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Lovable Reunion - Theo Epstein on NEVER TOLD Game 7 story, building Cubs World Series roster | Ross & Rizzo · Ross and Rizzo Unfiltered

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, ladies and gentlemen, David Ross, Anthony Rizzo, Theo Epstein.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: We are now official with what do you call this?
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: The Slave?
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to another episode of Level Reunion.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Me and my partner David Ross are joined by three
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: time World Series champion, the greatest executive in baseball to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: ever do it, the Goat, theo Epstein, THEO.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the show.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Thanks for I thought take it easy on the intro.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well we can't, bro, we can't. This is fun
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: for us, man, We've been we've been looking forward to
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: this for a long time. Man, this is we appreciate
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: you doing this obviously, we love you to death, but
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: uh yeah, we can't. We've been telling these stories and
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: like to get you here at the end has been
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: really It's gonna be really fun.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: And we just got off the golf course. We're here
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: at Tamarack Country Club here in Greenwich, Connecticut. Had a
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: great match, well not great match. THEO and I were
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: on the team. ROSSI and Theo's good friend TiO waxed
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: us on the course.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Rossy needed a morale boost. He's doing bluetoo ads and stuff. Yeah, yeah,
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: I did work with Progo about himself.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: So Rossy's been unemployed for too long now, so fact
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: golf came is off the chart.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: So that's right, that's right.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Take us through.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Your journey, right, you break this curse with the Red Sox.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: You are twenty eight years old, You get that job,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: you have such an experience there, and then you come
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: to Chicago. What in twenty eleven to twelve, right, that
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: was your first year. Took the job in October twenty eleven,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: and all the experience you brought from the Red.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Sox coming to there, and how did it all unfold?
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a big question really. You know, when I
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: was getting towards the end of my time with the
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Red Sox, I was just asking myself questions like, you know,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: what do you want to do with the rest of
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: my career? What's important to me? What did I enjoy
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: most about my time with the Red Sox? And what
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: really resonated was, you know, I love I love being
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: a dam everything about it because I'm like super competitive,
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: so I love the competition and I love being part
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: of a team. So I love being you know in
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: that front office, you get where as close upstairs as
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: you guys are downstairs. And also feeling connected to you guys,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: the team and the clubhouse.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: So I knew I.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: Wanted to keep doing that. But ultimately the part that
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: really resonated the most of me was getting the sacrificing
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: with my guys shoulders shoulder and feeling like I played
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: a small part in something that really mattered to a
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: ton of people. Obviously, the four World championship in Boston,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: not having one in eighty six years, it just it
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: moved so many people, and to play a small part
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: and bringing joy to people just made me feel so good,
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: made me feel part of something bigger than myself. And
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: looking around baseball was like where else could you ever
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: get that feeling again? Like where is there a mission
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: that big that's still out there? So obviously Chicago, not
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: having won in over one hundred years, was the place
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: that was crying out. There's so many parallels between the
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Cubs and the Red Sox and that season when that
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: job became available, and the way everything happened at the
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: end of our season in and the Cubs came after me.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: I was just doing like a self inventory. And I've
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: always had this rule that after about ten years, someplace
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: you should look for something else to go do, both
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: for your own benefit to expand your horizons, challenge yourself
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: kind to start fresh, but also for the benefit of
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: the organizationency you don't get stale, they don't get stale.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: They can get fresh eyes in there. And it'd been
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: ten years with the Red Sox. It was just time.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: And when the Cubs came after me, I thought, Wow,
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: here's a chance to take all the lessons I learned
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: in Boston through. As you said, twenty eight when I
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: got that job. So I got so many things wrong,
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: but I learned so much along the way. I was
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: kind of making it up as I went along. There
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: hadn't ever led anything in my life, not even like
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: a lemonade stand, no business school classes or anything. Kind
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: of figured out how to lead, figured out how to manage,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: figure out how to bring people together. I thought, this
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: is such a perfect opportunity for the Cubs. They're they
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: haven't won in over one hundred years. As Jack Brickhouse said, Hey,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: anybody can have a bad century, right, That's where they
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: were at. I was like the worst team in the division,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: oldest team in the division, worst farm system. So it
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: was like a mandate to come in a blank slate
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: to build something. God chanced to do it with great people.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: It was clear Tom was an awesome owner. I say, man,
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: what a perfect opportunity to take the things I've learned
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: along the way and apply and build something from scratch
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: and kind of challenge myself and then the payoff if
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: you win is just as rewarding and just as resonant
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: as what you had in Boston. So it was kind
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: of a perfect fit for me.
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: I got to play in Boston and you brought me
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: there in eight and then thirteen winning and you mentioned
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: how many similarities there are between the two organizations. What
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: did you bring from Boston to Chicago that was important
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: to you Because a lot of guys have said a
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: lot of nice things about hy Treel Trump treated families,
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: you know, how the things were organized and everybody felt
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: so important. And that's what I felt the first time
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: I got to Boston, be in some other places. What
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: did you feel like was important to bring to Chicago
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: that you had learned in Boston And what did you
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: want to leave behind that maybe you like could have
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: done differently.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a big one. Is I felt like
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: over over time in Boston we'd grown into being like
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: a first class, kind of gold standard type organization along
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: with a couple others out there in baseball. And a
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: big part of it was how you treat players, how
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: you treat their families, how you operate. I had. I
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: had learned a lesson myself from from Craig Shipley, from
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: a player along the way back before I became a
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: game with the Padres, about always telling the truth the players,
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: always being totally upfront and honest. And I felt like
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: we kind of applied that as a as a front
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: office in Boston and started to get a good reputation
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: for how to treat people and handle players and build teams,
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: and so I wanted to take that with us, but
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: it was it was really important in some other baseball things,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: Like I wanted to commit like I had, you know,
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: we'd build some teams around some core principles, like controlling
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: the strike zone on both sides of the ball, Like
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: I knew when when we got to Chicago, like, hey,
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: we're gonna we're gonna try to be a disciplined team
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: that dominates the strike zone as an offense, and we're
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: gonna got pictures who have good stuff, but pound the zone.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: It's certain like core, big, big baseball principles. But one
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: thing that we didn't want to do and that felt
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: was important not to do, was just show up in Chicago.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Were just like, you know, kind of like outside reputation
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: because it was a big deal when I came in.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: People were expecting like, oh, this guy's going to come
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: in with all the answers, and Chicago's different than Boston.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: So I didn't want to just roll out the same
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: playbook that we had in Boston in Chicago and expect
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: it to work. For one thing, it would have been
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: like super arrogant. It would have not shown like an
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: awareness of the uniqueness of the market and the fan
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: base that every situation is different. So like the first
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: thing we did when I got to Chicago we held
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: organizational wide meetings with like every scout, every coach, everyone
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: in baseball operations, every analyst in mesa. We spent like
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: four days getting together and together like deciding what's the
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: Cub's way going to be, how do we want to
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: play baseball, how do we want to teach baseball. We
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: spent a day on hitting and like hitting philosophy and
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: what we want to emphasize how we want to teach it,
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: like at every level, including the big leagues, day on pitching,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: a day on defense and base running, and then day
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: on like makeup, like what kind of players we wanted
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: and what do we want to stand for? What kind
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: of values and it you know, yes, I like gave
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: a big speech and talked about the vision and talked
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: about controlling the strike zone and like set that vision
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: of what we're trying to become, like five year plan,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: become the best organization baseball, win in a World Series
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: all that, But how we're going to get there That
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: was going to come from like the collective wisdom of
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: everyone in the room. And it wasn't going to be
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: the same playbook in Boston. So we kept everyone that
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: we inherited in Chicago for at least a year, and
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: you know, to give everyone a chance to be part
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: of what we were building. And then also to get
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: the institutional knowledge. And you know, you don't want to
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: just get rid of people when you show up somewhere new.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: And there were some great people who knew a ton
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: about how to win and how to develop players, and
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: also about Chicago and what works in Chicago and what doesn't.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: So coming out of those meetings, we had, you know,
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: like a three hundred page manual we ended up writing
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: up called The Cubs Away. That was a big part
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: of the blue print, and it was going to be
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: unique and different than what we did in Boston because
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: different market, different fan bases, and different challenges that we face.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: Well, I look back a little bit, and you're talking
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: about like in a day and age right now, that's
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: just kind of side note, Like you put a lot
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: of emphasis on the character of the play, Like you
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: brought in a lot of good character guys. Did that
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: come from your time in baseball learning?
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that came learning from a lot of great people
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: and then my own personal evolution. You know, I was
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: lucky enough to have a great mentor in San Diego,
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: Kevin Towers, who was unfortunately we lost him, you know,
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: many years ago now, but he was like hot young
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: GM at the time, and he had a scouting background
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: and he understood people incredibly well, and so he well
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: he saw that like a hole in my resume and
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: not having played professionally, was like maybe I didn't have
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: the scouting side down. So he taught me how to scout,
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: took me out all around southern California, and I seeing
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: guys with the draft taught me at a scout. But
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: even more importantly, he'd bring me down to the clubhouse
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: with him and like teach me how players really think
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: and what really goes on behind the scenes, and like
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: what really matters in the clubhouse. So that was that
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: was huge for me to get that understanding. But like
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: even so because my background was like just as much
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: in analytics and numbers and like kind of being out
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: front on that side of the game. When I first
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: got to the Red Sox, you know, I did really
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: emphasize analytics, and it was so easy back then to
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: get a competitive advantage just by using like some really
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: basic modeling and basic analytics. I mean, my first off
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: season with the Red Sox, we signed David Ortiz for
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: one point two five million dollars one years.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Well, that's good.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: He turned he turned into big poppy and didn't see
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: that one coming.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: That was good.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: And then your molar for like two years, two million years,
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: Bill Miller, two years, two million year. It was just
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: if you if you had a basic understanding of like
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: how the numbers could help you project the guy's performance
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: going forward, it was like shooting fish in a barrel.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: So my default at the time was like, yes, I
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: cared about who players are as people, I cared about character,
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: and I put teams together. But in the end, like
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: I was, I was going to come back to the
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: numbers and something had to make sense by the numbers.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: And then over time just being in clubhouses and seeing
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: which teams overachieved, which teams underachieved, which teams came through
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: when it mattered most, which teams were like torn apart
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: from the inside. And we had it all from in
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: my time at Boston, from coming back down oh three,
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: to the Yankees to the fried Chicken and beer fiasco
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: in twenty eleven, I saw like every side of it,
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: and I just came to realize that, you know, the
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: human being, the character, the person, beyond just what the
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: spreadsheet projects for future performance really matters. I know it's cliche, like, yeah,
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: you know, chemistry, If chemistry were so important, then you
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: would just build a team based on great guys and no,
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: obviously talent matters, but how the pieces fit together. I mean,
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: I get frustrated when people say, like it doesn't you know,
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: chemistry doesn't really matter. You know, ultimately it's just it's
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: just a talent that wins out. Because I ask them, like.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: And winning, they always say winning creates winning.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah. People look at winning teams and then their reductiveness
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: that oh they can yeah because you won. But you
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: know some And I hear it from everybody in all
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: lines of work, and I ask them like, Okay, what
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: do you do for a living? Okay, you work at
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: an investment firm. Okay, well, when you show up to
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: the office each day, or you work as a teacher,
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: you work as a general whatever it is, when you
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: show up to work each day. Does it matter to
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: you if you understand, like the mission of what you
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: guys are there for, what you're trying to accomplish, what
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: the big picture vision is. Does it matter to you
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: if you feel like you're connected to it and you're
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: making a difference. Does it matter to you how you
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: feel about your colleagues, you know, whether whether you respect
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: them and they respect you, whether you admire them they
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: admire you, whether they take the time to get to
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: know you and understand what makes you tick, Whether you
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: guys create a real connection so that when things aren't
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: going well, you can be there for each other, or
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: do you not care and it doesn't matter what's going
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: on around you and you just do your own thing, Like,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: oh no, it really matters. I need to feel connected
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: to my colleagues. I need to feel like part of
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: something that matters well, Like same thing with baseball times
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: one hundred, because you're playing one hundred and sixty two
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: games and one hundred and eighty three games. It's a
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: game built on failure. No one can do it by themselves.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: And like you guys know better than anyone. I learned
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: this from you guys. Is you know the huge part
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: of a winning team is the connection that players feel
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: towards each other before the shit hits the fan. You
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: have to take the time to build those relationships, get
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: to know each other, have that bond, have that fraternal connection,
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: really care and be there for each other. So when
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: shit starts to go off the rails, whether it's an
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: OH for twenty and you need someone to like not
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: a coach, but you need a player to be there
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: with you after the game. Have a couple of beers,
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: watch video, go take swings, go take naked swings. Whever
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: you doing a good out of it, you know or
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: or you know you're you're you know, things just aren't
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: going your way. You're not getting playing time. All of
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: a sudden, we have three catchers.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Whatever.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: Maybe you have to you have to put the investment
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: in each other. You have to have the right character.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: Guys like you and you and many others we were
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: lucky to have on the twenty sixteen Cups looking out
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: for the team, bringing people, bringing guys back into the group,
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: making sure that someone's always there for them, because like
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: those relationships and ultimately the chemistry that comes from that matters,
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: And like that's a huge part of the secret sauce
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: is if you can get to a point where the
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: players on that team and the people in the organization,
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: because it's more than just the player to feel connected,
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: feel that they know what the big mission is, and
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: then all of a sudden, they start feeling like they're
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: part of something bigger than themselves. That's goal. That's when
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: you overachieve, that's when you do great things. That's when
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: that's when ultimately, I think teams really win. And like
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: we all felt that way as kids, Like when you're
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: playing Little League, most important thing in the world to you, right,
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: you're there for each other, your teammates. But then as
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: you grow up and you become like the real world
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: hits you have to start looking out for you know,
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: a family that you may have. You look out for
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: your income. Your agent's telling you, hey, there's some stuff.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Joe's five levels, a big lat Yeah, there's something about
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the warm summer air and a cold corona. The line
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: that makes the roar of the crowds sound a lot
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: like the roar of the waves.
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: That's because this is our plaia, and the best seats
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: are always wherever you're sitting, whether it's a week.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Night game under the lights or a Sunday afternoon in
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: the sun. You know, baseball isn't about rushing around.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: It's about sitting in, letting the game come to you.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: And nothing pairs better than an ice cold corona.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Nothing.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: So find your seat, your corona, in your line, because
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: real fans know only thing better than nine innings is
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: extra innings, especially on Laplaia means beach Corona laply awaits
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the official surveys of Major League Baseball.
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: Get yours at Order Corona dot com for twenty one
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: one plus Relaxed Responsibly Corona Extra Beer imported by Crown
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: Imports Chicago, Illinois.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: A show I'm so excited to see in July is
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: bon Jovi at the Garden.
• 15:10
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• 17:53
  Speaker 4: So the question next is like, why did you go
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: get Anthony Rismel both you guys?
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Guy before before that though that what you just explained
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: is the epitome of our team. And now we've done
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: a bunch of these and interviewed a ton of guys.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: The stories there we all loved each other, we all
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: cared about each other, and I date back to being
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: drafted by the Red Sox, and seven I had Las
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Gudierras who scouted me and came to our house. Still,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: whenever I talked to my parents' house, sitting at that table,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: my mom was just talking about the other day, likes
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: sitting right there, coming in and interviewing my parents and
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: really doing the background work of coaches and what kind
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: of guy is Anthony? Because if you look at video
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: of me from like my perfect game days when we
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: were talking about this, I was.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Terrible, and I was like, what did you see in me?
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Like you should be fired for drafting me.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: I was.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: I look at myself back then. I was so bad.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: But you and j Mac and everyone.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: It's a huge part of it, the human side, starting
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: with the draft, and especially if you're taking a high
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: school guy, because college does a good job of like
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: weeding out the guys who just don't have it up
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: here or in here. They're not gonna usually perform in college,
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: but in high school you don't know, because you're a
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: big fish in a little pond, and things tend to
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: come easier in high school for for for really good players.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: So we had this rule where like if as a scout,
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: if you're gonna expect us to draft a high school guy,
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: you better write like a Russian novel about this.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: And really you have to know makes sense, like you
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: have to find that.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: You have to find like three Well, first of all,
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: you can't show up draft here and get to know him.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: You have to get to know him from like the
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: time he's a freshman, and you have to talk to
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: the girlfriends, the ex girlfriends, the teammates, talk to his friends,
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: talk to his enemies, talk to the teachers, talk to
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: like the equipment guys. How does he treat them when
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: no one's looking? And then you have to list like
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: three examples of how a player of times a player
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: faced adversity on the field and how he responded, three
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: examples of a time a player faced adversity off the
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: field and how he responded.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Just because we're going to invest how you didn't run
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: a limit, h stand.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: But if you're going to get to a point where
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: you're expecting to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: you know, in a round higher than yourself millions of
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: dollars of mister Henry or mister Ricketts money, like we
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: have to know not just your skills on the field,
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: but who you are as a person. So when adversity strikes,
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: and for you it struck your first year of professional
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: baseball when you got sick, and how and how how
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: that person is going to respond. So we felt like
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: if we were drafting a high school guy, we needed
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: to know not just you know, who he was as
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: a person, but even projecting that human being out tenure,
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: how's he going to act as a twenty seven in
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: the prime year old in the prime of his career.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: So yeah, that's that's a really big part of it.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, coming well, coming into the Red Sox organization, what
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: you said brought you brought there to Chicago, the Red
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Sox were first class. The whole minor leagues was first class.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: They taught me so much respect about the game and
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: the minor league. I never was a big league camp.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: It was just the minor leagues and it was first
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: class all the way through. So when I did get
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: over to Chicago, I remember talking to you and you
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: said to me, hey, like, let me know how we
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: can get better every way possible, and the cliche when
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: we first got there, everyone in the organization, oh, well,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: this is what we've always done right right, Otis Otis
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: rest in Peace was strolling out baseballs and shopping carts,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, Otis, I go my first big league
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: camp and I'm just talking to them. Hey, I go,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: you think we could get you think we get the
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: buckets like everyone else has now in the big leagues. He' said, Oh, no,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: it's how we've always done it. And I go, Otis,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: we haven't won in one hundred.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: That's a coincidence. Yeah, it was. It was a big,
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: big time culture change. But I feel like everyone got
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: on board right, Like we learned some of the great
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: things that were already in place in the organization, and
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: everyone was open minded. The fact that you know, we'd
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: won in Boston was helpful because people were like, oh,
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: let's get on board.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: But you know, how do you address that though? Like
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: first day walking in, you're just hey, guys, I'm here.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: We're going to do this three hundred page met the
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Cubs way Like it was.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: It was that that those org meetings, you know, where
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: I think people were kind of like a little bit
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: on edd like is this guy just going to come
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: in and clean house? Is he going to come in
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: like tell us this is how it's done, and so
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: I kind of like overdid it on the collaborative side,
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: making sure every voice was heard, everyone was listening to.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: I do believe like empathy is a really powerful tool
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: in leadership, both in the front office and making sure
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: people you know, know that you know where they're coming from,
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: what their hopes and dreams are, what their aspirations are.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: Take the time to get to know them, what they're
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: trying to accomplish, how to put them in a position
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: to do well. And with players too, Like another lesson
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: learned along the way from players is we Gary DiSarcina,
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: who we were like the best. We brought in with
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: the Red Sox when he was done playing, and we
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: remember one day is in the office and we were like, oh,
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: let's go look at your old scouting reports I view
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: as a player, and he kept looking through the scouting
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: reports and be like, God, they never told me this.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: He's like, you know, had trouble going away, play bad,
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: two strike approach, whatever. And he's like, man, if they
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: would have told me this, I would have gotten in
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: the big league so much quicker. So then we're like, well,
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: there shouldn't be any secrets, Like why should we be right,
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: writing evaluations of players not so that's where the remember
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: individual player development plans and in the leagues, that's where
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: that came from. Is okay, we're gonna it's our responsibility
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: to write up for every player in the organization, what
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: are your straints, what are your weaknesses, and what's a
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: plan to turn your weaknesses in the strengths like physically,
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: mentally and fundamentally, So there's no secrets. And then the
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: player starts. You know, first of all, you develop trust
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: because you're working together to develop the player. And then
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: he starts to take charge of his own development, starts
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: running those meetings and anyway, So that was that's the
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: culture that you want to create.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: And the trust, yeah, trust is. Trust is huge, transparent,
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: trust is it comes organic.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: And that's a big part of being being a GM
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: or running a baseball organization is like you have to
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: foster trust with like yourself and the players yourself, and
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: the manager yourself, and the owner yourself, and the fans
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: and then all the different constituencies to each other because
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: when it breaks down, you have, especially in a place
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: like Boston or Chicago, you just complete toxicity coure and
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: like your weakest link is going to be exposed in
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: those markets and then it just becomes chaos. And I've
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: lived through it, so like going out of your way
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: to like show that empathy, make sure it's genuine, like
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: connect people, bring them along, and then you start to
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: have a culture that like takes over, whereas people like
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: each other, people trust each other, people know they're in
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: it together. Like we've both sat on opposite sides of
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: the table, like contract negotiations, you and I know, out
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: GM we were like open exchange of like hey, I
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: don't think you're doing this right way, Like hey I
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: don't think you're looking at the right way. Let's hash
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: it out, and like you're not always going to be
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: on the same side of the table.
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: But those are so healthy because it's all out in
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: the open.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: And if you learn to do it like directly and
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: with accountability and with honesty and with trust, like that's
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: what creates the culture because then people see that, go
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: our leaders are being honest, they're admitting when they're wrong,
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: they're being accountable, they're being vulnerable, and then like the
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: culture of the entire organization starts getting lifted. Whereas if
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: your leaders are out like when times are tough, like
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: blaming everybody else or when things are going well, taking
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: all the credit, like you won't have a corrupt organization
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: in no time flat. So that's what we were trying
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: to bring to Chicago. And I thought that the one
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: great thing be going for is in addition to Tom
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: and the Ricketts family and like everyone there being so
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: open and like wanting to change and wanting to win,
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: and like a loving fan base, like giving us energy
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: to propelsis we all knew why we were there. You said,
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: I remember when we traded for you, and I called
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: you first of all, was like, I told you we
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: were going to get you back.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: And then someone I don't remember who told me it was.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: I believe it was someone in the Boston media when
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: you traded me. I came back in twenty eleven as
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: a Padres with the Padres to Boston, and someone in
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: the Boston media said that was really hard for THEO
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: and he said he's going to get you back, and
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: I've never heard him say about a player.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: And I get stuck with me because then you traded
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: for me again.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I was like, and when we were on
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: the phone, I said, I told you I was going
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: to get you back and then and you said, like
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: this is unbelievable, like I want to be part of this.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: We're here to win a World Series like first time
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: in over one hundred years, and you knew that when
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: we signed you are you coming one mission?
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: And well, you said you sent us a video. You
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: had a hype video like before anybody was sending hype videos.
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: And I got this video, Uh, DVD back, you're right
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: and put it in and it's like this whole like
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: it was talking about the day games had Carrie Wood,
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: it was talking about what the ballparky hell is footage,
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: and then the video at the end ended with now batting.
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: It had the World Series on the board, now batting,
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: David Ross your number up and like and it just
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: gonna be chills thinking about it that we ended up
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: freaking doing it. But it's like you had that vision
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: and the fact that, like you know, they talk about
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: manifestation and stuff like you your vision and setting the
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: the process has to go through. But like you, we
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: all knew what our goal was. And when I signed
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: in Chicago, it's like, no, there's one goal here. You're
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: going to get Johnny Lester and like it's time, it's
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: time to go.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: But that wasn't like any great alchemy I came up with.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: It was obvious what we were there for. And I
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: thought the sixteen team, and starting with fifteen for sure,
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: and even towards the end of fourteen started to come together.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: But I didn't have to sit up there and give
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: some bullshit speeches about what we were trying to accomplish,
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: Like we all knew what we were there. Why were
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: you sacrificing? Why are you putting in the hours? Like
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: why were we going through this grind? It's obvious because
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: like this group of players that were putting together, that's
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: coming up through the farm system together. You were the
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: first one up, and then the other guys came, and
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: the free agents that we brought in, and the big
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: money guys and the veterans and know how to lead,
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: like we're all here for one purpose, and everyone bought
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: in and that brought us together quickly and in a
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: way where like we can overcome a lot together. So
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: we had that go.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Mission when you got there, though we were well, I
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: was bad, but it was I mean, we're ving. There's
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: no disrespect to anyone previous. It was just a different time.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: But I remember you telling me we were still doing
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: scouting reports on paper, right triple it.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like the carbon paper every teams were having like
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: like crazy proprietary software system. Our scouting reports are like
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: on red, green and white paper on Yeah.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: I just remember hearing that, and we go from that.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: To the the best facility in Mesa to redoing Wrigley.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: But when you when you're talking to mister Ricketts in
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: the family, is this like a hey, I'm gonna this
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: is my vision.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: It's going to take six years, is going to take
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: eight years? Is it to take three years? Or you
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: don't put a time limit on the On.
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: The baseball well, first of all is you know Tom
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: and his family and then the business side, like they
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: all did an unbelievable job on on the facilities and wrigglely.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: Feels it all happened the same time.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: So it was it was a ton of synergy. But
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: on the baseball side, yeah, I mean kind of it's
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: kind of cliche, but like laid it out as a
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: five year plan. One of the reasons I I felt
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: comfortable coming to the Cubs. I had this dinner with
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: Tom before and we made everything official. I was like,
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: I need to know if this guy's like genuine, if
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: he kind of gets it, and then if he's if
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: he's pretty like loyal, supportive and patient, and if he
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: if if if you know, I thought that he wanted
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: me to come in and like you, I think Prince
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: Fielder and uh pooh Hols were like the two big
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: free agents that first offseason. Like if you think you
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: think I'm coming in to like sign Poohols or Prince
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: Fielder and like put lipstick on a pig and think
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: we can compete right away, Like this is not the
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: place for me. But he was like totally supportive about
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: doing it the right way. And Paige, so yeah, kind
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: of laid out a five year plan. We're gonna every
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: season sacred, but when our long term interests conflict with
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: our short term interests, we're gonna err on the side
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: of our long term interest every time. It's probably gonna
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: mean we have like a few deadlines in a row,
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: We're trading your favorite player. We're gonna, you know, ask
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: our fans, be opening up front. He's a big market.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: Rebuilding doesn't usually happen, so it was pretty that was
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: part of the plans. It's like, be honest, be transparent.
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: Ask our fans like fall the draft, follow our prospects,
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: follow our minor league system so that they're part of
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: the journey. And when these guys start coming up here,
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: you know, things will things will turn around. And remember
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: telling the fans of Cubs convention because like you know
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: how that is, you're on the hot seat and they
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: want to win. Like yesterday, I was like just asking
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: for patients, hold me accountable, like, you know, if we
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: don't we don't hit on our first round picks, if
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: we don't hit on these trades, like you should hold
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: me accountable. Luckily, for the most part we did. Yeah,
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: it was a five year plan and uh you know, luckily,
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: like five years after the day I was tired, we
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: were playing a World Series game. Every we feel so
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: I got they got that. Thank god that television man.
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: Walk us through. So some important trade. Twenty fourteen was
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: a big trade deadline year for for you.
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: Like that was the last year that we really remember.
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: That was because there were a couple of big ones
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: leading up to that. But thirteen thirteen, yeah, that was
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: thirty time. We got to fourteen. I remember because we
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: like we we were all stick and tired of like
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: trading our best players every trade deadline. But that was
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: the year we had a chance to like package a
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: couple of guys together samarjat Addie and Jason Hamill bring aison.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: And I remember I think I came out of the club.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: I remember, like yesterday I told you it was like,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: this is it, Like I remember talking to you because
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: we we had the relationship and this was.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: They were so good.
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: Seriously, they're like the trades is real fish that story.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: But I like you came in and it was like
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: this is it and we felt it too because we
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: were getting better in twelve when I called up, we stunk.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Uh Dempster trade was amazing. Thank you Ryan Dempster for
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: saying that, Hendrick.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: Thanks thank thirteen.
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: So pissed. I was in Atlanta and we haven't heard
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: we were getting in so yeah, yeah, nofense Paul mahon
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: but we got like Paul mahoma. Yeah, it was like
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: you were.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: Like we had damn yeah it damp came to me.
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: He goes, sometimes it's better to be the hammer than
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: the now. I remember that death was in the office
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: and at the old he was playing Golden Tea were
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: trying to trade him, like, come on, Damp, you won't
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: go to.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: That's why I did.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: Ryan Dempster's the best there ever is but love you.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: And then thirteen Area and Trophy and I'm sure there's
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: a few others along the way for all all while
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: we have amazing guys that you're kind of bringing in
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: as well with Dajesus well jesus Is Ryan Sweeney was
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: like just really good dudes that were there.
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: We missed plenty of dudes on the way too, but yeah,
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: it was starting to come again.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: And then the drafts KB, Schwarber, Hobby, how more half.
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: Hobby and Faris for us, but they came up through
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: the system with that group.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: So just on that contras international, yeah.
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: But on that point like making those for him, Yeah,
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: the now I lost my train thought.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Go well, I remember going into twenty fifteen at the
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Cubs convention. I was, you know, a young player. I
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: was coming off my first All Star game, not about
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: me and I would it was like riding this high.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: We just we get Joe Madden, which we'll talk about
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: getting him, and we signed John Lester.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: We get you, and I knew how important he works.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: We just met and.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: I'm in some school doing something for Cubs charities, and
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: I liked pop off to the media saying, yeah, we're
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: gonna win the division this year, like we're gonna do it,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: like almost staking a claim before we were even qualified
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: to do it. But I just believed it.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: That's why it was hard and fourteen because you guys
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: are grinding for so long and it's slowly starting to turn.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: I felt bad about trading forty percent of our rotation again,
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: but I knew that was the last piece, like we
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: needed another you know, going dynamic infield or with things
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: that he could do defensively and the bad potential there.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: But that's why Cam was like, hey, this is it,
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: Like if we do our jobs right, this is the
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: last time we're gonna have to trade. And then it
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: was obvious by the time we got to fifteen, like
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: we knew within the organization, within the clubhouse that we
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: were good and that it was time to the outside
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: world didn't know. That's why like fifteen with the Cubs
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: and three with the Red Sox are two of my
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: favorite years. Like the year before, yeah, we were in
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: the World Series because it was like our little secret,
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: like we knew how good we were in fifteen, but
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: we were in like third place most of the year.
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: It was it was building. You can see the young
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: players developing, you can see like the leadership ability starting
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: to come out, and we knew we were good. We
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: ended up having that unbelievable run in the playoffs. The
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: Pittsburgh game is huge, the Cardinals series, But for that
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: fifteen season, it felt like we knew in the world.
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: Didn't like we were like a rock band that was
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: blown up big, but we're still playing like the small clubs.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: And then by the time we got the sixteen it's
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: like the stadium tour. Okay, now it's time. Yeah, it's all.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: It's a great but a great way to look at it.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: That fifteen team was special.
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: That was a space. Yeah. We talked about that a lot,
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: like when do we know we were good? Yeah, you know,
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: it's kind of when that that San Francisco series everybody's
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: talked about tell us about going out and getting Joe Madden.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so that was that was uh, you know going
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: into fifteen.
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and you had a history with interviewing him in
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: Boston and got the Yeah.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: So this is this is after Ricky's first year. So
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: it's it's off season twenty fourteen. Ten years before that,
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: we had a managerial opening in Boston after the three
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: season after Grady Little, and we ran an interview process
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: and the two finalists for the job were Terry Francona
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: and Joe Madden. And so have like long interview with Joe.
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: Loved him, like thought he was like the most unique
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: baseball mind, like dynamic, creative, three too change, oh yeah,
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: you know three. But I felt like it was like
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: just too much, a bridge too far, like the glasses,
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: like the zaniness about I'm like, if this goes wrong,
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: the first couple in Boston were fucked and just following
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: and Tito was the right guy from the job because
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: he had already managed and Tito, Tito was a hot
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: shot managerial prospect. You got a chance with the Phillies
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: and like it didn't go great the first time, but
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: just like we've talked about, all the lessons that you
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: learned you can go through the first time just makes
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: you better your second time. And like that that's really
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: how you how do you prepare for being like an
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: elite major league manager by doing it and learning how
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: to do the job and so Tito was sitting there
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: and he ended up being the right pick for that job.
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: But I always had Joe kind of the back of
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: my mind. And then it was just like dumb luck
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: that when Andrew Friedman left to go to the Dodgers,
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: Joe had a clause in his contract made he get
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: exercised out and become a free agent. So it was
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: a tough situation because Ricky had just been there a year.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: As one of those times where like you can't do
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: right by everybody. We were kind of in a situation
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: where we had to either be loyal to Ricky or
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: be loyal to the Cubs organization, all the fans, like
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: everything we've been building, and so yeah, your first loyalty
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: is to the organization. So he ended up making that
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: move and going hard after Joe.
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: When he was a perfect fit for our group. Like
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: he was just like such a like took all the
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: pressures of the city and the media, and you know,
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: he just took all that off a young group's play,
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: even with Oro and he let us, you know, the
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: veterans and the young guy Joe.
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: He was the person guy at the perfect time, and
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: we had struggled a little bit to find like that
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: right fit with in the major league clubhouse. Like the
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: morale turned round first in the organization in the minor
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: leagues and it's got you were a part of that
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: and you came up kind of quick. But like we
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: we were, we were we were good, really good, like
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: the top minor league system, and like we knew we
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: were good, and our players knew they were good, and
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: like it started to mean something to be a Cub
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: and like we said, like that's cub.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: You know, and you like McDonald.
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: So morale was really going going well in the organization,
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: but we couldn't finish off that last piece. And like
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: in the major league clubhouse, and it's hard because you've
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: got veterans who are coming in thinking they're getting traded
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: at the deadline. You got guys on one year of
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: free agent contracts, no one sure if they're like going
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: to be part of it and see it all the
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: way through to the end. And it was hard. And
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: you know, we went through our ups and downs in
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: in in that clubhouse with their chemistry and the way
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: everyone felt about each other. And then Joe is just
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: the finishing piece because we knew we had we were
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: gonna have a really good team. But we're gonna have
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: a really good young team. And I think one of
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: Joe's superpowers is his ability to take young players in
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: the big leagues and what's normally like a three year
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: adjustment period he can turn into like a six week
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: adjustment period because he he's just so disarming. He makes
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: guys feel comfortable. All they have to do is be themselves.
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: If you think you look hot, wear it. It's like, yes,
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: that's kind of like a funny little dressing. But it's
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: a big deal deal because now all of a sudden,
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: guys came up from minor leagues instead of like trying
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: to be seen but not heard, just trying to fit in,
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: Like I'm supposed to put a suit on him in
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: the big leie, I don't know what to do with
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: someone better it might yell at me. Joe and with
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: your guys's help, created this culture where like, no, the
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: way you fit in is by like play hard, play
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: your ass off, but be yourself and have fun and
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: just fucking let it all hang out. Ended up, we
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: had the youngest group of position players ever to win
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: a World Seria. Like, think about what we have. We
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: had like guys twenties.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you're all under twenty six.
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like rookie catcher playing a lot, Rocky shortstop, Rickie
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: second base, like all around the field. And I give
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: Joe a ton of credit for that, especially like his
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: first couple of years. It's such a culture shock, the
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: change that he becomes almost this like cult leader figure,
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: where like everything that he says, everyone buys into and
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: it completely changes the dynamic. The first few years it
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: was like, guys, you know, run through a wall for
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: Joe and do anything. It was a huge part of
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: what we accomplished.
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: I know I was going to ask earlier there's a
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: little bit of a narrative that I had heard and
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: clarify this, but you wanted to draft a ton of
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: position players and by your pitching, who kind of ended
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: what you know, when you go out and get a lester.
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: We're talking about him next. But yeah, that was that
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: like a theory going into like the big picture playing
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: a lot.
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: That was a strategic approach, mainly because it sort of
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: makes good good sense if you look at the numbers,
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: just the injury rates with pictures, but also rebuilding in
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: a big market. We knew we didn't have like forever,
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: like you've got to hit on your first round picks,
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: and and like you can't afford too many misses, or
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: like someone else is going to be going to be
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: coming in and running it. In Chicago, it's not like
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: a small market where you might have a decade to rebuild,
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: like we had to do it right away. So if
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: you look at the hit rates with the first round
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: picks and higher first round picks, position players much much
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: greater certainty than with pitchers. And obviously position players stay
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: a lot healthier. And at the time it was, it
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: was it was real tough to break in young pitching
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: into the big leaes. Now I think it's flipped with
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: the way modern pitching has evolved. Now I think it's
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: almost easier to break in young pitching. It's really hard
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: for young bats, Like.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: Now you need like throw if you throw a hundred
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: and you could throw strikes.
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: Here exactly tracked. But back then that was the end
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: of the era. It was harder to break in young pitching.
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: So it's like, you know what, let's let's look for
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: position players where we know their talent, we know they're
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: going to stay healthy, we know what they bring to
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: the table, and we know their personalities and their character
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: because position players also impact your culture way more than
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: pictures do. So like big part of the reason why
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: we drafted Schwarber is just like who he is as
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: a person and as a leader. Chris Bryant like no
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: risk whatsoever with him, and his personality is like too
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: good to be true, like all American kids like showing
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: up and and if you know, we had chances to
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: draft pictures. There were some good pictures available at those times.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Ever, when I was, we were there, ever picked a
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: picture we tried, we d it was twelve.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: Do you remember your first draft pick?
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: Twelve was Amara, thirteen was Bryant, fourteen was Schwarber, fifteen
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: was hot.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: Wow about those names, huh? Who had?
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah? And then sixteen came around. Even that first round
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: pick in Schwarber's year. We actually saved money on Schwarbur
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: because he wasn't supposed to go up high where he did,
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: so we saved the money and we use that money
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: on two high school pictures, Dylan Cease and Justin Steele
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: heard draft and then sixteen Nico Yeah, Nico was was
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: No Nico was seventeen. After that, Yeah, seventeen or eighteen.
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: But anyway, nail did well the first round picks on great.
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: We didn't do so great deeper in the draft, but
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: can't can't nail them all. But no, it was good.
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: But a big part of drafting the position players was
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: we only have one chance to do this. Get the
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: certainty they can affect the culture, and then like, we're
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: going to be good, So let's let's use our chips
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: to trade for some now pitching and then if if
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: we have a free agent bullet to fire, let's bring
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: in some pitching that's ready to win and knows how
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: to do it. And that's where John Lesner perfect guy
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: at the perfect time, because we'd we'd hit on Hendrix
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: with a small trade, we hit on Areata with another
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: another deadline deal.
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: That's when I knew there's gonna be good. We faced
• 42:40
  Speaker 4: him and we almost do that no hitter in Boston
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: and I played that guy.
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: Oh it was yeah.
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: I mean he was the nastiest stuff.
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: He always had like the elite stuff, but he was
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: just he was kind of out of his comfort zone
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: in Baltimore. There he wasn't himself, he wasn't comfortable, and
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: we got him it was just like our whole plan
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: was tell him, like, hey, we just want you to
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: be yourself, like here's what we see. And he showed
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: up and he said like, guys, can I please be myself?
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: Were like, yes, that's why you're here, and he was.
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: He was up so quickly. But then so we had
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: those two.
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: Guys and then handled back. You know.
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but Lester was a huge part of it because
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: we needed we needed like another a leader on the
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: pitching staff, meaning someone who'd won before, and we needed
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: we needed some like grit and something, yeah the resume
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: and you bring in Lester and Lackey and like now
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: it's not now now you're young guys are going to
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: like get tough and you and gonna get toughened up
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: in a hurricane. It's like these days it's just not
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: there's not as much like of the veteran toughness, like
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: tougher up the young players and the bailies. But back then,
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: the veteran players weren't afraid to like tell the young guys, yes,
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: be yourself, but like this is the standard we're holding
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: you to, and like this is.
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: How you win.
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: And you guys, you know, the guys who we brought
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: in who'd won, like Lester and Lackey and you, like,
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: they weren't shy, and that really helped take the.
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: Call told Johnny told the story about you going like this, Yeah,
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: when he signed, can you give me a swee on
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: the road, you just kept drinking your beer going to.
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: Five and answers the question how many beers I need
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: to have to give David Ross a multi yr contract?
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: So the answer was about stabbing. Yeah, that was but
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: we knew, we knew, you know, one of the things
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: comes with Don Lester is like he's got to have
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: a catcher that is his and that he believes in.
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: And we had already had our eye on you because
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: we needed a couple more leaders in the room who
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: who were thoughtful and intentional about winning and creating the
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: right time. Right we're trying to transition from just like
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: young and talented but losing culture to like winning and
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: winning now.
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: And you're traded for Maggie that offseason too.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: I was going to say that, making, in my opinion,
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: the most underrated trades. And when I was there in
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: the franchise, because he brought that edge, he was able
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: to communicate really well with the Latin players as well.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: He spoke great or good, very good broken English. He
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: still speaks very good broken English. But he's a great dude.
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: Because you got Joe and a bunch of like twenty
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: year old players running around and like penguins and the
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: zoo and stuff, and we were great at having fun,
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: but we also needed that like the tough bildt in
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: that edge and accountability about what we're trying to accomplish
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: because it was time to go, like we weren't mess
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: around anymore. And so you guys and all the players
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: we mentioned like really brought that head.
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: So you feel good fifteen going into the offseason. You
• 45:24
  Speaker 4: really we had a heartbro heart broken heart David Dania Murphys.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: I never forget I've don'e say, but great dude player
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: with them good teammates.
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: We're gonna let you go out and you get you know, Heyward,
• 45:39
  Speaker 4: you get Lacky, you get Zoe, Like I mean, like
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: now you got some dudes that have been around and
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: like really big contracts. But and obviously those guys were
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: big part, but like a real one that we don't
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: talk about, like the Dexter walk us through the Dexter,
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: bringing dex back like that, that's you kind of rigal.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: Were like done with them, right, like go to your thing,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: and he was still there and yeah, come March, you.
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: Stayed in touch.
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: We traded, we traded for him and going into his
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: contract year and we're like, because there were you know,
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: Dex had a weird reputation in Denver, like obviously it
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: turned out not to be fair at all, but like
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: his reputation was kind of tracker coming out of Denver
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: because people hadn't taken the time to get to know him,
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: and he had some maturing that took place along the way.
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: But he came. We were like, hey, this guy's super talented.
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: He's a great fit. We see some things with his defense,
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: like play him a little deeper that a little help
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: played super shell, super fallow like underrated bat gets on bass,
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: has some pop re would be really good for him.
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: And we brought him in like contract year, he's going
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: to like be all into it and put up big numbers.
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: And he came and what a revelation like awesome guy,
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: unbelievable teammate, glue guy, like happy putting smiles on people's
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: faces all the time. But it was almost like when
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: you when you trade for someone, you bring him in
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: and they you you sort of have him pegged at
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: a certain level and then they outperform. Its like ship
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: Dex is gonna He's gonna get like a deal deal here,
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: and so you know, we you know, we had targeted
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: like Jay, we needed a right fielder, and it was
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: we would just assume, like Dex is going to get
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: like more years and we're comfortable with and we had
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: assumed he was gone. But like because of the relationships,
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: you know, we had Dex and I had I know,
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: he became super tight with you guys right away, huge
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: part of the team. But I stayed in touch with him,
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: was on you know, it gets backed up like honesty
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: and accountability. I was like, hey, I think you played
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: so well. It's going to price out a little bit,
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: but just stay in touch. His agent, Casey Close, is
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: a great guy. Might hey, Casey, just stay in touch
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: if I could help Dex in any way, like you know,
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: get on the phone with the GM and talking about
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: what kind of teammate he was, whatever, like you know,
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: let me know what you need. And it became clear
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: like it was just one of those offseasons. We hadn't
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: lined up for him. So I remember talking Lady was
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: about to sign with Baltimore, but by that time we
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: had acquired Sobris traded Starlin to kind of free up
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: the spot and free up some of the money we
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: obviously had signed Jay Hay And then you know, it's
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: my job as a GM, Like, you know, you have
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: a super talented team. I thought part of my job
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: is think through every way a team that's talented enough
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: on paper to go win ninety five to one hundred wins,
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: think of every way everything that could come up that
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: could get in the way of that happening. What what
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: are like the six things that could happen where we're
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: not We're not like deep enough, we don't have enough
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: to see. Well, that's that's what you got to do,
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: because like it's it's such a pet peeve where like
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: you have a bad year and you had a lot
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: of injuries. At the end of the year, like, well,
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: you know we had those injuries. It was a bad yea.
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: You know you're gonna have injuries, right, You're gonna have
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: injuries every year, So you have to build depth. So
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: we're like, look, Deck's on a one year deal. If
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: chance that he would come back. Is a total no
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: brainer because now all of a sudden, you know you
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: can have decks and center day plays. Right, You've got
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: now Solaire and Schwarber and we can rotate and get
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: get guys enough at baths. But if someone goes down,
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: now we're totally covering. And sure enough first week of
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: the season Swarbur ends up going down. But dex Is
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: just it was like too good to be true to
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: get him back on one year, and it was like
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: it was meant to be.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Like the icing on the cake honestly to already an
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: amazing offseason of bringing in.
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: Lackey, yeah, Jay Hay and Zobras, and he left money
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: on the table to come back, and he wanted to
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: be part of it. You know, he had such a
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: good time. That's where you get rewarded for the culture,
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: great culture as you guys created in the clubhouse, like
• 49:22
  Speaker 3: first of all words spreads in the big players talk
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: all the time. You get to be known as a
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: place where people want to play, and that's huge. And
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: then guys like we have there no trade to come
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: here or want you know, destination and free agency or
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: a guy who gets kind of like hosed in the
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: market will come back, right, Like Deck's on a one
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: year deal and he just wanted to be part of
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: it because he was a big part of the building.
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: He wanted to see it through. So just all all
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: different ingredients of what was set up a magical year
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: for us in sixteen where we were on a mission.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: So I think it's important too, like bringing in Decks.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: You can't just bring in a guy where Decks maybe
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: had a little history in Colorado to a team that doesn't.
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: Have established guys already.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that will welcome him, right because I remember, like
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: in with the Yankees, we bring in you bring in
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: a polarizing figure like Juan Soto to a massive clubhouse
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: ready that you have Carlo Stanton and Aaron Judge, Garrett Cole,
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: a lot of clouded guys there, and you bring in
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: another superstar.
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: It doesn't always work.
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: First of all, reputations aren't always accurate. A lot of
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: guys spend time like cultivating the reputation as a teammate,
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: and it's not always the right ways. You got to
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: talk to guys who are in the clubhouse with them,
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: who really know what a player is all about. Secondly,
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: like how a guy behaves or in one market might
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: not translate to another. And how a guy acts at
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: like twenty four isn't how he's going to act that
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: at twenty years. Guys change or human beings like it's
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: you know you, you go a long way, like seeing
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: what guys bring to the table instead of saying, like
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: being worried about what they might not do. That's not perfect. Sure,
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: that's a great example. He ended up being the best teammate.
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: It's not about me, but we'll like I had firsthand
• 51:03
  Speaker 4: experience to that. You trade. I got released in Cincinnati
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: for a bad reputation. You bring me in to Boston
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: and eight and one of the yeah, mid season and
• 51:12
  Speaker 4: one of the two things you were were honest with me.
• 51:14
  Speaker 4: I had a three offers and you said, we'll call
• 51:17
  Speaker 4: you up before September so you can be a free agent.
• 51:20
  Speaker 4: And then at the end of the year, we went
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: all the way to the Championship Series, the Raise, and
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: you called me in the office said, hey, Rossie, I
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: just want you to be transparent with you. We loved
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: having you here. We're gonna try to bring Tech back,
• 51:30
  Speaker 4: but if not, we'll be in touch. And your reputation
• 51:33
  Speaker 4: in Cincinnati was not that great. We loved you here,
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: but I just wanted to know what people are saying
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: about you, so you you know what's you know it
• 51:40
  Speaker 4: it was. It was a little bit of a selfish
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: part and you I needed that. I needed that, and
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: that that changed my whole career. Like from that point,
• 51:48
  Speaker 4: I was just like, I'm never gonna have anybody say
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: that about me again. And then I got such a
• 51:52
  Speaker 4: good reputation at the back end in my career.
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: Your reputation at that time because you had kind of
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: lost a little bit of playing time. Yeah, it was
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: a tough situation. It was like, oh, this guy, he's
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: not someone you want as a backup, because the backup
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: has to be like all in it front the pitching staff,
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: unselfish on it for the team, and like he's worrying
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: about that bats a little bit. But you were a
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: good fit. We brought you in anyway with their catcher,
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: and then you were so impressive, awesome teammate. And then
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: I remember in those the postseason advanced meetings you were
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: you just kind of blew me away because like he's
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: the new guy and you got tech and the whole
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: coaching staff and all the advanced guy. Kevin Cash was
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: there too.
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: I mean three probably three future managers sitting right there
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: with the three catchers. But you were you. You weren't
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: afraid to speak up, and you spoke like directly, and
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: everything had like a lot of substance. I'm like, man,
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: this guy like sees the whole game. He's not afraid,
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: and he like understands how to win and as a teammate,
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: and then also like the game within the game. So
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: it was the day after we got eliminated. I remember
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: I was, we were down in the club that clean,
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: so I was I was gonna leave and I and
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: I saw you. I'm like, he probably needs to hear
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: this because you been such a good teammate for us. Okay,
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: just so you.
• 53:02
  Speaker 4: Know, career changing for me, like career change, and it's
• 53:06
  Speaker 4: in my book. Like again it's not about me, but
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: like that was legit and and look at my I
• 53:12
  Speaker 4: go to Atlanta after that for four years, go back
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: to Boston win and then but my reputation after that
• 53:17
  Speaker 4: was like you know because of that, because I was
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: like yeah, yeah, but I was intentional because I was
• 53:23
  Speaker 4: like nobody's I didn't want that to be I didn't
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: feel that way about myself, But you're right, you do
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: get caught up in your own ship.
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: But you have to kind of own it too.
• 53:30
  Speaker 4: You have to own now.
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: Now, look what you can own. You can own being
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: the guy who like understands how a winning team works.
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: And you were the guy that we turned to who
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: wasn't an everyday player, who could like understand the pulse
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: of the team, understand who needed to, you know, have
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: their ass kicked, who needed who needed a lot on
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: the back, who needed to like make sure you take
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: them out to dinner.
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: You just you know, I just want to get him
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: because that was that was what I've already told you
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: all this. But you know how important that.
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, no, it's good and you earned it again
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: with the kind of teammate. So but you know, all
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: this stuff that we're talking about, like it all goes
• 54:03
  Speaker 3: back to relationships, honest conversations and like doing yeah, and
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: building trust and doing things the right way, and like again,
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: like how laughable is it that sometimes people think all
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: that matters is you know what a projection says on
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: a spreadsheet or a model predicts. Because it's all this
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: stuff that goes into like winning teams and then building
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: winning organizations. You know, the organization has to withstand a
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: ton of adversity at the highest levels in a big
• 54:32
  Speaker 3: market like that, it's got to be pressure tested. And
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: it's like the people and the relationships and the trust
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: that ultimately pressure tested.
• 54:39
  Speaker 4: So the adversity we went through Shoreber going down, right,
• 54:42
  Speaker 4: like we get dexts, you've got depth, like.
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: That was a huge adversity. I mean we faced a
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: little bit versus We did that with Shober going down.
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: We played like shit at the end of the first half.
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: In twenty sixteen, you guys, we came out of that
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: and no problem, but by and large it was a
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: season out as much diversity as you typically, right, we
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: face our adversity in each of the postseason series. I
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: mean the San Francisco Game four, you know, all of
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: a sudden, you're you're not more shows, right, is not
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: more his change up, but change us? And like, all
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: of a sudden, now we're you took him deep up
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: besides you, but uh down three runs, you know, going
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: into ninth then and you're like, god, we're facing Johnny Quato.
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: Even you're at home, even you're even even like the
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: umpire was but like the umpire matchup, who's gonna behind
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: the plate, wasn't. I remember like melting in my seat,
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: like we're not gonna We're not going out in the
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: first round with this team this way. And then you all,
• 55:43
  Speaker 3: you know everything that happened in that that ninth then
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: is Chris Bryant, you know, gets hit, you get the walk,
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: it just gets gets the double. Then Wilson and Hobby
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: you get this, and you just saw like this, you
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: saw the resilience and the characters team just like blossom
• 55:57
  Speaker 3: on the big stage against the three time defending champs
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: in their ballpark on the road. It's like I remember
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: being so fired up after that game. Legendary flight home too,
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: but being so fired up because it was like, Okay,
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: we're not we didn't have a great regular season, like
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: we're here to fucking compete, and then we faced adversity
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: in the Dodger Series. We didn't hit, we didn't hit
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: at all, and like we were in kind of like
• 56:22
  Speaker 3: a death spire.
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: Well we know we would turn that around, the.
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: Whole thing around, and then we get to you know,
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: drop the hammer with like a perfectly played game in
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: Game six at home.
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: With.
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: Approach like one inventor approach. Our whole team took against Kershaw, you.
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: Know deep like rookie just getting calling, even like.
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: Dex and KD with the opposite field knocks early like
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: saying like no, we're not in it to try to
• 56:51
  Speaker 3: take you deep, We're in it to like beat you
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: and this is what we're gonna do to win. It
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: was and then we fit obviously the adversity in Cleveland.
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: So what you guys is built like the pressure tested
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: bonds that you had, and like that, the brotherhood in
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: the clubhouse and what we built as an organization stood
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: up to the adversity.
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: That's why you see all the camaraderie, right, and we
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: get through, we go through the shore diversity, we go
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: through that end of the first half adversity. We're still
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: very confident. We're still all talking about how we're gonna win,
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: how like it's already happened. And you get to the
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: trade deadline, and it's the biggest boost any team you
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: can of our caliber get is you go out and
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: get a roll. This Chapman for us, and he's the
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: best reliever on the market. He's the Cuban missile. He's
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: throwing one hundred. He's this polarizing figure. That move alone
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: for us inside was like, all right, boys, this is it.
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: This is like look what we did. Look what they're
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: doing ownership and THEO here you go, believe in USAT
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: on the ass, go get them.
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a big one that I think is just
• 58:01
  Speaker 3: trad design acquisitions in general, Like from the outside looking
• 58:04
  Speaker 3: in and then or if you take just a purely
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: analytical look at baseball, you don't understand the impact that
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: it has in the clubhouse because like these guys have
• 58:11
  Speaker 3: done all their off season work, grind it all spring training,
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: put the nuts on the line the whole season, and
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: then they look at the front office like, you guys
• 58:19
  Speaker 3: have one fucking job. One job like get us.
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: That is how we look at the during the season.
• 58:25
  Speaker 3: And trust me, we can feel one job like get
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: us what we need. And like I've been through years
• 58:31
  Speaker 3: where like you just can't get it because you're you're
• 58:33
  Speaker 3: asking to be paid like five x the prices and
• 58:35
  Speaker 3: you just can't do it, and you feel like like
• 58:38
  Speaker 3: you just let everybody down. So take it very personally
• 58:41
  Speaker 3: as an organization, like we need, we need to deliver
• 58:43
  Speaker 3: with these guys we're not gonna always mortgage the future,
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: and we can't get caught up. But we have to
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: do our job and give these guys what they need
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: because it gives you that set, that boost of of energy,
• 58:55
  Speaker 3: and then you feel connected, like hey, they have connect
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: The sacrifice was worth it. It has it has an
• 59:01
  Speaker 3: amplifying effect. Certainly that was That was a deal that
• 59:06
  Speaker 3: I would have mocked it if someone else did it
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: because from from it from a purely analytical standpoint, because
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: it didn't make sense. Because Glbra Torres was, of course
• 59:14
  Speaker 3: really good prospect. Like I thought at the time, I
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: kind of comped him to like Martine Prado. He's gonna hit,
• 59:20
  Speaker 3: he's gonna he's not gonna play short he's probably gonna
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: play second base. He's gonna control the strike zone, he's
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: gonna hit for a high average. Hes gonna have a
• 59:26
  Speaker 3: good career. I didn't see the power necessarily come in
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: at Yankee Stadium. Obviously, he elevated the ball really well
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: on the opposite field, so he had a couple of
• 59:33
  Speaker 3: big home run seasons. Jakc had a really good career.
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: But for us, like we we had Addie, we had
• 59:39
  Speaker 3: Hobby up the middle, we had strategically signed Eloymans and
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: Glebra Torres above slot in the internet national market a
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: couple of years sooner, saying like, hey, if we need
• 59:50
  Speaker 3: to finish off this team, we're gonna have some really
• 59:54
  Speaker 3: good no Way prospects that we can trade and finish
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: it off. And so we tried hard to get Andrew
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: Miller because he was under control. He wasn't just a
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: rental whereas Chap he was a rental. Cash was smart,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: like they wouldn't trade us Andrew Miller. We didn't ment
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 3: up at all. By the way, everyone was asking for
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 3: Schwarbur too at the time because he was on the
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: d L no Way. They were all trying to like
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 3: Bui low on Schwarb's things like god, there's no yeah,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 3: And that was a tough one, was like we can't
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 3: after this guy's literally given.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 4: His leg.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 3: Leg Yeah, but it was so it didn't make sense,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: and like you've got a lot of the analystsying like, hey,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: this deal doesn't make sense. But at the same time,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: like again, it's more than the numbers, like it was
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 3: a mission. We were all in it together. We also
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: knew that like our pen had done a great job.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 3: We had gotten run on in the Rule five draft
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 3: years before. May was doing a great job as a
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: set up guy. But both guys were like Strop he
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: was feeling it. His his his body was getting a
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: little bit beat up. Rondome. Rondome was starting to throw
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 3: some show some like chinks in the armor a little bit.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: We're like, is this the pen that's going to get
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: us like outs nineteen through twenty seven in the postseason games,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: when he is like probably not. Like if we have
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: a week link, that's it. And if you look at
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: it in the postseason, like dominant closers, especially ones you
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 3: can throw multiple innings, are disproportionately valuable in the postseason
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 3: compared to the regular season. He was a guy Kaffy
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: just throws one inning and sometimes you have three lead. Yeah, sure,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: you rest in the postseason, you get those extra days,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: Like he's gonna throw a greater percentage of your innings.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: He's gonna like Game five of the world, that's why
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 3: you get a third he has he's the most important
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 3: player in that game. There were a lot of important
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 3: players in that game, but like what he came came
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: into a jam gets you eight outs, like knocks down
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 3: the game. So it was an overpay on paper, but
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 3: like for what we were building. Remember at the time,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 3: it telling the media like look if not now when
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 3: like we have everything to this point, we know what
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 3: we need. It's the same thing with No Mar you know,
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 3: different circumstances, but the No Mark had been through it,
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 3: you know four with the No Mark trades, Like we
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: had a fatal flaw with that team. It was our defense.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 3: So we ended up trading No Mar for two guys
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 3: are written like a buck eighty at the time, but
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: they were great defenders, Orlando and Doug mn Kavid, And
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: it was like that was our fatal flaw. We got
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 3: to fix it. We were anticipating our bullpen being our
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: fatal flaw, and Tappy was the guy to get even
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: an overpay situation. Thank got it worked out and then
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: but also we did some like some more nuanced deals,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 3: like Mike Montgomery was a guy we also got a
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 3: ends up getting the ends up getting the last out
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 3: of the World Series. He was the guy we got
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 3: for the future. But we're like, you know what, now
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 3: he throws a curveball. Now he's throwing ninety six, Like
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: he'll be pretty good out of the pen for us.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 3: So it's it's an organization wide effort, but there's I'm
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 3: not saying you have to always get exactly what the
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 3: team is looking for. I try not to travel with
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 3: the team leading up to the deadline because you guys
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 3: are just we need this, we need that, and you
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 3: can kind of get caught up in it. But there's
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 3: a there's a price to pay if you don't reinforce
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 3: a good team. Psychological cost I think is kind of underappreciated.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: Since we overpaid for Glabor I got for Chappy. It's
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: ten years later. Do you think we can give I
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: told Glabor this when I put it, I think he
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: deserves a ring. It's because we don't get Chatty.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: I loved it.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: He's like, Bro, He's like, really, you think I've deserved
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: He's like, yeah.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: Bro, without you, we don't get Chappy if THEO doesn't trace.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: He's a great dude, and I'm pumped. He's of their
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 3: career that he's had, and he's been.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 4: In a lot of he's had a good one. One
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 4: of the ones. The funny story we've got going around,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 4: I need your perspective on We talked about the Seattle game,
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 4: right Ryan Mattis come in pitching. Uh you stir up
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 4: the whole pitching staff that nobody Yeah, yeah, the whole rotation.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 4: And then uh, Joe said, you went on a walk.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 4: Obviously he didn't have a great start. It's not about him.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 4: But we start coming back talking about diversity and things
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 4: we overcame, and and Lester walks it off with the
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 4: with the squeeze bunt, but walk us through your whole
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 4: process and that because I know Joe said you had
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 4: to go on a walk. You're so mad at Yeah.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was mad at myself for sometimes you can
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: outthink yourself and like you're balancing different interests in the
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 3: organization and ultimately, as the GM, you have to make
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 3: the final call. And I talked about part of the
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 3: GM's job is like anticipate everything they can get in
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: the way of you guys having the season that you
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 3: should have and then try to try to reinforce it.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 3: So I was always kind of about running out of pitching,
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 3: like we're gonna run out of pitching. So the year
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 3: before we got like Trevor k Hill off the scrap
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 3: Heap sent him to the minor league, Real built in
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 3: and he came out through some big annings for us,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 3: even pitched some good endings in the posts. You're always looking, yeah,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 3: you're always looking for a guy like that that you
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: can like get for nothing, send a triple A like
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: fange of scenery. And then if some guy goes down
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 3: after the trade deadline, like if you have a couple
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 3: of pictures to get hurt after the trade deadline, if
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 3: you haven't built up a ton of depth, you're in trouble.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 3: So Madis was a guy really talented left hand or
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 3: form of first round pick with the Orioles, was kind
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 3: of down on his luck. We brought him in on
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 3: a minor league deal. Our guys tweaked a few things.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: He worked hard, he was throwing the crap out of
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 3: ball triple A. We're like, this guy could be almost
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 3: like a left handed version of Ko for us, where
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 3: he comes up if we have an injury after the
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 3: trade deadline September call ups, like he can be a
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 3: third lefty if a couple of guys get hurt. But
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 3: he had an out in his minor league deal. This
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: is in July. I think it was like the third
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 3: week of July or so, and so the only way
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 3: he was starting and the only way that we could
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 3: get him to prevent him from using his out was
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 3: if we called him up to the big leaues. But
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 3: we didn't have a spot. And then like we had
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 3: this idea, Well, if we just give all our start,
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: we're rolling. So if we just give our starters an
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 3: extra day's rest, just bump everybody one day, which in
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: the big picture is good, good for their arms. Even
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 3: though it's disruptive and lesser and lacky. You're gonna want
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 3: and Jake are gonna want to kill me. It gets
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 3: mad Is up here, we can get a look at him.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 3: It keeps them from using his out. And now we've
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 3: added to our depth and he might be a good
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 3: guy in the pen for us down the line. I'm like, Okay,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 3: our pro scouting guys, and I think this is no brainer,
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 3: Like why wouldn't you add the depth? And like, I
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 3: know the guys in the clubhouse, we're gonna want to
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 3: kill me. What do we do? So I'm like, you
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 3: know what, you can never go wrong with depth, so like,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 3: fuck it, we're doing it. So I remember going town,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 3: I talked to Leicester, talked about Leicester was pissed because
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 3: he had like a whole break and when he was pitching,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 3: got the way the golfing and Kenny Kenny Fish Yeah.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, wait for the record, I think we won like
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: ten or twelve after that.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 3: But so I'm like, all right, we're my call. We're
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 3: doing it, you know. And it was like adding to
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 3: how uncomfortable was I believe it was Sunday night baseball. Yeah,
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 3: Sunday night baseball again. So I'm like, we're kind of
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 3: this is kind of weird that all of a sudden
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 3: Brian Maddens the team's rolling, but we're gonna Brian Mattis
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 3: come up and start a game on Sunday baseball was
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 3: the right thing for the depth. So I'm like, god,
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 3: I hope this goes well. I don't want to I
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 3: don't want to have like cause this disruption for nothing.
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 3: First ending boom homer, Robbie Cano boom homer, and I
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 3: think it was three homers and the top.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 2: Of the first got quick, nothing fast.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 3: So I was so mad at myself. I'm like, this
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 3: is all my fault. I'm like, I should have just
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 3: said no, we're not We're not breaking up a good thing.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 3: I was like so mad. I was just so pissed
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 3: to myself. I was like, yead, let's let's get the
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 3: fuck out of here. We're going for a walk. So
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 3: like I grabbed Yeah. I'm like I can't watch this,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 3: this is this is pathetic. I'm like, I have to
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 3: get I'm so mad at myself. Let's go talk this over.
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 3: And like we're going for a walk. So I grab
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 3: Jed and we go. We just start walking north, which
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 3: is like not always the direction you want to go
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 3: for make me feel so like we walk up to
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 3: like uptown and we're like, you know, like passing people out,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 3: passing people were like drinking, like homeless dudes, like people
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 3: on this spirit. We're just like walking and walking and walking,
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 3: and I'm just beating myself up, like why did I
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 3: do that? Everything was going so good, and I'm like,
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 3: all right, I know what I need to do, Like
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 3: I need to go back and when we lose this game,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: because we're down six and nothing, like, I need to
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 3: be there as the guys are walking off and I
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 3: just need to like own it. I'm just gonna apologize
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 3: to the guys. It'll probably mean a lot to them
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 3: and be like, hey, this is my idea. I cost
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 3: us the game today not bad. You know, I'm gonna
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 3: own it won't happen again. Sorry for causing the disruption.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 3: So I start walking. We start walking back, and as
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 3: we're walking back, we start to hear the Wrigley Field
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 3: crowd started a couple of roars, getting I'm like, oh,
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 3: we're we're calling crawling back a little bit. So I
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 3: get down to the clubhouse and we're still losing by
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 3: a few runs late, and I'm like, all right, just
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 3: get this thing over where I can apologize to everybody,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 3: and then the craziness happens. We tie it up extra endings.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 3: Lester wins the game with a squeeze and he come
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: in now instead of apologizing and everyone, I'm just sitting
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 3: down there like I fuck this up, but you guys
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 3: picked me up and I was fired up and it
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 3: was but it just shows like the connection that we
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 3: all had, and I'm like, you guys put so much
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 3: into this, even one game. We had like a twelve
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 3: game something at the time, but like it's just everything matters,
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 3: and like, if I was gonna I screwed that up,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 3: and if I was, there was about reason for trying it.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 3: But I still made the wrong call, and it's like you,
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 3: we expect you guys to own it when you make
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 3: a mistake, and like I needed to own it to
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 3: you guys. And then just the fact that you came
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 3: back in that game, Like every other team has a
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 3: twelve game lead, down six to nothing, quits and that
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 3: k game is over. But you guys grinding back and
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 3: the way we want it.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 4: But I think that's part of the adversity you're talking about.
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 4: You helped develop that throughout the season. But yeah, I'll
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 4: never forget walking in and you were so pumped, uh
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 4: hugging everybody was, like I thought, I fucked it up
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 4: in Safe.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: I just don't forget it that you played for how
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: many years? Yeah, fifteen fifteen, kissed me off. I played
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: for fourteen. I know he does get.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 3: Me and on the golf course and.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: On the golf course, damn it. I got him yesterday though.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: But you just don't get that leadership, the front office
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: leadership coming down and talking to you like that on
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: any team I've ever been on. It was really only that.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 3: There are a lot of gms to do it. And
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 3: I learned from the best in Kevin Towers, Like I
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 3: don't know if you guys have heard the KT stories,
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 3: but he was him and Boach that Boach was his manager,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 3: KT was the GM, and they were just in lockstep,
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 3: and you know, they were intertwining with the players and
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 3: just totally understood the clubhouse now where Boach just learned
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: a ton from Boat too.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 4: Oach is great. And I got to play for Boach
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 4: under KT for a minute. And the KT traded me
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 4: in spring training from San Diego to Cincinnati, and he
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 4: asked me there were three teams interested, and he asked
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 4: me where I wanted to go. Really yeah, came to
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 4: me and changed like, Hey, I'll be talking all night.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 4: Go go home, talk to your agent and let me
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 4: know what you guys think. And we ended up it
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 4: was Seattle, I think, Washington or Cincinnati, and I thought
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 4: the best chance to play with Cincinnati. So and then
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 4: that's where I connected with Bronson, who you know obviously,
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 4: but yeah, Kat was the best.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 3: Good But we haven't I listened to a couple of
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 3: episodes awesome podcast, by the way, Thank You'm proud of
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 3: you guys. Ten years later, but and what stands out
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 3: is just obviously the togetherness of the team and the
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 3: family that you guys built down there, and obviously I
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 3: was there, I was aware of it, felt like connected
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 3: to a part of it. But what's great about doing
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 3: the job that I got to do is we had
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 3: the same thing like in the front office. Oh, you
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 3: haven't talked enough yet in the podcast yet about like
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 3: Kaed leaving his job in San Diego to come work
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 3: with me and Jason Jason McCleod. Same thing, guys. I'd
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 3: know him for Randy Bush who had been there in Chicago,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 3: and thank god we didn't blow him out of there
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 3: and we got there. Huge part of the fact, Scott Harris,
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 3: young Buck coming up from the bottom and like all
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 3: the scouts and all the development guys like you guys
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 3: probably saw it when we brought out all the yeah,
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 3: all the staff on the warning fact in the World series.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 4: That meant the whole staff just.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 3: As tight as you guys were, and how much those
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 3: experiences away from the field meant to you with the
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 3: team you had in the clubhouse, we had the same
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 3: thing in the front office. So it's what makes the
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 3: job amazing is you get to feel like I'm like connected,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 3: I'm not part of everything goes on downstairs, but I'm
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 3: connected to it, a little part of it, and then
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 3: we get that same awesome feeling up in the front office.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: It's got that way.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 4: You hired me as a special assistant, and like being
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 4: a part of that and being on most emails when
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 4: you send them out after every game, you're talking about
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 4: how the game went, and you know the things, Hey,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 4: we're not really not pitching now. It's just like that communication.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 4: It's like it is another another team within the team.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 4: And being in there and the the trade dead line
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 4: and those meetings, it's like you guys, you know, front
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 4: offices work their tail off to try to try to
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 4: just any little you know, And after I got to
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 4: be up there, I would go back down the class
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 4: like you guys have no idea, Like they want everybody
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 4: to be the best version of this set. Like I
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 4: think there's this there was a misconception. When you're a
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 4: player and you get to be in it, you're like, no,
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 4: they want everybody to be.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 3: The natural mindset is a player or like an analyst
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 3: or someone grinding on numbers, Like, oh, they're just trying
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 3: to find something to use against me, whether it's like
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 3: not extremely or use against me in a contract or
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 3: trade me someday or whatever. You're right, Like the reality
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 3: is there, and we've probably gone too far like shitting
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 3: on the number side of baseball, because it's just another
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 3: way of seeing the truth about the game. It's just
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 3: it's it's a parallel universe to what we've talked about
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 3: the ingredients that go into winning. The analytical side is
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 3: it's just as resonant and just as true. It's just
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 3: it's just a different way of looking at the game.
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 3: But their guy analysts staying three four hours after a
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 3: night game, like grinding until two three in the morning,
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 3: trying to find like one small insight, one small piece
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 3: of information to like help position you a little bit better,
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 3: to like turn a hit into an out that maybe
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 3: wins us that that helps your fielding rating, and then
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 3: turns maybe one loss into a win that gets us
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 3: sense of the postseason. So like that's their grind, sure,
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 3: and that's just as valid as everyth So when you
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 3: have an organization where like everyone sacrifice, everyone knows their role,
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 3: and they're all just grinding to find a way to
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 3: put the players in a position to win.
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: Like that, we had Tommy Hottevey who's now the pitching
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: coach for the clubs, and Nate Holm, who is now
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: working for the Baltimoreials in their front office somewhere two
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: guys on the inside that were connected to the front
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: office that were you know we call we mess with,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: we call them like little moles. But they would do
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: anything for us to get us that edge. Nate would
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: stay up hours, Nate, I'm grinding, give me something, find
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: something in my stride, and he would do.
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: He would grind all day with him and Maine and.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 3: And those guys were so invaluable because they could they
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 3: could walk in both worlds.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 5: They come upstairs, and those guys are so important.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 3: But you you saw them, you didn't always get to
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 3: see the infrastructure, the analysts, the guys who are like
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 3: just never get any credit, who are grinding behind the
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 3: scenes to give the information to Aid and Tommy. So
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 3: it's just a massive organization bid effort, which is why
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 3: when it comes down to the margin of error being
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 3: like is Zoe's ball three inches to the right, or
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 3: or is I heard Ramiro?
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 4: Did you hear that told us that we had.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 3: Like that's the margin of us doing a podcast ten
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 3: years after you doing Bluetooth full time for your job
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 3: is like three inches and you think about in exactly,
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 3: but that's that's the difference. And you think about how
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 3: many people have put in countless hours big parts of
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 3: their like personal lives, family sacrifice, their emotional life. What
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 3: it means to them, like the pride that they feel
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 3: in being a Cub and being part of something bigger
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 3: than themselves that we talked about earlier, and in the
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 3: in the margin of winning and losing is always raisor
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 3: thin in the big leases, as you guys know better
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 3: than anybody. So it's like, man, we're grateful to have
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 3: been to have been part of this, and like it
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 3: wouldn't have happened without that for every everybody.
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: When we uh, when we beat Kershaw at Wrigley Game six,
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: I don't see it the way we beat them, the
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: way Wrigley was like it was rocking, it was it
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: was euphoria, honestly, it was Honestly, we won the World
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: Series right there.
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 2: Well, but that's how that's how our fans were celebrating. Yeah,
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 2: they were. Everyone was so happy. Not on the inside.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 2: I remember on the inside where we were saying, hey,
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 2: this is not over, like we have more to go.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: But what were what do you think in there, You're
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: you're the head.
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it was. It was a spectacular night
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 3: because we it was like a statement game, you know,
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 3: the way the way we had played, the way we played,
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 3: the way the young guys performed, the way Henders performed,
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 3: the fact that we had Dodger was a hall of
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 3: the team and a great organization was more to come
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 3: obviously from them, but like we put the hammer down that,
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 3: like you know, we're we're the dominating guys to that
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 3: we're the best team in baseball. And then just just
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 3: just the fact that like that meant there was going
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 3: to be World Series Baseball at Wrigley Feel for the
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 3: first time since World War Two, Like I just that's
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 3: how I felt. I had just chills, and I ended
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 3: up well. We had the awesome party at Lester's house
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 3: that night that was legendary and Eddie playing and everyone
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 3: grabbing a guitar and everything. And then actually Eddie and
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 3: I went back after Lester's. We went back to Wrigley
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 3: and the als, the American Leage Trophy was sitting there,
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 3: Nationally trophy was sitting there in vj's office. I was
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 3: just like staring at it. And then we go out
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 3: to were like says, you guys can touch it. Yeah,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 3: we're touching, but I'm staring at it, like, oh my god,
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 3: the World Series is going to be played here in
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 3: like a week. And then we're throwing batting practice to
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 3: each other. And then like me Eddie, a couple of
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 3: our guys who go out to the center field and
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 3: we're just laying in the grass and center field looking
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 3: up at the scoreboard and the clock and the sun.
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 3: It's now like six thirty in the morning or whatever.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 3: Said the sun starts rising above. It was like, holy fuck,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 3: we just won the pennant. We're about to have the
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 3: World Series. I Wrigley Field, So that's that's what I
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 3: was thinking.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 3: And then it's like how we how we're going to
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 3: win four more four more games?
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: Wow?
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: So we we go. We we split there in Cleveland,
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: we come back to Wrigley. Game three at Wrigley was
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: a weird atmosphere.
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 2: Weird, right.
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 3: I remember, you know, like huge day. World Series is
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 3: finally being played at Wrigley Field. And I remember I
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 3: had like a couple obligations around town, like you know,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 3: things for the business side or whatever. And in the morning,
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 3: and I remember going around town and the vibe even
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 3: around town. I don't know if you got out that
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 3: morning at all, but the vibe was like a ghost town.
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 3: It was like really weird. And in my mind, I'm thinking,
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 3: Wrigglely is going to be bananas, like it was yeah
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 3: in Game six. But we get there and it was
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 3: like a wet fart. It was just like Wrigley was
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 3: was off, like it was just anxiety. I felt we
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 3: didn't give. We didn't we couldn't give much, but there
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 3: wasn't a lot. We weren't getting a lot from the
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 3: fans either, and I felt like it was just like
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 3: too much. It was like just everyone was on edge and.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 2: Maybe too sentimental.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 3: Who knows, We're just so much anticipation had gone into
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 3: it that kind of like can't live up to it.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 3: So I felt that way in Game three and even
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 3: parts of Game four, and then you get the Game
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 3: five and now our season's on the line. In those
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 3: first few innings when we weren't hitting, Kb's homer was
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 3: a huge because it changed the whole vibe in.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 2: The ballpark so many times every series.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: Right first series, we come back Game four and I'll
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: see us the bunt to turn around. KB had massive
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: home runs in that series to get the offense going.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 4: You drove in, drove in the right. You had that
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 4: about fly right, yeah, yea.
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 2: And then.
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 4: It was with Grand Slam know when.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 3: And then Chappy that's when he comes in for the.
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 4: And he gave me a shout out for speech.
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: So I was pumped about did you have that can
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: actually come back those three one?
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 2: Like II, I'm wired.
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 3: I'm wired to pessimistically, like I see I just I
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 3: believe in players, and I believe in teams, and like
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 3: I see the hope, but like my inner dialogue tends
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 3: towards the worst case scenario. Of course, just for that
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 3: reason why we were talking earlier about imagine everything that
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 3: can get in the way you winning the World Series,
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 3: everything getting the way of you winning your ninety eight
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 3: games or whatever, and then planning for it. That's what
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 3: drives me, is like my paranoid like, oh, you know, fu,
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 3: did we have enough pitching? Or what happens if this
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 3: guy gets turd or whatever. So that's kind of what's
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 3: going on in my mind as I'm like, oh, we
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 3: didn't follow the report here, Like I kind of I'm
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 3: just like I'm just hanging on every pitch because you're powerless.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 3: You saw it when you came out of the game.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 3: You're never more nervous. And when you're done playing.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 4: No doubt, and you're especially as a manager, you don't
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 4: really I mean, you've got some control, but you're not
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 4: really playing yet.
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 3: So I'm just like nervous and like kind of worrying
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 3: and chearing you guys on and following along the advance
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 3: of court. But so I'm not I'm thinking, like if
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 3: just win tonight and get back to Cleveland, which I
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 3: think is what we all felt. And then the party
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 3: after Game five was pretty sick too, going to Murphy's
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 3: in it and then getting that day off the next day.
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 3: The players asked for it, and Joe and and and
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 3: all of a sudden, front offs were like, yeah, go
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 3: have Halloween. Yeah fly there, And then that flight was awesome,
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 3: and then who knows if we.
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 2: Were all inside we knew we were going to roll
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 2: Game six.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 3: We knew, we thought, but then we got out. We
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 3: scored early in that game was huge, Baby's homer and
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 3: then ADDIE's graz slam. Then it was like, Okay, now
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 3: our Chester are really puffed out, and it almost reminded
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 3: me of when we came back on the Yankees and
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 3: we were down three not Ortiz won two games with
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 3: two walk offs in games four and five to get
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 3: us back to New York. It was like, once we
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 3: got back to New York, now the pressure was on
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 3: the Yankees, and we felt like we were the ones
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 3: like laying down the hammer. And once we started scoring
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 3: those runs in game six, it was like, Okay, now
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 3: the pressure is on those guys. But you guys know
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 3: game seven, You guys played in the World Series Game seven, Like,
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 3: you know what that's It's just crazy. That's that's a
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 3: Russian novel in and of itself. It's like, there's no
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 3: such thing as momentum going into a Game seven. There
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 3: were so many twists and turns that game. It was ridiculous.
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean when we won game six, I remember
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: going to bed at Game seven.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 2: I didn't sleep.
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 3: Did you really not sleep?
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 4: Like hour?
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 2: At four or five in the morning. I'm just tossing
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 2: a turn. I'm talking to Emily. I'm like, hey, you up.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 2: She's like yeah, I'm like fuck.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, you just get like I got
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: maybe an hour at a time of sleep and I'm
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: up just thinking I don't want to be late.
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 2: What time should I get to the field? Because get
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 2: into the field was an awkward amount.
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: I didn't hit VP because it was just a circus
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: out there, So I took the last bus. Probably got
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: there at four, which is still four hours before the game.
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 4: But what did you do the night? The night before
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 4: were like, did you I mean a lot of planning to.
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 3: Joe, Yeah, going through like game plan all trying to
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 3: find ways to contribute even though you kind of can't,
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 3: but just make sure you have all the right conversations
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 3: and everything. And then my wife Marie and my then
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 3: eight year old son Jack flew in. I took him
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 3: to I took him to the there's like a science
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 3: museum and I took him there to try The day
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 3: of Game seven is trying to get my mind off it. Yeah,
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 3: remember we sat in the little Ombi theater watched the
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 3: movie about going to Mars or whatever, and he's like
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 3: locked in. I'm like, all I'm thinking about is like
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 3: fucking Fluber's fucking two scene. But yeah, a good time.
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 4: Where did you where did you watch? Would you say?
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 4: Obviously the clips right behind home.
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, watched most of the game, like in the scouts
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 3: section with Jack my son and Marie and was near
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 3: Jed and those guys and their families. And then when
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 3: the rain delay hit, I sent them upstairs to the
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 3: suite with like the business I guess, so they could
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 3: stay dry because we're getting rained on. And I went
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 3: down and I was called down to a meeting with
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 3: the with the Indians GM Chris Anthonti and the commissioner
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 3: because say what, you guys might not know this the
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 3: cool story called down for a meeting to talk about
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 3: the rain delay. So well, the first cool thing is
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 3: as I'm cutting through our clubhouse to get to the
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 3: meeting because it's in like the umpire's room, so the
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 3: quickest way down is cutting through our clubhouse. And I
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 3: look around our clubhouse. I'm like, where the fuck is everybody.
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 3: I'm like, normally everyone's at their locker, you know, getting
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 3: dry clothes on whatever in raindolay, looking at their phones.
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 3: I'm like, where is everyone? I remember like asking where's everyone.
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 3: They're like they're in the weight room. And I looked
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 3: and you could just see like the blue jerseys all
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 3: all like gathering together and I obviously I didn't go in,
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 3: but I'd be like peeked in, and I'm just like, oh,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 3: this is fucking awesome, Like our guys are fucking rallying.
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 3: You guys can tell the story of what happened. I've
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 3: heard it from each of you, guys, but so proud that,
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 3: like all the stuff about winning and connectedness that we
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 3: talked about, I felt like we'd already won. Like when
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 3: I saw you guys at your instinct after blowing that
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 3: lead and having rain delay in the world, so instead
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 3: of sitting at your lockers or like moping or getting
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 3: involved in your own shit on your own phones, you
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 3: had the instinct to come together. It was like felt like, man,
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 3: we already won this game, or we're already winners. Sure anyway,
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 3: but then I go to the the little little room
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 3: with Commissioner Manfred and Chris Antonetti and like the meteorologist
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 3: and all the officials, and they were looking at the radar.
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 3: We're like, we don't think it's going to be too long,
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 3: remember Antonetti, Chris, Chris and I looked at each other
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 3: and were just like like, we man, this is unbelievable.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 4: I'm exhaust Can you believe.
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 3: We're here in the rain in LA and someone has
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 3: to lose, someone has to win. But then the commissioner
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 3: I got a call and he takes it and I'm
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 3: kind of listening in. I'm like, that can't be what
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 3: I think it was. And he hangs up. He's like,
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 3: you won't believe who that was. Who. He's like, that's
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 3: that's the head of Fox. He's like, they said, they're
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 3: asking about the rain, and they said, if we can
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 3: suspend this game right now and pick it up tomorrow
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 3: night in primetime, it's gonna be worth like twenty five
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 3: million more viewers or oh my no, yeah, And he
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 3: was like, as tempting as that is, we can't fucking
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 3: do He can't do that. It's like, this is world series.
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 4: That was great.
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 3: In my mind, I'm thinking like, oh, we'll have Chappy
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 3: rested instead of like you know, throw making up curve
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 3: balls and change ups. And he had just gotten through
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 3: the night then, like we got that.
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 2: History would have changed.
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 2: If that so that Chap he's got to sit on
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 2: the Homer.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, everyone, it would have been bad for us.
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 2: But the fact that he got us through the ninth
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 2: was crazy.
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 3: But Manfred obviously did a great job that no that
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 3: could have been there. We're back on the field, and
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 3: then went up at joined Marie and Jack up in
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 3: the suite and watched the You know, it just felt
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 3: like schwarbar had the bat in his hands, like he's
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 3: going to get on just as as part of the
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 3: organization to watch like Schwarburt, who had just come back
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 3: from that knee injury because of what's in here, come
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 3: back early, drive that single to right field. Then Albert
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 3: Pinch runs for him, like KB almost sits the ball
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 3: out another first round Scharber, first round pick, KB, first
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 3: round pick, Albert first round pick, Pinch runs has bluea
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 3: well baseball i Q to tag up and get the
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 3: second base on play that you know no one else
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 3: ends up there at second base and then yeah yeah,
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 3: and then walk Risen and so tight of course, yeah,
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 3: we haven't talked enough about you on this podcast.
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: Zerbst free agents signing and then another trade, Maggie getting
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: another hit.
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 3: That's right, but just how everyone together to watch that
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 3: come together and obviously you know you're still you're still
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 3: thinking about we need to get three more outs. It's
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 3: like we're who the hell is going to pitch we're
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 3: running out, so then then we go down. I'm like,
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 3: I don't want to be up in a corporate suite
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 3: when the World Series decides, so grab Marie and Jack
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 3: go down. There are two seats left from the front
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 3: row wrapping on play, next to Eddie and and Chris
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 3: Kelly else and a bunch of other guys. So we
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 3: sat jack'stat on my lap and and Mason right next
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 3: to me and Watchington. I remember Jack was telling me,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 3: He's like, yeah, you just kept saying throw strikes, throw strikes.
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 3: When CJ walked that guy, you got so pissed. But
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 3: that was a very what was he very stress?
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: Was he saying too before Raja hit the home run? Yeah,
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: and then after Roger I.
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 3: Told you guys, so Jack, he's eight years old at
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 3: the time, but he's like an incredible math savant. He
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 3: was like a math genius at the time. And so
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 3: as we build up the lead, we got like a
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 3: three run leader in the game, He's like tapping. He's
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 3: a dad. Dad. It's like the fifth Angers. We're like, Dad,
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 3: we have like, uh, you know, seventy eight percent to
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 3: winning the World Series. And I'm like Jack, that's great,
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 3: but you know, let's one out at a time, like,
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 3: you know, baseball can't get ahead of yourself. And then yeah,
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 3: he's like, Dad, we were up to an eighty two
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 3: percent chance to win. And then after Davis hit the homer,
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 3: I'm like so pissed and I'm looking at I'm like,
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 3: can you believe Ross? He just called him nine straight
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 3: fast ball us like, yeah, because he can't catch his slider.
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I know that's about right.
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 3: And then uh, Jack, I feel another tap of my
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 3: the crowd is the stadium shaking as you guys know,
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 3: I feel tap on the leg and Jacks like we're
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 3: down to like for in the world says like, I know,
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 3: but you.
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 2: Never need to never grow up.
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 3: But after, you know, CJ did a good job getting
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 3: those two outs, and then and then can't you know
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 3: money came in flipped those two curved balls, and then
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 3: when the ball went into your glove, just look out
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 3: and see you guys celebrating. And then the chance to
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 3: like hug my wife and my eight year old son,
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 3: and like, you know, knowing everything that had gone into
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 3: it and knowing like the freedom that comes and just
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 3: the joy and the relief would have meant to everyone.
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 3: And then just like the freedom of knowing that we
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 3: were world champions. People say like, oh, you know how happy? Yes, happy,
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 3: But there's also just the freedom that comes with like
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 3: delivering on something that you know you're going to be
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 3: bound to forever, Like all of us would have been
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 3: replaying that game the rest of our lives, no doubt
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 3: if it hadn't turned out that way.
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 2: So it was like the.
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 3: Freedom of win ahead and and then getting to see
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 3: you guys celebrate that locker room celebration. Could we could
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 3: have a little bigger locker room. It was pretty tight.
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 3: It was to be in the mix with you guys
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 3: and see what it meant to you all, and then
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 3: we get back to Chicago and see what it meant
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 3: to everybody.
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 2: Just incredible.
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 4: The prey was epic, UH winning and then we come
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 4: back and you ball off the fall off the bus.
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 3: That was San Francisco. Oh that's a rumor. I think
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 3: that was jed.
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 4: You can't tell an aerial view.
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 3: Okay that that footage has been deleted from the UH
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 3: from THEE, but for a while there was a clip
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 3: on there because like the helicopter, it was after the
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 3: San Francisco game. We arrived back at regularly the news helicopters,
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 3: like following the bus and you see someone get off
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 3: the bus and fall down, like people thought it was me,
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 3: but I'm gonna say, I think it must.
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 4: Have been Jed.
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 5: You go to go to well, obviously, like we're so
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 5: thankful for this, and like I just want you to
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 5: leave it with, like what are you most proud of
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 5: when you look.
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 4: Back on on that group and what you the legacy
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 4: you left in Chicago and changing the or the history there,
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 4: and obviously we're really thankful for all that, but like you,
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 4: what are you looking back on like the proudest.
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that that we all gave ourselves to
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 3: something that was hard and that required sacrifice and put
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 3: the team and the organization and the mission first and
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 3: did it in like a genuine way where we ended
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 3: up giving so much of ourselves and the sacrifice, but
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 3: getting so much more, like with the relationship, that connection,
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 3: and then ultimately to see that rewarded with the championship
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 3: that you can then share with literally tens of millions
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 3: of people, Like to just know you played a small
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 3: part in that, because like that's why I was there
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 3: I gave myself to it. But when you do, you know,
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 3: you do them by yourself. There's me anything seeing so
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 3: many people opt in and make it the most important
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 3: thing in their lives, be part of something bigger than themselves,
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 3: knowing it wouldn't happen, but for like everyone's contribution and
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 3: be like, hey, we did this together and it was
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 3: special and it was lasting, and it was like real.
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 3: The relationships, what we built, the culture, it was all
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 3: fucking real. Like that's the most meaningful thing to be
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 3: part of. I think back about it four and the
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 3: stuff that went into that. I think about the relationships.
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 3: I think about the people's sacrifice. Same thing with sixteen,
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 3: Like how lucky I am? You know, I learned a
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 3: ton of lessons, the most I've learned. I talked about
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 3: learning from KT and learning from all the smart people
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 3: in the front office, Like I learned so much from
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 3: you guys. When I started out as a GM twenty eight,
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 3: the players were older than me, like right, and they
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 3: were my peers and my elders, and learned a ton
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 3: from them. Then by the time I got to Chicago,
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 3: a little bit older than you guys, but it was
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 3: still amazed by how you guys handled the pressure of
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 3: the adversity, how you're able to perform in the face
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 3: of those expectations, what you did for each other. So
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 3: to just feel part of that collective accomplishment is incredible,
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 3: and I'm glad we're getting the chances to talk about
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 3: it and celebrate it ten years later.
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: Well, we thank you for sitting down. I mean, you're
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: talking about again. I said this at the front. One
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: of the best leaders amongst men of all time, not
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: back an organization, he led. There's so many lives you've changed.
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: There's so many gms now that came from.
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 3: You're proud of those guys, yeah.
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: Right, and helping them build and helping them continue the
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: career managers that came out of that, and not only
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: being on the top though, but it's you know my
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: mom and dad, you know my brother, you know Emily,
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: you need to know my son eventually, Ross Like, it's
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: just not only me, but it's the entire organization and
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: the leadership that you set trickled all the way down
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: to the last very to the very last person.
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 2: Whoever that very last person is on the total point.
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 3: I gave this graduation speech at Yale in twenty seventeen
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 3: after we won, and like one of the things I
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 3: talked about is how you can go through life like
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 3: with your head down, just kind of focusing on your
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 3: own problems, your own career, your own things that you
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 3: need to figure out and solve, and it's like really
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 3: isolating and you can get caught up in your own
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 3: ship sometimes. And maybe that's a little bit how it
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 3: was like early early in my career, like get the job,
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 3: times of pressure, Oh shit, Like what are the numbers saying,
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 3: like figure out? Or you can like as you mature,
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 3: you and you and you learn from people around you,
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 3: Like you can do your job and live your life
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 3: with your head up. And that means like connecting with
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 3: people in a genuine way that impacts lives, like building
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 3: relationships that last last a long time, and like being
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 3: open to everyone contributing and the collective and what being
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 3: part of a real team means. And like that's such
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 3: a better way to do your job, to live your
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 3: life and ultimately like it helps you win, so like
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 3: it's it's it. Being in baseball has been such a
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 3: blessing because that's what taught me ultimately to kind of
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 3: like live my life and do my job with my
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 3: head up, and you know ship where get to go
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 3: play golf and talk about talk about World Series teams
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 3: ten years later with you guys, and we're going to
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 3: be doing at the rest of our lives.
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 2: So the go, Thank you, Thank you, guys. That's a
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 2: wrap to the level you Epstein.
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 4: Wrong. That one's great. That was great. That's the best
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 4: one so far.