Short Hops | Love Letters

The most instructive part of the transition between fired Boston Red Sox manager Jimy Williams and Joe Kerrigan, the former pitching coach turned Crown Prince, came a few moments into Kerrigan's introductory news conference Wednesday.

"Offensively, I'm a guy that likes stability in the lineup," Kerrigan said. "You always think, 'If I was king of the world for a day ...' This is my day, and we'd like to have some stability in our lineup."

Joe Kerrigan (left) will benefit from the return of Pedro Martinez as the Red Sox prepare for the stretch run. (AP)

Of all the minefields that surrounded Williams as he attempted to keep his grip on an increasingly untenable situation, the revolving-door Boston lineup evolved into the most explosive. Williams clashed repeatedly with both general manager Dan Duquette and Red Sox players over his penchant for tinkering with the lineup. Much of it was no fault of his own, thanks to the Sox's inordinate number of injuries this season, and some of it came from the fact that it's simply the way Williams does things.

A savvy baseball man who leaves despite being a legitimate candidate for American League Manager of the Year, Williams never was a long-term solution for the Red Sox. No manager, it seems, is. Including Williams, five of the past six Red Sox managers have been fired with winning percentages of better than .500 -- Kevin Kennedy (1996, .559), Joe Morgan (1991, .535), John McNamara (1986, .521) and Don Zimmer (1980, .575).

The difference between Williams, 57, and the others strewn about on the Red Sox chopping block is that, against all odds, what with injuries, internal dissension and a GM that routinely has pulled the rug out from under him publicly, he was fired despite maneuvering his team into excellent shape for the stretch run.

While the Red Sox had lost six of seven before Thursday and had fallen a season-high five games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East, they were just two games behind Oakland in the wild-card race. While they've lost ground recently in no small part because ace Pedro Martinez and catcher Jason Varitek have been out since June, their stock undoubtedly will rise when Martinez returns within the next several days.

This is a club that has yet to reap the benefits of putting Martinez and All-Star Nomar Garciaparra into the lineup at the same time even once this season, and yet the Red Sox are in better shape than most with the stretch run just over the horizon.

A hot summer has been tempered in New England by the frigid Cold War between Duquette and Williams, a Cold War that's been at least two years in the making. That Williams didn't have the organization's backing became mineral-water clear late last summer when Duquette essentially sided with temperamental outfielder Carl Everett during a volcanic clubhouse eruption after the skipper scratched Everett from the lineup because he was late to Fenway Park -- a repeated occurrence for Everett.

Really, for the health of the organization, Duquette should have fired Williams then and there -- or, at least when the season ended. Because no matter how brilliant Williams' tactical moves, the man essentially was set up for a fall then, barring a runaway, Seattle-like season in 2001.

Instead, the uneasy Duquette-Williams partnership teetered into this season -- and Everett and the manager had another blowup this spring. Then, in early June, Duquette went on a radio show and suggested that Williams owed the baseball fans of New England an explanation for removing Martinez from a game against the Yankees on June 4 -- a game in which the Yanks scored four runs off of five Red Sox relievers in a 7-6 comeback victory.

A few days after that, Duquette made the announcement on his radio show that Martinez would miss a start with a sore shoulder.

That Williams was a short-timer in Boston had become more and more evident since last September, never more so than on June 15, when the Red Sox announced that Duquette had agreed to a two-year contract extension. Williams, who remained unsigned for next year, might as well have started packing his bags then, barring anything short of a World Series appearance.

Never known as a "players' manager," the relationship between the reserved Williams and his players was in the cooler by then. Sports Illustrated reported last month details of a May 5 clubhouse meeting that began with Williams upbraiding some of his players for what he felt was their lack of professionalism. It ended, according to the magazine, with several players shouting profanities at Williams -- based mostly on his use of different lineups nearly every day without ever bothering to deliver explanations as to why.

Which is why, when Kerrigan spoke of "stability in the lineup" Thursday, it was read as a thinly veiled swipe at Williams -- and, as such, a sort of unveiling of a newly formed partnership with Duquette. For now.

"I like a set guy leading off, a set guy batting second and a set guy batting third," said Kerrigan, 47, who signed a two-year contract through the end of the 2003 season. "It's like with pitchers. You have your setup guy, your long guy and your closer. I think everyday players like that, too."

Appropriately, on what turned out to be his final day as Boston skipper, Williams penciled the name of first baseman Morgan Burkhart, just up from Triple-A Pawtucket, into the sixth spot in the lineup. Brian Daubach has joined the list of the fallen in Boston: He's developed a staph infection and was placed on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday.

The other noteworthy thing about the final lineup card filled out by Williams before Wednesday's 6-2 loss to Seattle is that it had Garciaparra leading off and right fielder Trot Nixon batting second -- as well as Mike Lansing, about whose playing time Williams and Duquette (who acquired Lansing from Colorado last summer) have bickered, playing second base.

"I've had a conversation with Nomar already," Kerrigan said. "We'd like to put Trot at the top of the order. He's our best on-base percentage guy. He's the best at working the count and setting the tempo for the team.

"We'd like to bat Nomar in the two hole. Nomar is probably still in a spring-training phase. One day his arm strength is good and the next day it's not so good."

Garciaparra, who finally returned to the lineup on July 29 after missing much of the season with a torn tendon in his right wrist, was hitting .294 at the time of Williams' firing. Manny Ramirez had slipped quite a bit, too, dropping to .304 from .335 at the All-Star break.

"In watching the club over the past couple of weeks, I felt it was in the best interest of the organization to make a managerial change," Duquette said. "I felt it would re-energize the club."

Besides, as things turn out, Baltimore arrives at Fenway Park on Friday to open a three-game series. With Seattle out of the way, Williams just might have quickly gotten the Red Sox back on track -- and then the opportunity to gas him might have been gone.

Thursday's hiring of Kerrigan likely will have a long-term effect on the Red Sox. Either he'll be successful and win or, if not, the blame for what could become a major mess in Boston will lie squarely at Duquette's feet.

There isn't much for The Duke, a man who prides himself on being reclusive, to hide behind any longer.

Red Sox yarns

Controversy, never far from Fenway Park, continues swirling as Kerrigan takes the reins.

The latest is that Frank Robinson, baseball's discipline czar, is reviewing tapes centering on Everett's behavior in a loss to Seattle on Tuesday. Unhappy after being hit by a Jamie Moyer pitch in the first inning, Everett stood on first and grabbed his crotch while hollering at Moyer.

Then, after tying the game with a fifth-inning homer, Everett yelled at Moyer during his entire trip around the bases.

Kerrigan said he did not see the crotch-grabbing episode the other night.

"They claim they have a tape on it," he said. "If something comes from the commissioner's office, I guess we'll have to take a look at it."

Neither was Kerrigan about to be sucked into another potential controversy: The official naming of a closer. Derek Lowe, who has 24 saves, has done a solid job for Boston. But Duquette acquired Ugueth Urbina from Montreal on July 31, and now Lowe is looking over his shoulder.

"I'd rather not discuss that now," he said Thursday.

Duquette praised Kerrigan on Thursday as a baseball man who was "raised in the Montreal organization under Dick Williams and nurtured in the Baltimore organization under Earl Weaver."

Kerrigan, who has spent the past 10 seasons as a pitching coach (the past five with Boston, the previous five with Montreal), said he was surprised as anybody by Duquette's decision.

"I can honestly say I am really surprised at having received the call this morning," Kerrigan said. "I was asked to lunch with Dan when I was on my way to the chiropractor. I thought he was going to talk to me about Pedro again."

Instead, it was the chance of a lifetime for Kerrigan.

And if he's smart, given Duquette's imperial ruling manner and the tempestuous clubhouse mix, Kerrigan will keep the phone number for his chiropractor.

No '86 redux here

While Boston moves forward attempting to land in its first World Series since 1986, we can say one thing with near certainty: If the Red Sox do get to the grand October stage, there will not be a rematch with the Mets awaiting them.

Legendary bowler Earl Anthony might have passed away earlier this week, but odds are he'll rack up more meaningful strikes than the Mets over the next six weeks.

The Mets' .378 slugging percentage is the worst in the majors, and they're hitting a pathetic .232 with runners in scoring position.

General manager Steve Phillips unloaded steady starter Rick Reed at the July trading deadline for outfielder Matt Lawton in a desperate attempt to generate some offense. Only problem now is that there is a logjam of similar players in the Mets outfield in Lawton, Joe McEwing, Jay Payton, Benny Agbayani and Tsuyoshi Shinjo. None have much power, and nobody other than Lawton has established much of a track record at the major-league level.

Lawton has been in the lineup most every day since his arrival, leaving four others to rotate through two spots. But Valentine isn't necessarily sold on keeping him there at the expense of playing time for the others as the Mets look toward 2002.

"That's the dilemma," Valentine says. "Do you play a couple (of the outfielders) more and a couple less because of him? I don't think that's fair. I don't think it's fair right now. There are six weeks left, and you take four guys who are trying to be as good a big leaguer as they can be. They're working for salaries for themselves and their families. To say now that someone is not going to have the opportunity to make as good a salary as he can?"

McEwing, batting .301 through midweek, has been the most impressive of the non-Lawton group who have been with the Mets all season, but Valentine even is wary of playing him every day.

"If today was the cutoff day, you could say the McEwing and Shinjo would play the rest of the time, and Benny and Payton wouldn't play," Valentine says. "I don't think that's fair.

"I think in the two years he's been here, Jay has done plenty to warrant more playing time. So has Benny, and so has Shinjo."

But, alas, none of them has done enough to position the Mets for a third playoff appearance in three years.

Infamy

Somewhere near his home in Phoenix, we assume former Oakland pitcher Brian Kingman is checking schedules and looking into airline tickets. We've got another stiff with a real chance of becoming the majors' first 20-game loser since Kingman went 8-20 for the 1980s A's.

He's Jimmy Haynes, the left-hander from Milwaukee, and even though he's 7-15, maybe "stiff" is a bit harsh for a description. The run-support Haynes has received in his 15 losses hasn't simply been bad, it's been embarrassing. The Brewers have averaged 1.8 runs per game during those losses.

"My luck hasn't been so great this year," he acknowledged to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in one of the year's biggest understatements.

Philadelphia's Omar Daal was on a Kingman-like pace last year, only to finish the season with 19 losses.

Haynes, who has won just one game since May 22, could cross the 20 threshold if for no other reason than he hasn't missed a start since joining Milwaukee at the start of the 2000 season -- and he isn't about to start missing them now.

"If it happens, it happens," Haynes said of the 20-loss monkey perched near his back. "I'm just going to keep pitching and trying to go after guys. That's all I can do."

The flip side

Ninety minutes to Haynes' south, Jon Lieber's got it rolling in Wrigley Field -- so much so that he has a very real chance to become only the fourth Cubs pitcher in the past 30 years to win 20 games.

Lieber pitched perhaps the best game ever by an opponent in Houston's infant Enron Field on Wednesday, holding the Astros to three hits over nine innings in a 5-1 victory. Lieber dispatched Houston's fearsome lineup -- which some think might be the best in the National League -- in only 92 pitches in his second consecutive complete game.

He will attempt to become the first Cubs pitcher since Rick Sutcliffe in 1988 to compile three consecutive complete games on Monday against Milwaukee.

He's 13-2 with a 3.19 ERA over his past 16 starts, and if he continues at this pace, he'll slide right up alongside Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins, Rick Reuschel and Greg Maddux as the only 20-game winners for the Cubs in 30 years.