New “Meet Your Rafters” Edition

Good afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to Playmakers.

New home here at 105-5WI. Happy to be here. Love the new digs.

Think the Jersey looks good on us.

Seth and James here with you on a Friday afternoon,

wrapping up the week. Thanks so much for joining us, everybody.

Big shout out to our friends at Quality Plus printing and family

and natural foods, sponsoring the hour. Big appreciation to them.

We're wide open. Hit us in the numbers. 715-424-2600.

Maybe if you call up, I'll stop saying it like that.

There you go, yeah. No chance. No chance.

I stumbled into something and I will never let that go.

I'm a former wide receiver.

I mean, I have to say it that way.

We're here to talk about anything other than football.

It feels like I'm on my outline for the show here.

But of course, that means nothing.

You guys have thoughts and feelings.

First, call up and join the conversation.

715-424-2600. Just a touch or two away on the Civic Media app.

Love to hang out with you. At 430, we're going to be doing something fun.

We're bringing something back. It's meet your rafters.

Yes. It's back.

And we're not just going to bring it back.

And just go ahead and have me talk to a person who doesn't...

He's just wearing a drafter's jersey.

We've got coach coming in, everybody.

We've got new field manager for your Wisconsin rafters.

Tom Ziggy-Lowsky-Lowsky.

He's coming in just to make sure, just to smack me back outside the head

and make sure that I get that neighborhood.

But they're right. Coach Ziggy is the way I'm going to reserve there.

You're safe there. That's apparently what he wants.

I'll give you to know him a little bit today.

I want to send a big shout out and thank you to assistant GM Jake Adams

setting that up and everything.

Really looking forward to having meet your rafters back.

At 430 today, we'll be doing that.

Yes.

Certainly we'll talk about, like I said,

anything you guys want. Got a story of the show a little bit later.

I think you're going to like this one, Seth.

But I want to talk baseball to start things off.

And I was telling Seth and trying to keep my energy and my passion

and not fall off my soapbox too early here in the show

before we even hit the airwaves.

But I understand that the NHL and NBA playoffs are going on.

Both have had their excitement.

Sure.

That NFL schedule release.

There is some high school sports going on and not just here in our area,

but of course around the country.

So I understand there's a lot going on.

But for the life of me, I can't understand why it is not a bigger deal

and has not been talked about more and not in the A block of more things

that the commissioner, Major League Baseball,

has ruled that the bands from the game end with the passing of a person.

Right. Right.

So they go from basically in perpetuity, meaning forever,

to lifetime bands.

So as soon as they slog off this mortal coil, they are now eligible

to be reinstated.

Now it looks like the Hall of Fame is following suit with that as well.

So we'll see what happens.

That's a key part of this that I think is not only lost in the shuffle,

but not talked about nearly enough.

Because, yeah, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manford,

and reinstated them yesterday,

making them finally eligible as far as Shulis Joe Jackson and Pete Rose.

And yes, I put Shulis Joe ahead of Pete Rose.

I am a white soccer fan.

In fact, Manford unbanned everybody who has passed.

A quote, obviously a person no longer with us cannot represent

a threat to the integrity of the game.

Therefore, I've concluded that terminate eligibility ends upon the passing of

discipline, discipline, individual.

So this is...

Committee doesn't vote again until December of 2027.

Really?

Yes, they could possibly get in for any of these individuals,

or any individual for that matter, is 2028.

Right.

I think that this needs to be stressed,

because when I am seeing people report and talk about it,

they're talking about it as if Pete Rose is already in the Hall of Fame now.

Like he's automatically in now.

And that Shulis Joe is.

I wish I was exaggerating.

But the only time I've heard anybody from the mouse to the fox talk about this,

all they're talking about is if these guys are already in,

as if we haven't seen majorly baseball sports writers for over a hundred years

refuse to give 100% of the vote to Babe Ruth.

Right.

So you think they're just going to all of a sudden be like,

you know what, it's for these guys.

They deserve it.

They're all going to start thinking about something other than themselves.

Right.

That's not possible.

It's not first off.

So I don't think that it's necessarily a shoe in.

And yes, I said that.

Yeah.

That one of these guys get in or both of them are any of these individuals.

But I do want to talk about just putting that aside,

because we're not even there yet.

And again, I don't know what PR teams are going to have to work

to make these individuals go in.

I don't even know if anybody outside of me cares about Shulis Joe Jackson.

That there has been family members that have fought for him over the years.

But I will tell you, it's a dying fight because nobody's listening to me.

Nobody's listening to us.

Either they don't care or they've already made up their minds.

And I'll have more on that in a moment.

But with Pete Rose, I think it is much more interesting.

And I want to put some focus on that set than everything.

This is not a show we're doing in the Southside of Chicago.

I'm not an idiot.

I understand our audience.

But I also have to use this microphone where I can.

And I do think that it's noteworthy about Shulis Joe Jackson.

For one, very similar to Ty Cobb.

And you hear me ramble about that all the time.

Ty Cobb, a drunk, bad sports writer who could not come up with a better storyline

decided to make Ty Cobb the most evil man in sports.

Right.

Which he wasn't.

No.

By all accounts and by thousands of accounts, he was not only a good guy,

but kind of a boring guy.

And that's why this sports writer did this.

He's like, well, Ty Cobb is this amazing player.

We need some better stories, right?

Cover him.

And there's nothing to talk about other than him, the athlete on the field.

Right.

And nobody's picking up newspapers for that.

Because everyone's expecting Babe Ruth, right?

Whose personal life was like that.

It was crazy.

All this crazy stuff.

No.

No, Ty Cobb was not like that.

Not at all.

Babe Ruth didn't just set the standard for baseball.

And what it was to be an athlete in the stats, I mean.

What it was to be able to pitch and hit or any of these things.

He was the first bona fide superstar celebrity.

Yes.

They went along with it.

Yes.

And it wasn't because he was boring.

No.

So that's at a standard.

Not at all.

That's at a standard.

Ty Cobb could not meet.

Now there's a great book out about it.

And there's other great movies and TV shows and everything.

And a lot of good documentary work being done on that and telling Ty Cobb's true story.

Right.

I think that if you are a fan of baseball, you owe it to Ty Cobb to learn that story.

It also takes like five minutes.

It's not that long.

It does it.

Yeah.

It's not going to take a time out of your life to do that.

I asked for two minutes of your time to go into Shulis Joe Jackson's quote unquote guilt.

Right.

He reportedly refused the $5,000 bribe twice, even though it would effectively have doubled its salary.

Right.

Or to have a teammate lefty Williams toss the cash on the floor of his hotel room.

Jackson then tried to tell White Sox owner Charlie Kamisky, who would not talk to players because he believed he was above them.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

He did not like his players.

Still, Kamisky refused to meet him unable to afford a legal counsel because he could not afford anything because athletes week, I think we forget this Seth.

Not only working two jobs oftentimes, but two to three jobs while playing as well in the game.

And it needs to be noted that Kamisky was among, you know, cheap owners.

He was like the cheapest when it came to salary.

So Jackson was represented by a team attorney Alfred Austrian, a clear conflict of interest.

And before Jackson's grand jury testimony, Austin Austrian allegedly elicited Jackson's admission of his support role in the fix by paying him with whiskey, which never again happened.

Also, years later, the other seven players implicated in the scandal confirmed that Jackson was never at any meetings.

Williams said they only mentioned Jackson's name to give their plot more credibility.

Right.

Although he did not say what Jackson might have done with the $5,000.

Right.

Jackson's performance during the series also, of course, itself lends further credence to this story where, you know, Shulis Joe was an amazing athlete.

Jackson about a 356 had a lifetime batting average of 356.

It is still ranks fourth highest in MLB history.

Right.

After his passing, this has been talked about a little bit, but the movie eight men out.

While a solid movie is a movie and it is a based on fiction.

It is not based on great reporting.

It is based on a lot of loose fiction and a lot of fun storylines that people thought would make a good movie and destroyed any credibility that that man had.

Again, you don't get Shohei Otani.

You don't get Aaron Judd without these guys, without Shulis Joe, without Pete Rose.

If you love this game, if this game has entertained you and your family for a lifetime, which it has in mind, I'll speak for my own and just for myself.

That's why I'm talking about this.

Right.

It deserves to be.

We've dishonored these guys.

And not for nothing, plenty of jerks and baseball.

If that's the case, boy, if only we had some, you know, that's the problem.

We just can't find enough people to talk about.

There's plenty of people to talk about.

A couple of things about Joe.

First of all, he was extremely, he was not, he was illiterate, functionally illiterate when he played.

And he was very conscious of the fact that he couldn't read.

Like a lot of people who can't read and they're very careful with how they say things.

And they're very careful with the way they're doing.

And they come back and they come off as slow or stupid.

He wasn't.

He was a normal guy.

He wasn't, he wasn't a genius.

But he was like a normally smart guy.

And there's one exchange he had with a reporter.

I can't say it over the air.

But it's one of my funny.

It's like, hey, Joe, how do you spell cat?

To which Joe responded, hey, guy, how do you spell?

Or we can't say on the air.

So it's one of my, it's funny.

It's hilarious.

But also, yeah, I mean, he was considered like by far.

I mean, they call them the best natural hitter.

Whatever that means.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's interesting.

The sad misfortune of being in the same time as Ty Cobb,

who was the best hitter and the best player at the time.

Joe gave him a run for his money though a couple of times.

To be sure.

Also, maybe, I mean, a lot of the players that were involved

of the eight Black Sox players that were banned, probably no one took it harder

than Joe Jackson did because basically, this is really sad.

I don't even know if it's true or not.

There's a sad story that he was later running a liquor store

that Ty Cobb just happened to be in.

And he recognized Joe, but Joe didn't seem to recognize him.

And he said to him, Joe, don't you recognize me, Joe?

And Joe, he didn't even respond to him, basically.

Like he didn't want to acknowledge that Ty Cobb was like,

I might begin that story a little wrong.

But anyway, basically it was that one of those things,

the forgotten man, that sort of thing.

Also remember, all eight players were acquitted of any wrongdoing.

It was Kennesaw Mountain Land, it's the commissioner of baseball that tossed them out.

His famous statement when he started regardless of the decisions of juries.

He did it because he was tasked by the owners to clean up baseball.

And someone had to be made the martyrs, or I should say the scapegoats.

And that's what the Black Sox ended up being.

It's a shame, but it's not very often in history

that we get to rewrite these things.

And we have an opportunity to.

Right.

And I think it's on us.

And I put it on the baseball of voters to do right by this.

However they do it, it may not be the writers.

It may be a committee.

I'm not sure how the Hall of Fame is going to handle this.

Because it's going to be different.

I know a lot of people know the Hall of Fame is a separate entity for major league baseball.

So they have their own rules actually.

And they've been following baseball with the bands and everything.

But they may make come up with their own decisions.

I'm guessing they will go ahead and lift the bands as well.

And probably the only Black Sox player that will be in the Hall of Fame is probably Joe Jackson.

And it serves to be because he was a superstar.

I'll have just a little bit more on him a little bit later in our stories of the show.

But I just certainly have to talk about one of the greatest hitters in baseball history.

One of the hardest working players in baseball history.

So much so that one of the greatest nicknames in baseball history.

Charlie Hussle and Pete Rose.

Yes.

Given him by Mickey Mantle by the way.

It's amazing.

Baseball nicknames are the best.

Yes they are.

I want to note that there is a lot of things off the field about Pete Rose that have nothing to do with gambling.

That are very questionable.

And it could have affected his Hall of Fame eligibility in itself.

And I'm not going to be one of these people that gloss over that or general romanticize him as a person or anything like that.

Baseball has a morals clause that the only Hall of Fame that there is a morals clause in it which can be held against you.

Like it did with Pete as well.

As a sports show I'll move on but I do encourage people to look into that.

But looking at him the player and the gambler.

Looking at those two factors.

I just as a quick glance at the three time world series winner once with the reds twice with Philly.

The lifetime batting average of 303 major league baseball career leader in hits.

Games played at bats singles and outs.

Just incredible athlete.

And if you were just looking at this to even just batting one three batting titles two golden gloves.

Most valuable player award rookie of the year.

Forget about.

I forget about him.

He came out the gate like this.

One of the some of the more memorable moments in baseball history including in the all-star game.

It took out Ray Fossy, poor Ray.

So bad for him so.

And one of the more courtable guys and stuff.

And certainly if you're looking at him the athlete on the field.

And all you knew, all you're seeing, you're a computer and all you're seeing are stats.

You have no idea why Pete Rose is not in the Hall of Fame.

Right.

There is not one hole in his game.

Nope.

There's nothing that tells you that this is not a Hall of Famer.

Until of course you bring up the gambling and some of that.

Yes.

Now a real quick.

I think you want to know two things.

One he said in the dent and something he said in the dent.

Lebitar showing some other places about how he felt about the Hall of Fame after death.

But I also think that it's noteworthy.

That this is happening at a time when gambling is now American pastime.

Yeah.

It always has been.

Yeah, it's always been there.

It's always been there.

Going back to River Boats.

Look at the story of River Boats in the Kansas City area.

You know how they evolved from being on the water.

Yes.

To just being attached to the land.

Yeah, right.

To being these giant hotels.

It's insane.

Just that one little story of American gambling.

You'll understand why I mean that this has been American pastime under like this.

But now we're talking about it like this.

Right.

With draft kings and draft this and draft that and all these other places that I don't want to give two cents to.

We're in a day and age where we're not we're saying the quiet part out loud.

And gambling is where it is.

So it's a little bit hypocritical not a little bit.

It's incredibly hypocritical for any Hall of Fame to say that you can't be in because of gambling.

Although we all understand that gambling on a game when you're playing it or coaching it or managing it or something like that.

Seems to be pretty wrong.

I got to think that even the most immoral person hears that.

It was like, well, I wouldn't even do that.

I mean, you know, or something.

So I all of these factors.

But then there is a key factor when it comes to Pete Rose.

And maybe if you're doing that to me, if you're doing this right.

And you're going off the man himself and what he won and then believed.

Which is something that I believe there's something human beings do for those that pass.

Something we've done for a long time.

We have these things called wills and powers of, you know, state and all of that.

And we go to that Seth where quoting Pete Rose.

I've come to the conclusion.

I hope I'm wrong that I'll make the Hall of Fame after I die.

Rose said in an interview which took place 10 days before his death.

Which I totally disagree with because the Hall of Fame is for two reasons.

Your fans and your family.

That's what the Hall of Fame is for.

He went into this more and more extent on the Levitard show that I played for Seth earlier.

And I just want to make sure to credit the Levitard show who, you know, I love Dan.

And I love what they do down there.

And I was blown away by this because I did not expect Mr. Ego to say this.

I really didn't.

Right.

But at the same time, it kind of makes sense for Mr. Ego.

Absolutely makes sense.

To me, what I heard that, I mean, you have to, anything that Pete Rose said,

you have to understand that he's doing it from the thing of what can I get out of it.

Because that's what's his whole life.

Oh, that is who he was.

That's why he was such a good baseball player.

Because he was so laser focused on doing this thing.

And he did it.

I give him all the credit in the world for that.

A lot of people do, you know, say, I'm going to do this and they can't.

He did it.

He didn't have the greatest skill.

He made himself into a major league ball player who has the record for most hits.

But that's what, that's why he was terrible at life because all he cared about was Pete Rose.

And again, that's the same thing.

What I hear when he said that, well, I don't care because I'm not going to be there.

Yeah.

So it only matters if I'm there.

Yeah.

And so I mean, maybe I'm not being, I'm being a little dis, you know, not being nice to him or whatever.

But if you look through his life, you look through his autobiography when it came out,

he looked at his quotes when he was a player.

He's like, yeah, you know, let's hope people are watching this one, you know, salary time comes around.

I'm going to get more money.

That kind of thing.

He would say stuff like that.

And it's like, oh, man, he had, I mean, he heard his own family a lot, his own wife, his first wife.

I mean, with all this stuff he did with people and other, I mean us.

We don't need to get into that.

But yes, it's, so I think we should honor Pete Rose by not putting it off.

I like it.

Just like he said, he didn't want to be.

No, I don't care.

If he's in the hallway, I don't care.

He can be in there.

Since then, any fans will be happy, you know, they all, they want him in the hall.

That's cool, you know, that's fine.

I know I have no problem with that.

What I, what I would like to see is what I've always liked to have seen with these guys.

And of course, the steroid era, the gang of ten or whatever it is.

That, you know, those guys, yeah, is put them in with an asterisks.

It's not that hard.

Baseball record books are filled with asterisks.

It's not like we're introducing something brand new to the sports world here.

Let me have this thing called an asterisks.

Yes.

I've seen it on the most recent Marvel movies.

Yeah, yeah.

What does that mean?

We do not understand what an asterisks means.

And think about the education you could do with that.

It's not to say, hey, you do something bad and you still get rewarded.

It's to say, no, this follows you.

This follows you.

You could be known as the home run king.

You could have that berry bonds.

It could be all yours with no debate, no question whatsoever.

Instead, 99% of us, if we're asked, who's the home run king?

Hanker.

But instantly, instantly.

So you have an opportunity as the game to teach something here and to do be more than a sport.

Right.

Which I would think that the Hall of Fame is supposed to be about because if it was just about numbers,

all you would see is a placks of numbers.

Exactly.

It would just be the stats.

I think that's in their mission statement to educate.

And it's part of their whole reason for being.

And not for nothing, there is not a single person listening to this right now or in the world

that would pay as much attention to they do as sports if you didn't know these athletes.

If you didn't know something about them, I'm not saying you got to know their whole bio,

but as they're walking up to the plate and you're hearing that this kid plays at this college

or this thing or you hear interviews with them or whatever it might be.

Nobody is watching games just for numbers.

Even if you are the biggest baseball fan of all time, you care about what your team.

Yeah.

Your regional, it seems this extends farther than just players.

Every year, every high school around America has people show up to watch these games

that don't know the players, but that's their alma mater.

That's why you go to the games.

It isn't just to see wins and losses.

We love that.

But it's the story.

It's the person.

It's the thing that brings us to these areas.

Yeah.

So to have a hall of fame, you've got to have stories and people and personalities.

And you got to take both factors in.

But I do think it comes down to, and this is a case by case thing.

I hate people to get on the airwaves and want to, this is the only way.

No, man, I'm giving you my opinion.

You have your own.

It's cool.

I have nothing.

If you think the exact opposite of me, more power to you, man.

I have no problem.

That's the beauty of this country.

Yeah, right.

Call up now.

Talk about it.

We'll talk to you about it.

For me, the hall of fame has to be both.

It has to be this thing of, hey, well, King Griffey Jr., not only played the game right,

but also was one of the best swings I've ever seen in my life, and gave literally everything

he had to the game.

I know that because I see them throw himself into a center field wall a million times and things.

I want to address one other thing, real quick, James, if you're all right.

The timing of this with Rob Manfred.

Yes.

The more I learned about Rob Manfred, the less I like, I mean, he's just, he's the definition of a tool.

Really, he is.

I can only think, this is, he's doing this because he's be like, I was the commissioner,

that Lord Pete Rose should go into the hall of fame or something like, to that kind of,

or something like that.

It seems so, it seems cynical to me.

I don't know.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe I'm just jaded with him.

I have a hard time believe.

No, I don't think you're alone on that.

I think that the type I brought up the gambling in the gambling companies because that, boy,

that must be a big part of it too.

There's no way that there's not contracts and stuff involved right now,

and conversations going on with that right now and everything.

A lot of contracts, especially at this time of year, are wrapping up and you've got to sign new ones

or looking at extensions.

Baseball is staring down the barrel of a strike in the next couple of years

that you were the first to touch on that I know of.

So, yeah, there's a lot of factors for here.

And the ego part of this, which I think that no, you know, he would certainly relate to about Pete Rose.

Not nearly the hitter Rose was.

No, no.

Although he has, in a different arena, he's been known to take hits at people.

Yes.

I would love, I will say, I'll be honest about this.

If this was Bud Sealeeg doing this, I'd be raving about him.

Right.

I'll be honest.

I wasn't, I didn't mind Sealeeg.

I thought as far as you're never going to have a perfect commissioner.

Of course not.

It's impossible.

You're not going to be able to please everybody.

And their job is not to us.

It's to the owners.

Right.

So, as long as we're clear about that, yeah, exactly.

We're never going to be happy with any owner in any environment or any sport.

Right.

Or a commissioner, I should say.

But at the same time, with him, there were some local ties, I'll admit.

But also, I felt like he did the job pretty darn well.

Yeah.

And for anything good that you want to say about Rob Manford,

it's no different than Batman and with the NHL.

Yeah.

It's more so.

It's one step forward, three steps back.

Yeah.

Or they only did that.

The only reason this worked, they did this is because they did this one thing wrong.

So wrong that they had to overcorrect or something like that.

He is not earned benefit of the doubt.

That's for sure.

No, he hasn't.

It's hard as he's tried.

It's hard as he's tried.

I'm going to be following this story.

Yeah.

And I'd love to know what people think about this, especially any old school baseball fans out there.

I want to know what you, where you stand on this.

Seth and I have been talking about this all week.

We know where we stand on it.

We went to hear from you.

715-424-2600.

Call up and join the conversation.

One of my stories of the show, just to wrap up our first segment here.

And we are getting ready to bring in Coach Ziggy and our Wisconsin Rapids Rafters

and talk with them a little bit with Meet Your Rafters.

Real quick, no two breaking news from Adam Schefter, the 49ers and quarterback Brock.

Pretty of a finalizing a five-year deal, 265 Mill.

This was going to happen.

The numbers are what people were a little more questioning and wondering how that was going to work out.

But one of our stories of the show, Shulis Joe Jackson, how did he get that nickname?

In an interview published in the October 1949 edition of Sport Magazine,

Jackson recalled that he got his nickname during a Mill game playing in Greensville, South Carolina.

Jackson had blisters on his foot from a new pair of cleats,

which hurt so much that he took his shoes off before he was before in that bat.

As played continued, a heckle-erging fan noticed Jackson running to third base in his socks

and shouted, you Shulis son of a gun.

And that might have been sanitized a little bit.

Oh, you probably more than that.

Yeah, I get into trouble with this.

You don't make that kind of money.

And the resulting nickname, Shulis Joe stuck with him throughout the remainder of his life.

Like so many nicknames, it was an insult at first.

Hey, interesting parallel, by the way.

Charlie Hustle was not made as a compliment to Charlie Hustle out there.

Yeah.

As you touched on earlier, Mickey Mantle gave that to him as more of a shot.

Yeah, it was like a spring training game.

And Pete Rose was trying to catch a ball that was like ten feet over his head.

He was playing the outfield at Mickey Hitt.

And he was like, oh, look at that Charlie Hustle out there.

Sometimes it sticks.

It's interesting.

I mean, we can spend a whole show talking about baseball nicknames.

But we've got to get to our time out here, take care of our partners.

And, of course, get ready for the for the meet your rafters.

Yes.

That is right around the corner, everybody.

We're looking forward to talking to baseball.

We got our Wisconsin rafters, rafters coming into the studio here in moments.

Here at WIRI, 1055.

Big shot at the quality plus printing family natural foods.

Yeah.

Big thank you to them for letting us hang out with all of y'all.

We'll be back after this.

Well KC was winning.

Hank Aaron was beginning.

One Robbie going out.

One coming in.

Kind of in Mitchock Adele.

The thumper in Mel Barnell.

And I was the only one winning down in Washington.

I'm talking baseball.

Welcome back, everybody, to WIRI's Playmakers here at 1055.

Big shot at our friends at Quality Plus.

Fritting and family natural foods sponsoring the hour.

And welcome to meet your rafters 2025.

We are excited to bring this segment back to our show here at Playmakers.

One of the long time segments going way back to Carl Hilke and plenty of other people

who have covered the rafters for over 16 years in this area.

I got in with me right now, assistant GM Jake Adams.

Jake, you brought in a friend.

Introduce him.

Well, I mean, I could introduce him very well.

But I think that voice you're going to be hearing all season long.

I will defer to this gentleman right here.

Well, thank you.

I guess I'll give myself the introduction.

My name's Austin Thomas.

I'll be the radio broadcaster here at WFHR.

And I'm really excited to get going with the season.

And Ben here in Wisconsin Rapids for, I think I'm closing in five days now.

And been getting to know the area.

And man, it's just, it's feeling like it's ready for baseball season.

I know to the audience out there a little bit of a schedule change here.

And everything coach Ziggy wasn't able to join us.

I was telling the audience about that.

He'll be with us at another time.

We'll hang out with him pretty soon and get to know him.

We've been wanting to hang out with Austin.

So this works out.

It's perfect.

And appreciate you setting that up, Jake.

Thanks so much for bringing him in and getting a given us a chance to talk some

rafter baseball as we are just weeks away from it.

I will say Austin, as an interviewer, I refuse to use different questions.

So I'm going to ask you the questions.

I was going to ask coach Ziggy.

So how do I say your last name?

No, no, no.

No, in all seriousness though, that is probably one of the early things you've got to do though, right?

It's just getting over going over names with the players and coaching everything.

Yeah, no.

Pronunciation is always a huge thing when it comes to commentary because you don't want

to be messing up a player's name, you know, especially if you're trying to post those highlights.

I had a story from a long time ago back in high school.

And since that time, I've always made sure to kind of at least check with a PA announcer

or if I'm able to access the players to talk with the players before I do that.

Because going back to, like I said, those high school days.

I had great call game winner moment.

And I said the guys last name wrong and I posted it online later.

And he was the first one to like the reply.

And I go, oh man, man, oh man.

I appreciate you telling the story because I was definitely going to follow up with that.

I had to hear the story.

And God, if you have ever met another human being that can relate to that.

I do a show, Rapids Report.

I interview a bunch of different guests throughout the week.

I mess up everybody's name.

And it is humiliating every single time.

I feel so bad.

And thankfully, nobody ever gives you a hard time for it.

Oh, yeah.

But it is nice.

It is one of those interesting things.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, man, where are you from?

How long you been doing this?

Tell us a little start.

We'll start there.

Oh, yeah.

Well, I'm from the Kansas City area in Missouri.

I grew up in a suburb called Least Summit.

So I really got into broadcasting probably about my, well, I started loving the craft of it.

My sophomore year of high school when I was doing sports highlights and shooting like that.

But I didn't actually get into broadcasting commentary per se until my junior year of high school.

So that's about four years ago now because I just finished up my junior year of college.

So, yeah, five years-ish.

I've been broadcasting, commentating games and just loving every single minute of it.

So I started off, like I said, doing high school stuff and then went to college at the University of Missouri.

That's where I still am at right now and have gotten more involved at their student radio station.

The KCOU is what it's called, continuing to call those games and even gotten a little bit of side broadcasting

with another online broadcasting company called the Show Me Sports Network.

And then over the last two summers as well, I've been working with the Sioux City Explorers in the American Association.

Oh, so that's all.

Yeah, well, yeah.

That's awesome.

I got to put it out there.

You know, like 20?

That's awesome.

That's incredible.

That's a really great, especially beginning to a career.

I imagine that it's not only being able to do it at different levels and everything,

but being able to find different outlets.

The more and more every year, I'm spoiled.

I get to talk to new raptors and announcers and get to meet these guys.

And I follow every single one of them, like I'm going to follow you wherever you go in your career.

And everybody's blowing up.

Everybody is doing very well, who has worked with the raptors as announcers.

It's not just the players that go on to go and play in the MLB,

but so many of the announcers get an opportunity in the North Woods League,

move on to great and better things.

But I imagine it's got to be an exciting opportunity for this.

What was the like getting the call, getting the opportunity to voice the raptors?

Well, it's funny because it was simply through email when I first got the reply back.

I think I was emailing you, Jake.

And it was really just a heavy week of me sending out emails,

kind of cold emailing all of these North Woods League teams.

And it was strictly North Woods League because I knew I wanted to be in that league.

I thought it was the best opportunity that I was going to have to be able to call all of these games.

And so I was specifically emailing to those teams.

And it just happened that I found the Wisconsin Rapids rafters.

And then Jake hit me back with an email.

And from that point on, we were able to set up an interview.

I think the interview went great.

Loved talking to both him and our general manager Ken as well.

And really great guys and was a great introduction.

And of course, I've gotten to meet so many new great people as well here just in my first few days.

Do you have any influences as far as announcing go?

People that you grew up enjoying or people you go back and listen to?

I know for me, I grew up in an athlete household.

My dad was a minorly cocky player in boxer.

And I feel like as somebody who loves sports but didn't have the body for it at all.

I found a love because I also found a love for acting at a young age.

So for me, the merging of those worlds was announcing what was calling these games, talking about these games.

I thought it was the best for both worlds.

And I have kind of a high standard for announcers.

I have no right to, I admit that, but I kind of do.

And so I almost feel like I have a higher standard for announcers than I do for players.

Which makes no darn sense whatsoever.

But I'm rewarded by that not only with the rafters but by especially in baseball.

I think baseball by all rights nothing against the other sports or anything.

The greatest announcers of all time.

The first five and most of them are going to be baseball announcers.

You've been scullies and people like that.

Who are some of your influences when it comes to just announcing in general?

It doesn't have to be baseball.

Well, that's a tough question to answer.

There's so many that I've listened to throughout the years.

And I think really, I've picked up a lot more over the last couple of years.

Even going back to when I was a kid.

You know, when I was a kid, I'm listening in.

And I think it's great to get to hear all of these great broadcasters.

I always loved Joe Buck.

And everyone hated on him, but I was always a Joe Buck fan.

And so, you know, as a kid, but I wasn't really listening as closely to the way that he calls a game or what not as I am now.

So, at least over these last few years, every time I'm listening to a game, I'm listening to what is this broadcaster doing?

How are they taking this one up to the next level?

Why do I invest myself in this game?

And one of the guys that I've found that I love the most is actually a guy named Adam Amin.

He's the voice of the Chicago Bulls.

And I have loved the way that he always has these little nuggets and brings in the audience to kind of feel at home.

And has a conversation with himself, the color commentator, and kind of makes it feel like you're one part of the family.

So, trying to bring in, you know, the audience to make them feel as if they're part of the broadcast and know all of these things that you do.

That's one of my favorite things.

That's a great comp.

I really enjoy his work.

I'm a Chicagoan.

I'm a big old fan of everything.

And I really enjoy his work and everything.

And I wouldn't have thought of him, though.

And it's actually ties perfectly into what we're doing right now, because that is the only way I'm not a professional interviewer.

I am not a professional announcer or talker or anything like that and go to school for these things.

The reason I've survived in this business for 20 some years is because the way that radio has gone, where it is much more freeform.

It is much more, we don't have to all talk like this anymore and be perfectly spoken.

It's much more open now.

We know what audiences want.

They want to hear real people talking.

Why wouldn't announcing be that way?

I just hadn't thought of it.

And he's a great example of that.

Just a couple more things real quick, I wanted to get into.

And I brought up that phone call earlier because one I'm old and I didn't say email.

Obviously a beat email between you guys.

But for you, Jake, you're going to go through so many voices.

You're hearing so many.

What was it about this one that stood out to you and why you wanted to reach out to Austin and have him a part of the team?

Honestly, it goes back to how I started in this industry.

When I was in college, I had no direction.

I had no connections.

I was very just playing as a go for a college student.

And I said, you know, baseball was kind of a passion for mine.

I wanted to work.

So I did the same thing.

I sat down and I emailed every surrounding team and said, hey, I want to work for you.

What do I have to do?

One of them gave me a chance.

And that's why I'm here today.

So when Austin emailed us directly, he was one of the first emails I got when I started as assistant GM.

I said, that's something special because a lot of people will send in the applications won't say much and won't give any examples.

Austin sent a highlight tape.

He said, I'm very passionate about working in sports.

I worked for the Sue City Explorer's last two years.

I'd love to come to the Northwoods League and call games for those scouts and rapids or afters.

I said, that's talent right there, but that's also passion for what he's doing.

So I said, let's do it.

Let's have an interview immediately after the interview.

Ken looks at me and says, that's a voice for radio.

We got to get him out here.

So we made the call later that day.

And now he's here.

It is a great voice.

I'm altering it on my side because I can't compete with that.

I'm not going to have to do that all season long, man.

I'm not going to say it is a great voice for radio.

I hear what Ken was talking about.

For you, there are so many sports.

I either a smart guy can pick that up right away just meeting you.

And you have a good energy for this.

And we obviously have talking about that voice that you've got.

Why baseball?

Oh, that's a tough question.

Well, for me, baseball has always had a special place in my heart.

It was the first sport that I ever got into, first sport that I ever played.

And so for my entire life, baseball has existed.

It's the sport that I've probably watched more than any other sport as well.

And I love all other sports.

I think basketball is another great sport as well.

Basketball and baseball are kind of right up there for me.

And obviously I watch a little bit of football as well.

But you know, it's baseball.

When you look at it, it's just such a fun sport to call.

There's so many different stories that you get to tell.

When you're on the air, you get to talk to so many different people.

It's not just the players, not just the coaches.

But they're family members.

It's the people that they've interacted with within the community.

And all of these different stories you have the time to be able to bring that into your broadcast.

To kind of bring that community feel in there.

And like I was talking about, make them feel like they know who these guys are

and what they mean to everyone in the community.

Well said.

One of the more difficult things I would think going into this.

And I say this as somebody with experience.

As when I was a kid and I first moved out here.

I was playing Frank Thomas baseball and I turned the announcer's off.

And I would announce the game doing color.

And so I have a little experience with this.

No, I know.

But one of the things that I would run into that I always thought was interesting is the home run call.

One, do you have a specific one that you go to?

You don't have to give it to us right now.

We'll wait for one.

We're going to have plenty of them this season.

But when it comes to that, did you think about it?

Did it happen in a moment?

Or is it something that's a work in progress and everything?

Because it's not necessarily something I feel like you have to have.

I'm sure you didn't have to in order to graduate from college.

You got, well, what's your going to be your home run call?

Like your thesis or something like that.

But I'm curious if you've thought about it at all.

And if you have, you know, have you practiced them at home or anything like that?

Yes.

So it is actually something that I have worked on and am currently working on.

Because when you look at a home run a lot of the times, it's a big moment.

It's hard to think of all of your fundamentals when you're going through it.

And that is something that I am still working on is making sure that I'm going through those fundamentals

when I'm doing a call.

And I'm able to think back to some of those notes that I've taken.

Now, like I said, a lot of the times, I don't do it.

But there is one call that is my favorite.

And it's whenever I say the word Boo-ya.

Oh, yeah.

That's what I like to say whenever I, whenever I slow it down and it goes over the wall.

I see it.

It's out of here.

Boo-ya.

Yeah.

It's a classic.

That's perfect.

And there's actually a story behind that one too.

So it's a small story.

But every single year, every summer, my family has a family reunion in Green Bay.

And it's a big thing for us.

And I've gone to it.

I think I've missed maybe one year of it my life.

Maybe a couple more.

But it's always stood out to me because I get to meet so many of my family that I don't get to see throughout the year.

And so I wanted to kind of show them back the support that they've been giving me because every year I go there, they're like, wow, he's great at what he does.

And so I've been working on adding that Boo-ya into my call because Boo-ya is what we call our family reunion.

And it's also the soup that we have whenever we're eating together.

Oh, God, I love that.

That is what I'm talking about about sports.

That's what I love.

The story.

Everything else.

It's, you know, wins all those things are fantastic.

We love to win around here.

But that's what we brings us to the game is those kind of notes.

I appreciate you sharing that, man.

I'm looking forward to hearing Boo-ya a lot this season.

And we're looking forward to the season 10 days away, Jake, as we're wrapping up here with you guys.

And thank you so much again for the time and everything.

We're getting ready to get our ores.

I know you guys got some promotion stuff you've been working on over the week and everything.

But we're looking forward to that.

What are you doing right now in these last 10 days before we open up Winterfield for the season?

Honestly, it's just final preparation time.

I mean, interns started on Monday.

Austin wasn't the only one to show up.

We have our biggest intern staff ever.

We're looking at about 17 or 18 interns for this summer.

Mixed with this full front office.

We're excited.

I mean, we even had a player report already.

It's never happened where I've seen in my entire career and player beating the interns to the ballpark.

If you see him around town, Heroto Kobayashi is already in town and already spent all week at Winterfield hitting and just getting ready for the season.

But honestly, we're just getting ready for a fun summer.

It's going to be fun at the ballpark.

That's what I've been preaching all off season.

That's what I've been telling everyone who will listen to me.

We're going to have fun.

We've got fun in the stands and things going on in between innings that are going to be so exciting.

So many different promotion ideas and stuff.

Things that you've come to love with the Raptors for many years.

Along with some really cool, unique ideas.

Just thinking about them get me smiling.

But you mentioned a player being in town hitting the park earlier than he needs to.

Reporting earlier than he needs to.

God, did you guys feel that?

Because man, that felt good to hear.

There's something about that that is just so exciting and so we're so close to it.

We're so here.

And of course, the 26th.

We'll be having that game right on 105 five or 97 five FMWF HR.

We're excited about that.

The home of the Raptors as that has been for 16 years right where it belongs.

Looking forward to an incredibly good season ahead.

Because we can't lose around here.

We got baseball.

It's five minutes away from us.

There is no losing when it comes to the Raptors baseball.

We're excited about this.

Grab your ores.

Everybody can get ready.

Get your tickets.

Single day game day tickets.

Make your plans for summer at Northwoodsleague.com.

And we're looking forward to hearing you guys.

Now, you guys are going to be back in a lot throughout the summer.

Get used to being here and everything.

We might even get you a parking spot or something.

I don't know what up.

Thank you again for the time, guys.

Thank you.

It was a pleasure.

We'll be back with more playmakers.

Probably brought to you by quality plus printing and family natural foods here at 105 five.

WIRI.

Welcome back, everyone.

WIRI's playmakers.

I should have timed that better.

Didn't time it right.

I'm getting used to it.

I'll get it down.

We welcome you back to the show.

Last ten minutes for the week, everybody.

And we're excited to bring it to you.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Big shout out to our Wisconsin Rapids rafters.

Jake and Austin joining us.

That was a lot of fun.

That was good.

It was a really fun interview, man.

Good hands this year with our radio broadcast by the sound of it.

Sounds like he's going to be really good.

One of the things that I'm excited about whenever we get these players here.

And announcers here and all these interns.

But especially just looking at the players and the announcers.

They're all in the same boat.

They're all looking for opportunity.

That's right.

And what comes next.

And I have follow all the rafter announcers still like on Twitter and places like that.

And it guys look into it because it's so cool to see where these guys go and what they're doing.

Every single one of them are successful and still working in the industry.

Which is just great.

And most of them are attached to teams, like hometown teams and stuff.

And getting to do what they love to do.

And it all started right here in Wisconsin Rapids.

And that's cool.

And that's just them.

And that's just them.

But in the sense of, you know, the focus goes to the athletes.

So often.

But these announcers, it's the same game.

And it's so cool to see.

And I don't know about anybody else, but I root for them just as much as I root for a player.

The marketing interns, you know, the front office people that help out and learn a lot by being here.

I mean, we've seen them go on to do great things as well.

Although I got to say it's still fun to see a Phillies game and see Bryson's dot.

Yeah.

Come up to the play.

I just say it was the other day.

And I was like, oh, yeah, he was a rafter.

That's cool.

There's nothing like that.

There's nothing like that.

When I was, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but when I was working living in Decalbe

and I was working in right next door to there at a hotel.

There's a fancy hotel around there and everything.

They were a minor league ballpark for the Cain County Cougars.

That's right.

Where Ben Zoveras went to play.

And I met him and I really liked getting to know him and talking to him.

He was in a lot and he was a late guy.

He was up late like I was.

And I was a third shift.

So of course I wasn't like that.

I had no idea that he'd make it to the major leagues.

Of course not.