Culture Change

[doe_boy]

As much as I respected and admired TLR's abilities and record, watching the games he managed could be a chore. And, it always led to a messed up score card.

I felt the same about Whitey too with his 'bring in Dayley and put Worrell out in RF for a LH batter' stunts and whatnot.

I have a feeling the Matheny era will be much more relaxing. Not necessarily as successful, but certainly less taxing on one's emotions.

[Maclowery]

I'd prefer they hate each other..............

I just want us to win, we don't need to be dicks about it.

I can go with that, but I don't really have a problem if they're dicks about beating another team that's full of dicks. Dick-corum flies out the window when you're playing a team with Ryan Braun, Nyjer Morgan, and Aramis Ramirez on the roster.

I'm never going to be able to hear someone say 'decorum' out loud again without pretending they're saying dick-corum.

[Popeye_Card]

Has Holiday ever really ripped on players of an opposing team when they had a bad outing? I think it might have more to do more with him getting the 'leader' interview rather than Albert and his style comes off more as genuine than just 'dealing with the press.'

With Albert s interviews it was usually the same heehaw about looking for a good pitch and giving thanks for what he was able to do. Sure, Albert would say they have a good pitcher, but if pressed for more detail he would pretty much reiterate the exact same thing he just said. Holiday sounds like he was actually looking for a substantive answer to give but knows from his vantage point he's not really able to desciminate more why Gallardo was off, and acknowledges that.

Matheny's comment didn't seem too out of the ordinary. We've heard Tony say "they hit the ball pretty well [against us]" or "they hit some liners that we got a little lucky on - they have some good players." But I don't know if I've ever heard Tony go into more detail like "their timing is actually pretty good."

That's just it though. The extra line from both of those guys is what differentiates their quotes from the rote BS typically given La Russa and AP. I think it's refreshing, and that's not even including Berkman's typical interview, which is gold.

Do we know if that extra line wasn't there before, and just not printed? Controversy sells papers.

[Hungary Jack]

I'd posit that 99% of MLB players don't run their mouths and are always respectful of the opposition. It should be the norm, but loquacious douchebags like Nyjer and Zambonehead make for good headlines. And that sells.

[AdmiralKird]

Do we know if that extra line wasn't there before, and just not printed? Controversy sells papers.

Well, you get to see interviews all the time on the post-game with player reaction, and Tony had many postgame press conferences. None of these were ever cut for media purposes, they were always played in full, and I never heard those kind of phrases.

Holiday sounds like he was actually looking for a substantive answer to give but knows from his vantage point he's not really able to desciminate more why Gallardo was off, and acknowledges that.

Not sure if I'm reading too much between the lines, but Holliday's quotes seem to simply dance around the reason why they hit Gallardo so well. They obviously see the ball well off him but they don't want to say anything publically to alter his approach against the Cards in the future. But perhaps I should give the scouts of other teams more credit - surely some other team must've picked up whatever Gallardo's weakness is in the number of seasons he's been in the majors.

I didn't get the feeling from Holiday's printed reaction that he actually knew that much more than what he presented. I think if Holiday actually knew there was a hitch in Gallardo's delivery, or they could see the grip he was putting on the ball prior to the pitch - whether from the batter's box or the dugout, he would have known in an interview he would need to say absolutely as little as possible, not mentally search for answers during the interview and then articulate not fully knowing why.

[Popeye_Card]

Well, you get to see interviews all the time on the post-game with player reaction, and Tony had many postgame press conferences. None of these were ever cut for media purposes, they were always played in full, and I never heard those kind of phrases.

Yeah, but LaRussa was about as comfortable in those press conferences as Palin sitting down with Katie Couric.

I wouldn't call it a "culture change" as much as I'd call it "having more prominent players/coaches who are comfortable talking with the media."

[AdmiralKird]

I wouldn't call it a "culture change" as much as I'd call it "having more prominent players/coaches who are comfortable talking with the media."

This too, but I think there's also a more general 'openness' to their approach with the media rather than simply being comfortable. I think Albert was generally comfortable talking during post-game, most of the time, but his demeanor was 'the media interview as usual.' I remember Joel Pinero was another guy that was fairly open with interviews, but he never was in the spotlight that much.