Would Babe Ruth made a good manager?

[Chuck9788]

I read that Ruth was lied to by Boston Braves owner Judge Emil Fuchs on the promise of becoming their next manager. The Bambino then retired.

Do you feel Ruth would have made a good manager? Did he have high level baseball knowledge and motivational speaking skills?

[bbcard1]

Probably not. Great players seldom are because many of the things they do come naturally. They have trouble teaching and spotting mechanical problems. Ted Williams was as cerebral of a player as you could ever want, but he had little to no success as a manager. He also didn't have a lot to work with.

[Peter_Spaeth]

McGraw was an outstanding player and manager both. Torre was a very good player, perhaps not quite great but not far from it.

[KCRfan1]

+1

Originally Posted by bbcard1

Probably not. Great players seldom are because many of the things they do come naturally. They have trouble teaching and spotting mechanical problems. Ted Williams was as cerebral of a player as you could ever want, but he had little to no success as a manager. He also didn't have a lot to work with.

[packs]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

McGraw was an outstanding player and manager both. Torre was a very good player, perhaps not quite great but not far from it.

I don't know if you could really say Torre was a great manager. I was only 11 when the Yankees won in 1996 and I'm pretty sure I could have won the series that year as much as Torre did.

[profholt82]

The Yankees offered to let him manage their minor league affiliate, and he turned them down, considering the offer insulting by all accounts. That's when he went to the Braves under the assumption that he would manage following the season. He was technically supposed to be an assistant coach that year for the Braves, but I don't know that he did any actual coaching that season.

In retrospect, he should have set his pride aside and taken the Yankees offer to manage in the minors. It would have been a good way to cut his teeth in coaching. Nowadays, it's very common for former players to manage in the minors before getting management positions in the majors. But during Ruth's era, the farm system was still a new thing, so I guess that's why he considered it beneath him.

[Hxcmilkshake]

Originally Posted by packs

I don't know if you could really say Torre was a great manager. I was only 11 when the Yankees won in 1996 and I'm pretty sure I could have won the series that year as much as Torre did.

What about 98, 99, 00?

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[packs]

Definitely 98 and 99. 2000 could have went either way since I always liked Al Leiter and I might have helped him out.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by bbcard1

Probably not. Great players seldom are because many of the things they do come naturally. They have trouble teaching and spotting mechanical problems. Ted Williams was as cerebral of a player as you could ever want, but he had little to no success as a manager. He also didn't have a lot to work with.

The club I was in had a speaker who had played for Williams and had some interesting things to say about him as a manager. Mostly the same as what you said, that he often didn't get that the other players couldn't just do what he could.

He did say that the first year he taught them a lot about waiting for the right pitch and not going after bad or hard to hit pitches. And the team did have a much better batting average that first year.

But the downsides stuff!
One was when this guy was in a slump. One game Williams stood on the top step and would yell out what pitch was coming next. (And was right) Then after he struck out again Williams gave him a hard time about not even being able to hit when he knew what the pitch would be.

The other was a later season after the players had stopped paying attention to him. They were playing Nolan Ryan, and asked about some tips on hitting against him - Williams response was something like - early in the game I'd try to hit the top of the ball to drive it somewhere. Later in the game I'd try to hit the bottom of the ball looking for a home run or fly ball that might advance someone.
Apparently what the players were really looking for was tips on how to hit a pitch they couldn't really see well.

[the 'stache]

One man that was both a fantastic pure hitter and manager was Wisconsin native Harvey Kuenn. Harvey didn't have much power, but oh boy, did he have a great eye at the plate. In his prime, between 1953 and 1960, he was a .313 hitter (4,766 at bats). He slowed down a bit after that, but still ended up a career .303 hitter. Most impressive, to me, is that Kuenn only struck out 404 times in 7,617 plate appearances.

He started as a coach for the Brewers in the mid 1970s, and started having health issues at nearly the same time (diabetes). He had his right leg amputated below the knee in 1980. He took over for Buck Rodgers as manager in 1982 (the Brewers were 23-24 at the time). The team ended up going 95-67, or 72-43 with Kuenn (a .626 winning percentage). We made it to the World Series, but lost in seven to the Cardinals. He was fired the next season after an 87-75 record. Overall, he won 160 and lost 118 as our skipper. If he'd been younger, and in better health, I think he would have caught on with another team. He got the very best out of our players, that's for sure.

[Leerob538]

In one of the Babe Ruth movies, The comment was made, He could not manage himself, How could He manage a team.