Lopes Has Done the Work, and Now He Deserves a Job

What he was as a player is what he would probably be as a manager: tough and aggressive, innate leader and communicator.

Strange, isn’t it?

Davey Lopes, the former Dodger second baseman who seems blessed with the best of those managerial traits, is still waiting for an opportunity, while his former double-play partner, the then quiet, introspective Bill Russell, is getting his chance at the helm of the Dodgers.

“As a player you pretty much control your own destiny,” Lopes said from Pittsburgh, where he is traveling with the San Diego Padres as first base coach. “As a person who would like to manage, you no longer have that control over your destiny or future, and that’s the frustrating part of it.

“I want to manage and feel I’m ready. I’ve done what I feel I need to do. I have to hope that somebody will share a faith in my ability and give me the opportunity.

“I have no doubt that I would do a good job. I don’t want that to sound arrogant, but I’m confident in my ability and confident in the people I’d have around me.

“I don’t have all the answers and I’m not afraid to delegate authority. I know I can communicate. I know I can get people to play.”

Lopes, 50, played for more than 15 years in the big leagues, a former center fielder who made the transition to second base as Russell followed a similar route to shortstop.

He stole 557 bases and ranks second behind Maury Wills in Dodger steals with 413.

He played in six league playoffs and four World Series. He spent four years as a coach with the Texas Rangers, four as a coach with the Baltimore Orioles, and is in his second year with the Padres.

He will manage for a second time this year in the Arizona Fall League, the most prestigious of the winter circuits for minor league prospects.

He also interviewed with the Houston Astros before Terry Collins was selected to manage, with the Detroit Tigers before Buddy Bell was selected, with the Oakland Athletics before Art Howe was selected and with the Orioles before Davey Johnson was selected.

In each of those situations, the club said Lopes made an impressive presentation, but Lopes isn’t sure whether the process represented a real opportunity or he was included as a minority cosmetic.

“The one thing that always seems to come back at me is that Davey Lopes is too honest,” he said. “Too honest? What does that mean?

“In one interview I was asked what my reaction would be if the owner insisted I should play certain players.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t listen to the owner, but I did say how I saw in Baltimore that Johnny Oates’ respect among the players was undermined because Peter Angelos insisted he should use certain players.

“A lot of things came down through the media and that hurt Johnny’s ability to manage. The key thing a manager has to have is the respect of the players. Once you lose that, you lose everything.

“My point is, if you hire a manager you should let him manage, but I also recognize that a manager needs to have a working relationship with everyone in the organization. I would never say anything negative or detrimental about the organization.

“I recognize there’s a chain of command. I don’t have the clout to come in and say this or that has to be a certain way.”

There is an opening in Anaheim, and the Angels would be foolish not to consider Lopes, a man who could light a fire in the clubhouse, generate some aggressiveness on the field.

Jim Lefebvre is the early favorite, but General Manager Bill Bavasi is compiling a list that will probably include more than 100 candidates before he begins to narrow it.

This is an organization that has gone the recycling route so many times that you can now drop your aluminum cans at the Big A.

The new ownership needs to sweep out the mildew of the manager’s office with new leadership.

A former teammate of Russell and Lopes, Joe Ferguson, is moving up in the Baltimore organization.

Ferguson is managing the Orioles’ High Desert affiliate in the Class A California League and is expected to move to double-A Bowie, Md., next year after managing this winter in Australia.

Lopes believes he has served a solid apprenticeship: major league player and coach, winter manager of minor league players.

“I’ve been blessed to have played for and worked with a lot of good people,” he said.

Among the things that have rubbed off:

--The communication and motivational skills of Tom Lasorda.

--The tactical ability of Bobby Valentine, for whom Lopes coached in Texas.

--The patience and willingness to delegate authority of current San Diego Manager Bruce Bochy.

Would Lopes have believed that Russell would become a major league manager?

“Absolutely not, but I don’t want that misunderstood,” he said.

“I don’t think any of us thought about managing while we were still wrapped up in playing, unless it was a guy like Johnny Oates, who was kind of the 25th player with his career at a standstill and could sit there and suck up everything about how the game was handled.

“The rest of us were too involved in playing, and I’m sure a majority of the guys would say they never thought Billy would manage, which is not to say he won’t be good at it. I wish him the best.

“He has the opportunity and no one to blame but himself if it doesn’t work out. I mean, he’s very fortunate. There are probably 27 other managers who would jump at the opportunity to manage the Dodgers.

“It’s a great organization with a lot of tradition. There’s also a lot of pressure, but you’d have to be a complete idiot not to want to manage that club.”

Lopes, of course, would like the opportunity to manage any club. It’s time.

BAY WATCH

The answer is Rick Wilkins, Jay Canizaro, Rich Aurilia and Bill Mueller.

The question? Name the San Francisco Giant infield in last Monday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds.

Injuries have devastated the Giants. Barry Bonds and Glenallen Hill, who was just activated from the disabled list after sitting out 61 games, are the only members of the opening-day lineup still on the active roster.

Dusty Baker, another teammate of Russell and Lopes with the Dodgers, may be wondering why he ever thought about managing.

The magic number in San Francisco is 1997. The National League West race is over for the Giants.

“Our future is up here now and they’re trying to see what everybody can do,” relief pitcher Rod Beck said. “That’s why we have this shuttle with [triple-A] Phoenix and I think it’s time for that. It’s a little too late to be making a run [this year]. We have to see what the future holds.”

The Giants have used the disabled list a club-record 18 times. First baseman Mark Carreon was recently traded to the Cleveland Indians. The other infielders--Matt Williams, Robby Thompson and Shawon Dunston--are all on the disabled list, with a skull fracture probably putting Dunston out for the year and out of the plans for next year, when the less expensive Aurilia is likely to take over at shortstop.

With virtually no protection, Bonds is on a pace to exceed his career high of 127 walks in 1992, his last year with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Cincinnati Manager Ray Knight decided in a three-game series this week that it was foolish to do anything but walk Bonds. He even walked him with a one-run lead when Bonds led off the ninth inning Monday night, getting away with bringing the potential winning run to bat.

On Wednesday, however, Knight ran out of vacancies, and Bonds hit a grand slam off John Smiley.

“Sometimes I’m like, ‘What else is going to happen?’ ” Bonds said.

“I just say, ‘God, what have we done so wrong where things are just so bad? What have I done so wrong?’

“Right now, I’m about all that’s left, and I just want to stay healthy until all the soldiers come back.”

Many of them won’t be back. The Giants have many more problems than the still suspect financing of their new stadium.

NAMES AND NUMBERS

--Among the Giants’ problems is Beck, of whom Cincinnati infielder Jeff Branson said after hitting a two-run, game-winning homer this week on what he called a hanging spitter or what others called an 82-mph fastball:

“He was not good at all. His ball has nothing on it. He used to be the nastiest guy in the league, but he’s nothing like he used to be.”

--The Colorado Rockies failed to make a move at the non-waiver trade deadline but could get Larry Walker back in the next few days. Walker, recuperating from a broken collarbone, had been playing center field, an unfamiliar position, but will move back to right, with Ellis Burks going to center and Dante Bichette from right to left.

“Larry did a good job in center, but he is arguably the best right fielder in the National League,” Bichette said, approving the moves.

All-Star Burks, who is having his finest offensive season, is a former Gold Glove winner in center but was considered a liability there last year, prompting the decision to put Walker in center.

“The concerns I heard [when moved to left in spring training] was, everyone said I couldn’t play center field,” Burks said. “I moved to left field, and have done a great job.

“Now I have to go back to center where I was terrible, but I’m not going to cause problems or let it distract me. If they feel this will help the team, I’ll do it.”

--John Burkett has never regained his 22-7 form of 1993, but he continues to eat up innings and is a solid acquisition by the Texas Rangers. He takes pressure off a thin bullpen and the struggling Kevin Gross and Darren Oliver at the back of the rotation while augmenting stoppers Ken Hill and Bobby Witt at the front end. Hill and Witt were a combined 7-1 in their last 11 starts through Thursday.

--Add Rangers: The return of left-hander Randy Johnson and the addition of southpaws Terry Mulholland and Jamie Moyer certainly make the Seattle Mariners better, but the Rangers may not be intimidated. Under the absurd blueprint by which teams play as many games outside their division as in, they have only four games left with Seattle and are 19-10 against left-handers this year.