Mixed feelings for new Seattle skipper McLaren

In the truest sense, it was getaway day for the Mariners on Sunday. When all the equipment had been cleared out for the flight to Kansas City, when the horde of media had departed, John McLaren had one more duty.

"Gotta say goodbye to Grover," said the new Mariners manager.

McLaren, his right arm in a sling from recent surgery, shambled into Mike Hargrove's office and paid his respects.

The game deals funny hands. McLaren had interviewed for jobs in Cincinnati, Tampa Bay, with the Dodgers, and come up dry. Now, with the Mariners playing their best ball in four years, he succeeds Hargrove.

But he only did it conditionally.

"I've never managed before," he noted. "Everybody would say, 'They offered you the job, you jumped at it.'

"[But] I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask [Hargrove]. I wanted to make sure it was all right with Mike. He assured me it was. He supported me, he said he recommended me for the job, and then I knew it was right."

McLaren bio


Age: 55, born Sept. 29, 1951, in Galveston, Texas

High school: Westbury, in Houston.

College: Attended Blinn Junior College, St. Thomas University and Houston Baptist.

Playing career: Catcher, drafted in the seventh round by the Astros in 1970. Hit a home run in his first pro game. Played seven seasons in the minor leagues, retiring after the 1976 season.

Coaching career: 1977, coach in Blue Jays system; 1978-85, Blue Jays minor-league manager, with four teams (430-483 record); 1986-90, Blue Jays third-base coach; 1991, Red Sox bullpen coach; 1992, Reds bullpen coach; 1993-2002, Mariners coach (bench coach from 1998-2002); 2003-05, Devil Rays bench coach; 2006, Devil Rays special assignment scout; 2007, Mariners bench coach.

Personal: Lives with his wife, Maria, in Peoria, Ariz.

Still, McLaren looked conflicted, almost a little pained. Surely, this wasn't the way he ever expected to become a big-league manager, even back in the early 1970s when he decided that was what he wanted to do.

He went to high school in Houston, graduating in 1970, then began a playing career as a minor-league catcher. By the time he got to Columbus, Ga., in the Class AA Southern League, he knew the die was cast.

"I didn't have real good bat speed," he said. "I started studying the game. Back when I interviewed for the Dodger job [in 2005], I pulled out a scouting report I had on the Southern League in 1973.

"I was always prepared. I had something on every hitter, every pitcher in the league. I've always felt in order to get respect, you've got to be prepared. And you can't fool anybody."

Sunday was Hargrove's day, capped by Seattle's 2-1 victory over Toronto. Today will be McLaren's first real day as M's manager, when he has a staff meeting in Kansas City, followed by a short meeting with his team.

He'll likely tell the club he doesn't see any immediate quantum changes. He likes to be aggressive, likes to use the bench, likes the makeup of the current lineup.

McLaren hasn't managed regularly since 1985, when he finished a three-year stint with Knoxville of the Southern League. On the bench, legs crossed, he projects something of a professorial figure, but he and others say: Don't be fooled.

"He can lose it pretty good, I'll tell you," said Gord Ash, a former Toronto executive when McLaren was a third-base coach there from 1986-90. "But he only saves that for when it's necessary. He's a passionate guy."

No wonder. McLaren was on benches with Lou Piniella for 14 years in Cincinnati, Seattle and Tampa Bay, and says without hesitation Piniella has been the biggest influence on his style.

"I'm not going to kick bases, I don't think," McLaren said, smiling. "But I've got a bad temper in me. I'll go after the umpires every now and then."

"Let me tell you, Mac's not a softy," said Lee Elia, Piniella's former coach now scouting for Tampa Bay. "But I do think he's a fellow that, probably in the era we're existing, is probably a little more understanding there's a certain kind of compassion you have to have today."

Elia could figure in McLaren's plans. McLaren says after consultation with club officials, he will add one coach, and Elia says there's "no question" he'd listen to such an overture.

Only after the earth has quit quaking will McLaren be able to answer a lingering question: Can he be the same person as a manager he was for so long as a coach, under Piniella and four other managers (Hargrove, Cito Gaston, Joe Morgan and Jimy Williams)?

"I think I can, I don't see why not," he said. "I've got to be in the clubhouse; that's my trademark. I think I'm a fair person, I think I've got good people skills. I get out and know the players, I know what makes them tick.

"I motivate 'em, I talk to 'em. I'm going to be the same person I've been the past 21 years in the big leagues. I'll be accessible. I like to have fun, kid around."

But: "I like to play hardball."

Norm Charlton, who was a Cincinnati reliever when McLaren was Piniella's bullpen coach there in 1992, vouches for that last part.

"There were times when Lou was very hard on his bench coaches," Charlton said. "That didn't matter to John. He was not afraid to stand up and say, 'Look, this is the way I see it. You may see it differently, but if you ask me, I'm not going to sugarcoat it.' He's not going to be a yes man."

So after 2 ½ years frequently marked by Hargrove bashing in Seattle, the great irony is that McLaren must live up to a standard that has the Mariners perking at 12 games over .500.

Sunday, you had the feeling that, 37 years after he got into the game, he was OK with that.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com