Why Baker, Maddon, Bochy and Piniella Belong in Cooperstown

The Contemporary Committee came out with guys for the Hall of Fame, Dusty Baker, Lou Piniella. Bruce Bochy, Joe Maddon were on that list. Let me give you a little something here about Joe Maddon. I have a chance to work with Joe Madden. I did the Rays pre- and post-game show for a couple years when I was down there in Tampa. And I got to tell you, working with Joe Madden, it was just an absolute privilege to see how a manager was able to connect with his players and seeing how a manager was able to win with guys with Andrew Friedman and how they built that organization. Now you look at what Eric Neander does. Along with Kevin Cash, they've kind of taken that same blueprint, and I am pulling for Joe Maddon to make it to the Hall of Fame. Let me say this to you about Joe Maddon. So again, we would get him on our program each and every single week. He'd walk into the studio with me, and I asked Joe Maddon, how did you? connect with your players. He would say this to me. He'd go, Dan, you have to have a personal relationship with each and every single one of those guys. And the relationships that I had made it so that when I was connecting with my baseball players, for me to be able to have that personal relationship, it was the least amount of resistance for the best result. That's how he managed that baseball team. I loved being around Joe Maddon. He showed me and taught me so much about managing and how he put these lineup cards together and how he was able to go and be the manager of that baseball team on a low payroll, on a payroll that really at the time was maybe around $90 million. And you're talking about a manager that took that baseball team and did so many marvelous things. And obviously, he goes on to Chicago, and he goes on and wins the World Series up with the Cubs. But without a doubt, one of my favorite people of all time, Dusty Baker, another guy that I worked with when I did the pre- and post-game show for the San Francisco Giants when I was working in the Bay Area. We were on KNBR 68, the home of the San Francisco Giants. And each and every single post-game show, Dusty Baker would come on and we would have a conversation about his baseball team. Of course, that was the era of Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent. Those baseball teams were just absolutely loaded. And Dusty was such a great communicator with his players. Every single time that we would go into the dugout, Dusty would take you over to all the players. He would sit there and maybe get you in line with the guys, give them a great... Give you an opportunity to start a relationship. And this is where I started my relationship with Barry Bonds. I got into the locker room because of Dusty, and Bonds and I started having a great relationship when I worked there. And make no mistake about it, without a doubt, we are looking at amazing, amazing times here when you're talking about being able to work with a guy like Dusty Baker and Joe Maddon. I hope both these guys, Lou Piniella also, an opportunity to potentially make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Lou was just such a great manager. And really a great communicator. When I lived in Tampa, had a chance to know Lou a little bit because Lou's from the Tampa area. And you get an opportunity to sit there and see what makes these men really work. Had another chance to work with Bruce Bochy because I did the pre and post game show for the San Diego Padres as well. And I know people looking around going, man, you're a football guy, but all these pre and post game shows that we did, almost each and every single one of these managers, I had a relationship with. So when someone asked me the other day, who do you want to see go into the Baseball Hall of Fame? Dusty Baker, who I worked with, Lou Piniella, who I worked with, Bruce Bochy, who I worked with, and Joe Maddon, who I worked with. The one thing that was really synonymous with all of these guys. was the fact that these guys were great communicators when it came to they're able to handle their rosters and being able to handle the men that they had inside their dugouts. Make no mistake about it, I'm really looking forward to sitting there and seeing which one of these men have an opportunity at making it to the Hall of Fame.