Latest / The Craig Way Show / Jared Sandler Talks Rangers Broadcast Changes, Second-Half Keys

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Jared Sandler Talks Rangers Broadcast Changes, Second-Half Keys · The Craig Way Show

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Here on a yacht rock Wednesday, here on thirteen under
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the Zone, Craig Way with you alongside the producer Jake Herman.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: We just heard quite a bit of recap and revamp
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: on the Baseball All Star Game. Jacob Lats had a
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: nice appearance in there when he got a big strikeout
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: in there from the Texas Ranger, speaking of which a
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: friend of ours, always really good to be able to
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: check in with a friend, Jared Sandler from the Texas
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Rangers Television and Radio Networks, who joins, I appreciate you
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: doing this, and before we even get into talking about
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: some of the nuts and bolts of what's to come
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: for the second half of the season and all that,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I've been meaning to ask you this for a time
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  Speaker 1: since the reconfiguration, if you will, of the regional networks
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  Speaker 1: and everything that's gone on, you and the crew have
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  Speaker 1: done a marvelous job in just kind of I'm not
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: gonna say reinventing, but what you've had to do in
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: terms of the pregame and the post game show. So
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate the time, and I'm curious to get your
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: thoughts on how all that kind of molded together to
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: have the cohesive pregame and post game and in game
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: things that you guys do.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate it. I think a big part of
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: it is that.
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  Speaker 3: And I know this is gonna sound super cliche, like
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  Speaker 3: I'm an athlete after a game on the podium, but
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  Speaker 3: we really have a great team, and you know, we
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  Speaker 3: all get along. All the people on air get along,
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  Speaker 3: and so you know, it allows us to do things together,
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  Speaker 3: be willing to do things together.
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  Speaker 2: And we also have a bunch of people.
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  Speaker 3: Who I think are willing to fail, right, willing to
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  Speaker 3: try things. And you know, we've done some stuff on
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  Speaker 3: air where it's like, oh, you know, I don't know
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  Speaker 3: that anyone's really done this. This could make us look
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  Speaker 3: like a bunch of idiots. It could you know, it
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  Speaker 3: could work. But we got a bunch of people without
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  Speaker 3: egos who are are willing to try things, go off
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  Speaker 3: the cuff, have some fun and uh and and and
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  Speaker 3: we've had a lot of fun doing it. And that's
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  Speaker 3: that's people on air and people on the production side
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  Speaker 3: as well.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, our goal when.
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  Speaker 3: We first started was to present the game on the
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  Speaker 3: pre and post side, you know, in a way that
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  Speaker 3: was more creative and more fun than your standard hey
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: three keys to the game, or score more runs and
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  Speaker 3: give up fewer runs and not make any errors, or
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  Speaker 3: you know whatever generic stuff that you know, a second
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  Speaker 3: grader knows. We wanted to teach the game, we wanted
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  Speaker 3: to have some fun with it, and hopefully been able
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  Speaker 3: to accomplish that. But uh, you know, we we definitely
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  Speaker 3: appreciate people giving us a chance to to do things
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  Speaker 3: differently because you know, we know that change is not
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: always met receptively, and I think we're learning that again
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: today with some of the changes that we announced. But uh,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we we appreciate that Rangers fans have been
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  Speaker 3: willing to give this new way of doing things a chance.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Before you mentioned that, I do the personal side. You
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  Speaker 1: get get to work with one of my favorite people
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: and producers on the planet and Patrick mcdrowsky.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, Pimo has said, like.
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  Speaker 1: The guru of producing what we do with high school
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  Speaker 1: football obviously what we've done over the past several years.
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  Speaker 1: And so it's for folks who don't know having a
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  Speaker 1: really good producer, having a really good director, having a
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  Speaker 1: good technical director, audio people.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's invaluable, isn't it. Yeah, No, it really is.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I for people who aren't you know, they've
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: never done TV before.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you hear the people on air see them.
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  Speaker 3: There's so many more people who who you know, play
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  Speaker 3: a role in all of this stuff. You know, we're not,
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  Speaker 3: at least I'm not smart enough, creative enough. It's sad
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  Speaker 3: enough to create the graphics or to you know, execute
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  Speaker 3: some of the elements that you see executed so seamlessly.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, you got so much going on in
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  Speaker 3: a broadcast, you know, I think one of the things
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  Speaker 3: that's been really cool is, uh, you know, our our
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  Speaker 3: Ranger Sports network social feed has shown live views or
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: I guess not live, but views of the truck while
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  Speaker 3: plays unfold in hindsight and you hear all the stuff
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  Speaker 3: going on. You see all the different screens and you
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  Speaker 3: know they roll read and this and that and all
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  Speaker 3: this lingo that I don't you know, I don't even
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  Speaker 3: know what it means.
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  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 3: And that's just one part of it, right. But Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: Patrick's awesome. You know, he's you know, he's really helped
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  Speaker 3: lead the charge on all fronts.
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  Speaker 2: Uh. And uh, you know he's someone who you know.
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  Speaker 3: You don't hear his name a lot maybe you hear
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  Speaker 3: it when Dave reads the you know, the ending script
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  Speaker 3: and you see the you know, the credits to our
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  Speaker 3: final show or to the show at the end. But
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  Speaker 3: Patrick mcdrowsky has been an m VP of this whole process,
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  Speaker 3: and it's been a lot of fun to get the
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  Speaker 3: chance to work with him.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe that tell everybody about the change, just
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: so they'll know what's going on with regard UH. Those
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: who have been accustomed to seeing uh, seeing you and
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  Speaker 1: seeing Dave, Raymond and and and the rest of the crew.
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  Speaker 1: Were these telecasts now because it's a little bit different
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  Speaker 1: when it's going to come to the streaming now, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So I'll try, you know, be as concise as possible.
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  Speaker 3: This will hitting on some of the you know, the
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  Speaker 3: important points. First of all, if you did not watch
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  Speaker 3: Rangers games through Victory Plus, if you watched it through
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  Speaker 3: some other means nothing, you're not impacted at all. So
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  Speaker 3: this only impacts people who watch games on Victory Plus
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  Speaker 3: as they're direct to consumer streaming option in market, which
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  Speaker 3: I say only, I mean that that is a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people. But this does not impact everyone. So I've
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: already had some people for whom this does not impact
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  Speaker 3: won or well, how does this you know, I watch
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  Speaker 3: it on Spectrum, I watch it on Direct TV.
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  Speaker 2: What do I do now?
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  Speaker 3: Well, that's not going to change, you know. Unfortunately, you know,
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  Speaker 3: Today's not usually when you make some announcement like this,
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  Speaker 3: you think, oh, this is great, big changes whatever this
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  Speaker 3: There's nothing about today that's a celebration or a win
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  Speaker 3: for anyone. Fortunately, the Rangers felt like the relationship with
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: our previous streaming provider, Victory Plus, had gotten to a
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  Speaker 3: point where, you know, the Rangers needed to preemptively and
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  Speaker 3: proactively make a change. I'm not you know, I it's
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  Speaker 3: not my place to necessarily share any of the specifics
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  Speaker 3: for you know, from my legal purposes, but you know,
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  Speaker 3: their third party outlets like Awful Announcing and Sports Business
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  Speaker 3: journal I think even local outlets like the Dallas Morning
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  Speaker 3: News have kind of reported what exactly is going on.
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  Speaker 3: I also share that I think an hour ago the
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  Speaker 3: Anaheim Duck severtise with Victory Plus. So you know, this
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: was not a change the Rangers wanted to make. There's
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: no benefit for the Rangers, a first place team to
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: make a big change like this, and it is a
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  Speaker 3: big change in the middle of the season without months
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: of runway to help get everyone on board and orient them.
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  Speaker 3: But a change was necessary to make sure that the
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  Speaker 3: Rangers had to direct to consumer streaming option in market.
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  Speaker 3: And I think the priority and I can also say
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  Speaker 3: that this is not some money making move. The Rangers
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  Speaker 3: are not. They're losing money in this whole equation, not
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  Speaker 3: making money unfortunately because of what's gone on with the
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: previous carrier. And you know, the priority was to find
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  Speaker 3: a service that was going to be able to honor
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  Speaker 3: the subscriptions for existing Victory Plus subscribers. And so in
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  Speaker 3: Buzzer BZZR, which is the new streaming platform as of
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  Speaker 3: I guess technically now, but will really be introduced on
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  Speaker 3: Friday when the second half begins, if you have a
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  Speaker 3: Victory or had a Victory Plus subscription, that will be
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  Speaker 3: honored at no additional cost. And that was I know,
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  Speaker 3: a priority so that fans didn't have to double play.
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  Speaker 2: There were there were maybe.
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  Speaker 3: More prominent services that would be a little more widely
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  Speaker 3: accessible as we speak right now, but they were going
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  Speaker 3: to make fans double pay, and the Rangers didn't feel
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  Speaker 3: like that was appropriate. Buzzers, excuse me, Greig and you
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  Speaker 3: were platform and it will become.
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  Speaker 2: More and more available. You know, there are a lot of.
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  Speaker 3: People working hard to try and make that happen as
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  Speaker 3: soon as possible. But you know, I get that there
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  Speaker 3: are a lot of fans who are kind of thrown off,
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  Speaker 3: you know, and it is either're frustrated, they're confused.
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  Speaker 2: I get that.
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  Speaker 3: I wish, you know, I wish that there were you know,
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  Speaker 3: there was a button I could press to alleviate all concerns.
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  Speaker 3: I will say, you know, the Rangers have created an
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  Speaker 3: email in partnership with Buzzer.
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  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 2: It's t X Rangers at dz z R dot com. Uh.
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  Speaker 3: That's probably the best way to get immediate help without
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: sitting on hold for a long time. As you can imagine,
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: there are a lot of people calling the phones to
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: try and get answers, but that email address is the
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  Speaker 3: best way to try and get some of those questions answered.
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  Speaker 3: But again, I'll just say, you know, you can read
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  Speaker 3: the tea leaves. There's some bread crumb crumbs that point
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  Speaker 3: towards stuff as to why the change was was made.
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  Speaker 3: It is not something that anyone wanted to have to
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  Speaker 3: do in the middle of a season.
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  Speaker 2: And I know the Rangers understand this. You know, I
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  Speaker 2: was just talking to Dave Raymond.
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  Speaker 3: We understand this that there are a lot of fans
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  Speaker 3: who now are even at minimum, you know, you're tech savvy,
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  Speaker 3: you're aligned well with this. At minimum, you still have
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  Speaker 3: to go through the trouble of downloading a new app.
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  Speaker 3: But there are a lot of people maybe that app
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  Speaker 3: is not compatible yet with whatever service they have. You know,
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: maybe you're not tech savvy, so just downloading a new
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  Speaker 3: app is not as easy for you as it is
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  Speaker 3: for some people. We get all that it would it
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  Speaker 3: would not be anyone's objective to take a first place
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  Speaker 3: team and make it difficult for more difficult for people
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  Speaker 3: to consume their games. But unfortunately the Rangers were in
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  Speaker 3: a position where they felt like they needed to make
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  Speaker 3: this decision so that a direct to consumer option was
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  Speaker 3: just even that an option, because there are fears that
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  Speaker 3: that would perhaps not be the case.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and again to review what you're saying for those
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  Speaker 1: who are watching and whether like a direct TV like
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I have, or or Spectrum or the Friday night games
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: here in Mark in the Austin market and kb kb
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: v O and the CW all of that is still intact.
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  Speaker 1: All of that remains in play again. And I would
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  Speaker 1: also say this is kind of emblematic of what's going
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: on with other regional sports networks across the country. Right
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the potteries had to go through Diamondbacks Rocky. I mean,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: there were several teams that have had to go through
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: these types of things.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you know, it's a it's a new landscape,
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  Speaker 3: and you know.
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  Speaker 2: Thankfully things have gone great.
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  Speaker 3: You know with RSN as a whole, you know, the
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  Speaker 3: Rangers efforted not to provide just one path for people
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  Speaker 3: to consume games, but you know, an in market streaming
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  Speaker 3: option as well as uh, you know, the over the
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: air options like you mentioned on Fridays on CW and
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: then you know your standard distributors like Direct TV or Spectrum.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, there obviously have been some bumps along
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: the way, but you know, we feel really good about
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  Speaker 3: what we've been able to to uh check off and
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  Speaker 3: achieve up to this point, and unfortunately, you know, something
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  Speaker 3: kind of out of our control. Again, I would encourage
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: people if you want more answers, UH, Sports Business Journal
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: awful announcing Dallas Morning News, and I'm sure even now
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: other outlets and you know, look to southern California with
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: the Anaheim Duck severing ties of victory, plus that there's
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: just stuff that's kind of out of out.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Of our control.
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  Speaker 3: And I think the Rangers and all the people who
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: are tasked with these decisions, that's you know.
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  Speaker 2: Way above my pay grade.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know, have been working really hard the last
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: however much amount of time to try and figure out
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: the best way to move forward. And but I get it,
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: you know, I understand that change is not it's not easy,
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: it's not fun, and I understand, and you'll feel for
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: the fans who are really frustrated right now. Hopefully, uh,
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: you know, you find that the transition is easy, but
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: understandably that's not going to be the case for everyone.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, hopefully we can you know, work together
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: to find a strong path forward.
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  Speaker 2: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: And I did not mean to make most of our
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: time together about this. So I'll do this.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I understand, I mean, I and I'll just I'll
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: end with this, like I I don't want to come
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: off as like I'm just relaying you know, some pr spin.
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  Speaker 2: I get it, you know, I at heart, before I.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Took this job, I'm a Rangers fan, and if I
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: didn't have the ability to watch the Rangers, you know,
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: I'd be really frustrated and it might be tough to
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: to absorb this now, But I think this move was
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: made to ensure that as many people in market and
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: out of market have the ability.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: To watch the Rangers through one means or the other.
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  Speaker 3: It just there's a little bit of an adjustment with
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: this transition, and hopefully we can get through it smoothly.
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  Speaker 2: Great.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Before we get done here, I want to I want
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: to ask you this as the second half gets underway,
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  Speaker 1: what in your mind is the most important thing to
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: happen in order for this ball club to maintain first
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: place or make sure they're a postseason participant, get it,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: whether it's wild card, winning the division, whatever, what needs
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: to happen more than anything else.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: Jared, Yeah, you know, it would be amazing if you
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: could keep White, Langford and Corey Seeker healthy for as
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: many games as possible. I think you've got to have
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: one of those guys though, and you know thankfully right
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: now why it's healthy. Hopefully we can get Corey back
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: in the next week or two. It's just awfully tough
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: to go one sixty two with your two best players
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: giving you less than half the games worth of production.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: That's, you know, not their fault.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: You know, they're not trying to get hurt, but that's
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: just the reality of what the Rangers have faced. I
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: think the other thing, and I only put this second
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: because it's a little bit easier to address the bullpen,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: but the bullpen, the bullpen's leaking, you know, injuries and
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: maybe exposure and whatnot.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: They're doing the best they can.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: I mean, this was not a bullpen that on paper
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: should have been as good as it was for as
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: long as it was. But you know, the bullpen's in
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: a position now where some reinforcements are needed, and so
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: hopefully between now and the trade deadline, the front office
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: is able to make some moves, and usually bullpen moves
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: unless you're trying to get in a top end closer,
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: which the Rangers don't need because they have in Jacob
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: Latz with the ways perform, but just some guys to
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: help get you from the sixth to the seventh to
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: the eighth to give the ball to Jacob Latz. You know,
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: I think some bullpend depth is going to be really
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: important for this ball club.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: All right, Hey, we will check in with you again
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: when we get down the going down the stretch of
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the Pennant Drive. And I really appreciate all the explanation.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: And it's always good to visit with you.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: And so I'm coming up for a ball game in
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. I'll try to hook up with
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: you by the fresh box. All right, I'll do it.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Jared. It's great to visit with you. Appreciate it. Craig,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: thanks so much.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: You bet.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: That's Jared Sandler from the Rangers TV and Radio Networks.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: We'll be back to wrap up today's edition of the
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: program on thirteen under the Zone.