Thompson: In the end, even Pena lost his winning smile

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A ton of articles in the Star today, here is just a few of them...

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/11623894.htm

At the end, Peña even lost his winning smile

By WRIGHT THOMPSON The Kansas City Star


The afternoon after he stopped believing, Tony Peña landed at Kansas City International Airport in the midst of a tornado warning.

Clouds stretched to the breaking point. He walked out of Gate 78, alone, carrying his own luggage. He smiled — and tried hard to look as if he meant it. It's a face he'd been practicing for more than a year.

“The only thing I can say is: I gave everything I had,” Peña said Wednesday, taking a right to head outside into the storm. “Baseball is about winning. We are not winning.”

The day before in Toronto, he'd suddenly resigned as Royals manager, finishing his time in Kansas City with a 198-285 record. He'd had his fill. The Peña known to people inside the team had been replaced by some other man, one who saw disaster around every turn instead of unbridled opportunity. His club was a league-worst 8-25. His players made error after error. Even his personal life was in turmoil: He'd been called to testify in a divorce trial, facing questions about his relationship with a former neighbor.

Yes, enough was enough.

The past 13 months had changed him. The 2003 Manager of the Year looked beaten. There were no more antics. No more T-shirts to make, slogans to coin or showers to jump into.

“I lost energy, and it's not fun,” he said, the disappointment painting his words. “It's better to turn it over to somebody who's having fun.”

This storm had been building — the idea of quitting gestating in Peña's mind for a while. When the Royals lost again on Tuesday night, Peña was finished. He met with general manager Allard Baird for an hour and told him of his plan.

“He had been struggling for a few days,” Baird said. “It was evident he was beat up.”

Still, Baird was stunned. So was owner David Glass, who found out not from Baird or Peña, but from a Kansas City Star reporter.

At the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto, the team went into emergency meetings. Plans for finding a replacement were put into action. Club officials tried to figure out what would come next. Players got calls from reporters, looking for details.

While his former team looked to the future, Peña was gone, having checked out of his hotel at the crack of dawn. He flew from Toronto to Chicago, changed planes and began his final trip home. At his house north of the river, a friend waited. The shades were drawn. It all happened so quickly that even he wasn't sure of Pena's plans.

“I don't know,” the friend said, leaning his head out of the front door.

Uncertainty awaited Peña at the end of the flight, too.

He had been subpoenaed in April to appear in the divorce proceeding of a Kansas City-area couple who had been neighbors of Peña's. The subpoena ordered Peña to produce any correspondence between him and the wife, including letters, e-mails and his cell phone records, dating back to Jan. 1, 2003.

The Royals manager had been scheduled to appear on Wednesday at 9 a.m., according to court documents. Last month, Peña's attorney filed a motion to quash the subpoena, saying it was unfair for his client to leave the Royals. The motion came after Peña had offered to appear when the team was in town, a move rejected by the wife's attorneys, according to court files.

It is unclear when or if Peña will testify.

He said that the impending divorce battle had played no role in his resignation.

“No,” he said, emphatically. “I don't even want to talk about it.”

What Peña did want to talk about was his team. His former team.

He's heard the complaints; everyone in Kansas City has heard them by now. Just because he's too tired to continue — the normally unflappable Peña admitted he'd been having trouble eating and sleeping — he doesn't think fans should jump ship.

“One thing is for sure,” he said, after the airport's automatic doors closed behind him. “This organization is going in the right direction. Those young players, they are doing better.”

Outside, one of his cousins, Ramon, waited by the curb in a gold Toyota Camry. There was no limo. No welcoming committee. No fans to say goodbye.

The only person concerned with his presence was a furious police officer, who'd written Ramon a $38.50 ticket.

“Who was that?” she would ask a few minutes later.

“Tony Peña.”

“That was Tony Peña?”

“Yes.”

She shook her head and spat, “He got fired.”

The car idled curbside. Peña put his bag into the back seat. He had plans in front of him, even if they were different from the ones being made across town at Kauffman Stadium.

He wanted to go home to the Dominican Republic.

“Right away,” he said.

He wants to visit with his friends. See his three children. Spend time in Santiago, where his family huddled Wednesday and declined to answer questions.

He wants to watch his son, Tony Peña Jr., play AAA ball for the Richmond Braves. He wants to relax.

The passenger door swung open, and Peña climbed in. The storm was coming in fast, the skies turning dark gray. The first raindrops were minutes away.

As Ramon merged into traffic, Peña looked back. He threw up a peace sign and gave a big wave. He flashed that famous Tony smile, the one that begs you to believe everything is all right. The car took a curve and was gone.

http://www.kansascity.com/images/kansascity/kansascitystar/news/PenaAirport_SP005_051105_JFS.jpg
JOHN SLEEZER/The Kansas City Star

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http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/11623211.htm

Personal strife makes job tougher

JASON WHITLOCK


On his final day as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, Marty Schottenheimer stood in front of a throng of reporters and well-wishers and claimed that problems in his personal life had nothing to do with his resignation.

Coaches can't show weakness. Even in their worst moments, even when everyone knows the truth.

So there's no reason to be surprised that Royals manager Tony Peña will leave Kansas City without ever acknowledging that problems in his personal life contributed to his demise.

Rumors have been dogging the man for the past two weeks. Peña has been subpoenaed in the divorce proceedings of a Kansas City-area couple, called out to answer questions about his relationship with a neighbor.

Peña says the court proceedings had nothing to do with his hasty resignation. I'm sure the Royals' 8-25 record, sloppy play and double-A roster had more to do with his decision than his alleged role in a civil dispute.

But what man or woman doesn't know that turmoil at home heightens frustration at work? Who doesn't recognize that chaos in your personal life can create chaos on the job? This year the Royals have played without focus, and Peña's strategy seems just as unfocused.

The Royals are a reflection of their manager. Were the 1998 Chiefs not a reflection of Marty Schottenheimer?

Schottenheimer's final Kansas City team finished 7-9 and participated in one of the most embarrassing moments in Lamar Hunt's ownership of the franchise. The “Monday Night Football” meltdown against the Denver Broncos epitomized Marty's “boys gone wild” outfit.

It never has really bothered me that Marty never fully addressed the turmoil in his personal life. That's his business. I always respected the fact that he bounced and gave someone else a chance to run the Chiefs.

I have the same respect for Tony Peña. Quitting doesn't make Tony Peña a quitter. For whatever reason — mostly a lack of talent — Peña couldn't get the Royals to respond. The self-proclaimed DJ wasn't playing the right kind of music anymore.

Managing David Glass' Royals might be one of the toughest jobs in sports. Glass doesn't spend money, and neither Glass nor his front-office executives provide a consistent direction.

I fully expect Glass and general manager Allard Baird to botch the decision on the next manager. The organization is allegedly committed to its youth movement. But Baird has indicated that KC's next manager will need major-league managing experience.

That's not ridiculous given the fact that KC's last four managers had no previous major-league experience. But the criteria eliminate the Royals' best candidate — Frank White.

White, the manager of the Royals' Class AA Wichita club, is the one man interested in the job who truly understands the organization from top to bottom. He's worked in the front office, he's played, he's coached, he's scouted, he's managed in KC's farm system.

He totally grasps the situation facing KC's ballclub and he still wants the job. Frank White loves the Kansas City Royals. He's the only candidate being discussed who has demonstrated a level of commitment to the ballclub that is equal to the challenge of fixing the Royals' problems.

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http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/11624243.htm

Waiting in Wichita

Former Royal White wants KC job but isn't getting his hopes up

By JASON KING The Kansas City Star


WICHITA — He reminds his players to stay focused.

But as Frank White crouches in the third-base coaching box, gazing briefly toward the sky, you can't help but wonder if he even knows the count, the inning or the score of the minor-league game being played before him.

Back in the clubhouse, White's cell phone is filled with messages from friends wishing him luck. Members of the Wichita Wranglers — the Class AA team White manages — have flashed winks and smirks in his direction all afternoon. And now, as the game nears its end, reporters are gathering near the dugout.

Guess whom they want to talk to.

Ever since Kansas City manager Tony Peña resigned late Tuesday, White's world has been zany. He knows his name is being mentioned as a possible replacement, but the Royals legend isn't about to lobby for the job.

“Everyone knows where everyone is,” White said. “I don't have to pick up the phone and call Allard (Baird) and say, ‘I want this job.' You shouldn't have to sell yourself. If you're the guy they want, they'll find you.”

Don't get White wrong. He does want this job. But he also has learned not to get his hopes up. For one, Baird, the Royals' general manager, has said he'd prefer to hire someone with major-league managing experience. White doesn't fit that description.

Plus, it was only three years ago — when Baird hired Peña to replace Tony Muser — that White did not get beyond the opening stages of the search.

White had made it known that managing in Kansas City — where he grew up and played for 18 years — would be his dream job. So the former second baseman couldn't help but be bitter when he didn't get much of a sniff.

“I have no reason to think things are going to change now,” said White, who attended Lincoln High School before graduating from the Royals Academy. “When Tony was hired … at that time, I really wanted the job. I really thought I was the best guy for the job at the time. But the organization didn't see it that way, so I just kind of put Kansas City out of my mind in terms of managing in the big leagues.”

Still, White remained with the organization, taking a job in 2004 as manager at Wichita. White said then that he planned to manage in the minors for five seasons at the most. If he hadn't landed a big-league gig by then … well, it'd be time to retire.

“When I was passed over a couple of years ago, it told me that maybe I needed to do more,” White said. “Maybe I needed to go back and manage in the minor leagues and get more experience and make people more comfortable with me. Things like that.”

Talk to White long enough, and it's clear he has mixed emotions about managing in the minor leagues.

One minute he's doting on his players and telling you how proud he is that the Wranglers have won five straight. He truly sounds as at peace as a man in his porch swing on a Sunday. Moments later, though, White seems disturbed when asked what he's “learned” from being a manager. It doesn't seem fair that his current job should be looked at as a trial.

“What have I learned?” White says. “I know baseball. It's not a matter of learning. I've been in it all my life since I was 19. Yet it seems like with me, it's all about, ‘He has to pay his dues,' or ‘What has he learned?' I don't know. What more do I need to learn?”

White also learned Friday that George Brett, his former teammate, said that hiring White could make for an awkward situation. Brett feared that White's legacy may be damaged if the Royals someday had to fire him.

“George looks at my career and how it could tarnish it,” White said. “Either you want to be a baseball man or you don't. Either you want that challenge or you don't. Managing in the major leagues is about doing the job.

“When you accept a position to manage anywhere — whether it's in the minor leagues or the major leagues — if you don't do the job, you're going to get fired. It doesn't matter what your name is. If I'm not doing a good job, I may fire myself.

“I'm all about doing as much as I can in baseball while I can still do it. I love baseball, and I'm probably about as true blue of a Royal as there is, because I'm here (in Wichita). I didn't just talk the talk. I came down here, and I'm doing the job. I think that says a lot.”

White is confident he could do the job in Kansas City, too. He coached a handful of the current Royals in Wichita, and some of the players on the Wranglers' current roster will soon be playing at Kauffman Stadium.

The key to success in Kansas City, White said, will be making sure the manager and general manager share identical visions.

“Any manager they pick, it's not going to be an easy job,” White said. “It's not a pretty picture at all. If you don't have the patience on your side and if you don't have patience from the management and the ownership and the media, it's not going to work anyway.

“In a short period of time, you'll have a bull's-eye on your back, too.”

With that, White walks through the clubhouse doors at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. The Wranglers have the next day off, and White, who rents an apartment in Wichita, is planning to visit his family in Kansas City. He said he's spent just three days at home since February.

After that it's on to Springfield, where White will rejoin the Wranglers for a weekend series. If Baird calls, great. If he doesn't, well … White said he's learned never to get too high or too low.

“In my life in baseball,” White said, “I've only expected to win something one time, and that was my ninth Gold Glove. I had my best year ever and didn't win it. So I don't expect anything. I'll just keep coming to work every day and see what happens.”

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http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/11624242.htm

Royals looking for experience

Teaching skills important in hire for young team

By JEFF PASSAN

The Kansas City Star


Over the next few days, as Royals general manager Allard Baird pares the list of potential replacements for former manager Tony Peña, he said he plans to devote extra attention to previous major-league managerial experience.

He could have plenty of takers, too.

Former big-league managers Art Howe, Gene Lamont, Larry Bowa, Jim Fregosi and Terry Collins said Wednesday that they would be interested in listening if the Royals contacted them. In addition, Jim Leyland said he wouldn't mind hearing from the Royals.

By no means, Baird said, has he ruled out choosing a first-time manager, as the Royals did with their previous five hires. With the team's shift toward youth, though, Baird said he wants a manager who can teach while simultaneously imbuing the Royals with the winning attitude that escapes them as they return home tonight for a 7:10 game against Tampa Bay with an 8-26 record.

“I do value that, especially with where our ballclub is now,” Baird said. “Probably a little more than before. Less for this season but more for next season.”

Other potential candidates could include former Royal and Class AA Wichita manager Frank White; former managers Jimy Williams, Grady Little and Bob Brenly; and Royals roving catching instructor John Mizerock, whom first baseman Mike Sweeney said he'd like to see hired.

With Baird returning from Toronto, where the Royals were swept in three games, the team had yet to contact anyone for the job, held on an interim basis by Bob Schaefer.

“It's still relatively wide open right now,” Baird said. “It's not like I've been thinking about this for two weeks. It's totally different than when Tony was named. There's a lot of work to be done.”

Like finding a manager and fixing the team.

Howe thinks he could help in both places.

“I did it in Houston and also in Oakland,” said Howe, 58, who also managed the Mets and has a career record of 1,129-1,137. “It takes a while to get things going. You have to have patience. It comes with lumps.”

Still under contract to the Mets, Howe said the Royals' job would have to truly capture him to bring him back this season.

Others agreed. They know the Royals are building, and this season is likely to have more downs than ups.

Lamont, 58, the former White Sox and Pirates manager, spent time managing in the minor leagues for the Royals and is used to handling young teams.

“You've got to be patient,” he said. “It's tough sometimes, guys learning to play in the big leagues if they're rushed. There's a fine line. Some guys are ready to do it. They'll scuffle and make headway. Some guys can't do that. You have to separate the guys who can progress in the major leagues”

Bowa, 59, who managed the Padres and Phillies to a combined 418-435 record, continued to express interest.

“If someone called and talked, I'd want to listen,” Bowa said. “I'm not going to say I'd do it. I'm not going to say I wouldn't. But it's an intriguing team. Arms are rare. You don't get arms.

“Losing is an attitude. A young team like that, you have to work. You don't come in and put on your uniform at 4 o'clock.”

Fregosi, 1,028-1,095 in his career, is 63 and fondly recalls the late 1970s, when his Angels battled the Royals for supremacy in the AL West.

“I go back where they were great fans,” said Fregosi, now a special assistant to Atlanta general manager John Schuerholz, the former Royals general manager. “I can remember that stadium full.”

Of the six former managers who spoke, only Leyland didn't say he might want the job. He was too engaged in a golf game with his son.

“I'd have to think about it,” said Leyland, 60, who managed Florida to a 1997 World Series championship and is 1,069-1,131. “I don't really know.”

By the time they returned from a 12-game road trip, the Royals finally were beginning to realize the ramifications of Peña's resignation.

And they'd just as soon keep the job in-house.

“John Mizerock is the best manager I've ever had,” Sweeney said of the finalist in 2002 when Peña was hired. “I think he'd do a great job in Kansas City. ... That's my pick.”

Pitcher Jose Lima vouched for Schaefer.

“To be honest, I don't think we need anybody,” he said. “We've got Schaefer.”

When the Royals' bus returned to Kauffman Stadium from Kansas City International Airport on Wednesday night, three fans waited. They pointed toward the banner of White hanging on the side of the stadium.

“That'd be tight,” said Kevin Mildenberger, a 19-year-old from Smithville.

Baird set no timetable on the hiring and didn't indicate a favorite. Experienced or not, he simply wants to get it right this time.

And the former managers who are aching to run a team again simply want to get it.

“There's only 30 jobs out there,” Collins said, “and they're hard to get.”

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http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/11624245.htm


Shopping list for success

KC's next skipper must have these qualifications

JOE POSNANSKI

Here's a funny thing about baseball — the game moves slow, but you've got to move fast to play. Tony Peña is gone. That's yesterday's news. Today's news is that the Royals have to hire the right manager.

This is the make-or-break moment for Royals general manager Allard Baird. The Royals have fallen so low, as the old joke goes, they have to look up to see down. They keep losing. The few people willing to admit they are Royals fans are fed up. The old manager, the focal point of this team for three years, just quit on his team in the middle of the season. Other than a sudden plague of locusts descending or, even worse, Juan Gonzalez re-signing with the team, it's hard to imagine how things could get any lower.

Baird has to make the right call here. People are throwing names out there — White, Dierker, Bowa, Howe, McRae — but I think it's too early for that. This year is gone already. It's a development year. The Royals have a solid baseball guy, Bob Schaefer, running things for now. He can lead the way for a while, there's no reason to rush.

Baird needs to do the interviews, study the choices and get the right guy.

Here are 10 qualifications I think the Royals need in their next manager:

1. Patience. The last three Royals managers — Tony Peña, Tony Muser and Bob Boone — would often lose the big picture whenever the team started to lose games. Peña would run into the shower with his clothes on. Muser would look miserable, like the world was out to get him. Boone would complain that his players were no good. None of these three strategies works.

2. An understanding of small markets. Like it or not, the Royals' payroll is not about to skyrocket to $70 million. As fans, you can complain about it. But the Royals absolutely cannot hire a manager who won't deal with reality. The Royals have to find a manager who can and will win with young (aka “cheap”) players. Period.

3. Good tactical skills (handling a bullpen, knowing not to steal with David DeJesus, etc.). Tony Peña was not a good tactical manager. He managed from the gut, which meant he would, for no apparent reason, suddenly feel like calling a suicide squeeze. Sometimes, it worked. In 2003, in fact, many of his offbeat decisions worked. But odds even out. The Royals need a much steadier hand, a manager who, night in and night out, will put his players in position to win games.

The Royals cannot continue to lose one-run games at a record pace.

4. The ability to teach. I don't mean someone who will show someone how to get in front of a ground ball. No, this goes along with patience. Wednesday, 21-year-old Ambiorix Burgos, just a few hours after his manager resigned, gave up five runs and lost a game. Burgos is a staggering talent — mid-90s fastball, breathtaking split-fingered fastball — and he should be pitching in Class AA. He is the future. How will the manager handle him now? Talk to him? Ignore him? Scream? Pat him on the back and say, “You're still my closer, kid?” This is what I mean by teaching — finding the right thing to say.

Maybe this is the No. 1 qualification.

5. The ability to create a winning atmosphere. This is a tough one to explain. Some managers just have it. Atlanta's Bobby Cox seems to have about as much charisma as your basic wall calendar. And yet there is a calm in his clubhouses, a sense that losses are not the end of the world; wins are not a reason to pop champagne corks. As Dick Howser used to say, “This ain't football.” Baseball is a game about steadiness, endurance and a group of players that believes it will win tomorrow. Some managers have the ability to create that atmosphere. Some don't.

6. Winning experience (See No. 5). Three years ago, the Royals chose Tony Peña over Buck Showalter for a lot of reasons — relates better to players, has more patience with young kids, offers more enthusiasm, etc. I thought it was a mistake then for one reason: Peña had never won as a big-league manager. Showalter had. It won't be easy, but the Royals must try hard to find someone who has won before. The Royals organization has many smart and dedicated people. There are not many who know what it is to win.

7. Consistency. The Royals have to stick with the plan. They have to stick with the plan. They have to stick with the plan. Just keep repeating that again and again. They are building the team around young pitchers. This is the plan. If they go out and trade one of those talented kids for a veteran like Mike Cameron so they can win a few more games this year, then it's time to storm the castle. The Royals must find a manager who doesn't panic when things go bad. Once more: The Royals have to stick with the plan.

8. Charisma. This town has given up on this team. The Royals should hire someone who can help people hope again. Tony Muser is a terrific baseball man. But he didn't make you feel great about the team. Mostly, you wanted to buy the guy a drink.

9. Talent evaluation. Bob Boone thought so little of Mike Sweeney that he would not play him and, later, sent him down. The Royals obviously cannot afford that kind of blindness. The Royals, more than almost any other team in baseball, have to find hidden talent and, even more, cultivate it. It's not enough to find phenomenal talents like Denny Bautista, they have to recognize the talent (and the flaws) and turn Bautista into a major-league winner. If players such as Bautista fail, the Royals are doomed.

10. Organization. This goes without saying; the Royals need a manager who does not let little things become big things, who makes sure he connects in some way with all of his players, who finds a way somehow to be in two or three places at once. Nobody said this job is easy. Especially in Kansas City.

That's it. If the Royals can just find a guy with those 10 qualities … well, they will still lose 100 games this year. But they might just win quite a few more next year, and more after that. It will be a long and trying process turning this team into a winner.

Maybe more than anything, the Royals have to hire a guy who understands that.

[Ultra Peanut]

<img src="http://www.kansascity.com/images/kansascity/kansascitystar/news/PenaAirport_SP005_051105_JFS.jpg" style="width: 281px; height: 371px; border: 0" alt="" />

Aww. That's kind of sad.

[Braincase]

<img src="http://www.kansascity.com/images/kansascity/kansascitystar/news/PenaAirport_SP005_051105_JFS.jpg" style="width: 281px; height: 371px; border: 0" alt="" />

Aww. That's kind of sad.

Yeah, and Eric Warfield's chihuahua is zipped up inside that smaller bag.

[Mecca]

Yeah, and Eric Warfield's chihuahua is zipped up inside that smaller bag.

Nah, that's where he keeps the panties from all the diferent women he bangs while on the road. He keeps them in rememberence as his managing gig of traveling around the country looking for punany is over.

He will now retreat to the Dominican to smell them and remember his torrid affairs.