Jeff Manto loved to hit as a player, loved to hear the crowds roar in Buffalo and all the other major and minor league stops in his career. He still loves the sound of bat on ball as a coach in the Chicago White Sox chain and when he runs youth clinics.

A memorable Manto line: "How come we buy a $300 bat and a $50 glove? It's because we want

to hit. You gotta be nuts about hitting, crazed about it. Hitting has got to matter."

That was one of many messages the greatest living Bison had for high school and college

players at a recent hitting academy he ran in Coca-Cola Field.

"Going from kids to guys at this level to the big guys is the same message," Manto said. "I

was talking up to them just like I would to big leaguers. It's the same fundamentals. Hitting

coaches from top to bottom try to complicate it as much as they can. It's really not as

complicated. People get confused when they listen to too many people."

Wearing a Mets era blue Bisons warm-up with the Star Wars-like "Herd" script across the

front, Manto has his campers' attention in both the classroom and the batting cage.

"Trust it, trust it," he says in the cage as he flips balls underhanded to one high school

player and implores him to finish his swing and have confidence he'll take every ball up the

middle.

Manto, now 45, is preparing for his second year as the minor league hitting coordinator for

the White Sox. The Bisons' modern-era home run king — and the only modern-era player to

have his number retired — has been coaching for nine years, highlighted by a two-year

stint (2006-07) as the hitting coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Manto said it's always a thrill to come back to Buffalo, where his 79 home runs for the

Bisons from 1997-2000 rank fifth in the franchise's 124 seasons. He had his No. 30 put on the

left-field wall in an emotional 2001 ceremony.

"I've said it privately to the front office people here about what it means to me," he said.

"They retired my number. Think about that. You retired my number. For me, there comes a

responsibility with that. If they ask me to do things, I should do them. This is what the

number on that wall represents. I enjoy doing these things, the kind of things a guy still

living with that number can represent.

"It's almost like a college alumni feeling. You always come back and give back. I take that

number seriously. I really do. I'm just trying to represent what this Bison thing is all

about."

Manto went into coaching in 2001 and has served as both a manager and hitting instructor in

the minor leagues. After three years as the Pirates' minor league coordinator, he finally got

a chance to serve as a major league coach.

The Pirates hit .263 as a team both years under Manto. Freddy Sanchez hit .344 in 2006,

winning the first batting title by a Pirate since Bill Madlock in 1983. The Pirates went 37-35

after the All-Star break that year to finish 67-95 — but it was their first winning

second half since 1992. They were 68-94 the next year and Jim Tracy's staff was gone. But

Manto left with positive memories.

"It was very gratifying to get Jason Bay off the fastball, get Freddy Sanchez swinging more,

to get Jack Wilson to believe he needed to drop his hands," he said. "We had it going in the

minor leagues with guys coming up like [Nate] McLouth, [Ryan] Doumit. ... And all the other

guys."

The Pirates fired Tracy at the close of the campaign in 2007 and the entire coaching staff

was given the option to look for other jobs. Manto was offered a minor league position but

chose to hook on with the White Sox, who had just hired former Indians third baseman and big

league manager Buddy Bell, a close friend, as their director of minor league operations.

"Having a batting champion was cool," Manto said. "We had it going a little and they took

the bottom out of it. I was disappointed for the whole system more than I was for myself. We

felt we were finally going in the right direction. We were on the brink of it.

"It's the NL Central. It isn't like it's the AL East. It's very winnable. We were at the

brink of winning. We thought we were on the way up."

Still, Manto said he enjoys following his former Pirates. Bay, for instance, is now a $60

million man for the Mets after a solid run in Boston.

"Jason came to me and said, "Listen, people are afraid to teach me because I've been here.

Please teach me what you know,'" he said. "He wanted information, took it, ran with it. It's

great to see him stop and pause on a breaking ball and hit the change-up. To see we talked

about it and he's using it is great."

In his current role, Manto spends about 20 days a month away from his home in Bristol, Pa.,

outside Philadelphia. He travels to Triple-A Charlotte, Double-A Birmingham, Class A

Winston-Salem and short-season Class A's in Great Falls, Mont., Kannapolis, N.C., and Bristol,

Tenn.

Manto and his wife, Denise, have three children (Gabrielle, 14; Andreana, 12; and Jeffrey,

11). Once they get older, he said he's going to push to get a chance at his ultimate career

goal.

"Hitting is definitely a niche but I don't want to stop there," Manto said. "I definitely

want to get back on the field and manage, whether it's in Triple-A or the big leagues. For

right now, this is what I enjoy. There's a lot more to learn about hitting, about the game.

When the time comes and the timing is right, I will put my hat into the ring."