alright with us now. Red Sox Chairman, Tom Warner and tom let's talk about the
past year for you personally as an owner of this ball club here. I mean,
no fans in the stands last year. And then you open Fenway park uh to a, to a
site for vaccination helps so many people out and you have a pack ballpark
starting in late june and then you have these concerts that are packed, that's
gonna make you feel pretty good. Well, there's no doubt about it that when the
fans came back to Fenway park, it was an extraordinarily positive experience
and it's a positive experience for all sports. The fans are an essential
element of uh of going to any any game and uh obviously our fans are
articulate, loyal, excited and so uh it's been great, it's obviously been
better when we win, but it's been a great experience this summer. It has
and and talk about the important role Fenway park in the boston Red Sox had
and help them get getting so many people accident.
We, we as you know, as as excited about this stuff we do off off the diamond is
on it. We obviously were very supportive of uh making the ballpark
vaccination vaccination site and uh you know, one of the things I'm proud about
this week, uh we're hosting for the 19th straight year, the jimmy fund
telethon and you know, the partnership between the Red Sox and uh Dana Farber
is in its uh 60 something year and we've raised our, our ownership has
raised over $150 million for dana Farber and for pediatric cancer. So I'm,
of course I'm proud of what we do on the field, but I'm also proud of what
we do in the community. How about the turnaround under high bloom? I mean you
guys went from having The 20th best farm system according to baseball
America. Now you've moved all the way up to ninth, that's been a big jump in
one year. And other people I talked to in baseball have taken notice.
We've got a lot of great talent that is blossoming in the minor leagues. We had
a great pitching performance last night at worcester. One of our prospects
pitched a one hitter. Uh, you know, we are obviously focused on what's going
to happen in the major league level the next six weeks. But uh, time has done a
great job and his team has done a great job. As you know, we have worked enough
to pick what many people thought was the best player in the draft. Uh, it
was available this year and he had a home run last night in the florida
instructional league. So we're very uh confident that we've got a lot of
talent in the pipeline tom you're here in boston, you hear what people have to
say. Look, I was joking around with an executive that you and I both know
really, really well. And I was saying that high balloon was the smartest man
in baseball until the trade deadline And now people are criticizing him. Um,
how do you look at what your front office did at the trade dead?
Well, we don't want to focus too much on what people are saying. You know, we
are obviously, uh, focused on how to improve this year. And I think that
adding Schwarber at the deadline has exceeded our expectations and hopefully
you'll see him playing first base in the next week or so having chris sale
who's come out and it's extraordinarily well, the last two starts, uh, was very
encouraging. But you know, we came into this, uh, trade deadline not wanting to
give up any big assets that were being asked for a short term rental. We think
we made a great trade for Schwarber and the team that we have in the field is
better than what we've been seeing the last few days. Uh, you know, I'm as
discouraged as uh, as heim as discouraged as uh, as Alex and
certainly as discouraged as the players. But uh, you know, we, we are in a
position to, uh, make post season. That was our goal. Uh, we've got a favorable
schedule the next few weeks and, and I, I expect it will play better than we
played last night. Yeah, 37 games left. You guys have really control your own
destiny here when you look at it. I mean, you have a very good shot of
making the postseason, did you think this team would be as good this year as
they have then? Because I think if you ask people to sign up with a chance at
having playing meaningful games in September after what we saw last year,
I think a lot of fans would have signed up for that.
We went to the season. I think one of our players said that we were sneaky
good, remember that. Um, I think that we, we were confident that we'd be
competitive. We're chasing the rays, you know, they're not only the best
team in are the best team in the American league, but we've been
competitive. Obviously august was not a great month for us, but we have uh, an
encouraging schedule the next six weeks. And uh, we just have to do it and we
have the players to do it. And uh, they're uh eager to turn this around
and to uh not only make postseason, but to try to uh surprise some people. I
have to tell you way back before spring training started right at the beginning,
you told me that this year this team was going to surprise people and they
were better than people thought. And I have to give you credit because I know
a lot of people didn't think that
we've got, we've got uh, some all star players, you know, just uh, not just
Bogart's endeavors and Martinez, but a baldy and Barnes and you know, now
we've got to chris sale in the, in the rotation and tanner. How is good? So
we've got a very solid uh, team we just have to execute tom Warner, chairman of
the boston Red Sox. It's been great. Thanks tom. Thanks Duke.