Cold Emails to Hot Takes with Jon Morosi

In this episode, the GMs sit down with one of baseball’s most passionate storytellers FOX and MLB Network’s Jon Paul Morosi. From his childhood love affair with America’s pastime to his rise as one of the sport’s most respected voices, Morosi shares how the game shaped his life and worldview.

He and the GM's dive deep into the state of baseball today: expansion rumors, the current postseason, and the looming challenges of a potential labor dispute. With his trademark energy and insight, Morosi offers a heartfelt reminder of why baseball endures — as both a national pastime and a personal calling.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome back to Rosters, to Rings everyone. I am Ryan McDonough,
joined as always by Thad Levine. That just a few
minutes we're going to have on John Paul Morosi. You've
seen him on the MLB Network, You've seen him at
Major League ballparks covering Major League Baseball. You've also heard
him on his podcast, The Road to Cooper's Town. We'll
get into all that with John Paul here in just

(00:26):
a few minutes, but that where I want to start
the show today. Now that we're into October, college football
is in full swing. NFL teams have played either four
or five games each and NBA preseason is underway. Teams
are going abroad and playing games all over the US
as well. But that where I want to start this show,
especially having you on, is with the Major League Baseball playoffs.

(00:48):
They're the most exciting thing going on in sports right now.
And one of the sad realities of the playoffs getting
started is it means a number of team seasons have
ended and those teams have made significant changes, either in
the front office and or with the manager. So that
our first question, we're gonna start with a listener question.
Today's listeners question is from Ruthie and Lee's summit Missouri,

(01:10):
and he wants to know that. Can you provide insights
into the number of managerial changes that have happened so far,
even though the MLB Playoffs are just beginning.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, Ryan, you know, it's a terrible time and we
probably should dedicate a whole show to what goes into
these decisions from an executive standpoint. But there have been
eight managerial openings. What one change has already been made?
The Texas Rangers relieved Bruce Bochie, future Hall of Famer,
of his role and they've placed him with Skip Schumacher,

(01:39):
who Shoemaker, who is probably one of the most coveted
guys on the market, and he's already signed with the
Texas Rangers. But keep in mind, so eight teams have openings. Well,
eight teams are still playing, so it means eight of
the twenty two have already made managerial changes. That doesn't
mean one of the eight teams that are in the
playoffs may make a managerial change, but eight already are available,

(02:00):
so seven are open, and not all of these are
created equal. I think there's the natural grouping of teams
that probably relieved their managers due to a degree of
underachievement and struggles that they had over the last couple
of years, and that would be Anaheim, Baltimore, Colorado, Minnesota,
and Washington. I think the change in San Francisco falls
under a little bit of a different category. There, Bob

(02:22):
Melvin gets relieved of his job. Some of it had
to do with underachievement for the team this year, but
probably more was correlated to the fact that Buster Posey
was hired last year. Bob Melvin had been hired by
the previous general manager, Farhan Zaiety, and most general managers
want to have their own manager, and so I think
part of Bob's dismissal probably was for Buster to have

(02:43):
an opportunity to hire his guy in that role. And then, lastly,
the Atlanta Braves. Brian Snicker, who's an incredible story, is
a guy who has worked fifty years in the Atlanta
Braves organization, which is just an incredible accomplishment for him.
Basically has just decided to step down. He's going to
stay with the organization in an advisory role enjoy his
fifty first season with the organization. Now, if you want

(03:05):
to talk a little bit more specifically about each of
these opportunities. You know, starting with Anaheim, they've strung together, unfortunately,
ten consecutive losing seasons. Their MANAGERI will hire this oufseason
will be their fifth since twenty nineteen. Just as a
point of reference, the Atlanta Braves are kind of the
Pittsburgh Steelers of Major League Baseball. They're hier this offseason.

(03:26):
Will be the fourth manager since nineteen ninety, so five
since twenty nineteen. The other organization has had four since
twenty at nineteen ninety. Not surprising, the Atlanta Braves over
that time frame have won a lot more games than
the Anaheim Angels have. The lack of security I think
in the what's been described in an MLB dot com
and their recent article about these openings is that, in

(03:49):
addition that the Anaheim Angels owner Artie Moreno will be
more involved in this higher than potentially their general manager Perrymanacian.
I think that will give some candidate's pause as to
the stability of the opportunity in Anaheim. Baltimore's next manager
inherits an extremely talented young core of players who just
didn't click on also this year due to some performance flagging,

(04:12):
but also some injuries they've got a great farm system,
they've got a progressive front office, and by all signs,
new ownership is only enhancing the attractiveness of that job.
You know, the only real thing that they have to
deal with there is the vaunted Al East and how
competitive that division is. But otherwise I think that looks
like a very very intriguing job. Colorado and Washington fall

(04:33):
in the same bucket. They both have interim managers their
Warren Schaeffer and Miguel Cairo, So there's a possibility those
interim tags will be lifted, those guys will be named manager.
But if not, I think Colorado represents really a blank slate.
There'll be a lot of intriguing minds that want to
go in there and try to help that franchise see
if they can win an altitude. Washington is an interesting

(04:54):
case too, because you start with a tremendous young player
in James Wood, a tremendous young a pitcher in Mackenzie.
I think the question is when you get good, would
those players still be there or they have matriculated a
free agency by them. Minnesota is in a clear state
of upheaval. They really traded the Lion's share of their
players at the trade deadline, but they do have an

(05:14):
intriguing core luck and they really bolstered their farm system.
There's a little bit of a change in ownership as
there's new cash in fusion, which hopefully will stabilize that
franchise and really determine how attractive that job will be
moving forward, and then wrapping up. The Giants are kind
of like the Orioles in my opinion, in the sense
that they're in a win now mode, but they're also

(05:35):
an extremely difficult division. It's a more mature payroll than Baltimore,
less flexibility, but they're really poised to strike right now.
The Braves have by far the most talent to the
major league level. There's a reason that they were preseason
picked this season to be the second best roster in
the game. They're returning most of those players, if healthy,

(05:56):
that team will be a playoff caliber team heading into
the next season, probably the only of the seven that
would fall under that care category. Right as we talk
about all this, there's a lot of change that we're
discussing here. Why do you take the listeners through the
other side of this, which is now that you're trying
to build out a candidate pool. What process did you

(06:17):
go through in the NBA to hire the next manager
or the next head coach for your franch.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, there are two different ways to approach it that
and I'm not saying either ones right or wrong. It's
they're just different depending on where your organization is at
the time. And as far as the development cycle, are
you trying to develop young players and build something over
a longer period of time or are you trying to
win right now, which sounds like in the MLB that's
probably the Atlanta Braves who were among the World Series
favorites coming into the year but missed the playoffs entirely.

(06:45):
So those are some different skill sets you're looking for
from a manager in MLB or a head coach in
the NBA. It seemed like the Texas Rangers in Major
League Baseball knew what they wanted Wishumacher in house. I
think he was a consultant this past year and move quickly.
And that's always one of the dilemmas that do you
move quickly, especially if there are seven or eight current

(07:06):
managerial openings available and potentially more, as you said earlier
in the show, depending on how the playoffs go or
are you deliberate and patient and you go through a
process and realize that you may miss out on some
of the top candidates, but you'd rather be strategic and
take your time, and if guys go off the board
because they're hired elsewhere, so be it. So that's always

(07:27):
a challenge, and to some extent, it's like pre agency
for coaches right or managers. You're doing the same thing
with players. You always have to figure out how patient
are we willing to be, how long are we willing
to wait? And so I think from my experience, the
times where we had a thorough process it was better
than the times where we were rushed a little bit.
I've always thought that even if the interim guy is

(07:51):
going to be hired, which we've seen, you know, work
at varying degrees of success across sports, you should at
least interview a number of other people. If nothing else
that I thought it was a great time to get
outside perspectives and gain ideas and information about what other
teams are doing best practices across player development, scouting, training, communication, etc.

(08:11):
It's really the only time you can ask somebody from
another club, Hey, tell me almost exactly what you guys
do and how you do it, and you can learn
a lot, especially from the guys working for a successful organization.
So I always tried to take that time to network
to learn some things. You don't want to waste anybody's time,
to be clear, But I thought the processes that were
robust and thorough ended up better than the ones where

(08:34):
maybe they say, well, this guy's been here as interim,
let's just hire him, or this is the hot buzzy
name and other teams have interest. So you know, you
get caught up kind of in the thrill of the chase,
and you don't want to fall behind, so let's expedite
our processes to go I'll get this guy before another
team hires him. But that is the challenge and something
that I think is pretty universal across sports. NBA coaching

(08:56):
agents that as you can imagine, you know, they make
a lot of money if their clients make a lot
of money, so they will try to leverage and press say, hey, fad,
this guy's got interest elsewhere. This team may hire him.
You got to take him off the market, or he
has another offer on the table. You need to put
a better offer for him to come with you. Guys,
so resisting that pressure or appropriately managing it, especially if

(09:17):
you are open, especially if you're not certain here your
head coach, your manager is going to be. I think
the teams that do that well are the ones who
end up with the right guy. And it's easy to
get caught up in the moment that as we know,
but I think you have to look at these things
hopefully over a multi year time horizon. Who's the best candidate,
not just for next week, next month, or next year,
but hopefully for the next five or ten years. And

(09:39):
I do think though organizational track record plays a big
part of it. I work for two UMBA organizations. The
Celtics were and still are very stable, The Phoenix Suns
were not sounds like the Atlanta Braves, and one end
of the spectrum the Anaheim Angels.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
On the other.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Major League Baseball history repeats itself that. So I just say,
as an executive or head coach, evaluating the cityuations, be
a little bit careful and selective, especially if you have choices,
because if a team's had five managers in six or
seven years, that's probably more reflective on the organization than
it is on any one individual candidate.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, right, and I think you nailed it. A past
practices are the best indication of future behavior, and so
you shouldn't be surprised when they continue to behave Similarly,
I just a few things I touch on, and I
think this is a bigger segment for another episode. You know,
I think you nailed it. Are you hiring somebody who's
a development guy or a guy who is trying to

(10:33):
win now? I think when we hired Roco Baldelli in Minnesota,
one thing that we went through, I'm sure you've done
this exercises. We literally brainstorm to put up fifty things
that we want in the next manager, and then we
really had to nail down what are the non negotiables,
and you have to identify three or four things that
are so important and then stick with that as best
you can, because you don't want to narrow the field
so much that there aren't that many people out there.

(10:55):
Other things that we had to consider once again, I
think we should discuss this more in detail later. Is
the benefits of interviewing people from within when you weren't
sure if they really were going to get the job,
but you wanted to give them respect and or the
experience like balancing the benefits of that versus then having
to tell them they probably weren't getting the job and
their hopes were up. And so I think there's a

(11:18):
lot of elements that go into this that are so significant.
But one of the biggest evolutions in baseball that I
found is we used to hire managers who had very
hard and fast systems. It was their way or the highway,
and you were hiring a system. Now you really have
to hire somebody who's capable of stimulating the growth and
development of every single player, as diverse as they may
be in your clubhouse. It's a very different skill set

(11:39):
you're hiring for now in baseball.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
No, absolutely, and again depends on where you are in
the cycle too. If it's a development based you want
somebody who's probably more collaborative, willing to work with the
front office, you know better at getting on the court
or having a staff get on the court with young
players and build something over time. You know we're going
to have on John Paul Morossi and the minute of
the Pistons fan.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
I think JB.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Bickerstaff and his staff have done a nice job of
that in Detroit. If you're a championship contending team, and
your goal is to win a championship next year or
compete as best you can for a championship. Let's take
the Milwaukee Bucks for example, that that they went with
a young coach a few years ago, Adrian Griffin, a
first time coach. His record was actually pretty good, but

(12:21):
they made a very quick decision halfway through his rookie
year as a coach that he's not going to be
the guy who brings the honis and the franchise the
second championship. Well, the great freak is in a Bucks uniform,
so they quickly moved to Doc Rivers, an experienced championship
veteran head coach. So that's the pressure and a change
is what the Charlotte Hornets are looking for. Is probably

(12:42):
different than Okase. He's a bad example, but say if
the Golden State Warriors were to move on from Steve Kerr,
what they would be looking for with the team in
the mid thirties, who has a very tight championship window
but a legitimate chance with the talent on their roster.
We're going to take a quick break right here. Coming
back after this, We're going to get with John Paul Morosi,
major League Baseball insider, stay with us on Rosters Drank.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Welcome back to roster Ster Rings alongside Ryan McDonough, I
am Thad Levine. We are fired up to be joined
today by John Paul Morosi. Born in Marquette, Michigan, John
was a three sport athlete and editor of the school
paper in high school. John continued his career at amateur
athletics and sports journalism while attending Harvard. John started his

(13:35):
professional career covering the Seattle Mariners for the Seattle Post
Intelligencer before moving back home to cover the Detroit Tigers
for the Detroit Free Press. In two thousand and nine,
John joined Fox Sports as a writer and an honor
air talent. In twenty sixteen, John was hired by Major
League Baseball Network. Today, John is one of the foremost
baseball journalists, a prominent radio host, a fixture of MLB

(13:59):
Network and nh ON Network. In a podcast host, John,
welcome to Rosters to Rings.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
That and Ryan, thank you so much for that very
kind of introduction. I certainly didn't deserve one of that length,
but I appreciate it nonetheless, And that if I could
actually add in one line to that is that I
had the great honor of serving while I was in
college as a Boston Globe sports desk nighthawk, which Ryan

(14:28):
knows well because of course of his dad's amazing career
at the Globe. And there was one time early in
my college career when when Ryan's dad was there actually
getting ready to submit his Baseball Hall of Fame ballot,
and I had I still have this recollection of exactly
where I was standing Ryan in the the on the

(14:48):
old newsroom Morrissey Boulevard, standing there. The great Jim Hoban
is there running the desk, and your dad is there
with his Hall of Fame ballot. I'm thinking to myself,
I'm in the presence of Will McDonough and Will McDonough's
Hall of Fame ballot. This is the big league. This
was unreal. And and Ryan, for me to be able
to spend some time around your dad and Bob Ryan

(15:10):
and all the greats and that in that department. Dan Shaughnessy, Uh,
that was again. I would say Harvard was the Boston
Globe Sports Department of universities, if I could turn that
phrase around, Because I learned a ton by reading your
dad and spend some time around him there. So I
just wanted to say, this is our first interaction here,
but grateful to have had connections there to your family

(15:32):
going back. Uh no, I.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Appreciate it, John, And where I thought you were going
with that story knowing my father was that he handed
you the ballot and said, here, kid, you fill this out.
You know, I want to go do something else. That's
that's what he used to do with my sister and I.
They had these NFL expert pickstad in the Boston Globe
every Sunday morning. The experts you mentioned, Bob Ryan and others.
They were supposed to pick, you know, Lee montfhil who

(15:53):
they liked in each football game that weekend in the
NFL with the spread and all that. And there were
times for my dad didn't feel like doing it. So
he'd hand the phone to myself or my sister, who
was probably a seven year old girl at that time,
and say here, you guys do this and you know,
and my sister'd be like, oh, I like Dan Marino,
you know, I think he's cute. I like the Dolphins colors.
And then sure enough we'd be out and about and

(16:13):
in a supermarket is somewhere and we bump into a
guy and he come up to my father and shake
his hand and say, hey, will I just want to
thank you. I've bet a lot of money every week
on your picks, and you were eleven and three last
week whatever it was, And little did he know it
was a ten year old boy and his seven year
old girl who were calling in the picks on a whim.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
That is perfect and right.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
I wasn't gonna say that, but there may have been
a time as your dad was getting ready to submit
that ballot where he was asking the desk generally what
their opinion was of Alan travel, and being the proud
Michigana that I am, mister McDonough, I would wholeheartedly endorse
Allan travel for the Hall of Fame. So I'm not
sure if your dad voted for him that particular.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
Year, but I did argue my case. Look at his numbers,
they're certainly much like Barry Larkins there in some ways
like their jeters if you really look at it. I
may have made my very Midwestern advocacy, but I'm not
entirely sure Ryan, if your dad actually checked the box
there beside trans name be that as it may he
is now in the Hall of Fame. So all's well,

(17:16):
that ends.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Well, you needed to start laying the groundwork for a
little Whitaker a little bit earlier.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
I know, I know that was a whiff by my
brethren there in the Baseball RGI Association of America for sure.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
Well, John. One of our traditions on rosters to rings
as we ask every guest to talk about their sports
origin story, how did you fall in love with sports?

Speaker 3 (17:37):
Well that it's a great question, and fittingly here in
the midst of the baseball postseason, in which the Tigers
are rather improbably a part to this point, given the
way that things unfolded for them down the stretch of
the regular season. I grew up in Michigan as a
fan of the Tigers, and their run to the American
League East title in nineteen eighty seven was one of

(17:59):
my first core sports memories. That was the year I
went to my first Tigers game with my dad at
Tiger Stadium. Alan Trammel should have been the MVP that year,
finished a close second to George Bell, but he did
bat three forty three. He did get the Tigers into
the postseason that season, so that to me, you know,
loving baseball was a huge part of it. There in
the eighties, some really and then into the nineties, some

(18:23):
really fun and charismatic teams that I had a chance
to watch as a kid. If you take from so
from eighty seven through I graduated high school in two thousand,
that includes the Bad Boys in basketball, which those teams
I loved, and certainly Ryan we could touch on that.
There are many of us who believe that it should
have been a three peat that there was, that Lambier

(18:45):
still hasn't fouled Kareem remarkably. And even if you go
back to the previous year, if if Dantley and Bennie
Johnson don't collide heads at the garden and all those things,
maybe the Pistons actually win four in a row. But
we'll leave that discussion there for now. And then you
go into the nineties and you had the Fab five,
you had the Russian five with the Red Wings, you
had the Flintstones in Michigan State basketball. Later on, you

(19:07):
had Barry Sanders' career. So there was just a lot
of really not just great teams, but culturally significant moments
in sports that encapsulated my childhood and I played. As
you referenced, that played might have been too strong of
a description. You very charitably left out my record as
a high school quarterback, which was a robust two and sixteen.

(19:30):
So I ascertained very easily and quickly that I would
be much better talking about sports than playing them. I
got to Harvard, as you mentioned, played JB baseball there. Again,
it was a fun thing to do, is to wear
that school's name on your chest, even though I wasn't
a very good player. I wasn't a varsity player, certainly,

(19:51):
But along that time, and I referenced a bit earlier,
working at the Boston Globe, I realized that in the
midst of this very unfamiliar place and hyper competitive academic environment,
that for being from a small town in Michigan of
one square mile basically, and sports were what I knew,
sports were, what sports were my common language. And so

(20:12):
I'm in the midst of all these people, I'm feeling
with absolute certainty that I was the least academically qualified
person in my class, without question. And what I still
knew how to do was go work for the media
relations department at Harvard and keep the shot chart at
the hockey game, I could do that, and then later
on I could cover the hockey team. And basically I decided,

(20:34):
guys that I was going to do this and work
in sports until someone told me it was time to
grow up and get a real job, and that fortunately
hasn't happened yet, might happen tomorrow. You never know in
this business. But just very grateful to have that. And
most importantly, I was proud of my family here in Michigan.
But my wife's a physician, so her job means a

(20:54):
heck couple lot more than mine does on my best day,
and so I think a lot of perspective comes from
watching and supporting her and what she does, and then
raising our three daughters here in Michigan. So I'm really
grateful to be able to be back in my home
state and to do the job that I do from
the Midwest here. But sports, really, in a lot of ways,
that Ryan was my way of making sense of this

(21:17):
new and really enriching and at times intimidating place of Harvard,
and probably surprisingly I came out of it as a
sports journalist. It wasn't my plan going in, but I
just felt pulled in a lot of ways toward that environment,
and it's really really grateful that I'm still there all
these years later.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
You know, I think we can all probably appreciate this.
But my father told me when I was much younger,
that very few people know what they actually want to do.
When he was talking about his generation, our generation, really
any generation then, he said, far fewer people who know
what they want to do actually get to pursue what
they want to do, And then like an infinitesimal amount
of us get to know what we want to do,

(21:57):
pursue what we want to do make a living at it.
He called those people passion unicorns. And I feel like
so blessed that I was able to pursue what I
wanted to do make a living doing it. It sounds like
all three of us, that's one of the ties that
binds us together.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
That's a great point that and I'm sure Ryan probably
agrees with that too, just how grateful we are to
have a career and something that we love. And I
think that the longer I do it, the more that
I try to pause and reflect on a to your point,
that the good fortune that we have to be doing this,
and then b what is it that we're giving back

(22:34):
they were putting back into this, and I try whenever
I can as I'm in my travels, I love talking
to university students about about their path and their interest
in working in sports and ways of doing it. I
sometimes lament for them that it's not quite as clear

(22:55):
as it once was, that the steps to doing the job,
that the really the scaffolding that supported me in the
early years of my career in a lot of ways
doesn't exist in the same way. I think back I
was a senior at Harvard and a lot of my
friends were going to work in consulting or investment banking,
and I was sending out from my dorm room these

(23:17):
packets and certainly Ryan familiar with what this looks like,
these packets of newspaper clippings of again things I had
written in high school field hockey round ups for the
Boston Globe as a Nighthawk, along with my campus newspaper clippings,
and just hoping that I would get an internship. And
I believe I sent fifty five my senior year and

(23:37):
got one one for that summer. In two thousand and
four at the Oregoning in Portland, Oregon. I graduated from
Harvard on a Thursday, and by Monday morning I was
sitting at my desk in Portland ready to work, and
I was incredibly blessed to have that opportunity. And I
often think, how do I help advise the young people
of today who want to do it when this steps

(24:00):
along the journey are so much less clear. That's that
I think is the is the challenge in a lot
of ways. The good news is the barriers to entry
are lower than ever. If you want to cover sports
it takes you, however much time to register a domain
name and get a blog going and share your thoughts.
That the barrier entry is almost zero. That's the good part.

(24:21):
The tricky part is how do I monetize it? How
do I grow it? A lot of those those larger
questions that I think are a little less tangible in
a lot of ways to find those answers. So I
just I try to give back to those young people.
And also, as you both know, when you speak with
young people, you often learn from them as much as

(24:42):
they learn from you. And the advice that I give them,
and I'll share it with both of you and certainly
our younger listeners today is I always advise them that
whenever they're stepping into an interview with a company, whether
it's media or a team, whatever it might be, to
remember that that when you are eighteen nineteen, twenty years

(25:02):
old twenty two, that one of the most powerful ways
you could begin a sentence is by saying this, my
friends and I love talking about this, or my friends
and I love exploring this, we love this technology. Because
all the executives in sports or any other field for
that matter, they all want to know what does the

(25:24):
eighteen nineteen twenty year old want to consume? How do
we meet that person's interests? And so I try to
remind them that they have a men's power in being
themselves and in conveying to older folks what it is
that they want to do, and it's in the midst
of this very fluid and ever changing landscape. I just

(25:46):
try to remind young people that while there are some headwinds, certainly,
and some frictional dynamics that make it hard to enter
the workforce, they also have a lot of tools at
their disposal that we didn't have. So I try to
try to look at it both through a realistic and
an optimistic lens.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
That's great advice, John. And then when the question is asked,
you know, my friends and I like to consume this.
I assume that you say rosters to rings as a placeholder.
After that, you know, it should be a daily show,
you know, some variety with entertainment with that doing tricks
or something. You know, we just we just can't get it.
People can't get enough of It's the feedback we've gotten that sample.
Maybe a little skewed by the way. But John, a

(26:24):
question I was going to say for later, but I
want to ask it now because of what you just
said about working for the Oregonian. Is expansion in Major
League Baseball? We know that's a hot button topic. Portland
is certainly one of the cities, along with Salt Lake
on the West coast, those are too much too, I
hear the most. And then on the East coast or Midwest,
maybe Nashville. What is your take on expansion? Is it

(26:45):
likely and what do you think the reality is that
MLB expands sometime between now and say twenty thirty.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
I think that's probably the number that they would love
to hit, Brian, in terms of the year and how
soon it could be. Obviously that We've got a big
CBA negotiation coming up in the next couple of years
that I think will shape a lot of what we
see in the sport for the next decade. By the
end part of this decade, the Commissioner's talked about his
plans to retire and the overall timeline there, but also

(27:16):
that he would like to have the system in place,
the framework to expand by the time he leaves office,
so around twenty thirty maybe it's twenty thirty one that
we'd actually see the teams in play. But there's no
question the Commissioner has said this on multiple occasions. I
know at times it tends to get a little more

(27:37):
traction or more interest whenever he says it, but he's
been quite consistent, really going back to when he first
took office, which is that from a scheduling standpoint, the
number of thirty two is a lot easier to manage
in the number of thirty in terms of just the
ways you can divide up the divisions travel when you

(27:58):
go to the more radical geograph an alignment. We we
know this about sports. This is not breaking news that
that that media rights and having favorable start times for
your team's games. That's a really important element to how
you sell and market your product, especially at a time
where uh again, based on public comments, uh MLB is

(28:21):
bringing bringing more and more of the of the media
rights in house in terms of the way they can
distribute the local broadcast. So local broadcasts do best. And
this is not breaking news for Thad based on when
he was working in Texas, how many times his in
division games he had three indivision opponents that were in
the Pacific time zone as a central time zone team.

(28:41):
That's that's a real barrier and a real issue in
the current construct of of the American League West for
teams like the Astros and the Rangers, and and if
you look at it, how about a more tightly geographically
arranged division if it's if it's a four team division,
that is that is Houston, Texas, Saint Louis, and Kansas City.

(29:04):
Just for the sake of argument, it creates a lot
more favorable start times. And you can do that if
you have eight divisions of four teams. I've always said
never to do math on the air, but I'm pretty
comfortable that eight times four is still thirty two. So
for a lot of different reasons, I think that's the
goal of MLB. I think Portland's got an excellent case.

(29:25):
I think Salt Lake has an excellent case that they've
they've shown i think proof of concept where they've they've
hosted now NHL hockey in a very short time horizon.
By the way, you've got a credit the way the
Mammoth Ryan Smith and his group have handled that, it's
been really impressive. They made some new renovations to the arena,
obviously trying to make it work for both hockey and basketball.

(29:46):
You look out to the east, the Carolinas, I think
certainly could be a very fertile ground for a franchise. Nashville.
My brother lives there, so I know well just how
much that city has grown and how what a great
baseball town it is. Thad knows this too, just from
being an executive. Roughly, I'm exaggerating here, but it feels
like a quarter of all American baseball players already live

(30:09):
there in the offseason, and so it's going to be
an easy yes for the players Union because so many
of their players are already based there. The Vanderbilt's got
all their guys that train there. I visited Coach Corbin
at that amazing facility there on Vandy's campus. So there's
already a ton of major league players living there. So
Nashville has much in the way that Seattle is a

(30:33):
great basketball town without an NBA team, Nashville is a
great baseball town without an MLB team, And I tend
to think that at some point in the next decade
that's going to be rectified.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
And just to build off of John's points, I think
two things to consider as well is I think the
commissioner's focus and attention recently has been stabilizing the situation
in Tampa Bay and in Oakland, you know, as Oakland moves,
and so I think once those two things are resolved,
he turns his attention back to expansion. And you know,
to to John's point, it seems essential that we get

(31:05):
another team at least in the Mountain time zone, if
not the Pacific time zone, to be able to balance
that the divisions out. And then the only other consideration
that I've always heard about the Carolinas is it's such
a rich area for minor league baseball, you know, so
we know that there are a lot of fans there,
but do we want to cannibalize those minor league cities,
or do we want to put it in Nashville, which

(31:26):
seems to be such a popular place. So I think
I think Rob Manford the commissioners thinking about this constantly.
I think once Oakland and Tampa are stable, which there
seemed to be on the road to be, he'll turn
his attention back to the space.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
Excellent points there, and I agree having the balance of
one east, one west makes a lot of sense. And
then and then you start to and really it's it's
it's a great exercise for all of us. You could
just take your your geographic groupings and find the find
them the tightest groups of four that you can find,
get the map out and circle them and it and
then you realize, yeah, you would certainly if they go

(32:01):
that direction. It'd be unique to have the Yankees and
Mets in the same division, the Dodgers and Angels in
the same division. Having now the universal DH makes all
of this a lot easier. And and I think that
the players from their perspective, you know one thing that
in that you've studied this a lot, and Ryan, I
know it's it's a big topic in the in the
NBA too, is is player health management, taking care of

(32:23):
their bodies and their wellness over a long season. And
there is little doubt that shorter travel is better and
and the way that the miles accumulate is is a
real element. And I think the more that we study sleep, wellness, nutrition,
all those things that you get a better product. The
players feel better and they put on a better show
for everybody when that when they're when they're healthier and

(32:44):
traveling a little bit less.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah, great points, John, And that's a recent shift in
the NBA. Historically, the adage was that, well, we can't
sell tickets for the same opponent, especially if it's a
lesser opponent, for two games in a row. So we're
going to prioritize revenue to overplayer health. Right, If I'm
not trying to pick on anybody, but if the Sacramento
Kings or Charlotte Hornets or one of these non marquee

(33:07):
teams comes into a market and they play on Wednesday
and then not again until Saturday, how do they sell
the second game? In particular? Was the challenge, and that
was what these folks who drive revenue for the teams,
the chief ticket officers, marketing officers did not want. What
the NBA has now said is we don't care about that.
We'd rather have the players not fly to a city,

(33:28):
go fly somewhere else, and then X number of weeks
or months later have to come back to that city
to play one more game. That does not make sense.
So now you're seeing a lot more of that. We're
a team will even they don't do this as much,
but occasionally play a back to back in the same market.
More typically they play one game in the NBA, have
an off night, and then the same two teams play
a game again at the same venue two nights later,

(33:49):
so two games and three nights. That is more common.
It's more of a Major League Baseball style. But you
guys are exactly right. Across sports, player health is being emphasized.
And then frankly too, I think teams are looking at
the reduced travel costs while the team just goes there
once in stays. That is less expensive than getting everybody
back on the plane, flying to another city and then

(34:10):
having to return to the previous city and do the
same thing again later on that season.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah, and John, I think you brought up an excellent
point about the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros when
I was working there. One of the biggest concerns, and
it keep in mind that was when you played eighteen
or nineteen in Division games, So we had three West
Coast trips, and you know, you could play nine consecutive
night games in Seattle, Anaheim, and Oakland, Sorry, and your

(34:37):
young fans would be disengaged from your product. You know,
those games were starting at nine pm locally weekday nights,
Like your young fans just were totally disengaged for like
a ten day period. It was a major problem for
those franchises that could be remedied by realignment. John, I
wanted to shift your attention. One of the most unique
elements about you, I think is the fact that you

(34:58):
have really invested in learning like which is to try
to connect personally with players throughout your career and your
at least functional, if not conversational in Italian, French and Spanish.
Can you take us back to two thousand and three
an interview you conducted with Victor Mendez in the clubhouse
and how that has inspired you to learn more Spanish

(35:19):
and how you've now forged connections with players than maybe
you otherwise wouldn't have been able to.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
You've done your research that that's pretty impressive, my friend.
Well done. So I was an intern that summer with
the Grand Rapids Press covering the West Michigan white Caps,
then managed by Phil Reagan. So he was of course
the manager of the Orioles when Cal Ripken broke the streak.
So it's a nice little bit of baseball trivia from Whalen, Michigan.
Phil Reagan, great guy, amazing pitching coach too. So was

(35:46):
covering the West Michigan white Caps and I was in
the clubhouse there. So at that point, it's before my
senior year at Harvard. And so at that point I
had taken one year of Spanish at Harvard. I'd taken
it through high school. I had had some exposure to
Spanish as a kid in preschool. I had a teacher
who spoke Spanish, missus Roz in Bay City, amazing, so

(36:09):
she taught me a little bit of Spanish when I
was in pre school, and I gradually probably had a
faculty for language as a kid growing up, but I
didn't speak Italian at home as a kid. I just
had an interest in language and loved it. And then
I realized that just with my at that point very

(36:30):
limited Spanish in my ability to communicate with Victor because
there was no translator around this long before translators became
somewhat mandatory in clubhouses. I felt this crowd of people
gathering around me and all like, maybe not all the players,
but it felt like that a good portion of the
roster in this minor league clubhouse was listening into this conversation.

(36:53):
Because this phenomenon of an anglophone reporter trying his best
to interview a Spanish speaking player in Sea Spanish didn't
happen all that often in Comstock Park, Michigan in two
thousand and three. And I realized through that conversation, as
I was struggling and it certainly wasn't good Spanish or
or certainly wasn't perfect Spanish, that that there was real

(37:15):
potential in doing this and that and Ryan, I've what
I've long believed, and this is even true now as
I try to do Spanish interviews as often as I can,
and and invariably make mistakes every time I do. It
is is the goal is not perfection. The goal is
authenticity and connection and and building a bond with the player.

(37:39):
Now my my biggest fear is always that I will
is i'm doing the interview, perhaps misinterpret a word or
miss a word here or there that the player is saying.
That's always what I try to make sure that I'm
that I'm doing a good and throw job of listening
as intently as possible so that way I don't misinterpret

(37:59):
something that I'm then saying on behalf of the player.
As I have said many times, I am perfectly capable
of making my own mistakes. I do it all the time.
I saying something silly in my own words. I do
that in English, so I'm that is not foreign to me.
But I always want to make sure I'm doing right
by the player. But what I'll say is that I
have been around all star players from Latin America who

(38:24):
have come up to me and said, hey, John, we
really appreciate that you try. And that's really that's it.
The fact that when you think about and that you
know from going to the Dominican Republic and being involved
in player development at the youngest levels of the game,
that we have a system in place in MLB where

(38:48):
young players sign and then they're coming through the system
and almost from day one, Latin American players are put
in a situation where they are speaking their second language,
they have to operate in their second language, and when
they see an anglophone person from the US doing his
or her best to to meet them and go through
the same thing, it creates a bond of empathy that

(39:10):
that is essential and and they will always remember that
no matter it's it really to me is inspiring that
that that's one of the things we can do, not
just as broadcast but as citizens, that that people deeply
care about that and they really appreciate so much that
it's not just a gesture, it's it's a real meaning

(39:31):
of connection. And so I've been very very grateful in
my career that some of my favorite moments and interviews
have been those that have involved foreign languages. And certainly
I don't I don't speak Japanese, but I know how
to congratulate people in Japanese and say thank you and
and good evening, and and even those small courtesies go
a long way when when you're when you're interviewing a
player and that you've recruited players internationally ryan you've done

(39:54):
the same is knowing and understanding language, but also culture
and respect those touches are incredibly important, and I've just
tried to dedicate myself as much as I can. I
try to listen to games in Spanish. I try to
make a point of understanding how the game is being
interpreted and experiencing different languages and hoping that comes out

(40:17):
in my own coverage of the sport.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
John, I think it's a subtle point with a monumental impact.
I always felt that. And you know one thing you
didn't say is like some of the kids who come
out of the Dominican who we are signing are maybe
fourth or fifth grade educated, So not only do they
not know English, but they're they're learning Spanish still, like
they're refinding their own native language skills. And I think
we made so many poor choices in baseball because we

(40:40):
when a kid could not learn English, we ascribed all
these traits to them which were totally inappropriate. And I
always looked at it and said, almost all of our
coaches are high school, if not college educated, and we're
not making the effort. And so now baseball's really transformed
in that regard. At every minor league team there's Spanish
speaking coaches. Every Major league as Spanish speaking coaches. We

(41:02):
have an interpreter as you referenced, but now we're providing
them with the resources I mean fundamentally to being able
to connect with them in their own languages. Coaching them
in their own languages just so clearly puts them in
a better position to succeed and feel like they're connected
as part of a community. And I just harken back
to my time in Texas. I didn't know Spanish either,

(41:22):
but I made a point of coming up to Vladimir
Guerrero every day ask him to teach me one word
in Spanish. I would speak to him a little bit
in English, you'd speak to me a little bit in Spanish.
And also a connection is formed because when you're willing
to humble yourself and make yourself vulnerable, it's amazing where
you can connect with people because now all of a sudden,
they see you being in a compromise position, something they

(41:45):
can imminently relate to because they're dealing with it on
a literally a daily basis.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
It's next to the point that I believe too, and
I'm sure it's the same through Ryan's experience in basketball
as well, that being understood and being able to to
communicate is so inextricably linked to the mental health of
a player or a person in any walk of life.

(42:09):
But when you think about if you're nineteen years old,
you're from the Dominican Republic, all of a sudden, you're
in the Midwest League, and these Midwest League towns, like
I was describing, they're small. You're probably not around a
lot of Spanish speakers. And oh, by the way, you
might be in that moment as a nineteen year old
now the primary breadwinner for your family, and your family's

(42:29):
financial well being back in the Dominican is contingent on
your ability to have success, and you're in a place
where you don't speak the local language. Simply ordering food
is difficult, the pressure of being away, the homesickness. You know.
I'm very fortunate in being able to host the Road
to Cooperstown podcast where I talk with Hall of famers

(42:51):
about their journeys, and it is amazing to me that
in Ryan how many players, no matter where they're from,
but especially those that are from Latin America go through
extreme homesickness during those minor league years. Tony Oliva talking
about how he was crying at night when he was
in the minor leagues, so homesick, and of course at

(43:12):
that point in time, he's from Cuba. The relations between
the US and Cuba especially strained there in the early
nineteen sixties, literally feeling like you can't ever go home,
and all this is happening. Oh, by the way, at
seven o'clock, we expected to hit, hit some really tough
pitching and to have success. So I just think that
whatever organizations can do is paramount important just from a

(43:36):
human standpoint to help your players feel comfortable. And then
as broadcasters and as journalists, I look at it as
this is part of our core job description. We are
supposed to be the storytellers. It is the core job
description of the baseball player to play, and it's my
job to communicate. I should at least meet him halfway,

(43:57):
if not way more than halfway, to be able to
help him feel comfortable, because that's my job. It's my
job to communicate his story and hopefully to your point
that some of the most interesting stories and journeys in
this game are those that have an international framework. And
if we're not fully understanding it, and if an American

(44:20):
journalist is just sort of saying, oh well, I can't
understand what he's saying, and so I'm just not going
to tell that story. You're missing the best stories, you're missing,
You're missing all of these really rich historical notes. Just
think about and fortunately with Levon Hernandez in South Florida
in the late nineteen nineties, there were Spanish speaking reporters

(44:42):
there to help tell his story. Has there ever been
a more remarkable October journey than Levon Hernandez and El
Duque as well as his half brother during those years.
And you could not understand, in my view, properly with
full context, those Yankees World Series team and the Marlins
of ninety seven without understanding all that those brothers had

(45:04):
gone through to come to this country. It's just it's
essential framework of understanding. And honestly, to me, Ryan, it's
the job of the broadcasters to be able to pick
up on that.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
You absolutely right, John, And when I was in high school,
Pedro Martinez was in his prime with the Red Sox,
and when he pitched, it was a cultural event. The
Dominican flags would be out, They've been playing Dominican music.
You remember you worked there. Not long after the Boston
Globe was printed in English that the sports section. They
also printed it in Spanish and Pedro during that time

(45:35):
period was as good a pitcher as I've seen. You
guys have watched a lot more baseball than I have,
but he was at the peak of his dominance and
it really was an event. Regardless of how the Red
Sox were that year when Pedro pitched, it was different
in the cultural impact and seeing the paper, you know,
Boston Globe of all papers. Boston's not maybe known as
the most progressive city as far as the university.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Hispanics saw that.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
To see that and the impact that had culturally just
beyond baseball was really impactful and really impressive.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
John.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
I want to talk a little bit more about your podcast.
I think it's really neat that you're able to do that.
It's called The Road to Cooperstown. You have one on
one conversations with Hall of famers that and I recently
had on Greg Mannox.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
That was a thrill for me.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
You know, are there any moments to stand out as
far as Wow, this this was really impactful. You mentioned
what Tony Oliva said when you had him on, and
any specific guests who stand out, you know, I know,
they're all they're all great, they're all Hall of famers,
but you know, any anybody that really resonates with you
as you think back on all those interviews you've done,
and any any episodes that our listeners may want to

(46:37):
go track down and go back and listen to.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
Yeah, Ran Well, I appreciate the question. We've had a
lot of great ones. And it's not because of the host.
It's because of the guests they've been They have been
phenomenal and and their thoughtfulness and and I think too
part of the the initial charter of this podcast was
to ask players about the challenges they encountered on the
road to Cooperstown and what what they had gone through

(47:04):
and and it's it's a really interesting dynamic to be
able to speak with the greats about some of their
lesser moments and some moments of struggle and also those
that evoked profound emotion. I remember towards the end of
my conversation with Larry Walker, Larry Walker is in tears.
Larry Larry Walker is a tough guy and and and

(47:27):
he and he was in tears by the end. Todd
Helton talked about the challenge uh even in his own
mental health of of retiring from the game and what
he then went into afterward, and just and just that
that pivot point of a player's life when you leave
the game behind and then go into that next chapter,
how how challenging that is. And and he spoke about that.

(47:49):
Ken Griffy Junior talked about all the the mental hardships
he went through during his career and and the expectations
of of being the son of someone who played for
the Big Red Machine. So that is what I hope
we're communicating through the podcast, is that these great legends
of the game become both more relatable and more extraordinary

(48:12):
when you hear about how they say, Yeah, I was
homesick too, I almost quit. I didn't think I was
good enough and there for a lot of these players.
Fred McGriff was cut. Not just the old story about
Michael Jordan being cut from the varsity but still playing
on the jv. Fred McGriff was cut from his high
school baseball program entirely. He had no place to play.

(48:33):
Fred McGriff in Tampa, no place to play, and he's
talked about riding his bike to go to the Nautilus
gym and get himself in the better shape. So we
could play the next year. Mike Schmidt initially going to
Ohio University thinking he was going to play basketball. Just
amazing adversity that's been overcome. I would also say this
a real common thread for me, Ryan multi sport athlete.

(48:57):
We could talk about this at length, but I think
it's very instructive that the youngest Hall of Famer that
we have in baseball, Joe Mauer, three sports all the
way through four years of high school. Three sports every year,
all years. And I like to make this point of

(49:18):
all parents out there, who do you want to listen
to the travel sports coach who says, Okay, we got
to spend X and Y and Z because you got
to play for my club and this is the ticket
to be able to have a college career. Or Joe
Mauer in the Hall of Fame who says that playing
three sports a year all the way through was essential
in what he was able to achieve that he was

(49:41):
obviously the number one quarterback recruit. Was also had to
go play for Bobby Bowden. He was actually the best
high school basketball player in the state of Minnesota as
a senior, as Pat Royce. That is the longtime Start
Tribune Colum has told me, and then, of course the
number one pick in baseball, So it's Joe Maher's an outlier,
but a lot of that wisdom applies broadly speaking. I

(50:02):
think to one of my other favorite podcast guests, Ted Simmons,
who is such an insightful person, and Thad Cross passing them,
I'm sure as during a Thad's career, during a Ted's
career as an executive with the Mariners and other clubs.
But one of my favorite things that Ted Simmons talked
about was that he found something in the game or

(50:24):
away from the game that occupied his headspace even on
game days, and that was art. Ted Simmons is a
known connoisseur, expert collector of American art, and he and
his wife Mary Anne are are deeply involved in the
Saint Louis arts community. They've donated it was a part sale,
part donation of this rich collection of American furniture and

(50:46):
works on paper. He's he knows art as well as
he knows baseball, which is saying something because he's one
of the most intellectual baseball people that you're ever going
to meet. But he said that it was important to
him that he had something that his mind could go
to that was away from the game. And he found
this intellectually enriching part of him to be essential in

(51:09):
navigating the mental demands of the job. And I think
we can all relate to this balance in life is
harder than ever. And now Ted Simmons talked about how
he would spend maybe if he had a game in Philadelphia,
you'd be going to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for
two hours maybe in the morning before before you go
to the ballpark. Now, how much of that time for

(51:30):
all people in modern life is consumed by screens or
things that really aren't that enriching. And Ted believed it
was essential to get that mental space and almost reinvigorating
where he felt like he was better as a ballplayer
when his mind was firing on different syliners because of
the way that art made him reflect and feel. And

(51:53):
a final point on Ted, I sent it back to you.
He actually he was able. So he signed with the
Cardinals in night teen sixty seven as a high school
graduate from Michigan. He went back and got his college
degree from the University of Michigan in the mid nineteen nineties,
while working as a scout for the Cleveland Indians and
John Hart, who that knows well. John Hart would assigned

(52:15):
them to cover games in Michigan. Ted would in the
morning go to ann Arbor, go to class, and then
go to Tiger Stadium and scout that night. And so
he was able to get his degree, and he talked
about how much it meant to him that he was
able to see it through where he basically signed at eighteen.
There was no time where he was a college baseball player,
and he still got his degree because he believed that

(52:38):
the intellectual exercise of it meant that much to him.
Just he's a fascinating person. It's one of my favorite
interviews that we did there on the road to Cooperstown.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
John and I just got to hit on a few
of the guys you just touched on there. Fred McGriff,
if he hadn't made that high school team, where would
Tom and Manski's business be this day? Well, I mean
that knows, I mean who knows. But also like just
the people I came across you mentioned if you there,
Larry Walker was a hockey player playing baseball. Don Mattingly
was a basketball player who played baseball. You know, Dave

(53:10):
Winfield was famously one of the best three sport athletes
ever in the United States, let alone to play Major
League Baseball. It's really fascinating. Then Ted Simmons, I had
a few opportunities to talk to him. Truly one of
the most fascinating minds I've ever been around. I don't
know if you've ever heard the story of his folklore
about his Kirk Gibson scouting report. If you haven't heard

(53:31):
that story, next time he's on, please ask him to
read it to you. It's absolutely epic. John, I just
want to shift topics for a second here. You're a
tremendous relationship person. You always have been. You dig into relationships.
Part of that is just your personal wiring. Part of
that is because your job is to cultivate sources. But

(53:53):
can you take us through the process and how that
has changed today's day and age. It seems to me
that clubs are really covered information more than they ever have.
How tough is it for you to cultivate those relationships
in all thirty teams, because at some level that is
your responsibility and that's your life blood, is to have
sources within each thirty clubs to give you some of
those personal information, stories, and access to some of the

(54:16):
best characters in the game.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
Yeah, it's a great question, and we could probably talk
for a full hour about just this subject alone. I'll
say this. When I first broke into the business, so
I graduated college in two thousand and four, I covered
the Mariners No. Five, as you mentioned earlier, and what
I would do, and we can either decide if this
is a good idea not so good idea. What I

(54:39):
would do is, at that time, I'm in Seattle. My
wife now my girlfriend then, was working there too. She
was working at the VA Hospital and getting ready to
apply to medical school, so she was really busy, and
I had one thing on my mind, which was baseball
and making it as a reporter. So what I would
do is I would I would get the media guide

(55:03):
for basically every team. I'd pick it up from the
press room at Safeco Field in those days and bring
it back to our apartment in Seattle, and I would
just after a game, I would stay up through most
of the night. You probably got one of these emails
stad where I would like literally in I would flip
through the media guide, figure out how to email everybody,
and send an email to basically anybody that I could

(55:26):
find in the organization, and invariably at least a handful
would reply to you. I would just be introducing with myself.
I wasn't looking for a big scoop. I just wanted
to say, Hi, I'm John, I'm covering baseball. I'd love
to meet you sometime. And I was casting a fairly
wide net, and so usually I would probably get three
or four emails emails back from Scouts executives, assistant gms

(55:50):
like you were at the time, fed and then you
would just stay in touch and really spend time, as
I would like to say, watering the garden of those relationships.
You have to keep tending those checking in watching games. Hey,
when the team is playing well, reach out. When the
team's not playing well, reach out, just establish and it
takes a lot of time. Occasionally I would get I
would get the one email response from the head of

(56:12):
communications or whoever it might be, saying, mister Morosi, it
has come to my attention that you have emailed our
entire organization. And then, uh, please just forward future request
to me. Okay, duly noted, I got that. But but
especially when you're twenty two, you can do that now.
It might be a little a little different if I
did it now, but but the principle is still the same,

(56:36):
which is you have to reach out to people the relationships.
The people are not just gonna line up at my
door and knock on the door and just hand me scoops.
It's not how this works. You need to you need
to work for it and develop the relationships and and
not just only call people when the scoop of the
century is in front of it. You gotta you gotta
work on it. You have to. You have to learn

(56:57):
how to ask good questions. And also if you're curious
about the game, and you're and you want to know, Hey,
I'm curious about this guy. You got a double A
who's a really good player. Can I talk about him?
And then maybe four or five conversations down the line.
If that guy gets traded or included in a in
a call up, then maybe you get that story down

(57:17):
the line. But you can't it can't just be transactional.
You can't just be Okay, I get this scoop and
you get this positive press. It's it's a relationship. And
and by the way, the relationship part of it's more
fun because at the end of the day, we're humans
and we want we want friendships and connections and relationships.
That's that's the fun part of life. That's why we're
Here's sports are a framework to have interesting friendships and

(57:40):
relationships in bonds, whether you're a fan crying along with
your either tears of joy or sadness along with your
fellow fans in the stands, or if you're a journalist.
And this is why we love sports, and so I've
tried to keep up with that. I also love and
this I credit my mom for this. I still love
writing letters. I'm a letter writer by her influence, and

(58:02):
still do it. It is amazing to me how many
people will write back to you, because it is such
a lost art. If you have something to say to someone,
send them a letter. I mean, you could send them
an email too, but I tend to think that letters
are a little a little more mystery in that is
it actually going to get to the person who's going
to read it? Are they going to respond to you?

(58:23):
And I have a nice little stack of letters from
folks that I never would have thought would have ever
written me back, and yet they did so. And then
you never know where those relationships might come up still
for years that and Ryan, I would go into the
press room at a ballpark and there'd be a table
of scouts there, And to anybody that's ever been in
a press box, you know those scouts when you see them,

(58:45):
that they have a certain distinctive look about them. Walk
up to them and say hello. One of my biggest
pet peeves is is writers who only talk to other writers.
With all due respect, it's your job to meet people
who are not your colleagues and competition. You should get
out of your circle, sit down with the scouts, shake
some hands, and learn something and also take in the knowledge.

(59:08):
I would I would always very early in my career
it was interesting that and Ryan, because it was I
was breaking into the business right around the Moneyball book
and that and really that zeitgeist across sports, and so
to be fair, I looked like I looked like a
moneyball guy. I was twenty two years old from Harvard,
and I kind of I probably kind of gave off

(59:29):
that vibe. So to be able to sit with the scouts,
you had to learn how to just kind of shut
your mouth and listen and and and scouts in my
experience when they know that you respect what they do
and that you respect their experience in the game. Again,
whether it's basketball, baseball, whatever the sport is, and you
just kind of sit and listen, you might learn something.

(59:53):
And and by the way, part of part of the
learning for me is not just the scoop and the
transaction of it all, but it's that, Hey, if at
the playoff game I might be covering tonight, if something
happens that reminds me of a story that I heard
from a scout twenty years ago, I might ask a
better question of cal Raley when he's sitting next to me,

(01:00:17):
I might I might have something more intelligent to say
to him because of something that I learned about the
game from someone that had worn a catcher's mask and
chest protector for twenty years. And I've got something intelligent
to ask him. It's when you go and you're curious,
you learn things, and but you got to ask the
questions to do it and ryan to get back to

(01:00:37):
your sport. There was one month when I was in
Seattle where the where there was a gap in in
sonics reporters at the PI. So for October of five,
the the the first month of the Bob Weiss administration
of the Seattle SuperSonics. I was covering the team and

(01:00:57):
I and I got to go to the Sonics the
practice center. I covered a few of their preseason games,
and so I got to watch Ray Allen shoot for
about a month. And that was pretty darn cool to
see what was great about about him. And I always
said that when I was watching Ray shoot three pointers,
Thad would say that, you know, when you're watching VP,
there are some guys for whom the ball just sounds

(01:01:20):
different leaving the bat. The ball sounded different going through
the net when thirty four was shooting, and I knew that,
and that was pretty cool to be able to watch
Ray Allen work and how he handled things. It was
just it was a pretty cool education. And that, by
the way, is true whether it's basketball, hockey, baseball, football,
whatever the sport is. When you're around the greats, you

(01:01:42):
can kind of see it and feel it, but you
got to have your head up and out of your
phone to be able to figure that out. And I
just think that watching Ray shoot baskets for a month,
I always said, like, that's that's pretty special. I'm seeing
one of the greats to ever do it. And I
took away a lot from even though it was a month.
I learned a lot from watching Ray work.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Great lessons there, John. I was fortunate enough to be
around Ray Allen for a handful of years in the
Celtics front office, so we had a really good run.
And the lessons you just mentioned transcend sports. They cut
across sports, whether it's journalism, whether it's on the front
office side doing what that and I have done, or
even as a player, and what people see about Ray
Allen that they know or the game winning shots, the

(01:02:21):
all time three point later, all that kind of stuff.
What they don't see about him. And I know you
probably know this, John, and that is before the early
bus in the NBA. In the NBA there are two
buses that leave the team hotel on the road. Before
the first bus leaves, which is usually about two hours
and forty five minutes before the game. For the arena,
Ray Allen would jump in a taxi. At that point,

(01:02:41):
there were no ubers or lifts. He jump in a
cab with some of the younger staff guys and he
would be on the court in uniform, going through his
shooting routine like clockwork. For an hour or so before
every single game. He came from a military background and
it was military precision, and I remember at one time
asking Ray about game winn shots. He made a number
of them in the pressure and he basically said, Ryan,

(01:03:04):
I don't worry about whether the ball goes in or
not because I know I put in the work. So
I try to shoot the same shot whether it's a
minute into the game or with the ball in the air,
to win or lose the game. It doesn't really matter
to me. I feel like if the process is right,
I know I put the time in, the work's the
same the ball goes in or it doesn't. So those
lessons I think are really important and impactful to how
you approach journalism, how you approach being in a front office,

(01:03:26):
or even obviously playing, which a few of us get
to do at that level. I didn't mean to go
off on a Ray Allen Tangent John, but he brought
back some some good guys there.

Speaker 3 (01:03:36):
That's awesome, Ryan, I mean, I could talk about that
that month and being around Ray forever because it was
just it was really impactful for me to be able
to watch it, and it actually ties back into one
of my other conversations on the road to Cooperstown was
with Wade Boggs, and we talked about of course, I
asked him about all the superstitions that he had and
at least famous for that. Of course, on it it
even says famous for superstitions are the last words on

(01:03:57):
his plaque in Cooperstown, if you can believe it. So,
But he said to me, it's a different a different way.
But it's I think of the same idea that he said.
All the superstitions that he did, which included, by the way,
not just the chicken, but running his sprints at the
same time, and different things he did as part of
his routine. The goal was that he did all of
those things to almost work his mind through the busyness

(01:04:21):
and the anxiety of the day to where once he
got to the batter's box, he said he was thinking
about nothing. Think about that the goal was. And now
we're in this opposite realm of sports now where we
have all this data, all this information, and Wade Boggs,
who's the highest career batting average of anybody who's living
right now. Wade bogg said his goal was to be

(01:04:44):
able to get to the plate and think about nothing
because he had basically worked his way through all any
of the anxiety through his preparation. It's just a it
worked for him. I'm not saying it's going to work
for everybody, but that's that's the way that Wade Boggs
did it, and it seems like Ryan in some it's
the same concept to what Ray Allen was doing.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
You know, in my career I was around a lot
of guys who were superstitious and then plenty more who
were just very stitious. So, John, one question I'd love
to hear your thoughts on, and just from a pure
media relations standpoint, you referenced it earlier. At the end
of twenty twenty six, there'll be a new collective bargaining negotiation.

(01:05:25):
As a member of the media, what advice would you
give to Tony Clark and Rob Banford from a medium
relations standpoint as they enter into those negotiations.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
Yeah, that it's a really great question, and it's certainly
an important one as the messages are are being carried
out in the public. Whenever they do get carried out
in the public, I think in some ways that from
following the last one, I'll say this during the times
in which we were getting the most details back and

(01:05:57):
forth or whether they were ideas or propose that were
being shared in the public sphere. Typically when that was happening,
there was not a lot of progress happening. When the
progress was happening, it got quieter. My hope is someone
who obviously hopes that that the sport stays on a
good trajectory, is that is that the latter is the

(01:06:20):
case more often than not, which is we're not hearing
a ton about the details because there's actually progress being made.
I think it's it's interesting to meet that that the
game is in such a tremendously positive position. I know
there are some concerns about competitive balance for the smaller
market teams. I would point out that you've seen ball

(01:06:43):
clubs in Milwaukee and in Detroit at advance within this
postseason construct to where they're playing really, really great baseball.
The Reds qualified for the postseason somewhat improbably at the
expense of the big market New York Mets. So there
are parts of this game that are actually functioning quite

(01:07:04):
well when you look at and obviously you've got an
environment in which Juan Soto gets three quarters of a
billion dollars and rather than probably Showhey's record for the
largest contract lasted all of one year. I don't think
anybody thought that was going to happen. So the game
in so many ways is in a very healthy position.
And I would also say this that at a point

(01:07:25):
in American life where so many things are changing and
so many viewing habits are changing, probably the most important
thing you can do for the sake of the game
is to keep it going and to keep the game
on the mental headspace of young people, old people. And
at a point where we're looking at different ways of

(01:07:47):
delivering the game in terms of platforms and local rights,
national rights, etc. Probably the most important thing that can
happen is that things stay on track and that the
game continue, and that we have we have labor peace
at the end of the day. And certainly these are
all things that are well above my pay grade. But
I think that we don't. I think from a standpoint

(01:08:07):
of negotiations, we don't necessarily need all the intricate play
by play of all the machinations, because, as you know
that and Ryan from doing negotiations, sometimes things are put
on the table and then taking off the table as
part of a very fluid conversation and whatever was proposed

(01:08:28):
at one particular time three days ago. Sometimes, unless you
have the full picture of exactly what everything was put
on the table, it's hard to really understand parts of
an offer proposal in context unless you have the whole context,
and the whole context in these sort of CBA negotiations,

(01:08:48):
in my experience, can be very, very difficult to ascertain.

Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
John, we're recording this show in the middle of the
Divisional round in the Major League Baseball playoffs, taking a
look ahead over the next few weeks, even in next
few months in Major League Baseball. What are you looking
for to potentially happen the rest of the way in
the playoffs? Any teams or players you have your eyes on?
And then what do you think some of the big
off season story lines will be as we get into

(01:09:12):
November December, you know, approaching next season in different agency
and all that. What are some of the main things
that you're keep an eye on that you think our
listeners should be focused on as well?

Speaker 3 (01:09:23):
Sure? Well, first of all, I think that the teams
that are still alive in the postseason as we're having
this conversation, it's a diverse group. There are certainly plenty
of large market teams, obviously the Los Angeles Dodgers and
the way that they have played, and then, as I
mentioned earlier, the small market teams like the Milwaukee Brewers.

(01:09:44):
I think the Toronto Blue Jays with the way they
have cultivated such a great home field advantage. And I
think one important point in that I listened to one
of your earlier episodes of this show, but the rest
versus rust conversation, the Blue Jays mounting a fairly strong
counter argument to the issue of rust by scoring twenty

(01:10:07):
three runs in their first two games against the New
York Yankees. They did not appear rusty in those two games,
So I think that's a fairly strong counter counter argument
in that respect. And you've seen teams that are now
involved at this stage of the playoffs who have what
I would describe as generational quests behind them in terms

(01:10:30):
of chasing a first World Series title. The Brewers have
never won a World Series. They've been to one, they've
never won one. The Seattle Mariners that have never been
to a World Series, let alone one one, so they're
actually the only act of franchise. The Mariners to never
reach the World Series at all. The Jay's last one
to one in the early nineteen nineties. The Tigers, who

(01:10:50):
have been playing the Mariners, they last one one in
the mid nineteen eighties. So there are these generational longings
that exist for teams to find win one, and I
think the baseball playoffs are always more captivating and compelling
when that's the case. We're also seeing, by the way,
Showe do the two way role for the first time

(01:11:11):
in the postseason. Of course he has done it before
as a hitter a year ago with the world champion Dodgers,
but now we're seeing him do it for the first
time in the two way role. I think the American
League MVP, which of course the ballots were due before
the first pitch of the postseason, that was a fascinating conversation,
and of course both Judge and Raleigh are on postseason teams.

(01:11:32):
It really comes down to how you view the award
and what you value. I think that's a really interesting
conversation there too. As to who's going to eventually triumph,
obviously the votes are already in, we're not going to
find that out for another month or so. As to
who actually won, that award. I think that's a really
fun one. And then of course in the free agent
market again, we're potentially seeing some superstars coming over from Japan.

(01:11:53):
Maybe not quite on the level of Showe because Showe
is a one of one, but Munataka Murakami is someone
that's been scouted. Hea. I just always think when there's
a large, a big time interest in an international star
and that was their front and center with you Darvish
coming over years ago, it's a fascinating thing to watch
unfold for the sport. What do the Mets do with

(01:12:15):
Pete Alonso now that he's going to be a free
agent again, Alex Bregman can become a free agent again,
Watching how these different high level free agents handle depending
uncertainty of next year with the CBA, how that influences
what kinds of contracts they sign. Trek Scuba coming up
on the last year of his deal in twenty twenty six.
So I think there's a lot of really interesting storylines

(01:12:37):
across the sport, Ryan that we're going to be getting
into here as the off season begins.

Speaker 1 (01:12:40):
And we'll be watching you cover all of them. John
on the Major League Baseball Network will be listening to
your podcast, The Road to Cooperstown. Be looking for you
in ballparks as we're into October in the Major League
Baseball playoffs. For John Paul Morosi, Fourth Ad Levine, I
am Ryan McDonald Join us right here next week and
every week on Rosters Drinks.

Speaker 2 (01:13:05):
Please join me host That Levine, Ryan McDonough and other
general managers every week for Roster Syringes on Apple, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcasts.