THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9609050536
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: TOM ROBINSON
LENGTH: 68 lines
At this rate, Tides manager Bruce Benedict ought to try for a million dollars, or world peace or something.
Before this season, what Benedict really wanted, above all, was an enjoyable year, something that brought the fun back to the field.
``I need a good baseball summer,'' Benedict told then-Tides manager Bobby Valentine after Benedict had hired on as Valentine's coach.
``Damn if we didn't have one.''
He asks, he gets. Yet the Tides' 82-59 record and berth in the International League playoffs, which started Wednesday night at Harbor Park, pales to the fortune that's prevailed upon Benedict.
In less than nine months, Benedict has severed a 19-year relationship with the Atlanta Braves, endured unemployment and uncertainty, landed an instructor's job with the New York Mets, accepted a promotion to Tides' third-base coach after two days, and then became their manager Aug. 26 when Valentine took over the Mets.
Heartbroken when the Braves bypassed him for their Triple-A managing job in Richmond, Benedict, 41, now has the inside track on the Tides' post for next season, if not a spot on Valentine's big league staff.
``It's been kind of a whirlwind baseball year,'' Benedict said a few hours before the Tides met the Columbus Clippers to open the West Division finals. ``It's been interesting. But that's the way this game plays out.''
Oh, Benedict knows plenty about the game and its twists. The Birmingham, Ala., native has been in pro ball since 1976, when he was Atlanta's fifth-round draft choice out of Nebraska-Omaha.
A catcher, Benedict reached Atlanta for the first time in 1978 and stuck for good in 1980.
Before he retired after the '89 season, Benedict made two National League all-star teams.
He then spent three years as the Braves' catching instructor before managing a year in rookie ball and the last two in Double-A Greenville, S.C. That rapid rise, say the Braves, is why Benedict didn't manage Richmond this season. They say he wasn't seasoned enough, that a veteran managerial touch was required in Triple-A.
Greenville's 59-83 record, a year after it went 73-63 and made the playoffs, and a clash with a supposed top prospect whom Benedict suspended a week for insubordination, probably didn't boost Benedict's case.
In the end, Atlanta gave the Richmond job to Bill Dancy and asked Benedict to return to Double-A. Viewing such a move as a step backward, Benedict, weighing nearly two decades in the organization against his ambition, told minor league director Paul Snyder to find another man.
``I think I blinked real hard about 10 or 15 times, and it took me longer than usual to swallow,'' Benedict said. ``I put the phone down and that was it. I was done with it.''
And if that meant being through with pro baseball, Benedict said he and his wife Kathleen had reconciled themselves.
``Damn right, I was a loyal soldier, more loyal than they probably know,'' said Benedict, who winters as a Southeastern Conference basketball referee. ``But it was going to be all right. After 19 years, that might have been enough.''
Instead, to mark his 20th anniversary, Benedict happened upon a tonic that's rejuvenated him personally and professionally.
``If he's not the manager here next year, he'll be a coach in New York, in my opinion,'' Tides general manager Dave Rosenfield said. ``The Mets like him very much.''
Amazing the wonders a good baseball summer can work. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
After quitting the Braves' organization after the 1995 season, Bruce
Benedict is now in line to manage the Tides in '97 or join Bobby
Valentine in New York. by CNB