New Jack City
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Was bangin' out a little office work the other day. Needed some 'Net Muzak, as it were. We checked the 710 Hot Stove pool filter and saw a Dec. 13 Zduriencik radio show trapped in there. Which you won't want to miss.
710 homeys asked whether Zduriencik got the tinglies meeting Jay-Z. Quite the oppo: Jay-Z and entourage were starry-eyed at being in an MLB locker room. (?!)
Zduriencik, obviously bemused, describes how the entire conference was in a holding pattern, waiting for Jay-Z to finish a concert in LA and fly up. Zduriencik gives some detail as to the bright-lights welcome that the Mariners had planned for the Cano entourage... just for instance, a Jay-Z birthday cake, a set of Mariner jerseys for all the hangers-on, a "Welcome to Safeco Jay-Z!" scoreboard and so forth.
You and I wouldn't think that would be much of a biggie, considering the LA music moguls that these people hang with. I guess there's a little sports hero wannabe, even in the President of the U.S. ...
Anyway, they get to the part where they are playing Cano highlights, and they play it to Jay-Z music, and "they're all laughing like little kids, and high-fiving, and ... it was pretty neat."
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The point is NOT that it was original for the Mariners to roll out the red carpet. The point is, though, that in Fortune 500 terms, the Mariners hit one whale of a home run recruiting.
You'll remember that when Cano signed, the entire country was like "WHHHAaaaaaa?! ... What in the world HAPPENED that this guy decided to be a MARINER?"
Seattle Sports Insider isn't about 2-D cartoon caricatures of ANYbody, whether it be friend or foe. But Jack Zduriencik, Chuck Armstrong & Co. obviously impressed the stuffing out of some really serious LA/NY hip hop celebs. You have got to give credit where it's due.
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Bill James once said that there are a lot of things associated with the GM job that he doesn't know whether he could do.
He said, another time, that every GM he'd ever met had "a natural grace" to them, a real talent for charming people. This comes across in the Dec. 13 interview of Zduriencik.
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By the way, there is another segment in which Zduriencik describes the way that he went around the circle with his assistants, before the offer, asking their final vote and so on ... "Are you in?" "Anything we need to be aware of?" etc.
It didn't surprise me -- this is the picture that we'd always had of Zduriencik, and it comes across again, double-underlined. What it does do, is point up just how unfair Tony Blengino was to Zduriencik in his Baker interview. Zduriencik isn't an inaccessible exec. He stopped listening to Blengino specifically, and Blengino sold that as Zduriencik not listening to anybody.
This, again, is a syndrome you see frequently in Corporate America. "Disgruntled employee" is, sometimes, a cliche. SSI believes that, in this specific case, it has traction.
Yes, there are execs you have to work hard to stay on the right side of. So ... make sure you do. And stop whining.
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Anyway ... another bit of flavor text that caught SSI's fancy. Zduriencik smilingly relays that the rappers loved Chuck Armstrong. "My man! He cool!" Seriously.
Point A? No 2-D caricatures, please. Let's be more nuanced in our portraits of our friends and foes. Authors offsite, we're talkin' to you.
;- )
Point B? Zduriencik doesn't volunteer that incredibly-flattering tidbit unless he and Armstrong have a fairly warm relationship. Authentically.
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By the way, Zduriencik discusses WAR, and then adds that the Mariners have their own internal system that they consider better than WAR. Tolja you'd wanna hit that.
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Robinson Cano means one of two things, for Mariner baseball:
- The pivot point, the highway offramp at which the Mariners moved towards becoming a factor, OR
- The best possible attempt at finding such
You and I do not hesitate to write, in gory detail, EXACTLY how stupid it is to trade Doug Fister or do whatever else we consider dumb.
We should also not hesitate to write, in excruciating detail, EXACTLY how brilliant it is when the Mariners jack the superstar off the New York blinkin' Yankees.
Stars and Scrubs baby,
Dr D