Episode 1: The Intro!

[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, welcome to Hopscast, hosted by Jen Ellis, co hosted and produced by Sonny Fono. Each week we'll take you behind the scenes during the 2026 Hillsborough Hops baseball season. Anything can happen in minor league baseball and we'll bring it all to you. From exclusive interviews with players and coaches, to roster updates, player call ups, and even the craziest plays of the week, it's all right here on Hopscast. All right, we're here at the brand new Hillsborough ballpark and opening day is just a few days away. The Hops are going to start on the road against the Eugene emeralds on Friday, April 3, and then the brand new ballpark makes its gigantic debut for the 2026 season on April 7th. Are you excited about it? [00:00:51] Speaker B: Hi, Jen. [00:00:51] Speaker A: Hi. [00:00:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm super excited about it. Just I've been here the last couple weeks just kind of hammering in some of the audio stuff and got us an opportunity to. To do this, which I'm really excited about. But looking at this ballpark and what a vast upgrade it is to the old, I guess we call it the Tonk. [00:01:12] Speaker A: Right. [00:01:13] Speaker B: It's just really exciting. So to be able to be in here for game one, you know, it's. It's really going to be something. It's pretty exciting. [00:01:22] Speaker A: I'm super stoked, for sure. I know that over the weekend we had fan fest. Lots of people showed out. I think it was over 8,000 people showed up. [00:01:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I think they said something around 8, 4. Over 8,400 people came. And it was nice seeing you. I got to see you in the family, so. [00:01:38] Speaker A: Yes, you as well. Good to see you and your wife. I, I know that I'm definitely excited for opening day. This will be my seventh season with the Hops. I started as the on field MC in 2019, so. So a lot of the guys that are currently on the Diamondbacks roster were guys that were, you know, just starting out with the Hops when I was. When I was just starting out with the Hops on on field. So if you want to let me. I mean, I can tell you what's going on with the, the rosters and everything like that on. On MLB opening day. Since we don't have our rosters for the Hops yet. [00:02:10] Speaker B: Yeah, we're going to do a roster drop episode next Tuesday. New new episodes are going to come out every Tuesday and then we'll have bonus content as it comes around. Yeah, this is my sixth season and Arizona's really had a youth movement, so a Lot of guys have been coming up, getting up through the majors really quickly. I mean as fast as I can ever remember really. I, I, I follow a different major league baseball team which I, I won't name on a pod but, but their, their prospects never seem to make it to the bigs because they all get traded away. So it's really something to see guys that played here and go hey I played that guy's walk up music last year and he's already up there so. [00:02:52] Speaker A: Or yeah exactly. Like I'm, I, I feel like a proud auntie sometimes. I'm like oh my gosh, I announced that guy as he was, you know, coming up to bat or I played his walkup music or I did, you know, I mean all these things. It's so exciting to see them when they're you know we can say oh we knew them when. [00:03:08] Speaker B: Yeah I, I was told by a broadcaster that that's what you're supposed to say I knew him when. [00:03:15] Speaker A: So yes. [00:03:15] Speaker B: Yeah it is really, really cool. And, and I think it's one of the features of minor league baseball is that while it's tough to get attached to players as they end up moving up through the leagues and and progressing in their career, you can kind of root for them for their entirety of their career. I grew up in a major league town so we only had kind of the finished product where now working minor league baseball for the last five seasons you get to see these guys grow and progress and I always like to kind of punch in guys names that I remember and see who's where. So you have a little bit of that information for us. We're going to talk a little bit of Northwest League alumni which is going to be a thing. We're going to focus on the hops but we have had some other players that come through and that are now in the bigs. So why don't you tell us what is going on with former house players and did any of them make it to the opening day roster for the Diamondbacks? [00:04:16] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. We have a ton of former Hopps players that are all throughout the major leagues this year that have been for a few years now and some guys that have just made their first major league roster starting roster this year. Most notably one of fan favorite because he is from West Lynn. West Lynn's own Tim Tawa made his very first opening day start in outfield this year. So that's pretty awesome. He's on the obviously on the roster. Jorge Barrosa made the roster, the starting roster this year Also, everybody loves him. We know Corbin Carroll's been up for a while. He was the Rookie of the Year a few years back. He was a huge fan favorite here as well. He was only here for a short time, but everybody loved him. And, and Jordan Lawler is also on the starting roster for the Diamondbacks this year. Brandon Fought will get the ball against the Tigers on March 31, the second day of the MLB season. Ryan Nelson, he took the mound against the Dodgers. And of course, we know how the opening series went against the D backs. It was a little rough to watch, but some other guys that we are going to be seeing throughout the major leagues that are from the Northwest League, not Nest, not just necessarily from the Hops. Cole Young was on the Aqua Sox. He's on the Mariners this year. He made the starting roster for the Mariners. Ryan Bliss, he was on the Hops. He's now on the Mariners this year. Also, Spencer Horowitz, we've known him for quite some time. He was on the Vancouver Canadiens a while back. He's on the Pittsburgh Pirates now. And then our friends Davis, Schneider and Addison Barger, we've seen them in Toronto for the last couple of seasons. They were on the Canadiens and then a couple more. Patrick Bailey, San Francisco Giants. He's, he's been with the Giants for the past few seasons. He was on the Emeralds. I remember when we were working for the Canadians together across the parking lot, we would see him catch quite a bit for the Emeralds and he ended up, you know, making it to San Francisco pretty quickly. And he won a Gold Glove as well, so. And then the last one, notably Kyle Karos, Eric's son, he was on the Spokane Indians last year. He is now on the Colorado Rockies. So there are just a few to name. But we do have, I mean, tons and tons of people that are just, you know, making their major league debuts all the time. So it's always an exciting thing to watch. [00:06:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty amazing for a guy like Tim Tawa. You know, one thing that I've learned about Oregon baseball is that the weather doesn't cooperate. You know, and high school maybe they only get, you know, 20 games in or, or less, you know, so, so to be able to travel ball and, and kind of make it all the way to the majors, you know, that's, that's a pretty big deal. Anybody from Oregon that, that gets into the game is, is, is pretty great. Wow, that's, that's, that's quite a number of major league players that we got to see at the start, you know, and that's. That's kind of an incentive for fans to come out. And you never know who the next superstar is going to be. I mean, somebody like Corbin Carroll, he was only here for maybe a few weeks, but his meteor, meteoric rise to Rookie of the Year, I mean, there's no telling. I. Do you think that, you know, in all your years here that there have been players that you. You knew right away, you were like, that guy is definitely. [00:07:47] Speaker A: I don't know if I've ever been able to pinpoint any specific guy that might. That I'm going to be like, that guy is going to make it. But one guy last year who I think a lot of people are pretty high on is Ryan Waldschmidt. Everybody thinks Walt Schmidt's going to make it to the majors. I think he. Did he make it to Triple A Reno last year, or is he just Double A? I don't know where he's going to start the season because, again, we don't have rosters yet. So. [00:08:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't. I don't recall. He is in The MiLB top 100, I believe. I just looked it up, and he's 57th, and I think he's the only Diamondbacks player in the top 100 right now. [00:08:25] Speaker A: I think so. I think you're right. But hopefully that will change as the season goes along. I mean, we are in the developmental league here, so we'll get to see some fun things. Also, you know, you're saying you never know who the next guy is going to be, who's. Who's going to be the next Rookie of the year that we might see grace this field throughout the next couple of seasons or whatever. But some things that we haven't talked about, just some of the wacky stuff that we've seen over the years, because, I mean, who would have ever thought that we would see an immaculate inning by Daniel Egan or. [00:08:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I was here for that. [00:09:00] Speaker A: I mean, like, we saw triple play happen. We saw also a few years back, I think Maybe back in 2022, there was a. A, like a. An immaculate inning by another. Another player, another team. [00:09:13] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, there was a Canadiens player that pitched an immaculate ending. I forget who that was, but. But remind me of his name last year. Daniel Legan. Yes, Daniel Egan. I was actually working that game and saw him pitch the immaculate inning. And when that happens, you're just kind of like, oh, wow, wait, that was nine pitches. And then I was attending a game with my daughter. And we were sitting just a couple rows behind the hops dugout and I saw him walking in. He was starting that game. It was like a few weeks later and I saw him walking by and I. I just kind of said like, that guy pitched an immaculate inning, like as a matter of fact. And the kid's smile was so massive. He was so stoked that somebody was paying attention. [00:09:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:58] Speaker B: You know, so. So there's like really cool. That's those kinds of things. I think we've seen some inside the park home runs. I've seen a walk off balk walk off walks and hit by pitch. Yeah. This is a. [00:10:15] Speaker A: This. [00:10:16] Speaker B: I love weird baseball. [00:10:17] Speaker A: Yes. [00:10:18] Speaker B: Anytime things start getting weird and I'm like, I've never seen that before. I. I feel like we have more opportunity for that down here. [00:10:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:26] Speaker B: In high A ball than maybe most other places. But you know, opening week's been pretty sloppy. So anytime that there's something really weird or out of the ordinary happens, I'm so excited. Like I'm so happy about it. [00:10:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. One of the. One of the not necessarily weird but just kind of random statistics that I got to see personally. I got to see Brandon fought pitch a Maddox, which is a complete game shutout in under 100 pitches. And I, in my seven, almost seven seasons here, have never seen a starting pitcher on the hops go more than five, five or six innings. [00:11:03] Speaker B: Right. [00:11:04] Speaker A: And VH Vi. Vince Harrison was the. Was the coach back then. He. He let Brandon fought go the whole way. I mean it was the fastest game. It was, you know, under two and a half hours, you know, under 100 pitches. And I mean he was just dealing. It was pretty awesome to see. I think maybe when I saw that game, I. I probably guessed that he was going to make it at least. At least make it to the majors. Didn't know if he was going to be able to stay. And I'm glad to see that he has stayed. [00:11:27] Speaker B: So he's. And he's in the rotation. [00:11:29] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. [00:11:30] Speaker B: I don't know where he slots in the second or third in there. [00:11:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:33] Speaker B: I. I guess it's Merrill Kelly. I. I didn't look to see. Well, the Dodger series. [00:11:38] Speaker A: Yeah. I think Zach Gallon was the. [00:11:41] Speaker B: Is so Gallon carries. [00:11:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:45] Speaker B: Kelly fought I think is the rotation probably. [00:11:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:49] Speaker B: I haven't. [00:11:49] Speaker A: We'll have to take a look at that. But yeah, definitely for sure. One of those guys that, like I said, it was. It was awesome to see him pitch that incredible feat that, you know, not many People can say they have seen and, or, you know, been. Been lucky enough to, to be part of. But, but yeah, he's, he's a great guy to watch. He's cool. I like that guy. [00:12:13] Speaker B: Yeah, last season we had a couple pitchers go kind of deep past six, you know, seven and a third. You know, we, we didn't have. At the old ballpark, we didn't have a pitch count stat track in the press box. So there was no way for us to really know where they were, if they were going to be able to stay in or, or if they're going to have to get pulled out. But under 100 pitches, man, that's, that's a lot of ground balls, wasn't it? [00:12:40] Speaker A: Yeah, it was really sweet. I still have a picture somewhere of the, the final line. You know how the score guy always writes it on the dry erase board at the end and he writes, you know, it was the, the, the final line of how long it was, how many pitches it was, and, you know, winner, loser, blah, blah. [00:12:57] Speaker B: Yeah, that's going to be interesting since he's going to be here in this new press box with us. Yeah, it'll be pretty interesting since we, I don't think we'll have the whiteboard. [00:13:05] Speaker A: I think, yeah, I think we'll all be able to. Hey, what? [00:13:09] Speaker B: Wait, who is this? [00:13:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that'll be one of the fun things about this podcast too, is that we'll be able to kind of do some of the behind the scenes stuff up here that not everybody gets to, you know, I mean, not everybody gets to be in. In a press box or a PA booth or a, you know, radio booth during a game and see the little. Hear the little fun nuances and crazy things that go on during a game. [00:13:34] Speaker B: So what other, what else do you got for us? What other kind of stats or ideas since we're just doing a little introductory episode. [00:13:42] Speaker A: Yeah, we're just doing a little mini episode here. [00:13:46] Speaker B: All right, well, let's switch gears for a second. Just let the listeners know about ourselves. So this is your seventh season with the Hops. How did you come to get here? [00:13:56] Speaker A: I actually learned about the public address announcer audition that they were doing in just before the 2019 season. They had like, put it out, you know, an open audition and one of my co workers said, oh, hey, you know, this minor league ballpark, minor league baseball team out in Hillsborough is. And I didn't even. I mean, I had only lived here for, I don't know, six months. I hadn't lived here for very long. So I didn't really even know that this existed out here. And I was super stoked to, to learn about a minor league, minor league team here in Hillsborough. And I was, like I said, new to the Pacific Northwest. I only knew about the Mariners, and I had been to a bunch of Mariners games. I've been a, you know, baseball fan since childhood, grew up in Southern California, so, you know, went to Dodgers games, Padres games, all the things. And then my family moved to the Bay Area and we became A's fans. And so that's kind of where my heart was for many, many years. So when I found out that there was an opportunity to be able to actually work for a baseball team, I was pretty stoked. So I came out here, did the audition, they called me back, I came back and there were like three people that got called back and it was me and somebody else and Jason Swigart who ended up getting it. So, but they called me and they said, hey, you know, we're going to give the PA position to Jason, but we really love your resume, we love your background. We want you to be our on field emcee. And it's a position that we don't really have established right now. They were only having interns do the on field mc, you know, in between inning breaks and playing games with the fans and things like that. They, they just had an intern do it from, I guess from the very beginning, all the way up until that season. And they said, well, we'll create this position for you because we're impressed by your resume. I, you know, 20 plus years of radio broadcasting experience already. So it was kind of, you know, natural progression for me to be able to just kind of jump into that role. I had lots of acting experience, you know, video theater, all, all sorts of things. So it was kind of easy for me to jump into that, into that role. And then of course, after the 2019 season, we, we know that the COVID season, 2020, all of minor league baseball was completely canceled, so no baseball at all in Hillsborough that year. And then 2021 rolled around. The season started later than it would have because there were still all the protocol that we had to follow, all the social distancing and masks and things like that. So they had asked me, you know, if I wanted to come work up in the, in the press box and, you know, run the music board and run the video board and all the different things that they had openings for. And I said, yeah, I'm totally interested in that. So that's how I ended up in the press box. And, and then when the Vancouver Canadians were here in the 2021 season, I got to work for them as well. They were the ones who gave me my first shot at doing being a PA announcer, which has been my, my, you know, that's my dream. I want, I want to be a PA announcer for a Major League baseball team. I would love that. But here I am in Hillsborough and I love it. I love being able to jump on the mic and fill in on the PA and, you know, run the music board and sounds like this year I'm going to be doing a bunch of everything. So I'll be run the scoreboard, the pitch clock, the music, the video board, the, all of the things. So that's how I got here, and that's what I'm doing this year. So I'm glad that we're going to be doing the Hops cast together so that we'll be able to continue to work together. [00:17:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it's so, that's so cool. It's very similar backgrounds and stories. I, I, I ended up here. I moved from San Francisco during the Pandemic, and I got a job with the Trailblazers. And I was doing the artificial crowd noise for the 2020, 2021 season. And I was just playing a sampler, and their music guy, JJ kept showing me the software, the sound director software. He's like, you could do this. And I was looking at it. I've been a DJ for almost 30 years now. And I was like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. You know, that software makes sense. I think I could get a handle on that. And then I was, the season was winding down and I wasn't sure what I was going to do. And I had asked my contacts at the Blazers if they had contacts with the Hops. And he was like, oh, I don't really know anybody over there right now. I'm not really sure what they're doing. And I was scrolling on Instagram and I saw that the Vancouver Canadiens had made a post saying they were playing all their home games here in Hillsboro. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. So I just, on a whim, emailed info at Vancouver Canadians ca and said that I would like to do music if there was an opportunity. And I was contacted by Stephanie Ellis, Shout out. And she, you know, gave me an interview. I talked her through it, and I ended up getting that job. And I worked all, almost all 66 games for the Canadiens. And that's where we got to meet and. And work together and build a relationship. So that was just been the last five years. I'm a baseball nerd. I grew up in San Diego, so I guess I will divulge, you know, I'm a lifelong Padres fan, and I'm pretty die hard about those guys. And I lived in San Francisco for 20 years, and I got to see their three championships, and I never changed my hat. [00:19:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:51] Speaker B: You know, I just stayed. I walked through the parade like. And they were like, yeah, what's up? I was like, this is. This is not my party, guys. This is just not my party. So, you know, I've been pretty faithful to the Friars. Unfortunately, it's been kind of painful, but at the same time, I just love baseball so much, and being able to sit here and just kind of watch baseball has been. And combine it with my love for music, you know. So this season, with the new stadium, you know, I was approached to kind of take more of a. More of a primary role with the music thing. And. And I got offered the opportunity. And then out of that, the Hopscast was born. Because I wanted a way for us to continue to work together, because I would cover. I. You would slide over to do PA on special nights, and I would always make sure that I was doing music for you because we work so well together. So it's. It's been a really great few years, and I'm excited for. For this opportunity and what it could lead to in the future, but really, I just want to get to the first game and, you know, see if I can get it to rock. So I am the music coordinator for the hops. [00:21:08] Speaker A: That's awesome. [00:21:09] Speaker B: I don't know if I would say I'm an official dj, but I also have a background. I went to San Diego State for rad and dropped out once. I got an internship at 91Xtra FM. And I think you worked at Xtra AM, didn't. [00:21:26] Speaker A: I worked at both of them, actually. Yeah. Two different buildings. Yeah. [00:21:31] Speaker B: That's so cool. [00:21:32] Speaker A: I know. I've literally worked at every radio station in San Diego possible. And also some. A lot of them in San Francisco. I worked at knbr, gents. San Francisco Giants Radio. I work for the radio stations, not for the. For the baseball teams. [00:21:46] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:47] Speaker A: So that's how this is a little different. Whereas, you know, it's like I'm actually, like, working for the team, which is cool. So. But yeah, the. The. The radio stations that I've worked at for baseball teams. Yeah. Padres, Giants. But yeah, definitely. I was walking around in downtown San Francisco on Halloween during their the parade. It was on Halloween that one year and I was wearing my A's shirt and people were laughing at me. I was like, well, it's Halloween. I'm dressed up as a glutton for punishment. You know, what am I gonna do? [00:22:28] Speaker B: Oh man, that. So we were, we. We've had like parallel careers and lifespans. It's pretty cool that we've linked up here and we get to team up on this. So. [00:22:39] Speaker A: Yep. [00:22:40] Speaker B: All right, so coming up next week we're going to do a roster rundown. We'll see if we can grab a couple guests. We're going to. Do a little bit more prospect watch. We'll check in on alumni and the big league hops and we'll see about in the future if we can grab some players and coaches. I think we'll let them settle in next week. [00:23:03] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. [00:23:04] Speaker B: Who knows what will be made available to us. I think that having this opportunity to do this, we should be able to have a lot of fun and really get to know the guys. And we're also going to be grabbing employees, right? [00:23:17] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. I think that's going to be really fun to be able to hopefully chat with some of the folks that are higher up and some of the folks that are going to be down in the concession stands and some of the, you know, just a little bit of everybody. Some of our die hard fans that have been here from day one. We're going to try to grab some of those folks throughout the season. We're going to bring you lots of behind the scenes fun stuff. [00:23:40] Speaker B: Sounds great. [00:23:40] Speaker A: Gonna be exciting. [00:23:41] Speaker B: So thanks so much for doing this with me. [00:23:43] Speaker A: Yes, thank you. [00:23:44] Speaker B: And we'll see you guys next week here on the Hopscast. [00:23:47] Speaker A: Thanks. Thanks for listening to this episode of Hopscast hosted by Jen Ellis and co hosted and produced by Sunny Fono. Join us again next week as we take you inside the 2026 Hillsboro Hops clubhouse. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe.