While baseball’s current crop of managers were hanging out at the Winter Meeting in Indianapolis this past week, they learned that former manager Whitey Herzog had been elected to the Hall of Fame. The Veterans Committee for Managers and Umpires elected Herzog and former umpire Doug Harvey to the 2010 Hall of Fame Class.
Will Cubs manager Lou Piniella be joining them one day?
Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated considered the question of which current managers are Hall worthy and concludes that Pinella (and several other current managers) most likely deserve enshrinement in Cooperstown.
Verducci, who is a member of the Veterans Committee for Managers and Umpires, first considers what qualifies a manager for inclusion in the Hall of Fame. In a nutshell, a manager needs to manage at least 10 years at the big league level, win a minimum of 1,300 games, and win at least one World Series. These “requirements” were compiled by Verducci and are not official.
Verducci writes:
“There have been 91 men who have managed at least 10 years in the big leagues, including 11 who are active, and thus not yet eligible for the Hall. Of the 80 eligible managers, 19 have been elected to the Hall of Fame primarily as managers and another 14 as primarily a player or executive. That means 33 of the 80 eligible managers are in the Hall of Fame, or 41 percent of those eligible, including 24 percent specifically as managers. And when you look at the active managers, those percentages almost certainly will rise.”
Based on these “requirements,” Piniella is Hall worthy. He has managed more than 10 years, currently has 1,784 victories, and has won a World Series with the 1990 Cincinnati Reds. But there is one chink in his armor. Pinella only made it to the World Series once. As Verducci points out, no manager has ever been elected to the Hall of Fame without making it to a second World Series. On that point, Pinella falls short, at least for now.
So, according to Verducci, Pinella is on the verge of being a Hall of Fame manager. All he needs in one more trip to the World Series. But first, he must make it back to the post-season and win his first playoff game in a Cubs uniform.
I’m not sure I agree with Verducci’s assessment of what qualifies a manager for the Hall of Fame. I have never felt that the Hall is just a Hall of magic numbers. There’s more to it than that.
I’m not saying that Pinella doesn’t belong in the Hall. Maybe he does. But I see a big difference between Pinella’s managing career and Herzog’s.
I lived in St. Louis during Herzog’s heyday with the Cardinals and I saw first hand the impact he had on a game. Verducci saw it too.
I remember when I covered the Mets in the 1980s how the New York players were acutely aware of who was in the St. Louis dugout running the game during their rivalry with the Cardinals. It was a fascinating dynamic to me: that players regarded the opposing manager, not just the opposing players, as an element they needed to overcome to win a baseball game. Such was the respect Herzog commanded for his grasp of the game and his fearlessness.”
Herzog did have that kind of mojo about him. I think Tony LaRussa has it too. Bobby Cox and Joe Torre might also have it. I’ve never felt like Lou Piniella had it. When the game is on the line and and the team needs some sort of miracle, LaRussa has a knack for making the right move. But when the game is on the line for the Cubs, I’ve never felt a confidence that Piniella would somehow pull a Rabbit out of his hat.
Verducci opines that Dusty Baker might also be on the verge of being Hall worthy. I think that’s just ridiculous. I don’t think Piniella has the same mojo that Herzog had, but Dusty has the anti-mojo. He has a knack for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Dusty is not a Hall of Fame manager.
During his years with the Cubs, I often said that Dusty seemed like a great guy to have a drink with (especially if you wanted to go listen to Jazz), but I would not want him leading my baseball team. He’s an enabler and an excuse-maker. He doesn’t hold players accountable. Under Dusty’s watchful eyes, the patients ran the asylum.
Piniella occasionally goes the other way. The slightest thing can put a player in Piniella’s dog house. And he holds grudges. Once you’re in Piniella’s dog house, it’s tough to get out.
I don’t think either approach is particularly effective, but if I had to choose between the two, I’d choose the guy that holds his players accountable.
Although Piniella and baker may be polar opposites in the way they manage a baseball team, I don’t consider either of them to be legit candidates for the Hall of Fame. I could be persuaded to change my mind on Piniella. I can’t imagine ever changing my mind on Dusty.
