Bonds was a Brave for a day

David O'Brien

[buckeyesrule]

Bonds was a Brave for a day

New Schuerholz book contains plenty of insider tidbits

By DAVID O'BRIEN

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 03/09/06

St. Petersburg, Fla. — Barry Bonds was a Brave for one night in 1992, Tom Glavine was ready to back out of a free-agent deal with the Mets and stay with the Braves in 2002 and Deion Sanders only used the Braves to demonstrate his athletic prowess.

Those are among the revelations in a surprisingly candid book by Braves general manager John Schuerholz. "Built to Win" is due to arrive in stores next week.

"It's not like me," said Schuerholz, who wrote the book with former Orlando Sentinel columnist Larry Guest. "But I was convinced by Larry and the publishers that in order for the book to have the attraction we wanted it to have, it had to be real and authentic."

He begins the first chapter by revealing that in March 1992, Schuerholz and Pittsburgh GM Ted Simmons negotiated a trade to bring Pirates star Barry Bonds to Atlanta in exchange for pitcher Alejandro Pena, young outfielder Keith Mitchell and a prospect to be named later.

"I was euphoric," Schuerholz writes. "Barry Bonds was a Brave! . . . There seemed no limits to what we could achieve over our approaching several seasons."

The morning after the GMs agreed to terms, the Braves were setting up a news conference to announce the deal at their West Palm Beach, Fla., spring training home when Schuerholz phoned Simmons, who told him he couldn't do the deal, apparently because Pirates manager Jim Leyland was furious that Bonds was being traded with a year left on his contract.

Schuerholz's account of the broken deal:

About an hour before the announcement, I decided to call Ted Simmons just to coordinate the timing of the release.

We have a problem," Ted said.

"What do you mean, a problem? Don't want to release it just yet? What?"

"I can't do the deal," he said.

"You can't do the deal? You did the deal! Ted, you agreed over the phone, general manager to general manager. We made the deal!"

In baseball, that's about as sacrosanct as anything gets. That had never happened to me, nor has it since, where there was a total reneging of a trade. . . .

I guess we can say Barry Bonds was a Brave for 15 hours. At that time of his career, he didn't have the right to approve a deal, so I'm not even sure if he is aware this happened."

Of a certain former Braves closer, he writers: "Big John Rocker, from Macon, Georgia. Had an arm like a cannon and a head like a cannonball."

Schuerholz covers a wide range of subjects, including the Braves' failed pursuit of free agent Alex Rodriguez; icy negotiations with iconic pitcher Glavine; the Rocker firestorm; Rafael Furcal's DUI charges; and the ill fits that Sanders and Kenny Lofton proved to be with the Braves.

"It's meant to take readers behind the closed doors of the general manager's office," Schuerholz said, "to let them see what we have to deal with, the decisions we have to make on a daily basis. It's all my view, my observations based on my perceptions of things that occurred."

Schuerholz, 65, was approached by Guest about doing a book following the 1991 worst-to-first season, when the Braves won the first of 14 consecutive division titles. Schuerholz wasn't interested at that time, preferring to wait to consider doing one closer to the end of his career.

He never imagined he'd do a book with as many personal details as "Built To Win" contains.

"I get into some pretty private and personal matters," said Schuerholz, who describes relationships with manager Bobby Cox, former Braves president Stan Kasten and former owner Ted Turner, among others. "I'm glad it's over. It took a lot more time than I suspected it would. But I'm happy with the way it came out."

Glavine revisited

Glavine was a career Brave before signing a three-year, $35 million contract with the Mets in December 2002, with a fourth-year option. The Braves offered a three-year, $30 million contract with an option based on innings pitched (Schuerholz didn't include in the book that Glavine was also asked by the Braves to defer $10 million without interest):

"They wanted four years [guaranteed] and no [option]," he writes. "Did his agent nudge him into being intractable on that? I don't know for sure, but I do know, from talking to both Tommy and [agent Greg] Clifton much later, that his agent played a large role in Tommy's ultimate choice to leave."

Schuerholz wrote that in the interim between telling the Mets on a Thursday that he would take their deal and flying to New York on Sunday to sign the contract, "Tommy went through a purgatory of second thoughts. . . . With all the second thoughts swirling around in his brain, Tommy called Bobby Cox at his farm in Adairsville, Georgia, that Saturday and, as Bobby related to us, said, 'I made a mistake. I don't want to do this.' Bobby called me, concerned about Tommy's well-being. He liked the guy. Tommy was like a son to him. Bobby said: 'John, I think you should call him.' "

Schuerholz said he called Glavine and the pitcher invited him to come to his house at the Country Club of the South in Alpharetta.

"He and his wife, Chris, and I talked," Schuerholz wrote. "The three of us talked and talked and talked. It was a tough visit. At times, we were all on the verge of tears. Tommy did most of the talking — about what was on his mind, about remaining a Brave. . . .

"I said, 'Tommy, we would be happy to have you remain with us if that's what you want."

Schuerholz said he and Kasten had decided their initial offer to Glavine was greater than they had hoped to make, and that they would come back to him with a flat two-year offer.

"After a lot of soul-searching, Tommy decided he was going to stay," Schuerholz wrote. "Quite obviously, he was relieved. His wife was relieved. And I was bouncing their son on my knee. . . .

"Stan alerted TBS that there could be a major news conference the next day. . . ."

But when Glavine didn't call him Saturday, Schuerholz called Sunday, and Glavine told him "simply that he had decided to stick with the Mets deal. . . . The issue ended with Clifton, and I suppose the union, persuading Tommy that it would be in everyone's best interest if he did not change his mind about the agreement he made with the Mets."

Deion and Lofton

Schuerholz writes that almost without exception, players brought to the Braves quickly adapt and abide by team rules and policies, and put the team ahead of themselves. Sanders and Lofton were two notable exceptions.

On Deion, he writes: "He always seemed to exert extraordinary effort to narrow the focus of the spotlight on him. It seemed to everyone with the club that it was important to him that the attention was directed his way and that it was all about him."

Schuerholz quotes Cox on Sanders: "Deion was for one thing — himself. He couldn't care less about the team. . . . It was all about Deion. And he didn't want to participate in our duties off the field — going to luncheons, fan photo days, things like that, responsibilities that come with being a Braves team member."

Ultimately, Schuerholz said of Sanders: "Good player. Good riddance."

Of another speedy leadoff man, he wrote: "After the '97 season, we similarly threw in the towel on center fielder Kenny Lofton, who also could never embrace our environment or ideals."

[buckeyesrule]

So Barry Bonds was almost a Brave? This sounds like an interesting book.

[raccoonradio]

(to the tune of Rice-a-roni jingle)

Bonds, the phony
The San Francisco cheat!