MLB: The Oakland A's had a 5-22 record prior to their game with the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday.
OAKLAND – It was 40 years ago Saturday when former Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia went on a profanity-filled rant in a postgame meeting with reporters, an epic tirade in which he ripped into the team’s fans for their lack of support — and their possible lack of employment — and protected his players from what he felt was unfair criticism after a 5-14 start.
After a loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Elia pleaded with the media to ease off the Cubs players and direct their brickbats toward him, saying in one of more printable passages, “don’t rip them (expletive) guys ’cause they’re giving everything they can give. And right now, they’re trying to do more than God gave ’em, and that’s why we make the simple mistakes. That’s exactly why.”
A’s manager Mark Kotsay has seen his team get off to a worse start than Elia’s Cubs did four decades ago, making some of those same simple mistakes, as Oakland had a 5-22 record before Saturday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds at the Coliseum. But Kotsay, known as a fierce competitor in his 17-year MLB career, hasn’t lost his cool, at least not outwardly.
Kotsay is fully aware of where the rebuilding A’s are at as an organization, as they try to identify what players could be part of the solution going forward. Oakland entered Saturday with an eye-popping 8.05 ERA, the worst in MLB by a full 2.4 runs, and their .980 fielding percentage was tied with the Giants for 28th-best in the majors.
Kotsay can get his message across in no uncertain terms if he sees a lack of effort, but he also has perspective given his experience and the state of the team.
“I know how hard it is to play the game. I’ve experienced the failures of the game, as a young player, as a veteran player, and as a coach,” Kotsay said before Saturday’s game. “These guys, if it was a lack of effort, if it was a lack of preparation, that’s when I lose my mind a little bit and you see the reactionary process differently.”
Kotsay said he reacts to adversity a little differently now than he did as a player, “when you saw a helmet torn to pieces.
“But the reality is the only way that we can get out of this is through the continued work that we’re putting in, the preparation that we’re putting in. Building a level of confidence in these guys through those small victories, to me, is the right approach,” he said. “Tearing them down, getting on them for the physical errors that we’ve gone through — we can work on the physical errors, we can work on the preparation side with the controllables.”
Perhaps part of that is because younger players are treated differently now than a generation or two ago.
Six players on the A’s 25-man roster are 25 or younger. Drew Rucinski, 34, is Oakland’s most experienced starting pitcher, and he’s only thrown in 42 big league games from 2014 to 2023.
“I think a manager’s style changes based on the group that they’re managing,” Kotsay said. “Has the culture and the embracing of younger players grown in the game, as to the way we treat them? I’d say there’s a certain level of change to that. But in terms of the styles of a manager, I think you take on and identify what your team needs and you try to support that and provide the mindset and the connection with them through that.”
Elia’s screed was mostly directed at the fans of the team, back when the Cubs only played day games at Wrigley Field because of the lack of lights. “Eighty-five percent of the world is working,” he said. “The other 15 percent come out here.”
Elia didn’t make it through the season as the Cubs manager, as he was fired by the team on Aug. 22, 1983. In one-plus seasons with the Cuns, Elia went 127-158.
There’s no suggestion at the moment that Kotsay’s job is in jeopardy, as he’ll likely be evaluated based on what management’s expectations are for the team.
“I think the emotion can get the best of us,” Kotsay said. “I always talk about, find the solution, don’t find the reaction to things, and that’s what we’re searching for every day. We’re searching for solutions.
“The word patience is written on my board for a reason, because if you look at the roster and the experience level, at one point prior to (Rucinski) coming, I think JP Sears had the most big league time on our starting snorting staff, which I don’t know the exact number of days, but I know it’s not many. So, it’s a process we’re in, and it’s not an excuse at all. It’s more of just identifying what we as a staff need to continue to do to make this team better and to make this group better.”
