Right Off the Bat, Werner Must Make a Big Decision

Not a month has passed in Tom Werner’s stewardship as the Padres’ managing general partner, and already he has learned that the real thing is a bit hotter to handle than his old rotisserie league team.

In the beginning, it appeared that he and his group had bought a baseball team that looked so strong it seemed only a matter of playing out the season to determine a World Series opponent.

What has happened, of course, is that Werner and his colleagues picked up a toy that has turned out to be defective. It’s too bad they didn’t use one of those credit cards that guarantee a refund if the merchandise is broken.

Since Werner declared from the start that he would be a hands-on guy, folks are wondering exactly what he is going to do with his hands.

Whom, for example, must he feel a bit like strangling right now?

The hottest item he is handling with those hands this week is the managerial situation. Werner, who paid for his share of this enterprise with proceeds from a richly successful television production company, has been involved with much more expensive personnel decisions, but no such decision gets quite the profile of dealing with a major league managerial controversy.

And this one is just beginning to heat up.

Jack McKeon, the Padres’ field manager and general manager, has made it known that he no longer cares to occupy both offices. He will stick in there for the remainder of the 1990 season, but no longer.

Which position will he keep?

No one in his right mind would choose being a field manager over a general manager. This is especially true of McKeon, who floated on a billowing wave of popularity as general manager Trader Jack. This was his nickname and his trademark and his calling card.

Managers, no matter how popular and respected they are at varying stages of their careers, are subjected to fickle winds . . . and fickle players. Very few managers can stand a test of time. When the team goes bad, they are perceived--fairly or not--as having gone bad.

If Bill Cosby, Werner’s star performer in his other endeavor, were to take a job as a major league manager, there would come a time when he would first be booed and later booted. This is the way things go for folks in that occupation.

Whereas Trader Jack could really do no wrong, Manager Jack, his alter ego, is coming in for some heat. The populace considers this baseball team to be an underachieving farce, playing sloppily and without intensity. When a team’s fans get notions such as these, they forget how much they might have loved a guy. He becomes a target for their frustrations.

McKeon never dreamed that his popularity quotient could slip here in San Diego. Everything was just so secure, and everything was going so well, at least for his Trader Jack side. That Jack , after all, assembled a team that looked to be his piece de resistance. Unfortunately for him, his alter ego was sitting in that other office when this masterpiece turned out to be more a reproduction than the real thing.

What Jack McKeon has done, by making it clear that he ultimately wants only to be general manager, is make Werner’s job easier rather than more difficult.

Should Werner look and ask around and determine he would like to make a managerial change, he can do so without risk of being characterized as a meddlesome villain coming on like George Steinbrenner. He could pull such a switch and come off as being caring rather than callous.

San Diego, after all, has loved Trader Jack for a decade. Werner could say, “Here folks, I’m giving Trader Jack the break he wants, and I’m giving you Trader Jack.”

Piece of cake.

Neat and clean.

Easy as dialing a number and trading players in the old rotisserie days, right Tom?

Tom Werner has these options now, but the pressure is on him to determine what to do with them.

That’s the sticky part.

Does it make sense to change managers now? Or later? It has to be one or the other.

Is this season beyond repair? If so, does it make sense to bring in the new guy in the next few days or weeks? If not, is a new guy what it will take to get this team kicked into gear?

Did anyone say owning a major league baseball team was supposed to be comfortable? I hope not.

Everyone watches what an owner does very critically. Owners, like managers and players, can come to be heroes or goats.

Werner is being watched for the first time, at least as the chairman of a major league baseball team. He has the luxury of having a popular man in one position and a beleaguered man in another, the luxury being that both men, incongruously perhaps, are Jack McKeon.

Obviously, Tom Werner should get some help with this very first high profile decision. I would suggest he consult with his general manager.