The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: The Hottest Manager In Baseball

Episode Date: June 20, 2023

Stugotz joins us through zoom for his Weekend Observations. Then, the hottest manager in baseball, Skip Schumaker, joins us in-studio! We objectify Schumaker for his incredible physique before asking him about Luis Arraez hitting .400, how he prepared to be a first-time manager, the team's recent success, and a whole lot more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. This is the Dunlabel Tarshall with the Stugat's Podcast. It is time for Stugat's to share his game notes. No one in the media will tell you what happened better than my boy's stew. Weak and observations brought to you by Miller Light, Greatest, 96 calories available for delivery. Din! He went away for 10 months and no one noticed. He came back and no one noticed.

But we are officially in the dog days of summer and I needed someone to be back. And he was there for me. Because, Din, yesterday, back and he was there for me because Dan yesterday he went two of three with a home run three RB eyes while leading the Reds to their ninth straight win and just like that make no mistake about it Dan Joey Votto is back. The Reds have won a bunch of in a row. I just saw they've got a tall player

who can beat out first base. I'll give you the first beat. Yeah, he did my god. He got blind drives to first base. Make sure I tried to tell you about him. He's six foot seven. What? I mean, he's just, he looks giant.

Don't worry, Joey Votto's to guess. Yeah, he's back. Ribby. Don't worry, Joey Vodas to get. Yeah, he's back. Ribbys. Ha. Automatic Brights and Cars. Game Changer. Ricky Fowler. You're that lazy.

You're the major. You're that lazy. You need the Brights to be automatic as opposed to just turning them on. Listen, my car does not have this, but these Brights go on when the car thinks I need a body Brights then and I need it. The Brights go on automatically the core thinks I need body brights in and I needed them. The brights go on automatically.

And then they turn off. It's unbelievable on their own. I mean, two guys have you seen the windshield wipers that turn themselves on? Yeah. Eighth knows. What? Hey, they're.

Yeah. I don't like windshield wipers to go on except when I put them on. Well, I'll get to that. My dad is. Ricky Fowler. Do it in a major. Yeah.

First Paul Bradley Beals about to become everything you are not. Tune in the WFAN for the first time in over a year. And they are still talking about the Metzing Yankees form systems and taking calls from Mike on a car phone. God I love that station. Tchaikovnik Parkway, one of the most dangerous stretches of roads anywhere in America. Top five most dangerous stretches of roads anywhere in America. Number five, the Pacific Coast highway by the big sir,

that whole area, it feels like you're gonna drive off a cliff. It does. Yep, it's a good, you've got four better than that. You're number four, the road to recovery, Dan. Number three, where the turn pike turns into I95 in Miami, the worst. It's bad, but it's not falling off a cliff bed. Well, number two, Ticonic Parkway.

Very windy, no light, dangerous road. And number one, Dan, of course, the road to the final four. I thought he was gonna go the road to Hana. It really did. But the road to the final four, yeah, it's tougher. It's at the road to get the road to final four. It's tougher. It's a tough road. Yeah.

Here come the reds. They're discussing whether or not Pita Lanzo should participate in the home run derby. The polar bear, the fan. The least shocking news of the weekend was Bob Huggins being pulled over for a DUI. Huggy Bear. David Freeze. Not accepting his invitation to the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame because he doesn't think he's worthy. Hey Freeze, get over yourself. Someone just told a story about Craig Nettles, a Billy Martin holy shit. What's going on with Freeze Dan, you agree?

I mean, get over yourself for being humble enough to not be worthy of a team hall of fame. You got that as look at me Louis. Oh yeah? Okay. Look at me Louis. Hey Freeze, not going in. Okay. Look at me, Louis. Hey, Freeze, not going in. Made it a bigger story than going in. Actually, my apologies.

Had he played? Bradley Beale. You had the life, man. Welcome to the world of expectations. 12 minutes on whether or not Anthony Volpy should be sent down to the world of expectations. 12 minutes on whether or not Anthony Volpe should be sent down to the minors. 10 shares. Can't wait to see how Kevin Durant screws this one up.

Kevin Durant just so we're clear. If the Phoenix Suns were to championship, it will not count as a championship for you in my personal record. Oh really? That's fair. Of course, no, what that means, Dan, right? What does that mean? It means he's in a no win situation. Yes. Kevin, the rant has spent his entire career putting himself in no win

situations. By the way, Devon Booker. Same goes for you. Chris Cody, what's the matter? I hear something cooking up in there in his throat. Yeah, in his throat. Is it not? No, there's nothing there. Is it the weekend? You hear something?

You hear part of the weekend in his throat? Maybe it's just my ears. Yeah, he just tried just got rid of it. Yeah, he just coughed it out. You think of me enough time? By the way, the only one getting a ring on that team is Biel and maybe Tory Craig and maybe Cameron Payne. That's it. Oh, no, Devin Booker either. No, no, no, really. A Booker couldn't win one with Chris Paul. The Dan, they were the number one C. They've had good teams two years in, couldn't get it done. Now you need to rant to come in. Now you need

beel to come in. Give me a break. Enough, Devon Booker. Nothing. I'm here to tell you, there's an easier life out there. And it exists in Saratoga Springs, New York. You're not here to tell us that. You're there to tell us that. Oh, yeah, you're right. It's a good point. Ricky Fowler, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Hey, new cars, let's make a deal.

If I want to change lanes without using my blinker, let me do so in peace without your violent attacks trying to jerk me the other way. In fact, new cars in general. Just do me a favor and leave me the hell alone Be a car you just praise them for turning on your right turn on my bright stuff Hey, I try to tell us in if I want to not use my blinker. I'm allowed to not use my blinker I don't need a car telling me otherwise. I don't want to use my bag right?

Stay in your lane cars.. Thank you, Greg. Literally, yeah. Chris Ball is expected to join the show this week. If Dan will have me, I can't wait to ask him what he makes of people like Dan who say he's not a top 10 point guard of all time. That's how I would ask him. You missed the last thing. There are a few things I would bet my life on.

One of those things is that this past weekend wasn't the first time Bob Huggins climbed behind the wheel after having won too many. I mean he's got multiple DUI so. Oh there you go. Dan you know what the B and Bob stands for? Booze. Yeah I'm bombed. Oh, there you go. Dan, you know what the bee in Bob stands for? Boos. Yeah, bombed.

When you were born with the name Wyndham Clark, you know what you were born to do, Dan O? I'm sorry, Billy just said your video is so clear and it looked so much better, your face, when it wasn't quite as clear. It's too clear, and now we see the entire weekend on your face. Oh, I'm laring it, man. Whoo Saratoga Anyway, answer my question. I wasn't listening to you play professional golf and win the US Open when your name

Win them Clark Dan. That's what you do Saratatoga Performing Arts Center, concert heaven, SPAC, Chris Paul, welcome the basketball hell, speaking of hell, orprials, Dan, those are the weekend observations. What questions do we want to ask and not ask about Stugots' sobriety, Stugots' weekends, Stugots' sobriety, Stugots' weekends, Stugots' summer. The expectations forced Stugots over the next couple of months. Why are you doing this from Saratoga's opposed to from here? I'm in New York City now. I'm not in Saratoga because I have two more dead shows

at City Field and two at Family Park, and then I'm coming home. I mean, listen, I'm working on vacation. That's what I do, you know. Oh, did you do this today? So it doesn't count as a vacation day. Bingo. Do we have the other picture mic of you with Stugat at the airport? Can we put up on because this, we're worried about you, Stugat as a show. Billy's worried for reasons that were enumerated earlier in the show. Billy is worried because he is getting an assortment of punishments or bad reputation

because he can't actually wrangle you during the summer. He's being blamed for you not being an adult. Hmm. It's unfortunate for Billy. I mean. You know, at the time, I thought the photo that we have up there of us in Austin at the airport was a bad one But in retrospect after two more years looks better and you look kind of fantastic. It looks like

Those were the glory days Chris County continues to maintain that thing has been fighting it There is a piece of flamback there that is just fighting the good fight right now. Chris, I've done it. It's gone fine. Like, I couldn't clear my throat if I wanted to. The only thing that you have to protect for the future of your career is that throat.

Well, I mean, listen, thankfully this is the final dead-end company tour, I mean. Mike, are you up to believe that he could survive 10 more shows in another summer in his 50s of flying all over the place when he comes back down here Every time with his back hurting and needs to get like an epidural for a spine the kind of medicine that women and labor need I I don't think he's gonna make it through this final tour and I say that with air quotes because it they're definitely not wrapping it up right They don't call them the grateful living

He even workshoped that one and just can leave, you can never got a reaction when you were workshopping at the previous seven times. All right, get out of here. You insist on going to that, and then rejected by the... He said it to the room multiple times, like guys I'm gonna go with this. The room was, the room kept looking,

I saw you looking back at him as if he were farting, all of you like, just stop doing that. It's this thing Are you worried that at the end or during this tour stew gots is going to be Ungrateful and dead It's a fair assessment All right, so gods. Thank you for making the time the grateful dad's gonna out live me Jesus. I Don't know what we're gonna do

This is the first one of the summer and he's got something in his throat. He's got to protect his throat. Chris Cody, you got very frustrated with your father at the beginning of that. You threw your hands up in the air because your father did something. Do you remember what it was?

Or it's just general frustration that you have with him that is every Tuesday. Well, you know, I'm trying to talk to him. I'm trying to say things in his ears, some is on air, Some is not. And he doesn't know the difference. It's just I it's it's not him. It's a me problem in this seat. It lands on me. And that's on me. That's leave. I'm sorry, Greg Cody. I will try to be better. But you got me. I think I mean thinking about Elton John is the farewell tour that I think you would want to most travel around. You know, I've seen him several times. I still think I would rather see this is y no he visto a los años, yo creo que me parece que me parece.

¡Claro, no es un proveo que le va a dar a ser con las estugas! ¡Gambelón, con las grafas! If you're a... You're a real bitch, you're a real bitch. Listen to what you hear. We're going to kill our eyes. We're going to kill all the others. But the more terrorists don't know what to do. Watch the people who ask you to watch. I want to follow you. Birdbox, Barcelona. It's a strange Netflix, July 14.

You dare to know. Done, levertard! We'd like to call this one a chorus of Owen Wilson. Ready? Mm-hmm. Stugats! Julio, te atreves a ver. Is he the hottest manager in baseball? I don't mean 11 games over 500. I just mean the way he was being objectified in the other room because Billy and Mike couldn't stop asking him questions about his workouts and his cheap meals and he's very fit. He's uncomfortably fit. He doesn't have to.

He's a manager. Yeah, he could kick the ass of any player. That's not entirely true, but I am imagining there are some guys in your weight room that you can out work. Correct? There have to be one or two that you can have a more rigorous workout than you're not going to do that. I'm not going to, I'm not going to call anybody out right now.

I just try to knock the old man out. That's all I think about when I try to work out. But what an opening, thank you. Billy, how many guys in his own clubhouse do you think that you can outlive jazz? Oh, no, no, I'm not, no, champ, no. Really? Not right, no. I mean, he's, he's like the twitchiest guy around. There's no way I can outlive jazz. Hold on, there's twitchy and they're strong. I think you can outlive them, get them a bench, you know, do a little bit more. I don't, I'm not going to try to out bench any player.

I don't think that's the way to go here. Yeah. All right, we're going to, we're going to do it. You do. You make your stars feel really bad and insecure about themselves. Yeah, that's not part of the, I don't think you should be, you should empower or not put down. I don't think that.

We put you in a bad spot right off the top, but I really did think when the season started that there wasn't a way to this point to be 11 games over 500 if you weren't getting start-up performances from Sandy and Jazz. I thought that those of all the unconventional things about this being one of the harder starts in Marlon's history, it wasn't coming from places that I expected it to come from. Did you? I'd be lying to say if I was expecting to be 11 over with, Sandy's first half-star or whatever, and Jazz being down half the year so far,

I would say last six weeks at least. But what Sandy has done also, has provided a lot of innings even in the rough start, so provided some bullpen relief, and has kept us in some games to actually win. But it's nice of you to say that that was not the state. That's not the team you signed up for. Sandy, keep us in some games.

No, no, no, I hear you. But I also think, we'll talk about this a little bit later, but I think the WBC did play a little bit of a role in some of the rough starts in a lot of guys this year. The acquisitions of some of the moves that Kim made were huge. And I think, you know, once you got a rise and, you know, probably talk about that a little bit later.

You're really dictating this interview. You're really telling me what we're going to talk about. I was assuming because everybody wants to talk about the guy in 400, but I think that that really set the tone. He's a good hitter. He's doing okay. Yeah, he's doing all right. Yeah, he's doing all right.

Every time I look up, he's got three to five hits. He is hitting 400. I was disappointed in him when he fell to 390. You tell me, explain to me. I mean, you know how hard it is to hit in the big leagues. What is that? Like, what is happening that the guy can win a batting title and also all of a sudden spend half a year

where you don't think he's hot. I mean, I don't think he's a 400 hitter, but every time he comes up, I'm expecting him to get a hit. You've heard people say, you know, for years, the guy just wakes up and hits. He actually wakes up and hits. So he has a alarm clock.

Yeah, well he actually gets up and then he has a tea in soft Tosnet in the in his backyard and he hits before he gets to the field before breakfast. Yeah, most people drink tea So he's coffee. Yeah, yeah, exactly right So he comes in he's so routine oriented process driven And that part has been huge for the rest of our team because they actually see what a routine looks like. And so what I love it, of course I love guys sitting 400 on my team, but the buy-in from everybody else watching this kid work

is like, if he's doing it, why shouldn't I be able to do it? And when your best player is your hardest worker, man, that's huge for a rookie manager and that's what you're seeing. How often when you were playing, would you assume a batting stance, an imaginary batting stance in a strange place? Like what were the strange places

where you would be so hitting obsessed that we'd find you in a grocery store aisle? There you go, you said at the grocery store, my wife would be like, what are you doing? I mean, you're barbecuing, you're in a batting state, you're doing a batting stance, you're always doing something to fill your hands or, you know, whatever it is, but I think I was in the hospital. My kids are being delivered and I'm standing up thinking about my load. So it's not great. My batting stance load uh... into my yeah

well some mature don't let's ignore them but i think that was probably the one where my wife's like what are you doing i want more of this story you're literally waiting for your kids and you're changing your the balance is a long labor you know i was as it was long for an hours worth and you know season get an epidural and I'm in my batting stance. It wasn't a great moment for me.

But yeah, there's more things on my mind that shouldn't happen. So yeah. Do you still do that though? Because I don't know if that ever leaves you. And I do want to ask you about the transition because both ways it can be difficult. The transition from grieving yourself and your identity is a former player to being a manager

who has only so much control over the action where you're used to, hey, if I'm obsessed enough to be in my betting stance while my wife is in labor, I can control the results of those four at bats. You're a bystander like us on some of what you're doing now. And there's a distance in that that I'm always curious about what it does to an athlete to find a new Identity after retirement. Yeah, you know, it's funny is well speaking retirement my wife told me I'm not your hobby So figure out something to do So that's why I got into coaching, but when I was playing my I was a bench player for the majority of my career. And I didn't love that.

But I got to watch different managers go about navigating the game. And it really helped me learn the game and bullpen moves or pinch hitting moves, whatever it was, leadership qualities that I liked I didn't like. And then kind of made my own just in case. I never wanted to manage, which is wild. I wanted to be a major league player, but then I fell in love with the coaching side of it as soon as I retired and then just kind of made my way up. But I think sometimes when you're the some bad players are make better coaches because

they know how hard this game is. Sometimes a really good players are not a great coaches because it was just so easy for them. You think you are a bad player? You identify as a bad player just because you were. I was say I was one of the 25th or so guys on the roster a lot. So it took, you were like 18 or 19. Yeah, come on.

What are you doing here? It's so hard. You said a damn good player. I knew that if I had a bad week, I was probably getting cut or, I had to be like a month. I'd say fair. Yeah, around that area.

But I need that. I was always in survival mode. And so that I had to be super detailed to survive. And I think that's what helped me in my coaching careers. Can you take us through what that felt like to always have a family, the responsibility of a family. And if I have a bad month, I'm going from big league living to something that doesn't feel like a career anymore.

That's why I was working on my stance during labor, right? I mean, it was constant, a lot of anxiety, a lot of pressure. I was seeing sports psychologists before, sports psychologists were okay in the game. Before it was like you were mentally weak to see somebody. And I never wanted to tell Tony the Rooster that I was seeing a sports psychologist. Like there's no way. But it was only just because finding different ways to not fear failure. It was just, I'm here, be present and succeed.

But I do feel like it really helped me through some times where I'm looking at my two kids and trying to figure out how, you know, what ifs and not worrying about that so much and it really helped me through. Fear, what is your relationship with it? This is the manager of the one of the hottest teams at Bayscore. What are we even doing right now? This is supposed to be a fun time I love it games over 500 hitters when you tell yourself to moat like what is this? So can we just have there? We can we can be I like to serve. Yes, I'm kid Raiders fan a is Tom Brady gonna be your quarterback I hope so really

Wow, I don't know we don't have one right now, right? Well, you have Jimmy T. But you're right. You don't have something we don't have We don't have Go ahead Billy. What are we gonna talk about the Raiders? He's a big Raiders fan down I know that he played in Cuba. He's have Cuban coffee before games You're gonna ask me what to ask him feel for telling you were just throwing Nobody's gonna keep it up. Oh, he rises hitting 400.. Yes, it a great crowd for a Monday night skip, huh? Well, let's not get carried away. How is John Jay doing, by the way?

Because he's the first base coach for the Marlins. And they were doing this thing where Luis Arise slaps him on his chest after every hit. And after that fifth hit last night, that looked like downright painful. So how is John Jay doing this morning? Yeah, you know, he does that. Arise does that pregame to a lot of guys. It doesn't feel great. I'll you know, he does that, or RISE does that pre-game to a lot of guys.

It doesn't feel bright. I'll be honest, it does not feel great. Can I wake up and hit some, man? Yeah, there you go. There's some. So there is thought, maybe John Jay puts one of those, you know, the quarterbacks where those rib detectors. He might start because the guy gets five hits a lot now and that's a lot of slaps.

It's not just one game, it's a few times a game. So yeah, it's a pretty fun thing that they have going on. I'm not so sure how fun it is for John, but for Louis for sure. He needs a Kevlar vest. You know one of those bulletproof vest. He needs something to protect himself. Skip, I'm curious, you spent a long time preparing

to be a manager, actually being a manager. How does the day-to-day routine of it, the pressure of it, compared to how you imagined it would be? Being in my seat, what I've learned the most is I have to have a really good staff around me. I have to be surrounded by guys that I can trust, covering my blind spots was huge. I've been on staffs before,

where it was a little bit toxic and guys were going after each other's jobs or that type of stuff. That is not how this thing should be run. It's very lucky that Kim let, I would say, we together identified some people that I've either coached with or played with to become part of our staff and know what winning looks like. And there's no ego involved. It's always been about the player and always will be about the player. And so for us to know that was super important.

And again, I think, I am the manager, but there's a lot of guys around me that work extremely hard and prepare extremely well, that cover my blind spots, again, that I trust. And so I think that's been the most important part and I'm very fortunate to have good guys I'm surrounded by. And your cheat day, what's that thing look like? Come on, you really just want to let loose. Do you hit that Wendy's?

Like out right by the stadium after a game? That's a good one, dude. Couple chicken wraps. That's a good one, dude. We'll see her meal in the way home. I mean, I'm an in and out. I'm in California guys. So if I'm going to go for it, it's definitely in and out. What's happening? Do you go for it? We don't have in and out here. You're not cheating. He drives to California to get to the west coast. That's right.

So I'll take it. He drives to California. That's how much he likes the in and out burger. Can you blame him? We've all had one. It's worth traveling for. I don't know, can you blame him? We've all had one. It's worth traveling for. What's that, like, a 10 hours in the car? This is a little more. Here, car contribution. 10 hours gets to North Carolina.

That's right. Probably flies. I mean, he's a rich man. This is a new, an unimproved, an levatar show with the Stugas. Gamble on by Traffkins. Down Lebatard. Who I'm thinking of is Lauren Green. We all remember Lauren green who could forget

Bananza Lauren Doran am I right? There's a cookie named Lorna Dune or something like that. It's my favorite cookie It's number one of my top five cookie list. Yes, you wouldn't nobody else But Lauren green played the head cow cowboy in Bananza. Thank you I played the head cowboy in Bonanza. Thank you. You're so old. Thank you. Yeah, the stumbling on his word, the precise manner of it

was as old as you've ever sounded. It's two guts. Also, why did you say thank you at the end of that? Well, because I'm enlightening people. People out there nodding like Balba has going, yeah, yeah, Lorne Green, Bonanza. I remember that. You're welcome, then. Well, I mean, Bonanza and gun smoke were like big rivals on TV was must see TV.

We'd watch them at 1440 on a black and white magnovox every week. Yeah, my there time. Not mine. Grandma used to watch those shows every day. Right. Damn right. She would have been 90 this year. Hello.

Good for her. Yeah, good taste in TV. I'm green. This is the down libertar show with this two gods. Your contribution to talking to the manager of the marlins that you're meeting for the first time, even though they're the one of the hottest teams in baseball and you're the local columnist. She's meeting you for the first time. Yeah. You should be a little embarrassed by that, but not as embarrassed as you are by the observation that he should drive to California to get in and out burgers.

It's just 10 hours. Let the man answer. Do you drive or do you fly? We are ready to the in and out burger. We are ready. All right. I can't answer that. Honestly though, skip.

How annoying on a scale of one to 10 is how annoying is the, hey, your name's skip. And now you're a manager. Like just, come on, just hit, it has to be really annoying. You can skip and skip, but your name's not actually skip. What is your real name?

I would only know you as skip. When did you become skip? Jared, J-A-R-E-D is my real name. I had five, I'm sorry, four Jared's on my T-Ball team when I was a kid. I could do a lot of things athletically for whatever reason. I couldn't skip. My dad thought it'd be funny to nickname me that.

Here we are, you know, 40 years later. I'm still skip, Tony LaRusa always reminded me, you might be skip, but I'm the F and Skipper every day. Uh huh. Anyone call you Skippy? My mom thought it'd be funny at 16 years old to put Skippy on my license plate. So that was my license plate for two years.

That was brutal. So yeah, so she calls me Skippy, yeah. You're a classic Jared, right? With an EJ-AR-ED. J-A-R-E-D. That's a good question. As opposed to Satelamaki. Well, just a second. He's cooking right, with an EJ ARED. J-A-R-E-D. That's a good question. As opposed to Satna Lemakia. Well, just a second.

He's cooking right now. Let's see where he's going. I would feel about the Jared with an O. Jared. Yeah, is that like a real controversy in the Jared community? You know, I haven't, I haven't. Greg, go see him. No, I'm not scared.

Tell us how you really feel. Oh, yeah. Come on, he's out of the box. Go see him. I feel like he's watching. I feel like he's giving us coach Speaker, and he wants the rip Jared's with a no but he won't do it That's why he said you're not Greg can hear his answer from the penalty box

I want him out of here. He is this is not been a Journaler stellar five minutes for Greg Cody with the with the questions Thank you for all your good contributions and work Thank you for all your good contributions and work. Uh, uh, LaRusa. So no thoughts on Jared with a no. Can we just close the book on that? I'm good for that. Great to know, Rosa.

Thank you. LaRusa seems like a bit of a jerk. Whoa. Is that a better question? Seems like he would be very hard on the 25th guy on his roster. I will tell you from the other dugout, it looks that way, from inside our clubhouse, we knew who the leader was, we knew there's no nonsense, we knew we were expected to come in and work

and to get better and to win. There was expectation when we were in there, we knew again, we knew who the leader was. I had a great relationship with him. If you didn't work and you showed up late, yeah, he was, he wasn't great, but that's everyone, I think. And I think he always tried to find that edge every single game and try to give us some sort of motivation because 162 is

hard right to find motivation every single day and he provided that so yeah from the other side it might look that way but if you ask a lot of his players you know they're all in on them. You mentioned your blind spots and a staff helping you cover for your blind spots as a young manager. What have you noticed in the first half year have been your blind spots? What have you had shown to you by the people around you that you needed to learn? Well, I don't know Spanish. And we have a lot of Latin kids on our team that are really good, that are everyday players. Our best pitcher is Sandy.

Our 20 year old phenom is from the Dominican, so they don't speak much, Sandy does, but Yuri doesn't speak much English. So that was a challenge. Hiring Luis Ureta, my bench coach from Arizona, and having the message directed in Spanish, how I wanted it, and we were on the same page with everything, and not giving his message, or a different type of message, so he can be friends with a guy, and it's against me. Hey, this is what I would do, and, you know, not what Skip would do,

was super important. This guy is phenomenal. He's gonna be a manager one day, and I think that part was huge for me to get, but the blind spot for me was, how am I gonna communicate and relate when I don't speak Spanish, and so that was a big deal for me. Frank Robinson used to say that he wouldn't talk

to Vladimir Guerrero at all, at all, not through a translator, because he was afraid of message getting lost in translation and Vlad Guerrero at all, at all, not through a translator, because he was afraid of message getting lost in translation and Vlad Guerrero thinking he was being reprimanded or was dumb, just because Frank Robinson was telling him something. So he would just avoid talking to him altogether. That's not where I'm at.

Yeah, I'm a big on communication. I think as a player, you just wanna know who you are, where you are, where you stand, from the manager's point of view or staff's point of view. So it's super important that I'm not just talking to the guys that speak English and not to the other guys because I really love these guys. They're great. I played in Ben as well. I played in Cuba. I mean, I played in different places. I love the Latin guys on our team or in baseball. I just don't know Spanish. So it's important to have that bench coach

that provided that for me. We can help you out with that skip. We have a segment here called a friend of Dio where we basically teach Hispanic phrases and saying. So if you'd like, we can do that and help you out here. We should do one. Let's go. Let's cue the music here

People only hey It has been a long time coming we have this is not the first of a front here in the new studio I think we know we did one with poppio while back, but it's our first one with official. Somebody so official, it's Kip Shumacher. Skip, there's a lot of Spanish-speaking players in your locker room, and again, what we're gonna do here is we're gonna teach you a phrase. That is gonna be able to connect with your players, where you're gonna be able to see him and say something to him and be like, oh wow, I got it.

All right, let's see what we have here. These are dangerous sometimes. Sometimes, but maybe there's a good choice. We, the wheel decides for now. All right, let's see what we have here. These are dangerous sometimes. Sometimes, but maybe there's a good choice. We, the wheel decides for now. All right, what's the wheel gonna say? Let's see what we've got. Rrr so skip, whenever you walk in to your clubhouse and you see the guys that speak Spanish, you're gonna hit him with this word, okay?

It's a very simple word, one shot, alright? All you gotta say is, con sote! I kinda give him a way, it's con sol te. Con sol te. Con sol te. That means like, brother, like, my friend, like, my guy.

I can do that one. Con sol te. I feel like that's pretty good. You think he's gonna connect with his players that way in a way that'll get them 12 games over 500. Find out today. You see Sandy say, oh, you con sol te. He's like, oh, my guy.

What else, him you call Cavallo? Have you called it Cavallo? Yeah. That's a different one. That means horse. No. Hefe. They call me hefe sometimes. How about a sede? No, I literally nothing.

I have nothing. No, no, no, no. That's a synonym. You could use consul. I know some bad words. I've heard those before. Who say those? Yeah, what do you have?

I can't say. You know what cow? You mean, yes. The horse. I relate so deeply to the moment, skip is going through right now. You should go up to Jorge Soler and say say Kebolo and Di Wudon. Oh my god, that's like what's up Shark?

I like that one. Don't listen to anything they're saying. How does he say continue please to hit 400? What does the Spanish for that? No, I'm serious. Continue please to hit 400. He can only say that to one player, but it would come in handy. Go sit in the back.

Stop it now we break it out of here. 400 he can only say that to one player but it would come in handy go sitting up and down the air yeah just get back just get ready to say it just get out of here for a little while thank you for two minutes. Was there any point during this season pre-season any time that you have thought what what have I got myself into? What something so unexpected arrived that you were surprised by? Not yet. Luckily, I think spring training probably was the toughest when I got there and just the magnitude of the position of not knowing anybody really in the front office, just phone calls,

nobody in the minor leagues. You know, I got this job, I didn't know anybody. So there's 200 plus people I have to meet, introduce myself to try to remember their names, their positions, their titles. So that part, the first couple of days, I was like, oh man, and then everyone is thinking about that first opening speech to the team, with everybody around ownership and so right when I got through that I was like okay let's just now we can just focus on baseball but I think that's when I was like oh boy here we go. How much work did you do on that opening speech?

Like what were you? How much walking in front of a mirror? Because you want to be authentic, you don't want to blow it, you're probably if not a little overwhelmed, a little out of your comfort zone at the very least. A little bit, but I always thought about like, if I was going to be in that position, you know, what, and people have asked me about St. Louis culture and what that looked like, and I had to think of something that I thought was what winning culture looked like, and I just came up with something a few years ago, was Cape, its communication alignment preparation execution.

If you don't have any of those, you're done. And so that was kind of my focus on the team meeting speech. If you don't have one of these, it's not going to work. And try to think about that daily when I come in and my hitting Cape, all four of those before I addressed the team about anything. And so I think that was not really preparation. When I first got this job to,

I did some interviews before with different teams, and managerial positions, and I would look at every single position player, prospect, coach, and in those interviews, I never got asked one question about any of those. And so when I had this interview with Miami, I didn't prepare one thing. I just said, if they would like me to your point be an authentic, then they're going to like me if not, that's okay. And that one worked out way better than any

other. Because you were most authentically yourself as opposed to preparing for a test. I think so, but you know, I think Kim will have to ask him, you know, answer that one. How is the locker room as a whole? Obviously, I'm not looking for specific names. Clubhouse and baseball, their clubhouse is not locked away. to ask him, you know, answer that one. How's the locker room as a whole? Obviously I'm not looking for specific names. Clubhouse, and baseball, their clubhouse is not locked away. How is the clubhouse dealing with these rule changes? Like our pitchers as a whole,

just kind of like still adjusting to it. Like this, oh man, I didn't used to be able to do this. Just overall after however many half a season with these new rules, are we used to it now? Are there still days where pitchers or hitters are like, this stinks that I, this is different than a year before. How are they reacting to it all? Initially tough. I think the WBC put a wrinkle in things because the same rules were still applied with the WBC. And then getting those guys back only for 10 to, 10 days or two weeks and then implementing those rules is really challenging.

to 10 days or two weeks and then implementing those rules is really challenging. But now I think we're good. I think everybody's bought in and I don't think it's, nothing has come up where, you know, maybe a couple of objections because we don't agree on some of the rules and how they're implemented with some of the empires. But other than that, it's been, it's been really smooth. Now that we're in, you know, month three, I do think there are some things that could be adjusted a little bit to help the game The thing I do worry about most is injury from pictures at the end of the year because throwing a heart as you can every 15 seconds

Could take a toll, you know and and we'll see how that all works out welcome back Greg You might want to put your headset on so that you can participate in this show The way that professionals would participate in the show Do you have any questions better than the question about whether he drives to California? For his in-and-out We still don't know but we still have time to explain the question. Do you have any other questions for Skip? I actually He didn't have any other questions for Skip. I actually will.

This is Inu Anun and Proof Down Laboratory with Estugas, Gamble On by GraphKins.