Page 18 - ATD 07 October,2015
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SPORTSWednesday 7 October 2015
Continued from page 17 Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons celebrates after winning the first baseball game of a Collins finished in second
doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015, in Baltimore. Toronto won place five times during the
Plenty of successful man- 15-2 to clinch the American League East. 1990s, his Astros and Angels
agers, from Casey Stengel teams squandering several
and Grady Little years ago Associated Press late leads.
to Matt Williams and Ned This time around, New York
Yost just last season, have won that thing.” ence in that role, his inef- and Buffalo. He coached made needed moves to
been widely criticized — Hinch gets the first crack fective tenure didn’t last with Tampa Bay, scouted upgrade its muddling of-
even vilified — for fateful at winning in the playoffs long. But he’s been a big for the Chicago Cubs and fense before the July 31
moves gone wrong. when his surprising Astros hit this year in his first season spent more than a decade trade deadline. Given
This time of year, fans are play at Yankee Stadium piloting the young Astros. all told with the Dodgers enough talent to win for
not forgiving. in the AL wild-card game “Very open door. Very during separate stints in the first time in his five-year
“The first thing you have Tuesday night. much a player’s manag- their storied farm system. tenure, Collins steered the
to do is forget about the “Octobers usually come er. For us, that’s great. We Along the way, the di- Mets expertly as Yoenis
regular season,” said Hall through New York. At least need a guy like that, that minutive pepper pot de- Cespedes and Co. wiped
of Fame hockey coach they have in my career,” lets us play,” Houston ace veloped a fiery reputation out heavily favored Wash-
Scotty Bowman, who chat- he said Monday. Dallas Keuchel said. “Kind and seemingly crossed ington to claim the club’s
ted with Gibbons behind Hinch was 34 and by far of a trial by fire, but he has paths with almost everyone first playoff spot since 2006.
the batting cage Saturday the youngest manager in our backs. That’s what he’s in baseball. Still, he likes to “In my years of manag-
before the Blue Jays faced the majors when the Stan- done all year.” joke about how his wife ing in the major leagues,
Tampa Bay. “The way you ford graduate took over Collins’ career could hard- calls him an “idiot” when- I never had these kind of
played in the season is the Arizona Diamondbacks ly be more opposite. He ever a pinch hitter or pitch- changes on my team, and
probably not going to be in 2009. managed in Japan and ing change backfires. I was in pennant races for
good enough. You’ve got With no previous experi- Venezuela, Vero Beach Collins managed Triple- five straight years until the
to be a little better.” A Albuquerque to a 1987 last week,” Collins said.
Bowman won a record championship in the Pa- “Now I see what the dif-
nine Stanley Cups. Mean- cific Coast League. But un- ference can make. I cer-
while, Collins and the rest til now, his only chance to tainly wish I would have
of this year’s playoff neo- wear a big league uniform known that at those times
phytes have been working in the postseason came as because I would have
their entire careers to earn mentor Jim Leyland’s bull- pushed a lot harder to
one shot at a World Series pen coach with the 1992 make some moves.”
ring. Pittsburgh Pirates. Nevertheless, his task with
“I’m a baseball guy and Once he got his opportuni- the Mets has been a com-
I’m a baseball develop- ty to manage in the majors, plicated challenge. New
ment guy,” said Collins, York often juggled its rota-
who leads the Mets against tion down the stretch to
the Dodgers beginning Fri- rest its prized young pitch-
day night in Los Angeles. ers — front-office decisions
“This summer, all I did was that sometimes ran coun-
write the lineup and try to ter to Collins’ old-school
keep the clubhouse a fun instincts.
place to be, and it worked “He says things when he
out. So I was pretty happy needs to, but he’s definitely
the other day when we not on us all the time,” Mets
outfielder Curtis Grander-
son said. “Lets us go ahead
and learn from our bruises
— all right, we fell down,
we’ve got to find a way to
pick ourselves back up.”
Entering his first postseason
as a manager, that’s one
move Collins mastered
long ago.q
