Bo Porter will do anything to drive home his point.
The Houston Astros new manager is not above props, slogans or even a little shirt shedding. Porter took off his long-sleeved top in the dugout for reporters in the buildup to Opening Day's first pitch. He wanted to show off the T-shirts he had commissioned for the team.
The bright orange shirts read "I'm all in" on the front and "For the Vision The Where The Grind" on the back. And yes, Porter will model them for you.
Porter needs his team to buy in. That's what the shirts, the slogan and an impromptu "poker session" with his team are all about.
"I don't need any royalties," he joked before taking the field to throw to the first group of Astros taking batting practice Sunday.
Porter just needs his team to buy in. That's what the shirts, the slogan (which the first-year manager came up with months ago) and an impromptu "poker session" with his team late Saturday afternoon are all about. It's about making a team with a $25 million payroll believe it can at least be somewhat competitive in its inaugural season in the power-packed American League.
After the Astros completed their exhibition schedule at Minute Maid Park Saturday, Porter gathered all the players together around a table full of chairs. Every spot had 25 chips in front of it. Porter talked about commitment, about sticking to it long after "the euphoria" of this nationally-televised opening night matchup with the Texas Rangers wears off and pushed all his chips to the center of the table.
"I'm all in," he said. Everyone around the table followed, pushing in their own chips.
"If anyone didn't, they wouldn't still be here," Porter cracks.
Yes, Porter's regular season motivational ploys have begun. Are they a little hokey? Maybe, but it's not like he's trying to lead a bunch of cynical, world-weary graduate students. The Astros are younger than younger. With this group, Porter's dramatics have a good chance of resonating.
So he sets up a table in the middle of the clubhouse with poker chips around it and takes off his shirt for the TV cameras. Bo is being Bo. He knows a little something about motivational tactics.
"I played for a very creative man," Porter says.
That would be legendary University of Iowa football coach Hayden Fry, the man who helped shape the 40-year-old Porter. Fry would do anything for a psychological edge. He's famous for ordering the visitors locker room at Iowa's Kinnick Stadium to be painted pink. He thought the color kept opponents off guard and took away a little of their aggressiveness.
Porter jokes that he thought about ordering that for the visitors clubhouse at Minute Maid, but decided against it. "Do onto others as you'd like to be done," he says.
Which doesn't mean Porter plans to tone down his own approach.
"I get fired up every time I get out of a meeting with him," Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow says. Luhnow's hardly completely joking. Porter can get to suits too.
Now, he just needs to find a way to get some wins.
The Gold Over America Tour cast performing on NBC's "America's Got Talent."
First came the gold medals, now comes the Gold Over America Tour, the gymnastics mega-show headlined by Simone Biles, currently touring 30 cities around the United States and coming to Houston’s Toyota Center on Saturday, October 19.
Joining Biles are fellow Paris Olympic champions Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, along with bronze medal-winning men’s team members Paul Juda, Brody Malone, Asher Hong, and Fred Richard, plus other gymnastics superstars. Adding men to the G.O.A.T. showcase is a new twist; the 2021 tour, post-Tokyo Olympics, had a cast made up entirely of women.
It’s a change that Biles hopes will help elevate men’s gymnastics around the country.
Juda, for one, couldn’t be more grateful. The Olympic medalist is still riding the wave of excitement from winning the first USA men’s team medal in 16 years, along with having achieved his own dream of competing in the Olympic individual all-around final.
We recently chatted with Juda, who took us behind the scenes of the G.O.A.T. show, the squad, and life on the tour bus as a college student missing classes to travel the country like a rock star.
CultureMap: At the Olympics this summer, the whole vibe of men’s and women’s USA gymnastics seemed happy and supportive of each other. How are you carrying that camaraderie into performing together as a troupe in the Gold Over America Tour?
Paul Juda: I think during the whole Olympic experience we just had a lot of joy. We had a lot of of fun outside of those two hours of competition. So the competition in and of itself was kind of like a "mission critical," and we were pretty focused, but we still tried to keep it light.
On this, there's no real competition; we’re here to put on the best show possible for the audience. And as long as we can kind of keep leaning in on each other like our support system, the shows are going to come easier because it's going to be a long tour. It's going to be hard, but fun together.
I can already see even just on the the two nights and three days that we've been here together, we've had a lot of fun. We're all best friends here, and we're going to bring that kind of energy to the stage.
CM: The last Gold Over America Tour was all women - and the theme was very much female empowerment, and girls as superheroes. Now that men are included, what can we expect from the show this time?
PJ: I think it's awesome (men are included) and I'm not even gonna lie, this tour just got, like, a million times better after making a medal. I'm really excited to get to do the show. It's going to be a lot of back and forth (between men and women). Yeah, we're doing some gymnastics; we're trying to learn a little bit of dancing. We've got lights, we've got a lot of songs, and we're bouncing off of each other's stories. There's going to be a lot of really fun, fun parts. (Note: Here's a preview.)
CM: Figure skating has shows like “Stars on Ice” and the old “Ice Capades” that they can join after the Olympics to perform for audiences. Would you like to see something like that for gymnasts, who often don’t get to really “entertain” audiences?
PJ: Yeah, (in gymnastics) we use the human body to all of its maximum capability, and (learning) dance moves, I enjoy using a different side of my brain. I'm a guy who would also enjoy a musical or a Broadway show or something like that, just for the element of like, “Wow. Look at the choreography and how they're able to add the music and the lights and everything in the whole production.”
And then you couple it with the fact that we have, like, extraordinary strength and flexibility and we can kind of do almost circus-like events, but then also add in a touch of difficulty - like hey, okay, they're not just acrobats; they also spent 20 years doing this sport.
I feel like it's the ultimate show. You know, it's some dance lights, some music, a storyline, you can watch your favorite athlete and then see him or her in a kind of different light. Now the athlete literally just gets to have fun out there. I wouldn't see why people wouldn't want to see more of this type of show.
CM: There’s so much buzz around gymnastics during the Olympics. How do you keep those fans interested the other three years in between, especially men’s gymnastics?
PJ: I'm hoping this tour does that, and I'm also confident, like anything that we do afterwards on the global stage (like "pommel horse guy" Stephen Nedoroscik competing on Dancing With the Stars), I hope people are like, "Oh yeah, I see them doing that. But I also remember they represent men's gymnastics."
Paul Juda on parallel bars for the University of Michigan team.Photo by John Cheng
Q: A lot of cast members are in college, including yourself (a graduate student), and you’re also captain of the University of Michigan Men’s Gymnastics team. How will you balance your studies and college athletics commitments while you’re on tour?
PJ: (He holds up a notebook with a calendar planner filled in.) This. I'm looking at my schedule today, I've got a weekly reflection. I've got a case to work on. I've got a data analytics assignment, a lecture to watch, and a reading quiz to do, so, it's a lot for sure. Hopefully after this tour I can come back and be in a really good place with my team. It's really bittersweet. (Teammate Fred Richard and I) we were able to have our only really big tailgate of the year for the Michigan football game last week. And I'm just so heartbroken because that that's like my favorite part of the year.
I think my team will be okay, though, and I've left some excellent people in charge … phenomenal captains, and I have no doubt that they'll keep the team on pace, and if they need anything from me, they'll text me.
And on top of that, in terms of school, I think honestly, if anything, it’ll just keep me doing the right things. I got to go to bed early to wake up early and get some homework done, that's probably for the best. I’ll try to do some lectures on the tour bus and stuff.
CM:The reception in Houston - hometown of Simone Biles and adopted hometown of Jordan Chiles - will be nuts, and of course Fort Worth is where the last National Championships was held this past summer. What cities are you most looking forward to?
PJ: Chicago and Detroit are going to be my two main places. I've got a lot of people coming for the Detroit show from University of Michigan, and then Chicago, that’s where I'm from. Every time that I've visited Texas, I really enjoy Texas. We'll have a lot of fun. I'm excited to see the Texans come out and specifically in that Austin area, we've got a lot of people there.
CM: Well, don’t forget your cowboy hat.
PJ: Alright!
Note: This interview was edited for clarity and brevity. The Gold Over America Tour, presented by Athleta, will take place at 7:30 pm October 19 at the Toyota Center in Houston. For tickets ($35-$500) and more information, visit the website.
Paul Juda on parallel bars for the University of Michigan team.Photo by John Cheng