He Plays Stand-Tall Ball

When finally and officially fired as the Dodger manager at the end of the 2000 season -- after two years of coping with organizational dysfunction under Fox and Kevin Malone -- Davey Johnson knew it was time for a sabbatical. He knew, after 27 summers as a major league player and manager, he needed a break.

Now, five years later, wearing red, white and blue rather than just thinking blue, he has returned to the game that had been his life and found it to be a measure of solace.

Hired by USA Baseball to manage the team that hopes to survive a series of qualifying tournaments and compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics -- and redeem itself for an embarrassing regional elimination by Mexico before the 2004 Athens Games -- Johnson has found this to be a slice of therapeutic refuge.

“Timing is everything, and this has been a godsend,” Susan Johnson, his wife, said. “He just went through as tough a year and a half as anyone possibly could. I can’t imagine it being any tougher.”

There was a life-threatening illness in 2004 -- “We weren’t sure at times if he was going to make it,” Susan Johnson said -- that resulted in three abdominal surgeries and the loss of more than 60 pounds and half his stomach, with doctors at the Mayo Clinic ultimately draining and removing a ruptured appendix.

While still regaining strength in 2005, Johnson endured an even more powerful body blow in June: the death of daughter Andrea Lyn Johnson at 32.

“My little surfer girl,” Johnson says.

A world-class professional surfer, Andrea Lyn had battled the shadowy grasp of schizophrenia for a decade before her system, in Johnson’s view, capitulated to heavy medication. Ultimately, as her condition worsened, her father was forced to make the decision that removed her life support.

“It was hugely painful for everyone in the family, and particularly to Davey,” said Susan Johnson, his second wife. “Of his three children, Andrea was most like him. She was athletic, competitive and loved the beach, as he does. Even when she was most sick, he would pick her up and they would spend time together at the beach.

“We were grateful that he was away from the game and had that time then, and we’re grateful he is back now. He loves working with young players and is excited to represent the country.”

Davey Johnson talks about the honor and excitement while sitting in the dugout at HoHoKam Park and watching his team prepare for a five-day, six-nation qualifying tournament that begins in Arizona today. The top four finishers advance to Cuba in August for another qualifying tournament on the road to China.

The global game is not new to Johnson.

He accepted an emergency call and managed Holland to the European championship in 2003 before serving as the Dutch bench coach in Athens while still recovering from his illness.

He then accepted an offer to manage the U.S. team in the 2005 World Cup in Holland in September after Bob Watson, general manager of USA Baseball and vice president of on-field operation for Major League Baseball, read about Andrea Lyn’s passing.

“We were in the process of reviewing potential managers and I said, ‘Let’s give Davey a call and see if he’d be interested,’ ” Watson said, leaning on the batting cage at HoHoKam. “I thought he would be a good fit for a young team and it would be the right therapy for Davey.”

The U.S. finished seventh in the 16-team World Cup. The usual roster restriction -- no player on a 25-man major league roster is eligible -- was compounded by the September tournament dates.

Several potential players were competing in minor league playoffs or had joined the expanded big league rosters.

Regardless, said Watson, “We liked the way Davey went about his business. His energy, enthusiasm and passion for the game were evident, and it was natural for us to retain him. Part of what we’ve been looking for is continuity in our pro staff.”

For Johnson, it is still a day at a time and always will be. Apart from the interplay of the diamond, or amid it, Andrea Lyn, the apple of his eye as he calls her, is never far from his thoughts, his view.

“Being here, being part of this, is definitely therapeutic,” he said. “It takes some of the hurt away. If I wasn’t doing something constructive I would have a hard time letting go.

“There are still times when I find it difficult thinking about anything else, but I know she’s up there surfing somewhere and still has the smile she had every day of her life. I’m also sure she’s happy to know that her dad has been blessed here with a second family of sorts. In a big way, these are my kids too.”

If expectation and pressure are part of the package, what’s new?

Johnson had a .564 winning percentage in 14 seasons as a major league manager. He won a World Series title with the New York Mets in 1986 and reached the playoffs on five other occasions -- four times as a division winner and once as a wild card. He dealt with a series of enigmatic owners along the way (“It wasn’t always roses,” he said), including Nelson Doubleday in New York, Marge Schott in Cincinnati, Peter Angelos in Baltimore and the Fox/Bob Daly combine in Los Angeles, where a strained relationship with Malone -- “my buddy,” Johnson said facetiously -- developed into the steepest of many hurdles in the path of success.

The Dodgers finished eight games below .500 in Johnson’s first season and 10 over in his second. However, he was privately and openly second-guessed by Malone, the general manager, and at times by Daly, the chairman, both ignoring some of their big-money busts, the rupture in the farm-system pipeline, a lack of balance and speed in the lineup, the absence of a quality left-handed starter in a division demanding left-handed starters and the absence as well, said a reflecting Johnson, “of enough players with what I would call real persona or substance.”

“My agent and I met with Daly in September [2000],” Johnson said, “and I told him, ‘It’s not a matter of liking or disliking [Malone], we just aren’t a team.’ I told him, ‘I’ll do anything you want, but I think one of us has to go.’ Of course, I pretty much knew they had already decided that I would be the one to go.”

On the day he announced the firing, Daly acknowledged that he had failed to bring Malone and Johnson together, adding, “The one thing that I do feel is that I cannot live with an organization that does not completely row in the same direction.”

The Dodgers paid Johnson $1.5 million for the third and final year of his contract.

“I’ve been blessed to manage in four different organizations and enjoy success in three of them,” Johnson said as the U.S. team worked out. “I’d have liked a little more time with the Dodgers to help bring that great organization back to a consistent winning level, but at least I started a process and turned it over to a good man in Jim Tracy.

“I enjoyed watching him win in 2004 from afar. I don’t know the details, but I was surprised they let him go and it seems like they still have some issues with leadership and direction. I followed the Dodgers as a kid, and I’m saddened to see them slide back.

“When it finally came down for me in L.A., I needed to get away. I was experiencing a little burnout, tired of the system and looking forward to having time with my family, taking care of Andrea and some new challenges. I missed this, being in uniform and being in the dugout, working with young players, but I didn’t miss people not understanding exactly what you do and how valuable you are doing it. My agent has wanted to put my name out there, but I have had no burning desire to promote myself and start talking to clubs again, trying to get a big league job.”

At 62, he has the best of it -- time for family and the new challenges, as well as this assignment for game and country. Besides the goal of a coveted gold, a strong showing on the Olympic trail could persuade the International Olympic Committee, U.S. officials say, to reinstate baseball as an Olympic sport after Beijing.

“Since we were eliminated by Mexico in ‘04, we need to make a good showing for several reasons,” Johnson said. “We need to show we’re a dominant force in baseball. It’s our game, and we need to put a great team out there and win.

“If that’s pressure, well I’ve had pressure throughout my career -- as both a player and manager. I don’t think this is any more or less. It’s simply a great honor to represent the country, and I know a lot of people will be expecting us to win. We expect it as well.”

And somewhere, somehow, Johnson believes amid the ache, his little surfer girl will be rooting.