As most Dodger fans know by now, former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti recently released a new book entitled The Big Chair: The Smooth Hops and Bad Bounces from the Inside World of the Acclaimed Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager. But what many fans – Dodgers or otherwise – may not know is that when the 10th general manager of the 134-year-old franchise began writing his story, he actually had no intention whatsoever of having it published. Fortunately for all of us, he later changed his mind. Not only do we have an excellent new book to read about the inner workings of the greatest professional sports organizations in the world, but Colletti is now the proud author of an Amazon.com best seller.

“I wrote this thing over about five months from about 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. and I didn’t write it to write a book or to sell it,” Colletti said, during an exclusive interview with ThinkBlueLA. “I just wrote it to get it on paper to get it out of my mind before it became irrelevant, or before I didn’t feel like doing it. I went from [working] 18-hour days to suddenly this void with all kinds of free time and I decided to use it.

“I would sit at my kitchen table, open the door, get a little breeze and have some great old music on – some Sinatra, some Martin, some Sammy Davis, some Chicago – and before I knew it, I’d look at my watch and it would be three o’clock … three-thirty, four, four-thirty in the morning. I mean, it like flowed. And I did it for five or six months. I didn’t have the intent to make it into a book and then I ran into somebody who introduced me to somebody, and the next thing I know, I was shipping it off to New York.”

As you read through the book you will quickly come to realize two things about Ned Colletti:

• He is extremely proud of his family and of having grown up in the Franklin Park neighborhood of Chicago.
• The harsh criticism that he received from fans and the media throughout his entire tenure as the Dodgers general manager for no other reason than he came to the Dodgers from the San Francisco Giants organization was – and still is – ridiculously unwarranted.

“I guess the silver lining to it was I didn’t grow up in San Francisco or Los Angeles, so it wasn’t like I had been a fan since childhood of either franchise,” Colletti said. “I grew up in Chicago, I grew up a Cubs fan, so I think that really helped a little bit. But I always respected the rivalry and I always knew that it was arguably as good a rivalry as there is in the sport. You’re talking about a rivalry that’s taken place on two different coasts for over a hundred years. I always respected it.

“My loyalty switched on November 15 (2005) when I was hired by the Dodgers,” added Colletti. “As much as I consider (Giants executive vice president) Brian Sabean a good friend and always will, there were some years, I think in 2013 we were neck and neck with them, we didn’t speak all year and I knew where to find him and he knew where to find me. You’re talking about one of 30 jobs in the world and you compete like crazy. You compete because that’s how you’re wired.”

But even in his ninth and final season as the Dodgers general manager, Colletti’s loyalty was still questioned by ill-informed Dodger fans and even an occasional beat writer – again, for no other reason than the fact that he had come from San Francisco. Colletti had served as Sabean’s assistant general manager for eight seasons prior to being hired by (then) new Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt to replace recently fired former Dodgers GM Paul DePodesta – a charge that Colletti adamantly refutes.

“It was never a conflict for me, it was never a ‘I wish this or that’ because I’m honored, to this day, I’m honored to have worked and to drive up Elysian Park Avenue every day – and now Vin Scully Avenue every day – and it’s never lost on me, especially this franchise because it’s also a franchise that’s had a lot to do with social change,” Colletti explained. “I admire who [the Dodgers] are and what they’ve done for decades. It was maybe a little tough for fans but that’s kind of an outside look, that’s kind of a surface look. But if people knew me, they knew that I was overjoyed to have the opportunity and respectful of it, and just honored to be in the same chair that Branch Rickey sat in decades earlier, and everybody else.”

Colletti said that it was an honor and a blessing to sit in same chair that Branch Rickey once sat in.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

As is the case with nearly every book ever written, its author has one or two ‘favorite’ chapters in their work. And even though this was indeed the case with Colletti in The Big Chair, it took him a moment to identify them.

“Wow, that’s a great question, it’s tough to pick a favorite. I loved the chance to talk about Vin in one of the last chapters, and a man who was kind of an unsung hero of the Dodgers except for those who knew him, Billy Delury,” said Colletti, with noticeable emotion in his voice. “I love the underdog, I’m an underdog myself, and to be able to know people of that ilk.

“Sinatra, Lasorda was a fun thing to write,” Colletti added. “I think the opportunity to go back and chronicle some of the big negotiations I was a part of, like the Maddox negotiation which kind of changed both franchises – Atlanta and Chicago – because there had been so many things written about that in the last 25 years and I had a chance to sit in the middle of, so I saw it. I saw it unfold, I saw the dynamics of it, I saw the personalities change as it went on. But maybe the first two [chapters], maybe the last one, because the first two I’m very proud of where I grew up. We didn’t have anything, everybody thought we had nothing, but I thought we had everything. I had great parents and to be able to recollect that and talk about my family is probably the best.”

And the toughest chapter?

“The toughest chapter? Maybe reliving the bankruptcy and all that,” Colletti answered, with far less hesitation. “That was a difficult time, but I learned a lot. Sometimes we don’t like learning from the tough lessons, but I find you grow better when you learn something difficult than when you learn something easy.

“That was a tough period of time for a lot of people and I have great respect for the McCourts, Frank and I spent a lot of time together,” added Colletti. “He taught me a lot, some of it I would never replicate and some of it I think anybody in business would do day after day after day. That was tough to go back and relive that, but it was also a part of the story, it was a major part of the story that didn’t take place on the field.”

Another interesting topic in Colletti’s book is the chapter on the generational separation between the old school, person-in-the-uniform method of scouting and player evaluation versus the x-generation’s affection and affinity for using analytics to evaluate today’s players. Does Colletti – a self-admitted old schooler – see one method as being better than the other?

“No I don’t. I think that if anybody ever does use just one exclusively, I think their chances of success are slim. I think that anybody that sits in that seat, information is valuable,” Colletti answered. “I think you need every piece of information you can get from reliable sources. I think that they both go hand-in-hand.

“I do mention it the book that while I’m considered old school and more scout-oriented, it was really early analytics that made me different enough to give me an opportunity,” he added. “Before you had computer programs and before you had companies that would compile and give you a view of a player, we did it by hand. I made myself valuable to my manager – especially Jimmy Frey from 1984 to 1986 – and then Don Zimmer when he replaced Frey a few years later and Jimmy became the GM. Jimmy worked for Earl Weaver and Earl Weaver would never be confused with an analytical manager. But he was also smart enough to know the value of it.

“So analytics, while I’m considered old school and scout-oriented, I have tremendous respect for the analytical piece of it,” Colletti concluded. “I would have never had the career I had without it and because of it, I started doing arbitration cases with the Cubs and that moved me onto the baseball side more and more and more, and Dallas Green added scouting and player development to my resume. What captivated him was my ability to be really analytical in what I did. I learned to blend statistical analysis with who’s inside the uniform.”

In a nutshell, even if you consider yourself extremely knowledgeable as to what the role of a general manager at baseball’s highest level entails, rest assured that former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti has seen, heard and done things that you could never imagine that are included in The Big Chair and of his own hand.

You would be doing yourself an injustice if you do not pick up a copy of Ned’s book – either in hardcover or Kindle or other e-reader editions. And with Christmas now only days away, a copy of The Big Chair would make the perfect stocking stuffer for the Dodger fan in your life.

…even if that’s you.