Lloyd McClendon's immediate future with the Pirates seems to be the water-cooler topic these days. Not to mention the talk-show topic. And the pressbox topic. And the backyard topic.
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These are uncertain times for Pirates Manager Lloyd McClendon, who is in the final year of his contract. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette) |
Lots of people want to know if McClendon will remain the Pirates' manager. Or will he be fired? Or will he get through this season and get a contract extension at the end of it?
The talk is unceasing.
"I'm aware of it," Pirates General Manager Dave Littlefield said the other day. "I hear it. But it doesn't matter to me. I just don't see that as being an issue. I don't like it, but I understand it because I'm a sports fan, too.
"In general, what I've come to find out in my time in Pittsburgh is that there's a strong, passionate fan base here. I can tell by my e-mails and the letters to the editor. You have to be aware of the fans because they're consumers. And we do care about the fans. The thing the fans care most about is winning.
"I'm glad to know there's interest. I respect the fans' passion. But making the right move is what I'm attuned to. And by no means do I see Mac as the reason we haven't performed well. I see the issue as being the performance of the team on the field as the reason why we're in a rut on the field."
Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy was a bit more succinct when asked about McClendon's immediate future.
"I've said all I have to say about the manager's situation," McClatchy said. "Right now, I don't think the manager is the reason we as a team are not playing well. We as a team need to play the way we're capable of playing. That's the bottom line."
That the Pirates are near the bottom of the National League Central Division standings is the main reason McClendon's situation has attracted so much attention over the past month.
"I don't talk about it," McClendon said. "I do all I can to deflect [talk about it]."
McClendon knows, though, that ultimately his fate rests with the performance of 25 players.
"Mac's situation is what it is," first baseman Kevin Young said.
"If we win, all that is put aside. If we do what we're supposed to do, there shouldn't be any doubt about Mac. If we win, all things are forgotten. And that's what we need to do -- win."
Great expectations
This was the season the Pirates were supposed to get to .500 or better. This was the season that was supposed to end the run of 10 consecutive losing years. This was the season that was supposed to establish a foundation for success for the rest of the decade. And this was the season that was supposed to get McClendon a contract extension.
Instead, this season threatens to get McClendon fired before his contract expires at the end of it.
"Mac can't go up there and hit," Young said. "Mac can't go out there and make pitches. We have to execute. This is not because of Lloyd McClendon.
"This is extremely disappointing to us as a team. We had high expectations. [The fans and media] kind of wish and hope about a team. The players know what kind of team they have."
And, Young insisted, this team still can become a good team.
"We haven't played the way a winning team should," he said. "It's one thing to have good players. It's another thing to have a good team. We haven't become a good team yet."
For McClendon's sake, the players should hurry.
While Littlefield repeated his stance that McClendon -- like everybody in the organization -- will be evaluated after the season, the thinking of the masses is that McClendon might not make it to the end of the season.
He might not even make it to the All-Star break in July.
And not because he has done a bad job of managing. Managers rarely are fired because they've done a bad managing job or because they don't know the game or because they don't know what they're doing.
Sometimes a manager gets fired simply because a change is needed.
"There are going to be changes made just to make changes, and you're the guy who's it," former Pirates manager Gene Lamont said.
"The one thing you ask of your players is to play hard. But sometimes it's not enough just to play hard. You have to play good. You're at the mercy of what goes on out on the field."
The past
Lamont spoke from recent experience.
The Houston Astros' third base coach was not rehired as the Pirates' manager after the 2000 season.
He entered that season in the same situation that McClendon entered this one.
Lamont, who succeeded Jim Leyland, received a three-year contract to manage the Pirates beginning with the 1997 season.
But, unlike McClendon, who received a three-year contract to manage the Pirates after Lamont's ouster, Lamont received a one-year extension after the Pirates made a run at the division championship in '97 -- albeit with a 79-83 record.
The Pirates didn't come close to contending the next two seasons, finishing a total of 29 games under .500. After the 1999 season, Lamont sought out then-General Manager Cam Bonifay to ask about his future. Lamont did not want to be seen as a "lame duck" during the 2000 season.
Bonifay didn't want that, either.
"In certain situations, that takes away from the focus on the wins and losses," Bonifay said several days ago. "The accountability of the players is lost. The focus of the media and the fans goes to the manager and not to the players. The focus leaves the field and goes to the manager's office.
"The focus should never leave the field."
After Lamont talked with him, Bonifay discussed Lamont's situation with McClatchy.
Bonifay's feeling was that Lamont should have his contract extended that winter, which is what Bonifay wanted, or be fired that winter to avoid the "lame-duck" mess.
McClatchy decided to do neither.
"I just said, 'OK,'" Lamont said. "But I wanted them to know that if we had a good year [in 2000] and I had other options after it that I wanted to be able to pursue them. I didn't think they showed me any loyalty."
The Pirates did not have a good year in 2000.
They were 2-2 after four games but never saw .500 again. By late June, they were nine games under .500 and 10 games off the division lead.
First base coach Joe Jones and third base coach Jack Lind were fired in "a last-ditch attempt to shake up the club and get a better climate in the clubhouse," according to John Sirignano, Bonifay's assistant.
That didn't work, and Lamont's future became the primary focus of the media. Especially when the Pirates went into a 7-21 tumble in August.
McClatchy wouldn't say when he decided Lamont's future.
The atmosphere around the Pirates had become depressing.
"Very much so," said Sirignano, now the assistant athletic director at the University of North Dakota. "And it was getting worse and worse. It was kind of like watching somebody on a respirator, and I've always respected Gene for the way he handled it.
"You knew it was going to happen. You just didn't know when."
Finally, in mid-September, people knew.
Just before the Pirates left for their last trip of the season to Houston, Philadelphia and Milwaukee, Lamont asked McClatchy whether he would be back for the 2001 season.
McClatchy told him no, but added he didn't want Lamont to tell anybody.
"OK," Lamont said. "I won't say anything. But, if somebody asks me, I'm not going to lie."
Two days later in Houston, a reporter asked Lamont if McClatchy had told him anything about his future with the Pirates. Lamont didn't lie. And the news was out.
McClatchy, asked to discuss Lamont's situation relative to the 2000 season, pretty much declined.
"My desire to talk about what happened in the past is really nonexistent," he said. "I want to concentrate on the present. And that's where the focus of the entire organization should be."
The future
The present isn't great for the Pirates. And the future might not be too good for McClendon, who a few nights ago insisted his team will be in the division race within a month.
That statement could backfire on him. What if the Pirates aren't in the NL Central race by, say, mid-June?
Does that give Littlefield some justification for firing McClendon? After all, some argue, Littlefield didn't hire McClendon to manage the Pirates. That was done by McClatchy and Bonifay, whom McClatchy fired June, 2001.
"That's not a big deal to me," said Littlefield when asked about McClendon not being "his" guy. "It's an issue I understand in the sports world we live in today. It's a fairly common reaction when the manager is not [the general manager's] 'guy.'
"I'm looking for quality employees who can help us win. I don't necessarily have to have a background with somebody. Each year, you meet people you didn't know five years ago. I'm looking for competent, qualified, experienced employees who either have been successful or show the potential to be successful. My not hiring Mac is irrelevant. Evaluation is a fluid thing. You're looking at players on a daily basis. It just isn't absolute.
"The thing is ongoing -- as it is with everything. The evaluation of Dave Littlefield is ongoing."
So by what yardstick does Littlefield evaluate McClendon?
"In general terms, getting a team to play up to expectations," Littlefield said. "That evaluation takes in a lot of eyes. You're referencing a lot of eyes, referencing a lot of people with a lot of opinions. And Mac will be the first to tell you none of us is particularly happy about [the Pirates'] record."
Should the Pirates' record be the only measure of the job McClendon is doing?
Said Sirignano: "If a manager's sole evaluation is based on wins and losses, then I don't think you're doing the guy justice."
A manager sometimes can manage differently if he believes he absolutely must win to keep his job.
"I don't think it affected how I handled the players and coaches," Lamont said, reflecting on his final season as the Pirates' manager. "You have to be on guard against that. You have to make sure you manage the game you want to manage.
"If you're a guy who takes chances and a chance backfires, you can look bad. But if you are a guy who takes chances, then you have to take chances. I never felt I managed any differently that year than I had. And in the games we've played the Pirates [this season], I haven't seen Mac manage any differently, either. Mac's just got to manage the way he's got to manage."
And perhaps hope his players can elevate their level of play -- especially the hitters.
"As a group, we're not a good offensive club," Littlefield said, "but almost everybody has not achieved within the range of our expectations. We were without Brian Giles for [a month]. Aramis Ramirez hasn't hit as well as he has in the past. Matt Stairs just hasn't gotten out of the blocks real good.
"We do have significant flaws relative to being a championship team. I do think we made some significant upgrades [during the off-season], but these aren't guys in the prime of their careers.
"Still, we have guys with track records. We have guys with experience. We don't have a rookie on the team. And that's part of why I think we're going to get straightened out. I'm motivated to put the best team we can out there because I want the organization to be successful and because I want Mac to be successful."
It would seem the players do, too.
"It's a tough situation for [McClendon]," Reggie Sanders said.
"I think he's handled it extremely well. You would never know the pressure he's under. He's as even keel [a person] as I've ever seen. You want to win for him because of the way he carries himself."
Sometime in the next few months, we should know if the players' desire to win for McClendon was enough for McClendon.
Paul Meyer can be reached at 412-263-1144.
McClendon's future with Pirates is the talk of the town, but the ship isn't out to sea just yet 
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