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 Rosenhouse along with you from City Field
in New York, where the Guardians are taking on the New York Mets this
weekend in a three game series season. It will be a little bit different
schedule than had planned for the two teams, as the game on Saturday has
been postponed due to rain and wet grounds. It was scheduled for a four
ten first pitch, but now the teams will make it up as part of
a split double header on Sunday, with a one forty first pitch for a
Game one and a seven ten first pitch for a Game two. Coming up
in a little bit. On this week's show, we will hear from outfielder
Stephen Quan, also Brian Rocchio, the young infielder who made his major league
debut earlier this week, and we also had a chance to catch up with
on Friday, Francisco Lindor. The first time that Lindor is facing the team
that drafted, developed him and made him a star really and certainly he fit
right into those great teams that the Cleveland had during the twenty fourteen, fifteen,
sixteen seasons, sixteen the World Series year. Lindor is such a big
part of that, and we'll hear from him as before the game on Friday
night, he had a chance to talk about some of his memories as a
Cleveland Indian, and we'll hear that in the second part of our show.
But first our week in review and after an off day on Monday, coming
out of tremendously exciting home weekend series in which the Guardians took two out of
three from the Angels, they really struggled in the first two games in Chicago
against the White Sox, with Chicago winning eight to three on Tuesday night and
backing that up with a seven to two win on Wednesday night. So the
Guardians were looking to salvage the finale of the series on Thursday afternoon in Chicago.
They had Logan Allen on the mound and the rookie cruised through the first
inning, but found himself in a big time jam in the second as the
White Sox loaded the bases with nobody out outfield, medium deep straight away.
The next delivery, check swing and a fastball for strike three got him looking,
no doubt about it. Hack of a job by the young man.
And that's again the beauty of Logan, Allen and Tanner. Baby. Not
only are they as competitive as all get out, their poise is remarkable.
Bases loaded, nobody out, socks don't score. We are still scoreless after
two. And then in the third Allen gotta pick me up from his catcher,
Cam Gallagher. Runner goes pitches high. Gallagher good throat a second in
the tag made by Jimenez on the head first sliding Tim Anderson. That's as
good a throw as you can ever make. Just an absolute perfect throw by
Cam Gallagher to get a tough customer. Tim Anderson thrown out for the first
time this year. He had been six for six and that is huge.
A White Sox picked up a run in the fourth to take the lead,
but in the fifth, gabriel Arius got that run right back. Here's the
pitch from Cease and it swung on and driven high in the air to deep
right center, way back there home rod Arius. Tie game at one.
Gabriel arias second time this season has gone deep, and it's the Guardians won
the White Sox one and in the seventh the Guardians got some help from the
White Sox defense with Brian Rocchio. The batter first at band today with a
runner in scoring position, Rookyo tampera short coming home with It would have been
Anderson, but he boots the ball. It gets by him and he'll pick
it up on the dirt portion of the infield and that air allows Brennan to
score, Arius to go to third and Rookio's aboard at first and the Guardians
up two to one. Later on in that ending, Cam Gallagher's big afternoon
continued. Runner goes pits fashed into left. There's a base hit for Gallagher
that'll score Arius. Rochio stops at second. What a day for Cam Gallagher
as he puts Cleveland on top three to one. He was down in the
count O two battled back and got a mammoth Arbi single to left and for
Gallagher that breaks an oh for thirty four skid. That is the first base
hit this month for a Cleveland catcher. Cam Gallagher's base hit his third of
the year and it gives him three RBIs out of that Guardians bullpen Nick Sanlon
and Trevor Stephen each threw a scoreless inning, and then Emmanuel Closs was on
in the ninth inning to try and finish things up. Now the O two
swang in a mess pull game and Class finishes it with a strike out,
and the Guardians get the finale here in Chicago by a final score of three
to one. So a nice win to finish up the series in Chicago,
and then it was on to New York to take on the Mets in Interleague
play, a three game series starting on Friday night. The Guardians and waste
anytime greeting their former teammate Carlos Carrasco, who was on the mound for the
Mets. As in that first inning, there were two men on for Josh
Naylor. Now the three one swung in and blasted deep bright field dawn and
a three run homer for Josh Naylor. The Carrasco got behind in the count
and Nailer pounced. Then in the second inning they added to the lead with
Cam Gallagher continuing a sudden hot stretch of the plate. The pitch swung on
and this is line the left coming on Canna. It drops for a base
hit in the score of Straw and it's a four nothing Cleveland lead. How
about Cam Gallagher back to back days with RBI singles. In the fifth,
the Guardians were looking for more with Will Brennan on second base with two outs
and Ahmed Rosario stepped in to face his former club one and two the count.
Here's the pitch to Rosario, swung on line drive left field pedal get
down for a base hit. Brennan will score Rosario's aboard with an RBI single
and the Guardians now lead five nothing. Here it is the staple of the
offense a year ago, the two out base hit that brought in a run.
But on this night the Mets would battle back. They got into it
with the two runs in the fifth inning, another in the sixth that cut
the Guardians lead to five three. But in the seventh some clutch two out
hitting from Naylor gave the Guardian some breathing room. Here's the two one delivery
swung on line drive basin into left that'll score Gallagher quant a round third.
Here's Kenna's throat of the platen in time, sliding in with another run is
quaw and what a night for Josh Naylor. A two out, two runs,
single to left. He has five RBIs and the Guardians lead at seven
to three. However, the lead was short lived, as in the bottom
of the seventh, the Mets loaded the bases and Pete Alonzo stepped to the
plate. Boy is he and a hitter's count? Now the bases loaded,
three balls and a strike. The pitch hit the air fairly deep, bright
granted to the wall. It's gone a game tying grand slam to right center
by Pete Alonzo. Well, he got into a hitter's count and he didn't
miss a ninety four mile an hour fast ball, and Karen Jack has given
him his sixth home run of the year. It's stayed tied through nine and
onto extra innings. The game went in the tenth. Jose Ramirez started the
inning as the runner at second base, and with one out, Gabriel Arias
stepped in the one oh swung on hit pretty well to right Banko's Marte on
the track of the wall. Goal on. How about that second day in
a row for Gabriel Aius a two run home run the opposite way to write
and Cleveland's back on top nine to seven. Here in the tenth inning,
a line drive off the bat of Arius, so the Guardians had a nine
seven lead heading to the bottom half of the tenth inning. Amnuel Class came
on to try and nail down a save, but the Mets picked up two
runs to tie it, and they had a runner in scoring position for Francisco
Lindor. Isn't this something the first time since that Mammoth trade that saw Francisco
Lindor go to the Mets for four players, including Amanda Rosario and Andre Simenez.
This is the first time the teams have met since that trade, and
who's at the plate in a nine nine game in the tenth but Frankie Lindor
runner takes off the lines when the right center game winning single and the Mets
have done it again and lindaar to be mobbed at first on a game winning
RBI singled a right center and the Mets, with three here in the tenth
inning, stunned the Cleveland Guardians and just a shocking defeat as Claus gives up
three here in the tenth inning, and the Mets are a winner tonight in
ten innings. They do it and walk off fashion after there were two men
out, and they beat Cleveland ten to nine and a fitting into a gut
wrenching night for Cleveland as they played extremely well, put up a ton of
runs which have been a rarity this season, but it did not hold up
as it was a rough night for the bullpen. Some key relievers just unable
to finish things up. And it's some Mets who come up up with the
ten to nine win on Friday night. Stay with us when we come back.
We'll hear from outfielder Stephen Kwan and rookie in fielder Brian Rokio. That's
next as we continue with Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
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in affiliates save driverdy Is Gount not available in all states or situations. Kwan
Swanson sacks one up the alley and right center. That's a a sit over
to cut it off in the alley is Randriguez and Quan with the leadoff single.
Welcome back to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosenhouse back with you from City Field
in Queens, New York. The Guardians taking on the Mets this weekend in
interleague play. Earlier in the week, we had a chance to visit with
outfielders Stephen Kwan, who has had a solid season out of that leadoff spot
for the Guardians. Remember last year, what an impressive start to his year,
as he was the American League's Rookie of the Month. He hasn't been
that hot out of the shoote but most of the significant numbers looking good.
His on base percentage up over three fifty and he's certainly doing a nice job
setting the table. And he had a good weekend last weekend against the Angels
at Progressive Field, and we talked to him about some of the signs that
point to the offense heating up. Yeah, absolutely, especially after that Angel
series. I think we had a lot of guys kind of getting hot.
Obviously, Josh had that crazy little run, and then guys were paid up
after him. I think hittings contagious, and I'll ask of that. So
yeah, it's good to see the boys going. I thought it was interesting
his first comments after the big home runs was that it's not possible unless you're
getting on and the people ahead of him are getting on, and that it
really is a team thing. And is that maybe the disclaimer about baseball that
it is not such an individual sport but offensively it has to be a team
thing. Yeah, absolutely, take it even a step further. I think
that inning couldn't have started without Will's at bat before me. I mean,
he had like a nine pitch at bat against a guy who had shut us
out at the ending before. So I mean, I'm usually not a guy
who swings first pitch a lot of time, and after Will's battling that nine
ten pitch at bat, I felt comfortable swing at that first pitch. So
because of his long ab I was able to get on, and obviously that
whole inning happened afterwards. So yeah, one hundred percent agree. It takes
it takes everybody on board. Last year was such a whirlwin for you from
the get go. What's been different this year that maybe has been challenging and
maybe real satisfying now that you're you're on a pretty good role again. Yeah,
I think things are a little more I was telling you Stable, I
think it's really cool kind of seeing the clubbies again, kind of saying what's
up. Good to see again. I know where everything's at and where the
weight rooms at. I'm not losing fifteen minutes just looking for the weight room
and all that. Yeah, things feel a lot more more comfortable this year,
Steven. So you look at how things are going, not only for
you personally, but the team, and it seems like a lot of the
numbers are similar one loss wise to where you were a year ago. Maybe
a different way to get there, but feeling wise. Did it really hit
home this weekend when you had some come from behind winds that were so common
a year ago. Yeah. Absolutely, I think we've been all we've been
in all these games. Kind of I feel like we hit a little better
seventh thinging on, But to finally have them come through, have the guys
actually score when they're in scoring position, have the clutch hits. I think
that's really big, But I feel like we've been putting ourselves in that situation
a lot of times. It just happened to pan out these this last weekend.
Stephen, have a good week. Thank you, Thanks, I appreciate
you. That's outfielder Stephen Kwan talking about not only his season, but what
he's seeing from the ball club as we get deeper into the month of May.
Another young player on this Guardians ball club was infielder Brian Rocchio, who
has since been sent back to the minor leagues, but he was called up
to fill Jose ramirez roster spot while the team was in Chicago, and he
came off the bench on Tuesday night and recorded his first major league hit.
And when we caught up with him with translation help from Augie Rivero, he
talked about that feeling of reaching base in the big leagues for the first time.
They're good. I think it's incredible. It's such a unique energy because
you know, you can only enjoy that once in your life. But I
felt that that was a mixture of, you know, nervousness, but also
enjoying the moment of you know, being a Maya leaguer and you don't start
the game, but you're out in the on deck circle, knowing that you're
going to come on as a pinch hitter. What is it like waiting for
that at back to take place? How difficult was that? Now? Yeah,
I mean I know I was on the line up, but as soon
as I got to the dog God, I prepared myself mentally knowing that I
will be able to help the team at some point during the game. So
when that happened, obviously I was mentally prepared for that. I was a
little bit of nerves or going on, you know, maybe enjoying the situation,
but I knew I was ready to play and try to help the team.
And your time in Major league camp, how much did that help you?
But betaining, I felt like it helped me a lot, you know.
Seeing the level of effort that Ramirez I was sorry that he man is
put in. I think that's a big thing to learn, like the level
of effort they put to the game, but most importantly the what I keep
putting in practice this year. It's just the level of effort to do my
best on the baseball field. Brian Rocchio joining us translation helped from argue Rivero
and Brian, you're from Venezuela. Some some really good short stops there.
Growing up as a kid, as Drubo Cabrera was one of your favorites.
How come think it's just the house move he was on the field, you
know, being short stop and being able to make those different plays with the
glove then with the hand. And as a kid, that's what kind of
like attracts you, you know how he made everything Luke lay bear hand it
plays and Barry with the hand. So I think for me those are the
things that trucked me and to admire him as a player. Brian, congratulations
on the first major league hit. And you're in there tonight starting at short
Thanks a lot, Thank you, Thank you, Aggie, thank you,
thank you, guys, appreciate it. At sinfielder Brian Rocchio, who again
is back down at Triple A Columbus. But you get the feeling that we'll
see him again, certainly at some point this season, as he's very highly
regarded, having a good season at Triple A and gave a good account of
himself during his time in the big leagues earlier this week. Stay with us
when we come back. We'll visit with a former Cleveland player, certainly someone
who had a big role in some great years for Cleveland twenty sixteen, seventeen.
You know, to deal with Francisco Lindoor, one of the top young
players in the game while he wore at Cleveland uniform now with the Mets,
and he faced his old team for the first time on Friday night. We'll
talk to him about it when we come back after this on the Cleveland Clinic
Guardians Radio Network. Stay tuned, folks, is Puppy Isn't over? Shimmer
was announce back with you. It's Guardians Weekly. Where it's City Field in
Queens, New York, where the Guardians are taking on the Mets this weekend,
and that means for the first time since a January twenty twenty one trade
that sent Francisco Lindor from Cleveland to New York, the Guardians face Lindor on
the field. And we had a chance to catch up with Francisco in the
Mets clubhouse before the ball game on Friday night, the first time that he
would face his old team, and he talked about how much he's been looking
forward to seeing familiar faces. I'm looking forward to a lot. They they
have been close to my heart for a long time, ever since twenty eleven.
A lot of the coaches that I came with, they were they're still
there, and some of the players are there. So I'm just I'm just
happy to see some familiar faces and I'm happy to play against them. You
look back at your time in Cleveland, obviously you grew up, but not
only as a baseball player but as a person. How much do you look
back on that time as happy memories? For you? A lot? A
lot. The clean organization showed me how to be a professional, and the
people of Cleveland, the fans, showed me how to be more caring and
more passionate, be more and more in tune with fans. You know that
my little routine of signing another graph almost every day comes from there, acknowledging
the fact that they show loved and support me. You know, I had
to do the same back memorable moments. The home run in Puerto Rico,
the home run off the foul pole in the postseason against New York, the
base set that kept the streak alive against Kansas City, and any of those
go right to the top of the list, or maybe one that doesn't readily
come to mind for you. I think my favorite one was recording the last
out to go into the Worst Series. I didn't make the last out,
I know Santana didn't, but just that celebration, that that fulfillment of like,
yes we did the undoable and then celebrating the club house in Toronto.
That to me, that's you know, yeah, it's great when you have
athletes and you do stuff and you help the team win. But whenever you
finally put it together and you all celebrate at the same time, and that's
what matters to me. You had so many good memories in Cleveland, and
I know here initially but there were some challenges. How have you managed to
get back to being Francisco lindoor again here after the start smile smile my way
through life and walk the line, you know, fight the fight, Dane.
And they are, you know, understanding that people won't results and they
expect players to succeed. And and that's once I understood that they want the
the the result of being success successful um and that when they when they cheer
you on, they're sharing on the moment, what's happening in the moment when
they um, let you know, and they show the frustration. They showing
it towards what's happening in the moment. You know, a lot of times
it's not because who you are, it's because what's happening in the moment.
No one better than you right now to give us a scattering report on the
team we haven't seen in a long time, the New York METS. Um,
what's what's been the challenges early on and what has them going pretty good
this week? Um, the challenges at the beginning where we weren't putting together
at the same time. You know, when when we played good offense,
when whenever we hit, we couldn't we couldn't hold them to a couple of
runs. And then whenever they you know, they only allowed one run,
we did wint score. So that was the challenge we weren't doing at the
same time. We have a great group of guys here, guys, very
hard working guys that give us all day in and dayo. And now we
you know, we started to move forward. Francisco, good to see again.
Thanks a lot for the time. Yeah, thank you. Nice to
catch up with Francisco. Lindor and obviously not easy. I'm sure to see
him when the ball came with a base hit on Friday Night. But a
young man who meant a lot to this franchise for during some great years,
not only for him early in his career, but for the franchise as a
whole, especially back in that twenty sixteen season when the Guardians or the Indians
at that time, went to the World Series. Stay with us. We'll
have our final segment of Guardians Weekly when we return after this time out on
the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network. Whoever just hit those breaks hard for no
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Jim rose An House. Back with you. It's Guardians Weekly. We're in
New York at City Field, where the Guardians are taking on the Mets this
weekend. Every now and again we check in with Guardians Senior Vice President Bob
d Bacio. He always catch us up with some folks who are a big
part of this game, and we do the same thing again. Today it's
Bobby d at the Ballpark. The perfectly manicured field, the unmistakable room of
a ballpark, Hot Talk and the Electricity is celebrating another victory. This is
at the Ballpark with Bobby Dee. The ballpark is home to many stories,
many memorable moments, and colorful personalities. Joining me on this segment of at
the Ballpark is one of the most talented pitchers to come off the Cleveland Sandlots,
one of our very own a Brush High School and Kent State star,
mister Steve Stone. Steve, thank you for taking the time to be with
us today. What's a pleasure to be with you. It's always special for
me to come back to Cleveland. I get to see some of my family
that is still here. It's kind of nice. I get to go to
a couple of delis that I frequented when I was a youngster, and just
going back in the old neighborhood taking your trip down memory lane is always something
that I enjoy. We need to start with your time growing up in South
Euclid play for coach Jim Humpel at Brush High School at a time when the
Lake Erie League was the premier athletic conference in all of Northern Ohio. Freddie
Heinland at Shaker Heights. My older brother Danny was a sophomore when you were
a senior at Brush. I don't know if you pitched against Lakewood your senior
year, but my brother probably was there watching you perform back in those days,
as you were a sixty five grad at Brush High School. What do
you remember about those days in the l E L. I remember that was
some really good baseball. Euclid was always a good team. In fact,
we had a guy at Kent State the name of Tommy l. Jansik who
pitched for Euclid. He was very good. There was a guy at Lakewood
I think he eventually got to Saint Ed's, Gary Zanheiser was his name.
Another guy who threw really well. We had a lot of talent here,
Buddy Schultz at Shaw and he went on to pitch in the Major League.
So we had some guys that threw it very well. We had some guys
who could hit it very well. Shaker won the state championship in nineteen sixty
five, and we came close, but there was no cigar, as they
say. I just remember good, solid baseball. I also remember that because
of the time it was played. It was played in the early spring.
I think we had twenty four games scheduled. I think eighteen of those games
were played with the temperatures right around forty or under. It was usually wet.
You had to be a mutter to be able to run through the muck
and the meyer to actually get it done. But that was what it was
like in Cleveland those days, and it really helped me actually to prepare myself
for the times when I was in Candlestick Park, my first team to being
the San Francisco Giants. I remember those cold days at Candlestick Park, and
I remember back to what it was like in Cleveland those cold days. Steve,
we have to talk about your remarkable season with the Baltimore Orioles in nineteen
eighty twenty five wins to seven losses. The twenty five wins topping all of
the major leagues. You are an All Star and eventually will say Young Award
Winner, What do you remember most about that season? Well, as I
look back, Bobby, it seems like it happened to somebody else. But
what I remember most is that I made a transition that without that I wouldn't
have been able to accomplish. That. It was the middle of nineteen seventy
nine, I was under five hundred, I was with a very good team
finally in Baltimore. We were on our way to winning one hundred and two
games and playing in the World Series. And I sat back over the All
Star break and decided that there was a better picture in here. I suspected
I just didn't know how to get him out, and so I felt that
I wasn't going to get any bigger, any stronger, or any faster.
What I had to do was find a way to be better prepared on a
daily basis than my opponent. And I knew I was going to face guys
who were going to go to the Hall of Fame, and I adopted a
philosophy that you're going to go to the Hall of Fame, but not tonight.
Tonight is my night. And then I through a series of things like
imagery creative visualization, self hypnosis, and a number of other things. I
devised a way to get the most out of me on a daily basis,
because there's times when you just don't feel good. Sandy Kofax, one of
the greatest pictures in the history of our games, said he had his best
stuff twenty five percent of the time, which meant seventy five percent of the
time he had to win with less than his best. He was one of
the greats. So for just average guys like myself, maybe we had our
best stuff fifteen percent of time, maybe ten percent, so we had to
learn how to win with less than our best. For me, it was
getting myself better prepared for a performance than my opponent. I didn't have any
control over the size, the strength, or the ability factor of the guy
that I was facing, but I did know one thing. I could not
allow him to outwork me. I could not allow him to out prepare me.
I could not allow him to want it more than I did and be
willing to sacrifice everything for that particular event. And so knowing each and every
night that I was going to go in better prepared than the guy I was
facing, allowed me to make fifty five zero starts from the middle of nineteen
seventy nine to the end of nineteen eighty, and I lost seven times in
fifty starts. Now, my arm kind of gave way after that. But
I had a moment. I had an eighteen month window. I had a
season and a half of enchanted baseball. And the thing that I never lost
sight of, Bobby, was I wasn't great. I was just borrowing greatness
in a short period of time. They were going to come and take it
back. Well, thirty seven starts in that nineteen eighty season, over two
hundred and fifty innings pitched. But when you talk about visualization and not many
guys, I'm sure we're talking about those kind of things, the hypnosis and
the visualization that had to be pretty revolutionary at that time. Well, I
went into Roland Heman starting eighteen seventy seven. Now, baron mind, I
didn't really implement this till seventy nine. But in nineteen seventy seven I went
into Roland Eman GM of the White Sox, and I said, Roland,
why does every team have five coaches for the physical aspect of the game,
trainers, strength coaches, etc. Why do they have five and everybody will
tell you that the actual physical aspect of performance is twenty five percent. Why
do you have five coaches for twenty five percent of the game and no coaches
for seventy five percent of the game, which is a mental approach. And
he said, well, said, I never thought of it that way.
I said, well, why don't you do? Because if you do,
then you're going to get guys mental coaches coming in and helping these guys perform.
You're going to be ahead of everybody because nobody's doing this, and I'm
giving you a chance to get a running start on this whole league, which
eventually, because it's a copycat league, eventually they're going to get it.
So at any rate, he turned it down like everybody else did. And
so why did it take that long? I don't know, but I was
thinking about that, Yeah, surprise, because roll One seemed to be a
guy that would take a little bit of risk and chances. But he just
was an old baseball traditionalist that said Noah. But it was kind of revolutionary.
Everybody was saying, you know, if you just swing the bat enough,
if you just have his whole lot of side sessions, if you can
just get this curveball to spend a little bit more. They didn't understand that
what's sitting between your ears is what controls everything, and the harnessing of the
mental aspect of performance is going to make everybody a little bit better. And
so I have toyed with the idea eventually of being that guy for some team
who was forward thinking, because a lot of them have sports psychologist Bobby.
But the one thing a sports psychologist, almost without exception, hasn't done is
standing sixty feet six inches away from Hank Aaron and looking at his eyes and
knowing that he's going to the Hall of Fame. He's an all time great.
But I have to beat him to do my job. How do I
five times a night, times a night. And Hank got one hit against
me in his lifetime. It was a three two curveball. He hit it
off the end of the bat, pooped it down the left field line.
Was the only hit he ever again, Oh my goodness, that pitching staff
that you were on in nineteen eighty with the Orioles. Scotty McGregor wins twenty
again, you win twenty five, He wins twenty. Jim Palmer, Mike
Flannagant both wins sixteen. You win one hundred and two or one hundred games
that year. The Yankees end up winning one hundred and three to sneak into
the American League Championship Series. Talk about what it's like like the four of
you down in the bullpen working is there was that that had to be something
pretty special. Well, don't forget Dennis Martinez, who went on to win
two hundred and forty five games. Dennis Martinez is one of those guys.
He would throw two hundred and fifty innings a year. He would go fifteen
and seventeen. He would go sixteen and fifteen because he had a great arm
but didn't know how to use it quite yet. But that five man wrote
they had five cy Young Awards. Palmer had three, Flannigan one in seventy
nine, one and eighty. We would go north many times. Earl Weaver
would go north with nine pitchers, nine pictures, five starters, four relievers.
And the reason they could do that was we got everybody out. That's
why you could do that. Start nine pictures in your staff. That's just
and occasionally hard to put your arms around. Obviously, today's game where they're
limiting it to thirteen, right. Occasionally they would feel extravagant and go with
ten. But the Orioles were a different kind of team. For the reason
is you'd look at their players individually, and they weren't as good as Boston.
Buston had Butcher Hoops and hitting ninth, he at thirty home runs.
They had Carlton fiskeo Hall of famer behind the plate. They had Carlia Stramski,
hall of Famer at first face, they had Burlson, they had they
had Remy at at short and second. They had a Hall of Famer Jim
Rice, and left. They had Freddy Lynn, a wonderful center fielder.
They had Dewey Evans and right field. We weren't even close to that.
However, put head to head, the whole of the Orioles was better than
the sum of its parts. And that's the way you win. You win
with a team effort, everybody pulling in the same direction. But you have
to understand, and this was the philosophy in Baltimore. It was espoused to
me by two different guys when I got there in the first month, and
they said, we don't score early, and we don't score often, but
hold us close and you win more games than you ever dreamt. And the
thing and the reason was said, if you hold us close, that other
team is going to make a mistake before we do. And when they make
that mistake, we're going to bury them with it. And that was a
team of guys that knew on a day to day basis they were going to
beat that other team. They thought about it from the first inning to the
ninth inning. They waited for that mistake, and when they got their mistake,
it was lights out for the other team. Or a Weaver, the
best skipper you had the privilege to play for. He was the most interesting,
I bet yeah. He was one of those guys that I think he
understood how to win in baseball. I think he understood percentages before there was
analytics. He refused. He would rather give you a child than give you
an out. He didn't want to bunt. He wanted to He wanted to
hit a three run homer, he thought, you know, he didn't want
to steal very much. He just giving an out was just to him.
It was ridiculous. He always had three by five cards matchups. I mean,
he was one of the first managers that ever did that, he had
him in his back pocket. He'd take him out, and so you know
it was good and it was bad. I remember Jim Palmer saying to him
when he came out to talk to him. He goes, the only thing
you know about pitching is you couldn't hit it, So get back in the
dugout. So was Earl the best. Earl was the most successful as a
Hall of Fame manager. Earl understood that each guy had a different key.
They weren't one size fits all. So one guy he would boot in a
buck, the other guy he would put his arm around. He loved Lee
May. He would never say a cross word to Lee May. He screamed
at me something you couldn't believe it because I got there. I was there
first free agent. They had never dipped in the free agent market before,
and so he never let me finish the game, which drove me kind of
crazy. Kept taking me out. One day he took me out. I
didn't wait for him to get to the mountain. Come walking off the mountain.
I flipped them. The baseball hits him in the chest, and then
I go walking into the dugout. Anyway, the next day we had this
knockdown, knockdown, drag out fight. But you know, he did whatever
he could to get the best out of the individual player, and more times
than that he was right. This was real fun. Wish we had more
time, Steve. Thank you so much. Bobby. Always a pleasure and
I'm glad. I'm glad you're getting into my business. It's nice. It's
nice to see a long time front office guy getting into the radio biz enjoy
doing it. I'll tell you that connecting with all the people that come through
the ballpark. Here's hoping you enjoyed today's visit with Steve Stone. We look
forward to sharing at the ballpark stories on the Cleveland Clinic. Guardians Radio Network's
Guardians Senior Vice President Bob de Biasio, and that will do it for our
show this week. Just a reminder, no baseball today from New York as
the Guardians and the Mets were postponed due to rain. A lot of baseball
tomorrow, including a one forty ball game in the afternoon as the makeup for
today's rain out in addition to the seven ten first pitch tomorrow night. As
always, thanks to Brian Matzay for helping to put together our show. This
is Jim Rosenhouse and we'll look forward to talking to you next week. From
Progressive Field on another edition of Guardians Weekly. Guardians Weekly has been brought to
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