The Real Voices of the Game Productions · David Dagostino

Episode 1969 Common Sense Pitching with Wiley and Will featuring Mark Weidemaier hosted by Mark Wiley and Will George with Dave Dagostino

March 27, 2026·1 hr 8 min·6 clips

Mark Weidemaier reveals how his advanced scouting helped Italy's underdog team shock the baseball world.

Dave starts with the usual house business. He thanks an audience past 247,000 subscribers in 148 countries, mentions 30 weekly shows, gives the nods, and turns it over to Wiley, George, and their returning guest. Then the baseball talk takes over. The best stretch is not really about mechanics. It is about memory, and about how a name like Tramm can open the door to a whole argument about work. The guest sounds disappointed, not dramatic. In his view, some players have a hard time picturing the kind of self-directed effort old pros brought to the field every day. Matt Williams is the example. In Winter Haven, early in spring training, Williams asks for extra ground balls before stretching, then runs from the lower fields back up. Then he does it again. The story works because the details are plain: the bottom fields, the climb to the clubhouse, the routine before and after the day's work. Then comes the 27-out defensive drill. Buddy Bell is mentioned first and then partly corrected, with Vizquel, Kenny Lofton, Manny Ramirez, and Jim Tomey in a loaded group. The standard was simple. Do it right, or start over. The guest remembers players throwing to the proper base, backing up correctly, and treating practice like it counted. That is the real point. Hard work is not only sweat, and it is not only staying late because someone ordered it. It is attention. The memory gives the segment an old clubhouse feel, like someone leaning back after practice and remembering who took the game seriously when nobody was watching. By the close, Dave widens the lens again. He mentions Frank Viola coaching in High Point, Buddy Bangle's team in the league, and the chance to catch college baseball in North Carolina, then signs off cleanly.

As heard by us

An old-school baseball story about work, standards, and clubhouse accountability.

Mark Wiley, Will George, and Dave Dagostino spend the episode on baseball memory, hard-nosed work habits, and a dugout story with some bite. The Matt Williams recollection is the cleanest stretch: spring-training effort, accountability, and a blunt clubhouse standard come…

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Why you'd press play

Stay for the Matt Williams spring-training story and the hard-work lesson hiding inside it.

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