Ryne Sandberg, Jerry Dipoto and the uncomfortable nature of quitting
Hereâs something you donât see a lot of in sports, particularly big-time sports, particularly big-money sports: quitting.
How miserable must Ryne Sandberg and Jerry Dipoto have been?
Two good men, reasonably capable at their jobs, with duties to perform and paychecks still coming and professional loyalties to attend to, they resigned â surrendered â within a few days of each other and with a baseball season only half done. This is a thing now?
As a result, Sandberg, 55, might have managed his last big-league game. For that gig, heâd tamped notions of Hall of Fame privilege and re-logged thousands of minor-league miles, then freely signed up for short-term hopelessness, because he wished to be a major league manager and was willing to work for it. All that for 278 games, a cardboard box and a âLeave your ID badge at the security desk, please.â
Dipoto, 47, had turned a respectable playing career â 390 relief appearances over eight seasons â into an upwardly mobile front-office career, it gaining traction through Boston, then Colorado, then Arizona, then Anaheim. By his mid-40s he was general manager of a team that spent on payroll, put people in the ballpark, commanded big television deals and had its very own dancing rally monkey. He left in a huff one night.
Sandbergâs decision was generally lauded, perhaps because it merely hastened the inevitable outcome. It didnât look like he was part of whatever was next in Philly anyway. The season probably would only get worse, given Cole Hamels and Jonathan Papelbon were likely to be gone in a month. And thereâs the other part, the uncomfortable part, that Sandberg maybe wasnât very good at this, which is a helluva thing to discover at 55, and an awful thing to come to terms with at 55, assuming he has.
Eh, whatâs another 80-something games? He went home.
Nobody took much issue with Dipoto, either. Arte Morenoâs a tyrant, so they say, and Mike Sciosciaâs a freakinâ Game of Thrones character, and who can work in that environment? Whoâs the boss here anyway? Maybe Scioscia was winning too many of the little battles because Moreno was always the arbiter, and that meant the game was rigged and the big power play failed. Thereâs the other part, that being the Angels would appear to have more of a talent problem than a strategy problem, and Dipoto was in charge of the talent procurement department. Itâs an important time of year for talent procurers. The trading deadline is four weeks away. The Angels could use a bat or two. Four times in the past week Sciosciaâs best option to protect Albert Pujols was Erick Aybar. Just the other night Aybar hit his third home run of the calendar year. The latest leadoff hitter is Johnny Giavotella, whose career on-base percentage is .294.
This required attention. Dipoto went home.
Their prerogatives, of course. Youâre certainly allowed to quit. Itâs just, I donât know, strange? Impulsive?
âThe thing about quitting,â one baseball lifer was saying as the Dipoto saga played out, âyou have to explain why you did it every time you walk into a new room.â
Didnât seem to slow anybody down.
Sandbergâs departure cost the Phillies nothing and actually saved them a few hundred grand. Sandberg presumably had been asking the men in his clubhouse to stick with it, however, to play to respect the game, if not a season that was done in April. His coaches probably arenât having a lot of fun, either. Theyâre still there. Sandberg said he couldnât take the losing anymore. He wasnât the only one losing.
At an especially hectic time of year, Dipoto left behind an entire baseball operations division. This could actually cost the Angels big, because Dipoto seemed to be pretty good at the job. He probably wasnât the only frustrated man in the front office, especially if the gulf between suits and uniforms was as expansive as would appear. He is the only one who walked. So far. By Thursday at least a couple of his former staffers, understandably unsure how this goes from here, sought options outside the Angels. They have careers to protect.
There are types of quitting.
Thereâs quitting to get out in front of the mob, what youâd call pre-emptive quitting. Maybe this was what Sandberg was shooting for and the resignation went off in his hand a few months early. Thereâs quitting for a better opportunity, more money, cooler vibes. Joe Maddon did that. Lots do that. Thereâs uh-oh quitting. Ron Washington uh-oh quit.
Then thereâs âscrew-itâ quitting. Jim Leyland dropped a couple of those. Remember Jim Riggleman? Screw-it quit. Jim Tracy screw-it quit the Colorado Rockies once, declaring, âI am not the right man for this position,â which couldâve been translated to, âWho in hell could work in these conditions?â which seems way different from Sandbergâs preemptive quit, but closer to Dipotoâs Iâm-not-your-huckleberry quit.
So, well, good for Sandberg and good for Dipoto. Theyâve made decisions best for them. Their former baseball teams will survive. Certainly the Angels will. The people who worked for them and were loyal to them will find their ways. The 2015 season will go on without them.
Somebody else, I guess, can take it from here.
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