Back in 1998 when everything seemed to be going wrong with the Dodgers in the first year of the Fox regime, a number of Dodger fans, (me being one of them), were pretty vocal in the Dodger message board community and repeatedly called for the firing of manager Bill Russell. Looking at it in hindsight, I realize that my opinion was short sighted and that of an impatient fan that didn’t fully understand the game.

I thought Russell’s managerial decisions were too conservative. I hated how he managed the bullpen and would stick with an under-performing closer, like Todd Worrell. I thought that he had two clubs in ’96 and ’97 that should have been in the running to win the pennant and he lost enough games with his decisions alone to cause those teams to flounder in the late season stretches. I found his decisions to be predictable and by the book. He’d stick with a slumping veteran too long and sometimes managed as if trying not to lose rather than an aggressive approach to winning.

I hate to say it now, but I think a lot of us got caught up in the flamboyance and outgoing nature of Lasorda. We had that pudgy manager that would fight for his team, loved the fans and especially loved being a Dodger. He was humorous and outgoing with the media and the fans. His career ended due to a heart condition and not on his terms. Russell just didn’t seem ready for the massive undertaking of managing the Dodgers. His personality was a polar opposite from Tommy. He was quiet, patient and he let his players play. He was a boring interview and there was little from him that elicited excitement.

As managers, Bill Russell and Tommy Lasorda were like night and day.
(AP photo)

I didn’t like the confrontations that he’d had with his pitchers on the mound. Pedro Astacio and Ismael Valdez each feuded with him in public. I felt it was a sign of poor leadership by the young Dodger manager and that he simply didn’t have the people skills to lead the club. It seemed as though he didn’t have the respect of his players.

Bill was a lifetime Dodger from the moment he left Oklahoma at age 17. He had paid his dues in an organization known to reward those that were patient. But the 1998 Dodger management team was a new animal. Peter O’Malley had sold the club to News Corp. and there were a lot of executives that knew next to nothing about baseball that were calling the shots. It was a recipe for disaster. Bill and Fred Claire didn’t have a prayer at surviving the season if they came up short of a World Series appearance.

I see parallels with the Russell situation and the current state of the Dodgers with Don Mattingly that are eerily familiar.

The parallels between 2013 Dodger manager Don Mattingly and 1998 Dodger manager Bill Russell are eerily similar.
(Photo credit – Gary A. Vasquez & AP)

Both Russell and Mattingly were groomed for the position they were in by previous ownership. Both tutored by hall of fame managers – Russell a tutor of Lasorda and the O’Malley regime and Mattingly of Joe Torre and the McCourts. When Joe Torre retired, it was a foregone conclusion that Don would take his spot and the announcement was almost immediate.

Both Russell and Mattingly have similar personalities, calm demeanor for the most part and non-confrontational. Unlike their predecessors, these guys aren’t the types of managers that can fire up a team in a pre-game meeting or in the locker room. They simply are patient men. They go about their business and believe that players are professionals that will eventually come around if they’re slumping – both willing to let players work their way through tough times.

Both Russell and Mattingly were not first choice selections of the new ownership of their employ. And in both situations, neither was given a vote of confidence in their first year of activity with the new bosses. Each ownership group took a “wait and see” approach and allowed each enough rope to hang themselves. In Russell’s case, the 1998 Fox regime handed him an awful trade a month into the season and the chore of shoring up a shocked clubhouse and attempting to develop a winning clubhouse chemistry with a team full of strangers. It was a near impossible task.

With Mattingly, new ownership changed the makeup of his ball club with 35 games remaining in the 2012 season, and essentially demanded a division title with their infusion of massive payroll. When that didn’t happen, he was allowed to remain for another season and given even more expensive players during the off-season. Mattingly’s contract wasn’t extended and he entered 2013 knowing full well that he had to win or he’d certainly be fired – no pressure there.

So here we are – 44 games in. The Dodgers in last place at 18-26, 7 games behind. The pundits are calling for Mattingly’s head. In 1998 at the 44 game mark, the Dodgers were 21-23 and 8 games behind in the standings. They had traded Piazza at the 42 game mark and the new guys had just arrived and made their Dodger debuts. Many were calling for Russell’s head at the same juncture of the season.

Russell made it another thirty games into the season in 1998, being fired after the 74th game of the year on June 21st. It was at the end of a disastrous road trip when they returned from Colorado. The Dodgers were 36-38 when he was relieved of his duties and replaced with Glenn Hoffman for the remainder of the year.

Mattingly will reach his 74th game on June 23rd at the end of a road trip to Pittsburgh, Yankee Stadium and San Diego. I question if Don will make it that far into the season unless this team miraculously changes gears and turns things around.

They say history repeats itself. I wonder how true that statement is.