Selecting the managers of the year doesn’t seem to be as glamorous or as challenging as deciding the most valuable players and the Cy Young award winners. But somebody has to do it, and members of the Baseball Writers Association have been doing the job every year since 1983.
But there is a new kid on the block, and unlike the BBWAA award, which goes to a manager in each league, the Chuck Tanner manager of the year award goes to only one recipient. Unlike the BBWAA awards, too, this new award “emphasizes a combination of total career managerial achievements and current successes.”
That element was mentioned in a letter from Sam Reich, who is the big brother of Tom Reich, the noted baseball and hockey agent, and is the coordinator of the Tanner award, which in its inaugural year last year went to Joe Torre.
It was very likely the total career achievements that enabled Torre to get the award last year. He didn’t win it based on the Yankees 2007 season but for directing the Yankees to the playoffs every one of his 12 seasons as their manager and to four World Series championships.
Bob Melvin of Arizona and Eric Wedge of Cleveland won the writers’ awards last year. Torre won the writers’ American League award in 1998 and tied Johnny Oates for it in 1996.
Sam Reich has asked me to be part of a six-man panel that will select this year’s Tanner winner, and he has handed us no easy task. I count half a dozen managers in each league who are doing an exceptional job this season, though not all of them have that extra element of career success.
Torre, in fact, is back in the running because he has managed the Los Angeles Dodgers into contention for the National League West title, and few of the other candidates can match his recent achievements.
The group of contenders includes six managers whose teams have won World Series: Torre, Lou Piniella, Tony La Russa, Mike Scioscia, Ozzie Guillen and Terry Francona.
Torre managed the Yankees to four World Series triumphs in 1996, 98, 99 and 2000. Francona’s Red Sox won in 2004 and 07. Guillen won in 2005 with the White Sox, Scioscia in 2002 with the Angels, Piniella in 1990 with the Reds and La Russa in 1989 with the Athletics. La Russa’s team returned to the World Series in 1990 but lost to Piniella’s Reds.
This season Torre went west and kept the Dodgers close enough to the Arizona Diamondbacks until general manager Ned Colletti acquired Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake for the final two months of the season. The outcome of that division race is at least a tossup, and the Dodgers probably have the edge of momentum.
Piniella, whose teams win wherever he manages, is in position to be deified on the north side of Chicago. Although the Cubs could still squander their N.L. Central lead, they have been in first place for more than three months, since May 11, and enjoyed their finest moment when they swept a four-game series from the Brewers, who were only a game behind when the Cubs arrived in Milwaukee.
Should the Cubs get to the World Series for the first time since 1945 and win it for the first time since 1908, the Tanner award would be a mere footnote in the glory that Chicago would bestow on Piniella. The Tanner award, incidentally, will be determined before the World Series is played.
Francona has a chance to get to and win the World Series for the third time in five years, an unheard of position for the manager of a team that went 86 years without winning the World Series. The Red Sox are close enough to the Tampa Bay Rays to finish first in the American League East, and they are also leading the A.L. wild card race. They were the A.L. wild card when they won the 2004 World Series.
Scioscia has the Angels heading toward their fourth A.L. West title under him, and the Angels also have the best record in the majors. The White Sox, who slipped last season, weren’t expected to win the A.L. Central title, but Guillen has had them on top of the division most of the season.
La Russa’s Cardinals, however, have been probably more of a surprise than any team except the Rays. They started slipping in the last couple of weeks, as if falling under the weight of the Cubs’ consistency, but it’s too early to disregard them.
These six managers are in position to dominate consideration for the Tanner award – current season’s success along with career achievements. Where, then, does that leave the other half dozen managers who have done exemplary jobs this season but have no history of success?
Joe Maddon cannot be ignored in consideration for any managerial award. He has led the Rays into first place in the A.L. East, and he has managed them to a franchise record number of victories with 45 games left in the season.
Maddon’s Florida colleague, Fredi Gonzalez, has done an equally remarkable job having and keeping the Marlins in the N.L. East race. As far as the Mets and the Phillies are concerned, the Marlins are a pesky gnat that won’t fly away but instead hovers overhead and waits for its chance to zoom in and take its bite.
The Rays, of course, are more menacing to the Red Sox and the Yankees because if they maintain their position, only one of those other two teams can make the playoffs, and both have become accustomed to getting there.
The Minnesota Twins under Ron Gardenhire have behaved similarly in the A.L. Central. Like the White Sox, they weren’t supposed to contend this season, but they are contending, and they could still finish first in the division or the wild card standings.
Ned Yost of the Brewers is in a similar position, though Milwaukee is in better position as the N.L. wild card leader. Ron Washington’s Texas Rangers have made a belated bid for a playoff spot and will undoubtedly fall short, but their manager has done very well for a guy who early in the season was called a strong candidate to be the first manager fired.
Cecil Cooper of Houston isn’t likely to get any consideration for any managerial award, but he has done a good job in the last few weeks resuscitating the Astros instead of letting them pack up their bats and balls and go home early.
Lest anyone think I have forgotten Charlie Manuel, I have not. He probably did a better job last year by keeping the Phillies close enough to the Mets and then storming past them when they collapsed in the final 17 games. As manager of the defending division champions, Manuel doesn’t get credit for repeating that performance this season.