In the upcoming issue of SI, a poll of major leaguers finds Lou Piniella and Ozzie Guillen as the first and second, respectively, managers that they would least like to play for. You can read more about this poll here. Lou edges out Ozzie by 5%, garnering 26% of the vote to Ozzie's 21%.
I really hope this is taken as a tongue-in-cheek story and doesn't get overblown, specifcally from the North Side point of view. Lou clearly was embarassed with all the media attention he got for his tirade against Milt, and I think the guy could just use a break at this point.
Roudning out the top four managers players would least like to play for were Tony La Russa and Joe Torre. The top five managers would like to play for included Bobby Cox, Torre again, Mike Scioscia, Joe Maddon, and Terry Francona.
Hmm, what do those nine names all seem to have in common? Players having a desire to play for a manager or not doesn't seem to have much bearing because those are the best nine managers in baseball. Each, with the exception of Maddon, has won a World Series as a manager and I'd venture a guess that each has also won manager of the year (if that is wrong please that me know!).
Photo courtesy daylife.com
You are exactly right. All of those managers are the ones players could think of off the top of their heads. The fact that Torre made both lists illustrates that. No one says "Ken Macha, I couldn't play for that guy" or goes on about how great Cito Gaston is, because they don't think of those guys.
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree with that. As I wrote that, however, some other came to mind whether it be Ron Gardenhire or Cito Gaston. Even your own Dusty Baker could make a case based on track record. Either way, you are right, those are the higher profile names.
ReplyDeleteLets be real Ozzie and Lou are demanding managers. They expect their team to come out and play every game every play, as do La Russa and Torre. That should say something for our Chicago teams. We have two of the most feared managers b.c. they expect players to perform like they should, not like they want to. These four men treat their teams like a business as well as a sport. In my opinion as it should be.
ReplyDeleteYou are spot on about everything you have said in this post.
ReplyDeleteI do want to point out one other thing as well. Those numbers come from a collection of all the players in the league. If you don't play for Guillen, Piniella, Torre, or LaRussa odds are you probably don't think you would want to. but if you are on the team, and you realize how good of managers they are, you would be inclined to say otherwise. Baseball is turning into football when it comes to coaches, every good coach is either very well liked by players or they are feared by the players. The inbetween guys don't get any media attention, and the in betweeners don't win.
Don't look into that study too much. As Greg said it's an absolute joke and we hope its not overblown.