Proud of Parent

By BRIAN GOLDEN
Valley Press Staff Writer

Like the Valley's hate crime critics, you'd be wrong.

Mark Parent's teammates from his final major league season have heard all about his marvelous managerial debut with the Lancaster JetHawks.

"Oh, yeah, we know all about it," Philadelphia Phillies manager Terry Francona said during a weekend visit to Dodger Stadium. "Tell Bernie I said congratulations.

"And," Francona quickly added in the apparent new tradition of open microphone on Labor Day weekend, "tell him he's a (jerk)."

With the JetHawks poised to open the most anticipated postseason in franchise history Friday night, the final leg of a journey of destiny that began in March in Arizona, the prospect that Parent could prove to be the biggest managerial asset in all of minor league baseball is very real.

"I'm really happy for him," said Phillies catcher Mike Lieberthal, a two-time National League all-star in the period since his two-year tutorial under Parent. "He's one of my good friends.

"Mark is the kind of guy it's very easy to feel good for. He was a great teammate, and he's an outstanding teacher of the fundamentals of catching. I can't say I'm surprised he's turned out to be an outstanding manager."

In the 1997-98 seasons, Parent appeared in 73 games, starting barely half of them. The two seasons included 226 at-bats.

Yet they had impact. Parent walked the walk of his constant reminder to his players in the clubhouse at The Hangar that everything you do every day counts, especially just being a good teammate.

As choked as the game is today with self-interest, it still reserves its greatest rewards for the selfless.

The new Yankee dynasty is proof of that. So is post-Junior Safeco Field.

It's a lesson that no one had to teach Parent.

"It may sound simple, being a good teammate, but it's not," Francona said. There's a lot of pressure in this game to only think of your own AB's (at-bats), playing time and stats.

"That's what made Mark so valuable to us. We felt Lieby was close to becoming the kind of player he has become. We needed someone to come in and work with Lieby who wouldn't make him feel threatened. That was Mark Parent."

Francona has some advice for the players in Parent's clubhouse.

Watch. Listen. Learn. Imitate.

"Mark had a long stay in the big leagues (13 years) as a backup catcher because he made a lot of smart decisions," Francona said. "Most important, he knew the game backward and forward, which is why I'm not surprised at all that he's had such a great year in his first year as a manager.

"But he also never overpriced himself on a contract. He got along great with his managers and teammates. He was always there to help in any way he could. See, there's that 'great teammate' thing again."

To be sure, the Seattle Mariners equipped Parent with plenty of great teammates who've authored a season for the ages.

Yet, talent on paper is no guarantee. Particularly when the paper is U.S. legal tender, folding green. The Baltimore Orioles prove that.

Fittingly, the Birds and another great former Parent teammate, Cal Ripken, Jr., will be in Anaheim this weekend.

Ripken Jr. forevermore gave "Cal" League a spiritual meaning in Lancaster by breaking Lou Gehrig's hallowed games played record a few hours after The Hangar's groundbreaking in 1995.

Ripken Sr. was Parent's mentor. How proud Cal's dad would be of the 68-game turnaround Parent has engineered from the 55-85 nightmare of 1999.

Proud. But not surprised.

Uploaded September 5, 2000