With his schedule at the helm of the Diamondbacks, Torey Lovullo doesn't often get the chance to see his son, Nick, a manager in the Cubs' Minor League system, manage.
An exception was last year when Nick managed the Cubs’ squad in the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League at their Spring Training complex in Mesa. Torey was able to make it over there to watch Nick at work several times.
Another chance came last Friday in Chicago. Torey and the Diamondbacks had a day contest against the Cubs, while the team Nick is currently managing -- the High-A South Bend Cubs -- had a night game.
Torey watched his team beat the Cubs, 5-2, at Wrigley Field, did his postgame media session, took a quick shower, then got on the road to South Bend, Ind., where he watched Nick's team beat Quad Cities, 8-1.
"Every once in a while, baseball creates that type of opportunity," Torey said. "This was a great moment. It's a beautiful stadium there."
Torey got there in time for the start of the game, and he settled into his seats behind South Bend’s dugout with his family, got some Dippin' Dots and a lemonade to watch the game as a fan.
"I was just a dad yesterday," Torey said. "I watched the baseball game through a different lens."
Well, now that's not entirely true.
Look, Torey is a baseball lifer. Some will remember him as a former big leaguer, who became a full-time Major League manager in 2017, but that leaves out a large chunk of his baseball story. He worked for years in player development with Cleveland, and he also managed for years in the Minor Leagues, working his way up the ladder.
All of that is a roundabout way of saying that after all these years of managing games and studying the game, Torey cannot watch a baseball game as a fan. His mind is always working.
"It's a very awkward feeling sitting there not having anything to do," Torey said. "You know I found myself watching the same things [I do here], like the timing of what I do. I look in the opposing dugout, third-base coach, hitter, outfield. Boom, boom, boom, boom. That's kind of the way my eyes shift through the course of pitch by pitch."
That's a fascinating look at what goes through a big league manager's mind during a game that we don't often learn about.
And there's a reason why Torey does each of those things. Let's start with the opposing dugout. He's looking to see what signs might be given to the third-base coach and then what signs the third-base coach gives.
Often it results in some important intel, like it did that night in South Bend.
"I picked off their signs," Torey said. "I told my son, ‘This is what their signs are.’ So, it was their manager's fault. In a matter of eight pitches, he called four throwovers. And by the third, I had it [figured out] and the fourth one confirmed it. So I said, ‘Be ready, because if you guys want to steal some bases, this is what you look for.’ That's just how my eyes are trained."
As for why he scans the outfield and then the infield, Lovullo said that he's looking to see if his players look like they're ready and if they are in the right position on the field.
D-backs first-base coach Dave McKay positions the outfielders and third-base coach Tony Perezchica handles the infielders. It's impossible for Lovullo to know the tendencies of every batter to decide the exact positioning of his defense. But he has an idea, and he also wants to make sure their heads are up and that they are engaged in the pre-pitch routine.
After the game, Torey went into Nick's office -- and that too was a different experience.
"I sat in the guest chair, he sat in the manager's chair," Torey said with a smile. "That was very awkward. It was a good father-son moment. We had our baseball worlds collide and that doesn't happen all that often."