“Here we go again” thought Garrison to himself as he forced a smile.
Zuniga stepped into Garrison’s personal space and began talking a little too quickly.
“Mr. Garrison. I’m glad I caught you. I wanted to talk to you about something really important. I..”
“Good afternoon Z.” he said calmly as he slowly moved back a couple of steps. “I can see you feel strongly about this. I am on my way to a meeting, but I can spare a couple of minutes. How can I help you?”
Zuniga took another step forward and started speaking rapidly once again. “Right. I would hope you’d have a couple of minutes for the guy who is going to finally manage your team back to the playoffs this year.”
Garrison smiled. “I like your confidence Z. That’s exactly what we want to see.”
“You know what would make me feel even more confident?”
“What’s that Z? Another starter to compete for the rotation? Another guy to compete for playing time behind the plate? We're talking about those things if that helps.”
Zuniga looked a little surprised by that response and paused for a moment. “Yeah. I guess that would probably help a little bit too…but I’m talking about a contract extension.”
Garrison stood silent. Not one muscle in his face seemed to move. Zuniga was hoping for something but he continued anyway.
“How do think that feels, huh? I’m in the last year of my contract and you haven’t even said one thing about an extension.”
“An extension…I see.”
“Is that all you have to say? Huh? How do you expect me to manage these guys when I’m only under contract for one more year?”
“The same way you would manage them if you were under contract for 10 years, I suppose. You’re my manager Z. I might not have hired you, but I kept you on after you had lost 66 games and I trusted you to be the guy when I went out and added a bunch of big league talent to the squad, even though you accused me of wanting to fire you.”
“Yeah. Sure. But an extension would really say something. Something important. To me. To my family. To the guys in the clubhouse.”
“I hear you Z. But remember, you still haven’t ever put together a winning record in the BBA. If I extend you now, what does that say to the fan base? That we’re happy being under .500? I can hear it now-They act like they’ve done something. Signing the manager long term when he hasn’t even won anything? I mean the guy was coaching high school 5 years ago. What are they doing?””
“That’s not really fair.”
“No. It’s not. And I didn’t say that’s how I view it. Just that it’s how the fans would view it. They don’t see what I see. I know the guys on the team respect you and like playing for you. They see a team that didn’t quite finish the job last year.”
“They should see a team that almost made the playoffs without their two best players.”
“What they should see and what they do see are not the same thing. Go out there and get off to a great start and it will be pretty easy to extend you. The fans will get behind you and be singing your praises. They’ll say I was crazy for waiting so long to sign you long term.”
“And if things don’t get off to a hot start? What then?”
“Where did your confidence go? That doesn’t sound like the guy promising to get the team back to the playoffs.”
“Quit screwin’ around. You know what I mean. Injuries or whatever.”
“Yes. Yes. I get it. Look. I like you. I think you can get us where we want to be. But you have to actually do it. You go out there and take care of business and I’ll take care of you. Just let me handle that part of it. The guys are going to play for you. It’s clear they respect you. It’s clear you’ve put in the time to build the relationships. Now take the next step.”
“Fine. But I don’t want to be standin’ here having’ this conversation again at the All-a star break.”
“Neither do I Z. Now. I’ve got to get to my meeting.”
“Fine. I’ve got to get to practice anyway.”
Garrison made his way to his lunch meeting with Ron Mosley and sat down.
“Sometimes this job is exhausting Ron.”
“Let’s eat before we talk then.” said the assistant general manager.
“Sounds good.
So they ordered their food and waited in silence.