Former Red Sox Manager Is Hired by the Dodgers

DALLAS — Closing a turbulent two months, the Dodgers hired Grady Little as manager Tuesday, two years after the onetime cotton farmer was fired by the Boston Red Sox in the wake of a fateful decision in the American League playoffs.

The folksy, popular Little becomes the 29th manager in Dodger history and the seventh since the franchise moved from Brooklyn in 1958.

He was introduced at baseball’s annual winter meetings here by General Manager Ned Colletti -- himself on the job only 23 days -- as part of the Dodger strategy to bounce back from a 91-loss season.

The Dodgers fired manager Jim Tracy on Oct. 3 after five seasons. Then-General Manager Paul DePodesta interviewed several candidates -- Little not among them -- before he was fired Oct. 29.

Colletti started with about two dozen candidates, pared the list to seven, then five, then to one: Little. He called the events of the last three weeks “a long process,” adding that “it’s tough to do a lot without a manager.”

Little, 55, met for several hours Monday with Colletti, then for 90 minutes Tuesday with owner Frank McCourt. His contract is for two years; the team holds an option for a third year.

He called his appointment “my second chance at the opportunity of a lifetime,” the first having ended ingloriously.

Though he managed 1,957 games in the minor leagues, Little was a major league manager for only two seasons, with the Red Sox in 2002 and 2003. The club won a total of 188 games in those two years, reaching Game 7 of the 2003 American League championship series against the New York Yankees.

Many Boston fans, then still waiting for the Red Sox’s first World Series title since 1918, blamed Little for the team’s failure to get past the Yankees. The Red Sox led, 5-2, when their ace starter, Pedro Martinez, went out to pitch the eighth inning. With a run in and a rested bullpen at the ready, Little visited the mound but allowed Martinez to remain in the game. He soon allowed the tying run to score.

The Yankees won in 11 innings to advance to the World Series and, after two seasons in which he was credited for calming a turbulent clubhouse and winning frequently, Little was fired. The next season, the Red Sox beat the Yankees and went on to win the World Series.

He was asked Tuesday about leaving Martinez in the 2003 playoff game.

“That’s one of many, many, many decisions I made in my time in Boston,” the native Texan, reared in North Carolina, said in a drawl. “I got a bad result that day and history speaks for itself. What else am I going to say?”

Little worked the last two seasons for the Chicago Cubs, most recently as a roving minor league catching instructor.

The Red Sox faithful bemoaned for months his decision to stay with Martinez, but Little said, “That was in the past the day after the season was over as far as I was concerned.”

Colletti, then an assistant general manager for the San Francisco Giants, said he watched the Red Sox loss on television. During interviews over the last week, Colletti said, he and Little discussed the game for about 15 minutes.

“In talking to him about it and a lot of things that went on, it gave me confidence in him, actually,” Colletti said. “The way he handled the decision, he speaks from the heart whenever he talks.”

When he was introduced in the Fenway Park clubhouse as Red Sox manager in March 2002, Little was greeted with a standing ovation by the Red Sox players. When he was fired less than two years later, many of them, including Martinez, disagreed with the decision.

“I don’t think it changed Grady,” said Mike Port, who as Red Sox general manager had hired Little away from the Cleveland Indians.

” ... People who know the game understand that if he had made a pitching change with Pedro, there’s no guarantee the next guy wouldn’t have given up six runs.... Things did not turn out well. If they had gone the other way, had he brought someone in who gave up more runs, people would be saying it was his fault.”

Shortly before being let go, Little told the Boston Globe: “Right now I’m disappointed that evidently some people are judging me on the results of one decision I made -- not the decision, but the results of the decision. Less than 24 hours before, those same people were hugging and kissing me....

“I’m sorry the results of one decision caused so much pain, and it sure helped sell a lot of papers. I feel bad for it. But gol’dang, I can’t turn back the clock and make another decision, not knowing whether the results of that decision are good or not.”

Port said Little changed the culture of the Red Sox, even though he spent less than two years in the organization.

“A lot of the same attributes of Joe Torre, of Walter Alston,” he said of the legendary Yankee and Dodger managers. “He’s got a steady, decent way about him. If he needs to be tough, he’ll make his point.”

Even Larry Lucchino, the Red Sox president who was a driving force behind Little’s dismissal in 2003, can’t help but like Little.

“He’s not exactly an L.A.-Hollywood type of guy,” Lucchino said of the man who operated a 330-acre cotton farm in the late 1970s, “but he has a certain kind of versatility that will carry him in good stead.”

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Times staff writer Mike DiGiovanna contributed to this report.