Rozner: Maybe this time, Reds' Riggleman can catch break
Some guys just aren't destined to get a break.
It has been that way from the start for Jim Riggleman.
He's as good a baseball man as you'll ever find, willing to adjust to the changes, prepared to discipline, managing to manage for the times.
But that is, of course, not good enough. You need some luck, you need a sponsor and you need success.
And then there's timing. It plays such a huge role, and Riggleman's timing has always been unfortunate.
His first managing job came in San Diego in 1992, when Padres ownership was mostly interested in getting rid of their stars and dumping payroll while the team was for sale.
Not much chance for success there.
So when new Cubs GM Ed Lynch - with whom Riggleman worked in San Diego - came calling during the fall of 1994, Riggleman departed the worst team in baseball and a one-year contract offer in a wretched situation, for a new regime in Chicago, a longer contract and the promise of better opportunities.
The Cubs did make the playoffs once while Riggleman was here, in 1998, but when the team went to pieces in '99 with an aging and decrepit roster, Riggleman was fired.
He deserved better.
Meanwhile, Riggleman's third base coach in San Diego, Bruce Bochy, succeeded Riggleman at the helm of the Padres. The team was sold, rebuilt and went to the World Series in 1998.
With solid success as a major league manager, Bochy left the Padres for the Giants in 2007 and won three World Series in San Francisco.
Bochy is headed for the Hall of Fame and is one of the highest-paid managers in the game at $6 million in 2018.
And that perfectly sums up the struggles of Riggleman, who is now the interim manager of the Reds.
In 2008, he was the interim manager of the Mariners for 90 games, and in 2009 he was the interim manager of the Nationals, eventually named the manager for 2010-11.
But in June 2011 he walked away from the Nats - who had won 11 of 12 games and were on the verge of a turnaround in their painful rebuild - because the team would not pick up his option for 2012.
Washington would go on to win its division in four of the next six years.
Now, Riggleman is 34-33 as manager of a Reds team that was 3-15 when Bryan Price was fired, and there are calls in Cincinnati for Riggleman to be hired as the permanent manager.
"I'm really not worried about that," Riggleman told us on the Score Sunday morning. "I'm just cherishing the opportunity to manage again. I love managing and I'm fortunate to be doing this.
"I appreciate your comments about the situations I've been in, but realistically, when you're Jim Riggleman or some other (managers) who did not make their name as a major league player, or did not have immediate success as a major league manager, you're going to get jobs where teams are in distress.
"Those are the jobs you get. You're not going to get the Bostons and New Yorks and first-place clubs because you don't have a track record that says you're going to win.
"I'm fortunate to get the opportunities I've gotten and I've loved every one of them."
Before even discussing the current Reds, Riggleman went out of his way to praise the job Price did, always mindful of what his predecessor went through and always respectful of the position he is in and why he is there.
It's just the way Riggleman has operated in his 40-year professional career.
He's truly one of the good guys. Maybe this time he'll get a break.
brozner@dailyherald.com
• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.