Oxide and Friends

Two years ago we introduced listeners to the Oakland Ballers, the startup returning baseball to the city of Oakland. Bryan and Adam were joined again by Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel to discuss the Ballers first two--highly successful--seasons, and to announce some exciting new collaborations between the Ballers and Oxide!

In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers included Paul Freedman, Bryan Carmel, and Steve Tuck.

Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!

Creators and Guests

Host
Adam Leventhal
Host
Bryan Cantrill

What is Oxide and Friends?

Oxide hosts a weekly Discord show where we discuss a wide range of topics: computer history, startups, Oxide hardware bringup, and other topics du jour. These are the recordings in podcast form.
Join us live (usually Mondays at 5pm PT) https://discord.gg/gcQxNHAKCB
Subscribe to our calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/c_318925f4185aa71c4524d0d6127f31058c9e21f29f017d48a0fca6f564969cd0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

Paul Freedman:

It took me like five minutes to commence, Discord that I was a human. It took so long that I almost thought that I wasn't really starting to question my own humanity.

Bryan Cantrill:

I yeah. I you know? And it's also not only do you question your own humanity, but you also begin, especially with the ads that it puts in front of you, you have that like adult Klaxon of like, I'm in a space meant for children. Like, there's something inappropriate about where I am right now. So I'm just gonna apologize for that for you.

Bryan Cantrill:

That's like, that's not that's not you. That's a healthy claxon that you have in your brain.

Adam Leventhal:

I'm joining late, but I think this is a par one: We're talking about Discord.

Bryan Cantrill:

A part one Discord split brain. Yes, exactly. But the Adam, this Discord seems to be like targeting its demographic younger. I mean, like, it offered me like

Adam Leventhal:

I think you're getting older.

Bryan Cantrill:

The Xbox or oh, that's a possibility. Yeah. That's actually that was I guess that was a bit of a layup that I was setting up for.

Adam Leventhal:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It feels like that. It stays the same age.

Adam Leventhal:

You just get older.

Bryan Cantrill:

I know. I know. I know. I know. Exactly.

Bryan Cantrill:

Just like I'm I'm really getting older. And Steve is here. We got it's Steve up on stage.

Steve Tuck:

Yep. Still working?

Bryan Cantrill:

It is working. Yeah. We're all good. We're all here. And we and we've already complained about Discord.

Bryan Cantrill:

So that's already that's already done. Paul and Brian, it is really great to have you back. It was almost exactly two years ago. It was a little over two years ago that we we had you here talking about the ballers. And I would say it's been an eventful two years for our respective little ventures here.

Bryan Cantrill:

It's been

Paul Freedman:

fifty two years for both of us.

Bryan Cantrill:

It's been a good two years, and we've got a lot to talk about and a lot to reflect on. I don't wanna bury the lead though because I was relistening to the episode we recorded two years ago. And at the end of that episode, I was describing this kind of sentimentality that Steve and I had had about, like, you know, we were gonna have this idea of, like, supporting baseball in the East Bay and after this move, like, what was that gonna be? And, you know, could it be the Bowlers? We are we are an official sponsor of the Oakland Bowlers.

Adam Leventhal:

We are

Brian Carmel:

a proud and official sponsor of

Bryan Cantrill:

the Oakland And I believe I hope I'm not getting over my skis here. I believe there's an there's an Oxide logo in the outfield at Remondi or will be.

Paul Freedman:

I'm looking at it right now. I am in the press box at Remondi.

Bryan Cantrill:

Oh my god.

Paul Freedman:

And I am looking out on an Oxide logo right under the scoreboard. Prime prime prime logo.

Bryan Cantrill:

Oh my god. Steve, fold it up. We're done. We we we won. We we won business.

Steve Tuck:

Yeah. I could be imagining the

Paul Freedman:

the cover. I will dual task and take a picture. Brian, my friend. Answering some questions.

Brian Carmel:

What's up, everybody? Nice to by the way, it only took me two minutes to figure out how to get on Discord this time, so I actually wanna give Discord its flowers

Bryan Cantrill:

because I

Adam Leventhal:

think last time. Alright.

Brian Carmel:

Last time I got sweaty, I couldn't figure it out. It was very stressful, But I'm very proud of myself. One thing, when Paul sends a screen grab of your Oxide sign, what you're gonna notice is that it took us two years, but we finally got to the point where our outfield signs are, like, incredibly legible. You can tell who the sponsors are. Amazing.

Brian Carmel:

Nice. The first year, we were like, those look pretty small.

Bryan Cantrill:

Right. Right. They're in kind of 12 font out there. The outfielders are having trouble reading them. Right?

Bryan Cantrill:

That's great. Exactly. Oh, man. Well, we are we are stoked and really excited to be sponsors. And I I again, I feel that it's it's just a lot of fun to see kind of what has happened over the last two years to us both.

Bryan Cantrill:

And it's been an exhilarating two years, I can only imagine. Because when I mean, we were having that conversation before you had had opening day, the franchise opening day. I did talk to a current Oxide employee who was not an Oxide employee then, but was a fan of the company. It's like, yeah, you know, I heard that podcast and I went with three friends. We went to the franchise opener.

Bryan Cantrill:

You know, we we we at So, we least we That's right. There you go. We we at least packed four of the 4,000 people in there, but it was man, it's been so much fun. And that franchise opener was god. That was awesome.

Bryan Cantrill:

That was so much fun.

Paul Freedman:

It's fun fun for you guys. I'm not sure Brian and I would describe it that much. We built the ballpark at Remonte Park that we're at now. It's 4,000 seat, 4,100 seat ballpark. We built it literally in a month.

Paul Freedman:

And you know if you have a project plan that's a month long, means that you know every week is 25% of your project plan, and you know the last day you have two to 3% of your project done, and two to 3% of a baseball stadium are things like lights and Wi Fi. So we were still we were still pretty stressed out through through opening day, but it was it you know, it ended up being pretty magical. And then, you know, our first season couple seasons have been magical. And to be honest guys it's been magical watching your progress too. Mean you know it's one of those things where I mean you're just down the block from us and you know when we first met you were onto something but the world hadn't figured it out yet and it's been cool to see the world you know, figure out that you're onto something real.

Paul Freedman:

It's been fun to watch both of our businesses, you know, move forward.

Bryan Cantrill:

It is great. No, it really is neat. And so Okay. So let's take you back to Let's go back to that Oh, that the franchise opener, Paul, if you don't mind. Because I gotta tell you for as an attendee to that thing, it just felt like it went perfectly.

Bryan Cantrill:

And I'm sure that there were some things that went off the rails that we didn't see. But what were some of the things that you were afraid of that or afraid that would go wrong that didn't go wrong? Although maybe that's actually everything. Maybe that's actually Literally

Paul Freedman:

the WiFi turned on at at at 5PM, and 06:35 is the start time. So it was. We were just down to the literal wire getting all the pieces together. You know, we had some delays as it related to our press box. You know, box got stuck in a modular press box.

Paul Freedman:

It got lifted into place. It got stuck in some storms in the Midwest, so it was delayed by forty eight hours. We didn't have forty eight hours of flex time, so everything that was wired up in our press box, like all of the PA and the scoreboard utilities, everything that powers the stadium was all wired up in forty eight hours. The folks who were doing it were just chain smoking and putting it all together. Brian and I did a press conference from the seats from the bowl, you know, with the mayor and local city councilwoman, and it was a kind of kind of victory.

Paul Freedman:

Like, can't believe we did this did this in record time, and I just was imagining the whole time being like George Bush with that mission accomplished sign.

Bryan Cantrill:

Mission accomplished banner, totally.

Paul Freedman:

Play really well on television when they're like, hey. The Wi Fi didn't work, and so they couldn't have a

Bryan Cantrill:

Yeah. But it felt okay. So let me ask you something because I I wondered if, you you know, the the vibe there and this has been true for the the Pollard's games. I mean, it is so and if you're listening and you're in the Bay, you haven't checked a game out, you've gotta go check a game out. Or if you're traveling through, it's so close to San Francisco or wherever you are in Oakland, wherever you are, it's very a very central location.

Bryan Cantrill:

The the vibe is such an extraordinary vibe. And I wondered if it, like it almost has this kind of, like, wedding like property where the participants are really incentivized for this thing to succeed. I mean, did you have situations where fans were kinda like, okay. I can see that, like, something's not working here, but can I can kinda help fix it? Like, what what it just feels like people want things to go right.

Brian Carmel:

It's funny. Like, I I was actually gonna make a different wedding metaphor, so it's funny that you said that because we you know, we've got 51 games this year. The last two years was 48 games. And it does feel like it's a wedding, and Paul and I are the bride and groom sometimes. And it's and we've got, like, 4,000 attendees coming and a lot of you know how, like, brides, you know, aren't always super relaxed on their wedding day?

Brian Carmel:

It's it's like that, but it's like the Groundhog's Day of a perpetual wedding and we're the bride.

Bryan Cantrill:

So we've got, like, fifty one days of bridezilla between the two of you?

Paul Freedman:

Exactly. Yeah. I mean, although in answer and it's totally totally agree with that sentiment. Did, you know, certainly certainly the first season felt like we were throwing 48 weddings from for our our best friends. I I think there might have been a milestone last season.

Paul Freedman:

So last season a baseball hit one of our lights caused, you know, then we had a short and so we couldn't keep the lights on. It was teacher appreciation day and if you're ever gonna have a day where you have to pivot and roll with it, it's gotta be teachers because

Brian Carmel:

they have to

Paul Freedman:

do that every day. Right. And, you know, we gotten past the the the fifth the fifth inning, and we probably had more fun not playing baseball while we were working on the lights. The players, you know, were playing flag football on the field.

Bryan Cantrill:

Oh my

Paul Freedman:

The stadium was singing. You know, if you we have this game in mid inning game that we do called knocker ball knockout, where we get people in those big inflatable soccer ball things, and we have them run into each other and fall down and all sorts of shenanigans. And I think we did, a 28 round version of that.

Bryan Cantrill:

Oh my god.

Paul Freedman:

Then then we then we decided

Bryan Cantrill:

I mean, okay. I'm I'm I'm sorry to pause you there. Have you considered doing that as a separate ticketed event?

Paul Freedman:

Because my ET knockout knockout every day every day. It could it could work actually. It's great idea.

Bryan Cantrill:

Oh my god. That thing is so compelling.

Paul Freedman:

We we sang take me out to the ball ball game and we sent everybody home People were leaving being like, That was the most fun baseball game I've ever been to. I think that was a milestone for me. It's just that, I think the point you raised before is, like, we're in this together. Everybody wants it to work. Everybody's part of it.

Paul Freedman:

Everybody, you know, we this team was literally built by Oakland. And so even when we do have those, like, missteps and those things, you know, people are gonna make the most out of it, and sometimes they're actually gonna be the more memorable nights.

Bryan Cantrill:

Well and I think that this is a really important point because this is a really a part of of the kind of the raison d'etre of the ballers is in terms of like tapping into that that community experience. And it is it it feels so great because this is what makes sports compelling is seeing it with other people, experiencing it with other people, building a community or other people you're watching it with. And I gotta just tell you apropos, I mean, maybe like one of my top 10 baseball experiences as a fan, I may be exaggerating a little bit, but I gotta say, Steve, watching the team that Steve was coaching seven and eight year olds yesterday in their championship. I was with Steve's mother-in-law, and and it's kind of the extended family on that side. And, man, we were having the absolute time of our lives watching seven and eight year olds play baseball.

Bryan Cantrill:

And it was just one of these vivid reminders of, like, man, it is who you watch the game with, and that kind of that that makes the experience. And the it just it it feels like that way always in these Ballard's games. It's such a shared fan experience. And that sounds amazing.

Brian Carmel:

Steve, what happened, Steve? You got you can't leave us dangling. What happened in the game?

Adam Leventhal:

Well, first of all,

Steve Tuck:

first of all, I'll tell you the, the left field bleacher creatures were loud. I mean, boisterous. We

Bryan Cantrill:

That'd awesome.

Steve Tuck:

We were going in yeah. The South Side Sluggers were coming in having not lost yet in the playoffs as double elimination. The Candy Crushers had come up through the other bracket and, ripped the Southside Sluggers in the first game, 14 to nine. So we would play two. And I Brian, you told me afterwards you were pretty sure we were not gonna win the second game, but more more from a you

Brian Carmel:

know, you could see

Steve Tuck:

the slumped shoulders of the Southside Sluggers. There was a long intermission. The Candy Crushers admittedly had had looked dominant in the first game. But the the Sluggers rallied and pulled out a victory, and they are the the OBA champs for Pinto.

Bryan Cantrill:

Yeah. And I gotta say, it's just like I I feel this way about the Bowers too, because it is the, you know, it's the story off the diamond that makes baseball compelling. And to me as a spectator, Steve, in that second game, the compelling moment was you got a kid who's like, who's been struggling to hit this year. And he's got two strikes on him in the box and your mother-in-law said, this kid's gonna rip one right now. And I'm like, that is not a statement that is like well informed.

Bryan Cantrill:

And and then he just absolutely ripped one, like, just hit the hardest ball, and it was crap. I mean, obviously, we went bananas. And it just, you know, when you know those kind of personal stories, I think it it makes it as a fan. And, you know, one of the things I've loved about the Ballers is that accessibility to those stories. And Paul and Brian, one thing I wanted to ask you about, because, you know, one of the shifts that I think I perceived as a fan, and you could, like, correct me if I if this is incorrect.

Bryan Cantrill:

There it just felt like there were a lot more Bay Area players last year.

Paul Freedman:

Yeah. Yeah. We we we wanted that to happen from the very beginning. You know, it was it was important to to Brian and I that we had Bay Area representation. It was hard in the first year.

Paul Freedman:

I mean we were doing such everything on such a compressed timeline that like scouting and recruiting and finding players who could play at this level and also be in the Bay Area was just like another Venn diagram to try to, you know, squeeze between for our managerial staff, and we just couldn't get as many as that we wanted. But it was a big focus, you know, for for year two to have, you know, players from Berkeley, players from San Ramon, have players who grew up, you know, playing in local little leagues and have their friends and family come out and watch the game. I mean, to be honest, was it one of the reasons why we were so good last year. It's like our core the core unit of our best guys, you know, Noah, Isai, Gabe, like the the guys yeah. You know, the guys who really made a difference for us, you know, we're all local guys, and it's a big competitive advantage.

Paul Freedman:

You know, we might have told this story last time,

Bryan Cantrill:

but when we we when

Paul Freedman:

we first we're recruiting for the team. We were recruiting players, and it was before we had made an announcement that the team exist existed, and their agents and managers were saying, there's no team in Pioneer League team in Oakland. That's a phishing scam. Like, don't call them back.

Bryan Cantrill:

Oh, We

Paul Freedman:

were a little jammed up trying to trying to trying to put, players on the field that first year, but, you know, it's been a big focus. This year, a lot of the guys who are from here are are kind of returning. A big emphasis more on on on local folks, and we wanna continue to to do that as much as we can.

Bryan Cantrill:

Well, and it made a very concrete difference in terms of like because the on field product was amazing last season. I mean, it was just like it was the winningest team in Pioneer League history or damn near. I mean, maybe the winningest team since nineteen dickity two.

Brian Carmel:

I mean Yeah. Definitely the winningest team in Pioneer League history, but let's just take that a little farther further. It it it was the fourth winningest team in the history of professional baseball. There was the nineteen o six cubs. There was two Negro League teams from the nineteen forties, and then the 2025 Oakland ballers.

Adam Leventhal:

That's amazing.

Brian Carmel:

'73 and '23. And and we almost blew it in the championship, but we didn't.

Bryan Cantrill:

In to the contrary, you won it in the most dramatic possible fashion. So it's a best of five series with the ballers wildly favored and lost the first two games on the road. Just give everyone the folks the context. So they had to come back to Oakland and win those next three straight. And and, you know, I told you both that, you know, they're coming back to play Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Bryan Cantrill:

And my daughter is like, god, the atmosphere on Sunday night's gonna be amazing. I'm like, there's not gonna be a Sunday night. Like, that's a great I love your love the optimism. Like, they're gonna, like, they need to like, they're gonna fight to survive to play Saturday, let alone Sunday. But she was right.

Bryan Cantrill:

And the the atmosphere was electric on Sunday night.

Paul Freedman:

Yeah. The atmosphere was electric on Sunday night, and then Bryan did something really cool, which is, you know, I don't know when this idea came, but he before that Sunday night game, he, got you in touch with the firefighters and and for folks who've been to Ramani Park, know we're very close to the local fire station. Often the guys from ladder three will come out and sit and watch the game on top of the truck and we hit a home run. They'll turn the lights on. It's been a big part of the the show, but Bryan said, hey look, you know, for planning purposes only, which is something baseball superstition makes you say, if we do win this game, would you mind being part of it?

Paul Freedman:

And so very few of us knew that this was gonna happen. But when we won, you know, they shot off the water cannons and all of our team, you know, kind of did slip and slides in the outfield. And it was sort of probably one of the most magical moments I've ever seen on a on a baseball field.

Bryan Cantrill:

It was one of the most magical moments I've ever seen. That is actually true. And I did not know I didn't realize that it was done. First of all, I love this for planning purposes only. I think, Steve, Adam, we need to start using this round oxide.

Bryan Cantrill:

So we because we're also very superstitious about, you know, the POs that'll happen or investment that'll happen. So I'm like, planning purposes only. I don't think that it's but so the this kind of moment when first of all, I just love the firefighters sitting on top of the fire truck watching the baseball game. It just it just feels like what baseball is meant to be. It feels like it's, you know, it's like in the heyday of the the thirties or forties.

Bryan Cantrill:

I mean, I don't know. It just feels like it it feels so true, so genuine. I love that. And yet that moment was amazing. It really was amazing.

Bryan Cantrill:

And and then I just love the players who who obviously didn't know that was coming, just instinctively running towards the water being sprayed onto the outfield like it was a sprinkler. It was just amazing.

Brian Carmel:

Yeah. That was it's honestly, it was so surreal. And, like, from, you know, flash flashback to probably five days before when Paul and I and and Laura, our GM, and Casey Pratt are sitting in a hotel room in Idaho Falls having gone down to to 002, you know, there there maybe were some drinks at that at that pretty janky hotel that that had been that had been flowing, and we were just not feeling like, the outlook was that strong, but we didn't give up hope. And big shout out to ice cold Kenny, our beer vendor.

Bryan Cantrill:

Oh. He's a

Brian Carmel:

he he he got on social media, and he was like, ballers are taking it in five. You heard it here first, and he was so confident. And, honestly, it spread. Like, people started saying that, and it really is one of those things where it's like, if you believe it, you can sort of will it into into reality. And I think that's what happened.

Bryan Cantrill:

Well, it was so storybook. It was so special. And I guess the because one of the questions I have for you, you know, in a in a startup, it's kinda not worth talking about the things that go wrong because everything goes wrong. So it's like just like we could, you could talk about that, but this is like, you know, there's a lot to talk about. What were one of things I wonder about are some of the things that went surprisingly right.

Bryan Cantrill:

Where you're like, wow, that was even more right than we could have guessed. Or we got super lucky there. And that was a I mean, I can think of a couple for you, but I would love to know your perspective on some of the things that went surprisingly right over the last two years.

Paul Freedman:

I mean, the quality of the team last year was surprisingly right. Like, you know, it's it's seventy three and twenty three is a ridiculous winning percentage. You know, baseball's a sport where you win 60% of your games, you're good. You know, to win over 75% of your games, it just doesn't it doesn't happen. Like, I we I asked the the guys in the the clubhouse, have you ever been a part of any team, Little League, T ball, anything that's won at that pace?

Paul Freedman:

No. Like, none none of that. And so you don't you can't you you know, we wanted to win, but but to win and be the you know, as Bryan said, the fourth best team in the history of professional baseball, like, that's That's unheard of. I'll do one more, and I'd love to hear Bryan's thoughts on this as well. But I think how much the brand has resonated.

Paul Freedman:

We're as much of a lifestyle brand in the city of Oakland and in the Bay Area as we are a baseball team. Right? Like, you know, the the RB has become sort of iconic. You know, people who see each other with ballers hats and ballers merch in, New York or London or Paris will post it on Reddit, and, you know, you're almost always gonna get a let's go ballers kind of thing if you're out wearing it. And I don't think that we, you know, we expected it to be at that level.

Adam Leventhal:

Hey, Paul. Real real quick on that. I was wearing my ballers hat. Florence, Italy, I bumped into Nevada Cullen's parents. I think he's, like, the he's, like, the on field hype guy or the he

Brian Carmel:

He's he's our he's our color yeah. Broadcaster with Tyler Peterson.

Adam Leventhal:

Oh, pardon me. Yeah. Yeah. So his parents were very excited to see the logo in Italy. Yeah.

Adam Leventhal:

That is awesome.

Bryan Cantrill:

You know, I have you have made it so far that when I it used to be when I would see someone in a bowler's cap in Oakland, I would be like, go bowler's. And now it's like, that would be weird. I'd doing that like way too frequently. People be like, I'm in the grocery store wearing a normal hat that a normal person does in Oakland, namely a Bowers hat. It has become like normal in Oakland, which is just awesome.

Bryan Cantrill:

So yeah, that is you've you've absolutely succeeded on that. What what are some of the Bryan, any of the thoughts on things that, like, succeeded, that that went surprisingly right?

Brian Carmel:

Sure. Yeah. I mean, for me, the first thing that comes to mind is this concept that we engineered, I feel like, in the, like, mid spring twenty twenty three. You know, Paul was talking about that insane period when we were building a 4,000 seat ballpark in formerly unplayable little league field at Raimondi. And we just, like we needed help.

Brian Carmel:

We we didn't have we were undermanned and under resourced, and we needed help from everybody. And there was a lot of eyes on us suddenly once we announced ourselves. And so we came up with this concept that I call radical participation by our fans in building the organization, and we just started recruiting people in. So, like, we you know, we were hosting these community meetings and getting folks to show up, and they, you know, answer their questions about parking or what's noise gonna be like in the Prescott neighborhood, things like that. And we would we would leverage those questions into new relationships and deploy people that were enthusiastic and wanted to be part of what the baller ballers are building to helping us.

Brian Carmel:

And that ended up being, I think, kind of a superpower because now we have this roster of, like, deeply, deeply entrenched fans. Right? I mean, we had, like, 55 people or something put Baller's logos on their body two years ago. And so now it's like when we we just have this we have this network of people that care deeply about the team and believe deeply that they are, like, really, really, really critical participants in building the future of the team here in the present. And we're able to leverage that for all sorts of things.

Brian Carmel:

You know? I'll there's a guy named Ken Microney who does a lot of our scrappy design work. He's like a this brilliant cartoonist. He was the one of the guys who he was the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoonist, and he was at Pixar for a long time. Was he?

Brian Carmel:

Now now yeah. Oh, yeah. And now he he draws Scrappy for us, and it's we we're able to you know, we we ask for help a lot and people really like to help us, and it always feels like a miracle to me, but we keep getting help. And so I think that's something that we've done really well.

Bryan Cantrill:

And it should be clarified that Scrappy is the mascot. Scrappy is Scrappy the possum. A possum being

Paul Freedman:

Rally possum. The rally possum.

Bryan Cantrill:

Rally possum, which is a a a reference to a possum that lived at the Coliseum that that fans embraced as a a rally possum. And I guess that you guys nailed it with Scrappy. I think I mean, Scrappy is you you picked the perfect mascot. I mean, I I I would put it I think it is gritty esque. The the Philadelphia Flyers I mean, you gotta figure gritty is gritty is hard to beat, but man, Scrappy is right there in terms of like capturing everything.

Bryan Cantrill:

And it's funny that the art that the artist is because I that art does look like original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles art. And it's like, yeah, there's a reason for that.

Paul Freedman:

Totally. It's the

Bryan Cantrill:

same artist. Oh, man. That's amazing. Yeah. Scrappy was a was a huge win.

Bryan Cantrill:

Oh, you know, one thing I wanted to ask you about because, know, I think one thing that many people don't realize, even people that that knew what was going on with the ballers well, is that you guys had to start two teams, not one, which was just absolutely bonkers and the yellow high wheelers. And I know you were like, we have got to find we gotta find another home for this other we gotta like somehow nurture this team well enough. We gotta find it another home so we can focus on the Bowers. It feels like that was a success. Is that I mean, they are now in Marysville, right?

Bryan Cantrill:

As the I understand they're they're they're now gonna be the free birds in Marysville, the Sutter Freebirds, is that right?

Paul Freedman:

The Yuba Sutter Freebirds, yeah. Yeah, that was not the fun. That what you just described is not a fun part of the journey. So back up, we wanted to do the open ballers. We came to the Pioneer League, which is a league that's been around for eighty eight years.

Paul Freedman:

They had a Mountain West footprint. It was the closest league to be able to go to California. We convinced them to do a California expansion. They said they're open to it, but they need have even number of teams. And so there was some work done to see if there would be another team that wouldn't be run by us, but it was getting pretty close to launching.

Paul Freedman:

It's like, the only way that this works is if you guys take responsibility for two teams, which, you know, one launching one team in the short amount of time that we had, building a ballpark is insane enough to try to launch two teams is, you know, frankly, too too much. And it'd It's like it's like you're going to a

Bryan Cantrill:

VC firm and, look. We we wanna write your your we wanna fund your seed, but you also need to start your rival. You also need to start another company because we can only we can only fund these things in twos.

Paul Freedman:

Have to fund have that fund fund remit. That's what we do. We do we do a we were early stage investor that does two things at a time. That's what we do. Yeah.

Paul Freedman:

That's basically how it was. And it wasn't much more complicated than we looked on a map or places that had ballparks that met facility standards. I wish we had done more due diligence than that. We looked like where in California can we find a place that meets Pioneer League facility standards? We ended up going to Dobbins Field at UC Davis, and originally the team was the YOLO high wheelers.

Paul Freedman:

It was tough to be able to focus on the ballers and focus on the Yolo high wheelers. So Brian and I made the strategic decision to not focus on the Yolo high wheelers and, you know, focus on the ballers and build that up to to what it's been. The the Yolo high wheelers kind of were were kinda just out there, you know, trying to, you know, trying to make it work without the with the the love and support, and the players felt that. The players felt

Bryan Cantrill:

that they

Paul Freedman:

they were not getting the same kind of support as the Oakland team, and it became their motivation, really. Was like they thought that they were the Washington generals to the Oakland's Harlem Globetrotters. They were like the team designed to lose. They called themselves the twelfth team of the league because they knew that they were only around to be the twelfth team of the league, and it became this like fire and motivation for this team and burning hatred for for Bryan and I to some degree. And, you know, baseball the baseball gods are fickle.

Paul Freedman:

And so, of course, what happens in the first season of course, what happens in the first season is those two teams play each other in the playoffs, and they win. They us. I mean, the in in in the the deciding game, they beat us.

Bryan Cantrill:

The I mean, there should be an ESPN 30 for 30 on it. I mean, just because they were I it was and you could say and they were a good team too. I mean, it was, they they won because they were good. That was Yeah. They were and I and they had and you could tell, like, they were absolutely playing with a chip on their shoulder.

Bryan Cantrill:

And also, as I recall, you're like, oh, we're gonna create these teams where we're gonna kinda stoke a rivalry, between them. And that must have felt like, maybe we shouldn't be stoking a rivalry. Mean, these guys are maybe we've already kinda kicked the hornet's nest over here. Maybe we don't need to, like, actually we don't need to do the kinda, like, whole social media Giants Dodgers thing, but we don't need to do that. That's gonna be

Brian Carmel:

I mean, we we didn't we didn't need to stoke a lot rivalry because they were playing 36 times. Because we insisted that if we have two teams in California that are much closer to each other than to the rest of the Pioneer League, which is in Idaho, Montana, Colorado, and Utah, right, that they we need to play each other a lot. Otherwise, travel cost is gonna be ungodly. Expensive.

Bryan Cantrill:

Right.

Brian Carmel:

So it the the rivalry fueled itself, and it's so funny. Like, we're thinking back to, you know, that 2024 season. There were so many things there were so many decisions that we made, like, by mistake or in the fog of just having to make a thousand decisions at once that the people who were on the receiving end of those decisions render so much meaning to it that was unintended. You know, they like, they were you know, it turned out we we we learned that the the Yolo high wheelers, they weren't getting great food in their in their clubhouse. Like, their clubby wasn't buying enough food for them.

Brian Carmel:

And once we learned that, we were like, we'll spend a little more money on food, of course. Like, get them the snacks they need. But for whatever reason, that didn't filter up to us in time. And so they're coming up with all these theories. And I I I've learned this recently because I've become friends with a High Wheeler's former player that, you know, they found out that the ballers got, like, a post game meal that was Panda Express, and they were like like Livid.

Brian Carmel:

These the livid. Panda Express. It was almost like it was like a raw bar, like lobster, know, cocktail shrimp cocktail and and oysters. They couldn't believe it because they were getting, like, peanut butter and white bread and stuff. And and we had no intention of creating that discrepancy.

Brian Carmel:

It's just that we started two baseball teams in a couple of months, and it was crazy. And there was, like, too many things to do, and it was our first time.

Bryan Cantrill:

I also kinda love that, though. Just in terms of, like, fueling that just it's just that on that on field energy kinda coming from that, like, guys, we do this tonight for Panda Express. That's why we do

Adam Leventhal:

this tonight.

Bryan Cantrill:

I just think that I just I I love it.

Adam Leventhal:

It's yeah. Somewhere in, like, the Moneyball and Major League kind of Totally. Sequel. Totally.

Bryan Cantrill:

Well, and I have some I mean, this is what I love about these players, and I love about the construction of the Pioneer League. These are players who this is a development league. These are players that are playing college ball. They are all, like, looking for their shot. And so they're looking for any excuse to get scrappy.

Bryan Cantrill:

And I scrappy with lowercase s. And I love that. It's what makes it it's what makes the product the on field product is exciting because these guys are amped. They're amped because they got, because the other team got Panda Express or they're amped because they're excited to show what they can go do. Just think it's so Actually, much fun to

Paul Freedman:

think that's one of the great things about the product that we put on the field. And we are in an independent league. You know, the league has a partnership with Major League Baseball. It's actually the Rules Innovation partner with Major League Baseball, which is something we might want to talk about.

Adam Leventhal:

For sure.

Paul Freedman:

But the teams are not. So unlike, you know, a AA or a AAA team, the players work for us. The coaches work for us. You know, they're and they're committed to win as a result. In affiliated baseball, it's all about player development, and you could as a fan, you could tell that.

Paul Freedman:

You might have a pitcher who's on a pitch account that they only pitch when he pitches a game. Happens a lot. You'll have a situation where a player is a prospect, but you're never gonna pinch hit for them because they're a prospect, and even though they're not good yet, you're trying to build their confidence. So you'll never take them out of the lineup. And so the strategy just isn't there, and you can't pretend that the games are played to win.

Paul Freedman:

Know, are the Pioneer League, in the independent leagues are the highest level of professional baseball other than MLB where the games are played to win? And so these things matter, like the whether they're fueled by Panda Express or fueled because they wanna get their shot to play for the for for Major League Baseball, they're out there trying to win. And, you know, that's what fuels, great and competitive sports at every level is is the the the drive to win.

Bryan Cantrill:

Absolutely. And so and I do love mean, and you kind of made a reference to it. I want I do wanna talk about it a bit that the Pioneer League is used to study some rule changes or some new ideas. One of them is the home run derby. I did not think I was gonna like the home run derby.

Bryan Cantrill:

I still we had our owed extra innings, but I can understand why from a business perspective, we don't like extra innings. But I To be clear,

Adam Leventhal:

it's a home run derby if it's tied at at

Bryan Cantrill:

If it's tied at the end of the game, and which actually doesn't happen that frequently, honestly. So it doesn't but man, the first time I saw a home run derby, I'm like, oh, God, this is amazing. I love this actually. It was so much fun. Of course, Bowlers won, so that made it easy.

Bryan Cantrill:

But and then also, think the the the ball and strike challenges. I mean, if you were a Bowlers fan, you've been living with this. If you're a Pioneer League fan, you've already been living with this rule change that now MLB has adopted for a year. And the and you've seen it work pretty well. And so I thought that that was a lot of fun to be a fan and kinda look into the future of the sport a little bit.

Paul Freedman:

Right. And and and and and like, you know, anytime you do something new, whether it's, you know, baseball or tech or whatever you have, there's a bunch of operational dynamics to work out. So like, what should the umpire signal when somebody challenges it? Well, let's how about they tap their head? Somebody had it.

Paul Freedman:

Somebody had to figure that out and we had to decide whether tapping their head made sense, right? And so how many challenges should you get? What should happen if they're right versus what should happen if you're wrong? All that stuff needs to be worked out, and so we're the league that kind of figures that stuff out for Major League Baseball. And so by the time that it that it's there, they wanna roll it out, they've already have a couple years of data of how how fans respond to it, you know, what the what the right cadence is, how to make it work, and and, you know, that was it was definitely fun for Pioneer League fans to say, oh, you know, we've seen this first.

Paul Freedman:

I mean, even the home run derby that that they did a swing off as the way to tie the decide ties in the All Star game. Know, it's so even even the home the the, you know, that it's a lot of the things that we are doing in that regard are, you know, then showcased in Major League Baseball. And when they're ready for them, they come out a little bit more thought out.

Bryan Cantrill:

Well, and so and you guys are always experimenting with different things too, and I love some of the things you're doing. And, Bryan, do you wanna talk because you you had me at this kind of really interesting tech symposium where you're kinda talking about some of the different ideas. And one of them was, doing fan sentiment analysis to determine kind of the most exciting parts of the ballgame, and that really stuck with me. Do you wanna just describe what you all did there?

Brian Carmel:

Sure. Well, you know, there we we're always iterating. We're always trying new things, and it turns out there is technology that can just, you know, evaluate people's facial expressions to see their what where there's emotional resonance. So you can have different aspects of your in game show, and you can sort of have real time data and metrics on which things are popping with fans, which for us is super useful and super critical. Right?

Brian Carmel:

Because bay baseball games are nine innings. So there's, you know, ostensibly, these 18 programming blocks between innings and half innings that are two and a half minutes each, and you need to fill them. And I think that's the opportunity in baseball. In in in in football, in soccer, in other sports, there's, you know, there's, like, a halftime show, but that's about it. But baseball, you got a lot of downtime to fill, which is an opportunity.

Brian Carmel:

Right? And so the sentiment analysis allows us to see which like, you you can look at the you you know, you there the moment in knocker ball, for example, knocker ball knocker Yeah. That's just gonna happen. Before. Like, the moment where there's a collision and somebody gets keeled over Oh, it's so nice.

Brian Carmel:

You know? It but you see this. It's like this bloodlust on people's faces because that's it's super fun to see somebody getting knocked over. It's like, you know, it's like it it's it's innate. Right?

Brian Carmel:

That's why

Bryan Cantrill:

I I have never done Roman I I was just saying, I you go Roman Colosseum in a heartbeat with Nacharpal. You just like, I you know, I there is something animal about it. You're right. It is definitely it's primal.

Paul Freedman:

But but the cool thing about the the the vise score, which is what you guys are talking about, is that you can then normalize it and compare. So, like, we know the relative joy that knocker ball, creates relative to a home run. You know, we we we know, you know, with with with pretty solid statistics, what are what's the most exciting sequence of plays baseball? And it turns out it's not a home run.

Bryan Cantrill:

Right.

Paul Freedman:

And so, you know, and and as Brian said, you know, that that we kinda we you you we use this to make a determination of, like, which show elements really work. Right? Because, you know, the the the old school way of doing that is like a decibel meter. Right? You could tell how loud it is, but loud is only one type of emotion.

Paul Freedman:

Right? Loud's not seeing people laugh. Loud loud's not seeing people cry. Loud's not like seeing people happy. Loud's just loud.

Paul Freedman:

And so like the next generation way of doing that is to have a model that can pick up more types of sentiment, and then you can compare it to to different things. And, you know, it turns out, like, the a home run is is exciting. Certainly, home run has a pretty high score, but more exciting is a double steal. Much more exciting is a double steal. And so, you know, we know we know that kind of thing, which, you know, you can only do when you have data.

Bryan Cantrill:

Yeah. And I just because another observation you you expressed there is that, like, when you have, like, when the line's moving, when you've got runners on and you're getting singles, it's like everyone is really engaged. And, you know, those are those innings that are just, like, totally breaking for the other team. And, and, of course, like, as a fan, like, you intuitively know that, but it's interesting to look at that as kind of a a different way of of analyzing the baseball game. So the, that's on the the sentiment analysis.

Bryan Cantrill:

The other thing you guys have done just recently that I I really love is this and this fan analytics where Adam, did you see this? Where they are they are calculating the the war for fans. War is the the wins above replacement. Yeah. You did mention you can actually determine that it's like, no.

Bryan Cantrill:

No. No. It's like, it's actually not no. No. It's not just your thoughts.

Bryan Cantrill:

When you're here, we do lose. We don't know why that's the case, but we can say with with confidence that there's a correlation, if not causation. Where did that can you expand on that and where that idea came from? Because that is just delightful.

Paul Freedman:

I mean, the the the concept of ball you're talking about baller metrics, and and, you can go to ballermetrics.oaklandballers.com. You know, it came it came out of an off-site. The the the wins above fan replacement was specifically Bryan's idea. The the the general concept of let's start putting fans in the game. You know, we have this ticketing system.

Paul Freedman:

We have all the data on every single play that's ever happened. Let's see what happens when we connect the two up and see, you know, what happens when people are actually in ballpark. And it's really turned out to be some fun stuff. I'm looking at my wife's account right now because I'm at almost every baseball game. She's not at every one.

Paul Freedman:

She's attended 35 games. Her wins above fan replacement is 2.3. She's the fifty fourth most valuable fan in our entire fan base. Wow. She's she she's she's, witnessed 26 wins out of those 35 games.

Paul Freedman:

That's a pretty impressive record, and 55 home runs. So, you know, we wanna make sure she's here for opening day because she obviously helps us win.

Bryan Cantrill:

That's right. No. And on some of these, I mean, surely you discover like, okay, there's actually some simple causation here. I remember years ago, I had like one eighth or one tenth of a Giants season ticket, and they lost every game I went to. And they lost every game I went to because Barry Bonds, it was the one game a week that he was not playing in because he didn't feel like playing on Sundays.

Bryan Cantrill:

This did not turn me into a Giants fan or a Barry Bonds fan, by the way. This was like by the third or fourth Sunday, you begin to realize like, wait a minute. Where he just doesn't play on Sundays. Okay. Yeah.

Bryan Cantrill:

Alright. Well, then why why am I doing this? But so the the

Paul Freedman:

We have some of that. Like like, one of the one of the winningest fans is was Noah Milliken's father. Noah Milliken's father. Father. Last year who, you know, lost one game at home.

Paul Freedman:

So, yeah, of course, he saw, you know, 14 wins or whatever. So some of that is like, okay. We can understand what's happening here. But some of the stuff, you know, it like people are gonna laugh and be like, oh, you know, it's a gimmick. The fans, you know, that's just it's random noise.

Paul Freedman:

And of course, you're gonna have some fans with, you know, who've won 12 wins. And so of course, you're gonna have some fans who've seen six losses. You know, the statistic statistician in me would agree to that. But then you also see things that sort of defy logic, like Ross Retzler, who's one of the Oakland 60 eights. Their winning percentage when the 60 eights are in the room is ridiculous.

Paul Freedman:

It's it's really solid. And you know what they do when they're in the when they're in in the ballpark? They bring flags. They bring drums. They bring energy.

Paul Freedman:

They bring noise. They rattle the opposing pitchers. And so I don't think it's just statistical noise that they have a really strong winning percentage. They have really strong wins over fan replacement. I think they're actually contributing to the game, and I think the data actually shows that.

Brian Carmel:

Yeah. And I I think, you know, Ross isn't just a member of the sixty eights. He's literally the leader of the drummers, the of the drum section. And so it's like when he's there, they're loud. And I think it speaks to something that we found when we did when we did a lot of research on sort of, like, what drives people to make the does it what what's the underlying unconscious emotional, you know, emotional core that drives you to go to a ballers games?

Brian Carmel:

And I think it's what we got back was it really is this feeling like your participation matters. Like, you have to be there in order for like, you know, MLB. There's a lot of people in an MLB game. It's a really big stadium. Does do the dodgers does it make a big difference whether you go to a dodgers game or not?

Brian Carmel:

Like, is that is that what's gonna dictate whether Ohtani, like, goes off? Probably not. But at a ballers game, it really I I do think our fan base, like, deeply believe that if they come, if they participate, if they're present, it really will drive an impact on the game. And so that's kind of, like, the core idea behind BallerMetrix.

Bryan Cantrill:

That is awesome. And I love you've got all these different ways of ranking people, including the chaos factor, which I love. The fans that are, that that where you've got fans that are that are seeing dramatic lead changes. You know what I love about this is this is also gonna be very helpful for a fan who's like, is it me? Or when I'm always at a game, it goes nuts.

Bryan Cantrill:

Right. And it reminds me of, you know, we had, we we played a lot of of Super Mario Kart, years ago. And one of our colleagues became convinced that he would go from first to last statistically more frequently than anyone else. So Adam, have you seen Dave's Cartlytics that he does?

Adam Leventhal:

Oh my goodness. It's spectacular. So

Bryan Cantrill:

one of our colleagues built Cartlytics where takes, takes a video feed and actually does analysis. It does all sorts of analysis of who does. And we we confirmed that, actually, Keith, this is actually happening to you more than anyone else. And we called it a key thing. And it's like, it's actually not in your head.

Bryan Cantrill:

This is like and I I think for him, that was solace. It was a release just to know that, like, I'm not actually insane. This is actually happening to me more than anyone else. I'm not crazy.

Paul Freedman:

Yeah. The the the data shows it. Yeah. It's interesting. And so now now we know, you know, we there there are literally, a dozen fans who have been to more than 13 Ballers games who have never seen us lose.

Paul Freedman:

Right? Are a dozen fans who have been to over five Ballers games. We've won 75% of our games almost, and there's there's a dozen fans who have been to more than five Ballers games, and they've never seen us win. We're gonna invite them out and have a seance or something.

Bryan Cantrill:

I love that. I I because I also love that you're like, okay. Like, those fans are like, like, honestly, like, I'm not enjoying the Ballers that much. You guys talk about how great the Ballers are. Like, I'm kind of not enjoying it.

Bryan Cantrill:

But then I love the fact that you're gonna, reach out to them and be like, look, we know it is actually it is just you somehow. So we're going to, like, have a seance. We're going to purge the evil spirits that live inside you. I mean, just think it's so it's so great. Hopefully, they're taking it in stride.

Bryan Cantrill:

Hopefully, they're taking it as a hopefully, they're taking this as, like, this is news you can use. We're gonna get rid of your evil spirits as a bonus.

Paul Freedman:

Like We'll think it's a you know, like feedback's a gift. Like, guys are terrible fans so far. But

Bryan Cantrill:

Yeah. Yeah. Haven't you noticed that everything is going wrong in your life around you that you've I mean, haven't this has always been obviously, this has been going on your entire life. We're actually gonna the bowler's the one to actually see this and actually, get rid of it. So it's good.

Adam Leventhal:

Or at least make them very popular with the gambling community.

Brian Carmel:

That's right. But but by the way, Brian and Oxide team, like, you guys are, you know, you guys are data people. Like, if you have other ideas for for fan stats for baller metrics that you think we should be implementing, we're totally game. So Oh, yeah.

Bryan Cantrill:

I Feel free

Brian Carmel:

to pitch us stats.

Bryan Cantrill:

I you know, I I will definitely do that. I mean, right now, I really just wanna, like I wanna get my own stats, and I really just wanna best my colleagues too. Yeah. Because we we brought the entire Oxide team to a postseason game last year, and you won that game. So everyone everyone at Oxide is actually doing pretty well, and they're they're, you know, low numbers.

Paul Freedman:

But One one and o. One and o. Yeah. So one thing just about biometrics is it relies on scanned tickets. So what you'll have to do, but there's features for this, is you'll have to vouch for, know, have to send people their Ticket love so they get their individual credit for the games that they attended.

Paul Freedman:

But it's all it's all in the app, so go in

Bryan Cantrill:

That's awesome.

Paul Freedman:

Go in and claim your profile. Right now, you know, it's only been out for a couple days and, you know, out of the thousands and thousands of fans who come to game, know, few 100 have claimed their profile. So it's mostly anonymous in the leaderboard, but as people claim their profile, the little anonymous names that we have like Brave Otter changed to the real names. So you know the but yeah we want more people in it and then you know we have some ideas this year about including you know the bar metrics in the actual performance of the game. So like you know put on the leaderboard, here are the most valuable fans that are actually in the ballpark And, you know, if you claim your profile, you'll be eligible for gifts and giveaways and all sorts of price and stuff.

Paul Freedman:

And so we're gonna have a lot of fun with it. It's all on the same, you know, theme for us, which is, you know, we believe we're breaking down the walls between players and fans, and giving giving credit to the fans for the impact that they actually have on the field is just part of that ethos.

Bryan Cantrill:

Yes. Absolutely. And as, as a as a bit of a teaser, I think, you know, so Steve and Adam and I, when my kids were younger, but Steve and Adam are both little league coaches. Obviously, you know Steve from the from what the south side sluggers did last night. But I think we are they're both gonna bring their teams to little league night, which is gonna be very exciting.

Bryan Cantrill:

So we're gonna get a big Oxide little league presence out for and Little League night is on the June 18. Is that right? I think it's the as a as teaser for those who have Little League teams. The and in kind of in preparation for that, know we one of the things we've loved about our partnership with the Ballers is we're both but we both got a couple of screws loose in terms of experimenting with different ideas and willing to like take on the status quo, do some some kind of interesting new things. And one of the ideas that you all came up with that we love is a hackathon to kind of democratize some of baseball tech.

Bryan Cantrill:

And so we are gonna have a hackathon at Oxide, which we are really excited about. I've I've dropped the link in the chat. So folks can go check that out and join us at Oxide on June 13. And we're gonna do an all day hackathon, which could be fun. Then we'll announce the winner at that that little league night.

Paul Freedman:

Yeah, we couldn't be more excited about it. Like, know, the one of the one of the things that's really fun for for the ballers is that, you know, we don't have a lot of no cops. You know, we can when we come up with a creative idea, we can do it. We don't have to get, you know, league approval or player association approval or, you know, the media rights. Right?

Paul Freedman:

So we can do these really creative activations. Like last year, you know, we did the first ever in professional baseball history, any professional sports history, we had AI controlled game. And you know that we had AI make all the decisions of setting the lineup and you know replacing players in the field and replacing pitchers and all that kind of stuff. Literally we're probably the only know people in all professional sports who can do that because everybody else would say no to that idea. So this was another really fun one, which is like, and particularly because of the partnership with Oxide and how on brand it felt for both of us in terms of, you know, what our businesses are all about.

Paul Freedman:

You know, baseball, unfortunately, has turned into a trajectory of being a country club sport. Right? It used to be, you know, played by everybody. It used to be stickball in the streets, and and, you know, and and that's not the trajectory anymore. It's increasingly becoming cost prohibitive for a lot of people to play baseball because of the tech that you need to be able to do it.

Paul Freedman:

Like, literally, recruiting right now is happening with trackmen. Trackmen are, you know, $1,020,000 dollar devices that use, military grade LiDAR, and track, you know, balls. That's how Major League Baseball recruits players right now. We we have one in our ballpark, so MLB is here, but if you're a local Little League, if you're a local Ruth, if you're, you know, you don't have if you don't have that device, your players aren't sort of showing up in the system, and they get excluded out. And so we thought, we can do something together, put a hackathon, a hardware software hackathon, where people can come and hack together ways to democratize, you know, access to baseball.

Paul Freedman:

And the Trackman is just one example of something that you can, you know, hack, but it's sort of the the tech is ubiquitous right now. Another another example is like the pitching machines. A Hack Attack Junior, those cost $6,000 to have a pitching machine. You know, like, let's get some folks with some Arduinos and some, you know, like, plug some stuff in, and let's let's let's get going. Like, I went a little deep in the Fracman one because I was overly ambitious with my time, and I so I I looked into it, and I'm convinced that, you with a couple high quality cameras and a Raspberry Pi and some know how in twelve hours, can get a working prototype that will get 90% of the functionality of this $10,000 device for maybe $500 of hardware.

Bryan Cantrill:

That's awesome. Well, we're gonna be really excited to host folks here at Oxide and still figuring out some of the mechanics, but I did drop the sign up link in so people can can sign up for that. And we'll get something a little more formal out later this week, but that's gonna be awesome. And I just I I just love how creative and engaging you are with, like, how can we, you know, pull in different aspects of the community. One thing I did wanna ask you about is Prescott Market.

Bryan Cantrill:

Because if if folks haven't done this, you know, if you if you have not been to Remondi, it's an it's an amazing field, especially given that it was built in, twenty minutes. But it's just like an amazing feel. I like the artwork is amazing. The murals are amazing. You know, the the the the vibe is great.

Bryan Cantrill:

And you got this, like, Prescott Market that is really close by. I mean, very close by. And that I mean, I I don't know how formal that partnership has been, but it's a great way to kind of pregame and postgame there. It's been amazing.

Brian Carmel:

Prescott Market, it you know, if sort of came hit the scene at the same time as the ballers and really, I think, you know, deserve a ton of credit for what's happening in West Oakland and in Prescott, which is just this energy. And there's people walking their dogs and, you know, there's people with baby strollers, and you can get a great cup of coffee and a great pizza, pizza Violetta. And it's, we and and they've been an incredibly supportive partner. I mean, like, you know, Joe Ernst all all along. I mean, when it was time for us to have our championship celebration after we won last year, it was like Joe who raised his hand.

Brian Carmel:

It was like, yeah. We could all I I I could host that for you guys, and, we're we're so we're so blessed to have them as our partners.

Paul Freedman:

Yeah. It's been it's been really a wonderful relationship from from before the beginning. I mean, Joe Ernst and Prescott Market, they hadn't even opened yet, and they let us use their warehouse to store all of our stuff. You know, we were building a baseball field, and we didn't have any place to put anything. So we started there and then they opened before the last season.

Paul Freedman:

And if you go there before the games, it's literally right across the street, you're gonna see everybody in ballers hats, you know, getting some food, getting some drinks before the game. They're open a couple minutes, you know, forty five minutes, an hour or so after games are done, so people go there. And it's been a big part of community building and place making. Honestly, I think it's just the beginning for the neighborhood that we're in. We're in this neighborhood called the Prescott neighborhood.

Paul Freedman:

It's a deeply historic part of Oakland and West Oakland, and it just has so much energy and momentum right now, in part by the Ballers, in part by Prescott Market, in part by Pacific Pipe, which is a beautiful climbing trim just across the street. It's really becoming sort of the area in Oakland for experiences. Right? Like sort of the center of the kind of Oakland sports and culture.

Bryan Cantrill:

Absolutely. And I love all of the there's a bunch of new housing that's right around Raimondi as well. And I just I mean, you know, my kids are like, God, when I'm growing up, I wanna live there because I can just watch the Bowlers games and, you know, they I think you're a couple of folks with Bowlers.

Paul Freedman:

I mean And we don't promise this because if we do if we were good like the Cubs are, we're just gonna build up high we're gonna have we're gonna negotiate the site rights.

Adam Leventhal:

So, you

Paul Freedman:

know, no guarantees they're gonna be able to look over and get free forever.

Bryan Cantrill:

Yeah. Get free baseball. How dare you, sir? Get free baseball from your house that preexisted our ballpark. That right.

Bryan Cantrill:

That's right. Well, but the the the vibe has just been it's kind of back to baseball's roots in in so many regards. It just I mean, this must feel like otherworldly to feel like, oh, this is actually I mean, at some level, I I certainly I feel like this is way for Oxide. Because people ask us like, are you because we are both not surprised because this obviously was the intent to be able to do all this, but also like, wow, feel really lucky that a lot of things broke our way. And I mean, you must feel the same way.

Bryan Cantrill:

You must be like, God, pinch me here.

Paul Freedman:

Yeah. I think we, you know, we we we like, we intended to create a baseball team that was a successful baseball team for the community. We intended to win a championship. We intended to do all the things that we did, but just like you guys, all that does is raise the stakes and raise the bar and makes that we have to keep going. I mean the great thing about baseball is that you know, you have one season, you win, and guess what?

Paul Freedman:

Like it all starts at zero zero again.

Bryan Cantrill:

Totally. Going

Paul Freedman:

back and I think that you like it's true in startups too. I I've been there on the startup side. It's like raising big financing rounds, a lot of people celebrate that, but that's an intermediate milestone. It's like what are you gonna do with that? It gives you an opportunity to be an iconic company, but now you guys have to be an iconic company.

Paul Freedman:

I know you all very well, and I know what you're building, and so I have utmost faith, you know, that that you'll get there. But, like, you know, you you gotta keep you gotta keep grinding.

Bryan Cantrill:

Absolutely. And what I it should also be said that for folks at elsewhere in California, because the the you got the the yellow high wheelers, were able to to overcome their their grievance around the, not getting Panda Express, but became the now the the the Yuba Sutter Freebirds. And now we've added two more teams to California. Right? So we've got one in Long Beach and Modesto.

Bryan Cantrill:

Right?

Brian Carmel:

Yeah. Modesto Roadsters in the Long Beach Coast. The coast play their first game June 2. So,

Paul Freedman:

it's it's first home game June 2. They play

Brian Carmel:

Sorry. Their first home game, June 2. They start on the road, the same day as last May 19.

Bryan Cantrill:

Well, I and I just love that you're inspiring now other teams in California. I mean, that that surely has to be directly inspired by the success of the Ballers at some level. I mean, that just

Paul Freedman:

Oh, 100%. In fact, the people behind it are Bowers investors, you know, I'm an investor in some of the teams, those teams as well. What- what- yeah, but, you know, building a sports team is kind of like having a house, right? You can't just focus on your house. You have to focus on your neighborhood.

Paul Freedman:

And so part what we've been doing, and you know Brian and I and a lot of our team have been helping out with those new teams as well, is to make sure that the ballers are in the best neighborhood in independent baseball. And so it's super exciting to be, you know, to to be in a league with Long Beach. Long Beach is the largest city in The United States that in up until now have its own professional baseball team. Like Oakland in a lot of ways, very private city. A popular hat in Long Beach is a hat that says Long Beach on it, right?

Paul Freedman:

Like there's a lot of cultural similarities between here Long Beach, and they love baseball down there. They love it so bad. And so, you know, that's now a city the size of Oakland is now in this league, that's two major league cities in this minor league, and so it continues to lift it up. Modesto is you know, a great town as well. They used to have affiliated baseball.

Paul Freedman:

Yeah. You know, that the team left and so the Pioneer League team was able to come in there and sort of save baseball for Modesto like we try to save baseball for Oakland and so it's super exciting. You know, hope hope and expectation is in the future years, there'll be more teams as as well. And, you know, we we wanna turn this into, you know, the highest level of, you know, kinda non MLB baseball, you know, the most exciting, most, you know, urban, most diverse, like, have this this this sort of community open oriented baseball in more big markets around the country.

Bryan Cantrill:

Absolutely. Well, I can say, I mean, it's turned a lot of heads. It's great to see it around California. I am I'm I'm excited. I gotta say just like, I mean, because the Long Beach State dirtbags are, you mean, are the famous baseball program, right?

Bryan Cantrill:

And they are, and so as you say, it is a town that is, it's a baseball town. Those games, I think all these games are gonna be electric. I just think it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm I'm hoping that everyone gets fed accordingly so we don't actually, you know, fan any grievance unnecessarily. These rivalries, you know, getting out of control, but this is really

Paul Freedman:

Yeah. Warren G is an investor in in the the Long Beach Coast team, which has an alternate identity of the regulators. So that seems gonna be fed on Warren G's barbecue sauce, which I'm told is very tasty. So maybe it's gonna be the ballers who are gonna feel regret.

Bryan Cantrill:

Seriously. Yeah. No kidding. I mean, that's gotta make you, like, shift a little nervously in your seat being like, wow. Okay.

Bryan Cantrill:

I mean, like, wow. We were okay. You this is you guys are breaking it all. That's amazing. Oh my god.

Bryan Cantrill:

That's gonna be amazing. Well, and it's also like, you know, I would love to, you know, go check out those games when you're in the area. I think it'd be go check out those parks.

Brian Carmel:

I'll tell I'll tell you what makes me nervous. They're gonna be very good. They got all they got a lot of those position players from Idaho Falls because their coach is Troy Percival, who coached Idaho Falls last year. He brought a lot of over and a lot of the great pitchers from last year's High Wheelers team. So that's why I'm nervous to see them on the field.

Brian Carmel:

They're they're looking formidable.

Bryan Cantrill:

That well, it's gonna make for exciting baseball. And Oh, yeah. It it it's the the the on field product is terrific. The atmosphere is electric. You've got Prescott market around it.

Bryan Cantrill:

You've got you can people can figure out their how much they are actually affecting the game or not based on the on on the bar metrics. And I mean, you've got just so and then obviously the knocker ball. I mean, And

Paul Freedman:

and and we got a big, beautiful, very legible Oxide sign in the outfit. I mean,

Adam Leventhal:

what else do we have to say?

Bryan Cantrill:

Very legible fans, Rave. That's right. You can can see you your your Oxide logo in the off field. Well, I we are super stoked for the season. Your opening night is tomorrow night.

Bryan Cantrill:

The and tickets are gonna be available all this season for all these games. And certainly, we're gonna get Oxide folks there. I don't know if if you can repeat the performance of locking your postseason in so early that we're able to bring it we we'll we'll bring the whole team to a game, but it may not be able to do postseason game, but it was so much fun. And we are so stoked to be involved. And it's a lot of fun to be on our respective startup journeys, respective improbable journeys together and to be able for us to be able to be a sponsor of the Bowers is just

Paul Freedman:

we absolutely really, really appreciate it. Our business works by our sponsors and we were super excited to have you guys come on board. Super excited to be able to do the fun creative, outfield ballcents are great, but you know, kind of going doing something as sort of on brand as a hackathon that's going to democratize sports like that feels even even more exciting. So we love to do it. It's been like I said before, we've been so impressed with the journey that you guys have been on.

Paul Freedman:

And it's, you know, it's been awesome to watch it. And we take a lot of credit because we think that because of the quality of your employee off-site really led towards all of your business successes. And if you had the same thing of like Oxide metrics

Bryan Cantrill:

Oh, it's very clear. No.

Paul Freedman:

It's very clear that it would be the ballers who would be one of the most important

Bryan Cantrill:

No. No. It is the baller success was actually the leading indicator. It was after the it was it was it's really only after you sealed the championship that, that that exactly. Now we we And I've had we know where

Brian Carmel:

I've had eight Oxide employees, DM me and just say, I love the baller so much. And I actually took the job at Oxide because they're such big fans and supporters and sponsors of the open ballers. So you're welcome. And, we can send you to check for a binder seat

Bryan Cantrill:

if you want. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Bryan Cantrill:

That's right. Well, thank you so much for functioning as our recruiter. That's great. And it is really, really exciting to see. Can't wait for hopefully not the grand Oakland tradition of losing an opening night, but regardless, it's gonna be a terrific season.

Bryan Cantrill:

And thank you both for joining us and really cannot wait. We'll see everyone at the ad. We'll see folks at the hackathon here in a couple of weeks and then for a little league night and through the season and go Bowers. It's going to be a great season.

Paul Freedman:

Thanks. This is a lot of fun. We'll do it again in couple

Brian Carmel:

of Thanks guys.

Bryan Cantrill:

Awesome. Thanks. You too. Take care.

Brian Carmel:

Bye guys. Take care.

Bryan Cantrill:

All right. See you next time everyone.