Rays’ new boss gets his shot

By TOM BONE

PRINCETON — When Michael Johns’ minor-league baseball career was nearing an end, he decided he could “serve the sport by coaching.”

That has led to his first professional baseball managing assignment — to run the Princeton Rays Appalachian League ballclub beginning in June.

Johns met with the media on Tuesday afternoon in Princeton and outlined his approach to the sport he loves.

“We’ll be aggressive on offense, and very conservative on defense,” he said.

“Obviously, the Rays’ emphasis is getting guys to the big leagues to help the Rays win the World Series,” he said. “We don’t have the bankroll that some teams do in our division, at the major league level. We know who they are. So, we have to develop from within.”

That player development role doesn’t mean he will ignore trying to win games, he said. “I think winning breeds winning,” he said. “Players want to win at every level.”

Johns, 35, is a native of Florida and a graduate of Tulane University. After a two-year playing career in the minor leagues for the Colorado Rockies, he took a job as a history teacher and assistant baseball coach at a Florida high school.

He moved on to a head coaching role at Orange Park High School for three years, and spent the summers of 2008 and ’09 on the coaching staff of Tampa Bay’s New York-Penn League affiliate, the Hudson Valley Renegades.

There he met Jared Sandberg, a former Princeton player who was the P-Rays’ field manager last year.

Johns said, “Last year, I talked to Jared a lot during the season — because I was with Jared (in 2008) and we got to be very good friends and kept in touch. I knew that was his first year managing, and he would want someone to talk to ... .”

Johns has prepared himself for the role of field manager.

He said, “I think, when I got released after my second year with the Rockies, I kind of realized then that I was not going to be a big-leaguer — not that I was short on tools. I think I had ’em. I just wasn’t real consistent.”

When he decided to take the high-school coaching-teaching job, he said, “It was a hard decision, but it’s not one I’ve ever regretted. I kind of knew as a player that I was probably never going to be a big-leaguer, so I tried to pay attention to what-all was going on.”

While a player, he said he focused on “what the manager was doing ... even try to sit by them. Not necessarily to ask them questions, but to see how they acted, how they interacted with players.”

Since he was an infielder, he said he was careful to observe how pitchers and catchers operated in case he had to work with them.

Still, he said, giving up on playing was “tough. When it’s your life for that long, it is a tough pill to swallow. But I wouldn’t take it back for anything in the world. I gave it everything I could; I just wasn’t good enough.

“I hope the kids that we have can say that, the ones that don’t make it to the big leagues. I don’t ever want them to feel like they were cheated. We try to get the most out of them.”

Johns said once he was in the Tampa Bay organization, he met with Mitch Lukevics, the club’s director of minor league operations.

“He asked me if I’d like to manage at some point, and I told him that I would. After a year of minor league baseball as an instructor, I wasn’t ready. But I felt like after last year, I was.”

When he got the assignment, “I was ecstatic,” Johns said. “When he did call me that day, it was an exciting day. They told me I was coming to Princeton. I knew a lot about it from the previous manager.”

He was asked about the difference between coaching and managing in pro baseball.

“You coach, and that’s it, and you can leave. With a manager, it’s not like that. You have to deal with the media — which is a good thing, I’m not saying it’s a negative — but it is time consuming. You have to deal with a lot more reports. There are a lot more responsibilities.”

“Your time is split. While coaching is still the No. 1 priority, you have a lot on your plate.”

Johns said he also expects to have to “deal with the players in a little different way. As an assistant ... you don’t have to ever drop the hammer on them, like the manager does.”

He said he was glad to be in a town where the fans “really get behind you.” And the location has hidden advantages in terms of managing player conduct.

“It’s a more intimate setting, which isn’t a bad thing at all. These guys are here to play baseball, No. 1. If there’s not a lot to do in the town for a 19- or 20-year-old, that’s good for me. ... Here, it’s baseball, all day. And that’s the way it should be.”

In minor league baseball, “Players talk,” he said. “They’ve heard about the town before they go there. All these guys have heard about Princeton. ...

“They understand what they’re coming into, they understand the dynamics of the city, they understand what we expect out of them.”

He said he expects Princeton to be “a very comfortable environment for them.”

General manager Jim Holland said, “First impressions are important, and Michael struck me right away as a guy who’s going to be a good fit in our community. We have to have a good mesh of fan, coach and player alike to be a successful operation.”

“We’re real excited to have him.”

For the second straight year, Princeton will be under the command of a rookie manager, but that doesn’t bother Holland in the least.

“We’ve had a lot of successful first-year managers,” he said. “It certainly wouldn’t bother us if history repeated itself.”

Johns also talked about the Mercer Cup, presented to the winner of the annual series between Princeton and Bluefield.

The new manager said, “They told me how important it is to the town of Princeton — and if it’s important to Princeton, it’s important to me. ... But again, I’m not going to sacrifice player development to win the Mercer Cup. Hopefully, they can co-exist.

“Hopefully, our best players can beat their best players, and we can keep the Mercer Cup here.”

One of Johns’ emphases is base stealing, which he said is part of the entire Tampa Bay organization. “Kids like to run,” he said. “They do. They like to steal. Even someone like a catcher, he wants to get five or six when nobody’s looking.”

“I think we teach base-running as well or better than anybody (else) in all of baseball. Usually the major-league team is in the top three or four in stolen bases.”

He also said the organization also emphasizes “running the bases smart.” He said, “If you have a bad base-running team, you can certainly run yourself out of innings.”

• • •

Also at the Tuesday luncheon, Holland announced that the Princeton franchise will be partnering with the Jonathan Powell Hope Foundation, which is based in Princeton.

“We’re hoping to raise a lot of money for families suffering from pediatric cancer,” he said.

He said that the shortstop for the Princeton Rays last summer, Daniel Rhault, “is lending his name to this campaign.”

Holland said that Rhault was diagnosed with childhood leukemia when he was very young. Rhault spent many days in a hospital and was told he was cured at the age of 13.

— Contact Tom Bone at

tbone@bdtonline.com

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