This One's For Evers
This year's IL Governor's Cup marks five league championships in 17 years for Bill Evers, one of the best, and most under-appreciated, managers in baseball.

By DAN HICKLING
MinorLeagueNews.com

Paunchy, be speckled, his face a diary of a life spent in baseball. Bill Evers has yet to hit 50, but could pass for 10 years older.

He isn't much to look at, to be truthful about it. But boy has he compiled one beautiful resume.

Evers, the only manager the Triple-A Durham Bulls has ever known, has just skippered the Bulls to their second straight International League title.

To Evers such feats are getting to be old hat.

He's now won five league championships in 17 years as a dugout boss, including two in a row with Double-A Shreveport back in 1990-91.

Unless a well-deserved and long overdue big league job comes his way soon, he's likely to keep collecting those shiny rings.

After all, he does have five more fingers on which to display them.

One wonders what the native of New York City has to do to start drawing a major league paycheck.

"He deserves a chance somewhere, because he's a great manager," said Bulls second baseman Brooks Badeaux. "He comes out ready to play everyday, just like we do."

Evers' accomplishments are all the more remarkable when you consider that he has been mired in what has been the worst organization in baseball, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

"I just do what I do. I hope I help some players get better, and get them to the big leagues," Evers said.

He's got them there all right. Sadly, the likes of Larry Rotschild and Hal MacRae, both of them failures at the D-Rays helm, have done little with those players once Evers has handed them over.

Let's crunch the numbers:

Evers' teams in Durham have rolled up a .543 regular season winning percentage, since the Triple-A club set up shop in 1998. They have made the playoffs every year but one, causing an overcrowding problem in their trophy case.

Tampa, on the other hand, has managed just a .395 winning clip over the same period, and has nary a winning season in its entire existence.

Not that the D-Rays' front office has shown much insight into their management problems. Lou Pinella's acquisition was a last-ditch, high-profile attempt to placate increasingly angry season ticket holders who can shell out over $120 per butt for seats at the Trop.

Pinella's confrontational drive to win may kick a few back-sides in the clubhouse in the short-term, but it won't last long. Neither the money nor the recruiting is there for a classic Pinella winning team. If the Yankees, or, heck, just about anyone who looks like they want to field a winning club, come a-calling, Pinella is probably out the door.

Sadly the D-Rays have some great talent in the minors. In Evers and his current crop of kids, they have the potential to develop a core organization much like the Dodgers did in moving up multi-championship players and their coach, Tommy Lasorda, during the 1970s. An approach which Dodger alum and Angels skipper Mike Scioscia used to some success in 2002.

When it comes to gloss or game, the D-Rays usually go gloss. Evers, ever the good soldier, has stood by while the D-Rays by-passed him over for retreads and image band-aids.

Evers rep is very well known around baseball's front offices. Any aspiring new GMs should pull out their notebook and put his home number in it. If your skipper isn't manning the helm well, there is one willing and able submerged within the D-Rays organization who could do a lot to reshape a major league club.

"If I happen to get a chance up there, that would be great," Evers said. "It's something you aspire to, day in and day out. Year after year. That's why I work hard at what I do. Hopefully I'll get an opportunity."