Director of 'The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox', Greg Whiteley joins!

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Director of 'The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox', Greg Whiteley joins! The Netflix series drops tonight! What can we expect? How long did it take to put together?

Transcript

00:00uh as i mentioned moments ago greg whiteley is the director of the netflix documentary on the

00:08boston red socks the clubhouse and he joins us now this morning hey greg hey hi how you doing

00:16how are you how are you okay you're all right over there yes yeah i'm still on west coast time i'm

00:23doing the best i can oh well we we appreciate it and um a lot of excitement obviously about

00:29the about the series and um i i know you guys were there because we were there at spring training

00:36how how much total when it comes to putting something like this together how much total

00:41total time did you guys spend with the red socks last season well we were there for all of spring

00:48training except for one week so what five of the six weeks we we reported when catchers and pitchers

00:54reported and then we were there from opening day until the last game of the season with the exception

01:02of 10 days in august um and then there were a couple of road trips that we stayed behind in boston to film

01:12in boston while the team was on the road having uh obviously not not seeing it yet and like the rest

01:20of red sox nation will will be able to binge starting today um going into it were you hoping

01:27that the red sox would advance farther than they did or does content wise does it turn out for us

01:34as viewers better that they did not last season well i think in in our style of filmmaking it's really

01:42not predicated upon a team doing well or even doing poorly it becomes in our previous shows like last

01:51chance you or cheer um it's really less about the wins and losses and more about these individual

02:00victories and i think baseball is sort of uniquely suited for this style of filmmaking in that it it

02:05pretends to be a team sport it masks itself as a team sport when it's really an individual sport

02:11um and it doesn't mean that they don't act as a team and that the team isn't all pulling for one

02:16another but baseball is made up of individual one-on-one moments where a pitcher faces a batter

02:21etc and the more you get to know these individuals as people away from the sport it has this weird

02:30effect that i've noticed like for instance i was in a bowling alley the other night and um the tvs

02:37the tv screens there was uh the red sox were playing jaron duran was at bat and i stopped

02:44everybody from that was part of our party from bowling and we all gathered around to watch

02:50jaron duran bat because he felt like at that point he felt like family we we just we had to watch it

02:56regardless of what the score of the game was or how close the game was we wanted to see jaron do well

03:02and i think this series has that kind of effect on people well i did watch last chance you and there

03:09was a lot of drama involved in there how much of the behind the scenes were or access were you given

03:16because last year was a year that wasn't very good there was a lot going on with alex core and a

03:21potentially new contract trade deadline issues so how much access are we going to be able to see to

03:28some of the things that weren't uh that might have been drama based you know we had all access we we

03:37had uh unprecedented access to the clubhouse to the manager's office to the training room um we followed

03:46players home we went on the road with them we were in their hotel rooms i would say with the exception of

03:53a couple of managerial meetings in which we were asked to step out and there were only a small

03:59handful and a few trade deadline deals we even had access to craig breslow's office and and and filmed

04:07him trying to prepare and negotiate his way through the trade deadline and even that that uh the the what

04:15i guess what i would call the brain trust room but it's it's probably got a different term but it was

04:19it was where he would gather all of the key people there was about 15 that would get together in a

04:25room a war room that would decide how the fate of their of their trade deadline we were granted there

04:32was a lot of that we weren't allowed to film but there was a lot of it that we were so

04:37alespora being in a in a in a uh contract year um the team you know struggling to hit 500 that really

04:47did not limit our access at all i mean just by way of an example alex cora was amazing it was very rare

04:54for him to ask us to step out of his office were you guys present for the meeting at breslow's home

05:00where the negotiation took place for cora to extend his contract with the red socks no it was actually

05:07i think um no we were not at that meeting uh and i could see why we wouldn't be invited to that

05:14meeting in fact we didn't even know it was going on we knew that negotiations were happening we were

05:19pretty actually to a couple of conversations that were happening um uh between alex and ownership

05:26uh but we didn't get to film any of that and uh is john henry a part of the series in any way

05:32he's not except that we wouldn't have done it uh without him he he was the one him and tom werner

05:41approached us and and you know we laid out our terms in which we would do the documentary in which

05:49we would need this unprecedented access and that the red socks couldn't have any editorial control

05:54and um they were very supportive uh and very eager to do it is there a player from your perspective

06:04that comes out at the end of this appearing different than you felt he would

06:11i think that always happens when we do this style of filmmaking given the fact that i don't know any of

06:18these people before we begin filming and i've learned over time that someone's public persona

06:24is almost always always different than when you actually get to know them uh and so whether it was

06:32jaron duran or tristan casas or brian baio it it was yeah it was i i was always surprised uh by by what

06:41we were finding and the kind of people who were i would say baseball players in general i was i was sort of

06:48thinking we'd spend a lot of time filming them out on the town uh partying as naive as i was going

06:57into it i thought baseball was a fairly laid-back sport if if there was a seven o'clock game i would

07:01have thought before we began filming they probably showed up to the ballpark at around 4 30 or 5

07:06these guys get in there 9 or 10 a.m uh on a when there's a seven o'clock game um during 162 game

07:15schedule there is so little downtime i was shocked by that and i was impressed with um even if you were

07:24to take the most aloof and carefree player on a team that person was absolutely dialed in on game days

07:33focusing on rehabbing their body watching tape um the hours and hours they would spend in a batting cage

07:42or uh in in the bullpen um preparing and working and getting ready to do one thing play baseball and

07:51um yeah i was i think i've been impressed with that fact and it kind of worried me i think it requires

07:58a person that's almost obsessive compulsive to make it and thrive in the major leagues today

08:04did tristan cassis demand final edit on the entire series

08:09no no he and that will become i think abundantly clear when you watch the show okay all right

08:18greg you've brought up jaron duran a few times now obviously he is a big talking point here in boston

08:23with episode four uh when you guys start filming do you film all players the same are there some players

08:30that are more into talking with you guys or do you just follow certain storylines like did you expect

08:36that jaron duran would be the main guy we're all talking about this morning

08:40we feel like in this and the way that we like to tell stories within the first i would say week

08:50and maybe even faster than that there's immediately a handful of players that um we

08:58we want to film and that they want they want to be filmed they want their story to be told

09:04and it's not always the most outgoing people it's sometimes it's somebody shy and and more reserved

09:11but there's a kind of timing in their lives where they feel kind of ready like okay i'm ready for my

09:17story to be told and it's helpful for us to identify those people early on otherwise you make the mistake

09:22of of doing something somewhat superficial where you'll go a mile wide with 40 players

09:29versus a mile deep with two or three besides obviously the jaron duran stuff um moments that

09:38really stood out to you and and that we should be looking for i think that um yeah there's like a

09:46couple of places where you'll you'll see let me tell you one that i think was a fairly covered well

09:54covered well reported on story um abreu his grandmother was dying he's very close to his

10:02grandmother and alex cora being alex cora knew this and was sort of counseling abreu through this

10:09period of time in his life and there's a moment in the game where it's uh it's a close game um uh

10:16it's going to come down to a single at bat and uh tyler o'neill who at the time was the was the

10:23hottest red sox hitter was about to step in the batter's box and uh alex poles to and he puts in abreu

10:32to pinch hit and he and and given the the fact that it was a left-handed that was a left-hander

10:38pitching this was this was this is not something he would normally do and so he was explaining in

10:45the dugout uh to an assistant coach or and and explaining to tyler o'neill hey this is what's

10:52going on this is what's going on in abreu's life he explains his mother is dying his grandmother is

10:57dying and to me not knowing what what alex cora knows about baseball and what alex knows about

11:04human beings uh i would have thought well this poor guy's grandmother is dying we should leave

11:10him on the bench we he he should he should be given this time to to deal with this and process this we've

11:16got a baseball game to win but he seemed to understand intrinsically there was something about

11:22abreu now during that period of time we've been filming with abreu's wife who uh english is is

11:30clearly a second language she's never lived outside her home in venezuela and she's having to make her

11:37way in boston and make new friends and figure that out she's she's lonely living away from family

11:42so you now know this with abreu as he's about to step in the batter's box on top of the fact that

11:48grandmother's dying and that at bat given our access takes on a a brand new meaning and i would

11:56say that there's half a dozen to a dozen significant moments like that over the course of the eight

12:01episode series where uh the way that i would explain it is it's very much like you're you're let's say

12:08you're you're on a run i'm i was running i was running past a ballpark the other day a little little

12:12league ballpark and i just thought oh i was tired i'm gonna i'm gonna just rest and watch a little

12:16of this game and it's it's boring i don't know any of the kids and it's it's little league um but if

12:23it's your kid that's playing in that little league game suddenly that becomes the most interesting

12:28game you're the most interesting sporting event of your whole week maybe your whole month and i think

12:34in this show moments like abreu stepping into the batter's box starts to feel like that well we can't

12:41wait to see it and greg whiteley we thank you for taking the time this morning to talk about the

12:46clubhouse a season with the red sox and uh sounds like job well done so thanks for joining us this

12:53morning thank you for having me on is there anything more perfect than john henry and tom warner

13:01approaching a guy to cover all elements of his organization and then saying except us

13:07well maybe he didn't want them in it curtis oh yeah you didn't want john henry in it

13:13that is just so perfect i'm excited for it you are yeah i really am and again like i always say this

13:20i have i've never been the biggest baseball fan and i'm i'm really looking forward to watching this

13:26all right

13:27all right

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