October 19, 2007
Hillman to the Royals
The Kansas City Royals hired Trey Hillman to take over the team as the new manager:
The 44-year-old Hillman has never played, coached or managed in the majors. But he was always successful as a minor league manager, and his Nippon Ham Fighters are playing in the Japan Series for the second consecutive year.
"There is not a more qualified person out there to lead," Moore said by teleconference. "He's been a winner his whole life. There's a lot of guys with great bubble gum cards who aren't great managers."
Kansas City has seen plenty of them.
Tony Pena, Tony Muser, Bob Boone, Hal McRae, John Wathan and Billy Gardner all failed to get the talent-thin Royals into the playoffs. All but Buddy Bell either got fired or quit under pressure. Bell announced last August this would be his last year after the club refused to give him a contract extension.
Now, Hillman steps into what has been a managerial graveyard. He spent 13 years managing in the Yankees' minor league system and three times was a manager of the year.
My daughter hosted students from HokkaidÅ, Japan the last two years, and the Fighters success was a great source of pride for them. If Hillman can do that for Kansas City, he'll be a hero there as well.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:37 PM
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