Rowe admits to flaws in decision process
A day after the College of William & Mary reversed the decision it made in September to cut three women’s athletic teams, university President Katherine Rowe acknowledged flaws in the decision-making process that also resulted in the elimination of four men’s sports still on the athletic department ’s chopping block.
“In this case, we should have fully addressed ( gender) e quit y matters first, based on our core commitments and our legal obligations, and then worked to address the significant (budget) shortfalls in years ahead,” Rowe said Tuesday during her monthly Community Conversation at W&M. “That’s t he sequence we’re
Monday, a day before the Dodgers and Rays faced each other in the World Series opener. “It’s definitely surreal. Some of my best friends in life are there. And we joked when I left the team that we were going to meet up in the World Series one day. And for it actually to happen is surreal.”
Erik Neander, promoted to Tampa Bay’s vice president of baseball operations when Friedman left, joined the Rays as an intern in January 2007 and learned from his boss. The Rays succeeded despite resources limited by an attendance perennially among the major leagues’ lowest.
They won their first pennant in 2008 with a $51million payroll that was 28th in a season the Yankees topped spending at $222.5 million, according to Major League Baseball’s figures, and wonthe ALChampionship Series over Boston, second at $147 million.
Tampa Bay is 28th again in this pandemicshortened season at $29 million, yet upset the Yankees ($83 million) and Houston ($81 million), earning a berth for the title against the top-spending Dodgers ($95.6 million).
His boyish face now slightly obscured by a short beard of gray and white, Friedman roots for the Rays from afar, watching a large amount of their games because of the time difference from California. But he does not feel split loyalties along the lines of Truffaldino Battochio, the title character of Carlo Goldoni’s “The Servant of Two Masters.”
“Payrolls don’t decide the standings, and I think we see evidence of that every year,” Friedman said. “Having a really deep and talented roster regardless of what your payroll is is the key to winning games, and that’s whatthey have. Andit’s been through a lot of very shrewd moves, some through the draft, some through trades and all kinds of different creative ways of player procurement.”
An outfielder who attended Tulane on a baseball scholarship, Friedman graduated with a bachelor’s degree in management with a concentration in finance and went to work with Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. for two years, followed by three years with MidMark Capital.
Friedman was hired by the Tampa Bay in 2004 at the behest of Stuart Sternberg, a
retired Goldman Sachs managing director who bought the Rays, As Sternberg assumed operating control of the team in October 2005, he expanded Friedman’s role to general manager in practice, if not title, following the firing of Chuck LeMar.
Friedman valued versatile players with plate discipline and defensive abilities, and pitchers with flexibility to fill various roles. Culture established atop the team by Sternberg and in the baseball operations department by Friedman lives on with Neander and his staff.
“I hope we’re not too much of a surprise, but we’ve had some success here and feel like we’re where we should be,” Neander said. “We spend a lot of time trying to make sure we talk about activating our work force, making sure that the people that we have working here develop enough comfort and a feeling of security that they’ll speak up, that they’ll share their thoughts, that they’ll be willing to put themselves out there without fear of the consequences of being wrong or being off the mark. And I think from a cultural standpoint, giving them a place especially in sports where it’s so cutthroat, there’s so much turnover, that only lends itself to people not speaking up and sometimes they feel the best way to advance is they say nothing.”
Friedman’s staff with Tampa Bay included Chaim Bloom, who left in October last year to become Boston’s chief baseball officer, and James Click, hired in January as Houston’s general manager.
Friedman remains tied to the people he left behind.
“I think just kind of growing up in the game with the people that I did working with the Rays, we all started together and went to each other’s weddings and were there when our kids were born,” he said. “It was a just amazing chapter of my life. And the success that we were able to have, especially in the division that we played in, was incredibly rewarding. And I’ll always think back on those times with the fondest memories.”
For all the use of analytics, Friedman concluded people management is the key. He learned that from Sternberg.
“At the core of what we do know, we’re involved with trying to provide the best environment and culture for people to thrive,” Friedman said. “And I don’t think that’s different in any business.”