Zak Wasserman Chat

Zach Wasserman originally signed with the Thunderbolts at the start of the 2014 season after a four-year baseball career at the University of Louisville. He was signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks, part of one season in the Arizona system, and rejoined the Thunderbolts for the start of 2015. And I have him right here with me now in the Thunderbolts Press by Zach Wasserman. Thanks for joining me today.

Thanks for having me, Terry. Zach, I've kind of gotten into a routine on these shows, these interviews. I start people by asking them a question about their name. It seems like everybody's got a story about their name.

I don't know if that's true. And I looked at your name and thought, no, that's kind of a standard name. But I'll start with this then. Z-A-K.

Kind of unorthodox spelling of Zach, where does that come from? It is. My dad, you know, I always like to make fun of my dad thinking that he was cool when he named me. But no, my name is Zachary.

My full name is Zachary James. Zachary is spelled with a CH, but Zach went and shortened it just a K. I think that my dad thought that, you know, CH was more of Zach-ed than it was Zach, so he just decided to do it a little differently. And I just went with a K the rest of my life.

It makes sense. It's extremely logical, actually. It is. It's spelled that way.

You just don't see it very often. Well, Zach, we will talk about your career in baseball. Of course, you've got quite a baseball history. Most of it is not as a pitcher up until recently.

Let's go back to the beginning when you were a kid. How did you first get involved in the game? You know, from the time I was a kid, I had always had a ball in my crib. I had stories of my parents telling me I was...

I was acting like a puppy. I always wanted to know where a ball was. But I think I fell in love with it. Probably just like any other ball player that's my age.

At this level, you know, when they were a child watching TV going to games. You know, I remember having that old play school, T ball, kid or whatever that was, and playing with that in the basement. And I don't know, there's something about the sport man. I fell in love with it and still him to this day.

You grew up in Michigan. Are you a Tigers fan? No, not. I got brainwashed.

Both my parents from Fremont, Ohio, Homer Charles Woodson. I was in Trophy Winter Fun Fact. And that's about 45 minutes to an hour west of Cleveland. So when I was a kid, we used to go see my grandparents on both sides all the time over there.

You know, on a night where there wasn't anything going on my dad would take me and my sister, Jordi, over, and we'd go check out a couple of these games. So I've been a Tribe fan for as long as I can remember. You're listening on a roster from Stevensville Michigan. Is that where you grew up or is that just a recent thing?

No, it's born and raised. How far is that from Detroit? From Detroit? I think it's three and a half, four hours.

Okay, so I'm a lot closer to Chicago than I am to Detroit. Oh, okay, that's interesting. So how many games did you get to go to? You said you're an Indians fan.

Did you ever get to go to see the Indians play anywhere else aside from in Cleveland? Yeah, you have a cellular. I watched them. I want to say back when I was 13.

So 2003, 2004, something like that. I went and watched them play the White Sox. I don't even remember the score of the game, but I got a chance to go over and watch them over there. It was pretty cool.

Well, I grew up a Cubs fan. So you and I kind of have similar histories as baseball fans in terms of watching torture franchises. 97 had to have been tough for them. It was very tough.

I don't really remember 95. I was five, you know, so it's really hard. But at 97, I remember getting into the peak of my love for the Indians and man, they were so loaded that year. It was unbelievable.

And then they went down to Florida and they blew it. Well, I'll tell you my one brief story when I was disappointed by the Indians because I'm not an Indians fan, but I always kind of root for them just because I tend to root for a team that hasn't wanted in a while. In 2008, when they were getting close, I was in college at the time and I was hosting a radio show. Every week I host a show where I played old radio clips and I had the 1948 World Series.

I had game two. I want to say one of the games, the 1948 World Series. I had the original broadcast of that and I was re-aring it as part of my show. I thought it would be fun to do it because the Indians were about to make the World Series again.

I thought, how great is this? I've got the last time they won it and here they are about to make it again. I thought to myself, should I wait until next week? No, the Indians probably blow it.

I should just play it now. I made the right call. Sure enough. They took the way a 3-1 lead.

I don't want to make it feel too bad or anything. I figured we'd start on a down note and the only way to go from here is out. Exactly. So I know you played more than one sport growing up.

You played football in high school. I was a three sport guy, played basketball, football, baseball, in rotation all year round. But then after my freshman season, I played all three. So I played football in the fall, basketball in the winter.

By the time I got to be a freshman, I was lucky enough to make the Varsity squad. But I was 64-170 pounds after basketball season. I had to look at myself like, I'd probably not go play basketball anywhere. If I want to do something athletically, whether we football or baseball, I can't be 64-170 pounds.

So I decided to quit basketball after that season and devoted the winter to the weight room and just try and get myself ready for spring and baseball. I don't know if you're familiar with the comic strip, Guildthorpe. That's what I refer to as a Guildthorpe ball star. Somebody plays football, basketball and baseball.

It's a comic strip, look it up. It's not very good, but it holds a special place in my heart. High school athletic program. So you talk about your side, but skill-wise, did you ever feel like maybe moving on you would do something other than baseball?

The other were fun and baseball was the actual passion. Baseball was always the passion. I was the thing that I wanted to do forever. You know, just like any one of my teammates here, baseball was it for me.

But I loved football. Football will always hold a special place in my heart. Pitching every five days, every six days, is such a thrill. The adrenaline kicks in.

You get those pre-game butterflies, but there will be nothing like... Getting ready for a Friday night football game in high school. Nothing will be like it. And I'm biased.

One of my best friends plays center field for us, Coco Johnson. We both played the same high school, so we like to open up the yearbook every once in a while and talk about football stories. But yeah, I love football. Always will always have.

I did want to ask you about Coco Johnson. The two of you keep running into each other one way or another. Back in high school, you played on the football team together. This is what I read.

Correct me from it. You were the quarterback, he was the running back. That's right. It was a lot of fun.

It was cool because Coco was such a special athlete that not a lot of people know this, but when he came over as part of school at choice, he had to sit out his junior fall. That's one of the rules in Michigan. If his school's lucky enough to be a school of choice, you can apply, but you have to sit out athletically one full semester. So he had to sit out that junior fall for football and play at our junior baseball together.

You know, going to state semi-finals were like number two team in state. It was a lot of fun. But then that fall, he rejoined us for football. He had played football in like a year and a half.

Wanna starting job at like three different positions? It was all state. We had a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun.

It was really special to football in a sense. Well, going back to baseball. In college, you were primarily a first baseman. Did you pitch as well in high school?

Yes, I did. I actually went into Louisville as a two-way guy. I was pretty much the last guy, two-pitch in the inner swaths and stuff like that, because I had the ability because I was tall. I was all l offended.

I actually threw really well in the fall, and I was going to be the first lefty out of the bullpen, going into the beginning part of the year. We were going against Bowling Green, and we were getting ready to go into extras, or we were at the bottom of the ninth or bottom of the tenth or whatever. I'm warmed up, and I'm ready to go into the game to make my first appearance as a cardinal. It was like the third or fourth game of the season.

So I thought that maybe I'd have a good role out of the bullpen as well as you know, get some spot, pinch hits or some DH and stuff like that. But our all-American Ryan Wright, who's a double-A with the Reds right now down there in Pensacola, he walked us off with a double. So I kind of got squashed and had like three appearances throughout the year. Nothing special, but I ended up hitting fairly well, and that's where I stuck the last three years.

When you were a senior in high school and you were looking into different colleges, what was that recruiting process like for you? Were you looking for a place specifically that would take you as a two-way player and were there schools that wanted you either specifically as a pitcher or as a hitter? You know, the recruiting process was actually really painful. Most of the guys that I came into University Louisville with, my signing class, said already know that they were going to be there before their junior seasons of high school.

You know, they had gone out, they had done the whole perfect game circuit. They had played in front of the right people. And here I am from a really small town in South West Michigan, felt like I deserved a chance to go play somewhere. I felt like a lot of kids from where I did, but the exposure isn't as great as it should be.

And I was fortunate enough to play well enough in front of the Louisville coaches that they gave me a chance in. And honestly, that's all I was looking for. It was an opportunity. Just like when I come out of Louisville, I was just looking for an opportunity to play professional ball in, you know, Ranbiga in the city.

He thought it was a good opportunity. I'll be forever grateful. Just like I'll be forever grateful that the University of Louisville gave me a chance. I didn't actually sign until March of my senior year.

So I'd gone through all football season that fall. And the winner, I was just an ornery person, you can ask anybody in my family. It was tough. I felt like I deserved a place to go play.

And I had figured out where it was going to be. I thought it was a couple more weeks from just calling some more people back and being like, hey, they'll need a quarterback somewhere. But yeah, very fortunate for the way that things happen. You probably wouldn't have made it as quarterback at Louisville.

I'm guessing. Was Teddy Bridgewater there at the time? Yeah, he was. Oh, man.

He was special. He was really, really good. That was a lot of fun. Yeah, Louisville has been for a long time.

A great school just in terms of all their major sports there. Great athletic programs over at Louisville. And as you are obviously aware now, it's become the breeding ground for Winnie City Thunderbolts. It is.

It has. For four Louisville graduates, I believe, on the current roster right now. And there have been a few others over the years that have come and gone from here as well. So you're at Louisville.

You spent four years there. And you end up having a very good career there. Your team captain in 2013. Hit over 300.

Your first year. Hit 261 overall for your four seasons at Louisville. Do you have any memories from your time there, your four years there that really stand out to you as being special? Yeah, individually.

The one that really stands out in my mind just from a personal aspect. I had to walk off it against Kentucky my freshman year. That was really cool. I didn't start that game, but I was upset that I didn't think they were throwing a riding.

I had been hitting really well. And I was hoping Coach McConnell was going to let me get the DH roll. But he didn't actually know they started to left you. And I hadn't been hitting left these.

They've been using one of our other freshman hitters to face left these. I was there for righties. But then they brought a sidearm guy in and like the fourth or fifth inning came in. I got a base set just a ball that rolled through the four hole.

So that was pretty cool. And then my next bat I've flown out the left. And then by the time the ninth I've rolled around we were up one and gave up four. In the top of the ninth and we were down.

I think it was three or something like that. And also we were tied with the base and load one out. Do you left me a ball right down the middle? I just had a single right back through the middle.

That was really, really cool. But as far as the team, my senior year was incredible. I didn't have the greatest year playing first base numbers wise. But in the fall, our football team won the Sugar Bowl against Florida.

We won a national championship over Michigan basketball. Our girls, granted they ran up against Yukon. But they were in the national championship game. They were in the national runner up in basketball.

And then we went into Vanderbilt down there in Nashville and we took in two straight games. It was the first time they had a lost a home series that year. And that was really, really special. Dog Pylin was definitely one of the greatest things I've ever had.

I have to ask you as well about the basketball team. The year they won the championship it was against Michigan. And of course, our from Michigan. Was there any clash between you and maybe people from back home?

You know what? Playing ball down there, it was so hard. I felt so bad because I left a lot of family and friends behind to go down to Louisville. But anybody that played college baseball would tell you, you don't really get a chance to go home.

You're there from fall to Thanksgiving. And then when you're at home for Thanksgiving, you don't want to move because you're so tired from all the fall workouts. And then you're back for Christmas. Then you've got to leave to go back early.

And then you're there from January until the season's over. And then they send you somewhere to play. So the only people that I really talked to were some close friends back home in my family. But they were rooting for Louisville because of me.

And I'd grown up another Dame fan. So obviously I wasn't going to roof for me. You're like the worst Michigan resident I've ever heard. You're a fan of the Indians in Notre Dame.

Yeah, I am. It's strange. I think just fell in love with Cleveland, like I said, because of my dad. I only live half hour from South Bend.

Grew up Roman Catholic. Hard not to be an Irish fan. Well, let me ask you about your time post Louisville. You finished up your collegiate career playing baseball.

What were you looking for at the end of your senior season? Were you looking to continue playing professionally? Yeah, I was. Doing what I wasn't sure.

I thought I was a talented enough hitter to possibly get picked up. I was drafted out of high school things and work out my way. But I was a little down about that. I was still in Louisville.

I had gotten a job as a hitting instructor at my boss, Chris Burke, baseball. So I was down there. I was just giving lessons. I was doing some things.

And I was doing some things. And also I get a call from Blake Karoski's name, who turns out as my agent. And he was like, hey, he's doing play baseball. I was like, yeah, absolutely.

And he goes, all right, I can get you a gig. There's only one thing. And I was like, what's that? And he was, you got a pitch again.

I was like, okay, done. Tell me when I got, tell me when I have to be ready. And he told me it was January. He was going to set up a couple of just bullpen.

And I devoted that fall in that winter to learning how to throw and getting back in the groove. And I did it in high school. But the only thing I knew about pitching was I lifted my right knee and I threw the ball to a glove. There wasn't a whole lot of mechanical things that I understood.

So I had to almost come a bookworm and study and read up on some of the things that possibly normal pitchers don't understand. And so here we are. I was throwing in the, I'm going to say it was February or March. And I was before that.

It was, I think it was before the beginning of the year. So maybe November or December. But I was playing catch with our ace, Travis Tingle. And he was just like, hey, throw this flag around real quick.

I'll send it to, uh, send it to my pitching coach. Just in case some things don't work out. So they got me on film, sends it to Brian Smith, Smitty, our pitching coach here, and says, we'll give him an opportunity to come to camp and try to earn a job. And the couple of bullpen that I threw fell through and came over here last April and threw pretty well, made the team.

And now I am a pitcher. Still, I still am a hitter at heart. I still, you know, I don't miss being terrible. You know, I don't miss the 0 for 3 or 3 strikeout days.

But, you know, I do miss hitting. I do miss batting practice. I do miss playing every day. Although pitching has been a lot of fun lately.

And I'm around a really good group of guys. Have you ever campaigned any of the coaches here to get in that bat now and then? No, I think, I think I'm a, I think I'm a pitcher for a reason now. You know, it'd be fun to take some batting practice.

I would love to do that, get in the, get in the, get in the turtle and take some swings. But as far as game, no, I'll let those guys take care of it. I would still think you'd probably be one of the first guys that call in an emergency, at least. I would think so too.

I would think so. I would think so. I would think so. I would think so if you know, if they gave it to somebody else, I think I might be a little upset.

Well, we'll go back to last year's start of the season. You joined the Thunderbolts. No beer on here is really exactly sure what to expect from a guy who hasn't really pitched full time since high school. Yeah.

You come out one outing, you look great in that one game and then later that week you're signed by the Diamondbacks. What was your reaction when you got that new? I was very shocked to say the least, you know, because out of camp, beaks and somebody had pulled me into the room and said, Hey, here's your situation. We think you are talented, but we want to make sure that you get your feet wet.

We want to make sure that we can put you in comfortable situations that you continue to improve and learn how to pitch against since you haven't done it so long. So it was a Lake Erie, I believe here on a kids day. We were losing like seven nothing and I got the call out of the bullpen and came in with two outs and like the six or the seventh finished off that inning and then I got through a clean inning. I don't even know what my VLO was, but I just know that I felt like I threw really well.

I used a couple of really good pitches and met with a couple guys who were scouts from the Diamondbacks after the game and just kind of introduced myself. It was kind of a meat and Greek than it was actually an opportunity for them to say, Hey, we want you to come play for us. It's like, Oh, that's cool. At least I got to talk to somebody and the next day we taking the bus six hours up to Travis City, Michigan.

We get out there and for people that don't know the pitchers go out and they get their work in before the hitters. So we'll go out. We'll stretch. We'll throw.

We'll get our running in. We'll throw our bullpen on the side so that we're not taking up extra time for the hitters from when they have to get ready and then go through their bag practice. So we were out there with our pitchers meetings and right before we got throw in, somebody had said, Hey, I got some good news and some bad news. Some good news is that day is over.

We ended up losing like nine runs or something like that. It was a really bad day. It was like good news as we get to flush that. You know, that game is over.

Got a new one a day. Bad news is we're losing one of us. So there's some bad back just bought out was his contract and you know, without me using X, what is on the air, it was like a holy cow. I can't believe that actually happened in part of me.

It was just like, Are you sure? Are you sure it was me that they wanted? But I thought that it was something that I needed, honestly, as weird as that sounds and stuff as that sounds, but I don't know how well I would have done in this league last year because I'm a full time starter now and I seen the talent and who I go up against every five days. It's it's really it's a really good league.

And when I got out there, Arizona, you know, I was still there and extended spring training with some of the guys and then the draft had happened. They brought in all those draft guys and then all the short season teams had broken. And I was there in rookie ball still. Farm record sits me down and goes, Hey, we like you, but we know your story.

So we want you to just get in. And basically we would show up in Arizona. I'd be sweating like crazy and there'd be nobody in the stands. There'd be no music.

There'd be no walkups. It was like extended extended scrimmages, but they were games. It was a league. It was a season.

And I was able to get my 24-25 innings in last year. And I think that's it was really big for me. Just no pressure work on some things work on some pitches and just keep kind of developing. So it was it was really, really cool.

Looking back on at the story is just especially telling my friends and family. They were like, wait, seriously, one time, one time you're already gone. Yeah, it was really, really cool. Well, I won't get into too much to how things ended in Arizona because I'm talking to players.

Usually they're not the first ones to know why they end up getting released or sent somewhere else. But you actually did put up some really good numbers in your rookie year with the Diamondbacks. When you got let go, what was your mindset and was your first thought coming back to the Thunderbolts were you looking into something else at that point? You know what?

I was hoping that I would at least get an invite somewhere else to spring training, but it didn't work out that way. And I was a little better who wouldn't be, you know, it's tough to take rejection. It's tough to have someone sit there and tell you, you know, we don't think you're good enough. We don't think that you fit our mold.

That's not easy to swallow. However, I was I was gracious. I was thankful for the opportunity that the Diamondbacks gave me. But I was ready to work.

I was ready to get after it again. You know, I was kind of one of those things I used as motivation for the rest of the winter. And coming back into campus here, I felt that I thought that I could help the team more as a starter. You know, my career moving forward, I think that I have the I have been blessed in more ways than one, but I'm tall and left handed.

I'm just my parents. All around great guy. No, no, no, no. But genetically my parents, I'm a big person.

You know, I can handle I felt like I can handle a lot of innings on my body. And I felt that, you know, once I learned how to do that, I could help the team win more pitching every five days than I would one inning here, one inning there. So when I approached Skip, Ron Biga about being a starter, he was all over. He goes, yeah, absolutely, let's do it.

So it's been, you know, we kind of let back ons we got back ons with the Diamondbacks. And I've had a lot of fun this year, too, you know, being a starter and going every five days. How have you adjusted to that? Both physically and mentally.

It's obviously a much different task being a starter than being a reliever. If you feel like you've adapted to it well? Yeah, I feel like I have the first few starts. It wasn't necessarily getting used to it as it was me trying to find a routine.

And one thing, if you're around professional baseball players long enough, you understand that everybody's got a routine when they show up to the field, when they get their work in what they do every day to get ready. And honestly, I just treated it was a sounds like a little like football, you know, you pitch once a week, you play football once a week. But the nice thing is I've had a lot of people in my corner that have kind of given me some guidance on when I should lift, when I should run, what days I should throw my bullpen on the side, how often, and then as the season's kind of going on, I've kind of found a recipe that I've really enjoyed day to day to get me ready for that start day. Take us through a typical start day for you.

You know, you're pitching tonight. What happens from the time you wake up? Do you have it planned out from the time you wake up to the time you go out to the mound? Yeah, usually I usually wake up.

I usually have some oatmeal or whatever I can find later on my host family's house and just have some breakfast. And then honestly, it's just kind of relaxed mode. It's just kind of laying in bed. It's watching some TV.

It's reading some Game of Thrones. It's just kind of hanging out. And then, you know, I don't really get it's even if it's right now, it's right now it's 130. It's still not on my mind yet because I'm trying to just save it and save it until it's about time to go.

And then once three 34 o'clock hit, it's like, all right, now I've got to start getting my mind right now, hopping the shower, I'll grab my clothes. And then I'll usually get to the field probably two and a half hours before start. So I'm just going to hang out in the locker room, talk with the guys, socialize. I'm not one of those guys that kind of, I do like to get serious, but at the same time I don't want to be so serious that I take away from having a good time and seeing some of the fellas.

So, you know, it's funny, I'm not really big on the music. I used to be, but I don't really listen to a whole lot of music. And then if it's a 705 start, I'm usually out there somewhere around 625 and I'll start warming up my legs and start getting the blood going. So, 640 is when I'm playing catch either with Larry Ballquiller or Tyler Clark, and I usually stretch it out, usually long toss to about 210 to 240 feet, and then bring it back in, throw a quick flat ground for those of you who don't know, it's just kind of throwing on a normal surface before I actually get on the mound with Larry or Tyler already in their crouch position.

Then we get on the mound, start a little shorter, and then we get back to regular, and then I just like to just kind of feel for what feels good that day, and for me, usually it's a fastball changeup, but as of late I've been really working on my slider and really developing that. So, it's just kind of what feels good, how should we attack certain teams and just making sure that I'm feeling good, no aches, no tightness anywhere, it's just getting me ready to take them out for the first inning. Let's step away from the baseball diamond for a minute, let's just talk about maybe how you spend some of your time away from the field, say the team has an off day, what kind of things do you enjoy doing? I enjoy going to the movies, I enjoy going to get some food with some of the guys, we found this really cool sushi place over in Northern Park, I don't even remember the name, it's like Yaka Yaka something like that, Asian place.

I'm sure we'll be able to find it, but yeah, exactly. We all go over there, so that's really cool, a lot of relaxing, we've been really big into Mario Kart this whole season, whether it be on the N64 or a Coco Got The Wii U, and we played on that as well. Usually I spend it with some of the guys on the team, but over the all-star break, Dad and I went fishing, that was a lot of fun, I didn't really get a chance to do it as much in college because I was constantly playing or practicing or whatever, I never got a chance to go out and do any of that, so that was fun to do, but usually I usually like to get some sort of lift in, I don't like to miss a lot of workout days. Yeah, it's nothing really special.

Who's your guy in Mario Kart who you use when you really need to win a race? Alright, Peach. Really? Yeah, she's a sleeper.

You know what, man, I liked her so much on the 64 because everyone is always Yoshier Toad, Yoshier Toad, and I was like, I'm gonna go with Peach and I started winning a ton of races. Now Coco and Tannis and Tufts will disagree that I won a ton of races, but I know I did with Peach, and that's been my girl ever since, I always race with Peach. I think you need an official stat keeper, so you can actually show them how many races you're winning. I don't know if they're Mario Kart stat keepers are running.

You said you'd like to go to movies if you've seen any good ones lately? It was the last one I just went and saw. Tetsu? It was like, oh it was hilarious.

It's that big farland, you didn't pull any punches, that's for sure. But it was hysterical, it was just like the first one. Went and saw Avengers earlier in the year, the second one, that one was really good. What's coming out here soon?

I really want to go see. Oh, vacation. Have you seen the trailer for vacation? No.

It looks like a remake of the Old Chevy Chase one, so the national lampoon, and Ed Helms, the guy from the Hangover, is supposed to be rusty. You've seen any of those movies right now. It's a remake, it's not like a continuation with different characters. It is just straight remake of the original.

It's kind of like a, no, it's still vacation. Chevy Chase is in it. It's like a continuation of the story. It's like a continuation, but with no direct, they're trying to go back to Wally World, but it's New Age, Christine Applegate's in it.

Looks hysterical. I can't wait to see it. Similar story. Different characters.

I got it. And then, there's another one that I really wanted to see. I can't think of the trailer. Oh, South Paw.

Jake's doing all that boxing movie. That one looks really good. I saw a review yesterday. A review was not favorable.

Ron tomatoes? What was it? It was Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune. Okay.

He's usually pretty tough though. He is tough. I like him. He's a good guy.

He's a good guy. He's pretty fair. You've talked about over the all-star break going fishing with your dad, and something you didn't really have time to do so much when you were in college. I talked to a lot of guys at this level, a lot of young players who come from college, and don't necessarily struggle, but really have to adjust to life outside of college, because it's so different where you're really in control of your routine.

You're in control of your body. You're in control of what you do. How have you handled that transition over the last two years? I think that the university level did a really good job of teaching me preparation, honestly.

There was so much structure in college. I think that's the one thing that you were hinting at, is you guys go from college to pro ball. It's tough because they don't have 7am weights, class from 8 to 12, practice from 2 to whatever, and then study hall after. It's a structured day, 300 days out of the year.

It's tough like that. Actually, it's really easy when your classes are given to you. You've got people always in your corner trying to make it as easy as possible, so that way when the spring comes around, you can play as good a baseball as possible. They're also trying to get you in the right for your mind.

Make sure your glasses are taken care of your body's right in the weight room. Teaching you what to and what not to eat, and what to and what not to drink. There was so much structure at Louisville that I think that Tingle, Coco, and Chitna, will also agree with me. It has made it not as tough to adjust to in pro ball because we have done it for so long that that's really the only thing we know.

I think the hardest part was finding my own routine. That's more necessary than it was adjusting to some of the other different things. But yeah, it's still been fun though, man. I love for a while.

I love the city of Chicago. We're happy to have you here. I can't thank you enough for spending some time taking your time out of your day to speak with me today. I wish you the best of luck the rest of the way, of course, both individually and as a team and thanks again for joining me.

Terry, thanks for having me.