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Nationals' Manager Search: Cal Ripken On The Dan Patrick Show

So, Cal Ripken once again talked about the possibility of managing at this stage in his life and the Nationals' opening on the bench was mentioned when the Hall of Fame infielder appeared on the Dan Patrick Show to talk baseball today.

By Patrick Reddington
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

So... yeah, sure, this is quickly becoming the "Prince Fielder to Washington" story from a few winters back or the "Strasburg Shutdown" story of this offseason, the one story that just won't go away and everyone is already getting tired of, but not 30 minutes after the last edition of "Cal Ripken: Potential Nationals' Manager" went up here, the following interview came across the Twitter machine...

In it, Dan Patrick, on the eponymous "Dan Patrick Show" asks Cal Ripken about the rumors swirling around that are tying him to the Nationals' search for the sixth manager of the latest incarnation of D.C.'s baseball team:

Dan Patrick: "You're making some headlines here, Cal."

Cal Ripken: "I am?"

Dan Patrick: "Yeah. You go on Rich Eisen's podcast and you hint at managing, now all of a sudden I've got columnists in the Washington Post talking about you managing. Why don't you just come out and say, "I would like to manage"? It feels like you want to, but you're waiting for somebody to [ask]... Do you want to be asked?"

Cal Ripken: "Well, you have to be asked. I'm not lobbying by any stretch of the imagination. I'm not throwing my name out there, but it is interesting. Everyone asks me, 'Are you getting the itch to come back?' and then I say -- and I've been very consistent all the way through -- is for this time period in my life, up until I got my kids off to college, that was my focus. I mean, over the years since I've retired, I've had conversations with baseball general managers from time to time. They've asked me if I wanted to interview for a managing job and it wasn't the right time in your life. I was intrigued, but if you're not really willing to do it, why go through the process of it. So, now that I'm [in] a different phase of my life, if somebody were to have a conversation with me, or if somebody thought that I'd be right for a spot, I'd explore it. But I don't know if I would take it. I'm smart enough to say I would listen. So it is interesting how little things about me, even though from my perspective it's been very consistent all the way across the board, it's created a lot of momentum here and it's caused me to have to react to it. But yeah, if somebody wanted me, or somebody thought that I'd be right for the position. Then, at this stage of my life, I'd listen."

Dan Patrick then mentioned the Nationals' job opening on the bench specifically and suggested that a general manager might want to see a potential candidate aggressively pursue a position if he really wanted it and come out and say, "'I would love that job and I think it's a great, great job. Potential there. I know the area. I know that team, I'm ready to go with something like that.' Then I know that you're committed to it. Instead of saying, 'Do you want to come in and talk?' 'Yeah, I'll come in and talk, but I'm not sure I want it.' You never did anything half-a••ed when you played, and I don't think you'd do that as a manager, but I would want you being aggressive in wanting..."

"If you're available, or somebody thinks you're available, then they have to want to talk to you. You're not controlling the process." - Cal Ripken on managing to Dan Patrick

"But I don't think that's half-a••," Ripken said. "If you're available, or somebody thinks you're available, then they have to want to talk to you. You're not controlling the process. Yeah, can you put yourself out there -- "

"Well, Dusty Baker is," Patrick interrupted. "Dusty said, 'I will manage again. He got fired by the Reds."

"Well, that's how Dusty chooses to do it," Ripken responded. "To me, I'm still in the baseball inner circles. I still talk to all the people. All the guys that I have talked to that have asked me before or that have wondered what I was thinking about, they know who I am, they know what I know about baseball. So, if somebody thinks I'm right for the process, then I'll listen to it and if they ask me to go through the process then I'd be inclined to consider that. But I'm not lobbying. I'm not using the media to say, 'Hey, Baseball World, I'm ready.'" I've never done that."

Ripken goes on to discuss what would make him a good manager, so it's definitely worth a watch/listen:


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