Padres’ Boros Has a Job That Complements Talents

With free agency driving major league baseball owners into the red, the minor league system may regain its role as the chief supplier to the parent club.

And because Padre General Manager Jack McKeon strongly believes in the importance of developing young players “the Padre way,” the National League champions have created the position of coordinator of minor league instruction.

This coordinator will help hitters straighten out their swings as well as oversee the various Padre minor league teams. It’s a job that requires both baseball and administrative skills.

It’s also a job fit for someone who thrives on challenging the unknown.

Enter Steve Boros, former manager of the Oakland A’s, McKeon’s longtime friend and a man who has been searching for the ideal baseball job to complement his talents.

“The dominating thing about Steve is that he has a big league aura,” said Tom Romenesko, the Padres’ director of minor league scouting. “But he brings it down to earth to these kids and it follows through to his staff. He’s not in his own little bubble.”

Boros played, coached and managed baseball since 1957. The A’s were 20-24 on May 23 last season when Boros was fired as their manager.

“I wasn’t the kind of guy who fit the image of a typical manager who drinks, hunts, plays poker, swears and portrays the macho kind of image,” Boros said. “I’ve been known to have a beer or two, but I also like to play tennis and go see a play or movie.”

Boros, an English literature major at the University of Michigan, was known for his humanistic way of dealing with players when he managed in Oakland.

“I don’t believe in ranting and raving in my dealings with players,” he said, “and I don’t like team meetings much. I think closed-door meetings are more for the manager. It’s a way to let him get rid of his frustrations.”

It’s easy to understand why Roy Eisenhardt, president of the A’s, hired Boros. Eisenhardt said he was looking for “someone who would be a strong contrast to Billy Martin.”

Boros was certainly that.

“Wins are ephemeral, and teaching is my favorite part of managing because it lasts,” Boros once said.

Most Martinisms cannot be printed.

In his teaching process, Boros--a combination of the Renaissance man and a 1980s executive--also used computers to help analyze hitter vs. pitcher matchups. However, the feelings of his players were always Boros’ first priority. The printout was a distant second.

“I won’t do something just to win one ballgame,” Boros said. “That’s why there were many times when I’d throw what the computer said out the window. Players are distrustful about computers, and often it’s a matter of being statistically correct versus psychologically right. I have to have those players for 162 games.”

In 1983, when Boros had the A’s for an entire season, his players heard Shakespearean quotes in the locker room and knew every pitcher’s tendencies, but they still finished fourth in the American League West.

When Eisenhardt released Boros during the next season, members of the baseball establishment, who considered Boros to be a maverick, had reason to smile.

“There are baseball organizations where people are from the old school,” Boros said. “They would have doubts about hiring someone with my approach. But those other quirks don’t have anything to do with me being a big league manager.”

His “quirks” did nothing to deter the Padres from hiring Boros.

“I can already see that things are going to be more organized and more detailed with Steve here,” Romenesko said. “Our players will be better prepared to leave camp than they were last year.”

Boros’ early success with the Padres does not surprise Eisenhardt.

“Boros has an openness, candor and willingness to try innovative ways of doing things,” Eisenhardt said. “Boros is one of the nicest people I will probably meet in baseball.”

In retrospect, does Eisenhardt think Boros is too nice to be a successful big league manager?

“That’s not necessarily true,” he said, “but under the circumstances that exist in baseball today, players will take advantage of someone like Steve. That doesn’t make him wrong.”

It did make him unemployed as a manager. In a profession where managers are often recycled like newspapers, Boros did not have many feelers after he was released by the A’s.

He had the choices of staying with the A’s and working in their front office, returning to the coaching box with another major league team or rejoining McKeon in San Diego. Boros had been a coach under McKeon in 1975 when McKeon managed the Kansas City Royals.

Being a person who welcomes the challenge of ushering in a new position, Boros headed down the California coast to become the Padres’ first coordinator of minor league instruction.

“I liked the idea of teaching and working with young players,” Boros said. “And in the future, I think the minor league system will go back to what it once was. I think clubs will be more willing to let players go after six years (veterans can become a free agent after six years), and bring up players from their own system.”

Since the beginning of February, Boros has been working with the Padre minor leaguers in Yuma and has been directing their training schedule. He said he has been quite impressed with the Padres’ young players, particularly with the strength of the pitching in the San Diego system.

“I don’t think many people in baseball could have a better job than I do here,” Boros said. “Knowing Jack (McKeon) and his philosophy, it doesn’t surprise me that they have such a good program over here. I’m really impressed with the staff, with the facilities in Yuma, and I feel comfortable here.”

Nevertheless, Boros still would like to take one more crack at managing.

“I still feel I can manage in the big leagues,” he said. “I feel I did a good job.”

As a member of the new breed of young managers, Boros thinks that the role of major league manager will continue to change as the players become more educated. And he believes that having more educated players will only help his chances of getting another shot at managing.

Even though he is the director of a minor league system, Boros said, “In 90% of the cases, I recommend that high school baseball players go to college instead of straight to the minors. College baseball is improving, and I wasn’t ready to play major league baseball when I graduated from high school . . .

“If the thinking is more progressive, and the players are more educated, they’ll need a different approach.”

It’s that different approach that Boros has currently brought to the Padres.