Would Babe Ruth made a good manager?

[steve B]

Originally Posted by bbcard1

Probably not. Great players seldom are because many of the things they do come naturally. They have trouble teaching and spotting mechanical problems. Ted Williams was as cerebral of a player as you could ever want, but he had little to no success as a manager. He also didn't have a lot to work with.

The club I was in had a speaker who had played for Williams and had some interesting things to say about him as a manager. Mostly the same as what you said, that he often didn't get that the other players couldn't just do what he could.

He did say that the first year he taught them a lot about waiting for the right pitch and not going after bad or hard to hit pitches. And the team did have a much better batting average that first year.

But the downsides stuff!
One was when this guy was in a slump. One game Williams stood on the top step and would yell out what pitch was coming next. (And was right) Then after he struck out again Williams gave him a hard time about not even being able to hit when he knew what the pitch would be.

The other was a later season after the players had stopped paying attention to him. They were playing Nolan Ryan, and asked about some tips on hitting against him - Williams response was something like - early in the game I'd try to hit the top of the ball to drive it somewhere. Later in the game I'd try to hit the bottom of the ball looking for a home run or fly ball that might advance someone.
Apparently what the players were really looking for was tips on how to hit a pitch they couldn't really see well.

[the 'stache]

One man that was both a fantastic pure hitter and manager was Wisconsin native Harvey Kuenn. Harvey didn't have much power, but oh boy, did he have a great eye at the plate. In his prime, between 1953 and 1960, he was a .313 hitter (4,766 at bats). He slowed down a bit after that, but still ended up a career .303 hitter. Most impressive, to me, is that Kuenn only struck out 404 times in 7,617 plate appearances.

He started as a coach for the Brewers in the mid 1970s, and started having health issues at nearly the same time (diabetes). He had his right leg amputated below the knee in 1980. He took over for Buck Rodgers as manager in 1982 (the Brewers were 23-24 at the time). The team ended up going 95-67, or 72-43 with Kuenn (a .626 winning percentage). We made it to the World Series, but lost in seven to the Cardinals. He was fired the next season after an 87-75 record. Overall, he won 160 and lost 118 as our skipper. If he'd been younger, and in better health, I think he would have caught on with another team. He got the very best out of our players, that's for sure.

[Leerob538]

In one of the Babe Ruth movies, The comment was made, He could not manage himself, How could He manage a team.