By Noe in Austin
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on October 23, 2001.
The other day I was wondering if one could channel the same spirit that invades columnist John P. Lopez of the Houston Chronicle to write a Bleacher Rap. Then I wondered why one would want to. Yeah, what’s so good about writing a column or article chock full of my own opinions, conspiracy theories and paranoia’s all rolled into one. Well come to think of about it, this could be fun in the trying to park a M4 Sherman Tank in a compact car parking space sort of way. You can do it; you’re just going to have to accept that you’re going to have to squash, maim, destroy, push, run over and generally stomp a few things along the way to gain your objective. Damn the destruction, full speed ahead, let’s see what a Lopez-like diatribe? err? column about the media and all it’s foibles in the current Astros situation might read like. Here goes, my try at satire (from a bunker somewhere in the hills of central Texas):
Jimy Williams, the myth of his Astros managerial candidacy
Okay, who said that Jimy Williams was a valid candidate for the vacant Astros managerial job? The Astros? The fans of said Astros? What about Buck Showalter? Who is responsible for all these rumors of retread managers being good fits, nay, front-running candidates?
Is it the Astros or the media that are looking towards Showalter and Williams? I submit that there is a popular belief that the media may have hated what happened to essentially one of their own, Larry Dierker. This probably the reason behind the poison pen writing about how mistreated Dierker was, especially by what they want to make the villain in all this: the players, followed closely by an inept GM and a baseball crude owner.
Ahum, yeah… right.
Larry Dierker resigned. He cited his growing tired of the job and honestly assessing that the job itself was getting to him. Hey, you know what, I’ve resigned jobs that I thought were no longer in *my own best interest*, why would or should Larry be different? Dierker doesn’t have an ego for the job as some other professional mercenary retread managers have. They *need* the job, Larry doesn’t.
Dierker never seeked the job, he was asked to take it. He was perfectly happy in the broadcast booth. He looked at it as a challenge he’d like to try his hand at. One wonders, however if a person who never openly campaigned for a job would be inclined to hold on to it as if it’s the most important thing in his life? I think just the opposite applies. This is Larry Dierker; the same nice guy “players manager” who seriously needed time to grow into the job and talked honestly and forthrightly with media people even at the expense of his players and players on the opposing team. (Remember his assessment of the St. Louis rotation late in the season?) Now that he has stepped down of his own accord, the media is not satisfied that their are no visible villains for them to point to, so they’ll make them up. Why not, every good story needs a bad guy in order to make the good guy that much more palatable. Larry Dierker is a genuine good guy, but does he need to have an anti-Dierker to prove it to all of us? The media seems to think so. That is where the players serve a good purpose, as they are more than willing to provide the seemingly necessary ammo for the media popgun.
When has there ever been, in the history of major league baseball, a clubhouse when players and managers were not at odds in some manner or another? Never. All teams have players and managers quibbling, the degrees may differ, but suffice it to say you can always find grumbling in the clubhouse especially when it comes to managers. Right now, the media is playing up the typical manager/player conflicts as something possibly bigger than they were. Good thing we have the media here to protect us like this from all the evil in the world. What can be more evil than a major league baseball player who is opinionated and stubborn in his ways? Apparently not much, if I read the media correctly nowadays. You can either have Joey Belle or Cal Ripken, Jr. but nothing in between folks. Even supposedly good guy Albert Pujols is being blasted in the St. Louis media now because he refused to sign an autograph of a wheelchair restricted youngster. Evil I tell you and we have the media to thank for pointing it all out for us.
They (the media) have been the ones touting Buck Showalter (ugh!) and Jimy Williams (worse) simply because it is they, the media, who want to see a manager come in here and kick some veteran player ass. Why does the media want this? Why are *they* on this campaign? One is to validate what they see as the problem: the veteran egotistical players. Secondly, to generate this a momentum so as to influence the populace to then influence the owner, who very much cares about what the fans want and say, that this is the way to go. Is the influence on the fans working? Yes it is. If you read Astros forums, listen to sports talk-radio and listen to the talk around the water-coolers, even the most die-hard fans are caught up in dissing Biggio and Bagwell in favor of poor Dierker. Dierk, the honest one, has never once complained about Bidge or Baggs as clubhouse lawyers that I can remember. Funny how Dierker can garner a reputation as an honest answer guy, but hasn’t volunteered to say anything along these lines to the media. Not once. Now some of the fans want a fiery, whip-cracking manager to come in here and straighten these two guys out? These guys don’t need a manager to straighten them out; they need a manager to sit them down more during the season so as to keep their legs fresh come playoff time. That sort of manager doesn’t need to be a fiery manager, as influence can work towards this end as much as muscle. As an example, WWJTD (What Would Joe Torre Do?) as an Astros manager?
The media wants Jimy Williams, not necessarily the Astros management. Don’t let these reports fool you; the inside track for the job belongs to either Tony Pena, Mike Cubbage and as a long shot Jackie Moore or Clint Hurdle. The retreads are all inventions of the media and their warped campaign. It won’t work when it comes to smart baseball men like Hunsicker and Smith. Drayton McLane is another thing altogether and the media knows that is where the Astros are vulnerable.
Here is an example of how hypocritical the media really is on this issue. For years now, they’ve been critical of owner Drayton McLane for being a cheapskate on both players and management salaries. Ironically, they are currently indicting the man for not coming out and signing the General Manager for years beyond his lame-duck year. It was the media who first denounced the Dierker hire as yet another indication of how cheap McLane really is. It’s all about saving money, they said, not winning baseball. The opined at the time of Dierker’s hire as a million dollar vehicle driven by a 10 cent chauffeur. Dierk won them over with his personality and quotability. He became their darling up until the very last two weeks of the season when Dierk basically turned his honesty against them as well. He blasted the media and the local and national fans for criticizing his decisions in pitching to Barry Bonds. Irony of irony, that when the Dierker honesty spotlight is turned on the media, they don’t like it. Heck, they were all but saying that the Astros should consider releasing Dierker at the end of the year. Fans and media alike were ready to run the man out on a rail. Now all of sudden, they’re acting with shock and dismay at his desire to step down amiss all that frustration? The man quit because he didn’t like the job anymore and everything that it entailed, especially the ugliness that masqueraded as baseball savvy questioning. He was sad because he wasn’t good enough to bring his beloved Astros a championship, but he was contented that he had done his best. He said in several days he would be okay and happy again, because he was still in the organization and was going be around to enjoy it all.
The simple reason why Tony Pena hasn’t been named as the next manager is because he has serious competition from Mike Cubbage, Clint Hurdle and Jackie Moore (to a lesser extent). All these guys are viable candidates. This gives the media ample opportunity to muddy the waters with names like Williams or Showalter. Of the real candidates, Tal Smith, baseball president of the club, might like one more for a sundry of reasons and yet another might be more liked by Gerry Hunsicker, general manager of the club. Bob McLaren and Pam Garner, presidents of operations for the club, might like someone other than Smith or Hunsicker’s favorite. It was Pam Gardner who was upset with Dierker after his last two weeks of publicity garnering tirades against fans and media. She, along with McLaren will be looking for a guy who they think can handle the pressure that comes with media and fan relations. Drayton McLane, who rounds out the group, has his own criteria for his vote on the next manager. Unfortunately in most respects, it is he who holds most of the power to make the choice of the 14th manager for the team. Unfortunately because McLane is a lighting rod of controversy with the media.
Don’t be surprised if the media is going to use a Pena, Cubbage, Hurdle or Moore selection as a reason to revive their word processor slams against McLane as a cheapskate. If he goes with their favorite, Jimy Williams, many know it will be a clubhouse mix that will turn volatile rather quickly and they will in turn blame McLane for not listening to his baseball people, opting to go with the popular choice instead. If it’s Pena, they will write that Jimy Williams was elimated because of money, as well as Showalter, Gaston and all other retread managers. The Astros went cheap with a Pena selection, they will say…. it was money that drove this pick, will be their headline. Afterall, they’ve already set up the public to expect Williams to be the best and next manager when in fact they all know that Pena or Cubbage were the heir apparent to Dierker if ever a move was necessary. Perhaps this all they wanted in the first place, a chance to rail against the man. The man being McLane, Biggio or Bagwell of course.