STATE COLLEGE — Departing State College Spikes manager Johnny Rodriguez is excited for his promotion to manage the Double-A Springfield Cardinals.
“Well, for one, it is more like real major league baseball,” Rodriguez said by phone recently. “Not that State College wasn’t, but at this level, wins and losses matter a bit more, pitchers hit, rosters don’t change as much. … It will change how I manage.”
Indeed, Rodriguez will be transitioning from the short-season single-A level, which is subject to pitcher inning limits, pitch type limitations, frequent roster changes and many more challenges that could leave a less-capable manager’s head spinning.
Rodriguez handled managing the Spikes with aplomb, as his 95 wins over his two seasons topped by the New York Penn League championship last season attest. Now, he will have the chance to manage at a level in which the rosters are not as subject to frequent, almost daily change. Though many players do come and go through the Double-A ranks, Rodriguez will have freer reign to manage as he pleases, and he will lean on his eight years in the Cardinals organization as a guide.
“Most of the players I will be managing are players that I’ve taught at the places I’ve managed at — Johnson City, State College, even at spring training,” Rodriguez said. “And that makes it easy. One of the reasons I like to jump around, but in the same organization, is that you get to know all of the players. You don’t have that if you leave organizations, and the grass is not always greener.”
Even taking into account the differences between the two levels, Rodriguez believes that many ideals are universal.
“If you make talented people work, and give them a role so that they can believe they are a part of something, you’ll get the most out of them,” Rodriguez explained. “From starting pitching, to the last three guys in the bullpen, and from your regulars to the last guy on the bench, if you use them like you are supposed to use them, you create a chemistry, and that can take you far.
“It took us pretty far in State College, didn’t it?”
No one could argue otherwise. The 95 wins speak for themselves, and the club was a couple of fluke games away in 2015 from going to the New York Penn League playoffs. If Rodriguez got a couple of breaks that year, he may be departing State College as a two-time NYPL crown winner.
Regardless of record or accomplishment, Rodriguez has glowing words for the Spikes’ organization.
“It was an incredibly fun two years,” he said. “It is a fantastic organization, and everyone plays a part, from the front office folks to the staff … everyone. It is a class act organization.”
It was professional faith on the part of the Cardinals that has rewarded Rodriguez with new opportunity and a chance to continue his baseball journey. It will be Rodriguez’s personal faith that guides him along the way.
“It is such a blessing that the Lord has given me, to have the Cardinals organization show this faith in me.” Rodriguez said. “It is a wonderful thing for my family.”
If one of the most well-known axioms in life is true — always leave a place better than when you found it — Rodriguez has certainly left a lot of the stops in his baseball life with fond memories.
Add State College to that list.
