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By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
Minor league baseball isn't just designed for the players, it also serves as development for the coaches, too.
Former Altoona Curve manager Dale Sveum embodies that development having gone from Double-A Altoona to Boston after the 2003 season, but his time at the helm of the Curve helped shape what was to come.
"My managing job in Altoona was a lot of good things," Sveum said. "Obviously, It's a great stadium and in my second season, they changed owners which really changed the franchise around and made things a lot better and brought a lot more fans in."
Those fans were able to catch players such as John Wehner, J.R. House, Rico Washington, Shaun Skrehot and many more take the field and have considerable success for the young franchise.
"The players we had, it was a very great learning experience for me," Sveum said. "It was a really wonderful time for the three years I spent there and it was just such a super city."
Unlike most managers, Sveum didn't begin his career in the lower levels of the minor leagues. He came straight to Double-A upon entering the coaching ranks following a 12-year MLB career.
"It was such a great place to manage and fulfill that part of it right away when I didn't have to go to rookie ball and manage and do those kinds of things," Sveum said. "One good thing about Double-A's is they're pretty good players. You got players that are chomping at the bit to get to the big leagues."
Sveum spurned the opportunity to go to Triple-A after his second season wanting to stay in Altoona and continue managing. After his third season, Sveum got a call from an old friend and former teammate, Terry Francona.
Francona had just become manager of the Boston Red Sox and was looking to fill out his coaching staff.
"When Francona got the job in Boston, he called me and asked me if I wanted to be the third base coach," Sveum said. "I ended up there in 2004 and it was a fun time and a great experience, too."
The jump from Double-A to the Majors as a coach may seem like a big jump, but for Sveum, a lot of what he did in Altoona would eventually be the same in Boston outside of managerial duties.
"Francona put me in a situation where I was comfortable with coaching third base. I had third base duties as a manager in Altoona and I was infield coach, positioning coach so that was all fairly simple."
As for the players, that was the biggest difference. Kevin Millar, Jason Varitek and David Ortiz were all playing at a higher caliber than the aforementioned Wehner, House and Washington.
"It was different going from Double-A players to a lot of great players in Boston," Sveum said. "You're dealing with that and understanding that right away out of the coaching gate that no matter how many great players you have, they always need to learn and be taught and all that. You never stop teaching."
The ability to teach is what endeared Sveum to coaching in the minor leagues and coaching in general.
"The good thing about Double-A is you get to teach so much on a daily basis because you only have a pitching coach, and a hitting coach," Sveum said. "The bottom line is you're always teaching in the minor leagues. The goal is always to get every player a cup of coffee in the big leagues, and that's what you're always trying to strive for. What they do with that is obviously up to them."
Sveum would take that desire to teach to Milwaukee and Chicago with the Cubs where he got his first full-time manager position. Despite being a manager in the Majors, Sveum was very much the same guy he was with Altoona.
"You never change your stripes. Over 40 years, you tend to see that happen," Sveum said. "Who I am didn't change. I didn't do anything different than I did in Double-A. Obviously, you're dealing with big league players, but I'm old school. I believe in rules and being on time, working hard and preparing hard."
In the big leagues, Sveum tried to take as much as possible from his time in Altoona. A time where he had to do it all, from managing pitchers to making substitutions all while standing in the third base coach's box.
"You had to learn on the cuff so to speak, because you're coaching third base and all of a sudden, you know, you score two runs, you're down by four and you're scoring two the bottom of the eighth so you're thinking you have to get somebody else up or have someone ready to pinch it to get back in this game or to tie the game up." I gotta get somebody up in the bullpen … you got all kinds of crap going on."
The crap coaches and players deal with can be unsettling. For Sveum, his career as a player dealt with quite a bit of crap including a devastating leg injury that completely changed the trajectory of his career. It's those types of things that help Sveum connect with players and help them learn how to handle the adversity or crap that's thrown their way.
"I was at the top of my career," Sveum said. "I shattered my leg while playing shortstop and it was all taken away from one play in the outfield that shattered my left leg. I was never the same player again. Those are the things you take when you're managing and coaching and you share it with all these younger players Whether it's financial, whether it's about coaching, not just baseball, your life experiences when you're coaching."
For Sveum, it's been quite a ride in professional baseball. From reversing curses to getting fired, it's been a humbling experience for Sveum and that's not something he took lightly as a player and coach or now as a golfer with a three handicap.
"The baseball world has always been very humbling," Sveum said. "If it wasn't as a player, it was as a coach. As a teacher, there's a lot of adversity in the world of baseball, trying to make a living as a player playing against great players like Ken Griffey, Jr. Just a handful of those guys and the rest of us, it was a big fist fight to make a living and perform at that level, to put food on the table for your family and I was able to do that."