Latest / Rosters to Rings Podcast / Green Bay Packers Owner Scott Servais (also played baseball and managed a bit!)

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Green Bay Packers Owner Scott Servais (also played baseball and managed a bit!) · Rosters to Rings Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to rosters, to rings everyone. I am Ryan McDonough,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: joined as always by Thad Levine, and that we have
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: a pack show today. We'll be joined here in a
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: little bit by Scott's Service, a longtime Major League Baseball player.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: You know him as a catcher. You also know him
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: as a manager, most recently for the Seattle Marriage for
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the last decade. He's now working in the San Diego
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Padres front office. So welcome in Scott. In segment two.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: But that it's a busy time and Pro sports Labor
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Day is coming gone, and we're back into college football
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: season that's in full swing. Mercifully, we won't talk about
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: my unc tar heels and Bill Belichick's debut on this show.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: The NFL regular season is about to kick off on
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Thursday night. I think there's a Friday night game on
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Netflix as well this year a new wrinkle, and then
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: you know, the rest of the league plays on Sunday
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: and Monday, and the Major League Baseball Pennant Race in
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: full swing. We'll get into some of that as well
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: with Scott Service. But that where I want to start
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the show with you. Who is a listener question? And
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: this is actually directed to both of us. This question
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: comes from Albert in Atlanta, and the question is that
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: he says, over the weekend, I saw a clip of
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: a quote unquote fan harassing Dallas Mavericks GM Nico Harrison
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: that went viral. In the clip, the fan sees Harrison
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: sitting in the window of a restaurant, goes up to
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: introduce himself and shake Harrison's hand, and then says to
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Harrison directly to his face, quote, we all still bleeping
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: hate you. I won't say what he actually said. That
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: fan reaction made me cringe. I imagine you had a
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: similar reaction to it. That the fan was almost certainly
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: referring to the heavily criticized trade that Nico Harrison and
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the Maps made this past season when they sent Luka
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Donsich to the La Lakers for Anthony Davis and a
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: first round pick. So that Albert and Atlanta wants to know,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: have you and I ever had anything similar happen to
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: us during our time as executives in Major League Baseball
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: and the NBA. Well, Ryan, first of all, you sent
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: me that clip a couple of nights ago, and it
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: really was repulsive to me. I you know, regardless. I
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: don't know Nico Harrison, but anytime I see anything like that,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: whether it's it's a fan overstepping with a player, with
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: an executive, it just seems to me to be so
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: misguided and so inappropriate. Like, we understand that these jobs
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: are very public and with that comes an extreme level
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: of scrutiny and that we embrace. But when it gets personal,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: when it becomes you know, bullying and dare I say
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: in some cases violent, it is just totally inappropriate. And
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: so I feel like that's a line that is crossed.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: It is something that we should never have to face.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: And you know, I just don't understand the fan perspective there.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: You're you're allowed to share your your criticism, we give
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: you forms to do that. We should weather those storms,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: but when it's a personal attack, it's just way out
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: of line. Harkins back for me, when I was working
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: with the Colorado Rockies, Dan O'Dowd was a general manager
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: and there was times in which we had some ebbs
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: and flows and winning percentage, and I remember him sharing
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: with me that one of his children in school was
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: kind of approached by somebody who was exceptionally vicious in
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: their commentary about their dad's performance on his job. And
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: so that extends even further when you start involving executives
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: and coaches and players families and dare I say their
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: children in it. I think it's just crossing so many lines.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Did I never had a personal experience associate with this,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: but Ryan, did you have anything that was a little
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: bit closer to home for you? Luckily, nothing that direct
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and that aggressive is what Nico Harrison, who's a really
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: good guy, experience. So you can criticize basketball or baseball
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: decisions all you want. That we do, that's part of
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: our job, and you and I've been involved in some
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: ones that have worked out great and some that have
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: gone really really poorly and everywhere in between. But I
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: think what anybody wants at their job or as a
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: result of their job is to be treated with respect
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: and not be ambushed. And that's what I didn't like,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: or one of the many things I didn't like about
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the clip that went viral with the fan and Nico
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Harrison is he's sitting in a sports bar watching the
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: football game or something on TV, a venue where you're
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: supposed to be off the clock and relaxing, and he
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: was ambushed, so I didn't have anything that direct. I
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: think there are a few times that were at games
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: there were some uncomfortable interactions, but this is more typical.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I think that executives and coaches deal with where you're
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: in the stands at Yukon or at Arizona State. My
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: time with the Celtics or the Suns, and you know,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: something trade you made or something or a draftic you're
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: involved in didn't work out, and the fans a nice,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: you know, bleeping trade or whatever, buddy, and you know,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: you know, especially from a distance to me, I just
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: kind of compartmentalized that, and it was in one year out.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: The other one interaction that is funnier in hindsight now
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: than at the time. Fad that I want to get
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: your take on is when I was general manager of
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: the Phoenix Suns and we made a few trades initially
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: that worked out very well, and then we made one
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: that did not work out well. The initial returns weren't great,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: so I went across the street from the offices, which
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: were in downtown Phoenix, to open up a new bank account.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I think it was relative to no mortgage fees or
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: something like that. So I go into this bank. You know,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: they have to fill out all the paperwork, you know,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: your name, social Security number, what do you do? And
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I was like, can I leave this one blank? No,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: you got to fill out that your salary. So I
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: filled it all out, and these young guys at the
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: bank are looking at it like, well, we like the team,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: but we don't like this guy, one specific player. We
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: don't like this guy. And you know, I just kind
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: of let it roll off my shoulders. And then they
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: brought it up again, and I'm sitting there thinking, you know,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: the thought bubble, so well, I don't like your lack
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: of interest, I don't like your fees on, but I'm
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: not going to sit here and tell you all the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: things I don't like about your bank and why you
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: guys aren't doing a great job. So I bring that
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: up because I think you'd be interesting to turn the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: prism around, so to speak on that fan. And imagine
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: if Nico Harrison showed up at that guy's job wherever
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: he works that and whatever he does, and tapped on
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: his shoulder and said, how are are you? Such and
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: such a nice to meet you. By the way, here's
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: why I don't like you. It would be very inapprob
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: in that environment, and I think it hope most of
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: our listeners realize how inappropriate that interaction was.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Well, Ryan, you grew up a big Boston Red Sox fan.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: I have a story about Tim Nering, who is the
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: long time played some short and third for the team
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: and he has been a long time executive with the
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: New York Yankee's Hilarious Guy, and he tells his story
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: about how it was so off putting to him when
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: he first joined the Red Sox that he got booed
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: for every little thing he did wrong. And then he said,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: I guess that's just how this community works. So we
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: go out to Legal Seafood. He'd order the shrimp scampy
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: with a salad with blue cheese, and then the woman
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: barber would come out with a salad with ranch. He'd
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: vault to his feet and he'd say he'd just start
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: booing barber and saying like this is ranch, not blue cheese,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: and the whole breastroom like what the hell are you doing.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: It's like, oh, I thought, just in this community, that's
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: how we treated each other. You just do this when
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: I'm at shortstop. It's not it doesn't translate to this,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: and it's like, to your point, like, there's no other
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: walk of life where you can just absolutely eviscerate somebody
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: for faltering on their job, or maybe not even faltering
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: on their job, just having something included in their job
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: that you just don't agree with. Well, Tim Darren kind
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: of took that matter to his own hands.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I love that story, and I have a few good
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: ones for my time with Boston. One guy, he was
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: a low level player. I'm not sure he was ever
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: at pro, but he thought he was. He showed up
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: right at our Praxe facility, Fad, dressed with a ball
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: under his arms that I'd like to try out for
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: the Celtics. We're like, this is not really how we
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: do things here. There's no open tryout today or anytime soon,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: and so we thought he'd gone away Fad. And what
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: happened was when Doc Rivers left with their head coach
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: at the time, left the facility to drive home for
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: the night, the guy jumped out from behind a car
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: and slagging him down. He's like, hey, Doc, you're going home,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: can you work me out now? And Doc's like, no,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: that again, this is not how we do things. We
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: don't just not anybody can show up and just get
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: a workout, you know. And he gave the guy some
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: advice about hiring an agent and all those kind of
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: things as well. So you know, there's certainly some funny
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: interactions along the way. You know, most of it is
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: more that than what happened to Nico Harrison, but certainly,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: you know, don't condone what happened to Nko. One final
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: story at that that I just thought of. I got
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: a letter when I was general manager of the Phoenix
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Suns from a fan. I don't think he had any
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: relevant basketball experience, but he said he wanted to try
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: out for the team, and he realized that we were
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: in a financial crunch. So what he offered was to
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: play for a contract below the minimum salary. And you know,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: I thought about it for a minute. I said, this
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: guy seems to have a not a full grasp and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: understanding of what the minimum with the word minimum is
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: doing a lot of work here. He said he was
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: willing to play for less than the minimum. You know,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I had a number of problems with that. I'm not
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: sure I responded, may have sent him, you know, a
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: thank you note back in return, but he seemed to
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: be confused about the NBA salary structure and what you
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: could and couldn't do contractually.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: We could probably do a whole segment on this. I
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: have a quick story and then we'll get out of
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: the segment, which was that an agent reached out to
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: me and said, Hey, I've been connected contacted by a
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: guy in South Korea who claims to be have the
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: best knuckleball in all of South Korea. Would you guys
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: work him out? And we asked for all sorts of information.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: He said, hey, listen, I just don't have it. All
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: knows he's got the best knuckleball in all South Korea.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: We're like, okay, send him over to our spring training facility,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: will work him out. Well, this guy shows up in
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: a limousine with his own personal catcher, walks out of
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: the of the limousine and our scouts watching, and he's
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: like holding you and he's like I'm fifty six years old,
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: and we're like end of workout. And from that moment forward,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: we didn't trust that agent a whole lot.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: But if there's another major league movie that that should
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: be in it, then that absolutely should be in a
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Major League three A fifty six year old South Korean
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: guy in a limousine with his own catcher. And on
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: a more serious baseball note, we're gonna have Scott's Service
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: coming up. Scott was an Olympian, a major league player,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: front office executive, a manager, most recently for the Seattle Managers.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Scott Service has done it all in Major League baseball,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: and he's going to share his incredible experiences with us
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: and with you listener. Right here on rosters, the rings,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: stay with us.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: We be right back after this.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to rosters, to rings. Ryan and I are
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: extremely excited to welcome Scott's Service to the show. Scott
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: grew up in Coon Valley, Wisconsin. Drafted by the New
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: York Mets at a high school, Scott chose to go
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: to the Creighton in lieu of signing as an amateur.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: Scott remarkably represented the United States in the Baseball World Cup,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Pan Am Games, Intercontinent Cup, and the Olympics, where he
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: won a gold medal. After his junior year at Creighton,
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Scott was drafted and signed with the Houston Astros. He
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: embarked upon an eleven year major league career playing for
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the Astros Cubs Rockies and Giants. After finishing his playing career,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Scott has excelled as a scout, Director of Minor League
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Operations assistant GM before embarking on a nine year run
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: as the manager of the Seattle Mariners, amassing six hundred
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: and eighty wins and a five to forty one winning
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: percentage over his last four seasons. Scott now serves as
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: a coach and advisor for the San Diego Padres. Scott,
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Rosters, to Rings.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: Thanks to thanks for having me. Quite the introduction there, man,
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: you did your homework last. I know we known each
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: other a long time, but I appreciate it.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: We have multiple traditions on the show. One is lavish introductions.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Another one is like we ask each guest who comes
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: on to share their sports origin story. What made you
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: fall in love with sports? Guy?
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Well, coming from a small town like you mentioned in
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: the baseball heartland of Wisconsin, you know that's where they
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: all come from. It's you know, I think growing up
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: in a small town certainly has a ton of advantages.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: You know, you get you play with the same group
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: of kids growing up, and you become very competitive there.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: And I was in a great situation. It is a
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: small town. It's a town of about five hundred people
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: joining towns. Made up one high school and love football, baseball,
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: basketball as a kid, playing up as a kid growing up.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: But it's funny, it's probably a better football player than
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: I was baseball player as a kid. But I've definitely
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: made the right decision. Had a lot of guidance along
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: the way. You know, parents very involved, two younger brothers
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: probably you know a couple of guys I always get
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: credit to is I had two uncles that were very
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: involved in baseball. Uncle Ed became a long time college coach,
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: just retired a long term run at Creighton as the
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: head coach there. And another uncle, Mark was a scout
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: for over four years, so they understood the game. They
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: kind of saw my future maybe in the game. And
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: at the time, I was just trying to figure out
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: a way to get a college scholarship. Could I play
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: college baseball? And lo and behold, you know, was drafted
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: out of high school, decided to go to college, which
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: is a great call, but just fell in love with
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: the competition. And that's when it's always been a big
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: part of it for me. No matter what I'm doing
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: it's playing golf with a bunch of guys or getting
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: a chance to compete at the highest level in the
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: major leagues. It's about competing and that was always that
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: way for me from an early age. Scout.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: We'll get into your Major League Baseball career in a minute.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I think that's how a lot of our listeners identify
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: you as a player and then as a manager and executive.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Take us inside your time for USA Baseball with in
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: the World Cup, the pan In Games, the Internet Intercontinental Cup,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: in the Olympics. That must have been a special time
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: to represent your country. It's a honor for some people
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: to do it. Once you did it in a number
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: of times. What stands out to you as you reflect
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: on that time.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: Well, the Olympics back then were a little bit different.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: Certainly there was no professionals involved. It was all amateur players,
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: and it was a great opportunity for me coming from
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: a smaller school like Creighton, getting a chance to compete
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: with the best players in the country at the time
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: and then realize, you know what, I can hang with
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: these guys. So it was a big confidence boost for
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: me personally and propelled me on in my pro career,
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: but great memories, you know, going through it with a
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: group of guys at the nineteen twenty and twenty one
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: years old awesome experience. I think that Olympic team had
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: seven or eight first round drafts on that team, just
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: the notable pitchers, you know, Jim Abbott, then McDonald, Andy Bennis,
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: guys that we're all went on to have great careers.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: But I learned a ton. You know, you're playing at
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: a very high level, the highest level of amateur ball
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: at the time, and learned a ton from with those
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: guys and from the coach staff at the time, so
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: legendary college coaches was exposed to, you know, Skip Bourbon,
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: Mark Marcus Ron, those guys. So just guys that were
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: just legends in the game. And at the time I
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: didn't really know what I was experiencing. But when I
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: got out of that and into pro ball, I was
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: able to move through the minor leagues much quicker because
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: I had those experiences and exposed to that type of coaching.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: One thing I hope the listeners appreciate and will be
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: a theme of this conversation, it's just how unique your
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: background is. I mean, it is pretty atypical and maybe
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: it was perfect timing Scotty, because like this generation of
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: players doesn't necessarily get to play in all those amateur events,
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: but for you to represent the United States and all
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: those events, but also for you to do all the
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: things you've done in front offices is a there's a
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: theme here. You've done some pretty remarkable things. But I
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: want to take you back to before you ultimately signed
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: with Houston in nineteen eighty eight. Kind of a fun
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: story for you is the engagement you had with three
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: different guys who went on to be general managers of
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: baseball teams. Kind of happens you cross paths with each
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: of those guys before you started your pro career.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was kind of wild. Again growing
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: up in a small town, the draft was much different
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: than it is now. Certainly there's nothing on computer or
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: TV anything like that. It was nothing more on the
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: phone call. But I was a senior in high school
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: and I got drafted in the second round out of
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: high school by the New York Mets. And I'll throw
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: nineteen eighty five. The New York Mets were everything. You
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: know what I mean. It's the height of it. It's
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: doc good and it's Lenny, It's everything you know, the
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: mets Worth at the time. So I get drafted in
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: the second round there in the area. Scout who drafted
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: me was a gentleman by the name of Terry Ryan.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: Terry's from Wisconsin. I was a player in his area.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: I never expected to get drafted that high. I thought
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: I was going to be a twenty to thirtieth round
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: pick and the kid that would go on to school.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: But all of a sudden, you know, you get drafted
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: Nike was the forty third pick in the country or
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: something like that, And back then you had the whole
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: summer to kind of negotiate and figure out where you're
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: gonna go, you're gonna sign, you go to college. I
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: made the decision to go to college. I thought it
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: was the best thing for me to do at that time.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: Coming from a small town, it needed that experience to
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: get away and go play at a little bit higher level.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: And didn't quite know if I was ready to go
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: out and play baseball, which did not make mister Ryan
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: very happy at all, as he had stuck his neck
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: out to make the draft choice. But along the way,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: I had been recruited to go to Creighton. The head
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: coach at the time was a guy man named Jim
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: Henry who went on to become the GM of the Cubs.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: And so I went from Terry Ryan said no to him,
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: said yes to Jim Henry. I went off to Creyton,
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: played there, really grew up as a as a young person,
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: I like I needed at college experience and then get
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: drafted by the Astros. And my first exposure to professional
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: baseball just coming off the Olympics was to go to
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: instruction League, which happened in early October, and at the
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: time the first catching instructor I showed up there was
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: a guy by the name of John Hart, who ended
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: up to become a longtime general manager of the Cleveland
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Indians at the time and then with the Texas Rangers.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: And John was kind of between jobs at the time.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: He had been with Baltimore ultimately landed in Cleveland, but
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: at the time he was the catching instructor. So I
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: came across quite an array of experienced baseball people. And
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: you're lucky. You never know what's going to happen in
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: your career, but right place, right time, a lot of
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: good experiences with some very knowledgeable people and it certainly
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: paid dividends.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: For me my hunches. You may have some colorful stories
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: emanating from your time with at least Jim Henry out
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: of that trio. I don't know if those are all
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: appropriate for the show, but maybe if we have time
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: after the break, we can hit a few Jim Henry stories.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah. You learn a lot from a lot of different people,
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: a lot of different personalities, and I've been fortunate run
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: across a lot of great people throughout the years of
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: my career.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: And Omaha is a great sports town for folks who
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: haven't been there listening to this show. That was one
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: of my favorite places to go. Scout basketball players at
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Creighton obtoually they have the College World Series every year.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: That's a must attend events. And Scott, I want to
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: get a little bit more into kind of how your
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: path shaped you as a manager. You manage the Mariners
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: for almost a decade. You've done everything, as Dad mentioned
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: in the intro, major League player, Scout, Minor League Director,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: assistant GM, currently working in the Padres front office. But
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: before you got that job in Seattle leading the dugout
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: as the manager, how did all those steps along the
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: way influence how you approach your job as the manager
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: of the Seattle Matters.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: That's a great question, Ryan, and I think it really
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: gives you an appreciation for what different people throughout an
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: organization do. And I think unless you've ever really, you know,
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: set in those seats or work side by side with
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: those people, you don't have a true appreciation what it is.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: It is so hard to scout, and certainly amateur scout
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: when you're going to look at young players before they
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: even get into pro ball and making a decision on that.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: So having the ability to do that, I have a
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: really a big time appreciation for how hard it is
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: to get the no players not just break down the skills,
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: but understand the makeup and what makes them tick. And
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: then you know, you move into pro scouting. And I
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: had an opportunity to do that for a while before
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: I became a farm director, and you realize how hard
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: it is to make trades and put together other rosters
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: within a front office and understanding that every team values
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: different things. So the more experiences you get there, it
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: helps you make better decisions along the way. I think
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: being a farm director kind of was my first jump
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: into a real front office, opportunity to work with John
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: Daniels at the time, I think was the youngest GM
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: of the game. FAD was there, AJ Preller was there
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: and myself, and that really opened a lot of doors
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: for me and exposure. JD THEAD were great, allowing me
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: to get in and have a voice as you're going
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: through trade discussions and how to put rosters together and
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: how to develop players and move players throughout a minor
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: league system and what we valued at the time, and
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: spending time with AJ Preller back in the day, I
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: learned a lot about how to you know, evaluate players
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: and what he was looking at, and you know, all
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: those experiences really grew into allowing me, I thought, to
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: have a clear grasp of what everybody within an organization
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: does on the baseball operation side. So when you're sitting
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: in the manager's seat, instead of it creeping into your head,
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: how or why would we make that trade or why
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: did we do this? I understood there was a lot
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: of voices that go into making those decisions and how
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: important is to trust people in those spots, and you know,
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: you just trust those people to do their job, because
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: at one point, maybe I was sitting in that seat
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: and I wanted to be trusted, so that's what I
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: tried to do. And I really enjoyed my time in
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: cl and those those jobs leading up to that opportunity,
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: I think made me a better manager.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: You know, Ryan, just a way in here, and I'd
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: be curious your take on the NBA side of this.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: But when I started working in the game and Scott
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: and I started write around the same time, in the
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: front office, there was kind of a division between the
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: manager's office in the front office, and effectively the front
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: office was putting the roster together and the manager didn't
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: really participate in that process a ton. And then the
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: manager was managing the roster to try to win games
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: at night, and the front office wasn't really participating in that.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: So as as Scott is unfolding, like his background and
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: his experience, I think today's managers tend to a spot
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: to integrate with the scouting department, the player development departments,
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: the front office is it's a really hard thing to
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: do just because of the sheer demands on their time.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: The fact that I will say, just from working with Scott,
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: he does that. He does that exception well because he
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: cares about it and he's you know, intentionally committed to it.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: But it's kind of still an exception in our sport
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: to have a manager who is that integrated. And I
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: think some micromanage, you know, so they are super involved
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: because they want to run everything. That wasn't the way
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Scott did it. He was integrative and he elevated people
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: around him. And I just think that was a unique
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: element for me as I was growing in my career
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: to see a manager do it as thoroughly and intentionally
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: as Scott did. But how does that play out in
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: the NBA? Is there that division of church and state
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: or is there more integration now in today's NBA.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: I think over the past twenty years there's definitely more
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: integration than there was that when I started in the
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: middle of the two thousand and two two thousand and
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: three season, there was a school of thought, especially from
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: some of the older school coaches. Hey, you guys, bring
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the players in. I'll stay out of your lane, but
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: you stay out of ours. Don't try to coach them.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: You know, what happens in the locker room is up
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: to us. And I just think now with most organizations,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: you're not going to be effective and efficient running it
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: that way. You know, how could if you and I
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: are in the front office and Scott, is he, you know,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: the head coach or the manager in this example, how's
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: he going to coach the players if the guy doesn't
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: fit what he's looking for, or if it's not core
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: to his principles and what he's trying to bring into
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: a locker room or into a dugout. So it's really
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: fascinating that and I'd love to get your take on it, Scott.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: The question now for a lot of NBA franchises is
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: where does player development fit on the spectrum, because there
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: still is a divide, you know, some extent between the
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: front office over here and either the manager or the
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: head coach over here. But player development is an interesting
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: one that I don't want to get your take on
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: it as well, maybe after Scott, for a while that
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: was under the umbrella of the coach, right, that was
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: an extension of the coaches, and hey, leave it to
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the coaches again. You guys bring in the players, will
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: develop them. But now some of the organization, the NBA
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: are saying, wait a minute, these are our best young players,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: our best young assets. From a trade perspective, as well,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: we're not necessarily just going to delegate to that to
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: the coach or the manager whose job it is to
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: try to win every night. That's not fair to them
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: and it's not maximizing talent. So Scott, I'd love to
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: get your take on that. You know, what you've seen
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: in Major League Baseball, what you guys did with the Mariners,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: and where you think kind of the balances between player development,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: you know, with with kind of the front office on
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: one side and the manager head coach on the other.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: I think it's an awesome question. It's really something that
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: is the forefront of what goes on in all professional sports.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: You've got to continue to develop players even when they're
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: at the highest level. And certainly as you're putting rosters together,
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: you know you're going to have your maybe your more
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: veteran players, your higher dollar players, but you're also you're
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: always going to be supplemented by the younger players that
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: are coming in. You just need them and they have
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: to get better. And I think that everybody needs to
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: have a hand in that. And I think as we've
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: seen front offices and their game evolve over time, that's
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: where the analytics, the information is really come in and
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: become valuable. So I love to talk about analytics and
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: information and it can be used in real time to
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: help you make awesome decisions or better decisions in the
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: course of a game. But it's also a huge tool
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: that needs to be used in the development of a player,
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: and so many people can weigh in on those you
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: know what's important. Certainly each organization has the things that
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: they value more than others. But you know, you'll have
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: an analytical department that you as a head coach or
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: somebody that's leading a group of coaches, a coaching staff.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: We have to stay in tune to what those people
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: value and they need to have a voice. And I
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: just believe that, like, I'm not smart enough to have
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: all the answers not inclose, so I'm going to lean
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: on the people around me. And I think that's what
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: good organizations do, is that they let everybody have a voice,
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: understanding that it may not always go the way you
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: want it to go, but collectively, you're trying to make
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: good decisions for your players so they can grow and
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: get better. And that takes It takes an experienced baseball guy,
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: it may take a younger person that is very dialed
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: into the number and realizes, hey, there's a red flag,
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: or this pitcher needs to use this pitch a little
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: bit more, this pitch, this hitter needs to control the
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: strike zone a little bit better. You know, how do
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: we go about doing that? So it takes a lot
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: of different people involved in having a voice and to
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: have a really good organization. And I think the good
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: organizations in baseball do that. They do have to have,
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: but ultimately the person who's sitting in the manager seat
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: has to let the information flow. I think when they
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: don't let it flow and don't let people have a voice,
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: then you have an issue and you're not getting the
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: most out of your assets, like you said, Ryan, and
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: that's the players, Scott.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Any one more phase into this too, is you as
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: the manager, are you know, somewhat singularly responsible for wins
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: and losses? You know, when Ryan and I get interviewed,
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: nobody puts up underneath our name, Hey, our career record
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: is this. But oftentimes, you know, pivotal times in the year,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: they'll pan to you in the dugout and it will
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: show you your record either for that year or for
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: previous year. So how do you balance the developing those
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: players at the major league level, and also the pressure
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: to win night in and night out.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you have to know where you're at
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: in your window, so to speak, with your team. And
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: you know, I had the ability to be in Seattle
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: long enough, or we went through different phases. When I
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: first got the job there, I took over a very
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: veteran club, you know, with Felix Ordandis and Robinson Cano,
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: Nelson Cruz, Kyle Seeger was kind of our core four guys,
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: and you know, and then you know, as a veteran team,
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: you're going to deal with that team a little bit differently,
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: you know, as you do. And then we did kind
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: of a rebuild after twenty eighteen. We stepped back, We
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: traded off a lot of those players. We realized that
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: we needed to have a more a fuller roster. We
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: just couldn't be so top heavy and doing that and
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: that kind of that step back or rebuild period. Now
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: it's a little bit different. You know, it is all
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: on player development at that point. Who is going to
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: help us here when we come out of this phase
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: and where we're at, so to speak, in our organizational window,
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: which we did, And I think we actually did an
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: awesome job with it thanks to you know, our front
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: office there and what we're able to do on the field.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: So now you kind of move back into a little
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: bit more of a competitive, winning environment, which we did
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: in Seattle and throughout that whole time. Player development is
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: it's got to be still at the forefront. I've got saying.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: I know coaches that work with me, players that were
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: around me and get tired of me saying it, but
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: it doesn't matter. Get better, DMGB. It's It's something that
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: I truly believe in because I think that's what all
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: the great athletes over time, they do have a growth mindset.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: I look at it like you know that Tom Brady's
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: the Kobe Bryant of the world. Like these guys are
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: great talents, but they're driven to get better all the time.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: And I don't think players ever stay the same. I
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: think they get better, they get worse, you know. I
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: mean it can be, it can fluctuate from day to
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: week to month how it goes, but the focus has
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: always got to be on getting better, you know. And
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: it doesn't matter if you're ten for your last twenty
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: and you're killing it, or if you're an over thirty five,
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: it doesn't matter. You just got to focus on getting better.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: And that's that's a big thing with player development, and
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: it is tied to the window and how much patience
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: you need to have with that. But tied to patience
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: is always urgency. You want to win tonight's game, you know,
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: So it kind of goes hand in hand.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Scott.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: In the NBA, the agents tell me the players actually
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: never get worse, they only get better, and they have
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: the stats to back it up. Every every contract negotiation,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: you know, some cockamami stat that doesn't make sense to me,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: but there's a reason why should double or triple the
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: guy's salary.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: No, in all.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Seriousness, in your role, you know, I guess as a
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: as a player, you know, being a catcher, being a
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: leader in the clubhouse. You know, how much of an
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: impact do you think when you compare what you were
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: able to do as an active Major League Baseball player
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: and then what you're able to do as a manager
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: in terms of impacting clubhouse culture. Because one of the
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: things I think a lot of people who have never
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: worked in sports don't realize is.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Just how fragile that is.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: And I know you two guys know that, but it's
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: it's here today, the team's won five games in a row,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: everything's looking up, and then next week you lose five
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: in a row, and it's easy to feel like the
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: sky is falling and everybody's kind of walking on eggshells.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: And if you don't have a great culture, maybe pointing
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: fingers elsewhere. So how did you manage that? And where
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: do you think you know, the impact falls between the
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: players on your active roster and the manager and coaching
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: staff in terms of establishing and then perpetuating that culture.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's huge, It really is, Ryan, And I think
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: that the word culture get used a lot of gets
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: thrown around on a lot of different conversations, and it
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: means different things to different people. For me and the
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: group that I was around, and cultures are it's really
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: your standards. And I think as a player, as a coach,
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: as a manager, you know you are you all want
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: to be tied to the standards, you know what I mean,
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: And the standards shouldn't really waver And it's not just
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: what you stand up and say, Okay, these are our standards.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: This is what we're going to believe in this, how
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: we're gonna let your standards are actually plays out. You know,
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: how are we acting, how are we behaving? You know,
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: and and you know what do we hold near and
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: dear to our hearts? And for me, it was always
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: about our standards are going to be you know, we are,
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: how we're going to prepare, you know, how we're going
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: to take constructive criticism. There's a certain standard we want
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: to go about it. We don't want to be defensive.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: We want to just focus on getting better. So being
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: able to take you know, constructive feed is huge, but
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: culture is always you know, it lines up with your standards,
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: is how I would look at it, and it's critical.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: I think the teams that have sustained success for a
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: long time have very consistent standards. And it can start
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: with coaches talking about it and driving it and acting
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: it out and modeling the behavior. But ultimately it's on
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: the players. You know, the players play the game. I
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: love players. I played the game a long time. Often
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: joke with people I watched the game through a catcher's mask.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: That's how I view the game and that's never going
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: to change. I just spent too much time. I don't
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: know all the ins and outs and the mechanics of
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: pitching in all the different positions. But I know what
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: it's supposed to look like. I've watched it enough, and
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: you know, as long as we're doing the right thing
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: standards wise, your culture should be able to withstand the
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: ups and downs of a five or six game losing streak,
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: and then you know, obviously along the way you're going
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: to ride the fourteen game winning streak. You know that'll
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: sneak in once in a while and surprise everybody, but
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: it's huge. But I go back to get I think
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: that the teams, the organizations that do it well over
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: a long period of time, they have very distinct standards
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: that are very clearly lined out.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: Scott, just as a quick follow up to that, you know,
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: I think you're known throughout the industry as being somebody
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: who really genuinely cares a lot about culture. I think
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: there are a lot of teams that just subscribe to
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: the theory that kind of Ryan alluded to upfront, of Hey,
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: if we're winning, we're gonna have good culture. If for losing,
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: we're gonna have bad culture. Have never been in a
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: clubhouse where the team's doing well that they're not having
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: fun never been in a clubhouse where the team's doing
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: poorly that they are having fun. You've never really subscribed
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: to that. Can you can you kind of share with
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: the listeners, like a few of your favorite culture building
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: exercises that you found successful when you're trying to build
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: that culture in those standards.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I really value it, and it's something that is
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: very intentional. And every year I would start in spring training.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: And I love spring training. Obviously, it's it's new, it's fresh,
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: everybody's worked a tailoff all off season. We're all going
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: to have our career year. But in spring training, typically
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: major legue spring training, you might have seventy players in camp.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: Well maybe thirty to thirty five of those players in
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: that clubhouse or the first time they're in their clubhouse.
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: Maybe you've acquired that player through free agency, trade. It's
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: a younger player who's graduated from the minor leagues and
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: now he's in the big league clubhouse. And I just thought,
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: you know, when you have seventy people in a room,
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: how quickly can you break down the walls? How quickly
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: can you get people vulnerable? So you start to buy
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: into each other. And you know, I tried some things
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: early on, and it became a staple for me. I
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: used to have a meeting every morning for about thirty minutes,
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: and in that course of that meeting, I would interview players,
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: you know, and I'd start with the basic where you're from,
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: did you play any other sports in high school? Tell
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: us about your family, you know, those type of things,
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: and get into the questions. And I always at some
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: point within it, you know, like, you know, if you
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: could pick any people, three other people in the world
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: to play golf with, what's your foursome look like? And
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: who's your favorite football team? You just find out about people.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: And through the course of that interview, of course we're
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: using the audio visual. These guys put everything on Instagram
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: and social so you're having fun with it. You know,
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: it's what they dressed up as at a Halloween party
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: when they're in high school. You can pull all this
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: stuff up off the internet. So we're having fun along
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: the way. But ultimately, you know, I get into the questions,
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: you know, who's your hero, and that person is up
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: in front of Like I go back to the first
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: couple of years I did this, and it's the rookie
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: who is literally he's shaking. You know, he's so nervous
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: up there is he's talking and it's Nelson Cruz and
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: Robinson Cano and Felix Ornandez that are out there listening
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: to him, you know. And then you get into you know,
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: what's your hardship and everybody in that room has had
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: to overcome something to get into the room. It's a
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: big deal to be in a major league camp for
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: the first time. And then you know what's your highlight,
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: you know what has stood out for you, and they
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: might be they want to, you know, state championship in
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: high school. It may be different things on a personal note,
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: but it always led to other activities off the field.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: And I would make guys go out to dinner together
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: and do different things, and ultimately, you know, somebody what's
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: your hobby and somebody who you know I you know,
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: he played a musical instrument. That always led to us
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: putting a band together, you know what I mean. In
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: the spring training club, so I want it to be fun.
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: I want it to be you know, when the guys
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: took the field every morning in spring training had a
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: smile on their face, bring back a crazy memory. Leonis
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: Martin was a player that we had in Texas and
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: I brought him. He was in Seattle with us and
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: it was his birthday. And Leonis is a big personality.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: He's a fun guy. And we hired a mariachi band
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: to follow him around the field the entire day with
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: the big sembreros and they went on the field with him.
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: They were in the batting cage with them. They spent
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: about three hours, and then a couple more players stepped
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: up and they paid for the band to stay there
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: the entire day and just falling around the field. So again,
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: you're trying to do things to loosen up the group,
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: to have fun, to have memory, because it is a
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: long season and you're gonna have to grind through and
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: there's gonna be ups and downs. And I really thought
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: it was important for our guys to walk on the
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: field every day joking and laughing and having a smile
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: on their face.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: You know, Scott, One of the themes that we've we've
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: learned on the show is just these players are revered,
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: coaches are revered, even front office people are revered, but
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: we want to make them relatable. And what you're talking
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: about is the human side of things, you know, professional
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: baseball players, professional basketball players. They are excellent at one thing,
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: maybe excellent at more than one thing, but not at everything.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: And what you just alluded to, you know, getting up
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: in front of a group of people and talking is
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: mortifying like that. Maybe I don't know who you're talking
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: about there. Maybe that's cal Raley, maybe that's Julio Rodriguez.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: But the point is they shine in extremely pressure situations.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: Speaking in front of a group can be very crippling.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: You're humanizing them and making them a little bit vulnerable.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: That makes them so much more endearing to their teammates
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: rather than just being known for the stats they put
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: up on the big board.
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't want to wait till June or July,
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: till somebody figures out that this person grew up outside
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: Philadelphia and a huge Eagles fan, you know what I mean?
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: Like those things need to be like I want to
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: create that vulnerability and the connection as quick as they could.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: And I love doing it. I love doing it. I
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: did it myself. I'd sit home every night it's been
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: about an hour before the morning meeting the next day
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: because I can get up and fake it. You have
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: to be authentic, you have to do a little bit
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: of the research yourself and understand, and then there'll be
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: something that comes out. So it was almost like, you know,
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: you're you're hosting a little bit of a late night
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: talk show or a comedy show. And we had a
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: lot of fun with it, and the guys had fun
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: with me. They would fire back at me, they would,
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: you know, give me a hard time again. I want
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: to be vulnerable. I'm not perfect. I may be sitting
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: in the manager's chair, but I know I'm going to
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: screw up at certain points of the season. It happens
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: to all of us. But I really wanted to bring
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: teams together and I thought it really helped us over time.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Scott, I love that story about the Mariachi band. In fact,
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: that has suggested something similar here on Rosters to Rings,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: where we have a trumpeter who announces his presence kind
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: of like in medieval times, you know, before he makes
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: decrees and statements here on the podcast. On a more
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: serious note, you know, one of the things that well,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: we'll look at the budget that we'll see if we
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: can bring it in maybe for next season. One of
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: the things that that said about you, Scott, that you've
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: done that I found really interesting is establishing leadership council
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: on the teams comprise the players. That's been a debate,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: you know, with different managers and coaches I've been around
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: in terms of is leadership appointed, you know, is it
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: your best player? Is it guys, maybe not your best player,
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: but the best natural leader that others gravitate to. One
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: coach I had, you know, I was around the first
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: preseason game. He wouldn't send anybody out to half court
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: with the captain's meet in the NBA, and I asked
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: him why he did that. He said, well, I want
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: to see who wanted to be out there. You know,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: not everybody wants to be out there. So when the
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: officials meet, and you know, they go over the game
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: ball and shake hands and talk about the game that night,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: there's usually at least one, two or three guys. One
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: coach that I'm not going to send anybody out there.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: I just want to see who goes. So I think
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: that that's so fascinating it And so when Dad mentioned
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: the leadership council that you established, I want to see
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: kind of how you did that and what went into
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: your thought process as far as putting that together.
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we did different things at different times. It kind
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: of depends you know where your team is at. Like
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: I said, when I first started, we had more of
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: a veteran team. It was kind of a natural to
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: see that those four or five guys were going to
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: be part of that group. You know, as we transition
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: our roster, you know, you want to create opportunities in
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: a platform for younger players to grow. I think we
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: talked throughout all a sport now, is that the number
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: of people in each professional sport that you can stand
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: up and look around the league and say that guy
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: is a leader, and everybody says, oh, we need more
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: leaders in our clubhouse. But I don't think we do
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: a good enough job of creating and teaching and coaching
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: up leadership. And how do you do that? You gotta
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: have conversations with players, but more importantly, you've got to
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: create a platform for that player to feel comfortable. And
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: it may be in a hitter's meeting, it may be
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: in a pitcher's meeting, it may grow out of something else.
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: There may be something that happens around the team. And
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: I'm going to get the advice of you know, maybe
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: three or four guys that initially did not start out
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: as the leadership, but they grew into it. I think
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: my time in Seattle Cal Rowley certainly I'm in a
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: fantastic season, but he has those qualities. JP Crawford is
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: a guy who has grown into those type of things
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: because he's a guy that I wanted to include in
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: discussions and let him know what I was thinking about
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: certain things, are different situations on the team and get
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: their their inside because the game is about the players,
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: you know. Like I said, I played a long time
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: and I often felt that I enjoyed it most when
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: I felt that the manager and the coaching staff really
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: trusted the players. So you got to show them that
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: you trust them and you are going to listen to
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: their opinion and it may disagree with what I'm thinking
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: or what they're with the coaching staff is thinking, but
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: sometimes you roll with it because the players are going
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: to They're going to make make or break yet and
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: you really have to trust them. So, you know, getting
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: those guys involved in different decisions throughout the year, not
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: in game decisions, but it's more things around the team
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: that are happening. Maybe it's it's a certain practice schedule,
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: or maybe we need to back off or maybe need
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: to push a little bit harder. I always wanted to
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: include players in those decisions.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: Scott On One thing we touched upon earlier is just
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: how much more information there is in the game today
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: than there once was. I'd be curious just if you
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: could give us your perspective when you were a catcher
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: preparing for a game, what level of information was there
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: versus when you were a manager preparing for a game? Like,
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: how how give us a level set? Like how much
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: more information is there today than there once was?
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: One thousandfold? I mean it's crazy.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: Well, what did you go into a game with? Typically
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: when you were a catcher, what'd you have at your disposal?
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this is back in the mid to late nineties,
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: and I had a book. You know, I think most
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: catchers would keep a book, and it was really up
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: to the catcher and the pitching coach to kind of
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: come up with the game plan based on the team
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: you were facing. You know what I mean. Back in
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: the day, the Atlanta Braves were everything right. They were dominating.
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: They had a very good, good lineup, they had great pitching.
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: But you know how I'm going to keep the game
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: close enough to keep their lineup down, so you spend
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: a lot of time. You know, you did have advanced scouts,
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: and at the time, advanced scouts would actually fed x
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: envelopes in which had their handwritten notes on them. Sometimes
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: you would get on a call. I played for Dusty
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: Baker for a year and a half. We're in San Francisco,
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: and they allowed the catchers to come into the advanced
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: meeting with the coaching staff and on the speakerphone in
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: the room would be the advanced scout. He'd be breaking
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: down the team that he had just watched that team
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: play for maybe three or four days. He'd be breaking
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: down the tendencies and where we needed to go based
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: on our players. So that's kind of what it was
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: like back then, you know. I mean where we're at today,
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: it's night and day, and I think it's in a
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: good way. I love all the information. It's a challenge
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: to prepare, to try to come up with that edge,
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: to try to win the game on the margin, so
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: to speak. But I've also really want players to be involved.
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: It's something that we did over in Seattle. Get the
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: catchers involved. They're in the meetings, they're having a voice,
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: they're running the meetings so that they're taking ownership in it.
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: It's not a coach or an advanced scout sitting up
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: and you know, proclaiming this is how we need to
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: pitch this guy, and here's what we need to do
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: against this hitter. You know, it's getting the players involved,
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: I think is really valuable. But the information is good.
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: I do believe that it has to be put in
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: a format that players and coaches can understand it, because
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: if not, you can basically walk up the paper or
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: take the computer and throw in the trash. It has
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: to be relatable. It has to be in a language
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: that is very easy for players to understand and then
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: also be able to put it in real time, you
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: know what I mean. You see a lot of catchers
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: in today's game will have the catcher card, you know
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: what I mean, on the risk the risk band, and
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: you know quarterbacks have it in the NFL. I get
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: all that, but it's got to be in a way
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: that is it can help us in real time make
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: that decision. And oftentimes it's you're on the bubble, you know,
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: is this guy, you know, is he super aggressive with
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: two strikes or runners in scoring position? Having the color
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: coded card. You know, it's just a reminder, you know,
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: that's on the catcher's risk. And you know, I think
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: the good organizations take the information. The people who are
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: putting the information together and developing it are doing it
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: through a lens of how is this going to play
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: out in the game. And I think once they understand
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: that there's some information, it's great to have, but it
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: really doesn't play in the game. And trying to get
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: it all streamlines so players can actually use it and
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: use it to the benefit it's huge. It's not easy,
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: but I think the good organizations do a really good
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: job at it.
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: I think there's been such a huge influx of information,
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: and I think the challenges as you you said, it's
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: not the first team who has the biggest three ring binder,
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: it's the team that makes the information most actionable. And
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: I think you touched on this earlier, Scotti, but the
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: you know, it used to be when we started with
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: these analytics groups, they were sitting in a dark room
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: together and every once a week we throw a hamsteak
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: in there in a bottle of fabriz and tell them
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: to freshen up. Now they're part of your staff, right
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: like there you know, in some cases they're in uniform,
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: they're on the field, and part of the magic here
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: is knowing all your players and knowing how they learn.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: Do they learn by video, do they learn by hands on?
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: Do they need a piece of paper? But then empowering
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: your analytics team to actually interact directly with the player
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: and not feel like they have to filter through the
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: pitching coach who's filtering through you. And then also the
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: message gets watered down. Obviously they have to work in
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: concert with you, guys, but when they're part of your staff,
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: I think that's when it's achieving the best that which
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: is making this information actionable.
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: It really is, and it's a challenge because you're often
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: dealing with much younger people who have much less experience,
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: or they're not as comfortable in a clubhouse. I haven't
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: been around it, maybe like coaches or the manager has
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: been his whole life. So trying to get those people
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: as comfortable as quickly as we can. It's also an opportunity.
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: I go back to my meetings in spring training and
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: trying to get those people vulnerable. They are going to
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: be the smartest people in the room. There's a question
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: about that, but what do they bring to the mix
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: to help us win that night. And as quick as
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: you can get the players to understand that this person
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: is really a benefit to us and it's going to
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: make us better. Now, all of a sudden, they've gained
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: credibility and they can have a voice and they can
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: go with it from there. But it takes time, you
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: know what I mean, it really does. I've loved the
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: people I've worked with. I've learned a lot from a
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: lot of very young guys, and I look at the
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: game a little bit differently now than maybe I did
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: seven or eight years ago. And the fact that I'm
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: able to trust those people and lean on them, it's
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: very empowering to them. They feel like they have a
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: real voice in the outcome of the game every night.
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: So now I've got more people on my side of
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: the streets, so to speak. They're all pulling on the
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: same side of the same end of the rope and
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: ultimately just trying to win games and get players better.
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: And that's one thing I've been very transparent about with players.
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: It's the end of the day, you know, players want
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: to play, they want to compete, they want to have fun.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: They also want to take care of their families, and
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: if you can explain the information to them to help
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: them in a particular in their particular area of how
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: they can get better, and this is going to help
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: maybe help make you millions of dollars. I don't know
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: too many players who won't listen to that if it's
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: explained in them correctly, with the right intent behind it.
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: And if that player makes more money's probably more valuable
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: and we're going to win more games. We all benefit.
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: And by like I said, learning a lot from our
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: analytical group and how to go about that, it's been
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: very beneficial for me and the coaches I've worked with.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: And I think one of the challenges, at least in
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: the NBA is some of the guys who were the
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: best at compiling the numbers putting them together or not
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: necessarily the same guys you'd want presenting to a clubhouse
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: to a locker room in the NBA, So how do
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: you filter that information? I think the messenger can be important,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: and like you said, Scott, and that's becoming more accepted
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: for a quantity looking guy so to speak, to use
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: the term from the financial Marcus to deliver that data.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: But that's still something that there is a bit of
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: a barrier, at least in the NBA in terms of
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: how the data is delivered. And along those lines, Scott,
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: I want to stay on the theme of data and
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: numbers and go back to your time with the Mariners.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: One of the great stats that that pulled when you
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: were managing the club is there are a couple of
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: years your team's had a negative run differentials, but you
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: had winning records eighty nine wins one year, ninety the other.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: So how much of that data did you lean on?
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: And were there times where, like you said, you're a catcher,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: you view the game through that prism. Yeah, I'm sure
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: you knew all the information and we're extremely well prepared
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: as a manager, But how often, if ever, did you say,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: you know what, I know what the numbers say, but
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: I've been watching this for seven eight innings now my
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: gut tells me to do this, even it's completely opposite
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: of what the numbers said.
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a time you have to, like, you go
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: against the numbers a little bit, just because you're watching
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: the game. The game is telling you something and you're
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: really in tune to it and listening to it and
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: there's times, based on where you're at in the season
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: that you know you're going to give certain players, players
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: a little bit more rope. Let's find out some things
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: in April and May, which may change once you're August
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: and September, you know what I mean. So I think
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: you know that that run differential. I kind of joked
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: with it one year. I called it fun differential, you
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: know what I mean? And everybody wants to look at
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: the negative run differential, and I flipped it one day
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: and it just came out, and you know, we had
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: some you know, literally had fun with it. But it's
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: about winning games, and you know it's, yeah, we want
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: to win every night by you know, five six runs.
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: It's not realistic. And I went into my time in
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: Seattle talking based on the ballpark we were playing in.
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: It's is a very picture friendly park. We're going to
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: play a lot of close games, a lot of one
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: run games. Those can go either way, you know what
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: I mean. How do we get on the right side
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: of those more times than not by being very fundamentally strong,
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: being prepared, and just trying to put players in position
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: where they have the best chance to succeed. And sometimes
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: you go against you know what the numbers say, and
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: we have all the matrix cards and everything else you
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: hold in front of you that says predictive outcomes of
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: this particular at bats. Sometimes you just got to go
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: against it. You ride it. Other times you stay committed
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: to it. I think over the course of time, I
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: probably stayed more committed to it because I think if
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: you ride it out over and over and over, things
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: will turn in your favor over the course of a season.
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: And they did that for so again. It's it's you're
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: having a feel for your team when to interject the
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: information and make a decision based on it, and then
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: when to just step back and let the players play,
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: let them go.
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: You just got it. I think. I think you shed
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: light on something that really is important to me. I
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: think it's great to be informed by all the information,
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: but you've got to give the guys in the front
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: line the ability to make real time decisions. Like you,
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: you're getting information seriously real time, like before the game,
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: you're you're walking the outfield, you're talking to your pitching
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: coach and you're being told like, hey, listen, and we
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: probably should steer clear of this guy tonight. Out of
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: our pen because you know, maybe something's going on at
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: home and his and his head's not really in it,
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: but your card says that's absolutely the right guy to
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: pitch at that time. You've got to be able to pivot.
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: And and so I think I think the best teams
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: that I've been around, they have the most elite information.
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: They informed their decisions that way, but they give the
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: guys on the front line the unilateral right to just
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: step in and say, hey, this is our call right
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: here based upon the information we have. And one thing,
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: you know, Scott's a very humble guy, but I just
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: want to touch on something you just reference the one
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: run games. Another thing in our research for you, you
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: are the major league manager, the leader in the major
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: leagues in one run game winning percentage. I don't even
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: know if you know that. You've won fifty seven percent
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: of your one run games one hundred and eighty six
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: and one forty and just from a fans perspective, obviously
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: you should win about half of your one run games.
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: Scott's winning fifty seven percent of them. That tracks to
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: a ninety two win season just in one run games.
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: Like that's a playoff team, like, so whatever, system you
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: were employing was working. You know, the run differential. As
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: Ryan said, you had the ninety win season, your run
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: differential would have suggested you should have been fourteen games
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: under five or it was a fourteen game span of
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: a differential between where you were supposed to be versus
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: where you ended up. Those are not small numbers, you know,
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: Like that does happen from time to time in the game.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: It doesn't happen with the consistency we saw with the
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: Seattle Mariners. We were friends through that time, but it
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: was something that I marveled at from Afar just watching
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: your team perform. Teams don't normally perform that well with
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: negative run differentials or one run games. The information you
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: were deploying to help you make decisions, coupled with your
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: instincts had to have just been a real competitive advantage
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: for that franchise.
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: We had good players too, Let's not forget that. I
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: do think, you know, like I talked about it earlier,
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: I've been I was very like open and upfront talking
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: about it from the first day I took on the
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: Mariner's job that we were going to play in a
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: lot of one run games. How do you know that
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: I'm just I have a feeling this is how it's
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: going to play out. This is our rosters are going
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: to be put together, and understanding the impact that bullpen
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: plays had very good bullpens in Seattle. We were able
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: to figure some things out getting players in the right
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: spots that maybe you know, they weren't maybe valued in
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: the industry that much, but they could do one thing
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: really well. Let's focus on what that player does well
• 51:12
  Speaker 3: and then try to put him in the pockets in
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: an opposing lineup that he has a chance to have success.
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: So we spend a ton of time every day in
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: our prep before the game, sitting down with pitching coaches
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: and strategists and pitching analysts and trying to map out
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: what your bullpen usage is going to look like based
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: on the strengths of our players. And more times than not,
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: it worked out and the players started to get confidence.
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: So now when you play in that many one run games,
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: are used to being in those games and it's tied
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: and it's late and being to execute your pitches. Oh,
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: we're always in this spot. This is not a big deal.
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: And we got used to it, and we expected to
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: win all those games and you would be. You know,
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: you could get the feeling in the dugout. Again, you
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: have to have to be on the field and you
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: can feel it. But you feel it with your team.
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: You know you're down by a run or two. Now
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: you've come back and tied the game. Oh we're winning
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: this game. It's an automatic. We've tied. We win the
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: close games. That's what we do. But you've got to
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: create that kind of mindset with your players and by
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: putting them in positions. And again, we had a lot
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: of people involved in the decisions. It was not just me,
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: but you're leaning on all that group around you. You know,
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: like I said, the pitching coach is the strategists to
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: trying to get our players in the right spot. And
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: then like you said that, so some days you don't
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: have all your your weapons to use. You've got to
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: give guys days off or they're a little soggy at
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: the arm. You know, you just you have to have
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: the feel part of it there. But we were very fortunate.
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: We had very good players and players who enjoyed playing
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: in those games. And the fan bases there they feel it.
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: They know when you're used to winning those games and
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: kind of the electricity. Certainly in the home ballpark, it
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: makes a difference.
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: It's got One of the things that that and I've
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: talked about, especially to folks who are older than the
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: three of us and you know it's a long time,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: is burnout and the burnout risk in these jobs. I
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: think now, with the twenty four to seven news cycle
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: and social media and all the challenges going into being
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: an executive or a head coach or manager today, that
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: is real. I was a general manager of the Suns
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: for five and a half years. That was GM of
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: the Twins for eight years. You to both of those tenures,
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: you know, being in Seattle with the Mariners as the
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: manager for almost a decade, how did you manage kind
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: of the grind of it, either within season or from
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: one season to the next. And if you do go
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: back and manage a team again in the future, is
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: there anything you'll do differently? What will you do the
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: same and what will you change to make sure that
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: you can do the job at a high level for
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: a long period of time.
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: I think it's natural to think, Okay, you are going
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: to get burned out or you get on the hamster.
• 53:27
  Speaker 3: Will you keep doing the same thing? Over and over
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: and over again, and for me, it was a couple
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: of different things. First of all, I think you guys
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: all agree you have to have a really strong support
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: group around you. You know, it's a wife that's been
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: with me since we're in high school together. You know,
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: family that's really supportive of you, that will listen, and
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: sometimes you just need to get things off your chest,
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: So you need to have that support group around you. Also,
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: that group is usually pretty good at creating distractions, which
• 53:52
  Speaker 3: are a good thing. I used to do it with
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: our team a lot. I know that that my wife
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: and kids enjoyed trying to get me to think about
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: other things in the game, which isn't easy when you're
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: locked in on the season. But you need those distractions,
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: and I think it's valuable, you know, as you go forward.
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: There are certainly things that you learn going through it
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: at times. One of the awesome things about Seattle is
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: for about three months during the summer, it is beautiful
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: and you can get out on the water, you know
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: what I mean. We didn't have many offers at home
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: because of the travel there, but I used to like
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: to get out on the boat and just chill, you
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: know what. I mean, that was my time to get
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: away from a little bit. And if it meant a
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: little water skiing or wakeboarding, I would pay for it
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: the next day. But it was something that I enjoyed doing,
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: you know, and just to try to get away from
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: a little bit. But I love the competition and it
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: always goes back. You know, what is going to allow
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: me to get the most out of our coaching staff
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: and our team. And it's constantly going through your head,
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: you know, every night when your head hits the pillow,
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: if it's an off day or you're in a winning
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: streak losing streak, What do we need to do to
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: get better? How can I make a difference? Who can
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: I talk to? And I often talk to young coaches.
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: It's what I'm doing now with the padres is mentoring
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: a lot of young coaches. Is you know, you might
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: have twenty things on your list that you needn't You
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: can't accomplish all that. You have to be realistic. And
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: I would oftentimes before I left the house to drive
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: to the ballpark, I'd have three things written down. These
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: are the three people I need to talk to. These
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: are the three discussions I need to have today. If
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: I get those three things done, we've gotten a little
• 55:23
  Speaker 3: bit better. You know. That's how I would book at it.
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: And then the constant flow and competitiveness of that. It
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: was fun. I loved the job. I love doing it,
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: and like I said, may I get a chance to
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: do it again? Time will tell.
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: Scott take us take the listeners inside a clubhouse of
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: a playoff push?
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: What is it like?
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: I know we always talk about, hey, we want to
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: be consistent, Dane and Dio, But what is it like
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: as you're pushing towards the playoffs? And maybe tie into this,
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: you're working for the Padres now probably the best rivalry
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: in the games between the Padres and the Dodgers. Like,
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: what was it like in the clubhouse when you were managing?
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: What is it like now as you're witnessing the Padres
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: try to spurt into the finish line and catch the Dodgers.
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I've always looked at the season, as you know,
• 56:05
  Speaker 3: it's one hundred and sixty two games, it spread out
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: over six months. I always looked at it in certain chunks.
• 56:09
  Speaker 3: The first forty games of the season for me was
• 56:11
  Speaker 3: they're trying to figure out what our team is. And
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: I've had some awesome spring trainings and you go out
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: and you just lay an egg dust start the season.
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: I had probably the we had the worst team talent wise,
• 56:22
  Speaker 3: and we got off to the best start. We got
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: off to a thirteen and two start one year during
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: a rebuild year. I'm like, I don't think this is sustainable.
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: We had a lot of fun for the first few weeks,
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: but the first forty games you kind of look at
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: what we have and then you're building from there. Okay,
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: you kind of get into the flow of the season
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: where we're at. The next real teller throughout the course
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: of the season is probably the time leading up to
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: the trade deadline. I always thought that maybe the two
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: most stressful weeks of the season were the two weeks
• 56:49
  Speaker 3: leading into the deadline, just because you know, we were
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: in positions where you're trying to obviously win every game
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: to put as much pressure maybe on the front office
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: or ownership to add to the team, and if you
• 57:00
  Speaker 3: sometimes go south right before the deadline. And I had
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: this conversation with a couple different teams, I guys, you know,
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: we need to turn up the volume right here or
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: some of the name plates are going to change in
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: the locker room. That's just the reality of where we're at.
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: You're at that point in the season. The players understood
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: that they really did now coming out of the deadline
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: usually had the euphoria. We were in a situation where
• 57:20
  Speaker 3: there were some some years we added players, there were
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: other years that we subtracted players. So you're you're kind
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: of dealing with a new team, you know, for the
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: first couple of weeks coming out of the deadline, and
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: then I always thought August was a great time for distraction.
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: Those are the time of year where you maybe you know,
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: you do some different things on the road, some team
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: building stuff, and I did a number of One year,
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: we ran our own Olympics. We did it thuring off
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: August while the Olympics were going on. The players loved it.
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: We had ten different events. We did crazy stuff, water
• 57:49
  Speaker 3: balloon catches to closest to the pin, golf shots from
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: the upper deck, we did all kinds of stuff, ping
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: pong tournaments. It was a great distraction for a team
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: because I knew we needed to turn to dial up
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: in September, and I wanted to put as much fuel
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: in the tank or create as much equity with our group,
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: so we could push at the end. So again, every
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: team is different. You have to feel your team, you
• 58:12
  Speaker 3: know where they're at, the personality of your team. But
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: I I love the you know, everybody talks about the
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: dog days of August. I kind of like that being
• 58:19
  Speaker 3: creative and what could we do to create some distraction
• 58:21
  Speaker 3: and bring the group together. And then when you get
• 58:24
  Speaker 3: to September, you know, every game is important. Players know that,
• 58:27
  Speaker 3: you know. So it's it's the reliever that's not typically
• 58:30
  Speaker 3: used to going three days in a row. He knows
• 58:32
  Speaker 3: it's time. You know, we got to push, and you know,
• 58:35
  Speaker 3: for us to in Seattle, we were trying to break
• 58:38
  Speaker 3: a playoff drought. It meant everything to the city and
• 58:41
  Speaker 3: the fan base, and our players knew that, they felt
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: it and they were all in. But I think those
• 58:46
  Speaker 3: five months leading up to September really does a lot
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: for your team. You just want to make sure there's
• 58:51
  Speaker 3: plenty of fuel left in the tank.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: Scott, we've talked a lot about your time as a
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: player and then as a manager with the Mariners. Take
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: us inside your most recent role with the San Diego Padres.
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: You mentioned working with some of the manager real staff,
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: helping mentor and guide some young managers in the Padres organization.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: What else does the role entail? And then what's it like?
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: You mentioned them earlier in the segment, but I know
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: you and that both worked with Aj Preller in Texas.
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: His reputation is maybe the Major League Baseball is foremost
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: gunslinger at this moment. What's it like working with him?
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: And it kind of take us inside, you know, the
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: trade deadline, all that kind of stuff that you're exposed
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: to as a member of the Padres front office.
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been been grateful to Padres, you know, give
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: me an opportunity to go over there and help. Kind
• 59:34
  Speaker 3: of starting back from when I came on board in
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: January and then in the spring training, getting to know
• 59:39
  Speaker 3: there was some people within the organization that I had
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: previous relationships with form my time in Texas, so the
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: transition was pretty easy. And try to just be more
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: of a voice, somebody to listen, a mentor for some
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: young coaches, create baseball discussion. I love talking baseball strategy.
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: When you talk about young managers, young coaches, they just
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: don't have the and they want to learn, they want
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: to ask questions, but sometimes they're a little bit shy.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: They don't know where to go, so you just start
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: the conversation, you know what I mean. But it's been
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: it's been great getting to know that the players in
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 3: the system. Once the season gets going, I do some
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: travel out to our affiliates, so that the city's in
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 3: Fort Wayne, Indiana, I would stop into We're in Lake
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: elsinor or in San Antonio and El Paso, so either
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: see those teams, get to see the players a little bit,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: kind of leading into the trade deadline. Before that, I
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: was involved in the amateur draft as well, which I
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: really enjoy. Now MLB has taken out a few years ago.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 3: They do run a combine much like the NFL does,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 3: but you get a chance to sit down and interview players,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: which was awesome. I love talking to players, and these
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: are high school or college guys who are not in
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 3: pro ball yet. So I think with the Padres, we
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: interviewed close to one hundred and twenty players over a
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 3: five day period, thirty minutes a pop, and within thirty
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 3: minutes you get a pretty good vibe on guys. And
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 3: credit to the Padre's people are scouting director Chris Campino,
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 3: the inside in and outs on every one of these players.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: He knows the questions to ask and being a part
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 3: of that was a lot of fun. The experience I've
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 3: had with players and getting involved there, being a part
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 3: of the draft was great. But then obviously, like I said,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 3: getting into the deadline, and every team handles the deadline
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 3: differently based on where they're at in their in their
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: window so to speak with their team. And you know
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: Aj preller Uh at the head of our baseball operations group.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: Aj is very aggressive. Oftentimes people in the industry were
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 4: going crazy. I think he's a little bit more fearless,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 4: is what I observed. Certainly, we traded a very good
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 4: young prospected way to try to bolster our bullpen during
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 4: this deadline, along with the additions you know, some position
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 4: players that we needed some help within our lineup.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 3: But he's very aggressive. I appreciate that. Again, I have
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 3: a seat at the table, have a voice. You know,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 3: not every suggestion I make is is where we go.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: But it's nice to have a voice and to know
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 3: that you're you're learning, You're seeing a group of people
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: and what they value, and every organization is a little
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 3: bit different. But padres know where their windows at is open.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 3: Right now. They've got a great thing going against the Dodgers.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 4: It's a very competitive division, you know, and I just
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 4: like the competitiveness of it.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 3: When you're trying to beat the best, you've got to
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 3: show up and be the best, and that's a number
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: of different areas. So helping any way I can has
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: been great, and I'm just glad to have a spot
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 3: where i can chip in a little bit.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: You know, fans just love guys like AJ Preller. I mean,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: he is undoubtedly trying to improve the team night in
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: and night out. You know, if there's if there's a
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: Prudence Award in baseball, he's not shooting for that. He's
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: shooting to win. And you can see it every night
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: in San Diego. Forty two thousand people are coming to
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: midweek games now. You know, hopefully they'll get a chance
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: to really capitalize on this because they're pushing a lot
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: of chips in and I think the fans will always
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: celebrate the GM who is willing to do that. Scott,
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: thank you very much for joining us. We're going to
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: ask you to stay with us through the break here
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: because our listener question is about how did the Green
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: Bay Packers do in the Michael Parsons deal, and come
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: to find out, you're a shareholder of the team. So
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: who better to pose that question two than to Scott.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: So stay with us through the break here at Rosters
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: to Rings. Welcome back to Rosters to Rings. Our question
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: comes from Frankie in Florida a little bit I think
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: peeved that we spent most of our Micah Parsons breakdown
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: episode talking about the Dallas Cowboys end of the deal.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: Who better to ask about the Green Bay Packers end
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: of the deal? Frankie's concerned a little bit that this
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: seems to be out of the norm for how the
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: Green Bay Packers normally operate, trading multiple first round picks
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: and also taking on a salary of this magnitude. Scott,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 2: why do you think this is the right time for
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: them to step out and do something a little bit
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: a typical.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: I'm super excited about the trade. Obviously we got a
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 3: generational type player and Michael Parsons, but I think the Packers,
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 3: you know, have had a certain way of going about
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 3: their business the draft develop you know, I haven't really
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 3: stepped out and signed a done the big trade like this.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 3: I think Reggie White's probably the last big free agency.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 3: You know, they really signed the turn to franchise. But
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 3: there's a little bit of a shift in in Green Bay.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 3: A new team president. You know, Mark Murphy was there
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 3: for years. He stepped down at policies in charge. Maybe
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 3: that had something to do with it. I don't know.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 3: I am a shareholder, Thad, but it's a very me
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 3: and sixty thousand other people. But I'm excited. I love football,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 3: I love following the Packers. It's it's part of the
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 3: livelihood there in Wisconsin. Yea, I just thought of the
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 3: title for the pod.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: It's it's interview with Green Bay Packers owner Scott Servis
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: and maybe in parentheses lowercase letters he also played baseball
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: and maybe Madge a little bit. You know, that's how
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: we'll drive drive listeners. But Scott, you told a really
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: neat story before we came on air, and hopefully can
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: share it on air as well. When you were catching
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: I believe it was for the Chicago Cubs. You're not
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: just one of these you know, bandwagon guys who jumps
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: on and off or you know, happens to root for
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: a team because you're from Wisconsin. You've really been a
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: Packers fan for decades. Now take us inside that story,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: if you will share it with our listeners. What happened
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: when you're an active player with the Cubs and we're
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: getting changed after the game.
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 3: I love playing in Chicago for the Cubs, and even
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 3: though I was from Wisconsin, the Packers I hold near
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: and dear to my heart. So underneath my game jersey,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 3: every day with the Cubs, I wore a Packers T shirt.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: And of course the games are over and you take
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 3: your shirt off, and there was a media in there
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 3: and somebody took a picture of it one day and
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 3: eventually it landed on Ron Wolf at the GM of
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 3: the time of the Packers saw the picture and he
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 3: responded and we went on a road trip. We get
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 3: back from the road trip, there's a box in my locker.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 3: I go, I see the Packer logo on it, So
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: I rip it open and there it is. It's a
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 3: Packer's jersey with my name in it, with a handwritten
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 3: note from Ron Wolf the GM saying, hey, we really
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 3: appreciate the support. Anytime you want to come up and visit,
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 3: you or a guest of mine. So you know that
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 3: didn't change my loyalty, but it certainly I loved the
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 3: Packers have always been a big part and it went through
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 3: a lot of lean years with the Packers, so it's
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 3: great to follow, and certainly in Chicago was always fun
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 3: with the media to joke with those guys.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: You know a similar story my first job out of college,
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: I was working for Reebok and at that time I
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: only owned Nikes and I was working out in the
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: gym and somebody came over and said, Hey, what SiZ
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: shoe do you were? I told him and I got
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: a new pair of Rebox right out of the shoot.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: So the next day I painted a Nike swoosh on
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: my Dodge in Trepid, my nineteen eighty three Dodge in Treppid,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: and I was like, Hey, where's the new car, And
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: They're like, you may need to go to a car wash.
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 2: This is this is embarrassing, Scott what. So one other
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 2: thing about Green Bay that I just throw in, and
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know enough about the economics of football, but
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to say it. It seems as if they've
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: got such a tremendous young core of players that now
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: it's the time to take on a big salary because
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: everyone else is in such a fortuitous position. So they're
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: going to pay Love a lot, They're going to pay
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: Parsons a lot. Probably gonna have to make some tough
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: decisions on some of those line so wide receivers coming up,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: but right now they're all in rookie contracts, So timing wise,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: if you're ever going to take a shot, it seems
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: like now was the time. Last question I interview Scott
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: was you know, you have a lot of ties to
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: the NFL, It's not just Green Bay. When you were
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: in Seattle, you would tell stories about how much you
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: kind of leaned into the Seahawks staff as people who were,
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: you know, part of your inner circle, and do you
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: want to share that story with the with the listeners
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: as well?
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I really I've enjoyed getting to know a number
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 3: of people around the NFL and the fact that I
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: was in Seattle and I actually lived right down the
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 3: street from where the Seahawks practice there over in Bellvy,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 3: right out like Washington. So the GM of the Seahawks
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 3: is John Schneider, who is from Green Bay. Started his
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 3: group with the Packers, and he and I kind of
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 3: from the both era, so we would share old Brewers
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 3: stories and Packers stories, and if anybody's better run around
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 3: John Schneider, you can understand. He's a fun guy to
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 3: be around and just talk sports with along the way.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, Pete Carroll was there at the
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 3: Helm with the Seahawks, and I think Pete's one of
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 3: the transitional leaders, you know, in all of sport, and
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 3: what he did in the environment, he created the culture
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 3: around the Seahawks, so I was always curious to see
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 3: how he did it. And then you know, shifting into
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: Mike McDonald who was there now getting a chance to
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 3: spend some time with him last year. So there's a
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 3: number of people there that, you know, even though it's
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 3: a different sport, you're dealing with the same you know,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 3: age athlete, you know, elite athlete, trying to get the
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 3: most and really build team. And I've often made the comment,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm a you know, a baseball coach, but
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 3: I really think like a football coach. I really respect
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 3: the discipline, the structure that football has to it, and
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 3: I've taken a lot of those ideas and tried to
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 3: play it in the baseball. Of course, we played different game,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 3: and it's one hundred and sixty two games. But you know,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 3: I think there's a lot to be learned from each side,
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 3: and you share experiences and stories, and you know, I've
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 3: taken a lot from it through the years.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: Guess Scott for being a Packers fan, for wearing that
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: T shirt as a Cubs player, you got a jersey.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: For appearing on Rosters to Rings, you get a signed
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: headshot at thatd Levine. That's a tradition we have, no
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: nobody asked for. He just sends it to our guests.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: You know what's in the mail, Yeah, exactly. So we
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: certainly appreciate you you joining us. He is Scott's service.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: He is Dad Levine. I am Ryan McDonough.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: Folks, come back and listen next week and every week
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: right here on Rosters to Ring.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: Please join me host That Levine, Ryan McDonough and other
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: general managers every week for Roster Syrings on Apple, Spotify,
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 2: or wherever you get your podcasts.