Fire Up The Hot Stove

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Hi, everyone, welcome to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosen House along with you as we join you for another of our hot Stove shows from our Mote broadcast studio away from Progressive Field as the renovation project continues Phase two year or two that should be completed in time for opening days, so the ballpark off limits for now, but we still bring you our show each and every week, and a good show lined up for you this week, including the return of our Game of the Week segment that we

Earlier this week, it was.

Announced that both Andre Simenez, the guardians outstanding second basement and left fielder Stephen Kwan, had won Gold Glove Awards, and for each that means three consecutive years they have done that, which is absolutely remarkable, and of course for Jimenez, he has an opportunity now with an announcement forthcoming soon, to win a second consecutive Platinum Glove for the best overall defender in the league, regardless of positions. So congratulations

Yeah, it's really about the day to day. Like you know, throughout my career, you know, there's been some good situations

You mentioned after after Game five that you felt like a Cleveland guy.

Do you do you feel like that even more right now?

Yeah?

It's uh, you know, obviously, like I love being in Cleveland, but the thing that makes me love being in Cleveland was more is I feel the love from everybody else.

The people in the organization, the fans, the city.

Have have so embraced me, and I just I feel like a Cleveland guy. Like That's that. That's the best way I could put it. Like it feels like home to me. And I know I signed a one year contract, but as long as they as long as they want me, I don't plan on going anywhere.

It's Austin Hedges back in the fold for another season, as he signed a contract for the twenty twenty five campaign. Well, it was a memorable postseason for all Guardians fans, certainly, and two in particular, and we will meet them when we come back and relive a special moment for them that took place in Game five of the American League Division Series. That's next on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio netword.

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Thomas digs in hole for two. But he's been one of the hottest hitters for the Guardians for a month. Here's the pitch to him. He swings and drives it high in the air left field.

Will it make the bleachers grand? Sad? Lame? Thomas has put the Guardians in front with a grand slam.

Five to one Cleveland, and this place is shaking. Welcome back to Guardians Weekly, and we are getting deeper into the off season, which is always kind of a sad time of a year for folks who love baseball. And we are joined in our next segment by two people who love the game and were a big part of

Yeah, first off, thanks Jim for having us on. It's been a special month. And yeah, basically at that moment in game five, Jose steps to the plate and Glove's sitting beside me along with Patrick, who's a good friend and cousin of mine, special seats where my dad had sat for numerous games, and thinking bases loaded against Trek Scouble.

We were in a tough spot.

I think earlier in the inning we gave up a run to make it one to nothing, and that you know, with with Scooba on the mound, that's it's a tough battle.

But I looked over it at Patrick and he's like, we got this. Don't worry Matt. You know, he's just he's just a beacon.

Of hope and positivity.

And that being said, we go and load the bases.

Jose comes up to the plate and I had my glove ready, he had his, you know, Patrick had his towel that he was swinging.

You know, most of the game sat on it.

I did move that towel, but I was like hoping that was the moment, and then obviously they hit Jose hit him in the forearm. Were at that point just hoping he was healthy. And fast forward, It's one to one. First pitch to Laine Thomas. Felt like it stayed in the air for about a day, maybe fifteen seconds, and I knew I couldn't drop it, but when I caught it, just kind of gave a pump of the fifth and gave it to Patrick, and thank God for the moment

Just a great memory. And Patrick, let's go right to you first off, before we even talk about getting that ball, right in that moment and what it meant to you just being able to go to a game. I know you've battled leukemia and you're on the tail end of that and things are looking really positive, but how long had it been since you had been to a game? And how special was it just to be at a post season game with your cousin or with your uncle the.

Last game I've been to was twolsand and nineteen, so it has been before COVID hit and then after that, I went through nursing homes and hospitals and now I'm in an apartment now. So has been quite an his parents for everything.

And when Matt gave you the ball, what did that mean to you? Especially the way the stadium was just going bananas at that particular time. It was very toughing, and you had a chance to go back to another game and meet someone who turned out to be pretty special. Fast forward to Game three of the American League Championship Series against the Yankees, a game that will always be remembered for the game tying home run by John Kenzie

Yes, you see, given why I stay out as a game, Yeah, it was a pretty special moment.

He got to meet David Fry's dad, who just happened to recognize us, congratulated Patrick, you know, on the ball, and he told us he was David's dad. I, you know, I just had the moment to get a picture with with Patrick and mister fry I think j Fry, so it was it was pretty special. We kind of joked I thanked him for sharing his son with the city and the grittiness that he he displays, and it, Yeah,

I didn't say game winner.

I think it was more just if we catch his home run ball in joking manner, we would make sure we got it to him. Little did we know it would fly after Patrick put the rally caps on us about three rows over our head in section eighty two. Just a little bit of divine intervention, and it felt like And then I when I got home, I read the postgame quotes of Fry and how he'd let God take the bat, and it was amazing.

Yeah, and both of you had mentioned why it was so special because of your dad's Explain that and what baseball meant to both of them and how that comes into play here.

Yeah, Baseball has been a big, big part of a life.

Sports have been a big part of both of our lives.

You know, Patrick plays basketball himself still, but he you know, in terms of baseball and our father's actually His father

You know, it was obviously special.

And then Patrick overcoming his his challenges with with down Syndroman with with leukemia. Similar his dad passed away two years ago. My dad passed away seven years ago. His dad just passed away right before he was diagnosed with the cancer. And just two great men that we're so thankful for and felt like were with us that day.

And Patrick, what what makes the game so special to you? As you developed into just a great fan over the years.

It was always clean watched Cleveland Rocks.

He says, you just you just you just love Cleveland and you Cleveland sports.

Thank you.

Yeah, Matt, I know it's not baseball season right now, but I'm sure you see your players at the high school. And we're joined by Matt Coleman, the head coach at Calvert High School in Tiffin, and his cousin Patrick Steyer. And Matt made a great catch of the Grand Slam home run hit by Lane Thomas in Game five of the Division Series against the Tigers, and right away gave it to Patrick in that first or second row of

I mean, these are not easy.

People take it for granted that you just make a catch of a home run, but it's not easy.

Yeah.

I think I probably probably had some help on that one somehow, some divine intervention, but I, you know.

Made sure I had my glove. I had.

My two sons will play on the team with me. So my oldest son is a senior and he hasn't played much outfield for us, but I took his outfitter, Mitch, which you passed on to my freshman son.

We'll see if he needs it. This year.

But yeah, it's I mean, it's just it's been incredible. We have a great group of guys that work hard, and we're getting into open fields now and hoping, you know, we've had some special memories with the team. You know, just two and three years ago we had the opportunity to play in Rubber Duck Stadium and you know, unfortunately things didn't work out for us there.

But day by day we're working.

To hopefully, you know, put a good team on the field and good product that works hard. But yeah, it's been some topic of discussion, and thankfully I didn't have to go back and hear a bunch of grief from my players that I didn't use two hands or I didn't have voluntary release of the ball.

So and just to put a rap on it, all right, So there's the catch you made of the Grand Slam, and then the Kipness catch in twenty sixteen talking to David Fry's dad before the game that he hit, so walk off the John Kenzie Noel home run not hit too far from where you were, but you actually knew the people who were in those seats and grab that baseball.

Yeah true.

Actually the game I took Patrick to my kids.

I have three high schoolers, a senior, a sophomore daughter, and then a freshman son. And they had homecoming and actually my son went to homecoming with the.

Granddaughter of the girl that got the ball.

She actually listens to all the grand Grandma missus Favor Kathy Favor, listens to one hundred and sixty two games on the radio list watches on TV, and had to be coaxed to going with her grandson.

The ball landed next to her, she.

Picks it up and it was pretty neat from that perspective too. In my thinking though, Patrick is kind of the lucky charm. I mean, I went to a couple more game Game four, in Game five, wasn't able to pull it off, but he was there in Game five and in Game three. So but he's battling through some things right now. We're excited to uh, We're hoping to get him back to some more games next year.

His love of.

Baseball and then hopefully he's a celebrity here in Seneca County.

He's played a lot of basketball. They want him, We want him to.

Get back on the court and shoot some three pointers, right you Patrick?

Yes?

Yeah?

Are you a Cavaliers fan too. There you go. Yes, yeah, well.

They'll have to go through and through and a buck guy, they'll have to get you out to some of their playoff games because it looks like they're heading that way too, so maybe they could use your help as well. Yeah, guys, thanks so much for the time. Uh Mac, great to talk to you, Patrick, pleasure to meet you and and hopefully we'll see at the ballpark next summer.

Okay, we appreciate it. Take care of Jim.

As Matt Coleman, who made a great the Grand Slam home run from Lane Thomas in the postseason. He's the head coach at Calvert High School in Tiffin and his cousin Patrick Steyer. Great story of I don't know, it's got to be more than coincidences of being in the right place at the right time, but some great memories through the Guardians postseason run this past ball Stay with us.

We'll have more to come after this.

Don't you just love this game?

Welcome back to Guardian's Weekly Jim Rosenhouse back with you

Well hi again, everybody with Steven vote the new manager of the Cleveland Guardians. This is Tom Hamilton and welcome to the Manager Show before the season opener here at the Oakland Coliseum. They're magical words when we say the season opener. But for you, Stephen, to come back to Oakland where you were a two time All Star? Did this be your first Major League game as a manager? Is there any way to put it into words?

No, there's really not.

I mean, I couldn't be more thrilled to be in this position and be honored to get the chance to lead the Guardians organization on the field, and to have this first game an opening day in Oakland, where I spent six years of my playing career, where my family went from one to three kids, and we just have so much history here. It just feels right to be here tonight. You know, to be successful, you have to have a great partner. You obviously do an Alyssa who

It's huge. I mean she's my best friend.

She's my biggest support system and has been for now sixteen seventeen years.

So to have her support.

She one hundred percent has my back and wants me to be doing this, and she wears it with the family. You know, she's by herself up a home in Washington, getting kids to sports and activities and all those things. But and then she still has time on the phone at night to talk to me through talk me off the ledge.

So to speak.

But she's she's such a great support system and has great ideas for coaching and communicating with players and that stuff. So she's a she's a huge, huge partner in this.

Stephen, how is this different now? Obviously haven't managed a real game, so to speak, But compared to when you were getting ready for the opener the first time is a major league player.

It's very different.

You know, when you're a player, it's all about you. It's about preparing yourself to go out and do your job because if you contribute what you do for the.

Team, that's being a good teammate.

Now in this position, it's okay, are we ready in this area, are we ready in that area? Are the players happy?

Are they ready?

And it's really just making sure that everything's running smoothly, that you know, we have our game plan ready to go.

We've got the players in place.

We're gonna we know where, we're gonna make moves, This and this happens, and it's really just thinking through scenarios. But at the end of the day, it's baseball, and I think that's the beauty of it.

What I've really learned in this.

Job is we can overcomplicate this really really quickly. And a lot of my mentors that I've talked to, and Tito himself has told me, He's like, hey, just go out there and be you watch the game, make decisions.

Is you look ahead to this season, what makes you feel good? What makes you say, hey, this is going to be a good year. I know we can compete, contend, and who knows what October brings.

I think one of the things is our versatility, you know, whether that be from position, player wise or in the bullpen. We can throw the ball and we.

Can catch the ball.

And yeah, our offense is probably our biggest question mark.

We know that and we've talked about.

That, but I think that's also one of the things that has me really excited is a lot of people are saying we can't do this, we can't do that, and what we've been focusing on is what we can do. And I know it sounds cliche, but it's the truth. And we know we got to do the little things right in order to put ourselves into a position to win. And our coaching staff hammered that into our players this

I hope you can enjoy this, but congratulations, good luck tonight.

It's going to be fun. Thank you.

I'm really looking forward to it.

Cleveland Ace pitcher Shane Bieber was on the mound. He was making his fifth consecutive opening day start, and after a tremendous spring, he looked sharp early.

The pitch swing and a miss and notice strikes out to start his season, and Shane Bieber with a strike out to start his on a good cutter. Here's the payoff swing and a miss got him again. So Bieber strikes out the side, don't click, gets some acit but no damage.

Now the two two swing and a miss.

Sunday, Peter Bieber has struck out six or through two, one nothing Cleveland.

The Guardians got the scoring started in the second inning thanks to a pair of doubles, first from David Frye and then center fielder Tyler Freeman. The pitch a swing

That's right.

Freeman won the center field job coming out of spring training after not having played in the outfield prior to this season, and this spring he won that job in center and contributed greatly to the first month of the season when the Guardians got off to the hot start and he got a going right away on opening night. Now the offense really got going in the fourth inning in Oakland, with the bases loaded and Andres Semenez at

To third, over the bag, fairball down into the left field corner.

It goes grounding third, heading for home and scoring.

As he Meantez Hedges will try and score two, and he will without a throw. It's a two run double for Brian Rocchio and the big inning is on for the Guardians. It is now six nothing Cleveland, and here comes Mark Kotsey.

That is it for Wood. Wow did that blow.

Up in a hurry?

Meanwhile, Bieber continued to shut down the Oakland bats. Here comes Bieber's pitch, swinging in a minute US strike three. Davis becomes the ninth strikeout for Shan Bieber.

Six nothing Cleveland. The kick and delivery and a swing and a mess and a slider away. Bieber has struck out eleven. Remember he has the club record for opening day fourteen strikeouts against Kansas City in six innings in twenty twenty. Brent Rooker the batter as Shane Bieber not eighty two pitches, lets it fly and the pitch hit high in the air, fairly deep center Freeman drifting back, plenty of room. He'll squeeze it. Bieber has been brilliant tonight.

Man does he look good.

The Guardians added to the lead in the ninth thanks to Jose Ramirez.

The cent, the pitch swung on Pilton deep, bright field, It's got.

A chance off the wall, caves back toward the infield. Kwan hits thirties coming home. Ramirez makes the turn on his way to third with a stand up triple. He hammered it halfway up the fifteen foot wall in right, and an RBI triple by Jose Ramirez makes it seven to nothing Cleveland here in the ninth inning, and boy, everybody is getting into the act and the Guardians.

If you wanted to.

Draw up a near perfect scenario for opening night, this would be it.

And in the night thenning, with the Guardians comfortably in front, it was Nick Sandler who came on to try and preserve the shutout. So the A's are down to their last strength and Stephen votes one strength away from winning in his major league managerial debut. Into the motion, here's the two to two check swings straight three called ballgame and game number one belongs to the Cleveland Guardians as they dominate the Oaklanes here tonight in the season opener,

I'm doing great, progressing really smooth.

And relatively quickly so, hitting all my check marks, just staying positive.

I'm thankful to have a teammate to go through it with.

Although it's an unfortunate circumstance, you know, Trevor and I are able to lean on each other and keep each other accountable. Push each other, and it's nice that we we'll have each other to bounce ideas off of and and kind of just go through this together. So everything's going well.

As a picture, you are in a part of the business where Tommy John surgery is a common thing for so many pictures, and now you're going through it. Anything surprising to you about the process and how it goes.

Yeah, a couple of things.

I was a little bit upset and surprise that my first throat doesn't come for six months, and then you know, bullpens around nine or ten months, and you know, it's a long process.

But that's the reason that.

It's such a successful one, especially as of late. Like I said, another unfortunate circumstances. They they they've had so many of these that they've kind of perfected the rehabilitation aspect post surgery. So other than that, not too many surprises. It's just been a blast to be able to watch the guys from a different lens, cheer them on and

So yeah, is that sometimes harder than the physical part of it, just the amount of time you invested in getting ready for a season and being a part of this team that that really has grown into a fine ball club here in the early season. Is that hard to not be a part of that maybe the hardest part.

Yeah, yeah, it'sicult.

I've done a decent job processing that. But that's why it's so good to be here and to see the guys and reconnect and it's like, didn't skip a beat, you know, So, yeah, that's that's definitely one of the more difficult things is the amount of work that you put in, the investment not in not just into yourself and your craft, but your teammates and everybody as well.

And that's not going anywhere.

So I'll continue to invest myself into them and try and be of help and service any which way I can.

The bulk of your rehab happens in goodyear.

What makes that a good spot and what makes them so good at at bringing pictures back from from a major surgery.

I think they work extremely well with whoever the surgeon is. For me and for Trevor, it was doctor Keith Meister out in Dallas. They've developed a great rapport with him and kind of developed their plan alongside of his plan. And you know, they have a little bit more experience with with the Tommy John recovery, being that that's where we send most of our guys, and you know, ultimately that's where the team and I felt we would get the best care.

And I didn't need much more.

Than that to to be able to make that decision. So as hard as it is being away from the guys, uh, you know, I know that that's where I'm going to get the best care. And uh, you know, there's some silver linings. I get to watch the game from a different lens and you know, cheer them on from from Afar, but you know, pop in every every couple of weeks and see them, and it's been a it's been a great weekend so.

Far along those lines. Having gone through spring training and seeing this team developed, then, Uh, has it surprised you in any way to see what they've done here early in the season, even with some injury issues.

No, it hasn't. It hasn't been a surprise.

I think we we've preached for a few years now, and and how important being won and and pulling in the same direction and and pulling together has been and and this group's no different. They'd a phenomenal job of that, including the coaching staff kind of just feels like picking up where where where we left off both as a coaching staff and a team last year, and and building off of that has been paramount for this team's success.

So on paper, you know, I.

Know some people still wanna knock us a little bit, but but especially when I throw that game on at four o'clock PSC or whatever it is it's and for the first pitch is thrown, there's not really any much doubt. There's not much doubt that you know, we're gonna play our brand of baseball and play a great game and and probably come.

Out on top.

And you know that's me and I'm getting a little bit overconfident maybe at home, but then this this group feels the same way. When the camera hits the dugout and there's they're never panicking.

It's been a joy to watch.

So you're seeing all this from a distance, and then you show up in Anaheim here, what was it like walking into the clubhouse? Did they just picked up with the Shenanigans and stuff like that?

Right?

Where they left off.

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

After we exchanged pleasantries and everybody's like, oh, six weeks, that's so quick.

I'm like, oh, it's quick for you, a little slower for me.

Yeah yeah, and then we just picked up right where we left off.

It's been a blast.

So Trevor and I discussed prior to flying out here, let's just not mess up what they got going on right now because the boys are playing great baseball, and you know, we're just happy to pop in, check in and conduct our rehab while we're here and enjoy some good weather and some great baseball.

It's great to see if Shane, thanks for coming by, Thanks for roside man. It was great to see Shane Bieber at various points in times during the course of the regular season, and he was with the ball Cup

Stay with us when we come back.

We have some final thoughts as Guardians Weekly continues after this time out on the Cleveland Planet. Guardians Radio Network, Progressive Nos.

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Welcome back to Guardians Weekly.

Jim Rosenhouse back with you from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland and just a couple of reminders programming wise for our show. You can listen to it each week on the radio network on WTAM and Cleveland, our flagship station that means Saturday mornings at seven am, and check your local listings if you listen on one of our great network affiliate stations throughout the state of Ohio and on into Pennsylvania to see if they er it at a

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