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Georgia Tech baseball coach James Ramsey talks NIL, transfer portal, and give advice to parents of athletes. Ramsey also share insight on this year's team and its potential to make a championship run.
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00:00Head baseball coach at Georgia Tech, James Ramsey, is here.
00:04Fascinating story.
00:06Player of the year in college baseball.
00:08First-round pick in the majors.
00:10Seven years at Georgia Tech.
00:12They were pretty good last year.
00:13You know, let's be real.
00:15Danny Hall, they win the ACC last year.
00:18On Danny Hall's last year, he's been a great friend of ours for so many years,
00:21as a lot of the college coaches around here have been.
00:24And you just take the helm and hell of a—
00:29I mean, I'll just say this for you, if I was your agent or whatever,
00:31is, you know, you're setting the standard pretty high year one, right?
00:36Right out of the gate.
00:38Yeah, no, it's been fun.
00:39I think, like, you always try to prepare for being in roles before you get them
00:43and you be a good steward of the things you're doing.
00:45And so, no, I mean, our administration's been great about continuing to lean into baseball
00:49as something that, once again, the campus can get behind.
00:52I mean, talking to Dr. Cabrera, our president, you know, with some frequency.
00:55I mean, that stuff's cool when you have leadership that's behind it.
00:58And then, really, once again, growing up in Atlanta, I have such a heart for you can build
01:02something that, like, listen, winning is what cures everything.
01:04It's what gets people in the stands.
01:05But if you can provide an entertaining product and you can do things about fan experience,
01:09like, one of the first things I did was, like, talk to—with our ticketing office
01:13and our marketing team about, hey, is there anything we can do with being more creative
01:16with first pitch times, getting people in the building?
01:19So we backed Friday nights up to 7.
01:21You know, we played that weekend series against Florida State at night 8, 7, and 3,
01:26and it was absolutely electric.
01:27So you'd look at that of, like, hey, nowadays in college athletics, you're running a business.
01:31You're running your own vertical.
01:32You've got to find ways to create revenue, whether that's with corporate partnerships,
01:36that's with the equipment, you know, things we do and use.
01:39And it's ultimately letting the players build their brand here.
01:42So I think that's the thing that's been exciting.
01:43So talk about the revenue sports and talk about NIL and just the new landscape.
01:50You know, we're super familiar with football because we spent so much time,
01:55and we've been to Georgia so many times at Kirby, and here, of course, with Coach Key,
01:58and we understand basketball.
02:00So it used to be 11 1⁄2 back in the day scholarships for baseball.
02:05Is that what the number—
02:06Yeah, just about, yeah.
02:06Right?
02:07No limit on now who gets paid, right?
02:10Is there a cap on payroll school to school?
02:14Is there supposed to be?
02:16How different is navigating it prior to NIL than it is today?
02:20Yeah, I think you even go before transfer port.
02:22I mean, things are happening under tables that now are above tables,
02:25and then now that they're above tables, it's never enough and nobody's pleased.
02:29I think if you look at, like, the good faith actors in this whole thing,
02:32I like to feel like the athletes themselves get a bad rap nowadays.
02:36Like, I don't think as many of them are chasing money and chasing things,
02:38and I think the coaches get a bad rap.
02:40It's like, hey, sometimes your hand's forced in a guy's—
02:43you're playing the best guys to win games and to pour into them long term.
02:46I think, once again, not to knock the other parties involved,
02:50but sometimes when those other parties get involved,
02:52they're telling people that there's greener grass out there.
02:54My whole thing has always been about whether that's the big leagues,
02:57whether that's college athletics.
02:58If you just had information symmetry, which you knew what people are making,
03:02you knew what departments are spending, you knew what all that looks like,
03:06then you can actually start to make informed decisions.
03:08Like, you know, hey, if Aaron Judge is on an average annual contract of 50 a year,
03:12and then you bring in his corporate sponsorships, you can see what Aaron Judge makes.
03:16The thing about, especially with baseball or some of the other sports, even basketball,
03:19you look and you say, well, what's this No. 4 guard making on the bench?
03:23What's he's perceived to be making?
03:25I think that's where I think his college athletics goes.
03:27For me, I'm a free market guy.
03:29I understand, hey, like, once again, Brooks Koepke and I go in the Hall of Fame together at Florida State.
03:32He's like, what would we have done at Florida State if we had, and I go, Brooks,
03:36we might not have been any good because by our sophomore years, you have all this money.
03:39You don't know how to keep working hard for your professional aspirations.
03:42So I think as we can get that information out there, it helps all parties make better decisions.
03:46But at the end of the day, I'll finish with this.
03:48If you can pour into players on and off the field, you can add value to their professional aspirations,
03:54and you can win championships along the way.
03:56That's why we've lost the fewest guys of anybody since kind of the portals opened up.
04:00And is baseball different in that there is a process, like, the money's not going to be $3 million
04:07or, like, it's going to be for basketball, football, and there's still, I don't know.
04:10And there's more players, right?
04:12So is it easier to sell the development opportunity to get drafted to really get in the bigs,
04:18which is so hard in baseball, more so than the bouncing that goes on in those other sports?
04:24And, you know, as a lifelong college basketball fan, to watch every good team have five new players,
04:31it definitely takes away from the juice of the sport.
04:34I look at Tech.
04:35You guys brought in high school freshmen last year more than anybody.
04:38Did it again this year.
04:39And a bunch of your guys have been there for a while.
04:42It feels like baseball is a better opportunity for it.
04:44It is.
04:44And if you look up and down of, to your point about, you know, people always talk about baseball money,
04:48right?
04:48Like the free agent stuff that MLB guys can get.
04:50And you look down the road, you have enough delayed gratification of saying, okay, I come to school.
04:55I work towards a degree.
04:56You look at the MLB rounds and values and the transfers that we've brought in.
05:01We've probably added three to five rounds on average, which is three to 700K based on the guy.
05:08And so, yeah, to your point, if you're not making it right away, you're going to make it at some
05:11point with us.
05:12You added Ryan Zuckerman, the kid from Pitt, right?
05:15Grinder, yeah.
05:16Love that dude.
05:1720 home runs leads you guys.
05:19Yep.
05:20But how much time do you spend?
05:21How many kids are watching Ryan Zuckerman last year?
05:24Now, he's in the ACC, right?
05:26So, like, how do you have enough guys to watch enough portal guys?
05:30You're watching film on guys like that.
05:31You also offer the Cal kid, what is it, Adventula?
05:35Yep, Adventula, yeah.
05:36Adventula, sorry.
05:37We were calling him Adventula until he showed up, too.
05:39So our kids had the nickname all lined up and everything.
05:42But if you look at that, you go, okay, part of this has been our operation between our whole coaching
05:46staff.
05:46Like, we're very data forward.
05:47So, okay, if you look at baseball card statistics and you go Ks and walks and errors, and once again,
05:52all those things are extremely important.
05:54But if you look at contact rates and chase rates and ability to do damage, I mean, Zuckerman's a great
05:58case of, I think he was probably, you know, under-ranked on the portal rankings because it's like we knew
06:04what we had in him.
06:05He dug in and said, I understand that whether it's defensively, offensively, there's pieces of my game.
06:09But you go back several years ago, Chandler Simpson, I talked to Kevin Cash yesterday, manager of the Rays.
06:14He's got Chandler Simpson, one of the most exciting players in baseball, hit under .300 at UAB, comes in here
06:18and hits .434, wins a batting title at Tech.
06:21You can recruit off those guys, like I said, that one-by-one approach.
06:24So, when I'm recruiting Invicula, it's all the SEC, ACC big boys.
06:27I'm like, hey, man, you start showing some parallels between him and Chandler Simpson.
06:30I think the light clicks on of, okay, I can believe this.
06:33Now you manifest that.
06:34The dude had 100 hits in 54 games, had multiple hits, I think, in, you know, 30-something contests.
06:41I think those are the things that a year from now, I talked about it, whether it's agents or players
06:45themselves, those guys are going to start gravitating.
06:47I want to be the next Jaron Invicula or Ryan Zuckerman.
06:49Most hits in all of college baseball, right?
06:52Correct.
06:52100 hits led baseball.
06:54What is Georgia rank as high school programs and high school players versus the rest of the country?
07:02I think per capita, it's one.
07:03I think you look at, you know, Texas, Florida, and California are the only ones that, in my opinion, can
07:08kind of compare.
07:09The challenges were, because of that, were over-scouted or scouted probably adequately based on the talent.
07:15But if you're good and you come here and you stay healthy and you perform, that 2023 high school recruiting
07:20class, you look at it.
07:21We had multiple other first and third and fifth round and twelfth round picks that aren't here, that if those
07:26guys were here, I think when they go back and re-rank recruiting classes, that 23 class for us will
07:31probably be number one in the country, which is no mystery why we're sitting here primed and ready to go
07:35with these guys in their junior season.
07:37What do you tell advice for dads?
07:40Listen, there's Division I, ACC, getting recruited by Tech.
07:46That's the outlier.
07:47That's the aberration.
07:48That's the incredible kid for the most part.
07:50But then I look at all these other programs where kids are sniffing a D1 or thinking about a JUCO
07:56or wondering what's the process or is it a 13th year or a, you know, they love baseball.
08:03I mean, how do you, how do you, because I hear a lot of dads that are really confused on,
08:07I don't know how good my kid could be.
08:09What would two more years of him getting bigger look like?
08:12A lot of decisions to make for a lot of parents.
08:15I shouldn't just say dads, dads and moms.
08:17Yeah, I've got some empathy.
08:18I mean, I've got a six-year-old now who, you know, a little switch hitting coach's kid running around
08:22wearing the oven mitt around the bases, got the Drew Burris chain on like he's, but you already see at
08:27that level.
08:28I think you have to ask his parents, okay, the quote we always use, do you love it because you're
08:33good at it?
08:34Or are you good at it because you love it?
08:36I mean, Von Lackey was five foot seven inches his sophomore year of high school.
08:39He's going to be probably the number one, two or three pick in the overall draft, got offered April of
08:44his senior year.
08:45He loves to play baseball and get better at it.
08:49So I think if that's going D3, if that's your realistic ceiling, if that's going D1 mid-major and working
08:54your way up like Kent Schmidt did and he won the ACC batting title for us in his first year
08:58after leaving Georgia Southern, just if you love it, the game will respect that.
09:03And if that ends up being in the brightest lights in the biggest cities like a Georgia Tech in Atlanta,
09:07so be it.
09:07But if you can have those car rides you did at eight years old, at 12 years old, and you
09:11talk about just loving the game, it's going to be so much more rewarding down the road knowing you squeezed
09:16every ounce out of it.
09:17And say it again for the people in the back.
09:19You played how many different sports when you were young?
09:22All of them.
09:22Even in high school?
09:23Multiple of them, right?
09:24It's football, basketball, baseball, tennis at the high school level.
09:27You know, anything that you do that you love to compete.
09:30And that was, for me, it was just like I had to be able to scratch that itch at the
09:33highest level 12 months a year.
09:35And the players know it now.
09:36Like, if I'm going to play pickleball, I'm not going to lose.
09:39If I'm going to play, you know, pool basketball back in high school, I'm going to do everything you can
09:42to win.
09:42So it's like you have that competitive spirit with guys talking about you just love to do something that's competitive.
09:48I think that serves you well in whatever walk of life you're going to go into.
09:51James Ramsey here, he's the head man at Georgia Tech, baseball ranked number two.
09:55Two in the country.
09:56In the country.
09:58Obviously a team that can win a national title.
10:00Obviously, just look at the scores, circus scores.
10:04You know, I grew up a Boston College fan.
10:07I grew up in Chestnut Hill.
10:08And I was like, oh, they'll give them a good run this weekend.
10:11They're 23rd in the country.
10:12And I'm just like, what are those scores?
10:15Like, what was it, 14-1, 9-0, something crazy, right?
10:19Yeah, I think it was 35.
10:19It was 38-3 over the course of the weekend.
10:22That's a ranked team out of the ACC.
10:24And they weren't playing football.
10:25This is baseball.
10:25Yes.
10:26My point is, obviously, all the numbers suggest this can be a national championship run type team.
10:34What has to happen?
10:35How scary are the regionals than the super regional?
10:39Let's not even think about Omaha.
10:41But what about just getting it?
10:42Because Danny Hall, I love him to death.
10:43But boy, did we have some tough luck in regionals over the years and super regionals.
10:47So talk about your mindset of what has to happen.
10:50Yeah, I go back to my experience you draw as a player of going to Omaha.
10:53We were 12-0 in regionals my four years at Florida State.
10:57We play four super regionals, get out of two of them, lose two of them in heartbreaking fashion.
11:01You have to.
11:02And that kind of led to the whole mantra of leave no doubt, which is when the players showed up,
11:06that was one of the first things we had sitting in their lockers of, listen, these committees are humans.
11:10And they're going to say, you won the ACC last year, but your conference strength of schedule wasn't good.
11:15And if you do this, then you've got to go on the road in a regional.
11:18It was the first time in 20-something years they'd sent the ACC champ.
11:21And then on the hindsight, they're going to say, well, we were right because you didn't get out of a
11:24regional.
11:24And so I told these guys, I go, listen, no, I think the regional is the most scary thing you
11:28do
11:28because you can wake up one morning, you get a guy's best shot in baseball,
11:32which happens, versus a three-game series.
11:34And now all of a sudden you're waking up at 7 in the morning having to face a new team
11:38with your season on the line.
11:39You understand that at this point you lose back-to-back games, you're not in a great spot.
11:43But I think this team is built to win in a lot of different ways.
11:46We're balanced. We led the league in conference play in pitching.
11:48We led the conference play in hitting.
11:50And I think we were number two or three in fielding percentage.
11:53You talk about having a great defense, your run prevention model is really good.
11:57You're able to score runs.
11:58And at this point, we have guys that are experienced.
12:00And so when you look at these NCAA tournaments, when do people lose?
12:03They have a bad run.
12:05It's a TV timeout that gets away from you.
12:07It's guys trying to play outside themselves, the college football playoff.
12:10You look up, some of these teams blink.
12:11They're down 10-0 in three minutes.
12:13This team is able to slow the game down when things happen like that.
12:16Moments get big, and that's why I think we're confident we can make a title run.
12:19Yeah, plus the schedule, the fact that you're playing in North Carolina and Chapel Hill,
12:24which these are elite programs.
12:25You talk about the Florida States.
12:27I mean, you're battle-tested, and kids have been in the program for a while, right?
12:32Yeah, you go back to matchups, too, and regionals.
12:34Once again, everybody's got a good pitcher.
12:36Everybody's got a guy that can have a good game, and I think that's where we have to let us
12:39know.
12:40We lose a game to Xavier at extra innings where we were up late and kind of thought it was
12:43in cruise control.
12:44And I told guys, like, your season can end that quick.
12:47Nobody's invincible.
12:48And so I think after we left North Carolina, I don't believe we lost a conference game the rest of
12:52the year,
12:53which is incredible.
12:54Wow.
12:54So you look at doing that.
12:56It's a way to say, hey, we left there, and we knew, hey, sometimes in baseball you play on the
12:59road.
13:00You know, it's that one of the three games is going to be kind of somewhere in the middle.
13:03So we left no doubt down the stretch.
13:05We're the best team in the ACC going ahead to the ACC tournament.
13:08What do you want to see out of Atlanta?
13:09What do you want to see out of your fan base over the next few weeks?
13:13Oh, we're just trying to run it back.
13:14I mean, you had nine sellouts this year's program record.
13:16Program record attendance, I believe, of the schools in the state of Georgia had the highest average attended.
13:21So we're just asking more of that for them.
13:23No doubt.
13:23Bring some juice.
13:24It's those moments under the lights in Atlanta, man.
13:26It's something different.
13:28Under the lights in the ATL, how much fun was beating Georgia over at Truist?
13:32Just a little bit, man.
13:33It's for the fan base.
13:34You've got to play that game.
13:35It's Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
13:36You raise half a million dollars for charity, and you end up with a 10-run victory.
13:40I mean, it was definitely all you could ask for.
13:42No doubt.
13:44Listen, if we win the ACC, you'll have to come back here over the next few weeks.
13:47It's a good luck charm right here, right?
13:48No doubt.
13:48Bring both trophies out.
13:49We'll keep it rolling into regionals.
13:51We'll keep it going.
13:52What a pleasure to meet you.
13:53I know Sandra was super excited to get another Seminole in here, right?
13:57No doubt.
13:58No doubt.
13:58Stakes, Sandra, great to have you guys have me on here.
14:01Like I said, we'll run it back soon.
14:03Yeah.
14:03Good luck this week.
14:04We look forward to next week where Georgia Tech will be hosting the regional and then
14:09hopefully a super regional after that.
14:11James Ramsey, what a first-year coach of the year in the ACC.
14:15We'll come back.
14:16Lots more going on around the world of sports on Sports Radio 92.9 The Game.
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