Larry Jewell

This run a little bit. 3, 2, 1. We're talking to the head guy here, Billy Ashley, the manager that's becoming more and more of a natural name for you. Not only player, but manager. I guess that's my job title. I mean, it's. It's becoming more natural for me. I'm getting a little bit more relaxed and starting to see the game through a manager's eyes, so it's becoming a little bit more fun. It does add attention when you're playing also, though. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't. I'm being able to separate the two, and, you know, if anything, it's helped me kind of relax at the plate a little bit more because of, you know, my managerial duties. I'm thinking a lot about that and not really worrying about my swing. So I guess you have to think about something. It's better to think about nothing or managing rather than thinking about your swing, because that just gets you in trouble at the plate. Is that a surprise to you, that it's that much of a relief giver, too? What's that? Being concerned with being the manager in addition to being a player. It's, you know, lately it's been. I've been fine. I mean, it's. I've had relief, you know, from both sides, being a player and a manager. And, you know, as long as things keep going the way they're going and we keep playing hard and pulling out victories, then I'm sure it'll stay that way. It's just a matter of, you know, the rocky roads that baseball sometimes throws you, the curveballs they sometimes throw you, that can bring back that added stress. And, you know, it could go either way. I could benefit from it or I could, you know, one side or another. You know, basically, I'm here as the manager and a player second for this team. So if my batting starts taking a struggle through my managing, then, you know, I might have to, at that time, take a break from playing. This is a time of choice. Is that that attention to the managing, was that a bit of a surprise to you, that that throws that much effort on your. Your consideration? I think so. I think that anytime that you're slated as the head guy, you're asking for a lot of responsibility. And, you know, I've had responsibility from housing, money, guys upset about not playing, pitchers upset about, you know, not pitching, and, you know, it just goes with the territory. And, you know, it's just something that, as my managers that have. I've had before had to deal with. So do I was there inspiration on this. You remember things that happened before to you, the player now after you were being in man nature? No, not really. Because I was never a guy who complained or whined or did any of that stuff or ask questions about, you know, where's, you know, I was a very mature young man when I first started playing and I was always the type of guy who took it upon himself to do it himself. I mean, if it was going to find a place to live, I'd go out and do it. If it was a financial reason, I knew the people I had to speak to. And as far as my attitude on the field, you know, if I needed help doing something, I would grab a coach and have him help me do it. I wouldn't wait for the manager to see you struggling and you know, finally come up to you and say, hey, what's the deal? Why aren't you taking ground balls today? You know, and definitely the answer I don't want to hear is because I don't feel like it. And I've heard that a couple of times this season. So I mean, that's not something that you want to hear. I'd like for my guys to come up to me. Hiro Fujimoto has come up to me twice and said, teach me how to hit. And I'm like, I haven't been in too many games. So I mean, there's nothing really wrong with your swing and you look good in bp. But he wants to work, so I'm going to come out and work with him. So, you know, it's just a number of responsibilities that, that you get and it just comes with the territory. We've got to talk a little bit about your age. You're young enough to be a player, just old enough to be a manager, I guess. I don't know what the age range is for managers, but I would have to say probably I'm one of the youngest that I know of other than some college coaches. But that's fine. I mean, if it sets up something for me down the road where I can manage or be a coach at the big league level for a long time, then I'm glad I'm getting the opportunity. Now, I know we talked before about you preferring to be a coach as opposed to a manager, but now it sounds like manager has become more of an interesting role for you. It is. I think that I would still probably prefer to be a coach. That way I can work more hands on and, you know, work with selected players. Like I have to worry about pitchers as well as infielders and outfielders and hitters and, you know, I got the whole ball of wax working as a manager, so whereas as a coach, I can give my individual skill, which is hitting or working with the defensive outfielders or something of that sort, a little bit more attention. I feel bad I haven't been able to give as much attention to this here, but there's just a lot more for me to do. And once I get a full staff, coaching staff, then the opportunity to coach will come into play. I gotta ask you a little something about the ability to hit. We didn't follow up after that last one. We had a day off. But four RBIs in one game, three on one home run. That was great. Yeah, it was fun. It was fun, too. You know, if you hadn't reminded me, I wouldn't even have thought about it because it just after I hit the home run, I came into the dugout and said, get Linares up in the bullpen. I don't even have time to celebrate in my own head about it until I got home and figured out, wait a minute, I had the game winning hit. I won the game tonight. So it was, you know, that's fun. I mean that. That's what baseball is all about. I mean, you go out there and have fun, do the job and get a victory blessing to be able to look ahead and forget about what I just did. Exactly. I gotta ask you, now, we talked about this before, that you had power and then it suddenly developed into the upper minor leagues, Double A and Triple A, to have it come back with you again. Now that must be satisfying. Oh, it is. I wouldn't say I ever really lost it. It's just a matter of getting out there and playing and being consistent. And the more I make consistent contact, the better chances I have to hit home runs. And if I'm making good contact, I'm gonna hit a lot of home runs because my swing is grooved as a, you know, to hit fly balls. And in this ballpark, I could probably hit a ton of them because of the wind blowing out and the high altitude. So, you know, I'm a power hitter. And if I'm doing well at the plate, then the home runs are going to come and the RBIs are going to be high and we're going to be winning, it seems. Good line drives, too, in the gaps and right at somebody. You hit it every place. Yeah. You know what? I don't want to talk about it too much more because it'll probably jinx me, but yeah, I'm feeling, I'm feeling better at the plate. I noticed you changed the lineup a little bit. You've moved first baseman up to number three position. Yeah, we lost DG Nelson, our third baseman, to the Dixie College team to go to the Junior College World Series. He should, I don't know how they're doing, but we should have him back and then the lineup might go back to the way it was. We'll see how it goes. I mean, our number three spot's kind of up for grabs. I'm not ready to accept myself as a number three hitter yet. And I don't think Anthony Lewis is a number three hitter. I think if I was going to have a number three hitter, I would say DG would probably be our best bet right now. But he hasn't been swinging the bat that well lately and we might have to drop him down a little bit. But, you know, we'll tinker with that and see how, how it goes. Right now with Lewis and myself batting third and fourth, that's a hard spot to fill. I mean, you need a guy who makes very good contact, gets on base a lot and who also is, you know, he's got a. He's got to kind of protect that guy behind him too, somewhat. So probably if things keep going the way they're going, I might move myself up there and then have Anthony stay in the four hole. I think he's a better four hole hitter than a three hole hitter. And besides that, there's more guys on base for him to drive in. Last year, DG Nelson coming to play baseball was reuniting of something he wanted to do and have disappear after his first year in pro baseball. Seemed to enjoy it last year. I don't know what he did last year. Double figures in home runs. That's good. If he gives me what he promised me at the beginning of spring and that's he'll be out there every day, give me 110%, hit.300 and hit 20 home runs, then you know what, hey, you can be my number three hitter all year long if you want, if you're going to do that. So as long as he keeps his promise and fine with me, he'll be out there. We've heard the pledge, but we'll talk about other things after this timeout. 3, 2, 1. It's been an interesting readjustment of the team matchups to have two home stands with the same ball club, right. And you know, well, we get to see him Again, real quick. And it's, it's, you know, it's. It's in our own division. So we have to take these games a little more seriously. Not that we don't take them all seriously, but we have to really focus on these games because we want to win our division. So, you know, we know what they have. We faced them last week and what they're going to be throwing at us, and we just got to go out there and do the same thing. I've got to ask you, how much experience did you have with this manager when you were a player? Who? Jaeger Yeager? I can't remember his name. Not actually. I didn't have. I had never. I mean, other than meeting him in spring training a couple of times and at Dodger Stadium. He wasn't part of the organization when I was there. He didn't. He wasn't a coach or a manager or anything like that. He was just a figure, more or less a Dodger figure that would show up and do fantasy camps. And he was too busy doing movies. He did, he did advise on a lot of movies. Now, let's talk about this particular team. The first time out, you take two out of three from them. What's the strength, what's the weaknesses of this club? Their club or our club? Their club. I would have to say they got a pretty good team. They're pretty strong all the way around. Starting pitching, you know, didn't fare too well for them a couple of games last week and of course we had some late inning, late inning heroics. And, you know, it's a matter of, I think, who's going to score last wins because I think we put up some big runs last week and it's a pretty good matchup. I think that their hitters swing the bat well. And if I know Jaeger like I've known, you know, players that have played for him, he's a stickler to fundamentals. So I expect their team to be fundamentally strong. And, you know, with the extra week gone by, I'm sure they're pitching. Pitchers have improved a little bit as well as ours have. They are probably settling in and should be some good games. Interesting third game between the two of you that went into extra innings for you to get the victory. Yeah, it was. It was. But you know what, it takes extra innings to win. Then I'll play extra innings all night long. What about your ball club as you've been out at last? What are the strengths? What are the weaknesses? Our offense is strong. Our defense has been a little shaky lately. I would like to, you know, get rid of some of the errors and concentrate on keeping guys off base. I've said it before, I mean, walks will kill you, especially in this league because these teams are pretty offensive dominated and they're going to drive in runs and we gave up a couple too many home runs the other day. And I'd like to see the pitchers keep the, keep the ball down a little bit. I think overall our hitting, I mean, I think our situational hitting, getting guys over and scoring them in scoring position has been pretty good. We left a couple of guys on base. I wouldn't say that cost us the game, but it could have brought us up into a tying position or maybe taken us ahead in like the seventh inning the other day. And you know, we didn't make it there and you know, it just wasn't our day to win. We just didn't do the things right. I mean, four errors is, you know, four errors too many for me. And you can't win ball games if you're making mistakes like that. One of the things that seems to happen with this team is it seems to be aggressive at the plate. You're not looking for the walks as much as to drive the ball someplace. I think. Yeah, I think this team, if they want, if they're gonna get, they'll take a walk. But I mean, if the pitcher's gonna give them a lollipop pitch to swing at and hit, they're gonna go out, they're gonna swing and try to try to get on base. I mean, if you can get a double instead of a walk, then you know what, you're gonna take it. So, you know, our team doesn't, I don't even want to say that. I mean, we've got smart hitters and when they don't know what to do, then they ask. And it's, it's important that they're, they're open minded at the, at the plate. When I have to give a hit and run or a bunt, they don't mind it. They, you know, they take it as, as, you know, as being a team player. And you know, the overall benefit is a win. So that's what we're here to do. And you know, just because you're not getting ahead or you're not getting, you feel like you're getting the bat taken out of your hands, people in the stands appreciate it. They appreciate the sacrifice. And you know, if there are any scouts in the stands, they like to see that too. That unselfish play and you know, the ability to get a bunt down in a pressure situation and you know, to get the hit and run down. They're looking for that, too. Got to talk about the pitching now. I understand your starting pitcher for tonight is not going to be the starting pitcher tonight. No, is a no. There'll be no, no, no. He came to the park early today and had some back spasms and wasn't able to go out there tonight. And so we moved Mike Smith up a day and we actually moved everybody up a day now. So with the day off, everybody is still right on schedule. It's just that they would have had an extra day off. So our ace will be out there tonight and it's good for me. He's been very good except for one inning in the two games. Yeah, we'll just erase that one inning and go from there. But yeah, he's been. He goes up there, he throws strikes. He's a smart pitcher and he knows what to do out there. He's been in this league for a couple of years and he's our veteran on the mound and we're glad to have him out there tonight. What sort of influences a man like that on the younger pitchers? I think a lot. I think they, you know, he's got the dual role also and, and not actually. He's been able to more or less show them by example rather than by word, by going out there and throwing straight, keeping the ball down, not walking guys, keeping the ball in the ballpark. So if they can take anything from that, it's a huge plus. I've got to ask you one final question now as you come into this game tonight. What's going to be the key for this ball? Get on base, score runs early. I would love to score runs early instead of waiting for the last couple innings to do that. I think if we do that, it gives our pitchers a chance to relax a little bit out there. They don't have to feel so tense that they're behind or if it's a low scoring game. And, you know, I like to give our starters a win here and there. I mean, it's been, you know, our relievers doing all the, doing all the work and giving, you know, giving us some quality innings. So, you know, jump on them early and stay ahead and, you know, coast in for a victory. Thank you for being with us. Good luck tonight. Thank you very much. The only star in our family was Kevin. He's just a phenomenal athlete and neat guy, a very Very fun guy to know and I absolutely am happy to take a back seat to what he's accomplished in his career many times. I've been known as Kevin Elster's brother and I've never been ashamed of it, nor would I be. So I think he'll always rightfully be definitely the more well known brother. What little notoriety we get out here in St. George, I would just soon not have because it's the guys who are the stars, are the guys out there on the field and making the plays and hitting the home runs and that's how it should be. Thank you for being with us tonight. Good luck. Thank you. You know, 10 or 15 people there, friends and family, and it's been a little tough the last couple of years when I really, I've either had only my wife or I haven't had anybody from the family. So it's nice that I get to go close to home as well as now. I'm really going home this year, playing back into Long beach, back into my old stomping grounds where I first started in this league. And so it's going to be nice to have family and friends back there. You've had some good moments up here in St. George. That's been very good for you. Yeah, the St. George family here has been really good to me and they've really backed me in everything I've did and I struggled a little bit my first year and you know, they stuck with me and you know, I've been fortunate enough to not hear booze when I come out and that's always nice to, to not have, but you know, the St. George family here has been real good and they've backed me and as well as they've, you know, backed the team as much as they could and you know, hopefully we can just, you know, keep up the atmosphere here with fans and you know, bring good baseball to St. George. I've got to ask you a little bit. Last year may have been one of the best seasons you pitched in this league. Yeah, last year was probably my best career year. I started off a little tough, but the last three quarters of the season I really just kind of focused on what I had to do and it was kind of like a no holds bar type thing and just went out and threw. I was a much different type of pitcher last year than I have been in the past before. I was trying to pitch backwards and, and it was successful for me. But last year I just went out and didn't think too much when I was on the mound and just went out and threw. It was nice having catchers that were on the same page and I didn't have to shake a lot. We had experienced catchers back there with Brionis and Heath Hayes and that was a little tough with me last night. You know, Jake, for the first time catching, you know, as my catcher, you know, it was tough not being on the same page. And I'm the type of pitcher that doesn't like to shake a lot because then again I have to think too much sometimes on the mound and I know what I want to throw. But sometimes when you're out there, you second guess yourself. But yeah, last year was an exciting year for me career wise. We won a championship. I probably put up some of the best numbers I've had. Hopefully I can duplicate that year. This year doesn't look too good right now after my first two starts. But if I can pitch the way I did my opening night here, you know, I think I'll be alright. Let's go back a little bit to that last pitching performance last year in the playoffs. One nothing that hadn't been done in this league before in the championship. No, that was probably the icing on the cake for me in my career. You know, winning a championship was great, but I think the big thing was pitching a one nothing ballgame complete game in Chico in the championship series. It was one of those feelings. In fact, I get goosebumps when I talk about it just because it was one of those games that a pitcher dreams about throwing. You know, it's one of those games when you're a little kid and some kids think about having the game winning hit as a pitcher. You're dreaming about pitching that complete game one nothing championship ball game to win it. And I was fortunate enough again to do that last year and it was great and I loved it. That was a great playoff because neither of the teams were giving up in that anytime. No, it was battle back and forth. We scored the run early and I kept them off the base as much as possible, kept them off balance and that proved to be the difference. We've talked about this team a little bit and we'll be back to talk about it a little bit more. And look at it tonight's game after this timeout. 3, 2, 1. So far, Mike Smith. This team has played six games and won four of them. That's not bad this early in the season. No, especially the way we've done it the last two nights. Comeback kids. I know Billy's getting gray hair Already, but it's, you know, we're fortunate enough to get the W's, and you know, we've faced some good pitchers already in the league and we've had trouble scoring early, but we've got to the bullpens and that's where we've capitalized on it. Especially down in Yuma. It's nice to come back down three and down four and end up winning ball games. You know, it's nice to see the faces on the opposing team when they're walking off the field. And, you know, we're fortunate enough to get W's three games down there. And even though you didn't win the first one, there was a comeback late in the ball game. Yeah, we had to come back and excuse me. And you know, we just couldn't finish it out. But these last two were great comebacks for this team. You know, we were down the last inning and guys came in and said, hey, let's. Let's get this thing going. And we battled. We battled and did what we had to do to win ball games. And. And you know, it's great to win games in the last inning. And, you know, we hope that we don't have to do that a lot this year, but, you know, if it happens again, great. But you know, this team is going to battle from inning one to inning nine. There was a home run in each of those ball games. Extra base hits, doubles, triples also. Yeah, there was a lot. That park is a very large park and anything is possible there. If you get a ball past the outfield, you know you're running for a while. And, you know, Billy was fortunate enough to hit some pretty good balls out there. And, you know, we were fortunate enough to get runners on base when we needed to and get the big hits. You know, the big hit last night by Benny Craig, you know, he had struck out four times going into that. And they walk Lewis to get to Benny. And so they're thinking, oh, we're going to get this guy again. He's been struggling. He hits a double off the wall and scores the two. And boy, that was a huge hit for us. And you know, that's part of a good ball team right there, is when a guy that's struggling early in the game can come out and get a big hit and win a game for you. Let's find out a little bit. What's the attitude of the players? And you as an assistant coach, what's your attitude after having two of those then? Well, your attitude going day to Day is, you know, to focus on a ball game and to win it. And I think the attitude's going to be that way from game one to game 90. And that's due to our coaching staff's part in motivating these guys to get going. And these guys are professionals and they know what they have to do to motivate themselves to win ball games. It's nice to have games where we come back early so we know we can get it done. And that's going to be the key to putting us over the top. Seems like there is almost one key action by each of the Vol players in that one. Yeah, everybody did their part in those games down there. And again, that's part of a good ball team. When you're not just relying on one or two people, but you're relying on all nine, that's part of baseball being a team game. There's no I in team, so it's a team game. You got to use all 22 players to get a W. And that's what we did. I gotta ask you, I know it's pretty hot here, but not like it was in Yuma. Do you feel the difference? Big time. We got off, you know, I got out this afternoon about, oh, noon, one o' clock and walked outside. I said, boy, this isn't Yuma. I think yesterday when I started it was about 100 and, I don't know, 108, 110 degrees. And it was, it was, it was a tough, tough situation to pitch in. But again, you have to battle all the elements when you're playing in different ballparks and when you're playing in your own. And again, you just have to play inning one through nine and not worry about the weather or field conditions and go out and play the game. We're all professionals and that's what we're paid to do. What about the opponent tonight? What do you know about him? I don't know a lot about Sonoma. They've changed their personnel quite a bit from last year, but I know some of the players that are playing and they've got a great outfield and have a good pitching staff. In fact, I think they have the pitcher of the year from last year and Olson, but, you know, I think they're one in five right now. They're struggling a little bit. But when anybody comes to this park, it's anybody's ballgame, as you know pretty well. I mean, anything can happen here and we'd have to jump out in front and our pitching's got to hold up and you know, pitching is the name of the game in this ballpark. If you can keep the team, of course, you know, scores the least amount of runs, wins, but if you can keep the ball from leaving the yard, you know, we're going to be fortunate enough to win this ball game. It's interesting because there's only been one home run hit by this ball club in the first three games. For the Pioneers, that is. Oh, in our park. Yeah, you know, we haven't got used to our park yet I guess, but we're going to hit ours and hopefully teams won't hit theirs. So I think we'll be alright. What will be the key tonight? Just being able to score those runs or keep the other team that much scoreless. You know, I think we need to have a good pitching performance by Gene and we need to, you know, keep the ball in the yard and for us to get people on base and score some runs. You know, it's nice to be playing back home again in the confines of Hurstfield and you know, again it's the team that scores the most wins ball games and you know, hopefully we can get that done tonight. Any injury or illness problems are going to be a problem for the Pioneers tonight? I don't think so. I think the big thing is just going from the heat to here. It's not much different. And I think everybody's health wise is okay, you know, some nagging injuries, but that's all part of the game early. And you know, again, like I said, we're professionals and we got to go out and do our jobs. Nice to be home for six days, isn't it? Yeah. Instead of three. Yeah, it's nice to be home for six days and then we go on a short road trip and then come back home and then go on a real long one for 14 days and that's going to be a. That's. That. That could be the key to the season right there is that 14 game road trip. You know, we got to, you know, at least split that there. Win every series, win every series. We're going to win this thing. So we've won every series so far. Mike Smith, thank you for being with us. Good luck tonight. Thanks. 3, 2, 1. Brian Grayback, we get a visit with you again. This time it's Sunday afternoon. Warm. How is that working? 3, 2, 1. We're talking with ace pitcher, ace coacher. Also you've been handling all these pitchers. Mike Smith, this has been an interesting trip. You've just finished yeah, it's been kind of crazy with the managerial change and personnel change, trying to remember whose number is whose because we try to have to put together a roster. I know it's been crazy for you, trying to get things taken care of. I can't remember the last time it's been this bad. Maybe a little bit in 99, but, you know, I think the guys that we have in here now, our guys that are going to help us and stay consistent, and we'll see where it goes from there. It isn't like you didn't have good talent from before, but it just didn't mesh like this is. Yeah, I mean, the talent that we had wasn't bad, but like you said, I just don't think the chemistry was there right then. Guys were struggling a little bit. Some guys, I think, got maybe a little bit too comfortable and, you know, just kind of. Just kind of went with the flow. And you can't do that here. You have to go out and bust your tail day in and day out, night in, night out. And if you don't do it, sometimes your job can be in jeopardy. Let's start talking about pitching. You've been through this before. You're still the ace of the staff. I don't know if I could call myself the ace right now. I'll take the leadership side of it as the pitching coach. You know, I haven't had great success this year. You know, I've been fortunate enough to win some ball games and the games that I've lost, I've just had one or two bad innings and then have really done my job as a pitcher. And unfortunately, you know, I've given up. You know, had the one. One bad inning and it's cost me with three of my losses and another one I kind of squeaked out without getting a decision in. But I just want to bring to this staff, to this team leadership as well as coaching. I've had the experience in coaching, coaching six years at the collegiate level and even at the professional level. So I kind of know what it takes to win and you know, what it's like to lose and what it's like to go through player changes and managerial changes. It seems like I've been through it all, and so hopefully my leadership and what I can bring to the table can help out some of these younger players. Talk about the duel responsibilities you have. How did you decide to get involved with coaching while you were still playing? I don't think it was. It was kind of more of a, you know, we want you to coach and we'd like to have you pitch. And I thought, okay, you know, once every five days I can throw and then coach the other four. And you don't, you know, it sounds all good and great for you, but then when you finally get a chance to pitch, do it. The tough thing with a job as a pitching coach is you pitch on your first day and you've got four days or you have to rehab, you have to prepare your own self to get ready to pitch your next time as well as get your pitchers ready to get in the ball game. So, you know, when we're at home, you know, we're usually here about 3 o', clock, 3:30. I'm here at 2 o' clock every day just so I can get my work done, take care of the coaching aspect of it, prepare the line, you know, help prepare the lineup and what we need to do, get things taken care of for our night's ball game as well as get my stuff done and get my pitchers ready to go out. You've done it well at baseball level, but you've added another sport that women's softball. Yeah, softball's a fun sport. It's fast paced. What I like about it is you can play a double header and get it done in three hours versus playing one baseball game in three, three and a half hours. Yeah, it's a nice change going from softball to baseball, baseball to softball. It breaks up the consistent monotony of day in and day out with a larger ball and shorter bases. So it actually helps me a lot. I really have to, to really, as a head coach at the collegiate level, you basically do it all. You're in charge of recruiting and budgets and scheduling and all that stuff. And so I think with that, being a head coach at the collegiate level, I really have a lot of experience and knowledge and know what it's like from the administrative part of it as well as the baseball side of it. And I think that's why maybe somewhere down the road, you know, I'm looking to possibly manage in this league or possibly, you know, work front office, doing stuff on the business side of it, because I've had the experience and I know what it takes to run a ball club and I think I could do a pretty good job doing it. One advantage that you have is your family loves seeing you do this. My family likes baseball. I know my kids love coming out to the ballpark day in and day out. My wife, she doesn't like me gone as much, but she knows that it's for the love of the game. And, you know, she's kind of. She's great. She rolls with the punches and, you know, and I appreciate her for doing that. Where you coach during the spring, you picked up two championships of sorts down through there. That must be a pleasure for you. Yeah. You know, coaching at Biola, I've taken a program that was basically the doormat of the league and pretty much the nation, a program that was 17 and 131 in five years and three in 29 the year before I took it over. And, you know, we finished 22 and 23 my first year and 35 and 17 my second year and finished 15th in the nation. This past year, we finished 50 and 13 and ranked number four in the nation and won the first conference championship for the school. And we lost in the regional finals and we broke all kinds of school records. So it's nice to have success. So I won a Western Baseball League championship last year, and I won a conference championship and the NAIA championships World Series fell short this year. Hopefully that's a possibility next year, but I'm looking forward to another championship here in St. George. I think with the team that we have, we have a really good shot of doing it. We're now tied for first place, which is nice. And, you know, we've got, I think, 12 games, 14 games. I think it's 12 games left in this first half, and we're going to go out and battle till the end of that 14, 12th game and win this first half. One of the interesting things in watching baseball or softball, collegiate level or professional level, a lot of people think of major college footballer basketball. It's different in softball and in baseball. It spreads at all levels. And with outstanding talent. Yeah, you know, I recruit. I go out and look at and try to recruit a lot of girls, and a lot of them are like, you know, what type of school is Biola? It's an NEIA school, which is the competition level is really between Division 1 and NCAA Division 1, Division 2. Somewhere in there, our level is NAI, Division 1. But we get the talent. I mean, California is such a hotbed for softball as it is. I mean, the talent's just there. The only difference with NCAA Division 1 and US is there's less scholarship money. So a lot of times girls are like, well, I'm looking for scholarship, and parents want the scholarship. So we don't get the great talent, but the talent is there. This last year we had four Division 1 games, and we were 31 against Division 1 last year. So our talent level is there. Our conference, we had five teams from our conference in the top 25 this year. So our level is great. Our baseball team has won the conference the last four years. They were ranked number three or four in the nation this year and went to the World Series. They lost to Cal State Fullerton, who was in the World Series this last year by one run. So. So the level at the NAI is a little bit less than the NCAA Division 1, but the players are going to go out and give 110%, just like at the Division 1 level and sometimes even more at the NAI level because they're really not pampered like they are at the Division 1 level. I know you've picked up at least one NAI star for this baseball team this time around. Young man that's been playing shortstop. Yeah, he's been, he's been doing well for us. And, you know, I just want to, you know, it's. Hey, when you can pick up a player like that, you know he's going to do wonders whether it be at the NCA Division 1 or NAI level. We've got to talk about what it's like to be home. We'll do that after this timeout. 3, 2, 1. This has been one of the wildest travel times for this theme. Have you ever been on a two week tour before? Never been on a 14 day road trip. I've been on a 12 day with 12 games, but 14 days, it was nice having two games split up in between. It was nice being home in Southern California. So I got to spend a lot of time at home and do a lot of landscaping and yard work and just kind of hanging out at home and did a lot of work at the university, you know, with recruiting and, you know, trying to get ready for, you know, the 2001, 2002 softball season. So. Yeah, but this road trip has been crazy, especially going three and nine. It's frustrating from a coach's and a player's standpoint. About the same time last year as when the slump hit this team. Yeah, all teams go through it and I just think hopefully our slump is out and over early and, you know, we're still in first place. So if the slump came, hey, let's get it out of the way. We're still in first place. We're tied. So, you know, more power to us. Let's get going and win the second half this first half. I know after two weeks gone, some of these ball players, a good Chunk of them are brand new for the home team. Yeah, I think we've got, oh gosh, six or seven new ball players and you know, they, you know, walked through the clubhouse and looked at the field and, you know, kind of awestruck because they're in a new place. They're so used to the confines of on the road and traveling on the bus. And now we're at home, we get to spend, you know, six days here and then we go back on another nine day road trip. So it doesn't get any easier from here and, you know, we'll just take them as they go. How good is this ball field compared to some of the others? It seems like it is tough for a visitor to win. It is. It's a nice place to play. You know, the pitchers, we all call it Coors Field junior. Even worse than Coors Field because the ball does get out of here and it's shorter than most ballparks that were playing in the air, you know, with the elevation. And you have to really concentrate on what you're doing when you're pitching. Keep the ball down and it's a tough place to pitch. Even though the ball carries, sometimes it doesn't. Yeah. Later on in the game you can get away with giving up only a couple runs early in the ball game. You have a pretty good shot at keeping it that way towards the end of the game. But if you give them up early, it's going to be a long night. Let's talk about the challenge from this team. You faced them on the road. Yeah, Chico's a good ball club. I mean, they've been good since they've been in this league. And Charlie Kurfeld does a great job over there getting his players. I know he's probably one of the. He's probably the manager that's on the transaction hotline all the time trying to find players or looking at players, see who's got released and to better his ball club. And that's what you need to do to be a win and stay consistent. That's what he's done. Wherever he's gone, whether he's in Grays harbor or Reno or in Chico, they got a good ball club, they've got a great pitching staff. They've got. Some guys can swing the bat well, you know, and everybody knows, you know, it's, you know, we played Chico last year in the playoffs and game's never over until the fat lady sings. So that may have been the best playoff in professional baseball. Any play. I don't know about the best, but from a fan standpoint, it was exciting. From a player standpoint, I think I gained probably about 4 or 500 gray hairs because it just went back and forth, back and forth. Am I going to pitch this or am I not going to pitch? It was a crazy time, but it sure was great when we won it. You ended up with only the second complete game in the championship and the first shot a shutout. Actually, I didn't even know that. Again, I had a great year last year and I always seem to. I was thinking about it the other day and I seem to struggle early in the first half and then really come around in the second half. If you look at my first half numbers compared to my second half numbers in this league, my ERA is probably about a point and a half to two point difference from first to second half. So I'm looking up right now. I'm looking, looking up at the peak instead of going down to the Valley. So hopefully it gets better from here. But I just want to be able to help this team, both as a pitcher as well as a coach, and try to get us to win another championship. What's the feeling of the Pioneers team right now going into this right now? Not really sure because we have a bunch of new players and not a lot of them know about Chico. So there's kind of a. I don't know about if awe is the word, more of an inconsistency on what we really want to think about. I know what to expect. The players that have been here for a while know what to expect. We just can't. We can't be at awe by Chico Heat and what they've brought to the table over the years. We just got to go out and play our brand of ball and we had our chances in Chico to beat him and you know, we. We just didn't get timely pitching or didn't get timely hitting and you know, hey, we're going to get ours. Two out of three were very close last year. You had a huge win up there. Yeah, huge wins up there, especially in the playoffs. That one nothing ball game that, you know, we had a chance to win that first one and let it slip away and then we won that second one. And again, you know, when you're on the road, you know you want at least try to get two or three there and unfortunately we got swept there. But they're coming into our house now and so, you know, we've got an advantage. Their pitchers don't know how to pitch Here and our pitchers hopefully do. I understand there's no decision yet on who actually starts in this game except the pitcher. Yep, that's true. You know, we got Bucky Buckles going tonight, who, you know is a big time pitcher, pitched at Oklahoma with that World Series team and has pitched with the Texas organization. So he's got a pretty good resume coming in and I think he's going to do a great job for us. It's new pitching here, so I'm going to talk to him a little bit about what he needs to do and hopefully we can win this thing. He was involved with the Tommy John surgery last year. Yeah, he had the Tommy John surgery and I don't think he's really pitched competitively since 99. So, you know, his first outings with us really were against professionally live pitching and he's done an outstanding job for us since he's been here with the innings that he's pitched. What's going to be the key tonight to win Jessica? At the right starting lineup, the key is to keep them from scoring more runs than us. I think the first two or three innings are the key. If we can. If we can keep them from scoring. I think our pitching gets stronger as we go. And so I think that's the key, is the first two or three innings. What do you like about this team right now? Just the opportunity to kind of get used to them. Who's there? Yeah, to build the chemistry. And from resumes from other players, we know what we have. You know, with Rod McCall back and Lewis hopefully swinging the hot bat now. And it's frustrating because you don't know what to expect, but yet there's that little aura about the whole thing on what to expect from this team. So right now we can only go up. I've got to ask you one more question. You're back here. The wife and kids are going to be here. What does that mean to you at this point? It's nice to have him here. It's nice to be able to go home and, and see them at night and it gets a little crazy and it seems like you're on the go nonstop. With the young ones that I have, we're in the pool or we're out walking around somewhere or keeping them from jumping all over something. But it's nice to have them and it's nice to be able to talk to somebody at night instead of sit in front of a TV and not have anybody to talk to. So I'm looking forward to having him here. For the next couple nights. Mike Smith, thank you for being with us. Good luck tonight. Thanks, Larry. It seems to frighten him a bit. Oh, no. He's a gamer and he's a tough one. So he steps out on the mound. I have every confidence that he's going to throw a good game. Is there an opportunity for more pitchers to become active before this ball game that have not signed yet? Not tonight. Those changes that I spoke of are. What's that? We've added six guys to the roster today and taken four off and we had two open spots. That's about as much movement as you'll ever see a club do. But our goal was to try to get some of this stuff in and get it done and settle ourselves down and make a final push here to win this first half. You know, if we could sneak away with this first half, even with all the changes and the moves that we've had to make, we could sneak away with winning this first half. It gives us the entire show second half to kind of rest our guys, make whatever spot changes we need to make and basically gives us eight weeks to get ready for the playoffs. Now for you, do you find yourself wringing your hands thinking about things a lot? How's the attitude changed for the boss? Well, it's frustrating. There's no doubt about it. It's hard work trying to, you know, find the right guys, trying to find the right mix. You know, we've got young management in place. You know, we've got a brand new coaching staff. They're young, they're player coaches. All of that stuff, you know, takes takes time. It's kind of a work in progress, if you will. And to be constantly having to retool and find holes to fill is not as easy as people think. Especially when you're not trying to find a hole to fill for a day. You're trying to find somebody who's going to help you for the rest of the season and you know, to make that work within your financial constraints and other issues, finding the right chemistry in the clubhouse and the right mix, it's not as easy maybe as it always looks from the outside. So. So if I could characterize how the first half has been so far for myself and our owner, Dennis Narlinger, I would say that it's been very frustrating and we would very much like to see our team settle down and get the holes filled in that we need and settle down and give St. George another championship. Two comments. 1. You're still not quite to the middle of the season that makes a difference. And secondly, there does seem to be an urge by everybody to come back as winners. Well, there's no doubt about it. Every team in the league is gunning for us. We're the defending champion. We go into a park, the fans are surly. They want to see us get beat. You know, it's. You know, everybody's taking shots at you when you're in this role, and that's okay with me. That's a great spot to be in. And I can tell our fans back home this, that our owner, Mr. Narlinger, is a guy who doesn't like to lose. He is not in this to come in second place. He likes to win and he likes to be successful. Doesn't matter which one of his businesses it is. And he is doing everything that he can do to bring a winner back to St. George. And that's our commitment to the fans. And we will do everything we can to make that come true. It seems like this league gets a little bit better every year and gets a little more talent every year. That's got to be a challenge and fun. It really is true. You go into spring training thinking, wow, our team is significantly better than it was last year. And then you make that first pass through the league and you realize everybody in the darn league is significantly better than they were the previous year. So it's kind of a constant challenge, but it's a good league. I'll get affiliate scouts out here to see us all the time. And the first thing they do when they see our league play is, wow, you know, I had no idea you had look the at the guys you guys got out there. Unfortunately, sometimes they come out and they see the guys we have and we lose them, like Steve Goodell and Greg Martinez last week. That's a big blow to lose those two guys, but it's a great thing for them. And I have to tell our fans back home that Greg Martinez, as good as he was for us in center field, they might see him play, playing on television here pretty quick. The Devil Rays like him in center field on the Triple A club, and they don't really have an everyday center fielder, so to speak, on their big league squad. And if Craig continues to play well, he might be the first Pioneers graduate to the big leagues. Got to ask you one more question. How has this league changed in that direction of providing more ballplayers back in the major leagues for. Well, I think, you know, I think surprisingly well. I think if you look at all the different independent leagues out there, our league has progressed faster and stronger than any of them. We've probably got four or five guys now from our league the last couple years who are now actively playing in the big leagues. And I don't know that any other independent leagues can say that. And of course we've got guys this year. We might add four or five more this year, you know, during the season to the big league ranks. So the better we get, the better respect that we get around the country, the more quality, talented players want to come play in this league. And it's happened to us this year and it just, you know, the league just continues to get better and better and that's great. That's good for us, it's good for our fans and it's good for baseball. Talked about frustration, but there's respect, isn't it? Oh, absolutely. It's funny, my brother Kevin, who's been a big league player for a lot of years, came out and watched the ball club last Sunday here with me and it was a real eye opener for him. He was just very genuinely impressed with the quality of players that we had. I guess I better wrap this up. Thank you for being with us. Good luck. Thank you, Larry. We were going to be up all day, then get a good night's sleep, get on the bus, do the thing and come to the ballpark ready to play. They're not children. They know what they have to do to get ready. And I can't take that as an excuse. But you know, it's definitely a liability when you have to make seven hour bus trips. Things aren't going to go as planned, but you know what, that comes with the territory, so they better get used to it. It's a lot longer bus trips. I know there's a little change in the starting lineup this time around. What are some of the good things you can look at for tonight? Well, I guess we're getting Ging Aaron at second base where he's. That's his natural position. So we're going to see how he does over there. We got Brian Grabek back in, back in the lineup, playing short. So a little bit of leadership on the infield, that's about it. I think that's our only changes. Everybody seems to be swinging the bat fairly decent. So you know, if we can get Ging Aaron to feel a little bit more comfortable playing not only defense but at the plate. So if he feels at home at second base, we'll let him play second base if he starts coming through it. And on his offensive side, that's even. That's a plus. So we want to get him catching the ball and making plays. He definitely had a couple of opportunities yesterday that he let squander by and cost us a couple of runs. So we have to get that taken care of. Address sack pretty quickly. One final question. I know a lot of people, when they look at so many sports, see the excitement about winning and depression about losing in baseball. First of all, it's always, don't get too excited. Don't get too depressed. Has that been fun for you? And is that the feeling you've had all your life, too? I think you got to keep yourself pretty much on an even keel. I mean, you can't go out there and, sure, you want to win every game, and you know that's not going to happen, but if you keep that winning attitude all the time, then you shouldn't really get depressed. The only depression that you really find for me is being away from my family. So, I mean, that's the only thing I think about. I think about, you know, what's worse, striking out with the bases loaded or being away from my family. And then I think, well, you know what? I got my priorities right, because that striking out isn't as bad right now as it is being away from the ones that you love. So guys have a different way with dealing with things. But I think if you keep it on an even keel and you accept the good with the bad and, you know, leave things where they're supposed to be. I mean, you mess up at the home plate, don't take it out on defense. You mess up on defense, don't bring it into your hitting. So you got to learn to separate the two and just go out there and have fun. I mean, you got to remember it's still just a. It's still just a game. I mean, we've been playing it all our lives. It's just that now we're getting paid for it, so comes a little bit more important, but it's still just a game. Manager, thank you for being with us. Good luck tonight. Thank you very much, Larry. Moment.