Who were the Toughest and Nicest managers?

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Volod

This is a question that is probably best answered by long-time observers of particular teams. Jason is right on in his assessment of Ossie Vitt as one of the nastiest guys to ever sit on the end of a bench. Most of his players generously described him as a wildman. The only thing nastier was the public reaction against the team for trying to get him fired, which is more often accomplished by players just tanking or dogging it on the field. Here are four more recent Indians managers that have been cited by their players as some of the easiest and best guys to work for, and perhaps not coincidentally - some of the best in all aspects of the job.

I got to see a lot of Francona while he was with the Red Sox. One thing that always impressed me was that no matter how bad the screwup or how hard the press pushed looking for something to stir up he never blamed an individual player directly and often took the blame himself even when to a fan the player was at fault.