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Friday, June 30, 2006
Mazzone not appreciated enough
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
The absolutely disgusting venom for Leo Mazzone was there Friday night at Turner Field, but it was invisible. A couple of Braves exchanged warm hugs with Mazzone during batting practice in the left-field corner. Bobby Cox never saw his old pitching coach of 15 seasons before the game after sauntering toward the visitors’ dugout, but he told Baltimore Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo that he’d catch up with Mazzone later.
There also were all of those cheers from the choppers and the chanters for Mazzone when he walked down the left-field line to see Orioles starting pitcher Daniel Cabrera warming in the bullpen.
Mazzone was visibly moved. “If you don’t think I feel awkward sitting (in the visitors’ dugout), I do,” said Mazzone, fighting misty eyes. He was a significant force behind the Braves’ 14 consecutive division titles, five pennants and world championship, but he was justified after last season to leave town for a lot of pennies to join Perlozzo, his best friend, in Baltimore. “We have a chance to build something, and we have some building blocks, speaking from the pitching end only, and it’s been great. Not that I don’t miss the other side.”
The question is: Does the other side miss Mazzone?
That’s debatable.
Actually, it’s not. At best when you mention Mazzone among those with tomahawks across their chests, indifference reigns. That was underscored by many of his former coworkers keeping their distance Friday. Although Mazzone is the greatest pitching coach ever, his personality is sort of, well, let the Orioles’ Javy Lopez tell it. “Just like that guy on ‘American Idol,’ â€? said Lopez, the former Braves catcher, laughing, while comparing Mazzone, the former Braves pitching coach, to Simon Cowell, the owner of a famously blunt tongue. Added Lopez, of Mazzone or Cowell, “You don’t like him, but you know what? He’s honest.”
Yes, Mazzone is. We’re talking brutally honest, which is the hallmark of those from Knute Rockne to Vince Lombardi to Pat Riley — you know, winners. Still, when Mazzone left for Baltimore, there was either silence or glee around the Braves’ clubhouse. Said Mazzone, rolling his eyes as he moved before the game along the tunnel from the visiting dugout to the Orioles clubhouse, “I’m not surprised to hear anything in this game. To me, it’s really not that big of deal.”
It’s not as big as the Braves’ ERA, for instance. Or that of the Orioles, for that matter. While the Braves’ pitching has imploded since Mazzone left with a resume that featured his Atlanta staff finishing either first or second in the majors in ERA for 12 seasons, the Orioles came to town with their pitchers walking more folks than anybody and owning the second-worst ERA in the American League.
In this one, the Orioles’ pitching was slightly worse than that of the Braves during a 5-3 defeat. So, to hear the Leo Bashers tell it, the whole thing regarding Mazzone’s departure and the arrival of new pitching coach Roger McDowell is a wash. They wish to believe that Mazzone’s effectiveness in Atlanta was the result of Cy Maddux, Cy Glavine and Cy Smoltz instead of the other way around.
Whatever. Mazzone is only midway through his first year in Baltimore with a new system, and he hasn’t the Orioles of Palmer, McNally, Cuellar and Dobson. Even so, Lopez said the Orioles’ ugly pitching numbers are frauds. “If you compare this to the previous two years, you see the progress, because Leo is helping the pitchers keep us in games,” Lopez said. “He wants what he wants, and his temper is what makes him who he is. It definitely is getting results, because you see that the pitchers are going in a straight line.”
Or else. Before the game, Mazzone leaned forward in the visitor’s dugout to get a better view of what stretched high above the bleachers in left-center field. “I want to make sure that my pitchers look at those pennant flags,” he said, with a wide smile that kept growing. “I want them to see them, because that’s what it’s all about.”
Then Mazzone thought about Cox, the Braves manager that he rocked next to in dugouts around the majors. Once, he told me that Cox was like his second father. “I’m going to wear dark sunglasses tonight,” Mazzone said. “That way I can peak over there during the game at one of the greatest men I met in my life.”
Too bad more in the Braves world don’t relish the greatest coach (pitching or otherwise) they’ll ever have.
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