Get to know Skip, the Marlins' skipper
This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola¡¯s Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Do you believe in "believe"?
I've switched up this week's newsletter in honor of "Ted Lasso" Season 3 finally streaming on Wednesday. During the past two Spring Trainings, I've caught up with newcomers to the Marlins, asking them fun questions so fans can get to know them both on and off the field.
Skip Schumaker didn't cross the pond to coach a team in a sport he knows nothing about, but he is a first-time manager. He also is a fan of the Emmy-winning Apple TV+ show.
Name: Skip Schumaker
Birthdate: Feb. 3, 1980 (43 years old)
Hometown: Torrance, California
Beginnings: Selected by St. Louis in the fifth round of the 2001 MLB Draft
Teams: Cardinals, Dodgers, Reds
Post-playing career: Padres assistant to baseball operations and player development (2016-17), first-base coach ('18-19) and associate manager ('20-21); Cardinals bench coach ('22)
Accolades: Two-time World Series champion with St. Louis
Favorite Ted Lasso character: Keeley Jones
Favorite Ted Lasso episode: ¡°The Diamond Dogs¡± (Season 1, Episode 8)
Here's our Q&A with the Marlins skipper.
MLB.com: Would you rather be a lion or a panda, and why?
Schumaker: The lion I would probably rank over the panda. There¡¯s reasons why he's the king of the jungle, right?
MLB.com: Ted had biscuits with the boss. What would be your snack of choice?
Schumaker: I love breakfast, so if I could get anything, it'd be a blueberry pancake breakfast.
MLB.com: "Believe" is his mantra. What's yours?
Schumaker: It's called CAPE: Communication, alignment, preparation, execution. Believe is great, but CAPE has more meaning to me.
MLB.com: Have you ever tried to pull off a mustache and a visor?
Schumaker: I definitely tried to pull off a mustache. There's pictures of me holding my son, and my wife made multiple comments of why I needed to remove that mustache. It's not a great look. But we were in a funk in 2009, and so we had team mustaches, and there's a reason why I don't have it anymore. The visor -- I don't understand the visor -- because it doesn't cover your head, so that's never made any sense to me.
MLB.com: Ted Lasso gave his son a drone, and the drone won out on spending time with him. Is there a gift you've given your kids that they've enjoyed so much that they didn't want to ¡
Schumaker: Yeah, a phone! The phone's been a nightmare. I think that any parent will tell you that the phone has taken over.
MLB.com: Do you know what offsides is?
Schumaker: Yes. My wife played college soccer. My daughter's all-in on soccer, so she would scream, "Get onside, you're off" all the time during the games when she was younger. So I found out quickly what offsides was.
MLB.com: Ted's secret talent is darts. What's yours?
Schumaker: I wish it was the darts. That would be really cool. There's not really like this secret talent. It's definitely not darts. I'm not good at it at all. Let me think on this. I would say bodyboarding. I like to surf, but bodyboarding I can do. As a kid, we used to compete, so I have an idea of what I'm doing for bodyboarding. I'm a better bodyboarder than surfer.
MLB.com: What would be your karaoke song?
Schumaker: Blink-182's "All the Small Things."
MLB.com: Do you need the screen?
Schumaker: No, I know the lyrics.
MLB.com: Ted took an "Usie" with someone on the plane over to London. Who would you want to take one with? Anybody in the world, dead or alive.
Schumaker: Roberto Clemente. I knew of him -- or what he'd done in the game. I won the Roberto Clemente Award, which was pretty special, but I didn't really know exactly everything he did. Albert Pujols took us to the Roberto Clemente Museum in Pittsburgh, and since then, I've been all-in on Roberto. I've quoted him many times, so that would be the selfie I would probably like to take.