"Fred, do you know the real meaning of being a GM?" inquired Syd, who served as a general manager for several teams. The talkative and likeable Thrift then supplied the answer to his own question: "The red light in your hotel room is always blinking."

Thrift was right. There is no job in baseball that requires more time, discipline and dedication. Along with all of that, no job brings more criticism.

Even so, if you have a passion for the game, there is no job in the world better than being a general manager for a Major League team.

Season by season, it's getting tougher for the general managers to survive in a job that they so dearly treasured and sought at the outset of their tenures.

In the 2007 media guide of the Atlanta Braves, there is a chart near the biographical information on John Schuerholz that shows "General Managers -- By Tenure."

The chart was there for a very good reason in that it showed Schuerholz at the top of a list of 30 names as he had taken over the position of the Braves' general manager on Oct. 10, 1990.

On Thursday, almost 17 years to the day he assumed the GM job with the Braves, Schuerholz's name came off the active list as the senior general manager in terms of consecutive years with the same team.

Atlanta Braves chairman and CEO Terry McGuirk announced that Schuerholz was being elevated to team president and would be replaced by his assistant of the past eight years, Frank Wren.

"It's the right thing for me and the organization," Schuerholz told USA Today. "I feel good about it. I loved my job as general manager, but after 26 years [in total] at it, the cumulative wear-down effect was getting more and more to me."

Schuerholz just turned 67 and Wren is 49.

Schuerholz isn't the only executive at the top of the tenure ladder to leave the general manager's role in recent weeks.

Terry Ryan made the decision to step aside as the GM of the Minnesota Twins after holding the position since September 1994, stating "the defeats are getting harder to take, and the wins aren't as much fun." The Twins announced that Ryan would be replaced by his longtime assistant, Bill Smith.

A month after Ryan had taken over the Twins' job in 1994, the St. Louis Cardinals selected Walt Jocketty as their GM.

Jocketty also has left the general manager's role just recently as he and the Cardinals mutually agreed to part ways.

"Quite honestly, I'm looking forward to taking a little time off, because I'm beat," said Jocketty.

The departure of Schuerholz, Ryan and Jocketty leaves Kevin Towers of the San Diego Padres at the top of the GM totem pole. Towers was appointed the general manager of the Padres in November 1995, thus will mark his 12th anniversary next month.

The only other current general managers who served their initial season with their current team prior to 2000 are Brian Sabean of San Francisco (1997), Billy Beane of Oakland (1998) and Brian Cashman of the New York Yankees (1999).

"The turnover on the GM front has been amazing," said Towers. "I think it has to do with the expectations that are placed on a team and the general manager. With parity in the form of revenue sharing, comes additional expectations."

Towers said that the changing of the GM guard also makes it tougher in dealing with other teams in that long-standing relationships are hard to keep in place.

"You get to know the style of other general managers and that takes some time to develop," he said.

Towers said he would miss his dealings with the three men who had led the GM tenure list going into this season, and he provided a brief scouting report on what he termed "three of the very best in the business."

"John is someone who I believe is going to go into the Hall of Fame. I put him in a different class than almost anyone else, his presence and the way he has always conducted himself. You look at John, and if he was a player, we would be talking about Tony Gwynn or Cal Ripken.

"Terry was a scout, a great scout. He is extremely hard-working and he always was giving credit to other people. He was always very humble, but all of us who know him, know how good he has been in his job. He always did things the right way."

Of Jocketty, Towers said, "Walt is a true gentleman. He always wore that Cardinal logo with a great deal of pride. He has always put his organization first and he is well respected. The Cardinals couldn't have been represented by a better person."

Schuerholz, Ryan and Jocketty leave their GM roles as proven winners.

All three have spoken of the demands of the job of being a general manager, but you can be assured all will miss one of baseball's most responsible and competitive roles.

It takes some time to get used to walking into your hotel room and realize the red message light isn't blinking.