Latest / Foul Territory / Former Manager Buck Showalter joins Ravech’s Dirt From The Dugout

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Former Manager Buck Showalter joins Ravech’s Dirt From The Dugout · Foul Territory

0:04
Speaker 1: Buck, Welcome to the best show ever. This is Dirt
0:08
Speaker 1: from the Dugout where our goal is through your experiences
0:12
Speaker 1: to help parents of ball players hear what you did
0:17
Speaker 1: your journey, so that they may take some things, discard
0:21
Speaker 1: some things, but more importantly learn from you about how
0:25
Speaker 1: you got to where you got to. So welcome to
0:28
Speaker 1: the program. It's great to see you.
0:31
Speaker 2: Hey, Carl Justin, nice to meet you. You know he
0:34
Speaker 2: didn't tell the rest of that story that Carl's a
0:37
Speaker 2: handsome young man at that point, not that he isn't now,
0:39
Speaker 2: but his nose, his lips, his face, his ears, what
0:43
Speaker 2: is it? Will Smith movie? Remember where he took something
0:46
Speaker 2: the largic reaction. Yeah, my son was like eight years old.
0:51
Speaker 2: He goes, Dad, is mister Rabbit's gonna die? And I
0:54
Speaker 2: said we better get on the move because it didn't
0:57
Speaker 2: look good. But you know, there's such a good This
1:01
Speaker 2: is a great exercise you guys do. I applaud you
1:03
Speaker 2: for it. It's a I kind of shake my head sometimes.
1:07
Speaker 2: You know, I don't want to be the old guy
1:08
Speaker 2: on the front porch scream at the kids in the
1:10
Speaker 2: front yard. But you know, I have four grandsons now,
1:13
Speaker 2: and I go to a lot of their games. And
1:15
Speaker 2: actually my wife makes me go stand out in left
1:17
Speaker 2: field because he's afraid I'm going to say something. You know,
1:21
Speaker 2: I grew up in a in especially. You know, I
1:23
Speaker 2: have a great memories of my childhood because you know
1:26
Speaker 2: it is right out of the movie Sandlight. We had
1:29
Speaker 2: you know, you got a T shirt. You took a
1:31
Speaker 2: magic mark. He wrote your name on the back and
1:33
Speaker 2: your number on the back of it. Uh. We only
1:35
Speaker 2: had six guys on the team. We built our own
1:37
Speaker 2: backstop and this was we called it a Dungaree League,
1:40
Speaker 2: back when East called Jeans Dunger East. And I learned
1:43
Speaker 2: how to hit the ball the other way because they
1:45
Speaker 2: couldn't put a guy in the left field. I was
1:47
Speaker 2: left hand hitter. You know, you learn how to argue,
1:49
Speaker 2: you learn how to make your point. If you pull
1:52
Speaker 2: the ball too too much, the ball went in the
1:55
Speaker 2: creek and the game was over. So you know, and
1:58
Speaker 2: I grew up in the air where you play football, baseball, basketball, football,
2:01
Speaker 2: baseball basketball. One reason why I probably stayed out of trouble.
2:05
Speaker 2: But I also grew up in Maybury. You know, twenty
2:08
Speaker 2: five hundred people. Everybody knew everybody, and it was an ideal,
2:12
Speaker 2: but you fault to your fights, you know, not physically necessarily,
2:16
Speaker 2: but the whole travel ball thing, it's a sour point
2:21
Speaker 2: for me, you know, when.
2:23
Speaker 1: You're successfully covering a million subjects and I just I
2:27
Speaker 1: just want to for me, justin growing up, when when
2:31
Speaker 1: we didn't have enough players, you actually couldn't hit it
2:35
Speaker 1: to right field because nobody's out there to get it,
2:38
Speaker 1: as opposed to I'm going to hit it to right
2:40
Speaker 1: field and I'm going to run around the bases because
2:42
Speaker 1: there's nobody out there in right field. Did you have
2:45
Speaker 1: similar situations?
2:46
Speaker 3: Justin one hundred percent? We played uh what was called
2:49
Speaker 3: Hoggin rules. Shout out to Joe Joey Connup and some
2:52
Speaker 3: of the some of my boys from the sandlot in
2:55
Speaker 3: Baseball Park. But our rule was so we would usually
2:59
Speaker 3: we were lucky. Buck, you got six on the team,
3:01
Speaker 3: we were lucky to get like four. And the rule
3:04
Speaker 3: was oh yeah, oh yeah, ghost arms. We had huge
3:07
Speaker 3: debates over center field, so that was our cutoff on
3:10
Speaker 3: any out was like anything away, any any opposite field hit,
3:14
Speaker 3: it was automatic out. So guess who grew up as
3:17
Speaker 3: a big time pull hitter. Buck. It's all it's all
3:22
Speaker 3: I did, man. But but we it's like you said,
3:25
Speaker 3: you learn how to you learn how to handle things,
3:27
Speaker 3: You learn how to talk through things. You you have
3:29
Speaker 3: debates as friends and what happened, and you learn some
3:32
Speaker 3: some true like adversity stuff on the field where no
3:35
Speaker 3: other parents are around to take over. But I want
3:38
Speaker 3: to jump in on that really quick, though, Buck, because
3:40
Speaker 3: you know we're we're not here to to bash anything,
3:43
Speaker 3: to go into the negativity around so many things in
3:46
Speaker 3: youth sports right now. We want to lift it up.
3:48
Speaker 3: We want to be the positive people at the parent dugout.
3:52
Speaker 3: We want to be positive on the show. But I
3:55
Speaker 3: do want to ask you this, Like you were in
3:57
Speaker 3: baseball a long time, what are some of the changes
4:00
Speaker 3: that you'd love to see at the youth level if
4:03
Speaker 3: you could just flip a switch and it was changed,
4:06
Speaker 3: what are some of those things that stand out from
4:08
Speaker 3: all the stuff you watch with your grandkids?
4:11
Speaker 2: Well, it can't happen, but I wish sometimes you know,
4:15
Speaker 2: the parents end up being the coaches because nobody else
4:18
Speaker 2: is willing to do it. And if you have to
4:20
Speaker 2: pay for a guy. And I watched one of the
4:22
Speaker 2: travel ball teams where I know the coaches. I would
4:25
Speaker 2: hate to see how much money some of these coaches
4:28
Speaker 2: and leagues are making off these families. And that's the
4:33
Speaker 2: subject for another day. But probably the teaching of the
4:37
Speaker 2: game alone, you know, teaching them how to have fun,
4:40
Speaker 2: you know. I took over my son's high school practice
4:43
Speaker 2: one time when he was in the tenth grade. The
4:45
Speaker 2: coach just said, you know what's going on. We don't
4:47
Speaker 2: have many guys out for baseball. I said, that's your fault,
4:49
Speaker 2: that's not their fault. Your practices. I mean, Carl, I
4:53
Speaker 2: was justin. I was entertaining thirty year old major league
4:56
Speaker 2: vectrium in spring training. I had about a twelve minute intentions.
5:00
Speaker 2: So the next day they came out and I said, hey,
5:02
Speaker 2: you guys don't need to stretch. Where you going? You
5:04
Speaker 2: woke up limber when you're sixteen years old. Whoever stretched
5:07
Speaker 2: at sixteen? You know? And then I said, what do
5:10
Speaker 2: you want to do? I've always wanted to play short stuff.
5:12
Speaker 2: Go play short stuff. What about you? I want to
5:14
Speaker 2: I want to catch, put the gear on. We're going
5:16
Speaker 2: to play push them up as O two count and
5:18
Speaker 2: I and I'm pitching, so we're not striking out we're
5:21
Speaker 2: running the bases, We're going to catch the ball. I said, coach,
5:23
Speaker 2: you just had a kid stand out in left field
5:25
Speaker 2: for an hour and a half picking his teeth during
5:28
Speaker 2: batting practice. It's awful, But this is a great game, if
5:32
Speaker 2: you'll so to answer your question justin let's accentuate the
5:35
Speaker 2: things that make it a great game instead of making
5:38
Speaker 2: this dull drum where's my sliding pad? I saw an
5:41
Speaker 2: eight year old kid wanting to know where his sliding wristband.
5:44
Speaker 1: Was or whatever.
5:47
Speaker 2: But Carl, you see it at the Little League World Series.
5:50
Speaker 2: They're emulating what.
5:51
Speaker 1: They see, no question. Yeah, there's no question. They pattern
5:54
Speaker 1: They pattern bat flips and other things off of you know,
5:58
Speaker 1: major leaguers. Let me ask you this question because we've
6:01
Speaker 1: had many people on this program who emphasize the fun
6:04
Speaker 1: in the game, which you just did, which is great
6:06
Speaker 1: and we echo that for everybody. But what was your
6:10
Speaker 1: first affair with the sport love?
6:13
Speaker 2: Like?
6:14
Speaker 1: Did you love baseball from jump Street or did did
6:17
Speaker 1: it evolve? Did you begin to love it as opposed
6:20
Speaker 1: to the first few times you were there? How would
6:22
Speaker 1: you describe your relationship with baseball when you were young?
6:27
Speaker 2: Carl I loved them all. I you know, it was
6:29
Speaker 2: a very I was just competitive, you know my dad,
6:33
Speaker 2: And yeah, I never they never pushed They never pushed
6:35
Speaker 2: me anything. But they made it available to me when
6:38
Speaker 2: we you know, I had three sisters. We didn't have
6:40
Speaker 2: a pot to pee in. It was uh, you know,
6:43
Speaker 2: it was pretty close ranks, but they somehow always made
6:46
Speaker 2: it available. It might have been a back, you know,
6:48
Speaker 2: second hand glove or a taped up that, but I
6:51
Speaker 2: had what I needed. But I just loved, uh being
6:56
Speaker 2: outside and playing with the guys and competing.
7:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you didn't necessarily care baseball, football, soccer, basketball, tennis.
7:04
Speaker 1: It just give me a ball, give me something and
7:07
Speaker 1: we're good to go. Hey, you want to say something
7:10
Speaker 1: before we get to some of the questions.
7:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got one thing. I will tell you this.
7:14
Speaker 2: Through the years, I've become a real you know, I
7:17
Speaker 2: look at bios a lot of players I get in
7:20
Speaker 2: the big leagues, and I've spent a lot of time
7:21
Speaker 2: looking at the bios and the one common denominator of
7:25
Speaker 2: the really good players that they played multiple sports. They
7:28
Speaker 2: weren't year round baseball. There's exceptions to everything, you know.
7:32
Speaker 2: I asked the pitcher one time. What positions you play
7:34
Speaker 2: when you didn't pitch? He goes, well, I didn't, I go,
7:37
Speaker 2: excuse me, that guy didn't last too long. If I
7:40
Speaker 2: see guys who have played multiple sports or are well
7:42
Speaker 2: rounded and their shoulders and elbows and knees take some
7:46
Speaker 2: time off from the pounding of baseball, they're usually better
7:49
Speaker 2: players at the major league and the college level. I
7:52
Speaker 2: want those guys that have played multiple.
7:53
Speaker 1: Sports, right, yeah, great, great answer, great, all right, So, Buck,
7:58
Speaker 1: the beauty of what we do here is we allow
8:00
Speaker 1: our members to ask questions of you. It's great access,
8:05
Speaker 1: and then they're really good questions. So our first question
8:08
Speaker 1: comes from Chan and he says, Buck, you know, we
8:11
Speaker 1: appreciate you much for being on here. And the question
8:14
Speaker 1: is what strategies do you think are essential for building
8:19
Speaker 1: a successful baseball team? Not a player, because I think
8:22
Speaker 1: you've shed some light on that, but strategies for building
8:25
Speaker 1: a successful baseball team.
8:28
Speaker 2: Well, I think you've got to find players who it
8:31
Speaker 2: matters what their teammates think. That's one thing I've always
8:34
Speaker 2: tried to do, was, you know, I was a ship
8:37
Speaker 2: passing the night the way I looked at it. You know,
8:38
Speaker 2: managers come and go and the shelf life gets shorter
8:42
Speaker 2: of head coaches and sports. But I wanted to find
8:46
Speaker 2: guys that their pure pressure meant something to them, and
8:48
Speaker 2: then you suground them with the right peers. I was
8:52
Speaker 2: picky about picking who was around these guys. Parcels had
8:56
Speaker 2: a great line years ago, you want me to cook dinner,
8:58
Speaker 2: but you don't want to pick the groceries. And I
9:02
Speaker 2: worry a lot of times that guys don't know what
9:04
Speaker 2: they're looking for. And you see it now. But I
9:06
Speaker 2: always want to surround myself with people that wanted to
9:09
Speaker 2: please each other.
9:11
Speaker 1: H good answer, that's.
9:12
Speaker 3: Really good, buck. I want to share something and this
9:15
Speaker 3: is something that I wish I could have done a
9:18
Speaker 3: little bit more. But uh, in my time, in my
9:21
Speaker 3: time with the Brewers, one of the things that I
9:23
Speaker 3: was always wanting to do is talk with the coaching
9:26
Speaker 3: staff more about what did they want? Uh, you know, big,
9:29
Speaker 3: big part of my role completely almost was focused on
9:32
Speaker 3: the domestic draft, and I always wanted to know, like,
9:35
Speaker 3: what what are you what do you guys want? What
9:37
Speaker 3: are you looking for? Do you think that's a missing
9:40
Speaker 3: link in today's game between the coaches on the field
9:44
Speaker 3: and the front offices because it seems like that, Yeah,
9:49
Speaker 3: go ahead.
9:49
Speaker 2: Buck, I just you know, I always talk about your identity.
9:53
Speaker 2: Who are you if you've played half the season and
9:56
Speaker 2: your team doesn't have an identity of what you're about.
9:59
Speaker 2: But that comes from having a clear message to the
10:01
Speaker 2: scouts and from the coaches, this is who we are,
10:05
Speaker 2: this is I liked it. In Baltimore. We went through
10:08
Speaker 2: periods where we'd see a player and the guys would go, oh,
10:11
Speaker 2: he's a nice player, but he doesn't fit us. He's
10:14
Speaker 2: not a plus defendery, not a you know, a smart
10:17
Speaker 2: baseball player. So I think have an identity and letting
10:21
Speaker 2: people know what you what they'd like for you to
10:23
Speaker 2: look for. This is what we hold. You know, we're
10:25
Speaker 2: all looking at the same analytics. So what's the separator.
10:29
Speaker 2: It's what you choose to wait. Maybe you wait on
10:32
Speaker 2: base percentage, but you know what do you choose to wait? Well,
10:35
Speaker 2: we choose to wait makeup defense and intelligence, you know,
10:40
Speaker 2: baseball intelligence. And it takes a human being to make
10:44
Speaker 2: that evaluation.
10:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, which doesn't really doesn't require a lot of
10:49
Speaker 1: mind reading because you know who we are, so you
10:52
Speaker 1: don't need to really come and ask me. We like makeup,
10:55
Speaker 1: we like defense, we want pitching, we need athletes. We
10:58
Speaker 1: have good answer. Here's quests from Don. Bucky says, after
11:01
Speaker 1: spending decades around the game, what's one thing and remember
11:04
Speaker 1: this is for parents of players of all ages, is
11:07
Speaker 1: there one thing you wish every baseball parent understood?
11:14
Speaker 3: Uh?
11:14
Speaker 2: You know the coach doesn't get up in the morning.
11:16
Speaker 2: I told the guy one time. You know, I don't
11:18
Speaker 2: get up in the morning trying to figure out a
11:20
Speaker 2: way to to hurt you. You know, I'm really trying
11:23
Speaker 2: to put the best team out in the field. I
11:25
Speaker 2: may be wrong, but there's really not a vindictums about it,
11:28
Speaker 2: and we sometimes I think we need to quit taking
11:31
Speaker 2: it so seriously. It's easy for me to say, you know,
11:34
Speaker 2: and the whole scheme of things. You know your child.
11:38
Speaker 2: I tell players all the time, the greatest two challenges
11:41
Speaker 2: you're going to have is to be a good father
11:43
Speaker 2: and be a good husband. And I think that impact
11:47
Speaker 2: you have on that the kids will serve them a
11:49
Speaker 2: lot better than whether or not something down quite well
11:53
Speaker 2: in a baseball game.
11:55
Speaker 1: Yeah.
11:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Buck, I want to I want to go
11:58
Speaker 3: to ninety five. Okay, So I'm a kid, I'm a huge, huge,
12:03
Speaker 3: griffy guy who isn't right at that time as a
12:06
Speaker 3: youngster you're you play I think.
12:10
Speaker 1: Probably probably riffic guy at that point, but I.
12:15
Speaker 3: Understand I was so bug probably in my mind, one
12:21
Speaker 3: of the greatest euries of all time. And you're on
12:26
Speaker 3: the other end of that, on the losing end of that.
12:29
Speaker 3: But I think we talk about it a lot on here.
12:31
Speaker 3: It's the adversity, the ability to overcome things and the
12:34
Speaker 3: challenges that you face. And the game has some highs
12:38
Speaker 3: and it has some lows. What's your advice for people coming,
12:43
Speaker 3: for players, coaches, parents, maybe watching listening. What's your advice
12:47
Speaker 3: for handling that adversity? What do you say when you
12:50
Speaker 3: get to the clubhouse that night after that heartbreaking loss,
12:54
Speaker 3: where you know, maybe the country is happy for the Mariners, right,
12:59
Speaker 3: the sort of the underdogs, and you guys are the
13:02
Speaker 3: big Yankees, the big powerful Yankees. What is that like
13:05
Speaker 3: walking into the clubhouse and how do you how do
13:08
Speaker 3: you handle that adversity and what's your advice to other
13:11
Speaker 3: people on how to handle adversity?
13:13
Speaker 2: You know, looking back at that, you know, we did
13:15
Speaker 2: win two games in that series, but it really was
13:18
Speaker 2: the other way around. Looking back, because they had like
13:20
Speaker 2: four or five Hall of Famers on that team, and
13:23
Speaker 2: because they played and see a lot of people didn't know.
13:25
Speaker 2: And I look back on that as that helped get
13:29
Speaker 2: baseball back from where it was during the strike year.
13:32
Speaker 2: That's the first time I heard a lot of people
13:34
Speaker 2: say we started loving baseball again. So that that's but
13:38
Speaker 2: you know, I don't want anybody to ride that plane
13:40
Speaker 2: from Seattle back to New York. That was tough, but
13:43
Speaker 2: you know, you learn. You learn a lot of stuff
13:45
Speaker 2: from that about yourself and about people and and how
13:50
Speaker 2: fleeting everything is. Let's face it, guys. Leadership is basically
13:54
Speaker 2: about defining reality. And if you define enough reality along
13:58
Speaker 2: the way, you're probably gonna take off some people and
14:00
Speaker 2: you're going to be job hunting. Okay, so you know
14:03
Speaker 2: it doesn't keep you from doing the right thing, but
14:07
Speaker 2: I just you know, you had to keep defining reality.
14:10
Speaker 2: It's like a father and a mother. It's tough, you know. Luckily,
14:13
Speaker 2: my dad didn't want to be my pal. He wanted
14:15
Speaker 2: to be my father, and sometimes those two don't mix
14:19
Speaker 2: in the same way.
14:19
Speaker 1: With coaching, I think part of that for me, covering
14:25
Speaker 1: the sport for that many years. The Marinders teams of
14:29
Speaker 1: the nineties, especially the late nineties and early two thousands,
14:34
Speaker 1: they may have beat the Yankees. They were probably, I
14:36
Speaker 1: think collectively the biggest disappointment in that they didn't win
14:40
Speaker 1: a World Series given the talent that they had to
14:43
Speaker 1: kind of support Buck's point about just how good you
14:46
Speaker 1: know the players were. Here's one from Danny Buck says,
14:49
Speaker 1: you joined the Diamondbacks twenty eight months before they ever
14:53
Speaker 1: played a game. I remember, I remember, I remember being
14:57
Speaker 1: there for the expansion draft. But the question is what's
15:01
Speaker 1: it like building something completely from scratch, no players, no history,
15:07
Speaker 1: no fan base. And I think the story that you
15:10
Speaker 1: tell about the decision you made in New York with
15:14
Speaker 1: regards to your coaches and taking a new contract or
15:19
Speaker 1: not which led you to Arizona is as good a
15:23
Speaker 1: story that you can tell. But answer the question, and
15:26
Speaker 1: then maybe if you want, combined the two of them,
15:28
Speaker 1: because that was a justin Buck had to make a
15:30
Speaker 1: really big decision which led him to Arizona.
15:36
Speaker 2: Well, basically it came down to mister Steinbroner wanted to
15:38
Speaker 2: fire four of my coaches. I never complained about We
15:41
Speaker 2: all knew the job description. In New York, I'd been
15:43
Speaker 2: there nineteen years, so people didn't want to hear you
15:45
Speaker 2: complain about it. It just you know, you were working
15:48
Speaker 2: on a day to day contract. But I knew that
15:50
Speaker 2: I couldn't set foot in the locker room and look
15:52
Speaker 2: those players in the face, knowing I'd given up four
15:55
Speaker 2: great coaches who ended up having thirty year careers. So
15:59
Speaker 2: we took them Arizona. But if someone called me and said, hey,
16:01
Speaker 2: we'd like for you do the expansion lead the expansion
16:05
Speaker 2: deal again, I'd go almost died out there. I have
16:08
Speaker 2: never worked hard in my life. Those two years off
16:11
Speaker 2: the field. I'm talking about minor leagues, Japan, Korea, Venezuela,
16:16
Speaker 2: Dominican Republic, Cuba, you name it. We were everywhere the scouting,
16:21
Speaker 2: the expansion drafts and getting on this field in spring training.
16:24
Speaker 2: You know, our first spring training was in you, Arizona,
16:27
Speaker 2: because there have been to you Arizona in the spring
16:29
Speaker 2: fool baby. But you know, you know, we had to
16:33
Speaker 2: design the Tucson complex, the spring train complex, design the
16:37
Speaker 2: locker room, everything, put the scouting department together and the
16:40
Speaker 2: player development, and it was a great education for me. Luckily,
16:44
Speaker 2: I brought a lot of that with me from New York.
16:47
Speaker 2: But it was a challenge. It was a challenge, but
16:50
Speaker 2: one that I'm very proud of what we accomplished. I
16:53
Speaker 2: think we had the biggest turnaround in baseball history of
16:56
Speaker 2: the ninety nine season and took a lot of pride.
16:59
Speaker 2: I was with Carl the night that the Diamondbacks beat Yankees.
17:02
Speaker 2: I was out in the left field and walked back
17:04
Speaker 2: to my hotel listening to the diamonback fans after Game seven,
17:08
Speaker 2: realizing I lose. I lost my Navy d out in Arizona.
17:13
Speaker 2: I curried it with me, but I kind of lost
17:16
Speaker 2: it there.
17:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well that Buck didn't win a World Series, But
17:22
Speaker 1: the truth was Buck won a few World Series in
17:24
Speaker 1: my opinion.
17:26
Speaker 3: Yep. Well yeah, what yeah, Buck? What is that like
17:29
Speaker 3: to work so hard for so long and the pinnacle
17:34
Speaker 3: is what you do it for? Right? Obviously it's the
17:36
Speaker 3: relationships and the other things that you think about later,
17:39
Speaker 3: but when you're in it, the whole goal is to
17:41
Speaker 3: win it all. Yeah, is there do you feel that
17:44
Speaker 3: missing piece from your career?
17:46
Speaker 2: No? I don't. You know, that's a good question. I
17:48
Speaker 2: don't I feel for I feel good for other people.
17:51
Speaker 2: You know, life's too short. You know, Joe Tory got
17:54
Speaker 2: exposed to what a good baseball guy he was. You know,
17:59
Speaker 2: I look at a lot of things that happened with
18:01
Speaker 2: Ron Washington, for instance, and it's just, you know, things
18:07
Speaker 2: happen for a reason. I don't dwell on it, and
18:09
Speaker 2: I'm just glad that some other things happened well. And
18:12
Speaker 2: I've been completely lucky and honored to be in this
18:15
Speaker 2: game for a long time. It's been very good to
18:17
Speaker 2: me and my family. And heck, I met my wife
18:20
Speaker 2: of forty three years in this game. So now it
18:24
Speaker 2: worked out. I'm not going to sit around and say
18:26
Speaker 2: what if. I'm just happy for the people that I
18:29
Speaker 2: had a lot of help along the way. Boy did
18:30
Speaker 2: I have a lot of help. And I was. I'm
18:33
Speaker 2: pretty good at picking good people and getting out of
18:35
Speaker 2: their way and letting them do what they I know
18:37
Speaker 2: that they can do. The great greatest accolade you can
18:40
Speaker 2: pay one of these guys is they're asked their opinion
18:42
Speaker 2: or ladies. We had some great women that worked with
18:44
Speaker 2: us through the years that were instrumental and what we did.
18:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, and to your point, it's such a I do
18:51
Speaker 1: think we as people evolve over time. I mean that
18:55
Speaker 1: you can be a child rooting for the team, and
18:57
Speaker 1: if you're involved, if you're lucky enough to be involved
18:59
Speaker 1: in this game, in this sport, whether you're covering it,
19:02
Speaker 1: playing it, managing it, eventually you come to appreciate how
19:06
Speaker 1: hard it is. And then you root for people. You
19:09
Speaker 1: don't necessarily root for the name the uniform, you root
19:13
Speaker 1: for the name on the back. You root for the people.
19:15
Speaker 1: And I think, uh, you know, that's a that's a
19:17
Speaker 1: great perspective that you know that Buck shares an important
19:21
Speaker 1: at every level. You know, root for other teams. Sometimes
19:24
Speaker 1: when you see the root for the kid that's playing,
19:26
Speaker 1: that's that's really important. They're all in this thing together,
19:29
Speaker 1: and it's damn hard to play this game. Uh. Voyce
19:32
Speaker 1: asked Buck, if you could go back and manage one
19:34
Speaker 1: game differently in your entire career, do you have one
19:38
Speaker 1: and what would you change? Or or is honestly it's
19:41
Speaker 1: like me doing a show. There's a million shows I'd
19:44
Speaker 1: like to do over again.
19:46
Speaker 2: Of course.
19:47
Speaker 1: Is that true with games?
19:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's what that's where you learn along the way.
19:51
Speaker 2: You know, we've all stepped on our tail. I just
19:54
Speaker 2: don't want to repeat them.
19:55
Speaker 1: Uh.
19:56
Speaker 2: You know, I learned as much from managers I played
19:59
Speaker 2: for worked with about what not to do as I
20:02
Speaker 2: learned from guys about what to do. You know. I
20:06
Speaker 2: just i'd see a situation handled just a personal from
20:11
Speaker 2: personal nature. I go, you know, there's a better way
20:13
Speaker 2: to handle that situation. There's another mode of communication there.
20:17
Speaker 2: And I don't you know, I wish sometime when we
20:22
Speaker 2: walked very bonds with the bases loaded, I said to
20:24
Speaker 2: the media afterwards in San Francisco, I go, I wish
20:28
Speaker 2: we could evaluate whether that gave us the best chance
20:30
Speaker 2: to win instead of the results. And I know we
20:33
Speaker 2: live in a result oriented society. Wouldn't be great if
20:35
Speaker 2: we go, you know what, regards of how this works out,
20:38
Speaker 2: it's well thought out. It gives us the best chance
20:40
Speaker 2: to win. Oh, by the way, Brent Maine hit a
20:43
Speaker 2: home run and we lost. I'm okay with that. I'm
20:45
Speaker 2: at peace with that if I've done my homework and
20:48
Speaker 2: I've given our team the best chance to win. And
20:51
Speaker 2: I never made a vindictive personal decision where you know
20:55
Speaker 2: you were mad at somebody. You can't. You can't. First
20:58
Speaker 2: of all, you can't be married for forty three years
20:59
Speaker 2: and how that. So you know, I've just learned through
21:04
Speaker 2: the years. You do your work, you make an educated decision,
21:09
Speaker 2: and sometimes you got to do it with your heart
21:11
Speaker 2: and your head. You know what they say, Be careful
21:13
Speaker 2: about telling truths that hurt innocent people. I've had to
21:16
Speaker 2: cover for some things that would have made me look
21:19
Speaker 2: a lot probably better, But it's gonna pull somebody underneath
21:23
Speaker 2: the bus, so I'm not going to do it.
21:26
Speaker 1: Yeah. Buck says a lot of things, justin that we
21:28
Speaker 1: sit in the green room with him, I will say
21:31
Speaker 1: that I think one of the things I remember most
21:33
Speaker 1: that he has said is, you know, hey, Carl, just
21:37
Speaker 1: because a decision is made and it works out doesn't
21:43
Speaker 1: necessarily mean it was the right decision. And just because
21:46
Speaker 1: the decision you make doesn't doesn't necessarily mean it was
21:49
Speaker 1: the wrong one. I've used that. I've used that weekly,
21:53
Speaker 1: if not daily, because I make a lot of decisions
21:56
Speaker 1: and some of them don't work, but it doesn't mean
21:58
Speaker 1: it was the wrong one. It's a great ill to
22:00
Speaker 1: sort of fall back on.
22:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's hard. You get tested. You get tested sometimes,
22:08
Speaker 2: especially when you bite your lip, and there are things
22:11
Speaker 2: you know, and you know, dealing with the media twice
22:15
Speaker 2: a day for almost two hundred straight days counting spring training.
22:18
Speaker 2: There's so many opportunities and step on your tail along
22:22
Speaker 2: the way. But if you and I tell guys all
22:23
Speaker 2: the time, I think about the weight your words carried,
22:27
Speaker 2: you know, and the reflection they're going. That was what
22:29
Speaker 2: was so great about Derek Jeter through the years, all
22:32
Speaker 2: the chances he had to deflect, you know. He never
22:36
Speaker 2: embarrassed his family, he never embarrassed organization, and he never
22:40
Speaker 2: embarrassed his teammates. And there's so many avenues that they
22:43
Speaker 2: try to lead you down because that's their job. But
22:47
Speaker 2: I dealt with the media lots, and uh, it really
22:50
Speaker 2: helped me through the years that we're all trying to
22:52
Speaker 2: survive and we're all trying to bring something that we're
22:55
Speaker 2: responsible for.
22:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think Buck, when you look at just
23:00
Speaker 3: the perspective you talked about, you know, cheering for others
23:05
Speaker 3: and being happy for others, I think we've almost created
23:09
Speaker 3: an environment in our society right now, in youth sports
23:13
Speaker 3: in general, where it's it's very driven on self and
23:17
Speaker 3: very driven on ego, and it's also very driven on
23:21
Speaker 3: you wanting your kid to be better than the next one.
23:23
Speaker 1: Right.
23:24
Speaker 3: We've seen this dissipate a little bit where. I don't
23:27
Speaker 3: know about you guys, but when I played Little League,
23:29
Speaker 3: every parent was cheering for you. It wasn't we'd want
23:33
Speaker 3: we want justin to do bad so that my kid
23:36
Speaker 3: looks better. It's become an environment where I can't say
23:39
Speaker 3: that across the board. Of course there are people that
23:42
Speaker 3: still do that, but I want to I want to
23:44
Speaker 3: touch on that a little bit, buck, because I think
23:47
Speaker 3: it's one of the missing pieces that would really bring
23:51
Speaker 3: the youth sport of baseball back a little bit closer
23:55
Speaker 3: if we if we all could see the opponent as
23:58
Speaker 3: a kid and out playing a game and you know,
24:00
Speaker 3: being happy for them when they succeed, instead of you know,
24:04
Speaker 3: maybe getting loud and cheering against them and making comments.
24:08
Speaker 3: What is your take on some of that stuff that
24:10
Speaker 3: we kind of see all too often now infiltrating the
24:15
Speaker 3: youth and high school levels of parent involvement in the
24:18
Speaker 3: stands and the fights and the shouting at the other teams.
24:22
Speaker 3: What is your take on that and what is your
24:25
Speaker 3: advice to any parent listening or watching.
24:28
Speaker 2: Well, you know, one thing you can't hide in a
24:31
Speaker 2: sport you play as often as baseball is sincerity. You know,
24:35
Speaker 2: you can't hide sincerity and is someone you know. It's
24:38
Speaker 2: like a coach. I tell them, see how much fun
24:40
Speaker 2: your team can have today, tomorrow and the impact you'll
24:44
Speaker 2: have on that. What can they not wait to get
24:47
Speaker 2: to your practice? Can they not wait to get to
24:50
Speaker 2: a game? And how is that? Because there's such a
24:52
Speaker 2: positive and some of these kids come from situations where
24:55
Speaker 2: not everything's positive at home for whatever, it should be
24:58
Speaker 2: a utopian reprieve them while they're at your field working
25:02
Speaker 2: with your team. You know. I loved working with my
25:05
Speaker 2: son's high school team. I was the groundskeeper. I painted
25:09
Speaker 2: the foul poles with my wife. I helped drag the field.
25:13
Speaker 2: I loved it, loved it. But I tried to stay
25:15
Speaker 2: away from coaching, but I did. I did delve in
25:17
Speaker 2: there a little bit. Let me tell you one little
25:19
Speaker 2: story that I had a scout come back. One time
25:21
Speaker 2: we sent him in to watch a player seventeen years old.
25:25
Speaker 2: I really high pick, supposedly, and I said, what do
25:27
Speaker 2: you got? He goes, well, we got rained out and
25:30
Speaker 2: I said, well what do you got? He said, what
25:33
Speaker 2: do you mean got rained out, no no, no, no,
25:34
Speaker 2: no no. I said, did you sit with the mom
25:36
Speaker 2: and dad? And you know, did you meet their brother
25:40
Speaker 2: and sister? Did you go to the homeroom teacher, you
25:43
Speaker 2: go to the guidance counselor what kind of truck does
25:44
Speaker 2: he drive? Did you meet his girlfriend? Does he have
25:47
Speaker 2: brown eyes? Does he have a slender waste? How long
25:51
Speaker 2: over his fingers? A bunch of little things, because statistically
25:54
Speaker 2: and all the other stuff is easy making the decisions
25:58
Speaker 2: about you know, how does he enter with his teammates?
26:01
Speaker 2: Watch how he treats his sister. I remember the first
26:04
Speaker 2: time Derek Jeter came to Yankee Stadium. We had just
26:06
Speaker 2: drafted him one hundred and eighty pounds, soaking wet, and
26:09
Speaker 2: I'm being nice. But the way that he interact with
26:12
Speaker 2: his sister, his mom and his dad, and the alert
26:16
Speaker 2: eyes he had taking in things around him without running
26:19
Speaker 2: his mouth while he was taking it in. But I
26:22
Speaker 2: love the way. And I said to myself, there's gonna
26:24
Speaker 2: be a lot of challenges for Derek, but handling New
26:27
Speaker 2: York City. He's got a strong base there and sometimes
26:32
Speaker 2: you have as a coach, you have to be that base.
26:34
Speaker 2: I dealt with a lot of players where I had
26:37
Speaker 2: to be that tough love guy. You know, I know
26:40
Speaker 2: with Mannyto it was tough.
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27:42
Speaker 1: All right, so it's quite clear that Buck enjoyed, you know,
27:46
Speaker 1: the Jeter experience, the two New York's, the Texas is,
27:51
Speaker 1: the Baltimore's all that. There's questions out here and I
27:55
Speaker 1: think this, knowing your scouting background, I think it's an
27:58
Speaker 1: interesting one because you talk about clubhouse culture and Mark
28:04
Speaker 1: as is there a clubhouse story? And this is without
28:06
Speaker 1: giving away any secrets, but is there a story that
28:09
Speaker 1: you've never really been asked to tell that captures what
28:13
Speaker 1: major League Baseball is really like? Meaning like, what can
28:17
Speaker 1: you share some of the things that people who don't
28:21
Speaker 1: cover the game and don't get a chance to get
28:23
Speaker 1: inside the clubhouse don't know.
28:27
Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's not many secrets, and like I said,
28:30
Speaker 2: you know the sincerity shows up very quickly. If you
28:33
Speaker 2: try to bs these guys, it's not going to work.
28:35
Speaker 2: So you know, every spring I would have a talent
28:38
Speaker 2: show and I wouldn't make anybody participate in it. Wasn't
28:42
Speaker 2: some rookie hazing. I hate rookie hazing. I did not
28:45
Speaker 2: allow it. Here's somebody wearing your uniform going to try
28:48
Speaker 2: to help us win. You're gonna make their path harder.
28:50
Speaker 2: That doesn't make any sense to me at all. You know,
28:53
Speaker 2: that's one of the things we did getting mel Hall
28:56
Speaker 2: away from Bernie Williams. You know, sometimes your best additions
28:59
Speaker 2: are you subtractions. I learned that too. But you know,
29:04
Speaker 2: we had we had this talent show and we we
29:06
Speaker 2: we had it in the afternoon of a night game,
29:08
Speaker 2: and we had some really interesting stuff and I think
29:13
Speaker 2: the ability to take something out of there. I gotta
29:15
Speaker 2: tell you, I remember two guys made the team because
29:17
Speaker 2: of the talent show. Ryan Flerty. I think Ryan Flaherty
29:22
Speaker 2: went out and rented these monkeys from the zoo that
29:27
Speaker 2: throw baseballs back and forth. I got fined for by
29:31
Speaker 2: the health department. The animal cruelty thing got out. We
29:35
Speaker 2: got fined. It was the best money I ever spent.
29:37
Speaker 2: But these two monkeys throwing a baseball on the stage
29:40
Speaker 2: brought the brought the out down. Then we had uh TJ. McFarlane.
29:45
Speaker 2: His impersonation of Dick Buckis was one of the all
29:49
Speaker 2: times treats. But the best one was was with the Mets.
29:53
Speaker 2: Was h Singer took the time to get to know
29:57
Speaker 2: it's a whole new world in English, and he he
30:00
Speaker 2: got one of the cooks out that gets him to
30:01
Speaker 2: sing it with him, and Max Scherzer and de Grom
30:05
Speaker 2: were the judges, and they brought the place down, stopped it,
30:08
Speaker 2: and gave him the first place the guts to get
30:11
Speaker 2: on the stage and do that in broken English. I
30:14
Speaker 2: got a hundred of those. But there's so many ways
30:20
Speaker 2: you can learn about players that you'll just open your eyes,
30:24
Speaker 2: shut your mouth and listen. I used to love to
30:27
Speaker 2: walk the field during batting practice, and I'm now you
30:30
Speaker 2: can't hardly get them to hit outside. But I used
30:33
Speaker 2: to spend a lot of time with the bullpen guys.
30:35
Speaker 2: That's where I learned about handling a bullpen and just
30:38
Speaker 2: talking to them, Hey, what bothers you? What doesn't bother you?
30:41
Speaker 2: And I think the lines of communication. Every once in
30:44
Speaker 2: a while, somebody will say something that you didn't think
30:46
Speaker 2: was very sharp. You went, wow, I didn't even think
30:48
Speaker 2: about death. That's pretty good. You got to have an
30:50
Speaker 2: open mind about it. Analytically, these guys would say, hey, yeah,
30:54
Speaker 2: bring it in there. Buck wants all that information, but
30:56
Speaker 2: he's going to ask you one question, how does it
30:58
Speaker 2: help us win tonight? Does help us win a game?
31:01
Speaker 2: Instead of you trying to cut out some niche Because
31:05
Speaker 2: analytics everybody's looking at the same numbers.
31:07
Speaker 1: Poll Yep, Yeah. You hear that a lot, now, don't you.
31:10
Speaker 1: I mean, now that is I think Craig Breslow just
31:12
Speaker 1: said it the other day. And a deal he made,
31:13
Speaker 1: He's like, everybody's looking at the same information. Ultimately shorter
31:18
Speaker 1: to your point. His point about the deal he made
31:21
Speaker 1: for meat and gave up the picture early was I'm
31:25
Speaker 1: trying to win win for our team. The numbers may
31:29
Speaker 1: not suggest this is the smartest thing, but I'm trying
31:31
Speaker 1: to make our team better. We have a need. It
31:34
Speaker 1: serves the need. Let's see where we go. The idea
31:36
Speaker 1: is is just going to help us win, you.
31:38
Speaker 2: Know, Carl, That's the point. That's one way the game change.
31:41
Speaker 2: It used to be you wanted whoever you traded with
31:45
Speaker 2: to be happy with the player they got from you.
31:48
Speaker 2: It was like, you know, you're always trying to win
31:51
Speaker 2: the trade. Ninety nine to one, you're not going to
31:54
Speaker 2: make any trades. But if you're fair in things. It's
31:57
Speaker 2: the same way with players. You know, if you're fair
32:00
Speaker 2: with them, if you lie to them, you're done. If
32:02
Speaker 2: you tell them truth and they hurts them down the road,
32:06
Speaker 2: they'll come back to you, But boy, don't don't try
32:08
Speaker 2: that other one.
32:10
Speaker 3: Yep, yeah it buck. When you look at just the
32:14
Speaker 3: grand scheme of where we're at, though, do you see
32:19
Speaker 3: in Major League Baseball specifically, do you see that flowing back?
32:23
Speaker 3: Because I know on my end, I see a little
32:25
Speaker 3: flow back now to a little bit more reasonability, the
32:29
Speaker 3: human elements of it. And what does that mean for
32:32
Speaker 3: scouting because we know how trimmed that those scouting departments
32:36
Speaker 3: have gotten now in a lot of organizations, what is
32:39
Speaker 3: your take on the ten to fifteen years from now.
32:42
Speaker 2: I still don't think. I still think there's no substitute
32:46
Speaker 2: for boots on the ground, the person that goes and
32:49
Speaker 2: talks to the homeroom teacher and talks to the teammates.
32:51
Speaker 2: And this is how you make When the numbers in
32:54
Speaker 2: the statistics and analytics match up with the human element
32:59
Speaker 2: of it, you've got a really good deal and a
33:01
Speaker 2: really good player, you know. And then if it's like this,
33:04
Speaker 2: now you got to decide. But anything that overweights in
33:08
Speaker 2: an organization that says this, this methodology will never be
33:13
Speaker 2: something we consider. You lose me at hello. Because there's
33:16
Speaker 2: exceptions to everything. Nobody's that smart and the game's played
33:20
Speaker 2: with a heartbeat by players with a heartbeat, and otherwise
33:25
Speaker 2: it'd be so boring to watch. You know, sometimes things
33:28
Speaker 2: happen and we go where did that come from? That's unexpected.
33:31
Speaker 2: That's what makes it fun. You're dealing with human beings.
33:33
Speaker 2: These are the These are the best players in the world.
33:36
Speaker 2: So that the you know, the difference between the Colorado
33:40
Speaker 2: Rockies and the Dodgers is not nearly as much as
33:43
Speaker 2: you may think it is because the psyche, the psyche
33:46
Speaker 2: really plays on you, and if you can get a
33:49
Speaker 2: strong mentality, things can change.
33:52
Speaker 1: So for parents at home, For parents at home, Buck,
33:57
Speaker 1: you've you've alluded to this a couple of times. You know,
34:00
Speaker 1: it's raining. What did you observe about his behavior? Would
34:03
Speaker 1: you observe about the car he was driving the home room.
34:06
Speaker 1: I don't want to think that there's sort of a
34:08
Speaker 1: top ten list for Buck as far as characteristics or traits.
34:12
Speaker 1: The question that I'm getting at for parents out there, Buck,
34:17
Speaker 1: can you train your kid to have these qualities? Are
34:22
Speaker 1: they born with these qualities? Can they develop whatever? These
34:26
Speaker 1: qualities that clearly appeal to you are.
34:31
Speaker 2: I would be careful of these coaches that rent by
34:35
Speaker 2: the hour. Okay, you know there's some really good ones too.
34:40
Speaker 2: It's just for the most part, you know, you be
34:43
Speaker 2: that coach, you be that parent. You know, the biggest
34:47
Speaker 2: thing you can teach them is how they treat other
34:51
Speaker 2: people and how everything comes back. You know, the skills
34:54
Speaker 2: are going to be the skills. You know, if baseball
34:57
Speaker 2: is a game of repetition and athletics. I think one
35:00
Speaker 2: of the reason why I was pretty good in a
35:02
Speaker 2: lot of sports is that I didn't play them all
35:04
Speaker 2: the time. Does that make any sense. I never got
35:06
Speaker 2: burnt out on baseball. I never got burnt out on football,
35:10
Speaker 2: or basketball or golf. I loved you know, the differences
35:13
Speaker 2: in all the games, and you know, the competition. There's
35:18
Speaker 2: nobody more competitive than me. But you also had to
35:22
Speaker 2: learn that things didn't always work out the way you
35:24
Speaker 2: warned them to. Uh. It was painful, but yeah, you
35:28
Speaker 2: can train. You know, there's a certain way to do it.
35:31
Speaker 2: Please make it fun for them. Your child only one time.
35:35
Speaker 2: You're you're a child one time. Make sure they look
35:38
Speaker 2: back on their childhood and their upbringing. I harp with
35:41
Speaker 2: my two kids about this. You know, I've got four
35:44
Speaker 2: grandsons and believe me. I treat them a lot different
35:47
Speaker 2: than I treated my kids. I let them buy with everything.
35:53
Speaker 3: Louck, I want to I want to ask you a
35:55
Speaker 3: little bit about that you're managing days here with you.
35:59
Speaker 3: I mean you have the I mean you had you
36:01
Speaker 3: you had some unbelievable players that you managed in your career.
36:05
Speaker 3: We'll just put it that way, some Hall of famers,
36:08
Speaker 3: some unbelievable talents. Not just the talent side of it,
36:13
Speaker 3: but how was it managing them and in sort of
36:18
Speaker 3: the profiles that they bring versus maybe the guy that's
36:23
Speaker 3: only going to be up for three months and you
36:25
Speaker 3: know he's not going to stick. How did you handle
36:27
Speaker 3: that as you as you worked your way through as
36:31
Speaker 3: a manager. And what would your advice be to some
36:33
Speaker 3: coaches out there on how to handle, you know, the
36:36
Speaker 3: star player versus the other players. And did you want
36:39
Speaker 3: to have individual sort of approaches or did you still
36:43
Speaker 3: keep a team approach. I'd love your take on that.
36:46
Speaker 3: For from all of your years and all the players
36:48
Speaker 3: that I mean you managed, well, you know you.
36:52
Speaker 2: Don't treat them all the same. You treat them all fairly.
36:55
Speaker 2: You know what's fair for don maddingly may not be
36:58
Speaker 2: fair for a twenty year old Bernie Williams. You know,
37:01
Speaker 2: I had Dion Sanders in the big leagues. In the
37:04
Speaker 2: minor leagues, I had him. You know, I had Machado
37:08
Speaker 2: and you know Randy Johnson and Kurk Shilling, and I mean,
37:11
Speaker 2: there's some great players that grace my path. But you know,
37:17
Speaker 2: I think it's the peripheral guys. I call them the
37:19
Speaker 2: what if players that separate you and you never know
37:22
Speaker 2: when you're gonna need them, And all of a sudden,
37:25
Speaker 2: you know that guy you were accounting on is not
37:27
Speaker 2: going to be there for a hundred games, and what
37:29
Speaker 2: are you going to do? Because the league doesn't stop
37:31
Speaker 2: and wait for you to catch up. So the way
37:34
Speaker 2: you treat people, that golden rule works really good because
37:37
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, you need that guy. So uh,
37:42
Speaker 2: I spent a lot of you know, communication doesn't mean
37:44
Speaker 2: you speak to them every five minutes. It means you
37:47
Speaker 2: tell them what they need to hear. You know. I
37:50
Speaker 2: remember my coach in college. He went for a week
37:52
Speaker 2: and a half didn't say a word to me. And
37:56
Speaker 2: I'll tell I'll tell y'all, I was leading the nation
37:58
Speaker 2: and hitting and finally one day I said coach polkas
38:01
Speaker 2: everything all right? Did I do something wrong? Goes? You
38:04
Speaker 2: need me to kiss your ear all the time, you know,
38:06
Speaker 2: I'll let you know when you're not doing something right.
38:08
Speaker 2: You're you're you're holding your own pre fine, So everything's good.
38:11
Speaker 2: Some guys need that and some guys don't need that,
38:15
Speaker 2: you know, and understanding everybody's psyche's a little different. There
38:19
Speaker 2: what their needs are because you're there to serve their needs. Okay,
38:23
Speaker 2: what Manny Machado needs may not be what JJ Hardy needs.
38:27
Speaker 2: You know, everybody's different, Thank god they are. If they
38:30
Speaker 2: were all the same, we wouldn't have a job. But yeah,
38:34
Speaker 2: you know, I just you know. Instead of I had
38:36
Speaker 2: one sign up in our clubhouse. All it said was
38:39
Speaker 2: play better. I didn't want to hear about the new
38:42
Speaker 2: Rockneys saying is the Beens, Lombardi and all that stuff.
38:44
Speaker 2: It never made a player better. They're usually in the
38:47
Speaker 2: weight room. I had one two words that said play better.
38:51
Speaker 2: Now the fans don't want to hear it. Nobody want.
38:53
Speaker 2: You know, whatever's fair or not fair, it doesn't matter.
38:55
Speaker 2: Figure out how to play better.
38:57
Speaker 1: That's all. Try harder, try harder, play better. Two words
39:02
Speaker 1: here we go buck. This is this is sort of
39:03
Speaker 1: in your wheelhouse. It's sort of roster creativity. The question is,
39:11
Speaker 1: should MLB let teams make four starting pitchers inactive each
39:17
Speaker 1: game so they can carry thirteen active pitchers? Would it
39:21
Speaker 1: protect arms or just create more pitching changes. You know,
39:25
Speaker 1: that's a very specific question. If you have an answer
39:28
Speaker 1: about managing or the way you would like to see
39:32
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball use arms, feel free to go that
39:35
Speaker 1: direction too. But the question has to do with.
39:38
Speaker 2: You know, we got to understand we started out with
39:40
Speaker 2: nine or ten guys you broke camp with, and then
39:43
Speaker 2: it became eleven, Then it became twelve. Now it's thirteen.
39:46
Speaker 2: And every day you pick up the transition transactions and
39:49
Speaker 2: pitchers are moving. You have to have an optionable book. Then.
39:52
Speaker 2: I actually think that if they would decrease the number
39:55
Speaker 2: of pitchers you could carry, they would stay healthier and
39:58
Speaker 2: you would start looking for a different type of picture
40:01
Speaker 2: down there. You remember the thing they called a longer lever.
40:04
Speaker 2: Every good club I had had a great longer lever
40:06
Speaker 2: on it. I remember I had Dave McFarland great longer
40:10
Speaker 2: lever its spots starter. But you know, it was very
40:12
Speaker 2: important to keep the togetherness of your team. We're getting
40:16
Speaker 2: ready to have the Chris Davis is going in the
40:17
Speaker 2: Ooral Hall of Fame here in Maryland, and just about
40:20
Speaker 2: the whole bullpen is going to be there. That stayed
40:22
Speaker 2: intact for like five or six years, and it wasn't
40:26
Speaker 2: something I did necessarily. It was just each guy had
40:29
Speaker 2: something they brought. But I worry about the constant. I
40:33
Speaker 2: actually think that's a pretty good idea if the way
40:35
Speaker 2: I understand it is that you basically this keeps the
40:39
Speaker 2: movement back and forth at Triple A. You want the
40:42
Speaker 2: tough job, guys go managing Triple AVERY. I think that's
40:45
Speaker 2: the toughest job in baseball now, is managing the Triple A,
40:48
Speaker 2: because you know, twenty minutes for the game, they go, hey,
40:50
Speaker 2: you can't start your starter. We may need even more,
40:53
Speaker 2: you know, and the number of pictures they're carrying. But
40:56
Speaker 2: I do I like the idea. We tried to go
40:58
Speaker 2: with four starters in Arizona, but we couldn't make a
41:01
Speaker 2: trade and we couldn't sign a free agent, and we
41:03
Speaker 2: were going to do that with all our minor league guys.
41:05
Speaker 2: But sometimes I think if we decreased the number of
41:08
Speaker 2: pitchers were allowed to carry that, you know, they might
41:10
Speaker 2: stay healthier.
41:12
Speaker 3: Interesting. Yeah, let's get to let's get to Ryan's question here,
41:16
Speaker 3: because this one's really about Ravvy. So Ryan said, thanks
41:20
Speaker 3: for a question, Ryan, but he says, all right, Buck
41:22
Speaker 3: Ravey told the story about how you saved his life.
41:24
Speaker 3: In all the years you've known Ravi, what's the best
41:27
Speaker 3: story you can share with us?
41:29
Speaker 2: Oh? Please, you understand. We did the College World Series together,
41:33
Speaker 2: a great event, had a lot of fun. You know,
41:36
Speaker 2: you do really think you think you know somebody until
41:38
Speaker 2: you're with them at one thirty in the morning doing
41:41
Speaker 2: the last Sports Center Baseball Tonight or a Sunday Baseball
41:46
Speaker 2: Today's Show. There were some late nights when the closer
41:49
Speaker 2: we had these we had these nine camera monitors over here,
41:53
Speaker 2: and John the Great John Cruck robb NN had blown
41:57
Speaker 2: about force saves in row.
41:58
Speaker 1: So now always good.
42:00
Speaker 2: We got to get this last out in the can
42:03
Speaker 2: and we all get to go home and drive through
42:05
Speaker 2: Taco Bell. Okay, the only thing open in Bristol Becker
42:09
Speaker 2: And believe me, John Kruck liked this Taco Bell about
42:14
Speaker 2: that time, Carl says, and we're almost done in San Francisco,
42:17
Speaker 2: and you hear Rabbits go, I mean, cruck go geeve
42:21
Speaker 2: you this pright like you said a few other things
42:23
Speaker 2: on my TV.
42:24
Speaker 1: And Carl, without missing.
42:26
Speaker 2: The beat, goes and evidently rodding In has blown another save.
42:34
Speaker 2: I had, Carl, you remember the night I took Harrol
42:37
Speaker 2: out on the stage.
42:40
Speaker 1: I was gonna bring that up. Tell Jos, tell everybody,
42:42
Speaker 1: that's it. It's one of the great stories of all time.
42:44
Speaker 1: We're in a studio. I'll just set up the studio.
42:47
Speaker 1: The studio has got it's not a hard word floor,
42:50
Speaker 1: but it's a hard floor. There's no grass. The MLB
42:54
Speaker 1: network now has these really cool fields that you can
42:57
Speaker 1: demonstrate stuff on. We did not. We had a fairly
43:00
Speaker 1: large studio. We made up a field. We had bases
43:04
Speaker 1: on the field, but it was a very like like
43:09
Speaker 1: that's what the floor was like. Go ahead, tell this story.
43:11
Speaker 1: This is all fast there.
43:13
Speaker 2: There was a Rivet there too, so I told I
43:16
Speaker 2: told him. We were talking about turning double plays back
43:18
Speaker 2: when you could really chase a guy and hit him
43:20
Speaker 2: anyway you want to. Obviously, Harrold's a second baseman, so
43:24
Speaker 2: we're going to demonstrate coming into secrebase. Now, how Harold
43:28
Speaker 2: keeps from getting hit. So I told the camera Cross says,
43:31
Speaker 2: when we got one shot at this and I'm gonna
43:33
Speaker 2: knock him on his rear. They went, what Carl, Carl?
43:35
Speaker 2: You know, Carl goes go for it. So we got
43:38
Speaker 2: this old burr lap sack there and Carl feeds feeds
43:42
Speaker 2: a Harold ball. I said, hang him out just a
43:45
Speaker 2: little bit, Carl, hang him out just a little in
43:48
Speaker 2: other words, for him a little bit of a change
43:49
Speaker 2: up where you don't get it to him too quick.
43:51
Speaker 2: So I come running down there in a two piece suit, okay,
43:55
Speaker 2: tie and everything, and I get him. I get him
43:58
Speaker 2: just and I said, my hands down the side on
44:02
Speaker 2: the river. And you know, you know that's that. We
44:06
Speaker 2: won an Emmy that year for the show. And that's
44:09
Speaker 2: the clip they sent in.
44:11
Speaker 1: I think it's right over my shoulder right now.
44:16
Speaker 3: That's how you got.
44:19
Speaker 1: He took He literally took him out ass over tea
44:22
Speaker 1: kettle in the middle of a in the middle of
44:25
Speaker 1: a live show. He wiped out Harold, and Harold's like,
44:28
Speaker 1: what you what are you doing?
44:30
Speaker 2: He still has to forgiven me.
44:32
Speaker 1: Still talked about all the time, Yeah, talked about all
44:36
Speaker 1: the time. Here's just a here's just a thought book.
44:38
Speaker 1: This is a good one that comes in from one
44:41
Speaker 1: of your fans who doesn't really have a question, but
44:44
Speaker 1: it never hurts because I do think I think everybody
44:47
Speaker 1: needs and likes positive affirmation in any event. They say, hey, look,
44:51
Speaker 1: we we just want to tell Buck how much we
44:53
Speaker 1: miss him in Baltimore. We appreciate everything you did for us,
44:56
Speaker 1: uh and the city he brought winning an exciting baseball
44:59
Speaker 1: back after some tough So Buffett, thank you very much
45:03
Speaker 1: for sending that it into Buck.
45:05
Speaker 2: Buck.
45:05
Speaker 1: We on this program, we're a bud set to kind
45:07
Speaker 1: of start to wrap it up. We do what's called
45:11
Speaker 1: the kitchen sink. So these questions don't necessarily have to
45:14
Speaker 1: do with baseball. They're kind of quick hitters just to
45:16
Speaker 1: get your thoughts.
45:18
Speaker 2: Uh.
45:18
Speaker 1: So I'll start this four of them, and the first,
45:21
Speaker 1: the first question that comes on the kitchen sink, sort
45:25
Speaker 1: of out of nowhere, is what's your best George Steinbrener story.
45:30
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, you know, I this is one. It's nothing.
45:37
Speaker 2: You just had to be there. I had a great coach,
45:38
Speaker 2: Brian Butterfield, I took with me to to Arizona. Is
45:43
Speaker 2: one of the guys of Miss Steimber and one of fire.
45:44
Speaker 2: Years later, my first year managing, it's seven thirty in
45:48
Speaker 2: the morning, we're going over the schedule. Steinbrenner walks in,
45:52
Speaker 2: turns to Brian Butterfield and goes you out. And Cliet
45:56
Speaker 2: Boyer and Frank Howard are in there. And he didn't
45:59
Speaker 2: ask them to leieve. He told the rookie coach, Mike,
46:02
Speaker 2: one of my best friends, you leave. So Frank hiring them,
46:06
Speaker 2: go in there and they take down Butter's uh name
46:10
Speaker 2: tag and put uh you e we like the lamb
46:16
Speaker 2: and the rest of the spring they called him coach
46:18
Speaker 2: you and finally I've been her asking him one time,
46:22
Speaker 2: he goes, I thought his name was Butterfield. What do
46:24
Speaker 2: you got? You guys keep calling him you and and
46:27
Speaker 2: they and you know, Frank, he wasn't afraid anything. Well,
46:29
Speaker 2: mister Stunbentner, Uh you know, you called him you and
46:32
Speaker 2: we thought maybe we had his wrong name. I got
46:37
Speaker 2: plenty he called. He called me in that one night,
46:40
Speaker 2: I'll stop right there though he was. But you had
46:42
Speaker 2: got to know the job description. If you didn't know
46:45
Speaker 2: what was coming, then you you hadn't been watching.
46:47
Speaker 3: Him right that's awesome, man, that's awesome. All right, let's
46:50
Speaker 3: get to the next one.
46:51
Speaker 5: Here.
46:51
Speaker 3: Is there a proper way to cut the outfield grass?
46:55
Speaker 2: I don't like the crisscross. Anybody that says the ball
46:58
Speaker 2: doesn't snake when it's coming to you hasn't played in
47:02
Speaker 2: the outfield. All these beautiful designs you see where the socks,
47:06
Speaker 2: the sock is cut in Fenway Park. Outfielder's nightmare. They
47:10
Speaker 2: hate it. That's another change I'd make. I'd make all
47:13
Speaker 2: you know, all these groundskeeper that do all these fancy cuts,
47:17
Speaker 2: it's a nightmare for outfielders. I love that.
47:20
Speaker 1: I knew that that's a good hot take. I knew
47:23
Speaker 1: the alfield grass would get that. Bock's one of the
47:25
Speaker 1: all time great field maintenance guys. If you ever, honest
47:28
Speaker 1: to God, if you ever needed somebody to take care
47:30
Speaker 1: of your field, that's the guy right there that I
47:33
Speaker 1: would hire. He is absolutely the best.
47:36
Speaker 2: Carl. I got to tell you one on myself opening
47:38
Speaker 2: day Arizona. If you'll notice the game started eight minutes late,
47:42
Speaker 2: Jim Quicks behind the plate, first game in diamondback history.
47:46
Speaker 2: I'd ask Mark Connor Pitchick goes do anything I can
47:48
Speaker 2: do to help the pitchers here, and he goes, yeah,
47:51
Speaker 2: even get them to stand in the batter's box. They go,
47:54
Speaker 2: what do you mean? You know? The first thing guys
47:55
Speaker 2: doing they get up there is they start digging the
47:57
Speaker 2: chalk away and they end up getting about three inches
48:00
Speaker 2: deeper in the box. Well, three inches is a lot
48:03
Speaker 2: for a fastball, so I thought, and I thought I
48:06
Speaker 2: had two years. I took a two by four the
48:09
Speaker 2: width of the back of the batter's box, and I
48:11
Speaker 2: buried it like half an inch below the back of
48:13
Speaker 2: the dirt line. So, in other words, when Hard Bernard
48:17
Speaker 2: with the San Francisco Giants is digging out the dirt,
48:20
Speaker 2: he keeps digging, he keeps coming up white, white, white white,
48:24
Speaker 2: because I got a Jim quick looks over. He looks
48:30
Speaker 2: over and Bernard's fikes start hitting wood, and he calls
48:34
Speaker 2: me out, and I go, I made a mistake, Carl,
48:36
Speaker 2: staying with Jim. We're just trying to help you enforce
48:38
Speaker 2: the rules.
48:40
Speaker 1: I never I never heard that story. That that's a
48:43
Speaker 1: great one.
48:45
Speaker 2: So we had we had to get Grant Trimbeth out
48:49
Speaker 2: and dig up the back of the battery.
48:50
Speaker 1: That is amazing. I never heard that all buck. Here's
48:55
Speaker 1: the next one, kitchen and sink. Do the do the
48:58
Speaker 1: many donkeys you have at the farm, do they have names?
49:02
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, well we used to have Teddy, Teddy and
49:05
Speaker 2: uh and days you were at the other farm, and
49:08
Speaker 2: then we moved them. Uh now they're both. I don't know.
49:15
Speaker 2: We like them. My wife likes them. I swear that
49:17
Speaker 2: when I'm gone, she lets them in the house and
49:20
Speaker 2: they sit in the easty chairs, just like any other animals.
49:25
Speaker 2: Got a Carl, It makes her happy. Okay, I answered, Finn,
49:36
Speaker 2: Finn and Oliver.
49:39
Speaker 1: Right, so not baseball names Finn and Oliver.
49:41
Speaker 2: No, you know, you know she she kisses that donkey.
49:45
Speaker 2: Morton kisses me. There's two jackasses she kisses every day.
49:53
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
49:54
Speaker 3: Let's get to the next one. Last one here, then
49:56
Speaker 3: we're gonna get to your m v P. But favorite
49:58
Speaker 3: analysts to work with on ESPN.
50:02
Speaker 1: Favorite analyst?
50:03
Speaker 2: Who was?
50:04
Speaker 1: Who is your favorite?
50:06
Speaker 2: You know you realize how one thing about Let me
50:08
Speaker 2: tell you one last one on Carl, if you weren't
50:11
Speaker 2: prepared and you weren't good at what you did, Carl
50:14
Speaker 2: had so much pride in that show. And if you
50:17
Speaker 2: just showed up and I won't name a Hall of
50:20
Speaker 2: Famer that would just show up like the world in
50:24
Speaker 2: ESPN owed him a job. Carl would bury you on
50:29
Speaker 2: the air in his own way. Like you would say
50:31
Speaker 2: something passing, Carl would stop the show and go explain,
50:34
Speaker 2: Explain what you meant by saying that, uh uh we
50:38
Speaker 2: Carl took so much pride in the show that if
50:41
Speaker 2: there was an analyst that wasn't bringing it. And I'm
50:44
Speaker 2: not talking about intelligence or baseball now, I'm just talking
50:47
Speaker 2: about it didn't work at his job. You were not
50:50
Speaker 2: gonna like the end of the show. I'm but I
50:57
Speaker 2: had the great Tim Kirchen, you know, the great uh
51:00
Speaker 2: you know Buffer only of course John Crook Carl together
51:05
Speaker 2: combination that was myst Every once while I catch myself
51:08
Speaker 2: on the ear just watching and listening to them, and
51:10
Speaker 2: they go, Buck, are you going to bring anything? I said, No,
51:12
Speaker 2: I'm listening to these two guys.
51:14
Speaker 5: They were great.
51:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had we had an amazing team that it
51:19
Speaker 1: was a great, great show.
51:20
Speaker 2: Let me tell you. Carl One on Chris Berman, first
51:24
Speaker 2: hit I did on Sports Center, he goes, here's the deal,
51:27
Speaker 2: I'm gonna talk. I got some things to get out
51:29
Speaker 2: when I run out of breath, you talk, That's it.
51:34
Speaker 2: I kept waiting until he ran out of breath and
51:36
Speaker 2: finally went, Okay, Buck, what do you think.
51:42
Speaker 1: The other the other great Boom the other great Berman story? Buck?
51:45
Speaker 1: I know you know this one, but this involves Krucky.
51:48
Speaker 1: So it's a It's Kyle Losh is on the mound,
51:51
Speaker 1: and Kyle Losh has a pretty good game, must have
51:53
Speaker 1: gone six innings or whatever. And you know, usually the
51:56
Speaker 1: host asks the question of the analyst. In this case,
52:00
Speaker 1: Boomer or Berman would say to Buck, when I'm done
52:02
Speaker 1: talking Utah. In this instant, kruck is sitting next to him,
52:06
Speaker 1: and kruck has really not experienced the Chris Berman experience
52:10
Speaker 1: very often. So Kyle Losch gives him, let's say, six
52:14
Speaker 1: and two thirds of one run ball, two hits, seven k's,
52:18
Speaker 1: and Boomer looks at looks at looks at Krucky and says, Krucky,
52:24
Speaker 1: Kyle Losh, we knew, but we didn't know. And Cruck's like,
52:32
Speaker 1: what do I do with that? What does that mean?
52:36
Speaker 1: And he looked at him and he said, what is that?
52:40
Speaker 1: We knew, but we didn't know. It's like his own language,
52:44
Speaker 1: and kruck was the other great Crux story too. For
52:48
Speaker 1: some reason, we decided to eliminate people and we got
52:51
Speaker 1: these cameras that were robotic, and Kruck and I are
52:54
Speaker 1: doing a show at a studio and the robotic camera
52:58
Speaker 1: continues to move in on Cruck like this, and he
53:01
Speaker 1: keeps going and it ends up banging into the set.
53:04
Speaker 1: There's nobody controlling it, like the robotics have gone haywire,
53:08
Speaker 1: and Cruck thought he was being attacked by a camera.
53:12
Speaker 1: We can tell stories about the set.
53:15
Speaker 2: Let me get one more, so John Cruck. Most people
53:19
Speaker 2: put a dude not disturbed sign. We all stayed. He
53:21
Speaker 2: had a sign made up and said marinating, don't disturb marinating.
53:27
Speaker 2: So we're there. When we used to do this show
53:29
Speaker 2: called Baseball Today, and you understand, you're just shots the
53:33
Speaker 2: half hour show from the waist up. Well, the great
53:36
Speaker 2: Peter Gammons would come in and khaki shorts and flip flops. Well,
53:41
Speaker 2: I didn't know he was or whatever. And you know,
53:43
Speaker 2: like most men, you know, one of the most unattractive
53:46
Speaker 2: features of their self is might be their feet. So
53:50
Speaker 2: I'm sitting there, I wouldn't think anything. All of a sudden,
53:52
Speaker 2: Cruck leans over and goes, what do you got on
53:54
Speaker 2: Peter's feet and his toes? You think he trimmed his
53:57
Speaker 2: nails today? And all I did, Carl's talking getting ready
54:00
Speaker 2: to come to me. I look down and I went,
54:02
Speaker 2: oh my god, Carl goes, Buck, what do you mean
54:09
Speaker 2: are you impressed by something?
54:11
Speaker 1: I go, yes, I am, Hey, that is amazing. Before
54:17
Speaker 1: before we get to the m VP, just a reminder,
54:20
Speaker 1: of course, trade deadline is coming up here in a
54:23
Speaker 1: short order, and foul Territory is all over the trade deadline.
54:34
Speaker 1: It's always a hope with this guy.
54:36
Speaker 2: It's always a hope. Oh we hope he stays healthy.
54:38
Speaker 5: Oh we hope he's good.
54:42
Speaker 4: Jayson Miller to the San Diego Padres.
54:46
Speaker 1: Trade.
54:47
Speaker 2: Let's get to Shane Bieber. He is a Toronto bou jay.
54:50
Speaker 4: Let's at the inside scoop at EPSI senior insider Ken Rosendaalf.
54:53
Speaker 4: The Astros have got Carlos Korea back to Houston.
54:56
Speaker 1: Just like I said, Carewler said, you ain't in the
54:59
Speaker 1: big leagues.
55:00
Speaker 2: You know I got a big one.
55:06
Speaker 1: Under a minute a minute Boweld Territory Trade deadline special.
55:13
Speaker 1: All right, Buck, before we uh, before we say thank
55:16
Speaker 1: you and goodbye to you, justin t up the most
55:19
Speaker 1: important question.
55:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, so Buck, we ask everybody on our show man,
55:23
Speaker 3: uh who is your MVP? The most valuable person in
55:26
Speaker 3: your life growing up? You know, all the years you
55:30
Speaker 3: had mentioned some of the people around you. You mentioned
55:32
Speaker 3: your dad earlier. But who is it for you that
55:34
Speaker 3: you would you would make your m VP.
55:37
Speaker 2: Oh it was my mom and dad as a unit.
55:39
Speaker 2: It really was because they they had to make the
55:43
Speaker 2: tough calls along the way. And uh more I've gotten
55:46
Speaker 2: away from I had my own kids and grands children.
55:49
Speaker 2: I'm very lucky, and that doesn't mean that you can't
55:51
Speaker 2: be a good human being without that strong two parent unit.
55:56
Speaker 2: But I was so lucky looking back on and a
55:59
Speaker 2: lot of the things that people were challenged with, I
56:03
Speaker 2: didn't have that challenge because my parents had the guts
56:05
Speaker 2: to lead me down the right path about human beings
56:08
Speaker 2: and our fellow man. And to this day it served
56:11
Speaker 2: me well.
56:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, awesome, good hey, Box. So as we say goodbye here,
56:16
Speaker 1: we want to thank you you. You absolutely were the
56:19
Speaker 1: perfect guest for this program. You educated people, You entertain people.
56:24
Speaker 1: How would how would you describe the the concept of
56:28
Speaker 1: the parent dugout and trying just to make sure that
56:30
Speaker 1: what people are learning. There's just so many different ways
56:33
Speaker 1: to skin a cat.
56:35
Speaker 2: Well, Carl, I really come in y'all for this this angle.
56:38
Speaker 2: I it's so hard being a parent. It's so hard
56:41
Speaker 2: being a kid, you know, and just being there more
56:43
Speaker 2: than anything else. When I look back and I hear
56:45
Speaker 2: my parents said, you know, my parents were there. That
56:48
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that you have to be so involved in
56:51
Speaker 2: every little aspect of their life and just being there
56:54
Speaker 2: and make it fun, you know, as a coach, as
56:59
Speaker 2: a parent. You know, I always ask my grandsons when
57:02
Speaker 2: they get in je fun today, what was the most
57:04
Speaker 2: fun you had? Life's too short, man, And if you
57:08
Speaker 2: do the percentage are going to play in college or
57:10
Speaker 2: professional sports, it's a pretty low percentage. So get on
57:13
Speaker 2: with learning the game of life.
57:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, beautiful, Thanks you, Buck, Thank you very much. We
57:19
Speaker 1: really really are grateful. You killed it. You were great.
57:21
Speaker 1: Thanks man.
57:22
Speaker 2: Good to see you, God blessing, thanks for having me.
57:24
Speaker 1: Thank you