The Nationals introduced Jim Riggleman as their new manager for 2010. The 57-year-old Rockville, Md. native held the interim title last summer after Manny Acta was fired. Mike Rizzo, Nats general manager, said the team started with a list of 18 candidates, whittled that down to around 10 for phone interviews and then further cuts led to Riggleman and Bobby Valentine as the finalists.
Those two men, of course, are polar opposites in terms of personality. Valentine a consumate showman with a magnetic personalty that some in the game find grating. Riggleman is “a simple baseball man”, according to Nats third basebam Ryan Zimmerman. Riggleman had what amounted to a four-month audition for the job, Rizzo said. He didn’t even need to come back for an interview from his home in Florida. And in the end, the GM’s comfort level with his interim manager made all the difference.
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“We discussed vigorously how the game should be played. And although we failed at times to produce there was always a knowledge of how the game should be played,” Rizzo said. “Those were a lot of the smaller things that gave me a comfort level with Jim. And we just had a kind of a feeling when we’d get together in the manager’s office – an ease of conversation. We both are the type of people who say what’s on our mind and I think that’s a good dynamic between the both of us.”
That comfort level carried over to Rigleman’s players. The Nats were a woeful 26-61 at the All-Star break. Acta had just been fired. They were at rock bottom and their confidence level showed it.
“I got on board,” said pitcher John Lannan. “That was a change in attitude I think that I needed at that point. That first start [in the second half] I pitched pretty well. We lost the first five games [under Riggleman], but him coming in and stepping up – I thought he did a great job.”
Coming soon: Plenty more reaction from Riggleman, Zimmerman, who moments ago won the Silver Slugger Award as the top offensive third baseball in the National League. More also from Lannan, pitcher Craig Stammen and, of course, GM Mike Rizzo.
