Head coaches and managers who stay on the job for a few years seem to have a "first lieutenant.'' The higher you get on the competitive scale, the more likely it's a decision based on the boss having full trust in the first looey, rather than them being pals.
I was first made aware of this fully — that being a coach or manager's right-hand doesn't mean hanging out away from the stadium or arena — when covering Gene Mauch's Twins starting in 1976.
Officially, Jerry Zimmerman was Mauch's bullpen coach. Really, what he was, first in Montreal, then in Minnesota, was Mauch's right hand … the coach charged with organizing all matters of preparation in spring training and during the season.
Mauch had 100 percent trust in Zim. As for socializing, Zimmerman once told me in a decade together that he and Mauch had never gone out to dinner, other than in a larger social setting.
Zim wasn't complaining. It was a professional relationship.
It was similar with Bud Grant and his right hand, Jerry Burns. They coached together, and then they went their separate ways: Bud to the cabin in western Wisconsin to ice fish, and Burnsie to Jamaica to play golf and sip Red Stripes.
The most interesting first looey in Minnesota sports at the moment is Tracy Claeys, the Gophers' defensive coordinator. Claeys' status with Jerry Kill was made clear last season, when Kill was having a health issue and Claeys served as the interim head coach.
I was thinking about coaches and first looeys last week, when Kill was talking about sitting on his couch, mixing yogurt and cookie-dough ice cream and watching Ohio State defeat Michigan State, and Claeys was talking about his quirky rule of never watching Big Ten games when he gets home on a Saturday night.
