The Greatest Managers of All Time

The Twentieth Century saw many great players and many great teams, but somehow the men who led them appear to have been slighted, or at least minimized. Who were these men, and what did they do? This article discusses some of the great managers of baseball history and why they should be remembered.

Early on there were many player-managers who led winning teams. Two of the most famous were Pittsburgh's Fred Clarke and Chicago's Frank Chance. Both managers led their teams to four pennants and their respective franchise's first World Series championships. Both are in the Hall of Fame. Both were great players to go along with their great leadership skills. Both competed at high levels. Many managers will admit the huge amount of stress they feel in today's professional baseball, trying to keep their jobs and stay competitive. Clarke and Chance had to "play" almost every day to go along with face the pressures of trying to lead a team of talented players to victory day after day. This is what these two men had to do.

One of the greatest and most known of all managers was a man who, while controversial in his playing days, led his team to a historic ten pennants. This was John McGraw, the former Baltimore Orioles great and a fiery and emotional manager. Even though his first few years as a manager saw some questionable decisions and moves, such as his move from the American League Orioles to the National League's Giants in protest, he became the man who would lead the Nationals to some of their greatest years, including the four pennants and two World Championships in the early 1920s. Although he was sometimes beaten in World Series play he still gave his league and his team the most impressive winning years in history.

A man who either matched or surpassed McGraw and his team in winning, and who had more pressures to deal with as an owner to go along with his managing, was Cornelius "Mack", one of the greatest American League managers of all time, and a man with his own controversies. Mack led the Philadelphia Athletics to nine pennants and several World Series Championships, although he is also remembered as the man who trade two of the greatest teams of all time away to cut costs. His A's of the late 1920s and early 1930s was one filled with future Hall of Famers, including Foxx, Grove and crew. He retired in the 1950s, finally running out of steam and giving in to old age.

One of the early greats who died before he could possibly finish his best accomplishments was the Yankees Miller Huggins. Winning six pennants and leading New York to its first world championships, he also had to deal with a moody and flawed Babe Ruth. His death in the late 1920s cut short a promising career. Even though other Yankee managers would win more pennants than he, his players seem to indicate that he was well loved.

During that same era there were several other managers who led their teams to success. One such man was Bill McKechnie, who won pennants with three of his four NL teams, the only failure being the cash-strapped Boston Braves. After leading the Pittsburgh Pirates to a World Series victory, he was dismissed only to land on his feet with other teams. After winning another pennant with the St. Louis Cardinals, he spent several dismal years with the Braves before again resurfacing with the Cincinnati Red, winning two more pennants with them. It is wondered whether his early releases with the first two stints were because of his managing style, but it is unquestionable that he knew how to win. He also started out in managing in the Federal League, although that circuit only lasted a couple of years.

The next winning director of the New York Yankees first won a pennant with the Cubs; Joe McCarthy. He left Chicago and was given the chance of managing the team that would give him the best collection of all-stars and Hall of Famers any manager would ever have. He would lead the Yanks to eight pennants and seven World Series championships, a feat that is still unequaled today. His only loss in the series would be to the St. Louis Cardinals under Billy Southworth, another pretty good manager in his own right.

The third legendary Yankee manager who would keep the New Yorkers on top of the baseball world, or at least the American League, was the colorful and often quoted Casey Stengel. It is not well known that Stengel was a failure as a manager in his first stints as a manager, with his best year in Brooklyn and Boston being a fifth place finish. Suddenly his luck came to town as he was hired to lead what could be the most talent-filled franchise in major league history. His ten pennants and seven World Series championships are only shadowed by his three losses in the series, the last being the one that did him in, that in 1960. He also is known as the man who led possibly the worst team in baseball history, the 1962 New York Mets, although that was because it was an expansion franchise with little or no talent. It is also not well known that he was a better than marginal player in his younger days.

Another manager who is the perfect model of perseverance and dedication is the great Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers manager, Walter Alston. His record for signing one year contracts each and every season is one of unimaginable proportions, and won seemingly not to ever be matched in today's MLB. He won seven NL pennants and led the Dodgers to their first World Series victories, including one in Brooklyn before the move. He would have to battle the Yankees in series play and lose on more than one occasion, but his patience in signing these yearly contracts has to be something to warrant credit. Dodgers fans have been missing him ever since.

There are several other managers worth discussion, although a possible follow-up story may be more appropriate for this purpose. Men who led winning with more than one team would be worth mentioning, such as player-manager Bucky Harris and Joe Cronin. Some who led their teams to more than one pennant are also worth mentioning, such as Wilbert Robinson and Charlie Grimm, although neither won in the World Series. Last, there is worth mentioning a manager who had the bad luck of leading his team to three AL pennants in a row only to be squashed by two of the great teams of the early era, Hughie Jennings of the Detroit Tigers. His years saw the only visits to the Series of the immortal Ty Cobb, with no championships to show for it. It is worth mentioning that Robinson, McGraw and Jennings were all players on that talent-filled Baltimore Orioles team of the 1890s, the one that won three NL pennants in a row before being broken up by league contraction.

These men were all important in the leadership of their teams in their day. Many of them had to coach talented and egotistical personalities and balance the good with the bad. Many of them were under fire by their owners constantly, being fearful of failure and an instant firing if not winning. The only one not worried about this was, of course, Conning Mack since he was both manager and principle owner. Most of these men are also in the Hall of Fame.

It is worth discussing sometime in the future who the more recent management greats may be, especially in this century, but time will most definitely give us more to list. Leading men onto the field is a massive responsibility that cannot be taken lightly, and those men who have been able to succeed at winning should be given their due. Although not all of the men listed here are in the Hall of Fame, they all have given greater parts of their lives to the enhancement of MLB and we owe them for that. It cannot be easy to manage egos and difficult personalities. It cannot be easy to keep focused on what is going on in the field while not worrying about the front office demands. After all, the percentage of hirings and firings every year proves how stressful and difficult it must be to manage in the big leagues. Would you want to do it?

sources: Gillette, G., Palmer, P., The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, Sterling Publishing Co., New York, 2008.
Brown, G., Morrison, M., ESPN Sports Almanac, ESPN Books, New York, 2009.