Little League World series & WPBL

 Welcome to BaseballBiz On Deck. I am Mark Corbett, your host. And with me, well, uh, I tell you what, Mr. Matt Germain is elsewhere today. He's doing what we all should be doing, and that's, that's participating with your community, and certainly with sports. I know Matt does quite a bit, I believe, as a parent, as a coach, and certainly as a supporter of local and community sports. So we wish him well today. We look forward to seeing him back next week. But thank him for all that he's doing there. So this week, thinking of that and what others are contributing, we're gonna make this a Thankful Thursday on BaseballBiz. A couple of things. You know, this past week, August 18th, uh, let's see, it was Roberto Clemente's, uh, that would've been his 92nd birthday. A man who was a hero both off and on the field, and who we celebrate once a year for his humanitarian efforts and for the players who are putting forth human- humanitarian efforts as well. And specifically, if we look across, uh, Roberto Clemente Day, which will be coming up next month, September 15th. And if you're not completely sure about how Roberto Clemente Day works, it's like this: each team has a Each of the 30 t- MLB teams has a player that has been selected as a candidate for the Roberto Clemente Award. And this comes down to a couple of things. One, they're looking at, I guess, the spirit of what that player does and to the community and what they're able to give. I know a c- couple years ago, we had Jake not Jake, Scully. A couple of years ago, we had Pete Fairbanks, who's done a lot for some charities. And if I look at him as far as being thankful above and beyond all that, what he's done as far as being a union representative for the Players Association, uh, with the Tampa Bay Rays, and I think he's doing that again with the Miami Marlins as well. And as long as we're celebrating being a Thankful Thursday, wanna give a big thank you to Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Major League Baseball Players, Players Trust named him the, uh, Most Valuable Philanthropist for August. Well, what does that mean? What, what is ... What are they recognizing a Christian for? And part of it is his contributions that he h- works with, with the Heartland Farm Animal Sanctuary and Snooty Giggles Dog Rescue. Okay, I would have talked about this even if we had nothing else. Snooty Giggles Dog Rescue. Wow. The interest- probably more interesting is the Heartland Farm Animal Sanctuary, and these are, I believe, farm animals who, I guess, who no longer have a home, and that they take care of them there. Yelich said, "I am extremely excited to be able to help two organizations that help animals in the community. As someone with a deep love and affinity for animals, this is a truly special opportunity to do my part. I wanna thank the Players Trust for this grant, and it will be going to places of real need." Well, c- congratulations to you, Christian, and, and those that you were able to help But there's so many other things going on right now too with baseball. We've got the Women's Pro Baseball League, which is amazing if you haven't caught up with that. And then if you went to Williamsport, you would be able to find the Little League World Series going on. That, that's something caught the first part of the other day and saw that right now this year, I think there are two young girls in that, uh, competition. So if you get a chance to check that out. My brother pointed out to me that it was running on ESPN, which I've been able to access through my Disney, uh, Plus connection. Anyway, in talking about connections in the Little League, now there's one that w- really found fascinating, and that is if I think back to Tampa Bay Ray who was here in 2017, and they just briefly, and that was none other than Kobe Rasmus. Now, Kobe's family's been very involved with the Little League World Series. If we're looking at Kenley Rasmus, uh, the young niece of Kobe Rasmus, she is also the daughter of the coach, Corey Rasmus. And Corey helped the Phoenix City... By the way, the spelling on that is P-H-E-N-I-X. Uh, Corey helped Phoenix City reach the Little League World Series Championship game back in 1999. Now, Corey's got his daughter, Kenley, you know, following in his footsteps, and yesterday she was heading up there with the team and leading off as the pitcher. Uh, what was interesting too was her success on the mound was such that she had actually achieved the same record that Mo'ne Davis had is of eight strikeouts in one game When Kinley retired from the mound, who would take her place? None other than her cousin, Ryker Erasmus. It is all in the family with the Erasmuses and the Little League World Series. So we'll keep an eye on that. It's worth noting that in the International Little League World Series with Nicaragua, let's see, who were they? Oh, yeah, they were going up against the Dominican Republic, and that was quite the game. What an amazing pitcher Nicaragua had, Clemente Seville Picardo. He had 12 strikeouts in 5.2 innings. And the kind of curious part is, you know, there's a limitation on the number of pitches that a ba- a pitcher can pitch in a Little League game. I think it's 85. But I also seem like he was rubbing his elbow, which is always of concern when you think of injuries with pitchers. But after that, with 5.2 innings pitched, they moved him out to right field. And what happened? As he moves to right field, the Dominican Republic gets a hit, and Seville's out there in right field. He grabs the ball, and with a, with a tunnel of a throw into the home plate, he cut down the game-tying run at, in the sixth. So that was quite something to see indeed. But as always, I do, uh, have my concerns about young pitchers' health The games continue today in Williamsport, but, uh, it's good to note that evidently there are some rain delays, so they will be happening later in the day. So keep your eye on that. Keep the news going on, and I hope you get a chance to see some of these very exciting games with these young people. I'm looking at the Little League World Series brackets right now, and since we've really only had activity for the first day yesterday, being Wednesday, Aug- August 19th, it's interesting to note that while, um, the Metro team beat New England two to one, the Northwest team defeated the Southeast team two to zip. Uh, looking across the way here. So the Latin American team, which I believe is Nicaragua, defeated the Caribbean team, which is Dominican Republic. Also, the, uh, other game, there were f- there was a total of four games yesterday, was, uh, Canada, and they faced Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific came in with a seven to zip game win over Canada. That's kind of rough. But some of these teams will have other opportunities to move up as well, so we will see. Canada, though, it's always an interesting thing seeing right now, the Blue Jays, they've, uh, they beat thus far the Rays one out of three, the third game they're playing today, and at the moment it looks like the Jays may very well take two out of three in their game at Tampa. But what I really want to talk about is, since this is Thankful Thursday this week, a program, Jays Care, uh, they're investing more than 2.6 million in funding to community baseball diamonds across Canada this year in 2026. They've got 22 projects across seven provinces to receive funding, and this is a season to build, enhance, or refurbish community baseball diamonds, you know, with a, through a field of dreams, uh, mindset. Yeah, the, the, the Canadian Little League team came up here, I think it was, uh, finally in a battle about a week ago up around Nova Scotia, and it was the Ottawa West Twins Baseball Little League team. And see, they came and they were going to be playing with, uh, against the British Columbia team. The game was scoreless heading into extra innings when the team from British Columbia exploded for four runs in the top of the eighth inning, and they won that game, and therefore they're representing Canada in the Little League World Series Well, as long as we're talking about the Little League and talking about Canada, what other league can we find Canadian players? Well, we can go to Women's Pro Baseball League. They have several, several of the Canadian baseball players on there as well. Uh, Boston Hunters, you got three of them, including Ally Schroeder. I know that, uh, Liz Gilder and a couple other ladies are on the San Francisco Firebelles. Los Angeles Queens has Michelle Roche. And then the New York Heights, they have Jada Lee, who's amazing, Madison Whelan, and a couple others as well. So I'll let Matt be able to speak to some of those names next week, because I would just completely destroy them otherwise. So I apologize to those that I didn't mention. So there's 11 Canadian women in the, uh, inaugural Women's Pro Baseball League. So thank you, ladies, and kudos and salute to you all. And you know, one name I neglected to mention is from, who's actually still playing also with the Women's Pro Baseball League, and that's Mo'ne Davis. And I mention her because actually she was with the Little League World Series, I believe it was back in 2014, and I believe she's with the Taney Youth Baseball Association Little League in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. So Mo'ne, glad to see you r- playing now professionally with the Women's Pro Baseball League. And Mo'ne, you're one more person who the young girls who want to play the game can look up to and say, "I can do that, too." See her, be her, to quote Jean Fruth Okay, now I'm taking a sneak peek back into that Blue Jays-Rays game here in the afternoon. It's Thursday, and call it Thank You Thursday, but the Rays have nothing to be thankful for this game because I believe they lost it five to one. Okay. And that's two series they lost since they come home. Uh, prior to that, they won nine straight on the road. That was three series, and they swept all of them, then come home and they lose a couple like this. It's gonna be tough. Maybe the Rays are ready to get back on the road again. We'll see. You know, another fun thing I saw this week was with PCA, otherwise known as Pete Crow-Armstrong with the Cubs. He was a, a game, let's see, earlier this week, he had a leadoff home run, and then he had a walk-off home run during the same game, and I think that put him in the 30 Cl- 30 Club. Uh, they got one note here saying that the next game after that, he also led off the game with another home run. So he's up to 31 home runs at the time I'm reading this. Uh, who knows by now, it may be more. And if you look across the National League right now, he is like the candidate for MVP with, uh, Ohtani Let's see while I got you here, can I give you a breakdown what's going on across the leagues? In the American League East, we have the Rays leading seventy-six to, uh, wins with fifty-one losses, giving them a five ninety eight winning percentage. That's dropped them beneath the six hundred where they were before. The Yankees are now four and a half games behind them. The Red Sox eight games back. Blue Jays fourteen games back. And the Orioles fifteen games back. It's worth noting that the Rays lost both series this week to the Blue Jays and the Orioles. In American League Central, you see the White Sox leading off with, uh, sixty-six wins and sixty losses. The Twins are four games back, and the Guardians are five games back from that. Tigers five and a half games, and the Royals are thirteen games back. American League West, the Astros are leading there, and that is with only a five-oh-four winning percentage. Sixty-four wins and sixty-three losses. Behind them are the Rangers by two games, Mariners by four, Angels by fourteen and the A's by fifteen games. If we look to the National League, in the National League East, we see the Braves are leading. They're right now seventy-four wins and fifty-three losses. That is huge. And, uh... but they-- Let's see. Phillies are following them four and a half games back. Marlins are ten and a half. Nationals thirteen and a half. And the Mets sixteen and a half games back. National League Central, my gosh, those Brewers. Twenty-two hits. I can't think again. National League Central, the Brewers, they are on fire. Fire, fire. They had a game last week where they put up over twenty, uh, one, twenty-two hits and the other team was zip. So that had to hurt a lot for that other team. National League Central, Brewers are really taking off there. They got a six fourteen winning percentage. Behind them, the Cubs four and a half games back. Cardinals thirteen back. Pirates sixteen back. And the Reds seventeen and a half games back. I really didn't expect to see them that far, but down the line. National League West, not completely surprising. The Dodgers, that overpaid group of bums. When you got a checkbook, they write it. Uh, they are with a seventy-seven wins and fifty-one losses, six-oh-two winning percentage. Behind them are nine game backs, the Padres. Ten games back, the D-backs. The Giants, twenty-four and a half games back. And the Rockies, twenty-six and a half games back. Woof. Some crazy times and some crazy divisions, but we'll be watching before long before we get to postseason. So keep enjoying those games. Lastly, I wanna c- again encourage all of y'all to check out the WPBL Women's Pro Baseball League games and the Little Leagues, uh, games going on right now. There's always some sort of baseball to watch. There's no lockouts involved, I believe, with either one of those. I don't know what MLB and the Pl- Players Association hold a- for us fans the rest of the year, I should say next year. So make sure you go ahead and enjoy all the baseball you can right now Since this has been kind of a little short show and we were talking about Little League and the Women's World Baseball League, I thought it would probably be nice to remember a guest we had on here in the past, and that's relief pitcher Meggie Meidlinger, and she's something to watch. Check her out in the WPBL. She is in the league. This is the interview with Meggie from a couple of years ago. Welcome to another Women in Baseball edition of BaseballBiz On Deck. Today's guest, Meggie Meidlinger, has contributed to the game as an accomplished architect and a pitcher for the USA Women's National Baseball Team. Meggie most recently was awarded Sportswoman of the Year by USA Baseball. Meggie continues her success in architecture with the recent renovation of the University of Georgia's baseball Foley Field Welcome to BaseballBiz On Deck. I, Mark Carpenter, your host, and with me today, I have a lady who just, uh, she ... It's amazing all the things that this person puts into their life. We're talking about the relief pitcher for the USA Women's National Baseball Team who took Japan, who thought they had a great thing going after 39 games of wins, and this relief pitcher came in and put an end to that. She's an architect. She has done a lot with missionary work and with folks in Uganda. We've talked about so many things in the past. I'm talking with, about Ms. Meggie Meidlinger. Hey, Meggie. How you doing today? Hey, Mark. Thanks so much for having me on today. Oh, gosh, it's great to have you back. There's just so much going on. And, and like I said, we've talked about y- your career in baseball before, and I want to talk a little bit about what you're still doing with that in the past. But right now, I want to s- speak to what you've been doing as an architect because I, I've had Janet Marie Smith on here before, a lady who's pretty instrumental in putting everything together for Camden Yards, and a whole renovation going on at Dodger Stadium this year. And it's, it's amazing to see her work. So I, I saw some of the work that you did as an architect for the University of Georgia's baseball team. And that, that had to be something. I, I saw some of the photos. I gotta tell you, Meggie, it looked like it was a ... It, I was in a MLB locker room Well, it, that project was just an incredible project to be a part of. Um, getting to combine my passions of baseball and architecture was just a dream come true for, for me. Um, as a kid, I wanted to be both a professional baseball player and an architect, and so to get to have a project that combined those two passions together was, uh, something else, Mark, and just, um, great to be a part of. And I, I do have to touch on, uh, Janet Marie Smith is a, a huge inspiration for me as a female sports architect, and, and what she's done for architecture and ballparks across America is just something incredible. So, uh, she's an incredible human being. And I, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to chat with her, too, because it's... People need to be aware that, I'll be quite honest with you, I didn't know who she was until I started doing overall homework on Camden Yards. I said... 'Cause I, I think of Larry Lucchino and all that, but I don't, I didn't think of the person who was actually behind the urban design, the person who actually put all this together, and actually brought some people together with varying atti- a- attitudes or ideas and, and making it work. So, kudos to her a- as well. Just amazing work. Well, well let me ask you, Betty, because any time I would imagine architect is, you have to have kind of like a, a project manager mindset. There's elements of things that have to get done. There's shareholders involved. You know, certain deliverables from certain people. How, how long did it take just to do the, the mapping out of planning for this? All of the above. Like you said, Mark, all of the above, uh, is under the responsibilities of the architect, and I, I got to be a part of the project from interview to design and managing the construction documents and then being out on the job site. So being a part of it from start to finish was just something else. And yeah, as the project architect, you, you have to rally all the consultants together and organize client decisions. And, and for me, as the role of an architect, my job is to make a client's dreams become a reality. And, and to work with the visions and, and what the coaching staff, what the athletic department has in mind for the facility, and being able to create a space that, um, allows those visions and dreams to, to come true, and work for the efficiency of the ball program and, um, become a state-of-the-art facility and, uh, be competitive within the SEC. So. Well, it's certainly state-of-the-art. Now hopefully we can get some photos I can post later on, too, of what you all achieved, because it is just absolutely amazing, Betty. I, I, I looked at it, like I said, it, it rivals what I've seen of a lot of the Major League Baseball, uh, what, for the, just the locker room itself. But you're working with the NCAA and you're working with the SEC, and there are certain criteria, I'm sure, I mean, you know, as far as the depth of the field, there are certain things that are unique. 'Cause I thought maybe the NCAA came up with some new regs for 2025 a couple years ago. Uh, was there a certain framework you had to work within? Yeah. Well, I mean, we always have to a- apply to all the NCAA rules and regulations along with SEC. I mean, that goes anywhere from certain criteria of the field and having a, a equal visitors' bullpen to home bullpen, and camera locations for broadcasting. And so our scope of the work is not just the finishes and programming, but it's, it's coordinating all of those things, from broadcast camera locations to making sure we're adhering to all those regulations. And it was such a fun project to be a part of, to, to get to understand all the programming elements that they were wanting to add on to their existing facility, and working around all the existing conditions of, of what they currently have and within our parameters of the site. And getting all those additional elements into the site was, um, really fun to be a part of. Well, that's interesting, 'cause you're not working with a blank slate. You're, you're having to work- ... around a structure that's there. Correct. In an existing seating bowl, you have site parameters. We had Rutherford Se- Ri- uh, Rutherford Street right behind it, so we're dealing with different grade changes. So in order for the, the height of our batting tunnels and pitching lab, we're... What we're really doing is coordinating with the site standards of Rutherford because we are entering off of that street for our new entry and, and then coordinating with the back parking lot. So there were a lot of site studies that we did. We looked at several options. I think that's one of the things that people don't always realize with architecture and design, is every single study under the sun ha- has been looked at and studied, and, um, pros and cons, and we had looked at it down the first baseline, the third baseline, how would it, it would extend around the outfield. And so always working within budgets and, and needs and programming, um, to just come up with a, a really quality design that would be efficient for the team and, and all their uses that they needed. One thing I w- I'm curious about too, 'cause we talked, I think, before about this, having the respect, much as you mentioned, as a baseball player, not only that, as a pitcher- What about the bullpen area? What, what does that look like? I, honestly, I'm, I'm thrilled about the bullpen and the pitching lab area in this project, Mark. Taking several perspectives, I mean, I'm, I'm still currently a player on the USA Women's National Baseball Team. I also have the privilege of coaching several MLB events with the girls, and I've had the privilege to be in so many incredible stadiums across the country and across the world and, and seen how they're laid out, what I like, what I don't like. Um, and then from a fan perspective too, I'm a huge baseball fan. Honestly, my favorite seat in any ballpark is I always go by the bullpen, and if you can sit right behind the plate of the bullpen, you get to see every single pitch that pitcher is working on. You get to see- Yeah ... the break of the ball, and you get to see their warmup routine and what all that they need with, uh, med balls and plyos and j-bands. And to me, I, I was really exci- I'm excited about this whole project, but the adjacencies that we're able to acquire for both the home bullpen and the pitching lab for this project, what we did is, um, we actually flipped the home, uh Home bullpen, uh, were the visitors. We did a little flip there, and with the dugout. So UGA was originally on the first baseline for their dugout and bullpen, and we switched them to the third baseline to be closer to all the new player spaces that, that we're giving to them. And so the adjacency, we have roll-up doors, so you literally walk right from the pitching lab right out into the bullpen. Uh, rubbers, pitching rubbers are all lined straight from inside to outside. You have the flexibility to bring any of the technology that you need outside. We're able to fit in two turf mounds and one dirt mound. The whole field is turf, but y- you go and travel to many different SEC fields, and you have a dirt mound, so giving those players the ability to, to train and practice as they need to, depending- Right on who they're playing. And then the really cool thing is, is how we redeveloped the entry. Before, the main entry was right behind home plate, um, and that's where a lot of the premium spectators get to park and then walk down. But the majority of the folks coming to the stadium are parking out behind the left field and center field fences, and coming far from campus. And so to give them an entry that's a little bit closer for flows in and out of the stadium, so now when you enter off of Rutherford, right when you enter through the gates, you have, you have that moment seeing the stadium and seeing the field immediately. And- Wow ... and I, I don't know about you, Mark, but I still remember my first stadium that I went to was Camden Yards, done by Janet Marie Smith. And that moment as a kid, you know, you hear the crack of the bat, the, the crunch of the peanuts, and just right when you walk in through that threshold of a ballpark. And so that's what we are trying to do at UGA is right when you walk through the threshold, you get to see the field. You are led right out onto standing room only, where you look down right into the bullpen, which like I just said before, I love that atmosphere of you can grab a beer, grab a burger or a hot dog, and, and you get to see what the pitchers are working on and, and have that engagement. Um, we also added brand-new seats, four top mesh seats that are right behind the bullpen on the plate side. Oh, man. So getting to see all the, the movement that I was just talking about of how the pitchers are working on their breaking ball, fastball locations, all of that. And so giving that, from that, that pitcher's mentality that I have of wanting those adjacencies and flow and, and being able to see the field from where you're warming up to, to the fan side as well of getting to experience all of those atmospheres of the ballpark, but not only the ballpark, but, but of the bullpen as well. I can't wait to come up here and visit and see this. My gosh. You, you gotta come to a game. They're doing extremely well this season, which is, is so cool to see. Well, it sounds like I got a good start, a good starting point, so that's good. And so it's Foley Field at the University of Georgia, correct? That is correct. Is that at Athens? Athens, Georgia. Yep. All right. Okay. Yeah. Well, like I said, I can't wait to come up. Oh, I did see something on social media of you and your other friends from the architecture went to a Braves game it looked like. Yes, we sure did. Uh, we, we have a yearly tradition that we go to opening day at Truist Park every single year. So the only year we missed was the inaugural season. Mm-hmm. But, uh, we've, we've made it a point to make it to opening day every single year. Yeah. I used to watch the Braves so much 'cause they had two of our former Rays here. Well, Charlie Morton and, uh, Travis d'Arnaud. Yep. I know bo- both of them are somewhere else now. H- uh, how they doing this year? I haven't kept up with them. Uh, th- the Braves are maybe not o- off to the best start, but, uh, you can't tell a whole lot from the first, uh- No ... few weeks of the season, so- W- no ... we're still gonna give them a little bit of time. Yeah, I, I would hope so. Yes, I know. I, I see some of these, who was it the other night? Was it the Cubs beat the Dodgers? Like, the Cubs were in double digits, and the Dodgers like, I don't know, a couple of runs. It's like, good gravy. Yeah. This game, you never know what's gonna happen with it. You never... That's the great thing about baseball is, uh, you never know, and the whole game can change by one pitch, and that's, again, one of the cool parts about being a pitcher is you can- Uh-huh have so much control, and you're involved in literally all the action while you're pitching of, of every single pitch. Um, which, yeah, a game can change in an instance. You know, I, I don't want to get up too much, but it just tickles me. When I'm watching some of these games, and it's a national game, and you look at these young people who are out there on the mound in the field, and guess what? All, all the great things you do and all the mistakes that you make are there for everyone to see. And whether it be World Series game five and who's gonna cover first, or the Rays the other night, and, uh, uh, I think it was the fifth inning also, and they gave up eight runs, and it's like- ... what? But it's, that's, that's the excitement of baseball 'cause you never know. You never know. You never know. But- Absolutely ... but it's, you celebrate baseball in more than just, uh, I wanna talk about working with youngsters and all that in a moment, but, um, I know you do with Uganda as well. Mm-hmm. And did the architect as well as the, the baseball player go there? Uh, I, I think I, I know what you're asking, Mark, and, uh, so what originally got me over to Uganda was I was working for a ministry doing architecture work, so- Gotcha I originally went to Uganda to do architecture, and I miss playing baseball, and so wanted to teach a few others baseball as well, and you can't travel anywhere and know that you're living there for a long time without taking two mitts, so- ... that, that's how we started playing, and been fortunate enough to help start women's baseball over there, and now Ugandan women's baseball has expanded to eight different regions in Uganda with several hundred girls playing baseball now, which is really incredible to see the growth in just the short amount of time since 2019. So- Wow ... Baseball At Heart has been doing an incredible job of starting women's baseball over there. Well, I wanna thank you and all the good people who are behind it. And, uh, and sometimes in the world today, it's hard to find good moments and folks p- making a difference in other people's lives, so thank you for making a positive move there. And I know that was also celebrated, I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, with a film feature, See Her, Be Her? That is correct. See Her, Be Her just came out, um, came out in the fall. It's an incredible documentary. I highly recommend anyone listening here today to, to check it out. It's now available on Amazon Prime. It follows women from all around the world and their baseball journey, and so Kelsey Whitmore on Team USA is highlighted. It covers folks from Japan, Canada, also follows a player from Uganda, so it, it does have lots of footage from Uganda and how baseball is growing there. And so highly recommend it. Everybody should go check out See Her, Be Her on Amazon Prime. And who was the person, the lady who put most of that together? A photographer, uh- Jane Fruith. Uh, Jeff Idelson and Jane Fruith are the producers of See Her, Be Her, both incredible people. I, I have the privilege to call both of them dear friends of mine, and they did an incredible job. And just the footage. There's also a, a companion book that goes with the documentary, See Her, Be Her, and it's a compilation of all the photographs that, that Jane has taken all around the world covering women's baseball, which is, is just incredible. I love her work. I mean, all along I've, I've been following her photography. As a matter of fact, Tamara Holmes was the first one who introduced me to it. She had this image, I forget who. It's one of the catchers. Forgive me, Tamara. But that she showed me of- ... I was like, wow. But to follow Jane l- after that and, and see that come up, I know it was, it was during the World Series, I think it was between games, MLB ran that on the MLB Network. They did. And that was the night I couldn't get a connection. Jeez. So I, I, I bought it on Amazon shortly there- ... when it became there s- uh, available shortly thereafter. But yeah, it's, it's a great film, and y'all, f- folks, you should check that out. It does say a lot about the game, about the women in baseball, and, uh, you have some really sharp professionals, like you're saying with Jane and Jeff, what they assembled with that. So that had to be a lot of fun. Absolutely. Oh, it s- it was so much fun. All righty. Uh, let's cut back for a moment. Now most recently- After doing all this architectural work, like I said, you sh- you're, you're not a one-woman show. You- I sh- well, you're a one-woman show. You just got a lot of different players in, in it. I mean, whether it be the architect, whether it be the baseball player. But also as a coach and a leader. And, and talk about what you, uh, where you at just last week, I believe it was. Yeah, just this past week got back from the MLB and USA Baseball Trailblazer Series. This is ... Mark, this is incredible event. It first started in 2017. This particular event was an event for 12 to 14-year-old girls. So we had, uh, about 100 girls show out for this event. MLB hosted it at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex down in Vero Beach, Florida. Incredible complex. And we always have this tournament, we always have the Trailblazer Series right around Jackie Robinson Day, which is April 15th, which is tomorrow. Happy Jackie Robinson Day. Yeah. Um, and just the impact that Jackie had as a trailblazer, that everything that he stood for, his character traits, how he carried himself as a person, as a baseball player on and off the field are just character traits that we wanna resemble and carry forward. And he was such a trailblazer to allow so many others to play baseball. So we always love this, this Trailblazer Series to celebrate Jackie, everything that he stood for, and allow girls to continue to blaze the trail and allow opportunity for more girls to play baseball. Well, thank you for that. Tomorrow is Jackie Robinson Day, number 42. Everybody should be wearing that tomorrow. And I'm excited about that. But what you're talking about, all that he did, a lot of folks can simply say, "Oh, Jackie Robinson, he was the first man, uh, crossing over from the Negro Leagues into Major League Baseball." But it didn't end there. And anybody who's read the books or seen 42 has a glimpse of some of that. But what they don't necessarily think of is Jackie Robinson beyond baseball, and all that he did as a civil rights leader. And he was out there, he was, he was ... When everybody else was afraid to, to speak out, he was speaking out. And there are some folks out there who'd probably like to erase or modify that history, but it's there, boys and girls. And so when you do have heroes like Jackie Robinson out there, it behooves all of us to share those stories and make sure that people remember what he's achieved and to honor that legend as well. Now, there's still members of the Robinson family around. I mean, at the Trailblazer Series, uh, do you ha- do you get some visitors from them? Absolutely. In the past years, uh, both Rachel Robinson has been able to join us, Jackie's granddaughter has been able to join us. And just getting to hear from them and stories of, of Jackie and, um, is just incredible to hear tho- those firsthand stories. And so that's just an incredible honor to have gotten to meet them and, and just share in his legacy. And for so many of these girls to just hear these stories, so many of these girls are their only, are the only girl on their boys' baseball team at whatever team they are playing with back at home. And, um, o- one of the things that's so special about the Trailblazers Series for me is I tell many of these girls when I was their age, I, it was pre-social media, pre-Google searching. And so honestly, Mark, I, I did not know other girls were playing baseball. And so for these girls to have a space to get to meet and see other girls playing baseball, to know that they're not alone, to form this baseball family and community is really something special to be a part of. So I feel so honored that I get to coach this event and several other events with MLB for, for these girls playing baseball. It's an extreme honor for me. Well, I wanna thank you for that. And you even have some legends from the All-American Girls occasionally coming out to there as well, don't you? We sure do. We, uh, Mae Belle Blair joined us along with Janine Lesko, and the two of them are, are incredible. And if you ever get a chance to just sit down and hear stories from either one of them is absolutely incredible. And so they were both there this past weekend. They get to speak with the girls, share knowledge and encouragement, and share their stories and, uh, it's always a joy to see the two of them. I'm glad to hear that. I mean, the, the whole thing of it is, and I'll just spout off here, I've got a brand-new granddaughter, and alls I can think of is I wanna make sure she has every opportunity. And she's just two months old, but I'm gonna find the right size glove for her and put her to her, in her hands here shortly, so. Never s- too early to start playing a game of catch. I love it. I absolutely love it. Thank you. So what else is on the agenda for you? What's, what's, uh, has caught your attention or something that you're working with right now? Yeah, I think just sports projects are incredible. I mean, tying it back into what we just did with the Trailblazer Series, we know the importance of sports and, and then combining sports with architecture, the importance of how buildings can impact spaces, right? The, the places that you have to, to train to, to be an athlete, to reset your focus. And the spaces that you train in are, are p- important. It all feeds into the mindset that you take out onto the field. And so something that's very important to me, Mark, is women's sports facilities. Thankfully, we've seen a lot of growth with WNBA and, and women's soccer, but, um- Amen ... I, I think there's a ton of design components that can happen there, right? Like, I... It, it's not just a copy and paste of NBA to WNBA. It's a design space where you can completely reimagine all of those facilities, right? It's not just a locker room, but how is it simply catered to a female athlete? How do you have to reimagine things down to the training facility, down to nutrition for women, down to h- what does the training look like, uh, differently of even the training room and the heights of those, and, um, how can we reimagine all of those facilities and, and give, uh, female athletes the, the elite performance centers that they deserve? And catering down to everything to, to childcare, to anything else that they might need to help cater to their careers. And so as a female athlete, as a female architect, that is something that's, um, very passionate on my heart and on my mind for, for next projects here, Mark. Well, I'm glad to hear that. You know, 'cause there's a lot of times I think those of us who aren't in the know say, "Hmm, well, it's just another place. So they, they can do a cookie cutter. They, they can just pick up that blueprint from 15, 20 years ago and just slap it down over here, and it'll be just fine," you know? But we all know the truth is, is much better than that as far as trying to make something that is, um, contemporary, that fits the needs of the athletes and the fans of today, you know? Uh, to me, I'm, I'm... I like that mindset because sometimes I don't feel like it's always deployed as well as it should be. The one-size-fits-all ain't the way to go, boys and girls. It, it's not, and, um, I, I think all these female teams, whether, you know, we now have a professional hockey league, um, we have professional v- women's volleyball. It... This is such an incredible time of growth for women's sports, and all of these teams deserve a cutting edge elite facility for their players and staff. Well, great. I'm, I'm glad. It sounds like a really great mission for everybody who's looking to development for women's sports to make sure they've got that on their checklist and make it happen. So thank you for that, Meggie. I appreciate it. Wow. A whole lot going on. You know, and I, I'll say it again, Meggie, what I like about you is you, we can't just put you into one little column and say, "Hey, this is who you are." I mean, while you, you've achieved so much, whether it be with the USA Women's National Team, you know, as the re- relief pitcher, and I, I love just that you devastated Japan after 39 wins. Um, but, uh- That was a, such a fun game, and, uh, that was such a team effort with the... Jill's home run hit down the, the left field line, and Jamie Baum pitched an incredible game that game. And so just full team effort there to defeat that, de- defeat Japan, who is an incredible team and, and deserves all the respect. But, um, a lot of fun to, to finish that winning streak for them. Well, again, that and then when looking at you as an architect and looking at you, what you've done also in Uganda, you know, like I said, you're not just fitting into one column. You're a person who's done a lot and excel with each one. So thank you for that as I, I appreciate all you've done and all you continue to do. So thanks again for joining us on the show today, Meggie. I appreciate it. Well, thank you so much, Mark. I always appreciate getting to be on your show, and, uh, thank you for everything that you've been doing. You have been listening to Baseball Biz On Deck with Mark's special guest, architect and USA Women's Baseball National Team pitcher Meggie Meidlinger, whose contributions excel beyond taking the mound. Thank you to Meggie as we celebrate Jackie Robinson Day in 2025. Just a reminder, you can find Mark on Blue Sky at baseballbizondeck.bsky.social. You may also find Baseball Biz On Deck on iHeart, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and at w.baseballbizondeck.com. Special thanks to X Take RUX for the music Rocking Forward.

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