Change in Dayton

This caught me a little off-guard today...

Scott not coming back to Dragons

Donnie Scott, whose tenure as manager of the Dayton Dragons lasted five years, will not return for a sixth.

This week, Scott was informed he would not be rehired by the parent Reds organization, for whom he has worked the last 19 seasons, usually as a manager of one of their low minor-league teams.

"I loved Dayton; it was a blast," said Scott from his Tampa-area home on Wednesday, Sept 24. He managed the Class A Midwest League Dragons from 2001-03, plus the past two seasons. Four of his teams made the playoffs, although none reached the championship round.

"Terry Reynolds (Reds director of development) called me, and he didn't talk very long," Scott said. "That's the decision they made. I've got to move on."
...
Scott said he didn't know if the brawl his team had with Peoria (Ill.) on July 24 had anything to do with his dismissal, although new Reds General Manager Walt Jocketty picked that day to get his first in-house glimpse of the Dragons.

"I don't know if that had anything to do with it," Scott said. "I think they just wanted to make a change."

Dragon beat writer Marc Katz has this column on-line.

Reds let go of minor league manager

He could be short-tempered and occasionally volatile, but Donnie Scott did the best he could with what the parent Reds sent him.

I never heard him curse about a ballplayer, and Donnie Scott cursed quite a bit.

He saw his job as nurturing the young hopefuls along as manager of the Class A Dayton Dragons, and that meant leaving a starter in when he was in trouble, allowing a left-handed hitter to bat against a left-handed flame-thrower and not pinch-hitting a .220 hitter with the bases loaded, trailing by a run with two out in the bottom of the ninth.

The idea was, find out if a guy can do it in the minors before he gets a chance to do it in the majors.

Still, I can't say the Reds did the wrong thing by letting him go, as they did this week following Scott's 19 years with the club in various minor league duties.

I can't tell you he did a bad job, either. I can tell you the Reds did — have done — a bad job.

Their minor league teams seldom win. When the teams are good, they move players before they win anything, teaching them individual development is much more important than winning as a team — a trait those players seem to carry with them to the major league level.
...
I often tried to get him to rip the Reds for doing something stupid — forcing him to play a guy who obviously couldn't perform, wondering why a guy was promoted and leaving the Dragons to figuring out how to replace him or asking why a player was drafted in the first place.

He always — always — told me he didn't have the master plan, that the Reds did, that they were doing what they thought was right.

He was a company man, and now he'll have to find a new company. That's too bad. Then again, maybe the Reds did him a favor. The rookie teams supported by the Reds this year didn't have any top 20 prospects as selected by Baseball America. Those are teams that feed the Dragons next season.

Quick Donnie Scott story. Back in 2001, the Timber Rattlers and the Quad City River Bandits (as they were known at the time) were fighting for the first half wild card spot. The Rattlers kept winning, but needed the Dragons to beat Quad Cities just once. Dayton didn't hold on to a late lead and the Rattlers wound up not getting into the playoffs in the first half due to the Bandits holding the tie-breaker.

During that game, I mentioned the score of the game and reported that the Dragons had blown another lead with something like the words, "I think I'm gonna be sick."

When Dayton visited Grand Chute in the second half, Donnie was in the first base dugout and saw me go over to talk to Mike VanderWood, the Dayton announcer. Woody introduced me to the manager of the Dragons. Just before he shook my hand, he started to laugh.

Then, he said, "I know you. We're fighting for our playoff lives against Michigan and lost to Quad Cities, so I tune in to your game and the first words I hear were, 'Dayton blew another one. I'm gonna puke.' We weren't trying to lose, but it was the funniest thing I've heard."

I didn't use the word 'puke' on the radio or the internet and tried to tell him that. But, if he thought is was funny, I'll go with it.

Good luck, Donnie.