Part Two with Bobby Scales: His Accomplishments Off the Field

On the field, Bobby Scales was known for his intelligence, leadership, baseball wisdom, and work ethic. Off the field, he is one of baseball's most respected thought-leaders and people-developers.

After retiring from professional baseball in 2012, Bobby Scales seamlessly transitioned into roles that leveraged his vast knowledge of the sport. His post-playing career has been defined by his contributions to both player development and broadcasting, proving that his expertise extends far beyond the field.

Scales moved into upper echelon player development roles with the Los Angeles Angels and Pittsburgh Pirates. His understanding of the game and his firsthand experience as a player made him a valuable asset in guiding young athletes. His ability to analyze the sport from multiple perspectives—both as a former player and as an executive—allowed him to make significant contributions in shaping the next generation of athletes.

Beyond his executive work, Scales has also made a name for himself in sports media. He joined the Detroit Tigers' radio team in 2023 as a broadcaster, where he provides insightful commentary and analysis during the Tigers' road trips. His presence in the Tigers' broadcast booth has added depth to the commentary, offering listeners valuable insights from someone who has experienced professional baseball at multiple levels. His ability to break down plays and explain strategies has made him an engaging and knowledgeable voice for Tigers fans.

Scales' transition into these roles showcases his adaptability, intelligence, and passion for the sport. While many former players struggle to find their footing after retirement, Scales has thrived by applying his experiences in new ways. His work in player development allows him to continue shaping the future of baseball, while his broadcasting career enables him to educate and entertain fans. Bobby demonstrates that a love for the game does not fade—it simply evolves.

This episode is available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you find your podcasts.

In this conversation, Bobby Scales shares his journey from growing up in Michigan to playing in Major League Baseball, including his time with the Chicago Cubs and his current role as a broadcaster for the Detroit Tigers. He discusses the importance of education, the challenges of the draft process, and the significance of mentorship in professional sports. Bobby reflects on his experiences in the minor leagues, the emotional rollercoaster of being called up to the big leagues, and the lessons he learned about leadership and teamwork from veteran players. In this conversation, Bobby Scales shares his journey through professional baseball, detailing his experiences from his early days in the MLB to his time in Japan and his transition into broadcasting. He discusses the cultural differences in baseball between the U.S. and Japan, the challenges of player development, and the importance of having a growth mindset. Bobby also reflects on his roles in the front office and the responsibilities that come with them, as well as his current work as a broadcaster and consultant.

Transcript

Jeff Perro (00:35)
Hello, welcome to the second part of this week's special double episode with Bobby Scales. Part one, Bobby talks about his playing career, being a walk on at the University of Michigan, being drafted by the San Diego Padres, working his way up to their organization before making his debut with the Chicago Cubs and spend some time in Japan after that. Part two, which begins right now.

is Bobby talking about his post-playing career and he's done some really interesting things. Shortly after retiring, he was named the Director of Player Development for the Los Angeles Angels. It's not a job that's just kind of handed out to some guy who just turned in his uniform a couple weeks ago. Pretty high-level job. He later moved on to being the minor league field coordinator with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He's now a radio broadcaster with the Detroit Tigers.

So there you have part two of my interview with Mr. Bobby Scales.

Jeff Perro (01:28)
you went back to Japan to Orix later on that season.

Bobby Scales (01:32)
Yeah, Orix Buffalo. So, you know, it one of those things where I came back from Japan. I said it was a good experience and it was and it is. the one thing that I really you talk about an open growth mindset, like the one thing that that was hard for me is my best tool. could I could run a little bit. I could hit a little bit. I had a little gap power, but I understood how to play the game. And that was my best tool.

And for me, the hard part about playing in Japan was the fact that you had to let go. There's things that in your mind that are happening. In a strategic sense, it don't make sense. And it's hard to let go of your sensibilities. When you feel like if we did one thing or the other, ⁓ we'd either win or the outcome would be different. Right. And so I knew two things. Number one, I knew ⁓

going into that season, I just turned 34, like 12 was going to be my last year. was going, I had one of my best friends, he's actually lives in Germany now, but one of my best friends from high school was like my brother. He was like, look, man, he goes, this is this, if this is your last one, man, just play like you're eight, man. Like you're in the cul-de-sac with your boys playing willful ball play like you're eight. And I was like, wow, like, yeah, I'm going do that. So I dedicated that season to doing that. Right. I'm going to do that this year. And so.

had it had it it actually had a decent spring with with the Cubs and then ended up in Buffalo and then did well enough to get the notice of the scouts again in Japan. Or it snapped me up. And, you know, the worst part about it is this is one of those things where I like the teammates I had in Orix But God, we were terrible. My God, we were we were awful. I don't know. I feel like in this and I'm not being ⁓ hyperbolic when I say this. I think we were the worst team on the planet that year.

Jeff Perro (03:13)
Ha

Bobby Scales (03:23)
Like if you look at like all the records in the big leagues, but I seriously, I think we won like 50 games and they only play 144 of it, but we were miserable. We were so bad that year and we were inventing ways to lose games. but my thing was, okay, let me go over here. Let me take care of my family as best I can one more time. And then let's look, what can I soak up from this? What can I learn from this? Like there were days I would talk to the pitching coach.

Jeff Perro (03:24)
Somebody has to be.

Bobby Scales (03:46)
There were days I was talking to this friend, the conditioning guy, because it was, the stuff was still so different than what I was used to in the States that I'm like, I don't know if I'm going to ever have a chance to get back over here to learn or watch and observe some of these things. so, um, let me soak it up. So yeah, I was playing and I played okay. I played fine. Um, but also too, that was one of my goals that year. So I did that and it was great. And at the end of the year, I knew I was done. So, uh, actually I take that back at the middle of the year. I remember calling my agent.

we had an off day in Tokyo and we were going out just to dinner. And I remember walking down the street and I'm like, yeah, this is it. This is it. We're going to finish this one out and then we're going to, it's going to be over. So it was, it was crystal clear. Like there was no ambiguity to it. There was no

Jeff Perro (04:22)
Yeah. There's that one moment where it hits you that moment where it's, that's it.

Bobby Scales (04:32)
Well, let me just see in a week. you need to call Barry tonight and you need to talk to him. I said, yeah, I'm gonna tell him that it's over. I picked up the phone. again, the clock is flipped. when if it's nighttime over there, it's 13 hours difference. And so I called him. We got back at like 10 o'clock after going to dinner or whatever. And it's like nine o'clock in the morning Chicago time. I called him. I said, hey,

I want to stay in the game. like to go to the front office route if possible, start calling some people cause I'm, I'm, I'm pretty much done. And he's like, Oh, just let's just wait till the end of the year. go, no, you can call them now. Cause I don't, want to get right into it. he did, he waited. gave me some runway and, and as we got back down to the end of the season, he started making those phone calls and some good things lined up.

Jeff Perro (05:16)
Your first job as a retired player was Director of Player Development for the LA Angels. Now, how I say this? I've been around baseball enough to know that typically you have to spend a decade or two or three as a minor league, major league coach to be named Director of Player Development. That's a Secretary of State level job where you're a couple steps from the top of organization.

Bobby Scales (05:22)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff Perro (05:44)
How did you get into that as your first year as a non-player? That's heck of an accomplishment, Bobby. It really is.

Bobby Scales (05:48)
So here's the, no,

well, first of all, thank you. ⁓ And I have to credit ⁓ a number of people, but at the end of the day, I've got to credit Jerry DiPoto was the ⁓ GM of the Angels at the time, and Scott Servais who was the assistant general manager at the time, ⁓ whose job it was to teach me how to do my job. But I'll run it back.

The organization that I was a part of when I first got drafted to San Diego Padres. And the GM of that team was Kevin Towers.

It was midway through my first spring training. there's so much into this. I mean, I could tell this story for an hour because there's so many intricate little details, but I'll get to the point. The cool thing about the complex in Peoria, they kind of made a few oopsies in that building design. So even in facilities where you have the minor league facility and the major league facility under the same roof,

There's usually big separations and you keep the minor leaguers away from the big leaguers or just add the other. I actually think that's a backwards model.

Jeff Perro (06:49)
There's a big hallway

with a door and then another big hallway on the other side of it.

Bobby Scales (06:54)
Exactly something like that right and they have different cafeterias and eat different food and the weight rooms I hate that because for me seeing those guys every day was a critical piece of me thinking I can get there right but anyway, so

two things they either forgot a hallway or forgot a door or something. And the big leaguers always had to walk through the minor league clubhouse to get to the cafeteria. That was like the only way, or you can go out and around the building, which made no sense. But those guys just walked through the, and we would see them every day, Klesko and Greg Vaughn, and they would come through every day. And they're just, and it was cool because they're just like you and they would.

They would hang out and say, what's up? And this, that, you know, there's Trevor Hoffman, all of them, right? But they made the, the cafeteria very small. like it got to capacity quickly. And so the, the, you know, the overflow seating was outside. And so was one day I'm sitting there overflow seats by myself and Kevin Towers walks out and he sits down right next to me. This is my first spring training in 2000 at draft of 99 draft camp.

then go to spring training in 2000, right? So he comes out and he's just starts, we just start having conversation, like two normal people, you know, tell me about yourself, you you grew up, did you grow up in Detroit? No, I grew up in Atlanta. was born in Detroit, whatever. How do you end up at Michigan? Like it's questions you just asked me, right? And so then, you know, so he starts to ask me baseball stuff. He starts asking me more baseball stuff. He starts asking me more baseball stuff. And so then fast forward, you know, a couple of weeks is towards the end of camp and I'm

Jeff Perro (08:09)
you

Bobby Scales (08:23)
i'm going in the cafeteria at end of the day to grab a water. He's there He starts asking me we start having another conversation and this this again small i'm good at noticing things his cell phone He's a Major League gm. So his cell phone goes off like three or four times and he doesn't answer. He kicks at the voicemail because he's in a conversation with me i'm a 14th round senior sign going to a-ball like he could have and should have

Jeff Perro (08:38)
Yes.

Bobby Scales (08:48)
probably answered all of those phone calls he got, he didn't, but at the end of the conversation, he goes, hey man, he goes, you're a pretty sharp dude. I said, well, thank you. He goes, you're gonna do all right. He goes, one day, he goes, 14, 15 years from now after you got 10, 12 years in the big leagues, he goes, you're gonna be in the front office.

This is the second conversation I have with them. And I don't know, and I'm not saying this to like blow me up. It's just like, okay, ⁓ maybe I haven't thought that far yet, right? Like you're not even there. I'm just trying to make it to stretch on time tomorrow. Let's start that, you know? But, and so sure enough, and obviously that was my first year. And obviously through the next few years, I'm in the organization. He knows me, the GMs, come to the affiliates once or twice a year to just check out what's going on. you know, we continue to have, you know,

that relationship or whatever, you I never played in the big leagues with those guys. So fast forward all the way to to, 2012 middle of 2012, I called my agent, I had that long conversation with him. he's like, so do you have anybody that you think would, you know, know you well enough to help you start out in the game? I said, call KT.

And so apparently my agent through his dealings had a good relationship with him. it was late October. we get back from Japan and, ⁓ he called KT and KT said, Hey, listen, I don't have anything for you. but I, know, I put in a call to Jerry I know Jerry's looking for someone to help him in his farm system. Cool.

So. ⁓

Jeff Perro (10:22)
Kind of vague,

what are you looking for?

Bobby Scales (10:24)
Right. Like I don't know. I don't know what questions to ask. don't know. You know, I'm in cleats two weeks before. I don't know. Right. And I had some interest with some other clubs. ⁓ I had spoken with Josh Byrnes in San Diego at one point. ⁓ And some other clubs wanted me to coach. I didn't want to coach no shade to coaches. That's just where I was and what I wanted to do in my career at that point. I didn't want to do that. Right. So I wanted to go to front office path and whatever that meant on the way to get in there, I was willing to do.

Um, so end up, uh, I've played golf with my dad, uh, Jerry calls, end up having a conversation with him. And then I have another conversation with him the next day. He says, look, what are you doing next Tuesday or whatever? He goes fly out. Um, you know, we're going to, we'll interview you, whatever. And I flew out, I had to interview. And at the end of  that interview um, he slid an offer across the table. And so that's, that's, that's how it started. You know, it's kind of an abridged version of it.

Jeff Perro (11:19)
That's awesome, buddy.

Bobby Scales (11:20)
But that's how it started. I, again, like I had in during this whole process, I'm calling Bill Bryk, I'm calling Ty Waller, you know, I'm calling anybody in the game that I knew to try to gain insight into what it looked like. I had a couple of buddies at that point that were starting to scout and they're like, you're interviewing for what? I'm like, dude, I don't know how it happened. They called, I picked it up and I'm going to take it right. I'm going to take the interview. So sure enough, like took the interview, it worked out. ⁓

And it was, mean, that first job was a lot, man. was everything. It was good. It was not so good. It was stressful.

Jeff Perro (11:55)
So for the folks listening who

what is a director of player development? What's the, what was your day like? What were the responsibilities?

Bobby Scales (12:02)
Yeah.

Um, heavy. It's a big job. so literally the director of player development is exactly what it sounds to every player that signs a contract in that organization, whether it be the 17 year old Dominican kid or the kid that's a 23 year old senior out of a major university, you're responsible for their development, them getting to the next dot, whatever that next dot is. And then hopefully you get a few of those next dots that end up in the big league. Right. So it's that it's, it's the on-field development.

It's the off field. It's something I believe in the off field man development. I'm a believer that you get a better make a better man. You get a better baseball player ⁓ and the key the player resides within the man. You don't get access to the player. So if you need to tighten up a breaking ball, you need to get a guy to hit and hit stop hitting so many ground balls. You better understand how that person works and how that player ticks before you get access to the player. So the player resides within the man.

Jeff Perro (12:41)
I agree.

Bobby Scales (12:57)
It's not the other way around. So ⁓ big believer in that. like coaches, staffing the department, budget management, just all sorts of things at the end of the day, if it's got minor leagues on it stops in your office.

Jeff Perro (13:09)
Developing coaches as well, right?

Bobby Scales (13:11)
That's right. mean, the coaches, coaches wanted to climb the ladder too. Coaches want to coach in the big leagues as well. Coaches want to coach at the highest level they can get to as well. you know, that's, that's one of the things that later in my career that I really honed in, not, that the players weren't important, obviously the players are important, right? But, ⁓ you know, coaches trying to get them to the next dot was, is, is a big deal for me too. And I'm proud of some of the things that we did both when I was in Los Angeles and when I was with Pittsburgh, that we did to help some of those guys advance their careers.

Jeff Perro (13:39)
Following three years as Director of Player Development [w/ LAA], you were a Special Assistant to GM. What was that about?

Bobby Scales (13:44)
so

Jerry resigned in July of 15. Obviously now he's in, he's president of baseball operations in Seattle, but he resigned that year. They parted ways. I don't know exactly what the whole language was, but they parted ways that then. then Billy Eppler came in as the new GM and he felt like he needed to make a change. Also too, I had a lot of knowledge about the system. He wanted to elevate me and help me.

in my career and then obviously still helped the team. So he made me special assistant to him and I did a variety of things. did some scouting. I did some international scouting. ⁓ We had questions about some of the players still in the system and I would get phone calls about that too. So I wore a number of hats that year. ⁓ Billy was great. I think I wish that I could have.

Jeff Perro (14:31)
That sounds like

it would help broaden your baseball knowledge and front office experience with that because you're touching everything.

Bobby Scales (14:34)
100%. It was key. was,

was, yeah, I was touching all kinds of stuff, right? That I didn't have, you know, didn't have experience in before. So he was great because one, he helped me broaden my horizons as a professional, but also two, you know, it was just a different perspective. It was another group to learn under. So that was fine. And then 17, truthfully, was burnt. was, I was kind of, I don't know.

If mad at the game was the correct term, I wasn't bitter, but I was just like, man, it's kind of over it. ⁓ And honestly, too, you've heard me refer to ⁓ then wife, now ex-wife in that context. And that was that was starting to, become apparent that there was strain there. So 17, I got out and I actually I sold insurance. I made the joke before I sold insurance. I was not good at it. It wasn't something I like to do, but.

Jeff Perro (15:29)
That's what your dad did,

Bobby Scales (15:29)
It was something

and my dad did it. just, at the end of the day, what that taught me, if you don't have passion for something, ⁓ that's not it. You got to do stuff you love and the windfall be what it may. Some jobs pay more than others, but if you're not into it, you're not going to be what you should be. Right. So

Jeff Perro (15:34)
It's not genetic.

Bobby Scales (15:50)
I've tried to repair my relationship with my son's mom and my ex-wife. Part of that was being home more because those jobs are demanding. You're gone a lot. That's part of it. It's part of the gig. But anyway, so then 18, mid-17, was actually my ex-wife's older brother, my brother-in-law, my ex-brother-in-law. And he was like, dude, what are you doing? He goes, you're a sports guy, you're baseball guy. Go do what you do.

⁓ And, he was, he was right. Well, you know, it, it wasn't, and I don't mean to jump on your words. wasn't necessarily permission, but it was like validation of all that stuff that I was, I was like, this stinks, man. I don't want to do this. You're not going to have this, this knowledge base and this passion to do something else. And so went and did it, hooked on with the, the, the Pittsburgh Pirates, ⁓ that, was a Neil Huntington, Clint Hurdle.

Jeff Perro (16:19)
And you're like, yes, definitely. Thank you. Thank you for giving me permission to do that because I needed somebody to tell me.

Right.

Bobby Scales (16:46)
⁓ Kyle Stark, Larry Broadway was a farm director, director of player development. Kyle Stark was assistant GM over that area. And Neil Huntington was the, was the general manager. And then Clint Hurdle was on the field as the field manager then at that point. ⁓ and then one of my true, true, through mentors of all time in this game, a guy named Stevie Williams, Stevie's a vice president for,

in Pittsburgh now, but he works, obviously Ben Cherrington is the GM there now. But Stevie is one of the wisest, most patient people I've ever been around in my life. ⁓ They call him preacher because he doesn't say a ton, but when he says something you associate his voice with a preacher. That's really why he has that nickname, but he has.

He always, he doesn't miss. He always has such sage advice. The guy just doesn't miss. you talk about people on your board of directors, man, and he's, he's on mine. Tony Franklin's on mine. Waller's on my, these are people that have really, really influenced not just my career, but, who I am.

Jeff Perro (17:46)
Definitely a fun activity, the board of directors.

I'm gonna sit down and name my board of directors one day. That's an interesting activity.

Bobby Scales (17:50)
No, and that's a big thing. So I do a

lot of I do a lot of leadership discussions and a lot of like mentoring talks. Right. And that's part of part of what I got going right now. But I believe you ought to have a board of directors who's on it. And and and it's not like you have 15 people on board. It's people from all walks of life, all different phases of your life, people that can learn, they can have the ability to give you sound advice no matter what you bring to them. If it's something inside their deep knowledge base. ⁓

or something that they can help push you to a more intelligent decision. You need that group. And so I'm a big believer in having solid people on your board, different people from different areas of your life, and people who came into your life at different times.

Jeff Perro (18:36)
That matters, different people

from different areas of your life, people who have known you at different phases of your life.

Bobby Scales (18:42)
Sure,

it's huge, huge, because then you have that good matrix of solid people who are, and at the end of the day, they want nothing from you but to see you be the best version of you. And that for me is the key.

Jeff Perro (18:54)
So you told us what a director of player development is. What is a minor league field coordinator? What does that entail?

Bobby Scales (19:01)
So it's funny, because those two positions are kind of tied together. So the way I explain the minor league field coordinator role is that you are the project foreman on any job site. So you had somebody upstairs, the architects and engineers, map out the plans. You've got the blueprints of the building. OK, we need an arch here. We need this to be a weight-bearing wall. We need a footing port here. You need this, this, and this, right? OK.

project manager foreman go do it, go make sure that it happens and it happens the way we need it to happen. So the field coordinator typically ⁓ is responsible for all the coordination of all the instruction in the minor leagues, right? You're also, you you do the schedules and the planning for the majority of the ⁓ on-field camps where there'd be spring training, where there'd be instruction league, where there'd be draft camp, you're responsible for all that stuff.

How's it gonna go? How's it gonna flow? What do we need to hit this day? What do we need to hit that day? If we've to change the schedule when we're trying to drive down the street and play whoever, that's who we need to, we need to coordinate that with ⁓ the powers that be. So you're in Bradenton right now, if we need to drive down the street and play the Orioles for something, down there in Sarasota, then hey, I'll get on the phone to their, ⁓ their, their, coordinator and say, hey, we need to do this. Or we got rain coming, can we move the game up?

You know, it's any number of things, but really the biggest piece for me is you have a lot of hands on instruction with the minor league managers and the minor league coordinators of their specific areas. And you make sure that everybody is still on the same page. You know, Hey, this is what we talked about in spring training in terms of teaching this. And this is what we talked about in terms of spring training in terms of teaching that. You also like the capacity that I had, you had a lot of discussion with the major league staff. You know, a lot of times.

I was, you know, Tom, me and Tom Prince were on the phone twice, two or three times a week. Hey, Scalesy, what's going on down there? You know, if we need somebody in this area who you're thinking, who's doing what, how our coaches progressing, you know, this is how Clint's doing it here. You know, obviously we need done this way in AA and AAA because those guys might impact our roster too. So that's a lot of communication. ⁓ A lot of, a lot of touches both up and down in that role.

Jeff Perro (21:17)
since 2023 you've been a radio broadcaster with the Detroit Tigers, what made you decide to go into broadcasting and get away from the front office on field role?

Bobby Scales (21:20)
Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I had gotten out, know, Ben Cherrington came over in 2019 and then obviously COVID happened. So that was kind of a wash of a year. And then in 21, they elected to, you he elected to move on from me. It happens though, you know, new regimes come in and they slowly clean house. And usually within two or three years, everybody that was over there is gone. And that's kind of what happened. So, and to be fair, it's tough because you're usually working on year to year contracts every now and then you'll get a two year deal, which is great.

Um, but I wanted something that was going to be. Permanent is clearly not the right word, but I needed something to where I could use my 20 plus years of baseball experience, but also not necessarily be in the mix every night at seven o'clock. Right. And just be in this knee deep and, and, reports and information. And, know, especially in the Meyer leagues, two or three screens running, I got double A over here. I got triple A here. I got an eye on the big league game. You know, like that was, that, that was growing.

difficult. so I ended up being, ⁓ the vice president of baseball for sports info solutions. Sports info solutions is a, a, is a data firm that collects and mines a lot of the deep dive analytical data that powers a lot of the models that these teams use to make decisions, in the industry. So I ran that the baseball, vertical of that for. To write it two years. And then at the end of.

A good friend of mine, John Morosi, I've known him for 20 plus years. He called and he said, listen, I ran into some people down at, now he lives in Michigan. He does some stuff for hockey when it's not the baseball season.

He ran into Ron Calangelo, who's the EVP of broadcasting and communications for the Ilitch Group, who owns both the Tigers and the Red Wings. He ran into those guys down at Little Caesars Arena where the Red Wings play, and they needed a guy who could take some of their road games ⁓ for the 23 season. you know, eventually he, we got in touch with him and he called me and he said, look, he goes, know, JP sent me your stuff. It's interesting.

And we talked for like, for a little while. And next thing you know, he had offered me all 81 road games in 2023. And so I couldn't do it. My mom. Yeah. Well, yeah, my mother was ill. She had dementia. She passed on in May of 23, 23. So I was hoping my father would take care of her. So I couldn't, I couldn't do the entire road schedule. And not to mention I had recently been divorced and I, at the time my son was, you know, still trying to make sure he's

Jeff Perro (23:47)
That's a lot. Yeah, that's a lot.

Bobby Scales (24:07)
okay with the transition and you know, mom and dad aren't together anymore and everything and so I needed to be around. ⁓ So, at the same time, I didn't want to walk past this opportunity. So we settled on 40 games. ⁓ I was contracted for 40. It ended up being 65. And then, you know, we were off and running.

Jeff Perro (24:27)
Is that where you've been about 40, 65 games last couple seasons too?

Bobby Scales (24:31)
No,

I was supposed to do 65 last year, 24, and that turned into 88. And so now I'm going to be right at 100 this year. So.

Jeff Perro (24:42)
You're at home right now. saw you in Cleveland yesterday, but you're at home right now?

Bobby Scales (24:44)
Yeah,

yeah, I'm at home right now. were in finishing winning two out of three in St. Louis yesterday. The boys are big, big division series as we're taping this now big division series against Cleveland at Comerica starting tonight. I've got these four off and I will be back on the mic with Dan Dickerson, the legend on Monday.

Jeff Perro (25:06)
You enjoy that? You enjoy it? How would that first season go? Did you just hop behind the microphone and talk baseball?

Bobby Scales (25:09)
Love it.

⁓ no training. ⁓ honestly, no training. remember, ⁓ I, they flew. No, no, they flew me down. They flew me down to spring training. did two spring training games. ⁓ and then I had opening day in Tampa. So that was it. I had 18 innings of a spring training game. And then I was on, I was hot for opening day in Tampa. but you know, I, I've got a lot of friends, Kevin Young, who was also working in the minor leagues and hitting.

Jeff Perro (25:20)
No broadcast degree. ⁓

Bobby Scales (25:45)
instructor for us with the Pirates. Matt Capps actually lives probably 10 minutes from here. He's been on the mic for ⁓ Pittsburgh for like five, six, seven, yeah, seven seasons now, I think something like that. Nick Green, who does a lot of work with the Braves, good friends with Nick Green. We played at the same time. We trained together in the off season.

Jeff Perro (25:57)
I'll this for a while.

Bobby Scales (26:08)
⁓ So there was a number of people that I reached out to say, Hey, what does this thing look like? How does this? I don't know anything about this side of it. How does it work? This, that, and the other. And they said, man, you'll figure it out. Just go for it. And then really and truly, I'm a color analyst, right? ⁓ your play by play man does a lot of the heavy lifting, but again, the chemistry has to be good. And I remember reaching out to Dan when they offered me and I spoke to him and he was great and very welcoming.

And so it was kind of, you know, that 40 games was a trial, obviously. If it didn't work out, didn't work out, but it's been good. And yeah, sure. You ask questions. I know, you know, as you go around the league, you see guys, you know, that you played with or with or played against and they give you pointers and tips to Steve Sparks has been great. See Sparks and Robert Ford down in Houston have been unbelievable. Just just a little tricks here, a little tricks there. You know, just little things you can watch for and look for and what your job is as the color analyst. So.

It's been great. My responsibility has grown a little bit. done a little bit, a few other things outside of just call the game. I'm getting a taste of TV now too with the tiger. it's good. Listen, it's been great. It's been fun. We've got a hundred percent. I want to do this. It doesn't mean I don't have passion for other things, but this right here is something that...

Jeff Perro (27:19)
Is this something you see yourself 10 years from now still doing this? Good, good. I'm glad to hear you found something you love.

Good.

Bobby Scales (27:33)
It's really fun. First of all, you're calling baseball, you're in a big league environment. You've been in that mix before as a player. And my job is really to bring insights to people, to the casual fan who just either wouldn't think about it this way or just has no exposure to see it that way. And that's my job is to do that and to do it ⁓ in a fashion that is digestible ⁓ to the public. So ⁓ yeah, it's been great.

Jeff Perro (28:00)
And that's kind what you're doing here too now. We appreciate it.

Bobby Scales (28:02)
Yeah, well, it's fun. Again, I enjoy telling my story and hopefully someone can either get better from it.

Jeff Perro (28:10)
I ran across the Scales sports group. What's that? What's the guy going on there?

Bobby Scales (28:15)
Yeah, it's a consulting arm. mean, I've been, because of my experiences, we kind of walked through some of them, we skipped over a few of them. And that's not intentional. It's just that I've been fortunate to be part of a lot of different things in the world of sport, whether it be revenue generation, whether it be broadcasting now, whether it be coaching, whether it be athlete development, whether it be ⁓ human or leadership development. I've been fortunate to do

a number of those things. so because of that, I've got knowledge, I've got knowledge to share. so people have brought me in to kind of help them in certain situations. Some companies have brought me in to speak, some companies have brought me in to assess what they're doing and consult. And so we spun that up and that's kind of, that's kind of what that's about.

Jeff Perro (28:52)
consult.

Well, Mr. Bobby Scaleless, I definitely appreciate your time. And I'm gonna hit the stop button here. Anytime you ever want to reach out to me and share something else, you want to share a story, I can talk to you for another hour and 24 minutes and I would not be sad about it.

Bobby Scales (29:03)
No, my pleasure. It's been, it's been fun.

Well, I appreciate that.