The time John Schneider left an in-game interview to argue with umpire

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John Schneider offered up one of the most unique in-game interviews in Vancouver sports history.

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Schneider is manager of the Toronto Blue Jays now, and he’ll guide them Monday up against the visiting Seattle Mariners in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. He’s worked his way through the ranks in the Blue Jays’ system, including running the dugout for their Vancouver Canadians farm team that’s based out of Nat Bailey Stadium for two and a half seasons.

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Hockey routinely has players or coaches interviewed at the end of a period, answering two or three quick questions. Football’s the same. Baseball, by its very nature, offers the opportunity for managers to be interviewed during the game, and C’s play-by-play man Rob Fai did that with Schneider back in their days together at the Nat.

Schneider, a former catcher in the Blue Jays system, was the helm of the C’s for part of 2011, and then again in 2014 and 2015.

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This one game in question, Schneider was flustered with the umpiring crew early on. He voiced his displeasure from the dugout more than once. It came time for him to put a headset on in the dugout and talk to Fai, and there was another call that particularly perturbed Schneider just as the conversation was starting.

Schneider politely said, “Rob … can you hang on a second … I need to take care of something.”

Schneider put down the headset and went out on the field to argue with an umpires. You could hear the fans cheering on Schneider through the broadcast and Fai, from his perch atop the roof at the Nat, gave a description of the dispute.

Schneider had his say, went back to the dugout and picked up the headset and started up again like nothing had happened, beginning with “OK, Rob … where were we again?”

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These in-game interviews, no matter the sport, can often feel mundane and monotonous. The goal remains to pull back to the curtain, offer up some insight into what the player or coach is like or how things work behind the scenes. Sometimes, as this story with Schneider going from analytical to ornery to analytical again shows, it really does happen.

“Those are the ones you hope for,” said Dan Murphy, who knows the intermission interview game far too well after more than 20 years hosting Vancouver Canucks games on television. “If you get rid of them all, you lose the ability to have those moments.

“I’ve heard people say that they (the intermission interviews) should just go away, that they’re useless. I don’t think they’re useless. I think they can still be valuable. It’s not always going to be valuable, but the times that you get it right make it worthwhile to keep asking.”

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The Canucks regional broadcasts on Sportsnet have scaled back the intermission interviews, opting instead for pre-recorded features and panels hosted by Murphy. The national games still frequently rely on intermission interviews.

The logistics of it all? Murphy says that the request for an interview usually has to be in to the team in question by the final TV timeout of a period, which comes with about six minutes or so to go in the frame.

Murphy tries to avoid anyone who’s especially struggling in a game, reasoning that “that’s not the time to ask those questions.” He warns that you have to be prepared to pivot — he recalls asking for defenceman Bryan Allen, and Allen was out for a long shift killing a penalty at the end of the period and was having trouble catching his breath when it came time to do the interview. So Murphy spoke with another player instead.

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Murphy’s all-time in-game interview all-star list includes former Canucks defencemen Kevin Bieksa and Shane O’Brien, and former wingers Alex Burrows and Antoine Roussel. It’s the usual suspects, players who were well known for being especially quotable.

“There’s certain guys where you know that if you go to them you’ll get something,” Murphy said.

These intermission or in-game interviews are obviously tricky endeavours. Adrenalin is flowing at hyper speed. Coaches and athletes alike are notorious from worrying about not giving away any trade secrets and not giving out anything to inspire the opponents.

TSN’s Farhan Lalji does those interviews regularly for CFL broadcasts and says he tries to get “something strategic, something detailed … just anything that avoids a cliché.”

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“I try to be very specific and pointed with the question,” he said. “You want them to address a specific play or what they may not be seeing in a certain situation.

“I don’t think any of the players really love it. I do think it personalizes and humanizes the athlete a little bit more for the fans, and I think it’s always positive when you can do that.”

Sports media three stars of the week

First star: John Shorthouse, Vancouver Canucks TV play-by-play

In a story last year about what made Jim Robson so good at calling Canuck games, John Shorthouse said Robson had four or five different gears with his voice, and how you could tell just by his tone and cadence the importance of a particular play or series of plays. Shorthouse displays that regularly, too. The last shift or two of Vancouver’s win over the Washington Capitals Sunday is worth going over again just to hear Shorthouse’s description.

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Second star: Rick Dhaliwal, co-host of CHEK’S Donnie and Dhali, for his guest spot on Sportsnet 650’s Halford and Brough morning show

Don’t agree with Dhaliwal’s take on the Grey Cup bringing in American rapper Machine Gun Kelly — the CFL needs to attract younger fans — but do appreciate the passion and the rant was extraordinarily entertaining.

“Who the hell is Machine Gun Kelly? I can’t name you one song,” Dhaliwal railed. “The NFL has some Bugs Bunny guy. These guys got some guy named Machine Gun Kelly. I’m getting fed up. I’m getting fed up with these halftime shows. Give me John Cougar. Give me Springsteen. Give me AC/DC. Give me CCR. I’ll take Def Leppard.”

That was just the leadoff. He went on from there.

The NFL actually has rapper Bad Bunny for its Super Bowl halftime, but we’re guessing that doesn’t matter to Rick.

Third star: Sportsnet camera man or producer for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s walk-off interview after Blue Jays’ Sunday win

Whoever made the call, to have the good sense to zoom in on Vladdy Jr.’s megawatt smile after Hazel Mae asked him if he was ready for Game 7 and then have the camera circle them a couple of time as the crowd cheered, made for good TV.

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SEwen@Postmedia.com

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