The Kudzu Effect: How Grassroots Baseball is Taking Over North Carolina PT2.

The grassroots Sandlot baseball movement has exploded across North Carolina, creating a vibrant community with custom jerseys, creative team names, and cross-country connections. Mike from the Carolina Kudzu shares how these adult recreational teams have created authentic baseball experiences complete with DJs spinning records during games, custom ice cream helmets, and even live organ music.

• Carolina now has numerous Sandlot teams in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and beyond
• Team names like Kudzu, Reapers, and Durham Fruits reflect creativity and local culture
• Teams travel across the country to play other Sandlot communities in San Diego, Austin, and more
• The Revival event showcased mascot races, custom merchandise, and family-friendly activities
• Social media has fueled growth by sharing team logos, game highlights, and the welcoming atmosphere
• Teams emphasize inclusivity with players of all skill levels welcome to participate
• Cross-team friendships and community building extend beyond the baseball diamond
• Custom team merchandise, especially hats, have become coveted collectibles

Hit the subscribe button for new episodes of the DadHack Chronicles podcast and Five Questions where I ask fans why they fell in love with baseball.

Transcript

Welcome to DadHack Chronicles

Speaker 2 0:07

Well, hello you, beautiful people, and welcome to the DadHack Chronicles podcast. My name is Ed, also known as the DadHack, and this week we finish my conversation with Mike of the Carolina Kudzu, a Sandlot team here in Raleigh, north Carolina. We talk about how Carolina is really is becoming a really good hotbed for Sandlot baseball, which I am a part of. We also discuss my famous not so famous questions, guys. So, before you go, guys, do me a huge favor Go ahead and hit the subscribe button, because I'm always putting new content here for you guys New episodes as far as the DHC podcast and five questions where I ask fans why they fall in love with baseball. So, like I said, go ahead and hit the subscribe button and then now, without further ado, I'll give you the episode so, like, one of the things that Kudzu has been doing is we've been bringing our DJ to our games.

Speaker 3 1:02

we've got we've got a bunch of friends who are really great DJs, but one in particular who just loves being around the team, mike Forno, and he's become our like rostered DJ and he brings all of his gear and his turntables to the field and he spins for three hours straight while we play.

Speaker 1 1:22

Wow.

Speaker 3 1:23

He doesn't take any breaks.

Speaker 2 1:27

See, that's what's cool about this, see, yeah.

Speaker 1 1:31

Mike and Ed catch me up to speed real quick, so I'm looking. You guys are in the same league as the Reapers, Like they're within.

Speaker 3 1:42

Yeah, we've got three Raleigh teams the Reapers, the Kudzu and neuse river. Nine. That's so we've got.

Speaker 2 1:49

We've got three teams in durham, one team in chapel hill, one team in wilmington okay, so you need is a team down in this area, but where I'm at, like the holly springs, few yeah, area.

Speaker 3 2:03

Yeah, maybe you're going to start that team.

Speaker 2 2:07

I got to start recruiting people.

Speaker 3 2:11

Hey, all you got to do is come up with a cool name. Some people can get behind and they're like, yeah, I want to play for that team.

Speaker 2 2:17

See, that's the problem, that's the hard part. People think it's easy to come up with a cool name. It isn't easy.

Speaker 2 2:26

Yeah, and it's got to have a story too. That's the problem. So now I'm gonna have to do my research here, yeah, but that's in the future. Right now, right now, I'm having so much fun enjoying it, um, and that's why I'm doing like all these, like you know, social, like you know my updates of, like you know I just bought a bed, or like you know how I feel about this, just because it's like I want to bring a.

Speaker 3 2:48

I want to do my part to bring as much awareness to sandlot baseball as possible as possibly can that's really cool to share that experience because it resonates with thousands of sandlot players across the country, but it will probably also convince the people that are on the fence to show up, you know can I ask um?

Speaker 1 3:07

where did the name then kutsu? How was that? Inspired?

Speaker 3 3:11

yeah, my friend joseph. Um, he had that idea he wanted. He has a whole book of like invasive species that he wants to name baseball teams after and that was like at the top of his list.

Speaker 2 3:24

It's such a cool name.

Speaker 3 3:26

Yeah.

Speaker 2 3:27

I got two hats from them, by the way, val, I bought two hats, that's the one that's my favorite.

Carolina Kudzu: Team Origins and Culture

Speaker 1 3:34

I like that it's just those simple ones.

Speaker 3 3:38

These are from my friends in San Diego. This is the avocados and this one they did for the Durabless, for the revival they put that's cool yeah. I get. These are the only. These are the only dad hats I own. I mostly have structured caps.

Speaker 1 3:56

The hat that you have on is taking a little bit of something from the West Coast and something from the East Coast it made. That is so cool yeah and something from the East Coast. That is so cool. I love that.

Speaker 3 4:07

Yeah, and we've made so many friends from across the country with all these other teams and in particular, the Avocados have become really close with us and we traveled to Austin with them last year and we played on those fields I was telling you about.

Speaker 2 4:22

I saw you that you dressed up for them, didn't you doing the revival?

Speaker 3 4:25

Yeah. So, like we, when we go on a special trip or something, we invite a few of the avocados to come play with us, and they do. They do the same thing. So when they go on a trip, they invite some of us to go play with them, and you know they'll. They're really cool. They'll get you a uniform and put your name on the back of a jersey and I'll tell you this those avocado jerseys were cool.

Speaker 2 4:49

Yeah, they were cool, and I saw somebody dressed up in an avocado during the event that was awesome.

Speaker 1 4:55

Val, I'm telling you this thing.

Speaker 2 4:58

I'm telling you it's like one of the coolest events I've ever been to, just because of the camaraderie, everybody talking to each other and all of that. It was such a cool event.

Speaker 1 5:09

How often are y'all in San Diego? I'm only four hours away.

Speaker 3 5:17

We're going to try to actually get to San Diego later this year. It's our goal to do one big road trip every year. We play most of our games locally right here in the Triangle in North Carolina. Do you guys do that drive? We've flown. Last year we went to Austin. The year before that we went to Tulsa.

Speaker 1 5:39

But nothing in. Vegas yet.

Speaker 3 5:41

Nothing in Vegas, but yeah, we're going to try to get to San Diego for, hopefully, a multi-team event, kind of like the Revival, but out in San Diego.

Speaker 2 5:52

Man Ed.

Speaker 1 5:54

You want to come to Vegas soon, ed, you still have a chance to, and then we can all just drive up.

Speaker 2 5:59

I know, I know. So I'm going to Vegas at the end of September for the AAA championship.

Speaker 3 6:08

Oh cool. Have you been to that before?

Speaker 2 6:10

That would be. So here's what happened Last year was supposed to us to go, but there was you know that I remember that time that we had like a hurricane in that, in this state. So they canceled my flight, they canceled everything and I couldn't make it. I could not. And then val for the longest time, when she was checking her phone, tracking all of the planes, it was like ed's coming, ed's coming, and I'm like, nope, I'm not I was tracking every flight from from north carolina to vegas and I saw like so many, and I was texting our other friends on the side.

Speaker 1 6:45

I was like he's coming See this and I would send them screenshots. And then the day came and Ed never showed up. But it was a fun game. I do recommend the AAA championship game in Vegas. It's always fun.

Speaker 3 6:57

Have you been more than once?

Speaker 1 6:59

I have, I've been twice yeah.

Speaker 3 7:01

Okay, did you see the Bulls win a championship there?

Speaker 1 7:04

Oh, they played them when they played. Don't Tell Me, don't Tell Me. Was it Nashville or God? Who was it Two years ago, I think, when they won it right?

Speaker 2 7:15

They won two years ago, yeah who was it when they played.

Speaker 3 7:17

I don't remember who they played.

Speaker 1 7:18

I think it was Nashville.

Speaker 3 7:20

Yep, okay.

Speaker 1 7:28

Yeah, yep, okay, yeah, yep, I was there for that and um, it was really fun. Um, this past year though, like a few months ago, we got to watch it up from the club level and oh my gosh, sorry, thanks, dude, but um, it's cool because the chef for um, the, the ballpark, the aviators, he always puts like a special curated burger for the two teams that are in town, because the, you know, the not the Pacific Coast, but the- International yes, international.

Speaker 1 7:52

Those teams never visit Vegas, and so it's always fun to see a burger from those cities that I'm not too familiar with because they're never here.

Speaker 3 8:00

Okay, so they must have done the the Carolina burger with chili and coleslaw.

Speaker 2 8:06

That is big here. That is big here.

Speaker 1 8:09

Yeah, I don't remember, but yeah, no, it was definitely something along those lines, I'm sure.

Speaker 2 8:14

Yeah, what we need to do is we need to get you to come over here to North Carolina.

Speaker 1 8:17

I know You've been saying you've been wanting to come A lot of good food here.

Speaker 2 8:22

Lots of good food, lots of baseball, from Sandlot to minor league baseball and then hopefully in the future, a major league team.

Speaker 1 8:29

So I'm just saying no, I do need to get out there for sure. I do have all the FOMO, especially not learning about this, and I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but man, that Reapers logo is really cool.

Speaker 3 8:41

Yeah, you know what? One of the fun things about saying a lot is all the gear, all the the logo designs and all the creativity that goes into it. It seems like every team has like two or three creative team members who are either like well-versed in graphics design or illustration.

Speaker 2 9:07

So you know, you see a lot of really cool stuff that that you do, that you do um for your team, though, because I I want to know, like, where the obviously the the zoo, but like, is that you guys just decided to put the z and the u and then just honestly, I think it has a little bit of like a wu-tang influence to it, but love it in our in our group chats like we're always like addressing the team as like zoo crew or um zoo tang, the zoo tang clan I love that and so I I mean our, our buddy joseph.

Speaker 3 9:42

he just like surprised us with these hats. He had them made and everybody was like, oh my gosh, we got to have that hat.

Speaker 2 9:49

As soon as I saw it, I'm like I got to find a way to get that hat. I'm not kidding, I was like. And then I went to the Revival and I saw that I'm like, there it is.

Speaker 1 10:00

That's one of the hats that you got right, ed.

Speaker 2 10:05

No, as that's one of the hats that you got right at.

Speaker 3 10:07

No, no, this one is from the company called Sandlot goods.

Speaker 2 10:10

Out of Kansas City. But this is you talking about this one you got. You got one of these. Yeah, okay, cool, look at that thing.

Speaker 1 10:15

I need that in a Curvebrim. You guys have those in curb rooms.

Speaker 3 10:19

No.

Speaker 2 10:22

The Reapers they got a lot of snapbacks. No, no, we don't this is the Reapers.

Speaker 1 10:24

They got a lot of snapbacks.

Speaker 2 10:27

Yeah, a lot of snapbacks. Listen, it's okay, Get a snapback. I got me all of them. I got them in a snapback just because I'm like I'm getting it. There's no way around it.

Speaker 1 10:35

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 10:39

I love that zoo. Yeah, that one was like and I wear it so many times.

Speaker 3 10:44

Now you have the pink corduroy Ramblers hat.

Speaker 2 10:47

The Austin Ramblers. Yeah, yes, I have that one. That's a good one.

Speaker 1 10:52

Why wouldn't he have it?

Speaker 3 10:55

That's the one everybody wants.

Speaker 2 10:56

That's the one everybody wanted. And then I got this one the possums.

Speaker 1 11:00

Oh yeah, that's so cute.

Speaker 2 11:02

I got that one. So I got four hats when I went to the revival. Those are the ones that I could find. Like, my friend got the last Wombat's hat and I was like, oh, you can have it. You know you're going to, you're going back to Georgia, I'll let you do it. So I'll come back eventually and get that one again, because that was a new era as well.

Speaker 3 11:22

Oh, I have access to those. I can get you one of those.

Speaker 2 11:26

Yeah, that one was cool, I'm telling you, val.

Speaker 1 11:30

But I love that possum one. Can you show it again?

Speaker 2 11:32

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 11:34

I don't know why people don't like possum tails. I think that detail is so cute.

Speaker 2 11:39

So, from what I understand, this one grew out of the possum. They of like they needed an extra team because the nines were getting too big, wasn't it? Uh, I think it.

Speaker 3 11:47

No, the dirtbags the dirtbags, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, honestly, durham's open sandlot has seen the same amount of growth that we have in raleigh. They, they quickly formed a team and then all of a sudden they had all these extra people that wanted to play and so really, the durham dirtbags when they first started they had at least 20 people and they were, they were splitting squads during games, you know, having half the team bat the first half of the game and then the second half going in and batting the second half of the game. Um, and it just became, it became too much.

Speaker 3 12:23

You know, people were only getting like one or two at bats a game um, so they you know, spun off another team, and now they're I mean honestly they're at a point now where they could spin off a third team.

Speaker 2 12:35

So oh wow wild yeah, yeah it's.

Speaker 3 12:42

I mean, I was talking to people in austin. They were asking me how it was going here and I told them and they go yeah, before you know it, you're going to have 20 teams, like we did. It just it gets out of control.

Speaker 2 12:53

Which is great, I mean and this is one, one of the updates that I did when I was doing my videos it's just like, it's like your inner childhood, just all of a sudden just come out, you know, and then you're like this is the greatest thing, like I. I got told my wife darla's like babe, I'm sorry, but this happened.

Speaker 3 13:15

She's like all right, whatever you know, make sure you do your warm-ups okay I do my warm-ups, I do my stretching.

Speaker 2 13:25

the night before the morning the day of, I do a lot of stretching. Because of that I learned my lesson.

Speaker 1 13:32

Man, now I want to dress up. I want the avocado costume and I want a possum costume. We need more mascots.

Speaker 3 13:40

You should come out and be a mascot, I am all about it.

Speaker 1 13:42

That's all me. I love dressing up there you go.

Speaker 2 13:46

Now. That's the next level of just like you know you got. You know you got your DJs, you got your parties, you know grilling and barbecuing, and then you got Val dressing up in as a mascot.

Speaker 3 13:56

Yeah, we had. Last year we had my son dress up as the Kudzu mascot and in between games we did, and they had to race him across the morning track.

Speaker 1 14:12

That's cool.

Speaker 3 14:16

And he let the kids win. He staged a trip and fall, he got a good lead and then he tripped and fell over and let all the kids beat him.

How Social Media Fuels Sandlot Growth

Speaker 2 14:26

I love that, speaking of that, actually something cool that you guys did. That I really appreciate um because we have some friends, mutual friends, that are collectors of uh, ice cream helmets yeah and you guys had ice cream helmets there.

Speaker 2 14:43

You guys had, you know, giving up for kids and all that. I was able to get one which was your white one with your kudzu logo. Yeah, they would get one for my friend, paul, who lives in colorado. So, paul, I'm like that's something cool, like those little details right there, that that goes a long way yeah, we try.

Speaker 3 14:59

We try to come up with ways to make it really special. And that was those my friends, brian and laney, who who did that. They're married and, um, we actually go way back. I grew up with them and laney plays for the reapers and brian plays for the kudzu and they, um, yeah, they bought all these colorful mini helmets and they put all the decals on by hand. So they, like you know, they got a cricket and they cut out all the stickers and weeded them and put them on all the helmets. I think we did like 150 mini helmets and we filled them up with ice cream and whipped cream and toppings and, oh yeah, the kids just lined up, we just gave it away yeah, I love it.

Speaker 1 15:44

Sounds like you guys really do go all out to make it feel like all the all the details of a game.

Speaker 3 15:49

You know of what goes yeah, yeah, the freight trains have a really talented organ player and he brings his organ out sometimes. He brought it to the stadium for that. He was playing the organ like a madman just going off. I mean he played. When I found out he played organ, I asked him to come out to a Sandlot game in Raleigh and he played the entire game and he had a playlist of like 70 songs and he just tore through those songs for the entire game. He just sat there behind the backstop just wailing on the organ. It was awesome. I think he even played the Star Ststangled banner to open the game.

Speaker 2 16:34

That's awesome he did. Yeah, I was like, oh, here we go Hold on a second. Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 16:42

I don't know if you guys talked about this, but if you did, I'm sorry, but I'm looking at the Instagram your guys' Instagram and then I noticed that there's a logo within the baseball with the leaves. And then I'm noticing it on your name, mike, there's a little symbol. What is that?

Speaker 3 17:00

that's the Japanese symbol for kudzu that's so cool yeah oh, that's so unique yeah, the kudzu plant comes from over there and Joseph, who came up with the whole concept of the kudzu, he's like a big fan of Japanese art and Japanese baseball and culture and so that's kind of like a tribute to that.

Speaker 1 17:25

That's so awesome. That was cool.

Speaker 2 17:29

That's cool to see, cool experience. I'm telling you, Val, you got to come and experience it for yourself I know, oh, I hate living so far from everything I'm not aware of, I'm not aware of a sandlot scene in vegas, but, um, I'm sure it's coming.

Speaker 3 17:44

If it's not there already, I'm sure it's coming in in the means.

Speaker 1 17:49

I'm in san diego often because my fiance is from there. So San Diego, I can deal with being four hours away for now, but Vegas needs one, especially with the hype around baseball in Vegas. Like coming here for sure, aviators are already here to sell out every game. So like it's perfect, there you go just need an empty field and a baseball glove that's all you need.

Speaker 2 18:16

I will warn you, if you start playing Val, I will warn you, you're going to get addicted and you're going to go and get yourself your own gloves, your own bat, your own everything.

Speaker 1 18:28

I can see me do that Because I am pretty competitive, but once I see someone start dressing up in the mascot, I know I'm going to compete for the best mascot.

Speaker 2 18:38

Oh no, we're getting a mascot for this team.

Speaker 1 18:40

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 18:42

There you go, see, see, what happens. See, this is the thing that happens.

Speaker 3 18:47

Yeah, I love it. I see it all the time. I love it.

Speaker 2 18:55

So pretty much as far as, like you know, you guys got together. I wanted to touch on this real quick or like, cause you guys make your own schedule, Like you guys, you know, just sit down together at the beginning of the season and we're like, all right, you know we got these these weekends. You know how. How do we want to? You know, break it down and who wants to play who and all of that. How does that? Is that how usually how that goes?

Rapid-Fire Questions with Mike

Speaker 3 19:10

Well, we tried that two years ago and I think it worked pretty well. We all agreed on one game per month per team. So at that time I think we only had six teams, so it was very easy to sit down and just kind of chart out where each game would be. But this year, with more teams added, it was we never were able to like find the time to all sit down together and do that. So really it was just team captains reaching out to each other and being like, hey, I've got this on my calendar, you want to do it? Yep, okay, and then, like everybody just kind of created their own schedule that way, I gotcha, and who knows what we'll do next year. You know there could be 12 teams next year and some teams want to play more than others. You know, guys on my team were telling me they wanted more games than one a month. So we're playing like two or three times a month, but other teams are still just playing once a month.

Speaker 1 20:12

And then a lot of opens.

Speaker 3 20:16

Yeah, and like we've kind of expanded our, our um reach, you know, with social media and all these people that we've met across the country through our road trips. So now we have teams coming in from out of town that want to play us too.

Speaker 3 20:29

Um, in two weeks, uh, a team from fort worth Worth is gonna come here and play us wait, I'm from Arlington okay, they're called the Fort Worth Panthers and they reached out to us and, like back in the winter they reached out and said they were coming up to play different Sandlot teams. So they're like coming up through the East Coast and they're gonna play. I think they're. They might be playing a game in charlotte and then they're coming. They're coming here to play us and the reapers, back to back, and then they're gonna I think they're gonna continue up to virginia and play somebody else.

Speaker 1 21:04

So insane wow, I need to do my research. I I need to. Yeah, I'm going through as you guys are talking and I love that Durham fruits logo. I love when like food and anything in the food world, so I guess juice is like incorporated with baseball logos, like that little juice.

Speaker 3 21:25

They are the newest team and they're really awesome. They're an all queer LGBTQ team and they stepped up in a huge way at the revival this year and they they provided so much cool stuff for for the players and for the kids. They made coloring books, they were give, they were making popcorn and handing out popcorn to the kids and, uh, they were doing like arts and crafts projects. They were doing like line of graph stamps on t-shirts and, um, it was just, it was really cool to see a new team like step up and participate and like really, really put a lot of effort in I'm also obsessed with that west te wind logo.

Speaker 1 24:12

I just love logos.

Speaker 2 24:14

Don't we all? Hey, mike, let me ask you this and then we'll go into my famous not so famous questions here. I did let him know about it, they let him know, okay.

Speaker 3 24:24

Still not prepared.

Speaker 2 24:26

That's the whole point. No one has ever prepared for this.

Speaker 1 24:28

Don't blame him.

Speaker 2 24:30

Let me ask, because obviously social media is a big part of a lot of other things and all that how have you guys been able to take full advantage of social media to really promote Sandlot baseball here in Raleigh Not really Durham, really.

Speaker 3 24:48

I mean, everybody just kind of got on Instagram and started, you know, sharing photos and videos from open sandlots. And then, you know, the team started forming and they were sharing pictures of all the designs and the logos and the hats and the uniforms. And you know, that really like sparks an interest and people just start reaching out and being like what is this thing I want to get involved, start reaching out and being like what is this thing I want to get involved, you know, um, so like, the, the sharing and the reposting of everything that goes on with all that has really like reached a lot of people and and so that's that's probably the biggest reason why you see new faces showing up every week.

Speaker 2 25:25

Um, when I showed up this weekend, uh, there was three of us, three of us, three or four of us that were brand new to sell. Uh, and yeah, it was. They said the same thing. It's like we went to the revival or we found you guys on social media and we wanted to be part of this, and uh, and here we are yeah, I love the power of social media and it's a good.

Speaker 2 25:50

it's a way of really doing social media right. Like you know, they were taking advantage of it and you guys have done an absolutely wonderful job on that. So very welcoming and that's how I felt.

Speaker 3 26:01

so far, that's good, I'm glad to hear that.

Speaker 2 26:05

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 26:06

Well, now I have FOMO.

Speaker 2 26:08

Well, I told you North Carolina is the place to be. Yeah, You're in Vegas, you got your your AAA championship, You've got F1 racing and you know future major league baseball team and all that stuff.

Speaker 1 26:20

But they don't have, they don't play against anyone with a full possum logo. They do not, they do not.

Speaker 2 26:26

So, um, sorry about that. Um, mike, is there anything that we haven't asked you or anything that you want to mention about your team, the Kudzu or the collective, or anything like that?

Speaker 3 26:41

at this point, before I go into my famous, not so famous questions, the only thing I'd want to stress is that you know we really are open and welcome to everybody is that we really are open and welcome to everybody. So if you're even considering it, just come out and show up and have a good time.

Speaker 3 26:57

I mean you're not going to get embarrassed. I've seen people go out there and do well and have a good time. I've seen people go out there and fall on their face and have a good time. It really is an open, welcoming environment and baseball is the one thing that everybody has a common interest in. But you know, the people and the relationships that you make out there and continue off the field are like the reason why we keep doing it.

Speaker 2 27:25

I'll tell you this I missed a lot of ground balls because, uh, ed balls? Because Ed did not really stretch that day, but he learned his lesson about stretching and making sure that he is limble enough so that way his six-foot ass gets all the way down to the ground to make sure that he grabs the ground ball. It happened.

Speaker 3 27:50

I'm coming off some fresh injuries, so I know the deal um I. I just had knee surgery last week. I I tore a meniscus and it's probably from playing too much sandlot baseball god bless you man and you're, and, but you're.

Speaker 2 28:06

Are you playing right now with it like that, or you're just taking it easy? You're just capping it?

Speaker 3 28:10

no, I I was playing at the revival with it, knowing that the surgery was coming up um, but I was limping around like I couldn't. I couldn't run the first base. If I got on base, I had a pinch runner yeah, let's go, come on right now um, but I'm, I'm. I'll be back on the field later in the summer good, awesome, love it all.

Speaker 2 28:30

Right, are you ready, my friend? I'm ready. Okay, here's the thing I'll give, but I'll be back on the field later in the summer. Good, awesome.

Speaker 1 28:34

Love it. All right, are you ready, my friend? I'm ready, okay.

Speaker 2 28:36

Here's the thing. I'll give you the easy one, because this is the one that we ask everybody here. Okay, you're going. Let's say you're going to a Durham Bulls game, right? Which, by the way, one of the best ballparks in all of the country. Just so you guys know You're going there. What is your food and your drink of choice?

Speaker 3 28:53

At the ball game. Yep, I'm going to be probably drinking a hopium IPA and I'll have a ballpark dog.

Speaker 2 29:05

That's the way to go. All right, cake or pie, pie Key lime pie key lime pie hits different, doesn't it?

Speaker 3 29:24

uh, strangest thing that you've ever eaten. Um, um it's a.

Speaker 2 29:32

You know it's a.

Speaker 3 29:32

I don't know, probably frog legs.

Speaker 2 29:36

I've had frog legs and I've had alligator.

Speaker 3 29:39

Yeah, I've had gator too. Frog legs are weirder though.

Speaker 2 29:42

Yeah, it was. It was weird, um, and I'm afraid of frogs, the big ones, the toads. Um, I gotta think for it. I uh, I don't know. Uh, what was your favorite, uh, school subject? Math good for you guilty yeah, I am not. Uh, mine was history. What was yours, val?

Speaker 1 30:06

um, probably I looked forward most to music because I could just sit on the top of the bleacher and just like taking that anything yeah I'm just gonna say yeah pick one bungee jumping or skydiving skydiver I gotta do one of at least.

Speaker 2 30:24

Oh my gosh, all right I don't want to do either no, oh, I do, I really do, uh, okay, so here's a good one. Have you ever re-gifted a gift?

Speaker 3 30:39

uh, yeah, I'm sure I have I have yeah, but it's not like not a big gift, like it was probably like a like a bottle of wine or whiskey. That was, like you know, somebody brought over as a hosting gift you know, I'm like okay, and then you're getting, you get invited to a dinner and. I know what I can bring, yeah, but I don't. I don't know about like Christmas gifts or like birthday gifts.

Speaker 2 31:08

I don't know about that yeah, I don't know either, doing like I've done it doing a white elephant. I was like I need this. I told my friends here that we do it here in our neighborhood we did a white elephant and someone gave me the. I got stuck with a checker set from a John Deere checker set. That sucker is going back to the white elephant. I'm telling you that right now. So all right, Favorite TV show growing up.

Speaker 3 31:44

Favorite TV show Like how old? What age are we talking here?

Speaker 2 31:48

Whatever age you want it to be, that 70s show, that's a good one. That's a good one. Yup, if you could be any fictional character in any movie, who would you be?

Speaker 3 32:08

well, I mean, I just I just played at the historic Bulls Stadium, so I guess that would be Crash Davis.

Speaker 2 32:15

Oh, that's what I was thinking. Yep, for me it's either Crash Davis or Indiana Jones. That's cool. Okay, if you could have one dessert for the rest of your life, one dessert, what would that dessert be?

Speaker 3 32:34

The Reese's Peanut Butter Sundae from Friendly's.

Speaker 2 32:38

That's a good one Do you know that one.

Final Thoughts and Where to Find Them

Speaker 1 32:43

That's on the East Coast only.

Speaker 3 32:45

Yeah, Friendly's is like an old-timey diner-type restaurant. It's an old chain they have this peanut butter sundae that they serve a couple more here.

Speaker 2 32:56

What color is your toothbrush? I think right now it's purple, but that's what the dentist gave me. Here you go. Here's your bag.

Speaker 3 33:12

Yeah, you don't see it until you get home.

Speaker 2 33:14

I know right, it's like all right. You guys never ask to trade, I would always ask. I just want to get out of there. I was just going to say, val, let's be honest. They gave you the bag and you're like, you're not looking. You're, you're like, all right, I'll see you guys.

Speaker 1 33:30

Later see you in seclusion. Obviously dents trips were always bad, but that usually would like make her break, or make break more or kind of make up for it.

Speaker 3 33:40

The toothbrush color okay, she gets excited about it.

Speaker 2 33:43

That's cool yeah, no, not me, not even. Uh. All right, two more here.

Speaker 3 33:50

First celebrity crush oh, it's got to be Saved by the Bell Tiffany, amber Thiessen, yeah, got to be Absolutely yeah, still to this day, that woman is a beautiful woman.

Speaker 2 34:12

Still to this day. All right, first, halloween costume my first, oh, my favorite halloween costume. Yep, uh, one year I was ollie g oh my god with the whole like the, the, the goggles and the in the school, in the scully and everything.

Speaker 3 34:35

Yeah, yeah, like a white football jersey and white starter pants.

Speaker 2 34:39

Oh, that's amazing. I love it. Mike, thank you for doing this. I had a blast. This is one of those things that I really truly do believe in in in Sandlot baseball. Thank you so much for that. Where can people find you, the team on social media and things like that?

Speaker 3 34:59

The website is carolinasandlotcollectivecom and you can find all the teams on Instagram. My team is the Carolina Kudzu and we play in Raleigh. We play teams in Durham, Chapel Hill. We got a game coming up this weekend in Chapel Hill against the freight trains. On Saturday and next weekend we're hosting the Fort Worth Panthers, which we're really excited about.

Speaker 2 35:26

That'll be cool to go see.

Speaker 3 35:28

Yeah, you should come out to a game. Game, ed um, we'll show you a good time oh, I'm coming definitely for the um.

Speaker 2 35:35

Uh, I know that this saturday, uh, it's happening at the same time as the open, so I already, um, I'm going to the open, uh, this saturday at 10 o'clock, but next weekend I'll, uh, I'll make it for that one for sure, absolutely all right, I'll cook you a hot dog, because I can't play so you know what? There we go. I'll take lots of pictures and videos to make sure you guys have it on your social media and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 35:59

So I'll thank you um, and then, guys, as far as us, you guys already know we are on all the socials. Uh, we are on youtube, tiktok, instagram threads. That's where we're pretty much spending most of our time in Um, if you guys have any uh suggestions of who should we interview uh in the next uh Dead High Chronicles podcast, do let us know. Send us a message. Otherwise, uh, we will see you guys on the next one. Thank you.