Commentary

by Donnie Elliott
UHCLIDIAN STAFF

More and more coaches and managers find themselves with their hands tied when dealing with today's professional athletes. Players' salaries have made it extremely difficult for coaches to do their jobs.

It is almost impossible for coaches to bench or discipline players and have full support of ownership. The majority of owners are unwilling to pay players millions of dollars to sit on the bench. For instance, when Atlanta Braves Manager Bobby Cox benched center fielder Andruw Jones early in the '98 season, owner Ted Turner wanted to know why he was paying $9 million for Jones to sit on the bench.

This kind of attitude is starting to ruin professional athletics. Players no longer fear being benched due to a lack of hustle because they know there is little chance of losing their jobs.

Even Seattle Mariner Manager Lou Pinella, considered by many to be one of the most respected and fiery managers in baseball, seems to be losing his grip on some of his younger players. After being eliminated in last year's American League Championship Series by the New York Yankees, several players openly questioned his decision-making through the media.

Pinella runs things with an iron fist, and some speculate that he is losing touch with today's younger generation of ballplayers.

In light of the limited amount of authority and respect given to today's professional coaches and managers, their degree of responsibility for player performance and the rate at which coaches are fired is astounding. More than 75 percent of baseball managers manage their teams no more than five years.

Larry Dierker won four division titles in five years; still he resigned under pressure after the Astros were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs this year. Many in the media think that Dierker lost the respect of the veteran players because his no-nonsense approach rubbed some players the wrong way.

In Boston, Red Sox Manager Jimmy Williams suspended star right-fielder Carl Everett for arriving late to team meetings. Williams took a stance against the troubled right-fielder by suspending him for four games. This drew the ire of both Red Sox ownership and General Manager Dan Duquette. Williams was fired at the end of the season. The lack of support management showed Williams in dealing with the Everett fiasco is disturbing.

Many also feel that it is hard for a player to respect a coach or manager when the players often make up to eight times more than the manager does. This past season, former Texas Ranger Manager Johnny Oates made $800,000 for managing the Rangers. In contrast, Ranger shortstop Alex Rodriquez made $25 million. Oates resigned early in the 2001 season because he felt that he did not have the respect of his players.

The owners need to take it upon themselves to narrow the wide gap in salaries of coaches and players and allow for more authoritative actions by coaches. If club owners do not start supporting the coaches and managers they hire to run their ball clubs, more players will hide behind their contracts and give less than 100 percent.

This is unfortunate because in the long run the fans are the ones who suffer. With ticket prices increasing every year to accommodate the escalating salaries, the product on the playing field is not representative of these higher prices.

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