John Gibbons joins Josh Donaldson and Russ Martin for a HILARIOUS interview - GIDL Ep. 9

GET IT DONE LEAGUE is a weekly baseball show hosted by former MLB All-Stars Josh Donaldson and Russell Martin, alongside veteran broadcaster Arash Madani. Inspired by Donaldson’s iconic “get it done” moment, the show reflects the mindset of elite players; direct, unfiltered and a commitment to give it their all, every single time.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Uh there's a place for analytics, but there's also, you know, the human element in uh trusting your guys and and uh perfect example, I mean we uh you know with Batista, right? You know, I can remember they were they would talk about well Batista's projection against um uh Ibaldock. Jimenez, you know, the one Eddie. Yeah, the Eddie took D to win it, right? Uh you know, his Batista's projections were he he should he should hammer him, right? But he was like three foot in his career, right? I can remember yeah, this isn't the tri league.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Very appreciative of what's Mark Challenge, they are this is the get it done league. Get it done league! Well, how about this? Our first guest on the Get It Done League. And full disclosure, what what perfect timing. We are recording this on the 4th of July. The man who needs no introduction, although I'm gonna pass it over to Josh Donaldson to introduce our first, our inaugural guest on the show, Josh.

SPEAKER_05 1:19

Oh wow, wow. Hey, uh first, isn't there a dress code or at these shows?

SPEAKER_03 1:24

No, no, no, no, no. We we we we we make our own rules here, Gibby. This is clearly this is podcast. This is podcasting. This isn't Major League Baseball, okay? And there you go. The and John Gibbons, our first guest. We just thought that uh Gibby would be the best guest to have, especially to start this show, because he knows all of us, he knows all of our stories, and he had what we like to call the best view in the house to watching the show of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2015 through 2018 for sure. When he wasn't getting ejected, that is. Well, that was the best part. You know, if Gibby had a little heartburn or something like that, you know, he was gonna he was gonna get tossed early that day so he could go have a you know a bottle of vino in the back.

SPEAKER_05 2:16

Hey, hey, that team those teams though were self-run, man. Oh, you you know, they really didn't need a manager other than to put out some fires and just turn the boys loose, man. Turn the dogs loose, see what happens, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Yeah, hey, but I'll tell I like on a serious note. I was thinking about this morning, I was thinking about it this morning about Gibby. A lot of guys ask, like, what is a manager like? And you hear the old cliche, like, oh, he's a player's manager, right? Well, Gibby is the definition of a player's manager, and I'll give you a story to kind of lead us into that. And it wasn't just for the Martins, the Batistas, the Incarciones, myself. I remember Barnes, our relief pitcher, he had a bad quad or something at the time, and they were about to send him down, and Gibby pulls him into the office and he's like, Hey, how's your quad feeling? And Barnes is like, I feel good. He goes, Well, you think you could pitch tomorrow? He's like, Yeah, Gibby, if you need me, I could pitch, like trying to do like the soldier thing to say, and he's like, No, dude, is your leg bothering you? I need you to tell me. And he's like, Yeah, it's bothering me. And he's like, Well, they're gonna send you down if you don't go into the training room right now. Wink wink. So go to the training room, and I mean, for a guy like that at that time, like being on the IL, the major league roster IEL for two weeks at that time and going to the minor leagues is a huge pay gap. I mean, you're talking $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 at that time, and Gibby was gonna make sure that he wasn't gonna get sit down and not get paid for what him being hurt when he did it in the Major League service, uh, versus going down to the minor leagues and making, you know, a couple hundred dollars a week or whatever it was at that time.

SPEAKER_05 4:13

Well, you know, hey, you know, Danny Barr is one of my all-time favorites. You know, I worked with him the last couple years, I coached with him, but I mean that's the reality of the game. You know, you you got guys, you guys are like this too. You know, you play through injuries, you want, you know, you uh in his case, he was trying to make it establish himself. And, you know, uh, he's gonna play the hero, you know, and in and uh well, that makes no sense because they're gonna send you down, you know. If you're gonna be if you're hurt, go on the DL here. It wasn't that you know, like I was trying to screw the organization or anything, but it was pretty it was taking care of the kid, you know, and um because I knew who he was and things like that. We also had something like that with Luke Mailey, you know. Remember when Luke Luke was there, same thing, his knee was bothering him, he was gonna go, whatever. But it's like, no, you gotta be you gotta be smart, you know, and in uh but it's it's not whatever.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

Like most managers aren't doing that, they're not gonna take care of their guys that are out there laying it on the line. And you know, for us, like we saw that, and like when you want to talk about like, hey, like Gibby wasn't the rah-rah type of guy, it's like, hey, boy, you know, like doing all that, but he was definitely a guy that was like we were all ready to run through a wall for, and that kind of leads me to my next segment. I don't know if Gibby, if you remember this at all, but this was a big talking point at one time in Toronto Media. I don't know if we can get a close up of the code. Hey, my eyes are starting to go. It's the Tom Ford cologne. That's the Tom Ford cologne, Gibby. Do you want to? Yeah, that's just uh stuff you gotta watch. I know my I know my I know my side of the story, but in New York, let's hear your side of it because I know that you did the the the nice thing. I want to hear your side, and then we can kind of talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

So let me just give the preamble real quick for people who may not remember. At Yankee Stadium, Donaldson comes off the field, he comes down the steps. This is what it looked like for the sideline reporter. And it looked like he fired his bat, and then old number 20 and old gibbons start start having themselves a conversation at the end of the dugout. And afterwards, JD says, Yeah, Gibby was just asking him what my what cologne I was wearing, and I told him it was Tom Ford.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

So when you threw the bat, did it almost hit somebody or like it kind of I hit it, I hit it on the rail and it snapped right there, and then I threw the rest of it down the down the uh little place there where the yeah, the tomb.

SPEAKER_05 6:45

The thing is, I was standing on that rail. You was all right. So let's hear it, let's hear, let's hear your side of the ball. I've heard your side of the story is totally wrong, but I'm gonna give you I'm gonna give everybody the facts here, right? You know? Let's hear it. So it was uh it was a day game in in New York, in uh I can't remember, it was end of the year or whatever. And I would always go to you guys if you'd say, hey, you need a day off coming up or whatever, you know. Russ at least would be honest about that, right? And uh and and most of you guys, you know, I'm all you guys said, no, I'll let you know. I said, perfect. Okay. So anyway, we're probably the only left-hander in the league that gave you trouble, Josh, was Sebastian. He was pitching that day. So I came to you, we had a day game, and it was, you know, we were we were everybody was grinding, it was late.

SPEAKER_03 7:31

And uh I said, uh We had a doubleheader before, we had 20 innings the day before.

SPEAKER_05 7:36

No, I think that was the year before, but uh anyway. Maybe which yeah, maybe not, but anyway, uh so I can't you said uh I said, all right, well, you said no, I don't need a day off, I'll be fine. I said, well, maybe we'll just DH you give you half a day. And you said, okay, great, that'd be perfect. Okay. But for some reason, you know, you always pounded lefties, but Sebathy gave you trouble. So that was part of the reason. And I know you're probably tired, everybody's worn out. You go up there, and so your first at bat, I think it was you were sword fighting, it was three pitches. And so you you stepped out of the box and you look right at me, you know, and you walk back to the dugout where I disappeared, right? That's the bat, same thing, man. It was like those at bats right there, and get Sebathi into the Hall of Fame. But uh so anyway, so okay, that second time, the second time, yeah, you you same thing. You as soon as you turn out of the box, you're looking right at me and I go, ah, what is this? So then you walk, then you're walking down and you take that bat whack. And uh, you know, uh, yeah, right next to me. I and so then you walk down and think I and I thought, you know what, hey, I can't let this happen, right? This came out, but I can't let this go on. So I walked down there, we had a few choice words, and and um, and then uh I remember Tulo, Tulo was called Tulo was a peacemaker too. He uh he always showed up and and uh nothing happened. I don't know, did you finish that game after that? Or did I scare you and you left? What was it?

SPEAKER_03 9:08

I can't honestly, I can't even remember. Uh I I do so I there's a lot to cut through right there with Gibby because there's a lot of like oh there's you gotta get through some of the Texas bullshit that he's saying. But after my first uh bat, I was in the dugout and I was kind of like loud, I was like frustrated, tired, you know, whatever. And I go, I'm like, I don't even know why I'm playing today. I'm just getting my doors blown off by 88. I got absolutely nothing at the time. And Gabby could kind of hear me. He's like, oh, he and he comes over a few seconds later, he's like, You want to come out of the game? And I'm like, No, I don't want to come out of the game. I would never tell him I want to come out of the game. There's no way I was ever saying that. And so then my second at bat, after all of it happened, I smack my bat against the rail right there, breaks, I throw it down, and I come back down. And now, Gibby, like he said, he's like, I can't let that happen, right? So he comes down, he's like, hey, was that directed towards me? And I'm like, of course it was in my head. I wanted to say yes, but in the back of it, I was like, no, Gibby. I just got my doors blown off for the second straight time by 88 miles an hour. A guy who I should absolutely be pounding right now, so I'm not in the greatest of moods. And I think I kind of like took a step towards Gibby, and then Gibby gave me the old shove underneath the chest and went to like kind of pick me up, and then it was about to be on, and then Josh Tolley comes in, and I was like, Toli, get the out of here. And I I get I get rid of Tolley, and then Tulo comes and he's like, hey dude, we're in New York, you can't do this here. And I'm like, you know what? You got a good point. I don't know how he was able to talk a little bit of logic in me at that time, but yeah, no kidding, huh? Yeah, that was one of my favorite things right there. But that's how Gibby was. Like, Gibby, he's not like a lot of these managers, these like today, like who are scared of confrontation that are just always kind of there with their guys, and you know, he was gonna tell to the media everything Gibby was gonna be great. He wasn't gonna ever throw you to the wolves in the media, but how many times did you and I have talks in your office after your games? And then not all the time was it like negative, it was like like there was positive stuff that was going on too. Like, hey, like I want to run this by you. What do you think here?

SPEAKER_06 11:44

Like, that was very russ actually.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

So I'll this was like two weeks into the season, Russ was hitting the two-hole. I was hitting the five-hole. I saw that act, I saw that act that was gonna happen all year long where Russ, you know, we were gonna get a leadoff guy on, and Russ was gonna hit the ball on the ground and turn a double play. And I go right for basic out first and third. I I do, I'm a big fan, big fan of the two-hole. Pause. Uh so I go into Gaby's office and I was like, hey man, it's like two weeks in. He's asking me a couple things. I'm like, hey, like, what do you think about switching me to the two-hole and putting Russ in the five-hole? And Gaby was like, Yeah, I kind of like that. He goes, You want to do that? I said, Yeah, I think our team, our offense will roll if I get into the two-hole. And he goes, All right, and so he put me into the two-hole. So that one simple question right there, if I would have stuck in the five-hole all year that long, I don't think that I win an MVP in 2015. Because, you know, now the the guys behind me aren't Jose Batista and Edwin and Carcillon. Like, I was able to get some protection in there to where they really had to make a decision on who they had to go after at that time.

unknown 13:11

Right.

SPEAKER_05 13:12

Well, the whole idea, hey, Russ, Russ could have hit anywhere. You know, the thing in there, of course, was Russ. Russ had good back control, he could hit the ball wherever he wanted. You know, he could hit that hole over there, leadoff Gagaton. He could take it deep, he could do all those things. That was that's how we started him with them there. But I remember that story.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

You know, it's interesting, guys. Russ and JD were back in town a few weeks ago. Russ was back for Canada Day. It's amazing just how beloved um the two of them are. Um Gibby, for some reason, people here still like you. Um, you know. What do you think it is about the connection you give, you've had with this fan base, and just that era had with this this Blue Jay Mafia.

SPEAKER_05 14:03

Well, you know, it goes back, I think a lot of it starts back, you know, it had been so long since the team had won anything, you know, 92 and 93. And I had heard, you know, I was here a number of years with with two two go-rounds. Everybody says, watch what happens in this place when you guys become relevant, right? And uh, especially in August and September. So anyway, the the that year we we picked up, you know, Russ and Josh. You know, uh it it's it kind of lit a fire there anyway, you know. All right, the team's the team's series now. It was kind of the feeling that I felt, you know. And uh and I and I was excited because I knew it it would add some toughness to our team. You know, then that wasn't like we were gonna have tough, some tough players, but it gives us an edge, you know. And uh so they just, you know, uh so even it wasn't around the all-star, around the trade deadline that we finally um, you know, we made those big moves. Alex made those big, big moves, and things just took off like caught on fire, right? So we and you know, that was that was a big part of it, you know. Um but a big part, hey, a huge part of it was the personalities of this team, right? The guys we had on that team, you know, they they were characters, they were uh you guys were volatile, you know. You emotional, you wore it on their sleeves, you know, they wore it on their sleeves. Fans relate to that, you know, because it's a it's a a huge hockey country, and they especially in in the a hockey city, and it's like, damn, man, these um, you know, that's that's they fit right in, you know. Am I kind of mumble a little bit or kind of stutter a little bit or not not more than usual? Not not more than usual. So anyway, so that I think that that kind of everything kind of took off, you know, from that point on, you know, and and uh so people could relate. It was a it was a likable group, and they were really, really good. And then when we made those trades and caught fire, you know, everything that everybody always talked about came true, you know. You know, the not only to Toronto, but the whole country caught fire, you know, similar to what happened, you know, last year. And um, you know, that's a big part of the story. But you know, there's a lot of teams out there that are boring teams and all that, but we weren't one of them. You know, we we had a lot of guys in the league that weren't liked necessarily well in the league, you know. Josh and Batista, probably the two most disliked guys in the league, unless they were on your team, you know. But I don't know why that would be. Um either. I mean, you know, that's just it was a team, it would have been a team to go, it was fun to go watch play, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

That just uh so yeah, and like one one thing I remember somebody once asked you give like something about a curfew, and you look to them, you're like, curfew? Um, and you're like, look, I got two rules here show up on time, play hard. You know, and I and I just wonder what what that what does that do? Everyone talks about hey, a culture of a locker room. Like Russ, Josh, like when when those are the rules, show up on time, play hard. What does that do for an attitude of a clubhouse? What does that do for the vibe of a locker room? Russ, why don't we start with you?

SPEAKER_06 17:03

I mean, that's that's what you're supposed to do. I mean, uh, you know, you're you're you're at that time at that point, you're grown men, right? And the expectation is show up on time, play hard. You keep it simple, just be professional. And it just allows the team to kind of because we had a good mix of veterans, like there was a lot of leaders on that team, and I think it just gives you the freedom to kind of be who you are, but just you know, respect your teammates by being on time and play hard. And if you do that, like the results, the results will come, you know, depending on how your team is composed. But we had like we had a lot of guys that that were there to pick each other up, you know, through the ups and downs, you know, like when when people were were were were hot, you know, it was it was their time to kind of be the leader and and get everybody going. And then if they fizzled off a little bit, we'd have somebody else be there to pick everybody up, and and that's it's kind of kind of how we were as a team. And and Gibby, he he kept it simple, but you know, he just did he just wanted us to be there, show up on time, and play hard. And that's if you do that, you know, with the talent we had on our team, it was we were gonna get it done. And we did. And we did. I remember I don't know how I don't know, I don't remember how many games we would be down like five, four or five runs. Oh god, and it would just like they they we just get hot, we'd get hot and have a big ass inning, and it was it just we had that belief where it was like like we're never out of this, you know, and we never quit just because we kept you know, we kept coming back from from you know big deficits and it was we kind of felt it coming, like we just feel that momentum build up. It was it was it was crazy, man. It was a fun time. Hey, Gabe. Yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_05 19:02

You know what well real quick, you know, uh when you when you have great players, you know, in in uh and we had some of the best in in all of Major League Baseball. You know, it's it's just in the Gibby show, you know. My job is just to get the you know, to get these guys out there, let them do their thing, right? And not not get in the way of it a lot of times, you know. It's uh it's different when you have a young team that's that's just cutting their teeth, you know, at the big league level. And um uh this was this it was it wasn't an easy group. I mean, it was an easy group on the field because they were such uh we had so many good players, you know. For the we the the meshing personalities could be difficult at times, but uh yeah, but you love people.

SPEAKER_03 19:43

You love you loved the fact that we had a lot of personality on our team. You loved it. Yeah, I mean, gibbons. Shit, Gibby would try to stir it up too at times. He'd walk through the he'd he'd walk through the clubhouse doing his little strut, doing that like how so and I had kind of like my own like rule. I don't know if anybody else knew about it, but I had like my own rule. If there was any staff that came through the locker room like 10 minutes before the game, you became like a target at that point.

SPEAKER_06 20:15

You're getting chirped, you're getting chirped.

SPEAKER_03 20:17

Yeah, you're getting chirped. And like Demarlo, oh DeMarlo Hill was like probably the brunt of it. And he Demarlo loved it. D, he'd walk through there and literally I would start doing my shadow boxing on him, and we'd be going, I'd be picking him up. D's a big guy. I'd be picking him up over my shoulder, running around with a bit of the things like you're crazy. He's like, take your mask off, take your mask off. Because the one future song that was one of those, like, take your I can't remember, but uh yeah, mask off, yeah. And um yeah, that was when I was going into my transformation mode. But another one of my own what what one of my own uh favorite little gibby tisms, I guess you could say, would be like it'd be a close game in like the seventh or eighth inning, and I'd be going on dick, and you'd be like, I'd be three for three at the time, two for three, whatever. All right, son, hit a homer.

SPEAKER_06 21:13

Hit me a homer, hit me a homer, hit me a homer.

SPEAKER_03 21:16

I'm like, Gibby, I'm locked in. Don't tell me to hit a homer right now because I'm gonna try to, if you tell me.

SPEAKER_04 21:25

Hey, it's it's that it's that easy.

SPEAKER_03 21:27

It was it is that easy, yeah. Oh hey, what but the other thing I'd say about Gibby is he got ejected. We thought we mentioned about this earlier.

SPEAKER_06 21:36

He got ejected on the field.

SPEAKER_03 21:37

He kept us on the field because we were gonna get ejected. We were 100%. Yeah, there's so many times there was I mean, I remember the Royals game that really stuck out big to me to where I'd hit a few homers off of them, hit a walk off the night before, and then um Volkaz first pitch by first that bat hit me in the ribs 96. Like we all, like as a hitter, we've all been in the box. Like, we know when it's intentional. Like that was intentional. And I didn't say anything. Like, actually, when I walked down to first, I was like, hey, um, are you good now? Like, do you feel better about yourself that you smoked me? And so, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then Jim Wolf gave warnings. And I used to like, I still love Wolfie. Like, he's great, dude. Most jacked umpire of the big leagues. Uh he's still umpire. He still looks jacked too.

SPEAKER_06 22:36

And he'll throw knuckle balls back to the pitcher and shit. He's always messing around.

SPEAKER_03 22:42

And Tulo got squared up in the chest. I had like two balls thrown over my neck, and like the third one that day that came around my neck. I was like, all right, I had enough. Like, it's over. Like, somebody needs to get ejected because you already gave warnings out, and you know what entails with warnings. And like I wasn't gonna get over it until either the pitcher was ejected, I was ejected, and what ended up happening, Gibby gets ejected. And Gibby, hey, and we all loved it. Like, I feel like today, nowadays, more than ever, like the coaches, like they're they're terrible. They're terrible at getting it ejected. Like everybody is so PC. But Gibby, like, he was John Wayne when he went out there. When he went out there, he was the John Wayne uh of getting ejected. And we all loved him for it. And he was literally, um, I don't know, he saved.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

What'd that do to a dugout? What'd that do to a dugout when when you know your manager's out there taking one for you?

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Well, it just it just ignites that fire in you even more to go out there and lay it on the line for him. And he never threw us under the bus about it either. He was like, he was gonna wear it, and at some point, like you know, that's those spines start adding up.

SPEAKER_06 24:11

Um, you know, so he just had feel. He had feel he did, he had great feelings knew what he needed to do, and he would do it.

SPEAKER_05 24:20

And well, you know, the most important thing though was when I was no longer in the game, the team seemed to play better. I can't figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

So, so give you you get fine, sorry, you get ejected, you go back into the manager's office, you crack one or you pour one or whatever you're doing. Then what happens? Like, like you racked up 53 of these suckers in your career. Like, do you get fined? Do you get like, does Alex come in? Does Ross come in and be like, hey dude, like what's happening here? Like, how does that work once oh yeah, you get fined.

SPEAKER_05 24:53

Yeah, and uh the more it happens, the more the you know, the uh you know, the more the more you the fine is, right? But I had a deal in my contract, I got thrown in there. Oh I don't know if anyone's a great clause.

SPEAKER_06 25:10

That is a great clause.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

That is a veteran move right there. Huge.

SPEAKER_05 25:15

I got I I got a quick story though on a well, remember that one it was it was born in 2016, I think. Victor. Yeah, well, it started in the first inning, Edwin in the first inning, and uh Vic Carapazo was the umpire. That was and uh you know he had that big old, right? And and you Eddie never complained, right? And uh he stuck it to Eddie, so Eddie gets chunked, and I went out there for Eddie, and so I get thrown out, and then it was a few innings later, here comes Russ. And what that game went 18.

SPEAKER_03 25:46

And we're all of the dug got like the son of a monk. David, Eddie's been in there eating spreads since the first inning. He's probably hammered right now. Russ on Canada, Captain Canada is just chilling in the in the locker room.

SPEAKER_06 26:04

I mean, I think I'm I think I made it to like 12 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

He did.

SPEAKER_06 26:09

Yeah, but uh you know, I had I had enough.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

I want to say Goans was out there pitching, Ryan Gowens. Yeah, we won! Yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_05 26:17

Yeah, he had to pitch.

SPEAKER_06 26:18

No, we we lost it. No, no, we got beaten like two to one. We did lose that game, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:25

They they brought a stat, they might have brought Bauer in to finish it. He was he was uh maybe gonna pitch another, you know, the next day or something. That's great. Uh yeah. So and then go go with GoGo was in that train room the next day. Oh, his arm was blown up. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:41

His arm was blown up. I remember that. His arm was cooked.

SPEAKER_05 26:46

And I might have said to him, too, dude, come to something, you know, go ahead. Yeah, you probably did. You know, at that at that point, we were looking for pitching, right? And somebody had to go down. And now, I mean, now the game, you know, you can only have so many players and so many pitches. Back then you could trade anybody.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Hey, uh, we're we were we were talking about run support, about how we would score runs. I don't know if it ever got back to you or if we talked about this or not, but there was definitely one time and I think in 2016 when our offense was scuffling a little bit. Um, and we were like, man, we need to bring Drew Hutchinson back up because every time he pitched we scored 12 runs.

SPEAKER_05 27:27

That's right, that's right. Hutch Edgewood, he won like, yeah, he won like double figures games, you know, and had like six.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

Yeah, he would have he would have won 15 games if he could have just got past the fifth.

SPEAKER_05 27:41

Yeah, you know, and I can remember, but you know, he did win a lot of games. He won 12 games. Yeah, and I can remember you know Alex coming in, you know, about you know, he's really struggling, and you know, what are we gonna do? Well, whatever, whatever. I said, We win every time he pitches, man. What are we worried about? You know, it's like why you know, we can't we got nobody to replace him. We win. Don't don't get it. See, that's that's kind of like the analytics of the day. You know who we don't talk about?

SPEAKER_06 28:07

Burley and how good he was, and how quick he how fun it was to play behind him because how fast he pitched. And then I remember, I think I forget what his record was, but he threw like 200 innings X amount of years in a row, and on the last game, we tried to get him in. We tried to like, and I think we made like an error or something, and it's just we just we don't know. I don't know if there was a turtle.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

There wasn't a double play bowl that we couldn't turn that we didn't turn.

SPEAKER_06 28:37

Yeah, it was yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:40

No, it was in 2015. Remember, we went to Tampa. We we we clinched in Baltimore, yeah. We we clinched in Baltimore. Price was Price was uh and we were going to Tampa, and then you know, Price was gonna pitch one of those games if uh if we hadn't clinched yet. And we go in in uh but then we clinched in Baltimore, so Dave came to us, you know, we were gonna arrest him for the playoff game. So uh so Burley threw like on Friday night, he threw like a six or seven inning, got the win down there in Tampa. And this was Sunday, was the last game of the season before the playoffs. We didn't have a starting pitcher, so we were gonna go with the bullpen day, right? So, but Mark had got 14 straight years of 200 plus. And I think there's only a handful of guys in history history that have done ever done that. And the list is the big boys, you know, the uh, you know, the Scott Young's and all those guys. And so if he had hit, if he had got so at that point, I think he was uh He needed two innings, like yeah, inning and two-thirds or something like that. Yeah, yeah. But he would have done it 15 years in a row, and and I mean it even drops more than that. I mean, he was a select handful of guys. Uh so we went to him, you know, and said, Hey, you want to try it? He said, I'd love to, right? And then and we told Kevin Cash and Tampa, you know, the same thing, so they would prepare for. Even told the umpires, right? What was what we're gonna do? We're gonna pitch him a couple innings, then we're gonna let the pitchers go take them out, and if we can get there, okay, great. So anyway, he starts that game. First grand ball of the game was the go-go at second plank. Okay. And then then something else, Sam. I don't know, he might have got an out. Then uh then there's a couple guys on a soft line drive to the first infield hit type stuff.

SPEAKER_06 30:23

It was just like, oh my god, probably.

SPEAKER_05 30:25

Oh yeah. Yeah. And then, okay, then then it then it's starting to, you know, then we're having trouble now. I mean, you know, can't abuse a guy. So uh Mikey Mattock was the only guy, he was he was in the lineup for Tampa, and he was the only guy on the uh team that ever hit Burley. So, but before like I told you before the game, I we talked to the umpires, and Alfonso Marquez was behind the plate and he had that tight zone, man. But it's the last game of the year. Burley's in like you were saying, Russ is uh uh umpire's dream. He works fast, he throws strikes, never complains, right? So it was a I remember it was a two-two. I've relived this so many times because it was one of the things I regret, you know. So he threw a two-two pitch about that far inside a map and he balled it, right? And everybody's going, you know, everybody's snapping. That's pitch grand slam. And then then it kept rolling a little more. We got had to take him out, you know, because he couldn't. But yeah, that would that would that's one of my biggest regrets in this game that he didn't get that. Because he had never been on the DL, but there was a couple times that year, and he this was his last year, that he had to get pushed back because his shoulders started barking a little bit, you know. Absolute soldier, that guy.

SPEAKER_06 31:33

Yeah, he was absolute soldier. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:36

Do you remember the game we uh, you know, before we really started our run in 2015, we were in in uh we were down in Washington and we got rained out. Then we had a doubleheader, and then uh Pilar had two homers that day. Yeah, but then the third game, Burley's pitching, he threw a complete game, it was probably an hour and a half, 45 minutes. But he uh threw a complete game shutout, he got a base hit, he broke up a double play, and he laid down a sound.

SPEAKER_03 32:06

Oh wow, what a day!

SPEAKER_05 32:08

How they and then then man, then after that, you know, after that series, we just we just took off, you know, at that point. Because you know, they were talking. I can remember going into the clubhouse after the game, and I think it was maybe Sandelli came up to me and said, Hey, uh, I think you know, they're talking Toronto. When you we get back to Toronto, you're gonna get fired. I said, Really? I said that's happened before. So I said, Well, call call call Anthopolis and see if it's true. Because if it's true, I'm not going back. So yeah, it was either Sandelli or Tony Lakama. So they one of them called and said, Alex, is that we're gonna have? He goes, No, I'm not happy.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

There was a lot of noise that Washington series, and it felt like that national series just changed the season. It saved your job, and off to the races you guys went.

SPEAKER_05 32:56

Oh yeah. Hey, these hey, these guys saved me my job.

SPEAKER_03 32:59

Hey, but get but Gibby's favorite line was me say, hey, Gibby, what do you what do you think about it? He's like, Well, they're gonna fire me eventually. Like he didn't Gibby gave he, I mean, as much as as much as he might have cared, he gave no illusion that he actually cared about being fired, that he was gonna do what he thought he would do. And there was so many times that like this is another thing I loved about Gibby, is he'd bring a bullpen guy in or something like that, or whatever situation. And um, I'd like Gibby, why are you bringing this guy in? He's like, Ah, Jay, JD, I got a good feeling about this one. I looked at him like, are you sure, Gibby? I'm like, I think you might have gas. I don't know. He might need to go take a couple of tums or something.

SPEAKER_05 33:52

Hey, but hey, hey, hey, yeah, you you were you always were a little bit vocal at you know Russ was the main guy when I go out there and talk to Russ because he's catching the guy. I was always pop opposite.

SPEAKER_03 34:02

Hey, one of my favorite of all time, but I think this was 2017. Aaron Loop, he was a little bit pissy at the end of the year because we were out of it in 17. And so we wanted to bring up some young arms to kind of see what we had going into the next year. Well, Loopy didn't get to pitch for like, I don't know, two or three weeks. And he has he goes in there and faces um Baltimore. And I think we stretch it, they stretch him for like two or three innings or something like that. And he comes in for the third inning and he hits Chris Davis on like a like he barely grazes him. And Gibby comes out there to go get the ball from him and Luopy flips the ball at him. And Gibby hated that. Like, there wasn't a lot of things that would get Gibby pissed off, but he hated that. And I was kind of looking the other way, and I hear uh I hear the corner, he's like, that mother, and I'm like, I'm like, what, what, what, what I miss? He's like, he's like, that dude just flipped the ball at me.

SPEAKER_05 35:08

And I was like, a little side note, my loopy. Oh, hey, remember the other the other famous guy hit he hit Freddie Freeman over the wheel. He broke his wrist and broke his wrist. Freddie was sitting on the MVP year. Remember that? You guys remember that? That's tough. So anyway, anyway. Hold on, hold on. I gotta finish this.

SPEAKER_03 35:25

I gotta finish this. Yeah, then you can then you can because you're gonna have the right question for this. And so I go, Loopy. I said, I said, he didn't, he didn't flip the ball at you, did he? He's like, yeah, I was like, I said, you ain't got a hair on your ass if you ain't go, if you don't go back to I said, if you don't go to that dugout right now and get in there and loop's ass. And he's like, he's like, yeah. He goes, all right, yeah, I'm gonna go get him. That's what he says, I'm gonna go get him. Yeah, yeah. He said, he said, I'm gonna go get him. So sure enough, I've watched him the whole time. Whoever's coming in, I'm not even paying attention, he's warming up for us. Gaby goes in, loopy sitting down, and loopy doesn't say a lot. Like he's very quiet, like good kid, great, great teammate. We all love Aaron Luke, but just for this, this is hilarious. And Gabby goes after him, and you know, he's uh, you know, giving him the business. And Loop kind of looks up one time and just sits there and he wears it. Well, the next day happens, we're all kind of around, and I'm like, hey Loopy, I'm like, that's kind of messed up. Gibby wore you out yesterday in the dugout, and Gibby's sitting right there, and he's like, Loopy didn't want to say anything, and I said, It's partly my fault, Luke, because I I I I told Gibby he didn't have a hair on his ass if he didn't go get you.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Gibby, how'd you put up with Donald's picture? Honestly, I'm like, I'm like, how did you handle this dude?

SPEAKER_05 36:58

Well, it's part as part as part of the uh part of the gig. I can I can remember though when uh and Russell remembered he's playing again when he was playing against him, and even with it when he came over to us, when he was out in Oakland. I mean, every I don't know how many times he'd get two there's two strikes on him with some a pitcher make a nasty pitch, you know, and he'd fire the bat out there, the pitcher like he's like he's he's fooled and stuff and he was like reaching out to get in the big going right. And so I even in uh I even talked to Melvin, his manager out there one time, and he's uh you know, after we got him, he goes, I don't want to.

SPEAKER_06 37:31

And uh rushed how many times you mean he he had like I said earlier field, but then even like on the plane, like you weren't even safe on the plane, he'd be yelling from the back of the plane. Like, I hope you had earplugs in because it was just dude, it was anywhere, anytime, any place. Like he's Josh is ready.

SPEAKER_04 37:51

We had a good time. Hey, see, Russ, Russ was the voice of reason on that club.

SPEAKER_06 37:57

Oh boy, oh good, yeah, good, good, good thing I was good thing I was there.

SPEAKER_04 38:01

Hey, you know, hey, you know, the yeah, yeah, oh, hey, oh, very good thing.

SPEAKER_05 38:06

You know, Russ was the backbone of that team. You know, we had many great players we had. When I say he was the voice of reason and kind of the the stabilizer, that's uh he he was. So how so when we had that many volatile guys, how so? Well, he was just kind of you know, he he he was kind of and he was kind of an enforcer too, you know. When things would get a little get a little crazy or what have you, you can know you knew Russ meant bitches.

SPEAKER_06 38:31

When the superstars when the superstars got too superstar-ish, I was I was able to kind of reel them back in a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 38:38

Yeah, but you were a superstar yourself. But with Batista and Josh, you know, there's always something going on. But you know, when Russ Russ would kind of bring things kind of back into the fold a little bit, you know, him and Eddie, you know, but uh yeah, a lot of a lot of a lot of great times, great memories, you know, and uh a special team, you know. Uh, you know, I thought we were gonna win it all there, but you know, that was a year to do it. Uh but we you know, these guys did a tremendous job. We we got awful close. And it uh one of the greatest teams I've ever seen, you know.

SPEAKER_06 39:08

If we had ABS, we might have a championship. That Ben that Ben Revere, that at that, and K in Navarro. Yep, same thing. It would have been interesting.

SPEAKER_05 39:23

And you know what? You know what hurt us that year, though, I think, you know, a big part is kind of always forgotten. You know, uh Brent Cecil blew his calf. Yes, memory blew out his calf in that was tough. Yeah, and he with that he at the time was one of the top five receivers in the game.

SPEAKER_06 39:37

You know, he was on a roll. And a left hand, that lefty, lefty turbul he had. That thing was snappy. That was you're not hitting that thing when it was on.

SPEAKER_05 39:46

No, so he, you know, we and we got we got through Texas, we went to Kansas City and they had all those left-handed bats. And even in Kansas City, Lupi wasn't even villed because you know, his wife was had some pregnancy issues, so he he was spending time at the hospital. So we had no lefty, and that's you know, and uh you know, even at that time, remember that's when Price volunteered to pitch out of the bullpen, that Texas series, you know. Hey Josh, one more, another quick story on that with you with your BS antics at the at the mound.

SPEAKER_03 40:14

Yeah, let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_05 40:15

Yeah, let's talk about that. I can't wait. This is a do-or-die playoff game against against Texas, right? So, anyway, you know, uh Price pitch is one of those games, the first game we get beat, we go down to Texas, it's elimination, we're 0-2, right? So he says, hey, I can pitch you out of the bullpen if we need it. Okay, because we had no lefty. And um, so you know, the first night uh Mark Marco pitches that first big game and roll rolls through it, you know. But he got he got into a little jam kind of in the middle inning, then he got then he got out of it, but we got up because he had so many.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

R. A. Dickey was pitching. R. A. Dickey was pitching.

SPEAKER_05 40:52

No, that's the that's okay. Okay, okay. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I apologize. Marco got the end that kept it alive the third game. So so anyway, so the next day is a day game, and Dicky is pitching that one. And uh, you know, I I run into David in the Price in the in the clubhouse. I said, How you feeling? He goes, I'm all right. I said, well, here's the here's the deal. If you get up today, you're in the game. And he says, Yeah, I appreciate that. I said, No more dry humps, right? You know, he had another great year, he's gonna be a free agent, and he volunteers to pitch out of the bullpen. He's already got 220 innings in it under his belt. Come on. Yeah, and uh so he's going that, right? And they had, you know, and they had and they had a tough, you know, left-handed heavy lineup, right? So anyway, so R. A.'s pitching another do-or-die game, game four. RA's pitching, he gets off to a good start, but we came out swinging, you know. We we put some runs in the game.

SPEAKER_03 41:43

Daddy went deep a couple. Daddy was going deep that game. That's what happened.

SPEAKER_07 41:49

I thought I thought it was probably okay.

SPEAKER_05 41:55

So, anyway, so here's the dilemma. And this is kind of like analytics before analytics, right? It's gonna be the thing. Oh god. You're so smart, but that wasn't the thinking. So any, so anyway, and I talked to Pete Walker, and I said, All right, so if if we get in a little jam, you know, we get David up, he's got to come in the game. I I promised him that. I'm not gonna screw the guy, right? So we had a little lead, but they you know, they and they had some guys in that lineup, you know, that had owned Dicky, you know, their whole career. Plus, you know, the knuckleball, Russell tell you, you know, it can be on one inning, next inning, it flattens out, right? It's like throwing BP, right? So it can go any. Yeah. So, and I always had that, and we had that in the back of our mind. So I don't know, a guy gets on, a couple guys, and they got the the top choose coming up, and you know that all that, and who owned Diggy. So I said, we better get price going in case something happens. It's an elimination game, right? So we get David up, and I said, Well, he's up, he's in, you know. So again, there's I think there's a couple outs, a couple guys on. So I go to the mound, and we still got a two, three run lead, whatever. You know, well, I'm walking out there. No, no, it wasn't that bad. Slip in the wall. So I'm walking out there, and Dickie's looking at me, you know, you know, because he's sitting on a freaking playoff win, even though wins don't matter nowadays. Yeah, they should. All right. So anyway, here comes David. So we're at the mound in in uh numbuts. Josh says, This is bullshit. I go, it's a playoff game, elimination. That's what he said, right? So I said, You gotta be kidding me. Then I get, you know, the whole team's around. I didn't say anything. You know, it's too important. So so David comes in and he gets out of the inning, you know, gets out of it, and um go on the dugout, and I'm sitting there, Josh walks right by me again. He said, That was bullshit. So I had to follow him up the tunnel. You know, anyway, but there's No, no, go on. And then what happened? And then what happened. So then so David went about three innings. We ended up closing out and going to game five. But I'm sure you'll get into that. But a follow-up story to that one, the following year, I think it was, you know, RA was pitching. Uh it was kind of a tough year, I think, early on for him. But we go out every time. It was kind of like Drew Hutchinson, you know, we'd score him a bunch of runs. But and he would he'd give it, he'd give it back up, right? It was just one of those years.

SPEAKER_03 44:31

Yeah, yeah, a tough year.

SPEAKER_05 44:32

So I can remember I'm sitting in the dugout. Yeah, so so we come, we score a few runs, and and Dickie goes out there again and gives it, gives it right up, right? This so I'm sitting in the dugout, and Josh comes in and I hear him, he goes, we get we can give this guy all these runs, and now he can't, you know, he gives it right back. Oh no, and it caught my ear, right? Yeah, oh what? Yeah, oh yeah, you bitch about everybody. So so Josh is sitting on the bench and I walk over to him. I said, Uh what did you just say? Did you just say he's giving up, we get the lead, and he gives it right back up. And he and I said, That one more time, right? For the previous year. I said, Okay, do you remember last year we were talking about we had that lean to play up against it? Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

I gotta rebuttal this a little bit, right? Oh god.

SPEAKER_01 45:22

Listen to this, Russ. Listen to this.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

I just gotta get a little rebuttal. So the premise of it is why Alaseo's bullshit is because DP, David Price, had never had a playoff win. Okay, he never, so they weren't gonna start him, and Texas actually hammered David Price. That's why we were kind of leaning away from the third base co-manager of Josh Allen. So, well, hey, there's a big things come in little heads. So I'm just saying. I got a little, I wear a size seven, seven, and eight. Anyway, so he comes out to the mound. Dickie had given up one run, and he just the first hard hit ball chew smacked one into center field, and Gibby was coming out. Four and two-thirds. And I'm sitting here, I'm just like, damn, like I'm sitting here thinking, now hearing Gibby's side of it saying about the conversation he had with David Price, I wasn't I didn't, I wasn't privy to that conversation, right? Well, what do you think? No, no, no. I'm not saying that I should have been, but what I was saying is I was like, shit, like if we could have him for game five, that would have been sick. Like, that's what I was thinking in my head, because we had this game pretty much wrapped up, right? At seven to one. Wrapped up, seven to one. We the boys were rolling, we weren't it, we killed him. Um, so that's where I was going with that. That's why I was saying it was bullshit because a Dickey had done such a great job. I get it. Gibby had the knuckleball scar tissue. Look, I get it. That shit, you know, one minute it's on, the next minute it's off. I understand. I just saw one ball get hit hard the entire game, and I'm at third base. I'm like, oh, first one that got here. Oh shit, here comes Gibby. He's coming out of the dugout. Oh, I wonder if he has indigestion again. And then I look at David Price coming and I'm like, oh, our guy that's our number one is coming in with a six-run lead. That didn't make any sense to me, but so that's where that came from. But I will say this Dickie did have a tough year in 16, right? Uh, where I might have said something along the lines of like, shit, like let's stop scoring. Somebody runs the kids. Let's let's start run prevention over here a little bit.

SPEAKER_06 47:56

Oh man. But it's all good.

SPEAKER_05 47:58

But that's great. So are you insinuating that are you insinuating that was price came in so that he wouldn't have to pitch game?

SPEAKER_03 48:06

No, no, I'm not insane. No, no, no, no. I'm not insinuating that at all. I'm just in I'm just in I was insinuating my thought process of saying I would have loved to have him available for game five versus a game that I felt like we had kind of wrapped up.

unknown 48:23

Right.

SPEAKER_05 48:23

Well, then we had Stro too, but that leads me to another story. Thank you. All right, we in 16. You know, we go down to the we go down to the final weekend, man, and win in Boston, you know, just to get a wild card, right? And in the so, you know, we had a new front office now. Uh Anthopolis is gone, and in the you know, what okay, we we get it, we're playing Baltimore, and they're in the, you know, I love that one one game, you know, winter day for that that Roman. But anyways, yeah, so that they uh, you know, the front of we were talking to the front office and they were talking about who's pitching that game. They were kind of leaning towards Lirriano because uh because because Larry, it was tough on lefties, it was tough on Baltimore hitters and and what have you, or either that or Strowman. So we were talking to the coaching staff, and we all like Strowman. But I said, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna I'm gonna check with this key frickin' catcher, Russ. Who knows better than that, right? I don't know if you remember Russ. I came to you and said, Who would you pitch in that game right there? Game said, Stro. I said, Well, that's what we're gonna do. You know, I said he he knows more than any better than anybody out there in that whole place. And uh sure enough, Stro went out and that um, you know, uh did his thing.

SPEAKER_01 49:38

So let's dig into that real quick, guys, because we're now in an era of following the binder and following the spreadsheet, and everything's predetermined on what the plan is, whatever. Gibby, you go to your guy, you go to Russ, and you trust his judgment. It feels like a lot of that is gone from the soul of the game. Are you are you sensing that today in 2026 compared to 10 years ago?

SPEAKER_05 50:05

Oh, yeah. It's it's uh, you know, maybe not everywhere, but most places. Um you know, everything's based on numbers and and uh the human elements kind of taken out of it, and and uh yeah, I think that's that's it's sad for the game in a lot of ways, you know. Uh goes back to like we were talking about wins don't matter, you know. Well they do matter. Some guys find a way to win, some guys find a way to lose. You know, that kind of thing. And and um uh yeah, it's it's uh it's it's definitely gone overboard. Yeah, there's there's a uh there's a place for analytics, but there's also you know the human element in the trust in your guys and and uh perfect example, I mean we uh you know with Batista, right? You know, I can remember they were they would talk about well Batista's projection against uh uh Jimenez, you know, the one Eddie, yeah, the Eddie took D to win it, right? Uh you know, his Batista's projections were he he should he should hammer him, right? But he was like three four in his career, right? I can remember Yeah, it's like starting hitting him, you know. You know, it's like okay, well, he should, but it you know, so it just says, hey, you know, Hosey knows he has a tough time with this guy. Jimenez knows he can get Hosey out. Yeah, that's just the way baseball is. You know, you got two great players, that's just the way it is.

SPEAKER_06 51:30

Go ahead, go ahead. I was gonna say with the analytics, they they like to use the the season analytics, and then they think that they're gonna transfer into playoff mode. It doesn't work that way. Playoffs is a dip, it's different. You feel different, the vibes are different. Like just because your numbers are good in season, and like to project something that you like if all the data you collect in season, you think it's gonna transfer to the postseason, that's not how it works at all. You don't feel the same, so it's post-season. It's yeah, and even start teams start playing different again. They start playing small balls, like because they're trying to win. Like it to me, it's like we're that run moving that guy over, it's that plays again because you're facing you know number one, number two guys that you're not gonna slug, anyways. So, like, how do you manufacture runs? It starts you start playing the game of baseball the way you should, but then you don't work on it, and it's you know, the teams who who are good at it have have an edge, I think. But it's just you know, you go with Stro because you feel like he wants the ball, he wants that moment, right? Like you want the guy that you know wants to be out there, and it's that simple, you know. Like, oh well, the other guy projects better against this. Well, does he want the ball as much as the other guy? Like, I agree.

SPEAKER_03 52:52

Go with the guy who wants it, right? Like, it's and and I would say, like, just to interject from that, like Gibby, I felt like knew that he could trust Russell because Russell came up, like our time when we came up, it was developing like Russ had to know how to get a guy out with the arsenal. It wasn't like he wasn't a wristband catcher, like he wasn't saying, oh, hey, two, one, throw this, one-o, throw this. Like, no, Russ was having a uh game plan for the basis of the lineup, but also had hand picked guys out there that were more um like that he had to be more cautious of or or or whatnot. But Gibby could trust Russell because he'd been in that situation, just like he was saying. Like, I know that the guy that I want on the mound is someone that wants that moment. And Stro was definitely that guy for us because Stro always wanted the biggest moment pitching. Like, that's just he always came out bigger. I would say he was definitely one of that those guys that the bigger the stage, the better he got, right? Exactly, and and a projection can't show that analytically, can't right, right?

SPEAKER_05 54:05

But I wasn't just gonna ask any any exactly him been, you know, Russ is in the select group, you know, just average Joe back there. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna mess around, you know. But you know, I mean the guy led us to the postseason first time in 30 years, where we're at. Who you who you gonna listen to? He's back there catching it, he knows him, you know. Now I'm sitting on the side watching it, and they're sitting up in up in the press boxes watching it. Yeah, so so go to your catcher if he's a good one, you know. Hey, you met Russ, you were saying something a minute ago about you know things change in the playoffs, and it brought something real quick to my mind. These two guys are sitting right here. Remember, we defeated uh you know uh Texas the second time in you know in 16. Russ was at the plate and Josh is on second base and Russ had that you know that great at bat. And and nowadays, you know, striking out, I mean, it's it's it's I mean, the game really doesn't frown on it as you know like it used to, right? But so Russ is in a battle. If he doesn't put that ball in play, you know, you know, who knows what you know happens after that. We you know, but that's what allowed that to happen. Force the issue, and Josh is able to come score, and we win that win that series, you know. And that's that's baseball. That's kind of what I think what he's talking about. You step it up, you do things, you play the game of baseball, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:31

Which, further to Russ's point, it's you know, the regular season's one thing, the postseason's an entirely different animal.

SPEAKER_05 55:38

It is, you know, the way you yeah, but that was the kind of hitter he was, though, too. I mean, Russ, Russ was gonna battle you, yeah, he's gonna strike out like everybody every now and then, but he's gonna he's it was important to him to put the ball in place. Yeah, sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 55:49

Yeah, I mean, we had a good lineup that had a good mix of uh in those years. We had guys that were contact guys, and we had guys that were power guys that were not 200 plus strikeout guys. I think that's kind of what kills lineups in in some instances, but um like but we had guys that were high on like our best hitters on the team still had high on base percentages. Like so they were drawing, they they were drawing out at best, they were taking their walks. Um I mean, myself, Jose Batista, I'm not sure about everybody, but I know we had over a hundred walks in a year. Like that's that's a lot of that's a lot of walks. So then when your other guys get up there behind you, like they're constantly having guys on base. So it makes it it makes it fun for everybody. Our lineup was fun. Our our lineups that we had there, especially those first two years, that was some of the most fun I've ever been a part of.

SPEAKER_01 56:48

Yeah, you know what's so interesting about that that era too is that you guys were never out of a game. It didn't matter how many runs you were down, and and the energy in the ballpark, it just felt like series after series, homestand after homestand, just kept getting bigger and bigger. And I've wondered this, Gibby. Like, there are so many moments, you know, from that Washington series that that saved the job to the deadline when everybody showed up to the series that followed when the when the ballpark suddenly became alive and full, and then obviously you know the playoff series wins, the the bad flip, the Eddie walk-off. What what stands out? Like if there's a moment, a game, uh you know, the clinch clinching in Fenway Park, winning the division in Baltimore, is there a highlight of that era? The 15-16 with these two guys that stands out the most to you?

SPEAKER_05 57:48

Gosh, I mean there there's there's so many. You know, I really have to think about it a lot, but I I think really just we've we've heard when we had that double header.

SPEAKER_06 58:00

No, I know.

SPEAKER_05 58:01

Yeah, well, see, there's so many things, man.

SPEAKER_06 58:02

You know, I when when when was the when was the Josh diving plane to the stands? When was that? Oh, that was at the end of the year in 15. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 58:11

Yeah. That was it down at Tampa. Remember, Marco had a perfect game. Didn't he go seven innings? Take it seven innings.

SPEAKER_03 58:19

It was in the eighth. Yeah, that was a hell of a day, man. I dove with the eight. I dove with the stands that the very next guy, Logan Forsyth, chopped one off home plate, came in, barehanded it. They called him out and they replayed it, and he was safe by like an inch. It was brutal.

SPEAKER_06 58:36

Temple was tough. They they were tough.

SPEAKER_01 58:39

House of Horrors, dude.

SPEAKER_06 58:40

And they're always tough down there, man.

SPEAKER_01 58:43

Gibby always called it the House of Horrors.

SPEAKER_03 58:46

Oh, yeah, man. They need a new stadium. I called it I call it the I call it the Walmart Stadium. Yeah. You should, you should, you should just you could just see it say 99 center less, this sign up here.

SPEAKER_04 59:00

Well, then you know what? If it if it's Walmart, you that would have been a perfect place for you to find it in a free agent.

SPEAKER_03 59:08

Are you calling me white trash, Gibby? Is that what you no?

SPEAKER_05 59:13

No, that's not what I was saying. Anyway, I'm just saying, yeah, you can buy you buy some more cards there. That's expensive. Yeah, that's expensive.

SPEAKER_01 59:22

Yeah. How did how did Russ end up managing a game, Gibby? How did that all work out?

SPEAKER_05 59:29

Oh, shoot, you know, that it well, if you if you look at our team, we had we had a lot of you know uh great baseball minds and good baseball players. But there was there was one guy, if you ask me, one guy you you do you think would manage when he was done playing, you know, it's Russ all the way, you know. And uh, but uh, you know what, he's had to he had too good a career to want to do this trap anymore. You know, it's like it's like so, you know, I I was I was finished, you know, I we'd uh you know, we were parting ways, I was gone. And uh so when we go down to Tampa, I thought, you know what, let's let's let Russ manage that last game of the season if he wants to. You know, and I didn't even get in the uniform, you know, because it was it for me. So he said he said he'd love to, you know, and uh uh so he went out there and did it. And and uh uh you know, I thought, well, you know, shoot, man. He can get a feel of this and see what the heck he if he likes it or not. Apparently he didn't like it that much, he'd be out here doing it now. Did we win or did we lose that?

SPEAKER_06 1:00:26

I got a I got a zero percent winning percentage as a manager.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:29

Yeah, that's why. Hey, it's it was it's alright. It was in Tampa, they always, like I said, the house of horrors, things are.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:37

If you're ahead of somebody in the winning percentage, uh you're ahead of Russ, at least you're so what are you up to now, man? You're down there in Anaheim, huh?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:49

Yeah, I love it out here. You know, beautiful is beautiful, you know. It really is, you know. I told you until until you got to go to the gas gas station, Philippines. Or look at your kind of opening. Oh yeah, they kill you. They kill you. You know, I've worked in I've worked in three places, man, where they they they can't get enough of your money. Up there in up there in Toronto, New York, and California. Can't I get a dang job?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:16

Or Texas somewhere in Florida? Texas, yes. You should you shouldn't try to go to the A's, though. They're going to Vegas, so I mean I know a couple people there. I know one thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:29

I'm going home. I'm going home soon, boys.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:31

I'm going home soon. Yeah, how much I'm uh I'm on the victory tour. How much longer do you want to keep doing this, man? Yeah, this is probably it right here. I want to stay in the game, do a little scouting, maybe part-time. And uh originally that's what I was gonna do this year. I was gonna, you know, I told the, you know, like last year I I called the Mets after our season, you know, we we had that uh, you know, uh how do how do I say it? You know, we had that nice, we had the best record in baseball in June, and there was a slow decline.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:01

Yeah, it was like a it was like trying, it was like water torture.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:06

I was trying to say it nicely, but but uh and then so I I wasn't going back anyway, so I called him the day after and and told him I wasn't coming back. So I I told them that before they could actually fire me because they fired all the other kids. So I was actually, yeah, I was actually talking to Atlanta. I was gonna go down there maybe scout, which I did a few years ago after I left Toronto. And then uh I was and uh but then Perry called, you know, who had been I knew from Toronto and in uh in Atlanta. And he said, you know, Kurt Suzuki's gonna, you know, and never manage. Just talk to him. So I I hit it off with him, you know. He's like these guys, man. You know, he's he's a baseball lifer, you know, and uh uh so I I've really I've really enjoyed that. We got a we got a great coaching staff, we got a you know, a lot of ex-players that uh you know been around, so it's a little bit different than some of the staffs out there now. So but so I figure I'll get I'll give the give it this year and then uh probably fade away.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:06

Yeah, yeah, I don't know, Gibby. Yeah, I mean you've done a great job.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:10

It was a pleasure.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:11

Yeah, I mean I know one thing, boys. I've I've I've enjoyed it, and that's because of guys like you, you know, that uh I can't say made it easy, but made it fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:20

Oh, Doug, hey, Doug, nothing that's worth worth anything is easy, right? That's true.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:29

Oh, yeah, dude. I wouldn't trade it for nothing. You know what? It was uh, you know, I mean, it you go to the ballpark, you know, you never knew what was gonna happen, you know. But um, you know one thing, we always had a chance to win, and that's that's what matters in this game. And and uh it really brought baseball back to life in Toronto, you know, and you uh you know, for that short stretch. And then, you know, you saw it relived again last year, you know, and they got they got a heck of a team up there now. It's got some guys that are injured, you know, but uh a lot of similarities. Uh you know, different different style of team they have up there now, but a lot of similarities.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:05

Um so as we as we rap, Gib, you're talking about the personalities, you talk about these guys making it fun. Like when you when you kind of look back on that era, and especially these two characters, you know, one guy who was a pain in your ass, the other one who was the good cop amidst all the bad cops. What stands out the most from uh from the get it done era with the Blue Jays?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:32

Well, you know what, Rash, you were part of that too, man. You did a heck of a job, too. I remember it. Um, like I said earlier today, you know, when when uh Alex brought both these guys in, you know, we all excited. Not so much because you know, because they they've had great careers, but you know, Russ was Russ played on a winner every year, you know. I don't it didn't matter what team he was on, he was on a winner. So that right there tells you he's the catcher, he's he's the leader out there. Same thing with Josh. See, Josh was always on teams that won. But I'll the they they had some grit about him. So, like I said earlier, it brought some toughness to us that I think we needed, you know, and then uh of course we made some big you know uh moves at the the trade deadline. But you know, I it was obviously definitely my most enjoyable year and in the most enjoyable time of my life in baseball. Um, but there was just something special. Guys you enjoyed being around, guys you enjoyed seeing, you know, each day, and in uh, like I said earlier, too, that you know you had a chance to win every night. You know, that's that doesn't happen everywhere. I'm you know experience that right now, you know, and in uh uh uh but it's part of it. But you know what? And they brought they brought baseball, these guys brought baseball back to life in Toronto, and it had been missing, and really put uh the Blue Jays back on the map.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:50

Love it. Gibby, great to see you again. Uh, thanks for the stories. Thanks for the memories. Let's do this again sometime. All right, man. Well, good luck with the show. It's a great one. Like I said, I've seen some clips. Thanks to get it done, Link!