WALT JOCKETTY WAS A MAN MEANT TO LEAD A BASEBALL TEAM

 I was just talking with a St. Louis Cardinal friend of mine on Thursday about the time I spent with Walt Jocketty, one of the better General Managers in club history.  And then Saturday morning I wake up to the news that Walt had passed away on Friday at the age of 74.  It was his birthday.  A lung transplant finally did him in.  To say I was shocked was an understatement.  Let me tell you a little about the man that I sat across from in the late 70's into March of 1980 at Sec Taylor Stadium in Des Moines.    

Walt was the Public Relations Director, and I was the Promotions dude.  We spent a lot of time bantering back and forth about players in the White Sox farm system.  The Iowa Oaks that we worked for was the Triple A affiliate for the Sox.  Walt knew the club inside and out and the strengths and weaknesses of the players that made up their system.  We were fortunate to see Harold Baines at an early age before he was called up to the big club.  And we had the distinction of working with Tony La Russa, one of the better managers in baseball history.  LaRussa was called up two thirds of the way through the 1979 season at the age of 34 and being the youngest manager in major league baseball history.  

It was early in 1980, and spring training was in high gear.  And so were comings and goings in the baseball world.  Walt got wind of an opening in the Oakland A's farm system.  He called a long time scout in the White Sox front office by the name of Paul Richards.  Jocketty boldly asked Richards if he would recommend him for the job.  Richards did without hesitation.  One day after asking Richards, Walt received a phone call from A's owner Charlie Finley.  "Walt, I've heard great things about you.  We have an opening for the Director of Minor League Operations.  Are you interested?", the cantankerous owner asked Walt.  "I sure am", Walt replied.  "Okay then, let me know by tomorrow if your wife is on board.  There's only one thing.  You need to be here in Arizona by the weekend, or the job is going to someone else", Finley stated.  It was Tuesday.  Not only did he have to give Finley his answer he had to be in Arizona by Saturday.  He had little time to waste.  And to think he got the job sight unseen!

Walt called me and asked me what he should do.  "I said, dude, what an opportunity for you.  Billy Martin is the manager.  B I L L Y  fricking M A R T I N.  And they got some young rookie named Rickie Henderson.  Do it", I yelled.  

And of course, he did, and the rest is history as they say.   

       

A baseball man inside and out

Jocketty directed the Oakland Athletics' farm system in the 1980's, helping the team win three pennants and the 1989 World Series title.  As the St. Louis Cardinals general manager from 1994 to 2007, he built two more World Series teams and added another title in 2006.  Then, as Cincinnati's top baseball man from 2008 to 2016, he led the Reds to the playoffs three times.    

Check out the players he drafted or acquired while the Cardinals GM.  Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, Mark McGwire, Adam Wainright, Chris Carpenter, David Eckstein, Jason Isringhausen, Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen.  That's a man with an eye for talent and a vision to what it takes to win. 

One of the best comments on Walt's impact came from Sandy Alderson, a man Jocketty worked for in the 80's and 90's in Oakland.  "He was thoughtful and process-oriented, didn't do anything precipitously and had tremendous common and baseball sense".   

I had great fun with Walt.  I recall the days in the offices of Sec Taylor where we had newspaper stuck in holes in the walls of the old-time metal shells to keep warm.  Those were the sacrifice days.  I'm happy to say he made it.  Big Time.  RIP, my man.