Latest / Birdland Territory / Former Orioles manager Buck Showalter joins Birdland Territory!

Transcript

Former Orioles manager Buck Showalter joins Birdland Territory! · Birdland Territory

0:07
Speaker 1: Hey, welcome into a new addition of Birdland Territory. Steve,
0:11
Speaker 1: Brad and Tim and are three man. That grouping has
0:13
Speaker 1: been joined by a fourth who needs no introduction, but
0:16
Speaker 1: we'll give him one briefly. Bucks show Walter, the former
0:19
Speaker 1: skipper the Orioles seventeen hundred wins managing is the second
0:23
Speaker 1: winning is manager in Oiel history, behind the great Earl
0:26
Speaker 1: Weaver and Buck. You guys had some special times in Birdland.
0:30
Speaker 2: Man.
0:30
Speaker 1: We appreciate you being our first guest on Birdland Territory.
0:34
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us today really.
0:36
Speaker 2: Well, thanks for asking.
0:37
Speaker 3: Nobody's that busy and nobody's that important for sure, but
0:41
Speaker 3: got a couple of my favorite guys.
0:44
Speaker 2: Brad made us all look real smart. You know.
0:47
Speaker 3: I was talking to a coach the other day for
0:48
Speaker 3: another club. I said, if somebody walked in there and
0:51
Speaker 3: asked you a question why you guys were struggling, what
0:55
Speaker 3: would you tell me? Goes well, Number one is we
0:57
Speaker 3: don't have very good players. Number two, our players aren't
0:59
Speaker 3: very very good. Number three, our players aren't very good.
1:02
Speaker 3: We had really good players. See, we had good players,
1:06
Speaker 3: and the smartest thing you do is get out of
1:08
Speaker 3: their way and let them play.
1:09
Speaker 1: You know, when you look back on your tenure, Man,
1:12
Speaker 1: I think people might forget that. I mean, you inherited
1:17
Speaker 1: forty games under that team was really really struggling back
1:20
Speaker 1: in twenty ten. When you took over, immediately you guys
1:23
Speaker 1: had winning record and then of course three playoffs and
1:27
Speaker 1: so many wings. The place was rocking, Delman Youngstead, I
1:30
Speaker 1: mean so many. It was just so much fun to
1:33
Speaker 1: be around Oriol baseball. Whether you're a media fan whatever,
1:36
Speaker 1: But what are some of the memories that jumped the
1:39
Speaker 1: top of mind when you think about being in the
1:41
Speaker 1: dugout in Baltimore?
1:43
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, Stee. You know, looking back on it, it was
1:46
Speaker 3: so special to kind of live it through the players,
1:50
Speaker 3: you know, and I used to love to take in
1:53
Speaker 3: you know, they're you know, satisfaction and getting a return
1:57
Speaker 3: for what they were doing.
1:57
Speaker 2: You know, this may sound crazy.
1:59
Speaker 3: I remember getting off the bus Brad, do you remember
2:02
Speaker 3: this at Camden Yards in twenty fourteen after we had
2:06
Speaker 3: swept the Tigers and the turnout of the fans let
2:10
Speaker 3: and the players walking through that gauntlet of fans. It
2:15
Speaker 3: kind of because we got back the next day. Because
2:17
Speaker 3: you don't know if you're gonna winn or lose that game,
2:18
Speaker 3: so you need to make the reservation for that night
2:20
Speaker 3: at the hotel. And I just remember then the flip
2:25
Speaker 3: side of that are getting eliminated, and that saved group
2:27
Speaker 3: of people waiting on us when we got back from
2:31
Speaker 3: Kansas City. Those are little things that probably don't sound
2:35
Speaker 3: I don't know, cool, but that's what sticks in my mind.
2:39
Speaker 3: It's a snapshot of Oriel fans. They just want you
2:42
Speaker 3: to be good, and they want you to be something
2:45
Speaker 3: that they can trust. When they're staying up late at
2:49
Speaker 3: night when you're playing the Mariners on the West Coast
2:51
Speaker 3: and they're late and tired for work the next day,
2:55
Speaker 3: it matters to them and they'ren't asking much.
2:58
Speaker 2: There's not a lot of heirs in Baltimore. I love it.
3:02
Speaker 3: They don't think about how big your car is or
3:03
Speaker 3: how big your house, how much money you got. They
3:06
Speaker 3: just you know, Steve, you know they that's been passed
3:09
Speaker 3: down for generation and generation. It's a special place for baseball.
3:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, it really was. And I honestly forgot about that
3:19
Speaker 4: until you just said it and gave me chills thinking
3:21
Speaker 4: about it. When we walked off that bus and just
3:23
Speaker 4: having that era. It was just it was I mean,
3:26
Speaker 4: I think it was when I always think about the
3:29
Speaker 4: Doma Young double. But I was thinking this morning of
3:32
Speaker 4: that story in Detroit. Zach started that ninth inning against
3:35
Speaker 4: the Tigers, Game three with two doubles, and I just
3:37
Speaker 4: remember hearing the story of you coming out to the
3:39
Speaker 4: mound and you're telling we're going to walk in cassis.
3:41
Speaker 4: You're gonna put the winning run on first base. Do
3:44
Speaker 4: you remember that at all or can you kind of
3:46
Speaker 4: recollect about that? Because I thought that was one of
3:47
Speaker 4: the cooler stories, just thinking this morning.
3:50
Speaker 2: You know, when I was, when we were you know,
3:52
Speaker 2: I was getting ready for that series.
3:53
Speaker 3: The matchup I didn't like, and there weren't many matchups
3:56
Speaker 3: that I didn't like with Zach.
3:58
Speaker 2: I didn't like Castle Lows.
4:00
Speaker 3: He's a down hitter, lowball one, typically for a right
4:04
Speaker 3: handed hitter. You know, he smothered the ball up and
4:08
Speaker 3: didn't do a whole lot of damage, but the ball down,
4:10
Speaker 3: and I just and I said to myself, boring that series,
4:12
Speaker 3: I have a chance to keep him from hurt Nus
4:15
Speaker 3: against Zach, I was going to do it, and sure enough,
4:18
Speaker 3: here it came. Now, if you remember, right, they had
4:21
Speaker 3: pinshit earlier in the game, and the people hitting in
4:24
Speaker 3: the bottom of order and their pinchhitter, there wasn't a
4:27
Speaker 3: whole lot of damage behind him there, So you know,
4:32
Speaker 3: what do you call it whistling in the graveyard. When
4:34
Speaker 3: I went out there, I said, here's what we're going
4:36
Speaker 3: to do, is Zach, We're gonna walk this guy. You know,
4:38
Speaker 3: Zach didn't want to walk anybody, but I didn't give
4:40
Speaker 3: him much choice. That's you know, you don't want to
4:42
Speaker 3: put him in that in that spot. These guys had
4:45
Speaker 3: always ask a picture if they want to walk somebody, well,
4:48
Speaker 3: if your picture's not very good, if he says yes,
4:49
Speaker 3: I do you know, that's your job. That's not that's
4:53
Speaker 3: not their job. And I said, we're going to get
4:55
Speaker 3: this guy to roll over the ground ball here, We're
4:57
Speaker 3: going to get on the bus and go home.
4:59
Speaker 2: And and I'm leaving the mount. I go, I don't
5:02
Speaker 2: know about that, you know, but I.
5:05
Speaker 3: Remember Ryan flairt he was playing third, said it's a
5:08
Speaker 3: ball one hopping and he was getting ready to throw
5:11
Speaker 3: on the second he went.
5:11
Speaker 2: Are you shipping me? Yeah?
5:16
Speaker 4: That's I remember talking to Flash about that, and he
5:18
Speaker 4: was just like the guy came out and was just like,
5:21
Speaker 4: we're gonna walk a ready ground ball and we're gonna
5:23
Speaker 4: end this thing and go back home. And I just
5:25
Speaker 4: that was so cool. Obviously it worked out the way
5:27
Speaker 4: it did, But uh.
5:31
Speaker 3: I've had something that didn't. Did you you know the
5:33
Speaker 3: Delman Young game? Had you pitched in that game? I
5:36
Speaker 3: haven't looked at the box lately.
5:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was.
5:38
Speaker 4: I was the pitcher that ended that that inning before that.
5:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, So you know what's funny about that is,
5:46
Speaker 3: you know this is the way bullpens. Our bullpen worked.
5:49
Speaker 3: There didn't need to be a phone call made. Dom
5:52
Speaker 3: chety knew the situation. Brad, I mean Zach would be
5:55
Speaker 3: on the mound with a ball. There were Steve, there
5:58
Speaker 3: were three calls we made. We made a a red,
6:01
Speaker 3: which was get the ball, get your jacket off, get
6:03
Speaker 3: on the rubber.
6:04
Speaker 2: You're not throwing.
6:05
Speaker 3: We didn't want to draw home anybody, but be ready
6:08
Speaker 3: so we don't have to go through. If you got
6:10
Speaker 3: to use the bathroom, go to the bathroom. Everything was read
6:12
Speaker 3: and then there was a kind of a yellow where
6:13
Speaker 3: you got going and there's a chance you might go in.
6:16
Speaker 2: Then if you got the green, you were in the
6:18
Speaker 2: game and you were not going.
6:19
Speaker 3: To be dry humped, so I didn't even have to
6:21
Speaker 3: call down to the bullpen. I remember as Delman as
6:25
Speaker 3: JJ slid across home plate, I glanced up at the
6:27
Speaker 3: bullpen and Dom already had him throwing. But that's the
6:31
Speaker 3: cohesionve cohesiveness of a bullpen that I don't see as
6:37
Speaker 3: much anymore. If I walked in a ballpark and want
6:39
Speaker 3: to look at one thing to tell me, if a
6:40
Speaker 3: manager knew what he was doing, I'd watch his bullpen.
6:43
Speaker 2: I just watch how he gets his guys up and down.
6:48
Speaker 1: Very interesting. Buck Showalter is with us our first guest
6:52
Speaker 1: on Birdland Territory. Tim want you to fire a question here,
6:55
Speaker 1: but let's keep the show on time and we'll continue
6:58
Speaker 1: with Buck Showalter in a minute here on Birdland Territory.
7:01
Speaker 2: Hey, j give me a line on Blue Cheo.
7:03
Speaker 5: Well, do you need help with your love life, Scott? Perhaps,
7:06
Speaker 5: do you want a turbo charge your love life? Yes, well,
7:08
Speaker 5: then you need Blue Choo Gold because it has four
7:10
Speaker 5: active ingredients that help you not only two turbocharge, but
7:14
Speaker 5: you can supercharge it if you take one of these.
7:16
Speaker 6: And AJ is talking about that new erasal boosting formula
7:19
Speaker 6: that combines passion and performance into one tablet that dissolves
7:23
Speaker 6: under your tongue for super fast on set. No more
7:25
Speaker 6: waiting for a pill to kick in. No more moments
7:27
Speaker 6: ruined by performance anxiety. Just the results you want when
7:30
Speaker 6: you want them. Discover your options at blue choo dot com.
7:34
Speaker 6: A special deal is there for the ftfam right now.
7:37
Speaker 6: When you buy two months of blue ch you Gold,
7:39
Speaker 6: you get the third for free with promo code foul.
7:43
Speaker 6: That's promo code foul. Visit blue you dot com for
7:46
Speaker 6: more details and important safety information. Thank you to blue
7:50
Speaker 6: Choo for sponsoring the show, and thank you AJ for
7:54
Speaker 6: talking love life. The process is simple and it's all online.
7:58
Speaker 6: Get started today at blue you dot com and go.
8:00
Speaker 1: For gold Birdland Territory with you today again with Steve
8:05
Speaker 1: brad And and Tim talking with Buck Show wafter and Tim.
8:09
Speaker 2: You're up.
8:11
Speaker 7: Yeah, Bucky, you were talking about the bullpen and when
8:14
Speaker 7: you think of the twenty twelve through sixteen teams, you
8:17
Speaker 7: think of just the thump in that lineup. There were
8:19
Speaker 7: four straight years of your guys leading the league in
8:22
Speaker 7: American leading the league in homers for an individual in
8:26
Speaker 7: the American League that the bullpen was lights out, you know,
8:29
Speaker 7: in particular twenty fourteen. When you think of Brad and
8:33
Speaker 7: you think Andrew Miller, you think of Darren O'Day, Zach
8:35
Speaker 7: Britten and so on and so forth, Like how much
8:39
Speaker 7: of a luxury is that for a manager having that
8:42
Speaker 7: caliber of bullpen?
8:44
Speaker 3: Well, you know, there were certain things that when we
8:46
Speaker 3: were we talk a lot about who are we and
8:50
Speaker 3: how are we going to do it? You know, when
8:52
Speaker 3: we got mister Angelos to put us on par with
8:55
Speaker 3: the Yankees with the salaries for six year free agents,
8:58
Speaker 3: Well we could get those guys like Steve Pearce and
9:02
Speaker 3: different guys. There's no way any team should out opportunity
9:07
Speaker 3: and we could out.
9:07
Speaker 2: We talked a lot about what could we.
9:09
Speaker 3: Do that the Yankees and the other teams with the
9:11
Speaker 3: bigger payrolls couldn't do. We get out relationship, we could
9:14
Speaker 3: out coach, we could out you know, opportunity people, we
9:19
Speaker 3: could out and you know, developing them of players. And
9:25
Speaker 3: I think putting those bullfens together and making runs matter
9:30
Speaker 3: is a big mentality for a team to not think
9:33
Speaker 3: how many are enough? Tonight there's a real inconsistency there
9:37
Speaker 3: and the versatility of it. You know, Darren wasn't just
9:39
Speaker 3: a right I mean, Brad wasn't a right on the
9:42
Speaker 3: right guy.
9:42
Speaker 2: And later on Darren O'Day.
9:44
Speaker 3: Figured out with that little upshoot he had, Brad was
9:47
Speaker 3: he figured out a way to defend himself against left
9:49
Speaker 3: handed hitters, and Zach against right hand hitters, and Jim
9:53
Speaker 3: Johnson a lot of people forget how good he was,
9:56
Speaker 3: and Michael Gibbons.
9:58
Speaker 2: Was a piece for us down there, but you know,
10:01
Speaker 2: we knew.
10:02
Speaker 3: And you know when I watched some of the teams
10:03
Speaker 3: today without going into the Oriel teams, but if you
10:06
Speaker 3: look at J. J. Hardy, Mannimachiado, John Chris Davis, Markkus
10:11
Speaker 3: and Jones and the Waters, all those guys are plus defenders.
10:15
Speaker 3: If the ball stayed in the ballpark, we were going
10:17
Speaker 3: to catch it and we were going to turn two
10:20
Speaker 3: outs with one batted ball in the middle of the diamond.
10:23
Speaker 3: And that was one of our prerequisites. That's who we were.
10:25
Speaker 3: We were going to catch the ball and play defense,
10:27
Speaker 3: and we were going to put together a bullpen that
10:30
Speaker 3: would make runs matter.
10:32
Speaker 2: And nowadays, I just don't think with all the.
10:34
Speaker 3: Analytics that they really know how to evaluate defense. Really,
10:38
Speaker 3: I think that's one of the big challenges they have,
10:41
Speaker 3: is trying to properly and that really requires eyeballs from
10:46
Speaker 3: people that know what they're looking at.
10:50
Speaker 2: Buck.
10:50
Speaker 1: One of the most special times for me being around
10:53
Speaker 1: the Orioles as a kid who grew up loving the
10:55
Speaker 1: Oriols in Baltimore got to cover my hometown team was
10:58
Speaker 1: the Statue ceremonies twenty twelve. Watching those great parade there
11:03
Speaker 1: and people cheer him, and how you and your team
11:06
Speaker 1: embraced those guys made it even better. And Earl Weaver,
11:11
Speaker 1: I think the night I try to remember, I tried
11:13
Speaker 1: to find this quote, but I think Arl might have
11:15
Speaker 1: said something like, my statue looks like Buck, you know,
11:17
Speaker 1: and everybody just loved that because they were loving what
11:21
Speaker 1: you were doing. But they loved this guy forever, and
11:24
Speaker 1: of course he sensed his past. But I mean, what
11:27
Speaker 1: was it like you getting to know at the end
11:31
Speaker 1: of his life a little better than probably you had.
11:33
Speaker 2: Earl Weaver.
11:34
Speaker 3: You know, we invited him down the Spring Train and
11:36
Speaker 3: we weren't sure of his health and everything he was
11:38
Speaker 3: going to take us up on it, but he made
11:40
Speaker 3: it over there. Steve, and I gotta tell you. After
11:43
Speaker 3: a couple of cups of black coffee, putting him in
11:46
Speaker 3: the golf cart and going around to the.
11:47
Speaker 2: Drills, it was on. Let me tell you, it was on.
11:51
Speaker 3: And he was talking about different stuff and how you
11:54
Speaker 3: should cover first and a relaye from the right field.
11:57
Speaker 2: Corner with one out and the man on first. I
12:00
Speaker 2: told him we had a back door pick. I don't know.
12:02
Speaker 3: For years the Oils ran a pickoff system with Earl
12:06
Speaker 3: where they would put five was the pick. One was
12:09
Speaker 3: back door first base, Five to two was second base,
12:12
Speaker 3: and you would hit which short stop or second base
12:15
Speaker 3: and was covering five to three was a picke at
12:17
Speaker 3: third you know from the picture. So five was the
12:21
Speaker 3: pick system. I remember seeing it in Rochester and Charlotte.
12:25
Speaker 3: I would see five when I was on second day.
12:27
Speaker 3: So we set up running a back door pick at
12:30
Speaker 3: first base. The easter running with Eddie Murray all the time.
12:32
Speaker 3: But we ran a pick play and Earl was sitting
12:35
Speaker 3: right next to doug Out. I said, Earl, here comes
12:37
Speaker 3: one of your plays, and we ran that back door
12:39
Speaker 3: pick and I thought, Earl, that was one of the
12:42
Speaker 3: happiest moments ever seeing that play executed by Earl that's
12:47
Speaker 3: what I remember when I think about it. But he
12:49
Speaker 3: meant so much to so many people, and he was special.
12:53
Speaker 3: He treated me well, and I'm proud of the way
12:57
Speaker 3: we treated him.
12:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's great. I can't help but think when I
13:02
Speaker 4: think about your career and when you started back in
13:04
Speaker 4: the nineties with the Yankees and finish here recently with
13:07
Speaker 4: the Mets. What do you think is the biggest difference
13:09
Speaker 4: of when you were managing with the Yankees back in
13:12
Speaker 4: the nineties to when you finished in New York at
13:14
Speaker 4: your last managing job.
13:17
Speaker 3: I think the prerequisite for a lot of field experience
13:21
Speaker 3: of home field not nearly as much as people think. Brad,
13:27
Speaker 3: you know the things you still have to do to
13:29
Speaker 3: be successful. I mean, we were doing analytics type stuff
13:32
Speaker 3: back and my wife used to keep the charts and
13:35
Speaker 3: we would put it in a big notebook.
13:37
Speaker 2: She'll tell you a dotted.
13:38
Speaker 3: Line for ground ball, a hump back for a fly balls,
13:41
Speaker 3: great line for line drive, and she would I would
13:43
Speaker 3: bring home the thing and she would try all the games.
13:45
Speaker 3: This is a New York Penn League, and we would
13:48
Speaker 3: set our defense accordingly. Now that's five or six at
13:50
Speaker 3: that's compared to you know, this computer system that kicks
13:54
Speaker 3: out hundreds, so it should be better. But you know,
13:58
Speaker 3: we were carrying match up sheets around and looking at
14:02
Speaker 3: guy's history against certain hitters, and it's not as it
14:07
Speaker 3: changed as near as much as people think it as.
14:10
Speaker 3: It's still I think, you know, we're all looking at
14:13
Speaker 3: the same numbers. It just depends on what an organization
14:16
Speaker 3: chooses to wait. Nobody's invented some new stat that makes
14:21
Speaker 3: you better. You've got all these different tools. Well, which
14:24
Speaker 3: one do you do you choose to wait on? Base percentage?
14:26
Speaker 3: Do you choose to wait? Spin rate? Do you choose
14:30
Speaker 3: to wait? Zone ratings? And defense?
14:33
Speaker 2: I mean, what do you which one are you going
14:35
Speaker 2: to chase?
14:36
Speaker 3: Uh, it's still about some of the absolutes you have
14:40
Speaker 3: to be good at, though.
14:42
Speaker 7: Buck, I'm sure you saw Ben McDonald's comments on on
14:46
Speaker 7: masson after the game and.
14:48
Speaker 2: Basically, and I agree with it.
14:50
Speaker 7: It's kind of a bottom line thing where the numbers
14:53
Speaker 7: are the numbers, and sometimes it can get to a
14:55
Speaker 7: point where it's paralysis by analysis. But you know, at
14:59
Speaker 7: the end of the day, it's it's baseball. Like you're saying, Buck,
15:02
Speaker 7: the game itself hasn't changed. We're just kind of getting
15:06
Speaker 7: all of this extra information that maybe muddies it up
15:10
Speaker 7: some Well, someone.
15:11
Speaker 2: Said on the time of the game is a heartbeat,
15:13
Speaker 2: and you better stay true to the heartbeat. I gotta
15:16
Speaker 2: tell you I don't.
15:16
Speaker 3: I heard about Ben's saying and the apology stuff he
15:20
Speaker 3: was trying to do the next day.
15:21
Speaker 2: I'm sure someone called him about it. But I don't watch.
15:24
Speaker 3: Massing a lot now that Steve and Brad aren't at
15:26
Speaker 3: Brad's on there. Steve, I might watch it a little bit.
15:30
Speaker 3: Doesn't have much lure. I talked to Palmer the other day.
15:32
Speaker 3: He's not doing as many games as you used to.
15:35
Speaker 3: But uh, you know been uh been a voice of
15:42
Speaker 3: an opinion that has shared by a lot of people.
15:47
Speaker 1: Yes, interesting stuff, and so I think you're right, Buck.
15:50
Speaker 1: I mean there's so it's like, what are you going
15:52
Speaker 1: to use to be better? And then sometimes he gets
15:55
Speaker 1: back to gid you advance the runner? Did you keep
15:58
Speaker 1: the double play?
15:59
Speaker 2: In order? Things? True? Fifty years ago?
16:02
Speaker 3: You know, Steve, I used to when Brad was with us,
16:05
Speaker 3: I would do a thing called analytics for Dummies. I
16:08
Speaker 3: would take our most grizzled baseball guy. At that point,
16:11
Speaker 3: I think it was Donald Cheety that year, and I'd
16:13
Speaker 3: hav him go sit upstairs with all of Van Deuquette's
16:17
Speaker 3: people that all the people we had, they're not you know, it's.
16:20
Speaker 2: A skeletal crew.
16:21
Speaker 3: But we still had a lot of analytics and basically
16:24
Speaker 3: take the cloak off of this thing that nobody understood.
16:27
Speaker 3: And I would get our thirty on field guys and
16:31
Speaker 3: we would I said, dom, I wants you to tell
16:32
Speaker 3: us what it tells you, then tell us what it
16:34
Speaker 3: doesn't tell you. Don't use abbreviations, you know, if it's
16:39
Speaker 3: a zone rating, tell me exactly what it is. And
16:42
Speaker 3: all the coaches would go Terry Crowley would go, wow,
16:45
Speaker 3: that's all it is.
16:46
Speaker 2: I said, yeah, let's let's put fear in.
16:48
Speaker 3: It and embrace it and understand it as much as
16:51
Speaker 3: they do. There's a lot of things that you understand
16:54
Speaker 3: that they don't understand. I remember the first time I
16:57
Speaker 3: heard John scope it over on field. I said, who's
17:00
Speaker 3: that kid over there? They said, and they said something
17:03
Speaker 3: about exit. I said, yeah, I don't need to look
17:05
Speaker 3: at the exit.
17:06
Speaker 2: Colossie.
17:06
Speaker 3: I can hear him. There's a clean click that good
17:09
Speaker 3: hitters make. Well, that's not their fault if they don't
17:12
Speaker 3: have that experience, so you know, embrace them. Ice tell guys, hey,
17:17
Speaker 3: bring all that stuff in my office. But I'm going
17:19
Speaker 3: to ask you at the end of it, how does
17:20
Speaker 3: it help us win a game? How does it help
17:23
Speaker 3: us win a game. I don't want you to be
17:24
Speaker 3: the director of left handed sliders in the dirt.
17:27
Speaker 2: I want you to tell us how to how to
17:29
Speaker 2: win a game.
17:30
Speaker 1: Help us win a game exactly, but show authors with
17:33
Speaker 1: us today on Birdland Territory. We're going to roll on
17:36
Speaker 1: next on the show.
17:39
Speaker 8: This episode is brought to you by FanDuel Baseball fans.
17:42
Speaker 8: The MLB season is in full swing and FanDuel is
17:45
Speaker 8: giving you a chance to call your shot with Daily Dingers.
17:49
Speaker 8: Joining the action is easy. Just make your free peck
17:52
Speaker 8: on who's hitting a home run in their game, and
17:54
Speaker 8: if you're right, you'll get a profit boost to use
17:57
Speaker 8: on your next bet for a chance at X winnings.
18:01
Speaker 8: It's just another reason why FanDuel is the home of
18:03
Speaker 8: home runs. So are you ready to play your game?
18:06
Speaker 8: Head over to FanDuel dot com slash podcast to get started.
18:09
Speaker 8: That's FanDuel dot Com slash podcast. To opt in for
18:12
Speaker 8: Daily dingers. Make your free pick on who's hitting a
18:15
Speaker 8: homer playball swing for the Fences on FanDuel, an official
18:20
Speaker 8: partner of Major League Baseball. No purchase necessary, opt in required.
18:25
Speaker 8: Bonus issued as non withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply,
18:28
Speaker 8: including any token expiration and max wager amount. See terms
18:32
Speaker 8: at sportsbook dot FanDuel dot com. Gambling problem caller Tex
18:36
Speaker 8: one eight hundred gambler.
18:38
Speaker 1: You know, I think Buck and the players and staff
18:40
Speaker 1: of his era are remembered for so many things, but
18:43
Speaker 1: among them in twenty twelve when the Oils got to
18:46
Speaker 1: the playoffs, Stan been there in fourteen years, This city
18:49
Speaker 1: and this fan base needed postseason, and Buck and the
18:53
Speaker 1: Birds got there two years later, first day out of
18:56
Speaker 1: East and since nineteen ninety seven, I mean, it had
18:59
Speaker 1: been a minute, and Brad, you were part of all that,
19:01
Speaker 1: and you got another question to comment for Buck.
19:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
19:05
Speaker 4: I just think back to our teams, with the amount
19:07
Speaker 4: of time we spent on the little things and on
19:09
Speaker 4: the backfield, we were doing the plays until we got
19:12
Speaker 4: it right, over and over. Why do you think there
19:15
Speaker 4: is this I guess, nonchalantnous with fundamentals and getting the
19:20
Speaker 4: things right. It kind of just seems like that has
19:22
Speaker 4: gone by the wayside. I thought, coming to an American
19:24
Speaker 4: League team, Oh, we're not gonna work on bun plays
19:26
Speaker 4: a lot that doesn't really happen. But we worked on
19:28
Speaker 4: that over and over until we got it right. And
19:30
Speaker 4: I can just think back to how many games we
19:32
Speaker 4: won based off of keeping them from getting the extra
19:35
Speaker 4: ninety Do you know, do you have any reason why
19:38
Speaker 4: that stuff has kind of just been on the back
19:40
Speaker 4: burner now? Is it because of the analytics stuff or
19:42
Speaker 4: the just I don't know. We watch these games with
19:45
Speaker 4: the orals and it's just the fundamentals just kind of
19:48
Speaker 4: seemed to be not the same as they used to be.
19:51
Speaker 3: You know, Brad, that's a good I get that somebody,
19:54
Speaker 3: but I don't get it. I don't get mad at
19:55
Speaker 3: the players. It's not their fault. It's not their fault,
19:59
Speaker 3: you know, on you for not you know, I think
20:01
Speaker 3: down deep they want to embrace things like that. I
20:05
Speaker 3: can remember back in my early years managing as we would,
20:08
Speaker 3: we were required to meet in front of the dugout
20:10
Speaker 3: and go over yesterday's all the things that allowed us
20:14
Speaker 3: to win or lose, what allowed them to win or
20:16
Speaker 3: lose the other team, and we would dissect it instead
20:18
Speaker 3: of you know, we all want to go to what
20:20
Speaker 3: happened the ninth inn and well, something happened in the
20:22
Speaker 3: second inning that won or lost that ballgame. And you
20:26
Speaker 3: know there's six basic team defenses and you don't do
20:30
Speaker 3: them too. You get them right, you do them too.
20:32
Speaker 2: You can't get them wrong. And we you know, Brad, we.
20:35
Speaker 3: Didn't stay on the field forever, but there was a
20:37
Speaker 3: certain you know, see, we used to go from we
20:40
Speaker 3: would start with the staff meeting in the morning. Okay,
20:42
Speaker 3: today we're going over rundowns. And then we would go
20:46
Speaker 3: into the room, the big room we put in in Sarasota,
20:49
Speaker 3: and go over it with the players so we could execute.
20:52
Speaker 3: And I didn't want a bunch of people popping their
20:54
Speaker 3: lips out on the field.
20:56
Speaker 2: You know, it was supposed to be executions of the play.
20:58
Speaker 3: And then so there were three parts the every day
21:00
Speaker 3: and we did, you know, the coaching staff had to
21:02
Speaker 3: be together and how we were going to teach it.
21:04
Speaker 3: The players had to have an understanding of what we expected.
21:07
Speaker 3: Then you went on the field and the executed the play.
21:09
Speaker 3: And then, as Brad remembers, We used to do a
21:12
Speaker 3: Poe Parrie at the end of the spring where we
21:14
Speaker 3: would do all the team defenses rapid fire, because you
21:19
Speaker 3: think you've got them on field seven on the back field,
21:22
Speaker 3: but until you can do them at call and execute them. Okay, Brad,
21:27
Speaker 3: first and second, back door pick at first base. Okay,
21:31
Speaker 3: ground ball back to you. It's a one two, you know,
21:34
Speaker 3: three double play. Just the rapid fire po poria of it.
21:38
Speaker 3: And Brad will remember we used to go down to
21:41
Speaker 3: the theater the night before the first workout started and
21:44
Speaker 3: we would go over all the expectations and all the things.
21:47
Speaker 2: Because the thing that players hate is the unknown.
21:51
Speaker 3: Just explain to them exactly what's going on where you know,
21:55
Speaker 3: what's so expression. If you lie to somebody, they'll never
21:57
Speaker 3: forgive you. But if you're straight up and tell them
21:59
Speaker 3: the truth, you don't have to worry about it. So,
22:02
Speaker 3: you know, I think when the players took the field
22:04
Speaker 3: there was a freedom in their brain about what was
22:06
Speaker 3: expected of them. I know, we got bred over in
22:08
Speaker 3: the trade. We felt like he could be a piece
22:12
Speaker 3: in our pin and he was.
22:16
Speaker 2: Buck.
22:17
Speaker 7: Steve just mentioned the twenty twelve season and just how
22:20
Speaker 7: special that was in Baltimore, because, like Steve mentioned earlier,
22:24
Speaker 7: when you came in end of July and twenty ten,
22:27
Speaker 7: this organization wasn't exactly in a good shape in the
22:31
Speaker 7: midst of fourteen consecutive losing seasons. But something that made
22:35
Speaker 7: that twenty twelve team so special is they were historically
22:39
Speaker 7: great in close games. Twenty nine and nine and one
22:42
Speaker 7: run games. They were sixteen and two in extra inning games. Yeah,
22:47
Speaker 7: what what made yeah, what made that team so good
22:51
Speaker 7: in close game situations?
22:53
Speaker 3: I think they knew, all things being equal, they had
22:56
Speaker 3: a confidence about they were not going to shake when
22:59
Speaker 3: their fingers on the trigger. They knew that they were
23:02
Speaker 3: prepared to execute the things that happened in close games
23:06
Speaker 3: that separated and they embraced them. And there's so many
23:12
Speaker 3: that Actually some of that started at the end of
23:14
Speaker 3: twenty eleven the way we finished the season, and I
23:18
Speaker 3: think it carried on. They got a taste of it,
23:20
Speaker 3: and you know, it.
23:22
Speaker 2: Was a hunger.
23:23
Speaker 3: The hunger of that team matched the hunger of the
23:25
Speaker 3: fan and it was a great coming together. I remember
23:29
Speaker 3: the last out in Texas it was and I tell you,
23:33
Speaker 3: if we'd had instant replaced Steve, we probably we might
23:35
Speaker 3: have beat the Yankees because Nate mcclouss ball ticked the
23:38
Speaker 3: foul pole down there and we had no way to
23:40
Speaker 3: not that I remember it, but you know, we had
23:45
Speaker 3: the Yankees on the ropes there. I remember we beat
23:47
Speaker 3: them in Game four at their stadium and put them
23:52
Speaker 3: on their heels, you know. But not that I remember anything,
23:58
Speaker 3: you know, Brad and his group, though, I remember Family
24:01
Speaker 3: Day how big it was for our guys, you know,
24:03
Speaker 3: getting to know their families, and my wife was involved
24:06
Speaker 3: with the wives, and there was just a unity among
24:10
Speaker 3: the organization. And I'm not saying nobody's got that now.
24:14
Speaker 3: I'm just I know what worked for us. We couldn't
24:17
Speaker 3: not be good at those things if we wanted to
24:20
Speaker 3: compete with these teams that had a lot more payroll
24:22
Speaker 3: than we did. And it was painful when we had to,
24:25
Speaker 3: you know, turn it over. It was tough to trade
24:28
Speaker 3: in guys like bread. It was not fun for me.
24:32
Speaker 1: Hey, in twenty twelve at the Yankees don't have a
24:34
Speaker 1: twenty five million dollar pitcher. Maybe the Orioles win that,
24:37
Speaker 1: Not that anybody in Birdland remembers that, like to this
24:39
Speaker 1: day or anything, that they had all the money to
24:42
Speaker 1: spend to get the guy that made the difference in
24:44
Speaker 1: the series.
24:45
Speaker 2: We you know, we don't.
24:46
Speaker 1: Remember that like it happened yesterday. But Buck, here's what
24:49
Speaker 1: I want to ask you, man managers today, twenty twenty six,
24:53
Speaker 1: social media age, two press conferences at day. Everybody's got
24:58
Speaker 1: a show, everybody's got a hot take.
25:00
Speaker 2: Everybody who knows how to make out the lineup man?
25:03
Speaker 1: How do they balance that and at times be the
25:07
Speaker 1: player's friend and at other times be his boss.
25:11
Speaker 2: But you know, one you got to embrace it. You know.
25:13
Speaker 3: I did it twice a day for almost seven or
25:15
Speaker 3: eight months, okay, and it was a can do it
25:18
Speaker 3: to the fans. But something I learned too. It was
25:21
Speaker 3: only like a ten minute delay, and I would do
25:23
Speaker 3: it at camping yard. One of the first things we
25:25
Speaker 3: did Steve was move it out of the locker room,
25:28
Speaker 3: and we wanted to make that film room and advance room,
25:30
Speaker 3: so we moved it down to the Deilery locker room.
25:32
Speaker 3: If you remember, he used to do it right there.
25:34
Speaker 3: When I got there, I go, we're not doing this anymore.
25:36
Speaker 2: This is a player's locker room. It's not now.
25:39
Speaker 3: I actually made the locker room smaller instead of bigger.
25:41
Speaker 3: So we could put a dining room in the back.
25:44
Speaker 3: But you know, I would go down there and now
25:46
Speaker 3: I would come back and be a ten minute delay,
25:48
Speaker 3: and there'd be a lot of the players sitting around
25:50
Speaker 3: watching the press conference. And it hit me how much
25:53
Speaker 3: they watched this, So you could you know the tenor
25:56
Speaker 3: in which you talk to people and the fans. You
25:59
Speaker 3: need to embrace it.
26:00
Speaker 2: Now.
26:00
Speaker 3: I never read articles. I never watched any TV interview,
26:06
Speaker 3: not that they weren't good. I just I didn't want
26:08
Speaker 3: to interact with those people every day and listen to
26:11
Speaker 3: every little thing they were writing or saying. So I
26:14
Speaker 3: would walk in with Monica or Christian Whodek and I
26:17
Speaker 3: would go, hey, before we walk in, here is anything
26:20
Speaker 3: I need to know about because I haven't read or
26:22
Speaker 3: talked or anything. Just I don't want to be ambushed.
26:25
Speaker 3: But that was the That was basically what happened. They
26:30
Speaker 3: just I said, give me a heads up, and it
26:33
Speaker 3: gave me a clear mind about talking to everybody every
26:35
Speaker 3: day and not having some vendetta against somebody that was
26:39
Speaker 3: say Berry and Brad after one bad outing, because that
26:42
Speaker 3: would really kick me out.
26:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, obviously, what I think about is your bullpen management.
26:48
Speaker 4: I mean, my arm thanks you to this day. I
26:50
Speaker 4: could still play catch with my kids because of how
26:52
Speaker 4: you were able to do. But what was the preparation
26:55
Speaker 4: like for a day of getting a bullpen ready that day?
26:58
Speaker 4: And how are you able to not give us up
27:00
Speaker 4: multiple times and save us by the end of the season.
27:03
Speaker 2: Brad, would you play eleven years?
27:06
Speaker 4: Yeah?
27:07
Speaker 2: See that?
27:08
Speaker 3: To me, I have so much pride, not that I
27:10
Speaker 3: didn't any to do it, but that's special. You know
27:13
Speaker 3: those days of people because the way that they handle
27:17
Speaker 3: bullpens today, a guy pitching ten or eleven years is
27:20
Speaker 3: gonna be hard to find. But you know, it would
27:23
Speaker 3: start with the night before. We would never start a
27:27
Speaker 3: game without knowing who's pitching. If the guy got hit
27:32
Speaker 3: with a line drive with the first pitch, you know
27:34
Speaker 3: we had We had these things called a longer lever
27:37
Speaker 3: that were so important in a bullpen.
27:39
Speaker 2: TJ.
27:39
Speaker 3: McFarlane, dance Worthy. These guys could take the baseball and
27:44
Speaker 3: one of the things you didn't do was send them
27:46
Speaker 3: down after they did their job. Don't send them down
27:50
Speaker 3: because they did their job. And we did it with
27:52
Speaker 3: seven pitchers sometimes six, and but a longer lever can
27:57
Speaker 3: you tell me five guys and big leagues right now
27:59
Speaker 3: are longer leader now they're called bulk guys, whatever that is.
28:03
Speaker 3: But I want my starter to be the bull guy.
28:05
Speaker 3: But you know, it would start there, and we would
28:07
Speaker 3: meet before the game. I love how these people think
28:10
Speaker 3: these pregame meetings are new. But we would gather information
28:14
Speaker 3: all day. I love batting practice back when guys used
28:17
Speaker 3: to actually hit outside. I would walk around and talk
28:20
Speaker 3: to the bullpen guys as you remember, and I would
28:22
Speaker 3: talk to the position players who weren't playing that day,
28:26
Speaker 3: the starting pitcher, and the nine guys and anybody that
28:28
Speaker 3: need to you know, Okay, what do they need to
28:31
Speaker 3: hear from you? And I would talk to the guys
28:33
Speaker 3: directly without making them feel like they had to pitch.
28:37
Speaker 3: It's okay if you need today. And then there might
28:39
Speaker 3: be something you would say to Dave Wallace or dom
28:43
Speaker 3: Cheti that you may not say to me, and that's okay.
28:46
Speaker 3: But we would gather all this information in about an
28:48
Speaker 3: hour for the game. We would go over this and
28:52
Speaker 3: then make sure that you guys knew in the bullpen
28:54
Speaker 3: that day exactly what was coming. So if you remember,
28:59
Speaker 3: sometimes I'd say, hey, stay up in the dugout today.
29:02
Speaker 3: Just don't even go down the bulpen to day. But
29:03
Speaker 3: you guys are so close. You wanted to be down there,
29:06
Speaker 3: but everybody was on the same page, and there was
29:09
Speaker 3: conflict communication about you know, we would never, for instance,
29:13
Speaker 3: want to go into Yankee Stadium without both left handed
29:16
Speaker 3: relievers ready because they were so left handed Atlanta And
29:20
Speaker 3: nowadays these guys, you know, shoot everything for one game
29:24
Speaker 3: and they wonder why they can't maintain something for a
29:26
Speaker 3: long period. Baseball is a long season. You got to
29:29
Speaker 3: live to fight another day sometimes. That's why Chris Davis
29:32
Speaker 3: pitches in Fenway Park sometimes.
29:38
Speaker 7: Buck, you mentioned twenty eighteen a little bit earlier saying
29:43
Speaker 7: how tough it was to trade Brad and we talked
29:45
Speaker 7: about that season, I think a week ago, and you
29:48
Speaker 7: think twelve through sixteen, you win the most games in
29:51
Speaker 7: the American League, and that twenty eighteen season sort of
29:54
Speaker 7: felt like this last hurrah, right.
29:57
Speaker 2: A lot of.
29:57
Speaker 7: Guys were entering contract years, including yourself and Dan Duket.
30:04
Speaker 7: What was it like heading into that season, and well,
30:07
Speaker 7: why do you think it went sideways?
30:10
Speaker 2: Well, the window was closing. The window was closing.
30:13
Speaker 3: A lot of the a lot of advantages that big
30:16
Speaker 3: market teams have start showing up for the It doesn't
30:19
Speaker 3: mean you can't do it, but you got to kind
30:22
Speaker 3: of turn it over sometimes. I hate to say, the
30:26
Speaker 3: only thing that keeps it from turning over is if
30:28
Speaker 3: you have your farm system really producing, and we really
30:33
Speaker 3: weren't doing that, and our guys the gap between when
30:38
Speaker 3: somebody was going to be ready was pretty wide.
30:42
Speaker 2: And I didn't even know really what was going on.
30:45
Speaker 3: It was because I had a lot of players and say, hey,
30:47
Speaker 3: so and so has been traded, so and so has
30:49
Speaker 3: been traded, and I get it. Dan's operating touquet, you know,
30:53
Speaker 3: very quickly, a lot of moving parts, and he didn't
30:55
Speaker 3: need to tell me anything. But it was it was
30:58
Speaker 3: tough having those conversations with very quickly, you know, people
31:02
Speaker 3: that I've come to really you know, like and respect,
31:05
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden you just say see you later.
31:08
Speaker 2: It felt very very cold to me. I thought it
31:12
Speaker 2: was tough.
31:14
Speaker 3: It's a tough thing when baseball reminds you of the
31:16
Speaker 3: business that can be sometimes.
31:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Oriol's gone through some of those ups and downs.
31:22
Speaker 1: Now they've rebuilt again. They got back to the playoffs
31:25
Speaker 1: two years in a row. But some fan, well most
31:27
Speaker 1: oil fans recalled they have not won a playoff game
31:30
Speaker 1: or a playoff series since your group was there. Twenty
31:33
Speaker 1: Fourteen's a long time, but Buck, we're about out of
31:36
Speaker 1: time speaking a time. Man, thank you for yours today
31:39
Speaker 1: being so generous. And I could sit here listen to
31:42
Speaker 1: you talk about our weaver for that would be a
31:44
Speaker 1: whole hour show. I'd love to do that one day.
31:46
Speaker 1: I could do that, and I don't need anything else.
31:49
Speaker 1: But the reason that's special is because you two men
31:52
Speaker 1: are special to Ballimore. People will never forget what both
31:56
Speaker 1: you did and your groups did. And uh Man, so
31:59
Speaker 1: nice of you to share some thoughts today.
32:01
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate it. I'm gonna try to get I
32:03
Speaker 3: think Chris is going in the Hall of Fame this year,
32:05
Speaker 3: and we went in for Adams thing. Heck, I made
32:08
Speaker 3: it back for a Savannah Bananas game.
32:13
Speaker 1: I don't expect you to be managing in that league.
32:16
Speaker 2: That's probably the only league I can still manage it.
32:20
Speaker 1: I don't think that's true. Hey, Buck, we enjoy your
32:23
Speaker 1: work on all the broadcasts. You got some more broadcasting
32:25
Speaker 1: coming up anytime soon.
32:27
Speaker 2: I gotta tell you Steve. Commercial travel has turned into such.
32:30
Speaker 3: A tough thing. You want to get down in society,
32:34
Speaker 3: go through airports.
32:35
Speaker 2: We all got all of the.
32:36
Speaker 3: Charter flights, but man, yes, I will do some now
32:40
Speaker 3: and then. I'm pretty picky about it because commercial travel
32:43
Speaker 3: is tough. It's tough, as you guys all know. It's
32:48
Speaker 3: not like it used to be. You know, I looked
32:50
Speaker 3: around the other day and that and five people on
32:53
Speaker 3: the flight had a pajamason.
32:54
Speaker 1: I went, oh my gosh, you were not one of them.
32:59
Speaker 2: Obby. I was jealous. I wish I could. Hey, good
33:06
Speaker 2: to see you guys. Thanks for having me. Bradley, You're
33:09
Speaker 2: good man, God bless you. Take care.
33:11
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thanks Buck, Buck Show Walter joining us today.
33:15
Speaker 1: And thanks to Tim and Brad and Buck. And we'll
33:18
Speaker 1: see you next time on Birdland Territory.