Free of Nats, Acta Gets Another Chance

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Manny Acta has managed 410 games in the major leagues, but because all of them were with the hopeless Washington Nationals, how can anybody know whether Acta is or isn't the guy to take the Indians to where they want to go?

Acta may be the only manager who could've moved to Cleveland -- where the home team lost 97 games last year -- and then talked like he's inherited a fast and sturdy car without anybody in baseball thinking him crazy.

Coming off a 59-102 performance in 2008, the Nationals lost 61 of 87 games to open the 2009 season.

That's when team executives reluctantly fired Acta. Because the manager goes when the stink gets too pungent.

Franchises can't fire their pasts. Nor can they escape them. And Washington's was particularly gruesome. There was Major League Baseball's withering stewardship of the Nats in their previous incarnation as the Expos. And the chronic inability of MLB's hand-picked general manager for the Nats, Jim Bowden, to find decent pitchers..

A .385 career win percentage repels perfume, but it had to say something good about Acta that both the Astros and Indians tried to hire him last offseason. "He chose us over another team," says Indians general manager Mark Shapiro.

It didn't hurt Acta's job candidacy that an unprompted endorsement came from Braves manager Bobby Cox, a future Hall of Fame manager whose club plays in the same division as the Nats.

However, the perfomance by the 2008 Nationals was so dismal that Acta took flak, too. Take the reaction of a few Padres players after they swept the Nats near season's end. The Padres were on the verge of finishing with 99 defeats, but some of them were astounded by how sloppy the Nats were. So were some other opponents. And scouts.


I asked Acta if his players had quit on him. He paused. Then I asked him if he felt like had lost the team.

"People are going to say and write things," he said. "I don't think that was the case."

He then recited a litany of challenges he faced -- all of them later confirmed. Injuries walloped a team that had scant depth. Several players were woefully short of experience.

He also pointed out that his first Nationals team, which compiled a 73-89 record and finished above the NL East cellar, achieved more than was generally expected of it.

He is proud at how some young Nats developed. Among those he mentioned is pitcher John Lannan, who will start the team's opener this year.

One person who was close to Acta's teams said that, at times, the Nats players, "dogged it," but he said that "some of their ingredients" were to blame. Translation: Bowden had acquired some dubious characters; whoever the manager was, he would've screamed into his pillow at night.

"I don't think Lou Piniella became smarter when he went from the Rays to the Cubs," Acta said.

The Indians talk highly of their players' work and team ethic.

"I don't think Lou Piniella became smarter when he went from the Rays to the Cubs."
- Manny Acta As Acta puts his fingeprint on the Indians -- his most notable move so far was to move leadoff man Grady Sizemore into the No. 2 spot -- he brings one skill set that many managers simply do not have. He's fluent in Spanish. He's the only active manager in the majors who was born in the Dominican Republic, the No. 1 foreign source of ballplayer talent.

It was shocking to hear Indians utility man Luis Rodriguez explain his appreciation for the chance to play for Acta. Rodriguez has been playing professional baseball since the Twins signed him out of Venezuela in 1997, but he said Acta is his first Latino manager at any level. Yep, numero uno. There's more.

"He is the first Spanish-speaking manager that I've had," Rodriguez said. "It makes it easier."

Acta said he's driven to succeed for not only the Indians and himself, but for other Latinos who might want to become managers someday.

"That's one thing that I take very seriously because I know how hard it was for Felipe (Alou) to break in and open doors for us," he said, "and I want to establish msyelf and do well and continue to open doors for guys like Felipe did before me."