THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 12, 1995 TAG: 9511120261
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
Toby Harrah jumped from the Triple-A Norfolk Tides to the American League champions Saturday when he accepted the position of bench coach for Cleveland Indians manager Mike Hargrove.
Harrah last month had agreed to return for a second season in Norfolk after managing the Tides to an 86-56 record and into the championship round of the International League playoffs.
But when Buddy Bell, Cleveland's former bench coach, became manager of the Detroit Tigers last week, Hargrove turned to Harrah. Harrah and Hargrove were teammates for 10 seasons with the Indians and Texas Rangers.
The New York Mets allowed Harrah to break his contract to accept the job.
Tides general manager Dave Rosenfield said he spoke with Harrah on Saturday morning and was surprised by the move.
``I really didn't think he wanted to be a coach,'' Rosenfield said. ``Once he signed I figured he was pretty well set.''
``He was looking forward to coming back. He said if he didn't think it was a great job he wouldn't have left. He still wants to manage, but this seemed too good an opportunity to pass up.''
Harrah was named the manager of the year in the International League last season. He could not be reached Saturday for comment.
The Mets would like to name a new manager for the Tides within three weeks.
Likely candidates to be considered include Bobby Valentine, who managed the Tides in 1994, and John Tamargo, the Mets Double-A manager the past few seasons.
Tamargo was a finalist for the Norfolk job last year when Harrah was hired to replace Valentine. Valentine left to manage in Japan last season but was recently fired. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Toby Harrah managed the Norfolk Tides to an 86-56 record last
season.
by CNB