Chris Gissell, the Baseball Dude from BaseballDudes.com

Chris Gissell did not become a recognizable name via a long MLB career. He did, however, become a VERY recognizable name in amateur coaching circles. Through Chris' mindful approach of teaching the game to young players, he has amassed a very large social media following. He has also built a very large library of free documents and educational materials on his website BaseballDudes.com.

Transcript

Jeff Perro (00:40)
Hello everybody, I'm Jeff Perro the host of Catch Up with JP. Today's guest is Mr. Chris Gissell. Mr. Gissell threw eight and two-thirds innings over five games with the 2004 Colorado Rockies. Probably not a household name in your household,

unless you have children playing baseball right now. In that case, he and his website, baseballdudes.com should definitely be a household name in your house. he has created quite a library of information on not just the fundamentals of the game, but most importantly, in my opinion, how to teach, how to coach, how to communicate to little kids and also how to...

communicate to adults, coaches and parents, so that they can in turn teach and coach their little kids.

baseball dudes, uh, social media, I to use the word influencers, gosh, what a terrible word, but they've got over a hundred thousand followers in their Facebook page, uh, over 50,000 followers on Instagram and another 15,000 or so on Twitter.

this gentleman is one of the people shaping this generation of amateur baseball.

I said before, I highly recommend you visit his blog. You visit his free document section of his page, but also follow him on social media.

This young man just has a lot of coaching experience and his method that really seems to work communicating and teaching younger kids.

This was supposed to be a video podcast, but man, didn't quite work out that way. So this is a recorded phone call that just still has that same information that a video conversation would have. So welcome to the show, Mr. Chris Gissel.

Jeff Perro (02:32)
So I'm on the phone today with Mr. Chris Gissell. Mr. Gissell was a long time professional pitcher, minor league pitching coach for a few years, and now he is...

owning and operating Baseball Dudes out of Tyler, Texas. Mr. Gissell welcome to the show today. Thanks for having me, sir. I appreciate you. So, let's start with your professional career, you're drafted as a fourth rounder by the Chicago Cubs in the 1996 draft out of Hudson's Bay High School in Vancouver, Washington, which is outside of Portland. Did you give any consideration to go in college or

You were intending to sign with the Cubs after the draft? I, junior high school, I think maybe early senior high school, had committed to go to Texas A&M actually coincidentally down here in Texas where we live now. But deep down, I wasn't a big school guy back then. So I knew that if I was drafted in a decent round and offered a decent bonus, that there was a good chance I was just going to go that route.

The fourth round is a decent round. yeah. was fortunate. You began your professional career with the Cubs. One thing I noticed about looking through your baseball reference page, that was kind of interesting. It's kind of cool, but also could become a bummer. You spent the majority of your career, you spent the entire season at the club you were assigned out of spring training. There wasn't a whole lot of moving around during the season, dragging the wife, dragging the dog, dragging the kids.

From AA to AAA and back, Yeah, you know, think my shoot third season,

I spent time at, think, three different locations, but a majority of the season was in one spot, which I think that was down in Daytona, Florida. But yeah, you're right. Most of the seasons there wasn't a lot of traveling. You we had our kid, our first child. I think that was in my seventh season. then, yeah, and then from there, I mean,

Most of the traveling that my family did with me was when we went overseas, you know, played in Japan for a couple years, Taiwan, they all, they, all the kids that were alive then they all made the trip. So there was definitely a lot of traveling, just maybe not the bouncing back between cities. Right. So you began your career in 96. When did you get married? How long have you been married? We got married in 2000. So career started in 96. Is it somebody you during your baseball career or somebody from?

before? We actually went to high school together but did not meet until after high school. I think it was my first off season that we met and just kind of went from there.

opportunity that it is.

You know, at first it definitely took a little bit for it to sink in, especially, you know, while talking through things with my parents, you know, because my folks didn't quite understand the opportunity either. But now, after having gone through it and played there for a couple of years, I wouldn't change anything about the route that my career went. You know, the quality of baseball over there.

I would say probably comparable to, like a AAAA league, you know, not necessarily the big league, big league level, but a little better than AAA. but the fans were amazing two years. I don't think we ever heard a boo.

I've never heard anybody say anything like that. Yeah, the fans were just always appreciative of your effort. know, period. think it kind of speaks to their culture over there a little bit. great teammates, great coaches. You know, we we loved the food. I mean, we would go back there just for the food, my wife and I. But yeah, I want to say I'd say overall it was a great experience. I wouldn't I wouldn't change it for anything.

I wouldn't mind going over there and coaching to be honest. but it was, it was a great, great experience. the next year after, after I played over there, I came, I came back to the States that was in 08. I was, signed with the, the Athletics. and then spent the whole season in AAA with them. And we ended up going on to win the PCL that year, which was.

which was a great experience. then from there we went on to win the Brick Town Showdown, which was a one game championship between the Pacific Coast League and the international league. and we ended up winning that too. So that was a, that was a cool experience. I always kind of wondered

the AAA Championship game. If guys saw that as something really cool to go fight for that one game or saw it as a, man, I just want to go home. I didn't get called into the big leagues. I just want to go home and now I have to fly out to Oklahoma City for one more game. I would say that you probably get a mix of all those emotions. AAA in general, was filled with

with a lot of bubble guys, guys who had spent some time in the big leagues, but for whatever reason weren't able to stick. And there was definitely some, played with some guys who there was just some bitterness in them because of how their career had gone. Even though they were still blessed to get paid to play a game, So I would for sure say there were guys that weren't

Genuinely excited about going to that but then you also had some younger guys on the team that were that were thrilled for the opportunity so

but anyways, after that season, I went over and played in, we actually played in Taiwan for a few months and I brought my whole family over there and that was definitely a different culture than Japan was. Again, baseball is baseball. I would probably compare that level to maybe a AA to AAA somewhere in there.

Definitely not the caliber of baseball that there was in Japan. Played there for a few months and then came back to the States before the season had ended and signed back with the A's, finished the season with them, went to the playoffs and we lost out. That was it for that season. The next year I went back to spring training with the Rockies and they let me go at the end of spring training and I was like, you know what, that's enough time for me to go be with my family and

and move on to the next chapter. Do you feel like you you're ready for that? Was that something that was kind of in the back of your mind for your last couple of seasons or when you walk into the spring training that year, 2010, you just kind of say, if this isn't it, then this isn't it. Yeah, you know, I don't know if I necessarily specifically had those thoughts, you know, like I'm ready to be done.

Before that last season, had become part owner in a baseball facility in Washington. You know, so there was there was something. And if.

Whenever baseball did and I kind of knew what the next step was. that I think that already having started, when I did get that, that third release, writing was on the wall a little bit, that spring training I pitched in a couple big league spring training games. in minor league spring training, I think I pitched in a handful of games. I don't think I give up any hits to be honest.

So no runs. but at that time, at a time where the things were changing in a way where they became so velocity focused, uh, that I wasn't one of the hardest of throwers, you know, I was maybe a upper eighties, low nineties guy where, you know, the, trend started to go, we're looking for mid nineties guys.

So just kind of seeing where the writing on the wall and I was like, that's enough. Let's call it what it is. And I'm grateful for everything the game did give me. That would have been my 15th year. So I knew that that was kind of it. So what was your next move from that? You mentioned the facility back in Washington.

And the following year you were a minor league pitching coach for the Angels, I was actually home in Washington running that facility for two years, I think, a year and a half before I got that job with the Angels. And then from there I went on and I coached with them for three years.

And that was a great three years. I learned a ton as a, as a pitching coach, I learned a ton as, as a coach in general, as a leader, learned a lot about just being on the other side of it from playing, what the coaching side is, as a coach, no more is it about me and what worked for me. Now it's shoot. I gotta learn all the different ways this game works, you know, different ways to be successful as an athlete.

And to be honest, I think all those things were kind of a stepping stone towards, what I get to do today. And what you get to do today you seem like you've really, bought into youth coaching and really defined yourself as a coaches coach. You, the training that you do with your players, of course, but also it seems like you're,

Making a mark in the game for being a coach developer. Yeah, you know, it's I've been working with kids. I started when I was still playing. So I've been working with kids for probably over 20 years. I started working with kids full time, meaning almost 12 months a year. After I was done.

with that coaching. I think that was, that was about 10 years ago, But again, I was doing a lot before that. and the, know, the more kids I work with, the more families I get to know, the more, the more I pay attention, I'll be honest. I mean, there, there's, there's issues all over the place, but there, there's a big weakness in the youth coaching world,

with a lot of how guys go about it. You know, the lack of, want to say understanding of the game. But then even then, you know, obviously the kids they need enough help as it is. And then, you know, the, the parents just kind of ride along with, with the atmosphere of what the youth culture is. And there's a lot of kids who stopped playing this game because of, you know, how those adults handle themselves. And

maybe what they don't know. obviously I put a lot out there for the kids. but to be honest, a lot of stuff I put out there, it's mainly for the adults. You know, when I say adults, I'm talking parents and coaches. So I wouldn't say necessarily just try to do stuff for the coaches. It's all it. Yeah. It may seem that way, but it's, it's all in the end, it's all for the kids.

But speaking more to the adults. So I may put something out there, write an article that maybe seems like I'm talking to the kids, talking to the athletes, but the reality is I want adults to read it. I want the adults to read it first because they probably need that information at this point more than the kids do. We're all kids. We have kids. We have our own kids.

hear something and they'll forget about it, you know five minutes later if we can get into the the adults heads and help them understand things a little bit better, you know, whether it's on Pitching delivery whether it's on how to run a practice, you know fits how to handle the car ride home You know, those are all things that will be able to impact the kids and their experience in the game

you know, just from a physical and mental standpoint. And you're really changing the perspective on it to where it gets into the parents' heads. And if their perspective and focus on what they're trying to teach your kids shifts, then it changes the way the kids learn the game. don't know if I put in good words, I'm 46 years old.

I have two kids who are three and five years old. started late. It's been a long time since I was a youth baseball player and the landscape has changed dramatically. It's changed dramatically just in the last 10 years alone. So I'm terrified of my son. He's five and he's, we play baseball in back yard and stuff. And it's getting time for him to put him in a league and on a team. And boy, it's terrifying to me. Well, I don't know what it's like where you are, down here they have

T-ball tournaments. So I know that they didn't have that where I moved from and coming down here to Texas where they definitely take everything a little more serious with sports. was all I can do is laugh about it every time I hear about a T-ball tournament. It sounds crazy, can imagine seeing that. I'm in the Tampa Bay area and Tampa Bay is a hotbed for baseball. I was

running a restaurant this time last year and I had two kids who were high school baseball players that worked for me. And just hearing them talk about the game and they were each on, they playing on three different teams in the fall, two different teams in the spring, another different team in the summertime. Just wasn't like that when I was a kid. No, no, it's definitely changed. And that's the cycle of everything. Everything, you know.

Progresses and that it's.

It can be hard, but I'm 47, so our generation, how we grew up, it's almost completely different. And so we have to learn, understand how it has changed and how to handle it, how to manage it. I think a big part of that is...

where your family is and what you guys want it to be. know, if you want to get, if you want to dive all in, you got to understand you're going to lose a lot of weekends. You know, if you don't want to sacrifice that sort of stuff and you got to be careful of, what type of league you choose to participate in. And then, and then from there, I think it's also a lot of parents need to be more honest about their kids ability. You know, they, they don't put their kids on these teams that, you know, if you really start to understand their

these are pretty competitive teams. And then the next thing you know, their kid maybe doesn't have the ability or work ethic to play on that sort of team. And then now it's out, there's all this frustration happening. So when you have the coaches and people run these facilities, selling them their, their goods and services, you know, blowing smoke saying, yeah, your kid has a real chance. If you buy the $600 program from me, that sadly is part of the landscape today too,

Yep. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's become a huge business. And I got to be careful when I even talk about that, because we support our family off of the game. But just from what I've read and just from talking to you, I feel like you are one of the people that go about it the right way. I hope so. I try to. But again, I- Like I said, it's a cycle.

Everything's cyclical and know, 10 years from now, it might be different than it is and it might be going back more towards the old school ways. I would love to see more leagues myself. I understand the tournament concept. You can get a lot of baseball in just a couple days, but I I would love to see it go back more towards leagues, know, league type play. Maybe it will. Maybe it could be when the guy starts getting the word out about that

Yeah, there's some out there. There's a few different parts of the country that do it. everybody just wants to win a trophy. Right. I feel like a lot of people also just want to pitch their $1,000 tournaments too and then pass out trophies

I've been out of it for 30 something years and I don't know, just from what I've heard and kind of paid attention to, I didn't want to have kids. My wife talked me into it a few years ago and it's the greatest thing in the world. But I just was the guy like, I don't want to hear about these darn kids playing baseball. So didn't pay much attention to where youth sports was over the last 30 years until kind of recently where I have a vested interest in it, of course. yeah, it's just something else.

my goal and my...

Whatever you want to, I just want to be a voice for the kids, you know, and again, finding ways to reach reach the adults, whether it's parents or coaches and just maybe help them give them a different perspective, on the game instead of just everybody seeing how everybody else, you know, reacts to things and how they approach things. Maybe give them a little bit more perspective on

You know the game is just a game to be honest, you know, I know there's people that don't like that saying but. Shoot. These kids may play for five years, they may play for 10, they may play for 15, but in the big picture they live to 80. That's nothing in their life. You know, it's just it's such a such a short period. It's a foundation for who they grew up to be. What you what you learn in team sports from work ethic to being a member of a team. The preparation it all itself.

Contribute to your as an adult if you end up working for Walmart or if you end up working at a bank or being a CEO of a company A very very small percentage of the kids you talked to you is gonna have any kind of college professional career Like you like you say, but those are important life skills that kids might not get from school or get from home Yeah, yeah, so so learning how to use the game to help kids grow in those areas I think

will always be more important than what the scoreboard says. But again, the culture is we tend to focus more on what the scoreboard says versus leading the kids. because of that, emotions often get too high. Our expectations are unrealistic. Another challenging thing is that we've all seen our kids and seen our athletes do great things.

And then they struggle to repeat those great things. And that's, that's where we struggle. That comes from us just not being realistic as, as the adults, you know, not, and forgetting that they are just kids and, know, we were all that age at one point. And there's a reason why most of us weren't professional ballplayers. Most of us weren't college ballplayers. There's a reason for that. And, you know, watching, seeing how these kids go about the game.

and even that all changes. mean, that's way more, way more about look at me now than it used to be. you know, social media has changed that the recruiting process has changed that, you know, we're going through that a little bit with our daughter right now. And there's, have to self promote now way more than, than you ever did, you know? And so I think just that. isn't a team and team sports environment is kind of contradictory to what you really want to do. It's bad. It's bad. And then you hear about, you know,

high school and college coaches that, you know, are having this issue with players that are, more worried about what they're doing and what, you know, how they look. perspective is lost on the game because of some of this stuff. Social media plays a big part in that. So the goal for

what I put out there every day is to find ways and you know, and lot of stuff I've written so much now over the years that a lot of stuff is I repost it. it's just to try to help the adults see things a little bit differently. The kids are the kids, they're pretty much gonna do and be how they're, they're learned traits, you know, by what they see, but maybe...

be a voice for them in a way of talking directly to the parents, about how to do things a little bit differently. You mentioned you've written so much over the years. your website has a free document section. What do you have in there? We've got a couple dozen different charts, pitching charts, hitting charts, throwing programs. We have a do-it-yourself pitching mound plans.

some of them are charts that we use at the professional level that I just had, recreated. are, couple of them are charts that others have asked me to come up with something You know, they're just different things that, like I said, I think there's, there might be even more than a couple dozen now. But if you, if you scroll down that page, you know, hopefully there's,

something for somebody. think over the years we've had, and again, we're a small platform, but I think we a small platform, but you've got over 14,000 followers on Twitter. And I know those can't be all local Tyler, Texas people who really know what you're doing. So I feel like you're really getting your message out there and you're getting your stuff out there. Yeah. Well, we have, I think on Facebook we have over 140,000 followers. I didn't know that. Instagram we have over 50,000. I didn't know that.

Yeah, we have we have a good following and I I'm I feel fortunate for it every day So so again when I put that stuff out there. It's even though some of it is regurgitated stuff I've I've written in the past because we are you know getting so many more new followers every day that that just means that You know maybe someone has never read this that I wrote two years ago But you're reaching people for sure with that and you're making it

and impact and contribution you're getting in people's brains yeah. On that free documents page, I think we've had I last time I looked was a few months ago, but there's been, over like 20,000 people that have logged on to that page on our site. So again, it just we're just trying to put content out there that people appreciate that people are looking for some way to be helpful. And all that stuff is is free. And, you know,

baseballdudes.com when it started at first it was a membership website. Mainly for the families I worked with to work out some something that they could upload videos to and that I could help them throughout their season while I was gone coaching. then I you know I had a few families that signed up for but it just they weren't using it how I wanted them to you know so I didn't want to be taking their money for nothing.

So I turned it and what the website is now is completely different than it looked when it was created. So now everything is on there is free and we have, I wanna say over 50 different products in our store. So if people are looking, wanna, if they like what they see and they wanna show their gratitude, they can go onto our store and show some love that way. But again, it's just- It's just another way to your message out there.

That's great your free documents and the stuff your store is a great way of getting your message out there Yeah, yeah, it's again. I'm grateful every day for for what I get to do and you know, hopefully we're building something that when You know when I pass on my kids can somehow keep it going and you know, obviously at that point they would just have to keep reposting stuff,

So yeah, something that your kids are proud of and something you're making and your kids are older now, right? Yeah, almost 22 19 and 16. Yeah. Okay. I got you Any tips or pointers for somebody younger kids who may or may not play sports for parenting

I would say just enjoy it. Enjoy every minute. It goes so fast. Our youngest is now a sophomore in high school. She's over halfway through this year, so she's a couple years away from being old enough to go do what she wants to do. Our older two, could tell us any day now they're going to move out. So it goes fast. It goes way faster than you think it would.

So just find ways to enjoy it and take lots of video and photos. Yeah, definitely. All right, man.

is there any advice you give yourself when you were walking into that last spring training and you realized that at end of your career, playing career was coming up. It seemed like you were pretty well prepared for that. So is there any advice that you would?

You would have given yourself for that time I mean, I think definitely having having a plan is important. I think a lot of guys struggle. You know, they identify so much as a baseball player that they have a hard time thinking about what to do if they're not a ball player. Coaching, especially when you are drafted at high school.

Or you play three years in college ball and you don't have a degree to fall back on. Yeah, yeah. So so I again I was fortunate that I had something lined up. I think that you know in this generation this day and age and I try to help my kids understand this is that there's there's so many different ways to earn money to to support your family. You know entrepreneurship is.

I would say that there's probably no better time to be one. mean, there's so many different ways to make money that if you just get creative and, you find a way to turn your hobbies into a career.

understand that baseball's not gonna last forever you know and what what could you see yourself doing it if you didn't play

But as far as going into that last spring training.

I think most guys it's in the back of their mind that it could happen at some point. But I think.

being real with yourself and having some grace with yourself and knowing that it's not the end of the world is an important thing.

Is there anything that you would go back and talk to your 18 year old self about as far as handling or managing your playing career? Shoot, if I knew then what I know now, everybody says that. Right, right, right. What are all those lines? I would say go into it knowing that what you've accomplished up to this point means nothing. You know, that the world that you're about to step into is going to challenge you in ways you've never been challenged and

You know, to when something doesn't go your way to instead of getting embarrassed or bitter about it, think about why it didn't go your way and how you could learn from that to be better the next time. know that early in my career, I struggled with that, that concept. And because of that struggle, you know, my emotions kind of prevented me from being consistent as a performer.

having a little better perspective on what failure really means, think, I think would have, would have helped me earlier on. I haven't heard it worded that way. That's a good answer. you're a, big fish in a small pond when you're back in Vancouver, Washington, but you step into professional baseball and that's not the case anymore.

And for most, there's very few guys out there, even your Hall of Famers, probably when they first became professionals, they were challenged in many ways. Not many Paul Skenes out there. Yeah, right. He hasn't had a whole lot of adversity to handle yet. No, no. At some point, it will happen. But yeah, not really yet.

All right, Mr.

Gissell is there anything else you want to chat about? Yeah, I don't think so. I appreciate the opportunity. Good luck with your project here. It's cool concept. It's a blast,

Jeff Perro (31:20)
Mr. Chris Gissel, the original baseball Dude from baseballdudes.com. I mentioned before, of course, visit his blog, visit the free document section of his page, follow him on social media.

But one thing I find kind of funny, he says I have it written down right here is exact quote. "I wasn't a big school guy." His blog and everything that he has is so well written that it seems like it comes from a guy who was a big school guy. Everything that he communicates to his kids and everything that he communicates to the coaches and parents reading this blog is very well written.

So yes, follow him, visit his store, and so yes, check out his stuff, follow him on social media. Thank you for joining us today.

Jeff Perro (32:11)
first of all, I got to tell you this freaking crazy coincidence in this thing.

So I moved down to Bradenton, Florida last summer. And I went to, there's a fancy shopping area in Sarasota called St. Armand Circle. And there's a memorabilia store there. And they have like, you know, the Pete Rose autographed eight by 10s and the humongous giant Lambeau Field pictures. It's a fancy sports memorabilia store. It's two stories. So I go up to the top and I come down and I look over and there's this huge trophy sitting there on the staircase. So I look at it.

West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx 2000 Southern League Championship trophy. I asked the guy, I'm like, buddy, this is so cool. know, I collect Minor League memorabilia, whatever. Is this thing, would you sell this thing? He's like, the owner of the shop picked it up at an auction a long time ago. He's had it. I don't know if he'd been interested in selling it. So I never followed up on it, but he has the 2000 Southern League Championship West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx trophy is

at a sports memorabilia store in Sarasota, Florida. Picked it up at an auction. I don't know what auction it was. I don't know if it's a charity auction or just a, the Diamond Jaxx going out of business. They're selling their office furniture and here's what they're throwing the champion trophy too don't know. Wow. Huh. But yeah, I have a picture of that on my phone. I'll send it to you afterward and I'll post it on this thing too. It's such a weird.

thing and I just put two and two together about an hour ago

Jeff Perro (33:43)
On a little side note here, as soon as I hung up the phone with Chris Gissell I was so impressed by everything he said and just the way he communicated. And in addition to the content of what he's doing, that I immediately went to baseballdudes.com, went to the shop, and got a few things. I got a fancy bracelet for the wife, me.

both kids and I got a sticker for my sticker fridge With that said, stuff arrived so quickly that I got it before I actually edited our phone conversation.

The stuff arrives before the podcast is actually published pretty cool. Check out the store