Purpura due a great deal of credit

[Jimcs50]

Sept. 29, 2005, 12:09AM

Purpura due a great deal of credit
By RICHARD JUSTICE


This one is for Tim Purpura, who is a good man, an honest man and the architect of a remarkable baseball team.

Sometime in the next couple of days, the Astros will clinch their sixth playoff appearance in nine seasons. When they do, Purpura may be wearing the broadest smile in a clubhouse that will be filled with them.

Purpura handled this strange season as well as any man could have. He preached patience when it was in short supply. He believed in his guys when almost no one else did. He stuck to his core beliefs.

He thought Jason Lane could play. He thought Lane needed nothing more than an opportunity and some patience. He believed in Wandy Rodriguez, Willy Taveras and Morgan Ensberg, too.

When they're spraying one another with champagne, the Astros ought to remember what Purpura told them in a clubhouse meeting on June 1. They were 19-32 at the time. They were going nowhere.

"I believe in you guys," he said. "I've known some of you a long time. I know you can play."


New GM touts teamwork
Purpura waited too long for his shot. He waited while others, some of them not nearly as good, got GM jobs with other teams. After last season, he'd just about given up. He was ready to leave the Astros and return to California to begin a new career path.

He had a law degree. He had other interests. He loved baseball, but he was part of a front office that had tension. He was tired of tension.

And then Gerry Hunsicker resigned, and this good man got the job he wanted, really the only one he ever wanted.

He became general manager of the Houston Astros.

The first thing Purpura did, the thing he thought was more important than any player move, was to change the atmosphere.

He spoke to his staff about teamwork. He said everything they did had to be in the best interests of the franchise. During a meeting of the front office, including those on the business side, he introduced minor-league pitching instructor Dewey Robinson, who was passing through town.


All in it together
Purpura wanted every employee of the Astros to know something about Robinson. He wanted them to know how important he'd been in the development of Roy Oswalt, Brad Lidge and others.

He wanted them to know that when the Astros succeeded, there would be stars besides the ones getting the standing ovations and million-dollar contracts. Robinson symbolized all the others who poured their hearts and souls into making the Astros better.

Purpura fired some people and hurt some feelings. He wanted people who did things a certain way, who conducted themselves and dressed themselves in a way that would represent the Astros the way he believed they should be represented.

By the time he was done, he had assembled a first-rate staff, a staff that sat together and talked and shared ideas.

Purpura brought Nolan Ryan back into the organization in a substantive way. He pushed Ryan to hold a pitching clinic. He consulted him on decisions large and small.

Putting together a big-league roster was tougher. The Astros had lost Jeff Kent and Carlos Beltran to free agency. They'd lost Lance Berkman for a month because of a fluke knee injury. Jeff Bagwell started his last game on May 3.

The best thing Purpura did to fill those holes was ... nothing.

Purpura made his best decision by deciding not to trade for Randy Winn or sign Jeromy Burnitz or any of the other available veterans. He was not looking for short-term solutions.

Before overpaying for a veteran, he wanted to go to spring training and see what his kids could do. He considered them his kids, too, because he'd been their farm director. He'd watched them celebrate good times and endure bad.

He and Brad Lidge argued more than a few times. Yet once when Lidge was so distraught about his latest injury that he was ready to quit, Purpura tore out Robb Nen's biography and showed it to him.

He pointed out that Nen also had too many injuries in the minor leagues. He told him Nen had persevered and become one of baseball's best closers. If Robb Nen can do it, Purpura told Lidge, you can, too.


Faith in Lane
Purpura believed in Lane even on the Fourth of July, when his batting average was down to .226. He'd seen Lane succeed at every level of the minors.

In conversations with Lane, with manager Phil Garner, with reporters, Purpura never wavered.

"You've got to give guys a chance," he said. "That jump from Triple-A to the big leagues is a quantum leap. The mental adjustment alone is incredible. If the talent is there, if you've evaluated the talent correctly, it will eventually come out."

He was right.

Drayton McLane deserves credit, too. He'd mishandled negotiations with Kent over the winter. He'd vetoed the signing of Moises Alou.

But once the Beltran negotiations were done, once Purpura decided to go young, McLane supported him completely and unequivocally.

When the Astros were at their lowest, McLane held a meeting and told his people that winning the World Series was still the goal.


Different look
He believed that a positive environment — and an opportunity — was all the Astros needed. If others wanted to base everything on the speed of a bat or the life of a fastball, McLane thought the human spirit could play a role, too.

He saw his role as simply encouraging people to do more. Even when the Astros were terrible, he'd make a tour of the clubhouse right before game time to shake hands and smile.

He was right.

With Wednesday's win in St. Louis, the Astros are 72-41 since a 15-30 start. They return to Minute Maid Park tonight to wrap up the regular season with a four-game series against the Cubs. And then there will be another postseason trip to Atlanta.

They've had years when almost everyone thought they were baseball's best team. They've had years like 2004 when they needed a 36-10 sprint to the finish line.

This team is different from those other teams. It's younger and closer.

Six players made their major-league debut for the Astros this season. Nine rookies have played a total of 451 games.

Don't underestimate them once the playoffs began. They've got the best starting pitching in the playoffs. They've got the best closer. If Ensberg and Berkman continue to hit, if Lane continues to build on a great first season, the Astros may make this October as interesting as last October.

And this one, this improbable one, is Tim Purpura's vision.

richard.justice@chron.

[Jimcs50]

I will admit that I had my doubts about some of the non moves and moves that the Astros made or did not make this past offseason and season, but now I know that there was meathod to their madness. They saved millions by not over paying for Beltran and now they are in great shape to make a move in the playoffs because they have their great pitching and they have timely hitting...those two are a deadly combo in the playoffs.

I really feel better about Houston this year in the playoffs than last year. The Cards are struggling this year down the stretch compared to last year, when they were the obvious best team come playoff time, and they have some playoff experience now too.

Atlanta will be tougher this year in round 1, so it might be tougher to get to the NLCS, but once there, I feel that they will beat St Louis this time.

[Spurminator]

I wish we had retained Jeff Kent, because we could really use his bat in the 5th spot. But I have great confidence in Purpura and have since he was Hunsicker's understudy. He adheres more to the Billy Beane philosophy than Hunsicker, who had more of a Brian Cashman mentality without a Steinbrenner budget.

[T Park]

The Astros need to hope Burke fulfills his hype.

Adam Everett sure hasn't.