Latest / Rosters to Rings Podcast / Communication and Championship Culture with Michael Young

Transcript

Communication and Championship Culture with Michael Young · Rosters to Rings Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Rosters to Rings. I'm Thad Levigne and I'm
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: bringing alongside me John Daniels as our guest host for
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the next few shows. We've got an awesome show lined up.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: We've got Michael Young joining us in the second segment
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to talk about his career and championship ideals throughout his
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: time playing baseball. But I want to give a quick
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: introduction about John Daniels for those who don't know. He
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: was hired in two thousand and five to be the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: general manager of the Texas Rangers, a role he served
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: for seventeen years, which is an exceptionally rarefied air in
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: terms of a tenure. He took the team to two
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: World Series in twenty ten and twenty eleven, and had
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a run of six playoff appearances in seven seasons. He
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: was also the architect of the twenty twenty three championship
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Texas Rangers incredible. A lot is made of JD being
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the youngest general manager ever hired, which I think overshadows
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the fact that in twenty twelve, Yahoo listed him as
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the fourteenth most handsome general manager. Doesn't get nearly as
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: much airtime as it should. In addition to that, I
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: just want to say that in life, you can't always
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: pick your bosses, but if I forever was going to again,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: it would be JD. He's exceptionally creative, intelligent, inclusive, and
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: really funny and motivates the heck out of the people
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: who works were an awesome friend. I thank him so
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: much for joining the show. JD welcome on board as
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: our co host for the next couple of shows of
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Rosters to Rings.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Thatt is thank you man over the top introduction. I
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: appreciate it. I think Chris Young and a few others
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: had had a bit of a hand to do with
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: the twenty three team, But no, thank you, mam. I
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: what do they say in sports talk radio longtime listener,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: first time callers. I'm a longtime listener and fan of
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: the show since since you've launched, and honored to be
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: a guest host and excited to talk to Michael and
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: chat a little bit.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Well.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Great. One of our traditions on Rosters to Rings is
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: we ask people kind of their sports origin story. It's
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: the it's the tie that binds all of us together.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: So sure with the listeners like how did you become
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: a passionate sports fan and walk us through how you
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: got your first job in the game.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: So I grew up in New York. I grew up
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: in Queens, went to high school and in Manhattan, had
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: a little over an hour commute, and I would always listen.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I had my good old Sony Walkman. I would always
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: listen to w FA N Mike and the mad Dog.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Huge sports fan, Mets, Giants, Knicks, Rangers primarily there in
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: the city mid eighties. It was a fun time, especially,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: you know, Mets and and Giants won won championships, and
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: a lot of young, exciting players. My mom was a
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: big baseball fan, big Mets fan, so she would actually
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: was the one that would take me to games and
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: and do that. And then I became a huge fantasy
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: sports fan, Baseball primarily, then all in basketball as well.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: And I was always as interested. Some people might might
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: say this a little dorky. I don't know, you'll have
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: to tell me, but I was always just as interested
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: in like the transactions and and how rosters were built,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: and as I was you know, the game. I learned
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: pretty early on. I wasn't gonna play at any sort
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: of advanced level despite my obvious physical prowess, and so,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: but I just I just followed it passionately.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: And then.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: My my friend group was similar love the game. I
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: loved sports. In college, I had a one roommate that
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: we talked very regularly about pursuing jobs in sports. We
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: talked a lot about the NFL with the salary cap.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: We thought that might be a path. I didn't think
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: baseball was really an option there was, you know, I
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: wasn't aware of this before theo Epstein and and you know,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: I guess Dave Dombrowski, Brian Cashman, we're just kind of
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: starting to come of age. But I wasn't really aware
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: of their store. This friend was, however, was convinced he
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: could get into the game, and so he ended up
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: getting an internship with the Philadelphia Phillies and then later
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: with Major League Baseball. And I went to work for
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: outside of Baseball and for the parent company of Duncan
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Donuts in Boston, and this friend called me regularly and
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: told me about his job and asked for help. And
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: so one day he said, Hey, why don't you come
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: with me to the winter meetings. I said, all right,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: So I took a couple of vacation days and I
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: went out with him to Anaheims in nineteen ninety nine,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: stayed with him and met, you know, at two in
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: the morning having I'm sure these other guys don't remember this,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: but we're having drinks with like Peter Gammons and Bruce
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Bochie and George Brett in the Anaheim Marriott Lobby. Thought
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: that I thought that was like totally normal at this point.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: And a year later, I was fortunate enough to interview
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: for a couple of internships. One with the Boston Red Sox.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Ben Sherrington interviewed me, I totally really, you know, wet
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: the bed on this interview. I choked, was very nervous,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: and the internship ended up going to somebody you might
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: know as Jed Hoyer. So Jed beat me out for
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: that job. But I got the other interview. I interviewed
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: with the Colorado Rockies and Josh Burns ended up hiring me,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: and I got to know several very notable folks in
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: the game there, including yourself, who you know that really
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: helped train me and developed me. But I skipped the
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: other part where my college roommate, the guy that got
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: me into this game was was a j preller and
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: so you know, the odds of two major league gms
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: that didn't play rooming together in college and pursue the
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: odds got to be pretty pretty small. But yeah, it was.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: It was a lot of fun getting in a lot
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: of fun working with all you guys.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: So you know, little funny stories. When I left Colorado
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: to join you in Texas, somebody cleaned out my desk
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: and they sent me a note that was from a
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Perspective intern who was looking for a job, who apparently
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: I never replied to. His name was Andrew Friedman. So
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: it's incredible how all of our stories are linked, as
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: we all started our careers as interns at some point.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: And for the listeners, Bench Arrington's now the GM of
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jed Hoyer's now the GM of the
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Chicago Cubs, and these are all people that were so
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: involved in obviously aj prellers with the San Diego Padres.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: They all touched your life. I'd like you to take
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the listener inside your recollection of October fourth, two thousand
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and five, the day that you were named general manager
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: of the Texas Rangers.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So at the end of the five season, as
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: we would every year, John Hart was the general manager
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: was my boss. I was with the Rangers for four
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: years at this point, and a pretty insane rise, like
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: just a career path at a pace of getting involved
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: and inclusion and decisions that is just very very rare.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: And a lot of it was because John took a
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: liking to me, trusted me, and gave me a lot
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: of opportunity really before I deserved it. But you know,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: hopefully I didn't screw it up too bad, and he
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: kept giving me more and and and so at the
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: end of the season, what John would have me do
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: is prepare a little synopsis of the year and then
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: a synopsis of kind of some of the major decisions
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: we had coming up that off season, and we would
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: go to the owner's office. And Tom Hicks owned the club,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: and he was in Dallas, and it was it was
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Tom Hicks and his son, Tom Junior, John hart Buck
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Showalter was a manager, Oral Herscheizer was the pitching coach,
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: was very involved. He was there, and then Dom Cheaty
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: and Tom kind of oversaw scouting development. John had me
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: kind of overseeing the operation side, you know, agents, transactions,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: et cetera. And and so we would walk through the
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: end of season meeting and and what decisions we had
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: to make, and it felt like John was deferring to
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: me more than he typically would, but I didn't think
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: anything of it. And so afterwards, I was going to
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: go back to the office and John just kind of
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: shook my hand and just almost over the top. It
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: was like a great job today, Jady, great job. I
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: was like, all right, And I didn't think I did
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: anything special, but okay, And so go back to the
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: office and I have an email when I get to
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: the office and it's from Tom Hicks and the email says, JD,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: call me when you get this. So I called John first,
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: you know, my boss, and was very unusual. No one
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: would had just was with him. And I said John, hey,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: I just got this email from Tom. And he goes, JD.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: I just resigned. I recommended to Tom that he hire
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: you as the next GM. I've got to go talk
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: to Sandy. Good luck. I'll talk to you soon. I'm like,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: what just happened. Sandy is John's wife, and so, you know,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: I'm scrambling and I start to put together all this
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: information and printing out you know, rosters and budgets and payrolls,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: and I'm going to an interview for the GM job,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: and then I kind of as I'm thinking about, I'm like,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: you know what, Tom is not a guy that wants
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: to sit down and go through a binder of information.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Tom wants to be conversational. He wants big, bigger picture vision.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: And so I start thinking about I don't sleep that night.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: I talked to you know, various friends. I think I
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: think I called you, I think I called aj Aj
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: was working with us at the time, and various don't sleep.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Going the next day and I think I'm interviewing for
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: this job, and five minutes into the conversation, it's clear
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: that Tom is offering me this position. And I remember
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: saying to him, Tom, as as like your general assistant GM,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: I feel an obligation to recommend that you interview some
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: other people. And he said, no, this is what I
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: want to do. And then he had like, I think
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: the blueprint of an offer based on what you know
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: when THEO was hired with Boston, and I told him like,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to negotiate that. I'm twenty years old,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: I'm you know, swimming in student dead. I'm thrilled to
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: even have this opportunity and so he said, all right, well,
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: let's let's call the press conference for an hour from now,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: like peace, Can I call my dad and my wife
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: and so, and then on the phone with Robin. Her
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: birthday is October sixth, and we had a vacation planned
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: that we then had to cancel. We didn't have to,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: I guess, but I did cancel it. And she still
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: jokes with me to this day that I've never We've
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: never we're gonna go to I think to Rio. We've
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: never gone. So she's still I think she still has
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: that on her list of things that I've got to fulfill.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: But yeah, wild, I mean I was. I was not
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: even remotely prepared for it, but also not stupid enough
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: to turn down that kind of opportunity.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: You know, I just would tell you, as somebody who
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: is blessed to work with you for eleven years and
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: has been a friend for much longer. It's a wild story.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: I mean that just probably doesn't happen anymore. The net
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: of it is, a twenty eight year old person was
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: put in charge of a major league franchise with you know,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: you know, a seventy five million dollars payroll that then
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: turned into one hundred and fifty million dollars payroll soon thereafter.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: But you were the exact right guy to get that opportunity.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: John saw something and you Tom saw something in you,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: and they were dead right. You ended up doing absolutely
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: tremendously wonderful things for that franchise. You transformed that fan base,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: and you did so much for the rest of us
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: who got a chance to work with you. So I
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: think they nailed it. I'm not sure they did it
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: exactly textbook, but they nailed the ultimate read in the room,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: which was their judgment was sounded putting you in that position.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: So well.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Coming up right after the break, we've got Michael Young
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: joining us, a person who was, if JD was the
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: heart and soul of that team. Michael was the captain
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: of the club that went to the playoffs in six
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: of seven years, and we're going to hear from him
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: right after the break here on roster'ster Rings. Welcome back
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: to rosterst Rings. We are fired up to bring on
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Michael Young as our next guest. Let me tell you
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: a little bit about Michael. Michael played fourteen seasons with
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the Texas Rangers, Philadelphia Phillies, and Dodgers ten of those seasons,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Michael posted over one hundred and fifty five games played,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: which is a pretty remarkable feed in and of itself,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: but additionally, he had three hundred and seventy five hits.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: He was a career three hundred hitter. Michael posted six
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: seasons in which he had more than two hundred hits,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: leading the league twice. Just as a point of reference,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four, only two hitters in the entire
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: major leagues had more than two hundred hits. Michael did
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: it six times, seven time All Star, five times, he
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: received MVP votes. He was a batting champion, an MVP
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: of the All Star Game, a goal glove winner, one
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: of the most universally respected players that I've ever had
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: a chance to watch play, and the player who perfectly
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: embodied what it meant to be a captain. Michael, Welcome
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: to Rosters, to rings.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: Thanks Dad, appreciate you having me, buddy.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Thank you, hey, Michael. To start off the conversation, let's
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: rewind to nineteen ninety seven. Tell us what it was
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: like in the young household for the draft. In nineteen
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: ninety seven, you get selected in the fifth round by
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: the Toronto Blue jays. What was the atmosphere in the house.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: What were your expectations going into that night.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: Well, I was still at school. Actually we were on
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: the quarter system, so for us at UCSB, it ran
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: into the beginning of June. I just finished a final
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: and it was so weird. I knew that day was
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: the draft. I went back to my apartment. My roommate
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: who was the UCSB team manager, who was my best
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: friend since my freshman year, was there, and my girlfriend
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: who's my wife at the time, was also there. After
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: the final, I went and took a nap. Christina came
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: and woke me upisode you got a phone call, and
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, I'll call him back late, totally forgot
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: what day it was, and she said, it's some guy
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: from Toronto and I just that was hopped out. Talked
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: to Bill Moore, who was the scout drafted me, and
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: so my folks weren't there. Nobody was there, just those
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: two people, And honestly, looking back, that's kind of the
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: way I would have preferred it. Seeing the way it's
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: done now, it's super cool the way these guys are
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: surrounded by family and friends. But for me at the time,
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: it was very representative of where I was in my career,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: in my life, and it was a pretty fun day.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Michael, did you have do you recalled having any expectations?
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Were you expecting to go right around there in the draft?
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: Did?
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Did you have an advisor at the time?
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: I did. I forgot his name. Actually, true story. I
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: ended up switching agents probably about four months after I
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: after I signed nothing personal. Just didn't think it was
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: the right move and I didn't really need one, to
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: be honest at the time, and you know, it was
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: so simple then I knew I was going to sign. Fortunately,
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: the guy who got drafted for me in the sixth
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: round was a friend of mine. He also went to
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: college California. I knew him previously and basically we kind
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: of shared where we were, where our bonus offers were
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: at that point, so I basically negotiated my own bonus.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: He signed before me. I want a little bit more
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: than him to sign. Got on a plane. That was it.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Just as a point of reference for our listeners, Michael
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: has to be one of the most successful players to
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: ever get selected in the fifth round. A tremendous career
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: after you know, keep in mind there were fifty rounds
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: in the draft at that point, right, Michael, So you
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: know the number of players that you outperformed that got
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: selected ahead of you is a significant list, and it's
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: a hell of an accomplishment getting picked in the fifth round,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: you know, out of the hard scrabble University of California,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Santa Barbera. I mean, overcoming the challenges there could have
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: must have been pretty daunted.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: It was hard. I mean there were occasional days where
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: clouds were in the sky and I had to drag
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: myself out of my apartment and go go go to
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: class and go to practice. But to go back to
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: your previous question, yeah, right around the fifth round, it's
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: kind of where I expected to be drafted, and I
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: was totally found with that. At the time, I knew
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: I felt like I was capable of more. But to me,
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: it didn't really matter. I knew that once we all signed,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: it's a matter of going out and playing well. If
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: you play well, you get moved up and you get
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: a chance to play in the big leagues.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Michael. Fast forward, you're in the Toronto system. It's a
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: loaded group. You get Vernon Wells and a bunch of
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: middle infielders that you're competing with playing with curious what
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: that was like. But also then you get traded a
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: couple of years into your tenure there, and how did
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: that new strike you.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: I was I was shocked, I really was. At that point.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: I just wanted to play in the big weies with
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: the Blue Jays, simply because that's all I knew got
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: drafted by and the minor league instructors with the Blue
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Jes have said this forever, were absolutely incredible. It was
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: work after work after work. They provided an environment where
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: competition was really accepted. I mean, I had some really
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: close relationships with our instructors there, and they would just
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: flat it remind me that I was competing with the
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: other middle infielders that were there, Sayesarus Turists and Joe
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: Lawrence and Felipe Lopez and Bran Abernathy and there was
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: a few others. And Chris Woodward, you know, it was
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: one of them. He's a few years ahead of me,
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: but he was one of them. And we would do
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: drills like agility drills for time. We would do drills
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: and I would want to beat them every single time.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: It provided this incredible competitive environment. We were all friends,
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: but those friends those friendships had limits when it came
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: time to really get down and compete.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: I'm curious on that piece, on the competitive nature of that.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Do you think that was already hardwired into you as
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: a kid or being with those other future big leaguers
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: that fuel that a bit.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: I think it was hardwired in there. And then once
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: I kind of got in that environment, I knew I
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: was exactly where I wanted to be in my life.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: It really kind of said this is incredible, Like I
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: love this. It's early in the morning. We're doing this
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: stuff for time. And I felt like, honestly, like I
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: didn't have anything against them personally, but I sort of did,
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: and I can't. I'm not trying to be a jerk
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: when I say that, but you know, it's a funny thing.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: You start getting ingrained by what it means to really
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: be a teammate too, because once the game starts is
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: Terrist was my double play partner, became one of my
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: good friends. Matter of fact, we were the first non
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: Latin Latino in American roommate ever that the Blue Jays
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: put together. We were so close in spring training. They
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: always kept guys kind of separate, and yet he was
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: one of my main my main competition. We were together
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: all the time, playing the same positions. We flip fop
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: from short and second, and I really wanted him to
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: play well. I never had this moment where I'm like,
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: I don't want him to perform. I really want him
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: to play well because I love the kid. I love
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: the guy. He was a good buddy of mine. But
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: it made me realize that it doesn't have that competition
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: can be this this really cool thing where you kind
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: of try and get the most out of yourself while
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: also wanting the best for other people.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Michael, That's one observation I'd have about watching you play
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: at the major league level is I kind of refer
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: to those types of players as the heart and soul guys,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the guys who somehow get the best out of their
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: teammates in addition to perform at very high levels. And
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: I think it's very rare to have that ability. But
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: it's also even more rare to be selfless enough to
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: actually invest in people and try try to raise the
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: standards of excellence. Once again, like we've had a chance
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: to meet your parents, tell the listeners a little bit
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: about your upbringing and why you feel you were that
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: type of person because you brought it every day to
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: the state.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, my dad was a construction worker, my mom was
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: a elementary school secretary. They both worked all the time.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: So I'm no different than most. I think that, you know,
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: having a bit of a blue collar background with your
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: parents is something that I really appreciated and I got,
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: you know, kind of a first hand look at what
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: hard work meant. So yeah, but I don't say that
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: to kind of like get praise. I'm pretty sure most
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: of us are like that, and I think we all
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: really really learned from it. It's this really, you know,
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: these learning moments that were unspoken, just kind of watching
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: them go about their jobs and come home and reinvest
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: in the family the second that their jobs were done
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: kind of give me a bit of a blueprint for
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: what I felt like my life was going to be.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Like another thing that jumps to mind is like just
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the reality that people don't realize is like part of
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the reality of your life was that any day you
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: could wake up and someone could tell you you're playing
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: for a different team. Like that's not something most people
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: can relate to. Most people have relatively good jurisdiction over
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: where they're going to be employed tomorrow. It's the same
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: as today. But you wake up one day and all
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, you're being taken away from all these
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: guys that you've developed friendships with, all these coaches who
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: you respect, this competitive environment that you've created, your vision
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: playing with those guys in the big leagues. Now you're
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: a Texas Rangers. So now fast forward to showing up
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: in Arlington and you walk into a clubhouse that was
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: chock full of veterans. I looked at that team, I
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: was just shocked. I mean, sure, it's Pad Rodriguez, Alex Rodriguez,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Ruben Sierra, Rafael pal Merrow. But then some of the
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: guys who were actually like the extra guys were like
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Ken Kevin Eddie, Rusty Greer, Andres Galarraga. How is it
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: being a rookie amongst so many established veterans.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: It was awesome. I mean, I look with that two
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: thousand and one team with a lot of funness. Two
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: thousand and two is a little bit different, but two
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: thousand and one I really have like a really special
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: place in my heart for those guys. Randy Vallardi was
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: hitting three point forty when he yanked a hamstring, and
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: I got called up, and I wasn't setting the world
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: on fire when I got called up, and all of
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: a sudden, Randy's getting healthier. And you know, I think
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: my dad had this brilliant idea of approaching Doug Melvin
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: in the stands at Anaheim to introduce himself. Doug was
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: our GM at the time, and you know, Doug's like, hey,
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: have you been to Texas? Shit, And my dad thought
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: this would be a good idea. Well, you know, we
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: don't know when he's gonna get sent down, so we're
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: trying to figure out if we should plan a trip,
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: basically like looking for inside dope. He just met the guy,
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: and then Doug basically told him, he said, go ahead
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: and plan your trip. But when Randy came off, Doug
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: basically told him that I was going to play. We
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: were already out of the race, and Randy put an
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: arm around me. And I don't know if I would
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: have been able to do that if I was hitting
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: three forty with the young guy taking taking their job.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: And now Randy eventually got traded to the Yankees and
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: played in the World Series that year, But I'll never
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: forget that it really stuck out of my mind. I mean,
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: for Randy to be thirty eight years old clearly had
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: a mean competitive streak, to be that good that late
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: in his career and demanded that much of himself, and
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: to treat me that way always really stood out. Rubin
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: Sierra was great. He played on my team in Triple A.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: He gave me four effervescent colored suits that year, which
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: were they literally would change colors when you moved. I
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: get into my best I get him to my best
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: friend growing up in La. He wearsn't for Halloween to
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: this day.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Was Ruben singing at the time.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: Also, he was I mean talented singer. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: He would sit by me on the bus sometimes in
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: Triple A and start belting it out. But it was
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: really cool. It was a cool group. Like you said,
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: the veterans, and like the resumes at that point were
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: were pretty incredible. Gallaraga, Kaminady obviously, Pudje, Alex and Juan
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: and Kenedy was great to he. I remember him spring training.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: He picked me up. I didn't know he was coming
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: to my apartment. I was by myself. Picks me up
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: and it's me him and his sponsor or in the
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: car and we go to the sushi joint. Again, I
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: had no idea he was coming to my house to
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: pick me up, but camp Cammedy showed up and I
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: hopped in and we went to a restaurant, sushi joint,
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: and he got very upset with our with our waiter
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: because they didn't have angel hair pasta to serve him.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: So I had to explain explain to him that he
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: in fact chose that restaurant and they're not going to
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: have that there. So that was That was a fun day.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: But I mean it's again it's it's story after story
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: with that group was really really cool. Wouldn't traded for.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: The world, along with your humility one of the things
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: that stands out even and that's talking about that one team,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: and he kind of made a joke about the two team,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: but your ability to like pull remember the positives and
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: pull the positives of even a challenging situation, so that
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: those were not very competitive team, very talented in some ways,
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: not competitive, And I guess the fast forward to you know,
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: when you're the veteran on the team and I'm just curious,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: how did you go about trying to pay some of
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: those things forward.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Again, a lot of it is just learned learned
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: kind of things, and a lot of it being a
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: young player with that group. It's the example of Randy
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: all Right, learning by the good things that have happened
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: to me, and then also keeping my eyes and ears
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: open enough to learn what not to do. And there
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: were plenty of those examples too. So by the time
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: that two thousand and kind of four rolled around, Alice
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: got traded to create a bit of a vacuum. I
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: don't think that was necessarily a long in my career
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: to being a you know, you know, leader would have
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: been the obvious thing. I was only my fourth year.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: I think I was actually pre arb at that point.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: So but you sometimes you just feel eyes on you
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: a little bit and it's like, okay, like this is
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: the way it's going to be this year. And the
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: older guys we had in that group and four with
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: the Brian, Jordan e Y, Kenny, Jeff Nelson, they really
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: pushed me into that role in a good way. So
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: that was great. I started realizing the things that kind
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: of were given to me and I said, okay, I'm
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: going to be the same way one I'm gonna be
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: me I'm going to be myself. I'm not going to
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: push this thing into a different different direction. Again, that
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: was from a lot of these older guys that I
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: mentioned who really encouraged me just to be myself, and
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: then always kind of it just kind of happened a
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: bit organically at that point, where I would walk into
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: the clubhouse every day with an idea of what I
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: needed to do, have a plan where in spring training
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: a regular season, this is what I have to do today.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: If I'm struggling, there are certain things I really want
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: to attack. And then my other eye is on somebody
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: I got to get with who will just be having
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: just a bit of a teammate awareness and someone who
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: might be going through a tough time. Maybe I should
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: get with them a little bit, or someone who's on
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: fire and I'm not, and I need to ask a
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: question about how to get myself going, whatever the case
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: may be. That was kind of my bit of my mantra,
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: kind of one eye on myself and one eye on
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: everybody else.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: And you you you brushed past it there, but I
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: feel like you need to color in that opening. Man
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: And when Alex Rodriguez is traded prior to the fourth
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: season on Hart was a GM, I was the assistant GM,
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: and we literally trade. The trade was a week before
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: spring training, if that right, it might have been in
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: days before spring training. And he was the only clear
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: cut major league caliber starting shortstop on the club, right,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: And so we Alfonso Soriano comes back in the team.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: We have two all stars second basement, and and you
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: and Soriano many Alexander's on the club more of a
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: utility player at that point in his career. And I
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: mean literally, you know, you have a decent team going
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: to spring training without a without a starting shortstop, and
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: uh and sorry, wanted no part in it.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: He was going to be a free agent a year
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: or so later, and understandably so, and you know, I
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: know you went into Bucks office and you know, volunteered
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: to move and you were an outstanding second basem end
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: up winning a goal club at shortstop as well. But curious,
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: just looking back on it now, your thoughts on that
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: decision and how it came about.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: It was? It was really long. That was my first
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: with the switching positions thing, and not to take too long,
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: but Alex's was going to get traded, impossible, right, That
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: was basically a kind of a done deal and the
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: Player Association got involved. But Buck called me before that
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: deal went down, because all I knew at that point
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: was news. Alex hadn't contacted me. I didn't really know
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: what was going on. And he said, Hey, how you doing.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: And I kind of knew where he was going to
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: go with this, and he said, hey, you know, I've
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: been talking to John John Hart and we want to
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: know how you feel about playing shortstop. I said, I
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: don't want to play shortstop. It was I was very clear.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: He goes, we're gonna we're gonna sign rich Aurelia. I
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: believe to play short at the time with with Alex,
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: we're gonna sign Richiaralia and you'll play second or you're
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: gonna play short I prefer you for you to play
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: short I said, I love the rich Earlia idea. I
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: don't want to play shortstop. I said, I recognize how
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: cool shortstop is. I said, but I've played about it.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: I don't. You can look it up, I told John
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: told Buck, I said, I haven't played much short stop
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: and I really feel like I am getting ready to
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: take off as a two way GUYE second. I don't
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: want to be messed with. I feel like I've really
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: scratched and clawed my way to earn this job. I
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: feel like last year I finally did and I just
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: want to be left alone to do it. So Buck says, okay,
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: I understand. There's a short conversation and he's like, I'll
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: go back. I'll tell John that you're interested in doing
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: whatever's best for the team. I said, no, no, no, nope,
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: not what I said. I want to play second Now.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: Having said that, I recognized that Alex's deal is much
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: bigger than what my preference was at that point. I
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: got that when I got the phone. But then, you know,
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: JD to your point. I'm driving the spring training Christine
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: and I are on the way there and we find
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: out Als got traded to the Yankees, and I hadn't
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: heard back from anybody at that point. Again, if that
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: deal comes along quick, they don't need to take my
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: opinion and consideration. I got it, but we got there
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: still didn't talk to anybody. Then I go out for
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: the first day of early working. Sory and I both
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: go to second base and Manny Alexander is playing short
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: stuff and I was like, this is not going to fly.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: You know. So I went into Bucks office that day
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: and I said, what's going on? And he said, well,
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: you and sorry, You're both going to play short and
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: whoever plays better going to be a shortstop.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: And I was just like it was.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: It was frustrating at that point because I knew where
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: it was going to go, and I really felt like
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: this was going to be a bit of the downslope
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: in terms of me just losing a grip on my
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: own career. So at that point I gave it a
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: day to think about it, and I said, well, listen,
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: if I beat out Soory, which I thought I would,
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: to play shortstop, I'd rather play every game at spring
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: training so I don't make a fool of myself in
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: April out there. So the next day I went in
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: the Bucks office said all right, if this is the
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: way it's going to be, then I need to get
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: at it now. So that's how that thing all round
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: it up. I feel like I've gotten a bit too
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: much credit for just being you know, very very selfless
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: and everything. It was very much like, hey, listen, I
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: need if I'm going to do this, I need to
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: do it now. My preference one hundred percent was to
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: play second base, but I also knew that if I
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: was going to play short I need all the practice
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: I can get.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Michael, I would like to tell some funny stuff, but
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: I actually want to just build off of this theme.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: You know, I was with JD when we were kind
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: of workshopping a conversation he ultimately then had with you
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: about changing positions again preseason two thousand and nine to
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: make room for Elvis Anders, who he thought had a
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: chance to be a gifted shortstop. And I will say
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: I think both both our careers have changed dramatically based
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: upon how that conversation went. And one thing I reflect
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: on is, as much as our intentions are sounds, sometimes
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: our executions don't align perfectly with our intentions. And so
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: knowing what we were trying to accomplish in that conversation
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: with JD genuinely wanted to achieve and then hearing how
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: it impacted you, we understand that those two things didn't
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: align very well. But how did that conversation go? From
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: your perspective and as you look back on it, how
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: much did the conversation you just referenced factor in for you?
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: And you know what could have been done better in
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: that situation to have conveyed that message with out really
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: inflaming the relationship with what was clearly one of the
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: star players on the team. And I love JD's perspective
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: on that too.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: Sure I think on it to be totally honest, and
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: I think I knew it at the time. JD did
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: absolutely nothing wrong in that conversation. It went well. We
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: went to breakfast to meet JD and Wah and we
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: had a great, good relationships with all three. But you
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: hit it that PTSD. Man, it hit me right away.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I know where this is going. I know
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: where this is going. It went from I didn't want
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: to leave second. Now I'm going to go to short,
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: and now I'm just getting pushed farther and farther away
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: from my natural position. And there was part of me
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: when I played short that thought, Okay, if I leave short,
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: I can go back to second. Right, I also knew,
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: and you leave the middle infield, you never go back.
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: It's done. So JD didn't do anything wrong. Communication was
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: rock solid. It was fine, and I understood where the
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: organization was. My thought was, and the organization does you know,
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: do what's in the best interest of the organization. My
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: thought was, this is going to kill me. This is
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: going to kill me. I know where this is going
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: to go A couple of years after this, By the way,
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: I think I'd played an inning it third my entire life,
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: and I know enough about it to know that it's
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: going to be really, really different. So you know, I
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: was I walked away again, like to your point, the
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: PTSD from moving second hit me, and I said, this
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: is going to go a bad way, really really soon.
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: And I just wasn't in favor of that. From that perspective,
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: I wanted to stay it short, not because I thought
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: I was a short stop. Again. If if someone would
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: have moved me at any point when I was playing
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: short stop back to second, I would have said thank you.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: But having said that, the teammate and he kicks in
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: I Ian Kinsler, my best friends in the roles playing
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: second base. He earned his job. I'm not going to
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: elbow my way over there. So it created a really
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: really I wrestled with it, man, you know, like I
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: never went any point really least I think said moved
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: me to second. That's where Ken was at. So it
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: just I just said I want to stay short even
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: though honestly, like sure, it wasn't really this thing in
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: my mind where I really wanted to be short stop.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: I wanted to be a second baseman. And with that thing,
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: I got farther and farther away from it. And I
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: think I was upset because I knew that if I
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: went to third seconds now gone, j D.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: How do you reflect on that exchange?
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think there's some important concept. And Michael
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: was several years in a row running an All Star
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: at that time, just won the Gold Glove at shortstop.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: So we're here, we are, you know, messaging to him
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: Wash and I go, we meet Michael for breakfast, and
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: the messages you know, this is best for the team
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: because you know, we team was in bankruptcy, we were
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: up for sale. We didn't have any money to spend
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: on you know, free agents, and so we thought one
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: of the ways we can get better was we had
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: this young shortstop that could come up and basically, you know,
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: maybe make us better at two positions. But it was
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: a tough message. Michael had literally just won the gold Glove,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: you know, it worked his ass off to make himself
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: a star at a second position. That if you recall
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: and I come back from the meeting. The way Michael
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: just phrased it made it sound like it was like,
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: you know, perfect, I definitely don't think of my execution
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: was was anywhere close to that. But we come back
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: and it's I think it was you me and Aj Preller,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: and you guys are like, well, had the meeting go,
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: And I was like, show, I think it went great.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: And I lost all credibility with that and Aj and
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: the rest of the front office for describing how meetings
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: went in the future because it was a little bumpy,
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: but we got through it in no small part because
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: you know, Michael ultimately, you know, as you say, put
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: the team first. But it was I think a lot
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: more challenging for him, certainly that I recognized at the time,
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: and not even now when you look at like players
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: moving positions or you know, the you know, the situation
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: Boston had earlier this year, Like there's always more of
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: the than than meets the eye, and I think these
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: are real challenges. People assume it's just an easy move,
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: but there's a lot of work and a lot of challenge,
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: and both physically and mentally. I think that goes into
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: these things well and there's.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: A lot of pride involved, right, Like you have a
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: lot of pride in the expertise you have in the
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: time you've put in to become a great second basement
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: or a great shortstop, and being asked to move kind
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: of tears a little bit at the fabric of your
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: sense of identity and self worth, right.
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: Michael, exactly that. I think that's where I was at,
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: and I had a really tough time seeing both sides
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: of that. I think it's like the best analogy. It's
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: corny as hell, but it's like, you know, you drive,
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: you know you're on this path towards trying to make
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: yourself as good as you can be. Then you know
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: you go ninety five percent of the way. Then the
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: front office said, hey, we'll take the keys and take
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: it from here, and I'm like, piss off. I've done
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: everything to get me here, Like I want to see
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: this thing through on my terms. And I finally like
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: the only way I can really kind of arrive at
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: a point where I could just get into size, like
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: sometimes in life you just don't get everything you want.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: You don't And then now I have a choice. I
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: can sit here and bitch and moan about it, which
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: I did plenty of, and my line in the sand
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: was always like spring training. My agent, Danny, who I've
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: had a great relationship, was like, Hey, you need to
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: hold out in spring training. That's how you're gonna get
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: what you want. I'm like, I will never do that.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: As matter of fact, it's the opposite. Spring training is
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: the line where this ends. Like I can complain about
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: it all. I don't think I'm the first player of
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: all time to have it sagreeing with the front office
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: and the off season, but it ends the second we
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: all soop in Arizona. It has to I have to.
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: I don't. I'm not going to be that guy.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I will say Michael. One of the
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: things that I've adjusted in my career since that day
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: was that I always thought it was valuable to have
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: a special assistant who was a former player to run
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: some of these messages by, because our intentions really are good,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: our execution sometimes does fall short, because you know, JD.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: We had that in Texas where we started working with
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: guys like Michael and Darren Oliver who gave us real
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: good guidance, like we would run messages by them like Okay,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: how is a player going to interpret this situation And
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: we adjusted our messaging a lot because of that. When
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: I went to Minnesota, the first two hires we had
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: were LA Troy Hawkins and Tory Hunter, who helped us
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: a lot, and then then Michael Kadiro and Justin Moreno
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: came on board. I think it's invaluable because as much
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: as we feel like we're sitting astride you guys like
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: we don't have the perfect player's mindset, we have we
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: have to yield that and we have to understand running
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: these messages players really is immensely valuable if we want
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: to land the message right.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: And the tough part for the front office and again
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: I've never been a GM, but having you know, been
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: beside you guy for some of these things, and it's
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: really difficult for the front office to nail the message
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: because from a player's perspective, you mess up one word
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: and the player holds it against you like it's got
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: to be nailed. And I remember, like, and there's, like
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: you said, the prive factor sometimes doesn't allow you to
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: think of the levelhead of these situations. And I'm not
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: necessarily sure that the player has to write. It's like
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: so it's it's really really difficult for the front office
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: to really hit these things perfectly. I mean, that's asking
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: a lot to really nail that message. It's really really difficult.
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: I mean I remember with that had I had JD
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: and I, you know, and I always kind of like
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: thought about that whenever I got upset about something. It
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: never made me feel good about it. And I remember
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: once said JD and I kind of got into it
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: in his office and the next day, I think he
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: was going to go on a road trip and I
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: just showed up. I was like, okay, like I feel bad,
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: like you're turned, like you hit me, go ahead, like
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: and he didn't, you know, he was really cool about it.
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: And I remember that I had had a conversation that
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: I did most of the talking in the off season
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: on the phone one time, and then we were in
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: Baltimore in twenty eleven and Dad was on the trip
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: and I said, Okay, if you have something to say
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: to me, go ahead. And this is like when I
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: say the messaging is because I was talking to that
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: I know his intentions were great, and he was talking
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: about me, and at this point it was going really well.
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: So I'm sure his guard was down a little bit
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: and he goes, hey, listen, he was talking about my
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: career and he's being very complimentary. He's like, you know,
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: I think that you can be someone who's more remembered
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: for your offense than your defense. Probably didn't think much
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: of it. And I was like, because you stripped me
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: of all my fucking value and all went back to zero. Right,
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: So I'm like, if you guys just And the tough
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: part for me was like, Dad, wasn't there No. Four
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: when I got moved off second, he wasn't there in
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: that like making that decision. It's not fair. So it's
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: this constant reminder that I'm like, he is thinking about
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: twenty eleven, how we can be good now rightfully? So
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: right just like all of you guys should have been.
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: And so it's my issue to deal with what's happened
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: in the past and you know, sort of get over
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: it and go play baseball. Ultimately, that's what's going to
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: come down to.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Michael's let's shift gears to some of the glorious days
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: we all enjoyed together. Do you remember pre season twenty ten,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: you and I did invent the sale Dallas Salesman's club,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: and the question was asked of you, how do you
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: think we're going to do this year? Do you remember
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: how you answered that?
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: I think so. I remember this is the first thing
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: I realized that was really funny. By the way, we
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: were at the Salesmanship Club, and that is NonStop zingers
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: with like all these guys in Dallas who like by
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: the way, they just went there to be entertained and
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: laughed the whole time. And I was like, damn, this
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: is a funny dude, man. So but yeah, I think so.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: I think I remember saying something to the effect of
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: that was like the first year where I really felt like,
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: if we just play, we'll win. In the past, that
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: felt like Bartolo Yanks and Hammy, something happens, the Vlad
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: Lackey heard Zanoba and we go off. We got a
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: shot going twenty ten and it was true. I was like,
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: we just stay healthy and play well. We're the best team.
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: Just we're the best team. And I really thought that way.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: I remember that so distinctly because I felt like that
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: was the jumping off point, like we knew we were talented,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: we weren't getting a lot of credit, but like I thought,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: that was the day one of like, Okay, we're expecting
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: to win right now. Like the whole dynamic I think changed.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: I remember you saying like all those things about the
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: other teams, and you used to have to put the
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: qualifiers and you said, if these teams play their best,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: were going to still kick their ass, and it was
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: like wow, like the whole room that it was palpable,
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: the feeling in the room, It was awesome, and we
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: went on to do it. How was that season for
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: you playing when we were also changing ownership and we're
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: technically in bankruptcy. Did that impact you guys at all
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: as players?
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: Not really. I think you guys deserve a lot of
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: credit for that. You guys are the ones taken all
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: answering all those questions publicly, so there wasn't much left
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: you guys. Now it goes so if you guys answer
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: every question publicly, not much will filter down to us.
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: And I don't remember really as answering that question too
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: often because you guys are the ones handling it, which
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: is I don't think most players think about that sort
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: of thing, but I did because that was sort of
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: my role at that point, whether I wanted it or not,
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: So I definitely appreciated that. But you know, to your
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: point about twenty ten in the beginning of it too.
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: One of my pet peeves and sports is when people say,
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: you know, if you don't win, it's a failure. I
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: hate that. It doesn't make you less competitive to say
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: that if you don't win the championship, it wasn't a failure.
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: Two thousand and nine was a massive and great year
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: for the Rangers.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: Huge year.
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: It was a jumping off point to everything we did.
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: Do we make the playoffs and no, we're we a
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: little short on talent ultimately, yes, but that was like
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: the real needle up year for this So for someone
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: to say, if someone ever told me that it's either
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: win or failure, I would point two thousand and nine
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: and say, piss off, because that is the one that
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: really allowed us to take off. And like you said,
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: the reason I had that feeling that going in twenty
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: ten was one the moves you guys have made in
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: the Winner to make us better, and two just the
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: experience we had the year before we really started to
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: come together, we really started to be a team, and
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: you know, we could see twenty ten happening before it even.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Happened the celebration when when we you guys beat Oakland,
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: we clinched the day game there and in the Bay
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: Area and the whole front office. I think the new
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: ownership group was out there and then everybody went out
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: and celebrated right broadcast Team Klubby's front office. I remember
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: it was. I don't know the name of that bar.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: I don't remember a lot about that night other than
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: it was a lot of fun and just the I
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: think the first time doing it all together, a little
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: bit of like the innocence of all of us. So
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: what do you remember from that?
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: Exactly what you said? I think Scott Feldman the bar,
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: his finest found that bar for us, and I mean, honestly,
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: I think back to that, and I'm like, I hope
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: that teams nowadays can have that. I'm not sure if
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: it's like that anymore. I hope that someone has that
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: because I remember walking into that room. I had dinner
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: with my folks and my in laws they were up there,
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: and I walked into that place. I'm like, this is unbelievable.
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: I think I might've been one of the last ones
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: to show up, but I saw it like I walked
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: in and I saw a beer pong over here, a
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: chat over here, you know, a credit card being thrown
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: down at the bar. I'm like, oh man, I'm like
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: I couldn't believe it. For me personally, it had been
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: a long time coming. But the cool thing about that
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: that night and that team was that at no point
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: did I think that I deserved it more because I'd
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: been arranger for a long time, like that to twenty
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: ten team, like do we deserve that? Like everyone who
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: had put in all the work to get to that
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: point deserved it. So it was a it was a
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: really really cool night. Next day, you know, we had
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: a bit of a day off at a day game
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: in Oakland. The sort of processed everything. It just happened.
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: But man, it was. It was pretty damn cool. I
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: loved it.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: Who we won the reclar Yeah.
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we won that game. We won that game yet exactly. Yeah.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: I think Jeff frank Core somehow shook it off long
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: enough to d H and I think he hit two
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: bombs between you know, maybe being a little bit sick
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: and between those two yeah, exactly.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: I think Trevor k Hill had been like five and
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: zero against us that year, and somehow we beat him,
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: beat him. That there was incredible. I remember Wash standing
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: up in the clubhouse and saying like who can post
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: And it was like we barely had We had like
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: seven guys. Like people were in physical disarray throughout the
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: whole clubhouse and we somehow some people ponied up. Jeffrank
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: Corps was leading the charge.
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: It was, it was.
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: It was incredibly the night before. I mean even if
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: you guys remember the day before when we actually clinched,
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: Like first of all, we had time like we were
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: going to clinch this thing, but I remember we brought
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: in police I think in the eighth I want to say,
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: and it's like it was like our moment to like go,
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: It almost felt like we're clinching today, and like there
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: was a little bit of like this fun butterfly moment
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: as a player and they're like, all right, we're going now,
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: and then like Corey Kantuo gets at Homer and it's
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: like we had like as very much a postseason vibe
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: to that game, which was new for us. That game
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: was was a lot of fun to play.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: Well fast forward a little bit for the listeners out there,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: the Rangers had only been in the playoffs three times,
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: they had been eliminated, each time by the Yankees. They
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: never won a playoff series, never won a play playoff
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: game at home. So now Michael's part of clinching the
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: first regular season. Now we're going to Tampa to play
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: a really vaunted Tampa Bay team. JD. Weave some incredible
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: magic at the trade deadline, gets a gets a left
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: hand pitcher named Cliff Lee. What was the experience like
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: then when we win our first playoff game? Unfortunately not
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: at home yet, I don't think. I think the road
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: team won all five games in that series, but we
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: win in Tampa and then we're going on to face
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: the Yankees.
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like you said, we win the first
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: two games. Cliff was that that trade still to this
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: day he was. Nowadays rentals have thought about it is,
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: you know, not that big of a deal, but at
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: the time that was like CC went to Milwaukee had
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: a massive impact. We get Cliff and I remember Jad
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: we had a brief chat older in that season before
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: they tried deadline and he asked me, in my opinion,
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: he goes, would you go Cliff Lee as a rental
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: or royal as well? I think really might have had
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: h the year after that. You know, that's the mantage
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: of getting rollers you have next year. And I was
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: like Cliff, I was like, whatever you bring us is great,
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: but Cliff, like at that point Cliff was rolling. I mean,
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: my god, the energy we got from that was incredible.
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: But I'll never forget man. We the flame. The flight
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: back from Texas to Tampa. We're landing before Game five,
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: and I remember there was this feeling in the plane
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: going like I can't believe we're back here after we
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: lost two at home for Games three and four. So
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: we all get to the clubouse early and you could
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: tell the vibes good, per usual with that team, and
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: the starting pitcher is always the last one to arrive.
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: So Cliff rolls in, you know, standard Cliff Lee body language,
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: goes to his locker and everyone's kind of looking at
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: him a little bit, kind of feeling them out. Takes
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: his watch off, puts it down, turns around and goes,
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: we're good. That was it, And we're like and it
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: was like the I can't know nothing was said, but
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: we looked around We're like, we are gonna fuck these
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: guys up tonight. It was the best feeling in the world,
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: like Turns says we're good and then go CG and
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: just I mean, there's so many moments from that season
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: that really twenty ten is like it's such a such
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: an incredible moment for this organization. It's just very proud
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: to be a part of it.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: I think one thing just to reflect on, you know, Michael,
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: you and I had a great conversation a handful of
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: years ago where I remember saying to you, like, I
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: couldn't be more proud to be part of those twenty
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: ten and twenty eleven seasons. You know, technically we finished
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: in second place, we lost the World Series both years,
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: but you know, sports are such a it's such kind
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: of a cruel process where if you don't finish in first,
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: you know, people to you know, put you in the
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: bucket off you were one of the losers. And it's
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: like those two teams were absolutely spectacular. They were the
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: times of my life. I think I'm speaking for all.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: Three of us.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: You know, it was just such a great group of
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: people who had grinded so hard to get there, and
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: the personalities on those teams were excellent, and the playing
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: was spectacular. I mean, the highlight reels from those seasons
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: were just off the charts. I'd love to start each
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: of those seasons again. I'd take take us to win
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: each of those seasons, just based upon the talent and
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: the heart we had on some of those teams.
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: Me too, I would do And I think looking back
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: at my career, yes, we'd all love to have had,
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: you know, won a championship for sure. But I think
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: one thing that I'm just very thankful of is just
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: having the bonds that you get. Yeah, a lot of
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: those bonds are We have some pain involved in some
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: of those bonds, but that's all right, Like I can
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: deal with those. I want the bonds, and I think
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: we have them. I look back at it's easy for
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: us to say, like I would if we start that
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: season again. Yeah, I would take that group all day long,
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: especially in the twenty eleven team. I mean that team
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: was just ready to rock and roll from the beginning.
• 48:38
  Speaker 3: And if you look back at just even twenty ten,
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: that team was based on like energy, the Cliff component.
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: But you look back at some of our seasons, with
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: the exception of Josh obviously and probably Flatty, none of
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: us really had career years. I didn't Kins, didn't but
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: you go to twenty eleven and you look at everyone's
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: individual season, it's like, my goodness. And then of course
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: you Adrian to that team, and you know it takes
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: the talent level to you know, Adrian and nap Actually
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: the season that napad was disgusting in twenty eleven, then
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: you know it takes that team to a bit of
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: a different level.
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: You mentioned the bonds and the makeup, the kind of
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: the clubhouse culture. That was unbelievably talented team, but that
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: all those things, those traits you just touched on, took
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: it to a different level. And again I think you're
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: being humble and modest here, but you know, before the
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: eleven season we signed Adrian that one. I'm pretty confident
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: you would agree I did not execute as well with
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: you handling that one, and you and I we don't
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: talk for close to two years, right, I think it
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: was you know, I regret a lot of that. We've
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: talked about it before. But we signed Adrian, which moves
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: you off third base. And we also add Napoli, who
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: you know, at the time, nap we weren't quite sure
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: how much he was going to catch. He ended up
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: catching quite a bit but at the time we thought
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: it might be a little more d H. And so
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: you're you know, your exact role was was put up
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: in the air a little bit. We walk into spring
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: training and that first day you were the you were
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: the person that greets Nap and you'd already talked to him.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you're the person that embraces Adrian and and
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: he's he said, you were the first person that called
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: him after he signed and welcomed him. I don't think
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: we have that team's success without you know, you making
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: it easy on those guys to assimilate in and again
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: putting the team first. But not really question so much
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: as that. You know, I appreciate your humility, but you push,
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: You pushed pat You. You were maybe the reason why
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: those traits allowed that team to to have that multiplayer effect.
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: Appreciate it. I do think it's also the guys that
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: you brought in. Adrian apart from being in a Hall
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: of Famers, you see it right away, just he's such
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: an incredible competitor and he added to what we already had.
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: I don't imagine it's easy to go into like an
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: winning environment, kind of like try and find your space,
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: right away, and Adrian did it perfectly. He did it
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: like he's with a sense of humility, even though we
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: already knew how great a planity was. And Napp did
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: it the opposite. But like this just like like complete
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: naive to everything to like what I mean by that is,
• 51:16
  Speaker 3: I remember I grabbed Adrian when we reported to say, hey, man,
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry if this ruined you know, any moment of
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: you signing here, so like, don't sweat it. We're good,
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: Like it's all over with and Adrian's cool. You can
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: see a little bit Adrian's kind of like, you know,
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: a little bit of weight off his shoulders. I don't
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: think it was bothering him too much, but then he
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: probably made a little bit of a little bit more
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: at ease. I go to Nap to have the same chat,
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: and he stared at me like I have nine heads
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: and goes, I have no idea what you're talking about. Man,
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: had no clue, And I said, well, then we're good,
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: and I walked away, like so one guy who's like
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: been following this thing pretty clearly. I mean, because maybe
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: there was more of a direct impact with me and
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: Abe than it was with Nap. But Nap had no
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: clue what I was talking about. None, but it's awesome.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: So yeah, and Michael, you've talked about some of the
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: superstar talent and personalities. I wanted to hit you on
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: two guys. We'll start with one. What what did Ron
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: Washington's hire mean to this run that the team ultimately
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: goes on? We ended up playing in the postseason six
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: of seven seasons, and you talked about the twenty oho
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: nine team was excellent and felt just short. What did
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: he mean to this group?
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah? You know what's interesting is over the past couple
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: of years, you know, you watch like, you know, some
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: documentaries on TV and you watch the remember Derek's one
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: the Captain thing. You see Joe Torre's impact on that team,
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: and you see Tito's on like the socks on the
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: Netflix thing, and you see how these managers are all
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: really good for this specific group of guys, Like Joe
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: Tory probably couldn't have been more perfect for that, you know,
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: those Yankee teams, Wash could not have been more perfect
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: for those Ranger teams. It was the perfect guy. We
• 52:49
  Speaker 3: We thrived on energy, enthusiasm and like this bonded group.
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: That's what made us really good. Obviously we're very talented.
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: Obviously we had some really really good players everywhere, but
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: we were very very together. So we felt like when
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: we were playing a series, you had to kind of
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: and we felt that we played other other teams like
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: we can kind of start to break them a little
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: bit and by the time Sunday rolls around, we've leaned
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: on them enough that they're fifth in. Right, these guys
• 53:16
  Speaker 3: are getting ready to fold, like one more big genning
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: and the fold, and we got this thing can keep
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: the leverage guys out. You know, no one could do
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: that to us in order to beat us. You were
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: just a flow to have to out execute us because
• 53:27
  Speaker 3: we were not going to break. We were bonded. And
• 53:29
  Speaker 3: that was a really cool thing and it came from Wash.
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: He's just a piece of work. We can go for
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: stories forever with Wash. But and I think the really
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: cool thing about Wash is that we understood him really well,
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: so he got the benefit of the doubt doubt from
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: us in terms of I always said, it's really unfair
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: for front office and probably for managers too, where they
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: have to nail the communication every single time. You know,
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: now you have to nail and address the team not
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: just one guy, but with all twenty five. That's hard.
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: We knew Wash was gonna fumble come things like just
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: in terms of the communicator, We knew where he was
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: coming from. We knew what the you know, where the
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: heart was at. That was really cool. That was so
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: that that was the perfect hire and one that we
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: needed right away. When you consider where we were at
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: in two thousand and seven, I think you guys probably
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: knew that we had this blueprint probably for a couple
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: of years, and then two thousand and nine rolls around
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: and like you said, two thousand nine to me started
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: the whole thing, not ten. To me, it started in
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: two thousand and nine. So you know, two years after that,
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: you know we were we were off and running. But
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: just the energy component, how much he believed in the
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: guys was pretty pretty cool. And I speak, you know,
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: I know he believed in me a ton, stuck with
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: me during times I probably didn't even deserve it, especially
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: my last year in Texas and very very little dude.
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: So thinking about him right now, actually you know, hopefully
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: he's doing well.
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, my god, take it, take a chance here and
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: ask you this question. But you've got your your you
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: just talked about Wash and the impact the things you
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: saw there. You got your USA Baseball shirt on, you know,
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: your coach there with with d row and the WBC team,
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: and you get to reboot that and do that again.
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: You and I have had this conversation. I've always thought
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: you would be a you know, tremendous UH coach manager
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: really with anything GM, anything you want to do in
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: the game. I know you've got you know, your boys,
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: and and you know that's your focus. But what what
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: is the future for you in baseball?
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: What?
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: What what intrigues you going forward?
• 55:30
  Speaker 3: Man? Pretty much? I mean what intrigues me is all
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: the things you mentioned. You know, I love the game,
• 55:36
  Speaker 3: you know every time. You know, you guys probably know this,
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: but anytime I would kind of go to the office
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: and go to which wasn't easy to get to at
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: the old ball park because he was totally on the
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: other side of the clubhouse. But I love just walking
• 55:46
  Speaker 3: in and being around you guys to talk baseball. I
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: loved it. I loved it. It was really cool. So
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: from the work perspective, any of those things you mentioned
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: is intriguing to me. But I wouldn't trade any of
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: my time with my family right now. I love it.
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: We travel when we want to, still connected to the game,
• 56:04
  Speaker 3: but you know, I get to watch my go, go
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: visit my son in college. Go my other son's playing
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: high school baseball. Now I get to watch those games.
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: And the last WBC really kind of told me give
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: me my answer, because I used to always think that
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: as my kids got older, maybe I would get back in.
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: So the last WBC, I remember we were in Arizona
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: and the family we had rented a house and we
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: had some friends from Dallas come hang out with us,
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: and we had an off day and I'm by the
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: pool with like a Pacifico and it's like two o'clock
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: and I can't stop thinking about who we're playing the
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: next day. And that's when it really hit me and
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: like I can't shut down. Even for the WBC, I
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: can't shut down. So I'm like, I can't do this,
• 56:41
  Speaker 3: Like I can only imagine what it would be like
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: if I was managing a team, or potentially on my
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: way to managing a team. I wouldn't have the ability
• 56:49
  Speaker 3: to shut down. And I just I don't want to
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: put myself or my family in that spot where they
• 56:54
  Speaker 3: have to deal with that version of me. So if
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: I'm doing it, then I can't imagine what it would
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: be like in September October makes.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: Sense my hunch, Michaels, You'll continue to get those opportunities
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: presented to you because of your reputation in the game
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: and your continued involvement. One thing I just wanted to
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: ask you is, you know, really, in the last ten years,
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: analytics has boomed so much in the game of baseball,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: and I'm curious, as you look back at your career,
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: is there information you wish you had? Is there things
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: you wish you knew? And would you have conducted yourself
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: at all differently in your career if you had all
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: the information that players have today.
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. I do think that there's a
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: there's a bit of a pros and cons list to
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: all this. I think one thing is I definitely would
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: have tried to make some swing adjustments that would have
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: enabled me to get the ball in the air a
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: little more often to the pull side. I think that's
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: something that could have been I think a lot of
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: times whenever people try and hit more homers, I think
• 57:48
  Speaker 3: they feel like they're gonna take away from one part
• 57:51
  Speaker 3: of the game to add to the other. So for
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: someone like me who kind of naturally went safe from
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: the left center to the right field line, I don't think.
• 57:59
  Speaker 3: I think I could have just added the ability to
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: be more effective to the pull side without taking away
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: from anything else. So I think that could have that
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: would have helped. Having said that, I do believe, and
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: I hate There are times I hate having bringing this
• 58:12
  Speaker 3: up because I don't want to be that guy that
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: talks about, you know, in my day we did this
• 58:16
  Speaker 3: and that, because I do feel like the talent of
• 58:18
  Speaker 3: the players nowadays just destroys our era or the era
• 58:21
  Speaker 3: before ours, and so on and so on. But I
• 58:24
  Speaker 3: do believe the way that we played then or then
• 58:27
  Speaker 3: had more to do with creating momentum, understanding momentum, being
• 58:32
  Speaker 3: creative in terms of how to score runs. I feel
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: like right now there's a singular blueprint in terms of
• 58:36
  Speaker 3: how to do it, and I feel like that basically
• 58:39
  Speaker 3: comes down to now, whoever's most talented will win, because
• 58:41
  Speaker 3: I don't really feel like many teams go outside the
• 58:43
  Speaker 3: box in order to, you know, try and score runs.
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: I actually see like, you know, certain teams that feel
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: like the Rays have kind of been successful a lot
• 58:51
  Speaker 3: of to kind of try and find ways to expand
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: their offense to to score. But I do feel like
• 58:56
  Speaker 3: it should should be something where more teams do it.
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: I remember one time I was, you know, we're having
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: a conversation with about hitting, and I was watching a
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: couple of things on MLB Network and they were talking
• 59:04
  Speaker 3: about one Pierre in kind of negative terms, and I
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: took that really personally, like, who wouldn't want one Pierre
• 59:12
  Speaker 3: right now? The guy would get he first of all,
• 59:14
  Speaker 3: posted he's playing one sixty, he hit like three twenty,
• 59:19
  Speaker 3: he'd steal seventy bags. Did he walk a lot? No?
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: Did he hit a ton of doubles and triples and homers? No?
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: But still he is not the blueprint for your entire lineup.
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: He is the leadoff guy or the center of left
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: fielder who can do those things. And by the way,
• 59:33
  Speaker 3: a complete A plus human being who played his ass off.
• 59:36
  Speaker 3: Who wouldn't want that guy right now? So I but
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: they put him in a box of saying that he
• 59:41
  Speaker 3: can't do. You know, he didn't walk a lot or
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: didn't drive the ball though, no he didn't, but a
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: lot of guys didn't do that. In the history of
• 59:47
  Speaker 3: the game who were incredibly valuable. So I think that
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: in terms of roster construction and how and having the
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: creative creativity to score in different ways, I think that's
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: lacking a little bit. I'm glad that the you know,
• 59:58
  Speaker 3: stolen bases kind of making it back. That's great. But
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 3: I do think that in terms of understanding momentum in games,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: and I watch games, I see a team that's they
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 3: swing the same way in the first thing as they
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: do in the seventh when they're down two runs. It's
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 3: the exact same thing. And I feel like for me
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: personally and the teams I played on, almost every single
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: time when I went up there, there was a different
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: goal or a different idea in mind based on what
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: the scoreboard said and what the momentum of the game said.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, Michael. An incredible additional fact about one Pierre,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: because I got a chance to be with him in Colorado,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: was that his first ever time being in a big
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: league stadium was when he was called up to the
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: big leagues. He had never been in a big league
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: ballpark before that day. Came from pretty humble background in Louisiana,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: and you said it, he was an exceptional person, exceptional family,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: a wonderful human being. But yeah, I think that you
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: just encapsulated that how the game has changed. The last
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: question I had for you and then we can let
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: you run, Michael, is what did it mean to you
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: to have your number retired by the Texas Rangers. You're
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame already for them and deservedly,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: But this is an exalted award that go to very
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: very few people. What was that honor like for you?
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 3: It was? It was really it was incredible, probably the
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 3: like the biggest singular like individual award or highlight or
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: honor that I've had, And just a huge thanks to
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: the entire Rangers organizations that JD led led the charge there.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: I mean, you know, when you get something like that,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: it's it's this It shows the kind of connection that
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 3: you have with your team, with the fan base of
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 3: the team, and you know that the team ultimately kind
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 3: of valued the way I played, which is just an
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 3: incredible honor. So yeah, I the thanks goes to the
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 3: Rangers and specifically the JD for for allowing that to happen. Again,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 3: a really really incredible honor, especially with the guys you know,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 3: to have like mine right next to Adrian, who you know,
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 3: is one of the you know, best third base in
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 3: the history of the game, and we share some really
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: cool times on those those incredible teams. And again, every
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 3: time I see that and I see our kind of
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 3: numbers right next to each other, it takes me right
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 3: back to to that time, which you know, to your
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: point earlier, that is like my favorite time as a
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 3: Big league you know, even in twenty twelve where I
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: didn't have a great season and we end up coming
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 3: up short in the in and in a way that
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 3: was disappointing to all of us, we still had that
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 3: feeling during twenty twelve too, So that whole, that whole
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: stretch man, I'm just really really thankful for the people
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 3: out surrounded by I'm tempted.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: Before we let you go, I want to play like
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: a quick game with you. I'll give you what word association,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: jad and I are going to mention players names first
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: first word that comes to mind. Feel free to roast
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: the hell out of these guys if you want to.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: I'll kick it off right, Ian Kinsler, red ass Kobe Lewis.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 3: What was this one word or a thought? Yes?
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: Thought is great?
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 3: That is good. Okay, well, and I'll give King's Board
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 3: and the red Ass. But like kids is one of
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 3: my best friends ever. Just an incredible player. Kobe is like,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 3: oh man, I love Colby Lewis. When I first played
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 3: with him in the beginning, you know, he's throwing ninety
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 3: five with a big old curve ball, and then all
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: of a sudden, I didn't even I hate to say this,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 3: I didn't even know Kobe was pitching in Japan, and
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 3: all of a sudden, like you guys signed him to
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 3: I think it was like a two year deal, I
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 3: believe or something like that. When when he brought him over,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: I don't know what it was, but and I was like,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 3: oh cool. You know, Colbey Lewis is coming back thinking
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 3: nothing that and then he comes back and I remember,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: like his first game, I look up in the raid
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 3: arguing surprise. I'm like Colby's throwing eighty nine, like we'll
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: see where this goes. And then next thing, you know,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 3: like nobody gets hits off of Colby Lewis, and he's
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 3: the bionic Man. He's tough as hell. I mean, some
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 3: of the stuff he pitched through is incredible. Still get
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 3: a chance to see him a lot, especially since I
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 3: moved back to California, and he's one of those guys
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: to guys like Hall of Famers are remember for appropriate
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 3: and obvious reasons, Right, Adrian and Pudge, their names will
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: never be forgotten and they deserve that. But there's certain
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 3: guys like that I played with who you know they
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 3: won't last another generation. And I'm Kolby's one of those guys.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 3: For me, like an incredible player, incredible career, and I
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 3: just like every time I played behind him there was
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 3: this feeling like like again that Bond kind of kicks
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 3: in from the first pitch. Those are really really incredible memories.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he should be in the Hall of
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: Fame for Texas. I know JD and I've talked about.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: The word I would say about him is he was
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: a warrior. What he played through was incredible. To perform
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: at the level he did with some of the off
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: field injuries that he was struggling with is just incredible.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: I got one more for you and Nelson Cruz.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 3: I think just first thing, I think of Nelly's smile,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 3: like I remember like just having like this incredible personality
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: in our team, and then plus a bit of a battler,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 3: right turns out, and Nelly was quite the grinder, you know,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 3: could you know, go to Triple A and basically just
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 3: destroying it every year coming to the big leagues and
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 3: like having failure is not easy, go back down, rinse
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 3: and repeat, and then all a sudden he comes up
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: and finds his footing and became, you know, one of
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 3: the very key members of those really really fun teams.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 3: And now he's one of those guys too. And it's
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 3: sometimes these power guys and they get in these really
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 3: really good spots. I mean, those are the guys that
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 3: can carry teams. And I remember I was on third
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 3: base in Game two at the ALCS, and you know,
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 3: Dave is coach, Dave Anderson's coaching third and uh, we
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 3: don't think that nobody out bases loaded, and he goes,
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 3: all right, medium fly ball, you stay and deeply ball.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 3: I said, he's going deep right here, Mike, because he
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 3: had just hit a foul ball off of who's he's
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 3: facing from, Aaron Ryan Perry. Yeah, and uh just yanks,
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 3: like a five hundred foot missile foul. I'm like, he
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 3: is dialed in right now, Like we've seen this, this
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 3: whole city, Like we've seen this, Like he's going deep
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 3: right here. I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna get back to
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 3: the third. I'm gonna watch it over the fence, and
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 3: then I'm gonna jog home and do a bunch of
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 3: guys who are jumping all over each other. That's what's
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: gonna happen, right.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: It was just he had that look man that he
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: may have hit seven home runs in that series.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 3: Member, I think I think every game, I think the
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 3: big I think Game five was like a huge one.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 3: I think it was off of aval Verde or something
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 3: like that. Game four. Excuse me, they won Game three,
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 3: and we need really need a game four because that
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 3: Detroit team, Like it's funny like whenever you win a series,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 3: you think back that we beat him in six. They
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 3: kicked their ass in game six. It almost seems like
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: a really convincing win. But at no point are you
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 3: even really comfortable those are convincing in real time? So
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 3: they win Game three and then they have their rotation
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 3: that's stacked, and all of a sudden, Game four is
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 3: tight and you're like, this is a series. Right, then
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 3: we hit that he hits that huge homer at the end,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 3: of Game four. We win Game four, and now all
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 3: of a sudden, the breathing room it gets it's a
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 3: little different now, right because we know that we still
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 3: we're gonna go back home with momentum no matter what,
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 3: unless we wrap this thing up tomorrow.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: That game was almost rained out, and uh where we
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: had the commissioner, Bud Seeleague was on the on the phone,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: he was about to call it, and then there was
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 2: a window and we got it in and we won.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: And I agree totally. I think that the series swung
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: right there.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I wish you would have done the same thing
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 3: in twenty eleven before game you.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: Mean the rain now when it was sunny and the
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: rain now.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I wish you would allow us to play then too. Yeah,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 3: exactly that game. Yeah, not that I think about it
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 3: every single day, but that's cool. Yeah, we all do.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: I've gone to men's group for a long time since.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: If I drink irresponsibly, I think we actually won that one.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: I think it's actually pretty remarkable. We made it through
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: the whole show and we didn't actually dive into twenty
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: eleven in the world series. We may need to have
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: you back on Michael at some point, but Michael, thank
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: you so much for your time, such incredible insights into
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: championship cultures, communication, interplay between front offices and players, and
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: everything else you brought to the Texas Rangers, to their fans.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 3: And to us.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: I just want to say thank you, Please stay with us.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: We'll be back on the other side. Welcome back to
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: rosterst rings. What a phenomenal conversation with Michael Young.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 3: Jady.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: You know, you and I have had so many of
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: those types of conversations with him throughout our careers, and
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: I just am so glad that the listeners got to
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: listen to him and we had like ten more questions
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: for him. It's incredible. We got to get him back
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: on air. We're going to need to talk to him
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: about Josh Hamilton, We're gonna need to talk to him
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: about the twenty eleven World Series, which were epic moments.
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: But just such a content, rich guy, what a wonderful person,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: and I'm so happy we were able to share him
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: with the listeners today.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean, just as talented as they come in
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: a variety of areas, but none more so. Just his
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: humility who he is the person comes out and everything
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: and you know we touched on it there at the end.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 2: I genuinely think he could do anything he wants in
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 2: the game, from you know, a field manager to front
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 2: office gianda. Heck, if he got into the league off
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: this or you know, leadership and helping, you know, address
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: some of the issues we've had on the labor side,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: I think he'd be spectacular just about anything.
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: You know, and it's it's it's a guy who got
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: his number retired by a team, which is just an
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: incredible accomplishment. And also he revealed how human he was,
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: like how it impacted him throughout his career when there
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: was a perception that people doubted him. I think seeing
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: both sides of that makes him just that much more real.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: But Jadi, I want to shift our attention for a
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: second here, now that I've got another general manager executive
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: on the show, just ask your like, what role did
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: you feel ownership played in setting up teams but also
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: general managers for success throughout your career.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 2: It's a great question and one that I think my
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: opinion has evolved on a little bit and continues to.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: I just I really think when you look at it,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: like the greatest competitive advantage in sports is his ownership,
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 2: you know, stay bole uh, forward thinking ownership with long
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: term vision. And from that it's kind of comes like
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: the alignment with the business side, with your baseball operations
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: executive or whatever sport, with the field manager. You know,
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: we just talked to Michael even it can extend down
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 2: through player leadership. And I think when you have that alignment,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: you know, from top to bottom and bottom up, it
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: just it just it overcomes a lot of you know,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: what the challenges are. And you have some organizations now
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: that have that, like the Dodgers, that also have high
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: end resources. But you see organizations that have that, you know,
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 2: that don't have you know, that same level of revenue.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: But when they have that alignment, when they have that
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: forward thinking ownership group with a long term vision, it
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: can overcome a lot of those discrepancies on the revenue
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: side if they're there.
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I always felt that if you're looking
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: across all professional sports, the franchises that have sustained success,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: my theory is that they have synergy between the owner,
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: the general manager, and the head coach or manager. I
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: think the ones that a fleeting success probably have synergies
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: between two of the three, but not all three, and
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: the ones that have really struggled over prolonged periods of
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: time really have a lot of dysfunction. And you don't
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: need to look too much further beyond that to understand
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: kind of the trajectory of your franchise. So I'd like
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: to like look at it through a different lens.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 3: Now, JD.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: You're now one of the chief advisors for the Tampa
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: Bay Rays. It was just reported the other day that
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: they are in the process of closing a sale. So
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: from now the other perspective, there's going to be a
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: new owner in Tampa. By the way, Stu Sternberg is
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: probably regarded as one of the best owners in all
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: professional sports. He'll be leaving the franchise. But what is
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: this new owner getting, like explain to to the listeners,
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: like what is he buying in the Tampa Bay Rays?
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think important. I should just note that, you know,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 2: my knowledge of the you know, what's been reported as
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 2: the sale is largely from you know, the same media
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 2: reports that you're reading and others are reading. I really
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 2: don't have any insight or you know, I'm not involved
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 2: at that at that level, But I think, what when
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: I look at the Rays. You know, if I try
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: to put on a little bit more of an outsider
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 2: had look at you talk about that alignment. You know,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 2: Stu has owned the club for over twenty years now,
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: you know the same team president and Matt Silverman. They've had,
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: you know, two heads of baseball operations, and Andrew Friedman
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: and now and now Eric and you know, and Andrew
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 2: left on his own accord, you know, to take a
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 2: different challenge with the Dodgers have two managers with with
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 2: Joe Madden uh and and uh you know Kevin Cash
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 2: and and again Joe went to the Cubs on his
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 2: own accord. So you don't find that kind of continuity.
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 2: And you know, maybe the Pittsburgh Steelers. I mean there's
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: a there's very few organizations and all pro sports that
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: can even begin to compare to that. And I think
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 2: what what comes with that is a very mature decision
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 2: making group, a very built out and mature infrastructure, both
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 2: on the business side and on the baseball side. And
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 2: you know, along with a you know, I think when
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: you have the mindset from ownership to everything is kind
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 2: of a let's think a lot of smart decisions compounded
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: over time and we're always kind of looking out for
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: the best long term interests of the franchise. You end
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: up with a you know, a good farm system, you
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 2: end up with with the club without you know a
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 2: lot of bad money on the books, and you always
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 2: have the ability to kind of make decisions. So I think,
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 2: you know, that's what the Rays bring. You've got to,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 2: you know, an organization where the people love to the
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 2: culture is so good. I mean, people genuinely love to
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: be here. And it's because, you know, the management and
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: ownership cares about them, right. They have a conscience, they
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: have they have a spine of a backbone, and they
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: do things for the right reasons. And I you know,
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 2: maybe sometimes bypassing you know, short term gains for you know,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 2: much bigger long term benefit. And that's the at least,
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 2: you know, the three years I've I've worked with the Rays,
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 2: that's what I've seen, and it's a pretty special place.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 2: And I think if anybody were to come in in
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 2: an ownership capacity that they would benefit from that.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: You know, I'll say some things that maybe you're not
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: as as free to say right now, but I'm just
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: reading what I read online and it's it says that
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: the sale will be approximately one point seven billion, which
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: is very similar to what the Baltimore Orioles sold for
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: a few years ago one point seven two five billion,
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: and also a number that has been rumored here in
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: the market for Minnesota that that may be their target
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: goal as well. And it leaves me looking at it
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: and saying, well, that's interesting that all three of those
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: franchises are being valued similarly, and I just want to
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: try trumpet some of the successes that Tampa's had over
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: a long time arise and that you've been part of recently,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: because when you have that level of continuity and leadership,
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: one of the pitfalls is it often comes with complacency
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: and you don't stay reinvigorated. So the fact that they
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: have that level of continuity but are also viewed as
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: one of the most cutting edge franchises in all of sport,
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: not just baseball, but all of sports is pretty remarkable.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: So for an owner to step up and spend similar
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: to what was spent in Baltimore, similar to what is
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: projected to be spent in Minnesota, against the backdrop of
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: the fact that they're going to need to build a
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: new stadium and the attendance has always been a question
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: in that market. I think just goes to show how
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: they're valuing the infrastructure of the organization, both on the
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: business side, on the baseball operation side, the player pipeline
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: that has been created there, the talent at the major
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: league level, the coaching staff at the major league level,
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: all of those things have to be regarded as towards
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: the top of the game to garner the same a
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: price that they're garnering in light of the fact that
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: the attendance has been pretty unstable and you know, with
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: the recent hurricane and just the need to probably build
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: a new stadium being first front and center for that franchise,
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: those are pretty significant on the horizon for that franchise,
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: Yet it was still valued at that level. I think
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: it's a testament to everything stuos down there, Matt Silverman,
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: that the leadership group that you've talked about, and then
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: now you're a huge part of.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, echo all that. I mean, I think you look
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: around the game and in terms of personnel, I mean
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 2: you've got four or five gms that have come out
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 2: of this organization, you know, since since the Sternberg families
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 2: owned it, I think five or six major league managers,
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 2: endless number of you know, assistant gms and directors of
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 2: you know, you name it, R and D scouting. But
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 2: then the innovation that that that's come out, you know,
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 2: the shift, the opener. Uh, you know, I think a
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 2: lot of the catcher metrics that we look at the
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 2: different ways of analyzing players. And you know, the Tampa
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 2: Bay organization has had as big of an impact on
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 2: the game in Major League Baseball it really is maybe
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 2: any organization out there over the last two decades. And
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 2: that again for me, that that stems from ownership. And
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 2: you talked about the stadium situation. I think if you
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 2: were going to you know, kind of look at all
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 2: all the thirty clubs and what they and kind of
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 2: stack them up in different categories, the stadium question is
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 2: really the only one, you know, in my mind that uh,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 2: you know that Tampa has kind of open ended. I mean,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 2: there's so many other positives here organizationally, and obviously have
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 2: maybe a little bit rose colored glasses, but I think
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: objective enough, having been elsewhere for a long time to
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: see this is a pretty special organization. I think if
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 2: if somebody were going to come in and you know,
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: take over there's a lot to build on, and so
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 2: it'd be very interesting to see where they take it
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: from here.
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: Well, unequivocally, I can say, having never worked for Tampa
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: but competed with them, we're all trying to emulate what
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: they're doing. We see them as a north star in
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: terms of cutting edge development, and I don't think we're alone,
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: not only in baseball, but as I mentioned, across all
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: of sports. Well, that wraps our episode here at roster
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: st Rings. I want to spend special things to guest
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: host John Daniels and what incredible conversation with Michael Young.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: So stay tuned for next time. We'll see you in
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: a week on roster ster Rings. Please join me, host
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: bad Levine, Ryan McDonough and other general managers every week
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: for roster Syrings on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: your podcasts.