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Welcome back to a new episode of the All Things Croatia podcast.
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I'm your host, Stanko Zovak.
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Born and raised in Los Angeles, I'm now living in Zagreb and studying the Croatian language.
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Before we start, just do me a favor and follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're
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listening, as well as the Facebook and Instagram page.
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In this series, I'll be talking with people both in the homeland and around the globe who
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have connections to Croatia.
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We'll hear from startups, returning to Aspora, musicians and athletes, and the biggest Croatian
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celebrities and will return my calls.
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But enough about me.
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Either modaliak, or let's get started.
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Alright, welcome back to the podcast everybody.
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In this episode, we have a special guest, Tonko Sushatz.
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Tonko is a Croatian-American baseball player at the University of Arizona.
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His grandparents were some of the leaders in setting up the Croatian community in his
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hometown of Sacramento, and he and his cousins are proud Croatians, including one who played
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with the Croatian national baseball team.
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In this episode, we're going to find out a little bit more about him and his Croatian
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connection.
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Tonko, thanks for coming on the podcast.
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Thank you for having me, Tonko.
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I'm really happy to be on.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And thanks for bearing with me there on that first take of the introduction.
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All good, all good.
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So, I was just telling you how Petar from El Vaterni, those guys reach out to me to get
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ahold of you.
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They met you, I guess, at one of the Sacramento Croatian events?
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Yes, we had our extravaganza.
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Not sure which extravaganza we've been doing since 83, but we had the extravaganza.
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It was our first one we've had in three years because of COVID and all that.
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So it was good to see a good presence from LA in the Bay Area, and I was able to meet
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Petar and Johnny Svetkovic and all those guys.
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I was familiar with the LA Vaterni.
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I followed them on Instagram back in the World Cup days when their page started to blow up
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and everything.
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I started to see everything that they were doing.
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So I kind of recognized them, went up and introduced myself to them and then kind of
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ended up hanging out with them the whole night and partying with them at the festival.
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We had a great time.
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It was a great festival and we'll definitely do it again next year, definitely.
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And maybe I'll probably even go down to LA.
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I don't know if it's the World Cup this winter, this November.
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So hopefully they're doing something down there in LA and I can make my way over there
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and go hang out and go watch some soccer over there.
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So Petar, if you guys are listening.
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You know, get a little party going in November.
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I'm sure they will throw something in November.
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I mean, they have to.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Yeah, partying with those guys.
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I mean, that's how it goes when you meet up.
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You just start partying and they're all over here right now.
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They're making their way down to Makaroskava, where I'm at.
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So I'm going to be partying with them in about a week here too.
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Sounds like heaven.
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Sounds like heaven.
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But tell us a little bit about your Croatian heritage.
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So I am, I'm a second generation Croatian-American.
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Both of my dad's parents came from Herzegovina.
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His mom, I always just called her Baka.
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Her name was Yania.
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She was from a little village and his dad, Yanko, I just called it Baka.
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And Dira was from Vlatnica, a little village of a few hundred people out over by Citluk.
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Both from Herzegovina, you know, and they just had, you know, an unbelievable story
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coming to America and it's a nice little success story.
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But you know, I grew up down the street from them.
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I grew up two, two doors down from my dad's parents.
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Also grew a few doors down from my mom's parents, but you know, they weren't Croatian, but
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still grew up very close to both sets of grandparents.
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But Croatian was, or Croatian was just a very strong part of my identity and my background
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just growing up, you know, it was very important for my family to put us through Catholic schooling.
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I've always gone to Catholic elementary school and high school.
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Actually, I always tell people the University of Arizona is actually the first non-Jesuit
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Catholic school I've ever gone to.
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You know, I did 14 years of schooling and not just Catholic school, but Jesuit Catholicism.
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So it was very important in our family to go through Catholic schooling and go through
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that route.
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But yeah, I grew up two doors down from Baka and Dira and gosh, Baka probably made us
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dinner two to three times a week.
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And as you know, any Croatian grandma makes just the best food on earth.
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They never miss, but grew up eating lots of Croatian food and they were, those two were
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one of the biggest, you know, two, three, four, five families in Sacramento.
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You know, it was kind of them, the Jupan family, Chadiah's, Shadina.
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There's a few families in Sacramento that were just really, really important for setting
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up this whole community.
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But they're my, my grandparents story, you know, they, they both, my grandpa, he escapes,
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he actually escaped to Yugoslavia and went as a refugee into Austria, into, God, what's
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the city, Vienna.
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And he went to trade, he went to trade, before he did that.
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So he was there, like I said, refugee status and was able to get an Austrian passport and
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come to America.
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Baka, she went to Salzburg, also went to Austria.
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She went to Salzburg for school and they actually never knew each other.
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They never knew each other in Croatian, never knew each other in Salzburg.
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And they both came to America, not exactly sure what year, late 50s, I believe, both
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went to California.
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Baka went on a, on a sponsorship, she went to Stockton and he went to Fresno.
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And they actually both met at a Croatian event in San Francisco.
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Cause you know, I mean, these guys came to America and they didn't speak very much English
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and they were just looking for a Croatian community and somebody that, you know, somebody
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that kind of understands their culture.
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And they ended up meeting at a Croatian event in San Francisco, the Svetlil Vlaho event,
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you know.
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And just kind of, obviously it sparked something from there and they got married in 1960 and
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actually came to Sacramento.
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And I don't think at the time there was some big Croatian community in Sacramento.
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There was a few families and as time went on, more and more people just kind of funneled
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in, you know, with work opportunities.
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And they had their first kid in 62, my uncle Nick and then 63, they had my aunt Christina
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and then my dad, they had my dad, Johnny in 66 and that was just, they were very tight
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knit family and grew up, born and raised all three kids were born and raised in Sacramento.
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I believe definitely the oldest kid Nick, his first language was Croatian.
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I believe he didn't even speak English until he was five years old in kindergarten.
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But I have everybody in all my parents and all my aunts and uncles, they all speak Croatian.
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Got a lot of other family who came from all over Croatia.
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And just like, you know, it's a big Croatian family, Baka, she had nine brothers and sisters.
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So we got cousins all over the place, just all over the place, big, big Croatian family.
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But you know, very thankful to grow up with them.
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And it was just a very, very close knit community that we have here in Sacramento.
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It sounds like you're in one of those families where you're still meeting cousins to this
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day.
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I went to Croatia for the first time in 2018 and we got a lot of family in Belovat and
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I went to a dinner in Belovat and it was probably a dinner with, I don't know, 20, 25 people.
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And my dad just said, yeah, these are all your second cousins.
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I've never met a single one.
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And just, you know, there's, we got more family in Belovat that I've never met.
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We got family all over the place.
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And yeah, just like you said, it's one of those things where you just as time goes on,
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just, oh, hey, this is a cousin.
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Oh, hey, oh, I didn't know you were my cousin.
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Just all over the place.
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Yeah.
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Even people you've already met and then you realize that they're cousins later on.
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Exactly.
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Exactly.
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That's classic.
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I'm actually relating a lot to your story here.
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I guess that's sort of one of the aspects of the podcast, you know, for people to hear
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these stories that they can relate to.
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But you know, mine were also from Herzegovina, Baca and, you know, Deido and they came over
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here or came over to the U.S. I'm over here in Croatia now, but came to the U.S., California.
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I also went to Jesuit school, Catholic school, went to Jesuit school.
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Oh, right on.
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Did you go to Loyola in LA?
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No, actually, I went to St. Francis for Francis High School and then I went to Regis University
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which is Jesuit, the college over in Denver.
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Awesome.
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And he said something else too.
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Oh yeah, living two blocks from your grandparents, both sets.
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And you know, I was like, oh man, that's me.
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You talk about eating the food.
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I mean, I guess that's one of the, you know, a lot of people in the diaspora especially
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can relate to these sorts of stories.
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So I wanted to ask, do you speak Croatian?
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You mentioned it in all of your cousins.
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I do not speak Croatian.
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It's one of those things that I really wish I could do.
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I mean, as you know, Croatian is a very hard language to learn.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, exactly.
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You know, with the grammar and everything, with just, you know, you have gender and plural
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and it just messes up these words.
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Yeah, it's just not the English way of thinking.
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No, no.
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It's just kind of one of those things.
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Everybody that, all the kids in my age that I know speak Croatian, none of them learned
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it at 16 or 18.
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It's just kind of one of those things where their grandparents taught them when they were
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toddlers and they just kind of grew up knowing it.
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I really don't know.
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I personally don't know a single person who was able to learn it like in their 20s or
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anything.
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Like I said, everybody that I know just kind of learned it growing up.
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Yeah.
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Well, I'm trying to be the exception here, but I'm just really going to.
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Well, good for you.
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Good luck with that.
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But I mean, if I wanted to learn it, take a lot of time and, you know, I just think if
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I were to do it, I'd have to do it the right way.
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And with what I do with baseball and everything, it's just gosh, that'd take me some time.
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So maybe when, I don't know, I want to say when baseball is over, God only knows when
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that will be.
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But hopefully one day I'm able to learn.
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But, you know, for whatever reason, I still, I still love Croatian music.
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You know, I grew up, I just grew up listening to Croatian music and I love the music.
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I don't even know what it means, but I listen to a weird amount of Croatian music for a
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guy who doesn't speak.
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Do you have any particular bands or you just sort of put something on shuffle and.
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I mean, I'm talking.
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Just play.
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Everything.
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I always grew up listening to Oliver and actually crazy thing when I was in Croatia, I was
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in Split in 2018 and I was actually in Split the day that Oliver died.
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And which was crazy for me because like I said, I grew up listening to Oliver.
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You know, we always had the same CD and my dad's part of we play over and over and over
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again, my favorite song as a kid was not Alina and we would play that on a repeat and just
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for whatever reason, that was just my favorite song in the world as a kid.
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But I mean, I knew, I knew almost all of his songs and I could sing them full blown sing
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didn't know what they meant.
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And the day that he died, they actually went there was just a big group of people that
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met out in front of the church in Split and they all started singing his music and I went
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along.
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I was probably there for an hour and a half singing every song.
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It was actually really cool.
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And that was July 29, 2018.
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I'll never forget it.
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And July 31, which was my birthday.
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He had his funeral procession.
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There was 120,000 people and that even split absolutely wild.
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But you were there for that too.
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I wasn't there.
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It was my birthday.
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We were having a big dinner at the house, but we were watching on TV.
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I mean, it was nationally televised.
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You know, it was a big deal.
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But we were definitely watching on TV and like I said, I grew up listening to him.
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I've never met a single Croatian that doesn't like Oliver.
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Yeah, exactly.
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He was just such a big part of that culture and especially, you know, because as you know,
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music is such a big part of Croatian culture and he was really the head of Croatian music.
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Even in Zagreb, they'll play him.
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And I know they got their rivalry over here that it's funny when you're over, you know,
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in the U.S. or whatever, the hospital, I think we feel like Croatia is just, you know, it's
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all Croatia.
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But when you're here in Croatia, it's, you know, Zagreb versus Split, Haiduk, Dinamo
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and you've got their rivalry.
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Oh my God, I got, yeah.
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Oh, I got, I got all my cousins in Split just hard courts with Haiduk fans.
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You know, it was like life or death for them to be at the, you know, the 70th anniversary.
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They're shooting flares in the sky and the perfidia.
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Yeah, the flares.
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You know, that stuff.
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That stuff's just so important to them.
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And it's just, I actually went to a Haiduk game.
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It was crazy, absolutely wild.
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But yeah, the Haiduk and the Dinamo rivalry is, it's no joke.
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Yeah, definitely not.
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You root for Haiduk when you're in Split.
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Yeah, you have no option.
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You know, now Tonko, I was reading an article about you.
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I forget from where it might have been from U of A. They talked about a story behind your
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nickname because your first name is Anthony.
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Correct.
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Yes.
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What's the story behind that?
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So I actually, my mom's business, they have a house on the property and they'd always
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rented out to one of the employees and it was a Czechoslovakian lady named Milka and
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I was only about one or two years old.
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So my mom, she'd go to work.
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She would drop me off at Milka's house and that was my babysitter when I was a kid.
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She was from Czechoslovakia, hard accent and could not say Anthony, she said Antoni.
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So she just started calling me Tony.
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And then, you know, she knew that a Croatian nickname for Tony was Tonko.
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So then that's when she started calling me.
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And then my Croatian family just absolutely loved it.
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Everybody loved it.
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So it's actually been my nickname since I was one or two years old and it has stuck.
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Everybody calls me Tonko.
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I still don't know what to introduce myself as to people.
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You know, I introduce myself like, hi, I'm Anthony or hi, I'm Tonko because I mean, I'm
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sure, you know, you grew up in LA with the name Tonko.
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I'm sure people had the same reaction for you.
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You know, that weren't the Americans.
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When I, you know, when I say, hey, I'm Tonko, people just kind of look at me and say, Oh,
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is that your real name?
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Oh, no, it's Nick.
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My real name is Anthony.
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You call me Anthony if you want.
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Yeah, like from a 100 to zero.
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Well, that's a lot of the diaspora, I feel like, you know, like us and I'm sure there's
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a lot of others kind of have that like, confliction, you know, what sort of identity do you introduce
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yourself as in the US?
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I mean, my, you know, my grandparents had the same thing when they came over, Yanko and
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Yanya.
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Everybody just called Yanko Yank.
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He just went, you know, Y-A-N-K Yank.
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And then Yanya just went by Janna J-A-N-A.
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So they all, you know, and there are stories of tons and tons of people who have had to
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do that, you know, uh, Mila, he was the guy who ran the Croatian Hall in Sacramento.
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00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:37,520
Um, he just went by Mike, you know, everybody just kind of got to come up with an Americanized
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name to get on the same page with people.
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Well, yeah, I mean, you want to fit into the new society that you're living in with a new
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language.
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I mean, that's sort of part of the assimilation.
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But I think I feel like our generation is now really trying to, you know, rediscover
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our roots.
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For sure.
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For sure.
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I want to get into your, your baseball career a little bit.
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You know, when did that start?
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When did you start playing baseball?
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I grew up in a baseball family.
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You know, my dad taught me when I was a little kid.
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I mean, I'm talking, there's a crazy story about the day I was born that I'm not going
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to get into, but, but basically, you know, my dad wanted me born on a certain day, so
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it would help my age for baseball.
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So, you know, he knew before he knew before I was born that I was going to be a baseball
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player and I got older cousins, um, older cousin Andrew, he played the major, he played
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in the major leagues, uh, with San Francisco Giants, the one of the series with them in
301
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2014.
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That's my first cousin and then Daniels or sorry, sorry, Andrew, he's the oldest of
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the four of us.
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He has, um, a younger brother, Matto, who, he was the one who played for the Croatia
305
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national team.
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Um, he was, he played baseball at UNR, uh, Nevada Reno.
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He was a pitcher there for two years and then he just kind of went on a trip and heard that
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there was some baseball in Croatia and wanted to go watch and was playing catch one day
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and, and, um, the coach I believe was Yvonne Acici, she's the coach of not a sweet baseball
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team and he just kind of said like, Hey, you know, you know, you can just talk, if you,
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you know, you can just talk about how somebody plays catch whether they play baseball or not
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and you just kind of invite them to come play for the team and, uh, Matt ended up going
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over to Croatia and playing for the split team and then ended up getting his citizenship
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and playing for the national team.
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Uh, and then the two of them have a younger brother named Daniel, who was just drafted
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00:16:20,120 --> 00:16:23,640
the 19th overall pick to the Oakland A's out of Arizona.
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He's a catcher and, uh, he's actually making his minor league debut today with the, uh,
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the, uh, stacked in ports.
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00:16:31,400 --> 00:16:36,480
So all of our families going down there today, um, for minor league baseball, but yeah, like
320
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I said, baseball family.
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00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:41,520
And then I'm the youngest out of the four of them on here in Arizona right now, um, right
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hand of pitcher, but I completely grew up in a baseball family, as you can tell.
323
00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:49,880
Um, didn't really have an option, but at the same time, when really wanted any other way.
324
00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:50,880
Hmm.
325
00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:51,880
Oh yeah.
326
00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:53,920
I mean, I think I've been a threat for baseball.
327
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Literally.
328
00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:55,920
Yeah.
329
00:16:55,920 --> 00:16:56,920
Absolutely.
330
00:16:56,920 --> 00:17:02,200
Um, well, you mentioned Daniel who was making his pro debut.
331
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You guys played together in high school and your freshman year at U of A.
332
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Freshman year.
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This was kind of full our last guaranteed year together.
334
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And then, uh, but yeah, I mean, it's like, I would tell people I was a pitcher.
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He was a catcher, probably 99% of pitches have ever thrown off amount of data Daniel.
336
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And we just have a special connection and everything.
337
00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:25,680
He's been my catcher since I first started pitching when I was seven years old all the
338
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way up through literally club ball, um, in high school and he's been my catcher forever.
339
00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:32,840
You'll actually like this.
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We have a little, uh, we always have a little sign, uh, sign language or not sign language.
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One of my, uh, just like a little sign system in Croatian because we hated doing, we would
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have a verbal system in Croatian.
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And cause I mean, you know, it's not like speaking Spanish in California where everybody
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knows Spanish, no, you know, hardly anybody knows Croatian, especially baseball players.
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So if we didn't want to, if we didn't want to put down signs for pitches Daniel, just
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a dummy, you know, one, that's a fastball.
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It died me.
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00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:00,960
You know, that's a, that's a curveball.
349
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And then we started, you know, you wanted to get more and more into it.
350
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And we'd have a family system.
351
00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:10,480
You know, he would say, he would say Baka or Dita and that's your grandparents, your grandparents
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are slow.
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So it's a slow pitch.
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It's a curveball or he'd say, you know, Andrew or Rachel, that's one of our younger cousins
355
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that are fast, so that'd be a fastball.
356
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So we always had that science.
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And so my dad was actually our pitching coach and he was the one who'd called pitches.
358
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So he would just from the dugout straight up just yell at us.
359
00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:29,960
I'd say, hey, dummy, yeah, that's a fastball inside.
360
00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:35,920
You know, I guess that's kind of, that's kind of the only question that I do, that I do
361
00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:36,920
really know.
362
00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:39,440
That's actually so cool.
363
00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:41,440
I mean, I played baseball all through high school.
364
00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:42,440
I don't know.
365
00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:43,440
That sounds like a dream.
366
00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:47,400
I can't explain it, but it's like combining baseball and Croatian.
367
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Like, it sounds so cool actually.
368
00:18:49,400 --> 00:18:50,400
Yeah.
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00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:51,920
And it was, it was actually really efficient science.
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Like, you know, if you had to run around second, you didn't have to give multiples.
371
00:18:54,440 --> 00:19:00,800
It was just, you got, you got my dad screaming at us, you know, Dami Dvoavanka, you know,
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curveball outside.
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So it actually, it actually helped out a lot.
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00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:09,360
And you know, you'd have all these people looking at us like, you'd have umpires go
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00:19:09,360 --> 00:19:11,840
up to Daniel and he was catching like, Hey, are you guys speaking Russian?
376
00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:13,600
Like, oh no, it's Croatian.
377
00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:14,600
Don't worry about it.
378
00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:15,600
Those are our signs.
379
00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:16,600
Don't worry about it.
380
00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:17,600
Yeah.
381
00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:18,600
That's pretty cool.
382
00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:19,600
Yeah.
383
00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:21,720
Especially you mentioned with a runner on second, for those of you who don't know, you have
384
00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:26,600
to give, you know, like an extra layer of signs because you, the runner can kind of
385
00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:27,600
see the signs.
386
00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:30,240
So you have to give an extra layer of code, so to speak.
387
00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:31,240
That's pretty cool.
388
00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:32,240
Yeah.
389
00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:33,880
You know, I just signed so the hitter doesn't know what's coming.
390
00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:35,640
Well, that's easier for you to think for sure.
391
00:19:35,640 --> 00:19:40,040
I used to hate having to like remember the sign system with a runner on second and then
392
00:19:40,040 --> 00:19:42,840
you got to remember the bunt and the number of looks.
393
00:19:42,840 --> 00:19:43,840
Yeah.
394
00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:45,600
And you know, like we always did it.
395
00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:48,480
We always did it in high school because my dad was our pitching coach then and then I
396
00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:52,680
finally got to college and, you know, you don't really come into college and bring in
397
00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:54,000
your own signs and everything.
398
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:57,280
It's like, you know, they, you have the thing that you do here at Arizona and you have your
399
00:19:57,280 --> 00:19:58,280
multiple.
400
00:19:58,280 --> 00:19:59,280
So you go by that.
401
00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:03,560
And then one of these games when Daniel was catching me, you know, he got the sign from
402
00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:07,080
our coach and instead of putting down signs, he just yelled at me and Croatian and I just
403
00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:08,440
kind of stepped off the mound, smiled.
404
00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:09,800
I was like, all right, it's back to this.
405
00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:10,800
I like this.
406
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:15,520
Just kind of like, it was like a little good little confidence boost and just like a little
407
00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:16,520
nostalgic.
408
00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:20,800
Just like, you know, having Daniel scream, you know, like, all right, I like it.
409
00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:22,800
Did the coach say anything after?
410
00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:23,800
Palaco.
411
00:20:23,800 --> 00:20:24,800
He loves it.
412
00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:26,280
He's like, what would you guys just do?
413
00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:28,480
It's like, Palaco, what are you going to do?
414
00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:29,480
Change up.
415
00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:30,480
Yeah, that's so cool.
416
00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:31,480
I love that.
417
00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:37,720
And you're during your high school career, you know, you were a touted prospect going
418
00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:43,600
into college, but you had a, I don't know, was it a full Tommy John or it was some elbow
419
00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:44,600
surgery?
420
00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:47,240
It wasn't full, it wasn't full Tommy John, but it was a UCL surgery.
421
00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:50,920
Well, you know, with Tommy John, usually they'll take out your torn UCL and then they'll
422
00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:54,640
put in a tendon from either your wrist or the back of your knee and they'll put it in
423
00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:57,960
your elbow and kind of takes about a year to teach it to work as a ligament.
424
00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:01,200
Well, for my surgery, I never had to take that original ligament out.
425
00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:05,200
I had a very partial tear in a very specific spot where we were able to do this.
426
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:08,560
It's a very new surgery, it's only been around for about six or seven years and it's called
427
00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:12,920
UCL primary repair where they just put an internal brace into the ligament and stabilize
428
00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:13,920
the ligament that way.
429
00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:16,440
And it's about half the recovery time and knock on wood.
430
00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:17,840
The results have been really well.
431
00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:22,720
The results have gone really good over the past few years and nobody's, like I said,
432
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:26,200
knock on wood with my surgeon who had done the surgery about a hundred times, none of
433
00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:27,760
his patients had to be into the ligament.
434
00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:29,840
So we decided, you know, let's take a chance.
435
00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:32,480
It's a newer surgery, but let's take a chance and see how it goes.
436
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:37,080
So my first year at Arizona was about a year out of the surgery and I never missed a single,
437
00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:39,640
I never missed a single ending because of arm health.
438
00:21:39,640 --> 00:21:41,480
You know, I was able to make it through a full season.
439
00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:43,480
I had 47 innings under my belt.
440
00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:47,240
It was a great year and was able to pitch a lot and pitch healthy.
441
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:49,360
What was it like during that rehab mentally?
442
00:21:49,360 --> 00:21:51,840
I mean, were you already committed to U of A?
443
00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:56,240
Yeah, I was, I'd been committed to U of A for a while and I'd told my coaches like,
444
00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:58,160
hey, I'm undergoing this surgery.
445
00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:00,720
You know, we're going to see what happens.
446
00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:04,840
And they were open to it and it all ended up working out.
447
00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:09,120
But I mean, I'll tell you what, during those few months and you start having setbacks and
448
00:22:09,120 --> 00:22:13,240
stuff and all of a sudden you start having all these little things, you know, hey, I'm
449
00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:15,880
supposed to be throwing at six, I'm supposed to be throwing at three months, supposed to
450
00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:19,880
be off a mound at six months, but I'm seven months in and I can't throw 80% because I
451
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:22,600
got this thing, you know, in the back of my elbow or my shoulder and you have all these
452
00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:23,600
complications.
453
00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:28,040
It can get pretty mentally, it can get pretty mentally straining, but you just have to stay
454
00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:32,600
the course and have trust in our staff and everything here and I'm doing a good job and
455
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:33,600
I'm healthy.
456
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:34,920
And like I said, I had a full season.
457
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:35,920
It was a good season.
458
00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:36,920
Hmm.
459
00:22:36,920 --> 00:22:37,920
Yeah.
460
00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:40,440
So that was this, this was your sophomore year then that you just finished?
461
00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:42,280
Just finished my freshman year going into my sophomore year.
462
00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:43,280
Oh, okay.
463
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:44,280
Yeah.
464
00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:46,080
Well, I wanted to ask you then about the most recent season.
465
00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:49,120
I thought you were just finishing your sophomore year at this point.
466
00:22:49,120 --> 00:22:52,840
No, Daniel just finished his sophomore year and he was, he's a little bit older, so he
467
00:22:52,840 --> 00:22:54,120
was a draft eligible sophomore.
468
00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:56,000
So he was able to get drafted as a sophomore.
469
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:57,800
He had two years and then I was a year younger.
470
00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:02,080
So I just finished up my first year with him and like I said, it was a fun year.
471
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:06,720
It was a really cool year and had a good time.
472
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:07,720
Ready for more?
473
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,800
Do you know who your new captor is going to be?
474
00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:12,800
We'll see.
475
00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:17,200
We'll see what happens in the fall and in the spring, but it'll be a good competition,
476
00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:18,200
but it won't be Daniel.
477
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:19,200
It will not be Daniel.
478
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:21,520
But yeah, that's awesome for him too.
479
00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:23,080
I'm excited for his debut tonight.
480
00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:24,080
No, yeah.
481
00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:25,080
It will be huge.
482
00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:26,080
I can't wait.
483
00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:28,800
We did some really good things and we're all really excited for him.
484
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:33,920
You know, I've always wondered why baseball, like we never had a lot of famous Croatians
485
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:36,520
playing baseball, like especially in the modern era.
486
00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:40,640
I know in the past we had, what's like Roger Maris and a couple other guys.
487
00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:41,640
Roger Maris.
488
00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:42,640
Yeah, very good.
489
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:43,640
Yeah.
490
00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:46,800
I mean, there's guys that pop up that you just kind of never knew, you know, at Fenway
491
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:48,320
Park, they had Pesky Pole.
492
00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:52,320
That's named after, it was a Croatian, Roger Maris was a Croatian.
493
00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:57,600
Well, you got Andrew Susak, older cousin, he's Croatian.
494
00:23:57,600 --> 00:24:00,960
There's a few others, Dan Plisac.
495
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:02,040
He was a pitcher back in the day.
496
00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:04,160
He's got Zach Plisac, his younger kid.
497
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:07,680
Both of them are the Plisacs of Croatian.
498
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:11,680
I'd always joke around, you know, I was playing, I was playing fantasy football this year for
499
00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:15,440
the first time and I was telling everybody, I mean, the best football coaches in the world
500
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:17,440
are all Croatian, you know.
501
00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:18,440
Bella Czej.
502
00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:21,800
Nick Saban, Bella Czej can save and I'm both Croatian, Pete Carroll's Croatian.
503
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:23,920
I'd always joke about that, you know.
504
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:26,960
Yeah, the best football coaches in the world are all Croatians.
505
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:28,560
Yeah, that's really true though.
506
00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:32,400
They are and they are probably the three best football coaches.
507
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:34,160
I would always argue with people.
508
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:38,480
I would say it just argue, I would just kind of start arguments with people, but I think
509
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:43,720
there's actually something to it that, you know, athletics and Croatian, I think Croatia,
510
00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:49,120
when you take population into account is maybe the most athletic country in the world when
511
00:24:49,120 --> 00:24:50,120
you look at it.
512
00:24:50,120 --> 00:24:54,240
I think there's a debate to the add there, but I mean, you talk about your two World Cup
513
00:24:54,240 --> 00:25:01,560
runs in 98 in 2018, you know, the second smallest country to ever make a World Cup final.
514
00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:04,400
But you have some of the best, you have some of the best soccer in the world.
515
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:07,240
You have some of the best handball in the world, some of the best tennis players in
516
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:09,240
the world and, you know, Madi and Chilic.
517
00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:13,680
Lately, I've really gotten into tennis, so I've been following along with all the tennis
518
00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:17,760
players, Madi and Chilic, Borno Troide, they actually just played, they actually just
519
00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:20,520
played against each other today in Montreal.
520
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:27,640
Chilic got the better of them, two sets, two sets of nothing, but I was, I got up at
521
00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:34,520
9.30 this morning to watch them play and I mean, it's just cool to see, you know, especially
522
00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:40,320
a guy like Chilic, I just have an unbelievable appreciation for Madi and Chilic because,
523
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:44,880
you know, he's from, God, what city is he from?
524
00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:46,640
Why am I blanking on the name?
525
00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:48,160
Yeah, it's above you now.
526
00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:50,560
Yeah, I'm blanking too now.
527
00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:53,160
It's not Cheatlook or Joplin now?
528
00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:54,680
It's right outside of Cheatlook.
529
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:55,680
Right outside of Cheatlook.
530
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:57,040
I mean, actually, probably his part of Cheatlook.
531
00:25:57,040 --> 00:25:58,680
It's where they had the apparitions.
532
00:25:58,680 --> 00:25:59,680
Ah, Medjugorje.
533
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:00,680
Oh yeah, yeah.
534
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:02,760
Medjugorje, yes, he's from Medjugorje.
535
00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:07,400
And, you know, when I went to Croatia, we actually took a day trip to Medjugorje and
536
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:15,240
it was really cool, but, you know, to see like that guy came from a real village and
537
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:16,240
he is what he is.
538
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:17,240
I know they have other players.
539
00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:18,760
I know Yvit Zazubats is from there.
540
00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:20,440
I want to say it is another tennis player from there.
541
00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:22,560
Maybe Yvon Bologi is from there.
542
00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:26,440
But, I mean, you see on athletes, you have world class, you have unbelievable tennis,
543
00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:29,040
you know, Goron Yvanishevich from there, too.
544
00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:34,000
Basketball players, you have six basketball players in the Nayspev Hall of Fame from Croatia.
545
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:38,280
You have the Syncovich brothers, already said handball, water polo.
546
00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:39,280
Yeah.
547
00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:44,200
You just have a lot of sports that have unbelievable athletes from this tiny little country that
548
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:46,440
most people can't even point out on the map.
549
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:50,120
It was, yeah, 3.8 million right now, not even 4 million.
550
00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:51,120
Exactly.
551
00:26:51,120 --> 00:26:52,120
Not even 4 million.
552
00:26:52,120 --> 00:26:56,240
And I don't know, did you ever watch the FIFA Plus documentary, the Croatia Defining
553
00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:57,240
a Nation?
554
00:26:57,240 --> 00:26:58,240
I think it just came out like two months ago.
555
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:01,920
No, I just saw that recently and put it on my list, but I never saw it.
556
00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:02,920
It is.
557
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:03,920
It is unbelievable.
558
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:04,920
You've got to watch it.
559
00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:05,920
It's really, really good.
560
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:12,960
And it just kind of talks about how Croatia is one of those countries where sports has
561
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:18,240
really helped define the country, you know, how we declared our independence in 91 and
562
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:19,840
the war was over in 95.
563
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:24,800
And next thing you know, in 92, we played the dream team and the USA dream team in the
564
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:30,040
finals, Gordon Yvanishevich won a few medals in the Olympics in 92, our first Olympics
565
00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:32,560
we ever had.
566
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:36,040
You know, the Euros in 96 and the World Cup in 98 that we performed really well.
567
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:38,560
And, you know, people didn't even know what Croatia was.
568
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:39,960
People didn't even know that it was a country.
569
00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:44,280
People didn't even know that we just went through such, you know, a bloody homeland war
570
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,320
and we're able to compete at the highest level of world sports.
571
00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:52,160
And it's really cool to see and, you know, being over there, you understand how big sports
572
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:56,600
are, especially if you're in the soccer scene with Tertida and Bad Blue Boys and all that
573
00:27:56,600 --> 00:27:58,480
and all the flares and everything.
574
00:27:58,480 --> 00:27:59,480
I love that stuff.
575
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:00,480
I think it's just awesome.
576
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,440
Yeah, people are crazy about sports over here, especially soccer.
577
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:05,960
People are crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy.
578
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:06,960
I love it.
579
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:08,440
I mean, our family is crazy.
580
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:10,320
So it's kind of feeds it.
581
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:15,120
Well, yeah, I wanted to talk a little about your family because I read your bio.
582
00:28:15,120 --> 00:28:16,560
I don't know if you wrote this.
583
00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:18,440
It was on, I guess, the U of A website.
584
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:24,680
I'm forgetting now, but I read bio and like I'll just read some of this out of here.
585
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:29,920
Your sister was a national champion synchronized swimmer at Stanford.
586
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:36,800
Your cousin Daniel, the Wildcats 2021 Pack 12 freshman of the year and now drafted cousin
587
00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:41,560
Liz, played soccer at UCLA, Matt played baseball at Nevada and with the Croatian national
588
00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:46,240
team because then Andrew played baseball at Oregon State six seasons of major league
589
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:47,240
baseball.
590
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:49,800
I mean, wow, that's quite the athletic family there.
591
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:51,680
Yeah, it is a very athletic family.
592
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:55,600
And yeah, you mentioned, I think, well, my sister, she was a synchronized swimmer and
593
00:28:55,600 --> 00:29:00,600
my mom got her into that and she graduated from Stanford two years ago and she was able
594
00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:04,920
to, they won the national championship her senior year and, you know, they had rings.
595
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:08,000
They got their rings and everything and that was really cool for her.
596
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:14,200
But, you know, we already talked about myself, Daniel, Andrew Matto and then yeah, Liz, cousin
597
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:19,240
Liz, she, she, well, you know, she lived in Huntington Beach.
598
00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:21,600
That's one of another set of our cousin from Huntington Beach.
599
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:23,560
Her dad is Latko.
600
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,200
He is from Rijeka and then he came over to America.
601
00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:28,040
He's another great success story.
602
00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:31,560
Came over to America at 19 didn't speak any English.
603
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:35,040
The way it was explained to me, he came to America with his life packed up in a suitcase
604
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:40,520
and a thousand dollars and was able to actually build up a well established company.
605
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:43,560
I'm not sure if you've ever heard of Zabato products.
606
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:45,560
They make like mirrors and stuff.
607
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:48,960
I mean, the main thing that they do is mirrors, but they have a lot of, you know, beauty and
608
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:55,520
household products and they're based out of Huntington Beach and that's our cousin's
609
00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:56,520
live down there.
610
00:29:56,520 --> 00:29:58,720
And then they had two kids, Alex and Liz.
611
00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:01,920
And yeah, Liz was a four year, four year soccer player at UCLA.
612
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:07,960
They went to the far of the woman's, woman's soccer tournament all four years that she
613
00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:08,960
was there.
614
00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:09,960
Wow.
615
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:13,760
So she had a great, she had a great college career and you know, I think, oh God, what
616
00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:14,760
is that?
617
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:15,760
That's six of us.
618
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:17,640
Six of us have played collegiate sports.
619
00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:23,400
So yeah, big, big athletic family, big, you know, that's athletes.
620
00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:24,400
Yeah.
621
00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:28,560
Is there some competitiveness between you guys that I don't know, like family gatherings
622
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:32,360
or Oh God, you would, you would not believe, you would not believe the Wiffleball games
623
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:33,760
because they are with the baseball family.
624
00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:37,760
So you play Wiffleball at every, every party, you know, fourth of July birthday parties.
625
00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:39,560
I mean, it was talk about war.
626
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:41,200
It didn't matter what you played.
627
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:44,360
If we were in the backyard in the pool playing sharks and manos, it was war.
628
00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:45,760
Pool basketball was war.
629
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:48,200
Wiffleball war, you know, playing pros vs.
630
00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:49,360
Joes wrestling stuff.
631
00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:54,200
It was just war, you know, all super, super, super competitive.
632
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:55,320
Lots of swearing.
633
00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:56,800
Lots of just everything.
634
00:30:56,800 --> 00:30:59,920
Yeah, you said fourth of July Wiffleball.
635
00:30:59,920 --> 00:31:02,600
I felt like I was back in the U.S. right now with that.
636
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:05,480
That's like the most American thing.
637
00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:06,480
Yeah.
638
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:07,480
Oh, for sure.
639
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:08,480
That's awesome.
640
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:16,640
I want to point out another part of your bio that you were the proud owner of a 4.91
641
00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:19,680
out of five rating as a DoorDash driver.
642
00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:23,400
Is that true with over 1000 deliveries?
643
00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:24,400
Absolutely true.
644
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:27,280
You talk about my arm injury that I had.
645
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:31,480
I had like, you know, I went from training three to four hours a day to like, hey, I
646
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:32,480
got to let my elbow rest.
647
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:33,720
I can't really do anything.
648
00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:36,840
And I was eligible to become a DoorDash driver and a bunch of my friends are doing it during
649
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:40,320
COVID and it kind of just timed up where COVID and everybody's DoorDashing and it kind
650
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:42,880
of just worked out well for me, especially, you know, California.
651
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:46,440
There's a lot of restrictions where people can't eat at restaurants and I was just started
652
00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:50,360
crashing DoorDash and my dad just got my dad got competitive about it.
653
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:52,800
So we were both going together and doing all these deliveries.
654
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:56,240
I think I have like 1000 and 50 deliveries and a 4.91 rating.
655
00:31:56,240 --> 00:32:01,480
And I was watching the baseball game one day and there was a picture for the twins and
656
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:04,960
his things said like 4.9 star Uber driver rating.
657
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:07,360
And that just always stuck with like, that's like the best fun fact ever.
658
00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:10,560
This guy's a major league pitcher and he was an Uber driver two years ago.
659
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:11,560
That's awesome.
660
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:14,280
So I always thought, you know, when I do this, I was like, oh, perfect.
661
00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:17,720
I can go put that on any little like question, any little media question here I ever get.
662
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:21,200
So that is absolutely 1000% true.
663
00:32:21,200 --> 00:32:25,480
If you're in the Sacramento area and you're going to DoorDash order and it's a big white
664
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:29,400
big white Toyota Tacoma with just a giant creation, good up on the back of it.
665
00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:30,400
That's me.
666
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,400
So you're not eating anyone's fries then or taking sips.
667
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:34,400
I am not.
668
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:35,400
No, no, no, no, no, no.
669
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:37,880
No, good drivers don't eat people's food.
670
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:40,040
Now, are you doing any of that?
671
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:41,520
I know you told me off the record.
672
00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:44,800
I may have to cut this out, but you got a lot of free time over there right now during
673
00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:45,800
the off season.
674
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:47,800
You're going to pick that up.
675
00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:49,520
I have not been DoorDash lately.
676
00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:52,000
Both prices are up and people can eat at restaurants now.
677
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:56,640
So it's not quite not quite making as much money as I would have now and there as I would
678
00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:57,640
have back then.
679
00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:01,320
So, you know, that died down, but I can pick it up anytime if I want.
680
00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:03,040
If I'm bored enough, I just might.
681
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:07,640
Yeah, that's a nice little paycheck to some pocket money.
682
00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:08,640
Yeah.
683
00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:09,640
Yeah.
684
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:13,080
The last part of your bio here, you know, you wrote patriotic Croatian who loves following
685
00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:14,080
Croatian sports.
686
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:16,720
Now we just, we went over all these Croatian sports.
687
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:19,840
You talked a little about tennis and you're playing tennis now.
688
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:22,920
Obviously, you're watching, you know, the Croatian soccer.
689
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:25,080
Is there anything else that you're following from here?
690
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:27,280
I mean, literally, literally everything I have.
691
00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:30,800
I have an app that just gives me all these updates on people like, you know, I'm the
692
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:34,760
only one of my friends who's watching Croatian ping pong, you know, who's watching like
693
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:41,280
keeping up with, with Tomislav Puzar and some of the other guys that are playing ping pong
694
00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:45,800
like table tennis on the world circuit, you know, I'm keeping up with handball teams.
695
00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:48,680
I'm keeping up with Haiduk.
696
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:53,480
Obviously, I'm keeping up with every tennis player I can find alerts.
697
00:33:53,480 --> 00:34:00,160
If any of the Croatian basketball players are playing, you know, if it's a Zubac or,
698
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:07,040
you know, one account blank on his name, you just got drafted by this, just got drafted
699
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:09,320
this last year in the NBA draft.
700
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:10,320
Carlo.
701
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:12,760
I'm not going to be just calling it.
702
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:17,320
Yeah, yes, so all those guys that have alerts on all of those on all of them.
703
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:21,680
I was waking up early to go watch water polo, go watch World Water Polo Championships,
704
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:27,440
basically any event, obviously when the Olympics are on, I'm watching every single event.
705
00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:29,120
Men's and women's just kind of keeping up.
706
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:34,720
And, you know, it was really cool this year to see both doubles championships, you know,
707
00:34:34,720 --> 00:34:41,840
yeah, Chile, Chile, Geneva and Georgia taking second to Mekicum Pavic, you know, to see
708
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:47,160
Croatians get gold and silver and tennis is pretty damn cool.
709
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:50,360
You know, you talk about what a small country it is, pretty cool to watch all that.
710
00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:51,360
Yeah, for real.
711
00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:53,360
And you mentioned you're playing tennis.
712
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:55,360
Sorry, go ahead.
713
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:57,480
No, I mean, I don't play tennis.
714
00:34:57,480 --> 00:34:59,360
I got really into ping pong.
715
00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:04,520
It's actually funny because I was, I got really into ping pong when I got hurt and I was getting
716
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:05,520
really good.
717
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:07,400
So I decided to go buy a custom paddle.
718
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:12,600
And I bought a, ah, he's a Croatian guy.
719
00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:14,920
He has a, he has a butterfly paddle.
720
00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:18,520
Zoran, God, I'm blanking on his last name.
721
00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:21,320
They mentioned him in the office, the TV show.
722
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:22,320
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
723
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:24,320
I forget what his last name is.
724
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:25,320
Do I mention him?
725
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:29,760
But yes, I bought his paddle because I was like, huh, I mean, I'll probably figure out
726
00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:30,760
how to use this thing.
727
00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:35,320
So I bought his blades and, but yeah, I'm always, always kind of doing little things
728
00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:38,320
and honoring my heritage every, every opportunity that I get.
729
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:40,280
But, but sports is a big thing.
730
00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:43,680
Recently, I've gotten really into food, really into Croatian food.
731
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:49,960
I mean, I guess that, that kind of kicked off, you know, just as a kid and my, uh, Baka,
732
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:52,480
she was the one when we would have the extravaganza.
733
00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:54,600
She would do all of the pastries by herself.
734
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:57,880
And I mean, if you've, if you've ever seen our Croatian pastries are made, it's not
735
00:35:57,880 --> 00:35:58,880
easy.
736
00:35:58,880 --> 00:35:59,880
And it's a multiple day process.
737
00:35:59,880 --> 00:36:03,800
But, you know, I never understood like the labor of love that went into it when I was
738
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:04,800
a kid.
739
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:07,440
I never understood like, it was just, I just grew up around her.
740
00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:08,440
So it was normal to me.
741
00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:15,400
It was normal walking to Baka's house and seeing, I'm not joking, 70, 80 feet of just
742
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:20,680
dough laid out around the house, getting ready, getting ready for strudel and herstule
743
00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:22,920
and fritule and all that stuff.
744
00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:27,760
So, you know, I definitely grew up, Baka made really good herstule, really good.
745
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:33,640
I mean, you know, fritule, uh, we call it Ustike.
746
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:37,960
All sorts of food, pork roast, chivape, all that.
747
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:42,040
And then when, uh, when Matt and my cousin Nick, when they took their first trips to
748
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:44,480
Croatia, they came back and they were like, chivapa is the best thing ever.
749
00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:48,600
So they started making chivapa, introduced me to Ayvat.
750
00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:51,000
And then now I just love chivapa.
751
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:56,920
So, you know, I went to Croatia and we went to Split and I mean, if you ever been to Split
752
00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:00,040
and you've ever had chivapa in Split, I'm sure you've probably at least heard of Kanthan
753
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:04,120
and Palina, that became just my favorite restaurant in the world.
754
00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:08,040
I would go there literally every day, 10 piece chivape with lepina.
755
00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:13,800
I was introduced, uh, I was introduced to Kaimak and now, you know, that's a big, uh, Kaimak
756
00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:14,800
at Ayvat.
757
00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:15,800
Oh God, I don't know.
758
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:18,240
I, Kaimak is really hard to find in the U.S.
759
00:37:18,240 --> 00:37:19,600
It's really hard to find in the U.S.
760
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:23,560
I can find Ayvat at basically any, you know, like international grocery store.
761
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:26,360
Kaimak is hard to come by and you can't just make that stuff.
762
00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:27,520
Yeah.
763
00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:28,720
You stole my last question.
764
00:37:28,720 --> 00:37:32,360
You probably, I guess you mentioned you listened to some of my other podcasts.
765
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:33,360
Maybe you heard, you cheated.
766
00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:34,360
I did.
767
00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:35,360
I did.
768
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:36,360
I did hear you ask.
769
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:38,720
I did hear you ask about that question.
770
00:37:38,720 --> 00:37:43,720
But, but, uh, you know, I learned how to make, I learned how to make chivapa and I'm
771
00:37:43,720 --> 00:37:44,720
making chivapa from my family.
772
00:37:44,720 --> 00:37:46,280
So, we'd have big family parties and.
773
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:47,280
Wow, from scratch?
774
00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:48,280
Oh yeah.
775
00:37:48,280 --> 00:37:52,160
So, you're grinding the meat you're putting it together?
776
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:53,160
Not grinding.
777
00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:57,320
I mean, I would buy ground beef and ground pork, but everything else, yeah, you go throw
778
00:37:57,320 --> 00:38:02,120
in the salt, garlic, powder, onion, maybe either sometimes pulverized onions, sometimes
779
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:06,120
onion, powder depends on, you know, I've experimented with a bunch of stuff.
780
00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:09,520
Um, soda water, um, really?
781
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:13,120
So everybody kind of has their, that's just another thing that they would, they would,
782
00:38:13,120 --> 00:38:15,480
you know, it would, uh, tenderize the meat.
783
00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:17,000
That was something that somebody taught me.
784
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:21,200
A lot of people will put, uh, baking soda or baking powder in it instead of soda water.
785
00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:25,280
But one of the things I picked up, lots of garlic creations, love garlic, never go wrong
786
00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:27,720
with garlic.
787
00:38:27,720 --> 00:38:30,840
And then, you know, some people like to cook on a barbecue, some people like to cook on
788
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:34,480
a flat grill, you know, you have hard headed creations, you just have their way of doing
789
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:35,480
things.
790
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,240
So it depends on who you ask, you know, what way you cook it.
791
00:38:38,240 --> 00:38:42,560
So I, I've been making chivapa for probably the last four years a lot and I make it for
792
00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:45,280
all my American friends and they all love it.
793
00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:50,000
Um, recently, as of like the last two months, I've learned how to make lepinyang goulash,
794
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:51,840
just been crushing lepinyang goulash.
795
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:52,840
Wow.
796
00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:53,840
And stuff.
797
00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:54,840
Goulash is easy.
798
00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:56,560
I'm not very good at kneading bread.
799
00:38:56,560 --> 00:39:00,200
That's a, that's a learning like, you know, when the, like when the yeast is risen and
800
00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:04,840
when that's ready to bake and that stuff's hard, but I've made it good a few times and
801
00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:05,840
it's pretty damn good.
802
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:06,840
Yeah.
803
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:09,800
Well, you weren't kidding then when you said you really been getting into the, into the
804
00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:10,800
food.
805
00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:12,560
Really, really been getting into the food.
806
00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:15,400
I mean, I went to Croatian, I just thought it was like the greatest food on earth and
807
00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:19,240
I'm just like, God, people have no, people have no clue how good Croatian food is.
808
00:39:19,240 --> 00:39:22,280
I was like every day, and I mean, I gained so much.
809
00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:25,280
I think I went there for like 15 days and gained like 11 pounds.
810
00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:26,280
I was eating.
811
00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:28,440
I was just nonstop eating.
812
00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:32,400
I think every day I'd wake up the breakfast we'd go to, you know, my family, the family
813
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:33,960
I'd stay with the most there from Zugopoy.
814
00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:37,960
It's a little town, village town about 15 minutes outside of Split.
815
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:44,600
And we'd wake up and go to Tommy in the grocery store, go grab a buttec, you know, meso buttec.
816
00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:47,160
I go crush buttec for breakfast.
817
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:50,960
For lunch, I'd go to Compton Pallina and just go crush like a 10 or 15 piece of office
818
00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:52,280
sandwich.
819
00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:53,960
For dinner, it was miacano meso.
820
00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:58,480
And it was just meat potatoes, nonstop, every single night.
821
00:39:58,480 --> 00:39:59,480
And I would just like it heaven.
822
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:00,840
This is the greatest stuff ever.
823
00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:04,200
There's a lot of goulash, a lot of chivate.
824
00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:09,920
I love purršut and Croatia's just got some of the best purršut in the world.
825
00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:13,480
Crushing like I said, miacano meso.
826
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:16,600
The first, I got there, got off the plane, family had a pekka ready for me.
827
00:40:16,600 --> 00:40:19,240
I didn't even know a pekka was a thing.
828
00:40:19,240 --> 00:40:21,200
I said, oh, that is just a delicacy.
829
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:23,720
People don't understand how good a pekka is.
830
00:40:23,720 --> 00:40:24,960
That's a different animal.
831
00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:29,120
I was just like, you know, this is the best stuff ever.
832
00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:34,040
So once I got home, I wanted to make sure I knew how to make it all.
833
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:35,840
And like I said, I've been teaching myself.
834
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:36,840
Wow.
835
00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:39,840
I might have to have you send me some of those recipes, especially the lepina.
836
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:40,840
Lepina, yeah.
837
00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:42,960
I just honestly just looked it up on YouTube.
838
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:47,840
There's actually a Bosnia lady who's just her YouTube channel is Zlataneruke, Golden
839
00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:51,280
Hands, and I just, for whatever reason, just thought that was the best thing I've ever
840
00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:53,680
been following her recipe and it actually works pretty well.
841
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:58,920
So I just got to get a hot oven, get some water, yeast, salt, sugar, and some flour,
842
00:40:58,920 --> 00:40:59,920
and you're good to go.
843
00:40:59,920 --> 00:41:00,920
It's actually pretty simple.
844
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:02,320
A lot of Croatian food is very simple.
845
00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:04,880
It's a lot of flavor, but it's all very simple.
846
00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:07,400
Now, are you a seafood fan at all?
847
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:08,400
Not huge.
848
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:09,400
I mean, you mentioned the pekkas.
849
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:10,400
Not huge.
850
00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:13,000
I know there's, you know, you have like octopus pekka and you have stuff like that.
851
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:16,880
And you know, especially with a lot of my families from Dalmatia, especially Split, you
852
00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:19,200
know, it's really easy to get a lot of good seafood there.
853
00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:21,640
I was never a huge seafood person.
854
00:41:21,640 --> 00:41:23,840
You know, maybe whitefish if anything.
855
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:28,040
So I, but you know, eventually I'll go back and I will definitely eat more of seafood.
856
00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:32,440
And I got a whole checklist of things I want to do when I go back and I hope to God next
857
00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:33,560
summer I can go back.
858
00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:39,600
But you know, going to Croatia was kind of, it was like a, it was, it was a huge trip
859
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:40,960
for me just as my first time going.
860
00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:43,960
It's the only time I've been and it was a good perspective for me.
861
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:47,880
And it was kind of, you know, I would tell people, well, we went for 15 days.
862
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:48,880
We went all over the country.
863
00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:53,560
You know, we landed in Split, drove up to Zagreb, spent the night in Bielovar, had a
864
00:41:53,560 --> 00:41:58,320
lot of family in Bielovar, actually went to Vukovar and E-look spent the night in E-look
865
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:05,120
and drove back to Zagreb for three nights, came back down the coast, stopped in Zadar,
866
00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:09,720
saw one of my grand puzzle caretakers in Zadar for a few hours and then kind of spent the
867
00:42:09,720 --> 00:42:14,280
rest of the time in Split, took a day trip to Medjugorje and Cheat Luke.
868
00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:18,560
And you know, I would tell people there's, you know, there's two things that kind of
869
00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:21,800
changed the way I looked at the world from that trip.
870
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:26,680
And it was going to Vukovar and seeing my grandpa's village in Blatnica and Cheat Luke,
871
00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:30,880
you know, you go to Vukovar and you just kind of understand, you know, everything that happened
872
00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:33,000
there and how bloody it was.
873
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:37,520
And you see, you know, it was a really, you know, I hate to say it was a cool trip for
874
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:42,520
me because obviously it's, you know, it's very gory and, you know, it's not easy to
875
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:48,320
go, but, you know, going to Vukovar, seeing the hospital, going to Ulvachada, seeing the
876
00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:53,160
barn there and everything, it's a lot deeper than just, you know, hearing about it, reading
877
00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:56,040
an article about it or watching a YouTube video about it.
878
00:42:56,040 --> 00:43:01,600
And I've actually, you know, started to educate myself a lot more about the war and about,
879
00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:04,560
you know, what corrections we're doing to fight for freedom and everything.
880
00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:08,120
And, you know, I had a lot of family that was there during the war.
881
00:43:08,120 --> 00:43:11,240
And like I said, I'd hear stories and they're horrible, but actually going to Vukovar and
882
00:43:11,240 --> 00:43:12,240
seeing it firsthand.
883
00:43:12,240 --> 00:43:15,200
And my grandpa had a caretaker.
884
00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:16,400
She was from Vinkovsi.
885
00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:17,840
Her name was Orca.
886
00:43:17,840 --> 00:43:22,040
And you know, hearing stories from her and driving through Vinkovsi is, you know, it's
887
00:43:22,040 --> 00:43:26,240
pretty sad, but it's, but you know, it's, it's, I think it's really important for all
888
00:43:26,240 --> 00:43:31,120
Croatians to see and to understand, you know, what they fought for and everything.
889
00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:34,760
I think that's a very worthwhile trip for all people to do.
890
00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:39,240
And it's, it's just a very big part of our culture, you know, and especially, you know,
891
00:43:39,240 --> 00:43:43,640
coming as such a new country that so little people know about, I think it's really important
892
00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:48,240
to see, you know, everything that we fought for and, and all that.
893
00:43:48,240 --> 00:43:49,920
And I think that's like another bucket list.
894
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:52,520
And I don't know if I'd say bucket list, but another important thing I don't want to see
895
00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:57,800
when I go back is going to, you know, where Operation Storm and where we kind of the last,
896
00:43:57,800 --> 00:43:59,720
won our last battle to kind of end the war.
897
00:43:59,720 --> 00:44:01,440
I think that's something that I'd kind of want to see.
898
00:44:01,440 --> 00:44:02,440
Yeah.
899
00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:03,440
The anniversary was just the other day.
900
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:04,440
I saw that.
901
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:05,440
Yeah.
902
00:44:05,440 --> 00:44:10,240
I saw that I had some cousins there with a little, I feel, I forget what they call it,
903
00:44:10,240 --> 00:44:14,280
but with the horse and the competitions and all that, it's really cool.
904
00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:15,280
Horse competitions.
905
00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:20,040
It's some competition vary or I think it's in Knie, but I don't know if we are Operation
906
00:44:20,040 --> 00:44:23,560
Storm, the anniversary was the other day, but that's another whole different.
907
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:28,000
I feel if it's in Knie or if it's not in Knie, it's in another city, but there was
908
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:30,720
some big competitions at the other day.
909
00:44:30,720 --> 00:44:35,560
That was another war in the 1700s, but some other cool stuff, you know, just cultural
910
00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:38,280
stuff that I think is really cool to see.
911
00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:43,280
And but, you know, it's vocal about, like I said, and then going to see my grandpa's
912
00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:48,920
village and Blatnitsa, you know, Blatnitsa is just like, it's a really, really tiny
913
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:53,480
village that I probably barely anybody ever knows about.
914
00:44:53,480 --> 00:44:57,000
And, you know, my grandpa, he grew up, or not, sorry.
915
00:44:57,000 --> 00:44:58,800
I grew up in my grandpa.
916
00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:00,760
He had pretty, he had pretty good dementia.
917
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:05,520
So, you know, he would kind of say outlandish stuff sometimes.
918
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:09,000
And he would always say, Mathe Bulic was from Blatnitsa.
919
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:11,760
And we never believed him because Blatnitsa is just this tiny little village.
920
00:45:11,760 --> 00:45:16,960
I'm talking a few hundred people, you know, one, two, 300 people outside in the, in Cheat
921
00:45:16,960 --> 00:45:17,960
Luke.
922
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:21,440
And one day we looked it up and Mathe Bulic was actually from Blatnitsa.
923
00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:25,080
And my dad just flipped out like, oh my God, Yank was right.
924
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:30,680
There's no joke, but, but I think going to see his house, I mean, we're talking about
925
00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:35,160
a stone house the size of my living room, you know, and slept on the floors.
926
00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:38,240
And another thing that I don't want to do when I go back is to go see my grandma's
927
00:45:38,240 --> 00:45:39,240
village.
928
00:45:39,240 --> 00:45:41,000
And I know my aunt has been there.
929
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:44,720
And you know, she always told me, Baca slept on a stone bed.
930
00:45:44,720 --> 00:45:49,560
And you know, my grandpa, he escaped from Yugoslavia, you know, him and his best friend
931
00:45:49,560 --> 00:45:56,120
Swam a River over on the Slovenia border to go into Austria.
932
00:45:56,120 --> 00:46:02,240
And he would always tell us, you know, we would hear stories about him and refugee camp in
933
00:46:02,240 --> 00:46:06,160
Austria and all these, all these things that he was doing to just hopefully get an opportunity
934
00:46:06,160 --> 00:46:07,160
to come over to America.
935
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:11,480
And, you know, he was fortunate enough to have a good life in America and set up his
936
00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:16,360
own set up his own business and really, you know, built that Croatian community in Sacramento
937
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:20,160
and are really tight knit and I've never been to the Croatian hole in Sacramento.
938
00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:24,760
No, actually, I think I've only been to I haven't even been to the San Pedro Hall.
939
00:46:24,760 --> 00:46:29,360
I've like stuck around at the LA community and now I wish I even traveled, you know,
940
00:46:29,360 --> 00:46:30,360
like the Canada.
941
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:31,360
I know they have some big ones.
942
00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:35,360
Pittsburgh, Cleveland, yes, yes, Chicago, all of those places.
943
00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:36,760
Yeah, I wish I would have.
944
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:40,360
I've like I said, I've only I've only really spent time at our hole.
945
00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:41,360
I've never been to St. Anthony's.
946
00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:42,840
I really want to come to St. Anthony's.
947
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:49,120
But, you know, I never understood what a huge impact my family had on the Croatian community
948
00:46:49,120 --> 00:46:52,960
until like one of those big things for me is I was actually going to a big baseball event
949
00:46:52,960 --> 00:46:58,720
down in down in Long Beach area code games.
950
00:46:58,720 --> 00:47:02,280
And we were me and my dad were driving down there and you know, I'd followed LA of Anthony
951
00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:06,720
on social media and I saw that they were in San Pedro.
952
00:47:06,720 --> 00:47:10,120
So you know, watching there is a big San Pedro watch party for the World Cup.
953
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:12,040
And I told my dad, I said, Hey, well, we're driving down there.
954
00:47:12,040 --> 00:47:13,960
I wouldn't mind stopping by in San Pedro.
955
00:47:13,960 --> 00:47:15,680
You know, he goes, Oh, yeah, sure.
956
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:18,920
We're actually really close family friends with the old mayor of Rancho Palos, very
957
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:19,920
Jerry Duhovic.
958
00:47:19,920 --> 00:47:25,760
He's from, you know, I think he's from down there, but very, very close family friends
959
00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:26,760
with them.
960
00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:30,480
So I was like, Yeah, we can go see Jerry, you know, we can go to San Pedro.
961
00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:32,440
So we walked into San Pedro is actually funny.
962
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:33,680
And we didn't know what to do.
963
00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:36,080
We didn't know if anybody would be there and not so just kind of walked in the front door
964
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:41,360
and there's all these old older men and they're all watching TV with donuts.
965
00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:45,160
They're all just sitting around on a round table with a with donuts watching TV.
966
00:47:45,160 --> 00:47:46,160
And I look at what they're watching.
967
00:47:46,160 --> 00:47:49,560
And you know, they have Croatian TV and we always had Croatian TV for my grandpa.
968
00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:52,480
So I was familiar with it, you know, HRT and all that.
969
00:47:52,480 --> 00:47:56,240
So I look at what they're watching and they're watching a rowing competition.
970
00:47:56,240 --> 00:47:58,560
And I go, I'm like, I'm looking at it close.
971
00:47:58,560 --> 00:48:01,960
And I remember I got a cousin in Croatia told me slavs much check who's the cousin who's
972
00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:07,560
the captain of one of the rowing teams that they're watching the top rowing the top.
973
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:09,760
It's I think it's called like argument the top rowing team.
974
00:48:09,760 --> 00:48:12,640
So they're literally watching one of my cousins rowing competition.
975
00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:13,640
This is awesome.
976
00:48:13,640 --> 00:48:19,080
And then, you know, they have like this little founders room and they have all and everything
977
00:48:19,080 --> 00:48:20,240
with all these names on it.
978
00:48:20,240 --> 00:48:22,760
And I was just reading, I was just kind of looking at it and not expecting much.
979
00:48:22,760 --> 00:48:27,320
All of a sudden, Yonko Su shots pops up and I was like, Oh my God, you're telling me like
980
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:31,960
my grandpa was one of the, you know, it's a seven hour drive down to San Pedro from Sacramento
981
00:48:31,960 --> 00:48:35,840
and he was donating all this money and time to help them set up their community here.
982
00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:39,880
And then like as I was saying before, you know, he had dementia and we actually ended
983
00:48:39,880 --> 00:48:42,080
up having to put him into a care home.
984
00:48:42,080 --> 00:48:45,760
And then kind of when we moved him out, we started going through his office and he had
985
00:48:45,760 --> 00:48:52,280
all these, all these letters in his office and all these DVD or like VCR tapes in his
986
00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:53,880
office.
987
00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:56,280
And he had, he had some letters.
988
00:48:56,280 --> 00:49:01,480
It was a thank you letter from the Milwaukee soccer Croatian soccer club.
989
00:49:01,480 --> 00:49:06,480
And they were saying, Hey, thank you for your donation to the soccer club and everything
990
00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:13,040
and just sent this nice, you know, this nice letter and all these VCR tapes of all these,
991
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:16,880
you know, when the war was going on, we were doing a lot of stuff with the news and they
992
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:20,320
were coming to the club and the news was filming all because that was, you know, it was big
993
00:49:20,320 --> 00:49:24,440
news as modern day Europe has this horrible war going on.
994
00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:29,480
And you know, my dad was helping a lot being a spokesman and, you know, bringing awareness
995
00:49:29,480 --> 00:49:30,480
to the situation.
996
00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:34,840
And we got all these tapes and stuff of, of them on TV, of them on the local news talking
997
00:49:34,840 --> 00:49:37,440
about, you know, trying to help out Croatia and the war and everything.
998
00:49:37,440 --> 00:49:40,520
So it's all these cool little things that I kind of found out like, wow, you know, my
999
00:49:40,520 --> 00:49:46,840
family just has this, this huge impact in, in, in the Northern California Croatian community.
1000
00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:50,040
And there's all these different, all these different companies that got set up, you know,
1001
00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:51,760
my grandpa started Yankee Electric.
1002
00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:56,560
There was Eminem printing, which was like a business card printing shop.
1003
00:49:56,560 --> 00:50:01,320
There was J&J body shop, which is still around, still where I go and get my, my truck fixed
1004
00:50:01,320 --> 00:50:02,320
and everything is Latko Vasil.
1005
00:50:02,320 --> 00:50:07,360
It was Latko and Jozo Vasil, you know, they set up a nice shop and everything.
1006
00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:14,040
There was my cousin, or not my cousin, my, my uncle set up Steve's, Steve's California
1007
00:50:14,040 --> 00:50:17,120
kitchen, his name was Stojan.
1008
00:50:17,120 --> 00:50:18,600
He set up a, he set up a kitchen.
1009
00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:23,160
All these, you know, people from Croatia just kind of became entrepreneurs and had these
1010
00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:24,840
great little success stories in Sacramento.
1011
00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:28,560
And it was really cool and, you know, I'm not sure, are you familiar with a good each
1012
00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:29,560
wine?
1013
00:50:29,560 --> 00:50:30,560
Yeah, yeah, of course.
1014
00:50:30,560 --> 00:50:31,560
From Napa Valley.
1015
00:50:31,560 --> 00:50:32,560
Yeah.
1016
00:50:32,560 --> 00:50:37,000
So there, you know, Melyanko came from, from Croatia and another very close family friend
1017
00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:41,920
of ours and he helped kind of, you know, pioneer the Napa Valley wine scene and all that.
1018
00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:45,160
And he was always a big donor for the Croatian extravaganza.
1019
00:50:45,160 --> 00:50:48,640
And, you know, actually it's funny, my aunt Christina, she was the one who came up with
1020
00:50:48,640 --> 00:50:51,840
the idea to, to set up the extravaganza.
1021
00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:55,520
She was 19 years old in 1983, they decided to have their first extravaganza.
1022
00:50:55,520 --> 00:51:01,120
Because, you know, before that, my, you know, he was the one who had founded the land to
1023
00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:02,720
build the hall on.
1024
00:51:02,720 --> 00:51:04,600
And it was, it wasn't much of a hall back then.
1025
00:51:04,600 --> 00:51:08,320
I think he founded it in 75 and it was just a land and they would kind of have these little
1026
00:51:08,320 --> 00:51:11,240
picnics and stuff and make a buck every year in there.
1027
00:51:11,240 --> 00:51:14,960
And, you know, his daughter Christina, she just kind of had the idea like, hey, we should
1028
00:51:14,960 --> 00:51:20,120
do an extravaganza and bring awareness to, you know, all these Croatians who have these
1029
00:51:20,120 --> 00:51:22,680
businesses and everything set up and she started the extravaganza.
1030
00:51:22,680 --> 00:51:25,800
And to this day, it's still our biggest fundraiser every year.
1031
00:51:25,800 --> 00:51:29,360
My dad is the vice president of the Croatian American Cultural Center, the art club and
1032
00:51:29,360 --> 00:51:30,360
everything.
1033
00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:35,320
And then his brother Nick actually built the place, you know, and in the mid 90s, we just,
1034
00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:38,360
they decided like, hey, you know, they were kind of running everything out of the corner
1035
00:51:38,360 --> 00:51:41,640
in the shed and almost out of like a shed.
1036
00:51:41,640 --> 00:51:45,160
And they said, hey, we should actually build a hall and start renting it out for weddings.
1037
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:49,160
So my brother Nick, who was a con, or my dad's brother Nick, who was a contractor and I'm
1038
00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:52,320
going to talk to each of the two main people who built this.
1039
00:51:52,320 --> 00:51:55,320
And like I said, you really got to come to Sacramento for one of these extravaganzas
1040
00:51:55,320 --> 00:51:57,120
and get everybody from LA to come up.
1041
00:51:57,120 --> 00:52:01,840
And it's a great party and it's just beautiful, beautiful grounds and it's a beautiful wedding
1042
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:04,280
hall with an indoor and outdoor venue.
1043
00:52:04,280 --> 00:52:05,520
And we have a great time.
1044
00:52:05,520 --> 00:52:06,920
We've gotten all sorts of big singers.
1045
00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:09,960
I know in the 90s, they actually got all over to show up.
1046
00:52:09,960 --> 00:52:15,920
They got, you know, Johnny Martian, Khrunoslav Khruslavinac to show up.
1047
00:52:15,920 --> 00:52:19,000
It was kind of my first like, you know, when I was a kid.
1048
00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:22,760
I never really went because I wasn't like, you know, I didn't know too much.
1049
00:52:22,760 --> 00:52:26,640
I just didn't like, you know, when I was 12 years old, I wasn't all about partying until
1050
00:52:26,640 --> 00:52:27,800
one in the morning and everything.
1051
00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:30,280
Obviously, I wasn't, you know, I didn't drink and everything.
1052
00:52:30,280 --> 00:52:35,600
So I think, I think in eighth grade in 2017, I went to Zlatko-Piakovich came and all my
1053
00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:38,880
cousins were like, Hey, let's go, you know, like, let's, let's have a great time at the
1054
00:52:38,880 --> 00:52:39,880
festival.
1055
00:52:39,880 --> 00:52:44,440
So I actually went and actually ended up dancing and everything until, you know, two in the
1056
00:52:44,440 --> 00:52:45,440
morning to Zlatko-Piakovich.
1057
00:52:45,440 --> 00:52:48,000
And I just thought it was the most fun thing ever.
1058
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:51,320
And that's when I really started getting into, Hey, we really got to go to Croatia.
1059
00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:54,160
You know, magazine came, we had all these clapa bands come.
1060
00:52:54,160 --> 00:52:55,920
We've had some awesome singers this year.
1061
00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:58,600
We had the Bravo band from Chicago and it was a really fun time.
1062
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:01,880
And obviously it was really cool meeting Petr, and Johnny and all of them.
1063
00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:03,280
And I can't wait for next year.
1064
00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:07,440
But, but yeah, as I was, you know, my family, it's, it's, they really have a big impact
1065
00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:10,000
on the Croatian scene up here in Sacramento.
1066
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:14,480
Well, yeah, it sounds like not only in Sacramento, but, you know, Milwaukee, San Pedro.
1067
00:53:14,480 --> 00:53:19,440
Yeah, and there's way more than that, there's a way more than that, that I never, that I
1068
00:53:19,440 --> 00:53:20,440
never saw.
1069
00:53:20,440 --> 00:53:24,160
But they were always, you know, going down to San Jose, San Francisco, doing all these
1070
00:53:24,160 --> 00:53:25,480
soccer tournaments and everything.
1071
00:53:25,480 --> 00:53:30,280
We started, you know, the, our family in the Jupans, they started all sorts of soccer teams
1072
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:32,920
up here in Sacramento, very competitive and everything.
1073
00:53:32,920 --> 00:53:37,240
And I know definitely down in LA and Canada, there's a big Croatian soccer scene over
1074
00:53:37,240 --> 00:53:38,240
there.
1075
00:53:38,240 --> 00:53:39,240
Yeah.
1076
00:53:39,240 --> 00:53:43,360
I mean, you mentioned how cool it is to see the, the reach that your family has and the
1077
00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:45,200
impact that they have in the Croatian community.
1078
00:53:45,200 --> 00:53:49,960
I mean, I felt the same way, you know, growing up and then finding out probably only recently,
1079
00:53:49,960 --> 00:53:55,200
the last couple of years that my dad was part of the Croatian radio program and he would,
1080
00:53:55,200 --> 00:53:59,520
you know, do a radio broadcast, put it on, get it on cassette, I guess, on tape and drive
1081
00:53:59,520 --> 00:54:03,240
it down to the radio station for them to play it on the weekend.
1082
00:54:03,240 --> 00:54:08,160
And you know, during the war, he went to DC with a group to help lobby for Croatia.
1083
00:54:08,160 --> 00:54:11,440
And you know, I don't know if you know the Maglites flashlights.
1084
00:54:11,440 --> 00:54:12,440
Yes.
1085
00:54:12,440 --> 00:54:13,440
Yes.
1086
00:54:13,440 --> 00:54:14,440
Yes.
1087
00:54:14,440 --> 00:54:15,440
Yeah.
1088
00:54:15,440 --> 00:54:16,440
Yeah.
1089
00:54:16,440 --> 00:54:17,440
Yeah.
1090
00:54:17,440 --> 00:54:18,440
Yeah.
1091
00:54:18,440 --> 00:54:21,480
My dad in a, you know, a big Croatian group from LA went down to the factory, which is
1092
00:54:21,480 --> 00:54:25,600
over there in LA and, you know, they're packing flashlights for supplies to send over
1093
00:54:25,600 --> 00:54:26,600
there and stuff like that.
1094
00:54:26,600 --> 00:54:27,600
That's awesome.
1095
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:28,600
That's awesome.
1096
00:54:28,600 --> 00:54:31,800
You know, you get a real big sense of pride when you hear things like that.
1097
00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:32,800
Right.
1098
00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:35,680
And I mean, yeah, it's just, I'm sure you had the same thing, but kind of you grew up
1099
00:54:35,680 --> 00:54:39,640
around it and you never realized how significant it was until you got older.
1100
00:54:39,640 --> 00:54:43,440
And you start to see all these people talking about, you know, unfortunately both my grandpa
1101
00:54:43,440 --> 00:54:48,480
and the other they both passed, but you know, when, you know, going, you know, seeing their
1102
00:54:48,480 --> 00:54:52,160
funerals and everything and seeing all these Croatian people come together and they talk
1103
00:54:52,160 --> 00:54:55,520
about what an unbelievable impact they had on the community.
1104
00:54:55,520 --> 00:54:58,760
It was, it was really eye-opening for me and it was really cool to see.
1105
00:54:58,760 --> 00:55:02,240
And it's like, it's like you said, it's, it's, you just get this big sense of pride
1106
00:55:02,240 --> 00:55:06,520
and, and Croatian are just, I think they're some of the most prideful people on earth.
1107
00:55:06,520 --> 00:55:07,520
Absolutely.
1108
00:55:07,520 --> 00:55:08,520
I agree.
1109
00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:12,200
And I think that Tonko, we're coming down here towards the end of the time.
1110
00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:15,800
You know, I wanted to thank you so much for, for coming on the podcast and you know, really
1111
00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:17,320
telling these awesome stories.
1112
00:55:17,320 --> 00:55:20,880
I swear I love that you guys were giving each other signs in Croatian.
1113
00:55:20,880 --> 00:55:22,880
That's so cool.
1114
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:25,480
It's like something that I wanted when I was in high school.
1115
00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:28,640
But you should have taught your catcher Croatian.
1116
00:55:28,640 --> 00:55:29,640
I know.
1117
00:55:29,640 --> 00:55:31,360
Well, I needed to learn Croatian first.
1118
00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:33,440
You probably knew more than I did back then.
1119
00:55:33,440 --> 00:55:34,440
I doubt it.
1120
00:55:34,440 --> 00:55:36,240
All I think I know is signs and how to swear.
1121
00:55:36,240 --> 00:55:37,760
That's all you need to know.
1122
00:55:37,760 --> 00:55:38,760
Yeah.
1123
00:55:38,760 --> 00:55:44,880
Well, swearing, yeah, that, that swearing has probably saved me on multiple occasions.
1124
00:55:44,880 --> 00:55:48,000
In fact, because if I said the things I said in Croatia, if I said them in English, I'd
1125
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:50,880
have some warnings that probably kicked out of a lot of games.
1126
00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:51,880
Yeah, that's true.
1127
00:55:51,880 --> 00:55:54,120
Yeah, you can't get kicked out if no one knows what you're saying.
1128
00:55:54,120 --> 00:56:00,000
I remember Petrovic, Dragan used to, I read something, he was like swearing at you in
1129
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:01,000
three languages.
1130
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:02,000
Who's?
1131
00:56:02,000 --> 00:56:04,000
Yeah, Regimil, Regimil said it.
1132
00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:05,000
Yeah.
1133
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:07,000
He'd swear you in four different languages.
1134
00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:13,360
And I'd always watch these Gorinimi, Yusufic videos where he's just screaming on the court
1135
00:56:13,360 --> 00:56:14,360
edge.
1136
00:56:14,360 --> 00:56:16,960
Oh, I'm not going to say it, but oh, there's so, you got to go look at the YouTube.
1137
00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:19,160
They're the funniest things on earth.
1138
00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:23,040
But yeah, that's all I know.
1139
00:56:23,040 --> 00:56:29,120
I'm not, yeah, you're going to have to send me some of those videos and the Lepinja recipes
1140
00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:30,120
in the Trabapi.
1141
00:56:30,120 --> 00:56:33,840
I'll send you Lepinja, I'll send you some Spotify playlists.
1142
00:56:33,840 --> 00:56:34,840
I'll send you it all.
1143
00:56:34,840 --> 00:56:36,840
Yeah, I might have to share some of that.
1144
00:56:36,840 --> 00:56:39,040
I'm happy to share any time.
1145
00:56:39,040 --> 00:56:42,040
All right, well, Tonko, thank you again so much.
1146
00:56:42,040 --> 00:56:44,600
Hopefully, next summer, you can make it out here.
1147
00:56:44,600 --> 00:56:46,640
I'll still be here.
1148
00:56:46,640 --> 00:56:49,920
We'll meet up over here for a coffee, as they say.
1149
00:56:49,920 --> 00:56:50,920
But actually, for beers.
1150
00:56:50,920 --> 00:56:53,120
That's a four hour, yeah, that's a four hour deal.
1151
00:56:53,120 --> 00:56:54,120
Yeah.
1152
00:56:54,120 --> 00:56:56,960
But yeah, I mean, yeah, I want to come to Croatia and I get to see a place I've never
1153
00:56:56,960 --> 00:56:59,760
been to do with me, I've never been to Makoská.
1154
00:56:59,760 --> 00:57:03,560
I'd like to explore Zagreb a little bit more, go island hopping, maybe.
1155
00:57:03,560 --> 00:57:05,720
There's a lot of stuff I really want to see go to Yusufic on all that.
1156
00:57:05,720 --> 00:57:06,920
Yeah, so much to see.
1157
00:57:06,920 --> 00:57:11,680
Hopefully, like I said, hey, I'm more than happy to meet up and everything and have a
1158
00:57:11,680 --> 00:57:12,680
good time in Croatia.
1159
00:57:12,680 --> 00:57:16,800
Yeah, and if I'm next time I'm back in the States, I'll have to hit up Sacramento and
1160
00:57:16,800 --> 00:57:17,800
go see one of those.
1161
00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:18,800
You've got to come to Sacramento.
1162
00:57:18,800 --> 00:57:22,200
Yeah, we've got to get second weekend of June every year is the Croatia's driving
1163
00:57:22,200 --> 00:57:23,200
into it.
1164
00:57:23,200 --> 00:57:27,520
And we're trying really hard to get that younger, the younger generation.
1165
00:57:27,520 --> 00:57:31,000
A lot of that is in San Jose and San Francisco and LA.
1166
00:57:31,000 --> 00:57:32,440
So we're trying to get more and more people to come up.
1167
00:57:32,440 --> 00:57:37,640
We need LA Vaternita to do some advertising for us and to get a nice big group up here
1168
00:57:37,640 --> 00:57:41,120
and just go have a big three day long party.
1169
00:57:41,120 --> 00:57:44,600
Yeah, it's LA Vaternita as a consulting group up there.
1170
00:57:44,600 --> 00:57:46,720
I hope you're listening.
1171
00:57:46,720 --> 00:57:49,160
I'm sure they will be.
1172
00:57:49,160 --> 00:57:51,400
All right, well, Tonko, thank you again so much, man.
1173
00:57:51,400 --> 00:57:55,800
I really appreciate it and good luck in next year's season and looking forward to a bright
1174
00:57:55,800 --> 00:57:56,800
future from you.
1175
00:57:56,800 --> 00:57:57,800
Thank you.
1176
00:57:57,800 --> 00:57:58,800
Thank you very much.
1177
00:57:58,800 --> 00:57:59,800
I appreciate it.
1178
00:57:59,800 --> 00:58:05,000
That's it for today's episode of the All Things Croatia podcast.
1179
00:58:05,000 --> 00:58:07,400
Thanks for tuning in and I hope you all enjoyed it.
1180
00:58:07,400 --> 00:58:11,480
You can subscribe to the Patreon and check out the All Things Croatia Instagram page
1181
00:58:11,480 --> 00:58:13,000
to stay updated.
1182
00:58:13,000 --> 00:58:17,480
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions, tips or ideas and make sure to tune back into
1183
00:58:17,480 --> 00:58:19,000
the next episode.
1184
00:58:19,000 --> 00:58:31,160
Thanks again and vidimosen.