AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > October > 12
Friday, October 12, 2007
Can Wren fill Schuerholz’s suspenders?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A few thoughts after spending part of the morning/afternoon sifting through the various stories written around the country about the end of the John Schuerholz GM era. Sounds like this fella has a whole lot of admirers in his industry.
Reminded me of an old quote from George Brett, who said, “John Schuerholz is the luckiest general manager I know. Everywhere he goes, his teams always win.”
Anyway, read Bradley’s column about Schuerholz. Agree with most of it, except I’ve never found Schuerholz to be a guy easy to dislike. Yeah, he’s a arrogant and a dapper dresser who wears suspenders to the ballpark, but so what?
I like a guy who’s brash, not afraid to make a sartorial statement or say what’s on his mind, and doesn’t dabble in false modesty. A guy who is damn good at what he does, and acts like it.
And believe it or not, he’s got a great sense of humor.
I’ve always enjoyed talking to the man, and I know I’ll get ripped by a few here on the blog for saying that, because apparently to them, saying something nice about a person you’re assigned to cover means you’re sucking up to them. Whatever.
I said he’s full of himself. I’d never wear the suspenders. I’ll tell you he seems to like telling folks what book he just finished reading (he reads a LOT), or the fine restaurant he ate in last night ( that most of you and I probably can’t afford). Not particularly flattering things to say about someone. No way to suck up.
But if he or someone else were to dissect me in print or on a blog or whatever, I can assure you, there’d be more flaws and annoying tendencies to point out than the ones I attributed to him. And if I read as much as him (which I should, but don’t), I’d probably tell people about it, too. (I do the same with music, with CDs I’ve heard. I know it. I know it annoys some people. Too bad.)
We all have our moments, and most of us can be royal pains in the butt at times; some of us more than others. So what?
The man’s great at what he does, or did, or whatever. Deal with it. Or do you think the Braves not winning another World Series or two is somehow a big mark against the general manager who assembled the teams that made it to 14 consecutive postseasons? If so, hey, you’re entitled to your opinion.
As for the Bradley column, I do think Bobby Cox was at least equally as important as Schuerholz for the Braves’ long run of success, probably more. And you can’t overlook scouting guru Paul Snyder and the player development staff.
But Schuerholz … anyone who doesn’t recognize he’s one of the best general managers of the modern era, if not the best, is simply ignoring the evidence — the nearly 1,600 wins in 17 seasons in Atlanta, the division titles, the success with Kansas City before the Braves — while also declaring the overwhelming consensus of his peers and others in the industry is flawed.
Nevermind us ink-stained wretches, just listen to the folks he competed against, those who’ve tried to measure up against him in his own profession. I’ve looked, and the only negative comment I can find over the years, the only person in baseball — player, manager, GM, scout, anyone — I can find that was criticial of Schuerholz, on or off record, was John Rocker, who said last year that he was overrated and had a little man’s complex, or something to that effect.
If you can find someone else who’s said anything dismissive of Schuerholz’s body of work, who has said anything that can be construed as less than glowing praise, please let me know. Otherwise, we’ve got Rocker and Angry Joe from Smyrna.
Because I can tell you, even the agents he’s butted heads with in recent years, at least to me, have never said Schuerholz is anything less than a fine GM.
And most everyone I talk to, either in interviews or simply casual conversation around batting cages, etc., says the man is the best in the business.
I won’t be so bold as to suggest I know more about judging GMs than do other GMs, scouts, coaches, managers and players. Maybe a few of you do. But I don’t.
Wren’s got big shoes to fill: To say the least, he’s got a tough assignment. Not only is Frank Wren following a GM that presided over a worst-to-first team that went on to win 14 consecutive division titles, but he’s taking over at a time when their payroll ranks in the middle of the pack, unlike the top-tier payrolls that most of Schuerholz’s Braves teams enjoyed.
And Wren doesn’t have Dayton Moore heading up the minor league system, though the replacements have done a sound job according to most experts who’ve judged the Braves’ last couple of drafts and their minor league system. I don’t know; I think it’s too early to tell on that front.
Anyway, Wren. I’ve known him since my first year covering baseball in Florida in 1995, when he was a Marlins executive working under Dave Dombrowski. And I’ve always been impressed by his baseball acumen and his knowledge of the myriad rules regarding free agency, arbitration, options, Rule 5 drafts, etc.
He knows that stuff far better than anyone else I know, and I mean anyone.
But that’s only a small part of being a GM. Schuerholz didn’t seem to know much more about that stuff than I do, to be honest. But he didn’t need to — most of that stuff has become much more complicated in the past 10 years, and by then Schuerholz had reached such a stature and surrounded himself with such baseball minds, he delegated most of that technical stuff to Wren and others.
Frank told me yesterday that he knows he’ll have to get an assistant soon and delegate a lot of the very stuff he specialized in, because the GM simply has too many responsibilities to get caught up in all that on a daily basis.
“This is a big job,” he said. “It’s a daunting task to be a general manager of a baseball franchise.”
Frank knows that now he’s got to try to come up with the “big deal” ideas, something that Frank said he always marveled at John’s ability to do. “All of a sudden he’d say, ‘Why don’t we get Gary Sheffield?’” Wren said yesterday, speaking of Schuerholz. “When we hadn’t even talked about Gary Sheffield.”
Jim Leyland was Florida’s manager in 1997-98, Wren’s last two years there before he took the doomed-to-fail Orioles GM job.
(I say doomed to fail, because everyone I’ve talked to who was privy to the goings-on there said owner Peter Angelos and his sons were meddlesome and involved themselves in every situation. No question Frank made some personnel moves that backfired there, but again, I’m told that his hands were tied on many fronts, and that a toxic atmosphere was created by all the backstabbing and second-guessing from the top when anything went wrong.)
Here’s what Leyland told me yesterday when I called him to ask about Frank: “I’m happy for him. He’s a good man. He knows the game. He knows players. He knows what he’s doing. After working with Dave and John Schuerholz, two Hall of Fame general managers, and Bobby Cox, a Hall of Fame manager … that’s pretty good.”
Dombrowski told me Wren was as qualified as you could possibly be, and pointed out that other organizations had pursued him but that Wren liked Atlanta and turned down some opportunities.
Wren did turn down the Pittsburgh Pirates GM job. That’s the only GM job he was offered since Baltimore, but he also took himself out of consideration for two or three others.
He didn’t get the Cincinnati Reds job he interviewed for a year ago. Sometimes, things happen for a reason. Today, Wren couldn’t be happier than he was bypassed for that post. Because now he’s got the one he wanted most.
Will he do a good job? I’m confident he will, though I don’t know his approach behind-the-scenes well enough to say it with absolute confidence. I do know he’s a good guy, with three kids he didn’t want to move from Atlanta, including a couple of athletic twin sons who are 13, the age you don’t like to move them.
He’s learned lessons since his Baltimore experience, and says he’s developed as a manager of people, something that’s absolutely critical for success as a GM. It was perhaps’ Schuerholz’ greatest strength, his ability to motivate and lead the staff that worked so hard for him.
Whether Wren can fill those shoes, and have the great working relationship with Bobby Cox that Schuerholz did, we’ll soon find out.
I do know he won’t be intimidated, another big strength of Schuerholz’s. Let me give you one example from his only GM experience, both used against him when Angelos fired him in Baltimore:
Cal Ripken Jr. was an absolute living legend still playing for Baltimore when Wren was the O’s GM. One day late in the ‘99, the team’s chartered jet was waiting to take off for a West Coast road trip at 8 a.m.
Ripken, who could be a bit, uh, well, high-maintenance, called saying he was stuck in traffic and would be arriving in the next five to 10 minutes.
“At Wren’s order, the plan[e] took off without Cal, who arrived at the gate a few minutes later. Cal was then forced to make his own cross-country travel arrangements,” the Orioles said in a release when they fired Wren.
” … In the opinion of management, there was no need for such an arbitrary and inflexible decision…. The Orioles management cannot and will not abide having a general manager operate in such an unreasonable, authoritarian manner and treat anyone in this way, especially someone such as Cal who has done so much for the Orioles and for baseball.”
Hey, say what you will about the decision, but making the call to leave Ripken at the airport? That’s someone with stones.
And I can pretty well assure you of this: He wouldn’t be the one having to make that call with the Braves anyway, not while Bobby Cox is the manager and chain-smoking, old-school, gravel-voiced Bill Acree is the no-b.s. travel director.
What a job. What a life.
Baseball.
You gotta love it.
“CRIMSON DRAGON TATTOO by Ray Wylie Hubbard
I have a crimson dragon tattoo
It burns on my arm like the truth
The red ink is in my skin, it’s on my soul too
I have a crimson dragon tattoo.
Twenty-one silver dollars is what it cost
Drawn by a fast left hand when I was lost
I did not choose a heart, a rose or a cross
Twenty-one silver dollars is what it cost.
Sometimes it whispers my name
And tells me that this life is just a game
Whom the gods wish to destroy, first they drive insane
Sometimes it whispers my name.
I have a crimson dragon tattoo
It burns on my arm like the truth
The red ink is in my skin its on my soul too
I have a crimson dragon tattoo.
I have a crimson dragon tattoo…
