Ex-Giants exec part of Dodgers’ pennant
Frank Sinatra was a Giants fan, and his good friend Tommy Lasorda never knew. Until Ned Colletti told him. During the 1998 season, when the Giants were at Dodger Stadium for a nationally televised game, Colletti, then the Giants’ assistant general manager, and boss Brian Sabean were invited to watch from Lasorda’s booth. Sabean wanted no part of it, but they accepted because there was nowhere else to sit.
A few innings in, Colletti goaded Lasorda when asking, “Tommy, did you know Frank Sinatra was a Giants fan?”
As Colletti wrote in his new book, “You would have thought I said, No more free food. Telling Tommy that his pal Ol’ Blue Eyes was a closet Giants fan was far worse than telling him he had to pick up a check — which he was famous for not doing.”
Lasorda didn’t believe it and wanted to know the source. Colletti wouldn’t say, so Lasorda insisted. Eventually, Colletti told the story of his once-in-a-lifetime dinner party with Sinatra in 1992, when Colletti was working for the Cubs.
It was Sinatra who told his secret to Colletti, about how he loved the
Giants growing up in New Jersey across the Hudson River from the Polo Grounds.
Lasorda was so livid that, amid a string of obscenities, he kicked the Giants’ execs out of his booth. “As we walked down the concourse,” Colletti wrote, “Sabean looked at me and said, ‘You couldn’t have told that story a few innings earlier?’ ”
These days, Colletti is rooting for the Dodgers, who are heading to their first World Series since 1988 after beating the Cubs in five games for the National League pennant. He was their general manager for nine seasons through 2014, spent a couple of years as senior adviser and now works as an analyst on their TV and radio networks and teaches three sports management classes at Pepperdine University.
He’s also appearing at a few book signings to promote “The Big Chair: The Smooth Hops and Bad Bounces from the Inside World of the Acclaimed Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager.”
The book has a bunch of Giants-related anecdotes including Jeff Kent (of all people) recommending Colletti to then Dodgers owner Frank McCourt. Kent told McCourt he didn’t want to continue playing for the Dodgers if an analytics-driven GM would replace fired Paul DePodesta, and Colletti was hired by McCourt, who later was exposed as a scoundrel and run out of town.
Colletti no longer is in a decision-making role, but his fingerprints are all over the current roster. Ten of the players were acquired on his watch, and he also approved the move from catcher to pitcher for a minor-leaguer named Kenley Jansen.
“I’m proud of these guys,” Colletti said in a phone interview, also crediting scouts and staff with a hand in landing the players, “not just for reaching the big leagues but for being prominent players on one of the best teams.”
Colletti oversaw the drafting of Clayton Kershaw, Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, Joc Pederson, Ross Stripling and Kyle Farmer, the signing of Yasiel Puig, Justin Turner and Pedro Baez and the trade for Andre Ethier.
That was Colletti’s first Dodger trade, Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez to the A’s for Ethier, then a prospect. Bradley’s well-documented personality issues and his troubles with Kent and others prompted McCourt to tell Colletti to deal him ASAP.
For a good while, the Dodgers have topped the majors in payroll, and they’ve won the National League West five straight years, but they continued to fall short of the World Series until now. The difference this year? “I think guys have gotten tired of getting beat,” Colletti said. “The lessons learned when you lose haven’t been lost on this group. Most prominent has been the work of (manager) Dave Roberts, who has redefined the culture, in my opinion.”
Colletti cited Roberts’ handling of players — keeping them fresh in the summer to preserve them for the fall — including Puig, who has become far more accountable after a rotten 2016 in which he was demoted to the minors because of failures on and off the field, turning him into offseason trade bait.
“The Dodgers play it the right way. It starts with the manager,” Colletti said.
Of all the Colletti-acquired players, perhaps the most unlikely to become co-MVP of the NLCS was Turner, who signed a minor-league contract in February 2014 after the Mets dumped him. At the time, his career was mediocre, his knee was shaky, his role was utility.
As a Dodger, he rose to stardom as one of the game’s elite third basemen. He hit .333 in the NLCS with two homers — one that ended Game 2 — seven RBIs and five walks.
“Little by little, his work ethic got turned up in a huge way,” Colletti said. “He proved everyone wrong, and his defense is terrific. He went from an average defender to, if (Nolan) Arenado weren’t in this league, he’d be a Gold Glove third baseman. It’s all based on the work he put in.”
The Giants anticipated contending again alongside the Dodgers, who had eight winning teams and made five playoff appearances in Colletti’s nine years as GM — then made the playoffs in each of the three years post-Colletti, with many of his guys on the field.
But the Giants lost 98 times and finished 40 games behind the Dodgers.
“I was surprised with the year they had. I didn’t see that year coming,” Colletti said. “When you struggle out of the gate and lose one of the best pitchers in baseball (Madison Bumgarner, April 20 dirt-bike accident), things can snowball. I think it’s a team with talent. I don’t have any doubt about that.”
In his book, Colletti writes that the Hall of Fame should include Barry Bonds as well as Sabean. Counting his work at the ground floor of the Yankees’ dynasty, Sabean helped build 10 World Series teams in 19 years, seven that won it all, as Colletti writes.
Sabean and Colletti mostly were inseparable. They spent countless hours, often on long walks during team trips, talking about improving the roster.
“It was on one of those latenight walks along Rue Crescent in Montreal that we decided to make the tough choice of trading Matt Williams,” wrote Colletti, referring to the deal that landed Kent and others for the Giants, who went from last place in 1996 to first place in 1997.
Colletti helped Sabean build four playoff teams, including the one that got Colletti closest to a World Series championship: 2002, when the Giants lost in seven games to the Angels.
Now the Dodgers are heading to their first World Series in 29 years, and Colletti is digging it. So is Lasorda, the man who couldn’t comprehend that Sinatra was a Giants fan.
“We never spoke about it again,” Colletti said.