Coaches Corner: CIF Champion Coach and Author, Jim Ozella

You may buy Jim Ozella's book, "The Greatest Time to Be a Kid" here:
https://amzn.to/4d6D2jB 

What if you could relive the simplicity and joy of childhood while gaining insights into coaching and teaching? Join us as we welcome retired head coach and CIF Champion Jim Ozzella, who takes us on a nostalgic journey through his dual career as a teacher and coach. We dive into his recent book, "The Greatest Time to Be a Kid," capturing an era free from modern distractions. Jim reflects on his passion for teaching U.S. history at Hart High School and Alemany High School and the delicate balance required to manage both classroom and field responsibilities, emphasizing structure, expectation, and passion as keys to success.

Ever wonder what goes into the making of a high school baseball legend? Jim shares behind-the-scenes stories of early mornings, late-night phone calls, and the camaraderie among coaches that led to the creation of the Valley Instructional Baseball League (VIBL). From the intense final game that clinched his first CIF title in 2024 to the transition from American Legion Baseball to VIBL, Jim’s insights reveal the dedication and emotional rollercoaster of coaching. We also relive the heart-pounding moments of a dramatic seventh inning and the strategic decisions that etched his name in baseball history.

Celebrate the tradition and culture of high school baseball as we recount Jim's favorite memories, including an exhilarating 14-inning game and standout players who made it to Major League Baseball. The episode also offers a heartfelt look at community impact through coaching, touching on the simplicity of growing up in the Midwest during the 1960s and the timeless lessons learned from mentors and neighbors. As Jim navigates retirement, he shares the joys and bittersweet moments of moving on while staying connected to the game he loves. This episode is a treasure trove of stories, wisdom, and the enduring impact of a life dedicated to teaching and coaching.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

From deep in the Burbank Media District. It's time for another edition of my Burbank Talks, presented by the staff of my Burbank. Now let's see what's on today's agenda as we join our program. Hello everybody, craig Sherwood here with you once again, along with my co-host, bob Hart.

Speaker 2: 0:17

Greetings and salutations.

Speaker 1: 0:20

And we're back for another edition of Coach's Corner. So very good to have you. And we have a special guest here with us today the retired head coach, cif champion coach. I guess you would call him, yeah, cif champion, jim Ozzello, coach, how are you doing? I'm doing well, you guys.

Speaker 3: 0:40

I love seeing you guys. It's great to talk to you two Burbank guys. Man, I loved it.

Speaker 1: 0:45

Well, it's good having you here. We've got a lot to talk about. He's just written a book which is an excellent book. It'll take you back If you have memories growing up and those special times where there weren't cell phones and computers and all the nonsense that goes on that distracts you. He's written a book saying the Greatest Time to Be a Kid which you can get on Amazon. We'll have a link to it on our site and down below in the description so you guys can click on it and get yourself pick up one of these books. And it's a very easy to read book. Very easy to read, and you know I liked it because the print was kind of a little larger than some books and everything else. But we'll get into it a little bit.

Speaker 1: 1:32

But let's talk a little about Coach Ozzello here. He was born in the Midwest, which of course the book takes place at, but he has a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications and Journalism from the University of Illinois. He was a social studies teacher at Hart High School for freshmen through seniors. Let me say something Most coaches I know and when I coached and Coach Hart will agree coaches I know and when I coached and Coach Hart will agree, it's tough enough putting together our everyday's practice schedule and figuring out this and the fundraising and everything else. But to teach four or five classes a day in social studies, that is number one, a demanding thing, and you have to do your lesson plans. You've got to grade the homework. I mean you're probably talking an extra three, four hours a day. How alone did you do that? I mean, did you enjoy the subject and teaching it?

Speaker 3: 2:38

I loved teaching US history. I've been a US history teacher from day one, at Hart and at Alamany. I taught before I not only did regular US history classes, I also did advanced placement. So every year I'd be able to talk to or teach our best students. It was really a fun deal. I had a blast with it. Students, it was really a fun deal. Um, I had a blast with it.

Speaker 3: 3:08

Entails a lot of work. Yeah, you have to have a passion for it. Um, on a regular basis I would probably be at school, you know, somewhere around the six 30 hour, uh, trying to get my day ready, get myself organized. Sure, um, my schoolwork I tried to do it at school. Um, my baseball work I tried to do at home. So there were a lot of times at night I'd be working on. You know what's going on for the next day's practice. You know, I'd kind of stay away from the grading. Maybe on a weekend do some grading, bust out some grading.

Speaker 3: 3:38

But I love teaching. I always loved it, and to me it was an extension of what I did out on the field teaching. I always loved it and to me it was an extension of what I did on in the field, uh, teaching the classroom, teaching the field, um, a lot of my players um didn't often take me because they knew I was challenging, uh, but the kids who were usually the, the players and any, any, any student who you know took my class, they knew they would, you know, get the subject matter and, um, at the end of the year, especially in ap. You you have a test in May, national test. If you take the test and you pass it, I always threw a little, you know, a little addition for them. I'd bump your grade up.

Speaker 2: 4:15

Right.

Speaker 3: 4:16

So this past year, which was my last year of teaching AP, I had 17 students in my class and 16 of the 17 passed the exam. So that's, uh, you know, on the on an, on an average, you know, most schools, um, you're you're looking at 20 to 40% pass rate and I think down through the years my kids were usually around 85%. So it was, you know, it was a fun deal. You take a lot of pride in it, absolutely, and it was fun. I always loved it.

Speaker 2: 4:46

It's a great legacy when you I mean and you see it in coaching as well when you're making people better, you know, yeah, you're giving them a better opportunity to be successful. I mean, it's a you know, it's that old adage, you know you're not working a lot of pride in it.

Speaker 3: 5:10

You know, and the kids knew it when I when they came into my class they knew it that hey, we're going to work. And you know coach has got a. You know he's got a lesson ready to go. And you know we're not watching a film unless it's got some interest to what our top, our topic is. So it was just um I, you know, I learned at a young age.

Speaker 3: 5:21

You know to teach and to coach is basically the same thing yeah and, um, you know, to me the classroom, um was, was an awesome place to be, and then my field was an extension in my classroom. Yeah, so you know, um, when we we did baseball, uh, we, we took it in a serious manner and the players knew it and they knew what we were trying to get across.

Speaker 2: 5:46

I think ultimately, kids like structure and expectation and when you raise the bar and you have that, you know that everyday grind mentality.

Speaker 3: 5:54

I think you hit the nail on the head right there. When you raise the bar, they get there.

Speaker 2: 5:58

Yeah, they do.

Speaker 3: 5:58

And if you give them an out they're going to try to take an out and you know the fun deal about it. Uh, you know I've had, you know, student athletes and you know we often talk about that. You know you're a student athlete, you know, if you're you're a baseball player and, um, you know, we, we took pride in, you know, at the end, at the end of every semester, putting up a 3-0 list or putting up a 4-0 list yeah and who was on that list reinforce it yeah, and the kids, and the kids, you know, bought into that and they loved it and, um, you know the competition.

Speaker 1: 6:31

It's fun to see the competition in the classroom, yeah, as well as to see the competition out on the field yeah so I found over all the years I always have a little prejudice towards it, but I always thought the baseball players were the most intelligent athletes of all the athletes in the. You know I won't discredit the other sports right now, but baseball players usually were always near the top of the list when it came to a team GPA. You know especially when you're the amount of kids 50, 60, 70 kids in a baseball program compared to some other programs. But I found that baseball players always seem to be a little and if you think about it, baseball is a game of. It's an intelligent game. It's not a game of, it's not just a, it's not a reaction game, it's an anticipation game.

Speaker 3: 7:17

Correct. So, Scenarios and also, you know, let's think about it, let's think you know, baseball players are the last, it's the last season in high school season, so they wait through football, they wait through basketball and now, finally, we get the chance to play yep and then what happens? Oh, it rains, oh, I gotta fix the field prom night senior high prom night. You know we got a lot of distractions in spring, absolutely a lot of distractions graduation.

Speaker 1: 7:43

I don't even go into what a coach goes through at the high school level in baseball. Can you imagine a football coach going out before the game and lining his field or getting his headphones ready or anything else? Or a basketball coach preparing the stands and everything else?

Speaker 2: 7:58

Infrastructure is huge.

Speaker 1: 8:00

There's always the janitor who will do that, or they have the people who do that. And now he said if those coaches ever knew the amount of extra work that we all put in just to have our game or our practice, you know, you wonder how many of those other coaches would be sticking around.

Speaker 3: 8:15

Wait a second. How about that snack bar at Burroughs High School?

Speaker 1: 8:18

huh, yeah that snack bar was legendary right, I remember that, and it had the best cheeseburgers in town, absolutely. I guaranteed it Absolutely. Well, let's go back to your Alamany days and that's how I kind of got to know you originally when I was at Crespi and you know, I mean I thought your team was always a great competitive game and I know you and Scott Muckey, who was my mentor for 25 years, got along famously. And the way I really got to know you was every year we'd have a tournament. At that time I was doing JV. I was a head JV coach because I wanted to get my hone, my skills for head coaching someday.

Speaker 1: 9:08

And every year for our spring break we call it Easter vacation back then, which is still Easter vacation we'd have a tournament in Alamany. It's a round-robin tournament and every year I would get a 9 am game on both Friday and Saturday, or Tuesday, wednesday. I'd always get the 9 am game, of course. Now, reading the book, I found I like to be an early riser. Well, I think he liked the fact that he knew that I was a late-night guy and he'd get me out there and start to give him 9am. I'd have to, you know, I mean I'd have to leave here by 7am, you know, and get to school and get the whole thing you know and A little background too.

Speaker 2: 9:54

Coach Sherwood doesn't accept phone calls past before 10 o'clock, Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 9:59

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 10:00

Well.

Speaker 3: 10:01

I'm going to give you a little story on that right. Every year we'd set up that schedule right and I'd call Scott up and I'd say, hey, scott. I said you know what? Do you think you got Crespi playing the first games? He goes, yeah, absolutely. You got to get Coach Sherwood out there early, so you got to get him out there early. I think the one year I had to wake you up, I think I had to wake you up. So I opened up the gate at Alamany and I look out and there he is that's great Asleep in the car.

Speaker 1: 10:24

Well, I actually worked at a market back then at 2 in the morning and it was out in that area. I said, you know what the heck with it? I'm just going to drive over there now and sack out here in the car and I'm ready to go, and the players that day all drove themselves Right. Or you know bonding. I would say you know, because I used to kid him all the time about that and he'd always get a kick out of it, which you know. So then we moved over to Hart and then we actually had a bigger thing and the thing I got to, I got to know him really well at Hart, not not only from watching great teams play, but around I want to say 2010,.

Speaker 1: 11:11

There were six of us who broke off from American Legion Baseball and started the Valley Instructional Baseball League, and it was mostly Coach Ozzella and Coach Mucky who got together and said let's do this ourselves, because Legion is going to make us keep our seniors, which we didn't want to do. We just wanted to keep returning players. So they got together and we started the VIBL and it was very successful for a long time now until kind of the travel ball things kind of now washed everything away a little bit. But I got to know Coach Rizal very well back then.

Speaker 1: 11:45

During those days We'd have a lot of meetings in his classroom and we'd set things up and I was always present there and felt appreciated, which I thought was we got to really know each other, you know, and so I appreciated those days. You know, I appreciated because I looked at you like I looked at Coach Mucky. I had a lot of respect for you. You coached the right way. You weren't a rah-rah guy. Your players always played with respect and when we went out there we knew we were in for a game.

Speaker 3: 12:23

I really appreciate the words, your kind words it's. You know it was to me. When you talk about the coaching, you know it's a lot of friends, you know it's a fraternity and you know we did this for a long, long time. And you know, when we started the VIBL, it was kind of a funny deal. I, I was, I walked out of a legion meeting and um, legion was the way you did it back in those days and um, you know art had been in legion before I got the job there in 2000 and um legion director said to me he says, well, you need to have your 18 year old, you need to have your seniors play their final year of legion.

Speaker 3: 13:04

Director said to me he says, well, you need to have your 18 year old, you need to have your seniors play their final year of legion. I'm like, well, that doesn't really make sense because they're going off to college and I need to get my team ready for the following year. And I said I go what, what? How many? You know 25 guys. Because no, 18, 18, that just doesn't work. That's nine guys coming back.

Speaker 3: 13:26

Maybe there's only nine guys to work with yep I go, what about a you know, what about a lower level? No, we don't have a lower level, it's just, you know, it was legion, was everything was destined to try to win championships, you know. And my goal was to develop kids and get them better. And so, you know, he said, he says well, you know, if you don't do it this way, then you know, maybe we'll take it out of your hands and we'll find somebody else up there. And I'm like you do that, you can have whatever you want. I go, we're going to do it a different way. And so I walked out and I walked out and about five minutes I'm getting in my car. About five minutes later, scott out. And I walked out, and about five minutes I'm getting in my car. About five minutes later, scott, scott, scott goes knocking on my door and he's going hey, what are you going to do? And I go, I'm going to do something, but we're not going to do legion. And I go, I'll just, you know, I want to play with my guys, I want to develop for the following year, that the spring season's over and let's try to get ready for the next season.

Speaker 3: 14:23

And I said, you know where I came from Midwest. The summer programs were run like that. There really wasn't a whole lot of Legion ball, it was a high school league. And I told him that and I said, well, I said you know, hey, you want to come in. I said, you know, I don't care, we get five, six, six teams. And I think the first couple of years we had six or maybe eight teams.

Speaker 3: 14:43

And then all of a sudden guys kind of got on board and said, hey, this is a pretty good deal, yep, and we had, you know, the umpires working with us, the union working with us and a lot of coordination and a lot of organizing and it was a really it was a first class league. We had all-star games in the mid season. We used to have, we used to have a tournament at the end of the season which was really fun to see, but it was just a way to develop talent. And we really I remember a number of times Scott used to say you know, some team would kind of want to come in.

Speaker 3: 15:21

You know they might not have been very good or whatever. And Scott's like, hey, we need to develop baseball, like I hear you. So you know, some guys you know would come in. I'll give you an example campbell hall right was in league for a couple of summers and you know, they they, you know struggled to win games and that really wasn't the. The goal wasn't to win games, the goal was to develop your talent and following spring, it'd be pretty good.

Speaker 1: 15:44

Well, the rules we had were, I thought, good rules. The head coach had to coach the team. You couldn't just have fathers and people out there who were the coaches and in Legion we said, hey, you know, that's fine, we'll play against your big teams. They just didn't want to do it and I think within five years, legion was gone. Legion was dead. I went from 25 teams down to zero because everybody went through VIBL thinking this is you know, and here was the great thing, here's what Muck loved, besides anything else, he goes when I write the schedule. I know, when I write the schedule, I know when I write down July 15th, the season is over, yep, you know. It's not one of these things where you go into another tournament and you're playing for you know, because you know, we both got into situations where we're playing all the way until school started, basically, and so where was our vacation? Where were the players' vacation?

Speaker 2: 16:50

It was about a six six year, a six week program. Yep, yeah, maybe seven, and you're just coming off your season too.

Speaker 3: 16:54

So it's you know people need time off absolutely. It was always a blast for me come down to burbank and play those night games yeah, you know, because santa clarita is hot, yeah, 105, and I come down and play. You guys it's seven o'clock and you know it's 70 degrees and kids are like, hey, this is, this is awesome. Plus we're playing under the lights, you know so right kind of gives the kids something else for sure yeah, we always.

Speaker 1: 17:18

I'll tell you the truth, we always thought that we had advantage playing at night, because when I was at krespi, I remember one time we were on a bus and we were heading to St Francis and it was a night game. The kids were all just never played in the lights before.

Speaker 1: 17:33

And I'm thinking really Because in Burbank even all the youth leagues and everything else it's all under the lights. Kids start playing in the lights when they're six years old. So I started thinking about that, their lights. Kids start playing the lights. They're six years old. So I started looking and thinking about that. You know, that's an advantage to play at night if you're a burbank person, because the other teams haven't experienced that before. So and there were times when you'd see guys lose lights and balls and get too high and they wouldn't you know. So there were those advantages that over the years. So, but I, I know which I both kept that kind of quiet. Here we are, we just put it over the entire world, everybody, we're on front street now.

Speaker 3: 18:08

Yes, we are well, you know let's think about this what one of the hotbeds of high school baseball is orange county right, and orange county has lights. All those schools have lights. They got parks that have lights. You know Long Beach, a lot of those. There used to be a high school league down at Blair. You know you play under the lights. It's a big deal.

Speaker 2: 18:31

Lakewood yeah, they turn them out.

Speaker 1: 18:36

Well, let's get back to a little bit of the resume here Now. Coach Hart and myself always know when you go to Hart, you look at what we call the wall of intimidation, and listed on that wall are league titles and just alone the league titles that Coach Ozzello is involved in. These are all foothill league titles. These are all Foothill League titles in 2000, 2001, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2024. And he was a D1 finalist in 2015. And, of course, in 2024, won the whole shebang and got his first CF title, which I can't believe. That was your first one.

Speaker 2: 19:24

Storybook.

Speaker 3: 19:26

Good way to end it, huh.

Speaker 2: 19:27

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:27

Good way to end it. Let's talk about that game a little bit. You're cruising along Well, I shouldn't say cruising along, but you got into the seventh inning and you got yourself a one-run lead. Whoa, excuse my finger, I hit the wrong button button. I can't believe all the buttons hit. That was the one, oh, my goodness. Well, I'll give myself a little. Uh, there we go. Um, um, who's the law? I'll say. The first guy gets on base anything. Oh boy, here we. You Next guy launches the ball down the left field line. The umpires, and so number one I don't know why you're not playing at Dodger Stadium or at Ohio Stadium. The CIF is cheapskates.

Speaker 2: 20:17

Where was that game?

Speaker 1: 20:18

Lake Elsinore, lake Elsinore, three and a half hours Good for fans to get out to, also On a Friday night. So the ball goes out there and all of a sudden you're seeing some guys jump up and down some guys, not some guys, and the umpires look confused and so the runner thinks he, the batter thinks he might have a double. But then all of a sudden they see the home run. So that means that's it, game's over. War Park wins the CIF title. It's all over. Heartbreak for Coach Ozella.

Speaker 1: 20:53

But wait a second, that didn't happen. Now let me ask you. First, you saw the ball. I'm sure you saw the ball hit the ground and bounce over, right, I hoped. I hoped you saw them the distance. You saw the home run get called and they're celebrating, the lights are flashing, everything else going on. But then you're realizing wait, that ball bounced over that ball. What was going through your mind at that moment? Thinking, probably my last ever argument with an umpire and I've got to convince him that that home run was a double and there's no video evidence allowed to CIF. Right, so you had to go out. So what was that conversation like?

Speaker 3: 21:40

Well, let's kind of go back through that whole deal. So nobody out in the seventh, we're up. One ball is hit real well from our distance, from our vantage point, from the coaches standpoint, we're in the first base dugout. It was hard for us to see right away from a coaching standpoint. You look at your player's body language Right and my left fielder, brady Werther, who was a catcher we'd put him out in left field because he could swing it a little bit he could hit. His immediate body language was, you know, balls down and the balls over the fence. Both hands were up. Third base umpire down the line, signaled down that the ball was fair and then didn't see any other sign. Home plate umpire was following him down the line, was trying to get out there to take a good look as well. So the craziness of the whole deal was the third base umpire came back into the infield. When he came back into the infield he signaled the whirlybird home run. Now the operator of the stadium right all of a sudden went ballistic on the lights, turned the lights on and off. You know, celebration, like Moorpark. They're like looking at each other like not sure either. And so they start celebrating. Guy comes home steps on home plate. So much to the umpire's credit.

Speaker 3: 23:20

As soon as that third base umpire came in, the home plate guy brought everybody together. I stayed out of it. Oh, so you did not go out? I did not go out right away, I stayed out of it. Let the umpires do their thing, do their job. So it was a very quick discussion. Probably within a couple of minutes Home plate guy's coming back towards me. So now I walked out and I said real simple. I said what do we got? I go, do we have a fair ball or foul ball? It's a foul ball. That goes back to first. We replay the hitter. Fair ball, foul ball. He goes it's a fair ball. I go okay. What do we got? We got double or home run? He goes we, we got double. I go, okay, we got second and third. We got nobody out, let's go. And I turned around and I walked away and you know it was loud.

Speaker 1: 24:14

I mean it's a pretty decent crowd. Moorpark had to know that was the right call because I watched. When I saw the video the first time I saw, you know, being a coach, I watched the third base coach and he just stood there. He didn't jump up and down, throw his arms up or nothing, so he knew that ball bounced over. So it wasn't that, you know, they knew it.

Speaker 3: 24:35

There's contention after the game Right.

Speaker 3: 24:37

They didn't all know it, but you know, the ones who really saw it knew it so, but you know here's the thing also is that okay, so now, okay, it's not a home run, but so now it's, you're up by one and it's second and third, nobody out. Our submariner, our submariner, now that you know that was about a five minute, five minute break. We had brought him in in the sixth and he struggled. Probably the first time all year he struggled. I mean, he was pitcher of the year in the Foothill League. I believe he was four or five and one, eight or nine saves. He was a dude for us all year. He and Edwards. Well, you know, we converted him. Yeah, I love those guys, we love those guys. Um, about five minutes now, and second and third, nobody out.

Speaker 3: 25:32

And in the six, when I went out to talk to him, the biggest problem with him sometimes during the year was he would get too excited and the arm angle would come up instead of stay down. When it stays down, it turns over, it rolls. When it comes up, it flattens out. So he came into the game. We're two outs. In the six. We had a bit we had a 7-2 lead at the time brought him in. I said, hey, you ready to close it up? Yeah, I'm ready to close.

Speaker 3: 26:01

But he was juiced up, he was fired up and he kind of wanted to throw the ball by some people and they you know Moore, had a good program and they had in the playoffs a number of times made comebacks and I told our players that. I said, hey, this is a team. We got to get them Once we get them down. We got to get them Once we get him down. We got to get him. Now we let him back in the game 7-6. Okay, but I think the five minutes or so, seven minutes or so, gave him time to kind of catch his breath. His teammates were out there, they were in his pocket. I'm not taking him out. We're either going to win or we're going to lose with Ian Edwards.

Speaker 1: 26:39

Well, that's your guy, that's my guy. Yeah, because you would always second-guess yourself if you had gotten somebody else.

Speaker 3: 26:45

I go somewhere else and you know, I don't know if anybody else would have been able to handle the situation. So his next pitch I saw was back down in the lower angle and all of a sudden the ball's rolling again. It's running into the right-hander Guy, gets a pretty good swing on it, hits a line drive at our third baseman. Our third baseman makes the catch. He's a very good Michael Hogan, outstanding defensive player, makes the catch. One out Ball back to Ian. All of a sudden Ian's now got a little bit more. Yeah, I think I got this. This next pitch another fastball in jams. The guy weak ground ball to shortstop, shortstop. Braden jeffries picks it up, easy out. We hold the runner. Second and third, now two outs. I was after the next guy. Again, fastball runs in jams. Them pop up down the right field line. Our right fielderder Comes in, matthew Perez comes in, makes the catch.

Speaker 1: 27:47

It goes crazy, our guys, you know dog pile Could be the most dramatic aiding ever High school baseball. Yeah, and decided championship.

Speaker 3: 27:59

It was very epic exciting.

Speaker 3: 28:04

Your heart was in both hands. One pitch, hey, we lost. One pitch it's over Our kids. We dogpiled a lot this year. It was a great year for us. They dogpiled. We always tell them at heart down through the years we live for the dogpiled and, um, you know, we, we always tell them at heart, you know, down through the years, we live for the dogpile. You know that's what it's all about. You live for the dogpile. Now you got to understand one thing with the dogpile, you don't dogpile when it's a blowout, right, right, you know, and that's something we always prided ourself on at heart was being able to play the game late. Yeah, being able to play the game late, and, um, we played it late.

Speaker 1: 28:48

One more time nice and play consistently the whole game too.

Speaker 3: 28:51

But yeah, we were. I mean, their guy was their their left hander was a tough, tough guy. Um, we hit him well, I thought we could have knocked him out early and he hung in there and he kind of kept them in the game a little bit and we were. We had a chance to blow that game open more than once and, um, he did a great job. But I thought early on we had a good, a good plan offensively and, uh, put the bat to the ball a lot yeah uh, but you know credit to them.

Speaker 3: 29:18

You know it's high school baseball, let's go baseball.

Speaker 1: 29:20

A lot of you know guys are excited to play well, in all the years you coach, I just realized when I was counting things up today, 682 career high school wins for you. That is, that's amazing. I mean, 500 has always been the huge mark, big number, 682. How many losses, you know what? We don't count the losses up, you know. I, I have, I, I did, I saw the records but I said you guys come on now.

Speaker 3: 29:50

You remember those losses bad, don't you, I try to flush them they make, they they they now the flushing noise.

Speaker 1: 29:56

Wait a second, where's that noise?

Speaker 3: 29:57

there we go there we go flush those losses you, you know, I've been blessed. A lot of great teams, a lot of great players. We've lost some tough games. We were in the CIF Championship years ago, huntington Beach. Huntington Beach was loaded, loaded with talent. We lost 3-1. It was a great game. We made it to the semifinals a a couple other times, quarterfinals, and lost some tough games. Um, you go home. You don't sleep very well, you know. And you, you know, you try to get up the next day and and turn the page yep but um you know, this time here you know it was.

Speaker 1: 30:40

It was a fun trip home I bet I don't think people realize and I was lucky enough to be involved in a championship, we won one and lost one and what people don't realize is, not only in that game but in the run, how many times things just happen to go your way, compared to when you lose in the playoffs and something didn't go your way.

Speaker 1: 31:05

But how many times you know, because we won our semi-final game and our final game both won nothing there you go and numerous times the other team had runners on second and third or man on third, man on second, two outs and we made the play every time and it wasn't a base hit, it was a ground ball to short or whatever it was. But how many times can it also be a ground ball up the middle and a base hit and two-run score and your season's over. So if you look at how many when you win a championship, how many times? And it's not luck, because luck is a combination of skill and hard work I think everybody you know coaches know that. But it's just, it's the way baseball is and I was very fortunate when I went back and looked at the season I said, wow, look at all those opportunities for something that could have gone against us and it didn't. It just went in our favor.

Speaker 3: 32:01

Well, are you ready? Our first round game 14 innings Yep Against Simi Valley. Early in the year Simi Valley beat us at Simi Valley in a one-run game. They beat our ace, troy Cooper. So we go, we're hosting Simi at our place and we told the Simi guy. I said scott, I said, um, I kind of had a feeling we're going to play each other. He looked at me, he goes. I didn't really want to play you again and I go. I hear you and I go. But you know what we got?

Speaker 3: 32:38

we got two proud programs you know let's go out today and play. Well, here you go, you ready. We're down two in the bottom of the seventh, with one out and our left fielder, brady werther, two run homer, tie the game. Extra innings 14 innings. We bring cooper in to pitch innings 8 through 14. One hitter, so the game went back and forth. They scored a runoff of him on an error. We came back, werther, with another big hit to tie the game again. And then we end up dogpiling in the 14th. It was last inning. If we hadn't scored in the 14th, we'd be coming back the next day to play the 15th.

Speaker 3: 33:22

And you know how that would be a tough, that'd be a tough deal, you know, to get your kids up. After 14 you've run out of pitching. You know you've used we used edwards, we used our first, we used our uh, our second starter, we used cooper. Now we'd be down to our third, fourth, fifth guy and I know they'd be in the same boat as us. But so, yeah, you know, a lot of luck, a lot of performance, a lot of fun, a lot of excitement. It was. It was fun this year. We, you know, went to Newport Harbor, went out. After Newport Harbor, we went out to Riverside to play Arlington you know both those teams were outstanding and then we had to play Arcadia in the semifinals at our place. So I mean it was a challenging run, as you guys all know. Division I, division II, division III, division IV Southern California Baseball here.

Speaker 1: 34:18

It's a grind. Let's talk real fast. We want to get into your book, absolutely. But last thing I kind of want to mention is you're talking about some of these great players this year, but you've had some pretty damn good players over the past. You know, I was lucky that I've coached a couple kids who went on to but nowhere near the numbers that you coached, who've made it onto the, the show, or you know, major league baseball or whatever it is. And right now I know Tyler Glass now, who was, you know, one of your guys is with the Dodgers right now and maybe having the best year of his life. In fact just got pictures for his All-Star team. Let's run down some of the players that played for you that have made it to the show. You have a list of those? Yeah, I sure do. Let's go to the Alameda too. We have two Alameda guys.

Speaker 3: 35:08

That's absolutely true. Yes, two Alameda guys. We have a guy left-handed pitcher by the name of Joe Roselli, right Pitched for the Giants in the big leagues, was outstanding. We had a third baseman by the name of Andy Dominique, who went to Nevada, reno and, I believe, is still All these memories are bringing up of these people.

Speaker 1: 35:26

How about those names?

Speaker 3: 35:27

I remember those names huh, uh, andy, uh, went to Nevada Reno. I believe he's still the maybe the home run RBI leader in in in history there. Um my first guy at at at heart, um Hart, um I.

Speaker 2: 35:49

I took over in 2000, in 1999 Bud.

Speaker 3: 35:51

Murray in his last game won the CIF championship how ironic is that about that huh? And his top player, the top player in that team was James Shields. All right, not too many people called him James back in those names days it was Jamie Shields and he was a two-way guy at and he pitched in the major leagues for quite some time with a lot of success. I believe he won a World Series, you know. So Shields, he was outstanding. We had the Valleca brothers. Okay, we were blessed to have.

Speaker 3: 36:17

I had a run of years where it was pretty easy for me to write the lineup you know, and shortstop today is Valleca. Three years later the shortstop is Valleca and three years later the shortstop is Valleca. So Chris Valleca played for us, played in the big leagues Right now. You know for all the listeners, probably one of the top teams in Major League Baseball right now are the Cleveland Guardians and Chris is the hitting coach, been hitting coach there for a couple years, does an outstanding job. We were blessed with him and Pat, both in the big leagues. Pat's retired, chris is still in the game. Trevor Bauer pitched at UCLA, was pitcher of the Year, I think. Golden Spikes winner.

Speaker 1: 37:11

Pitched in the big leagues for a few dominant years here. Did he do that sword thing or whatever back in high school? Was that?

Speaker 3: 37:15

something that he used. He was an interesting character, but he could pitch and let me put it to you real bluntly Trevor knew the game, knew how to pitch, was outstanding, probably one of the hardest workers we've ever had in our history, no doubt about it.

Speaker 1: 37:32

I watch him on his YouTube channel all the time and I really enjoy the videos. I enjoy listening to his thought process. He's really analytical in what he does. I would recommend to young players to actually watch some of those videos and learn things about it.

Speaker 3: 37:48

He knows the game, he knows how to pitch, he knows how to break it down.

Speaker 2: 37:51

His dad actually came out and did a throwing clinic with some of our guys. They were pretty serious guys, oh yeah, they get after it.

Speaker 3: 37:59

Steve Sussdorf remember that left-handed hitting guy who went to Fresno, was one of our first national champions. He was on the national championship team at Fresno, was outstanding, had a great career. He's still involved in the program. And the alumni you know comes out every year, our alumni games. They were getting bigger and bigger as I left. Probably one of the big names, obviously Michael Montgomery. Year where alumni games are getting bigger. They were getting bigger and bigger as I left. Uh, probably one of the big names, obviously michael montgomery, a big, tall left-hander. For us was a first rounder. Um mike's, the guy who threw the last out for the cubs, got the cubs the world series. He was on the mound for that last out. If you remember that ground ball, chris bryan over there, third base mike had come into that game and and I believe that was next year. Oh, by the way, in that game both Trevor Bauer and Mike pitched in that ballgame and my wife and I were watching that World Series game.

Speaker 2: 38:55

That's great.

Speaker 3: 38:56

And I'm like, oh boy, this is a little nerve-wracking here and you know they're saying, hey, Montgomery's in the bullpen. Well, he had been up in the bullpen like four or five times during the game and I'm still close with him. And you know there's a guy he's pitched I don't know if you guys know that he's been in Major League Baseball or independent baseball now for 17 straight years. Crazy 17 straight years. He right now pitches for the Long Island Ducks, an independent ball and still trying to. He just loves the game. See if he can make it back and you know, but he loves it.

Speaker 1: 39:28

You're not in the game that long unless you love the game. Also, You're not doing it because you know you have to prove anything. You're doing it because you love the game and if you happen to make it, that's even better. But he appreciates you want to know one of the big things for him.

Speaker 3: 39:40

Now he's got a son who's, I believe, five years of age and he just loves having his son out at the ballpark with him and teaching his kid baseball and teaching his kid some of the values of life.

Speaker 2: 39:55

Well, those guys in my experience and I don't have that type of experience, but the real good players seem to love the process. It's not just the game, it's the everyday grind and your guys and your coaches and you know that all adds up to a great thing, something memorable, you know.

Speaker 3: 40:12

Teammates yeah, you know how many teammates hanging around and you know doing all that. Trevor Brown was a catcher for the Giants at UCLA. He played with the Giants. Trevor was one of our. He was an interesting player for us because he played multiple positions played center field, played shortstop, played third base. He even actually pitched a little bit his senior year and was a catcher. So he got into pro ball. Glasnow graduated in 2011,. And then Pat Vileka. So you know we're blessed at heart. The kids who came through the gate followed a tradition. It was a proud tradition. I just kind of took it over from Bud and you know Bud took it over from Frank Sanchez. Frankie was, you know, the head coach at Pepperdine for a few years. So I mean, it was. You know. It's a fun environment for my 25 years to be there.

Speaker 2: 41:06

Um, when the families are into it, when the traditions, you know, based on developing and and being successful, success breeds success yeah, it becomes self, uh, you know, it just kind of feeds itself almost to a degree Mm-hmm, you know, and your reputation. Obviously people are going to want to play for somebody like you.

Speaker 3: 41:29

So Well, it was to be honest with you. I mean, I had very few problems in 25 years and it's really been a blessing for me to be involved with you know my parents let's think about the V lake of family right both mom and dad. Dad just passed away recently but you know mom is still with us. Um highly involved in the dugout club, um always involved in, you know, helping out the program fundraising you know it's been over a decade with that family too.

Speaker 1: 42:05

I mean, let's think about it.

Speaker 3: 42:06

Four guys played. Yeah, four guys played. Four guys played. Four guys got drafted. Two of them played in the major leagues. Outstanding kids, outstanding family.

Speaker 2: 42:20

Relationships matter.

Speaker 3: 42:21

Yes, yes, absolutely they do. And you know, the beautiful thing about all those kids that you know we just talked about is all their parents were highly involved in their careers. You know, it wasn't, they were. None of these kids were on their own. You know, um, we went to dodger stadium uh, one of tyler's last starts and we're getting ready to walk in, going to walk again, getting some tickets from Tyler and walking over to get the tickets and there's his mom and dad. So we sat with them during the game and, you know, had ourselves a blast, that's great.

Speaker 3: 42:52

Talked about. You know how their lives are and what's going on, and I told them at the time I said hey, you got about three weeks left before you're going to Texas and three weeks left before you're you're going to texas. And they're like what are you talking about? I go, tyler's making the all-star team, and they're like you think so and I go yeah, he's making it.

Speaker 3: 43:09

Yeah, yeah, I need to lead national league in strikeouts and he is such a great kid it's, it's great to see the success. And you know, I know um a lot of talk this year when he came to the dodgers about you know he's uh, he's injury prone and all that. And I said, hey, listen, everybody, you know I told all the reporters I said you're going to have a big year. And I said he's over his health problems, he works hard, he's a great athlete and I go, he's passionate about it. Those things will usually lead to success.

Speaker 2: 43:41

Coming home too.

Speaker 1: 43:44

Dodgers did a nice behind-the-scenes with his family too, with his parents growing up, and we talked finally about Harden and everything else in the day. But let's talk about we love having you here. I'd have you here if you didn't write the book, but you did write the book, and once again, the book the Greatest Time to Be a Kid. It's an easy page turner. I mean, I was able to read it very easily. You know A little over 200 pages. So it's not, you know it's not an epic novel, but it's I don't know how do you say charming.

Speaker 2: 44:23

It's a it's a wonder years.

Speaker 1: 44:26

Yeah, it Charming, it's the wonder years. Yeah, the wonder years. Yeah, exactly In that regard. So it's about you in the Midwest growing up and it's about what ages does this cover? What's the starting age to the ending age You're looking at.

Speaker 3: 44:46

The four stories that I wrote were about the age of 8 to 9 to 10, somewhere in that area. So it was. You know, I was born in 1958, so around 1965, 66, 67. And that time period is….

Speaker 1: 45:03

Well, my friend, how did you remember so much of that stuff in such detail? I look back at my days and I can remember some really good experiences, but the detail you have is tremendous.

Speaker 3: 45:15

Well, you know, I kind of went back a little bit and kind of thought back about how fun those times were. And you know, when you experience those things, the memories kind of I'm one of those old dogs who kind of remembers things like that and I just a lot of the experiences were talked about a lot in family. I was blessed with two great parents.

Speaker 1: 45:50

And your sisters, my sisters, I have three sisters. What was the age difference between you and the younger sister?

Speaker 3: 45:57

My youngest sister was in high school in her late high school years when I was growing up and moving into college. So there's a little bit of a difference in ages of about nine years and you're the first boy in the family. I'm the baby of the family and my parents were a little older at the time, so I was it to them. We moved into a neighborhood, this Ingalls Park neighborhood, in which there were a lot of kids just like me.

Speaker 1: 46:27

Well, let's talk about one of the experiences you had, and it's funny. You look at the movie the Sandlot.

Speaker 3: 46:32

Yes.

Speaker 1: 46:33

And I'm reading through this and I'm reading about you have the ball and you're down, you're playing and all of a sudden you hit the ball and it rolls into the lady's yard. Yeah, and it rolls into the lady's yard and she comes out and she grabs the ball and says the heck with you guys and took your ball and game over. So I mean, but the whole experience sounded a lot like the Sandlot movie in a way.

Speaker 3: 46:53

Well, it was. You know, it was a neighborhood where we walked to school. School, which was St Mary Magdalene, which was a private Catholic school, was five houses down the street from where I lived. Pretty much all the kids in the neighborhood went to that school, so we saw each other on a daily basis during school and then during summer. We're not going to lose that. We got together and we'd get on our bikes and, let's not kid ourselves, it was a simpler time absolutely you know it wasn't a time where you had to call in and check in with mom and dad.

Speaker 3: 47:32

Mom and dad trusted you and they let you go out. They knew everybody. They knew all the kids. They took care of the kids as well as you. You know, I mean, mom and dad were mom and dad to 20 other kids in the neighborhood. Right sounds like you had a lot of meals, a lot of houses absolutely and everybody shared.

Speaker 3: 47:49

Everybody shared. Yeah, it was. You know, you know I'm going over to the, the, the morris house and the morris family. They'd you know they'd they'd be cooking hamburgers for the kids. You know it was that. That was that kind of a time and, um, you know I'm so I'm, you know I'm, yeah, I'm a transplanted midwesterner and and it was simpler time, uh, I, I came from a low-income family. Uh, dad worked in a factory, blue collar. Uh, we had one car. Uh, mom was housewife, took care of the kids.

Speaker 1: 48:23

Um, fixed, fixed, you know, had her sewing machine, but I didn't read in the book where you felt disadvantaged or you didn't have something. I always read as though there was never a situation. No, it was not about income, it was about experiences. It was about providing for their kids. Yep, it was not about income, it was about experiences.

Speaker 3: 48:44

It was about providing for their kids Yep, providing for their kids, and I was. You know I was the last one. The other three sisters are out the house starting their families and you know they took care of me and know we, we, uh, we lived a life that I can't say is is. I was just blessed.

Speaker 1: 49:11

Now you, I guess we're a St Louis Cardinals fan. I was a St Louis Cardinals fan and you had a friend, danny, who took you to a double header and the Cubs beat up the Cardinals twice yes, and then you had to hear about it all right home. So why were you a cardinals fan and not a cubs fan? And what was that? What was that experience?

Speaker 3: 49:35

well, you know, when you I lived, I came. I grew up in joliet, which is, you know, about an hour and a half outside chicago. Um, most, of the most of the kids in the neighborhood were Cubs fans, not too many White Sox fans. The Cubs were on TV WGN on a daily basis. It was always a good thing to go out and play and come back home and have lunch and sit down and watch the Cubs play on TV.

Speaker 1: 50:01

Now, don't forget, that's 1960s, so we're talking some great players back in those days, and if you were to watch those games here we're lucky to see the Dodgers on Channel 11 every Sunday and of course they went up to play in San Francisco We'd see those games.

Speaker 2: 50:17

Besides that, we had no experience with television and the Dodgers whatsoever in the 60s and 70s I think to a certain degree that gave us a little better appreciation, or more appreciation, because it wasn't on all the time right.

Speaker 3: 50:30

So you know but you know, one of the one of the blessings also was transistor radio. Absolutely remember back in those days your transistor and so my little transistor. I became a Cardinal fan for a simple reason the Cardinals were winners and I loved, when I grew up, the uniform, the two birds on the bats.

Speaker 2: 50:54

Great organization.

Speaker 3: 50:55

It was just, I grew up and I used to be able to get on my transistor and it was fuzzy. The feed from St Louis, from Bush Stadium, you know the Harry Carey and those days, you know, and those were the days of the Cardinals. And so I loved watching WGN because the Cubs had all these teams coming in. And then when the Cardinals came in, boy oh boy, after lunch I wasn't going out, I was going to stay in and watch that game for sure. So it was. It was just, you know, it was a time period of being locked into learning the game. My dad was a baseball coach coaching the Pony League levels. Mom and dad, you know that was their deal. We lived not too far away from the Pony League, your dad had a good team.

Speaker 1: 51:55

Yeah, he was, because you know you had a friend who was dying to play for him and not playing baseball at all if he didn't get drafted by your dad. Yeah, so I mean it sounds like he had a pretty good, was dying to play for him and not playing baseball at all If he didn't get drafted by your dad. So I mean it sounds like he had a pretty good. You got to kind of a basic basic in coaching or understanding of how he had a passion for it.

Speaker 3: 52:12

He had a passion for it At a young age. He had tried out for the St Louis Browns and you know, it was, I guess, a pretty good ball player According to him, a real good ball player. But he had a passion for it and he loved the game and he passed that down to me.

Speaker 1: 52:31

Did he ever get to play for the Browns in spring training at all?

Speaker 3: 52:35

No, I think he just had a tryout.

Speaker 1: 52:38

The Browns actually worked out here in Burbank in spring training. Yeah, this was their spring training location for a few years, olive Park yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 3: 52:46

But you know, he passed it down and we'd watch games together and he'd teach me, you know, the intricacies of the game, how to keep score. You know and sure, in those early days I was a bat boy and I found out, hey, you start chasing foul balls, I can get some free candy and get that foul ball and bring it over to the and you get yourself a Tootsie Roll. So that's how you lived. We lived at the ballpark all the time. We lived at the Pony and, um, it had lights. You know, and uh, you know there was a five o'clock game or six o'clock, I forget the time, but five o'clock game and seven o'clock game and we were there from, you know, four, four o'clock my dad would get off of work and the lifestyle yeah, we were there yeah, we, I know we kind of move into Braidwood and one of the stories I enjoyed reading was your interpretation of going off the high dive and you know, of course, the other guys are always on no problem at all.

Speaker 1: 54:00

So that was a big moment when all of a sudden you decided, okay, no problem, I'm. So that that was a big moment when all of a sudden you decided, okay, I'm gonna, yeah, no problem, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna show that lifeguard that, yeah, I can swim and everything else and well, I'll be honest with you.

Speaker 3: 54:11

I was a scaredy cat.

Speaker 3: 54:12

I was a scaredy cat, I wasn't sure about that high dive, you know. And then my buddy, danny, he kind of was one of those kids who was fearless, fearless, and he's like, hey, don't look down. And you know, just let it fly. And you know, and then, after you get over that initial fear and it becomes, you know, wow, this is really not that big a deal. And you know, as a young kid you're growing up and you're overcoming your fears and confidence grows. And you know, and that that lifetime friend, that that Danny, danny Tallarico, I mean he meant everything to me because we lived life together, so overcoming that fear was a big deal.

Speaker 1: 54:52

You guys were inseparable, though it seems like everything you guys did together and everything else. And we talk about Bass Lake. I was reading about Bass Lake and your experience, of course, swimming out to the island, which probably you shouldn't have been doing. You know, naughty boy Well you know, as a young kid not everything is all the rules right, yeah. And Danny's slogan was expect the unexpected, yeah. So talk a little about those experiences.

Speaker 3: 55:22

Yeah, braidwood was our vacation spot. My parents had joined Braidwood when it opened. It was a recreation club. It had, I don't know, probably 15 to 20 old strip mines that they made into lakes and most of the lakes they stocked with fish. One lake was the swimming area and so we lived there. You know, on weekends that's where we went, that was our vacation. I mean, I didn't leave my hometown until eight or nine years of age.

Speaker 3: 55:57

And where did we go? We went to a St Louis Cardinals game. You know, that's where we went. One of the truck drivers came into my dad's factory and he said you know, hey, your son's still Cardinal fan, he goes, yeah, he goes, I'll get you tickets. And so he got my, we got, he got three tickets and so one of the first times I ever left my hometown, we went to St Louis for cardinal game on a saturday and it was a huge deal. It was, you know where the. You know I had it. I had an old uniform and it was like, hey, I'm gonna wear that uniform. And we got to the ballpark early and my my was, you know the experience of a lifetime. You want to talk about dream and sleep, and you know on the way back home. Think about what you know as a little kid. This was what it was all about. But braidwood was where we let, we, we, we. Saturdays and sundays was where my parents went to get their their break from life um, and it sounded.

Speaker 1: 56:52

It sounded to me like your parents knew what you were up to really all the time and we just kind of questioned a little about it and say, well is it? You know they knew what you were up to, about. You know they said swimming out to an island.

Speaker 3: 57:04

Well, the island deal was a real step out on our adventures. Right, we wanted to catch some fish and we saw this guy out in a boat and you met a couple of friends there too.

Speaker 1: 57:16

Oh yeah, have you kept up with those two other guys? I've never.

Speaker 3: 57:20

No, danny Tallarico still, I'm in contact with him. Okay, we email each other all the time and uh, he's, he lives up in the Dakotas, and um, but, um, yeah, it was a little bit of an adventure. Um, we, we, we shouldn't have done it, but, um, you know, we ran into a few snakes and um, um, teaches you navigation right, yeah, you know, um teaches you navigation, right, yeah, you know, teaches you some, some lessons in life.

Speaker 1: 57:48

you know, don't forget mom and dad um you know, found out about it, and well, you came honest with them. No, you didn't, you, didn't they? Well, they, they let me.

Speaker 3: 57:53

They let me put my foot in my mouth a little bit. They let me talk a little bit give you a little rope they gave me a little rope and then, uh, and then they pulled the rope in and said, uh, hey, um, I think, we think we know a little bit more about this adventure, and I went, oh, sounds like stand by me yeah, that's a lot of this book sounds like.

Speaker 1: 58:12

It sounds like you put stand by me and and the sandlot a lot of these little stories you know and that's where I'm sure that these stories and these movies came from was personal experiences. But it sounds like you've experienced a lot of these types of experiences, which is what the Midwest is. That's not so much how California was.

Speaker 3: 58:31

Yeah, the first story is about taking everybody and going down to the Pony League and playing over the line, right, and I mean for baseball coaches and baseball players. Everybody knows what over the line is. Somebody who's never done it might not know what over the line is, you know. And so you know you go down there and you play because you want to play, you want to have fun with your buddies and you know you have a little bit of a time where, hey, we need to get a breather and we sit down and talk stories and, you know, talk about what's going on with our lives, you know.

Speaker 1: 59:06

I wonder if that's maybe kind of where your coaching a little bit started, because you had that one younger kid who jumped to the back of your bike and you took him down there and would never had a hit. And they hit him, the ball got hit to him and he made the catch.

Speaker 3: 59:17

He made the catch and then got a hit, you know, and was involved.

Speaker 1: 59:20

But you were coaching him all the time. Hey, don't worry about it, you know we'll get you know His big big brother.

Speaker 3: 59:24

You know the, the family, the family situation. Those brothers all stuck together and they lived with each other and you know it was. It was a fun, fun experience to see those guys on a daily basis. I was being raised, I was home by myself. A lot of my friends had brothers and sisters and it was cool to see those little brothers and, you know, take care of them, you know.

Speaker 1: 59:51

The last chapter of the book. I opened it up in chapter four and it's entitled Big Daddy and there's a picture of a bicycle there. I'm thinking, oh, okay, because you know, when I was young I had my Schwinn Stingray, you know, and handlebars and I did the paper routes and everything else and okay. So oh, you hear about his bike. You know he called Big Daddy. The bike had nothing to do with it whatsoever. Big Daddy was your next-door neighbor who was named Big Daddy because he drove a big Cadillac. I guess he was a big man. All the kids called him Big Daddy because of his Cadillac he was a big man.

Speaker 3: 1:00:30

He drove the Cadillac. When he went down the street everybody knew who he was. He was Big Daddy. He'd honk the horn, he'd wave at everybody. He was a gentle giant, one of those guys who took care of the community. He was a businessman. He made quite a bit of money. He was successful and I had a little experience with his dog.

Speaker 1: 1:00:53

Well, yeah, let's talk about the experience with the dog, with Barney yeah, Barney got me.

Speaker 1: 1:00:57

Yeah, you went down to the pit and all of a sudden Barney decided oh, I like his face. Yeah, he got me. There's actually a picture in the book of you at, I guess, a team photo day, and you've got the big patch. You've got the patch over my eye, but you're smiling. You know you're not saying I don't think You're happy, you can be. You're in a baseball uniform out in the yard. But so Barney came after you a little bit. So Barney came after you a little bit and and you had to have surgery.

Speaker 1: 1:01:24

I had to have some surgery it sounds like big daddy felt terrible about it and really made it up to you as time went on with with you know jobs and bring it.

Speaker 3: 1:01:34

He was, he was unbelievable. He. You know again, you know, there you are, you know, single. You know my dad, you know single, you know my dad, the only one who was working, you know trying to, you know, later on getting jobs and stuff like that. But you know he felt sorry about the whole deal. He wanted to make it up for him. Uh, so I ended up cutting his grass. Um, I, I kind of prided myself on doing things the right way and you know he, he thought that I did our yard well and so, um, his yard was a lot bigger than ours. It was probably about four times the size of our yard. And then he, after a little bit of time, said hey, I have a swimming pool, can you help clean the pool? And I said, are you kidding me? I get to clean the swimming pool. Absolutely, he goes.

Speaker 3: 1:02:24

oh yeah and you want to swim too, to swim too. And I'm like, wow, this really makes my day. You know, it really makes my day. And later on, later on in life, um, when I was in high school, he was a lather and he was involved in building you know, buildings and and so when I got to 16 years of age, he drove back over to our, our house, and told my dad, he goes well, I think the kid's ready. He goes, what do you think he goes? You think the kid's ready to get some real serious work in now? And I'm like, oh boy. So I did some laughing jobs for him, carried some buckets of laugh and, um, I was on the construction side at a young age and you know, playing high school baseball at that time and you know, working during the day and going out playing a game at night wasn't real easy. But again, a life lesson sure a big daddy.

Speaker 3: 1:03:15

You know he was a. He was a legend in the neighborhood and um, a legend in the school and a legend in the neighborhood for everybody.

Speaker 2: 1:03:24

Sometimes it amazes me, like the people that impact your life. When you look back on, you know your youth and your book or whatever. It is the people that seemingly wasn't a big deal, but it's stuff that sticks with you, you know, and it's indelible, you know.

Speaker 3: 1:03:39

You remember those people forever.

Speaker 3: 1:03:41

You, do you do you remember those people? I mean, you know, my, my dad's brother is not my uncle, joe, um, you know, was a guy who fought in world war ii and, um, he didn't have kids when at a young age and used to come over all the time and, you know, take care of us, you know, and he was so interested in you know. So I mean all those people who have a impact in your life. You know I, I mean, come on, guys, your high school baseball coach, your, your coaches, you know, had an impact. That's why I got into coaching. My high school coach, you know, helped turn my life around.

Speaker 3: 1:04:17

I was, I was in a high school and environment. And you know, I remember the first time I went and talked to my counselor and my counselor said, hey, here's the classes that you're going to take, and I'm like those aren't very challenging classes. And she looked at me and said, well, your dad works in a factory. Wow, yeah, you're. You know, you're Italian American. Your dad works in a factory and you probably should just worry about maybe graduating from high school. And I said to her, I said, my, my mom and dad want me to go to college. And so I walked in and saw my high school coach and he said, hey, I'll get you in the classes you need to be in, and that was that was what you know, that was what um, that was what um really you know. And I actually coached with that guy, tom Deeden. He was the head coach in university of Illinois and um later on I coached with him for three years. Um, so you know, those guys are meaningful.

Speaker 1: 1:05:20

I, I, I'm wondering if the uh, the next book is going to be about the high school years. Maybe you know, because it sounds like that was a very unique time. You know, also a unique, challenging time for you.

Speaker 3: 1:05:31

Yeah, I think right now I've got a lot of ideas on my mind as to kind of what maybe another book might be someday, but right now I'm kind of, you know, enjoying my summer a little bit and, you know, helping raise my kid, my grandkids, and kind of where we are on that.

Speaker 1: 1:05:56

Well sorry, it sounds like we have a little bit of static here and there on the show, but that's okay, what we're. It's what we're talking about, not the sound here, right? So how successful has the book been since you? I mean, what's the feedback you've gotten now that the book is out and around and people kind of know your?

Speaker 3: 1:06:19

story. I've gotten a lot of feedback from people who have told me I lived a similar life yes I lived a similar life. Life was very similar to me. A couple of my coaching friends from long beach actually sent me pictures of their little league teams that they were on and it's almost identical to the picture that I had when I was reading it I was thinking the same thing.

Speaker 2: 1:06:42

It mirrors so much of my life. You know simpler times drinking out of a hose. You know simple stuff.

Speaker 3: 1:06:49

Those days and and um, you know, and not just people who are of my age, Okay, I mean um, um, you know, like I said, I was born in 58. Um, I mean, I have some people, fellow people, fellow coaches, uh, some other people who are you know, have bought the book and said you know I was, I was raised in the 70s, I was raised in the 80s and it was a similar time so I mean, you know, I think cell phones now and all that and the internet has ruined that, that age of innocence, if anything.

Speaker 1: 1:07:26

I think now that kids would rather get on that phone now and play a video game or watch a TikTok video than grab their bat and ball and go out and play over the line or hit the bat or all those great games that we used to play. Even go out and by yourself, go get a pitch back, throw the ball against the pitch back, throw the ball against the wall.

Speaker 3: 1:07:51

Yeah, I mean, like I said, the book is from a time period a little bit more simplicity, but you know what those simple days were fun days, and those simple days gave me some lessons and those lessons were, you know, I think, turned me into the man that I am today. And um, let's, let's not kid ourselves. My wife and I, we have three kids and we tried to raise our three kids a little bit of a simpler way than you know, maybe some others. And now they, now we have three grandkids and you know we're trying to kind of pass that along to them. You know, go to the swimming pool and you know, have fun. And, um, get away from the phone and get away from the internet and time with the people you love.

Speaker 3: 1:08:42

You know yeah, yeah that's it, you know.

Speaker 1: 1:08:43

Be around the family and sure so what's up for jim ozello in in the retirement years? Now, what's your?

Speaker 3: 1:08:53

I don't you know my plans.

Speaker 1: 1:08:55

Did you retire from heart high school? I retired from teaching. That's it. You are, you're, you're done. Yeah, you're um, um, no more getting up at six in the morning anymore. Well, I'm sure you're kind of a tough habit're. Um, um, no more getting up at six in the morning anymore. Well, I'm sure you're kind of a tough habit to break. I'm gonna say, yeah, you probably still are, if I know you have to read the book.

Speaker 3: 1:09:09

But, um, yeah, I'm, I'm up early, I'm out, I'm over. I don't live too far from central park and saugus and so by seven o'clock I'm doing a little walking these days, trying to get my body back in a little better shape than it was. You know, I kind of neglected it for a few years but, um, what do you want to do with it? I really, I really want to. You know, I want to, I want to kind of enjoy life a little bit right now. Um, I might, I might stay in coaching, uh, if something is available out there that you know I I like, uh, I want to. You know, maybe I'll do that. Um, no guarantee, I'm not really. I haven't, haven't really set any plans, craig, and I think, um, you know, if something pops up, something happens and it's a scenario that I like and it's a scenario that I think works for for Jim Ozella, um, I'll probably do that.

Speaker 1: 1:10:04

Yeah, I've kind of got of just gone through the same thing. I've taken a few years off. And it's funny after you've taken some time off how number one it will draw you back. But your perspective changes a little bit and how you feel you have to be successful and you have to be this and that and you really don't Right. And I think I've learned that now. I think it's more about the experience than it is about, you know, the pressure of the, you know. You know I think if you find the right situation, I think you're going to really enjoy teaching what you have, because you've got a lot of experience, you've seen a lot of things and you know those little tidbits can mean a whole difference, you know I've had a lot of people reach out to me and say, hey, so how's retirement going?

Speaker 3: 1:10:54

and I go. Well, you know it's. It's like a book. There's two sides to it, you know. The good side is is that, you know, I'm around family more. I'm seeing the grandkids grow up a little bit more. Um, like I said, I'm trying to take care of the body a little bit more. I go. But there's the other side and I miss the relationships. I miss the relationships with the players. Yes, I miss the relationships with the coaches. I miss the relationships with other coaches, opposing coaches, and I've seen some of the opposing coaches that you know.

Speaker 3: 1:11:26

I ran into the el camino coach, you know, uh, josh leinard and I, you know I saw him and I, hey, you know how things go. You know I miss, I miss talking to those guys and I'm going to be up front and I'm going to be honest with you. I miss the competition, I miss the dugout. You know I really miss in the dugout. Going to be honest with you, I miss the competition, I miss the dugout. You know I really miss in the dugout. I miss the chatter. Yes, you know I miss the chatter.

Speaker 3: 1:11:47

You remember there's that little scene and, um, you know, um, uh, robert Redford's about ready to hit the home run Right and, um, you know, the dugout chatter come. I miss that. I miss, you know, um, you know, patting guys on the back and and seeing guys reach their goals. I miss the dog pile and I've only been out of it. You know, I've since June 1st, only been out of it since June 1st. And here we are, you know, six weeks later. And so I, I, you know, I gotta find a little, I gotta find the right spot where that can still happen. If I don't, then I'll have to make more, more lifestyle changes or whatever.

Speaker 1: 1:12:26

But, um, two sides to the story, yeah, yeah, uh, I'm, I'm looking up to. I think I've might've found that also. I'm going to go back with Bob and spend time again with him.

Speaker 3: 1:12:38

And it's outstanding.

Speaker 1: 1:12:43

It. It's outstanding. I'm not physically what I used to be, but I think mentally I'm still there, but I have a new appreciation for the game, you know, and it's very nice that Bob would take me back, but I had some other offers, a lot of them, and I just didn't want to do it. It just you get to the point where you want to get to the right situation with the right people, and if you don't have that, it's just not worth doing it.

Speaker 3: 1:13:14

I agree with you completely. The right people is very important, the right situation. Um, for the longest time I was 24 7 on the job 365. Yes, I was on this job all the time. You know fall ball, you know winter ball, here comes the spring summer ball. You know, a couple of weeks off before school starts again, hey, let's get it going. Let's ramp it up for the teaching, let's ramp it up for the coaching. And you know, like every year I took a pride in acting like it's a whole new ball game for me. So for me, it was like, at heart, 25 new years. So for me it was like, at heart, 25 new years. You know that's, that's what I, I put into it. But you know, after a while it's, you know it can wear you down and um, so right now, I, you know I love the game. Still, there's no doubt I watch the game non-stop. I mean, I've got I got the mlb channel and I watch chris velake's team, the Guardians play. I love the Guardians, I think they play the game the right way.

Speaker 1: 1:14:07

I think they're the best player in baseball right now yeah, yeah, they play the game the right way.

Speaker 3: 1:14:13

You know, I love seeing guys like Stephen Kwan, who is not the biggest guy in the world but he's leading the league in hitting and he knows what his talents are and how I can be successful. And I know a lot of that comes from chris valega, and so I mean I watched the game. You know, we've gone and seen tyler pitch a few times at dodger stadium. I mean I love watching him pitch, I love seeing the progression that he's made, the growth that he's made. You know, I mean I joke around a lot with people and say, you know, back in high school he was a knucklehead, you know.

Speaker 3: 1:14:45

And, uh, you know, weren't they all, though they're all knuckleheads, but you know, he's grown up and I mean, if you hear him interview today, I mean it's, it's quite impressive. Yeah, it really is, it's quite impressive. And um, you know, I said that to his mom and dad too. So I mean um, and, and they laugh about it, but it's's, you know, I, I, I still love the game and I still, you know, I college baseball. You know, just the other day, with the draft, I was on the draft, I was watching it and you know some of the names. You know Bryce Rainier, the kid from Harvard, westlake. You know we always played them in winter ball and I I know him and I've seen you know a lot, of, a lot of the game and I think I can coach.

Speaker 2: 1:15:22

I believe I'm a real good coach and if it's destined for it, I'll be backing it, and if it's not, I think the things I always admired, one of the things I admired most about your teams were the fact that the players seem to play for each other rather than themselves. They played for the team. They were willing to do whatever it took to make the team good, not so concerned with individual achievement. I mean, when you do that, some of that individual achievement is going to occur anyways. But I kind of feel like when you're playing for the team, it takes you through the highs and the lows.

Speaker 3: 1:15:53

I think a lot of that has to do with the tradition of heart. I think the tradition of heart and we pushed it, we developed it, we grew it.

Speaker 2: 1:16:05

It's's a culture it's a culture.

Speaker 3: 1:16:07

You're absolutely right. And you know, there's nothing better than seeing mike montgomery come out on the field and play catch with you, you know. Or it's great to see chris valake out there taking ground balls, or pat valake coming out and taking some bp, or tyler, this this year, tyler. Tyler came out and talked to our team for about two and a half hours right, about two and a half hours. And, um, it was unbelievable. I mean, he, it was a rainy day.

Speaker 3: 1:16:35

He came to the classroom, um, he gave a story. He gave the kids stories, you know, he told them, hey, you know, coach is welcoming hard and you know he's, he's, but he wants the best for you. And um, he got done talking and I said to him, I said hey, players, you know, um, tyler said he'll sign autographs. You got an hour. So, like all of a sudden, brand new baseballs were coming out of their bags. You know, I don't know where they came from, but there they were and it was kind of funny. And Tyler said something Coach, where did they get all these baseballs? I go, yeah, they've been in their bags.

Speaker 1: 1:17:13

Yeah, where did they come from? They came from the.

Speaker 2: 1:17:17

you throw a dozen out there and all of a sudden there's 11 left, 11 left yeah, we did a cleanup one day at the field and I had the boys bring their bags out and I had them empty the bags. We came up with 47 baseballs.

Speaker 3: 1:17:27

Oh, we do it all the time. We do it all the time. After about a month or so, we bring the bags over and we empty them a little bit and we end up with another bucket of baseballs. It's funny.

Speaker 1: 1:17:37

I call the bullpen ball. Here's a brand new pearl for you. This is your every time you throw a bullpen. You got a pearl to use, you know, and without a doubt, they would lose that ball in the first two or three days, but yet all the other players would have 15 balls in their bag. They were that, weren't you know?

Speaker 3: 1:17:57

we're high school baseball coaches. So what when there's a foul ball? Ball coaches. So what when there's a foul ball? That players go get them right? Yes, they chase them right and some of those balls get back in the game and some of those balls get back into their bags absolutely and they and you know I, you know I would not. I wouldn't razzle too much on it because it's just part of it, you know I mean they want to go out and play catch with good balls, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:18:22

Absolutely Well. I'm very happy we had this conversation. You know, and I appreciate you coming on and talking with us. I think this is, it's all good stuff. You see the inside of you know I call it how the sausage is made. You know, and, in your case, how your experience is growing up, how major of a man you are today and the philosophies that you have are still those philosophies that I think were bred into you back in those days in Illinois. No doubt about it.

Speaker 3: 1:18:55

So, no doubt about it, Well, you know you two guys, man, you guys are my two favorite baseball coaches from Burbank. So I mean, this has just been an absolute pleasure to chitchat with you guys and go over the game of baseball and the book and growing up in those experiences and you guys have been close friends of mine for years and years I really loved it.

Speaker 2: 1:19:21

We appreciate you, coach Yep absolutely.

Speaker 1: 1:19:24

Well, that's it for another Coach's Corner, for Coach Jim Lozella and Coach Bob Hart. This is Craig Sherwood. Thank you very much for watching the show today. We hope you got something out of it. Please go buy the book. I think you really will enjoy the book. I think it's something that you really will like. Like I said, there'll be a description and a link to it down below in the description. So you know, please give it a read. I think it's it's. You'll enjoy it. So, anyhow, that's it for another show. We thank you very much for for listening and we will talk to you again next time.