Palladino: Dallas Green's No-Nonsense Ways Carried Him Through Life
By Ernie Palladino
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Dallas Green always had a billowing voice. But on one summer's day in 1994, he needed not a single word to describe the emotions he felt as Cindy Lauper sang the National Anthem at Shea Stadium.
Hint: It wasn't proud patriotism.
Rage was more like it.
Lauper, the recording star and Queens native who told the world that "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," offered a sort of new-age rendition to the old anthem. One could see Green getting as antsy as the rest of the Mets and Cubs lined up on the base paths, all eager to get the game going on a bright afternoon.
Those who had covered him could only guess, no doubt correctly, about what was going through his mind as Lauper meandered for nearly four minutes through a rhythmic water torture of our national song.
When she finally ended, he and Lauper began their walks back to the dugout. Green's eyes never came off Lauper as they drew level in parallel paths. His head swiveled back as he passed her, as locked on as a fighter jet readying its shot.
Lauper was too wrapped up in the crowd's adulation to see that Green's disdainful stare was burning a hole right through her head. At least one onlooker held the opinion that, had she been a man, Green might have socked her one.
That was Dallas Green in a nutshell. Old-school. Hard-edged. A sworn enemy of the undisciplined, me-first ways of modern life.
Get to the point. Get on with it. And hold the frills.
Baseball lost another of that decreasing list of no-nonsense personalities last Wednesday when Green died at age 82. With him went a man with a bullhorn voice, countless rules, and a demand for military-like discipline that didn't always sit well with the younger players. But, as he proved before he ever got to the Mets, he was as loyal as they come to like-minded subordinates.
He showed that during his partial season with the Yanks.
MORE: Sweeny: Dallas Green Was A Passionate Manager Who Wasn't Afraid To Scrap Alongside Players
George Steinbrenner, who changed managers like some CEOs change cufflinks, hired Green in 1989 after firing both Billy Martin and Lou Piniella the year before. Steinbrenner, the product of a military school education, loved Green's disciplined manner and figured he was the one to pull the Yanks out of what would become a 13-year playoff drought.
He was wrong. The two battled for 121 games until, with the team's record at 56-65, Steinbrenner demanded Green fire four of his coaches.
Green declined, suggesting that Steinbrenner fire him instead.
Out went Green along with his coaches, in came a quick succession of Bucky Dent, Stump Merrill, and Buck Showalter, before Showalter finally brought them back to the postseason in 1995.
Green never had true success in New York. His voice echoing through the Shea Stadium locker room drew far more notice than the 229-283 record he put up over four years. But that was OK. He had his share of glory way before that when he skippered a diverse cast of characters in Philadelphia that ranged from a moody Steve Carlton to tough Mike Schmidt, to the spirited Tug McGraw to the ever-hustling Pete Rose to a World Series title in 1980.
He built the Cubs into the 1984 NL East champions as general manager in 1984.
He ran farm systems.
"He knew the game from A-to-Z and back from Z-to-A," said friend and former coach Frank Howard on WFAN's "Ed Randall's Talking Baseball" show Sunday.
And Green imparted that knowledge in a tough-talking, often profane manner.
Few things ever truly silenced him. But the afternoon of Jan. 8, 2011, brought him to his knees.
His 9-year-old granddaughter, Christina Taylor-Green, died in the same shooting that killed five others and seriously wounded Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords in Tucson.
"They say time heals," Green said two years later. "Time, I don't think, will ever heal that part of my life."
He stood a burly 6-foot-5. An arm injury early in his career took away the right-hander's power, but he still cobbled together an eight-year career between starting and relieving with the Phillies, Washington Senators, and Mets, finishing at 20-22.
Baseball lost a good one in Dallas Green.
Heaven probably heard him coming.
Follow Ernie on Twitter at @ErniePalladino
