Thomson’s chance comes at expense of his friend
PHILADELPHIA » What always went around to other coaches suddenly came around to Rob Thomson, who celebrated personal gain after suffering personal pain upon the dismissal of Joe Girardi as Phillies manager.
Rather than exit with his longtime friend and managing mentor, Thomson, in his fifth season with the Phils and having mostly served the club as bench coach, was Dave Dombrowski’s pick as interim manager. He is to manage the Phillies for the remainder of this thus far stinker of a season. Beyond that … well, what could a 58-yearold baseball lifer expect beyond this belated appointment?
“When I was a very young coach, I always thought about managing,” Thomson said. “I got to a point where I got to the big leagues, and I’m a big league coach, big league bench coach, big league third base coach. I never really thought of it much at that point. I remember my father always saying, ‘Look, take care of what you do today because if you don’t, tomorrow is not going to be good. Don’t worry about your next job, just do your job.’ That’s why I’ve always taken that approach and I finally got to the point in my career where I thought, you know, why even think about it? Let’s just be the best bench coach, third base coach, whatever I’m doing, be the best at that at that time.”
So the Ontario native set out to be the best sort-of Olympian he could be, playing for Team Canada in the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, when baseball was an Olympic demonstration sport.
And he strove to be the best 35th-round draft choice (by Detroit) that he could be, though he never made it past A ball in four seasons in the minors.
He applied the very best of himself to minor league coaching, then major league front office work, and eventually back into coaching with the Yankees, forming what he called “a bond” with 10-year manager Girardi and helping him win a World Series in 2009. Perhaps that’s why, some hours after being relieved of his managing duties, Girardi found himself talking about his successor in a Sirius satellite radio interview, not hesitating to call Thomson, “the best coach I’ve ever been around.”
“Well, it’s a little bittersweet,” Thomson said of taking over for Girardi. “We’ve had the highest of highs, a World Championship together. A lot of playoff wins together. We’ve battled through some tough times. There’s a bond there
that will never be broken. Having said that, when Dave offered me this job, I think that the decision of Joe’s firing was already done … I think I would be foolish to turn down a major league manager’s job.
“As I said before, I felt so fortunate because I know of all the great baseball minds that are in that coaches room and they could have picked a number of them. It’s a little bittersweet day but we’ve got to get to the point where we move forward and we move on.”
Thomson said he had talked to Girardi at Citizens Bank Park shortly after the firing word came down Friday morning.
“We hugged,” Thomson said. “It was a little bit emotional. He said the same thing; he said, “You’ve got to move on. Do a great job. You’re going to do a great job. I’m fine.’ And that was it.”
Girardi, of course, has been here, been canned before. Just not during a season. Even one that began with great expectations and devolved into a May-long mess. The Phillies, checking in with MLB’s fourth-highest payroll at $229.1 million, were 22-29 and had won just five of their previous 17 games when Dombrowski invoked the mercy rule on the manager. Girardi finishes his Phillies tenure at 132-141.
Even still, the reality of one of the league’s more successful and recognizable managers after 51 games isn’t something to be taken lightly.
Surprise, surprise? “Yeah, a little bit,” Rhys Hoskins said. “I think you’d have to be, right? It’s June. Normally these things don’t happen in June. But it’s not anybody’s decision in here (the clubhouse). We have to go out and win baseball
games.”
Doing that could turn out to be the biggest June surprise for Phillies fans, though what other reason would Dombrowski have for canning Girardi now than trying to catch some lightning-in-a-bottle motivational magic by changing managers at this stage?
“Well, I mean, it better be,” Nick Castellanos said, “because everybody in the clubhouse now knows that (stuff) is not going well, so changes were made. Like I said, it’s a sad day when somebody loses their job because we’re not performing. I take that hard.”
Just like Thomson took it hard, watching his friend Joe become just another victim of a sports career that rarely loves you back. And yet … it’s the one that Rob Thomson would dream about.
You know, back when he was young.
“This was a surprise,” Thomson said. “But I’m really excited because I agree with Dave — this is a good club. We haven’t played consistently. We’ve played good for short periods of time. We need to play good for a long period of time. And I think we have the pieces to do that. I’ve been studying championship clubs for a long time and I truly believe there are pieces here to be a very good club.”
“That can be the hope, I think,” Hoskins said of the thought of the managerial switch motivating the moribund Phillies. ” Dave said it … there’s a need (here) for a new voice. (Thomson’s) definitely going to be that. But he’s also worked with Joe, right? I think we’re probably going to see a little bit of influence, and that’s OK. Joe was successful.
“We’ll see if we can get a little bit of a bump from this.”