Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 17, 1990 TAG: 9007170052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVE ANDERSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Then, about four weeks ago, with the St. Louis Cardinals plodding along in last place in the National League East, he addressed his team.
After his oration, he looked around the clubhouse.
"Do me a favor," he said. "When they finish the national anthem and you put your caps back on, please put your brains under your caps for the next three hours."
Three hours of concentration doesn't seem like much to ask of baseball players, especially those making at least $1 million a season.
However, not enough Cardinals responded to Whitey Herzog's request.
When he suddenly resigned last week, he said, "My players are all trying. The effort is there. But sometimes I don't know if the minds are there."
Not even for three hours.
Now the Cardinals are searching for a new dugout genius. Joe Torre, once the Cardinals' catcher and the Mets' manager and now the California Angels' television voice, and Hal Lanier, once one of Herzog's coaches, have emerged as candidates.
Herzog, meanwhile, has time to go bass fishing with his pal Davey Johnson, but something's wrong when two managers of their stature both are available.
Their Cardinals and Mets teams each won one World Series and shared four consecutive National League East titles before the Chicago Cubs won last year.
But no matter how successful a manager is now, eventually too many well-paid players stop listening just because they have heard it all before.
By the nature of both baseball and managers, however, expect Herzog and Johnson to be back where they belong soon: in a dugout.
Herzog and Johnson are not musical-chair managers desperate for any job.
Each has a position similar to what George "Sparky" Anderson had when he was discharged by the Cincinnati Reds after the 1978 season.
Sparky Anderson didn't jump at the first job.
He waited until he was pursued by the Detroit Tigers, a solid organization with a solid general manager, Jim Campbell, with whom he knew he could work.
Long before many people realized that George Steinbrenner created more Yankees problems than he solved, Anderson resisted the principal owner's sympathy over his loss of the Cincinnati job.
Surely aware of Yankees history, Herzog and Johnson each know working for Steinbrenner isn't worth the annoyance, even if the principal owner is suspended by Commissioner Fay Vincent in the Howard Spira case.
Herzog and Johnson also are smart enough to know a solid offer will surface.
As loyal as the Kansas City Royals' front office has been to John Wathan, it can't risk Herzog's joining the Angels or the San Diego Padres after Jack McKeon's decision to concentrate on his general manager's duties and give up the manager's job to Greg Riddoch.
With the Padres and the Atlanta Braves in flux, Johnson, once the Braves' second baseman who hit 43 homers in 1973, is an obvious candidate.
Now 58, Herzog managed the Royals to consecutive American League West titles in 1976, 1977 and 1978 before losing to the Yankees each year in the American League championship series.
When the Royals didn't win in 1979, he departed on bitter terms with Ewing Kauffman, still the Royals' owner.
"Ewing was just waiting for us to lose the division so he'd have an excuse to get rid of me," Herzog once said.
Maybe that bitterness with Kauffman can be resolved, maybe not.
If not, the Angels might pursue him.
Gene Autry, the Angels' owner, offered him a five-year $1 million contract to be an Angel consultant before the 1978 season, double what Herzog was earning then as the manager of the Royals.
If an immediate offer doesn't appeal to Herzog, he might decide to wait for an offer from a future National League expansion team. Denver, St. Petersburg and Buffalo are vying for two spots.
Herzog has a ski lodge in Vail, Colo., and he is popular in St. Petersburg, the Cardinals' spring training site.
But wherever he lands, he is unlikely to match the rapport he had with August A. Busch Jr. until the Cardinals owner known as Gussie died late last season.
Herzog often drove out to Grant's Farm to play gin rummy with the beer baron, who once offered him a lifetime contract.
"Your lifetime or mine?" Herzog asked, jokingly.
As it turned out, less than a year after Busch's death, Whitey Herzog's lifetime as the Cardinals manager ended.
But he will be in a dugout again, hoping his players have put their brains under their caps for three hours.
So will Davey Johnson.
And as new managers, maybe their new players will listen to them. For a while.
by CNB