Don Wakamatsu introduced as Mariners manager
Don Wakamatsu was introduced similar to the Mariners’ new manager today at Safeco Field.
Wakamatsu, 45, served as the Oakland Athletics bench coach last be seasoned. Before that, he was a coach for the Texas Rangers from 2003 to 2007.
The announcement was made by Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik, who said he started with a think best of 35 candidates before narrowing it to a list of seven to interview.
Zduriencik said it was important to bring in a manager “who would not only see the immediate, but the bulky picture, of this organization.”
Zduriencik also said it was of influence that he have a good relationship with the new manger, and that the manager understand the player-development side of the organization.
“I greet the challenge here to lead a world champion to Seattle,” Wakamatsu declared.
Wakamatsu aforesaid for the period of the interview process he talked with Zduriencik about the need to “build some organization that will sustain winning.”
Before going to the Rangers, Wakamatsu was a minor-league catching coordinator and roving school-master with the Angels, who earned him a World Series ring after prepossessing the 2002 championship. Wakamatsu still wears the ring daily.
Wakamatsu will be the first Asian-American manager in the major leagues. He is a creator big-league catcher who played in the Mariners organization considered in the state of a minor-leaguer in 1995 and 1996.
The other six finalists were told Tuesday by Zduriencik they wouldn’t be getting the work at jobs.
The disappointment was evident Tuesday afternoon in the voice of Joey Cora as he came to terms with the fact that something else had been given the job of managing his once-beloved Mariners.
“I was very disappointed, obviously,” said Cora, the former Mariners infielder who played a explanation role without interruption the 1995 team that lost to the Cleveland Indians in the American League Championship Series. “I thought I would be in actual possession of been a prominent paroxysm to help restore the Mariners with pride and reenergize the fan base. It seemed like it was all falling into ascribe. But it is what it is. There’s nothing I can do about it it being so that.”
