Eric Wedge’s age — 34 — was big news when Cleveland Indians general manager Mark Shapiro announced Oct. 29 that the former Shocker catcher had clinched the club’s big-league manager’s job. Major sports news outlets, from ESPN to The Sporting News, enthused, “The youngest manager in the majors.” But when eye-to-eye or ear-to-ear with Wedge, who turned 35 on Jan. 27, you think of nothing quite so much as hard-won maturity and veteran toil.
“Respect,” Eric Wedge fs ’89 says over the phone from his neatly organized basement office at Cleveland’s Jacobs Field, “has nothing to do with how old you are. You have to earn respect — with your actions and your conversations. I try to be consistent and to always put my players first.”
The Fort Wayne, Ind., native earned respect as a collegiate player, arriving at Wichita State as a freshman with an unproven bat and arm, yet departing three seasons later as the All-American catcher whose fiery love of the game helped power the Shockers to the 1989 College World Series Championship (above). And he’s garnered respect as a minor-league manager. In five seasons in the Cleveland Indians Player Development system — the past two with the club’s Triple-A affiliate at Buffalo — he posted a managing record of 391-315 and guided the Bisons to consecutive appearances in the International League playoffs. His .622 career-winning percentage at Buffalo is the highest in franchise history for managers with more than one season at the helm.
“And besides,” Wedge adds, “I’ve always felt older than my years.” Unfortunately, because of the injuries to his knees and right elbow that forced his professional playing career short, he’s not just talking figuratively. Despite several surgeries, his beleaguered body limited his major-league playing career to 39 games in parts of four seasons with the Boston Red Sox and the Colorado Rockies.
“The respect factor makes his age a nonissue,” says former Shocker Zach Sorensen fs ’98, who played for Wedge last season as an infielder with the Bisons. In mid-February, Sorensen will report to the Indians’ (or, as fans say, “the Tribe’s”) spring training in Winter Haven, Fla. “He respects his players so much, and they respect him,” Sorensen says. “His two favorite words in baseball have got to be ‘motivation’ and ‘passion.’ He’ll do whatever it takes to motivate a player, whether that’s hollering at you or babying you. He’s a great motivator.”
WSU’s Gene Stephenson, who marks his 25th season as Shocker head coach this spring, says, “His age would be a tremendous issue for some other person, but Eric’s mature beyond his years. He’s going to face challenges as a young manager, sure, but his willingness to prepare, his will to win and his ability to help those around him play better are going to make him very successful.”
Wedge’s brother Ryan fs ’92, who played one season of baseball as a Shocker and who lives in Wichita with his wife, Shannon ’95, and their two sons, reports, “Eric’s a lot more mature than his years. I think it’s because he has such an extreme level of self-confidence. And his work ethic — everybody talks about how hard he works — he’s a workin’ machine.”
Managing in the Majors
Wedge has stepped into a leadership role in a profession with a long and textured history. In Cleveland, professional baseball dates back to 1869, and club lore is not without its Shocker chapters. Joe Carter fs ’81, for instance, wore an Indians’ uniform from 1984 to 1989, before heading north to Toronto and slugging his way into the history books in the closing game of the 1993 World Series when he drove in a game-winning, three-run homer to make the Blue Jays back-to-back champions. Aside from that feat, Carter said in a 1995 WSU Alumni News interview that his most exciting days as a player came during his first year with the Indians, when he was testing his limits and proving his abilities.
It’s now Wedge’s turn to test limits and prove abilities at Cleveland. The Indians signed him to a two-year contract, with the club holding options for 2005 and 2006. He is the youngest manager in the majors by nearly a decade. Pittsburgh’s Lloyd McClendon, 43, is the second youngest. Yet Wedge is not the Tribe’s youngest manager ever. That distinction belongs to Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau, who became the club’s player/manager in 1942. He was 24.
Wedge’s arrival in Cleveland as the 39th manager of the Indians was hailed with enthusiasm. Described in team news releases as “a tireless worker,” “a fiery competitor” and “a difference-maker,” he also is lauded for strong communication skills and a no-nonsense leadership style. His former WSU coaches and teammates know full well he will need all of those traits, and more, to prove himself as skipper of a team smack dab in the middle of rebuilding after years of regular-season success. The Indians, who ended the 2002 season with a 74-88 record, dealt away some of its high-priced talent and finished the year with 19 rookies on its roster. Challenges abound. But Wedge, says Greg Brummett ’91 — WSU’s All-American pitcher named Most Outstanding Player in the 1989 CWS game — isn’t intimidated by challenging situations. Brummett, who pitched in the San Francisco Giants, Minnesota Twins and Red Sox organizations, is entering his first season as pitching coach for the U.S. Air Force Academy Falcons. “Eric made me a better pitcher,” he says. “He’s a born leader. He knows how to take charge — and he takes it to the limit.”
Another WSU teammate, shortstop Mike Lansing fs ’91, who has played with the Montreal Expos, the Red Sox and, last summer, for the Indians’ club, is currently off the playing fields and pursuing opportunities in broadcast sports. Like Wedge, he has been plagued by injuries. “Eric has a lot of heart,” Lansing relates. “He knows how to relate to players, no matter who they are, no matter whether they’re older than he is or younger, whether they’re on the way up or down — he just has automatic credibility. The Indians are restructuring, so they may not have a winning record right off, but with Eric as manager, they’ll be playing the game right — running the bases hard.”
WSU’s pitching coach Brent Kemnitz says, “Eric’s a great hire for the Indians. With his confidence and knowledge of the game, he relates well with the veterans, and his youth and enthusiasm give energy and confidence to the young guys on the team.”
Wedge’s conviction and clarity of purpose, says Pat Meares fs ’90, now in his 11th year in the majors with a year left on his contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates, will be the reasons Indians fans “find out what a lot of us have known all along: We’ll still be talking about Eric 10 years from now — and more.”
Wedge himself exhibits characteristic confidence when fielding questions about his new position: “There are many challenges as you move from level to level — from minor-league player to playing in the majors, from player to manager. My present challenge is competing as one of 30 guys at the highest level in this business. And all of us — including owners and gms and players and fans — are hungry for success.” For Wedge, who puts in 12-hour-plus workdays whether in season or off, success is based firmly on his players: “When I began managing, I promised myself two things. I’ll never forget what it feels like to be a ballplayer, and it’s not about me — it’s about the players.”
In the off-season, he is typically in the office by 8 a.m., his day filled with activities centered on putting together the best team he can. He reads player reports, meets with players and attends myriad other organizational and promotional meetings and events. He’s not often home before 7 p.m. — even if he’s only two months married to his bride, Kate, whom he met in Buffalo.
In season, he’ll arrive at the ballpark by noon, go over scouting reports and then help prime his players, who arrive mid-afternoon, for the game that evening. Post-game duties stretch sometimes as late as 1 a.m., but he rarely, if ever, leaves the park until he’s fully prepared for the next day. “Baseball,” he says, “is definitely a 12-months-a-year job.”
The Little Leaguer
That’s not to say such long, hard hours of work have made Wedge old and stodgy before his time. He exudes youthful energy. “The thing I love about him,” Sorensen says, “is he has fun. He goes into a game situation like he’s still in Little League — that’s how much he loves the game.”
Growing up in Fort Wayne, Eric and Ryan were introduced to baseball by their parents, Nina and Tim, who signed them up for Little League. “I knew I loved it the first time on the field,” Wedge recalls. Ryan, who’s two-and-a-half years younger than Eric, remembers his big brother’s posters of major-league players and the “old-time pitching machine” their dad set up for them in the garage. Ryan also remembers that the young Wedge brothers had the opportunity of honing their senses of timing, of understanding scores, of playing harmoniously — with organ lessons. “I can’t remember what Eric played, but I learned Que Sera Sera. That’s right, the theme song of that old Doris Day tv show.”
Wichita State recruited one of Eric’s high school friends, and Eric soon learned that WSUs nationally recognized baseball program fit his own natural bent precisely. “Wichita State was my No. 1 choice for college,” Wedge says. “Gene and Brent and the other coaches — their passion, their drive, their work ethic and 100 percent focus were what I was looking for to help me reach my potential. Anywhere else was a distant second.” He adds that baseball wasn’t the only subject he learned well at college: “Being away from home taught me to stand on my own. I had to learn how to prioritize, how to make good decisions. Time is invaluable — it’s hard to play baseball, focus on studies, hold down a part-time job — but it was up to me to make it happen.”
Kemnitz clearly recalls Wedge’s collegiate playing days, especially those of the national-championship season when he hit .380, drove in 99 runs and hit 23 home runs: “He was a leader, a guy with a great presence on the field — a guy who refused to lose.” A third-round pick in the 1989 draft, Wedge signed with the Red Sox and reported to Boston’s Class A team during what would have been his senior year.
P.J. Forbes ’91, a veteran major-leaguer who played second base for the Shockers and who is now negotiating a Triple-A contract with the Chicago Cubs, says Wedge was almost like a big brother to him. “I have four sisters, no brothers,” he explains, “and even though Eric and I could go nose-to-nose, I respect him. He commands attention. He’s an imposing man — big, gruff, tough — but what a deeply caring and sensitive person he is.” Kemnitz dares a step further: “Eric may like the tough-guy image better, but he’s a big teddy bear — soft-spoken when he needs to be, with a heart of gold.”
Clubhouse Chemistry
Feb. 16 is the first day of spring training for the Indians, and Wedge is excited about “getting the team together and being able to look every player in the eye.” He’ll be eyeball-to-eyeball with two former Shockers: Sorensen and Casey Blake fs ’96, a six-year free agent who played with the Blue Jays, the Baltimore Orioles and the Minnesota Twins before signing a minor-league contract with the Indians on Dec. 18. “My older brother played for Oral Roberts in ’89,” Blake says, “and I remember him talking about Wichita State’s stud catcher. After the deal with the Indians, I called Zach. Zach said if you played hard — if you played as hard as you could — then Wedge would stand in your corner.”
Wedge was once quoted as saying, “Any club is going to take on the personality of their manager.” So what will the Wedge-era personality of the Indians be? With barely a pause before answering, the youngest manager in the majors says: “We’re going to have a quiet intensity, a focus, be passionate about the way we play. We’ll be competitive, tough. It’ll be fun and loose in the locker room, but at 7:05 we’re going to be ready to rock and roll.”
An apt description of Wedge himself.
— By Connie Kachel White
