Bill Conlin: If Dodgers steal Lopes, Phillies should get Bowa

SO ALL YOU members of the Davey Lopes Fan Club - and I am one - are outraged that the Phillies refused to give their baserunning guru the raise he felt was merited.

And let's not call it a raise, per se. Token of appreciation, or status bump, says it better.

This was more about entitlement, the place Davey holds in the game, than about dollar signs.

If Lopes Fan Club members are planning to throw a fund-raiser for poor Davey - don't bother.

I have no idea what his salary has been as the only baserunning coach in the game with the authority to oversee every aspect of the running game - including when to go. The salaries of big-league coaches vary wildly. I'll get to that in a bit.

Lopes and the rest of the coaching staff earned $606,811 as their full shares for the 2008-09 World Series. They got a nice division series payday in 2007 and will get a generous loser's slice of this year's NLCS swag.

Early last March, I sat next to the practice infield adjacent to Bright House Field for 45 minutes watching Lopes working with Domonic Brown on a variety of baserunning fine points.

Getting a proper secondary lead . . . The correct way to dive back to first on a pickoff attempt . . . Getting a jump off a walkup lead - Davey was a master at strolling casually off first with a small lead, then exploding toward second on the pitcher's first move . . . Correct first-step technique.

After the session with Brown, I asked how the uber-prospect had done. Lopes did not look thrilled. "He needs work, a lot of work . . . "

The work Lopes did with Jayson Werth turned a perceived platoon outfielder with raw baserunning and outfielding skills into a five-tool-level star who is going to hit the mother lode as an elite free agent. Yep, the class of 2010 was listed minutes after Giants closer Brian Wilson drove a stake into the hearts of the pitching-whipped Rangers.

Lopes also earned nearly $3 million during his long playing career, substantial money for that era. He has made a manager's salary with the Brewers and been gainfully employed in professional baseball for 42 years. At age 67, he will be able to collect the maximum $140,000 a year players association pension. Tack on about $30,000 more in Social Security and you've got a better retirement package than a former U.S. president. Thank you very much, Marvin Miller and Donald Fehr.

Former Mets general manager Steve Phillips, who has had his own recent trials and tribulations, is an analyst for MLB. He wrote an intriguing piece for Fanhouse last May on the importance of a quality coaching staff to a winning team. What jumped off the page was the apparent wild disparity in salaries from organization to organization. The No. 1-rated pitching coach - that would be the Cardinals' Dave Duncan, Tonto to Tony LaRussa's Lone Ranger - makes $800,000. The top hitting coach - it obviously isn't Milt Thompson or Greg Gross - also makes $800,000.

Phillips maintained it is a relative pittance considering these top-shelf coaches are instructing elite players earning 20 times more than them in some cases. It takes a special skill set for a coach to mentor athletes wrapped in a cocoon of that much wealth. Maybe that explains the Ryan Howard, "I'll do it my way" vibes the Big Piece seemed to radiate as lefthanded breaking balls turned him into a flailing, almost oafish, figure. If Howard and Pat Burrell had a bat fight at close range, there would be no injuries save for windburn.

Phillips wrote in the case of the highest-paid hitting coach, "On average, 10 of the 13 position players on his team make more money than he does, including role players and pinch-hitters. How can a man qualified to fix the swing and mind of a player making $18 million a year only make a small percentage of that player's salary? How can a pinch-hitter make more than the man who is charged with the performance of all the hitters? He shouldn't."

Phillips said if he ever becomes a GM again he will attempt to round up a Coaching Dream Team, with salaries no object. His Dream Team?

Pitching coach, the aforementioned Duncan. Hitting coach, the Cubs' Rudy Jaramillo. Bench coach and infield instructor, the Cardinals' Jose Oquendo. Third-base coach and outfield instructor, the Rangers' former Gold Glove outfielder, Gary Pettis, and . . . Drum roll. please:

First-base coach, baserunning instructor, Davey Lopes. With this bit of Phillips foreshadowing: "Whatever he is getting paid, it is not enough."

So, where have you gone, Larry Bowa? A hissed off fandom turns its eyes to you.

Bowa, the best third-base coach the Phillies have ever had and a controversial manager best remembered for the annoyed eye-roll and disgusted head-shake, would seem a no-brainer. If nothing else, he would replace the complacency this club seemed to fall into with the tenacity it sometimes lacked during a really weird season of Himalayan peaks and Dead Sea valleys.

Bowa stole more than 20 bases nine times and more than 30 twice, despite often being in less than ideal running spots in the batting order. It goes without saying he is a superb infield instructor. He turns 65 in December, makes his home here and remains an iconic figure. He is Phillies family.

And if Davey Lopes surfaces with the Dodgers, as rumored, wouldn't Bowa replacing him here return the universe to the natural order of things?

Oh, yes . . . The 2010 Phillies led the National League in just one offensive category: stolen base percentage.

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