Yesterday I came by the news that Boros died on Dec. 29 in his Florida home, of complications from multiple myeloma. I guess Boros was basically a baseball lifer who bounced from team to team, but I've always thought of him mostly as one of the A's managers in the mid-'80s gap between Billy Martin and La Russa. I'd earlier looked up some things on him using computers and sabermeteric-type advanced stats as the A's manager. So, here's some of a 2005 article from Florida. It's mostly Boros talking about his career. Apparently he did not much regret getting fired by the A's in 1984:

"I can't say that I enjoyed managing. There is no team concept among modern players. I had to put out fires every day."

The closest he came to a World Series as a player or coach was as a Kansas City coach in 1976 when the Yankees eliminated the Royals in five games of the AL Championship Series.

"Because of that I received a $10,000 playoff check, and that was a down payment on our house," Boros said. "I didn't have any money. We'd been renting. I was making like $17,000 a year coaching first base with the Royals."

How has pro baseball changed in 47 years? When Boros was signed there were only 16 MLB teams.

"Today, they push the players more quickly," Boros said. "A lot of them don't have the preparation we had. It's the economics of the game because you're losing players to free agency. You can't afford to keep 'em, so you bring up younger players. Often before they're ready.

"So now everything happens very quickly. When I was playing at Cincy, Tony Perez went back to the minors two straight years after batting .300. That didn't happen to me because 1961 was the first year of expansion. And Eddie Yost, the Tiger third baseman, went to California so there was a spot for me there.

"Things changed so dramatically. Now a lot of players can't handle the money. A lot of them got complacent. I was fortunate to be around some good players like George Brett and Cal Ripken Jr.

"Brett and Ripken always gave you 100 percent. Many guys are like that. But it's the few bad apples . . ."

Boros met his wife, Sharla, in 1970 while managing the Royals' Class A farm in Waterloo, Iowa. "Her parents were our biggest fans and their daughter was a TWA flight attendant that I met on her layover," Boros said.   They were married in 1973.