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No one can explain why Rays' new manager had to wait so long after a solid stint in K.C.
By JOHN ROMANO
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 24, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- Hal McRae devoted 19 years of his professional career to the Royals organization. And many in the organization have spent the past seven years mourning his departure.
McRae was a link to the Kansas City teams of the 1970s and '80s that won six division titles, two pennants and the 1985 World Series. He directed the Royals to winning seasons in three of his four years as manager.
And, since his dismissal after the 1994 season, the Royals have yet to have a winning record.
"I've always said letting Hal go was one of my biggest mistakes. By the time he left here, he had become a darn good manager," Royals chief operating officer and former general manager Herk Robinson said. "He was the heart and soul of this club when he was playing. He and (George) Brett made this club tick. And we did a lot of ticking in the '70s and '80s."
He has been on the job as Devil Rays manager for less than a week and, already, McRae is preparing for his first showdown against the Royals. It may seem like an expedient quirk of fate, but it actually has been close to seven years in the making.
Fired by the Royals after the '94 strike-shortened season, McRae did not stay unemployed for long, working as a coach in Cincinnati and Philadelphia. He did, however, seem to go unappreciated when it came to managerial openings.
In the six-plus years since McRae was let go in Kansas City, 11 other major-league skippers were fired and re-hired (and in five cases, fired again).
McRae had a .508 winning percentage in Kansas City. His successor, Bob Boone, had a .468 winning percentage and was fired after three seasons. Even Boone was rehired (by the Reds) before McRae.
"I think he was hopeful of getting another managing job, if he just hung around a little longer," said McRae's son Brian, who played for his father in Kansas City. "He never lets it show, but I'm sure it got frustrating for him because everybody else was getting recycled. It seemed like he was the odd man out. He had done a good job in Kansas City, but he was not getting a second chance, as all the other managers were getting."
There is no neat and tidy theory to explain McRae's lapse between jobs. It is not as if he never interviewed for another position.
He interviewed for managerial openings in Tampa Bay (before Larry Rothschild was hired), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Boston.
"I don't know if there was a bad rap on him or clubs didn't want to take a chance on him for some reason," said Lee May, who was on McRae's coaching staff in Kansas City and has been added as the Rays first-base coach. "I couldn't understand it because, looking at his managerial record, he was pretty darn good."
"I have no idea why it took so long," said Bruce Kison, who was McRae's pitching coach in Kansas City. "You would be better off asking the 29 other GMs why they didn't hire him. All I know is he was certainly qualified for the job."
McRae, 55, said he has no interest in searching for a potential explanation for this lapse in managing opportunities.
"I had a shot, I was fired and now I was a coach. Maybe if I'm a good coach, I'll get another opportunity. But if I never got another opportunity to manage, I would have been completely happy with myself," McRae said. "The greatest job in this industry is as a player and I was a player for a long time. Although I thought I could manage, there was nothing I thought I had to still achieve because I had already achieved as a player for 18 years."
McRae acknowledges he might have gone through a brief period immediately after his dismissal when he was not sure he wanted to manage again. And that perception may have had something to do with the lack of offers.
But, as he put more distance from his time in Kansas City, McRae grew to understand where he failed and where he succeeded. And having that knowledge, more than anything, is what pushed him toward the manager's seat again.
"I did okay my last year there. It was a learning process. I made mistakes. I didn't understand certain things. I wouldn't accept certain things. But I was a good manager the last year," McRae said.
"At some point in Kansas City, I realized I had become too concerned with myself. And I have to be concerned with the players. The players come first. Everything I do is to help the players, not to protect or to help myself. The players have to know I am there for them. They are the most important people. They are the product. I'm just there to help them along."