October 10, 2025 • 39 mins
Rosey goes one on one with General Manager Mike Chernoff and Manager Stephen Vogt to talk about the 2025 season and look ahead to 2026. That's all on this edition of Guardians Weekly with Jim Rosenhaus on the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio network.
Guardians Weekly is brought to you by Progressive helping Guardians
fans save hundreds on car insurance.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hi, everyone, welcome to Guardian's Weekly. Jim Rosen House along
with you from Progressive Field this week. As the Guardian's
offseason continues, Major League Baseball playoffs continue as they are
getting close now at the time of this recording to
deciding who is in the American and National League Championship Series.
(01:12):
But some great games, some good series, and a lot
of fun baseball. We saw that with the Guardians and
the Tigers before the Guardians were eliminated and as a result,
we are now into our offseason programs. But a great
show lined up for you today. In just a few moments,
we'll hear from general manager Mike Chernoff about the season
gone by and what things look like in the season ahead.
(01:33):
We'll also visit with manager Steven Vote. Could he be
a back to back American League Manager of the Year
award winner? Boy, he certainly has the resume this season
for all the great things he did in guiding the
team to a second consecutive division title in the American
League Central and another postseason appearance, and we'll also have
(01:54):
Bobby D's visit with Jim Fulk, longtime member of the
Guardians' front office staff back to the days when it
was the Indians. No one has had more to do
with the construction, maintenance, and renovations of Jacob's and then
Progressive Field than Jim Folk and Bobby Dee will visit
with him in another edition of at the Ballpark. But
(02:14):
first we are joined by Mike Chernoff, Guardian's general manager.
Talking with Mike earlier this week about the incredible year
despite not reaching that ultimate goal of making and winning
a World Series.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Yeah, I mean, look, we're never satisfied unless we win
the World Series, and that is our singular goal every year.
At the same time, it's pretty amazing, you know, to
reflect back on some of the adversity that we faced
and the challenges that we faced as a team and
organization this year and how our guys fought through that.
We did something a historic. We came back from a
fifteen and a half game lead that the Tigers had
(02:50):
and we won the division and it was pretty amazing
just to watch the group come together, to see the
individual and team progress that we had and to accomplish
something pretty special.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Sometimes numbers don't make sense, and there are some numbers
that don't indicate a playoff team. What were some of
the ones that jump out to you that said there
were some other things going on here that allowed you
to overcome that.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, well, I mean a lot of what we've heard
about is our run differential. With a negative run differential,
how did you win so many games? And look, you can.
You know, it's easy to sort of look at that
and say, oh, they just got lucky. I don't think
that was the case.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
This year.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
We played a lot of tight games. We had the
third most one and two run games of any team
in baseball, and we had the best record. We were
fifty and thirty three in those games. Our offense was
not super strong this year. That was not the strength
of our team. We turned around our starting pitching staff.
It was a real focus last year, and our starters
became the strength of our team. And then our bullpen
despite the adversity we faced with you know, the class
(03:50):
A administrative leave, our bullpen had the best er in
baseball of any team after his suspension. So I think
what we saw was a group of guys that had
a lot of tight games and kept it tight and
allowed us to get one more run than the other team.
And that's all that matters in the end.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
In baseball, such a numbers game, it's so fun to
look at all the different things that say, well, this
should happen, that should happen. What did you see in
the clubhouse though? That maybe helped them overcome some things.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Yeah, this is a tight knit group. There's a ton
of energy. Jose is the clear leader on the field
and in the clubhouse, and you can't find a better
leader than that. Just the way that he goes out
and prepares and plays every game. You know, it's easy.
It's easy to just point to him as the example
and hope everyone follows. And then guys like Hedges who
brought energy every day. I think what we saw this
(04:38):
year though, was that despite some of the challenges that
we had and coming off of such a high at
the end of twenty twenty four, our guys never looked back.
They always looked forward. You knows, as low as it
got when we were I think forty and forty eight
at one point, there was a lot of noise around
the trade deadline and we were dealing with the suspensions
(04:58):
that we dealt with. Our guys didn't get caught up
in that. They looked forward. Our coaching staff and Voter
in particular did a tremendous job helping us lead through
that and it allowed us to just have an absolute
tremendous September that helped us win the division.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Mike Chernoff joining US Guardians General manager. It always seems
like the season one season ends and you're already in
to trying to figure things out for the following year
coaching staff wise. Where do things stand right now in
terms of the staff, because I know it is normal
for some changes to be made.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, our hope is that everyone will come back, and
we've talked to our staff about that. I think this
might be an interesting year. You know, We've got there's
i think eight managerial open openings in baseball, and we
have some really good people here. So it wouldn't surprise
me if some of the people that are here had
opportunities elsewhere and then they're sort of the trickle down
effect of promotions and things like that. But our expectation
(05:49):
and hope is that everyone will be back. We also
you know as we go through or have for each
of the past several years with Carl Willis, he's going
to have to make a decision on whether he wants
to come back. The ball is in his court. I mean,
you talk about great leader and great human being, Carl
is as good as it gets. If there's a spot
for pitching coaches in the Hall of Fame, he will
deserve that, hopefully at a long time because he'll keep
(06:10):
doing it here for a while. But you know, it's
his spot if he wants to have it, and he's
going to make a decision at some point relatively soon.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
And what makes him special, what sets him apart from
some others and helps so many young pitchers get gone here. Yeah,
it's really hard to describe it.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Carl.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I've known Carl since I was an intern. I started
twenty three years ago, and Carl was our Major League
pitching coach when I walked in here and I was
an intern, and he treated me like I was the
GM then and it hasn't changed, you know since. So
he is a tremendous human being who gets to know
people at an individual level, and he finds a way
to connect with everybody, whether you're the intern, the GM,
(06:50):
a picture straight out of the Dominican Republic, or a
pitcher you know who's pitched in high leverage college games
or something like that. So I think just at a
foundational level, he finds a way to connect with every guy.
And he's been through so much in the game as
a player, as a minor league coach, and as a
major league coach now that he can just draw on
tremendous experiences in working with different players or things that
(07:13):
he's gone through in his own career and find a
way to relate to just about everybody.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
So the coaching staff, whoever it may be, we'll be
working with another young club next year. This team seemed
to win more games as it got younger down this stretch.
And what were the encouraging signs that you saw from
the chase to latters George Falera among others that says, hey,
next year they could take a step forward again, just
with improvements from young players already in the organization.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, our first half offensively, we really struggled, and that
was both some of our veteran guys like Carlos Santana
and Lane Thomas and some of our young guys, you know,
guys like Brian Rocchio, Bo Naylor, John Kenzie, Noel Jonathan Rodriguez.
They scuffled in the first half. We also had some
injuries at the top levels of our minor league system.
Both with Valeria and the latter were injured and couldn't
(08:02):
help us early in the year. What we saw over
the course of the year was improvement. It was not
necessarily consistent, and it wasn't always steady, but we saw
a lot of progress and improvement, and we went from
one of the worst offensive teams in the first half,
I think eighteenth or so in the second half out
of thirty teams. So we saw at an individual and
team level a group of guys that got better, and
(08:22):
we are optimistic about the future. You know, we have
players like c. J. Kaphis chased the lotter, George Falera
who came up here and gave us really solid at
bats that helped us get to where we needed to
get to at the end of the year. So over
those two months, we saw a lot of bright spots
from some of the emerging players, and we saw guys
like Brian Rocchio and bonel Or turn around their seasons.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Does Chase delatter still go to the Arizona Fall League
or did the three days and the big leagues change
things for him?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Could you imagine the difference in the energy and atmosphere
of the Cleveland Guardians playoff environment versus.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
The Fall League.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So Chase had been set to go to the Folly,
he was preparing to go to the Fall League. He
finishes rehab in Arizona. He thought he was going to
go home and then go straight to the Fall League
about a week or two later, and instead we brought
him to Columbus initially to kind of stay hot for
a couple of days, and we brought him.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Here for the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
After discussions with him at the end of the postseason run,
we sort of jointly made the determination that it would
be best for him to just focus on his body
and physically get himself in a great spot for next year.
So he is going to head back out to Arizona
soon and be out there for the majority of the
off season to work on his physical conditioning and ramp
(09:35):
up his BASEBLL activity. But he will not be in
the Fall League unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Like turn Off Joinings, Gardian's general manager all right, for fans.
As you get in the offseason, what starts the ball
rolling in terms of putting the team together. Do you
have to wait till after the World Series is done?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah, I mean that's what we usually see. You know,
at the end of the World Series, there's a flurry
of decisions on club options we have John means that
we'll have to make a decision on and then you'll
see other teams make those decisions, and then free agency
starts right after I think five days after the World Series,
but really it often doesn't pick up in earnest until
that first or second week of November, maybe a week
(10:11):
or two after the end of the World Series, when
we get to GM meetings and we'll start to ramp
up conversations with other teams and talk to agents on
free agents, and then go into Winter meetings, and it
seems like these off seasons there's no break. So you know,
we have to do a lot of planning over the
next few weeks to prepare for all of that. But
we know that's what our job is and we have
(10:31):
a responsibility to try to improve the team.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
And there's some uncertainty in baseball right now, particular to
this team, and some others. The television deals are up
in the air to some extent, and there's a looming
labor agreement hopefully, but maybe a dispute. Does that impact
you guys at all in terms of what you can
do and how you go.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
About it, I don't think so. It'll be interesting to
see if it affects the industry at large, but especially
with who we are. I think eighty percent of our
place appearances came from guys that were sort of internal
to our system. Actually, if you include Carlo Santana Nolan Jones,
who we acquired this year, it's like ninety five percent
of our plate appearances came from internal guys. I think
almost seventy percent of our innings came from internal guys. Similarly,
(11:14):
guys that had been minor leaguers with us and developed.
So we know that the core of our success is
going to be from the guys that are here and
that have been developed through our system, and that's our
main focus. The labor uncertainty, all those things, they may
affect free agency, I'm not sure. I wouldn't want to
speculate on it, but we're not as focused on that.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Mike has always appreciate the time throughout the season, you're
missing the game already. You need a little break.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
That's a good question. I wish we were playing, That's
all I would say about it. It's hard when turning
on other playoff games, Tito used to always say, I
hope everybody loses after you get eliminated. I wouldn't go
that far. I root for people in the game, but
I certainly wish we were playing, and I'm excited to
get back to it next year.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
That's Guardians general manager Mike Chernoff, and when we come back,
we'll hear from Steven Vote, the Guardian's manager who led
this team to a surprising American League Central Division title.
That's next on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians radio network.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Switching to Progressive is a game winning call, and that
reminds us of other game winning calls in the history
of sports.
Speaker 6 (12:18):
It was a doubleheader in August and really hot inside
the concession stand, so instead of winning for people to
come to me, I figured I'd walk around yelen hot sure,
and that's how I became the first hot dog vendor
in sports.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
Okay, not really a game winning call, but it was
a good call. You can make one too. Switch to
Progressive and you could save hundreds. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company
and affiliates not available in all states.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Welcome back to Guardians Weekly manager Stephen Vote, joining us
before he heads back to the Great Pacific Northwest for
a little downtime and Voter it's never easy when you're
in the postseason if you don't go all the way,
because it just comes to a screeching halt. But to
get there this year and win a division, maybe it's
going to take you a little bit to get there,
(13:10):
But what a season and how did you look at it?
If you've had a chance to reflect a little bit
on everything that happened.
Speaker 7 (13:17):
Yeah, I've been fortunate to have a little bit of
time to reflect, not a ton. But I'm disappointed. I'm
disappointed that our guys, you know, we didn't get further.
But our goals to win a World Series, Rosie. That's
never going to change. And there's only one team that
goes home happy at the end of the year, and
it's not us this year, unfortunately. But all that aside,
I couldn't be more proud of what this group accomplished,
given where we were at various points throughout the year
(13:39):
and the resilience of our group. We overcame a lot
of adversity. We overcame a lot of things to get
ourselves a division banner, which is super important, but it's
not the ultimate prize. And just couldn't be more thankful
that our fans supported us through the end of the
year and that last week and a half at home. Man,
that was electric atmosphere. So I can't say thank you enough.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
A lot of seasons in pro ball as a player
and now a couple as a manager. Have you ever
been a part of a season where it just seemed like, man,
it's going to be hard to overcome some of these
things and it ends up the way it did.
Speaker 7 (14:09):
I've never been a part of something like that where
it seems like you're down and out. I've been part
of some teams where you're down and out and then you.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Stay that way.
Speaker 7 (14:16):
But it was just so cool to see a group
of people come together. No matter what got thrown out them,
it didn't shake them. They showed up the next day
ready to win, even in the despite a ten game loss,
despite a one and nine stretch, despite injuries, despite restricted lists,
despite all of the adversity that these guys went through.
Nothing phased them, and they showed up ready to win.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
So along those lines, you have to still believe no
matter what's going on. But when did you realize that
there were the guys in there were still believing even
when it seemed like it might be a new low point.
Speaker 7 (14:49):
I felt like, you know, that last road trip right
before the All Star break, you know, we go and
take three in Houston, we went three out of four
in Chicago, and everybody, hey, we'll see in four days.
And everybody showed up ready to go that next Friday,
And I told Albi, I remember saying, hey, the boys
got some rest, they're ready to rock. And sure enough,
we went on an unbelievable second half run. A couple
more gut punches throughout the way, but really just they
(15:12):
never broke stride. They never they never faltered, they never wavered.
They showed up every day ready to win. And it
was a lot of fun to watch.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
And you did it with a roster that got younger
as you went along. And I know you talked about
a little bit down the stretch, working young players in
when they come up from the minor leagues, and how
important it is to make them feel a part of it.
Did you think, though you'd have this many and the
results would turn out the way they did.
Speaker 7 (15:35):
No, absolutely not. If you would have told me that
Cjkafas would get hit by a pitch to scorreped hopping
for us to secure a playoff, you know that was
not on the Bingo card. But what it does is
to me, it speaks volumes to this organization and the
number of great players that we just continue to turn out.
Now it's our job to help sustain that greatness. Every
player has their moment. Everyone No one gets to the
(15:56):
big leagues by chance or by circumstance. You earn your
way there, and it's our job as a major league
staff to continue that development, to help them stick to
be long term big leaguers. And that's what we strive
for every day.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Steven Vote joining US American League Manager of the Year
a year ago, how did you improve off of a
year where it's hard to improve on that? But what
were some of the things, maybe subtle things that allowed
you to in your mind, be a better manager for
this team.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
I think it's patients, patients and understanding and being able
to zoom out. You know, last year, my first year
in this job, I was zoomed in the whole time
because I had to figure out every little meticulous detail
and figure out just how to do this job. And
I think this year, what it allowed me to do
was I had to zoom out at times and say, Okay,
maybe this player isn't quite there yet, but I see
(16:43):
what's inside of there, so we need to stick with it.
Or hey, maybe this is happening, but it's not there yet,
And it allows you to have some of that long
term view. And I think one of the beautiful things
about the way our season ended was no one improves
when you're successful. You don't learn through success, learn through failure.
And our players got to learn through a lot of
(17:03):
failure and still achieve some success at the end of
the year. And that could be super powerful. So now
not only did you learn all the lessons through your failures,
but you also got to enjoy the success that a
team can bring. And I think this team really proved
that if you play like a team and you come
together and you believe in each other, you can achieve things.
And we got to get better, and that's the beauty.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
It was a fun run. What does a major league
manager do to decompress and recharge the batteries now?
Speaker 5 (17:32):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 7 (17:32):
We still got a lot of We've got a lot
of work to do these first few weeks. I'm just
kind of getting the off season set up and doing
some things. But I see a few golf games in
my horizon. I've got a couple of trips planned with
my family just to get away for a few days.
And I'll be coaching softball in the fields in Washington
State this weekend. So if anybody's not doing anything, tri Cities, Washington,
Pacific Northwest Force will be out there. But I just
(17:54):
can't wait to spend time with my family, decompress, really
dive into where we can get better, and continue to
pour our coaches and players along the way.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
What a run. Thanks for making it a lot of fun,
and good luck in the off season, have some fun.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
I love Cleveland. I couldn't be more thankful to be here,
and we're gonna do everything we can this winner to
bring a World Series championship next year.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
That is Guardians manager Steven Vote. Stay tuned. We'll have
more to come after this. Welcome back, it's Guardians Weekly.
(18:45):
We join you each week throughout the offseason until Thanksgiving.
Then we take a hiatus from Thanksgiving until just after
the New year, when we get deep into our hot
stove shows and get you ready for Spring training twenty
twenty six. It'll be here before you know it. But
some fun things to do this fall, including listening to
Bob di Biassio, Guardians Senior Vice President, a two part
(19:08):
series with Jim Fulk, longtime front office member of the
Cleveland Indians and then Guardians on the construction and maintenance
side of things. And there was no one more responsible
for overseeing the construction of this beautiful ballpark back when
it was Jacob's Field, and then the renovations that have
made it what it is today. So let's check in
(19:30):
and hear from Bobby D. Another edition of at the Ballpark.
Speaker 8 (19:35):
The perfectly manicured field, the unmistakable aroma of a ballpark
hot dog, and the electricity celebrating another victory.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
This is at the Ballpark with Bobby D.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Thank you, Hammy.
Speaker 9 (19:51):
Welcome to at the Ballpark, where we hope you enjoy
our conversations with those involved in the great game of baseball,
those who ma may be behind the scenes or the
colorful personalities who have provided so many exciting moments and memories.
Today we are joined by a gentleman who, for the
(20:11):
past thirty four years, as vice president of ballpark Operations,
has been responsible for all activities a progressive field, Mister
Jim Folk.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Jim, thank you for joining me today. Oh Bobby, thanks
for having me. It seems like only yesterday, you know exactly.
Speaker 9 (20:31):
It is pretty amazing you and I are connecting, as
you call it, a career with our ball club. Where
did the past thirty four years ago?
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Well, let's see, we closed Cleveland Stadium, we opened Jacob's Field,
we had a strike three World Series, we had two
All Star Games, but four hundred and fifty five consecutive sellouts,
five seasons sold out before opening day. We had Jimmy Buffett,
Brad Paisley, Elton, John Jason Alden, Luke Bryant, Billy Joel concerts.
(21:07):
The time just flew, you know, I mean it really
when you stop and think about, you know, how long
thirty four baseball seasons is the amount of stuff that
we were able to pack in with two of the
best ownership groups ever. And what I happened to think
is probably the best ballpark that there is.
Speaker 9 (21:27):
Without question. There the Crown Jewel. We'll talk about that
in a little bit, but we absolutely need to start
from the beginning. You're a Chicago guy who began his
career with the Chicago White Sox nearly fifty years ago,
so you and I are connected at the hip in
the longevity crazy game, you go back to the days
(21:52):
of the legend build back.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, you just think what a fascinating person.
I was so fortunate for a couple of years to
have worked for him, and it was such a small
operation back then, but I got started. I was in
a game day security guard and then moved into ballpark
security when the team was on the road in the
off season. Bill Veck he didn't drive anymore. He had
(22:18):
a couple of really cool I think there were nineteen
sixty Thunderbirds, but they were always parked in the player's
lot and under various states of disrepair. So he'd take
a taxi over from his apartment. He lived over like
fifty fifth in Lakeshore Drive, and we were thirty fifth
in the Dan Ryan, so it was probably about five
miles as the Crow flies, but it was a good
(22:40):
twenty minute drive to get to his place, so they'd
take a taxi in the morning. But at the end
of the day he'd come down and one of us,
who was working the reception security desk, would give him
a ride home if Bob Bertucci wasn't available to give
him a ride, you know, Bobby. But my first encounter
with him, I was in school at the time. I
(23:02):
was taking a business law class. Him working a ford
at midnight shift, and so we're doing homework. Bill Beck
comes down the stairs and he had that wooden leg
and so you could hear him step thump, step thump,
step thump coming down the stairs. And we didn't have
an elevator back. So he comes to the reception desk
and sees I've got this book. He spins it around,
looks at it, he gives it. About thirty seconds they go,
(23:24):
you know, I never agreed with the Supreme Court on
that case. I always thought they should have ruled this way.
I'm going, holy, you know, just right off the top
of his head. Well about a week later, I've getting
English slip class. Same thing. He comes down, spins the
book around, starts reading it and he's off to the
races with sonnets from Shakespeare. It was so incredibly intelligent,
(23:49):
well educated, erudite on any topic that there was, whether
it was a Pitcher's era or some deep philosophical conversation.
But one of my favorites with him was, as I
mentioned before, he'd take a taxi over in the morning,
but then we'd give him a ride home. And so
(24:10):
it was my turn when he came down one day.
And back then I had a seventy five Chrysler Newport,
which was only a little bit shorter than your average
battleship today. And so he got in the passenger seat
in the car and he smoked cools and I used
to smoke Marlborough's back in the day. I got smart.
(24:32):
But I had a pack on the dashboard. So he
sits down in the in the front seat, grabs my pack.
He smokes off the dashboard and fires one up, and
I said, you know, this is a Chrysler. It's got
two ashtrays in the front. So you've got an ashtray
right by your door there. I don't need it. It
sits back, pulls his crosses his leg, pulls his pants
(24:56):
up on his wooden leg and he's got an ashtray
drilled into his wouldn't look.
Speaker 9 (25:03):
I just love that story more than anything.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Man, he's got.
Speaker 9 (25:06):
An ashtray in his wooden leg. Special.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Yeah, I made this stuff up right, No, it's just yeah,
you just could not possibly make any of that up.
Speaker 9 (25:17):
Just the best. Always visiting Kamiski in the day when
he was in the barge room, you felt lucky. You
felt lucky. In the late eighties, there was talk the
White Sox were going to move to Tampa's baseball considered Expanse,
and you were tabbed as the director of operations of
the Florida Suncoast Dome, involved in the construction and opening
(25:39):
of the dome in nineteen ninety. Talk a little bit
about that.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Well, it's one of those things where the White Sox stayed.
It was more than talk. Time actually stopped in the
state of Illinois on June thirtieth, was the last day
of the legislature. They didn't quite have all the votes
for the new ballpark, but if the legislation wasn't passed
at that time. At mid night June thirtieth, the White
Sox were heading to Saint Pete Building was about halfway done.
(26:05):
The politicians did what politicians do best, and they got
the deal done. But it was actually time had stopped.
The clock got unplugged in the state House, and they
got a new ballpark across the street. So they stayed,
but I went was lucky enough to go down to
Saint Pete they and pick up building that was mostly
(26:25):
designed and about halfway constructed, and so spent a year
there learning more and more about architecture and construction practices,
and then we assembled an entire team of ushers and
ticket takers and security and maintenance at Custodio. Didn't need
a groundskeeper because it was inside and I was going
(26:46):
to have plastic grass. But we opened that up almost
a year to the day after I got down there,
and I was lucky enough ran that for a couple
of years. We did tractor polls and home and garden
shows and lots of concerts. We did hockey exhibition games
that ended up getting them the Tampa Bay Lightning. So anyway,
(27:07):
we did a lot of stuff we didn't know baseball.
But what happened there was I got the opportunity to
learn a lot of the things that were necessary up
here that the then Indians needed to open and operate
the new ballpark the corner of Carnegie and Ontario, so
came up June of ninety two, so about halfway a
(27:31):
little into the ninety two season at old Municipal Stadium,
got to work through there the final season we had,
and it was really I was aware coming out of
Kamisky where you would have forty seven thousand people for
opening day and then you might see forty thousand combined
(27:52):
over the next month and a half. But seeing seventy
thousand or sixty five thousand for opening day in Cleveland
of sixty five hundred the next day was a little weird,
but that was you know, coming out of Komisky, I
understood the love that people had for Municipal Stadium. If
you weren't from here, or you weren't part of the
(28:14):
you know, part of that team, you know, you really
kind of scratch your hands and you know, what's this about.
But if that was the place you saw your first
baseball game, or you were one of the two hundred
and forty seven thousand who were there for Lenny Barker's
perfect game, or you know, any of that sort of thing,
you really felt an attachment, and Old Kimiski was that
(28:35):
same thing. It was a big, old barn, you know.
Wrigley Field was that cute little place up on the
north side that people went and spent their afternoons, you know.
But so I really understood and appreciated the attachment people had.
And then, you know, ninety three, we had that three
game set over the weekend with the White Sox. I
(28:56):
think we didn't win any of those, but two hundred
and ten thousand people through the turnstiles.
Speaker 9 (29:01):
That was probably one of the most remarkable weekends of
our careers, saying goodbye to As you said, we love
the old ballparks that we grew up going to. It's
all we knew. Millions of fans have enjoyed our beautiful
ballpark since the gates opened in nineteen ninety four. From
blueprints to renovations, you were responsible for keeping Progressive Field
(29:26):
one of the crown jewels in Major League Baseball. Talk
us through the journey.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Wow, well when you say it that way, well again,
it was very fortunate to come up when the ballpark
was just a hole in the ground they had just
finished digging the space for the foundation, was able to
be here for that first poor of concrete and the
first piece of steel that came out. Got to work
with some really terrific people on the whole design as
(29:56):
we spent almost two years but opened up.
Speaker 8 (30:00):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
We had that exhibition in April of ninety four against
the Pirates. A beautiful day.
Speaker 9 (30:06):
Beautiful Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Yeah, and then we're supposed to have an open house
on Sunday and then opening day on Monday, which I
think Sunday was Easter, if I recall, And we had
a snowstorm come in a beautiful day Saturday during that
Pittsburgh game, and it snowed overnight. I got to the
park at about six thirty or seven o'clock in the morning,
and I had to call Dennis Layman, who was executive
(30:31):
vice president of business at the time, my boss, our boss,
and tell them we can't let anybody in here because
there's ice and snow and everything else. I need all
day to get the ballpark cleaned up. So we had
to cancel that open house. But then the next day, Monday,
again just an absolutely beautiful day. President of the United States,
(30:52):
President Clinton was there to throw out the first pitch
along with the Ohio governor George Voinovich, who had been
the mayor when all of it started, and again it
was a beautiful day. It was a magical game, and
a lot of people caught a lot more of that
game than I did, because I was kind of running
around hoping that we didn't have broken seats and that
(31:14):
the bathrooms all worked and everything else. But when that
game ended, you know, it was just magic, and it
almost was like the harbinger of things to come that
you know, this was really going to be a great place.
Speaker 9 (31:26):
An extranding walk off when something about became commonplace. Jacobs
failed and Progressive failed, so switched to like your relationship.
We'll just throw it out there, Mike Hargo. You've got
to deal with general managers, managers, especially during rain delay scenarios.
(31:48):
That's not an easy task. So let's bring Grover into
the conversation. One of our dearest friends. Well, Grover is
he tells a story, and so I'm fairly safe and
telling it as well. Yeah, I was the weather man.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
For a long time, and I talked to the local
weather people, I talked to the national weather people, and
then with the umpires and the managers and the pitching coaches,
my internal rule was always we play the games like
is their schedule, and if we can't, I mean, you
have to be able to play it safely for the players,
for the fans, everything else, because for a lot of
(32:21):
those fans, this is the only game they've got and
so you want to really be careful to protect that.
And back in ninety five, which is the start of
our sellout Street, that's when we started doing those split
doubleheaders because if we rained out, there was no place
to put the fans from last night's game. So we
started doing this day night doubleheader and we got really
too good at it.
Speaker 9 (32:42):
I think those things that wear you out with two
different teams ones.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Well, one time, yeah, we had the White Socks and
the Twins White Socks makeup game and then the Twins
regular schedule. I think is how that one went? Yeah, Grover,
and we'd grumble at each other from period over whether
to go or not. But I just love the man
and he tells me he loves me too, So I
think that's good.
Speaker 9 (33:07):
Talk about Tito. Then real quickly, well you have a
couple of minutes left. You have relationships with the guys
in the dugout. As you mentioned, the pitching coaches and
hitting coaches, infield coaches, making sure the grounds keepers, Brandon's
doing his thing, and just talk about Tito real briefly here.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Well, you mentioned Brandon, and the great news is Brandon
Kanke you don't have to worry about him. The game
is at seven ten, he's he's got everything ready. So
that's the really good part there is he's such a professional,
I really think the best in the business.
Speaker 9 (33:42):
The ballpark is beautiful.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Indeed, but Tito's just when he was when he came
in with Boston. I loved him, you know because again
you'd have to go and tell them what the weather
was going to do or whatever. Some visiting managers that
really didn't want to see you and you know, had
no time for you, and you didn't care that you
were telling them you're not going to start on time.
Tito would invite you to come in and sit down
(34:04):
chat a little bit, and just such a great guy.
And so when he came to manage the well then Indians,
you know that part was thrilling, just because I mean,
just such a wonderful person. Always had a great job
for you, even when he was trying to figure his
lineup card you know, he'd give you the time, treated
everybody as if they were important to him and they
(34:28):
were old friends. I'm thinking through a couple of different
instances when we're down in delay, you know, and I'm griping,
and you know, I can't believe we're not getting this
thing going, He's going, Hey, take it easy, This'll be okay,
We'll get the game. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 9 (34:49):
Jimmy were sure they'd have a whole lot of fun
working together the past three plus decades, taking care of
our players, our fans. On behalf of everyone connected to
the Cleveland Guardians baseball team, we cannot thank you enough
for your dedication and commitment to making the corner of
(35:10):
Carnegie and Ontario so incredibly special.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
I got to be thanking you and everybody else for
letting me do it, because I say it and I
mean it. I've never worked a day in my life.
I've gotten to do. I get to work with all
you people. I got a million square foot playground to
call my own. I've had a blast, an absolute blast,
and have loved every minute of it. And so thank you.
(35:36):
Thank thanks to the organization, thanks to the fans for
making it such a special special place.
Speaker 9 (35:43):
Well, it's been a blast reminiscent many thanks, Jim. We
hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane. We look
forward to connecting next time on At the Ballpark on
the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
That's Guardian Senior Vice President Bob d. Biassio with another
edition of At the Ballpark. Stay with us. We'll have
some closing thoughts after this.
Speaker 10 (36:12):
And tonight's first pitch is in there, strike and we're
underway at the corner of Carnagan, Ontario.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
Progressive Nos. There's so many great things about being a
sports fan, like scoring the company box seats. How great
is that trick place that actually works? Prevent defense when
your team is winning by a lot, and even more
preventive prevent defense is they're hanging on by a thread.
And of course saving money when you bundle your home
and auto with Progressive, that's pretty great, just like trick
plays that actually work. Yeah, but how often does that happen?
(36:51):
Complaining about sports? Not so great? Progressive Casualty interns, company
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Speaker 2 (37:10):
Welcome back to Guardians Weekly, Jim Rosenhouse, So long we
do this weekend from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland, and
that's going to put a wrap on our show this week.
Some things to keep an eye on in the weeks ahead.
Once the postseason is complete, the Guardians will need to
set their roster and clear space and put players on
the forty man roster to protect them, especially to young
(37:32):
players from the Rule five draft in December. So a
lot of that paperwork type of thing to acquire and
keep as much talent as possible in the organization will
be taking place in the weeks and months ahead. Of course,
there's the winter meetings, the general managers meetings, and who knows,
maybe some moves by the Guardians before Christmas time. We'll
(37:53):
find out, and when we do, we will let you know.
As each and every week will be here until Thanksgiving
with another edition of Guardians Weekly. As always, thanks to
Brian Motze for helping to put together our show each
and every week until next week. This is Jim Rosenhouse
reminding you that you've been listening to Guardians Weekly on
the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Guardians Weekly has been brought to you by Progressive helping
Guardians fans save hundreds on car insurance,
Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio network.
Guardians Weekly is brought to you by Progressive helping Guardians
fans save hundreds on car insurance.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hi, everyone, welcome to Guardian's Weekly. Jim Rosen House along
with you from Progressive Field this week. As the Guardian's
offseason continues, Major League Baseball playoffs continue as they are
getting close now at the time of this recording to
deciding who is in the American and National League Championship Series.
(01:12):
But some great games, some good series, and a lot
of fun baseball. We saw that with the Guardians and
the Tigers before the Guardians were eliminated and as a result,
we are now into our offseason programs. But a great
show lined up for you today. In just a few moments,
we'll hear from general manager Mike Chernoff about the season
gone by and what things look like in the season ahead.
(01:33):
We'll also visit with manager Steven Vote. Could he be
a back to back American League Manager of the Year
award winner? Boy, he certainly has the resume this season
for all the great things he did in guiding the
team to a second consecutive division title in the American
League Central and another postseason appearance, and we'll also have
(01:54):
Bobby D's visit with Jim Fulk, longtime member of the
Guardians' front office staff back to the days when it
was the Indians. No one has had more to do
with the construction, maintenance, and renovations of Jacob's and then
Progressive Field than Jim Folk and Bobby Dee will visit
with him in another edition of at the Ballpark. But
(02:14):
first we are joined by Mike Chernoff, Guardian's general manager.
Talking with Mike earlier this week about the incredible year
despite not reaching that ultimate goal of making and winning
a World Series.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Yeah, I mean, look, we're never satisfied unless we win
the World Series, and that is our singular goal every year.
At the same time, it's pretty amazing, you know, to
reflect back on some of the adversity that we faced
and the challenges that we faced as a team and
organization this year and how our guys fought through that.
We did something a historic. We came back from a
fifteen and a half game lead that the Tigers had
(02:50):
and we won the division and it was pretty amazing
just to watch the group come together, to see the
individual and team progress that we had and to accomplish
something pretty special.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Sometimes numbers don't make sense, and there are some numbers
that don't indicate a playoff team. What were some of
the ones that jump out to you that said there
were some other things going on here that allowed you
to overcome that.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, well, I mean a lot of what we've heard
about is our run differential. With a negative run differential,
how did you win so many games? And look, you can.
You know, it's easy to sort of look at that
and say, oh, they just got lucky. I don't think
that was the case.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
This year.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
We played a lot of tight games. We had the
third most one and two run games of any team
in baseball, and we had the best record. We were
fifty and thirty three in those games. Our offense was
not super strong this year. That was not the strength
of our team. We turned around our starting pitching staff.
It was a real focus last year, and our starters
became the strength of our team. And then our bullpen
despite the adversity we faced with you know, the class
(03:50):
A administrative leave, our bullpen had the best er in
baseball of any team after his suspension. So I think
what we saw was a group of guys that had
a lot of tight games and kept it tight and
allowed us to get one more run than the other team.
And that's all that matters in the end.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
In baseball, such a numbers game, it's so fun to
look at all the different things that say, well, this
should happen, that should happen. What did you see in
the clubhouse though? That maybe helped them overcome some things.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Yeah, this is a tight knit group. There's a ton
of energy. Jose is the clear leader on the field
and in the clubhouse, and you can't find a better
leader than that. Just the way that he goes out
and prepares and plays every game. You know, it's easy.
It's easy to just point to him as the example
and hope everyone follows. And then guys like Hedges who
brought energy every day. I think what we saw this
(04:38):
year though, was that despite some of the challenges that
we had and coming off of such a high at
the end of twenty twenty four, our guys never looked back.
They always looked forward. You knows, as low as it
got when we were I think forty and forty eight
at one point, there was a lot of noise around
the trade deadline and we were dealing with the suspensions
(04:58):
that we dealt with. Our guys didn't get caught up
in that. They looked forward. Our coaching staff and Voter
in particular did a tremendous job helping us lead through
that and it allowed us to just have an absolute
tremendous September that helped us win the division.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Mike Chernoff joining US Guardians General manager. It always seems
like the season one season ends and you're already in
to trying to figure things out for the following year
coaching staff wise. Where do things stand right now in
terms of the staff, because I know it is normal
for some changes to be made.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, our hope is that everyone will come back, and
we've talked to our staff about that. I think this
might be an interesting year. You know, We've got there's
i think eight managerial open openings in baseball, and we
have some really good people here. So it wouldn't surprise
me if some of the people that are here had
opportunities elsewhere and then they're sort of the trickle down
effect of promotions and things like that. But our expectation
(05:49):
and hope is that everyone will be back. We also
you know as we go through or have for each
of the past several years with Carl Willis, he's going
to have to make a decision on whether he wants
to come back. The ball is in his court. I mean,
you talk about great leader and great human being, Carl
is as good as it gets. If there's a spot
for pitching coaches in the Hall of Fame, he will
deserve that, hopefully at a long time because he'll keep
(06:10):
doing it here for a while. But you know, it's
his spot if he wants to have it, and he's
going to make a decision at some point relatively soon.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
And what makes him special, what sets him apart from
some others and helps so many young pitchers get gone here. Yeah,
it's really hard to describe it.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Carl.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I've known Carl since I was an intern. I started
twenty three years ago, and Carl was our Major League
pitching coach when I walked in here and I was
an intern, and he treated me like I was the
GM then and it hasn't changed, you know since. So
he is a tremendous human being who gets to know
people at an individual level, and he finds a way
to connect with everybody, whether you're the intern, the GM,
(06:50):
a picture straight out of the Dominican Republic, or a
pitcher you know who's pitched in high leverage college games
or something like that. So I think just at a
foundational level, he finds a way to connect with every guy.
And he's been through so much in the game as
a player, as a minor league coach, and as a
major league coach now that he can just draw on
tremendous experiences in working with different players or things that
(07:13):
he's gone through in his own career and find a
way to relate to just about everybody.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
So the coaching staff, whoever it may be, we'll be
working with another young club next year. This team seemed
to win more games as it got younger down this stretch.
And what were the encouraging signs that you saw from
the chase to latters George Falera among others that says, hey,
next year they could take a step forward again, just
with improvements from young players already in the organization.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, our first half offensively, we really struggled, and that
was both some of our veteran guys like Carlos Santana
and Lane Thomas and some of our young guys, you know,
guys like Brian Rocchio, Bo Naylor, John Kenzie, Noel Jonathan Rodriguez.
They scuffled in the first half. We also had some
injuries at the top levels of our minor league system.
Both with Valeria and the latter were injured and couldn't
(08:02):
help us early in the year. What we saw over
the course of the year was improvement. It was not
necessarily consistent, and it wasn't always steady, but we saw
a lot of progress and improvement, and we went from
one of the worst offensive teams in the first half,
I think eighteenth or so in the second half out
of thirty teams. So we saw at an individual and
team level a group of guys that got better, and
(08:22):
we are optimistic about the future. You know, we have
players like c. J. Kaphis chased the lotter, George Falera
who came up here and gave us really solid at
bats that helped us get to where we needed to
get to at the end of the year. So over
those two months, we saw a lot of bright spots
from some of the emerging players, and we saw guys
like Brian Rocchio and bonel Or turn around their seasons.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Does Chase delatter still go to the Arizona Fall League
or did the three days and the big leagues change
things for him?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Could you imagine the difference in the energy and atmosphere
of the Cleveland Guardians playoff environment versus.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
The Fall League.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So Chase had been set to go to the Folly,
he was preparing to go to the Fall League. He
finishes rehab in Arizona. He thought he was going to
go home and then go straight to the Fall League
about a week or two later, and instead we brought
him to Columbus initially to kind of stay hot for
a couple of days, and we brought him.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Here for the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
After discussions with him at the end of the postseason run,
we sort of jointly made the determination that it would
be best for him to just focus on his body
and physically get himself in a great spot for next year.
So he is going to head back out to Arizona
soon and be out there for the majority of the
off season to work on his physical conditioning and ramp
(09:35):
up his BASEBLL activity. But he will not be in
the Fall League unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Like turn Off Joinings, Gardian's general manager all right, for fans.
As you get in the offseason, what starts the ball
rolling in terms of putting the team together. Do you
have to wait till after the World Series is done?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah, I mean that's what we usually see. You know,
at the end of the World Series, there's a flurry
of decisions on club options we have John means that
we'll have to make a decision on and then you'll
see other teams make those decisions, and then free agency
starts right after I think five days after the World Series,
but really it often doesn't pick up in earnest until
that first or second week of November, maybe a week
(10:11):
or two after the end of the World Series, when
we get to GM meetings and we'll start to ramp
up conversations with other teams and talk to agents on
free agents, and then go into Winter meetings, and it
seems like these off seasons there's no break. So you know,
we have to do a lot of planning over the
next few weeks to prepare for all of that. But
we know that's what our job is and we have
(10:31):
a responsibility to try to improve the team.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
And there's some uncertainty in baseball right now, particular to
this team, and some others. The television deals are up
in the air to some extent, and there's a looming
labor agreement hopefully, but maybe a dispute. Does that impact
you guys at all in terms of what you can
do and how you go.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
About it, I don't think so. It'll be interesting to
see if it affects the industry at large, but especially
with who we are. I think eighty percent of our
place appearances came from guys that were sort of internal
to our system. Actually, if you include Carlo Santana Nolan Jones,
who we acquired this year, it's like ninety five percent
of our plate appearances came from internal guys. I think
almost seventy percent of our innings came from internal guys. Similarly,
(11:14):
guys that had been minor leaguers with us and developed.
So we know that the core of our success is
going to be from the guys that are here and
that have been developed through our system, and that's our
main focus. The labor uncertainty, all those things, they may
affect free agency, I'm not sure. I wouldn't want to
speculate on it, but we're not as focused on that.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Mike has always appreciate the time throughout the season, you're
missing the game already. You need a little break.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
That's a good question. I wish we were playing, That's
all I would say about it. It's hard when turning
on other playoff games, Tito used to always say, I
hope everybody loses after you get eliminated. I wouldn't go
that far. I root for people in the game, but
I certainly wish we were playing, and I'm excited to
get back to it next year.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
That's Guardians general manager Mike Chernoff, and when we come back,
we'll hear from Steven Vote, the Guardian's manager who led
this team to a surprising American League Central Division title.
That's next on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians radio network.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Switching to Progressive is a game winning call, and that
reminds us of other game winning calls in the history
of sports.
Speaker 6 (12:18):
It was a doubleheader in August and really hot inside
the concession stand, so instead of winning for people to
come to me, I figured I'd walk around yelen hot sure,
and that's how I became the first hot dog vendor
in sports.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
Okay, not really a game winning call, but it was
a good call. You can make one too. Switch to
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Speaker 2 (12:49):
Welcome back to Guardians Weekly manager Stephen Vote, joining us
before he heads back to the Great Pacific Northwest for
a little downtime and Voter it's never easy when you're
in the postseason if you don't go all the way,
because it just comes to a screeching halt. But to
get there this year and win a division, maybe it's
going to take you a little bit to get there,
(13:10):
But what a season and how did you look at it?
If you've had a chance to reflect a little bit
on everything that happened.
Speaker 7 (13:17):
Yeah, I've been fortunate to have a little bit of
time to reflect, not a ton. But I'm disappointed. I'm
disappointed that our guys, you know, we didn't get further.
But our goals to win a World Series, Rosie. That's
never going to change. And there's only one team that
goes home happy at the end of the year, and
it's not us this year, unfortunately. But all that aside,
I couldn't be more proud of what this group accomplished,
given where we were at various points throughout the year
(13:39):
and the resilience of our group. We overcame a lot
of adversity. We overcame a lot of things to get
ourselves a division banner, which is super important, but it's
not the ultimate prize. And just couldn't be more thankful
that our fans supported us through the end of the
year and that last week and a half at home. Man,
that was electric atmosphere. So I can't say thank you enough.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
A lot of seasons in pro ball as a player
and now a couple as a manager. Have you ever
been a part of a season where it just seemed like, man,
it's going to be hard to overcome some of these
things and it ends up the way it did.
Speaker 7 (14:09):
I've never been a part of something like that where
it seems like you're down and out. I've been part
of some teams where you're down and out and then you.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Stay that way.
Speaker 7 (14:16):
But it was just so cool to see a group
of people come together. No matter what got thrown out them,
it didn't shake them. They showed up the next day
ready to win, even in the despite a ten game loss,
despite a one and nine stretch, despite injuries, despite restricted lists,
despite all of the adversity that these guys went through.
Nothing phased them, and they showed up ready to win.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
So along those lines, you have to still believe no
matter what's going on. But when did you realize that
there were the guys in there were still believing even
when it seemed like it might be a new low point.
Speaker 7 (14:49):
I felt like, you know, that last road trip right
before the All Star break, you know, we go and
take three in Houston, we went three out of four
in Chicago, and everybody, hey, we'll see in four days.
And everybody showed up ready to go that next Friday,
And I told Albi, I remember saying, hey, the boys
got some rest, they're ready to rock. And sure enough,
we went on an unbelievable second half run. A couple
more gut punches throughout the way, but really just they
(15:12):
never broke stride. They never they never faltered, they never wavered.
They showed up every day ready to win. And it
was a lot of fun to watch.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
And you did it with a roster that got younger
as you went along. And I know you talked about
a little bit down the stretch, working young players in
when they come up from the minor leagues, and how
important it is to make them feel a part of it.
Did you think, though you'd have this many and the
results would turn out the way they did.
Speaker 7 (15:35):
No, absolutely not. If you would have told me that
Cjkafas would get hit by a pitch to scorreped hopping
for us to secure a playoff, you know that was
not on the Bingo card. But what it does is
to me, it speaks volumes to this organization and the
number of great players that we just continue to turn out.
Now it's our job to help sustain that greatness. Every
player has their moment. Everyone No one gets to the
(15:56):
big leagues by chance or by circumstance. You earn your
way there, and it's our job as a major league
staff to continue that development, to help them stick to
be long term big leaguers. And that's what we strive
for every day.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Steven Vote joining US American League Manager of the Year
a year ago, how did you improve off of a
year where it's hard to improve on that? But what
were some of the things, maybe subtle things that allowed
you to in your mind, be a better manager for
this team.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
I think it's patients, patients and understanding and being able
to zoom out. You know, last year, my first year
in this job, I was zoomed in the whole time
because I had to figure out every little meticulous detail
and figure out just how to do this job. And
I think this year, what it allowed me to do
was I had to zoom out at times and say, Okay,
maybe this player isn't quite there yet, but I see
(16:43):
what's inside of there, so we need to stick with it.
Or hey, maybe this is happening, but it's not there yet,
And it allows you to have some of that long
term view. And I think one of the beautiful things
about the way our season ended was no one improves
when you're successful. You don't learn through success, learn through failure.
And our players got to learn through a lot of
(17:03):
failure and still achieve some success at the end of
the year. And that could be super powerful. So now
not only did you learn all the lessons through your failures,
but you also got to enjoy the success that a
team can bring. And I think this team really proved
that if you play like a team and you come
together and you believe in each other, you can achieve things.
And we got to get better, and that's the beauty.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
It was a fun run. What does a major league
manager do to decompress and recharge the batteries now?
Speaker 5 (17:32):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 7 (17:32):
We still got a lot of We've got a lot
of work to do these first few weeks. I'm just
kind of getting the off season set up and doing
some things. But I see a few golf games in
my horizon. I've got a couple of trips planned with
my family just to get away for a few days.
And I'll be coaching softball in the fields in Washington
State this weekend. So if anybody's not doing anything, tri Cities, Washington,
Pacific Northwest Force will be out there. But I just
(17:54):
can't wait to spend time with my family, decompress, really
dive into where we can get better, and continue to
pour our coaches and players along the way.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
What a run. Thanks for making it a lot of fun,
and good luck in the off season, have some fun.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
I love Cleveland. I couldn't be more thankful to be here,
and we're gonna do everything we can this winner to
bring a World Series championship next year.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
That is Guardians manager Steven Vote. Stay tuned. We'll have
more to come after this. Welcome back, it's Guardians Weekly.
(18:45):
We join you each week throughout the offseason until Thanksgiving.
Then we take a hiatus from Thanksgiving until just after
the New year, when we get deep into our hot
stove shows and get you ready for Spring training twenty
twenty six. It'll be here before you know it. But
some fun things to do this fall, including listening to
Bob di Biassio, Guardians Senior Vice President, a two part
(19:08):
series with Jim Fulk, longtime front office member of the
Cleveland Indians and then Guardians on the construction and maintenance
side of things. And there was no one more responsible
for overseeing the construction of this beautiful ballpark back when
it was Jacob's Field, and then the renovations that have
made it what it is today. So let's check in
(19:30):
and hear from Bobby D. Another edition of at the Ballpark.
Speaker 8 (19:35):
The perfectly manicured field, the unmistakable aroma of a ballpark
hot dog, and the electricity celebrating another victory.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
This is at the Ballpark with Bobby D.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Thank you, Hammy.
Speaker 9 (19:51):
Welcome to at the Ballpark, where we hope you enjoy
our conversations with those involved in the great game of baseball,
those who ma may be behind the scenes or the
colorful personalities who have provided so many exciting moments and memories.
Today we are joined by a gentleman who, for the
(20:11):
past thirty four years, as vice president of ballpark Operations,
has been responsible for all activities a progressive field, Mister
Jim Folk.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Jim, thank you for joining me today. Oh Bobby, thanks
for having me. It seems like only yesterday, you know exactly.
Speaker 9 (20:31):
It is pretty amazing you and I are connecting, as
you call it, a career with our ball club. Where
did the past thirty four years ago?
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Well, let's see, we closed Cleveland Stadium, we opened Jacob's Field,
we had a strike three World Series, we had two
All Star Games, but four hundred and fifty five consecutive sellouts,
five seasons sold out before opening day. We had Jimmy Buffett,
Brad Paisley, Elton, John Jason Alden, Luke Bryant, Billy Joel concerts.
(21:07):
The time just flew, you know, I mean it really
when you stop and think about, you know, how long
thirty four baseball seasons is the amount of stuff that
we were able to pack in with two of the
best ownership groups ever. And what I happened to think
is probably the best ballpark that there is.
Speaker 9 (21:27):
Without question. There the Crown Jewel. We'll talk about that
in a little bit, but we absolutely need to start
from the beginning. You're a Chicago guy who began his
career with the Chicago White Sox nearly fifty years ago,
so you and I are connected at the hip in
the longevity crazy game, you go back to the days
(21:52):
of the legend build back.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, you just think what a fascinating person.
I was so fortunate for a couple of years to
have worked for him, and it was such a small
operation back then, but I got started. I was in
a game day security guard and then moved into ballpark
security when the team was on the road in the
off season. Bill Veck he didn't drive anymore. He had
(22:18):
a couple of really cool I think there were nineteen
sixty Thunderbirds, but they were always parked in the player's
lot and under various states of disrepair. So he'd take
a taxi over from his apartment. He lived over like
fifty fifth in Lakeshore Drive, and we were thirty fifth
in the Dan Ryan, so it was probably about five
miles as the Crow flies, but it was a good
(22:40):
twenty minute drive to get to his place, so they'd
take a taxi in the morning. But at the end
of the day he'd come down and one of us,
who was working the reception security desk, would give him
a ride home if Bob Bertucci wasn't available to give
him a ride, you know, Bobby. But my first encounter
with him, I was in school at the time. I
(23:02):
was taking a business law class. Him working a ford
at midnight shift, and so we're doing homework. Bill Beck
comes down the stairs and he had that wooden leg
and so you could hear him step thump, step thump,
step thump coming down the stairs. And we didn't have
an elevator back. So he comes to the reception desk
and sees I've got this book. He spins it around,
looks at it, he gives it. About thirty seconds they go,
(23:24):
you know, I never agreed with the Supreme Court on
that case. I always thought they should have ruled this way.
I'm going, holy, you know, just right off the top
of his head. Well about a week later, I've getting
English slip class. Same thing. He comes down, spins the
book around, starts reading it and he's off to the
races with sonnets from Shakespeare. It was so incredibly intelligent,
(23:49):
well educated, erudite on any topic that there was, whether
it was a Pitcher's era or some deep philosophical conversation.
But one of my favorites with him was, as I
mentioned before, he'd take a taxi over in the morning,
but then we'd give him a ride home. And so
(24:10):
it was my turn when he came down one day.
And back then I had a seventy five Chrysler Newport,
which was only a little bit shorter than your average
battleship today. And so he got in the passenger seat
in the car and he smoked cools and I used
to smoke Marlborough's back in the day. I got smart.
(24:32):
But I had a pack on the dashboard. So he
sits down in the in the front seat, grabs my pack.
He smokes off the dashboard and fires one up, and
I said, you know, this is a Chrysler. It's got
two ashtrays in the front. So you've got an ashtray
right by your door there. I don't need it. It
sits back, pulls his crosses his leg, pulls his pants
(24:56):
up on his wooden leg and he's got an ashtray
drilled into his wouldn't look.
Speaker 9 (25:03):
I just love that story more than anything.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Man, he's got.
Speaker 9 (25:06):
An ashtray in his wooden leg. Special.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Yeah, I made this stuff up right, No, it's just yeah,
you just could not possibly make any of that up.
Speaker 9 (25:17):
Just the best. Always visiting Kamiski in the day when
he was in the barge room, you felt lucky. You
felt lucky. In the late eighties, there was talk the
White Sox were going to move to Tampa's baseball considered Expanse,
and you were tabbed as the director of operations of
the Florida Suncoast Dome, involved in the construction and opening
(25:39):
of the dome in nineteen ninety. Talk a little bit
about that.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Well, it's one of those things where the White Sox stayed.
It was more than talk. Time actually stopped in the
state of Illinois on June thirtieth, was the last day
of the legislature. They didn't quite have all the votes
for the new ballpark, but if the legislation wasn't passed
at that time. At mid night June thirtieth, the White
Sox were heading to Saint Pete Building was about halfway done.
(26:05):
The politicians did what politicians do best, and they got
the deal done. But it was actually time had stopped.
The clock got unplugged in the state House, and they
got a new ballpark across the street. So they stayed,
but I went was lucky enough to go down to
Saint Pete they and pick up building that was mostly
(26:25):
designed and about halfway constructed, and so spent a year
there learning more and more about architecture and construction practices,
and then we assembled an entire team of ushers and
ticket takers and security and maintenance at Custodio. Didn't need
a groundskeeper because it was inside and I was going
(26:46):
to have plastic grass. But we opened that up almost
a year to the day after I got down there,
and I was lucky enough ran that for a couple
of years. We did tractor polls and home and garden
shows and lots of concerts. We did hockey exhibition games
that ended up getting them the Tampa Bay Lightning. So anyway,
(27:07):
we did a lot of stuff we didn't know baseball.
But what happened there was I got the opportunity to
learn a lot of the things that were necessary up
here that the then Indians needed to open and operate
the new ballpark the corner of Carnegie and Ontario, so
came up June of ninety two, so about halfway a
(27:31):
little into the ninety two season at old Municipal Stadium,
got to work through there the final season we had,
and it was really I was aware coming out of
Kamisky where you would have forty seven thousand people for
opening day and then you might see forty thousand combined
(27:52):
over the next month and a half. But seeing seventy
thousand or sixty five thousand for opening day in Cleveland
of sixty five hundred the next day was a little weird,
but that was you know, coming out of Komisky, I
understood the love that people had for Municipal Stadium. If
you weren't from here, or you weren't part of the
(28:14):
you know, part of that team, you know, you really
kind of scratch your hands and you know, what's this about.
But if that was the place you saw your first
baseball game, or you were one of the two hundred
and forty seven thousand who were there for Lenny Barker's
perfect game, or you know, any of that sort of thing,
you really felt an attachment, and Old Kimiski was that
(28:35):
same thing. It was a big, old barn, you know.
Wrigley Field was that cute little place up on the
north side that people went and spent their afternoons, you know.
But so I really understood and appreciated the attachment people had.
And then, you know, ninety three, we had that three
game set over the weekend with the White Sox. I
(28:56):
think we didn't win any of those, but two hundred
and ten thousand people through the turnstiles.
Speaker 9 (29:01):
That was probably one of the most remarkable weekends of
our careers, saying goodbye to As you said, we love
the old ballparks that we grew up going to. It's
all we knew. Millions of fans have enjoyed our beautiful
ballpark since the gates opened in nineteen ninety four. From
blueprints to renovations, you were responsible for keeping Progressive Field
(29:26):
one of the crown jewels in Major League Baseball. Talk
us through the journey.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Wow, well when you say it that way, well again,
it was very fortunate to come up when the ballpark
was just a hole in the ground they had just
finished digging the space for the foundation, was able to
be here for that first poor of concrete and the
first piece of steel that came out. Got to work
with some really terrific people on the whole design as
(29:56):
we spent almost two years but opened up.
Speaker 8 (30:00):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
We had that exhibition in April of ninety four against
the Pirates. A beautiful day.
Speaker 9 (30:06):
Beautiful Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Yeah, and then we're supposed to have an open house
on Sunday and then opening day on Monday, which I
think Sunday was Easter, if I recall, And we had
a snowstorm come in a beautiful day Saturday during that
Pittsburgh game, and it snowed overnight. I got to the
park at about six thirty or seven o'clock in the morning,
and I had to call Dennis Layman, who was executive
(30:31):
vice president of business at the time, my boss, our boss,
and tell them we can't let anybody in here because
there's ice and snow and everything else. I need all
day to get the ballpark cleaned up. So we had
to cancel that open house. But then the next day, Monday,
again just an absolutely beautiful day. President of the United States,
(30:52):
President Clinton was there to throw out the first pitch
along with the Ohio governor George Voinovich, who had been
the mayor when all of it started, and again it
was a beautiful day. It was a magical game, and
a lot of people caught a lot more of that
game than I did, because I was kind of running
around hoping that we didn't have broken seats and that
(31:14):
the bathrooms all worked and everything else. But when that
game ended, you know, it was just magic, and it
almost was like the harbinger of things to come that
you know, this was really going to be a great place.
Speaker 9 (31:26):
An extranding walk off when something about became commonplace. Jacobs
failed and Progressive failed, so switched to like your relationship.
We'll just throw it out there, Mike Hargo. You've got
to deal with general managers, managers, especially during rain delay scenarios.
(31:48):
That's not an easy task. So let's bring Grover into
the conversation. One of our dearest friends. Well, Grover is
he tells a story, and so I'm fairly safe and
telling it as well. Yeah, I was the weather man.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
For a long time, and I talked to the local
weather people, I talked to the national weather people, and
then with the umpires and the managers and the pitching coaches,
my internal rule was always we play the games like
is their schedule, and if we can't, I mean, you
have to be able to play it safely for the players,
for the fans, everything else, because for a lot of
(32:21):
those fans, this is the only game they've got and
so you want to really be careful to protect that.
And back in ninety five, which is the start of
our sellout Street, that's when we started doing those split
doubleheaders because if we rained out, there was no place
to put the fans from last night's game. So we
started doing this day night doubleheader and we got really
too good at it.
Speaker 9 (32:42):
I think those things that wear you out with two
different teams ones.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Well, one time, yeah, we had the White Socks and
the Twins White Socks makeup game and then the Twins
regular schedule. I think is how that one went? Yeah, Grover,
and we'd grumble at each other from period over whether
to go or not. But I just love the man
and he tells me he loves me too, So I
think that's good.
Speaker 9 (33:07):
Talk about Tito. Then real quickly, well you have a
couple of minutes left. You have relationships with the guys
in the dugout. As you mentioned, the pitching coaches and
hitting coaches, infield coaches, making sure the grounds keepers, Brandon's
doing his thing, and just talk about Tito real briefly here.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Well, you mentioned Brandon, and the great news is Brandon
Kanke you don't have to worry about him. The game
is at seven ten, he's he's got everything ready. So
that's the really good part there is he's such a professional,
I really think the best in the business.
Speaker 9 (33:42):
The ballpark is beautiful.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Indeed, but Tito's just when he was when he came
in with Boston. I loved him, you know because again
you'd have to go and tell them what the weather
was going to do or whatever. Some visiting managers that
really didn't want to see you and you know, had
no time for you, and you didn't care that you
were telling them you're not going to start on time.
Tito would invite you to come in and sit down
(34:04):
chat a little bit, and just such a great guy.
And so when he came to manage the well then Indians,
you know that part was thrilling, just because I mean,
just such a wonderful person. Always had a great job
for you, even when he was trying to figure his
lineup card you know, he'd give you the time, treated
everybody as if they were important to him and they
(34:28):
were old friends. I'm thinking through a couple of different
instances when we're down in delay, you know, and I'm griping,
and you know, I can't believe we're not getting this
thing going, He's going, Hey, take it easy, This'll be okay,
We'll get the game. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 9 (34:49):
Jimmy were sure they'd have a whole lot of fun
working together the past three plus decades, taking care of
our players, our fans. On behalf of everyone connected to
the Cleveland Guardians baseball team, we cannot thank you enough
for your dedication and commitment to making the corner of
(35:10):
Carnegie and Ontario so incredibly special.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
I got to be thanking you and everybody else for
letting me do it, because I say it and I
mean it. I've never worked a day in my life.
I've gotten to do. I get to work with all
you people. I got a million square foot playground to
call my own. I've had a blast, an absolute blast,
and have loved every minute of it. And so thank you.
(35:36):
Thank thanks to the organization, thanks to the fans for
making it such a special special place.
Speaker 9 (35:43):
Well, it's been a blast reminiscent many thanks, Jim. We
hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane. We look
forward to connecting next time on At the Ballpark on
the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
That's Guardian Senior Vice President Bob d. Biassio with another
edition of At the Ballpark. Stay with us. We'll have
some closing thoughts after this.
Speaker 10 (36:12):
And tonight's first pitch is in there, strike and we're
underway at the corner of Carnagan, Ontario.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
Progressive Nos. There's so many great things about being a
sports fan, like scoring the company box seats. How great
is that trick place that actually works? Prevent defense when
your team is winning by a lot, and even more
preventive prevent defense is they're hanging on by a thread.
And of course saving money when you bundle your home
and auto with Progressive, that's pretty great, just like trick
plays that actually work. Yeah, but how often does that happen?
(36:51):
Complaining about sports? Not so great? Progressive Casualty interns, company
affiliates and other insurer's not available in all stateser situations.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Welcome back to Guardians Weekly, Jim Rosenhouse, So long we
do this weekend from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland, and
that's going to put a wrap on our show this week.
Some things to keep an eye on in the weeks ahead.
Once the postseason is complete, the Guardians will need to
set their roster and clear space and put players on
the forty man roster to protect them, especially to young
(37:32):
players from the Rule five draft in December. So a
lot of that paperwork type of thing to acquire and
keep as much talent as possible in the organization will
be taking place in the weeks and months ahead. Of course,
there's the winter meetings, the general managers meetings, and who knows,
maybe some moves by the Guardians before Christmas time. We'll
(37:53):
find out, and when we do, we will let you know.
As each and every week will be here until Thanksgiving
with another edition of Guardians Weekly. As always, thanks to
Brian Motze for helping to put together our show each
and every week until next week. This is Jim Rosenhouse
reminding you that you've been listening to Guardians Weekly on
the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Guardians Weekly has been brought to you by Progressive helping
Guardians fans save hundreds on car insurance,
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