Things to do. His job. His life. A baseball man, a baseball game, a playoff game. The most important games of Charlie Manuel's managerial career so far, games that can once and for all establish his authenticity at the job.
Joe Torre, 68 and headed to the Hall of Fame someday, managing on the other side. Charlie Manuel, who has spent too much of his 64 years on this earth proving that his mama didn't raise no dummy, with the early advantage.
Another big game. Another big moment. But this one, like the last one, missing one big element.
No June Manuel. No phone call.
"She called me about four, five times a week," Manuel said of his mother, who died Friday of complications from a heart attack at age 87. "I'd say about the last 8 or 10 years she's always made a point to call me quite a bit."
June Manuel took a keen interest in her oldest son's managerial career. More and more as the years mounted, he said later while sitting on that dugout perch, so proud of what he had done with his life.
She watched all the games. She questioned some of the moves, especially the ones that didn't work.
"I never listened to her anyway," he said. "I'd just say, 'Yeah, Ma, whatever.' Sometimes I might get a little upset. I'd say, 'One of these days I'm going to bring you up here and let you tell them.' "
She had 11 kids, including an older brother who died in his first year of life with a heart abnormality. Manuel spoke of him on the dugout seat, too, of how she was really glad when Charlie came along, and the three brothers who followed. They worked jobs in high school to supplement the $137 a month in Social Security his mother tried to feed the family on.
He was proud of that number, maybe more than any number from his career.
