Nightengale: Flogging, then forgiveness for LCS managers

ST. LOUIS - The four were born in all parts of the globe from California to France to Florida to Ohio.

All but one of them reached the major leagues, and while none of them could really hit, three of them could catch.

One gets constantly teased for his oversized head.

One appeared on Seinfeld.

Their annual salaries range from $900,000 to $4 million to $900,000.

Now, these last four managers standing, beginning tonight at Camden Yards in Baltimore, will be employing every bit of their ingenuity, charisma and guts to lead their teams to the World Series.

Bruce Bochy of the San Francisco Giants is the only one of the quartet who has won World Series rings as a manager, and yes, he wears a size 8 1/8 cap, but Ned Yost of the Kansas City Royals is undefeated in postseason while winning a ring coaching with Atlanta.

Mike Matheny of the St. Louis Cardinals is the only one who has led his team to three consecutive National League Championship Series - only the fifth manager in history to take his team to the postseason in his first three years - while Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter finally won a playoff series for the first time.

You can debate the smartest of the managerial quartet, but there's no questioning the most organized.

You know any other manager who has a bulletin board in his office that includes the names of all the players' wives, and whether they're pregnant, and if so, the due date?

Oh yeah, and there's also a check mark to the far right for a category titled, "I. L.''

"Induced labor,'' Showalter says.

Of course.

This is the time of year that mangers love, and well, loathe, because it can be a second-guesser's frenzy.

Matt Williams will spend the entire winter listening to the folks in Washington still screaming about somehow not using his best relievers in a one-run, elimination game.

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was ripped for keeping in Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw too long one day, pulling Zack Greinke out too quickly in the next, and closing out the year being second-guessed about letting Kershaw start that ill-fated seventh inning.

It stinks, of course, but, hey, it's playoff baseball.

Yet, no matter how they're skewered, roasted, second-guessed and chastised during the season, these four teams would be sitting home without their respective managers.

Bochy's success will earn an all-expenses trip one day to Cooperstown where he'll be inducted into the Hall of Fame. He's a brilliant strategist for his bullpen maneuvers, winning two World Series in the last four years.

He may not have a bigger fan among his peers than Matheny, who like Bochy, also is a former catcher with an identical .239 career batting average. He even invited Bochy to be on his coaching staff at this past All-Star Game, but Bochy already had plans.

"I've never been shy of saying he's a manager I have a lot of respect for,'' Matheny says. "I respect the fact how consistently he's gone about his business, how he leads, his understanding of the game. He's somebody I tried to pick his brain over the years, and he's been accommodating.''

And, oh yeah, does he have the respect from his players.

"We know how invested he is,'' Giants right fielder Hunter Pence says. "We understand what he's been through. It takes a lot of courage to make a lot of these decisions, because you're going to have to answer for everything you do through hindsight, which isn't necessarily always fair.

"As a team playing behind him, his guts and his heart and his determination bleed into us.''

There's no greater architect than Showalter, the only one of the four who didn't reach the major leagues as a player. Yet, he was the one rebuilt the Yankees, built the Arizona Diamondbacks, elevated the Texas Rangers to greatness, and now has built the Orioles into a powerhouse. This is his first chance to be rewarded with a ring.

"I had always read and heard about his great attention to detail,'' Orioles infielder Kelly Johnson says, "and it's all true. It's really amazing. There isn't anything he doesn't think of, any situation where he is going to be caught off guard.

"It goes just beyond the regular things that managers have to think about. He'll check the size of the mound, if the foul lines are straight, all kind of things that almost everyone would take for granted. That's what sets him apart. That's why he is such a great manager.

You think of the Orioles and you think of Buck Showalter, first and foremost. Buck Showalter's Orioles."

Matheny was the perfect choice to replace Hall of Famer Tony La Russa in St. Louis after their 2011 World Series title, Cardinals GM John Mozeliak says, since he already understood the culture. The players absolutely love playing for him. He has their trust, leans on the veterans to police the clubhouse, rarely sets foot in the clubhouse, and only once this year did he feel the need to even have a team meeting.

Yep, his demeanor is a spitting image of a fella who managed veteran Cardinals reliever Randy Choate in New York.

"He's a lot like Joe Torre,'' Choate says. "He's quiet. He doesn't show his cards, and keeps that same expression. He's got the stern look on his face the whole time.''

The difference, of course, is that Torre was earning $7.5 million in his final year with the Yankees while Matheny is making $900,000.

Yet, Matheny has that same trust, with players wanting to win just for him, All-Star third baseman Matt Carpenter says. Center fielder Jon Jay says he'll never forget one of the first telephone calls he got after the Cardinals traded for center fielder Peter Bourjos, threatening his playing time. It was Matheny, letting him know he still had faith in him.

"Things are going to happen sometimes that you may not be in favor of individually,'' Jay says, "but what he did was such a class act.''

The good folks in Kansas City were ready to run Yost of town nearly every time they had a losing streak this summer, even creating the hashtag #Yosted for controversial managerial moves. The hashtag even trended online when the local folks immediately called for his firing when he brought in rookie starter Yordano Ventura out of the pen during their wild-card game against Oakland, and was rocked.

Now, with their playoff run, Yost has become one of Kansas City's favorite sons, earning the respect from his young team after a winter of self-analysis.

He went back to being Ned Yost, the manager of a young team, instead of trying to be a replica of Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox, his mentor who led the Braves to 14 consecutive postseason berths.

"Bobby had strict rules in the clubhouse,'' says Yost, who's in his fifth season with the Royals. "No music. No jeans on the road. You couldn't wear Oakley sunglasses for the first three years. You had to wear the flip‑downs. They were just regimented, old school rules.

"So you start your managerial career the same way, trying to set a rigid set of guidelines. This is what I want you to do. This is how I want you to act. This is how I want you to play. This is how I want you to act when we win. This is how I want you to act when we lose. This is how I want you to act on the plane.

"I think I came to the realization that these guys are all unique. They've got youthful enthusiasm and they come from a different generation than I came from.

"For me trying to mold them into something I want them to be, why don't I just let them be who they are?''

Now, for all four managers, everything that went wrong during the regular season, all has been forgotten.

They've been forgiven.

It's a new day.

And yes, just a bigger stage to be second-guessed.

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