By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
December 4, 2013
After the Brad Ausmus introductory press conference occurred last month in the bowels of Comerica Park — where the Detroit sports media embarrassed themselves AGAIN with inane queries — I decided I would attend the next Tigers related presser if at all possible.
So, when I got the Tweet from @Tigers that a media “Q & A” at Witherell and Adams was scheduled for 3:30 on Wednesday afternoon to trumpet the arrival of new closer Joe Nathan … well, I knew I had to get down to the CoPa.
Not that I wanted to ask Joe Nathan why he chose #36 (John Lowe and his asexual friend, Mr. Hat, beat me to that one) or how the new reliever feels about suiting up for a club that had been a career-long rival.
NOPE.
I wanted to question GM Dave Dombrowski on why he traded Doug Fister for Shane Halter Gualtieri, a lefty relief specialist and the lead guitarist of The Band. Or was that Robbie Robertson? Nevermind.
I made the trek downtown and, with the help of a media friend who will remain nameless, I found out where to enter Comerica Park for the shindig. I walked right into the building, asked where the Nathan party was located and proceeded to the second floor without any questions asked. Hell, there was better security at Nakatomi Plaza.
I still was a little paranoid that one of the “journalists” in attendance would spot me and rat Poor Jiff Myst out to the Olympia Entertainment gestapo, so I didn’t enter the media area until the very last minute.
In front of the podium where DD, Nathan and his agent planned to speak were two sections of seats separated by an aisle. On the left hand side of the dais sat Jason Beck, Matthew Mowery, Tom Gage, Lowe, Lowe’s hat, Chris Iott and Jeff Riger.
The right side seating was pretty empty so I quickly decided to sit in this area. It kind of reminded me of how a courtroom is set up for the defendant’s family on one side and the victim’s family on the other.
Now, I didn’t show up at this presser for self-aggrandizement or publicity. I was there for one reason alone and that was to ask Dombrowski face-to-face why he traded Fister for a song. I wasn’t about to rely on the usual lapdog suspects to grill the team’s exec on this swap that bordered on malpractice.
That is why when one of the lovely Olympia Entertainment employees passed a hot microphone to me, I just executed my mission. Lowe and Gage didn’t introduce themselves before their question — which is usually the norm for these sort of gatherings — so I didn’t either. Even though I knew this was being broadcast live on 97.1’s airwaves and if I said, “Jeff Moss — DetroitSportsRag,” Mike Valenti probably would have pulled the rare perfecta of hitting the dump button on a guest AND on a questioner at a press conference in the span of ONE WEEK.
Anyway, I proceeded to ask Dombrowski if he felt he had done his due diligence prior to shipping one of the top 20 starting pitchers in all of baseball to the Washington Nationals — considering there were TWO national reports that rival GMs were moaning that they didn’t even know Fister was available. And definitely not for that bargain rate price.
I felt this was a fair question and one that would definitely have been asked by a reporter if this presser was being held inside Yankee Stadium, Citizens Bank Park or Fenway. Unfortunately, in Detroit you only get a legitimate but tough query like this from an INSURANCE ADJUSTER.
I mean, it’s not like I went into this thing with some Stuttering John mentality and asked Dombrowski what Roland Hemond’s farts smelled like. But the look on DD’s face when I posed it reminded me of Mike Tyson’s mug when he got caught by Buster Douglas.
The guy has spent his entire career in this town getting softballs lobbed up to him by the eunuchs who were sitting just to my left. And not Jennie Finch softballs, I am talking MTV Rock and Jock Dean Cain softballs.
Anyway, I will let Tony Paul from the Detroit News — who was also in attendance — describe how Dombrowski answered my question:
Dombrowski always presents himself as one of the most composed executives in the game, but he stepped out of character a bit when the Fister topic was broached, by animatedly pointing fingers, calling out a national baseball writer, and even producing from his suit-coat pocket a prop — a piece of paper that supposedly contained a list of 15 or more young pitchers, from throughout baseball, that the Tigers targeted when they started discussing trading away a starting pitcher.
“I feel we did tremendous due diligence,” Dombrowski said. “If somebody (a team) didn’t perhaps know that (Fister) was available, it would be because we didn’t recognize that they had the talent that we would want in return.”
The question, early in Nathan’s introductory news conference, centered on articles written by ESPN’s Keith Law — a former front-office executive — and Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron.
Cameron called the deal
“an outright robbery” in the Nationals’ favor, but that was in line with what many writers have written. Instead, Dombrowski — without naming the reporter — seemed to zero in on Law, who wrote that he talked to several unnamed general managers who said they never were even informed that Fister was available. The suggestion there: That the Tigers didn’t try to get a better deal.
And that didn’t, at all, sit well with Dombrowski.
“I never mind if somebody doesn’t feel that we got the proper return, because that’s everybody’s opinion,” he said. “One of those writers that you mentioned criticizes our deals, and then will say that we don’t have anything.”
It’s Law who’s often been seen, in Tigers circles, as unfair in his critique of the organization.
Dombrowski said there were at least 15 young pitchers the Tigers targeted throughout baseball, and said he “can guarantee you” he contacted every one of their general managers to inquire — even, at least once, discussing the possibility of a three-team trade. Nothing ever worked out.
So the Tigers made the trade with the Nationals on Monday night, and got left-hander Robbie Ray — who Dombrowski said was on that list — as the centerpiece in return for Fister. Dombrowski said he “is knocking on the door” to join the rotation, and said the Tigers view Ian Kroll as a potential No. 1 left-hander in the bullpen. Utility player Steve Lombardozzi, “a really good extra player” as Dombrowski called him, also came over in the trade.
“That’s a very upsetting comment,” Dombrowski said, at the notion the Tigers didn’t do their homework
I honestly didn’t expect that response. At all. I figured Dombrowski HAD to be at least pondering this subject over the last few days, since the Fister deal was UNIVERSALLY panned by EVERYONE in baseball. Like, the greatest defense of the move was, “Well, this is Dave Dombrowski so he must know what he is doing even though it doesn’t make a ton of sense.”
I sure as hell didn’t expect him to pull a white piece of paper with names of pitching prospects on it from his pocket and tell me that he wasn’t going to show the list to ME, but instead would let JOE NATHAN take a gander as a means to substantiate his claim that he had done his due diligence.
[If you want to hear the actual audio exchange, you can do so by clicking on this link.]
The whole damn thing was so bizarre. After DD’s rambling answer, I attempted to ask a follow-up question. That is when the Olympia Entertainment lady took the microphone away from me, which had to be on a cue from some Tigers public relations person in the room.
I still tried to ask the question without the mic, but DD told me that this wasn’t the time or place. Can you imagine? This wasn’t the time?
I mean, when Barack Obama calls a press conference to discuss the Affordable Health Care Act, does he tell Jake Tapper and Ed Henry that this isn’t the time or place to ask about Benghazi?
It’s not like I posed a question to Dombrowski about the Jair Jurjjens/Edgar Renteria deal. The Fister trade JUST WENT DOWN a couple of days ago!!!!
[EDITOR’S NOTE — FULL DISCLOSURE: After my rant about the media’s dearth of insightful questions during the Ausmus press conference, I received a message from one of the sportswriters in town whom I do respect. I was told by this person that these pressers are always dog and pony shows and the real questions get asked later in private scrums with the given subject.
Well, I don’t understand that logic. The Ausmus announcement was broadcast LIVE on Fox Sports Detroit and on various radio stations. This one was on the team’s flagship. Tigers fans aren’t privy to these little exclusive pow-wows, so I believe they are owed these sorts of tough questions when the fan base can actually HEAR the answers for themselves.
Sorry, but I don’t trust Dave Hogg or Dana Wakiji to take a key Dombrowski answer and properly disseminate it to the masses.]
Well, that was the end of my questioning. I signaled a couple more times that I wanted the mic but was ignored. I wanted to ask Dave if the Tigers budget stays stagnate in 2014, can he really consider that not cutting payroll when every team in MLB is getting a $25 million check from the national television deal.
Instead, I watched Lowe ask Nathan if he chose the #36 because he is 36-for-36 in save chances against his new team. Well, what kind of brilliant question did you expect from the dolt who has poxed the world with the inane “Quality Start” stat and who placed Raul Ibanez on his MVP ballot ….. in 2012?
I wonder if I will ever be allowed back for one of these deals or if media credentials will be checked when Shin Soo-Choo is announced as the team’s new left fielder next week.
Based on this Tweet about Dombrowski, I am dubious:
@mgibbons2402 Most irritated I’ve ever seen him.
— Tony Paul (@TonyPaul1984) December 4, 2013
But if the Tigers want to bar me from future press conferences, they aren’t just punishing me. They are hurting Tigers fans who actually want to hear team executives questioned about controversial transactions.
A Tigers fanatic like “Kevin Schultz.” Now, that really isn’t the fan’s name, but I have to protect his identity because “Kevin” is currently stationed in Afghanistan representing the United States of America.
“Kevin” is a huge Tigers supporter and, until recently, one of Dave Dombrowski’s biggest fans. This brave soldier was off in Kabul or the Tangi Valley when he heard the news of the Fister trade. There are unconfirmed reports that “Kevin” was actually choking out a Taliban militant with his BARE HANDS when he got an ESPN BREAKING NEWS notification through his government- issued walkie-talkie that Fister had been dealt to Washington for thirty cents on the dollar™ (Keith Law).
Well, after a long, hard day of killing terrorists, “Kevin” was dumfounded at the return for one of the Tigers’ most reliable players. He expressed his frustration on the DSR Facebook page, and at that point I made it my mission to get an answer for “Kevin.”
So if you keep me out of the next press conference, you are actually preventing “Kevin” from getting the answers he desires.
And if you are going to keep “Kevin” in the dark, you don’t support our troops.
And if you don’t support our troops, you must hate freedom.
And if you hate freedom, you must not love ‘Merica.
Some of my Twitter followers thought I was “brave” for entering that room with a bunch of media members who despise me. People whom I have called “Kermit the Riger.” Supposed journalists like Mowery, whom I have compared to a high school cheerleader. “Brave” for asking a powerful man like Dave Dombrowski a very uncomfortable question.
Well, I am not the one risking my life so you can enter a skyscraper without the fear of it being destroyed by a United flight. Asking a BASEBALL QUESTION in a room full of people who hate you isn’t heroic.
“Kevin Schultz” is the fearless one.
So for Kevin and the millions of serviceman overseas protecting this great nation, I say ….
LET MOSS CONTINUE TO APPEAR AT THESE PRESSERS!!!!!!!!
Unless of course ….. you hate Freedom of Speech as well.