Phil Garner, who is among the new wave of baseball’s outstanding young managers, was talking about his Milwaukee Brewers, who have been in last place in the American League Central since May 15:
“The 14-game losing streak killed us. It threw a wrench at us. The first six to eight losses, we ran into some hot clubs. But we had some terrible breaks. Things like calls that went against us, but I’m not going to blame losses on calls because that goes both ways all year.
“One game in this stretch, in Detroit, I brought in (reliever) Jeff Bronkey with the bases loaded. The first batter hits the ball in front of the plate and it bounces over the shortstop’s head. The same thing with the next batter. Hits the ball in front of the plate and it jumps over the first baseman’s head. The next batter hits the ball in the dirt, again no more than two feet in front of the plate, and it bounces over second base. We get it, but we had no play.
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“Now you can go the rest of the year, maybe two years, and not have three groundballs like that with the bases drunk. So that’s bad luck. I told my players: `Keep your heads up. You’re battling, you’re fighting. It will turn.’
“I don’t use injuries as an excuse. But if I’m going to make a critical analysis of this club, I can’t ignore the injuries. We have lost seven of our starting nine players to the DL. The only players we haven’t lost for an appreciative amount of time are (second baseman) Jody Reed and (first baseman) John Jaha.”
Garner paused. He relit the stub of his cigar.
I asked if he could assess the impact of the loss of Robin Yount, the Brewers’ longtime superstar, who retired after the 1993 season.
“There are always adjustments any time you lose a guy of his magnitude who has set the standard that this club has lived by for 20 years. There is always a pecking order on a club. By definition, the leader keeps everybody below him.
“If somebody goes above him, there’s a new leader. Last season Yount hit only .258 and didn’t lead the club in a lot of things, but he was still the leader because of his image, because of his stature, because of what he was. We have players who will be able to handle that role. Greg Vaughn could do it. Darryl Hamilton (out for the year) was trying to do it. B.J. Surhoff and Dave Nilsson have the potential. But it will take time.”
Garner’s cigar went dead again. I offered my torch.
He thanked me and revealed he only smokes one cigar a day: “That’s why I keep it going until there’s nothing left.”
I resumed. Could he put a number on the games the Brewers might have otherwise won if Yount were still in the lineup?
“Maybe we would have won two games in that 14-game slide. I can’t put a number on it. But I can tell you this: Say, we were 2-5 in the first seven games and 2-5 in the last seven. Then we’re 4 and 10, not 0 for 14. It’s a big difference.”
I asked about Kevin Seitzer, the Brewers’ veteran third baseman. It has long been my opinion that Seitzer is very underrated.
Garner agreed. “Seitzer was out during that 14-game stretch,” he said. “So was B.J. We were trying so hard to get a runner from second to third and then bring him in. Couldn’t do it. When Seitzer came back, we immediately started winning. He’d get the runner to third, get him over, and then we got the flyball and we had a run.
“It sounds easy, but there is more difficulty in this game than most people think. It’s rare for a player like Ken Griffey Jr. or a Frank Thomas to come into the league and begin dominating from Day One. We’ve got some good players, but it takes the good player three or four years before he comes into his own.”
I mentioned to Garner that he was fortunate. Usually, both the owner and general manager are so impatient for a winner they fire the field manager when he has a team in transition. They remain silent in the first year of rebuilding, but if significant progress isn’t made the next season or the season after that, a replacement is brought in and the succeeding manager then gets all the credit for the ensuing success.
“That’s right,” Garner said. “That’s the way it usually works.”
But not in Milwaukee. Bud Selig is a hands-off owner, and General Manager Sal Bando doesn’t have a quick trigger finger.
“Light me up again,” Garner said.
I did and wished him and the Brewers good fortune.