Lenn Sakata gained a heartfelt, first-hand appreciation for what a savvy baseball manager could mean for a player’s career.
“Earl Weaver (at Baltimore) got the most out of his players; he probably saved my career,” a grateful Sakata recalls.
So, after an 11-year stay in the majors and a 1983 World Series ring with the Orioles, the Kalani High graduate eventually turned the experience and insight into a way to give back and began what would become a 15-year career on four levels as a minor league manager.
His biggest mark was made across 11 seasons in the Cal League with three teams — San Jose, Modesto and Bakersfield — sandwiching a stint as a coach alongside Bobby Valentine in Japan. Sakata notched the most victories (757), most consecutive winning seasons (eight), most playoff appearances (eight) and most playoff games won (33) in the circuit’s 75-year history.
In recognition, Sakata, who will be 64 next week and has been retired from baseball since 2015, will be inducted into the California League Hall of Fame next month in ceremonies at the league’s all-star game in Lancaster, Calif. He joins a class that includes Joe Morgan and Roberto Alomar.
Then, he will be feted by the San Jose Giants at Muni Stadium, where he led the franchise to three championships, and remains well-remembered, said Mark Wilson, the Giants’ vice president.
“One of the things I noticed from watching him for seven years was how you could see the players grow from the beginning (of the season) to the end under him,” Wilson said. “He had a way of teaching that players responded to.”
Cal League president Charlie Blaney said, “He’s deserving of the Hall of Fame not only because of his on-the-field success but because he was a real gentleman.”
Coming from college at Gonzaga, Sakata was a hard worker and quick study, spending two seasons in the minors before making his MLB debut with the Milwaukee Brewers at age 23 in 1977.
It also made him the second player of Japanese ancestry to reach the majors. (The first was a teammate on the Falcons’ 1970 state high school championship team, pitcher Ryan Kurosaki).
It was the lessons learned in his rise that he sought to pass on as a manager. Sakata said the idea was for his players “not to spend any more seasons in Class A ball and move on up as fast as possible.”
Of course, that also required them to embrace the relentless work ethic that helped Sakata to achieve remarkable longevity in one of the least secure roster roles, utility player, despite his 5-foot, 9-inch height. Though primarily a middle infielder, Sakata also saw duty at third base and in the outfield, and even an inning as an emergency catcher in the Orioles’ championship season.
While Sakata understood his role as a utility player, it didn’t mean he had to resign himself to it. And he didn’t. Former Orioles tell stories of the ferocity of his weight room workouts on the days when his name wasn’t listed on the lineup card.
From his window seat on team buses traversing the Cal League via the I-5 freeway corridor, Sakata has seen more than the California landscape roll by. He’s also witnessed a change in baseball and its incoming players.
Not all of it — the focus on analytics and the driving force of big contracts, in particular — sits well with him. “Today’s (players) think it is supposed to be easy (and about) how much money you make,” Sakata said. “We played because we loved it, because we wanted to see how good we really were. Money was like a fringe benefit. That’s what I learned from guys who went before me, guys like John Matias and Mike Lum.”
One question that hovers over Sakata’s tenure is why he didn’t get a nibble as a big league manager. He spent one year at the minors’ highest classification, Triple-A for the Giants in 2001, and came away preferring his role of developing players, but would have jumped at a shot in the majors.
That call never came. “I never held that against anybody,” Sakata said. “I just wanted to be good at what I was doing. If that was in ‘A’ ball, that was OK.”
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
