Guardians
Guardians fans: Meet the side of team president Chris Antonetti very few know
By Terry Pluto
Updated: Mar. 25, 2023, 12:08 p.m.
GOODYEAR, Ariz. –
It was an Arizona morning when I met with Guardians president Chris Antonetti in his spring training office.
That’s when the subject of working at the car wash came up, almost out of nowhere.
Antonetti has overseen the team’s baseball operations since 2011.
When it comes to personal matters, Antonetti is very private. His humility is sincere, along with his commitment to make sure all his key people such as GM Mike Chernoff, manager Terry Francona and many others played key roles in the team’s success.
When something does go wrong, Antonetti steps up and faces the media. He takes the hits, even if it’s not his fault. Former Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro was the same way. It’s the right way to lead.
Antonetti brushes off being MLB’s 2022 Executive of the Year. Like Francona – who won the American League Manager of the Year award – Antonetti calls it “an organizational award.” His point is no one person deserves credit for the Guardians surprising rise to win the Central Division with a 92-70 record.
Over and over, the top people with the Guardians talk about “collaboration” and “working together.” It’s not just words. They have been together for a long time. Francona is in his 11th season as manager. Chernoff is in his 19th season with the team.
Antonetti has been with the Guardians for 25 years.
WORKING AT THE CAR WASH
That led to the car wash stories.
In public, Antonetti always seems poised and analytical. Some of it probably comes from his father, Mario, who is an engineer. You think deeply about things. You plan. You don’t panic when faced with troubles. You work on the problem.
“I grew up in a family of four boys,” said Antonetti. “Sports and competition is a part of who I am. We believe competition brings out the best in people. The meaning of competition is striving together.”
The Antonetti family lived in Orange, Connecticut, a suburb of New Haven. Working together is in their DNA.
“My father commuted 40 miles to New York for work each day,” said Antonetti. “He’d get up at 4 a.m. and drive to work. Then he’d come back to be at our baseball games and soccer games.”
The family also owned two car washes. It goes back to Antonetti’s grandfather, who was in the car wash business after coming to America from Italy.
“My father managed the car wash on weekends,” he said. “It was a part of our lives. I started doing things at the car wash when I was about 7 – folding towels, putting them in the machines. At some point, I worked the line to put cars through. I collected the money.”
The family influence seems to flow through every drop of blood in Antonetti’s veins.
“My mom has the unique ability to make everyone in her life feel special,” he said. “She supported each of us as individuals. She now has 10 grandchildren and makes them feel like the only grand child she has. She treats everyone that way. She brings out the best in people.”
WHAT REALLY MATTERS
All the Antonetti boys were headed for college.
Two of them became medical doctors. Marc is a surgeon in South Carolina. David is a primary care physician in Connecticut. The youngest brother is Michael.
“Michael is the smartest of all of us,” said Antonetti. “He has a law degree and other graduate degrees. His wife is now working and he’s taking care of the three kids. He’s brilliant. All my brothers are incredible people, I draw a lot from them.”
But the Antonetti family valued work, be it at the car wash or something that required a graduate degree. Their mother is Ann Antonetti, who technically stayed home with the boys. That was job enough when they were growing up. But she also helped manage the two car washes.
“My parents prioritized family and work,” he said. “I learned so much from them about what is really important.”
PICKING UP TOWELS
All of the Antonetti boys went to Georgetown. By the time Antonetti arrived, he knew he loved sports but wasn’t an elite athlete. He was a varsity tennis player in high school. His favorite sports were basketball and baseball.
As a junior, he became a manager for the Georgetown basketball team during the John Thompson/Allen Iverson Era.
He helped clean up the locker room. He packed bags when the team traveled. He rebounded during practice drills for the players. He kept stats. Anything the coaches wanted, he did.
It was like working at the car wash. No job is too small. It’s being part of the team.
“Coach Thompson had priorities beyond basketball,” said Antonetti. “For him, basketball was an avenue to talk about life and the choices we make – how those choices impact our lives. He spent far more time on that than basketball.”
Antonetti reveres Thompson. He treasures his time at the Washington, D.C., school.
“I grew up in a white, middle-class suburb,” he said. “The environment where most of the Georgetown players came from was very different. It opened my eyes to a lot of things.”
In the Georgetown basketball program, he was in the minority group. That impacted him, expanding his view of society and other people. It was great training for what was to come next in the ethnically diverse world of pro baseball.
IT’S A GREAT JOB, BUT YOU WON’T GET PAID
Antonetti graduated with a business degree, but his heart was in sports. Working with Thompson and the Georgetown team fueled his passion to be a part of a team and team building.
“When I graduated, there were only two schools offering a master’s in sports management,” said Antonetti. “That was Ohio U. and UMass. I applied to UMass, got in and graduated.”
The next step was an internship. Many of his classmates were going into the marketing and business side of sports. Antonetti wanted to work in the front office. Back then, most scouts, general managers and other baseball front office people were former pro players and/or coaches.
Antonetti was a manager from the Georgetown basketball team. He relentlessly sent out letters and resumes to teams. He believes he probably was the last member of his graduating class to secure an internship.
Finally, he heard from Neal Huntington, who was the assistant farm director of the Montreal Expos. The year was 1997. Huntington was 28 years old. Antonetti was 22 when he became Huntington’s intern.
He did everything from run errands, pushing lots of paper (this was before the internet age took over) and worked on the fields in the spring facility of West Palm Beach. He made sandwiches for the players.
It was like being at Georgetown again, starting at the bottom.
Let’s go back to the car wash. That’s where he learned every job was important in its own way, no job was too small to be done right.
“It was an unpaid internship,” said Antonetti. “I lived at the team hotel, sharing a room with a player. To make money, I parked cars before (minor league) games. I sold ice cream, making a quarter on each sale. It reminds me of being paid 25 cents for every towel I folded at the car wash.”
After six months, Huntington was hired by the Tribe to be Mark Shapiro’s assistant. At that point, Shapiro was Cleveland’s farm director.
In Montreal, Antonetti was given a full-time job to replace Huntington as the Expos assistant farm director.
COMING TO CLEVELAND
In tough professions, people often say, “I can’t break in because I don’t know anyone.”
A way around that is to keep pushing until someone gives you a chance – as Huntington did with Antonetti. When Huntington went to Cleveland. Antonetti moved up.
Next, Paul DePodesta – Yes, that Paul DePodesta, who is now the Browns chief strategy officer – left the Tribe to go to Oakland. That began the Money Ball era with the A’s.
Meanwhile, Huntington told Shapiro about this promising kid named Antonetti. Shapiro called. Antonetti interviewed. He was hired as an assistant in the Baseball Operations department.
“I moved to Cleveland in November of 1998,” said Antonetti. “That was 25 years ago.”
Antonetti smiled, marveling at the passage of time and how things happened that brought him to Cleveland.
“I owe Neal Huntington so much,” he said. “He took a chance on me. "
MOVING UP
Antonetti stayed with the Tribe/Guardians. When Shapiro became the GM, Antonetti and Huntington were his top assistants. Eventually, Shapiro became team president, Antonetti moved up to the GM job.
By 2010, Antonetti was running the baseball side of the Tribe.
Those were tough times in Cleveland. From 2009-12, the team lost 97-93-82-94 games.
“Looking back, that was a good thing because it made us re-evaluate how we did things,” said Antonetti. “Then Tito (Francona) joined us after the 2012 season.”
That changed everything. In the last 10 years, Cleveland has had nine winning seasons, six trips to the playoffs and made the 2016 World Series.
The Guardians have done that despite having one of baseball’s lowest payrolls.
“I like working through hard things and trying to do something extraordinary,” he said. “If there is something difficult to do, I want to do it. It’s how I’m wired. There is great fulfillment in doing hard things.”
FINDING A HOME
Antonetti is now 48. He has been married to Sarah for 20 years. They have two daughters – Mya (16) and Ella (13).
Antonetti has turned down several chances to take jobs with other teams.
The only time he formally interviewed was with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2007. He was an assistant GM with the Tribe back then. The Cardinals offered him a chance to be their GM. Antonetti had married Sarah, a native Clevelander. He loved working for the Dolan family and Shapiro. He turned it down.
“I’m not one of those people who thinks the grass is always greener somewhere else,” he said. “I always try to appreciate the grass that is in front of me.”
More than half of Antonetti’s life has been in Cleveland. This is his home.
“I have always loved the job I’ve had. I feel valued and have worked for incredible people,” he said. “I joined the Indians with John (Hart), Mark (Shapiro), Neal (Huntington) and so many other great people. It continued to build overtime.”
Antonetti is a man with a grateful heart.
“I couldn’t be more fortunate than to work for the Dolan family,” he said. “As owners, they allow us to lead, to build a culture – and it’s a culture they created. I know how fortunate I am to be in professional sports and be able to stay in the same place. Many people in my job ending up moving a lot.”
Antonetti knows that’s hard on a family. So is his job, which is very public and pressure packed.
“I am so grateful to (wife) Sarah,” he said. “She has been incredibly supportive. My job is demanding. She and the girls have been behind me every step of the way. Sarah is the glue that holds our family together. We love Cleveland and hope we can keep staying here as the girls grow up.”
Antonetti also treasures Cleveland the Guardians fans.
“I feel a deep responsibility to Cleveland baseball fans and the community,” he said. “We wake up every day thinking about what it will be like to win a World Series. Not only will it be a source of pride for what we do on the field, but also the way the organization presents itself. I’m very grateful to work for an organization that shares those.”
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