Baseball's Greatest Managers

During the more than one hundred years that baseball has been our national pastime, all types of individuals have been managers of teams. They have run the gamut from political appointees to tyrants, schemers, incompetents and geniuses. Legendary baseball stars have been managers such as Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Walter Johnson, Mel Ott, George Sisler, and Honus Wagner. And Mediocre players, including Branch Rickey, Earl Weaver, Walter Alston have become managers. Antics galore have accentuated managerial behavior: the pratfalls of Charley Grimm in the third-base coaching box; the umbrella-carrying Frankie Frisch arguing with the umpires that a game should be called; the cap twisting, body-gyrating movements of Earl Weaver, puffing cigarettes in the dugout and attempting to use body language to will his players to perform better. Idiosyncrasies and special styles have characterized managers through the years. An entire collection of one-liners has developed over the years to characterize the managing profession. For trivia buffs, there's an entire world of statistical records about managers.

Harvey Frommer is a noted sports author and oral historian. He has written more than forty-two sports books including Remembering Yankee Stadium, Remembering Fenway Park, and the autobiographies of Red Holzman, Nolan Ryan, and Tony Dorsett. Cited in the Congressional Record and by the New York State Legislature as a sports historian and journalist, Dr. Frommer is a professor in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program at Dartmouth College. He lives in Lyme, New Hampshire with his wife, Myrna.