FORT MYERS, Fla. - The peculiar transition from general manager to first-base coach was bound to draw some attention during the early days of spring training, and sure enough, the New York Times and USA Today converged on the Boston Red Sox spring-training camp early Saturday morning to talk to Ruben Amaro Jr. about it.
Occasionally you'll see a general manager go down on the field to become the manager - the Pope (Paul Owens) replaced Pat Corrales with the Phillies in first place in 1983 and Frank Lucchesi with the Phillies in last in 1972 - but the move from the plush front-office boxes behind home plate to the relative obscurity of the first-base box is indeed rare, if not entirely unprecedented.