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Buck Showalter: Managing on the hot seat, Changes he wants in MLB · Foul Territory

0:00
Speaker 1: I just think in today's world a shelf, the life
0:02
Speaker 1: of managers and coaches is so much shorter because does
0:06
Speaker 1: no one wants to play the long game. MutS to
0:08
Speaker 1: do more.
0:14
Speaker 2: Pop corner time and we might take this topic right
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Speaker 2: into our next guest, but let's start with you guys.
0:18
Speaker 3: Buster Posey takes over the San Francisco Giants baseball operations department,
0:24
Speaker 3: and there was a really good story or just good
0:27
Speaker 3: back and forth with media in Philadelphia yesterday talking to
0:30
Speaker 3: some of the players about his role. Bryce Harper steals
0:33
Speaker 3: the show with his quote right off the jumpe says
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Speaker 3: he's got my dream job, and he said, being able
0:38
Speaker 3: to be president of an organization really cool opportunity for him,
0:41
Speaker 3: obviously one of the best to ever do it. Behind
0:43
Speaker 3: the plate goes over the accolades and then he says,
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Speaker 3: I think he's just going to do a lot of
0:47
Speaker 3: really cool things over there and kind of let everybody
0:49
Speaker 3: do their jobs as well. I think that's a big thing.
0:51
Speaker 3: Super excited for him. Trey Turner pointed out how he
0:55
Speaker 3: thinks that currently in the game, there's a real advantage
0:58
Speaker 3: for some old school methodology, analytics, whatever you want to
1:02
Speaker 3: call it.
1:02
Speaker 2: Because he thinks that the.
1:03
Speaker 3: Game is getting so analytical, and that's a topic that's
1:06
Speaker 3: been going on for a long time. But he basically
1:09
Speaker 3: was bringing up the blend. So what do you think
1:11
Speaker 3: about what those two said?
1:15
Speaker 4: First of all, I love the players are getting back
1:17
Speaker 4: involved because Chris Young, Greg Breslo, Buster Posey. Let's not
1:23
Speaker 4: forget Brandon Gomes. People always talk Andrew Freeman, but Brandon
1:27
Speaker 4: Gomes was a pitcher and he's a player and he's run.
1:30
Speaker 4: He's the GM for the Dodgers, right. I love this.
1:33
Speaker 4: I think this is the way it's going to have
1:34
Speaker 4: to get back to you. You have to have a mix.
1:36
Speaker 4: I think everyone went to I'm not anti analytics, Trevor,
1:39
Speaker 4: don't yell at me or anybody in Twitter world, but
1:42
Speaker 4: there has to be a mix. You have to have
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Speaker 4: analytics and you have to have people that have stepped
1:46
Speaker 4: into the box because one of the biggest things for
1:48
Speaker 4: me as a player is being able to go to
1:50
Speaker 4: a coach, somebody in the organization and say, what do
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Speaker 4: you feel I feel like this when I step into
1:56
Speaker 4: the box. It's the bottom of the night and I
1:58
Speaker 4: have to face Trevor May. He's trying to the game
2:00
Speaker 4: and I need to get a hit. I'm feeling this,
2:03
Speaker 4: How can you help me? And then they can say
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Speaker 4: why did that once? Or I did this or I
2:08
Speaker 4: had this feeling and this is how I coped with it.
2:10
Speaker 4: I think that's a big thing for players today, is
2:12
Speaker 4: to have somebody in their space that they can have
2:15
Speaker 4: say I did that, and I know what it feels like,
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Speaker 4: and this is how you can help and have different ideas.
2:19
Speaker 4: Is it data driven? It can be. Is it feeling
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Speaker 4: driven it can be. Is it mechanical driven It can be.
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Speaker 4: But you got to have different options. And I don't
2:27
Speaker 4: think you go all one way or all the other way.
2:29
Speaker 4: You have to have a nice mix. And I think
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Speaker 4: the really smart ones that have success are the ones
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Speaker 4: that can do that the best.
2:34
Speaker 3: So let's bring in Buck Showalter obviously has worked with
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Speaker 3: many different front offices throughout his career. Buck joining us
2:42
Speaker 3: right now on FT to keep this combo going. Buck,
2:45
Speaker 3: you got us? What's up?
2:47
Speaker 1: Hey guys, Hey Trevor, how you doing? Man?
2:51
Speaker 5: Good Buck? Good to see you.
2:52
Speaker 4: Man.
2:52
Speaker 5: I'm glad we got to do this together. It's awesome.
2:56
Speaker 1: You know how you get a guy towards the end
2:58
Speaker 1: of his career, and you know it's there, and he
3:00
Speaker 1: just his body won't cooperate. But his heart's there. And
3:04
Speaker 1: every once in a while Trevor would show it to
3:06
Speaker 1: me and I'm like, dang, it's gotta be frustrating for
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Speaker 1: him because you know it's there, but the body just
3:11
Speaker 1: wouldn't cooperate. He was a good one man. And you
3:13
Speaker 1: know what about Trevor. Trevor wasn't scared, guys, he wasn't scared.
3:17
Speaker 1: Here it is, man, see what you can do with it.
3:20
Speaker 1: Here's mine, showed me yours. Okay, I'm done.
3:26
Speaker 4: Okay, you keep guys.
3:28
Speaker 5: I'm going there. You guys get it all right?
3:30
Speaker 3: Yeah Trevor you're talking about he's got a great hat.
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Speaker 2: But but I'm with you.
3:36
Speaker 4: But wall we got it. But did you hear did
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Speaker 4: you see the one Sodo conversation today about what he
3:43
Speaker 4: said about Aaron Judge and not hitting behind him and
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Speaker 4: how it's harder for him now and how it's not
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Speaker 4: as easy with the best hitter in the world not
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Speaker 4: hitting behind him. What you think of those quotes? Because
3:52
Speaker 4: you you managed in New Yorker a couple of different times.
3:54
Speaker 4: What's how important is lineup construction?
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Speaker 1: It is to a point, but I think it becomes
4:00
Speaker 1: a crutch sometimes I think I don't I don't what
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Speaker 1: happened before in years past and who was there, and
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Speaker 1: anything that reflects on my teammate or anything. I really
4:15
Speaker 1: choose my words very carefully because somebody is hitting behind
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Speaker 1: him now and there's always those. Anytime you start making
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Speaker 1: comparison between teammates that you've had in the past and whatever,
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Speaker 1: that usually doesn't play well. It may be innocent, it
4:30
Speaker 1: may be something that you know you didn't mean the
4:33
Speaker 1: context in which it came out, but once you put
4:35
Speaker 1: it out there, they're going to run with it. So
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Speaker 1: I would be very careful about reflecting on things I
4:40
Speaker 1: had before that I don't have anymore. How's that.
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Speaker 5: Very well put?
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Speaker 6: Buff I got some questions about what it's like to
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Speaker 6: be on the hot seat as a manager. As we know,
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Speaker 6: the Twins end of the year not so great last year,
4:58
Speaker 6: and they started this year not so great. It just
5:01
Speaker 6: goes I mean, Rock Obaldelli's got to be thinking about
5:04
Speaker 6: some of this stuff and what his future looks like.
5:08
Speaker 6: If you started a season like this and you came
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Speaker 6: out with much higher expectations of what you're seeing on
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Speaker 6: the field. At what point, like what at what point
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Speaker 6: do you feel like you need to act and act quickly?
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Speaker 5: Is this like a right away hey guys, let's figure
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Speaker 5: this out.
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Speaker 6: Or is it how long do you give your team
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Speaker 6: time to breathe before you start to go flip some chairs?
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Speaker 1: Well, you know, first of all, you got to be sincere.
5:30
Speaker 1: Nothing plays more quickly than a phony in a locker room.
5:35
Speaker 1: You're around each other too much. If you do something
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Speaker 1: that's not sincere. Players, players realize that in a heartbeat,
5:41
Speaker 1: and they really don't want to think that you're panicking
5:43
Speaker 1: behind scenes. So you know, we talk about hot season.
5:48
Speaker 1: You know, players are on a hot seat, so to speak.
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Speaker 1: I mean, we all have expectations. You know. The managers
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Speaker 1: and coaches aren't any different. Front offices have a little
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Speaker 1: bit more of a line. So I uh, I'm just
6:03
Speaker 1: think in today's world, the shelf life of managers and
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Speaker 1: coaches is so much shorter because no one doesn't No
6:10
Speaker 1: one wants to play the long game much anymore. They
6:12
Speaker 1: want to play the short What have you done for
6:14
Speaker 1: me lately? Instant gratification. You know, Friday is casual day
6:19
Speaker 1: and all the different things that go on. That's fine
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Speaker 1: and Danny, but you I just at some point they can't.
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Speaker 1: Every manager understands the job description and where it might end,
6:32
Speaker 1: and it's it's not always fair, trust me, it's not
6:35
Speaker 1: always fair. But you understand that going in that at
6:39
Speaker 1: some point your time is going to be done. You know,
6:41
Speaker 1: I've been in places eight nine years. I've been in
6:44
Speaker 1: places two years, three years. It's just, you know, things change,
6:49
Speaker 1: and it's uncomfortable for families, it's uncomforable for people that
6:53
Speaker 1: are reading all this stuff. But it's what they do,
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Speaker 1: and it's the job description. And you should not be
7:00
Speaker 1: dealt with any harder than any easier than players. Every
7:04
Speaker 1: day players come in, especially ones with options, and you're traded,
7:08
Speaker 1: all the other different things are going on. It's a
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Speaker 1: very volatile job, and I think you understand the job
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Speaker 1: scription going in, Buck.
7:17
Speaker 4: What's it like being a manager on the hot s
7:19
Speaker 4: you've been there, there is there a moment when you
7:22
Speaker 4: realize and I'm gonna get fired too. Is there a
7:25
Speaker 4: switch in the way someone talks to you? Is there
7:28
Speaker 4: a switch in the way you feel when you go
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Speaker 4: to the park. Every day you go to the park,
7:32
Speaker 4: do you feel, gosh, I have to win to try
7:34
Speaker 4: to save my job. I mean, you've been through it all.
7:36
Speaker 4: What's it like being one of these guys that people
7:38
Speaker 4: are talking about their jobs and were early in April?
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Speaker 1: I didn't personally, you know, I realized every day a
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Speaker 1: j I woke up how lucky and honored I was
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Speaker 1: to do what I did, coming from my background and
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Speaker 1: every day. This is not just some cliches. I didn't
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Speaker 1: want the player's job to be any harder because what
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Speaker 1: I might personally be going through, and they didn't wish
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Speaker 1: that on any buddy. I think the challenge is to
8:02
Speaker 1: continue to treat people the same and treat them fairly,
8:07
Speaker 1: and that golden rule works pretty good, you know, and
8:11
Speaker 1: regardless of your personal situation, I tried to go out
8:13
Speaker 1: of my way. A lot of players would tell you
8:15
Speaker 1: when we were doing poorly. I was actually more upbeat,
8:19
Speaker 1: you know, And when we were at one, six or
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Speaker 1: seven in a row, you know, you want to be
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Speaker 1: on top of things and you continue. You know, baseball
8:26
Speaker 1: season is stretching out the good times and shortening the
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Speaker 1: bad ones, because you know, a team that wins a
8:31
Speaker 1: hundred games still looses sixty two. It's just there's I
8:34
Speaker 1: don't think the people that haven't the people that haven't
8:36
Speaker 1: been in the arena, don't understand the emotional and mental
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Speaker 1: ebbs and flows of the season.
8:43
Speaker 5: AJA.
8:43
Speaker 3: It is time for people to get some new clubs,
8:45
Speaker 3: and to do that they need to go to their
8:47
Speaker 3: local PXGI for a fitting, right.
8:49
Speaker 4: No doubt. I was there today. I've been there before.
8:52
Speaker 4: Last time I was there, they gave me this killer gap.
8:54
Speaker 4: Way you look at that sweet spot, Scott, it is
8:56
Speaker 4: worn out. That is right in the sweet spot right there.
8:58
Speaker 4: So I went and got new club today, new irons.
9:01
Speaker 4: But more importantly, I got this bad boy. I got
9:03
Speaker 4: me a new putter. This is my old putter. It's
9:04
Speaker 4: on order. Yes, that's my putter cover PXG Mustang putter.
9:07
Speaker 4: Now I'm going to the Allen putter. They talked me
9:09
Speaker 4: into it because I was draining some putts today. Bob,
9:12
Speaker 4: the guy who helped me out. He helped me with
9:14
Speaker 4: my irons. He got them ted up perfectly. But then
9:17
Speaker 4: we went to the putt and green. I was draining
9:18
Speaker 4: them putts because that's the most important part of golf.
9:20
Speaker 7: PXG fittings are fun.
9:23
Speaker 1: Schedule.
9:23
Speaker 3: You're fitting today as you can hear from AJ For
9:25
Speaker 3: a limited time, you could save up to twenty percent
9:28
Speaker 3: on your entire order.
9:29
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9:42
Speaker 4: Fuck, what was your go to move? Was it flipping
9:44
Speaker 4: a table? Was it breaking a fungo? Was it yelling
9:47
Speaker 4: and screaming, slamming a door? What was your what was buck? Showalters?
9:51
Speaker 4: I'm gonna show these guys go to move?
9:55
Speaker 1: What would I be showing on AJ? You know what?
9:57
Speaker 4: I don't know. Sometimes managers just want to stay. You
9:59
Speaker 4: know how angry I am. Guys, So I'm gonna throw
10:02
Speaker 4: the table with food or I'm gonna yell at somebody
10:04
Speaker 4: because just to show them.
10:07
Speaker 1: No, you know it was I didn't. I didn't really
10:09
Speaker 1: have a lot of that if it, if it ever happened,
10:12
Speaker 1: it was sincere and it happened. And I think spontaneity
10:15
Speaker 1: shows your true emotions. Sometimes we're always measured with the
10:20
Speaker 1: media and all the different things. But that's why I'm
10:23
Speaker 1: so protected of places where you can let your hair down.
10:25
Speaker 1: Be a team at spring training, it's a bus, it's
10:28
Speaker 1: an airplane, you know, the places where guys can be
10:31
Speaker 1: themselves because the locker room is basically in an interview
10:33
Speaker 1: room most of the time. So I didn't do a
10:36
Speaker 1: lot of that aj you know. I we would talk
10:38
Speaker 1: among ourselves and I would go, what do you guys think,
10:41
Speaker 1: What's what's the issue? What should we You know, you
10:43
Speaker 1: want to get input back from them and make them
10:45
Speaker 1: feel ownership of what's going on. But you know, I
10:48
Speaker 1: tried to stay real so to speak. You know, oh
10:53
Speaker 1: my gosh, he's trying to show us how mad he is. Well,
10:56
Speaker 1: you know, try raising your children like that and as
10:59
Speaker 1: a parent and see how that works out.
11:02
Speaker 4: So I get it. You. You learned this from John Russell,
11:06
Speaker 4: your old bench coach, because we had him in Florida
11:08
Speaker 4: State League and one time he had a meeting. We're
11:09
Speaker 4: in Port Saint Lucy and he wasn't a man of
11:11
Speaker 4: many words either, and he said, ay, we lost a game,
11:14
Speaker 4: and he's like everybody in the locker room and he
11:17
Speaker 4: just walks in there and he just looks at us
11:18
Speaker 4: all and he just walks out and closes the door.
11:20
Speaker 4: And we're all like, wait, what what just is he?
11:22
Speaker 4: I guess he's mad at us? Like what just happened?
11:25
Speaker 4: He didn't even say a word. He just literally looked
11:27
Speaker 4: at us and went around the room and looked us
11:29
Speaker 4: on the eye and then just turned and walked out.
11:30
Speaker 4: We're like, I guess Dad's mad at us.
11:33
Speaker 1: You know, guys, that there's so many as you guys know,
11:35
Speaker 1: there's so many emotions that are that are transferred with
11:38
Speaker 1: a look, with a you know, it isn't always verbal.
11:43
Speaker 1: And we'll see who can yell all out us. You
11:44
Speaker 1: want to lose an argument with an umpire, go out
11:46
Speaker 1: there and scream and yell and not listen to a
11:49
Speaker 1: thing he's saying. Most of my arguments that I've won
11:52
Speaker 1: when baseball have been when I've kind of kept my
11:54
Speaker 1: composure and talked on a civil tone of these guys.
11:57
Speaker 1: But oh, there's a time and place and if you
12:00
Speaker 1: talk enough people. I have had my moments, but it
12:04
Speaker 1: was sincere. Yeah. I what you see is what you get.
12:07
Speaker 1: You don't want to come across as a phony. Oh
12:09
Speaker 1: my goodness, I've never seen this side of him. All
12:12
Speaker 1: of a sudden, You're gonna win more games because the
12:14
Speaker 1: guy was yelling at you, and every once in a
12:16
Speaker 1: while you got to put a little you know what
12:17
Speaker 1: in the gidea up and get a little I don't
12:19
Speaker 1: like being too predictable, you know what I mean? You
12:22
Speaker 1: like to throw a little unpredictability out there every once
12:24
Speaker 1: in a while, Trevor, we.
12:27
Speaker 5: Speaking about it, did we? No?
12:30
Speaker 1: No?
12:31
Speaker 6: You were you when there was when you had something
12:33
Speaker 6: to talk about, you usually just went to the people
12:35
Speaker 6: that you need to talk to about it with, or
12:38
Speaker 6: if it was a team thing, you're like Francisco, Max,
12:41
Speaker 6: come over here, we're gonna fix this.
12:43
Speaker 4: Uh.
12:44
Speaker 5: And I feel like that worked really well.
12:45
Speaker 6: I think we won forty more games than we lost
12:47
Speaker 6: that year, so I would see mission accomplished.
12:50
Speaker 1: Remember the movie Theater? Right?
12:53
Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, go on real quick? Yeah, go on it?
13:00
Speaker 5: Wait movie there. I'm sorry, I'm confused. Now what are
13:02
Speaker 5: we talking about?
13:03
Speaker 1: Uh? Spring training? Starting spring training off?
13:07
Speaker 5: Yeah?
13:09
Speaker 4: Anyway, what did you guys get the movie theater and
13:15
Speaker 4: get a popcorn and candy? I mean, what are we
13:17
Speaker 4: missing here? Clearly it made a huge impression on Trevor.
13:21
Speaker 1: I don't think I'll be there. Trevor may not have
13:24
Speaker 1: been there first the night before spring training, we go
13:26
Speaker 1: to a movie theater as a team, talk about a
13:30
Speaker 1: lot of things without you know, a j I hated
13:34
Speaker 1: spring training first day, and everybody's just ready to get
13:37
Speaker 1: on the field and get it started. You got your
13:38
Speaker 1: spikes one off that and what happens the train or
13:41
Speaker 1: the traveling secretary, the manager of the hitting coats, the
13:44
Speaker 1: pitching coasts, they all give this big spiel whatever different
13:48
Speaker 1: departments they may have now, and they're sitting there for
13:50
Speaker 1: an hour at least. And I hated that, and I said,
13:53
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do that. So we did all
13:54
Speaker 1: that the night before at a movie theater, had a
13:57
Speaker 1: little movie, we played, talked about what we want to do,
14:00
Speaker 1: and then when they got to the ballpark next day,
14:01
Speaker 1: all they had to worry about was baseball. All the
14:04
Speaker 1: others jump.
14:06
Speaker 5: Yeah, I wasn't there. I remember why I was.
14:08
Speaker 6: And it took me almost three days to get down
14:11
Speaker 6: to Florida because I had two flights get canceled and
14:13
Speaker 6: it was just I was in Houston for like thirty
14:17
Speaker 6: six hours.
14:18
Speaker 5: So that's why I missed it. Okay, that's all makes
14:20
Speaker 5: sense now, I do.
14:22
Speaker 6: Speaking of also, unpredictability, like you were mentioning before we
14:27
Speaker 6: got to see the ABS system in spring. I want
14:31
Speaker 6: to get your take on it. How do you feel
14:33
Speaker 6: about how that was implemented. Do you like the challenge
14:35
Speaker 6: system as opposed to just robo umpires, because I know
14:38
Speaker 6: I do, I know AJ does, but definitely want your
14:41
Speaker 6: take on it.
14:42
Speaker 1: AJ does or doesn't.
14:44
Speaker 6: He likes challenges much more than he likes just robo umpires,
14:48
Speaker 6: getting them all right all the time.
14:50
Speaker 1: I hate to say this, but I agree with y'all.
14:52
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna find out in our hurry, which like,
14:55
Speaker 1: can you imagine the first thing? I may have the
14:57
Speaker 1: rules wrong, bear with me, but you found out very
15:00
Speaker 1: quickly who you can trust with because in the first
15:04
Speaker 1: in and first at bad, if somebody uses a challenge
15:06
Speaker 1: and he's not right and the rest of the team suffers,
15:10
Speaker 1: you're going to find out very quickly who has an
15:12
Speaker 1: idea about what they're challenging. I do like it. I
15:15
Speaker 1: think it's coming and it's another way that fans can
15:18
Speaker 1: trust the game. They can trust at A ball's a ball.
15:21
Speaker 1: It strikes a strike, and no outside element is going
15:25
Speaker 1: to figure into the w or L. We're going to
15:28
Speaker 1: get it right. I still think we should review more things.
15:30
Speaker 1: And I don't know why they automatically say, well, that's unreviewable.
15:34
Speaker 1: Why let's get it right. There was an obstruction play
15:37
Speaker 1: the other night with Pittsburgh, and you know, obviously a
15:41
Speaker 1: very good umpire missed the obstruction when two guys were
15:43
Speaker 1: laying in the foul line. The guy had to run
15:45
Speaker 1: around them. That should be reviewed.
15:48
Speaker 4: Oh, just don't run into each other when you're catching
15:50
Speaker 4: a pop up. And you know that's what I said.
15:52
Speaker 1: I said, why are you going to penalize the offense
15:54
Speaker 1: because two guys didn't communicate very well?
15:57
Speaker 4: I don't know. I don't know, but it's amazing. They're
15:59
Speaker 4: all nice somepires. Now that you're not managing anymore, they're
16:01
Speaker 4: all great umpires in your managing. I guarantee you didn't
16:03
Speaker 4: say that. But when you're saying, when Bucks show, Walter's
16:08
Speaker 4: sitting at home in his green room with his Tube
16:12
Speaker 4: TV that he still has on and you trying to
16:14
Speaker 4: get the wires the antenna's right to watch the local game.
16:18
Speaker 4: What drives you crazy when you watch games at home?
16:20
Speaker 4: But what's the thing you look and say, Man, I
16:22
Speaker 4: wish they would change this.
16:24
Speaker 1: Oh, I don't know They've done a lot of things.
16:27
Speaker 1: You know, I've been on those competition committees, and you
16:29
Speaker 1: find out when you go in and go why don't
16:30
Speaker 1: they do this? Why don't they do this? And you
16:32
Speaker 1: realize that they've been working on it for two years
16:35
Speaker 1: trying to get all the kinks out of it. I
16:38
Speaker 1: would probably say I wish they had somebody in control
16:41
Speaker 1: of quality control of a ball game where dugouts are
16:46
Speaker 1: the same home and away, where foul ground is similar,
16:50
Speaker 1: where the warning track is not twelve feet on one
16:54
Speaker 1: field and ten on the next, where bullpen mounds are
16:57
Speaker 1: the same, they're not different heights or links or you know,
17:03
Speaker 1: in different directions. I mean, when you warm up with
17:05
Speaker 1: Trevor had a good curve ball. When you warm up
17:07
Speaker 1: into the wind and all of a sudden you get
17:09
Speaker 1: on the field and you're throwing against the wind, it's
17:12
Speaker 1: a different curveball. Things like that. This quality control the
17:15
Speaker 1: batting cages for the visiting team, just something that controls
17:21
Speaker 1: the quality and the consistency. Hey, you want to be
17:24
Speaker 1: an expansion team, you want to be whatever. You have
17:27
Speaker 1: to meet certain criteria. Your fences have to be a
17:30
Speaker 1: certain height, they have to have certain padding on them.
17:32
Speaker 1: It's all about safety for me. Some of these spring
17:35
Speaker 1: training facilities. I know there's a field without naming it.
17:37
Speaker 1: I wouldn't take our bedroom players on the road because
17:40
Speaker 1: it was a safety issue. I just think I'd like
17:44
Speaker 1: to see the quality control of a major league facility
17:49
Speaker 1: be consistent throughout the game. How's that that makes sense?
17:53
Speaker 4: All right? Buck? Where were you in nineteen ninety eight.
17:57
Speaker 1: I was starting the first year of the Diamondbacks.
18:00
Speaker 4: Were you the manager of the Diamondbacks?
18:02
Speaker 1: Yes?
18:03
Speaker 4: Okay, because I was in Triple A in Salt Lake
18:05
Speaker 4: City and we went to Tucson. Yeah, you're talking about No,
18:09
Speaker 4: you were talking quality control. Now I want to know,
18:11
Speaker 4: and this is a truth, and you tell me if
18:13
Speaker 4: I'm lying. We had Paul Molitor on rehab the only
18:16
Speaker 4: Triple A games he ever played in his life. We're
18:18
Speaker 4: in Tucson. It's like August. It's one hundred and seventy
18:21
Speaker 4: two degrees in Tucson Electric Park. Down there. You guys
18:24
Speaker 4: had air conditioned cages. You would not let us use
18:28
Speaker 4: the air conditioned cages. And Paul Molitor was pissed, and
18:32
Speaker 4: he went out and hit for the cycle. By the way,
18:34
Speaker 4: in that game, his only triple A game he ever
18:36
Speaker 4: played it. He hit for the cycle at forty five
18:38
Speaker 4: years old. Why didn't you let us use those air
18:40
Speaker 4: conditioned cages?
18:41
Speaker 1: First of all, aj, that's another myth that you've chosen.
18:45
Speaker 5: No, that is true.
18:46
Speaker 4: That is truth. They said Buck show Walter said, you
18:49
Speaker 4: guys cannot use him, you have to hit outside.
18:52
Speaker 1: Well, I think the manager then was Chris Fire. He
18:54
Speaker 1: probably used me because he didn't want him to hit
18:57
Speaker 1: over there, because I would always let Paul hit me.
19:00
Speaker 1: I wouldn't just.
19:01
Speaker 4: Paul, not the rest is just Paul, not the rest
19:02
Speaker 4: of the team.
19:06
Speaker 1: First of all, I would never do that, if you
19:07
Speaker 1: know me. So that's another myth that you're perpetuating, and
19:10
Speaker 1: I would not. So many things there in Arizona about
19:13
Speaker 1: socks and hats that I laugh about now because we didn't.
19:16
Speaker 1: We did none of that stuff. The only thing we
19:18
Speaker 1: did we had a mannequin in the middle of the
19:20
Speaker 1: locker room the first year because we had five hats,
19:23
Speaker 1: five jerseys, four pants, three belts, three socks. Finally, I said,
19:28
Speaker 1: go down to Sears and Roebuck by mannequin, put it
19:31
Speaker 1: in the middle of locker room and dress it every day.
19:33
Speaker 1: But what happened. God started messing around with the mannequin,
19:36
Speaker 1: so we had to get that out of there.
19:42
Speaker 4: I just that was what I mean. Listen, that's a
19:45
Speaker 4: true story. I don't care what Buck says. Buck might
19:47
Speaker 4: say it didn't say, but I know he said it.
19:49
Speaker 1: Because they're on the phone.
19:50
Speaker 4: And then you know what happened is we went back
19:52
Speaker 4: there because you Then your team came, your Tucson team
19:55
Speaker 4: came to Salt Lake and we had inside cages and
19:57
Speaker 4: they said we want to use the cages. Were like none, no, no,
20:00
Speaker 4: Bucks said no. And then next time we went to Tucson.
20:03
Speaker 4: I guess who got to hit inside the buzz.
20:06
Speaker 1: Definitely not true. Somebody must have used my name to
20:08
Speaker 1: get something done they wanted to do personally, so I
20:10
Speaker 1: would never do that. Or you. They protected you in
20:14
Speaker 1: the expansion draft. I always wanted you on a club,
20:17
Speaker 1: but I could never get you. People look used to
20:19
Speaker 1: go look at him, and I go, why are you
20:20
Speaker 1: looking at it?
20:21
Speaker 5: You like to win.
20:22
Speaker 1: That's what I liked about you.
20:23
Speaker 4: You like to win, and I like to hit inside
20:26
Speaker 4: an air conditioning and forty seven.
20:27
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20:41
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21:31
Speaker 4: Speaking of winning, I'm going to Startgville this weekend. Now
21:33
Speaker 4: you're a Stargville legend, stargree Misissippi, Florida. My team is
21:37
Speaker 4: playing Mississippi State in baseball? Is there anything I need
21:39
Speaker 4: to see? Because I've never been to a game at
21:41
Speaker 4: Duty Noble, So what do I need to experience while
21:44
Speaker 4: I'm at the Dude, you could.
21:47
Speaker 1: Go out to left field loss you you know they've
21:50
Speaker 1: led the nation I think in attendance for like ten
21:52
Speaker 1: or fifteen years in a row. Yeah, I went back.
21:56
Speaker 1: I sawn two contracts, one with the Yankees and one
21:58
Speaker 1: with my parents. I'd go back and finish my agree,
22:00
Speaker 1: which I did. Uh Starkbull.
22:02
Speaker 4: Uh.
22:03
Speaker 1: It was a dry county when I was there. I
22:04
Speaker 1: don't think it is anymore. You'll be impressed. You'll be impressed.
22:10
Speaker 1: Good facility there. They've had a tough year so far,
22:13
Speaker 1: but they just had a good series. I follow him.
22:16
Speaker 1: Good food around there, get there early aj and soak
22:20
Speaker 1: in the atmosphere.
22:23
Speaker 4: I can do that. It's not a dry county anymore.
22:25
Speaker 4: I was gonna say, as far from it is a
22:28
Speaker 4: wet county now.
22:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, we uh not that. I had heard that rumor
22:32
Speaker 1: that it was dry, but you know we didn't have
22:35
Speaker 1: time for that. I was Ron Polk's first recruiting class.
22:38
Speaker 4: There a j Wow. I love Ron Polk. He's still around, man,
22:43
Speaker 4: he still walks around and says, Hi, everybody's he's amazing.
22:46
Speaker 1: I think he's doing the color commentary. You'll see him there.
22:49
Speaker 1: Tell him I said hello, he's I learned a lot
22:53
Speaker 1: of baseball from him.
22:55
Speaker 2: Fuck, I got one more for you. I'm gonna jump in.
22:57
Speaker 3: Did you see Trout who obviously hasn't played much right,
23:00
Speaker 3: but he jumps for the ball and the fan kind
23:02
Speaker 3: of grabs the baseball wasn't as agree, just says what
23:06
Speaker 3: happened in the World Series.
23:07
Speaker 2: But do you think everything's fine?
23:08
Speaker 3: I mean, this stuff's been going on for a while, obviously,
23:11
Speaker 3: contact with fans and players when they're jumping trying to get.
23:14
Speaker 1: A foul ball.
23:14
Speaker 2: Are you okay with the way that all played out?
23:17
Speaker 1: Well, I go back to the quality controlled thing. There's
23:20
Speaker 1: a way to keep it from happening if you want to.
23:22
Speaker 1: You're trying to worry about the fans experience, Like we've
23:25
Speaker 1: got this netting up now all the way down the
23:27
Speaker 1: foul line, and we all go, geez, why did we
23:30
Speaker 1: do this? Years ago, we've all been at batting practice
23:33
Speaker 1: or games where people just have gotten hit. Really it's
23:37
Speaker 1: really ugly to see, and they fixed it. They could
23:40
Speaker 1: fix that. You don't want to move the seats back,
23:43
Speaker 1: but there's a way to put a barrier up there,
23:46
Speaker 1: so to speak, to keep that from happening in the outfield.
23:50
Speaker 1: And you could do it and the foul ground down
23:53
Speaker 1: where that happened. But you know number got the call
23:55
Speaker 1: right the way the way the rulesers stayed. You know,
24:00
Speaker 1: here's one where you got no foul ground at all
24:02
Speaker 1: down that corner. But you're trying to enhance the fans
24:04
Speaker 1: experience by getting them close. But you know, why is
24:08
Speaker 1: this guy giving him high five? I don't know. Look
24:11
Speaker 1: what I did, but I could you imagine how ticked
24:15
Speaker 1: off you'd be if you were going to make that play.
24:18
Speaker 1: I don't know what do you guys think. I mean,
24:20
Speaker 1: it's you could fix it. You could fix it.
24:24
Speaker 4: I said that put the nets up all the way
24:25
Speaker 4: down like they do in Japan. They have nets all
24:27
Speaker 4: the way down the foul lines and you can't jump
24:29
Speaker 4: in the stands. But then fans complain, Oh it hurts
24:31
Speaker 4: our view.
24:32
Speaker 1: You know. I've been to Japan two or three times
24:34
Speaker 1: and there's so many I picked up some things over
24:36
Speaker 1: there they do things. There's things you can pick up
24:41
Speaker 1: over there, and you go, gosh, why don't we do that?
24:44
Speaker 1: You know.
24:46
Speaker 4: Cheerleaders?
24:48
Speaker 1: You said, no, I think there's there's all something else
24:52
Speaker 1: over there. But I love the way they take batt
24:55
Speaker 1: in practice. I love the way they did their warning tracks.
24:58
Speaker 1: I picked up something the way they did their warning tracks.
25:01
Speaker 1: If you look at opening day with the Diamondbacks, we
25:03
Speaker 1: did our warning track different. We did it. We stole
25:06
Speaker 1: it from a team in soul CAREA.
25:10
Speaker 4: What'd you do?
25:11
Speaker 7: Well?
25:12
Speaker 1: Basically, you know you got X number of steps when
25:14
Speaker 1: you warning track is so you can look at the
25:16
Speaker 1: ball and know how close you are the fence. That's
25:18
Speaker 1: why they should all be the same distance, because you know,
25:20
Speaker 1: if there's a three step warning track in one place
25:22
Speaker 1: and a four four step warning track, it messes you up.
25:26
Speaker 1: So there they had put grass about six feet and
25:30
Speaker 1: right next to the fence, so you could run on grass.
25:32
Speaker 1: You fill the center of a warning track, but as
25:34
Speaker 1: soon as you felt grass again, you know you had
25:37
Speaker 1: one step on a jump and we had more great catches.
25:41
Speaker 1: Steve Finley loved it. Louigan Zalas and other teams were
25:44
Speaker 1: getting gator arms as they got close to the fence,
25:47
Speaker 1: but we couldn't keep the grass growing. There was no sunlight,
25:50
Speaker 1: so we ended up having to take it out. But
25:52
Speaker 1: it was fun for about a month.
25:54
Speaker 4: Wow, that's cool, all right, that's cool. By the way,
25:57
Speaker 4: you I can see you love in the two batting
25:59
Speaker 4: practice hitters at once. The way you can get the
26:02
Speaker 4: guy from Mississippi State that throws with both arms and
26:05
Speaker 4: he could throw to both guys at the same time.
26:08
Speaker 1: You can get somebody killed there too. The rule was,
26:10
Speaker 1: I talked to their guy. The rule was never if
26:13
Speaker 1: you muscleball, never go after or pick it up. There's
26:16
Speaker 1: another one coming. It's rapid fire. I think it's a
26:19
Speaker 1: little too rapid quite frankly.
26:23
Speaker 2: VP.
26:24
Speaker 4: Yeah they do. And they hit two hit two guys
26:27
Speaker 4: at the same time. Oh wow, Yeah, two guys throwing,
26:30
Speaker 4: two guys hitting at the same time.
26:32
Speaker 1: You know what they had, You know what they had?
26:34
Speaker 1: They had? What do you call that thing when you
26:36
Speaker 1: play the piano that gives you the beat? What is it?
26:40
Speaker 1: Trevor knows, I know something metrodome. They would play that
26:44
Speaker 1: over the bout speaker at a certain pace and you
26:47
Speaker 1: go fungo, pitch, fungo, pitch and you never broke up
26:54
Speaker 1: that rhythm of of the VP. And we used to
26:57
Speaker 1: do that with We'd set a clock up for infield.
26:59
Speaker 1: If you want to do a fast infield, you put
27:01
Speaker 1: it at four to one four flat, and if you
27:04
Speaker 1: want to do a slow infield, you set it at
27:06
Speaker 1: like four to six. It was the only way we
27:08
Speaker 1: could get some of the young seventeen eighteen year old
27:10
Speaker 1: kids to slow their game down. Some of these kids
27:13
Speaker 1: would come out of the Latin Academy and Dominican and
27:16
Speaker 1: they would be just so fast. We couldn't get them
27:19
Speaker 1: to slow them down, and so we slowed them down
27:22
Speaker 1: with a clock and said, I don't want you to
27:23
Speaker 1: get the ball over there. See how long you can
27:25
Speaker 1: take to get the ball to first base. It was tough.
27:29
Speaker 2: Wow, that's crazy.
27:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is to me the stuff that Buck comes
27:34
Speaker 4: up with. He loves warning tracks, he loves the detail.
27:39
Speaker 2: We got to you know, h you.
27:41
Speaker 1: Know what, like you were always looking like we sit
27:43
Speaker 1: in the room and you go, how do we slow
27:45
Speaker 1: this guy down? He's going too fast, And we had
27:48
Speaker 1: to come up as a coach, you have to come
27:50
Speaker 1: up with the way that you don't go, Hey, slow
27:51
Speaker 1: down you've got to give them something to slow them down.
27:54
Speaker 1: So we got a water polo clock from the Olympic coach.
27:58
Speaker 1: It was the only one that you could put out
28:00
Speaker 1: side and if it rained, it was not a problem.
28:02
Speaker 1: And we would set it where the buzzer would go
28:04
Speaker 1: off at zero and we'd started like four three four
28:07
Speaker 1: four whatever, And that is how we got some of
28:10
Speaker 1: our kids American in Latin, to slow down.
28:15
Speaker 2: We hit all the word bingo in this one.
28:17
Speaker 4: That's waterful buck.
28:20
Speaker 2: We got a jump, but this was awesome.
28:22
Speaker 3: Obviously we're gonna we're gonna have you swinging by here
28:24
Speaker 3: and there, so appreciate it.
28:25
Speaker 2: Great to have you on. We'll get you back, Supper Trevor.
28:29
Speaker 1: Good to see a good man you got there. Don't
28:31
Speaker 1: mess him up.
28:33
Speaker 4: We'll try and work on that.
28:35
Speaker 2: Ajmi are pretty pretty rough as you know. Bud. Thank you.
28:38
Speaker 4: We'll talk seeing
28:40
Speaker 1: Bless you got thank you here