Gene Mauch

Gene Mauch
Infielder / Manager
Born: (1925-11-18)November 18, 1925
Salina, Kansas
Died: August 8, 2005(2005-08-08) (aged 79)
Rancho Mirage, California
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 18, 1944, for the Brooklyn Dodgers
Last MLB appearance
September 28, 1957, for the Boston Red Sox
MLB statistics
Batting average .239
Home runs 5
Runs batted in 62
Games managed 3,942
Win–loss record 1,902–2,037
Winning % .483
Teams

As player

As manager

Gene William Mauch (November 18, 1925 – August 8, 2005) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944, 1948), Pittsburgh Pirates (1947), Chicago Cubs (1948–49), Boston Braves (1950–51), St. Louis Cardinals (1952) and the Boston Red Sox (1956–57).

Mauch was best known for managing four teams from 1960 to 1987. He is by far the winningest manager to have never won a league pennant (breaking the record formerly held by Jimmy Dykes), three times coming within a single victory. He managed the Philadelphia Phillies (1960–68), Montreal Expos (1969–75, as their inaugural manager), Minnesota Twins (1976–80), and California Angels (1981–82, 1985–87). His 1,902 career victories ranked 8th in major league history when he retired, and his 3,942 total games ranked 4th. He gained a reputation for playing a distinctive "small ball" style, which emphasized defense, speed and base-to-base tactics on offense rather than power hitting.

Playing career

Born in Salina, Kansas, and raised there and in Los Angeles, Mauch had played parts of nine seasons from 1944 to 1957 with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Boston Braves, St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox. In 304 games and 737 at-bats, Mauch hit .239, with 5 home runs and 62 RBIs, striking out 82 times.

At age 27 in 1953, the Braves named Mauch the player-manager of their Double-A Atlanta Crackers farm team in the Southern Association, his first managerial assignment. His team finished 84–70, in third place, three games behind the Memphis Chickasaws, and fell in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual league champion Nashville Vols. The combative Mauch was known for frequent skirmishes with the league's umpires and later conceded he was too young for the assignment.[1] But seven years later, John J. Quinn, the Braves' general manager who hired him for the Crackers' job, would give him his first big-league managerial opportunity with the 1960 Phillies.

From 1954 to 1957, Mauch was strictly a player, first for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, then the Red Sox. In 1958–59, he managed the Bosox' Triple-A affiliate, the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, reaching the Junior World Series as American Association champion each season, and winning the 1958 JWS championship. He declined an offer to interview with Quinn for an opening on the Phillies' 1960 coaching staff, saying he wanted to focus on managing, and was on the eve of beginning a third season as the Millers' boss in 1960 when, in mid-April, Quinn called again and asked him to replace veteran pilot Eddie Sawyer, who had resigned after the Phils' opening game of the regular season. Mauch, 34 years old at time, became the youngest manager in the Major Leagues.

Managerial career

Mauch was a strong advocate of "small ball", the emphasis on offensive fundamentals such as bunting, sacrifice plays, and other ways of advancing runners, as opposed to trying to score runs primarily through slugging. His teams generally played in ballparks that were not friendly to home run hitters, which increased the effectiveness of this approach. While his teams occasionally featured power hitters such as Dick Allen, Rusty Staub and Reggie Jackson, they depended just as heavily on hitters adept at getting on base through contact hitting and patience at the plate, such as Rod Carew, and on strong defensive play by such stars as Bobby Grich and Bob Boone.

Renowned as an excellent manager of his bench, Mauch also had a reputation for provoking opposing teams with taunting, and of having a strong temperament that stressed himself and his teams excessively in the belief that he could win by sheer will.[2] Mauch had frequent fiery exchanges with umpires. Mauch was not shy when arguing an umpiring play. He used his bombastic personality to help his team gain any possible advantage on the baseball diamond. Mauch had a brilliant baseball mind and is sometimes credited with starting the "double player switch". Mauch gained a reputation for being loyal to his players and became known as the Little General.

Philadelphia Phillies

Mauch came tantalizingly close to the World Series on three occasions. In late September 1964, his Phillies had a record of 90–60, a 6 1⁄2 game lead in the National League with 12 games left to play, and were starting a 7-game home stand. Mauch decided to start his two pitching aces, Jim Bunning and Chris Short, in 7 of the last 10 games, 4 of those starts on 2 days rest (all of which they lost). The Phillies faded, losing 10 games in a row before winning their last 2 games to finish tied for second place with the Cincinnati Reds, one game behind the St. Louis Cardinals in a collapse infamously known as the "Phold." The other 2 near-World-Series cases came with the Angels.

California Angels

In 1982, his Angels team won the American League's Western Division, and won the first two games, at home, in a best-of-5 ALCS against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Angels needed only one more victory to advance to their first World Series. Chances were great, since no team had ever lost the ALCS after winning the first two games. But Milwaukee came back to win all three remaining games (in Milwaukee) and the AL pennant. Some blamed Mauch, who chose to start Tommy John and Bruce Kison, winners of the first two games, in Games 4 and 5 on three days' rest each.

In 1986, the Angels again won the Western title, and led in the fifth game of the (by now best-of-7) ALCS against the Boston Red Sox, just one strike away from the Fall Classic, but Boston's Dave Henderson hit a home run off Angels reliever Donnie Moore to put the Red Sox ahead. The Angels tied the game in the bottom of the 9th, but the Red Sox went on to win the game in extra innings as well as the remaining two games in Boston to take the Series, and denied Mauch his last real chance to win a pennant and a World Series championship.

Mauch was suddenly forced to retire as manager of the Angels during spring training in 1988 at age 62 because of ill health, reportedly caused by his cigarette smoking. The team's advance scout, Cookie Rojas, who had played for Mauch with the Phillies, took command of the club. Seven years after his retirement as a manager, Mauch returned in 1995 as bench coach with the Kansas City Royals to assist Bob Boone, who was in his first year as a big league skipper.

Losing streaks

Compounding his ill-starred reputation as a manager, he was the skipper during two of the longest losing streaks in Major League history. His 1961 Phillies lost 23 in a row, one short of the Major League record. His expansion 1969 Expos lost 20 in a row before finally ending it, as Mauch had to endure media reminders of his teams' previous loss streaks in 1961 and 1964.

He managed his nephew Roy Smalley III during his tenure with the Minnesota Twins. Smalley's father, Roy, Jr., married Mauch's sister, Jolene. Roy Jr. and Mauch grew up and played sandlot baseball together in Los Angeles, California.

Managerial record

Team From To Regular season record Post–season record Ref.
W L Win % W L Win %
Philadelphia Phillies 1960 1968 646 684 .486 0 0 – [3]
Montreal Expos 1969 1975 499 627 .443 0 0 – [3]
Minnesota Twins 1976 1980 378 394 .490 0 0 – [3]
California Angels 1981 1982 122 103 .542 2 3 .400 [3]
California Angels 1985 1987 257 229 .529 3 4 .429 [3]
Total 1902 2037 .483 5 7 .417 —

Death

Mauch died at age 79 at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California from lung cancer.

References

Inline citations
  1. ↑ ESPN.com
  2. ↑ Halberstam 1994, pp. 304–306
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Gene Mauch". Baseball Reference. Sports Reference. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
Bibliography

External links

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