Presence Bestowed Upon Nats

After three years with the Expos -- during which time he made an impression on some of the core players who, after the Expos were relocated to Washington in November 2004, became members of the Nationals -- Acta followed Minaya to the New York Mets, where he remained employed until this week. Through a team spokesman, Minaya and Mets Manager Willie Randolph declined to comment for this story.

Everyone in baseball, it seemed, had Acta pegged as a future manager, but despite being interviewed by the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers for their vacancies, the opportunity remained elusive. And then this spring, in what was perhaps the biggest break of his career to that point, the Dominican Republic team in the inaugural World Baseball Classic picked Acta to manage a team of superstars and egos, including David Ortiz, Albert Pujols, Miguel Tejada and Alfonso Soriano.

"One of the reasons [Acta was chosen] was because he gets along so great with the players, and everyone has respect for him," said Stan Javier, the general manager of the Dominican team. "The first day of workouts, he let [the players] know this is a team effort. He said: 'The main thing is, we're here to do a job. Everybody is the same.' "

Acta's refusal to cater to superstar egos was most visible in his benching of Soriano, the prolific slugger who at the time was in the midst of a messy position squabble with the Nationals, with Soriano resisting the team's proposed move from second base to left field. Though Acta considered Soriano a second baseman, when Soriano struggled in the opening games, Acta benched him in favor of Placido Polanco, who was not as productive a hitter but played better defense.

Although the Dominican team lost to Cuba in the semifinals, Acta led them to a 5-2 overall record, proving his managing skills on a world stage.

"The World Baseball Classic was crucial for him, because all those guys -- Ortiz and Pujols and the others -- had a lot of good things to say about him," Linares said. "The whole team was happy. It's not easy to keep everybody happy when you have all those stars and you can only play nine guys at a time. But every time you talk to one of those guys, they have only good things to say about Manny."

Acta, in fact, has had very few failures in his career. Even after he was fired as manager of the Leones del Caracas in the Venezuelan winter league in 2001 after his team underperformed, he switched to the Dominican winter league the following year and in 2003 led the Licey Tigers to the league championship, earning manager of the year honors.

"You can never say in baseball how well a team will perform," Javier said. "But I'll tell you one thing: [The Nationals] will play hard for him. They will respect him. And they're going to like him. I can guarantee you that."

Everything in life, with the apparent exception of playing baseball, seemed to come easy to Acta. Unlike most of the teenagers whom Linares encountered as a scout in the Dominican Republic, Acta was highly interested in school, where he wanted to study engineering. But once he decided to sign with the Astros, he applied his intelligence to learning English as quickly and as thoroughly as he could.

Within a few years, Linares said, Acta was conducting impromptu English classes for his Latino teammates. "I couldn't believe it when I found that out," Linares said. "He's just an extremely intelligent person."

Years later, Acta would return to studying, this time for the U.S. citizenship test, and when he passed, he put in a call to Linares, the old scout who says he considers Acta a son. "He was very emotional," Linares said. "I think he was crying. It meant so much for him to become a U.S. citizen."

A few years ago, when Acta was in Montreal, the U.S. customs office in Houston asked him to speak to a group of prospective U.S. citizens, most of them Latino, about the naturalization process. Acta's speech was so moving and articulate, half the room was in tears.

Whether standing at the lectern, or sitting on the dugout bench, Acta has this something, this presence. And beginning this week, it is coming to the nation's capital.

Staff writer Barry Svrluga contributed to this report.