Sometimes You Just Gotta Let It Out
So, one of the skills of a good PR person is the ability to properly tailor a message. Of course, with this exercise comes good and bad. In getting out a message that is clear, concise and to the point, sometimes company representatives are forced to hem and haw, obfuscate and muddy the waters. Fortunately, thanks to the types of companies we work with and the culture we try to promote both internally and externally, we at LaunchSquad don’t have to worry about that.
General managers of Major League Baseball teams, however, do. Half of their job is shading the truth, circling around facts and telling half-truths to the media – generally out of self-preservation, but it’s lying nonetheless. General managers – and athletes, managers, coaches, really anyone involved in sports - rarely get a chance to open up, until, lo, that loathsome day when they are freed from the shackles of responsibility. They get fired. That was the case recently with Seattle Mariners GM Bill Bavasi, he of much charisma, but unfortunately for him, little means to run a baseball team.
As some of you know, but probably none of you care about, the Mariners are abysmal this year – a total train wreck of a baseball team and organization. With the need to withhold now gone, Bavasi gave one of the best baseball interviews I’ve ever seen. Well, minus a tirade or two.
Some gems from that one (and credit for the video goes to Geoff Baker, the excellent baseball reporter from The Seattle Times):
That’s good stuff – things you’d never hear from an employed GM.
It’s refreshing to hear a baseball person get to talk without the proverbial axe hanging over his or her head. Sure players are generally free to say what they want – a multi-million salary ensures that – but to be honest, there’s not too much you’d want to hear from them. A general manager talking candidly about the team he’s just been fired from. I’ll take two tickets please.
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Emilie
Posted on June 24th, 2008 at 9:22 am.
Agreed. Hopefully the Mariners heed their outgoing GM’s candid remarks, lest a few seasons later we’ll just be seeing another post-firing press conference from the next poor guy.