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The New York Yankees' chief financial officer, Martin Greenspun, will leave the team to become chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Greenspun will assume responsibility for all aspects of the Dodgers' business operations on May 17, Los Angeles owner Frank McCourt said Monday.
Greenspun, a 16-year veteran of professional sports operations and management, has been with the Yankees for six years. Prior to that, he was Disney Sports Enterprises' director of finance for the Mighty Ducks and Anaheim Angels from 1994-98, and executive director of finance for the Los Angeles Kings from 1988-94.
``I've spoken at length about the necessity of fiscal responsibility and accountability within this organization, and Marty's track record with the Yankees, Angels, Mighty Ducks and Kings shows he's the ideal individual to lead us forward in enhancing this franchise's revenues,'' McCourt said in a statement.
Greenspun, 41, noted that he grew up in Los Angeles and as a lifelong Dodgers fan he considered the new appointment his ``ultimate dream job.''
Plopped down in rural America, unable to speak or understand English, the 18-year-old pitcher felt so lonely and isolated that he desperately wanted to return home to Montreal.
Fortunately for him -- and the Los Angeles Dodgers -- Eric Gagne stuck it out.
``It was the toughest thing I've experienced in my life. I was away from my family really for the first time, in a different culture, and it's a lot harder when you don't speak the language,'' Gagne recalled.
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Those were the early days for Gagne at Seminole State College in Oklahoma, long
before he became a Cy Young Award-winning closer. He picked the school because
several other Canadians had gone there.
``I didn't really have any contact with anybody besides my teammates and coaches, and I couldn't even talk to them. It was hard just to leave the house. I just wanted to go home. I was crying and asking myself, `What am I doing here?'''
That's difficult to picture, now that the burly, bearded and be-goggled former youth hockey player from Quebec has become baseball's most intimidating closer.
The 28-year-old Gagne has a remarkable save string going, a major league record streak of 70 in a row dating back to Aug. 28, 2002.
He's 7-for-7 on save chances this season, with a 1-0 record and 2.31 ERA in 10 games.
``It's pretty amazing what he's doing. His consistency is unbelievable, phenomenal. It's usually 1-2-3, lights out,'' said John Franco, the New York Mets pitcher whose 424 career saves are the second-most in major league history.
Gagne's teammates think he's special, too.
``He's incredible,'' Shawn Green said. ``He's the most dominant closer I've seen. When he gets into trouble, which he rarely does, even if the bases are loaded, it's not that big a deal because you just expect him to come through.''
In 77 appearances and 82 1-3 innings last year, Gagne had a 1.20 ERA, struck out 137 for a major league mark of 14.98 strikeouts per nine innings. He was perfect in 55 save chances -- the one he blew in the All-Star game does not officially count.
Gagne became the first pitcher to record two 50-save seasons, reached the 100-save mark faster than anyone in big league history, and was the ninth reliever to win the Cy Young Award.
``Gagne's awesome,'' Mets slugger Mike Piazza said. ``He's really improved his game and he's got nasty stuff.''
Gagne considers his year in Seminole -- a town of some 6,900 about 58 miles east of Oklahoma City -- a turning point.
``I think that made me who I am. I learned a lot about myself,'' he said. ``That's the thing that told me, `Hey, I really want to be a baseball player because I'm going to make every sacrifice.' I knew then that I loved the game so much, I was going to fight for it, keep trying to get better at it -- and better at English.''
Dodgers manager Jim Tracy knows of the challenges Gagne faced when he arrived from Montreal.
``I know those were tough times for him, and I believe that's when Eric's real character began to show, the strong character that we see in him now,'' Tracy said.
Lloyd Simmons, the longtime coach at Seminole who now manages the Kansas City Royals' rookie team in Arizona, distinctly remembers Gagne's early days in Oklahoma.
``When I first saw the ball come out of his hand, I told an assistant coach, `This guy's special,''' Simmons said.
He saw Gagne as sort of a jewel in the round.
``Eric was a short, fat, soft-bodied guy obviously out of shape,'' Simmons said by telephone from Arizona. ``I think what I did was to help him get in shape, and to realize just how good he was.
``I hold really hard workouts, push them to the limit, and he didn't like it. But he learned to, and now I know he really works hard at it. I knew he had that tenacity about him, and when he competes, he's got that fire coming out of his eyes. He wanted the ball and he wanted to be great.''
Gagne also learned English in a hurry because his French wasn't of much use in Seminole.
``I could communicate some in two or three months. When you can't speak a word of English, you're going to pick it up pretty quickly. It's a survival skill,'' said Gagne, who speaks English now as if he grew up in the Midwest.
``People say, `Hey, you don't have a French-Canadian accent.' I tell them, That's because I didn't learn English in Canada; I learned it in Oklahoma,''' he said.
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