Thursday, April 4, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
HE'S AT EASE with players, reporters and fans, generously giving his time to each. Got a question for Oakland Athletics manager Art Howe? If you can get within hollering distance of him, he'll respond.
Howe is the new manager of the new-look A's, a team with a greatly reduced payroll and juggled roster that includes nine newcomers this season. By all accounts, Oakland will not challenge for as much as a wild-card spot in the American League playoffs for at least a couple of years.
While happy to be back managing in the major leagues after a two-year absence, Howe is in the less-than-ideal position of having to guide an extremely young team of questionable ability. But he has done this before, as his 1991 Houston Astros were the youngest team in the majors that season; it's no coincidence that they were also among the worst.
The word that's constantly associated with Howe is patience. It shows up in virtually every story about him -- "the patient Art Howe" may not have a ring to it but it's a phrase that has been repeated time and again by Bay Area reporters covering the team.
Wednesday night at Cashman Field that patience was tested by A's pitcher Ariel Prieto in particular, as he walked six of the first 14 Toronto Blue Jays he faced and eight in all before being lifted in the fifth inning of what eventually became a 10-4 Toronto victory. The patient Art Howe was having his patience tested again.
"The only way to manage a young team is to give them a lot of rope and provide them with a lot of leeway as they develop," Howe said. "I'm sure the fact that I can do that is one of the main reasons the A's hired me."
So he's congenial and understanding, yet even the most restrained manager's blood pressure can boil. After the A's lost their season opener Monday in Las Vegas, Howe held a brief closed-door meeting with his players. When an Oakland-based reporter asked him what was said, Howe's reply was both tactful and to the point: "If I wanted you to know what I said, I would have invited you to the meeting."
There was no offense taken, Howe smiling as he delivered the line and the reporter realizing the manager was right. If anything, their rapport was strengthened by the exchange.
The 49-year-old Howe, who played in the majors for 10 seasons (.260) and managed the Astros for five (392-418), is neither pretentious nor ego-driven. When he needed to loosen up to throw batting practice before Wednesday's game, he asked another reporter to pick up a glove and toss a few with him. An A's player soon came to the rescue of the reporter, but when the player was called away to hit, Howe summoned a boy standing near the dugout to step in and throw with him.
Howe's warm smile was visible through it all.
He'll be good for the A's, and, in time, maybe the A's will be good to him. But many a decent manager has been let go just as a team matures, with the new manager reaping the benefits due his predecessor.
"That's life," Howe said, when asked how he might feel should that happen to him.
archive
