CURVE Sports sits down with Tony Crivello of NorCal Baseball — one of the most respected programs in youth baseball.
From its origins in 1992 to producing MLB talent like Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell, Dontrelle Willis, and Xavier Nady, NorCal has built a legacy grounded in doing things the right way.
Tony shares:
• The origins and growth of NorCal Baseball
• The philosophy behind developing complete athletes
• How tradition and work ethic shape their culture
• The importance of relationships over transactions
• Where the program — and the game — is headed next
This is a conversation about more than baseball — it’s about building players for life. Stronger Together.
All right, buddy, thanks for joining me again. My name is Matt Gerber. I'm the executive director of the Allegiance and Curve Sports.
Got with me today, an exciting guest, Tony Cravalho with NorCal Baseball. Tony, I appreciate you joining me today. Yeah, thanks.
I appreciate you guys taking the time and getting to know us a little bit better. Awesome. So let's jump right in.
Obviously, NorCal has been around for a really long time. But can you tell us the origin stories of NorCal Baseball and then how you got involved? Yeah, sure. So really, how it began was way, way back in like early 90, like 93, 94.
Excuse me. My partner, Rob Bruno, was actually a scout for the Angels at the time, and he created what we called the NorCal Angels. At the time, it was kind of a scout team before there were really some scout teams.
And it was, you know, one of those kind of deals where he went out and recruited a whole bunch of guys to play. And then there wasn't a lot of teams to play during that time. So it was pretty much going around and playing the junior colleges during the fall and playing some teams around the country that they could find during that.
And so I think we actually during the early days, too, like we would play like the little league allstar teams who were getting ready for the tournament. Like so whoever we could find, that's who we would play. Because back then, baseball wasn't what it is now.
And so at some point, he actually came and recruited my brother. I have a younger brother who played, played at Bishop Fresno State. And then he recruited my younger brother.
And I had just kind of finished up some schooling and realized that I wasn't going to be playing baseball any longer. But I still loved being around the game. Love the idea of being on the field.
It's hard to give up. And so he asked me if I was interested in helping. And I said, sure.
You know, I again, I didn't have a whole lot to do. And this was something that was important to me. And so we actually coached together that first year in 1995 after Rob had kind of done his thing for a couple of years with the Angels and the Black, he called them the NorCal Black Sox.
And so we kind of met up in 95, coached together. I thought coaching was super easy because that first year we had Jimmy Rollins playing shortstop and Xavier Nade playing third base. You know, we had all these guys.
I think there was like eight or nine guys in the big pro players at the time. So I thought, coaching, this is cool. But obviously, as you get a little bit older, you're on another team.
Just not. But that's how it started. And then the next year, we both kind of did a team and they just kind of grew from there, honestly, from where we were.
But that's that's how it began was one team. We coached together. We actually won during that time.
It was the AAU was the big event. We went back and we won the AAU 16-U World Series. And like I said, it's I thought it was easy.
I thought we'd be winning all the time. But things change from time to time. Well, you definitely probably thought one thing is probably the best team, one of the best teams you probably ever had was the first year.
It definitely was one of our best. When we try to rank some of our best teams of all time, obviously, that that group is is right there. You know, we've got a couple more that definitely compete with that team for sure.
But like I said, that was you have some all time great guys on that group. So if we go back to 95, then at that time, you know, what problem were you trying to solve by bringing together a team and kind of parlaying off of that? Like, when did you start to kind of realize that this might become like a program? And what was your vision for that program? Well, I think it was initially, you know, after that first time we coached together, Rob and myself, you know, we kind of understood or we talked a little bit about like what what it was, why we did it. And really, the initial thing was the scout part of it, right? With OK, let's put together these teams, because there were some scout teams back then, you know, the Dodger down south and, you know, the Angels, stuff like that.
So you definitely had some some scout teams that were around and you had teams starting to pop up. You know, I like club teams. And so this was an opportunity for us to start drawing some of the Northern California talent.
I mean, I think a lot of people don't understand how good baseball is in Northern California in the sense of the history up here. I think everything's California, Southern California, things like that. But when you start talking about the greatest players from California, you're talking about Bay Area, right? I mean, you're talking about some of the greats.
And so it was an opportunity for us to kind of open up some of these these avenues for some of these kids. And in reality, what was funny was that, you know, when we started, we were pulling a lot of kids from, you know, like Lowell, from, you know, Oakland, from places like that, where we actually thought this was an opportunity for kids who maybe weren't going to get it. Oakland Bay, Ruth, at the time, was, you know, like this powerhouse, you know, and they had a great history and they still do.
Like, they still have this kind of like draw of, you know, like, man, what you have all this ability in the area and stuff, and they were awesome. And we just thought this was a great way to help maybe some of those kids that, you know, there were Jimmy Rollins. Right.
But they were good players. And so it was an opportunity for that. And as it as a program grew, we got more and more interest for some players.
And then Robin, myself, I think, just kind of thought this is something pretty good here. We feel like we're making a difference in some of these kids' lives. And I know for myself, I know for Rob, too, but I've always, you know, I've always kind of felt that, you know, I'm a religious guy.
I'm a believer in Christ. And it's something where I feel like, you know, God puts something in your soul and your heart to be to be a mission out there. And it just so happened I was lucky enough that I felt like it was baseball.
So outside of just the games, it created great relationships with players. And, you know, I'd hope to, you know, think that a lot of these players, when they think back about playing for me or playing for Rob or whatever it is, it's like, hey, they helped me with baseball. They helped me understand things that made me a better player.
But honestly, they made me a better person. And that all my players knew, like, hey, yeah, Coach Tony's not perfect. You know, none of us are.
But at least we knew he cared about us and he had our best interests. And he he was an example for me, you know. And so we take a lot of pride in that more than we ever do.
We always say like, yeah, we love the fact that we've had gold glovers and MVPs and all these pro guys. That's awesome. And again, that's that's ego driven stuff.
But at the end of the day, when I stop or when I think about what I really do, it really comes down to like, man, we have awesome teachers and lawyers and firemen, you know, all these things. These guys that are giving back and they talk about this stuff. And so being able to affect lives like that is, man, I I feel blessed every day that I'm allowed to do it.
Yeah, 100 percent. And I think that resonates. And buddy, I've gotten to do a couple of these, obviously, over the years with groups that are involved with us.
And I think that that's the one thing that rings true is that the people that have done this for a really long time and are sustainable in the industry do it because they care and they have passion. And it's just it's such a refreshing thing to hear, honestly. So so let's parlay that into, you know, we kind of define your why.
But, you know, as a club, could you describe your culture or what it means to be play for NorCal in a couple of words, two, three words? Yeah, I mean, we we we call it our hashtag, OKG, our kind of guys. You know, we we have a certain type of player. And I don't mean like physically.
Like, I mean, yes, we have elite players of that. But we're talking about the type of players who are, you know, way back in the day. You know, it used to be a way your palms down or a palms up guy.
We want the guys that are palms down, right? Guys that are scratchy and clawing, not the guys that have their hand out saying, what can you guys do for me? You know, we we spent a lot of time with players and families and we've turned away a lot of players because we have that conversation and no fault of anybody's. But you can tell sometimes when a family's and what can NorCal do for me? And it's like, that's that's a valid question. But maybe not the first question.
Maybe the question should be like, hey, how do we partner together? What can you do to help us? And, you know, we leave our in it. We live our gene, our dreams, things like that. Like we want to be part of the journey.
We don't want to be a little box to check off on your way to do something else. And we want people committed. And I tell every single person that I invite to play for us that we expect a commitment from you because I'm committing myself to you and your family.
Like I'm saying that you're part of NorCal. When you call me, I'm going to answer. Maybe not right away because we get busy, but I'm going to try to help in every way I can.
So we just ask for that back. And honestly, our culture has been that way. We have players who come to us and say, hey, coach, this guy's not an OKG.
He just isn't. Doesn't mean you're a bad person. It just means he doesn't fit with what we do.
Yeah. And yeah, I love it. Would you would you describe NorCal as development first, exposure first or something else when you're talking about your identity and your culture? Our number one thing is developing.
I mean, we we take good players. We take players that are OK. I think Rob and I and our staff does a really good job of projecting.
So we get a lot of those eighth grade boys that come and play for us. Those players that come and play like, yeah, are they the best players right now? The answer is no. You come out to our elite league and you'll see, you know, 60 kids and you'll see maybe 20 that you're like, hmm, I'm not sure about this kid.
But, you know, we see long arms, high waist. We see kids who are like growing. We see a parent who's six, three.
We see all of these things. So we're willing to develop and like take time. I tell kids in eighth grade, I said, guys, we want to win because we're competitive as heck and we're going to do everything we can.
But let me tell you something. What we care about is when you are in your sophomore or junior year and it really matters, we want to make sure you're ready. So we want to develop you.
So, yeah, if your number one goal is to win the elite tournament championship for eighth and ninth and tenth grade, like that's not what our focus is. Yes, we want to win. Yes, we're going to try.
But we're not going to sacrifice our player development to win a game. You know, yeah, we're we're about development. 100 percent first.
We are true believers in especially nowadays. People will find you if you are good. But schools will find you pros will fight.
That's their job, right? So, yeah, we're development first. And I said the exposure part comes with the fact that we've been around when Rob and myself call coaches. They know they're getting a legit evaluation of a student and a player like we're not going to we're not salesman.
Yeah, and I think most families out there, it's really important to hear that because most families out there, you know, think that it's the the team that they're on within an organization or whatever it might be. Right. That's going to get them recruited.
And first of all, you have to have the requisite skill set set and you need to surround yourself with people like you guys. Right. Like Rob, like you, Tony, that can pick up a phone call phone.
And, you know, whether it's, you know, top end division one or, you know, division three, that when that phone rings, they know that they're getting somebody that they can trust and is going to tell them the truth. I say all the time recruiting is about relationships. It really is.
Right. Yeah. Do that across the board.
So I think that's something that parents that see this and listen to this, you know, need to continue to internalize. It's important to put your son with an organization like NorCal, with people that have a proven track record of delivering the the end goal result that you're looking for. So I want to ask a couple more questions on the development stamp from a development standpoint here, because development's a term that can get tossed around a lot, you know, in our world.
What what does real player development mean to you? And if I were a parent of a player coming to you and saying, hey, I want you to develop my kid, like what would that look like in real time as I play for NorCal? Yeah. So one of the first things that we try to do is we try to explain to families and parents like, hey, we all have a dream, right? You wouldn't be contacting us. We wouldn't be part of this if you didn't have a dream.
And our kid has a passion for the game of baseball. So the first thing we do is we try to say, OK, let's let's look at what it is you want, right? Hey, I want to be a pro. I want to play college.
That's all awesome. Let's let's set that dream because we didn't have dreams. We wouldn't work for stuff.
But what we want to do is also start setting the realization. Let's take a look at what does it look like as a player size wise, right? Physicality, things like that. Let's start to like really hone in on, OK, I want to play Division one baseball. OK, well, what position do you play? All right. Well, I'm a center fielder. OK, well, do you run at what's what's your what's your 60 time? If you're telling me you're a seven one, like, look, man, you're not playing center field in Division one baseball.
Like the average time is somewhere around six, seven, right? I mean, like you have to be unbelievable as far as routes and all that kind of stuff to be a you know, above a six nine. So physicality, I say, hey, one thing you should do, go watch a J.C. game. Look at the size out there, right? I mean, things like that.
And then we say, OK, how fast are you? How strong are you? Things like that. So we can start to set that bar for you, what it's going to look like. Right.
Bigger, faster, stronger. Those types of things. Secondly, it's about the mental side, right? We start working mental side stuff immediately because that's what's that's the separator.
If everybody runs a six, eight, you know, if everybody runs a six, eight, what is it that makes you different? Right.
If everybody takes 500 swings a night or whatever it is, everybody's training nowadays. Right. So now the separator, which used to be physicality, athleticism. Well, now we've got all kinds of physical athletes playing baseball. What's the separator on the mental side? How do you recover? Right.
How quickly do you recover as far as like when something doesn't go your way? And so that's how we start with the development. And then we say, all right, we're going to take that into the game. Right.
Here's some skills we've been working on. We have, you know, mental side coaches that we we offer up to our our our families and players. I think that we just had a series with D.L. Martin, who she met with a lot of, you know, did some zoom calls with people and talked about what it takes to be a elite athlete mentally.
You know, we spent we used to spend a lot of time with, you know, Alan Jaeger and the mental side of breathing and all these types of things. So even way back when we were before we had all this information, it was about learning how to breathe, learning how to live in the moment. And now that we've I guess you can say all that has grown and there's more information available.
We've tried to stay on top of it and offer that stuff up to our families. Like, are you the mentally strongest person on your team? The answer should be, I'm not the strongest. I'm right there with them.
So, yeah, that's that's one of the developments. Like, so we want to make you complete. We're going to get you.
We're going to play 100 games. That's not development. That's learning how to try to play a game, not how to prepare for a game, not to be the best at a game.
You know, that's just that's like trying to play chess and no one ever explained to you how chess works. You just got to move the pieces around. I'm moving the pieces around like we want you to understand there's a strategy behind it.
And that means training physically, mentally. What games do I play? What events do I go to? All of that matters nowadays when it talks about development. Yeah, I love that.
Great answer. One more question on the development side. And you kind of answered it, but I want to dig a little bit deeper here because you've got such a wealth of knowledge when it comes to this.
What do players need off the field to succeed on the field? So number one, you need support, especially young, right? I mean, because if you're talking about you can't drive, you can't do things like that. You need some parents that are going to support or guardians, whoever you're with, right? An aunt, an uncle, a coach, someone who's going to be supportive of you. Because it's true.
I'm in education. So I've been in education my whole life. And so I always come from this kind of like education background.
I was always alt ed. And so these kids who maybe didn't have everything. Right.
And so they ended up making bad choices. But that's OK. Let's see what happens when we give you support.
And it's amazing what happens when a kid knows someone believes it. Right. So development itself starts with like, OK, do I have someone who believes in me a little bit and can help support? And if they don't, let's try to find how we can make that happen for you.
And then what they really need at this point is a plan. Right. How to prepare.
Like I said, going back to that. How do I prepare to be the best? OK. If I'm not going to be big, OK, but I need to be quick then.
Right. If I'm not going to be if I'm not going to, you know, throw ninety five, whatever it is, well, how can I be the best whenever I am at? There's something called the capability gap. And I didn't make it up.
I stole it. Right. I heard it years ago.
And I know that, you know, Nick Saban and some of my favorite coaches, you know, Jimmy Johnson, all these guys talk about the capability gap. And that's kind of what I base off. Hey, look, our job is to try to develop you in the sense that whatever you are capable of, whatever that is, how do we get you there? I can't I can't make a kid a six, seven runner.
We can train for it. Doesn't mean you can get there. Yep.
What are you capable of? If you are physically capable of running a six nine, then let's get you to six nine. So if we can make every player, if we can close that capability gap for all of our players, we're good. And you are as good as you're going to be.
And that's our goal. So you want to be good on the field. You have to close whatever what your capability gap is.
OK. And so that means training mental. How many players have we seen that are absolutely studs but are mental midgets and their game eventually stops? So that your gap is mental.
So that's that's where our focus needs to be for you to be an on the field beast. Yeah. And would you say in, you know, in all the years you've done this, the guys that have made it to the upper echelons of the game, it's it's a lot to do.
Obviously, they've got the physical capabilities that but they've been able to fill that capability gap because of their mental awareness. Absolutely. I mean, we've had some really great shortstops, and that's I mean, if you talk about, you know, you talk about Jimmy Rollins, you talk about Brandon Crawford, Troy Tulewitski, and we know Kevin Kramer.
These guys, they were the smartest guys on our team. They had the biggest baseball IQ. We always thought like we mean, Rob, always that like Jimmy Rollins was the third or fourth fastest guy on our team.
But he was the best base runner. He could always steal a base. He could always do those things because he just had the IQ.
He could read things. He just had that. You know, same thing with Brandon Crawford, like super athlete, no doubt.
I mean, his physical ability could take him. But there's a reason why he played that long. I mean, when he was with us, he was the smartest guy.
When he was at UCLA, he was probably the smartest guy. When he was with the Giants, let's face it. I mean, how many plays did you watch Brandon Crawford and go, whoa, that's pretty special.
That's not because he just randomly did it. That's because he's he's playing chess or something like that's going on. So 100 percent, it's it's the mental side that separates.
So let's talk a little bit now, kind of transitioning back to NorCal as an organization. You guys have been doing this since 1995 Trailblazers, obviously in the industry. Where do you want NorCal to be in three to five years? And then, you know, to add on to that at the end is, you know, what kind of legacy do you hope to leave with all the work that you've done with NorCal? Yeah, so it's you know, it's it's an ever changing man.
But this this last few years has been like on hyperspeed with the way this the game's changing. The landscape of youth baseball is changing, especially when you're starting to talk about it was trickling down. Right.
From from pro to college now, when you have, you know, the portal and all this kind of stuff that like, honestly, it kind of stinks for kids that they have to start dealing with all this, that they feel as an eighth grader, a ninth grader, a tenth grader that you need an advisor now, like an advisor to play baseball. And I don't I don't know if it's good or bad. I don't try to cast on like I don't want to be the old guy who yells at clouds and says, back in the day, you just played, you know, things like that.
But but what I also want, I want to be we want to be obvious about that and then be conscious of what's happening. But for us, I think trying true like now we're just going to keep developing guys. We're going to adjust the landscape like we always have.
You know, back in the seven to eight years ago, like when they were recruiting eighth graders. Yeah, we had to take our young teams to events that they had to go to. Right, because that's what it counted.
I love the fact that at least they moved it back now to, you know, you can't get recruited. You can't really have conversations to that till after your sophomore year.
I would love for it to go back to their junior year. Yeah, because what we've done like the last few years with our young guys, you know, eighth grade and freshman is we talk to our families a lot about, hey, we're going to focus on your development because in reality, like you don't need to do a lot of those things around the country anymore because they can't recruit you anyway. Yeah. And remember, coaches have to recruit their own team.
Number one, that's number one. And college coaches have to recruit their team.
Yeah. Number two, portal. Right. Number three, JC, because all those guys that normally would go to campus are at JC now and then high school.
So the pecking order has changed. Yes, the top guys are still going to go, of course. But those mid-range guys who normally would have gotten recruited pretty heavily are now, you know, struggling.
So we're adjusting to that, trying with our families. So where do we want to be in five years? Where we are right now, we still feel like we're in the top program. There's some great programs out there that have been around for a long time.
You know that, you know, CBA and GBG. And, you know, I mean, there's a bunch of me up here.
We have, you know, like the Zoots do a great job up here. And Eric and the CCB guys and, you know, Adam over at the Alpha and those guys, they're all good programs. They do great things for kids. We just always want to be in that group.
And we always will. You know, like, yeah, we can all, you know, fight over who's the best ever. And it doesn't really matter.
Honestly, what matters is the players who come through our programs and our groups all have something in common. That's that's the goal to make them the best player in person possible. Yeah, I love it.
Do you feel like the pendulum is, you know, you mentioned, you know, when we started, I would say it was around the AAU circuit and those type of things. But, you know, the pendulum in my mind, you know, I started in travel baseball in 2005, so about 10 years after you. But when I first started, it was, you know, development first.
And, you know, then, like you mentioned, recruiting started happening earlier and earlier. Thanks to Coach Savage out there on the West Coast and Coach O'Sullivan over here on the East Coast. Right.
And then everybody had to follow. And then we had to react, like you said, to then we had to put the players in those situations. And then it became about playing and getting exposure with these new rules.
Two questions. Do you do you think, one, that the pendulum is swinging back to development first? And then, two, how are the parents and the players reacting to that? Do you feel like they're getting up to speed with that or it's taking them some time to realize that they don't necessarily need to chase that exposure so early on? So it's a good question. And I think the the pendulum is set up to swing back to development, meaning like and it's good that that's happening so you can't get recruits a little bit later with the portal and all that kind of stuff.
I think we try to explain and inform our parents that, hey, this is not six, seven years ago, like you really are at a disadvantage if you're a high school player at this point, meaning like you don't have that. The colleges aren't bringing in 12 dudes anymore. They're recruiting class because they don't need it.
Right. Yep. So I think that that's good and bad just because good, because you start to realize, well, I'm going to have to stand out more.
So I've got to focus on my training more. It's not about games. It's about how I play in games.
There is a little more focus where we need to be this like instead of casting this big net, I'm going to go to this event. This is showcase in this showcase. We need to be a little more focused in on the let's go to some school camps and some things like that, that you can really like this is where you could fit.
They have a need for stuff like that. I think that's that's changing in a good way. Parents, on the other hand, when they hear that, sometimes they get they they feel I think they start to get a little desperate, like, well, what's going to happen? And then these guys come in and say, look, I want to be your advisor.
I want to I want to walk you through the next four years. Yeah, I again, I don't know if they need that or not. I just think that.
And again, I don't fault anybody for trying to provide a service that a family is looking for. So nothing wrong with it. But I also think that it's one of those things that if a parent in a family doesn't feel like their club can provide that for them, maybe you're in the wrong group, right? If you can't call me or coach Rob or coach, these guys will coach for us and say, hey, look, we're being asked to go to this event.
Like, should we? And if you don't feel like we can give you a good enough answer or you don't trust our answer, then. You know, I mean, maybe they said maybe it's not the right. I wouldn't want I mean, my son is a junior right now.
And if I wasn't a coach or something, but knowing what I know, like I would want to be able to trust the guy he's playing for and the program he's playing for, right? Like, hey, guys, you got invited to, you know, the, you know, three top top 20. I don't even know, you know, whatever it is.
Sure.
Is this something you should go to? And if they're like, no, man, like, look, he's schools are going to be there, not going to recruit him anyway. Doesn't really matter. Like, I want to be able to trust that.
Yeah. So I think parents are caught in a tough spot because they want to make sure that no one has being a parent. I have twins, actually, a son and a daughter.
They won't play softball. Obviously, my son plays baseball and they're both juniors. So I get the, hey, I'd love for them to keep playing at the next level.
And I think they both can. But I start to realize you start to feel that like urgency of it. Am I doing everything as a parent? I could.
And so I think that's what parents kind of get wrapped into. Like, well, I'm going to hire this guy to come help us because I just want to make sure that I did everything I could. No fault, no foul.
But I still think at the end of the day, it comes down to, like you said earlier, who's going to pick up the phone and call? I'll say Northridge or USD or hey, if you're good enough, you're going to call Stanford and be like, look, this is a kid you guys want. Or if they call us, they know like, hey, this is a kid you want. Like when parents say, hey Tony, can you call Stanford for us or Cal? I'm like, your son's a 2.7. He's not going to either of those schools.
What would you like me to say? I have a kid who could play there, but he can't get in. You know what I mean? So you want people to give you that type of information, not just saying, hey, sure, I'll call anybody you want. Yeah, 100%.
I think the ones that are sustainable in the industry do exactly what you said. They create that trust factor, right? And like you said, I do think there is room. I've seen an upswell of that advisor type of person in the recruiting process.
Not everybody has access to Tony or to, you know, whoever it might be that does a really good job. Yeah, but buyer beware as well, right? With just make sure that I think what I hear is make sure you find somebody that you can trust that has a proven track record of, you know, again, getting kids to that level, right? At the end of the day, that's what you want. Yeah, like I said, I have no problem with guys who come in and help.
Because again, I get like like anything in life, right? Some guys are there for the right reason. This is just what they're doing. Then there's, you know, some guys are capitalizing.
But again, no harm, no foul. Parents want it. I've always said, look, every level way back when, when, you know, people were complaining about, I remember like six, seven years ago, everyone was really complaining about.
I'm watching these tournaments, 12U, and there's like these triple or double A teams that are awful. Why are they even out there? And I'm like, hey, wait a second. Like.
Just because these kids aren't great at sports or great at baseball doesn't mean they don't get to play it. Who are we to say only the players who are good? That to me was, and so for me, if you feel you want somebody, like you said, you don't have access to play on the team that you want, or maybe whatever it is, but you want some help, absolutely. Go find people that can help you.
That goes back to that support system I was talking about. Find whatever supports you can and hopefully it works out for you for sure. Great advice
A couple more questions here. We'll take a couple more minutes of your time if you don't mind. We're going to talk a little bit about the Allegiance and just a couple questions surrounding that.
I know that I talked with Rob for years about the Allegiance, but once you guys kind of got into the weeds with me and started to talk through things, what stood out about the Allegiance model and what do you think being part of this stronger together context means for NorCal? I think you see it play out in all sports, right? And you see it playing out in college football right now, in college baseball. All these sports where you kind of have these leagues, these teams kind of jumping ship and creating these leagues and stuff. Well, same idea here.
Look, again, I love the fact that there's teams everywhere. And I know some people in the business don't like it. They think there's these horrible teams out there and there's teams.
And again, man, that just needs more kids playing baseball. So whatever. And for us, we've always looked at it as the more teams that are out there, the more we're able to stand out.
Because you start to realize, OK, this is clearly better than everything or most things out there, right? And so for years, we've had great relationships with a lot of the groups that are with Allegiance. Like I said, with GBG and CBA and these guys. And we've always done great stuff with them.
And we're always better when we're playing them and when we're doing things with them. And so this is kind of one of those things where it allows us to kind of all walk in together. Yeah, we compete against each other and stuff like that.
But this is a little bit more where, hey, look, we're all part of something. I know that eventually we want to like grow this and it's like, hey, we can have an event where I'll go to and all this kind of stuff. So for us, that's where that was the draw, right? Like we're around good people we trust, right? You know, like John, you know, CBA and Mike was, you know, with GBG and, you know, all these guys on the West Coast that do a really good job.
We've known them for years. You know, we've always had good relationships with them. You know, the guys, you know, back east and stuff
Again, we used to, when we used to go back there, a lot of good relationships with those guys. So, you know, for us, it was just kind of like the right time for that to happen. And so that made sense to try to jump in.
Yeah, love it. Well, we are super excited to have you guys and have people of your, not only obviously of NorCal's caliber, but of your personal caliber being part of rowing our boat to where we want to go at the end of the day. You know, we've put out there in media and we mean it.
We want to find, you know, the 30 best operators across the country that really care about this game and want to move this game in a positive direction. Like you said, I think that, you know, there's a lot of people out there, Tony, that want to, you know, bash all these teams, right? And I'm on the same page as you. Like the other day, we want more kids playing, but we also want more kids under the leadership of people that are going to give them good, solid advice, right? I think bearing out that vision and doing it as a group is something that's really, really exciting to me and I hope for you guys as well.
So that's all my questions for today, Tony. I certainly appreciate the time. And again, the Allegiance is honored and excited to have NorCal join.
I've been looking forward to working closely with you guys as we move forward. Yeah, like I said, we're excited about it. You guys offer a lot
And so, like I said, we're pumped to be part of it. We want to help grow it in any way that we can. And again, we just think good people together with a one clear vision is what baseball is about, what life is about, right? You want to surround yourself with good people so they lift us all up.
And we think that happens with, you know, with something like Allegiance and all the teams involved. So we're pumped and we're excited you guys were part of what we are doing now. All right.
Thank you, Tony. Appreciate your time. You bet.
Have a great day.
