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A Q&A with Former Indians' Player Brandon Guyer

One of the downsides of becoming attached to certain players on a professional team is knowing they are operating on borrowed time. They eventually go their own way and leave for new opportunities and greener pastures.

Such is the case with Cleveland Indians utility outfielder, Brandon Guyer, who was a member of the Cleveland Indians from 2016-2018, which included his appearance in the 2016 World Series, when the Cleveland Indians came up short against the Chicago Cubs in seven games. Guyer became the first player to ever enter as a substitute in a deciding Game 7 of World Series and collect two hits.

Along with his nine home runs and 32 RBI’s in 101 games with the Indians in 2016, Guyer distinguished himself in leading MLB with 31 hit by pitches. He batted .336 for the year.

After departing Cleveland after the 2018 season, he signed minor league deals with the Chicago White Sox and San Francisco Giants respectively, but fell victim to the injury bug. He was released by the Giants in March; and on July 6, 2020, the West Chester Pennsylvania native officially announced his retirement.

What is he doing now?

The seven-year veteran of Major League Baseball has written an e-book, The Fully Equipped Athlete in which he chronicles how an athlete can best prepare for a career in baseball, by not only helping them develop their physical skills, but also their nutritional and mental side, all three of these skill sets, Guyer argues, are essential if a baseball player hopes to reach his full potential. Many of the tools that Guyer writes about are the same fundamental tools he developed to break into the major leagues in 2011 with the Tampa Bay Rays.

The easy-going utility player was kind enough to answer some questions I had for him about his time in Cleveland, his family life, and what he’s doing now since retirement.

    Q. Prior to your retirement, you played in the major leagues for seven seasons. What were some of the contributing factors that led to your retirement at age 34?

A. “There were a couple factors that led to my retirement. First, I wanted to be around family more. Second, I told myself if I didn't make a big-league team that that would be it. Lastly, I already knew what I wanted to do in the next chapter of my life with Fully Equipped Athlete. All of those reasons made it that much easier.”

 Q. You played with the Cleveland Indians from 2016-2018. What are your favorite memories of Cleveland, Ohio as a vibrant city; and what special memories do you have of the team itself, including some individual players you were fortunate enough to play with?

A. “I could not have asked to play for a better organization or city than Cleveland. The fans were amazing and I will never forget the energy they had each and every game. It made it so much easier to play in front of fans that were so passionate just as they were. I was fortunate to play with so many great players there, so it's hard to pick just a couple. I'll just say that I am so grateful to have been part of teams that made it to the playoffs three years in a row.”

 Q. Now that you’re no longer under his clutches, what was your former manager, Terry Francona, like to play for? I notice he never embarrasses or calls out a member of the team. He seems to always have your back when reporters are in the room. But what about behind closed doors? Does he light a fire under your keister if a player screwed up or didn’t play up to his potential? Was he approachable as a manager if you had something to get off your chest?

A. “Terry Francona was amazing to play for! You couldn't ask for a better manager to play for. He kept everything loose and let us go out there and have fun. He demanded we play the game hard and the right way, and if we did that all was good. If someone made a mistake, he would never embarrass them or call them out even behind closed doors. He was exactly the same guy you see on TV or in interviews.”

Photo Credit: Fully Equipped Athlete

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Q. Now that you’re retired from Major League Baseball, you’ve begun a new chapter in your life with a new website and athletic program, the Fully Equipped Athlete . What is the objective of this new program and what do you hope to accomplish? Why did you start it?

A. "The mission of Fully Equipped Athlete is to equip athletes with the tools necessary to be great both on and off the field. There is not enough emphasis on the mental side, nutrition side, lifestyle side, etc. for athletes and I want to help them develop those skills so that they can unlock their full potential. Those tools are what helped me make the most of my talent, and I know it will do the same for each and every athlete we work with.”

 Q.) I once heard manager Terry Francona during a pregame interview, tell Tom Hamilton that the “mental” preparation for a game is just as important as the “physical” preparation. Do you agree with that? And what exactly did Tito mean by that?

 A.) “Yes, he is totally correct. The mental side is putting time in to learn about the opposing team and the pitcher you're going to face. Also, visualizing success and putting yourself in situations that you think may happen in the game so when you get there it will feel like you've already been there before.”

 Q.) During your professional baseball career, you and your lovely wife, Lindsay, have raised three adorable children: Riley, Camden, and a new member of the Guyer team, Cooper. How difficult is it for a professional baseball player to raise a family while bouncing from city-to-city over a six-month period? Do you feel more connected to your family now that you don’t have to do so much traveling?

 A.) “It is definitely a balance act to have kids and play baseball. For sure, it is harder for my wife as she has to be on her own with the kids when I am out of town. Without a doubt I feel more connected now and so thankful to be around them more and be more involved in their life.

Q. Where is home for you and Lindsay now?

A. “Home is in Rockville, Maryland.”

Q.) How difficult will it be for players to play a 60-day season in front of an empty stadium due to COVID-19? Will the competitiveness still be there?

A.” I think it will for sure be difficult at first, but eventually they will all get used to it. They are the best players in the world for a reason and when it's time to compete they will be able to flip the switch, with fans or not.”

 Q.) Prior to the Coronavirus mess, the big talk in MLB circles was the cheating scandal involving the Houston Astros during last year’s postseason, including suspicions Jose Altuve was wired. A number of Astro players, while admitting guilt, pointed out that they weren’t the only ones guilty of stealing signs. As far as you know, were there other players and other teams gaming the system to gain a competitive advantage?

A. “I am honestly not aware of other players or teams taking part in cheating. I know that no team I have been on has done it, but I cannot speak for all of the others. “

Brandon Guyer with his wife, Lindsay, and children, Riley and Camden, when he was with the Cleveland Indians.

Photo Credit: Fabwags.com 

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Brandon Guyer’s Favorites

Favorite Movie: Gladiator

Favorite Group/Artist: Lil Wayne

Favorite Athlete Growing Up: Ken Griffey Jr.

Favorite Team Growing Up: Philadelphia Phillies

Who Most Influenced You: My Father

Favorite Road City: Seattle

Favorite Road Stadium: Minute Maid Park (Houston)

Favorite TV Show: Ballers/Shark Tank

Source: Cleveland Indians Media Guide (2018)

--Bill Lucey

[email protected]

August 6, 2020

Due to Popular Use: 'Irregardless' Now a Word

The world is rapidly changing and evolving before our very eyes.

In Major League Baseball, you can now plant a runner on second base in extra innings—so he can score quickly and easily and thus speed up the game and eliminate marathon extra inning affairs.

In the halls of the U.S. Congress, a key component of statesmanship was learning how to extend your hand across the aisle and reach a compromise with your rival on an important piece of legislation. Today, “compromise” is a dirty word and rarely practiced in our nation’s capital.

Singer Kate Smith was once synonymous with the singing of “God Bless America,’’ especially at baseball games. Today, her rendition of Irving Berlin’s 1918 patriotic song is prohibited at a number of MLB stadiums, including Yankee Stadium, Progressive Field in Cleveland, and the Wells Fargo Center (for Philadelphia Flyers games in the NHL) because of two racially insensitive songs Ms. Smith, “The First Lady of Radio,” sang in the 1930s.

Now, apparently, the word ‘’irregardless’’ has become acceptable in the English language.

At least in Webster’s-Merriam Dictionary.

According to an article by NPR,"Irregardless is included in our dictionary because it has been in widespread and near-constant use since 1795," the dictionary's staff wrote in a "Words of the Week"roundup. "We do not make the English language; we merely record it."

I worked in a few newsrooms as a news researcher over the years, I think if I ever voiced the word “irregardless,’’ members of the copy desk would grab me by my ears and toss me out the window, head first.

On the second day of the U.S. Supreme Court 1986-1987 term, Chief Justice William Rehnquist scolded a lawyer who used “irregardless,” saying, “I feel bound to inform you there is no word irregardless in the English language. The word is regardless,” Rehnquist thundered.

The distinguished language maven and newspaper columnist, William Safire, took up the issue of “irregardless’’ in a January 15, 2006 column in The New York Times. “And what of irregardless -- as so many readers ask, is that a word? The opening ir- means "not" or "without" and the closing -less also means "without," which turns the locution into arrant nonsense” Safire wrote.

Richard Nixon’s former speech writer went on to explain that “irregardless” was first cited in Harold Wentworth's dialect dictionary in 1912, and the word, according to Safire, was most likely intended as a joke. Safire wrote that many people don’t get the joke and mistakenly use it. “Because it is mainly a jocular word,” Safire explained, “the answer is yes, irregardless is a word, and that is why lexicographers put it in dictionaries with a rolling of the eyes and a warning not to take it seriously.”

David Scott Kastan, Professor of English at Yale University, while acknowledging the redundancy of “irregardless,’’ points out that “language is a funny thing.” “Words,” Kastan says, “come to mean what people think they mean, and over time meanings change (look at the history of the word “nice”), and sometimes even reverse themselves (look at the history of the word “individual”).”

As an English professor, “I wouldn’t use it,’’ Kastan says, but I wouldn’t be surprised or much dismayed to hear it used, although I would correct it on a student paper.”

Lee Clark Mitchell, a Professor of Belles-Lettres in the Department of English at Princeton University, observes that the “American language itself, has always been rather unwieldly, shape-shifting construct.” “But we’re not like the French,” Mitchell says, “who have always sustained a distinctly more corrective notion of language. In our free-wheeling national fashion, words constantly shift, evolve, drop out and re-introduce themselves, in all the mistaken forms that pedagogues like myself try to rein in. And ending a sentence this way with a preposition is another of those broken rules.”

“So, it seems to me,” Professor Mitchell further explained, “that dictionaries—American, at least—should do what they mostly do, even Merriam-Webster. That is, they need to give us words as they exist, and then (according to their boards and advisors) indicate whether those are acceptable in standard speech or alternatively an example of slang or otherwise “incorrect usage.” 

Meanwhile, James Shapiro, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University takes a more light-hearted view of the adverb. “It’s not a word I’d ever use myself, as it sounds like something Eddie Haskell would say on Leave It to Beaver, phony and self-important.  It’s the kind of word that more often than not is followed by a half-truth or a lie.   My advice as an English professor: keep it simple. Don’t use a big word when a small one will do.”

Jack Lynch, Professor of English in the department of English at Rutgers University-Newark, cautions that just because you find a word in a dictionary doesn’t necessarily mean it’s acceptable. “That’s a judgment dictionaries don’t make,’’ Lynch points out. “Merriam does mark it “nonstandard,” their way of saying it’s not universally accepted. With or without the usage note, though, no one is under any obligation to use it, to like it, or even to like the people who use it.”

As a practical matter, Lynch thinks “irregardless’’ is a poor word choice. “I wouldn’t use it other than ironically, and if students use it, I’d advise them they should probably choose another word. But dictionaries aren’t guardians of the language”, Lynch cautions. “Most of the major English dictionaries have been disavowing that mission since at least 1755, so we shouldn’t look to them for that sort of guidance.”

“I remember being cautioned in high school against this nonsensical intensifier, which means no more than “regardless” --setting aside a regard for, or notwithstanding.  What does irregardless say that regardless does not already?  I wince at this,” Susan J. Wolfson, Professor of English at Princeton University told me.

Weary, Wolfson concedes she lost the battle long ago on “preserving the important difference between uninterested (I don’t care; why do you?) and disinterested (neutrally attentive: I can see all sides of the question; I consider this without personal interest).”

“Language is a living culture, not a dead set of rules, Wolfson observed. “Still, I like distinctions and refinements.”

Source: Grammarly.com

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So, now that we know that academia takes a rather dim view of the acceptance of ‘’irregardless’’ in a sentence or even in everyday conversation, what about newspapers and websites?

Are we approaching a time, when major news organizations will raise the white flag and permit “irregardless’’ to be used by their writers in news articles?

John Daniszewski, Editor-at-Large and Vice President for Standards at the Associated Press, answered with a resounding “NO!” when asked if AP considers ‘’irregardless’’ as acceptable. “AP style is to use “regardless.” We define “irregardless” as a double negative, and it is therefore incorrect in our book,” Daniszewski responded.

According to a representative from the Standards Desk at the New York Times, “the dictionary we use, Webster's New World College Dictionary, calls irregardless a nonstandard variant of regardless. That means we will not be using it. We'll stick with regardless.”

Courtney Rukan, Deputy multiplatform editing chief at the Washington Post, explained the Post’s policy to me this way. “Although irregardless is acceptable via Webster’s now and usage can overtake grammar, we are not ready to give up the ghost on regardless,” Rukan says. “Titled vs. entitled is another usage case we’d keep to fighting, too, as we have a number of exceptions to dictionaries that we maintain in our stylebook. We may acquiesce to irregardless in the future, as we did with “play down vs. downplay,” but we do still like to find the right line between common (internet) usage and the principles of language at large.”

Similarly, Bill Power, news editor and style book co-editor of the Wall Street Journal, responded, “we are no fans of irregardless in formal writing. Our base dictionary, Webster's 5th College, does include it as a word now, but only in informal (and often humorous) contexts. So, it doesn't qualify as the best choice for our news articles.  We have entries in both our stylebook and our spell-checker that advise our writers and editors to stick with regardless.”

So, take heart language connoisseurs. Though irregardless might have crept into some dictionaries while no one was looking, its usage in the written word and everyday language appears to have been overwhelming rejected.

Thank goodness; we wouldn’t want Pulitzer Prize winning columnist William Safire and one-time author of the New York Times “On Language,’’ column to be rolling in his grave.

 

--Bill Lucey

[email protected]

August 2, 2020