After Taking Proper Care, Padres Hired the Right Caretaker

Joan Kroc gets two pluses for the way she conducted the search for a new Padre club president.

First, she did not act in haste last fall when the flippant finger of fate cast Chub Feeney to the winds and opened the position. She did not need to, because she had a capable caretaker on the job.

Second, she hired the caretaker when it became obvious he had grown into the position.

This isn’t to say that Dick Freeman is the perfect man for the job, only that it has worked out that he is the best man for the job. Since there is no such thing as The Perfect Man, best isn’t too bad.

You see, the criteria as to what to seek in a club president are not exactly one size fits all.

I will concede there are a few things Freeman is not.

He is not a colorful character.

For that, you hire Hudson and Bauer. They may be the only disc jockeys in the world who look as if they are wearing lamp shades on the radio.

He is not a controversial figure.

For that, you hire John Tower . . . if you can.

He is not a funny story-teller.

For that, you hire Bob Uecker or Joe Garagiola.

He is not a shrewd evaluator of talent.

For that, you hire scouts.

He is not a marketing whiz.

For that, you hire Spuds MacKenzie or Ronald McDonald.

He is not aggressive.

For that, you hire Geraldo Rivera, Mike Tyson or Khadafi . . . depending upon your preferred brand of aggression.

He is not a behind-the-scene conniver.

For that, you look in Richard Nixon’s cabinet and hire the first person you find without a felony on his record.

He is not a commanding presence.

For that, you buy Mount Rushmore . . . which Joan Kroc could probably afford.

These are all, of course, attributes you might want and might get in a club president. You might want some or all or none, depending upon what you have in mind.

Joan Kroc simply needed a businessman to run her baseball team. She didn’t need a ringmaster or a warden or a talk show host. Baseball is run in a more professional manner these days than it was when Bill Veeck was running a midget to the plate as a pinch-hitter.

Rather than rush to judgment, Kroc took her time examining directions in which she might go. After all, this was a rather desireable job, and I am sure she did not have to advertise in either Fortune magazine or The Reader to get well-qualified candidates banging on her door.

In the meantime, Dick Freeman did what he has always done. His job.

Smoothly and quietly.

The only trace of controversy during the next six months accompanied the uncoupling of Dave Campbell from the broadcast booth. To say that this produced any more than a minor rippling of the waters would be an exaggeration.

Dick Freeman sailed through.

Other people might have complained about being in limbo for such a period, but not Freeman. He never considered that his job was in any way shrouded in uncertainly. He had a job. He was executive vice president, merely doing double duty while Kroc searched elsewhere.

“We have a new president, but it’s no big surprise who it is,” Kroc said this week. “Dick Freeman.”

It was a big surprise because there had been no previous indication that she had changed her mind about looking anywhere but down the hall for a new president. It turned out that she wasn’t changing her mind. Freeman was changing her mind, though he himself did not realize it.

Simply stated, Dick Freeman embodies the qualities and values Kroc insists that the Padres reflect.

Joan Kroc does not run this club the way Steinbrenner runs the Yankees or Schott runs the Reds or Argyros runs the Mariners. She wants dignity and conservatism and gets that in Freeman.

The Padre organization is solidly constructed with knowledgeable people given rein to run all of the disparate departments that are now part of a major league baseball team’s superstructure.

This organization does not need a shakeup, and hiring a president from the outside would have shaken the security and confidence of the entire front office. It is only human nature to wonder what the new boss has in mind.

Thus, the hiring of Dick Freeman was a move for stability and continuity, and what more could you want with things going so smoothly?

It is now Freeman’s job to do some delicate shaping of the front office, which must be done with an eye to recognizing his own shortcomings. Player personnel decisions, being far from his strength, should be left in the hands of Manager Jack McKeon, the untitled general manager. Freeman needs to find someone whose job title, in essence, would be assistant to a general manager who does not nominally exist.

Obviously, the Padre front office is a little different from the normal front office. But that should not keep it from being one of the best.

Joan Kroc saw to that when she hired the caretaker.