You`re going to love this guy
SEATTLE -- He once said Ichiro would never be an everyday player in the major leagues. He used to feel like ``I`m going to puke if I see another one of those `Refuse to Lose` signs`` in Seattle. He is the manager who burst this region`s 1995 bubble by beating the Mariners in the American League Championship Series.
But you`re going to love this guy, I promise. At least if he wins now with the Mariners. If he turns around a franchise that fell hard last year. If he does what he`s dreamed about since 1997, which was the last time he took the Cleveland Indians to the World Series.
Mike Hargrove has learned a bunch in his 12 years as a big-league ballplayer and 13 as a manager. One is that he isn`t always right, as he found out after misjudging Ichiro`s talents during a 1998 visit to Japan with a Major League All-Star team.
Another is to pick your spots carefully. He was a huge success in Cleveland, where he took a perennial loser and turned it into a five-time division champion and two-time World Series qualifier. And he was a tough-luck loser in Baltimore, where his Orioles finished fourth in the AL East four straight years before he was fired in 2003.
Turns out, you`re only as good as your talent as a manager, which is something the rest of us might want to remember as well.
Hargrove will do fine in Seattle if he`s given quality players with whom to work. He`s a proven big-league skipper, a no-nonsense sort who brings a firm hand and steadying influence to a clubhouse.
So calm is this fellow that he remained even-handed even during the May 2, 1996, earthquake that rocked the Kingdome and halted a game between the M`s and his Indians in the middle of the seventh inning.
``I was standing out on the pitcher`s mound,`` Hargrove remembered, ``and all of a sudden I was the only guy out there.``
So, yes, the new man has seen all sides of Mariners baseball. And now he`s going to get the inside look, the one from the hot seat in the manager`s office most recently occupied by Lou Piniella and then Bob Melvin.
Hargrove seems less eager to please than Melvin and more confident in his own style, which is exactly why general manager Bill Bavasi went after a proven commodity.
``I`m not Lou. I`m not Bob,`` Hargrove said. ``I think I`m pretty good at what I do, and I don`t mean to sound arrogant about that. But I really haven`t ever tried to compare myself to anybody else. I do my job the way I think it should be done. I don`t offer excuses for it. And I`m not always right. I`m right most of the time, but not always.``
The Ichiro evaluation
One of the wrongs, at least in terms of player evaluation, was his comments on Ichiro back in `98.
``They asked if Ichiro could play in the big leagues, and I said no,`` Hargrove said with a chagrined chuckle. ``I really enjoyed my time in Japan on that all-star tour and found the people to be really avid baseball fans. But they asked every day, a thousand times, how their players compared. And I`d just had my fill of it that one particular day when they asked that one particular question and I answered, `No, I don`t think so.` So I have been wrong on occasion.``
In case you`re wondering, Hargrove now considers Ichiro ``one of the all-time best,`` both in terms of hitting and defensive skills.
``I think he`s a keeper,`` he said.
`The Human Rain Delay`
Hargrove said Ichiro`s durability has surprised him, given his small stature. But that`s the thing about baseball. It`s a game that never stops evolving. And that`s something about Hargrove as well. He was a patient hitter in his dozen big-league seasons as a first baseman with Texas and Cleveland. A career .290 hitter, he twice led the league in walks and built a reputation -- and one of baseball`s greatest nicknames, ``The Human Rain Delay`` -- for his deliberate approach in the batter`s box.
At 54 (he turns 55 Tuesday), the Texas native has managed 1,959 big-league games and played in another 1,666. He was Rookie of the Year in 1974, an All-Star in `75 and one of the top managers in the game in the `90s during his stint with the Indians.
Maybe that`s why he doesn`t hide from his initial misjudgment on Ichiro. He`s a standup guy with the self-assurance of a man who has been right a lot more than he`s been wrong when it comes to things concerning his passion and profession.
``I`ve never been afraid to speak my opinions and state my beliefs and I don`t think that`s going to be difficult to do here,`` he said. ``Bill (Bavasi) and I have already had two or three frank conversations and it was very refreshing to be able to do that.
``I`m not going to rip anybody in the paper,`` Hargrove said. ``If I do, check my temperature. But any needs I feel we have or things we need to do, I will communicate those to Bill and we`ll try to get them accomplished.``
No time frame on expectations
Hargrove believes the Mariners can turn things around quickly, but he`s not putting a time frame on that expectation.
``I played with Cleveland from 1979 to `85 and in that time we probably had eight `five-year plans,``` he said. ``So I think when you start coming out saying we have a five-year plan or a two-year plan or 10-year plan, you really put limits on yourself. Getting back to the postseason as quickly as possible and building this thing with an eye on the future is the way to do it.
``Does that take a year? I dunno, maybe. Does it take two years? Maybe. Does it take five years? I don`t think so.``
Not if Hargrove wants to be a part of it, anyway. As he walked across the Safeco Field turf Wednesday, he noted how green the grass was, how beautiful the stadium looked. He`s been out of managing for a year, discovering he missed it far more than he`d imagined.
``I missed sitting on the bench and having the palms of my hands sweating after I called for a squeeze,`` he said. ``I missed the camaraderie. I missed being part of building something. I missed going to the ballpark every day. I missed a lot about this game.``
Now he`s back with a team and city he grew to admire during the passionate playoff battle of 1995. Only this time he`s on the Mariners` side.
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