'Preach and Teach'
Manager Acta's Positivity and Poise Are a Calming Influence on the Nats

By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 12, 2007; E01

Manny Acta is a man who, in recent weeks, kept a copy of "Tuesdays with Morrie" on his office desk. He leafs through the Successories catalog, which features posters and books filled with motivational sayings under pictures of soaring eagles or majestic mountaintops. He scribbles, on the grease board outside the Washington Nationals' clubhouse at RFK Stadium, slogans such as: "Everyone wants to win. Special people prepare to win."

Acta is 38, the youngest manager in the major leagues. He has stood on the top step of the dugout, responsible for the on-field future of a rebuilding franchise, for all of 88 games. Yet even as the Nationals have won just 36 and sit in last place in the National League East, Acta's mix of relentless positivity, defiance of outside expectations and realism about his team's chances have impressed most of those who watch him from inside the dugout and from the executive suites.

"We know one thing about this year," General Manager Jim Bowden said. "We hired the right manager."

As much as the Nationals pumped Acta's presence after they hired him in November -- saying both publicly and privately how impressed they were by his demeanor, presence, attitude and aptitude -- they couldn't know for sure until they saw him in the dugout, watched him before games, listened to him after. "We'd like him back next year," team president Stan Kasten said, grinning sarcastically.

To Acta, though, the comfort in his new position -- even amid what began as and likely will continue to be a season of struggle -- feels normal. Asked what the most significant surprise about his job has been, and his response is that he has to meet with reporters twice a day, once hours before the game and then again immediately afterward. A tiny fraction of the job, to be sure, but it also is a measure of how prepared he felt he was for this position. The other stuff -- double switches, juggling relievers, dealing with injuries, knowing the opposition, massaging egos -- was expected, routine.

"Knows the game," said Pat Corrales, Acta's bench coach. "Great knowledge of the game."

Corrales made his major league debut as a catcher in 1964, five years before Acta was born in the Dominican Republic. He was hired because both Acta and the front office felt that a young manager needs a sage nearby.

That might be true of Corrales, who managed more than 1,200 major league games for Texas, Cleveland and Philadelphia in the '70s and '80s, then served on Bobby Cox's staff in Atlanta for 17 seasons. But Corrales finds that when the Nationals misplay a ball or miss a sign, he is the one fidgeting on the bench. Acta moves on.

"I'm telling you, I get more upset than he does," Corrales said. "So even-keel. It's one of his strengths. He keeps his temper."

Acta rarely emerges from the dugout to question a call, has yet to get in an umpire's face, hasn't come close to being ejected. Some fans have questioned those tactics. Does it show a lack of fire? Acta's response is simple.

"What good does it do?" he said. "You're not going to get the umpire to change the call. You don't do your team any good by being ejected. I haven't seen one game changed because of an argument."

The serenity extends beyond disputed calls, beyond in-game situations. Each day, Acta meets informally with his coaches in his tiny office. "We try to pump him up," third base coach Tim Tolman said, "and in turn he pumps us up."

As the Nationals have suffered countless injuries -- beginning with center fielder Nook Logan and shortstop Cristian Guzman on Opening Day, followed by four-fifths of the starting rotation at some point in the first half -- there have been countless opportunities for "Why me" moments. But as Acta said last week, when starter Micah Bowie went down with another injury, "We got to move on."

"His calm and patience is one thing that's surprised me," said Tolman, who was the manager at Class A Burlington (Iowa) when Acta was a player-coach in 1991. "I think when you're a young manager coming up, you have ideas that, 'I'm going to be patient with the guys instead of fighting back.' And then once the reality starts hitting you in the face, like with some of the injury problems we've had, your natural reaction is to fly off the handle. But somehow he's kept his poise."

As the Nationals began the season 1-8, as they went through an eight-game losing streak to start the month of May, Acta insisted the losses rolled off his back. "Preach and teach," he said time and again.

The reality of that slogan has sunk in for Acta as the Nationals stumbled to the all-star break. Because so many of his players -- including projected star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman -- have so much to learn at the big league level, he finds himself having conversations about situations and plays that he used to have with his players in the minor leagues. Yet he does not use the word "frustrating."

"Not in my vocabulary," he said. The helpless feeling after the massacre at Virginia Tech? That's frustrating, Acta said. The problems for New Orleans residents in the years after Hurricane Katrina? That's frustrating. Baseball is not frustrating.

Even that Saturday night nearly two weeks ago, when Acta walked into the visitors' clubhouse at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. His club had lost for the sixth straight time, looked listless doing it. The door stayed shut, and Acta spoke. "Don't feel sorry for yourselves," he said.

"At the beginning of the season, he had a statement of what he thought was right, what he wants done," Tolman said. "He wants us to stick with that no matter what we go through. Anything that varies from that, we have to stop and nip in the bud."

In doing so, players and coaches said, Acta showed his external calm should not be seen as a lack of fire. Saying, as he does so often, "Let's go get them tomorrow" isn't idle chatter, but rather a testament of his intentions.

"One of the things Manny does best is just being positive, trying to keep that attitude that you're going to win," right fielder Austin Kearns said. "It's easy to fall into. I've seen it happen. You see guys come to the park and say, 'Oh well, you're supposed to lose anyway.' You got to be better than that, and he reminds us of that."

He does so because he expects to be in his position when the club is in first place, not last, when "preach and teach" has been replaced by something called "Nationals Baseball," a textbook of winning ways. When Acta interviewed for the job, Kasten was ecstatic over how enthusiastically he embraced the club's plan to rebuild. Now, in the midst of a losing season, he is perhaps more ecstatic that Acta's performance in the interview was genuine.

"He wasn't putting on an act for an interview," Kasten said. "He comes to the park expecting to win -- and expecting guys to expect to win. I love that he's not only on the bandwagon for our long-term vision. He's the leader."