This column isn't for the purpose of proving anything in court, counselor.  LOL. Just a few nursery rhymes that come to mind with the few minutes we have on hand.  Lull-a-bye, go to sleeeeeep troub-led M's fan ….

It's just a handful of baseball teams that were

(1) sitting on their keisters pulling down their paychecks, when they

(2) hired managers who wouldn't tolerate it, and

(3) instantly realized their potential.

Some amigos in the M's blog-o-sphere seem virtually to have ruled out the idea that a team can be playing with a lack of enthusiasm.  And especially they seem to have ruled out the possibility that this lack of conviction might mean 15, or 25, games in the standings.

Dr. D is here to tell you that the 2006 Mariners have everything they need, other than conviction.  Hey, c'mon.  That's GOOD news. 

Enjoy.

. 

=== 1969 Baltimore Orioles ===

In 1967, the Baltimore Orioles went 76-85.  On July 7, 1968, the Orioles split a doubleheader with the New York Yankees.  This ran their record to a mediocre 43-37, far behind the Tigers.  Another year of playing out the string.

Except that over the All-Star Break, they fired Hank Bauer and hired Earl Weaver.  Under the who-cares-who-likes-me Weaver, the 1968 O's went 48-34 (.585) and finished 2nd in the league with 91 wins. 

In Weaver's first year, with the roster Weaver selected, the 1969 Orioles won 109 games and the pennant.  They won three pennants in a row.  Weaver managed the Orioles for 19 years, with a .583 winning percentage.

Here's the question:  why were the same players losing, before Earl got there? 

—————- 

Languishing 27-year-old Boog Powell, who had a huge age-22 season (.606 SLG), had two disaster seasons in a row before Weaver (.366 and .411 SLG's).  He bounced back to hit .304/.383/.559 (160 OPS+) in his first year under Weaver. 

Check out how similar Powell's career arc is to Adrian Beltre's.

Languishing veteran Mike Cuellar joined the Orioles in 1969 and immediately went from league-average SP to a 23-win pitcher.  A couple examples of talented, underperforming veterans who found their grooves under a manager who refused to lose.

In Felix fashion, youngster Jim Palmer also joined the O's in 1969 and blossomed, combining with Cuellar and Dave McNally to spark the O's to three straight pennants. 

—————

I'm not condoning it, but you haven't heard swearing if you haven't heard Earl Weaver.  And this was a guy who by his own admission "did not say ten words to Frank Robinson the whole time he played for me." 

. 

=== BillyBall Dept. ===

Billy Martin wrote that in New York growing up, he had 100's, even 1000's of fistfights, and he claimed that he never lost any (because he never quit and because he was so ferocious).  He did admit to drawing two, including one where he "stood and punched and punched" for a half hour with a kid twice his size.

It was probably before your time, but once on the Saturday Game of the Week, Reggie Jackson failed to hustle on an outfield play under Martin.  Martin substituted a defensive replacement for Jackson in the middle of the inning, and Jackson, humiliated, ran off the field to a hushed crowd.  When he got to the dugout, it took several players to prevent Martin from attacking the much larger Jackson.  Jackson's fear was obvious.

The point was always clear to Martin's players:  don't mess with his ballclub.  You fail to back up a base, you'll probably get your head flushed after the game … 

Martin took over six different sad sack ballclubs, and turned every one of them into leather-jacket-wearing gangbangers:

1968 Twins - 79-83 under Cal Ermer

1969 Twins - 97-65 under Billy

——————

1970 Tigers - 79 wins under Mayo Smith

1971 Tigers - 91 wins under Billy 

——————–

1973 Tigers - 57 wins under Herzog, Wilber (and Billy the last three weeks)

1974 Tigers - 84 wins under Billy

———————-

1975 Yankees - 83 wins under Bill Virdon (with Billy finishing up)

1976 Yankees - 97 wins under Billy (1st of 3 pennants)

———————–

1979 A's - 54 wins under Jim Marshall

1980 A's - 83 wins under Billy

———————–

1982 Yankees - 79 wins under Lemon and two other guys

1983 Yankees - 91 wins under Billy 

Martin took six teams that were comfortable losers, like the Mariners have been since 2003, and in his first seasons with each, those six teams gained +18, +12, +27, +14, +29, and +12 games.  Same essential talent — except for Martin's in-house judgments  — different levels of enthusiasm.

Which is why Bill James used to say that Billy Martin was far, far more valuable than any ballplayer in the game. 

Here's the question:  why were all these teams losing — when they obviously had the talent to win?

Lack of conviction.  Lack of enthusiasm.  It's not an effort thing.  It's a "Zone" thing. 

. 

=== Sparking the Big Red Machine ===

In 1968 and 1969, the Cincinnati Reds won 83 and 89 games — and note carefully that the late-60's Reds already had raft of stars like Johnny Bench, Lee May, Tony Perez, Pete Rose, Alex Johnson, Vada Pinson, Jim Maloney, and Gary Nolan.  The 1968-69 Reds were underachieving badly.

.

Over the winter, they fired Dave Bristol and hired Sparky Anderson.

Later on, Sparky became sort of a doddering, goofy old guy in the Casey Stengel tradition.  But in 1970 he was another who-cares-whether-you-like-me manager who practically invented the quick hook for starting pitchers (the broadcasters called him "Captain Hook").  What do you think that does to put players on notice, when the starter gets yanked two innings earlier than he's used to?  …Sparky would snarl at his pitchers, "when I come and get you, you place that ball in my hand as gently as you would place an egg."

In Sparky's first year, the Reds won 102 games and became the Big Red Machine that owned baseball in the 1970's.

Why weren't the Reds winning in 1968 and 1969?  They were loaded.

. 

=== How Sweet It Is, Dept. ===

In 1989, the Cincinnati Reds were 75-87.  In 1990, they replaced Rose/Helms with Lou Piniella, added +15 wins, and won the World Series.  The big key here was Lou's handling of the pitching staff, which went from a 96 ERA+ to a 116 ERA+. 

————- 

In 1992, the Mariners were 64-98, as they had been in approximately every season since they were born.  In 1993, Lou took charge and they gained +18 games, going 82-80.

More than that, for the first time, the Seattle Mariners went out and challenged you.  Piniella brought in players who would challenge you, and got rid of some players who wouldn't, and the old players that he did keep, noticed this.

The 1993 Mariners came up-and-in.  They got up from knockdown pitches and hit doubles off the wall.  The 1993 Mariners played like men.

Weren't you there?  Didn't you see the difference between players who would challenge you, and players who wouldn't?

————— 

In 2002, the Devil Rays lost 106 games.  In 2003, Lou took the helm and they "broke out of the gate" at 17-24 and battling tough, though they only gained +7 games that year.  In 2004, they gained +16 games from 2002 … in fact the 2004 D-Rays were 42-41 in July!

But the D-Rays, unlike the 2006 Mariners, had nothing at all to work with.  The work fizzled under the weight of $25m payrolls going up against the Red Sox and Yankees.

—————- 

Lou's first stint with the Yankees was during Steinbrenners joke manager-every-month period; they were good when Lou got there and stayed good. 

.

=== Dick Williams ===

In Williams' rookie year as a manager, the 1967 Red Sox pulled off one of the Cinderella seasons of all time, going from 90 losses to the World Series in one offseason.  Boy, this job is pretty kewl …

Williams next job, he took over the 1971 Oakland A's and turned a 2nd-place club into a 101-win club … and then they won 3 Wold Series in a row.

Williams turned sour after that, lost the burning desire to win that he'd had as a younger man.  Without the passion, Williams was just a curmudgeon.  He never won again.  But in his first two jobs, when he melded "forget you" with passion, he won glory for his ballclubs. 

.

=== The White Rat ===

The 1974 Royals were 77-85, and in 1975, were around .500 when they replaced Jack McKeon (yes, that Jack McKeon) with Whitey Herzog, shortly after the All-Star Break.

They immediately played .600+ the rest of the year … and beginning in 1976, won three straight pennants.

———-

The late-70's St. Louis Cardinals had a series of lousy years when Herzog took over late in 1980.

In the 1981 strike year, the mediocre Cardinals suddenly had the best record in the NL East (59-43), though with the split season, they finished 2nd both times and missed the playoffs. 

In 1982, the Cardinals won the World Series, and won 3 pennants in six years. 

———–

Bill James — a Royals fan and a Herzog fan — once wrote, "people would ask Whitey what he thought, and he would tell them, and they hated him for that." 

James wrote a line for every manager in his manager's book … if he weren't a manager, what would he have been?  Herzog:  the county sheriff. 

.

=== Ringo Starr Y'Know It Ain't Easy Dept. ===

It's not like all turnarounds were achieved by HOF managers.  It happens all the time.  Those were just a few guys who were easy to think of.

But all of the above managers had the following characteristics:

1) None of them give a rat's tail whether their players like them.

2) All of them are smart.

It's not enough to be mean.  You have to be mean … and good at what you do. 

Now, most of the above managers (Earl, Herzog, Piniella, Sparky) understand that it is their job to get along with the GM, not the other way around.  George Steinbrenner once recruited Earl and he almost took the job.  LOL.

People asked Earl how in the world the two would have gotten along.  Earl said fine, because it wasn't Steinbrenner's job to accommodate him; it was Earl's job to get along with his bosses.  Didja know that?

There's not a thing wrong with Dan Rohn saying "yes sir" to Bavasi and Lincoln.  That's what Weaver would have done.

He just needs to not say "yes sir" to Joel Pineiro and Bret Boone and Eddie Guardado!  From what we hear, Rohn won't.

Bavasi and Lincoln have gotta encourage Rohn in that.  He answers to his bosses, not to his players.  LOL.  The manager's the boss and that's the way it's going to be.  That message has to be clear as crystal.

Funny thing is, that's what the players want.  Youth counselor and adoptive parent speaking here:  sullen, troubled teens want parents who will punish them.  They really do. 

.

=== Don't Turn Your Back On 'Em Dept. === 

In case you were wondering … yeah.  Pro sports players will run the asylum, will turn the season into a circus of drinking and chasing women and generally considering themselves the universe's gift to mankind.

If you give them half a chance.

Consider all the teams above, and what they were doing, right before they got a real manager.

Enjoy,

Dr D