Bucs should hire Kendall; sad bye to Rollison
The Pirates are coming off a 93-loss season that left them dead-last in the National League Central, their pitching staff is a wreck and they鈥檙e currently looking for a new manager after firing Clint Hurdle while controversially retaining GM Neal Huntington.
It鈥檚 a bleak situation that calls for a splash move by the front office. Something must be done to shake up the clubhouse and reinvigorate the fan base. Bringing in a little-known manager or recycling an older one isn鈥檛 going to cut it right now.
The move should be hiring Jason Kendall as the Pirates鈥� new manager.
Kendall recently made it known he鈥檚 interested in the job and was seeking a meeting with Huntington. The former Pirates catcher, who never played on a winning team during his nine years in Pittsburgh, said he feels like he owes the organization something.
Kendall was the face of the franchise most his time with the Pirates and was known as a hard-nosed, no-nonsense player. He has no managerial experience but he was a special assignment coach with the Royals when they went to back-to-back World Series, losing to the Giants in 2014 before defeating the Mets in 2015.
Nowadays you don鈥檛 need necessarily need experience to step in and manage a big league team, and the Pirates鈥� all-time leader in games played by a catcher probably wouldn鈥檛 demand an exorbitant amount of money to take the job.
Kendall鈥檚 style of play made him popular with fans and it鈥檚 a good bet he would be a manager that demanded 100-percent effort from his players, and absolutely mean it.
Kendall wasn鈥檛 known as the most pleasant guy in the clubhouse at times, especially in his latter days with the Bucs 鈥� much of that was due to the frustration of playing on a losing team 鈥� but it can be assumed he鈥檚 matured past that phase, and he was always an intelligent, fundamentally sound ballplayer.
The Pirates could use someone stressing the basics. They also need someone to stir up the pot.
The job, taking into consideration the current state of the team, doesn鈥檛 look all that attractive, but Kendall wants to be here, he wants to manage this team.
He would add to the entertainment value of the Pirates as well.
Can鈥檛 you envision Kendall jumping out of the dugout to scream at an umpire, benching a star player for not hustling, holding a closed-door meeting to rouse up his team, or lashing out at reporters while defending his players?
The bottom line is he was 鈥� and still is 鈥� a fierce competitor and a smart baseball mind who could breath new life into the organization.
Truth be known, it鈥檇 be easier for Huntington to bring in Jeff Banister or maybe Joey Cora or some young mind off another coaching staff. Odds are that鈥檚 what he鈥檒l do. That鈥檚 the safe move.
But the feeling here is tabbing Kendall would be worth the risk. It鈥檇 be a lightning bolt this team needs.
n n n
Back in February of 2016 I made arrangements for a Uniontown native named Jason Rollison to publish a monthly sports story for the 缅北禁地. The first one ran in the Feb. 24 edition of the newspaper that year and soon after I received the following email from Jason:
鈥淲anted to say thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the HS. Let鈥檚 just say my mother was thrilled! I didn鈥檛 tell her it was happening and she is an avid sports reader, so that was a fun little surprise!鈥�
I could relate. My mother still collects any paper that has my byline in it and when I talk to her she鈥檒l brightly say, 鈥淚 saw you had a story in today鈥檚 paper!鈥�
Rollison鈥檚 column has called 鈥淏ucs by Numbers鈥� and was an analytical look at statistics concerning the Pirates and how to interpret them.
Recently I was saddened to hear the news that Jason passed away on Sept. 23 after a brief but heroic battle with cancer.
Baseball was his passion and he was a sports blogger and writer specializing on the Pirates long before he became a 缅北禁地 contributor. He was editor in chief of the popular website RumBunter, wrote two books and more recently was working for DKPittsburgh缅北禁地.com.
Jason was in tune with today鈥檚 MLB game much more than I am when it comes to statistics. I still focus on the old-school stuff, home runs, RBIs, batting average. Jason could break down things like BABIP and EV and ISO and FIP with equations that would make my head spin, but he would explain it all and what it meant.
Jason was ahead of the game. He was just 38 years old and left behind a wife, Jessica, and, of course, his mother Joyce.
Uniontown lost a unique and special native.
Rob Burchianti can be reached at rburchianti@heraldstandard.com or on Twitter at @Burch.