Nearing end of 53rd season, ex-Sox manager Lamont still loves the game

When he was 18 years old, preparing to graduate from Hiawatha High School in Kirkland, Ill., Gene had a dual scholarship offer from Kansas State.

At the time, Lamont was looking forward to playing baseball for the Wildcats, and he also had an opportunity to play basketball at KSU under Tex Winter.

That was before he was drafted in the first round (No. 13 overall) by the Detroit Tigers.

Lamont signed a professional contract with the Tigers in 1965, and five years later he was in the major leagues.

"Back then, I might have thought I was going to be a great big-league catcher," Lamont said. "I played in the big leagues some, but I wasn't a real good player."

Lamont played in 87 games with Detroit from 1970-75, batting .233 with 4 home runs and 14 RBI.

He followed that up with two more years playing minor-league baseball and called it quits. But Lamont was not finished with baseball. Not even close.

"When I was playing, I always liked the teaching aspect, the inner workings of what goes on," he said.

Lamont immediately went into coaching when he stopped playing. He started as a minor-league manager and - nearly 40 years later - is still in the game.

Now 70, Lamont is the Tigers' bench coach. This is his 53rd straight year in professional baseball.

"I think one thing it means is I've always wanted to go to work," Lamont said while sitting in the visitor's dugout at Guaranteed Rate Field Saturday before Detroit played the White Sox. "Coaching and managing for such a long time now, I just consider myself lucky. I like what I do."

Lamont really liked what he was doing from 1992-94 - managing the Sox.

He guided the White Sox to the playoffs in 1993 and was voted American League manager of the year.

In '94, the Sox were leading the AL Central with a 67-46 record when the players went out on strike. The season came to a screeching halt on Aug. 10, and Lamont still can't completely shake the memory.

"I do look back on the strike," he said. "They kept saying, 'We're going to come back, we're going to come back,' and that's what I was hoping because we really had a good team. I think we were a better team than in '93, plus we had the experience of being in the playoffs. I think that would have really helped us.

"We thought we had a team that was going to be able to get to the World Series. Frank (Thomas) was having a great year, (Jack) McDowell, Robin (Ventura), Julio Franco came in and was having a great season. Being in the playoffs the year before, the expectations were really big (in 1994) and the team responded."

Coming out of the strike in '95, the White Sox went 11-20 and Lamont was fired.

"I know you get fired," Lamont said. "I think I should have gotten more time because, (heck), we had a short spring training. I don't look back on that so much because there's nothing you can do about it. You have to move on."

Lamont did just that.

He coached and managed the Pirates, he coached for the Astros and Red Sox and has been with the Tigers since 2005.

Even though he's getting up in age, Lamont is not thinking about retirement.

"As long as I still like it, I want to stay in baseball," he said. "And I still love the game. I don't think I could all of the sudden just quit the whole thing cold turkey. On TV they give all these stats, what this guy does, what that guy does, almost like they can tell what's going to happen. Well, they're full of (bleep). They can't. You never know what's going to happen and that's the beauty of the game."

The ugly side of baseball reared its head Thursday in Detroit, when the Tigers and Yankees engaged in a brawl.

"I got near the pile but I didn't get in the pile," Lamont said with a laugh. "First of all, I was too slow to get out there very fast. And second of all, I'm smarter than that."