Saturday, November 26, 2011

Interview with World Series Managers

The 2011 World Series match up of Denver vs. Miami features two of the most successful managers in league history, although neither has won a world series, a fact that will soon change for one of these jawas.

Bewis Charles "Big Cheese" Skywalker, age 76, has managed the Denver Rabbits for 26 years, winning 2198 games. Not only is this the highest total in APBA history, only 5 managers in MLB history have more, including the recently retired Tony LaRussa, Joe Torre, and Bobby Cox. The Cheese led Denver to a world series in only his 3rd season, the strike shortened 1991 year where he lost to Portland. In 1994 his Rabbits made the series again only to lose to the Orlando Rugrats. Despite having some great teams in Denver and a virtual lock on the Central Division, it took 17 years to make it through the playoffs and return. Before managing in Denver, Skywalker was rumored to be a power hitting outfielder, but his statistics are largely unknown. He sometimes jokes about writing not having been invented during his playing days.

Ronald Jefferson "R.J." Duke is 20 years younger than his counterpart. Also a power hitting outfielder whose career was cut short due to back injuries, Duke was the first jawa to ever hit 40 home runs, which he did in 1984. Duke ranks 4th in APBA history with 1564 wins. Duke began his managerial career in the second 1991 season, and quickly established himself as one of the best in the game by turning around a last place Hawaii Cubs team and leading them to 98 wins. He even built on that with 102 wins the next year, but playoff success eluded him. R.J. finally made the world series in 2006, only to lose the most dramatic 7th game ever when Joe Thomas walked off into the sunset with a grand slam. Two years later he made it back, again facing the mighty New York Cobra, and put up less resistance the second time.

Both managers are here in THSN studios for a world series interview with your host, Lyman Solo.

Lyman: R.J., you famously guaranteed a world series win before the season even started, and said you would retire if you failed to live up to that. Are you going to hold to that promise?

Duke: I'm hoping I don't have to, but let me assure you I am a jawa of my word. I said what I had to say to send a message to Joe Young that we were as serious about getting a ring here in Miami as he was. You have to understand that Joe Young cares about winning more than anything, more than his stats, his MVP awards, the money, even the bananas. Joe has been tremendous here, not only in the batter's box, but the way he plays the game with intensity, runs the bases aggressively, and leads our players off the field. Joe has been everything that we could have imagined. And if the team we have can't get Joe that ring, I will take personal responsibility, and get out of the way so that someone else can come here to Miami and partner with Joe to get that ring.

Lyman: Big Cheese, Tony LaRussa won the world series in St Louis and decided to go out on top. If the Rabbits win, will you do the same?

Cheese: Well, Lyman, unlike R.J. here I didn't make any promises. We just have to keep our focus and keep doing the things that got us here. I don't want to provide any distractions about my status. Let's just say I'm focused on the here and now. At my age you have to avoid making too many long term plans. So I'll make a decision about 2012 if and when I live to see the next spring.

Lyman: R.J., how does this Miami team rank among the great teams in league history?

Duke: This is the greatest team I've ever managed. Part of it has to do with having the greatest player I ever managed in Joe Young, but it's more than that. This team stepped up in the middle of the summer when Joe missed a month. We have so many guys who can beat you. We've got the young guys who can get on base, run, and play defense. We've got veteran hitters who can step up when they need to, like McNamara and Tugwell. Our pitching is deep, our #6 starter went 8-1 when he needed to fill in for injured pitchers. Hutchinson was almost untouchable most of the year in the pen. These guys all play the game the right way. Even the older guys like Bud can still go first to third. People thought we'd be playing station to station ball once we signed Joe, but this team has run more than I had in the past. I credit bench coach Juan Alou for a lot of that. I still prefer power, but the answer to power or speed? is "both." You win more games when you have more ways to beat people.

Lyman: Big Cheese, do you regret almost trading Joey Renseller (MLCS MVP) over the summer? Did his trade veto create any tension on the team?

Cheese: Well, I'm glad he blocked the trade now. We wouldn't be here right now without him. At the time, we were trying to add some pop to the lineup and Elvis Dixon was available. To get a player like that you have to give something up. It was never a question of being negative on Joey, just a situation where you have to make a tough choice. This isn't softball 1000, you can only play one third baseman at a time in this league. I don't blame Joey for exercising his 5 and 10 rights. He's earned those, and I can understand not wanting to leave a first place team to go to the cellar. It wasn't a problem at all once the decision was made. We simply looked at Joey as a guy who really wanted to be here. That should be a positive, and we treated it that way.

Lyman: Big Cheese, how will the DH rule affect you? RJ, how will not having it in Denver affect your team?

Cheese: We have a very deep roster and will have plenty of options to DH. We traded for Geoff Favre specifically to help in the playoffs. He's been hurt and didn't even get into a game against Portland, but you saw the kind of outfield depth we had anyway. We could use Favre at DH and stick with the outfield alignment that has worked so well, but we also have Gary Parkman around and he's a professional hitter.

Duke: We played Joe Young at first for 80 games this year, so he's ready to play the field. He's obviously going to be out there every day, which means that Tugwell and Moore will be available for pinch hitting duties.

Lyman: Thank you, and I look forward to an exciting series.

1 Comments:

At 1:19 AM EST, Anonymous President of the Fat Yoda Fan Club said...

Best. Interviews. Ever.

 

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