Latest / Foul Territory / WBC insurance controversy, Puerto Rico's stance + Richie Shaffer joins FT to discuss mental game

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WBC insurance controversy, Puerto Rico's stance + Richie Shaffer joins FT to discuss mental game · Foul Territory

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Sean Spradling, you said out a pretty good explainer about
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the WBC insurance issues, and there's a lot of questions
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: right now about that situation. So welcome to feld territory.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: If you can explain this to the lay person, what's
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: going on with the insurance?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, thank you for having me.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: I think this, like you said, this is a perfect
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: time to talk to WBC for two reasons. One because
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: of all the insurance issues and two because of AJ's
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: comments on the last show where he called it an exhibition.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: So we'll get into that, but.
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: I can't wait for this bullshit.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: With the insurance.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's if you look on Twitter, it's been a
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: mess because fans are mad and players are mad, and
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: everyone's kind of up in arms trying to figure out
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: what's going on because it seems like there's more players
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: that are being denied insurance for this tournament than the
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: last one. And it all comes down to guaranteed salaries,
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: like who's on the hook for actually paying for the
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: players if they get hurt in the WBC. And unfortunately,
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: like a lot of the top Puerto Rican players have
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: been the ones that have been like the bigger casualties
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: from the tournament obviously the big names like Francisco Lindor
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: and Carlos Korea. So we're trying to figure out there's frankly,
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: not much transparency into the process of like what makes
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: a player insurable versus uninsurable.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I think that would kind.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Of clear up a lot of issues because the big
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: discourse right now is like you see a lot of
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: fans saying, like, how did Byron Buxton get approved his
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: insurance but Francisco Lindor did not, And so there's just
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: a lot of confusion as to what causes a player
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: to be insurable or not ensurable. But ultimately, every player
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: on a forty man roster that plays in the WBC
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: is required to have some sort of insurance otherwise their
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: their salary is not guaranteed.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: You know, that's a big problem. But by the way,
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: just to answer your question, we're gonna get into later.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: You want to know what means more of the regular season,
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: because if it's mean so much and wasn't an exhibition,
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: all these guys will be playing. But now let's get
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: into the insurance. Okay, The insurance thing for me, listen,
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: is somebody that was denied from playing in the two
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: thousand and six to one because the team just said no.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: It's changed over the years and teams allow more teams
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: to listen to edwind Di has announced that he's going
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: to play for Puerto Rico and he's like the example.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: Everyone says, like, gosh, guys get hurt and missed the year. Okay,
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: have we gone too far now?
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: Though?
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: Have the team's gone too far? If guys really want
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: to play. Lindor wants to play, obviously, Miguel ro Oz
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: wants to play. All these guys want to play for
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: their country and represent where they're from. And I think
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: it's bigger for Puerto Rico because the talent pool is
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: smaller than a US or even a Dominican or some
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: Venezuela some of the others teams. But have we gone
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: too far? On the side of gosh, we have to
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: be so careful because honestly, position players they don't get
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: hurt and miss the year very often.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, well, that's the thing is like pretty
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: much all the big stars are into the tournament. It's
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: no longer the questions no longer like do the players
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: want to play? It's like we need to find a
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: way to get them in, like to actually be able
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: to play, and I think that's been one of the
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: biggest frustrations for fans is like, Okay, Francisco Lindor was
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: announced a year ago that he wants to play, and
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: he had this minor cleanup over the off season, and
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: so because of that, he got denied insurance. But he's
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: healthy enough to play in spring training. That's kind of
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: the confusion that I think fans are dealing with right now.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if the
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: WBC is not one of the main talking points when
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: it comes to CBA negotiations coming up, because we've gotten
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: past the players.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Wanting to play or not wanting to play.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: All of the like Latin American countries, East Asian countries,
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: they've all been bought in since the first tournament. It's
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: just a lot of the American pitchers, for good reason,
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: have been kind of back and forth on wanting to play,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: wanting to be healthy for the season.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: But that's not the issue time.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: I mean, we have the two best pitchers in the
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: on the planet pitching in the WBC for Team USA,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: So I agree. I think it has maybe gone a
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: little bit too far one way.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Sean, why does it seem like Puerto Rico in particular
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: is taking the biggest hit.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: That's the biggest question that everyone's trying to answer right now,
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: And it's some fans will say it's biased. I don't
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: necessarily think it's biased towards one country or another because
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: we don't know what the insurer is considering when it
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: comes to who is insurable and who is not insurable.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: I think a lot of it is they're really taking
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: into account like recent injuries and surgeries and procedures that
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: are that have been done. So for example, Lindor with
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: his cleanup over the over the offseason, it seems like
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: that was a big enough and recent enough event for
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: them to deny him insurance. Whereas let's say Byron Buxton,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: that's the name that everybody is throwing out as like
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: how did he get approved for the WBC insurance when he's.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Been hurt for so long?
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Well, he did also just come off of his like
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: probably his most healthy season he's had of his career.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: And the other thing is the insurance policies change depending
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: on how on how expensive your contract is. So it's
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: like the policy that you're gonna have for insurance for
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: Lindor is gonna be much more expensive than it is
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: for Buxton. So I don't think, personally my personal opinions,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: I don't think there's any bias towards or against certain countries.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: I think it's just.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Been a really unlucky, lucky like draw for Puerto Rico,
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: especially because they're hosting.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: They're one of the four hosts for the tournament in
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: San Juan.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Like fans have already bought tickets to go to Puerto Rico,
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: they bought plane tickets, tickets to the games, and so
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: it's really unfortunate that this is all happening like right
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: before rosters are announced. But there is like glimmer of
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: hope because there are already a couple of pictures that
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: have been reversed. They've either been previously denied insurance and
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: now been given insurance or they've found alternative insurance options
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: and are now able to play in the WBC. So
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: it seems like they're figuring things out at least internally.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: We'll find out everything else on Thursday when the rosters
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: are actually announced, but for now we're kind of just
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: in this like waiting of seeing who's going to be
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: approved and who won't.
• 6:26
  Speaker 6: How much of a how much of a blow is
• 6:29
  Speaker 6: this because of the fact that Team Puerto Rico is
• 6:32
  Speaker 6: hosting it in San Juan. Is they finally get to
• 6:36
  Speaker 6: host it? And I think it was eight, eight or
• 6:39
  Speaker 6: nine guys were denied based on insurance. Like how big
• 6:43
  Speaker 6: of a blow is it? And how big of a
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: blow would it be if Team Puerto Rico says no, no,
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: we're we're pulling out. We're We're not.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, it would be massive. Yeah, I mean, like,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Puerto Rico has been one.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: Of the most loyal WB supporters. They're fans, their players,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: their federation since its inception in two thousand and six,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: Like that is no doubt. They're some of the most passionate,
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: excited fans of the WBC. And so if they pull out,
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: like you said, the Puerto Rico Baseball Federation president has
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: threatened to withdraw from the tournament, and if they were
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: to do that, it would be massive. It would be
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: a massive blow for the WBC because you lose one
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: of your hosts and you lose one of your most
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: loyal supporting countries of the WBC. I think because we
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: have these players that are starting to get approved insurance
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: and finding other alternatives. I don't think that they're going
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: to go through with actually pulling out of the tournament.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: It just would be a huge loss for the WBC.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: But I don't think that long term, let's assume that
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: they don't pull out of the WBC, I don't think
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: that it's going to affect the long term health of
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: the WBC much. I think that this instead of like
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: dissolving the WBC and how it fall apart, I think
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: it's going to be the opposite.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: I think it actually.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: Shows how passionate fans are about the WBC and how
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: important it is now that there is such a big
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: pushback when players like Lindor aren't approved for the tournament.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: Like you have politicians, you have the federation's president in
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: Puerto Rico saying like, we're not going to play in
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: this tournament unless we get our top players. That shows
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: how important the WBC is now compared to how much
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: it was perceived to how important it was perceived to
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: be maybe ten fifteen years ago.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: And so I think that this will bring.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: About reform rather than like tearing the WBC apart.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: Just definitely there's no way that they withdraw. There's no way.
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry, it's a cool it's a cool thing, like
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: we're going to boycott. But there's no way they pull out.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: They're hosting. They're gonna get a bunch of money. There's
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: no way. The Puerto Rican Baseball they'll figure it out
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: one way or another. They'll figure it out. But what
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: I want to say is what you just said at
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: the end. We're going to get into it now. Okay,
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: this is still an exhibition. It's an important exposition. Everybody
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: loves it. I love the WBC listen, I'm a fan.
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: I think this is awesome. I think it's one of
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: the great showcases. It reminds me. I wish there was
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: a better time to do it, like the Four Nations
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: did in the NHL. But I love it. I love
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: the passion. I love that the USA has now finally
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: bought in because at the beginning they were like, oh,
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: this is kind of a joke, and then Dominican Japan
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: everyone went out and kicked USA's button. Now they're like,
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: all right, we need our best guys out there. But
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: it's still an exhibition, okay, and it still doesn't mean
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: anything At the end of the day, the World Series
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: in the playoffs are still more important to everybody. I'm sorry, John,
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: JP Morosi, all you guys that love the WBC, because
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: I'm one of the WBC lovers, Okay, But at the
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: end of the day, when someone goes into the Hall
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: of Fame, they don't say he was on a WBC
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: second place team. They say he won a World Series,
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: or he was on the National League Championship, or he
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: did this in the postseason. They don't say, and this
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: guy hit three twenty in the twenty twenty three WBC.
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: Only thing that people remember from the twenty twenty fe
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: WBC is the home run by Trey Turner and the
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: strikeout of Mike trel It was a great tournament. There
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: was unbelievable moments, but those are what people remember.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: These are my fake reading glasses. I don't actually need them.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: They're blue light glasses, but they're to emphasize my point
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: that I'm about to make. So Nelson Cruz direct quote,
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: the WBC is the real World Series. Jean Segura Christian
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: Vasquez said, if I were have to pick between the
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: World Series and the WBC, I'd pick the WBC.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Randy Rose Arena.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: He said, my catch in the WBC was better than
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: the home run I hit in the World Series. Trout
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: and Muki the most fun experience I've ever had playing baseball.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: I think that it's just.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: A word semantics issue because in the International Baseball World Exhibition,
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: the word exhibition is always synonymous with meaningless, which is
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: the farthest thing from the truth. And I think you
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: agree with that. It's not meaningless by any means at all.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: The word exhibition is always used in that sense of
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: like meaningless exhibition tournament. I think the distinction is it's
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: not an exhibition, it's a global championship, because exhibitions don't
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: have qualifiers for that event. They don't have they don't have.
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: You don't heavily recruit for an exhibition. It's it's a
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: global championship, is what I would call it. That's the
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: only distinction I would make.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: You don't recruit for the All Star Game. Sorry, you
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: don't recruit for the All Star Game. That's an exhibition.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: That doesn't mean we're the qualifiers, though you don't have
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: to qualify to get into the game.
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: Who has to qualify to get into the WBC?
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: The teams at the ball.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Of the countries.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: We had WBC qualifiers last year or yes, bring twenty twenty.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: Five was the United States and a qualifier all the time? No,
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: so you mean so you mean to tell me that
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: the United States had to qualify for the WBC. They
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: were gonna say, no.
• 11:49
  Speaker 7: USA is out, guys, USA didn't qualify. Not a fucking chance,
• 11:54
  Speaker 7: not a jaesus aja. I will disagree. I won't even
• 11:58
  Speaker 7: let Sean talk on it.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: One.
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: You have to. Everybody has to qualify, and Sean probably
• 12:03
  Speaker 6: knows the semantics more. Now, if you get second place
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: in the previous WBC, that's a certain amount of points,
• 12:09
  Speaker 6: and then over the next three years you you amass
• 12:13
  Speaker 6: tons of points. That's why Poland's not in because Poland
• 12:16
  Speaker 6: has zero points. Right now, fine, and I won't.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: Do end up managing for Poland. They're not gonna like
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: you're saying, it's an exhibition.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: Rob manfor didn't like a lot of things. I say,
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: what's new? I mean, okay, I mean I mean a
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: lot of people that don't like things that I say.
• 12:34
  Speaker 6: I don't care.
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: I mean they're exhibition again. I'm gonna go back to
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: my original point that I said it's exhibition is probably
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: the wrong word. Okay, but if this was a regular
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: season game, and we even said it on here, Francisco
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: Lindor can play in regular exhibition games in spring training,
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: but they're not letting them play in these exhibition games,
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: so they won them ready for the regular season. These
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: games do not mean as much as the regular season
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: to some people some people.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: To some people there that's a good distinction to some people.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Nelson Cruz would disagree.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: I also think these games don't mean as much to
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: the teams. The World Baseball Classic doesn't mean as much
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: to the teams, but to the players. As Sean was
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: just saying, these games matter more to some players than
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: their Major League Baseball games, albeit regular season and postseason.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: So the individual is different than the entity.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: Yes, and I think there's an important distinction to make too.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Is like in this in talking about this insurance issue,
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: it only applies to MLB forty man rosters. Like all
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: of the players in NPB and KBO CPBL, they have
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: their own process to figure out insurance, but this specific
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: insurer for the WBC is.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: For forty man roster players.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: So it's it's interesting that to see like of course,
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: like most of the big stars in our game are
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: in MLB, so it ends up impacting a lot of
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: our biggest stars.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: And like a Francisco Indoor.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: I mean MLB had Franciscool Indoor front and center on
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: all the promos leading up to the tournament. It's not
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: like MLB doesn't want their big stars in the tournament.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: I think it's just we need to figure out a
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: way to have a little bit more transparency into the
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: process so that we at least know what to expect
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: when a player is listed as ensurable or uninsurable. And
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: the one word exhibition. We might just need to rebrand
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: it to Global Championship.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Sean, I love it. Keep doing what you're doing, Keep
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: fighting the power. My friends appreciate you.
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: Got to change the name of the World Series because
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: it's not technically it's not really the World Series.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: That's what Nelson Cruse said.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: The WBC is the real World Series.
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: A couple of countries playing the quote World Series like
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: I would. I'd love to play Japan. It's champion. I'll
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: take the twenty twenty five Dodgers against whoever wants the MPB,
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: whoever wins the Caribbean World Series.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: I'll take those the International Baseball world that for years.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: If we could finally have like the winner of NPB
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: play against the Dodgers, the whole International Baseball world.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: Would absolutely love that. I would love to see that.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Yes, Twitter's head would explode. Sewn, thank you so much.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: We know you've got to get on another call. We
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: appreciate it. You guys can check out what Sean's doing
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: of course on X at Sean Spradling. We'll talk to
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: you again soon.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: Appreciate it. Thanks guys, all right, good.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: To have Richie back on foul Territory with us. Good
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: to be with you. I want to talk a little
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: bit about basically what guys are doing Richie, to get ready,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: to stay ready, to be in shape, to be healthy.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, it seems like injuries, of course, are such
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: a big part of the game. Arm issues with guys
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: with pictures. Seems like everyone's having Tommy John. So what
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: do you think I think the biggest thing is right
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: now in terms of guys getting healthy and staying healthy
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: for the long term.
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah, well, thanks thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: Good to see you all.
• 16:10
  Speaker 8: I think there's kind of these two worlds for players,
• 16:13
  Speaker 8: I'm like, how they have to get ready for this?
• 16:14
  Speaker 8: You got like the players like myself who had to
• 16:16
  Speaker 8: be ready like one hundred percent day one on camp.
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: Because you got to be you know, to compete for
• 16:20
  Speaker 5: a spot.
• 16:21
  Speaker 8: And then there's guys who can kind of use spring
• 16:23
  Speaker 8: training to kind of ramp up for the season. So
• 16:25
  Speaker 8: it kind of depends on like where your situation's at
• 16:27
  Speaker 8: with what you're what you're sort of training for, and
• 16:29
  Speaker 8: what you're competing for.
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: And so I think right now guys are.
• 16:33
  Speaker 8: Probably right in the middle of ramping up like their
• 16:37
  Speaker 8: arm full capacity, getting like their their their swing at
• 16:40
  Speaker 8: one hundred percent, getting.
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: Ready to go. So it just kind of depends on
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: sort of.
• 16:43
  Speaker 8: Where you're at in your career and what you're competing for,
• 16:46
  Speaker 8: because uh, you know, i'd like guys you me to
• 16:48
  Speaker 8: have the luxury of like having two to three weeks
• 16:50
  Speaker 8: to kind of get up to speed for for a
• 16:52
  Speaker 8: live of bats.
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: You had to be ready to go day one, and
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: other guys.
• 16:55
  Speaker 8: Can kind of take take take some time to get
• 16:57
  Speaker 8: used to things.
• 16:58
  Speaker 6: Ritchie, that is not true at all. You were a
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: first rounder, you are a superstar coming in. Maybe you
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: should have just relaxed, bro and just like said, Hey, everybody,
• 17:09
  Speaker 6: I'm going to hit when I'm gonna hit, so take
• 17:12
  Speaker 6: take your time evaluating me.
• 17:15
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean maybe I should have. That's probably what
• 17:17
  Speaker 8: I needed to do, But I didn't do that. Unfortunately.
• 17:20
  Speaker 8: I was a nut job.
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: I was all over the.
• 17:22
  Speaker 8: Place, So you know, I was you know, I was
• 17:25
  Speaker 8: certainly someone who put, you know, a lot of pressure
• 17:29
  Speaker 8: on myself. And so I think there's like a whole
• 17:31
  Speaker 8: mental game leand Lenz here for baseball that gets overlooked.
• 17:34
  Speaker 8: And so that's a lot of stuff that I've been
• 17:36
  Speaker 8: doing with players is trying to help them sort of
• 17:38
  Speaker 8: really hone in on that mental game and really understand
• 17:41
  Speaker 8: that that's kind of where your ceiling's out as a player.
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I should have been more showy, for sure.
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: I was. I was such a rule follower, man.
• 17:47
  Speaker 8: I was like, Oh, I don't want to I don't
• 17:48
  Speaker 8: want to be a breaking the rules. I'm like, no,
• 17:50
  Speaker 8: I should have been. I should have been way showier
• 17:52
  Speaker 8: than I was.
• 17:53
  Speaker 6: Wait, you're helping players out now, but you're not part
• 17:55
  Speaker 6: of a team. Shouldn't be teams teams be like giving
• 17:59
  Speaker 6: this valuation helping out like people that don't know you
• 18:03
  Speaker 6: were expert. You were you were playing on like Team
• 18:06
  Speaker 6: USA at like fourteen years old. You were a stud.
• 18:10
  Speaker 6: You went to Clemson, you were a first rounder, like
• 18:13
  Speaker 6: you were the guy that was untouchable, you couldn't be
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: traded to move. But why are teams not helping enough
• 18:20
  Speaker 6: with this kind of stuff? And why does somebody outside
• 18:23
  Speaker 6: of the game, like you need to be helping.
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 18:28
  Speaker 8: Honestly, it's a weird world when you get into it,
• 18:31
  Speaker 8: especially like because you mean, you're right for all intensive purposes.
• 18:34
  Speaker 8: I was like a huge amateur prospect coming up. I
• 18:37
  Speaker 8: had like all of the hit all the check boxes,
• 18:39
  Speaker 8: the first round pick, all these.
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: Things, and you know, you get in there and then.
• 18:44
  Speaker 8: You realize quickly that there's a lot of people who
• 18:48
  Speaker 8: sort of try to get your you know, they try
• 18:50
  Speaker 8: to make their mark on you as a player in
• 18:52
  Speaker 8: case you come up and you become a big star and.
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: Then kind of say like, oh, yeah, I helped develop him.
• 18:56
  Speaker 8: And you get a lot of conflicting philosophies and if
• 18:59
  Speaker 8: there's no like a set organizational philosophy and like how
• 19:02
  Speaker 8: we're gonna develop players, it's.
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: Kind of chaos. Like, you know, I try to be.
• 19:07
  Speaker 8: Super objective about about my career, and you know, there
• 19:11
  Speaker 8: are a lot of things that I did wrong, for sure,
• 19:12
  Speaker 8: But you know, there was a lot of things that
• 19:14
  Speaker 8: happened in like the experimental stays, the experimental days of
• 19:17
  Speaker 8: the of the Tampa Bay Rays as they were coming
• 19:19
  Speaker 8: up and figuring out how to compete on like no budget,
• 19:21
  Speaker 8: essentially that there are a lot of guinea pig stuff happening,
• 19:23
  Speaker 8: And I was like one of those guinea pigs for sure.
• 19:26
  Speaker 8: And you know, I just don't think the draft gets
• 19:29
  Speaker 8: treated a lot like we're gonna throw pickles at the
• 19:32
  Speaker 8: wall and see what sticks, instead of like, hey, like
• 19:35
  Speaker 8: let's really commit a lot of our money and our
• 19:37
  Speaker 8: resources into creating the best development that we can possibly have.
• 19:41
  Speaker 8: Because even if we get a guy and who's out
• 19:43
  Speaker 8: of college, wh's twenty one years old, there's just still
• 19:45
  Speaker 8: a massive gap between like that guy and being like.
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: Big league ready.
• 19:50
  Speaker 8: Right, There's there's a few guys who can you know,
• 19:52
  Speaker 8: make the jump right away, but from a position player standpoint,
• 19:55
  Speaker 8: it's very very few. Like Langford is a guy who's
• 19:57
  Speaker 8: like he happens so quick, Like those dudes are just
• 20:00
  Speaker 8: that is so rare, even for even for the great,
• 20:04
  Speaker 8: great college players that come out like high school players
• 20:06
  Speaker 8: have a little bit more run time, Like teams are
• 20:08
  Speaker 8: just not spending enough time, like dedicate sophisticated resources to
• 20:12
  Speaker 8: developing guys or just hey, we're just going to throw
• 20:14
  Speaker 8: anything of the wall.
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: Whatever sticks you guys in the big leagues. Congratulations, Richie.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: It seems like there's more of an emphasis on speaking
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: about the challenges of mental health in sports, and you know,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: it used to be a lot more taboo for people
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: to speak about it publicly. Certainly I would imagine for
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: men to speak about it was a lot harder. How
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: do you think it has changed over the course of
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: your time doing this? I mean, obviously you played for
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the Rays in fifteen and sixteen. Here we are, you know,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: almost ten years later. How has it changed and what
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: else still needs to be done to tap into the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: fact that so much of this game is mental and
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: mental health in this game, I mean it will kick you.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: This game will kick you right in your teeth. So
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: how much does it change and what else needs to
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: be done?
• 20:59
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I think there's like conversations, right, there's a mental
• 21:01
  Speaker 8: health and then what I like to call mental strength
• 21:04
  Speaker 8: or mental skills, right, you kind of like two varying paths.
• 21:06
  Speaker 8: Like baseball is inherently a failure based game. If you're
• 21:10
  Speaker 8: a hitter, you're going to get out the vast majority
• 21:12
  Speaker 8: of the time. Human beings do not like to do
• 21:14
  Speaker 8: tasks where you're going to fail the vast majority of
• 21:16
  Speaker 8: the time. So we are not equipped organically to handle
• 21:19
  Speaker 8: this game. Like we have to have systems in place
• 21:22
  Speaker 8: in order to combat those and a lot of times,
• 21:25
  Speaker 8: like the failure that you're going to consistently have, the
• 21:28
  Speaker 8: level of lack of control of your career, of your life,
• 21:32
  Speaker 8: and the lifestyle that you live sort of in the
• 21:34
  Speaker 8: minor leagues as you're trying to reach the pinnacle of
• 21:36
  Speaker 8: the big leagues. All those things combined can lead to
• 21:39
  Speaker 8: really really bad mental health. But on the same token,
• 21:42
  Speaker 8: like you need to have these these mental skills and
• 21:46
  Speaker 8: mental strength in order to maintain a good mental health.
• 21:48
  Speaker 8: And so there was there's certainly a lack of openness
• 21:53
  Speaker 8: to kind of have discussions like this, right, Like you
• 21:55
  Speaker 8: were kind of expected to be able to just like
• 21:58
  Speaker 8: handle this adversity and do these things on your own.
• 22:01
  Speaker 8: There was zero like sophisticated resources or tools when I
• 22:05
  Speaker 8: played in terms of like how to build a sustainable,
• 22:07
  Speaker 8: resilient you know, mindset around this, And I think it's
• 22:12
  Speaker 8: really opening up to where you can talk about these
• 22:14
  Speaker 8: things in a way that's not going to.
• 22:17
  Speaker 5: Attach some stigma to you.
• 22:19
  Speaker 8: I know that a lot of these teams they have
• 22:21
  Speaker 8: you know, kind of mental skills coaches or mental health
• 22:23
  Speaker 8: coaches or whatever.
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: But one thing that I've always.
• 22:26
  Speaker 8: Noticed was a big gap. And why I've sort of
• 22:28
  Speaker 8: done some other work that I've done with a lot
• 22:29
  Speaker 8: of players is sort of attaching this like generalized sports
• 22:34
  Speaker 8: psychology and mental health to the actual function of being
• 22:38
  Speaker 8: a baseball player and hitting, because like, there is this
• 22:40
  Speaker 8: world where, because you get out so often, you can't
• 22:44
  Speaker 8: rely on hits.
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: To build confidence, but you also need confidence to build hits.
• 22:47
  Speaker 8: You live in this weird paradox of confidence where like
• 22:51
  Speaker 8: you need one without the other. But that's how traditionally,
• 22:53
  Speaker 8: how you've had to do it. But we can create
• 22:55
  Speaker 8: systems in our brain in order to create like cycles
• 22:59
  Speaker 8: of refrain negativity into positivity in order finding small wins
• 23:03
  Speaker 8: that you can use to then stack big wins on
• 23:06
  Speaker 8: top of there's just a number of things we can
• 23:08
  Speaker 8: do that will keep our mental skills strong so that
• 23:11
  Speaker 8: we don't impact our mental health, right, Like there's a
• 23:13
  Speaker 8: direct line between the two, and I think it's an
• 23:15
  Speaker 8: important distinction.
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: So I think we're trending in the right direction.
• 23:19
  Speaker 8: I mean, I've helped thousands of players at this point
• 23:21
  Speaker 8: since my playing days have been done, and I've gotten
• 23:23
  Speaker 8: so many, you know, really really good feedback from all
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: the work that we've been able to do with players
• 23:29
  Speaker 8: from the big leagues all the way down to the
• 23:31
  Speaker 8: little leagues, and I think it's a trend that's going
• 23:34
  Speaker 8: to grow. The hard part is it's just you can't
• 23:36
  Speaker 8: see it. It's so much easier to focus on our
• 23:38
  Speaker 8: swing and just think, if I just fix my swing,
• 23:40
  Speaker 8: I'm gonna become a better hitter. It's like, well, at
• 23:42
  Speaker 8: the end of the day, if you take a fastball
• 23:44
  Speaker 8: right down the middle, there's no swing that can help that.
• 23:46
  Speaker 8: Like you have to have the mental state in order
• 23:48
  Speaker 8: to like make good swing decisions. But then at the
• 23:50
  Speaker 8: end of the day you go over four on the day,
• 23:53
  Speaker 8: how you bounce back the next day is really what
• 23:55
  Speaker 8: separates great players from good players, and that is really
• 23:58
  Speaker 8: how you connect like the mental skill set. I had
• 24:00
  Speaker 8: to ensure that, like, oh for four doesn't turn into
• 24:02
  Speaker 8: over fifty and that's where your mental health starts really
• 24:04
  Speaker 8: taking a hit.
• 24:06
  Speaker 6: What about speaking on some of the physical stuff. I
• 24:08
  Speaker 6: know one of the comments you made on Twitter or Instagram,
• 24:11
  Speaker 6: I'm not sure you were like, how are you going
• 24:14
  Speaker 6: to spend over a million dollars on a draft pick
• 24:16
  Speaker 6: and then seed them peanut butter and jelly out of
• 24:19
  Speaker 6: the bulk government peanut butter and jelly?
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: Oh my god. Yeah, I mean it's it's ridiculous.
• 24:24
  Speaker 8: I mean, this is the sort of disconnect between the
• 24:26
  Speaker 8: like the the money you're going to spend on a
• 24:29
  Speaker 8: player and then what you're going to do to attempt
• 24:32
  Speaker 8: to like develop that player. I mean yeah, like you know, hopefully,
• 24:35
  Speaker 8: I think it's improved at this point some I mean
• 24:37
  Speaker 8: it's been it's been ten plus years since since I
• 24:39
  Speaker 8: was drafted, so I think we're getting closer to get
• 24:41
  Speaker 8: better about this. But yeah, you get drafted, you get
• 24:44
  Speaker 8: sent to minor league spring training, and I literally was
• 24:46
  Speaker 8: getting Everyone would get a tortilla with one slice of
• 24:49
  Speaker 8: Deli ham and a slice of American cheese rolled up
• 24:52
  Speaker 8: like here you go, it's one hundred and four degrees
• 24:54
  Speaker 8: in Port Charlotte, Florida.
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: Good luck.
• 24:56
  Speaker 8: You know, there's your nutrition for the day, and that'd
• 24:58
  Speaker 8: be every day. You know, it's like Pemberg jelly and
• 25:01
  Speaker 8: half the loaf is moldy. And you're like, I lost
• 25:03
  Speaker 8: twenty two pounds during my rookie ball season.
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: You're just like, how is this?
• 25:06
  Speaker 8: Like you're gonna spend two million dollars on a player
• 25:08
  Speaker 8: in the first round, and then this is the resources
• 25:11
  Speaker 8: you're gonna put at their disposal.
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: Like that, Just those two things don't make sense.
• 25:14
  Speaker 8: And I think that's where the disconnect comes in between,
• 25:16
  Speaker 8: like player development and just hoping that you're like hoping
• 25:21
  Speaker 8: that some pick pans out.
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: To become a big leaguer. And I think so many.
• 25:25
  Speaker 8: Small market teams who claim that they need the farm
• 25:28
  Speaker 8: system in order to feed the big leads like, well,
• 25:31
  Speaker 8: what you're doing in the farm system doesn't. Like your
• 25:34
  Speaker 8: actions don't don't signal that's what your intention is, right,
• 25:37
  Speaker 8: Like your action signal that we are just here to
• 25:40
  Speaker 8: run the most cost efficient operation in human history is
• 25:44
  Speaker 8: essentially what your actions show.
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: All right, Well, this is trade slash free agents slash
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: prospect season. I guess that's all the time. Do you believe,
• 25:54
  Speaker 6: because you were one of them, that prospects are way
• 25:58
  Speaker 6: too hyped? And if you have the ability to cash
• 26:01
  Speaker 6: it in, And this is where AJ might chime in
• 26:03
  Speaker 6: on the conversation, cash it in for a proven big leaguer.
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: How many times out of one hundred do you cash
• 26:10
  Speaker 6: that prospect in?
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: Oh?
• 26:14
  Speaker 8: Man, I mean, the prospect has to be like, in
• 26:18
  Speaker 8: my opinion, it has to be a Paul Skian's like,
• 26:20
  Speaker 8: no doubt, surefire, there is zero doubt that this person's
• 26:24
  Speaker 8: going to pan out, because I mean I would even
• 26:26
  Speaker 8: take I mean, this is going to be maybe a
• 26:28
  Speaker 8: bit controversial, but like I would take a well established,
• 26:33
  Speaker 8: like Triple A player who's been in the Triple A
• 26:35
  Speaker 8: system for four years and it's just been stuck forever.
• 26:38
  Speaker 8: I would take a player like that over some super
• 26:41
  Speaker 8: hyped nineteen year old prospect for your big league roster.
• 26:44
  Speaker 8: I think if someone like Christian Walker. I played against
• 26:46
  Speaker 8: Christian for years stuck in Norfolk in Triple A, and
• 26:51
  Speaker 8: they had Chris Davis at the time. He wasn't like
• 26:53
  Speaker 8: Christian couldn't go anywhere. He's sitting there balling out in
• 26:55
  Speaker 8: Triple A every single day. He wasn't like some huge
• 26:58
  Speaker 8: name prospect, but like, now you look at it, he's
• 27:00
  Speaker 8: this awesome big leaguer. But it was obvious at the time.
• 27:03
  Speaker 8: Everyone could see it was obvious, except maybe Baltimore at
• 27:06
  Speaker 8: the time couldn't.
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: See it as obvious.
• 27:08
  Speaker 8: And so to me, like I find ryann organization, I'm
• 27:10
  Speaker 8: looking for guys like that, where you look for guys
• 27:15
  Speaker 8: who are consistently undervalued or have consistently performed at a
• 27:19
  Speaker 8: big league level but may not have the like hype
• 27:22
  Speaker 8: and name attached to it, and then use your prospects,
• 27:25
  Speaker 8: your big hyped names to cash in those pieces. I mean,
• 27:28
  Speaker 8: I think, I think that's absolutely the play. But the
• 27:30
  Speaker 8: problem is, like those players are just generally more expensive
• 27:33
  Speaker 8: and they have less control, and that's really what teams
• 27:35
  Speaker 8: only care about. It's like, how do we manage budget
• 27:37
  Speaker 8: and how do we maintain control for players as long
• 27:40
  Speaker 8: as humanly possible. It's like they'd rather have a kid
• 27:43
  Speaker 8: come in at you know, twenty years old and have
• 27:47
  Speaker 8: six seven years of control over him eye if he's
• 27:48
  Speaker 8: going to dramatically underperform, then someone who might be twenty
• 27:51
  Speaker 8: nine and been in triple A for four years, or
• 27:54
  Speaker 8: like a big LEAGUEUY who's been fringe up and down
• 27:56
  Speaker 8: on like the bus back and forth and four a.
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: You know. So, I mean, that's the way I would
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: look at it. I just I don't know. Maybe Age
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: has got a different perspective on it.
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: No, Listen, I'm all for trading away prospects for guys
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: that are actually proven big leaguers. So no, I'm all
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: for this because no problem. I mean, not every prospect
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: works out. Look at the great trades over the years.
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: Very few times do they trade away a great player
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: and then you get the caliber and return because if
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: they were that good, teams wouldn't trade him in the
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: first place. So that's one of the one of the
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: things that I'm most But I want to go back
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: to something you said on the mental health side of this,
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: and what do you say to people, because listen, when
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: I came up, I had the same thing, and I
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: was way before I was thirty years ahead of you
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: in the minor leagues or twenty years ahead of you
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: in the minor leagues. And listen, it was one of
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: the ways teams separated mental toughness from the guys that
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: couldn't hack it because they would say, if you can
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: survive the bus rides and still get up and play,
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: if you can figure out a way to keep yourself
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: and nutrition wasn't a big deal, weightlifting all that wasn't
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: as big of a deal. But what do you say
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: to people like that that are older school and say,
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: you know, this is just how you differential differ, differentiate
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: between guys that can do it and guys that can't,
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: instead of just saying, oh, we're just going to give
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: everybody everything, and you know, oh the best player wins,
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: but then they get to the big leagues and times
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: get tough and they can't handle it because they've never
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: been through a tough time.
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I think it's fair.
• 29:19
  Speaker 8: Right, there's a level like mental just innate mental toughness
• 29:22
  Speaker 8: that has to exist with someone, Like someone has to
• 29:24
  Speaker 8: be able to to their core, be able to handle adversity,
• 29:26
  Speaker 8: no doubt.
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 29:28
  Speaker 8: I just think like there's there's a difference between being
• 29:32
  Speaker 8: able to tell some guy who's just like kind of
• 29:34
  Speaker 8: soft between and like the difference between that and someone
• 29:38
  Speaker 8: who's like, we're just going to give you bad conditions
• 29:40
  Speaker 8: to see if you can like stick it out. Like,
• 29:42
  Speaker 8: I think those are two different things, you know, because
• 29:46
  Speaker 8: I think you can tell, right, like if a guy
• 29:48
  Speaker 8: just has bad body language walking around all the time
• 29:50
  Speaker 8: in the field.
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: Like you can.
• 29:51
  Speaker 8: I think it's kind of easy to see the dudes
• 29:53
  Speaker 8: who kind of have a backbone the guys who don't.
• 29:56
  Speaker 8: And then the next piece of that is like, all right,
• 29:58
  Speaker 8: like we can tell that this one particular guy, he's.
• 30:01
  Speaker 5: A tough guy.
• 30:02
  Speaker 8: He just you know, mentally, he spirals quickly, and you know,
• 30:05
  Speaker 8: he game speeds up on him.
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: He overthinks, YadA YadA. But like he's tough as nails.
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: We know he's tough. We just need to figure out
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: how to like direct his brain in the right direction.
• 30:13
  Speaker 8: Versus a guy who's like moping around and doesn't hustle
• 30:17
  Speaker 8: things out. And you know if he if he strikes
• 30:19
  Speaker 8: out on defense, he's going to go make an air
• 30:21
  Speaker 8: out in the field.
• 30:22
  Speaker 5: Like, those two things are distinctions.
• 30:23
  Speaker 8: And I think you're right if it's the ladder, like
• 30:25
  Speaker 8: that guy's never gonna cut it. I don't care how
• 30:27
  Speaker 8: talented he is, you can't have him as part of
• 30:29
  Speaker 8: your organization.
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: That I totally agree with.
• 30:32
  Speaker 8: I just think there's a distinction between there's guys with
• 30:36
  Speaker 8: crazy physical tools and they just their mental game is
• 30:42
  Speaker 8: pointed in the wrong direction and they focus all their
• 30:44
  Speaker 8: energy on the wrong things. And then we can provide
• 30:47
  Speaker 8: tools to them to get this part out of the
• 30:50
  Speaker 8: way so they.
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: Can unleash their physical side.
• 30:52
  Speaker 8: And that's really what I focus on, is like, how
• 30:54
  Speaker 8: do we how do we help you get out of
• 30:56
  Speaker 8: your own way basically, because yeah, I mean, yeah, if
• 31:01
  Speaker 8: you're if you're soft, you'reself if you're not going to
• 31:02
  Speaker 8: make it, it's this is we're talking about one percent
• 31:05
  Speaker 8: of one percent of people trying to make it to
• 31:06
  Speaker 8: the show.
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: Like you got to have some dog in you. Absolutely,
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: I mean, there's just there's no question about that.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: So fu Rigie, what do you think And I'm not
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: asking you to predict the future just being a member
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: of the Tampa Bay Rays when you were what do
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: you think the likelihood is that their future is there
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: in Tampa Saint Pete? Do they move what? What do
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: you get the sense that they might be doing.
• 31:30
  Speaker 5: I don't know, cautiously optimistic they move into Tampa.
• 31:33
  Speaker 8: I think the Tampa Greater Tampa base is a fantastic
• 31:37
  Speaker 8: sports base.
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: I think the Lightning prove that right.
• 31:39
  Speaker 8: They've got like an incredible showing every single every single year.
• 31:43
  Speaker 8: They are good teams, so people show up. Like I
• 31:45
  Speaker 8: think the Rays have the base, they have fans, it's
• 31:50
  Speaker 8: just an inconvenient place to get to, Like it's just
• 31:52
  Speaker 8: hard to get there to the stadium currently. And so
• 31:55
  Speaker 8: my hope is that I know there's talks about like
• 31:58
  Speaker 8: Ebore City and some other places that they were potentially
• 32:00
  Speaker 8: looking at.
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: I'm still hopeful.
• 32:02
  Speaker 8: That that that they move into Tampa proper and uh,
• 32:05
  Speaker 8: you know, give people better access to the stadium.
• 32:08
  Speaker 5: Because like, Race fans were great. I love Race fans.
• 32:10
  Speaker 5: They were fantastic.
• 32:11
  Speaker 8: I like them because being in the Al East, there's
• 32:14
  Speaker 8: a lot of like chip on their shoulder people. You know,
• 32:16
  Speaker 8: you get a lot of you got a lot of
• 32:17
  Speaker 8: Yankees fans in Boston fans who like live down and
• 32:20
  Speaker 8: then Florida and they want to show up to those
• 32:22
  Speaker 8: home games. So the Race fans got a lot of
• 32:24
  Speaker 8: chip on their shoulder. Is like, hey man, like we're
• 32:26
  Speaker 8: we're very competitive in the Al East, and you know
• 32:28
  Speaker 8: you're not gonna You're not gonna just show up to
• 32:30
  Speaker 8: our park and win.
• 32:31
  Speaker 5: So I'm really hoping they get like.
• 32:33
  Speaker 8: A good, real stadium to give actual Tampa fans the
• 32:37
  Speaker 8: ability to show up, because I think they will.
• 32:40
  Speaker 6: I'm not trying to blow up your spot. But you
• 32:42
  Speaker 6: used to live in Charlotte. I'm not sure if you
• 32:44
  Speaker 6: still do anymore. But Charlotte is it a big league city?
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: Should they have a big league team?
• 32:53
  Speaker 8: I hope so, and I think so.
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: Like I think Charlotte is growing more and more.
• 32:58
  Speaker 8: I'm running into more people who are like I'm here now,
• 33:00
  Speaker 8: Like as adults, we are very transient city for a
• 33:03
  Speaker 8: long time.
• 33:03
  Speaker 5: We're starting to get people who were born and raised
• 33:05
  Speaker 5: here and like love it here.
• 33:08
  Speaker 8: And I think we can absolutely handle it, Like we
• 33:10
  Speaker 8: just kind of lot of panthers. Just we're like competitive
• 33:13
  Speaker 8: for the first time in like a decade, and the
• 33:15
  Speaker 8: playoff game was insane.
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: It was rowdy. People showed up. They love it.
• 33:19
  Speaker 8: I think you don't have as much trouble with free agency,
• 33:23
  Speaker 8: like for in baseball, as you do other cities that
• 33:26
  Speaker 8: are just like more destination cities, right, like you have
• 33:28
  Speaker 8: other sports where people they rather go play in Miami
• 33:31
  Speaker 8: or La or whatever just because of like the city itself.
• 33:33
  Speaker 8: I don't think baseball has as much challenge that people
• 33:36
  Speaker 8: would just go whoever's good willing to pay them the most,
• 33:38
  Speaker 8: which is how it should be. I think Charlotte can
• 33:41
  Speaker 8: handle it. I think we've got a good like we
• 33:43
  Speaker 8: have a good spot for it there. And so I'm
• 33:44
  Speaker 8: hoping in the next like expansion conversations like Charlotte is
• 33:48
  Speaker 8: in that conversation. Whether or not like the city agrees
• 33:50
  Speaker 8: with me, I don't know.
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: We'll see. But if it's not Charlotte, my hunch is
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: like Nashville gets it to be honest, all right.
• 33:57
  Speaker 6: Last one, it's more of a comment on the way out.
• 34:00
  Speaker 6: Twenty seventeen, Richie and I played together. Richie was MVP
• 34:03
  Speaker 6: of the Columbus Clippers. He had thirty dangers eighty nine stakes.
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: Well.
• 34:08
  Speaker 6: Twenty seventeen was also the year that Aaron Judge won
• 34:12
  Speaker 6: Rookie of the Year, had like fifty two homers something
• 34:16
  Speaker 6: like that. My sons, Richie's locker was right near mine
• 34:20
  Speaker 6: in the Columbus locker room. My sons would come to
• 34:23
  Speaker 6: the room, would come to the clubhouse almost every single day.
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: They that they were good kids, so they were there
• 34:30
  Speaker 6: and they Richie was like he was like a kid
• 34:32
  Speaker 6: to them, so like they played Clash of Clans. They like,
• 34:35
  Speaker 6: they just did everything in the clubhouse. I get traded
• 34:38
  Speaker 6: to the Yankees. My locker is the same distance away
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: from Aaron Judge's locker. They thought Richie Shaefer was Aaron Judge.
• 34:47
  Speaker 6: They were just like Richie Schaefer hit all these home runs.
• 34:51
  Speaker 6: Aaron Judge hit all these home runs. They're the same.
• 34:54
  Speaker 6: They're both really nice to us. They both liked playing
• 34:58
  Speaker 6: games on their phone, and they're both like nice guys
• 35:02
  Speaker 6: that hit thingers. So Richie Schaefer and Aaron Judge same same.
• 35:07
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I'd be pretty much. I don't see anything different
• 35:10
  Speaker 8: between me and Judge is nothing. I don't see a
• 35:12
  Speaker 8: single difference.
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: So spawn on our mind perfect. I love it.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: It's a great story. Maybe maybe the bank accounts a
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: little bit different. Maybe the height, I don't know. I
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: don't know how, but you are four.
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: But he does make me feel very small, Yes.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Sick four. That's nothing to be ashamed of. I'll tell
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: you what. You're both good guys that I can attest to.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on. I loved hearing
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: the insight that you had best of luck going forward.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: We appreciate it, and I'm sure that certainly e K
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: will talk to you soon, if not the rest of us.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Thanks Richie absolutely, they go very much.
• 35:48
  Speaker 5: Take care.