It is funny to think that a Braves search committee consisting of three old-time, all-time great baseball minds was formed, and after assembling their collective genius the trio looked no further than the committee room door, coming together to come up with one of the committee members.

Then again, John Hart, committee leader and allegedly "interim" GM, may be a perfect choice to be the Braves' honest-to-goodness GM, at least for a while.

Hart's “interim” tag was his call in the first place, and it appears now the other ultra esteemed committee members who include Braves president John Schuerholz and Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox may be leaning on Hart to stay longer -- a bit longer anyway. And Hart, who has always told his colleagues he has had the "perfect life," and often turned down other opportunities, at age 66 appears to be seriously considering taking the real GM job according to someone who's spoken to him -- for a little while, anyway.

He indeed has the perfect life, with a nice gig at the MLB Network, a part-time role working for the Braves and his best friend in baseball in Schuerholz, and time for his near-scratch golf game and beloved family. But this perfect life might yet be trumped by the perfect opportunity.

With the Braves, he has a team with a wonderful tradition, an operation he has called the "golf standard," a nice young foundation, and a pitching staff with some serious talent. He also has a manager he seems to like in Fredi Gonzalez, and an up-and-coming potential GM John Coppolella he likes very much. He also has Schuerholz, so close to Hart he always seemed like his partner even all those years they worked in opposite leagues.

Folks were already lining up for the Braves' GM job in the day after it came open with the firing of Frank Wren, but Hart maybe the perfect short answer. He was going to help through the transition period anyway, so why not just extend that period from a month or two to perhaps a year or two? That would give him time to get the Braves back and running as a World Series threat, and time to groom a successor, who would seem to be the 36-year-old Coppolella.

Braves people spoke of wanting to change the culture that became disharmonious to many of them, even uncomfortable by some accounts, and the easy going Hart would work perfectly. Some Braves people already have noticed a different sort of energy.

Hart always has been known for building staffs as well as teams, and he has groomed more fine young GMs than almost everyone else put together over the past 20 years -- from Mark Shapiro to Jon Daniels to Josh Byrnes to Dan O'Dowd to Chris Antonetti. Coppolella, who appears to have won the respect of Schuerholz as a worker and thinker, looks like the next candidate.

Hearing the news that Hart could stay longer than an interim tag normally implies, which was first mentioned by Jeff Passan at Yahoo, some of his old protégés could almost be heard cheering. "Good for him," one said. Let's not forget, this fellow added, "John Hart is really good."

There is no doubt: Hart knows how to build a team.

And it's no small thing that he knows how to build an offense, which appears to be something the Braves badly need now. Hart's teams often had powerhouse lineups that overwhelmed the opposition. The Indians' batting orders in the '90s ranked with the best over the past several decades.

Hart is as qualified to do the GM job as anyone, and there's no question, even a decade and a half after receiving his first AARP card, he has the energy.

The only real question is: Will he take the (full-time) job?