 Hello again everyone and yes we are here and I'm Jack Currie and today I'm joined by a familiar face to anyone who was a New York baseball fan or a major league baseball fan at that. Robin Ventura spent 16 years in the major leagues. He played with the Mets and the Yankees. He has that rare distinction. He played 10 years with the White Sox and Robin first of all thank you for joining us. Second of all and much more importantly how is everything going with your family during this pandemic? We're fine you know I think everybody's just laying low and trying to ride this out. I mean it's obviously very surreal and and and all that but everybody's doing fine. I'm happy to hear that and I love this aspect of your story even though the pandemic has short circuited it for now. You are a legend at Oklahoma State. Hold a bunch of school records. You had a 58 game hitting streak at Oklahoma State. You decided to go back to school to complete your degree which is phenomenal. That is a great role model right there. You also were going to be a student assistant coach so before everything stalled and the season was canceled how was that going for you? It was going great. It was going I mean it's really fun. I think the kids are fine. I'm at a place that I really enjoy and the people that I'm working with are all people that I've known for years so it was just a fun group to be a part of as far as a coaching staff and everything and and I was getting A's Jack too. I just want you to know I'm still finished my school. It is online but I do have A's so I'm bringing up the the team GPA. I need to know a class or two. What courses? Give me an idea of what Rob... I have a microbiology class. I have a diversity class. A couple of independent study ones but yeah the micro microbiology class is really interesting. I think that's fun. It also happens to show how to how to make beer, how to brew your own beer at home so it's it's it's pretty important. I'm going online as soon as we're done. I'm signing up for that for next semester. What compelled you Robin to want to do this? You've accomplished a ton in your life. You could have been very content a very happy guy and said I got as far as I wanted to get in college and still did pretty well in my career. What was the motivation I want to go back and finish up? I do enjoy coaching and I'd come back for a couple football games and run into Josh holiday and he was just explained to Matt just came on as an assistant and you know I've known both of them since they were probably 10 years old so you know I'm very familiar group the Pitch and Cubs Rob Walton who I played with at Oklahoma State and you know we just kept talking every time I come back to a game and you know some of it was about what are you doing? I don't know you know nothing right now and it just kind of was an idea floated out there and I just kept thinking about it and thinking you know this would actually be really fun and then we came down to that I would have to be a student coach so I'd have to go back to school and you know the more I thought about it I said you know what it sounds like a lot of fun. It is really interesting being on a campus and just being around younger kids and everything it's been a real fun time I mean it really has. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you're the first former major league manager whoever returned as a student assistant college coach I'm sure there probably is somebody who helped out at the college level so I think that says a lot about you and your willingness to just want to help kids and help make them better baseball players. I know how humble a guy you are Robin from having covered you but I want to throw a couple of numbers out here 16 year career you hit almost 300 home runs yet an OPS of over 800 six gold gloves almost 2000 hits a couple of all star appearances what are you most proud of from your career? You know I don't know I mean I just think I you know hopefully guys I played with you know say I was a good teammate you know I think you know that's always important but you know hopefully they they felt like me being on a team made us a better team I mean I people are going to make their own decisions about you know anything that happened in your career but it's it's always about what the people that you played with. In December of 2001 you were involved in a rare transaction a Mets Yankees trade the Mets traded you to the Yankees for David Justice he never ended up playing with the Mets he then got flipped to the Oakland days but you had accomplished a lot with the Mets you had played against the Yankees in the 2000 World Series and we're going to get to that but when you got the news that you're being traded to the Yankees I remember you being heartened by that I remember you saying I feel I've got something left in the tank here. Yeah I think at that time I know the year before was I had a rough one and you know you just you sit there and kind of see where you're at and we're going I you know when Steve called me and said I got traded you know I'm you know your mind immediately goes to okay I gotta pick everything up and go somewhere else and basically I was just traded 20 minutes closer to my house so it was you know it was kind of a weird at first you're like wait a minute I'm traded but I don't really have to go anywhere so you know I was pretty fortunate that I ended up there it was obviously a great team but it was just nice that you know you weren't totally upended like you're not going all the way across the country. Then you made an all-star team with the Yankees in 2002 one of your two all-star appearances in your career. Talked to a lot of Yankees about the 2000 World Series and just the whole city just being mesmerized by New York versus New York. Owlider has said that if the Mets win game one which if not for a base running gaff by Team O'Parez maybe you do Owlider thinks you win that World Series the Yankees ended up winning in five games. What's your take on that if game one had tilted in the other direction? You know it's anything's possible I think you know it obviously would have given us a lot more momentum going into the next day and we were kind of streaky that way in series of getting that first one and being able to go on from there but I don't know I mean it would have definitely been a difference maker for us I don't know if we would have won it or not but it definitely would have changed some things in the next couple games. That was a five game series but to me it felt so much closer because their first three wins in that series all one run games and then even the final game it ends with a piazza almost the game tying home run. As you reflect on that series and the experience of it I know it stinks to lose but what do you take away from going up against the Yankees that year? Well I think just the atmosphere because it was a subway series that just made it so different than any other series they had you were never traveling you know you show up here stadium and bus over so it was just you know kind of a different kind of series and I think everywhere you were in town you know somebody's taken a side it wasn't you know it wasn't like you just had your own fans but you had the other side telling you weren't going to do it so it was I think that's what made it really unique. We go a year later Robin and unfortunately with everything that our country and our world is enduring right now there have been comparisons made between what is going on in 2020 and what we all had to endure with 9-11. I remember you being amongst the players who were very out front and being very supportive of everyone who had lost so much after 9-11. What do you remember about that time and what do you remember about how baseball coming back and you played in the first game in New York 11 days later maybe allowed people a little bit of a respite from all of the grief that they were dealing with? Yeah I'd say it has a I mean the beginnings of this what we're going through right now was similar to that feeling that we had you know those first few days because you're at home you're not doing anything you're just trying to watch the news get as much information as you can but you know it had a similar feel of just you don't really know what to do and you know especially for us they were using Shea as a kind of a hub for all the materials and support stuff that were coming in from across the country and so we're getting a pretty good dose of it when you go to the stadium and you got firefighters sleeping in locker rooms and it was just a trying time you know it was sad definitely but you know you see these people that are they're trying to help and recovery and then once we started playing again you just felt like people needed something and I think that Homer that Mike hit is you know goes down really as one of the kind of touching moments really for baseball at that time. I remember covering that game being at that game was a two-run Homer off Atlanta's Steve Carse and you just sort of had the feeling that this had been scripted or this had been destined. I remember Bobby Valentine calling it a small miracle after the game and I don't know about you but I thought that that captured perfectly that New York needed that jolt that night even if it was only for a few hours. Yeah really I mean especially because it was the Braves we haven't played well against the Braves they seem to have our number and to come back that night an important night you know and I think everybody was still nervous a little scared of what was going on and if you could gather and have a game and you know it was just emotional I think every game we played from there on out was pretty emotional with the people that were there but I think with Mike doing that it was it was really important I think for everybody just to kind of let loose and to be able to cheer and scream it just all came out at once. Robin you managed the White Sox for five years your first year there you win 85 games you actually come within three games of a playoff spot the Tigers beat you out they finished first never climbed over 500 in the next four years what went right in the first year what didn't go is right in those subsequent years. Well I think you know when I first got there we were kind of an older team and you know I don't know if they overachieved but they played well I mean it was a team that was you know you had older guys that performed and played better and it just seemed to work with that group and I think in the in the subsequent years we probably weren't as strong as that that team was but you know I think every year is a little bit different of who you get and I think at that time when I got there the minor league system wasn't very good so we weren't really you know you weren't infused with a lot of you know top flight players coming up after that so we really had to build up that minor league system and I think they've done a great job doing that by the way I think that's part of you know going through periods of time like that as you do end up with some good draft picks and I think they they haven't missed on them. I know you've talked about finding a comfort level with the holidays at Oklahoma State. Do you harbor any aspirations of getting back into Major League Baseball? You know I think at some point but you know I right now this is just really fun and I'm enjoying it but you know again it might not be at the Major League level but I think it's it's the impact that you're having with people that you're dealing with is for me this has just been a fun ride. I want to end this on a fun note I hope you think this is fun because you're such a humble guy you're such a chill guy that you had a moment in your career that to me seemed out of your personality and that was when you charged the mound against Nolan Ryan and I know you've been asked this probably a thousand times in your career what compelled you to do that and at what point did you say all right maybe I should have probably stayed in the box. No I you know at that time we kind of had some you know pitches go back and forth between teams and I think I think they had hit a few guys and we hit a few guys and it was if it was going to happen again somebody's going to go I'm the one that ends up getting hit not necessarily my personality but you know I think at that time with what was going on you just kind of got to go and I think you're halfway out there and you're thinking oh this is probably not the best idea but you still got to keep going. Robin we really appreciate you giving us some time today thank you so much all the best to you and your family please stay safe during all that we're enduring right now. All right thanks Jack you too.