Prairie Dogs' Stephenson wants one more title

By LANCE FLEMING/Sports Writer

The Abilene Prairie Dogs got an early Christmas present a couple of weeks ago when Phil Stephenson told the team he would return to manage for a second season in 1997.

In all likelihood, it will be his last in Abilene.

Stephenson informed Prairie Dog management on Dec. 12 that he would be back in Abilene next season to help the team defend its Texas-Louisiana League championship.

Stephenson had been seeking employment with the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays' major league organization as the manager of the club's rookie league team. But that job went to a coach in the organization, leaving Stephenson on the outside looking in.

"I'd like to have had an opportunity for an interview," Stephenson said last week in a phone interview from his home in Wichita, Kan. "But I left on a positive note that in 1998 with a big-league team and a Triple-A team they'd have more openings. They told me not to stay out of sight or mind."

So with the deadline fast-approaching for Stephenson to make a decision, he chose to return to Abilene for one more season.

"Obviously I've got a championship to come back and defend, and that's always a challenge," Stephenson said, "especially considering the records we set."

Stephenson and the Prairie Dogs will have a tough task improving on the numbers they put up last year. They won a league-record 67 games, including a league-record 12-game winning streak in late June and early July.

They then swept through the playoffs, sweeping Amarillo in a best-of-three first-round series, then sweeping Lubbock in the best-of-five championship series.

It was, without a doubt, the best team in the league's short three-year history.

And now Stephenson gets a chance to put together a team that can win another title.

"It'll be a challenge, because I don't know how many players that are under option will return," Stephenson said. "I don't know how many free agents will be available, whether they'll have jobs, or whether they'll want to return or not.

"Dave (Haas, Abilene's pitching coach and No. 1 starter last year) hasn't found anything yet, either, and he'll ponder the idea of coming back if he doesn't get a job," he said. "But Dave will have a tough season to match as well."

Last year Stephenson spent a lot of time working the phones, looking for players to help Abilene improve on its inaugural 40-60 campaign. He found them, but he doesn't expect to spend as much time doing that this season.

"I don't think I'll spend as much time on the phone as last year because I didn't understand as much as I do now," Stephenson said. "Last year was a lot of hit-and-miss with things. I didn't know how things would go."

Instead of working the phones in January or February, Stephenson will wait until major league teams begin releasing players from their spring camps and see who wants to play. Stephenson said those players who go through spring training are ready to play sooner than the ones who don't and just show up in town a week before the season starts.

"The guys in the league who had an opportunity to go to spring training, or joined the league after being with a big-league club, played better," he said. "They were in better shape because they knew they were going to be in spring training. There are young guys out there who are hungry enough and who realize that this is their opportunity to get back into organized ball."

And maybe Stephenson will get lucky with a player next season like he did with first baseman/outfielder Rod Brewer, the league's MVP last season.

"Finding a guy like Brewer was a big thing for our team," Stephenson said. "But you look at him - a guy who didn't go to spring training - and it took him a longer period of time to get things going than it did guys who had been to spring training."

The Prairie Dogs have 12 players from last year's team under option, including the league's top relief pitcher in Ken Winkle, starting centerfielder Darryl Monroe, starting rightfielder Paul Coleman and utility player Paul Gonzalez. If those 12 players don't sign with another team, the Prairie Dogs can either exercise their contract option and bring them back, sell them to another team or release them.

Haas, Kerry Knox, Lance Schuermann, Jack Johnson, Brewer, Barry Jones, Scott Bethea and Manny Gagliano are all free agents and can sign with any team in any league. The Prairie Dogs have the right of first refusal on Schuermann, Bethea and Gagliano, meaning that before those players sign with another independent league, the Prairie Dogs have the right to match the contract offer.

Jared Baker was released, Scott Jones retired and Sam Arminio signed with the Cincinnati Reds' organization.

So it would appear that Stephenson has his hands full when it comes to building another winner.

"Everybody that played in Abilene last year that doesn't get a job, I'll be calling them back to see if they want to return," Stephenson said. "The salary cap puts a limit on bringing everybody back. But I'm looking forward to coming back and I'll make every effort to put as good a club - if not better - on the field."