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Hi, everyone, Welcome to Guardian's Weekly. Jim Rosen house along with you this weekend. As we continue with our Hot Stove shows during the off season. We will take a hiatus after this week's show and return after the first
of the year, so hopefully you enjoy this one. Some good things coming up for you, including our Game of the Week segment, our final one of those looking back at the twenty twenty four season, and we'll take you to that memorable Game three of the American League Championship Series, forever known as the John Kenzie Nowel David Frye home runs late that created just massive excitement at Progressive Field and made it a two to one series at that point, So that's coming up a little bit later on in
the show. We'll also hear from Vice President of Ballpark Improvements Jim Folk. As I'm sure you know, Phase two of the two year renovation project at Progressive Field is still very much underway, and we'll get an update from Jim on how things are going as they try and beat that deadline up opening day next season, the home opener for next season. But first I'll look back at the week that in terms of awards, and it's been
a really strong awards season for the Cleveland Guardians. And earlier this week, manager Steven Vote named the American League Manager of the Year as a rookie. Doesn't happen often, but it did this season to the American League Central Division crown and a birth in the American League Championship Series. And he says there were many surprises about the job this season, but there was one aspect of managing a major league baseball team for the first time that really stood out to him.
I think just the longevity and how long the season goes, the busyness of the days, how many people you need to be on for every single day, and just the time management learning how to navigate that on the fly while also going out trying to win ballgames and help
people just continue to develop in their careers. So just the overall totality of the job is probably the biggest learning that I had, and how every day you have to approach it the exact same and you know that going into it but until you actually go through one hundred and sixty two games plus playoffs, and it's going to be something that I lean on for the rest of my career.
So you win a central title and Manager of the Year in your first year, what's the encore?
Hopefully we win the last game of the year next year and that's the goal.
Stephen, congratulations. I know you guys have talked about your closeness and a chemistry in this clubhouse and kind of propelled you guys to the ALE Championship Series. I'm curious if you've heard from your guys yet. I know you guys like to celebrate as a team and the messages maybe you're getting tonight.
Yeah, I'm so fortunate to work with some amazing people, and I have too many texts right now to reply, and a lot from our players and coaches and front office people. And just the closeness of this group is it's something special and a lot of teams have, you know, a special group, but this one was by far the closest group I've ever been around. And these guys just care about each other so much, and I appreciate the love and the support from all of them.
That's just some brief comments from manager Steven Vote meeting with the Cleveland media earlier this week after winning the American League Manager of the Year award. Stay with us when we come back. We'll get an update on ballpark improvements from Vice president of Ballpark Improvements Jim Folk. That's next down the Cleveland Clinic.
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Welcome back to Guardians Weekly, where it joined now by Jim Folk, who's most recent title, and thank goodness they're doing a ballpark renovation because he's the vice president of ballpark improvements. And you've had a variety of titles over the years, but whenever there's something going on with this ballpark, and it goes back to day one when they first broke round here, you've had a hand in certain things and phase two now of a project that's really reshaping
this ballpark. And before we get to how it's going, let's take a step back to maybe mid season when the Guardians were putting together for some I'm sure an unexpectedly good season. The playoff run. Did that set you back in an area where maybe you're uncomfortable with it or have you caught up and feel good about things.
Well, we didn't really see playing much past September thirtieth when all the plans and the schedules started coming out. And I will tell you we were thrilled, first, last, and always this was a great run and such a fun team to watch. But you know, going back into June, I'll tell you honestly, we started working with our construction team to start thinking, you know, the what fs and what if we play into October and then you know you've got Wild Card Series, Division Series LCS, that sort
of thing. So we were working with the great guys over at Mortensen to come up with plans of what happens with each of those scenarios. And so that was a couple times a week conversation, especially as we got later in August and all through September, and more than one sleepless night just exactly what happens. But you know, we were really we hit a point very early on of okay, let's just keep going, let's keep playing as we all want through this would this would be great.
We have a pretty complex and complicated project and a very tight schedule had we ended in regulation, and so instead of working double shifts, they've been working triple shifts, so twenty four to seven ever since that last out, you know, and they are doing everything they possibly can to make up time, and it's just there's you know, how many hours are there in day? You know, how many people can you put on the job. Fortunately, we've got a great construction manager and we are in great
shape here in Cleveland, are building trades. Our union labor is just fantastic, and they've taken every opportunity to get work done and to try to catch up and make up on those couple of weeks that got taken away from us because Opening Day is not moving and we're really looking forward to showing off a really spectacular product here on opening day at twenty twenty five. The Terrace Hub,
which has been under construction all year. People have been looking at that big banner and left field where the Terrace Club used to be. That'll be completely done for opening day. The fifth floor, the Terrace Hall, excuse me, the Terrace Garden. So we've got the North Coast Social, the Terrace Hall which is the old fourth floor of the terrast Club, and then the Terrace Garden, which is the fifth floor, the upper deck. We had that all
wrapped up inside construction fence. Well, that'll all be operational, fully functional for opening day. The clubhouses should be done. There may be a few touch up items so we have to finish up, but those will be ready to welcome the team back and start another great season of Cleveland Guardians baseball at Progressive Field.
Taking us back to the time that nobody wants to see is the last out that ends the season, and it came on a Saturday night and you had a team celebrating here, which is just a tough deal for you know, any Cleveland fan to see the Yankee celebrating. They're going past midnight.
How does that work?
Were you kind of nudging the Yankees to get going and on their way or did you kind of let them do their thing and then really get at it in terms of things that you had to get going right away.
Well, you know, you can't stop a celebration, and it's always painful when somebody's dancing on your field. But you know, they played very good baseball, and so you got to let them have their moment. And so they were here for a good long while and then you know, Willie Jenks and his team done in the visiting clubhouse, had a lot of work to do because we had the
construction team coming in at first light Sunday morning. So we had been planning all of those different contingencies with our construction team and they were going to start, you know, one way or the other. So that game ended midnight or so I left about one and Yankees are still on the field, so they had not yet gone in and started popping champagne, and that you know doesn't just that's not a five minute thing. We got a little benefit.
You know, Normally you have to put a lot more of this queen down to protect the carpet and all sorts of Well, we didn't have to do that, so Willie just covered enough that nobody's clothes got messed up and he didn't have to do any of that cleanup afterwards. But they still have a lot of work to do. They had to do laundry and you know, the towels
and all that sort of thing. But so I think he left here at about six in the morning, he and his crew, and they were all back very early Sunday morning, like a couple hours later to get everything out because we were having demolition. We're having excavators come in, you know, twenty four hours after that. So great team effort on Sunday, both you know, Willy and his team and the visiting clubhouse, Tony A. Motto and Brandon Biller
and their great team. Over on the home side. Steve Walters, who oversees the game day staff, Nick Ferraro's got the maintenance and custodials. That everybody was here all day Sunday and what we thought was going to be about a twenty four hour or thirty six hour effort really got done before we all went home. Sunday evening. It was late Sunday, but so Monday morning we were almost a
full day ahead. And Mortensen and Independence, our construction folks, took advantage of every minute of that and they've been working, as I mentioned, round the clock ever since to try to make up that time. So we had a lot of plans, We had a lot of contingency plans. We were a little conservative, but I just can't say enough about the team that we had in here. Our guys are and gals who were just in here rocking and rolling.
You know, it was really weird to see a lot of things that have not seen the light of day since April of nineteen ninety four being you know, uncovered and exposed. You know, it had been buried behind a wall or you know, behind a piece of equipment or
something like that. So it's been it's been a very hectic, very busy, but safety has been the rule all the way through and our team and the construction team have all managed to work very quickly, but more importantly, very safely through all this process.
And just for fans who are curious, we're visiting with Jim Folk, the vice president of Ballpark Improvements in his office which is in the ballpark, and we're practicing safety. We have the helmets and what do you call it, the best safety best the glasses. Yes, so we're doing this interview completely safe in case something happens. It's a
beautiful day. The weather this fall has been absolutely terrific, and I know last year that came into play because so much of it was outside in the upper decks, both in left and right field. The tremendous changes up there that I know fans enjoyed. Is the weather as big a factor this off season based on where most of the work is being done as it was a year ago.
So we've got a couple of different projects going on. So the ballpark improvements, so specifically the clubhouse, which is what I'm overseeing. The weather's not going to be that much of an impact. Most of our work is underground inside. But Gateway is replacing a good number of the seats this off season, so they're working on that right now. So last season we had those new blue seats about say two thirds of the lower ball well, the rest of the lower bowl is going to be changed out,
the mezzanine and the club level. All those seats will be changed out, and then in the upper deck behind home plate between the bases, those seats are being replaced, as will the bleachers. So they take the seats out, they take out the railings and everything else, and then
rehabilitate the concrete. So there's a lot of just clean up work, and then they're going to put a new traffic coating on that concrete to preserve it for the next however many years, and then put the seats back in and then put the railings back in and all that sort of thing. So they are much more dependent
on the weather. And so right now they're building framework for huge tents that will go over the seating bowl so that they can pump heat in and protect it from the weather because they need temperature control when they when they put down the new uh traffic coating, uh sealing whatever you want to call it, on the on the seating bowl, and then it makes it easier for them also when they reinstall the railings and the seats and everything else.
You look around and look, there's stuff all over the place. There's cranes, there's trucks, there's a baseball game will not be played here tomorrow, is what we're trying to say, so, there's a lot going on, but you love this stuff.
Huh, there is, you know, Jim, I don't know how many times I've said it. I have never worked a day in my life. I've been doing this forty five years. And this is it. This is thrilling, this is I'm I don't want to say I'm like a kid here playing with toys, but I'm just having a blast. A lot of work, a lot of again planning and coordination, things come up and you've got to figure out how to work around and make uh, you know, make things work. But this is more. This is so much fun right now.
And I really think that, you know, in what less than six months time, one hundred and fifty days. Actually, I've got a countdown clock till Gate opening on April eighth. I think the fans are going to love it. And knowing that we're we're doing good stuff, We're doing things that people are going to enjoy, and just being a part of all of this is it's just it's a thrill.
It's really a thrill. I know that people who got to enjoy the new areas in the upper deck, both left and right field loved it. And all the other things that happened in phase one. Phase two coming along nicely, tell you what. We'll check back in with you before we leave for spring training and get a further update, and then hopefully fingers cross good weather continues here throughout the fall and early winter.
Always look forward to sitting down talking with the Jimmy. So that sounds like a good plan, and you know, let's for that good weather that just lets all of this continue.
Well.
That is Jim Folk with an update on the ballpark renovation project. He's the vice president of Ballpark Improvement. Stay
tuned a lot more of Guardians Weekly after this. Welcome back to Guardians Weekly, Jim rosen House along with you from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland, as we continue with our Hot Stove shows and our series the Game of the Week segment that we go with each off season during Guardians Weekly, and this will be the final edition of that as we shut things down until after the
new year. After our show this week, but we'll leave you with what turned out to be the last win of the year for the Guardians, Game three of the American League Championship Series. The Yankees had taken the first two games in New York. So it was certainly a critical game for Cleveland if they wanted to stay in the series and make it a series. And what a
memorable night. It was the first home game in the American League Championship Series for Cleveland, and it was the Yankees who got the scoring started in the second inning, a walk in a double that put two men on for Yankees catcher Jose Travino, making his first start of the series.
Now the one to one swung on drill, the right up base hit that'll score volpie Verdugo stops a third and how about that? Travino delivers an RBI single the other way and part of the reason Travigno got the start today. Austin Wells was two for twenty four this October and Travino puts New York up one to nothing.
New York looked to add more in the second inning, but Matthew Boyd was on the mound for the Guardians, and he found a way to limit the damage.
One nothing, Yankees runners first and third, one down, second inning, the set and the.
Throat first he got him picked off.
Naylor's got him in a rundown between first and second, Jimenos runs him back to first, tag made by Boyd folding at third as Dugo and Jose Trevigno gets picked off. The Yankees in the last two games have had three base runners picked off. In the third inning for Cleveland, Brian Rokio got it started with a base hit and with one out, Kyle Manzardo came to the plate. Now the three to one, man zarted.
With a drive to day Bry Hallway back to go Kyle Manzardo. What a joyous joint around the basis, uh, No doubt about it. Two run home run.
Halfway up the lower deck in right and for the first time in the American League Champion Chips Series, Cleveland's got a lead at two to one on the first ever postseason home run by Kyomanzardo.
So now pitching with the lead, Boyd was back at it and getting better as the game moved along. Here's the two to one pitch swung on crownd ball to short, gobbled up by Rochio, fires to first in time.
For the out.
Another strong inning for Matthew Boyd as he sets the side out in order. That is seven in a row, retired by Boyd. As we head to the bottom half of the fourth inning, the Guardians two, the Yankees won. Here's the two to one pitch swung on ground ball to short Rocchio. It up throws to first in time for the out. Another three up pre down inning for Matthew Boyd ten in a row, retired by the veteran lefty and he gets a standing oh. Heading back to the dugout. We will head to the bottom of the fifth.
It's the Guardians two, the Yankees won. In the sixth inning, Kate Smith came on the first man up out of the bullpen.
Kate Smith's tenth pitch here of this sixth inning.
Here it comes to swing in a ground ball to third Bankanna by Ramires, long throw across the diamond, A one, two, three ten pitch inning, and they're on their feet at the corner carnang in Ontario. In the middle of the sixth it is Cleveland two. The Yankees won. And in the bottom of the sixth the Guardians were looking to add to their lead lane. Thomas Walked moved up to second on a ground out and then made it to
third all on his own. The pitch runner goes pitch is taking a strike throw to third, not in time.
Oh what a jump for Lane Thomas.
And Andre Simanus saw him break for third, Andres automatically took that pitch to enable Thomas to steal third. And there's the aggressiveness we saw all year from Cleveland. Thomas has his first postseason steal and that's a huge one. And at the plate it was Andre Semanez. Now the payoff pitch swung on, grounded up the middle BaseT RBI single of center. He Vedos comes through with a drawing in infield. He shot it right back up the middle and Cleveland's got itself a lead of three to one.
But credit all of that to Lane Thomas. Once he stole third base with one down, Yankees had to play in. Otherwise that's a routine groundout. Different story with the infield in and Andres Amenas comes through big time.
Great work by Tim Herron shut down the Yankees in the seventh inning. Hunter Gaddis came on to get the first two outs in the eighth, but then a walk to Juan Soto and Steven Vote turned things over to a Manuel class A to face the dangerous Aaron Judge.
Now the one two pitch swung on, drill deep break field. This is trouble. This ball is going to be gone, and we are tied. He just cleared the nine foot wall, and Aaron Judge has tied this game at three. Aaron Judge hit a laser that just got over the ninth foot wall and right.
It's a three to three.
Game in the eighth and Aaron Judge, whom the Yankees have been waiting for all this month to get hunt, has come through in the most incredible way here in the eighth inning.
And the very next batter was Jean Carlos Stanton.
Now the one two Stanton swings and hits it high deep to right.
This ball is.
Gone and the Yankees fly out of the first base dugout, jumping up and down. A Stanton's mammoth postseason continues, his second home run in the ALCS, and the Yankees lead at four to three here in the eighth inning, as Aaron Judge tied it and then Stanton hit a slider out of here to right center, and New York has a four to three lead, and.
From being.
Almost a Marty Gras atmosphere here in this eighth inning, now stunned silence in downtown Cleveland.
Man it sure didn't look good for the Guardians at that point. They failed to score in the bottom of the eighth, and then the Yankees sacked on in insurance run in the top half of the ninth, a sack fly from Glabor Torres, making the score five to four Yankees.
In the bottom half of the ninth inning, Jose Ramirez reached thanks to an Anthony Rizzo error, but New York closer Luke Weaver got Josh Naylor to hit into a double play, and just like that, the Guardians were down to their final out with Lane Thomas at the plate.
Here it comes a swing by Lane Thomas and a fly to deep center back goes Judge on the track, flicking up place the rick isset off the nineteen football and a two out double as center by Lane Thomas keeps Cleveland alive by that ball had some carry to it, and Lane Thomas, with his second hit in the series. Lin'll bring up, John Kenzie. No, well, a right handed bat is going to bat for Daniel Schneman and Cleveland's down to its last out, down five to three, and what ant it?
Bat?
Bite Lane Thomas and that set the stage for Big Christmas. John Kenzie Noel John Kenzie.
Noel's last home run came against Pittsburgh August thirtieth. No time like the present five to three Yankees runner at second, two down, ninth inning and the one zero pitch swe.
You in hammer te deep to left away.
In Cleveland, John Kenzie Noel n tape measure job to the bleachers and left.
We are tied at five. Ow, what a.
Game, what a moment it was, And on the extra innings we went. The Yankees put a man on with one out top half of the tenth inning, and the speedy Jazz Chisholm was at the plate.
Five five in the tenth to one zero, swung out a high chopper toward Rank grab By.
He meant his spence throws to first Naylorck dug it out. He was in foul ground with his foot on the bag.
He met us on that high chopper, flagged it down in right field, spun short hopped the throat of first Naylor with a great stretch and foul ground made the play no challenge by New York.
What a play on both ends.
As he Menez showing everybody why he has no equal defensively in Major League baseball.
When it comes to playing second base.
Boy unbelievable work by the eventual gold glover, Andre Semenez. Pedro Avila then struck out Anthony Volpi and it was on to the bottom of the tenth with the game still at five, leading things off for the Guardians, Bow Naylor. Now the big sinkerballer Clay homes to face catcher Bone Nailor bottom of the tenth.
The pitch Naylor with a rip job in the right.
That's of asset and the winning runs at first bow Naylor and Austin Hedges both were headless in this October run and both get their first hits tonight. And now the winning run is at first base.
In bon Naylor.
Then Brian Rochio laid down a great sack bunt to move Naylor up to second.
Rochio shows bunt drops one down a beauty halfway to the mound, grabb by the catcher the throat just in time. Oh wells just did get Rochio on a great sack bunt midway between the mound and home plate, and.
Now the winning runs at second base. Stephen Kwan grounded out, moving Naylor to third. But now two outs and the last hope for the Guardians was David Fry.
Cleveland down two games to none, five five in the tenth, Holmes is ready. Here it comes.
Swing on hit, high.
Hit deep to left, fairy goals o look off to run, home run to the bleachers and left by David Fry, and the magical twenty twenty fourth season is not done by any means. Cleveland with a seven to five tenth inning win and David Fry.
Who saved the season in Game.
Four with a pinch hit to run home run late in the game off the Tigers has wanted here tonight with a two out, two strike.
To run home run to left.
After John Kenzie Nowell tied it in the ninth with a two out, two run homer to left. You may never see a better baseball game than this one.
What a scene. It was a progressive field and moments later Matthew Boyd stopped by to talk about it down on the field before we.
Talk about your incredible job that set the tone here tonight.
Have you ever seen anything like this?
This is just who we are. This is so awesome that the never down, never out, It doesn't matter what it is. This is kind of who this team is. It's so special.
Man is this is cool?
And Matthew, it seems like you started this game last week based on everything that's happened, since you seem so in command and talk about being able to get the game into the middle innings for the first time in a while.
I mean, we got the we got the best, we got the best bullpen in the league, we got the best closer in the league. I'll double down and say that Emanuel classe is as absolutely amazing and you know what, like we just picked each other up and uh, you know Hegi had a great job back there. Both picked up right where he left off and played great defense. It was real special.
Well, Matthew, if there's any way you can explain it to us peons that we're never good enough to play at this level, how can you have this game in hand, have it ripped out of you in the eighth inning by Judge and Stanton, be down to your last out, get a double, a pinch, had Homer, then win it at ten?
I mean, how does this happen?
I mean, I mean, it's it's who we are, it's it's it's it's in our DNA, it's in our it's our identity. It's like we're never down, we're never out. It's it's you know, I mean that that's just that, that's what it comes down to is and that's what you got to be in postseason baseball. Adversity's gonna hit in some way or another, and it's just next man up and U I mean, this is what we do, you know, and it's it's man, it's awesome. That's who we are.
Matt you're thirty three years old.
I know you you wanted to keep going and find a situation where things would be fun in the postseason.
But this is ridiculous.
This is pretty special. I wouldn't trade this for anything.
Thought was good, Matthew. Awesome job by you, Thanks so much for joining us.
Thank you guys.
And the following day we caught up with the extra innings hero David Fry, who says that's a game that will be tough to top in his major league career.
Oh one hundred percent.
I mean, it's still not really a whole lot of time to let it sink in, because obviously we got to move on and play today and get a win today. But I mean just the different terms of the game of where we think we have it won, and then we're behind and then John Kinsey ties it up. I mean, like you said, I mean there was him and Az defensive plays, Thomas had bigot bat's bow, comes in and
gets a big hit to lead off the tenth. I mean there was five hundred guys who I mean, Walters gets us out of a jam in the in the top of the ninth to keep it close. I mean there were so many guys who had a huge part.
In that game. Obviously it's a memorable game, a crazy game, a walk off winner for you. But in the grand scheme of things, that the team had a tough couple of games in New York, how important was it just to play a decent, clean game last night, more of Guardians baseball than we've seen.
Yeah, it felt like us right, So that Maddy has a huge start, gets us five innings and then we get it to our bullpen. And that's kind of been the recipe all year. And obviously it wasn't just a clean, easy game that we would have liked, but that, like like you said, that's kind of who we are. We just we fight back and it was nice to get that one, especially at home, and kind of hopefully get a rally going.
David, congratulations, thank you appreciate it.
So the Guardians were winners in Game three of the ALCS, but again that turned out to be their final win of the season as the Yankees, in dramatic fashion, they won Game four and equally dramatic one Game five to clinch the series at Progressive Field and move on to the World Series. But what a year it was for the Guardians, and we have enjoyed bringing you some of the great games over the past couple of weeks, and
none more exciting than Game three of the ALCS. Stay with us, we'll have some final thoughts after this time out on the Cleveland Clinic.
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Welcome back to Guardians Weekly. Jim rosen House along with you, this weekend as we join you for another of our hot Stove shows and the hot stove percolating a little bit in terms of roster moves for the Guardians. They set their forty man roster heading into the winter meetings and some of the deals they could be made there as they have selected the contracts internally of right handed pitcher Franco Alimann, who we saw last spring looked very impressive.
Right hander Nick Enright's been added to the roster along with left hander Doug Nacasey, you had a tremendous season with both Double A Akron and Triple A Columbus, and also outfielder p d Halpin has been added to the
forty man roster as well to make room. Connor Gillespie and Peter Stresleki, as well as outfielder George Valera were all designated for assignment, and also earlier this week, the Guardians made a trade as Eli Morgan, a key member of their bullpen, has been traded to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for young outfielder Alfonsen Rosario, a young man with big power, has put up some good numbers in the minor leagues and spent last season at single A
Myrtle Beach as the Guardians continue to stockpile some really good young talent on the position player front with that deal.
So those are some of the moves as they head in closer to the winter meetings, and we'll have a recap of everything that happens there on our next show, which will not be until after the first of the year, as we will take a holiday break for Thanksgiving on into the Christmas time and then the Christmas holidays as well, but rejoin you after New Year's as we'll get going in earnest now with Hotstove news for you in January and then on into February leading into spring training when
we will meet you again from Goodyear, Arizona. As always, thanks to Brian Motse for all of his help and putting together our show each and every week until next time. This is Jim Rosenhause reminding you that you've been listening to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
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