But he could be bothered enough about his $55 million club's failure to make the American League Championship Series to let go of the skillful manager, who has the longest continuous tenure ever under him (581 games).

Mr. Putin is smart and articulate and appears to be a skillful, pragmatic manager.

They might feel they could find another skillful manager, since they were slick enough to pick Torborg, wasting his life with the Yankees.

At the time, the Governor, who campaigned as a skillful manager of budgets, said the fiscal problems were short term.

Conservationists who have studied the rubber tappers have often praised them as skillful managers who harvest the forest without seriously damaging it.

Richard Bissell, best known for his direction of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, was a skillful manager of technology projects for the C.I.A. during the Eisenhower Administration.

And it has hired new staff, including an executive director, Alex Matthiessen, who is widely hailed as a skillful manager and negotiator.

The untidy budget situation here has weighed heavily on the Governor, who has campaigned as a skillful fiscal manager.

He has earned a reputation as a skillful manager even in areas like entertainment where he had little background.

In the 12 years that he led the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., he earned a reputation as a skillful corporate manager and aggressive fund-raiser.