Manuel, Riggleman finally get another shot at managing

Phil Rogers | On Baseball

June 22, 2008

Jerry Manuel needed five seasons to get a second chance. That's a long time to wait, but Jim Riggleman would have taken it. He needed nine seasons to escape the managerial graveyard.

Riggleman and Manuel both took Chicago teams to the playoffs but failed to win a game in their first-round series—Riggleman's Cubs getting swept by Atlanta in 1998 and Manuel's White Sox by Seattle in 2000. They largely had fallen out of view before last week.

On Tuesday, Manuel was named to replace Willie Randolph with the Mets. Riggleman was handed the keys to the wreck known as the Seattle Mariners on Thursday when John McLaren was fired.

Both have the job until season's end, but Manuel clearly seems better situated to have a lasting impact.

Manuel inherits a much better team, under respected general manager Omar Minaya,who is in his fourth year on the job. If Manuel breathes life into the $138 million roster that had gone 39-47 under Randolph since last Sept. 14, he should be able to hold off the possibility of another managerial change in the off-season when candidates like Bobby Valentine and Manny Acta could be available.

Riggleman has the appearance of a caretaker in Seattle. His appointment was made by Lee Pelekoudas,an interim GM who will have to survive a full-fledged search (possibly including his mentor, Pat Gillick)to hold onto the job.

Because of his quiet, respectful nature, some in New York saw Manuel as a Randolph clone. He dispelled that notion in his first news conference as the manager, saying he would have done some things differently than Randolph.

For instance, he would have rested his regulars more, set up specific roles for relievers and used last September's collapse as a rallying point rather than trying to avoid any mention of it.

In his first game on the job, Manuel pulled leadoff man Jose Reyes after one inning because Reyes, who has a history of hamstring problems, was limping after he reached first base. Reyes went semi-ballistic in the dugout, flinging his helmet and yanking at his jersey while heading toward the clubhouse.

Manuel gave Reyes a few minutes, then headed into the clubhouse himself for a long conversation. They cleared the air, but when the conversation was over there was no doubt with anyone that the manager, not the players, was in charge.

"Normally he can shake it out and he feels better," Manuel said of Reyes. "But me, this being my first game, I didn't want to lose Jose Reyes for an extended period of time. I said, 'Nah, I'll let you squiggle and squirm, but you're getting on out of here tonight. You can be mad all you want to. You can throw rocks, sling snot, cry all you want, but you're coming out.' "

With Pedro Martinez winning two of his first three starts and Minaya always on the lookout for midseason reinforcements, Manuel may be arriving at the right time. It would help if Johan Santana (45-11, 2.45 ERA after the All-Star break since 2003) kicks it into sixth gear, as he usually does when spring turns to summer.

Riggleman will need a miracle to avoid a last-place finish with the Mariners. This is a team that was built around its pitching staff, which ranks 13th in the AL in ERA. Felix Hernandez and his fellow starters, including highly paid veterans Erik Bedard, Carlos Silva and Jarrod Washburn,had a 5.10 mark entering the weekend.

Riggleman has had surprising success before. In Kerry Wood's rookie season, he took a Cubs team that had gone 68-94 the year before and won 90 games, including the one-game playoff against San Francisco for the wild-card spot.

"Sometimes you wonder, 'Just how again did we make it to the postseason?' " Baltimore Orioles GM Andy MacPhail,who was with the Cubs president at the time, told the Seattle Times. "I think he really did a great job for us."

That begs the question of why MacPhail didn't intervene to stop Ed Lynch from firing Riggleman after a disappointing 1999 season, which was the first of several compromised by injuries to either Wood or Mark Prior.

Before Dusty Baker was hired in Cincinnati last winter, it had been 28 years since anyone received a job after they had managed the Cubs. Now there have been two in a year and a third is a phone call away.

Don Baylor,healthy again after a bout with multiple myeloma, would be a strong candidate in Houston if Cecil Cooper has a short stay. That's a distinct possibility as a team that has spent heavily to compete entered Saturday 4-16 in its last 20 games. Cooper is in his first full season but is promised no honeymoon.

The hard way

With two swings to keep in rhythm, switch-hitters historically have had a tough time staying hot for extended times. That's what makes Chipper Jones' run at .400 so impressive.

In the last 20 years, only four switch-hitters have won batting titles (Willie McGee,at .335 in 1990; Terry Pendleton,at .319 in '91; Bernie Williams, at .339 in 1998 and Bill Mueller, at .326 in 2003). The highest average ever by a switch-hitter is Mickey Mantle's .365 in 1957.

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