Rafters, Riverkings & More

By our great friends over at Quality Post Printing,

getting your words out here in Rapids.

You got your host, James J here at 304 on the clock,

on this 11th of December.

Gonna be joined by our favorite pitch hitter,

Seth Habhagger a little bit later,

Seth will join us to talk a little baseball,

and plenty more.

We also are looking forward to possibly being joined

by our head coach and GM of your Wisconsin Rapids,

Reverend King's Coach Paul Peckman,

gonna join us possibly a little bit later as well.

We'll see, but right now in studio,

we kick off our show with a great friend of ours

right now in with us.

We've got Tyler Miller and with us assistant general manager

of your Wisconsin Rapids, Refters.

Tyler, I'm a little off, I'm sorry.

I expected to do this interview,

possibly talking about the Otani signing with the Refters.

Are you disappointed that Otani did not sign

with the Refters?

Are you surprised?

Are you surprised at me from bringing this up?

Are you?

No, not at all.

I was actually gonna kick it off with this,

so you stole my kind of intro line.

Knowing that, when that news broke Saturday or Friday

or Saturday, yeah, no, it was disappointing

because we were in talks with his agent.

Right there, right there.

The private jet, people were seeing the flight tracker

come into Wisconsin Rapids

and wondering what the buzz was about.

But.

Yeah, thank you, Todd's head.

I believe the Dodgers, Toronto and Refters.

I'm pretty sure that was the order.

I think so.

No, I agree, I think so.

700 million.

That's insane.

That's just insane, but that's a whole other topic.

Thanks a lot for being here, man.

Appreciate the time.

And really, especially this time of year,

know how busy you guys are.

There is no off season, is there a Tyler?

No, not at all.

It's always funny when people come in

and they're like, oh, what have you guys been doing?

We're plugging away to make sure that the next season

is better than the last season

is kind of what I always tell people.

We're gonna get in the hot stove talk.

We're gonna talk about season tickets

and some of those things.

It does occur to me, though,

as we're talking about this,

that this is a key time for scouting.

This is a key time for a lot of that.

There's winter ball, there's other things going on right now.

Is that a big part of what the coaching staff

you guys in the front office are doing?

Kind of eyeballing a lot of this talent out there.

Yeah, no, of course, I'll be completely honest.

I leave it up to our field manager.

Once he sends a guy, I definitely do the YouTube videos

and look to see how he is

and always look up his numbers and stuff.

But yeah, I just, I called him last week

and we had a conversation

and he's got 25 to 30 guys signed already.

So we're more than halfway there.

He's actually kind of taking some time off now

to let the guys get some of those reps in

for once the spring comes

and baseball picks back up.

Fall balls obviously over.

So he has those numbers to go off of.

And so yeah, no, he's been all fall

kind of looking at the fall ball numbers

and recruiting and doing some of that.

Reach not to coaches and building the relationships

that he has and kind of now he'll kind of lay low

for a little bit.

And once spring ball starts back up,

he'll pick up his recruiting again.

Looking forward to that.

We always look forward to the updates

throughout the winter season

and everything seeing the signings and all that.

And we'll be certainly covering that

for our audience out there.

Looking forward to, of course,

another great season of Raptor baseball.

And for those of us that have been paying attention

to follow the Raptors, diehard followers of the Raptors,

I think a lot of people might think

this regular season starts in, you know,

sometime in and towards summer and everything,

when we opening, you know, the stadium opens up

and all of this, it's hot stove time.

Yeah, that's when the season really kicks off

for a lot of us diehard Raptor fans.

And we are very excited to have another hot stove

event coming up.

Yeah, no, James, it's very exciting,

especially for myself being a little selfish.

This is my first one that I'm able to help put on.

Being here for a couple of years,

this is something that since day one,

when I got in here, it was,

are we having a hot stove this year?

Nope, we're going to have to kind of hold off.

Are we going to have one next year?

So it's been a question we get asked all the time

by multiple fans, people that are involved in the community.

They love this event.

They like seeing the Raptors in the winter,

hearing about the Raptors in the winter,

lots of baseball fans in this area.

And so just kind of being able to talk about baseball

in the end of January is always exciting.

What would we be expecting at the hot stove event?

Yeah, no, so it'll kick off.

We'll have a nice kind of cocktail hour with a cash bar.

Some appetizers being served.

And then that'll kind of lead into our dinner.

The dinner is being provided by Kellner Cafe,

the new Cafe in Kellner.

We have a very close relationship with them,

followed by a program, which I'm super excited for.

Again, not only for our key note presenter,

but also we'll kick it off by hearing about local teams.

So we're inviting Ryan Hartman, assumptions head coach,

Bob Galetta, Lincoln's head coach is going to be there.

John from the Red Hawks, the Rapids Red Hawks,

he's most likely going to be there.

And then we have a representative

from the American Legion baseball.

So just getting the local baseball teams together

to talk about baseball, I want to hear what they're doing

just as much as our fans want to know what we're doing.

This is integral to the future of baseball.

You know, what's going on here with our rafters?

And I may sound dramatic coming from me a little bit here,

but it's the truth.

And it's not actually coming from me.

That's coming from Major League Baseball.

For over two decades, Major League Baseball's going around

to country and other countries, making sure,

does your town have a ballpark?

Okay, if not, we're going to build one.

We're going to make sure that the kids are going to be able

to play baseball at a young age, no matter where they are.

On a local level, teams like the rafters,

working with local high schools,

like you guys have done since the inception of the rafters,

and other Northwoods league teams as well

throughout the whole entire state.

Doing this, it's the future of baseball.

We love wins and losses.

We love championships.

This is what it's all about, is adding to communities,

making them better, making them better,

making them more positive,

and making the fear that the future of baseball is intact

that we're giving kids an opportunity to play,

have fun and enjoy this great sport.

No, that's, again, funny you say that,

because I was all morning, I've been diving in,

I'm doing a website audit,

so I'm actually the tab of about the Winterfield history

is being updated right now,

and man, I spent way too much time looking into the history.

And again, the common theme is about the Northwoods league teams,

is they were founded from teams

that had a baseball town in the past, right?

So again, we had these minor league teams here

that kind of performed here.

And so there has always been a need for baseball

in these communities that these Northwoods league teams are in.

And so we're just continuing the trend

from what minor league baseball used to be here,

and I would assume same thing as other teams.

So no, I empowering the youth, again,

giving them a platform to speak,

having them attend games and being able to, again,

look up to our guys that we have come play.

It's all kind of fits in the realm of, you know,

our saying of where the community comes together.

I really love the inclusion of the Red Hawks.

I think that's a really unique and cool thing to see.

I don't think you see that in every community I wish you did,

but I don't think you see it in every community.

Everybody loves baseball.

You've touched on that a couple of times.

We love our baseball in this area.

It only makes sense to work together to, you know,

reach across each and see how you can make this community

even more, shine even more when it comes to these things.

It's really cool.

And we've had a couple of the guy,

like the couple of the Red Hawks guys

have played in the Northwoods league

when it comes crunch time to, hey, we need some guys

on our roster.

We're gonna look at the Dairyland league

and look at the guys who are playing in those leagues.

So no, again, they had a star pitcher

that when played for Walson did great

in their run at the end of the season.

So no, I'm a huge supporter of them and what they do.

And there's no competition between us too.

We're kind of using our resources.

John, the guy that runs it over there

is an incredible guy and has a passion for baseball,

just like many of us.

So again, just kind of the common goal

of bringing people together to talk about baseball

is what the hot stove's about.

I remember when I was a kid, it could be so different.

It could be a little crabs and a barrel kind of thing.

It's so much better with it this way.

Everybody working together and trying to just,

not only does it help the community and all that,

but you should mention, it makes a better product

on the field.

Things can be won because of these things.

So it's just a smart decision all around.

Love the keynote speaker this year.

Great choice, great choice.

Tell them who it is.

Yeah, no, thank you.

We're excited to bring Dustin Woodcock back

to Wisconsin Rapids.

He's very excited about it.

When I kind of reached out, he had been here before

for one of these and was super excited to come back

and be the keynote presenter,

especially after I kind of mentioned how it's gone away

for a couple of years.

Everybody's memory of the past hot stoves are kind of gone

and wondering what's new.

So Woodcock was a four year rafter, crazy.

One of our only few, if not the only four year rafter,

have to go back and do some digging,

but was named the team MVP in 2016

when the rafters won the Northwoods League championship.

So it's a huge part of what the rafters are

and we're excited to have them back.

It's going to be great to have them back in town.

I can't imagine how great it's going to be for him.

As much as we're looking forward to seeing him,

I'm sure it's vice versa just as much.

He really enjoyed his time here.

He was on the air with us a bit

and had a great time, great guy, really nice guy.

But one of those people that you were like,

yeah, he's got big things ahead.

He's got some good stuff ahead.

Looking forward to this.

All of this going on and we want to make sure

that our diehard fans out there

that you guys are doing a very cool gesture

with this season ticket holders.

Yeah, no, from my understanding that looking at past flyers,

this is something new that we're implementing this year

is if you are a current, so upcoming 2024 season ticket holder

have renewed your package for next year,

this event's going to be complimentary to you guys.

So our diehard fans, those ones who have been there,

we wanted to make this a free event for them

to just again enjoy the meal, enjoy some good presentations.

I have a couple words that I'll be saying up there as well.

So no, just a very exciting and again,

our package holders, they're why we're here.

Package holders and sponsors are why we're here.

Baseball fans and the support from the community

are why we're here.

So we're trying to get back and sponsors

and season ticket holders are given free tickets

for the event.

It's a very smart idea.

It's very cool.

It's very, very cool.

And I don't know if that's been done before.

Either way, love that it's being going happening right now.

That's very cool.

We'll get into the details for the rest of the general public

in just a second, but they wanted to make sure

that just wrapping up the time with you there,

the Raptors Hopstov, it's also going to have some baskets

and you guys are going to have some bad raffles

and some of those things.

We love our raffles around here.

Yeah, no, I love the raffles.

And again, donated generously by some of our partners,

which is something we wanted to do.

We're not just going out and finding a random business

that we're not partners with.

We reached out to our partners.

So any time fitness is giving us a nice basket.

Different corporations are giving us baskets

that then we're going to raffle off during the event.

So no, it's going to be a nice Saturday night evening.

This is something too that we decided

because it usually was on a Tuesday or Thursday night.

We're kind of trying to take your weekends.

So we're trying to take your Saturday night from six to 10.

Promise it'll be fun and the food will be good.

So very fun night at the hotel meet.

This time of year, it can always use something

that gets us out of the house fun, not just shoveling.

Something that we can really enjoy and look forward to.

And I think warm because of the summer and baseball

and all of that, that's going to be so much fun, man.

It's going to be really, really cooking at the hot stove event.

Can we get over the details for the general public of the event?

Yeah, no, of course.

So today was our kind of release of it.

This was a great platform to help release that as well.

So right now up until December 22nd,

if you are not a package holder,

we're doing an early bird $5 ticket.

So that for $5, you're going to get all those presentations,

a full dinner buffet with some appetizers as well.

And then after that, it's going to be

from January 4th to the 20th.

Those will be $10 tickets for general public.

And then we want you to get there.

We want to know how many people are going to come.

We know how this community is with the at-the-door.

So we are going to offer tickets at the door

if space is available, but those will be $20.

So get your plans early, again, market on your calendar.

We'd love to have you there.

This event can only hold 300 people.

So we anticipate it being a sellout.

And so we want to get on the list early.

Yeah, yeah, get on there right away today

if you can.

Make sure to get that reserved, get that ticket RSVP

for this awesome event, hot stove event

with our rafters over at the hotel meet.

One of the best places you can have in a event like this.

So that is one thing that's consistent with the hot stove

event having at the hotel meet.

Yep, it's perfect place.

Every year, every year gets put in the contract.

We do a nice trade-out agreement with them

for some hotel rooms and different events.

And this is one of them.

They love hosting it.

We love having it there.

So no great partnership with the hotel meet.

I am glad you mentioned that as we are wrapping up Tyler,

because you guys, one of the things we've always appreciated

if our rafters from day one, you guys were in town,

have worked with the community,

sponsored events with the community.

And we've seen a lot of businesses sponsor with you guys

as well.

Always like to encourage our team out there

to buy local support local.

And that encourages the rafters support us.

Let's support them.

Season tickets are on sale right now.

Let us make sure that we have home field advantage

all season long.

Every single home game we've got is packed.

Get those season tickets right now

in northwoodsleague.com.

Tyler, really appreciate you.

Look forward to the event.

I think we'll maybe talk right before the event

or certainly talk after and hear how it went and everything.

And I plan on being there.

So look forward to seeing you in there.

Thanks again for joining us.

Yeah, no, you're welcome, James.

Again, just thanks for this opportunity.

And I'll definitely reserve your spot.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, brother.

Tyler Miller, assistant GM with here

was constant rafters.

We're rafters.

We're going to take a quick break.

We'll come back, Seth and I are going to talk

a little sports with you right here at WFHRs.

Playmakers proudly brought you by Quality Plus Printing.

Welcome back, everybody, to WFHRs Playmakers.

Got your host, James.

Jay, I am joined by our favorite pitch hitter.

Mr. Seth Habhagger.

Seth, how's it going?

Everything's going well.

Good afternoon, everyone.

We are trying something out here today with Seth

where we're using the cleaner feed.

And we see a shout out to Clean Feed,

our friends over there helping us out with this.

Melissa joins us, you know, pretty twice a week,

I would say on Clean Feed.

We have had some other guests join us on this.

But you and I have gotten the chance to do this before.

And it's usually, it's even a role reversal

where I'm usually out in the field

and you're on the board here a little different.

But we had to do this.

I could not do this show today without you, Seth.

I had to have you on this show in particular

as we get done talking rafter baseball.

And again, a big shout out to Tyler Miller,

assistant GM with here was constant rafters.

Get your tickets for a hot stove event.

Get your season tickets at northwoodsleg.com.

Seth, it happened.

Show Hayo Johnny signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers,

not a rafters, little disappointed.

Little disappointed enough.

I know, come on, they kind of got it done a little bit better.

It's a little bit.

I don't know what they offered.

Guessing it wasn't 700 mil.

Guessing, whoo, you know, I had some.

Can we start to go fund me for that?

Yeah, right, right.

I had somebody, like a student of mine, this came up

and she doesn't know anything about sports.

Barely knows what baseball is.

And she said under a breath, how can you justify that?

And it got me thinking, and I was looking forward

to starting here with you, Seth,

because if you're the Los Angeles Dodgers,

you've been building for this for years,

you got what you wanted.

It's like we are kids again.

The Yankees want soda, they get soda.

Dodgers want, you know, Otani, they get Otani.

These things happen.

I believe that 700 million actually could end up,

I'm not saying it's gonna be a deal,

but I don't think the Dodgers could come out of this

not in the black.

When you consider,

Otani was a star with the Angels.

And no matter where he played in America,

he had somebody in the stands with his jersey on.

He had people that were fans of the spread out,

Otani fans, and not even necessarily fans

of any sort particular team.

And then you add, oh boy,

there's this other market out there of his

around the world.

What is that other market, Seth?

I can't think of it.

Oh, Japan, that's right.

That's right.

Oh, yeah.

No, Japan, you're right.

But you know, you're right too.

We're both right.

The whole world loves this guy.

Jersey sales, new jerseys.

You can't get the angel jersey.

You gotta get the Dodger jersey.

People don't want to see him from Japan,

from other countries.

He's not just big with Japan,

but big and pretty much every Asian market.

It's the biggest deal in American professional sports,

certainly.

And I think you can make the argument

that they both sides got a deal on this.

You know, it's interesting.

And yeah, if you look at the price tag, 700 million,

10 years, yeah, there's been some deals

that have been for more years.

But for total dollar amount, man, this is number one.

And you said something just there

that made me think about, what are the Dodgers getting

other than just, you know, one of the best players

in baseball right now, possibly of all time.

And they're getting a marquee player.

Okay, so they've got good players.

They got Mookie Betts, they got Freddie Freeman,

great players, great hitters.

But they don't have the name that Shohei Otoni has.

Right.

And it's gonna just draw that many more people to the park.

And you know, the Dodgers already do great with attendance.

It's gonna be a sellout every night.

Where the God is going to be a sellout.

It's insane to think a team like that could get more popular.

I know.

That's incredible.

It really is.

I got a couple of fun stats for us regarding this.

And phone lines are open, 424, 2,600.

Feel free to call up and join the conversation.

We will have GM and head coach of your Wisconsin Rapids,

Rivercans, Coach Paul Beckman joining us at 330

for the fourth period.

Looking forward to that.

So the Dodgers will be the fifth team to begin a season

with three players who each finished top three in the MVP

voting in the previous season.

The Yankees did this in 04, the 67 Oreos,

the 60 white socks in the 42 Dodgers.

Second time Dodgers have done this.

Wow.

The Yankees did this in 04 with Alex Rodriguez,

Jorge Posada and Gary Sheffield.

The old Baltimore 67 Baltimore team.

Listen to these names, Seth.

Frank Robertson, Brooks Robertson, Boug Powell.

Just to say those names felt good.

Yeah.

With the white socks, of course,

Nelly Fox, Luis Apparacio and Earl Wynn.

And with Brooklyn, I'm sorry, it was Brooklyn, the Dodgers,

that time.

Of course, yeah.

Back to the 40s, yeah.

Dolph Camille, Pete Reiser, and Whitlow Wyatt.

We all remember them.

It's an incredible stat.

It is.

The previous biggest record, of course,

was there in judges 360.

Although there is talk that the Julio Rodriguez,

when if he hits all of his incentives,

his could be just a hair under his largest this one,

certainly is.

Yeah, yeah.

Man, it's something else.

And I was loving seeing all the social media

with people from other sports, like Patrick,

but home is commenting on it and all these kind of things.

This is how big this guy is.

He transcends baseball now.

And especially because of the biggest contract ever,

we were looking this morning, before we started the morning

show, we were looking at how many articles on MLB.com were

about Tony.

It's like three quarters were about him

or had some attachment to this deal.

And what not, what happens with all the other teams

that we're going for, I mean, Toronto and San Francisco

and all these things.

Wow, I mean, this is what the writers have been waiting for.

Finally, we had to write about all this,

this Otani stuff that we wanted to get out there.

I know you're not a huge social media guy,

but I couldn't help myself.

I had to go to Twitter and see what was all the talk,

what was all the discussion and everything.

And it was hilarious that the number one thing trending

was no Otani.

And it was just, it was a bunch of Toronto fans

just like getting bent out of shape and like,

well, I guess that's the season.

Like it thinks like that, like they just got into the last minute

to kind of even get in on this.

And they got a great team.

They got a great team.

Like, I can't think of anybody necessarily

that could beat themselves up on this,

especially once we have the, we know how this goes.

We're going to take a call real quick, good afternoon,

you're on playmakers.

It's finally a pro athlete.

You finally call it to be on salary life.

I mean, I was told bad about being such a, you know,

high price guy here.

It's got to be lonely up there.

Yeah, it can't be easy making that seven,

you know, seven, whatever amount of zeros that is,

because I'm not good at math.

Yeah.

You know, I was just going to say, you know,

WFHR is going to have to, you know,

step it up here a little bit there.

A little bit, a little bit.

I actually, you know, texted this, when this news broke,

I texted this to our owner, Sage.

He sent back a laughing emoji.

I don't feel like this is going to,

I don't think much is going to happen from that.

I'm pretty sure.

But what did you, I'm loving hearing people's first reactions

when they heard this news, because it wasn't

as if he signed with the Tampa Bay, you know,

a race or something like that.

It wasn't shocking the team he signed with.

I don't even think the price tag was shocking,

but it was still shocking.

It was still, it was still very like,

whoa, just boom, it wouldn't happen.

It's me and I'm, you know, it's been a point

where I think Major League Baseball is starting to get bad.

And I think they need to, I mean,

I really think in order for us,

one more thing, I know that, you know,

they showed the numbers, you know,

with Baltimore, Milwaukee making a play,

all these things making a play awesome,

no budget to do it.

But in a long run, there's no way,

a team like the Brewer has heard, you know,

some of these small markets can compete.

And they're never going to get the guy, you know,

seems like, you know, players like that there,

they help their revenue.

I mean, I know they do the revenue sharing within the league,

but I mean, it's still not enough to help these smaller markets

than, I don't know.

I mean, and as cool as for the guy to get it,

you know, and, you know, he's going to be making 70 million

or whatever it is this year being a DH.

So he's not going to be a picture.

I mean, he's, I mean, he won't be able to throw it all

this year.

I mean, he's going to be a DH.

Well, they're going to, I'm sure you're yet.

It's a lot of money in 04.

If you're looking at it in 04,

I think the Dodgers, especially with a 10 year deal,

I'm looking at this in 04, 05, 06, 07, and so on.

And I want to, man, especially with rooting for the underdog

and small market teams, that's my jam.

That I love talking about that.

And I would normally agree with you,

and I don't disagree with you,

but I will say that we spent all the playoffs,

leading up to the playoffs in the playoffs,

talking about how the Mets, Yankees, and Padres

couldn't make a run after spending all that money.

That the Angels had Otani and Trout

and couldn't make anything happen.

And if I'm a small market team, and I know,

I know what it means to have a face of your franchise,

to have stars and everything.

But I'm seeing this stuff happening,

and I get money from that.

All these teams have to share revenue and everything.

So for one, I'll take that money.

And two, I've got proof going back to the Oakland A's

and other teams that I can make a playoff run.

I don't know if I can win a World Series.

That's where I think the buck stops.

That's where I think your discussion comes in more, sir.

It is a lot of that, but boy, we just spent all the playoffs

talking about putting, laughing at the Mets

and the Padres, spending all that money,

and not doing anything.

The Dodgers, I don't think anybody believe the Dodgers

were going to actually do anything in the playoffs,

even though they got in.

And even they turned it to be a bit of a joke.

Now, the Rangers won, and they spent a buttload of money.

So it's hard to argue what you're saying,

but I do think that it's one of those things

where it's kind of back and forth.

Well, yeah, but it'd be out of the other hand or two.

I mean, if we, I say, for instance,

we got a little tiny into Milwaukee,

the amount of money that he regenerates

through ticket sales, jersey sales, things like that,

that money could help a small market team.

That's where I'm coming at, isn't it?

Yeah, I'm at it, isn't it?

Where money like that could help a small market team,

where they don't have to maybe look at the state of Wisconsin

and say, could you help us all keep us here in Wisconsin?

You know, things like that, they can, you know,

don't have to worry about that.

And I don't know.

I mean, I guess it's a guy, if I can get it,

I mean, all those, you know, go get it.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I just put that kind of money into a player.

I mean, I mean, we were seeing it with Christian Yellow.

It's like a amount of money they get to him.

And let me, granted it to you, he had a pretty good year,

but it's ever since that injury,

it just hasn't been the same.

You noticed when I was talking about the Dodgers

making their money back,

I never brought up a world series.

I didn't bring up his batting average or home runs

or anything like that because exactly what you're saying

there, man, whether it's Albert who pull-holes

signing with the angels, avoid the angels,

set that team up, whether it's,

they catch a break.

It's just really good.

It's that deal in him, like just being a shell of himself

for years, or it is the Carlos Rendon deal with the angels.

Or, you know, the Padre situation,

the med situation, et cetera, et cetera.

We've got plenty of examples of that,

but with this deal, that star of Otani isn't going anywhere.

I'm not saying that he couldn't get bigger

and I'm not saying his star can't dwindle,

but across the world, those Jersey sales

are gonna stay strong.

You're gonna be able to make your buck back on that

and as far as an investment goes.

If I'm that ownership team, boy,

that's like, you want me to sign what?

A $700 million contract?

Get out of here.

I'd sign that in.

No, I don't care who it is.

I don't care if it's the reincarnation

of Mickey Mantle, I'd sign that in.

Oh, wait, wait, wait, he could sell jerseys

in every single Asian country.

You're telling me I can make jerseys

in Japan, China, everywhere.

Like, oh, I'm listening.

I'm listening all of the sudden.

And we haven't even gotten into, you know,

if Winnie's gonna pitch next, you know?

I completely agree with you on the field stuff,

but I think off the field, this is a win,

this is a win-win situation if you're the Dodgers.

And you can't be the team of California

and not have this guy.

Yeah, we're gonna get into this maybe a little bit later, Seth,

and I about the years of planning the Dodgers put into this

that I thought was a little bit impressive.

We'll see, but we gotta take a quick break,

sir, always good to talk to you.

Thanks for the call, man.

All right, guys, have a great week.

You too, you too, we'll talk again real soon.

We'll come back in Coach Paul Peckman,

good to join us for the fourth period right here

on Playmakers, brought to you probably by quality

of post printing, getting your words out here

in Wisconsin Rapids.

Welcome back, everyone, to WFHR's Playmakers,

probably brought to you by quality of post printing,

getting your words out here in Wisconsin Rapids.

Have your host, James J, and Seth Havagger,

gonna be joining us a little bit later, our pitch hitter.

But I wanted to get into some hockey talk.

We have the fourth period beginning.

We have head coach, GM of your Wisconsin Rapids River Kings,

coach Paul Peckman joining us right now.

Coach, good to see you.

Good to see you.

Thanks for being here.

Before we get into hockey talk,

we get into the scores and the weekend and everything.

On the River Kings website,

there is a great thing up there about the fundraiser

that you guys are doing.

Trying to upgrade the locker room and that.

Can we start right there, coach?

Sure, sure.

We have, you know, next year,

we have a 10 year anniversary, right?

And our locker room situation is something

that needs to be upgraded.

We probably have one of the least accommodating facilities

in junior hockey.

And the main thing is having bathrooms and showers

and things like that.

And we have nowhere to do video.

We just need more space.

We need more accommodations.

And this is unfortunate that we have to,

you know, we have to ask for help.

But it is what it is, right?

I mean, we need, it is what we need.

And a lot of it is legal requirement, you know,

the bathrooms and that stuff becomes a touchy situation

when you deal with the public locker rooms

and the girls hockey to figure skates and all that kind of stuff.

It can be, you know, pretty scary.

So it's something that we need to, you know,

hopefully reach out and get some support and some help

so that we can start this project.

So we can have it at least ready for next season.

That's the goal.

Yeah.

And so this is the beginning.

This is, and this is something that our organization,

our organization, our river kinks,

our looking to do the simplest of things,

the simplest of things that we're looking for

to upgrade this area, to just get it to lead requirements,

not even looking at necessarily like luxury things

or anything like that.

We're not talking about that.

We're talking about not only making it so that it's better

for these players, but better for other people

using the South of kind of rec center and that.

It isn't as if this is going to be necessarily

just used by the kings.

You know, other people might be using some of these facilities,

some of this, some of the building.

One of the things that I thought

when I first saw this coach was, well, all right.

This is our chance to show you guys.

We got your back because the river kinks have showed up

every time we have needed them in this community.

Whether it is an event going on with our high schools

or our young hockey teams around here,

when we had the storm happen and the trees went down.

One of the first things I saw was river king players

out there helping out the community.

Like this team has put back into this community.

I haven't even gotten to the economic impact

that the river kinks have had.

We could talk about that the rest of the show,

how much the river kinks have impacted this community

economically.

This is our chance to show.

We appreciate that.

This is our chance to show that we truly do back

the river kinks.

We can put our money where our mouth is.

This is one of those things too

that if you care about this team,

you, this is a, as far as scouting,

as far as bringing players in.

This is key to that.

I would say coach, it's one of those things.

If I'm on the fence about signing with this team,

it can take one or two things to change my mind.

This could be one of those things.

I'm not saying it is, but it could be

why even leave it up to that.

Let's make sure to get this facility up and running

and looking the way it could and it should

for our community, for our players.

And no, you can know that when we,

I don't care if you donate $5 or $500,

you're gonna get your money back.

You're gonna get a return on your investment.

You're gonna see it in your tax dies.

You're gonna see it in this community.

The impact this team makes economically

in so many other levels.

That's right.

No, I appreciate that and it's exactly right, you know what I mean?

But believe me when I tell you the amount of conversations

I have with players in the off season, actually now,

even now, you know, we're already recruiting for next season.

So I mean, yeah, with all the connections

that I have all over the world, guys are looking to send players,

guys are looking to set them up for next year already.

And now they're looking at our facilities

and what do we have to offer?

All we have is a locker room.

We don't even have the right amount of stalls

for the roster that we're allowed.

So we short and we have no bathroom.

And while I say that this is necessarily for the players

for you, for the team and everything,

I don't mean this in a negative way.

It's not a good thing certainly.

But this is a positive for our community

that this means that our team is successful.

This team, this means that this is a team we wanna keep.

This is a team that's gonna stay here

that all of these things, we just got done talking

about the brewers possibly leaving this state

and those things and a number of reasons why with that.

This isn't new conversation to sports fans.

Facilities need to be upgraded.

This is a, you know, gosh, if you have spent one day

at Rigley Field, you understand that.

You know, in the trumps with that and everything.

This is an opportunity for us to not only help the Kings

help and improve that, but to really improve our community

to make a lot of it better in a lot of different ways.

It doesn't take a leap to be able to make that.

If you wanna make donations, every donation helps.

We encourage you to reach out to the River Kings

to make a donation or support this fundraising effort.

Please contact the River Kings organization.

You can get them a call at 919-561-4839-19561-4830

or gm at riverkinghockey.com.

gm at riverkinghockey.com.

I'll get that information out there.

Again, we'll wrap it up coach.

Thank you.

This weekend, nice week in a hockey.

Nice week in a hockey.

Let's start with Friday night.

Again, River Kings took on the Minnesota Moose this weekend.

Nice game.

Coming out of that second period though,

got to feel pretty good.

What was the third period like?

One goal scored in that whole period,

but you and I know this game.

That was the most exciting goal of the whole game.

Yeah, it was, I tell you what,

it was a little touching goal for a while.

I mean, we had some energy, not enough, I felt.

We weren't connecting the dots on our passes.

We weren't as sharp as we needed to be.

We have some guys out of the lineup.

So it was a chance to get some guys in the lineup

and give them opportunities.

And whether or not they solidified their spots,

that's to be determined, right?

But those are opportunities when guys are hurt sick

or do stupid things,

creates opportunities for guys that may think

that they need more ice time and here it is.

So we didn't look at our sharpest,

but yeah, when it comes down to it,

regardless, we're still hanging around.

We're still in the game, right?

Because of the systems and the way that we play,

we're always gonna be in every game.

And all it takes is one break and we capitalize.

Yeah.

So we'll take the two points and run

into Saturday night.

And then Saturday night was the most

of the tears that were going on in third period.

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah.

I love seeing the box score.

When I don't get to be at the games or anything,

I enjoy looking at box scores.

And that is my favorite thing of just kind of slowly

looking first period, second period, nothing, nothing, boom.

Third period, five goals, just all over there.

I love when that happens in hockey.

I also don't have to coach that team.

I also don't have to be there doing that part of it.

I do want to send a shout out to Brysland

nice weekend for him.

Showed up in both games there on the box score,

good game for him and a good game for the Kings

as we build momentum here, as we get closer and closer.

So you come out of this weekend, 2-0,

against a team that was trying to,

was nipping at our heels and everything in the standings.

And we look at the standings and our Kings are in third place.

Just a couple of points down here, away from that top spot.

So it is an exciting feeling, not just for us as fans.

I got to imagine as you and the team.

You focusing on today, you're focusing on next week.

How do you keep the team focused on from period to period?

During the game?

During the week.

During the week right now.

And then, yeah, during the week, let's start there.

Right now we're focused on the squash.

And that's what we're preparing for, right?

I mean, we're two points out of first place.

So we're trying to chase them.

This is a team that is very offensive.

They score the most goals in our division.

And we give up the least, right?

So it's going to be a battle of the strengths.

And we have to be able to contain them offensively

and shut them down if we're going to have a shot at this.

So we need our big guys to show up and play big.

And we need our defensive side of the puck to play well.

And we'll see how it goes.

But I expect a high-firing defense about it.

When it comes to playing the squash, a team like this,

they're one of those teams that has shown this season

that they're versatile, that they can play.

I think they can adapt to other teams, hockey.

But I feel like the Kings are the best team

in the division at that.

So there's that part of it, too.

When you trade punches like that,

are you feeling yourself out for the third period?

Now I want to get into the game and the focus part of it.

When you're getting into that, is it, OK, this first,

I don't care if you down four goals in that first period.

Second period, whole new game.

Third period, whole new game.

Is that the approach?

That's exactly right.

Zero, zero, in 20 minutes.

And just let's get the next one.

Now let's chip away at it if we're behind.

And that's why both games this weekend, we were down.