It’s been a while since I dialed in here on Scorecard Scribblings, and I vow to return in force like Paul Crew in the Longest Yard remake. What brings me out of my posting slumber?
The ALCS matchup of my clear all-time favorites as baseball managers, Dusty Johnnie B. Baker and Bruce Douglas Bochy.
I so wish I had credentials and the ability to cover those games.
The two best managers I ever had the chance to cover, best in terms of handling players and a staff, handling the media, being standup guys and fair with me personally. And BOTH remembered my name over the years.
BOCHY: “Hey Brent, how’ve you been?” … in Spring Training several years after I had previously covered them.
DUSTY: “Hey man, good to see ya.” (OK, to be fair, Dusty says “hey man” to everybody, but I’ll take it.)
How they treated those covering their teams is just a small part of what they mean to the game, but emblematic of who they are. They don’t pose. They are who they are.
Watching an MLB Network breakdown with a couple of former players (Jake Peavy, Yonder Alonso) who suited up for these guys gives us a few pretty solid bits of insight. They experienced losing on the big stage before they led their teams to win, and then showed their own hunger to win.
Peavy on Bochy: Relationships with every guy in the room… ability to refocus the troops… not afraid to put a guy in right spot at right time if he feels a hunch… that’s who you are…. champions, its in your DNA, its in your blood…
Alonso on Dusty: I need 20 dogs I can take with me to war… Dusty gives you the advice you can take forever… you look at him in the dugout and he’s like the second father that can always take care of you and put you in the right direction…
MLB Network breakdown on 10/13/2023
And don’t call me out for not listing Tommy Lasorda first (never knew my name and as iconic as we was, we didn’t get the chance to build any rapport)… or Bobby Cox (ditto)…
I’d put Torre at three on my list, based on the first few years of my career when he managed the Braves. I was a kid and he treated me professionally after games in his office, which in those days was little more than a tiny office with a bathroom behind his desk in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
On the list, in no particular order, I’d put Mike Sciosia, and his ‘suspension fill-in bench coach’ Joe Madden in a tie for fourth. Maybe Mr. Nice Guy Chuck Tanner sixth.
Because he ragged me, honorable mention goes to one of my childhood baseball heroes Peter Edward Rose with the Reds, who in Spring Training when I was working in Macon answered my query about his playing days for the Peaches in Class A, “Yeah, you young bastard, you weren’t even born yet.” o be fair, I was born then. He played a full season in 1962 for the Peaches in the Sally League, his last Minor League season before the jump to the Major Leagues. (By the way, he and Tommy Helms were the only guys who went on to true stardom from that team. I was born in November, 1961. But the good part of the exchange, in true baseball fashion, is that after mildly cussing me, he gave me a great quote and was cool. For whatever you think about Charlie Hustle’s gambling, he is and always was exactly as he appeared to be. A ballplayer. Baseball was his life. The rest bored him.
In the minors, Mike Quade, Tom Runnells, and Jim Tracy (my manager in my stint doing pop with the Chattanooga Lookouts) stand out for various reasons.
But Dusty and Boch... tip of the cap… one of the two best men will win.
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