The Book of Joe: Fmr MLB/Princeton Manager Scott Bradley

The Book of Joe Podcast with hosts Tom Verducci and Joe Maddon welcome Fmr MLB Catcher and current Princeton Baseball Manager Scott Bradley.  We look at Summer Leagues and Collegiate Baseball and what that does for MLB.  Learn the insights of how players come up through the ranks and the differences between being developed and learning to win.  Scott and Joe were both catchers and reveal how different the position has become in the last few years.  Scott looks back at his time in the majors and the Hall of Fame players he shared the field with, including Randy Johnson. Scott reveals the best moment of his baseball career before picking his page number for a 'Reading from the Book of Joe'.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
The Book of Joe podcast is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hey there, welcome back to the.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Most interesting baseball podcast on the planet. It's The Book
of Joe with me, Tom Verducci and Joe Madden. And
of course it's the time of year where we talk
a lot about rumors and acquisitions. So Joe Madden, I
have to first ask you about a rumor. I'm trying
to confirm about an acquisition on your part.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I have heard that you purchased a fire station. Is
this true?

Speaker 3 (00:46):
It is true. I purchased a firehouse in Wookspurg to
store my cars. So looking for a garage here in Hazelton,
couldn't find anything really appropriate. So I expanded the search
engine and ended up with a eighteen ninety nine firehouse
in Wookspurg. It'll hold eight or nine cars, but it's

(01:08):
in wonderful shape. Upstairs is the old captain's room, the
old Lieutenant's room, actually the locker room, and another room
way upstairs in the roof top. Actually is it. The
roof's in great shape. You go up to the actual
rooftop where the siren is. Yeah, pretty special. I'm going
to actually eventually do the podcast out of there. We

(01:29):
get it all settled down, should be able to close
by the end of next month eighteen ninety nine. It's
on the Registry for Historic Buildings at Pennsylvania's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
That is so Joe Madden, And please, please Joe tell
me there is one of those brass poles that you
can slide down from the second story down to the
garage floor.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
How about two of them each corner? Like when there's
two they're not active right now. I just got to
open up the trap doors underneath, cut the carpet out
a little bit, and then they become active again.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Which they will best deadline acquisition this year A fire station. Well,
I promise you this is the most interesting podcast on
the planet. And to prove it, we've got a very
interesting guest. It's Scott Bradley. You might know him from
his days as a catcher of the Big Leagues, but
also twenty five years as the head baseball coach at
Princeton University.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Scott, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
And I would think at this time of year maybe
I would be catching you at the Jersey Shore or something.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
How you been the Jersey Shore for a college coach?
It's busy time for us. I've watched more summer league
travel baseball over the course of the last six weeks
than you could ever possibly imagine.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Wow. Hey, before we get to I have a lot
of questions.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
I'm sure Joe does too about college baseball, but I
got to start with deadline acquisition. I totally missed this.
You were actually a trade acquisition. It was your last
year in the big leagues July of nineteen ninety two,
traded from the New York from the Cincinnati Reds to
the New York Mets. You've been trading. You weren't traded

(03:04):
three times, but what was that one? Like Scott, I
don't even remember that one. I'm sure you must.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
Well you didn't remember because it was a it was
a minor league deal. The Reds didn't need me anymore.
Clint Hurdle was managing the uh the Tidewater Tides at
the time, and they were extremely thin and had lost
I think all their catchers at that point. So I
had a chance to go play for Clint for the

(03:31):
last two months of the season, but all in Tidewater
never had anything to do with with the big league team.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
So I got to ask you at that point are
you starting to think about a career in coaching.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
At that point, I think I had already started to
think about a career in coaching. Some of the pro
teams that are with had talked to me about the
following year about going into coaching, going into managing. It
just so worked out that in the off season I
had a chance to uh to to go to spring

(04:05):
training with the Mets. At that point, Jeff Torborg wanted
to be able to have three catchers. So I went
to spring training with the Mets with the idea that
I had one last chance to make the team as
a kind of a super utility player at a time
when it wasn't cool to be a utility player. It
meant that you weren't good enough to play in any
one spot. Went to spring training with the Mets. That

(04:29):
was the the wacky spring training with you know, the
Vince Coleman and the Brett Saberhagen and the Bleach and
all the craziness going on. And I was released at
the end of spring training. Uh And at that point
went home, wasn't sure what I was going to do.
And then the uh the actually the Braves picked me up,
had a chance to play in back to double A.

(04:51):
So I was sort of going in reverse order back
down the chain, and at that point I started thinking about,
all right, I need to decide what I wanted to do.
I knew I wanted to stay in baseball, and some
coach opportunities came up at the end of that year.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
I just want to backtrack there a little bit. You
talked about you're busy right now out there recruiting. For
me as a collegiate player, summer ball was my favorite
time of the year. I really enjoyed the summer leagues.
I played in the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League and eventually
got signed because I ended up in Boulder, Colorado playing
for the Bolder Collegiance. Otherwise, I don't know what it

(05:26):
would have happened. I wanted to play in the Cape
Cod League. I never got a chance. I almost begged
them to go up there. They wouldn't take me. But
I'm curious, like, right now, who are what are the
best considered the best summer league teams right now? Where's
your main recruiting playground right now? Is it just anywhere?
Is Alaska is still pertinent? I'm just curious because I
don't even know what's going on in summer league baseball

(05:48):
for collegiates, which I used to absolutely love.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
Yeah, well, you know, summer league for our players, the
Cape is still the cream of the crop. Okay, everybody
wants a chance to go to the Cape. It's interesting
how the MLB Draft and the timing of everything really
impacted all the collegiate leagues. So there's a big turnover
in the Cape. The rosters are big numbers right now.

(06:14):
They're allowed to bring in a lot of players on
what they call temp contracts. The transactions in the Cape
Cod League is just it's crazy, the number of transactions
that there are. There are way more summer leagues now
Joe than when you know, you're a little bit older
than me, but way more summer leagues. Like you mentioned,

(06:35):
Alaska used to be a terrific, terrific league. All the
West Coast kids for the most part, would stay in
Alaska and all the East Coast kids would would go
back to the Cape. Now the Cape is where everybody
wants to be. One of the really interesting leagues is
out is the North Woods League. It's run like a

(06:57):
minor league system. They play seventy five or seventy six games.
It's all geared on, you know, six seven day road trips,
three game series, four game series. It's almost too much.
I know a lot of the Power five schools will
let their kids go up there for maybe half a season,
but then they want them to come home because they

(07:18):
just think it's too much baseball, which I know you
and I probably it's a hard time fathom that there's
anything too much baseball for a college player to have
in the summer.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Who subsidizes that? How did they subsidize that leagu where
they're paying almost every day.

Speaker 4 (07:33):
You know, the Northwoods League, it's all they have owners.
So the owners run it. They run it like independent
minor league team franchises, ticket sales.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
It's got to be fun. It's got to be fun
for the players though, right, I mean, it's like it's
a great experience.

Speaker 4 (07:48):
It is. But you know what, Joe, the players are
different these days. It's interesting how many of them want downtime,
and how many of them want to go to their
private pitching instructors, and how many of them want to
go to drive line, and how many of them, you know,
want to go train up at Cressey. It's really interesting
that the kids right now that from my experience, so

(08:09):
many of them would rather train than play, or they
try to find a combination of it. And I think
it's really sad because there's nothing like these summer leagues
and how much it impacts your college career after that, and.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Just growing up in general, I mean just growing up
living on your own like that, away from home, possibly
for the very like, really away from home for the
first time. And then the other part I always enjoyed
about it was the competition itself. That's when I found
out I can play against people from California, Colorado, or Texas,
Oklahoma because it being from a small town in Pennsylvania,

(08:43):
I didn't know, you know, I was playing for the
Scratton Red Sox in the summer. So I don't think
these ancillary components aren't spoken about it enough. It's not
just about playing. Who are you playing against and who
are you competing against? And whereas before you might have
been like, you know, the better guy in that area,
now you get to this more difficult part where everybody's involved.
That that was my takeaway when I got to play

(09:03):
with Boulder, more than anything, I finally realized I can
play against the better collegiate guys in the country, and
that was really important to me. Just moving along though,
like with all this driveline stuff and all these other
versions of our methods of teaching. Do you find that
being conflicting with your own group when you get back
to Princeton, When you get a guy that you've been

(09:24):
working with with a certain thing, all of a sudden
you get back there and you've been working with his guru,
and all of a sudden things change a bit. Does
that Does that bother them? You talked about that in
advance with them. Do you stay in touch with them?
How do you avoid the conflict of instruction? Sometimes?

Speaker 4 (09:38):
Yeah, you know it's a great point, and it's something
in today's sort of baseball. You can't ignore it and
you can't you know, dictate it. So the only way
to really have success is to work with them. So
I talked to all my players before they're going to go.
We make sure that there's communication between us, whether it's
myself or my pitching coach. And these facilities. You know,

(10:01):
there's a lot of good at these facilities, but you
want to make sure that we're all on the same
page when they come back. I want to know what
they've been doing. I want to know the terminology that's
been used. A few years ago, I had a different
pitching coach at the time, but Mike Russo, we actually
sent him out to drive Line because we had three
or four players that you know, on their own, we're
going to go out there, and we send Mike out

(10:23):
to drive Line for a week just so he could
see exactly what they were doing, so that we could
all be on the same page. But you really have
a chance to alienate yourself and your program if you
just tell the kids, no, you cannot go to drive Line,
or you cannot go to you know, Krassy, or you
cannot have you know, your own hitting instructor. I just

(10:43):
want to make sure that there's communication between all of us.
All we want is that the players have success. So
we just need to know how to communicate, you know,
the same way when.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
It comes down to some like showcases, are they still
a big part of the the scouting component within within
your the colesian structure also perfect. Where did they bring
kids to certain subots the kids pay to go to
certain groups. I mean, I'm so anti travel teams where
kids pay money to be on teams and travel. I

(11:15):
much prefer them play for hazel Tin or West Hazeltin
or try to win for Timakwell, but all of a
sudden they become mercenaries at a very young age. Is
the showcase games and are that still a big part
of this whole situation.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
Bigger It's it's bigger than ever, Joe. Really, it's bigger
than ever. And it starts at eight, nine, ten years old,
that that these kids are on these travel teams and
on the travel circuits and going to these showcases where
kids are being are being rated nationally as eight nine

(11:49):
and ten year olds. It's and again this for the
high school and I you know, I had, you know,
two of my three kids, you know, played college baseball
and some professional baseball. And you know Tom with you know,
with his son the same way in that with as
much as sort of we love the American Legion and

(12:10):
the team, the town teams and where games really mattered,
this is just what we have today and you have
to try to make the best of it. The college
coaches are going down there's a huge tournament going on
in Atlanta now over four hundred teams. The college coaches

(12:30):
that are there are traveling hundreds of miles every day
to get to fields within a thirty or forty mile
radius of Atlanta. And it's just the way it is.
I personally don't believe it's the way to develop players.
It's one game after another. It's very little practice. The
games really don't matter. It's like, okay, everybody, we lost

(12:52):
this game here today, Let's now pack up our stuff
and go over to field seven, where we're now going
to play another game. You have not only dh is,
you have xhs and rhs and all kinds. They usually
hit twelve and thirteen man lineups. You know, pitchers, you

(13:12):
don't know whether for a coach of a team, you
don't know whether you're going to a tournament to play
four games or seven games if you get in the playoffs.
So to me, it puts pictures at risk that all
of a sudden, your team is playing extra games. Pitchers
are coming back on short rest. And these pitchers now
when they're throwing, they're throwing knowing that there's college coaches around,
and all they care about is what the radar gun says.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
This one more point, please see for me, all this
really points to, which is counterintuitive. I mean, when they
come to Princeton. When they go to the Angels or
the Cubs or whatever, you have to have learned how
to win, and you're playing for the team and the
attempt is to win the baseball game, whereas the showcase
is to be best in show. I really I've noticed

(13:55):
that as far back as with the race, I think
like right around twenty ten, eleven twelve something in that area.
I thought I the shift in what was going on
with these guys that were coming up, because it was
not just about winning, it was not just about playing
for the Rays, the name on front of the shirt.
It was pretty much they were so used to being

(14:16):
best in show. All of a sudden they show up
and they're not the best player there. It kind of
freaks them out, you know. Sometimes they don't know how
to cope with that one player in mind. I'm not
going to mention his name, but it really did. It
undermined him in a sense. So that's the part about
this again, all this stuff that nobody ever talks about
with these that's no longer important, which would be to

(14:36):
be a team player, to win in this situation, like
I'm saying, win for the local area, be proud about
it be proud of where you came from, whereas you
become a mercenary at a young age, which again, it
really dilutes I think everything about it, and it does
detract from the building the team concept and playing to win. Listen,
you as a coach and me as a coach, we

(14:57):
should coach and manage to develop at that age. But
the players should always play to win. They should never
be they should never think that they're being developed. That
was always my premise. When I ran the minor leagues
for the Angels, I told that. I used to say
that to the coaches specifically, Listen, you guys are here
to develop them, but I want them to think they're
here to win, and that that's the separator for me,
and that's how you build a great organization.

Speaker 4 (15:19):
You know, Joe, You're so right. And I was very
fortunate that I came up through the Yankee organization and
when I was playing in the minor leagues with the Yankees,
the Yankees made sure that there were some older players
at every level to make sure that their minor league
teams won, and they felt like winning was a big
part of development. And I think right now, starting at
the youth age, I think, and it carries over up

(15:43):
all the way to the minor leagues and then even
to the big leagues. Is it's all about skill development.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
Now.

Speaker 4 (15:49):
It's not about learning how to win games. It's not
about it's let's make your swing better. Let's teach you
how to throw harder. There's never talk about situations. There's
never talk about you know, base running, there's never talk
about anything other. I mean, I'll have my players, you know,
and I'll talk to them about, all right, let's get

(16:09):
you placed in a good summer league so you can
go play. And they're like, well, I just want to go.
I want to train all summer. I want my swing
to get better. I said, well, don't you think there's
something about it? I said, I've seen a lot of
really bad hitters that have great swings, and I've seen
a lot of really good hitters that have lousy swings.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
That's a great explanation, he said.

Speaker 4 (16:28):
About going out and competing and knowing how to play
in games, isn't there. And a lot of them it's
like they just want coach. I need to make my
swing better. I have to, you know, I have to
improve all these all my metrics Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
It's fascinating stuff. And Joe, you and Scott have a
lot in common. And by the way, you would have
loved Scott's swing. I mean it was flat, it was quick,
he let the ball travel, great bat to ball skills,
I mean, everything that you want to see from a hitter.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Scott had it. But also, like you, Joe, he.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Was an outstanding high school quarterback back in the day
when you played a sport when it was in its season.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
So I'm sure that's changed as well, Scott.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Where you have guys now from a very young age
forget before high school. I meant talking seven, eight, nine
years old, not just on one sport, but even on
one position as well. And we need to take a
quick break. When we come back. I want to ask
Scott talk about familiarity and similarities with Joe about catching,
the state of catching in college and the big leagues.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
We'll do that and we get back.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
We are visiting with Scott Bradley at baseball coach at
Princeton University, former Big leaguer, and Scott I mentioned catching.
I think we're asking more on the big league level
of catchers than ever before. When you think about all
the game prep that goes on. And I know in
the past with college catchers it seemed like they weren't

(18:03):
prepared for professional ball because coaches wouldn't allow them to
think for that on their own behind the plate. Give
me an idea. Now we're catching is at on the
college level and preparing guys for professional baseball.

Speaker 4 (18:16):
It's a great point. And you know, like I said,
I'm sixty three years old, I can honestly say that
I've never played in a baseball game where I didn't
call as a catcher, where I didn't call pitches. And
it's amazing how many kids now. In fact, I would
say the majority of players now, when they get into

(18:37):
professional baseball, they have probably never called a pitch on
their own. All they do is look over to the
dugout and pitching coaches are calling. In college, pitching coaches
are calling virtually every pitch, and there's not a whole
lot of teaching that goes along with that. I can
see if you have a young catcher, you know, and

(18:57):
maybe you're trying to help him, but then finding situations
during the game where you can say, okay, you run
this inning, you know, or at you see how we're
working the game, or you take over the next inning,
or you you know, look over if you need help,
but run the game if you want. Again, it's just
at the lower levels. I mean, I see youth league

(19:18):
coaches now kids looking over and youth league coaches calling
pitches when kids basically throw, you know, fastballs and change ups.
That's about it. So it's it's really it's it's a shame.
I feel like I'm probably as qualified, I would be
as qualified as anybody to to call pitches at the
college level, but it's still something where you know, we

(19:39):
like to let our catchers learn. This past year is
the first year I brought in a new pitching coach,
and he really helped. You know, we had a young
catcher and we sort of the pitching coach would call
them a lot of pitches with the PitchCom system. But
then there were plenty of times where we had an
older veteran pitcher wanted to run his own He ran

(20:01):
his ballgame with the catcher. You know, you have to
trust your players at some point to go out and uh,
you know, to run ball games. Yeah, I'm surprised with
as controlling as you know, some of the things are
in the in the big leagues that you know that
they don't have people calling every single pitch at the
major league level even.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Now, Boy Joe, that seems to be the one area
where the analytics group really has not gotten involved in
terms of actual pitch calling.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Well, it's about the prep before the game too. What
I like, here's along with what Scott's talking about. I like, yes,
I want analytical information before the game. I want to
know exactly what's going on with their hitters, my pitcher
versus their hitters and vice versa. I want to know that.
But we're talking about pitching. So for me, yeah, sit
down with your catcher, pitcher, starting pitcher that night, maybe

(20:52):
all the pitchers in the group meeting, and you go
over this team. Yes, absolutely, go over this team hitter
by hitter, so everybody understands. And again, they should be
they should be nuggets. They should not be this absolute
dissertation on how to get these guys just nuggets here
that you can't remember all that stuff. You cannot. So
for me, the catcher needs to do is studying. The
starting pitcher needs to the studying. When it comes down

(21:13):
to relief pitchers, they got two pitches, maybe what are
they studying. I mean they're gonna go to their best
stuff in the moment. Also, you got to know what
not to do in a particular moment. That's it. But
that's it. They have two pitches a starting pitcher. For me,
the third time through the batting of it. They don't know.
That's where you have to be able to pitch and
maybe withhold something earlier in the game. All this stuff, Wow,

(21:34):
it just drives me insane sometimes. But yes, pregame meeting,
pre series meeting, I like. I like the ability to
have a catcher look in during the game when he's
a little bit uncertain and find something from the bench.
That's what we did with the Cubs. That talk about
Mike Borzeli, he's been on our show. Borsy was so
good in Chicago. Uh, the catcher was calling the game

(21:55):
based on their meetings that they had before the game.
But it gets hot sometimes and sometimes you just don't
know what to do. Just to quick peek in, here
comes a sign from bores to the catcher, let's do this.
I like that. It's no, it's tantamount to quarterbacks don't
call their plays anymore. Middle linebackers have to find out
what's defense supposed to be played. There's everybody realies on
everybody else, and you're not permitting people to understand and

(22:16):
learn on their own. I still believe that's the best
way to do it. I like the idea of the
preparation absolutely. I do that myself as a manager. But
once the game is in progress, go ahead and do
what you prepared yourself to do. Little nuggets during the game,
have a method that you're being reminded about. Something for
me was the cheat sheet in my back pocket for

(22:36):
the catchers. That was Borsello and the dugout. But to
constantly feed these guys you're talking about literally kids are
like young kids getting signed from the bench. That's just
mimicking what they see on television, has nothing to do
with anything. They have no idea what they're doing from
the bench and the kid anyway, So listen, this is
obviously a sot of subject for me. This is when
you do not permit young players to become great because

(22:58):
you're constantly spoon feeding them and you're not permitting them
to think on their own and making their mistakes and
then help with the correction process. To me, that's a
better way, and you.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
Know, Joe. As a catcher, you know, you had a feel.
You could see as a catcher, you could see whether
a hitter was really on a pitch. You could see
what subtle adjustments that a hitter was making. And you
know what, I've watched a lot of games from the bench,
and I still don't think that you can see and
you're aware of what the hitter is doing, like when
you're behind the plate receiving every pitch, watching what he's doing,

(23:31):
and you know the data may say one thing, but
you have a feel for what the pitcher's doing on
that particular day. You know, maybe all of a sudden,
his breaking ball is that much sharper, And even though
you know it might say, you know, we need to
throw a change up in a certain count, you just
have such a good feel with the breaking ball that
day that you're going to go with you with the

(23:51):
feel and what you see on that given day as
opposed to what the charts and data says.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
And sometimes the catchers can't do that because they're never
given that opportunity in the first place to make up
throw mind about anything. So you're asking them to reach
such ways that they've never even tried to read before
because they've not been given permission. They've not been given
permission to think on their own. And that's the mistake
for me the game itself. When you get a team
out there that's out there to play to win. You
got level five guys. All they want to do is win,

(24:18):
and they understand the nuance of the game. They've studied it.
They you're talking about, they see adjustments being made by
the opposition, they counter it a little bit. Again, that's
the stuff. But again, even even right down to the
cards in the back pocket about outfielders, I listen, That's
what I used to do back then. I would be
at three point thirty in the afternoon, I go in
the dugout wherever I stood, and then I would have

(24:40):
somebody stand out there straight up and left field, straight up,
in center field, straight up, and right field. I would
look at a sign behind wherever he was and I
knew that was straight up, and from there I was
able to and if the player was not in the
right spot, I was able to just wave him over,
flag him over a couple of steps from the dugout
because I had this straight up already set up pre game. Furthermore,

(25:01):
the player themselves are paying more intent. This is just
a thing out of your back pocket. We make it
with spoon feeding so much. I don't think it's appropriate.
I'd rather see guys with this on their own. I'd
rather see guys pay attention, like you're saying. Sometimes the
fastball is a little bit better today. Hitters a little
bit late. Rightfielder, get over there on this right handed hitter,
especially with two strikes. Eh, let people play the game.

(25:23):
Teach them how to play the game. They'll teach them
how to utilize pockets. Cards in your back pocket.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Aim in to that, brother, I am a big proponent
of that.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Listen, I understand why teams do that, But I want
the I don't want the cards. I don't want the
cheat sheets on the field. I mean, that's like taking
notes into the SAT test.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
There you go, you do.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
All your prep work, and then you go in that
room and it's time to take that test and find
out what you know about baseball and what you can
do in real time in terms of reading what the
picture has, the approach of the hitter.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
That that should be a skill, uh and not.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
I just don't like the paint by numbers aspect of
the game, which leads me, Scott to the technique of
catchers behind the plate in the big leagues today. Listen,
I understand everything about pitch framing, and you know, I
understand there is a lot of wiggle room with defensive metrics.
I mean, an umpire can miss a pitch and the
catcher will get credit for quote unquote framing the pitch.

(26:21):
And I can tell you I had a conversation with
a major league catcher this year, a former major league
catcher who's now a catching instructor, and he said his
front office not only tells him that his catchers must
be on one knee even with a runner on third base,
that if he even brings up the idea of doing
something else, he will get fired.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
That's what he told me. He said.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
Listen, I never caught that way, but I'm supposed to
teach that way. And I can't even bring up the
idea that we should prioritize the runner on third over
trying to frame a low pitch, even in a tie
game of the ninth inning.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
Scott, you've seen it. You've caught yourself.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
You know.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
We'll give you your thoughts on the technique of catcher
especially with catchers down on one knee.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
You know what, I think people spend too much time
looking at breaking things down on videos so much. I
know as a as a former catcher, the worst feeling
in the world was having to run to the backstop
to retrieve a baseball. You can be I can remember
being in minor league fields where there are one hundred
people and you'd have to run back to the backstop

(27:28):
whether it's a wild pitch or a pass ball, and
just waiting for the guy to be to be heckling
you as you ran back to the to the backstop.
When I watch catchers now, they don't care. You know,
it doesn't make any difference if a ball gets to
the backstop. It just that's no big deal. I'm I'm
doing my you know, I'm doing my job. I'm trying
to manipulate the strike zone or whatever else. But there's

(27:51):
you know, a risk reward to this whole thing. And
you see, you know, to me, ninety feet in certain
situations is more important than whether the pitch is a
ball or strike. And as you mentioned, I don't think
Johnny Bench or ped Rodriguez or those guys, I don't
think they had a hard time receiving strikes and keeping
the low pitch in the strike zone. You know, you

(28:13):
watch catchers and if they had strong hands, you wanted
to make sure that when the ball hit the glove,
that the glove just never took it out of the zone.
But to put these guys on one knee where I
see so many situations where there's not even an attempt
to block a ball to keep it in front of you,
and with runners on third base, I mean, I've seen
over the last couple of years quite a few, you know,

(28:36):
pass ball walk offs, And to me, there's risk reward
to everything I can see being able to do both.
I can see, you know what, in certain situations or whatever,
if you know, being on a knee and things like that.
But when there's a runner on third base or a
runner on second with no outs, where if you give
up ninety feet, you know, you know the game's gonna

(28:59):
you're gonna have a tough time winning that ball game.
To me, you have to do whatever pop able to
keep the ball in front of you. And I think
that you're more athletic not only on balls in the dirt,
but when you're down on one knee. You see a
lot of high fastballs. The catchers can't get to either
because they just can't react to it.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
We see they're instructed not to care about that. See
that's the whole point. You get the blessing that if
the ball gets by you, it's okay, it's okay, because
they think it's going to be percentage wise, you have
more opportunity to catch a strike than the pitch that
you're not going to be able to block. I think
that's the logic's going to be regarding that. So they're
instructed to not care if the ball gets buying. It

(29:35):
was horrible what you're talking about.

Speaker 4 (29:37):
I hate it.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
In like we used to take infield practice all the time.
If a ball got buying me on an outfield throw,
just an infield practice, I wanted to kill myself. I mean,
you just did not want to ever. Like you said,
go backwards. And when you're talking about in the past
good pictures, glare was enough. I mean talking about receiving
balls and strikes. If the pictures of the past, the

(29:57):
outstanding pictures of the past with their catchers, if you
did not receive, well you're going to about it from
you caught some very good pitches even though didn't play
in the big leagues. I caught a lot of good
guys going up to the big leagues and they would
let you know, you know, if you know you're not
presenting well, if you're missing some pitches for them. And
the other part of it is talking to the umpire.

(30:17):
I mean, it's the relationship with the empire and at
least another topic for me, I am I'm amazed that
umpires are not more vocal about not pulling pitches, which
really comes down to it's really pulling a pitch. If
the pitch that's a ball that they pulled to become
a strike. To me, if I'm an up prime saying listen, brother,
keep doing that. You're not getting anything, because that's what
it used to be like. If you if the umpire

(30:39):
thought you were pulling stuff on them, framing, pulling, you're
not getting anything, man, You're not gonna get nothing. So
there's all this stuff. Isn't to relate it in some way,
but they don't care if they missed the pitch and
it's it's a pass ball, well pitch. Back in the day,
the picture a lot of times took care of the
catcher being lazy behind the plate.

Speaker 4 (30:58):
No doubt. And one thing that one thing that I
have noticed I think for the better is you know,
I don't know whether they ever got the pitchers or
the pitching coaches involved, because the late movement. I mean,
I see pitchers they give the sign and then as
the pitcher is in the delivery, there catchers were jumping
all over the place to get down into that one

(31:19):
knee position, and I would think as a pitcher that
would almost be distracting. I remember I had a chance
to catch Tom sever when I was in the White
Sox organization, and he literally told me set up in
the middle of the plate, give me a low target.
He goes, I'm going to throw for your knees and
your shoulders. That's my strike zone. He goes, don't move,
be still and quiet, and don't jump around. I have noticed, though,

(31:43):
more this year that I see catchers giving the sign,
getting down onto one knee, giving a good target, and
then the movements are more subtle. They're getting down, they're
staying a little bit more stationary. Then they drop the
glove to the ground to come on up. But I
don't see as much just late, fast, quick movement, which

(32:04):
was really prohibiting catchers from reacting to bad pitches.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
Well, what's going on right now is they're being instructed
more to stay in the middle of the plate. Absolutely,
they're asked to not be on the corners as much
as we used to do. Like when you're catching Kyle Hendricks,
you're gonna be on corners, right, Tommy, John, Jeff Zon,
all those dudes they wanted you. They never wanted you
on the plate, period. They wanted you off the plate.
Maybe a click on each side, that's what they wanted.
But today with the velocity and just pretty much less pitchability,

(32:30):
more velocity, much more of this kind of neanderthal approaches
throwing the ball as hard as you can. They just want,
like you said, if I'm sitting low and it's an
elevated fastball, that might be the toughest pitch to get
to when you're down there, and or the other on
would be like sitting inside and the guy just yanks
went outside. When they're throwing that hard, it's difficult to
get to that particular point. But again, all interrelated. It's

(32:53):
an interesting conversation. I back to the last point, would
be nobody on less than two strikes when heed's appropriate
for me. Two strikes runner on first base or any
base regular catching stats, That's how I would go about it.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
I agree, well, Scott, you mentioned catching Tom Seaver.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
What a thrill that must have been.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Nine seasons in the big leagues, and we are not
letting you get out of here without telling at least
one Randy Johnson story. And I also want to ask
Scott about the joy of coaching. We'll do that when
we get back. Welcome back to the Book of Joe podcast.

(33:39):
Our guest is Scott Bradley, head baseball coach at Princeton University,
and Scott doing this for twenty five years. Your track
record speaks for itself. Seven IVY League titles the major leagues,
both in the dugout, in front offices and on the field,
is just jam packed with players and people you helped
develop who came to Princeton as young men and left

(34:01):
for careers. In this game, we have three general managers
right now here at the trading deadline who went to Princeton.
Mike Hasn, Chris Young, Mike Turnoff. You have Mike Ford
playing with the Seattle Mariners, Will Venable and a dugout
with the Texas Rangers, and recently you had two of
your players drafted this year by the San Francisco Giants.

(34:24):
It's it's a lot of work being a college coach.
But Scott, you tell me and your words why you
keep doing it. Where are the best rewards for being
a college baseball coach?

Speaker 4 (34:36):
You know? Tom. When I was getting towards the end
of my my uh my playing career and starting to
figure out, I knew I was going to stay involved
in athletics. It was just the way that we were raised,
you know, the way that we were brought up. As
you know, my older brother Bob is as highly acclaimed
UH soccer coach as there is in the UH you know,

(34:57):
is in this country and what he's done around the world.
So as I was starting to think, I knew I
wanted to involved, I stayed in and I was a
player coach, UH and a coach in the minor leagues
for for a year or so. UH they asked me
to go manage Dick Balderson asked me to manage the
next year, you know, and then I was starting my
family and I started thinking about what I wanted from

(35:20):
quality of life. I was at my brother was coaching
soccer at Princeton at the time. I went to one
of one of his games. The athletic director came up
to me and said that Tom O'Connell, the coach, was
gonna announce his retirement and asked if I would be interested,
And of course I immediately, you know, said yes, Uh,
I get to spend at a place like Princeton. It's

(35:41):
different coaching at Princeton as opposed to being at a
at a Power five school, where you have the same pressures.
At those Power five schools as the Major League managers do,
they pay you to the point where you better win,
you better produce, or else they're going to fire you.
But at a school like Princeton, at a school like
Lafayette where Joe went, it's about, uh, giving guys an

(36:04):
amazing experience, helping them to develop in every area of
their life. They have other things in their lives besides
just baseball. And that's something that I just absolutely loved
about my job that I talked to my players about
life after baseball. I talked to my players about other interests,

(36:26):
and to me, it was just such a rewarding place
to be. And yet if we had guys that wanted
to develop and go into professional baseball. I wanted to
make sure that we could. We would do that. And
you know, my very first recruit at Princeton was Chris Young,
So pretty tough to to top that one with everything

(36:46):
that you know that that he has accomplished in his career.
And then you know, to have the Will Venables and
the Matt Bowman's, the David Hales, the ross Olendors. I
think we've had eight or nine players get to the
big leagues and as you said, three GMS right now.
I'm so proud of what Mike Hasen has accomplished this

(37:06):
year after all the personal struggles that he went through,
losing his wife Nicole, raising, you know, having to raise
the four boys, stepping away from baseball for a while,
and having the insight to basically realize that baseball now
is becoming a game of having all around players again.
I think it's great. And you look at what the
Diamondbacks are doing. They have speed, they have defense, they

(37:27):
have a mix of baseball skills. It's not a gorilla ball.
Let's just see how many guys can hit the ball
out of the ballpark. So I'm so proud of all
my guys, the guys who are doctors and lawyers, and
even the guys who just had the calling to stay
and want to teach and coach. So I have guys
that played for me that are teaching and coaching. It's

(37:48):
just been an amazing place to be. Princeton is just
we have so many amazing, amazing student athletes that are
there for the right reasons. And I really wouldn't have
trade places with anybody.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Well, it was an amazing career that you did have
your self in the big leagues to put nine years
in third round pick of the New York Yankees back
in nineteen eighty one. It was actually the Yankees' second
draft pick in that draft. The guy drafted by the
Yankees before you did, Okay, just not in baseball's a

(38:22):
guy by the name of John Elway.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
How about that.

Speaker 4 (38:26):
It's one of my favorite trivia questions. I've won a
lot of meals by trying to get people to tell
me who the Yankees pick was before me on that
given year.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
And if I got this right, I believe you caught
Randy Johnson's first no hitter. Now, Randy, I was just
up in Cooperstown for the induction ceremonies. And by the way,
congratulations to Fred McGriff and Scott Roland. And if you
haven't had a chance to catch both Hall of Fame
induction speeches from those guys, you have to find it

(38:56):
on YouTube or someplace. They both did an amazing and
amazing job. There was so much gratitude lessons that anyone
in any field can really take the heart beginning, especially
with hard work.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
I mean Fred McGriff waited through.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
Ten times on the writer's ballot, Scott rolling way through
six times on the writer's ballot. Their hard their hard
work got them into Cooperstown. But Randy Johnson was up there.
He actually had a photo exhibit at a local art
museum in Cooperstown, and a bunch of the Hall of
Famers took a trip over there on Saturday the day before.

(39:32):
And you know Randy well Scott and he was always
interested in photography even when he was playing. And give
me a sense of catching Randy Johnson because I always
knew famously what kind of a mean dude he was.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
On days that he.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
Pitched, you didn't want to say hello to Randy Johnson
on the day that he pitched and you caught him.
So give me some insight on on R. J.

Speaker 4 (39:56):
Well, first, you know, I was very fortunate between the
Yankees a little bit with the White Sox and then
the Mariners and the Reds, and with the Hall of
Fame ceremonies. It's amazing. I was going through a list
and just how many Hall of Fame players that I
actually can counts as teammates is really an extraordinary an
extraordinary number, just real quick. Fred McGriff and I were

(40:20):
at Instructional League together our first two years in the
Yankee organization. So I saw the young seventeen year old
Fred McGriff. He swung and missed at virtually every pitch.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
And Scott, you know that Fred McGriff gave credit in
his speech to Ed Napoleon. Yeah, in the Yankee system
and all the ground balls that Edi Napoleon hit to him.
So I'm sure you can relate to that low level
of minor league seventeen year old Fred McGriff putting the
extra work in.

Speaker 4 (40:44):
And you could just see it happening. And then my
youngest son, Scott, he went to Indiana and he was
fortunate enough to have Scott Rowland interacting with the Indiana
baseball team on a regular basis, So I saw both
the speeches. Again, they were both terrific. But again I'm
really fortunate that I had a chance just to play
with a huge lift of Hall of Fame players. But

(41:06):
when it went over to Seattle, you know, after we
traded you know, Mark Langston, that big trade, and we
got you know, Randy Johnson was actually probably the third
person in that trade. It was Brian Holman. Gene Harris
was sort of the big name in that trade that
everybody thought was going to be the superstar. And then
Randy because you know, he was having a tough time

(41:27):
throwing strikes and everything. And I can remember his first
game that he pitched was against the Brewers. I remember
out of Canny Stadium warming them up before the game,
and I was going to catch him, thinking, oh, this
is going to be interesting because I saw the walk numbers,
I saw the wild pitch numbers, and you know, he
really the way we caught in a traditional stance, it

(41:49):
was actually easy to catch somebody when they were wild high.
The guys that were hard were the guys who were
just beating you up, throwing the sinkers bouncing the breaking balls.
Randy didn't bounce much, so you just had to basically
be able to react to pitches up. You could just
see at that point, you know, like you mentioned, Randy
on game days was mean and everything else, but Randy

(42:11):
is a very sensitive person who you had to know
how to treat. I can remember early in his career
with the Mariners. You know, some of the coaches would
just say, you're big, your throw hard. Just throw the ball,
Just throw the ball, aim in the middle, throw the
ball down the middle. Well, Randy wanted to be a pitcher,
so I would sit down with him and I would

(42:33):
go over location with what we wanted to do with
every hitter, even though I knew he wasn't capable of
doing it. But you just had to go through that
act because mentally, he wanted to prepare like everybody else.
He didn't want to be known as the big, hard
throwing guy who was just trying to throw the ball
in the vicinity of home plate. Like I said, as

(42:53):
an early pitcher, he couldn't he couldn't do that. But
every time he pitched, he went out you could just
see the reaction of hitters and you could just see
that there were certain hitters that not only did you
know that you were going to get them out, but
you knew they weren't even going to put a ball
in play. So one thing led to another, and then
you know the game that he pitched against the Tigers.

(43:15):
I've always felt that the one important skill the catcher
has is you have to be able to remember. You
always want to stay out of patterns. You don't want
to throw the same pitch in the same count. The
Tigers had a veteran team with the likes of chet Lemon,
you know who, Trammel, you know Whitaker took the day
off that day. But those were the guys you wanted

(43:37):
to make sure. So as the game evolved, what happened
a couple starts before that is, we basically came to
the realization that the breaking ball was Randy's command pitch.
He would overthrow his fastball. He would end up three
steps away from third base in like a whirlybird finish
when he would throw his fastball, and every time you
called his slider, he would be perfectly in balance. He

(43:59):
wouldn't overthrow it. And so from there on, and that
was probably the first where anytime he fell behind hitters.
We would throw a breaking ball, whether it's two zero count,
three to one count, because he never overthrew it. And
he did walk six in that game, but he never
walked more than two in an inning. I don't know
if he ever walked two in a row. And the
last pitch of the game, Mike Keith swung it, probably

(44:22):
the highest pitch. I think I had to jump to
catch it that Mike Heith swung at. And then I
can remember running to the mound that all I could
think about was, you know, yogi jumping into Don Larson's arms,
and I started thinking, Okay, well, Randy's too big. I
can't jump that high. But there was a great poster
in Seattle of all of us with Randy, and it

(44:44):
was like we're the little Putians in Gulliver's travels. It
was like we were all hanging on Randy's waist and
his arms were extended and we all I don't think
we had a guy that came up above the middle
of his chest. So, needless to say, a great thrill.
And I think catchers feel as much a part of
no hitters as as the pitchers do.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
And speaking of great thrills or reminds me of something
that Scott Roland mentioned in his speech. I thought his
greatest moment that he would identify would be a Pennant
winning home run Game seven, two thousand and four NLCS
off Roger Clements. Instead, he told a beautiful story about
by far his best moment was his first day in
the big leagues in nineteen ninety six, and his parents

(45:28):
got to the game a little bit late at Veteran Stadium.
So he's at third base at the VET and he
looks up and he sees mom and dad walking into
their seats behind home plate, and he said, there was
never any moment sweeter than that one to see his
parents there walking into Veteran Stadium for his major league debut,
and how proud he was of them, and of course

(45:49):
the day of him. Scott, I mean, maybe it's Randy's
no hitter, but is there a moment for you when
you look back on your major league career and say
that was that was the apex?

Speaker 2 (45:59):
That was the peak.

Speaker 4 (46:01):
Again, growing up in New York, New Jersey, my dad,
you know, was a marine in the Korean War, was
at the Chosen Reservoir, A self made self made guy.
He and he and my mom knew each other from
the time they were twelve or thirteen years old and
growing up half an hour outside of Yankee Stadium. My
dad would constantly come home early and say, all right,

(46:25):
the twins are coming in today. I want you guys
to see Harmon Killerbrew play. He made sure that we
had a chance to see all the great players of
that generation play in person. Took us to Cooper's Town,
made sure that taught us not only how to play
the game, but how to appreciate the game and to
have a passion for it. So at the I had
a great season in Triple A. I think I was

(46:46):
the International League MVP and Rookie of the year. I
got called up to the Yankees at the at the
end of the year. That to me felt like a
reward for having a really good minor league season. The
next year, and again you were there. I went to
spring training, made the team out of spring training. Uh
opening day in Yankee Stadium, being introduced as a member

(47:08):
of the New York Yankees. It was the day Mickey
Mantle was allowed back into baseball after he and Willie
Mays have been banned for being part of working for
the casinos and they were allowed back into into baseball.
We had a great dinner the night before. Roger Morris
and Mickey were there together, and I can just remember,

(47:29):
just like Scott Rowland did, looking into the stands at
Yankee Stadium, seeing family and friends and knowing that I
made the Yankees as an and it was opening day,
New York Yankees. I you know, I believe he won
the game. I think it was a game that Ken
Griffey Senior made that amazing catch up in the like
Junior did years later.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
Down the left field line.

Speaker 4 (47:50):
Yeah, but just being a member of the New York Yankees,
knowing that I had made an opening day roster for
the New York Yankees basically was I don't think anything
gets better than that.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
That's so cool.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
I mean, as you can hear Joe just Scott not
only is a great college coach, but we go way back,
and not just covering Scott when he got to the
big leagues, but we played actually against each other in
American Legion Ball.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
We played with each other in college summer league.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
And I can honestly say, not just because I've known
Scott for a long time, that the best attribute or
compliment you can give a college coach is what you
can tell someone you'd want your son or daughter if
it's another sport to play for that person.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
And Scott is that kind of person.

Speaker 4 (48:37):
You know, Joe, Tom and I, like you said, we
go way back. And I don't know if Tom's ever
shared with or not, but his dad was a legendary
football coach in our area. So the Verducci name was
something that we always bantered around our house, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (48:50):
I actually saw a photograph if Tom split out wide
left at Hinchliffe Stadium Patterson, New Jersey, look he looked
like he looked like he meant business. I really enjoyed
that particular photograph. I left to know what occurred after
the ball was snapped.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
I'm sure it was a run three yards and a
cloud a dive.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
It was thirty two left, just a dive.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
It was nothing but a diversion as a wide out,
except in the state championship game against Bergen Catholic.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
There you go, We'll stay for another day.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Well, Scott, we have all our guests play a game
with us, and it's very easy. We call it a
reading from the Book of Joe, and we believe that
you can crack open any page of our book, you're
going to find something interesting. So we have our guests
pick a number, any number between one and three hundred

(49:41):
and sixty eight, and we will have a little reading
from the Book of Joe.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
All right, so it's your turn to hit.

Speaker 4 (49:50):
Well, my number with the Yankees was thirty four, So
let's go with thirty four.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
Number thirty four.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
Now, was that given to you by Pete sheehy or
did you actually ask for it?

Speaker 4 (50:00):
Well, the first year when I was up there at
the end of the season, I think I I had
an alignment's number all through spring training. And then I
think Peachee. And again you talk about stories when I
was with the Yankees at such an amazing time that
you actually not only just players, but to sit and
listen to peache he tell his stories of how he
started with the Yankees. Just amazing. But yes, Peachee, he

(50:24):
is responsible for giving me that number.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
Peach oh my goodness. He was there when Babe Ruth
was there, no joke.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
And if you were in that Yankee clubhouse in scott
I can still see it, that wooden picnic table in
the middle of the clubhouse and you'd have peach. He's
sitting there telling stories. I mean, my goodness, what a treat. Okay,
Page thirty four of the Book of Joe Joe. We're
going back to Moose steubing. I love this story. You're

(50:55):
laughing already.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
This is your class a manager, right.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
He's playing cribbage with Chuck Estrada, who's the Angel minor
league pitching coordinator. Joe's walking in there because he's been
called into the manager's office, Scott, and he's hitting the
ball really well. Boy, Joe says in the book, things
are starting to come together. I'm hitting and catching really well.
So I'm like, damn, this is cool. The manager wants

(51:22):
to see me in his office. I wasn't doing anything wrong.
I was really pleased to go in there.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
What's up?

Speaker 1 (51:28):
Moose Madden says, Hey, you're pretty tight with Dicky Thon,
aren't you.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Uh yeah, good kid.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
You take care of that boy because he's going to
play in the big league someday. I want you to
keep your eye on him when you go out at night.
Make sure you're with him, make sure he gets home
at a good time. Take care of him. He will
be in a big league shortstop one of these days.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
That's it. That's it.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
Madden walked out, shaking his head. Nothing about me, crickets
about me.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
Not a word. Moose and I we had a good relate.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
I don't want to say love hate, but you gotta
be freaking kidding me.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
I love Richard. That was not the point. But damn it, Moose,
give me something. Just give me a crumb to hold
on to.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
Not even hey, nice going, you're catching the ball, well,
nice double in the gap last night. Nothing like that.
Nothing crickets. So that's what I got out of my manager.
I love that story.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
That's all true. And I just as you started, I
could just see myself walking in that small little Johnny
O'Donnell Stadium manager's office. I was I was like, I
was playing really good. I thought, here we go, something
good's happening. And Dicky was my roommate, Richard Don. I
still stay in touch with Richard. Richard text me often,
and he was really good. He was like seventeen or
eighteen at that time, a really nice player, wonderful. But

(52:53):
that was it. I get this. You take you take
cares of this kids, because he's you know, with this
Brooklyn stuff and he gave it to me and I was,
I don't want to say I was devastated. I was like,
can I say, pissed, a little bit upset, you know,
come on, Moose, throw me a crumb. But he was right.
Richard was the player I was not. And Dicky and
I hung out that year and the next year also

(53:15):
in Salinas a bit, and like I said, we still
stay in touch of this day. I know his family,
his wife, Saul, everything. But that's the way those guys were,
those managers, they were so straightforward and tough and if
you cannot deal with it, you would crumble. You would
absolutely crumble. I was fortunately had the same kind of

(53:36):
football coaches back here in Hazelton growing up. Man, you
wouldn't get you wouldn't get nothing, brother, You'd get nothing
from them. So again, funny story looking back at it.
Tough moment, but those are the kind of things that
form you and permit you to get through some disappointments.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
Joe, I think we have similar stories in that, A
real quick one. As I was playing my first year
in Oneana in the New York Penn League, we had
a manager named Art Masmnian, and I felt like I
had a really good year. And at the end of
the year, he looked at me, he says, you know, Scott,
He goes, you're gonna be a great coaching manager like
Lloyd Chris, Like, can I play first before I do that?

Speaker 3 (54:13):
I had the same thing happened to me in in
uh in if I say it, But at least you
got you got to the big leagues at nine and nice.
Yet I was looking up your numbers. I think I
would have been you. Uh you look we look very similar, familiar,
But I had the same thing happened to me and
by Celia after a really good night, dude, come, I
mean Lloyd Christopher, one of the best scouts I think
there's ever lived. Lloyd walks up to me and he says,
what are you gonna stop playing and start coaching? Come on, shut.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
Up, Scott. This has just been tremendous. Since it's been
such a pleasure, We thank you. We know you're busy
these days and you're not hanging out at the Jersey Shore,
so thanks so much again, and and best of luck
to you in the Princeton program.

Speaker 4 (54:50):
That's my pleasure, guys, always, always, always enjoyable to be
able to talk baseball with you, fellas. So anytime you
need me, you know where to find me.

Speaker 3 (54:57):
Great to visit. Scott continued success. I think it's awesome, baby.

Speaker 4 (55:00):
All right, thank you, thank you guys.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
Well, Joe, that was as much fun as I thought
it would be. For someone like Scott what he does.
He's a great guy to begin with, but so well accomplished.
Between a major league career and twenty five years coaching
baseball at Princeton, Boy, you can see what an impressive
guy and coach he is.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Yeah, he's in the trenches, man. I mean being a
college baseball coach, he gets to be a scout, a coach,
a manager, and instructor. He gets to be everything running
that particular program and is being in touch with what's
going on youth wise on how guys get to college,
which is the same way they get to professional baseball.
Was interesting to hear. You know, I've not done that
for a while. It was a little bit different back

(55:39):
then as it is today. So it's great catching up
on all that stuff. He gave me a lot of
good information and insight regarding what is going on, and
it's very helpful moving forward. He speaks so well. I
can see where he just he just became part of
the fabric there at Princeton. You could just see how

(56:00):
much he loves it and how good he is at
It's outstanding.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
And I've just did bringing up the fact that we
played against each other in the New Jersey State American
Legion Championship. Right the winner was going on to the
National World Series for the American Legion.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
We played.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
We had to get the game in because the championship,
the National Championship was starting like in the next couple
of days.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
It poured the whole night.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
We actually did the Baldy Maselli trick there where we
put the field infield on fires first time I saw it,
Joe to get the game in and Scott Bradley hit
a home run in that game, which I swear to
this day didn't go over the fence. The lights weren't great.
The ball goes out to right field. You only have
two umpires work in the game. I swore it bounced

(56:48):
over the chain link fence. It was ruled a home run.
We lost the game. He goes on to the World Series.

Speaker 3 (56:53):
Chane Lenk fence makes it really difficult too. Man when
you get you really can't have its before after the fence.
That's beautiful.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Yeah, well, Joe, it's been a pleasure chatting. I'm sure
you and enjoyed it as a former quarterback and catcher yourself,
just like Scott. So maybe you've got something appropriate to
take us out here.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
I do. Mister Einstein attended it's professor there at Princeton,
I believe back in the.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
Day, right ooh nice, Yes, and it's.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
Really dovetails into one of my theories. And of course
I'm not carrying myself to mister Einstein. But if you
can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
I love that everybody wants convoluted answers to questions and problems.
And it's really like Okham's razor is probably the most
simple answer is the accurate one. So if you can't

(57:39):
explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. I
love that everybody wants to complicate things. I'm all about reduce, reduce, reduce,
and mister Einstein had been there years ago, and I
think that's pretty darn cool.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
Do simple better, but advice I heard somewhere, Yes, sir,
it works it works awesome.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Keep it up, man, it's a lot of fun. We'll
see you next time.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
All right, brother, have a great week.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
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