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On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy watches a video from CNBC on the automotive technician shortage and actually agrees with most of it. There is however, one big thing that they kinda skimmed over that we wanted to elaborate on: passion. Having passion for cars and having the passion to fix them for a living are two different things. With the sheer number of things in modern life that you can be passionate about, it is no wonder why people have put their cars on the back burner even as they rely on them more and more. However, to explore this, Uncle Jimmy talks about another thing that he is passionate about to try to make a more mainstream comparison. Baseball is one of the world’s most popular sports, and there are a lot of similarities between it and the Automotive Industry at large. The brands are like teams- they rise and fall, have good times and bad. Sometimes the lineup is full of big bats, and sometimes they strike out. The shops that we work in are kind of like the stadiums that ball players play in- they have a variety of build dates and feature a spectrum of amenities. Lube shops are basically the minor leagues, and we propose the position of “equipment manager” for a shop - wouldn’t that be awesome? There is a batting average for technicians, but you definitely want to be closer to 1.000, even with Ted Williams number’s your boss will probably want a word about 2 out of 3 cars being comebacks. Unfortunately, the pay scale is still closer to the first few episodes of the Ken Burn’s series Baseball because no one is offering any of us $440 million dollars to turn wrenches for 15 years.

Also Uncle Jimmy pitches HR departments using WAR (Repairs Against Replacement) in evaluating new-hires.

This episode is distributed by The Wrenching Network. Whether you're a technician, a mechanic, or someone who just loves the car scene, The Wrenching Network is a place that you have to check out. They have all sorts of great content, gear, and snacks to keep you turning wrenches in whatever capacity you do it. Also if you see us over there, make sure you say hi and leave a comment with what you think about the episode!