Can Scioscia Manage to Be Himself?

Mike Scioscia burst from the dugout early Monday night, over the top step and to home plate, where he found Joe Torre waiting, his right hand outstretched, a smile across a face that wears more that 2,500 games managed.

Torre, the Yankee manager, pulled Scioscia closer and leaned into his ear.

The rookie and the veteran held that pose for maybe half a minute, Torre whispering something to Scioscia, whose taut, sunned face hadn’t yet seen one inning as a big-league manager. As Torre spoke and Scioscia nodded evenly, a full house at Edison Field cheered the new Angel manager, pleaded with him really, to be the one to change an organization’s fortunes.

Earlier, Torre had been asked what he might say to Scioscia given the opportunity, and it is a pretty fair bet that Torre advised him to manage with his heart.

“Just be yourself,” Torre said. “He knows how to play the game. He was a catcher, a tough competitor. I think that’s how we measure players and measure the way the game is played, is by the way we played. When you play it hard, you’re not satisfied with something less than that. Pete Rose was most frustrated by that when he started managing. He couldn’t understand why everybody didn’t run hard to first base, do things that he did. That’s really the only way you can judge.”

There were better players than former Dodger catcher Scioscia, but few played harder. Perhaps there will be better managers as well, and it would appear that few will work harder. There is more to it, however.

“I think you have to understand that managing is a little different now,” Torre said. “Years ago, if you didn’t like something, you just dispatched that person. It doesn’t happen that way now. You can’t threaten. As parents, you can’t threaten children anymore, either. I think there are a lot of similarities. It’s tough to make sense of, but a lot of times you have to explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it so maybe they have an understanding of it, rather than just doing it because you said so. I think that’s important. Again, you don’t ask everybody to agree. That’s the biggest mistake, if you try to please everybody. You can’t do that.”

Back at the plate, Scioscia thanked Torre and wished him luck. By then, Scioscia’s team was beginning to pile up along the third base line.

The Angels are picked by most experts to finish fourth in their division, the American League West, and started with a 3-2 loss. On the first base side, the Yankees are heavily favored to finish with a third consecutive World Series title, and their fourth in five years.

Along the way, Torre has been applauded for his coolness, for his ability to tame owner George Steinbrenner, for his integrity and baseball savvy. So far, Scioscia has been applauded for making it to home plate during the pregame introductions.

“There’s no mistaking what my job is, what my role is,” he said. “Baseball is my job.”

During spring training, Scioscia showed an aggressive streak. He had batters showing bunt and then swinging away during sacrifice situations, contrary to his National League upbringing. He had Mo Vaughn hold runners a step or two off first base, a la Don Mattingly, with certain left-handed pitchers on the mound. And, in the ninth inning Saturday in San Diego, with the bases loaded, none out and the score tied, he played with five infielders and two outfielders, a defense he remembered a minor-league manager using.

Scioscia promised to be that aggressive, if they will too. In that vein, he gathered his players Friday afternoon and repeated things he had said since the first day of spring.

“Play hard,” he told them. “Play relaxed, and have some fun.”

It always was that simple for Scioscia. As the days of the season pass, and as the games become series and then seasons, Torre said, it would be wise for Scioscia to remember those very words, the ones that started his career.

“You can’t change,” Torre said. “You’ve got to be the same person. But, your responsibilities are different. You hope that you don’t, all of a sudden, become somebody different.”