Baseball Men

There is something strange going on in the baseball world. Last week, the St. Louis Cardinals fired general manager Walt Jocketty, adding extra fuel to the rumors we’ve been hearing all season about the possible departure of Tony La Russa. Today, John Schuerholz stepped aside as general manager of the Atlanta Braves and people are wondering about the future of manager, Bobby Cox. Added to that is the constant chatter about whether the Yankees will show Joe Torre the door.

All of the above are proven winners. All of these guys are long term. You could make the case that the Yankees, Braves and Cardinals are the most successful teams of the current era. You can also point out that all of these teams have had that success during the tenure of the above mentioned.

Jocketty, La Russa, Schuerholz, Cox, and Torre are all “baseball men”. Baseball man, that’s an undefined term that has been use throughout the history of the game. Usually, you hear the term in conjunction with somebody who is not a baseball man. For instance, Billy Martin was a baseball man and George Steinbrenner-not a baseball man. Dick Williams, baseball man; Charles O. Finley, insurance man. Lou Piniella, baseball man; Marge Schott, definitely not a baseball man. A baseball man is someone who cares about tradition, has a deep respect for the game.

The general perception is that if the owners would just leave the baseball to baseball men, we’d all be a lot better off. Although, Steinbrenner’s teams have won six world series’, Finley won a couple and even Marge Schott won one.

A lot of times, ownership will make statements to the press that say things like; “We want to assure our fans that whoever we decide to hire as manager will be a baseball man”. Before Jocketty got the hire in St. Louis, the new owners were even saying this about the general manager position. That’s kind of a new development actually. Traditionally, the general manager was thought of as the guy who carried out the owners wishes. He may have been a go-between for the owner and manager but more on the owners side, the business side.

At some point, it became desirable for the manager and the general manager to work together more as a team. They would work hand in hand to decide what players were needed and the G.M. would try to figure out a way to get it done on budget. The perception became that a good general manager was sort of a hybrid, half baseball man, half suit. That’s perception though, because general managers are pretty tight lipped. It’s kind of a secret society. Civilians don’t really know what a general manager does. Kind of like when you see “executive producer” on a movie credit. You know that guy is important but you don’t know why.

Both Schuerholz and Jocketty have good reputations. The perception is that they put good teams together and keep the owners happy. Then why are they leaving? One thing I know, you’re not going to hear why from them. That is one thing that I know general managers do. If they came out and said a bunch of stuff that made the owners look bad, it would reflect poorly on them as general managers.

When a GM changes jobs, you picture some back room meeting with the owners of the new team. A meeting that is the only place that the GM will express his dissatisfaction with his former employers.

So what is going on here? We know that Schuerholz and Jocketty put good teams on the field. As general managers go, they are considered baseball men. Cox, La Russa, Torre; These guys are all future Hall of Famers, real baseball men.

I can’t remember one time that this many guys with sterling reputations and great track records had their collective futures in the air.

Is this something as simple as changing the guard; new blood needed? Or, is there some deeper philosophical shift going on in the tectonic plates of the baseball world?

I wonder why Mike Hargrove quit half way through the season, now that I think about it. Sure, there are still some baseball men out there; Jim Leyland in Detroit, you know that Mike Soscia is one; even zany Ozzie Guillen, you got to love him. Keep your eye on these guys.

The winds of change are shifting, baseball men beware.

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