Q&A: Charlie Manuel, the family man

Question: You have two kids that we rarely hear anything about. Could you talk about them?

Manuel: "My son [Charlie Jr.], he lives right outside of Miami. He lived in California for about 16 or 17 years. He graduated from Liberty Baptist College [now Liberty University] and ran an accounting department for a Japanese company. He went to high school a couple years in Japan. He graduated from a high school in Roanoke [Va.], but his sophomore and junior years he went to school in Japan and he ended up working for a Japanese company. Coming out of college, he worked for Household Finance, and he was sent to California, and he was sitting at a Benihana in Anaheim with a Japanese guy and they started talking about baseball. The guy asked him if he knew a Manuel who played baseball in Japan. He said, 'That's my father.' The guy gave him his card, and he gave him a job. He worked there for about 15 years, then about five years ago he went to Florida and started working for a pharmaceutical company that's based in King of Prussia."

Q: So he had the Japan and Philadelphia connection going just like his father?

Manuel: "Yeah. He's real quiet, but I'm very proud of him. He's a good kid. He's not a kid anymore. He's a man. I have two grandsons. Matthew is 7 and Mark is 3. I really enjoy being around them. I really like it when I get to spend a lot of time around them, but I don't get to do that much right now."

Q: What about your daughter?

Manuel: "My daughter, Julie, she got married last summer during the season. That's not supposed to happen in baseball, but that's my daughter. She went to Hollins University in Roanoke, and when she graduated she went to George Mason and got her master's degree. She works in Washington, D.C., and she's happy. I get to see her a lot in the summertime. She and her husband will come up on a Friday night and stay through the weekend. I enjoy being around her."

(The Phillies' media guide lists Manuel as having two children, but he pointed out that he also considers his longtime companion Missy Martin's three children his own.)

 Manuel: "Missy has three kids. She has twin daughters - Haley and Allie - who are 25 years old, and they're just like my kids. They are my kids. And she has a son, Collin. He's 27, and he's an assistant baseball coach at Polk State College in Winter Haven. He played one year of rookie ball for the Cleveland Indians, then went to a junior college and graduated from Weber State. He coached at Florida Southern for a year or two, and this year he took a job at Polk."

   - Bob Brookover