The Chicago White Sox recently dismissed Ozzie Guillen as their manager and named former third basemen with no major league coaching experience Robin Ventura as the new skipper. Personally, I like the move. Ventura is a smart former player who knows a lot about the sport, has begun to surround himself with capable coaches, and may very well have some good success on the South Side. However, according to this report from ESPN, General Manager Kenny Williams briefly entertained the notion of making All-Star first basemen Paul Konerko the teams player/manager.
Baseball has a long history of player-managers. Prominent guys like Joe Torre, Frank Robinson, Connie Mack, and Tris Speaker were all player-managers at one point. We haven’t seen a guy occupy both roles, however, since Pete Rose in 1984-86. I think that there is good reason for this. The recent evolution of the bullpen has required managers to take a much more hands on approach to in game decisions. Back 40 or 50 or so years ago, a manager would make his starting lineup, give his starting pitcher the baseball and more or less watch. This is reflected in innings totals from those eras compared to this one. Today, a successful starting pitcher throws about 200 innings per season. Roy Halladay led the league last season with 250.2 innings and had about 230 this year. In 1972, Steve Carlton threw 346.1! How would a modern player-manager manage his bullpen? Would Konerko yell into the dugout from first base every time he wanted a guy to warm up? What about when Chicago is on the road and the team is in the third base dugout? I think it’s just impractical.
Practical difficulties aside, there have certainly been guys worthy of the player-manager job since 1986. Tony Gwynn, a lifetime Padre could have done a good job. He’s shown his managerial acumen recently as the skipper at San Diego St. Cal Ripken, a career Oriole could also have done it. I think that a major qualification of a modern-player manager is definitely longevity with one organization. I don’t think you would want to sign a free-agent and have him come in as both your cleanup hitter (for example) and coach. I don’t think that would go over too well. Ken Griffey Jr., could have been a great skipper if he had stayed in Seattle his whole career and everyone always talks about how good of a manger Alex Cora is going to be once he retires. I also could imagine guys like Craig Biggio, Todd Helton, Ivan Rodriguez, Chipper Jones, Jason Varitek, and Michael Young in the role, impracticalities aside. And if you think Derek Jeter is stubborn about staying at shortstop and batting leadoff now, just imagine if he was the Yankee skipper.
Just food for thought,
-Max Frankel
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