Gene Mauch

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Gene William Mauch (November 18, 1925 – August 8, 2005; surname was a homonym of "mock") was an American infielder and manager in Major League Baseball best known for managing four teams from 1960 to 1987. He is by far the winningest manager to have never won a league pennant (breaking the record formerly held by Jimmy Dykes), three times coming within a single victory. He managed the Philadelphia Phillies (1960-68), Montreal Expos (1969-75, Mauch was their inaugural manager), Minnesota Twins (1976-80), and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (1981-82, 1985-87). His 1,902 career victories ranked 8th in major league history when he retired, and his 3,942 total games ranked 4th. His distinctive "small ball" style, which emphasized defense, speed and base-to-base tactics on offense rather than power hitting, drew praise for its focus on fundamentals of game play as well as criticism for its low scoring and failure to produce any championships.

[edit] Early life

Born in Salina, Kansas, and raised in Los Angeles, California, Mauch was a strong advocate of "small ball", the emphasis on basic offensive fundamentals such as bunting, sacrifice plays, and other ways of advancing runners, as opposed to trying to score runs primarily through slugging. His teams generally played in ballparks that were not friendly to home run hitters, which increased the effectiveness of this approach. While his teams occasionally featured power hitters such as Dick Allen, Rusty Staub and Reggie Jackson, they depended just as heavily on hitters adept at getting on base through contact hitting and patience at the plate, such as Rod Carew, and on strong defensive play by such stars as Bobby Grich and Bob Boone.

Renowned as an excellent manager of his bench, Mauch also had a reputation for provoking opposing teams with taunting, and of having a strong temperament that stressed himself and his teams excessively in the belief that he could win by sheer will (Halberstam, p.304-306).

Managed his nephew Roy Smalley during his tenure with the Minnesota Twins. Smalley's father, Roy Sr., married Mauch's sister, Jolene. Roy Sr. and Mauch grew up and played sandlot baseball together in Los Angeles, California.

[edit] Career

[edit] Philadelphia Phillies

Mauch came tantalizingly close to the World Series on three occasions. In late September 1964, his Phillies had a record of 90-60, a 6½ game lead in the National League with 12 games left to play, and were starting a 7-game home stand. Mauch decided to start his two pitching aces, Jim Bunning and Chris Short, in 7 of the last 10 games, 6 of those starts on 2 days rest (all of which they lost). The Phillies faded, losing 10 games in a row before winning their last 2 games) to finish one game behind the St. Louis Cardinals in a collapse infamously known as the "Phold."

[edit] Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

In 1982, his Angels team won the American League's Western Division, and won the first two games in a best-of-5 ALCS against the Milwaukee Brewers. But Milwaukee came back to win three straight games and the AL pennant as he chose to start Tommy John and Bruce Kison, winners of the first two games, in Games 4 and 5 on 3 days' rest each. And in 1986, the Angels again won the Western title, and led in the fifth game of the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox, just one strike away from the Fall Classic, but Boston's Dave Henderson hit a home run off Angels reliever Donnie Moore to put the Red Sox ahead. The Red Sox went on to win the game in extra innings as well as the remaining two games to take the Series, to deny Mauch in his last real chance to win a pennant.

[edit] Losing streaks

Compounding his ill-starred reputation as a manager, he was the skipper during two of the longest losing streaks in Major League history. His 1961 Phillies lost 23 in a row, one short of the Major League record. His expansion 1969 Expos lost 20 in a row before finally ending it, as Mauch had to endure media reminders of his teams' previous loss streaks in 1961 and 1964.

[edit] Playing and managing career overview

Mauch was suddenly forced to retire as manager of the Angels during spring training in 1988 at age 62 because of ill health, reportedly caused by his excessive cigarette smoking. The team's advance scout, Cookie Rojas, took command of the club. Seven years after his retirement as a manager, Mauch returned in 1995 as bench coach with the Kansas City Royals to assist Boone, who was in his first year as a big league skipper.

Mauch had played parts of nine seasons from 1944 to 1957 with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Boston Braves, St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox. In 304 games and 737 at-bats, Mauch hit .239, with 5 home runs and 62 RBIs, striking out 82 times.

He first became a manager at age 27 in 1953, when the Braves named him the playing skipper of their AA Atlanta Crackers farm team in the Southern Association. From 1954-57, Mauch was strictly a player, first for the Pacific Coast League Los Angeles Angels, then the Red Sox. In 1958-59, he managed the Bosox' AAA affiliate, the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, reaching the Junior World Series each season, and winning the 1958 championship. He was slated to begin a third season as the Millers' boss in 1960 when, in mid-April, the Phillies chose him to replace Eddie Sawyer, who had resigned after the club's opening game of the regular season.

[edit] Death

Mauch died at age 79 at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California from lung cancer.

[edit] Sources

• Halberstam, David, October 1964, Villard Books (1994), ISBN 0-679-41560-2

[edit] External links

• Baseball-Reference.com - managing record and playing statistics
• Baseball Hall of Fame - 2008 Veterans Committee candidate profile