Fired

On April 18, 2018 the Cincinnati Reds lost 2-0 in Milwaukee to the Brewers which dropped the team record to a woeful 3-15 mark. Soon after the team’s charter flight landed in St. Louis, the buses pulled up to the hotel, I was summoned to manager Bryan Price’s room. The entire coaching staff was crammed inside, along with the medical staff and other members of the traveling party. I was informed that I has been fired, along side Bryan, who delivered the news. The room was quiet briefly before Mr. Price began to speak, eloquently as always. I just could not hang around to listen, so many things were running through my head. I told the group I would ” see them on the other side” as I slid out the backdoor. I have worked in this organization for 32 years. Gathering my thoughts I called my former wife to let her know what happened and everything would be fine. Most importantly, call our children so they hear it from her rather seeing it on a ticker at the bottom of an ESPN broadcast. I also had a text message waiting from the general manager of the team to come to his room as well. It was an eerie walk , but is part of a coach’s or athlete’s life. That does not make it any easier. The men were cordial, direct and I was told ownership wanted a new voice- and basically that was it. I had a feeling this was coming, just the vibe I had been given since an encounter with ownership during spring training at a party that featured all the owners and staff for a gorgeous dinner on the side of Camelback Mountain.

I walked quickly to my room to pack and sort out thoughts. The traveling secretary, handled the travel back to Cincinnati where a driver took me to the stadium. The clubhouse attendants are waiting to help, the security team is there to help, all involved are truly professional as I pack my things. A person can accumulate a plethora of items working somewhere for eight years and it took some time to consider which belongings were was junk, what I wanted to take home. I spent hours going through paper work, disc drives, computer documents as well as clothes, shoes, gloves. I was finally ready to say goodbye to the place I loved to come to work to every day. I even showed up to work when there was no game that day. I signed a professional contract with the Reds in 1986. A legendary scout, George Zuraw, tendered my first contract. He told me the day my contract was inked to not be afraid to be the first one there(at the ballpark) and the last one to leave, I did that every day for over 31 years. I walked out of the stadium for the final time that day with my head held high.