(interview
transcripts for the 2018 Red Wings Yearbook article below… you’ll, of course,
excuse the obvious typos and misspellings.. some grammar, misspeaking
corrections were considered.. I referred to the audio to be sure of the quotes
utilized- BILL FLYNN)
Andy Etchebarren
Feb 2018
I lived in florida, but when
my second wife died, we had a house in South Carolina on a lake
, so I sold the house in florida
and I kept my phone number and now live in So Carolina
Your favorite manager--- yeah, earl weaver… as players, we felt he
could out-manage anybody
and we felt we could outplay anybody so it was a good combination
…. The other guy I respected was hank bauer for giving me my
first opportunity to catch everyday in
the big leagues …
Challenges in minor league managing-- players going up
and coming down… only
in triple A you don’t have those problems in a ball and double a.. I managed at all those spots
the only place I saw a difference was
triple a- where players didn’t think they should be there—they thought
they should be in the big leagues …when a guy got sent down from big leagues to triple a , like
Rochester, you had problems ith some, not all, .. to get them
focused back on their job to get back to
the big leagues ..
Triple A was the toughest job
I had.
Sending players up, gratifying… true, but I felt just as good when I had a
plyer in Aberdeen or
Bowie or otherwise, and hey eventually
they made it .. even if I wasn’t in triple a.. like Nolan Rheimold- I had him one
year in Aberdeen -- when he made it I
was very happy for him .. lot of guys like that- that
made it to the big leagues and I felt happy for them
Triple a is a tough job
–toughest I had in baseball -- .. when
you’re supposed to put a decent team on the field and bring the fans in, and
you don’t have a very good team and..
the general manager needs to help you at the big league level to try and get you some players to help your
club so Naomi was (the owner) when I was there and I felt bad for her cause we weren’t very good ..and I couldn’t do anything about it
Not fair to give the manager too much credit or
too much blame because you’re relying on the players executing, and have good
players to begin with?
Absolutely..
when you manage long enough ..i managed probably each game differently .. depends who you’re facing, depends what someone’s numbers
were against us ..are we gonna get one, two, three runs a game or six or seven….if we’re only gonna get one
or two runs, I’m gonna manage differently
than if we were gonna get six or seven.. Every game is different …
Playing with the hand you’re dealt with, or
playing people that the big club says to.. you may have to do things with players that they may not be
capable of?
That is exactly right, right
on the nose… they tell you how many at bats they want this guy to have ..how many innings this guy should pitch .. well, sometimes it don’t work out ..i understand what they’re saying because they got
money invested in these players and they
won’t us to develop players with the most money, but a lot of times the players
without the most money are better than the other players .. and
you got no chance to play ‘em.
Affects the fans perception and the media of
what is going on… yes…
A
manager or coach has a tremendous amount of impact, going back to high school
and college as far as how far a player goes? No doubt about that, you hit it right on the nose
Players
not buying into a system, frustrating,… didn’t move up
because they didn’t want to cooperate? Yes, but I’m not going to give you their
names… reasons other than not playing a
different position or altering their stance…
Not so much that, it would be not playing hard.. thinking that everything should
come easy ..they didn’t run balls out hard, didn’t hit
the right cutoff man …like all the workouts didn’t mean anything … that’s where
the frustration comes in ..
There’s players in triple A today making 60,
70, 100, 120 thousand a year… my first year after leaving Rochester
, with Baltimore and we won the world’s championship was
65-hundred.. and
I know that was a long time ago, but .. you know, you
can make a living now playing in triple A .. you
couldn’t do that when I was in the big leagues ..boog
everybody.. we had to get a job in the winter to support
out families … that’s a lot more pressure… you better play hard because you
won’t have the chance to play in the big leagues if you don’t play hard …
Strategy?
Go by the book
I didn’t play it by the book
.. I’m an old fashioned guy.. learned a lot from George Bamberger – when I was a coach in
Milwaukee.. he never believed- except for a few times- to play on the line late in the game
to prevent a double …and the reason was: so many balls are hit in the
holes than down the line that they’d
score more runs if you played on the line…what that does is protect you from
the press as a manager …they (press) would come to you and ask why you weren’t
paying on the line and you get to explain why .. now,
I would play on the line, but one side or another- never both
So you
trusted that feeling inside, the gut feeling… yeah, earl weaver taught me that
So you
weren’t a statistics and chart kind of manager? I looked at stats ..
of course there’s a lot more stats today then when I was managing , but I would
check the stats everyday – what my guys were doing… what they did against the
night’s pitcher ..and I wouldn’t adjust my lineup …I might take a guy out if he
was terrible against a pitcher and put another guy in .. but I wouldn’t move
guys up and down the lineup , because I feel guys get used to hitting in a
certain place and it’s hard for them to
adjust if you keep moving them 3-7,
stuff like that
The fans
may not realize about a minor league manager … firstly, when you manage in triple a, the fans want you to win
–that’s how a triple a club makes money .. but in the lower
minor leagues, it’s completely different. The fans are there to see baseball .. not they don’t care if
they win or lose, they just want to see players play hard , and get better so
they can move up
Do you
think that it’s not a coincidence that so many catchers become managers? No I don’t .. I think
that as a catcher, you’re always asking questions, working with pitchers .. bullpens.. talking with pitching coach all the time, talking to the
manager all the time ..when you’re on the bench…and
you learn about situations .. what would you do in
this or that situation.. Davey Johnson-
I worked for him in Baltimore.. he
didn’t like pinch-hitting for a guy in a tough situation because he thought it
took away his confidence.. he thought that if he could start him, he could hit in any
situation .. that was Davey’s theory…
Minors
also? Yeah, you hurt their
confidence you don’t know how long it’ll take them to come back from that
A couple
of sentences regarding your playing .. and managing in Rochester..
Well, as a player I really enjoyed being there.. Naomi’s dad was still there when I was playing there.. when I managed there, I had a
tough road. Not that I managed any different.. we
didn’t have any pitching and there’s a lot of good hitters then in the league
…well, if you can’t stop anybody from scoring, you’re gonna lose .. I forget
but was it Scranton? But somebody beat us 16 of 17 games that year and they
were just better than we were
Update
what’s going on? I’m in south Carolina, retired.. I live in Santee, South Carolina [check!] .. I live on a 140,000 acre lake … I’ve had four back
operations so I can’t do a lot.. so
that’s all… watch a lot of tv… try to get outside.. I
ride my golf cart around.. haven’t
played golf in five years, since I started with the back surgeries
Orioles
still include you? Yes.. but some things… I was really
looking forward to the 50th reunion of the ’66 World Series win.. and I couldn’t go—my doctor wouldn’t let me go (after
neck surgery)… some things I’ve missed because of health…I’m doing okay.. I’ll
never be the same like I was but I’m not gonna complain. God gave me a pretty
good life ..gave me a job that I truly enjoyed doing..
I’m 74, I live in a beautiful place .. so I got no complaints…
Could be
worse… with what’s going on in the world…
I can’t get over a lot of things… but killing
17 students in that high school the other day (Parkland, Florida).. I just can’t get over that… I know what I would
do. I’d train the teachers with guns and have a teacher with a gun ..but you have to train them to use it … that’s the only
way you’re gonna stop these guys …. I’m worried about saving kids lives.. common sense priorities…
You guys take it easy…
Marv
Foley 2/9/17
Play within the cards that
have been dealt—you always try to get the most out of your team.. I divided the personalities into 3 diff groups—they all
fall not 3 groups…… and you mesh it in
You got total control out of all
of that: you make the line-up out each day as far as how guys are
doing with performance… certain guys got
to play—so called “prospects” that the organization has designated as such but
… but pitchers and catchers we are always prepared – we just don’t go out there
and start throwing fingers down… we prepare, there is a plan .. good or bad… .. we certainly don’t
call every pitch but we have the option to … you play baseball… .. and the triple –A manager, who hopefully
has the backing of the farm director and goes about his business in a
professional manner and gets the most out of the player as he sees fit and ten
if that didn’t work then that guy’s replaced.. and you
move on
Your favorite manager—tony la
russa ….. I learned maybe 90% of my stuff from Tony…
I played with him the first year he
managed in Knoxville double aa in
78… he’s in triple A in 79… then he’s
managing the club half way through…. A very intelligent man and an extremely
competent baseball guy
(do
you have two wills pulling at you as manager—one saying “go for it” the other
“hold on, be careful”)
No… ..
I’ve always been the aggressive guy… and prepared, too,, I always felt
confident going into a guy regardless where it was because I felt prepared … I
trained my players to play a certain way
and I knew what we were up against so I
went into battle I knew what to expect
Going with the gut feeling on
some decision-- they talk about the
baseball book—I never met the guy who read it or
if it ever existed.. I think good managers got to go by their
gut. . You size up the situation and then make your decisions … and sometimes the decisions aren’t popular with whatever but you go with
what you think is gonna work.. And
with me, it
worked out more than it didn’t most of the time..
Universal for teams to make
use of statistics/ charts..
I’m sure I would use it if I
was a big league manager… but I had my own charts.. I
watched the game, I knew the pitcher- hitter combination. I played my players where I saw the guy
was gonna hit the ball… so yeah, information is good … it can help you be better but we got along
fine for what, a couple hundred years without sabr
metrics …. But… if you can manage, if you can see things that are gonna happen
before they happen you’re gonna be fine
Execution not always there by
the ball players------------
Well that’s preparation …you
train your guys and obviously if they can’t perform you’re gonna lose… the players win or lose the games … the
manager- his job is to put the player in the position to succeed.. and
that’s why everybody doesn’t make it to the big leagues .. as
simple as that: not everybody makes it to triple A—they’re not physically or
mentally capable of handling the task at hand…
And that’s why it’s a difficult
process to win because there’s so many variables involved and you have to
adjust and adapt and have players that can do that
Manager gets too much credit
for winning/ too much blame if you lose
I don’t think so,,… you got a good
manager like: Leyland, Herzog, LaRussa.. the guy from Chicago Cubs…. They put their players in the
position to win..
they out-fox the other guy…they go outside the
box from time to time .. totally prepared for what
might happen ,,, so they’re never surprised..
that’s big
Guess hitters…… there are
guess hitters.. you can
identify those guys ,, the guys that swing and miss at balls in the dirt and over head..—they pre-determined that the
pitch--- they’ve already figured out what it is…
You got to narrow down what
the pitcher can throw for strikes .. you know he’s got
three pitches and two aren’t workin’, you just narrow it down to one you’re chances
are better… so, a lot of guys guess but there’s a lot of talent involved, too…
if you are a guess hitter, you won’t be as successful, in my opinion .. if a guy has four pitches and you guess on one, three of em , you’re gonna miss
Luck factor--- luck I s good, but luck isn’t gonna get you anywhere .. just the way it
goes .. we all need to be lucky every
now and again but in the long run, 6 months of baseball, luck’s not gonna be a
factor
Plug roch:
Roch is the epitome of my life in baseball. I absolutely love Rochester. Matter of fact,
I came very, very close to moving there and I don’t like cold weather. So that
tells you how much I love those people, the city, Dan Mason, Naomi Silver, all
the people in the front office. I’ve been in the game now..
let’s see, I’m 65.. so, about
45 years.. and those (Rochester time) are the best
five years of my baseball life. You can print that!
Player
Development Supervisor, Colorado Rockies
GENE
GLYNN (Feb 2018)
Favorite managers
Felipe alou, buck rodgers.....don baylor…
Coaching for don Baylor, who
played for the Red Wings was one of the best experiences I ever had with the Colorado
Rockies and Chi Cubs because him being a hall of famer with Roch
that might mean a lot to a lot of people and
it meant a lot to me too to go back to Rochester where he was a real outstanding player .. I also coached
in the big leagues for Felipe – one of the guys I enjoyed playing for the most .. I think Don to me … I could name every manager and
say I learned something from everyone ,,, those three
were outstanding.. but Don: learning from him as a first-time coach in the big
leagues was outstanding ,,, Felipe Alou
I played for and coached for …played for him in the minors and coached for him
in the big leagues – he was a great mentor to me like Don was..
Extra duties as a minor league manager.. in the minors and especially maybe in AAA you
have to have a plan and you build a
routine and then you have
discipline in what you’re doing and good direction .. and that’s individually and team-wise. Those four things
follow suit with just about everything you’ll do with an individual and with your
team… of course, all of our minor league managers throughout baseball are there
to help build major league players and to help the advancement of achieving the
goals that these young guys
have to get to the big leagues… so I always say: have a plan, build
a good routine, have good direction and
then discipline in that direction …
For me, a lot of it was: you
talk about winning , you’re always talking about
winning and being aggressive and the
great thing about the Twins and
Rochester were.. we stole a lot of bases , we did a lot of different things , we were always
trying to put the pressure on the other teams
to execute and we kind of played
with a fearless approach that we’re not
waiting for them to do anything , they’re gonna have to
adjust to what we do
A lot of paperwork for a minor league manager—a lot of post game communication between what went on in the game and to the major
league staff and front office.. so yeas, post game .. the paperwork
prior to the game was definitely there and the resources were given to us to try and have the best approach
to enter the team we’re about to play ..
not only
team-wise, but manager wise and position players and pitchers.. what
they’re ability was , what their strengths and weakness were so we
could get prepared to counter that as
guys moved on and passed through our league .. so
there was a routine on being somewhat educated on as far as who they were
facing .. if we had played them before … cause sometimes in the minors you hadn’t
played the players for 4 or 5 years
cause they went to different leagues .. but when it
came to scouting reports , positives and negatives , strengths and weaknesses
.. those are
things that we tried to bring out to every player in a team meeting prior to
every series that we played.. and input from the players who may have played (against )
other players .. there is a diligent approach to
trying to spread and share knowledge that has been gathered by scouts, player
development people, front office..
there’s a lot that goes into it- we just don’t show up at 6:30 for a 7
o’clock game …we’re there really early – about 2 o’clock ,,, meetings and not
only for individuals but as groups .. a total team
meeting also
How important are stats and charts for the
minor league situation…
I think the greatest thing now for the players
is the video ..allows you to see a guy pitch or hit .. allows me
to watch a guy pitch to other players .. see the ball
come out: things like release point, velocity and seeing spin .. where is his release point? And the video allows you to have
that ..you can see rotation and velocity. You can also see his delivery
before he changes leagues and you’ve never seen him before. So the guys have
some idea as far as who they’re gonna face..
All of the information out
there now is beneficial to a player if he uses it ..
we try to enforce that to be as knowledgeable as we could and be aware of who we’re facing but I found,
too, that the players that have played with somebody – maybe have switched
teams , they have the great insight on
what this guy’s makeup is , how he approaches the game , is he a hard-nosed,
aggressive player … a little passive…so there might be some insight, that hey,
if you get to this guy early , early in the count, cause he’s trying to get
ahead , and if we did that , because of personal knowledge , sometimes that is
just as good but familiarity with a guy, to see videos when you’ve never seen them before , you
can’t replace that .. with a verbal.. you can watch them
Challenge as manager, playing with cards you’re
dealt… developing at request of the major league …
The greatest thing about the Minn Twins is when I was hired there, they said, we’ll
develop for six innings and win the game in the 7th, 8th
and 9th …they truly believed in development ,
everybody has to ..but to have the opportunity to win
and truly manage the game with the personnel you have if it was pitching,
relief pitching , with matchups or it would be pinch hitting, pinch running, a
prospect or not, they wanted to develop a winning atmosphere, too.. and really
to teach guys that, hey, if you’re struggling right now , even though you’re a
top prospect that we’re gonna try to win for the other 24 players on the
roster, then we’re gonna pinch hit , [pinch run … everybody hits slumps , the
(players) got to understand that if I’m no doing really well now, then get
somebody else in there .. and that it is a team sport, that we’re using the
best guy we can… so I really credit the Twins for : developing for 6.. although
some guys play the whole game ..but if you had a
chance to win a game, they trusted the manager to make every decision to win
the game in the 7th, 8th and 9th… within your
resources
Gut decision in making decisions.. or do you have that little voice
inside that is warning to be a little conservative …?
No way! You should be as
aggressive as any player when you’re the manager .. you’re not trying to be conservative in that sense, cause you
want to get the best out of that player …to a point of playing without fear
against your competitor …
So many decisions.. can you put the bad ones behind you? Especially if the same
situation comes up again..
The great thing about
baseball is you play almost every day ..there’s no
looking back ..you just think about winning that day..
we talk about playing the game as one pitch, one out,
one inning for the players .. get locked in and think:
one pitch, one out, one inning .. a manager, the third
base coach, whoever, they have to be
thinking the same way because every game can change on one pitch .. everything can
change in one inning .. one out.. whatever..
and we all know: there’s errors, mistakes, bad
hops—you’ve got to put that behind
you and just continue to play, coach and manage.. cause
those things are gonna happen and they’re gonna happen again and you try not to dwell on all the little
things – even though you might talk about it with an individual.. when it comes to the team concept, you accept the things
that happen out of your control and you play until the last out is made .. leave it at the park, get ready for tomorrow…you might dwell
on it for 5 or 10 minutes but you gotta get over
it and get ready for the next game
re: pitches are called for the batter or pitcher… I’ve never been on a team, where from the
bench somebody is calling pitches in pro baseball- that doesn’t
happen. The pre-game—as far as how we’re
gonna attack a guy is enough, now it’s
between the pitcher and the catcher -- and that’s pro baseball—that’s not high
school or college where you’re really
trying to teach and help someone.. because these guys at their age and time
spent in the game and the relationship with the catcher and pitcher has to take
over because they’re gonna count on each other when they get to the big
leagues…I’ve hardly ever seen in the minor leagues , never in the big leagues
where the pitches called are coming from the bench
Not fair to press for a pre-season prediction
from a minor league manager—because of call ups and injuries surely coming?
I think that’s fair—you don’t
judge him even on wins and losses when it comes to the team..
I would think it’s more of how they play the game, how aggressive, confident
and how hard they play.. sometimes you might be
over-matched because of movement and injury in the big league where people get
moved up – or even in Double A , you get injuries in AAA and guys go up to
help… there is a time where a player will not move because they need that time
at a certain level .. but a lot of times a vet is
gonna move because of either advancement or injury.. so,
it’s really hard, unless you have a lot of depth and a lot of good players to
continue to win in the minor leagues – especially if the big league club is
pulling players because of injury .. or lack of
success.. it’s
hard to judge a manager in the minors
and how good he really is when his roster is changing all the time
Twins-Roch connection
– sending people up—is that a known thing—
Rochester, if no one gets hurt
in the big leagues and there in first place you’re not going to see movement.. it’s either guys getting injured
or tired and something happens where you need to have a replacement. That’s why
you have the minor leagues to supplement the major league roster and keep it as
strong as you can .. we don’t
leave spring training intending to bring guys up unless someone fails – or if
the guy in AAA or AA is really succeeding .. but
injury is usually the biggest reason .. and lack of
success… that’s the way it is
The major league guys, team should be the
best in the organization . if it has to do with
veterans already proving that they have a long contract and they’re gonna play
and they’ve proven themselves at the major league level ..you sure hope you
have a nucleus of players ready to supplement that team when there is an injury
at the major league level – all of us are pulling for the big league team to win and as much as we
hate to lose a player in AAA and go to the big leagues, believe me, the whole
locker room is excited when a guy goes up (to the majors) especially for the first time .. so, as bad as we want to win every game for Rochester those
guys are playing so hard so they’re the next guy called up.. they
want to be that guy and if deservingly so
Say hi to the guys in Rochester .. I love that city and that team and the people
there –you guys are all great
JOEL
SKINNER
#336
file
Managers are telling batters
to Swing or hit: depending on the score.. late in the game, you might end up telling the guys ahead
of time if they don’t represent the tying run, then maybe “take a strike”… but
you prob would have communicated with before the
inning starts… your hitting coach in the dugout and those things are communicated
to the player… but there’s also times in the game and you just have a take sign- if it’s a 3-0
count or things like that- you have a
sign whether they’re swinging or not… it’s fairly simple…
Bunting—you would give a
heads up, prior to an inning ..certain situations… to
be looking for it (the bunt sign) and I’ll have
a sign for that, coaching third
Managers calling pitches… not
very often.. these guys—part of their development- they need to take
ownership… we do have pre game meetings to talk about how we’re going to deal
in situations with certain players…. Dep on the hitter… we rely on the catcher
to call pitchers-
that’s part of their development…. Figure out on their own
Managers calling pitches…
Happening anywhere?—rare there—
you see the
catcher looking into the dugout with men on base.. and that’s basically
controlling the running game- over to first base, pitchouts… … so calling a
game falls to the pitcher and catcher—the pitcher has the ball in his hands ,
and we want him to have confidence in the pitches he’s going to throw – so the
pitcher has the last say in what he’s gonna throw…
(new
file on TASCAM ) beginning on trac
phone
Using charts and statistics
--- the more info you have the better you are, but you don’t want to overload
the player with too much information … knowing what individual players can
handle….. some players want more information, some don’t … at aaa, because there’s so much info at the MLB level, , we’re trying to implement that more at the minor league
level, just so that they’re not overwhelmed
when they get to the big leagues … it’s tough enough adjusting to the
major leagues let alone the routines of
diff types of analytical and statistical stats to attack hitters or to
defense hitters…
You have a fav manager;;
The ones that used to write
my name in the lineup would be my favorites, but uh… I broke in as a young player with TONY
LARUSSA… enjoyed playing for him, a hall of fame – was a fave
primarily because he was my first… also
played for BILLY MARTIN, a lot of fun,
very insightful, a very good field manager, understanding the game and the
opponent.. that’s two…
and then John McNamara was another manager I really enjoyed, playing in Cleveland
Gut feeling decisions… as you get more
experience, you gain a feel for your environment that you’re in, that given
moment, -- I think that is how some people describe your “gut”.. but I think your gut is
something that , over time and over preparation.. and
have info.. and experience and log a lot of games under your belt and all those
things that come into the equation—I think that creates the feelings that you
have in your inner self- whether that’s your gut or not I don’t know—but it’s
something that you hope that your brain takes over and gives you those feelings…
.. it’s not just happenstance, you know, .. when people talk about somebody’s gut.. or “fly by the seat
of your pants” that’s different then the feelings you get where you’ve prepared
yourself, have played the movie over in your head many a time, so as a result
of all that, it does create somewhat of a “gut” feeling
No matter how you manage, still dependent on
luck and the players executing…
The players still have to play.. .. you try and put them in good situations where they can
succeed..
In the triple A (position).. they’re getting matched to their
positions
Going into Rochester—
I’m looking forward to it..obviously it’s a new
organization for me and so I’m excited
about that. It’s always good to be around young players that are on the cusp of getting to the
big leagues .. and you try to create an atmosphere
that is conducive for them to have success