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Legendary Atlanta sports executive Stan Kasten dishes on his relationships with Ted Turner and Bobby Cox, plus the indelible mark he and those figures have left on the Atlanta sports market.
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00:00it's dukes and bell sports radio 92.9 the game we have the honor and the privilege to talk to
00:04a guy
00:05who has a mic a connection unlike i don't think any other uh stan casting guys joining us right
00:12now he here on the sweet james accident attorneys hotline and he is currently the president ceo of
00:18the dodgers uh also co-owner um and stan thank you so much for giving us a few minutes today
00:23to
00:23to talk about bobby and and you know just his memory his legacy we appreciate you coming on
00:28how are you doing uh i'm doing okay uh yeah last week was a very tough week uh for those
00:36of us
00:36who'd been around uh the braves or watched the braves and we we lost bobby we lost ted
00:43for those of you who are old enough you also remember our broadcaster was john sterling it
00:48was a hard week but um but i'm happy to come on and talk to you about any of them
00:54right and stan
00:55good to talk to your brother from the old days of 790s dan would always come on carl and we'd
00:59argue
00:59and yell and he's always gracious with his time this is old timers dave mike i wondered what the
01:06hell happened to him because when i knew him what he was doing he had no future at all
01:14that's great no joke yes on fm radio now stan uh go back and one of the things i was
01:19telling carl
01:20earlier today is the uniqueness of bobby going from general manager to back to the into the dugout
01:25becoming the manager and then you bring in sure uh sure how did all that work out and how did
01:29bobby
01:30feel about all that well um uh first of all bobby for four years uh bobby was my gm when
01:38i came back
01:38there and took over and we obviously did a lot together we watched every game together and um i would
01:45often ask him because we were not very good we were still building right then and i would often
01:51ask him did he expect or want to be a manager someday and he really annoyed me because he gave
01:56me
01:56the same answer i'm gonna say a thousand times hey whatever you and ted want me to do whatever you
02:02know that's not the question i'm asking do you want to make and he would never vary because he would
02:08never undermine his current manager he would never do that to me i'm reading between the lines
02:13and i because i know managers i knew he wanted to manage again um and when uh i finally put
02:20him
02:20back in and decide i was going to need a new gm and i started talking to john sherholtz john
02:27has
02:27something interesting to say to me he said you know in our office in kansas city we have always said
02:33you know the best manager in the american league is sitting in the front office of the national league
02:38bobby cox so he had that kind of respect for him already um i knew that they would work out
02:46perfectly interestingly when we first when we had the press conference to announce john's arrival
02:51um we had to go visit bobby who was in the hospital because he just had two knee operations
02:57we literally visited bobby at his hospital bed after uh after we hired john but they uh they hit it
03:05off
03:06and uh well obviously the rest is history um we we had been building for three four years i thought
03:13we needed a final piece to make it all work that was john uh but he and bobby uh i
03:18mean it's a classic
03:19historic combination both of them in the hall of fame because they both deserved it yeah stan it's
03:26interesting because you know he was such a uh beloved man you talk to the players and all these
03:32hall of famers that he was able you know to manage and they all say very similar things about
03:38how he cared and treated them with the respect i'm curious just on a personal level because for fans
03:44look the one thing we loved is bobby wasn't afraid to get thrown out of a game he was not
03:47afraid to tell
03:48you what was on his mind especially when it came to the umps and those stories are endless was he
03:53that
03:53fiery with you guys and your conversations about acquiring players or going after things or or just day to
03:59day no not at all not at all he he was calm and uh determined but in a very respectful
04:08way always
04:09you could joke with him uh you could have fun with him uh and then when he got in the
04:14dugout he thought
04:14his job was to just didn't matter if they're right or wrong i have to defend my guys and i've
04:19had these
04:20conversations with other major league managers managers who have said to me um uh i don't go out
04:26there because look i'm not going to change anything and it's i'm making a fool of myself i'm just
04:31yelling out there for no reason umpire's not going to change his mind so i don't believe in going out
04:36there and at the same time i said tell me who you respect as a manager and the number one
04:42guy is always
04:43bobby cox and i told this story i told it to bobby and bobby said you want me to go
04:48talk to that guy
04:48i said no no no don't do that but i'm just telling you it it's it's so anomalous because it
04:56doesn't fit
04:56the rest of his personality which was wonderful and easygoing it's why he has so many friends
05:01uh throughout our industry um uh but he just had this belief this is my job i have to go
05:09out there
05:09and make a fuss so that my my players know i have their back it's a stand casting with us
05:16guys uh a long
05:17time for those who don't know involved in everything from the hawks the braves to even
05:20the thrashers back in the day joins us here on dukes and bell talking about the legacy of bobby
05:24cox in a minute we'll talk about ted turner as well since we got you but uh the players and
05:28you
05:28talk about it stand the relationship he's almost like a father to guys like chipper and the way
05:33you know the whole the whole the entire mechanism with leo mazzoni with all the great cy Young award
05:37winners and all the great different versions of that team that john charles put together and they
05:41always all love playing for bobby yeah there's no question about it uh the thing uh and i just
05:49talked to andrew the other day the thing about uh bobby and andrew everyone remembers the time he
05:54they pulled him out of a game because bobby perceived him you know not charging hard on a ball which
06:00you
06:00can't even think of think of all the balls we saw him die for right this is one time he
06:05didn't um
06:06and andrew loves the guy absolutely loves the guy has called him his second father so now that was
06:13easier i think in his second go around here as manager remember in his first go around bobby was
06:19really young right bobby you know was it was the age of some of the guys on the team and
06:25i don't know
06:25that they viewed him as a as a father figure then they viewed him as a manager of a team
06:31which was
06:32struggling and you know what happens the managers of teams struggle um but by the time he went off
06:37to uh to toronto with a much better team with a team that he could win with and demonstrate how
06:46good
06:46he was um he took on uh that persona of being a leader a leader of men which is what
06:52you need in a
06:53manager and um and he carried all the way through here even though for four years he was in the
07:00front
07:00office and he did a heck of a job because of all the guys he had accumulated while he was
07:05a gm
07:06stan cast in president currently and ceo of the dodgers uh as mike said a long history here in
07:12atlanta ted turner trusted you unlike any other right i mean you go to work for him what in 79
07:18and
07:18become the gm of the hawks obviously we're talking about the braves portion of that talk about your
07:23relationship with ted turner because you said it last week is a very tough week for not only atlanta
07:28but the sports world yeah i uh ted ted did hire me right out of uh law school and in
07:36my first week
07:37on the job ted was suspended for a year for a tampering and then six months later i'm in my
07:44i
07:45wasn't married yet and i'm in my bachelor apartment i turn on the tv and and there's a new guy
07:49in the
07:50dugout and i'm looking at the number we don't have that number on our team what what is this and
07:54then i
07:54and then i find out oh my goodness ted's taken over the team so i had to be in believe
07:59he was
07:59office the next day and so i've been reminding people right that we didn't just lose one manager
08:06last week we lost two former managers right we lost bobby and ted so that was a hard week um
08:13but
08:14but as things developed and and he needed me over at the hawks um i did that we were having
08:22some success
08:23and uh by the time ted needed me talked me into going over to the braves he was on to
08:32bigger and
08:32more important things he was into the philanthropy he was into the environment he was into helping the
08:38un and of course he was into changing the world of global news distribution right so he said stan here
08:47please just make it work and uh so so he trusted me i was in the right place at the
08:54right time but
08:54if he didn't give me the the direction the support the resource to get it done nothing would happen
09:01but ted always was that guy he's uh and my own personal philosophy i think ted felt that way too
09:08hire good people let them do their job after 10 years he felt like maybe i was
09:13a good person and he let me do my job which is what we did with bobby and with john
09:19and everything
09:20that's happened since great stuff from stan caston here by the way and it's funny because we talk so
09:25much about the atlanta sports landscape you know the hockey team you're involved even in the thrashers
09:31from because you had uh harvey schiller derrick's now running the braves mcgurk still with the braves and
09:35these are all guys that basically all got hired by ted right yeah you know my very first day at
09:41my very
09:41first job out of law school i report for work at uh what used to be wtcg on west petrie
09:48and ted
09:49worked there in the morning and the afternoon went to the uh stadium and so he took me with him
09:55and
09:56we opened the door to the hallway and standing in the hallway is henry aaron i'm a kid out of
10:01school
10:02right i holy smokes i'm in the major leagues this is unbelievable to me but he walks me down the
10:08hall
10:08meet the only other guy in the office who was same age single and all we had a lot in
10:15common and that
10:16was terry mcgurk whom i've known from my very first day uh at work terry had been with ted for
10:22two years
10:23before me um mostly on on the tv side but also a little on the baseball side and so yeah
10:30ted hired
10:31these guys and if they showed him anything he let them do their job and we've had a lot of
10:37success
10:37because of that yeah no doubt about it stan caston joining us here on sports radio 92.9 the game
10:42as we
10:43talk about the great iconic bobby cox and his time with with ted turner as well um let me ask
10:49you you
10:49talk about hiring the right guys what about getting the right players because you said you thought at
10:53the end there where before you you moved on you guys were close and then obviously in the 90s right
10:58from what 91 and to 05 there's 14 division titles in a row and you kind of set the foundation
11:06stan and
11:07what about that and getting the right players well we were uh uh you know before i got there uh
11:16um
11:16ted asked me to take it over uh i looked at it for 30 60 days i don't remember what
11:22and i went back to
11:23and i said ted this this need that the tv guys have of getting every year's hot free agent so
11:29that
11:30you can sell ads because tbs is that important i get it but it's taking you farther away from winning
11:36it's doing more damage it's costing you draft picks it's costing the development of younger players
11:40draft pick compensation instead let's take that same money and put it into more minor league teams
11:47and more coaches and more scouts and develop players internally we'll get a much better result
11:53but it's going to take a couple of years right and ted said to me stan i don't need a
11:59lecture just do it
12:00i swear to god that's what he said and he meant it because owners will say that all the time
12:05you know long-term plan but then you lose two games in a row people start getting fired
12:09that wasn't ted at all uh we had a plan he gave us the time to execute it bobby cox
12:17it just so
12:18happened was a hell of a general manager and i'll tell you another story in the 1990 draft when todd
12:24van
12:24poppel was supposed to be the number one pick and right he and his agent had already put out the
12:29word
12:29like they do sometimes we are not going to sign with atlanta we had the number one pick we're not
12:34going to sign and i told bobby i don't care what some agent says i don't care if you want
12:39this
12:39guy just draft him we'll tough it out and whatever happens happens he says stan i have to tell you
12:45something i really like the number two guy better truthfully i wouldn't pass up van poppel but i like
12:51the number two guy better i'm just as happy taking him and that guy was shipper jones that was on
12:56bobby's
12:57own scouting so he was a heck of a gm he was involved in all of those guys coming had
13:03a foundation
13:04that john could come in and join supplement and in that first off season we you go back and look
13:11at
13:12the guys we signed and brought on and it was the foundation of again the division champion for the
13:18next 14 years stan cast is with us guys former braves president here on the uh sweet james accident
13:23attorney hotline on dukes and bell the other thing i was going to ask you is does he go to
13:27you or i mean
13:27he's a general manager he makes the deals the famous story about like who's john smaltz but trading
13:32doyle alexander and obviously that's when he was gm before he goes back to being a manager and
13:35helped to create that nucleus of amazing young pitchers i'll tell you the truth um maybe one of
13:42my first real meetings with a baseball agent while i was i because i've been an nba gm for 10
13:49years
13:50but but had dinner with bobby and uh doyle alexander and uh and his agent when doyle was a free
14:00agent
14:01that my first off season and we were signing him even though we were not a good team uh in
14:0897 we
14:09signed him with the intention of being able to move him at the at the deadline of the trade deadline
14:14did we know we would get a hall of famer and and a cy young award winner no but when
14:21we when we got
14:22uh john smaltz and we had been trying to get him all summer uh they viewed him as a number
14:29two
14:29pitcher and turns out he was even better than that so this is all part of a plan again we
14:36didn't know
14:37that doyle and doyle was great for the tigers when we traded him there um but john smaltz became john
14:43smaltz and again we got lucky but it was all part of a a definite plan to start building and
14:50start
14:50building with pitching because that's not what we were known for before we made it a real priority
14:56of ours going forward stan i gotta ask this before we let you go um because you've gone on to
15:02be one
15:03of the best executives in the history of sports uh it just is what it is and you're currently the
15:07president mike did you hear that mike yeah oh you know what you know what stan we have you know
15:12i we're
15:12not going to talk about the dominique trade we're going to praise you we're not we're not the nationals
15:17but we see that let me say one thing to you are you going to talk about who acquired dominique
15:23because if you don't you should look that up okay he wasn't born an atlanta hawk look up who
15:29acquired dominique you got him no you got him here i know i just i wasn't here in 95 i
15:34know i'm just
15:35saying it was a really good team yeah yeah look okay well let me ask you this because i want
15:40to ask
15:40you something no no i wanted to ask you something completely different because i did want to love on you
15:44a little bit because i do appreciate what you've been able to accomplish but let's ask him is that
15:50the worst decision as an executive you've ever made what's that dominique the neat trade
15:57uh come on you're not giving me credit for some really
16:02okay i gotta ask but you know what listen guys we compete every night depending on what sport we're
16:09in 29 30 31 other teams of really dedicated smart tireless professionals you're not going to bat a
16:18thousand if you're over 500 you're going to have a lot of success and with all of the teams in
16:23atlanta
16:23we were pretty far over 500 yeah no look and that's that leads me to my next statement before we
16:28let you
16:29go stan casson again guys current president ceo of the dodgers joining us again long time atlanta
16:34executive matter of fact he was executive of the year when he was with the the hawks two you know
16:38two
16:38years in a row let me ask you this why have you had the success why have you had the
16:42success you've
16:43had seriously why um i i think i i have a philosophy and whenever i have the ownership when i
16:52can explain
16:52it to an ownership that is supportive i think it's a philosophy that works not just with teams in
16:58baseball or basketball i think it works for corporations i believe in three pillars and i've
17:04been able to articulate that vision to our staffs wherever i've been the three pillars are if you're
17:09a corporation it's your product your customer your brand if you're a sports team it's your team on the
17:15field it's the stadium experience and it's what you do in the community with community relations
17:19those things if you're dedicated if you have ownership that understand those things and you can
17:24really combine the efforts of of a dedicated staff you're going to have success and the other thing is
17:31target people let them do their job that's right it sounds really simple it's hard right it's hard
17:36if it were that simple more people would do it yes not that simple we could we could do like
17:41three
17:41hours we don't have time we got to catch a break soon next time like the dodger tv deal the
17:45braves
17:45are sort of their own packages a lot of things the dodgers have that everybody wants but uh and by
17:50the way what do you think of the braves from this series of the weekend they're a great team
17:54they're a great team uh led by terry and derrick and of course
17:58the guy we love out here alex anthopoulos i can't say enough about him hey i had a great long
18:04talk
18:05with my former shortstop yesterday walt weiss so i think they are great from top to bottom um
18:11they will be formidable they're always formidable uh i told walt yesterday it wouldn't surprise me and
18:19i wouldn't mind if we saw each other again in october but we have a long season to go let's
18:23see how it
18:24plays out stan thank you so much for the time we know you're busy right this uh yeah it was
18:29it was
18:29important to to get you on today here in atlanta and uh we thank you for that because uh people
18:34wanted to hear from somebody who not only you know again worked for ted but had the relationship with
18:39bobby and the history of sports in our city so we really appreciate it thanks guys good talking to
18:44you too cool todd van poppel by the way texas legend right when he dropped that name i was like
18:49oh
18:51everybody mike was talking about this guy being like right the he was going to win 18 si youngs
18:57he was incredible and to hear that story about bobby cox and you know i really like the number two
19:03kid
19:04right a guy named chipper to give him to land to keep him to land florida that that's pretty damn
19:09impressive because everybody wanted todd van poppel van poppel winds up 12 games under 500 for his
19:14career as a starting pitcher he played a long time but i'm telling you like everybody knew who he was
19:18it was he was that big of a phenomenon all right guys
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