Latest / Foul Territory / Buck Showalter Unfiltered: Managing around Judge’s injury, Pete’s return to Queens, Early celebrations

Transcript

Buck Showalter Unfiltered: Managing around Judge’s injury, Pete’s return to Queens, Early celebrations · Foul Territory

0:09
Speaker 1: There he is.
0:10
Speaker 2: There he is. But, Buck, first of all, who's Norman?
0:13
Speaker 2: What is it, Norman? And who's that?
0:16
Speaker 3: Ken. That's my miniature donkey. You know, I've always been
0:20
Speaker 3: associated as a jackass, so there it is. Wow. I
0:23
Speaker 3: didn't know you actually. I used to have Daisy and Teddy.
0:27
Speaker 3: They were a couple. But these are the replacement. Speaking
0:31
Speaker 3: of replacement players, we won't.
0:34
Speaker 2: Hold on. Buck, before we get into anything, have you
0:36
Speaker 2: ever seen the show Shrinking? Yes.
0:41
Speaker 3: I've got a grandson. Okay.
0:45
Speaker 2: The show's shrinking as Harrison Ford and as this grumpy
0:47
Speaker 2: old psychologist, psychiatrist, I don't know what they're called. You
0:51
Speaker 2: kind of remind me of him. He doesn't want to
0:53
Speaker 2: let anybody into his world. He doesn't know how to
0:56
Speaker 2: use any technology and he's very set in his ways.
0:59
Speaker 2: And that's kind of you, Buck. I've been watching the
1:01
Speaker 2: show recently and when I see it, I'm like, Man,
1:03
Speaker 2: that's kind of Buck Showalter. He's great. He loves people
1:06
Speaker 2: that are in his little circle. But to break through
1:08
Speaker 2: this circle is like impossible. But I'm very happy that
1:11
Speaker 2: the asses got through your circle.
1:15
Speaker 3: That's pretty deep. That's pretty deep. You must have had
1:18
Speaker 3: to take care of pitchers for a long time to
1:21
Speaker 3: keep them from shooting themselves. How are you guys doing?
1:26
Speaker 2: We're great. How are you?
1:27
Speaker 3: Fun week for baseball, huh?
1:30
Speaker 1: Is it?
1:31
Speaker 2: Everything's pretty settled there, Buck, except for the Central.
1:34
Speaker 3: You know, they try to drum up a lot of drama,
1:36
Speaker 3: but it's pretty much set for me. I just hope
1:39
Speaker 3: and pray we don't get a team under. 500 in
1:41
Speaker 3: the playoffs. Come on.
1:45
Speaker 2: No, come on now.
1:46
Speaker 3: Come on now.
1:46
Speaker 2: That's not going to happen. The Rangers are one or
1:49
Speaker 2: two games over. I think we're going to end up
1:51
Speaker 2: with like an 82-win team, something like that that's going
1:54
Speaker 2: to get in. And then they're going to be a
1:57
Speaker 2: three seed and get to host a team like the–
2:00
Speaker 2: That's down there. It's going to be the White Sox
2:02
Speaker 2: that could have a better record or the Guardians that
2:04
Speaker 2: could have a better record than them. So that's a
2:05
Speaker 2: little bit weird.
2:07
Speaker 3: This time of year, it's all about just getting in.
2:09
Speaker 3: Get a couple of hot pitchers. You never know what
2:11
Speaker 3: can happen, especially in the game being played today. Just
2:15
Speaker 3: get in and then roll the dice because, you know,
2:18
Speaker 3: AJ and Eric, there's four times you manage during the
2:21
Speaker 3: season different modes of operation. Spring training is a whole
2:24
Speaker 3: different mode of operation. Regular season is a big picture
2:29
Speaker 3: of play it always for the long game. And then
2:32
Speaker 3: September baseball is a different animal. And then post-season baseball,
2:36
Speaker 3: you manage different. There's four different really modes of operation.
2:40
Speaker 3: And the key is, one of the keys is not
2:42
Speaker 3: let the players think there's something completely different, but there's
2:46
Speaker 3: such a sense of urgency this time of year in
2:48
Speaker 3: a sport that you play, you know, seven days a
2:51
Speaker 3: week for seven or eight months.
2:54
Speaker 1: There's even a subset of how you manage September because
2:56
Speaker 1: if you're managing a raise right now, You're on cruise control,
3:00
Speaker 1: but you can't cruise in because, oh, Buck didn't keep
3:03
Speaker 1: the team hype. And then there's a different subset of
3:07
Speaker 1: managing in September. If you're managing the Astros right now,
3:13
Speaker 1: how do you get the boys to collectively come back together?
3:18
Speaker 1: Because they just slid in their last weekend series. They've
3:22
Speaker 1: been sliding slowly after kind of having, you know, a
3:26
Speaker 1: little bit of a grip on the West.
3:30
Speaker 3: You know, the great thing about baseball, as cruel as
3:33
Speaker 3: it can be, it can also be very forgiving. You know,
3:36
Speaker 3: it's anything that allows you to break away from the
3:39
Speaker 3: bad times. You know, it's all about stretching out the
3:41
Speaker 3: good times and shortening the bad times. So the beauty
3:44
Speaker 3: of baseball is one series can change the karma of everything. And,
3:48
Speaker 3: you know, you've got an opportunity. It's a sport that's fair.
3:53
Speaker 3: A lot of games, I see stuff where guys get
3:56
Speaker 3: hot for three or four days. But in baseball, you
3:59
Speaker 3: are who you are. And you can change the narrative
4:01
Speaker 3: in a very short time. You know, it's a snowball,
4:05
Speaker 3: especially in the big markets where it makes you feel
4:08
Speaker 3: like you're better than you are. Then it makes you
4:10
Speaker 3: feel like you're worse than you are. And that's why
4:12
Speaker 3: the clubhouse culture is so important because they're the only
4:15
Speaker 3: guys that really get the reality and the grip of
4:18
Speaker 3: what goes on. And that's why the coaching staff is
4:21
Speaker 3: so important that have been through those fires, so to speak.
4:26
Speaker 3: So they know there's a calming influence in there.
4:30
Speaker 1: Buck, you've been in a lot of celebrations. Some teams
4:33
Speaker 1: have gotten flack for the types of celebrations that they've had.
4:37
Speaker 1: And I've heard you say, this is your team, this
4:39
Speaker 1: is your tight-knit squad, you do it the way you
4:41
Speaker 1: want to do it. What's your view on teams celebrating
4:46
Speaker 1: the way that some teams celebrate in the sense that
4:48
Speaker 1: you make the playoffs, some just do a toast because,
4:52
Speaker 1: you know what, we still.
4:53
Speaker 2: Wanted to win the division.
4:54
Speaker 1: Or teams making the playoffs and going hard, like it's
4:57
Speaker 1: the last time they're ever going to win.
5:00
Speaker 3: Eric, you know, every situation is a little different. You've
5:02
Speaker 3: got to have a feel. Remember a feel for your team? And,
5:07
Speaker 3: you know, you play the whole season. These guys grew
5:09
Speaker 3: up watching people celebrate with the champagne, and they all
5:13
Speaker 3: wanted to be a part of that. Then all of
5:14
Speaker 3: a sudden, you're going to take that away from them. Hey, guys,
5:16
Speaker 3: you're not supposed to have that elation. This isn't the
5:18
Speaker 3: game we're playing. We should have won the division. We're
5:21
Speaker 3: not going to celebrate the wild card. Spare me. I
5:23
Speaker 3: remember we found out one year that while we were
5:26
Speaker 3: in the air, and we got to Tampa Bay, and,
5:29
Speaker 3: you know, like, 10 or 11 o'clock at night, and
5:32
Speaker 3: I had them call ahead and open up one of
5:34
Speaker 3: the bars, restaurants, and we all went in there and celebrated.
5:39
Speaker 3: You know, it's not fair to them. And I always
5:43
Speaker 3: tried to do what the players wanted to do for
5:45
Speaker 3: the most part. And anybody that takes that away from them,
5:49
Speaker 3: you know, that it's beneath you to celebrate something that's very, very,
5:53
Speaker 3: very hard to do, to get in the playoffs in
5:56
Speaker 3: a 162-game season, I'm not– you lose me a little bit.
6:00
Speaker 3: I don't think that's fair to the player.
6:03
Speaker 2: All right, Buck, I got a couple questions for you
6:06
Speaker 2: after the quote you just gave us. One, did you
6:08
Speaker 2: pay for this bar to be open or did you
6:10
Speaker 2: make the players pay?
6:12
Speaker 3: We let the ghost at the Benoit in Tampa take
6:15
Speaker 3: care of it. You guys all know that. That's what
6:17
Speaker 3: I feel. No, we– you know, tell them what we're
6:21
Speaker 3: talking about, AJ. Allegedly there's two hotels.
6:23
Speaker 2: There's two hotels that are haunted. in Major League Baseball.
6:29
Speaker 2: One is the Vanoi in St. Pete, and the other
6:31
Speaker 2: is the Pfister in Milwaukee. There's guys that refuse to
6:34
Speaker 2: stay there. There's guys that swear they've seen ghosts and
6:37
Speaker 2: had all these crazy things happen. I've never seen it,
6:41
Speaker 2: and every time I've checked into one of these, I've
6:43
Speaker 2: always asked the people at the front desk to give
6:44
Speaker 2: me the haunted room, and they've never– they say, oh,
6:47
Speaker 2: we don't know what you're talking about. But it's never happened,
6:49
Speaker 2: so I can't– no, you've probably seen it, but I
6:52
Speaker 2: have not seen it.
6:54
Speaker 3: In Tampa, it's just the one wing over there. I
6:56
Speaker 3: wanted to make sure I got on the other wing.
6:58
Speaker 3: I got enough to worry about. And the fister, I know.
7:01
Speaker 3: I went to bed one night, had almost scouting reports,
7:03
Speaker 3: everything there. Woke up the next day, everything's moved around.
7:07
Speaker 3: The fireplace was on. There's a fireplace, you know, appropriately
7:10
Speaker 3: named the fister, I might add. And then you go there,
7:15
Speaker 3: and I had a talk with the guy. I said, listen,
7:17
Speaker 3: this is no big deal. You know, this is your room.
7:20
Speaker 3: I'll take the bedroom. Whatever you want to do, you
7:22
Speaker 3: were here before me. You know, if you got any
7:24
Speaker 3: information on... The team we're playing, I'll take it. But,
7:29
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of the kids, especially the Lightning kids,
7:31
Speaker 3: wanted no part of staying there. We have put people
7:33
Speaker 3: in a different hotel. They refused to stay there.
7:36
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
7:37
Speaker 2: Yachty Molina wouldn't stay in the fifth-story in Milwaukee. We
7:39
Speaker 2: went there three times a year. I'm like, dude, please.
7:41
Speaker 2: I would ask. I'd be like, I want to talk
7:43
Speaker 2: ball with the ghosts. I can talk ball all night
7:44
Speaker 2: with the ghosts. I don't know. Did they talk back?
7:47
Speaker 2: How do you know the air conditioner didn't just blow
7:50
Speaker 2: and move your papers around? Why did it have to
7:51
Speaker 2: be someone? I don't know. There's so many.
7:53
Speaker 3: There's so many. There's so many. That hotel is so old,
7:56
Speaker 3: I'm not sure the air conditioner did work. You ever
7:59
Speaker 3: been with a guy that carries a fan with him
8:01
Speaker 3: on the road?
8:02
Speaker 2: No, but I've been with guys that carry their own pillows,
8:04
Speaker 2: their own sheets, their own food, all kinds of stuff.
8:08
Speaker 2: You name it, people carry it with them on the road.
8:10
Speaker 2: It's insane.
8:11
Speaker 3: You know what my pet peeves? They've got the governors
8:13
Speaker 3: on the air conditioner now. You can only get it
8:15
Speaker 3: so cold in the room. You ever notice that? I
8:17
Speaker 3: told the guy, let me get this right. We pay
8:20
Speaker 3: for this hotel room, and you're going to tell us
8:21
Speaker 3: how cold it's going to be? Okay, I'm done.
8:24
Speaker 2: Okay, that's good. You know, you people that drive convertibles
8:28
Speaker 2: in Port St. Lucie and Honk, you guys need it
8:29
Speaker 2: super cold at night to sleep. So we get it, Buck.
8:32
Speaker 2: We understand.
8:32
Speaker 3: There's not a lot of convertibles in Port St. Lucie.
8:37
Speaker 2: Not right now, there's not. Not right now, there's surely not. Now,
8:42
Speaker 2: let me go back to something else. By the way,
8:43
Speaker 2: I think you should celebrate however you want to celebrate.
8:45
Speaker 2: If you want to party your ass off, party your
8:47
Speaker 2: ass off, because it doesn't happen that often. So party
8:50
Speaker 2: your ass off. I don't really care.
8:51
Speaker 3: Hey, Jay, I'd like to ask you and Eric, okay?
8:54
Speaker 3: Try managing the team the day after a celebration, trying
8:58
Speaker 3: to figure out who's going to play and who's not
9:00
Speaker 3: going to play. Knowing that you're in. Let me tell you,
9:03
Speaker 3: that was a challenging day. Okay, who do I know?
9:06
Speaker 2: Usually, Buck, when you were doing it, though, there was
9:08
Speaker 2: 40 guys. You just tell everyone, all the young kids, hey, guys,
9:11
Speaker 2: you're playing tomorrow.
9:12
Speaker 3: Sorry.
9:12
Speaker 2: Especially, you know, whatever. Hey, you guys got it tomorrow.
9:15
Speaker 2: And the veterans are like, oh, yeah, you got it.
9:17
Speaker 3: Tomorrow, kid. Hey, I'm going to pinch hit you in
9:20
Speaker 3: the seventh inning. Oh, no, you're not. No, you're not.
9:23
Speaker 2: The hell you are. The hell you are. We got
9:28
Speaker 2: to get back on track, but when I was with
9:30
Speaker 2: the Cardinals, okay, we clinched the division on the last
9:34
Speaker 2: day of the year. We had Adam Wainwright ready to
9:37
Speaker 2: pitch because we needed to win the game. The Pirates
9:40
Speaker 2: beat the Reds, I think it was. I think Cueto
9:43
Speaker 2: or whatever it was. The other team beat the other team.
9:46
Speaker 2: So we were in Arizona. So we kicked off after
9:49
Speaker 2: they had already finished. So we had Adam Wainwright ready
9:51
Speaker 2: to go. And you're like, nope, you're not pitching. Ha,
9:54
Speaker 2: just kidding. I forget who we pitched anyways. It came
9:56
Speaker 2: down to the ninth inning. We were winning 1-0. Mike
10:00
Speaker 2: Matheny comes up to me and Mark Ellis and says, hey,
10:05
Speaker 2: I need a pinch hitter in the ninth. Which one
10:07
Speaker 2: of y'all is going to pinch hit in the ninth?
10:08
Speaker 2: And we both looked at each other and we're like.
10:13
Speaker 2: And I go, I tell you what, Mike, I'll do
10:15
Speaker 2: it on one condition. He goes, what's that? I go,
10:17
Speaker 2: I get to pitch the ninth and close the game out.
10:20
Speaker 2: He's like, are you crazy? We got to win this game.
10:22
Speaker 2: And Mark Ellis goes, I'll take it. It's probably my
10:24
Speaker 2: last at bat in my career. I'll take it. He
10:26
Speaker 2: went out there and punched out on three pitches. We
10:28
Speaker 2: won the game, won nothing. It was very important to
10:30
Speaker 2: Mike Matheny, but we may have had some adult beverages.
10:32
Speaker 3: All right, real quick. So Randy Johnson, I used to
10:35
Speaker 3: have nine right-handed hitters to face him in Seattle. One
10:38
Speaker 3: of the right-handed hitters bailed on us. All of a
10:42
Speaker 3: sudden had Randy Johnson-itis. So I had to go in
10:44
Speaker 3: the locker room 20 minutes before a game, And tell
10:47
Speaker 3: the left-handed hitters, Paul and Neil, Donnie played against him.
10:50
Speaker 3: He hit him well. Hey, somebody's got to take on Randy.
10:54
Speaker 3: And Deion James puts his hand up. He goes, listen,
10:57
Speaker 3: I'll take him on, but the next time there's a
10:59
Speaker 3: soft toss and changeup throwing left-handed pitcher, I want his game.
11:03
Speaker 3: I said, okay, that's the deal. Guys used to find
11:05
Speaker 3: a way to not play against Randy if you're a
11:07
Speaker 3: left-handed hitter. True. True. True.
11:12
Speaker 2: It wasn't fun. Buck, you said something else in that
11:14
Speaker 2: long monologue that you did, diatribe, whatever you want to
11:17
Speaker 2: call it, about coaches. And you made it sound like, oh,
11:21
Speaker 2: guys want to know coaches have been there and they
11:22
Speaker 2: know how to calm it down. I was just in Chicago.
11:27
Speaker 2: I saw the Tigers. I saw A.J. Hinch and his crew.
11:29
Speaker 2: And they recently fired a buddy of mine, Joey Cora,
11:31
Speaker 2: who you also know very well.
11:34
Speaker 3: Great guy.
11:35
Speaker 2: How does that work? Because, you know, I know things
11:38
Speaker 2: happen in the middle of the season, but how hard
11:40
Speaker 2: is it to get rid of a coach in the
11:41
Speaker 2: middle of a season? And then what does it feel
11:44
Speaker 2: like when you're the manager? And that's a guy you
11:45
Speaker 2: brought in to help you. And then all of a
11:47
Speaker 2: sudden you're like, ah, you're not helping us. We have
11:50
Speaker 2: to move on.
11:51
Speaker 3: You're talking the wrong guy, AJ. That's why I left
11:54
Speaker 3: New York. I remember I wanted to fire four of
11:56
Speaker 3: my coaches. Guys who went on and had 20, 30-year careers,
12:00
Speaker 3: you know, the Brian Butterfields, the Rick Downs, all these guys.
12:04
Speaker 3: I took Glenn Sherlock. All these guys went with me
12:06
Speaker 3: to Arizona. I just have never been able to figure
12:09
Speaker 3: that out. You preach all this unity and we're all
12:11
Speaker 3: this together. Then all of a sudden the players look
12:13
Speaker 3: around and the manager gave up two of his coaches
12:15
Speaker 3: that were the greatest thing ever. That's like you see
12:18
Speaker 3: some of these GMs changing their front office. Now, I
12:20
Speaker 3: don't understand why an owner doesn't go, wait a minute,
12:22
Speaker 3: you told me this guy was the greatest thing ever
12:24
Speaker 3: and now you want to not bring him back and
12:27
Speaker 3: you want to trade a player that you wanted us
12:29
Speaker 3: to draft in the first round? Something's not right here.
12:32
Speaker 3: So I don't, I just chose not to be a
12:35
Speaker 3: part of it. One of the best information I got
12:37
Speaker 3: in Baltimore was Mike Flanagan told me to go over
12:39
Speaker 3: and spend an hour with the owner every homestand, which
12:44
Speaker 3: I did. And it kept our continuity of the coaching
12:46
Speaker 3: staff and the players weren't confused. And, you know, you
12:49
Speaker 3: got to get the right coaches now. Don't get me wrong,
12:53
Speaker 3: but I just wasn't a part of that. And they
12:56
Speaker 3: knew it going in and it probably, you know, I
12:59
Speaker 3: know how hard coaching is. coaching is and how hard
13:02
Speaker 3: it is to find the right ones. And once you
13:04
Speaker 3: get them and there's that continuity for the players, it's
13:08
Speaker 3: very important. And I just couldn't walk in the locker
13:10
Speaker 3: room the next year with the Yankees and say, Hey guys,
13:13
Speaker 3: we're all in this together. And by the way, if
13:15
Speaker 3: the coaches got to go, they got to go, you know,
13:17
Speaker 3: this is all about you and not them. I know
13:19
Speaker 3: what players are going to think. They're going to think
13:21
Speaker 3: this guy's full of it. Yeah. And then I don't
13:24
Speaker 3: believe there. Yeah.
13:25
Speaker 1: You got to have loyalty is loyalty is huge. You know,
13:28
Speaker 1: in the locker room, all that stuff. Pete Alonzo, how
13:33
Speaker 1: did you feel about watching a guy that you really adore,
13:37
Speaker 1: Pete Alonzo, hitting his 300s, couldn't write the story better
13:41
Speaker 1: for a team that needed that home run in the Orioles,
13:45
Speaker 1: in Citi Field, and all the people that cheered and
13:48
Speaker 1: stood up? How would you have felt if you were
13:52
Speaker 1: Andy Green in that moment?
13:55
Speaker 3: You know, down deep, You go, yeah, that's pretty cool.
13:57
Speaker 3: I'm here for that. I was always able to take
13:59
Speaker 3: in a moment. Yeah, it's painful. But Andy, I like Andy.
14:03
Speaker 3: I think he does a good job there, and he's
14:05
Speaker 3: been a part of them being more competitive. But, you know,
14:09
Speaker 3: it's crazy how that all happened. And I think the
14:14
Speaker 3: call of him out of the dugout wasn't about, they
14:18
Speaker 3: love Pete, and it was a reminder, but I think
14:19
Speaker 3: there were some other things going on there. They were
14:21
Speaker 3: sharing a lot of emotion, negative emotion that had kind
14:24
Speaker 3: of been pent up. You know, I was thinking about Pete.
14:27
Speaker 3: You guys remember Travis Hafner? Sometimes I think he's almost
14:30
Speaker 3: like a right-handed Hafner. People think because he's so strong
14:33
Speaker 3: and he's a big guy that they don't realize how
14:36
Speaker 3: good a hitter he is. This guy's a good hitter.
14:39
Speaker 3: He's short to the ball. He collides with it. It
14:42
Speaker 3: goes places where you can't catch it. And Pete's worked
14:45
Speaker 3: so hard to become a pretty good first baseman, too.
14:47
Speaker 3: He works at it. So he's just country strong. And
14:50
Speaker 3: I do think he's a guy that you can trust
14:52
Speaker 3: with a contract. I do, because... because of what drives him.
14:57
Speaker 3: He wants to win, and he wants to be a
14:59
Speaker 3: part of competing. He's got a pure heart, and Pete's
15:04
Speaker 3: a good teammate, too. I thought he was a big
15:06
Speaker 3: part of Jeff McNeil leading all of baseball and hitting
15:09
Speaker 3: that one year. Pete was talking to him constantly, and
15:13
Speaker 3: Pete impacts his teammates.
15:16
Speaker 2: With all these teams competing, Cratch, clinching postseason burst. Jeez,
15:19
Speaker 2: a lot of teams have already clinched. You know what
15:21
Speaker 2: that means? Seat geek. You can start playing ahead and
15:23
Speaker 2: start buying your postseason tickets.
15:26
Speaker 3: On seat geek.
15:28
Speaker 1: Just because you're not a fan of those teams, though,
15:30
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that these last games of the season aren't
15:33
Speaker 1: going to be electric. It doesn't matter who you're playing.
15:35
Speaker 1: You're playing the worst team, the game matters. You're playing
15:38
Speaker 1: the best team, the game matters. You've got to get
15:41
Speaker 1: on seat geek and look ahead for when your team's
15:43
Speaker 1: in the home.
15:44
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15:45
Speaker 2: a good deal. If it's red, eh, not so much.
15:48
Speaker 2: But you might love the seat and you might love
15:50
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15:52
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15:54
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15:56
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15:58
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Speaker 2: click the link in the description to download the app
16:12
Speaker 2: and have the code automatically added to your account so
16:14
Speaker 2: you can use it later. That's awesome. That's awesome to
16:19
Speaker 2: hear for a guy that everyone seems to love if
16:21
Speaker 2: you've ever been around Pete. He embraces the goofiness, right?
16:24
Speaker 2: And he embraces the goofiness that he is. He knows
16:27
Speaker 2: what he is and he embraces it. It's awesome to
16:29
Speaker 2: talk to him. So I got to ask you about this.
16:32
Speaker 3: Go ahead.
16:33
Speaker 2: No, I want to know about this. You went to
16:35
Speaker 2: the postseason a couple of times.
16:36
Speaker 3: I love Pete. Pete would come in. For no reason
16:39
Speaker 3: at all, about 2 o'clock and just plop down in
16:41
Speaker 3: your office and go, hey, what's up? He'd say a
16:44
Speaker 3: few other things, but he'd just start talking. Got some coffee?
16:47
Speaker 3: We talk about life in general. That's what you miss. People,
16:50
Speaker 3: you know, all the other stuff, but just the interaction
16:53
Speaker 3: and the day-to-day. You know, AJ, when a guy gets
16:56
Speaker 3: something and there's that glance with him where no words
17:00
Speaker 3: are spoken and you know and he knows what just happened,
17:04
Speaker 3: those are the things that you can't get back. True.
17:07
Speaker 2: So you made the postseason. How many times did you
17:09
Speaker 2: make the postseason in your managerial career?
17:13
Speaker 3: Oh, one, two. I'd have to count them up. I
17:16
Speaker 3: don't know. More than once. More than twice. More than three. Okay.
17:18
Speaker 3: That's fair.
17:19
Speaker 2: That's fair. How do you balance? If you're the Guardians,
17:22
Speaker 2: you're the White Sox, you're the Rangers, you're the Astros,
17:24
Speaker 2: you have six games left. How do you balance keeping
17:28
Speaker 2: your players alive, basically your pitching staff, with also we've
17:31
Speaker 2: got to win every game? How hard is it to
17:34
Speaker 2: balance that difference, I guess?
17:36
Speaker 3: Hard. It's hard. It's called managing. You know, you have
17:40
Speaker 3: to manage. You always live to fight another day during
17:43
Speaker 3: the regular season. That's why I say September baseball is different. Now,
17:47
Speaker 3: Tony La Russa had a great line. He goes, we
17:49
Speaker 3: coddle and take care of these guys in the bullpen
17:51
Speaker 3: and everything the whole season so we can abuse them
17:54
Speaker 3: in September. Something like that. So, you know, the guys
17:58
Speaker 3: know what's on the line. And, you know, we had
18:00
Speaker 3: the same six or seven pitchers in our bullpen for
18:03
Speaker 3: like four or five years in Baltimore. Now, I think
18:08
Speaker 3: about the reasons why. The phone would ring and somebody
18:12
Speaker 3: really didn't have to answer it. You knew the situation
18:15
Speaker 3: and you knew when the guys weren't going to pitch.
18:16
Speaker 3: But this time of year, you got the crop out
18:19
Speaker 3: and you're going to the whip. Everybody understands that there's
18:24
Speaker 3: a sense of urgency with every pitch. So you put
18:27
Speaker 3: your best foot forward every night and then see when
18:30
Speaker 3: the smoke clears where you're standing. And then you adjust
18:33
Speaker 3: for the next day.
18:35
Speaker 2: Buck, it's too easy. You made it a layup for me.
18:38
Speaker 2: Is that why you didn't use Zach Britton in that game? Sorry,
18:40
Speaker 2: it's too easy. It was just there. I just had
18:41
Speaker 2: to go there.
18:45
Speaker 3: That's mean, AJ.
18:47
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. You made it too easy for me, Buck.
18:50
Speaker 2: It was just like there.
18:52
Speaker 3: One day, I'll tell what really happened.
18:56
Speaker 2: Not today, though. We don't want to hear it on
18:57
Speaker 2: this show. We don't want to hear it right now.
18:59
Speaker 3: Just remember, there are a lot of things that go
19:01
Speaker 3: on that you're not aware of.
19:05
Speaker 1: I am well aware.
19:07
Speaker 2: I am well aware that's why what happens in the
19:09
Speaker 2: clubhouse stays in the clubhouse a lot of times. So,
19:11
Speaker 2: you know what? Actually, that's a better answer. Now it's
19:13
Speaker 2: got my mind wandering off to what kind of weird
19:16
Speaker 2: things Buck could have done the night before to make
19:19
Speaker 2: that happen. But anyways, we'll move on. All right.
19:23
Speaker 1: Last one for me. And I definitely want you to
19:26
Speaker 1: tell us what happened on our show here one day.
19:29
Speaker 1: So promise us that, Buck.
19:31
Speaker 3: What happened? I'm thinking about writing it in a book.
19:38
Speaker 3: You know the expression, be careful about telling truths that
19:41
Speaker 3: hurt innocent people? I think I'm probably gonna stay with that.
19:46
Speaker 1: One okay anyway last one last one for me we're
19:50
Speaker 1: trying to get some truths out of new york aaron
19:53
Speaker 1: judge what is his impact being hurt not sure what
19:57
Speaker 1: grade strain it is obviously he's not gonna be playing
20:00
Speaker 1: any games what type of impact does that play in
20:04
Speaker 1: your construction of a lineup for the Yankees, but also
20:08
Speaker 1: you've managed against teams that have lost their big slugger.
20:11
Speaker 1: When we played against you guys and Chris Davis wasn't
20:13
Speaker 1: able to play in 2014, I know what that looked like.
20:17
Speaker 1: What does that look like for you as a manager
20:19
Speaker 1: from both sides?
20:21
Speaker 3: You know, that's when you're challenged to do what you do.
20:24
Speaker 3: You know, we were without Manny Machado, without Chris Davis,
20:27
Speaker 3: we were without Wieters, you know. But the season goes
20:31
Speaker 3: on and it's an opportunity for somebody Yeah, Aaron Judge,
20:34
Speaker 3: nobody's going to replace him. By the way, he should
20:37
Speaker 3: have gone on rehab, but that's a story for another day.
20:41
Speaker 3: I just think there's still a chance that he comes
20:43
Speaker 3: back and plays and everything's okay. When you start talking
20:46
Speaker 3: about calf, that's a little different animal. But there's a
20:50
Speaker 3: way to get into that little engine that could. Hey,
20:53
Speaker 3: you've written us off because we don't have Aaron here.
20:57
Speaker 3: You made the playoffs without him there for a lot
21:00
Speaker 3: of the season. It's going to be hard. But if
21:03
Speaker 3: you get a couple of hot pitchers, and a lot
21:05
Speaker 3: of these young players that they have there now, there's
21:08
Speaker 3: always a star that comes out of that if the
21:12
Speaker 3: right atmosphere is set. And I think Aaron can do that.
21:17
Speaker 3: Knowing that the Calvary might come at some point, too.
21:20
Speaker 3: I wouldn't completely write him off there. But when the
21:23
Speaker 3: Players Association made it where you didn't have to go
21:26
Speaker 3: on rehab, I'd like to know the thought behind that. Oh, yeah.
21:32
Speaker 2: The players have the power, Buck. The players have the power.
21:35
Speaker 2: Before we let you go, I have two things before
21:37
Speaker 2: we let you go. One, which team is the most
21:39
Speaker 2: dangerous in the postseason out of the teams that are in?
21:42
Speaker 3: Well, I'd have to give that some thought, but what
21:48
Speaker 3: do you guys think?
21:50
Speaker 2: No, I'm putting you on the spot. This is the
21:51
Speaker 2: Buck Showalter buckle-up segment. This is the buckle-up segment, not
21:55
Speaker 2: the A.J. Pruszynski, not the Eric Kratz segment.
21:59
Speaker 3: Okay. Under the radar, I'd have to say if I
22:03
Speaker 3: was going to pick somebody that hadn't won the division,
22:06
Speaker 3: some people that grind so much during the season to
22:09
Speaker 3: get in at the final part of it, when they
22:11
Speaker 3: get there, it's almost they're relaxed now. They've accomplished it.
22:14
Speaker 3: They're not going to hear all that negative talk. So
22:16
Speaker 3: you might be careful with one of these wildcard teams
22:19
Speaker 3: that might get hot. I would look at who has
22:21
Speaker 3: the hot pitchers going into it from the wildcard team
22:24
Speaker 3: because everybody knows that Milwaukee and the Dodgers and all
22:26
Speaker 3: these teams, you know, they're there. Because the Yankees got
22:30
Speaker 3: a couple of hot pitchers, you know. But if you ask,
22:33
Speaker 3: gun to my head, I kind of like Philadelphia a
22:36
Speaker 3: little bit. I just think that they've got so much
22:39
Speaker 3: of a veteran presence and they've got– they're the type
22:42
Speaker 3: that once they get in, now they can separate and
22:45
Speaker 3: say it's the second part of the season.
22:47
Speaker 2: Okay, that's fair. Way to kiss up to Kratz. By
22:50
Speaker 2: the way, before we let you go, I'm not going
22:51
Speaker 2: to say where you are, but have a burger dog
22:53
Speaker 2: for me, okay? You know what it is. Have a
22:55
Speaker 2: burger dog for me.
22:56
Speaker 3: Say where I am? I mean, I wouldn't miss it, but– Okay.
23:01
Speaker 2: What time's your tee time?
23:03
Speaker 3: I'm not playing golf.
23:05
Speaker 2: You're just there?
23:07
Speaker 3: It's a long story, but let me ask you a question.
23:08
Speaker 3: What about the Gators? We haven't even talked about the Gators.
23:10
Speaker 3: How about Mississippi State?
23:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, their quarterback's pretty good. We got to go. We're
23:15
Speaker 2: going to get in trouble. I'm going to get yelled at, Buck.
23:17
Speaker 2: Mississippi State, though, is pretty good. Their quarterback is a stud.
23:21
Speaker 2: Their quarterback's a stud. Florida, I was at Auburn this weekend,
23:24
Speaker 2: my first time there. They beat the crap out of Auburn.
23:26
Speaker 2: War damn Gator. All right, Buck. Thank you. We'll talk
23:29
Speaker 2: college football next time. I love that you brought it
23:30
Speaker 2: up when Scott wasn't on too. Enjoy the Burger Dog
23:33
Speaker 2: at Dallas National. Wave to all the people there. I
23:36
Speaker 2: love that place. It's awesome.
23:37
Speaker 1: Thanks, Buck.
23:38
Speaker 3: We love you.
23:39
Speaker 2: We're out.