‘Skipper' Review: In Baseball, Blame the Manager

Wall Street Journal

a day ago

My favorite quote about baseball managers comes from Leo Durocher, who over the years managed the Dodgers, Giants, Cubs and Astros: 'If you don't win, you're going to be fired. If you do win, you've only put off the day you're going to be fired.'
Getting fired is in the manager's job description. When things are going well, it's because of the players; when things aren't, it's because of you. Teams usually can't fire their star players, however much they might want to. But they can get rid of the manager. No accomplishment will save you. One day, your time will be up, even if, a few years before, you broke the Curse of the Bambino or brought a World Series trophy to Wrigley Field. There's no escaping it.
Scott Miller's 'Skipper: Why Baseball Managers Matter and Always Will' attempts to track how the job has evolved (and how it hasn't) while profiling the men who have navigated it in today's game. The book does so thoroughly, diligently and engagingly. Yet in the end it merely makes clear the inherent powerlessness of the role. Managers—foot on the dugout step, gnawing on chaw, yelling at umpires—try to project an image of being the judge, jury and executioner of an individual baseball team. They like to talk like they are in charge. But they are not, in fact, in charge. We treat them as the boss, but they're not the boss. It's right there in the name. They're managers. If anything, they're middle managers. And they always have been.
It's true, in the days when players were bound to their teams and made comparative paltry salaries, managers seemed to have more authority than they do now. Mr. Miller, a national baseball reporter, observes that managers of yore were boldfaced names, legends in their own time, men who projected strength and irascibility in equal measure. From Durocher, Connie Mack (of the A's) and Joe McCarthy (of the Yankees) to Sparky Anderson (Reds and Tigers), Earl Weaver (Orioles) and Tony La Russa (A's and Cardinals), they were tough men who talked tough and acted tough. Anderson's mantra was 'it's my way or the highway.' Strong words for a man named Sparky.