Maryland product Riggleman manages to stay with Nationals

By David Driver
Posted: November 13, 2009

Ray Miller was born in Takoma Park, played baseball at Suitland High in Prince George’s County and managed the Orioles from 1998-99. Sam Perlozzo, who was born in Cumberland, guided the Birds from midway through the 2005 season through the middle of 2007.

Now, another Maryland product will have a more permanent managerial position near his home town. Jim Riggleman, a graduate of Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, had the interim removed from his job title Thursday when he was named manager of the Washington Nationals. Riggleman was named interim skipper of the Nats at the end of the 2009 season and posted a mark of 33-42 after Washington started the year 26-59 under manager Manny Acta, who was fired during the All-Star break. Acta will be the Cleveland manager in 2010.

Riggleman grew up watching the Washington Senators and to him the Nationals are part of that tradition, he said Thursday afternoon during a news conference at Nationals Park. “This has been a dream of mine. It’s D.C. baseball. It couldn’t be better for me. It is where I wanted to be. Mike has allowed that to happen,” Riggleman said of senior vice president and general manager Mike Rizzo, who also had the interim tag on his title for most of the previous season. “I am just very grateful. This happens to be my hometown. To end up coming here after several stops is very exciting.”

Riggleman has managed the San Diego Padres (1992-94), Chicago Cubs (1995-99), Seattle Mariners (2008 as interim manager) and Nationals (2009 to present) to compile a mark of 585-694. His Cubs’ team in 1998 was 90-73 and gained an NL wild-card spot. Riggleman was drafted in the fourth round as an infielder out of what was then Frostburg State College by the Dodgers in 1974. The Dodgers, six years earlier, drafted Bobby Valentine in the first round out of a high school in Connecticut. Valentine, according to published reports, was another candidate for the Washington managerial post.

The top pick in 1974 by the Dodgers was pitcher Rick Sutcliffe, who had a long major league career and was the Opening Day pitcher for the Orioles in the first game played at Camden Yards in 1992. Riggleman never made it to the majors but spent eight years in the minor leagues and later managed down on the farm. He credited all the minor leaguers who played for him on Thursday. “A lot of them didn’t make it” to the majors, he noted.

Rizzo appointed Riggleman the manager after Acta was let go last summer. “Halfway through the season we turned to Jim for stability. He did a good job in trying circumstances,” Rizzo said. Rizzo said Riggleman was a candidate for the permanent job as the team conducted a search for a manager that began with 18 candidates and was whittled down to 10. “We started out (the process) believing he did a good job last year,” Washington president Stan Kasten said of Riggleman. Washington pitcher Craig Stammen, who attended the news conference with fellow Nats pitcher John Lannan, said of Riggleman: “He is a man with a plan. We all needed a fresh start last year. It is very good for us pitchers. It is one less adjustment we have to make.” (Stammen, by the way, went to the University of Dayton and is a big college basketball fan. He hopes to see the Terps in action before heading home to Ohio for the holidays and the rest of the offseason.)

Riggleman said his coaching staff will be announced in the coming days. Stammen hopes the pitching coach will be Steve McCatty, a former major league pitcher who ended the season in that role with the Nats after starting the year at Triple-A Syracuse in the International League.

One can only hope Riggleman has a longer track record with the Nationals than Miller and Perlozzo had with the Orioles. Perlozzo, drafted by the Twins out of George Washington University in 1972, was at the helm for 286 games and posted a mark of 122-164 (.427). Miller, who managed the Twins before getting the O’s job, lasted 324 games for the Birds and was 157-167 (.485). Riggleman is now on the clock, after 75 games at the end of last year with the worst team in baseball.

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