Bob Boone is a thorough, hard-working, upfront leader who has the personality to be successful in whatever he does. But it isn't what's known about Boone's character that should concern Reds players. It's what isn't known.

        The players won't begin to truly learn what isn't known about Boone until Opening Day.

        To borrow a phrase, managing a major-league team doesn't test your character, it reveals it. The pressure cooker of a 162-game season and all that comes with it brings out the worst in men.

        “It's the toughest job in the world,” said Herk Robinson, executive vice president of the Kansas City Royals, who was the general manager who hired and extended Boone before firing him, all in Boone's 2 1/2 seasons in K.C.

        Ray Knight, for example, had a lot going for him when, in 1996, he got the Reds' managerial job. Even the Reds players, including Barry Larkin, endorsed him.

        But Knight's pedal-to-the-metal approach beginning on Opening Day soon cost him the support of the players, including Larkin.

        In K.C., Boone tinkered with the lineup so frequently that by midseason of his first year, the Kansas City Star was running a sports-cover item called “The Boone-meter” to note the different lineups.

        Boone didn't like the “Boone-meter,” but it didn't slow down his tinkering.

        The only thing Robinson said about Boone that one might be able to read something into is that Boone has great self-confidence.

        “He's his own man when it comes to that,” Robinson said. “He's very knowledgeable, very confident — extremely confident. Bob will do it his way, and he won't be easily influenced from the outside. That could be a big positive or negative.”

        It could produce some interesting fireworks with the man who introduced him Friday as the Reds' new manager: GM Jim Bowden. One of the baseball people Boone cited as a guru and mentor Friday was Gene Mauch, who was notorious for doing things his own way.

        Former Reds manager Dave Bristol, for example, was a disciple of Mauch's, too, and Bristol's unwillingness to go along with Reds GM Bob Howsam is one reason Howsam fired Bristol and hired Sparky Anderson.

        On the other hand, Boone will stand up and take the heat when he makes a mistake, Robinson said: “He's a man's man.”

        That might be the most obvious difference between Knight and Boone, and it cost Knight tremendous respect in the Reds clubhouse.

        And for all his knowledge about the game, Boone didn't come off as a know-it-all Friday, the way Knight did when he got the job. Boone didn't fault Jack McKeon for anything; Knight, on the other hand, was open in his criticism of predecessor Davey Johnson.

        The rap on Boone in Kansas City is that although he was an excellent teacher, he spread himself too thin and tried to do everybody's job.

        But Boone alluded to the fact Friday that being a special assistant to Bowden the past three years gave him a deeper appreciation for that side of the business.

        “Maybe there are some things Bob will do differently this time,” Robinson said. “I think it's true any time you manage the first time. You learn from it.

        “A lot of managers, I believe, are better the second time around if they have the ability to learn from the first time around.”

        He puts Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa in that category.

        “I felt when I hired Bob he had what it takes to be a fine manager, and I still believe that,” Robinson said. “He's very intelligent, has a tremendous work ethic and is committed to the club.”

        What else does Robinson like about Boone?

        “As a catcher, he was involved in everything. And he's had three (sons) who are all the ages of the players playing today. You look at them, and you know he can relate to today's players. He did a lot of things right with them.”