Early next month, the Newark Bears will bring Tim Raines to the podium at Riverfront Stadium and announce him as their newest manager. It’s a perfect match, bringing in a big name to drum up support for a club that went bankrupt and back to life all within a matter of weeks. But, throughout this whole ordeal, one of the key pieces from last year’s team was left in the dark.
Wayne Krenchicki had been an Atlantic-League lifer up until Oct. 24, the day the Bears temporarily closed-up shop. The eight-year major league veteran started his A.L. career managing the Newburgh Black Diamonds (1998) before moving on to the Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds (1999-2000), Camden Riversharks (2001-06) and eventually the Bears (2007-08).
“I was there since the start,” Krenchicki said on the phone last Monday. “There were good times, but there were also times early on when I had to keep players on the field when they were getting late paychecks.”
Krenchicki has over 1000 career managerial victories and helped lead the Bears to their second title just two years ago. With that extensive resume, you’d think someone would let him know the Bears were moving on without him. Even a thank you from the league for all he’s done would have sufficed.
“I have no problem that they wanted to bring somebody in they’re comfortable with,” Krenchicki, the league’s second all-time winningest manager, said. “But I at least feel I deserved a phone call.”
Krenchicki said he didn’t hear one word from anyone in the team or league’s front office once the season ended. The only exception was Bears CEO John Brandt, but that was to talk as friends. Regardless, it wasn’t Brandt’s job to tell Krenchicki he wasn’t coming back.
“I really feel disrespected,” Krenchicki said. “To me there was a lot of non-professional things that happened.”
I reached out to Bears owner Tom Cetnar after speaking with Krenchicki and asked him why the two hadn’t connected He told me he owed Krenchicki a call. The next morning, I received an email from Cetnar, who said that he spoke with Krenchicki and it was a miscommunication that they didn’t talk earlier.
“I had every intention on calling him earlier and meant no disrespect to him,” Cetnar wrote. “He was a huge success on the field here.”
I followed up with Krenchicki, who acknowledged the call. He still feels like someone should have let him know if he was in consideration for the job he held last season. That, and a thank you from the league. (Krenchicki did say executive direct Joe Klein left him a voicemail, but that was only after Klein said he saw a mutual friend and thought of him.)
Krenchicki has since moved on. He, along with last year’s pitching coach Steve Foucault and hitting coach Ryan Jones, are teaming up again to head a new team’s staff. Krenchicki won’t say where they’ll be coaching, but says an announcement should come by the end of the week.
As for his replacement, Krenchicki is familiar with Raines. The two were teammates with the Montreal Expos in 1986, Krenchicki’s last year in the big leagues.
“Tim’s a great guy and a heck of a player,” Krenchicki said.
It sounds like the Bears lost a standout guy, but gained another.
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