Hargrove should steady Mariners’ listing ship
AKRON, Ohio – Mike Hargrove will soon take over a team that went from 93 victories in 2003 to 99 losses this season.
It won’t bother him much.
That’s one of the first things the Seattle Mariners will learn about their new manager. He understands baseball is a long season, and some things can’t be rushed, just as Hargrove took his time whenever he came to the plate for the Cleveland Indians.
He’d rather eat dirt, spit mud and spend the night in a pigpen than panic.
In today’s game, that’s good.
He’s much like the New York Yankees’ Joe Torre. He doesn’t embarrass his players in public. He is patient, nearly to a fault, but he’s in a business were patience often pays off. He understands baseball is a 162-game grind, and the players don’t need the manager adding to the pressure that comes with such a grueling schedule.
So save the pep talks and team meetings for a time of crisis.
As Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver used to say, “This ain’t football; we play every day.”
Hargrove is like a dependable pair of jeans that seems more comfortable the more you have them on. The 55-year-old is about as flashy as a five-year old pickup with 125,000 miles on the odometer, paint peeling and a dozen well-placed fender dents.
But the motor still hums sweetly.
Cleveland fans should know that now. He nurtured a team that grew from a 105-game loser in 1991 to a 100-game winner in 1995 with appearances in the 1995 and 1997 World Series. His Indians went to the playoffs every year from 1995-1999 and gave us some of the most memorable Indians summers.
He was the one manager who got the most out of Albert Belle. He handled a wild bunch of diverse personalities in the clubhouse, with everyone from Carlos Baerga to Kenny Lofton to Dennis Martinez to Orel Hershiser to Jose Mesa to Omar Vizquel.
His policy was not to sweat the small stuff, and with that high-strung group, it was the best approach.
Hargrove never was fully appreciated in Cleveland, at least not until a few years after he was fired at the end of the 97-win 1999 season. Some fans charged him with being too predictable, too by the book as a manager. He believes players like consistency. They want to know their roles, even if they don’t like `em.
Seattle fans will hear a lot of “regulars are regulars for a reason,” as he likes to say.
For the most part, that’s correct, although there were seasons when Hargrove was fairly criticized for not using his bench enough. Overall, Hargrove’s mortal sin in Cleveland was the same as another highly underrated manager by the name of Al Lopez in the 1950s. Both had gifted teams but failed to win the World Series.
Now they are seen as high character men who look better in the rear-view mirror as history reveals they did a terrific job with the Indians, especially in light of the history of what happened to the franchise after they left.
Hargrove managed the Baltimore Orioles from 2000-2003. He inherited an aging team with little direction from the front office. It was an impossible job, and while Hargrove didn’t win, at least he kept a sense of stability and order.
He would have been the perfect choice for the Philadelphia Phillies, a veteran team with a mega-budget just screaming for a steady hand to replace the jittery Larry Bowa. But they are looking in another direction.
That’s a break for Seattle. The Mariners are in the early stages of rebuilding. It might work, or maybe not. Either way, they will have the right man in the dugout in Hargrove.