Never Mind the Lockout, Here's Yankees Trivia! (Though is it ever really trivial if it's about the YANKEES???)

 

All right, kittens and caboodles, can you name the 14—count 'em, 14!—Yankees managers who have been fired, despite NEVER HAVING A FULL LOSING SEASON???

Well, if you can't, you're about to find out! Spoiler alert: answers—and snarky commentary—below!

1) Hal Chase—76-76 in 1911, and 10-4 finishing out 1910. Hard to really blame the Yankees/Highlanders on this one. "Prince Hal" was maybe the greatest fielding first baseman ever—but an inveterate conniver and gambler, a man deeply involved in nearly every major gambling scandal until he was finally run out of the game in the 1920s. 

The bigger question, really, is how the hell he ever got to be manager in the first place. I guess it helped that at the time the team was owned by the leading gambler in the United States and the most crooked police commissioner ever to grace our fair city.

Shades of the future!

2) "Sailor Bob" Shawkey—Formerly a leading Yankees pitcher. Took over in 1930 after Miller Huggins' sudden death the year before. Team scored 1,062 runs—but finished third. No pitching—but Sailor Bob walked the plank.

3) "Marse Joe" McCarthy—Officially, Marse Joe resigned. But really he was driven off the team after a wild drinking bout, by the Yankees' insane—and drunken!—co-owner, Larry MacPhail, who had lots of other great ideas, such as wanting to trade Joe, Joe DiMaggio for Mickey Vernon.

McCarthy, who Bill James considers the greatest manager in baseball history, period, had 15 straight winning seasons and one partial season with the Yanks, averaged almost 96 wins a full season. 

For that matter, he never had a losing season ANYWHERE, running up five winning campaigns with the Cubbies, and three with the Red Sox, when he decided to come out of retirement. 

A brilliant baseball man, he won 8 pennants and 7 World Series for the Yanks, and probably would have had more if not for WW II (The Big One!). But he was a little too tightly wrapped, and would go off to "ride the White Horse" (whiskey) when things got to him.

4) Bucky Harris—In his two seasons with the Yanks, 1947-48, Bucky won one World Series and almost

took another pennant, finishing just behind the BoSox and The Tribe, due to a rash of injuries. Hell, Bucky—real name, Stanley Raymond Harris—had even won a World Series with Washington, in 1924, as a 27-year-old second baseman-manager known as "The Boy Wonder."

As you can see, he was no boy by the time he came to the Yankees, but he was a pretty capable manager.

5) Casey Stengel—In my opinion, the best manager ever. Won a record 10 pennants, and came within one bad-hop grounder, one patch of dubious shoeshine, and one Sandy Amoros of winning 10 World Series.

Got the boot because the Yanks desperately did not want Ralph Houk to get away. I love The Major, but oh you huckleberries!

6) Yogi Berra—Got fired not once but twice after a winning campaign, 20 years apart! In 1964, when he came within one game and a sudden onslaught of Bobby Richardson errors from winning a World Series, and after compiling an 87-75 mark with a pitching-challenged, 1984 team. A 6-10 start in 1985, and that was it.

7) Bill Virdon—Bet you forgot about this guy, huh? Well, probably his wife and kids did at times, too.

Actually started in the Yankees system as an outfielder, before being dealt away. Took over in 1974, and had to deal with the Yanks' Shea Diaspora. Bobby Murcer's home run total dropped to 10. 

Nonetheless, he nearly snatched a division crown away from Earl Weaver. Very low-key, quiet guy...not quite the fit for a George Steinbrenner. Started 53-51 in the injury-ridden 1975 season, and was gone.

8) Billy Martin—Managed to do a lot of self-firing. Actually completed 6 of 8 campaigns he was hired for in the Bronx, and in 16 years his only full-season, losing record was in Oakland, in 1982. 

But entire pitching staffs had a way of falling off the map—and onto the DL—after a season with Billy. Used by numerous owners, none of whom suggested he get the help he badly needed.

9) Bob Lemon—Well, sort of. Never actually managed a full season with the Yankees. But in fractions of four years, went 99-73 and won a World Series. 

10) Dick Hower—Probably the most shameful of all the Steinbrenner firings (And if you'll note, of the 14 winning Yankees managers canned here, 7 1/2 came under The Mad King.). Did nothing but win 103 games and a division with a patchwork collection of a team.

Got fired because of a bad decision by his third-base coach, and Goose Gossage's ongoing belief that he

could throw a fastball past George Brett. Really, the best field manager of the Yankees I ever saw. Went on to get a ring with KC before his premature death.

11) Gene Michael—Again, never a full season, but went 92-76 in 1981-82, and was fired twice—once after his team had already clinched a postseason spot. Not sure that's ever happened to anyone else. Stick belongs in the Hall for his all-around executive genius.

12) "Sweet Lou" Piniella—Won 90 and 89 games for more, 1980s, pitching-challenged teams, then got the axe. Ridiculous. A very capable manager.

13) Joe Torre—You know the score. Almost 98 wins a season in 12 Yankee years. Twelve playoff appearances, six pennants, four World Series wins, 10 division titles. Saved the franchise from chaos. Made to fly down to Florida for his firing.

14) Joe Girardi—Yeah, he seemed to be coming unhinged, too. But in 10 years, averaged 91 wins a season, and chalked up 3 division titles and 6 playoff spots. 

And let's get serious: In retrospect, who would you have rather seen go after 2017? Joe Girardi, or Gary Sanchez?

Anyway, there you have it: 14 scapegoats, driven off the team despite doing nothing but winning.  Oh, the arrogance of money! (Particularly inherited money.)