HOUSTON -- Phil Garner didn't need to bring a resume to his interview with the
Houston Astros on Saturday.
He just wore his National League championship ring.
Garner met with the Astros to talk about becoming their next manager, just over two years after the franchise fired him. His successor, Cecil Cooper, was fired on Sept. 21, two weeks before Houston finished the season 74-88.
Garner didn't intend to chase his old job. He got an interview after calling president of baseball operations Tal Smith to put in a recommendation for former Arizona manager Bob Melvin, who interviewed for the job on Friday. Melvin previously worked as Garner's bench coach.
Smith told Garner that he could be a candidate if he wanted to be, and Garner said he was interested. He said he never harbored ill will toward the team after he was fired in August 2007.
"When you go back and look at that time, it was probably the right thing to do," he said. "This is a different scenario now. That's why I decided to put my name in the hat and see if there's a fit here.
"I don't think what happened in '07 is going to have anything to do with this."