Comments on: Bob Castellini’s comments

By: Anonymous Person

Anonymous Person — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:19:32 +0000

I love his statement “by hook or by crook”… considering I just read an article where one of his companies is being accused of computer fraud, computer crimes and theft of trade secrets.

They filed a suit against him in Arkansas.

By: andrew vernon woodruff

andrew vernon woodruff — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:15:03 +0000

I’ve been a reds fan for a long time. I’m pretty much tired of us losing every year. Spend some of your money on players or sell the team to someone who will. Stop making up stuff and getting our hopes up.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:48:45 +0000

The fact that an owner wants to win has nothing to do with whether he’s got the brains/organizational skill to do it.

By: Phil Rizzuto Parmesan

Phil Rizzuto Parmesan — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 22:36:08 +0000

Cary,

I’m not really sure we’re at odds. Just a matter of different perceptions. I didn’t hear what Chad heard and didn’t come away with the same impressions Chad did.

I don’t live in Cincinnati, so TV exposure and third-party reporting on cincinnati.com is pretty much all I have to go by. If you didn’t hear the broadcast (and none of your comment indicate that you did), then we aren’t going to have a meeting of the minds on this.

Now, which is more plausible to communicate in a half-inning appearance in the TV booth? You are talking about a state of the Union address, Chad is fine with “I’m not happy with the current state of affairs. We fired our manager, stay tuned.”

Well, from my POV he didn’t communicate either of those things. He didn’t communicate anything to me because I couldn’t follow his incoherent ramblings. And frankly, considering recent history, I think he owes us a State of the Franchise – clear. concise, coherent.

By: Cary

Cary — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 22:26:29 +0000

No Chris, I stated earlier that I did not hear the TV interview. I do not have FSN. But folks have gone well beyond that interview in their comments.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:47:40 +0000

Cary, did you say you’ve seen the FSN thing, or not? Because if not, well, I’m not going to waste either of our time beyond this:

I’ve seen Castellini in the past, and he was just fine at communicating his message, which (to me) was: “I’m a fan first, a businessman second, and I’ll do what it takes to (1) win, and (2) make sure the fans have a good experience.”

I thought he was just fine at communicating that in the past – hell, even at Monday’s press conference. But for reasons I don’t understand, he went into the FSN booth Tuesday night and did nothing but mutter, mumble, and ramble. I don’t know if he was too pissed off to express himself; if he was sick of talking about the subject; or if he was taking a nap and they woke him up and shoved him into the booth — it was bizarre – and even George Grande couldn’t save him.

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:33:30 +0000

I don’t care what he says in public…well, that’s not entirely true, but what he DOES will show me a lot more than what he SAYS.

By: Cary

Cary — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:54:28 +0000

Castellini, as the face of ownership, needs to be able to communicate to his concerned citizens – the fan base – what is being done to improve the organization, what the plan for success is and how he plans to get there. So his goal is also to ease concerns and get buy in from his customers.
Your comment juxtaposed with Chad’s report:
What impressed me with Castellini’s comments was his tone. He is clearly very unhappy at the team’s performance. In fact, the best way I can describe it is to say that Castellini sounded personally offended at the Reds “abysmal record.”

A similar discussion has taken place on RedsZone, and it is quite stunning the communication expectations folks have for public communications to the fan base at large. I just don’t think the type of communication you are expecting is appropriate for the audience that you were a member of on this night.

By: Phil Rizzuto Parmesan

Phil Rizzuto Parmesan — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:05:53 +0000

Cary,

Again I have not jumped to any conclusions about the man other than with respect to his ability to communicate to his customer base through the public media. Let’s take one aspect of what I did and compare it to what Castellini was doing.

When I appeared in public meetings before concerned citizens groups, I needed to be able to communicate not only my work, but how that addressed their concerns and what impact that would have on their future. My goal was to ease their concerns and get their buy in to the process.

Castellini, as the face of ownership, needs to be able to communicate to his concerned citizens – the fan base – what is being done to improve the organization, what the plan for success is and how he plans to get there. So his goal is also to ease concerns and get buy in from his customers. It ’s particularly important because his chosen GM stonewalls the public and tells fans who question his moves that it’s insider baseball stuff they wouldn’t understand.

I will give your credentials the benefit of the doubt,

Well, you’re nothing if not generous.

By: Cary

Cary — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 19:47:11 +0000

With all due respect, Phil (if that is your real name :lol:), he is an owner of a baseball team and a successful businessman in private enterprise. I will give your credentials the benefit of the doubt, but he was not giving expert testimony, he was talking to fans on a baseball broadcast. Jumping to conclusions based on that is surprising for someone with your stated credentials.

By: Phil Rizzuto Parmesan

Phil Rizzuto Parmesan — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 19:31:22 +0000

the folks making the judgments provide no qualifications to make such seemingly expert judgments about someone’s ability to communicate

I have given expert witness testimony both in the US and UK, presented technical reports to regulatory agencies here and abroad and spoken to concerned citizens groups in public meetings attended and taped by the news media. If I had come across like Castellini, I would have been dead meat.

Note again I am not judging Bob Castellini as a person. I don’t know him other than as he presents himself through the media. And it is that face that fails to impress me.

By: Cary

Cary — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 19:03:10 +0000

I don’t see how commenting on his sleeper of a television appearance implies anything about how I feel about him as a person, Cary. You’re way off here. My statements do not relate at all to how people feel personally about Mr. Castellini. One can show someone no respect and still like them personally. Just like I don’t know any of you personally, so to take any of my comments as a personal attack would be wrong.

By: GregD

GregD — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:38:54 +0000

If Castellini really wants to win the public opinion polls in the 2007-08 offseason, he’s going to need a big name manager AND GM. The pitching woes will not be solved with Krivsky.

Tom, IFYP. This is where I think the local writers do the team a real disservice because they are creating the news instead of reporting the news. It’s all on the Fay’s and Rosecrans’ and McCoy’s of the world for drumming up some sort of expectation of a big name or that a big name is a requirement to fix what is broken. What do they know of running a big league front office? I want to hear what has happened from the local writers. I don’t want them influencing how a team operates.

To your point about Krivsky, I’m neither convinced that he is or is not the right person for the job. Several transactions point to him not being the right guy, but others show that he is.

I think the amazing thing to me is that Krivsky got 3/8th of the starting offense for nothing (PTBNL, Rule V) – Phillips, Hamilton & Ross – and the team still can’t finish better than last in the league.

By: Brian B

Brian B — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:31:47 +0000

I don’t see how commenting on his sleeper of a television appearance implies anything about how I feel about him as a person, Cary. You’re way off here.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:21:26 +0000

Phil,
Couldn’t agree with you more. Spending money on big free agents has not worked out for the Reds in the past. The farm system and resigning our own players would be where I’d put most of the money. I’m not saying a free agent signing wouldn’t improve this club, they just have to be smarter about it than they have been in the past.
Secondly, a manager, with a proven track record could go along way toward a winning mindset. Those guys don’t work for $300K per season. Its upwards of one mil before you start catching up with the elite guys. My first thought is to split the difference and get a competent manager, but in this situation, I’m tired of half stepping this thing. No more Bob Boone’s or Jerry Narron’s, let’s go for it.