You never know. Some men seem destined for the job - it's obvious to one and all while they're still active as players. You begin to hear how bright they are, how much respect they command from teammates and opponents alike, how they will surely be managers some day. I remember hearing that over and over about Don Baylor, about Hal McRae... However, two managers who are active right now rank third and seventh all-time in career wins by a manager. One of them was a bonus baby infielder who couldn't crack the starting lineup of the Kansas City Athletics. The other spent one year as the Yankees regular third baseman, didn't hit much, and lost most of his career to knee problems. I refer, of course, to Tony LaRussa and Bobby Cox.
There are 30 of these guys, and they really fall into four basic groups:
1) Frank Robinson. One of a kind - he is one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived, one of the four or five greatest players ever to play his position (and the other guys are people named Ruth, Aaron...). Players of this quality simply don't become managers very often - they did once upon a time (Cobb, Speaker), but not recently. Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Mike Schmidt, Mickey Mantle, Joe Morgan - not a single manager among them.
2) Good to Very Good Players. There are 10 current managers who played at least 1000 major league games. They were all good players at the very least. Every one of these men played in at least one All-Star Game (that was Mike Hargrove) and one of them even won an MVP award (Joe Torre.) The other men in this group are Ozzie Guillen, Buddy Bell, Mike Scioscia, Willie Randolph, Joe Girardi, Phil Garner, Dusty Baker, and Felipe Alou
3) Bench Guys. This is the largest group. None of them ever really held down a full-time position, and several of them basically received no more than a quick cup of coffe at the major league level. Terry Francona played in the most games (708)of this group, as a platoon 1B-OF. Bob Melvin, Bruce Bochy, Jerry Narron, and Ned Yost each spent multiple seasons in the majors as a backup catcher. Ron Gardenhire and Ken Macha were backup infielders. Cox and LaRussa are in this group as well. Charlie Manuel and Clint Hurdle were outfielders who got a look but never quite made it. Jim Tracy was an outfielder who didn't get much of a look at all. Eric Wedge and John Gibbons were catchers who got very brief peeks at the Show. And Sam Perlozzo was an infielder who got to play in 12 major league games.
4) Career Minor Leaguers. Perlozzo's 12 games is 12 more than the final four men managing today. Buck Showalter was a 1B/OF in the Yankees system; the other three - Jim Leyland, Joe Maddon, and Grady Little - were all minior league catchers. Which brings us to a very distinctive trend....
You did notice, no doubt, that 12 of these 30 men were catchers when they played? It's true that one of them, Joe Torre, did move to third base later in his career - but some of you may remember that Clint Hurdle, once an outfield phenom, eventually began to appear behind the plate towards the end of his career.
Of course, just because catchers seem to have the best chance of becoming managers doesn't mean that they make the best ones. It's true that the winningest manager of them all, Connie Mack, was a catcher. He also owned the team. But the greatest manager who ever lived - Joe McCarthy - was a minor league second baseman who never played a game in the majors, and the other managers with the most wins were also mostly former infielders - McGraw, Anderson, Harris, Durocher, Mauch, McKechnie, Cox, LaRussa. We also have Walter Alston, who was a first baseman, and Casey Stengel, who was an outfielder. The most successful catchers are Joe Torre (13th) and Ralph Houk (14th). Torre, of course, was an outstanding player, while Houk was the very definition of a backup who sat, watched, and seldom played. Many, many more of the most celebrated and successful managers of all time were also former infielders, from Hugh Jennings, Miller Huggins and Joe Cronin to Earl Weaver, Billy Martin and Davey Johnson.
But it's easy to see the appeal of catchers. The job description almost makes them playing managers. They are involved in making strategic decisions on every pitch, decisions which reflect what has come before and what may come after. They are required to handle and manage the multiple diverse personalities of their pitchers. The job is a natural training ground - they are, of necessity, into the game and many catchers have spoken of how strange and disorienting it was to spend time at another, less demanding, position. Joe Torre warned Tim McCarver that he would find his mind wandering when he played first base, and McCarver confirmed it: "I couldn't believe it. I had to kick myself to pay attention." There is no shortage of former catchers who have had trouble adjusting to other positions - Johnny Bench and Mike Piazza spring to mind - although the results may improve if you get them off the position soon enough (Dale Murphy, Carlos Delgado).
You may also have noticed that none of the current group of managers were pitchers? I believe Larry Dierker was the last pitcher to manage in the majors, and the former pitcher with the most successful career as a manager would probably be Tommy Lasorda, who is 16th on the all-time win list.
OK, by position (each man listed at the position he played the most major league games - Torre and Garner both played more than 800 games at 3B in addition to their primary position):
C - (12) Torre, Scioscia, Girardi, Melvin, Narron, Bochy, Yost, Wedge, Gibbons, Leyland, Maddon, Little
1B - (3) Hargrove, Francona, Showalter
2B - (4) Randolph, Garner, LaRussa, Perlozzo
SS - (2) Guillen, Gardenhire
3B - (3) Bell, Cox, Macha
RF - (2) Robinson, Hurdle
CF - (1) Alou
LF - (3) Baker, Manuel, Tracy
P -
Felipe Alou really did play more games in centre than right (which was news to me), even though he didn't really play there regularly until he was 33 years old. Of course, when he was best qualified to play centre, he played right (the Giants had this guy named Willie Mays) - when he went to Atlanta, he found Henry Aaron established in right field, so he became a swing outfielder-first baseman for a few years before settling in centre.
So - knowing what you know now - if you wanted to pick a few guys active now who will end up managing in the majors - you'd probably want to look at the backup catchers, no?
It's possible that we haven't seen the last of Ken Huckaby. Or Kevin Cash.
Chris Widger? Kelly Stinnett? Doug Mirabelli? A.J. Hinch?