Advertisement

The Rockies Hire Baylor as Manager : Baseball: Former American League MVP for the Angels will become the sixth black to guide a major league team.

Share
TIMES STAFF WRITER

Don Baylor, who played with five division champions and three teams that reached the World Series during a 19-year major league career, was hired Tuesday as manager of the Colorado Rockies, one of two National League expansion teams.

Baylor received a three-year contract.

“I don’t know how good the team will be, but it’ll have a certain respect and presence because of Don,” said former Angel manager Gene Mauch. “It won’t just be a bunch of ragtags. I mean, Don carried himself like a winner and was a winner every place he went. I don’t know what took so long.”

Baylor, 43, had interviewed for several managerial vacancies before being offered the Rockies’ job over Tom Trebelhorn, Tony Muser and Bill Virdon, the other finalists.

He joins Cito Gaston of the Toronto Blue Jays, Hal McRae of the Kansas City Royals and Felipe Alou of the Montreal Expos as baseball’s fourth minority manager. He will be the sixth black to manage in the majors. The others were Frank Robinson, Maury Wills, Larry Doby, Gaston and McRae.

Advertisement

“It’s a very positive step for baseball, the Colorado Rockies and Don Baylor,” said Bob Watson, assistant general manager of the Houston Astros and a hitting instructor when Baylor was with the Oakland Athletics. “I tip my hat to (General Manager) Bob Gebhard for giving him the opportunity. I had a chance to work with Don in Oakland and felt he was on his way to becoming a general manager or club president.

“People bring up the fact that he has never managed, but I don’t think that’s an absolute necessity. Look at the jobs Phil Garner, Art Howe and Lou Piniella have done without having ever managed before. Somebody had to give him that first shot, and now that part of his resume won’t be blank.”

Watson added that no one will expect the expansion team to win immediately.

“I don’t think there will be a pressure to win as much as to develop young players, and I think Don will do that,” Watson said. “He commands respect.”

Gebhard agreed, saying Baylor has the potential to be a great manager. Of his lack of experience, Gebhard said: “I’m willing to roll the dice because I know the man.”

Baylor said he has never gotten caught up in the race issue, that he has only wanted the opportunity to manage. He interviewed for managerial jobs in St. Louis, Seattle and Milwaukee, and said that while it “puts a chink in your armor” to keep being passed over, “it’s not part of me to be bitter.”

He said he was excited by the opportunity to manage a “brand-new team in a brand-new city,” and knows he will have to be patient with a team of young players.

Advertisement

“My goal is to teach them how to win and how the game should be played,” he said. “People say we’re going to lose 100 games. It’s not my competitive spirit to simply accept that.”

Baylor served as hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals last season after having spent three years with the Milwaukee Brewers in that capacity.

He played for six major league teams, winning the American League’s most-valuable-player award with the Angels in 1979, when he hit 36 homers and drove in 139 runs in leading that team to its first Western Division title. He had 24 homers and 93 RBIs when the Angels won again in 1982.

He left as a free agent after that season and signed with the New York Yankees. In his final three seasons, he appeared in the 1986 World Series with the Boston Red Sox, in the 1987 Series with the Minnesota Twins and in the 1988 Series with the A’s.

Former second baseman Bobby Grich, a teammate of Baylor’s with the Angels and Baltimore Orioles and one of Baylor’s closest friends, said Baylor has wanted to manage for a long time.

“(He) had the opportunity to play under a lot of different managers with a lot of different styles, and I’m sure that helped him develop a style of his own,” Grich said.

Advertisement

He described Baylor as a man of quiet strength who is fair, tough and aggressive.

“He treats everyone the same, from the clubhouse kid to the superstar,” Grich said. “He has a no-nonsense approach. If the situation called for extra batting practice, he was there. If the situation called for extra work of any kind, he was there. I think he’ll demand that of his players and get it.”

Successful players have not always made successful managers, but Mauch said that Baylor has always been organized and disciplined.

“(He) knows to surround himself with good people and to instruct his instructors in what he wants and have them carry it out,” Mauch added.

Discipline should not be a problem. Baylor was known as a clubhouse enforcer during his playing career, a valuable link between the manager and players.

Advertisement