Lamont Doesn’t Manage Best Team; Pirates Say He’s the Best

The question wasn’t if the Pittsburgh Pirates would be bad, only how bad. Maybe even as dreadful as the 1962 New York Mets.

Expectations were low, and so was their payroll -- $9.1 million, less than what Albert Belle made by himself this year. The Pirates stripped away their veterans, called up the kids and asked new manager Gene Lamont to do the unimaginable -- win with one of the most inexperienced teams in history.

Even Lamont’s closest friends wondered what he had gotten himself into with a team that lacked cash, name players and, supposedly, any chance to win. They knew he was determined to manage again after being fired by the Chicago White Sox in 1995, but did he really want to manage this badly?

“I didn’t know how good we’d be, but I never thought we’d be as poor as some people said,” said Lamont, who invited 70 players to what amounted to the major leagues’ first spring training tryout camp.

Now, as the regular season winds down, the Pirates have become the poster boys for every down-in-the-dumps ballclub, for every player told he wasn’t good enough. They are baseball’s version of “Hoosiers” -- the little team that couldn’t, but somehow did, staying in the playoff race in the last week of the season.

They have no MVP-worthy players, no Cy Young contenders, no batting champions or individual stars. But, after making a run for a division title that even Lamont’s bosses said was not realistic until 1999, they probably have the National League manager of the year.

“If he isn’t the manager of the year, they’d better rethink the whole concept of the award,” pitcher Jon Lieber said.

Cubs manager Jim Riggleman said: “His teams play hard all the time. But what he doesn’t get credit for is being an outstanding game manager. There isn’t anything that gets by Gene.”

Lamont’s steady hand, don’t-get-rattled approach and never-wavering faith in a collection of castoffs and prospects kept the Pirates in contention for a division title that would have rivaled that of the 1969 Mets for implausibility.

“We’ve got the least talent in the league, and we know it,” left fielder Al Martin said. “We don’t stack up with anybody, but Gene’s gotten the most out of everybody. He’s made the whole better than the sum of the parts.”

Martin and catcher Jason Kendall were the only holdover regulars from the 1996 Pirates, who went 73-89 only by winning 11 in a row in late September. The rest -- Denny Neagle, Orlando Merced, Carlos Garcia, Jay Bell, Jeff King -- were long gone, traded for prospects.

Remarkably, the bargain-basement Pirates didn’t just survive, they thrived. They hustled like a group of Pete Rose wannabes, winning games like the teams in the 1910s did -- getting hit by pitches, battling for walks and running out ground balls so hard, they forced hurried, errant throws.

“It was like every player on this team watched a Ty Cobb highlight tape,” first baseman Kevin Young said.

When they lost, which was about half the time, Lamont didn’t scream or intimidate. He massaged egos, patted fannies and never lost his cool or his patience, even when six regulars -- including all of his top run-producers -- went on the disabled list at various times.

“What we could never lose sight of is we are trying to build something for the future,” Lamont said. “You let players play and give them a chance. The way I show confidence is to keep putting guys out there.”

Funny, but the Pirates once thought they had the best manager in Jim Leyland, who left after 11 seasons so he could manage a veteran team again.

“This club would not have done as well if I’d been managing instead of Gene Lamont, I can tell you that right now,” said Leyland, now the Florida Marlins manager. “I’d been here for a long time and the young guys would have felt more pressure with me being here. I think these players relaxed a lot more under Gene Lamont.”

Leyland thinks Lamont deserves the manager of the year award, even though the Giants’ Dusty Baker and the Mets’ Bobby Valentine also revitalized losing teams. Lamont hasn’t let himself think much about it.

“The (MVP) is an individual award, the (manager of the year) is a team thing,” Lamont said. “You don’t win it unless your team wins ... and if I get it, I’ll be happy because that means we’ve won some games.”