Opinion: Tracy's major league success no surprise to Air Academy grad

Ask Joe DeBerry to select his best boss in baseball, and he answers instantly:

Jim Tracy.

Joe, a 1988 Air Academy grad and the eldest son of former Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry, took a winding, injury-plagued ride through the minor leagues with back and knee woes preventing him from reaching his promise. He retired in 1997.

But in the fall of 1992, DeBerry was a youthful first baseman full of potential, and in the Cincinnati Reds winter instructional league he met Tracy, who was the team’s minor league field coordinator.

“I knew right away he was special,” DeBerry said from his home in Tulsa, Okla. “He just had this persona about him, this enthusiasm. He was a thinker. He was a strategist.”

Tracy is, of course, the man who saved Colorado’s baseball summer. When he replaced Clint Hurdle as Rockies manager May 29, he inherited a team with the second-worst record in baseball.

We seemed on our way to another gloomy, losing season at Coors Field.

Only we weren’t. Tracy breathed life into a faltering team, and the Rockies have won 36 of 54 games under his calm guidance.

DeBerry isn’t surprised.

“He’s the first guy and only guy in baseball I met who really knew how to evaluate you,” DeBerry said from his home near Tulsa. “He gave you a review of your performance.

“He sat you down at a table and said, ‘Joe, these are the things you do well, and these are the things you don’t do so well.’

“He was an evaluator: a guy who could look at a guy and discover a weakness and help him work through it.”

Tracy shook his head as he relaxed in the dugout before a recent Rockies victory.

Yes, he remembered DeBerry. He was, Tracy said, “a very good defensive first baseman with a little bit different kind of swing.”

Tracy has traveled far since the days he spent with DeBerry. He’s managed the Dodgers and Pirates. He’s been fired by the Dodgers and Pirates.

He never altered his approach. He has little use for shouting and tries to refrain from high emotion. He still sits down with players and clearly and calmly dissects what they do wrong.

“You know,” Tracy said, “I think they are grown men out there, and this is a big man’s type game. .... They’re not robots. They’re human beings.

“And with that being said, I think honesty and being forthright with players is the way you go about it.”

In 1992, DeBerry could see Tracy was destined. He was convinced Tracy someday would manage a winning team.

“He had the personality for it,” DeBerry said. “He had the enthusiasm. He walked on his toes. He loved being out there.”

A few hours before the first pitch, Tracy was sitting on top of the dugout bench, getting ready for yet another game.

He still loves being out there.