Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Jon Lester joins the show for a player’s perspective on the Wrigley Field experience

Transcript

Jon Lester joins the show for a player’s perspective on the Wrigley Field experience · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory File Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney, and if you're
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: watching us on YouTube, you see that we have a
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: third host with us a guest today, John Lester, world champion,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: multiple world champion, John Lester. Thanks so much for joining us. John,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: How are you doing. How's the ten year reunion stuff going?
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: How how crazy has this year been so far? And
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: are you looking forward to getting back to Wrigley and
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: being honored soon.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been great.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: I mean we obviously started off with a bang in
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: January with the Cubs con and all that stuff, and
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: it's great to get back and see the guys and
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: you know, get up to Chicago and all that stuff.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: So Cubs have done a great job with all that
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: stuff obviously, and you know, I look forward to getting
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: up there in a few weeks.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I got a busy few weeks with.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: With kids, travel baseball, and then becoming in hot to
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: the to the to the reunion on the seventeenth or
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: eighteenth whenever it is.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that travel baseball, you're in your life, but I
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: know that, go ahead.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: Patrick, Yeah, I was gonna say, what's your your UBER
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: rating now as a driver?
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Still so five?
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: No, no, it's far from five star. I think if
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: they could, they'd give me negatives. I haven't even got
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: to zero yet.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: It's bad.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: We you know, we we we've been looking to have
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: you know, a former Cups player on and you know,
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: to do this more more regularly. And you know, we
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: thought of you as a great fit because you know,
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: people asked us like, oh, what's what's so and so like,
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: and you know, obviously you had a great reputation with
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: people behind the scenes and side. And I would laugh
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: about is like, you know, you'd be in the clubhouse
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: and you'd always have your game face on and if
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: one of us will go up to to like, hey
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: you got a minute, and sometimes you'd be like.
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: What you got?
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: Like you know, like you know, you're always in a hurry,
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: and then we'd wind up talking for like twenty minutes
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: almost every time. And you know, I was wondering, you know,
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: looking at this, you know kind of ten year reunion,
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: do you think do you or do people maybe appreciate
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: it a little more? Like how how hard it was?
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: I feel like, you know, those last several years in Chicago,
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: it was like, you know, when's the next one gonna happen?
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: And I think you kind of really, I don't know,
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: I certainly came away from it like just how hard
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: it is to do what you guys did.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think that was kind of repeated
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: in the clubhouse from the players a lot. You know,
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: after sixteen, you know, we we'd make a run and
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: then come up short, and seventeen and eighteen, and you
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: know even in nineteen and you know, you realize that
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: to get to that, to that end game, the end
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: of the season game where you know, trophies on the line,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: it's very difficult and a lot of things have to
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: go your way.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Obviously a topic of today will be injuries. I mean,
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: you need to be pretty injury free for the majority
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: of that year with your you know, kind of your
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: core guys, and not to take away from you know,
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: maybe the platoon guys or the guys that maybe don't
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: get as much attention on a day to day basis,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: because you definitely need those guys as well. But when
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: your core guys are hurt, it makes that run even
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: harder and then you need a little bit of luck
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: you know, you need to get hot at the right time.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: You need your pictures to you need you need your
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: pitchers and your hitters to be you know, to be
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: linked up and en rolling at the right times, especially
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: in the playoffs, you know, And that's a that's a big,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: big part of it. Yeah, man, it's hard. It's not easy.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: If it was easy, you would see the same team
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: winning every year, or the same teams winning every year.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: But luckily that's not the case. You get new new
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: contenders in there every year.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: John. Obviously, your career with the Cubs was was special
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and and you had a lot of highs. I was
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: just looking at the numbers. Uh, you did get off
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: to that slow start when you signed the big contract.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: You come to a new city, a lot of pressure obviously.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: You figured it out pretty quickly though, but that first month,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I don't I mean, I remember the slow start, I
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: don't remember the fan reaction quite as much, but kind
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: of Yeah, can you kind of talk about the the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: pressure you felt, the idea of Obviously we were watching
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Alex Bregman struggle right now, A huge contract, huge pressure,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: all that stuff that's happened that probably happened to you.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Different guy, different situation, but still, uh, maybe there was
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: more pressure on you because it was about like lifting
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: this curse and being part of, like being this huge
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: key to THEO and Jed's plan to break this curse
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: in Chicago or whatever you want to call it long drought,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: if you don't want to call it a curse, Yeah,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: can you can you kind of describe walk us through
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the emotions and what you were feeling in that first
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: month when things weren't going the way you wanted and
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: you know how good you can be and it just
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: wasn't happening on the field at that point in time.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think for a picture it gets
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: a little harder. You know, at least a position player,
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: you get to get in there every night and try
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: to right the ship. I guess. Yeah, I mean that
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: first month was probably one of the longest months I've
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: ever I've ever had in the big leagues. You know,
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: you I wanted the season. I wanted the season total
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: numbers in April as opposed to just doing what I've
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: always kind of said in my career is like, hey,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: if I just do my job every five days, show up,
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: pitch the innings, and give my team a chance win,
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: then the numbers will be fine at the end of
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: the year.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: And you know, you lose sight sometimes of.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Who you are and what you've done in the track
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: record and that sort of thing. So I think for Bregman,
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: I don't want to speak for him. I don't know
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: him very well. I've met him a few times. I
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: think he might just be pressing a little bit, uh,
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: you know, and wanting wanting to be bragman, wanting to
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: hit you know, whatever that two seventy to two ninety
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: with twenty five thirty homers or whatever he's hit the
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: last couple of years. You know, he wants to hit
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: that four run homer or the four home runs before
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: his first at bat. Like I said, I don't want
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: to speak for him. I don't know what he's going through.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: He may be banged up a little bit. We don't
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: know that, but you know, I know he's definitely out
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: there grinding and he's definitely, you know, giving it everything
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: he has. That doesn't make the fans any happier, you know,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: they want a product, you know, but hopefully he can
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: he can kind of hold on and that where he's
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: at right now, and then maybe we get hot here
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: in the next month or so, and you know, beat
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: bragman like numbers towards.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: The end of the season. Yeah, that's absolutely the hope.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Let's Patrick, Let's take a quick break before we get
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: back to John.
• 7:28
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• 8:27
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• 8:32
  Speaker 4: John. I was just curious, when you look back on
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: that start, what kind of got you through it? Because
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: on the position player side, Bregman, you know, Jed was
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: obsessed with this guy for a couple of free agent
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: cycles in the same way that you know THEA one said,
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: I was ready to soak myself and dear your and
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: to sign John Lester, Like what did what? What did
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: like you know, when you're kind of going home at
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: night or leaving the park or you know, showing up
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: every day, how did you kind of just push through
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: it and let your like natural talents come out.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: I think Rossie was a big part of that. We
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: had a I know we were at home. I don't
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: remember what start it was, but he came in and
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: he yelled at me and was like, hey man, you
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: know you can't pitch the seventh inning before the first inning.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: You know you need to you need to relax, you
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: need to you know, not worry about you know, it's
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: easier said than done when it's not you, right, like
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: when Rossie's yelling at me, he's not worried about living
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: up to one hundred and fifty five million dollars, you know.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: So the biggest line, the biggest line that I took from,
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: you know, the whole interaction was he's like, hey, listen,
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: if you suck, then I get taken out of the game.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: So I want my third at bat. And I was like, well,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: that's okay.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's allid point, so you know, that kind
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: of relaxed and just realize like, hey, we've done this.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: It's it's it's not hard to just go out and
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: compete and quit worrying about living up to six years
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: before we've even gotten to the first month. And that
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: was the biggest The biggest thing for me was just
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: trying to you know, I didn't want to be everybody.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: You know, when I signed a deal, everybody's talking about
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: what was it going to be a bust?
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Or is it going to be this? Is it going
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: to be that? And you definitely or I definitely didn't
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: want to be the bust.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: So I think that was just the added pressure of Okay,
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: I want to make sure that THEO gets rewarded for
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: this contract and Tom and the city of Chicago, and.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: It's a it's a lot, it's a it's a lot
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: of added things.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: And you know, once we had that conversation, it kind
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: of really relaxed me. And I think in the next
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: that was towards the end of April. I believe in
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: the next couple of weeks I got my first win there,
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: and then it was kind of like, all right, say,
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: once you get the out of the way, you know,
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: you kind of settle in as a pitcher. I know
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: as a hitter it's probably a little bit different, but yeah,
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: I mean it's hard. It's it's you as a competitor.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: And I know Bregman enough and competed against him enough.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: I know that.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: You know, he's down there grind and he's working and
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: he's trying to figure it out. You know, I see
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: watch games and see highlights and stuff, and I mean
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: he's not giving up defensively, he's still making great plays.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: You know, he's saving runs that way, So he's at
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: least you know, he's giving you everything he has, even
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: though he's not really hitting to the bragman status, right now.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So with as April wrapped up of the twenty
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: fifteen you had an ERA over six May. First you
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: made a start, you went seven shutout against the Brewers,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and from that point on you had a sub three
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: ERA for that season. I think everyone who remembers your
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: career with the Cubs knows how like you had a
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: great twenty fifteen overall, so that that April quickly got
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: put in the rear rear view mirror. That was a
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: pretty impressive Cubs career as far as anyone's concerned. And
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: with one of the things that is a holdover from
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: that time, one of the people that's currently with the
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: club is Tommy Hotteby. He was kind of behind the
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: scenes back then. But the Cubs love to kind of
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: trumpet their pitching infrastructure. They've done a good job. They've
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: built out a good group of guys, obviously different from
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: you know, you had Chris Bosio and different people behind
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: the scenes helping you guys out, but Tommy was there
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: obviously rose to a different role now pitching coach. I'm
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: curious what you saw behind the scenes from Tommy, what
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: what kind of helped, whether it was younger guys, I know,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: you and I've had chats about how much the group
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: helped out Kyle Hendricks and what he figured out in that.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: I believe it was the twenty sixteen season when he
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: really figured some things out. But how important are the
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: behind the scenes things that are going on? Especially nowadays?
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: It feels like a decade ago it maybe wasn't, as
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: you know, it didn't impact pitching as much as it
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: does now. It seems like there's so much more that
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: pitchers go through and can the tiniest things with whether
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: it's you know, all the info that they have, all
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the tech that they have, it seems like they can
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: tweak everything and maybe change things quicker than they used
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: to back in the day. But what did you see
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: from Tommy in that group.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Thing with him?
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: As he was always prepared, You knew what you were
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: getting from him as far as the information you know,
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: and to your point, I want to hit on it
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: before I get sidetracked. But the analytical side of pitching
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: has gotten as far as and you know, I know
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: I was hard headed when I played about the analytical
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: side of pitches. And you know, okay, if you throw
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: this pitch in this zone, it has this percentage of
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: getting hit or whatever.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: I didn't like that aspect of it.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: But on the mechanical side of the of the pitching now,
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: with the analytical and the biomechanics and all the stuff
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: that these guys have access to, I think would have
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: been huge for me just being a mechanical and a
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: field person in that aspect, you know, to be able
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: to go, okay, well, my.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Landing foot is.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: X degrees open when I land, and as good of
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: a pitching coaches there are in the big leagues, you
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: can't tell that it's you know, one degree open when
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: you land right. So now you have that information, you
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: have a baseline. You can go back and be like,
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: all right, well this is what's causing me to be
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: a little bit rotational, or this is why my utters
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: flat or whatever. So I do like that aspect of
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: where the technology of the game is gone. You know,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: as far as the people behind the scenes, I think
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: that they don't get enough credit for the time I
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: put in. You know, they're there before the players, they're
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: there after the players. The life that they live is
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: is beyond demanding that you know, hardly get any praise
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: for what you know, what they do when the players
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: don't perform, they're the first ones to get fired. And
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: you know that kind of is that that whole hierarchy
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: of of things that you know, I don't necessarily agree with,
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: but we won't go down that road anyway. Yeah, I mean,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: I like, I think Tommy crazy part is is you know,
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: you're you're getting towards the end of your career when
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: you're you know, your coaches are guys you played with,
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: you know, so that was a little you know, even
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: when Rossi was there, that was a little weird, you know,
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: having somebody that I competed against and with that is
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: now telling you, you know, what to do and what
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: pitches to throw and and all that aspect of it.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: But you know, I think I think he's done a
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: great job with that whole analytical side of of you know,
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: hot and cold zones and how where to attack guys.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: And you know, like I said, to go back to
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: my original point, prepared. If you know a coach is
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: prepared and giving you even if you don't necessarily fully
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: agree with the information he's given you, you know that
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: he's put in the time and the effort, and that
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: makes your decision, you know, making process out on the
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: mound a little bit easier.
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I do think that's kind of a The cups
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: have changed a little lot obviously since since you were there, John,
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: But I think some of that pitching stuff kind of
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: what Mike Borsello and Chris Bosio you know, started. Yeah,
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: obviously that helped get the trade. Yeah, it's very, very
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: very old school. But I think that and uh and
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: the and the the great defense as well. I think
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: that was one of the big takeaways from twenty sixteen
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: of like how how they've built this team. It's obviously,
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: you know, haven't reached the same heights yet, but they
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: catch the ball, if they throw the ball, they make
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: through team plays, they make the spectacular plays, and that
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: that usually plays.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean that.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: As a pitcher, when you know that, you know, especially
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: in a Wrigley or really in that division, with the
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: exception of maybe Saint Louis, you know, they're not exactly
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: easy places to pitch, uh, you know, as far as
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: dimensions and and the way the ball flies and all
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: that stuff. But when you're at Wrigley and you know
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: that if the ball's hit there's a likelihood that we're
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: going to get an out, that's a that's a reassuring
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: feeling on the mound, you know. And to your point,
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: I mean, you look at the defense. I mean we
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: we had Hobby Bys on the bench a lot of
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: the games, you know, for whatever reason.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: And this guy is probably one of the best defensive.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: Multi position players that you'll that you'll see, so that,
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, that just goes to show you the depth
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: of what we had, uh, you know, on the field.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean defense, You know, defense wins championships.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: You know, your your offense is going to go through
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: ups and downs throughout the season, and so is your pitching.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: But defense, if they stay steadfast and keep making those plays.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: You know, I always said, I don't I don't necessarily
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: need the flashy play.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: I need the routine play.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: And if you had guys on a team that make
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: routine plays day after day after day, that's just going
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: to keep you know, adding up to those outs, and
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: the faster you get, you know, to to twenty seven
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: outs usually means that you've won that game. So you
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: know that that's that was a big proponent of mind.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: I try to tell my my middle school guys that
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: I've been helping out down here, you know, Hey, guys,
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: just I don't care about you know, getting the necessarily,
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: I want to teach you guys how to play baseball.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: But at the same time, you know, turning a double
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: play at their age is is a little difficult. You know,
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: you don't always have to go for the lead runner.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: Just get out because if you guys get out, the
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: other team's defense isn't as good as you guys.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: You're going to hit.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: You know, you're going to drive in more runs, You're
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: going to be on the offensive sides. So you know,
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: at the end of the day, just continue to get
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: out and usually things work out.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: All right, let's take a quick break. I got a
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: question about the rollercoaster like season that the Cubs are having.
• 19:48
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• 20:48
  Speaker 1: John, I remember John Lackey would grumble at us and
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: tell us, you guys act like it's one hundred and
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: sixty two seasons, but it was. I'm glad glad he
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: said that because it sticks in my head and it
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: makes it it really like makes me remember, you know,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: these these short segments that feel like they last forever,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: You got to try and put them in perspective. You
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: cannot overreact to ten games, twenty games, or whatever it is.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: It's the full season that you know you have to judge. Still,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: what the Cubs have gone through has been kind of
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: wild two ten game winning streaks and a ten game
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: losing streak before we even got to June.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: That happened.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: It feels like now it happened a while ago, but
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: it's kind of wild how that happened. You didn't have
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: those extremes that I recall, but you certainly had there were.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, even sixteen you had that lull before the
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: All Star break the team did seventeen that you guys
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: kind of started off at a slog obviously, the way
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: eighteen and nineteen ended it was, you know, these really
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: tough moments. I'm just curious, like, how did you handle that?
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: How did you try and stay steady during those and
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: what are the different things you noticed in a clubhouse
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: that either were good like this guy's handling it well,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: or how you had to maybe reset someone or go
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: up to someone, or what were some moments how did
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: you have to help others kind of get through those moments.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: A guy that I remember watching at least I watched
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: him struggle, like at least when he personally struggled, was Schwarber.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Schwarber seems like someone that's really matured in that area
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: where he'd wear that he'd wear those struggles, and that's
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: something that he must have learned over his career. He
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: can't wear the day to day struggles. Obviously he's thriving
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: now and figured a lot out with his career, but
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: that's one guy that popped into my mind that just
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: early on maybe wasn't as great at handling that day
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: to day struggles.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: To I don't even know what to say, like how
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: the season has gone for the Cubs, because I mean,
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: I've never experienced anything like that, you know, I mean,
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: if you have a you have a ten game winning streak,
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: you would like to think that your season is pretty
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: good at some point.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: That don't happen that often.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: Uh, And then to follow it up with a ten
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: game losing streak. That's that's like the high the high
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: and the low the low right there. You know, it's
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: it's it's hard. I don't I don't, Like I said,
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: I don't really know how to answer that. I think,
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: to to go through a season and and you know,
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: like I've said before, you know you want to be
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: you want to be on the kiddy roller coaster hopefully,
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: and that means it's a good you know, a good
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: season as opposed to the six flags roller coaster kind
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: of like what you know the Cubs are going through
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: right or went through. You know, the losing. Losing sucks.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: Losing is hard. I think as you get older, you
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: learn to kind of put the responsibility on yourself and
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: not so much the responsibility of the whole team, if
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: that makes any sense, you know, I think to Shoreber's point,
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: I think he learned that, you know, we we would
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: if lost. It wasn't his fault, you know, you know
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: what I'm saying, So like he would put the whole
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: responsibility of the game on himself, you know, and he
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: had three at bats or he had maybe two plays
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: in the outfield or whatever it was. And you know,
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: you can't over one hundred and sixty two games, you
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: can't do that. You can't mentally, you won't last if
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: you do that. So over the years he's learned, Okay,
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: we lose as a team, we win as a team.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna do everything I can in that game to
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: make sure we succeed. And if we don't evaluated after
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: the game, when I leave the field, I'm onto the
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: next one, you know. I think that's how you try
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: to combat some of these some of these losing stations
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: are losing streaks. You know, I think, you know, it
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: can kind of go back to what we were talking
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: about in fifteen and with Bregman a little bit.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: You know, you get a team.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: That and this this this is like a positive negative thing.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: You get a team that cares so much that you
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: have each individual up there trying to win the game
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: every single swing. And that's where that's where those games,
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: those streaks can kind of get a little bit longer.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: And I think Dansby I saw an interview he did
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: a while back where he's just like, you know, we
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: all care, and we're all pressing something of the along
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: those lines. I'm not quote, but you know, everybody in
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: that clubhouse cares and they all want to win the game.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: And sometimes a clubhouse can care too much and get
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: in their own way. And I think that's where you know,
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: especially talented teams. Now, if you don't have a talented team,
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: you know you're going to kind of expect these these
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: losing streaks. But you have a talented team like they do,
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: you know, you get guys up there pressing and trying
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: to hit, you know, the Grand slams with nobody on
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: and that's where you know, that's where those those streaks
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: can maybe get a little bit prolonged.
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's we've talked to here. It's probably
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: a whole entire episode if you want to talk about
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: kind of leadership and chemistry, but just something David Ross
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: has been in the news this week of you know,
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: being linked to the Mets job. Maybe. I mean, that's
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: kind of the beginning of a search that you won't
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: start in earnest, probably till the off season. But I
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: think it's been kind of nice to see him kind
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: of re emerge during those losing streaks. There were people
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: on Twitter like where's that David Ross fire? You know,
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: It's just funny how how things sort of work. I think, like,
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: you know, like where where's ROSSI you know, where's the
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: director of Red Ass just to know, you know, lighting
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: people up. And you know, I think I think his
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: tenure in Chicago, you know, looks. It didn't look bad
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: when he left, but I think it looks better over time.
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: And I think it's you're obviously much closer to it, John,
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: But from as an outside observer, I think it's been
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: nice to see him kind of back on ESPN, like
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: back out doing his podcast with Rizzo. I mean, people
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: are probably sick of Rizzo on TV at this point.
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: But I think, you know ross ross coming like I think,
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: I think when you have a ten year reunion, sometimes
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: you need like there's a reason why it's ten years,
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: like you know, whether it's you know, Schwarber, Ross like,
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: it didn't Joe Madden like, it didn't like end, it
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: wasn't a fairy tale script. And I think that the
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: tenure buffer is is nice. It is probably warranted in
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: a lot of cases.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, to your point with Rossie, it is
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: nice to see him back in the game a little bit.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: He's got a lot of knowledge in there, and you know,
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: to comment on the people saying, you know, where's the
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: Rossy fire and that sort of thing. The hard part
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: with you know what the big leagues is most of
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: the time when you're in those stretches, it's not necessarily
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: bad baseball. You know, it can be a little bit
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: of bad luck.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: You know, you get second.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: And third with with two outs and a guy hits
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: a screamer to the shortstop and it's right at him.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: You know, it's part of the game.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: It sucks, and you know, when you're going well, he
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: hits the ball off his handle with a broken bat
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: and it falls over the shortstop, you know what I'm saying.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: So like, sometimes it's not always just needing the fire. Now,
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: with that being said, if you're playing shitty baseball, then yeah,
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: you need to get your butt torn up, you know,
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: if you're making mental air. Physical airs are one thing.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: Physical errors for physical errors. You know, I've had this
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: conversation with both of my kids, on the batting side
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: and on the feeling side. I said, listen, that's not
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: the last air or that's not the first air of
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: the last air you're ever going to make if you
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: continue to play baseball. I'm like, that's not the first
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: strikeout or the last strikeout. With you know, runners and
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: scoring position, you guys are going to have. Like this
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: game sucks, but it's also beautiful when you when you
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: really do to it. So you know, like the fire
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: part of it is needed at certain points of the season.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: And you know, I think you know, fans sometimes get
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: lost in the fact of you know, they only see
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: what's on the field, right they don't see what's in
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: the clubhouse. They don't see what or hear what's heard
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: in the clubhouse. You know, they don't hear the message
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: that whoever the manager is is portraying to the to
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: the to the guys and the coaches and hitting coaches
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: and the grind that goes into it, which I think
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: is sometimes good, but in losing situations it can be bad,
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: you know.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: So but yeah, the ten year thing, man, it's nice.
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: It's nice to come back and you know, see guys
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: and and hang out and you know, you start remembering,
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: you know, other guys that that were you know, a
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: part of it, and stories that were linked to those guys,
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: and you know, all those memories kind of kind of
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: come back and you start talking about the season. You
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: forget certain aspects of the season and what happened here
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: and what happened there and and big big moments and
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: funny moments and you know all that stuff. So it
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: is it is good to have a break, and then
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: it's it's nice to to come back kind of you know,
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: like our hair is on fire even if you don't
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: have any and get back together and uh.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: You know, and enjoy enjoy each other's company.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: John, We're gonna bug you plenty about that. Ten year
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: reunion and and other things. You'll be a regular guest
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: with us, which is great. We're looking forward to having
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: you on regularly talking about this current team, talking about
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: the whole team, and and just to having you share
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: your knowledge with us. It's it's really great that you're
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: able to do this. But let's wrap this one up.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to everyone. Thanks for joining us, John,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: This is Northside Territory. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: where Patrick and I are on top of all things Cubs.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and watching.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: Everyone.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Take care,