Hold My Log - 57.04 - Wilson Hires Raider as Manager

[7teen]

Maybe it surprises some. Maybe it surprises no one. After a third consecutive off-season of Portland fielding no manager throughout all of spring training, Portland General Manager finally hired one just before the season starts. The man chosen is what the first two sentences refers to. The surprise is the man chosen has never managed a big league game, or minor league game for that fact, in his life. Maybe it's not so shocking considering Wilson's loyalty to former players. The next manager of the Portland Lumberjacks will be none other than the all-time stolen base king in the BBA: Mons Raider.

Raider never played an inning for the Portland Lumberjacks. Though he did spend 9 seasons in Madison where Wilson was the GM up until the day in which Raider was traded to Edmonton and Wilson departed for Portland. The 46 year old speedster had never showed a desire to coach in the big leagues. But when Wilson called, Raider jumped at the opportunity.

"I'm excited for the challenge" Raider stated as he spoke at today's press conference announcing him as the new manager. "I know I never showed much of a desire to get back into the game after my retirement, however, no one really showed much interest in bringing me back in any capacity. I always felt I'd have made a great base coach or something in the league but the opportunity never came. But the phone rang this week from Chris and I'm stoked to get back at it."

When asked about his lack of experience and how it could hurt his ability to be an effective manager, Raider responded "I know the game. I think I can lead men and coach them up and get them to be great players. I know this franchise is in a rebuilding state at the moment. All the more reason for me to dive right in and get my hands dirty and see what I and we can do."

Wilson further stated Raider's comments. "We've had back to back seasons of poor play. We don't have very high expectations right now. Sure, I could have brought Mons back and hired him to be a minor league manager and mold him up with some of our prospects. But why go through all of that. It's our feeling here in Portland that Mons will be managing our prospects in a few years up in Portland anyway. We wanted him to dive right into big league play and just learn the ropes from the top. We're excited to hopefully have someone in place who can be our manager for an extended amount of time."

Over the last few seasons, Portland has employed the 1-year manager style of running a team. This has been mainly over the fact the team had been signing short term, 1-year contract players. But hiring managers late, potential free agents had no beef or conflicts with the absent manager. With Raider now in place for the foreseeable future, it appears Portland is committed to finally getting this franchise and big league team back into competitive shape. Just don't expect it to happen over night!

[Jwalk100]

If he doesn't win, trade him to Madison.