Uncle Lou Remembered

Former Sox GM Lou Gorman passed away earlier this year at age 82.  Gorman’s image was in large measure contained in his nickneame-Uncle Lou. It implies an old, affable, but generally bumbling uncle who tries hard but just can’t get things quite right. But the real Lou Gorman was much more than that.

He grew up a Sox fan, was a star athlete at La Salle Academy in Rhode Island and went to Stonehill College, majoring in literature. Becoming Sox GM in 1984 was a dream come true. Though his teams made the postseason three times, including the bittersweet 86 squad, Lou is remembed more for his mistakes. The biggest, of course, was the trade of Jeff Bagwell for Larry Anderson in 1990.

It is wrong, however, to completely castigate Gorman. At the time of the Bagwell trade, the Sox were going for a division title (which they won) with a decimated bullpen. Closer Jeff Reardon was gone for the season, and Anderson was a competent reliever. Bagwell, a local guy who starred at UHartford but went undrafted, was playing first and third in Double A New Britain. The Sox had several prospects ahead of him at both positions-Tim Naehring, Scott Cooper, Mo Vaughn, and Wade Boggs, who Gorman hoped to re-sign. Bagwell’s minor league stats were good but not great-481 at bats, .333, 4 homers and 61 rbi’s. The aftermath is well known. Anderson failed to win a game for the Sox and Bagwell went on to become one of the power-men of the 90’s. (His sudden burst of stats brings up the s-question, which I will not comment on). In his book One Pitch From Glory, Lou takes responsibility:…”none of the (scouting) reports projected that he would have above-average major league power. We were wrong.”

Since he was not particularly articulate and an “old-school” baseball man, Gorman was easy to criticize. A great example is his statement about failing to sign hard-hitting outfielder Willie McGee::….”with the way (Mike) Greenwell, (Ellis) Burks, and (Tom) Brunansky are playing, where would we play McGee?” The media had a field day. Eddie Andelman would sing a song on the Sports Huddle, misquoting Gorman. It was called “What would we do with Willie McGee?”

Gorman’s book is written in a classy, uncontroversial way-the only person he seems to really dislike is (surprise, surprise) Dan Shaughnessy. Unlike the Yawkeys, Lou, though no longer GM, would live to see two Sox World Championships. In his final years he coordinated the Sox Hall of Fame, to which he was elected in 2002. His career spanned more than three decades as a GM, assistant GM, scouting director, and project coordinator. RIP, Uncle Lou. You deserve it.