Forbes all about the business of managing

By any measure, Hillcats manager P.J. Forbes’ major-league playing career was brief. Twelve games. Seventeen at-bats. Three hits. But what that career lacked in length, it more than made up for in memorable moments.

Moment one — July 31, 1998. Trade deadline day. The Kansas City Royals are routing the Baltimore Orioles 7-1 in the sixth inning at Kauffman Stadium, and manager Ray Miller has seen enough. He clears the bench, and eventually, Forbes finds himself playing second base, batting cleanup in place of the benched Rafael Palmeiro.

With about 100 family members and friends in attendance, Forbes — who was born in nearby Pittsburg, Kan. — strokes his first big-league hit, an RBI single in the ninth inning.

“You just couldn’t have scripted it any better,” Forbes said Saturday.

Moment two — Sept. 20, 1998. Sunday afternoon at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Forbes is sitting in the dugout, and teammate Mike Bordick sits down next to him.

“I think you’re going to witness history today,” Bordick says.

Sure enough, the Orioles take the field in the first inning. Doug Johns is on the mound. Roberto Alomar is at second. But on the left side of the infield, something is missing. Bordick is at shortstop. Ryan Minor is at third base. Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch trots to the plate and Derek Jeter is in the on-deck circle. Bernie Williams stands on the top step of the dugout and eyes the Baltimore dugout, looking for Cal Ripken, Jr. He spots him and gives Ripken a quizzical look, and Ripken just shakes his head. The Iron Man is taking a day off, for the first time in 2,632 games. Every Yankee climbed to the top step and began to applaud Ripken, and the rest of stadium follows suit.

“How do you describe witnessing all of those games coming to the end?” Forbes said. “No one knew. There was no lineup posted. Nothing posted on the scoreboard.”

Forbes spent another three years in the minor leagues and got one more cup of coffee — seven at-bats — with the Phillies in 2001, but he was already focusing on his second career, something he knew he wanted to do since he was a player at Wichita State in the late 1980s.

“I just hoped I would be a better manager than I was a player,” Forbes said.

Starting out

Forbes left the game on his own terms, as a back injury that required surgery forced him out of baseball in spring training in 2003. But he wasn’t ready to get away from the field. He earned his first job in the Phillies organization, managing Low-A Lakewood in 2004-05 before moving up to Double-A to manage the Reading Phillies for the next three seasons.

Along the way, he developed his own managerial style culled from his own experiences and those of his mentors — Don Long, now the Pirates hitting coach whom Forbes played for in the Angels’ organization; Marv Foley, whom Forbes played for in the Orioles’ organization; Marc Bombard, whom Forbes played for in Scranton-Wilkes-Barre; and Eric Wedge, the Cleveland Indians manager who was Forbes’ roommate at Wichita State.

“Just watching them, how they handled players, the situations and games,” Forbes said. “Early work. Discipline. Attention to detail. All that. You can take stuff from all of them, good and bad.”

After 2008, when Reading went 53-89, the Phillies and Forbes parted ways. That’s when Forbes got a call from Kyle Stark, the Pirates’ director of player development. Pittsburgh had already filled openings at Triple-A Indianapolis and Double-A Altoona, meaning Forbes was vying for the opening in Lynchburg. Stark wanted someone who displayed the traits Forbes described earlier.

“I’m not going to lie,” Forbes said. “It was a tough decision to go backwards after being in Double-A for three years. But talking to Kyle — I talked to him for two hours in October for the first time — we had so many of the same philosophies and ideals about what development was about and how it should be gone about. The energy that he has and the passion that he has and his vision were all very alluring to me.

“I liked the accountability they wanted the players to have. I liked the discipline. I think that’s part of what drew him to me. He had gotten reports on me that discipline was important to me, that accountability was important to me.”

Into action

It became evident early this season that Forbes wouldn’t tolerate mental breakdowns or lackadaisical play.

“Be on time and play hard, those are my rules,” he said. Effort is the one thing a player can control, Forbes said, and when he sees a player dogging it, the consequences are swift. Earlier this month, Jose De Los Santos hit a pitch that he thought had bounced off home plate, and therefore was foul. But the ball was ruled fair, and De Los Santos stood and watched as Frederick catcher Caleb Joseph threw to first for the out.

The next half inning, Ray Chang replaced De Los Santos at second.

“It’s a group of men,” Hillcats third baseman Pedro Alvarez said. “We’re supposed to be held accountable. He lets us have fun and lets us play, but we’re professional. Whenever we do something well, he tells us. Whenever we don’t do something well, he tells us. I really like the way he’s carried this team.”

The team has embraced Forbes’ managerial style, and attention to detail is one of the major reasons why Lynchburg is having its best season since 2002.

“Something P.J. has harped on all year is whether you’re winning or losing, things are going good or going bad, you don’t push the little things to the side,” Hillcats catcher Kris Watts said. “You can’t say, ‘oh, we won, so these things don’t matter.’ You’ve got to focus on running the bases hard every day and being ready to go for nine innings. That’s been crucial for the young and old guys to buy into.”

Forbes keeps things light in the clubhouse, too. Though he’ll defend his players on the field, having occasional words with an umpire, he rarely loses control.

Forbes insists that he and his coaching staff — which includes pitching coach Wally Whitehurst and hitting coach Dave Howard — have as much fun inside the coaches’ office as the team does in the clubhouse.

It’s all a part of the big picture for Forbes, who has not only brought a first-half championship to Lynchburg, but has re-invigorated his career in the process.