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The manager is by himself. He can't mingle with his players. I enjoyed my players, but I could not socialize with them so I spent a lot of time alone in my hotel room. Those four walls kind of close in on you.
You sweat out the free agent thing in November then you make the trades in December. Then you struggle to sign the guys left in January and in February I get down to sewing all the new numbers on the uniforms.
As a supporter of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and their Home Run Challenge program, I am extremely grateful for the valuable partnerships and relationships built with Major League Baseball and our affiliates.
You sweat out the free agent thing in November, then you make the trades in December. Then you struggle to sign the guys left in January, and in February I get down to sewing all the new numbers on the uniforms.
I love my daughter, but she had me on couscous and fixed me pastas and made me eat oatmeal every morning. Turkey burgers, turkey bacon and that kind of stuff. She wants her dad to live a long time, and I do, too.
What's going on in the game today... it's data vs. art - that's what it comes down to for me. Art being the human heartbeat, data being numbers, the math, etc. I believe there's a balance to be struck right there.
It's hard to be a clubhouse guy without being a great guy. I mean, the nature of the job is, you know, you're picking up dirty clothes and you're doing all the tasks that the players - that nobody else wants to do.
A lot of guys go, 'Hey, Yog, say a Yogi-ism.' I tell 'em, 'I don't know any.' They want me to make one up. I don't make 'em up. I don't even know when I say it. They're the truth. And it is the truth. I don't know.
There are countless ways of achieving greatness, but any road to achieving one's maximum potential must be built on a bedrock of respect for the individual, a commitment to excellence, and a rejection of mediocrity.
You have to anticipate a call's not going to go your way. It happens to everybody. It happens to both sides every night, so you can't necessarily go there mentally. You've just got to keep moving through the moment.
The rules are changed now, there's not any way to build a team today. It's just how much money you want to spend. You could be the world champions and somebody else makes a key acquisition or two and you're through.
People come out to see the players. When do you see a manager anyway? When he's out on the field arguing with the umpires, making a fool of himself and you know you can't win, and when he brings out the line-up card.
My coaching staff gets to go to the World Series. From a financial perspective that's great for coaches because baseball coaches in the Major League level don't really make that much money. People don't realize that.
On-base percentage is great if you can score runs and do something with that on-base percentage. Clogging up the bases isn't that great to me. The problem we have to address more than anything is the home run problem.
The one thing I've always felt - and I might be naive - is that if you nurture a particular situation regarding relationships at a very young age, that you may have a better chance to keep a group of players together.
It was a breaking period for black people coming into baseball, and how many followed depended on Jackie's conduct. But that's not the case now. What and how I do doesn't mean nearly as much as what and how Jackie did.
Sometimes we all gain this elitist status mentally that inhibits us from being the kid that got you there in the first place, and I never want to inhibit that youthful demeanor. I think it's a very big part of success.
You get an idea what a manager has to go through every day. His is at a very high level. He has situations he has to deal with and the expectations he has to deal with, the personalities he has to deal with. It's a lot.
A catcher must want to catch. He must make up his mind that it isn't the terrible job it is painted, and that he isn't going to say every day, 'Why, oh why with so many other positions in baseball did I take up this one.'
When somebody talks about your career, most people are gonna talk about wins and losses, a World Series or pennants. But if somebody asked me how I would sum up my career I would say I had a unbelievable, fabulous career.
I was never a protestor, don't get me wrong, I was never like a vocal... what was the line I used to repeat to myself?... I was a nonconformist in a conforming society, that's what I thought about myself back in the '70s.
Listen, I was the first black manager in baseball and there was incredible pressure. I don't blame anyone else. I was too tough . . . I lack patience. I probably got on guys a little too hard, with the wrong tone of voice.
No. 1, these guys out here on this field. They keep my energy level up. They try hard, they don't complain about things - and I'd just like to be with them when things are good, and hopefully we can win a pennant together.
When somebody talks about your career, most people are gonna talk about wins and losses, a World Series or pennants. But if somebody asked me how I would sum up my career, I would say I had a unbelievable, fabulous career.
One winÂter, when I was 12, my older brother Frank (20) said to my father, 'We want you out of the house. We don't want anyÂthing other than the house we live in. We don't want anyÂthing from you. Just leave.' And he left.
I think walks are overrated unless you can run... If you get a walk and put the pitcher in a stretch, that helps. But the guy who walks and can't run, most of the time they're clogging up the bases for somebody who can run.
I've managed 25 years, and I can probably count on one hand players that I didn't really care for, and that's probably thousands of players that I've managed. I think that's pretty good. I love the players and I always will.
There's nobody on my ball club that doesn't go from first to third on a base hit, or from second to home. Every time you steal a base, you're taking a gamble on getting thrown out, and taking the bat out of the hitter's hand.
When you're in a slump, you do something different, just to try it. I remember one time I was in a slump, and I borrowed one of Henry Aaron's bats and hit two homers. I used my own bats the next night. I just needed a change.
In Boston I got to a point where I thought I was putting out fires more than being a baseball coach. And some of it was my fault. I was getting stubborn. My fuse was a little shorter than it needed to be. And that helps nobody.
Managers are never 100 percent in control. You're at the mercy of the players. When you're a player, you're driving. I'm the navigator. I hardly ever think about driving anymore, unless there's two out in the bottom of the ninth.
I love my daughter, but she had me on couscous and fixed me pastas and made me eat oatmeal every morning and what else, turkey burgers, turkey bacon, and that kind of stuff. So she wants her dad to live a long time, and I do, too.
There is no chance of night baseball ever being popular in the bigger cities. People there are educated to see the best there is and will stand for only the best. High-class baseball cannot be played at night under artificial light.
You know what I'm not going to do I'm not going to tell you every move I'm going to make. This isn't a reality TV show. Some things are just best left unsaid. I'll handle the club the way I deem is necessary. They just need to play.
A lot of pitchers today are afraid of the ball. Warren Spahn pinch-hit for me when I was a rookie. He hit a sacrifice fly. I couldn't argue. I was 20 years old and just happy to be in the big leagues. And Spahnnie was a good hitter.
When I was 16 years old, my brother Frank said, 'You'd better become a catcher, because you're too big and fat to do anything else.' Well, I took his advice. It was a quick way to get to the big leagues, and I've never regretted it.
Managing can be more discouraging than playing, especially when you're losing because when you're a player, there are at least individual goals you can shoot for. When you're a manager all the worries of the team become your worries.
If all of us who love baseball and are doing our jobs, then those who get the game from us will be as proud to be a part of it as we were. And we are. This game is a gift, and I am humbled, very humbled, to accept its greatest honor.
As a bench coach in Anaheim I used to sit down below with Sosh (Scioscia) on that little area, and then when you'd get up on top, it was an entirely different vibe, man. Two, three steps up, it's a different vibe. You feel everything.
There's absolutely no excuse for throwing a piece of equipment on an umpire or any player. You can argue your point and at times may accidentally bump an umpire, but to consciously throw a piece of equipment at someone is unforgivable.
I love baseball, I really do. I always told my Dad, I'm not gonna make it working... I like to play ball too much. Which I did. I played hard. You gotta work at this game. You really do. And its fun doing it if you do it the right way.
Well, I know that I'll never forget that, but also I won't forget the hundreds of people who sent me letters, telegrams, and postcards during that World Series. There wasn't a single nasty message. Everybody tried to say something nice.
Everyone keeps me telling me how great a knee replacement is. Whitey Ford said it was great and so did Ralph Branca. If I had one of those, I don't know that I would retire. But if I left for a month or more, who's going to want me back?
There are surprisingly few real students of the game in baseball; partly because everybody, my eighty-three year old grandmother included, thinks they learned all there was to know about it at puberty. Baseball is very beguiling that way.
It's like fishing -- you got to get that first one in the boat. Once you get that first one, the skunk is off the boat and everything's cool from then on. You've got to get that first one. Once he gets the first one, I know he'll be fine.
My eight years in Detroit, obviously, were my most successful years managing. I think that Pittsburgh and Detroit are probably very, very similar. We kinda rekindled the fire of baseball in Pittsburgh. We did the exact same thing in Detroit.
I want the players to play that way, so I'd better manage that way. The philosophy has been thrown out there. We've been talking about it. We've been working on it, so let's see how it works. Let's see if theory and reality can come together.
As a manager, the more consistent you are, the better off you are. It's easy to be up when things go well. When things don't go well, the players will follow your lead. So you have to be consistent and upbeat, which takes some work sometimes.
You can't talk about leadership without talking about responsibility and accountability...you can't separate the two. A leader must delegate responsibility and provide the freedom to make decisions, and then be held accountable for the results.
I didn't feel good today- little things here and there- but that's the nature of this game. You just keep pushing, being mentally and physically ready. Some days are better than others, but even if you don't feel so good, you get yourself going.