Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Why Ryne Sandberg deserves a Wrigley Field statue

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Why Ryne Sandberg deserves a Wrigley Field statue · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But he also just wanted to be one of the guys.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: He just wanted to be a baseball player. He just
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: wanted to come to the park, be grade at a job,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and go home after the game.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Welcome into North Side Territory, The Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: I'm Sahadev Sharma with my co host Patrick Mooney, where
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: your Cubs beat writers at the Athletic. Patrick, we have
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: a special guest this week due to the Ryan Samberg
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: statue ceremony. Ryan Samberg, one of the greatest Cubs of
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: all time, finally gets his day to honor him out
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  Speaker 2: in the Gallagher Way.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and there's no better person to talk about kind
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: of Ryan Samberg's legacy at Wrigley Field, his impact on
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: the Cubs franchise, Like what really drove this guy and
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: it's Barry Rosner. He spent about forty years at the
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Daily Herald. He was a Cubs beat writer, a long
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: time columnist, so he covered all sports in Chicago and
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: was really plugged in to every franchise. And he also
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: did a ton of work on TV on six seventy
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: of the Score. Just like a guy who had great
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  Speaker 3: just common sense in a way to explain what was
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  Speaker 3: going on. He surprisingly didn't curse during our conversation with him,
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  Speaker 3: But I think we both came away from it thinking, like, Man,
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: I could listen to Barry tell stories for like the
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: next seven seven hours. We kept it tighter than that,
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  Speaker 3: but I think you'll come away with a really good
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  Speaker 3: understanding of like, who is this guy kind of underneath
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  Speaker 3: the statue, and like why the Cubs are doing this
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  Speaker 3: this weekend?
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  Speaker 2: All right, Patrick, Let's get to our guest. Barry Rosner
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: covered the Cubs for the Daily Herald for a very
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: long time. Let's put it that way. Barry thirty seven
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: years at the Daily Hair World first sidebar on the
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Cubs in nineteen eighty five. I won't embarrass Barry and
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  Speaker 2: tell you how old I was at that time, Barry,
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  Speaker 2: but I was alive, so hey, I'm not one of
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: those young, annoying reporters, you know.
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  Speaker 1: So.
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  Speaker 2: And I did get the Daily Herald at my house.
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  Speaker 2: That was, we did not get the Tribune of there sometimes.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: I grew up reading the Daily Herald my teenage years.
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  Speaker 2: I read a lot of Barry Rosner beat writer from
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  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety for a decade and then a columnist, Barry.
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  Speaker 2: We got Ryan Samberg retire not retirement ceremony statue coming
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  Speaker 2: up on Sunday. I mean the statue is better than
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  Speaker 2: any retirement ceremony of the number. In my opinion, you
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  Speaker 2: get a statue that you're among the elite. I'm gonna
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: tell a quick little story. Nineteen ninety for me was
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: the year that I went from Mets fan to Cubs fan.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Long story why I was a Mets fan. I won't
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: get too much into it. Obviously I'm not a Cubs
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: fan anymore as a beat writer, but it was because
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: of Ryan Samberg's I was collecting baseball cards with my dad.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Ryan Samberg's rookie card was on fire that year because
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: he just kept hitting home runs every day. I remember
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: my dad shushing me when we were trying to buy
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  Speaker 2: Ryan Samberg rookie cards and someone said he's got twenty
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: something homers. I was like, no, no, he has twenty four.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: He just hit two last night. My Dad's like, shut up,
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  Speaker 2: what are you doing. We're trying to buy cards here?
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  Speaker 2: And you also, before we get to Samberg, I want
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: to start with this. You covered in a different era
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: of covering baseball and you also were around when it
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: all transitioned and changed and was very like I just
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: I can't imagine what it was like covering baseball back then.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Can you kind of tell us what you saw change
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: from eighties nineties to present day?
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  Speaker 1: Well, you guys can speak to today certainly better than
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I can. I saw it, you know, in bits and
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: pieces the last few years when I was still working.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Obviously did not like what I saw. But I can
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: tell you this. When I started covering baseball, first of all,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: when you walked in that room, it was an adversarial relationship.
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  Speaker 1: You were not part of the team. You were there
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  Speaker 1: to do a job. And I mean and there were
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: legendary baseball beat guys that you would run into and
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: every single press box you went into, and you felt
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  Speaker 1: the responsibility to do the job and to do it well,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: and to cover the team hard and to be fair,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: but to not be part of the team. You certainly
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: were not part of the group. You were there to
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: uncover as much as you could, and you have the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: opportunity to do that. And this is what I think
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: is so vastly different. You guys will be shocked to
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: hear things like I used to go sit in don
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  Speaker 1: Zimmer's office for hours before a game. The clubhouse was opened,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: I think three and a half or four hours before
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: a game. And when you walked in that room, everybody
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: was in there. Okay, everyone was in front of their lockers.
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  Speaker 1: Imagine that. And that was a tiny That was a
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: tiny clubhouse. That wasn't the palace that the that the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Cubs has. Now you know there there weren't you know,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: ten or eleven different rooms they could go hiding. There
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: was nothing, There was no There was essentially no kitchen.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Yosha had a room where you could,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: you know, make yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: That was the kitchen. There was a trainer's room, if
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: you want to call it a trainer's room. Your bedroom
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: at home is probably bigger than that. So there was
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  Speaker 1: no place for them to hide. And when you walked
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: in there was at least twenty five guys. There was
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: a room full of coaches. There was a manager in
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  Speaker 1: his room. You could walk into his room anytime you wanted.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: But when you walked in the clubhouse there were hall
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  Speaker 1: of famers all over the place, and there were conversations
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  Speaker 1: to be had all over the place, and there were
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  Speaker 1: professionals everywhere you looked, and after a game, when you
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: walked in, there were all those same guys. They were
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: all there again, and especially if something bad happened, if
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: if it was a bad day or if a player
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: had done something, he was standing in front of his
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: locker waiting for you. And you know, there there were
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: truly some honorable guys. You know, there were guys who
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: There were guys like Samberg and Dawson and Maddox who
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: when they did something well, didn't really think there was
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: anything to talk about. And sometimes on those days they
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: were a little harder to find. But if they were,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: if they were the player that gave up the big
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: hit or or made an error or struck out with
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: the bases loaded, they were always there waiting for you
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: because they knew that was their responsibility. Plus they're trying
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: to teach the kids in the room what their responsibility is.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: And so I just used Samberg as an example. I
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: remember one time he made an error which happened what
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: a couple times a year, right, and and it broke
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  Speaker 1: some one hundred and eighty game errorless streak or some
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: ridiculous and he was always on some sort of hundred
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: game errorless streak. It you know, you just you lose track.
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  Speaker 1: It's hard for me to remember now, but I remember
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  Speaker 1: he had made an error and we came in afterward
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  Speaker 1: and one of the beat guys said, oh, you know,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: we we didn't think it was an error, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we were fighting for you. And I was like, what's
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  Speaker 1: this wee stuff. You know, I'm I didn't have anything
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: to do with that, you know, I'm not the official scorer.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Official scorers got his job. He might suck at it.
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  Speaker 1: He usually did suck at it, depending on I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I'm thinking specifically of Los Angeles and Houston. Those guys
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: were terrible. You know, sometimes they were bad. But the
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  Speaker 1: fact is is it's their job. They make the call.
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  Speaker 1: If the team wants to fight for him, fine, But
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: we walk in and another guy says, yeah, we we
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: we fought for you on that one, and I just
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  Speaker 1: I shook my head and Samber goes, it was an error,
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  Speaker 1: that's all. Yeah, yep, that was it. That was the
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  Speaker 1: whole conversation, and it probably wasn't, but that's not the point.
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  Speaker 1: The point is just eat it, you know, take responsibility,
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  Speaker 1: eat it and move on. I can't even imagine that
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  Speaker 1: happening in today's game, you know. And that's not I'm not,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: you know, trying to sound like everything was better than
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I know everybody hates that, and that's not my intention here.
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  Speaker 1: It's just I think we live in a different world
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  Speaker 1: where accepting responsibility is more difficult to come by. But
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: being a beat guy was both incredible and terrible, as
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: you guys know, as beat guys, I think it's you know,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I think it's the worst job at a newspaper. I
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: really do. I think it's the hardest job at a newspaper.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: It's also the most rewarding because it's so hard. Like
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: anything else that's hard, there's great reward in it. You guys,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: you know, might not feel that today because you don't
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: have the kind of access that we do. That we did,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: you don't have the kind of opportunity to to fill up,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: you know, sixty or eighty or one hundred inches of
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  Speaker 1: copy every single day because there was so much opportunity
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: to just write until your fingers were bleeding. I mean
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  Speaker 1: there were days where there I had days where it
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  Speaker 1: was a six or seven or eight day story, and
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: you know, days like when Don Zimmer was fired at
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  Speaker 1: Shay Stadium. That that, you know, that's one that sticks
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  Speaker 1: out in my mind. But there there were days like
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: that and you could but you could dig, and you
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: could break stories, and you can and you could. You
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: could really do a job. And while the eight month grind,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: which then turned into ten and eleven and twelve as
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: it is now, was brutal, physically demanding, mentally difficult, and
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: you know, from a relationship standpoint, you know, impossible. Nevertheless,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: it was it was I think the maybe it wasn't
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: the very top of the profession in terms of beat
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: writing at that moment. Maybe that had come a few
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: years before that. Maybe it was more like, you know,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I think if you were to look back at the
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: greatest who ever did it, you'd probably look back to
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: maybe the mid to late eighties. So I didn't miss
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: it by much. But it certainly was a great job
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: and also at the same time the most miserable work
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: you could possibly be doing. And I know I'm preaching
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: to the quarter because Patrick just said before we started
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: recording that he's got to get on the plane and
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: fly to San Francisco, and I, you know, would rather
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: be you know, stabbed in the eye with a knife
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: than even ponder that possibility right now. Well, that was
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: part of our deal of coming on.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: There'd be absolutely no talk about the current state of
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: the Cubs, which, speaking for Sahata, were very much good
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: with that because you can say the same thing over
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: and over. So I wanted a little history lesson because
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: I'd seen I forget if it was an act, just
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: one group shot or just three different photos on Twitter,
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: which has melted my brain obviously, but it was kind
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: of like Michael Jordan, Walter Peyton, and Ryan Sandberg and
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: obviously Michael Jordan's global icon Walter Peyton left us too soon.
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  Speaker 3: But can you explain like what it was like to
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: be in Sandberg's orbit at that time and who was
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: the guy that you got to know because of the
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: access back then was completely different than it is now.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I mean that list is really long. I mean
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: when I can remember doing both sidebars in the eighties
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: and you had access to Michael Jordan, I mean think
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: about that. I mean you could just walk up to
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Michael Jordan in the locker room and talk to him.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, very it's a very long time ago, very
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: different world. But in terms of Sandberg's orbit, you know
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: his life changed dramatically in nineteen eighty four. You guys
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: all know the story. Everyone who's interested in hearing me
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: talk about it knows the story. So I won't go
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: into it. But those two home runs off of Bruce
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Souiter dramatically changed his life, and from that day forward
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: he went from I mean, he was having that magical
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: season in eighty four, a MVP season, but that day
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: changed his life. That day because it happened to be
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: on national TV, and because of who he because of
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: who he hit those two home runs off of, and
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: the situations in which he did it, to tie a
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: game twice late, once late, once in extras, it changed
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: his life. And every day moving forward he had to
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: come to the ballpark prepared to be a superstar. And
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: this is a guy who had worked extremely hard. Baseball
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: was not easy for Ryan Samberg. Maybe it looked like it,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: And maybe there are guys for whom baseball is easy.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: I can't understand that, because the game is so hard.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: I can't understand it. I mean, maybe maybe for Bryce
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Arbert's easy. I don't know, Uh, maybe for Junior Griffy
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: it was easy. I don't know, but I know for
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: ninety nine percent of guys, it's really really hard, and
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: I know for Samberg it was extremely difficult. But he
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: worked so hard to get to that point, and from
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: that day forward he had to work twice as hard.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: So it changed his life because of the responsibility he
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: felt to come to the park every day to be
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: that guy for the people who were buying tickets. And
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: that was an incredible burden for this shy kid from
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Spokane who you know, thought he was going to college
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: to play to play football. You know, he was an
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: All American quarterback in high school, signed to play football
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: at Washington State, and here he is now in Chicago.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Pretty big market, even though it may not feel like
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: it sometimes, it was a pretty big market, you know,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: in the in an era of Walter Payton and Michael
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Jordan and Mike dick uh and and Ryan Samberg. It
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: was a it was a big place to be and
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: that responsibility was a huge burden for him, and so
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: he worked extremely hard. And I think I think one
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: of the things that you talked about being in his orbit,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: one of the things I think back on now is
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the guy that I know now is very different than
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the guy I knew then. And I think probably, like
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: a lot of guys, I know, Frank Thomas said this once.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: I think he probably wishes he had had more fun
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: playing baseball. And maybe that's not on you. Maybe we
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: all think that, you know, maybe we all look back.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Maybe I should, you know, look back on my time
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: being around you know, Maddox and and and Dawson and
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Samberg and Suckcliffe and Austen Macher and by Lecky and
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Grace and Dunson and all, you know, these amazing professionals
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: and and and think about those times more. Finally, but
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: you're just grinding so hard, right And I think Samberg
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: was grinding so hard that I don't know that generally speaking,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: he was having fun in the moment. You know, like
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: to most guys, winning is fun. That's that's that's why
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: you play, right, It's winning. That's you know. I played
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: hockey for forty years, I I and I remember losses
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: more than I remember wins. You know, It's that's what
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: sticks with you. I think I think probably he wouldn't
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: have had more fun.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: If the cops it becomes a won bok, you know,
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: they just there just wasn't a lot of winning during
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: those years, but he he never, like I don't think
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: he allowed himself to realize how big a star he was.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: He was huge in this town. He was a monster
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: in this town. But there were some things he did
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: specifically to try to make his life more livable. One
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: was he was out in public. He wasn't. He did
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: not you know, if Walter walked down Michigan Avenue, certainly
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: if Michael walked down Michigan Avenue at the height of
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: their powers, it would have been a mob scene. Was
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Samberg was always walking down Michigan Avenue and I and
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: I'm not comparing his stardom to theirs, okay, but you know,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: but but his stardom was pretty big in this town.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: And he was always walking down Michigan Avenue or or
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: down Oaks, you know, by the bike path on Oak
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Street Beach or or down Division or Rush. And so
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: he made himself available and I think that that made
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: his life more livable by not making it such a
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: big deal that he was out somewhere. The other thing
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: was he he didn't take any endorsements, something for which
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: he was heavily criticized, which I mean he was. He
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: was very heavily so hot of I don't know if
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: you remember this for you know, maybe maybe you were
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: just getting into your wheelhouse then. But he was heavily
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: criticized for not doing endorsements. But not only was he
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: not good at it, it wasn't his personality, but he
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: didn't He just didn't want to. He didn't want to
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: take the time, whatever spare time he had, he wanted
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: to be with his family because it's just you guys know,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: it's just not very much during a baseball season, and
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: he didn't want to spend an off day film filming commercial.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Yet he was trashed for it. Why isn't he bigger
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: in this town? Why isn't he Why isn't he a celebrity?
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Why isn't he doing endorsements? And I would whenever I
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: would get that question, my answer would be, what do
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: you care? What is it like? What is it to
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: you that he doesn't do endorsements. I mean, the man
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: just wants to live his life. So he did some
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: things that to try to make his life more libabal
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: and maybe make you know, it sounds crazy. He didn't
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: want to be the things that people wanted him to be.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: He didn't want to be a superstar. He didn't want
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: to be universally known everywhere he went. He he wanted
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: to be great. There's no doubt about that. He wanted
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: to be great. And you know, if if in the
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: middle of May, you're still doing the same thing you
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: were doing in spring training, which is take ninety ground
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: balls every single morning before anybody else is on the field,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: thirty left, thirty right, thirty right at you, I mean,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: obviously you want to be great. He wanted to be great,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: but he also just wanted to be one of the guys.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: He just wanted to be a baseball player. He just
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: wanted to come to the park, be great at his job,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: and go home after the game. And that was unusual.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: You know, that's just not the way most superstars behaved.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: But for my money, one of the most honorable people
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: I've ever been around, one of the most genuine people
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: I've ever been around, one of the most dignified people
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: I've ever been around, and one of the most respectful
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: people I've ever been around. It's how he It's how
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: he behaved before he got to the park, how he
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: behaved once he got to the park, and how he
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: behaved after he left the park. He just believed very
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: much in respecting the people who came before him, certainly
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: the people who sat on that Hall of Fame stage
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: behind him when he gave a speech respecting his teammates,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: his coaches, his managers, the fans and that and and
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: his opponents, and that just meant doing things the right way.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: And I find that to be very honorable. And and
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I I think it's I think it's something to be admired, honestly, Barry.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Uh. In my in my for my memory, that ninety
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: season was just godlike. I had to I always have
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: to remind myself that he didn't win MVP that year.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: He was actually fourth. There was this guy named Barry
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Bonds that apparently had a good season. Uh. And but
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: I don't think he should have been for it. That
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: that doesn't matter. But he's he was a number two hitter,
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: a second baseman that hit four pready home runs. Maybe
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: that's normalish now, maybe that doesn't open eyes now, that
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: was freakish back then, that didn't happen right, This was
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: before Jeff Kent. The second basement didn't have power hit
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: were in power hitters second or power hitters didn't hit
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: number two in lineups. That just wasn't how it was
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: back then. Patrick and I covered like a monumental stretch
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: of play when when kind of Jake Arietta went on
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: that run. So I think we we've covered something like that.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: I feel like, but did it feel like that? Did
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: it feel stand out to you while you were covering it?
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Did you, I believe you said it was your first
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: year on the beat. Did you realize, like, wow, what
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: am I covering right here?
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Well? You know if you if you look back that
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: you guys are much better at the numbers than I am.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know what his war was in nineteen eighty four.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: It had to be it had to be an absolute
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: monster number. But that year was huge in every statistical category.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Eighty five he goes twenty six homers, fifty four stolen bases.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, there wasn't anything that he couldn't do on
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: a baseball field. He was great at absolutely everything you
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: could do on a baseball field. He wasn't a stat
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: collector because he played in the moment. What needs to
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: be done right now? Do I have to make a
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: great play defensively? Do I have to hit and run?
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Do I have to steal a base, do I have
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: to go first to third? He was as good first
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: a third as any baseball player who's ever played the game.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: And that wasn't because of I mean, he was a
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: very fast runner, but far from the fastest. He was
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: just a brilliant baseball player. He wasn't as fast as
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: will he Mays, but I'll bet you he could go
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: first to home almost as good as at may As
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: may As because of how smart he was and how
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: good he was at reading a play. So he did
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: whatever had to be done in the moment. You need
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: a three run homer, Okay, then I'm going to try
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: and hit a three run homer. But mostly he was
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: looking in gaps. Mostly he was looking to drive in runs,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: to score runs. He wasn't thinking home run. But then
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: in eighty nine he had to carry that team because
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Dawson was they had I mean, the whole team got
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: hurt in eighty nine. So Samberg really carried that team.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: So I don't know if he got close to thirty
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: homers that year. It might be might have had twenty
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: five or something like that. I don't know, if you
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: guys have the numbers in front of you.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: So but then sorry, or eighty nine, eighty nineteen, yeah, thirty.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: And in eighty four it was he had an eight
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: point five war season.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Which is crazy, so good for a second basement, for
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: a second basement. And you know, there was no power
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: in the middle infield in those days. This was extremely rare.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: So you get to ninety and by ninety really in
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the pre steroid era, this is right around the time
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: a guy like him should be reaching his power potential.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: It should be ages like twenty twenty eight, twenty Back then,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: twenty eight twenty nine was about when you started to
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: reach your power potential, so that that felt pretty normal
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: twenty eight to thirty three. You know, look at Billy Williams,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: you know, after age thirty five, that's what normally happens
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to a player after age thirty five. What Rockfield Palmarrow
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: did after age thirty five is not normal. Okay, So
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: you look at Samburg's you know, those years, and you go, okay,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: well this is about when, but still he's a middle infielder.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: He hit his thirtieth homer in Houston. I remember being
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: in the Astrodome, which is obviously a very hard place
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: to hit. Hit his thirtieth homer. I want to say
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: in late August, probably around August, maybe thirtieth or something
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: like that. And I looked at one of the guys
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: sitting next to me, and I said, I wonder if
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: he could hit forty. And then we get to those
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: last three games in Philly, and I think he's sitting
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: on ninety eight RBI and thirty nine homers. And these
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: were the three games played that had been added on
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: because of the strike or lockout or whatever it was
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: that that was. It was ninety who knows, I went
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: through so many workstoppages. I think that one was I
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: think that one was a strike. But anyway, so we're Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: and Philly to end the season, another nondescript CUB season
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: where they just didn't have enough pitching and and it
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: just wasn't very good. And Monday it might have been,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: might have been first inning, I don't know, but Monday
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, with Doug Decenzo on first base, he hits
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: a two run homer for his hundredth RBI and his
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: fortieth homer, and as he's he crosses home plate, gets
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: in the dugout and Zimmer says that's it. You're done
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: for the year. That was it. So three so almost
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: three full games to play. He's got his forty home
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: runs and and now he gets to just sit on
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the bed. That's probably when he enjoyed baseball the most,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: was getting to watch a couple of games and just relax.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: It was hard for him to really relax because he
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: just felt so much pressure all the time. But I
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: think that ninety season, or maybe if you go maybe
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: if you go to Baseball Reference and you look at
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: those averages from say, take eighty nine, ninety ninety one,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: and ninety two, those four years, you're gonna find some
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: pretty strong numbers for those four years. Ninety three he
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: gets hit in the hand by Mike Jackson in spring training,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and he really wasn't the same. He never really got
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: his power back after that. He got hit in a
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: very bad spot, broke his hand, came back probably too soon,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: never really got us Although after he retired and came
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: back for the ninety six season, he did hit twenty
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: five home runs, which was crazy after a year and
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: a half off that It just tells you what a
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: phenomenal athlete he was and how good he was. But
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: I understand your you're watching that that ninety season and
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: and being amazed by that. But I would say by then,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: most of us we're pretty used to it. It was
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: just kind of, you know, he was just a phenomenal
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: baseball player. I I don't I wish I could give you,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: like some good comp from today. You know, I would say,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: I would say a Rod if he hadn't if he
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: hadn't done steroids, you know, might be might be a
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: good comp Obviously, that's not that's not a modern guy
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: to look at. But Ron Sambery was a guy who
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: could hit you a home run anytime. Although he was
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: not looking to you know, you guys, I'm sure don't
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: like batting average, but he was always looking to hit
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: three hundred. He felt like he felt like if he
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: hit three and scored one hundred runs, he was probably
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: going to do the things that year that were necessary
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: to help his team win games. They were just sort
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: of things in the back of his mind. But he
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: could drive in a hundred runs, could score one hundred runs.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: He was great on the basis. He could have stole
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: fifty bases any year he wanted to. Oddly, he never
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: had a thirty thirty season, because it never occurred to
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: him that it was something that he should be doing, like,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: what what does that mean? You know, what does that matter? Right?
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: But he had many years. He had years of over
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: thirty including fifty four in eighty five stolen bases, and
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: he had the years of thirty or more home runs,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: but never put those together obviously, you know, and arguably
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: when he retired, the best defensive second basement of all time.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: A lot of people would now say Robbie Alamar, but
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: when he retired, he had the most power at the
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: position ever. He was the best defensive player at the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: position ever, and and he did everything else you could
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: ever want to do on a baseball field. I mean,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: he could hit for average. He you know, he had
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: a great arm, he could steal bases, and probably it's
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: something you guys either don't know or don't remember. His
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: rookie year, he brought five gloves to spring training because
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: no one told him what position he was going to play,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: and he played all three outfield positions and third, short
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: and second, and obviously Larry bow was going to be
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: at short, but he didn't know. He kind of thought
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: he was probably going to be the center fielder, and
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: with five days to go in spring training, they put
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: him at third base, and he wasn't good at third base.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: He was great at third base, having never played the
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: position in his life. He was a shortstop his entire life.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Now he's playing third base, completely different position. Probably should
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: have won the goal Glove, he didn't have that many errors.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: They gave it to Mike Schmidt because Mike Schmidt, you know,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: had hit a thousand homers again again that year and was,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: you know, major star. But Samber could have won the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: goal Glove at third base. With a week to go
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: or maybe a month ago. In the eighty two season,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: they moved him to second base. Pardon me, they move
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: him to second base, where he had never played before,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: and in his first year at second base he wins
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: the goal Glove and every goal glove after that pretty much.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: So just an amazing just an amazing baseball player. Just
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: kind of for an old school guy like me who
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: grew up. You know, really my wheelhouse was really the
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: seventies and the early eighties, you know, of you know,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I graduated from college in eighty four, so you know
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: it's really the you know, those ten years probably from
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: seventy four to eighty four. Really that's really my will,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: and that was an era of tremendous pitching, great defense,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: great base running in a certain style of game that
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: I'm sure doesn't exist anymore, but was really romantic to
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: those of us who came from that era. And Ryan
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Samberg was a guy who would have who would have
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: fit in any generation, but certainly was also a product
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: of watching baseball in the in the sixties and seventies
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: and had great admiration for the guys who who played
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: the game ultimately the way he played the game.
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: Arry, you kind of allude to this that Chicago's a
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: big city that can feel like a small town. And
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: I've had, you know, kind of friends or contacts who've
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: alluded to what you said about this stage of Samberg's
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: life of like he's kind of a grandpa up in
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: the suburbs who's the way it was explained to me,
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: it was like, you know, he has maybe some stuff
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: in his house that eludes to the fact that he's
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: a baseball player, but he's very much just like he's grandpa,
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: Like he's day to day like a presence in their lives.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: And it looked like you kind of met up with
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: him him recently. Sounds like he's doing a lot better
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: health wise, but can you explain that ex sale he
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: seems to have? It is it's amazing to me that, like,
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: you know, you come from kind of the middle of
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: nowhere Washington and show up in Chicago and fast forward
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: you're at a stage of life where your you know,
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: Grandpap in the suburbs who just kind of wants to
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: be there for his family.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's there were some stages to go through, right, yea,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: there were few stages. There's the there's the exhale at retiring. Okay,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: you've worked every single day in your life for so
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: long to try to be great at something, uh, something
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: most of us will never achieve, you know, in any
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: in any aspect of life, right, any kind of any
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: kind of endeavor, And there's that exhale from being done.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: But then there's the immediate well now what, right now? Now,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: what do you do for some one highly competitive and
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: who had been walking that razor's edge for so long?
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Now what? And there wasn't really anything there for a
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: bit except for the wait for the hall of fame.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: So that's kind of the next step and so he
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: gets in the Hall of Fame, that's the next hurdle,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: and then the big speech, which is a you know,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: which is just also a life changing event for him.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: And then you know, you're still a relatively young person
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: at that point. Then what well, then the Cubs are
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: going through all these changes, and he starts thinking maybe
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: maybe I could manage and the Cubs don't really give
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: him the time of day. They throw them, you know,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: they they throw them because of you know, others in
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: the organization, probably not Jim Hendry. He gets a chance
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: at at Peoria, and most people thought, well, he's not
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: going to ride the buses, right, this guy, this guy
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: a Hall of famer. You know, Mike Schmidt lasted one
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: week at low class A and in Tampa Saint Pete
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: he lasted one week and he said, screw this, I'm
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: not doing this. But Samberg rode the buses for five
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: years and loved every minute of it because it was
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: like his journey in the minor leagues. Ran Samberg was
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: not one of these bonus babies who was given a
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: job in the minor leagues and told, you know, you're
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: gonna go from Double A to the majors. In a year,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: which is obviously very common today but was not back then.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: There were some guys, but he was a full four
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: year guy player in the minor leagues right, or maybe
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: even five, and then there was still no place for
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: him in Philadelphia. So he understood the climb. That was
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: a big part of his life was the climb, was
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: the having to fight every day. So he loved going
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: through the stages in the minor leagues as a manager.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: So he does that and then he accomplishes his goal.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: He gets to the big leagues as a manager in Philadelphia.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Workout it was, you know, they gave a guy who
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: develops young players a veteran team that didn't want him there.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: So that was not a that was not a very
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: good situation, that was not destined to work out well.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: But he was glad that he did it. He was
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: glad that he accomplished that. And then what he wanted
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: when that was over was just to be back as
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: part of the Cubs family. And he was able to
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: do that and and sort of meant, you know, there
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: were some fences that need to be mended, not from
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: his end, but those fences were mended and he became
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: part of the Cubs family in time to you know,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: to be part of a World Series celebration. And I
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: think you know, that was a point where he became very,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: very satisfied with his life and to just be a
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: dad and a husband and a grandfather. And you're right
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: about uh, the big, the big baseball room. Like I'm
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: sure you've seen pictures in guys houses with with the
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: jerseys that that circle the room and all the bats
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: and balls and gloves and everything else. He had a
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: pretty decent sized room in back in the early nineties
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: in Awatuki in Arizona. I remember that. And there was
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: a lot of hardware around that room, right, all of
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: it earned, all of it deserved. It's not very big anymore.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: It's not very big anymore. There's there's not there's not
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: a lot, you know. I think we all get to
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: that point where you just you start throwing everything out,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: you know, like what is it? Like?
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: What is it?
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: What does it matter? Right? You know? If you like I,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I I had boxes of stuff from when I was
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: a kid. I I had a ball autographed by the
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine Pittsburgh Pirates. Right, we are family World
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Series champs. Nobody wants it, nobody cares. It's like, all right,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: what am I going to do with that? I don't have.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: I don't have Ryan Samberg's uh you know, Hall of
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Fame resume and giant boxes full of of all those
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: awards and stuff. But there's just a point where it
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter, right, Like it's just it's just stuff, So
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: what are you gonna do with it? I think he
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: would be thrilled if every one of his grandkids, and
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: he has a lot, would want to take something, you know,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: an MVP award, a plaque, uh you know, uh, you know,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: a bat from from his fortieth home run. If I
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: think if everybody wanted something, that would be great, and
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: I think they will. I think that's how that'll probably
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: work out.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Barry. I. I could listen to these stories forever, to
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: be honest, could and I and I wish I would
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: have taken more advantage of having people like you in
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: the press box because they're there. I grew up on
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: the nineties Cubs, which without ninety eight, I would argue
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: is one of the worst decades of but I'm fascinated
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: by it, and I you know, it's what made me
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: fall in love with the game, so so I appreciate it.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: So I'd love to hear more stories. We've taken up
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: too much of your time, but this was.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: What what is it you think I have to do?
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not playing golf until one o'clock. All
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: I have to do is stretch so I have two
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: more hours.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time, Barrier. I mean, those
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: those stories are epic and there. I mean, I feel
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: like you just are a wealth of knowledge about this
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: organization and and an era that uh goes underappreciated. But
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: obviously I mean ten straight All Star games, I believe
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: is what what Ryan Sandberg has We don't cover Like
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: we covered a world series. We don't cover a player
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: like that. We just haven't like that. I think that's
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: that goes overlooked sometimes, just the longevity, the ability to
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: consistently go in their year after year and produce and
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: stick with one team for the majority of the time.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: We don't see that anymore, and I'm not sure if
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: we'll see it ever, but not not very often. You know,
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: those those players are very rare now, especially with the
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: way front offices work, because you got to get rid
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: of that guy before his value goes down. You got
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: to get value for him before.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: How about a guy who took basically a fifty percent
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: haircut on every contract he ever signed because he just
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: he didn't want to Not only did he not want
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: to go anywhere, he didn't even want to negotiate. He's
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: just like just basically, I'll sign a contract and stay.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: I just don't want to go through this. I mean,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: you picked the right guy. You picked a great year
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety, but you also picked the right guy. This
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: is an extremely honorable, decent human being who if you
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: wanted your kids to grow up to be like you know,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: and and you were all sitting around a TV watching
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: a game together, and you wanted to watch them on
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: the field do things, at least in my world, the
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: right way and behave the right way in an honorable
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: and respectful way. Man, you picked the right guy. So anyway,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: happy to come back anytime, boys, And I'm gonna be
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: there at the ceremony Sunday, so I will. I will
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: find my way up to the press box if they
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: will let me, I will and I will come say hello.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for the all right, take every buddy,
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: thanks so much for listening to North Side territory. Make
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: sure to rate, review, subscribe to all those good things
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: you do. For podcasts, make sure to read my work
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: and Patrick's work over at the Athletic. We got you
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: covered on the Cubs beat. Cubs are on a two
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: game winning streak, which feels like a lot for this team,
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: won their first series and over a month. We'll see
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: if they can continue that against the red hot Mets,
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: the grimmest fueled Mets. It's going to be a big
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: weekend out at Wrigley Obviously the Sandberg Statue, it's how
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: it will wrap up on Sunday. But three games against
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: the red hot Mets, we'll have you covered there. Monday.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: We'll come back at you with a podcast and hopefully
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: you will keep listening. Thanks and take care.