Detroit — It would be easy for Phil Nevin to get caught up thinking about his future.
He’s wanted to be a major-league manager for a long time, and finally got his shot earlier this year when the Los Angeles Angels fired Joe Maddon. But as the interim manager, Nevin doesn’t have much job security beyond this season.
But Nevin insists he’s staying in the present — at least, when he’s not reminiscing about his past, in Detroit.
“It’s a special place for me, certainly,” Nevin said sitting in the visitors’ dugout at Comerica Park, a little over an hour before the scheduled first pitch of Tigers-Angels, Game 2, on Saturday. “I’m sitting on the bench and looking at those names on the wall, and the fact I played with three of those guys (actually two, Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker; he and Jack Morris just missed each other), and I played for Sparky (Anderson).
“When retired numbers are all guys you played with, it makes you feel old.”
Nevin, 51, was the first overall pick by the Houston Astros in 1992, debuted with them in 1995, and was traded to the Tigers as the player to be named for closer Mike Henneman.
It was in Detroit where Never first got the chance to get regular at-bats, and it was in Detroit where he hit the first of his 208 major-league home runs.
That was Sept. 3, 1995, against Cleveland pitcher Albie Lopez. He hit nine homers at Tiger Stadium.
“When we leave here, we’ll drive by Michigan and Trumbull,” Nevin said. “I know Old Tiger Stadium’s not there anymore, but it’s just the memories of driving around there.
“It’s the first time I got a chance to really go play every day, and play under Sparky (1995) and Buddy Bell (1996-97). That’s a special relationship I still have.”
Nevin only played in Detroit from 1995 through 1997, when he was traded by the Tigers with catcher Matt Walbeck to the Angels for minor-league pitcher Nick Skuse.
He had the heavy majority of his major-league success outside of Detroit, particularly with the San Diego Padres, for whom he hit .306 with 41 homers and 126 RBIs in 2001.
But Nevin has vivid memories of Detroit, particularly Trammell and Whitaker, both of whom were winding down their careers when Nevin came to the Tigers. Trammell was a particularly special situation, given both he and Nevin are southern California natives, and in the sixth grade, when Nevin was assigned to write a paper about a hero, he wrote about Trammell.
“When I got traded here,” said Nevin, “my mother sent it to me and I showed Tram.”
He doesn’t remember what grade he got, but it helped form a long-lasting relationship. Nevin would play two seasons with Trammell, who retired after the 1996 season, and played for Trammell when he was coaching with the Padres prior to his stint managing the Tigers in the early 2000s.
Nevin and Whitaker weren’t as close, no surprise, since Whitaker wasn’t close with too many teammates. Nevin watched Whitaker’s No. 1 retirement ceremony on a stream earlier this month, and quipped before Saturday’s game, “I wonder how they found him.”
Whitaker retired after the 1995 season. Late in that season, in early September, Whitaker and Trammell set the major-league record for most games played together by teammates.
Neither had been playing much down the stretch that year, as the Tigers were in full-on rebuild phase and were trying out some younger players (Travis Fryman, Chris Gomez, etc.).
The pair broke the record during a game Sept. 12 at Tiger Stadium, when Whitaker pinch-hit in the eighth inning and hit a sacrifice fly about 430 feet away to center field.
It was Whitaker’s first game since Aug. 30. It might’ve been his first time at Tiger Stadium since Aug. 23.
“Lou literally hadn’t even picked up a bat. There was most days he wasn’t even here,” Nevin said. “Then the September callups, you had like 40 guys and he just stayed away. Until that day.
“It was unreal. He hadn’t picked up a bat in (weeks), and smoked a ball.”
Nevin played 12 seasons in the major leagues, including for the Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins and Chicago Cubs. He retired in May 2007, and went into broadcasting, before trying his hand at managing in independent ball in 2009. At the 2010 MLB winter meetings at Disney, he had a chance run-in with a member of the Tigers’ front-office staff, and he was hired to manage Double-A Erie. After one season with the SeaWolves, he was promoted to manage Triple-A Toledo.
He joined the Tigers’ postseason coaching staff in 2011, a nod to his rising star in the system. And then, late in the 2013 season, the Tigers fired him. He went on to coach in the Arizona Diamondbacks system, before he made the jump to a major-league coaching staff with the San Francisco Giants. He later coached for the New York Yankees, and joined the Angels’ staff as third-base coach for the 2022 season.
Over the years, he’s expressed interest in becoming a major-league manager, and had several interviews, none of them going his way. Then, on June 7, the Angels fired Maddon, and promoted Nevin. Nevin was getting his shot, albeit not how or when he expected.
“There’s a lot of things you gotta learn on the fly taking over in the middle. There’s certain ways you want to do things,” said Nevin, who’s a casual acquaintance of Tigers manager AJ Hinch — they’ve attended the same offseason golf functions, and have attended some mutual friends’ weddings. “It has nothing to do with who’s here before. For me, it’s just a different relationship with the players, in particular the pitchers. … As a third-base coach, I’m mostly dealing with the position players.
“Getting those relationships tied up and in touch with each player every day, for me that’s important.”
It hasn’t been the easiest run.
The Angels had huge expectations entering the season, but have fallen flat again and are headed toward a seventh consecutive losing season — despite the star power of Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout.
The Angels were 27-29 when they fired Maddon, after having been in first place in the American League West early in the season. They are 25-38 under Nevin.
“I am having fun. I am,” Nevin said even on a weekend when weather threatened to disrupt Saturday’s and Sunday’s games — though he wasn’t conceding anything, leaning on his past time spent in Michigan, where, he pointed out, the weather can change in an instant. “I get the wins and losses, and everybody points to that. We’ve created a different culture, a different atmosphere over the last month-and-a-half, two months, for the better. And for what this group is. That’s all. I think going forward, everybody’s going to be better for it.”
“I think about it day by day,” he added. “I don’t think about the future.”
The past, well, that’s a whole different story.
Or several stories, about Detroit anyway.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tonypaul1984