When the Tampa Bay Rays announced last month that Kevin Cash, Raul Ibanez and Don Wakamatsu were finalists in their quest for a new manager, there was a 67 percent chance that Major League Baseball would get its third minority manager for the 2015 season.
When Ibanez subsequently withdrew, that percentage dropped to 50. However, another percentage rose from 67 to 100. Ibanez’s withdrawal left Cash and Wakamatsu as the candidates, meaning the Rays’ new manager would be a former catcher.
What’s with these catchers? They keep getting jobs as managers, much moreso than pitchers, infielders and outfielders. Designated hitters, too.
Former catchers dominate the roster of major league managers for the 2015 season. Fifteen of the 30 managers, up three from last season, were catchers once upon a time. Four of the six new managers were catchers when they played. Catchers’ equipment used to be called the tools of ignorance, but there’s nothing ignorant about these guys.
Come to think of it, I haven’t heard the term for a long time. When I was growing up, I had a neighbor who loved it and said it just to hear himself say it: the tools of ignorance.
The Merriam-Webster Online dictionary defines the term as “a baseball catcher’s equipment” and says it is derived “from the notion that a smart athlete would not play such a grueling position.”
Paul Dickson’s “Baseball Dictionary” offers an observation from Mike Hargrove, former manager and first baseman, as reported by the Baltimore Sun: “They call catching gear ‘the tools of ignorance.’ They don’t say that because catchers are stupid. They say it because you’ve got to be an idiot to want to play there in the first place.”
Dickson cites the equipment as shin guards, chest protector, helmet, mask and mitt, though catchers didn’t wear helmets when the term came into existence in the 1930s.
Many catchers, however, have survived their playing careers in good enough health to stay in the game and manage. The 15 who will manage in the coming season represent the largest contingent of ex-catchers to manage in the majors at the same time in the last 20 years and could very likely be the largest group ever. It tops the 14 who managed in 2008.
These are the 15 former catchers:
The other half of the managerial roster is divided among former pitchers (3), infielders (8) and outfielders (4). One of those infielders is Paul Molitor, Minnesota’s new manager, who could also be classified as a designated hitter. He served as a d.h. in 1,173 games and played 1,446 games in the infield.
Molitor and Chip Hale of Arizona are the new managers who were not catchers. Cash (Rays), Maddon (Cubs), Hinch (Astros) and Banister (Rangers) are the managers who were catchers when they played.
It almost seems as if general managers focus on former catchers when they seek a new manager, but club officials said that is not the case. Asked if teams focus on people or positions, Dave Dombrowski said, “I think you’re looking at the people.”
Top executive of the Detroit Tigers, Dombrowski said the last time the Tigers searched for a manager, 15 months ago, they interviewed former infielders Rich Renteria, Barry Larkin and Tim Wallach; McClendon, who played a variety of positions, and Brad Ausmus, a catcher.
“Brad made more of an impression,” Dombrowski said. “We didn’t pick him because he was a catcher.”
Ausmus replaced Jim Leyland, who had managed the Tigers for eight years. He never played in the majors, but he was a minor league catcher.
Mark Shapiro, the Cleveland Indians’ president who was previously their general manager, agreed with Dombrowski that clubs don’t single out catchers.
“We would never say we want a catcher,” Shapiro said. “We want the best person. Each managerial opening has a different set of parameters that make certain players fit certain situations. Eric Wedge clearly personified a lot of what we’re talking about.”
Wedge, a former catcher, became, the Indians’ manager in 2003 but was fired after the 2009 season. Yes, former catchers get fired like everyone else. It happened to Wedge because the Indians went from 96 victories in 2007 to 65 in 2009.
After an involuntary year off from managing, Wedge got the Seattle job but held it for only three seasons. Forty-five years old, he suffered a minor stroke around mid-season in his third year, 2013, then left the job at the end of the season. He said his decision wasn’t based on his health but on the belief that he and the Mariners weren’t right for each other philosophically.
His departure opened the door for McClendon, whom not everyone believes should be in the former-catcher category.
“Mac was more a hitter than a catcher,” Dombrowski said, a hint of a chuckle in his voice, certainly a smile on his face when he made that comment.
As a player, McClendon was a catcher in the minor leagues, made his first major league starts as a catcher, caught in games in five different seasons and caught in 50 games in his major league career. He played predominantly in the outfield, but he had the heart of a catcher and that’s enough for me to qualify him in the former-catcher-later-manager category.
In addition, McClendon caught more games in the majors than Gonzalez, Maddon, Banister and Gibbons put together. That’s because Gonzalez and Maddon never played in the majors, Banister played in one game as a pinch-hitter (he singled) and Gibbons caught in 17 games.
So it’s not the number of games a catcher works behind the plate in the majors, it’s that he has been a catcher, has the experience of a catcher and thinks like a catcher.
“Catching gives you exposure to every part of the game,” Dombrowski said. “It gives you a well diversified view of the game. You’re working with managers on how to pitch people, on strategies. It creates well knowledgeable people. It exposed them to so many more parts of the game. And, of course, they’re involved with pitchers.”
The catcher, Shapiro said, “is clearly the one who, as a player, thinks outside of his role in a game. He leads the pitcher through a game. He establishes a relationship and trust with the pitcher. Catchers are forced to think outside their personal experience. That kind of thing fosters leadership.”
Bob Melvin played 10 years in the majors with seven teams, catching in 627 games. He has now managed for 10 years with three teams, currently Oakland.
“Catchers are programmed to think along with the manager,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s a matter of checks and balances. During the course of a game, you’re always looking into the dugout, seeing who to pitch around. You think how a manager thinks. You do this from early in your career.”
Melvin said the catcher is involved in every pitch delivered by the pitcher and therefore is instrumental in every pitch. That responsibility requires catchers to be intimately involved in the scouring reports.
“We get the catchers in and go over the scouting reports,” he related. “We bring in the catchers even before we get the pitchers in.”
Speaking objectively, Melvin added, “I would look at who I thought are the best guys available and a lot of times they are catchers.”
With half of next season’s managers old catchers, the time may be coming when a sign on the clubhouse door may say, “Infielders, outfielders, pitchers need not apply.”