Latest / Rosters to Rings Podcast / Baseball's High Stakes Deal Maker: B.B. Abbott

Transcript

Baseball's High Stakes Deal Maker: B.B. Abbott · Rosters to Rings Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Rosters, to Rings. I am your host
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Thad Levine. Chet is enjoying lobster roles in Nantucket this week,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: but he has left the show in extremely capable hands.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I'm honored to be joined today by BB Abbott, a
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Major League baseball agent, one of the preeminent power brokers
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: in baseball, and a good friend. Due in large part
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: to the daunting competition to break into baseball, most of
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: us have coupled talent, hard work with a touch of
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: good fortune. BB's break came a touch earlier than most, when,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: at age six, he befriended neighbor and soon to be
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: baseball teammate Chipper Jones. A former corporate attorney with Foley
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and Lardner, BB transitioned into sports representation in nineteen ninety
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: nine when he launched Jet Sports Management and started representing
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Chipper Jones. Over the next two plus decades, BB built
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Jet Sports into one of baseball's premier boutique agencies before
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: ultimately joining forces with the Juggernaut Wasserman now named the Team.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: BB currently serves as the executive vice president and Managing
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: director of Baseball. On the team, BB has represented exceptionally
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: talented players throughout his career. In addition to representing Chipper Jones,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: he has worked with Corey Klueber, Chris Sale, Brian McCann,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Wade Davis, Byron Buxton, Zach Wheeler, Matt Olson, just to
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: name a few of his illustrious clients. BB Welcome to
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Rosters to Rings.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Thank you. It is my pleasure.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Bbre our tradition on Rosters to Rings as we ask
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: everyone who comes on to share how they fell in
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: love with sports as a kid, what is your sports
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: passion origin story?
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: I think probably for me it was it was the
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: camaraderie of being around the fellas, being around the guys,
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: being you know, in the proverbial clubhouse or in our
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: case unroofed dugout.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think that you know, as you are
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: drawn to sports, you're really drawn toward those relationships and
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: those ties that you get within sports and all striving
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: toward you know, one particular goal.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: And and for me it was team sports.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: It was always you know, the guy that you know
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: ended ultimately ended up being my best best friend or
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: you know, long time client, and and Chipper know somebody
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: that that I've known, my gosh, almost all of my
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: life as childhood and adult.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: But also those those relationships.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: You know that you form even after as you get
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: into high school and in college and U and then
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: now that I have now working on the other side,
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: which is you know, through representing players and the relationships
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: and the new friendships that I've gathered through that, that's
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: sports to me, has been h the gift that has
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: just kept on giving since since I was five years old.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: And without it, you know, certainly, without sports, I would
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: not be where I am today, certainly, but those were
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: the relationships that I was able to forge through those
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: you know, through those teams and having the ability to
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: play alongside some of my very best friends today.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: You know, Bbe, I couldn't agree with you more. I've
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: always felt like our responsibility in sports is to share
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: those memories, relationships, and experiences with as many people as
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: we can, because it is such a gift and blessing
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: that we've been exposed to them throughout our careers. And
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I love the attitude that you represent about that, and
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: you really carry that into every interaction I've ever had
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: with you. And I want to take you back to
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the late nineteen nineties and can you share with the listeners,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: like take us behind the scenes. You were working at
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: that time for Folly and Lardner and good friendship for
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Jones approaches you and inspires you to leave a stable
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: job and launch your own sports agency. How did that
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: conversation take place?
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: It was an interesting one I had, you know, when
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: I went to law school, I thought I want to
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: be involved in sports in some way, shape or form
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: and materialize for me. Right out of law school, I
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: went to Stetson Law School, which is you know, in
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: Saint Petersburg in Florida, And I was born and raised
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: in Florida, and my father, you know, said, go to
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: go to law school. It's something, you know, I think
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: that that will help you. And this was before our
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: game was littered with lawyers and people now that you know,
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: are have advanced degrees and analytics and statistics and whatnot.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: This this was still back in the day when you know,
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: having a law degree, you know, was something I think
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: that would have really given you the upper edge. Are
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: certainly an edge and being able to get something in sports.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: So the only job offer that I got was with
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: the Saint Louis Cardinals and their marketing department. Out of
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: law school, and my dad said, Nope, you're not doing that.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: I didn't put you through law school to do that.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: If I would have done that, I'd probably be sitting
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: in some of the similar positions that you've been in,
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: and you know, being able to work my way up
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: through through a major League Baseball organization. But as luck
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: would have it, I went and practiced law, like you said,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: at Fully and Lardner, I was able to you know,
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: to work with some great people there. Fully and Lartner
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: at the time represent a major league baseball because but
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Seelig's personal attorney was Bob Dupey, who worked for Fully
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: out of Milwaukee. And so it was just a great
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: way for me, at least in my mind to kind
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: of be still connected in the litigation department and to
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: be able to do trials and mediations and arbitrations, things
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: that that I knew if I did get a chance
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: to do what I was going to hopefully do for
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: with the rest of my life, those would be skills
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: that would be great, you know, for for me to
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: continue to learn. Uh And and so I did and
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: did that for five years. Chippers Agents marketing on the
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: marketing side were pain Steward's agents and pain you know,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: everybody knows, you know, died tragically in a cart in
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: a plane accident, and his agents were on the plane
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: with him, and so Chipper came to me initially and said, hey,
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: is this something that you would want to do for
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: me on the marketing side. He was also going to
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: a divorce at the time. This was nineteen ninety nine,
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: you know, he was twenty seven years old, really beginning
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: to enter into you know, into the beginning of what
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: you know, ultimately ended up a Hall of Fame career.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: And so I said, yeah, I would. He said you
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: can also you know, represent me on a co basis
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: on the contract side. And I said, that's great, let's
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: do it. And so I left. I was making I
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: think eighty thousand dollars a year at the time as
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: a fifth year attorney, and I didn't know, Okay, is
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: he going to be able to pay me this? And
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: am I going to be able to, you know, to
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: make this amount of money. I ended up taking a
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: little bit of a pay cut, but I did it with,
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: you know, with the hope that you know, one day
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: this would be something that I know could be proud
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: of and make a living doing and so I left fully.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: Chipper was my first client that offseason. Chipper ended up
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: hiring me to be his full agent, and so at
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: twenty nine years old, I became his agent, and then
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: he became the MVP and ultimately signed a one hundred
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: million dollars contract at the time, which you know, for
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: about fifteen seconds made him the highest paid player in baseball,
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: and in front of Manny Ramirez and Derek Cheeter and
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: some guys like that. And and I also got the
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: chance to negotiate against to what I consider, you know,
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: two of the best executives ever to come through the game,
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: and Stan Casting and John Herholds, And it was a
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: it was life experience after life of experience as a
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: twenty nine year old that had absolutely no idea what
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: he was doing. And I was I was happy enough
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: to tell Chipper that he knew that, you know, because
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: we were best friends, and you know, he was gracious
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: enough to let me learn on the job, you know,
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: for one of the best players in Major League Baseball,
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: and that really came from that friendship. And I told him,
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: I listened, I'm not going to know the answered everything,
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: probably not much of anything. But I'm going to find
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: it out, and I'm going to go get it, and
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: we're going to do this, you know, the way that
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: we've done everything for the last twenty five years.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Bbe. I guess I didn't realize how much of our
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: lives have paralleled to each other. I also started in
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine. I also came from outside of baseball.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I was working for the Rebox shoe company and then
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: ultimately Coca Cola, both efforts to work in sports, but
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: obviously not directly as you had that same experience. And
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I left a decent paying job with the Coca Cola company,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: getting paid I think seventy five thousand dollars or something
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: like that, and I was unemployed, and I tried to
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: get into baseball because I figured if I had the
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: safety net, I would never ever take the risk, and
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: so I removed all of my safety nets pursued baseball
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: similar and not quite the same scale that you just
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: referred to when you were speaking with stancast And and John
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Scherwoltz about a hundred mill dollar deal. But I was
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: sitting shoulder to shoulder with Dan o'doubt as we were
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: negotiating multi year contracts with Mike Hampton's agent and with
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Denny Nagel's agents, and it was just so happened. I
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: earned my right into the room because I was the
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: only one who could figure out how to calculate the
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: net present value of deferred compensation. And you know, you
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: find yourself just as you said it, like I didn't
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: know better that I shouldn't be in the room, and
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: they asked me to step up and help out, and
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I did exactly that. And Dan o'doud created an environment
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: where he expected greatness out of people, and he set
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: you up to succeed, and then you had to go
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: out there and succeed. But in hindsight, it's remarkable at
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: age twenty seven then I was sitting in that room
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: and getting that opportunity. But it's it's those opportunities that
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: you have to make the most of if you want
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: to thrive in this industry.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: I think every person and if they don't say this,
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: then they're probably not they're misremembering every person that is
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: in the position that you or I or anybody else
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: you know that's running a base of all department, orrun
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: a team or you know whatever the cave but franchise
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: a university. Every person has had that moment where somebody
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: took a chance on him, and for me it was Shipper.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: You know, he took a chance on me and you know,
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: gave me the opportunity to to do something that I
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: now love and have made a career out and a
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: life out of. And you know, I tell them all
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: the time I go, there's just no way that I
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: would be in this position with without you, you know
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: he and and you know for you it was Dan Dalton, right.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: And I think every person that's in the position that
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: we are in, you know, has that one person that says,
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: all right, I'm going to take a chance on you,
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: and I trust you. And I know that again that
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: if you don't know the answer, you're going to go
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: out and find it and you're not going to have
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: the ego to think that you know everything.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: And to this day, I still don't know everything.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: And I'm always seeking out somebody and that's something that
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: you'll see over the course of our conversation here over
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: the next thirty minutes. I'm always seeking out, you know,
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: people that know things are better than me in particular
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: areas that I just don't have that expertise and I
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: did that with Chipper. You know, I had some agents
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: that you know, I really leaned on heavily to get
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: me through those first couple of years, because you know,
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: being a lawyer, a young lawyer, and you know, thinking
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: that you knew a particular space or getting to know
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: a particular space, and then you get thrown into this.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: You know, whether it's a college coach or whether it's
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: a scout, or whether it's an older agent, or whether
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: it's a baseball exec. Like those are still relationships that
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: I still have to this day with all of those
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: people that helped me get to where I was at
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: the beginning.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Well, and BB, I think what you're talking about there
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: is the reason you've had as long as a career
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: as you've had is because you have the humility that
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: you had on day one. You still have it. And
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of us lose our way when
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: we lose that humility and we think that we're actually
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: bigger than the game. The game humbles you in a
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: hurry once you feel like you figured it out, or
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: once you feel like you don't need people around you.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: We all need people that That is just the way
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: that this works. And it's a testament to that attitude
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: you've had throughout your career as to why your career
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: is still thriving right now. It's like you've taken it
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: to another level. And when we come back from this break,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: we're going to hear more about the next steps in
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: BB's career, but also we're going to dive into some
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: of his more colorful negotiations along the way and some
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: of the fun players he's represented. Stick with us through
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the break here on Rosters to Rings. Welcome back to
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Rosters to Rings. We're still chatting here with BBB and
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: bb I wanted to take you to the next milestone
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: in your career. So for over two decades, I imagine you
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: famously turned down numerous buyout offers to keep jet Sports
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: independent before deciding to join forces with Wasserman in twenty
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: twenty two. What specific shifts were going on in the
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: baseball industry, technology, international scouting, multi year platforms, those sorts
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: of things inspired you at that time that it was
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: the right time and that Wasserman was the right partner
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: for you moving forward with your clients.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we had spent twenty years right just
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: trying to build a boutique type of agency where we
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: were really focused on more quality over quantity. You know,
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: we were trying to get two or three first rounders
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: a year and really trying to to just be that
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: force that was that alternative to the to the bigger
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: agencies that were out there, you know at the time.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: And you know, for me, it was something that of
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: course we got approached by different agencies because for us,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: we were operating in the space.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: It was really kind of you know, our own.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: There were some other mid eight you know, some mid
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: major types of agencies or mid size types of agencies
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: that you know existed, you know, out there, and you know,
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: we were competing in that space, but really in the South,
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: in the Southeast and up the eastern seaboard, we were
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: really kind of doing it on our own and and
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: just really trying to to make it impact in our area.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: We didn't go really west past past the Mississippi at all.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: We really stopped there and really tried to just make
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: an impact again on.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: The areas that you know that we had people.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: In and that started with me and Florida to bring
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: it on Hank Sergeant, you know, who worked with me
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: and Florida as well, and then expanding up into the
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: southeast with with Al Getz and then Andrew Lowenthal, you know,
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: up in the northeast and bringing on some really great
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: younger guys, and we were really going well. At the time,
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: I saw the industry starting to take a shift. I
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: saw social media was really starting to, you know, to
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: be big. Marketing was something that was bigger for these guys.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: They were more interested in building brands off of the field.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: At the time, we were really reacting to those types
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: of things. We were reacting to trends in the industry
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: with social media and marketing and brand building, and we
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: just I just knew that we were going to fall short,
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: you know in certain places. I had no idea what
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: where the industry would go so quickly in regards to
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: those things, in regards to social media, in regards to
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: n I L and all these other things that came,
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: you know, over the next over the last four years.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: But we would really be in a in a situation
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: to where I would be looking to do something outside
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: of where we were. And for me, you know, when
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: when Joe Wolf and Adam Casse reached out to me
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: and a guy by the name of Jason Rainey and
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: Mike Mariano, who runs our baseball ops. You know, they
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: were they were just guys that I felt like had
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: the same values that I did. They we were really
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: like minded. We had a like minded approach and what
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: it meant to represent players. You know, I always I
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: say this story even today. You know where over the
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: last four years, I've got to know Joel who's kind
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: of my counterpart out West and you know, runs the
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Baseball Division and ran the Baseball Division before I came on.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: And you know, now we have kind of that that
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: dual role in that West and me in the in
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: the East. And you know, I always say this to
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: this day, like if I could pick an agent to
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: represent me, it would not be myself, it would be
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: Joe Wolf. Just the way that he handles his mannerisms.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: He's a lawyer, he played the game, he was in
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: the big leagues, and he just has this, you know,
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: this this approach with families that is just something that
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: I think is you know, really really important, an important
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: way to handle families and to handle representation and to
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: do things that might not be what you want, but
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: you know, are in the best interest of your clients
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: and your families and to me, that was something that
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: I saw and then you know, from really the first
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: time that I met them, they would tell you that
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: it was a three or four year courtship, which is
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: probably longer than they wanted to, you know, to go
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: with me.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: But at the same time, I also do believe that
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: That they knew that they that I was a great
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: fit for them, that that me and Hank and al
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: and Andrew and Alex and you know, Stephanie and you know,
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: everybody there was just a really really good fit for them.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: And you know, ultimately we made the decision to to
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: to transition over. It was crucial for us that we
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: were able to to keep our identity of you know,
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: who and what we were as a group, while to
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: also have the bigger resources that we're going to be
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: available to us. You know, I will tell you that
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: we approach things very very similarly than we did before
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: or we're really really still you know, emphasizing that quality
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: over quantity concept. But when you combine that right with
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: guys out west and in the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest,
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: you know, you then you get an agency that is
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: just powerful. You know, we're able to reach out and
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: get those resources whenever we want. In marketing in NIL,
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: we created an NIL department from scratch, something that I
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: just wouldn't have been able to do, you know at
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: Jet Sports. And and you know, it's really given us
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: the ability to you know, to again reach out and
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: get those resources where we want to, but at the
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: same time have the same set of values and morals
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: and uh and again that like minded approach to representing
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: players that that everybody out west, you know, that was
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: in the existing Wasserman you know, has and and we
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: fit them like a puzzle because they did not do
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: much up the eastern seaboard. Sam Somargine was sitting in
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: the mid Midwest. So now you know, Sam kind of
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: floats between you know, the the two different divisions so
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: to speak.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: But all in all, we're like one unit.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: And when arbitration comes or when or when the draft
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: comes around, or when we're in free agency, like we're
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: all working together and having the ability to have like
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: nine first rounders this year and all being in the
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: same room, as you know, information is key, and you know,
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: for us, you know, it became it became a calculated
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: move for me to to be able to take our
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: group or nine, the nine of us and join a
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: bigger outfit that made all the sense in the world
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: for our clients, for the listeners.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: BB just shared some names with you, and I just
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: want to put a little context around him. Joel Wolf
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: is one of the most venerated agents I think in
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: the game for everything, all the reasons BB just talked about.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: It's funny people on the baseball side also fantasize and
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: we say, hey, if my son were ever to play
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: professional baseball, who would you want to have represent you?
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: And I will tell you, BB, your name comes up often,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: so does Joel's. And then you also mentioned Adam Katz.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Adam Katz is kind of a little bit of more
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: of a senior statesman. He was somebody who predated both
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: years in my career. Starting He worked for famously with
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Rich Katz and Landis and he started that agency and
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: they grew it. He then formed partnerships with Wasserman, so
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: he had kind of already gone through the process that
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: you were talking about. Adam was one of the first
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: people I ever negotiated with. I was in the room
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: when Dan O'Dowd was talking to him on the phone.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: I think both of them said curse word. And then
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: after a sufficient number of curse words were said, Dan
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: then said, I can't talk to this guy anymore. You
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: call Adam, And so then Adam and I got a
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: deal done on if you remember Jose Jimenez, the pitcher
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: for Colorado. Adam summarily told me that we were negotiating
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: all the wrong way and that the best way to
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: accomplish a deal would be to give him a lot
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: more money, which I think ultimately we may have done
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: just that. So he was one of the first people
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: I ever got a chance to negotiate with. Bybe you
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: touched on something in your answer that I just want
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: to dive into and let the listener know more about.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: The average Major League Baseball player probably is changing agents.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: What do you think every two to three seasons?
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Probably your seems that way nowadays.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, your business is different, like the way you've run
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: your business prior to the merge and since the merge
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: is to the best of my knowledge, you have players
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: for basically their entire careers. And one of the reasons
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: that I feel that from the having negotiated with you
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: is the immense care you place in making sure your
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: players outside of the money. You're trying to get him
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: the most money, there's no doubt about it. But you
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: take greater care to the quality of life for your
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: players than most agents you speak to. So how does
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: that show up? You know, when you're negotiating Byron Buxton's deal,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: you share with us without compromise that he would like
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: to stay in Minnesota. Not the only place he'd play,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: but it's a place he'd like to play. When you've
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: talked to us about Zach Wheeler when the Minnesota Twins
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: were one of the suitors for Zach Wheeler, you shared
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: with us very upfront that Zach Wheeler's wife would prioritize
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: being around the Philadelphia area. When you and I have
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: talked in the past about a myriad of guys, Charlie
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Morton comes to mind. He would like to play in Atlanta,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: unless you know, we were prepared to do something a
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: little bit out of the realm of sanity. He's going
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: to stay in Atlanta, And you shared those things with us,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: and so I just wanted to give you a little
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: bit of a forum to both say. I appreciated that
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: always from my perspective, that's why exactly why i'd want
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: you representing my son. Well, it was always you were
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: always keen on getting your player the most money. That's
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: of course your responsibility. It always was more than that
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: when you talked, when we talked to you, it was
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: always about the quality of life components. It seemed to
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: have been align with why you kept these guys throughout
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: their whole careers, because you genuinely cared beyond the superficiality
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: of just that contract signing and negotiation.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'll even add another level of that, which
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: is Chris sALS signing the first deal that he did,
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: Way Davis signing the first deal that he did, Brian
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: mccannon signing the first deal that he did, all deals
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: that I did not agree with it. And they will
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: tell you that I did not agree with those. And
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: people would also tell you that they would be shocked
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: that in my personal life and really even in the
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: professional life and our agency, because I can be extremely headstrong,
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: you know when it comes to certain things. But what
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: I'm not typically headstrong about is me placing myself in
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: between what a client and their family thinks is their
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: path in this game. That is not something that I've
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: ever compromised on or at least I like to hope
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: that I might have towed the line and said, listen,
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: I don't think this is the best thing to do,
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: but it is our job to give you information. And
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: this information, ultimately, you know, is going to be disseminated
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: by you, and you're going to make the right call
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: for you. I remember, you know, Chris Sale not wanting
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: to walk out of his house until the deal was
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: done with Rick Han in Chicago. I remember, you know
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: Brian McCann being the same way in Atlanta. You know
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Way Davis, and I Wway Davis is a very headstrong
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: gentleman and you know, one of my favorite clients because
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: we were able to have that spirited conversation. But he
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: basically said, you got twenty four hours to get this
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: done or I'm going to find somebody that gets it done.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: So I knew I had taken him up to that limit,
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: and then I knew that I needed to get that
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: deal done. You just hear so many stories about agent
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: doing things or trying to direct a client to what
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: their own set of values or needs or desires are,
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: and that's just something I'll just have never going to do.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: I have this fear always that I'm going to tell
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: somebody not to sign a deal, and then something's going
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: to happen to that player, or they're going to be injured,
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: or they're going to be miserable. And it's just a
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: fear that I've always had. I'm I'm just not going
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: to put myself from my client into a situation to
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: where they are doing something that they just aren't comfortable doing.
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: And that's in the draft, that's in arbitration, whether they
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: want to step into a hearing room, or more more
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: specifically and more importantly, in free agency, when they're ultimately
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: deciding where they're going to be, you know, and their
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: family is going to be over the next two, three, four, ten, twelve,
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: fourteen years, and it's just too important. It just is
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: I just I'm not going to placed my client in
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: that situation. And I'm glad you brought up Byron, because
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: you will remember because it was you and I that
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: we was doing that deal and that we got everything done,
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: but the no trade, that was it, you know. And
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: so for him, it was so imperative for him to
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: be in that community, to help build a winner there,
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: to be there and have roots and set those roots
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: down and sometimes it's a cliche because you'll hear, oh,
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: the school system or this, and then they get this
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: big amount of money. I can promise you and you
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: know this, that he would not have done. We would
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: not have gotten that deal done if it weren't.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: For the no trade.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: And now over the last year or two, you see
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: this playing out. Byron has to say in what happens
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: in his life and in his career and uprooting his family.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: I've had numerous situations come up even since then where
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: no trades are discussed or not discussed, or just a
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: team just is not willing to do it. Deal ultimately
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: nuts doesn't get made. Situations to where a player didn't
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: care about a particular no trade, and again counseling them
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: on what that means, and then ultimately they get traded
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: you know, other places. So all of those things, you know,
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: I think that you try to draw on those experiences
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: and you try to counsel clients and families on that.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: But ultimately this comes down to doing what they want,
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: not what you want. And I will never impute upon
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: them what I think is the best route for them
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: to go. That is something I will never never do,
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: and I hope that every family that I've dealt with
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: would tell you that's something I've.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Never done well bybe you reference the fact that you
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: kind of live in this fear that you may cost
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: a player a deal that otherwise they would have done.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I actually think that's a healthy approach. Like I've always
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: viewed it as. There's two different types of deals in
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: terms of the lucrative deals that agents sign with players.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: One is it's the set you up for life deal.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: And if the game is willing to set you up
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: for your life, and typically that means not only you,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: but it could be your parents and your kids and
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: maybe even your grandkids, don't miss on the opportunity, like
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: we've all heard the terrible stories of so and so
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: turned down the multi year deal and then unfortunately had
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: a career ending injury or just didn't turn out to
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: be the player that he hoped and aspired to be.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: So if the game is willing to take care of you,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: if I were an agent, I would always want to
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: make sure the game took care of my clients. The
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: second deal is the deal where we can get creative
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: if once we have that nest take, once the game
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: has taken care of us then we can talk about like, hey,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: what market do you want to play and should we
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: hold out for the most money or the most you know,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: the highest dollars or the most years or what have you.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: But just don't miss on that first opportunity. And sometimes
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I got to be honest, when you're negotiating from our
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: side and it seems as if all they care about
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: is the bottom line. It is tragic because I certainly
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: can and I won't mention any names here it would
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: be inappropriate, but I've missed on signing players who then
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: ultimately did not earn and I look back at that
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: and I feel I just wonder, did the player really say,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: you know, it's X dollars or bust? Or did the
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: agents say that? And now that they regret it, and
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: you just don't want to live life with regret, like
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: this is the next compliment. I won't say the last compliment.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: I'll pay you. But sometimes when you're dealing with agents,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: you feel as if the players just won in a
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: portfolio for them and they're okay to lose a few
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: of these if they win most of them. It never
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: felt that way with you, It never felt that way,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: And just to just to share a little bit of
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: the Byron Buckston negotiation reference. I think it was remarkable
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: I shared with you once we got that deal done
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: that it was literally almost five years to the day
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: from the time that I made my first offer to
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: you to the day that we ultimately agreed to terms.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: And I don't think that happens too often. I don't
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: think front office executives have the patients because unfortunately, sometimes
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: you ascribe some negative attributes to players who don't want
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: to get a deal done, or there's so much tension
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: between the agent and the club the club negotiator that
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: they just can't continue the conversation. You and I worked
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: at that for five years, and I bet you there
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: didn't There wasn't a six month period that didn't go
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: by without you and me exchanging offers or ideas or
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: working on that. And that's pretty special. And I got
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: to be honest, when I look at my career, that's
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: one of the things I'm most proud of is that
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: five years should be that we got done. And also
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: the nature of that deal was so unique, because Byron
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: is so unique.
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you should be that that is a deal that
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: and I tell Byron is all the time I got
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: him like, buck I know that I was a big
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: part of this and you were a big part of this.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: But this deal does not get done without that.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: And you know that. And he's like, I know that
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: one hundred percent.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: You'll if you'll remember, you know, one or two days
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: before we got the deal done, it.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: Was it was off. It was off.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: It was a no, wasn't going to happen, you know,
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: for a couple of different reasons. And you just kept
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: coming and kept coming and kept coming to where we
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: just got deal done. And Byron Buxton, to all the
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: Minnesota fans out there, Byron Buckston would not be a
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: Minnesota twin right now without you period. Well that that
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: full stop.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: No.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you saying that, and I'm not looking for
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: the compliment. I just want to say, like, it speaks
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: to our relationship, it speaks to Byron's relationship with the community,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: with the organization. Without that, there's no there would have
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: been no hope there to get a deal like that done.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: And one of the other things, I can't tell you
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: how many people on our side of the business have
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: reached out to me and said, you know how creative
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: you and I were because for the listeners to understand,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: part of the hurdle for us to agree to a
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: deal was Byron was unequivocally one of the most talented
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: players in the game. Unfortunately, also, he was considerably off
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: and injured, so it was really tough for me and
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: BB to nail down exactly how much he should get paid.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Because his quality was so exceptionally high, his quantity of
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: contribution was not quite as high, so he was performing
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: at an MVP line, but he wasn't necessarily playing as
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: frequently as MVP players would play. So what we ultimately
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: decided upon was a base salary that we thought was
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: fairer with some extremely aggressive incentives that if he did
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: stay healthy for any given year, he would get paid
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: at a much higher level. And I hope throughout his
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: career he gets paid every one of those incentives, because
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: that would be a tremendous outcome for Byron, for his family,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: and ultimately for the Minnesota Twins.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you this that and this is just a
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: reflect on what you said about certain agents. I know
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: for a fact there are many players that hear offers
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: from teams. I've talked to these players, and I know
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: that player that offers are not communicated at times. That
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: is unfathomable to me. It is just something that I
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: can't even contemplate doing, is receiving an offer from a
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: team and not giving it to my client. I'll tell
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: you the motivation behind that, and it's something I've never
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: bought into and I've never succumbed to. But the motivation
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: for that is after for every one of these deals
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: that you run down, whether it's Byron Buxton who got
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: paid extremely well, you know, at one hundred million dollars
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: with the ability to make more money, or a Chris
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: Sale you know who just runs off you know, six
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: or seven top six finishes in the cy Young After
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: every single deal that we do that I do, I
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: always take a moment and I go, all right, how's
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: this going to work out?
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: You know what?
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: What do I think is going to work out here?
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: And it's always this trepidation, right, you have this these
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: balances of this trepidation that he's going to so outperform
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: this deal, that you're going to be an outcast in
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: the in the industry. But on the other side, you
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: have this trepidation of if I really not forced, but
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: if I really put my foot down and tell this player, oh,
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: this is a horrible deal and you shouldn't do this
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: deal under no circumstances, and I really influence their decision.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: You have this trepidation that something happens to him or
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: he's injured, and that has always out won the case.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: For me.
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: It is always he's outweighed the trepidation of what I'm
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: going to have to do to recruit an amateur player
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: or another pro player or whatever the case might be,
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: and how those agencies are going to recruit against me
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: when there's a deal on the books, like Chris Sale
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: and having you know, the amount of money that he
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: made in that first contract and how well he performed,
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: you know, under that first contract. But to me, that
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: other side has always outweighed that trepidation of what I'm
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: going to have to do, because that's my problem. That's
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: not the famili's problem, that's not the player's problem. That's
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: my problem. And I can get over that, and I
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: can explain that to the families that really want to listen,
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: that aren't just all about dollars, that understand that these
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: are bigger decisions than just money. And to me, those
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: are the types of families, and those are the types
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: of players that ultimately I'm trying to identify when we're
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: recruiting well.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: And maybe the strongest compliment you can get on that
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: is the Chris Sales, the Corey Klueber's, the Brian McCann's,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: the Way Davis, the guys that you did sign when
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: they were pre arbitration, when they didn't have the ultimate leverage,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: they all stuck with you, right. So I think the
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: nobility you expressed about always putting your client first and
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: not your ego in a cutthroat business, because agents out
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: there are trying to steal your players, especially the ones
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: you represent, because you're representing perennial All Stars, Cy Young's
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: and MVP candidates. They're trying to steal them and they're
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: looking for any avenue to do that, and they're going
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: to exploit some of those early deals. You stood firm
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: even if the player was kind of driving the ship.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: You allowed them to drive those ships. And I think
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: that nobility is what has gotten you to where you
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: are today, which is one of the most pre eminent
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: power brokers in the game. And phebe if you'd be
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: willing to stay with us, we got a few more
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: questions for you. We want to ask you a few
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: questions about Chris Sale, and we're going to dive a
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: little bit into the draft on the other side. Here,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: stick with us. They're the break on Rosters to Rings.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Rosters to Ring. Dreveman an awesome, insightful
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: conversation with BBA Abbott bb. I want to take you
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: back to July twenty sixteen, a story of your client,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Chris Sale, cutting up the White Sox throwback jerseys before
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: scheduled start as legendary in baseball lore. As his agent,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: what was your immediate reaction when you got the phone
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: call that evening and how did you manage the public
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: relations and team relationships in the days that followed.
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's funny the last second we were talking about,
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: you know, their ship to it's their ship to drive
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: and it's not my ship, and it's certainly their ship. Well,
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: he took control of the ship that day and he
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: drove it to the direction that Chris Sale drove it
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: and he is That was the beginning I think of
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: Chris Sales showing the entire baseball world who and what
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: he was, which was he wanted to win that's it.
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: And the other stuff to him was just no ways
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: and static. And I remember I was in Boston. I
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: was at Fenway going to another game, and I got
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: a call from Rickon and he said, well, we got
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: a little bit of an issue.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: And I said, what what do we got? And yeah, he.
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: Said, well, you know, Chris has torn up some jerseys
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: and we're going to send him home and you know,
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: we'll talk through it.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: And I said, okay. Uh, he goes, I'll fill you
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: in a little bit later.
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: But you know, there was there was some throwback jerseys
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: that he didn't want to wear, and you know, he
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: poked holes and a lot of them, and so we're
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: going to have to send him home, and you know,
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: Robin's talked to him, and Robin Materia talked to him,
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: and uh and I said okay. And right then I'm
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: getting another call in and it's Chris. And I said,
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: I got Chris call in right now.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: So I called him.
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: He said, well, I think we have a problem. I said, well,
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: I just heard, and he said he took me through
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: you know what he had done. And for those that
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: don't know, just very quickly they had come to them
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: early in the in the spring training to war these
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: throwback jerseys that were awful.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: Quite frankly, I mean they were awful.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: They were the ones that you know, were untucked and
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: big in the sleeves, and you know, Chris said, listen,
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: this comes on my day, like, I'm not wearing these,
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: and they go, okay. So they figured, okay, we got
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: an eighty percent chance that it's not going to fall
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: on Chris's day. Well, sure enough, it fell on Chris's
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: day and I think they were three or four games
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: out of the division and you know, and Chris said,
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: I'm not gonna I'm not going to wear these, you know,
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: and he went in and talked to Robin. Now Chris
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: had already had like a very spirited relationship with Kenny
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: and Rick up to that point.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: But it was good.
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: It was it was again one of those ones to
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: where you know, they're having this this healthy exchange. And
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: they knew who Chris was, they had drafted him, he
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: got to the big leagues in a month, and they
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: knew exactly what Chris sale was, which is he just
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: wanted to win and that's all that he cared about.
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: It's just on that particular day, those jerseys came up
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: in his locker and he, you know, he put a
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: hole in his jersey and told Robin then he wasn't
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: going to wear this jersey. And so they went and
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: sewed a number on another jersey and put it back
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: in his locker. And so he proceeded to promptly go
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: to the kitchen and get a knife and poke tole
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: in all the jerseys in the locker room, and they
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: couldn't wear the jerseys. They ended up wearing another throwback jersey.
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: At the time, I think they had a big sponsor
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: for the game. But to that, to Chris, that was
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: all static to him. The guys in that clubhouse, and
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: we've seen this throughout his career. Now we didn't know
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: at the time. We just thought he was throwing a tantrum, right,
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: but we now seen you know who and what he is,
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: and so now that you know that, it makes all
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: the sense in the world. At the time, you know,
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: it was a little it was a little off, and
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: even I, you know, was a little taken aback. But
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: knowing Chris and having recruited him and having seen you know,
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: how he wanted to handle that negotiation and not turned
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: down his first fortune and have you know Brion who
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: was pregnant and they were in college and he was
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: having his first son, and just the way that he
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: was going to do his career, he was going to
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: do it the way that benefited himself and his teammates.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: The other stuff, again was.
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: Just stuff that he just was not interested and you know,
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: he just wasn't interested and considering quite frankly, and so
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: the pr stuff that happened after the fact, it was
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: more of what I'm saying now. It was, you know,
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: Chris Sale cares about two things. He cares about the clubhouse,
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: his teammates and winning. And this this did not you know,
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: put those those two things at a priority. It was
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: more sponsorship and and things like that, and wearing jerseys
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: and throwback and you know that that was honoring certainly
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: the tradition of the game, but these didn't brink to him.
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: The only things that ranked to him was winning a game,
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: getting into a position to being in the playoffs, and
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: bringing a championship to.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: The city of Chicago.
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: Those are the only things that mattered to him, and
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: anything else that was in his way was a roadblock,
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: and he just wasn't going to put up with it.
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: And again, at the time, it was something that you know,
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: he just you know, it was something that didn't make.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: A lot of sense.
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: Now as you look at his career, it makes all
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: the sense in the world. Every story that I know
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: about Chris Sale, you know, since the time, you know,
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: and we've been together for you know, almost twenty years, now,
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: all the stories make sense. At the time it was
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: a little chaotic. I would be a lot better equipped
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: to handle what happened, you know, at the time in
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: twenty sixteen, had I known what would transpire over the
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: next ten years, because it would have been about cheesier
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: question to answer.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: But that was, to me, was the beginning of this.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: That wasn't the beginning.
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: We were toward the middle of it of I know
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: what this guy has made of and any team is
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: going to love for him to be a part of
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: the team. And then he goes on to win a
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: world championship in Boston and Asai Young in Atlanta, and
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: every teammate that you talked to him say that he's
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: in their top three.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I mean two things about Chris Sale jump out.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: One is I mean, remember when he entered the draft,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: the vast majority of teams thought due to his physicality
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: or lact thereof, that there was no he could start.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: From that day to this he may be the most
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: dominant starter in the game of baseball, quite literally. And
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: two is for the hundreds of people who reach out
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: to BBA but on a regular basis, trying to find
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: out how to become an agent. Know, you have to
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: field those calls at times as well. It's not all
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: the fun and glamour. I can only imagine the number
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: of times you've been called by front office executives and
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: they said, hey, I got you're going to get a
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: load of this one, and you're like, all right, what
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: do you got? And it's like you're probably less surprised
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: with each passing year about what's going on. But it's
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: interesting to hear you tell the story about how this
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: was kind of almost a very interesting character reveal about
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Chris Sale and it was not a negative character reveal.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: It was what's made him a champion and made him
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: such a winner throughout his career. Maybe I want to
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: shift to the draft here. You have become in your group,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: I should say, have become so dominant in the draft.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: You referenced earlier that you guys had nine first rounders.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: I think, am I right saying you had eleven of
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: the top fifty players selected in this draft? Or was it?
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: That's more?
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, even more so.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: A question I would have is how much has this
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: part of your business change? You know, modern front offices
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: are evaluating talent through tracking data now and pitch design
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: models and biomechanics and all those sorts of things. It's
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: been an explosion in the game. And I'm just curious,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: as you are trying to figure out who is worthy
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: of your representation, how much has the evolution in how
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: much teams are using models changed, how you have approached
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: families in their pursuit of you as representing their child.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: And two is like, do you think front offices are
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: just missing out on that human, you know, character teammate
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: winning element that just doesn't fit perfectly into some of
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: the algorithms we're using.
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, I think we're in the middle of this still.
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: I don't think we're at the end of this in
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: regards to the decisions that are being made scouting versus analytics.
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: I'm always a big believer of pendulum swings, where I
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: think that something swings away really away from something and
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: it swings back toward you know the other side. I
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: think you're seeing that to a little degree, and I
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: think we'll continue to see this where you know, the scouts,
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: because again, all that ultimately is gonna happen is we're
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: going to see in ten years where this is taking us, right,
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: where this modeling and analytics are really taking us. I
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: will tell you from our standpoint, at least, you know,
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: certainly in the guys that I brought over, and I
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: think this is true across our entire our entire firm.
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: It ultimately starts with the player and scouting. That's ultimately
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: where this starts because the analytics don't really come into
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: play when they're fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old. Those analytics
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: really don't come into play until they're in their summer
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: before their draft or they're in college. Because that's really
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: the analytics that that teams are really focusing on, you know,
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: in the draft room. So for us, the fundamentals of
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: what we've always done have been true. And that's Tyler Paster, Nikki,
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: alex Od Hanks, Sergeant au gets you know, all looking
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: and then on the other side, Rich all days of
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: the world, you know, Joel and his group with Nick
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: Channik and all of them. You know, ultimately we're looking
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: at this from Lenny Strelitz, you know who's that. That
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: was the funny thing about this is we were we
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: were two you know, we were two ships that were
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: operating exactly the same way where we had this these
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: old crogedy scouts like Hank and Lenny, and they were
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: doing their thing, and they're still doing their thing. They're
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: still identifying guys at fourteen and fifteen years old, way
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: before teams need to make these decisions. So we're still
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: fundamentally grounded in scouting, and what do you think, what
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: do you see here? We have to because we have
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: to make these decisions way before teams do. Teams don't
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: have to make these decisions until this past July. We've
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: had most of these kids for two or three years
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: for that. So the modeling, you know, certainly we don't
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: have access to a lot of modeling that happens at
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: fourteen fifteen, sixteen, because as you know, with back Man
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: and six four three and Synergy and Hawkeye and all
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: these things, they just aren't there. They aren't they aren't
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: available to you when these kids are fourteen, fifteen, sixteen
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: years old. It's really just the back of the trading cart,
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: you know, the bubblegum cart statistics that you're seeing. But
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: really what ultimately happens is the guys like Lenny and
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: Hank and Tyler. Now they are coming in and they
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: are evaluating what they see where they think this kid
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: can be the projection that this kid you know might
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: or might not have. Has he grown early? Is he
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: just weak and has a really good swing. So I'm
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: leaning on them all the time constantly. And that's why
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: I brought Hank on and Al originally was because they
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: had to tool set that I did not have. I
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: can't look at a fifteen year old and go, this
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: is a kid that you know, I think might be something. Now,
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: if I see Byron Buckson at sixteen years old, I'm
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: you know, I know that's pretty special. But it's really
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: the kids that you don't know, the kids that you know,
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: that you're able to look down and go, hey, this
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: kid's throwing eighty one eighty two. Chris sailed through eighty
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: three miles an hour in high school and Hank saw
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: him his first year of college and like this, this
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: guy's got a chance to be a guy, right Zach
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: Wheeler ninety two, ninety three, and the list will go.
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, Matt Olsen, Brian mccannon. I remember seeing him
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: as a junior in high school and I kid him
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: all the time because I think he literally ran the
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: slowest sixty time that I've ever seen. But you could
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: see the back to ball and you're like, I don't
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: really know. But the scouts really make the difference because
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: they have to beat the industry before the industry has
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: to make decisions. Once the modeling comes in, we're able
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: to then identify some kids where we see them on
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: a college campus let's say, for instance, and we know
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: that they go out and get one hundred at bats
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: in the SEC and the back to ball skills are
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: really good, and the swing and this stuff is really good,
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: and the ex of velocity and the launch angle and
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: all these things that are being looked at are really good,
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: and then we might target that player, you know, to
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: recruit him a little bit later in the process because
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: we like some of the modeling stuff that we see.
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: And that's where guys like Alex and Mike Mariano, you know,
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: come into where they're going through Synergy and all of
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: these other all these other data centers that they're able to,
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: you know, to tap into on making some of these
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: things when they're looking at pitchers or hitters with spin
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: rates and verts and all of this. These are things
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: that are super important for us as we get a
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: little further along. But with high school kids, you have
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: to make these decisions early and ultimately that is grounded
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: in scouting.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Phoebe, I want to talk to you about a specific
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: draft here, similar to this draft. You in twenty twenty
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: three were representing a lot of the top talent that
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: you're the Minnesota Twins were picking fifth. We talk to
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: you about all these guys you you were representing Max Clark,
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: who ultimately gets selected third by the Detroit Tigers, as
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: well as Wyatt Langford, who ultimately goes forth to the
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: Texas Rangers. Hearing a story told by none other than
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: you after the draft, you did some fancy footwork to
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: land those two guys in the right spots. Can you
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: take us behind the scenes and and share with us,
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: like how that actually goes in, What types of conversations
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: you're having with the family and with the clubs during
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: that process.
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: This is a perfect example of information rules in the draft,
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: and combining with Wasserman has allowed us to be I
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: think the pre eminent firm in the draft because of
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: the players that were representing every single year, whether it's
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: twenty three. This year, you know, we had the number
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: one and the number two pick in the draft. You know,
• 48:38
  Speaker 3: it happened that Max Clark's agent, you know, was Sam Samarga,
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: who also had Grady Emerson and Joel you know, had
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: had Rock Chilowski.
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: This year, I.
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: Had Wyatt Langford, and we're there in the draft room,
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: in our draft room, and for that moment in time,
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: for that small moment in time, we had more information
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: than anyone else. And so when you're in the draft,
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: and this is this is true in arbitration as well,
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: and free agency and arbitration, you know, we a lot
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: of times get our teeth kicked in because teams have
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: more information than we do. In free agency, again, the
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: pendulum swings back to where we have more information. But
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: in those in that moment in time on draft day,
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: we have the information you know that the other teams
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: just don't. Because while gms will certainly share information, they
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: all covet the same players, you know at the end
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: of the day, and so the information that they're sharing
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: around their pick is not as free flowing as maybe
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: if you're picking first, you know, versus tenth, and you know,
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: maybe a GM might share, you know, some things that
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: are happening. So having those picks and then having like
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: seth Rnandez last year and Tyler Brimner last year, always
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: having picks, you know in the top, you know, six, seven,
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: eight picks is it's just it's crucial because if we didn't,
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: if Sam Somarga didn't have Max Clark, or Sam Somargine
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: didn't have Great emercy, like Joe and I would have
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: been out there, we wouldn't have known because if Sam
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: would have been with a different agency, we don't know
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: what deals he's trying to cook with Tampa Bay and
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: what we're trying to do with Chicago or in that
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: situation that the Tigers and the Rangers. So having us
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: together is extremely important and that we knew, and I
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: knew specifically we will put up Chinese walls at certain
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: times like Chicago couldn't decide, you know, they were Those
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: are two very very good players, right and so each
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: agent has to understand and represent their player in the
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: appropriate way. And I think Sam and Joel did an
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: extraordinary job this year and being able to talk directly
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: to the Chicago White Sox, to Tampa Bay, you know,
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: to San Francisco, and to the Twins, and just being
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: able to have those conversations with them, because ultimately those
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: teams knew they were going to have to approach one
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: of them and try to negotiate a deal, and ultimately
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: that's what they did. And I will tell you that
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: the same in the same way with Wyatt and with Max,
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: where Texas really really coveted Wyatt, that was something that
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: they really wanted. And I give all the credit in
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: the world to that entire staff from Kip fag all
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: the way up to see why where they did a
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: really good job and identifying that this is the player
• 51:16
  Speaker 3: that they wanted and then how are we and Whyatt
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: was on board with them, and how are we going
• 51:21
  Speaker 3: to get Wyatt, you know, to to this team. And
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: then Sam did the same thing with Max. And then obviously,
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: if you'll remember two really good players that were also
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: in that draft, Paul Schemes and and Dylan Cruz and
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: we didn't know what was going on there, right, we
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: just had to react, but we did have two of
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: the top four and that's where that's where information and
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: being together, you know, really carries a lot of power
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: for us in the draft room, and it's something that
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: that quite frankly, I think that you know, we've just
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: done a really really good job of handling at the
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: top of the draft the last couple of years.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Well, as you mentioned, like when you corner the market,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: so to speak, with information, you have a lot of
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: latitude to dick tape movements at that time, and you know,
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: whether it's literally placing a guy with a team or
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: it's actually negotiating more advantageously for both parties. You guys
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: are able to leverage that to the best of your ability,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: which is very impressive. BB. I can't leave, let you
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: leave without one last topic, and that is you know,
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: we're going to have a CBA discussion come season's end,
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: and I think hopefully one thing that we've disavowed the
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: listeners of is this notion that agents in front office
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: executives are always contentious. Jerry Maguire doesn't do us the
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: most service in that regard. I've always found that the
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: conversations I've had with agents has always been we find
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: that we're actually have a lot of common ground in
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: terms of what we think is best for the game.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: If you had the ability to give advice to Bruce
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: Meyer or Rob Manfred Bruce meyro heads up the Players Association,
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: Rob Manford, who is the Commissioner of Baseball, about something
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: that could expedite, something that we should focus on or
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: pitfall to avoid. What would that be going into the negotiations.
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: I think more than anything, and I'm not sure that
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: this is not inevitable, but to really avoid going into
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: our corners and sitting I just think that and I'd
• 53:16
  Speaker 3: want to be make sure that I'm I'm you know,
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: I'm being realistic here, because when you have and I
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: don't want to put on my union hat, but when
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: you have you know, one particular party that's trying to
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: change everything from a financial and core economic issues, and
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: you know, running into a quarter and saying these are
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: the things that we want the draft, these are the
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: things that we want in free agency, and these is
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: how we want to handle the pocketbooks. And you have
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: another that's trying to expand, Like I think the Union's
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: doing or we're trying to expand on certain things and
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: improve players' rights. You know, within those there's certain core
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: economic issues. You know, whether it's CBT or whether it's arbitration,
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: or whether it's the draft, or whether it's free agency.
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: You know, you get in to this this battle of
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: you know, really wanting to try to expand on those things,
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: but then you have another side that's trying to dramatically
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: change those I just feel like we're going to get
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: into a situation to where not a whole lot gets
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: done on the economic sides, on the core economic issues,
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: and we're going to flip the calendar and then you know,
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: we'll decide, you know, what ultimately happens there. But my
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: advice would be to tell everybody involved, and I think
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: that that everybody does understand this, is that we have
• 54:32
  Speaker 3: the greatest game as far as the health of the game,
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: the way that the trajectories of the revenues are going.
• 54:40
  Speaker 3: You know, really where we are at positioned, either from
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: an ownership standpoint or the central office or the union
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: or players, we just have a wonderful game. And I
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: would just hate for something to happen that you know,
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: would throw us off those tracks and as much as
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: noise as we want to make about you know, competitive
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: balance and share of revenues and all of these things
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: that certainly are going to be you know, articulated and
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: thought about, you know, over the over the next eight
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: months or nine months. You know, we do have a
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: great game where we have a situation where the last
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: ten years, I think twenty seven teams have made the playoffs.
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: Only seven teams I think I was talking to gym today,
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: only seven teams are really out of this thing one
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: hundred games in. So we this is a super competitive sport,
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: you know that we have, and we have because of
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: the things that we just talked about with analytics and
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: modeling and these very very smart people that are working
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: with teams and putting together these teams and just you know,
• 55:41
  Speaker 3: it's not just money that's driving these decisions. And you
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: look here in my hometown in Tampa Bay Milwaukee. You know,
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: some of these teams that are putting together just unbelievable clubs.
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: With more limited resources. It's not just about money.
• 55:57
  Speaker 3: It's about the people that you have behind these teams
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: that are working you know, in areas that nobody ever
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: sees that are putting these teams together, and it's what
• 56:04
  Speaker 3: makes this the greatest game, you know, in my mind.
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: And I just hope that at the end of the day,
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: we're going to have a lot of stuff that flies
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: back and forth. There'll be a lot of things that
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: you know, that cross over, and you know, some stones
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: that are thrown. But at the end of the day,
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: I just hope that everybody you know realizes that and ultimately,
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: you know, we can come to an agreement and move
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: on at least for the next five years.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more. I've been blessed to work throughout
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: my career really with very limited work stoppages, and I'm
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: a glass brimming over not even have full enough. I
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: know you are, and so bb I. The things I
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: look at that are encouraging to me is I know
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: this sounds silly, but I think both sides are talking,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: I think, and also I think it's healthy for the
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: fans to understand that we're publicizing the deal points. I
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: think we haven't done a good job of that on
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: either side in the past, and so all we hear
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: is the vitriol and the attack. Yes, I think it's
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: good that we or at least talking some deal points.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: And the other thing which I want to give Bruce
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: Meyer a lot of credit for in his leadership is
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: I feel like, for the first time they're really trying
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: to substantively address the rank and file. We're trying to
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: improve the pre arbitration salary figures. That's how the arbitration
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: salary figures, and get more money to the guys when
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: they're less experienced and when they're contributing a ton and
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: I think they've always deserved that they shouldn't have to
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: wait for free agency to get the compensation they deserve.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: So hopefully that I can't.
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: Promote him enough.
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: I can't say enough good things about Bruce and that Nussbaum,
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: the communication that's happened. This is a different union, you
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: know now, and you know that's not a slight on
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: anything that's happened. We've had some great union leadership. But
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: I just really like the direction that the union's going.
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: And like you said, I think that when I'm talking
• 57:49
  Speaker 3: to front office people and agents and we're all in
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: the same group, I feel like we could sit down
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: and maybe get this done.
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: But a lot of times we don't get to make
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: those decisions.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: I wish. I wish they'd talked to us a little
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: bit more, because I do think we care about the
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: betterment of the game, and I agree with you, he
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: can't get into intractable positions. We know as negotiators that
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: just never works, and so hopefully they can avoid that. Bob,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time and your wisdom
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: and your experience that you shared with everybody. Stick with
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: us for the break. We'll have listener questions on the
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: other side on rosters to rings. Thank you, welcome back.
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: We're onto our favorite segment of the show, and that
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: is the listener questions. We've got to producer Jason with
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: us today and I think he has a few quality
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: questions lined.
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: Up for us.
• 58:41
  Speaker 4: I do that I do. This first one comes out
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: of Joey from New York, and you know, he wants
• 58:49
  Speaker 4: to know if that he realizes that, you know, the
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: Dodgers pay the most money in baseball to do what
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: they do. Is that really all it takes? Is it
• 58:58
  Speaker 4: just money or are there are other factors that kind
• 59:01
  Speaker 4: of come into play to feel the team like that?
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: Well, I think we could talk for about two hours
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: why the Dodgers are dominating the sport. Let me hit
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: on a few things here, Jason. One that's kind of fun.
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: But let's not get past this. Andrew Friedman, who is
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: their president and leads their baseball operations group, I think
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: is a future Hall of Famer. He had a tremendous
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: run with a Tampa Bay Rays. He's now extending that
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and I think it's exceptionally noteworthy.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: A lot of people have come out of smaller markets
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: and gone to big markets and found that they their
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: success they had in smaller markets doesn't necessarily translate to
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: bigger markets. Well, that's not the case with Andrew Friedman.
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: I think the other thing of note with Andrew he
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: has surrounded himself with probably one of the most senior
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: groups of peoples, quite a few of whom were former
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: general managers themselves. It's been approving ground for guys to
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: go to and work and then get opportunities to become
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: general managers again. So he is seemingly running a franchise
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: at a very high level, but also with a pretty
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: low ego as he surrounded himself with some exceptional talent.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: But one thing, Jason that jumps out to me amidst
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: all of the incredible ways that the Los Angeles Dodgers
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: are beating us on a daily basis, and when I
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: say us, I mean the rest of the twenty nine clubs.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: Is this fact I was looking at it earlier. So
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: just as a level set, they currently our first overall
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: in offense in Baseball, their fifth in defense, and they're
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: second in pitching. So they're dominating, right. I think that's
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: a pretty good account of the fact that they are dominating. Well.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: Mookie Bets, Kyle Tucker, and Will Smith have all been
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: just average major league hitters this year, which is pretty remarkable.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: Tyler Glassnow and Blake Snell have only pitched forty two innings,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: and that sparked me to look up, well, how many
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: innings did some of these guys pitch last year? It
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: was shocking. In twenty twenty five, the Dodgers win their
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: second consecutive World Series. Tyler Glasnow through ninety innings that year,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: Blake Snell sixty one, Shoe a Otani forty seven, I'm sorry,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: and Roki Sasaki through thirty four. So in part one
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: of the things that seems to be an additional competitive advantage,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: they're creating is that their starting pitchers, who are all exceptional,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: are also extremely fresh when they get to the postseason.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: The rest of us are walking into the postseason where
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: our starting pitchers we got there on the strength of
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: their backs and their arms. They've thrown one hundred and
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: fifty one hundred and ninety two hundred and ten innings pitch.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: They are on fumes by the time they get to
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: the playoffs. These guys are just hitting their stride by
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: the time they're getting there. And what we saw last
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: year in the playoffs is as good as the Dodgers'
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: offense was in the playoffs, They're pitching absolutely dominated. Part
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: of their domination was because they were fresh. Well, it
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: looks like they're lining up to do it again this year.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: With Glasnow and Snow laying in wait, Edwin Diaz is
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: going to come back from injury soon. All of these
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: guys are going to be exceptionally talented and exceptionally fresh.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: It scares the heck out of the rest of us
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: as they sit today or last year, they had seventy
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: one point eight million dollars spent on the IL. That's
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: as a point of reference about what the Miami I
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: mean Marlin spent on their team for the entirety of
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: the year. They've already spent sixty three million on the
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: il this year. That leads the major leagues. They're doing
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: it in part because it's only a fraction of their payroll.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: They're staying in first place, they're continuing to dominate, and
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: they are going to be fresh when it comes to
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: the playoffs. And that's what matters, because they're not in
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: this for the one sixty two. They are in it
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: to win a third championship in a row and become
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: a bona fide.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: Dynasty stable of pictures.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: Thad what a luxury, Yes, and having a big denominator
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: when it comes to your payroll certainly doesn't hurt the cause.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 4: And having an offense like that where you can kind
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 4: of put you know, maybe what you know, they would
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 4: say it was mediocre pitching on the mound and still
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 4: win games, you know what I mean?
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: Unbelievable right, Yeah? And also Jason and I was a
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: little glib there and saying that the payroll. But the
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: reality is a lot of teams are spending at this level.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: They're not doing what the Dodgers are doing. So the
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: Dodgers are winning hitting the ball down the fairway. They're
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: also winning flying over the water and chipping on to
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: the green. They're doing it in every facet. Everyone looks
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: at them as the class of the major leagues. I
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: can attest to working with the Milwaukee Brewers right now,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of focus of at some point, you're
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: going to have to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers. How
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: do you accomplish that? Yeah? I bet, I bet.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 4: You know Friedman had like, I mean, amazing accomplishment Tampa.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 4: Like what he's like you said, then you switch to
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 4: the Dodgers. You do in the big market? You know,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 4: does he keep going at this that or at a
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 4: certain point does he say I got to prove myself
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 4: like one more time in a different scenario. You know,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 4: what's your take on that? And you know what do
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 4: you think? Uh?
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: You know, do you do?
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 4: You write it out forever? But everybody says, oh, you
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 4: have all the money, you know what I mean? Or
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 4: do you do it one more Not that he needs
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 4: to prove anything, just just wondering what's a GM thinking
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 4: about that?
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: You know, I think it's a really insightful question and timely.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you are aware this, but the
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: on the athletic I think there's an article written recently
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: where it talks about theo Epstein in the exact same
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: commentary you just played, which is THEO did this in Boston,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: he did it in Chicago, He's going to go to
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. And the question was basically posed
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: to him, do you have the itch to do it again?
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: And I would encourage people to read the article. But
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: just one thing that he kind of alludes to in
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: this is he feels he's right in the right place
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: right now relative to his family and still staying connected
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: to the game and other sports ventures. But he also
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: alluded to maybe Sunday he would want to step back
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: into the seat. I think the fact that these guys
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: who are hyper intelligent and hyper successful are used to succeeding,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: but to your point, Chason, they're used to having challenges
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: and new challenges. So my guess is a guy like
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: Andrew Friedman is really encouraged that there's going to be
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: a new CBA, there's going to be new rules of engagement,
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: and he's going to want to figure out how to
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: win under these new rules of engagement. So time will
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: tell whether the game stimulates him enough to stick around,
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: because he's one of the brightest minds in it. Another
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: friend of the program, John Daniels, who is a long time,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: very successful GM and the Texas Rangers, has also shared
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: with me that you know, there's scenarios in which he
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: would consider getting back in. I think these guys who
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: have tremendous minds but also tremendous competition in their veins,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: they don't want to be away from the game for
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: too long. So I think as long as the game
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: continues to evolve present new challenges to them, they're going
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: to want to get back in the seat and see
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: if they can win under the new rules that the
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: game presents.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 4: Agree and nice one shout out JD.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: We miss you.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 4: Hopefully we'll have him back soon here, maybe come baseball
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 4: playoff time. That he's always a good listen.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: So tremendous friend and tremendous friend of the program.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 4: Absolutely. One last question that Tina from Kansas City wants
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 4: to know, following the all the activity of the World
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 4: Cup here in North America, what can MLB borrow from
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 4: the World Cup that could be cool to bring across
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 4: to baseball.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: So I think it's a wonderful question. I I will
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: say I am not typically a football or soccer fans,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: depending on where you're born, and I loved the World Cup.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: It was spectacular. The nationalism around it was just so fascinating.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: And in what other context are you able to see
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: Paraguay playing, you know, in Ghana and Cape Verdi. I
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: can't tell you. My kids got out the almanac and
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: we're checking on maps to see where the Ivory Coast was,
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: and so it turned out to be a history and
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: geography lesson in some regards. I think baseball's tried to
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: capture that in the World Baseball Classic. It certainly falls
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: well short of what you see with the World Cup.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: But I think you're starting to see a little bit
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: more of a sense of nationalism as you have teams
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: from guys identifying with Israel who are playing against guys,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: you know, the Dutch team where it captures the Netherlands
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: and Kirasau and Aruba in places like that. So I
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: think you are starting to see a greater sense of nationalism. Candidly,
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: I think it's great that the US doesn't in the
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: World Cup. I think it's also great when the US
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: doesn't win the World Baseball Classic, because I think it
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: gives these other countries chances to shine. I think that
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: just elevates fanaticism across all of these platforms, and I
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: think it's just wonderful to see the flamboyance and how
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: much the fans participated in these in these wins and
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: really were tortured by the losses. And seeing the fans
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: care that much, I hope elevates a level of fanaticism
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: in the United States around all sports. In Canada, because
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: these people wore their emotions on their sleeves. It was young,
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: young people sitting next to older people. They were tears
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: in their eyes, sometimes tears of joyce, sometimes tiers of agony.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: I think sometimes we've moved a little further away from
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: the true fan getting to watch our sporting events and
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: it's more of a corporate event. Well, I know that
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: the tickets were extremely expensive for the World base for
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: the World Cup, but that said, there was no denying
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: these were exceptionally passionate fans in the stands. I hope
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: baseball learned from that and recognizes we need to price
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: the game accordingly so that the truest and most ardent
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: of fans can sit in the best seats and watch
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: our sport play night in and night out. Well, thank
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: you guys all for listening. Please join us this Thursday
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: and every Thursday on Rosters to Rings