Batting average .239 Win–loss record 1,902–2,037 Home runs 5 Winning % .483 | Runs batted in 62 Name Gene Mauch Games managed 3,942 Role Baseball player | |
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Died August 8, 2005, Rancho Mirage, California, United States Teams managed Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (1985 – 1987), Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (1981 – 1982) | ||
Bobby wine on gene mauch
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).
Contents
- Bobby wine on gene mauch
- Gene mauch throws bats all over fenway park
- Playing career
- Managerial career
- Philadelphia Phillies
- Montreal Expos
- Minnesota Twins
- California Angels
- Losing streaks
- Death
- References
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.
Gene mauch throws bats all over fenway park
Playing career
Born in Salina, Kansas, and raised there and in Los Angeles, Mauch played in all or parts of nine MLB seasons between 1944 and 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 176 hits, five home runs and 62 RBIs, striking out 82 times. He missed part of 1944 and all of the 1945 season while serving in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II.
In 1953, the Braves named Mauch, then 27 years old, 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. But seven years later, John J. Quinn, who as the Braves' general manager had hired him for the Crackers' job, would give Mauch 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. His final big-league season, 1957 with Boston, was his most productive. He started 65 games as the Bosox' second baseman and batted a career-high .270 with 60 hits. But the following season, he began his managerial career in earnest. In 1958–59, he piloted the Red Sox' 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.
Mauch declined an offer to interview with Quinn for an opening on the Phillies' 1960 coaching staff, saying he wanted to focus on managing. At the close of spring training, on the eve of beginning his third season as the Millers' boss, Quinn called Mauch again and asked him to replace veteran pilot Eddie Sawyer, who had resigned after the Phils' opening game of the 1960 season on April 12. 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. 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 took command of the Phillies two games into the 1960 season. He managed them to a 58-94 record. The following year, they finished 47-107; from July 29 to August 20, they lost 23 straight games, which ranks as the third longest losing streak in baseball history along with the longest in the 20th century. The following year, they finished 81-80. This was their first season over .500 since 1953. He was named Manager of the Year by the Associated Press that year. The team improved to an 87-75 record the next season. 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." Ultimately, the season was the peak for the team in terms of wins and finish in his tenure. His last three full seasons all resulted in over .500 finishes, though they did not finish above 4th. Mauch was let go after the Phillies were 27-27 during the 1968 season.
Montreal Expos
In 1969, Mauch became the inaugural manager of the Montreal Expos. In their first season, the team went 52-110. It was his second and last season managing a team with over 100 losses, while finishing in last place in the NL East. While the team finished in last the following year, they went 73-89, a 21 game improvement. Over the next five seasons, the Expos did not finish in last place, managing to win 70 games or more each season, though their best finish was 4th in 1973 and 1974, finishing 3½ behind the New York Mets in the former and 8½ behind the Pittsburgh Pirates in the latter. The Expos won 79 games in both years, though they did not finish above .500. After the team finished 75-87 in 1975, Mauch was fired by the Expos.
Minnesota Twins
In 1976, Mauch was hired by Calvin Griffith to manage the Minnesota Twins, which had Rod Carew at the time. He managed them to 85-77 that year, finishing in 3rd place and five games back of the Kansas City Royals. Despite having just one win less the following season, the Twins finished in 4th, this time 17½ games back to the Royals. The team plummeted to a 73-89 record in 1978, though they went 82-80 the following year, with 4th place finishes in both years. Mauch resigned during the following season, with the team at 54-71 (the team would finish at 77-84).
California Angels
Mauch took over during the strike shortened 1981 season for the California Angels. He went 29-34, while the team overall finished 51-59. In 1982, his Angels team won the American League's Western Division after going 93-69. The Angels won the first two games in Anaheim 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. Mauch was replaced by John McNamara before being hired back in 1985.
In Mauch's return to managing the Angels in 1985, they finished 90-72, finishing one game behind the Kansas City Royals after being eliminated on the second to last day of the season.
In 1986, the Angels again won the Western title after going 92-70, 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.
The following year, the Angels went 75-87 along with a 7th place finish (10 games back of the Minnesota Twins). Mauch suddenly retired for health reasons as manager of the Angels during spring training in 1988 at age 62. 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.
Death
Mauch died at age 79 at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California from lung cancer.