Eddie Collins, who I'd call the overall #1 2B all time, managed for a couple years.
Otherwise the absolute best few have been named already, but Al Spalding managed for a couple years. His career was brief but he led the league in Wins in every season he pitched more than 11 innings, and posted a 132 ERA+ in an era with low ERA's where it was difficult to beat the league by a wide margin. Spalding was a fantastic pitcher whose on-field performance has been almost entirely forgotten.
3 Finger Brown managed briefly. Mickey Cochrane did, so did Roger Connor. Hugh Duffy, Kid Nichols, Ed Walsh. A lot of the best players just got made managers or filled in after a manager was fired and the team didn't really have one picked out to replace them during the first half century or so of the majors.
Frank Chance and Fred Clarke are probably pretty high up the list if one balanced and awarded both player performance and being an actually good manager. Many of the best players who managed were not very good at it. John Mcgraw might be #1 by this method.
|