Texas Rangers Roster Update: Who’s In & Who’s Out? Laura Stickells weighs in

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Down the stretch they come. Actually, I don't know if
you'd call the last month of spring training the stretch drive,
but we're headed that way one month from the season,
and we got a lot to talk about. Jeff's first
roster breakdown is coming your way. Next, it's the DLS
Rangers Podcast with a special guest, Laura Stickles. Spoiler alert.

(00:24):
They're all in. Every one of those three guys, they're
gonna make the team. And it's amazing because it's really
difficult among those that we know on the Texas Rangers
to figure out who will be out. We do know this,
Laura Stickles is in as the sideline What do we
call them sideline or dugout?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
You know, that's a great question, and it's been a
hot debate amongst other side of the reporters. I know,
but I think that they're calling within the organization the
position the field reporter, field report. But I typically in
the past I'm gone by sideline reporter. I know there's
no silents in baseball, but you know, whatever works right.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Whatever works. Laura is the new person who will do
the bulk of the game. She's with us today. John
Raddig and Jeff Wilson. We got the profit over there,
and Laura Stickles, who will work with Emily Jones, but
Emily's taking a step back. Kids are getting older, lots
more activity going on with them. So the Rangers are
looking forward to the future with someone like Laura. And

(01:25):
there's there's a lot that we love about Laura already,
which I just met her today. But one of the
things is she said she's basically like a diehard to
the podcast, been listening to getting used to the team.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yes, I was telling Jeff as I was coming up here,
I feel like this is you know, I'm a new
level of fame for me being on this podcast because
I have been listening to this podcast since I was
interviewing for this position, trying to you know, get as
much information as I can and kind of, you know,
immerse yourself in the Rangers. And no, so I've been

(01:57):
listening to this podcast now for over a month.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Choice what percentage are we responsible for you getting this job?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
That's a good question, you know, dim hard hard to
put a number on it. Yeah, yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
We in for a little cut. I mean no, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
You talk to my agents about that.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah, So here we go. Here we go with this.
H if Laura nods off ter in the show fear Not,
she confided that she often listens to the show and
she's going to bed, and look, I have put many
people to sleep over the years, so you know, I've
been doing post games and stuff after people fall asleep

(02:43):
with me on a postgame show after a West Coast
Rangers game and wake up to you know, color bars
and so forth. So if Laura nods off, we'll wake her, well,
gently wake her. It's okay. I think it's kind of
fun actually, And you know, if the show continues after
you fall asleep, words still get in there, don't.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
They Exactly That's what I was saying. It like, you
you know, learn through osmosis. Even if I fall asleep,
I'm still you know, hearing the words, hearing the names,
and it all makes a difference. So but seriously, it's
funny because I listened to podcasts as I fall asleep,
because you know, it distracts me from my own thoughts,
so I'm focused on something else. But the key is
not to listen to something that's like so detailed that

(03:23):
I'm like listening too hard to the point that I
can't fall asleep. So you guys are a happy medium.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Hell yeah, good. We appreciate that Jeff has done his
first roster breakdown. Laura is going to weigh in on that.
We're also going to talk about today's game in Laura's experience,
she's already been out to surprise, And we're going to
get to know Laura in the third segment of the show,
and I'm going to grill her. She thought she was

(03:48):
on the hot seat before. Oh boy, wait, just wait,
I'm throwing fastballs right at her. Coming up a little
bit later. But first, Jeff, let's get to this roster breakdown,
which I was anxious to read. We didn't talk about it, obviously,
we talk about things like this every day, but we
hadn't talked about your actual breakdown, and it was essentially

(04:09):
exactly what I thought, including the very end when you
talked about the one guy who may be gone, if
other things. You know. So anyway, let's but let's let's
run through it here. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
Well, these are kind of I don't want to say feudal.
You can yourself look like an ass if you do
it too too many times or too wrong. But I
thought that, you know, it's pretty much status quo for now,
you know, it's what it is. When the team went
to camp. The exception is that Luke Jackson was signed

(04:39):
to a major league deal, so he's on the team.
So that kind of shuffles the bullpen a little bit.
But you know, it seems like the five starters were
the ones that everybody fought. The infield obviously is set
in stone, you know, the outfielders, but now there's Kevin Palar,
So how's that going to work out? So but anyway,
I went, I went chalk, you know, like picking out

(05:01):
an TA bracket. I went to the higher seeds pretty
much across the board and not a lot of not
a lot of mystery. But it's going to happen. Something's
gonna happen. There's gonna be an injury. Uh, some guys
are gonna spit the bit, and some guys just gonna
be too hard to overlook. I mean, the Rangers have
had a history and Mike Maddox has had a history
of putting guys on the team who you've never heard of.

(05:22):
Mason Tobin. You remember Mason, Remember Mason? All right? Mason
Tobin made the team in twenty eleven and then Uh,
I don't know if it's the next year of the
year after Robbie Ross came out of and made the team.
So there are just guys like that who you're like, hey,
they have no chance. You don't even really introduce yourself
to him at spring training because they're like, and then

(05:43):
son of a bitch are on the team. So I
think there are a couple of candidates for that, you know,
I think I really think Jack Glider would be a
surprise that we've talked about a lot Mark Church potentially
a surprise if you want to go way down the list,
And I said it yesterday. Robbie Alstrom, Yeah, a left handed,
a left handed reliever who Mike Maddox really likes. Now

(06:04):
he has some lefties ahead of him, Jacob Latz and
Walt Pennington. But I wouldn't put anything past these this
Mike maddocks fellow, he knows what he likes well.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
To me, Robbie Allstrom would be Mason Tobin, yeah right, yeah,
Like he's not on anybody's radar except yours. And you
have a good relationship with, you know, with Mike Maddox obviously,
so that helps him. That's a you know, it's a
that's a tip for you. Friendship with the coaches very
good nowhere, Yeah, yeah, you are, because she's done it.
I mean, Laura's been doing this for a while, right,

(06:38):
this job as a sideline reporter. You were in, uh
in baseball most recently, right.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, So I've been doing baseball and hockey simultaneously now
for I mean I've been doing baseball for the last
two years, hockey for the last like four or five.
So yes, I've I've know how it goes when it
comes to making sure you're tight with the coaches and
have a good relationship with people.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, yeah, and so, uh that's a huge thing. And
and the Rangers coaching staff is so you know, experienced,
and Jeff, we can learn from that experience to your
point about the Mason Tobins of the world, you.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Know, yeah, and uh, you know you you just you
just it's hard to evaluate in spring training. You know,
you don't want to fall in love with the guy
who has pitched six scoreless eighth innings and meaningless games.
You want to see how they perform against you know,
stiffer competition. So when these were leievers who are picking

(07:39):
at pitching at the back of games against honestly hitters
that may have faced before in the minor leagues, or
guys who are just overmatched. When when all of a
sudden Robbie Alstrom is the first guy out of the bullpen,
then it's like, oh, okay, the starters are still in
the game. The Rangers are really taking a serious look
at this guy. The recon I've done, you know, is

(07:59):
based on bullpens and live banting practice and how the
stuff looks and how honestly how they compete in live
batting practice. And so there are several good reports out there,
Robbie among them. You know Patrick Murphy, I was ninety eight.
You know, that's a big power arm and a big fella.
Cole Drake guys like him. He's been down with some

(08:22):
back issues. But a guy who started at low A
ascended to double A last year from from right up
the road. And Wiley really wasn't on anybody's radar last year,
and lo and beholdies. Now you know, coaches were saying, hey,
the straight kids pretty good.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, so other guys that you know are going to
make the roster and but have been really good in
spring training and came to spring training. Basically, I think
with the mindset Jeff, that I better prove that I
should be on the roster. Amazingly, one of those guys
is the twenty twenty three pitcher of the Year. In

(08:58):
the text at four, the techers Dane Dunning and he's
been lights out.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, you know, he's he he had to get better.
You know, I don't I don't know what what happened
last year. He just wasn't very good. He was he
had some shoulder fatigue, okay, because he had thrown a
bunch of Indians the year before, and and but he
he'd kind of admitted he was out of shape and
he needed to get into shape. And if you see,

(09:24):
if you see Dane Dunning now, he looks different than
he did last year. You know, he's he's cleaned it
up a little bit. And you know, the guy, like
you said, the year the Rangers won the World Series,
who was their pitcher of the year. Dane Dunning, the
guy who started in the bullpen became an invaluable piece,
and he's just he wants to do whatever he can

(09:44):
to help the team. I think that's something that the
World Series taught a lot of these guys it's all
about the winning. It doesn't matter where you pitch, just
as long as you're part of the club and and
helping them get to the the end goal. You know,
because Dane was back the bullpen for the World Series,
Andrew Heeney pitched in the bullpen, you just see a

(10:06):
lot of selflessness at that point. And anyway, I think
Dane makes the team just because he has experience in
the role that the Rangers are going to need while
they try to figure out the innings of how to
manage de Gram and Tyler Malley.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
At this point, okay, we've got and really so then
the one thing we where we both agree that the
guy who could possibly be the odd man out the
position where it could get dicey is Kevin Pillar. Right,
Kevin Pillar brought was brought in a guy with tremendous
major league experience, a great ability and history of hitting
left handed pitching, which neither of the other center field

(10:44):
candidates have proven that they can do. So Kevin Pillar
really muddies the waters a little bit on who might
make the team as the outfield right yeah, crew, Well,
and yet do we see any avenue I guess so
other than trade that it would have to be Leodi, Right,
You're not getting rid of Evanue Carter under any circumstance.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
Well, you know, the projection I did has six infielders
and four true outfielders. I put Jack Peterson in that
group outfield the h five players. So really the Rangers
only have four outfielders. But Josh Smith and Zeke Durant
can play the outfield, Okay, so it would be it's
not unthinkable that the Rangers would carry three outfielders. They

(11:29):
could carry to various Carter and Polar. Now that would
cost almost certainly Ezekiel Duran a rosser spot because he
can still be options. So you know, you're getting to
the point where if if you remember just a couple
of years ago, or you know, you're like, well, gosh,
how could the Rangers possibly live without Ezekiel Duran? And

(11:49):
that's just kind of they've raised the bar. And look,
you know, there's a there's some veteran infielders, one in
particular Nick Ahmed, who had a home run yesterday. Yeah,
guys played on some really good team SAMs and was
a really really good player for a long long time.
He's a veteran. If you're if your extra infielder is
not going to play a lot and you think that

(12:09):
the guy who's the young star has more of an
upside and Duran needs at bats, well, he could go
to Triple A and get him. So, I mean there's
there's some ways that this could be put together. But
right now, like I said, I'm going with the guys
who are on the who are on the forty man,
the guys who have been talked about all offseason, and
now that games are what we're week in the games

(12:31):
starting tomorrow, I think evaluation kind of starts starts then,
so we'll we'll see, we'll see. Roster projection two point
zero can look a lot different, but probably not a
lot I.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Can't imagine it'd be a lot different. Yeah, there's no.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
Seers gonna make the team.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah yeah, all right, so a fun, fun look at that.
The first roster breakdown. We're gonna really start to talk
with Laura a lot more in the next segment. We're
gonna hear her thoughts about spring training, we're gonna hear
her thoughts about today's lineup, and we'll get to know
her more as we can you with the DLLs Rangers podcast.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
Man I haven't even looked at the Reeds.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
I think I'm first.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Okay, wait, what do you need me to talk about
coming up to say?

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Well? We are in our commercial break now, Laura, and
I'll tell you what we're tell me this. You were
live the whole time. Thank you. There's Jeff Cavanar, one
of our football men. What do you think? Thank you?

Speaker 2 (13:23):
They'll agreat with the Green Texas outline.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah, see, there got my shady rays. Brother, those are
shady rays. You didn't know they had glasses? That's cool?
Did You got to be a pretty damn cool guy
to wear glasses like that, which I am. Uh, and
I love shady rays and so does Jeff Cavanaugh. He's
fixing to go buy a pair. Uh. Shady rays are
the glasses that you need to get. Huh what I lost?

(13:50):
That's okay, yeah, because you can get them. Have you
gotten them replaced yet? Yeah, they'll give them to you again.
Shady rays are fantastic in that regard, great warranty glasses.
Everybody here loves them. Everybody here wears them. You should too.
Get thirty five percent off at shadyaigs dot com with
the code DLLLS.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
You know John when we walked in. We're right across
from the House of Blues, and there is a group
of young people, a long line of young people waiting
for something with blankets with so they've been there a while. Yeah,
and so I did some research and it turns out
that role Model one person and Nathan Apollo are at

(14:28):
the House of Blues tonight, and uh, you know, they're
kind of like young and hip hoppy. Okay, anyway, if
you don't have tickets, because apparently you know, people were
camping out for them, you sure as he can get
them a Game Time, which is our favorite app for
forgetting tickets on the secondary market, twenty dollars off your
first purchase with the code DLS and as I live

(14:51):
and breathe here, I am looking at at at the
game Time app, role Model tickets starting at two oh
four two and four dollars, so it be one eighty
if you download the app and use the code deals
for twenty dollars off your first purchase.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, and of course you can get him for cheaper
at the last minute, although with people lined up, that's
only if there's tickets left. Yeah, with people lined up,
I don't know that you will Laura. When I say
the word Apollo, forget Nathan or whatever his name was,
I say the word Apollo. What do you think of.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
Apollo eleven?

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah? Okay, good, yes, Okay, I just I wanted to. I mean,
you're so young. I don't know if you knew we
had a whole space, you know, missions, mission after mission
called Apollo.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
I'm very familiar with that. Yeah, good love Apollo thirteen
movie back in the day.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah, yeah, I think of Apollo Creed.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Do you really.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
Yeah, Rocky, Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, Madrid.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
So plet's get to know Laura a little bit. First
of all, how much time have you had yet, if any,
have you chatted with Emily gotten to know her at
all yet? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (15:54):
So I had a phone call with Emily like about
probably a week after I got the job. And no,
I mean, she's obviously great. I've you know, it's just
somebody that I growing up as I was getting into
this industry, definitely looked at her stuff as an example.
But I'm super excited to now get to work alongside her.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
Yeah, that's awesome. And then you had would you have
a week in spring training thus far?

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yes? So I was out there for a little less
than a week. I was helping shoot some features for
the RS and stuff, so I wasn't like out in
the backfield as much as Yeah was, so I didn't
get to see quite as much, but I did get
to meet the guys kind of like, yeah, that's the.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
Thing, and I've done that. Yeah, I've done that role
many times, to sit in a room and just guy
after guy after guy comes in, but you do you
and we usually have a lot of baseball questions but
then a lot of slice of life questions and stuff,
so you get to know them.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Yeah that way, definitely. No, it was really helpful. And
Jared Sandler was there too. He was doing like the more,
He was doing a lot of the future interview stuff too,
so it was nice to get to sit in on
those interviews and just kind of get familiar with everybody.
And it's helpful getting to meet the guys more like
one on one or just like in a situation where

(17:04):
you get to shake their hand, I mean, everybody individually
rather than being thrown in a clubhouse. It's like a
free for all. So it's much better that way.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
Yeah, Yeah, a little more relaxed, and yeah, I mean
I'm sure, they don't all love doing that stuff, but
they finally just I'm sure, like, okay, that's what it is,
and yeah, exactly there.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
Yeah, generally when they get dragged over there by the
PR people, it's kind of like, okay, I'm I'm not
going at this one kicking and screaming, right, Sometimes if
you just approach them to your point Laura in the clubhouse, like, oh,
you know, I was trying to go. I was going
to go, you know whatever, And so anyway, this is
a better way to meet. Who'd you hate? No, I'm kidding,

(17:45):
I know you didn't hate anybody. What were your impressions?
Who who stood out? Who did Who did you like?

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Oh, that's a true question, you know. I think I
obviously heard a lot about the team and kind of
their personalities coming into it, so I knew a little
bit what to expect. But I would say, I mean,
Josh Young is obviously, you know, like one of the
fun guy. Yeah, but one of I've heard be you know,
one of the most fun guys on the team. So
he was definitely super friendly. I'm trying to think. It

(18:14):
was exciting to to get to talk to our Stanford
catcher Malcolm that was a big one for me. Yeah,
so that one was great. No, I honestly thought all
of the guys really came in with Honestly, you're saying
like sometimes they feel like they're getting dragged over there
to do media. No, I really thought that everybody came
in with really positive attitude and was really friendly and yeah,

(18:36):
everybody I really liked.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, that's awesome. Well, let's take a look at today's lineup,
go through this a little bit, talk a little bit
about what happened in spring training, and again, Jeff, we
see Josh Smith at first base again today they're going
kind of back and forth with Peterson getting some reps
over there, Josh Smith getting a lot of reps over there.
But when you look at really the top five in

(18:58):
that batting order for sure, pp top six. Really you
could see that being the batting order a lot this season.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
One conceivable. You know, those are those are guys who
you know, you you actually saw that order for a
lot of the postseason games. Yeah, Simian Seeger, Carter Garcia,
and at the time Josh was batting towards the bottom
of the order as he was coming off of the
wrist thingy. But our thumb. It was a thumb. I'm

(19:29):
losing track, but yeah, that that looks pretty good. I
think White Langford ultimately is still in there high up
in that batting order. But you know, and and then
you know, at this point you're you know, Bruce Bochi
was like, hey, don't read too much into these lineups.
You know, some guys maybe batting in the top just
to make sure they're getting enough at bats, you know,

(19:51):
and during the Reglar season, they're not going to be
that high in the order. So maybe ultimately Carter Is
is that guy today and you find him at the
bottom on the lineup when the season starts. But again,
he can hit anywhere. But yeah, Simon and Seeger, they're
not going anywhere. They're they're one two all the way.
So that that is kind of something that that is

(20:15):
going to be formulated and and and you'll you'll start
to figure out as the last week of camp arrives,
when these guys start playing a lot more together instead
of you know, one Group A on Monday and Wednesday
and Friday and Group B on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
That was just an example. But and you are seeing
guys go back to back, I think this is Carter's

(20:36):
second straight game. Josh Smith at first base, that's his
second straight start at first base. So I'm I'm mentioned
this today. I don't think they're entirely sold on Jack
Peterson as a first baseman. Yeah, I think he's not
their first preference to back up Jake Berger, but be
nice to have.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
I guess sure. I mean that fux ability would be
great to have. Yeah, so yeah, you'll see how all
that plays out. And uh, Alejandro Osuna, I think is
one of the few guys he played every day.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
Well those young guys. Yeah, yeah, you could tell him
to go waving parking, you know, cards, go to the
lot and park cards and they do it. Uh, and
and assume you know, you know, the raining minor league
player of the year. I had a real nice catch yesterday,
diving catch against the Reds. He's a good kid, and
you know, uh, he's one of the He's he's an

(21:26):
intriguing guy that a lot of these guys are getting
their first look at. And Tony Beasley's like, I I
want to I want to see what this guy can do.
And and you know Tony's coaching the outfielders now. So yeah,
he's he's somebody to watch. He's probably a major leaguer
at some point.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Laura, have you had much chance to chat with Boat yet?

Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah? So, I you know, I met him when I
was at spring training after one of our you know,
just media availabilities, and then I actually did the sit
down interview with him at the when we were doing
our future stuff. And you, I mean, Boach is obviously
an incredible guy and you know, even amazing manager. And yeah,
I'm really excited to.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Be able to do. And you grew up in like
northern California, right, So I grew.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Up in eastern California, so by Nevada, So yeah, not
particularly close to Giants territory, but I wasn't really close
to anything.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
So yeah, I was gonna say I didn't even know
there was an Eastern California. Like I've never heard anybody
everybody's characterized Eastern California exactly. So did you, like what
were your teams? Not only in baseball, but like who
were you who'd you follow growing up?

Speaker 2 (22:35):
So you know, I didn't really like I wasn't super
dialed into sports until really I got to high school
and growing up. My dad he's from Boston. So I
grew up like, if I, you know, I had to
pick a team that I was following, I would probably say,
you know, the Red Sox and the Patriots were the
two teams that my dad was a fan of, so
I was a fan of. But that being said, like

(22:57):
we weren't a huge sports household, so I didn't watch
a ton of sports really until I got to high
school and that's when I started watching college football and
that was kind of like my introduction into sports and like, oh,
like I really like this, and then you know, it's
kind of grown from there. But you know, people ask me,
who who did you root for growing up? I'm like,

(23:17):
I didn't really, you know, like I guess if I
had to pick, I would say the Red Sox and
the Patriots. But yeah, I'm still I'm still finding my
own fandoms, and I feel like it's just kind of
like the teams I work for end up being.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
The team of course.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, no, no, no, it makes sense. And look, those experiences
are so great because the more the better they are, right,
the more they win, the more experiences you and all
of us, I mean, anybody Jeff who's been affiliated as
a right we all get to experience new and different
things based on what they do. So we always say,

(23:51):
I'm not really a fan yet I really want them
to win. The more they win, the more cool stuff
we get to do.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
But also, like I feel like, you know, you'd be
as you get to know these people and most of
the you know, guys and people that work in sports,
for the most part, they're good people, and you want
to see good people succeed, so you just kind of
get invested in.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
So true. And the other thing is you get to
know these people as human beings exactly right, And that's
what's really cool. And so I'm from Detroit and was
a huge sports fan the whole time. And I remember
in twenty eleven when the Rangers played the Tigers in
the ALCS and my family couldn't believe that I was
rooting for the Rangers, right. I was a Tigers fan

(24:31):
my whole life. And I'm like, I like, I was helping,
you know, Nellie Cruz in the weight room. I was spotting,
you know, I was helping somebody's wife over here. Like
I know these people as people. I don't know anybody
on the Tigers. I mean, I can root for the uniform.
But these are kind of quasi friends of mine, you know,

(24:52):
so it becomes it becomes a different animal in there.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
That's what I always tell people are like, what do
you mean you don't root for the Rangers? Like, well,
you can't really do that. So I always say I
root for the people. Yeah, because if they're doing well
then and I mean that means good things for the team.
But as long as they're doing well, that's good. So
like when somebody hits a home run who's been struggling, like,
all right, good for him, Yeah, absolutely, like he needed that. Yeah,

(25:19):
you can see a sense of relief. And if you've
been talking to him about his struggle as he coped
him in the clubhouse and he by the way, what
a knowing not or something?

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yeah, And it'll probably show up in the chat when
I say I was helping Nelly Cruz in the weight room,
like he probably dropped his phone or something like I'm
spotting for him. You know, Nelly's a big, strong guy.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
He's holding up the bench for him.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah. So and in your experience with the minor league sports,
I'm sure you've experienced similar type things. You know, you
you it's hard to call him friends necessarily, it's not
like people you hang out with, but you're certainly friendly
and very well acquainted with these people.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
Yeah, And like, especially as a minor league reporter, you're
talking to them a lot about the different things that
they're working on when it comes to development and the
struggles that they're going through. And you know, being a
minor league player is not necessarily the easiest thing. So
you have these conversations with guys, and not all of
them are happen on camera, right, so you know, you
do get to know them, and I think you know
what it was so fun about being a minor league

(26:21):
reporter is getting to see these guys that have worked
so hard get those big league call ups, right. That
was probably the most satisfying and exciting part. Like I
will I still remember getting the seeing the Twitter notification
come through that Nick Sogard was getting his big league
call up and like literally pulling over on the side
of the road because I was so excited for him
because he's you know, worked for it for so long.

(26:42):
So yeah, I it just you just want to see
these people succeed more than anything, because you get to
know them and you see how hard they work day
in and day out and for the most part, like
they're great guys. They're really nice to be around.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great. And hockey it's a
different animal, you know. And I covered a lot of hockey,
covered the Stars, and I was with them when they
won the Stanley Cup in Buffalo in ninety nine, which
was really cool. But that's uh, that's an interesting one.
First of all, you talk about good guys, So yeah,

(27:15):
those hockey players, I mean, you know, they're good. Most
of them good old Canadian boys, you know, from the
farms of Canada.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yes, I mean the people that I met through covering hockey.
And you know, my first experience covering hockey, well I guess,
but the first time I was in Alaska. But then
when I was in Boston, I was working closely with
you men's hockey, and it's like a family. Like if
you work for a hockey team or you work around
a hockey team, you feel like you're part of that family.
And no, I mean hockey players there. It's funny. They're

(27:46):
they run mind me, just like you know Golden retrievers
or like dogs or something. There's they're they're so fun
and also you know, just great guys, and it's they're
they've got their own kind of personality going. It's really something.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yeah, it really is. That bell means it's time for
a break. But we're going to Alaska next because she's
been there, she's worked there. It's unbelievable. Do they really
say mush to the dogs on a dog sled team?
We're about to find out on the DLLs Rangers podcast.
Now I'm lost, Jeff, it's me.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
It's me. I'm so excited to tell you guys about
way Mo, especially if you're going to spring training. Weaimo
is only in Phoenix, LA and San Francisco, So if
you're in the Phoenix area, you need to check out Waimo.
Do you know what Weaimo is, John, It's autonomous ride
haaling service. These cars drive themselves now using cameras and

(28:44):
the latest in technology to keep you safe. The service
has grown and it covers the majority of the Phoenix Valley.
So if you want to go catch the Rangers, say
in Scottsdale, you can probably gramble one there and have
a nice night on the town in Scottsdale not have
to drive. You can have fun because you have way

(29:05):
mo at your fingertips. So yeah, you know, give it
a shot. It's crazy. I'm going to give it a shot.
I go back next week. No, yeah, Monday, might go back. Monday.
Laura's going back, so she's gonna try. Weaimo. But if
you're headed out to Arizona for spring training, download the
way mo One app and get ready to experience the future.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah, the future is now.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yeah yeah, I forgot you mentioned that. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
And the future is now in neon too, because Neon's
not a gaseous substance that could explode at any time
in your man cave. Neon is now led lights underneath
colored tubing and it looks just like neon. And that's
what Saturday Neon is. We encourage you to avail yourself
to some of the Saturday Neon schools. Any of your schools,

(29:54):
anybody's almost anybody's really favorite school is there. TCU's not
there yet, we're working on that. For j Oakland University
is not there yet. Are you a Stanford grill? Is
that what you said?

Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yeah, is Stanford there? Jennal enough, you remember I'd have
to go and what may not be? But anyway, we'll
get them all in there, and they will get them
all in there. It's Saturday Neon. They have all the colleges,
but they'll make you one personally too. They're not super
expensive and they're really cool. They'll really decorate your house,
your man cave. Go to Saturday Neon, use the code DLLs.
Get ten percent off your Saturday Neon. All right, So

(30:29):
this Alaska thing intrigued me. Right out of college, you
went to Alaska to work?

Speaker 2 (30:34):
No, So my first job out of college, I was
working for Pac twelve Networks on the business side.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Oh, did you know Bob Schmelsley. I don't think he
was one of the other sides.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
Do you make that name up?

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Event?

Speaker 2 (30:46):
But I know the name, But I think you work
for conference?

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Right?

Speaker 2 (30:49):
Do you work for the conference?

Speaker 1 (30:50):
No, he worked for the network, but he was over
on the certainly on the productions.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Okay, Okay, now, oh the name is really familiar. I
was not there long enough to really Yeah, no, everybody
in the company. So I was there for less than
a year, and then I moved to Alaska. Okay, so
that was kind of a step I took.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, so a very interesting step. When I was first
in the business, and I was married already, and my
wife said, we can go anywhere but Alaska, right and
in broadcasting and you know, reporting, you may have to
And so I never applied in Alaska. And then she
ultimately did say that we couldn't go to the English
speaking television station in Guam, oh either, which ironically you

(31:35):
don't know her yet. You'll you'll meet her though, Laura,
there's a former female sportscaster from around here, and she
actually still does some work for Channel five. Gina Miller, Jeff,
you know Gina.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
I know Gina.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
Gina worked at the English speaking tvaration in Guam. It
was always back in the day. We looked in broadcasting
magazine and it was always available. That job was always available.
Gina hauled off and took it. So, but you go
to Alaska to do what?

Speaker 2 (32:00):
So just like I went to Alaska, not because I
felt like I had to, but because I actually wanted to.
I thought it would be a really cool experience. So
I moved up there to write sports for local newspaper
in Fairbanks, which is the northern interior city in Alaska.
So I was writing for the Fairbanks Daily News. Miner
I was covering sports. So I was covering a lot
of prep sports there. There's also a college up there,

(32:22):
University of Alaska Fairbanks, which has Division one hockey and
then everything else's Division two except for rifle. Actually rifle, yeah,
say rifle, that's Division one. So I covered a lot
of Division one hockey up there, and then some really
cool stuff like you know, sled dog racing and like
local Alaskan sports, Like there's the this event called the
World Eskimo Indian Olympics up there every year, which was

(32:44):
really cool to cover. I got to cover a couple
of midnights on baseball games, so yeah, I mean, it
was an incredible year.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
They played that at midnight, midnights on baseball game, so
they started.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
At ten pm, okay, and they play it with no lights.
It usually ends around like one morning.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Really that's pretty cool. It's I mean, it's like daylight, daylight.
It's not like dark kind of day is it full
on daylight at midnight.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
So at that point it's like a sunset. It could
probably feel like the equivalent of like this. You can
still see the sun, like it's usually like skimming the
horizon a little bit, but it's like a little bit
dusky at that time, but I mean it's still like
it's it still feels like it's daylight outside. Yes.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
My niece, as I shared with you, is at Alaska
fair Banks right now getting her masters in something. And
she's from Colorado, so the cold doesn't bother her as
much as the darkness.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah, because now, yeah, that's it.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Like the sun doesn't come up until like ten.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
Yeah, this time of year, you get almost no sun, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
And when the sun does come up, it just like
skims the horizon like you ever, you'll never feel it
on your skin, Like you'll never feel that warm through
the suncause it doesn't get up high enough to do that.
But it comes up and it just like skims her
rison and you'll get like a nice sunrise sunset.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Yeah. Then again this day goes away. Yeah this time here,
I don't guess you're you're going out there with like
your your bathing suit on or your skin out much right?
So uh so, uh the did you covered the sled dogs?

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah? I covered sleddog racing. One of my favorite events
that I covered was the Yukon Quest, which is a
thousand mile sled dog race. There's two of them. In Alaska.
Most people are more familiar with the Iditarod, which is
Anchorages race, and then the Yukon Quest is fair Banks
is race. But yeah, it starts in Fairbanks, it ends
in Whitehorse, Yukon in Canada, and they alternate starts every year,

(34:37):
so some years it starts to white Horse, years it
starts in Fairbanks. But it was it was an unbelievable
event to cover. And you know, the Iditarod is, like
I said, probably more well known it is, but it's
actually the Yukon Quest is known for being the more
challenging of the two races because it happens the month prior,

(34:59):
so it's cold, and also it happens in an area
of the state where the climate in general is just
a little bit rougher. And then there's half as many checkpoints.
So with the checkpoints with the Iditarod, like you can
go you know, fifty miles or so between checkpoints, and
with the Yukon Quest you could easily be going up

(35:20):
to like one hundred miles, which adds an added level
of difficulties. So anyways, that was the race that I covered.
It was really cool. I got to you know, with
the Quest It's nice because half of the checkpoints you
can actually drive to. So I was able to drive
to a lot of the checkpoints and talk to the
mushers outside. It was forty below when I was covering

(35:41):
it so very cold. You have to be prepared for
the elements and the weather. You can't you know, record
anything with your phone because your phone, you know, dies
upon impact of the cold.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
Really, yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
You can't use your phone out there, so so so
you have to write with a pencil because your pen
will freeze. You're running with a pencil if you're riding it.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
All the mittens on I hope, Oh well.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
No, you'd have to take them off sometimes.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
Right, it's a whole thing, you.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
Know, you were you can't leave your skin out in
forty below for very long? Can you?

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Not very long? But you can do it for a
little bit and then yeah, I mean, and there was
no internet. That was the other thing. There are checkpoints
where there was no internet. Was she was a whole
other issues.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
How do you feed right? How do you get it
from here exactly?

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Also, like how do you know look up random things?
You can't look anything up, so you have to just
like they give you like a booklet that you can
use to reference stuff. But it was unlike anything I
have ever covered and probably ever will cover.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Back in my day, we didn't have any Internet, so
we were very familiar with not looking things up. But
you're right, I mean that would cripple any of us.
Now we're always just look it up. Yeah, So was
the greatest challenge sort of getting even in your world
as driving it? In whatever you drove, I assume it

(36:59):
was a car or a truck, not a snowmobile or something.
Getting point to point. Was that the biggest challenge of
covering this thing?

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yes, So I drove my Suprew Legacy, which you know,
I had really intense snow tires on at the time.
I took them off of coming gear. I did use
them in Boston. But yeah, so I drove my Seprew
Legacy to the checkpoints. And but like you have to
drive slow, you know, like roads are super icy. Also
in Fairbanks they don't plow because they only have two snowplows,

(37:30):
like they're can the whole city.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
So you just have to drive through it.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
You just drive through it, and you drive slow. But
so you get really accustomed driving on like ice and
sliding around everywhere. But yeah, a lot of fish tailing
going on, Like whenever you go around a corner you
feel like you're back.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Tired and you didn't there's no snow in eastern California.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Oh there is, actually, so I grew up up with
a little bit. Yeah, I grew up between. I grew
up right next to a ski resort. I group ski racing,
so I'm familiar with the snow, but no. Driving to
checkpoint to checkpoint was tough. The other thing too, I
think I remember, now I'm going back, having to find
a place to plug your car in because you have

(38:12):
to plug your car and so it heats episode the
engine block. So like my car was winterized, so I
have like an engine block heater. Wow, and I still
have the plug hanging out the front. People are like,
why don't you take like tuck that inner take off? Like, no,
that's character. You know it's cool. But yeah, so I
remember trying to find a good place to plug my
car and so I could start it the next day.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
You know, with that plug on there, you can actually
park in the close spots that have the electric stuff
in them. You see what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
And I don't know if it's the same situation.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
So I got to plug. Yeah, you get the park
close exactly. When I was at Bali, they had like
three spots right in the front, and they were the
people with the electric car. They were always empty, like
I had to park there. Yeah, but I'm a gas
guzzler myself. I'm a Detroit guy.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
That's wroblem.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
I don't know. Maybe we'll all be going to electric,
maybe we don't, won't. I don't know. So that's such
an interesting, uh start to a career. How long were
you there?

Speaker 2 (39:11):
So I was there for over a year, and I
would have stayed longer because I really was enjoying it.
But I moved up there in twenty nineteen, and then
the pandemic obviously started in twenty twenty, so all the
sports up there kind of shut down and there wasn't
much left for me to do, so I would have
probably had to start like writing news for that. It's

(39:32):
the worst news during COVID. I just didn't really that
wasn't really what I wanted to do. And I had
been interested in, you know, I was writing at the time.
I was writing for a newspaper, and I had been
interested in potentially doing something with TV. I wasn't sure
kind of in what capacity yet, But that's when I
moved out to Boston and started freelancing out there, just because,
like I knew, there were so many opportunities out there,

(39:53):
and I figured that would be a good place for
me to start doing that.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
And out of curiosity, did you was that because you
could have moved anywhere? There were opportunities in all the
big markets, right? Was it because of your dad's affinity
with the Boston teams?

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Yeah? I mean I actually when I moved out there,
I was also getting a master's degree at BU, so
I was kind of like trying to figure out how
to you know, make the most out of that time
out there, or just the time during the pandemic. Excuse me,
but no, I think that that was definitely part of it.

(40:28):
Like I had family out there. Sorry, I'm like losing
my voice, thank you, Yeah, my my polar psalter. Yeah,
so I definitely like I did have family out there.
My dad's family was still out there. Yeah, So that
was definitely kind of part of it, because during that time,

(40:49):
like you don't really know what's going on or where
am I going to live, especially like I was going out.
I was going into this journalism degree, and I was like,
I don't really want to live with roommates, so that
was like a good opportunity for me to be out there,
be around some family, and to start this degree while
also like finding new freelance opportunities as the world started

(41:11):
to open up again.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
So undergrad and graduate degrees in journalism or what are they?

Speaker 2 (41:16):
And undergrad I studied communication and data science and then
and my graduate degree is in journalism.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
Good all right, Yeah, I think it's good to also
in the broadcast side of our business to have the
journalism because you don't realize until you get into broadcasting
how much you write. And I got a broadcasting degree
and then got into broadcasting and they're like, how much
journalism have you done? And I'm like a couple classes,

(41:44):
and then all of a sudden, I get thrown into
it and I'm like, I write every day, I'm writing
all the time. What the hell? Luckily I like it
and I learned it quickly, but I learned it on
the fly, So that's a wise choice.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
Hey, Rarities is asking Laura what drew you to the Rangers.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Well, I mean it was kind of a no brainer, right, Like,
this was such a great opportunity. I mean, I've been
covering a lot of sports out in Boston for a
long time, but you know, Nesson knew and because I
had spoken to them about it, like I want to
cover a big league team. I want to cover, you know,
whether that be a major league team an NHL team,

(42:20):
but I want to beat take that next up. And
you know, they were super supportive and there just weren't
any opportunities out there for me at the time. You know,
Jamia was covering the Red Sox and Sofia had been
with the Bruins for such a long time. And yeah,
I mean this off season, the Rangers posted that job,
and I you know, applied to it like hoping that

(42:42):
I would get it. But you know, it's like a
dream opportunity, right, And I mean I think with the
Rangers that you look at the lineup, I mean we
were looking at the lineup just earlier in this episode.
It's it's such a good lineup. This is going to
be such a great team. And I think just from
an organizational perspective, I really liked what they were doing
with I didn't know at the time what it would
be called they're calling an RSN Ranger Sports Network. But

(43:04):
you know, I knew that they were taking their broadcasts
in house. I knew they were trying to do something
different with it, and I thought that was really cool.
It was something that I wanted to be a part of,
and I want to be a part of a broadcast
that fans can watch. And that's something that you know,
I know that the Rangers are really making a priority
for this year.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
Yeah. Any of the young people that reach out to
me in this day and age and spend this way
for a few years they get into the business, want
to get into the business. I tell them, work for
the team. If you can, you can, you are You're
working for the team. And that's the way. I mean,
that's the way of the future. Because I got news
for you. The Foxes, the Ballys that you know, all

(43:42):
of Anysns, all of them of the world. They could
go away. Believe me, I experienced it. They go away.
Team ain't going anywhere, right. Team is going to be there,
and more and more of these teams will start having
their own broadcast and the next thing you know, you're
still there. Doesn't matter, it doesn't matter who carries the broadcast.

(44:05):
The team produces the broadcast. So, yeah, you've landed in
a really good spot.

Speaker 3 (44:08):
Good for you.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
Clean up segment coming next. We've got a lot to
clean up. Thankfully, no messes thus far made by Laura,
but there are messes throughout the world of baseball, and
we've got to clean them up. Next it's the d
LS Rangers podcast. All right. So I got my favorite
shirt on today is that is I love the pops.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
Right, I like a shirt that pops pop.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
And I've got I've got another one coming that this
is actually stars, and I've got one coming this kind
of like this with that flag, like the flag Jeff
has on his, but it's this color on blue and
it's a Wings, Dallas Wings, our our w NBA team.
But anyway, we love all this merchandise. And right now

(44:55):
we've got the Saint Patti's Day stuff out there too.
You were in Boston, you know all about out Saint
Patti's Day, Laura. That is a fantastic holiday up there. Man,
that's stopped the world type stuff up there. But anyway,
they're great shirts. I got one of those coming, and anyway,
I want you to get your merchandise today. At stored
out allsitynetwork dot com. The shirts are well made, They're

(45:17):
gonna last you for as long as you want them to.
They're easy to take care of, and they help you
represent not only your favorite new podcast network, but your
teams as well. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
I thought about, like actually wearing a collared shirt because
I anticipated that Laura would be dressed nicely, and well,
it just didn't work. So I have two shirts on.
I have the hoodie one of the hoodies, and I
have the TCU shirt underneath. But anyway, the shirts you
get one for free when you become a diehard member.

(45:49):
And right now Elijah just pulled it up. Forty eight bucks.
Spring Training offers unbelievable forty dollars for a whole year
and a free shirt. We've done the math, probably not accurately,
but it's around a dollar in seven or eight cents
a month when you put all the numbers together and
divide and all that stuff. So do it. I mean
you get my stuff, which is which is okay, and
then you get Cowboys stars and MAVs. And the MAVs

(46:12):
been killing it with this.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
I might have heard Luka Donca got traded, so they've
been on top of that, and man for forty eight bucks.
It's cheaper cheaper than anywhere you're going to get the
covers all four teams, and it's better too.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
It is. We continue to chat with Laura Stickles, the new.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
What did we say field sideline field reporter.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Yeah, I'm a field reporter for the Texas Rangers. Have
you met John Blake yet?

Speaker 2 (46:40):
No? I haven't, but everybody has heard stories.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Truly.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
Everyone has told me I need to meet John Blake
because he spent time at Neston too. So I have
all my nests and people and all these Rangers people
telling me I need to meet John Blake, and I'm like,
I have to meet this guy.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
He's like one of a kind. Yeah, you'll meet him
and you'll love him. He's a great man. And his
fingerpri and so I think are all over this. There's
an Artifacts tour coming. Was there a release on this?

Speaker 3 (47:07):
I didn't just see it in my email?

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Yeah, Artifacts Tour did? Do we have that graphic on that?
Profit there? It is so at GLOBALI Field, they have
literal artifacts of things that really were used in significant
and special games, like the helmet that Wyatt Langford wore
when he hit for the cycle and there's a bat
that Juan Gonzales used when he won the Silver Slugger.

(47:32):
And I think there's some I mean, there's all kinds
of game used stuff, and you will be able to
go see that stuff on this Texas Rangers Artifacts tour.
And you know, John Blake is very much a historian
of the organization as well. And but that's to me,
that kind of stuff is so cool, that's like it's

(47:52):
a part of history.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
No. I totally agree. And I remember, you know, talking
because I also worked behind the scenes on the Red
Sox and province broadcast Fornesson too for the past three
or four years, and I remember talking with a lot
of the Red Sox producers and broadcasters and they were saying,
we need to put together like a real museum because
they have people have so much of this stuff and

(48:14):
it would be so cool for like fans to be
able to go and see this regularly every time they
come to the ballpark. So no, I love stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
Yeah, and the Rangers used to have a museum at
Globelife Park. Uh do you were you around?

Speaker 3 (48:26):
Yeah that Jeff was.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Yeah, it was a it was a nice small but
a nice museum that had this type of stuff in it,
and now I know. I did a feature a couple
of years ago on the way they've re archived all
of this stuff. The stuff they have is just unbelievable.
When you've got the likes of Nolan Ryan in your
organization and you know you've got just tremendous history and

(48:49):
lots of MVPs and Rookies of the Year and all
that stuff is. It's actually now housed in one of
these hermetically sealed buildings in a in a kind of
like a big warehouse in Atlanta.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Jet Well. And you know, when I think of Artifact Tour,
I think of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, which
I've never done it, but we auction it off to
do it for dirt events and like you got to
wear gloves, but you yeah, the hold Bay Ruth bat
and things like that. So this is the Rangers version.
If you're a Rangers fan and have been watching them

(49:21):
since seventy two and all those painful years until they
won the World Series, this is this is a heck
of a deal. I would do it. I would do
it myself. Somebody who's covered the team and just see
what memories in jars loose.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Yeah, it's pretty cool. And you've obviously I know you
have you've been to the Hall. Have you been to
the Hall of Fame yet, Laura, No, I haven't. Yeah,
it's great. It's just so awesome. And that's a trip
you need to make too. If you could get that
behind the scenes tour, good for you and go buy
it and do it for dirt and do something for
a good cause. But even the regular just walking through

(49:57):
the halls of the Hall of Fame, and you know,
to be honest, I'd encourage you to go, not on
induction weekend because it's so crowded, but it's a really
cool town to go up and visit in the summertime
and up there in that up there in that not
not too far. I mean, it's in the region up
there in the Northeast with Boston and it's uh, it's
just a perfect time of the year up there. It's great.

(50:18):
So go check out the Hall of Fame. And when
you get a chance, check out this artifacts tour two profit.
Do we have that picture reaction thing? No tomorrow, Yeah,
we'll get it tomorrow. Fine. I just I'm running through
the list here. I wanted to know, how about this
Mike Trout home run home run yesterday? Yeah, I was.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
I was happy.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
It's it's amazing really that he's back and he's playing
right field now, which is fine. It's probably better for
him and his longevity. Uh, it's good for the game, Laura,
when guys like Mike Trout are playing.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Oh completely. I think like whenever you have guys that
have been around a really long time or that you know,
have been at the top of their game and they
continue to play and they continue to be ambassadors for
the sport, I mean, that's never a bad thing. And
just to see him to continue to have success, I
think it is really exciting.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
He had them ball along way. If you'd ever been
to Tempeed Diablo, he hit it pretty deep there and
left center. That's a that's a poke. So it was
a Yeah. I've said it again and again and again.
Baseball is better when their best players are healthy. Mike Trout,
I'm willing to bet when he's healthy is still one
of the best players.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
Yeah. And we had Ron Washington on the show during
the Winter meetings and Wash was pretty willing to bet
that too. Jeff, he's the day. This guy's better than everybody,
you know, Yeah, I mean basically still a top fifteen player.

Speaker 3 (51:38):
Well, I mean Wash managed against him for a long know,
early in Trout's career, and Wash was still here. And yeah,
he terrorizes the Rangers and he's still he still does
when he's when he's playing, it's and it's just again.
I'm a big Mike Trout fan, and I hope that
he is able to play more than what two weeks

(52:00):
like you did last year.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
Yeah, I would remember. I was the field reporter, I
guess for a game the first time we saw him
in Anaheim. I was in Anaheim. Tom Greeve you probably
heard that name Loretti d If you haven't, you will.
Tom Greeve was on the you know, was the color commentator,
and you know, all of us got in the car
after the game and we're heading back to the hotelling

(52:22):
and the Rangers won the game against the Angels, and
Greeve is just like damn it, getting in the car,
kind of throwing his stuff in there, and I'm driving
like Tom, jeez, you know, we won. What the hell's wrong?
I got to watch that son of a bitch shove
it up our you know, what for the next fifteen years.
I go, who you talking about? Goes that Mike Trout kid, God,

(52:43):
he's good. Wow, he was just I mean, and this
was the first time we'd seen Trout and Greeve again.
He's a former player, former general manager and then he
was a broadcaster for years, and he knew immediately when
he saw that kid, this is going to be This
is going to be a guy forever.

Speaker 3 (53:01):
Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. I really am.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
Yeah, I am too. I hope that he continues to
hit home runs. I hope that playing in right field
will help him, you know, be able to hang around
for a longer period of time. And what the heck
is wrong with Jose Urana.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
I don't know. I don't get this one. I mean,
I understand him going to the Mets. I just don't
want understand why he was a.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Big minor league contract with the Mets. I don't even
know if Yeah, I mean, it's a minor league contract,
so you know, he's gonna have to make the team
and displace somebody more more than like, well, they are.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Dealing with some injuries, so that's he's got that going
for him, which is nice. I guess but they have
a couple of injuries in their rotation, which is going
to shuffle some things. He was so good for the
Rangers last year, and you know, he's been up and
down throughout his career obviously, but he's he's an established guy.

(53:54):
And what he did last year and just pitching two
or three innings or even when he pitched five innings
as a starter, was was really good. And I'm again
I'm surprised that the Rangers didn't have a higher priority
on him to come back. He works hard, he's a
good teammate. He seems very genuine when we would speak
to him, you know about you know, his role on

(54:16):
the team and how important it was to him. So
we'll see what happens there. He also hates Ronald Acunya.
I think there's some bad blood between him and Ronald
Acunya really, And so the Mets and the Brave will
be playing a lot this year. Yeah, so I'm looking
forward to seeing that rekindled.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
Ohsuna and Okunya. I don't know, is there's something there? Hey?

Speaker 3 (54:38):
Is my mic not high there? Elijah Terry? Terry is saying,
might just be that I'm talking very low.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Yeah, you got that deep voice work and Laura, when
you did you travel at all with the teams you covered.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
I traveled with some hockey teams, and I traveled with
BEU hockey, and then I traveled. I covered U Mass football, okay,
which I was rough sometimes, but I did get to
go to like Auburn and oh that's cool, that's fine.

Speaker 3 (55:08):
Yeah, yeah, the uh. I have a friend who's just
starting up a UMass football site because apparently they have
a good coach and they've put some money into the
UI L or not U I L N I L
collective has has put up a little money, so they
think that better times are ahead for the minute men.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Wow, finally I'm.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Not gonna put I'm not gonna get behind that.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Good luck, good luck with all that. Right, So, traveling
with the team, I mean, this is gonna be You're
gonna you're gonna love this. I did it. I was
with the cover of the Cowboys for for first twelve
years I was here and traveled with them, and then
covered the Rangers. I was on the Rangers charter for
probably about fourteen years. You're just gonna love it. It's

(55:56):
on I hate flying commercial.

Speaker 2 (56:01):
Now, that's yeah. I don't want it to ruin me.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
Oh, it's gonna, it's gonna. Man, it's so nice. I
just walk on that plane. There's food everywhere. It's the
greatest thing in the world. That's the thing I'm gonna
miss most about being involved. That's where you got it.
And the and the hotels are.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
Nice too, I would imagine.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
So, yeah, the hotels. The hotels are very, very nice,
especially Houston that I think it's called the Royal Parko
Parco Hotel. Who, man, that's really nice. Toronto's hotel is nice.
The four season Baltimore is a four seasons. Yeah, Baltimore's
the four seasons.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
Yeah. There's Lulu Living within like spitting distance.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
So that's dangerous.

Speaker 3 (56:38):
It is, Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
I haven't say there.

Speaker 3 (56:40):
I was at the little cheap ass courtyard right around
the corner. But anyway, I would run into the guys
at the Lulu Living yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah,
a whole shopping area right there. So BC just chimed
in with a very unpopular opinion. Lax nicest airport, get
get lost, VC, Burbank too too small. I've ever flown
into in and out of fair. I don't mind I

(57:02):
don't mind Burbank. Yeah, it is small. It is a
small airport, so you can't always fly in there. But
I always go, what's the one down the John Wayne.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
John Wayne's not bad John Wayne, And I'd fly like
if I was leaving the team was moving on somewhere else.
When I was leaving, I'd fly out of John Wayne
down there in order.

Speaker 3 (57:17):
But they fly into what Long Beach when they play.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
Yeah, because John Wayne doesn't allow flights after midnight or
something or.

Speaker 3 (57:25):
Before seven am. Because you have a six forty five flight,
you pull away from the gate and you have to
sit on the tarmac until seven.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
You gotta be kidding.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
I'm not. I'm that's the truth.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
I thought it was the It was because it was loud.
The loud part is the landing, right, So that doesn't
say any San Diego's Airport has some weird stuff too,
and they really yeah, some weird curfews like eleven PM curfew.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
I think is that right? So teams there there there
have been times when teams are like, hey, we got
to yeah, we gotta go.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
Well, you'll learn, Laura that a lot of those little
rules get blown off when you're with the team. Going
through customs into Canada. It's a beautiful thing. So anyway, man,
we're so glad you came to say hi, and we'll
be seeing you all season long. We'll be watching you
on the games, we'll see you at the ballpark. But yeah,
thanks for spending time with us.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
Yeah, thank you guys so much for having This is
a lot of fun. I'm glad I come in and
see the offices in the studio. You guys have cool
set up out here.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
Well, now you're now you're welcome anytime. You live pretty close,
so anytime you want to stop by, yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
Just don't even ask. Yeah, you don't come through, come on,
come on up. Yeah yeah, yeah, be easy. Just pop
up and say hih. That's going to do it for us.
We appreciate you guys. Oh wait, forty more seconds, oh
twenty more Okay, Well, we appreciate each and every one
of you chatting as you always do with us. We
appreciate you liking and subscribing. We're going to be back
tomorrow and Monday at noon. I think next week, when

(58:48):
jeff'son Arizona, we're going to move to a slightly later time,
although I don't know that that's official.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
I don't know eleven eleven there might not be bad.
Oh really, okay, so we may I don't think we
could count on any player guests. I got you, but
eleven's kind of when they're coming off the field.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
Okay, I don't know. We got to think about it all.
We'll work on that and uh, we thank you. We'll
be here, we'll keep you apprized, and we'll be here
at noon the rest of this week and Monday, so
until the next time, we thank you for joining us
on the DLS Rangers Podcast. It's all like the Man

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