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Jeff Matlock: Hey Mudcat fans, welcome back to the Dirty Fish Podcast. Loving it. ⁓ Episode seven coming at you today. Today we're going to talk about the Pacific Empire League, ⁓ who's in it, who runs it, how it got started and all that. We're really looking forward to it. Great league to be in. But first, ⁓ my good friend, Shawn Scibek on the pod again.
Shawn Scibek: Hey, Mudcat fans, Walter's back. Dirty fish. Nice. here. Yep.
Jeff Matlock: You're here. Love the Jersey. ⁓ Your men's basketball team is ⁓ the Mudcats as well. Living that living that mud cat life. Definitely well, you have some mud cat news for us, I think.
Shawn Scibek: Yep. Loving life, man. Playing who? Yes, I do. ⁓ So the Solano Mudcats Golf Tournament is coming up. It's the 10th at Chardonnay Golf Course on the way to Napa, California. ⁓ And anyways, ⁓ you know, ⁓ foursome's won it a couple of times, kind of fun. ⁓ anyways, ⁓ yeah, it starts at eight o'clock. ⁓ You're not going to be able to sign up because... ⁓
Jeff Matlock: You
Shawn Scibek: Signups are over. But anyways, we got that coming up and it's always a lot of fun. You got a couple of, you know, crazy Kim Cornist coming back, Mudcat ballplayer, Ben Crombie's in there, ⁓ Apple Pie will be out on the course helping out along with my wife Julie, my beautiful wife Julie. And we're gonna get some things going. Always a fun day out there. The weather looks like it's going warm up, so we should have a lot of fun. And then also just wanted to let you know, Thursday, June 4th, will be the opening game for the season at Solano College at five o'clock. That's a Thursday. And we play the Concord Zephyrs. We played them last year, I believe.
Jeff Matlock: I think so, yeah.
Shawn Scibek: That'll be the opener. We'd love to have people out there. Let's see if we can ⁓ pack the stands, especially if you're a Dirty Fish podcast listener. You know, I hear a lot of people say that they watch the episodes, but we're not getting a whole lot of feedback. So we would definitely love some feedback and tell us what you'd like to do. But anyways, ⁓ that's it for the news at the moment.
Jeff Matlock: Hahaha come out, think ⁓ Shawn will sign some ⁓ autographs for you. Some Dirty Fish Podcast, autographs. Awesome. We may have to. That's great. Well, great. So I'm looking forward to both of those things. The golf tournament coming up there May 17th was always a good time out there. don't golf but I drive around, make sure everybody's having a good time.
Shawn Scibek: I'll pay you, I'll pay you to sign autographs, okay? Five bucks.
Jeff Matlock: ⁓ having fun. No we don't. Yeah almost close.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah, we don't let Jeff golf anymore. He almost killed a few people at the driving range. We love that he was out there and when he's out helping us on the course, that's good enough.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah, disc golf is more my style. Ball golf? No. anyway, an opening night, ⁓ June 4th, ⁓ really looking forward to that, getting the squad together a
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little bit before that and then ⁓ having our first game ⁓ that Thursday evening, getting ready for the season. So first week and a half or so non-league games and then we jump right into our league games, which leads us into the Pacific Empire League.
Shawn Scibek: Love this league, man. Love this league.
Jeff Matlock: Gonna be our third season. We were one of the founding members of the Pacific Empire League in what, late 2023? Four of us from the CCL North had left the CCL, which is a great, great league. Still running today. Just was getting difficult. They wanted to play more home games, or not, sorry, more league games. We were playing 32 or 34 games, I think, and they wanted to jump to 40, so. but it was getting tough to go to Southern California as well for us ⁓ for different things. And so of those teams, and talk about those later, but it was ⁓ us, the from Lincoln, Healdsburg Prune Packers and the West Coast Kings at the time ⁓ formed the Pacific Empire League. And at the time we added, ⁓ had never been in a league, we added the Humboldt Crabs, who were great to play. and the Medford Rogues, but we'll get to the teams later. We wanted to talk a little bit about the league itself. ⁓ It was formed to provide collegiate baseball players with the highest caliber of competition and player development. Our founding teams feature elite division one, power five conference players, D2, D3, and Juco players from across the nation.
Shawn Scibek: our founding teams feature elite division, power five conference players,
Jeff Matlock: Our athletes are supported by passionate fan communities and some of the nation's oldest and most successful fan communities. ⁓ Storied baseball organizations span in the beautiful North Pacific region, which makes it an ideal summer destination for these college kids. They're great to have come out. The PEL is dedicated to delivering robust competition and fostering player development with
Shawn Scibek: baseball organization expanding. Love it.
Jeff Matlock: best in class coaching and data driven technology in fan focused communities. That is not for me. That's from the PEL website. Mine would be a more basic terms. It's a great league to play for. We do have a lot of technology. We'll get into that with our partners that we use with the PEL, which is really cool. So.
Shawn Scibek: Thank you. That's a mouthful, No doubt. It's a great league! Man! Yeah.
Jeff Matlock: But as one of the fastest growing collegiate summer baseball leagues on the West Coast, the PEL continues to raise the bar for what is possible in summer baseball. So with that, ⁓ why don't we talk a little bit, Ski, why don't you give us our league leadership, who's involved ⁓ in the league leadership.
Shawn Scibek: Can do, that's a can do. ⁓ Natalie Norman, ⁓ she's actually the president of the league and she's the CEO of the Healdsburg Prune Packers. The board itself has done a fantastic job and this is like you said, the third season, ⁓ but they're doing a ⁓ fantastic job. She's got hands in, she's all over the place and ⁓
Jeff Matlock: You
Shawn Scibek: Really doing a great job.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah. And I think, ⁓ she's the one that has that beautiful hair. I mean, you, you and I are jealous. Natalie, if you, me neither, maybe a little on the sides, but, Natalie, if you're watching this, ⁓ spread those hair tips for us, what can we do to have that beautiful looking hair?
Shawn Scibek: ⁓ man, come on. Yeah, I got no hair game, Or maybe give us some tips for our long-haired ball players and maybe the conditioning you use and shampoo and everything.
Jeff Matlock: We can always pass it along. Yeah, I think you and I are beyond those years, so.
Shawn Scibek: ⁓ yeah, that's not coming back, man. It's not coming back.
Jeff Matlock: No, not at all.
Shawn Scibek: But yeah, and then the vice president is our Ben Crombie, our president and CEO of the Solano Mudcats. So ⁓ got his hands in on this new league and ⁓ really ⁓ It's gonna be our third year, but still ⁓ they put it all together and it's a good job. ⁓ We're doing a good job. ⁓ And then next up is the treasurer is a Matt Lundgren. He's the, the owner president and GM of the Lincoln Potters. You got the secretary of the league is a Kyle Gross. So, ⁓ they got, their hands full with summer baseball for it's months out of the year. They're out there, ⁓ putting things together. ⁓ we see the posts and, and like, Like I can't say it enough, they're doing a great job.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah, really good job. And then a couple more board members as well, right?
Shawn Scibek: Yeah. Yeah. You got a Joey Gomes, the head coach, for the Healdsburg Prune Packers, ⁓ always putting together, you know, ⁓ a great team and, and, his input itself. ⁓ being a part of this league is, is definitely a plus for the PEL. ⁓ also you got, ⁓ May of the Medford Rogue and Giacone
Jeff Matlock: Yes.
Shawn Scibek: He's a former coach and Humboldt Crab So, ⁓ they put it together. Yeah, they put it together and it's working.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah. Everybody on that. Yeah, everybody on that list has done a great job from day one. Not easy starting a new league of six teams, ⁓ getting everything together. ⁓ So they've done a wonderful job of doing the scheduling, ⁓ getting sponsors or partnerships with these different ⁓ technology groups that we'll talk about here in a little bit. ⁓ My hat's off to all of them. They put in a lot of work behind the scenes that not everybody sees. So yeah, ⁓ thank you to all of them for what you do day in and day out. Like you said, throughout the year too, not just during the baseball season. So.
Shawn Scibek: Yes, they do. Yeah. The quality of baseball. mean, look at the players in the league. mean, these are some great players. And one of the things that our league helps these kids that had such a long college season, a grueling college season sometimes, of course, I love this great game of baseball, but when they're coming out to our league, they get
some days off.
Jeff Matlock: Yes.
Shawn Scibek: over here in uh California or the Northwest, and they can actually enjoy what we have to offer in the state of California. So ⁓ it's not filled with van rides or bus rides and all that all the time. So they do have some breaks and like I said, it's a long season, ⁓ college season.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah. Yeah, the quality of players. mean, these guys, like I said, anywhere from D1 to down to Juco, these guys are seeing just quality competition that's just making them that much better when they go back to their schools. Or also if they're looking to move up a level, if they're trying, know, they're out of Juco and they want to go to any, you know, D1 through D3 or anything like that. ⁓ I know last year I was looking it up in the ⁓
Shawn Scibek: No doubt.
Jeff Matlock: The power rankings for summer collegiate baseball at one point last year during the summer, our league had three teams in the top 10 power rankings. And that was the Prune Packers, the Lincoln Potters, and the last one was I think the Medford Rogues. ⁓
Shawn Scibek: ⁓ yeah, yep.
Jeff Matlock: or no Humboldt Crabs think. And then Medford was right there. One of them might've been the other way around, but to have three of the top 10 in the power ranking, pretty impressive when it was only our second year last year a league. So ⁓ competition is definitely there. ⁓ It's always exciting to see ⁓ year. So, well, let's move on and let's about some of our partners and our sponsors, but ⁓
Shawn Scibek: Yeah. I would doubt. Yeah, yep. Yeah.
Jeff Matlock: One of our biggest ⁓ Trackman. I ⁓ sometimes drives us coaches crazy. Those guys want to go look at their spin rate. ⁓ You what was my was my What was my spin rate on that? ⁓ But it's it's excellent information ⁓ for these guys. You know, Trackman ⁓ checked out website talking about being an undisputed global leader ⁓ used by professional teams all over the world.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Matlock: United States, Japan, nearly all professional teams in Korea, Taiwan, and Latin America Trackman for their analytics. ⁓ Makes your pitchers a lot better. ⁓ it's so much. Yeah, we can't have you look at it either because you like looking if it was a ball or strike. ⁓ almost like, I ⁓ when we're going to get
Shawn Scibek: There's a lot of info, man. There's a lot of info out there. It's crazy. Hahaha! Yeah, I've had some problems with that.
Jeff Matlock: Are we gonna get the hat tap now like they'd have in Major League Baseball? But you know, it does help the pitchers I think they can look at all these metrics like their release point, the flight of the ball, the spin rate, the actual strike zone, it'll time catcher throws, which is pretty crazy. And then for the hitters, you know, delivers all kinds of data. Yeah, exit velocity.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah. Yeah. Man, exit velocity, are you kidding me? I mean, that's, you know, that's a strength. I mean you know, a guy's out here trying to get a little stronger this summer and all of a sudden, you know, he's adding 10 miles an hour on his exit velocity and it's pretty cool.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah. Yeah. Launch angle. I mean, we can talk all day about that. I hate when guys are kind of chasing that stuff, but ⁓ it is good to know some of that stuff. So they do have something new coming out, which I thought was pretty cool when I just did a little research on them recently. You are going to be able to analyze your field or performance and adapt your in-game strategy based on any type of practices you use it with or game data. ⁓
Shawn Scibek: Yeah, yeah. ⁓ wow.
Jeff Matlock: with their soon to be released Defensive Player Positions feature. So you're going to be able to also analyze metrics from your on the field, which is pretty crazy. would imagine, yeah, I would imagine maybe like their, you know, the speed of their throws, ⁓ maybe their range, like how far they move. It's a pretty amazing what the, the ⁓ Trackman can do. So, ⁓ but no really good, ⁓
Shawn Scibek: That's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Matlock: to have them as a partner. one thing is with all these technologies we're gonna talk about is, especially when these guys wanna move up or go back to their schools, they can go home with some information for their coaches or their coaches can see it on there and see what they've been doing all summer and seeing if they've improved or got better with those different, whether it's hitting or pitching ⁓ or soon to be fielding, as well. So what do you...
Shawn Scibek: Yeah. For sure, man.
Jeff Matlock: What do you have next for us? What's that next technology we have?
Shawn Scibek: I got Synergy Sports. It's a video capturing technology. They use six cameras all around the field and ⁓ it gives the live game footage. ⁓ It can be used for the coaches, the scouts, player promotion, ⁓ you know, so it's all over the field. ⁓ I messed up.
Jeff Matlock: Well, that's all right. So all over the field, what's really cool about it, there's no manual filming. We don't have to have a camera crew. You put the six cameras up, yeah.
Shawn Scibek: You can begin. Yeah, right. Which is nice, man, because you never know when you're gonna have problems with ⁓ the WiFi connection the college, but seem to not have too much problems with the ⁓ Synergy cameras, so every once in a while, but ⁓ it's a lot better.
Jeff Matlock: Right. notes Yeah, it's been pretty cool. So, well, cool. I love that system as well too. I mean, it's nice to have our players and stuff be able to have in game footage of them. So, and then recently ⁓ we've gone away from our ⁓ scorekeeping app that we had previously. And I just told very recently that we are using PrestoSports this year ⁓ for
Shawn Scibek: Yeah. Welcome, welcome. Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Matlock: Welcome, yes. A little more intuitive, easier to use I hear. But I think what we're using, I just looked them up yesterday and they have what they call PrestoStats baseball and softball stats
platform providing real time updates, ⁓ which they can create reports from and supposedly it's easy to use, which is a thing we've been looking for. ⁓ automatic updates of their season stats, individual player stats, and game stats. So, ⁓ yeah.
Shawn Scibek: I love that because you know when you're announcing or you're doing ⁓ the YouTube broadcast, you love to have the numbers right in front of you and updated. That's going to be a plus.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah, it'll be great. I would imagine you'll be able to have right there if a guy just had an at bat, you know, an inning or two ago. He comes up the next time you guys can talk about his actual current stats to the moment. So ⁓ that should be ⁓ interesting and very impressive, I think. So forward to using PrestoSports within the league. So.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah. Yeah, welcome.
Jeff Matlock: Yes, welcome to PrestoSports. ⁓ right, well ⁓ let's talk about the teams that we have. ⁓
Shawn Scibek: Okay.
Jeff Matlock: original teams ⁓ cover a couple but the the first ⁓ Gotta talk about the Healdsburg Prune Packers ⁓ over there ⁓ ⁓ years running ⁓ So that's the last two years ⁓ the ⁓ PEL ⁓ three previous years in the CCL. I mean Joey Gomes puts together a program over there
Shawn Scibek: Always at the top, man. Always at the top.
Jeff Matlock: second to none, ⁓ always tough to play, ⁓ especially at their home field. ⁓ Anytime I think we've scratched out a win or two each season lately with ⁓ anytime you can take one away from the Healdsburg Prune Packers ⁓ is a good ⁓ I tell the team every year that we play ⁓ is I don't care if we get ahead first, we're ahead in the top of the ninth.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah, no doubt. Yep.
Jeff Matlock: Healdsburg Prune Packers is a team that's hard to beat because they never give up and they're always in the game. Even if they're behind, they will come back and beat you. ⁓ always a good program that ⁓ Joey puts together over there. So my hat's off to you. ⁓ We look forward to trying to steal one from you again. Next up, Lincoln Potters up at ⁓ McBean Stadium ⁓
Shawn Scibek: ⁓ yeah. Yep.
Jeff Matlock: Always a great time to go up there. field has the turf infield ⁓ natural grass outfield ⁓ a little different, but the turf is always nice. ⁓ They pack 'em in up there at McBean Stadium. There's always a really good crowd ⁓ for the home team, so it's always tough to play there, ⁓ ⁓
Shawn Scibek: ⁓ yeah, no, they pack it in and ⁓ those fans are die hard, know, Potter fans. Potter up.
Jeff Matlock: Yes, yes they are. And always good entertainment there in between innings. I don't know if you were there the one year I still remember ⁓ when they had the the Knights that were fighting with the armor on and they were we thought it was just gonna be we thought it was just gonna be like a little you know play type show. No they were whacking the heck out of each other. I think one guy got knocked out for a moment and we were just like shocked. ⁓ no, it's.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I missed that one. I missed that one. ⁓ man, I mean, can they let us kind of battle a little bit? That might be fun, man.
Jeff Matlock: Gear up and battle in between innings. Yeah, but always a good time up in Lincoln. ⁓ Obviously, the Solano Mudcats who we are ⁓ play out at Solano College. It's been nice out there. Our head coach is actually an assistant ⁓ at Solano College. So last few years being on an actual college field has been a blessing. ⁓ Great grounds crew out there at ⁓
Shawn Scibek: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Jeff Matlock: Solano College, helps take care of the field so that we don't have to very often. They mow quite a bit and really help us out. It took a lot off our plate, which really helps.
Shawn Scibek: Man, that gives me the summer off, you know what I mean? It's nice, man.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. And coached by Kyle Stafford. and going into his third or year now. God, I've lost track. ⁓ Stafford's great coach, so ⁓ good good to partner with. I love I love working with him so. ⁓ Next up West Coast Kings ⁓ and ⁓ home field for them, which at times I think sometimes. ⁓
Shawn Scibek: Great coach, great guy.
Jeff Matlock: Kyle Gross has a great thought on that. You don't have to prep a field or take care of it.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah, well, that is the easy way out, but ⁓ hey, they always bring a good squad down.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah, Kyle always has a good squad. Kyle's running a few different teams. I know he runs some like showcase programs as well. So Kyle's definitely in ⁓ the baseball lifestyle in the Bay Area and trying to get kids ⁓ placed in different colleges and moved up and all that. So always has his hands in it, which is cool. And they always, yeah, they always bring in pretty good teams. So. ⁓
Shawn Scibek: Yeah.
Jeff Matlock: And then, ⁓ why don't you take the last few, you know, these guys a little better.
Shawn Scibek: All right, well, the Humboldt Crabs, play at the Arcata Ballpark. Myself, I believe my first year playing up there was 1984. And I may have missed a game or so, or a season or so.
Jeff Matlock: ⁓ wow. Did you take a covered wagon up there?
Shawn Scibek: Maybe. Well, I'll tell you right now, it was a little different ball when we were playing up there. Those guys were, man, they were men up there. I'm not gonna lie. They always had a strong, strong club and they always got some of the best players in the nation to play.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah. You Yeah.
Shawn Scibek: and they do a great job there. Love the Humboldt Crabs and what they got going on right now. They got ⁓ a, redone the facade. They've done many upgrades at the ballpark. I just love going up there. I mean, it's a long drive, five hours, but it's nothing but beauty, you know, driving up 101 North or however you want to go and.
Jeff Matlock: It looks beautiful now. Yeah.
Shawn Scibek: It's always a good time. And that's another team when you can steal a game because they don't give up either. And their crowd is crazy. ⁓ They got the
Crabgrass Band the World Famous Crabgrass Band ⁓ Love it. My daughter got engaged up there at the ballpark. ⁓ Yeah, that was, that was something else. ⁓
Jeff Matlock: No. world famous. I remember that. Yeah, that was fun. It's always good to go up there. I ⁓ I always warn the players like, listen, you're going to get heckled here. And they kind of like, yeah. I go, no, listen you're going to get heckled. Just, just roll with it.
Shawn Scibek: You're gonna hear some stuff you've never heard you're gonna write it down and use it for the next season so They're into ⁓ it's it's it's it's something else. It's They're Crab fans man, they yeah. Yeah, they don't cut you no slack, but if you see them, yeah, you see him in town
Jeff Matlock: Yeah, most of it's hilarious, but I'll tell you the... Yeah. Those fans, yeah, those fans are tough to play. Yes. But afterwards.
Shawn Scibek: They love you, they thank you for coming up, they buy you a drink, they really appreciate you.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah. Yeah. After the game there were quite a few of them, quite a few of them stay around and thank you for coming out. Yeah. It's always a pleasure to go up there. And I know for a long time, even especially since I've been going up there all the time, since I've been going up there since 2014, uh we are always fourth of July team. ⁓ whatever fourth of July falls, we usually have a three game set and whether it's, you know, the second, third, fourth or third, fourth, fifth, depending on how the
Shawn Scibek: ⁓ yeah. or the Fourth of July team.
Jeff Matlock: game schedule works out, but we are always there on 4th of July and they pack the house that day. Usually close to 2000 people.
Shawn Scibek: here. They pack it in. Also, this is a note for, oh yeah, this is a note for it while it's 110 here in Vacaville in Solano County. It's a cool 75, 76 degrees. It got to be 80 one time and they about died. They thought that there was a heat wave, you know, so.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah. Yes. Yes. Well, we and we've had a rain out in July up there when it was too wet to play. If you remember, we've had a couple of those.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah. Yeah. I do remember that we played disc golf in the rain that day instead of going to the ballpark. So yeah. ⁓ the next team is the Medford Rogues and, they play at the Harry and David Field. And, ⁓ that was the first time I've been up there. I mean, I have played in Southern, ⁓ Oregon, but, I've never played at that field and they had nice little stadium. ⁓ and, ⁓ the.
Jeff Matlock: We did. Yes, yes.
Shawn Scibek: fans came in and they were rooting for their team and just like the Crabs, they just appreciate you coming up and playing up in Oregon there. And they got quite a squad, their own self, so.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah. Yeah, they do well. Newly renovated too. I'm looking forward to they replaced, I believe all the all the grass, which some of it was getting a little rough and a couple of dead spots, but all replaced. Been watching that on Instagram. They've kind of showed the progression that looks ⁓ really nice up there. Yeah, city run field, I believe. ⁓ But yeah, nice little stadium they have there and always a pleasure to go up there. They treat us ⁓ really well up there.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Looks pretty good, Yeah, B. Yeah.
Jeff Matlock: ⁓ So looking forward to going back to Medford this year. Yep.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah, this will be our third year heading up there with them in the league. And ⁓ then last team added ⁓ the Marysville Giants and they play at ⁓ Bryant ⁓ We used to battle with ⁓ Yuba Sutter Gold Sox back in the day. ⁓ A good collegiate program. ⁓ They packed it in. ⁓ We had some wars there, ⁓ some ball games.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah. You
Shawn Scibek: ⁓ I remember Turn Back the Clock night where they ⁓ wore their hub with the ⁓ full, what do you call them? ⁓ Overalls or whatever with the, ⁓ collars and everything, not suspenders, but ⁓ kind of a work ⁓ outfit. ⁓ ⁓
Jeff Matlock: with suspenders Yeah.
Shawn Scibek: And then we had these oversized, ⁓ jerseys when these little tiny, ⁓ Mudcat hats. ⁓ we played a turn back the clock game. And that was, that's one of my most favorite times going up there playing in Marysville and, ⁓ their crowd, they get, they get, they get a big crowd there. ⁓ we'll see how it is because they haven't had a collegiate team in a while. They have a.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah.
Shawn Scibek: They have an independent minor league team there. And I guess they share the stadium, but okay. Yeah. High Wheelers But that's going to be fun going back to Marysville. They got that train in left center that goes by. And I mean, it's, it feels like old time baseball man. I love it.
Jeff Matlock: Yes, the high Wheelers, I think. Yeah. Yeah, I've only been there one time and that was back when ⁓ Vacaville had the Solano Thunderbirds, the collegiate team way back in the day when they had the Travis Credit Union Field And you remember that, the T-CUP ⁓ with the Solano Steelheads, the independent baseball team before that. And then when that went away, they had the Solano Thunderbirds collegiate wood bat team. I think it was a
Shawn Scibek: Yeah. ⁓ yeah. I was the groundskeeper there, man.
Jeff Matlock: I think it was a championship game for their league and they played so we went up. We had had season tickets. So yeah, I've only been there one time so I'm really looking forward to it. ⁓ Really looking forward to having a new team in the league. So welcome to the Marysville Giants. Great to have. Yeah, definitely.
Shawn Scibek: Okay. Yeah, ⁓ yeah, that's gonna make us stronger man. That's yeah, that's gonna strengthen the league and they got a nice venue there.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah, so well that wraps it up for all the teams and kind of wraps it up for us talking about the league, ⁓ which brings us every episode. You know, we have a Sci-ism of the episode. Shawn Scibek and all his sayings over the years has been termed ⁓ do you got for us today, Sci?
Shawn Scibek: My head is full, you know. I'm running through all my Sci-isms We've thrown out a few, it's ⁓ probably everybody's favorite is even the little man can see it, you know, as I'm pointing down to my glasses, shoes, barefoot in the middle of the field. And ⁓ some people like to claim responsibility,
Jeff Matlock: we have. Hahaha! ⁓
Shawn Scibek: ⁓ You know, it goes way back before then. ⁓ But anyways, even the little man, you know, can see it. And that time, you know, in front of the Humboldt Crabs, you know, I had to line up after I got thrown out and I got into my shorts and my shirt and just kind of blended in so I didn't have to leave the stadium like I have in the past, being escorted out by security. ⁓
Jeff Matlock: always an Yeah
Shawn Scibek: A line formed and it was a long line and they were like, why did you take your shoes off? And I was like, well, I was showing that even the little man can, ⁓ And then the next person was, why did you take your shoes off? And then I said, okay, gather around. I'm gonna explain to you all. I took my shoes off because I made this little man and was letting the umpire know.
Jeff Matlock: Hahaha Yeah.
Shawn Scibek: that even he could have saw that. And that play there changed the tide of the game. I mean, it was late in the game. It was a line drive. If he caught the ball, he would have threw the ball the first base, but he threw it the second because he didn't catch it. But anyways, I love the umpires up there. We go way back. And it's probably one of my most favorite places to go.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah.
Shawn Scibek: and play and now coach. And I played many years up there as a player coach. And, and sometimes I'd take the fabulous nine, you know, nine guys up there to play a Twilight doubleheader or something. It was crazy back in the day. Now that we're the Fourth of July team, it's pretty cool. So anyways, that's all I got on the Sci-ism I didn't mean to go into great detail, but
Jeff Matlock: Right. Yeah.
Shawn Scibek: You might be just like those other people in the line, like, why the hell did you turn, you know, take your shoes off, bro, in the middle of the field?
Jeff Matlock: And I always loved the infamous little man story. It gets told every year on the team. ⁓ and then when people...
Shawn Scibek: yeah, yeah. I've been, yeah, I've been at restaurants where they come up and say, aren't you the coach from Solano College? You're a little crazy, man. I remember when you took your shoes off. ⁓ I when the bats were flying and the unopened buckets of balls putting dents into the field ⁓ when you 'em and anyway.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah. Just a little. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ we'll make sure we put that photo up on that. We talk about that as well. it's great. And when you see the photo, if you hear the explanation, see the photo, you'll get it. It's great. So ⁓ infamous Sci-ism.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah, it was a professional photo by their photographers that made even better. the YouTube thing's not too bad either where the guy's yelling, I've never seen anything like this, the greatest thing that I've ever seen. ⁓ man, and then they're like, get out of here.
Jeff Matlock: Which is awesome. That's classic. Right, right. Well, ⁓ today's episode, great talking about the Pacific Empire League. think it's been... Yeah.
Shawn Scibek: We'll get into it some more too as the ⁓ season gets closer and ⁓ I mean, we'll really ⁓ maybe fine tune some of the best players in the league and I'm sure we'll get a couple of them as well. And I'm really excited about this season, man. ⁓ yeah, when they come in. ⁓ Definitely want to interview some coaches as they come in. Yes.
Jeff Matlock: Yeah, I'd like to talk to some of the coaches. Yeah, what? ⁓ Yeah, definitely. So maybe leading up to our series with that team or whatever is kind of the plan. So ⁓ great league to be in. Again, ⁓ thank you ⁓ to the board. The league leadership has been doing a phenomenal job going into our third season. ⁓ Yeah, a lot of hard work behind the scenes and we truly appreciate that. And that's not just Scibek and I, but know the whole coaching staff.
Shawn Scibek: Phenomenal.
Jeff Matlock: for the Mudcats and all the other teams I'm sure I can speak for. We're very appreciative of what you do day in and day out so that we can play summer baseball without any hiccups or anything like that. So all right, well, we've, yeah.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah. And also, hey, ⁓ one more thing, Natalie, please ⁓ give us those insights on hair. We'll run a podcast just for that. So definitely if we can get Natalie on the air, she can tell us some tips and stuff. ⁓ one more thing, ⁓ Natalie, please ⁓ us those ⁓ insights on hair. We'll run a just for that. So definitely if we can get Natalie on the air, ⁓ she can tell some tips and stuff. ⁓
Jeff Matlock: Definitely. Definitely. Yeah, absolutely. That would be classic. again, Natalie, if you're listening, let us know. Yeah, absolutely. That would be classic. again, Natalie, if you're listening, let us know. But ⁓ we'll reach that time. ⁓ We always like to close out with one of our favorite sayings. ⁓ When a guy either makes kind of a bad play into a good play. Well, sometimes or.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Makes a play, makes an easy play too sometimes.
Jeff Matlock: An easy play, but he makes it look difficult. Bad route, anything like that. But like we always say, you're still on the team. For the moment.
Shawn Scibek: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. For the moment.
Jeff Matlock: Peace, everyone.
Shawn Scibek: Right on man.