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A podcast focusing on the perspectives, lives, and stories of Kansans to provide greater insight into the state we all call home.
Ep65
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Studio Backdrop Reveal
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[00:00:00]
Gus Applequist: So to start the episode today, we thought maybe we should talk about a new addition to the backdrop here in studio. If, if you're a listener but not a viewer, we have a lovely backdrop. And,
Sydney Collins: That we collect our knick-knacks on.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. In fact, there's a new knick-knack already on that if you're look- if you look carefully, you'll see it- and you'll see it later in the episode. Anyway, another new one. Tanner bought this from,
Sydney Collins: Tanner ...
Gus Applequist: Tanner.
Wood Carving Nerd Out
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Gus Applequist: The wood carver who was on in a recent episode. And this little gentleman, uh, has, has quite a thing. So the reason they wanted me to talk about this is that I smelled him.
Sydney Collins: The first thing he did when he picked it up.
I go, "Oh, hey, we have a new knick-knack," and he immediately picked it up and smelled it.
Gus Applequist: Okay. So, so what- from one carver to another you can tell what oil a carver uses when they seal the, the wood carving before they paint it.
And he is like me and uses linseed oil, and it smells very nice.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. So get yourself [00:01:00] a Tanner Johnson wood carving so you can smell it, too.
Sydney Collins: He kinda... I feel like if he only had red hair and was holding an ax- it's the dwarf from Lord of the Rings.
Gus Applequist: There you go. Yeah. And if you're here for baseball, we're so sorry. We'll get right to it.
Sydney Collins: Oh, yeah, we'll get to the baseball part. We have to nerd out first on wood carvings and Lord of the Rings.
Show Intro Baseball Tease
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Gus Applequist: Welcome to Ask a Kansan ...
Sydney Collins: Podcast where we're amplifying, connecting, and uncovering stories across Kansas.
Gus Applequist: And today we're aiming for the fences with an interview a- about baseball.
Sydney Collins: I love what you did there.
Gus Applequist: Thanks.
Sydney Collins: Well, today we swung and did not miss. We have [00:02:00] the amazing, Katie Woods on, and we'll let Katie introduce herself.
But she is just, like, a bright spot, and I love it, and so I just, I just- really enjoyed this interview.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. Well, without any further ado, here's our conversation with Katie.
Meet Katie Woods
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Sydney Collins: Hello, hello Hello, welcome. We'll have you come around this way. Welcome, welcome.
Katie Woods: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
Sydney Collins: I'm digging the shoes.
Katie Woods: Thank you.
Sydney Collins: I'm a red shoe gal. I love a good red shoe.
Katie Woods: Yeah, you gotta pop a little bit, you know?
Sydney Collins: Here, we'll have this comfy kinda like right here.
Gus Applequist: I'm gonna-
Katie Woods: Okay
Gus Applequist: point this way-
Katie Woods: Oh, there we go
Gus Applequist: ... just so when
you look at us, it's
still-
Katie Woods: Not right there.
Sydney Collins: We're terrible about remembering this, and then we'll get hand signals from
Merlin over here. And then we're like, "Oh, okay."
Katie Woods: Yep.
Sydney Collins: Well, can you please introduce yourself for us?
Katie Woods: My name is Katie Woods, and I am the director of the National Baseball Congress in Wichita.
Sydney Collins: Awesome.
Ozzie Smith Bobblehead
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Sydney Collins: So you brought goodies.
Katie Woods: I brought goodies.
Sydney Collins: Can you... We gotta play with the bobblehead first, but it doesn't bobble, I hear.
Katie Woods: Oh, it does bobble and spins.
Sydney Collins: It does? Oh, it bobbles and spins.
Katie Woods: It does it [00:03:00] all.
Sydney Collins: It does it all. That's-
Katie Woods: Yeah ...
Gus Applequist: That's pretty incredible.
Sydney Collins: Okay. Here. Yeah? We'll, I'm gonna have you open it 'cause I don't wanna break it.
Katie Woods: So this is our opening day giveaway this year at the tournament. So the first thousand fans are gonna get this. It just came in yesterday- so this is brand new.
Gus Applequist: Oh, wow.
Katie Woods: this is our Ozzie Smith bobblehead. Ozzie Smith's one of the most famous baseball players.
Played for the St. Louis Cardinals. And he was known for back flipping onto the field, and so he actually played in the NBC in the '70s for the Clarinda Iowa A's, and so we wanted to do a bobblehead for him- for our opening day. And so we thought, "Okay, it has to be Midwest, and it has to back flip." So it literally... This is brand new out of the box here.
Sydney Collins: Oh my gosh.
Katie Woods: It literally is him upside down.
Gus Applequist: That is so fun.
Katie Woods: And so he does bobble. Gonna move that.
Sydney Collins: Oh, I like how he has a little C collar.
Katie Woods: And he- Gotta make sure the head stays. And he spins, and he's in front of a corn field. So he-
Sydney Collins: Oh, a corn [00:04:00] field. I like
Katie Woods: It's all the things that are-
Sydney Collins: That's brilliant.
Katie Woods: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: But he'll, he'll spin all the way around?
Katie Woods: Yes. You, yeah.
Sydney Collins: Oh, that's Can you imagine the amount of kids that are gonna get this- and drive their parents crazy?
Gus Applequist: Well, at least it's quiet.
Sydney Collins: That is true
Gus Applequist: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: Some bobblehead, you get it, and all you hear is a da, da, da, da, da.
Yeah.
Gus Applequist: So did-
Sydney Collins: There you go ...
Gus Applequist: did you all help design this thing?
Katie Woods: Yeah, we did.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Katie Woods: Yeah. It's been really fun because, and even the box, you know, we have a picture of the actual- corn field in Clarinda, Iowa on the box, and- yeah.
Sydney Collins: It'd be the first upside-down bobblehead.
Katie Woods: It's one of the first- Yeah.
Yeah, I would say ... Definitely the first of ours, that's for sure.
Sydney Collins: It's cool.
Katie Woods: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: Fun.
What Is NBC
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Gus Applequist: Well, I'll, we'll tell you right now that Sydney is the sports person- and I'm the nerdy person. Could, could you just explain, what is the National Baseball Congress?
Katie Woods: Yes. So the National Baseball Congress has been in Wichita since the 1930s. Hap Dumont started the, the first NBC, or started the NBC. And so essentially in [00:05:00] the '30s, he went to the city of Wichita and said, "I'm going to create a brand-new national tournament that has never happened before. I just need you to build me a stadium." And the city of Wichita went, " Sounds like a plan."
And so they- ... built a brand-new baseball stadium. So that was Lawrence Dumont Stadium. At the time- it was Lawrence Stadium. And in 1935 Hap ran the first national tournament, and now this year we're gonna be celebrating our 92nd tournament all in Wichita.
Sydney Collins: We just- played it for our 8U team last weekend, I believe.
Katie Woods: Yeah, so there's the Hap Dumont-
Sydney Collins: The classic team. There's the Hap
Katie Woods: youth ...
Sydney Collins: the youth one that we did, yeah.
Katie Woods: Yeah. So Hap Dumont, I mean, his, his baseball influence is- crazy huge. And so the NBC World Series has been going on since 1935. And that's summer collegiate baseball players from across the country- coming and playing for a national title.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Katie Woods: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: It's big.
How Teams Work Today
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Gus Applequist: And, and so you said collegiate, so are they- playing on their college teams, or is this like a, like a summer league or some- Like, which teams [00:06:00] are these?
Katie Woods: Yeah. So what it used to be, it's kind of gone through a bunch of different iterations.
Um, The shirt I'm wearing is the Wichita Dreamliners, and so there was actually- an era in the... So in the '60s, it was literally the public transportation, the bus company had a baseball team that played in the NBC. And so it was people who worked for the bus company, and then they would also bring in ringers.
They'd bring in, like, former- major leaguers to play, and I think they won three titles in the '60s. So it has gone through eras of semi-pro, and then it was independent, and then it was company teams and military teams. But now it's summer collegiate teams, and so that is basically amateur players, usually in the 18 to 22-year-old range- but they can be older as long as they're not under contract somewhere. And for example, we have the Santa Barbara Foresters come, and they're one of our powerhouse teams. They bring a team that might have a couple players from the University of Texas, a couple players from the University of Arkansas
a couple players, you know? And so it's- players that are either looking to get extra work get that kind of competition level, whatever it might [00:07:00] be. But it's a combination of different colleges coming together.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Katie Woods: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Why Katie Chose Baseball
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Sydney Collins: Why baseball?
Katie Woods: For me?
Sydney Collins: For you.
Katie Woods: You know, it's funny, my dad's a basketball coach.
And so my dad's one of five boys, and so I grew up my, my dad's a basketball coach, my uncle's a football coach, my other uncle's a baseball coach, and you just grow up around it. And then baseball was a little bit by accident. I was looking for just a job in sports- and the Houston Astros offered me an internship, and I'd never been to Houston a day in my life, and I went, "If a major league team wants me, I'm in."
Sydney Collins: Heck yeah.
Katie Woods: And so I went and interned for them in community relations, which I also didn't know what that meant at the time. But again- I'm in. I
Sydney Collins: think a lot of us- Yeah. A lot of us take jobs, we're like, "Sure."
Yeah. "I can do that."
Katie Woods: Sounds fun. So I did that. And then I interned for the Frisco RoughRiders, and I just really love...
I think baseball is such a community sport.
I think the experience is so community. You know, I know sometimes people go, "Well, it's kinda [00:08:00] slow." And it's like- Well- ... that's kind of the point, is because then you sit and you talk, and you get to really spend quality time. And so I've just loved, in my baseball journey, how how it connects community like that.
Sydney Collins: What sports did you play growing up?
Katie Woods: I played basketball. Okay. I mean, I played- you know, as a kid, soccer and all those things, then I played basketball. But I would joke, and it's only kind of a joke, I was like the assistant y- coach- slash manager for my dad. I was 12, and I was calling the list of players to say, "Game times have changed," you know? And so I think I stopped playing in high school and really just loved the- operational side of it.
Sydney Collins: Brilliant. That's awesome.
Katie Woods: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: We, uh, we're a baseball family. My husband is a football coach. But of course the number one sport my son wants to play is baseball.
Katie Woods: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: So he's like, "Okay, I guess I'll learn this."
So I, I, I sympathize with that so much. So we actually just ended our baseball season for eight U, and now we're still in our 14 U daughter's softball rounds.
Katie Woods: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: So we have more tournaments [00:09:00] actually next week.
Sydney Collins: have... Next week we have a tournament, which I don't remember which one it is, but-
Yeah. Yeah. So it, you're right on the community s- community part 'cause especially even... Sorry, all I know is youth league really.
Katie Woods: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: Even on a youth league there's just something where, like, all the baseball parents get it.
And you sit around, you talk. Even after the games, all the kids are still in the same spot for some reason at someone's house.
Yeah. And- and with that you kinda, like, grow up loving- I don't know, that community aspect. I don't know. I just- Yeah ... I'm getting really passionate now. But I wanna hear more about you.
Career Path To Kansas
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Sydney Collins: So after, so you interned for the Astros. After that, what what was kinda your journey?
Katie Woods: So then I interned for the Frisco RoughRiders down in Dallas, and that was my first experience with minor league baseball.
And I loved... I mean, my experience with the Astros was fantastic. Yeah. But I did love with the RoughRiders, it was like, okay, how do you, um... You get to do more, and you get to really be community involved. And so then my [00:10:00] first full-time job was with an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners called the Everett AquaSox.
Minor league baseball has the best names. They have the best names. The best names.
Sydney Collins: Yeah. I'll get on a rant about that here in a minute.
Katie Woods: Uh-huh. So I was with the AquaSox for seven years, and I moved up from- community relations coordinator to manager, director, and then I was the assistant general manager there. And it was great because you never know what life is preparing you for, but it was, "We have a brand new video board, you're in charge of that." I don't know what that means. Uh, you know, "You are in charge of our website." I had never done that. Social media was just starting to become a thing. And so I just learned so much along the way, and it has really, you know, paid off as I've gotten further in my career.
And then I was with a team in California, and next thing I knew, I was in Kansas.
Gus Applequist: Wow. So you've, you jumped from a team- to this, this tournament basically. What is... Yeah, what's that difference like?
Katie Woods: So, I know I skipped right through my Kansas part, but I... So I went down to a team in California. In 2020, Major League Baseball took over Minor League Baseball, and they [00:11:00] got rid of 40 teams across the country. Wow. And my team was one of those.
Producer: Oh, that's tough.
Katie Woods: So then I was looking for another baseball job, and I had never been to Kansas a day in my life. And there was a job with the Wichita Wind Surge- their first season. And I was like, well, that sounds, you know, like a, a great opportunity. And so the first day that I was in Kansas was the day before I started my job. And I was with the Wind Surge for a year, and you know, it, it just wasn't quite the right fit for me. And so I thought, all right, well, I'll go find another team.
Why NBC Matters
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Katie Woods: And that summer of '22, I was helping with the NBC, you know, and it was part-time, and they knew I was gonna do something else. And as I was talking to people who were involved with the tournament, and these coaches and teams, they're telling me, "We've brought our team for 30 years. We've come from Seattle to play in the NBC World Series.
We don't play for our league championship. We come to Wichita to play for a national title. And when I retire, my son's gonna take over the team, and that's what his team's gonna play for Wichita." And at the [00:12:00] time, you know, it was after Lawrence-Dumont Stadium had gone down and they were playing in different sites and it didn't have kind of the same draw. And I just thought, it's like I found someone had a Mustang, like, rusting in their garage, and I was like, " This is the coolest thing that nobody- is really paying attention to." I said, "We've just gotta, we've gotta refurbish it. We've gotta build it back up." And so then that was what led me over to the NBC.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Tournament Venues Logistics
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Gus Applequist: So what... Are you playing at multiple venues then in Wichita?
Katie Woods: So we moved we're fully at Wichita State. Okay. Except for championship night, we play downtown.
Gus Applequist: Wonderful.
Sydney Collins: Oh, fun.
Katie Woods: Yeah. And so it's really a great fit for us for a couple reasons. One, Wichita State's turf, so we play 35- ... baseball games in 10 days. That's a lot. That's a lot. It's a lot of baseball, and it's a lot of wear, and then also if there's weather, 'cause it's Kansas and there's weather. You know, being able to just roll out as soon as that's gone. And then Wichita State is such a great feel. You can bring your own food to the outfield.
Oh, that's nice. You can come and go. [00:13:00] Parking is easy. It's very much, when you think about, like, tournaments, you know, that feel of... I tell people it's like family reunion vibes or, like, summer camp vibes. You know, that sort of feel. Wichita State's great for that, and then to be able to be downtown for championship night, which is where the NBC started, is really special, too.
Gus Applequist: Mmm.
Katie Woods: It's definitely been a transition for me. You know, when I was with an affiliated baseball team, I was on the business side, so we had nothing to do with the baseball. So, for example, with the Wind Surge, the Twins control, or the league controls the umpires. They order the baseballs. They tell you what players are going up and down.
You know, they often will make the call on weather you know, that sort of thing. With the NBC, we have both sides of that. And so, you know, the teams are recruiting their own players and that type of thing, but we're doing the scheduling, and we're working with the umpires, and we're ordering the baseballs, and we're making the decisions on, you know, what happens in, in game situations and that type of thing.
So I've definitely learned a lot in that, and it's been great 'cause we've just had such good [00:14:00] people who love the NBC so much, who have been willing to jump in, where I'm going, "I don't actually know that rule. Let's pull over our umpire coordinator," you know- who can help fill in that spot.
Minor League Name Madness
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Sydney Collins: I wanna go back to names-
Katie Woods: Yeah
Sydney Collins: 'Cause that's always fun. So why is it that all these minor league teams have these, like, outlandish names that when-
Gus Applequist: They keep changing them.
Sydney Collins: And they keep changing them. Yeah. But when you hear them at first, you're like, "That is not a baseball team. That does not make- ... any sense." So is there-
is there, I guess-
Gus Applequist: Can you offer some-
Sydney Collins: ... history behind that? And then [00:15:00] why do they change their names so often?
Katie Woods: Yeah, you know, it's been new in the last, oh, maybe 15, 20 years to have so many alternate identities- you know, to have, like, for the Wind Surge you know, they've got the Honkers now- and they have the Tumba Vacas, and they have the Chili Buns. But even I think there was first the move to, one, bring in team names that are connected to the community in some way- and are unique. I think that part of it, especially with Minor League Baseball, is, you know, Major League Baseball's a little more stiff. Yeah. It's a little more, you know, professional, and the idea is Minor League Baseball is supposed to be fun, and it's supposed- to be a little weird, and it's supposed to be community connected. So I think that's why there's that push to add creative names. And then I think, you know, there's so many elements to a community that if you can pull in a food especially, food's always a big one, something that's gonna get in, somebody go, "Oh, that's mine," right?
To have people- I think have that ownership of that team. Like, I might not relate to the Honkers, [00:16:00] but oh, I, I remember eating, you know, chili, with cinnamon roll kind of thing. I think that that's what they do that for.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Banana Ball And Innovation
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Sydney Collins: We talk about community and fans, and the big thing now, especially with young baseball fans, is banana ball.
My son loves banana ball. But what's the feedback between, I don't know, the, the true baseball lovers who, like- we wanna keep the game as American and original as possible and- and Banana Ball where they're like, "We're, we're doing this for the fans, not for the sport."
Katie Woods: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: Like, is there a... I, I don't know. I guess I don't know if I have a question.
Gus Applequist: How does that affect your world?
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Katie Woods: You know, I think for baseball in general, I think it's a kind of great tension- because I think it makes everybody better. Right? If, if there's not people focusing on fan experience, then it's really easy to go the other direction- and be really efficient in it, and it's like, no, let's make this really fun. And I also think it's always evolved over time. Like, Hap Dumont when Banana Ball came to Wichita [00:17:00] earlier this year- we found, Well, actually The Eagle did an article about the circus and firefighters playing baseball in the NB- or not in the NBC, in Wichita in 1920s.
And so basically, this circus was coming through town, and circuses weren't allowed to play on Sundays. That was the Kansas law, or not... Weren't allowed to perform.
Sydney Collins: Oh, yeah.
Katie Woods: So there couldn't be a circus on Sundays.
Sydney Collins: We talked, we talked about this before.
Katie Woods: Yeah. And so they sent a head and said, "Hey, do you have someone that would play a baseball game- on a Sunday?" And so Hap Dumont was actually working at the newspaper, and he was the one that worked with the fire department to get the fire department team to come out and play and put together this circus versus firefighters team in the 1920s in Wichita. And that was... He's talked about that over the years, that that kind of helped inspire for him the NBC and how that looked.
And so that team, they had... that game, they had I think a center fielder on a motorcycle. They had clowns. They had, you know, all these kinda elements of- [00:18:00] Banana Ball. And so I think it's got such a history in that. And then when Hap Dumont started the NBC, it's always had quirks and innovations. And so the pitch clock, which Major League Baseball uses now, the NBC started using that 60 years ago. And Hap Dumont, there's a quote somewhere where he said, "I think Major League Baseball will pick this up in the next two years." And he was off by, like, 50. And then he tried glow-in-the-dark baseball when they were rolling blackouts- during the war. But it-
Gus Applequist: That sounds so dangerous.
Katie Woods: That's the problem.
Depth perception is a real thing. And so- he tried glow-in-the-dark baseballs, bats jerseys- Yeah ... the whole thing. he tried mic'd-up umpires. He had a pneumatic plate blower that would, like, blow the air off the plate instead of the umpire having to brush it.
Sydney Collins: Okay, that's funny.
Katie Woods: He did so many things trying to innovate and bring fun.
Like, one, there was a pneumatic microphone where the microphone would rise up so they could make lineup changes- and things like that at Lawrence Dumont Stadium. But he would try, [00:19:00] if there was, like, an umpire and a manager getting in an argument, he would, like, have the-
Sydney Collins: I love it
Katie Woods: so that everybody could hear.
Right? It's, it's about that. How do you make the fan experience better?
Gus Applequist: I demand a movie.
Katie Woods: Yeah. Yeah.
Sydney Collins: I think I know a guy.
Gus Applequist: No, th- yeah, that's incredible. Wow.
Katie Woods: It's incredible, and it just, like, keeps going. We keep finding new ones. You know, we'll have people that'll help dig through our books, and they'll go, " Did you know that in 1950, the winning team of the NBC went to Japan and played a seven-game series?"
"And there were a million people in Tokyo for them for a parade?"
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Katie Woods: No. You know what I mean? It just kind of goes on and on and on because Hap continually innovated. And so when you talk about Banana Ball and, and that, that's just the next iteration.
Sydney Collins: Yeah. never knew that.
Yeah. That's fascinating.
Gus Applequist: I love the title America's Favorite Pastime.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: Not sport, pastime.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: And I'm, yeah, it's just interesting to compare those two words and what it means. And the baseball is in the summer sort of a lifestyle for those that are really [00:20:00] into it. It
Sydney Collins: it is.
Uh-huh.
Gus Applequist: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: It 100% is. I think, I don't know. Again, I am all in. We've been doing ball since end of March, probably middle of March is probably when practice starts, and our first tournament was the end of March. It was an indoor tournament. So it is a lifestyle for like s- I don't know, four, five, maybe six months.
If you do fall ball, longer than that.
Katie Woods: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: It is a lifestyle.
And I think, I think the r- the biggest reason baseball is such still is, is so prominent is Baseball, Major League Baseball goes from, like, April to all the way to, like, September. Like, it's a long season. Yeah.
Gus Applequist: It is. It is.
Katie Woods: You got spring training in March- ...and then you've got playoffs in October. I mean, it just, yeah.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Wichita NBC Community
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Gus Applequist: What- what is the relationship like between the Wichita community and NBC?
Sydney Collins: Oh, yeah.
Katie Woods: You know, it's really special. We have so many people who talk about the generations of experiences with the NBC.
And so I'll run into people who you maybe don't [00:21:00] think are a baseball fan, and they'll say, "Oh, yeah, my dad played in it, and then my brother played in it, and I remember going as a kid in middle school and just getting dropped off at the ballpark, and, and- doing the whole thing. Yeah. And we actually have a fan this year, he lives in Blackwell, Oklahoma he started coming to the NBC when he was 10, and now he's 86. He's missed one tournament because pre-internet, they didn't realize when the dates were and missed it by a day.
Sydney Collins: Oh, shoot. Oh, how heartbreaking.
Katie Woods: So he's coming this year to, we think, his 75th NBC World Series, and he talks about he remembers the train tracks outside Lawrence Dumont Stadium, and that there would be kids up on top of the trains watching the games. You know, it's so deep because I think so many people played, and you have this tournament where you had Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds and Ozzie Smith play, and then you also had guys who are a dentist in Derby. You know? Like-
Sydney Collins: That is so true ...
Katie Woods: It's, it's so cool [00:22:00] because you just have this, like, very communal experience with the NBC.
Offseason Planning Pipeline
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Sydney Collins: What do you guys do in your off-season?
Gus Applequist: Planning for the next one.
Katie Woods: Right, that's the thing.
Gus Applequist: Planning for the next one?
Katie Woods: Yeah, it's funny because that's always been my question in baseball. People are like, "Well, season's over, so now what are you gonna do?" But there's so much planning that goes into, you know, what are our, our theme nights gonna be, what teams are gonna come the operational, you know, where are we playing, when are we playing sponsors, donors, 'cause we're a nonprofit.
We started doing a hall of fame event in January- so we kind of rolled right into planning for that. So there's no baseball, but we're busy all year long.
Yeah.
Gus Applequist: What piece in the pipeline does NBC sort of represent in terms of talent? Like connecting players with teams and, and all of that.
Katie Woods: Yeah, so our players are often either at colleges or wanting to go to... You might have two-year players who wanna go four-year, or you might have four-year players who wanna get drafted.
Baseball Around Clock
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Katie Woods: So we have both college scouts and Major League scouts that come out to [00:23:00] the NBC. But I always kinda say we're like the...
We talk about play hard, have fun, you know? That it is really good baseball, but we also do baseball around the clock, so we have a game at 3:00 AM.
Gus Applequist: Oh, wow.
Sydney Collins: Yeah, they're still sleeping.
Gus Applequist: I did not know this. Yeah.
Katie Woods: Oh, yeah.
Sydney Collins: In the parking lot.
Katie Woods: It's, so baseball around the clock, we have 11 games in 33 hours, so we started-
Sydney Collins: That is just wild to think about.
Katie Woods: So you've got- players literally playing a midnight, a 3:00 AM, and a 6:00 AM game. Different teams. They don't have to do them all. But then you have fans who this is, like, the challenge. Yeah. And so you can compete in baseball around the clock. Bring sleeping bags, bring tents, bring your grill.
You know, come and hang out. Bring your RV. And they will... We do check-ins every game, and people, if you make all the check-ins, you get a shirt that says, "I survived baseball around the clock."
Sydney Collins: So brilliant. Nice.
Katie Woods: People show up with shirts from, like, 1995- that they survived baseball around the clock.
Camping At Ballpark
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Sydney Collins: I j- and that's, this is all happening at Wichita State, [00:24:00] right?
Katie Woods: Yes.
Sydney Collins: That's the thing that just, like, blows my mind is, like, we, we consider, like, Wichita State baseball, like, up here. Like, it is, their baseball team has always been amazing.
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm.
Sydney Collins: Like, I remember going to games with my uncle. My uncle graduated from Wichita State, and he would always take us to Wichita State games when we were kids. Hmm. And so then we think of, like, the overnight tournaments, and I'm like, "This is not the same stadium." Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Sydney Collins: think when the kids get older, we'll, we'll take them just to see- how long they last. Just 'cause, like, "Let's go camp at the ball field."
Katie Woods: Well, it's, like, almost like a s- like a church lock-in senior night-
kind of vibes to it. And so I've got my daughters are eight and 11. And they did Baseball Around the Clock last year, and it was so fun. My oldest was really into it. My youngest fell asleep, so we've got pictures- of my husband had to, like, haul her on his shoulder- ... you know, to be able to go check in all the times.
But they're so proud of their shirts, and it really was like, "Okay, now we're gonna go do arts and crafts. Okay, now we're gonna play games with our friends. Now we're gonna go..." You know, you [00:25:00] just- it's like camping, but you're at the ballpark.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Director All Night
---
Gus Applequist: Since you're in charge of this thing, do you have to stay up for the 33 hours?
Katie Woods: Yes, but I, you know, I made this mistake last year. We had these teams that have come for years. The Seattle Studs and the San Diego Stars were our teams in the 3:00 AM game, and they've come for years, really great guys, great teams, and I went, "Perfect. They can... We'll get the game started, and then I'm gonna go take, like, a real quick power nap, right, to get through." The problem is they both have these great fan groups, and they both scored early in the game. So I'm up in the All American Club on a couch trying to get myself a little nap, and it's, like, air horns- and shouting and cheering at 3:15 in the morning, and I went, "Well, this is a lost cause." So yes, I do stay up for all of Baseball Around the Clock.
Sydney Collins: Do you have to get special permits to do that?
Katie Woods: Yeah, we work with Wichita State. I mean, since it's on their property- we work with Wichita State and then with the neighborhood association. We always take them tickets, and you know.
Gus Applequist: Oh, that's nice.
Sydney Collins: Yeah, that's nice.
Katie Woods: Yes.
Sydney Collins: I'm just thinking, I'm like, air horns at 3:00 AM, that's an interesting neighborhood.
Katie Woods: Uh-huh.
Sunrise And Sacrifice
---
Gus Applequist: [00:26:00] we're finishing, well, literally today we're finishing up a documentary- about a local community event. And one of the things that's been fun in documenting that is watching the, the people who plan it and their- sort of emotional and mental state towards-
the end of- their annual event.
Katie Woods: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Can you just describe what it's like, say, 6:00 AM you know, when the- ... sun's coming up-
Katie Woods: Yeah ...
Gus Applequist: after, you know, hours and hours of doing this. What, what are, you know, what are you thinking and feeling in those moments?
Katie Woods: You know, 6:00 AM is actually kind of great. You know, watching the sun rise at the ballpark is such a unique experience.
You know, you usually get to see the sun set at the end of the game, but you're there, and all of a sudden, you know, you get the pink kind of cotton candy skies, and there's baseball going, and this is great. And then you go, "Okay, we've still got nine hours." "And I haven't, I haven't slept in..." Okay, so that part definitely.
I think it's just so much, and you wanna make it great for so many people- who have put [00:27:00] so much time and so many years into it. The San Diego Stars, for example, that team, their coaches have jobs, and they take their two weeks of vacation every year to be able to come out to Wichita.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Katie Woods: And then those guys pile in cars together.
They drive the 30-plus hours. They only stop to eat, go to the bathroom, and play catch by the side of the road on their way to Wichita. And it's like, that means so much- that it's important for us to do the best we can by them and put together a great event.
Trophy And Prize Money
---
Gus Applequist: Do you have like a big trophy that the winning team gets? Is, is there anything unique about that trophy? Is it fairly typical or?
Katie Woods: We have... The trophy they get the trophy, gosh, this was probably back in the '40s and '50s, was actually we gotta get it back to this size, but it used to be called the Cessna Cup, and it was, like, as big as, I mean, I think it was like four feet tall- or something like that. Harder to get on a plane if you win- and gotta take it home. Yeah, that's true. You know? So yes, they win a trophy. They win $18,000 if they win the [00:28:00] tournament. Wow. Yeah. So it's definitely a big deal, especially for these community teams.
Kansas Community Baseball
---
Katie Woods: That's one of the things s- Kansas specific about the NBC that has been so special to me is there's places like Liberal with the BJ's- and Hays with the Larks, where those games are free. Those games are the community gathering place. I mean, the Hutchinson Monarchs is another one. That's the community gathering place for people. And you have people who've dedicated their lives on those boards as volunteers who have made that happen, and it's so much more than just baseball. And so to be able to see that, I think, has given me such a great appreciation for the NBC and then just for the game of baseball and why it is America's pastime.
Sydney Collins: You've- had the opportunity to work with teams through all these different states. What makes Kansas so different than Texas or California or even Washington, where you're from?
Katie Woods: I think part of it is [00:29:00] that community feel. I mean, that's something about Kansas that I think is so unique. You've got those teams and you've got those hubs, but- The NBC I think started in Kansas because there were so many town teams and community teams, and people where that was what their town was so proud of.
You know? That was how they represented their town. And I think that community part is what makes the NBC such a good fit in Kansas, and Kansas such a good fit for the NBC.
Centennial Plans
---
Gus Applequist: What was the first year again of NBC?
Katie Woods: 1935.
Gus Applequist: Okay. So we're, like, nine years or, yeah, nine years out from your 100th.
Katie Woods: Uh-huh.
Gus Applequist: Any, any special plans for that-
you know, centennial?
Katie Woods: Yeah. We've been having lots of conversations of what that looks like. It's an interesting thing, too. So this is gonna be our 92nd tournament. It's, like, our 91st year, but our 92nd tournament. Okay. So we're sitting there going, "Okay, which one counts as the big-
the big one?" You know, I think there's... They used to do these books. This is my goal, so now I've got it on film, [00:30:00] but- they used to do these probably 200-page programs- which were every state champion, it was their team photo, it was the article- it was the box score from when they won.
It had the umpires. It had the photographers. It had the scouts. It had everything. And so we've talked about, okay, for now 100 years of champions, having-
Sydney Collins: That would be amazing.
Katie Woods: all of that, because that's one of the things that is amazing and also sometimes intimidating about the NBC, is there are so many stories.
And there's so much history. And how do you tell just one or two or three? And so I think being able to put that all together would be one of our goals for 100.
Digitizing The Archives
---
Sydney Collins: The amount of record keeping, now that I'm thinking about that, for 100 years-
what does your storage system look like? Are we digitized now? Do we still have, you know-
Katie Woods: We're working on that.
We're working... You know, there's a couple things. Our baseball story is a national baseball story. And so [00:31:00] some of our annuals are up in Cooperstown at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Sydney Collins: Oh, wow.
Katie Woods: And we want to get a copy of every year up to Cooperstown.
We're also working with Wichita State's Special Collections Department to have them have a copy of every year, and then they're working on a project to help us digitize that- and make them searchable. So that's our goal with them, is to be able to get the resources to digitize every single year, all of our stats, and make them searchable so that if you went, "You know, I think my uncle might have played in this"- that you could search and you could find this team photo.
Sydney Collins: That's amazing.
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: You know, you've talked about community being an important piece of why Kansas. I'm, I'm curious, going back to the you know, 92 years of, of [00:32:00] doing this. In, in your work with the organization, do you think there's any secrets to that sort of resilience that, that make that longevity possible?
Hap Dumont Vision
---
Katie Woods: I think it's the people. You know, it's not a thing that one person could do. I mean, Hap Dumont was definitely the w- the guy, and he started it, and he was, you know, crazy in the best way. The things that he tried to do were so far ahead of his time. Like, he was trying to do instant replay in, like, the '40s, and it was like- you know, we would just have to digi- not digitize. We would just have to develop the film and then project it on a wall. I'm like, "This isn't instant replay." "This is two hours later," you know? Like... But he was trying to do that. He was trying to do the ABS system so the automatic ball strike system.
He was trying to do that with lasers in the 1940s.
Gus Applequist: I didn't even know there were lasers in the 1940s.
Katie Woods: I mean, and it was ... And then people were mad about, you know, d- the same argument now. You know, taking the umpires out of the game and the whole thing. But he really, I mean, jump-started it in a way that I don't know anyone else could have.
But also because [00:33:00] of that, you had so many people involved. And so when Hap passed away in the '70s, it was very sudden- and there was kind of how will this, you know, be picked up? What's the next iteration? And I think every owner or tournament director since then has gone, "Okay, how am I gonna pick this up and, and move it forward?" And so I always say I'm like the caretaker of the NBC, you know? Like, this is something that we get to keep and grow, but it now, because it's got almost 100 years of history, it's got tens of thousands of players. Over 900 have gone to the majors, all these things.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Katie Woods: There's so many volunteers
sponsors, all of that. Those people are the NBC, and so that's what keeps it going.
How To Watch Support
---
Sydney Collins: Where can people learn more about what you do- support you, find tournament schedules, all that fun stuff?
Katie Woods: So all our information is NBCBaseball.com, and then we're on social media. We're NBC Baseball most, most places. And I just [00:34:00] always invite people to go look it up, but then come check out a game, and if you can check out a whole day, all the better. You know, I think the community part is really it. You know, we have groups of people who met through the NBC. We have people who got married at the NBC, and I think that is what makes it really special.
So just come to a game to meet people and to hear their stories, and it's just incredible.
Gus Applequist: Is there any broadcast component to- there is? Yeah. Where can people catch that?
Katie Woods: So all of our games are broadcast free on YouTube- so you can watch all of them. We had over 100,000 views of our live stream last year, which from all over the country, which is incredible.
But yeah, watch that and you can see these players and see their see their stats, and then social media we keep really active during the tournament too.
Sydney Collins: Nice.
Colorblind Origin Story
---
Sydney Collins: You brought a, you brought a couple other things. I don't wanna forget to talk about those.
Katie Woods: So the one that I... The two on the bottom are our programs from last year- so that you guys can kind of look through those. And then this book I brought [00:35:00] because I think this is, when we talk about how special the NBC is- you know, I think- I'm not originally from Kansas. Sometimes I think Kansas kinda downplays itself a little bit.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Katie Woods: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: You noticed.
Sydney Collins: You noticed, huh?
Katie Woods: It's kinda like, well, this is just a Kansas thing, and I'm like, this isn't just a Kansas thing. So this book is called Colorblind by Tom Dunkel, and it is about the Bismarck Churchills. So the Bismarck Churchills were the very first team that won the very first NBC World Series, and essentially the story of the first NBC is Hap said, "Build the stadium, I'll bring a tournament," and then, you know, had to build a tournament.
And so he paid Satchel Paige $1,000. Satchel Paige, one of the most famous players in... But he was in the Negro Leagues at the time. $1,000 was like 20 grand-
Sydney Collins: Yeah ...
Katie Woods: that Hap didn't have, and he was like, "Come on down, and we'll figure that out." And Satchel Paige came down with an integrated team, so there were Black and white players playing together- in 1935.
Sydney Collins: Wow.
Katie Woods: A decade before Jackie [00:36:00] Robinson broke the color barrier. And Hilton Smith was also on that team another Negro League player who's in Cooperstown, in the Hall of Fame. They won that tournament, and we think that was the first interracial team to, integrated team to win a national title in any sport, and that happened at the NBC in Wichita in 1935.
Sydney Collins: That's amazing.
Katie Woods: And so this book was really incredible for me to read. I would recommend for any- kind of baseball historian Color Blind it talks about that team, but it talks about Bismarck. It talks about what was happening in the Great Depression. It talks about the company- teams and the town teams, and how that all went, and then it talked about in Wichita. There's a big chunk of people weren't sure what to do. You know, he brought seven minority teams into that first tournament, and again, a decade before Jackie Robinson. There was a Japanese team from California. There were Black teams.
There was Native American teams. The, the amount of forethought that he had to do that and the way that it pushed the boundaries in baseball at that time [00:37:00] was just incredible. And again, that happened in Wichita, Kansas at the National Baseball Congress.
Sydney Collins: Hmm. I love that Hap is just a pot-stirrer.
Katie Woods: Oh-
Sydney Collins: In theory
Katie Woods: so much.
Sydney Collins: I just lo- like, the mic with the umps and the- and the...
Katie Woods: He had a female umpire in 1941.
Sydney Collins: Oh, he's really a pot-stirrer.
Katie Woods: Yeah. The first female umpire in Major League Baseball was last year. And so in 1941, he had a female umpire, and several after that too, but he was like, "No, let's do it."
Women In Baseball
---
Sydney Collins: That's not- that's even a, a topic we haven't even gotten into is women in baseball.
Like even, ah, Savannah Bananas- have their first female pitcher. I have a gal that I know, she start, she's been, playing baseball instead of softball because she- just likes the sport a lot better. So it's, it's fascinating to hear, like, the history part of it. It's like, yeah, it's been happening since the '40s, we just are very slow.
Katie Woods: Yeah. It really is such a different... So I'm the first female tournament director of the NBC- in the 90 years. And there was something, I [00:38:00] think my very first year, someone said to me, they go, "You know, most of these coaches and teams have probably never had a female tournament director before."
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Katie Woods: I went, "Oh, I just hadn't even thought about that."
Yeah. I've been around sport so long, you know, you haven't thought about it. And so it's created these great opportunities and these great, uh, for conversation, and then also for them to see the NBC has grown a lot in the last few years, and our viewership is up, and the talent on the baseball field is up, and all these things, and we're going, "Okay, this works," you know?
"So let's keep it growing." And, um, we've just had great support.
Sydney Collins: We see it even on kind of our leagues of my nephew plays 12U. One of his coaches is one of the moms on the team 'cause she used to play-
Katie Woods: Yeah. Yeah
Sydney Collins: like D- like D1 softball or something like that. Or when we played the HAP tournament, uh, we played a team where two of the main coaches were moms.
Katie Woods: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: And we're like, that is... You don't... That would've... 10, 15 years ago, no.
Katie Woods: Yeah. But there's so much happening there now.
Sydney Collins: It's so much happening, yeah.
Katie Woods: And the, you know, the women's professional [00:39:00] baseball league- is kicking off this year too.
Gus Applequist: Oh, I didn't know that.
Katie Woods: Yeah, and that's the first time- I think there's been professional women's baseball since the League of Their Own era. And so you've got that going. The women's national team, all of the Bananas teams all have a woman- on the team. Some of them play in that league, and some of them play for the USA women's national team. I mean, I think it's, it's a great era for baseball in general- and for women in baseball, too.
Gus Applequist: This is, this was wonderful. Thank you for-
Sydney Collins: Thank you so much for coming in
Gus Applequist: for coming out and taking time.
Katie Woods: Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Yeah. I appreciate it.
[00:40:00]
Host Wrap And Organ
---
Sydney Collins: Well, I hope that got you excited about baseball in the NBC. I know it makes me wanna take my kids more and more, so. But again, it's baseball season during baseball season during softball season, so it's like that- ... pile of, for us. But for those who can go, we highly suggest it.
Gus Applequist: Here's my, like, important question that's really not that important, but do they have an organ at Wichita State, do you know?
Sydney Collins: Oh, I don't know. '
Gus Applequist: Cause, like, that, my little artsy, nerdy self, that's one of the things I love about baseball- is the organ music.
Sydney Collins: The organ player. It would be.
Gus Applequist: But even if they don't, I'm, I'm sure it's a great time. There's, there's just something so relaxing- about being in a baseball stadium, as opposed to an NFL stadium, where it's like-
Sydney Collins: It is a very different crowd
Gus Applequist: "Oh, touch down."
Sydney Collins: Yeah, it is a very different crowd. Fa- I, I will say baseball is more that family feel. I'm not saying b- football isn't.
Gus Applequist: No.
Sydney Collins: But it is more kind of adult aggressive almost. I don't know what [00:41:00] to, what the-
Gus Applequist: There's a great comedy sketch, I, or like monologue or whatever. I think it's George Carlin, and he's comparing the sports of football and baseball. And he's, I don't remember the whole thing, but in, in baseball, or in football, the goal is to, is to go into enemy territory and score a touchdown. And in baseball, the goal is to go home.
And your glasses just fell.
Sydney Collins: I just dropped my glasses. It's fine, we'll just leave them back there. I don't need them.
Gus Applequist: Oh. Well, it was yeah, Katie, Katie's a great ambassador for, for the sport, and for what she's doing down there in Wichita. question. Yeah. All right.
Stories From Hat
---
Gus Applequist: Well, again, we are very busy here at Fili, so we're gonna do...
Stories from a Hat.
Sydney Collins: Stories from a Hat. I did add- And- ... uh, some other questions in here- so maybe we get some different ones.
Gus Applequist: And we'll, we'll, we'll break our segments up a little bit in, in future episodes. It, it's just kinda all hands on deck here at Fili these days.
Sydney Collins: Yeah, so segment, segmenting.
Gus Applequist: Ooh. Ooh. okay, the little white lie you tell most often. I could get [00:42:00] in trouble so many different ways with so many different people. I guess as a, as a filmmaker, like, it's really easy to let, like, good be the enemy of, or perfection be the enemy of good.
Sydney Collins: Oh, yeah.
Gus Applequist: You know? And like, sometimes you just gotta stick with what you got- and just go with it.
Sydney Collins: Like font.
Gus Applequist: Like, like font.
Sydney Collins: Like font choices.
Gus Applequist: That's, yeah, that's a today issue, so.
Sydney Collins: Mine would be what's in my cup. If my daughter asks me what's in my cup, I go, "It's coffee." And it's probably like root beer or Dr. Pepper or something. It's just-
Gus Applequist: Oh, so it's not something
spicy.
Sydney Collins: No. It's just something that I don't wanna share.
Gus Applequist: Oh, yeah.
Sydney Collins: So I always tell her it's coffee, 'cause she knows she doesn't like coffee.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. That's, I mean, that's smart.
Sydney Collins: So, okay. Um,
, A business you miss. Oh, a business that I miss. I'm gonna do a local one. So I, in high school, worked at Dell's Electronics. And then I worked there again after college. Our executive producer, Devin, that [00:43:00] was his parents owned it. And it was just, like, this really cool, especially, like, early 2000s, it was the coolest place to be, 'cause you had, like, all the TVs with the surround sound. Yeah. You had all the-
Gus Applequist: The home theater
area
Sydney Collins: ... the home theater area. Like, it was a-
Gus Applequist: The car stereo that was just, like, cranked to 100.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Or you go back in the garage where they're installing everything, and all the- mechanics are swearing, and you're in- in high school, you're like, "Look at, these guys are so cool."
Gus Applequist: Mine would be, and, and Wichita friends, you're gonna have to help me out, 'cause I don't know what it was called. But there was a restaurant, I think it was maybe on Douglas, and it had, like, a high vaulted ceiling, and it was, it was sort of, like, a courtyard.
Like, an, inside it felt like it was outside.
So, like, even in the middle of the winter you could go there and feel like you're in, like, a European- like, street scene. And it's, it's like something from, from Vegas. But it was in Wichita. Oh. And it was lovely, and a great place to hang out. Oh, [00:44:00] a thing you pretend to like just to be polite. These are some hard-hitting questions. I feel like I'm getting all the hard ones. No judgment to people that like, like, like really heavy music, but-
Sydney Collins: Oh,
yeah ...
Gus Applequist: but I, it's, it's just not my jam. Yeah.
Sydney Collins: What's your d- what's your definition of heavy music, though?
Gus Applequist: I'm talking like screamo.
Sydney Collins: Oh.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Gus Applequist: I turn into a bit of a grandpa. "I can't understand the lyrics."
Sydney Collins: I think mine would have to be probably, like, some type of food. Like, if I'm eating at someone else's house and it's, like, disgusting, but I'm like, "Oh, yeah, it tastes great."
Gus Applequist: Do you wanna, like, name anyone specifically?
Sydney Collins: No.
Not at all. Okay. This one just says, "A chair, the one you actually want to sit in."
Gus Applequist: Favorite. What's your favorite chair?
Sydney Collins: Oh, what's my favorite chair? Here's, here's my... okay, I have a rant on this one.
Gus Applequist: Okay.
Sydney Collins: So I have beef with recliners of today because they're [00:45:00] all electronic, and you cannot shut the feet of them fast enough. Because if there's one thing that you knew when you were in trouble, was your dad or your grandpa-
going ka-kung. And when they were ticked off 'cause they've been yelling at you from the recliner for 15 minutes, and you're just ignoring them, and then when you hear that recliner just snap-
Gus Applequist: Mm.
Sydney Collins: Oh, I want one of those recliners.
Gus Applequist: Mm.
Sydney Collins: Now we have the electric ones. It's like, "By golly, when I get down, when I get down from here," 10 seconds later, you're more mad at the chair than your kid.
Gus Applequist: I think mine would be m- my, my dad just turned 80, and last summer he had a health scare. And the, there was many things about his health scare that were really scary, but one of them was not seeing him in his chair in his living room.
Sydney Collins: Oh, yeah.
Gus Applequist: Seeing him, like, lay down and, and so seeing him back in that chair means a lot to me.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: And just sitting in... It's like a, you know, big leather-
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm ...
Gus Applequist: kind of recliner thing, so. Yeah.
Closing And Merch
---
Gus Applequist: Well, [00:46:00] I think that probably brings us to the end of another episode- of Ask a Kansan.
Sydney Collins: Make sure to go to AskaKansan.com, subscribe to the newsletter.
Make sure to go to the Curious Kansan store, which someone just ordered, like, 25 stickers the other day.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Sydney Collins: Yeah, that was super kind of them.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. We've sold a lot of shirts too.
Sydney Collins: Yeah, we've sold a lot of shirts too. So, you can get those. They come in about a week, week and a half- depending on kind of holidays and fun stuff. But yeah, go search through the website.
Gus Applequist: If you have any merch ideas of things that you would like to see in our merch line- we'd we'd love some suggestions.
Sydney Collins: Yeah. If you want custom socks or hats, I don't know. Yeah. We can think of something.
Gus Applequist: And if you also... You know, it's been a while since we've said, we do, we invite people to give us suggestions of people we'd like to have on the podcast. We don't take every suggestion we get, but we do, we do look at all the suggestions we get.
Sydney Collins: Yes. Also, if you're ever looking for speakers we do travel and do different speaking engagements, whatever you need, whether that's [00:47:00] tourism, community building.
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm.
Sydney Collins: We're doing one based on creating content out of conversations. So yeah,
Sydney Collins: You can find us at info@askakansan.com.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. Well, thanks for tuning in, and hope you have a great rest of your week.
Sydney Collins: Bye.