Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / With another MLB labor war looming ex-Angels GM Bill Bavasi reflects on 1995 replacement-player spring

Transcript

With another MLB labor war looming ex-Angels GM Bill Bavasi reflects on 1995 replacement-player spring · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Well, hey Angel fans, Welcome to Halo territory. I am
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Mike di Giovanna, former La Times Baseball writer and host
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: of the show. Well, as most fans know, there is
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: a labor war looming between Major league owners who want
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: to impose a salary cap and the players' union, which
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: is strongly opposed to a cap, and there's a good
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: chance owners will lock out players on December first.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Now, the sides will still have four.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Months from that point to hammer out a new collective
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: bargaining agreement, but if they don't, baseball could lose regular
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: season games for the first time since nineteen ninety five.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I remember that year well because it was my first
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: year in the Angels beat. It was also the first
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: and no doubt last time baseball tried to field teams
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: with replacement players, a spring training that my guest describes
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: as a bleeping disaster. That would be former Angels general
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: manager Bill Bavasi, who joins us to talk about that debacle. Bill,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: how you doing, Welcome to the show.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. I'm doing great. I'm retired, having
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: a good time, and it's great to see you see
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: him here.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: So Bill was the Angels GM from nineteen ninety four
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: to ninety nine. He was also the Seattle Mariners GM
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: from two thousand and three to two thousand and eight,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: and he worked a number of years at the Major
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: League Baseball Scouting Bureau before retiring in twenty twenty. Now,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: there was a two hundred and thirty two day work
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: stoppage three decades ago that brought us this replacement player
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: spring training, But that actually began in nineteen ninety four
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: when players walked out on August twelfth because of disputes
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: over shocker, a proposed salary cap and revenue sharing. That
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: strikeforce cancelation of the nineteen ninety four World Series and
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: dragged into the winter when owners came up with a
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: brilliant idea to feel they replacement player teams in spring training. Bill,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: when did the Angels start assembling their replacement player team?
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: And what what was that process like?
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: It wasn't it wasn't terribly uh clean, let's put it
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: that way.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: But the.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: That that process really was taken by Bob Fontaine and
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Ken Forsch and Jeff Parker. You know, we were we
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: used that time, Marcel Latchman and I used used that
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: time to kind of get ourselves together on the major
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: league level, kind of thinking that hey, this is going
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: to settle eventually, right, and we're gonna have to play,
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: so we we might see use this time to get ready.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: So we we we put the time to get use
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: that way. But Ken and Ken and Bob and and
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: and Jeff just they really just kind of put out
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: feelers for anybody who was wanting to take a shot
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: and and play, and we tried to stay as I recall,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: we tried to stay away from anybody that we thought
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: could possibly play in the big leagues again, could or
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: or could or was a prospect and could get get
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: to the big leagues. And so we were pretty careful
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: with the with the players in our camp. I'm not
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: even sure if we let any of them cross over.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: And if we did, they they were folks that that
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: we had already had had come to the reality that
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: they weren't going to get get to the big leagues otherwise,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Uh so we'd give we'd give them a shot at this.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: But generally speaking, those were the kind of players that
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: were in our camp, were players that that that they
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: felt they weren't going to get to the big leagues
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: and they were going to take a shot at it.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Do you remember I remember a tryout camp at cal
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: State Fullerton, and as I recall, there were almost like
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: a thousand players showed up. Were you at any of those?
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Do you recall that?
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: No? I was not, but I but I do know
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: that the uh you know, Bob, Bob Fontete kind of
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: uh shepherd of that he he was. He was looking
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: at that because he had done that so many times
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: as a scout and a scouting director. He had he
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: had done so many tryouts over his life lifetime. He
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: knew what to do. But you know, we just had
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: too many kids. It just were there were there were
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: there were so many young guys that showed up and
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: older guys too, and it was one of those real
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: rough camps. It was a tough thing for these kids
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: because the first thing you do is run run the sixty.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: And if you don't run the sixty in a certain
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: certain time, you leave. And so that that thousand players
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: gets knocked down to about two hundred and fifty pretty quickly.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: And so that and that's real tough on the on
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: those seven fifty who get who get tossed aside, that's
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: that's a real tough thing who who knows where where
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: they came from, you know, And so those tryouts are
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: double edged swords. They're they're real nice for your for
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: your community.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: I don't mean for the replacement player but I mean
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: general open tryout camps. When the Dodgers and all the
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: clubs used to hold tryouts at spring training open tryouts,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: they were great for your fans. But not this one.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: This one was this one was It was just different
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: because of replacement baseball.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Now, the Angels did eventually assemble a team, And here's
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: what I wrote in a twenty nineteen story looking back
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: at that spring.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: This is the lead.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: The left hander who works in the car detailing business,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: zipped the fastball into the middle of the home depot
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: department manager. And with that, the Angels nineteen ninety five
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: spring training camp was in full swing. So I read
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: the lead to my first dispatch for Arizona in my
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: first year as Angels beat writer for the Times, the
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: start of a wacky six weeks of replacement player ball
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: that was a fantasy camp for participants, an embarrassment to
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: coach as an executive so oversaw it, and a gold
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: mine a material for baseball writer. Now, bill, uh, what
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: stands out the most for you from that spring?
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: Well, what stands out the most for me in that
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: spring was that was that lead? Your lead was the
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: first play. No, it was the first play of replacement baseball.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: And and do you remember the do you remember the
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: prospect that Arizona State had was he was leading off.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: I think his last name was Powell.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Do you remember there was a Chris Powell who was
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: your replacement center fielder?
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, I'm I'm brain cramping. But this, gosh,
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: I don't think it was. It wasn't. It wasn't McDowell. No,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: it was. It was after McDowell. It was, Oh my gosh,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: it was anyway, it was a good a good prospect,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: and he was leading off for Arizona State because in TEMP,
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: part of our lease deal was that we had to
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: play a charity game every every spring, and so we
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: played that the day before our regular spring training schedule started,
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: and the money went to charity for that game. So
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: it was good. It was a night game, and because
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: it just worked out that we were the first replacement
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: game in baseball. Everybody else was playing the next day,
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: we were playing that night, and so ESPN and every
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: other moron who wants to stuff there.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: We had everybody on, yeah and Good Morning, Good Morning
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: America was there, ABC World News Tonight and ESPN and CNN,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and yeah, it was a national story. Is like the
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: first replacement game, a replacement player game in like eight
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: decades or something.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: I do remember that.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And Pat Murphy was Pat Murphy was managing
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: Arizona State, and Marcel Lastman was, of course our manager.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: And the first play was a groundball to shortstop and
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: he throws to first base, overthrows the first baseman. The
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: ball bounces off those bricks behind for first base. The
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: batter runner sees the ball go by and he rounds
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: first to head to second, thinks better of it, comes back,
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: and the first baseman throws the ball to the pitcher covering,
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: and they tag the guy out. That idiotic play on
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: everybody's part was the first replacement baseball play ever, And
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: so I remember that part.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: And then.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: We beat the daylights out of him. I don't you know,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: this This was not This was not This was not
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: a regular charity game to lead off spring training. You
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: don't have Tim Salmon getting his one at bat and
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: then coming out out of the lineup. You don't have
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: a big, big league club that really doesn't care what
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: they do with these college kids, right, But in this case,
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: you had these replacement players who were who were being
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: who were being embarrassed and attacked in the press every
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: every day, and so they wanted to put it on somebody,
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: and they did, and they they absolutely beat the daylights
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: out of these kids. And when the game was over,
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: you, you and you're ill went over to the Arizona State
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: side and you interviewed Murphy and he's just he's ripping
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: these kids, our kids, he's ripping his kids. Said hey,
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: you know, in a few weeks time, these guys were
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: back in the seven eleven or bigg Indigens or whatever.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: It was really disrespectful to human beings. It didn't matter
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: if they were they were players, if they were replacement
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: players were not. He was just being lousy to people,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: to fellow human beings. And so that you guys, of course,
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: being what you are, you took that back to Marcel, right,
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: So you just gave it to jobs. Hey, yeah, absolutely, no,
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: I get it. And you said, you said, hey, Marcel,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: so Murphy. Murphy said this right, and you give it,
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: and Marcell just kind of looked at you and said,
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: what are you kidding me? I had to turn it off.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: I had to turn off.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: As as they do recall the first play in the
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: score book read six wall three or six wall one.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: I think that's what you just scored it.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Hey, we're gonna we gotta take a quick break to
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: hear from our sponsors, and we'll be back with more
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Halo territory.
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• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Halo Territory. Our guest is Bill Bavasi,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: former Angels general manager. Now, in nineteen ninety five, not
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: everybody had a replacement team. In fact, the Baltimore Orioles,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: who were owned at the time by prominent labor lawyer
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Peter Angelos, refused to feel the team of replacement players.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Toronto GM Gordash refused to let his big league staff
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: work with replacement players. Now, the Angels under mar soul Latchman,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: who was a bit of a second a second year
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: managing the team at the time, seemed to take a
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: pretty serious approach. Bill, do you sort of have any
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: regrets about the way you guys handled the whole thing?
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah? I do not, not the way Marcel handled it,
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: the way the way that I handled it, and you
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: know that that you know, the the buck stops with
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: with the GM. But I think from ownership to rich Brown,
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: to me, we should have handled it differently, or I
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: wish I had handled it differently. Now now we we
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: weren't going to take the thee the Peter Angelos approach
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: because Jackie and Gene Autry we were we're very loyal
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: to their other owners and to the commissioner, so they
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: were gonna they were going to participate in replacement baseball.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: But I did respect what what Peter Angelos did. But
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: but I heard after the fact, after it was all over,
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: what I believe Gordash did, which was he hired the
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: Blue Jays hired outside their staff. They hired a retired
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: junior college, college high school coaches. And basically my understanding
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: is they hired these guys, gave them a ballpark, gave
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: them a bag of uniforms, a bag of equipment, said hey,
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: go get them, and that was it. They He didn't
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: let he didn't let his major league staff touch the situation.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: And after replacement Baseball I saw what he did. I
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: kind of I kind of hit myself on the head
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: and said, you gotta be kidning, I should have done that.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: You know this, This guy had it nail. And by
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: the way, gord Ash is one of the most underrated
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: executives I've been I've been around. This guy's really a
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: smart guy and really he's glutted with common sense and
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: he's a good person. But that day that he got
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: my attention and that that's what we all should have done.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: That's what really we all should have done. Now, Peter Angelost,
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: God love him. That was that was probably the best.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: But we weren't going to do that. So those of
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: us that that that had to participate in replacement baseball
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: should have absolutely done what Gordon did.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: Now it there were some laughable moments.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: This is from US A couple of funny quotes that
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: were came out of replacement players. Spring asked to predict
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: the winner of a replacement World Series. Pittsburgh manager Jim
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Leland said the team that can get the most guys
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: out of the whirlpool and onto the field. The Cleveland
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Indians that Spring traded five players to the Cincinnati Reds
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: for future considerations. Quote Cleveland definitely got the better on the.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: End of the deal. Red's manager Dave Johnson.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Davy Johnson said they didn't get anybody. I remember one game,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: I think we were down in Old Maryvale where the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Brewers played the Angels, committed four heirs, ran into four
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: outs on the bases and missed a bunch of cutoff
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: men and a loss of the Brewers. And there were
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: some memorable characters that march. You guys signed a guy
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: named Lennie Randall who was so old he actually played
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: for the Washington Senators in nineteen seventy one.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: You remember him, oh, very well, very well, that's a
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: big personality.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he had a great He has one of the
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: best baseball bloopers of all time where he lays down
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: the button, just attacks the pitcher and starts one of
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: the biggest brawls I think I've ever seen.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: And of course, no recas.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: He was also the one he tried to blow the
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: ball out there.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: That's true. That's true, another great blooper. No recounting of
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: replacement players Spring would be complete without the tale of
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: John Fischel, a former cal State Fullerton starr who actually
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: played on their nineteen eighty four.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: National championship team. And Bill, you.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Want to sort of pick up that story.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: No, no, but I will he so, yeah, he he was.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: He was. He was a pretty good player. I'm not
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: saying he's a pretty good player with us, he was
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: a pretty good player when when he was a kid. Yeah,
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: And and he was really a nice guy. I will
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: you know, I didn't. We had no no trouble with him.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: He was he was a good, a good guy to
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: have around. But unfortunately he got arrested on h I
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: think I think I think they cuffed him in the
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: clubhouse or they they were they they were kind enough
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: to wait till he got off the field. And apparently,
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: as I recall, it was, wasn't it back child support
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: something like that?
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was during the national anthem, after the national anthem,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: I think they waited.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he owed. Uh.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: I think all he had to do was to not
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: be arrested, was to not go to Phoenix. But the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: lure of just you know, another paycheck playing baseball was
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: so strong.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: He owed sixty seven thousand dollars in child support to
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: a Phoenix area woman who claimed he had fathered a
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: child with her. And yeah, he actually they hauled him
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: off to jail.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: They hauled him off to jail. I picked him up.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: We didn't have our full our full staff there, and
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: guys were working around around the clock, and so somebody
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: had to pick this guy up. And so these all
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: these folks were working a lot harder than I was.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: So I ran out there and got him. And he
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: didn't say he didn't say that he wasn't guilty. Let's
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: put that. But but but he just I just don't
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: have the money. I just I don't have it. And
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: I don't know how. I don't know how he got
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: out of that, but we we we bailed him out.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: And then then replacement baseball ended, and so I don't
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: know what happened with that.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and another sign of how certain people took that
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: spring a little too seriously.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Me being a first year writer.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: I actually went to the Phoenix Courthouse in downtown to
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: cover his trial and it didn't last long.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we we did take it. We didn't.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure if taking it serious is the right way.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: What I recall is Marcel absolutely refusing to treat these
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: guys like replacement players. You know, he he he felt
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: that that these are I said this before, these are
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: our fellow human beings, No matter what you want to
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: think of them, and we have decided to go forward
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: with replacement baseball. And so if you've hired me as
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: the manager, I'm going to manage these guys. And if
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: this is what you want me to do, if i'm
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: if I'm to manage these guys, I want them treated
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: like big leaders. To do, we need to run a
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: big league spring training. And so we did, you know,
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: we we We didn't. They they weren't protected on their
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: meal money or anything like that, like like you would
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: be with a with a CBA. They didn't have that.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: But we did treat them pretty well. You know, I
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: think I think we treated him real well. Most clubs
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: did the same thing as far as the money goes.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: But but our our staff coached him and they taught
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: him and they tried to get you know, get him better,
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: and they tried to get get them ready, and they
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: tried to make them better players. And and uh, I
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: will always respect our staff for that because they didn't
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: want it. They knew, they knew what they were dealing with,
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: and they knew they weren't getting big leaguers ready to
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: play big league baseball. They were doing replacement baseball. They
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: didn't like it. They didn't like it one bit. And
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: and that's why I go back to, you know, we
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: had these we had we had a staff that had
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: some pretty good big league players on it, you know, Bob,
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Bobby kind of up Rod Krut. We had good former
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: players and they were they were supportive of the Players Association.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: So yeah, we just we just put all these people
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: in just such an awful position that I've beating the
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: dead horse. But Gord had the right answer.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I give you a perfect example of how serious your
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: staff took it. I remember that spring being in the
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: clubhouse and sitting in a chair next to one of
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the replacement players who I was interviewing, and Rod Crew
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: walks by and he goes, get out of that chair.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: That's a big leaguers chair. And I didn't think he
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: was serious at first. I kind of laughed, you know,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: that kind of weird laugh, Okay, And he looks at
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: me with those crude eyes. That's a big leaguer's chair,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: and he meant it. And you know, it was my
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: first year on the beat. Maybe Rod was trying to
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: intimidate me a little bit for future considerations. But yeah,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: those guys did take it serious, though. I will give
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: credit that replacement player team did make it through six
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: weeks of spring training. Most of the players, as I recall,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: pocketed their meal money and ate at McDonald's all spring.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: But they did make it to southern California. But by
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: then the strike had finally been settled. But the replacements
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: did agree to play the Freeway Series. One game in
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Dodgers Stadium, one game in Angel Stadium, and I recall
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: putting on. It was a good show.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: It was the regular It was the regular Freeway Series.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: It was there was a third game, but it was
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: he got canceled. It got canceled, so we were supposed
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: to go back up to LA for Sundays game. We
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: played Friday at our place and Saturday at their place
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: and Sunday at their place. But Sunday morning is when
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: everything got settled.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: I do remember Chris Powell, your center fielder in a
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: former slow pitch softball teammate of mine a few years
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: before nineteen ninety five, making a spectacular catch. He was
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: we had a good team. He made a spectacular diving
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: catch in the outfield, and at the end of that game,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: your Angel's replacement team got a standing ovation, a pretty
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: good standing ovation from the home crowd. Could you sort
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: of see at the time, how you know it, with
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: so much resentment and bitterness towards the striking players, how
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: they sort of came to appreciate the efforts of these guys.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: Yes, I do, I can see that, and that is
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: you know, you get that right, that's that is what
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: what happened. And you know, the Anaheim fan is is
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: an interesting fan. You know, they're not They they know
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: the game. They really do know the game. I think
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: I think for the rest of the nation they don't.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: They don't believe that, they don't believe that any anybody
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: outside of New York or Boston or Chicago knows anything
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: about anything. But but the Anaheim Angel fan, they know,
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: they know what they're doing. But they've also got they
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: also got heart. You know, they've also got got some heart.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: And you know, I think, you know, I don't think
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: they appreciated replacement baseball any more than you than you
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: and I did. You know, they weren't, they weren't thrilled
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: about replacement baseball. But the fans who came out to
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: the ballpark that night, and it wasn't a tiny crowd.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: They came out and they they appreciated the effort. I
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: think they were surprised. And by the way, those two
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: games were pretty clean. You know, you know, you mentioned
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: the game in Mary'sville, those were filthy games. These two
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: games were pretty clean games, you know, and and and
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: they kind of looked like they weren't big league games.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: But you're watching these players and they actually played the
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: game correctly. They did everything right. It's just that, you know,
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: the ball moves slower, the holes are bigger, you know,
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: every everything's not big league baseball. And but they put
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: that effort out and the Anaheim fan appreciates that. Yeah,
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: I saw that. I saw that again later on a
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: few years later when we traded for Tony Phillips. The
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: second time he got he got in some legal hassles
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: and missed a couple of months, came back, and when
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: he came back and he went to the plate, they
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: he didn't get a standing ovation or anything with that,
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: but his first at batty doubled and they came, they
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: came to life, and so you know, they'll they'll support effort,
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: and so that that's what I think they saw. They
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: didn't see great baseball, but they saw great effort and
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: I do recall Powell's catch.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: It's a great catch. So the big leaders did return
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: that spring. They somehow jammed a six week spring training
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: into three weeks, and the nineteen ninety five seasons started
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: a little late April late April, and what.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: A season that was.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: The Angels built an eleven game lead and early to
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: mid August and had a pair of nine game losing streaks.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: That lead lost the Seattle in a one game playoff.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: How tough was that to endure after everything that happened
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: and that lead that you guys had built.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: Up, Well, it was real tough, obviously, but you know,
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: there's there's no getting around that it was. It was
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: I think I think you had actually asked me, Hey,
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: you know, where do you think you're going to be
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: at the end of this season? You know, what do
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: you think this is? You know, what do you think
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: is going to happen? I said, and I and I said,
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: you and I I think we were just bs and
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: we were just talking, you know, talking. I said, you know,
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: we're either going to finish this thing the way the
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: way we should, or I will have hopefully survived a
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: botched suicide attempt because it was so emotional. It was
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: so it was so up and down. It was you know,
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: you had these these you know, eight game you know,
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: you had these long losing streaks, long winning streaks, and
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: then you get to where you're really starting to fold,
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: and it's just it's hard to stop. It's hard. It's
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: hard to put put the brakes on out of times.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: And I know, you know, interestingly enough, we had two
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: eight game losing streaks I think in that that loss period,
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: and I think they were both broken by Abbot. I
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: think at Abbot broke both the eight eight game lose
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: losing streaks. But you know, we had a we had
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: a pretty good club, Mike, but we were way ahead
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: of schedule. We were, we were I'm not sure I
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: was even ready for it. I really, you know, I
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: wasn't because you know, in not ninety four, you know,
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: you kind of glossed over the ninety four season that
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: was a mess too, And because if you look at
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: the go look at the standings for nineteen ninety four
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: in the American West, we were about losing record, right,
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: we were like a billion games below five hundred and
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: still in it. You know, I'm looking at our club,
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: We're just awful. And we had signed Bo Jackson as
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: a as a kind of a service act, and and
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: he was fantastic. He actually did a great job for us.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: But but you know, we we were I remember trying
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: to trade for Rick Aguilera and then I'm I'm off,
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: I'm offering prospects Andy mcphili's just is he's just dragging
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: me through a tin horn. You just killing me, and
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: and I'm giving up more and more, and finally we
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: don't do the deal. But I was just I'm the
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: whole time I was talking about I just couldn't believe.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: I thought, I can't believe I'm I'm trying to get
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: a player at the trade dead deadline and we're in
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: the worst division I've ever seen. But we're still in it.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: You know, we still have a chance to win, but
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: we're we're like fifteen games of five hundred. It's just disgusting.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: So then so now it during that during that replacement
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: baseball building the roster, Marcella and I were focused on
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: the big league club, and so we were trying to
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: figure out everything we could make better, and we actually
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: put together a business plan and followed it, and we
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: were we really felt we were going to grow the
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: ball club. We were just going to keep growing this
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: on club. That that uh that Buck Rod you know
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Buck Rogers, you know he he courageously went with with
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: young kids. You know, Buck did a great job bringing
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: Jim Edmonds along for an example. And so we thought,
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: we're just gonna get better, just keep keep getting better.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: And then in spring training, uh, Joe Klein, who was
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: the general manager of the Detroit Tigers called me and
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: and proposed trading Tony Phillips for Chad Curtis. And I,
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: you know, we we I said, I can't, I can't
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: do do that. We have Chad on a good contract.
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: And you're you know, he was paying Tony four and
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: a half. I was paying Chad too. He said, yeah.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: For he said, Tony's on one one more year. I'll
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: pay his salary. I'll pay I'll pay the difference. So
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: you'll still have your Chad Curtis salary, but I'll have
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: Chad you take to take Tony. And so you know,
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: we're hamming an han over that. And I remember a
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: lot about this about this trade. And two things. One
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: Matt ke oh uh, may he rest in peace was
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: a just one of the hardest working scouts I've ever
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: been around in my life, and had just got great
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: information and he had played with with Tony, and he said, Bill,
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: he said, look, you know, he said, I wouldn't wait
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: to make this trade. He said, you know, we all
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: knew Chad was not well liked in the clubhouse, and
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: we also I also felt he had he had quite
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: a been a false hustle to him. I just didn't.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: I just didn't take to the guy as much as
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: I thought I I should have. I just he was
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: tough to tough to. He was tough to be around anyway.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: He so he said, he said, look, you know, Tony
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: is that rare guy who will make other players better.
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: He will make Edmunds better, he will make Snow better,
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: he will make Samon better. It just went down the
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: list to make everyone of one of these guys better.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: And that sold me on it. And I don't know
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: if you were you probably recalled this, but at that
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: time it looked like the club was going to Peter
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: you broth. Oh yeah, and I was dealing with Peter,
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: you broth. Jackie. Jackie and gen Audrey told me, hey,
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: when Peter calls, treat him like an owner, you know,
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: give him information, give him what he needs needs to know.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: I said, okay, great, and so I did, and those
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: were some of the most fun months of my career.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: I loved dealing with Peter you Broth, and I love
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: dealing with with with Jackie and Gene Audrey too, but
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: Peter you Broth was was bringing a different dynamic and
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: I felt I was going to learn a lot with
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: this guy. And I really enjoyed myself. But I I
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: he came in town. He came into Arizona because he
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: also owned the Double Tree Corporation and they were headquartered
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: in Arizona, so he was he flew in there to
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: do some business. Then then he stopped by by the ballpark.
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: He says, hey, so what's up. And so I told
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: him about the Tony Phillips straight and he looked at
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: me and said, are you kidding me? Because you know,
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: the reputation Chad in the public was way different than
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: Chad in the clubhouse. Right the public. Here's this, you know,
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: we're we're in Orange County and here's this white guy
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: with a with a with a crew cut and always
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: jumping on the wall trying to catch that ball. That's
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: that's up in the upper deck. You know, he's not
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: got yere And so so fans kind of think this guy,
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: this guy is all that. He's just a he's just
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: a good team player, and he's a hustler. And so
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: I told Peter, I said, I said, Peter, he's not
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: the guy you think he is. You know, he's not.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: He's not he's a selfish guy. And he's not. He's not.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: He really is not the good team player you you
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: think he is. And so as we talked about a
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: little bit, he said, he said, hey, go you should
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: make you should make that deal. You should make deal.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: I said, I said, you know, I I know why
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: I should make that deal. But you know why, why
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: are you thinking I should make that deal right right now?
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: And he said, he said Bell, He said, look, as
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: you're going through life and businesses said. He said, if
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: you have somebody working for you and you just don't
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: like him, when you go get your coffee in the morning,
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: you look at him and think, wow, I'm not sure
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: I'm not on that guy. If you do, if you
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: have that dynamic in your company, you're going to fail.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: He said, You've got to get rid of get rid
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: of that person because eventually you're going to shaft him
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: or he's going to shaft you. So make the move,
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: make your best, best move. And I kind of lived
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: by that ever since that I've I've kept that in
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: mind a long time. And so we made that deal,
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: and Tony made that club. What you saw he really did,
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: I think I think it was a big part of
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: that thing. And I just I think we had we
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: were still relying on on so many kids that it
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: just got too much for him. I also regret very
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: painfully that when we started the year, like I told you,
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: we were, we were just trying to grow this club right,
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: and we felt that Damian easily should be left at
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: second base. And so I said that at the start
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: of the season. I said, Hey, no matter what we
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: do as the year goes on, leave Damien at second base.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: But there's always this temptation to put him at shortstop tonight, third,
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: third base, tomorrow, second today, you know, the next day,
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: because he can do everything. He could do everything. But
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: we felt, we all but the consensus was he's not
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: going to settle in offensively until we find him a
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: position where he can that can be his his own.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: So we put him at second base, and we repledged that, hey,
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: we're not going to move him off second base for
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: any reason. Now we trade for Tony and the first
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: thing I asked him is, hey, do you mind playing
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: third base? And his eyes kind of got big, and
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: he said, yeah, I can play at third base. Yeah, sure, okay,
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: and so so he didn't tell me this until years
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: later later. He said, you know, nothing scared me more
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: than playing third days. He said, I'm scared to death
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: every day. And you know, you know, Garrett Anderson and
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: I were talking about it. He was because we moved
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: we moved him to third so that we could put Garrett.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: We could bring him up and put him in left field,
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: and Garrett said, he said, you know, he said, every
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: time i'd see Tony have trouble at third base, I thought,
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: oh god, I'm going down to triplet And I told him,
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: I said, no, we were. We were committed to that too.
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: Once we brought him up, we felt we're not going
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: to send him down. He's gonna he's gonna even if
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: he struggles, he's going to suffer. Because this year we're
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: just supposed to We're supposed to grow, We're supposed to
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: get better. Well they ended up. There was a time
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: in like July where we were at we were, we
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: had we had a better pace than the twenty seven
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: Yankees or something.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, And you know.
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: Super superstition being what it is. I got a letter
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: in August from Charlie Blaney, the farm director for the Dodgers,
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: and I had known him for a long time. He
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: sent me a note saying, dear Bill, congratulations on winning
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: the American League West.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: Oh wow, no, lie, yeah.
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: Charlie, Charlie Blaint And if I if we didn't have
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: a home game that night, I would have driven up
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: to Dodger Stadium and killed him. Because I'm not a
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: superstitious guy. I tried not to be, but that was
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: over the top.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Well, let's let's fast forward four years to nineteen ninety nine, which,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: as angel fans of a certain age will remember, was
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: a bit of a disaster. A team many picked to
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: win the division win seventy ninety two, finished last place
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: season full of turmoil. Terry Collins, the manager, quit in
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: early August, Bill Blevasi stepped down, and late September, Tony Taveres,
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: the team president at that time, gave new general manager
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Bill Stone on a mandate to blow that team up,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: and he didn't. Three years later, a team that you
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: and Bob Fontaine, the scouting director who you've referenced in
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: the show, basically put together the nucleus of that team
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: wins the World Series. What was that whole experience like
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: for you? Was it validation? Was a regret? What do
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: you think.
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: You know it was? It was probably a little bit
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: of both, but a little bit of everything. You know,
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: everything goes through through your mind, things like like that.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: But I want to tell you that that team that
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: won was Bill Stoneman's team. He made He made a
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: couple of deals that were so impactful and they were
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: deals I could have made, you know, but I did.
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: And the deal for the second Baseman Kennedy was a
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: big one. That was a big deal. And who was
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: the big right hand pitcher.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: He got Kent button Field.
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: Button Field. Yeah, he got guys that actually did things
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: for him and they they that that club grew and
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: got better, you know, And and so I think that
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: that the nucleus was a lot of the nucleus on
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: the position player side was ours. But builded some great things,
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: built builded some fabulous things. And and that was clearly
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: his team. And so that's that's why, you know what.
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: I I appreciate the credit that we get. I do
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: appreciate it. I believe most of that we got or not,
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: I don't believe it's most of it. I believe we
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: got some credit because I was. I think I was
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: nice to you guys. I think I think we all
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: got along, right, I mean I really, I really don't.
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: We got along pretty well. And I think I was
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: always nice. And so I do think when you're nice,
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: people give you a break. I think people. I think
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: that was that was the media given us a break
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: and giving us some kudos that whether we deserved him
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: or not, it was they were being real nice. I
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: will say. One of the crazy things that that happened
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: was when the Angels won and Michael Eisner was giving
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: the speech on the field. I don't know if you
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: remember this. He mentioned my name.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: Oh I do not remember he did, he said, he.
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: Said, he said, look, how can you lose when you
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: have people like stem In a Vesey putting this thing too?
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: And I thought, I'm not sure he knows I'm off
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: the payroll. Maybe he thinks I still work.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: So he had a lot of characters on the payroll.
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: Remember, yes, Bill, Bill invited Bobby and I to the
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: first game at Anai'm Stadium. I'm not even sure I
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: was that game one of the series or the first.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: Home field.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we he invited us to the first first game,
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: which was super nice thing for him to do. And
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: and and I don't know if you've ever heard of
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: that done. That's probably doesn't happen very very often yet ever,
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: But I as I recall what I had heard, is
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: that is that the idea was put to him by
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: Kevin Ulick and Tim Mead and his response was, you know,
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: can can I do that? I didn't. I haven't even
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: thought thought of that. I'd love to do that. Yeah,
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: you know. So, so Bobby and I are indebted to
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: Billy to Bill for doing that. And you know, I'm
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: old enough to remember Bill Stowman as a pitcher, and
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: I always admired this guy. This guy's pitching career is
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: is really really impressive energy to super super big league pitcher.
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: So I I just you know, and I always no
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: matter what position, whether I was on the grounds crew
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: or a general manager or anything in between, I always
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: appreciated big League players. I don't Yeah, I don't care
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: if they were stars. If you put on a big
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: league uniform, you're somebody in my eyes. So anyway, he
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: did a real nice, nice thing that he certainly did
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: not have to do, and at a time in his
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: life where he's got other stuff to think about.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Well, as much as I've enjoyed this trip in the
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: wayback machine, I do want to bring my last question
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: up to present day. As you know, Bill an Orange
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: County resident, the Angels are an eleven year playoff drought
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: with ten straight losing seasons. You're a former GM Baseball liver.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: If looking at this franchise right now from the outside,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: is there a blueprint that you would suggest for them
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: to turn this thing around and return the playoff.
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: Contention, Nothing you haven't thought of. You know, it all
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: starts with the bass, you know. First of all, I
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: will I want to say I'm still a fan of
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: the Angels. It's still it's still my team. And I mean,
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: and I think all of us that that that grew
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: up with the Angels. I was there for twenty twenty years,
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: you know, And the only jobs I had in baseball
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: before that, I was on on a grounds Crew in
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: San Diego, and so for twenty years that's the only
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: organization I knew. So I still love the organization and
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: I got it. I had a great chance to meet
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: Ardie Moreno early in his in his tenure there, and
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: what a nice guy. I'm a i'm a I'm a
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: fan of his and I and i'm i'm i'm I'm
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: rooting for him, and I'd love to see him get
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: a little bit of luck. You know, every every owner
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: who wins, who wins, they've got luck on their side
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: every once in a while. You gotta don't, don't, don't
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: just discount that. I'd love to see this guy get
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: some luck, have some some luck. But beyond luck, I'd
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: probably be be making sure I invest more and more consistently,
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: well more and more consistently in scouting and player development
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: and analytics. I mean, I know you you probably don't
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: think I'm an analytics guy, and I'm not, but I
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: do see the need and the value and that that
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: if you're my competitor and you you have analytics, well
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: I want to have better analytics. And so you're going
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: to have to invest in those things and and maybe
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: maybe back off for a while the big name free agent,
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: until you're ready, until you think you're.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: Ready for that.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: And I'll tell you we can all make mistakes and
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: think we're we think we're ready, but we're not that
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: that that that happened to me in Seattle. You know,
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: we had we had an edict when I first got there,
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: you're not gonna you're not going to be able to
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: go through a five year building plan. And if you
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: if if you look at the club I inherited, it
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: was very old and I had to I had to
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: turn it over. And this was a very popular ball
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: club up there, so I was I was definitely the
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: devil himself, you know, coming in there and turn turning
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: these guys guys over. But we did get better, and
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: that was our art. Edict was almost to get better
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: every month. Almost they were. They were pretty unreasonable. I
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: got some great stories from up up there. But the
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: we did get better until seven and we won eight
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: eighty eight games in a year where where where my
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: my my manager bailed halfway through the year, but we
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: still won eighty eight games. So we were getting better.
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: But we lost some RBIs and Hose Jose g in
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: and so we had to take some chances, and we
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: took the chances and they didn't work out. We were awful. Man,
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: I got fired. I should I should have got fired
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: because you got to take chances, and the buck stops
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: with you as a GM, it stops with you. If
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: you don't win, you die, That's the way it goes.
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: But in uh so, you know, so I look at
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: this and I think you know that that they're going
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: to have to get back to the basics and then
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: just just hold your powder, keep your hot powder dry
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: until you're good enough to go out and get that
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: big free agent to put you over over the top.
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: I think it's a I think it's bad luck and
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: a shame. It's one of one of the one of
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: the most crying shames I've seen in baseball is to
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: see see a ball club that has Mike Trout and
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: uh Otani. When you have Show all Otani and Mike
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: Trout and you're not in the postseason, that's just a
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: bummer for everybody. It's I'm not blaming anybody, it's just
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: a it's just a bummer. It's it's it's it's a sad,
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: sad thing. I wish they had a little bit more
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: luck in those years. And and I I thought I
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: thought it was coming when Joe got there, when when
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: Joe Madden got got there. But I guess things had
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: changed enough where it just wasn't. It just wasn't gonna happen.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: But I I I do, I do. I do wish them.
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: This is you know when you when somebody tells you, hey,
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: I wish you luck. I really wish these guys. I'd
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: like to see them get a little bit of luck,
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: just onet in a while. So so so that's that's
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: my my. My blueprint is a bad it's not a
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: real good good one. I'm not sure. I'm not saying
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: it's bad, but it's not. It's not. It's nothing earth
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: chattering that you haven't thought about and all your fans
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: haven't thought about. Just get back, build, build the base
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: and work from there.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: All right, that's gonna do it for us on Halo
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: Territory today. Thanks for joining us, Bill Bavasi. Great to
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: catch up with you, always talking about the old days.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: And please like and subscribe and we'll see you next
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: time on Halo Territory.
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: M M
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: M