: Rays manager Joe Maddon spoke to the Long Beach State baseball team in the offseason and jokingly said
"I went into their clubhouse and this thing is an absolute dirtbag clubhouse. Rubber floor. This 1993 big screen TV elevated up into the wall. Just really a messy clubhouse.
"I asked them what's up with Longoria and Tulowitzki and the Weavers. C'mon, let's go! Let's pick this place up. But it did suit the 'Dirtbag' image. He's rooted in this. This is where he comes from."
Would you and Evan Longoria kicking in a little extra cash to spruce up the clubhouse defeat the purpose over there?
TT: [Laughs]. Yeah, maybe a little bit, though it's funny. Everyone knows about the program over there, how great it's been and how many players are in the big leagues now. But that's the whole mentality we have — it's almost like how a public school feels compared with a private school. You get the kids who just grind it out and work very hard and appreciate what they have
DB: Long Beach State made the basketball tournament, didn't it?
TT: No, they lost to Santa Barbara in the [conference] championship game. They lost by a couple points.TT: [Laughs]. Yeah, maybe a little bit, though it's funny. Everyone knows about the program over there, how great it's been and how many players are in the big leagues now. But that's the whole mentality we have — it's almost like how a public school feels compared with a private school. You get the kids who just grind it out and work very hard and appreciate what they have.
You don't want to give them too much because they might think things come easy. The locker room isn't the best, still. The cages at the practice field are dirt floors. It's the whole part of it. The balls we use aren't nice, white, new balls. They're old. I think it would kind of take away from it a little bitDB: You and Longoria turned out to be fine baseball players, but except for the team's unofficial nickname, nobody would ever call you a "dirtbag."
"I went into their clubhouse and this thing is an absolute dirtbag clubhouse. Rubber floor. This 1993 big screen TV elevated up into the wall. Just really a messy clubhouse.
"I asked them what's up with Longoria and Tulowitzki and the Weavers. C'mon, let's go! Let's pick this place up. But it did suit the 'Dirtbag' image. He's rooted in this. This is where he comes from."
Would you and Evan Longoria kicking in a little extra cash to spruce up the clubhouse defeat the purpose over there?
TT: [Laughs]. Yeah, maybe a little bit, though it's funny. Everyone knows about the program over there, how great it's been and how many players are in the big leagues now. But that's the whole mentality we have — it's almost like how a public school feels compared with a private school. You get the kids who just grind it out and work very hard and appreciate what they have
DB: Long Beach State made the basketball tournament, didn't it?
TT: No, they lost to Santa Barbara in the [conference] championship game. They lost by a couple points.TT: [Laughs]. Yeah, maybe a little bit, though it's funny. Everyone knows about the program over there, how great it's been and how many players are in the big leagues now. But that's the whole mentality we have — it's almost like how a public school feels compared with a private school. You get the kids who just grind it out and work very hard and appreciate what they have.
You don't want to give them too much because they might think things come easy. The locker room isn't the best, still. The cages at the practice field are dirt floors. It's the whole part of it. The balls we use aren't nice, white, new balls. They're old. I think it would kind of take away from it a little bitDB: You and Longoria turned out to be fine baseball players, but except for the team's unofficial nickname, nobody would ever call you a "dirtbag."
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