November 21, 2025 • 33 mins
Breaking News! The San Francisco Chronicle’s Shayna Rubin joins FP Santangelo and special guest Susan Slusser. The trio talks about the Giants’ newest additions, outfielder Joey Wiemer and pitching coach Justin Meccage, plus her thoughts on manager Tony Vitello after sitting down with him in Las Vegas.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
All right, it's another episode of splash Hit.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm fp Santangel a former Giant legend in my own
mind and current Giant broadcaster. Susan Slusser has been doing
it for thirty years, senior writer for the Chronicle covers
of Giants, nice enough to join us again today.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
But before we get going, you guys have been great.
We've been getting so much great response.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
We're already up to over one thousand subscribers, so subscribe
to splash Hit territory. Next goal is three thousand, then more.
You guys have been amazing, The comments are great. You
guys are loving it. It's literally the best Giants podcast
or show ever. So today we have a special guest, SHANEA.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Rubin. She is a Giants beat writer for the San
Francisco Chronicle. Nice enough to join us, Shana, how's your
off season going? What have you been up to?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Oh, it's good. Thanks for having me. It's been a
lot of you know, GM meetings, going to Vegas a
little bit, paying attention to all the massive overhaul that's
going on in the coaching staff, and it's been there's
been a lot of change. It's a lot to keep
up with with the Giants, So it's been pretty busy.
How are you very pity for me?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Shane is my colleague and I haven't seen Shadea for
five weeks, so I have to do it this time.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Were so a question for both of you guys right
out of the gate? Is the off season usually this
busy for you?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I mean usually you get a time to take a
deep breath, But it seems like this off season there's
been so much going on.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
I feel like the second I left for London, like
everything it's insane.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, it feels busier because it feels like there's just
so many jobs to fill, and it feels like there's
just there's with with Tony Vitello coming in, it feels
like there's a whole new regime. You know, when when
in the regime is coming in, you're kind of trying
to keep up with, like, well, what is this guy
coming in me? What is this guy coming in me?
And so it's it feels like, uh, more of a
(01:56):
puzzle or something like that, or and there's so much
mystery surrounding it because Tony v is very mysterious. He's
from college Land. We don't know a whole few people
in Baseball know a whole lot about him, a major
League baseball at least. But also like when I was
in Vegas interviewing him, it felt like everyone walking by
knew who he was. So there's mystery, but also he's
(02:18):
a known entity, so it's it's busy and super super interesting.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
So the Giants.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
We got breaking news on the podcast today. The Giants
acquired Joey Weimer from he was dfa'd by the Marlins
for cash considerations. I know a little bit about him,
but dus In Shane, I don't know who wants to
go first here, but let's let's our thoughts, your thoughts
and what you've heard about Joey Weimer.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yeah, I got a little bit of a tip off
that this was going to be happening, so I kind
of mentioned it on social media a while back, and
then we found out was cash consideration. So I mean,
I know, when a guys get gets dfa'ed, as he
had been about three days ago, I mean, it's not
gonna probably take up, but you know, he's a nice
depth move Joey Weimer, and certainly the Giants look very
(03:01):
intent on improving their outfield defense, as they should be SHANEA.
What kind of viber you getting from this move?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It feels very much like adding a great glove in
the outfield, because that's definitely they had one of the worst,
if not the worst. I think it was one of
the worst defensive outfields in baseball last year. It's not
surprising that it turned out that way. It looked pretty
ugly at times. And I mean Elliott Ramos, he tries
as hard as anybody, but he just had a little
(03:31):
bit of a down year, and Jung Hoolee was very
up and down, and right field was a carousel. So
they add justin Dean earlier in the offseason. That's a
defensive asset. This feels very much like they want to
have some options to look at when it comes to
upgrading that deficit.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Yeah, and the guy that hits I think lefties pretty well.
It looks like throughout his career, certainly in the minor
league numbers and from people that I've heard from since
the Giants have talked, this seems like a guy who
Tony Vaytello will really like. A high energy like these
are the sort of things I think We're going to
get used to hearing. High energy kind of big personality,
(04:13):
you know, really like one of those guys at everyone
in the clubhouse likes kind of guys. So I'm very
much looking forward to seeing him. But I think we'll
be looking at probably a big group of outfielders during
the spring, and Shane and I feels like we'll be
writing we could write about an outfielder a day, Shane.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, they have many on the roster right now, so
it'll it'll be worth catching up with each individual and
seeing what's going on. And they're very different in terms
of their defense.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So yeah, Well, Susan broke the story. And I was
supposed to say that, and I forgot to say that.
That's a big deal in your guys world. So Susan
actually broke that story and everybody else's.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Retweeting it's a good job, Susan.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
I talked to Viny Routino today, he's a broadcaster for
Milwaukee Brewers, and I said, tell me about Joey Weamer
and he said that he is just a hair on fire,
Eric Burns, kind of Hunter Pence type of guy, super
likable in the clubhouse, great teammate, plus defender. He'll run
through a wall for you. He said, he's an elite
center fielder. Defensively, he's got a plus arm. The big
(05:17):
question with him has been his bat In Vinny. The
way he explained it to me, he said, you remember
Tony Phillips back with the Ages. You remember the big
hitch he had in his swing. That Joey Weimer has
that same kind of hit. So I think there's meat
on the bone there for as Buster always says, with
this guy, to improve his offense, but the Giants need
to get better defensively first and foremost. So number one,
(05:38):
you got a Drew Gilbert Tony Vaitello type guy that's
gonna play hard every day. You got a plus defender
in center field that's not scared. And then you got
a guy that's going to bring effort and attitude every
single day. So I think, you know, I remember seeing
him in Milwaukee, you guys, and I've been on that
trip the last three years with the Giants. He's either
really hot or really cold. He's either like ten for
(05:58):
his last twelve or oh for his last twelve. And
he's super streaky offensively. But the defense plays the way
he approaches the game plays, and I think this is
a sneaky good pickup for the Giants today.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Well, and you and I have talked about the possibility
of moving one of the other outfielders this offseason, Shana,
You've mentioned it in stories, We've talked about it. This
is yet another depth move. I know sometimes fans go like,
why even bother when you look at a guy's numbers
and he hasn't doesn't have a ton of major league time,
hasn't maybe like had any big seasons offensively. But every
(06:31):
team needs depth, but particularly if you're a team that
might look to actually deal from from your group of
outfielders also to maybe fill some other needs. So there's
nothing wrong with picking up a guy for cash considerations. Ever,
if you have the spot on your roster and you
don't have to hang on to him, Like, how many
guys have we seen added to the forty man come
(06:54):
off the forty man added to the You know, before
spring training starts there will be several we might never see.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Joe is just too you know, Joey's gonna run into
a wall. Every guy named Joey runs into things.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
It's just just the way it goes, Shana.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
You but you were at the GM meetings, Susan, You've
been there many times. Take us through, like what you
learned about the giants of the GM's meeting, the direction
they're heading in, did you get any scoops for us,
and what are the GM meetings like.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I've never been to one of those things.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah, it was relatively scooped free for me at least.
But the GM meetings are kind of I don't know
if you guys know much about I mean, Susan obviously
knows all about the Winter meetings, and I think baseball
people know all about how hectic they can get to
the GM meetings. It's just kind of like a much
more low key version of the Winter Meetings where there
(07:43):
are fewer people, fewer baseball people at least in Vegas.
It's like there's you know, people everywhere, So it was
kind of it was interesting having to navigate the bustling
casinos with the sort of in and out of of
the GM meetings and executive seeing them pop in out
of certain places. So that was an interesting dynamic. But
the GM meetings is it's sort of the beginning of
(08:07):
the off season, sort of like the official kickoff, so
everyone talks to their respective presidents and gms about what's
going on and for the next few months, And it
wasn't a whole lot of surprises with what Buster said
because he hinted to a lot of it when the
season ended, which is they need pitching. They want to
(08:28):
they pride, they want to be a team that is
built on pitching and defense. That's what is conducive to
the ballpark. That's what was conducive to what they when
Buster was winning championships a decade ago, so and the
pitching was They went into twenty twenty five with so
much depth. I mean, there was a conversation about, you know,
(08:49):
who's going to start between Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong
and Land and Rupe and they kind of left with
Kyle across the country and Land and Roupe really establishing
a role and that last sort of spot being entirely
up for grabs and no one was able to claim it.
So and the bullpen, through injury and through trade, it
(09:10):
just needs to be completely rebuilt to a certain extent.
So that's a huge area of construction. Obviously, they have
really good pillars and Logan Web and Robbie Ray. That's
that's as good a foundation as you can get. But
and there wasn't a whole lot of I mean, Buster
doesn't tip his cards too much. When it comes to
(09:31):
where they're gonna look for pitching, He's obviously gonna say,
we would love to have the guys that we already
have step up, so we know they had a new
pitching coach.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Maybe they can.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Maybe he can do something with the Hayden Birdsong he
lost his confidence last year. Maybe they can sort of
pick up from from the group that's got a couple
of tryouts last season. But could also the free agent
classes interesting, there's not a whole lot of huge names,
but it's there's options there. So that seemed to be
(10:01):
not surprisingly the focus of the off season him.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
All right, I want to take on the new pitching
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Speaker 1 (11:29):
So justin message, is the New Giants pitching coach? Your
thoughts on him?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Susan, Uh, Well, I mean I think we're we're seeing
some some clear messages about what they're looking for. Kind
of young go getters and guys who you know have
very good reputations for bringing along young pitchers, which is
great considering you know, we've we do have as Shana
(11:55):
mentioned Hayden bird Song. You know who's who've got at
a whack life last year and and needs to to
get back to where he was. I think this is
a guy they feel would do that. I I do
know Frank Anderson a little bit. Who's coming in basically
is like my understanding is sort of like a consultant,
but obviously worked with Tony Vaytello at Tennessee and was
(12:18):
beloved by the pitchers at Tennessee. And and you know,
look at the look at the giants with Blade Tidwell
at Sacramento. So Blade Tilwell basically might have essentially his
own pitching coach around to bounce things off of. So
I like it. Shannon, Shana, what what do you know about, uh,
the the new pitching coach sort of core here?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Well, I think, uh he is he's been somewhat under
the radar, uh on this coast. But he worked with
Paul Skeen's in Pittsburgh. Uh, he worked with Jacob Mazarawski
and in Milwaukee with the Nashville Sounds. So that's the
I think that f he was telling a story that
(12:57):
he was had heard about some of the regiments that
that message brought from UH Pittsburgh to to Milwaukee. That
helped a lot with with some of their their big
guys development. So it feels very much like what Susan
was saying. It's it's an acknowledgment that they they want
to get some young not that. And this is not
(13:18):
to say that, uh the previous regime was not like this,
but it does feel like it's just sort of a
transition into a whole new thing. But they want guys
that are focused on development. They want they want guys
that are gonna get the most out of some of
the young guys that they have because they that's supposed
to be a strength for them is their pitching depth.
(13:40):
They're supposed to have all these options over the last
few years, and none of them have stuck. As I've said,
so it feels like it's it's interesting that this is
the guy that they've pegged along with Frank Anderson, this
is the guy that they've pegged to be the guy
that can usher them into the role that they're supposed
to be filling.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yeah, I think the Havis Law Mount visit sponsor on
canbrs in trouble because when justin message comes out, I'm
sure it's going to be something that has to do
with cell phones and messaging.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
This year, I could.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Hear the sponsorships already, but I did a little research
on him, Shana, and he's he's apparently the guy that
got Paul Skimes locked in with you know that water
bag that he puts over his shoulder when he warms up,
and you know, I make fun of all that stuff,
being an old school guy. All the gizmos they have
in the batting cage now and.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
What is he doing with that? For those of you
who don't know, this water bag is like it.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Goes over your shoulder and it's got water and it
sloshes around. In The principle behind it is to keep
your balance over the rubber so that if you get
one way or the other, the water's going.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
To take you back.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
But if you're balanced over the rubber, the water on
this thing when they're warming up, they don't actually throw
pitches with it. They just kind of go through the
motion and if they go this far, the water will
tilt you. So it has to do with your balance
and your core stability of staying over the mounds. So
Paul skiins if you watch his routine before he throws
a start. Cy Young Award winner in the National League,
the best pitcher in the National League, or one of
(15:05):
the best pitchers in the National League, justin message was
part of this. And then he worked with Misowski from
the Brewers this year and he was really rotational where
when he gets out of whack, he kind of falls
toward the first base side and falls off the mound.
And then he introduced this to him too, to where
it kind of stabilized him.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
It didn't guarantee him that he was going to.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Throw strikes, because with Miserowski throws one hundred and two whatever,
and he's a little bit wild, but it locked him
in and got his mechanics in the right place. And
the best thing I've heard about him is he's a
player's guy. He doesn't have an agenda. A lot of
coaches at the major league level are about them and
promoting themselves and self promoters, and this guy just really,
from what I understand, has the player's best interest in
(15:49):
mind all the time, and he wants to do whatever
he can. He knows the analytics side, but he also
knows the people side. And also, you know, when you
talk about the Brewers and what they've a common, this
could be like viewed as a big loss for the
Brewers when I hear how great this guy is. So
I knew nothing about him, did little research today before
we came on here, and it sounds like the Giants
(16:09):
got a good one.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
I feel like there's a lot of Brewers crossover these
days with the Giants for obvious reasons. Zach Manazzy And honestly,
why wouldn't you look at I mean, that's the organization
where if you've got sort of the personnel in the ballpark,
et cetera, that's an awfully good organization to kind of
look to. I think. So it's kind of fun now, Shane,
(16:34):
we're talking about the GM meetings. One thing I know
you did at the GM meetings was you had to
sit down with Tony Faitello, had a little one on
one with him, and wrote a really nice story about that.
What have your impressions been? I still have not met him,
which is so weird.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
At this point.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
It's it's interesting because like he's so it feels like
he's such a There's been so much written about him
because it's just so uh fascinating and still, as I said, mysterious.
So I wanted to sit down with him and try
to get to know him better just as a person
outside of the whole drama that surrounded his hiring, and
he kind of classified it as a drama a little bit.
(17:18):
I think he was pretty disturbed it and you know,
this is the big leagues. He's not college, and he's
pretty disturbed at the news breaking before he was ready
for it to break, and that kind of spiel. But
he's just he's such a He's exactly as advertised in
terms of his energy. He's kind of an open book,
(17:39):
but also, you know, kind of he's very honest. He
isn't trying to hide that, and I think I put it.
I did put in my story. He's not trying to
hide that. He doesn't really know how this is going
to go. I think everyone's just sort of saying, like,
oht Buster must be certain. I think Buster is certain,
but I think they're certain that this is an experiment
(18:01):
of sorts. And he's not the only young manager to
be hired this offseason. There's still some experimentation going on
across the league, kind of like a changing of the
guard of sorts, and he's not trying to pretend like
he knows everything. Maybe some stuff left on the cutting
room floor was him talking like, you know, I don't
know the ten best pitching coaches in Major League Baseball.
(18:22):
I'm gonna rely on everyone else to tell me. To
tell me that. So you know, you see Frank Anderson
come and that's the guy he trusted, but uh, maybe
messages someone that Zach or you know, the baseball people
around him are recommending. So he's very open about the
fact that this is he's a guinea pig. And I
(18:42):
think that it's the consensus is, well, Buster, it's he's
a guinea pig. But Buster and these these guys, they
they know what is gonna work. They see how the energy,
how the ruffling feathers factors is gonna could contribute to
winning and maybe change give them an edge that is
zigging while their teams are zagging elsewhere in terms of
(19:05):
how the culture is being built. So he was that
was sort of the vibe I was getting from him.
And also he's still he's still very much like in Tennessee, mode, Like,
you know, it's a completely.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Different it's a huge change.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
And he's still moving. He was just selling his house
and that he just bought in Nashville and or in Knoxville.
He was still going to the CMAS in Nashville. He's
still thinking about the recruiting. He wasn't explicitly saying it,
but you could still see that he was detaching the
little parts of his brain that were still in that mode.
So there was still somewhat of a detachment of the routine,
(19:44):
the intense routine that he was part of as a
college coach. And now he's like, you know, stepping into
the deep end, and he seems equipped to step in
the deep end. You kind of have to be in
this business. But it was definitely he was still you know,
oh my god, I'm in Vegas. I'm in these closed
door meetings with executives. I don't really know that well.
And it's it was interesting. It was a interesting conversation.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Yeah, there's a lot going on there. He's probably overwhelmed.
And in the day I talked to him, he was
very overwhelmed. Susan, I gotta be honest here, you and
I talked about him at length during games. We sit
next to each other, Shane, and we're all in the
same row. We all sit next to each other.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
During the games. And Susan was doing a piece.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
On potential new managers for the Giants and I threw
the name out there.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
She looked at me like I.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Was nuts, and you've been kind of lukewarm on this thing.
And I and I think you should share your thoughts
with Giants.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Fans about you're on board. Let me let me make it.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Just at the time, was like.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
You're kind of old school.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
You still you still have your doubts about this a
little bit. Can you share those with us just right now?
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Well, you know, I think I touched it when when
we had Logan web on, you know, one of the
questions I asked Logan was, how do you think some
of the veterans gonna are going to respond, especially, you know,
when a team is in a dip if things are
like you know, know that every team has like there,
you know, a couple of weeks where they underperform. How
are veterans maybe going to respond to a guy who
(21:08):
has no previous pro experience, was a player, coach, manager?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
You know?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Could that be an issue? And Logan. I mean, he's
not one of the only ones who's who's completely talked
me around on this. I mean, I've been sold really
since I heard Buster talking about many of the comments
I've heard from Vitello, although I still haven't talked to
him yet, so I will be.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
London. You can't talk to anybody except for me.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
I talked to him, Afie.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
I'll let you know what I think.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
It seems that I'm really impressed with the energy.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
And all of that. But it's unusual, you know.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
When you're like throwing his name out, I was like, Okay,
f he's a college coach. Okay, that's kind of a
fun outside the box kind of thing to think. But
I was like, Buster, are so old school, you know.
That's what we kept going like, well last year when
Buster on board, we were like, he's going back to
doing things the old way, and he did in a
lot of cases. So that's kind of where my mind
(22:06):
was at that point.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yeah, and it's going to be a process.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
He's going to fail, and he's going to make mistakes
and he's going to learn from those because the game
moves a lot faster than the college game.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
We always talk about.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Influencing eighteen and nineteen year old and whatever he says
is gospel, right, he walks on water.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
He's the coach. In college, the coach is the guy.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
But in grown men at the major league level, it's
a different story. When you got families and beards and
long hair and you're making lots of money and driving
sweet cars and living in sweet houses, and they question
a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
But he's gonna make mistakes. It's going to be a process.
The game is like this at this level.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I told you guys before, like when I managed an
A ball in San Jose in front of three hundred people,
the game was going so fast and I was my
mind was spinning at the A ball level.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Now you're on TV forty thousand people. Each win means
so much.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
It's so hard to win one baseball game at the
major league level, and it's going to be going so fast.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
And I know you're going to have a.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Great coaching staff and people to lean on, but still
you got to learn for yourself and how do you
how do we all.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Learned in life through failures?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Right, Failures are the greatest teacher, it's the greatest motivator.
So it's not going to be he just hits the
ground running, and maybe he does and I'm way off
base here.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
But there's gonna be whoa moments like what are we doing?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
But but it's okay because the authenticity's there, the transparencies there,
and he'll be the first one to get up in
front of all of us after.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
A game and say I really screwed.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
That up, or he'll I don't think he'll ever take
credit either. Just like we were talking about with the message,
the new pitching coach for the Giants and how are
your lates to guys, that's Tony's greatest strength.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
We all talk about energy and raw raw in college,
his greatest strength in Shana. You know this because you've
met him, Susan, you don't. This is just his relatability.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
It's just relatability to people how just how cool he
is and how he comes across is not full of crap.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
He just comes across as super super authentic.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yeah, yeah, I want to change gears a little bit here.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
At the end of the show. We got about five
minutes left, and.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I don't mean to push this to the end, but
I think it's really cool that we're doing a podcast
with two women in professional sports who are writers at
that top of their level, and maybe just how you
guys got started and what's it like for you guys.
I mean, shanea you're a big league reporter for a
big league team that's won three World Series champions. Susan
is decorated, she's on the Hall of Fame committee. She's
been doing this for thirty plus years. And Susan came
(24:34):
in at a different time when maybe it was a
little more difficult.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
But I'm sure it's not easy.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
For either one of you guys, and I'm really really
honored to have you on this podcast today. Maybe Susan,
you can start with how you got started and what's
it like.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Yeah, I mean it's funny FP. I think when you
came to the A's, when I was covering the A's,
I was the only woman covering a team in the
American League. And I think you had played for Montreal
when Stephanie Miles was there, right, and she's only one
covering the nationally, So I think there were only two
of us for a time until Cheryl Rosenberg, my very
good friend, started covering the Marlins, and then covered the Angels,
(25:10):
and then really when MLB dot Com got up and
running and started hiring a lot of women as interns
and as beat writers. That the Boston Globe was right
out there in front. A couple of the Chicago papers
were hiring women. It's sort of sort of snowball. But
as you know, FP and I think you know, Shane,
I started. I had wanted to be a broadcaster, and
(25:31):
I did all of Stanford's baseball games, including two World's
College World Series victories their last ones, go figure. And football.
I was a color announcer for football, you know, with
all my vast football playing experience. And I also worked
at the Stafford Daily Course. So coming when I was
coming out of college in nineteen eight, they weren't hiring
(25:54):
women to be baseball broadcasters. And I had a job
in hand from the Sacramento be already, I was like, yeah,
I like this paycheck sounded this paycheck.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
So was it before we get to Shane, was it
tough for you like being in the clubhouse, being in
the locker room and being the only female in there.
Speaker 6 (26:10):
What was that like?
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Uh? Yeah, I mean I think you know, I started
mostly in the NBA because I started in Sacramento. That
was but I was doing some baseball and I had
a few moments here and there that were probably not
so great, but I had friends who had much worse.
I'm very good friends with Lisa Olsen. I think people
will remember she had a bad experience with the New
England Patriots when she covered them to the extent where
(26:33):
she actually moved out of the country for a number
of years to Australia, which is horrifying. And she's phenomenal.
My dear late friend Jennifer Fry, who was among the
most talented writers ever, had a bad run in with
Hall of Famer Jack Morris when she was an intern
at the Detroit Free Press. So I feel like I
(26:55):
really kind of got away, you know, I just kind
of had cut my head down, did my But in
the Bay Area there were women before me, which really helped.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
You know.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
There was Joan Ryan, who we all know and love. There,
Susan Wornoff had worked at the Sacramento Bee before I
was there, and while I was there for a few
years too, Stephanie Salter was at the s f Ex Salminar.
So I had people in the Bay Area that I
knew and I looked up to, and Ann Killy and
started at the Mercury News just a little bit before
(27:24):
I started working at the Sacramento b And she's one
of my closest friends and now my shane and my
treasured colleague at the San Francisco Chronicle, many times California
Sports Writer of the Year winner, and so the Chronicle
has a long history of having women's sports writers dating
back to Joan Ryan, which what a legacy. Following somebody
(27:45):
like Joan Ryan and getting to work with people like
Anne and Shana and Marissa and Jemmy, who is phenomenal,
so we love it. And our boss, Christina carl Is,
you know, a trailblazer in her own rights. So I'm
we're both very lucky, I think in that that's great stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
We love Anne.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
We got to get around here, Shana, tell us about
how you got started and how the Giants thing came about.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Sure, I mean, I hate to say it because I
don't know if it's gonna land right, But I grew
up reading I grew up reading Susan, I grew up
reading and Killian, I grew up reading Gwen Napp, I
grew up reading Joan Ryan. So it was just it
always felt normal to me that that would be something
in a sense, I don't think anyone actually thinks. I
(28:30):
never thought until I was in college that I could
ever do this. It just kind of, I don't know.
It was never a fully formed dream until I realized
that I wanted to write and I realized I love sports,
and I just put the two together like a sandwich
a little bit, but it was it seemed like a
real career path because of the women that came before me.
(28:51):
And the women that came before me also made it
so that I had such a soft, not soft but
non scary land spot. You know, that they blazed a
trail for me so that I didn't have to endure
what some of the they had to endure. And I
think Susan, you know, she's told me some stories that
she's had to go through and she's not going to
(29:12):
say them now. I know that's like, you know, you
don't want to rehash all the stuff. But I also
grew up. I heard the story about Susan Fournoff getting
the rat and from from the clubhouse, and everyone was
worrying me about, oh, it's gonna you never know something
like that could happen. But it's because of such such
good work that they all did, blazing the trail, and
(29:35):
not only blazing the trail, but setting a new standard
that it it all those horror stories never occurred, and
it's just been so normalized. And now there's so many
women in the industry because it's just it feels so normal.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
But we should mention Mario Gordotto also covers the Giants
for MLB dot Com and she's phenomenal. So yeah, we're
living in a great time for women's sports writer. Sorry, Shane,
and I didn't mean to cut you off that I
was yeah too.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yeah, and it's great because like sometimes it's half women,
half men on the on the Giants beat, so it
feels very equally represented. But the way that I got
into baseball writing is I was just I just showed up.
When I was in college. I went to college at
s F State, so I was in San Francisco, and
(30:29):
when I was graduating from journalism school, one of my professors,
Jesse Garnier, had a blog. And this is kind of
at the advent of blogging, when press boxers was like Okay,
I guess we'll let you, or pr teams were like
I guess we'll let these bloggers in and see if
they get in the way or not. But I was
lucky enough to cover some giant games way back then,
(30:49):
and it kind of threw me into the deep end
of Oh this is I just I learned.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
I took it as a.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Different school, like I was learning from watching Henry Schulman,
Alex Pavlovich, Andrew Baggerley uh do their job. And I
was in the way, for sure, but I was learning,
and uh, I kind of I was also just around
the people that I knew I needed to impress. So
I tried just anything that I could to freelance and
(31:16):
get my name out there, get bylines, uh, do whatever
I could to just get the experience and the writing, uh,
the writing the articles out there to to get to
to to the spot now. So there's there's still always growth,
but it's it's uh. It really was just about showing
up and doing what I could with any opportunity I
(31:38):
could get.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah, hang on, yeah, because I should say Shane has
also covered a lot of Warriors and done a great
job covering the Warriors, but she showed up on the
as some when I was covering the A's Uh, and
the A's of O were always a great beat in
terms of women being out there covering. Jane McCauley, of course,
who we all know well from Associated Press, She's out
there there a ton and a giants. I mean, none
(32:02):
of us are really out at the A's anymore because
a Sacramento, but of course I'm talking about well, they
were in Oakland, but there were so many There were
a few years where there were so many covering the
women covering the A's. I can remember the A's Monthly magazine.
You probably remember that monthly magazine FP. They did a
story like essentially like where are so many women covering
(32:23):
the A's And Joe Stiglitic was then with the Mercury
News and he was the only man on the beat,
and they interviewed him and he said, yeah, I kind
of feel left out. Sometimes they're always going like I
like your blouse. I like your blouse, and nobody ever
asks me about my blouse. So for the entire rest
of the year, I think every day at least one
of us would go ask Joe about his blouse, which
(32:46):
gotta tell you didn't you didn't have a good blouse game.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
If you could cover the a's in those days, you
could cover any in the history of baseball. Bunch, you guys,
thank you so much for what you do. Seriously, it's
a grind. People don't realize. You're traveling, You're booking your
own flights, you're booking your own hotels, You're getting into
cities at three in the morning.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Then you got to get up and go to a
day game at the ballpark.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Excuse me, you're doing the same grind that the players do.
And then on top of it, we don't know how
to write, and you guys do. So thank you so
much for what you guys do. Shana, thanks for coming
on with us today. Susan, I'll let you get back
to your crazy, wild, fun lifestyle in London.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I'll be joining you Friday in London for a week.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Across the pond. We're gonna have a blast Premier League
soccer games. We're gonna do it all. But you guys,
thanks for coming on today. You can follow us on
x at splash hit Territory, on Instagram at splash hit Territory.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
We have our own sites now.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
We are on the foul Territory network, and of course
subscribe and like on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
All right, guys, take care, have a great day. Thanks
a lot, and like I say on the way out,
swing hard in case you hit it.
All right, it's another episode of splash Hit.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm fp Santangel a former Giant legend in my own
mind and current Giant broadcaster. Susan Slusser has been doing
it for thirty years, senior writer for the Chronicle covers
of Giants, nice enough to join us again today.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
But before we get going, you guys have been great.
We've been getting so much great response.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
We're already up to over one thousand subscribers, so subscribe
to splash Hit territory. Next goal is three thousand, then more.
You guys have been amazing, The comments are great. You
guys are loving it. It's literally the best Giants podcast
or show ever. So today we have a special guest, SHANEA.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Rubin. She is a Giants beat writer for the San
Francisco Chronicle. Nice enough to join us, Shana, how's your
off season going? What have you been up to?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Oh, it's good. Thanks for having me. It's been a
lot of you know, GM meetings, going to Vegas a
little bit, paying attention to all the massive overhaul that's
going on in the coaching staff, and it's been there's
been a lot of change. It's a lot to keep
up with with the Giants, So it's been pretty busy.
How are you very pity for me?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Shane is my colleague and I haven't seen Shadea for
five weeks, so I have to do it this time.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Were so a question for both of you guys right
out of the gate? Is the off season usually this
busy for you?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I mean usually you get a time to take a
deep breath, But it seems like this off season there's
been so much going on.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
I feel like the second I left for London, like
everything it's insane.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, it feels busier because it feels like there's just
so many jobs to fill, and it feels like there's
just there's with with Tony Vitello coming in, it feels
like there's a whole new regime. You know, when when
in the regime is coming in, you're kind of trying
to keep up with, like, well, what is this guy
coming in me? What is this guy coming in me?
And so it's it feels like, uh, more of a
(01:56):
puzzle or something like that, or and there's so much
mystery surrounding it because Tony v is very mysterious. He's
from college Land. We don't know a whole few people
in Baseball know a whole lot about him, a major
League baseball at least. But also like when I was
in Vegas interviewing him, it felt like everyone walking by
knew who he was. So there's mystery, but also he's
(02:18):
a known entity, so it's it's busy and super super interesting.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
So the Giants.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
We got breaking news on the podcast today. The Giants
acquired Joey Weimer from he was dfa'd by the Marlins
for cash considerations. I know a little bit about him,
but dus In Shane, I don't know who wants to
go first here, but let's let's our thoughts, your thoughts
and what you've heard about Joey Weimer.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yeah, I got a little bit of a tip off
that this was going to be happening, so I kind
of mentioned it on social media a while back, and
then we found out was cash consideration. So I mean,
I know, when a guys get gets dfa'ed, as he
had been about three days ago, I mean, it's not
gonna probably take up, but you know, he's a nice
depth move Joey Weimer, and certainly the Giants look very
(03:01):
intent on improving their outfield defense, as they should be SHANEA.
What kind of viber you getting from this move?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It feels very much like adding a great glove in
the outfield, because that's definitely they had one of the worst,
if not the worst. I think it was one of
the worst defensive outfields in baseball last year. It's not
surprising that it turned out that way. It looked pretty
ugly at times. And I mean Elliott Ramos, he tries
as hard as anybody, but he just had a little
(03:31):
bit of a down year, and Jung Hoolee was very
up and down, and right field was a carousel. So
they add justin Dean earlier in the offseason. That's a
defensive asset. This feels very much like they want to
have some options to look at when it comes to
upgrading that deficit.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Yeah, and the guy that hits I think lefties pretty well.
It looks like throughout his career, certainly in the minor
league numbers and from people that I've heard from since
the Giants have talked, this seems like a guy who
Tony Vaytello will really like. A high energy like these
are the sort of things I think We're going to
get used to hearing. High energy kind of big personality,
(04:13):
you know, really like one of those guys at everyone
in the clubhouse likes kind of guys. So I'm very
much looking forward to seeing him. But I think we'll
be looking at probably a big group of outfielders during
the spring, and Shane and I feels like we'll be
writing we could write about an outfielder a day, Shane.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, they have many on the roster right now, so
it'll it'll be worth catching up with each individual and
seeing what's going on. And they're very different in terms
of their defense.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So yeah, Well, Susan broke the story. And I was
supposed to say that, and I forgot to say that.
That's a big deal in your guys world. So Susan
actually broke that story and everybody else's.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Retweeting it's a good job, Susan.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
I talked to Viny Routino today, he's a broadcaster for
Milwaukee Brewers, and I said, tell me about Joey Weamer
and he said that he is just a hair on fire,
Eric Burns, kind of Hunter Pence type of guy, super
likable in the clubhouse, great teammate, plus defender. He'll run
through a wall for you. He said, he's an elite
center fielder. Defensively, he's got a plus arm. The big
(05:17):
question with him has been his bat In Vinny. The
way he explained it to me, he said, you remember
Tony Phillips back with the Ages. You remember the big
hitch he had in his swing. That Joey Weimer has
that same kind of hit. So I think there's meat
on the bone there for as Buster always says, with
this guy, to improve his offense, but the Giants need
to get better defensively first and foremost. So number one,
(05:38):
you got a Drew Gilbert Tony Vaitello type guy that's
gonna play hard every day. You got a plus defender
in center field that's not scared. And then you got
a guy that's going to bring effort and attitude every
single day. So I think, you know, I remember seeing
him in Milwaukee, you guys, and I've been on that
trip the last three years with the Giants. He's either
really hot or really cold. He's either like ten for
(05:58):
his last twelve or oh for his last twelve. And
he's super streaky offensively. But the defense plays the way
he approaches the game plays, and I think this is
a sneaky good pickup for the Giants today.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Well, and you and I have talked about the possibility
of moving one of the other outfielders this offseason, Shana,
You've mentioned it in stories, We've talked about it. This
is yet another depth move. I know sometimes fans go like,
why even bother when you look at a guy's numbers
and he hasn't doesn't have a ton of major league time,
hasn't maybe like had any big seasons offensively. But every
(06:31):
team needs depth, but particularly if you're a team that
might look to actually deal from from your group of
outfielders also to maybe fill some other needs. So there's
nothing wrong with picking up a guy for cash considerations. Ever,
if you have the spot on your roster and you
don't have to hang on to him, Like, how many
guys have we seen added to the forty man come
(06:54):
off the forty man added to the You know, before
spring training starts there will be several we might never see.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Joe is just too you know, Joey's gonna run into
a wall. Every guy named Joey runs into things.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
It's just just the way it goes, Shana.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
You but you were at the GM meetings, Susan, You've
been there many times. Take us through, like what you
learned about the giants of the GM's meeting, the direction
they're heading in, did you get any scoops for us,
and what are the GM meetings like.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I've never been to one of those things.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah, it was relatively scooped free for me at least.
But the GM meetings are kind of I don't know
if you guys know much about I mean, Susan obviously
knows all about the Winter meetings, and I think baseball
people know all about how hectic they can get to
the GM meetings. It's just kind of like a much
more low key version of the Winter Meetings where there
(07:43):
are fewer people, fewer baseball people at least in Vegas.
It's like there's you know, people everywhere, So it was
kind of it was interesting having to navigate the bustling
casinos with the sort of in and out of of
the GM meetings and executive seeing them pop in out
of certain places. So that was an interesting dynamic. But
the GM meetings is it's sort of the beginning of
(08:07):
the off season, sort of like the official kickoff, so
everyone talks to their respective presidents and gms about what's
going on and for the next few months, And it
wasn't a whole lot of surprises with what Buster said
because he hinted to a lot of it when the
season ended, which is they need pitching. They want to
(08:28):
they pride, they want to be a team that is
built on pitching and defense. That's what is conducive to
the ballpark. That's what was conducive to what they when
Buster was winning championships a decade ago, so and the
pitching was They went into twenty twenty five with so
much depth. I mean, there was a conversation about, you know,
(08:49):
who's going to start between Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong
and Land and Rupe and they kind of left with
Kyle across the country and Land and Roupe really establishing
a role and that last sort of spot being entirely
up for grabs and no one was able to claim it.
So and the bullpen, through injury and through trade, it
(09:10):
just needs to be completely rebuilt to a certain extent.
So that's a huge area of construction. Obviously, they have
really good pillars and Logan Web and Robbie Ray. That's
that's as good a foundation as you can get. But
and there wasn't a whole lot of I mean, Buster
doesn't tip his cards too much. When it comes to
(09:31):
where they're gonna look for pitching, He's obviously gonna say,
we would love to have the guys that we already
have step up, so we know they had a new
pitching coach.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Maybe they can.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Maybe he can do something with the Hayden Birdsong he
lost his confidence last year. Maybe they can sort of
pick up from from the group that's got a couple
of tryouts last season. But could also the free agent
classes interesting, there's not a whole lot of huge names,
but it's there's options there. So that seemed to be
(10:01):
not surprisingly the focus of the off season him.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
All right, I want to take on the new pitching
coach for the Giants. But first, you guys, close your eyes.
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Speaker 4 (11:13):
I have to say FP I've I've only ever heard
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Speaker 2 (11:24):
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Speaker 1 (11:29):
So justin message, is the New Giants pitching coach? Your
thoughts on him?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Susan, Uh, Well, I mean I think we're we're seeing
some some clear messages about what they're looking for. Kind
of young go getters and guys who you know have
very good reputations for bringing along young pitchers, which is
great considering you know, we've we do have as Shana
(11:55):
mentioned Hayden bird Song. You know who's who've got at
a whack life last year and and needs to to
get back to where he was. I think this is
a guy they feel would do that. I I do
know Frank Anderson a little bit. Who's coming in basically
is like my understanding is sort of like a consultant,
but obviously worked with Tony Vaytello at Tennessee and was
(12:18):
beloved by the pitchers at Tennessee. And and you know,
look at the look at the giants with Blade Tidwell
at Sacramento. So Blade Tilwell basically might have essentially his
own pitching coach around to bounce things off of. So
I like it. Shannon, Shana, what what do you know about, uh,
the the new pitching coach sort of core here?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Well, I think, uh he is he's been somewhat under
the radar, uh on this coast. But he worked with
Paul Skeen's in Pittsburgh. Uh, he worked with Jacob Mazarawski
and in Milwaukee with the Nashville Sounds. So that's the
I think that f he was telling a story that
(12:57):
he was had heard about some of the regiments that
that message brought from UH Pittsburgh to to Milwaukee. That
helped a lot with with some of their their big
guys development. So it feels very much like what Susan
was saying. It's it's an acknowledgment that they they want
to get some young not that. And this is not
(13:18):
to say that, uh the previous regime was not like this,
but it does feel like it's just sort of a
transition into a whole new thing. But they want guys
that are focused on development. They want they want guys
that are gonna get the most out of some of
the young guys that they have because they that's supposed
to be a strength for them is their pitching depth.
(13:40):
They're supposed to have all these options over the last
few years, and none of them have stuck. As I've said,
so it feels like it's it's interesting that this is
the guy that they've pegged along with Frank Anderson, this
is the guy that they've pegged to be the guy
that can usher them into the role that they're supposed
to be filling.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yeah, I think the Havis Law Mount visit sponsor on
canbrs in trouble because when justin message comes out, I'm
sure it's going to be something that has to do
with cell phones and messaging.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
This year, I could.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Hear the sponsorships already, but I did a little research
on him, Shana, and he's he's apparently the guy that
got Paul Skimes locked in with you know that water
bag that he puts over his shoulder when he warms up,
and you know, I make fun of all that stuff,
being an old school guy. All the gizmos they have
in the batting cage now and.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
What is he doing with that? For those of you
who don't know, this water bag is like it.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Goes over your shoulder and it's got water and it
sloshes around. In The principle behind it is to keep
your balance over the rubber so that if you get
one way or the other, the water's going.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
To take you back.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
But if you're balanced over the rubber, the water on
this thing when they're warming up, they don't actually throw
pitches with it. They just kind of go through the
motion and if they go this far, the water will
tilt you. So it has to do with your balance
and your core stability of staying over the mounds. So
Paul skiins if you watch his routine before he throws
a start. Cy Young Award winner in the National League,
the best pitcher in the National League, or one of
(15:05):
the best pitchers in the National League, justin message was
part of this. And then he worked with Misowski from
the Brewers this year and he was really rotational where
when he gets out of whack, he kind of falls
toward the first base side and falls off the mound.
And then he introduced this to him too, to where
it kind of stabilized him.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
It didn't guarantee him that he was going to.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Throw strikes, because with Miserowski throws one hundred and two whatever,
and he's a little bit wild, but it locked him
in and got his mechanics in the right place. And
the best thing I've heard about him is he's a
player's guy. He doesn't have an agenda. A lot of
coaches at the major league level are about them and
promoting themselves and self promoters, and this guy just really,
from what I understand, has the player's best interest in
(15:49):
mind all the time, and he wants to do whatever
he can. He knows the analytics side, but he also
knows the people side. And also, you know, when you
talk about the Brewers and what they've a common, this
could be like viewed as a big loss for the
Brewers when I hear how great this guy is. So
I knew nothing about him, did little research today before
we came on here, and it sounds like the Giants
(16:09):
got a good one.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
I feel like there's a lot of Brewers crossover these
days with the Giants for obvious reasons. Zach Manazzy And honestly,
why wouldn't you look at I mean, that's the organization
where if you've got sort of the personnel in the ballpark,
et cetera, that's an awfully good organization to kind of
look to. I think. So it's kind of fun now, Shane,
(16:34):
we're talking about the GM meetings. One thing I know
you did at the GM meetings was you had to
sit down with Tony Faitello, had a little one on
one with him, and wrote a really nice story about that.
What have your impressions been? I still have not met him,
which is so weird.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
At this point.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
It's it's interesting because like he's so it feels like
he's such a There's been so much written about him
because it's just so uh fascinating and still, as I said, mysterious.
So I wanted to sit down with him and try
to get to know him better just as a person
outside of the whole drama that surrounded his hiring, and
he kind of classified it as a drama a little bit.
(17:18):
I think he was pretty disturbed it and you know,
this is the big leagues. He's not college, and he's
pretty disturbed at the news breaking before he was ready
for it to break, and that kind of spiel. But
he's just he's such a He's exactly as advertised in
terms of his energy. He's kind of an open book,
(17:39):
but also, you know, kind of he's very honest. He
isn't trying to hide that, and I think I put it.
I did put in my story. He's not trying to
hide that. He doesn't really know how this is going
to go. I think everyone's just sort of saying, like,
oht Buster must be certain. I think Buster is certain,
but I think they're certain that this is an experiment
(18:01):
of sorts. And he's not the only young manager to
be hired this offseason. There's still some experimentation going on
across the league, kind of like a changing of the
guard of sorts, and he's not trying to pretend like
he knows everything. Maybe some stuff left on the cutting
room floor was him talking like, you know, I don't
know the ten best pitching coaches in Major League Baseball.
(18:22):
I'm gonna rely on everyone else to tell me. To
tell me that. So you know, you see Frank Anderson
come and that's the guy he trusted, but uh, maybe
messages someone that Zach or you know, the baseball people
around him are recommending. So he's very open about the
fact that this is he's a guinea pig. And I
(18:42):
think that it's the consensus is, well, Buster, it's he's
a guinea pig. But Buster and these these guys, they
they know what is gonna work. They see how the energy,
how the ruffling feathers factors is gonna could contribute to
winning and maybe change give them an edge that is
zigging while their teams are zagging elsewhere in terms of
(19:05):
how the culture is being built. So he was that
was sort of the vibe I was getting from him.
And also he's still he's still very much like in Tennessee, mode, Like,
you know, it's a completely.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Different it's a huge change.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
And he's still moving. He was just selling his house
and that he just bought in Nashville and or in Knoxville.
He was still going to the CMAS in Nashville. He's
still thinking about the recruiting. He wasn't explicitly saying it,
but you could still see that he was detaching the
little parts of his brain that were still in that mode.
So there was still somewhat of a detachment of the routine,
(19:44):
the intense routine that he was part of as a
college coach. And now he's like, you know, stepping into
the deep end, and he seems equipped to step in
the deep end. You kind of have to be in
this business. But it was definitely he was still you know,
oh my god, I'm in Vegas. I'm in these closed
door meetings with executives. I don't really know that well.
And it's it was interesting. It was a interesting conversation.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Yeah, there's a lot going on there. He's probably overwhelmed.
And in the day I talked to him, he was
very overwhelmed. Susan, I gotta be honest here, you and
I talked about him at length during games. We sit
next to each other, Shane, and we're all in the
same row. We all sit next to each other.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
During the games. And Susan was doing a piece.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
On potential new managers for the Giants and I threw
the name out there.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
She looked at me like I.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Was nuts, and you've been kind of lukewarm on this thing.
And I and I think you should share your thoughts
with Giants.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Fans about you're on board. Let me let me make it.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Just at the time, was like.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
You're kind of old school.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
You still you still have your doubts about this a
little bit. Can you share those with us just right now?
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Well, you know, I think I touched it when when
we had Logan web on, you know, one of the
questions I asked Logan was, how do you think some
of the veterans gonna are going to respond, especially, you know,
when a team is in a dip if things are
like you know, know that every team has like there,
you know, a couple of weeks where they underperform. How
are veterans maybe going to respond to a guy who
(21:08):
has no previous pro experience, was a player, coach, manager?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
You know?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Could that be an issue? And Logan. I mean, he's
not one of the only ones who's who's completely talked
me around on this. I mean, I've been sold really
since I heard Buster talking about many of the comments
I've heard from Vitello, although I still haven't talked to
him yet, so I will be.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
London. You can't talk to anybody except for me.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
I talked to him, Afie.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
I'll let you know what I think.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
It seems that I'm really impressed with the energy.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
And all of that. But it's unusual, you know.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
When you're like throwing his name out, I was like, Okay,
f he's a college coach. Okay, that's kind of a
fun outside the box kind of thing to think. But
I was like, Buster, are so old school, you know.
That's what we kept going like, well last year when
Buster on board, we were like, he's going back to
doing things the old way, and he did in a
lot of cases. So that's kind of where my mind
(22:06):
was at that point.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yeah, and it's going to be a process.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
He's going to fail, and he's going to make mistakes
and he's going to learn from those because the game
moves a lot faster than the college game.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
We always talk about.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Influencing eighteen and nineteen year old and whatever he says
is gospel, right, he walks on water.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
He's the coach. In college, the coach is the guy.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
But in grown men at the major league level, it's
a different story. When you got families and beards and
long hair and you're making lots of money and driving
sweet cars and living in sweet houses, and they question
a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
But he's gonna make mistakes. It's going to be a process.
The game is like this at this level.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I told you guys before, like when I managed an
A ball in San Jose in front of three hundred people,
the game was going so fast and I was my
mind was spinning at the A ball level.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Now you're on TV forty thousand people. Each win means
so much.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
It's so hard to win one baseball game at the
major league level, and it's going to be going so fast.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
And I know you're going to have a.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Great coaching staff and people to lean on, but still
you got to learn for yourself and how do you
how do we all.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Learned in life through failures?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Right, Failures are the greatest teacher, it's the greatest motivator.
So it's not going to be he just hits the
ground running, and maybe he does and I'm way off
base here.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
But there's gonna be whoa moments like what are we doing?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
But but it's okay because the authenticity's there, the transparencies there,
and he'll be the first one to get up in
front of all of us after.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
A game and say I really screwed.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
That up, or he'll I don't think he'll ever take
credit either. Just like we were talking about with the message,
the new pitching coach for the Giants and how are
your lates to guys, that's Tony's greatest strength.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
We all talk about energy and raw raw in college,
his greatest strength in Shana. You know this because you've
met him, Susan, you don't. This is just his relatability.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
It's just relatability to people how just how cool he
is and how he comes across is not full of crap.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
He just comes across as super super authentic.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yeah, yeah, I want to change gears a little bit here.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
At the end of the show. We got about five
minutes left, and.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I don't mean to push this to the end, but
I think it's really cool that we're doing a podcast
with two women in professional sports who are writers at
that top of their level, and maybe just how you
guys got started and what's it like for you guys.
I mean, shanea you're a big league reporter for a
big league team that's won three World Series champions. Susan
is decorated, she's on the Hall of Fame committee. She's
been doing this for thirty plus years. And Susan came
(24:34):
in at a different time when maybe it was a
little more difficult.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
But I'm sure it's not easy.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
For either one of you guys, and I'm really really
honored to have you on this podcast today. Maybe Susan,
you can start with how you got started and what's
it like.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Yeah, I mean it's funny FP. I think when you
came to the A's, when I was covering the A's,
I was the only woman covering a team in the
American League. And I think you had played for Montreal
when Stephanie Miles was there, right, and she's only one
covering the nationally, So I think there were only two
of us for a time until Cheryl Rosenberg, my very
good friend, started covering the Marlins, and then covered the Angels,
(25:10):
and then really when MLB dot Com got up and
running and started hiring a lot of women as interns
and as beat writers. That the Boston Globe was right
out there in front. A couple of the Chicago papers
were hiring women. It's sort of sort of snowball. But
as you know, FP and I think you know, Shane,
I started. I had wanted to be a broadcaster, and
(25:31):
I did all of Stanford's baseball games, including two World's
College World Series victories their last ones, go figure. And football.
I was a color announcer for football, you know, with
all my vast football playing experience. And I also worked
at the Stafford Daily Course. So coming when I was
coming out of college in nineteen eight, they weren't hiring
(25:54):
women to be baseball broadcasters. And I had a job
in hand from the Sacramento be already, I was like, yeah,
I like this paycheck sounded this paycheck.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
So was it before we get to Shane, was it
tough for you like being in the clubhouse, being in
the locker room and being the only female in there.
Speaker 6 (26:10):
What was that like?
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Uh? Yeah, I mean I think you know, I started
mostly in the NBA because I started in Sacramento. That
was but I was doing some baseball and I had
a few moments here and there that were probably not
so great, but I had friends who had much worse.
I'm very good friends with Lisa Olsen. I think people
will remember she had a bad experience with the New
England Patriots when she covered them to the extent where
(26:33):
she actually moved out of the country for a number
of years to Australia, which is horrifying. And she's phenomenal.
My dear late friend Jennifer Fry, who was among the
most talented writers ever, had a bad run in with
Hall of Famer Jack Morris when she was an intern
at the Detroit Free Press. So I feel like I
(26:55):
really kind of got away, you know, I just kind
of had cut my head down, did my But in
the Bay Area there were women before me, which really helped.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
You know.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
There was Joan Ryan, who we all know and love. There,
Susan Wornoff had worked at the Sacramento Bee before I
was there, and while I was there for a few
years too, Stephanie Salter was at the s f Ex Salminar.
So I had people in the Bay Area that I
knew and I looked up to, and Ann Killy and
started at the Mercury News just a little bit before
(27:24):
I started working at the Sacramento b And she's one
of my closest friends and now my shane and my
treasured colleague at the San Francisco Chronicle, many times California
Sports Writer of the Year winner, and so the Chronicle
has a long history of having women's sports writers dating
back to Joan Ryan, which what a legacy. Following somebody
(27:45):
like Joan Ryan and getting to work with people like
Anne and Shana and Marissa and Jemmy, who is phenomenal,
so we love it. And our boss, Christina carl Is,
you know, a trailblazer in her own rights. So I'm
we're both very lucky, I think in that that's great stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
We love Anne.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
We got to get around here, Shana, tell us about
how you got started and how the Giants thing came about.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Sure, I mean, I hate to say it because I
don't know if it's gonna land right, But I grew
up reading I grew up reading Susan, I grew up
reading and Killian, I grew up reading Gwen Napp, I
grew up reading Joan Ryan. So it was just it
always felt normal to me that that would be something
in a sense, I don't think anyone actually thinks. I
(28:30):
never thought until I was in college that I could
ever do this. It just kind of, I don't know.
It was never a fully formed dream until I realized
that I wanted to write and I realized I love sports,
and I just put the two together like a sandwich
a little bit, but it was it seemed like a
real career path because of the women that came before me.
(28:51):
And the women that came before me also made it
so that I had such a soft, not soft but
non scary land spot. You know, that they blazed a
trail for me so that I didn't have to endure
what some of the they had to endure. And I
think Susan, you know, she's told me some stories that
she's had to go through and she's not going to
(29:12):
say them now. I know that's like, you know, you
don't want to rehash all the stuff. But I also
grew up. I heard the story about Susan Fournoff getting
the rat and from from the clubhouse, and everyone was
worrying me about, oh, it's gonna you never know something
like that could happen. But it's because of such such
good work that they all did, blazing the trail, and
(29:35):
not only blazing the trail, but setting a new standard
that it it all those horror stories never occurred, and
it's just been so normalized. And now there's so many
women in the industry because it's just it feels so normal.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
But we should mention Mario Gordotto also covers the Giants
for MLB dot Com and she's phenomenal. So yeah, we're
living in a great time for women's sports writer. Sorry, Shane,
and I didn't mean to cut you off that I
was yeah too.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yeah, and it's great because like sometimes it's half women,
half men on the on the Giants beat, so it
feels very equally represented. But the way that I got
into baseball writing is I was just I just showed up.
When I was in college. I went to college at
s F State, so I was in San Francisco, and
(30:29):
when I was graduating from journalism school, one of my professors,
Jesse Garnier, had a blog. And this is kind of
at the advent of blogging, when press boxers was like Okay,
I guess we'll let you, or pr teams were like
I guess we'll let these bloggers in and see if
they get in the way or not. But I was
lucky enough to cover some giant games way back then,
(30:49):
and it kind of threw me into the deep end
of Oh this is I just I learned.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
I took it as a.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Different school, like I was learning from watching Henry Schulman,
Alex Pavlovich, Andrew Baggerley uh do their job. And I
was in the way, for sure, but I was learning,
and uh, I kind of I was also just around
the people that I knew I needed to impress. So
I tried just anything that I could to freelance and
(31:16):
get my name out there, get bylines, uh, do whatever
I could to just get the experience and the writing, uh,
the writing the articles out there to to get to
to to the spot now. So there's there's still always growth,
but it's it's uh. It really was just about showing
up and doing what I could with any opportunity I
(31:38):
could get.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah, hang on, yeah, because I should say Shane has
also covered a lot of Warriors and done a great
job covering the Warriors, but she showed up on the
as some when I was covering the A's Uh, and
the A's of O were always a great beat in
terms of women being out there covering. Jane McCauley, of course,
who we all know well from Associated Press, She's out
there there a ton and a giants. I mean, none
(32:02):
of us are really out at the A's anymore because
a Sacramento, but of course I'm talking about well, they
were in Oakland, but there were so many There were
a few years where there were so many covering the
women covering the A's. I can remember the A's Monthly magazine.
You probably remember that monthly magazine FP. They did a
story like essentially like where are so many women covering
(32:23):
the A's And Joe Stiglitic was then with the Mercury
News and he was the only man on the beat,
and they interviewed him and he said, yeah, I kind
of feel left out. Sometimes they're always going like I
like your blouse. I like your blouse, and nobody ever
asks me about my blouse. So for the entire rest
of the year, I think every day at least one
of us would go ask Joe about his blouse, which
(32:46):
gotta tell you didn't you didn't have a good blouse game.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
If you could cover the a's in those days, you
could cover any in the history of baseball. Bunch, you guys,
thank you so much for what you do. Seriously, it's
a grind. People don't realize. You're traveling, You're booking your
own flights, you're booking your own hotels, You're getting into
cities at three in the morning.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Then you got to get up and go to a
day game at the ballpark.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Excuse me, you're doing the same grind that the players do.
And then on top of it, we don't know how
to write, and you guys do. So thank you so
much for what you guys do. Shana, thanks for coming
on with us today. Susan, I'll let you get back
to your crazy, wild, fun lifestyle in London.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I'll be joining you Friday in London for a week.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Across the pond. We're gonna have a blast Premier League
soccer games. We're gonna do it all. But you guys,
thanks for coming on today. You can follow us on
x at splash hit Territory, on Instagram at splash hit Territory.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
We have our own sites now.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
We are on the foul Territory network, and of course
subscribe and like on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
All right, guys, take care, have a great day. Thanks
a lot, and like I say on the way out,
swing hard in case you hit it.
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