Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / Ted Williams’ Spider Rant, Billy Martin’s Genius & Life as a Ranger | Tom Grieve | Replay Ep 135
Transcript
- Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Ryder, sports talk. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Oh, with the big mic. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it. We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little lightning strike right outside the window. Alright. Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano League teams. Don't what? You said tip. Yeah. Tip. Okay. With a p. Keep jamming. The the ticket colon. Nothing but a big jerk off set. This is a cool night or what? I thought somebody would hear that go, bullshit. I'm back, bitches. Hello, everybody. Hello, one and all. It is another episode of Your Dark Companion, and we are very glad to have you with us. You probably know that we are here inside Globe Life Field today. And you probably think, well, means they're going to have baseball on. And yes, we are going to have baseball on, but you know how your dark companion works. We just shoot the bull with whoever we've got. I would be Mike Reiner. Thank you very much for joining us. This is the July 21, and this is episode number 135 for us. So now that we've got those formalities out of the way, let us introduce you to our guest today. He's a guy that I've gotten to know over the years. I consider him a friend. I've also watched him play back in the day. In fact, the very first Ranger game I ever went to, I was sitting in the bleachers of left field at Arlington Stadium. And when the Rangers took the field, down before me playing left field was number six. And I thought, cool. I'm watching a major league game here. And number six was Tom Greave. Now Tom Greave would go on to do a number of things throughout the Ranger organization. We're going to talk about all those things with him. In addition to some of the, shall we say unusual characters that you ran across. We had a few. You did. How are doing, man? I'm doing great, Mike. Thanks for having me. We appreciate you doing this. We have a lot of fun with this thing. And like I say, it's just basically a bull session of guys talking about stuff that's happened over the years. Doing what they do. Doing that thing that they do. How's life for you these days, man? Life is great, Mike. I'm I'm living a stress free life spent with family and friends that I love doing whatever I want. And it doesn't get any better. No, it doesn't get any better. You're also doing a little work on the broadcast still, right? No. No broadcast. Not at all? No broadcast, no. God, I thought they ran you in there for a game or two already this year. No? No. Dave Raymond asked me, hypothetically, would I wanna do that? And I really think once you're away from it for a while, especially nowadays, things change so fast, I probably wouldn't be up for it. I knew it was time to think about retiring when I was making out my lineup card, and I started putting first names for the visitors because there was occasionally a player I didn't know. Right. That happened more and more often as time went on. And then one day, I said, you know what? The last thing I wanna do is miss a name. I'm gonna put the first names for the ranger players. And sometime shortly after that, I started to think, if I'm getting to the point where I feel comfortable only with first names written down, then I need to start thinking about maybe it's time. You know, I've been thinking that a lot lately too, because I watch these games and I'm finding more and more that I don't know these guys. You know? I don't know these guys like I once did. Mean, back in the day of, in the two thousand teens and '20 or teens and aughts and before then all my life, I could tell you everything that you'd wanna know about every guy who was playing. And now it changes so fast that I can't do it anymore. No, there's so many players changing so fast. It seems like there has to be more call ups sent down, call ups sent down, new players you haven't heard of, guys added to the roster towards very once you're away from it, it's almost impossible to catch back up with it. Yeah. It's hard. I I really think I knew more players when I was eight years old collecting baseball cards. And I mean, you can't even remember how many teams there were back then. 14 teams, 16 teams, whatever there was. And I knew every player on every team and batting averages, especially for the Yankees. I really think I knew more back then about players than I didn't know. Is no question I did. I mean, we had the the team with the best record in Major League Baseball over the first half in here. And I was watching those guys come up, and I was saying, okay. Now what's what's this guy's story? What's this guy's trip? Is he good, or is he just kind of a guy that they're, know, playing till they get somebody else? I mean, I didn't know hardly any of those guys. Out of the nine guys in the lineup, I probably could have told you had a pretty good handle on who three of them were. And the rest of them, man, I would have been just guessing. That's the best team in the game. It is. And I don't mean this in any way as a negative statement about the Tigers more as a compliment to what they've accomplished halfway through the season and what they accomplished last year. I mean, let's face it. Last year at the trade deadline, they made trades to unload players with a feeling that they're out of a pennant race. Yeah. They're sellers. And then they played so well, they might have wished they had Flaherty back coming down the stretch. But anyway so I think they surprised themselves last year. This year, when when I look at their team and you see they've won more games than any team in baseball, I just have to think that AJ Hinch should be manager of the year for what he's created there that makes the sum of the parts much greater than the individual parts. Because let's face it, they don't have three or four, two or three frontline offensive players. Riley Green, they're talking about Spencer Torquisten, but he's hitting two thirty five. So I mean, they've got good players and a good team. But when you look at those individual players, it's hard to come up with the statement that that's the best team in baseball. Now, in fairness, they did run out the Cy Young Award winner last year, last night. Yeah. And there's a greater than zero chance that he's gonna be a pretty big player in it again this year too. No doubt. Based on what we saw last night, he's really good. Yeah. He's he's really good. There's a lot there's a lot of good pitchers, and the rangers have several of them. This is Terrence Schuble we're talking about. None of them are better than he is. I I don't know who the best one is, but when you talk about the best one, he's in the conversation. I mean, for a guy, you just don't see as the as the guy said during the game last night, you just don't see guys throw that hard with that kind of precision location. Don't walk anybody. They put some names up on the board and mentioned guys like Clayton Kershaw, strikeouts and walks. Yeah. He's up there with the elite boy. And as I was watching him, sometimes I'll be watching a guy play and I'll get the vibe that, you know, he really doesn't love the game of baseball. He's only doing this because he's really good at it, you know? I didn't get that feeling watching Terrence Schuylkill. He is way into it. Yeah, he could've played with Elvis and Beltray. Oh, yeah. He turned around after Seeger got the second hit against him and just kind of put his arms up and started smiling. I mean, that's the way baseball should be. Yeah. You know, that's the way everybody should be. We you know, I wish I wish our guys were more like that. Yeah. I I wish baseball players in general were more like that. Me too. I love that he also tried to talk a little trash to Seeger after he got him out the next at bat, and Seeger, of course Wide shot to robot. So yeah. Tarek's like, I got you, and Seeger's just like, back to the dugout. Didn't even hear him. Tried to converse with the wrong guy. Yeah. Yeah. He wanted no part of that. That's about as opposite of the, ends of the spectrum as you can get. Exactly. So what do you think of this team this year? I mean, this has been the biggest reversal of form that we've ever seen. You know, the rangers have always been able to hit great, but it's always been about pitching and there never has been enough. And the guys they have, have underperformed or something. This year, the script is flipped. Now I get the feeling that maybe some of the hitting starting to come around a little bit, but I've had that feeling before and found that no. Yeah. It's it's tough to predict what's gonna happen in baseball, but I think what's happened during this Ranger season is just really, something you can't explain. I remember listening to the Rangers, Chris Young talk before the season, and they wondered if they would have enough pitching, how strong the rotation would be, the bullpen, but they were very confident in the offense. In fact, I think he said something like, you know, we may depend on winning games six to four and seven to five. Mhmm. And we're that confident in our offense, and we think the pitching will be competitive enough to allow us to do that. But no one had any idea that the rotation would be as strong as it was. The bullpen has been much stronger than you would have expected Yeah. To be. And, you know, I think back to some of our teams back in the back in the eighties when we had I think we had four guys get 200 hits one year. Would have been Julio, Ruben, Rafael, maybe it was three. Anyway, we didn't win as many games as everyone would like, but if you came out and watched our team play, you are gonna see some all stars and some guys that could hit. Yeah. Pitching wasn't terrible, but if you could have put this pitching with that team, now you're talking about a powerhouse. And maybe we will be before the year's over, but you looked at our lineup last night, and with the exception of Seager and Semien, that was pretty much a triple A team. Yeah, it was. So going up against Tarek Schuble, when they threw the wild pitch and we got one run, I said, Well, somehow he'll be out of there. Maybe we can win it two to one in extra innings, but it's hard to imagine we were gonna get much more than one or two against Schuylkill last night with that lineup. Yeah, it's really strange. And the strange thing about it is the lineup was one of the things that they addressed in the off season. Because I remember one day I came up to you because you would There was a quote from you in the papers saying that you were looking for some guys who could hit a fastball. Yeah. You That's the year we traded for Julio and Rafael Palmyra. Yeah. And I read that and I thought, Wait a minute, I thought if you were in the major leagues, you could hit a fastball. And I came up to you and asked you exactly what you meant by that. You said, No, no, we were looking for somebody who can hit the best fastball. Number one and the number Yeah, two yeah. Saying, I mentioned, bring this up because that same story played itself out of the off season this year, where they were talking about they needed guys who could hit really good fastballs. So they went out and got a couple of guys who they thought could hit really good fastballs. And one of those guys has been one of the most massive busts the rangers have ever played for. He's on the DL right now, and I don't know if we'll see him again, frankly. And the other had a swim through the minors not too long ago, and he's injured too. What do you make of that, man? Yeah, that's hard. The Rangers did their homework, and they went after people that checked all the boxes for what they were looking for. I know I can't fault that because they got smart people analyzing it, analytics, scouts, and they come up came up with the guys they came up with. And then to see the flop in some of their performances, I don't know exactly how you predict that. The one thing that has struck me throughout the course of the season, and I think it's in probably baseball in general, and maybe I'm a little old school, and I certainly didn't practice what I'm about to preach personally, but you don't see many different swings at an o two pitch as you do a three one pitch. In other words, in the old days, more often than not, a player with two strikes would maybe shorten up his swing and just try to hit the ball back Because through the as they've said in baseball a million times, if you put the ball in play, you have a chance, especially with runners on base. Just move the runners. But so many times this year, it's a one and two count, man on third base, less than two outs. It's a swing and a miss at a high fastball with the hitter's head looking out toward left field and wondering if he pulled the rib cage muscle Yeah. For how hard he swung. And, you know, after a while, you just gotta you just gotta wonder. I saw I saw a game on TV. Cody Bellinger was hitting, and he got two strikes. I don't know if he does it all the time. He got two strikes, and he looked like he was playing pepper. And he had a line drive over shortstop into center field for a base hit. And you think, how could players watch that and not try to do it themselves? And I, you know, I think the, you know, the biggest the guy that's most guilty of that has been a guy who was hit 30 home runs and started in the all star game. Josh Young. I mean, he came into the season with impeccable credentials. How could you predict he's gonna get sent to the minor leagues until you start watching time after time after time swing as hard as you can at a pitch up and in and out of the strike zone. He's not coming back until he can take that bit. He can't hit it. Yeah. So he's not coming back till he takes it. That's been the most shocking development of year for me, this thing. Yeah. He's a great kid. He's a hard worker. He does everything right. He's got this flaw, and he just hasn't been able to correct it. That's baseball. Yeah, it's baseball. You say, Why? I don't know. And believe me, Chris Young and Bruce Bochy and all the guys that work for them are trying to wonder the same thing, and they're working as hard as they can every day to try to correct this. Believe imagine throwing the balls out there. I don't question those guys at all. No. No. I got a couple other things about the team that I wanna get into with you, and then I wanna get into some Tom Greaves stories. Okay. What do you think of the state of pitching in the game these days? I think pitching and we've got a lot of examples that don't go along with this. Our pitching staff is not like this. But I think from the time kids, and I don't wanna get into a long story about it, nowadays from the time a kid's 12 years old and he goes to these travel tournaments and he plays in these showcases, The first thing a pitcher sees when he throws a pitch is radar gun speed. And when you're 12 years old, I don't know what it is. 68, 75, you know, around And so from the time they're little, they're maxing out every single pitch, which leads to all sorts of arm problems. And scouts, when they scout players, if you've got a right handed pitcher in high school or college and he's throwing 91 miles an hour, doesn't even get a look unless he's six four and a hundred and seventy pounds and they say he'll get bigger, stronger, and throw harder. So velocity is what catches the attention. And that's what kids you know, I've watched my grandkids and I've watched the kids they play against, the really good kids they play against. And the one thing that matters to them is velocity. So when they get to the minor leagues and the big leagues, they throw hard. I mean, there's it's unusual when you see believers that come into the game that don't throw 98 miles an hour, but they don't know how to pitch like they did in the old days. They don't know how to do what DeGrom does, what Valdi does, what Mealy did, you know, while while he was active, what Cody Bradford, does. You know, they don't know how to move the ball around, throw strikes. We've got an unusual pitching staff in my mind because it's filled with guys like that. But for the most part, guys are just trying to air it out and throw it as hard as they can. They're breaking stuff is mediocre, and their command and ability to throw strikes is mediocre. So so that's what I see. I also see pictures who I wouldn't wanna hit against. I mean, guys are tough to hit. So when you see averages down, strikeouts up, I I can I I see it every night? And I I've said I mean, that that tells me pitching is in a really, really good place in this game. They're hard to hit, boy. May not bullpen guys who come in here. Every one of them is throwing 98, 99. Every one of them can do different things with this fastball. He's got a slider. If he's a starter, he's got a change up or an off speed pitch. And now they got a a lot of them got a sweeper too. Well, I'm watching it If I'm watching a game with my boys, I'll say occasionally, sometimes pretty often, if got transported in time, from the time I was a player till the present day, I don't know if I could play in the minor leagues because you just couldn't catch up with the velocity. The kids the kids learn how to do it now because they see velocity coming up. Yep. And if the kids back then came up now, they'd learn how to hit it. But the velocity that they had to deal with now is just mind numbing. It's insane. When I see a guy have a good at bat against Durgrom, I don't know how the guy did it. Yeah. He's throwing a 100 miles an hour with a great slider and perfect control. And some guy steps up there and takes a couple good swings, takes a slider, gets a base hit. And you go, that that guy deserves a medal for being able to do that. I've never seen anything like Degrom. I've never seen anything that precise. No. It's so You know, every pitch just about catcher puts up the glove and he hits it. We've seen a we've seen a guy that was as precise, maybe if not more. It was like Fergie Jenkins. Yeah. But Fergie, guessing, might have topped out around maybe '94 ish. Mhmm. DeGromb, even now when he's, whatever, 36 years old, occasionally in a game, he's gonna throw a ball a 100 miles an hour. Earlier in the year, there was a it happened twice within about two or three starts. Might have been a left hand hitter for the Cardinals maybe. Anyway, you get two strikes on him. And so you're watching the game kinda wondering what he might throw and say, well, no way he's gonna hit a high fastball. And DeGrom threw a high fastball, a little bit outside, not quite a strike, and the guy yanked it into over the right field fence for a home run. Then a couple of games later, another left handed hitter with two strikes did the same thing. And so, you know, the I think back to when I was playing, and no one except the big guys, Reggie and and the big guys Right. Hit balls away to the opposite field for home runs. You know, they just didn't do that. Let alone reach out to a pitch that's a little bit outside and almost too high and pull it out of the ballpark to right field. So, you know, it doesn't get any better than DeGrom. And, you know, even though the pit the hitters strike out a lot and they don't look like as good hitters, they are. When they don't look good, it's because the pitching is so good. These guys are big, strong, and they can hit. When they get shut down, you just tip your cat to the pitchers because I I don't know how they hit as well as they do. You ever see a number two starter as good as a Valdi? No. You know, it's it's I I I go right along with what I've heard a couple of the announcers say. If we can make up three games and sneak into the post season like we did a couple years ago. Yeah. And let's say, I don't know who it might be that we're playing in two out of three game series. They're looking at DeGrom and Ivaldi, and then then one of the other ones, if it goes five games, they've gotta beat the they gotta beat one of those guys that are gonna lose three out of five. Yeah. And there's a lot of teams that are built better than we are maybe over 162 games. But pitching wise, there's not many that are built better for a five game series than our team. Now you grew up in New England. What was the baseball scene like up there when you were growing up? Because it's kind of a cold weather environment. It's not like down here. No. No, it was cold weather, but you're growing up, so it's gonna be cold in April, and you're not gonna be able to play if you want even if you wanted to, in November. So you know what the season is and Yeah. What how long you're gonna be able to play. But Pittsfield in Massachusetts, where I grew up, was a baseball city. They had a they have an historic ballpark there. Good players have played there in the past. And so baseball big Red Sox farm team, weren't they? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Baseball baseball was big in my city. There were our city was maybe 50,000. There were four little leagues that had more kids sign up than there were places for them to play. So I mean, was competitive. Kids love to play baseball. I was so fortunate to grow up in a neighborhood with probably 12 to 14 kids within two years that all loved baseball. We played in the back of the elementary school in a in a sand lot just like so many people did back then. Learned how to play without adults there. You settle your own arguments. You come up with ways to play. If if four guys showed up, you played like wiffle ball rules. All ground balls are out and you had to hit it to the field you pick. If all nine guys showed up, then you played a regular game. We had one guy that loved to pitch. Now we weren't pitching like a game. We were throwing so you could hit. Sure. It was a sandlock game. He loved to pitch. And so many games, he was the automatic pitcher. He pitched for both teams. He didn't even care if he hit it. Yeah, we did that too. If you had a guy who could get it over Yeah, he could get it over. In fact, a lot of the time, I was that guy. Were you? Because I couldn't hit, but I could get the ball over and let him hit it. So a lot of the time, Reiner's gonna be the automatic pitcher today. We had a baseball card. There's a guy Don't ask me why we all kind of adopted this guy as one of our favorites, but his name was Vito Valentinetti. He pitched for the Yankees. He had a baseball card with orange background in the 54 top series maybe. So we used to call this guy Vito. He was, is Vito pitching for both teams? Yeah. He wants to pitch for both teams. So baseball was big. We all played little league. We all learned how to play in the sand lot. Kind of like Latin American kids do. Our kids don't learn how to play that way. Our kids don't spend one minute playing baseball without adult supervision, unless maybe they're playing catch in the neighborhood. Yeah. And so as a consequence, you can watch 12 year olds play and see kids who don't know when to tag up. They don't know when to take an extra base. They don't know how to play. They're big, strong and talented. But we grew up, maybe not big, strong and talented, but every kid from the best one to the worst one knew how to play. They knew when to tag up. They knew the rules And we all knew how to play and loved playing. So the baseball environment, to answer your question in my city, was fantastic. What if somebody would have tapped you on the shoulder then and said, you're going to be making your way this world in Arlington, Texas, and then disappeared. What would you have thought? Well, they didn't have a baseball team, so I would have wondered what happened. My mother and father, their roots are in New England, and my father didn't have the kind of job where he would have ended up in Texas, so I would have been extremely perplexed as how I ended up in Texas. No doubt about that. But I will say this. If someone came up to me when I was eight years old and said, You're gonna be a big league baseball player, l really think l would've said to him, I know. That's what l want l mean, it's naive to think this way. But that's all l wanted to do, was be a big league player. Were you better than most of the other kids? Yeah. Yeah. You know, I was a little bit bigger. I tried a little harder. I practiced a little bit more. But yeah. But all over the country, there's the best kids in Little League who don't even sniff high school baseball. Yeah. It doesn't guarantee anything, but that's kinda how I looked at it. Well, you know, I might be the best kid on my Little League team, maybe one of the best kids in the league. I'm gonna be a big league ball player. Yeah. Not, Well, there's a thousand little leagues with kids just like me. That wasn't what I was thinking. So maybe it was a little naive to think that way, but I believed it. I believed it. And I used to I used to go to bed and dream about it. Not like, oh, man. I hope this could happen. I went to bed thinking this is gonna happen. This is what it's gonna be like. Now you don't have those dreams and be completely satisfied if you turn out to be the kind of ball player that I turned out to be. I dreamed about Babe Ruth. I mean, I dreamed about stars. So You gotta think big, man. I didn't quite reach my my goal, but I really think because I believe that and felt that way from the time I was eight years old, and it's in the it's in my subconscious mind that all the decisions I made from then on growing up were geared toward that happening. Finding maybe the best coach, playing on the best team. Yeah. Not playing Babe Ruth League ball, going to Cape Cod to play it. I mean, whatever these things were, I really I really think the way I thought about it from the time I was little had a lot to do with it. Okay. So let's go now to the Washington years. You're there playing with the Washington senators. You did play with them, didn't you? I did. Okay. Do you recall where you were or who it was that told you the first time you ever heard, hey man, the team's about to move. The team's gonna move to Texas. Yeah. Do you recall the first time you heard that? I playing in Washington when it really when it happened. Yeah. That last game, I was in Denver playing. I'm talking about before the last game. Like when you the first time that it started to get out amongst the team. Yeah. You know, guys heard about it, but you're so wrapped up in the everyday playing of the game, trying to play better in the minor leagues to get to the big leagues, that you might hear that, but it's so far removed from the reality of the present time that you just don't think about it that much. Play baseball in Texas? Yeah. Right. Sure. You know, someday. Yeah. I don't think we even thought about it until it was there. What did people think about it then? Were they excited about it or were they kind of I think it was maybe fifty-fifty ish. Yeah. I loved Washington. We had a crappy team. It was the worst organization in baseball, but it was a beautiful stadium. RFK Stadium was pretty new back then. I'm from New England. My friends and family could easily get to games. It was the Nation's Capital. I lived not too far out of town in Maryland with Jackie Brown, we would drive to the ballpark every day. We'd leave early, like to get to the park early, and we take a different route every time. And sometimes we'd be driving and we go, oh, man, what's that? It's gotta be something. Yeah. Get a little closer. Oh, that's the Washington Monument. And so, you know, you'd see all these landmarks, and I loved that about it. I I loved it. So I did not wanna move to Texas. I wasn't I knew I had no say in it. I was gonna do it, but I wasn't looking forward to it. And I was really I was sad to leave. And I think probably half the people felt that way and other people were, hey, let's go. We've never been to Texas. Let's let's let's go. And some of those guys, when they got here, immediately bought homes. They've lived here even though they never played for the rangers for very long. I got I got here and I remember Bill Ziegler was our trainer. Loved country western music. Bought a house the minute he got here. This is where he was destined to be. He listened to country western music in the locker and I'd go in and make fun of the music. I said to him, You know what? You can drive in my car for the next fifty years and you'll never hear a country western song. I promise you that. And as soon as I get done playing, I'm going back to Massachusetts. And then things start to change slowly. You get here and you start to go, wow. You know, at first I thought these people were nice because they wanted something. And then after a while, you start to realize that's the way these Texans are. They're nice people. And we met people down here, and we were invited to their house at Christmas time, and we became friends with people. Our kids went to school here. I caught my wife listening to country music after not too long a period of time. And before you know it, I would never pretend to be a Texan. All you have to do is hear me talk and you know I'm not a Texan. But we love it here. Our kids grew up here. My wife and I love it here. We still miss New England, the natural beauty of it. But as far as the people and what Texas has offered our family, it would turned out to be a great move for us. What did you think the first time you saw Arlington Stadium? People said Minor League Ballpark stuck out here between an amusement park and a marine life park where it was once said you could actually count the teeth on a killer whale. Hey, they had a commercial that said that. And you go into the ballpark, and it's clearly, clearly minor league. I mean, there are no covered seats or anything. There are a ton. I mean, a shit ton of bleacher seats out there. What'd you think about that? Well, the first thing I would say is you never saw the minor leagues back then. To us, that looked like a big league ballpark. But if you saw the places that we played for the Washington senators and the minor leagues, just I'll quickly say what Geneva, New York was like. Bobby Jones and I played in Geneva, New York. The senators were the worst organization in baseball. They didn't have a short season team except for a rookie league team. There was 45 players on this team, only 25 could dress. The other 20 were called the 10:00 scholars, they got to the ballpark in 10:00 in the morning and played a scrimmage game. But before that game, they had a wheelbarrow that went around the infield, and all the players had to pick up rocks, little pebbles, and put them in the wheelbarrow. That's how bad the field was. So when you say this was a minor league ballpark, for those of us that had come up through our minor league system, it was major league all the way. It really was. And, you know, even though, you know, even though, you know, we went to Yankee Stadium, we went to Fenway, I love the old ballparks. Kamisky, Tiger Stadium. I mean, I love the history of those ballparks. Every park I went into, I imagined this is where Al Kaline stood. This is where Yogi Berra stood. And all all that, I I loved it. But at the same time, when we came back home, we didn't dwell on the fact that maybe our park didn't have the history, maybe it wasn't quite as major league as some of these other ballparks. We were happy to be big league ballplayers and happy to play here and in our own way, proud of our ballpark. Really, really were. And you were playing for Ted Williams in those years. Did, you get along with him? I got along with him, but I grew up I grew up a Yankee fan, and I loved Mickey Mantle just like so many other people did. My mother, father, and my two sisters were Red Sox fans and not every year, but frequently, my dad would take us to a doubleheader. Maybe one at Fenway. Next year or two, we two years later, we'd go to Yankee Stadium. And it seemed like every time we went, Mickey Manna went o for three and Ted Williams went three for four. So I grew up not I I didn't hate the Red Sox, but, I was a Yankee fan. Mhmm. I was down in the cellar one day when I was about six years old. My father was having the house painted and the paint the painter saw me down there and he said, hey, little guy, I bet you're a Red Sox fan. And just the way he said it made me say, no, I'm not. And I didn't know enough to be a fan of any team back then. And he said, well, who do you like? And, you know, the only other team I knew is the Yankees. And so I said, I'm a Yankee fan. That's the day I became became a Yankee fan. My mother, because I was a Yankee fan, she was a Yankee fan well after I left home. Well, she was a general she was a Yankee fan when I was a general manager. All she talked about was Rizzuto and White, the announcers, and Bernie Williams was her favorite. Anyway, I forgot where I was going before I started. I don't know. Just the whole Red Sox thing there. Yeah. Playing with Ted Williams. Playing for Ted Williams while you last Yeah. Group. I'm here for you. So, anyway, I didn't like I didn't like Ted Williams, but I admired I used to send away for autographed pictures for the players, and I was so proud when I got them. Marv Breeden, one time, second baseman for the Orioles, rookie. I sent away for one from him. He sent me back a little note on a card. Dear Tom, my autograph pictures have not arrived yet. As soon as I get them in, I'll send one to you. So try to think if you've ever could imagine a player not only sending an autograph picture back to someone, but sending a note that they hadn't arrived yet. So I I love the players. I admired the players. And I've said a 100 times, I wish I to be a better big league player, I wish I didn't know one single thing about baseball or big league players because it took me a long time to get over that feeling and feel like I'd done well enough to to deserve to be in the big leagues. So meeting with Ted Williams, meeting him and talking to him was very difficult. It took me a long time before I was somewhat comfortable talking for him. He he had this bigger than life personality. It sounds like a cliche, but that phrase was invented for him. Yeah. And he talked just like John Wayne. If John Wayne was a baseball player, he would have been Ted Williams. If Ted Williams was an actor, he would have been John Wayne. He was loud. He was the most profane human being, I would say, that ever walked the face of the earth, but that I don't know. But that I've ever heard, and, you know, I've been in clubhouses, the army, and all that, and I use terrible language myself. No one could duplicate Ted Williams. Ted Williams, when the when this show's over and you say to me, what did he say? I can't even tell you. Because some they have religious connotations, some of them. And he put together words and sentences that people could only dream of. I mean, the greatest author So he was kind of a grab bag guy. Oh, man. But anyway, I I did play for him. He was didn't want he didn't wanna manage. He loved to hit. No one could talk hitting better or more aggressively than he did, but I don't think he really wanted to manage. Winker Williger was our third base coach, and he called the game from third base. Ted didn't give him signs to call. Twig had been a minor league manager, a great little utility player. He just called the game. If something worked, Ted would go, attaboy, Twiggy, good call, good call. He didn't care if anybody even knew it. So that wasn't really why he was here, but he was smart. And that's the first you know, he's not like a he's not like a baseball guy. He's a baseball guy who could have been a CEO of a corporation. He was as good a fighter pilot as there was during the war. I think John Glenn even said something like he's one of the best pilots he ever served with. He was a world renowned fly fisherman. He was an people didn't know this. Was an expert photographer. So whatever he had an interest in, he was going to be fantastic at it. So I admired him. I didn't really feel comfortable around him. But if you got a minute, I'll tell you a Ted Williams story. Well, we got a minute. So we're in I'm gonna be careful of the language I use because I You don't have to be. I don't wanna string in some of the words that he used. I I have a modest reputation to uphold it. But anyway, we're in West Palm Beach and the dugout had wooden steps. And there's a gap between the two planks on the steps going up. Ted's got his foot up on the top step and he's watching the game. Mike Epstein was hitting and about that time, this lizard, this spider, the spider sticks his head out and starts walking out. And it was a big spider. The body of the spider was bigger than a quarter. I mean, it was a big spider. Yeah. And Ted's going, Jesus. I let a side of this fucking spider. Holy shit. Oh my god. A spider. So, you know, every everybody's sitting there watching the game going, This is Ted Williams. He's talking about a spider. We wouldn't even have noticed a spider. So everybody gets up off their seats and they come over, and they're going, You know, it's Ted. So we're, Yeah, Ted. Boy, that's a big spider. And about the time everybody got looking at it, the spider walks out and this lizard comes out and chomps down on the spider. And Ted's going now he's really going, oh my god. He's gotta bite the balls at the he's gonna eat that spider. He's going on and on. And now everybody's just laughing their ass off. And Mike Epstein, no one even saw him strike out. He comes back into the dugout and takes his bat and smashes it down on the dugout. And the lizard let go of the spider and they both scampered away. Ted's going, goddamn it. Can't you see we're watching this? Poor Epstein's just going, What are you talking about? So that's one I didn't expect. I didn't expect to see that one. Other one this is my favorite Ted Williams story. They have a Jimmy Fund game in Boston. I don't know if they still have it or not, but the Jimmy Fund is a fund that raises money for childhood cancer. Mhmm. And Ted was a huge proponent of this and very involved in it when he was playing. And they bring back Red Sox. So they bring back 15 or 20 old Red Sox players, and they take part in, like, a home run derby. They hit a ball out of the infield. It's $50. Home runs are a $100, and they're earning earning money for the Jimmy Fund. Right. And so Ted had put on a little bit of weight, and he always wore a jacket. And know that and he's sarcastic as could be. And so we're saying, I hope he takes part in this and swings and misses about three times. That's kind of what we're thinking. And so we didn't even know if he would do it. So he's up in his office. He doesn't even come down on the field. They're hitting Walt Dropel hit Old Red Sox like Dick Garner and Jackie Jensen, they're all hitting. And now it's getting toward the end, and Ted's not down there. And then have you ever been to Fenway and walked down into the dugout? I've never been on the field there. I've been to it. They've got a wooden plank. And when you step on this plank, it makes a it hits the cement floor and makes a loud noise. Yeah. And you hear that. It's Ted. He's coming down with his jacket. And he's got a look on his face like he doesn't know you're even at the ballpark. He thinks he's the only guy in the ballpark. And he walks up and he starts grabbing the bats. And he's going, Jesus Christ. And he finally finds one and now he looks for the pine tar. He's putting the pine tar on it goes, Jeez. No wonder you guys can't hit. The pine tar's not sticky enough. He starts putting dirt on it, he's putting rosin on it. He finally gets the pine tar the way he wants it. And it's it's the last guy is hit. And now the announcer says something like, ladies and gentlemen, tonight's last hitter is the greatest living hitter, one of the greatest ball players who ever lived blah blah blah, Ted Williams. And he comes out and he gets out of the dugout. He's he's walking fast and he rips off his jacket and kinda throws it on the ground. And he walks not toward home plate, but he kinda walks out toward the pitcher's mound, and he starts screaming at Lee Stang was the Red Sox pitching coach, and he was the one throwing batting practice. So in these home run derbies, you're just lobbing it in there and letting them hit it. And Ted goes, don't throw that shit to me. Put something on it. Put something on that ball. And so Lee Stan goes, okay. And he put something on it. And if anyone had ever known Ted Williams, the one thing he said was, don't swing at the first pitch. And if you do, don't be late. So many times you see a guy come up there first pitch, they swing, they're a little bit late, they pop it up. Mhmm. He go crazy if you saw that. So the first pitch Lee Stang throws, he watches it go by. And then I'd like to say he hit 10 home runs. He didn't hit any home runs, but he took maybe 15 or 20 swings and every single one of them was on the sweet spot of the bat. Bang, bang, bang. Everyone was a line drive. And he got done. He walked back into the dugout. Never looked at the crowd. Never looked at the players. Just came right down, dropped the bat, walked back up the tunnel into his office and never said a word about it. And, you know, we're all gone. God. He he can hit better than weekend. He's overweight. He's 50 years old. And I said to Nelly Fox, one of our coaches, that was unbelievable. That guy he can hit better than weekend. Guy hasn't hit in ten years. And now they said, what do you mean? Well, he hadn't played in ten years. He hadn't taken batting practice. He just walked up there and hit. He said, he's been underneath the stadium for the last month and a half taking batting practice. You think Ted Williams would have set foot in Fenway Park if he didn't know what was gonna happen? And it's like, no. I don't. You're right. But, you know, that just kinda speaks to a little bit about Ted, how even at that age, man, he was not gonna embarrass himself. And he didn't. I think if he had to play in a game, he probably could have hit better than most of us. We learned prior to the podcast starting that this is another big day in Ranger history involving a manager. Because what is it, Shoopy? Fifty years ago, Billy Martin got fired. And I believe you would have, been part of that or been a witness to or Well, was on the team, and I On team. Yes. I wasn't actually the one who said, Billy No. I don't know how we're gonna get you get along without you, but starting tomorrow, we're gonna try. You might have been hoping. That wasn't me. No. I was probably one of the reasons he did get fired. No. Billy's career is well chronicled. He was by far the best manager I ever played for. He was completely fearless. He had an he didn't have analytics, but he had an innate an innate understanding of the game. He and Earl Weaver understood getting men on base and hitting a home run way back then. Mike Hargrove occasionally used to lead off for us. Yeah. We'd all say, Why would Mike Hargrove lead off? Well, walked a 100 times and he was getting on base. Yes. It didn't register with players, but it registered with Billy Martin. Also, Hargrove was a first baseman. Those are supposed be big hitters, not leadoff hitters. Not leadoff hitters, no. So Billy would occasionally, maybe twice I saw him do this, ninth inning at home, two outs, down by one run, men on first and second. Base hit scores the man from second and ties the game. So twice. Now Cesar Tovar was the runner at second base who he had in Minnesota Mhmm. And he trusted a 100%. He would put on with two outs, a double steal, and he would say, I don't wanna tie the game in that situation. With Cesar at second base, I'm gonna put in that play on so we can win. Now I don't think we got a base hit and won the game, but just the fact that he would do that. You can you can watch baseball for the next hundred years and never see a manager do that. But Billy didn't care what the sportswriter said. He didn't care what the owner said. He was gonna manage his way. He got in trouble because he wanted to control everything. He wanted to be the general manager. He wanted to be the manager. Didn't work out that way with the teams he was with. It's not unknown that he had a drinking problem. That was one of his major issues. Mhmm. But from the time the game started until the game ended, I don't know that there's ever been a better manager. Now from the time that game ended until the next one started, he had some problems. Another example of the kind of manager he was, he had he had this play. I don't I doubt he was the first one that ever did it. He said he learned a lot from Casey Stengel, and they probably did it in the old days. Sure. But you've got men on first and third and a left handed pitcher on the mound. He would tell the guy on first to take your lead and then trip as if you're gonna fall down. So the left hand pitcher is looking right at first base, getting ready to throw the pitch. He sees the guy fall down. What's he gonna do? He's gonna throw to first base to try to tag him out. So as soon as the pitcher lifts up his leg, he has the guy at third base take off from home. So the guy pitcher, sees the guy at first. He throws to first. The first baseman catches the ball and watches the runner score from third. Did it he did that frequently. And on one of the Billy Martin specials, they're interviewing Tony LaRussa. Tony LaRussa is telling the story about that play. He said, Billy Martin's the best manager I ever managed against. I had to be at the top of my game so I didn't get embarrassed. And I know he's got this play. And I'm watching the game and I have this I Tony's talking. I obviously wasn't tuned into the game like I should be. And right as I realized that they had men on first and third and Britt Burns is pitching, left handed pitcher, before I could scream to Britt Burns, the guy trips at first. Britt Burns throws to first, and and the run scores. And Tony said, I know he's got the play. I'm ready for it. And he pulled it off and it still worked. So he was he was a player's manager. He came up to me one time in the dugout. I was being platooned. I was only playing against left handed pitchers. We hadn't faced one in a long time. And he said, sat down, never done that before. And he said, look, I know you haven't played a lot, but we're going to Oakland. We're gonna face Vita Blue and Kenny Holtzman, two left handed pitchers. We're right in this thing. We can win this thing, and you're a big part of it. And when we go to Oakland, I'm counting on you to be ready to face those two guys. And, you know, he did that not just with me, but with all the guys. And that's why you you always say you play a 100%. But for someone like that, there's that little extra that you don't even know you've got. And you reach down and you do you might do something one time in a game that you go, man, how the heck did I do that? It's from that Yeah. Attitude that he instilled in the players, to be able to do that. So, yeah, I've got nothing but praise for Billy Martin. Did you like him? I I I I really liked him. Yeah. He was witty. He I loved listening to him when he would talk about the Yankee days and playing with Mickey Mantle. Mickey came to a golf tournament one time and we all got a chance to meet him. So Yeah. I like him. Now when he left here, he probably he probably needed to leave here. There were times where the lineup didn't get put up in time. He got to the ballpark late. He had sunglasses on from you know, maybe he got popped the night before somewhere. I don't know. But, you know, he had he had his demons, but what he did with the rangers he came into the rangers that year when he took over the team in September and he said, in a quick team meeting, I didn't come here because I think you guys can be a 500 team. I came here because we're gonna win next year. And if you don't believe that and you don't wanna be here, I'll be in my office when I get done talking, come in and I'll make sure you're not here tomorrow. And so, you know, obviously no one's gonna do that. No one did that. But when he got done talking, you know, we heard about Billy. None of us knew Billy Martin, but I think all of us at least thought to ourselves, if not out loud, if he thinks we're gonna win next year, he must never have seen us play before. And we had we had a bad team. But Mike Hargrove is rookie of the year. Jim Sumberg, as a rookie, made the all star team. Fergie Jenkins wins 25 games. Jeff Burrows was the MVP. Davy Nelson, Lenny Randall were good little ball players for us. We had a good team. That was the first year of good baseball that I remember. Yeah. Yeah. Do you remember the song, The Turnaround Gang that came out during that year? Billy Martin inspired this song. We had a giveaway, a key chain, thanks thanks a million night when we drew a million fans for the first time. Yeah. So he he really and I guess it was the third year, he put baseball at least sort of on the map. Took a while, but he was responsible I for mean, he got attention, and that's something that nobody else had done for the first Right. You know, two years the Rangers were here. But, you know, the team was good. Yeah. It, you know, unfortunately, that was during the dynasty of the Oakland days with Sal Bando and Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter and all those guys. You know, there was no real taking them down or anything like that. And over in the National League, you had the big red machine as well. Yeah. But that was our first go around with good baseball. And it is one that I've I have not forget. I I don't think I ever will. No. You know, the time we didn't have a lot of great seasons back then, but I have to call that a great season because of where we came from, the interest that the team spurred, our performance. And it was out of the blue too. Yeah, was out of the blue. That was a really great season. Yeah. But as you say, you run into a team that just couldn't be beat. Yeah. Years later, when Billy Hunter took over the team, we won 93 games, I think. I I think our record would while he was here was something it's not quite this sixty two and thirty two, some incredible record. We were good. And we played great in September, but Kansas City, know, Amos Otis and all the great John Mayberry, all the George Brett, all the great Kansas City Royals, that was their heyday. And we might have gone whatever, fourteen and six, they went eighteen and two in September and won it. So we had a couple of years where we were good enough to win. We just had two teams against us that were the best. That's the way baseball go? That's way it's gone. As a great man once said. No doubt. Let's see. Let's talk about some of your favorite teammates. Who were the who were the who did you hang with when you were here? When was a ranger, my two best friends were Rich Billings, who was our catcher. Mhmm. I played with Rich in the minor leagues and in Venezuela. And Jackie Brown, who, you know, Jackie and I were roommates in the minor leagues. We were roommates in the instructional league. We were roommates in Venezuela. Dick Reisenhover used to call him the Oklahoma curveball Yeah. Had a good one, boy. So those guys were my two best friends. You know, we didn't have much in common. I'm from, I'll call it a city in Massachusetts. Jackie's from a, you know, a town in Oklahoma. He's probably he is he and Rich are both very conservative guys. I'm probably a little bit more liberal. So, you know, there is no reason for us to become great friends, but, you know, it's it's just one of those things. We Sometimes things like that happen. Yeah. We we became great friends. Rich Rich Rich was our catcher in in Venezuela. They fired Larry Dobie, our manager, and he became our manager over there. There's about about eight or 10 of us rangers on the team, and our teammate is our manager, but we respected him enough to where, we made the playoffs for the first time on that team. So I would say those two guys were my best friends. After that, probably Toby Toby and I were pretty good friends. We played in the minor leagues together. Jim Sumburg and I have remained close friends. We live right near each other. Mhmm. So there Bill Ziegler is one of my best friends. He was our trainer at the time. So there was a lot of good guys on that team and a lot of guys that I've stayed close to and friends with over the years. It's been meaningful. Yeah. It always seemed like no matter how good or bad the team might have been, everybody, you know, got along and there was there was a certain chemistry there. And I don't know about you, but I think chemistry is important in anything. You know, baseball, football, this, whatever. You gotta have it. Yeah, I agree 100% with that. And it's so difficult to explain chemistry because you can't quantify it. You can't say, well, we fifty and forty five, but would be forty one and fifty four if we had a little bit better chemistry. Can't put a number on it. But you know it's there. You know it's there and you feel it and you sense it. You sense teams where there's guys in the team that not only don't care if you do well, probably are slightly happy if you don't do well. You've been on teams like that where, you know, everybody gets along okay. Everybody's trying, but it's just not working. And the same time, I've been on other teams, and I have to think the Rangers were this kind of a team when they won the World Series, that you know when you come to bat, 24 other guys want you to get a hit. And when you do poorly, 24 guys feel bad too. And you just get that feeling. The pitchers, Tarek Schuble, the tie I know the Tigers have this. We were talking about it earlier. Right. And yesterday, Tarek Schuble has a man on third, first and third, two outs. He's the best pitcher in the world. He's thrown a 100 and whatever, four pitches. Now I know why AJ Hinch took him out because this is his best asset, and he's not pushing him one pitch farther than he planned on before that game started. Right. Because that's his guy. Right. So he took him out of the game. Schupple understands that. But any pitcher in that situation believes he can get that last hitter out. And Schupple knows he can get that last hitter out. So when he's coming out inside, he's so pissed off he can't even see straight, but he didn't let it show. And when AJ went down to him and hugged him, he hugged back and nodded as if he knew. Yeah. And then That's chemistry. That's chemistry. And then I can't remember the left hander's name. Was it Holton? Anyway, a left hand Yeah. I think it was Holton. Lefty comes in. He's trying to get a guy out, bounces a ball, one nothing game. The tie in run scores, gets the hit. Knicks next hitter out, comes off the field. It's one to one. Schuble loses the lead, loses a chance to win the game. And the first first guy that greeted Holton when he came down the steps into the dugout is Schuble. Yeah. And he patted him on the back. So when you see that with their best player in a situation where he's hot and he's fired up and he's competing, that he can reach down and do that, then you know they got something special going. Yeah. I noticed that, you know, like forever, when guys gotten taken out of games, usually the first thing they'll do is go down into the room, you know, and just, I don't know, take a couple seconds, chill out. Not school. Or or you might hear something break Yeah. Down in the tunnel. Or they might keep right on going back into the clubhouse and not even be in the clubhouse. Yeah. But no, not him. Not Scuba. I mean, he was sitting on the bench that For the rest of the way there. He was involved. He was involved. And when your best guy is that kind of a teammate, how can the rest of them not fall in line? Not that they needed that to do it, but with that, it's almost impossible not to have that good chemistry. Yeah. If you don't fall in line, people are gonna be looking at you and saying, What's your trip, man? Yeah, yeah. How did you know you wanted to get into the front office thing when your playing days were done? I was I was, I always envisioned that well, number one, I envisioned I wouldn't stay in Texas, that I would go back to Massachusetts. If I did go back in mass to Massachusetts, I would finish my education, possibly teach and coach, but go into a profession, business, I'm not sure, but I know I would I would have been good a good teacher and a good coach, and I might have done that. And that's what I have in the back of my mind in my early days of playing. Yeah. And, you know, you hear people say you have to have a plan for the future. You have to have a plan for the future. And so that was my plan in the back of my mind. But as the days go by and the years go by, things begin to subtly change over time. Baseball becomes what you like the most, what you know the most. It's where your friends are. We left Massachusetts and a lot of friends and family back there, but we had new friends down here. Mhmm. And it's where our kids were growing up. And, you know, you start to say, you know, I I I might wanna stay in Texas and be involved in baseball. Meanwhile, we moved back to Pittsfield, bought a house back there. I'm still having the same thoughts. And one day I woke up out the clear blue and I said to my wife, you know, and she had family back there and her mother lived back there. I said, you know, we love it back here, but I don't think this is the place for us. I think we need to live in Texas. And, she was she was fine. I know she didn't want to, but we did. And then I'm starting to think, okay, this is where my friends are. What am I gonna do? Eddie Robinson Eddie Robinson when I was in high school, Eddie Robinson was the player personnel director for the Kansas City A's. And they had the first the second second pick in the draft. So he came to Pittsfield with a Major League batting practice pitcher to throw batting practice to me before the draft. And, you know, I I hit the ball really good that really well that day. And when it was done, he said to me, the Mets have the first pick and they're gonna take I didn't even know who he was. They're gonna take this guy named Reggie Jackson. I'm gonna recommend that we take you with a second pick. So, you know, I didn't I didn't know what to say. I just listened to him. Charlie Finley actually called me on the phone and Really? And talked to me, and that was kinda cool. So I went to school that day thinking that I was gonna be I was gonna be picked by the a's. But the Mets, who had the first pick, picked a catcher from California, high school catcher named Steve Chilcott, who got hurt, wasn't that great, never got to the big leagues. And the a's then picked, as they should, Reggie Jackson. So you think back in how baseball history might have changed. And if the Mets took Reggie Jackson, the Mets have Seaver, Kuzman, but no power hitter. They were they were speed, defense, and pitching. If they had taken Reggie Jackson to bat fourth on that team, they lost to the a's in '73. Yeah. So they win the a's win '72, '73, '74. They beat the mets in '73. What happens if the Mets have Reggie Jackson and the A's don't? Do the Mets win five straight World Series? Probably not. But the A's probably don't win three straight. Yeah. Anyway, that that one move in the draft is kind of a subtle look back on what could have been for the Mets franchise back then. Anyway, Eddie Robinson then became the general manager of the Rangers. So I had a history with him. I knew him well. And while I was still playing, he would say to me, I want you to think about a front office career when you get done playing. Yeah. Sure. Sure. Fine. Fine. Well, now I start to play not very well, and I'm thinking, well, maybe a front office job didn't sound didn't sound all that bad. Anyway, he called me up. He called me up, at the end of the season, invited me here for the last day of the season. I'd played triple a baseball with the rangers to finish that season. Brad Corbett was there and they hired me to work in group ticket sales. And that's, kind of how I got into it. But long way of answering your question. I never thought about it until right at the end. And probably if if it wasn't for Eddie Robinson being here and thinking that's something that I could do Mhmm. Maybe it doesn't happen. It's so many I'm sure the same thing happened in your life so many times. When you started the ticket, when things happen, you go looking back on it, holy cow, if that guy wasn't there, I I don't know what I would have done. There's no doubt. It happens to everybody. It does. It's just you're being moved around by the fickle finger of fate. It really is. You like to think, you know, in a way you plan it, you make your decisions, but that old fickle finger has a lot to do with it. Yeah. There's a lot of things going on out there that you don't know anything about. That's right. And it's crazy how it all works, but it all works out like it's supposed to in the in game. Yeah. I mean, life has been great. You're a part of the baseball community here, a part of the sports community, and a guy that we've all gotten to know and and and you've never made any enemies over the years. That's saying something. That we know of. That we know of. I Let's put it this way. If I've got them, I don't know who they are. And I haven't gone through my life trying not to make enemies. And I said this a 100 times too. You grow up and you look back at your life and people say sometimes nice things about you. And whatever they say nice about me, however I may have turned out in that way, it's it's simple me for me to trace why that happens. You know, it's because of my parents. There's no doubt about that. I don't I don't think I don't think my parents ever lied. Now, I've lied plenty of times. I'm not trying to say I don't lie. But I don't know In the business you've been in, there are times when you just You can't be complaining. I'm not proud of it, but I've got a few out there. But I don't know that they ever did. Yeah. They were polite to the waitress every time. They were polite to my teachers when they went to the PTA meetings. And, you know, that that rubs on rubs off on you in how you treat other people. So that had a lot to do with it. But, know, then after I got married, you know, I'm still a little rough around the edges and my wife is a is a kind, gentle person and I think she's rubbed off on me. And, you know, anyway, you get to be 77 years old, and you're sitting here, and you wonder how you got here. And you look back at the people that played a big part in that, and I would say it was my parents and my wife. You know, even when you were playing, you had that vibe that you were a really nice guy. And I always picked up on that. I thought that that seems like a good dude. When I worked my way into the media and got, you know, to know you and be around you a few times, I saw, yes, he is. He's everything that he seems like he would be. And that's how I praise, man. That's nice of you to say that. And you know, it's You know, I think this to myself all the time. It doesn't take effort to be a nice person. No. And you don't be a nice person so that you'll ingratiate yourself to other people. You try to treat people the right way because it's the right thing to It's the right thing to do. Not that hard. That's it. You know, I occasionally see players, some people standing outside the hotel. You see them all the time. They're rough looking people. They've got bad clothes on, but they've got a stack of cards or a little book, they're trying to get them autographed. And guys walk right by them. They don't look at them. Or some guys, I signed that yesterday. Or, you know, they they they treat And, them like you know, you just say to yourself, how hard is it to go over there? I don't care if the guy's been there every day for the last ten years, and it's the hundredth time you've signed his little card. Sign his card. What effort is it? You got guy's gonna make $5, and you're worried about it? I've I've I've never understood that. When I when I got a chance to manage our rookie league team one year, one of the things I said to the kids was, you know, statistics will tell all of us that most of you aren't gonna get to the big leagues. But along the way, one thing you can do, and that's be a good teammate and be a good person when you're honored enough to have someone that wants your autograph, take the time and sign the autograph. It's not that hard. Nolan Ryan signed more autographs than any player in history. So did Josh Hamilton. Why how could their time was taken up sooner than anybody in the in the league, yet they found time to do that. And so I always said, you know, if those guys can do it, guys would send me back autograph cards when I would send away for them when I was a kid. And so now that I get to be a player, I'm not gonna sign it and send it back to them after it meant so much to me when I was a kid. I think guys the guys forget about that sometime and Gotta pass it on, man. Gotta pass it on for sure. Gotta pass it on. Well, this hour has passed by really fast. Man, that was fast. Enjoy it, An and 15, actually. An hour and fifteen? Yeah. All right. When you get to the point where you've exhausted your entire list in your phone and you don't have anybody else to call, start me again. I'll be the first guy that did I'll be the first guy that did it twice. I I won't have to to to go down that list to call you. Alright. Because you're you're so good and you got such good stories and such great history with ranger baseball that everybody likes hearing about. Good. And I got a feeling this is gonna be one people are really gonna wanna watch. Well, thank you. Thank you. You're watching live, thank you very much. Thanks to Ashley. Thanks to Shuby. Thanks to all of you out there. Remember, if you like what what we're doing, let us know. We appreciate that. Give us a, I don't know. What? A share or something like that. What is it? Like, subscribe, follow, share? Yeah. That stuff. All that the social media jargon. That's the way it works here in the world of the podcast. All the stuff Tom loves. Yeah. So help help your brothers out here, your dark companion. Thanks for watching. Thanks to Ashley. Thanks to everybody. We will see you next time. Bye. Alright. I'm gonna go take my pants off. 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