1920: The Year of the Manager

by J.G. Floto

1968 is recognized as "The Year of the Pitcher," with McGwire, Sosa and Griffey, 1998 may be "The Year of the Dinger." 1920 also is distinctive. That year featured an amazing 9 managers who would go on to the Hall of Fame. In this issue we give a rundown of the 9 leaders who went to Cooperstown.

Tris Speaker (Ballplayer) Speaker was one of the greatest hitters of all-time, with his .345 average (5th alltime), his 3,514 hits, and his 9 seasons over .350. Yet today he is probably best remembered as the greatest center fielder the other side of Willie Mays. He played in so close that he was almost a fifth infielder, yet he could race to the deepest part of the outfield like a jackrabbit.

As a manager he won the World Series in 1920, his first year, hit .388, had to replace his star shortstop Chapman, who was killed in a beaning, and deal with the grief of his fellow players. He lasted 8 years as Cleveland's manager, retiring with a healthy 617-520 (.543) record.

Hughie Jennings (Ballplayer) Managed nearly as long as he played, 15 seasons at the helm of the Ty Cobb Tigers. He won pennants his first three years there with a young Cobb, and wound up with an 1184-995 (.541) record. Jennings is one of a comparatively few managers who have won more than 1,000 games, yet it was as the shortstop of those salty dogs known as the Baltimore Orioles, who along with McGraw, Robinson, and Wee Willie Keeler, played hard-driving, championship club in the late '90s and it was in that capacity that he made the hallowed Hall, although he was indeed a fine manager.

ED BARROW (Executive) Ed Barrow is the only man in our story who never played professional ball. His career commenced as a newspaperman, and during the late 19th century he served in a variety of minor league capacities. He managed Detroit for parts of two seasons before Jennings. He managed the Red Sox in the topsy-turvy 1918-20 period when owner Frazee went crazy with his Broadway productions, and sold stars like Ruth and Mays to the Yanks to finance them. Although he won the championship in 1918, he fell to fifth by 1920. ('What this team needs is someone to hit 54 homers," said Ed, ruthlessly.) He joined the Yanks himself in 1921 and until 1945 was the GM--and the man largely responsible for obtaining the players that made them the most famous franchise in the history of sports.

Branch Rickey (Executive) He coached college ball teams, had exactly 343 major league at bats, managed the Browns from 1913-15 and the Cards from 1919-25. With only two first division finishes in 10 years at the helm and his pitiful playing career, he'd be one of thousands of so-so careers listed in The Baseball Encyclopedia. With his 597-664 (.473) managing record, it is obvious that his place In Cooperstown was secured with his remarkable front office record. The ambiguous "Mahatma", 'a con man playing a parson,' was above all an excellent judge of players. When he took over as Cardinals' GM they were the second team in town, and one of the starvelings of the majors. He created a farm system (some called it a chain gang), of 32 minor league clubs that developed into both the great Redbird teams of the '30s and '40s and a source of revenue with all the extra players his new system developed. Moving on to Brooklyn in the '40s, he was best known for smashing the color line by signing ]Jackie Robinson, but he also signed on the nucleus of the great Boys of Summer Dodgers of the '50s. He also created the first sophisticated spring-training complex, and was ahead of the curve in encouraging the use of batting cages and pitching machines. When O'Malley came along and squeezed him out, he moved on to Pittsburgh, where he succeeded in making the batting helmet standard gear, at least for the Bucs. Although the Pirates were unsuccessful during his 5 years there, he brought in many of the players who would lead the 1960 Bucs to their first World Series since 1927.

Clark Griffith (Executive, according to Total Baseball, manager according to the Encyclopedia.) Regardless, he also could have made the Hall as a pitcher, with a 237-146 (.609) record and seven 20-game seasons. Having helped Ban Johnson establish the fledgling A.L. by using his prestige to lead the player's strike of 1900, he was rewarded with the managership of the new Chicago White Sox, where he stayed for two years. He then moved on to the Highlanders (who became the Yankees) from '03-'08. He returned to the NL with the Reds from 1909-11, then took over as Washington's manager from 1912-20, during which time he was buying out the club's other owners. His biggest contribution as manager was his reliance on the bullpen in the days when it was almost seen as a moral weakness for a pitcher not to finish a game. But he had seen the Tammany Hallrun Hall run Highlanders ruin the arms of Jack Chesbro and Jack Powell with overuse, and he was not about to do that with the likes of Walter ]Johnson. Hence, some of the best old-time relievers, Fred Mayberry and Allan Russell, were Senators. Although he won only one pennant (the 1901 White Sox, the first AL pennant), he had a 1491-1367 (.522) record as a manager.

John McGraw (Manager) THE manager. From 1903-32 he won 10 pennants and finished in the first division 27 of 30 seasons. While many remember that he was on those rough-and-tumble Orioles of 100 years ago (3B), many don't realize that the tough little native of Truxton, NY retired with a .334 batting average and an incredible .466 OBP (#3 all-time, behind only Ruth and Williams!). He began his managing career with the O's, replacing the legendary Ned Hanlon in 1899 while they were still an NL club. When they flipped over to the AL in 1901 he continued managing them, leaving in 1902 before they moved north to become the NY Highlanders. Taking the best players like Roger Bresnahan and Iron Man Joe McGinnity with him, Mac took over the floundering Giants in late 1902, and managed them almost to the time of his death. He was an expert at strategy and sizing up players. He loved taking young ballplayers ("empty vessels") and fililng filling them with McGraw ball. Great players and managers from Casey Stengel to Mel Ott, along with dozens more, learned at the feet of the tyrannical master, who could also be incredibly generous. He always made sure his players were well paid and travelled first class. Unlike many of his contemporaries who simply could not adapt to the new long ball strategy that took the game by storm when Babe Ruth came along, McGraw adapted, even though he preferred the old style and personally despised Ruth. His record was 2840-1984 (.589).

Connie Mack (Manager) When you compare his composite record to his rival in New York, Mack's record looks somewhat ridiculous, what with all those last place finishes in the mid-30's and '40s. Yet if he had retired when McGraw did, when his second dynasty was being lost to the struggles of the Depression, their records would have been remarkably similar. Mack was already in his 70's and only managed until 1950 (when he was 94!) because he owned the club.

Cornelius McGillicuddy (his name was shortened to fit in the box score) was a decent catcher in the late 19th century. Ironically, the man who came to be known as The Tall Tactician, but who might as easily have been called the Tall Tightwad, was a leader in the formation of the Player's League in 1890, a renegade organization that arose out of players' dissatisfaction with wages and conditions. Finishing his career with Pittsburgh, he managed the Pirates for a couple seasons before moving across Pennsylvania to become the first manager of the freshly minted Philadelphia Athletics of the new American League. By the time he retired he had won more games than most managers ever manage, 3,731. But due to the miserable finish of his career, he lost even more (3,948), and retired with a .486 percentage.

Miller Huggins (Manager) He was a dinky little second baseman in his playing days (1904-16), and Babe Ruth never let him forget it. But he was a first-rate infielder and soaked up baseball knowledge like a sponge. He managed the Cards from 1913-17, where his most notable act was breaking in a green pea named Rogers Hornsby. In 1918 he went to New York, and after the arrival of Barrow in 1920, this incongruous pair (Barrow was a gruff, imperious man, Hug a quiet type who had a law degree) built the mighty Yankee dynasty that changed the way the game was played. Between their first pennant in 1921 and his death in 1929 of erysipelas (an infection of the skin), Hug won six pennants and finished second twice. Given his sub .500 record with the mediocre Cards he retired with a 1413-1134 (.555) record, but as a Yankee, he was nearly a .600 manager.