- 10 minutes ago
Rich Shertenlieb & NESN’s Tom Caron continue their conversation with Bruins President, Cam Neely, Red Sox President of Baseball Operations, Craig Breslow, New England Revolution Sporting Director Curt Onalfo, Boston Legacy Dome Guasch, and Boston Fleet General Manager Danielle Marmer during the WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio Telethon.
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00:00That's right. This is Rich Shurtle. I'm here with Tom Caron from Nesson. A nice simulcast we have
00:04here between WEI and Nesson. And this is such a cool thing. And it shows how much these people
00:09care about the Jimmy Fund because we have five of the busiest people at Boston Sports right now
00:14able to meet us all at once. The GMs of some of the great teams. Cam Neely, of course, from
00:19the
00:19Bruins. Craig Breslow from the Red Sox. Kurt Analfo from the New England Revolution. Domei
00:24Gwask from the Legacy. And Daniel Marmer from the Boston Fleet. And by the way, if you want to
00:28donate 877-738-1234. Also JimmyFun.org. Daniel, I want to just quickly mention something.
00:35Social media is such an important part of especially like a launch of a new team. And even with
00:40like, you know, the Red Sox and Bruins and teams that have been around for a while. You
00:44know, it's amazing how a certain play or a certain aspect that you put up there can become the
00:48story if you don't have or if you do have the right person running your account. Your social
00:54media, I just wanted to tell you, is unbelievable. The reason I think it's come into my feed before
01:00and it makes me want to go ahead and buy a jersey. The colors are great, the schemes, but it's
01:04also
01:04what you put on there. How important is it to get the right message out, especially when you're
01:08launching a brand new product like you guys? Yeah, yeah. Shout out to Caitlin Angeli who runs
01:11our social media. She's incredible. But yeah, to your point, especially when you're starting
01:16a team, you're building this league, starting a team, you have to build a fan base. And the best
01:21way to do that right now in the digital age is social media. And it's the window into the team
01:26and your fans want to feel connected to the players. And, you know, you were just talking
01:30about that, like the relatability is so important. And the more that we can get these players
01:35to feel or the fans to feel like they know the players, they can relate to the players.
01:40Those are the people who are going to support our team, you know, when winning or losing and
01:45you need their support. You needed to, you need that home ice advantage and you need to feel
01:48like, you know, you can win any game in Boston.
01:51Yeah, which kind of leads us to what this is all about, right? The platforms that are
01:54built, right? Teams have platforms, players have platforms, and you want to use them for
01:59good, obviously, which is why we're all here. Cam, you did it with your foundation, right?
02:04Cancer is a very important cause for you. And as a player going into your post-playing
02:10life, you tried to use whatever platform, whatever influence you had in this. This is before
02:15social media, right? It was just, you know, people knew who you were, but you were able
02:18to use that to kind of galvanize the support. How important was that to you? And how do you
02:22translate that to today's players?
02:24Well, thank God there's no social one.
02:27Who would have been in the most trouble?
02:29We might not be sitting here today.
02:30I don't mean to sidetrack. Who would have gotten in the most trouble back in the day
02:33with the teams you played?
02:34God rest his soul, but LB.
02:37God rest his soul, indeed.
02:39But it's a very important tool now. There's no question. Everybody's on it. Everybody's looking for
02:44something really quick. That's the one unfortunate thing is that the attention span is getting less
02:51and less. But it's an important tool to reach your fans. We have so much great content that's
02:56not just on the ice. It's in the locker room. It's on the plane. It's traveling in the hotels.
03:01So we try to leverage that as much as possible for our fans to kind of get to know the
03:05players.
03:06And, you know, now more and more players have grown up with social. They understand social.
03:11So you're not trying to break down these walls. They get the impact it can make.
03:16But you also want to protect their privacy, too, at the same time.
03:19Craig, I was thinking, you know, you have several Venezuelan players.
03:22We just saw a couple of them here, right, when Abreu and Contreras came in.
03:25The earthquakes in Venezuela happened during the season.
03:28You've got players who are trying to perform at the highest level, knowing there's trouble at home.
03:33And many of them wound up using their influence, using their platform.
03:37The team used it to try to, you know, raise some money and galvanize awareness, you know,
03:42so you can turn what could have been a scary, disruptive time for these guys,
03:46give them some empowerment into trying to help what was happening at home.
03:49Yeah, you could tell these guys were incredibly conflicted between the responsibilities
03:53that they felt as members of the Red Sox to go out and try to win games with, you know,
03:58the feeling of helplessness that they couldn't support family and friends back home
04:03and that, you know, geographically they were so far.
04:05Fortunately, the organization stepped up in a major way.
04:09The community stepped up in a major way.
04:10And I think what's really neat about sports is, you know,
04:15it started as efforts by the Venezuelan players,
04:17but eventually there were players that were born here in America that were out,
04:21you know, raising dollars at the gates.
04:23And it became kind of a team initiative as opposed to simply a subset of the group.
04:29So when you take a look at how you have all been involved,
04:33and I'm sure cancer has touched us all,
04:36is there a personal connection that you feel when you see these people come in,
04:41like some of the patients?
04:42And I know that many of you have visited the hospitals and have a history,
04:45obviously, with helping cancer camp.
04:47I know that that's been a huge cause of yours for years.
04:50When you see these numbers come in of people donating,
04:53what does that say to you about the city of Boston and actually New England
04:57and how they're able to help out people who are in that type of situation?
05:00It's a giving city.
05:01For me personally, I'm a cancer survivor.
05:03I had cancer on my 24th birthday.
05:07Hodgkin's disease advanced.
05:09So this has always been something that's very dear to me.
05:12So when I see this great city that I love,
05:16I grew up in Connecticut, not too far from here.
05:18So I've always been a New Englander.
05:21It's an incredible thing, knowing that once it gets to $1 million,
05:24it's going to go to two like that.
05:26Those are really awesome things.
05:29So it's great to be a part of it.
05:31It's like this city, we can be critical of our sports teams,
05:35but the one thing that I think everyone agrees on is when it comes to the fight
05:38against cancer.
05:39I've never seen anything like it.
05:40Like last year when the Jimmy Fund was able to set a record,
05:44I honestly, especially that was a year that was supposed to be a down year,
05:47you know, economically.
05:48I don't think anybody expected it.
05:49But that's kind of just the heart of Boston, isn't it?
05:52Doesn't it feel that way?
05:53That's the type of people.
05:54They're passionate about so many different things,
05:56and I guess it's one of the things that makes the city great.
05:59Yeah.
05:59We talk about it at the beginning of training camp every year.
06:02There are two things that it means to be an athlete and a pro athlete in this city,
06:06and it's winning championships and giving back to the community.
06:10You know, every single team in Boston does those two things very well,
06:14and, you know, we want to be a part of that.
06:16All right.
06:17I want each one of you to give me one thing that we can look forward to
06:19with your team, individual team,
06:21something that you're the most excited about with either the season
06:23that you're in the middle of or the upcoming season.
06:25And we'll start with you.
06:26I'm excited about this season.
06:28We're in fourth place now.
06:29We have a great coach.
06:30We just added an awesome DP.
06:33This is a team that can really do great things,
06:36so I'm excited about this year and watching us between now and the end of the year.
06:39Feeling that World Cup bump?
06:40A lot of people were excited.
06:41Yeah, I mean, the World Cup was amazing.
06:43I think it just brought more awareness to the greatest sport in the world.
06:47For me, obviously, you know, there's great sports.
06:49I'm with you.
06:49I'm with you.
06:50It's a beautiful game.
06:51They do win the vote.
06:52They're two songs.
06:54Kurt, I've got to ask you,
06:55how do we get the Scottish guys to come back for your matches?
06:58We need them back in Boston.
07:00I know, I know.
07:01The pubs definitely want it too, right?
07:03There's no beer left.
07:04But it was – I mean, the World Cup was just such a great opportunity
07:07to kind of celebrate the sport.
07:08And then, you know, we're just continually getting bigger and stronger,
07:12and, you know, we're ready to step it up.
07:14And our team in particular is – we have a great coach,
07:18and we're playing really well.
07:19And, you know, this is going to be an awesome season,
07:21so let's make it happen this year.
07:23How about you, Cam?
07:24I'm excited about the competition in camp this year, to be honest with you.
07:27I see some of the younger kids push for jobs.
07:30You know, Hagan's got a taste a little bit last year,
07:34so we'll see.
07:34I know he's been working really hard this offseason.
07:38We've got a new player in Paterka.
07:40I'm excited to see what he brings to us.
07:42But, yeah, just the competition in camp.
07:46You know, these younger kids must be licking – they should be licking their chops
07:49and say, okay, I want that spot right there.
07:51Kim, I want to ask you a follow-up.
07:52I'm the follow-up guy.
07:53Yeah, you're sure.
07:54Apparently that's the way this is working out.
07:56Captain.
07:56You rotated it last year.
07:58Just philosophically, I'm not saying – if you want to tell us who's captain,
08:01I'm sure EI would love to break that news right now.
08:03But just philosophically, do you need to have a guy
08:05or is that something on certain teams maybe rotating it from here in their works?
08:10Yeah, I don't know if you necessarily need to have a guy
08:12unless there is that one guy that really stands out.
08:15You know, we've been blessed to have great captains here, you know,
08:19from Bork, Chara, Bergeron.
08:22And, you know, we like leaders and not followers.
08:27So, you could have – hopefully you have 20 leaders.
08:29That's the one thing that we look at is who's going to help lead the team.
08:35You know, maybe it's more of a tradition in hockey where you've got a letter
08:38on your sweater.
08:39But I think, you know, Don, Marco, and I are going to sit down shortly
08:43to talk about that actually.
08:44Awesome.
08:45How about you, Greg?
08:45I know obviously you've got a lot of things going on.
08:48The trade deadline, new players here.
08:50Roman coming back or at least going to Portland?
08:53Yeah, it's been a perfectly predictable straight-out path
08:56from opening day to where we are today.
08:58But, no, I think reason for excitement given where we are today,
09:02a number of important players getting healthy
09:04and a really exciting brand of baseball that I think our guys are capable of playing.
09:08They've really embraced this identity of putting pressure on opposing teams,
09:12running the bases really well, bunting, moving runners,
09:15and getting guys like Roman and Trevor Story and Isaiah Kiner-Falefa
09:19and hopefully Garrett Crochet and Tanner Hauck and others back, you know,
09:23and down the stretch I think is going to invite really, really excitement around our group.
09:27How about with the legacy, Dome?
09:28So we have three home games left in the season,
09:32so excited to continue to build in this inaugural season for us.
09:37Excited to see the team showing up for the city, seeing the fans, right?
09:42We're right now playing some games right down in Rhode Island,
09:45and people are still showing up, are selling out our stadiums.
09:49So excited to continue to see that and build the foundations for the 100 years to come.
09:53And Danielle, with the newcomers on the block with the fleet?
09:56Yeah.
09:57Yeah, I mean, incredibly excited.
09:59We expanded to 12 teams this year, so there's a lot of shakeup in the league,
10:02and it's going to be fun to see, you know, how each GM decided to sort of build their team
10:07and how that's going to go.
10:08I mean, we are, I'd say, the best decor, the best goaltender in the league,
10:12and incredibly deep up front.
10:14So it's going to be a fun season for us and excited about our move to Aganis.
10:19So we're going to be in Boston downtown.
10:22We've had, you know, since that has been announced,
10:25our season ticket deposits has increased a massive amount,
10:30and just the support that we're getting around the city is awesome.
10:33So very excited to be downtown this season.
10:35Well, this has been great having you all with us.
10:37As a matter of fact, I looked over your shoulder while you guys were doing this,
10:39and we went up a lot.
10:40Since you sat down to now, the total is now at $721,000.
10:44You can continue to donate, 877-738-1234.
10:48Also, jimmyfun.org.
10:51Guys, this meant a lot.
10:52Thank you very much, and let's raise some money, right?
10:55Absolutely.
10:56Thanks, everybody.
10:56Thanks.
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