February 17, 2025 • 37 mins
In the second hour, Dave Softy Mahler continues our President’s Day Show with Kevin Martinez from the Mariners, including info on Root and Ichiro’s big year ahead, and UW ongoing President Ana Mari Cauce, including the big ten move and the transfer portal.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our annual President's Day Show continues here from the Ameral
Queen Casino. Big thanks to our pal Chuck Arnold from
the Seahawks for joining us on the radio show, but
joining us right now his first time on the air
with us in the official capacity as President of Business Operations.
Longtime Mariner marketing wizard turned president Kevin Martinez joining us
(00:22):
right now on our annual President's Day Show.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Kevin, how are you, Dolci.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm doing great. How are you doing? Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well, thank you for doing it, first of all, and
second of all, congrats on the promotion.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Man.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
This is the first time that you and I have
spoken on the air since you became the President of
Business Operations, and I think a lot of people in
the industry. Obviously our listeners know the name Kevin Martinez,
but they know you as the as the marketing wizard
of the Mariners. You've been there for a long long time.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
What are you?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
First of all, for people that don't know, talk about yourself,
how long you've been with the organization and what your
history is with the franchise.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Sure well, thank you all. Started many moons ago in
nineteen nineties offtee when I moved to Seattle from New
York City, and you know, you think back to then,
it was an incredible time to start with the organization.
You had these wonderfully talented young players named ten Griffey Junior,
Jay Buner, Edgar Martinez, Randy Johnson, you know, and it
(01:19):
was really a fantastic environment for creativity. And through those years,
I worked my way up through the organization, as you said,
marketing and then communications and broadcasting. You know, I've always
loved the organization, but I really fell in love with
the city of Seattle, you know, and like you, Softie,
(01:44):
you know, we've dedicated ourselves to our respective organizations. I mean,
how long have you been a KJR now?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Thirty years? It started four years after you showed up
at the Mariners.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
How about that, Yeah, I mean I remember you. I
mean like it was yesterday. I mean, it just showed
you how time flies. In the Kingdom. You'd have this
set up behind home plate, you'd be getting interviews with
Mariner players and visiting players. You know, we're both really
truly if we paused for a moment, blessed to have
worked in this incredible city for a long time. We
(02:14):
get to do something we love both working jobs where
you bring community together in a positive manner that's pretty powerful,
you know. And working at the Mariners for me, has
always been that opportunity for me to blend my love
of the game of baseball, which was a huge part
of my family dynamic growing up, and to blend that
passion with the opportunity to build and unite community, you know,
(02:37):
truly a blessing. And again for me, you know, I've
been here thirty five years now. Seattle is certainly home
for me, but it's this incredible sports town that I
don't feel gets enough credit nationally because we're tucked up
here in the upper left corner of the country. But
you know, Seattle sports fans exhibit it across all sports
(02:59):
how great they are. So I'm incredibly grateful for this,
this new opportunity and for the trust and have loved
every minute of it in the five months i've been
been well.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Kevin Martinez again, the president of Business ops for the MS,
is with us on our President's Day show and look,
I'll tell you what, buddy, it's a hell of a
time to be taken over this gig because of how
much the sport from a business perspective is constantly evolving.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I mean, maybe not you know, evolving.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
As fast as college sports, but it certainly is evolving.
And I think the biggest question from a business perspective
that people have about the franchise is what is the
future of television?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
What is the future of root sports? And let's just
start there.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
There's been some rumblings that this might be the last
year for the Mariners on Root Sports. Give the audience,
give us an idea of what the future of the
Mariners on Root sports looks like.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, well, you know, the media landscape, as you well know,
has changed dramatically. You know, I don't. I don't necessarily
think this is the last year for roots sports, but
the regional sports network model, which is provided meaningful revenues
for baseball teams do. It's dramatically change and doing large
parts because people's viewing habits have changed, right. But you know,
(04:13):
our goal is to make sure people can watch our
games how they want to watch them, and we're working
on that. You know, we're taking and you and I've
talked about this. We're taking a new approach of this
spring training. You and I have talked about getting more
spring training games on and you'll be happy to hear this.
We're gonna this year make more spring training games available
than ever before to fans. We'll be producing eight spring
(04:37):
training webcasts on Mariners dot Com, so people can just
log onto Mariners dot com. They're going to be able
to watch eight of our games through that vehicle. And
then plus we'll have seven more games on Root Sports,
so fans will be able to watch more than half
of our our spring training games played down in the
Cactus League. And with so many emerging young players on
(05:01):
you know, our farm system ranked number one, I think
that will be of great interest. So yeah, it's a
changing landscape and we spend an awful lot of time
of working on that and what the future will bring.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So there are some franchises that are starting to launch
these apps right where you can sign up and you
pay one hundred bucks a year or whatever get all
the games on an app. I recently Kevin made the
switch from Comcast to Fubo, and I gotta be honest
with you, I love it. I mean I'm just getting
into an ab at now of getting everything I.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Need off an app. If it's not on Fubo, I
go to HBO.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
If it's not on HBO, I'll go over to Amazon
app or whatever. So I think people are gradually kind
of getting used to the idea of being a lot,
you know, being able to log onto a Amazon Firestick,
Roku stick, whatever and go to their app and get
what they're looking for. Is there a chance that we
could see the ball club do something like that where
I would literally log onto my TV, go to a
(05:55):
Mariner's app and watch the games that way for a
fee every year.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, We're we're working really hard on that, Softie, and
like I said, you know, that's the key. We want
to get our games to our fans the way they
want to watch it. You know, many of our fans
prefer traditional linear delivery of our games, but as you
as you you just made that that switch. There are
fans who would prefer our games to be streamed and
we aren't quite there yet, but rest assured, we're working
(06:21):
really hard on the streaming solution. A lot of layers
to getting that done, but it's certainly on our radar
and you know, more to come.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, Kevin Martinez with us and Kevin, we all know
that there's there's passion for this.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Team no matter what.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Right I mean, I've always said I'd rather have people
be be angry and upset and engaged than be apathetic.
And when the team wins, people are fired up. When
they don't win, people are fired up, right either way.
So there's always going to be passion for this franchise,
which I assume that you love no matter what. But
when you hear criticism, when you hear people complain about
(06:57):
the payroll and criticize the ownership group and criticize the
front office, just give people idea of of of what
your reaction would be to common criticisms that I'm sure
you guys here all the time in the business like
everybody else does.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, you know, we haven't gotten it done on the field,
that's the bottom line, and we're we're frustrated to stopping.
We've been incredibly close, but you know, close doesn't count.
And as I said earlier, this is an incredible sports
down and the fans across all sports are they're they're amazing,
(07:34):
and you know, but I truly believe in in in
the people here. I see it every day. It's great.
I I like to get to the ballpark early in
this off season arriving in the parking lot and seeing
the first car there being Dan Wilson and stopped him
(07:56):
by his office on the way to mine and just seeing,
you know, how enthusiastic he is and how intense he is.
You know Dan, you know Dan a long time. He
might be the kindest uh person of the planet. He's
just such a good human being. But he's he's a winner,
and he's a competitor and he he was he kind
(08:19):
of came up through this game under lou Ponela. So
he's got that fire. He just doesn't express it the
same way, but but he's got it. And you know,
the players, we've gotten that clubhouse, you know, being down
here and seeing how many players are already here early, uh,
the whole squad here, you know, but we got to
go out and we got to do it. I get that.
(08:41):
But you know, I just say, please keep that that
passion going because it's going to get rewarded. And Softy,
you and I we will we will be uh, we'll
be dancing in the streets and Soto and International District
and Pioneer Square one day, celebrating that championship. I truly believe.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Well, yeah, and I hope so. And by the way,
if it does happen, there's gonna be a lot more
than dancing going on. I can tell you that right now.
I mean you can, I know you, yeah, you can envision.
And I love the way that you describe Dan Wilson
because I agree that, you know, Dan's kind of a
silent assassin. I mean he may not have that you know,
outgoing amazing in your face like lou was personality, but
(09:21):
he's not a pushover at all. But Kevin Martinez is
with us on our President's Day show here, the branding
president of Business Ops for the m has been with
a team since nineteen ninety. And look, there's a lot
going on this summer, each hero in the Hall of Fame,
Eachiro getting his number retired. Let's first of all, talk
about if you can share with people the process for
(09:42):
retiring a number. We've all wondered kind of what the
standards are, how that process works, talk about kind of
what goes on behind the scenes to get.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
To that point.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Well, you know, it's actually it's all stated. You probably
have a Mariner's the information guy. You can reference it
on page one seventy. It's all there in black and
White the guidelines and essentially stuff the player had to
be active in a Mariner's uniform for a substantial a
meaningful portion of their Mariner career and made significant contributions
(10:18):
to Mariners Baseball in the franchise. And the players should
have either been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame,
and I said meaningful portion of the career. To get
the number retired, you have to be a Mariner for
at least five years and either get elected in the
National Hall of Baseball Hall of Fame or come close
(10:40):
to election. You know, I think players need seventy five
percent of the vote to get into the Hall of Fame,
so you'd have to have a meaningful portion of their vote.
And once that happens, a recommendation is made to the
Mariner's Board of Directors and then they have the ultimate phip.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Gotcha, what are your experiences with each Yiro?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
You know, we don't we don't know him as well
as we do maybe other players that have come through here.
You got a quick sixty second anecdote you can share
about him?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
All right, I'll try to make this quick and you know,
working with him, getting to know each row really has
been one of the true joys of my career. And
I've got a long list of stories, so maybe this
summer we can we can talk about it. But I'll
tell you that the first one, which just showed me
his sense of humor right off the jump. It was
(11:32):
January of two thousand and one, was the first time
I met him. He was arriving in Seattle, and the
organization asked me to go to the airport and welcome
each Row and his wife when they arrived in Seattle,
and show them around Seattle and get them settled in
their hotel because they were going to look at homes
and get settled before spring training. Right, So I go
(11:56):
to the airport. We've got ted Hyde with me, who's
was our international scout. He spoke Japanese, and you know
there's media everywhere, right, you know, there's so much interest
in Japan of this first position player coming to you know,
coming to play Major League Baseball. So meeting Turo, we
(12:17):
get into the car, we go to the hotel and
media is following everywhere. So as we're walking to the
front desk, I say to each year. I look at
him and I'm say in English, Hey, would you like
the room to be under an alias, right, and so
Ted Hyde translates it, and each hero looks at me.
(12:39):
I mean, just this huge smile, and his first words
in English to me were, Brad, I was I didn't
see it coming. I was floored. I'm laughing, you know,
belly laughs. He's got a huge lab in the love
he's died, and he loved the question and then the
(13:03):
answer just on the dime you dropped Brad Pitt. And
it was really really special because on the day he
got announced it to be inducted in the Hall of Fame,
we did a little pressure here at the ballpark and
we were waiting to go into the room and I
recall that story with him and we both had a
(13:25):
shared laugh. Again. Wow, it was a great moment. But
you know, there's there's a ton of him. I again,
working with the team, you get access and moments that
are pretty pretty special. And yeah, just I mean, one
of the most dedicated the work ethic amazing, but the
(13:46):
sense of humor. I don't know if it's really ever
come out to as much publicly, but man, just just wonderful. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
We saw that in his Mariner Hall of Fame induction
speech when he spoke in English, which was a powerful
thing for a lot of people. And I'm hoping he
does his Cooper's town speech as well in good Good.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I love that well.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Kevin Martinez again, President Business Ops for the EMS. Kevin
got about five more minutes here with you on the air.
And there's been a lot of conversation. One thing each
hero no longer has to deal with is that stupid
marine layer, right, or the or the batter's eye. So
there's been a lot of talk about the ballpark and
how hard it is to hit in the ballpark. The
fences were moved in a while back, I think about
(14:30):
ten years ago. You guys tinkered with that. How much
conversation is there behind the scenes over there about what
to do to make this a more hitter friendly stadium?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, I mean there, And you know I'm not necessarily
a part of all those conversations. That's really, you know,
a better question for baseball. Yeah, but yeah, I do know.
I do know there are a lot of conversations going on.
In fact, I walked by a meeting room a couple
of weeks ago and that that indeed was the topic.
(14:59):
You know, It's funny and we talk about this too
here and perhaps you've talked about it on the air
staff the you know, we won forty nine games last
year at home, right, we had the second best home
record in the American League, the second best home mark
in the AL in twenty twenty three. And despite that, right,
because very pitching centric ball club, there are those discussions
(15:23):
going on everything from the angle to the color of
the batter's eye. So yeah, it's lots of ongoing dialogue.
So you know, we'll see, we'll see if it changes.
But you talk about winning games and then you've got
these these stats that support that, so it's a fascinating
topic of dialogue.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Well, keV, before you go, people always want to know
what's happening with the concessions. I frankly need more mister
Softy soft Serf stands. It's the absolute best soft serf
I've ever had in my life, and not just because
it's called mister Softy. I first had it back on
the East Coast when I was about ten years old,
and it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
You know the krack and have it. You guys have it.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So the more mister Softie stands we can provide for fans.
I'm a fan of but give us in the final
minute and a half here or so, just some thoughts
on changes to t Mobile Park starting this year.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah yeah, well, you know, mister Softee is also one
of the greatest theme songs of any ice cream truck
in the history, no question, question.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
You know, the folks that work on our food and
beverage program, they're so good at what they do, and
they love what they do. And that's the thing that
I always love to see in anybody who does their
work is how much love they bring to it, enjoy
they get out of it. And you know, the Mobile
Park food and Beverage is always ranked. You can see
that all the time, is the best in baseball. But
(16:47):
they did some tastings here a couple of weeks ago.
There's a new risk It sandwich coming this year, which
is just killer. For the first time in ballpark history.
There's a Cherryochi bowl that people were going crazy over.
Pulled pork sliders are coming this season. Back when he played,
Eachie Row was notorious for eating chicken wings before and
(17:11):
after a game or after a game, and so we're
bringing itchy wings to the ballpark in honor of the
Hall of Famer and you talk about ice cream and
I haven't seen these, but people are talking about them
ice cream nachos, so get ready for those as well.
But lots of creativity. The Value Beer program is back
and better than ever, so they'll be the food prety
(17:34):
was coming out in a couple of weeks offee, and
that's that's always great. You'll get you'll see everything on
all the social media and hopefully you can come down
and and and uh and sample some of the new things.
But yeah, we're we're excited about that. That's always a
fun part of each season to roll out those those
new food items.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
All right, man, go get him this year. Congrats on
the new gig. Happy for you and we will talk
down the road. Man, appreciate this pal.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
All right, sounds good, Thank you, thanks for having me
and we'll see you soon.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Good stuff man.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Kevin Martinez, the brand new president of Business Operations for
your Seattle Mariners, joining us right here on our President's
Day show from the Emerald Queen. When we come back,
the outgoing president at U dub got about five more
months on the job. But first she talks to us
Anamara Cawsey, President at Washington will join next on ninety
three three KJRFM live from the R and.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio. Now back to Softie and
Dick on your home for the Huskies and the Kreken
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
All right, kiddos, our annual President's Day Show continues right
here on ninety three to three KJARFM. And what President's
Day Show would be complete without a visits and for
the final time as the acting President at Washington. Anamara
caws is with us right now on the radio show.
President Cawsey, how are you doing today?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
I'm doing just fine. Happy Valentine's Day too, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
As well to you.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Let's uh, let's first of all, as we've done now
you and me for a couple of years now, why
don't we start off and this is your last time
doing this with you know, with us as the president
at Washington, because you're stepping down later this year.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
How would you characterize the state of.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
The Union over at you dub right now on this
President's Day Monday twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Well, you know, quite frankly, the university is going gangbusters
in so many different ways. You know, our research I mean,
you know, just continues to you know, you know, get
better and better in terms of actually making a difference
in the world. We've got a Nobel Prize this year.
I mean, you know that's that's not small stuff. And
you know, we've got record enrollments, and you know, everything
(19:45):
everything's going really well. And you know, we're a little
nervous about you know, there's a lot of things that
are going on in the country that affect us, and
so we're trying to adjust to those. But in terms
of the university itself, we're going gangbusters well.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
And and you mentioned everything happening around the country, around
the world, and look at typically when you and I talk,
we focused mainly on the sports, saying, go, obviously this
is a sports talk radio show. We'll get your thoughts
on the big ten, you know, Robert Jones coming in
in a minute. But everything you went through over the summer,
with the protests, the reaction to it, the way you
handled it, the way the university handled it, the way
(20:22):
people reacted to it, talk about kind of what you
learn from that and and what you would have done
differently maybe.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
If anything, well, you know, I mean, you know, I'm
not big on. You know, you can go hindsight as
always twenty twenty. I think the rule the two is,
you know, how do we move forward? And I think
that you know, as you see this here, you know
we really are moving forward in a much more positive way.
You know, things unquestionably, things got disrupted, and it was
(20:51):
a very difficult year all across the country. And I
think that, you know, what we've really focused on is
how do we get students to talk together across differences.
You know, our our VP of Undergraduate Education being of
undergraduate and Taylor put together a beautiful class where you
had people from very different perspectives come and talk to
(21:12):
each other. And I think that, you know, if you
think about the state of the country in general, with
all the polarization, what we really need to focus on is,
you know, if someone has a very different views than you,
don't view them as an enemy to be vanquished, view
them as a possible ally to be won over. And
how do we find common ground? And that's really what
(21:34):
we need to work on. And I think those were
a lot of the lessons of last year is how
do we find com how do we learn to talk
to each other across big differences.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Well, you mentioned the word disruption there, Ana Mari, and
there's been a lot of disruption in college sports in
the last couple of years. And you and I have
spent many times on the year off the year talking
about this. Give us an idea of maybe what you
think your department, specifically Upper campus has done in the
last year or so since we last spoke to make
(22:07):
sure you DUB is in position to take advantage of
this move to the Big Ten after you leave office.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Well, you know, I think that one of the things
that really has been very positive, and I'd say it's
been positive throughout my time here, you know, uh, you know,
with Jens coming in as athletic director, and I think
that Pat very much has that same style, which is
you know that you know, sometimes people talk about upper
(22:34):
and lower campuses and we really are one campus. And
one of the things that's so fabulous about the Big
Ten and that I love about the Big Ten is
that it isn't just about sports that you know that
they really do put together, you know, the provosts meet together,
we have you know, academic partnerships, and we really look
(22:58):
at our university as a whole. We recognize that force
actually draws eyes to our university and that can be
a real positive, no question about it. You know, the
fact that we've got you know, record applications is probably
partly due to the Big Ten, and that's wonderful. I mean,
we recognize that, you know, as you know, we have
to half share and so we're going to have to
(23:21):
deal with that for a while. And I think that
you know, we're building really strong partnerships between you know,
between athletics and the rest of the university, and quite frankly,
we really you know, I mean, one of the things
that I'm proud of of in terms of athletics is
how well our students are doing in the classroom. I
remember it was probably about three or four years ago
(23:42):
when it was the first time that you know, we
were number one academically in football over Stanford, and that
felt so good. And I think that, you know, under
Pat Chun we really still have very much that that.
I think Jen really you know, started that really deep
culture that you know that coach Pete. Coach Pete was
(24:04):
a big part of of really looking at our students
as athletes that are students, not just athletes.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Well, President Annamar cause again with us on our President's
Day show from you dub final time. She's stepping down
later this year. You've been at the school, I believe,
if I have my facts right, since eighty six, president
since twenty fifteen. So you've been at this for forty
years for the most part as a Husky. What are
you going to do with yourself starting in July this summer.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Well, I will always be a Husky and this will
always be my home and I'm not going anywhere. You're
still going to see me at the game, you know,
on the sideline, you know, rooting on our players.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
You know.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
I haven't had a sabbatical and I don't know how
many years, twenty thirty years, and so I want to
take a little bit of time, do a little bit
of writing, do a little bit of reflecting, might do
a little teaching. I'm going to take it a step
at a time.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Well, you mentioned the record applications over at Washington, and
I guess record applications is one thing, but will it
come with record enrollment? And there's been a lot of
folks that are asking, uh, will the rising the athletic
department costs and rising cost period really lead the bigger
enrollment numbers at the university, Will you guys be basically
(25:19):
forced to take more kids to bring in more revenue
to cover these bills?
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Well, you know, I mean, the the issue is that
we are passed. You know, we are as you know,
we are as stretched as possible in terms of enrollment.
We could, I mean, in all honesty, we could take
another ten thousand students. We're you know, we're having a
legislative year and we're talking to the legislature and if
they can help give us some more fundies, we can help,
you know, we can help them try and take some
(25:46):
more in state students in particular. But the truth is that,
you know, what what it comes down to is there
are great students. Don't get in here, and you know,
please remember we also have Bothelin Tacoma that have really
been grown. They have great students. But at the end
of the day, you know, you know, we need you know,
in order to take more students, we'd need more building,
(26:07):
we'd need to expand, and you know right now that's
that's a difficult thing to do overnight. But we are
talking to the legislature about trying to see what we
can what we can do and how we can get
better funding per student. We are the least well funded
university in the States. If you look at us per student,
(26:28):
we're the only I think university right now that is
maximally enrolled. And so we're going to the legislature and
seeing that they can help us out because we would
love to take more in state students.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
No question, GOTU.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
President Annamarcau say you dubbed with us on the radio
show for a few more minutes on our President's Day
show Monday here on ninety three three KJRFM. And look,
I mean you and I have spoken many times about
the future of college sports, where this thing is leading,
where it's going. Do you still envision today potentially the
Big Ten, the SEC breaking away from the NC Double
(27:03):
A and for lack of a better term, doing their
own thing.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
You know, anything is possible and nothing is ruled out.
You know, I think that we have you know, right now,
things are very uncertain. Right We're seeing soccer really pick
up as as a support that people are watching and
for us, of course, rowing is always really cool. And
so you know, I think that you know the fact
that that players are being paid given you know what
(27:29):
they do on the field. So I think that some
of these are very positive, very positive developments, but we
don't really have them well controlled.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
And I do think that need to work on.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
What is your vision for a portal system that that
works for everybody?
Speaker 4 (27:47):
You know, I don't you know, you know, I leave
the experts to the expertise, but I think that you know,
maybe just you know, having a portal once a year
or something more of that sort. I just think that
particularly having the portal open in the middle of you know,
playoff season and stuff is incredibly disruptive and you don't
(28:07):
have players, you know, playing in their games, and you know,
I mean it just you know, I do think that
we have to get a better control of the portal.
I think that it's not necessarily and you know, maybe
even you know, every other year.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I mean, I think that.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Players should and I think that it will bring more parody.
You know, the fact that a team could in essence
cord players and you'd have good players that would never
get a chance to play. That wasn't a good thing.
But I do think that right now things are a
little bit out of control.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
No question.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Hey, before you go, and again, we appreciate you doing
this final time officially on this show is the president
at Washington. We'll see what retirement brings for you, but
we're also going to see what Robert Jones brings to you,
dub starting in August of this summer. So give us
a thought on the man who will be stepping in
and hopefully agreeing to do this interview with me next
(28:58):
year at this time, Who was Jones? And what are
you hoping he brings to the table as your successor.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
I have no doubt that you will be talking to Robert.
He's a very inquiring and transformative leader. I think that
the w is lucky to have them. As you know,
he knows the Big Ten quite well. He was actually
in charge of the Big Ten when we got let
in and so that was really fabulous. And I think
he has a very deep commitment to again that notion
(29:29):
of the student athletes and how that needs to come together.
He's very committed to our mission of really giving students
access to excellence, making sure that students from all backgrounds
can go to college. And I think his values are
very much in sync with ours. And again he's been
a very strong leader in the Big Ten conference and
(29:51):
he will continue to.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Be auDA markl say thank you so much for doing this,
Congratulations on retirement and we will hopefully bump into each
and talk down the road.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Thanks for doing this.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Again, Okay, thank you you bet.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Good stuff from Anamarakowsey. Again you missed any of this,
jump on the website. Check out the podcast page ninety
three three kjar dot com. When we come back, we'll
kind of react to what we've heard so far. Crackenboss,
Todd Laiwiki will join us on our President's Day Show
at five right here on ninety three three KJRFM U from.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
The R and R Foundation Specialists Broadcast Studio. Now back
to Softie and Dick on your home for the Huskies
and the Kraken Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
All right, we are back at the Apro Quick Casino Sportsbook,
our home away from home on Mondays. Big thanks to
Chuck Arnold Seahawks, Kevin Martinez Mariners, and anamar Akouse. You
dub in the first couple hours of our President's Day
Show five o'clock in the feature, Todd Laiwiki from the Kracking,
Hugh Webber from the Sounders.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
And Aaron Hartman who by the way, he's a big
Duck fan.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
By the way, we may have to bustle these balls
about the Rose bold when he comes on with us.
We'll just ignore what happening in Eugene in November. Yeah,
but good affering about the Rose Bulls. He'll join us
at five forty five before Chuck and Buck takeover from
Peoria Spring training recap show courtesy of our friends at
the Emerald at Queen Casino, dubin Law as well Rick Griffin,
(31:18):
Ryan Bliss, and Dan Wilson tonight, all from Arizona at
six pm, and interesting stuff I thought from NMRI. I mean,
obviously she's stepping down later this year in July, and
Robert Jones from Illinois is taken over. I think kind
of a under the radar higher for you, Dub to
get a sitting Big Ten president to come to Washington
who knows this conference and knows what it takes to
(31:40):
have some success. I mean, their football team is primed
and ready to have what a lot of people think
is going to be a hell of a year for
fighting a line eyed football next season. They've been to
the Final four obviously with a basketball team, so some
decent success out there in Champagne. But you know, hearing
her talk about maybe potentially raising enrollment numbers to help
fight off some of these bills that are coming, not
(32:03):
just for athletics but for the entire university. Look, they
need more buildings, that they need more room for these kids.
I got a buddy of mine who's a legacy guy,
went to UDUB has daughter, did everything right and couldn't
get in because they're just full. And look, I mean
everything's a business, right Jackson. And if you spend money
on more buildings and you hire more professors, and you
(32:24):
hire more instructors and you have more kids in, if
the money coming in offsets that and then some and
makes money for the university, why would you not do it?
Speaker 6 (32:34):
I mean, we're out of Penn State. You know this
last year, what's their.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Enrollment like eighty thousand or not even maybe one hundred thousand.
Speaker 6 (32:42):
It's freaking nuts. So many kids go to Penn State University.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
So I would absolutely think that in the day and
age of everything costing more and rising costs for things
like the athletic department, the idea of just simply put
having more kids on campus or more kids at saddle
like campuses like Tacoma, like Bothel, is going to be
a necessity.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
By the way, Penn State's got eighty eight thousand kids
on campus.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
Out compared to compared to you dub, which is what
fifty five thousand I think around there. I mean the
thing with Penn State has space they land, I mean,
where where would you put these buildings to how students
that you dub. I mean, the land is a so
valuable and be so limited that it's tough to do that.
And she also mentioned very interestingly that per student, it's
(33:30):
the lowest funded school. So I mean, like they clearly
need more funding to do any of this.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Well, more satellite campuses is number one, you know. I
mean right now, it's dub Bothel, you dup Tacoma. I
mean you double Olympia, U dub Lynnwood, you dubbed Bellevue,
you dubbed Bellingham, you dubbed Breverton. I mean, honestly, like,
I mean, that's that's maybe how you do this is
just expand the entire footprint of the university.
Speaker 6 (33:53):
But you know, look, I mean.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Obviously she's she's I'm not going to say she's not
a sportsman, because that's unfair. She is a sports fan,
but she's got way bigger fish to fry, right than athletics.
I mean, we all know about her background. She's been
on campus for forty years. Obviously, I think having her
step aside and having somebody like a Robert Jones' takeover
(34:17):
could be exactly what the university needs. I mean, the
passion for sports, the passion for athletics, and I think
she understands it. I mean, Jen did as much as
she could, and I think a great job of trying
to convince her how big sports was. It's the front
door of the university. It's the public face of the university.
You know, more people are aware of the athletic department
(34:40):
of what they do than probably any other department on campus.
But I think it is time for a change in
that regard. I think she's obviously had a phenomenal run,
She's had a great run. But I'm excited about Robert Jones.
I'm fired up as a sports fan to meet this
guy and talk to him and find out, you know,
how much he's going to be involved and how much
money he's going to funnel from upper campus, you know,
(35:00):
to the department to you know, do things like keep
coaches on campus and build arenas and build stadiums and
weight rooms and nil money and things like that. So
whatever the NCAA, whatever they allow them to spend on nil,
from a university perspective, they've got to max out. They
just have to because there's gonna be a lot of
(35:20):
other programs that will be maxing out. And we've heard,
you know, Andrew Mineer from Montlake Futures has been on
the air and he's talked about this before. Mortlake Futures
is not going away. They're just going to compliment what
the school and what the university itself are doing and
whatever they're allowed to do. Jackson, They've got to max
it out because if they don't, they'll be playing from behind.
So hopefully this new guy will show up and make
(35:42):
that day a guarantee every.
Speaker 7 (35:44):
Year because we i mean, whenever we have Andrew on,
i mean, he talks about the numbers and you know,
compares it to what's going on at Ohio State and
order and like there's the reality. There's a true reality
of the situation. And on one side, you know, it
is asking fans to step up more and contribute more
in be members of Montley futures, which is great. But
the other side too, the university is where it is,
(36:05):
and the fan bases are where they are, So a
certain point it just becomes you know, you look at
upper campus and you look at what's you know, where
money is flowing and what's going where? And Robert Jones
being coming from Illinois and we played a clip on
phone with audio a couple of weeks ago. Soft right,
this guy is well away on the lea. Yeah, he
gets it, he understands the situation. So I'm I'm ready.
(36:29):
I'm ready for for this guy to take over and
get where we need.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Yeah, and does he have the support to do it right?
I mean there's still a border regions. You know, He's
not He's not the end all be all. It's not
a dictatorship. I mean obviously he needs support too to
make things happen. But I'm fired up for him. An
all right, we're gonna break. Todd light WICKI from the
Kraken is going to join us coming up next segment.
I think all of us want to know what's going
on with the NBA. Uh where are we at with
(36:54):
this thing? You know I've been saying on the air
for the last year or so. I thought by the
end of twenty four that we would know something, and
I was wrong. And I think what's happening is this
Boston Celtics sale. Jackson is kind of holding everything up.
You know, that's got to happen first before they announced expansion, man.
So number one, the Bondermans need to get out of
their commitment to Boston. They got to sell their share
(37:14):
of the Celtics so they can take something over in Seattle.
So we'll talk to Todd about that Hugh Weber from The
Sounders at five point twenty eight, and then Aaron Hartman
from The Rainier is going to wrap it up in
our annual President's Day show from the Emerald Quick Casino
right here on ninety three to three KJRFM.
Our annual President's Day Show continues here from the Ameral
Queen Casino. Big thanks to our pal Chuck Arnold from
the Seahawks for joining us on the radio show, but
joining us right now his first time on the air
with us in the official capacity as President of Business Operations.
Longtime Mariner marketing wizard turned president Kevin Martinez joining us
(00:22):
right now on our annual President's Day Show.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Kevin, how are you, Dolci.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm doing great. How are you doing? Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well, thank you for doing it, first of all, and
second of all, congrats on the promotion.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Man.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
This is the first time that you and I have
spoken on the air since you became the President of
Business Operations, and I think a lot of people in
the industry. Obviously our listeners know the name Kevin Martinez,
but they know you as the as the marketing wizard
of the Mariners. You've been there for a long long time.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
What are you?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
First of all, for people that don't know, talk about yourself,
how long you've been with the organization and what your
history is with the franchise.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Sure well, thank you all. Started many moons ago in
nineteen nineties offtee when I moved to Seattle from New
York City, and you know, you think back to then,
it was an incredible time to start with the organization.
You had these wonderfully talented young players named ten Griffey Junior,
Jay Buner, Edgar Martinez, Randy Johnson, you know, and it
(01:19):
was really a fantastic environment for creativity. And through those years,
I worked my way up through the organization, as you said,
marketing and then communications and broadcasting. You know, I've always
loved the organization, but I really fell in love with
the city of Seattle, you know, and like you, Softie,
(01:44):
you know, we've dedicated ourselves to our respective organizations. I mean,
how long have you been a KJR now?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Thirty years? It started four years after you showed up
at the Mariners.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
How about that, Yeah, I mean I remember you. I
mean like it was yesterday. I mean, it just showed
you how time flies. In the Kingdom. You'd have this
set up behind home plate, you'd be getting interviews with
Mariner players and visiting players. You know, we're both really
truly if we paused for a moment, blessed to have
worked in this incredible city for a long time. We
(02:14):
get to do something we love both working jobs where
you bring community together in a positive manner that's pretty powerful,
you know. And working at the Mariners for me, has
always been that opportunity for me to blend my love
of the game of baseball, which was a huge part
of my family dynamic growing up, and to blend that
passion with the opportunity to build and unite community, you know,
(02:37):
truly a blessing. And again for me, you know, I've
been here thirty five years now. Seattle is certainly home
for me, but it's this incredible sports town that I
don't feel gets enough credit nationally because we're tucked up
here in the upper left corner of the country. But
you know, Seattle sports fans exhibit it across all sports
(02:59):
how great they are. So I'm incredibly grateful for this,
this new opportunity and for the trust and have loved
every minute of it in the five months i've been
been well.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Kevin Martinez again, the president of Business ops for the MS,
is with us on our President's Day show and look,
I'll tell you what, buddy, it's a hell of a
time to be taken over this gig because of how
much the sport from a business perspective is constantly evolving.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I mean, maybe not you know, evolving.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
As fast as college sports, but it certainly is evolving.
And I think the biggest question from a business perspective
that people have about the franchise is what is the
future of television?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
What is the future of root sports? And let's just
start there.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
There's been some rumblings that this might be the last
year for the Mariners on Root Sports. Give the audience,
give us an idea of what the future of the
Mariners on Root sports looks like.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, well, you know, the media landscape, as you well know,
has changed dramatically. You know, I don't. I don't necessarily
think this is the last year for roots sports, but
the regional sports network model, which is provided meaningful revenues
for baseball teams do. It's dramatically change and doing large
parts because people's viewing habits have changed, right. But you know,
(04:13):
our goal is to make sure people can watch our
games how they want to watch them, and we're working
on that. You know, we're taking and you and I've
talked about this. We're taking a new approach of this
spring training. You and I have talked about getting more
spring training games on and you'll be happy to hear this.
We're gonna this year make more spring training games available
than ever before to fans. We'll be producing eight spring
(04:37):
training webcasts on Mariners dot Com, so people can just
log onto Mariners dot com. They're going to be able
to watch eight of our games through that vehicle. And
then plus we'll have seven more games on Root Sports,
so fans will be able to watch more than half
of our our spring training games played down in the
Cactus League. And with so many emerging young players on
(05:01):
you know, our farm system ranked number one, I think
that will be of great interest. So yeah, it's a
changing landscape and we spend an awful lot of time
of working on that and what the future will bring.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So there are some franchises that are starting to launch
these apps right where you can sign up and you
pay one hundred bucks a year or whatever get all
the games on an app. I recently Kevin made the
switch from Comcast to Fubo, and I gotta be honest
with you, I love it. I mean I'm just getting
into an ab at now of getting everything I.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Need off an app. If it's not on Fubo, I
go to HBO.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
If it's not on HBO, I'll go over to Amazon
app or whatever. So I think people are gradually kind
of getting used to the idea of being a lot,
you know, being able to log onto a Amazon Firestick,
Roku stick, whatever and go to their app and get
what they're looking for. Is there a chance that we
could see the ball club do something like that where
I would literally log onto my TV, go to a
(05:55):
Mariner's app and watch the games that way for a
fee every year.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, We're we're working really hard on that, Softie, and
like I said, you know, that's the key. We want
to get our games to our fans the way they
want to watch it. You know, many of our fans
prefer traditional linear delivery of our games, but as you
as you you just made that that switch. There are
fans who would prefer our games to be streamed and
we aren't quite there yet, but rest assured, we're working
(06:21):
really hard on the streaming solution. A lot of layers
to getting that done, but it's certainly on our radar
and you know, more to come.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, Kevin Martinez with us and Kevin, we all know
that there's there's passion for this.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Team no matter what.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Right I mean, I've always said I'd rather have people
be be angry and upset and engaged than be apathetic.
And when the team wins, people are fired up. When
they don't win, people are fired up, right either way.
So there's always going to be passion for this franchise,
which I assume that you love no matter what. But
when you hear criticism, when you hear people complain about
(06:57):
the payroll and criticize the ownership group and criticize the
front office, just give people idea of of of what
your reaction would be to common criticisms that I'm sure
you guys here all the time in the business like
everybody else does.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, you know, we haven't gotten it done on the field,
that's the bottom line, and we're we're frustrated to stopping.
We've been incredibly close, but you know, close doesn't count.
And as I said earlier, this is an incredible sports
down and the fans across all sports are they're they're amazing,
(07:34):
and you know, but I truly believe in in in
the people here. I see it every day. It's great.
I I like to get to the ballpark early in
this off season arriving in the parking lot and seeing
the first car there being Dan Wilson and stopped him
(07:56):
by his office on the way to mine and just seeing,
you know, how enthusiastic he is and how intense he is.
You know Dan, you know Dan a long time. He
might be the kindest uh person of the planet. He's
just such a good human being. But he's he's a winner,
and he's a competitor and he he was he kind
(08:19):
of came up through this game under lou Ponela. So
he's got that fire. He just doesn't express it the
same way, but but he's got it. And you know,
the players, we've gotten that clubhouse, you know, being down
here and seeing how many players are already here early, uh,
the whole squad here, you know, but we got to
go out and we got to do it. I get that.
(08:41):
But you know, I just say, please keep that that
passion going because it's going to get rewarded. And Softy,
you and I we will we will be uh, we'll
be dancing in the streets and Soto and International District
and Pioneer Square one day, celebrating that championship. I truly believe.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Well, yeah, and I hope so. And by the way,
if it does happen, there's gonna be a lot more
than dancing going on. I can tell you that right now.
I mean you can, I know you, yeah, you can envision.
And I love the way that you describe Dan Wilson
because I agree that, you know, Dan's kind of a
silent assassin. I mean he may not have that you know,
outgoing amazing in your face like lou was personality, but
(09:21):
he's not a pushover at all. But Kevin Martinez is
with us on our President's Day show here, the branding
president of Business Ops for the m has been with
a team since nineteen ninety. And look, there's a lot
going on this summer, each hero in the Hall of Fame,
Eachiro getting his number retired. Let's first of all, talk
about if you can share with people the process for
(09:42):
retiring a number. We've all wondered kind of what the
standards are, how that process works, talk about kind of
what goes on behind the scenes to get.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
To that point.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Well, you know, it's actually it's all stated. You probably
have a Mariner's the information guy. You can reference it
on page one seventy. It's all there in black and
White the guidelines and essentially stuff the player had to
be active in a Mariner's uniform for a substantial a
meaningful portion of their Mariner career and made significant contributions
(10:18):
to Mariners Baseball in the franchise. And the players should
have either been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame,
and I said meaningful portion of the career. To get
the number retired, you have to be a Mariner for
at least five years and either get elected in the
National Hall of Baseball Hall of Fame or come close
(10:40):
to election. You know, I think players need seventy five
percent of the vote to get into the Hall of Fame,
so you'd have to have a meaningful portion of their vote.
And once that happens, a recommendation is made to the
Mariner's Board of Directors and then they have the ultimate phip.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Gotcha, what are your experiences with each Yiro?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
You know, we don't we don't know him as well
as we do maybe other players that have come through here.
You got a quick sixty second anecdote you can share
about him?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
All right, I'll try to make this quick and you know,
working with him, getting to know each row really has
been one of the true joys of my career. And
I've got a long list of stories, so maybe this
summer we can we can talk about it. But I'll
tell you that the first one, which just showed me
his sense of humor right off the jump. It was
(11:32):
January of two thousand and one, was the first time
I met him. He was arriving in Seattle, and the
organization asked me to go to the airport and welcome
each Row and his wife when they arrived in Seattle,
and show them around Seattle and get them settled in
their hotel because they were going to look at homes
and get settled before spring training. Right, So I go
(11:56):
to the airport. We've got ted Hyde with me, who's
was our international scout. He spoke Japanese, and you know
there's media everywhere, right, you know, there's so much interest
in Japan of this first position player coming to you know,
coming to play Major League Baseball. So meeting Turo, we
(12:17):
get into the car, we go to the hotel and
media is following everywhere. So as we're walking to the
front desk, I say to each year. I look at
him and I'm say in English, Hey, would you like
the room to be under an alias, right, and so
Ted Hyde translates it, and each hero looks at me.
(12:39):
I mean, just this huge smile, and his first words
in English to me were, Brad, I was I didn't
see it coming. I was floored. I'm laughing, you know,
belly laughs. He's got a huge lab in the love
he's died, and he loved the question and then the
(13:03):
answer just on the dime you dropped Brad Pitt. And
it was really really special because on the day he
got announced it to be inducted in the Hall of Fame,
we did a little pressure here at the ballpark and
we were waiting to go into the room and I
recall that story with him and we both had a
(13:25):
shared laugh. Again. Wow, it was a great moment. But
you know, there's there's a ton of him. I again,
working with the team, you get access and moments that
are pretty pretty special. And yeah, just I mean, one
of the most dedicated the work ethic amazing, but the
(13:46):
sense of humor. I don't know if it's really ever
come out to as much publicly, but man, just just wonderful. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
We saw that in his Mariner Hall of Fame induction
speech when he spoke in English, which was a powerful
thing for a lot of people. And I'm hoping he
does his Cooper's town speech as well in good Good.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I love that well.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Kevin Martinez again, President Business Ops for the EMS. Kevin
got about five more minutes here with you on the air.
And there's been a lot of conversation. One thing each
hero no longer has to deal with is that stupid
marine layer, right, or the or the batter's eye. So
there's been a lot of talk about the ballpark and
how hard it is to hit in the ballpark. The
fences were moved in a while back, I think about
(14:30):
ten years ago. You guys tinkered with that. How much
conversation is there behind the scenes over there about what
to do to make this a more hitter friendly stadium?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, I mean there, And you know I'm not necessarily
a part of all those conversations. That's really, you know,
a better question for baseball. Yeah, but yeah, I do know.
I do know there are a lot of conversations going on.
In fact, I walked by a meeting room a couple
of weeks ago and that that indeed was the topic.
(14:59):
You know, It's funny and we talk about this too
here and perhaps you've talked about it on the air
staff the you know, we won forty nine games last
year at home, right, we had the second best home
record in the American League, the second best home mark
in the AL in twenty twenty three. And despite that, right,
because very pitching centric ball club, there are those discussions
(15:23):
going on everything from the angle to the color of
the batter's eye. So yeah, it's lots of ongoing dialogue.
So you know, we'll see, we'll see if it changes.
But you talk about winning games and then you've got
these these stats that support that, so it's a fascinating
topic of dialogue.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Well, keV, before you go, people always want to know
what's happening with the concessions. I frankly need more mister
Softy soft Serf stands. It's the absolute best soft serf
I've ever had in my life, and not just because
it's called mister Softy. I first had it back on
the East Coast when I was about ten years old,
and it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
You know the krack and have it. You guys have it.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So the more mister Softie stands we can provide for fans.
I'm a fan of but give us in the final
minute and a half here or so, just some thoughts
on changes to t Mobile Park starting this year.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah yeah, well, you know, mister Softee is also one
of the greatest theme songs of any ice cream truck
in the history, no question, question.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
You know, the folks that work on our food and
beverage program, they're so good at what they do, and
they love what they do. And that's the thing that
I always love to see in anybody who does their
work is how much love they bring to it, enjoy
they get out of it. And you know, the Mobile
Park food and Beverage is always ranked. You can see
that all the time, is the best in baseball. But
(16:47):
they did some tastings here a couple of weeks ago.
There's a new risk It sandwich coming this year, which
is just killer. For the first time in ballpark history.
There's a Cherryochi bowl that people were going crazy over.
Pulled pork sliders are coming this season. Back when he played,
Eachie Row was notorious for eating chicken wings before and
(17:11):
after a game or after a game, and so we're
bringing itchy wings to the ballpark in honor of the
Hall of Famer and you talk about ice cream and
I haven't seen these, but people are talking about them
ice cream nachos, so get ready for those as well.
But lots of creativity. The Value Beer program is back
and better than ever, so they'll be the food prety
(17:34):
was coming out in a couple of weeks offee, and
that's that's always great. You'll get you'll see everything on
all the social media and hopefully you can come down
and and and uh and sample some of the new things.
But yeah, we're we're excited about that. That's always a
fun part of each season to roll out those those
new food items.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
All right, man, go get him this year. Congrats on
the new gig. Happy for you and we will talk
down the road. Man, appreciate this pal.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
All right, sounds good, Thank you, thanks for having me
and we'll see you soon.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Good stuff man.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Kevin Martinez, the brand new president of Business Operations for
your Seattle Mariners, joining us right here on our President's
Day show from the Emerald Queen. When we come back,
the outgoing president at U dub got about five more
months on the job. But first she talks to us
Anamara Cawsey, President at Washington will join next on ninety
three three KJRFM live from the R and.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio. Now back to Softie and
Dick on your home for the Huskies and the Kreken
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
All right, kiddos, our annual President's Day Show continues right
here on ninety three to three KJARFM. And what President's
Day Show would be complete without a visits and for
the final time as the acting President at Washington. Anamara
caws is with us right now on the radio show.
President Cawsey, how are you doing today?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
I'm doing just fine. Happy Valentine's Day too, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
As well to you.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Let's uh, let's first of all, as we've done now
you and me for a couple of years now, why
don't we start off and this is your last time
doing this with you know, with us as the president
at Washington, because you're stepping down later this year.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
How would you characterize the state of.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
The Union over at you dub right now on this
President's Day Monday twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Well, you know, quite frankly, the university is going gangbusters
in so many different ways. You know, our research I mean,
you know, just continues to you know, you know, get
better and better in terms of actually making a difference
in the world. We've got a Nobel Prize this year.
I mean, you know that's that's not small stuff. And
you know, we've got record enrollments, and you know, everything
(19:45):
everything's going really well. And you know, we're a little
nervous about you know, there's a lot of things that
are going on in the country that affect us, and
so we're trying to adjust to those. But in terms
of the university itself, we're going gangbusters well.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
And and you mentioned everything happening around the country, around
the world, and look at typically when you and I talk,
we focused mainly on the sports, saying, go, obviously this
is a sports talk radio show. We'll get your thoughts
on the big ten, you know, Robert Jones coming in
in a minute. But everything you went through over the summer,
with the protests, the reaction to it, the way you
handled it, the way the university handled it, the way
(20:22):
people reacted to it, talk about kind of what you
learn from that and and what you would have done
differently maybe.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
If anything, well, you know, I mean, you know, I'm
not big on. You know, you can go hindsight as
always twenty twenty. I think the rule the two is,
you know, how do we move forward? And I think
that you know, as you see this here, you know
we really are moving forward in a much more positive way.
You know, things unquestionably, things got disrupted, and it was
(20:51):
a very difficult year all across the country. And I
think that, you know, what we've really focused on is
how do we get students to talk together across differences.
You know, our our VP of Undergraduate Education being of
undergraduate and Taylor put together a beautiful class where you
had people from very different perspectives come and talk to
(21:12):
each other. And I think that, you know, if you
think about the state of the country in general, with
all the polarization, what we really need to focus on is,
you know, if someone has a very different views than you,
don't view them as an enemy to be vanquished, view
them as a possible ally to be won over. And
how do we find common ground? And that's really what
(21:34):
we need to work on. And I think those were
a lot of the lessons of last year is how
do we find com how do we learn to talk
to each other across big differences.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Well, you mentioned the word disruption there, Ana Mari, and
there's been a lot of disruption in college sports in
the last couple of years. And you and I have
spent many times on the year off the year talking
about this. Give us an idea of maybe what you
think your department, specifically Upper campus has done in the
last year or so since we last spoke to make
(22:07):
sure you DUB is in position to take advantage of
this move to the Big Ten after you leave office.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Well, you know, I think that one of the things
that really has been very positive, and I'd say it's
been positive throughout my time here, you know, uh, you know,
with Jens coming in as athletic director, and I think
that Pat very much has that same style, which is
you know that you know, sometimes people talk about upper
(22:34):
and lower campuses and we really are one campus. And
one of the things that's so fabulous about the Big
Ten and that I love about the Big Ten is
that it isn't just about sports that you know that
they really do put together, you know, the provosts meet together,
we have you know, academic partnerships, and we really look
(22:58):
at our university as a whole. We recognize that force
actually draws eyes to our university and that can be
a real positive, no question about it. You know, the
fact that we've got you know, record applications is probably
partly due to the Big Ten, and that's wonderful. I mean,
we recognize that, you know, as you know, we have
to half share and so we're going to have to
(23:21):
deal with that for a while. And I think that
you know, we're building really strong partnerships between you know,
between athletics and the rest of the university, and quite frankly,
we really you know, I mean, one of the things
that I'm proud of of in terms of athletics is
how well our students are doing in the classroom. I
remember it was probably about three or four years ago
(23:42):
when it was the first time that you know, we
were number one academically in football over Stanford, and that
felt so good. And I think that, you know, under
Pat Chun we really still have very much that that.
I think Jen really you know, started that really deep
culture that you know that coach Pete. Coach Pete was
(24:04):
a big part of of really looking at our students
as athletes that are students, not just athletes.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Well, President Annamar cause again with us on our President's
Day show from you dub final time. She's stepping down
later this year. You've been at the school, I believe,
if I have my facts right, since eighty six, president
since twenty fifteen. So you've been at this for forty
years for the most part as a Husky. What are
you going to do with yourself starting in July this summer.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Well, I will always be a Husky and this will
always be my home and I'm not going anywhere. You're
still going to see me at the game, you know,
on the sideline, you know, rooting on our players.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
You know.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
I haven't had a sabbatical and I don't know how
many years, twenty thirty years, and so I want to
take a little bit of time, do a little bit
of writing, do a little bit of reflecting, might do
a little teaching. I'm going to take it a step
at a time.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Well, you mentioned the record applications over at Washington, and
I guess record applications is one thing, but will it
come with record enrollment? And there's been a lot of
folks that are asking, uh, will the rising the athletic
department costs and rising cost period really lead the bigger
enrollment numbers at the university, Will you guys be basically
(25:19):
forced to take more kids to bring in more revenue
to cover these bills?
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Well, you know, I mean, the the issue is that
we are passed. You know, we are as you know,
we are as stretched as possible in terms of enrollment.
We could, I mean, in all honesty, we could take
another ten thousand students. We're you know, we're having a
legislative year and we're talking to the legislature and if
they can help give us some more fundies, we can help,
you know, we can help them try and take some
(25:46):
more in state students in particular. But the truth is that,
you know, what what it comes down to is there
are great students. Don't get in here, and you know,
please remember we also have Bothelin Tacoma that have really
been grown. They have great students. But at the end
of the day, you know, you know, we need you know,
in order to take more students, we'd need more building,
(26:07):
we'd need to expand, and you know right now that's
that's a difficult thing to do overnight. But we are
talking to the legislature about trying to see what we
can what we can do and how we can get
better funding per student. We are the least well funded
university in the States. If you look at us per student,
(26:28):
we're the only I think university right now that is
maximally enrolled. And so we're going to the legislature and
seeing that they can help us out because we would
love to take more in state students.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
No question, GOTU.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
President Annamarcau say you dubbed with us on the radio
show for a few more minutes on our President's Day
show Monday here on ninety three three KJRFM. And look,
I mean you and I have spoken many times about
the future of college sports, where this thing is leading,
where it's going. Do you still envision today potentially the
Big Ten, the SEC breaking away from the NC Double
(27:03):
A and for lack of a better term, doing their
own thing.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
You know, anything is possible and nothing is ruled out.
You know, I think that we have you know, right now,
things are very uncertain. Right We're seeing soccer really pick
up as as a support that people are watching and
for us, of course, rowing is always really cool. And
so you know, I think that you know the fact
that that players are being paid given you know what
(27:29):
they do on the field. So I think that some
of these are very positive, very positive developments, but we
don't really have them well controlled.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
And I do think that need to work on.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
What is your vision for a portal system that that
works for everybody?
Speaker 4 (27:47):
You know, I don't you know, you know, I leave
the experts to the expertise, but I think that you know,
maybe just you know, having a portal once a year
or something more of that sort. I just think that
particularly having the portal open in the middle of you know,
playoff season and stuff is incredibly disruptive and you don't
(28:07):
have players, you know, playing in their games, and you know,
I mean it just you know, I do think that
we have to get a better control of the portal.
I think that it's not necessarily and you know, maybe
even you know, every other year.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I mean, I think that.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Players should and I think that it will bring more parody.
You know, the fact that a team could in essence
cord players and you'd have good players that would never
get a chance to play. That wasn't a good thing.
But I do think that right now things are a
little bit out of control.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
No question.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Hey, before you go, and again, we appreciate you doing
this final time officially on this show is the president
at Washington. We'll see what retirement brings for you, but
we're also going to see what Robert Jones brings to you,
dub starting in August of this summer. So give us
a thought on the man who will be stepping in
and hopefully agreeing to do this interview with me next
(28:58):
year at this time, Who was Jones? And what are
you hoping he brings to the table as your successor.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
I have no doubt that you will be talking to Robert.
He's a very inquiring and transformative leader. I think that
the w is lucky to have them. As you know,
he knows the Big Ten quite well. He was actually
in charge of the Big Ten when we got let
in and so that was really fabulous. And I think
he has a very deep commitment to again that notion
(29:29):
of the student athletes and how that needs to come together.
He's very committed to our mission of really giving students
access to excellence, making sure that students from all backgrounds
can go to college. And I think his values are
very much in sync with ours. And again he's been
a very strong leader in the Big Ten conference and
(29:51):
he will continue to.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Be auDA markl say thank you so much for doing this,
Congratulations on retirement and we will hopefully bump into each
and talk down the road.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Thanks for doing this.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Again, Okay, thank you you bet.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Good stuff from Anamarakowsey. Again you missed any of this,
jump on the website. Check out the podcast page ninety
three three kjar dot com. When we come back, we'll
kind of react to what we've heard so far. Crackenboss,
Todd Laiwiki will join us on our President's Day Show
at five right here on ninety three three KJRFM U from.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
The R and R Foundation Specialists Broadcast Studio. Now back
to Softie and Dick on your home for the Huskies
and the Kraken Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
All right, we are back at the Apro Quick Casino Sportsbook,
our home away from home on Mondays. Big thanks to
Chuck Arnold Seahawks, Kevin Martinez Mariners, and anamar Akouse. You
dub in the first couple hours of our President's Day
Show five o'clock in the feature, Todd Laiwiki from the Kracking,
Hugh Webber from the Sounders.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
And Aaron Hartman who by the way, he's a big
Duck fan.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
By the way, we may have to bustle these balls
about the Rose bold when he comes on with us.
We'll just ignore what happening in Eugene in November. Yeah,
but good affering about the Rose Bulls. He'll join us
at five forty five before Chuck and Buck takeover from
Peoria Spring training recap show courtesy of our friends at
the Emerald at Queen Casino, dubin Law as well Rick Griffin,
(31:18):
Ryan Bliss, and Dan Wilson tonight, all from Arizona at
six pm, and interesting stuff I thought from NMRI. I mean,
obviously she's stepping down later this year in July, and
Robert Jones from Illinois is taken over. I think kind
of a under the radar higher for you, Dub to
get a sitting Big Ten president to come to Washington
who knows this conference and knows what it takes to
(31:40):
have some success. I mean, their football team is primed
and ready to have what a lot of people think
is going to be a hell of a year for
fighting a line eyed football next season. They've been to
the Final four obviously with a basketball team, so some
decent success out there in Champagne. But you know, hearing
her talk about maybe potentially raising enrollment numbers to help
fight off some of these bills that are coming, not
(32:03):
just for athletics but for the entire university. Look, they
need more buildings, that they need more room for these kids.
I got a buddy of mine who's a legacy guy,
went to UDUB has daughter, did everything right and couldn't
get in because they're just full. And look, I mean
everything's a business, right Jackson. And if you spend money
on more buildings and you hire more professors, and you
(32:24):
hire more instructors and you have more kids in, if
the money coming in offsets that and then some and
makes money for the university, why would you not do it?
Speaker 6 (32:34):
I mean, we're out of Penn State. You know this
last year, what's their.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Enrollment like eighty thousand or not even maybe one hundred thousand.
Speaker 6 (32:42):
It's freaking nuts. So many kids go to Penn State University.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
So I would absolutely think that in the day and
age of everything costing more and rising costs for things
like the athletic department, the idea of just simply put
having more kids on campus or more kids at saddle
like campuses like Tacoma, like Bothel, is going to be
a necessity.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
By the way, Penn State's got eighty eight thousand kids
on campus.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
Out compared to compared to you dub, which is what
fifty five thousand I think around there. I mean the
thing with Penn State has space they land, I mean,
where where would you put these buildings to how students
that you dub. I mean, the land is a so
valuable and be so limited that it's tough to do that.
And she also mentioned very interestingly that per student, it's
(33:30):
the lowest funded school. So I mean, like they clearly
need more funding to do any of this.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Well, more satellite campuses is number one, you know. I
mean right now, it's dub Bothel, you dup Tacoma. I
mean you double Olympia, U dub Lynnwood, you dubbed Bellevue,
you dubbed Bellingham, you dubbed Breverton. I mean, honestly, like,
I mean, that's that's maybe how you do this is
just expand the entire footprint of the university.
Speaker 6 (33:53):
But you know, look, I mean.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Obviously she's she's I'm not going to say she's not
a sportsman, because that's unfair. She is a sports fan,
but she's got way bigger fish to fry, right than athletics.
I mean, we all know about her background. She's been
on campus for forty years. Obviously, I think having her
step aside and having somebody like a Robert Jones' takeover
(34:17):
could be exactly what the university needs. I mean, the
passion for sports, the passion for athletics, and I think
she understands it. I mean, Jen did as much as
she could, and I think a great job of trying
to convince her how big sports was. It's the front
door of the university. It's the public face of the university.
You know, more people are aware of the athletic department
(34:40):
of what they do than probably any other department on campus.
But I think it is time for a change in
that regard. I think she's obviously had a phenomenal run,
She's had a great run. But I'm excited about Robert Jones.
I'm fired up as a sports fan to meet this
guy and talk to him and find out, you know,
how much he's going to be involved and how much
money he's going to funnel from upper campus, you know,
(35:00):
to the department to you know, do things like keep
coaches on campus and build arenas and build stadiums and
weight rooms and nil money and things like that. So
whatever the NCAA, whatever they allow them to spend on nil,
from a university perspective, they've got to max out. They
just have to because there's gonna be a lot of
(35:20):
other programs that will be maxing out. And we've heard,
you know, Andrew Mineer from Montlake Futures has been on
the air and he's talked about this before. Mortlake Futures
is not going away. They're just going to compliment what
the school and what the university itself are doing and
whatever they're allowed to do. Jackson, They've got to max
it out because if they don't, they'll be playing from behind.
So hopefully this new guy will show up and make
(35:42):
that day a guarantee every.
Speaker 7 (35:44):
Year because we i mean, whenever we have Andrew on,
i mean, he talks about the numbers and you know,
compares it to what's going on at Ohio State and
order and like there's the reality. There's a true reality
of the situation. And on one side, you know, it
is asking fans to step up more and contribute more
in be members of Montley futures, which is great. But
the other side too, the university is where it is,
(36:05):
and the fan bases are where they are, So a
certain point it just becomes you know, you look at
upper campus and you look at what's you know, where
money is flowing and what's going where? And Robert Jones
being coming from Illinois and we played a clip on
phone with audio a couple of weeks ago. Soft right,
this guy is well away on the lea. Yeah, he
gets it, he understands the situation. So I'm I'm ready.
(36:29):
I'm ready for for this guy to take over and
get where we need.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Yeah, and does he have the support to do it right?
I mean there's still a border regions. You know, He's
not He's not the end all be all. It's not
a dictatorship. I mean obviously he needs support too to
make things happen. But I'm fired up for him. An
all right, we're gonna break. Todd light WICKI from the
Kraken is going to join us coming up next segment.
I think all of us want to know what's going
on with the NBA. Uh where are we at with
(36:54):
this thing? You know I've been saying on the air
for the last year or so. I thought by the
end of twenty four that we would know something, and
I was wrong. And I think what's happening is this
Boston Celtics sale. Jackson is kind of holding everything up.
You know, that's got to happen first before they announced expansion, man.
So number one, the Bondermans need to get out of
their commitment to Boston. They got to sell their share
(37:14):
of the Celtics so they can take something over in Seattle.
So we'll talk to Todd about that Hugh Weber from The
Sounders at five point twenty eight, and then Aaron Hartman
from The Rainier is going to wrap it up in
our annual President's Day show from the Emerald Quick Casino
right here on ninety three to three KJRFM.
Dave 'Softy' Mahler and Dick Fain News
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.