Interview with Greg Newgard,
Flagstaff Outlaws

BIGGEST DADDY: Good evening, Greg Newgard! Congrats on surpassing the 100 win mark and winning the first division title in your franchise's history! Perhaps a dumb question....but....how does it feel?

GREG NEWGARD: Biggest Daddy, as always thanks for time. I really always appreciate your interviews.

We haven�t quite won 100 games yet as we stand at 99, but we hope to get there in our finale against Mississippi. But in any case, this season has felt somewhat magical. I know that sounds sort of cliche, but things have just clicked. Big come-from-behind wins, locking down leads.

It seems that since I joined the league back in 2003 that this franchise has been snakebitten. Sylmar wins the division over us in a tiebreaker in 2005 and we lose Game 7 to them in their house after being up 3-2. We lost to an inferior New Milford team in the 2009 playoffs after being up 3-1. The whole nonsense with Los Altos. This has felt like a season of redemption and we just hope it continues into the playoffs.

BD: What went right for your squad? What surprised you about this year?

GN: Honestly, I think the auction and draft is where this team was solidified. I was originally targeting a starting pitcher in the auction, but the market rapidly went beyond what I could budget, so instead of panicking, we were able to come up with Plan B and landed Jose Bautista at a reasonable deal. That allowed us to use our first pick each draft round to get a starter in John Lackey, and solid platoon help in LF (Rajai Davis) and 2B (Ed Lucas). Then we got some trade bait in Jimmy Nelson and Enny Romero that enabled us to improve the team later in the year.

The biggest surprise was not only watching us get off to a bad start, but watch Bear Country do the same. Both teams were able to rebound, but this team was able to stay a step ahead of that team the rest of the way. With our history, we waited for the other shoe to drop, and it never did.

BD: Now that you have a clear view of the playoff picture, what do you think needs to happen to go all the way? Where are the areas of concern as you approach the playoffs?

GN: In a short series, we understand that anything can happen. We have to win early in the series and put pressure on the opposition and continue to hold leads late. That takes quality pitching, offensive output, and lots of luck. As far as concerns, there is always something to be worried about come playoff time, but we just hope the team continues to play as hot as we have since the All-Star break. If we do that, the team can go far.

BD: What would a successful season look like?

GN: For this season, I would say this season is already considered something of a success. We had four goals coming into the season and we've accomplished two of the bigger ones with a Griffin Division title and finally beating Los Altos and ending that stupid streak. Winning 100 games would be a nice feather in the cap, but honestly we just wanted to get in the Tournament of Randomness with homefield in the first round. Goal three will start right away and means we need to knock off a good Salem team and win a playoff series. Goal four is a shiny new trophy. If we can get that third goal, I'd count this season as a success. At this point, the next step and that is beating Salem.

BD: What was the one move that provided the largest impact to your team's success?

GN: There were so many things that provided impact that it's hard to pick one. Getting Donaldson, the auction and draft strategy I talked about earlier, trading for 15-game winner Gio Gonzalez. But I have to say moving Jay Bruce to Mississippi for Luke Hochevar and Luis Avilan really gave us a good back end to our bullpen. We've seen plenty of good bullpens from Los Altos and we are trying to model that sort of thinking here over the past several seasons. We've been happy with that effort. As of right now, we are 82-2 when leading after seven innings. That's pretty good and we couldn't have accomplished what we have without that sort of move.

BD: What do you anticipate as being an area of focus for the 2015 Outlaws?

GN: Honestly, it�s figuring out what to do. We have a full and capable offense coming back next season that is on pace with what we put out there last year. We are short a back-end starting pitcher and need some bullpen help. Not huge needs and it seems that we'd be primed for another run. But we will have little money to do anything about those holes. If we can cut a contract or two, I think we can be in good enough shape to make another run, but it may take getting rid some talent for this to do it. If we just stand pat, we may be able to compete for another Wild Card, so we definitely aren't in a rebuilding mode.

BD: Can we expect your team name to stay stable for a little while?

GN: I hope so. The logo bug always gets to me this time of year. All these moves have been about work and not being a strong market for what I do makes it somewhat unstable for my home situation. But we really enjoy being where we are and the Outlaws name has been good to us, so we'll stick with it for now. If we win the trophy, the Outlaws name will stay forever, even though the city may change some day.

BD: What's new with your family, job and life in Flagstaff, Arizona these days?

GN: Nothing much, except dealing with two boys who are growing up before my eyes. It seems that everything we are doing now is for them, whether it is dragging them to hockey or Boy Scouts. But that is what you sign up for when you become a parent, so I can't say I'm upset or disappointed by it. My wife has taken a new job with a preschool at our church and is now basically second-in-charge of that, so she is enjoying that. Helps to have the extra money with the cost of living here, which I admit isn't as bad as some places I could have moved to.

BD: If you were on an island and could only bring 3 things, what would you bring?

GN: That is a great question. My wife would say it would be my iPhone because I can't live without it, for whatever reason. Then I'd need some sort of solar charger. Then lastly a cell phone tower so I could use the damn thing. I'd probably agree with her.

BD: Tell me about your most perfect pizza.

GN: My perfect pizza would be a very simple creation consisting of normal red sauce, cheese, pepperoni, and Canadian bacon. Simple. I don't need crazy white sauces or sundried tomatoes. Just quality meats and the finest cheeses and a good sauce. With a crust that somewhere on the thinner side, although I don�t like think cardboard like crust.

BD: Jeff Bezos walks into your office and says you can have a million dollars to launch your best entrepreneurial idea. What is it?

GN: I'm not sure I�m at a point where I�d want to divulge that sort of information, but it would involve time travel. And a blender. And a parrot.

BD: What was your first job prior to graduating college?

GN: Prior to graduating? My first job ever was one my mother got me working at a company that distributed records and tapes to retail outlets in the Portland, Oregon area. I worked in the warehouse doing various things in the returns department for two summers. Given I was only like 14 or 15 at the time, I couldn't do much of anything else, but it was good money for a teenager at the time.

BD: What's your perspective on the Astros, given 4 straight lousy seasons and switching leagues? Anything to be excited about there? Do you even root for them anymore?

GN: I like what Jeff Luhnow and staff has done. The focus on rebuilding through the farm has been key. I'm just worried about the fallout after the latest draft fiasco with Brady Aiken and how that will affect things moving forward. After the extended playoff runs in the 90's and 00's, the cupboard was extremely bare, so these last five or six seasons are the price of that. But there is some excitement there and they are probably one more season away from starting to recruit quality free agent talent and try to make a playoff run. It's hard to root for them being so far away and them moving into the AL West with Oakland who was my favorite AL team. I still root for them, but I'll be honest I don't get to watch much of their games anymore even with a MLB.TV subscription.

BD: How will the 2014 post-season play out?

GN: Salem was a tough team for us, but we split the season series, 6-6, so it�ll likely come down to another Game 7. We are just hoping that this season of redemption gets us through that. Then I think New Milford gets past whoever gets out of the Benes. I think we match up well against New Milford after beating them 7-5 this season and having a lineup that kills lefties. But we�ll have some usage issues in a long series, but I think if anyone can beat the Blazers, we can. If we get to the Series, we�ll face a good Eck League team, likely Southern Cal. We�d like to give them a good fight and see where the chips fall.

BD: Thanks for spending time with us, Greg! Good luck!

GN: Thanks again for the time. I look forward to doing this again in about eight years or so.