Camp Hargrove opens Thursday

One year after graduating from Northwest Oklahoma State and 70 Class A games into his professional career, Mike Hargrove was invited to his first big-league spring training. It was 1973 and he was 23 years old.

“I had a hard time keeping my heart rate down, catching my breath,” he said. “You can’t ignore the human side of the game. With kids, their comfort level effects how they perform.

“Even veterans fighting for jobs come in with heart rate elevated. They know the opportunity and the importance of what they’re trying to do.”

When the Seattle Mariners open the 29th camp in franchise history Thursday, Hargrove will do so as their 11th manager. What can the players expect from him?

“As a man, Mike’s a real caring guy,” said Sam Perlozzo, a former Mariners coach who worked with Hargrove in Baltimore. “He’s a real family guy, down to earth, but he’s a tough cookie, too.

“He doesn’t worry about losing his job, he just does his. Mike’s not outwardly intense, but he is. He controls it.”

Hargrove’s reputation precedes him and has been established over 13 seasons as a major league manager.

“You have a lot of fun with Mike, you work hard and if you screw up, he lets you know,” shortstop Omar Vizquel said. “You can talk to Mike. He listens. He’s honest. For some guys, he was too honest.”

Hargrove acknowledges all of that.

“You walk a fine line with players between coming across as their friend or being available,” he said. “You want to be available, but there has to be player-manager relationship. You joke around with players, show them they can talk to you, approach you.

“Most managers will tell you ‘my door is always open’ – and it may be open, but they don’t want you coming through it.

“Mine is open and you can come through it. You can ask me anything. Just be sure you want the answer.”

Camp Hargrove will be detail-driven and organized without being a boot camp. He wants things done right, and he keeps things loose.

Perlozzo saw both in Baltimore.

“He delegates and then allows coaches to do their jobs, and he’s patient – to a point,” Perlozzo said. “He’s kind of like Lou (Piniella). He’ll watch until he doesn’t see it getting better, then he’ll step in. And once he steps in, he makes his point.”

And the humor?

“Ask Mike about the coaches award given out each day in camp,” Perlozzo said, laughing.

Oh, that.

“I meet with my staff every morning before the workouts and we go over what’s happened and what’s going to happen,” Hargrove said. “I came up with an award that was given at the end of every meeting, and it went to the coach who’d done the dumbest thing the day before.”

The award had a name that came from a Rick Dempsey joke about the, well, most personal parts of a mule.

“It was appropriate that it came from Rick, because one spring he won it every day,” Hargrove said.

Added Perlozzo: “It became the funniest five minutes of the day after awhile. There was unlimited back-stabbing among coaches and a lot of laughter. It brought us together.”

Most spring training camps are similar, an effort to get as many as 60 players as much work as possible in a few hours a day without over-taxing them or boring them into a coma.

Hargrove remembers camps as a player where the work was done repetitively, but rarely done well.

“There are camps where you do work with the attitude of ‘Let’s just get through this until the games start,’ ” he said. “It’s not a matter of how many drills you run, but how those drills are run. Teams that don’t sweat the small stuff early find it becomes big stuff later on.”

Hargrove doesn’t leave it on the practice fields, either.

“As a player, I hated working on things during camp that were forgotten the day the games started,” he said. “If we run a bunt drill, a pickoff play in practice, we’re going to use them in spring games.”

Games don’t start until early March, which leaves Hargrove and his staff in position to do a lot of evaluating early.

“Everyone tells you it’s difficult to evaluate a players ability in the first 10 days, and there’s truth to that,” Hargrove said. “But the process starts day one. You look at attitude, what kind of shape a player showed up in, how he goes about his business.

“Whether you want to or not, evaluation starts on day one.”

This will hardly be a wide-open camp – the opening night starting lineup is all but set, there’s one spot to be determined in the rotation. The battles for roster spots will come down to a spot or two in the bullpen and the bench.

“There are always surprises in camp. You’ve got to be real careful making roster decisions in camp – you can make big mistakes if you base them off spring performances,” Hargrove said. “An outfielder I played with in 1981, Larry Littleton, had the best spring of anyone I ever saw in my life. He made the team, went about 0 for 30, and I never saw him again.

“When it comes down to the final roster, who makes the club, more goes into it than just the numbers. That’s where you have to trust your ability to evaluate.”

Though camp won’t begin until Thursday – and then only pitchers and catchers are involved – Hargrove flew to Arizona today from his Ohio home.

At 55, he is anxious to manage again after a year away from it. Hargrove knows that as he is getting to know players, they’ll be getting to know him, as well.

“You won’t get a feel for how I handle games in spring, but by the end of camp, you’ll know and the players will know how I handle people.”