Thirty Minute Mentors Podcast Transcript: Interview with MLB Play-By-Play Announcer Victor Rojas

I recently interviewed Victor Rojas on my podcast, Thirty Minute Mentors. Here is a transcript of our interview:

Adam: There are 30 people in the world who are television play by play announcers for Major League Baseball teams. One of them is our guest today. Victor Rojas has spent a decade calling games for the Los Angeles Angels after doing broadcast work for the MLB Network, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Texas Rangers. Victor is also an entrepreneur. If anyone follows me on social media or knows me in real life, you've probably seen me wearing a Big Fly t-shirt or sweatshirt. Victor started Big Fly in 2019 and runs it with his family. Victor, thank you for joining us.

Victor: Adam, pleasure to be on with you. I can't believe that I made your list to be a guest. So you're trolling the bottom, you're looking for a catch.

Adam: Victor, on the contrary, you were actually an inspiration for me starting the show. I don't know if listeners know that. Listeners probably wouldn't have reason to know that. But Victor and I had a conversation long before I started this show and you gave me tremendous personal advice and guidance and I want to thank you. I thanked you off air but I'll thank you on air for really just sort of helping me and giving me the push to do this and guidance and advice. So thank you and if any listeners that are listening in and are enjoying other episodes, Victor is to thank for it. So thank you, Victor.

Victor: Well, Adam, I remember that conversation vividly, because I thought it was gonna be a fairly quick conversation and I kind of misunderstood where you were going with it. I thought you were trying to, initially, get into my industry. But once we started talking about it, I remember sitting in the parking lot while my wife was in the car listening to the conversation, we spoke for a while, and I was intrigued by what you had to say and what you were thinking about. And I'm glad that whatever I said, my words of encouragement, you know, fueled you and it's all working to your benefit.

Adam: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. When I was a kid, my dream was to run a baseball team. When I was a little kid all the way through my time in college my dream was to be the general manager of the Angels, but I think they're in good hands with Billy Eppler. So I'm not looking to take his job.

Victor: I hear you. I think we all kind of have dreams like that. You know, it's funny how when you're not in the game you want to be in the game. When you're in the game you want to go be a rockstar or something else. When you talk to players and athletes and musicians, how everybody always had this dream about doing something opposite of what they're currently doing which is a unique situation.

Adam: What was your dream when you were a kid? You’re the son of a well known Major League Baseball player, Cookie Rojas. What did you want to do?

Victor: I wanted to play baseball. I mean, I loved it from a game standpoint, being able to go to the ballpark on a daily basis with my dad in Kansas City. He retired, not at an early age for him, but I was in fifth grade when he retired in 1977. And so I was able to at least remember bits and pieces of his playing career, but from ‘78 on and when he started coaching with the Cubs and then he went on to the angels organization, you know, that's kind of when I really kind of came into my own and really appreciating what he brought to the time. As a player, and then of course as a coach and later on as a manager, but having watched him and really succeed at the highest level for a guy whose family came from Cuba, middle infielder to succeed for 16 years in the big leagues. There's a reason why he's my hero, and I look up to him to this day. But as a young man, I wanted to play the game. From a school standpoint, I didn't really have any other aspirations. I like the communication side of things, but never really thought of being a broadcaster or anything like that. I think, from my earliest memories, it was, “I want to play baseball and I want to play baseball in the big leagues.” That's kind of what I took away from my childhood and even to this day, looking back, I can't, I can't wrack my brain anymore and sit there and say, you know, maybe I did have a thought of being a doctor or something like that. And the beauty of all that was in my dad with four boys. He never once pushed any of us towards sports in general, or baseball specifically, as far as a career. He just said, “Go out and experience it all.” You know, you want to play football. He wanted he wasn't a big fan of football. But if you want to experience it, go ahead, play basketball, play tennis. So I grew up playing tennis and baseball. I did play some football a little bit. I tried out for track in middle school, but I settled in on tennis as a freshman, because I wasn't gonna make the varsity team. Then I went to baseball, and I was a baseball guy from my sophomore year on through college and into the minor leagues.

Adam: Can you talk about your experience playing minor league ball? I'm sure listeners who are hardcore baseball fans will understand and appreciate what it's really like to be a minor leaguer, but a lot of our listeners are not necessarily baseball fans or even sports fans. Can you talk about the grind of being a minor league baseball player? And what are some of the lessons you learned from that experience that have really shaped you today as a sportscaster and as an entrepreneur?

Victor: I think the one thing that comes to mind for me is actually putting in the work. And it's one thing to have the ability to do something. It's another to actually work at your craft, and I think at the age that I was a college kid, I signed a minor league deal and I thought that I was good enough and I could lean on my abilities to kind of take me away. And I found out very quickly that that wasn't going to be the case. And that's probably why I had a brief minor league career and that's why I decided to go into something else and it took me a while to figure it all out but you know, the whole grind- to use the word grind- it is a grind, you know, for a good chunk of guys that are in the minor leagues. It is an absolute grind and even though you put in the work, and you have ability, it doesn't guarantee you anything. Few are able to reach the upper echelons of the minor leagues, AA, AAA, and obviously the ultimate goal being in the big leagues. And so it just tells you how hard it is to climb that ladder and if you don't put the work in, it's going to be that much harder for you. It's interesting because Joe Maddon, who's the Angels manager now, he was my minor league field coordinator when I was in the minor league, and I remember him in his speeches, he and a gentleman by the name of Jeter Hines, also, another coordinator would come down and give all kinds of talks to the minor leaguers and usually they were very uplifting and motivating and the like to get you going. But it just, I don't know. I was kind of a knucklehead and to a certain degree I still am. I've just kind of parsed out my time as to when I kind of know when to be a knucklehead and when not to be a knucklehead now as opposed to just being one all the time back then, but I think that's kind of really helped me is as I've gotten older, to kind of reach for my goals and even if I don't have those goals to create a set of goals and shoot for them. Look, I got into broadcasting at 31 with no college degree. I had no real aspirations to be a broadcaster in my first 30 years of life, other than I grew up listening to it and watching my dad's games. And for me to make the decision, I was working at customer service at Nordstrom in Boca Raton, Florida during the Christmas season, when I told my just married bride that I think I'm going to try this broadcasting thing out. That was in December of 2000. And in 2001, I got a job with the Newark Bears in the independent league. And I went there and I became a play by play guy. I was the color analyst and Assistant General Manager. It was an independent ball team and I got hired by a former Yankees catcher on the team. Rick's around and he said, “Listen, I don't need you as a player or anything like that. Why don't you come up with a team together, and you could do the color broadcasts as the second guy in the chair to get some reps?” Well before the season started our play by play guy quit. And then a month into the season, our general manager was like, “Oh,” so I became the general manager. And so during that 2001 season, and here I am, I've made this decision to go out and become a broadcaster. And all of a sudden, I'm faced with the decision of alright, do I? Because I like the GM part of it, that just felt natural, you know? I just, I don't know, it's just kind of my groove with dealing with players and agents and putting a team together. And oh, by the way, I'm still doing the games. But I had a quick decision to make early on in 2001; which role I was going to go in and pursue because I easily could have fallen into a major league team, you know, working in player development or the minor leagues and worked my way up in the front office and gone that route. But I chose the broadcasting side. And really, if I had the mindset at 30 or 31 that I had when I was 20 or 21, I probably would have failed and I wouldn't be sitting here on this podcast with you because I just wouldn't have taken it seriously. Or I would have just thought, well, I could just, I could lie my way through this. And when push came to shove, and you start getting some, some letters of rejection, it just, you know, kind of rekindled the fire and fueled you even more. And that's when I knew that this was for me, this is what I wanted to do. And I've been fortunate enough to have only spent two years in minor league ball to now having spent 17 years in the major leagues doing this, including a stint with MLB network. It really just goes back to learning from my mistakes and then knowing that the next time when that came around, that you got to put forth the effort and and go for it.

Adam: What advice do you have for listeners around discovering your passion? Because you have a very interesting and in some ways, unconventional journey to the top in that you discovered this passion for broadcasting baseball games after your career as a baseball player, and I think a lot of people think that you have to know exactly what you want to do from the time you're a kid or from the time you're in school, or if you haven't figured it out by a certain age, then you're done. You know, you sort of need to know at a certain point, what it is that you're going to do for the rest of your life. And, Victor, you're a great example of the fact that that isn't true at all. You can really figure it out at any point and it's just a matter of having the mindset and having the work ethic and having the confidence and the mentality to go all in and do it. What advice do you have for listeners on number one? How do you discover that passion? And number two, how do you once you once you think that you know that you have a direction you want to go in like you in your case with, you know, your career as a broadcaster? What are some tips to get better at that craft? You know, you didn't go to broadcast journalism school at USC or at Syracuse, how did you become the broadcaster that you are today?

Victor: Well, I mean, there's a couple of questions in there. And I think I'll answer your first one, initially here as far as the how do you find what it is that that's going to drive your passion. And I think, you know, I find myself now, I'm going to contradict myself because I find myself doing what I'm going to say you shouldn't be doing as a parent. You know, I'm asking my kids so what do you want to study? What do you like? And I think from an early age, I think we're all in that mode, right? Our parents, uncles or aunts every time, especially as you get a little bit older in high school, my daughter's a junior, looking at colleges already, and it gets ingrained in your system, as a kid, that man I better find something or, you know, why is everybody pushing me so quickly on this? Yeah. And I think I think we put these false expectations upon ourselves based on our environment, then you get out of college and you're like, alright, I gotta go, I gotta go be successful by the age of 25, or 27. I gotta be married by the age of 30. And I have my first kid by, you know, they've got this game plan, I think. I think it's all changed now. I think society has changed in general. And I don't think there's really any problem whatsoever with going to college and studying one thing and going out in the world and doing something else. You know, I think, as you get older, and you start to learn different things, or you hear things you experiences occur, I think you just become wiser. I mean, you just, you start to really mold the the world, your world in your way, as opposed to other people's ways or other people's eyes. And I think that's, that's just an evolution. And I think the timeline for which all of this occurs happens differently for everybody because we're all wired differently. We're all different humans. And so while it took me a while- 30 to 31 years of age- to figure out what it was that I wanted to really pursue. You know, for some, they knew it at a high school, they go to college, they go to Syracuse, they go to Newhouse School, and they graduate and they go to ESPN. And it's like they've got their plan. That's what they want to do. And that's awesome. I think that's fantastic. But I think, overall, the biggest thing that I tell, especially young broadcasters that reach out to me, and it really relates to anything you do in life, is that always try to be the best version of yourself and not the second version of somebody else, no matter what it is. And because I think all too often, and especially, it's especially prevalent in my industry, you go to SC or Missouri, or Newhouse up in Syracuse, wherever the case may be, North Carolina, it doesn't matter. They come out with this mindset of they see Joe Bock and they see all these guys Brian Anderson, Don Marcello at the national level, from a baseball perspective, it's like, I gotta be like that in order to get there. And I think that's the biggest bunch of garbage. That’s what I tell kids. Because the minute you start sounding like somebody else is the minute, the person that's doing the hiring is going to turn off because everyone's looking for that unique sound look from a broadcasting perspective. Everybody, for the most part, has a pretty decent voice, right? Our inflections are all different the way we enunciate things are different. The way we see things and call things are different. But if you start to sound like someone that everyone knows, well then as I tell the kids if you got 50 emails for a job opening, or broadcast job opening, and you're clipping through these mp4 files, right, you're looking for something that stands out. And what stands out is not someone that sounds like someone that's in the mainstream right now. It's someone that stands out to them individually, that they can sit there and go, I can see this person, male or female, doesn't matter as the voice of Beck's team, my team, I could I can totally see this. And then you listen a little bit more. And so that's the biggest piece of advice that I could tell anybody is to find your way. It's okay that you look at others for inspiration or you like certain things but make it your own. And I think it helps you grow as a broadcaster, you know? And I speak to how my learning curve was really steep because, you know, I came from learning it on my own, like I was in a broadcast booth in Nashua, New Hampshire in 2001. After signing Jose Canseco and Lance Johnson and Jim Leyritz and all these major leaguers to the Newark Bears, and there's ESPN, and CNN and all these news media outlets out there for the game. I'm in this broadcast booth having put together a team, I got to do a broadcast. Yeah, I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I had a complex that I had to find the plug for it so I could dial in. I didn't know you needed a passcode for this thing and that thing. I was just dying just to get on the air. And even as I got to be a big leaguer, I had one year in Arizona, and then I went to Texas, I got hired away by the Rangers. I'm sitting next to Eric Nadel, who's since been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as a Ford C. Frick award winner. And I'm looking at his book. And I'm looking at my book and I'm like, man, I must be doing it wrong. You know, I started copying. I started putting all these notes in my book and because Eric's got it, you know, he's been there for 37 years. He must be doing it. You know, I must be doing it wrong. And I tried to become him. And I realized it, I think it was a month in, I told my wife- I remember the conversation with her. I said, I think “I don't know why I'm trying to be Eric, because I'm getting lost and all this stuff that I've written down, like he writes down, and I'm forgetting to just call the game.” And she says, “Len, don't. Just be yourself.” And from that point forward, it just came naturally to me. And if even to this day, when you look at my score book, it's virtually empty. It's got a lineup. It's got the standard numbers for the hitters, the standard numbers for a pitcher. But aside from that, unless there's a little nugget that I want to try to work in at some point, my book is just a book for scorekeeping. For me the game happens out on the field. Now it's different for others that came up, you know, the scholastic way, and went and got a degree and learned it that way. Because of that I see the game differently than they do. They call games off of monitors. I call a game off the field and I use the monitors for replays. Now, I'm not telling you that's the right way to do it because I can't do it the other way. I'm not the best broadcaster I can be by doing it by the book. And so that's why that's the one thing I just continue to tell folks in our business that you really just find your own voice. And I've taken that and I've applied it even from the business standpoint to what we're doing with our apparel company. Heck, I even tried to start a social media platform when I was at MLB Network in 2009. And the biggest key for me; what's the differentiator? And just like it should be for anybody, especially from a tech standpoint, what's different is what you're doing because more times than not, there's gonna be 100 other people doing kind of the same thing. What's going to make you stand out in the crowd? And for me, what makes you stand out in the crowd is what you bring to the table and how unique you are when you step up to the plate.

Adam: You're obviously a professional communicator and communication is important in anything you do in life, whether you're the CEO of a company, whether you're an entry level employee, anywhere and everywhere in between, what are your best tips on how anyone and everyone can become more effective at communicating?

Victor: I'm a big believer of not being afraid to reach out and introduce yourself to whomever. I have to this day. When I was at MLB.com I was still at Newark, but I was working with MLB.com at the time doing a broadcast of a baseball show in the morning, before they became this juggernaut of MLB.tv. I remember telling my oldest daughter who's now 27 and married, that I want you to go through this MLB media book, and I want you to write down a list of all the names of the VP of marketing and/or broadcast and I'm gonna call them, I'm going to reach out. And she did. I still have a list of it in alphabetical order by team and then I have each of the individuals names, and I reached out to every one of them. Not every one of them took my call. But at the very least, I still feel to this day that it's imperative from, I guess from a marketing yourself perspective, that you cannot be afraid to communicate with those, especially the decision makers. That, to me, is the biggest stumbling block. It's much easier to pick up the phone and talk to someone who is, quote unquote, “at your level” and, you know, senior management. It's difficult to really have a conversation with them because you're, you know, parsing your words, and you're worried about what you're going to say, and you don't want to embarrass yourself, so on and so forth. You know what? If you have confidence in yourself, then you should have confidence in picking up the phone or dropping an email, and at least trying to reach out to somebody. I love it when people do that with me.” I know that you're busy. This is who I am. This is what I'm doing. This is where I ultimately like to go. Can you help me out?” That, to me, is the best. Why do I reply to that email so fast? Because I think it kind of gets lost a little bit. You shouldn't be afraid to ask for help. You shouldn't be afraid to ask for a job. You shouldn't be afraid to go out and say hi to your neighbor. I mean, I'm just in the communication business, right? So my goal every day is to communicate with our viewers. I’m a storyteller and I’m supposed to entertain. And I think it's important that we all take that step from a communication standpoint and reach out to everybody as much as possible. And you know, I may be kind of dancing around your question a little bit.

Adam: No, you answered it. It's square on. Yeah.

Victor: Yeah, I mean, it's brought in nature. But I think if you funnel everything down, it really just boils down to, you know, we're not all comfortable doing this, you and I sitting in front of a microphone or picking up a phone or, you know, cold calling somebody, I've had to do that. And it sucks. I hated doing that. I hate doing sales.

Adam: You know, I mean, from a cultural perspective, it's not fun, as you said. People are people and we're all human beings. It doesn't matter. You know, who you are, what your name is, or what your job title is. We all are at the end of the day, human beings so let's not lose sight of that and I think your advice is great. In our remaining time I'm gonna turn to something that hopefully our listeners are interested in and that's baseball, but also stay true to the topic of the show and talk a little bit about leadership. So you mentioned Joe Maddon and you played for Joe Maddon, you now are colleagues with Joe Maddon. What are things about Joe Maddon, that listeners might find interesting and who are other leaders that you've been around in your time in baseball, who you look up to? And what makes a great leader? I know I've packed a lot in there, but you can kind of take it, whatever direction you want to go with it.

Victor: Sure, well, specifically about Joe I mentioned that, you know, in the minor leagues, he was always a, you know, really what he is today is what he was back then. You know, back then, you know, quirky was kind of the word that was best. He was the eccentric, if you will, of baseball coaches and managers because they spoke differently and he had different things to say. It wasn't the hardcore baseball lingo that I grew up in the clubhouse with and it was refreshing to be perfectly honest with you, because he was just, you know, the phrase today is “a guy's guy,” you know, you could just sit there and shoot the breeze with him, you didn't feel like he was a superior and he was coming down on us, like, you felt like he was talking to you. at your level, even though he was clearly the guy that was a decision maker, which was comforting. And I think, you know, going back to that communication point that I was trying to make; if you're a decision maker, if you have that ability to do that, and put people at ease- and I know it's different, but it's being able to read a room and being able to read individuals to know when to ratchet it up, know when to back down, when to put your arm around somebody when you need to kick them in the tail sometimes. That's like being a manager, right? You got to manage 25 personalities or a 40 man roster every single day. And that's why I think Joe is an incredible manager, wins and losses aside, because he can communicate with everybody. It doesn't matter if you're a superstar. Or if you're, you know, a kid up for a cup of coffee in the big leagues that came from Venezuela and doesn't speak a lick of English; you're the same as the superstar in his eyes. And so I think that's the beauty of what he brings to the table and has brought to the table with the Tampa Bay Rays with the Chicago Cubs and will bring back to the Angels having spent so many years in their minor leagues. So from that standpoint, I think Joe is fantastic. And I think he continues to be here. He certainly influenced me. You talked about or asked me about who kind leader of stands out in my mind. Joe certainly does. As I harken back to those days because I wish I would have listened to him a little bit more because he was trying to tell me, I just didn’t understand the old read between lines thing. I didn't know what that meant. I do today. I'm a lot smarter and 52 than I was at 21 and thankfully, for a while. My wife would argue that point but…

Adam: Victor, I'm going to throw a couple of names out at you and I’m curious to know what these guys were like off of the field. Mike Trout.

Victor: Mike Trout, quiet reserved. Just a great kid. You could tell he had a great upbringing. Jeff and Debbie did an unbelievable job as parents and a kid that if you had a daughter, you would want your daughter to marry. I mean, he’s just the next door wholesome Americana.

Adam: Shohei Ohtani.

Victor: I'm still trying to figure out Shohei. He is one of the most freakishly talented human beings I've ever been around. To be able to throw a baseball almost 100 miles per hour and hit 450 foot home runs is just amazing to me and be able to do it all at the same time, in the same season, that's just amazing. To be so amazingly freakish in his athletic abilities. Personally, I've seen bits and pieces of it, they say he’s incredibly funny. And I think language barrier probably plays a role in, you know, I'm not quite there yet, but I will be eventually. I'll repose, one of the kindest, most gentle souls. And the flip side of that being one of the most determined athletes I've ever been around. Man cares for his craft, works on it. And you know, he's a Hall of Famer, obviously, first ballot Hall of Famer, but to this day works at his craft as if it was day one in the big leagues for him, like someone's going to take it away from him. And I love that he shares that knowledge and that information with the younger players.

Adam: You're an employee of the Angels. You played minor league ball for the Angels, your dad used to manage the Angels. To what extent is it a job and to what extent are you a fan of the team?

Victor: Well, I've been a fan of the team since ‘82. My dad's first year working in the front and that was the year that, unfortunately, the Angels had two games and unleashed against the Milwaukee Brewers and then went to Milwaukee and got swept three games to county Stadium, a series that I saw and broke my heart and I cried on the bus back to the hotel. And I think I cried on my way home to Kansas City as well. And then at six, of course, the Heartbreaker with the Boston Red Sox tickets to go to New York for the World Series. And obviously, that didn't happen. So I think deep down I am a fan of the organization, so many wonderful people. Autry's, Mr. Autry and Jackie, I still see Jackie periodically at the ballpark which is just awesome. I think back to Palm Springs, spring training, how cool of a setting that was to finish spring training in Palm Springs. So I think I am a fan at heart, and I want them to win. Clearly. There's no doubt about that. I mean, that's just our nature. I think all of us in this business. Why? In our teams to win, it makes our jobs easier when you're on your verge of losing 90 to 100 games, and it's August 15, you know, you got a month and a half of that stuff going on. It's hard to come up with stuff to talk about and still be positive. So, yeah, I think deep down, I want the Angels to win and win it all. I mean, here's a cool thing; when I was working at MLB network in 2002, it was my second year doing it, and like I said, we used to do radio shows, from these little mini cubicles and offices. And I don't know if you remember reel players, that's what you used to watch videos on your computer back there. But we used to do video clips, highlight clips, and I got hired to do the postseason. And so I'm the guy that did the video for the 2002 Angels World Series title for mlb.com. And we filmed it, believe it or not, the mlb.com offices are in Chelsea, where the Food Network is filmed and all that stuff is in Chelsea, New York.  

Adam: I lived in Chelsea for a very short period of time. 

Victor: You know the brick building used to be the old Oreo cookie factory?

Adam: I lived there a couple months right by the Whole Foods in Chelsea.

Victor:  Yeah, exactly. I mean, so you know exactly what I'm talking about. So when you get off the elevator at MLB network or mlb.com, there's this little office space there. The receptionist is on the left and you get this brick facade on the right hand side. That's where we filmed the 2002 Angels World Series video that was up on mlb.com forever. So I've been connected to the team in one way or another for, it seems like for a very long time, so I'm glad that they already entrusted me with this opportunity once Rory, when Rory passed, I should say, and I'm glad that I get a chance to do it because I absolutely love it.

Adam: Victor, as a lifelong Angel fan, I have told you this off the air, I'll say it on the air; I'm thrilled that you're our broadcaster. You're as good an announcer as there is in the game, you're as good an announcer as I've ever listened to.

Victor: Thank you so much. I appreciate that. And, you know, like I said, I was a little wigged out for a time there when I had Vince Gali to the north of me and Dick Enberg to the south of me down in San Diego it was like, who's this is a schmo in Orange County calling games for the Angels. But you know, you just kind of you just roll with it. And I'm glad I've been able to fill the screen in your homes with some positive, you know, Angels baseball. It hasn't been a good goal for us over 10 years, just one playoff appearance and that one very quickly against the Kansas City Royals. So hopefully, once we get back to it.

Adam: Have you read Malcolm Gladwell, his book where he talks about the 10,000 hour rule?

Victor: No I haven't read that one.

Adam: So he talks about the 10,000 hour rule where if you do something for 10,000 hours, you become an expert at it, and you know, 10,000 hours of anything and that constant tip is that if you spend so much time doing any one thing, you become a true master at it. And I feel like I’ve spent well over 10,000 hours watching Angel games. And I don't know that I've spent 10,000 hours watching games that you've called, because you've called games for the last 10 years, but we're getting there. It's pretty close.

Victor: I know. It's crazy, isn't it? It's been years. This is the longest I've ever been anywhere. And I love it. I mean, it just comes naturally to me. You know, I'll tell you a little story. At the ballpark most people come through the tunnel and they walk on the field and go upstairs. I take the tunnel underneath. I never walk on the field. And the only reason I do that is because I spent the summer in 1988 with my dad when he was managing the Angels and so I would walk to and from the clubhouse to the parking lot with him by side through the tunnel. And so I still do that. To this day, every game that I do at home, I walk the tunnels no matter what, just as a kind of a flashback for me. And there's quicker ways for me to get out to my car and all that stuff. It doesn't matter. I still go all the way downstairs by the clubhouse and I take the dark tunnel all the way out just to kind of reminisce about the times I used to do that with my dad.

Adam: That's awesome. That's really cool. Victor, my last question I want to ask you is about Big Fly. So I alluded to it in the intro. You started a clothing company, which literally anyone who's into baseball should be not only aware of Big Fly but should be wearing Big Fly, and I'm not a paid spokesperson for Big Fly, I just truly love the brand. Victor, can you tell listeners what inspired you to become an entrepreneur and start a business in addition to your very busy day job and what you would like listeners to know about Big Fly?

Victor: Well, I mean what inspired me is I knew I wanted to do something else. I'm kind of an entrepreneur at heart. My mind is always racing with things or trying to figure things out if it makes sense for us. And in 2017, no Big Fly is my home run call. And I've had it for a long time. And I knew I wanted to do something with that name. I just liked the name. It was catchy. I just thought it was cool. And so I asked a friend of mine, we became friends on Instagram, an Angels fan, who happens to be a graphic designer. And I said, “Hey, do you mind creating a logo for me with the Big Fly term?” And he came up with what we currently have. And in his estimation, as he was putting it together was that's how he envisions a home run in script. And so that's what our Big Fly logo looks like. And that's why it is what it is and we didn't change it. Like it was the one he sent to me, and I'm like, “Alright, that's cool. Let's go ahead and knock that out. Just give me the files now because I'm not changing it at all.” I just loved it. I fell in love with it. But I didn't know what I wanted to do with it. I thought about apparel. And, you know, just I didn't want to be the same old, same old. And it wasn't until 2018, almost a year, a little over a year after I had the logo, which I sat on for a while that I decided to get into the t-shirt business. But like I mentioned earlier, to me, it's all about what's the differentiator for you? What's it going to be for us and Big Fly Gear? And so I came up with this concept since we are named after a home run or what I like to call a home run of a person, a place in her moment in baseball history revolving around the home run. And we take that and we create a one of a kind graphic that tells the story kind of following along the lines of me being a broadcaster and a storyteller at heart. We create this cool looking graphic, we don't have licenses, so we don't use players likenesses or names or numbers and stuff like that. And, and the whole gist of it is, is that the graphic stands out to you as a baseball fan. You were out and somebody asked you about it and you can share the story with them about what it means and what it is. And so that was the premise by which we started Big Fly Gear.

Adam: Victor, thank you so much for being on the show and thanks for all of your great advice.

Victor: My pleasure, buddy.