Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network. Guardians Weekly is front
to you by Progressive helping Guardians fans save hundreds on car insurance. Hi,
everyone, welcome to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rose in house along with you from
Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland, where the Guardians are just getting start it on
their longest homestand of this season. Coming up a little bit later on in
our show, but we will have a full report on the Double a Akron
Ball Club with Director of Player Development Robs or Folio. Also we'll visit with
Mike Zannino and Eli Morgan as well as Josh Naylor from the Guardians Ball Club.
And we'll have a special feature as we'll learn about the USS Cooperstown from
the vice president of Communications at the Baseball Hall of Fame, John Shestakovsky.
Really interesting interview and how it ties in with some of the greats of the
game who have served in War's pass. So some good stuff coming up later
on in our show. At first, our week in review, and it
was a difficult road swing for the Guardians as they went to Boston and New
York and really had they just come up with a key base hit here and
there. Several games could have gone the other way and they could have come
home with a winning road swing. But after dropping two out of three at
Fenway last weekend, they headed to New York Monday night. They're taking on
the Yankees, and it was New York that jumped on top and the third
inning with two runs off of cal Quantrill, but he would settle in and
ended up turning in perhaps his best outing of the season. The pitch swinging
a little number off to the rank side near the foule line. Quantro gloves
underhand flipped to first as he couldn't tag Cabrera, and Quantrill has another dominant
ending boy what a job as cal Quandrill having a tough start to his season,
tremendous tonight. So the Guardians were still trailing because on the other side
of things, Domingo Harman was in complete control on the mound for the Yankees.
He shut down the Guardians offense through eight innings, throwing just eighty two
pitches. He came back out got the first out in the ninth, but
then Stephen Quan stepped in trying to get something started. The pitch swing on
line drive base hit to center. Just the second Cleveland hit one in the
first. One in the ninth, Kuano the one out single to center.
Here comes Aaron Boone. Oh, he's going to get booed. Oh doctor,
he's got his closer, Clay Holmes. Ready. They're not saying booney,
but Aaron Boone is going to make a pitching change. Eighty eight pitches
for Domingo Herman, a sensational performance, and he'll leave with a two nothing
lead. Here in the ninth, the Yankees brought on their closer, Clay
Holmes, and the first battery faced was I'm ed Rosario hands chest tie,
he lets it fly and the pitch slung on a tamper to the left of
the mound. Holmes backhands, drops, picks, throws not in time.
Guardians have two on for Jose Ramiers, a little dribbler back to the left
side of the mound. Holmes tried to backhand it, got a glove on
it, didn't field it cleanly, and then Rosario, hustling beat the throw
to first. They're gonna charge him with an air but they gave Volpi a
base hit last inning, So yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
He's the official scorekeeper for the New York Yankees. Jose Ramire has followed
with a single, moving the runners up and loading the bases for Josh Naylor.
The pitch swung on a champer in the hole in the right field,
base hit quon scores, Rosario coming home. Cabrera front of the plate slides
the scores ball gets away, picked up near the Guardians, dug out by
the pitcher homes. We've got a tie game. Nailer ends up at second,
Ramirez is at third, and Josh Naylor with a hole shot between first
and second. It's a two run single, and the Guardians have tied the
ball game at two. Still one out and Aaron Boone is getting a standing
boo as he's going to go to the mound and Yank is closer. Josh
Bell walked to reload the bases and then with two men out, basses loaded,
Mike Sanino was at the plate again. The left handers ready. He
let's get a rip ball. Four inside. Guardians take the lead. A
bases loaded walk from Parolta to Cennino, and Cleveland has a three to two
lead in the ninth. So how about that the Guardians on top three to
two heading to the bottom of the ninth and who other than Emmanuel class A
to try and close it out in that final frame three to two, Cleveland
ninth dunning two, ounced nobody on. Here's the payoff pitch swing and a
miss ball game. What a comeback for the Guardians. Their best of the
year and they stunned the New York Yankees three to two. So a real
nice win for the Guardians in the opener of that series in New York.
But again a pair of tough losses finished that series. Tuesday a four to
two loss to the Yankees and then Wednesday, a game where again they came
from behind but lost it in extra innings four to three Thursday, and off
day Friday, a two nothing defeat in the homestand opener to the twin.
We had a chance to catch up with Josh Naylor earlier in the week and
he's had a couple of big hits in recent weeks and had a big game
tying base hit in the ninth inning of that win on Monday night to come
from behind victory over New York. And Josh touched on a lot of different
subjects and he says, much like last year, this year's team never counts
themselves out of a game. Yeah, I mean, I think we're resilient.
We love playing you know, baseball with each other or sometimes we were
in a tight game, we'd love doing every game. Ain't nothing and tend
nothing. But you know, we're gonna be in some good ball games,
and it's it's up to us never to give up and just to continue to
play hard through the whole nine. Yesterday, Kyle gave us, you know,
great outing. I know he wishes he could take a few pitches back.
Um, but without him sticking through in that game, I don't think
we have a good shot of winning that one. I think our bop ended
an exceptional job too. Dale came in and picked the guy off, got
the next guy out. Um, you know, class as class A.
He's always going to do great for us. I feel like, um,
no, we just I think we had we had a great game all around.
Um, it was it was fun to be a part of. We
have great competition in the Yankees we're facing, so we just we got to
always bear down and know we're gonna be in good games. So yeah,
you say it was good. And when ninth innings start to develop like they
did last night. Is there a certain feeling that that the team starts to
get in that dugout, especially if you know that you may be hitting in
a key spot. Um, I think it's as who anyone in hitting the
key spot there, you know, would get the job done. I think
we trust each other. Um, we know, and when opportunities arise where
we're ready for the occasion. If we get a base runner on the ninth
inning and we all feel like we're gonna get it done again, we trust
each other. We know we're gonna have good at bats, pass the baton
on and just uh, we root for each other the whole way until the
last out. You mentioned trust, and I think so many people look at
baseball as an individual game, but but there truly is a team concept to
it when you're talking about offense and trying to put innings together. Yeah,
I think if we just continue have good at bats, you know, sometimes
may not go our way. Sometimes you hit the ball hard right out someone.
Um, sometimes you take a good pitch and it gets called for a
strike three that should have been involved four. But you know, if we
just keep the mindset of having good at bats and trying to get the next
guy up. I think we're going to be successful. And Josh, when
when you look at how your season's going and you're getting the results now,
but do you feel like you've been swinging the battle okay most of the season
and maybe just weren't getting the results early. Yeah, I think I've hit
a lot of balls hard in the last month. Someone didn't fall, some
did. But that's the name of the game. You just got to ride
the wave and keep grinding. Baseball is a tough sport. Sometimes we're gonna
have real bad loads. Sometimes you have real you know, high highs,
and you just you got to ride the wave and stay kind of even keeled.
Can that be the hardest part of it is staying even keeled when when
you do want to maybe ride that wave of good times and just kind of
battle through the tough ones. Yeah, I mean I think I learned it
at a young age, um, or a younger age, and I was,
Um, it's a it's sometimes hard when you're struggling to keep that motivation,
to keep that aggression in the box. Um, it's tough to kind
of come to the ballpark every day and you know, you don't you don't
want to fail and you want to be successful, and when it doesn't go
your way, you kind of you get really down to yourself. But I
learned that, you know, it's it's it's a long season. You have
a lot of that batch. You have a lot of opportunities to shine and
to be you know the guy sometimes. And uh, I think all all
stats are kind of even out if you just if you just ride the wave
and you yeah, you stay even killed throughout the process. Um. And
again it's it's a really hard sport. We have such great competition. You
know, for instance today against the Yankees, they have a great lineup,
a great page and staff, great bullpen, and uh, you know,
some how you're gonna fail. Sometimes you're gonna be successful, and it's just
it's up to you Tom to manage that. And you know, if you
manage it poorly, then you know it's just gonna go downhill from there.
If you if you stay confident and trust the process, trust the work you're
doing, um, but trusting you know, the coaching staff and then decision
making and stuff like that, then I think I think it's gonna all gonna
even out, and you're gonna be finding the end of the day and team
wise, so many good things happened a year agoing and this team seems so
tight and close, and how long does it take to get that going again
with some new players here and try and get it all to blend like it
did a year ago. Um, that's a good question. I mean,
I don't know a person. I think you know. We obviously didn't have
as good as an April as as we wanted, but that's the name of
the game. You're gonna have bad few weeks, stretches, maybe a few
bad series. We went through that last year. We got swept like three
series in a row, and then it kind of turned over for us.
But again, if we just we continue to trusting each other, not kind
of get down on each other, not get down on us as individuals,
I think we're gonna be fine. We have a great team here, great
camaraderie here, and then we love playing with each other, We love showing
them to the ballpark and seeing each other. I think we're gonna be fine.
We just need to just keep keep steady on the course. Josh,
always good to have you on, Thanks for coming by. Thank you always
good thoughtful interviews from Josh Naylor and more of the same right there. As
you look up and down that lineup, they are struggling offensively right now,
but trying to stay positive and ride the ride it out and see if they
can't turn things around a little bit here in the weeks to come. When
we come back, we'll hear from catcher Mike Sonnino and also releave picture Eli
Morgan. That's next on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Networks. Those are sports
sounds, and people have sports so much it makes them pay attention when I
say, drivers who switch and save with Progressive could save hundreds and we all
know how sports fans feel about big saves. See what I did there,
Save is also a word, So savee big when you switch to Progressive.
Oh that's a golf club, Progressive Casualty insurance company and affiliates. Potential savings
will vary. The bitch swinging the line, drive to left field, base,
hit near the line, hitting third, coming home asarius as the game
is no longer tied, a huge two odd RBI single down that I feel
line by Mike Zanino and the Guardians have the lead for the first time today
and on a weekend. This has been for Mike Zanino. Guardians Weekly continues
from Progressive Field and downtown Cleveland. Jim Rosenhouse back with you. Great to
have you with us for Baseball Talk on the radio. Mike Zanino is the
Guardians catcher and he's had some big base hits early in his Guardians career,
including a great at bat in the ninth inning Monday night in New York that
resulted in a basis loaded walk and help the Guardians come from two runs down
in the ninth to win a ball game three to two. We caught up
with him the following day and he talked about that never give up mentality that
the Guardians club showed on the road swing. Yeah. I think, you
know, it just shows our fight. You know, we we have a
resilient, young lineup and uh, you know it's one of those where you
know when when you get into those later those later innings, and you know
you really got to push and know that there's not much more room for air.
We've done a good job to last couple of times, you know,
battling back. Um, I think it's something as we gain more confidence and
those experiences definitely do help. It'll be something that hopefully it can continue and
start earlier in the game. But it's nice to see. It's nice to
get see you guys have competitive at bats and it definitely helps in your game,
and maybe it's a testament to sing it through all nine innings. I
know that the at bats early were hard against a pitcher who had a really
nice night, but your patient and you spoil some pitches late. What's the
mindset going into that lad step bat where you have a chance to win the
game? Yeah, you know, it's one of those it as you gain
more experience and a lot of that bats, you realize you can't let whatever's
happened in the game dictate. You know, what's your next net bat's gonna
hold. And uh, you know, I've had quite a few at bats
against Wanti before, so I was able to, you know, have a
game plane up there nobody nobody likes to do in certain situations, and uh,
you know, was able to spoil a couple of pitches in a three
two count and get to a couple of really good fastballs to ultimately be able
to see a change up. You know, that was a little bit down
and end, but uh, you know, having a little bit of history
against the guy helps. But you know, being into a spot bat after
having some at bats that I would have liked to forget about before then is
always nice. And I know a lot of the pictures, whether it's a
veteran guy like Cal Quantrill or Shane Bieber or some of the young guys,
they credit you with with some adjustments or getting them to the right place where
they need to beat during a game. Uh how long does that take for
you to get comfortable with them? Yeah? I think you know that that's
always the biggest challenge, you know, coming over to a new organization with
guys that have an idea of what they want to do. You know,
a couple of those guys, you know, battling through some stuff to of
their own early in the season, not you know, maybe exactly where they
want to be. So that's our job is to work together and you know,
find out how to keep these guys, you know, in the best
situation possible and being able to work with these guys, understanding how they work,
all the little nuances of whether it's their delivery or what pitch they like
to go to in certain spots where they like the certain setups on certain pitches.
You know, that's something as the more reps we get, the better
we're gonna be. And I think now, you know, about a month
in, I think you see these guys starting to fall into a groove with
that, and you know, hopefully that's just gonna be a seamless transition into
you know, once they start feeling even better and our relationships growing that you
see a lot of really positive outings. Mike nice calling last night, thanks
for coming by. Yeah, thank you. That's catcher Mike Sonnino. And
one of the pictures that he'll catch coming out of the bullpen on a regular
basis is Eli Morgan off to a strong start out of the pen. In
fact, his first ten relief outings he did not allow and earned run.
And he talked about what's been working well for him the first month plus of
the new season. Yeah, Yeah, we talked about the slider and changeup
and that's just gonna be something I can take a look at my whole career
trying to find a way to make that slider in. Its still not moving
a ton, but I've been finding some success with it, just trying to
locate it well. And then yeah, We had talked about the changeup,
trying to throw with a little more, a little more effort, maybe tick
the velo up bit. And it hasn't ticked up all that much, but
I think it's a little more consistent in its range right now. So so
it's been feeling good coming out of the hand. What does that do if
you tick it up just a little bit? I mean, obviously to change
up you want it slow. But if you do tick it up a little
bit, what do you think that does for you? I think this gives
me a little better feel for where it might end up, you know,
okay, because it is it does move a good bit, so sometimes leaving
the hand, it's you know, is this gonna stay in the strike zone?
Is it gonna leave the strike zone? I think just having having maybe
a more controllable movement of it that makes it better to throw. And when
you work on refining pitches. For a starter, they have that bullpen session
between starts that they can do that, but relievers, I would think a
little bit more difficult to do that. How are you able to work on
things maybe not in the pressure of a game situation. Yeah, I would
say our overall reps for working on stuff is less than that of a starter.
But you know, we still play catch every day. We have times
with the catchers during batting practice. You have to manage the workload of going
out to the mound, touching it, throwing some pitches before the game,
knowing that there's a chance that you might be in there in the real game.
But you just stick to your routine and find ways to get work in
before the game. Had Eli, thanks laugh for come by. I appreciate
it. Thanks Josy and is reliever. Eli Morgan ought to a really good
start this season and it's been a big key to a fairly solid Guardians bullpen
the first month plus. Stay with us when we come back. It's the
Farm Report with Director of Player Development Rob ser Folio that comes your way.
Next, Cleveland Clinic, Guardians Radio Network Outfield Medium, Deep, straight up
and down. Eli Morgan's two two pitch swing and a messy stayed with a
fast ball and gut him. Eli Morgan strikes out the side. Welcome back
to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rose in house. Back with you from Progressive Field
in downtown Cleveland. Guardians taking on the Twins this weekend. Then the Tigers
come in next week, and then next weekend, the longest homestand of the
season continues with the only visit of the year from Mike Trout. Shohei Otani
and the Los Angeles Angels. Should be a lot of fun to see them,
and we'll see if it lines up. It's going to be close.
Perhaps Otani pitches against the Guardians in one of those games. We'll see as
the rotation shakes out for the Angels. Well. Pitching has been a big
key for the Guardians organization for a while now, and there are more young
arms on the way. We've seen two in Logan Allen and Tanner Baby at
the major league level now this first month of the season. Robs or Folio,
the farm director, he was an Acron this week and he had a
chance to view even more strong starting pitching. And we'll begin with Gavin Williams,
who was in Akron to start the year. Now he's at Triple A
Columbus and Rob says he's just another one of the many young arms that the
organization is extremely excited about. Yeah, well, it's fun to work with
really talented players. I think just to start Rosie and Gavin fits that.
Bill, I mean, you go washrom pitch, You're going to see you
know, fastball velocities up in the upper nineties. He might even hit a
triple digits. I think just what's so impressive about about Gavin is he's really
talented but hasn't like rested on his laurels and he's just continued to to really
dig into, you know, some of the parts of pitching that are a
separator at the highest level, and those are some of the things that you
know, we came into the year and tried to challenge Gavin with and he's
he's certainly lived up to that bill so far, which has been really impressive.
His stuff is there, he's continuing to work on a slider which is
getting better and better, and we're just continuing to see him in between starts
really learn what it's like to be a professional at the highest level. And
um, you know, kudos to him for how he's gone about his work.
And he's just one of many at the Double A level as that pitching
machine just keeps right on rolling. And Joey Cantillo is someone that we saw
just briefly in spring training. How's his season going so far? The numbers
look great, but what are you seeing improvement wise from him? Yeah,
so, you know, Joey, no secret, last year you had a
really good season, ran into a little bit of injury issues at the end
of the year, and so throughout bring training, you know, we were
being really smart with his ramp up, and so he started the year,
you know, pitching in a little bit shorter stints than some of the rest
of our starters. But man, he has not let that affect his performance
at all. And so you know, we're really getting close to him being
fully built up, and we're seeing a lot of the same stuff increases that
we saw to him last year on the velocity side of things, continuing to
work on his cutter slider as well. So just you know, another young
guy. I mean he's still you know, twenty two, twenty three years
old, one of the younger pitchers at that level when you really zoom out
on things, and it's impressive that that he's you know, been able to
bounce back like he has and continue to improve on some of the things we
challenged them with with continuing to attack the zone and trusting his stuff and letting
it play. And you know, for a young starter, you know,
another guy that we're really excited about. Another member of that rotation, a
recent draft pick, a college drafted player, Tanner Burns. It looks like
he's off to a good start too. And what can you tell us about
Burns? Yeah, so, you know, not dissimilar from from Joey,
a guy that ran into a little bit of a struggle from from the injury
bug last year, had a really good year in twenty twenty one. You
know, a successful college arm out of Auburn and Tanners again like building on
some of the things he learned last year and we've seen some stuff increase.
We've seen him really start to miss some bats so far in the early going
and just continuing to refine some of his arsenal. You know, a guy
that we're you know, maybe he's final a little bit under the radar with
some of the names that we have, but you know, a starting pitcher
that has a lot of the ingredients that we look for and just with more
and more experience, continues to get better. Moving to the bullpen. You
have a young man who's closing games there at Akron and doing a great job
at that, Kate Smith. We saw him a little bit in spring training.
He also had some experience at the WBC, and it seems like he's
making some real nice progress. Yeah, big physical, really great kid,
hard worker. His stuff has just um continue to improve. You know.
This is a guy that we got in the in the COVID Draft. There's
only five rounds of the draft that year, so we actually signed him as
you know, an undrafted free agent, and he has just you know,
really put his name on the map since that point. Um. And that's
a huge credit to just the way that he goes about his business, with
his work ethic, with his commitment to just like learning all the details of
what it is to be a great picture. And another guy that can run
it up there in the mid nineties that can you know, really has an
explosive fastball, I can miss bats and um, yeah, you know,
put him in. Put him in the long line of exciting pictures that we
have in the organization in the upper levels that you know, as we're seeing
more and more of these guys get opportunities, you know, I think this
is a name that that hopefully does so as well. Another interesting name at
Akron on the pitching side is Jack Leftwich, and it sounds like he's kind
of he's been relieving, he's been starting a little bit then, and what
do you see for him in terms of future maybe roll for him. Yeah,
a lot of parallels to what we talked about with Joey actually with Jack.
So a guy that started in Lynchburg for us last year, we were
seeing him in extended innings, made it up to Lake County, started starting
some games. Um, you know, we have intentionally kind of slowed his
usage a little bit at the start of the season, just for him to
get his feet underneath him, for him to you know, kind of build
up at a rate at which we think will will allow him to be healthy
and successful at the end of the season. So, a guy that you
know, we're expecting to start some start some games, and he's kind of
been in a piggyback role right now with Doug mcazy um. But he's gonna
as his workload gets gets to a spot that it will here in the coming
weeks, we expect him to start taking his own game and and you know,
starting starting as many kinds many times as he can per week. Rob's
rfolio joining us. He's a director of player development for the Guardians. Were
talking double a Akron and we moved to the position player side of things,
and a lot of these guys we had a chance to see at varying points
in time during spring training. Pete Helpin looks like he's off to a good
start. Um young outfielder, and I know, obviously a former high round
draft pick, you're obviously excited for them, but it seems like he's starting
to make some real nice progress. He is and just twenty one years old,
like you know, hit almost as amazing when you look at some of
these young kids and how how quickly they've moved through the system, And I
think that's your credit to you know, Pete last year, you look at
the first half in Lake County like he really struggled, and he was honest
about that and almost use that as motivation here in the off season. And
a guy that put on close to fifteen twenty pounds, a lot of that
being you know, strength and muscle, and he took that into spring training
where he really he really you know, came ready to play and held his
own verse upper level competition and we felt like he was ready for the challenge
to go to Akron and h and he's impressed that group out of the gates,
you know, playing really good defense in center field, swiping a bag
when he needs to, can kind of impact the game in all three areas,
which is great. And you know he's only twenty one, and um,
you know, on offense, he's he's been up and down and riding
the roller coaster a little bit, which is exactly what we expect for for
a young kid. But despite that, you know, just between the ears,
he's really done a good job and competed and um, you know,
we're expecting him to have a good season at that level despite being one of
the younger position players in the Eastern League and another young player who was really
impressive in the spring as Angel Martinez and bron Maybe you can shed some light
at numbers, The traditional numbers looks like he's off to a slower start,
But what do you see there that that you look past that and really feel
good about with him. Yeah, So you know, Angels, first off,
on the defensive side, you know, we've asked him to play several
positions and we've just continued to see him get better and better. I think
it's no secret. You know, you look at you look at our major
league team, and we've got infielders playing all over the place. I mean,
Gabby Aarris is a guy that can really pick it at short stop.
He's playing second, he's playing third, he's playing first. We've taken a
similar approach with Angel, just because it's so hard to know what opportunity presents
itself in the infield for these guys, we want them to be as prepared
as they possibly can, and so we've we've asked Angel to play a short
second, third, and he just has such a good way about him and
it's just such a great kid and hard worker. He's really attacked out on
the defensive side, and we can continue to see him get better and better.
And then to your point on offense, you know, you look at
his you know, some of the batting average and stats like that, they're
not as impressive yet similar to Pete, you know, just a twenty one
year old who's who's really young for that level. When you dig deep,
you know we're starting we're really seeing him make contact like he's always done and
impact the baseball even at a slightly higher rate than we have in years past.
And we expect that as you know, he goes from one hundred plate
appearances, a ninety plate appearance, whoever he is today to three hundred four
hundred, some of those things are going to start to level out. And
just you know, another young, really talented switch hitter that goes about his
business the right way that we're excited to have in the ORG. And another
good young position player, Jonathan Rodriguez. Can you describe the power of potential
for Rodriguez? Anything? Anything I said with words would probably undersell what how
much you can actually impact the ball. And again, you know, I
think similar to Angel you look at some of just the surface level numbers and
they're not eye popping yet, but this is a guy that really gets gets
going as the year goes on. And even now, like you peel the
layers at the onion back and he's impacting the baseball. He's making contact like
some of the things that we saw him take real strides on last year at
the end of the year in Lake County before he got moved up to Double
A. We're seeing similar signals and think that as he gets more and more
game opportunities, played, appearances, some of that performance is going to level
out. And again, a guy that you know we've asked to play both
corner spots in the outfield. We've really pushed him to, you know,
kind of take it to the next level when it comes to his defense and
running the bases of just how important that is in our organization. And Jay
Rods took to that, and you know, we're excited to see him as
he gets more and more game opportunities. Good stuff as always from rops Or
Folio of talking Double A Acron this week. Rob. Always great to have
you long. Thank you, Thanks, Rosy, appreciate your time. Some
good stuff down at Double A Akron Man. We thank rops or Folio as
always for stopping by and talking baseball with us and keeping us up to date
on some of the best and the brightest in the farm system. Stay tuned,
we i't more to come. Our final segment comes your way shortly on
the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network. I wish I was a better golfer.
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ounce back with you from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland, our final segment of
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there if you want to listen to our show each week, either live on
the radio or in podcast form or online whenever you have a chance. Now,
we had a chance to visit with John Chstakovski, who's the vice president
of Communications and Education with the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooper's Town. He
was at Yankee Stadium in New York earlier this week where one hundred Sailors had
their commission ceremony. They are part of the USS Cooper's Town a Navy ship
that was so named back in twenty fifteen, and John will phill us in
on that in a minute. But the ship is in New York right now.
That's why they had that commission ceremony prior to Wednesday night's game. It
was in Cleveland last fall. And it has a great baseball history, as
you can imagine with its name, and John phills us in on all of
that and the ties between the ship and baseball. Yeah, it's really credible
the legacies that this ship holds. It's actually named the USS Cooper's Town in
honor of those Hall of Famers members of the Baseball Hall of Fame who served
in the military during wartime, and they're actually seventy of those Hall of Famers,
A full one fifth of the individuals with plaques on the wall in Cooperstown
are recognized in a part of the legacy that's being shared and preserved at the
USS Cooperstown. How did it come to be to be named that after such
a great place that honors so many great baseball players. It actually started back
in July of twenty fifteen with then Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabis, a
big baseball fan, and it just was an idea that continued to develop between
a member of our board and eventually got broached and developed into a wonderful tribute
to some of the most courageous and important people in not only baseball history,
but American history, and of course fans in Cleveland when they talk Bob Feller.
Obviously, so many great moments on the mound, but what he did
in service to his country second to none. Not only second to none what
he did out there, but the fact that he took it upon himself immediately
upon hearing about the Pearl Harbor bombings to enlist in the Navy, and then
again when he was placed in a non combat role, to ask to be
placed in a combat role where he felt he could make a bigger difference,
and then to serve so courageously and accomplish what he did on the USS Alabama
in the Pacific Theater, and then to go back to Cleveland and pick up
right where he left off on the mound. Absolutely incredible accomplishment as an athlete,
as a human, and obviously someone that we can all look up to,
whether we're a baseball fan or not. And obviously a lengthy list.
As you mentioned seventy. We know so much about Bob Feller, who other
names that readily come to mind when when you talk about those who have served
in a military who are in the Hall of Fame, some terrific names.
Of course Ted Williams with the Marine Corps, you know, in the Hall
of Fame, we have medallions under each of the Hall of famers who served.
So there are seventy medallions among the three hundred and forty two plaques that
are on our walls. Those seventy medallions identify the branch of service and the
conflicts, or for Ted Williams, the conflicts because he served in both World
War Two and the Korean War courageously and again kind of like Bob Feller,
the hitting version of Bob Feller every time he came right back to baseball and
dominated at the plate like he never left. But Ted Williams is one Yogi
Berra who earned a Purple Heart for naval service during the invasion on d Day,
and other people Buck O'Neill, Larry Dobe, just a couple more names
of folks who served in World War Two for the Navy, so for sailors
who who might serve on the USS Cooper's Town. How prominent is the Hall
of Famers? Are they displayed or some recognition of them? This is part
of what makes the ship so special. So what we've been able to do,
every room, every sailors quarters is named after one of the Hall of
Famers who served. And we actually have a replica plaque on the wall on
the door for each of those those rooms in the ship, covering all the
Navy veterans and a couple more folks who served. So not only that,
there's inspirational quotes, there's information about Navy veterans on the walls, there's a
display case with artifacts related to naval service among Hall of Famers. Just everywhere
you turn, it's a connection to baseball. It's a connection to service and
again reinforcing our national pastimes, connection to national service. So you work and
you live in Cooper's Town, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Just a wonderful place. But something like this where it seems like the museum
get it branches out a little bit. How important is that to do that
on occasion? It is very important. I mean, Cooper's Sound is a
beautiful, wonderful place, but it's not the easiest place to visit if you're
especially if you're outside of an immediate drivetime area. And obviously we hope everyone
in Cleveland takes that drive. That's definitely possible. But obviously baseball and its
history needs to be preserved and that's our role, that's our goal. And
being able to do that here New York City and knowing that this ship is
going to be sailing around the world sharing this history with thousands and thousands of
people. That's really what our mission is as part of the Baseball Hall of
Fame. John, thanks so much for sharing some thoughts on the US as
Cooper's sound. This was fun, Absolutely thrilled to be here. Thanks so
much for having me. I gotta be honest, sometimes we have titles that
just don't fit the job. But John Chestakovski in his title is VP of
Communications and Education. Hopefully you learn something right now, really interesting stuff,
and John was really up on, obviously all the history that's related to the
USS cooper'stown and it was fun to visit with him earlier this week at Yankee
Stadium in New York. That's going to do it for our show this week.
Thanks so much for tuning in. As always, thanks to Brian Matzay
for helping to put together our show each week. We'll join you next week
from right back here at Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland. Until then, this
is Jim Rosenhouse reminding you that you've been listening to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland
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