Steve Kelley / Times staff columnist
Hargrove has credentials to right Mariners' ship

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Like a manager stealing the third-base coach's bunt sign, Mike Hargrove knew exactly what was coming.

He remembered the question, the year and the answer.

It was 1998, he was in Japan as part of Major League Baseball's touring all-star team, and he was asked about an outfielder from Orix Blue Wave named Ichiro Suzuki.

"He's a good outfielder," Hargrove told Sankei Shimbun. "And he has an above-average arm. He wants to come to the majors? It would be impossible for him to be a regular player there."

Yes, Hargrove remembers what he said six years and 924 big-league hits from Ichiro later. And he takes it all back.

"You know what happened?" Hargrove drawled. "I really enjoyed my time in Japan on that all-star tour. And found the people to be really nice and really avid baseball fans.

"But they asked every day, a thousand times, how their players compared, and I just had had my fill of that on that one particular day when he asked that one particular question. And I answered, 'No I don't think so.' So I have been wrong on occasion."

Every new manager should get one gimme. This can be Hargrove's.

Ichiro is "one of the all-time best," said Hargrove, who was named the Mariners' 13th manager at a news conference yesterday. "People talk about his hitting, but he has one of the best arms in the game. He's a complete player. The one thing that's surprised me is his durability. He's not a big guy. And he plays a lot. I think he's a keeper."

So is Hargrove.
 
When he first came to Cleveland in 1991, the Indians were young and rebuilding. Hargrove oversaw the ascension.

He took as good an assemblage of young talent as the 1990s produced — Jim Thome, Sandy Alomar Jr., Manny Ramirez, Carlos Baerga and the high-strung Albert Belle — from the bottom to the top of the American League.

He took talented kids to the 1995 World Series, and he returned to the Series in 1997 with a more veteran team that included Orel Hershiser, David Justice and Matt Williams.

Hargrove found a way to reach Belle and to manage the stubborn Eddie Murray. He was good in the clubhouse with a disparate cast of characters. The Indians finished first in the AL Central five years in a row.

He has credentials his predecessor, Bob Melvin, didn't have. And credentials are important to players. They listen to managers who have taken teams to the World Series. They appreciate history.

Hargrove will be able to challenge the Mariners' veteran players in a way Melvin couldn't.

"I think I'm pretty good at what I do," he said.

He isn't a traditional home-run-derby American League manager. Hargrove likes to put the game in motion. He hits-and-runs. He sends runners. He sacrifice bunts. He squeeze bunts. He manages percentages. He believes in the book.

His Cleveland teams were a perfect blend of speed — Kenny Lofton and Omar Vizquel — and muscle — Belle, Murray, Ramirez and Thome.

But every manager only is as good as his talent. After Cleveland, in his four seasons at Baltimore with an over-the-hill gang and a decaying farm system, Hargrove's Orioles finished a combined 97 games under .500. He left Baltimore after the 2003 season, wondering if he wanted to manage again.

"The talent level was not where it needed to be," he said. "And if you lost 32 of your last 36 games, it would make you question whether or not you want to manage."

Hargrove, who turns 55 next week, said he rediscovered his passion for managing in his year away from the dugout. Now he comes to Seattle, where he says management has told him it is committed to winning.

"I've never been afraid to speak my opinion and state my beliefs," he said. "I don't think that's going to be difficult to do here. (General manager) Bill Bavasi and I already have had two or three frank discussions, and it was very refreshing to be able to do that. Any needs that I think we have, or things we need to do, I will communicate to Bill."

Mariners front-office officials told Hargrove all the right things. That means he believes management will get him a power hitter like Anaheim's free agent Troy Glaus. It means he will get a free-agent pitcher like Eric Milton. It means he believes they will spend money they haven't spent since their shocking success in 2001.

"We want to get it done as quickly as possible," Hargrove said. "You know I played with Cleveland between 1979 and 1985. And in seven years, we probably had eight five-year plans. Saying you have a five-year plan, or a three-, two-year plan, you really put limits on yourself.

"I think getting to the postseason as soon as possible and building this thing with an eye on the future is the way to do it. Does that take a year? I don't know, maybe. Does it take two? Maybe. Does it take five? I don't think so. And if it takes five, I probably won't be here."

Yesterday, the Mariners took the first strong step in this most important offseason. They have a solid manager, a keeper-of-a-right fielder and a lot of work left to do.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists