Joe Douglas (Transcript)

Robby Incmikoski: All right, we are recording. Joe Douglas, interview number 93 for Sacred Grounds. Joe, tell me about your Baltimore Orioles fandom. How did you become a fan? When and how did you come to love that team?

Joe Douglas: Growing up in Virginia, I had connections to three different teams. One through my father - growing up in rural Virginia, the only radio station he could listen to as a kid broadcast Yankees games. He was in that era, and he was such a huge Mickey Mantle fan, so that was my father's team.

When I was a kid, the Yankees weren't really good. It was after the Reggie Jackson era, and I just couldn't get into the Yankees. I picked my one player that I loved from the Yankees - Don Mattingly. So I loved him.

But really, when I was a kid, the Richmond Braves Triple-A team was in Richmond, and I loved Dale Murphy. And the team that was really good when I was a kid was the Orioles. I was drawn to specific players, and Cal Junior was my baseball hero. My three favorite players as a kid were Mattingly, Ripken, and Dale Murphy.

I was always drawn to Cal Ripken because, growing up, my dad would always say, "The best ability that you could ever have is your reliability." The career that Cal had, the Iron Man that he was, always showing up night in and night out - I was just drawn to the Orioles as a kid when they were winning all those games in the '80s and going to World Series.

I was in college when Cal broke Lou Gehrig's record. And then after college, getting a job with the Ravens right out of college in 2000 and being in Baltimore for the next 15 years - that just amplified the love that I already had as a kid.

Just sticking with them through thick and thin - now they've got a pretty good, young, talented team, but they went through some rough patches. I always loved the Orioles, and a lot of it was due to Cal Ripken and the work ethic and reliability that he brought day in, day out.

Robby Incmikoski: No doubt. Now, Joe, let me ask you about this. Do you remember the first time you stepped into Camden Yards? What was your reaction, and how much appreciation do you have for a ballpark that has stood the test of time yet is still widely regarded as one of the most beautiful in all of baseball?

Joe Douglas: I remember as a kid watching the games on television from Memorial Stadium. I never set foot in Memorial Stadium, but I definitely vividly remember watching the playoff games on TV in the late '90s around when Camden Yards initially opened up. Just on television, you could see that this was a special place.

When you walk in through the gates for the first time and see the statues of the great Orioles players, walking down the alley by the warehouse where right field is - Eutaw Street - it's just like a cathedral to baseball. It's just so cool how they incorporated that into the stadium. There's such an awesome aura.

When you're sitting behind home plate, or when you're sitting behind first or third base, and you look out, you see the city skyline and the old clock out there. It's like going back in time a little bit to some of the videos and film you see of old-time baseball. You feel like you're in old-time baseball again.

Robby Incmikoski: I'm glad you said that, because I have a lady doing a foreword for the book. Her name is Janet Marie Smith. She's from Baltimore, lives there, and she's the architect who pretty much designed Camden Yards. What appreciation do you have for somebody that doesn't get any attention, Joe? I'm putting you on the spot here a little bit, but what appreciation do you have for someone who had that kind of foresight to keep the warehouse intact, Eutaw Street, everything you just described? She made that possible.

Joe Douglas: She helped create a legendary sports venue. I've been to a lot of different parks - I haven't been to all of them - but there's just a different feeling when you walk into Fenway, and that's a park that's actually been around forever. To kind of recreate that feeling in a new park - it's just legendary what she was able to do.

When I first moved to Baltimore, I literally lived right across the street from the stadium. I would go to Pickles Pub almost every night for dinner when I first started working with the Ravens. My buddies and I ran a place right behind the gas station there, across the street from Pickles.

Robby Incmikoski: I lived there for two years from 2000-2001.

Joe Douglas: That was actually the same neighborhood where Babe Ruth was born and grew up. You go to the Babe Ruth Museum, and to have that park right across the street from the neighborhood where Babe Ruth was born and raised - it's like getting in a time machine and going back to the '20s to watch a baseball game. It's just an unbelievable place.

Robby Incmikoski: There's no doubt about it. Now let me ask you this, Joe. What was that experience like - a young, blossoming football executive living across from a baseball stadium, and you're a baseball fan? You grew up a baseball fan too. How cool was that for you to have Camden Yards right outside your place?

Joe Douglas: It was awesome. Because obviously growing up and seeing all those games as a kid on television, living across from that park, any chance my friends and I could, we were across the street trying to get cheap tickets to see as many games as we could. Hit Pickles for appetizers and a beer, and head across the street to try to get in to watch as many games as possible.

Schedule permitting - there were a lot of late nights working in Baltimore, and a lot of times I couldn't get out there. But if I got off and there was a home game, me and my roommates were going to try to go. That was an awesome two years. I actually lived in downtown Baltimore for nine years, just not as close to the stadium. So every chance we got, we were getting over to Camden Yards.

Robby Incmikoski: It's the most special place, really. So few ballparks have stood the test of time like this one has, and it's such a cool experience every time I get a chance to go there.

Now, let me ask you this: your son, Tommy - you would make trips from North Jersey/New York area to bring your kid to an Orioles game. How important is it for you to pass on your baseball fandom to your son?

Joe Douglas: It's a little bit like my dad did with me. I didn't really pressure Tommy into choosing the Orioles or the Braves or any other team. It just kind of happened naturally.

When he was a kid, Buck, those guys in the ALCS - that's my son's first memory, kind of like when I was his age, it was when Cal and Eddie Murray were taking those teams to the World Series. It was right around the time Buck and guys like Chris Davis were playing. I forgot the center fielder's name that was so good...

Robby Incmikoski: Adam Jones. Man, he was awesome.

Joe Douglas: My son loved those players - that whole group. JJ Hardy at shortstop - it's crazy, because growing up, my son was all boy. He just never stopped moving, he was always running. I called him the Golden Retriever because he had blond hair, and he would just never stop running. The only time he would stop and sit down and not run was when Orioles games would come on as a kid. He was always enamored with Orioles baseball, and it's something that he's kept because of his childhood.

We always made a point to at least once a year get down for a game or two. We've been able to keep that streak going, living up in Jersey.

Robby Incmikoski: Now Joe, I have a story in the Yankees chapter about Eril Epstein, who's a friend of mine, and how her grandfather took her to 20 consecutive Opening Days, and that's how she found her love for the New York Yankees. How special is the bond between you and Tommy given that baseball plays a big part of that? How much does baseball, in your opinion, bring families together?

Joe Douglas: I think it brings families together in a huge way, especially if you have certain traditions. Ours is trying to get at least me and him to a game every summer. Twenty straight Opening Days - that's a special thing. You build these traditions.

It's a game of such wonderful traditions within the game, and then within the fan base and families of the fan base. All sports bring people together in a unique way, but baseball, from the history of it - my son played baseball forever, and it was really his first love. Baseball and football were just really everything he knew in terms of sports. It just always brought us together.

When he had a chance to go see the Baseball Hall of Fame, we've got pictures of us together at each team's little locker in the Baseball Hall of Fame. I'm taking pictures next to plaques of my favorite players. He's asking questions about certain players that he might not have known about. You're just passing down special memories from one generation to the next.

Robby Incmikoski: We hear a ton of stories like that. So as a football executive, what appreciation do you have for the game of baseball, in terms of it being an everyday sport, as opposed to football that's one day a week for 17 weeks? These guys go for seven weeks in spring training, then 162 days in the regular season. How much do you admire what the players and executives do day in and day out?

Joe Douglas: Every professional sport is a year-round venture, but to have a season as long as baseball does, to have 162 games - Woody Hayes said it best: you win with people in any business or team. You win with people.

I gotta imagine, you're with a group of guys for 162 games, and then spring training on top of it. To build a locker room of a bunch of guys that can coexist and gel and build special chemistry to go out and win a championship - that's always the toughest thing for any person to put together.

If you're talking 17 weeks for the NFL, but to have to try to do that for 162 games - it makes you appreciate all the camaraderie that has to go into having a successful team. To mix the talent and the character and the personalities, and how do you get that all to gel together and flow in the right direction? It makes you really appreciate how the good teams build that culture. It's unbelievable.

Robby Incmikoski: And it's so different. Could you envision being the GM of a sport that plays every day? How do you not get caught up with the ups and downs? Because football has six days of drama and stories and everything building, and then you have a game, then it's six more days before you have another. Baseball - you have a walk-off homer, they celebrate for five minutes, and then it's shower and go home. How would you do with an everyday sport like that as a GM?

Joe Douglas: Those games in football - you're just tied up in a knot for three, four hours of the game. I can't imagine doing that 150 more times and not having a chance to take a deeper breath. We have six or seven days between games; they're rolling right into the next one. It's just got to be a constant flood of decisions and issues that you're dealing with. I have a ton of respect for the people that work in that field.

Robby Incmikoski: No doubt about it. Do you watch much baseball these days, Joe? When you have some idle time or you're on vacation with your family, do you ever sit down and just watch a game?

Joe Douglas: Oh yeah, we'll make a point of it. We've got our XFINITY package. We'll definitely get the Orioles package. If we're down at the beach during the summer, we've always got the Orioles games on. My son and wife and daughters are big fans of the Orioles too, so we'll usually have an Orioles game on down at the beach.

Robby Incmikoski: That's cool, man. Last thing - when you look at the game of baseball, if somebody says, "Joe, do you like baseball?" what do you say to them?

Joe Douglas: Of course, I like baseball. Yeah, I love baseball. Everyone has their own team, and everyone has their own story of why they root for that team. Like we talked about before, it's a great sport to have a child that plays in, to follow them, to build the teamwork, the camaraderie, to be a great teammate.

Just to hear everyone's different story about why they like the Rockies or what made them decide to follow the Mariners - everyone's got their own cool story of how they fell in love with their team and why they follow that team. It's always cool to hear their stories and what brought them to the game.

I think the love of baseball - it's still America's pastime. It's still one of the greatest sports ever.

Robby Incmikoski: Last final thing, I swear. If there was a fan that wants to go to Camden Yards but never has - you're a fan, you're not looking at it from an executive standpoint, you don't have a press credential, you're just a fan of baseball and a fan of the Orioles - what would you say to a fan that's never been to Camden Yards that is thinking about going there?

Joe Douglas: You have to go to Camden Yards, even if you don't like the Orioles. You just have to go check out the experience. Go to Pickles, grab a beverage before the game - it's probably going to be packed with people. Walk across the street. Check out the statues. Just do a lap around the stadium. Go down Eutaw Street, check out all the vendors.

I know a lot of restaurants have changed since I was living there, but you got to get yourself some Boog's barbecue. You just have to walk down Eutaw Street, do a lap around the stadium, take it all in. If you can catch batting practice beforehand, just walk out onto the right field wall and take a look at the stadium across the street from the warehouse. Just take it all in. The stadium really is a work of art.

Interviewer: All right, Joe, we're recording right now. This is like an addendum to the Cal Ripken discussion, because I could talk about Cal forever.

Joe Douglas: So I don't know if you remember, but Andy and I vividly remember the year before we won the Super Bowl against the 49ers. In 2012, we were in the AFC Championship Game and lost to the Patriots. We ended up beating them in New England the next year.

New England's captains for the game were all their former great players, I think McGinnis and Bruschi and all these great players. Well, the Ravens - all their great players were still playing outside of Jonathan Ogden. So I think Jonathan Ogden was our captain, and our other captain was Cal Ripken Jr. for the game. He was at the AFC Championship game.

If you remember, we should have won that game. Flacco threw to Lee Evans who should have won the game. The corner made a great play, popped the ball out, and then we missed the field goal to send the game to overtime. Just a crushing loss. The locker room was unlike anything I've ever seen. It was a surreal moment. People are crying. People are upset.

Ray Lewis gives one of the best speeches I've ever heard a player give after the game. He literally called his shot. We're going to be here again. He goes to Harbaugh, "We're going to be in this exact same position next year, and it's going to be different." I was just floored. It's just a surreal moment. And he called it. We went there the next year, and we won. We won the Super Bowl.

So after this loss, we get on a knee to say the Lord's Prayer. John leads the team in the Lord's Prayer. I'm just shell-shocked, like I can't believe we lost this game. I'm just on a knee, and I just grab the hand of the person next to me. So I just grabbed the person to my right hand, and halfway through the prayer, I'm like, "Dude, this guy's got freaking grizzly bear paws. This is a big hand." I open my eyes and look - I'm holding Cal Ripken's hand after losing the AFC Championship game.

I look over and I'm holding my baseball idol's hand in one of the most soul-crushing moments of my career. It totally brought me so much joy in that moment. It was such a wild, surreal five minutes post-game.

I would have Cal's plaque in my office, the replica Hall of Fame plaque. If a player ever asked me about it, I would always say the same thing. I'm like, "Cal Ripken is the model of consistency and reliability. He showed up every day for his teammates. It's who I wanted to be. It's who I want to be as a person."

I said, "I've been blessed to be part of three teams that have won a Super Bowl championship, but the thing I'm most proud of is that for 45 straight games in college, I started. I showed up. When the bell rings, I'm gonna be there for my teammates." I said I just wanted to emulate everything that Cal did. That's what I always said to anybody, whether it was a player or co-worker - show up. Just show up and be reliable. That's like my dad and Cal Ripken - that's just those two guys.

Interviewer: Wow, that's unbelievable, Joe.

Joe Douglas: Yeah, I didn't want to leave that out.

Interviewer: Did you get a chance to talk to him in that moment? Or no, obviously, the circumstances weren't ideal.

Joe Douglas: I was just shell-shocked. I couldn't even get a word out in the moment. I was just kind of in an out-of-body experience. I think he came by our facility, and I told him the story. He came by to visit practice one day a few years after, and I think I told him the story, and just how he made one of the worst moments of my job a little bit better.

Interviewer: Obviously you wear Cal's jersey when you go to Orioles games, right?

Joe Douglas: I only have two jerseys.

Interviewer: When did you get your first Cal jersey? Can you remember?

Joe Douglas: I got my first Cal jersey - were you a kid or were you an adult?

No, I wasn't a kid. I would never ask my dad to buy me a jersey. He would not be for that. I did it right out of college, and it was not the logo they were wearing. It was the old early 80s logo. It was like a batting jersey. It had the old logo on the front and said "Ripken" on the back. So that was amazing.