Brian Sabean’s comment at the end of our telephone conversation last Thursday was a first in my experience. It had to be a first. I’m certain it was a first.
I always thank the person I have interviewed, thanked him for returning my call and his time. It’s the polite thing to do. But after I thanked Sabean, he said, “Thanks for writing the story.”
In no way is that a routine response from a baseball executive to a reporter. But I had told Sabean I was writing about Hensley Meulens and how he has been ignored as a candidate for a managing job with a major league club, and Sabean was appreciative that somebody was recognizing that Meulens deserved to be mentioned in the same sentence as the word manager.
Not only that, but Sabean took advantage of the interview to mention other members of Bruce Bochy’s coaching staff who have been ignored.
In spite of their and the San Francisco Giants’ success in this decade, the World Series championships in 2010, 2012 and 2014, three in five years. That doesn’t happen every day.
Coaches on one World Series-winning team, let alone three, are often considered for managerial vacancies. That hasn’t happened with Bochy’s staff. Meulens, in fact, has gained greater recognition from his position as manager of the Netherlands team in the World Baseball Classic this year and 2013.
“The irony there,” Sabean said, “is that it shouldn’t necessitate a second great showing at the W.B.C. It’s very frustrating for us as an organization. Bochy is a Hall of Fame manager-to-be and he has a great staff. It’s pretty disgusting that he’s not on the list.”
Sabean meant Meulens, whose first year as the Giants’ hitting coach coincided with the start of their extended championship run.
Sabean and Meulens share another coincidence 25 years earlier. Meulens was drafted by the Yankees in 1986, the same year Sabean became the Yankees scouting director.
“I go back to when he came into the Yankee organization so we have a long-standing relationship,” said Sabean, the Giants’ long-time general manager who is now the executive vice president of baseball operations.”
The Giants plucked Meulens from the Pittsburgh organization, where had been the AAA hitting coach.
“As it turned out, he was the right man in our eyes,” Sabean said, citing Meulens’ “passion, his work ethic, his love of the game, the painstaking approach he took with each hitter for a team that doesn’t have a cookie-cutter way of doing things, a great communicator, a tremendous man and that makes it even more fun to watch his career finally being recognized for how good it is.”
That Meulens, a native of Curacao, was asked to manage the Dutch team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic without having had previous managing experience was testimony to his perceived ability. That he was asked to return for this year’s tournament clearly showed what baseball people thought of him.
“It looks like he should be good candidate for a managing job,” a major league official said. Unfortunately, that official is not named Rob Manfred, who if he cared to exert it might have some influence to induce a team seeking a manager to hire Meulens.
As much as Manfred boasts about what a great minority hiring program Major League Baseball has, he refrains from using the weight of his office to convince a team to hire a black or Latino manager or general manager.
As far as we know, Manfred did push one team, Milwaukee, to hire a general manager, but that effort was not a challenge because Manfred’s personal candidate, David Stearns, was – and a year and a half later – is white. Manfred pushed the Brewers to hire him because Stearns had worked for Manfred in the commissioner’s office when Manfred was the chief labor executive.
In writing as often as I have about the Stearns exception to the Manfred rule, I have never raised this question:
If Manfred sincerely wants clubs to hire more minorities, why didn’t he set an example and hire a young black man for the opening he filled with Stearns? Then if that young black man had worked out like Stearns apparently did, Manfred could have pushed the Brewers, or some other needy team, to hire that young black man.
But there has been no young black, or Latino, for that matter, for any team to hire because Manfred’s broken pipeline isn’t disgorging any candidates.
Meanwhile, Meulens has never had an interview for a manager’s job. I would guess that no team has even considered him and his name has never entered the thinking of any general manager.
“As you know,” Sabean said, “the landscape’s changed. A lot of organizations look for somebody the front office, specifically the g.m., can control. Who knows how that’s going to turn out for baseball?”
In his days as an outfielder with the Yankees, Meulens was a mediocre hitter but a friendly guy who unlike most players made it a point to know the writers’ names. Unfortunately, general managers don’t seem to know his name. Have any clubs called seeking permission to talk to Meulens?
“Not that I recall,” Sabean said. “In my current position, I’m a little bit more removed from the day-to-day, but I don’t remember Bobby mentioning any contacts. Bobby Evans is the general manager now.”
Sabean mentioned a lack of calls for all of the team’s coaches, six of whom were on all of the World Series staff. The senior member is bench coach Ron Wotus, a 19-year member of the staff.
“Ron Wotus would also be a good guy to interview,” Sabean said. “He’s a great baseball guy. It’s frustrating just like Dave Righetti, who’s overqualified.”
I haven’t talked to Righetti about it, but knowing the pitching coach as I do from his pitching days with the Yankees, I suspect he is perfectly happy being a pitching coach and has no desire to manage.
“To answer your question in general,” Sabean said, “we don’t get enough calls, for Hensley or anyone else.”
Which presumably prompted Sabean to add, “Thanks for writing the story.”
If general managers don’t know Meulens’ name, it is known to Dutch royalty. The first major leaguer from Curacao, he was knighted in 2012, receiving the honor from the Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Perhaps general managers are reluctant to call him, uncertain how to address him.
That’s not difficult at all. Simply combine his title with his nickname, and you get Sir Bam Bam.
CRITICS JOIN UGLY AMERICANS
Now that the 4th World Baseball Classic is over, let the undeserved criticism begin. Oh, it has already begun.
I’m not going to criticize the event because I like it. What I’ll criticize are the Ugly Americans, the American major leaguers who refused to play for Team USA. Most notable Ugly Americans were Mike Trout, Bryce Harper and Clayton Kershaw.
If they watched the games on television, they saw their Puerto Rican and Dominican teammates celebrate their countries’ victories. The Ugly Americans should learn something from those celebrations. The Uglies should also to respect their foreign major league teammates.
Those players passionately want to win for their countries, and they want to beat the best. The Uglies deprive them of that opportunity, in effect showing disrespect for foreign players.
Critics of the event don’t like, among other things, the timing of the games. Some have proposed that the preliminary rounds be played as they are now, but the semifinals and finals be played during an enlarged All-Star break.
However, most of the W.B.C. players would be their countries’ all-stars, meaning they wouldn’t get any break at all and might be more inclined to skip the W.B.C. games.
Some critics say the entire event should be held at a different time, perhaps in the United States summer. Major League teams would obviously oppose that idea, with good reason.
One critic, maybe more, said the event should be held more frequently than every four years. Now where did M.L.B. and its players union get the every-four-years idea? From the Olympics and soccer’s World Cup, no? Those events have been staged for many more years than the W.B.C., and they seem to work.
There will always be critics to be found for everything. Give M.L.B . and the Players Association credit for doing something imaginative and criticize the Ugly Americans instead for being spoiled brats.