Making the Team Out of Spring Training

You’ll hear a lot of comments after your favorite player has gone through spring training. Things like, “My God! You had such a good spring training. How come you didn’t make the team?” What a lot of people don’t know is that it often comes down to how a player fits into the personality of the team as a whole. 

I made the opening day roster for the Baltimore Orioles in 1995. Going into spring training beforehand, I hadn’t even wished for the opening day roster. I hoped and prayed to make the team at some point during the season. The manager, Phil Ragan, came up to me and said “Last year, when I was a pitching coach for the Cleveland Indians, I remember Charlie Manuel saying ‘Let’s trade and get Jeff Manto for our bench.’ So if Charlie Manuel thinks you can play, I certainly think you could play! Congratulations, you made the team!”

Ecstatic is an understatement. If you don’t remember, the magnificent thing about that season was Cal Ripken breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak. Having a front row seat for that was incredible. Here I was with an opportunity to play in one of the most historic seasons in baseball, yet never comfortable enough to think I would be there the whole year. 

When I made the opening day roster with the Cleveland Indians, that was a good news/bad news type of situation. The good news was that I made the team out of spring training. The bad news was I had to face Randy Johnson, arguably one of the most powerful and dominating pitchers in baseball opening day! 

Lastly, I made the Colorado Rockies team out of spring training in 2000. That was an instance where Buddy Bell, the manager, made sure that I would sign with the Rockies because he was looking for a veteran bench player. The anxiety kicked in. I trusted him and still do to this day, but after only about three weeks into the season, I was let go. It was a numbers game, nobody else’s fault. Again, here I was high as a kite making the opening day roster, then a month later, I was flying back to my hometown of Bristol Borough without a job! It was a crazy time.

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Have questions of your own? Email them to me at jmantopdc@gmail.com and it may be featured in a future blog post.

Until next time,

Jeff