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Don of a New Era
By JORDAN IKEDA
RAFU STAFF WRITER
Sunday, April 12, 2009
New Seattle Mariners Manager Don Wakamatsu faces an uphill battle this upcoming season.
Photos by MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS/Rafu Shimpo
Don Wakamatsu, the first Asian American manager in the history of the major leagues, inherits a team that lost more than 100 games last season.
Wakamatsu, a former catcher himself, counsels Jeff
Clement during a spring training game on March 7 in Arizona.
In 2009, the Seattle Mariners are looking for a fresh beginning.
Don Wakamatsu begins his maiden season in the dugout, inheriting a team that lost 101 games last year, the first team to lose over a hundred games with over a $100 million payroll in the history of the Majors.
Before last season came to its inglorious conclusion, the Mariners jettisoned manager Jon McLaren, first baseman Richie Sexson and designated hitter Jose Vidro. This was followed in the off-season, by the team dealing its closer J.J. Putz and letting its most clutch big bat, Raul Ibanez, walk as a free agent.
For a team that finished eleventh in ERA and second to last in runs scored in the American League last year, getting rid of that many starters would seem counterproductive.
“I think the expectations were definitely there last year,” Wakamatsu told The Rafu Shimpo before a spring training game at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Ariz. “They are still here inside the clubhouse. I think the biggest thing for us is to be able to focus on the process, not so much the results. That’s why we’re working so hard in spring training, trying to get that culture and the work ethic started. Not that it wasn’t there last year, but I think, guys who have lost 100 games understand that they have to go back to the drawing board, so it’s a good environment to inherit in a sense.”
Though soft-spoken, with a lazy, yet calming drawl, the 45-year-old Yonsei is known to be an excellent communicator, no doubt an extension of his three years as an All Pacific-10 catcher at Arizona State as well as his eleven years behind home plate in the minors.
He is the fifth manager in Seattle’s revolving managerial door over the past seven years. Since the departure of Lou Piniella in 2002, the Mariners have cycled through Bob Melvin,
Mike Hargrove, John McLaren and Jim Riggleman.
With the backing of general manager Jack Zduriencik, Wakamatsu looks to bring stability and has spent the off-season and spring training developing an atmosphere of accountability that is instantly recognizable for anyone who has spent time watching the Mariners this preseason.
And no one has been off limits to this new culture of accountability. Not even Seattle All-Star Ichiro Suzuki. This spring, Wakamatsu has experimented with a variety of lineups, including one in which Ichiro, the team’s unquestioned leadoff hitter, was batting third. Wakamatsu wants all his players to be ready for any unforeseen lineup change or adjustment that could potentially occur in the upcoming season.
And there are many examples of this new culture at work. Several weeks ago, Wakamatsu held up two fingers in catcher Rob Johnson’s direction after the game. Johnson had let two pitches drop from his mitt. Wakamatsu didn’t have to say anything. Johnson knew what he’d done wrong and that somebody was watching.
Despite an unsettled bullpen, Wakamatsu has not settled either. Since no one has pitched all that impressively, he is holding out to name Putz’s replacement desiring whoever fills that role to earn it.
“I think when it’s all said and done we’re going to try and establish a closer, whoever that might be at that point,” he told The Seattle Times. “That’s going to come down to the very end.”
He has also gone out of his way to mention catcher Kenji Johjima’s efforts at communicating with the pitching staff. Johjima, who struggled mightily last season and has been labeled a “bust,” has come into camp putting in extra effort to learn the new set of pitching signs and trying to get on the same page with the staff.
Of course, Wakamatsu hasn’t done all this by himself. A new but instantly familiar face has returned to Safeco Field, and along with his 611 homeruns and 20 years of experience, Ken Griffey Jr. also brings credibility and a much needed playfulness to a clubhouse that just last season was threatening to “punch each other out.”
“I think there’s a couple of dynamics. Number one is his presence and who he is and what he’s done in this game,” Wakamatsu said. “And two is the way he’s come in here and worked to help bring this team together.”
An 11-time All-Star, Griffey spent the first 11 years of his career in Seattle, finishing in the top-10 in the MVP voting in seven of his years with the Mariners. Sure, he’s no longer anywhere near that level (batted .249 last season), but his presence is invaluable to a team filled with so many young players and question marks.
Despite this clubhouse culture change, the expectations of Seattle fans have been understandably lowered.
“The only thing you can do is just give him a chance and see what happens,” Chris Goon, a resident of Seattle who is half Japanese, half Chinese, told the Rafu during a spring training game against the Dodgers. “It’s a brand new hire. They decided to get someone totally different from what they had last year. I’m just hoping we do a lot better than 101 losses, that’s for sure.”
Wakamatsu has his work cut out for him this season. For starters, the rotation, which had a pitiful 5.07 ERA a year ago, largely remains unchanged, though Erick Bedard is back healthy and staff ace Felix Hernandez is another year older and wiser.
Also, seven of Seattle’s projected top players just arrived in camp last week after having participated in the World Baseball Classic. Ichiro, Johjima, Hernandez, starting second baseman Jose Lopez, starting pitcher Carlos Silva, outfielder Endy Chavez, and infielder Ronny Cedeno have missed out on the majority of spring training.
In addition, Ichiro will miss the first eight or nine games of the season suffering from a bleeding ulcer—a result from his heavy workload in the WBC.
“We won’t know what the team chemistry is going to be like,” Wakamatsu said. “There are some issues last year, I wasn’t there. It’s going to be a little tough to know what the team, the lineup and everything else is. Right now, we’re playing a lot of young kids, trying to create that environment to take on the season.”
It’s amazing to see how collected and levelheaded the man is in spite of the odds against him. It’s even more amazing to see the transformation the team has undergone in the less than five months under its new manager.
Wakamatsu was bench coach for the Oakland Athletics last season. Before that he spent five years with the Texas Rangers. He’s only got 18 Major League games with the Chicago White Sox in 1991 under his belt. He managed four seasons in the minors but never higher than Double-A before joining the Rangers’ bench in 2003.
Despite his relative anonymity and lack of experience, Wakamatsu’s hiring mirrors the blueprint of the Mariners’ main AL West competition, the LA Angels of Anaheim.
Current manager Mike Scioscia of the Angels was hired as a young (40), personable, low-key manager who had spent his playing days as a terrific backstop for the Los Angeles
Dodgers. Over the past eight seasons under Scioscia, the Angels have an 803-655 record (55 percent), 4 division championships and a World Series ring.
“I think the biggest thing is that everybody plays well,” Wakamatsu said. “I don’t want to put big expectations on numbers, which is kind of focusing more on the result than the process. If I can get Ichiro to have a great year. If I can get Johjima to have a great year. If I can have everybody to have a great year and try to contribute to everything, we’ll be fine.”
It’s obvious that accountability and mentality come first. Wakamatsu has those down. Not only that, he wants to be right where he is. “The one thing with me is that this is where I always wanted to manage,” Wakamatsu said. “It’s something that I’ve always coveted, in a sense. I just thought it was a great fit. Obviously with the Japanese players that are involved. That always drew me to it as well because I always wanted to play in Japan.”
Wakamatsu’s grandparents, from Hood River, Oregon, were interned at Tule Lake and later at Jerome, Ark. His father was born in camp. Now, only two generations removed from internment, Wakamatsu represents the continued evolution of American society in the acceptance and assimilation of Japanese Americans.
“I think the biggest thing for me is the fact that I can honor my grandparents, number one. That’s the biggest thing,” he said. “To be able to sit there and say that the struggles they went through early, to be a hundred miles away from Hood River and manage this squad is an honor.”
With accountability, hard work and honor, a new era of baseball is upon Seattle. |
