Good Baseball Men

It's time to give credit where credit is due. The Mariners took too long to do it--they're a loyal organization (if you forget about Jamie Moyer)--but they finally cleaned house. New hitting coach, new general manager, new manager. There's only one tiny problem, or three: Lee Elia (and Jose Castro), Lee Pelekoudas, and Jim Riggleman. None of the new guys represents even a nod in the direction of a more creative approach to building and running a baseball team. They were the most conventional choices available. Off the field, that trio is the equivalent of Brad Wilkerson on it--the decision you make because you've got to make one and you have no conviction and no ideas.

Lee Elia, the first of the hires (and you'll see that SGB contributor Moisture Fetch called that one if you scroll down), is 71 years old. He was born during the Great Depression. He's teaching the M's how to hit, but he hasn't tried it himself since the era of the dead ball and 60 ounce bats. He managed two teams in the 1980s, ran up a .448 winning percentage, and now, after 20 years of hanging around in the game, he's going to save us?

Lee Pelekoudas started his career with the Mariners 29 years ago as...wait for it...director of team travel. He's been Bavasi's right-hand man for six years. If the team needs a new direction, maybe it shouldn't hire the guy who's second most affiliated with the old direction. Just thinking out loud.

Jim Riggelman is younger than Elia, but otherwise he's exactly the same: retread. He managed most of the 1990s and posted a .449 winning percentage, just edging Elia.

I know these guys are interim, but Jesus Christ, is it too much to ask for a little bit of fortitude and forward planning? Not everybody can be Theo Epstein, but can't we try?

The only rationale for these decisions that makes any sense--rationale and making sense not being part of the M's lexicon--is that they're looking for a breed of failures known as "good baseball men." This is a term of art in the sport created to justify all the dead weight that teams allow to hang off them for no good reason. The "good baseball man" mentality is also the reason Willie Bloomquist has a chance to get 400 at bats this year. Well, no, he's not a good player, but he's one hell of a baseball man!

Nobody has described the "good baseball man" better than Jim Bouton, in his landmark book Ball Four, about his 1969 season with the first shit team to play in Seattle, the Pilots. Here is one of his many take-downs of pitching coach Sal Maglie:

"The bench was treated to a lovely Sal Maglie second-guess today. Steve Barber was pitching and he had men on second and third with Jim Fregosi up. On 3 and 2 Barber threw a change and Fregosi lunged, hit it to left and knocked in both runs. As soon as the ball was hit Maglie, who was standing next to Schultz, snapped his fingers and said, 'Son of a bith--3-and-2 change. That goddam 3-and-2 change.'

"Whenever something goes wrong Maglie is quick to show disgust, especially if Schultz is around. I guess he wants the manager to know he's in the ballgame and that he doesn't take adversity calmly. But I was surprised about him fussing over a 3-and-2 change, because I think it's a helluva pitch. In a spot like that the hitter is looking for something the pitcher throws often, like the fastball, or if he's got good control of his curve he might throw that. So the off-speed pitch in that situation really throws the hitter off.

"Later on I asked Sal about it. 'Sal,' I said sweetly, 'I saw you get mad at the change-up Steve threw Fregosi. What's your feeling about the change on 3 and 2?'

'It depends on the situation,' says Sal.

'I've had pretty good success with the 3-and-2 change.'

'Well I did too,' says Sal. 'I remember once I threw one to Stan Musial with the bases loaded and he was so surprised he just stood there with the bat on his shoulder. Strike three.'

"We kicked that around for a while and Sal wound up saying that the 3-and-2 change was a helluva pitch, if you threw it to the right guy.

"But not to Jim Fregosi, By Barber. Today."

The Mariners just hired three Sal Maglies to run the team. But don't worry. In a statement, Pelekoudos said that Riggleman "is an experienced baseball man with broad experience as both a Major League manager and coach." What the good baseball man Pelekoudos didn't say is that the experienced baseball man (with experience...no kidding, the experienced man has experience?) has broad experience as a bad major league manager and as coaching fodder.