A Brief History of New York Managers
After watching countless hours of Yankeeographies, the lines started to draw in my head about how the mantle of Yankee manager was passed down from one generation to the next. And all the great ones were trained by a previous great. A column also formulated and I was waiting for the right time to unleash it, and after Joe Torre was fired, it seemed an opportune moment. I had to hedge my bets between Mattingly and Girardi, which is why I included them both in the first drawing, and ultimately erased Donnie Baseball from the final piece once Girardi was selected. I really love Billy Martin here, as I tried drawing him without the mustache, and it didn’t work. The same goes for Mattingly and Girardi. You know you’ve done a good job when you take one look and can say “THAT’S HIM!”
I found it funny that when the column was posted, an editorial mistake led to the Stengel’s name being spelt “Stengal,” in the title even though it was spelt correctly in both the column and the cartoon. I tried to take it with a grain of salt, as it wasn’t the first time mistakes happened.
Geoff the Ref
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
"Geoff the Ref"
Stengel's legacy lives on
By Geoff Walter / SNY.tv
Have you ever stopped to consider the pedigrees of managers in this town? My guess is not. If so, many would have realized that for both the Yankees and the Mets and the men who currently helm them there is a legacy that dates all the way back to Casey Stengel. Willie Randolph and Joe Girardi both had to learn from somebody right? And I confess, I spent quite a while tracing the genealogical lines back, trying to find the link anywhere I could. Here's a trivia question for you: Three of the managers depicted in the cartoon to the right have managed both New York Teams (Yankees and Mets). Who was the fourth? The answer will be at the end -- hey, I have to keep you reading somehow don't I?
For those of you who can't follow the chart, Stengel managed both Yogi Berra and Billy Martin during their careers (Martin wasn't nicknamed "Casey's Boy" for nothing). Berra then served as a coach under Stengel for the Mets in 1965 when Casey was dismissed from the Yanks after the 1960 season, taking over the rudder himself in 1972. It was upon returning to the Bronx in '76 as a coach under Martin where Yogi met a young Willie Randolph, who was starting his sophomore year in the Majors as a second baseman.
Berra is the great link in this chain, as before he was dismissed by the Mets on August 6, 1975, Joe Torre served as an infielder. Torre we all know would go on to manage the Yankees, but many people forget that his first gig would be as the Met skipper from 1977-81. When Torre also headed across the river to the Bronx, Randolph had a stint as third base coach, and Joe Girardi served as one of the catchers for the first three years of Torre's tenure. That also brings up another interesting tidbit: three of the managers on the left side are former catchers (Martin played second; Stengel was an outfielder). What does that tell you about the position and how well it translates to helming a team? And you can thank Stengel for it all. "The Old Professor" taught his students well. Oh, and the answer to the trivia question was Dallas Green.
Wanna argue with the Ref? Don't like the call? Go ahead and make your own!
