Detroit Tigers: Is Ownership Handling Management Transition with Class?
Multiple new sources today have reported that Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus will be fired by the end of the year. While this information is not unexpected, the timing of it, and the fact that the report leaked in the first place, is.
Brad Ausmus, while not the best tactical manager, has done nothing but represent the Tigers well. He didn’t complain about ownership not getting him a bullpen in the offseason. He didn’t complain about his stars being traded away, which basically pulled the plugs on a season that was already on life support. He has come to the podium after every game, answered the questions asked of him and tried to do the best he could. And I would say he has done it all with class.
In return, the Tigers basically (if unintentionally) notified the public of his impending firing, before it even happened. Before the season even ended. And it led me to wonder: Are the Detroit Tigers turning into a classless organization? Brad Ausmus must now go out and answer questions about his future, while trying to get his team ready to play. Now that the news is out, he now has to wonder if the axe will drop today, or tomorrow, vs. the end of the season, which is the normal business practice. It is an awkward position for a man to be in.
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Then we have the whole Dave Dombrowski situation. His firing was weird in many ways. The timing was weird (right after the trade deadline), the statement from the ownership was weird (“while we had some success”), but most weird to me is that fact that Dombrowski was fired over the phone. And, apparently, that he had no idea that it was coming.
This violates a basic management principle, which states that a person should never walk out of a performance review surprised. Good management, and good managers, always let you know exactly where you are standing throughout the year.
And if management decides they want to, or have a reason, to terminate you, another management principle is that they do it in person. Especially if that person has worked for you for almost 14 years. And don’t just do it because the management handbook so says – do it because it is the right thing to do. It doesn’t matter if you are angry at them.
A professional – and, I daresay, a classy – organization would still look someone in the eye and tell them they are fired. If the owner is too sick to walk down and do it, then you appoint a representative (ummm, your son, who is also a senior manager) to do it. Heck, at a minimum have an HR person do it.
What does this mean regarding Mike llitch and the Tigers? I don’t know. Is it a reflection on the owner, and the amount of money he has spent with no return? Perhaps – the Detroit Red Wings haven’t seemed to experience this kind of behavior. Is it a reflection of Chris Ilitch’s growing influence? Possible. Or is it the growing pains of a new GM (Al Avila) making a simple mistake of telling someone something he shouldn’t have?
We will never know. But I hope that the Tigers, as representative of Detroit sports, starting acting the way they used to, and not the way they have been recently. As Chris Ilitch takes more and more control of the Tigers from his dad, it is something that we should pay attention to.
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