An odd thing happened to John Russell when he began learning to play shortstop -- he became a manager.

Or at least got the idea of becoming a manager.

This was in 1992 or thereabouts.

Russell was near the end of a playing career with Texas in which he primarily was a catcher but also learned to play the outfield, third base and first base. "To stay on the team," Russell said.

One day in spring training, Perry Hill, the Rangers' infield coach, took Russell, then 31, out to shortstop.

"Let's work out at short," Hill said.

Russell was hesitant.

"Maybe when I was in college I could have played short, but not now," Russell told Hill.

Hill was undeterred.

"You need to learn how to play the middle infield because you're going to manage someday," Hill said.

Hill's thinking was that the more positions Russell knew a thing or two about, the better manager he'd be.

Hill continued to plant the seed.

"Being around you for the last two years, you have that ability to see the game," Hill said. "From talking to you, you're a student of the game. That really is noticeable."

Russell, as is his wont, listened. And thought about what Hill said.

And an idea was born.

"You know what," Russell told Hill. "That might be something I might want to do."

On Monday night, Russell -- after 10 years of managing in the minor leagues and three seasons as a Pirates coach -- will manage his first major-league game when the Pirates play in Atlanta.

"It's going to be fun," said Russell, now 47. "But I think the most fun moment is going to be opening at home [April 7]. I think that's going to be a really neat moment for everybody."

Russell has had an opening day as a manager -- of sorts.

That was in February when he led the first spring training workout for pitchers and catchers.

"The first day I put on my jersey was a pretty special moment," Russell said. "I think that was when it really hit me."

It hit him that all those tiresome bus rides in the Appalachian League and Florida State League and Eastern League and nettlesome early morning flights in the Pacific Coast League and International League had been worth it.

Now he moves on to managing on baseball's highest stage. He takes over a team that has been off-Broadway for 15 consecutive seasons and will try to revive an act that hasn't been received well since 1992.

If instruction and diligence and meetings and drills and attention to detail have anything to do with it, perhaps he'll succeed.

"It was very different this spring," said shortstop Jack Wilson, the Pirates' elder statesman. "There was a lot of work. It wasn't easy. Usually, you come to spring training, and it's 75 to 80 percent baseball and 20 percent golf. You get your work done, but you have that tee time.

"I don't think we had too many tee times this year because we had a lot of work."

And not just because of Russell. Sometimes, his coaching staff had something to do with that.

Recently, catcher Ryan Doumit, who wasn't scheduled to play in a road game, planned to get in some work in the morning, then call it a day about noon.

Instead, bench coach Gary Varsho suggested that Doumit would benefit by getting eight or nine at-bats in minor-league games that day. Doumit agreed. His day did not end at noon. It ended about three hours later.

Russell's staff is important to him. And will be important for the Pirates.

"I'm happy that he got [hitting coach] Donnie Long and Gary Varsho, people he knows from the Phillies' organization," said Philadelphia catcher Chris Coste, who played for Russell in the minor leagues. "A lot of times when a manager joins a new team and he has coaches he doesn't know -- they can be the greatest coaches in the world -- there's going to be that getting-to-know-you period. It's a trust factor. Fortunately for him, he has guys who not only he knows but he trusts."

Long and Varsho can be buffers for Russell with the players, some of whom know him from his days as a Pirates coach.

"He sees things that need to be addressed, whether it's positively or reinforcing some things or a pat on the back -- things that he sees that he wants to be sure that the cast is on board," Varsho said. "It's about doing things right."

Perhaps nothing that happened in spring training went unnoticed by Russell.

"He's always watching," Wilson said. "You do something [wrong], it's going to be addressed. But as long as you prepare and work hard, you're never going to have a problem with him."

"He doesn't necessarily watch the ball," Varsho said. "If you're paying attention to detail, you're not watching what normal people watch. He doesn't watch the ball. He watches off the ball -- what other players are doing -- because when there's a mishap, something happened off the ball. Somebody wasn't in position."

And that will be addressed quickly.

"If he sees something that he's not necessarily in agreement with, he'll call you in and he'll talk to you about it," third base coach Tony Beasley said.

"He's very attentive. You may not be aware, but he's watching. He's on top of things. And that's good."

Russell has a reputation for being an excellent communicator, an excellent one-on-one person.

"He has the ability that when he speaks, he has everybody's attention," Coste said. "It's a gift with him. One of his assets is that he doesn't waste words. He has an unbelievable ability to just grab your attention.

"When he starts speaking, you zone in. A lot of times you get a manager who just talks, talks, talks, and it kind of loses its mustard after a while. He doesn't lose your attention by any means."

"When he speaks, I listen," Beasley said. "People listen. He doesn't waste his words. So when he does speak or he has something to say, he has everybody's attention. He's checked out the situation and he's ripped it apart in his mind. He knows what he wants and he knows what he wants to say, so he can say it with conviction."

"He knows the game -- and can impart what he knows," said Mike Arbuckle, the Phillies' minor-league director who hired Russell to manage in the Philadelphia system. "That's the separator. Some guys know the game but can't communicate with young players to teach the game. I think his ability to impart the knowledge sets him apart.

"Bottom line, players got better playing for him. I really liked his ability to work with and develop young players."

"I think you get to know players and try to get to know how they work, their personalities," Russell said. "I feel like I've always been able to read a guy a little bit by the things he does -- not only what he says but his actions. Being a coach or a manager, being able to evaluate a guy is key."

Russell was very business-like this spring -- watching this drill, having a meeting with a player, meeting with his staff, talking to general manager Neal Huntington, instructing a player.

"One of his great joys is being on the field teaching," Arbuckle said. "He really gets into the teaching aspect. He really takes delight in working with players on a daily basis and watching the improvement and seeing the results."

That attention to on-field stuff and teaching and being busy almost makes Russell seem like a driven person, a quiet person, someone who isn't easy to get to know.

"That's the thing," Arbuckle said. "When we first interviewed him for our major-league managing job [the Phillies hired Charlie Manuel], he came off as a very reserved guy and my first question was, 'How's he going to relate to players?'

"After I saw him [as a Class AAA manager] and had the chance to work with him over the course of a year or two on a daily basis, his interaction with the players is much different than the reserved guy I saw in the interview."

"He's actually a pretty funny guy," Coste said. "He's kind of under-the-radar funny."

"He laughs all the time," Varsho said. "You just have to watch. He's hilarious. We really have a good time. He's a [former] ballplayer. Ballplayers [kid] each other, and it's fun. We have a really good time."

But will Pirates fans ever know that? Will Pirates fans ever know John Russell?

"His team will reflect John Russell," Varsho said. "The team will reflect what John Russell is all about."

And that is?

"A very well-rounded guy," Arbuckle said. "A very well-rounded guy who's a very solid baseball guy."

Pirates managers who preceded John Russell during the franchise's streak of 15 consecutive losing seasons

Jim Leyland

Seasons 1-4, 1993-96

Record: 259-323

Best: 1993, 75-87

The skinny: Francisco Cabrera's hit. Sid Bream's slide. The Pirates would not be so close again. They went from 96 wins in '92 to 75 and fifth place in '93 ... and it would prove to be the high watermark for Leyland's final four seasons.

Gene Lamont

Seasons 5-8, 1997-2000

Record: 295-352

Best: 1997, 79-83

The skinny: Theory holds that his "Freak Show" first season when the Pirates nearly stole the division in '97 with a record just below .500 set the club back by making the powers that be believe it was close to being back. It was all smoke, mirrors and Kevin Polcovich.

Lloyd McClendon

Seasons 9-13, 2001-05

Record: 336-446

Best: 2003, 75-87

The skinny: Perhaps no act sheds so much light or mind-set on these 15 years of losing as that day near the end of the 2002 season when the team popped champagne over a win in Chicago that assured the team would not lose 100 games that season. To the good, his final team reached 30-30 June 11, 2005, the latest in a season the franchise had been at .500 since the losing streak began. However, it dropped seven of its next eight and was never so close again.

Jim Tracy

Seasons 14-15, 2006-07

Record: 135-189

Best: 2007: 68-94

The skinny: A 37-35 post-All-Star Game finish in 2006 raised expectations for 2007. And even a 12-12 April kept those rekindled prospects alive. But a stretch of 14 losses in 16 games coming out of the '07 All-Star break sealed their fate for another season and also helped seal Tracy's with a new management team on the horizon.