NL WILD CARD SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS BREWERS

October 3, 2023

Mark Attanasio

Rick Schlesinger

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Pregame Press Conference

MARK ATTANASIO: Thanks, Tyler. Thanks, everyone, for being here. Opening day I usually say is my favorite time of the year, but I think opening of a playoffs is better.

Actually, my dad used to sing opening day and opening of the playoffs and brought us some good fortune, so I'm thinking of him today, Debbie and I and our family.

There's nothing better than this. Mike Vassallo counts 1,033 games that we've played the last seven years and only two games out of 1,033 in the regular season were not meaningful. That's extraordinary.

With that, I think a testament to the entire organization here starting with the players and the field staff and the 58 players that played for us this year. Craig and his coaching team tireless.

On the baseball side, Matt Arnold and his team, there's about 250 people. Rick Schlesinger, who is our team business president here, 2010 or something like that.

RICK SCHLESINGER: A little less than -- but who is counting.

MARK ATTANASIO: The business sidestep children. We have something in the order of 1600 folks that come in everyday and make everything go here. So it's a true team effort, and I want to thank everybody for getting us here. With that, I guess we'll open it up to questions, comments.

Q. This may be more for Rick, but for both. You know, you've spent a lot of the last year talking about the future of this ballpark. Do you think it impacts that effort to play postseason games this week?

RICK SCHLESINGER: Yeah, obviously playing postseason games helps a lot. It's great for the fans, great for the brand. Doesn't hurt on the revenue side.

But it just I think sort of symbolizes the relevance and the importance of the ballpark and the team to the community. The fact that we're -- despite hurdles that are beyond our control, we're now a perennial postseason contender. Fans like that, and frankly expect it.

We mean a lot to the community, and we generate a lot of excitement and a lot of revenue for the state, and I think that's relevant in terms of the debate that we're having.

I hear a lot in Madison about how important everybody thinks of the team and the ballpark. So again, this in a small way symbolizes that. It helps to be in the postseason for a whole bunch of reasons.

MARK ATTANASIO: Debate or conversation? I would say it's more of a dialogue. We've actually had really good receptivity, bipartisan receptivity, and I think that's because this is a model private/public partnership for 20 years.

We could point to any number of examples in cities where it doesn't work. We don't need to do that other than to point to all the successes here.

I'm very excited that we can keep baseball in Milwaukee until 2050 if this all works out.

Q. Mark, you mentioned Mike's research on just how few games you've played when there hasn't been something at stake.

MARK ATTANASIO: Yeah, two. 2017 and one last year.

Q. It's a remarkable record no matter what market the team is in, but of course, in a smaller market, it's hard to do that in baseball. There's been a lot of changes in players over the years, as there is for every team in year-to-year attrition, different front office structures. What do you attribute the consistency of the culture of winning that has been created here?

MARK ATTANASIO: Well, we made a pledge among the four pledges we made in 2005 when our ownership group took over to have a team that was perennially -- I can't even pronounce it, but perennially competitive, being competitive all the time.

The others were a good fan experience or best fan experience, great place to work, and leader in the community. If I knew how hard it was to do that first one, I'm not sure, we may have led from a different place. In fact, there was someone from ESPN sitting right in your side, as a matter of fact, who in this room was more full then because I was sort of is a curiosity, and he looked at me and said, you won't be so cheery when you have lost for 12 or 20 seasons because at that point we hadn't been in the playoffs for over 20 years.

I told him afterward because I wouldn't say it publicly, well, that is not the plan. It was not the plan, and so one of the things we look to is stability. Rick back then was one of the co-heads of business, and I must have gotten 1,000 résumés for business head. He is still here.

Doug Melvin was our GM at that time. He retired after the 2015 season, and he still is actually under consulting contract with us.

David Stearns recently left for another position, which was widely covered yesterday, and Matt Arnold worked closely with him since the 2016 season, and that 250 people in baseball ops, we really have had no turnover. So in an industry which has a lot of employee turnover, we just haven't had any.

I looked at -- my day job, as I call it, is as an investor, and we've looked at stable management teams, and we've looked for stability here. Obviously, stability with players too. That's out of our control somewhat. They also have limited careers, so they need to do what they need to do for their earning, but I think that's been a mission for all of us to be a great place to work for players and our employees and colleagues and to have success.

Q. Actually, I am from ESPN, but I wasn't the one that said that to you.

MARK ATTANASIO: Uh-oh. I did want to -- is that the ESPN seat? They have a good spot kind of off to the side.

Q. I did want to ask you about one constant through this period of success, and that's been Craig Counsell. What has he meant and what he has done to sort of translate everything from what happens in the front office to what happens on the field?

MARK ATTANASIO: So Craig, my recollection was he had played for us in 2007, which was the case, so he started in our third -- ours as an ownership group, the third season. It's not the royal our.

I've known him since 2007. He was a leader then. In 2011, I've given other interviews on this, and we had a lot of star players on that team that came within two games of the World Series, but the two guys around the clubhouse were Craig Counsell and Mark Kotsay, both ended up as Major League managers. That's not a surprise.

When Craig retired, he want to work in the front office because he thought he wanted to understand that skill set. He thought he might want to be a general manager someday, which is, certainly within his skill set. A lot of folks have asked me, what's going to happen with Craig? Is he going to go work for another team? Is he going to come back? Is he going to go watch his two kids play college baseball? He could be a general manager.

So he has -- he is thoughtful. He is loyal. He is flat-out a winner and has been a rich part of our history, baseball history. He has two World Series rings. We were in Miami for their season end there, their last games. We were hoping to clinch a division title there. We clinched a playoff spot.

We went to where all the suites are. You come through a big access hall, and the first suite you see on the right, it says Counsell. It's a picture of him in the Marlins uniform kind of like this. He really has had an impact everywhere he has been. He certainly has had a big impact here.

Q. Mark, on that note with Counsell, you guys have made it very clear what your position is and your desire is to have him come back. You mentioned there one of the speculations is will he go to another team? Is that something you guys are concerned at all about is some other team trying to poach him away?

MARK ATTANASIO: Craig and I spoke right around Labor Day, and we decided we had a chance to do something special this year, and we were going to just focus on that and pick up the conversation once the season was over. I think that conversation will be open-ended, and we'll see how he wants to handle it. I think he has earned that right.

Clearly we want him back, and we'll see what he wants to do.

Q. I just wanted to ask you a question regarding your position with the Athletics relocation, just what progress has been made in processing that application and do you anticipate the committee making a recommendation in favor of -- as far as Las Vegas as a market, trying to determine the territory with TV and stuff?

MARK ATTANASIO: I couldn't hear the end or the middle to the end of the question.

Q. Do you anticipate the committee making a recommendation favoring a move, and also I was just wondering the complications with Las Vegas as far as determining the territory for TV rights and things like that?

MARK ATTANASIO: The committee, we are literally in the middle of our process, which therefore, I can't comment. Even if I were to comment, we're still doing our work.

In fact, we had a meeting a couple of days ago. We have another meeting scheduled this week, so we're addressing it in a broad context and there's a lot to address.

Q. Rick, my question is for you about -- I remember the last time we spoke to you during Been Sheets weekend, it was before the announcement. You were saying we're in the sixth inning of the stadium funding, and then the announcement comes. Are we in a new inning now of the response with the congressional district and everything?

MARK ATTANASIO: I bet you are glad you said it that way.

Q. The real question is with the city and the county responding to the plan in the way that they did, where do you see the next steps? Obviously it hasn't gone to be signed yet or anything like that?

RICK SCHLESINGER: Yeah, obviously this week we're going to be attending the hearing. The assembly is having a hearing here in Milwaukee. A lot of stakeholders will be talking. I'll be there talking about the ballpark and the legislation. We've had really good dialogue with the Democrats. We've had really good dialogue with Republicans.

They're going to work at their own pace. As much as I would like to accelerate things, I think I've realized in this process that you can't rush politics. The word consensus is usually not a word used in Madison these days, but I'm hearing really good talks and discussions from people. They want to objectively make this work.

What we're talking about now is the details, but the objective to keep us here long-term and have this ballpark funded and have our landlord, the stadium district, have enough funds to meet its obligations, those are lone stars that everybody seems to be agreeing on.

I don't know what inning we're in. I would love it to be in the later innings, but the reality is there's a cadence and process, and we're respectful of that.

MARK ATTANASIO: No pitching changes, though, right?

RICK SCHLESINGER: No pitching changes.

MARK ATTANASIO: We're leaving him out there.

RICK SCHLESINGER: I'm going to complete the game and see what happens.

Q. Mark, speaking of pitching changes sort of, you mentioned wanting to keep the continuity with Craig, and I know you want to keep the continuity with players and competing year-to-year as well. How do you view that with some of your key players sort of approaching the end of the controllable window? Do you feel like this is sort of a chance for them to do what they've been trying to do for the last six years and maybe the last chance to do it together?

MARK ATTANASIO: Yeah. I think the players talk about that having been to the playoffs together, you know, five times out of six years and knowing that next year could be the last year. It's something that I think helps provide motivation.

We've had -- Matt Arnold could address better than I could, but we've had a focus of trying to not only have that group of players fully succeed, but have the next group behind them that can continue us staying competitive and not have a rebuild period.

Look, I think it's a motivator. You know, we're all enjoying the ride.

Q. Mark, there's a story in a certain newspaper written by a different reporter just that mentioned that Brewers officials would contemplate a move to a different city if the stadium funding didn't work out. I wanted to give you a chance to comment on that since I don't think you have since that report was published.

MARK ATTANASIO: I've never considered going anywhere else. Sure, we get in treaties. We've had in treaties probably for a decade from cities that didn't know the nature of our lease. Right now our lease runs until 2030, and I think we're -- whatever inning it is, it's toward the late innings of making sure we'll be here until 2050, and that's our sole focus.

Q. Mark, we got the news about Brandon Woodruff yesterday, obviously a tough blow for him, for the team. Just what's your reaction, and do you feel like you guys are still well-positioned without him?

MARK ATTANASIO: Well, we were -- the reaction at first was a little stunned. He is a key -- not only a key member of the pitching staff, he is a key member of the team.

You talk about the players who were here for this playoff run. I think we got Yeli, Woody, Corbin Burnes, Adrian Houser. Who else? I'm going to miss one now. You know that's going to happen. I think there were five players. Oh, Freddy Peralta. Freddy is so young, you forget.

I think when he is up here yesterday, he talked about how hard it is not to be part of the clubhouse. Well, he is a key part of the clubhouse pitching or not. He's a leader of the young pitchers lean on. He is a leader that everyone leans on.

We'll just see what -- lots of doctors have different -- it's hard to find doctors that have the same opinion, so he is getting a few opinions here. We'll see what happens.

Q. Mark, you talked about when you promoted Matt after David stepped down, you wanted that continuity. You mentioned you never really know exactly how somebody is going to fair until they get that job. Just how would you assess what he has done his first year on the job, the acquisitions he made both before the season and at the deadline?

MARK ATTANASIO: So I remember on the coaching side, Bill Parcells said you are what your record says you are. Matt's first year, we've got 92 wins and a division title. That's pretty terrific.

I think, importantly, he has been able to put his own stamp on things. I talked to him a lot about as we were transitioning -- and, by the way, his contract anticipated this. One of the things I've done in building the organization is making sure we have stability and succession. "Succession" isn't just a TV show on Fox or whatever it's on.

So I told him he needed to -- he needed to approach things his way, not the way David would or the way he thought I would want. I think the three-way trade he did to get William Contreras and Joel Payamps, and a third pitcher in the Minor Leagues is reflective of that. Matt did a lot of things. We've had 58 guys run through the roster.

The additions he made at midseason with Santana and Canha and Josh Donaldson right before I guess the snapshot ended August 31st, plus all the others. If you look at the guys who contribute -- we had a guy contribute the other night who pitched in his first Major League game and got a win in front of 400 friends and family and coaches and everything else.

All those guys -- he was our pitcher of the year in the Minor Leagues last year, I think, in triple-A. So there's a lot that goes into this. Not only a credit to Matt but his whole team because he has a lot of people working on parallel paths all the time.

We guessed 20 minutes, and we're right on time, so thank you, everybody. And go Brewers!