Ventura will need three new coaches
After his statue was unveiled at U.S. Cellular Field on July 31, Frank Thomas met with a group of reporters and talked a lot about hitting.
It was a comfortable topic, considering Thomas is the best hitter in White Sox history.
The future Hall of Famer broke down Adam Dunn, Alex Rios and Paul Konerko, and he was asked about the future possibility of serving as the Sox’ hitting coach.
“We’ll see,” Thomas said. “One of these years, you never know. I’m happy right now. I’m getting to spend a lot of time with my kids, something I didn’t get to do for 20 years. I’m getting ‘me’ time, but I am a little anxious to start doing something.”
Grew Walker resigned on the final day of the season, so the White Sox need a new hitting coach.
In Robin Ventura, they got their new manager on Thursday.
Ventura and Thomas were teammates from 1990-98, and let’s just say they had a hot-and-cold relationship.
When Thomas broke in with the White Sox in ’90, he lived with Ventura for a time.
During a game at Yankee Stadium in 1995, Thomas and Ventura nearly exchanged blows in the dugout after Ventura told Thomas to quit arguing with the umpires.
Ironically, it was Dave Martinez, thought to be a prime candidate to replace Ozzie Guillen as the Sox’ new manager, that stepped in and broke up the fight.
Now that Ventura is manager, he gets to hire three coaches — hitting, bench and third base.
Ventura said he has not talked to Thomas, so a reunion looks doubtful.
Pitching coach Don Cooper is back, and that is the reason why general manager Kenny Williams said Ventura got the job.
“As I told Robin, we would not be at this point, I would not have made this offer to him, had we not had our pitching in place,” Williams said. “As with Ozzie coming in as a guy who had no managerial experience, we have Don Cooper in place to support what I believe is the greatest difficulty that a new manager is going to have at any level. We have a guy in place who will aid him.”
Ventura has no experience at any level, but he played for a wide range of managers and said he’ll pick from all of their styles.
“As far as what kind of manager I’ll be, I just know as a player everybody was accountable,” Ventura said. “That’s really where you start. It’s all about winning games and for me, doing it the right way. Caring about what your teammates do. In the process of playing games, I want guys to care. We have a job to do; we have work to do. You better be accountable.
“I got to play for a lot of great people, a lot of smart baseball men. I started with (Jeff) Torborg and (Gene) Lamont and (Jerry) Manuel and Bobby Valentine to Joe Torre to Jim Tracy. I ran the gamut on different styles and smart baseball men and just different way to communicate and get guys to play.”