Newberg Book Night and Q&A

Tuesday night, I attended the Newberg Report book event at Sherlock’s in Dallas. In attendance and participating in a long Q&A were Rangers assistant director of player development Jake Krug, prospective managing general partner Chuck Greenberg, and Michael Young. Anytime I find myself in a room full of rabid Ranger fans, especially at this time of year, it is hard to not get excited about the upcoming season. That was especially true tonight as Michael Young continued to show his enthusiasm about this team and Chuck Greenberg painted the vision for what it will be like to be a Ranger fan in the coming years.

Some of the highlights from the evening centered around Chuck Greenberg. He insists on being called Chuck, not Mr. Greenberg as he is in his words “one of the most informal” people on the planet. He was asked about how one puts a dollar value on a sports franchise and his answer said more about where he see the franchise going than any real business world answer. In a nutshell, he viewed the Rangers as the “best opportunity on any level of any sport,” because of a number of factors. He said Dallas is the largest market in the U.S. with only one baseball team and repeatedly used Philadelphia and Los Angeles (AL) as analogies to where he thinks the team can go. What it takes to get there, he believes, is a combination of the ownership reaching out to the community and making a connection with the fans and the team playing winning baseball and contending for a championship. The Rangers are well positioned for both, given the size of the fan base, the talent the team has accumulated and the class and personality that the players on the team display. He guaranteed that on opening day 2011, once his team has had a chance to get a season under their belt and plan, that the fans will be wowed by the changes at the ballpark. Beginning with obvious things like and upgraded video board (and for my money upgraded sound as well), down to values in food and beverage to ensure that the game remains affordable entertainment. It is clear that he knows how to listen to fans and respond. To prove it, when Internet viewers (the even was streamed live on the Internet) commented that his sweatshirt would garner $500 in the charity auction that was held in conjunction with the event, Greenberg offered to literally give the shirt off his back to charity (and it did indeed sell for $500). He seems very committed, he talked about how he and his wife will be looking for a home in the area soon and how his wife has made herself flash cards with the players names, numbers, position and whether they throw and/or hit right or left handed. Awesome. It’s going to be a lot of fun to be a Ranger fan.

Perhaps my favorite story of the night was when a member of the audience asked everyone on the panel to name their favorite Ranger. When the mic finally got to Michael Young, he told a story about getting together with Ian Kinsler a couple of weeks after the season ended. Kinsler went 30-30 last year, but all he could talk about is how he has to get better and they each discussed with each other what they need to work on and Kinsler said he was going to hold Young to it. These guys, millionaire professional athletes, driven to be better and pressuring each other to improve and holding each other accountable. When you have that in place, you have a chance to have a very, very good team. I think it goes beyond Kinsler and Young, it permeates the whole clubhouse and that’s why this team will contend in the AL West this year.

Young’s leadership is hard to measure on the stat sheet, but it is key to this team’s improvement. He retold the story about going to the mound in one of Tommy Hunter’s starts where he was struggling badly in the early innings. Young basically just told him that he could give up a bunch of runs get yanked out of the game and no one would really say much about it because he’s a rookie and it’s a learning process, or, he could climb back up on the mound and throw like he capable of throwing and help the team win the game. Hunter turned it around from that point and had once of his best outings of the year. But it’s the culture that gets created as well. Young spoke of Julio Borbon being on first base when the situation was 1st and 3rd with two out and Young at the plate. Borbon could basically steal any time he wanted, but Young knew if he went that they would intentionally walk Young to get to the next hitter. Borbon made the steal and sure enough, Young was walked. The next hitter got a base hit, so it worked out, but Borbon recognized the mistake and came to Young in the clubhouse to apologize and let Michael know he would be more cognizant of the situation in the future. The culture of this team is to play team baseball and keep improving all the way through until the ultimate goal is achieved. Whether that culture stems from Washington, Daniels or the team leaders like Young and Kinsler, doesn’t really matter. They should all get credit for building it the right way. If you can do that, the results are sure to follow.

Is it opening day yet?!?

The night was not only about the Rangers and the Newberg Report annual book. It was also about Wipe Out Kids Cancer and all the items auctioned went to benefit that charity. On the night more than $10,000 was raised (1/2 of it by Michael Young who matched the total brought by auctioned items). To get involved, check out WOKC.org and or visit http://www.carrymecarson.com/ to buy the Carson Leslie’s book.

Tags: Chuck Greenberg, Dallas, Ian Kinsler, Jamey Newberg, Julio Borbon, Michael Young, Tommy Hunter