Family first: Emotional Chip Hale addresses D-backs from the heart
SCOTTSDALE -- Arizona Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale is passionate about his sport and his life's work, and it was never clearer than during his message to the team before the first full-squad workout Wednesday.
When he touched on family, he touched a soft spot.
"I just spoke from the heart," Hale said. "Spoke about how I felt when I got this job. Evaluated the roster. And my beliefs how the game should be played, and the direction of our organization as a whole.
"You start getting into things, reminiscing about your own career and when I was coaching. We started talking about family. Just try to let them understand that is a very important thing in this organization and to me. When you start to think about different things in your career, different guys you played with, it hits home. You can never tell your reaction until you get up there. I did feel very emotional."
D-backs president/CEO Derrick Hall was in the room.
"Chip's speech really set the tone," Hall said.
"He spoke from the heart. He had control of the room. There was a time where he got a little emotional and he talked about family. I do think we have a competitive uniqueness in our organization. It is family. We care about family. This team needs to take care of one another. That was a strong message."
Hall also delivered a message, and he touched on a few other subjects with the media later.
The new TV deal with FOX Sports Arizona that kicks in next season: "The new TV deal is game-changing for us, but it is all relative, because every team eventually will get to an even playing field. Right now it certainly helps us. I think you'll really start to see that in the next two years it really help us."
The 2015 season: "It's definitely a fresh start, and we needed one. Last year was a very disappointing year, an embarrassing year. Losing nearly 100 games is unacceptable."
The possibility of an international draft: "There needs to be some sort of equity and fair play into how players are acquired, whether they are foreign or domestic. It helps teams like us, because right now the competition is now strictly financial."
Buying out contracts: "We are not afraid to. We'll do whatever we need to do to move on if that's the decision all of our baseball operations staff makes. Hopefully we won't have to cross that bridge, but if we have to do, we will. We'll do what we have to do for the team, even if have to eat a salary or two."
Season ticket sales: "We're projecting to be right where we were last year (about 4,000). I think they have faith in the people that we brought here."
Moving forward: "We want to create something that is sustainable. That's really important to us now, to make sure we are building something that is powerful and that's continuous. We want to win quickly, but we want to keep winning. We want to stay there. It sounds cliche, but we are passionate about it."
The 2015 season: "There are a lot of questions to be answered. We're going back to the basics. They want to play baseball the right way. They believe we will get there. We'll wait and see how it plays out. I'm not overly optimistic. I'm not pessimistic. I'm just trying to be hopeful more than anything. In baseball, anything can happen. Several teams that have been picked fourth or fifth went to the World Series."
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