Monday, March 20, 2006 |
Kissy, Kissy, Paul
"Paul Lo Duca," Tracy said with a sigh, rubbing his hands through his hair. "Let me tell you something about Paul. That kid . . . I have a love affair with him. He was one of the most special players I've managed in all my years in baseball. Here was a career minor-leaguer when I got him in 2001 and there was a whole lot of skepticism when I said he was gonna be my No. 1 catcher."If there was one thing I saw in Paul, it was he was a leader. I knew our pitchers loved pitching to him and trusted him. The day (DePodesta) traded him was about the toughest day I had to face as a manager in the majors."
According to Tracy, it was just as tough on the teammates Lo Duca left behind. "The clubhouse was a complete shambles when the trade was announced," he said. "It was not easy winning the division that year after they trade your catcher and your set-up man (Guillermo Mota) with a 2-1/2-game lead. I had to replace Lo Duca with three catchers - Brent Mayne, David Ross and Tom Wilson - and break in a rookie (Yhency) Brazoban to set up."
After the Dodgers slipped to a 71-91 fourth-place record last year as a direct result of DePodesta's reckless trades, Tracy, who would have been a lame-duck manager this year, went to owner Frank McCourt with an ultimatum: Either he was given a three-year extension or would be allowed to leave. McCourt chose the latter and Tracy immediately signed with the Pirates. A few weeks later, McCourt, in an unspoken admission that he'd let the wrong guy go, fired DePodesta and replaced him with Giants assistant GM Ned Colletti.
"Ned's a good man who was schooled by a GM (Brian Sabean) I have the utmost respect for, and he's already done a real good job over there," Tracy said. "But I'm in a great situation here, completely different from the one I left. We've got a real good young nucleus of players here and the pieces we've added over the winter (first baseman Sean Casey, set-up man Roberto Hernandez, right fielder Jeromy Burnitz) make for a winning environment of professionalism. I know people think we're a little short in the starting pitching, but I promise you we're going to be very competitive because we're going to do all the little things right. This team was 13-28 in one-run games last year. Our intention is to turn that around."
All of them, that is, except that one team, with that one heart-breaking season where the club house was in shambles and the team leader was gone at the allstar break.
Whatever.
: 3/20/2006 10:40:00 AM : 3/20/2006 11:54:00 AMHow'd Plaschke manage to get syndicated in Pittsburgh? I don't buy this "Bill Madden" persona for a second.
: 3/20/2006 11:58:00 AMHm, funny.
Seems pretty incredible then that on that very night, on the road in San Diego, against a Padre team that was right behind them in the standings, the "shambled" Dodgers thumped the Padres something like 13-2*.
(*I don't remember the score exactly but I do remember the Dodgers smacking around the Dads pretty good that night.)
: 3/20/2006 05:01:00 PMBradley homered twice.
: 3/20/2006 05:07:00 PM : 3/21/2006 02:06:00 AM : 3/21/2006 06:07:00 AMNewer› ‹Older
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