Like it or not, Ventura returning to manage Chicago White Sox in 2016
Chicago White Sox fans were an angry lot on Friday, but the firing of bench coach Mark Parent is not what worked them into such a frenzy.
With a third straight losing season wrapping up on Sunday, Sox fans - at least the ones clogging up social media - didn't even try to suppress their displeasure with a lack of even more changes.
Manager Robin Ventura is No. 1 on the hit list, followed by executive vice president Kenny Williams and general manager Rick Hahn.
After announcing that Parent is out as bench coach and assistant hitting coach Harold Baines is moving into a team ambassador role next season, Hahn tried soothing the flustered masses.
"I guess the message at the end of the day is nobody here cares more about getting us back to win a championship as quickly as possible as the people making these decisions," Hahn said. "We're going to disagree from time to time. People are going to ... that's one of the beautiful things about this game, one of the great things about the accessibility of this game, is that everybody feels they have a level of knowledge about what a team needs or what makes a team capable of winning a championship.
"If I didn't feel, if we didn't feel, as an organization that Robin had the ability to be a championship caliber manager, he wouldn't be here. If we felt we didn't have a championship caliber hitting coach, he (Todd Steverson) wouldn't be here. At the end of the day, the people who wear this the most, the people who lose the sleep over this as much as anybody, the people who on a daily basis feel as passionately about it as our fans do, we want the same things that our fans do."
Managers typically are the first to take the fall when expectations are not met, but Ventura is signed through 2016 and is going to get at least one more season to prove his worth.
"You know, nobody takes it harder than we do," Ventura said. "When you are putting the uniform on, you go through a grind and the season is a difficult thing to go through. And we are doing it 24 hours per day. It's not just the hours we are here during the game.
"I grew up a White Sox (player). I became an adult as a White Sox. So it's important to me. I take it personal and it's hard, especially when it goes like this. Nobody wants this to turn around as much as I do."
Apparently, Parent was the big problem with the Sox this season. Ventura gave Parent the bad news after Thursday night's loss to the Royals and he immediately left the team.
"There are a few areas where we need to get stronger, and I feel that was missing in certain areas from our coaching staff," Hahn said of the Parent decision. "Someone who can help with certain in-game tactical decisions in a different way and has strengths in some different areas. Mark is a tremendous baseball man, it just wasn't the right fit going forward for our coaching staff."
Hahn has no doubt Ventura is still the right fit as manager.
"I feel Robin is a tremendous communicator, he creates the right environment, he gives the players the right information," Hahn said. "I think any manager, no matter how strong or what the win/loss record is, you're going to have some tactical disagreements between 7 and 10 o'clock at night. Whenever there have been those disagreements, we've been able to talk through the specific issues and understand the rationale behind them.
"A big part of the managerial job though happens in those other 21 hours a day. And Robin's strengths is in that communication and in the environment he creates with those players, to allow them to maximize their abilities. Again, there is room for improvement, both from a tactical standpoint as well as from even an off-the-field standpoint, and Robin's aware of that and he's embracing the opportunity to show that improvement, just as the rest of us who need to improve, myself included."
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