My favorite manager of all-time is Casey Stengel. It seems as if it would have been fun to be around him. He had a keen awareness of what sportswriters needed when they came to the dugout and he tried to give it to them. He was even conscious of feeding different news leads to morning newspaper guys and evening newspaper guys.
And all he did was win pennants and World Series with the Yankees.
My second favorite manager of all-time is Ozzie Guillen. It was a delight to be around him when he was supervising the White Sox these recent years and I hope he never changes, making jokes and saying outrageous things. I put Dusty Baker in this class of easy-listening managers, too, because hearing his philosophical musings in the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse always leaves you feeling wonderful about the game of baseball.
Those are probably the three managers I would vote most entertaining to hang around with for a 162-game season, and they have all been winners, too. Yet they are not the winningest managers of all time, and although I am not sure there is a rating system for managers that can reduce what they do to empirical data as everyone now attempts for pitchers and hitters, there would be arguments among baseball fans about just who is the best manager of all.
Like him or not, St. Louis Cardinals’ boss Tony La Russa has to rate among the greatest managers in baseball history. I have never been around La Russa with any regularity. I have never felt any warmth from him, as Guillen and Baker radiate, when encountering him. But he must be one smart dude with tremendous baseball instincts because he has been a winner with three teams, won World Series championships with two, and next season will pass John McGraw as the manager with the second most wins in history.
Connie Mack holds the records for most wins, 3,731, (as well as most losses) by a manager. He had the ultimate job security while managing the Philadelphia Athletics for a half-century. He owned the team. McGraw won, 2,763 games managing the New York Giants. La Russa is third on that wins list with 2,728 victories. In an era of quick-trigger-firings he has lasted and if La Russa left the Cardinals after this World Series against the Texas Rangers, people in baseball would line up immediately to offer him another managing job even though he is 67.
Managers play their hunches and managers play the percentages. It would be hard to be a manager and be totally devoted to one tactic over another. Statistics recently have become more popular to justify decisions, but hunches represent what is called being human. The best managers are wise enough to mix more than one ingredient into their stews. Use the best information available to make the best judgment possible. One reason the team hires a manager is because of his ability to think, not merely do math.
La Russa’s teams have won six pennants and two World Series. His Cardinals may yet win another Series within a week. Such a triumph would enhance even La Russa’s resume because absolutely no one thought this team would be playing this deep into October, nor be capable of claiming the championship. Yet the Cardinals lead the Rangers 1-0 in games and they well could be hoisting baseball’s iconic gold trophy heavenward soon.