Mark Parent was on a northern California highway heading to his home in Palo Cedro, in between jobs after having been fired by the Chicago White Sox, when a man he never met working for an organization he didn't know much about called his cell phone.
Turns out, Mike LaCassa and the Los Angeles Angels were providing Parent with his next opportunity in baseball.
Parent, who will manage the Arkansas Travelers this season, was in Little Rock on Monday night with about 100 fans at the team's hot stove event at the Museum of Discovery. He said he doesn't view his job at Class AA as a step down after spending four seasons as the White Sox' bench coach, but a return to a part of the game he's always found rewarding.
"I enjoy the minor leagues," said Parent, who was fired in October. "For me, it's the same except the talent level and you don't have a track record. I don't know what you're going to do, but our job is to find out what you're going to do."
Parent, 54, said he doesn't even see his first season in the Angels' organization as a first step in a route that leads back to the big leagues. Parent said he pursued "two or three" openings for bench coaches on Major League clubs, but when they didn't pan out, he gladly took an offer from LaCassa, the Angels' director of minor league operations.
LaCassa said he didn't know much about Parent, other than a resume that included a 13-year playing career with seven different teams, six seasons in the minor leagues as coach and manager and his four seasons with the White Sox.
But during a series of phone conversations with Parent -- as he was waiting to see if he'd hit on a big-league job -- impressed LaCassa with his attention to detail.
"I think when you're talking about young players in the minor leagues, you can't let things slide," LaCassa said. "Otherwise, they're not going to reach their full potential. You have to attack issues professionally. He's going to bring those traits to the table."
Parent was hired by an Angels' front office that was restructured in the offseason. General Manager Jerry DiPoto quit in June after a dispute with Manager Mike Scioscia, and Bill Stoneman served as the interim GM for the remainder of the season.
The Angels hired Billy Eppler from the Yankees after the season ended. LaCassa is a holdover, but many other names or roles have changed.
Parent said he'll find out in spring training what philosophy Eppler wants his minor-league teams to adhere to. For now, he'll rely on experiences he gained as a player and in almost two decades coaching.
He last managed in 2011 for the Class AA Reading (Pa.) Phillies, and said he learned plenty the past four seasons in Chicago, even if team results were lacking.
"Some of the best things I learned were from other teams that we played," he said. "It's knowing your players and knowing what they can do."
Parent was let go by the White Sox with three games left in a 76-86 season that resulted in a fourth-place finish in the American League Central. Parent said Monday that he wasn't planning on returning to the team even if his contract was renewed.
A return to managing after four years as a bench coach won't require any readjusting, Parent said, because as a bench coach he was managing the game right alongside White Sox Manager Robin Ventura. Parent said his focus is more on close relationships with the players, anyway.
"Even in the big leagues, I like the guys, making sure the guys are working,"he said. "I tell them all the time, 'my baseball card is full. I'm done with me.' I want them to have the same success that I had."
Sports on 01/26/2016