Roland Hemond interview

[StatManDu]

Today is the 35th anniversary of the Dick Allen trade ... In honor of that, here is a column I wrote for my local paper when Roland Hemond came to town (I cut and paste since it's mine) in April. Hemond touches on a few interesting topics ... I have talked with Hemond many times and every time is better than the last.

 

Enjoy!

 

In my gleeful post-World Series column of Oct. 28, I called Ozzie Guillen the most significant figure in the history of the Chicago White Sox.

Not a bad call considering Guillen had brilliantly managed the team to their first World Series title in 88 years after a playing career that included a division championship, a Rookie of the Year Award, a Gold Glove, two All-Star berths and tremendous popularity.

However, after a conversation I had in Kenosha recently, I am thinking of changing my mind.

Roland Hemond is certainly in the running for the title of “Most Significant Figure in White Sox History.”

Without stretching the bounds of credibility too much, it could be argued that if Hemond had never joined the White Sox, the White Sox would be no more.

On Sept. 2, 1970, Hemond was hired as White Sox general manager with the team mired in its worst season ever. When 1970 ended, the White Sox were 56-106, 42 games out of first place and had drawn only 495,355 to Comiskey Park.

Hemond and manager Chuck Tanner improved the Sox by 23 wins and nearly 400,000 fans in 1971.

Following that campaign, Hemond made one of the greatest trades in club history when he acquired the enigmatic Dick Allen from the Los Angeles Dodgers for Tommy John and Steve Huntz.

It was a deal that provided the White Sox with a superstar drawing card and it carried the franchise through the middle part of the decade.

“That club was in dire straits when Chuck Tanner and I joined them in September of 1970,” Hemond said prior to the Outstanding Kenoshan Banquet last week at UAW Local 72 Headquarters.

“We made quite a number of trades that first winter and improved by 23 games. The next year, Al Campanis of the Dodgers said he would consider trading Dick Allen. He wanted Tommy John and Terry Forster. I said, ‘I can’t give you Forster. He could be another Koufax.’ In any event, we arrived at a trade.

“Chuck Tanner had known Dick real well. They lived in the same area. I said, ‘Chuck, what do you think?’ And Chuck said, ‘I’d love to have him.’ ”

Allen went on to win the 1972 American League MVP Award in becoming (with the help of the club’s TV voice Harry Caray) one of the most popular figures in Chicago.

The sheer force of Allen’s talent kept the Sox in the hunt for the Western Division title for most of that season before they succumbed to the eventual World Series champion Oakland A’s.

“Allen came and he was a success story, the MVP,” said Hemond, who was at the banquet because he was instrumental in signing its honoree -- Bob Lee -- to a contract with the Milwaukee Braves in the 1950s.

“The club drew over a million. If (third baseman Bill) Melton (who had won the last two A.L. home run titles) didn’t come up with a herniated disc in mid-season, he played just 60 games that year, I think that club would have gone onto the World Series.”

Four years later, another crisis surfaced and it appeared the Sox were headed out of town. Bill Veeck arrived on a white horse with investors and kept the team (and Hemond) in Chicago. In Hemond’s second season with Veeck, the Sox fielded one of the most entertaining teams in club annals, “The 1977 South Side Hit Men.” Hemond-acquisitions Richie Zisk, Oscar Gamble, Eric Soderholm and Chet Lemon powered the Sox to 90 wins and another strong, franchise-saving showing at the gate (a record 1,657,000 fans).

When Jerry Reinsdorf’s group bought the club in 1981, they wisely kept Hemond. Two years into the ownership, the “Winning Ugly” Sox cruised to the American League West title.

The franchise was unable to sustain that momentum and faltered badly in 1984.

Hemond responded to that malaise by acquiring an effervescent 20-year-old shortstop named Ozzie Guillen in a blockbuster trade with the San Diego Padres that had the Sox surrendering LaMarr Hoyt, just a season removed from 24 wins and a Cy Young Award.

While Hemond didn’t know he was acquiring a World Series manager at the time, he said Guillen displayed leadership ability early in his professional career.

“(White Sox) scouts Jerry Krause and Duane Shaffer told me how much (Guillen) loved to play,” said Hemond, who was wearing his World Series ring in Kenosha that night.

“When he showed up the next spring, I was stunned to see how small he was. (Manager) Tony LaRussa had a great chat with him in spring training (in 1985) and he went about his work real well.

“He took charge of the infield. He’d come in and talk to the pitcher. He was always very much into the game. He showed traits of leadership and managerial possibilities. When he was playing in the farm system of the Padres, he was the same way.

“He showed the attributes of being a manager. You can’t predict what happened (with the World Series) but it’s not surprising that he was Manager of the Year and had all that success.”

If that wasn’t enough, Hemond was also the man who drafted Kenny Williams -- the general manager who assembled the 2005 World Series team -- into the White Sox organization.

The Sox used a third-round pick on Williams in the 1982 draft and lured him away from the Stanford football program, which at that time had John Elway at quarterback.

“Jerry Reinsdorf helped to sign him,” Hemond said. “He visited with the family to sign him.

“We knew since he was a football player he would be tough to sign but we got him.”

There was some turbulence between Hemond and the White Sox.

He lost his general manager’s job to Ken Harrelson after the 1986 season. Following stints in the Baltimore and Arizona organizations, Hemond was brought back to Chicago by Williams as an Executive Advisor the General Manager, the position which he currently holds.

In his sixth season back with the White Sox, Hemond watched the scrawny shortstop he acquired from the San Diego organization and the outfielder he talked out of a football career at Stanford push the White Sox to a championship.

He attended Games 3 and 4 of the World Series in Houston — because of the length of Game 3 both contests fell on his birthday — and watched the Sox finish off the Astros for the title.

“It was hard to describe,” said Hemond, a baseball lifer who has spent more than a half century in the game.

“It was very emotional for me. That’s the ultimate of my career.”

Not a bad run for the Most Significant Figure in White Sox History.

 

journals.aol.com/dmarran359/Soxalmanac/

[Chisoxfn]

Cool story and welcome aboard

 

Roland is an interesting man. He sometimes goes on talks that are a little too long but he's a very kind man that loves the game of baseball.

[TLAK]

My brother tells a story about Hemond in the early 70’s. He and a friend were season ticket holders and Roland would prowl the stands before the games. They would scan the Sporting News and find the most obscure prospect in the low minors and ask about him. Hemond would reply with what the player did in his last game, how his season was shaping up and any health problems. He was always positive about the player, even those he would release the next week.

 

They tried to stump him and trick him but Roland knew every guy cold. The Sox had maybe 200 players under contract and he was up to the minute on every one of them. The story made an impression on me, in that what we read about a GM in the papers or hear on the radio is just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to his own team a GM has to be on top of just about every player in organized ball in the case of a trade. Plus the thousands of young amateurs who can be drafted or signed.

 

Being a GM for a Major League team might be the hardest job in sports, but I would also guess it is the most fun job a man could ever have.

[TLAK]

Sorry about the bump but this is a wonderful quote from Roland Hemond, who had a triple bypass in '02, talking about Jim Hendry's angio:

Hemond had some final advice for Hendry, something that is easier to say than to do:

"What I learned [after surgery] was to enjoy the victories and go to bed early when you lose."