Revving Engines, Runn Shoes & Blue Ribbons (Hour 2)

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Coming to Northeast Wisconsin live from the Civic Media Studios, this is Mino and the Mayor.

And here are your hosts, John Minow and Jim Schmidt.

All right, welcome back everybody.

Our two here at Minow in the Mayor, but special guest in-house, Dale Burnett, who you would maybe know from Fox News.

He's been around, and now he is the, you're not the executive director, what's your title?

You have a great title.

Director of

Curation and

Preservation.

Pretty cool.

At the Automobile Gallery, which is one of the best museums we have in northeast Wisconsin, and you just pulled off that Italian...

We had Italian wine, Italian food, and $100 million of Italian cars.

That's right.

$100 million.

It was a great day.

Great

event.

I sent you that email.

Thanks for the ticket.

And if the guy forgot the Ferrari, the red one, send it over.

It's parked over.

They're waiting for you.

OK.

Anyway, May 30th today, and great weather coming up.

We talked about the weather here.

Are those updated, Todd?

Green Bay's, oh okay, Green Bay's 51, Appleton's 55, Oshkosh is 52, but we're gonna be in the high 70s, and then tomorrow it's all 80s.

Great running weather, right?

It is, it's gonna be great.

We have someone to talk about getting outside, exercising, and not getting injured.

Mark Houston from Bell and Sports Medicine.

How you doing, Mark?

Good, how are you guys?

We're good, we're good.

Even Darryl could catch you up and some stuff.

Yeah, yeah, get to you know, it's a small world.

It is our passive crossed over the years.

Yeah, no, it's it's it's awesome and There's some great opportunities.

What about this weather though?

I left town, right?

So I live in the valley and it was nice and sunny and Looks like we got a little rain coming and I had a few sprinkles, but oh, thank you, Brittany

No, I didn't, I wasn't expecting

that.

But we have sunshine in the studio now, Mark, because you're here.

Geez, okay.

Wow.

He fell right in the John's.

Yeah, the BS

meter.

Okay.

I thought we were away from that for

a few days, but I guess not.

So what's going on?

I mean, I know it's, you got a lot going on at Bellin and you guys do so much for the community.

I was telling Daryl, Bellin Hospital, people know you guys for.

You do so much more.

I mean, you guys are known for hearts.

I

mean, you win that award every year.

But what you're doing, sports, medicine, but I'm gonna touch on the bell and before we go to some other things.

How's that looking?

Yeah, bell and run 49th year this year.

And you know, as we talk about these things, I'll put it right out there.

We have gone through a merger and we are known as amplify health.

by Bellin right now.

It'll be, it's Amplify Health.

There's a little bit of extra by Bellin, but the Bellin run will stay the Bellin run.

A lot of people ask that after the fact or after an interview, hey, what's going to happen with that?

It's going to stay the Bellin run 49th year coming up in two Saturdays.

So it's great when we talk about, you know, it's great running weather, great walking weather, 5K race, 10K race.

8 a.m.

On Saturday June 14th.

I was interviewing the gym boy.

He's the mayor of Depeur.

He was he ran like You still have what eight ten guys that have run everyone.

Yeah, I don't think it's was it more than that.

Yeah, I want to say maybe it's 12 15.

Okay.

He was

like

five years ago, we missed it.

I forgot, isn't that too bad?

Because that's pretty cool.

You've run 49 Belms and you know, they wear that old shirt they have.

That's very cool.

Yeah, it's and they're very humbled.

I mean, you wouldn't know it when you talk to some of these guys and they're like, yeah, this is my 49th year and done every one.

And, you know, they'll tell you the stories how they came close on a couple of them.

But yeah, great, great opportunity.

10k, which, you know, 6.2 miles.

It's not the end of the world.

People can do that.

Do you have training runs going

on right now?

There's practice runs on the train runs on the Wednesdays, but you can get out there.

There's plenty on the website.

You're going to be behind if you're going to start training today for two weeks, a 6.2 run.

We

can walk

it.

The focus has always been that.

it's a 10k race but they've added a few years ago a 5k so you want to come out right and the other thing is come out and walk it

yeah

you know bring the family walk it it's it's just a great it's you know yeah it's cool to see the start and then we're there at the finish so it's going let's see it's going south to start and then come in north the last block and a half

And then people are still starting at that point.

Yeah, I know.

Right.

They're in heats, right?

Or seven

heats or something?

Yeah.

Well, it goes, they're probably, they're releasing 45 minutes later.

Right.

And

these people that are done.

So, but it's just, and they got bands, Big Mouth is playing right at the end.

And then there's stuff over in the park.

So come out, enjoy it.

I was just going to say that it's much more than a run.

I mean, first of all,

Green Bay's there.

I mean, it's about

10, 11, 12,000 people.

You get a lot of people for that

thing.

Yeah.

At one point we were at 20,000.

That's a lot of people.

We tipped off at 20,000.

I want to say back in 19.

But we, yeah, definitely a great race.

And then the after party is

fun.

And it's great.

It's great way to start the summer.

Yeah.

A lot of kids just getting done with summer school.

We do a lot of summer.

A lot of students getting ready for the summer.

And it's a great way to start summer.

We'll show what a thought of this.

I know we're talking about the Belling today, but I got a great picture I'm going to show you from yesteryear in the Belling.

But that is just a great family event.

And that's what people should do, I think.

I mean, there's a lot of races this summer.

But this is one, bring the whole family.

Yeah.

And it's one of the kickoffs that we have for a running series.

They've got.

there's plenty of other races all in Northeast Wisconsin.

They're not all associated with our healthcare, our hospital system.

Right, so easy to register, but what, website for this?

You have your owners that just

all underbellen?

Yeah, bellen runs, but if you, I mean, if you went to the bellen health website, you'd be able to get there, but it's a great opportunity and it has their locations and practice times if you want to do the training runs.

It talks about, there's a dinner, spaghetti dinner the night before, there's festivities, there's...

There's a lot of fun.

Yeah, that's spaghetti dinner.

I mean, it's

exactly it's carbs.

It's all right.

Yeah, I mean, but it's just it's nice to get out check out, you know, they've got plenty of Tents and stuff out there.

There's kids games, you know, there's a you know, you know, you have depending on the age of your kid Are you gonna run up?

You know a block or two blocks are gonna run four blocks, you know, you know Is it a half a mile?

You can walk take your kids out 3.1 do the five five mile loop on Saturday

morning.

Not bad

I'm curious, 49 years in, half century.

Have the winning times changed dramatically in those 49 years?

I would say yes.

When you look at the winning times, I think also what sometimes affects it, and it's give and take on this, is it an Olympic year or not?

So it affects some of these, we've brought in some of these big time runners, but it all depends on

is an Olympic year and do they need to go to trials for their country?

So, you know, so great example with this is we were always the second Saturday of June.

And then a lot of them will go to Peachtree, which is in Atlanta, and that's like 50,000 people on the 4th of July.

Wow.

So they're all, it's, you know, this for us, this is used to be one of the biggest races and it still is one of the biggest races in our region for these.

top notch runners it's one of many so you have to kind of it's when that race that weekend is hitting um some will come in saying you know hey i had a hamstring injury last fall this is my first big race coming back into it so you have to play they have to play into it of how fast can they go how can't how fast can't they go um what are they doing a lot of these guys and gals will do so much training before and after it's not just running for them to 10k

They're warming up.

They're running, you know, a mile or two down.

They're doing a cool down later on and they'll go for a run in the afternoon before they fly out.

All right.

Mark Houston with Amplify Health by Bell & Sports Medicine.

We're talking about the Bell & Run that's coming up.

A couple things.

Darrell, that's a really good question.

But I think the other thing that you kind of danced around a little bit, used to have a lot of just locals that would win.

But then you guys started bringing in those Kenyans and stuff and they

got

to pick up the pace a little bit.

I mean, I don't know.

the cell come, they guys always win that.

It's just where they live, how they train, they maybe train all year and I don't know, but I think that helped the times a little bit.

Yeah, we definitely had, I mean, our elite runners, I mean, some of them come from Germany, Kenya.

Some are right here in the US that are up and coming runners.

I haven't seen the list of elite runners yet.

Sometimes you're still trying to finalize it, but some great runners.

I think it's also, what's great about the elite runners

It's how they engage with their community.

Again, they're going to sign autographs.

They're going to talk to your kids.

They're going to come out and do programs before the race.

It's not just the race.

That's what some people don't realize.

It's sometimes just getting a business tie to us saying, geez, we have 500 of our runners engaged in the race today.

So that's what's fun.

Or 500 runners that work for a company, but now they're bringing their families.

So it's 800.

with their kids and their spouses.

So it's just a great way to kick off the summer.

And you know, even if you walk it, if you can't run it, fine, walk it.

But it's a good spectator sport too.

I mean, they line the streets for that.

Yeah, it's very packed and people love coming out, just hanging out.

around the park, hanging out that Saturday.

So a lot of people will say, hey, after the race, come back

to Meyer House, we're having a party.

What a thrill to be able to say I was in a race with an Olympic champion or an

Olympic competitor.

I've told Mark this story, but I told you this, Darrell.

So I ran the...

I've run the bell, you know, a lot of times, but the Silicon had the marathon and I was running it and, you know, the half marathon and the media's like, oh, what time are you gonna get?

And I trained for that.

You gotta train for these runs.

And this 10K, it depends where you are, but I think you should train no matter what.

But so that when I went to all the training runs on Saturday with my daughter and they're like, you know, where do you wanna be?

And they started everybody at the same time.

And I said, my only goal is to beat the Kenyan.

And I did, but I could hear the sirens behind me, but

he

ran

a whole marathon.

I ran a half marathon, and he was

right on my tail.

But I think I was 211 or something, 212, and he came in at 213, 214.

But anyway.

You did train.

I did.

I did.

I did train.

You

guys do a great job with training.

And I think that's, if you're really going to try to push it, you really need to do the training runs.

And you're behind in two weeks if you're in shape.

You know your body, you know

what you can do and can't do.

Now, again though, coming out to walk or run a 3.1, which is a 5K, half of the distance, you could do that.

A lot of people

can come out and

engage.

So that's one opportunity.

I think the other thing I always call out is just your food and your prep.

They do have the spaghetti dinner.

I will tell you, these are elite runners that come in.

You'd be shocked that probably beforehand they're big on rice, water, no ice,

in chicken.

Why no ice?

You know, a lot of it's the Kenyans.

They've just never been raised with ice.

They'll have water that's just lukewarm and they're okay with that.

Now, I'll tell you afterwards, I've been with them and they'll order up ribs and you better count

your fingers

because those guys after the race, I've seen them not say many words and clean a half rack of ribs in 10

minutes.

That's

awesome.

Right?

Let's

celebrate.

Yeah, it is.

So it's one

of those... I've seen Mino do the same thing, not after a race.

For breakfast, right?

It's one of those things, though,

that I think that... I think so many times people think, oh, they're an elite runner and they're on a strict schedule.

I think they are.

But post-race, they do kick back.

They should.

And then it kind of goes back of, where is that next race?

Now, if they had a competitive race maybe two or three weeks later, maybe they wouldn't, but...

It's just a great for us.

It's a local event 49 years.

Love to see people.

It's

gonna be great and like I think that's cool It is a family event and sometimes a family tradition, you know the the family runs it every year And I think that's very cool

and and some of them that's all they did is they just did the one bell and run Some people decide the night before I'm gonna do the bell and run.

Yeah, but yeah, it's just a great opportunity

some work for you is this

24 hours a day right up until the time the race is over, or is this at a point now after 49 years, do you have this down and you're just looking for everything to go smoothly?

That's a great question.

As an athletic trainer, I kind of help with the elite runners.

It's pretty easy for me.

I've been 28 years, I've been doing the same position.

I will tell you the crew of Randy Van Stratten, Linda Maxwell, the Roland Schmidt Setup Medical, they have improved it every year.

I will say they run it.

so smooth, but they put it a lot of time into it that most people don't realize.

I'm just going to go there and get the picture with that foil around me, pour

a bottle of water over my head.

That's

awesome.

Mark, stick around.

I want to talk about some other things Bellin's working on.

We're going to be right back.

This is Darrell Burnett and Jim Schmidt, mine or the

mayor.

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All right.

We are back with Mark Houston, who is the sports.

Sports.

What's your title again?

Empathy Sports director.

No.

Whatever.

Yeah.

Great, great guy.

Great guy.

Great guy.

24 years.

Yes.

And you

love, love living up here, working for Bell and Health.

And you do a lot.

on the high school football fields, making sure that those kids don't get injured.

I wanna read this text and I wanna talk about people are starting to get out more, run a little bit more jog around.

We're just sitting on the window here.

You see people jogging by.

We're gonna talk about what we need to do so we don't get injured and take the month off.

But somebody wrote in here that I did the bell and run two years, two years in a row back in 2010 and 2011.

I improved my time by 54 seconds.

That's good.

But both years,

The mom's pushing strollers were passing me around Green Isle Park.

That was my cue to retire.

Well, yeah, okay,

Todd.

I'm glad Todd didn't say it when he was going down

the hill.

Are we just letting those kids just go for a ride or what down the hill?

But

yeah, the mothers weren't holding onto the strollers.

But I will say that in terms of getting past and all that, you guys do a good job of putting

People in their kind of times in the heat, you know, you're gonna run a six minute seven eight minute mile

Yeah, they have staged areas and stuff and and it's yeah run over.

Yeah, I mean after you if you really understand how a race can start Some people are pretty fast at that beginning so yeah, and I don't want to really say it's funneled it's it's on you have two lanes of a street,

right,

but You want to be with people who are?

You don't wanna have to be dodging in and out.

So it's just one of those things of getting to the people where you're running a eight minute mile instead of six minute mile.

There's a big difference.

They don't want you in front of them either.

Correct,

correct.

It's the same thing of why they don't want the strollers all up front.

Exactly.

There's always that challenge of, hey, can I bring strollers?

Can I bring a dog?

But there's a safety side of things of,

where are people positioned?

But after 49 years, you guys kind of got that down.

Yeah.

You guys run

great.

It's very

smooth.

Again, another person I forgot is Sean Ryan.

Sean Ryan helps, does a lot of races.

I think there are people that are not only these people will give, will take the credit.

They don't speak highly of themselves.

They just kind of sit behind everyone.

But there is a core group of the bell and run that will come back and say, hey,

We're ready.

We're ready to go from porta-potties to bananas at the end and I will and in it, but they it's so coordinated effort and I think the other thing is you see the bell and run that morning come back at 2 p.m.

Drive

that

right now You never know you never know Randy van Stratten gets in a golf cart and used to drive the whole course because I've done it with them years ago You pick up every cup every piece of trash you leave it cleaner than you let them know when it was there.

Hey, I

A few minutes,

you're the sports guy at Bellin.

People are getting out running.

A couple words of advice.

I think no matter what, stay hydrated days before the race.

I mean, you have to get water in your body.

Some people say, do I need that spaghetti dinner?

I'm not gonna say you have to have a spaghetti dinner.

You have to know what your body is going to accept.

Don't change your diet the night before the race.

because someone says, oh, you needed to have this.

Whatever you've been training on, stick to that plan.

Right, before we run out of time, I want you to talk about people, I'm not, we'll put the race aside.

People are just gonna get out now more.

I mean, it's summer, it's gonna be, what, 75 today, 80 tomorrow?

And I wanna get out, I wanna do some biking, I wanna do some jogging.

Garden work.

Garden work, you gotta do some garden work.

Yeah, I mean,

but

it's,

I mean, we just talked about, you know, heat of wellness, heat awareness.

Yeah, right, what's today gonna be?

75, you know, maybe 78.

Not a bad day, it's overcast.

I believe on Monday though, like 85, 89.

Yep.

Again, if you're saying, hey, I'm gonna do this on Monday, you gotta make sure you're hydrating yourself beforehand.

How much do you need to hydrate?

And it's tough because you know what, a lot of times, if you do an activity, weigh yourself and then weigh it after, and if you lose, let's say, five pounds, you really need to say, I need to drink 10.

eight to 10 ounces of water throughout the day to replenish what you needed.

You also may need your electrolytes.

So there's a lot of, there's a lot of different liquids you can put.

We've talked about this.

It's the same thing with eating.

You know, make sure you're, you know, you're going to run the bow and run.

You don't need to have a huge breakfast before you run.

but have something in your stomach.

And let's remind people to stretch before.

Everybody stretches after, because that's what we did when we were in school.

Just

stretch after, but, right?

I don't know about gardening if you stretch before, but you don't want to, right?

I mean, that's a big part of

working out.

Last week when I was putting in a deck, my wife said, one, sunscreen, two, make sure you're ready for it, because trust me, I just turned 51 years old yesterday and my body

was feeling it.

Oh, happy birthday.

Thank you.

But it was, I mean, my wife's just saying,

And she was gone and she was worried.

Sunscreen, making sure you're taking care of yourself.

And the other thing she reminded, there's food in the fridge.

She knows that I don't stop and eat sometimes.

You have to.

You have to put that energy back in.

So it's just being smart.

So Mino's off today.

Normally he would sing Happy Birthday to you, right?

So Jim, do you want to take a step in?

Yeah.

I will

defer to the long-standing host of this

show.

And he'll be back on Monday, on Wednesday, Thursday.

Anyway,

you brought up something earlier, though, that I think runs counter to what most people think.

And you say, eat something before you go out and run.

That's great advice.

Yeah.

You got to have that energy.

That's in the tank.

Mark, thanks for all you're doing.

We'll talk more next week when you're in here.

Still time to participate in the bell and just go to the website you can

walk it you can

write go heat seven eight if you're nine ten minute mile There you

go.

Still cool.

All right.

Thanks for coming in all right mark

you sinned

with with up flip by health fell in sports medicine This is Daryl in the mayor will be right

back

From local stories to local voices, we're shining a spotlight on what matters right here in northeast Wisconsin.

It's more than just talk.

It's about connecting with the community.

This is Mino and the Mayor.

Now here's John Mino and Jim Schmidt.

All

right, welcome back everybody with Daryl Burnett and Jim Schmidt.

Johnny's out for a couple days.

So America's past time, right?

We, everybody loves baseball and right here in

Green Bay in Joanne's Park, which you were just telling me, Ken is 96 years old, which is terrific.

That's where you guys play.

We have Ken Leo and James.

Is it Bornek?

Bornek.

Bornek, I got that right.

All right.

From the Green Bay Blue Ribbons.

And yeah, you're throwing out that first pitch pretty soon.

So how are things going, Ken?

Yeah, really good.

Last night, we had our media scrimmage night, intra squad scrimmage with the guys.

Red, blue.

I believe blue came out.

Victoria's blue one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

James is on the red team.

Sorry about that.

Oh, man.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah.

So last night was good kickoff.

We had a lot of good, uh, good turnout with fans and that type of thing.

So I was excited to see that, uh, excited to see the players, obviously, and that, uh, all that going on.

Uh, but opening night next, uh, next Wednesday night against Manitowoc, 730 at Joannis.

Terrific.

That's going to be fun.

Um, and

we got.

Go ahead.

Oh, he's just going to say, you know, what I love about this kind of baseball is.

It's pure baseball.

You know, the average fan is going to look and go, oh, this guy's got a big contract, whatever.

You're out there for the love of the game and you're out there to play the game at the highest level you can possibly do.

And I admire that a lot because baseball was my favorite sport growing up.

And I have to say of all the sports, I miss baseball the most, just the camaraderie and all the intricacies that go into the game.

You know, you're prepped before the game.

You have a great game.

It's wonderful.

You have a bad game.

You can't wait to get out there again tomorrow and do it again.

So congratulations on what?

Almost a century run here.

Yeah, almost a

century at Joannies.

It's a great ballpark to be in every night.

It's got a lot of stories to tell.

And it's good to have some of those older fans come out and tell those stories and talk about what Joannies was to them, whether it was Babe Ruth League or even the Blue Ribbons.

So

those of you who watching on video, it's no, it would be hard to guess who the athlete is.

But James,

four years at Marion,

you

played ball and now you are, what position you play here on Blue Ribbon?

I play first base here and I played it in college as well.

All right.

And tell me a little bit about your college career.

Was it?

Puff good.

Yeah, I mean you

could pick basketball too, right?

I tried to pick up basketball back in high school on that didn't work out too good My height was about the only thing I had when I came to the court, but um see we can't

even

start with that Yeah, so yeah, I came in as a freshman when I went to Mary and I came in as a third baseman then I ended up having some shoulder problems and eventually

Once I realized I was a decent, decent enough hitter, they moved me over to first.

They wanted me to still stay in the lineup, but I couldn't make the throw across the infield anymore.

Moved me to first base.

Then I played there in my sophomore, junior and senior year, then eventually picked up first base for the ribbons.

But yeah.

How does

that work?

How does someone at Marion or Oshkosh get affiliated with you, Ken?

Yeah.

So we, we have a group of coaches who are very dedicated in the recruiting in the off season.

And that really starts from second week in August, all the way through right now.

I mean, we're still recruiting for potential arms later on for this summer.

But yeah, we, we look for those folks.

We, we know James Bornek from his days at Bayport and we really seek out those green bag guys, right?

We want that local talent and there's plenty to be out to be had out there.

Good for

the fan

base too.

Or exactly, right.

Kendi,

do you have any need for an aging second baseman?

Define aging.

You're looking at him.

Got it, got it.

Maybe.

You know, it's so amazing.

And Jim, that was a great question because the game itself has changed so much.

Now, pitchers are grown where they're throwing as hard as they can for as long as they can.

They're not pacing themselves as a hitter.

That must make it extremely difficult for you, James.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you say, obviously, I mean, I've been playing baseball for a while.

So I've faced a lot of different pitchers, but now with the way they're trying to get them to throw is, is just like you simply, like you said, throw it as hard as you can.

So when, when you walk up to the plate and you got a pitcher who's really just trying to throw it hard, it's almost harder as a hitter because he's throwing the ball all over the place.

He's not really, you know, in one specific part of the strike zone.

So it makes it a little more difficult because you know this guy's just going to go up there and throw it as hard as you can and you have no idea where the pitch is going to be and makes it harder to hit.

So this

is your first year with the Blue Ribbons?

This is

my fourth.

Well, so we just got a text in here from Owen who said, hey, the Blue Ribbons aren't they the Wisconsin State League

2024 champions?

We're the new bowl 2024 champions.

We just won it last summer.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

Congrats to you guys.

That was exciting.

Congratulations.

Did you have a dry

spell before that?

We did.

Yeah, we were dry for about 10, 12 years.

Right.

That

must be awesome to

win then.

And that just goes back to the coaches, the players like James, dedicating themselves to the program.

And we were super excited to pull that out and make it work.

So families

that want to come to that, you're still

Priced right you're not over a hundred dollars like

no not over a hundred dollars Like the hot dogs aren't nine dollars right right adults three dollars to get in That's awesome.

That's awesome.

Say that again three dollars adults three dollars right.

Yeah Wow, you know entertainment.

That's a good environment to exactly right and we we try to and my wife who runs the concessions both of us try to Gear family of four we're gonna feed you and get you into a game for 20 bucks.

That's what we want to do

Yeah, that I mean come on

And like you said, that's a cool stadium, great sight lines, and just a really fun environment.

I like that place.

Yeah, it's a classic baseball, classic baseball.

Yeah,

that's cool.

Did you play as well?

I did, yeah, all the way through junior college.

And then Stop got married, had kids, and then here I am running a team.

So you're the president?

Yeah.

Wow.

You see everything, right?

They all report to you, the

recruiter guys, the possessions.

Yeah, they all filter up to me in some way.

I kind of let them have free reign as long as things don't get out of

hand.

Yeah, good manager.

Yeah, right.

Just let them do their thing.

City treating you all right?

I think they're doing pretty good.

Yeah, doing really good.

Yeah, doing really good.

We've got a couple of projects at Joannis right now that I think are in the hopper that I think hopefully knock on wood will go through committee and that type of thing.

But yeah.

Yeah, you want to preserve those old.

I'm

a history buff, you know

exactly

right

now 96 years and four years celebrating their hundredth year.

That's cool Coming soon to that.

Yeah, there's so many leagues out there James What is the next step for you and for that matter your teammates?

Well, you see so we all obviously like we all like playing for the ribbons But when you're younger, you know, you're always trying to keep progressing and I want to play baseball as long as I can so when you're Younger and still going through college.

The next step would be the Northwoods league That's where you play like they're

the wisconsin rapids rafters dot spiders green bay rockers right over here that would be the next summer step up but for me since i'm done with college now i have to look towards like independently which those guys actually start making a little bit of money when they're playing and it's like a hundred two hundred bucks a week but

If I'm getting paid like 200 bucks a week to still play baseball, that that's more than enough for me.

You know, I like I said, I want to play as long as I can.

So whatever, whatever details that is.

And Jim, that's the purity of the game right there.

We're just talking about doing what you love.

Yeah.

And some people don't.

And like, you're not doing it for the money, but it's OK when you make money.

Right.

Right.

I love that philosophy.

So that's cool.

Well, you say man, your team, how many people will advance or if they want to do that?

Is that

Does that

happen?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It happens.

Um, we, over the last couple of summers, um, we've had a lot of guys promoted up to the Northwoods league.

Um, unfortunately as a hitter, you can't go up after you graduate from college as a pitcher.

You can for one more summer.

So it's a little different because that league will pretty much every baseball team on the planet's always looking for more pitching.

It's, it's just that the baseball thing, but we've had a lot of guys, including myself, get bumped up to the Northwoods for like second half of the summer contracts or.

the last like two weeks.

I mean, I don't even have the number.

It's been a good amount.

Yeah.

Since I've been on the board for the last four years, we've had at least 20 guys go up to the Northwoods.

And we've actually had a couple guys scouted by pro scouts.

That

speaks to the quality of the kind of baseballs being played here.

Right here.

Yeah.

And just to remind our listeners that joining is which is great parking, easy to get to.

You have 17 home games.

17 home dates.

Yeah.

So.

Think about that, Darryl.

You can go to every game for $51.

You

can't go anywhere else for that.

You can't go to a basketball game.

Should we go to a basketball game?

Our season pass, $30.

Oh, the season?

Wow.

We have a season pass for $30.

Otherwise, yeah, you're right, $51.

That's incredible.

And what a fun thing to do.

And just to do something a little bit different, but be outside, right?

I mean, that's cool.

It could be a date night or it can just go with your buddies.

And you know, a lot of people that I

walk through or I talk to and walk through the stadium.

They're not, they're just talking baseball, right?

They're there to date night, casual, just conversations.

And that's what it's all about.

And it's

really important that families spend time together.

Exactly right.

And the affordability I think is important to a lot of people.

Yeah, that's very cool.

Do you have a liquor license there?

We do.

Oh, okay.

So

it is it is baseball.

Yeah, two dollars because we are the blue ribbons, right?

I know you're the pass that it over.

So we got PBRs in the can obviously for two dollars, right?

We have a every once in a while we have a strikeout batter during the game.

If he strikes out two for one PBRs.

So, dollar PBRs, that's pretty awesome.

I think it's interesting that the first question Jim comes up with is, you got to liquor

license.

There's

some

places that don't remember what a hassle was over GB.

Oh yeah, right, right, right.

I totally understand.

I

get what

you're talking about.

And I want to

clarify here, the strikeout promotion is the visiting team, right?

Yes, it is.

Oh, yeah.

I just want to be clear.

No, man, we're not going to.

I'm not going to throw that on James.

We're not going to throw that on James.

We don't need that.

And honestly, it wouldn't go very well.

He's a pretty good hitter.

So it wouldn't go well.

Got some power, I guess, too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I would classify myself as more of a power hitter over the last, well, this is my fourth summer over the last three summers.

I think I have 18 home runs for the team.

Right.

I'm in the leaderboard all-time leader, right?

Yeah, all time all time and a couple of things Wow, thanks for

bringing this

guy.

I mean, I walk

he'd look he'd look athletic.

I didn't know you're all time Wow, right?

Yeah, and I'm just the plan is to keep making that number higher So hopefully one day nobody

passes you get put a little bit of show when you get up to like point, you know

Sometimes sometimes if it's a no doubter I

Give it a little extra enthusiasm.

Oh, you know, when James hits it, it's pretty awesome to watch.

All right.

When you start the competition,

your league,

is there?

Yeah.

So our Nuba league that we won last year.

What does Nuba stand for?

I should know that.

Northeastern Wisconsin Baseball League.

So pretty straightforward.

And that league consists of Sheboygan, Appleton, Menasha, Greenville, us obviously, and Key Wascom.

And then we play in the Wisconsin State League.

And that consists also of Sheboygan, us.

We actually traveled down to Kenosha, Burlington and West Alice and play teams like that down there.

So yeah, it's, uh, it's competitive baseball.

It's probably some of the best baseball in all of Wisconsin.

So

anybody that you don't like,

that's like a little bit better.

Are they, are they, uh, I mean, we have our rivals in each league.

I think Sheboygan right now is our rival in both leagues, right?

Because we compete.

in the standings in both sides.

So I think Sheboygan right now is our rival.

I like that.

Are there any players who come through unconventional routes like they didn't go to college?

It wasn't their thing.

Who are now using this as an outlet for them?

Or are you basically the standard ball player you're going to see in this league?

Well, so the majority of our team is either high school players coming out.

people just getting done with high school transitioning to college.

And that's why it's a little more beneficial to have some guys like me who I just got done with college.

I can kind of show these younger guys the ropes, kind of show them how college baseball is going to be an introduced into that.

But we do occasionally get some guys who haven't or maybe they've been out of baseball for a year or two and they come out and they we have like a little tryout.

You can say for them.

And if if they end up, I guess, making it, they make it.

But I would say the majority of the team is either college ball players or

High school people, they just graduated.

Wonderful.

Can you guys stick around?

A few more questions on that.

Engaging the youth and, you

know, it's competitive.

And I want

to talk to you, James, especially about, did you play one sport?

Did you play four sports?

So

parents are always like, you know, they pick a lane.

I want my kid to be in the Hall of Fame, but doctors will tell you it's better you play all four.

And we'll talk about that.

And Ken Leal, who's the president, of course, of the Green Bay Blue Ribbons.

Darrell and the mayor will be right

back.

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Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,

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Bay Blue Ribbons and James Borek, who is the all-time home run hitter.

I think that's awesome.

I do.

A little bit of a chick magnet, too.

I

mean, whatever.

Hey, I wanted to ask you, though, James, because we have talked a lot of sports in this community.

And some parents stick to one sport.

My

kid gets really, really good.

Boys and girls, right?

Yeah.

And other ones, I just don't care how good they are.

I want them to.

be exposed to all of them.

But what was your track?

I want to know what you did, but I also want to know what your advice

is.

Yeah, so basically, well, what my parents had told me that from the age of one or two, I picked up a bat and just started swinging it.

So I pretty much grew up playing baseball my whole life.

That was about the only thing I did.

All the way up until freshman year at high school, I tried out for the basketball team when I got here and I didn't make it.

So I was like, all right, I'll just stick with baseball.

played baseball, my freshman sophomore and junior year of high school, and then just randomly decided to pick up bowling my senior year.

Um, I had a real close friend who was on the bowling team and he was pretty good.

So we'd always go, um, we'd always go to a bowling, bowling alley and play together.

And I was like, Hey, I kind of, kind of like doing this.

You know, it's kind of fun.

So I bold for Bayport senior year.

Then I got to Marion and just played baseball for four years.

So for the most part, just a baseball player.

I love golfing.

Um, but.

Can't hit the ball very straight

Jim isn't it interesting to see the pride in Ken's face You know when you see how a young man like this not only handles himself on the baseball field, but prepares himself for

not only a situation like this, but for life.

I mean, that has to be a great feeling for

you.