ShareThisSTUART, Fla. - Back in November, after being hired by the Boston Red Sox to work as a scout and roving instructor, Bob McClure's friends in the front office asked him for a list of candidates they should consider for the team's then-vacant job as pitching coach.
He gave them eight names.
"Mine," he said, "wasn't one of the eight."
In fact, only weeks before, McClure had been fired by the Kansas City Royals after six seasons as their pitching coach. And with his wife, Shirley, about to give birth to twins, he was looking forward to learning the scouting side of baseball -- a position that would allow him to spend more time with his family in Florida.
Then came the call.
The Red Sox wanted him to fly to Boston to interview for the pitching coach's job.
"I was surprised," McClure said, "and humbled."
And eventually hired.
It was two days before Christmas that new Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine, impressed by McClure's performance during the interview, made the announcement.
"Bob understood not only the mechanics of pitching but also the mechanics of working a long season," Valentine said of McClure, 59, who pitched in the major leagues from 1975 to 1993, mostly in relief, with the Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Montreal Expos, New York Mets, California Angels, St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins. "So he filled the bill on all of those things, and he also has a real true grit to him.
"He can be very sociable and jovial, but he also can be stern when he needs to be. And I think that's a good prerequisite to this job."
But Valentine and McClure had no previous relationship. They had never played together, or coached together. They weren't buddies. So even when he was asked to interview, McClure never expected to get the job.
"I really didn't know Bobby at all," McClure said.
He interviewed, anyway.
"I had to," McClure said. "My mom is from that area and is a big Red Sox fan. If I hadn't interviewed, she'd have wrung my neck."
And when the job was offered, he had to take it.
"It's the Boston Red Sox," he said. "It's one of the premier jobs in baseball."
It's also a long way from Kansas City, where the small-market Royals have been longtime losers, the expectations are low and there's no noticeable pressure to win.
Indeed, manager Ned Yost's decision in September to not renew McClure's contract caught the coach off-guard: Not only did he nurture the development of 2009 Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke and All-Star closer Joakim Soria, but the staff's 4.44 ERA last season was the team's best since 1994.
"I'd say it was a little abrupt," McClure said of his departure from the Royals. "As a player, you usually can feel when things are coming. But I really didn't anticipate them making a move of that sort at that time."
The firing proved to be a blessing -- if, that is, McClure can get the Boston staff to pitch better than it did last season, when the Red Sox ranked ninth in the American League with a 4.20 ERA, which included a dismal 7.08 showing by their starters during a 7-20 September collapse that cost the team the playoffs.
As usual, the Red Sox will be expected to chase a championship in 2012. To do so, McClure must coax the best from Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz, and mentor Daniel Bard and Alfredo Aceves, both young relievers who will compete for rotation spots vacated by elbow injuries to John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka.
"It would be nice if Lackey and Matsuzaka were healthy, but we have a lot of options," McClure said, adding that, before heading to Fort Myers for spring training, he already had talked to all but four of the 34 pitchers the Red Sox invited. "Teaching pitching is always going to be my passion, and I expect to do a lot of it. I'm excited about our staff. I'm excited about the season.
"We've got a heck of a lineup, a lot of terrific hitters," he added. "So if we do our job, we have a chance to be a good team."
Red Sox Nation demands nothing less.
And McClure knows it.
"In Kansas City, you still expect to win, but you don't have all the bullets," he said. "In Boston, you've got the bullets. That's why the expectations are so high -- and they should be. I welcome them.
"... To be offered this kind of opportunity by an organization like the Red Sox is an honor and a thrill. It's also very humbling. It's something I never expected, especially when they asked me for that list of names."
And his wasn't on it.
(Ray McNulty is sports columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers. Contact him at ray.mcnulty(at)scripps.com. On the Web at www.tcpalm.com.)
