1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Charlie Meyer (Lincoln Saltdogs GM): June 28th, 10am

Episode Date: June 28, 2022

How was BP with DP and plans for the futureAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the Cople Chevrolet GMC Studios. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. Brought you by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul on 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Welcome to it on a Tuesday. One-on-one. Brought you by the folks from Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul. I need to connect the...

the dots today as well with Mary Ellen and the saw dogs. I'll do that in a minute. I want to thank you guys for tuning in 402-464-568-5. The charter hand me text line if you want to chime into the conversation and add two. The video streams are up, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and Twitter live. And we can do that. So what I need to do, and it hit me as we were down at Haymarket Park. kind of paling around and taking BP, it struck me that one of the big things about

minor league players is food, meals. And there are different places and deals in place. And there's a couple of places that we could tie into our relationships with them with the salt dogs. And amongst them, Canopy Street Market and Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul. We want to do that. We want to set up where we can get some meals down to the place. and team and staff down there.

So I am putting myself, yep, we're going to do that. Mark just reminding me of something else we need to do. But I'm going to do that because that life being on buses and playing the game you love for less and it's always nice to let them be acknowledged. So I'm going to work on that. And I'm saying that publicly on air with Charlie Meyer on line because I want to make sure that it happens and I want Charlie to hold me accountable to that. to bring him in. Charlie Meyer from the Salt Dogs.

Charlie, how are you doing this morning? I'm doing great, D.P., how are you doing? I'm good. I recovered. The hand bruises and the sore back and the forearm where the bicep was connected. All of that was alive and well on Saturday morning, I have to tell you. Did you have to take a little IB-Perl fan

and try to get through that? Oh, yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I took 20 more swings than I was supposed to, and, you know, the humbling is required, right? Well, that, and it's, you know, it's one of those things. When you play, you pay, so it's part of the process. Charlie, let me say thank you.

And give some kudos. First of all, thank you for letting us do that and to be a part of that, and to meet the players and to hang out with Brett Jody and yourself and the other coaches. What a great, likable, fun group you have to work with on a day-by-b basis. I thought it was a good group. Now I know it's a good group. Exceptional group of guys you've got down there. Well, thanks.

And like I said, it was great to – it was a lot of fun to see you strict. And banks and those guys get into the box. and take some swings and get to see you swing. And then when Taylor showed up, I mean, he was putting some, he was putting some of those balls out in the gaps. So it was kind of fun to watch. Right. Like, it's that thing.

You know, Strick and, I mean, Taylor was drafted by the Yankees at shortstop. He even, you know, Taylor even jumped out at short and took a few ground balls and that All-American arm hasn't left him. He still got it. Yeah, he does. Yes, he does. What happens? We talked about it on air Friday, the folks that were on air that you had the situation with Winnipeg trying to get into town and their bus breaking down.

Walk us through what that does to your day. Well, it was chaos on Friday. Obviously, I had been in touch or they had been in touch with me about 3.30 the Thursday morning that they had broken. down in Oklahoma, on their way back from Clever and to get to Lincoln, and they own their own bus, which is a little different than what all the other teams in the league. We basically have third-party contracts with bus companies to get us around the league. And by them owning their own bus, they really didn't have a fallback position to, you know, call the bus company and see if they could get another bus to them. So we were working through that. And obviously, try to get

details worked out on a bus company charter to get them up here. And fortunately and unfortunately, really, they couldn't get anybody there to get those guys until about 1 o'clock in Oklahoma City. And by the time they got to Lincoln, it was around 9.30s. So we had to basically pull the plug on the game, which was unfortunate for not only the players, but also for the fans. And they had a big night plan, the fireworks, et cetera, et cetera. all the different things that we do with our game. So it had a big impact on the weekend.

And I think, to be honest, we kind of created a hangover because we ended up playing a double-header on Saturday. And then obviously Winnipeg ended up sweeping us. And Brett and I were talking last night before the game and just kind of thought that you could just kind of feel. We had an event on Saturday morning with our Homer's Heroes. kids that are part of the junior salt dog league that are handicapped and disabled that we play with each and every summer. And it's their all-star game with the salt dogs.

And we had that at 9 o'clock in the morning at the doubleheader in the afternoon. And the game on Sunday was just kind of a, the whole weekend was kind of a blur, to be honest with you. And it was unfortunate. But, you know, it's part of the process. And these guys travel many miles, you know, throughout the summer. and we probably will put on 15,000 miles with the team on the road here throughout the 100-game season here in the American Association. How does that decision happen? You talked about transportation.

Because these aren't really short trips, and the schedule is kind of all over the place. The convenience of having your own transportation versus dealing with the companies that provide that stuff for you, what's the advantage in dealing with a company, like a pro company, who does charter buses for athletics? Yeah, I mean, to me, the charter way is really the best way. It's, you know, obviously, you know, you're paying for that process to happen for you,

but you also have the backup plan that, you know, if there's something happens, it's with your bus. They've got other buses within their fleet that they can get to you, where if you own your own bus, you really don't have that luxury, and really probably needs to, they need to have a backup plan by that.

And they're really, I think there's only one or two teams in the league that actually own their bus. And we've looked at it, and it makes more sense for us to continue to have a third-party arrangement that we've got with Wingstar. And, you know, it's one of those risks that you run, you know,

anytime you travel. And when you look at what's happening with the airline, and how many flights are getting canceled on the airlines and that type of thing. I mean, it's a struggle to make sure you get from point A to point B. And, you know, obviously we're here through this Thursday, and then we take off and go to Fargo for Friday, and then we end up heading over to Milwaukee for the 4th of July. And so, I mean, it's just part of the process and part of the league.

And, you know, hopefully travel things don't have any issues. And we've had issues where we, you know, basically have to, switch bus drivers in the middle of a trip. And sometimes that's not done on a timely basis, so our players have to sit and wait on a bus for an hour, hour and a half before the other bus driver gets there to jump on. And so, I mean, it's just part of the process on, unfortunately, D.P. And, you know, it's one piece of the puzzle of running the organization.

Charlie, it's, again, we talked last week, and one of my favorite things is how you guys promote. I wasn't able to make last night's game. but how did the hoe down thing go last night? Talk me through that. Yeah, no, the ho-down thing last night was more of a lot of country music throughout the game. Our interns did multiple different dances on top of the dugouts with line dancing and all that type of thing. They all had various cowboy hats and cowboy boots.

And, you know, it was just a fun night, fun activities for, we had different between-indians. promotions with more cowboy type or country's type-type themed items with horses and ponies and different things. It's pony races, et cetera. So just, again, just very blessed to have a great staff and great people to put these things together and create and have some fun with it. And it's even more fun when the game ends up the way you want it to end up with the game with the sawdogs winning.

So it was a good night. Monday nights are usually a little thin with just people over the weekend trying to get out to the ballpark. But had a good crowd for a Monday night anyway. We'll be here now, obviously, through Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday with Kane County. So get out and come out and see the saw dogs.

We're going to give away a set of, we got four tickets and the VIP parking pass. So we're going to give away. At the end of this segment, folks will be able to text in and win those passes to go see the salt dogs and the Cougars tonight. What's the promotion tonight? What are you guys doing? Tonight is the Triple Play Tuesdays, which is our partner with Nebraska Medical Association

and the Lancaster County Health Department. We basically bring three non-perishable items and get a free GA ticket to get to the game. So it's our opportunity for the organization. and the team to give back and basically collect food for the food bank here of Lincoln. But it's our triple play Tuesdays. And then tomorrow we got winner Wednesday and then Thursday is Thursdays. So, you know, just a lot of different things that are happening. And hopefully the fans come out and have some fun.

We had a Texas said he took his daughter's softball game to the team last night. They got on the field between an inning. They had a great night. So job well done to you and your crew. Charlie sounds like the folks are finally picking it up. Here's a question for you because we were talking about it. I think from a promotional standpoint, I don't know if you can do it or not, but is there any way, so imagine a night in the future

where you sign Eric Strickland to a waiver and a one-day deal where he gets to come in and put on an assault dog's uniform and stand with you guys? What's the possibility of something like that? Well, what we'd have to do is obviously we have our rosters. We'd have to sign a one-day contract with him to play. And if we're at a roster maximum, then we'd have to basically create a spot for him

by putting someone on the DL or on our inactive list. But that's doable. Let's say, for example, of our 25-man roster, if I'm sitting with 24 guys, we could sign him to a one-day contract and have him, you know, make an appearance and play in the game and that type of thing. Have him do a meet and greet and sign autographs and take pictures? Absolutely.

Yep, absolutely. So, I mean, those are, that's a doable situation. It's just a matter whether we had a Rochester spot available for him to participate in the actual game. And again, like I said, it's another fun promotion and a fun opportunity to expose You know, have, you know, a lot of people, I don't think, realize that Stryck was a, you know, with the Marlins and that type of thing. I, to be honest, we kind of forgot about it myself because I had a great NBA career. And I completely forgot about him in the Marlins organization. So, and he understood the bus travel and all that type of thing with minor league baseball.

So it's, he's got a great perspective to it. I think it was there. And then Steve Taylor, of course, it was drafted by the Yankees. That's another one. I think you have a unique opportunity with Husker athletes. I mean, Banks said, you know, if they can find a uniform big enough for me. You know, I'll come and take one at bat as a DH.

And I think we could do the same thing with some of the, like Nicolin Hames from the volleyball team. I think we can help with some of that promotional stuff if you're open for it. There are ways to get, again, some of a. additional eyes and ears to the saw dogs, maybe even, you know, maybe even an old first base coach. The old first base coach. There you know. We can do that.

Those are fun things. And, you know, we had Larry the Cable guy out a couple years ago. And actually, it was three years ago. And he was coaching first base. He was a PA announcer. He wanted to do all the behind the scenes type things. And so he had a fun night and he had fun with the crowd. And that's the flexibility we have is being able to do those fun type things.

So, yeah, let's sit down and kind of figure out some options here. And, you know, you talk about the volleyball gals and that type of thing. I think with this state being so dominating with volleyball, I mean, yeah, we'd love to get some of those those Hester athletes out to the ballpark. Charlie, I think it's great stuff. It was a great time. We apologize for kidnapping your bats. I wasn't worried about the bats.

No, that's fine. Our stadium guy goes, hey, did the jersey play out? You know what? I bet those guys walked out with the jersey. No, I'll pick up the jerseys tomorrow. I'll pick up the jerseys tomorrow. They'll deliver them. Actually, I think they're going to come down to the stadium to the game tomorrow.

We'll have them drop off the jerseys, everybody. Not a problem, not a problem. We'll get that in. We know where to find you. Right? How about that? How about that? Hey, did you?

And again, I'll ask. you privately as well. Big boy clothing. Big boy clothing. It's in the work. There we go. I'm just going to stay on it. I want, like you guys have great gear.

You have great apparel. I'd like to support it and show it off. So we'll work that out. Please do. Sure. Thank you, Charlie. We're working on it. I got our merchandise person working on it last week after we talk.

So it's in the works. There we go, brother. Listen, great stuff last week. Thank you for doing it. We'll do it again in July, and you are appreciated, kind of sir, great stuff all the way around. Great. Well, thank you.

That was a lot of fun, and look forward to the one in July, and he got another one in August, so we'll have some fun at the ballpark. Yes, we are. Good stuff. Charlie Meyer, Lincoln Salt Dogs. Charlie, thank you. Have a great ballgame win. Get another win.

Well, we'll see what we can do, and you have a great rest of the week, and we'll talk next week. I'll see you down there. I'm going to come down to the park tomorrow, so we'll do that. That's Charlie Meyer. All right. We'll go to break. Thank you, brother.

We'll go to break. We'll come back. We'll talk a little bit more about that because the promotional side of it, we've got some tickets to give away, got some vouchers to give away. We'll do that next to your one-on-one. Download our app by searching 93.7. The ticket in your app store. You're listening to One-on-One-one with DP on 93-7 the Ticket in the Ticketfm.com.