Shannon's Blog: Wow
In this Feb. 25, 2008 file photo, Seattle Mariners manager John McLaren talks to a group of catchers during baseball spring training in Peoria, Ariz. By Shannon DrayerThat’s all I can say after Mac’s conference call. I don’t want this to be a theme of the past week as I said it about Bill Bavasi possibly being miscast as a GM, but Mac, not the manager, is so different from Mac the manager. I had a few players tell me this during the season, that Mac had changed since becoming the manager and was more distant, not as familiar with them as he was when he was the bench coach. Now being promoted from within is a tricky deal. I don’t think a person can be the same when promoted in such a situation, the key I would think would be to find balance of what got you there, and the new responsibilities you have, one of which is to lead. Easier said than done no doubt. One of Mac’s biggest strengths is that he is a people person. He has a gift for keeping a finger on the pulse of the clubhouse and dealing with it accordingly. He initiated some pretty challenging relationships. Ichiro for example. It is not that he is difficult, but he is so different from anything we have ever seen in this game both on and off the field. Johjima, again raised in a different baseball background and taking on the enormous task of trying to learn the American game and learn how to communicate with his pitchers. Jose Guillen, there are volumes written on how difficult he can be, but Mac saw the valuable qualities to a team in him and cultivated a relationship. He quickly earned his trust (not an easy thing to do with Guillen) and the team benefited to the point where in his exit interview, Bavasi said, he may have been the missing piece. So to hear Mac say that the main reason he can point at that the club has struggled so tremendously is that there were issues in the clubhouse, in his words “a little tension, friction, and jealousy.” He couldn’t or wouldn’t point to reasons for this but knew it was a strong and revealing statement, a statement he made public to make the team better. “Sometimes we get caught up in our own world,” he said on the call. “This is a team sport. I am not being negative, but truthful because I do want to see them get better. He also admitted that there was a point where the hitters were failing to score runs so much that he noticed there may have been tension between the pitchers and hitters. I couldn’t help but wonder how Mac would have dealt with these issues had he been the bench coach. He said that he thought it was something the guys just needed to work out, but when he was bench coach, I kind of got the impression he almost was one of the guys. If he took the pulse of the team and found what is there now, would he have tackled it differently? If he didn’t have the responsibilities, or an office, would he have confronted it in a different manner? So on Monday Bill Bavasi called the clubhouse dysfunctional, and today Mac spoke of some tension, friction and jealousy. Both I believe said these things, which are not easy to say, in hopes that it be acknowledged and worked on. Problem is, the guys don’t see it that way. I spoke to several players and Norm about this and here is what they had to say. Norm… “I think there is that in every clubhouse. When we won the World Series in 1990 there was tension and friction in the clubhouse. We had fights amongst our players we had fights with amongst our players and managers. That comes with the territory in the clubhouse, but it becomes glaringly obvious and gets brought to the forefront not only when you are losing but especially when you are going through the situation like we are. The only way to solve that problem is to win some games.” Raul... “If the clubhouse is the way they are saying it is and the team wins everyone says it’s an eccentric clubhouse, and if the clubhouse is the way that it is and we lose, they say there is dissention and all that stuff. I don’t see it as part of the reason. If there is an issue that needs to be addressed and it comes to my attention then I will address it, but a lot of the time, we have blinders on , from the time I get up in the morning I am focused on what I have to do that day. A lot of the guys are like that here. He might be able to see from a different perspective because he is standing from the outside looking in.” Bloomquist… “I would like some more details on that comment I guess. There’s twenty-five guys, you have twenty-five personalities. There is always going to be some sort of tension between some guys or disagreements as far as the way they feel the game should be played. I don’t really see it as something that is open or a distraction. I don’t see it as any different than any other clubhouse.” Batista… “Jealousy? That we are jealous that Ichiro’s the best dresser? No. I don’t know what kind of jealousy he was talking about, probably he saw something we didn’t see. As far as I know I have been here for two years we haven’t had any confrontation between players and there is a lot of jealousy out there, I have seen guys grab each other by the throats but not here.” Interesting, because throat grabbing in the right situation is exactly what Bavasi and Mac wanted to see. The quotes above are what were said to me on tape. There were some other things that I have been told off mic from others. There have been a couple of confrontations with players this year, but they were handled internally. I know of a confrontation over defense, and one between a pitcher and a hitter. Neither are believed to still be an issue. Both from what I have heard were of the healthy variety, players getting on guys to do things the right way. The trouble lies in the fact that apparently, not enough of that is going on. If we are to believe that Mac and Bill were correct in their assessments, then either the players don’t see it, or they don’t care. Both assessments may have been a nice going away present, maybe they will open some eyes. A couple of Mac things before I go. He was incredibly gracious in his last interview, and he kept it together with barely a break in his voice. As I said in earlier posts, I like the direction he was going in, go for broke, and hold the players more accountable on the field. Who knows what would have happened if perhaps he had started that earlier. His final message to the players was “It’s never too late.” I hate that the national media was playing his four letter word tirade in their video clips of the story. That’s not Mac. He held out longer than I would have in that situation, and was always good with us the media. He was gracious enough to leave us with some humor in what is a bit of an awkward situation. When asked how his wife’s optical shop was doing he said, “Business is doing well. I told her this morning she had to pick it up, she’s the bread winner now.” He then went on to say, “Boonie just called me, I better call him back, he may have some advice for me.” Most Popular |
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