the ballpark of course, so I know
Pat's excited about that. I know his grandkids are really
excited about that. That's July twenty sixth. Something else I
saw here is Raby's awareness night. I was like what,
and then it turns out you got a celebrity as
part of that.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah. Kay.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
FLANNERD from the office will be in as part of
the stick from the episode that featured that, and we're
gonna have some fun. Kate'll be there to take photos,
sign autographs. She played Meredith in the Off Laid Meredith
in the Off, kind of a sketchy character, like yeah, yeah,
she's a hoot to be around, and we're excited to
have her in. And I met her at the derby
one time. She's funny. Yeah, she's a funny lady, funny person.
(05:05):
But yeah, anyway, there's lots of things. Bats Baseball dot
Com is the website, and then of course we're married
to the Cincinnati Reds pat and that's fun.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
It is fun, especially you know Tito Francona coming in
to be our new manager. I'm really excited. I mean
Tito and I go back, what kind of a guy
is he. He's had a little success, he's had a
little bit, a little for your Red Sox. That's right,
That's why I know all about him and his tendencies. Yeah,
but I think really good, going to be great for
(05:32):
our young players. And you know, his specialty I think
is running a bullpen, and that's kind of been one
of our weaknesses over the last couple of years. So
you know, I think they've loaded up with some good arms,
and I think he'll utilize them well and have a
chance to be very successful this year.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, that's what this is all about, too, is developing
the people to get him to the show, and we
get all kinds of great talent coming through here that
we've seen over the years. Your job, too, also is
to maintain a certain poise until it's not right, until
it's time to go. Let somebody know they messed up. Yeah,
are you good at that path? Yes?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
You know, I've always been told that I'm very honest,
you know, blunt is that another word? One would be
another word that people use. But I think through the
years I've kind of mellowed, you know, I'm not so much.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
You know, I always say, we coach how we were coached.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, And so when I start out managing, I mean,
it was in the guy's face showing screaming, blah blah blah,
you know, turning over tables. Now it's you know, hey,
take a seat on the couch. You know, we'll have
a nice little conversation. Really, is that nice?
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, because it is a lot different from when you're
in there and guys are you know, they still all
have that sort of bear Brian attitude or Okay, I
got you dude. Yeah that doesn't work anym No, it
doesn't work at all. So what do you what do
you say when you walk up to a guy and
he's busy doing an Instagram live in the dugout. You
can't curse on here, but but you would tell him
(07:03):
in strong, no uncertain terms that that's not acceptable.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, I would basically something to do with phones not
being allowed in the dugout and that phone might end
up flying.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
So, Terry, what's cool?
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Is Our third bibblehead giveaway is of Pat Kelly this
year and we have captured him in one of his
classic discussions with the umpires. Let's call it in that post,
So it's and it's got a win counter on the
base so fans can actually keep track of all his wins, uh,
because he actually last year passed over two.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Thousand career wins.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
So that's our third bibblehead coming up in August, So
look out for the Pat Kelly bobble.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Did you approve of the likeness or was it already done?
It was already done.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
But you know, there's not a whole lot you can
do with with this face. So yeah, like like Nick,
it's a good face for radio, and you know we do.
And but you know the best, the best part about
it is, you know, I'm in player development, so obviously
it's it's you know, to develop players, but I also
believe I'm an umpire department development. So you know, part
(08:08):
of their learning process is being able to handle managers.
And I and I usually you know, walk them through
and we have a little discussion.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And Tom Hallian was in here last year. He cracks
me up. Oh he's the best. He lives a couple
of miles over this way, and he he is just
so funny. But I love watching videos of him. Guys
like you anybody, all the managers up there just screaming
and he just he just keeps listening and then finally
he has his say. You know you're going to get
(08:36):
that right when you're when you're boiling over at an umpire.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
It's just you know, and the ones that are the
best are the ones that just let you have you say,
that's right, you know, and then all of a sudden
you're done and then they have their say. You know,
the young ones want to fight back, they want to
get the last words, you know, but guys that Tom
like Tom have been around, you know, they just let
you go, and you know, I'm more along the line
(09:00):
they dump you and then then they're going to tell
you exactly what they.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Think you are a player development guy. What do you
see in current baseball? Is there a growth curve in
certain parts of the world where it's still expanding and
you're able to go find talent in various places? Is
it How is it in America? Is it stabilized? Is
it growing? Is it just stuck on a plateau right now?
Where are we? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I think baseball in the States has really changed, you know,
I think because of Nil and all that. You know,
you can go to college, you can make some money.
So we're signing a lot less high school kids. They're
going on to college, which I think sometimes is good,
and then their their development when we sign them out
of college because of these these programs, you know, in
(09:43):
the ACC and the SEC and the Big Ten. Now,
I mean, these guys can really play, and so we're
getting a lot of talent that that moves through the system.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Very quick, and college coaches are talking to them more
as though they're employees now too, because of nil. Right,
it's like you're a you're an employee. Yeah, you're you're
signing a contract. I know they say student athlete, but
we all know what's really going on here. You're still
making a living, right, which I mean it's okay. I
think it's great. You know.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I mean, they bring a lot of money to the
university in and they should they should make some money
out of it.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, well, you are in the greatest Triple A ballpark
in America, so that should They maintained this thing so well.
And you see that. And like we've seen all the
movies over the years, sometimes people are in tough circumstances,
but this is this is a jewel box to play.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
No now, this and this is your twenty five, which
is amazing, you know it's Uh. I can remember going
to old Cardinal Stadium when I was managing Indianapolis, right
and uh, and then coming in later with with Ottawa
and Syracuse and we got to play, you know, down
here by the river, and I mean, you can't can't
have a better better place to play.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
On that second game, Greg, I'm gonna wear my Red
Birds jersey you got me years ago. Cool. I still
remember that. I love it. Yeah, put my name on
there and put an eighty four on air for our
radio station. It's like I still have that in my
cedar closet. Boom. That one's coming out. Looking forward to that. Pat,
We're so glad to have you back. Thanks for having me.
It's going to be an awesome season to be sure, Nick,
(11:09):
have a great time call. We'll be listening on seven
ninety Greg. Thanks for the access. We appreciate Terry, appreciate it.
Bats baseball dot COM's the website. Season gets underway before
you know. It's a month and a half away, so
get excited about it. You can read about all the
different things that are going on now in terms of
special games that are coming up through the run of
the season. But it's a big year in the twenty
twenty five season for the Louisville Bats online. Bats baseball
(11:32):
dot Com man drove in ho boom