The Terry Bevington dismissal has been big news here, too, during the first round of the American League playoffs. Yankee manager Joe Torre, in the midst of attempting to defend his team’s World Series title, was requested to offer his input on the possibility of Chris Chambliss’ shipping on as the new White Sox manager.
Torre was asked if his longtime hitting coach is made of the right stuff. Would he be a good big-league manager?
Torre explained Chambliss has a laid-back approach, a cool personality who doesn’t show an excessive amount of emotion. Torre emphasized this would not be a problem if his club wins, as was the case with Cito Gaston, whom the Toronto Blue Jays recently dismissed.
So long as Toronto was winning, Gaston was a certified dugout wizard. quiet but stern, an unquestioned leader of men. But as soon as the Blue Jays were in obvious descent. Gaston had to be sacrificed in favor of a successor with a belly full of fire. Down the line, Torre indicated, Chambliss could encounter an identical fate.
There are, in essence, two basic managerial types: those with thunder and those who speak only when the occasion requires. Walter Alston, who managed the Dodgers for 22 years, was the captain of the Gary Cooper school and seldom said more than “yup.”
Alston’s successor, Tom Lasorda, recently canonized in the Hall of Fame, was an oral gymnast who could and often did recite the names of each of his players’ wives and their children, in order of arrival.
Bill Russell since has succeeded Lasorda and was criticized for his stone-faced manner during the last week of the National League season, when the Dodgers lost the West Division to the San Francisco Giants. Had the Dodgers won, Russell would have been a dugout hero, but that’s how it goes.
Minnesota’s Tom Kelly, the American League’s senior manager, is also on the quiet side. He is safe because he twice guided the Twins to world championships. Bill Virdon seldom wasted a word when his Pirate and Yankee teams were among the best, and today–he’s a coach with the Astros–he continues to be regarded with considerable reverence.
Virdon was well known for his taciturnity. Once, at a victory banquet, a woman assigned to an adjacent seat said to him, “I made a bet I can get you to say more than two words.”
Replied Virdon: “You lose.”
And so the question is, which does White Sox General Manager Ron Schueler prefer: fire or ice?
Which brings us to Nancy Gould, whose husband, Jack, is a senior Sox vice president. At Comiskey Park last Sunday, the final day of the regular season, Gould revealed that his wife, who is a big fan, had a can’t-miss managerial candidate.
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“She believes Chuck Tanner has the best credentials,” Gould said. “And the more I think about it, the more I agree with her. But I don’t know if he would be available.”
I called Tanner at his home in New Castle, Pa. For the last few years, he has been scouting for the Milwaukee Brewers. Before that, he was a big-league manager for 18 years, including five years with the White Sox.
Would he be willing to serve a second term?
“My enthusiasm is still there,” Tanner replied. “I’m still charged up.”
He was 68 last July 4 but insisted, “Age is a state of mind. I’m better than I was five years ago. And I’m better than I was 10 years ago and 20 years ago.”
If Schueler and Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf are looking for rah-rah, Tanner could be holding the winning ticket. When he was functioning at Comiskey Park (1971-75), he was known as “Mr. Positive,” with never a negative thought. Fact is, he and Roland Hemond, then the Sox general manager, often were described as “the Sunshine Boys.”
Tanner also had another hidden but unspoken asset. He was so strong he could whip his players in hand-to-hand combat. More than once, he asked a disgruntled player to step outside. So far as I know, nobody accepted the challenge.
There is also this to remember. When the late Casey Stengel managed the Yankees to a record-breaking five consecutive World Series victories, he said, “I couldna done it without the players.”