Brookover: Mackanin, Klentak on same page

The news from Clearwater late last week jarred my memory. In five short months, without seeing him manage a single game that counted, Matt Klentak decided he wanted to see more of Pete Mackanin.

Klentak, the Phillies' 35-year-old general manager, sat next to Mackanin, the 64-year-old Chicago native who had waited a lifetime for the opportunity to become a big-league manager without an interim label, as the team revealed its biggest news of spring training. The Phillies tore up the contract that did not guarantee Mackanin anything beyond this season and gave him one that takes him through next season with a club option for 2018.

It was the right thing to do for a lot of reasons and the best ones were provided by Klentak during the news conference at Bright House Field.

"Pete and I have developed a very strong working relationship over the last five months and I'm absolutely confident that he is the right person to lead the organization as we grow forward," Klentak said. "In my opening press conference I talked at length about building an environment in which the players had the ability to play loose and play confidently, to have fun and ultimately to reach their ceilings.

"Pete has taken that philosophy and turned it into a reality this spring, both in the clubhouse and on the field. Pete, congratulations, you've earned it."

The memory jarred by Klentak's passionate vote of confidence took me back to 1991. Nick Leyva, still only 37, was entering his third season as Phillies manager. Thanks to trades that had brought in Lenny Dykstra, John Kruk, Terry Mulholland and others, the team had improved by 10 games the year before and general manager Lee Thomas was convinced the Phillies were ready to take another step forward.

Instead, the Phillies became a dysfunctional mess upon arrival in spring training. The spate of negative events started with news that Dykstra had been involved in illegal high-stakes poker games in Mississippi. He had been called upon as a government witness and, in typical Dykstra fashion, he turned it into a joke.

"I'm just going to be a witness, to be the good citizen that I am," he said at the time. "I just want to help the government any way I can. I just have to go and say I got a couple of full houses and got beat by four of a kind. It was just a poker game. Everybody has played poker."

Commissioner Fay Vincent's response was also a joke. He placed Dykstra on probation for one year.

Things got much worse from there.

After a winter of optimism, Leyva became irritated with just about every pitcher on his staff and created an atmosphere that alienated him from his players. The height of his disdain came after a fall-from-ahead loss to the New York Mets in Port St. Lucie when rookie reliever Chuck McIlroy surrendered a game-ending grand slam.

"It's a shame to lose the game, but you have to give kids a chance to pitch and eliminate themselves," Leyva said. "He is scared to death out there. That's what happens when you have a little pressure, a chance to make the ball club. Some guys can handle it and some guys can't."

Those words infuriated Thomas because he was trying to trade McIlroy and they are also a stark contrast to the way Mackanin has run this year's spring training.

A few days after the McIlroy implosion, Thomas was asked if he had considered firing Leyva.

"I really have no comment except to say that if he got in trouble, it would be because of his mouth," he told the Daily News.

McIlroy was traded to the Chicago Cubs in the Mitch Williams deal just before the start of the season and went on to have a great year and good, long career. Leyva was fired after 13 games in 1991 and replaced by Jim Fregosi.

The relevance to today's Phillies and Mackanin's new contract is that this rebuilding process seems to be going so much smoother than that one. The fact that the new general manager and the relatively new manager are on the same page bodes well for the Phillies as they head into 2016.

Sure, the Phillies of 25 years ago were only two years away from reaching the World Series, but they were not built to last. In their current configuration, the Phillies are likely more than two years away from being in another World Series, but in my estimation, they are only a few years away from being good for a very long time.

Klentak obviously believes things are going in the right direction based on what he has seen from Mackanin and the players in spring training. In all likelihood, some difficult days lie ahead for the manager and his mostly young team. Klentak and the Phillies obviously believe Mackanin is the right man to handle that situation, too. He has shown the ability to put a positive spin on things without being a pushover and if the Phillies continue to move in the right direction, he will still be around when this team is good again.

That scenario seemed so unlikely when he was tagged with an interim label for the third time in his career in the middle of last season.

bbrookover@phillynews.com

@brookob