D-backs manager Kirk Gibson: ‘We’ve stayed committed all year’

To say 2014 hasn’t been a banner year in the brief history of the Arizona Diamondbacks would be a gross understatement.

With a couple of weeks left in the season, the D-backs are mired firmly in fourth place in the National League West, 24 games out of first place.

Couple all the losing with the cruel rash of injuries Arizona has experienced, and one might speculate that team members may have tuned out manager Kirk Gibson here in the late stages of the season.

In fact, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal tweeted just that inkling last weekend.

Sources: LaRussa not yet convinced that #DBacks should fire Gibson, but clubhouse support for manager all but gone.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) September 13, 2014

Gibson refuted Rosenthal’s claim Tuesday as a guest of Burns and Gambo on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

“I think they’ve been great,” Gibson said of his players’ effort this season. “We’ve stayed committed all year. I think everybody gets frustrated in times like this — I’ve been through it before as a player and I’ve been through it before as a coach.

“We haven’t packed it in, we’ve asked them to keep going and they’ve kept going. We continue to try and get better. We continue to teach, they continue to learn. They want to get better.”

Gibson said he and his coaching staff have set the example to his team that despite the dismal record, all is not lost.

“I control what I can control, and I know I haven’t given up in the dugout,” he said. “I’ve always had a commitment to be that way. People are going to say a lot of things about you when you’re in this business, you have to have thick skin.

“I come out and prepare myself the best that I can. Other people will make that determination if I move on or not. People will say things and it’s interesting that there is no name on it, it isn’t substantiated by anybody, so I’ll just leave it at that source.”

Of course Gibson is a manager now, but he spent 17 years in the Majors as a player. The 57-year-old says he never tuned out a manager, even in hard times, during his career, instead choosing to look inward.

“I worried about myself,” he said. “You just go out there, you have a commitment, you’re a professional. You have an obligation, you signed up for it. Just because things get tough, you don’t start blaming other people.”

Gibson received a contract extension prior to this season, but his future with the Diamondbacks is still up in the air. Chief baseball officer Tony La Russa, who is in the midst of hiring a new general manager, is expected to make a decision on the manager position at the conclusion of the campaign.

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