Monday, August 18, 2014

Vin Scully, on Managing by Committee

We don't get TWC at SoSG Worldwide Headquarters, so we apologize for the lack of new Vin transcriptions this season. But we've dipped into the archives (OK, last year's games) to bring you some fresh transcriptions we haven't run yet.

Vin Scully, from the fourth inning of the Cubs-Dodgers game on August 26, 2013:

Talking a little bit about Dale Sveum, as we were, reminds us of a rather unusual situation in Chicago. It was back in 1961.

The Cubs didn't have a manager. They had what the press called "a college of coaches."

The owner, P.K. Wrigley, said, "We can't do much worse, trying a new system."

So that brought into this world a rotation of coaches as the manager.

Hopper to the shortstop Castro, in the dirt, nice pick by Rizzo. One away. [...]

One away. A.J. Ellis popped up in the second inning.

That college of coaches that the Cubs had back in '61, they collectively managed for four years, rotating in and out of the manager's chair every two weeks.

And third baseman, the late and Hall of Famer Ron Santo, said it was terrible. One day you're stealing bases, the next day you're trying to hit home runs 'cause the coaches were of different types.

And finally, Mr. Wrigley gave up on the system. His quote: "We've tried both ex-Cub players and ex-Cub managers. It doesn't work. The best protection you can give managers is to advise them to get out of baseball."

That was quite a time in the history of the Chicago Cubs back in the sixties.

Three and oh the count to A.J. Ellis....

1 comments:

Steve Sax said...

Vin just brought up wrigley's "coaches by committee" thingy again in a recent broadcast (I assume vs the cubs). And he laughed about how the committee impaired anyone from making a decision. Funny.