OAKLAND, Calif. – Not once in 692 games as a major league catcher did Bob Melvin get tossed out of a game by an umpire. His perfect record remains intact through more than 80 games as manager of the Seattle Mariners.

Say hello to the anti-Lou, the man who replaced the fervent and contentious Lou Piniella. When Piniella jumped ship to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays after last season to be closer to his roots, the Mariners reached out for a calmer influence.

If the base-throwing, dirt-kicking Piniella was a storm-crossed sea, Melvin is a sleepy lagoon.

“If they wanted someone not like Lou, they definitely got it,” said Melvin as he rearranged his desk in the visiting manager’s office at Network Associates Coliseum on Monday. “To be credible, I’m only to go out there when I really feel I’m right. I’m not going to go out there on real close plays, because that isn’t my style.”

The result? Just about the same so far in running away from the three other teams in the American League West.

His players, most of them veterans who can take care of themselves, appreciate Melvin’s low-key approach. So does upper management. But not everyone agrees that Melvin doesn’t need to add a little chili to the sauce.

“Lou is fiery, is an intimidator who knows how to work umpires,” said Mariners broadcaster Dave Henderson, who played for Seattle as well as the A’s and the Giants. “Bob is a rookie who has to learn all these tricks of the trade. He has to learn how to manipulate umpires.

“Bob is quiet to a point where he needs to get enraged. We’ve seen his wrath this year when he’s protecting his players. He’s an easygoing guy who relies on his data. That’s the way the game is going in 2003.”

Melvin, 41, came out of nowhere to land his first managerial job outside of a winter in the Arizona Fall League four years ago. After a 10-year playing career, he studied under Phil Garner as a bench coach in Milwaukee and Detroit, and then with Bob Brenly for two years in Arizona.

Melvin said he had been told by the Chicago Cubs he would be their manager if Dusty Baker didn’t take the job, which Baker did. That left Melvin in a field of 12 vying to manage Seattle. When interviews narrowed the group to four, Melvin came home and told his wife, Kelley, “I think I’m going to get this job.”

“We weren’t looking for a guy who would force his own personality on the club,” said Lee Pelekoudas, Mariners vice president for baseball administration. “What he did in spring training was the best thing he could have done. He sat back, let the team go and just observed.”

Second baseman Bret Boone said he “was stunned,” when Melvin was named manager “because I didn’t know Bob,” but he quickly came to appreciate him.

“Bob didn’t have the attitude of coming in wanting to change things and do it different,” Boone said.

Melvin’s placid demeanor has helped the Mariners weather the absence of closer Kazuhiro Sasaki, on the disabled list after fracturing his ribs while falling on his luggage. After all, this is a franchise that has overcome the loss of three players with Hall of Fame skills – Ken Griffey, Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez – in the past three years.

In came center fielder Mike Cameron in the Griffey trade with Cincinnati, right fielder Ichiro Suzuki from Japan and Boone as a free agent. The Mariners tightened their bullpen, which compensated for not having Johnson.

“Bob handles pitchers real well,” said Mariners bench coach Rene Lachemann, who managed Seattle for most of three seasons until 1983, “He’s always an inning or two ahead in figuring how he’s going to use his bullpen.

“And I know he’s not going to yell and scream a lot in the dugout. He’ll take you into his office for one-on-one. In my 38 years in this game, I’ve never seen a team get fired up because the manager gets thrown out of a game.”