Searching for answers in wake of Melvin firing

On the day he fired Bob Melvin, Mariner general manager Bill Bavasi gave him a recommendation for another managing job.

He WHAT?

You read that right.

Then why in tarnation did he let him go?

Good question. I don’t know if I have an answer.

The media didn’t get one from Bavasi at the press conference to announce the second-year manager’s ejection.

He said the meeting he had with Melvin, less than 24 hours after the M’s finished the season, to inform him of his decision was “private,” and that any details would have to come from the deposed skipper. Who apparently was taking some time off and didn’t feel like talking.

Great. That leaves it up to us morons in the media to concoct something.

I can do that.

Reason No.1 Bob Melvin got the ax: It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? His team had a horrible season. That’ll get you the door even from the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Reason No.2: He was too nice a guy.

Reason No.3: Uhhhhhhhhh … I don’t know if I have another reason, but if you’ll hang with me for a few paragraphs, maybe I can come up with something.

If I’d have been the GM, I’d have brought him back for another year. I thought he did a decent job with what he had to work with. Which wasn’t much.

I don’t know that Lou Piniella could have done any better. He might have done worse because he would have been hard to live with.

Maybe that was one of Melvin’s downfalls. Maybe he wasn’t hard enough on his players.

I know he always seemed to take the side of the player when the player screwed up. There was none of this, “Well, maybe what he needs is a refresher course down in the minors,” which Piniella might have suggested.

I’m sure Melvin must have called players in for one-on-ones, but he just seemed too mild, too much a gentleman to come down hard on them.

Piniella? I’m not sure I’d want to be alone in the room with him when he was POed. I can’t see him being “Sweet Lou.”

The players seemed to like Melvin. Now whether they respected him or not is another question.

Someone asked Bret Boone twice after Sunday’s game whether he would like to see Melvin come back. Twice Boone launched into an “I love Bob Melvin” routine.

“Bob, first and foremost, is a tremendous man,” Boone said. “He’s had a tough year. He’s taken a lot of blame and it’s not his fault. It’s our fault. A lot of key guys in this room didn’t have good years. I love the guy.”

Could that have been a problem? That the players liked him too much. And didn’t fear him enough.

I don’t know.

Baseball confuses me. Players say their team lacks discipline. Then management brings in a hardcore my-way-or-the-highway guy. Which sparks a revolt. HE’S TOO TOUGH, players sob. So they hire Mr. Rogers. Who is too nice and players run all over him.

When asked if that happened to Melvin, Bavasi answered no.

OK, so what’d the guy do wrong? Make too many mistakes with his game decisions? “He runs a good game,” Bavasi said.

“I think Bob would tell you I never questioned his lineup,” the GM said. “I never once talked to him about strategy.

Then he remembered. “There was one time. I think he pinch-ran somebody, but he had a great answer.”

Then he must have been a lousy communicator. No, that wasn’t a problem, either.

Then what? The guy was fine with the media – which is a big part of a manager’s job – though a little bland.

Melvin did get a bit testy after one late-season loss when the M’s left a bunch of men on base. He scolded hitters through the media for not making adjustments at the plate. Which makes one wonder if some veterans didn’t just cover their ears when he or his hitting coach spoke, knowing that they weren’t going to get dressed down.

There was also some question about his leadership when it came to his coaches. That work wasn’t getting done that needed to be done.

All in all, though, one got the feeling that Bavasi didn’t give him failing marks across the board. If anything, Melvin might have gotten a “Gentleman’s C” or even better in most disciplines.

“Did he have enough to work with?” Bavasi asked rhetorically. “No.”

And then later, he added, “I have absolutely nothing negative to say about Bob.”

Some baseball people say that a team is a reflection of its manager. That being the case, the M’s would be what? Soft? Unaggressive? Laid-back? Politically correct?

I have one. How about underachievers? And is that the manager’s fault? Did Melvin speak too softly and not carry a big enough stick?

“I don’t buy that (reflection business),” Bavasi said. “I grew up watching the Dodgers play vicious and tough baseball, doing whatever it takes to win, really being scrappy and being tough and the manager (Walter Alston) not saying two words, just standing there watching the game, pushing the buttons. He’d just take his big 6-6 frame (actually, 6-2) and go in the room afterwards and say (to a player), ‘Hey, I think you blew that.’

“He wouldn’t want to embarrass him. He had his own style and it was a very laid-back style. But that team didn’t play laid back.”

Then there’s the opposite of laid back. “We’ve seen teams that have a real fiery guy, real fiery,” Bavasi said. “Team lays down and rolls over.”

Manager gets the boot – in the most recent case Larry Bowa, by the Philadelphia Phillies last weekend.

Which brings us back to why Bavasi called some ballclub to say good things about Bob Melvin on the day he dumped him.

It’s Bavasi’s feeling that when given a second chance, some managers do things differently than what got them fired. “It might be that us baseball people are just morons,” he said. “In Anaheim, I found myself doing the same thing over and over again until my forehead was bloody. It seems like when you’re in the same place, you are trying harder instead of trying something different that is easier.”

What exactly Melvin needs to do differently, I’m not sure.

I wonder if even he does.