Sunday, August 9, 1998

BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Today marks the second anniversary of the day Major League Baseball took the interim tag away from him and made John Allen the Reds' Managing Executive in place of the banished Marge Schott.

J. Allen

But there are no balloons or bands. If there is anything, there is angst among Reds' employees. Allen has just about 80 days left in his appointment, and team insiders say people are concerned that there will be firings and a major shift in philosophy if Schott returns to run the day-to-day operations and forces Allen is out. MLB is apparently considering extending her suspension beyond the World Series. The grounds would be the December 1996 allegations by General Motors that Schott used the names of seven Reds' employees to help falsify 57 sales at her Chevrolet-GEO dealership.

Asked whether he would stay on if Schott comes back, Allen said, "No comment," which is pretty much his stock answer when discussing her status. Schott is reportedly furious at what Allen's cost-cutting has done to the club's competitiveness. Allen admits their relationship is "marginal at best."

"If it ended tomorrow, I would cherish the experience and thank Mrs. Schott and Baseball for giving me the opportunity," he said. It could end in 80 tomorrows. Or he could be here another two years until the Reds' partnership ends, when Baseball believes Schott will surrender her powers to her partners. There's no telling when Schott can sell the club because of the stadium-ballot crisis, and no one knows if she even wants to sell. Commissioner Bud Selig is apparently giving her as much time as possible to figure it out if she wants to sell. Word is he probably won't impose a suspension extension until the September owners' meetings. But Allen says the uncertainty in his life doesn't affect him or the club. He says in the last month or so he has been taking stock of the past two years as he looks to plan for 1999. He'll start putting together a budget in September, but how can he plan if he might not even be here?

As for any word from Baseball, Allen says all he knows is there has been no official change in the suspension agreement.

"It has to be on his mind. It's on everyone's mind," said Cal Levy, who has become Allen's right-hand man as the club's marketing consultant. "But I've been impressed the way he's gone ahead with the business of the club. It's almost out of his hands. Whatever happens, happens."

What has happened in his tenure is that the Reds are on "very strong," financial ground, Allen said. "We've turned the corner." After a decade of losing money, he said the club is in the black, but he won't say if it's enough to jack up a $22 million payroll.

Allen lists his main accomplishments as the hiring of minorities (assistant general manager Doc Rodgers, director of player development Muzzy Jackson, director of scouting De Jon Watson) and the expansions of other departments.

He figured the club has added about a dozen new employees on the baseball side, as well as re-introducing the team to Latin American development. Three employees have been added to marketing, two in season tickets, as well as the work he has done himself getting out into the community.

"He's made progress, definitely," Levy said. "He's opened up the idea that the Reds are part of Cincinnati, but brought it to a different level. Mrs. Schott has always been fan friendly, but John took it to a new level."

Those are some of the things that have gone right. But he knows he has made mistakes, the most recent of which came when he agreed to a contract extension with the agents for pitcher Pete Harnisch and left General Manager Jim Bowden in the lurch. Bowden found out about the deal from Harnisch.

Allen claims there was no problem with the two on the parameters of a guaranteed $7 million for two years. Allen said his mistake was not telling Harnisch's people not to say anything until he had a chance to tell Bowden.

Allen now regrets that the incident has fired the speculation that he and Bowden can't stand each other.

"Jim and I are team players," Allen said. "He's very talented and has done a great job with the baseball side."

Allen's ultimate legacy could be last month's stadium deal on the river struck with Hamilton County. But like everything else in his life, that's up in the air too. Broadway Commons supporters are trying to block a river deal via the November ballot.

Allen won't say what the team will do if the election goes against the river. And he really only has one plan for the next 80 days.

"I'm just going to work every day," Allen said. "There's nothing else to do."