Coach Kenny Graham Jr. and Nathan Bates with CMIT Solutions

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta. It’s time for Charitable Georgia. Brought to you by B’s Charitable Pursuits and resources. We put the fun in fundraising. For more information, go to B’s Charitable Pursuits dot com. That’s B’s Charitable Pursuits dot com. Now here’s your host, Brian Pruett.

Brian Pruett: [00:00:45] Good fabulous Friday. It’s another fabulous Friday morning. And first of all, everybody happy New Year. This is the first show since for being back from the holidays in 2024. So I hope everybody had a great holiday season. And um, even though it’s kind of nasty weather out there, it’s still a fabulous Friday. We’ve got two fabulous guests this morning. If this is your first time listening, Charitable Georgia is all about positive things happening in the community, whether it’s a business, individual or nonprofit. And I’ve got two guy. I’m like a little kid in candy store this morning. I got two guys in the studio. I got to call friends too, but they played professional sports. I get to dream about playing professional sports. So Nathan Bates, Kenny Graham, Jr., thanks for being here this morning.

Nathan Bates: [00:01:23] Of course. Thanks for having us.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:01:23] Thank you for having us. Thank you for having us.

Brian Pruett: [00:01:25] So, uh, Nathan, we’ll start with you just for just for a second. Um, you currently work with CMIT Solutions in Marietta, but you, uh, played college ball at Georgia State, and then you went on to played in the angels organization and played professionally in Mexico. So share a little bit about your background, if you don’t mind.

Nathan Bates: [00:01:42] Uh, yeah. My, uh, I moved a lot when I was younger. My dad was, you know, in corporate sales job. So bouncing around quite a bit, quite a bit. Um, and then, uh, went to high school down in the Peachtree City Fayetteville area, went to Starr’s Mill down there. And then, like you said, three years at Georgia State, um, as a pitcher, uh, playing baseball and pitching, was drafted by the angels in the 15th round and was bouncing around the minor leagues, traveling all over the place, doing that and having fun doing it. And until it wasn’t fun anymore, after about eight years, um, you know, got engaged, getting ready to get married, had some some other things going on and priorities had changed. So it’s time to take a different direction there. But loved every second of, uh, of the playing, playing career. And like you said, now I’m in it sales for a company called Cmit Solutions. We do it for small, medium sized businesses up in the Cobb, Douglas and Paulding County areas. But, you know, really anywhere in metro Atlanta. So, um, yeah, thanks for having me. It was a lot of fun. You know, I’ve played in a couple of, uh, golf tournaments, um, that you’ve invited me to a couple of charity scrambles, been on a panel to talk. And whether it’s, you know, giving back and having a conversation or donating money, it’s just a lot of fun to be involved in everything you do and happy to be invited to do it. Awesome.

Brian Pruett: [00:02:51] Well, I appreciate that. And we’ll get back to you in just a second. So, uh, Kenny Graham Jr, you also played pro ball. You were with the White Sox for a while, and then you actually spent one year in arena football until the nasty Covid thing hit. But. Right. Absolutely. Give us a little bit about your background if you don’t mind. Uh, yeah.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:03:06] So originally from Laurinburg, North Carolina, um, born, uh, my mom and dad, uh, they actually still happily married. They actually just celebrated 32 years of marriage last week. Uh, I did my undergrad at North Carolina State University, had a degree in computer engineering and minor in public speaking. Um, I actually wasn’t drafted. I was an undrafted free agent. Um, at that time, they had something called the American Baseball Institute, um, down in Clearwater, Florida, at the Phillies, uh, spring training complex. And it was like an institute for guys who got overlooked in the draft or guys who got released. And I went down there for a tryout. Me and my dad and my uncle, um, I just happened around, like, a six for 60. Um, I topped out at 110 miles an hour from the outfield, left handed. Uh, and then I took BP. My BP sucked. Literally. I was so nervous. I was 19 years old, so I was nervous. And it was over 600 guys at this tryout and everything. We had ten swings and everything. I hit, hit my back, hit the tarp and went back into the screen. Um, and I looked at my dad and my uncle. I said, yo, they’re sending me home like I’m not coming back, because the next day was like the inter-squad day. And I was like, dad, I’m going home, man. Like my BP sucked. So the next day it rained out. So we had like an off day. So we go back the next day and they called the names out for, you know, for the Inter-squad games. And they said Kenny Graham Jr. And I’m like, what are you talking about?

Nathan Bates: [00:04:33] You hit 110 from the outfield run A64. Yeah, exactly.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:04:36] So and that’s exactly what they told me because I asked I said did y’all not see my BP. They was like nah, you looked a little uncomfortable up there. So make a long story short. They said, we want to see what you look like in game like situations, so they can’t really determine off of a little tryout style. So, um, I ended up going three for four, two bombs and a double. Made some plays in the outfield, you know, some diving plays, man. And I had a representative from the Chicago White Sox and Dominican Republic out of Boca Chica. Um, he literally came up to me and said, hey, we want you. Um, I was like, I’ve never been out of Country Day in my life. You know, I’m a spoiled little boy from North Carolina. I love my mom and dad like I’m still in school, so I ended up, like, leaving. Aren’t for that year. I moved to D.R. for that summer. I played in Dominican Summer League, played for the Los Tipicos with, uh, Robinson. Cano’s father was our GM, Jose Cano. I mean, um, yeah, Jose Cano. And then I ended up staying there for like a whole year. And I played winter league over there as well. And then that’s literally how my whole career started. Say I bounce around in the minors for a little bit. Um, tore my knee. I got married at 24 years old, so I’m 34 now, so I got. Little younger, uh, a lot of baseball players.

Nathan Bates: [00:05:47] Right?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:05:47] Right. Yes, yes. Uh, you know what I mean? We got, uh, my, um, my previous wife, she had three kids before me, so I took care of them as my own once we got together. And then we have our seven year old daughter together. So I got four kids. You know what I mean? Um, so basically, what happened once I got hurt in 2017, I just, you know, I tried to bounce around, said bump baseball. And like you said, I mentioned you mentioned arena football. So I started training for arena football down in Tampa. I went down there, I think I as a matter of fact, I reached out to the guy that trained me on email and I said, hey, man, I play pro baseball. I’m tired of baseball. Don’t want to look at it. I want to play football. I got a lot of anger and aggression. I want to hit somebody. Can you train me? I’ve been able to.

Nathan Bates: [00:06:29] Do it in baseball.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:06:30] There you go. I was like, can you train me? So they emailed me back and said, fortunately, we can do it. I was like, okay. So it was a little expensive. It was like $2,200 a week that I spent. But I was like, I told my wife at the time, I said, look, I got to go for a couple of weeks. Make a long story short, man, I did NFL combine training, totally different. So I got a whole nother respect for NFL players. Football players, totally different. The first day warm up, I felt like I was about to die just in the warm up. Yeah, we didn’t even do speed and agility. Not even training yet. It was just the warm up. Wow. My lower back was tight, so after the first week I was fine. And then, um, I met some good NFL guys, some Buccaneers guys at that time. Arena ball is right around spring training. So when the Yankees guys came in, I got to meet CC Sabathia and all them boys. So they were trained there too. And then the Tampa Tornados had a tryout and I went to the tryout. Now, mind you, I’m a little flashy. So I pulled up to right. So I pulled up to the tryout in a drop top BMW. Okay. I was like, yeah, I’m I’m gonna show out. And my trainer was with me. So I’m the only guy that walks in with a trainer. So now everybody’s looking at me. So I’m like, all right, I got to show out.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:07:36] So make a long story short, man, I ended up we ended up doing the drill. I did good on there. And then we had to run the 40 and I ran a 445. And I thought I ran that. One of the owners was like, yo, get his number right now and he comes. So the player developer, he was like, uh, you know, I had my my college shirt on and he said, uh, man, you went to ANC. I said, yeah, I did. He said, uh, when did you graduate? I said, man, it’s 2011. He said, wait, wait, wait. You play in the NFL? I said, no. He said, you play football, right? I said, I ain’t never play football a day in my life. He said, what you do? I said, I used to play pro baseball. He was like not looking like that. And I said, yeah, man. I said, I just, I’ve always been a football guy. I just never played it. My dad wouldn’t let me. So he was like, man, I’m gonna send you a contract at night. So make a long story short, I get home back to the hotel, I check my Facebook, I get a friend request from both owners, the player developer and the head coach and the starting quarterback. And they they messed me and said, you’re getting a contract tonight. I looked over at my wife and I at the time, went to Vegas, celebrated, signed it on Facebook Live. Boom, played arena football. And then Covid happened.

Nathan Bates: [00:08:44] Especially after not not having done it previously. That’s incredible.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:08:47] Yeah, I played defense. I played defensive end too. As soon as.

Nathan Bates: [00:08:49] You said, I mean, you got to have some kind of physicality to throw 110 from the outfield too. I mean, I do, but mine is just leverage. I don’t have that. I got that strength that you got. But you run A64. Yeah. There’s some other sports they’re gonna come knocking like yeah yeah yeah.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:09:01] Right now I’ll be transparent. If I knew what I knew now. Especially at baseball because I’m a lefty. If I knew what I knew now I would. Yeah. Because when I was in college, I was like 96 off the mound with no mechanics. But I got to respect you, too, because y’all did a lot of conditioning. And when I used to see the conditioning in college, I was like, I’m not doing that, and I don’t know how to swim at that time. So we making swim pitchers doing swimming workouts in the pool.

Nathan Bates: [00:09:27] Which is the best thing you can do health wise to keep your arm. Yeah, I believe it’s great. But so I before I when I turned ten I stopped swimming. My sister was an All-American swimmer in college Georgia Southern. Yeah. And I swam for a couple years. And when I was ten, I was like, this is worse than running because all you’re doing is going back and forth, except for, you know, you could drown. And I just my arm never felt better, but I was like, it’s still not worth it.

Brian Pruett: [00:09:48] So I read a story about Lenny Dykstra. Now, it wasn’t swimming, but he was in the pool. And, you know, Lenny Dykstra was a switch hitter and he the what I read was he took 100 swings on from both sides underneath the water with the bat.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:10:01] Now I do that surprise me.

Nathan Bates: [00:10:03] Yeah. Yeah. Because that’s, that’s a way to get resistance without putting any stress on anything, any, any joints or anything like that. Which is why it’s so great for pitchers, because all they do, you can only throw so many pitches off the mound, you can take a lot more swings, not unlimited, but you can take a lot more. It’s not like going to a gym and shooting a basketball. You can’t just stay there for eight hours and get shots up. I mean, there’s a limit. So being able to to add some of that work in without putting the stress on your body is really good if you can do it.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:10:26] But again, that’s old school. If you can, if you can do it.

Nathan Bates: [00:10:29] Yeah. If you can do it, I’m not worth it to me.

Brian Pruett: [00:10:31] So I got lots of questions. So hang on for the ride. All right.

Nathan Bates: [00:10:35] Um, so I’m sure we’re both used to it, right? Yes.

Brian Pruett: [00:10:39] Um, well, well, first of all, I want to. I just want to. I want to do this. So you guys, again, like I mentioned, have done some things with me for fundraisers and I’ve started my business a B’s Charitable Pursuits and resources doing community fundraising. And, uh, like you said, Nathan, you’ve recently done some golf tournaments and we did the locker room chat and, uh, Kenny, you were it was a while ago, but you came out to the thing we did in 2015. Can you believe it’s been that long?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:11:00] I had just moved here in 2014 and I got.

Nathan Bates: [00:11:03] Drafted in.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:11:04] 2015. Really? Oh, man. Dang, I got you by a long shot. He made me feel old, man. So our our.

Brian Pruett: [00:11:10] Mutual buddy Eric Greens when he got us connected. Yeah yeah. You know but we did the thing when Skip Wells. Yes. We did the trivia night for his, you know, 25th.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:11:19] I was 25 years old. Big dog. Damn. I’ve been in Georgia that long. That’s crazy. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:11:26] So first of all, I just appreciate you guys coming out and giving back to the community. Um, so, uh, Nathan, this is going to start with you with this question. So. Obviously playing sports and and being in professional sports. While you may not have had the name in the major leagues, but you still were professional. Mhm. Um, just give me a reason why it’s important for you to be part of the community now.

Nathan Bates: [00:11:51] Well, I think a lot of it was like the culture or, you know, whatever sport it is in the locker room, and you get that camaraderie with the team and you build a lot of really good relationships. And that’s, you know, half of the fun of, in my opinion, of at least baseball. If not, you know, most professional sports is that those relationships and that camaraderie and the and the culture you build in the clubhouse. And so that was one of the things when I retired, that was one of the things I was kind of I realized I was missing, and the more I went out and was doing networking and, you know, doing sales and business development in, in our area, that was one of the things I realized that was, um, it was good to me on a selfish level because I got to, you know, build more relationships, get to know some really good people and, and expand, you know, network and center, new to the Marietta area, you know, getting to go around in a lot of places like that. But, um, but giving back was a really, really important to me because there’s the more I think about it, there’s so many people that helped me get where I am, and without almost any one of them, I wouldn’t have gotten there.

Nathan Bates: [00:12:45] Um, and so even if it’s just something small, you never know when someone you’re going to say something about a sport and oh, hey, my son plays baseball. Could you talk to him? Even if it’s a five minute conversation? You know, I still answer the phone every time my high school pitching coach picks up, because I know it’s always because he’s got a student with him or a kid with him, a high school player, and he asked me a question that he knows the answer to, but he just wants the kid to hear a professional baseball player or former professional baseball player say it. So it’s important to me just because of one way or another. There’s a lot of ways to give back, and a lot of people did that for me when I was younger, and it’s extremely important for me to to do what I can to do the same thing. However, that, you know, looks right.

Brian Pruett: [00:13:22] Kenny, how about you?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:13:23] Um, I’m actually in the same boat with him, and I’m all about giving back, um, especially the environment that I grew up in. Um, so, like I said, if you don’t know too much about Laurinburg, North Carolina, we’re actually ranked number one most dangerous place to be in the state of North Carolina. Wow. And I mean, when I tell you we’re beating Charlotte in Charlotte is extremely big. Excuse me, but like, my hometown is one high school, three middle schools. At that time, we had five elementary schools. You know what I mean? So but the way the time is now, there’s nothing to do for the community, nothing to do for the youth. Um, and it’s almost kind of like, man, if you don’t get out, you’re stuck. So it’s like when I go back home and I see people that I graduated high school with that’s 34 or 35 years old, and they’re looking like they’re in their 50s and stuff now. You know, it’s kind of sad to me because at the end of the day, you know, they probably didn’t get that opportunity like I did. And again, it’s it’s about networking. I’m a relationship person. Um, I just I just really big on, uh, developing great relationships, not burning bridges.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:14:23] Um, so I feel like being in the community, like you said, you’re going to have a lot of individuals that get to see you. Um, you will have somebody who say, like I said, I want to play sports. I want to play baseball, or just somebody that say, you know what? This is somebody that’s been through something and look where they are now, you know what I mean? And they use baseball or another sport or even a business to use that as a platform to get to where they’re at now. So like I say, it’s real very pivotal that you are in the community as much as you can. Um, that’s one thing I hated about covet, because I had so much I was going to do in the city of Tampa, Florida. I mean, my my spiritual advisors there, like I said, the Tampa Tornadoes football team, um, especially in the rural areas, um, I wanted to do so much, um, you know, doing that. And it’s, uh, man, I just hate, covet happened, but things happen for a reason. But again, being being connected in the community is is very pivotal for me.

Brian Pruett: [00:15:15] You guys both mentioned it. And, uh, so it’s a good segue because I always ask this too. So you both talked about, uh, networking and and Kenny, you’re right on. It’s all about relationship building, right? Most people come in and networking if they’re new to networking and they try to sell, sell, sell. And that’s not the way to do it. You got to learn about the other person and build that relationship. Um, so let me start with you, Kenny, because you’re you’re now training kids, right? Right, right. Um, do you get to do much networking now?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:15:43] As I do. I do because I’m gonna be honest. Uh, a lot of people ask me what I do.

Nathan Bates: [00:15:48] You train baseball or football?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:15:49] Baseball. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, let’s let’s let’s let’s be transparent. I can’t do younger kids.

Nathan Bates: [00:15:56] Oh.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:15:57] No, I get it. High school pitching. Yeah, high school. I I’d rather do college, at least you know what I mean. And then just do pro guys. But high school is my limit. But again I get to network a lot because of the fact that a lot of people ask what I do, you know, like for work now. And I’m like, I just chill, you know what I mean? Just because of, you know, the relationships that I had. And God’s kind of put me in a position to where I don’t have to, you know, punch a clock anymore. And I can just march to the beat of my own drum. So I do have a lot of time to network. Um, and again, being in the the Milton and Alpharetta area is so many baseball guys out there. Yeah, so many. Like, I didn’t know that Dexter Fowler went to Milton High School, you know, and I live.

Nathan Bates: [00:16:41] Across in that.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:16:42] Area. Right. And I live right across the street from Milton High School. You know what I mean? We was talking about baseball facilities in the area, you know, uh, uh, Chris Buczek. Mhm. Um, is that precision? I coached that precision a couple of years back.

Nathan Bates: [00:16:55] Was a coach in the angels organization. Well, sorry. He played in the angels organization and then coached at Georgia State as a as the pitching coach when I was still going back in the off season. So I know Chris.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:17:03] Yeah, you know what I mean. Him and then I’m real good friends with Ryan Vogelsong. I know.

Nathan Bates: [00:17:07] Vogelsong, yeah.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:17:08] Just because of the fact that I coached travel ball with the bombers. So, uh, Ryan Snare, I.

Nathan Bates: [00:17:13] Almost never have a conversation with a baseball player. It’s like, you know, this guy is like, oh, yeah, he never is happy where it’s like, nope, don’t know any of those guys.

Brian Pruett: [00:17:20] Well, I mean, you’re both are. Well, you North Carolina but local growing up. Right. And he’s still now here.

Nathan Bates: [00:17:25] So East Cobb baseball is nationwide even though it’s in very local to I mean, I live right next to Sprayberry now and Sprayberry is Five-a but still not really a powerhouse in terms of baseball. And there’s all kinds of other high schools up here, along with, um, uh, what is it, North Point now? Is that other.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:17:40] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nathan Bates: [00:17:41] Facility up there that’s not as big as East Cobb, but it’s getting there. And so this is a hot spot in the country for sure.

Brian Pruett: [00:17:47] Yeah. So so Kenny, let me ask you this. Do you have a positive story you can share about networking that’s kind of helped you?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:17:53] Positive story about networking. Oh, man. Okay, I could be positive networking. Uh, let’s go back to Ryan Vogelsong. All right? I’m to the point where I’m good friends enough to call him by his nickname. And basically, again, I used my public speaking skills to and my baseball background to talk to Vogey. Right. So I’m coaching his son. He played on my 13 youth team with the bombers last year. And, you know, he he spoke to me on the phone when I asked him that he wanted to play for me because, like, it was my first year with the bombers. So I was kind of new to the organization, but a lot of the kids were already on the bombers, but they was going through transitions as well as far as coaching wise. So I definitely had to win all the parents over. So I’m talking to Vogey and um, and he let me know, hey, this is who I used to play for and everything. And I’m like, wait, I’m on the phone with a World Series champion. Like his statue was outside of the San Francisco Giants, like stadium. And this man is telling me he trusts my coaching with his son.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:18:52] So I’m like, all right, I got to make sure I come correct. So I just always I was not doing no starstruck or try to be like buddy buddy type just because of who he is. I just kept it honest. Um, and I guess my networking and the way I kept it honest with him, he felt comfortable enough to come to me about his frustrations with his son, because he expects his son to be a certain type of way, because of who he was. And he felt comfortable enough to, you know, talk to me. And I was able to build that, that bond with him and be like, hey, man, it’s okay. Like, let your son, you know, break out on his own time. He’s not you. But just because of that relationship and that networking, I did. Now he’s spoken to the front office with the San Francisco Giants, and they picked up my resume. And there’s an opportunity in the fall, in the off season of 2024, that I can get the outfield coordinator job with the Giants, which is one of my goals. So that’s that’s a positive thing for me, and.

Nathan Bates: [00:19:48] That’s not usually something that someone just comes right into. Usually you got to be in the system and get promoted. Even as the coaching side of things, it’s very similar.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:19:55] Yeah. So it’s just like I said, just for me, just being who I am. That’s another thing too, about networking and be authentic. Yeah. Be your true self. Don’t try to be nothing you’re not. And then at the end of the day, you know, if that’s what God wants for you to happen, you know that relationship is going to happen. And like I said, you know, it’s not concrete, but the fact that he even thought of me right to, you know, give ask for my resume, send it to the front office. And on top of that, they just gave him the job to be the special assistant to the GM for this season. Right? So. Right. You know what I mean. But yeah, you.

Brian Pruett: [00:20:26] Just talked about being not being star struck. Now look, I’m going to tell a little story on myself. So one of the things that I did back when I worked for I won’t name the company because it was not a good thing, but the best thing that came out of it was, I got to meet a lot of you guys, former athletes, right? And I maintained those relationships. And I always tell somebody, somebody sends me a text or somebody calls me and I look down and it’s one of you guys. I’m like, I’m like, I seriously like a little kid in a candy store. And then I go, what’s up, man?

Nathan Bates: [00:20:54] Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:20:56] So all right, Nathan, what about you? You know, I do a lot of networking and some of the same groups, but how about you? What kind of story can you share a positive about? Networking?

Nathan Bates: [00:21:03] Um, yeah. I mean, there’s a lot of positives that have come out of networking. And a lot of times, again, as I, there was probably a couple of months in between the end of my baseball career, in the beginning of, I would say, my, my real job, my real world job of, you know, sales for an IT company. And I realized very quickly that even though at first it felt like I was tooting my own horn to stand up and say, hey, I played professional baseball for seven years. Um, but every time I did that, there was a literally a line of people of 4 or 5 people waiting to talk to me after the networking event. Um, and so finding a way to kind of not try to look like I’m puffing my chest out when I say it, but realizing that that adds a lot of value and it creates a lot of credibility for me. And so there’s a lot of times where people have come up and was like, hey, I know, I know, you probably don’t do this a lot anymore, but my kid’s eight. Or, you know, he really wants to be a baseball player. Is there anything you can tell him? And then it turns into the, you know, 30 minute conversation of, you know, what’s what? Sports does he play? How you know, what team is he on? What are these coaches telling him all that stuff. And so for me a lot of the positive is people, again, like you said, they they see me at a networking event. All they hear me say, they hear me be honest and they can tell I’m being myself.

Nathan Bates: [00:22:06] Um, and then they’ll come up to me and ask me for my advice on how their kid, who, you know, most parents love more than anything in the world, how they should approach their sports career. And to have that trust is, I mean, that that happens quite a bit, which is really great. Um, but I will say that talking to, to people and having the conversation go from networking kind of into sports a little bit and then kind of like we’re doing right now, eventually it turns into, hey, do you know this person or do you know this person? Oh, I know somebody that would I’d be great to connect you with. And so I’ve gotten some business doing that, which is great. It’s not really the I mean, if my boss is listening. Yes. That’s the that’s the reason, you know, you want to get business. But, you know, I just want to build relationships with people and be able to, to help people however I can. So that’s a lot of the positives is really just the little things of. Going off topic and people being like, hey, my son’s ten and he wants to get into pitching. I don’t really know how to teach him how to throw a curve ball. Can you do it? And I’m like, no, I’m not teaching your ten year old how to throw a curve ball. I don’t want him to hurt his arm. Right. And like you said, I’m not going to lie to you and tell you. Yes. Just because I think that’s what you want to hear. I was told not to or I wasn’t really allowed to play professional.

Nathan Bates: [00:23:09] Not professional. I wasn’t allowed to play organized sports until I was like ten. Um, you know, no tee ball, nothing like that other than soccer. Because soccer at that age isn’t really the same thing as it is once you get older. Um, and I hated it because I was all my friends were playing those sports. My parents would never let me, and now I get it. And so a lot of those conversations that I have with parents of, of athletes now, um, it kind of comes full circle. And so that’s where most of the positive outcomes for me, outside of the obvious, you know, building network or building relationships and having it, you know, grow our business is just the the questions I get were again, like Kenny said, people asking for advice on how they should coach and bring up their kid. Right. And it’s just it’s really rewarding to help. But like the same thing he said at. There’s only so young with baseball that you can start training and teaching kids. And so there’s a fine line. There’s a lot of parents that want him to start when they’re six, because that’s what all the East Cobb coaches are saying, that you got to start them now, and they got to specialize because everybody’s specializing now. And that’s the only way they’re going to get. So a lot of those conversations I get that you can maybe kind of tell, since you’re in the room with him getting fired up about it a little bit right now, because pitching is so much different than other sports and even even playing a position in baseball. Bat. Right. That’s what.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:24:19] It is.

Nathan Bates: [00:24:20] Yeah. And that’s like I said, I almost am shooting shoot myself in the foot for being too transparent and too honest sometimes. But when it comes to networking, I refuse to change because that’s it’s it works. And I feel more comfortable telling people what I truly believe, especially when it comes to again, I’m going to relate it back to the I because I hear it all the time. It’s like, oh, curveballs and sliders. How’s my kid? Throw one. Your kid doesn’t need to throw, right? Um, and so that’s just being able to really make those parents understand that, hey, this isn’t the end of the world. They’re eight years old. A lot of that is mostly the positive experiences I have. But they’re they’re all over the place almost every day when I’m out, you know, all the networking events that I go to and see you out, there’s always somebody that, you know, some kind of conversation, um, that’s at least an uplifting conversation. If not, you know, a physical, tangible positive that comes from it. So.

Brian Pruett: [00:25:06] Well, most people, everybody’s listening. So there’s no cameras in here so they can’t see. But most people probably think you played basketball because you’re how tall I do that.

Nathan Bates: [00:25:13] I’m six eight. Yeah. That a lot.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:25:15] Yeah. When he walked in I was like, yeah, he whooped. He did.

Nathan Bates: [00:25:17] But yeah.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:25:19] I want to piggyback real quick though, when you said about, uh, you know, not trying to pump your chest when you say you play professional ball, it’s very therapeutic to hear somebody say that sometime they say that’s what they did. But not coming from a cocky standpoint. Right. Because I do that a lot, you know what I mean? But for real for me when you like I’m six, three, two, six, five. So clearly I look like an athlete, especially because all I wear is athletic clothing. Right. So the question is going to be asked what it is that I did or what I do. Um, and so I of course, I would bring that up. And again, sometimes it is it’s a great conversation starter as well. Absolutely. Um, you know what I mean, like you said, how people look at you, but there’s a lot of people who don’t understand that neither. So, you know, I’ve been around a lot of people who will be like, oh, why you tell somebody you play this, or why you got to let somebody know that? And I was like, honestly, you don’t understand.

Nathan Bates: [00:26:15] Sometimes I’m not doing it for people to think how awesome I am, right? I’m not doing it for people to to tell people how great I am.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:26:21] That’s right. Right. And also, you don’t understand some type of the conversations that can happen. Like I’d be like, give you real quick my, uh, my, my, my wife and I before we, uh, you know, when we were together, uh, we was on a cruise ship, man, back in, like 2016, I think. And we did, like, an eight day cruise. And of course, like I said, out at that time, I was really in shape, you know, walking around my shirt off and stuff. Right? So it was an older couple and the guy was like, man, what do you do? Like you play ball or something and you ask, I’m not going to lie. So like, yeah, so you know, I play pro baseball, whatever. And um, kid you not. Next thing I know, I had a full, like, bottle of Louis Vuitton. I mean, uh, Louis. Louis the 13th. 14th. Yeah, yeah, it was sent to our state room. Literally. And I was like, where did this come from? Because I’m looking at my bill like, I’m not paying for this.

Nathan Bates: [00:27:09] That’s right. So we go.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:27:11] So we go to dinner later on that night, and him and his wife comes up to me, to us at the dinner table. He said, you like your gift. I was like, wait, that’s from you? He was like, yeah, man. He said, I’ve never met a pro athlete before, and I love baseball. So I was like, oh, so this is what that title sometimes have. But again, it still opens up other type of avenues as well to people like, okay, look, what can I do? You know what I mean? Even if it’s not from a sporting standpoint. They want to understand your mentality and you can give them some mentality things to help them get to the next level that what they’re trying to achieve. So that’s why yeah, it was just very therapeutic. Hear you say like, okay, I say it sometimes and I try not to say it like I’m sticking out my chest. And a lot of times when I do it, I’m not sticking out my chest, but I’m going to let you know I work my behind off for this. So yeah, yeah, I throw that in there and there’s.

Nathan Bates: [00:28:00] A they hear all the time like, oh yeah, it’s a grind. And it is. And I mean high school baseball is probably what people relate it to. And if they play college ball it’s the same thing. They oh yeah I played college ball. It’s just. College ball is hard too, because you have to balance the schedule, but it’s just a whole nother beast. Mentally. It’s just wearing different level and the same thing. When my wife’s in public and someone will ask, I mean, like Brian said, I’m tall. And so someone asked, oh, did you play basketball? And I’d say, no, I played baseball, and it kind of naturally turns that’s like, oh, where’d you play that kind of thing? And then my wife would be like, why did you have to tell him? Like, well, I know they didn’t ask if I played basketball or baseball. Right, right, right. They were looking at me like you played something. So you’re not getting away from me, you know? So I. Yeah, I get it. And the longer the longer I’ve been out of the out of the game, the easier it is for me to to say it without feeling like I’m sounding.

Brian Pruett: [00:28:43] There’s a difference between confident and cocky. And I think what? Because again, now I grew up around sports. I played in high school, uh, I went to a private school, so the only thing we had was basketball and volleyball. Believe it or not, we had a guys volleyball. So that’s what I played. And I was manager for the basketball team. Um, but I grew up around sports all my life. I went to Kennesaw State, worked in athletic department. I was a sports writer for a while. And, uh, so I’m just a big, big fan, and and it’s I’ve dealt with guys who played professional sports who had the nose up and said, you know, they’re better than you because they got to that level. And look, I mean, I I’ll be honest, I’ll, I went my buddy Chad Blake. You’re welcome. Chad Angel auctions. He was doing a silent auction for Marquis Grissom’s golf tournament a few years ago. Okay. Um, Pete Smith, you know, played for the Braves, came in with a with a little jersey that was for, uh, a nine year old boy whose mother had sent him the jersey asking for his autograph, but he knew he was coming to that. So he was trying to get all the other guys that were playing for the golf tournament to sign. This little boy had cancer. Okay. I’m probably going to get shot if he hears this story, but I’m going to say it anyway because it just they say never meet your your heroes. Mhm. Bo Jackson was there and would not sign the jersey because he said, I’m not here to sign any memorabilia. And he was just I mean, he was so rude about it.

Brian Pruett: [00:30:03] And I’m like, all the other guys are signing. Yeah, this is for a little boy with cancer. Here’s the letter from the mother. He just walked off and as he’s leaving, I tried one more time and he didn’t even acknowledge it, you know? And it’s just, you know, things like that. It’s just. It’s hard to see something like that when you’re trying to do good in the community. And and I mean, you guys, I mean, let’s face it again, I can only dream about being a professional. You guys made it, right. Uh, even if you didn’t make it to the big, big levels, you still were there. So I think it’s awesome that you guys come in here. And the majority of the guys that I hang around with and do things with and invite to are the are you guys that give back to the community and love doing, I mean, Kevin’s event, the the locker room chat. That was awesome. You know, I mean, it was there was eight of you there, but you’re talking about knowing about a professional athlete and asking. So last January I take my mom to Kroger. We’re in Acworth. And you know how you cross people up and down the aisles, right? And everything. And this gentleman’s walking up and down the aisle, and he’s massive, like he’s tall, but he’s also built. Right. And people think I’m crazy when I say this, but we’re on the peanut butter aisle. He picks up the massive family jar of peanut butter and sticks it in his cart. And I looked back at my wife and my mom, and I said, he played. He played something.

Nathan Bates: [00:31:19] Mhm.

Brian Pruett: [00:31:20] We get behind him in the checkout line. So I go up to him and my mom and my and my wife are just shaking their heads like being you. So I said who’d you play for. He’s like, oh, he’s kind of played for the Patriots, the Panthers, the Chiefs and then the BC Lions and Stephen Williams. Right.

Nathan Bates: [00:31:37] Okay.

Brian Pruett: [00:31:37] So uh, and then I got him to come to some events too after meeting him because I told him what I did and he gave me his number. And I’m like, sweet, there’s another one, right? No, but it’s just kind of cool, right? Because again, you guys are used to that, I’m sure. Right, right. But but the fact that he took the time to talk and we’re in the checkout line, so he’s wanting to get out and everything, but he time he took to me and talked about it. So, um. All right. So I got a couple uh, like I said, I got a lot of questions. So we, we, uh, we talk about life on here as well as business. And, um, well, I’m going to ask a couple of these first. So before we get into that. So, uh, Nate, you talked, uh, you spoke at the, uh, Morning Joe and shared a story about, um, adversity and your complete turnaround on the thought. Would you mind sharing that?

Nathan Bates: [00:32:21] Sure. I thought you were going to say something about Ronald Acuna story I told you. Um, no.

Brian Pruett: [00:32:26] Not unless you want to know.

Nathan Bates: [00:32:27] It’s quick. Um, no. It was there was a lot of things throughout, um, my college and professional career that were almost career ending for me and could have been, um, college. I was I got in trouble over the winter break my freshman year before the season even started. Um, and out of 14 pitchers, I was the 14th one to get an inning that year. I mean, I was lucky to be on the team. Um, but they they gave me an inning and I think it was the bottom of the eighth against Georgia Tech at Georgia Tech, and the score was like 16 to nothing. They had scored in every single inning that they had hidden. And so basically it was a Tuesday, and they didn’t want to waste any of the pitchers that they usually use on the weekends. So they were like, hey, good luck, go for it. You know, hopefully you can get out of it. And luckily 1 or 2 of them were pinch hitters, but got three up, three down and ended up getting a couple more opportunities and played well from there. And then sophomore year had a something went wrong. I was pitching at Ole Miss and was topping out at 80 miles an hour and uh, so took a couple of weeks off and kind of fought through that. And again, like I mentioned earlier, I was drafted in the 15th round, was never really a huge prospect.

Nathan Bates: [00:33:36] Obviously. Again, if you see me, I’m pretty tall. And that was you know, I was very late developing physically. And so that was all of the people that were looking at me were like, yeah, you know, he’s got a good frame. Once he puts weight on, he’ll develop. And so that was most of my, uh, my draw when I was in college. But between those two injuries and then got lucky, got a chance to, um, to prove something when I, when I got signed with the angels and then, you know, right. As things got going with the angels, I was throwing a little bit harder. They moved me to the end of the bullpen. And then I had, uh, an elbow injury that was not. I didn’t feel a pop like a lot of the guys that have the full Tommy John surgery feel. So they tried a PRP injection, which has been known to work on a lot of other parts of the body, joints, muscles, things like that, but not as much on the ligament and the elbow. That’s just a very high stress, not a natural motion. And so it’s less successful there. Um, but it was recommended to me and we tried it and ended up not working. Hindsight is 2020, but still can’t look back and say, I would have tried anything different and had my my Tommy John surgery came back from that and with a month left in the year was pitching really, really well.

Nathan Bates: [00:34:41] Throwing upper 90s was consistent, you know, felt as good as I had in my career. I was, you know, six seven, six eight, 245 I put some weight on. I was really feeling good. And then the next year was Covid. So, you know, I went to got invited to some big league spring training games, was pitching. That was when Joe Madden was our manager. Um, pitched in a game, you know, threw okay, came out of the game. Joe Madden patted me on the butt and said, hey, we really like you. Keep it up. And the next day is when they sent everybody home for Covid. So they had an off an alternate site that they invited a lot of guys out to that year. Um, I was not one of them, which was a real mental shot. Somewhere in the middle of the year there, I got what I thought was Covid ended up testing negative, but was, you know, lost 20 pounds. And so the whole time I was that year, I was working out, trying to stay in shape in case they called me to be ready. And then I physically wasn’t ready and getting towards the end of the year. And so even if they did call me, there was no way for me to be ready. And so that was a mental, um, real.

Nathan Bates: [00:35:36] Mind game. Really? Um, and it was, it just it always felt like throughout the, the 8 or 9 years of me playing baseball, it was like, right when I felt like I got going and got some momentum, something out of my control happened. Um, to where I’d have to kind of take a step back and reevaluate and go from there. But, you know, I’ve actually heard it a few times lately, and maybe that’s or recently I’ll say this quote and, um, maybe it’s a sign, but I’ve heard a few times in the last week, you know, you make plans and you hear God laughing. And regardless of what you believe, I mean, you can make plans, you can have all this set and have all this lined up to for what you want to happen, what you think’s going to happen. And then one thing can throw it all off the rails. And there’s plenty of that. That happened during my career. And it’s, uh, it was not as quick of a learning process as it should have been. But just instead of saying, oh, woe is me, and oh, this isn’t going to get to happen anymore. And and maybe if some of that stuff hadn’t happened, then maybe, you know, I would have gone a different route and maybe I’d still be playing baseball. But, um, you know, that’s not really something I think about a lot because my like I mentioned earlier, my priorities changed towards the end of my career once I got engaged.

Nathan Bates: [00:36:36] And, you know, now we have a house and I’m have the flexibility in my schedule to work from home. And we have two dogs and two cats. And it’s and it’s a I love the situation I’m in now. But if I hadn’t had a lot of that adversity to kind of keep my myself in check and keep me that perspective, excuse me, that perspective at the front of my mind, then, you know, it could have gone very differently, and I could have still been thinking about that. What if? And not focusing on the here and now and then, who knows what could have happen? So there’s all kinds of stuff, and I’m sure every athlete has very similar stories. I mean, we heard some from Kenny earlier. It’s, uh, there’s there’s a lot of things that can go wrong, and it’s just up to you on how you respond to them. And so the first couple times, maybe I didn’t do what I should have, but it happens enough. And it’s kind of the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So eventually I got to react differently. I got to do something else. I got to make the best out of this. So, well.

Brian Pruett: [00:37:27] You shared somebody somebody said, actually said something to you, right. One of the players.

Nathan Bates: [00:37:31] Oh yeah. It was uh, well it was one of. Oh, are you talking about during my surgery? Yeah. One of the players was, uh, a Dominican guy who was a younger guy, and there was some guys complaining about, you know, we’re in the we’re in Arizona, and there were some younger guys that weren’t there for the same reasons I was there. I was, you know, on a rehab assignment from AA. But still, in terms of perspective, there was this young guy that was really nice, spoke a little bit of English, and I would talk to him every once in a while, and he came up to me one day. He’s like, you know, it’s really hard to hear these guys and not as good of English. But he’s like, you know, I don’t like hearing these guys complain about their paychecks. I was like, yeah, you know, it’s it’s frustrating. It could be a lot worse. And he was like, I don’t even see my paychecks. I was like, what do you mean? You should definitely be seeing your paychecks? And he’s like, well, I they’re sent straight to the Dominican because I don’t have a dad. And my mom is home, doesn’t have a job, and my sister is young and has health issues. So I’m the provider. He’s like, I don’t, you know, I have some of my friends pick up food for me or the angels will will be nice and bring in some extra food. He’s like, but you know, I don’t even know how much I make. And after a good bit of reflection, because that’ll hit you pretty hard when you’re not expecting it. And so just thinking about that in the situation that I’m sure he had to or was in now and not even talking about the situation, I’m sure he overcame to be where he was.

Nathan Bates: [00:38:40] Just again, that perspective is just if you’re not paying attention to it, it’s easy to miss. But if you if you are able to take a step back and see the forest and not just the trees, it’s, uh, that adversity actually, you know, people say all the time it’s how you respond to it. But being able to have perspective, I think, helps you respond to adversity, how you should in a way that you know is healthy and not to where you can look back and say, oh, this should have happened. I mean, every we’re all in sports. We hear the guys that are like, oh, you know, I would have I would have gotten drafted if it wasn’t for my I had our shortstop that was two years older than me at Georgia State. Had like a 890 fielding percentage as a shortstop. Wow. Won’t say his name, even though he probably won’t be listening. But, um, I mean, he after his junior year, he was like, oh, yeah, our head coach took my name off the draft board. I was like, that’s not how that works. He can’t do that, right? The teams have to do that. And so, I mean, you hear guys like that say things like that all the time. And it’s having talked to some of those guys and having some of the other experiences, it’s like, all right, that’s enough of a reality check. Like it could be a lot worse. I’m very happy with where I’m at. Don’t don’t get to that point. Right. So the adversity to me is just added a lot of perspective. Right.

Brian Pruett: [00:39:47] All right. So since you brought it up tell us the story.

Nathan Bates: [00:39:50] Yeah. So I was I was in the Fall League, which is a um a league for about a month and a half after the minor league season ends, that each organization asks about 5 or 6 people to go out and participate in. And there’s six teams total. And each team is made up of about five organizations. Um, and so the team that I was on was the Reds, the Yankees, the Mets, the Giants, and us. I think that’s everybody. Um, but we were playing the team that had the Braves on it, and I was pitching. And Acuna comes up and this is before he’s in the big leagues, and I knew of him. He’s a big prospect. He’s a good athlete. And they had played, uh, our AA team in the minor league season that year. So I’d heard of him. And so I threw a couple of off speed pitches and trying. To get ahead and trying to get him not to swing at one. I didn’t want to challenge him early and so I threw a slider one zero, tried to get back at, you know, even in the count with another slider. Same spot, two zero. I was like, okay, you know, my ball moves a little bit. I’ll try to get one, um, you know, middle inside because I’m sure he’s looking to extend his arms and I’ll try to maybe get get one back and try to sneak one inside on him since I went two away. And then it started away and ran back over, right over, right where you’d asked for it to be.

Nathan Bates: [00:41:03] If you were hitting batting practice in a home run derby, that’s where it was. And, uh, don’t look it up, because there’s definitely not a video of this on YouTube. Uh, but he makes contact. I throw a fastball, he hits it, and he starts to watch it and kind of puts the bat down a little bit, and I put my head down and say a four letter word that you probably can’t hear, but it starts with an F, and then as soon as I turned around to see where the ball was, it was bouncing over the wall. So it got there in about a second flat, and luckily it was just a ground rule double. Um, but yeah, he was he was the real deal like everybody had said he was. And then sure enough, the he was on second base and the very first pitch, right as I lift my leg, he’s three fourths of the way to third base, stole third right in front of me. And I was like, all right, I get it. You know, this guy’s the real deal. Everybody, every once in a while, there’s a really big prospect to come through the minor leagues. Everybody’s like, oh man, he’s the one. You know, his player comp is Mike trout. And I was like, all right guys, you can’t compare anybody to Mike trout. And then I saw him throw from the outfield. I saw him run. I saw him hit. And I was like, this guy’s like the next Mike trout. That’s pretty accurate.

Brian Pruett: [00:42:02] What’s funny though, Kenny, is he he talked about that story and said the same thing about YouTube at the locker room chat. And the little kid comes up to him afterwards thinking he’s going to. And he asked him, can what’s the video again?

Nathan Bates: [00:42:14] He’s like, can you show me this? I was like, yeah, man, I’ll look it up, give me a second. I got to find it, but I’ll show it.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:42:18] To you, I.

Nathan Bates: [00:42:18] Love it. And then he just didn’t really say anything and just kind of looked at me and gave me a high five. I was like, no one’s giving me a high five for that yet, so I’ll take it. There you go, I love it.

Brian Pruett: [00:42:27] That’s awesome. Well, talking about adversity, Kenny, you’ve always been through a lot of it. You talked about your injury and then Covid with the with the football into it, but you’re still really kind of going through. You just lost your grandfather, what, a few weeks ago and, and uh, your, uh, I mean, that’s.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:42:41] My OG because I didn’t know my dad’s. My dad’s mother passed away when he was 15, and, um, he didn’t know his father. He had a stepfather who passed away way before I was even thought of. So my only grandfather was my mom’s parents. Um, and I’m the oldest grandchild on my mother’s side. And, you know, they were from New York, so, you know, there was a lot of distance between New York and North Carolina, of course. But, you know, when I wasn’t playing summer baseball, when I was a kid, I spent a lot of time in New York. So, you know, that was my that was my OG man. You know, that’s where I got my swag from. You see my pictures with all my fedora hats or whatever I got there from him. So it was a it was a hard thing, uh, losing him a couple of weeks ago. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:43:25] Well, and you’re, uh, I mean, you’re still kind of going through a divorce, so, I mean, you’re you’re you’re kind of going through all kinds of stuff right now. So just share a little bit about what adversity has, I guess, taught you.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:43:37] Um, absolutely. It goes back to what you were saying, man. You know, you want to tell God your plans. You know, you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans. Um, again, I’m not big on divorce. Divorce is not an option for me. But sometimes that’s just how the cookie crumbles, you know? Um, and like I said, she and I honestly are actually, like, better. We’re, like, better for each other as best friends. And that was my best friend before. And again, man, we we got married. I was 23, you know what I mean? And she was 30. She was just getting out of her first marriage, you know, and I’m still a young buck, you know what I mean? So I had a lot of growing to do, uh, within that marriage. So, you know, I’m not going to sit here and say, oh, it was just her fault or point of blame. And I had a lot of learning to do. I had a lot of growing to do, of getting married at such a young age. And again, you know, she had three kids from her first marriage. So I’m playing bonus dad to a two year old, a six year old and a 13 year old at the age of 23. So, you know, I had to learn how to, you know, grow up extremely quick, be a man that way.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:44:40] Like I said, we had our baby girl. She’s seven now. We had her in 2017. Excuse me. Then, you know, we had a business together, you know, that’s extremely successful. Um, and like I said, man, it’s just we just started to become two different, totally people. I wanted certain things. She wanted certain things, and we just couldn’t get it right, you know what I mean? And I can honestly say, too. And a big advice for you, man, especially getting married. Just make sure God is at the center of your marriage, because once you. Absolutely. And that’s what I learned. Now, once you stray away from keeping him in the front of your marriage, um, you know, that’s where you know, the devil come in and start throwing any type of adversity. And I always used to hear her say, I used to always worship her as my God, because I did. I used to, you know, Brian, man, that was that was my. That was my love. You know what I’m saying? Like everybody, even Stevie Wonder could see that. That’s. Yeah. You know, Stevie Wonder could see man, that was that was. You know what I mean? Sorry, Stevie.

Nathan Bates: [00:45:36] What?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:45:36] I’m just saying. Like every everybody can see that. You know what I mean? That was truly like that. That was my best friend right there, man. And, um, you know, like I said, just to finally get to that point where we had this having this conversation where it’s like, okay, we can’t get it right, you know what I mean? It was very detrimental to my mental for a while. Um, she was just like, look, man, we’re going to be best friends. We’re always going to be in each other’s lives. And I wasn’t trying to hear that at first. But again, the adversity that we all been through or whatever, it allowed me to mature and to see that. And as well, the kids are now seeing a more healthy interaction between us. So like I said, I mean, I’m always over there, you know what I mean? That’s my homie, you know what I’m saying?

Nathan Bates: [00:46:17] And y’all aren’t sitting here talking behind each other’s backs. Yeah.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:46:19] Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, she definitely wants me to I mean, she even told our seven year old the other day, she was like, uh, because I have I have a full time. And she was like, Savannah, don’t you think you need to let your dad live his life a little bit? Because it’s always she and I. She was like, let your dad found love again. You know? I want your dad to be happy. Don’t you want your dad to be happy? She was like, yeah, I do. So, you know, um, make a long story short. Now, once I heard that and she gave my daughter that briefing and I heard my daughter’s voice, she was like, okay, yeah, I’m cool with it. So, you know, now I’m out there on a limb now, you know, met somebody, you know what I mean? So, uh, it’s just a it’s a beautiful thing, man. But like I said, just adversity. I, I love it. I feel like you have to embrace it. You have to embrace the adversity. Yeah. Um, and if anything, you talk about adversity, man, I always look at my father and like I say, even my mom, my dad’s, uh, my mother’s dad, um, you know, being an African American, owning a business in Brooklyn at that, where he was at, it was a hard thing. He had seven cleaners in Brooklyn back in the day, you know, going through, you know, the segregation times and everything.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:47:24] And, you know, the lack of equality, man, it was a very, you know, very rough thing for him. I didn’t hear too much about it, more so I heard a lot about my dad’s upbringing. You know, my dad, like I said, my dad not knowing his father, um, losing. He’s the baby of my my, my my aunts and uncles, you know, being in the room, seeing my grandmother, you know, flat out on the floor, like, passed away. He he witnessed that, um, my oldest uncle, who I never got to meet, my Uncle Harold, he was the oldest. Um, and he’s actually my motivation for baseball. He got drafted to play for the Athletics. Okay, um, as a catcher. But what happened was, um, my dad was telling me that my uncle’s, uh, female at the time had my uncle shot up and killed, so he never got to go play. And my dad was a kid and was in the other room and witnessed everything happen. Um, you know, my dad told me stories about how, you know, I said we’re from a small country town. So it was a lot of country where I’m from. Um, so there was a couple of prisoners that basically broke out of prison, and they came to my my dad’s house at the time when my, my grandmother was still living and basically broke into the house, had them, like hostage and everything. Wow. Where my dad and uncles used to have to, like, eat rabbits and birds and stuff to, like, kind of survive.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:48:40] And what happened was when they tried to make their move, they tried to steal my my dad’s stepfather’s truck and it stormed extremely bad. And it was a dirt road. So the truck ended up getting stuck. So that’s when the law enforcement finally found him and everything. So dad and my dad had colon cancer in 2005. My dad fought in two wars. You know what I mean? He’s been through PTSD. Um, I mean, I even witnessed my mom literally packed up me and her stuff because my dad’s PTSD and the medications that the military had him on was so bad to where she was about to leave. So just seeing my dad just go through all the adversity as a man, you know, and just I always used to hear him say, I didn’t name you after me for nothing. You know what I mean? Sometimes I wish I didn’t name you after me because you wouldn’t be going through adversity. So he feels like it’s a curse that he named me after him. So just seeing him going through all the adversity that he went through as a man, um, just kind of was like, you know what? Look at my dad now. You know, he’s went through everything. He’s 65 years old, looking like he’s still in his 50s. You know what I mean? He’s gotten every car he wants now.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:49:46] You know him and my mother doing good. He’s got some grants, some, you know, some grandkids. And this is like, man, everything that my dad go through, look at the character that he is now. So I feel like for me, the adversity that I’ve been through from being heard, you know, going through divorce right now, um, being married so young, oh my gosh, that was that’s a whole different story, right? Being married so young, taking care of somebody else. Kids. That’s not yours. And you’re dealing with the bitter father that’s still in the picture. You know what I mean? That’s a lot for at that age. Yeah, that’s a lot for somebody at 23, 24 years old. Um, so like I said, I feel like adversity is is a great character building and it build the character that I am now. And that’s why I walk out. I walk with my chest out, not because of what I did, not because of what I played, but I walk with my. Chest out just because of the fact that the adversity that I face and I know that God has brought me through all of that. So it’s like when somebody try to judge me as a character or try to, you know, judge my character is like, you can’t tell me nothing about being a man because you don’t know. You don’t know what I’ve been through. You know what I mean?

Brian Pruett: [00:50:50] Yeah, we’ll come back to that in a second. I am going to mention, though, March 21st. You get too much, both of you there. But I’m we’re hosting a first annual America’s Hometown Heroes Expo in Acworth, and it’s for veteran owned, first responder owned businesses. And a portion of the proceeds are going to the Outer Circle Foundation, which is a nonprofit based in Dallas, Georgia, that works with veterans and first responders on PTSD and suicide prevention. Um, and the gentleman that runs it, Matt Payne. Matt and Buffy, you’re welcome. Shout out for you. Um, he’s a 16 year Air Force vet, combat specialist, as well as a retired police chief at a new Jersey. So and he suffered so so we’re going to come back to this in just a second. So I got a couple questions and there’s a lot to talk about. We don’t have time. But I do want to ask a couple of questions. Um for you. So so Nathan, I’m going to come to you for a second, share a little bit of the experience on what it’s like, the differences, I guess you would say. I wanted to ask you this in the locker room chat, but we didn’t get to it. I might ask this year, but can you share a difference, uh, of the experience of a difference between traveling around the minors in the, in the, in America and then playing pro in Mexico? What kind of share a little bit about that difference?

Nathan Bates: [00:51:59] Yeah, it was uh, well, first of all, the obvious difference is, I mean, the cultural difference between English and Spanish is one thing. And then the thing about the Mexican League is that there’s teams like Tijuana, where I don’t know if any of you all have seen videos of the games in Tijuana, but it’s they’re called, like the Yankees of the Mexican League because they make the most money, but they have like six mascots at every game, like four on the field in foul territory while the game is going on and pitches are being thrown and music is being played, it’s just a totally different environment. Um, but yeah, I mean, they’re traveling around the I, I got very lucky that the only place I haven’t played baseball in America is the Pacific Northwest. So, I mean, I’ve gotten to go to big Sky country, Southern California, Northern California, Arizona, Texas, southeast obviously played up in Maine and all that for the first year of college ball. And one of the summer college leagues I played in was the Necbl. So I’ve been very fortunate to travel a lot, but it’s, uh, yeah, in the minor leagues, it’s still kind of a hybrid in between, like you’re on your own and like a college situation where it’s very structured and everybody’s telling you what you have to do all the time. Um, and in Mexico, it’s like, we’re not going to tell you what to do if you don’t do it. You’re just gone. I mean, and that’s to an extent that’s kind of how it is in the minor leagues, but there’s a little bit more of a safety net, like, hey, get it together.

Nathan Bates: [00:53:14] This is, you know, don’t be late. All that stuff. There’s no warnings in Mexico. If you’re late, you don’t pitch well. I mean, I showed up, that was the only time in my career I’ve been released, and I deserved it. It wasn’t pitching well at all. It wasn’t. Wasn’t throwing strikes. Um, but they also have a certain amount of American born players or foreign born players that are allowed to be on the team. Um, and there’s obviously there’s not a whole lot of, uh, Mexican people that are six foot eight. I’m not saying there’s none, but it’s less likely that there’s any Hispanic heritage or Mexican heritage in me with my height. But you can only have so many. And so they’re on an even shorter leash. Like if you’re not performing, they got to get those spots filled with people that are, you know, they know what they’re doing. And I played with Addison Russell. Pablo Sandoval was on that team. Josh Reddick, uh, Carlos Martinez with the Cardinals. I mean, it was a big, big names on the team, which I wasn’t expecting when I went down there. Um, and even there was a guy. You remember the guy for the Athletics that took the knee during the national anthem? The first one? Yeah, yeah, yeah, he’s down there. Okay. That dude is big. He’s like your height. He’s maybe 290. He has the biggest hands I’ve ever seen. This dude. I mean, physical specimen. Anyways, I’m getting off track.

Nathan Bates: [00:54:15] Um, but, yeah, I mean, the traveling is a lot different. I mean, it’s still bus rides, really. I mean, you get to Triple-A, then you start flying just because the leagues are so big. But, um, the bus rides are are in the minor leagues and in the Mexican League, but the, um. The the I’ll say the I’m trying not to get myself in trouble here, but the precautions and the parameters on which the trainer or the what the trainer adheres to, what he is allowed to and not allowed to do is different, I’ll say, in Mexico versus the minor leagues. And that was a bit of an eye opener even, you know, as little as I was down there. I mean, you just again, it’s a little bit of kind of a downhill flow from just the being Mexico versus the United States. I mean, you go into you can get Xanax and a bunch of different pills just from the, uh, pharmacies down there. I mean, they’re over the counter. So there’s just a lot of, uh, what seems like a big deal in America is not in Mexico. Um, but there’s I would say 90% of it was just a cultural difference, and it was a bit of a shock. I mean, I speak enough Spanish to get by to tell people I’m learning, and then I, you know, I can hold a conversation. I was just fine down there, but it’s it was a it was still a cultural shock, even though I was kind of expecting it. But what was the locker.

Brian Pruett: [00:55:29] Rooms like different, I’m sure even in the minor.

Nathan Bates: [00:55:31] Leagues. Yeah. They were. I mean, there’s a lot of cards, which is in the minor leagues too. There’s a lot of a lot of similarities. Um, but it was, it was a little bit different just because, I mean, I had never been in a locker room with that many big names in the big leagues. I mean, there was, what, three World Series champions in that locker at any point? Um, obviously Pablo Sandoval Kung Fu Panda being the big one. Um, but the amount of talent that was in the room, I just feel like there was a lot more in depth conversations when it would I mean, locker room conversations, they’re very rarely about baseball or the sport you’re playing. Um, but I feel like there was a lot more intentional and very fine tuned. Uh, things to pick up from the baseball side was the biggest difference. Just because, I mean, a locker room you’re sitting around changing, waiting around for BP or for the game to start. So there’s only so, so many things you can do, um, when you’re waiting around like that. But yeah, I would say the, the actual sports conversations were very lots of nuggets to be picked up from guys like that for sure. Kenny, you.

Brian Pruett: [00:56:26] Shared a little bit, but let me ask you, what’s it like the difference between going from baseball and playing arena football?

Nathan Bates: [00:56:31] Very curious.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:56:32] Oh, man. Um, it’s very different. It’s very different. Um, again, for me, with arena football is now it’s more physical, you know what I’m saying? It’s like, okay. It’s because like I said, I play in defensive end. So it’s like. And in arena ball, the office alignment are like six, eight, six, nine, 400 pound plus.

Nathan Bates: [00:56:54] That’s not as big of a field. I feel like you don’t got to they don’t got to move as much.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:56:57] Right. And that’s the thing too is it’s different from outside football because with outside football the defensive end he can have time to do six, seven, eight moves. You know what I mean. To try to get around that that that the offensive linemen and arena ball. You got like 2.5 seconds uh literally because it’s a 50 yard field. You know what I mean? So you got literally 2.5 seconds. So if you’re not, at least have your foot, you know what I mean? Past that offensive lineman foot. As you’re about to cut that corner within at least one and a half, two seconds, that’s it. Because the pocket collapsed so quickly. You know what I mean? Um, and again, that was just different, uh, especially with arena ball because now, you know, you’re playing on turf, but the turf that I played in, in baseball is different from this type of turf that you’re playing on arena ball. Um, the fans and everything is closer to you. You know what I mean? If you never if you ever been to a hockey game or whatever, it’s kind of like that with set foot. There’s no guard, there’s no no, you know, whatever the clear thing right there. Right. So arena ball, like when you hit somebody into the wall, you know what I mean? You got fans literally like patting you on top of the head, like hitting you on the helmet because they’re so into it. And I didn’t realize how many arena football fans there are in this, in this world, like in the United States. I mean, for instance, we’re playing against the Jacksonville Sharks. Okay. What else in Jacksonville is there Jacksonville Jaguars. So at that time, um, like I said, my ex-wife, she was sitting in the stands and she sat beside a guy who said that they have season tickets for the Jacksonville Sharks. They don’t give a rat’s behind about the Jaguars.

Nathan Bates: [00:58:31] I mean, it’s the right. Right. No offense, but that’s a good example.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:58:34] But it’s like they care more about the Jacksonville Sharks. And like I said, the environment um, you know the music during the games. Like I said it’s the crowd engagement the player engagement with the crowds. How fun it is. Um, and just learning the rules of arena football. Like I said, there’s three linemen, three on offense, three on defense. Right. And the reason why the scoring is so high, it’s really a receiver DB game because you got that one. You got that one receiver in motion. And that’s when the quarterback hits the ball. Once that receiver hits that line of scrimmage, that’s when the quarterback hits the ball. You know what I mean. So now you got that receiver. You know it’s one on one. You know. And if you’re not a good defensive back you’re not a good defensive player. You’re going to get schooled. Yeah. You know what I mean.

Nathan Bates: [00:59:21] Um it’s that timing makes a difference too. Like since you can kind of time as a defensive player, you can kind of time that receiver. Because if you. When he’s about to cross the line. Either he’s offsides. I mean, he’s going to beat you. So I feel like that’s.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:59:33] What helped me, honestly, was being a baseball player, the hand-eye coordination, you know what I mean? Seeing 90 something plus miles an hour, you know what I mean? Being able to hit that not all the time, but, you know, being able to touch it, getting ready.

Nathan Bates: [00:59:45] To hit it, the whole.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:59:46] Thing. So it’s kind of like and my trainer, who I was training when I was living in Loganville, his name is George Herron. Shout out to body by George. He’s the one who actually encouraged me to do football. He was a football. He went to Auburn and played. He played with Bo Jackson at Auburn. So you know, George encouraged me to do football. And he was like, Kenny, you got to understand, man, when a defensive guy that big throws his shoots his hand out at you and you’re so used to reacting to a 90 plus mile an hour fastball, like your fast twitch muscles are going to, like, help you in this game.

Nathan Bates: [01:00:17] You didn’t realize it. You’ve been training him the whole time you’ve been playing baseball.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:00:20] Yeah, right. So it was like, now when I’m training, even when I was in Tampa and I’m training, right? And then when I actually see the offensive linemen shoot his hands out at me, now I’m learning to swim moves, whatever. But with my hand and our coordination and the twitching, the fast twitch, it’s like, oh man, this ain’t nothing. Yeah, really.

Nathan Bates: [01:00:37] That learning curve is this big, right?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:00:39] Oh, you about to shoot him? Oh thank you. You know what I mean. It was it was different. But I wanted to pick you too. When you say you played in Mexico, you know, by me being in Dominican Republic. Mhm. Oh my gosh. Different. So that’s and that’s another reason why Vogelsong and I are real tight. Because he played in Venezuela. Oh and right. See just your reaction I’m.

Nathan Bates: [01:00:59] Supposed to be playing down.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:01:00] There right. You know he was like he said Kenny the fact that you played in doctor is like it’s very therapeutic to me because nobody I can’t talk to anybody about playing in Venezuela. They don’t get it. Yeah. And like he said man. Oh shoot man. We like I said of course I’m older than you. So this was 2011, 2012. And I was down there. So the mascots you know what I mean. The cheerleaders on top of the dugouts. And that was so hard for me being 20, 21 years old, finding out we can’t talk to the cheerleaders. And I’m looking at you like, what? What do you mean we can’t talk to them? Yeah, you talk to them if you want to. You might have a finger missing, you know what I mean? Um, like you said, the structure.

Nathan Bates: [01:01:41] The top of the dugout, like.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:01:42] Oh, yeah. Like that, uh, like they’re literally like. And again, like, I went to a black. I went to a HBCU. North Carolina ain’t. So you hear about you probably seen me post it like Jeho stands for greatest homecoming on earth. That’s our that’s our hashtag. So it was literally like a black college homecoming every single game. So when you have it and again when I played I played winter league there too for the Tigers. And that’s in Santo Domingo. That’s the that’s the capital. So I’m playing with that’s something that’s Hanley Ramirez from Miguel Tejada.

Nathan Bates: [01:02:15] A lot of the big names that are Dominican, they’ll play down there year round.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:02:18] They’ll play down here year round and that’s what I loved about it. That’s why I tell people, if you can play over there and keep up with them, man, you can come over to the States and kill because it’s a lot of big name players who just love the they love doctor so much, they don’t care about coming to America, you know what I mean? And like you said, being able to get stuff right over the counter that easy over there, the structure is you’re on your own type thing. It was a it was a very different issue. I faced the rawness Chapman over there. I didn’t say I was successful, I just said.

Nathan Bates: [01:02:52] I mean, you heard me talk about a union. I got nothing like.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:02:55] Literally I get over there. And that’s before he was a big guy. He was big and who he was. And basketball is big in Dominican Republic, too, especially in Santiago, because Santiago and Santo Domingo are two capitals and whatever. So Santiago, their basketball is real big. So I’m seeing Chapman at that time I got there, and we’re in this regular random field with goats in the outfield. I played center field, so there’s goats in the outfield. Okay, we’re at this and this is before the season began. They got especially the American players. They got us used to it, right. Used to the culture. So we was playing pick up baseball. You know, like pick up basketball. It’s pick up baseball. But they always had three umpires. It could have no fence, nothing whatever. But there was always three umpires and you always saw kids laughing. It was better than.

Nathan Bates: [01:03:39] Most minor league crews.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:03:40] Right? You know what I mean?

Brian Pruett: [01:03:41] Well, the goats were the field crew. I mean, come on.

Nathan Bates: [01:03:43] Still better than most other crews.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:03:45] So. And the thing is, when we get there, you have these little kids practicing training, whatever. And I tell you, striking out was very embarrassing because once you strike out, you got these kids laughing at you as you walk back to the dugout.

Nathan Bates: [01:03:58] Remember you the next time you come.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:03:59] Up and they remember you the next time because they’re like, man, we can do this. And we’re eight years old, 15 years old.

Nathan Bates: [01:04:04] And they’re probably right.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:04:05] Too, honestly. And so I just remember, man, they, uh, I get there. This is my very first day. And, um, I remember his name was Pierre de Vos. He picked me up from the airport, and I was like, man, you got some Gatorade or something? I’m thirsty. I just came from, you know, from North Carolina, man. And like, I got you, papi, I got you. And then it was a culture shock because I didn’t know everything was pesos. Right. So when we stop at the gas station, this man is $50. Yeah, the guy’s filling up the limo, and it’s like $175, right? I didn’t know it was pesos. So I’m looking. I’m like, what is this? And then I’m watching the speedometer go. I didn’t know it was in kilometers. Oh, yeah. So I’m like, do y’all not see this man going 130 miles an hour? I’m sitting in the back like. And everybody just man this thing.

Nathan Bates: [01:04:49] Smooth going 130.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:04:51] And I’m kind of nervous. So when we get to the field, man and Chapman is standing off to the side, he’s just in some shorts and a shirt. I’m like, man, that’s he play basketball. He got to be right. So they was like, Kenny, you going to lead off man. You’re not playing the field. You’re going to lead off today. And I’m like all right cool. So mind you I haven’t met all the team reminds you right. So they just got me from that from that workout. So it was a lot of American players I’m introducing myself talking to the Dominican guys speak no Spanish at this time so I’m okay. See. Right okay. So next thing you know man I’m leading off. I got my back turned towards the dugout just talking whatever. And then I hear POW! What the hell? I turn around, it’s Chapman on the mound now. In baseball clothing.

Nathan Bates: [01:05:32] Yeah, he’s got that big.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:05:33] Yes.

Nathan Bates: [01:05:34] His whole body.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:05:35] Yes, Lord. And mind you, this is before it was extremely developed. Right? So just imagine how wild and scary it was looking then. So I get up there and the very first pitch, I see it and I don’t see it. By the time I got myself set, the ball was already in the mitt and I was like, okay, but it was a ball. He did the next three like that. Okay, okay, so I got three zero count, right? I’m like, all right, here we go. He threw the same exact pitches right down the pipe. The next 31I swung and missed struck out. Wow. And I was like different. Yeah man. It’s it’s a it’s a different ball game. Well like you said most.

Nathan Bates: [01:06:11] People are like are you going to the Dominican in the off season. You just need to get some work in. And it’s like, no, you can get you get paid pretty well down there and there’s really good competition because I know pools for a long time will go down there. I mean, again, guys from the Dominican would just in the off season, right? They don’t like to take time off. They play baseball because they love the sport. And so when everybody sends them home they’re like, all right, we’re gonna go play more baseball. So even doesn’t matter if you’re a big leaguer, World Series champion, minor leaguer, everybody, you know, if you’re there. That’s why they have those games.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:06:36] And they take it serious because you represent now you represent where you’re from. So just to be from an American American descent and I’m playing for let’s say, tigers and I’m with that’s what Vladimir Guerrero and I mean that’s Samuel Sosa Manny Ramirez that’s a big thing over there. Right.

Nathan Bates: [01:06:52] And the loyalty and the country loyalty is way different than it is in America. Doesn’t matter where you’re from, whether you’re a Mexican born, Dominican born.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:06:58] It’s yeah. It’s patriotism.

Nathan Bates: [01:07:00] Yeah. It’s different than it is here. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [01:07:02] Well, we could go on all day. I do a couple of questions for we because I’m seriously. But I know you guys.

Nathan Bates: [01:07:06] I know we’re going on doing the same thing. I know you.

Brian Pruett: [01:07:08] Guys got to go somewhere, so. But I do want to ask this. Well, it’s going to wind up being a two questions. And then we got three more after that that we’ll try to make this quick. The and the sport of the business of sport. Let’s be honest. It’s a business. Yeah. Multi-billion dollar business.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:07:24] Absolutely. Absolutely.

Brian Pruett: [01:07:25] I’m curious on you guys takes being, um, former college athletes, former pro athletes. To me, the college game has gotten ruined. I don’t necessarily think the Nil but the transfer portal now. Football. Obviously you didn’t play the college football, but I still could see it. You know, you got these teams that went to the bowl games. These guys started transferring in and out. What are your guys’s take on the Nil and the transfer portal and nil now in the state of Georgia, the high school athletes get it, which to me is just insane. So, um, Kenny, what about you? What’s your what’s your initial thoughts on.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:08:02] Honestly, man, I’m I’m I’m I’m on both fences. Both sides. Um, because for one thing about it, if you are a player who’s playing at these power five schools, you know what I mean? And you’re extremely successful.

Nathan Bates: [01:08:13] You generate a lot of money.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:08:14] A lot of money. You know what I’m saying?

Nathan Bates: [01:08:16] I’m saying especially in football, basketball, baseball.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:08:18] Right. Sports, especially if your jersey is being sold in stores, you know what I mean? And then you have nothing like you can’t do anything about it, you know what I mean? And you still sitting here eating noodles and noodles, right? And you’re sitting here generating all of this, like I feel that, you know what I mean? Because. And then also, you know, even if you do have some type of conversation or sign something for somebody now, it’s kind of like it can be detrimental to your career as a college athlete and also going to the next, uh, going to the next level. And then on the other side of it, it now it’s kind of like you think about it, uh, you know, the girl that plays for LSU. Uh oh, yeah. Right. Yeah. Like, if she doesn’t go to the NBA from a financial standpoint, it’s not really going to bother her, you know what I’m saying? And I feel like too, that can start killing the passion and the drive and the heart and the grit of an athlete, um, to really take the game serious. And one thing I tell my travel ball kids that I coach like, I’m not going to allow you to disrespect the game that I love so much. And really, that took care of my family for a while, and I busted my hand and went through adversity to get to. But now it’s like, if you’re now you’re saying at the high school level and like now it’s like these kids, they just going to go for the money. And that’s the thing.

Brian Pruett: [01:09:34] They’ve taken the passion away. And like you said, and in the love of the game is gone.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:09:38] Yeah, absolutely. I see that.

Nathan Bates: [01:09:40] There’s no incentive for it. At least it’s like, oh, all right, I’m good at this. All right. I’ll go be good in college and make millions of dollars. And who cares if I go pro?

Brian Pruett: [01:09:46] Well, and you talk about Mikaylah Williams. You know, the quarterback. Usc has come out and said, now first of all, he’s to me. He’s not that good of a quarterback. He’s proved that this year.

Nathan Bates: [01:09:54] Well he he spoke too soon.

Brian Pruett: [01:09:56] Yes. But he’s he’s demanded that whoever drafts him he becomes part owner. And I’m sorry four.

Nathan Bates: [01:10:01] Games.

Brian Pruett: [01:10:01] After that.

Nathan Bates: [01:10:02] Exactly. But either way.

Brian Pruett: [01:10:03] Right, Nathan, what are your thoughts?

Nathan Bates: [01:10:05] Well, obviously I’m sitting here shaking my head a bunch. I, I agree, I think there’s a way to do it and I’m on both sides of the fence. I mean, yes, beforehand, being a college athlete, I mean, I it’d be easy for me to be like, oh, it’d be nice if the nil was there when I was in school. But again, I wasn’t a huge enough prospect and I wasn’t a big power conference where I would have gotten anything different, really. Um, but for the people that a high school is way too soon, right? That’s ridiculous in my opinion. But I mean, in college, like you said, there’s once you get to college, there’s no incentive to try to go to the next level because you’re getting paid just fine if you’re good enough. Athlete at a big conference, big school in a decent sport here. So why not stay for four years and get paid? Because it’s safer that than to take a risk after the first year, even if that’s statistically and, you know, in the past, if that would be the best time for you to leave, let’s say, football after your freshman year. Now, why not stay four years? Because, yeah, there’s some money that’s guaranteed, but you might get injured.

Nathan Bates: [01:11:00] You never know. I mean, even before the end of the season, you could. Something could happen. So it’s guaranteed. It’s almost like, that’s great to get to the point where you can sign a contract that gives you guaranteed money in a sport, but you get guaranteed money in college now. So it’s really taking away from the incentive, right? Like you said, to to grind and to push to the next level. But don’t you? I do think there’s some compensation. I think there’s a middle ground. I don’t think millions of dollars in these. And I think it’ll all sort itself out. I think it’ll kind of just like most things do. It’ll kind of settle somewhere in the middle. Um, but they do need to be compensated, especially at the big schools where they are making the school money, the institution money, which is most of the conversations we’re having. Um, but I don’t think immediately allowing them to sign all kinds of endorsement deals and make millions of dollars is the answer. I think there’s a way to do it. But again, it’ll sort itself.

Brian Pruett: [01:11:49] And I do agree that, you know, obviously if they’re making the school money, they should get some. But, you know, most of these kids are getting the full ride. They’re getting the scholarship, they’re getting paid to the school. They’re getting their their meals, paid the books and all that. But you add now on top of it and again, you’re just diluting what the what. So I agree. Let’s touch just real quick on the transfer portal. What are your thoughts on that.

Nathan Bates: [01:12:11] I mean, I don’t really have that big of an issue with it. I think kind of the same thing. There’s pros and cons to it, but I just with guys like Dabo Swinney that refuse to use it, I’m like, hey, whether you agree with it or not is one thing, but you’re shooting yourself in the foot by not using it. And then I get it. If it’s for a moral or, you know, you don’t agree with it and you’re protesting it for the lack of a better phrase, if that’s why you’re doing it, then that’s fine. But don’t sit here and complain about not getting good players. And that’s the reason because you have the tool just like everybody else. It’s whether you agree with it or not. Again, a whole nother thing, but everybody can use.

Brian Pruett: [01:12:43] It and I can. I see where I think it’s gotten. It’s detrimental more to football than some of the other sports. What about you, Kenny?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:12:49] Uh, I feel the same as that way for me. I see a lot of players to, um, some of them do it from being from a spoiled standpoint because they.

Nathan Bates: [01:12:59] Don’t play like they thought they were going to play.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:13:01] Right? Because. And you know what I mean? And I hear a lot of talks about baseball. And just because I’m in travel baseball and which is a whole nother different ball game, but I hear it a lot now, um, where, you know, even coaching travel ball right now, you know, you got these kids, man, who’ve been praised so much coming up from like a young age to up into, you know, high school or whatever. And then it’s almost kind of like, you know, they get recruited to the school and now things aren’t going their way, you know, not not even because of the program is not good. Maybe just because they’re facing adversity and instead of them, you know, putting ten toes down and really like owning and embracing that adversity, they feel like, okay, hey, look, well, I struggled here for whatever reason. So now I’m going to go transfer to another program because I feel like that that program is going to, you know, stroke that ego.

Nathan Bates: [01:13:52] And then the coaches that they’re going to transfer to are telling them the same thing that the coach they were at. I could not.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:13:56] Agree with what you yeah, you know what I mean. So I feel like it’s like I said, I’m on the fence with that as well. Like if for for if you’re really not getting what you think you feel like you need out of it as an athlete at that program, then I get it, you know what I mean. But then like again, you know, then you got some players, man. They’re just they’re trying to chase. They’re trying to chase a ring. You know they’re trying to chase a stat. And again I go back to travel baseball. You got parents who will be you know like not a college parent. I got a parent who called me the other day and was like, hey, um, because I coached to eight teams with the bombers, so that’s the best teams. And I had a parent call me and say, hey, man, you know, I know my player may not play on your team, but I want him to play on your team. Just to say he played on the A team. And it’s like, but your son is starting every single day with the B team, and we’re playing in the same competition. We’re playing in the same tournaments. So are you more concerned about the name, or are you more concerned about the development of your son and I? Right. And I see that in the Trans Reporter, too. I see a lot of players now was like, okay, for instance, Coach Prime, you know, when Coach Prime left Jackson State, how many players go to the transfer portal when you get to win to Colorado. Right. And then yeah, they started off good. But then look what happened. Right. You know what I mean. So it’s yeah it’s.

Brian Pruett: [01:15:08] It’s well you talked about the parents. My my dad, uh, when I was really young, he was an umpire for, uh, this was Little league. Little Little League. And he lasted one season and he stopped because of the parents.

Nathan Bates: [01:15:20] That’s why I coached two weekends. Coached, uh, travel team. Uh, ninth inning down in Chamblee. I coached two, two weekends of in the fall. And I was like, I can’t do it. Yeah, I mean, it’s crazy. And I you absolutely agree with you saying that travel has put this, this thought into whether it’s the kids or the parents, like, okay, well, if I’m not playing and I want to play, I can just go to a different team until I find one that will let me play. Yeah. And that’s I think that’s what they’re trying to do in the transfer portal is like, well, people have been telling me since I’m seven that I’m the best, so why would I not be? And every time I’ve heard a kid say that, I was like, you know what? Chase Smith, best player, was recruited by every school in Georgia, played at home plate where I played on the big name travel team when I was a freshman sophomore, and I didn’t play with him junior or senior year, played with a different team that let me play both positions and that was fine. But I was like, you know what Chase is doing now? They’re like, what? And I was like, I don’t know. I didn’t even know where he went to school. I don’t even think he went to college. It’s like what you do in your sophomore year or even most of the time in high school. Really, in the grand scheme of things, means nothing, right? Absolutely. Really doesn’t mean anything. But I think a lot of the putting a lot of the the stress on succeeding and being on a big name team and being the shortstop or the center fielder or the leadoff three hole, whatever. And I think a lot of that, the them thinking that’s the most important thing and travel ball. And in high school, I think that’s also going into college and the transfer portal and it’s like, well did it in school and it worked. Or I did it in high school and it worked well. Transfer to USC now and then I’ll be a USC quarterback.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:16:44] Yeah college is that’s college is a different grind man. It’s you know what I mean. Like you say even at pro ball I was talking to a guy the other day and it’s like okay when you get to the Pro Bowl, especially as a position player, right. Like I was a center fielder. So it’s kind of like, clearly you were a center fielder. You’re good enough to be at this level. But there are other guys in the same organization as you that plays the same position. So now the thing is, okay, you’re a center fielder for the San Francisco Giants, right? You’re in the center fielder for the San Francisco Giants organization. But now what are you. Yeah. You know what I’m saying.

Nathan Bates: [01:17:20] Is, are there a lot of center fielders in front of you? Are there less right fielders maybe moving to right since you have a good arm? Maybe. Is that a career path? Right.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:17:27] I mean, there’s all kinds of what separates you now. Oh, you run A65. He runs A65, right? You hit 20 bombs. He hits 20 bombs. You know what I’m saying? What makes you different?

Brian Pruett: [01:17:36] Well, now you got the universal DH. That’s a whole nother topic, right?

Nathan Bates: [01:17:40] I just think it needs to be even. Whatever it is, it’s fine. Just fine as a pitcher. Dh right.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:17:47] Hey look, I’m not gonna lie, if I could D.H. and not worry about because when I got hurt, they moved me to first base. Okay. Hot corner, come on now. Right. If you can just be like, hey man, just DH.

Nathan Bates: [01:17:57] If it was just taking the throws and picking, I’d be great. Oh my god. Yeah. Oh dude I’m great. You hit a top’s a big lefty. Hits a top spinner at me I’m moving out of the way.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:18:05] Think about Big Papi hitting you a hot shot at first base.

Brian Pruett: [01:18:08] But, Nathan, you’re so tall, you can be able to get it.

Nathan Bates: [01:18:11] Well, I’m so skinny right by me. I don’t have any whip, you know?

Brian Pruett: [01:18:14] All right. Real quick, because I know we’re going to. Again, I could talk all day, so, um. But, uh, so I’d like for you to. Guys, this is a two part question to give some advice. And I know I don’t want to rush you on the advice, but if somebody’s listening that either A has a child playing sports, uh, or B that are wrapping up their career, whatever the case may be, it’s a two part question. I like for you guys to give advice on dealing with, uh, your mental health because you guys go through a lot. I mean, people I don’t think people realize athletes have a lot of mental health challenges, you know, because of the disappointments and whatever. But then also it give advice from transitioning from playing pro ball into getting back into society and doing a career. Yeah. So, Nathan, I’ll start with you.

Nathan Bates: [01:19:00] Um, yeah. I mean, I think the on the mental side of things, it’s have have an outlet, whatever that is, is fine. But just remember that whatever sport you’re playing, it’s not the only thing in the world. I mean, I played multiple sports, which was great. I loved going and playing tennis and soccer and messing around and doing all kinds of things. So I never got burnt out on baseball. Um, so I never in high school, at least in college, I never really had that, um, that dreading it or really hitting a wall or really having that mental frustration. But there was plenty of that, um, when I got to pro ball. And I think the biggest thing for me that helped me do that was even then, there’s 12 months of me, 18 months, actually, of me going into a facility for a few hours in the morning and then going back to the same apartment with three other guys every night. And it’s like, this is all I’m doing all day. I have to find something else to keep my mind off of it, or else all I’m going to sit there is this downward spiral of, you know, I’m not healthy. Am I doing everything I can to get healthy? What if it doesn’t work? And then your mind starts to go off on all these tangents that can really be detrimental and destructive, really from a mental standpoint.

Nathan Bates: [01:20:01] And so I would say the one thing is have an outlet, whatever that is, it can be, you know, another sport, it can be an art or a craft or playing video games, whatever. Going and hanging out with people, that’s fine. But you have to be able to disconnect from the sport you’re playing and be able to not take yourself too seriously. Um, and that’s that. It actually ends up going a long way for the player. Um, and as a parent, I guess just understand that because of a lot of the advice that people are getting now is you got to start them young. You got to like I said earlier, you got to play baseball young. It’s specializing is not that big of a deal. As everybody says it is the travel coaches and the high school coaches. Yeah, they all say it. And even sometimes in college, the first thing that they said to me when I got to pro ball, we were taking on the mound and I, you know, fielded a bunt down the third base line planting my foot and threw the, you know, ghost runner or whatever you call it out at first.

Nathan Bates: [01:20:50] And immediately one of the coaches looked at me and said, you played more than. One sport, didn’t you? I was like, yeah, I played basketball and they’re like, yeah, it’s really obvious. We we try to promote people playing more than one sport that cross athleticism. It helps for whatever sport you’re focusing on. But it’s like I said, it’s just all these the parents and some of the travel coaches saying, you’ve got to focus on baseball. You can’t you don’t have time for basketball. I mean, even when I was in high school, both of the sports were telling me I needed to quit the other one or else I wasn’t going to have a future in it. And it’s just it hurts my heart to hear that, because the kid that really wants to play is the one that’s starting to have all these negative thoughts, and it’s like, maybe I’m putting pressure on myself, you know, I got to do really well because all this stuff that my parents are doing for me and they want me to succeed, and it’s just it can be really, really destructive. So that’s what I would say from a, um, a sports side of things. And then from getting into the honestly, it’s kind of the same advice from going from the pro sports world or the sports world into the like.

Nathan Bates: [01:21:42] I said, the real job, it’s just after, you know, I still have that competitive nature. And I really I like to compete, but I can get that other places. You know, I play golf, I play men’s league basketball sometimes. And so I, I have that outlet. But just remembering that the sport that you’re playing is not the end of the world. There’s other things out there and there’s other things that you need to go enjoy and invest your time in and completely disconnect from the sport you’re playing. And to a bigger extent, it’s harder to do after the after you retire. But I was very lucky that I had a very soft landing spot. Like I said, a house and a fiance now wife with a bunch of animals. And that was where my priorities were when I retired. So it wasn’t as hard for me, um, as I as I’ve heard that it can be for other people. But either way, I would say the best advice is just have somewhere to go, whether it’s somewhere mentally or something to do that you can just disconnect and enjoy something. And it doesn’t have to be all the stress and pressure of whatever sport it is you’re trying to succeed at. Kenny.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:22:35] Yeah, man, I definitely agree. Uh, for me, um, I can also say, especially from a sports standpoint, an athlete, you I had to get to a point where I had to realize and my spiritual advisor helped me with this. The sport is not who you are. It’s what you do. Um, and, like, I know we didn’t get into it, but I was. I was suicidal, um, you know, literally about to jump over 400in Alpharetta to where I was in peach for hospital for, like, seven days by myself. Um, you know what I mean? Going through it by myself. And a lot of it came from my depression of being hurt, uh, with baseball. Try to get back into it. And then, you know, when I said bump baseball and I did the arena football thing, I’m thinking that my my, my life is back in order. You know what I mean? The money’s coming in now, you know, playing a sport. I’m back playing a sport. You know who the endorsements. And you know, I had an Adidas, uh, Adidas sponsorship, you know, so I got a lot of Adidas stuff. I had a core water sponsorship. Like, I thought I was a man again. Right. And then when Covid happened, you know, it kind of killed me. Um, it killed my whole mood. And then it was very detrimental to as me, as a husband. Um, so I had to get to a point where I felt like for me, if I didn’t was if I wasn’t successful in sports, like my life was over.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:23:53] But I had to understand sports is what I did. It’s not who I am. You know, I’m a father. At that time, you know, I was a husband at that time. You know, like I said, a coach, a leader. Um, and the biggest thing I can say is for that person transitioning, you got to find your purpose. You know what I mean? And that’s not easy. It’s not always easy. Oh my gosh. No. Um. And that’s why I stay grounded in my faith, you know what I mean? Like, I’m a real strong man of God, you know what I’m saying? And I really take that seriously. Um, because, again, you’re not going to find your purpose unless you have him, like, really seeking him and doing that. And once I got that comfort into finding my purpose and my spiritual advisor said, you know, um, I don’t know when or where or how, but you’re going to come back to the game of baseball. He was like, um, like I said, I threw everything away for baseball. I didn’t want to talk about it. I mean, my cousins Jackie Bradley Jr, right. Like literally, I mean, he was playing in the World Series. My dad was like, man, you talk a little jacket today. I’m like, yeah, I talked to him on Facebook and we talked on the phone, but we didn’t talk about baseball. You know what I mean?

Nathan Bates: [01:24:55] Because he probably knows.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:24:56] Yeah, you know what I mean? And me and Jackie’s not playing anymore. You know what I mean? Oh that’s true. Yeah. He reached out to me like, yo, what? You know, I need some help. He’s a family man, too. But it’s like, I didn’t. I didn’t talk about baseball anymore. Don’t talk to me about it. If you wanted to talk baseball, I was. I would be so irritated. Like, leave me alone about baseball and my dad. I had to stop answering my dad’s calls. During the World Series when Jackie was playing, I was like, dad, I don’t want to talk about baseball. I just can’t do it right. So but my spiritual adviser, Pastor Mojo, shout out to him, um, he was just like, look, Kenny, you’re going back to baseball. Whether it’s the play or whether it’s the coach, he said, but God is going to bring you back to there because there are so many other people that you can touch. You know what I mean? Uh, with that sport, with that platform. So I feel like now that’s why I’m coaching now, and I’m so passionate about coaching, and that’s why I want to go to the next level at the pro level, because I feel like the message that I have a 13, 14 year old kid can’t relate.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:25:53] The message that I have right now. I feel like the collegiate level players and the pro level players can’t connect to my message because for one, I got married young, you know what I’m saying? Um, I’m a father. Some of these guys are fathers now already. And my goal now is to build strong men outside of the game of baseball. So I feel like, you know, once you really tap into what your purpose is, and that’s what anybody, not even just an athlete, that’s just anybody who’s facing something now. Um, sometimes once you tap into your purpose, the money is not it might not be a lot of money, right? But at the end of the day, you’re getting that fulfillment that you’re tapping into what you’re what your assignment is while you’re here on this earth. And once you tap into that man, it don’t matter if you make $1 million or $10, $10 an hour. You know what I mean? That once you realize your purpose is that’s what’s going to take over the happiness and just make you be extremely happy.

Brian Pruett: [01:26:44] I’m living that myself right now, right?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:26:47] You know what I mean?

Nathan Bates: [01:26:47] And then I know exactly what you mean.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:26:49] And then, like I said, from the the parent aspect, man, let kids be kids, like, literally like my daughter, she’s seven years old and everybody sees my daughter like nothing against Natalie. Okay. Now we still cool. I love you, but Savannah has all of my athletic, right? Natalie has not one athletic attribute on her body. She’ll tell you, but the business. Oh, yeah, she’s top notch in business. And Savannah got that from her. But the athleticism. Savannah has it from me. So she’s in gymnastics. She’s in soccer right. She’s in dance. Mhm. Um you know what I mean. So and I’m wanting to put her on track because her gait is just so amazing when she runs. So it’s kind of like I remember I had her in dance and then I did gymnastics with her last year. And mind you, she goes to school in Johns Creek. So Mondays and Wednesdays was dance in Roswell from 4 to 530. And she’s in Ariel as well, and she’s the only kid under the age of ten in Ariel. So where they used the silks and they climbed up the silks and flipping and everything, that’s what she does. She does that too. And in gymnastics. Right. And then in gymnastics, I went literally one day for the first time ever. And the owner of the gym was bio gymnastics and and coming. And he comes up to me, he says, hey, uh, Coach Cameron wants to look at your daughter.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:28:01] And I was like, wait, why? What’s going on? He was like, he’s like, she she wants to see her. I was like, wow, what happened? And I was like, did I sign her up for the wrong class? He said, no. He said, have your daughter been doing gymnastics before? And I was like, no. He was like, well, we want to look at her. So Coach Cameron, she looks at Savannah for an extra 30 minutes and she comes and she said, hey, we want to put Savannah in mighty mice. I said, what does mighty mice? She said, well, it’s like an intro to real gymnastics competition and whatever. And she was like, and once she passes that, we’ll give her a test and we’ll start moving up the level one, level two, level three, whatever. And so basically I’m like, okay, how much is it going to run me? I was like, bump it, okay, let’s do it. So basically, make a long story short, Savannah was in Mighty Mites for like four months. And then January of last year they did her evaluation. They moved up to level one. Then literally after level one, three months later, they moved her up to level two, and her test for her to go to level two was to have the rope right all the way up to the ceiling, and she made it up the rope in 6.5 seconds back down.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:29:04] Right. And so basically they moved up to level two. But what it was, I had to realize when I say let kids be kids, Savannah gets out of school at 3:00 right from Johns Creek Valley Christian Cabin, Johns Creek. And then it’s like a 30 minute commute to, uh, um, to gymnastics. So my baby girl was only 5 or 6 years old. She didn’t have time to rest. Right. And then now they’re doing all this ab work, these fish holes and stuff. And baby girl just came to me crying one day. She’s like, dad, I’m tired, I’m tired. I can’t do it anymore. And I say, you know what? You’re only six years old. You know what I’m saying? It’s way too. I’ll let you be a kid, right? I’ll let you be a kid. So I say that. So now she loves. She wants to get back in gymnastics, right? And now that I met my my my new lady, Sarah, she, like said, play pro soccer before. She’s big into soccer and she’s a physical therapist now. So Savannah is so motivated to get back into soccer and she wants to get back into gymnastics. But when I say let kids be a kid right now in this age, just let let them be kids.

Nathan Bates: [01:30:03] Yeah. If you hadn’t done that, there’s a good chance she’d be like, I whenever you finally let me stop. I’m not going back to it.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:30:08] Right, right. And so it’s like I had to recognize that. So like, say the parents, man, especially when you travel ball kids, you know, man, I be in the baseball all of a sudden I see these parents, man with their eight year old nine year old kids and they, you know, just drilling them, drilling them. I’m just like, man, you’re literally going to be the reason why your child does not want to play a sport ever again, because you’re trying to live vicariously through, you know, through them, man. So yeah, that’s that’s that’s my that’s my advice.

Brian Pruett: [01:30:32] So real quick, you guys obviously are doing something. Now you talked about you’re doing the coaching and the training. Yeah. Uh you said high school age right.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:30:39] Yes.

Brian Pruett: [01:30:40] Uh, so if somebody’s listening, first of all, where can they get where where can they get a hold of you? And how? Um, if they want to talk to you about training.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:30:47] Oh, yeah. So they can definitely go on Instagram if they do have Instagram. And it’s at Kenny Graham Junior. Nothing. Um, of course, you know, my Facebook is Kenny K Graham Junior because CJ’s my nickname. Um, and, you know, that’s it. Um, Twitter. Uh, Twitter was big when I was in college back in like, oh, 7 to 11. So I’m just now getting back on that because now with me coaching, um, I’m starting to hear from other travel ball coaches who’s been in the game for a while that a lot of the scouts and a lot of the collegiate scouts and everything. There’s a couple of, uh, platforms. Um, that’s big on Twitter. And if you hashtag those platforms and things, these coaches go right to that now, like you don’t, you know what I’m saying? They just do that with the hashtag. Yeah. They just search the hashtag. So but definitely on Instagram and Facebook. Like I say it’s just at Kenny Graham Junior. Um, I’ve actually had a couple of guys, a couple of parents, um, reach out to me via Instagram. Um, just because of the content that I coach about me, you know, that I post about my coach and like I said, I’m very authentic. So if you go on my social media, you’re going to see myself and my daughter and you’re going to see me having fun being passionate about the coaching thing.

Brian Pruett: [01:31:52] So what facility are you at?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:31:53] Uh, I’m at Grand Slam facility in Johns Creek. So we used to be the Georgia bombers, but we merged with a company called ZT, which is a real big out there on the West Coast now. So now we’re the ZT bombers. So we have, you know, 217 U teams, uh, 16 U 15 U 14 U 313 U teams because they have a southeast team now all the way down to eight U. And then I’m also the head coach for the Black Cobras, um, 18 U team and Black Cobras, actually a guy named Willie who named myself Black Cobra. Um, he’s a very big, uh, media content guy. Oh that’s big. I mean, he shoots, uh, he’s YouTube. Uh, I mean, he’s on a couple of teams now on contract, but every single kid in high school in the state of Georgia, especially in the area, who was trying to be somebody or some type of content, they utilize him. He goes down to the the, you know, the 17 U. Tournaments in Florida and West Palm and stuff. He’s real big. But he put an 18 U. Team together. And then of course, you know, I do collegiate summer league ball with the Brookhaven Bucks and the Sunbelt League. I coached with Corey Patterson. All right. Yeah. Another, uh, MLB champion. Yep. Yeah.

Nathan Bates: [01:32:57] I definitely know that.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:32:57] Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. He’s literally I’m I over tower him. Right. So it’s hard to believe that he has so much power when he played. But yeah. So he’s the head coach for the, um, Brookhaven Bucks we play at at Oglethorpe University. And then like I said, I’m the assistant coach.

Brian Pruett: [01:33:11] Next time we talk to him, tell him to respond to my text.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:33:14] Oh, I got you, I got you, I got you, man. But yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s where I’m at, man. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [01:33:19] All right. Uh, so, Nathan Cmit solutions. Marietta. So obviously it’s kind of in the name. What you guys do everything. Computers. Right? As far as, uh, the way shared a little bit about that. And how can people get hold of you?

Nathan Bates: [01:33:29] Yeah. So, um, our, our cmit solutions is a is a franchise. There’s about 180 locations around the country. Um, but ours is Cmit Solutions of Atlanta Northwest. We have a parent franchise that’s down in Peachtree City. Newnan area. That’s Atlanta southern Cmit Solutions of Atlanta, Southern Crescent. Um, but I am not the technician that fixes the computers. I’m in sales and business development, so I just find the people that need their computers to be fixed. Um, but the way I put it is anything that beeps or blinks we take care of and protect and monitor and manage and all that kind of stuff. Um, all the mobile devices, remote monitoring, the network and the data backup, the business continuity, all that good stuff. Um, but on LinkedIn and, uh, I would say Facebook, if you search Cmit solutions, uh, Atlanta Northwest, you can find us or, um, cell phone is (770) 584-0026. I’ve my mind was just about to say business card, but that’s hard to do. Um, but yeah, I mean, you can find us on, uh, on, on Facebook and LinkedIn and anything technical related, we offer free assessments. So even any questions or anything like that, we don’t charge you for it. We just like to help as many people as we can. And our goal is to just whether you become a client or not, just leave you in a better spot than than you were when we found you. So, you know.

Brian Pruett: [01:34:41] You share your website too?

Nathan Bates: [01:34:43] Uh, yeah. It’s, uh, just cmit solutions.com. And then that’ll take you to the franchise website, and, and you can find. Uh, Typekit. I think it makes you type in your zip code and then it’ll direct you to to the appropriate franchise. And that should be us. All right.

Brian Pruett: [01:34:55] So as we wrap this up, um, I always like to end this with a positive word or quote, starting off the new year 2024 and beyond with you already shared something earlier, you can share it again if you want to, but if you got some different, what kind of. Uh, would you share the best?

Nathan Bates: [01:35:11] I don’t even know if it really qualifies as a quote. It’s too short, but my my dad and my grandpa have told me for my whole life that everything is relative. And then just really talking about perspective. I mean, just like the the story I shared about the kid from the Dominican that sent his whole check home. I mean, yeah, I thought it was a really tough situation that I was in. And then relative to his, it’s really not that bad. So just keeping in mind that everything is relative is some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten. It took me a while to kind of realize exactly what that meant, but um, once it kind of clicked for me, that’s that’s the best advice I’ve gotten. Kenny.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:35:43] Uh, yeah, for me, man, I take it, uh, especially from a spiritual standpoint, too. Um, especially what I’ve been hearing, you know, growing up and even now, sometimes when you go through adversity, sometimes God will sit you down and knock you down to to shake you up a little bit and get you back on track. Um, so I can just tell people, man, just embrace adversity. Um, and just and just be better in 2024. So, you know, whatever happened last year, year before that, just learn from it, embrace it, and sometimes understand that, you know, God got something better for you that nobody can see, not even you can see. And sometimes you’re going through these type of things to literally for him to be like, look, I need you to start relying on me more. Um, and once you do so, you know, greater things can happen. And the last thing I can say sometimes when you are trying to go different places, go better. You know what I mean? Sometimes in order to elevate, you got to separate. Um, so, you know, if there’s a group of friends out there that you’re with that’s caused you not to elevate and what you’re trying to do, sometimes you got to separate from there. Sometimes you got to separate from a from a relationship, you know, or even separate from a job or whatever, you know, that’s stopping you from going to where you go. So that’s all right.

Brian Pruett: [01:36:53] Well, the last thing is, uh, the thank you is a lost art these days. So Nathan and Kenny, thank you for what you guys do in the community and being former professional athletes and just being regular human beings.

Nathan Bates: [01:37:05] I was going to say the same thing. Thank you for doing what you do and being who you are, man.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:37:08] Absolutely, man.

Brian Pruett: [01:37:09] So everybody out there listening, let’s remember, let’s be positive. Let’s be charitable.