White Sox manager Jerry Manuel and his Kansas City Royals counterpart, Tony Pena, met behind home plate minutes after their seasons ended Sunday with a 5-1 Sox victory.
After they embraced, Pena raised Manuel’s arm to the sky. Or so it appeared.
“I grabbed his hand,” Manuel said. “I thought he had a great year, and I felt it would be appropriate for the opposing manager to show how much he respected the job he did. He caught the attention of all of baseball with the way that team came out firing.”
Fair enough, but Manuel was equally deserving of the tribute on his final day as manager of the Sox.
Sure, he guided the Sox to only one playoff berth in his six seasons on the South Side. But he put together a .515 winning percentage, going 500-471, and his teams finished lower than second in the division only once.
Perhaps as important, he earned the admiration of nearly every player he managed. That was evident in the series of embraces his players sought in his final days.
“Yeah, everybody’s disappointed we didn’t win this year,” Paul Konerko said. “People booed him. But you know what? We had no business winning that division in 2000, no business. And he did a great job that year. And people should remember that.
“I know these last couple of years are what’s fresh in people’s memory, but he still got one [postseason] out of this group, and that’s not all bad. If he was the right man then, he couldn’t have gotten that much more stupid. People have to realize that.”
The official announcement of Manuel’s dismissal will come Monday during a 1 p.m. news conference. But Manuel turned the page Sunday.
“It was a tough summer, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world,” he said. “This is a big part of growth. When I came here, I came to be a servant, not a celebrity. Obviously, that changed. But I don’t have any regrets as to what I did. None whatsoever.”
Manuel, who has one year at about $1.2 million left on his contract, said he’d like to manage again, as early as next season.
“I hope that it happens,” he said. “If not, I love baseball and love being involved.”
Asked about his emotions Sunday, Manuel replied: “It’s always tough when you’re not going to the postseason, but you feel that you’ll get to do this again, anyway. It could be Little League, but I’ll do it again.”
Manuel plans to remain in Chicago for a couple of months.
“I’m like every baseball man,” he said. “Once the season ends, you need time off. Ten days after that, you start to plan for what’s to come.”
Although the Sox know the realities of the game, several expressed disappointment that Manuel won’t return.
“There have been a lot of unfair things I have heard toward our manager,” Roberto Alomar said. “I think he’s done a good job and he’s been good to me and a lot of people here.”
Said Konerko: “I’m disappointed because we should have played better for him this year. This team really should have won the division, and if we would have, I don’t think they’d be talking about that stuff.”
Konerko, though, said Manuel made it easier on his team in his final few days.
“When you see a guy in a situation like that but he seems to be at peace with it, so positive and cool with it, it doesn’t bother you as much because you [know] he’s all right,” Konerko said. “He’s handled everything great.”
