Mariners’ Manny Acta staying connected with Latin players during shutdown
While America’s pastime remains on hold, Seattle Mariners third base coach Manny Acta appreciates how this rare break from baseball has given him the opportunity to revisit one of his favorite pastimes — reading.
Not that he doesn’t read during the season, he says — he still scrolls through social media looking for interesting stories — but with the extra time he suddenly has, like most others waiting out the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s returned to longer forms.
These days at his home in Madeira Beach, Fla., where he and his wife, Cindy, reside in the offseason, Acta has carved out a morning routine that makes time for reading books.
He often reads about the history of the Dominican Republic, where he was born and has dual citizenship, but right now is working his way through an English translation of “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” which Gabriel Garcia Marquez penned back in 1967.
And there are more books to read in his queue, Acta says.
The hour or more he spends reading each day is part of his new normal until baseball can resume.
“It’s been really hard,” Acta said during a Monday conference call. “Obviously we miss being out there. This is the first time in 34 years that I’m at home at this time of the year.”
Acta, 51, spent six seasons in the Houston Astros organization after he was signed as an undrafted free agent infielder out of the Dominican Republic in 1986. He has managed both the Nationals (2007-09) and Indians (2010-12) during his 16-year career as a big league coach, and is entering his fifth season with the Mariners, and third as their third base coach.
Never has something like the COVID-19 shutdown happened in his long baseball career, but Acta, like the rest of Seattle’s coaches, is trying to maintain positive and productive relationships with players during this unprecedented stretch.
“I have a group of guys that I’m in touch with weekly,” Acta said. “I try to get out of that little group and text a guy here and there, but the main thing was Scott (Servais) and our front office made us talk to them (on the phone).
“There’s no such thing as just texting or talking to them through social media or anything like that, so I’m able to talk to these guys, find out how their families are doing, what they’re up to and what kind of physical shape they’re keeping themselves in, what they’ve heard, what I’ve heard, and I think it’s great.”
It helps cultivate relationships beyond what happens on the field — which isn’t always possible during a grueling 162-game season — Acta says.
And his reach extends beyond the pool of Seattle players he’s assigned to check in with each week.
Three of the Mariners players he checks in with are Dominican, but Acta is also involved with the Dominican Winter League, is the current VP-GM of the Estrellas club, and tries to keep up with many players outside of Seattle’s organization who are scattered around due to the virus.
“A lot of these guys are spread around all of the major league teams, and some of the teams in Mexico and Asia,” Acta said. “This has expanded me to try to get in touch with those guys. They’re not just Mariners players, they’re part of our franchise in winter ball, so I have taken what we’re doing here with the Mariners and I have spread it among the people that work with me in winter ball, and that’s what we’re doing.
“We’re touching a lot of those guys just to make sure they know we’re paying attention to them, too, that we’re not just going to talk to them in October when winter ball comes by.”
There is a human element to this, beyond baseball, which is important to remember, Acta says.
“You’re reaching out to guys that are with the 30 teams and finding out what’s going on with them, if their families have been affected, and I think it goes a very long way,” he said. “Our guys appreciate that. It’s been really hard. A lot of those guys had to go back home, which is probably a tougher situation than being here in the states.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen when we have to go back to training camp, what they’re going to go through when they come back from all of those countries. … But, hopefully we can clear this hurdle and those guys are going to be OK.”
Acta hopes, as MLB continues to sort out when its season can begin, and what that means for players and possible separation from their families, that more will begin to empathize with Latin American players who have dealt with such separation for years.
The Mariners, like many other teams, have some Venezuelan players who have remained in the U.S. during the shutdown largely due to tensions between the two countries. Acta also noted his own experience after coming to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic to play baseball and having to spend summers away from his daughters.
“Those guys that you’re mentioning right now, they don’t even know when they’re going to be able to see their mom and dad that are in Venezuela,” Acta said. “They’re trying to make the best of it, stay here, which probably gives them a better chance to stay healthy and stay in shape and all that kind of stuff.
“It’s really hard. We all went through that. I just hope that it brings awareness to what somebody else goes through in this business.”
Acta said he applauds what the Mariners, including general manager Jerry Dipoto and the front office, have been able to do for the Latin American players who have remained in the U.S.
“The human part of the game — these guys take it to the next level,” Acta said. “I’m proud to be part of this organization, because those kids could have been in a really tough spot.”
For those back home in the Dominican Republic, Acta has been posting videos to social media to encourage people to stay home as much as possible and practice social distancing until the pandemic resolves.
“I’m afraid of what could happen there the next couple weeks because a lot of people there don’t understand what asymptomatic means,” Acta said. “You don’t feel bad, but you’re still carrying it and spreading it. They’ve worked hard to try to educate people on this back home, but right now this is what we’re fighting — it’s being able to keep people home after the curfew, which is 5 o’clock in the afternoon.
“I’ve been doing videos and trying to tell people back home, I understand you need to come out of the house sometimes because you need to get out and get food for your family, or work, or something. You do have enough time to be out there from 6 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon. It’s just hard.
“I have empathy for a lot of those people because I grew up there and saw the poverty in some families. It’s not easy to be in a little tiny house with 2-3 bedrooms, including the living room, to be locked up with six kids and not have internet and three different TVs and all that.
“So, I have empathy for that. But, in the same token, we’re all going to have to make sacrifices in order to stop it. That’s the issue we’re battling back home.”
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
