Sports: McRae, wanting his own staff, fires Fischer

McRae, wanting his own staff, fires Fischer

By MARC TOPKIN

ST. PETERSBURG -- It wasn't anything Bill Fischer did wrong -- and one could argue that he must have done a few things right given the improvement of the Rays pitching staff -- but Fischer was fired Sunday morning as the pitching coach.

Manager Hal McRae, who replaced Larry Rothschild in April, said he wanted to bring in a coach of his own choosing; Fischer, 70, was on the job since April 2000.

"I have great respect for Fisch," McRae said. "He was fun to work with and he was easy to work with. ... This was sort of discussed the morning I was hired. The facts are that every manager should have the right to bring in some coaches. The coaches were Larry's coaches. They were not my coaches."

There was immediate speculation that the replacement could be Bruce Kison, who coached for McRae with the Royals, lives in the Bradenton area and has been a frequent visitor to Tropicana Field as a scout for the Orioles. Kison said Sunday he felt it was inappropriate to comment on the situation. Other former Kansas City coaches are Pat Dobson and Guy Hansen.

But the Rays also may consider promoting from within. Triple-A Durham pitching coach Joe Coleman and minor-league pitching coordinator Chuck Hernandez are former major-league pitching coaches and have the benefit of working with the Rays' young pitchers.

"With a young pitching staff I would think they would like to have someone around who has been with them through their growing-up process," Coleman said.

There only was some surprise among the Rays pitchers, whose ERA dropped from 5.63 in the first half to 4.12, the second-best improvement among AL teams in the past 10 years.

"I think Fisch was a great pitching coach for the guys we had here last year and at the start of this year," Tanyon Sturtze said. "But now with the younger guys I'm sure they wanted to make a change and have someone for the younger kids. I think everyone kind of thought that it was going to happen."

Yankees ace Roger Clemens, who routinely praises Fischer for the work he did in Boston, was surprised. "I thought their guys were going pretty good, but I don't know the entire circumstance," Clemens said.

Fischer, who is signed through the 2002 season, has been offered another job in the organization.

McRae did not rule out further changes among the staff. Hitting coach Wade Boggs, bench coach Billy Hatcher and third-base coach Terry Collins also were part of Rothschild's staff.