When you sit down and talk to Davey Johnson, you get the sense that he could talk about baseball all day. The former major league player and manager has spent almost his entire life in the game. He's won a World Series title as both a player and a manager, but his biggest challenge might be yet to come. As manager of the United States' Olympic baseball team, Johnson has been tabbed to overcome the '04 disappointment, when Team USA failed to qualify for Athens. His goal? Return the squad to the golden glory it captured in Sydney in '00. 

After leading the U.S. team in the All-Star Futures Game on July 13, Johnson will cut down his pool of about 60 potential American players and head to Beijing to participate in what is currently scheduled to be baseball's last Olympics hurrah. BLS contributor Nick Friedell recently met with Johnson and the lunchtime conversation went everywhere from gold medal dreams to whether or not Barry Bonds or Rogers Clemens were ever considered for the Olympics to the very familiar circumstances of Willie Randolph's firing.

Q: Is there a question you haven't been asked yet about the Olympics or its selection process?

DJ: (Smiles) It's not as easy as people think because you have to get permission from a club, they can't be on the 25-man roster, and they also probably can't be (the team's) five closest prospects to the big leagues, so you're looking at about the 31st guy in each organization.

Pitchers move up and down the system real quick. Take David Price from Tampa, He's in Double-A in his first year. (The Olympics) would be a great experience for him, but (the Rays) don't want to take a chance with him going out of the country. They may call him up this year, so that's the problem you run into.

Q: Do you have a good idea, though, of the guys you want to take to Beijing?

DJ: Yeah, well, I can tell by the numbers, I can read the minor league stats, and tell who is playing better than who ... What you end up doing is comparing guys' records in Double-A against the guys in Triple-A, and you try to project what his ceiling will be when you make this pick. Basically you want guys that are very experienced that are really one step away from the big leagues, that have a higher ceiling. Sometimes a guy can be just tearing it up in Double-A, but he goes to Triple-A and may have trouble making it. We'll have a bunch of scouts putting input into each player before we make our final picks.

Q: You're managing the U.S. team in the Futures Game. What impact, if any, will that game have on your decisions?

DJ: A lot. All of those guys are on my 60 (person roster of possible players for the U.S. team) See, I haven't seen any of these guys play (in person). If I have question marks on some of the other guys that may be in Triple-A, that may be more of a journeymen player, I'll weigh the pros and cons and make a pick. We'll have discussions on players right after the game.

Q: Who do you think is the favorite going into Beijing?

DJ: Japan, because they're using big-league guys. It used to be that we (the United States) were the favorite, no matter if we had minor leaguers. Now the whole world plays a good brand of baseball.

Q: Speaking of Japan, has Fukudome's success surprised you at all this year?

DJ: No. I played two years for the Tokyo Giants back in the middle 70s. Back then, you only heard of Americans going over to the Japanese league. I was asked back then, could some of those (Japanese) guys play on big league clubs, I said most definitely.

I haven't done a study on this, but I would say back then 15-20 percent in the 70's, those guys in that (Japanese) league, could play in the big leagues. Now, it's probably more like 50 percent.

Q: Beijing will be the last Olympics, for the time being at least, that will include baseball. Do you think that baseball needs to be in the Olympics to have that platform, or do you think the game has gotten so big, that it doesn't really matter at this point?

DJ: I think (baseball) still needs (the Olympics). More countries have leagues. Russia, Spain, France, these countries in Europe all have leagues (now). I know people are going to be asking some questions, why baseball didn't get re-upped, that and softball. I think both those sports should be back in the Olympic Games.

Q: In terms of your participation in the Olympics, where does it rank among all the other things you've accomplished?

DJ: There's just something special about representing your country. More so than the city, or state, in Major League Baseball. I've been a fan of the Olympics for as long as I can remember. I was lucky, I had the opportunity to help the Dutch team get into the '04 Olympics in Athens ... I was a coach over there, stayed in the Olympic Village, and it was wonderful. But, I longed to have the USA on my chest.

I've really enjoyed winning the World Series, as a player and a manger, but winning a gold medal would be right up there with the best of it.

NF: How did your experience with the Dutch team —where you briefly took over as manager while Bob Eenhorn tended to his family — help re-invigorate you?

DJ: Well, I love baseball. It's no secret I got really burned out in 2000. After (managing for) the New York Mets, big market. Marge Schott in Cincinnati, Peter Angelos in Baltimore, Rupert Murdoch in L.A. I was burned out, I didn't have anything left, I needed to get away from (managing), recharge my batteries.

The only reason I got back was because I got a call that the Dutch needed a manager, Bob Eenhorn (then the Dutch manager) had a very sick child. I couldn't say no.

I love managing. So after I finished working for the Dutch team for about three years, Bob Watson (USA Baseball GM) called me and asked if I'd like to manage the U.S. team. I said I'd love to, no question. It was almost like (I said) "What can I pay you to have that opportunity?"

Q: What is the biggest difference in your mind, now that you have had this experience, managing in an international format and managing in the major leagues?

DJ: It's very similar. You can't just throw some names out there, you have to match up ... It used to be when I first got with the USA team, everybody would throw a left-hander at us.  Why?  Well, the team we had over in Panama in the ('04 Olympic) qualifier, it was like 80 percent left-handed. You can't just do that.  You have to have a lineup that can score runs, against both left and right-handed pitching, and high quality left and right handed pitching. You have to have a lineup that can score runs, against both left and right-handed pitching, and high quality left and right handed pitching. It's no longer you can just say "Well, he's playing good in Triple-A, gimme him, gimme him, gimme him ...

Even if you look back at the World Baseball Classic two years ago ... It was put together more like an All-Star Game and run like an All-Star Game. I knew that was going to be that way. That's why I didn't want to have anything to do with managing, because I couldn't manage that way.

If I'm going to put the USA uniform on, I'm going to try to win the ballgame. I'm not going to worry about somebody's agent's feelings.

Q: Were Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens ever considered for this year's Olympic team?

DJ: Not really. I had several requirements that I wanted to see in players. Number one, I wanted them competing in a league. Sure, I'd like to have Clemens, he's very professional, he could probably handle it, but he hasn't been competing. He's not stretched out. (Let's say) I gotta start him, and maybe get three innings the first game, I mean we only play nine games. Barry could probably come up, but he's got a lot of other commitments and things going on, and I don't want that distraction for a bunch of young guys.

I don't want just names. Performance is going to dictate who wins or loses those games. Just because you were on my team a number of years ago, if you're not one of the league leaders in your league offensively and defensively, I'm not taking you, no matter how much I might like you.

Q: Did you, or anybody within USA Baseball ever have any conversations with either Bonds or Clemens? Did they come to you at all?

DJ: No, they did not. I was asked by our administrators if I would (consider) Biggio, Clemens ... and my feeling is if they're not playing, I don't want 'em.

Q: What was your reaction to the way the Mets handled the Wilie Randolph situation?

DJ: Well, (chuckles a little bit), A lot of times I think big organizations in New York, that's part of the way they like to do business. I remember when I was fired, and I was very successful. We won a World Series (in 1986).

We were on the road, I'm not even sure where it was, Philadelphia I think, and Frank Cashen came in, he wasn't on the road trip, and at the time we had like three GM's, Al Harrison, Joe McIlvaine and Cashen. I was getting ready to go to the ballpark. I think it was about two o'clock.

Frank Cashen knocks on my door. I said that's not a good sign, what are you doing here? I know what he was doing here, he was going to make a change. So he fired me, and asked me if I would leave quietly and not talk to the press.

I said if that's what you want I would have liked to have the opportunity to speak to my players, and tell them thank you for all the effort and the good times, and wish them luck in the future. But (Cashen) wanted me to sneak out of town and have all the emphasis on the new (manager).

I think that's what they were trying to do with Willie Randolph. I don't agree with it. I think the manager should have a chance to talk to his troops before he is dismissed. It was a big regret of mine that I just didn't say no at the time (to Cashen), but at the time I was hurt, and I figured if that's what (the front office) wanted I would do it. I think that's basically what they tried to accomplish with the firing of Willie.

Q: Would it be fair to say you had some flashbacks to your experience with the Mets when you heard the Randolph story?

DJ: (Smiling) Oh yeah. No doubt, no doubt. That's their modus operandi. They had a car waiting out back for me, they rushed me to the airport, they had my flight already arranged, and I was on a plane like that. I think that was before cell phones, so nobody had a way to reach me until they got me at home, two or three days later.

Q: So apart from the cell phones, the more things change the more they stay the same.

DJ: Exactly, exactly. They say that's just part of baseball, you get fired, I never wanted to get fired anywhere I was ever at, I always wanted to solve the problems. When you're hired as a manager, really, in reality, you're a problem solver. The field manager is responsible for solving the problems on the active roster, and creating the atmosphere in the team that he wants to go to battle with every day. The general manager gets him those weapons. If he's not successful, he should go. Willie wasn't successful. He didn't finish the last year on a good note, and he was struggling a little bit this year. That's a criteria to get fired.

Q: If Omar Minaya called you after the Olympics and said, "Davey, we need you back, we need you to turn this thing around ... "

DJ: First of all, it's not going to happen. I respect Omar Minaya as a good general manager, but I haven't had a working relationship with him ... but as far as do I want to pursue a career in the big leagues again? No.

I'm really looking forward to managing the Olympics (team) and if it turns out I could manage the World (Baseball) Classic (team) I would be happy.

I love the game of baseball. I know I'm good at what I do. I know every club I've been with, I've left them in better shape, and they managed to mug it up right after I left, change the direction that I had them going in.

Q: Have you pictured in your mind what it would be like to win the gold medal?

DJ: When we won the World Cup, all the participants got on the field at the end. It was a pretty long ceremony. The organizers gave us all our gold medals. They weren't (Olympic) gold medals, but the gold medals for that tournament, and they played our song, the National Anthem.  I can imagine on a much bigger scale, much bigger audience, the goosebumps that everybody would be getting.