All right, welcome back to the Buying Sandlot podcast. I'm Kyle Scott, founder of Buying Sandlot. On today's episode, we have a good one. I speak to former Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro, who is also a co founder of Slugball, which is reinventing the way baseball is played based around situational hitting. Think topgolf. But for baseball, they started last year for men and adult leagues and now they are moving down into the high school ranks. So high school players can experience a gamified way to learn how to hit situationally and not having to worry about fielding and running and some of those things. So it's a take on America's pastime. I want to say this about Ruben, one of my favorite baseball people, a true baseball lifer. So for those who don't know, just to give you an idea of how long and how much of his life he's devoted to the game, in 1980, he was the bat boy for the Phillies when they were in the World series in. In 1993, he played for the team when they were in the World series. In 2009, he was the team's general manager when they were in the World Series. And now he is a current Phillies broadcaster, along with his involvement in slug ball and also the operation of the Philly Bandits club baseball team. So he has devoted his life to baseball and seen it literally from every angle. From bat boy to coach to to general manager to player to now someone who's involved in youth sports and adult recreational baseball and high school baseball, he's just seen the sport from every level. So in this episode we talk about not only what slug ball is and how high school athletes can use it to refine their skills or just as a fun way to play the game they already love. But also we talk a lot about what's going on in youth baseball today. Specialization, training, what makes a winning player versus a talented player. Just a wealth of knowledge from someone who's been involved in baseball at the absolute highest levels. So this is a must listen for anyone who works in youth sports, but particularly if you are in youth baseball, high school baseball, there's few people that would be better to listen to than Ruben Amarrow. So onto my interview with Ruben. All right, before we get started, I want to take a second and plug our buying Sandlot Summit 2026 Youth Sports Business Conference. It will be April 14th and 15th in Philly at the Battery, which is home to Ballers, a super high end recreation club, Switch House, which will be our conference venue. Attached hotels all in one building. Premium destination, premium location in the City of Brotherly Love. You will be in a great spot. Home next year to the NCAA Tournament, PGA Championship, the World cup and the Major League Baseball All Star Game. Philly is destination zero for American sports. There could not be a better location to have our inaugural Buying Sandlot Conference. Stay tuned to buying sandlot.com subscribe to our newsletter we will have pre registration and early bird ticket sales soon. Be sure to check it out. We aim to bring together operators in all levels from clubs to leagues to events. We'll have tech founders there, we'll have investors. We'll have some of the biggest and most notable people who work and operate and run the youth sports business at this conference. So be sure to stay tuned to buying sandlot.com for updates on when you can get tickets and we'll see you next April in Philly. All right, Ruben, thanks for joining.

Well, it's great to be with you and thanks for having me. It's, it'll be great to talk a little youth based ball with you.

Yeah, for sure. Why don't, you know, you're here to talk about slug ball and expanding into the high school level. So why don't we start for our listeners and explain what slug ball is first and first and foremost.

You know, we position slug ball basically as a fun, competitive, sort of an authentic baseball experience that really sort of connects players to the art of hitting. Everybody does. And you hear a lot about the Home Run Derby, but in a lot of ways, and most importantly for me personally, you know, there is an art to hitting and there's a, you know, there is a real functionality with regard to, you know, being able to control the bathead and to move the baseball around, around the field and at least have a, an idea or an approach that I think has been sort of lost over the last few years. And I think this is just a fun way to bring that mentality back to baseball. If you watch the World Series, if you seen, you know, really important games over the, over the years, you know, that having some bat control and being able to move the baseball in certain areas of, of the field is something that's pretty darn important. And I just think this was a very fun and competitive way to do that. And, and to sort of reintroduce people to what I think originally baseball was about and it was the art of hitting, not just the art of hitting a home run.

Yeah, no, I think that's, that's such a good point. And you guys originally launched this for, I guess, like adult men with. About a year or two ago.

Yeah, I mean, we, we opened this up and we think that there was, we opened up, we had a pretty successful pilot season in 2025. We got great in, you know, feedback and, and really the demographic was mostly for, you know, adults who no longer had a place to play baseball. Like, once they're finished, you know, high school or college baseball or even at the professional level, they really had anywhere to play. I mean, I guess that there are, you know, some senior leagues and things like that, but there's a couple of cool things about this. A sort of an iteration of baseball in the way that pickleball, you know, arose from tennis and ping pong, so to speak. We just felt like there had not been an iteration of the game of baseball where people can just pick up the bat and swing the bat and not have to play defense, not have to run the bases, do the things that are fun to do, which is hitting a baseball and, and being able to do it in a competitive environment. And we felt like it was a real successful start to it. We're trying to grow it slowly and we're sort of feeling like we should expand it to the high school level for a variety of reasons.

Why don't you. I mean, listen, as a, as a guy in my 40s and kind of picked up baseball again recently, what I've seen, especially among older guys, is like, they could still hit and they could still hit with power and they could still throw. It's the athleticism that goes. It's the ability to run and field.

Yeah. And I mean, there's no question that the running and the fielding portion of it, it's like a little bit more of the more boring part of it. I mean, defensively, as a defensive player, playing in the outfield and playing some of field, I mean, I thought that that's obviously another part of the game, but the real fun is, you know, swinging the bat, making contact and being able to, you know, barrel up a baseball and, you know, the feeling that, you know, you can do that in a way where you can compete with other guys as a group in a foursome in a six, some much like you do in a, in a golf outing. And you can do it and compete other teams, I think was a really cool idea. And it's proven to be something that the people who participate in enjoy. It's been cool to watch their faces, watch how they interact with each other, being back into that, you know, you know, sort of, you know, that team mode and, and striving to win a prize and to advance. It's been a kind of a cool thing to watch.

Let me see if I have some of the rules right and then I'll maybe have you fill in the gap. So it's, I believe it's a few innings of situational hitting and then your team has to hit in one inning, got to get the ball into left field and center field and right field. And then the last inning I you got to hit all those spots and then you get a point for each and you're competing against the other team as to who can get the most points. Is that like a fair, short description?

That's pretty, pretty good description. So you start basically different parts of the field. There's three parts of the field, poolside, middle and to the opposite field or oppo pull middle oppo. And you basically have 30 seconds, eight swings, eight pitches to be able to, to accumulate as many points in that one area. For instance, the very first one, you'd start off on the pull side. If you're a right handed hitter, you try to hit nothing but line drives to the pull side in a certain area that is cordoned off or lined up, flagged off. And for each time you are successful, you get a point for that. And then each player does the same thing from both teams. Then you go to the next one which is hitting the ball up the middle and then the final one is to go oppo. And then there is a fourth inning, so to speak, or a fourth competition where you're doing it in succession pole middle oppo. And you have to succeed in order to go to the next level. And depending on how accurate and how well you control the bat and how well you can drive the ball to those certain areas will tally up your points and figure out who come, who becomes a winner. At the end of the day, this.

Is where I would make a joke about you guys maybe having the Phillies lineup run through a couple of slug ball games.

Listen, you would love to see that approach. And it's funny because we get to see it. We get to see the Phillies and some of the teams, their opponents and the ability to do it or the lack of ability to do it and how it affects the game of baseball. But it is something that as I've watched more and more baseball over the last eight to 10 years, that that art has been sort of lost in a lot of ways. And it's something that remains really important even though it is. Yes, it'd be great to be able to hit the ball out of the ballpark and to do that consistently, but not everybody can do it. And when it calls for it, just a base hit does count. Or being able to hit the ball in a certain area so that you drive in a run with a man on third, less than two outs. Imagine where the Toronto Blue Jays would be right now had they been able to drive in a run with less than two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of the game seven of the World Series. So there's. There's some real value in being able to do these things.

Yeah, no, totally agree. And I was going to bring up game seven, and there's probably, you know, three or four circumstances just in those last couple of games of the World Series where a timely hit would have changed the outcome. All right, so you guys did a few events, was it last summer, I guess. Right.

For.

For the men, for the adults, obviously, it sounds like it was successful. And now you're deciding to bring it down to high school. So maybe talk more about why high school, why now? You know, why that translates from older guys who maybe don't want to run and feel, but they still want to hit. Why is that important to bring down to high school where, you know, physically, some of these guys are still able, but it's still, you know, something they may want.

Yeah, I think situational hitting is just something that has sort of been near and dear to me, and we've had guys like Larry Boa be part of this and Kenny Lofton, and I just think back to thinking about what is important and what can separate you as an athlete. I mean, you. You put yourself in a position to make consistent contact, and I think that that gives you a chance to be on your high school team. It gives you a chance to really concentrate on making contact, putting the ball in play, not allowing for more strikeouts. I think that, you know, the pendulum is starting to shift back, and I think part of that, I mean, where do you start? Where's that mentality start? Well, yeah, it's great to be able to have a guy launch the baseball out of the ballpark, but not everybody is built to do that. And we feel like adding the high school level and doing some indoor events and adding new tournaments that would be maybe indoor, would sort of expand our footprint that we started. I mean, we're still working on, you know, different ways to continue to try to make slugball more popular. And I just feel like there. There is a demographic that we can expand. I think the high school Players that actually have gotten an opportunity to, to exhibition this actually really liked it. I mean, and it doesn't mean you don't, can't hit a home run or shouldn't. It just means that it gives you a better chance to make consistent contact, particularly at the, at the high school level where, you know, your bodies have not, as a scout, your bodies have not developed to the point where you have your quote unquote man strength and your leg strength to be able to power the baseball out of the ball park. Well, then it might that probably incumbent upon you to have the fundamental skill of being able to hit the baseball with the barrel consistently in certain areas and to expand your ability to have success. I think the margin for error for guys who just try to drive the ball out of the ballpark becomes very, very small. When you concentrate on hitting the baseball to certain areas and think about, you know, situational hitting, I think that gives you a much better chance. Your margin for error becomes greater, your ability to make more consistent contact is greater. And I think high school is a great place to start that process.

You, you compared it to pickleball, which I think is a great, great analogy. You know, for some pickleball replaces tennis a little bit easier, easier on the joint especially, you know, for people who are older. Do you view it sounds like what you're describing though for slug balls, you maybe view it as supplemental to the high school players journey versus replacing it. Because I've seen, I've read and talked to a lot of people who say right around age 12, 13, when the field goes from little league to big league size field, you see this huge drop off of players because they're not strong enough, they can't make the throw, they can't get the ball out of the infield. So there's probably like two routes. One is guys could still participate in baseball through slug ball or they can, if they're a competitive player, supplement their training in a fun, gamified way to, to learn to become a better hitter.

So just just to sort of reiterate that that point, had I probably thought about more situational hitting, I probably would have been a better college player. I had some success in college, but one of the big things that, you know, I went to Stanford and we had a very successful program. But one of the most important things that we learn there is situational hitting. If I have the mindset and I have the ability to work on being able to hit the ball the other way or being able to feel comfortable getting the bat head out and driving the ball to the bull side without pulling it foul or being able to put myself in a position to drive the ball through the middle of the field consistently, then I probably would have been an even better player in college because that's what we sort of learned now that has, that has evolved in some ways to a different sort of type of game at times. But I still feel like this is. Slug ball is one of those things that not only can it be something that you can do that's competitive and fun to do once you're no longer playing baseball or if you're just picking up with, with your buddies or what have you, but I think it's also something that can make you a better player. And by working on these skill sets and maybe doing it in a setting, you know, indoors where you have enough space, some of the, some of the facilities that exist now where you can, you know, concentrate on just making good, solid contact at different areas of the field. I think that there's, there's a benefit not just to make yourself a little bit better baseball player, but also to do it in a fun way and in a competitive environment. And sort of. That's where we're trying to expand a little bit, and we're doing it with certain colleges. As far as alumni games are concerned, we are trying to expand to different, you know, collegiate programs where when they bring their, their old alums back to, to play, there's times when they bring their alums back to play the current teams. Well, rather than playing a full game of baseball, why not do it with slug ball? Because they don't have to be on the field. They're just doing it basically at the cage, swinging the bats. And I just think that, you know, if, if I was, if I was going to go back to Stanford and go play in alumni game, I'm not going out there to run the bases. I'm not going out there to play second base or center field. I want to just go swing the bat and shut it down and show these young, these youngsters how to, how to work the baseball around the field. I just think it's a, you know, it's a good and fun way to be competitive and to bring people back on campus.

Yeah. So how did, to that point, how do you guys go about growing it? Is it partnering with facilities and organizations with high schools and colleges? And what does the business model look like? Is it sort of like a licensing play? I mean, I guess now it's, it's more local in scale, so you Guys can kind of, I imagine, have like a hand in setting up the events. But, like, what does that look like if it really blossoms out?

Yeah, I mean, so we're so slowly trying to build this out. We did not want to do anything crazy and try to put ourselves in, you know, major league ballparks or anything like that. I think. I think you're right. I think it's. It's about speaking with some of the college coaches and the high school coaches and speaking. You know, we've had discussions with different venues, whether it's a minor league venue or a collegiate venue or something like that, where we're not necessarily trying to grow it super quickly. We're trying to go about it in the sort of the grassroots way and let it sort of bubble up again. It's one of those models whereby we're in this thing for the long haul because we think that there's a real benefit to it. It's really about starting it. With the discussions with perhaps different rec leagues, different, you know, different areas of baseball, youth baseball that might have interest in, you know, having this skill set be part of their, you know, everyday work. But I mean, obviously we'd love to have it be a competition. We think it's something that. That people can enjoy much like a pickleball or even a topgolf, where people can gather, get together at a tournament, get together at a spot and be able to enjoy the game.

It almost reminds. Are you familiar with quick ball at all that the little guys are playing?

Yeah, I've. I've heard of it. I've heard of it, and I don't know it all that well, but I have.

It's like the. Sounds like it's the other end of the spectrum from this, where, I mean, my kids just went through it. They're nine and seven now, but it's like for four and five year olds. And I think it grew out of Ripken baseball, but it was like a way to. For kids to play. And at that age, they're too little to play a game. T ball is kind of messy. So it was a way to keep them active, learn how to swing, learn how to throw. And you went to the field and like local rec organizations were playing this version of the game that was obviously tailored to really young kids, but it sounds like that. But like on the other end of the spectrum, for maybe a little bit older kids and certainly adults.

Well, one thing that I will say about the efficiency of the game, you know, an actual baseball game can take a long Time, the attention span and all that stuff. This is actually, you can have a full competition, four on four, with a pitcher out there and be able to be done with it within a half an hour, just for one full game. And I think that that's. There's an appeal to that. There's a timing mechanism that creates more interest. People aren't standing around necessarily. It's happening quickly. The pitcher's getting and he's throwing strikes. Incumbent upon the pitcher to be able to throw strikes consistently so that their teammate can. Can move the ball around.

That's what I was going to ask. Your team pitches to you like a batting practice. Yeah.

And we've actually thought about and talked a little bit about the possibility of just using a machine machine to do it to throw strikes. We'd like to keep it more authentic and have their own pitchers throw to themselves. So that, I mean, that's also a skill set, right. To be able to throw the baseball accurately and allow your. Your teammates to have success. So, you know, you want to throw on the inside part of the plate to a guy who's going to the pool side. You want to throw the ball on the outside part of the plate when they're going oppo and. And to the middle when they're trying to go up the middle. So I think that there's a multitude of things that creates the competition, and I think that's a good thing.

Listen, I mean, I think you're a good guy to have on, because a lot of people probably don't realize you also have, in addition to being a broadcaster now and with slugball, you also have some involvement in youth sports through the Philly Bandit. So maybe talk about that a little bit and then we can talk a little bit about the youth side of baseball today.

Yeah, it all sort of started with my brother David, who really wanted to create in sort of the name of. Of my father, Ruben Amaro Senior, who in a lot of ways sort of epitomized what baseball was all about. He was an overachiever. He's someone who played the game fundamentally well. He played the parts of 11 years in the major leagues, was a Gold Glove winner, was a longtime instructor, was in the front office with the Phillies instructor, coach, manager. He's basically done it all. And, you know, we really want to teach kids. It's something my brother and I are intimately stuck to, and that is to try to respect the game and play the game in a way that it deserves. We love the game. We've grown up with the Game, obviously, with my dad having the experience, me having played and been involved in baseball, my brother also collegiately and professionally for a brief time. We love the game of baseball. We love giving kids an opportunity to play the game of baseball and to play it right. And it's not just, hey, let's just throw the. Let's just throw the gloves and the bats and the balls out there. Let's try to learn the game. Let's play hard. Let's respect our teammates, our coaches, our parents, the umpires. Let's do things in a way that is, in my mind, a professional and, or courteous and a classy way. It's the way my dad played. It's important for us to keep certain guys dreams alive. And we really do strive to have kids. And basically this is all we're trying to do is give kids opportunities to get a better education or to further their lives somehow, some way with the game of baseball. If they happen to be good enough to be able to go play at a D3 school and get a better education at a particular institution, or if they are so lucky that they get the opportunity to be seen by a professional scout and maybe sign a contract or a D1 school, then that's great. I think more than anything else for us, it's about giving kids opportunities to expand on a skill set that they have and to do it in a professional way and to represent themselves and their family and our organization in a positive way.

How do you get one of the conversations? It seems like every time I do one of these podcasts or just speak to anybody in the industry, it's always balancing the fun, the structured, fun, recreational aspect of youth sports with. Listen, the reality is some kids are really good and go D1, a very, very small percentage go pro. So how do you guys balance the recreational side with the competitive side? Knowing that I'm sure some subset, subset of players and parents come to you guys. Obviously great baseball name, but, you know, former player, former general manager, you know, so they probably think, hey, like, if my kid is good enough, this is, you know, this is the right organization to be involved with.

And so one of the things that we're, I mean, we're actually honest to a fault when it comes to a young man's skill set. We don't. We're not trying to discourage anyone. We just try to make sure that they understand that, you know, of the players, there's only nine guys who get to play. And so we try to be open and honest about their skill set and we also also know that as parents, we were parents of athletes, the two of us, that we always think our kids are 30% better than they really are. Right. And we think that they, you know, that the world's their oyster. It's not always the case. So, yes, number one, it's fun. But as they get older now we start, I think, at age 13, and we go to probably 19 or so or 20 as far as our teams are concerned, as we get higher and, and closer to, you know, high school baseball, varsity baseball, with an opportunity to maybe play collegiately, we're pretty honest with the kids. Like, the best kids are going to play and they're going to get their opportunities. If we feel like we can, we have enough talent in our stable to be able to create more teams, an A and a B team, to give kids their opportunities to play and to be seen by colleges and such, then we will try to do that. But we're trying to be really honest with them. We have to be honest with the parents. Maybe your kid's not quite suited for this program, but there may be a program where he may be suited. And I think we're trying to get everybody opportunities to. Not everybody plays at the same level. We all know that. But I think more than anything else, we try to make sure there's a, you know, there's a realistic expectation for their kids, and we talk to their parents about that stuff very, very openly and honestly. And I think that's the, that's the way to do it. And we try to evaluate the best we can. And at the same time, while it does get a little bit more competitive as they get older, 16, 17 years old, 15, 16, 17. We still want to make it fun. The game has to be fun. The. I think as you see, some of these other outlets, baseball outlets start to develop. There's less of a team mentality. It's more, okay, what, what, you know, player thinks to himself, okay, what do I have to do to get myself better to go to a better college or to go get signed or get drafted? Well, we actually feel that there is a real importance in the team element of being part of our. A part of our group. And if we feel like a player is not. That's not one of their goals, is to be a good teammate and to be a, you know, a team player, then we are, you know, we. We'll. We'll let them know. And we think that that's also part of. Part and parcel of what my dad always brought to us and what My dad thought was important, and we like to try to impart that on our kids.

Yeah, you're definitely not. I mean, the only one to mention that, especially kind of coming from the pro side where you've been. I know the NBA, USA Basketball, US Soccer are really looking a lot at, like, the team style of game that is taught for soccer and basketball in Europe and trying to bring that over. And I know Major League Baseball and is looking into this a bit as well. Like, kids are growing up in all sports, baseball and the others. A lot of it in the US has been about showcasing individual talent. And then basketball is a great example. You know, the USA Basketball team is by far the most talented. But then they get into the Olympics and they always get a run for their money by, like, France and Serbia that have one NBA player on the roster. So it doesn't seem like you're alone in that. Do you think some of that is just like the social media nature? I know baseball's gotten flashier. It has been. I think it's growing in popularity again with kids. Obviously, the ratings of the World Series were great. So, like, do you think that's part of it, like this sort of flashy, individualized nature? And how do you balance that with. With maintaining popularity, too, just as a sport?

Overall, I think that's just the development socially of what. What's happened to our world. Right. We all sort of care about what we do. How am I doing in this space? And I think that's also one of the biggest challenges for major league organizations, because, as you said, you're looking more at a showcase type of an athlete who may be able to have tremendous bat speed and hit the ball nine miles and be able to have pretty good hands and a good arm strength. But does he know how to help this team win a game? And I think that that's a skill set that has started. Has been lost in some ways because you're not playing with a team that you're loyal to or that your teammate doesn't. It becomes a little less important than, you know, what you're trying to do to accomplish, you know, your goals for yourself. We don't want to stop people from trying to make themselves better, but we also feel like there is. There is another skill to being a professional athlete, and that's being a team player. And I think that that has gotten lost a little bit over the years. And I think it's something that can, in a lot of ways separate, like, the okay player to someone who may have a chance to be a lot better just because he has a chance to do that at a certain level that's beyond what you think.

A good example of that might be Miguel Rojas, right game six and seven of the World Series. He's not the star, but he winds up making three of the most impactful plays in the World Series.

Yeah, I mean, it's so cool to watch a guy like that do what he did. He's been someone I've admired quite a bit. One of my favorite players that the Phillies have played against over the years. I love Mookie Betts, one of my favorite players. I coached him. He's a fantastic player and a wonderful human being. Freddie Freeman, another one that was in Atlanta for many, many years and has had tons of success. Both of them have multiple rings now. But it's so cool to watch a guy like Miguel Rojas do what he did when he played for the Miami Marlins. It was clear that he was the general of that team. He was the player that, you know, was always trying to make his teammates better, always trying to do what he possibly could to win a baseball game. Wasn't the most skilled player, but also the person that cared more about the team doing well than necessarily than him doing well. And the fact that he was sort of rewarded for that type of play. Being a now a World Series hero, I think that's a great thing because you get, you might have a 12 or 13 year old kid watching baseball right now going, you know what, maybe it is a really good thing to be that type of a player. Maybe, you know, maybe I can be a World Series hero one day if I can play all these positions and, and, and try to move a runner and play well defensively and run the bases well and do the little things that mean a lot to winning a World Series. And I think, I just think it was a wonderful thing. Of all the players that the Dodgers have in their, you know, billion dollars payroll, the fact that Miguel Rojas was a guy who ended up being a hero in a lot of ways, making a couple of great defensive plays and coming up with the, probably the biggest home run in his career, no doubt pretty awesome.

I think that, I think that's well said. You do also a podcaster, you do a podcast with Phillies writers Todd Zalecki and Jim Salisbury. The Phillies show last year. You guys had Bryce Harper on. And one thing that I've mentioned this in our newsletter a few times, he made a point late in the interview talking about specialization. And there may not be, I think it's like him and LeBron James in terms of famous traditional sport high school athletes over the last 20 or 30 years. And yet here he was saying kids should play every sport, they shouldn't just specialize. And it's a big topic in this industry. Maybe talk about that and sort of your views as a former GM on specialization and then also being well rounded enough to play other sports and maintain that athleticism and overuse injuries and all that stuff.

Yeah, there's so many things that are associated with, especially with the young players. I mean, I want to try to develop the best athlete I possibly can. How do you do that? You allow those athletes to play every single sport or any, and to develop a skill sets in different areas, coordination, the ability to make decisions, all types of things that you do with different sports that I think can separate you as a, just as an overall athlete. I think that there is also physically, when you're a young person, somewhere between, you know, 10 and, you know, 16, there is a spot in there where your bodies are sort of not developed yet. And to give your body a natural break of doing one thing over and over and over again, if you give your body a break to do that, in other words, you go play basketball instead of going to the cage and hit for hitting for an hour, or you get on the soccer field and run around and kick the big football around for a while. Instead of throwing, you know, 27 bullpens or throwing a lot, you have these natural breaks for your body to recover. And that's what I thought and my dad thought was very important. We believe in this. If you talk to any of those, I guess, old school guys. Yes. At some point you sort of have to start, you know, leaning into the one skill set or the one sport that you are more talented in or more interested in, you might actually find that there's other sports out there that you, you may be more interested in than others. So I mean, I always believe in this and I tell the parents every time we talk to them is please, please, please play other sports. Because there's nothing better for your overall body, physically, mentally, emotionally than to be able to break things up and to do other things. It could be a hobby, it could be anything. I mean, it could be snowboarding, whatever the case may be. I just, you know, I'm just kind of throwing stuff out there. But I just feel like there's a, there are natural breaks that a young player, a youth player, adolescent, whatever you want to call them, those breaks are necessary to give their Bodies, time to sort of regroup. And it's not until they're more developed as adults that you should start really specializing in that, you know, in that particular sport. So whether you're a field hockey player, a basketball player, football player, or baseball player, go play all the other damn sports, man, because it's going to make you a better athlete on the field, just in general.

Last one, last one on there. I mean, was there something you used to look for when you were scouting a younger, a younger athlete? Was there something that stood out or some quality besides just their ability to hit or throw that you're like, that is, you know, that's a future pro right there.

So a couple of things when I watched particularly high school guys, because college players sort of have already developed their, their way of going about things, their mentality. But as far as high school kids are concerned, I love the way they interacted with their teammates and I really paid attention to that. I would go and walk around to watch them in the dugout or on the bench and how they interacted with their teammates. And I would also love to watch them when they did not have success, when they failed, and how they reacted to failure. Because guess what? In baseball, you're failing more than you're not, then you're succeeding. And that's the truth. That is just the God's honest truth. And you have to be able to deal with failure in a different way than any other athlete has to deal with it. Because you can fail seven out of ten times, eight out of ten times now, and still be a fairly successful player. Seven and a half out of ten, you know, ten times. So to me, it's about how you, how you handle failure and how you interact with your teammates and your coaches.

Yeah, I mean, I'm coaching seven, five and seven year olds and like, there's not a game that goes by where one kid isn't in tears because he struck out or got hit on or walked the bases loaded, like without fail every single game. This is, this has been great. I really appreciate you coming on. Why don't you take a sec to plug slug ball, how people can get involved, participate, plug away. And we'll make sure to include it in the newsletter as well.

Listen, first of all, thank you so much, Kyle, for allowing me to speak with you today. I think what you're doing here with your podcast and you know, the work that you're doing with youth, youth athletics is really darn cool. Love it. I've always believed, and my brother's always my dad same way in, in giving young people opportunities to succeed athletically. And it's. It's a cool thing to, to be able to. To impart some of this stuff with you. As far as thug ball is concerned, we think it's just a really fun, competitive way to enjoy the sport of baseball again, whether or not you're playing at the youth level or high school level or whether you've, you know, you've sort of hung up the cleats and you're trying to continue to play and swing the bat. We think in a lot of ways it's the top golf of baseball in that you're competing and yet having fun with people with a skill set of hitting the baseball, taking it back to your roots. And, you know, we hope that people start to understand what it means to us and what it can mean for them when they get the opportunity to play.

And they could just go to slugball.com slug with two GS, right?

Slugball. Go. It's a play. Slugball.com you can see us on socials, slugball on all, all types of socials everywhere. They've done a good job of trying to promote and you can get a sense of what the game's about, where some of the competitions have occurred and what the basic premise is. We've done a pretty good job on the socials and online for that as well.

Awesome. Ruben, thanks so much for joining.

Thanks so much for having me. Kyle, good luck with everything, man.

Thanks.