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<\/p>\nIn his role with the New York Yankees, Mike Pinsky, the team\u2019s assistant director of baseball operations, is constantly searching for the best information to help general manager Brian Cashman make the next blockbuster trade or splashy free-agent signing.<\/p>\n
While Aaron Judge, Aaron Boone and company get all the headlines for their work on the field as the Yankees push for their first World Series title since 2009, Pinsky is a key cog in the machine, but behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
Until next Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Pinsky, 33, will be on TV screens nationwide when he debuts on \u201cSurvivor,\u201d the long-running reality-based show on CBS that pits contestants against each other in a variety of challenges for $1 million.<\/p>\n
In its 51st season, the show takes place on Fiji\u2019s Mamanuca Islands, and once the competition began, the cameras rolled 24 hours a day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no opportunity to turn it off,\u201d Pinsky told The Athletic on Tuesday afternoon. \u201cIt\u2019s relentless in that way. It\u2019s very much like the baseball season.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of his agreement with CBS, Pinsky would not answer questions about what happens on the show.<\/p>\n
Cashman and the rest of the Yankees\u2019 front office can\u2019t wait to see what Pinsky had to endure, and if he won.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all basically going to get our popcorn out and watch this thing play out,\u201d the general manager said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got no idea what\u2019s going to happen. But I believe in the person. He\u2019s a very gifted individual.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pinsky said he was able to draw parallels between his life in the Yankees\u2019 management structure and his life on \u201cSurvivor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are in the game, always,\u201d he said. \u201cAs long as you\u2019re out there, you\u2019re playing the game. When you\u2019re sleeping, you\u2019re playing the game. When you wake up, you\u2019re playing the game. When you have two seconds to go to the bathroom \u2014 and, by the way, there\u2019s no bathroom \u2014 you\u2019re still playing the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeff Probst, the host and showrunner, has described \u201cSurvivor\u201d as a game meant to \u201cbreak people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just want to push them further than they probably ever (have) been in their life,\u201d he said in an interview with Variety.<\/p>\n
Pinsky seemed to agree with that assessment.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine the hardest part of your week,\u201d he said, \u201camp up the difficulty, and then imagine doing it on no food and no sleep and with no access to anybody who is actually supporting your cause. (It\u2019s) not for the faint of heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Pinsky, being part of \u201cSurvivor\u201d filled what he called a \u201clifelong passion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growing up in Manhattan, Pinsky started watching the show at 8 years old, and he was infatuated with it. He and his friends, in the safety of his childhood bedroom, would make up challenges, take turns pretending to be Probst and vote each other off their make-believe island.<\/p>\n
Pinsky has seen every episode from the 50 seasons of the show, and a couple years ago he decided to try out for the Season 49 cast.\u00a0When he found out he was selected for this season, he was sitting in a rental car in the parking lot at George M. Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees\u2019 spring training home in Tampa, Fla. He immediately called his wife, Becky, and his father, Rich. His late mother, Janet Elder, was a deputy managing editor at The New York Times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I was walking on air the rest of the day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Immediately, the 5-foot-8 Pinsky hit the gym, gaining strength and preparing himself for the long stretches of the show without food. He also rewatched the previous 10 seasons, taking detailed notes about \u201cwhat went wrong for people and what succeeded, and common traits among winners and how their gameplay translated to winning the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s any information out there that I can glean before I go into something, I want to know it, and I think it\u2019s sort of ridiculous that anybody wouldn\u2019t do that,\u201d he said. \u201cHow do you go out and do this once-in-a-lifetime, one-of-one opportunity sort of thing and not prepare to the fullest?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n The cast of the 51st season of \u201cSurvivor.\u201d The Yankees\u2019 Mike Pinsky is in the second row, second from left. (Robert Voets \/ CBS)<\/p>\n
Pinsky said he was grateful to Cashman for giving him time off to be on the show. At first, he was nervous to ask. He understood the all-in commitment it takes to be a trusted member of the Yankees\u2019 front office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him that I might have this opportunity to do this really cool thing that I wanted to do for my entire life and essentially asked what he would think about it,\u201d Pinsky said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what (to expect). He encouraged me that, when you have opportunities to fulfill lifelong dreams, you can\u2019t turn them down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are 21 contestants,\u201d Cashman said. \u201cIn theory, he\u2019s got a 1-in-21 chance at a million dollars. It\u2019s a hell of a lot better than trying to play Powerball. So it\u2019s like, how do you deny that opportunity?\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Pinsky returned from Fiji, life has been a little different.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing home post-filming is a highly strange experience,\u201d he said. \u201cFor one thing, you\u2019ve just had this extraordinary life experience, but there is no evidence of it anywhere \u2014 no pictures in your phone, no texts, nothing. And for another, it\u2019s all anyone wants to talk to me about, but I really can\u2019t say much.\u201d<\/p>\n
That even goes for his top boss.<\/p>\n
One day just before the trade deadline, Pinsky was sitting at a table with other members of the Yankees\u2019 front office when owner Hal Steinbrenner looked him straight in the eyes and told him that he had to tell him if he won \u201cSurvivor.\u201d Steinbrenner looked like he meant business.<\/p>\n
For a moment, Pinsky didn\u2019t know what to do. He knew he couldn\u2019t tell Steinbrenner. He also didn\u2019t want to lose his job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely had to think about the right way to play my cards on this one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Turns out, Steinbrenner quickly dropped his poker face. He was kidding. Everyone laughed.<\/p>\n
It made Pinsky feel like he was back on \u201cSurvivor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly,\u201d he said, \u201cit was just like an extension of the game. It\u2019s like you\u2019re right back out there, trying to figure out the best response.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his role with the New York Yankees, Mike Pinsky, the team\u2019s assistant director of baseball operations, is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,2331,591,2704,85,3276],"class_list":["post-893379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-culture","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports","tag-sports-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}