Tuesday, October 03, 2000
Ax will turn on Bowden
Jim Bowden said there was plenty of blame to go around. It lingered the longest, however, at Jack McKeon's desk.
Consistent with the custom of his unforgiving craft, the Cincinnati Reds' manager was named the club's designated scapegoat Monday morning. He was fired for expectations missed and enemies made, the victim of circumstances beyond his control and office politics beyond his power.
Bowden, meanwhile, keeps his job. Consistent with his Teflon career, he takes the blame without taking the fall. It's a neat trick, but it becomes difficult to repeat. One of these days, Reds chief executive officer Carl Lindner is going to start wondering why his ballclub is looking
for its fifth manager in eight years. One of these days, the Reds' general manager is going to be held to the same stern standards as the fellows who fill out the lineup cards.
As they say in the dugout: What goes around comes around.
Lack of faith
Bowden keeps singing the small-market blues, but he tends to hold his managers to big-market expectations. McKeon won 85 games with baseball's No.23 payroll, despite extensive injuries and disheartening trades, and it wasn't enough. He won 96 games a year ago and still couldn't swing a two-year contract.
He has been a lame duck since spring training, laboring under a one-year contract while four members of his coaching staff owned long-term deals. The situation was illogical, insensitive, deeply divisive and ultimately untenable.
“That was probably a telling tale right there,” McKeon said. “You could read between the lines and say they didn't have faith in you.”
Paranoia is an occupational hazard of major-league managing. For Reds managers, it's become part of the job description. Some of this owes to Bowden's management style, which relies heavily on expert consultants and player input. Some of this has to do with captain Barry Larkin, who has been suspected of more palace intrigue than Rasputin.
A staff divided
Though there is no evidence to suggest McKeon was undermined by his staff, both bench coach Ken Griffey Sr. and third base coach Ron Oester are candidates to replace him. It has been an awkward situation for all concerned, one the Reds should not repeat. If Bowden's next manager does not select his own staff, he ought to have at least as much security as his subordinates.
“You have to have people you can trust,” one Reds coach said. “You have to have people you'd go to war with.”
The Reds, instead, have had a couple of coaching cliques. McKeon's cronies consisted of instructor Harry Dunlop, pitching coach Don Gullett and hitting coach Denis Menke. The rest of his staff — Oester, Griffey, first base coach Dave Collins and bullpen coach Tom Hume — rarely were seen in the manager's company.
McKeon might have worked harder at getting all of his people on the same page. He might have done more to cultivate Larkin, figuring the other players would follow. He might have won a little more and worried a lot less.
By most objective standards, McKeon did well to win 85 games in 2000. Given his hurdles, he probably deserved to be judged on a sliding scale. Bowden decided, however, that the Reds need to go in yet another “different direction.”
A sliding scale, evidently, applies only to executives.
E-mail: tsullivan@enquirer.com.
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SULLIVAN: Ax will turn on Bowden
