WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:05.000 Pouty and welcome to the Three shout Comes podcast presented by Baseball Perspectus. I'm 2 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:08.400 your host, Dan Leftgowitz, and I'm joined as always by Ben Marphine and 3 00:00:08.439 --> 00:00:14.439 Jared Weiss. I guess I know how you guys are doing. I assume 4 00:00:14.519 --> 00:00:18.800 if anyone has read the introduction to this podcast or the title, you know 5 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:22.960 how we're doing as well. And it's been kind of a rough day here. 6 00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:29.839 Just in case you played this without looking at the title, we all 7 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:39.719 received pretty rough news. I guess, like yesterday that our friend and probably 8 00:00:39.759 --> 00:00:48.119 the most valuable member of this podcast, through Rob mcun passed away yesterday unexpectedly. 9 00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:56.600 And it's been, you know, pretty strange and rough for us, 10 00:00:57.479 --> 00:01:00.520 and so we're probably just going to talk about that. Sorry, it's going 11 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:04.480 to be a little bit of a downer, but hopefully, you know, 12 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:12.120 we'll also get into some good stories DeLine and kind of explain, you know, 13 00:01:12.280 --> 00:01:19.239 what he meant to us in scoreset as well. Ben, I think 14 00:01:19.239 --> 00:01:23.920 I'll turn over to you first, just I guess for some thoughts and like 15 00:01:25.159 --> 00:01:27.680 how you got entangled with VP in the first place, because you certainly have 16 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:33.280 the longest history of us. Yeah, apologies, to all the listeners because 17 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:36.719 I'll probably end up talking more than charitar Ian for this episode, which is 18 00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:42.359 not the best situation but maybe appropriate here. So I joined VP when I 19 00:01:42.439 --> 00:01:45.879 was still in college. I think it was in two thousand and four, 20 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:49.680 and if memory serves, Rob actually wasn't on board at that point, but 21 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:56.159 I was helping in a technical capacity and working with Keith Wilner back before Keith 22 00:01:56.200 --> 00:02:02.280 Wilner left, and when Rob joined, he was sort of helping support us 23 00:02:02.359 --> 00:02:07.120 at first. And then you know, when I joined, I guess I 24 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:14.199 should say like Keith was sort of the most technical person there, or at 25 00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:19.719 least like the person most in charge of the technical inner workings. And Keith 26 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:24.120 left many years ago now, and when Keith left, Rob basically stepped into 27 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:31.400 his shoes and sort of helped orchestrate all of the technical inner workings. And 28 00:02:32.599 --> 00:02:37.360 I guess maybe it's hard to describe exactly what that entails, but it ended 29 00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:42.360 up becoming, you know, a full time job before anybody realized it. 30 00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:45.719 And then I think was you know, basically like Rob's full time job for 31 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:53.000 a while. And you know, if you haven't already, I'll link I'll 32 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:57.120 send the link out that Ian that you shared, but it's basically just like 33 00:02:57.159 --> 00:03:00.560 a Twitter thread of threat of responses to the Baseball Perspectives anouncement, and I 34 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:06.800 think that's worth reading it, and I don't want to go through and reiterate 35 00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:10.240 it, but it's you know, dozens of people responding basically talking about how 36 00:03:12.759 --> 00:03:16.560 kind and helpful and patient Rob was. And I think that was certainly my 37 00:03:16.599 --> 00:03:23.719 experience, and I think if there's a somewhat unique perspective or at least uncommon 38 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:28.159 perspective that I can shed some light on it. That around when I finished 39 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:31.199 college, so it's two or three years after I joined Baseball Perspectus, I 40 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:38.439 was still helping out fairly frequently, but I was in the middle of going 41 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:42.560 through all kinds of things as a lot of people do, finding a job 42 00:03:42.599 --> 00:03:47.960 and getting married and then getting divorced and getting dogs and getting a new job 43 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:53.680 and traveling and all that kind of stuff. But I was sort of dipping 44 00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:58.000 in and out of Baseball Perspectus the whole time, because I really appreciated the 45 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:01.199 community of folks there and enjoyed the work that I had done with them. 46 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:10.479 And you know, once Keith left, Rob was the most helpful person there. 47 00:04:10.759 --> 00:04:13.560 And was the only reason that I was ever able to get back up 48 00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:17.000 to speed after being you know, out of sync for six nine, twelve 49 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:20.240 twenty four months. You know, as you know, stuff with my life 50 00:04:20.279 --> 00:04:25.040 came and went, and I was sort of in and out. I can't 51 00:04:25.079 --> 00:04:28.040 count how many times I emailed Rob to be like, can you send me 52 00:04:28.279 --> 00:04:31.920 the connection information to all the servers again? Because I've just you know, 53 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:35.000 forgotten them or they've changed because it's been so long. And he was always 54 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:39.879 super patient and super helpful, and I knew everything off the top of his 55 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:43.879 head because he was in charge of coordinating at all. And you know, 56 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:46.639 I think it's a tribute to who he was as a person that you like, 57 00:04:46.759 --> 00:04:50.120 see all the responses and outputting on Twitter. But if there's something that 58 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:54.839 I can shed some light on is that the stuff that he did was technically 59 00:04:55.199 --> 00:04:58.920 fairly difficult, and he was struggling a lot of things all at once. 60 00:04:59.079 --> 00:05:05.360 And the fact that Baseball Prospectus was capable of churning out so much content and 61 00:05:05.480 --> 00:05:10.720 keeping the website going and you know, maybe not updating it as often as 62 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:14.879 all the readers would like, but actually going through several site refreshes in that 63 00:05:15.560 --> 00:05:20.000 decade plus generating all the content for the books. You know, all of 64 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:26.680 that stuff was all orchestrated by Rob, and everybody that ever interacted with him 65 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:30.160 had only good things to say about how all that went. So, you 66 00:05:30.199 --> 00:05:34.360 know, think of all of the hundreds of thousands of words that have spilled 67 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:40.279 onto the Internet and onto the pages of Baseball Perspectus, and it's maybe only 68 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:43.839 a slight overstatement to say that most of them wouldn't have been there without Rob's 69 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:47.439 help in some capacity or another, either from the website itself or the publishing 70 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:51.959 process for the book and what have you. And I think a lot of 71 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:58.360 people that mentioned stuff on Twitter sort of talked about how unheralded he was, 72 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:00.199 and I think that was most by his choice. You know, he got 73 00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:05.240 a lot of credits and appreciation at the bottom articles and stuff like that, 74 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:10.920 and mentions in the book, but you know, he was always in it 75 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:14.399 just to be helpful, because this is what he wanted to be doing, 76 00:06:14.439 --> 00:06:18.920 because he loved it. And and when I was reading through the tributes of 77 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:21.600 the thing that sort of stuck out to me and sort of struck a chord 78 00:06:21.639 --> 00:06:30.600 in me was, you know, I don't know, I'm not. I 79 00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:33.199 don't want to go too far, but I don't really know that I've ever 80 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:39.600 seen anybody else that could support all the technical things that Baseball Prospectus needs like 81 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:46.240 Rob did, and above and beyond missing him as a person and a personality 82 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:48.879 and as a friend, which I think you will definitely get if you go 83 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:51.920 through and read the things that people have said about him and the way that 84 00:06:51.959 --> 00:06:56.800 they talk about even people that only knew him for a year or less, 85 00:06:57.399 --> 00:06:59.839 you know, all the way up to all the people that knew him for 86 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:03.839 you know, a decade or more. Everybody has good things to say, 87 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:09.399 and I think, you know, in reading through those things, the thing 88 00:07:09.519 --> 00:07:14.240 that I sort of came back to is like, this is obviously somebody who 89 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:19.319 is an awesome person, and that's something that we can all aspire to for 90 00:07:19.399 --> 00:07:27.399 sure. And I think in a company that's seen dozens of people come through 91 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:33.319 and do all kinds of amazing things in baseball, it's possible that Rob was 92 00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:41.639 and is going to remain the most important person to ever work there, you 93 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:49.160 know. And that's I mean, I think that's really easy to substantiate and 94 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:57.839 a pretty tremendous accomplishment given all of the other people that you know would also 95 00:07:57.879 --> 00:08:01.839 be considered for that sort of thing, And yeah, you know, I 96 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:07.360 don't know. I don't know if I don't know how the site keeps going, 97 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:09.079 I don't know how the refresh has happened, I don't know how the 98 00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:16.600 data gets updated. And it was I mean, maybe a little bit fitting. 99 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:20.079 I'm gonna throw a little bit of negativity here, but like, I 100 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:26.399 so I got the email that they sent out for the announcement, and I 101 00:08:26.439 --> 00:08:28.519 wasn't on Twitter, so I didn't see that thing on Twitter. But I 102 00:08:28.519 --> 00:08:35.440 pulled up the VP website and there's this kind of like lame banner thing at 103 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:37.519 the top of the website that's like a nice tribute to Rob, but in 104 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:41.480 terms of like it's technical design is lame, is what I mean. It's 105 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:48.440 like it's a nice thing that somebody wrote. But it's like if if things 106 00:08:48.440 --> 00:08:52.679 had unfolded a different way and Rob had been the one to like make the 107 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:54.799 banner, it would have looked really nice and it would have like had the 108 00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:58.919 right funt and it would have been like well coordinated with the site and all 109 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:01.600 that stuff. And you can just sort of see right in the immediacy of 110 00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:07.960 everything unfolding and like it's like, oh, like nobody could have done it 111 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:13.879 like Rob did it, because Rob was the one that did everything. Yeah, 112 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:16.960 I mean, like, I don't you know, we're we're not really 113 00:09:18.519 --> 00:09:22.559 like you know, we're BP adjacent if anything, at this point. And 114 00:09:22.679 --> 00:09:26.919 you know, there are a lot of great people there and the site will 115 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:31.600 keep running. But you know, from where I stand today, I don't 116 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:41.679 understand how you know that the work he did was incalculable and without complaint and 117 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:46.759 just making it look so easy, yeah, which is really you know, 118 00:09:48.759 --> 00:09:54.440 the effortlessness allowed him to I guess be friendly or I don't know which one 119 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:58.399 drove the other. But like, because he was able to take on these 120 00:09:58.440 --> 00:10:05.399 incredible tasks, he was able also to bring his personality yeah too good and 121 00:10:05.399 --> 00:10:09.399 and extend that so far out right into the scoresheet community, which you mentioned 122 00:10:09.399 --> 00:10:13.840 before. You know, I think there are people that never opened the BP 123 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:18.120 website but knew Rob through the mock draft or his other scores sheet leagues, 124 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:26.279 and are you know, equally devastated by the news. It's no exaggeration whatsoever 125 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:30.799 to say that we would certainly not be here doing this podcast or any of 126 00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:35.720 the ones this year without Rob's help and support and encouragement. You know, 127 00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:39.440 in a time when the podcast had gone dormant, Rob was the one that 128 00:10:39.480 --> 00:10:43.559 reached out and was like, Hey, you guys should start that podcast up 129 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:46.399 again. You should really start doing more episodes. Is there anything I can 130 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:48.080 do to help? Is there any you know, like all the way up 131 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:50.720 to offering to do all the like technical production stuff, and I was, 132 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:56.200 I mean, I couldn't do that. I would feel so guilty having him 133 00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:58.879 do that for us. But that was like, you know, that was 134 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:05.600 the extent of his generosity. Was like, and he you know, he 135 00:11:05.679 --> 00:11:09.200 was genuinely excited about the possibility of the podcast happening again, and so he 136 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:16.240 initiated all that to happen. And so, you know, I guess in 137 00:11:16.519 --> 00:11:18.879 the aftermath of the news about his passing and sort of dwelling on it earlier 138 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:22.799 today, I was like, you know, it's not going to be easy, 139 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:24.000 and it's not going to be the best episode that anybody listens to, 140 00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:28.159 but we have to make sure we get together and at least talk about him 141 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:33.559 for a little while. And obviously I'm not great at just sort of extemporaneously 142 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:39.360 talking about how awesome he was. I'll say it again, like you can 143 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:46.200 see the measure of who he was by the outpouring that happens, you know, 144 00:11:46.279 --> 00:11:52.639 in situations like Twitter where everybody's stepping up and everybody's saying wonderful and glowing 145 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:56.000 things because they're all true, because that's who he was. And I think 146 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:03.279 it's something for us to keep of mine this Like, at the end of 147 00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:07.559 the day, being a really nice, generous, caring, thoughtful person is 148 00:12:09.080 --> 00:12:11.480 probably the best thing that any of us can aspire to. So yeah, 149 00:12:11.559 --> 00:12:16.440 yeah, um, and I'd like to just really well said, I'd like 150 00:12:16.519 --> 00:12:20.600 to you know, expand him two points. And Jared, you know, 151 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:24.720 certainly feel free to jump in as well. Um. You talked a lot 152 00:12:24.759 --> 00:12:28.559 about what he meant to BP and something about what he meant to us, 153 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:33.799 but you know, I want to talk one about what he meant to score 154 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:37.360 Sheet as a whole, because you know that's the world a lot of you 155 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:41.399 were in, and what he meant to us personally. Um, and to 156 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:46.399 score Sheet like again, just like just like Savor Metrics. You know, 157 00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:52.679 I think he held a lot of Saber Metric committee together, and you know, 158 00:12:52.759 --> 00:12:56.600 he held a lot of Scoresheet together. I think outside of like the 159 00:12:56.639 --> 00:13:01.440 Bartons and Brian du Barry Jones and maybe a couple like I don't know that 160 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:07.720 anybody gave as much to Scoresheet as Rob and certainly that was through his enthusiasm 161 00:13:07.799 --> 00:13:13.960 for it. But you know, we have talked many times about how the 162 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:20.159 Baseball Perspectives tools are the best on the site or the best anywhere for score 163 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:24.759 Sheet, and they're the reason to subscribe to BP, even if you don't 164 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:28.559 like listening to us, which we certainly understood, and that it wasn't that, 165 00:13:28.759 --> 00:13:33.519 and that was you know, one hundred percent, well maybe with some 166 00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:39.639 assistance from you, but like one hundred percent him and his passion for this 167 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:43.559 product in this game. And you know, I think he had more passion 168 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:50.960 for this community than literally anyone including us, maybe the creator, like just 169 00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:54.759 you know, anyone out there. And you can go down the line from 170 00:13:54.759 --> 00:14:03.399 that team tracker to SSM to line up developer or two like the the thing 171 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:07.840 that always got me was like the Minor League stand or the minor league game 172 00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:13.519 tracker, which he would update every year, and I'm convinced I am the 173 00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:18.720 only person who ever knew that and every I like in every where, I'd 174 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:22.159 be like, you know, I don't want to disturb you from the eight 175 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:26.360 thousand more important things on yard radar, but you know, the whatever the 176 00:14:26.519 --> 00:14:31.639 Gwinnette stripers changed their day, Yeah, I'm on it. I have a 177 00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:35.480 quick anecdote about that, at least like a tension off of that that. 178 00:14:35.679 --> 00:14:41.399 Um So, I was like poking around in some of my emails and stuff 179 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:46.039 and I have some you know, random nostalgic moments earlier today, and one 180 00:14:46.039 --> 00:14:50.679 of the things that I uncovered was a list of ideas that Rob and I 181 00:14:50.759 --> 00:14:54.519 had brainstormed at one point for like things we wanted to develop for the site. 182 00:14:54.759 --> 00:15:00.000 And there's a folder out there on one of the servers that basically has 183 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:03.200 like I don't know, I'll say, like a dozen little side projects that 184 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:09.720 he and I spun off at some point thinking like, oh, maybe this 185 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:16.000 is something that people would enjoy. And I'm very confident that after I left 186 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:18.720 that, like minor league scoreboard is a good example of these types of things. 187 00:15:18.919 --> 00:15:24.320 Was like Rob has an idea, He's like somebody will think this is 188 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:28.000 useful or cool or helpful or whatever, and he would just stand it up 189 00:15:28.039 --> 00:15:33.799 and make it happen and put it on the site because he could. You 190 00:15:33.879 --> 00:15:39.679 know, Yeah, it's like all those those the ratings of the team tracker 191 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:45.080 which are hidden in this like very strange place. You know, you can 192 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:50.080 all find that about how your team ranks compared to others, like just his 193 00:15:50.159 --> 00:15:54.039 idea and right, he just put it up ss Sam, I don't know 194 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:56.759 if you want to talk about that development again. I know you've mentioned it 195 00:15:56.799 --> 00:16:03.720 before, but certainly the most important metric and score sheet. Yeah, like 196 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:08.399 you guys, I essentially rebuilt it, right. It was like, yeah, 197 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:11.440 I don't want to I don't want to rehash it too much. It's 198 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:19.039 basically something that Nate Silver originally like had the original idea for. And part 199 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:22.279 of the reason I don't like talking about too much is because I don't have 200 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:26.600 to talk about Nates Silver. But he built it an Excel because that was 201 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:30.000 what he knew, and Rob and I were both like, well, this 202 00:16:30.279 --> 00:16:33.960 will not do. This is not a thing we can do every year in 203 00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:40.720 Excel, and so he and I sort of went through the process of rewriting 204 00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:45.519 it for the website. And then you know, this was definitely after I 205 00:16:45.559 --> 00:16:49.879 was not doing a whole lot of stuff to help out BP very often, 206 00:16:52.120 --> 00:16:56.639 and so Rob took it over and fixed all the little bugs that I had 207 00:16:56.679 --> 00:17:00.519 put in there, and like went through fairly rigorous testing to make sure that 208 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:03.880 everything tracked all the way through just right, and did a lot of debugging 209 00:17:03.880 --> 00:17:07.960 on all the different steps for all the different calculations and comparing them to the 210 00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:12.759 Excel spreadsheet, and and then once it was you know, pretty much done 211 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:18.880 in terms of the development, he was constantly spearheading ideas to improve it functionality, 212 00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:26.799 additions, different types of you know, like all the different parameterization and 213 00:17:26.839 --> 00:17:32.079 settings and stuff that are in there were almost all his idea, and I 214 00:17:32.119 --> 00:17:37.400 would say vast majority of the implementation work was his work. You know, 215 00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:41.119 all the updates every year, there's like there's a bunch of different little things 216 00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:44.279 that you really want to like tweak and review every year, and he was 217 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:47.839 always either doing them or like asking me to review them, or you know, 218 00:17:47.880 --> 00:17:51.319 like saying, hey, Ben, like what do you think A lot 219 00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:53.079 of the email threads that I found in my email when I was like poking 220 00:17:53.079 --> 00:17:59.880 through there were things that things that he was thinking about SSM or had her 221 00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:04.559 mostly John Mayne saying about s SIM is like, hey, I think we 222 00:18:04.599 --> 00:18:08.519 can fix this if we you know, try to tweak a little bit or 223 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:14.079 like what if we you know, change this parameter to be instead of being 224 00:18:14.079 --> 00:18:17.079 hard coded, we can just impute it from you. Like all these kinds 225 00:18:17.079 --> 00:18:22.279 of things that were you know, work above and beyond and um definitely contribute 226 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:29.599 to the value of the metric itself, but also you know, multiple data 227 00:18:29.640 --> 00:18:33.039 points over the course of every year of like how much he cared, how 228 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:36.119 much he wanted it to be as excellent as it could be, how much 229 00:18:36.599 --> 00:18:41.799 he enjoyed what he was doing, and how interested he was in you know, 230 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:45.039 pushing that out to as many people as possible and making it as helpful 231 00:18:45.079 --> 00:18:49.119 to you know, as much of the community as possible. And um, 232 00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:56.079 yeah, it's it's like a gift to people based on the things that he 233 00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:00.559 was passionate about. Yeah. I think is a thing that ms up over 234 00:19:00.599 --> 00:19:06.839 and over again. Yeah. And I think, you know, we're fortunate 235 00:19:06.920 --> 00:19:10.920 in a lot of ways that will have a lot of ways to remember him 236 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:15.039 because he did so many of these things that are going to be useful to 237 00:19:15.079 --> 00:19:21.599 so many people for so much longer after he's um, you know, not 238 00:19:21.720 --> 00:19:27.400 able to keep working on them. Yeah. Um. Yeah, and you 239 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:34.079 know I do think I do see this podcast again as one of those things 240 00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:40.720 like a project that he was passionate about and wanted to work on um which 241 00:19:40.839 --> 00:19:44.559 is amazing and it has been a gift, especially over the last year, 242 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:52.400 and definitely wanted to reiterate, like you know, I cancer something like not 243 00:19:52.440 --> 00:19:57.599 only you know, as somebody who has been a reader of BP for a 244 00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:02.759 long time, like you were involved in it, I've kind of just been 245 00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:07.680 a person reading and like everyone there is like on the other side, yeah, 246 00:20:07.720 --> 00:20:14.599 that they are like the geniuses who I grew up reading essentially, and 247 00:20:14.680 --> 00:20:21.960 to have that veil be pierced through an you know, through a number of 248 00:20:21.960 --> 00:20:26.279 people who worked at PP the first time, but especially throughout the second and 249 00:20:26.359 --> 00:20:33.079 to have him welcome us in to this world and with you know, with 250 00:20:33.119 --> 00:20:41.160 a graciousness that I do not extend to myself honestly, and generosity is you 251 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:45.400 know, that was about the most incredible thing I could experience. Like, 252 00:20:47.039 --> 00:20:49.400 you know, I was looking at some of this and it's like, you 253 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:55.359 know, seeing the tributes come in from like heavy hitters of the industry such 254 00:20:55.400 --> 00:20:57.920 as it is you know, Jay Jaffee, Ben Lindbergh and so she all 255 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:02.000 had nice things. You know, all we're helped and like to have like 256 00:21:02.279 --> 00:21:07.240 us clowns also be helped by him. It's like like just for me, 257 00:21:07.519 --> 00:21:11.640 like I you know, like why are you spending? Like why do you 258 00:21:11.720 --> 00:21:15.640 value my opinion along with that? And you know he did, you know, 259 00:21:15.720 --> 00:21:23.119 I think on some level genuinely, you know, this is what we 260 00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:26.160 were saying today. I would probably say it any day, like we were 261 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:33.319 making the podcast for him, like almost almost literally in something. I think 262 00:21:33.319 --> 00:21:37.079 we even said that once or twice. Yeah, and we were happy to 263 00:21:37.160 --> 00:21:41.640 do it because we felt like he deserved it and right like he brought us 264 00:21:41.640 --> 00:21:45.160 back because he wanted to listen to us, which is just a tremendous honor 265 00:21:45.279 --> 00:21:52.440 and gift. Yeah, and you know, hard for me to even believe 266 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:57.839 in myself to that degree. And you know that is certainly the thing that 267 00:21:57.960 --> 00:22:07.720 I have taken from speaking with him, just briefly, like valuing my hockey 268 00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:11.720 jokes once or twice, like you know there is like you changed the VP 269 00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:15.559 slack chat like one of the line to like a joke that I made, 270 00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:19.039 yeah, which I believe was a slam on Jerkson profar. Actually, so 271 00:22:19.079 --> 00:22:25.440 we are like on rand I was going to support a slam on Jerkson profar. 272 00:22:25.799 --> 00:22:30.839 Yeah, let me check any of the pub is line real quick. 273 00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:36.720 Yeah, but like yeah, but like seeing that is like, oh, 274 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:42.599 like you know I am a part of this. You know. I think 275 00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:45.559 I've said to everyone who listens, you know, to all of you, 276 00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:51.240 like you're definitely the people who keep us going, you like, respond to 277 00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:55.880 us even in our moments of self doubt, of which I have frequent, 278 00:22:56.079 --> 00:23:00.359 all of them. Um. And you know, I think having somebody of 279 00:23:00.440 --> 00:23:10.559 that reputation, like you know, talent, just like asking us questions about 280 00:23:10.599 --> 00:23:12.920 what he thought of what he thought about his team. You know a lot 281 00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:18.680 of people have brought up like he would ask a lot of questions about baseball. 282 00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:22.319 Yeah, and just like what you think about a trade, um, 283 00:23:22.839 --> 00:23:29.119 and you know, just like keeping the conversation going. Um. You know, 284 00:23:29.240 --> 00:23:32.839 and I think right uh, like Jared, I think you know that 285 00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:36.880 may have been someone what you like, how you interacted with them, it's 286 00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:45.279 through just him chatting to us off offline. Yes, yeah, no, 287 00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:49.039 um, I agree, And you all said it better than anything I could. 288 00:23:49.240 --> 00:23:52.599 I guess just a couple more things I wanted to to fill in up. 289 00:23:52.599 --> 00:23:56.799 I was going back piece some old emails, and I think Rob was 290 00:23:56.839 --> 00:24:00.559 in the larger responsible for us getting the podcast on VP and in the first 291 00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:03.839 place. Yeah, he was the one who made the introduction to bread and 292 00:24:03.160 --> 00:24:07.000 suggested and it was it was a team thing. But I'm not sure we're 293 00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:10.680 on VP with that. With that, Rob and I was looking back, 294 00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:18.519 we invited him on the podcast Liliver five years ago and he said that he 295 00:24:18.599 --> 00:24:22.720 really stunk at podcasts. He respectfully declined, and I guess about you, 296 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:26.000 Like, one of my big regrets is that we never we never took the 297 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:30.599 time to follow up and knowing that he probably wouldn't want to be on if 298 00:24:30.599 --> 00:24:32.880 there was a way that we could have got him on it, I think, 299 00:24:33.480 --> 00:24:37.240 Yeah, I do recall it as being the only guest who has ever 300 00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:44.160 turned us down. Amazing because we should have been turned down by everyone, 301 00:24:44.359 --> 00:24:47.400 like it's been gracious, but it right, It wasn't out of like, 302 00:24:47.559 --> 00:24:52.119 it wasn't out of busy answer like he I guess did not whoa No, 303 00:24:52.160 --> 00:24:55.680 I think that like he didn't feel I don't know what whatever it was, 304 00:24:55.720 --> 00:24:57.559 but whatever he felt, he wasn't. I mean, he certainly was and 305 00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:00.759 yeah, maybe maybe should have, but it's done a better job telling him 306 00:25:00.759 --> 00:25:04.599 that, I mean he was he was, um, he was on the 307 00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:08.839 score sheet at baseball respect is email right right? Yeah, like those those 308 00:25:08.839 --> 00:25:14.279 emails went to him and he responded at least to us too, I guess 309 00:25:14.279 --> 00:25:17.480 we Like what always struck me about Rob is just how how present he was 310 00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:21.200 and seeing all these other tributes commended. It blows my mind that he had 311 00:25:21.240 --> 00:25:26.799 the the time and energy and willingness to get so deep in the mousha of 312 00:25:26.920 --> 00:25:30.400 like silly questions with us about this, right, and then like everyone else 313 00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:33.920 like I could. It's stunned me that everyone else was like yeah, like 314 00:25:33.960 --> 00:25:36.599 Rob was helping me too. I I couldn't believe he had time to all 315 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:40.960 day. It blows my mind, right, and to have like uh you 316 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:44.279 know, like and not to get start straight, but like all of the 317 00:25:44.279 --> 00:25:48.480 big names in VP and throughout like Savan Rotricks like right again, like he 318 00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:52.480 has time for us, and he had time for like we're not the only 319 00:25:52.480 --> 00:25:55.759 one, Like there are a lot of little fish who he was helping along 320 00:25:55.799 --> 00:26:00.960 the way. It is just, yeah, I don't understand how you could 321 00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:06.319 give that much talk to that many people. And I never remember hearing him 322 00:26:06.319 --> 00:26:11.200 complaining ever about anything with our stuff. Yeah, he's always complete opposite. 323 00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:15.039 Yeah. The only thing I remember him complaining about was like trades that he 324 00:26:15.359 --> 00:26:22.480 made that he wished he hadn't made. You know, I'll i'll echo slightly 325 00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:26.400 that, like, I have some regrets that he was never on the podcast. 326 00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:30.599 I think I think in some ways it's kind of fitting that we didn't 327 00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:36.079 try to talk him into it or whatever, because it's sort of like, 328 00:26:36.079 --> 00:26:42.039 well, this is of his doing in enough ways that if he really doesn't 329 00:26:42.039 --> 00:26:45.880 want to come on, then you know, who are we to try to 330 00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:49.119 talk him into it. I'll share one other regret and I sort of voice 331 00:26:49.200 --> 00:26:56.680 this privately to Jared, and I think it's maybe a little of a vulnerability 332 00:26:56.720 --> 00:26:59.039 for me, but I think it's worth sharing. Is that, um, 333 00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:04.480 in the VP slack, there's a scoresheet channel, and I would venture to 334 00:27:04.519 --> 00:27:08.599 guess something like eighty percent of the messages on that channel came from Rob, 335 00:27:08.720 --> 00:27:15.119 and it was always Rob looking for conversations just about scoresheet and his players and 336 00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:18.640 his teams, or current events or something like that. And I sort of 337 00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:26.880 jokingly called it Rob's scoresheet support group at one point because it was you know 338 00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:33.960 so often that he was reaching out and and I I mean I meant the 339 00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:40.160 comments sort of good naturally, as like a sort of a joke amongst the 340 00:27:40.200 --> 00:27:44.640 three of us. But it makes me regret that I didn't put more energy 341 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:49.200 and effort into engaging him, because I think he certainly had more than earned, 342 00:27:49.720 --> 00:27:53.640 you know, my time at that point. Not that I necessarily had 343 00:27:53.680 --> 00:27:57.079 anything super useful to say, but you know, sometimes you could tell he 344 00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:02.559 was just looking for a you know, he would mention, you know, 345 00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:06.400 some unlucky outcomes in the sim or something like that, and he's just looking 346 00:28:06.440 --> 00:28:10.480 for somebody to you know, yeah, just chime in and be like, 347 00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:15.039 yeah, that stinks, Like I hate it when the secretcing breaks the wrong 348 00:28:15.039 --> 00:28:19.519 way for you or whatever. And I had chances to do that and miss 349 00:28:19.599 --> 00:28:26.680 them. And I think, you know, as I was thinking about if 350 00:28:26.680 --> 00:28:29.680 there's anything useful to take away from something like this, you know, I 351 00:28:29.720 --> 00:28:36.680 mentioned how universally positively he and back to people, and how that's like something 352 00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:40.279 that can inspire us. I think there's also at least for me personally, 353 00:28:40.319 --> 00:28:44.799 and like possibly for other people. You could think of similar settings and situations 354 00:28:44.799 --> 00:28:48.440 that happened to you, like I have a certain amount of regret about not 355 00:28:48.920 --> 00:28:55.200 engaging with him more fully and not reciprocating in a lot of ways the energy 356 00:28:55.240 --> 00:28:59.440 that he put into, you know, the things that I was thinking about 357 00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:03.480 or talking about or whatever, to sort of reciprocate that energy back for him 358 00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:06.119 about the things that he was thinking about and talking about carrying about. And 359 00:29:07.240 --> 00:29:12.240 you know, I definitely regret the imbalance of that creative in a relationship where 360 00:29:12.279 --> 00:29:17.160 like he was constantly giving and I was doing more taking than giving, and 361 00:29:17.680 --> 00:29:23.640 I I should have done a better job of that. And so you know, 362 00:29:23.720 --> 00:29:29.880 maybe that's also a thing that can come out of this little at least 363 00:29:29.880 --> 00:29:33.480 be an opportunity for people to think about, like, you know, take 364 00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:40.319 that extra few a few minutes to have that conversation with somebody about how tricks 365 00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:42.480 and profile really isn't good at baseball if that's what they want to rant about 366 00:29:42.559 --> 00:29:47.880 or whatever. Not that Rob would do that. So that's like me projecting 367 00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:52.279 myself. Rob would never say anything bad about baseball players, I don't think. 368 00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:56.119 I mean, I'm sure he did, but like, yeah, yeah, 369 00:29:56.279 --> 00:30:03.440 yeah, I you know, I connected that, Like I feel similarly 370 00:30:03.440 --> 00:30:07.400 in my own way, where you know, you would ask questions and you 371 00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:12.839 know, I would take more time to respond than he did to ask them. 372 00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:18.000 And you know, I think just in the last week we were chatting, 373 00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:30.680 we were chatting offline about not baseball, but music, which was the 374 00:30:30.799 --> 00:30:33.839 two a very large degree one of his passions. And I think you'll see 375 00:30:33.839 --> 00:30:40.400 that in a lot of reminiscences as they I think come out on the site. 376 00:30:41.119 --> 00:30:42.839 So I don't want to steal other people's thunder, but I definitely, 377 00:30:44.359 --> 00:30:48.839 you know, something that was important to him as well and is important to 378 00:30:48.920 --> 00:30:53.319 me. And you know, I don't want to cut this off prematurely, 379 00:30:53.400 --> 00:30:59.920 but I did have the best thing I saw this week, which is very 380 00:31:00.279 --> 00:31:03.720 you know, I just came back from the Carlier Jackson concert and I won't 381 00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:08.119 talk about her again except to say that, Um, you know, we 382 00:31:08.119 --> 00:31:15.359 were chatting. I was chatting with Rob last week and the conversation turned to 383 00:31:15.519 --> 00:31:22.400 music and he said, uh, he said to me that I'll pull up 384 00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:27.519 the exact line, which I have somewhere here, um, but that his 385 00:31:29.039 --> 00:31:40.680 obsession was in finding great female vocals, great and energetic female vocals. Um. 386 00:31:41.160 --> 00:31:48.680 And uh, Jared, you know me, I met you, Yeah, 387 00:31:48.160 --> 00:31:53.039 and you know what I listened to um and energetic female vocals. Yeah 388 00:31:53.079 --> 00:32:00.000 that you know. He uh was the h the only person I met with 389 00:32:00.119 --> 00:32:06.640 a bigger paramore fan than the two of us, you know, and it 390 00:32:06.759 --> 00:32:08.440 was just you know, which I have met and other people, but like 391 00:32:08.440 --> 00:32:15.720 this encyclopedia knowledge of music, but I think accompanied by this joy and interest 392 00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:27.200 in like everything for like Prague to like EDM to you know, loud music 393 00:32:27.200 --> 00:32:34.599 and just putting women first, which I definitely relate to. You know that 394 00:32:34.720 --> 00:32:37.920 a lot of people talked about playlists that he shared with them, and I 395 00:32:37.960 --> 00:32:43.480 got my first one in his last message to me, you know, and 396 00:32:43.599 --> 00:32:47.359 that is tough. I had this thought then. Even now I'm like, 397 00:32:47.359 --> 00:32:50.799 oh, this is somebody who I'm going to be talking to for a long 398 00:32:50.799 --> 00:32:57.400 time about this, and you know, it is very rough to realize that 399 00:32:57.519 --> 00:33:01.480 I'm not going to and that has been weighing on me in the last day. 400 00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:07.400 But you know, what I guess I can do on some level is 401 00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:15.079 go out to see Carly and to see all of all of my favorite women 402 00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:23.039 and meet his obsession for great female vocals and you know, live that for 403 00:33:23.279 --> 00:33:29.680 him to some degree in my own way, and to be passionate about the 404 00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:36.559 things that I love and hopefully share them with others, and that that is 405 00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:43.039 to a degree, what I've taken from him, and hopefully y'all get to 406 00:33:43.079 --> 00:33:52.960 experience that as well in your life. Yeah. Yeah, Um, I 407 00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:57.119 don't know anyone anyone else have things to say. I don't want to cut 408 00:33:57.119 --> 00:34:00.039 the party short here, but um, like I said, it's been a 409 00:34:00.119 --> 00:34:04.000 rough day for us. We're recording this pretty late, but I think we 410 00:34:04.039 --> 00:34:07.880 all wanted to take some time out of our day, no matter when, 411 00:34:07.119 --> 00:34:15.239 for him. So yeah, um, all right, we'll be We'll be 412 00:34:15.239 --> 00:34:20.360 back at some point with you know, the dumb stuff that we talk about 413 00:34:20.400 --> 00:34:28.800 normally. I'm sure you know. I can't say when. Send us send 414 00:34:28.880 --> 00:34:32.360 us your thoughts, comments, questions, scoresee at baseball perspectis dot com. 415 00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:36.079 You know, if you have any thoughts on this episode that you'd like us 416 00:34:36.079 --> 00:34:38.840 to share, we'll read them. If you want to send dumb trade questions 417 00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:44.639 and like random nonsense, believe me, that is what Rob would have loved 418 00:34:44.679 --> 00:34:49.840 as well, So please please send along. It's just anything that you have, 419 00:34:50.320 --> 00:34:52.199 you know, it's it's always good to hear from you. And like 420 00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:57.639 we said, you know, we were doing this for him to some degree 421 00:34:57.760 --> 00:35:00.880 and to all of our lists and for all of our listeners, and um, 422 00:35:00.920 --> 00:35:07.000 you know we'll be we're down one and we're down somebody who supported us 423 00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:13.360 and entered us. Um. But you know we want to keep going for 424 00:35:13.760 --> 00:35:22.119 everyone else and to keep him happy in some way. So uh I guess 425 00:35:22.280 --> 00:35:30.719 with that said, um again, UM you know, uh restI is your 426 00:35:30.840 --> 00:35:37.039 Rob. We'll mess you. And yeah, I think I want to thank 427 00:35:37.079 --> 00:35:40.760 you, perhaps on behalf of allow us, for all that you have given 428 00:35:40.840 --> 00:35:52.400 us. Um and yeah I'll given this community. Yeah yeah yeah, So 429 00:35:53.039 --> 00:35:59.800 um, thank you again for listening. Thank you to Rob, and thanks 430 00:36:00.039 --> 00:36:05.719 to Benasher. Thank you both for pushing this and making this happen because it 431 00:36:05.760 --> 00:36:10.159 was worth it. But on behalf of all of us, thanks again and 432 00:36:10.400 --> 00:36:12.599 have a great day.