Cool character:
Even-keeled A’s manager Bob Melvin’s game face doesn’t show much emotion, but he has his moments.
Almost immediately after Tony Kemp stunned everyone at the Coliseum when popping up a bunt with the bases loaded and no outs in the 10th inning, the camera turned to A’s manager Bob Melvin.
Was he furious? Did he toss his scorecard? Did he kick the water cooler? Did he holler at his players?
Hardly. Melvin appeared as if he were watching the first pitch of the game. Stoic, reserved, cool. In his nobigdeal, alliswell, I’mchill kind of way.
It’s a characteristic Melvin almost always showcases during games, no matter how intense and chaotic and wacky they get. His composed, even casual, persona goes a long way toward keeping his team calm and focused in the moment.
The A’s didn’t score in that disheartening 10th inning on July 3 but stayed determined enough to mount a threerun rally to beat the Red Sox in 12, after which Melvin said, “I’m fried right now. … It was the most spirited game of the year.”
He didn’t show it in the dugout. At least not when caught on camera.
The 2021 A’s continue to march toward the postseason despite their recent downturn, injuries to key players and omnipresent theme of a low payroll team outplaying clubs with
massive resources.
Through it all, Melvin keeps his cool, which makes it easier for players to do the same. It resonates through the dugout and clubhouse.
“I try,” Melvin said. “It’s interesting. You never know when the cameras are on you, and there wasn’t one time, I don’t think ever, where I’ve thought about, ‘Oh, the camera’s on me.’
“But I think they cut sometimes a hair after my emotion is showing. My wife, Kelley, will tell me, ‘When they cut to you, there’s no emotion.’ There is, but sometimes maybe they’re a split second late.”
Rarely enough to cause a scene.
Well, there was that time in Seattle, his first managing gig in 2003 when he replaced Lou Piniella, who was never afraid to run onto a field, kick dirt at an umpire and toss a base or two.
“You always have to be yourself. I learned that,” Melvin said. “The first time I got thrown out in Seattle, fans wanted me to pick up bases. They were used to Lou.
“I went out there and did something that really wasn’t me. I went on a little longer than I should. I was, like, ‘What am I doing?’
“I went home that night and told myself, ‘You have to be yourself. Make your point and move on.’ You can’t manufacture it. It has to be real.”
Melvin learned from different managers. How to act and how not to act. That includes Phil Garner, whom Melvin praises at every turn. He began his coaching career as Garner’s bench coach in Milwaukee and then Detroit.
“During the game, you always felt he was under control and there wasn’t a situation that caught him off guard,” Melvin said. “Now, he had a fiery side to him as well, but he didn’t get too emotional that he lost sight of something. So a lot of what I do comes from Phil Garner.”
Make no mistake. Melvin can get hot like the next guy. He has been ejected 47 times, tied for the 26th most in history and third among current managers, behind Tony La Russa (88 ejections) and Joe Maddon (57).
It’s not always about losing a temper. Oftentimes there’s a purpose. Such as the case in San Francisco on June 26 when Melvin was tossed after coming to catcher Sean Murphy’s defense.
After Murphy slightly turned to umpire Lance Barrett to express issues with the strike zone, Barrett walked in front of the catcher, got in his face and let him have it. Not pleased with an umpire showing up his catcher, Melvin rushed out and yelled at Barrett, who thumbed the manager.
“I wanted to make sure (Murphy) wasn’t going to be thrown out of the game,” Melvin said. “I didn’t appreciate that.”
When Melvin shows extra emotion in the dugout, it’s noticed because it’s not a regular occurrence. The day he surpassed La Russa as the winningest manager in Oakland history, with the A’s trailing the Mariners and heading for a fourth straight loss, he offered his players what Kemp called some “choice words.”
Shortly thereafter, the A’s mounted a comeback and won in a landslide 126.
“I do that periodically, and that’s my job,” Melvin said. “If you overdo it, you don’t get the attention. So when you do it periodically, at times you feel like are the right times to do it, maybe you get some attention.”
Of course, Melvin strategically pulls the right strings, too. Like with most teams these days, the front office collaborates with the manager to determine the lineup and ingame decisionmaking based largely on analytics.
Still, Melvin often is commended for his human touch and how he runs a game. For example, pinchhitting. No team in the AL pinchhits as much as the A’s, whose pinchhitters have the most plate appearances (90), hits (19) and RBIs (14) in the circuit.
“We try to do it in leverage situations where we get the best possible result with guys on base and try to identify it that way,” Melvin said. “So when I go into a game, there are certain spots and certain guys off certain pitchers that I target. Sometimes it plays out, sometimes it doesn’t.”
One of Melvin’s greatest strengths is making players believe in themselves and feel comfortable to succeed in big moments. He’s transparent and lets guys know well in advance how they’ll be used.
He’s in charge, but his authority doesn’t suffocate the personnel.
“BoMel creates a good environment,” said AllStar first baseman Matt Olson, Oakland’s best player in the first half. “You just can’t ask for somebody better leading the charge. He’s just always got the right answers.
“He’s the perfect mix of being intense and focused during a game, but he loves messing around with us and keeping it loose and letting everybody be themselves in order to have the best product on the field.”
As humble as he is evenkeeled, Melvin almost seems embarrassed when receiving compliments, including when he was celebrated for winning his 800th game as A’s manager, winning the 1,300th in his career and surpassing La Russa.
It’s easier for Melvin to credit players than accept recognition himself. But facts speak for themselves. The A’s made the playoffs in six of Melvin’s first nine full seasons, and they’re on target for a fourth straight postseason trip.
Twice in Oakland, he won the American League Manager of the Year award, and last month, his option for 2022 was exercised.
The kid from Menlo Park who played at Cal and caught for the Giants is in his element, winning again with an A’s team that has a low budget but high expectations, in large part because of the evenkeeled manager.