Brenly Managing Just Fine Away From the Booth

Bob Brenly used to spend his time away from baseball focusing on anything but the sport.

Not anymore.

Brenly, who played in the major leagues for nine years before switching to coaching and broadcasting in 1992, is in his first year as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. And with the new job comes a new definition of “off day.”

“In a lot of ways, I now feel like a schoolteacher,” Brenly said. “I feel like a mother hen, you know, asking, ‘How are my guys doing?’ ”

So far, so good.

One year after a second-half collapse, the Diamondbacks have the National League’s second-best record at 43-28. Outfielder Luis Gonzalez has put up MVP-type numbers with 30 home runs and 68 runs batted in. Curt Schilling, the major leagues’ first 11-game winner, and Randy Johnson, the NL’s strikeout leader, are Cy Young Award candidates.

“Two days a week, I’m a smart manager,” said Brenly, referring to when Johnson and Schilling pitch.

Brenly, the Diamondback TV analyst for the previous three seasons, has already received flack from many of his former colleagues. On May 26, Brenly criticized San Diego’s Ben Davis after Davis broke up Schilling’s perfect game with an eighth-inning bunt. His unpopular position sparked a national debate on baseball’s unwritten rules.

“I know for a fact there [are] a lot of baseball people who feel the same way I do, but they hid behind the easy thing to do,” Brenly said. “Maybe I was a little too honest. But that’s the way I am.”

That style has made him a clubhouse favorite. Brenly, known as a tough and aggressive catcher, spent five seasons in the minors before being called up to San Francisco in 1981. So he has experienced long bus rides, small towns, minuscule paychecks and understands the sport’s daily grind.

“He’s a good communicator,” second baseman Craig Counsell said. “You know what to expect. Maybe because he was a player, he reacts the same way we would to situations.”

The players took to Brenly’s approach right away.

Whereas Buck Showalter, Brenly’s predecessor, would schedule marathon practice sessions during spring training, Brenly chose to dismiss the team by 1 p.m. He also has a “get it done” philosophy, letting the players use their own batting, throwing and baserunning techniques. But if they struggle, Brenly intervenes. He expects the players to perform but does not impose many rigid rules.

It also helps Brenly’s popularity to have the league’s best record.

“We’re all judged by one thing in this business--results,” pitcher Miguel Batista said. “And he’s winning.”

For now, the Diamondbacks hope to avoid last year’s late-summer slump. From the start of the 2000 season until Aug. 3, Arizona led the division for all but two days. Over the next two months, the Diamondbacks went 25-29, missed the playoffs and fired the franchise’s first manager.

As for the new manager?

Despite the added pressure, Brenly has no regrets about returning to the dugout.

“I’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity [in broadcasting],” Brenly said. “But from the first day I walked into spring training, put on a uniform, in a clubhouse again . . . . This feels so much more natural.”