Moore Is Confident Despite Losses : Move from Coaching Job Puts A’s Manager in New World

PHOENIX â€”  What can anyone reasonably expect from a team that deals away its top pitcher, its best reliever and its prime motivator, the man who made it go.

Not much, right?

Jackie Moore is entirely aware of that. He has heard it often enough so that he realizes the prevailing theory is his Oakland A’s killed whatever chance they had of going anywhere in the American League West by letting go of Ray Burris, Bill Caudill and Rickey Henderson.

Moore doesn’t let that kind of talk get to him. He has a lot of faith in the A’s. He feels they’ll be all right with new additions Dave Collins, Alfredo Griffin, Jay Howell and Don Sutton.

All this is something new for Moore, too, because the A’s jumped him up from coach to manager last May after Steve Boros had handled the club in its first 44 games and he’s starting his first full season now as a major league manager.

Moore and Boros, presently working special assignments for the Padres, were very good friends. They still are. How do you imagine any man feels to see a good friend of his, someone he has great respect for, lose his job and then be asked if he wishes to take it over? What are some of the thoughts that go through his mind?

Moore can tell you all about that because he was the key figure in just such a situation last May 24.

With Boros leading them, the A’s were tied for fourth place, 2 1/2 games back.

The team was at home in Oakland and Sandy Alderson, the Vice President of Baseball Operations for the A’s, had met with Boros that morning. Because there are very few secrets in baseball, a number of people not only had knowledge of the meeting but had also correctly guessed its purpose. So did all the Oakland coaches.

“We figured maybe we were gone, too,� Moore says. “Very often, when a managerial change is made, the coaches are let go also. I had gone through that a couple of times. It happened to me when I was coaching for Dave Bristol at Milwaukee and again in Texas with Pat Corrales.

“I was concerned,� Moore recalls. “The first thing that came to my mind was that I was out of a job. Sitting there in front of my locker looking at my uniform, I thought now someone else would be wearing it, taking it away.�

Moore thought of the possible places he could go to get another job. He thought of how he’d have to do the best he could to hide his feelings from his wife, Joann. He wouldn’t want to show her how he’d feel if he was dismissed also.

“I kept thinking of Steve, too,� Moore reveals. “He’s a heckuva fine guy and as good a friend as I’ve ever had. I felt very bad for him because he’s a solid baseball man and I knew how hard he had tried.�

While he was still in the clubhouse, Moore was summoned by Alderson to his office. On the way up, he still thought he might have to be looking for another job soon.

Alderson asked him to sit down. He told him a change was being made. Moore kept listening still not knowing what to expect. Alderson said the move had been given a great deal of consideration and then he broke the news.

The A’s felt Moore was the best one available to take over the club and wanted him to finish the year.

Moore had managed in the minors before, at Jamestown and Pittsfield, but never in the majors. He was, to use his own word, “dumbfounded.�

This was something Moore had only dreamed about. He had spent 11 years catching in the minors and his only big league playing experience was in 21 games with Detroit in 1965.

Many thoughts ran through his mind. What he was trying to do was put everything in its proper place.

“I kept thinking to myself, ‘ why does it have to be a friend of yours? Why does it have to be a person you think so much of?’ Then I also realized these opportunities don’t come along too often and if I didn’t take the job or turned down the chance, someone else would take it.�

Moore told Alderson that managing a big league club was something he always wanted to do. He’d be happy to take the job and he’d give it his total effort.

He wanted to see Boros. When he did, Moore told him how sorry he was over what happened to him and he meant it.

“What can you say?� he says.

Under Moore, the A’s came very close to playing .500 ball, winning 57 and losing 61 to finish fourth, only seven games out.

The A’s evaluated the job he did with the club and concluded it was good enough to earn him a chance from the very start this time. They were right. He did do a good job.

Moore has a fine approach to managing. He’s neither too tough nor too soft, but just right and the players like him and respond to him.

The trim, clean-cut, 46-year-old Floridian would like to keep managing a long time but he knows that one day someone will replace him like he did Boros.

“When the time comes that I’m fired,� he says, “I hope the person who replaces me feels the same way about me that I felt and still do about Steve.�