BringJoy

Conch Pride with Billy Wardlow, Key West to the World Series

• Joy Nulisch • Season 6 • Episode 74

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In this engaging conversation, Billy Wardlow shares his extensive journey in baseball, from his early days in Key West to his current role with the Toronto Blue Jays. He reflects on the excitement of the World Series, the importance of building relationships within the sport, and the challenges of equipment management. Wardlow also offers valuable advice for young athletes and emphasizes the significance of community and passion in sports.


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SPEAKER_01:

Hey Joy, it's your friend Vic calling from Atlanta. Anytime I get to do something with you, it's a great day, my friend, and I appreciate you having me do this. As I understand, you have my dear friend Billy Wardlow on your show tonight. I don't know if you know, but in 1992 I had the great honor of coaching this young man and tutoring privately as well, baseball and life-wise. And um to say that he has turned into a phenomenal human being is an understatement. I can't tell you how proud I am of him, of his accomplishments, not only in high school, but in junior college and at Tampa, and then of course his career with the Blue Jays. I uh I love this kid like he was my own, and thankfully he calls me dad. Billy, you're on with the best. Have a great one, brother.

SPEAKER_02:

Thanks for tuning in to the Joy of Baseball Podcast. It's all about baseball, from the sandlots to the big leagues and everything in between. I'll share my joy for the game with you, and whether you're a fan of baseball or good storytelling, you'll be entertained, and each episode will bring a little joy to your date. So grab you some peanuts and cracking jacks. Let's talk baseball. This episode is sponsored by Ramonas, promoting Kong Prime since 1971. How are we doing, baseball fans? I got a good one for you today. I got Billy Wardlow. He's been in baseball all his life, from little leagues to the pros. And now he's got 25 years plus with the Toronto Blue Jays. And he's a Key West native. Welcome to the show, Billy.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for having me, Joy. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, I don't know if you noticed anything, but how about this hat?

SPEAKER_00:

Nice. I'm glad it showed up in Key West. Finally got there, so it's nice to be able to uh actually see our logo on a hat with the World Series.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. And tell I can only imagine it's been a long time since my Yankees were in it.

SPEAKER_00:

I know we uh we've been trying to do this this session for a while, and uh it got pushed back, and some of my travels pushed it back, and then as the season progressed, um the heater rivalry between the Blue Jays and the Yankees uh I wanted to see how it played out. Played out a little bit, a little bit in in our favor this year. Um, I know you had to do some grieving over it, so I let that play out as well, and uh then some World Series travel and some travel after that, and glad we're finally able to get this uh get this recorded and get it out there and share some stuff with everybody that's involved in baseball wherever this reaches, especially back home and whatever, you know, wherever it goes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I'm I'm excited to have you for sure. It was worth the wait. I think we've been talking about this since spring training, and like you said, friendly rivalry between us, the Yankees, and the Blue Jays. But you guys absolutely got the best of us. You took the lead and you never looked back. Hell of a playoff run to the World Series, and let's start right there. Tell me about the World Series. What was that like?

SPEAKER_00:

It was a ride, man. Um I I went to the playoffs in fifty. We went to playoffs in 15 and 16. In 2015, we lost in the championship series to the Royals. And um, I thought that was a great experience in uh making it to the World Series. I tell everybody uh we played basically played eight and a half games. Not everybody can say they make it a seven-game series and play eight and a half games. So it was a great uh series for baseball, it was a great series for baseball fans. It was it was just great baseball that was played. There wasn't any blowouts, uh everything you got to see, everything. Extra innings, small ball, you saw errors, you've seen home runs, you've seen every everything that had to do with baseball, you got to see.

SPEAKER_02:

It truly was one of the most entertaining series that I can remember. I mean, it it really, like you said, had everything you're talking about, eight and a half games. That's that 18-inning game. Was that game three that went 18 innings?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, it was game three. That was a long night. We we traveled the night before and we got into L. We took a red eye and we got into LA early in the morning, so it was a long day, and we didn't expect that. East Coast time it was probably 3 a.m., I believe. But it was a it was a long game. And I mean, by the end of the game, the second half of the game, we had you know a lot of our backup guys in, and they held tight. And LA had guys on second and third no outs inning after inning, and we kept getting out of it. And uh we couldn't put it away, but it was a hell of a hell of a game.

SPEAKER_02:

It it really was. I was up all night, everybody on Facebook, are you watching this? It was crazy, and then you couldn't go to sleep after I think I was up till four o'clock in the morning. It was like, it was what a rush. I can't imagine being there. Did I see a picture of you and your dad?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, my dad, my dad came to one, two, six, and seven. So he was in Toronto. He didn't come to LA, but he was in Toronto.

SPEAKER_02:

How how special was that to be able to bring your dad along?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh man. Uh undescribable. It was cool.

SPEAKER_02:

I I know that that him and your whole family, and you're you're from a huge family here in Key West. Everybody was so proud of you. I mentioned this earlier. I think all of Key West is all of a sudden a Blue Jays fan. You know, forget, forget who we usually root for. We were rooting for you all the way. And uh there was something really cool, Conk Baseball. They did one of those things they do on social media and they asked the kids, oh, you know, who's gonna win the series? And I think every one of them said the Blue Jays.

SPEAKER_00:

A lot of them. I'll give props to Jack Niles. He threw my name in there one time, so I appreciated that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's my catch.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I appreciate the following. It was it's it's amazing. Everybody I run into, you know, says the same thing that they're you know pulling for their Blue Jays. Um, I don't think a lot of people saw us get in there, you know, earlier in the season. And then as the uh playoffs came and the World Series came, I don't know if people thought that uh we were gonna make it past four games, but uh we we made it interesting.

SPEAKER_02:

You certainly did, and it makes the it makes looking forward to this next season even more interesting, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Makes it real interesting. Um one thing I got to finally experience is playing baseball right up until November, which uh must be exhausting. Gets things going pretty quick because now uh got three days until the winter meeting starts. And uh once the winter meetings get here, it's game on. So it gets here quick.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, that's good stuff. And and we should probably back up a little bit. Tell me and and everybody watching, what is your role with the Blue Jays? And tell me a little bit about your career path in professional baseball.

SPEAKER_00:

Um after I played at University of Tampa, I coached there for a year and a half, two years. I um got a job over with the Yankees back in '90, spring training in '98. Um, from there, I I worked a couple years in the minor leagues. I worked in '99 with the Braves. And then I got this job. My first season was uh 2000. So I got hired in December of 99. I'm the minor league equipment coordinator. So I'm in charge of the equipment at our complex here in Florida for spring training and everything that goes on here. It's a rehab center. It runs 365 days a year. Um, we have an academy in the Dominican Republic with two teams. So we have about 150, 200 personnel players down there that I oversee with equipment. Um, five minor league teams here in North America and the scouting department for their pre-draft workouts. And now we have probably, I think, four scout teams. So, and now with how travel ball is set up around the country, um, and they have these perfect game tournaments and tournaments around. Um, we've developed a few scout teams ourselves. A lot of the major league teams have done it. So I oversee all the equipment uniforms for that as well.

SPEAKER_02:

That's gotta be a wild job. I can't imagine the number of pieces of equipment for that big of an organization.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, it yeah, it's it's quite a bit. The logistics of getting everything, we have a, you know, we have a minor league team in Vancouver, Buffalo, New York, uh, Manchester, New Hampshire. We have two teams here locally in Dunedin. And then, like I said, our two teams in the Dominican Republic. So logistics of it all, getting it there, making sure everything's there on time, the season starts, everything behind the scenes, make it run.

SPEAKER_02:

So I don't know if if you said this or not, but how many people work with you in your department to be able to make all that happen?

SPEAKER_00:

Not as many as I wish.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Are you hired?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh my crew has, I mean, my crew are probably about seven or eight guys. Wish we had a few more. It's better than what it was. We used to do it with with three or four, and we've we've increased it a little bit, but we make it work, and uh my crew my crew makes my life easy. I'll tell you what, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be been here this long. And one of them one of my guys has been with me 25 years, so it's a pretty good uh we have a pretty good thing going here.

SPEAKER_02:

Sounds like it. And now that you got rings and trophies and things like that to carry around, maybe you can hire a few more people.

SPEAKER_00:

We're trying. We're trying.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, so I put out a promo on social media yesterday, and I said, hey, I'm gonna have Billy on the show. Any questions? And Monica Santana, another Key West girl that lives up in Tampa, Bubba's wife. Uh, she wanted to know what's your favorite part of the job?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I would have to say the relationships that I've built and that I continue to build with players. Perfect example, um, George Bell, 1988 AL MVP. First player from the Dominican Republic to win the MVP in the major leagues. Um, he was coaching here when I started, and um, him and I created a really good friendship and to this day. I'm at the point now to where I help him organize his golf tournament every year. So three or four years, five years now I've been doing his golf tournament. It's it's cool how I grew up watching these guys, and I now work with a lot of them. I now get to do golf tournaments and playing golf tournaments with some of the a lot of the guys that I grew up watching. The older guys, I mean, guys that played in the 80s and 90s that I grew up just admiring. I get to, you know, I'm with every day. And then now the younger crew that's coming up, the younger guys that are coming up, the relationships you build with them, and you get to see those guys every day, you get to see what they put into it every day. So that's that's one of the best things, you know. And and can't uh can't really complain that I get to come to work at a baseball field every day. My office is at a baseball field, and coming from Key West, you can't really beat that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, right. Do you ever just pinch yourself and think, is this really happening?

SPEAKER_00:

Many times.

SPEAKER_02:

So speaking of um, you know, the relationships that you build, I'm curious, are there any players that you've watched come up through the system from Singway or even the developmental leagues, and and now they've made it to the show? And is there any names we'd recognize? And how special is that?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, most a lot of the guys on the team this year. I mean, those guys you got Kirk and Yesovich and Schneider, uh Arger, Blue Hardy, all those guys. Um they've come up through here, and then across the league, we have I mean, there's so many guys across the league. Gabriel Moreno's and and Guriel's out with the Diamondbacks, and Teoscar Hernandez is out with the Dodgers. And I mean, the list goes on and on with the guys in other organizations. I mean, and it's not just the players, it's coaches as well. It's ex-players. Ricky Romero and I are he was one of our first round picks, um, starting pitcher for us for years. Him and I are really good friends. Aaron Sanchez, good friend of mine, uh, Jose Batista, and Carnachon, all those guys, you know, over the years, it's, you know, those guys have become friends, and it's been a pretty cool experience. I mean, I story about Batista. Last year, my nephew was in town, and I called Batista and asked him about um some cards because my nephew's gotten into car collecting. And first thing he said was, come to the house. So I was like, I can't, you know, I told him I can't come over to your house. And it's a Friday night, eight o'clock. My parents were in town, my sister was in town, and they looked at me like I was crazy. It's like Jose wants us to come to the house. So I was like, I cannot bring my nephew to your house right now, seven o'clock on a Friday night, eight o'clock on a Friday night. And and we did, we ended up going over there. So it's just those are the type of things, they're special people, they're friends of mine, and I'm very, very, very lucky and fortunate to be in the position I'm in and to to have those relationships.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, what what an experience. You um we talked a little bit um about the equipment already and the volume. I'm just curious because you know, baseball is a game of numbers. Do you have any numbers of you know how many bats and gloves and balls are used in a game or a season? You have any numbers to share with me?

SPEAKER_00:

I order about for my minor leagues, we go through man a hundred probably close to eight thousand, I would say, dozen baseballs in the minor leagues. That's across, I mean, you're playing 160 games at five levels, and then you're playing uh 80 games at three levels. And then you have spring training, and then you have extended spring training. You have you know, training goes over here at the complex all year long. Um bat-wise, we go through a few, you know, the numbers of the bats have come down. There's a whole new science behind bats, and the wood has changed, and the way they they measure wood, and the way that they turn the wood these days, and the way it's balanced and the density of the wood. That's changed. So the the breakage is a little different on the bats as well these days. So you you we're not going as through as many as we used to.

SPEAKER_02:

I was gonna ask you, like, what's the average number of bats a player goes through in a season?

SPEAKER_00:

Differs. Differs. It depends. Some guys in the big leagues might go through a dozen, they might not even go through a dozen. Guys in the minor leagues might go through three, four, five. You can't really put a number on that. It's it is there's too many variables.

SPEAKER_02:

Sure, and and just like we talked about the numbers in baseball and analytics, I'm sure the job, since you've been in the league, you know, 25 years, the jobs change. There's a lot more technology and IT involved, keeping track, I would imagine, with all that equipment and everything, right? To help you with some of it.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah. My first my first three years, I didn't have a computer. I did everything by hand. And I still have my first budget that I did by hand. So um now I have a computer. Now uh we're on it doing this. So yeah, I um now I have spreadsheets and charts and all that kind of good stuff to take care of things. But it has gotten a lot bigger as well. Like I said, that we now we have scouting department stuff. I mean, I have a I don't know, I'm probably 20 pages deep on a spreadsheet on my budget now.

SPEAKER_02:

So and then the other thing I thought um I wanted to ask you about, you know, baseball, there's a lot of superstition in baseball, just like me and you not talking during the playoffs, right? I wouldn't want to mess up your mojo, right? But um, you know, baseball players, baseball fans are superstitious. I'm curious, do you see that when it in terms of equipment, you know, making sure that players have certain bats to keep that streak alive and that kind of thing? Any funny stories to share?

SPEAKER_00:

You have to. There's shirts, you know, shirts that aren't washed and certain hats and batting gloves and pants are ripped, don't sew them. You know, I mean, there's leave my pants alone. Don't don't touch them, don't sew them, leave them like they are. And people wonder sometimes, you know, wow, they're in the major leagues, they have holes in their pants. That there's sometimes those guys want those holes in those pants. So there's a lot of things, you know, helmets getting clean. There's pine tar on helmets. You know, sometimes you clean the helmets and polish them and make them look good, and players don't want you to touch them. So there's a lot of little things, a lot of nuances. You know, there's some guys you don't deal with, some guys you don't go around. Um, is leaving the starting pitcher alone a thing? I think it is. Um, I treat it that way. I always have. Um, I learned from from Roy Halliday when he was here, so I've always followed that and I leave the starting pitchers alone, so I don't I don't go near them.

SPEAKER_02:

And I'm sharing helps that you grew up in baseball, right?

SPEAKER_00:

So gives you a little bit of feel of the game.

SPEAKER_02:

Is everybody on on your team and your department former ball players?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, for the most part, yes. We have a couple that are not.

SPEAKER_02:

Um because it might be that kind of stuff would be hard for someone to understand who didn't grow up around it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, for the most but for the most part, they all were in sport or they've worked in other sports. I have one guy that that you know works with us. Uh he worked in hockey. Uh, one guy's from soccer. So they have a field of sports, they have a field of you know, inside the locker room or clubhouse area, so that helps a lot.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, any insider information you think they're gonna keep Bo and Vladdy together?

SPEAKER_00:

That's way above my figures.

SPEAKER_02:

I sure hope so.

SPEAKER_00:

We'd like to see it, you know, but that's that's way far. That's too so far away from me. I'm at the bottom. I'm just trying to keep it together. I'm trying to keep all the pieces together on my end.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, I imagine. But that I think that is pretty special that they played so long together because you don't see that kind of thing in sports anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

No, and the good the cool thing about them was when they came up, we we also had Biggio here, and we also had uh Clemens, Casey Clemens. So it was pretty neat to have we had all the whole infield was covered with from first to third with Vlad, Biggio, Chet, and uh Clemens. So it was a pretty cool little little thing we had going there for a while.

SPEAKER_02:

You have a take in field with them?

SPEAKER_00:

Many years ago I stopped. Getting too old for that. I've I used to throw um for the first five or six years, I used to throw BP a lot. I used to go outside and throw bat in practice. Uh, used to throw to the major league team when they would come to town and play the rays. Um, that was a cool experience in itself. Um, but no more. I'm getting I've gotten too old for that. I could probably still do it, and I do sometimes go out in the cages and have to show the young guys that every once in a while I can make contact. But at least I can still make contact. It's not the best, but my hand-eye coordination is still there.

SPEAKER_02:

That's good stuff. Let them know who they're dealing with, right? Because here in Key West, you were a standout from Kennedy Drive to to Rex Weach Field. And and let's talk about playing baseball here in Key West. Who were some of your coaches growing up and some of your teammates?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh. Well, let me let me first uh, if I can, start by saying this because I thought about this a little bit going into this. When I was growing up, I used to go to the fire station. My dad was in the fire department, and we we'd uh we'd go out to Wickerfield, Wickersfield almost every day. And I used to see um Ralph Henriquez when he played in the minor leagues, Ralph Sr. And he was out there with I believe Kelly Scott, if you don't remember that name. Um I think they're mayor, they both went to Mary Immaculate, right? So Ralph Henriquez, Kelly Scott, um growing up, Bubba Sweeting, Brooks, Carrie, Ridgie Garcia, and then you know, there's so many more. Victor Alberry. We have a rich history down there. That's the names that you would always hear. And then it gets into family, and I had my uncles, Dickie, Kenny, my dad, and then uh Joey, and then my my uh my cousin Kenny. That's the baseball side of it. Playing baseball in Key West was so much so different. And you know, we all strive to to play at the high school and and to to be on that that was our major leagues to uh to play with the guys that put we had a we had a really good group. My freshman and sophomore year, Judd Wise was our coach.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I had Judd on the show.

SPEAKER_00:

I know you've done a lot with him and the stats and all that. He was one of the best. I think we lost, if I'm not mistaken, I think we lost two games in two years. I think we were 21 and 2 one year, and I think we were 17 and 0 another year.

SPEAKER_02:

That's good baseball right there.

SPEAKER_00:

And and you know, that was on the JV, and as everything else in the world, the pyramid gets smaller as you get up, and as we get to the varsity, you know, the games get tougher. So the competition, those guys that we were playing in Miami and beaten as a freshman and sophomore, they were getting older and they were maturing. You know, then our record wasn't as good. And we still went to, you know, the the districts and all that good stuff, but we weren't undefeated anymore. So you could see the pyramid getting smaller, and as you get to college, it's the same way. But Peter Fraga and Willie Zerpa, Jonathan Jolly, Randy Niles, Randy and I were inseparable. Um the you know, Darren Mills. We had Mar Mario Myra, Darren Mills, and myself. Victor was our coach, and uh he called us the black widows.

SPEAKER_02:

I I heard I heard about that story. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00:

We all had black gloves. Jeff Hart was at first base, and uh and somehow, some way, the word got around town, and I don't know if it's just people talking or maybe Victor at the hair salon talking about the black widows. But I got around town and some of the police thought that there was a new gang in town, and this gang was gonna be violent. The furthest thing from it. We weren't violent, but uh we we played pretty good ball, and that was the black widows. I guess we'll go down the history as being known as a gang, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I I heard that story from from Victor, who you know has um plenty love for you, and he told me he said, Ask him about the black widows because everybody in the infield have black gloves. And did you guys name yourself that or did he name you guys that?

SPEAKER_00:

It was probably all of us. I mean, I can't remember that. But um, you know, just those guys and I coach Fraga, Coach Fraga, uh, you know, I had my junior year, I had him, and in my senior year I had Coach Milliken. But we had some good times. I saw Coach Frag Coach Fraga, Peter lives here in Tampa now. I've seen Coach Fraga last year a few times um around town or at a baseball game or at dinner. It's good to still run into him every once in a while, but just the practices and the games and everybody's parents, you know, the dad standing up on the third baseline, you know, hanging out and yelling at the umpires, and it was, you know, you can't beat it. And and to be honest, that that leads into where I almost where I am now. I've worked this is my I'm going into my 27th year with the Blue Jays, and over the years we've yeah, 29 in baseball, 27 with Toronto. I've had the uh unbelievable experience of working with some cool people, ex-big leaguers, ex GMs, and where I'm going with this is I've talked to Laz Diaz, who's an umpire in the big leagues to this day, Ed Lynch, an ex-GM. I can the names go on and on and on. Lenny Harris. I mean, baseball, if you're in baseball, you know these people. And every time somebody had either once told them I was from Key West or now I still run into them, the first thing they say is, I can't believe we made it out of Key West alive. Um, we we got our butts kicked and we got ran out of town. People were throwing rocks at our buses, people didn't let us sleep at the gym. We sleep in the gym and they were knocking on the door, banging on the windows, throwing rocks at the windows. And this is from general managers of major league teams down.

SPEAKER_02:

And they still remember.

SPEAKER_00:

And they still remember. And that's what, like, still to this day, I'm in awe and I'm in shock every time, even if I meet somebody new and I tell them I'm from Key West and they had played against Key West in high school, or they're from the Miami area and they played in the 70s, 80s. That's the first thing that comes to their mind. And it is, it blows me away that people that high up in baseball know about what we, you know, what we strive for in Key West.

SPEAKER_02:

That was one of the questions I was gonna ask you. You've traveled all over the world, you've seen baseball played in so many communities. Is Key West baseball still special? And it sounds like you'd say so.

SPEAKER_00:

Not just coming from you, but from Yeah, I mean, there's good baseball around, but the atmosphere, you can't get that. The atmosphere is is unmatchable at that level. You're not gonna find that atmosphere anymore.

SPEAKER_02:

And that and like you said, it's not just coming from us, right? Baseball people from all over tell you that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they will tell you. And you know, and there's a couple schools in Tampa that get crowds, and they get crowds to watch the games. But the the passion, they they might have a little bit of passion, but they don't have the key west passion. I promise you that.

SPEAKER_02:

It is something special about it. And I know you've been to to one of the games and you've seen the K crew that I hang out with down there behind home plate, hang in the caves for the pitches and everything. We we have a heck of a good time. If you get back before your season gets too busy, come and sit with us.

SPEAKER_00:

Try to get down there during the middle of the year. I have to wait till spring training's over.

SPEAKER_02:

All right. Well, we'll keep a seat warm for you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. I appreciate it. I'll try to make it for sure. I have family that sits right back there.

SPEAKER_02:

So your Uncle Dennis, we make sure his seat and Miss Ann's seat are saved, reserved for him. If he gets there first, he saves mine, and vice versa. As a matter of fact, I don't know if you saw, but he also commented on the post that to tell you he was so proud of you and he loves everything you're doing, and you always got a great smile on your face.

SPEAKER_00:

Cool, thank you.

SPEAKER_02:

That's good stuff. And uh speaking of Tampa, um, I had Miguel on the show, and uh, I told him I'm gonna go up there. He sent me a Tampa Jesuit hat, and I look pretty good with that hat too.

SPEAKER_00:

So I told him it's the same color blue, so we'll be all right.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, right. I think I think I might be on to something here, but uh I told him I'm gonna go up there and try to watch a game. Speaking of your um your family, your cousin Joey Orlow, um, heck of a career he's having at St. Thomas, big standout here in Key West, and just carrying it on as a coach now. I'm hoping that I could get him on the show. I'm not sure if they'll let him be on my show or not. I know, I don't know if I rank high enough in in the world for St. Thomas.

SPEAKER_00:

But um, we'll get him on.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we'll have to do a whole Wardlow show.

SPEAKER_00:

We could do that, you could probably do that too.

SPEAKER_02:

Right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be where I am.

SPEAKER_02:

So then while we're speaking of your family, I know we're talking about baseball, but your family's really important in Key West beyond the history that you've contributed to in baseball. But your dad, commissioner for so many years, your Uncle Dennis that we mentioned already, the mayor, prime minister of the Concord Republic, the war loves run deep, bringing good stuff to the community. So you're part of a big legacy, whether it's on the baseball field or just on the island. That's why we all feel so proud of you, man.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's all good stuff. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02:

So with that, with that in mind, um talking about influencing and how Joey helped you, and you know, you mentioned Ralph, both of you up there and in the pros at one point. What would you say to any key west kids that are watching the show right now? And to hear you coming up on 30 years in professional baseball, any advice that you you might offer them?

SPEAKER_00:

Play as long as you can. Um doesn't just have to be baseball, any sport. If you're in sport, play sport, do something, uh, stay active. Main thing is you gotta stay in school and make your grades, and then follow, you know, follow your passion. I um, as every kid's dream, thought I was gonna play in the big leagues. And as I mentioned earlier, the pyramid gets smaller as you get, you know, as you get higher and higher, the pyramid gets smaller. And that's in business, it's in sport, it's in everywhere. Just recognize where you are and and and follow your dreams and just know that there are many avenues to uh to follow that. I always said I was gonna work in the big leagues or play in the big leagues. I didn't make it playing. That pyramid got smaller. I saw the talent was way better, but I fought and I supported everybody, and I didn't, you know, I didn't complain. I practiced, I stayed around and coached for a couple years. I got into Pro Ball and I figured out a way to make it sustainable and last. And and there are many avenues. There, there's scouting. Now, with you know, technology, there's so many different avenues and analytics and video. Dieticians are huge in this industry right now. Strength and conditioning, trainers, I mean, equipment, coaching, I mean, you name it, it's there. There, there's I have people reaching out to me daily. I have a couple people from Key West that I've been in touch with in the past couple of days trying to get into the baseball world. Make your grades, stay in school, and follow your dream. And and uh the one thing I would say is the one thing I was told is don't burn any bridges.

SPEAKER_02:

Relationships, right? Building relationships.

SPEAKER_00:

Very important because one day you're gonna have to come back across that bridge, and if it's burned, it won't be there.

SPEAKER_02:

That's that's good advice from a man who knows who's had much success. Good stuff. Let's go ahead and wrap this up. I like to do it with a um segment that I call for the cycle. So I ask you four questions, and just like completing a cycle in baseball, it gets harder as you go. Be because I have two shows, I got the joy of baseball and I got the conks. I'm gonna kind of blend the questions, but it'll it'll start out easy and get a little harder. You up for it?

SPEAKER_00:

Let's try it.

SPEAKER_02:

All right. So the first question is what would your walk-up song be?

SPEAKER_00:

Geez, you stuck me stumping me right off the bat. Um, I love this life.

SPEAKER_02:

That's a good one. Do do you see any impact on the minor leagues now that college baseball has NIL and playing, paying players such big salaries basically to play college baseball? Do you see any impact in the minor leagues?

SPEAKER_00:

I think guys are s uh signing later later, not coming out as early as they used to. Some guys will come out earlier. I think they're staying around for the money. Um and I think after COVID, when they started contracting the minor leagues and they started forming a couple collegiate leagues and future leagues, um, I think that's impacted a lot by by the NIL and the NCA.

SPEAKER_02:

I've been following more college baseball recently, and I I was just curious if if that was going to have an impact. The other thing that I feel like I see is guys aren't staying in the minor leagues as long. Is that is that just the names that I hear of or do you see a trend there?

SPEAKER_00:

They're pushing them. It it it they're getting they're getting pushed pretty pretty quickly. Um may have something to do with this collective bargaining agreement. I'm not positive on that. Right. But there's probably some things that I don't know of that are going on with that. And and it also has to do with, like I said, after COVID, they started contracting the minor leagues. So we used to have, I think it's eight minor league teams, now we're down to five. We're only allowed to we're only allowed to have 165 guys, minor league players in the United States during the season on rosters. So we have one, two, three, five teams. And we're allowed to have 165 total during the season. That includes I'm not as sure. I'm not sure what the uh injured list numbers are, but I know it's 165 low. We used to have 215, 220. So we had a you know, you get rid of 40 or 50, 50 guys you had around playing on this four or five other teams. Um, it's not there anymore. So the low the mid, it kind of goes from rookie ball straight into low A, whereas we used to have rookie ball, two short season teams, and then a low A. So they've kind of got out got rid of the short season teams. So the guys are rookie ball are going straight to A-ball. So those guys at the lower levels are now older, coming from colleges.

SPEAKER_02:

So you gotta you gotta make it quicker. Yeah, yeah, there's not enough spots for for you to stay.

SPEAKER_00:

That that makes it tough. Somebody's always coming. That's like like I said, that pyramid is and this these days it's accelerated a lot more. We used to have 40 rounds of the draft, now we're at 20.

SPEAKER_02:

Baseball's tough. That's what they say, right? If it was easy, everybody would do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's a grind. And it's easy to make it to the big leagues for the guys that are in it, and it's but what they say is it's easier to get, it's easy to get there, it's harder to stay.

SPEAKER_02:

What does Kunk Prime mean to you?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh passion, deep, deep, deep passion. Uh, it goes back to what you're saying about you know the family in Key West. My my family's always been passionate about the city. Um and that's just was instilled in me, you know, family and and the community. And then it bled into baseball. And Kong pride is just passion, and it's almost comparable to wearing you know, any sports logo that you're a fair a fan of, a favorite of. You wear that the KW and you you can't you can't beat it. It's indescribable. So I would just say passion.

SPEAKER_02:

I I love that. And finally, what brings you joy, Billy?

SPEAKER_00:

What brings me joy, seeing my family and everybody in my family, just seeing how supportive we are of each other, A, and how they are supportive of me and everything, you know, we've missed a lot of things. I've haven't been able to do a lot of things because of what I do, but this is what I this is my job, this is what I do. So having them being able to be part of it and seeing them excited for it, and that's that's what what makes me happy. And just, you know, that's another one that's just it's hard to describe. It's it's uh heartfelt and and uh they're all there and they're and they're all part of it. Everybody, every single one of them. I mean, cousins, aunts, uncles, cousins, kids. I mean, they're all part of it.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, the void loads come in thick, multi-generations. Here we go. Hey, Billy, thank you so much. I know you're a busy man. You got a lot going on in your world. I wish you all the continued success. We following you. You know how true it is that I'm rocking this Blue Jays hat. That's Kung Prime right there.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02:

Let's go, baseball. This episode is sponsored by Ramonas, promoting Kong Prime since 1971. I'm Joy Newlis, and I appreciate you tuning into my podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, drop a review, share, and subscribe because there's a lot of good stuff on the channel. You can find more joyful content on YouTube, the socials, or check my website at joynoulis.com. And go surround yourself with the things that bring joy to your world. Until next time, much love.

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Joy Nulisch

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