Former Nationals’ coach and, for three games, manager now part of coaching staff for the Polish national team…
WARSAW, Poland – “I’m the winningest manager (by percentage) in Nationals’ history,” said John McLaren, with a grin, sitting in the lobby of an upscale hotel minutes from Old Town Warsaw.
It is a glorious spring morning in the Polish capital, a city of about 1.8 million whose World War II horrors are always just around the corner and enough to scare any hardened historian. But McLaren – a baseball lifer who turns 72 in September – has come to the “New York City of Eastern Europe” in his latest global journey to promote the game of baseball.
The Texas native reached Triple-A as a player for his hometown Astros, managed part of two seasons with Seattle and was part of coaching staffs with Toronto, Boston, Cincinnati, Tampa Bay, and Philadelphia. But it was a three-game stretch in June of 2011 that resonates with long-time fans of the Nationals.
McLaren had joined the Washington coach staff for the 2009 season under manager Manny Acta.
After Jim Riggleman took over in midseason, McLaren stayed on the Washington staff.
That allowed McLaren to have a first-base dugout view on June 8, 2010 when Stephen Strasburg made his Major League debut, fanning 14 batters in seven innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Nationals Park.
“It was a playoff atmosphere,” McLaren said.
Nearly a year later, on June 23, 2011, Riggleman resigned suddenly, upset with his contract status.
He gave general manager Mike Rizzo the news before the team headed for a road series.
“I didn’t see it coming,” said McLaren in late April while in Poland. “I was surprised. It caught me off guard. Mike asked me to manage the team in Chicago.”
Famously, McLaren was ejected in his first game at the helm.
But he did win two of three games in Chicago against the White Sox, giving him that franchise-best winning percentage of .667.
Then McLaren had another conversation with Rizzo. “He told me Davey Johnson would be the manager,” said McLaren, who was emotional after his third and final game at the helm.
McLaren opted not to remain on the staff of Johnson, a fellow Texan, for personal reasons.
Johnson led the Nationals to the playoffs for the first time in 2012.
“I don’t know if I made the right decision,” said McLaren, who lived in Falls Church, Virginia for part of his stay with the Nationals.
“I like Mike Rizzo and how he operates. He is a very loyal guy. He is my type of guy.”
McLaren also praised the Lerner family ownership group and was glad to see them win a World Series in 2019.
Another highlight was getting to manage and coach Ryan Zimmerman, the former University of Virginia star who won a Gold Glove in 2009 at third base.
“Ryan was a class act. We had just gotten Jayson Werth, and he brought a lot to the table. Adam Dunn was one of my favorite players,” McLaren said.
“I enjoyed my time in Washington. I loved (Spring Training) in Melbourne, Florida.”
And the Strasburg debut remains a vivid memory for McLaren.
“What a start. I feel bad he got hurt,” McLaren said of the California native, who announced his retirement earlier this spring.
McLaren realizes at his age it may be hard to get a job in the Major Leagues.
But he is fine with teaching the game overseas. He was a coach for the USA team at the World Baseball Classic in 2006, has coached the national teams of Italy and China and the sport has taken him to Dubai, Germany, The Netherlands, Colombia, Venezuela and Japan.
“It is part of me. I love teaching baseball. It is my calling these days. It is what I do,” he said.
Last summer he was back in the States, managing Bluefield in the development Appalachian League.
Another manager in the league was Dennis Cook, a former Major League reliever who won a World Series ring with the Marlins in 1997 and also pitched in the Fall Classic with the Mets.
In April, Cook was named the manager and McLaren one of his coaches for the Polish national team. They had spent time together coaching in Dubai last fall and enjoy working with each other.
“We are baseball people,” said Cook, sitting in the Warsaw hotel. “I can coach pitchers and hitters; John can coach catchers and infielders. He has a good eye for the game and he is a baseball guy like me.”
Poland will compete in July in Kutno, Poland against four other European countries – Romania, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Finland. Poland was recently ranked No. 72 in the world, so there is work to do.
The winner claims a spot in the European Championships next year. Kutno is the home of Little League Baseball for Europe/Africa and the site of a youth training clinic by the late former Major Leaguers Stan Musial and Moe Drabowsky in the 1980s. Drabowsky is one of four natives of Poland to appear in the majors, while Hall of Famer Musial was born in western Pennsylvania to a father who was a Polish immigrant. One of the fields in Kutno is named for Musial.
Another coach will be Paul Bragiel, who grew up in suburban Chicago to parents born in Poland. He has a strong business background, has been an Olympic cross country ski coach for Colombia and Tonga and wants to tap into American players with Polish roots.
“I am truly honored to join the coaching staff and I am committed to leveraging my experience in building sport and business organizations to set a solid foundation for baseball in Poland going forward,” Bragiel said in a statement.
Photo by David Banks/Getty Images
“This serves as the first step of a larger strategy aimed at both cultivating homegrown players while also attracting international stars to represent Poland on the biggest stages of international baseball competition. We believe that this commitment will help foster sporting and business alliances between Poland and its 20 million+ global diaspora, and it underscores the Polish Baseball Federation’s dedication to achieving excellence.”
After tryouts in Poland, the coaches will hold tryouts for the Polish national team at several cities in the United States in the coming weeks, including Chicago.
McLaren began his pro playing career in 1970 in Covington, Virginia with a farm team of the Astros in the Appalachian League.
Nearly 45 years later, he is ready for his next baseball journey.
“I am thrilled to be a part of the coaching staff for the Polish National Team,” McLaren said.
“Drawing from my previous international baseball experience, I am eager to contribute to the team’s success and support the Polish players in reaching their full potential, ahead of the 2026 World Baseball Classic.”