Q&A with Dodgers GM Ned Colletti

ShareThis

LOS ANGELES -- More than a few Southland eyebrows rose incredulously when his hiring was announced Nov. 16, 2005, as the Dodgers franchise's 10th general manager since relocating from Brooklyn in 1958. Sure, Ned Colletti was a nice guy, a seemingly rising star in the game. But he was a stinkin' Giant, the non-believers intoned. Colletti, entering his third season as the Dodgers' GM after 11 years as San Francisco's assistant GM, shrugged it off then, though he ruffled feathers when he showed up wearing his 2002 N.L. championship ring, complete with S.F. logo, as he does now.The Dodgers went to the playoffs his first year at the helm but had an unsightly collapse last year. This offseason, he helped secure the services of future Hall of Famer Joe Torre as manager and engineered the signing of 10-time Gold Glove center fielder Andruw Jones while cobbling together an intriguing blend of youth and veterans on this year's roster.A Q&A with Colletti held recently:-- Question: How long did it take for you to get used to wearing blue instead of orange and black?-- Colletti: There's a difference between the job you do and who you do it for and the great memories you have. ... I've waited a long time to have this opportunity and my experience in San Francisco was tremendous, between Brian (Sabean) and Dusty (Baker) and Felipe (Alou) and Bob (Quinn, a former Giants GM). I learned a lot, the organization accomplished a lot in the time I was there and that was very, very great. It was a great period in my life, but when an opportunity like this comes about, you look back fondly but you look forward. I came in late, I came in late November of '05 so ... I really didn't have much time to be sentimental.-- Q: Tommy Lasorda said he always has a pep talk with former Giants who become Dodgers to make sure they understand where their loyalties now reside. He said when he saw you wearing your 2002 N.L. championship ring, he said, "Ned, either the ring or the finger, but one of them is coming off."-- A: That's true (laugh). That's very true.-- Q: Did you have a sense of the rivalry between the Giants and Dodgers before coming over?-- A: Oh, I knew it. I grew up in baseball. I'm 53 and I've been a fan of the game since I was 5 years old. I'm very well versed in great rivalries. Since I grew up in Chicago, I rooted for the Cubs and they had the Cubs and the Cardinals, I went to San Francisco and they had the Giants and the Dodgers, so I'm very much aware of the history of it and in some ways the uniqueness of leaving one organization for the other. Like so many things in life, there's some that you don't really have control over.-- Q: Did it take you a long time to get comfortable?-- A: I jumped right in because of the opportunity and because of what I want to accomplish in my own career. ... The chance to be a general manager in major-league baseball and for a franchise as storied as this one, probably as storied as the Giants, is great. It's something you aspire to and I'm blessed to have the opportunity.-- Q: Seems like there's a Bay Area Mafia taking over the Dodgers, with you and some of your hiring and signings. Is that by design or nature taking its course?-- A: I think that happens in a lot of situations where many times a general manager will start with their own staff and obviously their own staff is ... going to be comprised mainly of the club that they just came from. I was there 11 years, so it wasn't like I just stopped by. ... And so you develop great friendships and respect for the jobs people do and the (Giants) organization has a lot of good and talented people. In some cases we were able to offer a slightly better opportunity, an advancement, and some people decided that they wanted to give it a try.-- Q: Have you heard from disgruntled Dodgers fans who said you were trying to bring the Giants south with roster moves and office hires, lighthearted or not?-- A: I'll tell you one funny story. In July of '06, right after the All-Star break, we lost 13 out of 14 games and my office is down the left-field line on this (suite) level. So I need to walk through the concourse and we probably had lost eight or nine of that 13 and I was walking through the fans and some guy yelled out, "Hey, Ned, you still working with Sabean?" (laughs) So that was the extent of it.-- Q: How do the Giants and Dodgers compare as organizations? Obviously you're putting your imprint on the Dodgers.-- A: Both organizations strive to have not only talented players but players that have great respect for the game and are willing to grind it out day after day, and I think that speaks both to Brian's personality and my own because we're both like that. We grind it out every day and both organizations have that same principle. Everybody's looking for good players, that goes without saying. The makeup of the individuals, they have to be tough-minded and dedicated to the cause day in and day out. And I think (the Giants' teams, beginning in 1997) all demonstrated that and the plan is to do the same thing here, and I think that we've started to do that.-- Q: So right now you are where you wanted to be when you took the job?-- A: I think so. The difference is that we didn't have Barry Bonds in L.A. and so the way that that (Giants) team was assembled was different than here. We have tremendous pressure here; the bar here to win is very high. No question. We also have a group of young players that we believe (enough) in them to give them the opportunity to prove themselves and to grow with us. Last year, the last month of the season, we had a lot of games go in the wrong direction, because of a lot of different reasons, including youth, because we were willing to stay with them and to let them grow and mature both as players and as young adults ... We're willing to believe in the young players, so we're in a different place and time. I'm not being critical at all (of the Giants). ... We had Barry Bonds, the greatest player of his era, to build around (in San Francisco).-- Q: Does it still feel weird to face Brian Sabean and the Giants?-- A: Brian Sabean and I are going to be great friends until our last breath, and I'll forever be grateful for everything Brian, Peter Magowan, Larry Baer did for me and my career. I'll forever be grateful for that.-- Q: When you mentioned Barry earlier and how the roster in San Francisco had to be built around him, are you surprised that he's still unemployed?-- A: I don't want to get into that area. (Smile) I've got five outfielders.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)