Oh, Doctor! May 9
- TALKING WITH MANAGERS, INCLUDING CASEY
- By Jerry Coleman for the Hall of Champions
One of the roles I’ve enjoyed all these years as a broadcaster with the Padres is the pre-game interview with the manager. We call it the "Manager's Dugout Report" on the broadcast.
I like to get to the ballpark early and tape it with him about four hours before game time before he meets with the writers. It’s just one-on-one time between him, me and the tape recorder.
I remember when I first started doing these types of interviews in the 1960s for CBS Radio broadcasts. I’d have an engineer wheeling equipment the size of a suitcase behind me. Now I carry a tape recorder the size of a cigarette case.
After 12 years of talking with Bruce Bochy before games, I’m finally in the habit of looking for new manager Bud Black instead of Bruce.
I’ve been talking with Padres managers from John McNamara to Roger Craig to Frank Howard to Dick Williams to Steve Boros to Larry Bowa to Jack McKeon to Greg Riddoch to Jim Riggleman to Bochy and now to Black. I interviewed myself that one year, 1980.
Bochy and McKeon were always fun to interview, but Dick Williams could be tough before a game. He was sensitive. I remember once I asked him a question, and he just stared at me. He didn’t say a word – just stared.
But I haven’t had too many problems. I’ve had more trouble with players when I did games for 22 years for CBS Radio. I noticed guys weren’t as easy to talk to after they signed a big contract. I remember Rickey Henderson wouldn’t do an interview with me.
But what I have always told the Padres managers for the pre-game interview is, “This is your show. I want you to talk about what you want to talk about.”
That way I feel the fans listening have a link from me to them to hear what the manager’s thoughts are before the game.
I admit I don’t always ask pointed questions, because I don’t think it’s my role to be Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes and have managers get up and walk away. I want the manager to feel this is a chance for him to express himself and talk to the fans about the team. I think the listeners get a lot of good insight into the team and what to expect in today’s game after what happened the night before.
Bud Black has been easy to work with, and I think you’ll learn a lot about the team listening to him. Bud is a very bright guy. He’s one of the smartest managers I’ve ever met.
The important part of being a manager is handling players. That’s more important than what happens on the field. A lot of guys know the strategy, but not all of them can understand the players.
They once asked Yogi Berra what makes a good manager, and he said, “Good players.”
Yogi and I played for Casey Stengel with the Yankees, and sometimes I make jokes on the air about my days with Casey. But Casey was a brilliant manager. He understood things about you that you didn’t understand. He wasn’t a very warm manager, though. The only way you knew you were in the game was by reading the lineup card. I think the only players he liked were Yogi, Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin.
Casey was great with the writers, but I don’t know how he’d do in this age of television and ESPN. Television wants sound bites – short answers.
You’d ask Casey a question, and he would talk for 20 minutes without answering the question. But the writers loved him because he told stories.
There were four elements to being a manager that Casey understood: one, he understood you more than you knew yourself; two, he knew what the fans of New York wanted; three, he understood what the front office wanted; and four, there were 10 newspapers in New York and he knew what the writers wanted.
The writers loved him, but I don’t know if I would have enjoyed taping 20-minutes answers from him for the pre-game show.
