The excellence in the Dodgers organization goes well beyond what fans see on the field every night at 7:05. Behind the scenes there are hundreds of people that put each game together and make the Dodgers experience one of the best in the world.

One of those people is Jesse Guffey, the AA Tulsa Drillers Athletic Trainer.

Guffey just won the award for the Texas League Athletic Trainer of the year, and as exciting as being recognized by your peers is, it’s become equally as routine for Guffey.

This is the 4th time he has been recognized for excellence in the Athletic Training field, and when Henny, the AA Tulsa manager,  told the club about the award, the response from the players was telling. 

Yes, they were excited and yes they were happy for Jesse, but, their responses were telling of the respect they have for his work. None of them were surprised and the mood was one that made it clear they have come to expect this level of excellence from Guffey every year. 

Background

Guffey has been a trainer with the University of Kentucky, is still with Great Britain baseball, and came to the Dodgers in 2018 from the Reds organization. Although his official title is Athletic Trainer, he does a little bit of everything for the club, one being translating for the Spanish-speaking players. Here’s what he had to say about the bond he creates with players who he helps on a daily basis. 

A lot of the guys I’ve gotten to move up with, and when you take the time to speak to them in their Native language it goes a long way in letting them know that you do care about them. 

When asked what all goes into an award like Athletic Trainer of the year, this was his response.

There’s a lot of stuff you don’t learn in college. Whether you have to re-lace gloves, schedule hotels, talk to the bus company, translating, weather guy sometimes, so it can be wild. 

Guffey continued on about his day-to-day routine.

On a regular basis, the guys come in early, and if you’re on the road it’s really early, and you go to the gym and everyone gets their workouts in, and I help out with that. Then you start getting guys ready for practice, and if guys are on the IL you get them their physical therapy and their rehab so they can do whatever activity the club has for them for that day. 

Guffey went on to talk about how incredible the coaching staff is at Tulsa.

Having the incredible coaching staff with Henny, Brett Pill, Ryan Dennick and Chris Gutierrez makes it easier because they know exactly what each player’s mechanics should look like. Once the pitchers finish up outside they all come in and recover and we have a chart they fill out every day letting us know how they feel on a 1-10 scale. Then the hitters go out and take B.P. and do their defensive work, then about an hour before the game we shut the training room down and it’s just the starting pitcher and the catcher and we let them get what they need. The biggest thing for us is just getting our guys on a routine. 

Great Britain Baseball

One of the really neat aspects of what Guffey gets to do is working with Great Britain baseball. The Great Britain baseball organization is made up of players that have all sorts of different ties back to Great Britain. He really enjoys that job and is looking forward to the World Baseball Classic where Great Britain will be facing Team USA.

Here’s what he had to say about that experience

It’s a lot of guys whose parents were born in Great Britain, or they were born in the Virgin Islands or the Bahamas when they were territories of Great Britain. It’s definitely a lot different when you have a flag on your arm instead of a team logo, so it’s very exciting. I’m glad the Dodgers let me do it and we have a big task with Team USA on March 8th so I hope we get a win there. 

The Dodgers Culture

Every time I get the opportunity to talk about the culture the Dodgers create, I take advantage of it. It is real, and it has a very large impact on the winning environment the organization creates. Guffey gets to see it every day in the dugout, and he says it’s incredible.

When you’re on the outside looking in you’re like, okay, no way it’s actually like that. But we have the Jackie Robinson quote up everywhere and it’s 100% true it starts with Shoemaker who is the captain of player development and the coaches play it out every single day. Just the way our players interact with the bus drivers, and the hotel employees is amazing. I’ve never seen a negative interaction between anyone in our organization and the people we come in contact with on a daily basis. 

Enjoying Every Day

One of the things that sticks out about the job Guffey does is that, if you come in contact with him, it is very obvious how much he enjoys what he is doing. He works very, very hard at what he does, and he gets right down in the trenches with the guys, but it doesn’t feel like work to him. In fact, he likes to joke with some of his friends from back in College about how they haven’t had to grow up and get a “real job” yet. 

I tell my friends from College all the time that I never really have to grow up. You get to go to the locker room every single day, you get to go to a baseball game every day and you get to hang out with your friends. So, it’s like an imaginary world where you still get to live in College mode or High School mode because you get to go to the baseball park every day. There are some days when you’re at the hospital until 3:00 in the morning and that’s a job, but most of the time it doesn’t feel like it. I mean, if I wasn’t doing it, I’d probably be going to watch games anyway, but I get to get payed to do it.  

Behind The Scenes

The Dodgers are one of the greatest organizations in any sport and in any profession in the world. To make things work as successfully and at as high of a level as the organization is used to functioning at, it takes hundreds, if not 1000’s of people to do their job every day that fans may not notice right away.

For those that reap the benefits of their work, it’s hard to describe how much it gets appreciated, so it’s very, very cool to have awards such as Texas League Athletic Trainer of the Year. It’s at least a little bit of well-due notice on a job very well done that needs recognition. 

So, Congratulations Jesse, on winning The Texas League Athletic Trainer of the Year, it was a job well done and an award well deserved.