June 26, 2025 • 41 mins
The title says it all. We spent a wild weekend in Tampa, exploring the sights, the sounds and everything else surrounding the 2025 Tampa Bay Rays at Steinbrenner Field.
This episode features interviews from Rays players Jake Mangum, Jose Caballero and Kameron Misner, Detroit Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson and key Rays staff Warren Hypes and Joe Clatch.
Really enjoyed talking with everyone, but this is far from our last episode from the past week at hand. There's more coming over the weekend, so stay tuned.
Thanks so much for listening! You can follow RTR on social media @RaysTheRoofTB and be sure subscribe to the podcast!
A big shout out to our partners, SeatGeek, In The Clutch and JKS Prints! Use code RAYSTHEROOF for $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase, 10% off anytime with In The Clutch & $5 off at JKSprints.com!
As always, Rays Up!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
It's time to raise the roof for our latest regular season
podcast. Welcome back everyone to this
latest episode of the pod. I'm your host, Alex Murphy, and
today we have a little bit of aninteresting podcast because we
were I and well, Gibby already lives down in Tampa, but I went
(00:32):
down to Tampa for a couple days last weekend, was able to go to
the last game, the Rays O seriesand all three games the Rays
Tiger series checked out. Steinbrenner Field was able to
get media credentials. Big shout out to the Rays for
allowing us to do that for a second straight season and got a
bunch of interviews from different media members to
players to former players, staffmembers, everything under the
(00:56):
sun. We did what we could hear.
It raises the roof in order to give you guys some really,
really cool content. Unfortunately, we haven't really
gotten a chance to talk about what the team has been doing
recently and my goodness, this team has been on a roll.
As of recording this today, Thursday evening, the Rays just
swept the Kansas City Royals on the road to begin their road
(01:16):
trip. The race took two out of three
against the best team in baseball, the Detroit Tigers.
They split a series against the Orioles, one of those games
being the Rays going down 8. Nothing early, ended up scoring
12 unanswered runs to win 12/8. So honestly not that bad of a
series salvage considering what it could have been and some
really strong performances before that.
(01:37):
The race swept the Mets on the road.
One of the best teams in the in the National League.
This team has been continuously firing on all cylinders it seems
like and are just playing out oftheir minds right now.
From the pitching to the hitting.
I mean Shane Boz just threw 8 shutout innings today.
B Lau and Junior Caminero have been incredible.
(01:58):
Jonathan Aranda, who should be starting in the All Star game
for the American League but due to popularity and all that
garbage you probably won't, has continued to be on a tear.
I mean, guys left, right and center are performing and
producing for this team, which has been fantastic to watch.
On top of that, as if there wasn't enough news with the team
(02:18):
going on, we have the news that Chandler Simpson just got called
back up to the team a couple days ago.
He's already shown himself to bea strong contributor on this
team. We got the news of ownership
groups potentially coming in andtrying to buy the Raise 1,
specifically a Jacksonville based group that I believe put a
(02:39):
$1.7 billion offer out there with a a letter of intent signed
so that the race could go into exclusive, exclusive discussions
with them. And the race acknowledged that
themselves through a statement last week before literally like
the day over the day before I ended up going down to Tampa.
So that was wild in itself. And then today we get the news
(03:02):
of Wander Franco, a former Ray'sshortstop and someone who
probably and hopefully will never play Major League Baseball
ever again, was convicted of charges that stemmed from two
years ago regarding sexual abuseof a minor in a relationship.
I believe it's a two year suspended prison sentence with a
(03:22):
period of probation happening ifif he fails to a multi year
probational sentence along with that where if he violates any of
the statutes put out by the court and by the judge that he
will end up serving that prison sentence.
So plenty of things going on, plenty of craziness, a lot of
(03:46):
great stuff on the Rays side of things.
In terms of the team, they're I believe 11 games over 500 right
now. They're within 1/2 game of the
Yankees as of right now. The Rays are playing really,
really well. A lot of craziness going on.
Maybe in a couple months we'll have a new owner.
Wander's definitely not coming back to play baseball.
Guys are coming back and forth. A lot of craziness.
(04:08):
But in terms of the interviews that we have for you for this
podcast specifically, we have several Rays staff members who
have been gracious to us over the years.
One being Warren Hypes, the BP of creative for the Rays, the
guy who was the mastermind behind the City Connect
uniforms, which has gone fantastic.
And also someone who was basically the the go to when it
(04:30):
came to the renovations and changes done to Steinbrenner
Field to start the season and and for the 2025 season.
Really enjoyed talking with him.Also talk with Joe Clatch, who
is more or less the mastermind behind Ray's vision.
All of the graphics and things like that that you see on the
Jumbotrons of Tropicana Field. Talking with him about how they
(04:50):
were able to take everything at Tropicana Field, which
unfortunately a lot of that ended up being damaged due to
Hurricane Milton. But taking Ray's vision from the
Trop and adapting it as best as they could to Steinbrenner
Field, which was kind of crazy to see the transformation there.
Again, they only had four days or so to be able to do it.
So both what Warren and Joe did to be able to change
(05:14):
Steinbrenner, to make it as muchof the race home as possible was
absolutely incredible. And then players, we got both
sides. In the Rays Tiger series, we
talked with Jose Caballero, Cameron Meisner, who
unfortunately was just optioned down to AAA Durham, but at the
time of still on the Rays and friend of the podcast, former
guest of the podcast, Jake Mangum.
(05:35):
We talked with all of them. And on the Tiger side, we talked
with Spencer Torkelson on Sunday, who has had a a good
season of his own. I know batting every time hasn't
been great, but the power numbers have been there.
So we got both sides of the coinwith the Rays Tiger series, a
potential playoff series in the making.
Who knows what happens in October?
We hope you enjoy all of the interviews, but before we go
(05:56):
into those, we are going to run our Sea Geek ad.
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So we're going to run that ad. We hope you enjoy the interviews
and we'll be right back in this latest episode of Raise the
Roof. Hi everyone, Alex here with a
(06:20):
quick word from our sponsor. CC Geek is your one stop shop
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Roof for $20 off your first Sea Geek purchase.
Thanks so much to Sea Geek for sponsoring us, and let's get
back to this latest episode of Raise the Roof.
So raise the roof here with someone who I know we've been
(07:03):
trying to get on for a while now, Warren Hypes, who's vice
president, creative and brand for you guys.
How long have you been in that role for, by the way?
In this role for about four years for overall, been with the
team for 15 years now, 16 season, 15 years, man.
So it's, it's been a good trip, man.
I was going to say, how wild is it to see everything that has
(07:25):
happened over the last 15 years?Because basically when you came
in, the team is over that time has been revitalized, has turned
into the contender that they've been gone to World Series One
divisions and penance and stuff.Like how wild it has it been to
see the transformation over the?Years.
Oh, it's been great, man. And you know one cool thing
about me is I grew up around this organization.
So my stepdad was a minor leagueGM for the Princeton race, which
(07:47):
is rookie ball for like 20-3 years.
So the time I was, you know, 10-12 years old, great.
It was rookie level, but I was out on the field and I've known
some of the folks on the baseball off side here for years
and years. And so, you know, I got the
witness that transformation as as a fan and then and then, you
know, being here as an employee for the last 15 years, it's been
really cool, man. It's been really special.
(08:08):
And you know, I, I wouldn't trade my time here with for
anything in the world, man. Yeah, blame it.
With this. Current role that you're in,
what has been kind of a thought process in your mind, the MO of
what you've been trying to accomplish with the brand
division of what the Rays are. Yeah, absolutely.
Man, I think the main thing whenI took over this role was to
(08:28):
build access, right? I mean, our, our players are our
biggest commodity, commodity. And you don't want to tell their
story and, and make sure that fans can connect with them, not
as just players that you see on TV, but as people.
And that's been a, a really hugemission of ours, you know, since
I took over the, the role and, and even a bit before that, you
(08:48):
know, look, we're, we're trying to build a fan base.
We're just now starting to see the second generation of Rays
fans here after the amount of years.
And it's so trying to build a fan base.
And, you know, storytelling, man, that that's one of the most
important things for us on the creative side is to tell
stories. And, you know, we've been lucky
to have so many talented folks over the years, like in our
department and have so many great players over the years
(09:11):
that we've been able to build relationships with.
And so, you know, our our mission is to spread the magic
of Rays baseball, but definitelydo it to a creative lens through
storytelling. What's been the most difficult
part of trying to complete that vision?
Because I know especially with the Rays, there's always been
the moniker of of them, you know, the small market team, the
small fan base. So I'm sure that that's been a
(09:32):
difficult part in the grand scheme of things.
But like, what specific things do you think have been the most
difficult part of trying to convey that and trying to convey
the mission that you've been, you know, putting together?
Yeah, I mean, look, I, I wouldn't say it's been
difficult. I, I think that we love those
challenges, right? As an organization, we, we
embrace challenge. You know, I think we've been
(09:53):
able to do some really special things here over the years.
You look at all the work that wedo in the community, obviously
what we were able to do on field, you know, I think those
are all challenges that we embrace and, and rally around.
And, you know, for a long time, a lot of our storytelling was
this narrative of like, oh, we're this little guy with a
chip on our shoulder, you know, trying to compete in the AL
East. And, you know, I think you've
(10:14):
seen that narrative, at least from from Ireland shift a little
bit over the years because it's,you know, we've been here, we've
been doing this. We're the one of the one of the
most winningest franchises in baseball since, you know, since
2008. And and so I think we still have
a little bit of that chip with ashoulder mentality.
But but, you know, we've been here before, we've had success
and then, you know, hopefully now we can just, you can bring
(10:35):
it home and probably bring a World Series home.
I guess that's the one challengethat we have left.
So today is City Connect Day. I know that that was your baby
over the last couple years. To bring that to life, to see
how much it's been well receivedacross baseball and across
sports landscape and especially here, people really embracing
what it is. How cool has that been to
witness that over the last year or so?
It's been awesome, man. Look, I've gotten to do so many
(10:58):
really cool things here and, butI, I think that it's still the
one I'm most proud of, you know,after all the years, Look, we,
we do a lot of things unexpected.
We're traditionally untraditional.
And when we approach the city connect process, I, I think we
took that same mentality into it.
You know, everybody probably expected us to, to come out with
(11:18):
beaches and palm trees and that kind of thing.
And it's kind of exactly the reason we wanted to go and do
something different, right. And skateboarding culture is a
story that, you know, a lot of people don't know here.
And it was so exciting to tell that be able to tap into that
market. It's pretty cool day today.
We actually just inked our firstsponsorship with a local skater
here, guy named Jake Alardi. So he's going to be an official
(11:38):
ambassador of the Rays starting now to the end of 2026.
So we're going to be supporting him as he goes into the Olympic
trials. He's actually at the X Games in
Japan this weekend competing. And so it's the first time kind
of delving into that space for us.
And, you know, I think things like that have shown how it's
more than a uniform to us, how we really try to connect it to
the community, connect to to that base.
(12:00):
And yeah, I couldn't be more proud of it.
As far as like the reaction fromother teams and fans.
I mean, you know, when we launched this thing, it could go
one of two ways, right? It's funny, I had to speak at
the the unveil ceremony. And, you know, then we have some
media stuff after that, this andthat.
And so I didn't even get back tomy phone until probably 5:00 PM
on lunch today. And I was kind of nervous.
(12:21):
I'm like, well, it could go either way.
This can either be like something that's so crazy, it's
cool or something that's so crazy that nobody gets it right.
And so then I think, you know, getting to sit down that day and
start to see the reaction just kind of reinforce that we did
the right thing and and do something unexpected and
untraditional here. Yeah, I remember that day
vividly because I know like we were tweeting out stuff and it
seemed like every bit and piece like whether it was the skate
(12:44):
Ray, whether it was the the the Tampa Bay Flame yellow bucket
hat that went, it seemed like everything was going crazy with
it. The one thing I was curious
about Did you skate at all growing up?
Were you a? Skater I was not a skater.
You see me smiling when we're talking about this.
I love talking city connect. I never skateboarded.
I did play in a metal band in high school back and and tons of
(13:06):
my friends were skaters and so grew up with the culture of that
and and you know, know so much about it from my friends.
I never did I I don't think now is the time to start.
I might break a hip or something, man, but but you
know, the culture that's built here in Tampa Bay is is really
cool. If you look at like the skate
park of Tampa and the former Grove Bowl and Perry Harvey
Park. And you know, it's just really
(13:27):
cool to tell a story that peopledon't know, especially something
like that that gets national media attention to tell a story
people don't know about. This area was was so fulfilling
me. Yeah, I know.
My dad grew up skating and when he tells me those stories, that
baffles my mind when I look at what he is now.
Compared to what I babbled my mind with.
So with Steinbrenner, now that we're here, it's been, I don't
know how many games it's been filed with what, 30-40 games, 50
(13:50):
games through the home schedule.What is it like seeing what it
is now? Because I know you guys only
have what, like 3-4 days in total to be able to put
everything together. Yeah.
I mean, look, nobody wants to bein this situation, right?
And when you put it in perspective of everything else
that happened to our reach in the ballpark is kind of pales in
comparison, right, to what everybody else is dealing with.
(14:12):
But, you know, look, we've embraced the challenge here.
We've embraced playing outdoors.We have fireworks, we have fly
overs, we've got drone shows. You know, it's a pretty intimate
experience here to see a Major League Baseball game.
And the crowds have been great. The fan reaction has been
overwhelmingly great for us. And So what, man, not the
situation we want to be in. And we're very excited to be
(14:32):
back in the trot, but so thankful to be here, thankful
for the Yankees for allowing us to have a place to play.
And, and we're playing well here, man, so let's hope we can
keep that rolling. How was the drone show?
I know that I wasn't there for it, but I saw plenty of photos
from people and videos. It seemed like it went over
really well. Yeah, Yeah, I think so.
We we did one with the City Connect launch last year that we
really enjoyed and just thought it would be cool to bring some
(14:54):
added value to fans for that this year.
And then like I said, you'll seethe fireworks and the anthem and
for home runs this year and and wins.
And so, you know, it's fun to delve into area that we haven't
been able to to really to reallydelve into.
Before yeah so two more things for you.
The first thing of all of the changes that you guys have made
to this place, and I don't know if some of them are going to
(15:15):
stay. I, I would assume the majority
of them like like these video boards, I know that they're just
covering up the other video boards are going to be taken out
down. But what has been the your your
favorite change that has been made to Steinbrenner this
season, if there's one? You know what, I think it's been
really cool, man, is is more, you know, look, first of all,
redoing signs, getting ready forthe season to drop is a
challenge too. You're changing out so much as
(15:36):
the roster turnover or corporatepartners change.
But you know, here to be able tostart from scratch and change
over everything. We were able to really
incorporate our campaign look for the year into all the sign
and cheer. And that's something in the
past. We stay away from a little bit
to drop because you know, that could change each year and you
want something that's going to last over time.
And so just having a blank slateand we don't want to incorporate
a lot of that. You'll see a lot of hand
(15:57):
sketches and we're really leaning into the outdoor
elements with it. And to be able to utilize those
looks and have consistency with signs you see in the stadium
with what you see on social and on the video board, I think that
was one of the most exciting things.
You know, having a blank slate is it could be challenging and
but you know, I think we embraceit as an opportunity to be able
to really do what we want and tobe able to make the place shine
(16:17):
for a year. Last thing is what can fans look
forward to with what you guys have going for the rest of the
season? Because this team a month and a
half ago or whatever it was, didn't look like they were going
to be a playoff team. Now they're firmly in the
playoff hunt. Is there anything that you guys
have been cooking up maybe over these last couple weeks as the
team has been on this run, that fans will maybe like a teaser of
(16:41):
what fans will be able to see moving forward?
Yeah, man, look, I, I think the number one thing that we want to
do is go to, to play meaningful games September and end of a
postseason run in October. You know, it's, I think we had a
little, you know, a little bit of a tough start, but I think
everybody that knows the Rays knows that it wasn't going to
stay that way forever. And but there's so many young
exciting guys on this team to towatch, man.
(17:03):
And, and I think that's what's most exciting is that, you know,
you're building a run here that could last, you know, the next
several years. It it's not like we have a ton
of veteran players. There's going to be a ton of
turnover and it's a one year thing.
I, I think you're seeing the start of a lot of these younger
guys in our development system come into their own.
And so, you know, I'm excited for this year, obviously, but I
think I'm really excited for thenext, you know, three to four
(17:23):
years, especially you look at what Cami's doing at 21 years
old and you know, he's going to be a really special player.
So many guys are going to be special on this team.
And so, so really excited for the for the next window.
We have gone here for several years, man.
Yeah, All right. Well, I think that that's all I
have. What we always do when we have
guests on is I want to make surethat you guys have the ability
to plug whatever you have going on.
(17:44):
And also if if you want people to follow you on social media,
everything like that. Where can people follow you at?
Where can people follow what theRays creative team is doing this
season? Yeah, I mean, follow us on at
Rays Baseball for the Creative Team.
I've got such a special bunch here and I'm so lucky to work
with them. For me, it's at Warren under
score Hypes on Instagram. I don't use the the rest of the
social media channels too much. I'm a visual guy.
(18:05):
I'm a creative guy. Instagram's the one I'm on the
most. But, you know, I'm lucky to have
such a great team here and greatsupport system with this
organization and, you know, so proud of what we've been able to
do with one of the largest creative teams in baseball.
All right, so raise a roof here with Joe Clatch.
The how would you how would you describe yourself in the thing?
(18:29):
Because I know you're like the no all be all of everything
raised vision and like. The EIC of the controller, so
engineer in charge. Yeah.
So I know we talked last year atthe Trop and and you know, you
kind of show me the, you know, the lay down how everything is
this season significantly different from that.
And we talked about it earlier in the series.
But what has it been like or what was it like for the
(18:52):
transition for you guys to get from what what the Trop was like
to what Steinbrenner has offeredyou guys space wise and
everything else? Space wise, the control room is
significantly smaller than what we're used to at in race vision
over there, of course, but it's been a good space.
The Yankees have been good partners with that.
(19:13):
We've had a lot of equipment, you know, from scoreboards to
audio equipment to Dante system,all sorts of things just to make
things digital for this building.
So it's been a lot of lead time leading up to that original four
days that we put all the equipment in.
But before that, probably a couple months before that, we
were working on stuff. Yeah, was so when the so when
(19:36):
Milton first hit and and all that stuff, how quickly after
did you guys go in and kind of figure out what was good, if you
guys could try to move it somewhere, what wasn't good,
what wasn't salvageable, whatever it might be?
So we're still figuring that out.
To be honest, a lot of the equipment, everything in the
front was pretty damaged and a majority of the stuff in the
(19:57):
control room has had some sort of humidity exposure, whatever.
So it's been an ongoing challenge with with anything
that we bring over from over there.
So in terms of what we know works and what doesn't work.
We're considering a total loss in terms of equipment for that
stuff. Got it.
So when you guys came over here,how early on did you guys come
(20:19):
over here and kind of scope out what the area was and what you
could fit in different places inorder to make the best of the
situation? When the when the uppers decided
this was the place that we were going to be, that's basically
when we started coming over hereand starting designing stuff.
Got it. So.
So how? How much time did you have in
order to be able to do all that?Probably about two months, it
(20:42):
was like over Christmas and thattime as we worked on those type
of things and different solutions.
If we were going to be working out of here completely, if we
were going to try to do a remotesolution out of Tropicana, if it
was a possibility and just kind of had to play it out and see
where that landed. Yeah.
How quickly did you guys realizethat this was going to be the
place that you guys were? Going to work.
I think we finally solidified and then it was about 3 weeks
(21:04):
later we were building. So it it took us a lot of time
because we don't have a lot of answers.
So you can't really build until we knew if it was here what the
control room look like, what theinfrastructure looks like.
So I would say we probably put it together in about four weeks.
Jeez. And I know you guys have a
pretty robust crew. I know it's one of the larger
ones in baseball now. So with that, you know, trying
(21:25):
to fit. Everyone in that room what What
were the? Discussions like amongst the
team of like, hey, we're going to put you here, we're going to
put you there and we're going tomake sure that there's enough
space ergonomically in order to make everything work with
everyone else so. It's kind of like that same
where you put like 10 or 100 lbsof potatoes in a 10 LB sack.
It's kind of like that. But we have majority of the
(21:46):
functionality. We had a Tropicana Field almost
almost completely outside of lighting and those type of
things. But we're really not short very
many operators at all. We we've done pretty good to
kind of combine and some streamline the show to make it
as close to Tropicana as possible for our fans.
Yeah. Now I know you also talked with
me about just how long the days were leading up to opening day
(22:09):
and all that stuff. Can you give me, our listeners a
little bit more of an idea of ofwhat that process was like?
Because I know it wasn't just for everyone on the field trying
to figure out everything was also for you guys trying to make
sure that everything was OK. Yeah, we were here at least on
the full time staff. We we were here pretty much
every day leading up to that. And then the four days that we
(22:31):
always talk about where creativecame in and did the transition.
We were also here about, you know, we were talking really
long days, like top to bottom, sometimes sleeping in chairs
just to make sure that we're available and doing whatever we
need to do and then lead right into the 13 game homestands.
So it's like 20 games. You try to figure find time
where you could, but it's, you know, it's worth it at the end
(22:52):
of the day. We we are proud of what we've
built here and can't wait to getback in the trop to do it there
too. Yeah, I know.
I think we're about 50 games into the into the home schedule
for this year just because of how everything is front loaded
and all that stuff. How do you feel like you guys
have adapted to the space and and and made it work best for
you? Because again, I'm sure that
there were some hiccups. There were some, you know, bumps
(23:13):
in the road early on just to getused to it, but at this point, a
couple months in, I'm sure that you guys have the lowdown and
lay down on what's going on. Well, you know, this building
being a AAA teams building is it's not it's really tough to
take a the actual show of a Major League Baseball show, even
even scoreboard, which we're doing and putting it into a
(23:36):
building like this without doingsome massive upgrades.
So like, even from running fiberand doing all those things, we
have put a lot into this building and you know, that
partnership with the Yankees aregetting a lot of good things
when we leave from it. And you know, we're happy about
that. We are going to leave an imprint
on this building for the better.Yeah.
Now, so with the the fireworks displays and things like that,
(23:58):
did you guys have a say in in intrying to use the outdoors for
the best of your ability or who was the one who really did that?
So for my side, it's all engineering and tech and you
know, if we're doing light shows, those type of things.
So that was more. Creative.
I would assume no, that's more Kat Lucas, who's the director of
game presence, is basically thatmost of that's all her and fan
(24:19):
experience work together to do all of those cool things we
can't do inside. So we while we're here, we're
going to try to get as much of those experiences as possible.
Yeah, I was going to say how cool.
Has that been from your perspective to see how
everything has been adapted froman indoor setting to an outdoor
setting I. Think we're just as excited as
the fans are when when the fireworks go off, when we get to
do things that fly overs, those type of things that we don't
(24:41):
normally get to do in the Dome, that's a big deal for us.
We're fans too. So that's pretty much, I mean,
that's what I would say about anything, anything we could say
about fire. Who doesn't like fireworks?
So, yeah, that's a good point. And then the last thing I had
for you is just moving forward. I mean, I, I think that you told
me that a lot of the seasons kind of or you or Ryan told me
(25:03):
that a lot of seasons kind of blend together.
But I feel like this is going tobe a year that a lot of people
it's going to stick out of people's minds of like, you
know, this is just the unique situation, everything like that.
Is there anything specific of anything else that you're going
to remember from this season once you know, we hit the end of
the year? Probably just the experience of
(25:23):
the outdoor portion of it. So I mean everything is a little
bit tougher outside. You know, you got rain, you got
hail, you got to build cameras, take cameras down.
There's a lot of things we don'thave to do and there's a lot of
things we can do at the Trop we can't do here.
So I think it's a unique experience.
It's going to win it whenever weget back into the Trop next
(25:43):
year. And then whatever comes after
that, we can try to take some ofthese experiences and maybe
build on that and make make makethat old girl a little bit more
shiny. All right.
Well, Joe, thanks so much, man. Appreciate it as always.
Cool. It's good to see whenever the
fans come out and and support usfor sure.
(26:04):
Yeah, last night's game, wild game.
I know things didn't go as you guys wanted on Thursday, but to
see that kind of response off a guy like Jack Flaherty, what was
it like watching what the offense was able to do?
You know, it's, it's amazing what the club is doing right
now. We're putting so many at bats
together, so good at bats together.
(26:24):
Like I said it, just to continueto do that, it just takes a lot
for us. Just stay focused and stay
playing for the team, do the do the little things right and
we're going to be in a really good spot.
For you, you're one of the league leaders in stolen bases.
(26:45):
And I know this season efficiency in terms of, you
know, being able to steal has been a big thing for you.
Have you? Did you work on anything in the
offseason to try to make sure that your jumps were able to be
calculated better to where you know, the stolen bases that you
were maybe not getting last yearyou're now getting this year?
You know, I always work on my speed, my explosiveness, my
(27:05):
quickness, my first step. I think that's the most
important part, just getting my first step right.
And from there on, it's just trying to get to the base.
And I feel like it's just for us, for me as a baserunner, just
trying to help the team, trying to advance those extra 90 feet
and been a scoring position for my teammates.
(27:27):
Yeah, this, this last like month, month and 1/2 or so to
see what you guys have done. What has it been like being part
of it? Because I know, I mean, you guys
went from a team that was what, like 21 to 26 to not being a
team that's firmly in the postseason picture.
Oh for sure. I mean it feels really, really
good to be in the in the playoffspot right now.
I know it's a long season still,but you know it, it feels really
(27:50):
good to be in such a good club like we are in just expecting
the best from everyone and expecting the best for them, you
know as well. So like like I said, I feel like
it's just like for us, it's justbeing good teammates, good for
your start as well. But like the main thing is just
(28:12):
try to do the little things. I feel like whenever we do those
little things, everything falls in the in line and it takes
stress out of all shoulder because like to hit is really
hard. So if we just focus on doing
small things like moving the guyover, driving him in or whatever
it might be at the situation, just do those little things and
(28:36):
baseball becomes a little easier.
And last thing, since you were on last season's team, is there
anything that you've seen that'sinherently different from last
year's team compared to this year's team?
Or is it just you guys are finding your stride at the right
time and everything seems to be clicking?
Like I've been saying all this time, I feel like we've been
working a lot and doing the small things like in during
(28:58):
spring training, we spend a lot of time trying to just working
on those little things. Men on terror with less than two
hours, try not to to to be too big and try not to be the hero
and just put in the ball and play.
I think it's helping a lot of the team and you, like I say,
you just take a lot of a lot of pressure out of our shoulder to
(29:22):
just not come up and try to get hits every time.
If not, just just try to to put the ball in play and try to to
drive the runners in and move them over.
And those are the most things I feel like is what is making a
huge change in in this Boat Club.
(29:42):
Getting two hits, I know it's been a little bit of a tough
stretch. How good was it to be able to
have the kind of performance that you did yesterday,
Especially that bouncing on me? I was perfectly executed.
Yeah. I mean, you know, you show up
every day and you work hard and you, yeah, you try to put
yourself in the best situation to help the team win.
And you know, I haven't been doing that, but I did yesterday,
so it slept good. Yeah, I, with what you guys were
(30:03):
able to do last night, specifically put out fourteen
runs against the team that's oneof the best in baseball.
What was it like seeing that? Like, just what did it seem like
was working for you guys againstsomeone like Flaherty?
I think just, you know, we play,we play hard.
You know, everybody, we, we all had good at bats and you know,
we, we passed the bat back to the next guy and everyone,
nobody's trying to do too much. Everybody's trying to get on
(30:24):
first base and let the guy behind them do their job.
And you know things are rolling and trying to stick with it.
For you this season, you know this has really been your first
big foray because I know you hada cup of coffee last year, but
this has been your first big foray into the major leagues.
What has it been like trying to traverse through this season?
It's, it's, it's been good. I mean, you know, obviously
(30:45):
there's, there's a lot of highs and there's a lot of lows, but
I'm just trying to keep your head down and work hard and, you
know, do everything you can. You know, you, you, you know,
like I said earlier, you show upto the park and, and you do what
you can to, to put yourself in best situation that night to
help the team win. And you know, that's the main
focus. Yeah, being part of what this
team has done over the last month and a half, I'm sure that
you guys knew that you had this in you in spring training.
(31:07):
But to see it actually come to fruition, what's it been like
watching that? It's awesome, you know, you
know, playing baseball is, you know, it's, it's, it's what you
want to do every day. But when you're on a team that,
you know, plays like we do and, you know, scratches off runs
and, and against really good teams and puts together good at
bats and plays really good defense, it's, it's, it's makes
(31:27):
it really fun to show up to the field every day.
At home specifically, you guys had struggles at the beginning
of the season. Seems like you guys are kind of
figuring things out a lot more now.
Is there anything that's changedspecifically with the mentality
coming into home games? Maybe that wasn't the case in
the first, you know, month or two of the year.
I mean, I think, you know, at the beginning of the year we did
the same thing. We showed up, worked hard and
(31:48):
we're doing the same thing now. And we hadn't really changed
much. You know, everybody's,
everybody's doing their thing. It's just baseball.
Things happen. And there's a lot, a lot of
uncontrollables in this game. And, you know, it seems like
we're taking care of those a lotbetter now.
Last thing, moving forward for you, moving forward for the
team, just what's been, you know, what's the mentality,
(32:08):
what's the, you know, what's theMO for you guys?
How are you guys looking to sustain what you guys have been
able to do so? Far.
I'm sticking with what we're doing, stick with, stick with
the plans we we put in place, trust our stuff and you know, be
a good, be a good ball club. Your your walk up song, it seems
(32:32):
like a lot more people are getting into it now.
A lot more people are kind of understanding it.
Did you take any inspiration from Charlie Blackman and what
he did in Colorado, or was that your own thing?
Oh no, no, not my own thing, really.
In high school, my teammate in the outfield with me, Trace
Levertich, walked up to it and then we roomed together.
In college, he didn't play baseball, so when I got to
college, we were trying to figure out a walk up song and I
(32:55):
asked him. I was like, I'm under yours from
high school. He was all forward.
He got fired up and then I did it for four years in Mississippi
State and it just kind of stuck.The Mississippi State, it kind
of, it means something now. It's pretty cool.
Did you expect the I like, what were you kind of expecting from
the fan reaction early on? And it seems, again, it seems
like it's grown. So I think people are getting
used to it, getting into it more.
Oh. Dude, I just I like it, crowd
(33:18):
likes it and I'm I'm going to keep it probably in the whole
career. What you've done so far this
season, you've, you know you, you've come into a role.
I know you've been plugging to get to the major leagues, but to
be able to do what you've done, how much fun is it to be, you
know, to see the production thatyou've had, to see the impact
that you've had within the clubhouse and the team?
(33:39):
I'm I'm just doing my best. I try not to get too caught up
in that until the end of the year.
The only thing that matters is my next to bat.
And I know that's cliche, but the cliche things are there for
a reason and they're typically the right way to go about it.
So man, like I'm happy with where I'm at right now, but I'm
just got to keep going now the next, that's all that matters.
(34:00):
Yeah, last night you guys put together a fantastic performance
in in, you know, in against one of the best teams in baseball.
You guys lit up Flaherty, put upaid on him.
What was working for you guys inthe in the win last night?
Just the same thing that's been working all years.
We just got a lot of faith in each other.
Someone doesn't get the job done.
It's not too much pressure because the next guy is going to
(34:21):
get it done. No matter who's coming up.
We know that they're going to get it done.
And we have full faith in our teammates.
We have full faith in everybody.Yeah, this run that you guys
have been on for the last month and 1/2, as you mentioned, faith
in teammates, faith and, you know, faith in what you guys
have going on. Has that been something where,
like in spring training, you hadsome sort of a feeling of what
(34:41):
this team could do and now it's finally coming to fruition?
Yeah, you look around, there's so many guys that are really
good baseball players, and we saw that in spring training and
we saw that spending time together.
So nothing's changed. We just got to keep going.
Yeah, the outfield configurationfor it, you guys have, it seems
like it's been a lot of rotatingpieces, but you guys have been
(35:01):
able to click really well. How has it been like interacting
with the guys in the outfield? Meisner Morrell?
I know Chandler was there for a couple weeks, so yeah.
Everybody's great. Like this is the best clubhouse
I can ever imagine. Everyone really likes each other
and we we're all really close friends.
It's like what? Like what you see on TV and
stuff. That's really what it is, man.
Yeah. Laid back and good friends.
(35:22):
Yeah. Do you guys have any plans or
anything? I I don't think you guys have
any sort of like a home run, like celebration, peace or
anything. I know you guys have the.
No, we just. The one, yeah, I was going to
say, do you guys have any plans of changing that, adding
anything to it this season? No, no.
Changes nothing. We're.
Just going to keep rolling. How was it like being part of
that for your first bomb? That was great.
(35:42):
It was really cool. Yeah.
And then the last thing I have is, again, you guys have been on
this run. You guys are now firmly in a
playoff spot. You're competing against some of
the best teams in baseball. The MO moving forward, I'm sure
that that's not going to change,but just like to see what this
team is doing and to see where you guys are potentially going.
How much more does that motivateyou guys?
How much more does that excite you guys for what might be
(36:04):
coming later in the year? Like I said, man, we're we're
focused on the Detroit Tigers today.
We need to win a series today and when, when when you start
getting away from what's what's the at the present, bad things
start happening. So we're going to focus on
today's game. And I know it's cliche, but the
cliche things are there for a reason.
It's and the older I get, the more I realize all those cliche
(36:25):
answers always got are the rightway to go about it.
I. Was going to say.
It's pretty true, right? Yeah, it is man.
The the best way to go about thesport.
Show up, work hard, play hard, control what you can.
When you start worrying about other stuff, bad things happen.
So first thing, Spencer, I mean just looking at what you guys
(36:46):
have, the team that you guys have been, you know, the team
you guys have some pride this year.
How you feeling about the overall makeup and what you guys
have been able to do in the first, you know, 80 games or so
of the season? Yeah, I think we're all pretty,
pretty happy with what we've been able to accomplish.
But we're also, you know, very conscious that it's it's only
been, you know, however many games, 70 some.
(37:06):
So we know it's a long season. We know that.
It's just, you know, stay in, stay in the fight and keep
grinding. I wanted to talk specifically
about Friday's game because thatgame was kind of wild on both
sides. You guys, it seemed like you
guys were out of it, but you guys were still able to claw
back. I wanted to get your thoughts
about how well this team has been able to come back in games
and and make games seem like nothing because I think in
(37:26):
comeback wins or whatever it is,you guys are like 14 and 9 right
now. Yeah, I mean, we're, we feel
like we, we're never out of it. We always have a chance,
especially with our lineup. You know, we feel like we got
pretty good approach and as longas we just keep the line moving,
you know, we'll we'll be in every single game.
And yeah, the scoreboard might have, you know, kind of told
everyone that we were out of it,but as a team, we felt like
we're just as much in that game.Individually this season, I know
(37:50):
you've had a lot of success to play what what was the MO coming
into the year of what you were trying to look, what you were
trying to accomplish and how? What do you think that you've
been able to execute that so far?
Yeah, definitely had to make an adjustment from the previous
couple of years just from a setup, you know, point and then
a discipline and an approach. I'm I'm happy with what I've
been able to do so far but definitely not satisfied and I
(38:14):
still got a long way to go. With this series playing a team
like the Rays, I know that they've been streaking, you
know, recently they've been justbeen, everything seems to be
going well for them. What have you made of the team
that they have? Pitching staff, offense,
everything? Yeah, I feel like they're
pretty, they're pretty complete.I mean, they're definitely very
hot team right now. Seems like they're they're just
(38:36):
constantly on the barrel and they're just constantly making
pitches and, you know, that's, that's baseball.
You know, we we've done the samething a couple times this year.
So yeah, I mean, they're a really good team.
We're a really good team. It's it's been a good, good
fight. You know, we'll try to cool them
off today though, yeah? Against the team like them, how
do you guys game plan that? Just knowing, you know, what
(38:57):
they've been able to do in recent weeks and months.
There's no secret sauce. I mean it's just go out and
attack just like any other team.Maybe a little more attention to
detail, but yeah, it really justkeep things simple and try to
win every single. Pitch both sides moving forward
for you guys. Again, you know, you guys are
firmly atop the AL Central you got, I'm sure playoff
(39:19):
aspirations are are, you know, well in the cards.
But how do you guys stay grounded?
How do you guys keep the same mentality that you've been
keeping all year to make sure that you guys are staying
consistent and successful throughout?
Yeah, You know, AJ is great in keeping us present as a team and
and all the coaches really is like we don't get complacent.
We know we're one of the best teams and but we don't, you
know, taste ourselves too much. We like to, we like to just go
(39:40):
out there every single day and grind it out and, you know, look
up after 162 and see where we'reat.
And I think we're doing a prettygood job so far.
And we're back on this latest episode of Raise the Roof.
A big thanks again to Warren, Joe, Cabbie, Meisner, Jake and
Torque for all talking with us. Really, really, really
(40:03):
appreciate their time. In order to do that, we do have
more interviews coming from thisseries.
A lot of it's going to be media members moving forward and some
friends that we've had on the podcast before.
So we hope that you tune in for that.
That'll come out over the weekend.
But in terms of this episode that's going to wrap things up,
we appreciate you guys as alwaysfor your support.
If you guys don't follow what wehave going on here, raise the
(40:23):
roof. It is raise the roof TB on
social media that is Twitter slash X Instagram and blue sky.
Our YouTube account is raise theroof.
Be sure to subscribe. Be sure to like be sure to turn
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have new uploads with hopefully will be plenty of uploads from
the weekend and this upcoming weekend as the Rays play the
(40:44):
Baltimore Orios for a three-gameset in Baltimore, which I will
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So check out all of those placesas of the podcast continue to
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Be sure to like be sure to subscribe, be sure to leave us a
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(41:06):
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that. With all that being said, thanks
so much for listening and as always, raise Up.
It's time to raise the roof for our latest regular season
podcast. Welcome back everyone to this
latest episode of the pod. I'm your host, Alex Murphy, and
today we have a little bit of aninteresting podcast because we
were I and well, Gibby already lives down in Tampa, but I went
(00:32):
down to Tampa for a couple days last weekend, was able to go to
the last game, the Rays O seriesand all three games the Rays
Tiger series checked out. Steinbrenner Field was able to
get media credentials. Big shout out to the Rays for
allowing us to do that for a second straight season and got a
bunch of interviews from different media members to
players to former players, staffmembers, everything under the
(00:56):
sun. We did what we could hear.
It raises the roof in order to give you guys some really,
really cool content. Unfortunately, we haven't really
gotten a chance to talk about what the team has been doing
recently and my goodness, this team has been on a roll.
As of recording this today, Thursday evening, the Rays just
swept the Kansas City Royals on the road to begin their road
(01:16):
trip. The race took two out of three
against the best team in baseball, the Detroit Tigers.
They split a series against the Orioles, one of those games
being the Rays going down 8. Nothing early, ended up scoring
12 unanswered runs to win 12/8. So honestly not that bad of a
series salvage considering what it could have been and some
really strong performances before that.
(01:37):
The race swept the Mets on the road.
One of the best teams in the in the National League.
This team has been continuously firing on all cylinders it seems
like and are just playing out oftheir minds right now.
From the pitching to the hitting.
I mean Shane Boz just threw 8 shutout innings today.
B Lau and Junior Caminero have been incredible.
(01:58):
Jonathan Aranda, who should be starting in the All Star game
for the American League but due to popularity and all that
garbage you probably won't, has continued to be on a tear.
I mean, guys left, right and center are performing and
producing for this team, which has been fantastic to watch.
On top of that, as if there wasn't enough news with the team
(02:18):
going on, we have the news that Chandler Simpson just got called
back up to the team a couple days ago.
He's already shown himself to bea strong contributor on this
team. We got the news of ownership
groups potentially coming in andtrying to buy the Raise 1,
specifically a Jacksonville based group that I believe put a
(02:39):
$1.7 billion offer out there with a a letter of intent signed
so that the race could go into exclusive, exclusive discussions
with them. And the race acknowledged that
themselves through a statement last week before literally like
the day over the day before I ended up going down to Tampa.
So that was wild in itself. And then today we get the news
(03:02):
of Wander Franco, a former Ray'sshortstop and someone who
probably and hopefully will never play Major League Baseball
ever again, was convicted of charges that stemmed from two
years ago regarding sexual abuseof a minor in a relationship.
I believe it's a two year suspended prison sentence with a
(03:22):
period of probation happening ifif he fails to a multi year
probational sentence along with that where if he violates any of
the statutes put out by the court and by the judge that he
will end up serving that prison sentence.
So plenty of things going on, plenty of craziness, a lot of
(03:46):
great stuff on the Rays side of things.
In terms of the team, they're I believe 11 games over 500 right
now. They're within 1/2 game of the
Yankees as of right now. The Rays are playing really,
really well. A lot of craziness going on.
Maybe in a couple months we'll have a new owner.
Wander's definitely not coming back to play baseball.
Guys are coming back and forth. A lot of craziness.
(04:08):
But in terms of the interviews that we have for you for this
podcast specifically, we have several Rays staff members who
have been gracious to us over the years.
One being Warren Hypes, the BP of creative for the Rays, the
guy who was the mastermind behind the City Connect
uniforms, which has gone fantastic.
And also someone who was basically the the go to when it
(04:30):
came to the renovations and changes done to Steinbrenner
Field to start the season and and for the 2025 season.
Really enjoyed talking with him.Also talk with Joe Clatch, who
is more or less the mastermind behind Ray's vision.
All of the graphics and things like that that you see on the
Jumbotrons of Tropicana Field. Talking with him about how they
(04:50):
were able to take everything at Tropicana Field, which
unfortunately a lot of that ended up being damaged due to
Hurricane Milton. But taking Ray's vision from the
Trop and adapting it as best as they could to Steinbrenner
Field, which was kind of crazy to see the transformation there.
Again, they only had four days or so to be able to do it.
So both what Warren and Joe did to be able to change
(05:14):
Steinbrenner, to make it as muchof the race home as possible was
absolutely incredible. And then players, we got both
sides. In the Rays Tiger series, we
talked with Jose Caballero, Cameron Meisner, who
unfortunately was just optioned down to AAA Durham, but at the
time of still on the Rays and friend of the podcast, former
guest of the podcast, Jake Mangum.
(05:35):
We talked with all of them. And on the Tiger side, we talked
with Spencer Torkelson on Sunday, who has had a a good
season of his own. I know batting every time hasn't
been great, but the power numbers have been there.
So we got both sides of the coinwith the Rays Tiger series, a
potential playoff series in the making.
Who knows what happens in October?
We hope you enjoy all of the interviews, but before we go
(05:56):
into those, we are going to run our Sea Geek ad.
If you guys haven't used the SeaGeek app, use our code Raise the
Roof at checkout to get $20 off your first purchase.
Use it for Rays tickets, use it for concerts, use it for
anything else under the sun thatyou want.
So we're going to run that ad. We hope you enjoy the interviews
and we'll be right back in this latest episode of Raise the
Roof. Hi everyone, Alex here with a
(06:20):
quick word from our sponsor. CC Geek is your one stop shop
for tickets for everything from live theater and concerts to
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That's Ray's spelled RAYS at checkout for 20 off your first
purchase with Sea Geek. Again, that's code Raise the
Roof for $20 off your first Sea Geek purchase.
Thanks so much to Sea Geek for sponsoring us, and let's get
back to this latest episode of Raise the Roof.
So raise the roof here with someone who I know we've been
(07:03):
trying to get on for a while now, Warren Hypes, who's vice
president, creative and brand for you guys.
How long have you been in that role for, by the way?
In this role for about four years for overall, been with the
team for 15 years now, 16 season, 15 years, man.
So it's, it's been a good trip, man.
I was going to say, how wild is it to see everything that has
(07:25):
happened over the last 15 years?Because basically when you came
in, the team is over that time has been revitalized, has turned
into the contender that they've been gone to World Series One
divisions and penance and stuff.Like how wild it has it been to
see the transformation over the?Years.
Oh, it's been great, man. And you know one cool thing
about me is I grew up around this organization.
So my stepdad was a minor leagueGM for the Princeton race, which
(07:47):
is rookie ball for like 20-3 years.
So the time I was, you know, 10-12 years old, great.
It was rookie level, but I was out on the field and I've known
some of the folks on the baseball off side here for years
and years. And so, you know, I got the
witness that transformation as as a fan and then and then, you
know, being here as an employee for the last 15 years, it's been
really cool, man. It's been really special.
(08:08):
And you know, I, I wouldn't trade my time here with for
anything in the world, man. Yeah, blame it.
With this. Current role that you're in,
what has been kind of a thought process in your mind, the MO of
what you've been trying to accomplish with the brand
division of what the Rays are. Yeah, absolutely.
Man, I think the main thing whenI took over this role was to
(08:28):
build access, right? I mean, our, our players are our
biggest commodity, commodity. And you don't want to tell their
story and, and make sure that fans can connect with them, not
as just players that you see on TV, but as people.
And that's been a, a really hugemission of ours, you know, since
I took over the, the role and, and even a bit before that, you
(08:48):
know, look, we're, we're trying to build a fan base.
We're just now starting to see the second generation of Rays
fans here after the amount of years.
And it's so trying to build a fan base.
And, you know, storytelling, man, that that's one of the most
important things for us on the creative side is to tell
stories. And, you know, we've been lucky
to have so many talented folks over the years, like in our
department and have so many great players over the years
(09:11):
that we've been able to build relationships with.
And so, you know, our our mission is to spread the magic
of Rays baseball, but definitelydo it to a creative lens through
storytelling. What's been the most difficult
part of trying to complete that vision?
Because I know especially with the Rays, there's always been
the moniker of of them, you know, the small market team, the
small fan base. So I'm sure that that's been a
(09:32):
difficult part in the grand scheme of things.
But like, what specific things do you think have been the most
difficult part of trying to convey that and trying to convey
the mission that you've been, you know, putting together?
Yeah, I mean, look, I, I wouldn't say it's been
difficult. I, I think that we love those
challenges, right? As an organization, we, we
embrace challenge. You know, I think we've been
(09:53):
able to do some really special things here over the years.
You look at all the work that wedo in the community, obviously
what we were able to do on field, you know, I think those
are all challenges that we embrace and, and rally around.
And, you know, for a long time, a lot of our storytelling was
this narrative of like, oh, we're this little guy with a
chip on our shoulder, you know, trying to compete in the AL
East. And, you know, I think you've
(10:14):
seen that narrative, at least from from Ireland shift a little
bit over the years because it's,you know, we've been here, we've
been doing this. We're the one of the one of the
most winningest franchises in baseball since, you know, since
2008. And and so I think we still have
a little bit of that chip with ashoulder mentality.
But but, you know, we've been here before, we've had success
and then, you know, hopefully now we can just, you can bring
(10:35):
it home and probably bring a World Series home.
I guess that's the one challengethat we have left.
So today is City Connect Day. I know that that was your baby
over the last couple years. To bring that to life, to see
how much it's been well receivedacross baseball and across
sports landscape and especially here, people really embracing
what it is. How cool has that been to
witness that over the last year or so?
It's been awesome, man. Look, I've gotten to do so many
(10:58):
really cool things here and, butI, I think that it's still the
one I'm most proud of, you know,after all the years, Look, we,
we do a lot of things unexpected.
We're traditionally untraditional.
And when we approach the city connect process, I, I think we
took that same mentality into it.
You know, everybody probably expected us to, to come out with
(11:18):
beaches and palm trees and that kind of thing.
And it's kind of exactly the reason we wanted to go and do
something different, right. And skateboarding culture is a
story that, you know, a lot of people don't know here.
And it was so exciting to tell that be able to tap into that
market. It's pretty cool day today.
We actually just inked our firstsponsorship with a local skater
here, guy named Jake Alardi. So he's going to be an official
(11:38):
ambassador of the Rays starting now to the end of 2026.
So we're going to be supporting him as he goes into the Olympic
trials. He's actually at the X Games in
Japan this weekend competing. And so it's the first time kind
of delving into that space for us.
And, you know, I think things like that have shown how it's
more than a uniform to us, how we really try to connect it to
the community, connect to to that base.
(12:00):
And yeah, I couldn't be more proud of it.
As far as like the reaction fromother teams and fans.
I mean, you know, when we launched this thing, it could go
one of two ways, right? It's funny, I had to speak at
the the unveil ceremony. And, you know, then we have some
media stuff after that, this andthat.
And so I didn't even get back tomy phone until probably 5:00 PM
on lunch today. And I was kind of nervous.
(12:21):
I'm like, well, it could go either way.
This can either be like something that's so crazy, it's
cool or something that's so crazy that nobody gets it right.
And so then I think, you know, getting to sit down that day and
start to see the reaction just kind of reinforce that we did
the right thing and and do something unexpected and
untraditional here. Yeah, I remember that day
vividly because I know like we were tweeting out stuff and it
seemed like every bit and piece like whether it was the skate
(12:44):
Ray, whether it was the the the Tampa Bay Flame yellow bucket
hat that went, it seemed like everything was going crazy with
it. The one thing I was curious
about Did you skate at all growing up?
Were you a? Skater I was not a skater.
You see me smiling when we're talking about this.
I love talking city connect. I never skateboarded.
I did play in a metal band in high school back and and tons of
(13:06):
my friends were skaters and so grew up with the culture of that
and and you know, know so much about it from my friends.
I never did I I don't think now is the time to start.
I might break a hip or something, man, but but you
know, the culture that's built here in Tampa Bay is is really
cool. If you look at like the skate
park of Tampa and the former Grove Bowl and Perry Harvey
Park. And you know, it's just really
(13:27):
cool to tell a story that peopledon't know, especially something
like that that gets national media attention to tell a story
people don't know about. This area was was so fulfilling
me. Yeah, I know.
My dad grew up skating and when he tells me those stories, that
baffles my mind when I look at what he is now.
Compared to what I babbled my mind with.
So with Steinbrenner, now that we're here, it's been, I don't
know how many games it's been filed with what, 30-40 games, 50
(13:50):
games through the home schedule.What is it like seeing what it
is now? Because I know you guys only
have what, like 3-4 days in total to be able to put
everything together. Yeah.
I mean, look, nobody wants to bein this situation, right?
And when you put it in perspective of everything else
that happened to our reach in the ballpark is kind of pales in
comparison, right, to what everybody else is dealing with.
(14:12):
But, you know, look, we've embraced the challenge here.
We've embraced playing outdoors.We have fireworks, we have fly
overs, we've got drone shows. You know, it's a pretty intimate
experience here to see a Major League Baseball game.
And the crowds have been great. The fan reaction has been
overwhelmingly great for us. And So what, man, not the
situation we want to be in. And we're very excited to be
(14:32):
back in the trot, but so thankful to be here, thankful
for the Yankees for allowing us to have a place to play.
And, and we're playing well here, man, so let's hope we can
keep that rolling. How was the drone show?
I know that I wasn't there for it, but I saw plenty of photos
from people and videos. It seemed like it went over
really well. Yeah, Yeah, I think so.
We we did one with the City Connect launch last year that we
really enjoyed and just thought it would be cool to bring some
(14:54):
added value to fans for that this year.
And then like I said, you'll seethe fireworks and the anthem and
for home runs this year and and wins.
And so, you know, it's fun to delve into area that we haven't
been able to to really to reallydelve into.
Before yeah so two more things for you.
The first thing of all of the changes that you guys have made
to this place, and I don't know if some of them are going to
(15:15):
stay. I, I would assume the majority
of them like like these video boards, I know that they're just
covering up the other video boards are going to be taken out
down. But what has been the your your
favorite change that has been made to Steinbrenner this
season, if there's one? You know what, I think it's been
really cool, man, is is more, you know, look, first of all,
redoing signs, getting ready forthe season to drop is a
challenge too. You're changing out so much as
(15:36):
the roster turnover or corporatepartners change.
But you know, here to be able tostart from scratch and change
over everything. We were able to really
incorporate our campaign look for the year into all the sign
and cheer. And that's something in the
past. We stay away from a little bit
to drop because you know, that could change each year and you
want something that's going to last over time.
And so just having a blank slateand we don't want to incorporate
a lot of that. You'll see a lot of hand
(15:57):
sketches and we're really leaning into the outdoor
elements with it. And to be able to utilize those
looks and have consistency with signs you see in the stadium
with what you see on social and on the video board, I think that
was one of the most exciting things.
You know, having a blank slate is it could be challenging and
but you know, I think we embraceit as an opportunity to be able
to really do what we want and tobe able to make the place shine
(16:17):
for a year. Last thing is what can fans look
forward to with what you guys have going for the rest of the
season? Because this team a month and a
half ago or whatever it was, didn't look like they were going
to be a playoff team. Now they're firmly in the
playoff hunt. Is there anything that you guys
have been cooking up maybe over these last couple weeks as the
team has been on this run, that fans will maybe like a teaser of
(16:41):
what fans will be able to see moving forward?
Yeah, man, look, I, I think the number one thing that we want to
do is go to, to play meaningful games September and end of a
postseason run in October. You know, it's, I think we had a
little, you know, a little bit of a tough start, but I think
everybody that knows the Rays knows that it wasn't going to
stay that way forever. And but there's so many young
exciting guys on this team to towatch, man.
(17:03):
And, and I think that's what's most exciting is that, you know,
you're building a run here that could last, you know, the next
several years. It it's not like we have a ton
of veteran players. There's going to be a ton of
turnover and it's a one year thing.
I, I think you're seeing the start of a lot of these younger
guys in our development system come into their own.
And so, you know, I'm excited for this year, obviously, but I
think I'm really excited for thenext, you know, three to four
(17:23):
years, especially you look at what Cami's doing at 21 years
old and you know, he's going to be a really special player.
So many guys are going to be special on this team.
And so, so really excited for the for the next window.
We have gone here for several years, man.
Yeah, All right. Well, I think that that's all I
have. What we always do when we have
guests on is I want to make surethat you guys have the ability
to plug whatever you have going on.
(17:44):
And also if if you want people to follow you on social media,
everything like that. Where can people follow you at?
Where can people follow what theRays creative team is doing this
season? Yeah, I mean, follow us on at
Rays Baseball for the Creative Team.
I've got such a special bunch here and I'm so lucky to work
with them. For me, it's at Warren under
score Hypes on Instagram. I don't use the the rest of the
social media channels too much. I'm a visual guy.
(18:05):
I'm a creative guy. Instagram's the one I'm on the
most. But, you know, I'm lucky to have
such a great team here and greatsupport system with this
organization and, you know, so proud of what we've been able to
do with one of the largest creative teams in baseball.
All right, so raise a roof here with Joe Clatch.
The how would you how would you describe yourself in the thing?
(18:29):
Because I know you're like the no all be all of everything
raised vision and like. The EIC of the controller, so
engineer in charge. Yeah.
So I know we talked last year atthe Trop and and you know, you
kind of show me the, you know, the lay down how everything is
this season significantly different from that.
And we talked about it earlier in the series.
But what has it been like or what was it like for the
(18:52):
transition for you guys to get from what what the Trop was like
to what Steinbrenner has offeredyou guys space wise and
everything else? Space wise, the control room is
significantly smaller than what we're used to at in race vision
over there, of course, but it's been a good space.
The Yankees have been good partners with that.
(19:13):
We've had a lot of equipment, you know, from scoreboards to
audio equipment to Dante system,all sorts of things just to make
things digital for this building.
So it's been a lot of lead time leading up to that original four
days that we put all the equipment in.
But before that, probably a couple months before that, we
were working on stuff. Yeah, was so when the so when
(19:36):
Milton first hit and and all that stuff, how quickly after
did you guys go in and kind of figure out what was good, if you
guys could try to move it somewhere, what wasn't good,
what wasn't salvageable, whatever it might be?
So we're still figuring that out.
To be honest, a lot of the equipment, everything in the
front was pretty damaged and a majority of the stuff in the
(19:57):
control room has had some sort of humidity exposure, whatever.
So it's been an ongoing challenge with with anything
that we bring over from over there.
So in terms of what we know works and what doesn't work.
We're considering a total loss in terms of equipment for that
stuff. Got it.
So when you guys came over here,how early on did you guys come
(20:19):
over here and kind of scope out what the area was and what you
could fit in different places inorder to make the best of the
situation? When the when the uppers decided
this was the place that we were going to be, that's basically
when we started coming over hereand starting designing stuff.
Got it. So.
So how? How much time did you have in
order to be able to do all that?Probably about two months, it
(20:42):
was like over Christmas and thattime as we worked on those type
of things and different solutions.
If we were going to be working out of here completely, if we
were going to try to do a remotesolution out of Tropicana, if it
was a possibility and just kind of had to play it out and see
where that landed. Yeah.
How quickly did you guys realizethat this was going to be the
place that you guys were? Going to work.
I think we finally solidified and then it was about 3 weeks
(21:04):
later we were building. So it it took us a lot of time
because we don't have a lot of answers.
So you can't really build until we knew if it was here what the
control room look like, what theinfrastructure looks like.
So I would say we probably put it together in about four weeks.
Jeez. And I know you guys have a
pretty robust crew. I know it's one of the larger
ones in baseball now. So with that, you know, trying
(21:25):
to fit. Everyone in that room what What
were the? Discussions like amongst the
team of like, hey, we're going to put you here, we're going to
put you there and we're going tomake sure that there's enough
space ergonomically in order to make everything work with
everyone else so. It's kind of like that same
where you put like 10 or 100 lbsof potatoes in a 10 LB sack.
It's kind of like that. But we have majority of the
(21:46):
functionality. We had a Tropicana Field almost
almost completely outside of lighting and those type of
things. But we're really not short very
many operators at all. We we've done pretty good to
kind of combine and some streamline the show to make it
as close to Tropicana as possible for our fans.
Yeah. Now I know you also talked with
me about just how long the days were leading up to opening day
(22:09):
and all that stuff. Can you give me, our listeners a
little bit more of an idea of ofwhat that process was like?
Because I know it wasn't just for everyone on the field trying
to figure out everything was also for you guys trying to make
sure that everything was OK. Yeah, we were here at least on
the full time staff. We we were here pretty much
every day leading up to that. And then the four days that we
(22:31):
always talk about where creativecame in and did the transition.
We were also here about, you know, we were talking really
long days, like top to bottom, sometimes sleeping in chairs
just to make sure that we're available and doing whatever we
need to do and then lead right into the 13 game homestands.
So it's like 20 games. You try to figure find time
where you could, but it's, you know, it's worth it at the end
(22:52):
of the day. We we are proud of what we've
built here and can't wait to getback in the trop to do it there
too. Yeah, I know.
I think we're about 50 games into the into the home schedule
for this year just because of how everything is front loaded
and all that stuff. How do you feel like you guys
have adapted to the space and and and made it work best for
you? Because again, I'm sure that
there were some hiccups. There were some, you know, bumps
(23:13):
in the road early on just to getused to it, but at this point, a
couple months in, I'm sure that you guys have the lowdown and
lay down on what's going on. Well, you know, this building
being a AAA teams building is it's not it's really tough to
take a the actual show of a Major League Baseball show, even
even scoreboard, which we're doing and putting it into a
(23:36):
building like this without doingsome massive upgrades.
So like, even from running fiberand doing all those things, we
have put a lot into this building and you know, that
partnership with the Yankees aregetting a lot of good things
when we leave from it. And you know, we're happy about
that. We are going to leave an imprint
on this building for the better.Yeah.
Now, so with the the fireworks displays and things like that,
(23:58):
did you guys have a say in in intrying to use the outdoors for
the best of your ability or who was the one who really did that?
So for my side, it's all engineering and tech and you
know, if we're doing light shows, those type of things.
So that was more. Creative.
I would assume no, that's more Kat Lucas, who's the director of
game presence, is basically thatmost of that's all her and fan
(24:19):
experience work together to do all of those cool things we
can't do inside. So we while we're here, we're
going to try to get as much of those experiences as possible.
Yeah, I was going to say how cool.
Has that been from your perspective to see how
everything has been adapted froman indoor setting to an outdoor
setting I. Think we're just as excited as
the fans are when when the fireworks go off, when we get to
do things that fly overs, those type of things that we don't
(24:41):
normally get to do in the Dome, that's a big deal for us.
We're fans too. So that's pretty much, I mean,
that's what I would say about anything, anything we could say
about fire. Who doesn't like fireworks?
So, yeah, that's a good point. And then the last thing I had
for you is just moving forward. I mean, I, I think that you told
me that a lot of the seasons kind of or you or Ryan told me
(25:03):
that a lot of seasons kind of blend together.
But I feel like this is going tobe a year that a lot of people
it's going to stick out of people's minds of like, you
know, this is just the unique situation, everything like that.
Is there anything specific of anything else that you're going
to remember from this season once you know, we hit the end of
the year? Probably just the experience of
(25:23):
the outdoor portion of it. So I mean everything is a little
bit tougher outside. You know, you got rain, you got
hail, you got to build cameras, take cameras down.
There's a lot of things we don'thave to do and there's a lot of
things we can do at the Trop we can't do here.
So I think it's a unique experience.
It's going to win it whenever weget back into the Trop next
(25:43):
year. And then whatever comes after
that, we can try to take some ofthese experiences and maybe
build on that and make make makethat old girl a little bit more
shiny. All right.
Well, Joe, thanks so much, man. Appreciate it as always.
Cool. It's good to see whenever the
fans come out and and support usfor sure.
(26:04):
Yeah, last night's game, wild game.
I know things didn't go as you guys wanted on Thursday, but to
see that kind of response off a guy like Jack Flaherty, what was
it like watching what the offense was able to do?
You know, it's, it's amazing what the club is doing right
now. We're putting so many at bats
together, so good at bats together.
(26:24):
Like I said it, just to continueto do that, it just takes a lot
for us. Just stay focused and stay
playing for the team, do the do the little things right and
we're going to be in a really good spot.
For you, you're one of the league leaders in stolen bases.
(26:45):
And I know this season efficiency in terms of, you
know, being able to steal has been a big thing for you.
Have you? Did you work on anything in the
offseason to try to make sure that your jumps were able to be
calculated better to where you know, the stolen bases that you
were maybe not getting last yearyou're now getting this year?
You know, I always work on my speed, my explosiveness, my
(27:05):
quickness, my first step. I think that's the most
important part, just getting my first step right.
And from there on, it's just trying to get to the base.
And I feel like it's just for us, for me as a baserunner, just
trying to help the team, trying to advance those extra 90 feet
and been a scoring position for my teammates.
(27:27):
Yeah, this, this last like month, month and 1/2 or so to
see what you guys have done. What has it been like being part
of it? Because I know, I mean, you guys
went from a team that was what, like 21 to 26 to not being a
team that's firmly in the postseason picture.
Oh for sure. I mean it feels really, really
good to be in the in the playoffspot right now.
I know it's a long season still,but you know it, it feels really
(27:50):
good to be in such a good club like we are in just expecting
the best from everyone and expecting the best for them, you
know as well. So like like I said, I feel like
it's just like for us, it's justbeing good teammates, good for
your start as well. But like the main thing is just
(28:12):
try to do the little things. I feel like whenever we do those
little things, everything falls in the in line and it takes
stress out of all shoulder because like to hit is really
hard. So if we just focus on doing
small things like moving the guyover, driving him in or whatever
it might be at the situation, just do those little things and
(28:36):
baseball becomes a little easier.
And last thing, since you were on last season's team, is there
anything that you've seen that'sinherently different from last
year's team compared to this year's team?
Or is it just you guys are finding your stride at the right
time and everything seems to be clicking?
Like I've been saying all this time, I feel like we've been
working a lot and doing the small things like in during
(28:58):
spring training, we spend a lot of time trying to just working
on those little things. Men on terror with less than two
hours, try not to to to be too big and try not to be the hero
and just put in the ball and play.
I think it's helping a lot of the team and you, like I say,
you just take a lot of a lot of pressure out of our shoulder to
(29:22):
just not come up and try to get hits every time.
If not, just just try to to put the ball in play and try to to
drive the runners in and move them over.
And those are the most things I feel like is what is making a
huge change in in this Boat Club.
(29:42):
Getting two hits, I know it's been a little bit of a tough
stretch. How good was it to be able to
have the kind of performance that you did yesterday,
Especially that bouncing on me? I was perfectly executed.
Yeah. I mean, you know, you show up
every day and you work hard and you, yeah, you try to put
yourself in the best situation to help the team win.
And you know, I haven't been doing that, but I did yesterday,
so it slept good. Yeah, I, with what you guys were
(30:03):
able to do last night, specifically put out fourteen
runs against the team that's oneof the best in baseball.
What was it like seeing that? Like, just what did it seem like
was working for you guys againstsomeone like Flaherty?
I think just, you know, we play,we play hard.
You know, everybody, we, we all had good at bats and you know,
we, we passed the bat back to the next guy and everyone,
nobody's trying to do too much. Everybody's trying to get on
(30:24):
first base and let the guy behind them do their job.
And you know things are rolling and trying to stick with it.
For you this season, you know this has really been your first
big foray because I know you hada cup of coffee last year, but
this has been your first big foray into the major leagues.
What has it been like trying to traverse through this season?
It's, it's, it's been good. I mean, you know, obviously
(30:45):
there's, there's a lot of highs and there's a lot of lows, but
I'm just trying to keep your head down and work hard and, you
know, do everything you can. You know, you, you, you know,
like I said earlier, you show upto the park and, and you do what
you can to, to put yourself in best situation that night to
help the team win. And you know, that's the main
focus. Yeah, being part of what this
team has done over the last month and a half, I'm sure that
you guys knew that you had this in you in spring training.
(31:07):
But to see it actually come to fruition, what's it been like
watching that? It's awesome, you know, you
know, playing baseball is, you know, it's, it's, it's what you
want to do every day. But when you're on a team that,
you know, plays like we do and, you know, scratches off runs
and, and against really good teams and puts together good at
bats and plays really good defense, it's, it's, it's makes
(31:27):
it really fun to show up to the field every day.
At home specifically, you guys had struggles at the beginning
of the season. Seems like you guys are kind of
figuring things out a lot more now.
Is there anything that's changedspecifically with the mentality
coming into home games? Maybe that wasn't the case in
the first, you know, month or two of the year.
I mean, I think, you know, at the beginning of the year we did
the same thing. We showed up, worked hard and
(31:48):
we're doing the same thing now. And we hadn't really changed
much. You know, everybody's,
everybody's doing their thing. It's just baseball.
Things happen. And there's a lot, a lot of
uncontrollables in this game. And, you know, it seems like
we're taking care of those a lotbetter now.
Last thing, moving forward for you, moving forward for the
team, just what's been, you know, what's the mentality,
(32:08):
what's the, you know, what's theMO for you guys?
How are you guys looking to sustain what you guys have been
able to do so? Far.
I'm sticking with what we're doing, stick with, stick with
the plans we we put in place, trust our stuff and you know, be
a good, be a good ball club. Your your walk up song, it seems
(32:32):
like a lot more people are getting into it now.
A lot more people are kind of understanding it.
Did you take any inspiration from Charlie Blackman and what
he did in Colorado, or was that your own thing?
Oh no, no, not my own thing, really.
In high school, my teammate in the outfield with me, Trace
Levertich, walked up to it and then we roomed together.
In college, he didn't play baseball, so when I got to
college, we were trying to figure out a walk up song and I
(32:55):
asked him. I was like, I'm under yours from
high school. He was all forward.
He got fired up and then I did it for four years in Mississippi
State and it just kind of stuck.The Mississippi State, it kind
of, it means something now. It's pretty cool.
Did you expect the I like, what were you kind of expecting from
the fan reaction early on? And it seems, again, it seems
like it's grown. So I think people are getting
used to it, getting into it more.
Oh. Dude, I just I like it, crowd
(33:18):
likes it and I'm I'm going to keep it probably in the whole
career. What you've done so far this
season, you've, you know you, you've come into a role.
I know you've been plugging to get to the major leagues, but to
be able to do what you've done, how much fun is it to be, you
know, to see the production thatyou've had, to see the impact
that you've had within the clubhouse and the team?
(33:39):
I'm I'm just doing my best. I try not to get too caught up
in that until the end of the year.
The only thing that matters is my next to bat.
And I know that's cliche, but the cliche things are there for
a reason and they're typically the right way to go about it.
So man, like I'm happy with where I'm at right now, but I'm
just got to keep going now the next, that's all that matters.
(34:00):
Yeah, last night you guys put together a fantastic performance
in in, you know, in against one of the best teams in baseball.
You guys lit up Flaherty, put upaid on him.
What was working for you guys inthe in the win last night?
Just the same thing that's been working all years.
We just got a lot of faith in each other.
Someone doesn't get the job done.
It's not too much pressure because the next guy is going to
(34:21):
get it done. No matter who's coming up.
We know that they're going to get it done.
And we have full faith in our teammates.
We have full faith in everybody.Yeah, this run that you guys
have been on for the last month and 1/2, as you mentioned, faith
in teammates, faith and, you know, faith in what you guys
have going on. Has that been something where,
like in spring training, you hadsome sort of a feeling of what
(34:41):
this team could do and now it's finally coming to fruition?
Yeah, you look around, there's so many guys that are really
good baseball players, and we saw that in spring training and
we saw that spending time together.
So nothing's changed. We just got to keep going.
Yeah, the outfield configurationfor it, you guys have, it seems
like it's been a lot of rotatingpieces, but you guys have been
(35:01):
able to click really well. How has it been like interacting
with the guys in the outfield? Meisner Morrell?
I know Chandler was there for a couple weeks, so yeah.
Everybody's great. Like this is the best clubhouse
I can ever imagine. Everyone really likes each other
and we we're all really close friends.
It's like what? Like what you see on TV and
stuff. That's really what it is, man.
Yeah. Laid back and good friends.
(35:22):
Yeah. Do you guys have any plans or
anything? I I don't think you guys have
any sort of like a home run, like celebration, peace or
anything. I know you guys have the.
No, we just. The one, yeah, I was going to
say, do you guys have any plans of changing that, adding
anything to it this season? No, no.
Changes nothing. We're.
Just going to keep rolling. How was it like being part of
that for your first bomb? That was great.
(35:42):
It was really cool. Yeah.
And then the last thing I have is, again, you guys have been on
this run. You guys are now firmly in a
playoff spot. You're competing against some of
the best teams in baseball. The MO moving forward, I'm sure
that that's not going to change,but just like to see what this
team is doing and to see where you guys are potentially going.
How much more does that motivateyou guys?
How much more does that excite you guys for what might be
(36:04):
coming later in the year? Like I said, man, we're we're
focused on the Detroit Tigers today.
We need to win a series today and when, when when you start
getting away from what's what's the at the present, bad things
start happening. So we're going to focus on
today's game. And I know it's cliche, but the
cliche things are there for a reason.
It's and the older I get, the more I realize all those cliche
(36:25):
answers always got are the rightway to go about it.
I. Was going to say.
It's pretty true, right? Yeah, it is man.
The the best way to go about thesport.
Show up, work hard, play hard, control what you can.
When you start worrying about other stuff, bad things happen.
So first thing, Spencer, I mean just looking at what you guys
(36:46):
have, the team that you guys have been, you know, the team
you guys have some pride this year.
How you feeling about the overall makeup and what you guys
have been able to do in the first, you know, 80 games or so
of the season? Yeah, I think we're all pretty,
pretty happy with what we've been able to accomplish.
But we're also, you know, very conscious that it's it's only
been, you know, however many games, 70 some.
(37:06):
So we know it's a long season. We know that.
It's just, you know, stay in, stay in the fight and keep
grinding. I wanted to talk specifically
about Friday's game because thatgame was kind of wild on both
sides. You guys, it seemed like you
guys were out of it, but you guys were still able to claw
back. I wanted to get your thoughts
about how well this team has been able to come back in games
and and make games seem like nothing because I think in
(37:26):
comeback wins or whatever it is,you guys are like 14 and 9 right
now. Yeah, I mean, we're, we feel
like we, we're never out of it. We always have a chance,
especially with our lineup. You know, we feel like we got
pretty good approach and as longas we just keep the line moving,
you know, we'll we'll be in every single game.
And yeah, the scoreboard might have, you know, kind of told
everyone that we were out of it,but as a team, we felt like
we're just as much in that game.Individually this season, I know
(37:50):
you've had a lot of success to play what what was the MO coming
into the year of what you were trying to look, what you were
trying to accomplish and how? What do you think that you've
been able to execute that so far?
Yeah, definitely had to make an adjustment from the previous
couple of years just from a setup, you know, point and then
a discipline and an approach. I'm I'm happy with what I've
been able to do so far but definitely not satisfied and I
(38:14):
still got a long way to go. With this series playing a team
like the Rays, I know that they've been streaking, you
know, recently they've been justbeen, everything seems to be
going well for them. What have you made of the team
that they have? Pitching staff, offense,
everything? Yeah, I feel like they're
pretty, they're pretty complete.I mean, they're definitely very
hot team right now. Seems like they're they're just
(38:36):
constantly on the barrel and they're just constantly making
pitches and, you know, that's, that's baseball.
You know, we we've done the samething a couple times this year.
So yeah, I mean, they're a really good team.
We're a really good team. It's it's been a good, good
fight. You know, we'll try to cool them
off today though, yeah? Against the team like them, how
do you guys game plan that? Just knowing, you know, what
(38:57):
they've been able to do in recent weeks and months.
There's no secret sauce. I mean it's just go out and
attack just like any other team.Maybe a little more attention to
detail, but yeah, it really justkeep things simple and try to
win every single. Pitch both sides moving forward
for you guys. Again, you know, you guys are
firmly atop the AL Central you got, I'm sure playoff
(39:19):
aspirations are are, you know, well in the cards.
But how do you guys stay grounded?
How do you guys keep the same mentality that you've been
keeping all year to make sure that you guys are staying
consistent and successful throughout?
Yeah, You know, AJ is great in keeping us present as a team and
and all the coaches really is like we don't get complacent.
We know we're one of the best teams and but we don't, you
know, taste ourselves too much. We like to, we like to just go
(39:40):
out there every single day and grind it out and, you know, look
up after 162 and see where we'reat.
And I think we're doing a prettygood job so far.
And we're back on this latest episode of Raise the Roof.
A big thanks again to Warren, Joe, Cabbie, Meisner, Jake and
Torque for all talking with us. Really, really, really
(40:03):
appreciate their time. In order to do that, we do have
more interviews coming from thisseries.
A lot of it's going to be media members moving forward and some
friends that we've had on the podcast before.
So we hope that you tune in for that.
That'll come out over the weekend.
But in terms of this episode that's going to wrap things up,
we appreciate you guys as alwaysfor your support.
If you guys don't follow what wehave going on here, raise the
(40:23):
roof. It is raise the roof TB on
social media that is Twitter slash X Instagram and blue sky.
Our YouTube account is raise theroof.
Be sure to subscribe. Be sure to like be sure to turn
on those post notifications so you guys get notified when we
have new uploads with hopefully will be plenty of uploads from
the weekend and this upcoming weekend as the Rays play the
(40:44):
Baltimore Orios for a three-gameset in Baltimore, which I will
be at to give you guys hopefullysome good content.
So check out all of those placesas of the podcast continue to
support us as you guys have been.
Be sure to like be sure to subscribe, be sure to leave us a
review, hopefully a five star review and share this with your
family or friends. Anyone who knows a baseball fan
or a race fan that wants to add a podcast since their podcast
feed, we'd love to be part of it.
(41:06):
Our final shout out to our sponsors in the Clutch, Sea Geek
and JKS Prince. Be sure to use code Raise the
roof in all caps to check out tosave yourself some money, get
yourself some cool stuff and help and help us out in the
process. We would greatly appreciate
that. With all that being said, thanks
so much for listening and as always, raise Up.
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