Our Fall/Winter project is to create an ownership group for a Central League
franchise & HIRE STEVE MADDOCK AS OUR MANAGER!

:)
Brent

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Colts won't renew manager's contract

Maddock released after two seasons, search for replacement to begin 'almost
immediately'

By JEFF MCDONALD, San Angelo Standard-Time Staff Writer
September 9, 2003

When Steve Maddock left the manager's office at Foster Field following the
San Angelo Colts' final game of the season, he had an inkling that he might
be leaving it for the last time.
He'd already asked his bosses if his contract was going to be renewed. They
didn't give him a firm answer.
On Monday, less than two weeks after packing up his things and heading home
to a state of uncomfortable limbo in Arlington, Maddock wondered again
whether he still had a job in San Angelo.
So he picked up a phone and called the Colts' front office.
This time, the powers-that-be gave him an answer. It wasn't what he wanted
to hear.
''I had a feeling that this was coming,'' Maddock said, reacting to the news
that the Colts would not be renewing his contract when it expires at the end
of the month. ''If they had wanted me back, they would have said something
before now.''
In Maddock's case, no news was bad news.
He has essentially been fired after a 2003 season in which the Colts failed
to make the playoffs for the first time ever, and a year after the team won
its first-ever Central Baseball League championship.
Maddock, who was 103-97 in two seasons with San Angelo, was the second
manager in club history. The Colts will set out looking for their third
manager in five years, ''almost immediately,'' Executive General Manager
Harlan Bruha said.
He said he hopes to have a new manager in place by the end of December.
''It just wasn't a good year; it was frustrating for me, it was frustrating
for the fans, it was frustrating for everybody,'' said Bruha, who ultimately
pulled the trigger on Maddock's ouster. ''How can we overcome that
frustration if we don't make a change? I think we can solve that frustration
by bringing in someone new with fresh ideas.''
Maddock does not disagree that the season was frustrating.
He just figured that the 2002 CBL championship campaign would have banked
him more goodwill than he could exhaust with one lackluster season.
He figured he'd earned the benefit of the doubt.
''I would have thought so,'' he said. ''I got my ring, and I'm happy with
that. I just would have thought it would have bought me more time.''
Maddock's time ran out, apparently, during a 2003 season in which the club
led the league in both hitting and errors - and ranked last in pitching -
and missed the postseason.
''Winning is everything,'' Bruha said. ''I just didn't feel like we got the
performance out of our ball club for the quality of players that we had.''
There were other grievances that led to the decision, Bruha said.
Maddock made limitless personnel moves during his tenure, and the roster was
almost always in a state of flux.
When he took over prior to the 2002 campaign, he kept only one player from
the 2001 team. That player, Franklin Taveras, was waived before the all-star
break.
This year, he kept just one player from the 2002 championship squad. Gilbert
Landestoy, too, was waived before the all-star break.
This year, the constant tinkering never paid off. In one instance, the Colts
released a pitcher - Jake Carney - who went on to be the league's pitcher of
the month of August for Coastal Bend.
Bruha, who added that he supported the decision to release Carney, cited
that as one example of a Maddock mistake.
''Steve's greatest strength was the way he found players; he was a master at
it,'' Bruha said. ''But sometimes it was too much. Sometimes, that was a
strength and a weakness.''
Maddock defended the way he managed the team's roster.
''I stand by the way I did things,'' he said. ''The first year (in 2002), if
we didn't make all the changes we made, we wouldn't have won a
championship.''
Bruha agreed.
Still, when the Colts go looking for their newest manager they'll be looking
for someone who wants to build on the nucleus of players who are already
here, he said.
Bruha said two of the players he expects to be a part of that nucleus are
veteran outfielders Buck McNabb and Juan Rocha, who were all-stars for the
Colts last year. McNabb was named the CBL's Player of the Year, the first
Colt ever to win that honor.
The relationship between Maddock and McNabb was icy near the end of the
season. During a late-season game against Edinburg, McNabb was pulled from
the game and sent to the clubhouse after a confrontation with the manager.
Bruha did not say his relationship with McNabb was a reason behind the
decision to part ways with Maddock.
''I just think a different style of leadership in the clubhouse and on the
field might help us get back to the playoffs,'' Bruha said.
Maddock, meanwhile, is out looking for another job.
He says he's already talked to at least four different teams, some of which
are in the CBL and some aren't. Alexandria, Coastal Bend and Ozark are the
three other CBL teams with managerial vacancies.
Maddock, it turns out, had a little bit of a head start in the race to find
a new employer.
''I'd already been looking around, just in case (the Colts) didn't want me
back,'' he said. ''Unfortunately, I was right.''

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