Before we let Manny Acta slip quietly back to his home in Florida for the rest of the baseball season, let’s examine one last time the public demeanor of the Nationals’ former manager.
From the time he was hired, Acta made it clear he was not one to publicly embarrass players. He did not yell. He did not scream. He did not kick dirt on umpires. But was that kind of personality the right fit for a young club without a winning tradition? The results say no. But maybe with more talent that style works. In the end, what Acta’s bosses thought was what mattered most. And after two-and-a-half years they decided it wasn’t going to work.
“Manny is Manny. He has his personality and his way of doing things. It got him from the Dominican Republic to being manager of a major-league team,” acting general manager Mike Rizzo said Monday. “He felt that was him and … it’s very difficult to ask someone to change their personality.”
The front office accepted that well before Acta’s job status became a day-to-day issue. The only part the players themselves struggled with was Acta’s patience with umpires. He learned long ago that flipping out on the men in blue was a pointless endeavor. But his players didn’t always agree with that philosophy.
“At some point, I think you have to do that stuff,” said third baseman Ryan Zimmerman. “Even if you think your player is wrong, you have to go out and stick up for that player. The player feels like ‘Hey, this guy is always going to have my back.'”
Acta held fast to his principles, confident that if they didn’t carry him through with Washington they would work for him somewhere else. He likely won’t have to wait long to find out.
“But people didn’t see those times behind closed doors when he was a very different guy,” said team president Stan Kasten. “Out of sight of the media he could be very forceful and direct. I valued Manny’s essential qualities of being, as a veteran player said, ‘the same guy every day’ É I think that is characteristic of managers who are successful longterm.”
