in the Bushes

Q & A
Steve Turco
Posted January 6, 2000

The 1999 season was Steve Turco's sixth season as manager of the Johnson City Cardinals, the Cardinals' rookie level affiliate in the Appalachian League. It takes a special individual to be a manager at this level of professional baseball. Most of his players are just out of high school and many are out on their own for the first time in their lives. There are also a few who are in their second or even third season at the rookie level, still trying to work on the skills needed to advance in the system. Add to this mix the crop of young Latin American ballplayers who have left their homeland for the promise of better opportunities in America and cannot speak English and you can see the challenges that Steve Turco faces every season. I had the opportunity this summer to interview him at Howard Johnson Field, the home of the Johnson City Cardinals, and discuss the many facets of being a rookie level manager.

Q: Could you tell me about your role as a teacher at this level of minor league baseball?

A: Well, certainly when you get guys playing their first year of pro ball and sometimes their second season, what they've learned at the high school and college levels all really have to be restructured and reorganized. All of the stuff that they've done and the things that we do here are completely different...Fundamentally, whether it be defense, baserunning, [or] pitching, there are a lot of things that we try to introduce to them at this level to give them a foundation for moving up the ladder and playing in the higher minor leagues and the big leagues someday. So that's basically what I do here.
     We wear many hats as the manager at this level: you're a surrogate father, you're a teacher, you're a police officer at times. There are a lot of things that we have to do here...We have a lot of fundamentals that we cover in spring training. We have an extended spring for the guys that are left over that are still down with us in Florida. But when we get up here [to Johnson City], there are a lot of things that we have to cover with the players that just arrived [the new draft picks]...We hope that they show progress as we work. That's all you can do is...get these guys to be better players, to prepare them for the next level and eventually prepare them to play in St. Louis. That's what we're here to do.

Q: Most of these players are just out of high school. I suppose you also have to teach them how to conduct themselves off the field as well?

A: That's probably the tougher part of the job. What we try and do is assimilate in 32 players and try to get a cohesive unit and try to make them behave themselves as men. These are young men who've probably never been away from home. And now they're thrust out there in the world and having to deal with things on their own for the first time...My job just entails many, many things. You know, certain seasons there are more incidents than other with off-the-field problems. But that's something that we have to deal with. We try to do it in a constructive way...It's just like with any kids--I don't want to refer to them as kids necessarily but most of the guys that we have here are not even 21 years old, so they're not even the legal age to drink...So with that in mind, we have you can't really treat them as adults in some instances. You want to go ahead and give them the opportunity to handle themselves as men; at times, you can't. And it's just like with any other kid when you have to reprimand...

Q: Can you explain how the Cardinals handle the Latin American players? How do you get them acclaimated to playing in America?

A: We had English classes down in extended spring training for them and they're ongoing because they're doing them up here, which I think is a tremendous advantage for these kids to go ahead and learn the language to make themselves able to handle situations that may arise on their own. I can't be there all the time for them and fortunate for us we have both [roving instructor] Luis Melendez and [Johnson City pitching coach] Elias Sosa, who are both bilingual. It's a tremendous asset again for us at this level to have bilingual staff with us. I do not speak much Spanish, very little, so I have to ask for translations and someone has to interpret for me.
     It's not an ideal situation with a manager that doesn't speak Spanish, especially for the quantity of Latin kids we have this year. We started out with 15 Latin kids; for one reason or another, it's dwindled down to, I think, 10...It's a matter of them feeling comfortable with the surroundings and learning how to adjust to the United States. But this is a cultural shock for some of these kids who have never been here...They have more freedom here in certain ways than they did back there. It's learning how to handle things, so it's dealing with apartment managers, hotel managers. Hopefully no police but we did have an incident this year that had to be dealt with...By all means I would say the toughest part of this job is not on the field; it's more the off-the-field stuff. The on-the-field stuff if the stuff you're going to enjoy doing.

Q: Could you tell me about two of your players this season, Ben Johnson and Donovan Graves?

A: Ben's a tremendous athlete...He could have gone either way as a football or as a baseball player. A couple of nights ago, we had a play at the plate where he just leveled the catcher at Pulaski. I see where his football training came from, how he must have played the game...The guy has got good speed, he's got a good arm, he's got power, he's going to hit for average. I think he's going to be a full package for us. You love to see kids like that come around...
     [Donovan Graves] We like his size, we like his arm. He's been a quick study because his mechanics weren't nearly what they are now in just the short time that we've had him...[I]f you were to project that he was going to pitch in the big leagues, that wouldn't be a far cry. He's 18 years oldand he's just going to get bigger and he's got good arm strength already. he's got some poise for a young man, really unflappable when he gets out there, which is another one of those intangible things that you like to see...

Editor's Note: During the winter, the Cardinals organization reassigned Steve Turco as a scout in his home state of Florida. Former roving outfield and hitting instructor Luis Melendez will guide the Johnson City club in 2000.