Mike Scioscia was a 17-year-old high school kid sitting at home in Springfield, Pa., eating lunch when the phone rang. He had already experienced a busy senior year. Major League Baseball teams were interested in the young catcher but he had decided to accept a scholarship to Clemson. His year was about to become a little more eventful.
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Scioscia answered the phone. On the other end was charismatic Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda. Scioscia’s stomach knotted.
Lasorda had also grown up in the Philadelphia area in Norristown, some 20 miles south of Springfield. The Dodgers were in Philadelphia to play the Phillies.
“I was on my way to the ballpark with my brother Eddie,” Lasorda said. “And I said, ‘Let’s stop and see Scioscia.’ Mike was going to leave the next day for [Clemson.] He wasn’t going to sign.
“I went and got him. His parents weren’t home. We left and worked him out. I got him to play for the Dodgers. And that’s the way it was.”
It may have been the most eventful phone call of Scioscia’s life.
Lasorda took Scioscia to Veterans Stadium and worked him out with catcher Steve Yeager. These were the star-filled Dodgers of Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Bill Russell, Davey Lopes and Dusty Baker.
When Scioscia returned to Springfield, he knew he would not be going to Clemson. He said it was the first time he saw his mother, a teacher, cry. The Dodgers drafted him 19thoverall, a week later he was in the minors and four years after that, he was catching for Lasorda in Los Angeles.
He played 13 years for Lasorda, creating a life-long bond. Now 42 years after that spring phone call, Scioscia is poised to do something he had never imagined — pass Lasorda on baseball’s all-time managerial wins list.
Two more wins by the Angels and Scioscia will be at 1,600 career wins, bumping mentor Lasorda to 21ston the all-time list.
“You really can’t compare me to Tommy,” Scioscia said. “What Tommy did with the Dodgers organization was really special. I certainly don’t put myself in that boat, but having the opportunity to be here as long as I have is something I do not take for granted.”
In his 19thconsecutive season with the Angels,Scioscia, 59, is now the longest-tenured manager in the majors. Bruce Bochy (24) and Buck Showalter (20) have managed more years, but with different teams.
Scioscia originally thought he’d spend his entire coaching career with his beloved Dodgers. He believed in the “Dodger Blue” mentality always preached by Lasorda and began his coaching career in their system after retiring as a player in 1994.
But after managing their Triple-A Albuquerque team in 1999, Scioscia was passed over by Dodgers general manager Kevin Malone — a decision Malone later admitted was a mistake — to hire veteran manager Davey Johnson. That led new Angels general manager Bill Stoneman, in need of a manager, to call former Dodgers GM Fred Claire to inquire about Scioscia.
“I said, ‘I can give you the short answer or the long answer,’” Claire recalled later. “‘The short answer is, hire him and you’ll never regret it.’”
Lasorda and Scioscia shake hands before Game 3 of the 1988 World Series. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
Scioscia’s ability to work with people became evident immediately.
His start with the Angels could not have appeared to get off to a more awkward start. Terry Collins had resigned as the Angels manager with 29 games left in the ’99 season and long-time Angels coach Joe Maddon was named interim manager.
Maddon interviewed for the full-time position with Stoneman but was passed over for Scioscia.
“That was the first time in baseball I did not have a job,” Maddon said.
Then came another eventful phone call, only this time it was Scioscia initiating. The two veteran baseball men did not know each other when Scioscia called him on the eve of Thanksgiving.
“We talked and he offered me the position as bench coach based on recommendations from other guys,” Maddon said. “After being with him for, I don’t even know how long, I said, ‘He’s going to be the manager here for at least 10 years.’ So I was wrong. It was much more than that.”
Maddon served as Scioscia’s bench coach until 2005 — there when they won their only World Series in 2002 — before leaving to become the Tampa Bay Rays’ manager. Maddon became the Cubs’ manager in 2015 and the following season led them to their first World Series championship in 108 years.
Meanwhile, Scioscia remained in Anaheim, winning six division titles (2004, ’05, ’07, ’08, ’09, ’14) over the next 11 years.
“Any uniform he puts on, he has a lot of pride,” Lasorda said. “That’s the way it is with him. You have to be outstanding to be a manager as long as he has, the way today they go away like bad teeth.”
Plenty of players and coaches have come and gone during his 19 years, but one thing has remained the same.
“From day one he’s been the same man that he is right now — straight with the players, handles the young generation, older generation,” said Alfredo Griffin, the only coach to work with Scioscia for all 19 seasons. “Doesn’t talk behind your back.
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“Players respect him because he’s straight up. If somebody messes up, he’s going to call you into the office. He’s not going to send somebody else to talk to you. He goes face-to-face and tells you the truth.”
Dino Ebel has been a coach for Scioscia since 2006, and he too marvels at Scioscia’s steadiness.
“He’s the same guy from ’06 to now,” Ebel said. “Consistent. Every day we come out here and the goal is to win. With all the new stuff happening in baseball, he sucks all that in.
“I hear him on the radio all the time about ‘turning the page.’ He’s right. He turns the page. When the game is over, he talks to the media and comes back in and takes a shower and it’s gone. He’s looking for how are we going to win the next day. And that’s the guy I saw in ’06, that’s the guy I saw after last night’s game.”
Maddon noticed Scioscia’s passion for baseball from the start.
“He’s got like a kid’s enthusiasm for the game every day,” Maddon said. “It’s always fresh to him. He always looks forward to it.
“He was never jaded by anything. I loved working with him. We had a good time. We’re still good friends. He makes me laugh. He’s actually very, very funny. But I think he has a joy for the day. And that’s what you need to have in order to do it that long.”
Scioscia began his tenure as Angels manager in 2000. (Don Kelsen/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Billy Eppler, 42, was named Angels general manager in October 2015, becoming Scioscia’s fourth GM. If Eppler brings a youthful bent, he has been delighted with the qualities he’s observed in the veteran Scioscia.
“His open-mindedness,” Eppler said. “We see a lot of things through a similar lens. He’s always demonstrated a thirst for growing and the continuing education aspect of any profession that you’re in. You don’t want to stay in the same spot, you want to continue to improve. And I’ve seen that with him.
“He’s very passionate about baseball. Loves to talk about it. And he can talk about it all day long.”
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Scioscia’s 10-year contract expires after this season. There are no known discussions over a contract extension underway, which apparently is exactly how Scioscia wants it.
Eppler said when he met with Scioscia pregame toward the end of last season, Scioscia had one question — do you want me back next season? Eppler said he did.
Said Eppler: “He goes, ‘OK. Just so you know, I don’t even want to talk about beyond that. Let’s focus on winning the championship in 2018. I don’t want to focus on anything beyond that. We’ll deal with it at a later time.’ I said, ‘OK. Good enough.’ And that was it.”
Dick Williams, Earl Weaver, Whitey Herzog, Miller Huggins. Scioscia has passed a lot of Hall of Fame managers on the way to 1,600 career wins.
Scioscia, always about team play, shrugs it all off and instead attempts to spread the credit.
“All these names that come up are guys that all of us who are in this game have a tremendous amount of respect for,” Scioscia said. “It reflects on the quality of players we’ve had over the years here, the good teams. I don’t think it’s anything special that I’ve accomplished but I think it speaks well for the organization that for a long time we’ve had continuity, we’ve had good teams.”
He even downplays passing his mentor, Lasorda, on the win list, though others suspect privately it is indeed special to Scioscia.
“It means a lot to him,” Griffin said. “He’s not going to say it. That’s the way he is.”
Scioscia said he did see Lasorda during spring training and could not resist teasing him just a tad.
“I said, ‘I hear that I’m getting close to catching you.’ And he said, ‘When you do, I’ll be proud of you,’” Scioscia said. “So he’s supported me incredibly as a player and I know he wants us to do well. But he’s very quick to point out, not as well as the Dodgers. He’s made that very clear.”
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Lasorda said he never doubted Scioscia would become a great manager. Maybe it was not apparent from that first phone call 42 years ago, but he never doubted. And he sees one other special element in Scioscia.
“A little bit of Tom Lasorda is in him,” he said.
Patrick Mooney contributed to this report.
(Top photo of Scioscia:Brian Blanco/Getty Images)
