How White Sox manager Ventura stays cool while on the hot seat
Less than a week into spring training, Chicago White Sox manager Robin Ventura was already stressing about his uncertain job status.
At a Phoenix restaurant after watching his pitchers and catchers go through the early paces, Ventura offered to pick up a round of refreshments. A bit later, he offered to put the dinner bill on his tab.
"This is my last year," Ventura said. "I've got this."
It was just another dose of Ventura's dry wit, this time featuring some gallows humor.
True, the White Sox' 48-year-old manager is entering the final season of his contract and his days in the dugout could be numbered.
False, Ventura is tossing and turning every night with worry.
"I wouldn't say I think about it, but you can see it," Ventura said in a one-on-one interview with the Daily Herald last week at Camelback Ranch. "You can understand it. If they wanted to (fire me), you would understand it. But this whole thing doesn't really change for me."
When he retired after the 2004 season following a stellar 16-year playing career that started with the Sox in 1989, Ventura headed home to his native Santa Maria, Calif., and enjoyed the good life with his wife Stephanie and their four children.
He dropped in on the White Sox from time to time as a special assignment instructor and also scratched his baseball itch working as an ESPN analyst at the College World Series from 2007-11.
When he was hired by the Sox to replace manager Ozzie Guillen before the 2012 season, the baseball world was widely shocked. One of the best collegiate players in history - Ventura's record 58-game hitting streak at Oklahoma State still stands - and a two-time major league all-star and six-time Gold Glove winner at third base, he had no professional managerial or coaching experience.
In his first year as manager, the surprising White Sox were in first place for 117 days under Ventura before running out of gas down the stretch and finishing 85-77.
The next three seasons, 2013-15, were all losing efforts. Given the harsh nature of pro sports, Ventura realizes he's lucky to still be employed.
"The last three years, it's been hard," Ventura said. "You don't enjoy it. You kind of look at how you went about your game as a player and what you feel is important. We just weren't able to do it. Did I ever snap?
"Yeah, you go in the clubhouse at times and you snap. But if they're not capable of doing it and you snap, it's not going to help all that much. That part's not easy, but when you wake up the next day it's your job and you have to get back into how are you going to help that day, how are you going to make something better?"
It is still early in spring training, but Ventura has a better feeling about this group and believes the White Sox will score more runs after adding third baseman Todd Frazier, second baseman Brett Lawrie, catchers Alex Avila and Dioner Navarro and shortstop Jimmy Rollins.
If the American League's worst offense in 2015 turns it around and the pitching staff holds up its end, the Sox could be a competitive team.
A winning season could also move Ventura off the hot seat and extend his stay in the White Sox' dugout.
"I've never been about contracts and things like that," Ventura said. "But I enjoy what I'm doing, so I think on that part, you look at it like that, I would like to continue to do this and I would still enjoy doing it. If they choose not to have it that way, it's just the way it's going to be.
"For me, just go about the business of doing your job. I enjoy doing the job. I'm excited to come here and do it. As a player, when I had one year on a contract, I was never, 'OK, this is my money year.' It was about winning. Do winning things to help the team and that takes care of everything. This year, it (being fired) is there but it's not there. I can joke about it."
It's no joke when Ventura says he wants his players to focus on winning games for the organization, not to save his job.
"I want them to understand it's more about playing right and doing it that way," Ventura said. "That's what we care more about than whether there's a (contract) extension or anything like that. I just don't look at it that way. It's more important for me - for us - to play well because the last couple of years haven't really been that way."
If the White Sox don't play winning baseball this season, Ventura is likely gone. Again, he is more worried about the health of the franchise.
"I don't want the focus being on the last year of my deal," Ventura said. "I care more about the guys and helping them. I want them to do well. It's a better atmosphere, it's more fun. I want people to come and watch us play. I think it's important, especially this year, of putting people in the seats to help the payroll going forward.
"We need to have some people in the seats for us to continue to add people, good players, or to keep players. That's important. No one necessarily wants to talk about it that way, but it's the truth. It's the truth."
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