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It might have something to do with the quality of the team
assembled around him.
Or the fact that he's
entering his fifth season as manager of the Indians and is no longer a fresh
face.
Or, perhaps it's simply
the knowledge that he has an 11-month-old baby girl waiting at home, and he's
discovered there's more to life than baseball.
Whatever the reason, Eric
Wedge is a more relaxed man this spring.
Forget the fact that the
Indians hold the keys to his future, in the form of a two-year option on his
contract for 2008 and '09, and that an inability to drastically improve on last
year's fourth-place finish could hurt his standing with the organization. Wedge
has looked more comfortable than ever, be it the way he carries himself in the
clubhouse in his interactions with players or the jokes he cracks near-daily
with the media.
MLB.com caught up with
Wedge for a few minutes toward the end of Spring Training to discuss his
newfound looseness, as well as the 2007 season that looms ahead.
MLB.com: How has fatherhood
changed you?
Wedge: I think it changes
everybody, and I'm no different, probably moreso from
the fact that it's a little girl. With a life change like that, you don't know
how it's going to affect you or how you're going to react to it. I'm intense,
I'm emotional, but, then again, I'm an even-keel personality when it comes to
handling things. What [fatherhood] does is bring that out of you all the more.
I try not to take myself
too seriously, and this gives you even more perspective when it comes to the
game and life. So it's all good. I've always had a great respect for the coaches
and their families and, for me, all the players who started their families
before I did. I've always tried to be very understanding and very flexible with
them when things come up with their families.
MLB.com: Maybe this plays off
that, but you seem more relaxed this spring. Do you feel that way?
Wedge: I feel more relaxed. I
don't know how much fatherhood has to do with that. But I have a tremendous
amount of confidence in the players in that locker room. Nobody knows how
things are going to play out this year, but I feel good about going out with
these guys every day. I think it's important to clean the windshield a little
bit, slow things down and let things play out. Last year was such a rush, and
that's not my personality. I'm hoping [a more patient approach] will help us
this year.
MLB.com: You've said before that
you learned more from last year than any other as a manager, aside from your
first season. Was that simply a product of all the adversity you guys endured?
Wedge: Yeah, it's because of
everything we went through. You heard the phrase "moving target" a
lot last year, which is somewhat cliché, but it was true. It just makes it all
the more of a challenge. But I think the same can be said for a lot of the
players out there, too, which in turn should help us.
MLB.com: Is that the nature of
the game? As soon as you think you have something figured out, it changes on
you?
Wedge: I don't think we thought
we had it figured it, but we probably felt we were further along than we really
were. We went through a lot of things last year that any team has to go through
in order to ultimately be what you're going to be. You hear me talking about
having a foundation and it being real? Well, I think it's more foundation-based
and more real this year, without a doubt.
MLB.com: How so?
Wedge: Just because of what we
had not gone through, going into last year. We may have thought we had
gone through some adversity in August of '04 or the last week or '05 or
everything we went through in that first year of '03. But true adversity is
what you saw last year.
MLB.com: Over the last four
seasons, how have you evolved as a manager?
Wedge: A lot of it is getting
familiar with myself at this level. I continue to work
hard to understand players of today and just walk that line. It's a push-pull
line. That's why they call it a manager. It's not a "head coach."
You're a manager of people. It's every single day. It's not 16 games or one
game, it's every single day. And what you do before a game and after a game is
so much more important than what you do during a game.
MLB.com: Having been through the
grind a few years, was this camp run any different than others?
Wedge: We've always run good
camps. We're organized, and we do the work and our kids do a good job of
preparing and getting after it. This year, it's been more relaxed. These guys
are more at peace. They have a better understanding of what lies ahead and a
better understanding of what we have to do to be there at the end.
MLB.com: When you look ahead to
this season, what excites you most about this club?
Wedge: The possibilities. Just
being able to take all that we've been through the last three or four years and
being able to go out there and run with it and see what happens.
MLB.com: Is it more of a
challenge for you, personally, with all the lineups you'll use and the
interchangeable parts?
Wedge: Oh yeah. It will be a
challenge, but it should be a lot of fun. I've always enjoyed Interleague and playing the National League game. And I've
always enjoyed just being able to get players in there, and I think we'll be
able to do that this year.
MLB.com: Your division had three
90-win teams last year. What is it about your club that makes you think it can
stack up against those teams?
Wedge: Well, I just think if
you talk to those clubs or talk to our club, we know each other so well in our
division now, we respect and we know how well we stack up. We know we're right
there with everybody in our division. And I think everybody in our division
feels the same way, just because we play each other 19 times and we go year
after year and get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses and how we
match up. We're right there. We're as good as anybody.