Larry Rothschild is among the thousands of baseball professionals who have much to be thankful for. Three weeks ago, one of his big dreams came true. He was appointed the field manager of the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
A Chicago native–he grew up in Beverly–Rothschild succeeded the hard way. Perseverance should be his middle name. Until this past season, when he was Jim Leyland’s pitching coach for the world champion Florida Marlins, he was comparatively obscure.
He was never a $1 million player. A right-handed pitcher, he worked middle relief, the most anonymous position, and appeared in only seven games with the Detroit Tigers during the 1981 and ’82 seasons. In both seasons, he was a September callup, when rosters could be expanded from 25 to 40.
Asked what he remembers the most about these experiences, Rothschild indicated he had only two vivid memories.
In his debut, he was summoned in the fifth inning with the bases loaded and no outs. Cleveland’s Joe Charboneau hit the ball back to him–a certain double play. But Rothschild was wearing a new cap and it fell into his eyes. He was able to retire only the batter.
In his second season, Jim Rice, the Boston slugger, drove one of his pitches off the Fenway Park wall in the midst of a big inning.
“I’ve tried to forget the rest of that rally,” Rothschild said.
His longest stint was two innings, usually in a mopup assignment after a game was irretrievably lost. His career big-league stats are 0-0, one save and a 5.19 earned-run average over 8 1/3 innings, certainly an undistinguished record.
Yet, when he was named the Tampa Bay manager in competition with more than 100 candidates, most baseball insiders knew all about him. And cheered.
“Larry is one of the really bright baseball guys,” said Mark Newman, vice president of player development with the Yankees. “He is a great selection.”
“He’s an outstanding and dedicated baseball man,” observed Jimmy Stewart, ex-Cub who for many years has been a special-assignment scout with the Phillies. “Nobody will outwork him.”
Added superscout Whitey Lockman of the Marlins: “He treats everybody above board. There is nothing phony about him.”
“He knows more about baseball and what he is doing than any of us,” said Tampa Bay General Manager Chuck LaMar, who hired Rothschild. “Another thing that’s crucial, especially when you have a young pitching staff: He has great patience.”
Like many of his colleagues, Rothschild doesn’t like to talk about himself. But he did admit, “I’m fairly patient” and that he “likes to hang around with the younger players.”
He has a long list of people who helped him along the way, headed by Denny O’Brien, among his coaches at Homewood-Flossmoor High School; Jack Stallings, his coach at Florida State; Roger Craig, the former Detroit pitching coach, and Leyland. Rothschild played for Leyland when Leyland was managing the Tigers’ Evansville farm club.
After 11 seasons as a pitching instructor, including five in the minors, Rothschild and Leyland were rejoined last season in a mutual admiration society.
“He’s way above average,” Leyland said of Rothschild. “You could see (when Rothschild was in Evansville), he would make a great major-league manager.”
Blond-haired, 6 feet 4 inches and 210 pounds, Rothschild also is thankful for his parents, Fred and Celine, and for older brothers Dave and Mark, especially Dave.
“Dave was my inspiration,” he said. “He was a very good athlete. I always looked up to him. He pushed me to do things, to be more competitive.”
And, of course, there is the woman behind the man, the former Jane Doyle, his wife of 16 years who continues to praise him to the heavens.
“I’m very grateful and thankful he’s my husband,” she said on the eve of Thanksgiving while preparing a big family dinner. “He has a constellation of qualities I wish I had. He is a man of broad intelligence, a man of integrity. He has great intuition. I’m eminently proud of him.”
It seems like everyone else is, too.
